Work Text:
Still Jack and Daniel
–
Full Circle
VI
Choices and Sacrifices
I
Instead of talking to the hologram, Daniel had been on the astronomy platform gazing at the azure sky, trying to bring some sense and order into the chaos of his thoughts. He could ignore the looming worries about going home and getting big again most of the time. As long as they had no way of leaving, there was no choice to make. He wasn’t forced to make a decision. But the thoughts were there nevertheless, under the surface, jumping out at him when he least expected it.
Talking about home kept opening this particular can of worms sometimes.
Because part of him WANTED to go home. He loved Atlantis, but he missed home. And another part of him dreaded going home. It was like an endless tug-o-war.
And now the impossible had happened and his stomach lurched in anticipation, both good and bad.
His radio had crackled and Jack's voice told him to come to the control room.
The gate was opening.
Someone was dialing in.
Earth?
They reached the control room at the same time as the Atlantis gate opened with a familiar kawoosh. The wormhole zoomed in before it was pulled back into the gate’s vortex.
For the endless stretch of several minutes nothing happened.
Then BD said, “They found us.”
The very familiar outlines of a MALP emerged from the rippling wormhole and rolled slowly down the gatewalk, then came to a halt, its camera on the grapple arm busily scanning the surroundings.
“Let’s say hi,” Jack said and together they trudged down the stairwell and stopped in front of the MALP
“Colonel O’Neill! We’re glad to see you made it to Atlantis in one piece! Doctor Jackson – Daniel – you had us more than just a little worried over here!”
They only had audio for some reason, maybe because of the long distance.
Hammond’s voice coming over the speaker flooded Daniel with the same mixture of relief and anxiety he had felt on his way down from the astronomy tower. If the SGC could dial the eight chevron address, Sam had figured out a way around the power problem. What did it mean? That the SGC was able to send supplies? Or had Sam figured out a way to send a power source through so that they could leave?
“We’re a bit low on coffee, sir, but aside from that, we’re fine,” Jack replied, grinning.
There was a smile in Hammond’s voice as he said, “We can help you out with coffee. Actually, we're able to do more than that.”
“Like giving us a ride home?” Jack asked.
“We are working on that. Major Carter will explain.”
“Sam!” Daniel called out for her, relief chasing away the gloomy thoughts for now. “Are you and Teal'c okay?”
Sam's body-less voice filled the gate room next. “Daniel! It's so great to hear your voice! Yes, we're fine. Colonel? While we were able to open a wormhole...”
“Well done, Carter. I knew I needed you there to get our asses home eventually,” Jack said with blatant pride in his voice.
“Thank you, sir, but we're still working on the getting you home part. It's actually Daniel's statue that gives us the extra power.”
Daniel and BD exchanged a surprised look. “The Yggdrasil?” Daniel asked.
“Yes, it doubles as a power source and its crystals emit an extremely high pulse of energy if connected to our power system. That's how we were able to establish the wormhole. I have yet to find a way to figure out if we can separate some of the crystals from the tree and send them through to you without damaging the statue. I know you're going to need it later. But if that works in the simulations, we can give it a go. Stressing the word IF here, though.”
“Wow,” BD said, “How did you know about the statue being a power source?”
“I did tests with it when you brought it home from Egypt, remember? But it went into storage and I only remembered it because Teal'c and I were talking about it. Well, about... about how we needed to get you home so that Daniel can, you know, grow up again,” Sam said.
“Excellent,” Jack drawled. “Pat yourself on the back, Carter. You'll figure out the rest, too.”
Daniel wanted to tell her to go ahead and break the stupid statue apart, that he didn't need to get big. Again, that would mean the choice was out of his hands. It wouldn't be him making a decision that was going to change all their lives so ultimately. He wanted to go home. And if that meant not getting big again, hey, it would be a sacrifice well worth it.
But the moment passed and he didn't say it. Instead he asked, “How is Flyboy, Sam? Is he all right?”
“He is fine, Daniel,” she said. “He is taking turns staying with me and Teal'c.”
“Is he eating?”
“He misses you. But yes, he's eating okay,” she assured him quickly. Maybe a bit too quick. Daniel bit his lip and looked up when he felt Jack's hand squeezing his shoulder gently.
Hammond was back, saying, “We're going to send supplies through.”
“Ah, we have a list, sir,” Jack said.
“Fire away, Colonel.”
Daniel listened to Jack's and BD's flood of requests. Ammo and guns, Zats, medical supplies, toothbrushes, razors, journals, pens, coffee, chocolate, clothes, books from BD's office, Jack's yo-yo ('It's in one of my desk drawers”), no sandwiches please, maybe some stuff from the commissary (“Ice cream, sir.”)...
When Jack nudged him and asked if he wanted anything, Daniel wondered if they could send his dog through. Aloud he said, “Um, my camera please, oh and batteries. And I want journals and pens, too.”
“You have your Nintendo in your office?” Jack asked with a wink.
“Ja-ack, I can't plug it in anywhere here to recharge,” Daniel muttered. “The Ancients don't have the same sockets and their electricity system is different.”
“I know that, but you could play until it runs out,” Jack suggested.
“I don't think I should waste space for...”
“One Nintendo on the list. Anything else?” Hammond asked, an amused undertone in his voice.
“Duct tape,” Jack said.
“Duct tape?” Daniel asked.
“Never leave home without it.”
“Sir, didn't we establish that MacGyver isn't exactly realistic?” Sam's voice came over the MALP radio.
“Oh!” Jack raised a finger. “If anyone can get my Simpson's comic collection from the house...”
“Sir, we need to disconnect so our system won't overload,” Sam interrupted with a chuckle.
“Right. Gotcha. Don't spoil the dog rotten, Carter.”
“We'll have your supplies ready in four hours sharp, Jack. Hammond out,” the general said and a moment later the gate shut down, dunking the gate room in silence.
“Well,” Jack drawled finally, “That's good news.”
“No more hunting and preparing game,” BD said with mock disappointment. “It was such fun to go caveman for a change.”
Jack snorted and Daniel couldn't help but snigger despite his still churning stomach.
Calm down, he thought, maybe it'll take days or weeks for them to find a safe way to extract the crystals from the statue.
But that wasn't really satisfying either. He needed to make up his mind somehow.
“How about we leave caveman here to his Ancient musings and take a quick ride in the gate hopper?” Jack suggested, waggling his eyebrows in a conspiratorial way. In a stage whisper he added, “Gets me outta doing dishes, too.”
“How come getting out of chores is okay when you're trying to do it, but when I'm doing it I'm a lazy slob?” Daniel asked with interest, glad for the distraction.
Jack scowled. “I'm older and wiser and have done chores before you were born.”
BD rolled his eyes. “Oh, you poor man. I feel for you.” But he shooed them away with a wave of his hands and said, “Go, abuse the gate hopper. But if you're not back to help put away the supplies I'm going to keep all the coffee and chocolate to myself.”
They probably thought they were very witty and subtle, but Daniel saw the look they exchanged and knew Jack was up to something. He made a quick mental check of the last couple of days, trying to figure out if he was in trouble, or at least in for a serious talk about something Jack wanted to set straight with him. But Daniel was pretty sure he hadn't been too much of a pain lately. That, and Jack didn't seem to be annoyed at all as they took the elevator to the hangar.
They chose one of the gate hoppers and exited through the roof opening.
“How about we take a flight over the mainland and check out the mountains?” Jack asked as they soared across the ocean.
“Can we land?” Daniel had seen the mountains on one of their earlier flights and wanted to take a closer look.
“If you turn your body shield on and stay in sight,” Jack said his obligatory piece, then added. “And if we find a good place to land.”
“Jack? Do you think they will let me keep the body shield when we're home? Do you think they...” He trailed off, biting his lip. He had wanted to ask if Jack thought they’d allow him to go off world again if he wore this body shield all the time. But there was no need for that, right? He'd be big again soon.
Hopefully.
Maybe.
Jack gave him a sideways glance. “They'll probably want it to go to Area 51 to see if they can back engineer it.”
“Oh! Right. I didn't think of that. That would be cool. If all the teams could wear a shield like that.”
“Yeah, pretty cool,” Jack agreed.
They reached the coast and Daniel watched the beach and the jungle slide by as they held course on the mountains in the distance. As they got closer Daniel could see the red and yellow rock face. Its layered structure reminded him of the Garden of the Gods.
They took a wide curve and lost altitude.
“There's a plateau not far from here.” Jack pointed at the map on the screen, to the north rim. “Let's take a look.”
Ten minutes later the small ship settled gently on the hard smooth surface. They took a moment to just stare out the front screen, taking in the grand view.
“Wow,” Daniel finally broke the silence.
Jack checked something on the screen and gave green light for getting out. -
There was surprisingly little wind and the air seemed just slightly thinner. There was nothing but naked rock under their feet. The plateau was a wide surface surrounded by nothing but the sky - wispy clouds like cotton wool - and a sun that seemed closer than usual. They were literally on top of the world.
And Daniel felt very small in comparison to the elemental force of this giant mountain.
“We have to be careful not to get sunburned,” Jack muttered as they stepped a little closer to the rim.
“Look at that,” Daniel whispered.
Beneath them colors of red and yellow gleamed in the sun where the mountainside fell down. Further ahead there were masses of dark and lighter greens with a smooth transition into all the different endless shades of blue where the ocean began and melted with the sky at the horizon.
“Makes us seem pretty meaningless, huh?” Jack mused.
“Do you think we're the first people up here?” Daniel asked. “Or do you think the Ancients had use for this place somehow?” He looked around. It was just a plain empty space, but it made a great landing platform.
Daniel knelt on the ground and looked at the layers of rock stratum with its fine yellow and white lines woven into a complex pattern. And like he had done at the Garden of the Gods Daniel wondered how many millions of years it had taken for this rock to grow. Geology wasn't his strong side, but he thought it was fascinating.
“Maybe they had secret conspiracy meetings up here. Danced around a bonfire or howled at the moon,” Jack offered.
“Or made weird sacrifices,” Daniel said with a grin. “Killed a goat, ate its heart and let out their inner spirits of wanton lust and blood thirst.”
“Got drunk and had orgies?”
Daniel giggled. “Can you imagine someone like Oma getting drunk and having orgies?”
“Well... still waters run deep and all that. I bet if she ever got drunk she'd lose the ability to spout all that wisdom,” Jack said.
“Maybe they only turned so wise and start talking in riddles after ascension happened,” Daniel suggested. “Or maybe they're always high on something once they end up being glowy.” He grimaced. “Listen to me, Jack, I’m talking like you!”
“Yes. I'm so proud.” Jack grinned. “Finally my wisdom and influence is rubbing off on you. It's about time.”
Daniel sat up and looked at Jack who had settled on the ground next to him. “I'm not sure I can bear having all your wisdom on top of mine,” he said dryly.
“You're a tough cookie, you'll deal.”
“And when I get upsized all your hard work will have been for nothing,” Daniel said before he could stop himself.
“I'll live,” Jack said. “My heart will bleed, but I'll survive you going back to being Doctor Jackson full time – with all the O'Neil charm lost.” He let out a deep melodramatic sigh. “What a shame.”
Daniel looked at his hands. A thin layer of dust was on his palms from when he had touched the ground earlier. He brushed it off. This was it. If they were ever going to talk about this, now was the time. Then he raised his head and gave Jack a sharp look. “Why did you bring me up here?”
“To enjoy the great view?”
“To cajole me into talking?” Daniel asked back.
“Talking's good,” Jack said lightly. He placed his elbows on his knees and cocked his head, giving Daniel an encouraging look. “We could talk. Or we could just sit here and watch the clouds.”
“I don't know how to talk about this,” Daniel blurted out. “I don't know...” I don't know what I want. I don't know how to live with the fallout of doing what I want, when I finally know what I want.
Daniel suddenly remembered how they had sat on a rock by a lake on Tink'ah's planet. How he had blamed himself for what had happened to him. Because he had touched the button in the wall and gotten zapped into a child. How Jack had vehemently told Daniel it wasn't anybody's fault. How they had yelled at each other, how hard Daniel had tried not to cry.
How he had wished he’d lost his memories and Jack could be his dad for real. And how, at the same time, he had hated the thought of Jack being his dad.
He had been so miserable back then. So kaput. Broken. Damaged. His... soul so torn apart. And Jack had kept picking up the pieces for him, again and again. Over and over. Until Jack had said he couldn't carry this for both of them anymore. That Daniel had to work with him and pull his own weight to get better.
And eventually Daniel had sucked it up, pulled his weight and gotten better.
Slowly. Little by little. Week after week, month after month. With Jack as his safety net, always ready to catch him when he fell, always at his back, watching his six. Jack and BD. Teal'c, Sam, Janet, Hammond.... but mostly Jack.
And that's how it always had been. Jack was there. Just there. Waiting for Daniel to open up, to come out with it and talk. Jack could be annoying to no end, riling Daniel up and being a pain in the neck just as he alleged Daniel usually was. But when it came down to it Jack was like an anchor, like Daniel's bridge over troubled water.
Daniel didn't want to talk about it. He knew Jack didn't want it either. But as the minutes ticked off Daniel felt the words forcing their way out of him nevertheless. “Everything's going to be upside down again when I'm upsized. For all of us.”
“Upside down and we are like this,” Jack held up two fingers and pressed them together. “We do upside down all the time.”
“Maybe I'm tired of upside down. Maybe I just want to keep the normality in my life for a while,” Daniel said. It had taken so long for this to become normal. He wasn't sure how to start all over again in a kind of reverse situation.
“I guess there's no easy way out of this, Daniel. But on the bright side; you get big, you can go back to gate travel. You'll get the adult part of your life back. Hey, it means no more restrictions. No more crappy rules about working hours, bed times, having three meals a day. You get your car back. You can drink again and you get to stay up all night until you collapse over your laptop. You can live on your own again and no one's going to nag at you about doing your chores.” Jack sounded way too upbeat.
“Are we making lists of pro and cons now?” Daniel asked.
“Whatever helps.”
“I won't have to go through being a teen all over again. The only good thing about being a teen was that it bought me closer to becoming an adult and I could gradually make decisions for myself. I went to college when I was 15. I was alone most of the time, but I was finally more independent,” Daniel said.
“You're never going to be alone again, Daniel. You know that. Either way things are going to be different this time around,” Jack said quietly.
Daniel nodded. “Yeah, I know. Isn't it ironic? When I got littled, one of the worst things I imagined could happen was you becoming my father. To change everything we used to be before. It felt like sacrilege. Like destroying something that was so precious to me. So...” Daniel searched for words and came up with, “complete. I never had anything perfect in my life for long. Everyone just died or went away. But you stuck around and I had such a strong feeling about you and me. And then I got like this and things fell apart again.”
It felt weird to talk about all this again. Daniel realized they had stopped mulling over the past a long time ago. Had just stopped talking about it because they had both moved on from there, somehow, had lived in the here and now, leaving the past in the past. Conversations about the future and 'after the upsizing' had been far and few between. And awkward. So they had mostly not talked about that either. They had waited for Anubis. Everything beyond that had seemed so meaningless in the light of it. So they had just decided to make the best of their lives and deal with anything else once they all survived Anubis.
Here they were. A bit ruffled, a bit weary, but alive. And faced with the next challenge. For some reason this felt worse than having to face Ba'al and Anubis.
“What about now?” Jack asked softly.
“Now? Now you are my dad.” Daniel tasted the word, let it sink in, repeated it silently. It still felt weird to call him that, even in his head. Al used to say ‘your dad’ when he referred to Jack. Daniel had long stopped correcting him. But he’d never said it himself, not for real. Had never felt like saying it. Jack was Jack. Yet, it had never felt more true.
He bit his lip. “Sort off. And that confuses the hell out of me when it comes to getting big again,” Daniel snapped, not able to keep the irritation out of his voice.
“I'm also your friend, Daniel. I'm always gonna be your friend first of all. You get big again, I'll be there for you. I'm not saying it's going to be easy for any of us. But we'll figure it out and get through it.”
Daniel wanted to believe him so badly. Wanted to take Jack's offer and rely on it. He had learned to rely on Jack more than ever these last two years. No matter how hard he had tried to fight it, he had ended up taking the offered support and allowing himself to become dependent again to some degree.
“I... I thought about this on Christmas. When Teal'c and I found the mistletoe,” Daniel admitted. “That you can still be my... dad... sort of, even when I'm big again. Or my friend. That you'll still be here and that's somehow all that matters. But Jack, I won't remember. I won't KNOW I want you to be just my friend or... BD never wanted you to be his dad when he showed up in our time line.”
“Daniel...”
“And... what about BD anyway?” Daniel asked. “How is that going to work with you and two of us?”
He had been there when Jack pulled BD out of his coma on Christmas, had seen the tracks of tears on Jack's face. Daniel had seen them holding onto each other after Jack's sort-of-breakdown last week. Daniel had known about their feelings for each other for a long time, had accepted them as something natural because there was Jack and there was a grown up Daniel. It was bound to happen. And he had wondered about the lack of jealously on his part, had observed them from the sidelines as they had tried so hard not to get involved. For his sake.
But... “What if I go back to loving you the way he does, when I'm big again?”
“We'll figure it out,” Jack repeated.
“You're just saying that to make me feel better.” Daniel watched Jack's face, carefully schooled into calmness. But Jack's eyes were too dark, too tense, betraying the confidence of his voice and the relaxed features. “You don't believe it yourself. Drop the act, okay?”
The corners of Jack's mouth dropped and he grimaced. “Okay. I don't know how to work it out. I have no friggin' idea how it's gonna be. But we'll try. We'll somehow...” Jack threw up his hands. “We've faced all this crap together and we're going to see this through to the end. That's a promise. The only one I can make at the moment.”
Daniel raised his eyebrows. “We?”
“We. You, me and Jackson. And the rest of the gang.”
“I don't know how...”
“Neither do I. But there has to be a way.” After a moment, Jack's elbow nudged Daniel's. “Trust me?”
“You know I do.” That wasn't the point.
Daniel wasn't quite sure what the point was. Jack's assurance meant a lot, but Daniel had never doubted that his friend would stick with him after the upsizing. He wasn't sure about anything else, but this one thing he knew. What he didn’t know was if he could stand seeing Jack with BD after the upsizing. Daniel didn't know if he could face having to reconstruct the last two years of his life by journal entries, pictures, talking to friends and maybe Svenson. Didn't know if he had a right to rip everything apart again by getting his old life back. Or part of his old life. Didn't know if he was going to be the same Daniel Jackson he used to be, or even close. So much had changed...
They fell silent and gazed at the distant colors of green and blue,
“And what if Sam can't dismantle the statue without destroying it? Have you thought of that? What if she has to break it in order to get us home?” Daniel asked finally.
“Then we're going to stay here until she finds another way or we find another power source,” Jack replied without hesitation. “You're not going to lose the chance of getting big again to get us home.”
“Maybe I don't want to make that choice myself,” Daniel whispered. “I don't know how to make this choice. If it was just me this is about...” But even then... even if it was just about him and didn't involve the happiness of two other people... was he ready to do this?
“Then don't,” Jack said next to him, voice gruff.
Daniel looked at him and blinked. “What?”
“Don't make the choice.”
“But...”
“Don't make it until you know what you want. You don't have to make it today. Or next week. Let's go home if we can, settle back in, take some time. Make the choice when you're ready. No one's pushing you.”
Daniel shook his head. “It won't get easier in time. More the opposite.”
“Oh, for...” Jack scrubbed a hand over his face. “I knew this wasn’t going anywhere.”
“Sorry,” Daniel murmured.
“It's not your fault,” Jack muttered. “It's just screwed. All of it.”
Suddenly Daniel felt the sting of tears. He swallowed them down and quickly ducked his head. He blinked as the hard outlines of the rocky ground became blurry. Scrambling to his feet he took a couple of steps away from Jack, pressing his fists into his burning eyes. Stupid kid-side taking over again. He didn’t need that. Not now. Except it was part of him and he couldn’t help it happening from time to time. Same story over and over again.
Why does everything we do have to be so damn complicated, he thought, outraged at the unfairness of it all. And while Daniel had accused Jack of not even trying to accept the ways of the Ancients, he couldn’t help but be mad at them, too. Aiyana could have taken his adult memories from him when she'd been inside his head. It would have made things so much easier. If he was a real child, he wouldn’t be faced with this dilemma now.
“Aww, Daniel...” He stiffened when Jack's hands settled on his shoulders and turned him around.
For the fraction of a moment he wasn't sure if he'd brush Jack's hands off or not. Looking up into those sad brown eyes made all of this so much worse. Daniel drew in a sucking breath. “Why can't we just... why can't we just go home?”
“Is that what you really want?” Jack asked, his hands cupping Daniel's face now. “Going home? Even if it means you can't use the statue again?”
“I don't know!” Daniel felt Jack's thumbs gently brushing away the dampness from the corners of his eyes. “All I know is that I miss Flyboy and I'm worried about him. And that I want to see Sam and Teal'c again. And I miss home and Al. I couldn't even say goodbye to him. He has no idea where we are, Jack. He probably thinks I went on vacation without telling him. He'll be mad and...”
“Shhh, it's okay. It's okay.” Jack wrapped his arms around Daniel and Daniel pressed his flushed face against the fabric of Jack's BDU jacket.
“I don't want things to change.” Daniel choked out, voice muffled. “But I feel that if I don't get big again, I'll never know if I made the right decision.”
“Maybe there is no right or wrong. Only what makes you happy,” Jack suggested.
Tell me to stay little, Daniel thought. Tell me you don’t want me to get big. Tell me you need to be my dad... But Jack wasn’t going to say it. And Daniel didn’t know why he wanted to hear those words so desperately. What was he looking for here anyway? Justification? Another way to avoid having to make the choice for himself?
As though he was reading Daniel’s thoughts, Jack said softly, “I wish I could tell you what to do, buddy, but I can’t. I’m sorry.”
Sniffling, Daniel turned around in Jack's arms, leaning his back against the solid body. Jack folded his hands over Daniel's heart and Daniel's clasped his own hands over Jack's. “Jack?”
“Daniel?”
“I don't want to forget.” That scared him, too. The forgetting. The loss of what had been one of the most significant times of his life. Good and bad.
“I know, Danny, I know.” Jack tightened his arms around him. “But if you get big again, I'll remember for both of us.”
II
They spent the remaining time, until the supplies were shipped through, in their quarters. Daniel and LD were reading Lantian mission reports on the small devices resembling e-readers they had found in one of the labs. Jack was hanging out on the balcony, watching the waves or the dolphins. Daniel had considered following him out, but Jack had put on his closed off ‘don’t talk to me’ face when he’d left the room and Daniel knew there wasn’t much else to say.
He hadn’t gotten a run-down of what Jack and LD had talked about on their trip to the mountains, but he hadn’t expect to get one right away. The two of them had returned an hour ago and Daniel had seen the barely concealed sadness in both of them.
Maybe Jack had been right.
Talking about it now didn’t solve anything.
Daniel had secretly hoped that once confronted with it, LD would come to terms with what he wanted. Sometimes a bit of prompting and a gentle nudge to give him the opportunity to actually talk helped to make him verbalize his own needs. Something he’d never been good at. Because saying out loud what he wanted for himself – without having to take in account what everyone else might think was good for him or expected of him – always had the taste of being selfish. No one knew that better than Daniel. He had hoped that if Jack offered the kid a way of just coming out with it... that LD would say the words.
Maybe Jack had blown it.
But – little screw ups and bumps in the road aside – Jack usually did a pretty good job in dealing with mini-Daniel.
Or maybe Daniel was just wrong and LD didn’t want to stay little after all? Maybe he’d misread the signs all along. Maybe it had just been wishful thinking on his part.
Selfishness.
LD put his e-reader down and gave him a weary smile. Suddenly Daniel realized he’d been watching the boy for the last couple of minutes.
“Sorry,” he muttered, staring back at his reader.
“I never thanked you,” LD said softly. “And I probably should do that before I forget.”
Daniel looked up again, frowning. “Thank me for what?”
“For never forcing your way between Jack and me. For always trying to do the right thing.”
“Ah, I think I kind of failed there, though,” Daniel said. They all had gotten way too close a long time ago. It was exactly what made this mess so much worse.
But LD shook his head and put his reader down. “In all the time since you arrived in our time line, you never tried to take my place.”
“I did take your place on SG-1,” Daniel said quietly.
“You took Baxter’s place. And you’d never have done it without making sure I was okay with it,” LD countered. “You and Jack, you never forgot who I really am.”
“None of us forgot who you are, Daniel,” Daniel said.
LD considered this and nodded. “You’re right. But for you and Jack it was the hardest. I know I said there’s going to be one of us too many when I’m... if I’m... and Jack said we’re going to stick together anyway. Somehow. I don’t know if that’s just wishful thinking. At this point, I don’t know anything at all. But I hope that... that if I’m going to be bitchy or resentful. If I’m going to...”
“You won’t,” Daniel said, knowing that might not be true.
“If I’m going to forget and if I’m going to tell you to go to hell... I hope you won’t forget who I... was. And that you’ll forgive me. Because kid-me loves you. And that’s a real doozy because I never quite loved myself all that much.” There was a lopsided grin and a blush.
Daniel swallowed hard, wondering if he’d ever had awkward conversations like this before he met Little Daniel. Probably not. “Okay,” he managed. “And...”
Jack stepped through the open balcony doors. “Something’s up. They’re dialing in early.”
I love you too, kid, Daniel thought, stunned, as they headed out.
***
It was Carter’s voice coming over the MALP radio. And she sounded rather bewildered. “Sir, we’re having a slight...” There was static and then she was back. “Are you ready to come home now?”
Jack raised his scarred eyebrow – it was an automatic response to things that caught him off guard; he couldn’t help it – and asked. “Come again? Right now?”
“Yes. Because this may be your only chance, sir.”
“What’s going on?” His spidery senses were tingling.
“We’ve got a visitor and she’s coming through, bringing you the statue now,” Carter said.
“What kind of visitor?” Jackson asked from beside Jack.
“She doesn’t talk much, but I believe she’s an Ancient. She took the statue...”
“Oma?” Daniel piped up from Jack’s other side.
“I don’t know. She just showed up in the gate room, opened the wormhole to Atlantis, and everyone but me just... collapsed. Sir, she’s coming through now. Step aside.” There was more static, then nothing.
“Carter!” Jack called out for her, and then grabbed both Daniels by their jackets and pulled them backwards as the wormhole brightened up in a dazzling light and a white flowing something burst out of it, tendrils of energy spreading all through the gate room, whirling and curling, blinding Jack for a moment. He drew the Daniels close, one arm tightly wrapped around each, and together they went down.
There was no sound, no voice, just that light.
The kid tried to wriggle out of Jack’s grip. “I need to talk to her, Jack, I need to, let me go, let me...”
Jack looked up at the white glowing entity bearing the face of a woman. Not Oma. Not Aiyana. Not Ganos Lal. A new one. Great. Long ginger hair was floating in the midst of the white pulsing light and her eyes were of an emerald green.
“Jack!”
They came to their feet and Jack kept his hand tightly on LD’s jacket collar. Addressing the Ancient, he asked. “What do you want?” He had heard Carter telling him they were getting a ride home. But he had learned his lesson in Ancient-y. He wasn’t going to hold his breath.
She moved forwards, holding something out to them.
A shimmering golden tree with green, blue and red gleaming crystals in its branches and roots.
“The Yggdrasil,” Jackson said.
“Jack.” Daniel twisted and wound himself out of his jacket.
Jack let go of him, his whole body tense, ready to leap and snatch Daniel away from her.
Daniel stepped forward and raised his hands. The statue was passed over gently and the Ancient smiled.
“Thank you,” Daniel said. “Who... who are you?”
She tilted her head to the right and put a finger to her lips, still smiling.
“You... you can’t tell me?”
She shook her head.
Daniel turned around and extended his hands with the statue, indicating for Jack to take it. “You have to stick it to the DHD,” he said.
“No.” Jack shook his head. That wasn’t how it was supposed to go down.
“Yes, you do. It’s our only chance to go home.”
“She could take us home. Or upsize you. Or both. Take your pick.” Jack crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not going to stick that thing to the DHD and leave it here.”
“She’s already risked being found out by the Others,” Daniel said. “Don’t get her into trouble.”
Jack stepped forward until he was merely inches away from her. Blinking against the brightness, he made his stand. “Look, we’re grateful you came through for us. But the statue has to come back with us. He needs it. So, if you want to take us home, do it. But we’re not going to use the statue.”
Her emerald eyes settled on him for a long moment, before she finally spoke. “Daniel has to go home,” she said. Her voice was dark and kind of breathy, like she’d smoked too much.
“Oh, yeah? Why?” He could smell there was another rat. And he’d be damned if he allowed the Ancients to use Daniel for one more little favor.
“I know,” Daniel said next to him, tugging at his elbow. “She’s right. We need to go. We need to go now, Jack.”
Jackson sidled up on Daniel’s other side. “Why?” he repeated Jack’s question. “Don’t you think you’ve put us through enough. Don’t you think he needs a break?”
“No, you don’t understand!” Daniel exclaimed. “It’s about the Replicators. It’s... I just remembered it now... Aiyana told me. How to get rid of them.”
The Ancient nodded, the light around her head rippling with the movement. “It will not harm you to give away the information. It is not your fight, but you have the knowledge.”
Oh, god. Was this ever going to end? “Take us home,” Jack demanded harshly. “Quit playing games. You want him to help? Get us outta here.”
“It is you who need the help,” she said mildly. “It is your world, your galaxy, in peril if the Replicators aren’t to be stopped.”
Jack opened his mouth to give her a piece of his mind, when Daniel took in a sharp breath. “Oh my god,” he whispered as he stepped forward and into the Ancient’s personal space – if you could call the aura of light her personal space.
“Daniel...” Jack groused. His hands were itching to pull him back.
“I can handle this, Jack,” Daniel said dismissively, glare fixed on the Ancient. “I just had another piece of that knowledge slip into place. I thought Ba’al pulled it all out into the open, but apparently there was still something missing.”
Ancient gal didn’t respond.
Daniel turned to look at Jack over his shoulder. “The Ancients created the Replicators in the first place. The Atlantis Ancients invented them as a weapon to destroy the Wraith.”
“Backfired much?” Jack exchanged a look with Jackson.
“They emulated their creators and took human form. A new race was born, The Asuran .But they replicated too fast, were too intelligent and focused on taking over everything. They were made aggressive because they were supposed to be used as a weapon, but it didn’t work out. Again, the Ancients tried for something big and failed. They created life and it turned against them.” Daniel looked back at the Ancient standing before them, unmoving. “Is that right?”
She bowed her head. “The Lantians underestimated the threat the Asuran presented. When they finally realized their experiment had failed, it was too late. The Asuran could not be completely erased. But the Lantians re-programmed their collective mind to make sure they would not find their way back to Atlantis.”
“So, how did the Replicators... the bug version... end up in the Milky Way galaxy?” Jackson asked.
“Once the Lantians returned to Avalon, one of their scientists decided to use the nano technology to create another human form replicator. To search for the flaw in the Asuran programming.”
“Reese,” Daniel said. “Reese was created by an Ancient. And she created the replicator bugs that destroyed her planet and spread out all over the galaxy.”
Ancient gal bowed her head again.
“For such an advanced race you screwed up quite a lot,” Jack said.
“Where there is progress and evolution, there is also failure,” she replied smoothly.
“And we’ve been known to screw up quite a bit as a race, too. We just don’t do it that big because we’re still limited to our planet, for the most part,” Jackson reminded them dryly.
“I want you to stop using me like I’m some kind of trouble shooter for your failures,” Daniel said in that special tone that was both kid and adult. The voice he used when he was talking business and needed to be heard by Ancients, Goa’uld and – sometimes – stubborn USAF Colonels with too strong paternal streaks. “I know you can’t come out and ask for help. I’ll help you put things right if you need me too. But you, or someone, orchestrated a whole web of prophecies, half truths and manipulations to get us where we are now. We had to sacrifice so much to take care of Anubis. We’ll fight the replicators, too. Not for you, but for us. So we can hopefully have peace. But you need to rethink your way of approaching people.”
Ancient gal lowered her eyes for a moment and when she looked at them again, there was genuine sadness in them. “I know we have asked much of you. All of you.”
Jack acknowledged her apology. But that didn’t quite cut it for him. The point was they hadn’t asked. At all. But he kept his mouth shut because Daniel wasn’t done yet.
“You need to realize that by doing things the way you do, you are interfering much more with the lives and natural ways of the lower beings than a simple request would have done,” he said fiercely. “You have this big non-interference rule, but your sneaky ways only made it worse for us. Try to make that clear to The Others.”
“The Others are convinced the none-interference rule is the natural consequence of our failures,” Ancient gal said. “Only a small group does not believe in total non-interference. But we cannot take the direct approach without being stopped.”
“Take the risk! Talk to them.”
“Only The First One can convince them to change their ways. And he has been absent for too long,” she said, and there was something hard and steely in her voice, a bitterness Jack recognized all too well. There was some history here.
“Then you have to try yourself. Try to convince them to play openly. To make exceptions. When the whole galaxy is at stake, when the life you so carefully created is at danger... shouldn’t that be worth it stepping in? Help us to act without changing all our lives on a dime just because you can’t take the risk? What about our risks? It’s okay for us to... to be turned into a child? It’s okay for us to be forced to go back in time after seeing all our friends die at the hand of Anubis? To be kidnapped by Ba’al, to be dragged to another galaxy without a way home? It’s okay for us to take the risks, but you can’t because you can’t interfere?”
She turned her head as though she heard something. When she faced them again, she said, “Oma DeSala and Aiyana have created a diversion to draw The Other’s attention away from me, but I can feel them. They are close. They will be here soon.”
“Can I talk to them?” Daniel asked. “Will they listen to me?”
Jack felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. He opened his mouth to voice his belief that this was a very bad idea. Loudly. A hand on his arm stopped him. He saw the message in Jackson’s eyes. Let him do this.
Jack bit hard on his lip and tried not to grind down his teeth.
She shook her head. “You are a lower being. They won’t even acknowledge your existence.”
There, see, no reason to visit glowy land. No point. No use.
Her Glowy Highness brightened and pulsed. “I will take you home.”
“Just like that?” Jack asked, not at all convinced she’d go through with it.
She seemed to stretch out around them, engulfing them in her glowyness and Jack felt a forward motion, something was pulling him towards the still open gate. He tried to move his head to see if Jackson and the kid were with him, but he was paralyzed...
Okay, that’s new, he thought as the wormhole swallowed him and then he was sucked through...
...and stumbled out on the other side. He lost his balance and crashed hard on the gate ramp with his right shoulder when a heavy body slammed into him from behind. Jack sat up, shaking his head to clear it, and was still surrounded by the white light. But he could make out Daniel standing at the foot of the ramp and he could hear Jackson cursing under his breath beside him. Slowly, doing a mental check for broken bones or strained muscles and joints, Jack came to his feet. Jackson bumped into him as he heaved himself off the floor and Jack grabbed his arm to keep them both steady until the world stopped spinning.
Slowly the eye-piercing brightness receded and the gate room took shape.
They had clicked their heels three times.
There’s no place like home.
“Take the Yggdrasil,” Ancient gal said. “You will find the missing stone..” There was a bolt of energy, a wooshing sound like winds in the willows and the gate room exploded in whiteness again. Jack covered his eyes with one arm as he surged forward to reach Daniel, but was thrown flat on his back, hitting the ramp for the second time in the last two minutes or so. The air was knocked out of his lungs and his hard skull connected with hard metal.
III
“Jack!”
“I think he’s coming around.”
“Jack, can you hear me?”
Jack cracked one eye open. “If you yell any louder my head’s gonna explode,” he groaned, blinking away another case of spinning-world.
Little Daniel’s anxious face came into view and small hands patted his face. “You hit your head.”
Well, d’oh. “Wasgoin’on?” He tried to sit up, grateful for the hands on his shoulders holding him upright. Jack allowed himself a moment to lean against Jackson. Head hurt. World was still spinning.
“She’s...” Jackson gestured at something lying by the foot of the ramp, but a medical team was blocking Jack’s sight. “I guess she just descended.”
“They took it.” Daniel was squatted in front of him, eyes huge as saucers, glasses askew, hair ruffled as though he’d put his hand into a socket. “The Others took the statue.”
Jack rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Aw, crap.”
Then Fraiser was there with her always-ready-penlight, torturing Jack’s eyes once more. Her fingertips gently probed the back of his head. “Hmm, you got lucky, Colonel. Your head’s too hard to crack. Any dizziness, nausea, headache?”
“Yes, no, yes,” he muttered. “Happy to see you too, Doc.”
She smiled then, patting his shoulder. “Welcome home. Can you walk? I want you in the infirmary ASAP.”
“I hit my head on the ramp. I wasn’t shot or anything,” he groused and scrambled to his feet, brushing off Jackson’s hands.
“Well, you passed out,” Jackson pointed out.
“I did NOT.”
“Yes, you did.”
“I had a moment of disorientation... “
“Fainted.”
“Jackson?”
“Jack?”
“Go away?”
“I see you’re alert and your usual charming self, Colonel. Daniel, make sure he finds his way to the infirmary. Oh, and I want you and Little Daniel there, too.” Janet pocketed her penlight. “I need to check on the Ancient woman.” With a shake of her head she rushed out, following her medical team.
Carter and Teal’c came into view. They hugged the kid and Jack got a Jaffa-warrior clasp of arms and a cheery “It’s so good to see you, sir,” from his former 2IC. Daniel was pulling at his hand, demanding they go to the infirmary right now. Jackson was next to be hugged and then Hammond somehow got into the mix and welcomed them home, a huge smile on his face. He ordered them into the infirmary and then to de-brief. Finally they all moved out of the gate room, down the corridor and to the elevator.
When SG-1 reached the infirmary one of the nurses shooed Carter and Teal’c off to wait outside, then ordered Jack and the Daniels to sit down and wait for Fraiser.
“I need to see her,” Daniel said.
Jack slumped on one of the beds. “Who?”
“The Ancient woman who brought us home. The Others took away her powers and descended her before they took the statue. Are you okay, Jack?”
“Yeah, I’m good. Scoot, visit the fallen angel.”
Daniel gave him something between a scowl and a smile and scurried out to find his new Ancient pal. Jack watched the small figure leave the room, torn between anger on Daniel’s behalf and a guilty pang of relief.
“He’ll be fine,” Jackson said softly, his eyes following Daniel, too.
“It’s not fair,” Jack ground out.
After all he’d done... it should have been his choice to make. Not forced on him – again.
“No. No, it’s not.” Jackson sat down next to him, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We could go to Kheb, maybe. Try to contact Oma. If... I don’t know.”
“She’s not going to help,” Jack said bitterly.
“Well... this Ancient did help.”
And paid the price. Daniel will never allow that to happen again. Jack shook his head and Jackson nodded. No words needed here.
***
She was lost.
Daniel could see it the moment she looked at him and smiled.
There was no recognition in her green eyes, just a tentative curiosity.
She was hooked on an IV and to a digital heart rate monitor via finger clip.
Daniel slipped into the chair next to her bed and studied her for a moment. Her long dark, ginger hair framed a pale face with high cheekbones and impressive green eyes. She was a beautiful woman and there was a faint resemblance with Aiyana. For a moment Daniel wondered if they were related. But then, maybe it was just the hair color that seemed similar.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hello.” She raised a hand and touched her forehead.
“Are you in pain?”
“My head.” She looked at him. “Có thusa?” She cringed. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“I’m... I’m Daniel. That’s Gaelic. What you said... You asked me who I am.”
She pursed her full lips, frowning. “I... can’t...” Her eyes widened. “I don’t know who I am.”
She was lost. It was his fault. Because he hadn’t been able to convince Jack to just stick the statue to the DHD. But more so because he hadn’t tried hard enough to make Jack do it. He couldn’t make up his mind. He had tried to talk her into taking the risk... because he’d been angry. And because he had wanted the statue as a safety net. As a way out, just in case...
Daniel swallowed hard. “I’m sorry.”
She looked around. “Am I in a hospital?”
“Something like that.”
“I had an accident,” she concluded. No panic. Just puzzlement. Maybe she was in shock?
“Yes. An accident,” Daniel confirmed.
What else was he supposed to say? No, you were attacked by ascended beings, stripped of your powers and thrown back onto the lower plain with no memory and nowhere to go?
She gazed at him again. “Do I know you? Can you tell me who I am?”
He could only take an educated guess. “You speak Gaelic...”
“I don’t. I mean, I don’t remember I do. Apparently I do – but I have no idea why or how.”
“You’re Cassandra.” The Scottish Gaelic was his only proof, but it made sense.
“Cassandra?” She shook her head. “Doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“Yes. Of the Donan Woods. You’re a...” A wicca? A witch? A healer? He didn’t know how to say this without spooking her.
She raised her mobile eyebrows. “Cassandra of the Donan Woods? Is that a name or a title?”
“Both, I guess.”
“How do you know me, leanabh?” She shook her head. “Sorry. I...”
“That’s okay. Leanabh means child. It’s what I am.” Sort off.
He was trying to come up with a soothing way of explaining when Janet entered the room, followed by a nurse. The nurse checked on Cassandra’s vitals and adjusted her IV. Janet gave the Ancient woman a reassuring smile, but addressed Daniel. “Let’s not wear our patient out too much just yet. She needs rest now and I want to run a couple of tests later.”
“Oh, that’s okay. We were just talking,” Cassandra said. She was still very calm. Either she was really in shock or the Others had at least given her the means to take this without panicking.
“That’s nice, but I need to take your blood now and Daniel has to have his physical, too. He’ll be back visiting tomorrow,” Janet said.
“I’m fine,” Daniel piped up, knowing it wouldn’t make a difference. He’d still be prodded and probed. To make sure he hadn’t brought home an Atlantis bug. Or that Ba’al hadn’t left him with a Swiss cheese brain.
He had so many questions. Cassandra’s inability to answer at least some of them was so frustrating.
“You probably are, but you know it’s SOP,” Janet said. “As soon as all your results come back negative, you can go home though. Nurse Johnston will take your blood samples. I’ll be with you as soon as I’m done here.”
Knowing he was dismissed, Daniel gave Cassandra a smile and went to face the inevitable. It was going to be a long couple of hours before they were all be cleared.
Daniel went through the usual check up on auto pilot, his thoughts circling around Cassandra and the consequences of her actions in order to help them. And the fact that the woman who had given Pierson the prophecy had been an Ancient as well. Who was she? And what kind of relationship did she have with Pierson?
He didn’t come to conclusions, which of course didn’t stop his mind doing somersaults and trying to find the answers regardless. But in the end the only person who might have been able to enlighten him was Pierson himself. Would Jack agree to a trip to Paris? Daniel had kept the card of Joe’s Bar Pierson had given him on Tinkah’s planet. Would Pierson even be there?
He was sitting on a bed, swinging his legs and pressing a cotton pad to his arm where nurse Johnston had drawn blood. Janet had just left after the usual examination, apparently satisfied with the results of whatever she’d seen in his eyes, ears and throat, and felt when she probed his belly and listened to his heartbeat and so on.
When the door opened he expected to be called to yet some other test. But it was Jack, telling him there would be a team gathering at the commissary while they were waiting for the clean bill of health and the debriefing to start. He had shaved and showered and was dressed in blue fatigues.
“How is your head?” Daniel hopped from the bed, throwing the cotton pad into the waste basket by the door.
“Well, little Napoleon diagnosed me with a mild concussion, but other than that it’s fine. If everything else turns out okay I’m going to be released under the condition that someone does the usual torture routine,” Jack said, pulling a face.
“Wake you every two hours for neuro checks tonight?” They had an old routine with that in their long history of nursing each other back to health.
“Yeah. Though, actually,” Jack looked at his watch, “it’s just around breakfast time... very early breakfast time, I might add. By tonight I’m either good or back in here with internal bleeding.”
Daniel cast him a worried glance. “You aren’t...”
“I’m okay. Bit of a headache. No dizziness, no nausea. I hit that ramp so often over the last seven years, I’m sure my head is immune to the blows. C’mon, let’s grab some breakfast before Fraiser decides to put me on a liquid diet for 24 hours due to the concussion.”
They headed down the familiar corridor to the elevators. Jack swiped his ID card through the slot and the door opened right away. They stepped in and leaned back against the walls, opposite each other. Jack looked at him somewhat sad-faced.
Daniel shook his head. “Don’t.”
“What?”
“Don’t say ‘I’m sorry’. It’s not the end of the world. That Ancient woman lost everything because she helped us. For her it might as well be the end of the world.”
“You gonna be okay?” Jack asked.
“We’re home,” Daniel replied softly. And it was only now that the meaning of ‘being home’ was beginning to sink in.
“Yeah,” Jack said. “We are.”
They made a detour to the locker room so Daniel could take a quick shower himself. It felt great to do that with real water, not just steam. He quickly dressed and dried his hair, looking forward to breakfast and sitting with SG-1 to swap news.
The commissary was empty except for a couple of airmen nursing an early morning coffee. But their usual table in the far left corner was occupied by Sam, Teal’c and BD. Daniel took one step inside, welcoming the faint smell of coffee, kitchen grease and food with an underlying scent of detergent and linoleum. The food counter had just opened and someone from the kitchen staff was carrying in chafing dishes filled with bacon, sausages and scrambled eggs.
Coffee, Daniel thought with another pang of ‘oh my god, we’re home’ realization. Waffles, pancakes, eggs... The time of sandwiches, make shift meals and MRE was over. Had it really only been a fortnight since they’d left Earth? It felt like they had been away for such a long time. So much had happened...
A loud heartbreaking howl put Daniel into motion. He was running, zig-zagging around tables, falling to his knees next to BD who was holding on to the frantic dog’s collar with both hands. Daniel crouched, wrapped both arms around Flyboy’s neck and they went down on the floor together. Flyboy buried him underneath, lavishing him with wet slobbery dog kisses, yelping and barking. Daniel laughed, hugged and squeezed, as he roamed his hands through the thick black coat.
“Flyboy, Flyboy,” he whispered softly into his dog’s ear, fighting tears of happiness. He had missed his dog so much. But he only now realized how much. “Oh, Flyboy...” Then he raised his head and looked at his friends. “He isn’t supposed to be here. Won’t Julie be mad?”
He didn’t want Flyboy to fall in disgrace. Like the infirmary and Sam’s lab, the commissary was dog-free zone. Julie Meyers, who was the head of the commissary staff, was determined to keep it that way. However, she was known to hand Daniel leftover treats for his dog from time to time.
“JulieMeyers has made an exception,” Teal’c rumbled, his dark eyes twinkling. “Only for today.”
“Oh,” Daniel said, tightening his arms around Flyboy, who was now trying to lick his ears out. “That’s great.” He was content to stay on the floor with the rampant dog, but after a moment Flyboy realized Jack was there, too, and he left Daniel in favor of sharing kisses and cuddles with the other member of his pack.
“Oh, someone’s happy,” Sam said with a smile. “You should have seen him when BD came in here. He was so confused at first, and then all hell broke loose.”
“He nearly knocked me on my ass,” BD grinned as they watched Flyboy’s efforts to knock Jack on his ass, too.
After ‘enduring’ Flyboy’s show of affection for a while, Jack did a lot of huffing and groaning and barking at the dog, trying to appear annoyed – and failing miserably. Daniel thought it was hilarious how those two always seemed to growl at each other like two alpha dogs trying to establish ranks, even though it was all playful.
As soon as Jack had warded off the dog and slouched in one of the chairs, Flyboy turned his attention back to Daniel who was still sitting on the floor.
The airmen left at this point and SG-1 had the luxury of privacy until people began to drop by for breakfast at the end or at the beginning of their shift.
“I will order breakfast now,” Teal’c announced, getting up.
“Coffee!” Daniel and BD shouted.
There was a flurry of requests with Daniel, BD and Jack talking all at once. They wanted bacon and eggs, pancake and syrup, French Toast, waffles, cereal, coffee (“in the big mugs, not the small cups”) and pie. Blueberry or apple. In the end, however, they left out the bacon and the pancakes, when Sam pointed out they might get sick if they stuffed themselves with too much heavy food after they had been on an enforced healthy diet for two weeks.
“You’re no fun, Carter,” Jack grumbled
Sam stared at them with raised eyebrows. “Feels like Urgo has returned.”
“Indeed.” Teal’c addressed Jack, “I need your assistance in carrying all the food, O’Neill.”
When breakfast arrived on two trays and Daniel managed to tear himself away from Flyboy and sit at the table they all dug in with gusto, relishing good old American food. Sam had blue jell-o and Teal’c a fruit plate. Jack was eating Froot Loops with apple pie on the side, while Daniel and BD savored eggs, toast and coffee. Lots of coffee.
“Tell us about Atlantis,” Sam said, between two mouthfuls of her dessert.
And that’s what they did for the next thirty minutes or so.
“So, Carter.” Jack finally put his spoon down and wiped milk off his chin with the back of his hand, then remembered his manners and grabbed the napkin. “Give me the whole brutal truth. I’m not arrested for treason, yet, but... in how much trouble am I? Seriously?”
Daniel felt his stomach churn. He had actually forgotten there had to be consequences for Jack stealing the gate hopper and the power source from Antarctica.
Sam exchanged a long look with Teal’c. “Sir,” she said finally, “you saved the planet. Again. That certainly doesn’t get old.”
Jack raised his scarred left eyebrow. “But?”
“Well, you stole the Ancient ship and the ZPM.”
“The… what?” Daniel asked.
“Oh, the power source. The crystals of the Yggdrasil are really Zero Point Modules. And I assume that your power source worked similar to them. They use zero point energy. Ah... Zero point energy is present in all quantum mechanical systems. It’s referred to as vacuum energy and remains when all matter is removed from a region of space. By definition zero point energy can never be depleted because a region of space can never have less than that amount. So theoretically it’s an unlimited and free energy source.”
“There’s a flaw in that,” Jack said dryly. “These ZPM thingies were depleted.”
“Yes, but I assume that’s a mechanical failure, not an energy failure,” Sam explained. “Theoretically the ZPM should never become depleted, but since all mechanical devices have imperfections, it is likely there's a miniscule amount of loss in the system that eventually leads to the last of the energy leaving the ZPM.”
“Go figure,” Jack grumbled.
“Ah, so, we stole the gate hopper and the ZPM, but we saved the world, so that equals... what?” BD steered the conversation back to the original question.
“MajorCarter and I were questioned by RichardWoolsey,” Teal’c said, the corners of his mouth dropping a couple of inches.
“Who’s that?” Jack asked. “NID?”
“IOA,” Sam provided. “It’s a new committee. They’re working hand in hand with HWS, monitoring any intergalactic projects. If you will, it’s the upgrade of the Gate Alliance Treaty.”
“Wait,” Daniel interrupted. “The Gate Alliance Treaty is a treaty signed by China, France, Great Britain and Russia, the partner countries of the SGC program. Why is there an upgrade?” He had a very bad feeling about this and when he met BD’s eyes, he knew he wasn’t the only one.
Sam heaved a sigh. “The Stargate is out in the open. The IOA is a committee consisting of 24 countries who all know about the program.”
“It has gone public?” BD asked, bewildered.
“Not exactly. Only on political levels and only to an assembly of people from each government. The main members of the IOA are the former members of the Gate Alliance Treaty, but a lot more countries all over the world know about it now,” Sam went on.
“The Antarctica battle did not go unnoticed by the other countries of your planet,” Teal’c elaborated further.
“Oh, man,” Daniel groaned. “Of course. Countless satellites and radars must have picked up the drones shooting into orbit and the ships blowing up there.”
“Crap,” Jack said with feeling.
Sam winced. “There’s more, sir. You, uh, we violated the Antarctica Treaty by using the Ancient weapon.”
Jack glared at her over his coffee mug. “What?!”
“You know, the treaty that says there are no military activities allowed in Antarctica. It’s a purely scientific preserve. The treaty was signed by 49 nations...”
“Daniel, I KNOW what the damn treaty is,” Jack snapped. “Next time we’ll just sit back and let the Goa’uld blow up the planet.”
“No one is blaming you for saving your world, O’Neill,” Teal’c said.
Jack raised a finger to underline, “Us, T. They better not blame us.”
“As I said, that never gets old,” Sam said dryly.
“And here we are with the ‘but’ again,” Jack pointed out.
“BUT,” Sam went on with a rueful little smile, “We kicked off a hell of a political avalanche. Senator Kinsey wants our heads. Colonel Simmons wants our heads and that Mr. Woolsey... he was like a terrier smelling a rat.”
For a moment there was heavy silence as they all looked at each other. Daniel tried to estimate the consequences of their actions, but in the end – what choice did they have?
Finally Jack said, “Oy.”
“Indeed.”
“What’s the fallout from all this?” BD asked.
“On the political front? I’m not sure. General Hammond spent days on all fronts trying to put out fires. Woolsey questioned us, but didn’t let us know anything. We were told to return to active duty, though, so that’s probably a good sign,” Sam told them.
“The Joint Chiefs and the IOA probably want the BBQ with the three of us,” BD said. Daniel noticed he was wearing glasses, not his contacts.
“What does that stand for anyway? Incredibly Oversized Asses?” Jack pushed his coffee mug away.
Daniel sniggered, then coughed and took a sip of his coffee.
“International Oversight Advisory,” Sam said, keeping a straight face. “The committee was put together within days after you were gone, trying to keep the political disaster at a minimum. And yes, stealing the Ancient ship and ZPM was considered an act of treason and leaving the planet an act of desertion, but seriously, sir, I doubt they’ll dare to accuse you of treason or deserting openly. The real problem is that the IOA is convinced you took our only chance of giving Earth the means of defense against alien intrusion.”
Teal’c bowed his head. “The Replicators are coming.”
“No one knows if the drones could get rid of them,” Jack objected. “And even if the drones could destroy them, those buggers would just adjust and become immune in no time.”
“That’s what we all think, but Woolsey insists that since it’s an Ancient weapon it would have worked. And that it’s your fault we can’t use that weapon now,” Sam said.
Daniel sat up straight, a shudder rippling through his body. “The Replicators,” he blurted out. “We need to talk to General Hammond.”
Jack tapped his watch. “Yep. Time to go, kids. Debriefing starts in five minutes.”
IV
Two hours later Daniel, BD and Jack had shared the most relevant points of their stay on Atlantis and General Hammond had reassured them that no charges would be pressed against them for saving the world and stealing the ship and ZPM. The IOA was not happy and it’d take some time for the dust to settle, but the president himself had given SG-1 immunity, much to Kinsey’s and Simmon’s chagrin.
“I recommend looking for ZPMs in our galaxy. The Ancients built the Stargates and had colonies on other planets. There should be other ZPMs somewhere. In fact, we should make that top priority,” Sam said as they were discussing the dead Antarctica outpost.
“If we find ZPMs, even if it’s just one, we can open the gate to Atlantis,” BD said. “We could send an expedition team there. The IOA must be interested in that. It’s a well of knowledge and technology.”
“Technology that, according to what you’ve just told me, only Colonel O’Neill can work with because he has the Ancient gene,” Hammond pointed out.
“Well, there’s that, but...”
“The IOA is interested in Atlantis, but their foremost concern is Earth security. And if we find a ZPM, it will go to the Antarctica outpost,” the general cut BD off, then added, “I’m sorry, Doctor Jackson.”
BD shrugged it off in a ‘I didn’t expect anything else’ manner.
“What about that Antarctica Treaty, sir?” Jack asked.
“The Ancient outpost will be considered a scientific matter until it is decided that the planet’s defenses from alien intruders can be considered a valid reason to make an exception of the treaty,” Hammond said. “But again – a ZPM is needed to make the outpost functional in the first place. Which is why I’m sure the IOA will agree to make finding ZPMs top priority in the future.”
Daniel glanced at the doodling pad in Jack’s hands and had to bite back a laugh at stick figure 1 kicking stick figure 2 into a roughly sketched open gate. Stick figure 2 was wearing a hat that had IOA written on it.
When General Hammond addressed him, Daniel felt a guilty blush creep into his cheeks and snapped his eyes away from Jack’s silly drawing. “Sir?”
“You said earlier you know how to defeat the replicators. The Ancient woman who showed up in the gate room told us the same before she sent us all to dreamland.”
Daniel closed his eyes briefly, searching his mind for the golden thread Aiyana had left there for him to find the necessary information. He could almost smell the sand of Abydos again, the refuge he had created in his mind while they had been hiding from Ba’al’s probe and its effects on him. Aiyana had given him images and symbols... the symbols to...
“There’s a weapon on a planet called Dakara. It was built by the Ancients to re-seed life in the Milky Way after the plague, but it can destroy life, too. It emits an energy wave. The Ancients protected it with a combination lock on a large stone wall covering the entrance to the control center,” Daniel said, like he was reading it from a post it note.
“What kind of lock is that?” Jack asked, dropping his pen and doodle pad.
Daniel reached out, snatched the pad and Jack’s pen and scribbled the gate address down.
“It’s a riddle. Anyone who can read the oldest form of the Ancient language can crack the code. But I know the right answer already.” He added the words ‘Midday the sun is high in the sky’ to the gate address.
Jack peered at it. “Right. Good one. How does it work?”
Daniel tapped a finger at the pad. “That’s the code to enter its control center. The weapon’s energy wave can be set on a frequency which would only destroy the Replicators. Um, we have to recalibrate it. I’m not sure how we’re going to get all the Replicators at once though, before they can develop a cipher to become immune to the wave.”
“Well, they are everywhere all over the galaxy. We’d have to open the gates on every planet when we activate the weapon, to get a chain reaction. The wave needs to be sent through every Stargate in the galaxy at the same time,” Sam said thoughtfully. “If we could reprogram the DHD and gate on Dakara to dial all the other Stargates from there....”
“Can you do that, Major?” Hammond asked.
She nodded. “We need the DHD blueprint Colonel O’Neill drew when he was under the influence of the Ancient repository and I, uh, might need help. Time is a huge factor. The Replicators are eating up planet after planet.”
“Who do you need?”
Sam grimaced. “Doctor MacKay.”
Daniel winced on her behalf and Jack covered his eyes with his hand. “Carter, tell me we won’t have to take MacKay to that planet with us?”
“Sorry, sir, I’m afraid we have no choice. If we had more time, I’d be able to get it done, but this is very complex programming and he’s an expert on the DHD. He could work wiring the DHDs of all gates together while you and I work on recalibrating the weapon. And we have to time it so that the moment we activate the weapon the gates can be opened.”
“I’m going to call the Pentagon right away to send McKay over,” the general said. “This has to happen fast. It’s a small miracle the Replicators have left us alone so far since they are wreaking havoc everywhere. Is there anything else we need to know about this weapon or the planet, Daniel?”
Daniel bit his lip, then looked at his friends, at his team. “Dakara is deep in Ba’al’s... Ba’al’s former territory. There might be Jaffa. Or Replicators, if the planet has already been taken over you might gate straight into a war zone.”
He locked eyes with Jack and nodded. “Before you’re going to say it; I know I'm not going with you. I'll tell you anything I know.”
Jack winced. “Sorry, kiddo.”
“Sam needs to figure out how to alter the energy patterns and you have to work it, Jack.” Daniel’s eyes settled on BD. “But it’s all Ancient. You need to translate. Remember the Ancient time machine that put Jack and Teal’c into the loop? This weapon is the same design.”
BD nodded. “We’ll figure it out.”
“You bet, we will,” Jack said.
“I will contact Bra’tac. Together we will convince Ba’al’s former Jaffa to join us,” Teal’c said.
Hammond nodded and rose from his chair. “I have to make a lot of phone calls. The IOA wants to be informed about every step we take and I also have to run this by the Joint Chiefs.”
Daniel gazed at Jack’s notepad, a thought forming in his mind. He looked up sharply and said, “General Hammond, maybe the IOA should know that the weapon on Dakara is powered by a ZPM. A ZPM we could take with us, once we have used the weapon.”
A smile slowly formed on the general’s face. “Thank you, Daniel. That’s an excellent point. You might just have smoothed the troubled water with the IOA for us.”
***
The word came shortly after dinnertime and they met in the locker room to gear up. Jack had been given the green light from Fraiser despite the tender bump on the back of his head. Big Daniel watched him adjust his favorite cap and tighten the belt of his pants. They had lost a bit of weight on Atlantis due to the lack of junk food and pie.
Daniel realized he had forgotten to put his contacts back in. Too late for that now; he had left them in the bathroom in his base quarters earlier. He adjusted his glasses and zipped up his jacket.
Teal’c was already waiting for them in the gate room, having just returned from Chulak where he had met with Bra’tac.
Sam and MacKay were engrossed in a discussion about how to proceed once they reached Dakara. From what Daniel understood the only thing they agreed on was the tricky time factor. The rest was a lot of huffing and eye rolling and snippiness on MacKay’s part and trying to keep it calm on Sam’s.
Daniel did not envy her.
Sam was tying her boots as MacKay was talking rings around her while checking the straps of his backpack. “This won’t work. You know what? I think we could just stay here and shoot ourselves because the time frame between firing that weapon and opening the gates at once is way too tight...”
“I know the time factor is crucial, Rodney.”
“...and I just want to know how I’m supposed to do my job with Jaffa and Replicators trying to kill me? I mean, honestly, there’s just too much risk and too many loopholes in the whole DHD re-programming to open every gate at once in so little time to...”
Daniel exchanged a look with Jack and Jack slammed the door of his locker shut with a bang, making McKay jump. “We all ready to go?”
McKay’s jaw dropped. “Ready? No, I wouldn’t say I’m ready...”
“Good. Armory.” Jack brushed past the spluttering doctor and out of the locker room.
“A...armory?” McKay bleated.
“You did have basic weapon training, didn’t you?” Sam asked, patting him on the back.
“Well, yes, I did, but...”
“We’ll watch your six,” Daniel offered, feeling a bit sorry for the man. McKay had never been off world before and probably felt a lot safer in the secured space of his lab or office.
“Oh, I’m so relieved now and feel so much better,” McKay griped. “Has it ever occurred to you that this is my first off world mission and that no one has asked me if I wanted to do this? I’m a physicist, not a soldier. And I have motion sickness and, actually, that might be a problem...”
“Rodney, it’ll be fine,” Sam said encouragingly. “You’ll stay right by the gate and work on the DHD and there’s a team of marines with you to back you up. We’ve been through all this.”
“Yeah, sure, no problem. A gaggle of dumb marines protecting my life. They’ll probably blow up the DHD if they so much as smell danger,” McKay sneered. “Which of course doesn’t matter since there’s no way we’re going to make it work and get out of there alive.”
Daniel decided his sympathy had limits.
Sam stood and crossed her arms over her chest. “So, Rodney – if you can’t do it, we need to find another way. But you were relatively positive at the briefing earlier...”
McKay gave her a sour look. “I didn’t say I can’t do it. I just said there’s very little time to do it right.”
“You’re a genius. You keep saying so,” Sam countered.
“Well, certainly, if anyone can do it, I can. But I have to point out that the time factor...”
“I know, Rodney. That’s why we’re leaving now,” Sam said, patting him on the back once more. “Come on. Your geniality is needed. You’ll be the one saving the world.”
McKay blinked. “Huh. Well...“ And as he followed Sam out he was already complaining about other things, like the backpack being too heavy or something.
They gathered weapons and then Sam made a detour to her lab to get a laptop and other equipment, followed by McKay and his ongoing monologue.
Daniel joined Jack, Teal’c and the marines in the gate room. He looked up at the control room window and spotted LD standing next to Walter, anxiety written all over his face.
It must be hard to stay behind, Daniel thought. Apparently the kid had gotten used to it by now, but that didn’t make it easier. He raised a hand and waved and LD gave him the thumb’s up.
“...are you sure the...the CHILD gave you the right instructions? What if he was wrong? What if the weapon doesn’t work the way he told you?” McKay’s voice was to be heard before Sam entered the gate room first, with the scientist on her heels.
“Daniel couldn’t give us the exact spectrum of frequency we need, but he has a pretty good idea on the basics and I’m positive I can make it work based on what he told me, yes,” Sam said.
“But he’s... he’s just a kid,” McKay groaned.
“No,” Sam said with a little smile. “He’s not.”
“All right, one more time, to make sure everyone is clear on this,” Jack interrupted loudly. “Bra’tac’s gonna meet us on Dakara. Carter, Jackson – you’re with me and three of your men, Reynolds. Teal’c, you and Bra’tac get friendly with the locals. McKay, you and the rest of our back up stay at the gate and work on the DHD. You keep radio contact with Carter so the two of you can talk each other through... whatever you have to do.“
“I’d feel more comfortable if our intel didn’t depend on the vision of a little boy,” McKay pointed out, again, over the affirmative replies of everyone else.
“I’m confident,” Sam said.
“Me too.” Daniel nodded.
“As am I,” Teal’c rumbled.
“Is anyone listening to me at all?” McKay demanded.
Jack, who had probably started grinding down his teeth five minutes after McKay had arrived at the mountain, said very calmly, “No. But I can assure you that I’d feel a lot more comfortable if we could take the kid with us and put you into time out.”
McKay opened his mouth and was dragged away by Sam, who mouthed a “Leave him to me, sir,” at Jack over her shoulder.
Jack exhaled slowly, muttering in Daniel's direction, “I always thought she was kind of exaggerating about that guy.”
”Ye-ah. But she sure knows how to handle him.” Daniel winced.
“Oh, yeah, she’s a brave woman,” Jack groused.
LD’s steady voice came over the speakers. “SG-1, SG-3, you have a go. God speed.”
Daniel watched the hard lines around Jack’s mouth soften when he gazed up to the window at LD. And when Jack looked back at him, Daniel caught something in the colonel’s eyes. A decision made. A final choice.
And he knew.
It had been coming for a while now.
When Jack gave the order, “SG-1, SG-3, move out,” it was the last time they’d go through the gate together like this.
‘I'm going to retire.’ … ‘Getting too old for this crap.’
After today’s mission Colonel Jack O’Neill was going to stand down.
Fin