The Return of Daniel Jackson
Chapter One
The four members of SG-1
emerged from the Stargate on P4X-449 and immediately felt the humidity soak
into their skin, which was getting dry from the late October crispness of a
“Boy, it’s a jungle out here!
Anybody see any signs of a path we can follow?” Colonel O’Neill, leader of
SG-1, asked his teammates as he craned his head to look around.
The out-pouching of the event
horizon when the Gate activated had given the team a small clearing to stand
in. The Gate on the planet was located smack in the middle of a jungle—an
overgrown jungle at that. Large vines entwined the circle of the gate and were
severed in places where the wormhole had been. Apparently, no one had been here
for quite some time. Large green leaves and moss covered the DHD.
“There appears to be less
developed vegetation in that direction.” Teal’c observed pointing in the
direction where he had noticed the change. “Perhaps it is the remnant of a
trail through the jungle, leading to civilization.”
“Okay, good enough for me,
let’s move out,” said Jack O’Neill, indicating for Teal’c to lead the way.
The UAV had searched for
miles in several directions but because of the density of the canopy, Samantha
Carter and her research techs had been unable to determine if there were any
signs of civilization. Ever the scientist, she had overseen several attempts to
maneuver the UAV through the jungle at a lower altitude but they hadn’t been
successful. Since there was nothing obviously threatening, General Hammond had
acquiesced to Major Carter’s desire to explore the area on foot to gather
anything in the rainforest that might be useful for scientific or medical
research. Colonel O’Neill was willing to search for any signs of a civilization—for
a while anyway. It would be his homage to Daniel Jackson—archaeologist,
anthropologist—who would have begged and cajoled for the chance to visit the
planet in search of something or someone he could study.
Most of the time as they made
their way along the remnant of a trail, Teal’c and the others were able to
sweep the vegetation aside. But every so often Teal’c didn’t hesitate to take a
rhythmic swipe with a machete at whatever foliage blocked their way. Teal’c,
looking every bit the warrior that he was, was a scary sight wielding a
machete. Jack was glad they were on the same side.
The sounds of the jungle were
quite similar to Earth’s jungles, a cacophony of differently pitched noises
coming from all directions. In the heat, there was a lot going on that they
could hear but not see.
“Baby, it’s WARM outside,”
commented Jack in a singsong way, soon after they began hiking.
“And isn’t it a refreshing
change?” replied Major Carter, smiling.
“Yeah, tell me that after
spending an hour in this humidity,” Jack said smirking back at her.
“I like it, Sir. You have to
admit, it sure doesn’t feel like today is Halloween when you’re making your way
through a jungle. It’s a holiday you think of with autumn leaves, crisp
weather, dry climate—”
An hour later, their faces
were dripping with sweat, and their clothes were wet under their vests. Teal’c
bore it with his usual silent stoicism, but Jonas Quinn, still new to off world
exploration, was not handling it well.
“Boy, I’m really
uncomfortable with this,” he said.
“Better get used to it,
happens all the time with Gate travel. Even happens with travel on Earth, come
to think of it,” Jack replied. “All part of the job, Jonas.”
“Oh, I’m not complaining,
Colonel, just observing.”
“Ah.” Jack said under his
breath, taking a drink of water from his canteen. “Make sure you all keep
drinking,” he said.
They traveled some more in
silence when a thought occurred to Jack, “So…you think there are snakes around
here?”
Carter replied, “It’s hard to
say, Sir. The Amazon Rainforest is full of them, however
“Aren’t those islands, Major?
Maybe that has something to do with the no-snake thing.”
“Oh! Good observation, Sir. I
didn’t think of that,” Carter said. Jack smiled, pleased with himself for
getting one up on Carter.
“But that means, there
probably are snakes around then,” she
continued.
“Great,” Jack said rolling
his eyes. “I HATE snakes!” he said, unaware that he’d done a dead-on imitation
of Indiana Jones.
Carter laughed.
“What’s so funny, Major?” he
growled.
“Nothing, Sir. You just
reminded me of someone, that’s all,” she said grinning.
From then on, Jack watched
every step he took, looking all around, just to make sure nothing was
slithering around underfoot. Every so often he would whip his head around at
some insect-on-steroids noise he’d heard. Why
is it that every friggin’ planet has to have BUGS? Especially big honkin’ bugs?
He looked over at Teal’c hoping he wouldn’t see any quite as big as the one
that had once nailed him, turning the Jaffa into a medium for growing more of
them.
Teal’c must have been reading
his mind because he caught the look O’Neill was giving him and replied, “I will
not enjoy this journey if we must fend off any insects similar to the
mosquitoes you have in Minnesota, O’Neill.”
Jack smiled as he replied, “I
was thinking of some that were a little more problematic than Minnesota’s state
bird.”
Teal’c raised his eyebrow. “I
was unaware of any insect life that would cause a bigger problem than
mosquitoes.”
Now it was Jack’s turn to
raise an eyebrow.
The next half hour was spent
mostly in silence until Carter broke in. “Sir, I think there’s something up
ahead. I can sort of see something through the foliage.”
“Is it a snake?” asked Jack.
Carter smiled. “No, Sir, I
think it’s a building.” Carter squinted trying to get a better view through the
foliage. “I can barely see it but it looks like if we deviate off this way a
little, we’ll come to it,” she added as she gestured in the direction where
she’d seen the structure.
Jack nodded as they turned to
go where Carter had indicated. There was no path remaining now, so Teal’c had
to hack back the jungle with every step they took, slowing their progress significantly.
“Say, Teal’c, would you mind
if I tried that?” Jonas asked, pointing to Teal’c’s machete.
Teal’c handed it to him.
Jonas took the lead and started hacking away, imitating Teal’c. Teal’c took the
opportunity to drink nearly all his water.
“Thirsty, eh?” Jack observed
as he walked past his stationary friend.
Teal’c looked at him but
didn’t stop drinking. When he was finished, he took O’Neill’s place, bringing
up the rear.
Eventually, SG-1 intersected
a less overgrown track than the original trail. It still hadn’t been used for
some time but was clear enough to follow more easily. Although the foliage
brushed them as they walked, they didn’t have to sweep any aside. Beneath them,
they stepped on dead leaves with new plants pushing up through the detritus.
The trail led to a small
clearing, just big enough to contain a rectangular building with a pitched
roof, like a typical building on almost any continent on Earth. The building
itself was less familiar looking.
“Whoa. A little busy,
don’tcha think?” observed Jack when he saw all the painted decorations and
intricate carvings on every inch of the exterior. “What were these people
thinking?”
Jack realized he’d been kind
of waiting for a response. He was somewhat surprised when one didn’t come until
he realized from whom he’d been waiting for said response.
Damn it, Jack! When are you gonna stop thinking about…
Damn it, Daniel! Jack shook off the thought and carried on with scouting the building
and area. He came upon Jonas standing back and looking at the roofline with its
intricately carved eaves.
“So what do you think,
Jonas?” Jack asked the new guy who had to cover Daniel’s old turf.
“I think it’s pretty,” said
Jonas. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Neither have I, but that
doesn’t mean it’s cool. In fact, the coolness factor is definitely lacking
here,” he added.
“It’s really interesting,
Colonel! I mean, I haven’t been to many other planets yet, so it’s all new to
me, but I haven’t seen anything like this mentioned in any of Doctor Jackson’s
journals. I’m not sure if even he’s come across anything similar.”
Jack thought of how this
whole discovery would have made Daniel Jackson drool with anticipation and run
off at the mouth in a constant stream of excited exposition. He would have thought this place was the
ultimate in coolness with such a density of information, no doubt placed there
just for Daniel to study, while trusting completely in Jack to watch his six as
he became lost in his own little archaeological microcosm.
Jonas moved off then as his
attention caught on some detail that he wanted to examine more closely. Jack
fell deep into thought as he stood there alone.
Jonas Quinn, despite his
enthusiasm in being part of SG-1 and having read all of Daniel’s texts and
journals, just didn’t have the intuitive genius salted with passion that had
defined Daniel. He had yet to achieve Daniel’s skill for putting together
diverse factoids in his mind and jumping to those ingenious insights that left
most people trailing in his wake. And Jack knew Jonas still had a deferential
attitude toward him, whereas Daniel’s had been far more irreverent, which had
allowed Daniel the freedom to spin any theory to Jack—no matter how
far-fetched.
Damn, gotta stop thinking about Daniel. This is way
not cool.
“Busy. Waaayy too busy,” he
said aloud to break his musings. “It’s like they put all the artwork of a whole
civilization right here. Where’s Martha Stewart when you need her?” asked Jack
rhetorically, thinking he was alone. He was surprised by an answer.
“Daniel would have loved
this,” Carter commented. She must have crept up on him while he was lost in
thought.
Not cool, Jack, what’s with you today?
He was angry with himself for
another lapse in his vigilance. Then he brought his gaze down to look at her
standing next to him looking at the building. She smiled sadly and continued,
“He would have thought this was so cool!” she said.
What, is she reading my mind now?
“Carter? Shut up.”
“Why? Don’t you think Daniel
would have loved this? We wouldn’t have been able to peel him away for—”
“Carter! Go scout the other
side. Look for anything threatening; hiding places, you know the drill. And
find Teal’c.”
“Already did that, Sir. The
exterior’s secure. I don’t think anyone’s been here in a really long time.
Years, probably.”
Jack then followed her around
the building, listening to her report about what she’d determined, checking the
evidence himself. Thoughts of Daniel kept breaking his concentration. He
mentally chastised himself whenever it happened, wondering why today? And each time, he tried to return his focus to the task
at hand. They came upon Teal’c toward the end of their search. He had checked
the jungle perimeter around the building and had found it devoid of any
potential threat. They decided it was safe enough to explore inside.
On some of their travels,
getting into a building proved to be an exercise in frustrated puzzle solving or required the deciphering of some
obscure language, but, in this case, getting in was straightforward…
The door swung silently
inward at Jack’s touch. It was as thick as the walls, a good six inches but
when he pushed at one edge, it was so well balanced it felt weightless. The
interior of the building centered on a large dim rectangular room. SG-1 was
standing in a vestibule attached to the main room at one end.
The large center room
contained a series of columns in two rows, one row on either side along the
length of the room, a few feet from either wall. The columns were painted with
whole-body likenesses of extensively tattooed people, mostly men but a few
women appeared too. Jack noticed Teal’c staring at each one with rapt
attention.
“What’s so interesting?”
“These people appear to be a
warrior race.”
“What makes you think that?”
“I am making an assumption
based on their posture and facial expressions. In addition, tattoos often
signify allegiance to a chief or tribe—,” Teal’c continued.
Or god?
Jack’s thought interrupted his concentration on Teal’c’s conjecture.
“—or convey status. One of
these figures looked reminiscent of a system lord. I noticed him by his lack of
tattoos and by his eyes painted to look as if they were glowing,” Teal’c
finished.
In between each column, up
high in the wall near the ceiling, were small windows letting in light but not
enough to brighten the room , making the painted figures show up in only muted
colors in the dim light.
Even the ceiling was painted
with a patterned design and the walls had patterns and geometric figures. Jack
didn’t see anything that looked like any written language. Not that he was an
expert on languages, but he had seen enough over the years to recognize
pictographs or ideographs. This didn’t look like any of that.
They were all staring in
different directions at the variety of décor in the room. It was a veritable
feast for the eyes.
Daniel would have been happy here for days.
As Jack wandered around the
large room, he noticed a stairway leading down at the back of the room. He
silently crept down them using his P-90 to light the way. At the bottom of the
stairs he saw what looked to be small doorways to windowless rooms. Each room
had several other doors leading from it. It looked labyrinthine in its layout,
each room leading to others. The building might hold some treasures beyond this
artwork yet. These rooms were not decorated at all, just plain, and dark.
“Hey, guys,” he said, when he
had returned upstairs.
The other three turned from
their respective places in the room to look at him.
Jack gestured at the stairs
behind him with an absent thrust of his head. “There are some other rooms down
the stairs here. Wanna go take a look?” he asked.
Teal’c merely raised an
eyebrow while Jonas and Carter walked up to Jack. Teal’c finally joined them as
they went down the stairs.
“Teal’c you go with Jonas,
and Carter you’re with me,” Jack said as they split up downstairs to explore
the little rooms.
It soon became boring—at
least for Jack. Each room was dark and small with plain clay walls and a clay
floor. None of the rooms seemed to have any artifacts in them at all, nor did
they find any evidence of previous inhabitants. Carter noticed Jack’s boredom.
“Sir, it looks plenty safe
around here. We haven’t seen anything or come across anything even remotely
worrisome. Why don’t you go back up to the main room and wait for us there?
It’ll be a little more interesting than this at least.”
“Thanks, Carter.” Jack tried
to hide his relief with a token offer, “You sure you don’t want me to hang
around?”
“No, Colonel. You’re actually
distracting me with your fidgeting. I think I’ll concentrate better by myself.
No offense.”
“None taken, but you’re
sure…?”
“Sir, go.”
“Okay,” Jack said with a
“whatever you say, I’m not hanging around to argue” kind of shrug and he walked
out of the room.
…And promptly got lost.
He wandered from room to room
for a while, surprised that he’d gotten lost. With his Special Ops training he
usually could find his way out of any mazelike complex. He wondered if there
was something affecting his directional sense. He searched for the stairs
longer than he should have before he radioed Carter.
“Hey, Carter?” Jack spoke
into the radio clipped to his vest.
“Yes, Colonel?”
“Where’s the bathroom?”
“Beats me. Do you need one?”
“Just asking.”
“You’re lost aren’t you,
Sir?”
“Uhh…kinda…maybe…”
“Stay there. I’ll come find
you.”
“Okay,” Jack said but didn’t
stay put. He kept wandering and before Carter could find him, he stumbled onto
the stairway and made his way back into the large main room.
“Carter?”
“Yes, Sir?”
“Never mind.”
“You found your way out?”
“Yeah. Guess I’ll camp out
here for a while in case any of you need me to come and get you.”
“Yeah, right. Okay, Sir.”
Jack could hear the smile in Carter’s voice. He looked around once more at the
large main room. It really was interesting and beautiful in its primitive way.
As he looked toward the front of the room where the vestibule was attached, and
where he was sure that SG-1 had come
in earlier, he stared in puzzlement.
“What the hell?” Jack muttered.
When he looked through to the vestibule, he saw no evidence that a door had
ever been there. He aimed his gun’s light just to be sure then went over to
where he believed the front door should be. He ran his hand over the area but
couldn’t even feel any seams. It was a flawlessly smooth clay wall.
“Carter, Jonas,” he said into
his transmitter.
“Yes, Sir?” he heard though
the tinny earpiece, then “Yes, Colonel?” as they answered in succession.
“Meet me in the main room. We
have a problem. Bring Teal’c, too.” He clicked off the radio and started
tapping on the wall then pounded on it but to no avail. There was still no
evidence a door had ever been there. He didn’t like being left without an exit.
When they arrived he showed
them the problem, then they went back into the main room to discuss the
situation.
“Any ideas?” he asked
pointedly.
“Not right off the bat,
Colonel,” Carter said.
“I could attempt to create a
new opening with my staff weapon, O’Neill,” Teal’c suggested.
“Nah, I don’t think that’s such
a good idea, T. Never know what a little electrical energy’ll do to an alien
edifice, ya know? Let’s save that for last resort kinda stuff, okay?”
Teal’c dipped his head in
acquiescence.
“I could, uh, study these
columns for some clues. There are a lot of decorations here, maybe they mean
something,” Jonas said.
‘Decorations’? Oy, where’s Daniel when you need him?
Daniel would be running off
at the mouth, telling Jack what obscure meaning these ‘decorations’ conveyed.
He would have never left this room. Jack would have had to drag him out bodily
to explore the rest of the place. As soon as Daniel realized there were no
other markings of any interest in the other rooms, he’d have been back before
you could say, “Damn it, Daniel!”
Aaahhh, Daniel…
Damn, but grief hit at such inappropriate moments. He shook it off.
Stay sharp, Jack. Don’t let yourself get distracted off world.
“Yeah, Jonas, go see if you
can find the instruction manual or something. We’ve been here long enough. Time
to go.” Jack wanted to find a way out before something else happened to give
them even less control over their circumstances.
Carter walked back into the
vestibule, followed by Jack. “Boy, Sir, I just don’t see any way out. This is
weird. This building looks so primitive yet to have absolutely no sign a door
was ever here…. Look,” she said, pushing on the wall where the center of the
door should have been. “It doesn’t give any indication that it’s anything but a
solid wall, yet it opened so easily in the other direction!”
“Maybe we should take Teal’c
up on his suggestion and shoot it.” He
was sure Carter would balk at that and give him ten reasons why that would be a
really bad idea.
“I don’t see why not. We’re
not coming up with any other ideas,” she said shrugging. Jack raised his
eyebrows.
“Really?” he said, as he
cocked his head in surprise. “I told Teal’c we’d save that for a last resort.”
“Sir, I don’t think it’ll
hurt anything. After all, these walls look to be made of simple clay. I would
think any damage would stay localized to the immediate area of the shot.”
“Teal’c,” Jack called to
Teal’c who was still in the main room looking up at the windows. “Come here and
shoot this thing, will ya?”
“Gladly, O’Neill.” And with
that, Teal’c snapped around right where he stood in the middle of the large
hall and shot his staff weapon at the center of the door. Carter and O’Neill
practically did backbends trying to escape the staff blast as it split the
space between them.
“HEY! How about a little
warning before ya shoot! Ya could’ve shot US, fer cryin’ out loud!”
“You insult me, O’Neill. I am
an accurate marksman with a staff weapon. You were in no danger,” replied
Teal’c.
“Ya coulda fooled me! Next
time how about a head’s up, okay?”
“My head was up, O’Neill. I would not have taken the shot without having my
head up to aim correctly.”
Jack rolled his eyes. He’s getting to be a regular comedian these
days.
“Colonel, there should be a
large hole in the wall but look, it’s only scorched,” Carter said, running her
hand over the burned area. “Ow! It’s hot!”
“Well, shouldn’t it be, after
all that energy discharge?” Jack retorted, looking at the evidence of their
lack of success. “So, Plan A failed. Any takers for Plan B?”
“Where’s MacGyver when you
need him?” Jack heard Carter mutter.
Jack glared at her.
“O’Neill, I could shoot out
one of the windows,” Teal’c stated.
“Okay, go for it, Hot Shot.”
Teal’c fired and watched the
staff blast go right through the window with no effect.
“Okay, guess we didn’t need
to bother with that. Looks like
there’s no glass in the windows.” Jack said as he gazed at the opening they’d
thought was a glass window. “Maybe we can get out that way. Any ideas how we
get up there? It’s too high to reach standing on each other. Anybody want to
tackle climbing one of these columns?”
“I don’t think that will
work, Sir. See how they flare gradually as they rise? At the top there wouldn’t
be any way to get a purchase.”
“Anybody have, oh, I don’t
know, a grappling hook?” Jack asked. Forget
MacGyver, Jack thought, where’s
Batman when you need him? Or Spider-man. That would be cool—we wouldn’t even
need a grappling hook then…
“We could tie a rope to
something heavy and try to throw it up there…it could catch on the other side
and function like a grappling hook,” Carter suggested. “Maybe we could try one
of our weapons.”
“I don’t know, Carter, I
don’t like the thought of losing the use of a weapon.”
“I’m not sure we have
anything else that that we can use. The P-90 should have enough substance to
hold our weight if it catches on the other side of the window. Sir, I think
it’s our only viable choice,” Carter answered. “Besides, we haven’t seen
anything even remotely threatening here. I think we can take the risk that one
less weapon won’t matter.”
“It’s pretty high up,” Jack
said as he craned his head. “You think any of us can throw that far?” But
Jack’s question was merely rhetorical since he had already decided in Carter’s
favor. He tied a rope onto his P-90, and handed the weapon to Teal’c, obviously
their strongest member.
“Go for it, Big Guy,” Jack
said, stepping back to give Teal’c some room. Teal’c hauled back and flung it
underhand in a perfect trajectory. It only came about eight feet short. When it
hit the floor with a clatter, the P-90 fired a few rounds, scattering SG-1 in
horror. In the aftermath, no one noticed the room brighten for a few seconds.
“Crap!” Jack said grimacing. God, where’s my brain!
“Um, guess you forgot to put
the safety on,” Carter said.
“Guess I forgot to remove the
clip—” Jack started to say, then broke off as he had a sudden vision of what
had happened the last time he had unwittingly left a clip in his weapon. The
pang of grief hit hard, showing in his eyes before he could snap his emotional
walls back up.
A concerned looking Carter
started to say, “Colonel, are you—” but she was interrupted by Jonas.
“I don’t mean to be a pest,
but you guys are kind of distracting me here,” Jonas Quinn said, from the other
side of the room.
Ah! Saved by the new guy, who doesn’t know how to read
me yet.
“Any luck, Jonas?” Jack
asked, relieved. He knew Carter had
noticed his brief descent into grief and remorse as he flashed back to the
accidental death of his son.
Jonas climbed out from behind
the column he had been studying and, unlike Daniel, he was careful not to touch
anything. Fortunately, Jonas had been at
the opposite side of the room from where the gun had gone off.
He answered Jack confidently.
“No, I haven’t seen anything like this in any of Doctor Jackson’s library. It’s
more like a picture book than a book of text, but it doesn’t make any sense to
me. I don’t see anything that looks like it relates to the door mechanism. I
see some pictures that look like war or battle scenes, some family-type scenes,
but nothing that looks like any instructions. It looks to me like this might be
some type of narrative history.”
“All right, why don’t you
take a break? In fact, why don’t you all go take another look around the other
rooms to see if we missed any clues?” Jack suggested. He was getting positively
antsy now. This was taking way too long and things weren’t looking hopeful.
Maybe we should suggest establishing an off-world 911
service, eh?
“Don’t worry yet,” Carter
said, in an attempt to comfort him. “The original people who used this building
had to have had a way out. We haven’t found any bones after all.”
After the others left,
Colonel O’Neill decided to return to the vestibule to study it again. He walked
around looking at the columns in a cursory way to see if he could see any
clues. Eventually, he found the system lord representation that Teal’c had
mentioned before. Jack lightly ran his fingers over its glowing eyes. As he
did, Jack thought he heard some low-pitched whispering echo in a language he
couldn’t understand. Chills ran down his spine, the small hairs on the back of
his neck standing on end. The sound was directionless and only lasted a few
seconds. If he believed in such things, he’d have thought it to be the voices
of the ghosts of these people.
“Trick or treat,” he said to
himself.
Carefully, Jack made his way
around the room to see if he could see where the sound may have come from. As
he did, he heard more whispering, but he hadn’t touched anything to bring it on
the way it had seemed to occur the first time. A small spike of adrenaline
surged through him. The sound echoed away then started again with a longer
string of whispered language in multiple voices. It was getting spooky but Jack
refused to acknowledge the little prick of fear tingling his spine. Halloween.
It figured.
He tried to look
nonchalant—even though there was no one there to watch him—as he made his way
back toward the vestibule. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye behind
one of the columns. Now his façade of coolness immediately evaporated as adrenaline put him in full watchful
military mode. He took his flashlight from his vest pocket and turned it on to
see better.
Jack saw something move
again, followed by another chorus of whispering. Now it was apparent to him
that he was on the right track about the whispering somehow coming with
touching the columns. He crept closer to investigate.
Unfortunately, his
weapon—with the rope still attached—was still halfway across the room where it
had fallen. What is WRONG with me today? He was a Colonel in the
USAF, for crying out loud! He knew the importance of keeping his weapon at the
ready, yet there it lay, halfway across the room for any alien to pick up and
shoot him with it. Jack looked back where he’d seen the movement. There was a
stubby shadow showing from behind one of the columns about eight feet from his
P-90, on the same side of the room. He was twice as far from his gun as the
owner of the shadow.
Crap!
The shadow was moving in
small ways, but didn’t give any indication it was going for Jack’s weapon, or
even if it knew that Jack was in the room. Where had this thing come from,
anyway? He hadn’t left this area except when he’d gone off with Carter and as
soon as he returned he’d found the doorway sealed. He knew no one had been here
before then. Did the others miss searching a room? Had it sneaked in from one
of the rooms while they were distracted by their predicament? Again, he
castigated himself for not being more vigilant, but damn! How could anyone be here? They were surely too skilled to
have missed something.
Keeping his eye on the column
and the shadow, he quietly returned his flashlight to his vest and furtively
stepped across the room, slowly at first, while the column blocked the entity’s
view of Jack. Then, when Jack could see the side of a seated figure just start
to come into his view, he launched himself, sliding to his gun near the wall as
if he were sliding into second base. With a coordinated roll he grabbed his
weapon and crouched, turning to aim it at the body he was now in line with. The
attached rope came up with him as he stood. He left the gun’s light off, not
wanting to break the focus of this person just yet. The UAV had not seen any
evidence of people in the vicinity. Where had this guy come from?
As Jack watched, the man, as
Jack now thought this entity was, traced the pattern of a tattoo on one of the
figures on the column with a finger, as if to decipher it by touch, then paused
to listen to the whispering, which had begun at his touch. He cocked his head
to concentrate on the voices, as if to hear what they were saying. Jack stared,
trying to see him better, not paying any attention to the whispering anymore.
Apparently, the man hadn’t yet realized there was anyone watching him. How
could this guy not have noticed Jack retrieving his weapon? The man’s ability
to focus on his task, oblivious to any danger, reminded him of Daniel. The man
was sitting cross-legged less than a foot from the surface he was examining.
Jack crept out closer to him to get a better look.
When he was about three feet
away, Jack turned on the light in his gun and spoke to the man. “Very
carefully, raise your hands—” At the same moment, the man turned his head,
finally noticing that someone else was in the room.
“Hi Jack!” he said, totally
ignoring what he had just been told.
What? Geez, he had Daniel on the brain or
something today because that sure sounded like—
“Daniel?”
“Yeah, it’s me.” The man who
claimed to be Daniel stood up energetically, completely disregarding the weapon
trained on him. He certainly dressed like Daniel, complete with glasses, plaid
flannel shirt and wrinkled khaki pants.
Jack didn’t lower his aim on
his P-90, but he did relax his grip.
“Aren’t you supposed to be
dead?”
“Ascended.”
“Whatever. How’d you get
here?”
“It’s kind of a long
explanation, Jack,” Daniel said, with a small grimace. “Don’t you remember when
I came back to be with you when you were having that party with your new buddy,
Ba’al? Ascended beings can show up anywhere we want, but—”
“Oh, really?” Jack
interrupted. “I kind of figured I must have been hallucinating from one too
many trips to the sarcophagus. You know how that is.”
Daniel pressed his lips
together in reaction to Jack’s snide comment. He didn’t answer.
“Maybe I’m hallucinating now,
too,” Jack continued. “Who knows, I could be breathing bad air or something. No
way you can prove you’re not just a product of my, oh-so-active imagination. I
mean, how else would you know about Ba’al?”
“Um…I could know about Ba’al
because…I was there with you. You aren’t hallucinating now and you weren’t then
either. I’m really here. In fact, Jack, didn’t we have this conversation
already? Back when you were with Ba’al? I thought you were finally convinced
that I could appear to you whenever I want. At least, you talked to me then as
though you knew it was me…”
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t myself
there for a while. Maybe you weren’t yourself either. In fact, Daniel, didn’t I
throw a shoe through you?” Jack cocked his head to the side, squinting his eyes
a little. “That doesn’t exactly lend itself to believability, you know.”
“Come on, Jack! I came back
to be with you while you were suffering and now I’m here with you again to
help.” Daniel said plaintively.
As he began to explain, he
became animated, the same familiar Daniel Jackson whom Jack had been
reminiscing about today. And Jack could only shift his feet and stare, not
knowing how to react.
“Speaking of which, I’ve been
studying these painted columns,” Daniel continued, oblivious to Jack’s
reaction, “And, you know, these pictures are fascinating! It looks like an
ancient Polynesian genealogy. And look over here!” Daniel raced over to one of
the columns on the opposite side of the room. “There’s a running history of
these people in their paintings, and when you touch one, it tells you the oral
history of whatever you touched.” Daniel touched a column to demonstrate. “This
is so great! This is the first time we’ve had any evidence of a Polynesian
society making it off world. Did you know the ancient Polynesians on Earth rode
thousands of miles in canoes from their ancient homeland to populate the
islands all the way from New Zealand to Hawaii? Oh! Oh, and Jack!–”
Jack interrupted with a
frantic wave of his arm. “Okay, maybe it really is you, Daniel, so how come Jonas didn’t know this? He’s read your
entire library AND your journals. Where was this little tidbit stashed?”
“In my brain. I spent some
time on vacation in New Zealand once and learned it on a tour—Jonas has read
all my journals? Isn’t that an invasion of my privacy?”
“You’re DEAD, Daniel. Why
wouldn’t we make use of your research?”
Daniel held up a finger of
correction at Jack. “Ascended.” Then
he added, “Ummm…you didn’t read them, did you?”
“Why would I want to read something
filled with endless details about artifact-thingies and all those rocks you
find so enthralling? That’s for you,
Daniel. Not me. Unless you wrote about me in there, too—” Jack trailed off, and
looked at Daniel with growing suspicion.
Daniel looked stricken with
guilt.
“Oh, for crying out loud! You
DID, didn’t you? You wrote about me?
What did you write? No—don’t answer that, I don’t think I wanna know.”
“There are more reasons to
write in a journal than just making research notes, Jack. A lot of my thinking
and synthesizing of hypotheses comes from writing in my journals.” As Daniel
explained, he absently walked back across the room to face Jack again. “A
natural extension of that is to write about my feelings, too. It helps me work
out some of the emotional stuff I have to deal with. That doesn’t mean it’s
necessarily bad, you know.” Then he changed the subject. “So, is Jonas working
out as my, uh, replacement?”
Jack dully nodded, but his
mind was on one word. ‘Replacement?’ No
one can replace you, Daniel, and without you, it’s been so HARD. Is this really, REALLY you? As he
continued to converse with Daniel as if it were the most normal thing in the
world to do, it gave him time to get a handle on the enormity of this miracle
Jack was too afraid to believe in. How
can you be here? To be safe, Jack subconsciously erected more walls to cope
with his swirling emotions.
“How do you feel about having
Jonas on the team, Jack?”
“What?” Jack stared for a
moment, distracted, before his mind went back to the topic at hand. He
shrugged, “He’s a quick study. He’s been using your office and computer since
you left,” He said, to skirt around the real meaning behind Daniel’s question.
Daniel let his question go,
merely commenting, “I miss my computer.”
Jack snapped back to the
moment, his sarcasm in full protective mode. His words were sharp as he said,
“Well, it’s not yours anymore, is it? Guess you’ll just have to get over it.”
Like I’m going to have to get over you showing up here
and then disappearing again. Damn it, Daniel! What made it bearable when you
left last time was thinking it was all a figment of my sarcophagus-addled
tortured mind, but now I’m totally sane with all my faculties present…
Why can’t Charlie come back for a little visit like this
now and again?
Just go away already, so I won’t have to hurt even
more, Jack thought, not meaning it.
He rubbed his face with a hand. He wasn’t used to having to cope in such an
immediate way with his grief over losing Daniel. And should he even be grieving
now? Shouldn’t he just be grateful for this moment with Daniel? But it brought
out in Jack all the pain of all the moments, long, drawn out months of moments,
when Daniel hadn’t been there. He
almost wished Daniel really would go away so he could get back to the usual
emotions he could cope with, the ones
he was used to, the ones he had all safely hidden away.
“Jack…”
“What, Daniel!”
“Are you mad at me?”
Relieved, ecstatic, scared, worried, take your pick,
Danny-Boy, but not really mad, although I might go mad…
Jack glared at Daniel who
looked at him with his head cocked like a puppy who didn’t know why Jack wasn’t
totally thrilled to see him. Jack
still had his weapon pointed in Daniel’s general direction.
Jack saw that look from
Daniel and remembered the same look coming from Charlie when he’d been five and
had wandered away from Jack in a shopping mall…
Jack was frantic with worry. He searched the toy store
everywhere, but Charlie was nowhere to be found. Charlie was wandering alone
somewhere in the mall or worse.... Jack had the store call mall security to
start a search.
Jack was panicked like never before in his life. Even
the four months in the Iraqi prison, never knowing when his next meal would be
and in nearly constant pain, had not panicked him the way he was right now. He
was irrational with the security guards, a real unpleasant guy, berating them
for ineptitude when they were actually doing a thorough job.
It took them two hours before their search finally
turned up Charlie. He had discovered the stairway to the basement and had poked
around down there until he’d found the mechanical workings of the mall, the
plumbing and heating. Security guards brought a happy Charlie back upstairs,
boisterously excited by what he’d seen.
When Jack laid eyes on him, he felt overcome and had
to fight hard not to cry. Then, embarrassed by coming so close to tears in
public, he started verbally berating his son. Charlie had given him that same
puppy dog look of bewilderment that Daniel just had, not knowing what he’d done
to make his father so angry and upset. Jack had spent the drive home chastising
himself for taking out his worry (and relief) in anger at his precious son,
whom he should have been hugging and kissing. By the time they arrived home,
though, Charlie had already returned to his normal happy self, seemingly
impervious to his father’s anger at him. Instead, he was trying to cheer up his
Dad.
Daniel had always bounced
back like that, too. Aside from the Goa’uld, he had never carried a grudge
against Jack or anyone else.
There was another similarity
between his son and Daniel too: they both tended to wander off, although with
Daniel it was much more pronounced.
“Well…?” Daniel started.
That snapped Jack out of his
reverie and back to the same angry emotional reaction he’d just remembered
having so long ago.
“GOD, Daniel. WHAT?”
“Are you gonna shoot me with
that thing?” he asked pointing at Jack’s gun still held at the ready. “Do you
want to kill me, Jack?”
Jack felt that was making a
mockery of a similar scene where Jack had spoken the same words to Daniel. That
time, those words had broken the spell of Daniel’s addiction to the sarcophagus
and he’d clung to Jack, sobbing. Now Jack’s control was just as close to
breaking, but he held himself together by a thread. He lowered his weapon,
letting it dangle from one hand. After all, if a shoe couldn’t hit Daniel, how
could bullets? He had now dropped his physical defense, but an emotional one
came to his rescue.
“How can I kill you when
you’re already dead, Daniel? Or, excuse me, ascended,
so why even bother wasting the bullets? They can’t hurt you any more than
my shoe. In fact, why don’t you just leave already! We have all moved on. Why
can’t you?” Jack flung the words out, knowing they must hurt, but to protect
himself, he demanded of Daniel the thing he most dreaded.
“Jack—” Daniel started, then
hesitated. He held his arms crossed over his chest, looking at Jack who glared
back, challenging him to answer.
Finally, Daniel said, “I’m
giving you the benefit of the doubt that you don’t really mean that. If you
did, you would certainly be hurting me as much as I know I’ve hurt you. Jack, I
didn’t want to die. I thought it was a worthy sacrifice, you know that….” He stopped.
Jack knew now that this had
to be Daniel. He could read Jack better than anyone. He could see Daniel sizing
up Jack’s emotional state trying to decide how to appease him. Jack was so
tense he was about to lose what little control he had left, and he knew Daniel
knew it.
“Look Jack,” he finally
continued. “When one ascends there is also the opportunity to descend as well. I learned so much as an
ascended being but I couldn’t interfere with any situation I came across. I’ve
been observing SG-1 periodically and
wanted to help you all so badly, especially you when you were alone and being
tortured by Ba’al. I couldn’t touch you. All I could do was talk. I couldn’t
get you out of there. I couldn’t heal you. It was so frustrating. That’s why I
tried to talk you into ascending with me. It was all I had to offer. Except for
my friendship. You have always had that, Jack. And you always will, no matter
what you think of me.”
That last bit was hard for
Jack to hear and a lump grew in his throat.
Stay angry, Jack! Anger is the safe way out of this.
“So are you telling me you’re
going to descend now? What exactly does that mean anyway, Daniel? More
metaphysical CRAP?”
“Oh, Jack,” Daniel sighed
defeated. “I already—Look, I’m sorry
I left you all. I heard what you told me when I was in the infirmary dying. I
know what it meant. It was hard for me too. Please Jack!”
Jack’s face became unguarded
as Daniel’s words threw him. He tried to scowl to bring the mask back up but
failed. Finally, he said, in a tired voice, “Look, Daniel—” Jack stopped, not
knowing exactly what he wanted to say. Before he could continue, Daniel stepped
closer to Jack.
“I already did.”
“Did what?”
“Descend.”
“You did?” Jack now gave
Daniel a yeah-right-I-just-tossed-my-shoe-through-you, look. “So what does that
mean exactly?”
“Basically, that I’m not
‘dead’ anymore.”
“Just like that, you’re alive
again?” Jack said, peeved. “For cryin’ out loud, Daniel, you have more lives
than a cat!”
Daniel smiled at that one.
“Come here Jack and see for
yourself. You can touch me. I’m corporeal.” Daniel held a hand out palm up
beckoning Jack to him.
“So you’re a corporal now.
Gee, you don’t look much like a military man.” Jack looked at the flannel shirt
Daniel was wearing. So unmilitary. So familiar. So Daniel…He almost shook his
head as he tried to clear his mind from the stray thought so he could get back
to being skeptical.
“Very funny, Jack.” Daniel
still had his hand out, palm up.
“What is this, feel the nail
holes in my hands or something? Jesus, Daniel!”
“No, that was Jesus. This is just me.”
Jack took out his flashlight
to see Daniel in a more direct light as he ran his other hand through his
graying hair. It had been a long frustrating day and now he just felt drained.
His fatigue brought the doubts back. Everything about this man screamed “I
really am Daniel Jackson!” but they were off world sealed into a strange
building with cryptic inscriptions. Maybe there was someone akin to the
Gamekeeper here. Maybe “Daniel” was
the Gamekeeper. How could he believe it was Daniel and not some fabrication
formed from his memory and knowledge of Daniel?
“Daniel, if you are really Daniel that is, how do I know
you aren’t a figment of my mind created by alien technology? You could be a
hologram for all I know.”
“Come on, Jack! I thought I
proved who I am already!” Daniel jumped up and danced around in a frustrated
circle, throwing his arms up in the air. “Can’t you just trust me? It won’t
kill you to believe me!”
Okay, hyper Daniel. Nobody would want to fabricate
hyper Daniel. Except maybe Harlan. KumTRYa!
Jack took a step toward him
but hesitated. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t like not knowing what to do. He wasn’t used to not knowing what to do, for cryin’ out loud! He felt like
Fox Mulder: I Want to Believe…but he was more like Scully, always needing more
proof.
Are you real?
Are you staying? I have to know because,
God, I’ve missed you, Daniel.
There, he’d finally admitted
it. Jack missed Daniel. Every day, in some way, Jack missed Daniel. Before now,
he had avoided such thoughts, but with Daniel looking right at him, it appeared
fully fleshed out in a simple sentence of three words.
I miss you.
Jack was growing angry with
himself for not being able to get a better handle on his thoughts. And yet,
despite the vulnerability he knew he’d show, Jack slowly reached out to touch
Daniel’s hand, which was warm and soft. Not prone to holding hands with Daniel,
he had never actually thought about how Daniel’s hand would feel. He was
surprised at the warmth and dryness. He didn’t know what he’d been expecting.
Air, like the first time Daniel had showed up as an ascended being? Cold and
clammy like death? But what met him was definitely alive and comforting.
Jack took one more step
forward as he set his gun on the floor. He put one hand on each of Daniel’s
arms just below the shoulders. He squeezed gently. This had to be real. If it
wasn’t, he was a sucker, and whoever was behind this sure had his number. He
took his hands and put them on either side of Daniel’s face. Daniel’s eyes were
swimming with unshed tears, unlike Jack’s, which were still dry. Jack sighed
then gave in to his emotions in a huge unselfconscious grin of pure joy as he
exuberantly pulled Daniel into a hug.
Daniel hugged him back and
then relaxed a little, but Jack didn’t let go. Daniel tightened his grip again
and stood there, letting Jack cling to him. Jack didn’t move or relax his grip.
Jack buried his face in the crook between Daniel’s shoulder and neck, overcome
for the moment.
Because of the deaths of not
only his son, but of so many others he’d been close to in his life, he had
thought his guarded heart had become impervious to the pain of loss. After
Daniel’s ascension Jack was able to keep himself under the tightest emotional
control. But Jack had discovered that he
had cared much more deeply about the man than he had ever intended. He had kept
his mask in place with just enough humor and sarcasm to keep the rest of his
team from hovering and “being there” for him, but alone in his weaker moments
he had grieved. What he hadn’t counted on was Daniel’s return, which had
brought a vulnerability to Jack he hadn’t seen in a very long time. In this one
moment, he didn’t care.
Finally, Daniel spoke.
“Ummm….Jack?”
“I’ve been hugging you for an
embarrassingly long time, haven’t I, Daniel.” he said, not really asking it as
a question, his voice muffled by Daniel’s shoulder.
“Uh…yeah….but it’s okay by
me.”
Jack had an uncomfortable
feeling they were being watched. “They’re here, aren’t they?” Jack said still
not moving, his head still buried. Daniel opened his eyes.
“Yeah.”
“Crap.”
Jack felt Daniel’s facial
muscles tighten and knew he must be smiling.
Jack raised his head, keeping
his back to his team. Then he placed his thumb and index finger on either side
of the bridge of his nose and spread them outward to massage the skin under his
tired eyes. If it happened to wipe some tears away, Jack wasn’t going to let
on. He stood erect then and still touching Daniel, he took a step away from him
before he let go. Jack turned around to see what his team was doing.
They had come into the room
to see Jack clinging to Daniel. Looking at them now, Jack could tell that they
believed—just as he did—that Daniel was real. Jonas had a big grin on his face.
Carter was trying to hold it together with tears in her eyes threatening to
spill, while Teal’c already had two streaks running down his cheeks as he stood
there, stock still except for a quivering chin. Jack wasn’t so embarrassed
anymore to know that they’d seen him hugging Daniel as if his life depended on
it.
Jack stepped aside and
motioned for SG-1 to come greet their lost partner. Carter flung herself
forward and just about jumped on Daniel. She hit him so hard with her body that
they spun around half a turn. Jack gave them a bemused smile.
Jack saw that Carter was
blushing. He knew she was embarrassed to have her CO watching, but when Jack
saw her turn toward Teal’c, he knew she’d forgotten all about it. Teal’c was
still standing at a distance, obviously trying to maintain a stoic demeanor.
Carter stepped away from Daniel as she gestured for Teal’c to take her place.
Teal’c walked with quiet
dignity to Daniel.
“Daniel Jackson.” He said.
His voice had a tremor.
“Hi Teal’c. It’s good to see
you again.”
“As it is you. You are alive
again. How is your appearance possible?”
“I descended, Teal’c. I
missed you guys. When I was ascended, I wasn’t allowed to interfere and found
that more difficult than I’d ever imagined. Plus, I wasn’t allowed to touch
anyone or anything. Imagine! Seeing the artifacts of your dreams, and I
couldn’t hold them or touch them. It became too frustrating. The worst was when
I visited Jack—”
Jack wasn’t ready to discuss
that visit with his team yet, so he subtly shook his head, signaling to Daniel
“Don’t go there.”
Too late.
“You visited the Colonel?
When?” Carter asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Daniel
said, his eyes moving from Jack to Carter. What matters is that that was when I first realized I was
becoming dissatisfied with being ascended.”
“Daniel—” Teal’c faltered
before he got the “Jackson” out. Then he continued without it. “May I greet you
in the Tau’ri fashion? I think it would be most appropriate for this occasion.”
Daniel smiled. “Sure, Teal’c,
what Tau’ri fashion did you have in mind?”
Teal’c put his arms around
Daniel and crushed him.
“Teal’c, I’m glad to see you
too, but I can’t breathe!”
Teal’c let him go and stepped
back.
Jack now noticed that Jonas
had been watching from the doorway. He seemed tentative about with how to
proceed after the intensity of SG-1’s response to Daniel’s presence. Daniel
rescued him by going over to Jonas and shaking his hand. “Jonas, I hear you’ve
been using my office.”
“Oh, I’ll find some other
place to go right away if you’re coming back, Doctor Jackson.”
“That’s all right. Maybe we
can share it.” Daniel smiled at Jonas before turning back to face the rest of
the team. His friends stood there immobile and staring at Daniel, Sam and
Teal’c with tear-streaked cheeks. After a few beats of silence, Daniel broke
the spell.
“Soooo…what’s the game plan
here? When do we go home?”
Jack was the only one who
could currently speak. “What? Now you want to leave? With all these juicy
pictures to decipher? Maybe you aren’t Daniel Jackson after all,” but he was
smiling as he said it.
Sam spoke, her voice nasal
sounding, “We can’t get out. The door sealed us in and we can’t find any
mechanism to get it open again.”
“Didn’t you see the warning
notice in the vestibule?”
“What warning notice?” Jonas
asked.
Daniel then led them to the
vestibule where he pointed out a smooth round spot on the plain clay wall high
and to one side of where the door had been. “See this? There are tiny
inscriptions on it. This building looks primitive, but I assure you, it is
quite high tech, as you saw by the door. It keys on DNA from the skin cells of
your fingertips. This is known as the ‘Big House’ in their language. It’s sort
of a members’ only meeting house for this civilization’s people. They were
warlike and used this as a type of war room, probably for strategizing or maybe
celebrating victory, things like that. Anyone allowed in has their DNA scanned
into the vestibule wall.
“These inscriptions are warnings about the
door mechanism, why it seals and all that. Any people not meant to be here are
left without an exit, to be captured or left to die. But this tiny area here
has the failsafe instructions. I think they assumed no foreigners would
discover it. What you have to do is absurdly simple,” Daniel said as he drew a
pattern on the smooth plate. Immediately, seams grew to outline the door then
he merely pushed inside the outline and the newly formed door opened as quietly
and easily as it had when they’d entered.
“Wow,” Jack mouthed then
said, “Sweet.”
He motioned for the rest of
SG-1 to go ahead through the door. Jonas first ran back to get Jack’s P-90,
still lying on the floor, where Jack had left it with the rope still attached.
He untied the rope and put it in his pack, bringing the gun to Jack who was now
staring at the doorway shaking his head. Jack took it absently, blinking at the
brightness as he stepped outside.
“When, exactly, did you come
in?” he asked Daniel.
“Um, I came in when you were
scattering like the wind from your weapon going off. I guess you were a little
distracted and didn’t see me.”
“But how did you know about
the door—you know—how did you know we could get out? You weren’t here with us
to know we’d been trapped,” asked Carter, squinting less and less as her eyes
adjusted to the brightness more quickly than Jack’s.
“I was here with you before I
descended,” Daniel said as the five of them started making their way to the
Stargate. “I was in the SGC watching to see where you were going,” he
continued. “I followed you through the Stargate
to this planet and into the building. I found the warning notice in the
vestibule and realized that once the door closed, there was no way out for you
except for my showing you the way. I could see none of you were able to
decipher the language…no offense Jonas.”
Jonas shrugged to show he
didn’t have any hard feelings.
That’s our Danny-Boy! It’s so great to have you back! Jack felt the lump return in his throat. Okay…better not be thinking like that just
now—”
Daniel continued, “I saw that
you were trapped and couldn’t just stand by anymore. I’m tired of not being
able to help so I decided that now was as good a time as any to descend, but
before I did, I had to get some clothes, you know, since I left without any….”
Jack shrugged, not caring
about the details of how Daniel might have procured clothing.
Daniel glanced at him, but continued, “Anyway,
it took a while to figure out the best way to sneak some BDUs from the SGC—”
“But you’re not wearing
BDUs,” Jonas noted.
“—and then I remembered about the mimic
devices. So I, uh, swiped one. That way I could walk around and get the BDU’s
without anyone noticing.”
Carter asked, “How’d you know
where the mimic devices were?”
“I was ascended, so it’s not
hard, you know…actually, you don’t know…but that’s beside the point…anyway,
trust me, it wasn’t hard.”
Jack asked, “Did you know
there were fake ones out there? You were lucky to get a real one. Someone
recently had my real one and the result wasn’t pretty…”
But before Daniel could
comment, Carter interrupted, obviously curious. “So whose mimic device did you
take, Daniel?”
“I should have checked, but
at the time I was in such a hurry to get away before anyone realized it was
missing, I just took one at random. I didn’t test it out before I left.”
“So whose was it?”
“Uh, mine,” Daniel said
sheepishly.
Jack snorted. “You got your
own?” It was the first time he’d felt like laughing in a long time.
“Actually, it worked out
perfectly in the long run. I realized I didn’t need to try to sneak around to look
for any clothes anymore, just come back here and descend.”
“So where did the clothes
you’re wearing now come from?” Jonas asked.
“Uh, I’m not wearing any,
Jonas. I descended right outside the building, stuck the mimic device on me and
came inside. See?” Daniel showed them the glowing device on his chest.
“Ewww! So we all hugged a
naked guy. Thanks a lot Daniel!” Jack said.
“Oh, I don’t know, Sir, I
don’t mind the concept…” Carter said, raising her eyebrows at the Colonel as
she smiled.
“Shut up, Carter,” he said,
feeling his face grow warm in a rare blush and hoping she didn’t also notice.
Her eyes twinkled as she
continued smiling at him. She’d noticed.
“You’re all naked under your
clothes, too, you know, so what’s the difference?” Daniel said.
Jack couldn’t disagree with
that, but he still stood a little farther away from Daniel.
“You know, Jack…” Daniel
teased, “If I’d known it was going to bother you so much, I would have swiped
the clothes from your locker instead.”
Jack opened his mouth to take
Daniel’s bait when Teal’c interrupted.
“O’Neill,” Teal’c said, “If
he is wearing Daniel Jackson’s mimic device, how do we know this person is
really Daniel Jackson?”
Oy, and after all that work I did earlier to figure
out for myself that it’s really him! It HAS to be Daniel… “Good point, Teal’c.” All thoughts of Jack’s locker
disappeared.
“Doctor Jackson, maybe you
could go behind one of those giant leaves right there and take off the device
for a second,” Jonas said.
“Oh, sure, Jonas.” Daniel went
a few feet off the trail to behind a large leafed plant. He made sure to keep
his head and chest visible as he removed the device. He shimmered and his
clothes disappeared as did his glasses. His hair was slightly different, too.
But it was definitely Daniel.
“Yup, you’re Daniel, all
right,” Jack said, satisfied (and very relieved.) Daniel put the device back
on. “And great Daniel costume, by the way,” Jack said, casually pointing at
Daniel’s plaid shirt. “Looks just like you—did you know it’s Halloween today?”
They resumed their hike to
the Gate in silence until Jack spoke again. “Daniel…Just how, exactly, would
you be getting into my locker?”
“Uh, I know the combination,
Jack,” Daniel said.
“Great,” Jack said scowling.
“And just when did you learn that little tidbit of information?”
“Oh, about five years ago.
You have an easy combination. All I had to do was watch you open it once and I
was good to go.”
Jack had been walking with
Daniel and Jonas, but now he twisted his head to look at the other two walking
behind. “Did you guys know about this?”
“All of the original members
of SG-1 know the combination to your locker, O’Neill,” said Teal’c. “I do not
know about Jonas Quinn.”
Jack turned around fully and
walked backward, looking at Carter. “Is this true?”
Carter turned red. “’Fraid
so, Sir.”
“I for one use your razor to
shave my head. The pivoting head makes it a pleasurable experience,” Teal’c
continued.
“You use my razor? Is that why my blades are so dull
all the time? And I always thought it was my beard of steel!”
“No, it is I who have the
beard of steel, O’Neill,” Teal’c said with one of his Mona Lisa smiles. For
Teal’c, this was akin to chortling. “Furthermore, before you chastise me, I
must inform you of the difficulty I have in procuring the necessary toiletry
articles since I am rarely off base with time to go shopping.”
Jack could say nothing in response, however
he did give frequent hard glances towards Teal’c’s face and scalp, which
resulted in Teal’c walking with an air of superiority. Whether it was from
pride in besting O’Neill or from the satisfaction of having Daniel back, was
hard to tell. Jack saw Carter and Daniel silently sharing amused glances
whenever they looked at Teal’c and Jack. Jonas smiled, too.
They hiked on for a while in
the heat and humidity. No one had water left and they were fatigued from their
time trapped in the building, except for Daniel, who looked quite energetic and
bouncy as he walked along. SG-1 lapsed into silence as they trudged along
sweating and distracted by their emotions.
Jack figured each one was
thinking about Daniel’s return and he wondered what impact it was having. Jack
was uncertain how Jonas would react. He knew Daniel and Teal’c had a deep,
respectful friendship and he was certain the Jaffa would be quietly pleased at
his friend’s return. Carter was pretty good at accepting unexpected things. In
fact, she often surprised Jack with her even-keeled temperament.
Jack realized he was musing
about Daniel again just as he had been earlier this distracting day, which had
been a day filled with thoughts about Daniel. And who could have ever guessed
that the outcome would be…Daniel! Things like this never happened in real life.
Happy things. Good things. He was far
too used to the bad stuff, things like being tortured while imprisoned, his
best friends dying (or ascending), his son dying…but never good things. How did
you handle this when all the coping skills you’d developed over the years were
for the bad stuff?
Jack had to stop thinking
before he went crazy. Thinking was Carter’s job, not his. At least, not like
this. This was musing. Kind of more like Daniel’s style of thinking. Now I’m thinking about Daniel again. Crap. He
tried to think about something else, but every time he promptly came back to
Daniel. It was hard not to when he was walking right beside him.
Descended.
Alive again.
In the flesh.
Incredible.
When they reached the
Stargate, Carter pushed the code on her GDO, but they gave Daniel the honor of
dialing the Gate for home.
“Wait until the General sees
us!”
As they stepped into the
Stargate, Jack put his arm around Daniel.
I missed you, Daniel.
Past tense! And
didn’t that feel great?
Each one’s last thought was
about the miracle of them all being together again.
Chapter Two
“Incoming wormhole!” The
klaxon sounded. “It’s SG-1’s signal, Sir,” the sergeant said as General Hammond
arrived. Hammond left right away to greet them in the Gate room, as was his
custom.
Jonas was the first one
through the Gate. He was most of the way down the ramp before anyone else came
through. “Sir,” Jonas said to the General then he smiled as he walked past the
General and stopped.
Major Carter came through
then, quickly followed by Teal’c. Hammond was bewildered at the odd sight of
Teal’c with a full-out teeth-showing unselfconscious grin. When he looked at
Carter he saw she was about to cry as she unsuccessfully tried to speak to him.
“What’s going on, Major?” he
asked. “What happened out there?”
Jack O’Neill popped through
the Gate with his arm around—
“Oh my…” General Hammond
whispered, and turned pale, as he saw who Jack had his arm around. “Doctor
Jackson?” He whispered hoarsely, his voice breaking.
Jack still had his arm around
Daniel, grinning. They stopped in front of the General. “Trick or treat!” Jack
exclaimed.
“Doctor Jackson,” the General
said again, cautiously. This couldn’t possibly be the real Daniel Jackson, he
thought, but he was in doubt of his own skepticism as he saw how the others
were reacting to Daniel’s presence. “To what do we owe this pleasure?” he asked
somewhat formally.
Daniel’s grin didn’t break as
he told the General, “I descended. I’m back.”
“Descended? Can you do that?” General Hammond asked, then he
fixed his eyes on each team member in turn. He didn’t say anything else, merely
watched them all, absorbing their expressions, trying to figure out if this
could possibly be real.
“General, I know what you’re
thinking,” Colonel O’Neill spoke, in answer to Hammond’s doubts. “Believe me, I
had my doubts—maybe still do—but I sure don’t know who else this could possibly
be besides the old rock duster himself. He’s got me convinced,” he said smugly.
Then as an afterthought he said, “Mostly.”
General Hammond considered
his words for a moment before breaking into a grin as big as Teal’c’s. “Daniel
Jackson!” he said as he moved forward to embrace Daniel after Jack dropped his
arm. “To say it’s good to see you, son, would be an understatement.” When
General Hammond let Daniel go, he had tears in his eyes and was surprised to
see every member of SG-1 did too.
“I think you had all better
go to the infirmary,” he added.
“But General, we’re fine. And
we’re convinced this really is
Daniel, Sir,” Sam said, finally able to make her voice work.
“I know. That’s not why I
want you to go. There’s someone else who needs to see this for herself.”
“Ah.” Jack said with a thrust
of his head.
The five current and previous
members of SG-1 trooped off to surprise Janet Fraiser in the infirmary.
-----
“You guys want to have some
fun with Doc Fraiser?” Colonel O’Neill
asked as they walked down the hall.
“What do you have in mind,
Jack?” asked Daniel.
“I was thinkin’ we co