TITLE: Perfect
Darkness
AUTHOR: Jaclyn Horrod
EMAIL: jaclyn@thefifthrace.net
CATEGORY: Action, Drama
SPOILERS: Prodigy, The Fifth Race, etc.
SEASON / SEQUEL: Season 5. This story
forms part of a larger arc – if you have not yet read Sacrifices, The
Rescue, Deception's Kiss, Interactions, Inquisition, Beyond, Sedition, Province
or Hide and Seek you might want to read them first.
RATING: 15 / Mature.
CONTENT WARNINGS: Mature subject matter.
SUMMARY: O’Neill’s liaison with the Sengo’lians takes on a
darker arc and an old foe returns to complicate things.
STATUS: Complete. Continues in 'Malevolence'.
DISCLAIMER: Stargate SG-1 and its characters belong to MGM, Gekko Film Corp and
Double Secret Productions. This fan fiction was created solely for
entertainment purposes and no money exchanged hands. No copyright or trademark
infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Without the constant support, critique, and honesty of my beta
reader, Rach, this Fanfic would never have been written. Meus
amicus, my eternal gratitude.
FEEDBACK: Most definitely!
“Ha’dai, you must hear me!” Fre’uana asserted. “There is too much darkness, too much!”
Jack’s eyes closed slowly, a smile sweeping across his face. “But it’s fun!” he replied. “It’s me! You were right Fre you’re so damn right. No more morality, no more jerking around with orders. Ah don’t feel bad you did it! You gave me freedom.” The sound of his voice was far more intense than it had been before, there was revelry to his tone, a devilment that Fre’uana could feel as well as hear.
“This can not be stopped, the path is too dark. Hear me, we will free you! But this is not the path, we were wrong…”
“Nope! You were right; who needs this crap when you can go do anything you want and not give a damn about the consequences. It’s like having a whole new clean slate pal! Know what I mean?” Jack’s eyes opened, he glanced across at Osiris.
“Ha’dai, you must not proceed as you are, we can…”
“Sweet, thanks for the advice. But you know I think I’ll see what this whole not giving a damn thing's about, see ya!”
“Ha’dai?” Fre’uana’s voice unheard, the Sengo’lian closed his mind.
*****
Colonel Mathews dropped his P-90, glancing across at Lieutenant Jacobs, who was yet to relinquish his weapon. His eyes bade him to obey his order, as far as he could see there was nothing to be gained from provoking O’Neill, whose position had been quite clearly underlined by his actions; he no longer held any respect for life, nor allegiance to his country, or command.
Skip Bower’s dead body lying at O’Neill’s feet, discarded so cruelly by the man, told him that.
“Jacobs, drop it now!” he ordered, when the man failed to obey the unspoken command.
“We’re dead if we do that, sir,” Jacobs argued, his eyes crossing to O’Neill filled with hatred and loathing. “Aren’t we?” he demanded.
“As in dead?” O’Neill’s tone was sarcastic. He moved closer to the obstinate marine, those ebony eyes that made him look anything but human reflecting the sunlight. “Hey, I’m unarmed, shoot me,” he goaded.
“Jacobs, drop it!” Mathews snarled. “That thing on his left hand? It’s a Goa’uld ribbon device and it’ll break every bone in your body.”
Jack O’Neill smiled. “I see someone did their homework!” he quipped, a glance around the men who now stared at him in a mixture of loathing and fear. “Won’t do you any good!”
He raised the device, ominously pointing it at Jacobs. “So, you wanna find out how this works, or did you want to drop the damn weapon?” he enquired, almost banal in the phrasing. For a moment it appeared as if he didn’t care whether the man obeyed the command or not, the abhorrence that burned in his expression intent on murder.
Jacobs threw the gun to the ground petulantly, shaking his head in defeat. “Now what?” he asked.
Mathews shrugged. “Follow orders!” There was no other option as far as he could determine, his intelligence on the former USAF colonel had been lacking, he’d gone into the operation blind, and now he and his men would have to accept the consequences. He was angry just the same, there had been no mention of solid proof pertaining to the man’s loyalties, just that he’d been compromised and the extraction order had come from the White House.
Compromised? That was a stretch, judging from those dense ebony eyes and the callousness with which O’Neill regarded the intrusion by he and his team, the former colonel was definitely more than that! He was in league with the Goa’uld as Colonel Darnell had suspected all along; no one could be that close to a powerful system lord and not be turned. He’d done his homework on these parasites, and everything the Goa’uld Ptah had told his captors from the fortified cell at Area 51 rang true.
Colonel Jack O’Neill
wasn’t simply a pawn in the hands of these aliens, he commanded an army
of
Forced to cede his team, in an attempt to prevent further loss of life, Mathews felt betrayed by the colonel; even those that had sent him here had failed to fully apprise him of the potential dangers he faced. Now it was simply a matter of survival, trying to keep his team alive and get back home safely, and right now that particular goal seemed a distant one, all the same he understood that game.
He stared at O’Neill whose uncompromising gaze directed toward him seemed to be citing a response, their eyes locked, it felt like he was staring into death itself; it reminded him of a sharks eye’s, inky blackness empty and terrifying. He’d read over fifty mission reports filed, and there wasn’t a hint of this traitor that stood before him in any one of them, whatever alien intelligence had subverted the man, it was complete, of that much he was damn sure.
“What?” O’Neill asked finally.
Mathews shook his head. “What?” he replied. “You think I ought to be asking you for something O’Neill?”
“Begging might work,” Jack retorted callously, his voice filled with scorn eyebrows arching into his forehead. He stared without blinking, a wry smile forming slowly on his features. “You might wanna give that a try?” he persisted, the expression on his face becoming supercilious. “But then again, maybe not. I never was much good at forgiveness!”
He turned away, leaving Mathews staring still with hatred etched into his eyes.
“You’re a disgrace!” the colonel snarled.
Jack’s eyes fell upon
him once more. “That hurts!” he remarked, mocking the man. He turned now to address the
The Jaffa moved forward, immediately obeying his command, herding Mathews and his team forward into the centre of the city through the plain white buildings until finally the ship, a Goa’uld vessel, came into view.
“Daniel,” Jack remarked, intent on milking the moment to the fullest extent as he followed the group slowly toward an uncertain fate. “I think the Colonel here’s a little disappointed.”
The mockery in his tone so chilling, the fact that it was calculated to rile the Special Forces team was lost.
The archaeologist, a constant at O’Neill’s side, nodded, his gaze directed toward Mathews. “I guess he thought you’d be a little more forgiving,” he remarked. “After all, it’s not every day that you get to be the subject of an NID hit!”
O’Neill paused. “Really? I thought that was every day. You know, I’m really thinking we need to pay old Kinsey a visit!”
O’Neill’s eyes lit up. “Exactly!” he retorted, watching now as the men were paraded before Osiris, a nod toward the Goa’uld.
She stood close to the Goa’uld ship as it uncloaked, activating the entrance to the vessel. “You have done well,” she acknowledged.
O’Neill’s gaze fell upon her immediately, that same distinct abhorrence that he had favoured the team from Earth held fast on his features.
“Hey! Snakehead!” he spat, moving toward her scorn poured into the words. “Just because I’m loaning you some extra troops don’t get the idea we’re allies!”
Osiris stepped forward, her eyes glowing more ominously. “You dare to challenge me?” she snarled. “I am a god!”
The smile that resonated on O’Neill’s face was almost akin to that wicked first bite of a great white shark. “Challenge?” he repeated. “You’re no challenge. Do yourself a favour and take the gift, then hope I don’t get bored and come looking for you!” He stood close to her, his eyes fixed on hers. “And, shouldn’t that be goddess now?” he remarked.
The Goa’uld seemed incensed by his attitude; she’d seen the malevolence in his eyes, but didn’t consider that power encompassing enough to match her own.
“You believe you possess enough strength to defeat the Goa’uld?” she snapped, her eyes glowing nefariously. “We are both more powerful, and far greater in number!”
Jack nodded slowly. “Care to find out?” he asked, a red hue glowing in those dark black pools that resonated ominously. The smirk that rested on his features became nonchalant now as he turned away from her, allowing the Goa’uld to believe such an act would make him vulnerable.
As she raised her hand, the
colonel spun around, the iniquity in his eyes forcing her to reconsider the
act. “You really don’t want
to find out!” he warned, his hand gesturing toward a
The Staff weapon that the former serpent guard directed toward the colonel was lowered almost immediately. “Now get out of my sight before I change my mind and kill you, just for the hell of it!”
Daniel Jackson smiled triumphantly at the Goa’uld. Like O’Neill he harboured nothing but abhorrence for this creature, even the fact that the host was a former girlfriend didn’t appear to soften his attitude. “I, er, think he means it!” he remarked, his voice containing the same dismissive tone as his friend’s.
He stood to the left of O’Neill now, holding Mathews P-90. He turned his attention to the marine, staring into the man’s impassive features, unable to control the anger he felt from the knowledge that the team had been sent to assassinate O’Neill, attempting to murder one of his family, the hatred welled up in his thoughts again. His allegiance to Jack, forged in the link from the Sengo’lians, was now completely unwavering and that anger was becoming vengeful.
Even if something inside told him he was acting without consideration or thought, spurning everything he believed in, the compunction to harm Mathews and his team was undeniable.
“At least I know why he kills without impunity,” Daniel said, his tone measured to administer the right amount of scorn. “You’re just following orders, ill conceived as they maybe!”
Mathews shook his head slowly. “He’s been a threat since he joined, got Frank killed, and now I guess we can add another 1000, plus Bowers to his list, huh?” he spat. “But then it really isn’t your fault is it Dr. Jackson, you’re simply one of the lambs, there for the slaughter.”
Daniel lashed out with the butt of the weapon, sending Mathews painfully to his knees. “Lambs do that?” he questioned, staring down at the man, his eyes filled with hatred. “Before you answer that, I’d think very carefully. He really doesn’t care what I do, and oh, just so we’re clear, neither do I!”
“Sir?” Major Kilburn called urgently, a trained psychologist, assigned to the outfit only several weeks earlier. “I really would provoke him, he isn’t likely to be the pacifist you know from the files.”
“Pacifist?” Daniel retorted, laughing in the man’s face. “You think I’m a pacifist?”
“I think you’re under the influence of a far darker force, Dr. Jackson, judging from what I’m seeing here, something neither of you are capable of controlling.” Kilburn said.
“Oh yes,” Daniel’s eyes rolled, a smile permeating his features. “Yes, that would explain it nicely for you wouldn’t it? Have that alien influence escape route.”
Kilburn knew better than to argue his corner, O’Neill’s eyes, completely black, and ominously empty, pointed toward some darker forces at work.
Osiris was intrigued, she moved toward the major, grasping his face in her left hand. “And what of you, Tau’ri?” she asked. “What is it that might cause you to turn to your true nature?”
“You assume I have one, a darker side,” Kilburn responded nervously, relieved as she freed him.
“Shall we find out?” Osiris probed, a smirk crossing those incredibly beautiful features. “Shall we explore you, perhaps you possess the intelligence to become the one I have searched for?”
“Searched for?” Kilburn enquired.
“All gods require a confidante, someone whom they can trust, you seem to possess such intelligence, so it shall be you!” she told him.
“O’NEILL! Goddammit!” Mathews exclaimed loudly.
Jack O’Neill had already begun to walk away, leaving them to the mercy of the Goa’uld, heading back toward the Stargate, Jackson following at a leisurely pace. He turned, glancing at Mathews. “What?” he asked.
“Is this it? You’re leaving us to the Goa’uld?” he called.
“Ya think!” Jack yelled, a smile crossing his face. He turned once more and continued away from the city.
“I don’t think he’s liking you too much!” Daniel pointed out as the two men began to ascend toward the Stargate.
“Nope! You may be right about that Danny.”
“Where to?” Daniel enquired, as O’Neill began entering the Glyphs, a smile crossed the archaeologist’s face. “Oh, Earth!” he said.
“Seems like a good place to start doesn’t it?” Jack told him. “There’s a couple of NID folks I’d like to thank, not to mention a certain Goa’uld!”
“Jack, your eyes?” Daniel pointed out. “They’re, um, black?”
“They are? I figure Dr. Fraiser can work on that problem, that P-90 got the safety off?” he asked, nodding toward the weapon.
“Shoot me in the shoulder, would you?” Jack told him. “Need to make this look convincing.”
O’Neill stared at him incredulously. “Would I ask you to shoot me otherwise?” he enquired.
The archaeologist considered it for a second, then nodded. He set the rapid fire to single shot, moved back a couple of steps, and squeezed the trigger.
O’Neill flinched as the bullet struck the bone. “Daniel, for crying out loud! Anyone would think you’d never fired one of those things!” he snapped. “You couldn’t aim lower?”
“Sorry, it, er, kicked up!” Daniel replied sheepishly.
O’Neill glared at him, that gaze more imposing and sinister with such empty black eyes. “Yeah, right!” he snarled.
Daniel stepped back, watching the colonel enter the last symbol and activate the DHD, sizing up the man. There was nothing of the old O’Neill, nothing he recognised and even if, somewhere deep down inside the alarm bells were sounding, he didn’t have the will, nor the strength to action the fear; whatever dark powers were at work held him as surely in their grasp as they did his friend.
“Remember,”
Jack hissed, a glance toward the archaeologist before he slipped through the
wormhole. “We’re victims, NID plots, shoot to kill. Count on
Daniel acknowledged his words with a single nod of his head; he understood even if those bells were still ringing loudly in his subconscious, his conscious mind simply ignored them, linked inextricably to this malevolent force, his will to think or calculate beyond that had been completely subjugated.
*****
“Unauthorised off world activation!” It was becoming a familiar call to arms; the SFs thundered down the corridors toward the embarkation room, their weapons aimed toward the wormhole.
“Iris won’t close, ma’am.” Lieutenant Simmons told Carter as she joined him, collapsing quickly into the seat beside him and trying to override whatever might be preventing the computer’s access to the iris.
“Dammit!” she snapped. “This is happening a little too often.”
Simmons looked across toward her, it was probably the first time he’d ever heard the major cuss so loudly. His attention once more turned toward the event horizon, as the injured colonel and his companion, obviously Dr. Jackson who seemed to be supporting the man, appeared.
“Medical team to the embarkation room,” Carter called through the tannoy, leaving her position immediately and heading toward her injured colleague.
“Colonel?” Her voice contained all the alarm and concern Jack O’Neill knew it would.
“Major,” he
gasped, slipping from
“Sir, what happened?” she asked, kneeling beside him and trying to see the wound.
“They tried to kill him!” Daniel told her, his voice shaking with the right amount of shock. H wiped his hand down the front of his combats, leaving a trail of the colonel’s blood in its wake.
“What?” Carter exclaimed. “Sir?”
“Oh, Carter, just… I’ll be fine,” Jack groaned through gritted teeth.
Their eyes met, and the major clearly looked horrified. “Sir, your… what happened to your eyes?” she gasped.
Jack looked completely surprised, searching her face with the right amount of wonderment. “What?” he asked.
“Never mind, sir, where the hell’s the medical team?” she snapped.
Janet, her team behind her entered the embarkation room. “Bring a gurney!” she snapped quickly to one of the orderlies. “Okay Colonel, easy.”
“Colonel O’Neill, what the hell happened here?” he demanded.
For a second Jack was filled with hatred, wanting to tear the place apart and have done with it. But that, considering the forces that surrounded him, might prove too great a task.
“We were ambushed, sir, Daniel managed to warn me, I’d just managed… ah god!” he cried out in pain.
“Sir,” Fraiser
told
“No, I’m fine,
if it hadn’t been for Jack taking that bullet,” Daniel told her,
but now addressing
“Dr. Jackson, what
happened?”
“Dead, sir,” O’Neill’s voice, weak filled with pain.
“Sir, I must get the Colonel to the OR.” It wasn’t so much a request, as a demand; the general instantly nodded his accession.
“Dr. Jackson, my office!” he snapped.
Carter followed the gurney to the OR, standing outside for a moment, collecting her thoughts. Teal’c arrived at her shoulder. “Major Carter, is Colonel O’Neill injured?”
“Hey
Teal’c,” she acknowledged. “He’ll be fine, we need to
speak to General Hammond. Something
isn’t right here, don’t ask me what, but he’s… come
on.” She moved away quickly. The
“Don’t ask me how I knew,” Daniel began, taking a deep breath. “But it was almost as if somehow the information the Sengo’lians filtered through their various contacts throughout the galaxy… anyway, according to that information, the NID had placed some people in the extraction team to assassinate Jack, if he hadn’t reacted as quickly as he did, sir, I’d be dead and so would he!”
“Dr. Jackson, are you
telling me Colonel O’Neill took down an entire Special Forces
team?”
“He didn’t have a choice!” Daniel replied. “They didn’t give him a choice… the minute Jack said he’d take them back for… they opened fire, killed some of the natives who were trying to protect us… it was … I can’t do this,” the archaeologist asserted, his head dropped into his hand for affect.
“No choice?”
“No choice,” he said at length.
“I don’t know
General, shouldn’t we wait?”
Daniel looked up, his eyes filling with tears. “There are no bodies, sir,” he explained, a grimace sweeping his features, wincing as he spoke. “Jack used the ribbon device and it, I don’t know what happened exactly, but they just disintegrated.”
“Disintegrated?” the general echoed. “Major, take Dr. Jackson to the infirmary and have him checked out. I’ll speak to O’Neill once he’s out of surgery, I don’t like the sound of this.”
“Yes sir,”
Daniel looked at the JCS liaison as soon as the two men were away from the office, a smile crossing his features.
“Nicely done!” he said.
“Thank you,
what’s the plan?”
“Well, I figure it won’t take Jack too long to convince them he’s willing to undergo whatever they want, once we’ve achieved that, we’re out of here!”
Daniel responded. “We’re going to need names, addresses, everything you can get on the NID people you’ve managed to locate!”
“The files in my
briefcase, I got right on it as soon as the colonel asked,”
“We need the override codes to get out of here, just in case,” Daniel advised. “If they don’t buy the act, we need a back up!”
*****
Carter stepped inside
“Sir, I’d like to take a team back to that planet and check out Colonel O’Neill’s story,” she said immediately.
“According to Dr.
Jackson there is no remaining evidence,”
“Yes sir,” Carter acknowledged. “I think maybe the Colonel is under the influence of some pretty powerful forces. Judging by what Cadet Hailey’s discovered already, the Ancients repository had a vast amount of information on these Sengo’lians!”
Carter smiled. “Funny you should say that, sir!” she replied. “I think there might just be one way of stopping it, but it involves force fields and things we’re not really technologically advanced enough to do… maybe the Tok’ra?”
“Good idea,
Major,”
*****
Senator Kinsey poured himself a whisky, handing a second glass to Colonel Darnell who sat in his study. “You said it would work Colonel, and frankly I’m a little disappointed in you!” he remarked.
“It appears that the power he possesses has gone beyond us, Senator, but I have a few ideas on how we might use that to our own ends!” Darnell replied, accepting the whisky and sipping it almost immediately. It was a single malt, expensive and soothing. “I think we can pretty much eliminate any threat from O’Neill!”
“I want that disk back!” Kinsey hissed, his eyes narrowing. “Soon!”
“Trust me Senator, you’ll get the disk back, and if I’m given the authority to go after O’Neill myself, a whole lot more!” the man responded.
Kinsey nodded. “I’ll see what I can do!” he replied, a smile crossing his craggy features. “Just don’t let me down again, or it won’t be O’Neill’s family holding a wake!”
*****
Dr. Fraiser checked O’Neill’s vital signs, recording them on the chart as she moved slowly around his bed. The bullet had chipped away fragments of bone, which had to be retrieved, complicating the operation and taking a little longer than she’d anticipated.
“Colonel?” she whispered, seeing the man’s eyelids move. There was no response.
“There are those that would harm him!” Janet spun around, aside from O’Neill, who was clearly unconscious, she was alone in the observation room. She shook her head, chastising herself quietly. “I need to get more rest,” she said aloud.
“You must protect him, he will be killed…”
“Who’s there?” she demanded, looking slightly on edge now, her eyes darting around the room. “Colonel?” she asked again, realising that the man had the power of telepathy. “Is someone trying to hurt you?”
“Hear us, we shall protect you, but we can only do this if he is safe. There are forces within that would harm him, she wants him, you must prevent this, you must save him from her!”
“What?” Janet’s eyes continually searched the room. “Are… you’re the Sengo’lians?”
“We are here … you must listen.”
Janet nodded. She felt an overwhelming sense of duty pervade her thoughts; no one could be trusted, only Daniel, although she wasn’t quite sure of how she knew that… he would be the one to confide in. The feeling that Carter was in league with them, whoever they were, was almost too confusing to comprehend, yet she couldn’t get the sense that she was the only one who could prevent his demise. They meant to kill him, she was sure of it what they couldn’t possess they wanted to destroy.
*****
“Okay, why are we doing this exactly?” the major asked.
“We have to buy some time, the NID is closing in and we have to be sure Jack gets off this base before they get here, added to the fact we don’t want them visiting that planet!” Daniel replied.
The archaeologist considered the question. “Um, the dialling computer for starters, and any security systems would be helpful,” he suggested, checking his watch. “We don’t have that much time.”
“Communications?”
“Would be
good!” Daniel agreed. He leant over
“Problem?” The major looked surprised. “What kind of a problem?”
“Well if Jack wakes
up here, I don’t think he’ll submit to the NID cross-examination
about that planet, he’s a little short on patience right now,”
“Did he kill that
team?”
“No, he, er, gave them to a Goa’uld actually, which is kind of fitting don’t you think?” Daniel remarked.
The major looked up at him incredulously. “Why?”
“I didn’t ask,
and he didn’t say. Can we hurry
up?”
“Going as fast as I can.”
“Just remember, they’re going to suspect you so you’re going to have to be as convincing as possible,” Daniel warned.
“I know, after that
last incident I think they pretty much consider me as an outsider when it comes
to discussing the Colonel,”
The phone beside him began to ring; the archaeologist swept it up quickly. “Daniel Jackson,” he said, nodding thoughtfully as he listened. “I understand, I’ll meet you on level 11.”
*****
Makepeace half smiled. “Why am I not surprised?” he remarked. “Seems to me that half our problems start and end with that bunch sir!”
“Be that as it may,
Colonel, I’m authorising a return to that planet. You’ll have the lead on this one, so
heads up!”
“I’ll get my
gear!” Makepeace said, standing, a pointed glance at
*****
Colonel Darnell waited for the Goa’uld to be brought to him, pacing the holding room nervously. The reports had been unspecific, perhaps the Goa’uld would know what they were dealing with and offer them a way to capture and hold O’Neill without risking too much!
Colonel Stuart was led in, bound with high tensile steal chains wrapped around both his ankles and wrists, having already attempted escape, and killing two NID men in the process, it had been all Darnell could do to keep him alive. Kinsey’s intervention had helped, but the biochemical division were pushing hard to dissect the creature, but that would mean killing the host, something thus far that had kept them at bay!
“Sit down!” Darnell ordered, nodding at the two men who escorted the creature to leave.
“Why am I still treated as an enemy?” Ptah demanded, his voice low and menacing. “Have I not already assisted you with the devices captured?”
“Small matter of that attempted escape!” Darnell pointed out. “You’re not here to talk, you’re here to listen and then tell me exactly what I want to know, maybe then I might consider having those bonds removed.”
Ptah nodded slowly, his eyes manifesting the kind of supercilious regard that Darnell had come to expect.
“What is it you wish to know?” the Goa’uld asked.
“You know O’Neill has aligned with certain forces? The Sengo’lians?”
Darnell asked him, looking dubiously across at the observation room, where he knew his superiors watched.
“I am aware of his power, aware that these creatures are able to control that which is around them!” Ptah responded. “Surely you do not think me capable of possessing an answer? Of knowing how to defeat them?”
Darnell glanced once more across the room, however seasoned a player he was to this arena, he couldn’t help but show the disappointment clearly on his face.
“So, remind me why we’re keeping you alive again?” he questioned factiously.
Ptah’s smile was immediate. “Because, Tau’ri, I am so much wiser than you could ever hope to be, more powerful than any of your weapons!”
Darnell stood up. “Powerful or not, you don’t seem to be any match for Colonel O’Neill!” he snarled. “Who is far more powerful than any Goa’uld, and slowly destroying the system lords one by one!”
“Then release me, and I shall find the one who possesses more power than any! The one who has thus far not shown themselves,” Ptah growled.
“Excuse me?” Darnell’s voice had almost become a whisper, his eyes narrowed.
“There is one, far more powerful than Ra! But this is all I will say until you agree to release me!” Ptah replied, sitting back in the chair, a smug and victorious look on his face.
Darnell stood up. “I’ll let you know!”
As he walked from the holding room, the chains rattling around his ankles, Ptah looked back at Darnell over his shoulder. “This is not negotiable Tau’ri!” he remarked, his voice almost mocking.
Darnell turned and looked at the mirror behind which his superiors stood. “Interesting!” he remarked.
*****
Cadet Jennifer Hailey sat opposite Carter in her lab, the monitor between them, both read the dialect on the screen. “See, from what I’ve gathered here they’re not exactly bad, so much as curious,” Hailey explained. “Using the dialect that Dr. Jackson already put into the computer, it seems these Ancients exposed themselves to the Sengo’lian consciousness to learn about it. They weren’t telepathic so it intrigued them.” She scrolled down the page. “Now, apparently the Sengo’lians ability to control everything around them, augmented by the powerful minds of the Ancients, made those that were infected completely uncontrollable, they became corrupted with the power and basically reacted like… some wacko Gadaffi, or Hitler!”
“Whoa, that’s not good!” Carter responded. “So it is the Sengo’lians that are controlling the process?”
“Not entirely,” Hailey stated, she scrolled down further, and pointed at the screen to underline the position she read from. “Here they allude to the ‘curiosity’. It says that the Sengo’lians were investigating the minds of the volunteers and became intrigued by their thoughts, some of them harboured jealousy, others wanted to be more important, and so they basically allowed them to be their true nature. If that’s what happened to Colonel O’Neill, then although the Sengo’lians are responsible, it’s what he wants, not what they want.”
Carter exhaled long and hard. “Wow! We can’t use this to stop him can we?” she commented. “And if it is dark side O’Neill we might have a few problems!
Not least of which is that the Colonel is culpable for everything he does.”
Hailey considered it. “I could bury this?” she suggested, shrugging her shoulders. “I mean it can read like that, but it really isn’t the Colonel’s fault if the Sengo’lians kind of drove him there right?”
“Right!” Sam agreed. “Keep looking, maybe you’ll find out how the Ancients dealt with it.”
“Sure!” Hailey replied, a self-satisfied smile crossing her features. She was beginning to truly feel like a part of the team. “Or I could try to engineer something like that force shield?”
Carter shook her head. “If the frequency isn’t right, he’ll just extrapolate its power and…”
“You’re right, that could get messy,” Hailey responded. “I’ll keep working on this, see if I can find the instructions!”
*****
Daniel checked his watch;
he had stationed himself on level 11 after Dr. Fraiser had alerted him to the
impending arrival of the NID.
She’d initially thought she could take O’Neill from the base
with the recommendation that he required hospital care, but on hearing from
The voices in her mind had also become more insistent and persuasive, every second she delayed his departure from the base, put O’Neill’s life in more peril.
For Daniel, that particular
piece of news had been fortuitous, having already set plan B in motion, leaving
He stepped forward as the elevator doors opened, assisting Dr. Fraiser as she emerged with the still unconscious, but clothed colonel on a gurney.
“We have to get out now,” she told him, her tone lowered so as not to alert the guard. “General Hammond can’t prevent the NID from taking the Colonel into custody, and to be honest, I don’t think he would if he could.”
Dr. Fraiser was not usually so easily panicked, the calm collected approach she generally displayed had given way to an almost frantic state. The voices told her that everyone was out to destroy O’Neill, or control him for the knowledge and power he possessed. As his doctor, she felt it was her responsibility to keep him from harm, and those voices simply fed on that natural proclivity to protect.
“We have to hurry, I don’t know how long it will be before they suspect something’s wrong,” Fraiser said softly. “His vitals are strong, but we need to get him somewhere to rest fast.”
“Look Janet, I know
what’s going on, I’m just glad someone else does too!” Daniel
told her, adding fuel to an inferno. “I’m really grateful that the
Sengo’lians filled you in.”
His eyes filled with concern as he added, “I didn’t believe
him at first, I mean why would anyone here at the SGC want to do that to
Jack? But
“Of course you can,” she replied, signing out on behalf of herself and her patient. “I’m not about to leave him.”
Fraiser’s conviction
was impressive; her agitated and protective state indicated that she had been
completely taken in by the illusion of this perceived threat to
O’Neill’s life, something
O’Neill’s
influence, nefarious in its intent was far too engaging to allow
With the SGC thrown into complete chaos, the colonel could action his plan.
Undermining the core of the intelligence service that had plagued them in the past wasn’t a factor, Daniel had clarified that in his mind; O’Neill held grudges, grudges he was now free to pursue, and the hatred he favoured the NID, and the backers, politicians probably, of that particular organisation with had given him his first target, and in his current state of subjugation, Daniel was quite happy to help O’Neill destroy anyone and anything that stood in his way.
“I’m with you all the way. We’ll get him somewhere safe then we can figure out what to do,” Fraiser told him, as they moved quickly into the car park area.
“I know Jack will appreciate that,” Daniel told her, that ‘butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth’ expression crossing the archaeologist’s features.
“No thanks necessary, Dr. Jackson, it’s my job!” Fraiser responded.
*****
“Sergeant?” he enquired.
“It’s dead,
sir, nothing is responding,”
“Major you’d better come and see if you can work this out,” he ordered. “In the meantime the mission is on hold.”
Carter nodded, looking at Teal’c and shrugging her shoulders. “Now what?” she remarked.
“I will check on Colonel O’Neill,” Teal’c advised, as the pair, leaving a disgruntled Makepeace behind, exited the embarkation room.
*****
Daniel helped Fraiser lift O’Neill from the gurney once they were clear of the guards, placing him in his own Jeep. “You need to lose some weight!” he remarked, barely able to move him across to allow Fraiser to take the seat by the door.
‘Or you need to
work out more!’ The thought, one placed in his subconscious mind, transferred
immediately.
‘Not when you make it so easy there’s not.’
“How far do you think we’ll get before they find us?” Fraiser enquired, nervously looking around, half expecting to see SFs pointing their weapons at the three of them.
“I have no idea, but we can’t go to anywhere they’d look, so our own homes are out!” Daniel replied, getting behind the wheel and starting the engine.
“Where then?” Fraiser asked. “They’ll track us down to any hotel we book into, I don’t have that much cash, credit cards leave a trail.”
“I can get
cash,”
O’Neill’s eyes opened with a start. “Whoa!” he exclaimed, attempting to sit up straight and clasping at his shoulder. “That hurts, and… where the hell?”
“It’s alright Colonel,” Fraiser told him. “We’re getting you out of here.”
“What? Where? Um, why? Even,” Jack asked, feigning innocence perfectly.
“Well apparently we might have been a little too quick to think that we’ve got allies here Jack,” Daniel responded. “The Sengo’lians warned Janet that you were in danger.”
“From whom?” Jack enquired, looking deliberately perplexed.
“They indicated a she, sir,” Fraiser told him. “I took that to mean Sam.”
O’Neill’s eyes, back to their normal state, rolled cynically. “Carter?” he completely sounded aghast. “Oh come on, Carter? She’s the last person that would… Doc, I’m not in…”
“They were very explicit sir,” Fraiser asserted, her voice edgy. “And I can understand why. Seems to me that a few people have lost faith in you, and that’s hardly your fault. I mean, they send you out there and as long as they get what they want, they don’t care if you live or die!”
Daniel looked at Jack, rolling his eyes. ‘Hook, line…’
‘And sinker!’ O’Neill completed the thought. ‘Where are we going?’
‘I’m not sure actually, any ideas?’
“You know,” Jack said aloud. “We’re probably not going to get across this last security check point.”
The men approached them, weapons raised. “Stop!” the lieutenant declared.
“Sorry Colonel O’Neill, didn’t see you there, sir,” the man apologised, saluting. “You’re not scheduled to leave the base, in fact…”
O’Neill shook his head slowly; the effects of the anaesthesia were still fairly strong. He took a deep breath, his focus on the security gate, its mechanisms could be far more easily overridden than an agitated human mind, and the fact that the second guard, who was now about to call through his status, was unlikely to open the gate based on his colleagues say so!
He could feel the energy beginning to rise inside his mind, the headache that came with it already pounding on his temples. Daniel watched apprehensively, concentrating his thoughts without realising it, doubling the power that O’Neill unleashed on the electronics that controlled the checkpoint.
O’Neill slumped back as the pain welled around his mind, completely exhausted both from the surgery and the sustained effort of attempting to free them from the compound, blood beginning to run from his nose as the strain on his mind, on his entire body, resonated through him with so much pressure it burst blood vessels around his eyes.
“Sir?” Fraiser’s voice filled with alarm.
“Don’t touch him!” Daniel warned.
The mechanisms holding the gate shut began to fuse, smoke began billowing from them. The guard looked around, hearing the sounds of metal groaning as the colonel’s focus became intensified. His eyes widened in disbelief as the gate was torn from its hinges, he turned, going for the weapon that was hanging from his shoulder. O’Neill’s gaze shifted, sending the man crashing back. Immediately his eyes were on the second guard now making his way hurriedly toward them, his gun raised. O’Neill sucked air in fast, fighting the pain, and used it to slam the guard back against a concrete post.
“Daniel, drive!” Jack gasped, his breathing laboured, spitting blood unintentionally over the windscreen. Fists now clenched and slammed hard against his thighs. “Drive dammit!” he yelled.
Janet’s eyes were filled with surprise, confusion at what she’d seen; she turned to O’Neill, blood now coursing down the man’s face and dripping onto his fatigues.
“He’ll be fine,” Daniel told her. “Just don’t touch him!”
“But…”
“Do as he says dammit!” Jack snarled, turning to face the doctor, the whites of his eyes filled with blood, making him look slightly crazed.
Fraiser gasped in surprise, nodding slowly. “Okay, I’m not touching him!” she agreed.
The Jeep crashed over the buckled gate, careering off down the road before the SFs patrolling the fence line could get off a shot.
*****
Teal’c checked the three different observation and recovery rooms close to the infirmary. Finding them all empty, he approached a medical technician.
“Where is Colonel O’Neill?” he enquired.
“Dr. Fraiser took him for X-rays on that shoulder injury, she wanted to be sure she’d cleaned away all the bone fragments,” the woman replied.
“Why did she not use the portable machine?” Teal’c asked, regarding the technician suspiciously.
“Portable? I don’t know, I, er…”
“Thank you,” Teal’c snapped, turning instantly and hitting the alarm. He lifted the phone on the wall. “General Hammond, I believe that O’Neill may have facilitated escape from this base.”
*****
Carter shook her head. “Whatever they did, sir, it’s a damn fine job!” she said.
“What they did,
Major?”
Carter looked up at the man. “These files have been systematically corrupted and deleted, it’s a specific virus, sir, it’s taken down almost everything but the surveillance cameras. And obviously,” she added, alluding to Teal’c’ ability to raise the alarm. “The klaxons.”
She turned back to the
monitor, studying the video tape, watching a very nervous looking Fraiser
taking O’Neill to the elevator, switching the surveillance modes to show
the rendezvous with
She sighed heavily. “Looks like he got to Dr. Fraiser sir,” she said.
“Does Colonel O’Neill believe there is some kind of conspiracy concerning his safety General Hammond?” Teal’c enquired.
“We’ve given
him no reason to suspect that Teal’c,”
“A very clever
distraction sir,” Carter surmised. She felt a slight sense of
trepidation, O’Neill had fooled them before, pretending the knowledge of
the Ancients had been lost, concealing the ability to link to
He’d obviously been under their control from the beginning, and everything he’d done, and said had been at their behest. That, if nothing else might explain Hathor! “I guess he fooled us sir,” she added.
“You’re damn
right he did, and I’d like to know why? Find Major Davis!”
“Yes, sir,” Carter responded, leaving the general and Teal’c watching Jackson and Fraiser assist O’Neill into the jeep.
“O’Neill still appears unconscious,” Teal’c observed. “How then could he have achieved this?”
“Could it not be
possible that O’Neill is not acting on his own? That these aliens have been controlling him
all along?” the
“It’s certainly
looking that way!”
“Yes sir,” the sergeant replied, immediately lifting the phone. “What reason shall I give, sir?”
“General Hammond, do you believe that Colonel O’Neill is dangerous?” Teal’c asked, concern etched into those normally stoic features.
“Right now
Teal’c, I don’t know what to think,”
*****
Hathor descended to the planet via the rings, regarding Osiris with a degree of disdain. “We see you have changed hosts!” she observed. “Perhaps something more constructive might be done with the hair. Where did you procure this host?”
“From the Tau’ri,” Osiris responded. “She is the one who freed me!”
Hathor sneered, her blue hypnotic eyes glowing irreverently, filled quickly with scorn.
“You are foolish to have contacted me, what is the meaning of your message?” she snarled.
Osiris smiled, one of those snide unmeaning expressions that so often fell over the features of a host. “I offer my pledge of allegiance and ask that I be allowed to serve you,” she responded, lowering her eyes from Hathor’s supercilious regard.
“Since when has the one that considered himself the Supreme Being, second only to Ra, deemed himself a servant?” Hathor questioned. “Was it not you who tried to destroy us, to please the vile one Ra?”
Osiris raised her eyes, looking the Goa’uld queen in the face. “We were mistaken, tricked by Setesh into believing that you would have destroyed our domain!” she replied. “Was it not I who imprisoned you, rather than destroy you?” she added.
“Who are these?” Hathor asked, turning her attention to the seven men and two women, dressed in SGC uniforms.
Osiris looked suddenly triumphant; something at last to offer that might align her in favour with this powerful foe. “These are from the Tau’ri, they were a gift from the one you covet!” she responded.
“Our beloved?” Hathor’s eyes glowed ominously once more as the words left her lips. “Presented these to you?”
“Indeed,” Osiris said, turning and regarding colonel Mathews. “Speak!”
Mathews frowned heavily. “Colonel O’Neill,” he remarked with distaste. “Your beloved.”
Osiris waited for Hathor to react, watching the Goa’uld queen closely.
“I can understand why you would covet a slave who possesses such darkness,” she said at length, when a response from Hathor failed to materialise. “And now I have given him good reason to destroy the Tau’ri, and when he does he shall destroy with them any reason he may have possessed to remain amongst the slaves. What is this information worth to you?”
Hathor regarded her with a surly expression, walking slowly around this new threat to her position. Yet having amassed the forces of Apophis, and Nyerti’s armies under her control, the threat was moot.
“We would take these as your gift to us, and accept your allegiance. Deny us, and you will find we are quite merciless. We would not show you the same regard as you may have shown us in the past,” she stated, the words recited slowly.
Nyerti descended from the ship. “Hathor, Kree, Heru’ur’s ships have arrived at your home world,” she told the Goa’uld. “As you suspected O’Neill told him of your power.”
Osiris seemed surprised to see the former system lord alive, she had heard that Nyerti had been despatched by O’Neill; clearly Hathor had managed to enslave even she, one of the most devious of all the Goa’uld she had known.
Hathor smiled regarding Mathews. “We shall enjoy watching your world suffer at the hands of our Pharaoh,” she cooed provocatively. “And when he has tired of this, he will join us and we shall continue our ascension!” She turned and faced Osiris once more. “You are sure he has not tricked you?”
The Goa’uld shook her head slowly. “I watched him crush the life of one of these slaves with his hands, as easily and without mercy, as we ourselves would!” she asserted. “He also told me that the Asgard are not to be feared as much as we suspected, that they are currently doing battle with an enemy they have no means to defeat!”
Nyerti listened; she didn’t believe that O’Neill could be so easily lured. If he had turned, become a dark force she believed he would be a more fearful adversary than he had ever been; the information about the Asgard bound to be some cleverly orchestrated deception.
She eyed Osiris with suspicion, knew this Goa’uld of old, even with a host as beautiful as he now possessed he could not disguise himself, she had battled his forces many times, allied with Setesh in order to prevent his rise to dominant power.
“And what of this one?” she enquired of Hathor.
“Osiris pledges her allegiance to us,” Hathor replied. “We shall destroy Heru’ur together and await the return of our beloved. Bring these to our ship, we shall greatly enjoy their interrogation!”
Nyerti looked sceptical. “I will remain here,” she advised. “There are things I can do to undermine Heru’ur.” She bowed her head graciously toward Hathor. “With your permission of course.”
Hathor nodded. “Very well, we shall return now to our ship,” she replied.
Nyerti watched the slaves being shipped via the rings onto the Ha’tak, a smile crossing her features as they disappeared. She turned, making her way toward the Stargate.
*****
Major Davis raised his
eyebrows slowly. “I have no idea what you’re talking about
Major,” he told Carter, as they headed toward
“Don’t give me that Paul, you and Daniel lied about Colonel O’Neill still possessing the link with the Sengo’lians, now we’ve got computer viruses and people helping him to get off this base. I don’t think you’d be kept out of something like that, added to the fact that we have you on camera operating one of the base computers with Daniel!”
“Oh come off it, don’t pull that innocent act with me,” Sam warned. “What the hell is going on here?”
“You’re what’s going on,”
“On you?” Carter’s voice, her features showed incredulity. “Is there a particular reason we should trust anything you say?” she demanded.
“Pick him up,”
she instructed, a look of disgust crossing her face. “And take him to
*****
The police car pulled up behind the Jeep; both officers alighted quickly from their own vehicle and walked alongside cautiously. When a code 3 came out about a US Air Force officer, it generally meant extreme caution, neither wanted to take the chance that this one might be armed.
“Is there a problem, officers?” Daniel enquired, employing all his most innocent and boyish charm.
“You could say that. Step out of the vehicle and hand me the keys, sir,” Officer David Malinchek ordered, his hand resting on the still holstered weapon on his hip.
Daniel looked at Jack; the colonel indicated that he should follow the instructions.
“You er, realise that we’re transporting an Air Force officer to hospital?” he remarked.
Malinchek looked inside the vehicle, O’Neill’s features still smeared with his own blood; he flinched.
“We’ve got our orders to detain you until the Air Force arrives to take you into custody,” the officer replied. “Is he okay?”
“Um, does he look
okay?”
Malinchek indicated that his partner should
check out the man, since he was closer, and with
The second officer opened the passenger door, indicating to Fraiser to step out, trying to get a clearer view of O’Neill, who looked deathly pale.
Jack O’Neill lowered his shoulder to accentuate the obvious injury, he groaned with just enough volume to allow the officer to hear him.
Fraiser crowded him protectively almost the instant he’d made the sound.
“You can’t move him,” she said. “He’s too weak.”
“Herb, leave him where he is,” Malinchek instructed. “Call it in.”
Jack’s eyes slid across, watching the second officer disappear from view, using the mirror to ensure he’d indeed gone back to the police vehicle. A smile crept slowly onto his features as he moved with lightening speed across the driver’s seat, blindsiding Malinchek who was facing the archaeologist.
“Get out of the car!” he yelled. “And keep your hands where I can see them.”
“Shoot him!” Jack ordered, his eyes once more returning to the black soulless state prior to his operation, the anaesthesia had now completely worn off. “Daniel!” he snarled. “Do it!”
‘We are
here,’ their
voices screamed inside
The gun exploded, the
bullet struck the officer in the chest.
Fraiser turned, she hadn’t heard O’Neill demanding that
She stared at Jackson, her
face white with shock, then instinct took over, moving forward quickly,
kneeling beside him as she reached him, her fingers pushed into his neck
looking for a pulse; there was one. She felt around his chest and realised he
was wearing a bulletproof vest; heaving a sigh of
relief, she looked across at
“What are you doing?” she asked, the man’s expression one of horror, he seemed as surprised as she that he’d attempted to murder the man in cold blood.
“Don’t sweat it!” Jack remarked, stepping around Daniel. Taking the gun from his hand, he lifted the weapon and aimed it at Malinchek.
“Colonel!” Fraiser exclaimed, moving toward him as quickly as she could. “No!”
“You want them
following us?” he asked. “Think
His eyes seemed to completely overwhelm her senses; the ability to think clearly, to think for herself in anyway, disappeared almost immediately into that empty black abyss.
“Jack don’t kill him,” Daniel implored, still reeling from the horror of having pulled the trigger on the other officer.
O’Neill looked at him. “You care?” he enquired with disdain.
“He’s innocent Jack, just doing his job, we’re after the NID, remember?” Daniel told him, his eyes meeting O’Neill’s, dolefully beseeching mercy. If you kill him it might only make them redouble their efforts to catch us, leave them alive?”
“Sweet!” O’Neill spat. “Fine, get his cuffs and cuff him, hands behind his back. Janet, do the same with our friend here.”
Daniel didn’t hesitate to follow his instructions, whilst the colonel assisted Fraiser with the stunned, but now fully conscious, second officer, the man seemed completely subservient, staring into O’Neill’s eyes as he moved around him.
“What never seen black eyes before?” Jack asked, a wry smile sweeping across otherwise motionless features.
“I know you,” the man said.
O’Neill knelt beside him, lifting his warrant card. “Officer Paul Herb, kinda a weird name isn’t it?” he remarked. “I think I’d remember that one.”
“O’Neill, Jack O’Neill.” The man’s voice seemed to hold some recognition as he said the words.
Jack stared down at him, those eyes seemed familiar but he couldn’t place them. “APBs will do that to you!” he asserted.
“No, that’s not it,” the man responded. “I know you!”
“Sweet, well sorry, but I don’t remember you!” Jack retorted, throwing the badge down on the ground beside him, checking the cuffs.
“You served with my brother,” Herb told him.
Jack looked down at the man, shrugging. “Doesn’t make me a nice person!” he remarked.
The officer looked completely confused by his attitude. “Saved his life,” he added.
O’Neill knelt beside him, checking the cuffs. “Now I’ve saved yours too!” he said.
“Thank you,” Herb replied.
O’Neill looked at him curiously, those dark empty eyes showed no emotion, yet he grimaced just the same. “You’re… welcome!” he said slowly, almost confused by the man’s attitude and his own response. He stood up, shaking his head as if that might expedite swifter thinking. “Whatever…” added with disdain as he moved away, toward the vehicle.
“Daniel, I’ll
drive,” he snapped as
Daniel’s eyes rose heavenward, he moved across allowing the colonel control of the vehicle, Janet slipped in beside him.
“Jack, where are we going exactly?” he asked.
“Oh that would be
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t!” Daniel stated, a sideways glance. “Just try not to get anymore cops on our tail huh?”
“We’ll need another vehicle, this one’s gonna be the highlight of radio comms up and down the damn State!” Jack told him. “So, keep your eyes open!”
*****
“Oh I think you do,” Carter charged. “I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“I didn’t do anything to the computer system, nor did I know that Colonel O’Neill intended to…”
Carter’s interest piqued, she moved closer to the man. “I didn’t mention anything about Colonel O’Neill, Major, now suppose you rethink that lame ass crap you’ve been spouting for the last ten minutes!”
“Perhaps your judgement is impaired,” Teal’c offered. “It would not be beyond these Sengo’lians to influence you as they have Colonel O’Neill?”
“I’m not impaired, I’m not conspiring, and I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!” Davis snapped, agitated at the constant stream of unending questions, all of them accusing him of being duplicitous in some way or another. “I was helping Dr. Jackson with…”
“With what?” Carter demanded, she pulled the chair closer still, staring into the man’s face.
“You sent those men
there to kill him!”
“Okay, this is ridiculous!” Carter exclaimed, she stood shaking her head, eyes closed, as she attempted to fathom exactly why anyone would accuse them of being complicit in a scheme to harm one of their own, especially someone whom they all held in such high regard, and in her case, affection. “Paul, you’re not making any sense!”
“Oh I’m making
sense,”
“A whirlwind!”
Carter looked across at the general. “Sir, if he’s on some kind of revenge mission?” she began.
“I know,
Major,”
“Daniel wanted some information, so I got it for him, oh and he wanted the dialling computer snagged!”
“You wiped out the files Paul, you’re just damn lucky we had a third tier back up.” Carter’s tone was filled with disdain. “Sir, I don’t think Major Davis is himself. And if I’m right, anything we discuss with him goes straight to the source. He’s telling us exactly what Colonel O’Neill wants us to hear!”
“Hey Carter!”
Hammond and Teal’c both looked to Carter. “Major, is that who I think it is?” the general enquired.
“Yes it is
George!”
Carter exhaled loudly, shaking her head in disbelief. “Colonel, what’s going on?” she asked.
“Well now
here’s the deal Carter, not that I don’t think you’ll like
it, but I’m not telling ya, suffice to say, I really don’t give a
damn what any of you think right now.
I’m gonna do this my way, sort out these bastards, they’ve
got it coming!”
“Sir, I know they tried to kill you, but taking the law into your own hands? You’re officially AWOL, and do you really want Dr. Fraiser to get into trouble too?” Carter asked, desperation creeping into her tone.
Carter looked completely horrified,
her eyes lowered away from the man. She turned and regarded
“Oh come on Carter, a
guy can change his mind, it’s not like you didn’t offer?”
Carter moved forward, her hand connecting with his face. “That’s beneath even you sir!” she snapped.
“You wanna be beneath me Carter, that’s the problem!”
“COLONEL O’NEILL!” Teal’c yelled stepping forward. “You go too far!”
The general lifted the phone, shaking his head. “He’s definitely out of control!” he remarked.
Teal’c moved forward
and assisted Carter in lifting
“Are you alright, Major Carter?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” Sam replied, a smile crossing her features. “Thank you.”
Teal’c managed a smile, although concerned by what he’d seen and heard, he was, like Carter, certain that O’Neill was being influenced by the Sengo’lians.
*****
The Jeep slowed, coming to a stop just outside the city limits. “Well, I guess you guys need a break right?” Jack observed, watching the two of them falling in and out of a restless sleep.
“Somewhere comfortable would be nice,” Daniel remarked, fidgeting in his seat.
“Comfortable?” Janet commented. “I could murder a shower.”
Jack turned and regarded the doctor, a wicked glint in his eye. “Sounds nice!” he agreed. “There’s a motel about three miles on, think you can survive until then?”
“Yes sir,” Janet replied.
Daniel groaned inwardly, it seemed the O’Neill magic worked in any persona.
“I can cope, thank you!” he said, knowing O’Neill didn’t particularly care one way or the other whether he could or not.
“That’s good, Danny, and don’t worry, plenty to go around,” the colonel told him.
Daniel regarded him, a measure of surprise crossing his features. “I’ll, er, thanks.”
“Don’t mention it!” Jack retorted, thrusting the vehicle into drive sharply and sending the Jeep forward.
*****
Carter sat beside
“Sam?”
“Hey Paul,” she greeted. “You feeling any better?”
“Like a truck hit me. What happened?” he asked, attempting to sit up and finding little strength to do so.
“Easy,” Sam urged, her hand resting on his shoulder to settle him back down. “Colonel O’Neill decided to use you as his mouthpiece again.”
“I really wish
he’d stopped doing that,”
“I know. Do you know where he is?” Carter asked, hopeful that the link would go both ways.
“I’m not sure,
a hotel maybe, outside of
“It’s okay, try and rest. I’ll tell General Hammond you’re back with us,” Carter told him.
“Thanks.”
Carter looked intrigued. “What makes you say that?” she asked.
“He’s lost, Sam, he needs someone that can bring him back. Daniel’s too corrupted with their influence.”
“They? The Sengo’lians?” she questioned, that notion almost seeming plausible.
“Yeah, they’ve
unleashed everything he doesn’t want to be, he’s… it’s
almost like if he doesn’t find a way back soon, that’s it. Game over!”
“What are you saying Paul?” Carter’s eyes widened. “If we don’t retrieve the situation soon…”
“What are the odds he
won’t take down a couple of NID guys before you find him?”
“The Sengo’lians are doing this right?” Carter enquired dubiously. “It’s not Colonel O’Neill?”
“Jack hasn’t been in charge since this whole thing started, I tried so hard…”
“Jack?” Carter repeated.
“That’s what they call him, it’s in my mind, no disrespect intended.”
“I understand,” Carter replied. “Are you sure you can’t see where he is?”
“I’m not sure,
I can see this place, but you’ve seen what he’s capable of with
those damn aliens controlling him, you go in there with an army and he’ll
take them out. He made short work of
Heru’ur!”
Carter stared at him. “What are you talking about?” she asked, far more sceptical now.
“Look!”
“Oh yeah, like I’m buying this,” Sam retorted. “Paul, he’s feeding you a line.”
“No, he’s really not Sam, he’s, he tried to hide it, bury it. He’s afraid of you, of things he can’t control.”
“Oh come on, this is bullshit!” Sam exclaimed.
“No, I’m not
kidding, he really is afraid of you, why do you think he doesn’t spend
his free time in your company? Tries to make light of everything you do? Invited you to go fishing?”
She knew the man well enough to know how honourable he was, and it tracked. NO! No, it didn’t track, it sounded like psychological crap! It sounded exactly like it was, bait. But one thing she knew, and it resonated throughout her thought process. He could, without blinking, take out a battalion.
“So you think he needs me that much?” she asked, half of her believing it too, whilst the scientist knew better.
“I’m saying
he’ll never get back without you!”
*****
Fraiser slipped into the shower, the water soothing aches that had become almost intolerable during the long ride in a rather unforgiving vehicle that seemed to completely lack a suspension.
She rested her head back against the wall, soaking in the heat and the relief at finally being able to relax. The anxiety of the last few hours had really built a tension that seemed to be almost overwhelming. As Jack’s hands reached through the curtain, slowly moving up her lower back, and kneading her shoulders, she felt a shiver run down her spine, but it was a pleasant embrace, one she had no intention of stopping.
As he slipped into the shower, Janet leant back into him, allowing his strong body to support her, a smile of pleasure rising on her face.
Jack caressed her body softly, his intention to further subjugate her will would also alleviate some tension that had built inside him, he needed a release and for now, until he could coax Carter to him, she was it.
Daniel lay back on the bed, finally able to think for himself, he could hear the voices screaming inside his mind.
‘We need your help; what is too dark and cannot be stopped. You must hear us!’
‘Hear you?’
‘He will prevent your freedom, he will destroy all that is around him without care, this place in which he resides is too dark!’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about? Jack?’
‘Hear us, he is…’
“Daniel?” Jack’s voice broke through his thoughts immediately.
“What?”
“Janet’s kinda, go take care of it!” the colonel barked, throwing the towel that he’d draped around his shoulders onto the chair beside the television.
Daniel sighed heavily, swinging his legs from the bed and sitting up. “What?”
“Just do it!” Jack snarled, a grimace sweeping his features. “I was a little rough, sort it out!”
“You were…” Daniel stood immediately, moving across the room toward the bathroom.
Inside he saw Janet, naked and slumped on the floor, a darkening bruise visible on her cheek.
“Oh my god,” he gasped, kneeling down beside her. “Janet, are you…”
“I’ll be fine,” she said dismissively, attempting to cover herself.
Daniel immediately brought one of the towels down from the rack. “Look, he, he’s not himself, and, er, neither am I, oh boy, we’re in trouble!” he confessed, confused as to why he would be suddenly posing such questions, a look of resignation crossing his face. “I don’t even know where the hell I am?”
“That makes two of us Dr. Jackson,” Fraiser told him, wrapping the towel around her. “He’s… we have to get out of here.”
“And go where?” Jack asked, standing in the doorway his features studied, curious yet decidedly unyielding.
“Nowhere,” Daniel replied quickly, almost as if he had been caught perpetrating a crime. “We’re… Jack, what’s going on?”
The archaeologist seemed totally disorientated, baffled by his surroundings and the situation he found himself in.
“You’re where I told you you should be Daniel,” Jack responded, his tone cold and calculating, but almost hypnotic. He leant against the doorframe almost casually, staring down at the pair with those unblinking and intense eyes. “Problem with that?”
“No,” Daniel conceded. He looked around at Fraiser, and she was staring adoringly at O’Neill. “None at all apparently,” he added.
He watched Janet cross to Jack, looking up provocatively at him; the archaeologist’s eyes rolled. “Great!” he sighed. “I’ll just stay in here, let me know when you’re done!”
Jack titled his head back,
a wry smile crossing over his features, a lopsided
grin at
The door slammed firmly
shut,
*****
“Then O’Neill’s link to Daniel Jackson has given these aliens control of both,” Teal’c observed, a wary glance across to Carter. “Perhaps since Daniel Jackson was unaware, he was unable to prevent it?”
“That’s why I
can resist him, sir,” Carter argued, acknowledging Teal’c’
words, but now addressing
“Major Carter, how do you know you will not be taken in just as Daniel Jackson and Dr. Fraiser have been?” Teal’c questioned. “O’Neill’s mind is indeed strong, you have said it yourself on many occasions.”
“I know, but… I can’t explain this, he just can’t get to me,” she asserted. “Maybe it’s the Goa’uld influence, Jolinar’s presence might somehow shield me from it.”
“And you’re
sure that he’d know if we sent anyone else?”
“Positive, sir,
he’d sense it. These
Sengo’lians don’t move in the same phase as we do, they’ve
got the ability to see around them, outside of the Colonel’s vision. He’d never have been able to detect us
in
“You’re saying
he’d kill his own?”
“Sir, it’s not Colonel O’Neill, however much it looks and sounds like him he’s as much a victim here as anyone,” Carter stated. “And if we don’t do something soon, according to everything that Cadet Hailey has discovered, we won’t be able to get his mind back!”
“Major, do you think this was triggered on that planet?” he asked.
“Could be, sir, which is why they might have attempted to delete those coordinates, to stop us going back?” Carter theorised.
“Then I’ll have SG2 go and check it out, perhaps Cadet Hailey would like to join them?”
Carter nodded. “Okay, I think she can handle that,” she agreed. “And I’ll go and try to bring Colonel O’Neill back sir?” It was a tentative request, yet a hopeful one.
*****
Fraiser curled up into Jack’s arms, sighing heavily as she drifted into an exhausted sleep.
“Oh Daniel,” he called.
It wasn’t like he could see anything, without his glasses and in the darkness, but something kept him behind that door, and trying to block out the more obvious distractions of O’Neill’s efforts had effectively stifled any chance the Sengo’lians had of reaching him.
Even distracted, O’Neill’s mind was far more powerful than his Sengo’lian guardians had anticipated, unleashing his dark side could cost them greatly, but it was the cost of the most important conduit they had been given access to in many millennia that they most feared.
‘Oh Danny!’
‘What?’
‘Don’t, what me!’ Jack snapped. ‘Whoa can you sulk, didn’t I say you could have her if you wanted her?’
‘Oh thanks, what am I thinking turning down your cast-offs!’
‘Wow, you nag more than ‘we’ do,’ the colonel groaned. ‘Gonna freeze your ass off in there all night?’
The door opened,
“Are you done battering my ears?” he enquired petulantly. “Because I have to tell you Jack, I’m really not in the mood.”
O’Neill’s eyes,
still encompassed in darkness, seemed to glow in the reflected light as he
stared at
“And with that startling display of acumen, which by the way is totally way off, can I go to sleep?” Daniel enquired, padding toward the second bed.
He looked concerned for a moment; O’Neill could sense it more than actually see it. “What?” he asked.
“Is she okay?” Daniel queried, his voice softening as he realised she might be sleeping.
“She’s fine, damn women and nails, what is that all about?” Jack enquired, genuinely so, just for a change. “My back feels like a damn tiger ran up and down it with ice skates on!”
“I have no idea, and actually, I don’t even want to think about it if you don’t mind!” Daniel told him, his face creasing up in dismay as he began to do just that, the chuckling in his mind coming from O’Neill’s ability to pick up those thoughts.
“Damn, when you put your mind to something!” Jack teased.
Fighting a battle of
sarcastic wit with Jack O’Neill, especially in his current state of
heightened acuity, wasn’t something that
“Where are we exactly?” he asked then, an afterthought, since he hadn’t a clue how far they’d come.
“Well Dorothy,
we’re almost in
“
“Oh, that’s where one of our friends resides. Figured we may as well catch up with as many as we can whilst we’re on this road trip!” Jack informed him.
“Oh,”
“For crying out loud,
don’t start going soft on me now!” Jack snarled, moving abruptly
and dumping Fraiser onto the pillow as he did so. “We’re having fun here,
kinda… Hey, think of it as Thelma and Louise!” he offered, and even
in the darkness
“Yes, um great! Well I’m not being Thelma!” he retorted.
“Okay, Louise,” Jack quipped, his hand thrown out in a grand sweeping gesture. “Try not to pick up any strange men on the way!”
Daniel shook his head. “I already did that!” he observed, another sigh.
Jack lay back down, a smile
sweeping across his features.
*****
Makepeace listened intently
as
He’d summoned the Tok’ra almost four hours ago, and still no word. Ultimately he believed they might prove a more resourceful ally, since they had more detailed knowledge of these Sengo’lians.
“Sir, isn’t that a little bit risky?” Makepeace commented. “Major Carter is a very capable soldier, but O’Neill’s proven he’s more than a match for the Goa’uld. And if he’s goading her into going to wherever he is, he’s bound to know she won’t come alone?”
“Which is why she’s going to be carrying enough tranquilliser to take down an elephant!” he replied. “And why I want you and Teal’c there in case anything goes wrong.”
“General Hammond, if you will permit me,” Teal’c interrupted.
“I believe that
O’Neill is far more wily an opponent than Major
Carter would give him credit for, we have seen his ability to control the minds
of those in close proximity to him. I
believe he intends to do harm to her,” the
“I have to concur with Teal’c, sir,” Makepeace stated. “And voice my objections to putting her in that position!”
“So noted,”
Makepeace shook his head, exhaling loudly. “I just don’t think taking chances with Major Carter’s safety is worth the risk, sir!” he replied. “For all we know Jack already has alien technology, according to that footage I saw of him coming back to the SGC, he had a ribbon device.”
Major Davis stepped into the briefing room. “Permission to sit in, sir?” he asked.
“How are you feeling
Major? Any more voices?”
“No sir, and sorry about the…”
“Sit down Major,
perhaps you can help here,”
“Hope so, sir,” he replied. “Although, if the Colonel is… I don’t want to jeopardise any chance we might have of bringing him back, sir.”
“Understood. Major Carter seems to believe that if she goes alone, she might be able to talk Colonel O’Neill into coming back, and given the fact that Dr. Jackson attempted to kill a police officer I don’t think we have much choice in the matter. If we don’t find him soon, the police will!”
“Yes sir, I understand, I just wish I could be more helpful,” the major replied. “But if you will permit me, sir, I think Major Carter going is a mistake! The Colonel used me to goad her into it.” There was genuine dismay on the Pentagon man’s face. “I think it might prove fatal, sir!” he added.
“Be that as it may, we can’t risk O’Neill, and whatever forces are controlling him, being out there somewhere. We have to at least attempt some form of communication.”
*****
Daniel woke with a start, sitting up and looking around him. O’Neill wasn’t there; even half awake he could feel the emptiness. Looking across at the bed, he saw that Fraiser was still sleeping.
It was so quiet, so peaceful, it almost felt as if the entire world had shut down, he lay there for a moment just listening, waiting for something to shatter the serenity that silence seemed to bring to his mind.
He climbed out of bed slowly, still fully clothed having been way too exhausted to undress. He padded quietly to the bathroom, locking the door behind him. He turned the shower on and stripped off, catching his reflection in the mirror; could have used a shave, but then they hadn’t exactly stopped for toiletries. Shaking his head, he stepped under the hot streams of water.
‘You must hear us,’ the Sengo’lians thoughts immediately broke into his mind.
‘No I really don’t!’ he replied. ‘In fact, weren’t you the start of all this? You wanted revenge right? I mean that is how it works!’
‘In finding the darkness of his mind, we attempted to free him of it, we had not realised that darkness was far more…’
‘Okay!’ O’Neill’s thoughts, his voice resonating between Jackson and the Sengo’lians. ‘You’re gonna have to leave now,’ he asserted. ‘But thanks for dropping by!’
‘Jack, where are you?’
‘Getting another vehicle Daniel, oh, when you’re done with that shower, just leave Fraiser there, I don’t think she can be useful anymore now, she’ll just slow us down!’
Daniel slipped unnoticed from the hotel room, leaving the sleeping doctor, as Jack had instructed. Outside, the colonel waited in a blue ford sedan.
“Where did you er, get this?” Daniel enquired, as he slid into the passenger seat.
“Oh I borrowed it,” the colonel replied. “Should take them a while to find out it’s been, borrowed, which will give us a nice head start!” An almost childlike appearance of glee spread across his face. “CD player too!” he added.
“So where are we going again?” Daniel enquired dubiously; daring not to ask exactly why O’Neill was so confident the theft would be undetected.
“New plan!”
Jack replied. “We’re going to a little place in
“Well I kinda have it on good information that our Goa’uld friends are gonna start trying to take over the galaxy again!” Jack explained. “Which could be a problem…”
Daniel looked perplexed, unsure of himself.
“Jack what did the Sengo’lians mean… about the darkness?” he questioned suddenly.
“Oh they’re just… they never know when to shut up and go away!” the colonel responded.
“And so…”
“Hey! Don’t ask
me, I’m just doing what needs to be done here, know what I mean? Saving the Earth from the bad guys!”
O’Neill’s eyes, now fixed on the road ahead were back to normal,
something
*****
SG2 stepped through the gate into complete oblivion; the entire city had been completely devastated. Coburn shook his head in dismay and surprise. “Looks like the MALP wasn’t functional, pictures we got were… what could do that much damage?” he asked Hailey as she stepped through.
“Looks like maybe the Goa’uld sir,” she replied. “We can take some readings with these instruments I’ve brought.”
“Sure it isn’t dangerous?” Coburn enquires dubiously. “Radiation that kind of thing?”
“No sir, I’m not detecting anything.” Hailey showed him the Geiger counter, its readings measuring normal.
“I’m thinking
we should report back,” the SG2 leader said. “See what
“Why? There’s no one here, we might as well look around and see if we can figure out what destroyed a planet in like an hour!” Hailey began to walk away as she spoke.
Coburn raising his eyes heavenwards. “Damn!” he sighed. “Carter Junior!”
*****
From the distance, the
cloaked figure of Nyerti watched the team with interest; she had seen the ship
in time to shield herself from its effects on the planet’s surface. The
inhabitants, taken by Osiris and Hathor for use as slaves, hosts and
Watching the ship cloak the instant the gate had activated, it was like nothing she’d ever seen, far more sophisticated than anything the Goa’uld had acquired, perhaps Asgard, yet she had never seen one of their vessels so close up, and this one had some impressive capabilities, it seemed to alter in shape as it descended closer to the surface. Before the interruption of the Tau’ri, whom she recognised instantly from their attire, she had thought it might land, and afford her a better survey of its hull.
*****
Hailey paused at the bottom of the hill. “Oh wait,” she said, turning.
“Cadet?” Coburn asked.
“There are weird readings coming from this, like an EM spike or something, but there’s no discernable power source.” She moved forward once again, watching the instrument as the readings drew further up the scale.
“It’s almost like there’s a ship, or…” She looked up, the vessel uncloaking above her immediately shrouded her in a beam of sharp blue light and extracted the cadet from the planet.
Coburn aimed his weapon at the ship, firing repeatedly. “Dial the damn gate now!” he yelled, fearing his entire team would be extracted.
Cloaked now, the ship disappeared from view, the major turned to see a second beam directed toward the ruins. He sent the GDO signal to the SGC, and shot one final glance at the devastation before he and his team fled through the Stargate.
*****
Hailey looked around in the darkness, she couldn’t see or hear anything at all. Terror momentarily overwhelmed her, and she shuddered, taking deep gulps of air as she attempted to calm herself.
“Well Cadet.” O’Neill’s voice familiar. The room became bathed in light, the colonel stood close to her.
“Colonel,” she sounded relieved, a surprised gasp as she looked into those cold black eyes, catching herself before being too obvious. “I thought … sir, how did you get aboard a ship?”
“Questions, questions!” Jack replied. “What were you doing on that planet?”
“We were trying to find answers sir, hoping to er, help you, actually!” she responded, a little unsure of herself now, as she realised this wasn’t exactly the Colonel O’Neill she’d met previously on ‘862
“Help me?” Jack enquired, the sarcasm in his tone obvious. “Oh I don’t need any help Cadet, I’m fine just as I am. In fact, I’ve never been better.”
“Yes sir,” she replied.
“Drop the sir, it’s Jack, hardly time for all that boring military stuff right?” he remarked, walking around her. “You know in my day you’d never have made it into the Air Force, too short!”
She watched him cautiously; his eyes seemed to be changing, altering in colour. She averted her gaze quickly when she found herself staring at him.
“But, you’re fairly cute, cute’s a good word don’t ya think?” he continued.
“Kinda says small but nice?” He was staring at her ominously; his eyes completely normal now, showing no signs of the extensive black that had painted them and made the stare seem lifeless and empty.
Now she could read his eyes, and she didn’t like or feel comfortable with what she was seeing.
He gazed around the room, a smile sweeping across his face.
“Hey, Nyerti, so wanna uncloak now or what?” he asked, directing his attention toward an object that seemed fixed to the wall. Hailey turned and followed the glance.
“Nyerti?” she enquired. “Who…”
“O’Neill, how clever you are to see through the invisibility device.” Uncloaking as she spoke. “I am sure it is this sophisticated ship that makes it so easy for you?”
“Might say that, not to mention the whole mind awareness thing these nice Sengo’lian folk gifted me with,” Jack retorted. “Besides, didn’t you think it was kinda obvious, we did beam you up?”
“I had heard, from Osiris that you had returned to Earth in order to destroy it?” Nyerti enquired. “How then did you come to be aboard such a vessel as this?”
Jack moved toward her, his eyes showing signs of devilish delight. “Now see that would be telling wouldn’t it?” he answered, his fingertips brushing across her cheeks. “And, since I don’t give information to Goa’ulds, I guess I’m not… telling,” he added for good measure, lest she fail to understand him.
“A Goa’uld?” Hailey asked.
“Oh, sorry…” Jack spun around. “Cadet Hailey, meet Nyerti, former system lord, and snake in the head!” He beamed happily at the description. “She got her ass kicked at the SGC, it was… messy!”
Nyerti looked at the young woman who seemed to show the same disdain as she felt, the two women mirroring perfectly.
“Doing a little recon for Hathor?” Jack surmised, his attention firmly on the Goa’uld now. “She send you to try and penetrate Earth’s defences and find me?”
“I came of my own accord, or rather stayed of my own accord,” the Goa’uld told him. “I had a feeling you would return sooner or later. Your destruction of that planet was most effective!” she remarked, clearly showing reverence to the man. “The weapons technology did little to destroy the atmosphere, yet were powerful enough to crush it!”
“Well thank you!” Jack replied. “Pretty damn impressive don’t ya think?”
Hailey looked a little surprised. “You destroyed the planet?” she asked.
“I believe she is upset with you, Colonel,” Nyerti remarked. “Perhaps she does not know you as I do!”
Jack’s eyes narrowed, a smile resonated clearly over those handsome features he’d used to such good affect on Fraiser. “She might … later,” he said, a wicked grin offered to the cadet, who visibly flinched. “So! What’s old Hathor up to these days?” he enquired.
“She intends to reunite with you,” Nyerti stated, her eyes eating him up. “I however have another suggestion!”
Jack smiled again. “What?” he asked, his hands reaching around her waist and pulling her to him. “You, me and some quality time?”
Nyerti’s body responded to him immediately, pushing against him, her lips meeting his.
Hailey’s face contorted with disgust, she looked away from them around the room wondering where there might be an exit.
“So,” Jack announced. “Now we have a nice ship, with the right kind of powers, I figure a little meeting with all our friends is on the cards!”
Nyerti glanced across at Hailey. “Why did you bring her here?” she asked.
“See, I was just getting to that part, Hailey here, she’s real smart and she’s been working on a way to try and stop me. That’s not really nice is it?” the colonel observed. He moved toward the cadet, letting go of Nyerti’s hand. “So she’s gonna be spending a little time with us, and getting a crash course in the art of being a bad guy!”
Hailey shook her head. “Colonel that isn’t you speaking, it’s…”
“Cadet! Shut up, I really don’t care.” The venom that resonated in his eyes was filled with spite and hatred; Hailey immediately found it too difficult to return such an intrusive gaze and lowered her eyes.
“Sir, I can’t just shut up, you don’t know what’s happening and how far it will go,” she insisted.
“See here’s the thing, Cadet,” Jack snarled, moving closer to her. “I’m in ‘I don’t care mode’, what part of that don’t you get exactly?”
Hailey shook her head. “I don’t get any of it, sir,” she replied.
“Well, here we’re going to learn the meaning of the ‘I don’t give a damn principle’, it’ll be a real short lesson if you don’t start paying attention, one that might end in death!” he explained, amusement beginning to drift slowly across his features. “Now, what about that don’t you understand?”
Hailey took a deep breath, nodding slowly now in accession. “I understand that perfectly sir!” she retorted bitterly.
“Good! Now see, we’re learning,” he told Nyerti. “I love having kids around don’t you? Brings on that whole paternal thing… then again, you probably don’t know anything about that, do ya?”
Nyerti looked a little bewildered, she hadn’t yet learned to read the colonel’s sense of humour as well as Hathor appeared to.
“Perhaps we should consider her as a host,” she offered, a smile crossing her features at Hailey’s sharp intake of breath.
“Now see, she’d be a good candidate,” Jack agreed, looking back at the cadet. “But right now I need her focusing on another problem for me, and as much as I find this whole double deal, snake in the head thing fun? I think she’d get a little too big for that already oversized brain!”
Hailey felt an immediate sense of relief; even if the colonel wasn’t exactly acting liking himself, that he wouldn’t allow her to become a host gave her some hope that he wasn’t completely lost.
He strode across the room, raising his hand a door appeared from nowhere. He paused. “Ladies?” he offered.
Nyerti moved first, she felt he was far more accessible now, since that kiss, she could truly feel the passion that flowed through him powered by menace, something she hadn’t felt in their former liaisons.
She watched Hailey walk past O’Neill, and noticed how his eyes seemed to alter in regard. He obviously felt some form of protectiveness toward her, and that could be used to her advantage! As his eyes shifted to meet her own, he smiled. “Got any ideas of how we rattle your snaky pals?” he asked her.
“The system lords will not be equipped to deal with a vessel such as this,” she replied. “Perhaps we should begin with the fringe, they will of course race to prevent his demise, since Nefertum borders close to the Asgard, the system lords will be convinced it is they who have perpetrated the attack, the Asgard will deny it, but there will be distrust of a far greater magnitude than already exists. Then, the system lords will feel they have no other option but to engage the Asgard, they will deplete one another’s forces considerably and make both easy to conquer!” She looked completely enthralled at the prospect.
O’Neill nodded thoughtfully, a smile matching hers swept across his handsome face, mirroring perfectly her insidious expression.
“You really are evil aren’t ya?” he remarked.
She returned the favour, nodding slowly. “I really am,” she replied.
*****
Janet sat in the corner of the hotel room shivering; she felt alone and afraid. O’Neill’s influence had completely worn from her mind, and now she waited for the Air Force to collect her. The feeling of violation as the memories flooded back of the night she’d spent made her feel nauseas. She looked across at the digital clock, it wouldn’t be long, and she’d be back at the SGC, embarrassed, dismayed and furious at herself for having been taken in. O’Neill had abused her, and she couldn’t get that thought from her mind. Better to turn the anger on him, than on herself, that was easier and for the most part it was the truth. Understanding why she had been so easily taken in was not something that she found easy to stomach, facing feelings toward a senior officer, or perhaps simply the affection of a common bond wasn’t something she’d ever considered before; her patients were just that, but she had been through so much with the flagship unit of the SGC that perhaps the thin line between patient and friend had been crossed.
The rap on the door alerted her to the Air Force officer’s arrival, the fresh faced MPs that stood before her as she opened the door saluted.
“We’ve come to take you home ma’am,” the young man announced.
“Thank you Sergeant,” she replied, lowering her eyes away from his gaze. “Thank you.”
*****
Coburn smashed his hand down hard on the briefing room table; faced with an irate Colonel Makepeace, he was becoming increasing angry at the accusations that he had fled without attempting to save Hailey.
“Don’t beat your damn chest at me!” Makepeace snarled. “Go over it again!”
“I’ve been over it, SIR!” Coburn snapped. “We couldn’t do anything because the damn ship beamed her aboard and then just disappeared!”
“Could it have possibly been an Asgard vessel,” Teal’c enquired. “Or perhaps… what did this beam of light resemble?”
“It was probably a damn Goa’uld!” Makepeace spat, eyeing Coburn with disgust.
”Goa’uld vessels do not use such technology, they have only the ring devices with which to transport,” Teal’c corrected.
“The light was blue,” Coburn told Teal’c. “Like the one Colonel O’Neill used to take us aboard that Ancients ship.”
Makepeace sat up straight. “That’s not possible, I checked with the commander assigned to guard that ship, it’s back where we left it,” he asserted.
“Then perhaps it is the Ancients themselves?” Teal’c offered.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Carter observed, entering the briefing room and taking a seat. “Dr. Fraiser’s going to be fine,” she told Makepeace whose glance clearly asked the question. “When she recovers from the black eye and the bruising on her… anyway, I think it’s safe to say that either the Colonel found another vessel, or we’re dealing with another race here, don’t you?”
“What of Cadet Hailey?” Teal’c enquired. “Would it not be far better if it had been O’Neill?”
“Oh I don’t know about that Teal’c,” Sam replied. “Seems the Colonel has a thing for undermining smart women. At least in his current state of mind.”
Makepeace shook his head, regarding Carter with incredulity. “Please keep the discussion to matters relating to exactly how we’re going to find O’Neill and deal with this situation Major!” he lectured dryly. “Assuming it was O’Neill, let’s say he knew where to find another Ancients vessel and took off undetected, so we know he’s not on Earth, what’s he likely to do?”
“I believe, if these Sengo’lians intend to take over the galaxy as previously suggested by the Asgard, then he would attempt to engage and destroy the Goa’uld, the Asgard themselves and very probably the Tau’ri!” Teal’c surmised. “Since it would be these three that might find a way to stop him.”
“Great! So what the hell are we supposed to do about that?” Coburn asked. “He’s kicked the Goa’uld into touch a couple of times, practically told the damn Asgard they couldn’t deal with him, and made pretty damn short work of our defences!”
“We goad him,” Carter suggested. “He’s just arrogant enough in his present state of mind, or they are…” she corrected herself quickly. “To believe they’re unstoppable!”
“Excuse me Major, but wouldn’t they be right?” Makepeace intoned. “I mean it took the damn Ancients, the Asgard and probably the whole of that four race alliance to beat them back the first time!”
“Sir, I’ve been thinking.” Carter said suddenly, getting that determined look that Teal’c, and now Makepeace, recognised so easily.
“No surprise there, Major,” Makepeace smiled.
“I’ve got an idea, but I think we might need to call in some markers to pull it off.”
Makepeace held his hands aloft. “I’m listening,” he encouraged.
“Okay, we know the four race alliance consisted of The Asgard, Ancients, Nox and Furlings. Since the Colonel knew how to shut down the device on Sengo’lia, we naturally assumed that it was the Ancients that had found a way to defeat them, but what if it was the Nox?” Sam said. “What if they were the ones that came up with a method to prevent the Sengo’lians from leaving that planet and the Ancients simply engineered it?”
“Go on?” Makepeace invited.
“Well sir, we make contact with the Nox, and ask for their help, now, they’re not likely to want to involve themselves in a battle, but they might tell us how they did it in the first place…”
“If it were they who achieved it!” Teal’c finished the sentence. “Perhaps there is some merit in what you say Major Carter, the Nox use their minds far more than technology to deceive.”
“That’s what I’m thinking!” Sam agreed.
Makepeace nodded. “How do we contact them, didn’t they bury their gate?” he asked.
“Yes sir, but they unburied it to send the Tollans we rescued to their new home world, or took them there in a ship, either way we know they unburied it to attend the Triad on Tollana, so if we’re lucky they haven’t buried it again!” Sam advised. “We could try dialling it up?”
“Worth a try, if you think they’ll cooperate,” Makepeace ceded. “Since I’m in charge here for the time being, let’s go with it!”
“Thank you, sir!” Carter smiled.
*****
Nefertum watched in horror as his ships were destroyed one by one, the solitary vessel they faced seemed to have the capability to remain concealed until it was ready to fire, and only then did the vessel appear fleetingly. Two of his motherships had already made the mistake of firing upon it, only to destroy each other.
He’d sent word to the system lords, and knew they were on their way, now it was simply a case of whether or not they could hold out until help arrived, and with the speed this hostile ship despatched his fleet, he severely doubted it.
Heru’ur had demanded to know what they faced, and had been irritated when he had been unable to confirm; he had never seen an Asgard ship, and had decided, simply to appease the system lord, to suggest that it were they.
As the system lords arrived within Nefertum’s domain they found nothing, not even debris from the battle, hails to the Goa’uld went unanswered.
Heru’ur stood on the Pel’tac of his ship, staring out into the emptiness around him. “How could this be?” he snarled, turning and facing Anubis.
“The Asgard denied involvement,” Anubis replied. “Yet what other race possesses the power to destroy twenty motherships and leave no trace?”
“My lord,” Nefir interrupted. “The Asgard answer your request.”
Heru’ur marched quickly from the Pel’tac; the long-range communication device on his new ship now resided within his own quarters.
The image of an Asgard greeted him as the doors slid open. “Lord Heru’ur, I am Thor, high commander of the Asgard fleet.”
“Honoured,” the Goa’uld sneered. “You have not defied the treaty and attacked the domain of Nefertum?”
“The Asgard have no reason to do so,” Thor told him.
“Then who?” Heru’ur enquired. “Since they despatched an entire fleet of motherships, in a domain that has many protected planets within it’s region of space, it would be in your interests to share this knowledge with us.”
“That is not a part of the treaty, the Asgard will ensure the planets that remain under our protection are defended, but cannot help the Goa’uld in their battles.”
“You are aware of the delicate balance we attempt to maintain between the Goa’uld and the Asgard, yet you refuse to assist us when this enemy could quite easily attack and destroy your ships?” Heru’ur warned.
“If such an attack happens, the Asgard would not expect the Goa’uld to assist, neither can we offer assistance. We are sorry, but such an alliance is not possible,” Thor insisted. “We appreciate your contact.”
Heru’ur nodded slowly. “You are of course aware of the fate of the human O’Neill?” he enquired. “That he has become a puppet of the Sengo’lian and is now more of a threat to your protected planet than the Goa’uld?” It was a long shot, he himself had no idea how much contact the Asgard maintained with Earth, but he also knew that the Asgard favoured O’Neill.
“We are aware of all things concerning the Planets that we protect,” Thor told him.
“Then we have nothing worth discussing!” Heru’ur told him, closing off the device.
Thoth appeared in his quarters then. “My lord, since I am to serve you might I offer advice on dealing with the Asgard?” he asked.
“Speak!” the system lord spat.
“The Asgard would not divulge information, that would be conceding that they are not as powerful as they would have you presume. Nor would they openly admit to attacking one of our own,” Thoth advised. “In my quest to discover a race that possess the ability to create the power close to the beings you call Sengo’lians, I have discovered many whose power is limited only by a lack of the correct guidance and technology with which to channel it.”
”This is what Cronos bade you to discover?” Heru’ur enquired, intrigued now. “Or perhaps, knowing your continuing thirst for knowledge you were merely searching for more?”
“Cronos had instructed me to learn all I could of the Tau’ri known as O’Neill, this when you brought him to rank of system lord,” Thoth replied. “I was unable to find the knowledge he required. These Sengo’lians are an impossible race to find, however I did discover a creature with knowledge of O’Neill whom I have managed to locate, yet the planet on which it resides is Loc’Kol’telmar, we would be unable to set foot upon it without the hosts within whom we reside becoming vulnerable to his contagion.”
“What creature can possibly stand against us?” Heru’ur snarled, almost slighted by such a statement.
“Aiestrodous!” Thoth replied.
That name said enough, Heru’ur knew of the creature had heard stories of his power, like O’Neill, using the mind control of the Sengo’lians, this creature had infected several Goa’uld hosts, and that contagion had destroyed the Goa’ulds within.
“If it is impossible then why do you tell me of it now?” he snapped.
“Because should we locate the creature on the surface of the planet upon which he resides, he will be far less dangerous to us held within a force shield on a mothership. He possesses the ability to become invisible, and would not easily be detected by the Sengo’lians should he agree to defeat O’Neill, for it is O’Neill who destroyed the fleet of Nefertum.” Thoth’s words were foreboding. Deep down Heru’ur had suspected that O’Neill had begun his conquest of the Goa’uld system lords with what he knew to be the weakest in rank. To possess a creature that Thoth, the all knowing and wisest of all Goa’uld, believed capable of defeating him, would be a prize worth obtaining.
“Then we shall seek and capture this creature, offering his freedom in return for his service!” he agreed.
Thoth bowed his head. “As you wish my lord,” he replied. “We should perhaps consider engaging the Asgard in battle, your fleet has grown considerably, and the fleet now possessed by Hathor, with whom you can forge an alliance, would provide us with a considerable tactical advantage, perhaps we should launch against them. I am not convinced it was not the Asgard who knowing our problems, have taken advantage. They would not expect a strike at this time!”
Heru’ur considered the words carefully, he had been cautious when it came to challenging the Asgard, but this most intelligent of his race rarely steered his former master wrong, and therefore the consideration was a valid one.
*****
Carter sat across from Janet in the commissary. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she enquired. Fraiser seemed very distant, almost depressed.
“I’m fine, I just can’t believe the Colonel would…”
“It wasn’t the Colonel doing that stuff Janet, you know him better than that!” Sam corrected. “He’s… whatever they’ve done to him, anything that remotely resembles Colonel O’Neill has been put in a box somewhere!”
“You may be right about that,” Fraiser agreed. “There was something, I can’t explain it, it was almost irresistible. Like… I’m not sure, but no matter how much I thought I could just tell him to go to hell?”
“You couldn’t,” Sam told her. “Look, you’re probably the only one I’d say this to but, partially, you were under the influence of a very powerful mind control, the other part well, that was,” she paused, a heavy sigh emitted slowly. “That was probably almost instinctual attraction.”
“Sam, I’m not attracted to Colonel O’Neill,” Janet retorted, seeming amazed Carter would even suggest such a thing.
“Okay then call it animal magnetism… or drugs!” Sam offered. She felt a strange sense of jealousy pervading her thoughts, but even so she understood, probably better than Fraiser ever could, what O’Neill’s true nature could aspire.
“Daniel seemed completely taken in too,” Fraiser said. “Then he changed and started asking questions, he didn’t seem to have any idea what he was doing there.”
“He has that link, and a certain empathy with the Colonel, so I guess his mind is pretty easy to manipulate,” Sam replied. “But I’m betting he’ll manage to break free of it at some point, I mean how long can the Colonel stay focused on anything usually?”
“Oh he’s focused Sam,” Fraiser warned. “He’d have killed me, or Daniel, at the drop of a hat if we’d tried to defy him. He was so… cold, I’ve never seen anything like that in his persona.”
Sam looked sympathetic. “I know this is going to sound really lame, but try not to think of him as Colonel O’Neill and…”
“It wasn’t O’Neill,” Fraiser asserted, her eyes now fixed on Carter’s. “Sam, it wasn’t. No matter how much he looked and sounded like Jack O’Neill…”
“Jack O’Neill?” Carter repeated. She searched Janet’s face a strange regard crossing her own. “You’re the second person that’s called him that below his rank that he’s had influence over.”
Fraiser looked baffled. “Is there some significance to that?” she enquired.
“I don’t know, maybe?” Carter responded.
*****
Daniel turned as the three entered the control room. “Um, okay, that’s a weird combination!” he stated.
“Dr. Daniel Jackson, Danny to his friends,” Jack stated, “this is Cadet Hailey, and you already know Nyerti!”
“Yes, I, er, what just happened?” Daniel enquired, nodding at Hailey.
“Oh we took out a snake and his pals.” Jack’s eyes fell once more on Nyerti. “She’s got a plan!”
Daniel looked slightly sceptical. “Oh, well if she’s got a plan, then I guess we should just got with it right?” he remarked, he looked more closely at Hailey. “Is she for me?” he enquired.
“Hey, if you want her…” Jack threw his arms up in a grandiose gesture. “Take her!”
Hailey looked panicked all over again. “I don’t think so!” she snapped, but her voice didn’t quite match the conviction.
“You don’t?” Jack enquired, amusement once more framing his features. “I think Danny can pretty much do whatever he likes myself.”
“Sir, you can’t mean that… you…” Hailey began, her eyes imploring.
“Daniel?” Jack enquired of the man.
“Oh I’d like to spend some time alone with Cadet Hailey if that’s okay with you?” Daniel remarked. He seemed as aloof and possessed of himself as the colonel, yet something told Hailey he wasn’t, that he wouldn’t hurt her, she hoped that little voice was right; thus far, it hadn’t been.
“Well, we’ve got to go restart an internal war, so take your time,” Jack offered.
Daniel took Hailey’s hand. “Thanks, I will!” he remarked. He led her from the control room.
Jack looked at Nyerti shaking his head. “That boy is a walking, talking representation of Jesus Christ!” he laughed. “I swear, you give him Sokar’s job, he’d be too nice and get the damn sack!”
“I am not entirely sure I know what you mean, but, at least it gives us time to be alone, to have something I have wanted from you, something you refused me before,” Nyerti told him, her eyes locked with his.
“Nope!” Jack retorted. “I’m not giving you the dog tags. I worked hard for these things!”
She raised an amused eyebrow. “Then I shall have to take them,” she replied.
*****
Carter entered the point of origin, glyph number seven and held her breath. “Here goes nothing,” she commented.
Makepeace stood behind her. “Pessimism,” he chuckled. “I have to admire that coming from you!”
“Sir?” Carter enquired.
“Major, I see you as Miss Fix it! You ever get the inclination to come shoot some pool, I’m offering!” he remarked.
“I’m not sure I know what you mean, sir?” she replied, a smile, an expectant one adorning her features.
“Well let’s just say, I’d be intrigued to see Samantha Carter out of those fatigues and into something a little more…” he paused, shaking his head and for a marine of his age and experience looking a tad embarrassed. “Okay, that came out a little bit wrong. Suffice to say, Major, I’d like, just for once, to see you when you’re not trying to save the world!”
“Yes sir,” she acknowledged. “Well, I guess you might get to see that in, oh… 2020!”
Makepeace smiled. “Your wormhole worked, wanna send a MALP?”
“Be pretty pointless if I didn’t,” Sam goaded, a wry smile crossing her features.
“Careful Major, that was almost funny!” Makepeace chided. “Sergeant Siler, get your MALP friend ready for transport.”
Siler gave a mock salute toward the control room. Makepeace watched with a degree of trepidation, he wasn’t entirely sure having seen what the Sengo’lians were capable of that any single race was capable of defeating them or even coming close to it.
“Here’s where we do a little praying,” he commented.
*****
Daniel led Hailey to one of the farthest points on the ship, into a chamber that seemed to be some form of personal quarters.
“Sit down,” he instructed, looking around him warily. He hoped that O’Neill would be busy with the Goa’uld. “Look, I don’t know how much you know, or even how qualified you are to be here. Judging on your title, Cadet? I’m thinking probably not much more than a freshman?”
“I’m a little more than that Doctor Jackson, what’s your point?” Hailey enquired.
“My point is, we’re in trouble!” Daniel told her. “And I don’t know how much of this is going right back to Jack, but here it is,” he continued, apprehensive yet determined. “Jack’s lost it, and I mean… wow! He’s planning on starting some intergalactic war between the Goa’uld and the Asgard and taking over as much of it as he can once they’ve pretty much depleted each others’ forces.”
“We have to find a way to stop that Dr. Jackson,” Hailey said.
“Yes, I agree with you, only I don’t happen to think it will be that easy!” Daniel confessed. “Jack’s pretty much got me sown up, and if he has his way, you’ll be under the same influence.”
Hailey looked a little sceptical then. “If he’s gotten you sown up Dr. Jackson, how come you’re telling me all this?” she enquired.
”Okay, that’s a
good point. Look! I don’t know exactly but he’s
keeping me around for a reason and I figure, or as near as I can figure, there
has to be a reason for it,”
“I just don’t know why you’re suddenly changing sides,” Hailey countered. “Everything I read tells me you’re compromised too, just like you said, so this could just be a way of trying to gain my trust?”
Daniel smiled. “That’s, um, very wise. But it’s flawed. See I don’t have a reason to gain your trust, or lie to you! If I wanted to, I could just kill you, think Colonel O’Neill would mind?” he asked. “I’m trying to make a point here, so you understand. I am compromised, there’s really no question of that. But doesn’t the fact that I’m trying to work through that tell you something?” The archaeologist stared at her. “They, the Sengo’lians, have been trying to reach me, and every time they do Jack shuts the door on them.”
“So you’re asking for my help?” Hailey enquired, still unsure of him. “Because I really don’t know how I can help you, if he’s in control?”
Daniel looked perplexed. “He’s going to start a war here, and I can’t stop him. Maybe you can?” he offered.
Hailey laughed. “You’re kidding right?”
“What makes you think they dealt with it in the archive?” she enquired dubiously.
“Because they documented everything else, including how to deactivate the device on that planet which allow Jack to free them!” Daniel asserted. “Anything you know that could be helpful, would… we’d have somewhere to start.”
Hailey considered the
question, the plea that came with it.
“Okay, according to what I learned the Sengo’lians are curious about the thought processes of others. Now just before I was ordered to go with SG2
to that planet where Colonel O’Neill… the one he destroyed.”
She said the words with disdain. “I figured out that it wasn’t the
Ancients that had the power to battle the minds of the Sengo’lians, they
were just as helpless as the Asgard and Colonel O’Neill appear to be. I
think it was the Nox.” Hailey
watched
“The Nox?” he queried, bemusement settling on his features. “How did they do that?”
She shook her head, shrugging at the same time. “It didn’t exactly go into detail, but one of the texts that concerned the imprisonment of the Sengo’lians referred to those that possessed a power beyond ‘ours’ meaning the Ancients,” Hailey explained. “So, having already done the research into the four alien race alliance, I’m just guessing.”
Daniel smiled. “And I think you’d be guessing right,” he concurred, he paced as he spoke, his hands gesticulating to accentuate the words. “That makes perfect sense. The Nox have the ability to hide things with their minds, why not to take on the Sengo’lians? I can’t understand why I never thought of it before?” he added, enthused suddenly.
“Because I wouldn’t let you!” Jack told him.
Both spun around, looking at the colonel, who was leaning in the doorway to the room. “Smart kid!” he said.
“Um, Jack, I was…”
“You were doing what I knew you’d do the minute you thought we were going a little bit too far Daniel. That old moral code kicked right on in!” Jack remarked. “Predictable, but that’s kinda comforting since it’s given me the next target!”
“Jack, you can’t?” Daniel exclaimed.
“Oh I can’t?” Jack parodied the man, mimicking his alarm and mocking it. “When are you gonna learn Dr. Jackson, that I can do whatever the heck I like?” He moved toward him. “I mean, who’s gonna stop me. You? Our little Carter clone here?” he chuckled then. “I don’t think so!”
Daniel took a deep breath. “If I have to,” he said, his eyes locking with O’Neill’s.
The smirk that covered O’Neill’s features condescending, he lifted his hand and placed it on Daniel’s shoulder. “No Danny, there’s not a chance in hell!” he said.
Hailey moved forward.
“Colonel, what are you doing?” she gasped, seeing the look of sheer
terror that crossed
Jack O’Neill turned to face her. “Learning yet?” he enquired.
“Learning what? That you’re willing to hurt just about anyone to get your own way?” she asked.
“See, now you’re learning,” Jack told her, turning and leaving her alone with the unconscious archaeologist.
She sank to her knees beside him, feeling for a pulse, a sigh of relief when she found it was perfectly normal and strong.
“Now what?” she groaned.
*****
Nyerti waited for him in the control room, her attempts to recognise or activate any of the ships systems had failed. She favoured O’Neill with a smile.
“As you suspected?” she enquired.
“Oh yeah, had to put Daniel out! He’s getting way too cynical. I ask you, talk about pick your moments!” O’Neill complained.
“Then we must proceed with haste, centre our attack on Yu and Pelops. Heru’ur will undoubtedly attempt to prevent such destruction, you are sure the plan you have will work?” she asked.
“What with the images they see and transmit?” Jack retorted, leaning on the console opposite the Goa’uld. “Oh yeah, they’ll be seeing Asgard ships alright, hundreds of them!”
Nyerti smiled, moving across and placing her hands on his shoulders. “I had always suspected that you would make a very good Goa’uld,” she said. “But I think I prefer you like this!”
Jack turned, taking her hands. “I don’t think you’d really prefer me like this if you were the one on old Yu’s planet when I get there! Or you thinking that once I wipe out the opposition you’re gonna get to be in charge?” he stated, a grimace forming on his features. “Run the whole damn thing!”
Her eyes widened slightly. “You know I have a weakness for you, one that is rooted in power O’Neill, but you did try to kill me, for which there should be some form of retribution!” she told him, a smile crossing her dark and devious eyes.
“Of course there should,” Jack mocked. “Have anything in mind?” He pulled her closer to him. “That involves excruciating pain?”
His grip tightened on her wrists, causing her to gasp at the pain as he drew her closer to him. “Because you know I’ve got some pretty good ideas of what that retribution should be!”
Nyerti’s eyes glowed, yet this wasn’t the usual furious expression associated with such an act, this bore excitement. She had finally found someone as devious and evil as she, that excitement permeated her body; she closed her eyes and felt the heat from his breath caress her cheeks.
“But…” Jack said, moving away from her. “We really don’t have time for that right now!”
He moved away, leaving her standing, staring after him. “You will be mine,” she whispered. “Of that I am certain!”
Hathor waited for the image of her archenemy to appear on the long-range communication device, looking across at Osiris, who had finally changed into something a little more suited to her position, at least in the judgemental eyes of her mistress.
“He does not know of your existence?” she enquired.
“No, you and Nyerti are the only ones who know I now live, your plan should work provided he does not suspect that in forging such an alliance you have determined to destroy him!” Osiris responded.
The device activated, and then on the viewer were the surly features of Heru’ur.
“Nefertum is destroyed,” he said. “These Asgard lie to us, it is clear they mean to wage war by deceit.”
“You have proof it is the Asgard?” Hathor enquired.
“Who else possesses the power to destroy an entire fleet of Goa’uld Ha’taks?” Heru’ur spat. “Surely the time you spent with the Tau’ri slave has not convinced you that these creatures can be trusted?”
“On the contrary.” Hathor moved closer to the device. “We are convinced that it is the Asgard, they are simply setting out to do what it was impossible for them to achieve when the system lords were united.”
“Then you agree we must mount a counter-assault on their planets, fragment their forces, and then launch an attack on their home world?” Heru’ur stated.
“We agree, perhaps it would be prudent to call a meeting of the system lords that remain, before they isolate us further,” she replied.
Heru’ur nodded. “It will be done!” he concurred.
The device now dormant, the Goa’uld queen turned to her newest conquest. “You will attend this summit,” she remarked. “It will be there that you will destroy them and we shall take control of the largest army ever known!”
Osiris bowed her head. “I will plan their destruction carefully,” she agreed. “When this is over, you shall have control of all that was once theirs.”
“Do not fail me!” Hathor warned. “Failure will have consequences you will not enjoy facing.”
*****
Carter stepped through the Gate, Makepeace at her side. Teal’c had already descended the steps before them onto the familiar planet.
“No one here to meet us then?” Makepeace remarked.
“I wouldn’t say that sir, we have no way of knowing if we’re being watched or not. They could be standing right next to you and you’d never know it!” Carter told him.
Lya’s appearance simply underlined that statement, if punctuating it with a shocked gasp of surprise from Carter.
“Lya,” Sam exclaimed, exhaling loudly.
“Hello friends, for what purpose have you returned?” she enquired, a simple nod of her head acting as a greeting and acknowledgement of Carter’s presence.
“We’re hoping you can help us,” Sam told her honestly. “Is it possible to go to your… er…”
“Follow me,” Lya urged, moving away from the Gate.
Teal’c half smiled. The Nox were never a people who needed to express themselves with words, and the quizzical expression on Colonel Makepeace’s face amused him.
“Where are we going exactly, Major?” Makepeace enquired, as he followed, lengthening his stride to catch up to Carter, who had followed the Nox without hesitation.
”Well, if I’m right, sir, to the small village we were taken when Apophis killed us,” she told him.
“Fond memories are they?” Makepeace asked, with a degree of incredulity masking those ragged features.
“Oh yeah,” Sam retorted. “I could relive them again and again!”
Makepeace looked around at
the
“I believe you mean her humour is improving, Colonel Makepeace?” Teal’c offered, a sideways glance at the marine.
“No, I definitely meant worse!” the colonel replied.
“Indeed!” Teal’c said.
Makepeace shook his head, exhaling long and loud. Both were often a mystery to his thought process, but in the absence of their CO, and getting to work so closely for so long with the flagship team, he was learning how to appreciate their particular brand of comradeship.
*****
‘We are here within, even in the darkest place we shall find you.’ The Sengo’lians spoke softly into the mind of the still unconscious archaeologist.
‘Where am I?’ Daniel asked. He was unaware of anything except the darkness that surrounded him, and an intense feeling of cold.
‘You are everywhere, as are we.’ Their voices seemed to blend into an almost poetic and sweet sound in his ears.
‘Okay, that’s a little too cryptic. What do you want?’
‘We ask for your help, only with this may we prevent a disaster. One which we regret we have seen before.’
‘You’re the
catalyst aren’t you?’
There was a silence then, Daniel could almost feel himself moving around, looking out into that darkness in an attempt to locate them. ‘Why?’
‘Why do we ask for you help?’
‘Um, no, why do you keep repeating your mistakes? Don’t you learn from them?’
‘It is a valid question, one we can only answer by first understanding the minds of those we are within.’
‘Oh so what you
keep on doing the same thing over and over again, regardless of the consequences,
until you get it right?’
‘This is not what we do. We simply exist, as do all beings within the universe, and eventually we, like all things, will end.’
‘Listen, whilst I’d really love to know what the hell you’re talking about. We, you… created a problem that could expedite that destruction a lot more proficiently than even you realise!’ he told them. ‘So, the question is, how do we stop Jack?’
‘We had thought it would be as simple as turning your mind to ours, but we had not accounted for his ability to hone our own telepathy so thoroughly, we must rethink and learn.’ The voices were now beginning to become fragmented, lost in a sea of sound that made no sense at all.
‘Okay, can whoever else is talking in here shut up?’ Daniel snapped. ‘It’s too chaotic with everyone talking at once. Let’s just focus on the problem and see if we can find something that might help.’
‘All that will help now is an end.’
‘Excuse me? A what?’
‘Consciousness as it exists must end, the Ha’dai will attempt the destruction of such consciousness, and with this destruction chaos will once again reign within us.’
‘By chaos do you
mean you’ll all have individual thought?’
‘Such chaos was, is a means with which to dissipate our society. We cannot allow this to happen.’
Daniel groaned, without really emitting a sound. ‘Where have I heard this before?’ he asked.
*****
Hailey sat on the floor
next to
She’d considered attempting once more to confront him, yet found herself fearful of his attitude and that rank. Her discussions about O’Neill with Carter had made him sound something of a legend, although the major had gone to great pains to dispel any form of hero-worship that the tales of his deeds might have alluded to. He was a soldier, pure and simple, and not one to tolerate scientists gladly, which, given his current state of mind, simply added to the intimidation factor.
Trying to draw on that
scientific mind to find a solution, one
Suddenly that all powerful
IQ meant very little, the prospects were less than encouraging; whatever she
did, she would have to do alone, unless she could find a way to revive
“What are you looking for an answer to my dear?” Nyerti asked.
Hailey looked up sharply, her attention so completely on the problem she hadn’t heard the Goa’uld enter the room. She got to her feet quickly. “Not something you would want to help with!” she replied.
“Freeing O’Neill?” Nyerti enquired, sneering at the cadet. “You are far too young to understand the complexities of such a task.”
Hailey continued to watch her, unsure of how to respond. This was a formidable creature, thousands of years old and with a nefarious intent she could only wonder at.
“Lost your
tongue?” Nyerti chided, looking down at
“No ma’am,” Hailey responded finally. “I’m just wondering I guess.”
Nyerti looked intrigued. “Wondering what exactly?” she asked.
“Why you’re here?” Hailey told her. “What you want from me?”
“From you I want nothing,” the Goa’uld snarled. “It is Dr. Jackson I came to see… still unconscious?”
“Yes,” Hailey replied, beginning to relax slightly. The Goa’uld had no visible weapon to speak of, nothing that she could see that might prove harmful.
“I am curious,” she asked. “Why would O’Neill have interest in bringing a child aboard his vessel? A child with advancement on your world, but merely an infant in the ways of the galaxy.”
Hailey stared at her contemptuously, yet almost with a sense of reverence. The woman that stood before her knew so much of the universe that she was only seeing for the second time. “And what if I wanted to learn?” she asked, suddenly detached from her fear by her curiosity.
Nyerti’s dark eyes smiled, a glint forming from the supposition and daring of a human child keen suddenly to seek her wisdom.
“And what if I were willing to teach you?” she offered. “Would that be a true request, or do you merely believe that with the knowledge I possess you could free him?”
“Colonel O’Neill?” Hailey asked. “If that’s whom you’re referring to, then I know that’s impossible.”
“Then,” Nyerti responded. “I would be interested to hear why?”
Hailey looked a little apprehensive now, she didn’t possess that knowledge, merely her theories, theories that if she’d known better she would have kept to herself.
“You had to learn at some point?” Hailey ventured, lowering her eyes momentarily as she gathered her thoughts. “Well, I want to learn too, but I don’t have thousands of years to do it.”
Nyerti seemed pacified with this answer; she walked across to Hailey, holding out her hands. “Then come, and I will teach you, perhaps even afford you the opportunity to have such a life.”
Hailey accepted the gesture, taking the hands of the Goa’uld. Looking into those confident yet deceitful brown eyes she felt a sense of betrayal sweep over her. It had been both curiosity and cunning that had convinced her to appear complicit, if only to ascertain exactly how she might find a way out of a situation that seemed otherwise hopeless.
“There is much you can learn from me,” Nyerti asserted, as she led the cadet from the room.
******
Lya sat across from the three members of the SGC in the small village both Carter and Teal’c recognised instantly.
“If what you say is true, then Colonel O’Neill may be lost to you forever,” she said, her regard almost apologetic. “You are sure?”
“But we believe that the Nox found away to prevent them from completely infecting the Ancients, and somehow managed to imprison them on that planet long enough for the Ancients to build a device that prevented them from influencing escape,” Carter responded. “Lya, we’re not asking you to harm them, just buy us some time to free the Colonel of their influence.”
“What you ask is impossible,” Lya stated.
“Why?” Makepeace snapped. “You did it before?”
“Yes Colonel Makepeace, we did. You are correct, however to do so again might ultimately cause irreparable damage to the Sengo’lians.” Lya’s hands were raised in front of her, she interlaced her fingers together and she closed her eyes.
Carter watched her, fascinated, yet strangely fearful of the reply. She had no idea what the Nox woman was doing, but it seemed to be a way of communication. Perhaps their minds were as strong as the Sengo’lians; their philosophies however were quite different.
She looked at Makepeace who appeared slightly bewildered, shrugging as if to indicate that she had no better idea of what Lya was doing than he.
“We shall contact Colonel O’Neill,” Lya said, almost the second that shrug had come. “We will advise you of our decision once this has been done. Please return to your planet and await us.”
Carter stood, offering the Nox woman a smile. “Thank you Lya,” she said, accepting the decision without need for question or further making their case. “We appreciate your help with this.”
Lya lowered her head, acknowledging Carter’s gracious response, and disappeared instantly from view.
“Is that it?” Makepeace enquired sceptically. “We just sit around and wait until they decide whether or not to help us?”
“It is the Nox way, Colonel Makepeace,” Teal’c reflected, memories of their previous visit flashing through his mind.
“Swell!” Makepeace retorted. “Which way back to the gate?”
*****
O’Neill checked over the ship’s systems, memorising each function quickly, he reset the sensors to detect frequency modulated fields created by cloaking devices. The scans of deep space indicating no ships in the immediate area, he moved across to the weapons and tactical displays.
This vessel, unlike the last one, was created for defence, its memory banks contained information on several thousand planets and galaxies spanning the universe, with detailed information on the life forms and threats encountered. What O’Neill found most interesting was the reference to Earth, a planet where many civilisations, unrecorded, had sprung up and departed into space as they had found the technologies to do so, then the first and second meteor strikes that caused a cataclysmic event, destroying those more advanced cultures, and leaving in its wake a barren scorched planet.
But there was something else within the database too, a reference to the Ancients themselves, although he searched for further mention of this reference, he could find nothing.
‘Daniel!’ Jack’s thoughts easily lifted the neuron inhibitors he’d used to keep the man unconscious.
He didn’t need a response; the archaeologist would come as soon as his senses had returned fully.
Without needing to try too hard, the colonel had found most of the keys to those doors the Sengo’lians had tried to shut firmly. Attempting to hide their secrets had been futile; the instant he turned his thoughts to probe their knowledge he had unlocked the vast network of that consciousness in seconds. Now, the understanding began to precipitate his abilities to substantially enhance his powers of mind control, even objects could be moved quickly and efficiently, just as if he lifted them with his hands and placed them, they obeyed the will and force that his mind, using the Sengo’lians, and ultimately Jackson’s link with them, afforded him. Such an intense concentration of power did they provide, that slowly his mind became the conduit to access the systems within the ship, absorbing the knowledge and calculating the most essential and destructive elements that he could harness.
“Jack?”
O’Neill turned to see
“Well that’s
good,”
“Oh yeah, this thing is awesome, this whole… it’s vast! There’s nothing I can’t see, or do, oh and this stuff?” He moved across to a console and without touching it, brought up a viewer that began to extrapolate the information he believed would completely fascinate the archaeologist. “They’ve got an incredible amount of stuff in here dating back way before…”
“Um, that’s really fascinating Jack,” Daniel responded, without the perceived interest the colonel had depended on him showing. “But, er, isn’t this getting a little out of hand, too much information?”
O’Neill stared at him. “Look!” he snapped. “We can take out the Goa’uld, the Asgard, hell we can even lose the damn Sengo’lians if we want to! This stuff is limitless!”
“For what?” Daniel asked. “I mean isn’t it a little futile to just wipe out the entire populations of other sentient species?”
“Nope! It’s a good thing, kinda gives us everything we’ve ever wanted, you can study this stuff and know everything there is to know about the universe… hell, Earth’s history is documented on here from…” he paused, looking at the archaeologist with dismay. “You’re not buying this are you?” he asked.
“No, I’m really
not,”
O’Neill’s expression became one of confusion, his eyes narrowing. “Does it matter why?” he asked, and there was almost a sense of bewilderment reflected in that question. “The point is, we can do whatever we want and to hell with the consequences, right? We own this place!”
“You’re so not getting this!” O’Neill remonstrated, looking slightly jaded now, clearly perplexed that Daniel wasn’t falling into line with his big plan. “Just… go back to your pesky little existence and die, or whatever it is you wanna do!” His eyes began to change once more, the black washing over the white, and becoming that deep empty lifeless abyss. “You don’t matter!” he intoned bitterly. “Nothing matters.”
“Well that’s just… it’s bullshit!” Daniel snapped assertively. “Everything matters, God!” he exclaimed loudly. “Why do you think they did this Jack? They’re using you to get rid of everything within them, they don’t even know they’re doing it. Don’t you see that?”
O’Neill waved him off, turning away from him and placing his hands on the console. He didn’t want to hear it, because he couldn’t compute the information. Everything that had been Jack O’Neill, that was recognisable even to the colonel himself, was buried far too deeply beneath his own hatred and that of Sengo’lians. Hatred they believed expunged had simply been locked away and unleashed into the worst possible place, a mind that already contained vengeance and darkness, amplified now, and channelled unwittingly into someone that contained knowledge of how to use it.
The Sengo’lians were helpless, even with, as they had asserted,
“Where’s Nyerti?” Daniel asked, suddenly realising that neither she, nor cadet Hailey were there.
“She’s teaching her new pupil the basics in Naqadah technology, I guess,” Jack replied. He stood, his back still turned on the archaeologist, setting the coordinates for his next target. “So, you, er, want me to take you back to Earth?” he enquired, turning slowly and regarding the archaeologist with a grimace. “’Cause, I can do that right now!”
Daniel considered it. He couldn’t be useful here, perhaps he could be back on Earth, and maybe Sam had come up with something, maybe the information that he had might help? “And you’d do that?” he asked. “Take me back without an argument?”
“Oh yeah, come on Danny, think I’d do anything to hurt you?” Jack’s eyes returned to normal the instant his voice and disposition changed. “I’m not gonna keep you here if this isn’t where you wanna be.”
O’Neill’s left hand snatched at the air. “Oh dang!” he quipped. “You see right through me, don’t ya?” The amusement that settled onto his face was quickly replaced by one of resolute abhorrence, he moved toward the man. “With or without you, Earth’s going down!” he said, his voice almost a whisper.
“Wipe out everything you care about?” Daniel asked. “Sara? Sam? Iceni?”
The colonel stopped in his tracks. “Iceni?” he repeated. There was a vague sense of recognition.
“Your daughter,” Daniel said. “The one you had with Hathor?”
“Oh, that Iceni,” Jack acknowledged, dismissing it instantly with another sweeping gesture from his left hand. “Well she’s better off that way, you know?”
“Dead? Sure, just like Charlie, better off dead.” Daniel moved across to the colonel now. “Is that what will make everything go away, Jack? Kill everything and that’s it? No more concerns, no more conscience. I mean it has to work like that, right?” he charged. “Everything you ever cared about or loved dies, and then you can feed off that self loathing forever? That’s it isn’t it, I’m right!”
“Is there a point to all this incessant moral crap?” O’Neill enquired, a bored sigh escaping his lips to underline just how much he didn’t care.
“I don’t know, you tell me, sure let’s got to Earth and blow it up!” Daniel snapped. “Take out the Asgard, kill all the Goa’ulds, throw in the Tollan and the Tok’ra, anyone else? I mean there has to be a couple of races we can annihilate whilst we’re at it?” The frustration was becoming almost unmanageable, he was completely lost and unable to find a solution, nothing he said mattered, no taunts, no insults, there wasn’t a way through the wall that the Sengo’lians had unwittingly erected. “What’s left to rule then? To control?”
“Patience, Daniel,” the colonel retorted, a wry smile forming on his face.
O’Neill watched him walk from the control room, shrugging his shoulders. “Some people just don’t possess patience!” he remarked glibly.
*****
Heru’ur’s ship scanned the surface of the planet. “We are not detecting life signs my lord,” Nefir pointed out.
The Goa’uld turned and regarded Thoth, whose strong green eyes merely smiled back patiently. “Reconfigure the resonance to detect movement,” he advised.
Nefir looked to his master before complying with the instructions.
“This creature possesses no life?” Heru’ur enquired, slightly shaken at such a notion.
“You have heard of what human’s call vampire? A creature of the dead that sucks life from the living?” Thoth replied, knowing well that Heru’ur had heard the legends, but never understood them.
“This creature is nourished on the blood of the living?” It was an observation that needed no answer. “Then this is why we are in danger, since he will drain the life’s blood of our hosts, and thus without life within the body we will perish!” A supercilious smile crossed the features of the system lord. “Perhaps this is a creature we should introduce to its origins.”
“Such a creature, when left on a planet containing life, will eventually, slowly, over a thousand or more years, reduce it to death,” Thoth told his master. “The planet we are orbiting once teemed with life, now there is only Aiestrodous and those creatures he created to guard his existence.”
“Intriguing, how does he survive without life?” Heru’ur enquired.
“The species he created provides that which he needs, and feeds solely on micro organisms within the atmosphere. Much like those vast creatures we studied on Earth, they filter the nutrients and survive. They have been bred over many thousands of years to exist solely to provide the nourishment for their creator.”
“Then we shall have a creature in our possession capable of destroying hosts?” Heru’ur asked, his mind already beginning to weigh up the possibilities of using such a creature against other Goa’uld.
“Of this I am certain, my lord, and that he has already experienced the life blood of a human,” Thoth told him. “Had I not known, or realised his power, I should not have been able to so thoroughly interrogate him!”
“O’Neill?” Heru’ur surmised, a smirk crossing his features.
“Yes my lord,” Thoth replied. “He can match O’Neill, not for power, but for speed and guile. This creature pre-dates the Goa’uld rise to dominance and even the Asgard were in their infancy when he roamed Earth!”
“Find it, and bring it to me!” Heru’ur snarled impatiently. “I have need for such a beast!”
*****
Jack sat up on the console, closing down the ship’s systems one by one, until only life support, which had no means of shut down, remained, that and the lighting.
He wasn’t sure anymore whether to bother with Earth, or to simply annihilate the more advanced races within the galaxy first; pondering the thought of taking out the Goa’uld from a distance, didn’t feed the pleasure he seemed to thrive upon of the sheer terror he could cause this race.
From her planet, Lya interrupted the colonel’s thought patterns, placing the perception of her presence in his mind.
She appeared before him, causing him to double take. “Well, well, if it isn’t the Nox, how’s it going?” he asked.
“We are fine, Colonel, although you appear not to be,” she replied.
“I’m just having a little moment of indecision here, I was getting around to coming to see you!” he remarked.
“We are aware, but you are not, at least your conscious state is not,” Lya told him.
“Oh you do-gooders,” Jack complained, jumping down from the console. “Suppose you’re here to back up old Doc Jackson?”
“We are here to help you,” Lya said. “Your mind isn’t capable of dealing with the thoughts of so many, as such it has shut down, and all that remains are the things that are most dark within it.”
“Yeah, that’s real nice, but I kinda like those things,” he responded. “So I guess we’ll be doing the whole struggle thing right?”
“No, Colonel, we are not here to fight you,” Lya replied. “We are here to warn you of the danger, and to invite you to our planet in order that we may once again restore you to your true self.”
“Sorry, much as I’d love to spend a little time with you, not interested.” He moved toward her, finding it impossible to come within touching distance.
“Okay, that’s impressive!” he noted.
“Colonel, I had hoped that you would be able to aid us in this, I see you are helpless, very well then.” She closed her eyes, her hands placed together before her.
Her thoughts overwhelmed and controlled his mind, conducting him to take the ship to a neutral planet and land it. Without question he did so, using the gate to arrive at the Nox planet. She released his thoughts the second he had been moved to the village he’d visited many years previously.
“Whoa!” he exclaimed. “How did you do that?” No memory of his actions under her control remained.
“It is not difficult, Colonel,” Lya told him.
“Sweet, now wanna take me back?” he remarked. “This place is kinda… wet!”
He looked up in dismay at the skies above as the heavens opened and rain began to fall heavily. “Great! Just… for crying out loud, is it ever dry here?”
Lya smiled. “Already I begin to see you,” she told him.
“I’m just loving seeing you,” the colonel replied, a grimace sweeping his face.
******
“Basically, sir, they’re thinking about helping,” she told him.
“But nothing yet?” he enquired, a glance across to Makepeace.
“Nothing so far, sir,” the marine responded.
“So exactly what are
we looking at here?”
“I’m not sure, sir, if what Cadet Hailey theorised is true, then there’s probably a very good case of getting Colonel O’Neill back, with the help of the Nox,” she told him.
“And without their
help?”
“O’Neill, with the influence of the Sengo’lians and the power to control Ancients technology, will probably wage war on just about anyone!” Makepeace told them.
Major Davis’s arrival into the briefing raised a few eyebrows. “Sir, I thought I should report right away,” he explained. “The link with Colonel O’Neill, it’s gone, sir. I, it’s really odd, but one minute I could hear the voices in my head, and the next?” he looked bewildered
“You’ll forgive
me, Major, if I remain cynical as to that news!”
“Is it possible that the Nox would simply act without telling us?” Makepeace asked.
Carter puffed her cheeks out, exhaling. “I guess it is, I mean they’re very secretive and protective of their race?” she replied. “And if…” she added, a tentative glance toward Major Davis, “what Paul says is true, then maybe they acted already?”
“Unauthorised incoming traveller!” Lieutenant Simmons voice boomed over the tannoy.
“Lieutenant?”
“Receiving, IDC sir,” Simmons responded. “It’s… SG2?”
Carter raised her eyebrows, looking at Teal’c who kept his gaze firmly on the Iris.
“Open the
Iris,”
The Iris opened;
”General, we’ll need TERs, I’m not sure if Nyerti followed us?” he called out.
“Major!” he instructed.
Hailey looked at
“Oh I’m pretty sure she’d do anything to destroy this place,” Daniel replied.
Carter and Teal’c
were already making their way from the control room. “Stand by Dr. Jackson
we’ll have them momentarily,”
“Thank you!” Daniel acknowledged. “And, standing by!”
Carter and Teal’c
swept the embarkation room. With no signs of Nyerti the security team was stood
down.
*****
“Janet, I really am fine,” Daniel insisted, as he watched her drawing blood from his arm.
“Well you can never be too sure, Dr. Jackson!” Janet responded. She hadn’t been able to look the man in the eyes at all; she seemed completely ill at ease around him, not her usual confident self.
“Is something wrong?” Daniel enquired, when that lack of personable charm he’d become so accustomed to failed to materialise. “I mean is it just me, or is there a problem?”
Janet finally looked him in the eyes. “You… I really don’t think this is the time to discuss this, Dr. Jackson,” she said, turning away once more.
Daniel slipped off of the gurney, his hand gently grasping her arm. “It’s because of what happened between you and Jack isn’t it?” he asked softly. “You’re, what, embarrassed?”
Janet looked into his eyes finally. “Embarrassed?” she repeated. “No, Daniel, I’m not embarrassed, I’m livid!”
“Oh,”
“Don’t say it wasn’t his fault, please, just don’t say that!” she insisted.
Daniel looked around, some of the medical staff and technicians were trying to be discreet, yet with the doctor being so loud and forthright it seemed a little implausible. “Why, er, don’t we go to your office?” he suggested. “Because I really wasn’t going to defend Jack. But I can see you really do need to talk about this, and even if I’m not the right person, I’d like to help?”
Janet’s face softened. “I know you would Daniel,” she replied, shaking her head as she spoke. “But it really isn’t you I have a problem with, and as far as I can tell you had no way of stopping him from…”
“I know,” Daniel saved her the embarrassment of voicing it aloud. “But if you need to talk about it?” he offered once more.
“Thank you.”
*****
Jack sat in the half lit hut, he remembered it vaguely, having woken up in there from being dead, it had left an impression of sorts on him.
Lya sat opposite him. “Your will is to be within darkness, Colonel?” she questioned.
“You betcha!” Jack replied, he’d taken absolutely nothing she’d said to heart, and seemed intent on being as flip and awkward as he could possibly be.
“Yet you tried to save us from the Goa’uld, and put your own life in danger. As well as this you subsequently saved the Tollan from others of your race that wished to make them slaves?” Lya ventured. “Does that not appear odd to you?”
“Nope, that was a moment of weakness!” the colonel repudiated. “Besides, that was a lifetime ago!”
“Then perhaps you would mind explaining to me, if you can, why you have since risked your life for others? Others that now bring this great shame upon you.” Lya maintained eye contact with him the whole time she spoke; her voice remained even, with very little enunciation used.
Jack regarded her with a degree of impatience now, he was becoming frustrated with the monotony of the conversation, and why she would want to spend so much of her time in such a menial way, after all, he wasn’t about to suddenly decide he’d been completely wrong and swing back to that being nice mentality!
“You know, is there a point to this?” he enquired, leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “Because it’s getting kinda old, you telling me what a great guy I am, I already know!”
“Your sarcasm and dismissive behaviour will only serve to lengthen this, Colonel,” Lya advised. “But since you did mention your benevolence perhaps you would like to clarify how a man of these qualities can change so much?”
“Okay, firstly, I’m not benevolent, never have been! Secondly, I haven’t changed, I’ve just wised up. What’s the damn point in running around the universe playing nice, when I can just wipe it all out in the blink of an eye and have done with it?” he demanded. “You answer me that?”
“Do other races, other cultures and species have no right to life, Colonel?” Lya queried.
O’Neill exhaled loudly, throwing his hands up in dismay. “I’m SO not going there!” he retorted.
“Why, Colonel? Do you not have an answer?” she persisted. “Since you believe you have the right to arbitrarily exterminate, do you have no reason to justify this action?”
Jack’s features contorted as he considered the question. “Nope! Don’t need one,” he remarked at length, looking away from her invasive gaze.
“Very well,” she answered, standing. A P-90 appeared at the man’s feet; the colonel looking slightly surprised, a grimace crossed his features.
“And this is?” he enquired.
“Since you believe that the Nox are all that stand before you and domination of the galaxy, here is your weapon,” Lya told him. “I am unarmed.”
Jack looked down at the weapon, then back to the woman. “Okay, that’s not real,” he stated, pointing down at the P-90. “Playing games with my head isn’t gonna get me to change my mind you know?”
“You will find it is very real, Colonel, or perhaps you require something a little more personal,” she enquired. “Such as…”
The knife that appeared beside the P-90 was the same one he always carried on away missions. He leant down and picked it up. “So you’re trying to check on my benevolence level here right?” he noted, checking the blade and the grip of the handle. “Sweet!” he added, rising from the crib. He moved across to her. “You wanna see how we do this in Special Forces?” he enquired.
The instant he brought the knife across her throat she disappeared. Jack chuckled to himself. “That bad ass enough for ya?” he yelled, at the top of his lungs.
*****
He’d found Hailey beside him, but no sign of Nyerti; knowing she couldn’t possibly operate the ships systems, although he couldn’t remember quite how he knew that, the thought that she had somehow made it back through the Stargate with them still weighed heavily on his mind. TER sweep or not, he had an eerie feeling he hadn’t seen the last of her.
It was curious to be alone in his mind, not to have sarcastic comment or conversations with O’Neill, even the Sengo’lians were quiet now, and that felt strangely empty to him.
He heard voices outside, the door opened almost immediately revealing Carter and Teal’c.
“Hi,” he greeted, if somewhat dubiously.
“Daniel Jackson, it is good to see you are well,” Teal’c acknowledged.
“We’ve come to debrief you,” Sam told him, a look of reticence crossing her face.
“So I’m in here until we convince General Hammond that I’m Jack free?” Daniel ventured.
“Pretty much,” Sam replied, sitting on one of the two chairs opposite. Teal’c elected to remain standing.
“Okay, I can understand that,” he said. “What exactly is that going to take, or is that a dumb question?”
“Okay, let's just start with what happened after you left the base to go to the planet with the rescue team?” Sam questioned, her tone business like. “Why you prevented Teal’c and Colonel Makepeace from joining that mission, and what happened when you got there.”
Daniel’s hands swept across his face into his hand and came to rest at the back of his head. “Well, I was basically stopping them from being captured,” he began.
“Being
captured?” Sam probed. She looked up at Teal’c. The
“Yes, see I knew, or at least being under the influence of the, er, of Jack I guess, that anyone that went to the planet that wasn’t on his side was going to be turned over to the Goa’uld,” Daniel explained, He winced slightly, it certainly didn’t sound any better when he said it aloud.
“Turned over to the Goa’uld?” Sam exclaimed. She looked both horrified and disgusted with that statement.
“Jack was, is…
I’m not sure anymore,” he responded. “But then, at that time
he was working with Osiris, he basically had the whole place crawling with
“Sounding worse all the time isn’t it?” Sam remarked cynically. “Go on.”
“Well, they were captured and Jack basically decided to come back to Earth and go after Ptah, and the NID,” Daniel continued. “Only he, er, well it’s a little bit unclear what he was going to do actually, I mean he could have killed those cops?”
“Why isn’t this making any sense?” Sam asked dubiously.
Daniel looked perplexed,
his hands dropping to his sides. “I’m not a very good story teller
am I?” he replied. “Look, whatever Jack’s done, it
wasn’t him I mean, it was him, but it, er, wasn’t.” He glanced up at Teal’c; the
“It does not look good, Daniel Jackson,” he replied without needing to be asked.
“No it doesn’t,” Daniel agreed. “But you had to be in this to understand what’s happened to Jack.”
“Did raping Dr. Fraiser come as part of that package?” Sam enquired bitterly, her eyes cold and unforgiving.
“He didn’t exactly rape anyone, and I’m not discussing that.” Daniel remarked.
“He didn’t?” Sam snarled. “Oh, I forgot, he’s your best friend.” There was something very sinister in that inference. “Subjugating Janet’s mind doesn’t count, does it?”
“Care to try and explain that?” Sam persisted, her tone and her body language still hostile, overtly so.
“No actually,” Daniel retorted. “I don’t care to explain anything else. I’ll, er, take the fifth! Jack can fight his own battles.”
“Okay,” Sam said dismissively. “Then I guess we’ll see you later.”
Daniel lowered his eyes taking a deep breath. “Sam, it’s not his fault,” he said, and instantly wished he hadn’t. He’d promised himself he wasn’t going to do the crusading thing again, but, just like Jack had told him, he was predictable.
“No, Daniel, it never is!” Sam replied scathingly.
Carter ignored him, walking out of the door without a backward glance. Teal’c turned and regarded him.
“I believe this is a concern to be addressed also, Daniel Jackson,” he stated. “However, O’Neill is far more important to Major Carter than a Goa’uld!”
Daniel nodded, his eyes
searching the
The
*****
Jacob sat in
“We have been alerted to a meeting between the system lords following the destruction of Nefertum and his fleet,” Selmak explained.
“O’Neill?”
“We believe so,” Selmak responded. “However, we also believe that Heru’ur is now looking for a showdown with the Asgard, hoping no doubt that Hathor can pull Colonel O’Neill onto their side.”
“Is that
likely?”
“Yes, news reached us that the Goa’uld Osiris has now surfaced and she had prisoners our operatives overheard her saying were a gift from O’Neill,” Selmak replied. “It is likely that if these Sengo’lians are responsible for turning the Colonel, that he would indeed align himself to a race as malevolent as the Goa’uld!”
George Hammond exhaled long and hard. “So the team sent to retrieve him weren’t destroyed?” he asked.
“No!”
“I’ve declared
O’Neill as MIA for the time being,”
“Then you believe the Nox will assist in freeing him of the influence he has fallen under?” Selmak enquired, the face of his host looking sceptical.
“Major Carter
believes that if they have elected to help, that they are the ones responsible
for stopping the Sengo’lian in the first place,”
Jacob lowered his head, silencing Selmak. “Sam’s right, George,” he said. “We’ve been doing a little homework of our own. From what we’ve learned Colonel O’Neill went dark side. He destroyed that planet and turned your people over to the Goa’uld, as well as furnishing Osiris with the knowledge that the Asgard are having a little Replicator problem. But, the Nox have conveyed to us that they currently have the Colonel, and are doing their utmost to rid him of the malevolence accidentally forced upon him by the Sengo’lians.”
“Accidentally?”
“Yes,” Jacob responded. “These Sengo’lians aren’t dangerous per se, they’re just a little too curious to have that much mind control. Apparently from what we’ve been told they stumbled across the things in Jack’s past he’s buried, the death of his child, his marriage break up, his whole dark past in black ops, and they felt they could help free him of the guilt and shame locked in there if they made him face it.”
“That’s all it
is?”
“Well, they also managed to offload their own problems in there somewhere too,” Jacob clarified, shaking his head. “So it’s a little amplified.”
The general shook his head. “How do we get him back?” he asked. “Or do we?”
“The Nox are a pretty persuasive race, they said it might take some time and a lot of soul searching, but they are almost positive that they can retrieve the situation, and here’s the best part, remove the Sengo’lians from the Colonel’s mind entirely.”
“That would come as
something of a relief,”
“No idea,” Jacob replied honestly. “It probably depends on how much he wants out!”
“In the meantime, is
this possible attack on the Asgard likely to have repercussions?”
“Hard to say,” Jacob confessed, a rueful expression crossing his features. “That the Goa’uld now know the Asgard have the Replicator problem could be a factor, even so we’re hoping that they still see that as too big a risk!”
“Let’s hope
so,”
*****
Aiestrodous stood behind the force shield, his piercing red eyes staring at his Goa’uld captors.
”Why have you brought me to this place?” he enquired, his voice low, the words drenched in scorn.
Thoth approached him, dubiously unsure whether the creature’s powers would extend through that shield. “We have need of your help,” he told him.
“A Goa’uld, asking for help?” Aiestrodous replied, sarcasm lacing his tone.
“Without us, you would be left on that planet. Eventually your nourishment would perish and you in turn would die,” Thoth declared. “We offer you an unlimited source of food in return for several deeds.”
Aiestrodous regarded the face of the host, seeing fear in those eyes, smelling it easily. “You are not a Goa’uld,” he said, his voice ever lower. “You are of the Tok’ra, would that I turn you in to those you deceive?”
“And why would a being that hates the Goa’uld as much as I, do such a thing?” Thoth enquired, a smile caressing his face now.
“Freedom,” Aiestrodous replied. “A freedom I could buy with your treachery.”
“Then do it,” Thoth replied. “See the Goa’uld become more powerful, and since they fear you, you would be the first they destroyed.”
The vampire bowed his head. “Touché!”
Somewhat relieved, Thoth moved even closer to the shield. “My master desires conquest over the one you know as O’Neill, a human whom you almost captured.”
“How do you know of this?” Aiestrodous enquired.
“The Tau’ri, from whence he hails, are allies of the Tok’ra, we share information, this knowledge was gifted to me.”
“You would destroy an ally?” Aiestrodous noted, somewhat apprehensively.
Thoth shook his head. “No, never! But O’Neill is no longer considered an ally, he has been turned by the beings with a power so great he has the capacity to destroy with his mind, possessing as he does the knowledge of the Ancients, and therefore having the ability to find and utilise their weapons, he has become a bigger threat than the Goa’uld themselves!
“Omnipotent?” Aiestrodous demanded, his eyes widening, the fire like glow that resonated in his pupils turning blood red.
Thoth lowered his eyes, fearful of the power he saw. “To a degree you could never imagine,” he confirmed.
“And you wish me to destroy him?” the vampire questioned.
“I do!” Thoth confirmed.
******
O’Neill was making his way back toward the Stargate when Lya appeared before him on one of the well-trodden paths.
“Leaving us so soon, Colonel?” she enquired, her petite frame appearing even more waif like as O’Neill, who now sported both the P-90 and the knife she’d given him, drew closer.
“Well, you know, your
entertainment sucks, hate the weather.
Next time I do a vacation, I’m thinking of visiting
“The Stargate is gone,” Lya told him. “There is no way off of this planet.”
“You hid it, I can find it,” he replied his expression becoming jaded. “So if you don’t mind?”
“Very well, Colonel, please continue,” Lya offered. She moved aside and allowed him to walk on, following him.
After several paces he stopped. “Okay, why are you following me?” he enquired, anger resonating in his tone. “Because you know you’re getting on my nerves right there?”
“I merely wish to keep you company,” Lya replied, the sweet innocence on her face causing the colonel to grimace once more.
“Well, I don’t want your company!” he snapped petulantly. “So go away!”
He walked on once more, only to find her several paces behind him when he glanced back. “Do you understand the concept of annoying?” he enquired.
“The Nox understand much Colonel,” she responded. “Perhaps you would consider this less annoying if you simply heeded that the gate is no longer there?”
O’Neill turned fully now to regard her, a heavy sigh pursing his lips. “Swell, the gate’s not there, so consider this a hike!” he retorted glibly, waving his left hand across his body dismissively and then pointing at the woman. “And you’re not invited!”
Anteaus watched, shielded from the colonel by the shroud of invisibility.
“This will take a long time,” he told Opher, the oldest and the wisest of the Nox.
“Yes! But Lya will lead him back to his soul,” he replied.
******
Daniel looked slightly bemused as he was led into the briefing room. At the table sat Jacob Carter, General Hammond, Major Paul Davis and Colonel Makepeace.
“Come in Dr. Jackson
and take a seat,”
There was none of the previous attitude, the man seemed genuinely pleased to see him, or at least that was the impression he was giving. Daniel did as ordered, looking curiously from one to the other.
“Daniel, the Tok’ra believe that the Goa’uld may be planning an assault on the Asgard,” Jacob began, once the archaeologist had settled. “Now, if that happens, and with the Asgard compromised by these bugs, there’s a good chance they’ll be destroyed.”
“I, er, I guess,” Daniel agreed, unsure of why such information was being shared. “And so?” he encouraged.
“Are you still in contact with Colonel O’Neill?” Jacob asked. “Because if you are we’d like to throw a little red herring his way and have him prevent such an assault.”
“No, actually I’m… not,” Daniel replied slowly. He got the feeling he was being tested.
“Dr. Jackson, you’re sure?” Jacob probed. “If we had any way of communicating what we’ve learned to the Asgard we’d do so, other than that the best thing we can do is get Colonel O’Neill to launch an assault on the Goa’uld and…”
“Look!” Daniel said, his right hand brought up to his face, pushing those ever-encroaching glasses back against his face. “I realise what you’re trying to do here, Sam did the bad cop, and you’re doing the good cop. But it really isn’t necessary… would I have told Sam what really happened on that planet if I was still under Jack’s influence? Ask Cadet Hailey, she saw me arguing with him?” he offered, frustration creasing his eyes as he grimaced at the unconvinced faces before him. “It’s quiet in here, too quiet!” he added.
“Sir, he’s
right,”
“Okay,” Jacob said. “Since we know Colonel O’Neill is with the Nox, and they pretty much believed that they had managed to sever the links, I guess we’ll have to trust that it’s happened.”
“Well it’s nice to know I’m trusted!” Daniel remarked bitterly, holding his hand up immediately in apology. “Sorry, that was uncalled for.”
Jacob nodded. “The last communication we got from our spies aboard Heru’ur’s ship indicated as much!”
“Well that’s not good,” Daniel remarked.
“No it isn’t,” Jacob replied. “Apparently, according to our sources Heru’ur has some very ambitious plans. But then so does Hathor, who is now aided by Osiris and Nyerti!”
“Oh yes, speaking of Nyerti actually,” Daniel cut in, another shove at his glasses. “According to Cadet Hailey, it seems that she’s looking for a little cooperation, I don’t think she likes being demoted, so maybe she might be willing to help if the deal includes restoring her to power?”
“Dr. Jackson,” Selmak spoke. “I do not need to tell you how nefarious most Goa’uld are. With Nyerti, this applies doubly so. She is one of the most devious and dangerous of all Goa’uld. She doesn’t have the same fear of the Asgard we’d usually associate with the Goa’uld, since she is the only Goa’uld ever to actually capture and torture to death a solitary Asgard! Her cloaking device was apparently designed during that time!”
“Oh!” Daniel gasped. “Sorry, I was just thinking out loud, I mean if we can encourage Nyerti to create a little chaos amongst her own?”
“Actually, that’s not a bad strategy!” Makepeace chipped in.
“Colonel?”
“Well sir, if Dr. Jackson’s right and she’d be willing to work with us in causing a rift between Hathor and Heru’ur, which might help the Asgard and keep the balance out there intact, maybe we can turn it around on her and catch ourselves a Goa’uld. If Jack’s lost his Colonel Fantastic powers, it might be a good way to address the balance and we might learn how that cloaking device of hers works too!”
Selmak shook his head, lowering his eyes and allowing his host to speak. “Colonel Makepeace,” Jacob said. “That’s a dangerous idea, and I doubt seriously if you could pull something like that off.”
“Actually with the bait I had in mind, maybe we can?” Daniel offered. His eyes widened a little as he thought it through, removing his glasses carelessly before pushing them back on more forcefully.
“Go on, Dr.
Jackson?”
“Well, sir, Nyerti
promised to teach Cadet Hailey some stuff, I’m not sure what, but, er,
anyway I don’t think that was her intention! According to the Cadet, she spent most of her
time questioning her about Iceni, and what Jack had been doing since they last
met!”
Jacob looked intrigued too
now. “She’s right, it might be!” he agreed. “We know
Nyerti has done experiments in the past, tried to engineer herself
a more powerful host, if Iceni has the knowledge of the Ancients, and possibly
the Sengo’lians, even the Goa’uld?” Jacob said.
“She’d make a very powerful host!” Selmak agreed, taking over
from his host. “Where is this
child General
“Right now
she’s in the charge of Dr. Fraiser,”
“Like Colonel Makepeace said, we offer our assistance and, although not obviously, access to the child and lure her back here!” Daniel suggested. “We can keep Iceni safe… can’t we?”
“I doubt she’d go for that?” Jacob reproached. “No, you’d have to convince her that you were going to help, anything to sabotage the Goa’uld, she’s arrogant enough to think she can outsmart you, and devious enough to try. You’d have to come up with a foolproof plan, figure all the angles, and then go back and figure them again to capture that prize!”
“But you think
it’s possible, Jacob?”
“Oh, it’s possible,” he responded. “Right now she’s out in the cold as it were. She’ll take the help, you just have to figure out a way to catch her once that’s happened!”
“What about O’Neill, sir?” Makepeace enquired. “If the Nox can get these Sengo’lians out of his head, she’s already shown a willingness to ally herself to him?”
“Right now, we need
to concentrate on working out a plan, if we’re sure this is the road to
go down, and the only way to help the Asgard and maintain the equilibrium out
there! But let’s keep one thing in
mind,”
*****
Lya watched the colonel pace up and down where he knew the Stargate had previously been. He had maintained that low growling menace each time she had attempted to lure him back to the village, and once or twice had actually opened fire on her with the P-90
“Where’s the damn Stargate,” he demanded, once more displaying nefarious intent, and lifting the P-90 in her direction.
“Colonel, you do not learn easily,” she told him. “You have emptied your weapon.”
Jack looked heavenwards. “So gimme some more bullets!” he snarled. “I’m gonna get lucky in a minute.”
Lya smiled at him. “Your wildness is very admirable, Colonel,” she reflected. “It is something you once harnessed for good.”
“Hey, wanna talk bondage?” he asked moving closer to her. “You know what I’m talking about, right? You me, a little down on the dirt kind of therapy?”
“Nor will your attempts to shock provide you with a means to avoid this,” she advised. “Will you not return to the village? You become tired and…”
“BORED! For crying out loud, what is with you people?” he vociferated. “Don’t you get it? No one home?”
“I understand perfectly, you desire to be rid of the pain that is such an investment of your past, this is so much easier for you. The shame you feel for your liaison with a Goa’uld whom you have come to love.”
Jack’s eyes became jet black once more, boring into her face, twisted with rage. “You’re so wrong,” he hissed menacingly.
“I am?” she asked. “Then why does the darkness throw itself to your defence, Colonel, and why if you feel so much malevolence, do you find yourself so enraged?”
She didn’t move this time as he came close enough to touch her, his rage searing in its intensity, hands clenching into fists and out, fingers reaching up and clasping around her throat.
She did not flinch; instead her eyes sympathetically met the fury that burnt out of control within him. “Go ahead, Colonel,” she urged once more. “Hide from your true self.”
He drew in breath so forcefully that she felt the life might be sucked from her, yet even then she did not flinch, nor did his grip tighten.
His eyes closed and he allowed his hands to drop, but he didn’t move. When those eyes opened once more they were lit with a blue effervescence she’d seen once before.
Lya gasped, unsure if she was truly seeing what she knew could no longer exist; that race had long since moved on, had long since become extinct.
“Help me,” he implored, tears welling in his eyes. She knew instantly it wasn’t O’Neill who was asking for help, if they existed they were somewhere so far away as not to be able to get back.
“We will,” she answered.
*****
Carter looked at the computer screen and sighed heavily. “I don’t see how we can do this?” she stated, exasperated.
“It is indeed a difficult proposition,” Teal’c agreed.
“Look Sam, I know it’s not exactly like… I just think we can do this if we put our minds to it!” Daniel enthused. “She’ll go along with it if she thinks she’ll regain her power, I’m guessing she’ll even go one step further.”
“I don’t know Daniel, I just can’t see her thinking we wouldn’t screw her?” she replied, perplexed. “It doesn’t make sense!”
“It makes perfect sense, Sam, she knows we’ve got Jack, Jack’s got the power to overthrow the Goa’uld, she’s seen it. If we can convince her that Jack’s back onside with us, she’ll jump at the chance, believing she can turn it around on us later!”
“Indeed,” Teal’c agreed. “She would believe such a deception, the Goa’uld consider themselves far more powerful than the Tau’ri!”
“I don’t know. I just can’t see how we’re going to do this?” Sam replied, still the sceptic.
Carter’s eyes opened wide then, the look of surprise that resonated on her features almost ecstatic in its affect. “WOW!” she exclaimed. “Why didn’t I think of it before?”
“What?” Daniel
demanded, glancing across at the equally intrigued
“That’s if they haven’t buried their gate!” she said.
“What?” Daniel asked, on the edge of his seat.
”We need Colonel O’Neill right?” she announced, her eyes widening with the excitement of the solution she felt she had found.
“Um?”
“We’ve got one, one we can rely on, at least if he hasn’t changed his tune?” she added, waiting for the archaeologist to follow her train of thought, and finally telling him when he appeared to be completely confounded. “Daniel, Altair!”
“Wha… what?” Daniel exclaimed.
Teal’c smiled, nodding his approval. “Indeed, you are correct Major Carter, we do have an O’Neill!” he said.
*****
Hathor listened to Heru’ur’s latest broadcast; his excuses for late attendance, that he had discovered something with which they could ultimately and finally rid themselves of the Tau’ri appeased her.
“I will join you once I am certain of this discovery,” Heru’ur told her.
“See that you do, fragmented we make a far easier target for the Asgard,” she told him.
Heru’ur nodded, bowing his head as he terminated the device.
“We do not trust him,” she told Osiris. “We should discover exactly what it is he covets.” A malicious smile crossed those supercilious features. “Perhaps it will benefit us!”
“Would you like me to attempt infiltration earlier?” Osiris offered. “Since he will undoubtedly be preoccupied with this new discovery, we shall have an opportunity to make a discovery of our own!”
“See that we do!” Hathor remarked.
*****
“Major, are you out of your mind?”
“Sir, I know it’s an odd request but…”
“Odd? How the hell do
I bypass the paperwork necessary when people start seeing Jack O’Neill
large as life, and as I recall from what O’Neill himself
told me, bucking his rank, walking around the SGC?”
“Sir, for all intents and purposes he is Colonel O’Neill, he knows everything the Colonel knows!” Carter responded. “And he can convince Nyerti a lot easier than we can.”
Jacob looked fascinated. “You’re telling me you’ve got clones? Androids?”
“Yeah,” Sam replied, her eyes beaming with delight. “Perfect copies in every way! The technology was fascinating, how he could just make us in every detail, except for the fact that they are androids that is.”
“And you intend to bring the clone here to the SGC to attempt to convince Nyerti he’s the one with all that power?” he enquired dubiously.
“General, it makes perfect sense,” Daniel asserted. “Who better than to convince Nyerti that he can help, but Jack O’Neill himself?”
“And when he
can’t operate the Ancients vessels?”
“He, er, can actually,” Carter replied, a little more reticent now. “We have the Ancients download, sir, if anyone can figure it out, an android with an advanced processor can!”
The general shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this?” he told Jacob.
The Tok’ra host smiled. “But she’s right, George, who better than to pull off a complex double bluff than an android!”
******
Lya sat before the colonel; he had been sleeping for over sixteen hours since she had discovered his secret and why the turmoil in his mind was so chaotic.
It made far more sense now, that he had resisted so vehemently her attempts to assist him; having so much, so many different voices in his head, must have caused him intense pain, the like of which the Nox only ever experienced when they combined their minds to raise the dead.
She had comforted him as much as her limited knowledge of human mentality allowed, meditating close to him, trying to align her thoughts to his, to extract the pain that seemed to resonate even in a deep state of unconsciousness. Finding some of his darkest memories far too painful to deal with, she began to understand why the man had been so easily turned.
Finally he began to rouse, Lya moved from the cot as he did so.
“Colonel, can you hear me?” she asked.
Jack’s eyes opened slowly, back to their normal shade of brown. “Oh not you again!” he groaned. “Didn’t you get the hint the last time?”
“The last time, Colonel, you were imploring my help. Do you not remember?” Lya enquired.
He regarded her with a degree of scepticism. “I doubt that,” he replied. “So gonna give up yet? Call it quits, let me go?”
“I’m sorry, we can’t do that, Colonel. Now more than ever you need our help,” she asserted, yet even such an assertion was done with the utmost politeness.
Jack looked intrigued, leaning forward now as he sat up. “What?” he asked, incredulity masking his surly features, eyes narrowing intrepidly.
“You are more in need of our assistance than even we could have known,” she explained.
“See now you’re trying to trick me,” he replied, waving his finger subjectively at her. “Don’t do that!”
She smiled, a patient smile; as much as he knew and understood about the Ancients, he could know nothing about the race that had inadvertently invaded his mind and sought freedom, even she had no idea how they had managed that particular feat.
“Colonel, this is not about trickery. Never would we do such a thing to mind as overburdened as yours,” she assured him. “You have unwittingly become almost like a beacon in a very big universe to those lost long ago. The Sengo’lians power is immense, I can only believe that it is they who lead those for whom you spoke, since they cannot possess a voice of their own.”
“What?” he exclaimed. “Alright, I’m outta here, let me know what you’re on though, ‘cause I could probably use a little of that myself!” he remarked, his eyebrows rising comically to accentuate the comment.
Lya stood, her hand reaching out to him. “Please, Colonel, you must understand. The human mind was never intended for so much catastrophic information,” she said softly. “I fear for you.”
Jack did a double take. “Oh for crying out loud!” he exclaimed. “A guilt trip now? Do you women ever get tired of trying to use those feminine wiles on us?”
“I do not understand?” she responded, and so genuine were those eyes that Jack O’Neill found himself lost in their innocence for a moment.
“Don’t worry about it.” His eyes softened slightly before he had a chance to configure a more sinister expression.
“We must speak of your feelings, Colonel,” she told him. “Please sit.”
Jack’s eyes rolled once more, but he complied just the same. “Great, psyche 101, with the Nox!”
*****
“Dialling the
coordinates,” Sam advised
“Think they’ll have an Iris?” Daniel enquired. “I mean I’m sure Sam, the. er, other one probably came up with something?”
“We’ll send a radio transmission through,” Carter advised.
“Two O’Neill’s?” Makepeace said, aghast. “Oh man, am I not going to enjoy this!”
“How bad can it
be?”
“Wormhole established,” Sam said excitedly, even if Daniel and perhaps Teal’c in his own way were the only ones that shared her enthusiasm.
“Sending radio transmission,” she told them. “Colonel, this is Major Samantha Carter at the SGC, come in?”
There was a long silence. “Carter?” O’Neill’s distinctive voice. “Carter, what the hell?”
“Sir, we need your
help,” she told him, looking up at
Daniel lent down, taking the mic. “Er, Jack, this is Daniel, are we safe to come through, er, over?” he asked.
“Your radio skills aren’t improving any, Danny,” the sharp retort. “Sure, come on over, been a while, hey! Do me a favour and leave the other guy there, know what I mean?”
Carter couldn’t help but smile, knowing precisely what he meant, whilst Daniel looked a little confused.
“Does he mean me?” he asked.
“No he means himself!” Sam reassured. “We’ll be through in about half an hour, Colonel, SGC out!”
“Yeah, O’Neill out… what the heck?” Discernable as the transmission was cut off by the closure of the wormhole.
“That’s it
sir,” Carter told
“Permission
granted!”
Daniel followed Sam to the locker room. “This is going to be odd,” he remarked. “Seeing myself after so long.”
“You’re telling me,” Carter replied. “It’s like I’ve been living another life somewhere, it’ll be fascinating to see what I’ve… she’s been up to.”
“Great!” Makepeace lamented to Teal’c as the pair followed. “Two geniuses, two impetuous civilians and one pain in the ass!”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow at the man.
“I meant O’Neill,” Makepeace told him quickly.
Teal’c smiled to himself, allowing the marine to get ahead. “Indeed!” he remarked.
*****
The wormhole exploded outward, as Colonel Jack O’Neill and his team stood waiting for their flesh and blood counterparts from Earth.
“Wonder what they want your help for?” Daniel enquired, raising an eyebrow toward the colonel.
“Probably something the other guy can’t do,” he smirked.
“Well whatever it is, sir, they specifically asked for your help,” Captain Carter pointed out. “Which probably means the rest of us are staying here, and the mission to P37 981 is off!”
“I was looking forward to that mission,” Teal’c complained.
Jack looked at him shaking his head. “Yeah, damn!” he retorted. “Me too!”
Teal’c sighed heavily, looking across at Carter who smiled at him. “Same here,” she said seriously.
“Oh, here we go,” Jack groaned. “Damn mutual appreciation society!”
Daniel raised his eyes heavenward, his attention immediately straying from O’Neill’s usual diatribe toward the new arrivals; his jaw dropped as he saw his counterpart.
“Oh,” he gasped.
“What?” the colonel enquired.
“The, ah, hair?” Daniel pointed out. “He’s gone all military!” he added with disdain.
Jack did a double take. “Hey, so’s Carter, see Teal’c hasn’t grown any!” he remarked sheepishly.
Major Samantha Carter took a moment to reacquaint herself with having a double. “Sir,” she said, a smile at the ‘other’ colonel.
“Captain!” O’Neill retorted. “See you followed my orders.”
“Actually, sir, I’m a Major now,” she corrected.
“Well done, Major!” Jack remarked.
Carter smiled broadly, remembering fondly her promotion and how he’d echoed those exact same words her CO had offered as congratulations.
“Something funny, Major?” O’Neill asked, looking slightly offended by her reaction.
“Wow, this is weird,” Daniel commented, as he approached his clone. “Kinda like looking in a mirror and seeing yourself in another lifetime.”
“Kinda?” his clone mimicked.
“I see you’ve
been, I’ve been, we’ve, er, been hanging around Jack O’Neill
too much!”
“Sir, we don’t have that much time,” Carter said. “We’ve got a problem back at the SGC that could affect the balance of power within the galaxy, it’s a fairly complex situation that might take some time to fully explain, but the bottom line is, sir, we need your help!”
“Oh Carter, do either of you ever explain anything in the simplest terms available?” Jack groaned bitterly, eyeing the other Teal’c suspiciously since he appeared to have remained far more stoic than he’d become accustomed to.
“Sir, we really don’t have time…”
*****
“A GOA’ULD?” O’Neill exclaimed loudly, the astonishment written clearly across his features. “Excuse me run that part by me again?”
“O’Neill, there is little time. We are in need of your assistance,” Teal’c told him, eyeing his clone suspiciously.
Captain Carter moved forward. “Sir, if we all…”
“I’m sorry, um… Captain,” Carter told her clone. “But you coming along just isn’t possible. We wouldn’t be able to explain your presence on the base, and we’ve got some trouble with the NID, so it’s best they don’t know you’re still around.”
“The NID?” Captain Carter enquired. “Oh great! When did they start running the program?”
“They don’t,” Sam replied, looking back to O’Neill. “We just didn’t exactly put you in our reports as still being… active, shall we say!”
“Oh here we go,” Jack remonstrated. “The robots don’t exist until we need ‘em!”
“Jack, look, if you just agree to help us we’ll explain everything and you can explain it to Sam, Teal’c and, er, me when you get back,” Daniel suggested, a dubious glance toward his double. O’Neill looked slightly perplexed. “Great!” he sighed. “Okay, Carter, hold down the fort! Teal’c, try not to break anything else, and Daniel, we’ll talk about that other situation when I get back!”
“Yes, sir,” Captain Carter responded.
The colonel frowned heavily. “Whatever! I’m just going to bail out the flyboy!” A grimace crossing his features, he looked at Major Carter. “Lead on!”
“Daniel, dial it up,” Sam instructed.
“Dialling,” Daniel replied, looking dubiously at his clone. “Well, I guess… bye!”
He turned and walked toward the DHD, shuddering slightly at seeing himself again, even if he had been fascinated the first time, right now, with all that had happened differently in their lives, it seemed a little too surreal.
The clone viewed him dispassionately, walking across to his ‘own’ Teal’c. “I don’t think I like him very much!”
“He is indeed most peculiar,” Teal’c remarked.
O’Neill took a last glimpse at his team-mates, a mock salute as he passed through the event horizon.
Stepping out seconds later into the SGC he paused at the top of the ramp, it didn’t matter how long he’d been away, this felt like home almost immediately.
“So, what’s this big emergency?” he asked, catching up to Carter.
“Long story, sir,” she replied. “We’ll get changed, and meet you in the briefing room.”
“Sure, I think I can
find it,” he muttered, as he watched what was his team
all disappear from the embarkation room.
He looked up at
“George!” he acknowledged.
“That’s General
Hammond to you Colonel,”
“Yeah, whatever,” O’Neill sighed, strolling nonchalantly from the familiar surroundings of the gate room, eyeing the SFs suspiciously as he did so, and continuing out, albeit with a few backward glances, up the stairs to meet his… former commanding officer.
“So, what’s the big secret?” he enquired, looking at Major Davis whom he didn’t recognise, then to the more familiar features of Colonel Makepeace.
“Well you didn’t get any better looking, did ya?” he remarked.
“Colonel, let’s
go to the briefing room,”
Jacob Carter sat awaiting their arrival. He looked at O’Neill, this one hadn’t aged, still had a completely grey free head of hair, and fewer scars from the battles his counterpart had fought in the years since he’d been created.
“Colonel Jack
O’Neill, allow me to introduce Major Paul Davis, JCS Liaison, Colonel
Makepeace you know, and this is Jacob Carter, host of Selmak,”
“A host?” Jack exclaimed, eyeing them all dubiously. “Have I come into some kind of alternate reality here where we’re sucking up to Goa’ulds?” he questioned.
“Jacob is a Tok’ra,”
O’Neill glanced across at Jacob. “Carter?” he queried, cocking an eyebrow as he did so.
“That’s right, Jack, Sam’s dad. She got me this gig to save me from dying of cancer, don’t worry you’ll get used to it,” he remarked. “I certainly did.”
“Not worried,” Jack replied. “A little shocked maybe, but hey, I’m sure I’ll, er, cope! Did we lose Samuels sir?” O’Neill’s eyes returned to the general.
“Yes, Colonel, we did, right after the other SG1 saved Earth from Apophis,” the general responded.
“That slimy snake-ass… how’d they do that?” Jack enquired, still sending askant glances toward Jacob.
“Blew up two motherships actually,” Daniel told him, as he entered before Carter and Teal’c. “Just as they were planning an attack on Earth!”
“Sweet, so wanna tell me why I’m here?” he asked. “Or do I get to guess until I come up with the right answer?”
“Sir, we think it would be a lot easier if you interfaced with one of the computers, downloaded all the mission reports and… well took a four year lesson in a matter of a day,” Carter suggested. “You do have an interface?”
“Oh yeah, a lot more efficient than the ones you probably have,” he remarked sardonically. “Won’t take a day either, got this new super ’tronic fast gadget kinda thing that Carter… the er, other one? Designed.”
Jacob smiled shaking his head. “Wow, he really doesn’t change does he?” he remarked.
“Er, no, Dad, that’s pretty much Colonel O’Neill for you!” Sam responded.
O’Neill grinned childishly at the major. “So where’s the other guy?” he enquired finally. “Having a little problem with the back and the knees is he?”
“Colonel
O’Neill is currently off world on another mission,”
O’Neill’s eyes narrowed. “Collaborating with the Goa’uld?” he asked, leaning forward. “Lost control of your poster boy, George?”
“Colonel, maybe I
remind you that whilst you’re here in this command I am still a higher
ranking officer!”
Carter bit her bottom lip, smiling ruefully, that was the kind of carrot she knew would appeal to either O’Neill.
The colonel sat back casually in his chair, his eyebrows flicking up. “Well, there’s an offer I can’t refuse!” he acknowledged. “Except, what makes you think I want to take orders? We’ve been doing pretty nicely without ya!”
Jack’s face screwed up, resembling a kid who’d been found hiding his sister’s toys. “Sweet!” he groaned. “So, Carter, wanna wire me up so I can see what I’m supposed to be doing here?”
“General?”
“Jack, if you do
this, the information and knowledge you’re about to gain means I need
your assurances that you’ll respect this command,”
“Geor… General, you have my word,” he replied, intrigued now as to what he’d missed in four long years.
“Um, Colonel, is your power supply going to be a problem?” Carter enquired.
“Nope, you… Carter designed these cool built in power packs, kinda neat little devices sit right in your…”
“We probably don’t need to see that,” Makepeace stated.
Jack regarded him. “Well I wasn’t gonna show you!” he snapped. “Jarhead!”
Makepeace looked at Davis,
who shrugged. “It’s fascinating,”
“What’s wrong with the hair?” O’Neill asked, looking slightly self-conscious, a dubious glance across at Major Carter.
“Sir, if you’ll
follow me,” Carter invited, standing and getting
O’Neill stood,
looking across at
*****
Osiris moved easily through the mothership of Heru’ur, since the Goa’uld had joined the conference she had slipped in unnoticed.
The Horus guard seemed to
be most concentrated on the lower decks, those that held cells for captured
slaves and enemies. Dressed now in the clothes of a lower cast Goa’uld
servant, she was able to move with relative ease amongst the
*****
Hathor’s ship had been designated as the meeting place for the system lords gathering; the Goa’uld queen lapped up her new position of power as she regarded the fifteen system lords that had made the journey.
They would not be easy to convince, starting a war with the Asgard something none of them would agree to readily. There were too many scars from previous conflicts, conflicts that Ra, and then Apophis after him, had begun, which had ultimately seen many domains lost.
Yu was primarily the biggest opponent of such a plan, since they had little proof that it had indeed been the Asgard who were responsible for Nefertum’s destruction, still nursing wounds of the last engagement, he would be the least likely to agree, even knowing this Hathor would challenge him, wielding her newly gained power like a sword.
“We can not win such a war,” Titan argued, the fair-haired Goa’uld always taking a position against any plan of the warlike Heru’ur. “Yu is right!”
Titan led a small group of lesser system lords from the Gamma Quadrant, a region of space beyond Nefertum’s domain, and thus far closer to the Asgard.
“Such a battle would decimate our forces and leave us open to attack from other enemies, ones who do not possess the same nearsighted thought for peace as the Asgard!”
Heru’ur stared at the Goa’uld; he’d never been particularly fond of Cronos’ offspring. This one, his ridiculous garments taken from the culture he had attempted to rule on Earth, far exceeded his father’s ability to irritate. He had little time for such creatures, Titan reminded him of Apophis, pompous and asinine in his ways.
“Silence!” he spat, when finally he could bear to look at the source of his distaste no more. “If the Asgard are responsible for this attack on us, then they will be made to pay!”
“We agree,” Hathor stated, a favourable glance toward the supreme system lord whom she sat close to. “The Asgard are not nearly as powerful as they would have us believe! We understand that they currently wage a war against the Sengo’lian, and have another enemy with whom they do battle, as such both these conflicts will render them far more vulnerable!”
“Another enemy?” Heru’ur enquired. “This is something you have not mentioned before?”
Hathor looked pleased to have information to hand that her main rival did not. “From what we understand, they engage the forces of the Asgard very effectively,” she imparted.
“And therefore we would have no defence against them,” Yu argued, the only one, it seemed, to recognise such a threat.
Pelops nodded his head, his dark long hair sweeping across his shoulders. “The Asgard are still far more powerful than our combined forces, or did you forget the Sha’bolt?” he enquired, his Germanic speech the gift of a host taken during the battles with Rome, the second host he had taken from that era on Earth after the first had become fatally wounded by a Roman foot soldier.
“Sha’bolt?” Tanith, the latest addition to the lesser clan, enquired.
Heru’ur regarded the son of Apophis with disdain. “We have no other course open to us!” he snarled. “Clearly if these enemies of the Asgard are a problem within their own galaxy they will be looking for another domain!”
“If we allow the Asgard to remain unchallenged they will undoubtedly continue to dispatch us with ease, thus rendering our forces ineffective,” Hathor stated. “We must circumvent such guile and react immediately.”
“Where did this information come from?” Yu enquired still sceptical.
“O’Neill,” Hathor responded. “Who better to know their weaknesses, than one they favour!”
Nyerti watched, fascinated by this foolhardy debate. She could have ended it easily with the knowledge she possessed, but they played into her hands. If they risked battle with the Asgard, even after what she had heard from O’Neill about their enemy, they would undoubtedly lose, thus weakening their own hand, whilst she could work to build her own forces with the help of O’Neill. Wherever he had disappeared to, she was confident it would be only a matter of time before he began attacking the forces she had outlined for him in the farthest regions of the galaxy.
“What of Sokar?” Pelops challenged once more. “Did he not attempt to engage the Asgard at the behest of the chosen one of Sengo’lia?”
“Who is this?” Tanith enquired, finding himself once more lacking in information.
“O’Neill is of no concern,” Heru’ur spat, the words peppered with loathing. “He is merely a vessel for these creatures, who clearly have their own agenda in mind.”
“But is it not an agenda we share? The destruction of the Asgard?” Titan challenged. “Surely such a power would be beneficial to us?”
“I do not trust this Tau’ri,” Yu spat. “He could easily have given this information to lure us into battle with the Asgard!”
“There is no way to harness that power,” Nyerti sneered, she looked across to Hathor. “He is far too untrustworthy to align our forces.”
“The Goa’uld can not defeat the Asgard,” Hathor countered. “Our beloved has proven he can!”
“A slave?” Tanith remarked. “Aligning yourselves with him did little to improve the situation in the past.”
Heru’ur stood, his eyes glowing furiously. “Enough!” he snapped. “The Asgard cannot defend every planet they have under their protection, fight this enemy within their own galaxy, and fend off the Sengo’lians. If we send forces to each planet, they will be vulnerable on their home world. If we plan our assaults we can defeat them!”
“I disagree,” Yu retorted.
“As do I,” Titan added.
Pelops looked across to Hathor. “Such an attack would also leave our domains vulnerable, even with the forces combined we could not think to outmanoeuvre ships as superior as the ones they possess.”
Hathor regarded Heru’ur. “Perhaps they are correct,” she told him, Osiris now in view indicating that she should leave as soon as possible. “To attempt an assault on the Asgard would leave our domains vulnerable. It would also allow the Sengo’lians a far greater power than they already possess!”
Heru’ur’s surly expression became one of evil disdain. “Then we will have to prove it is not impossible,” he sneered. “To kill two birds with one stone!”
*****
Lya maintained her position, even with O’Neill once more aggressively remonstrating his desire to leave; his exaggerated hand gesticulations gave her no cause for concern.
“Look!” he snarled, his hands contorting in front of his face, resembling petrified tree branches. He leant forward ominously, and not for the first time. “I’m not doing this whole cosy chat thing! Maybe you’ve got time to sit around sipping sap juice and eating fruit, but I’ve got stuff, important stuff, I need to do out there!”
When this behaviour failed to raise even so much as one of those delicate eyebrows, he took another huge gulp of air and exhaled loudly, beginning to pace up and down again before her, the obvious agitation displayed in his hands as they wrung together ceaselessly. He was unable to sit still, his hands now clenching and unclenching, lines masking features that seemed to be frozen in a perpetual scowl.
“You trouble yourself unduly, Colonel,” Lya remarked. “Since you have already established that there is no gate, and you do not possess the heart to kill me with your bare hands, then would it not be far more productive to speak with me?”
Jack stopped in his tracks, turning and facing her for the first time. Their eyes locked together, his filled with the anguish of a wild animal trapped in a cage, whilst she reflected the serenity that she wore almost shroud like. “And do what?” he demanded. “Pretend I’m a good boy so you’ll let me off this damn planet?”
“Pretence is not an option for the Nox,” Lya stated.
“Oh that’s right,” he retorted bitterly. “Got all those fancy little tricks up your sleeve don’t ya?”
“They are merely tools of the mind, Colonel, ones we would be willing to teach you, but how can we? If you remain so destructive to both yourself, and your world?” she asked, regarding him with a sympathetic smile.
“See, I kinda hoped you’d catch on to that,” he retorted. “And since when am I destructive to Earth?”
Lya stood, blocking the path of the pacing colonel. “Colonel, you cannot deceive us, we read your intentions as surely as if you had spoken them aloud. The longer you resist, the more pain you will feel. Please, trust me I can, and I will help you.”
“So you’re threatening pain now?” Jack snarled, his mind searching for something nefarious, anything that would alleviate the burden of this benevolent race. “Kinda goes against that advanced pacifist ideal you claim to hold so dear doesn’t it?”
Lya shook her head. “Why do you insist upon speaking for the sake of your own wit?” she asked. “Does this somehow prevent you from acknowledging the trouble you find yourself in?”
O’Neill winced, a grimace crossed his face indicating that she might be right, he refused to answer her, instead turning his back to show his unwillingness to further cooperate with her, his mind focused trying to prevent her from accessing his thoughts.
“You cannot shut me out, Colonel,” she said softly. “You have grown beyond what you were, and now you find your thoughts troubled. You are questioning, this confuses you.”
Jack took a deep breath, shaking his head. “Lya, what is it you want from me?” he asked, turning, his arms held aloft, then suddenly dropped to his sides. “I mean is there something I’m missing here?”
“Only yourself, Colonel,” she replied.
“Oh for… Look!” he sighed, his hands cupping his face for a moment before dropping once more to reveal the torturous expression he wore, the anguish resonating through an almost beseeching soul that struggled to find its way from the darkness. “How many damn voices am I meant to cope with exactly? Do this, stop that, kill them, free those!” he shook his head slowly, his eyebrows drawing down. “I’m so tired of this, so damn tired.”
Lya reached out and touched his face softly with her fingertips. “Then you must listen, Colonel,” she urged, a caress in her voice that made his eyes soften.
“Listen?” he whispered. “Seems all I do is listen now isn’t it!” He grabbed her wrist twisting it slightly. “And you wanna send me back to that hell? Make them stop? All those voices that keep me from going nuts?” he snarled. “Go figure lady, I’m not interested.
Lya did not flinch, even though his grip caused her pain, her eyes steadfastly trained on his. “Is it your desire to hurt others to protect yourself, Colonel?” she asked. “I had not thought you such a selfish person. Your act in trying to save us from the Goa’uld showed your compassion for those you believed weaker.”
Jack’s eyes narrowed, releasing her wrist he spun away again. “I’ve had it with doing the right thing!” he snapped. “What’s the point? You, the Asgard, the Tollan, the Tok’ra, well you all seem to think you’re so much better, don’t ya? Making your judgements and keeping your heads down, what’s that old philosophy? I’m alright Jack?” he continued. “Don’t involve us, we’ll just let the slaughter and the slavery go on around us!”
“So you would have us all behave in the same way as humans?” Lya charged. “Judge what is right and wrong, even if others do not agree?”
“Isn’t that what you do already?” Jack challenged, moving around her now, he seemed to be far more assertive. “Tell us how we don’t meet your standards and dismiss us?”
Lya lowered her eyes. “You chose the way you wish to exist, Colonel, as did we. The Nox do not force our way upon you, nor do we expect that you would force yours upon us.”
O’Neill shook his head. “Oh I get it, so telling us we’re not wise, or old enough to share your technology, wasn’t meant to be condescending or judgemental. Saving a Goa’uld so he could go out there and enslave more civilisations was okay simply because you don’t want to get involved with the little people, hah?” he growled, standing in front of her and challenging her to deny it.
“Our ways are something you do not understand,” she responded, her eyes still averted.
“Yeah, that’s great, gotta love that we don’t get it bit!” Jack snapped. “Standing on the fringes and allowing it to happen makes you as guilty as the damn Goa’uld, when you’ve got the power to stop it!”
“Is this what you desire, Colonel, to live with so much hatred and resentment?” she questioned, now looking directly into those unyielding eyes.
“What I want doesn’t matter,” he exclaimed. “You’ve proven that by keeping me a prisoner here and telling me what I am is wrong! Isn’t that contradicting your policy of non-interference just a bit?”
Lya sat down, inviting the colonel to do the same. “You have been subjected to much, Jack,” she began; the colonel’s attention more immediate, he sat opposite surprised at her use of his name. “May I call you Jack?” she asked, seeing the surprise.
“Sure,” O’Neill responded. “Why not, it’s a little more fitting than Colonel right now anyway.”
“Then yes, you are correct, Jack, we have broken our own ways in order to help you, because you cannot possibly help yourself and such damage has been done because we did not return the Sengo’lians to their home world. In a way, we learned a lesson, and after the alliance was fragmented, we did not interfere in the ways of those that inhabit this galaxy, for that reason.” Her voice was lowered now, the words spoken in a measured way. “In this we are guilty of allowing fear and inexperience to prevail. We did not interfere when you freed the Sengo’lians because we felt it was the right thing to do. To corrupt a mind as benevolent as you possess is clearly wrong, and could result in a destruction of the like that the galaxy would not recover from.”
“So you’re just concerned with keeping me from what? Destroying the galaxy. Kinda odd you didn’t apply the same logic to the Goa’uld,” Jack commented.
“The Goa’uld are not an issue, Colonel,” Lya replied. “They have a right to live and exist as you do, as we do. Perhaps in time…”
“Don’t say they’ll grow up!” Jack snapped instantly. “’Cause that just ain’t gonna happen! It’s not who they are unless you hadn’t figured it out.”
He stood up, frustrated once more with the answers, he felt dizzy, his eyes unable to completely focus on her as he looked down.
“Colonel, lay down,” Lya told him. She sensed his loss of balance, unable to stop him from keeling over sideways and collapsing in a mess on the cot, which mercifully broke an otherwise awkward fall.
She left him alone, Anteaus and Opher awaited her. “We must free him,” she said. “He will surely never turn back with so much confusion and pain with him without respite.”
“You know what will happen if we free him,” Anteaus reminded her.
“Then it should be,” Lya insisted. “We cannot standby and watch him tortured into insanity as we did many of the Ancients.”
“You know we could not have helped them,” Opher said. “They were far too advanced in the condition for it to be successfully reversed.”
Lya turned, lowering her eyes toward the hut in which the colonel now rested, a disturbed and tormented slumber that she had allowed herself to share, if only for a few moments. “He is not to that state yet,” she said. “And what of the Furlings? Are they to be condemned to remain in that dark place forever because we refuse to share this knowledge with one who can undoubtedly be trusted? Has he not protected the Ancients technology from the Sengo’lians and the Sengo’lians from the Asgard?” she entreated.
Opher looked at Anteaus. “What she says is right, perhaps it is time for the Nox to share with this one.”
Anteaus searched his thoughts; his knowledge of the human race had become far wider since Lya’s dealings with them in freeing the Tollan, and at Triad. Yet they possessed something unique that could undoubtedly be exploited in the wrong hands. O’Neill was a warrior, that much he knew and that is why he feared him so. The Nox had long since freed themselves of the need to battle, learning how to co-exist with nature and the universe, never had they shared this wealth with any, even the Asgard were ignorant as to their power.
“If he should desire to use this knowledge against the Nox,” Anteaus stated. “He would be in a more powerful position than anyone to do so, since he possesses so much knowledge of the universe from the Ancients. However, I agree with you, he can be trusted once freed from the hold the Sengo’lians have on him. You have my permission to act, the Furlings may depend upon it.”
Lya bowed her head in thanks, leaving the two men and rejoining O’Neill who was still unconscious. She sat beside him, placing her hand on his shoulder. “You will need your rest, this will be a difficult and painful path,” she said softly.
*****
Aiestrodous moved impatiently in his ‘shielded’ prison, he could easily use his powers to escape, yet found himself intrigued by these nefarious creatures. He had battled them long ago, and knew how deep their fear of him went. To risk bringing him aboard one of their ships meant they had become confident in their technology.
Heru’ur finally stood before him, his guards surrounding the vampire’s prison, their weapons pointed toward him.
“You take precautions that are unnecessary,” he told the Goa’uld. “I have no desire to taste of your blood!”
Heru’ur eyed him suspiciously. “Thoth has told you of our offer?” he enquired.
“He has,” Aiestrodous replied. “Yet you must understand, the forces with which you attempt battle are far greater than you realise. The Sengo’lians are amongst the oldest races of the galaxy. The Asgard possess technology far more impressive than most other races, and then there is O’Neill himself, a conduit for forces far greater than both!”
Heru’ur looked intrigued, moving closer now to the creature. “In what respect?” he asked.
“I can say no more, only that he has a power of a race far more incredible than even that of the Sengo’lians. The Goa’uld would be wise not to antagonise this race, they do not share the benevolence of the Asgard!” Aiestrodous told him.
The Goa’uld looked enraged. “I fear no one!” he snarled.
Aiestrodous, his incredible red eyes beaming through the shield, smiled an almost guileful smile. “But you do,” he remarked, baiting the creature. “You fear me!”
*****
Carter looked a little uncomfortable as the ‘other’ O’Neill lifted his shirt. “Central connection can probably be achieved here somewhere,” he remarked nonchalantly. “I can never find the damn thing!”
Daniel tried not to smile, even with a robot’s endless capacity for storing knowledge, this one was so completely replicated that he didn’t care to show it. “Would you like me to do that, Sam?” he enquired, seeing her expression.
“No!” O’Neill snapped. “She can manage!” He looked slightly disturbed at the offer. “You’re not flying a MIG, are ya?” he added, his features contorting.
“What?” Daniel exclaimed. “Flying a MIG, what the hell does that mean?”
Sam dissolved into giggles. “Er, no, sir,” she said, her hand clasping her mouth in a futile attempt to stop her amusement. “He’s just… being helpful!”
“Oh, fine!”
Jack replied, still eyeing
Daniel looked slightly offended, even if he wasn’t entirely sure as to what the clone might be alluding too, and why Carter found it so amusing, but that fact alone meant it couldn’t have been a compliment!
“There’s the damn thing,” Jack announced, locating the ports that his Carter had installed into all of them, in order to better integrate with new systems she’d designed for Altair.
Sam gingerly fitted the connections. “Okay, I’ll start the database. This should get you completely up to speed on our missions, the Ancients repository, most of which we can’t decipher, and the Colonel’s file, recent entries that is,” she explained.
“Sweet!” Jack replied.
Daniel watched the expressions on the face of Jack’s clone changing as the information was input and processed. Clearly whatever he’d just learned had sent a look of sheer horror across his features. He glanced across at Sam, and she had the same look of apprehension on her face.
“Hope this isn’t too much at once,” she remarked.
“He is an android, how can it be? Jack’s handled much more… is handling,” Daniel replied. “I sure hope the Nox are successful and he doesn’t show up in the middle of this!”
Carter raised her eyebrows. “Well that wouldn’t be good,” she commented, biting her bottom lip as she considered the connotations of such an event.
*****
Lya sat patiently waiting for O’Neill to regain full consciousness. She couldn’t feel the more malevolent side of his nature, just confusion as the link to the Sengo’lian was being slowly eroded by her efforts to fuse their minds together. In relieving him of this burden, she hoped that he would be more disposed to helping the other race that had communicated their distress.
“Colonel, you are rested?” she asked.
Jack’s hands reached up to his face, rubbing hard to wake himself. “What happened?” he enquired, looking slightly nonplussed. “Did I pass out?”
Lya nodded, standing and approaching him. “Colonel, there is much we must speak of, perhaps you would like something to eat or drink before we begin?”
Jack swung his legs from the cot and sat up, shaking his head slowly. “I’m fine,” he replied, the air expelled from his lungs in a protracted heavy sigh. “So, what’s on the agenda now? Gonna give me the twenty reasons why destroying my enemies is a bad thing, law Nox?”
Lya couldn’t resist a smile. “We do not have laws, Colonel, by this I take it you mean rules that are enforced?” she queried.
“Kinda, I guess?” Jack muttered. “No laws, hah?”
“We simply exist in harmony with our surroundings, Colonel, we have no need to behave in a structured way as you do. Our society is one that does not possess elements that exist in others,” she told him.
“And that makes no sense whatsoever,” he remarked glibly, looking at her with dismay. “I, er, didn’t mean the way you live, I just meant the explanation.”
He became more studied then. “Can I ask you something?” Taking the single nod to be approval, he continued. “What makes you so fired up to want to help? I seem to recall the last thing you told us was how young we are, how we didn’t deserve your knowledge, help, because of our structured society!”
“It is true,” she told him. “That back then we could not communicate with you on this level. We feel now as we did then. However, the fact that you have now become somewhat kindred, and possess a far greater understanding of the elements that exist in the galaxy, means we are prepared to change our previous attitude toward you. You have become a prize to covet for enemies, and one that has attracted benevolent beings. The Asgard have come to trust and respect you, and so have the Nox.”
“And I’m supposed to be what? Flattered that a bunch of aliens over running my head is this big key to the city?” Jack demanded, shaking his head in disbelief. “Let me tell you something, I didn’t ask for any of this, none of it! Not the damn Ancients download, nor the friendly wee folk to go poking around in my head! So if it’s all the same to you, just take it, and don’t ask me to do anything else for this damn galaxy, because I’ve had it! I’m through!”
He stared at her, the anger and resentment he felt for how much pain he had caused to people that cared about him, the things he’d done in the name of duty, sickened him to the core.
“That’s good, Colonel,” Lya concurred. “You should let out this rage that traps you within the darkness.”
“I don’t need some damn pep talk!” he snarled. “You folks don’t get it do ya? I’m racing around the galaxy with this big idea of trying to defeat the Goa’uld and save Earth, and the Asgard, you, anyone, just defeat the damn snakeheads!”
“You protect the weak,” Lya agreed. “But in doing so you forgot yourself. You forgot you are simply human, and could in no way continue to bear such a heavy burden as has been placed upon your shoulders. Even if you refused to admit it, Colonel, you are weakened.”
Jack stared at her, heaving a sigh of relief. “It’s not bad to say I wanna quit?” he asked genuinely.
“No. There is no shame in finding that you can no longer continue on a certain path,” she responded.
“How about if I said I wanted to stay here?” he enquired. “How’d that be?”
“If it is your wish to remain with the Nox, then we shall afford you a comfortable place in which to reside, where you will be able to do as you desired.”
O’Neill drew in breath deeply, lowering his eyes and searching his mind. There was still so much pain and confusion, but there was also a light. In asking for that one thing, he’d finally seen a way to readdress the balance that had been lacking for so long, he needed to stop and deal with everything that had happened in the last eight or nine months; Hathor, Iceni, Nyerti and worst of all Fraiser, even if he hadn’t been in control of his senses he’d influenced and used her, that stung. Carter, the Special Operations team, Daniel, the whole thing was like the biggest chain of disastrous events that could ever have happened in his life, before he could deal with that, he needed to understand how he’d gotten so out of control, there was a deep seated need to sit back and take stock, that had to be a priority; before he could consider dealing with any of them, he’d have to deal with himself!
“Yes,” he answered. “Yes it is.”
“Tell me, Colonel, is there anything that we, the Nox, may do to help you?”
“Nope! I think I’ll find my way with a few natural surroundings. A little company now and then,” he paused, looking at Lya. “Still feel like wiping out the universe though. Got a cure for that, have ya?”
“There will be time to deal with the matter of the elements within your mind that we may use to free our friends from their fate.”
Jack looked at her curiously. “Excuse me?” he asked.
“Colonel, although you could not have known, nor realised, the Sengo’lians have the capacity to connect with many. Through you they have opened up a means with which another race, one whom we thought had long since perished, could contact us and implore our help,” Lya explained. “We will need to establish where they are, without harming your mind or bringing forth anymore pain. I am hoping there is a way to do this with your cooperation.”
O’Neill exhaled, he’d been holding his breath knowing what was coming. “You need my help?” he replied, a hint of incredulity in his tone. “I find that hard to believe.”
Lya bowed her head. “I will understand if you do not feel this is something you wish to pursue, since you have already suffered greatly,” she told him.
“Help them, who?” Jack enquired. “Not that I’m agreeing to anything, I’d just like to know who it is before I decide, either way!”
“They are the Furlings,” Lya replied. “They once resided within this part of the galaxy, but moved on over four millennia ago to a distant part of space. We have not heard from them since.”
“Part of the four race alliance?” Jack asked. “I’ve heard of them.”
“The Nox did not share their philosophy. They were as the Asgard now are, powerful and able to destroy other beings. We have learned that conflict will never end once it has begun, and so the Goa’uld have proven.”
“Wait a minute, how do you know they’re using me?” Jack’s features became quizzical. “I mean I don’t remember making a declaration about the Furlings.”
“You possess their power, Colonel, your eyes radiate with their presence, and through you they were able to ask for help,” Lya informed him. “It is your decision.”
“But you don’t agree with them right? I mean you just said that, so why would you want to help them?”
“Just because we do not share the same path, does not mean that we would be willing to see them perish, nor remain trapped.”
“Yeah,” Jack sighed. “What was I thinking, you even saved the damn Goa’uld!”
She smiled at him, and he couldn’t tell if she had been amused by what he said, or if she was just humouring the idiot. But knowing how they felt, and that they were more than prepared to create a save haven for him, he felt beholden to them.
Lya shook her head. “That alone is not reason enough,” she remarked.
“What, you can hear my thoughts now?” he asked, his face screwing up at that rather uncomfortable revelation. “Sweet! What ever happened to privacy?”
“It is not your thoughts, I cannot hear anything specific. It is merely your demeanour,” she reassured him, that patient smile once more brought to bear. “You are right of course, until you are sure, you should not risk your mind and further intrusion that this would bring. We will accede to your wishes.”
*****
“We’re trying to get word to the Asgard now,” Jacob said. “It’s not easy, but we know of a few planets that don’t have protective devices, plus the Tollan have agreed to help!”
“Oh they’re
finally onside are they?”
”Sir?”
“That’s not a
concern, Major,”
“I’m sure
you’re right, sir,”
“Consider it
considered!”
“Unauthorised off-world activation!”
“Now what?” Jacob asked.
*****
Lieutenant Simmons attempts
to close the iris were failing miserably as
”Problem,
Lieutenant?”
“Iris won’t stay closed, sir,” Simmons told him, panicking slightly as each time he gave the command the mechanism only half closed before opening again.
The security teams were already deployed, as SG1 and O’Neill arrived in the control room.
“What’s going on?” Daniel asked.
<