Fic: From the Ashes (2/2)
Aug. 2nd, 2003 07:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galaxysoupPart One is here
Cerebral hypoxia. That was when the brain was starved of oxygen.
Acute passive hyperemia. That was when the airway and the anterior, external, and internal jugular veins were cut off simultaneously but the carotid arteries were not. It meant the blood had backed up in Daniel's brain and hadn't been able to get out.
Petechiae. Those were the little pinpricks of blood on Daniel's neck and face. They came from the acute passive hyperemia.
Bilateral bruising. Those were the marks around Daniel's neck.
Sam shifted in her seat. So much for the strangulation.
The occipital bone. That was at the back of the head. Daniel's hadn't broken, which might have made things better because then the pressure inside his skull would have had some release. According to Janet it wasn't that common to get bruising around the eyes and along the back of the neck without a fracture, but Daniel had it, the lucky guy. He also had a contusion on the back of his head which was a bruise, which lead to an edema which was swelling, which lead in turn to intercranial pressure which was just what it sounded like. He also had an endotrachial tube to help him breathe and one blown pupil. Sam had taken Janet's word on that one.
It was amazing what ten minutes talking to the CMO and half an hour online could get you. In Sam's case she now had the same buffer of words Janet had, but without the understanding. She knew things about the cerebrum and the cerebellum, and the brain stem and the medulla oblongata. She knew which of Daniel's symptoms came from strangulation and which from the concrete wall his skull had crunched against. All of it led to the conclusion that Daniel was never coming back.
Sam closed her eyes. If she had to spend one more minute staring at the minute spikes on Daniel's EKG she was going to start screaming and they would have to sedate her to make her stop.
She got up and began walking aimlessly through the corridors. It was late night, or maybe early morning, and there were few personnel in the halls. Those she passed gave her sympathetic glances and Sam spent a few minutes trying to wonder at the efficiency of gossip in Cheyenne Mountain, but her mind refused to settle on anything for long.
She looked up, not surprised to find she had ended up in front of Daniel's office door. She gently pushed the door open with one finger and walked in.
There was something about Daniel that made everywhere he was seem more lived in. At first she had assumed that it was because of the way he seemed to accumulate stuff. It appeared in stacks and piles, settled in drifts on his desk, a general cloud of clutter that followed him everywhere.
Later she realized it had to just be something about his personality. He had agreed to help her move from her apartment to a proper house and after a day of lifting and carrying had spent the night on her couch. The house was filled with boxes, the walls were bare, she had not yet explored the nooks and crannies or imprinted any part of her personality on anything, and somehow it still felt like the right place to be. Drawing on the evidence of previous moves which had made her feel rootless for weeks, she concluded it had to be something about Daniel.
It was hard to make herself believe that was gone now. Daniel, her partner in crime, her scientific ally against the Colonel, her little brother. She was waiting for some miracle, for some last minute reprieve that would return Daniel to them whole and safe. Because Daniel always came back. No matter what happened, no matter how awful things looked, he always came back. He had to.
Sam turned and began walking the halls again, some restlessness driving her forward. Under Janet's guidance she had tried the healing device that afternoon. She had stood for ten minutes over Daniel's still form and the damn thing hadn't even lit up. Janet said that maybe it was because Sam was emotionally at a bad place to control it, but Sam couldn't bring herself to care about anything other than her own failure to make the device work.
She was the only one from the team who had stayed in the infirmary after Teal'c had offered his life in place of Daniel's. From what she'd heard, the Colonel had gone straight to the gym and beaten the hell out of a punching bag with enough intensity to make even the Marines nervous. Teal'c had locked himself in his quarters and refused to come out.
Sam hesitated at an intersection, then made the turn that would take her to Teal'c's room.
"Teal'c?" There was no answer, not that she was really expecting one. "Teal'c, I know you can hear me." She waited again, hands flat against the cool metal of his door, hearing nothing. "Teal'c, it wasn't your fault. I know you don't believe that right now, but it really wasn't." She chewed her lip. "You didn't know what you were doing. There was no way you could have fought those hallucinations because you couldn't have known they were hallucinations." Well, that was clear, Sam. You go girl. She shifted her weight and tried again. "If you blame yourself for that, you might as well say that what all the men did under Hathor's control was their fault too. And you couldn't stop there, either. You'd have to blame Daniel for what he did when he was on the sarcophagus, and all of Seth's disciples for being under the nish'ta, and... and Rya'c for trying to destroy Earth after being brainwashed by Apophis, and I know you don't blame him for that." She leaned her forehead against the door. "You can't judge us differently, Teal'c. If you blame yourself for Daniel then you blame us for everything else. You can't forgive us and not forgive yourself. It's not fair and it's not the way it works."
There was no answer from inside. After a few moments, Sam turned and kept on walking.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
There were times when General Hammond loved his job, when he thought there was no way anyone else on the planet could possibly have a job as wonderful as his. Generally those were the times when it was brought home to him that despite the vastness of the galaxy and the cruelties the human race was capable of, it was also capable of incredible beauty and tremendous grace. Those were the times when he thought they might have a chance, that just maybe it would all work out well in the end. The good would be rewarded and the bad would be punished and the Colonel would actually catch a fish.
Of course, there were also times when everything seemed hopeless. Good men died. For every step forward they took a wormhole back, and the suspicions of their higher-minded allies seemed right on target because when you really got down to it the human race was way too fallible to be messing around the galaxy without constant supervision. Days like those had him wishing he'd taken an early retirement.
And then there were days like today. On a galactic scale, of course, today would hardly even register as unfortunate. If one lonely person on one tiny planet orbiting a small sun at an almost indistinguishable spot on one arm of a middling galaxy stopped being able to think for himself, what tragedy was that?
Incredible. Monumental. Unimaginable. All the ten-dollar words in Doctor Jackson's erstwhile vocabulary strung together in one long, bumpy, multisyllabic sentence would not be enough to encompass the sheer tragedy of this single loss.
General Hammond rubbed his head tiredly and reflected that it was a good thing he'd been completely bald before he'd taken this job. It was probably best his hair had disappeared naturally instead of being torn out by the roots.
Major Carter was moping in the infirmary, and Hammond was afraid that any moment she would retreat to her lab and start blowing things up to make herself feel better. Colonel O'Neill had pounded every punching bag in the gym into submission, and then pounded one of the Marines too. He was currently cooling his heels under Major Ferretti's watchful eye. Hammond dreaded the next conversation he was going to have with the man, because O'Neill was Doctor Jackson's legal next of kin and at some point he was going to have to decide what to do with his friend.
And Teal'c... Teal'c was inconsolable. He had sunk himself in a pit of guilt and remorse so deep Hammond was surprised he was still capable of functioning. He'd tried to resign from the SGC twice already and only the fact that he clearly felt himself unworthy to even be in Hammond's presence had kept him from protesting Hammond's refusal to let him go.
It was enough to make a man want to quit and take up something easier, like relocating the Great Lakes to Arizona armed with only a teaspoon and a ziploc bag.
A knock on the door had Hammond hastily pulling his thoughts in line. He straightened behind his desk and called for his visitor to enter. It was about time for Teal'c to come in and try to resign again.
Sure enough, the Jaffa slipped noiselessly through the door and immediately dropped to his knees before Hammond's desk.
"General Hammond."
Hammond sighed. "Teal'c, please get up."
The Jaffa didn't move. "I wish to submit a request."
Hammond rested his head in his hands. "Go ahead."
"I would like to contact Master Bra'tac."
Hammond brightened a little. Bra'tac was pragmatic enough to recognize the situation for what it was and forceful enough to make Teal'c actually listen, something none of them had accomplished. Hammond cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner. "That's an excellent idea, Teal'c. I'll have him contacted immediately."
"I thank you. You are truly a wise and powerful leader, General Hammond."
Hammond grimaced. Teal'c had fallen into the patterns of interaction he'd learned working for the Goa'uld and it made Hammond uneasy. He kept waiting for Teal'c to start calling him `My Lord'.
"Not so wise, Teal'c, or I would have thought of Master Bra'tac myself. Do you want me to tell him anything in particular about the circumstances here?"
Teal'c considered. "If it is no trouble, please remind him of the Jaffa Is'khar. He will know what I mean."
"It's no trouble, Teal'c. I'll let you know when he gets here."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Master Bra'tac's cloak swirled as he strode down the ramp into the Gateroom. He stopped before Teal'c and General Hammond and inclined his head. "Teal'c. Hammond of Texas."
Hammond smiled, but it was strained. "Master Bra'tac, good of you to come." His eyes flicked in Teal'c's direction. Bra'tac took the hint.
"Let us proceed to your quarters, Teal'c."
Without a word, Teal'c turned and left the Gateroom. Bra'tac followed silently, mulling over the situation as he walked. Teal'c's earlier invocation of the Jaffa Is'khar had him intrigued and not a little worried, and General Hammond's palpable distress in the Gateroom only served to heighten his sense of foreboding.
Finally, they arrived. Teal'c ushered Bra'tac inside and closed the door.
"Did you bring it?"
Bra'tac did not move. "Perhaps." Teal'c frowned and Bra'tac gave him a quelling look. "I may have, I may have not. Either way, you will not have it until I am satisfied."
Teal'c gazed back at him steadily. "Daniel Jackson lies in the infirmary, gravely injured from a hurt I inflicted. He will not recover unless I help him. I claim ren'o'lisha."
Blood debt? Bra'tac's eyebrows rose. "You claim it? You are not the one injured, my friend."
"I claim on behalf of Daniel Jackson."
Bra'tac's gaze sharpened, challenging. "He has not requested it himself?"
"He cannot. He is incapable of speech."
Bra'tac crossed his arms over his chest. "Then I see no reason to give you the alinor."
Teal'c's jaw tensed. "It is a matter of my honor, old man. You have no right to deny retribution."
Bra'tac shook his head. "I have every right, Teal'c. I have taught you since you were a chal'ti. When I see you ready to do something foolish, it is my prerogative to stop you before you do yourself harm." He shrugged. "Beyond that, it is I who hold the alinor."
Teal'c stared angrily at Bra'tac for another moment, then his shoulders drooped and he turned away. "I have done him such injury, Bra'tac. This goes far beyond any simple physical harm. I have injured his soul."
Bra'tac heard the pain in Teal'c's voice and closed his eyes. "Teal'c... I have known you for most of your life. You have been to me like a good son." He opened his eyes, looking past Teal'c's room into the world beyond. "I do not wish to lose you needlessly."
"You do not know that I will die."
Bra'tac's hands rose in a half-gesture and dropped to his sides, the first unnecessary move Teal'c could remember seeing him make. "You were the youngest Jaffa to ever become First Prime, Teal'c. That was formidable, yes, but it does not make you invincible."
Teal'c turned back and grasped Bra'tac's shoulders. "It is my honor, Bra'tac."
Bra'tac gave a bitter laugh. "Honor. Much is done and said for honor that is not at all honorable." He sighed. "But I do trust your judgement. Take me to Daniel Jackson."
Teal'c squeezed Bra'tac's shoulders and let his hands drop. "I thank you, Master Bra'tac."
Bra'tac shook his head irritably. "This is foolishness. Proceed before I change my mind."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Major Carter was asleep by Daniel Jackson's bedside, one hand loosely gripping his around the many wires and tubes. Teal'c halted at the door for a moment, a wave of guilt and shame washing over him so powerfully that for a moment he couldn't breathe.
It wasn't just Daniel Jackson he had hurt. It was his team. It was people like General Hammond and Doctor Fraiser. It was the whole base, whether they knew it or not. He alone had deprived them of Daniel Jackson's brilliance and compassion. He alone was responsible for the death of that curiosity and intellect. Where System Lords and alien viruses had failed, Teal'c had succeeded.
Bra'tac pushed past him and Teal'c remembered to draw breath once more. Bra'tac made his way to Major Carter's side, barely glancing at Daniel Jackson's still body, and touched her shoulder gently. She stirred and woke, looking instinctively first at Daniel Jackson before realizing who stood next to her.
"Master Bra'tac?" She smiled, covering her disappointment well, but her eyes were dark with sadness and fatigue. "I'm glad you could come." Her eyes flicked past him to Teal'c. "Tell Teal'c it wasn't his fault. He won't listen to any of us."
Bra'tac smiled gently. "I will do my best. Please, you should get some rest. We will watch over Daniel Jackson."
Major Carter glanced once more at Teal'c and relinquished Daniel Jackson's hand, stepping back. "All right." She hesitated. "You'll let me know if... if anything changes?"
"We will."
"Thanks." She turned to go, then impulsively turned back and kissed Teal'c on the cheek. She was gone before he could react.
Master Bra'tac looked down at Daniel Jackson with a jaundiced eye. "These machines, will they be in the way?"
Teal'c shook his head. "They are fine. If Doctor Fraiser has them to refer to she is less likely to interrupt."
Bra'tac nodded. "Very well. Situate yourself, if you are still determined to do this."
"I am." Teal'c gently lifted Daniel Jackson's head off the pillow and slid behind him, wary of disconnecting anything, until he was sitting cross-legged with his back against the wall and Daniel Jackson's head in his lap. He shifted a little, getting comfortable, then looked at Bra'tac.
"I am ready."
Bra'tac withdrew a small glass vial from a pouch on his belt. He hesitated, turning it over in his hands, then gave Teal'c an inscrutable look and uncorked it.
The gentle smell of a plain after a rainstorm drifted through the infirmary. Bra'tac eyed Daniel Jackson speculatively, then mentally dismissed the tube coming out of his mouth and tipped a small quantity of alinor down Daniel Jackson's throat. It would be absorbed into his system regardless. He handed the vial to Teal'c and stepped back.
"I will stand watch."
Teal'c nodded. There was nothing else to say. He upended the vial into his own mouth and swallowed quickly.
Bra'tac stood with his arms crossed at the foot of the bed and watched as Teal'c's eyes slid closed. He cast a wary glance in the direction of the many mysterious machines surrounding the two men on the bed. Sooner or later, one of them would register the changes to Daniel Jackson and bring the doctor.
He stood stiffly at the end of the bed. There was only waiting now.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Teal'c fell into blackness. It surrounded him, pushing its way into his ears and nose and mouth until he was aware of nothing else. He thrashed, searching.
Far away, he felt himself called. He strained in the direction of the call, propelling himself through the blackness until finally, far below, he caught sight of a light. It was tiny, pulsing weakly, but it was alive.
He sank down to the light, hovering over it for a moment. Finally, he reached out with a hand that didn't exist and caressed it with one intangible finger.
There was a soundless crash and an invisible burst of light and he found himself standing in a tent. A woman was seated at a rickety table placed near the center pole, her blonde hair pulled back and tucked under a kerchief. She was bent over a stack of papers, muttering to herself as she chewed the end of her pencil.
On the ground nearby was a small cradle made from a wooden packing case. With one foot, the woman rocked it absently back and forth as she worked.
Teal'c knelt on the sand beside the crate and looked at the baby within. He was asleep on his back, clad only in a cloth diaper because of the heat. As Teal'c watched, the baby's eyes opened and focused on Teal'c.
Teal'c smiled.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Janet stood up from her desk and mentally braced herself before leaving her office. She knew what she would find. Daniel, still brain-dead. One or more of the members of SG-1 hovering in the infirmary. If it was Sam, she would probably be clutching the healing device in one hand, intent on trying again. The Colonel would ask why Daniel wasn't better yet and loudly imply something wasn't being done right. Teal'c would say nothing. That was the hardest to take.
She rounded the corner and caught sight of Master Bra'tac standing against one wall. Good. Maybe that meant Teal'c had finally left his room. She came further into the room and frowned. When she had hoped Teal'c would leave his room, she had not meant that he should meditate on Daniel's bed.
As she neared, Master Bra'tac straightened and intercepted her.
"Do not touch them."
Janet leaned around him, trying to get a good look at the monitors surrounding Daniel. "Master Bra'tac, what is going on?"
Bra'tac dragged her away from the bed by one arm. "Teal'c is attempting to revive Daniel Jackson. Please do not disturb them."
Janet pulled herself up to her full height and glared. "Excuse me?"
"Doctor Fraiser, is there a problem here?"
Janet turned to face the General. "Sir, did you approve this? Why wasn't I told? Master Bra'tac, I insist you let me examine my patient!"
"No." Master Bra'tac folded his arms across his chest and leveled a stare at the indignant doctor that had been known to make fully trained Jaffa quail. "You may observe the monitors, but you may not touch either of them. That will disturb the process."
"What process?" General Hammond demanded, just as Janet leveled a glare right back at Master Bra'tac and said "Let me pass!" in a voice that had commanded everyone from Cassie to General Hammond, and tried to shove past Bra'tac to the gurney.
Bra'tac picked Janet up bodily and deposited her back next to General Hammond. "I will explain," he said sternly. "But you will not disturb them."
Janet and General Hammond gaped at him for a moment, Janet sputtering indignantly, then General Hammond turned to the airman at the infirmary door who seemed to be wavering between calling for help and zatting the whole lot of them. "Go get Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter." He turned back to Master Bra'tac. "This had better be good."
Bra'tac crossed his arms again. "I will wait for O'Neill and Major Carter," he said, and cast a dark look in the general direction of his protege that suggested he'd be collecting on a big favor some time in the future. "I intend to explain once only."
Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter skidded into the infirmary, their eyes going immediately to Daniel. Carter frowned. "What - " she began.
"I will explain." Master Bra'tac said. "You will proceed no closer to them." He glared until he had collected a nod from each of them. "Very well. Teal'c is attempting to heal Daniel Jackson using a drug called alinor."
"But - " Janet protested.
"You will not interrupt me, or I will not continue," Bra'tac snapped, his patience clearly gone.
"Go ahead, Master Bra'tac," General Hammond said in a tone that indicated his own patience wasn't that far behind Bra'tac's.
"The alinor permits a Jaffa to establish a link from his own symbiote to whomever he touches. It is a difficult process and very dangerous. It was forbidden by the System Lords and is frowned upon even by Jaffa, because it is primarily used to keep Jaffa without their symbiotes alive until a new symbiote can be obtained. A Jaffa rarely loses his symbiote unless it has been taken from him by a Goa'uld, so to keep him alive is seen as a rebellion against the decision of a god. Using alinor is a dishonorable thing."
Bra'tac glanced at Janet. "Touching either party is not permitted. While under the influence of the alinor, the Jaffa cannot control where the healing power of his symbiote goes except by touch. If an uninjured person makes contact with either participant, a small amount of healing power will be diverted. The symbiote is under great strain trying to protect two people at once, and it is not unheard of for it to die in the process."
"And you agreed to this?" Jack blurted before he could stop himself.
Bra'tac looked unhappy. "I was against it. I am still against it." He shrugged. "Teal'c insisted it was a matter of honor, and I could not refuse him."
Jack shook his head. "This is nuts. This is just nuts. What the hell was he thinking?"
Bra'tac stiffened. "I realize the concept of honor may be foreign to you, human, but for a Jaffa it is everything. Without honor we have nothing."
"That was a rhetorical question, Bra'tac. Means you don't have to answer it."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Daniel hopped up the dune, singing a sand song. He stopped at the top and looked back. "Teal'c, why do the stars have stories?"
Teal'c followed him. "It is a human thing, to name the stars. My people have no names for them."
Daniel frowned. "Why not?"
Teal'c smiled down at his young charge. "Humans make stories of their gods and use the stars to illustrate them. I suppose it makes them feel closer to divinity. Jaffa have no need of such things. We know the gods for what they are."
"Real gods? You know real gods?"
"False gods." Teal'c quirked an eyebrow. "Dead false gods."
Daniel chewed his lower lip. "If they're dead and false, why do people believe in them?"
Teal'c crouched down at Daniel's level. "Belief is a strange thing, Daniel Jackson. If a person believes enough in a dead false god they see neither the falsehood nor the fallacy, and they will ignore such things with all their might no matter how much evidence they see to the contrary."
Daniel looked worried. "Then how do you know what to believe?"
"Believe in the truth, Daniel Jackson. Believe that it exists, and then find it."
"Daniel! Dinner!" Daniel's mother came into view around the corner of the dune. She stopped and smiled up at him. "What are you doing up there? You're going to be all over sand, young man," she scolded.
Daniel brushed off his shorts and peered down at her. "I'm talking to Teal'c, Mom. He's telling me about gods." He wrinkled his nose. "Dead false gods, but people think they're real anyway because they're dumb."
Daniel's mother smiled indulgently. "Well, tell `Teal'c' you have to come in for dinner now. You can come back and play later."
"It's not playing, Mom," Daniel grumbled as he slid down the dune. "It's important."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Jack spun the infirmary chair left and let his eyes unfocus until the whole infirmary was a blur, then stopped himself and spun right. Left. Right. Left. Right.
Okay, that was probably enough. He was starting to feel kind of sick.
He stopped and found himself staring at Daniel and Teal'c's infirmary bed. Fraiser had bowed to Bra'tac's insistence she not touch either of them, but she had erected a plastic tent thingy around the two of them to keep out any germs while Junior worked overtime. Bra'tac had raised an eyebrow, obviously unimpressed, but had said nothing.
Jack squinted at the monitors. Lots of spiky lines. He didn't really know which one was which, but since Janet spent the most time staring at the one on the left he guessed that was the EKG. She had made a vaguely optimistic noise the last time she looked but had refused to say anything definite. Jack was choosing to take it as a good sign.
He gave a contemplative little half-spin that left him facing the rest of the infirmary. He was glad Teal'c was doing something to help, and really hoped it worked, but after this was all over, when Teal'c and Daniel were both okay, he and tall dark and boneheaded were going to have a long talk about letting guilt push you into doing dumb things. He'd just have to make sure to do it somewhere away from Daniel so Daniel couldn't bring up that whole Abydos nuclear bomb thing.
He gave another little half-spin and found himself looking at Fraiser's office. She and Carter had disappeared a few minutes ago to drown their sorrows in Fraiser's chocolate stash. Neither of them was very good at waiting. Unlike Jack, of course, who could actually wait for quite a long time, as long as he was convinced it was worth it.
He spun the chair again, coming to an abrupt halt as Bra'tac's foot caught the bottom of the seat.
"Be still, human," Bra'tac growled. "You are making me ill with your fidgeting."
Jack raised his hands in an `okay, okay' gesture and Bra'tac retired to his post along the wall next to the bed. Bra'tac was like an Unas with a toothache. He was angry with Teal'c for putting himself in danger and irritated that everyone seemed to assume he should have talked Teal'c out of this Eleanor thing. Jack figured letting Bra'tac blow off a little steam by yelling at the human was only fair.
He inched his chair around until he was facing Daniel and Teal'c again. The monitors looked the same, Daniel looked the same, Teal'c looked the same. He was having a hard time actually convincing himself that Daniel was brain dead. Daniel and brain dead just didn't go in the same sentence. It was like using Apophis and nice together. It just didn't work. Daniel couldn't be brain dead any more than Apophis could stand on a corner with a Salvation Army collecting tin and a hand bell. It was sacrilege. Besides the bruises and the wires, Daniel just looked asleep.
So, Daniel was asleep, Teal'c was meditating, the monitors were beeping rhythmically. Jack glanced over at Bra'tac, who appeared to be reaching new levels of pissiness. Time to vent a little of that steam. Jack gave his chair another spin.
"Enough, human!"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Daniel shifted from foot to foot, craning his neck so he could see around Teal'c. "That stone is awfully heavy. Do you think that stone is too heavy? I wish they wouldn't stand under it like that."
Teal'c glanced behind him into the rest of the museum. "It is quite heavy, Daniel Jackson. What were you saying about this statue?"
"Nefertiti," Daniel said absently. "Not the real thing, this is just a replica. She was married to Akhenaten and mother of Tutankhamun."
"She is quite beautiful," Teal'c said, and time inexplicably slowed. Behind him, he heard a loud snap, heard someone yell, heard Daniel scream. He whirled just in time to see the coverstone Daniel's parents had been under fall, saw Daniel's father try to push his mother out of the way. A small blur in the corner of his eye was Daniel throwing himself towards the accident as if somehow he could cover the space between them in enough time to accomplish something. Teal'c started after him, but one of the workmen got there first, picking up Daniel and depositing him along one wall as people scrambled around the ruins. The workman vanished into the crowd, leaving Daniel alone.
Teal'c glanced over at the ruins. He recognized the scene now. It was what he and O'Neill had seen while in the Gamekeeper's virtual world. Teal'c had never realized before what exactly had happened. He had only known that Daniel Jackson's part of the virtual world had to do with his parents dying. He had not known how.
He looked back at Daniel. The boy slid down against the wall, tucking his knees in close to his chest as if making himself smaller would help somehow. At the ruins, the frantic workmen had uncovered a hand. It was too smeared in blood for Teal'c to tell who it belonged to.
Teal'c crouched down in front of Daniel, blocking his view of the accident. "Daniel Jackson."
Daniel shivered convulsively, staring blankly through Teal'c's shoulder, and gave no sign he'd heard.
"Daniel Jackson." Teal'c reached out and touched Daniel's face gently, drawing his fingers over Daniel's eyes, closing them.
"There is a place on my world where the plains seem to stretch on forever," Teal'c said, his voice soft and gentle, rhythmically hypnotic. "During the day the grass blows in the wind like waves. It is called the kasq naloh, the earth sea, for this reason. Once a year there is a great festival there. The people gather at night to see the stars race across the heavens. It is said that each falling star is a warrior. The fastest and brightest are the ones who died with the most honor, and each family tries to see their own warrior in the heavens."
He stroked Daniel's hair, soothing the shivers. "My people do not name the stars. We know that they are not gods, we know that they are not really warriors falling from the sky. But we also know that it is the job of the living to remember the dead, and so we gather each year and pretend."
Daniel's eyes opened. He was still shivering a little and his face was wet with tears. "Are my parents dead?"
"Yes."
Daniel closed his eyes again, then opened them, staring desperately at Teal'c. "What do I do now?"
"You must be strong, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c straightened, unconsciously deepening his voice to that of a commander. "You must go forward. You must choose how best to remember your dead. You are one now, Daniel Jackson, and you must be strong."
Daniel blinked up at him. "Strong like you?"
Teal'c did not look away.
"Stronger."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Teal'c?"
"Yes, Daniel Jackson?"
"Why do you call me that?"
"It is your name, is it not?"
"Yes, but why do you always say the whole thing? Why not just Daniel?"
"I am according you the respect of a great scholar. Among my people warriors are called by one name only, scholars by two or even three. Priests and tradesmen are known only by their station unless they are among family."
"Teal'c, I'm not a great scholar."
"You will be."
"Okay."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Janet looked at the EKG, then bent closer and looked again. Frowning, she checked the connection between the readout and the wires linked to Daniel, then fired a challenging look in Bra'tac's general direction and leaned down as far as she could without actually touching her patient.
"Janet?" Sam's worried voice distracted her from her scrutiny. "Is something wrong?"
Janet straightened. "Well," she said slowly. "I was reluctant to say anything at first because I wasn't sure, but... I think Daniel's brain waves are getting stronger."
Sam's jaw dropped. "That's impossible!"
Bra'tac looked smug. "It is the alinor. Teal'c is winning the battle."
Jack let out a completely unprofessional war whoop. "Way to go, Teal'c!"
Janet held up her hands warningly. "This doesn't necessarily mean anything is going to change for the better. He still has a long way to go before he gets to anything even approaching normal, and even then I have my doubts that he'll ever be the same again. But given that we are dealing with alien technology..." she shrugged. "I wouldn't get my hopes up, but maybe you lot can stop cluttering my infirmary and go get some rest finally." She gave Bra'tac a hard look. "Under normal circumstances I'd give him an MRI, but they're not exactly portable."
The Colonel was grinning from ear to ear. "Celebratory coffee in the commissary, kids. Let's go."
Janet gave him a quelling look. "They're not out of the woods yet, Colonel."
The Colonel's eyes flicked minutely in the direction of Sam and Master Bra'tac. "Well then we'll need to fill up on caffeine for the rest of the vigil, won't we?"
Janet followed his gaze, noticing how pale and drawn Sam looked and how Bra'tac seemed about ready to go off like a claymore. She pasted a smile on her face. "Excellent idea, Colonel! I don't want to see any of you back here for at least an hour. And that includes you, Master Bra'tac. I give you my word I'll keep them safe."
Bra'tac crossed his arms more tightly and gave her a dark look. "You will send for me if there is a change?"
"I'll send for all of you. I promise. Now scoot."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"It wasn't his fault, Teal'c."
"Are you not angry, Daniel Jackson?"
"Of course. But being angry at him won't do anything."
"Please explain."
"It wasn't his fault. Being angry at him does us both a disservice. All it accomplishes is to make him miserable and me look like a hot-tempered idiot. I'll get over it."
"But he caused you injury."
"Well, I guess if you can call a few books in a mud puddle an injury, yeah. It was an accident, Teal'c. He said he was sorry. These things just happen. They're nobody's fault."
"Of course, Daniel Jackson."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"I think I know what happened," Carter said with the hollow satisfaction of someone who has been puzzling over something pointless for a while and just figured it out.
"Well then, what happened?" Jack asked, stirring his coffee with one of those little wooden stirry things. Bra'tac had taken one look at the coffee and opted instead for water. Jack couldn't blame him, although he would have liked to see Bra'tac's expression when confronted with soda. Teal'c's had been priceless. Ah, for a camera...
"Well, it was bothering me that they drugged us and then left us at the Gate. I mean, they had us at their mercy, so why didn't they take care of us then and there?"
"We're talking about the alien gas guys, right?"
"Yes, sir." Carter nodded emphatically, setting down her coffee with only a small splash. "I think it was just their form of a defense system. They were banking on the fact that their actions would carry across cultural boundaries and translate to anyone. I mean, being knocked unconscious and left at the Gate is pretty easy to understand, right? And then if anyone came back, they just do it again until it works for good."
Jack shrugged. Whatever. "I guess that makes sense."
"I have heard of no such creatures," Bra'tac said dispassionately from the end of the table. "But if it worked upon Teal'c it is likely that any Goa'uld who went there was also affected and thus sent no further expedition."
"I wonder if that's a common defense," Carter mused. "It seems pretty effective."
The conversation trailed off. The ghost of Daniel's intellect seemed to hang in the air between them as they all left the thought that Daniel would know carefully unspoken.
Jack made a show of checking his watch. "Well, I guess the Doc won't kick us out if we go back a few minutes early. Any takers?"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"That was fascinating. It never occurred to me that you could get that kind of result from a - Teal'c, are you all right?"
"I am fine, Daniel Jackson. Please continue."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Jack watched Fraiser make her rounds of not-touching. It was actually kind of funny, if you ignored for a moment the fact that two of his best friends were lying in an infirmary bed. Fraiser had that itchy test-giving look about her that usually meant needles, only needles probably counted as touching in Bra'tac's book. They counted as a lot of things in Jack's book, none of them nice.
Fraiser straightened, looking worried. Jack's heart gave a leap.
"Doc? Something wrong?"
Across the infirmary he saw Carter and Bra'tac immediately come to attention.
"Janet? Is Daniel okay?"
"Daniel's fine," Fraiser said absently. "Not to be crude, but he really can't get worse at this point."
"What of Teal'c?"
There was a long pause before Janet answered.
"I don't know, Master Bra'tac. I think the strain is starting to get to him. His breathing seems shallower and he's perspiring, but without touching him I can't say what's wrong. He's not connected to any of the monitors so I really have no idea."
Jack slumped back into his chair.
Great.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Daniel leaned back in his chair, looking stunned. "Oh my God."
Teal'c appeared like a shadow beside him. "What is it, Daniel Jackson?"
"I think I just figured something out."
Teal'c waited patiently. When Daniel did not seem inclined to continue, he spoke again. "What have you discovered?"
"All right," Daniel paused for a moment, obviously getting his thoughts in line. "Okay. Here's the deal. Up until now we've always assumed that the Great Pyramids were first built during the fourth dynasty. But if you don't think about that, if you just look at the heiroglyphs... my God, it's obvious."
Teal'c frowned. "I do not understand, Daniel Jackson."
"I don't think the pyramids were built then, Teal'c. All the other structures from that time and later are covered in heiroglyphs, but the pyramids aren't. Why? Why would you build something that incredible and not put something on them, some sort of prayer or incantation, or... or even a name or something?" He put one hand to his face, looking pale and scared. "Teal'c, nobody's going to want to hear this."
"Why would they not?"
"Because the only reason I can think of for the pyramids to have no writing is if they were built before the Egyptians invented writing, and not only does that fly in the face of over a hundred years of theory and scholarship... it also kind of points to the idea that maybe we didn't build them. And nobody wants to hear that something that incredible, something that awe-inspiring, wasn't actually a triumph of human ingenuity and perseverance. And they're really not going to want to hear it from some wet-behind-the-ears grad student."
"Scientific progress in either direction is still progress, Daniel Jackson."
Daniel shook his head sadly. "I wish that were true, Teal'c."
Teal's thought for a moment. "Do you believe this theory of yours to be the truth, Daniel Jackson?"
"Yes."
"Then you must prove it."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The Colonel and Bra'tac looked like bookends, one on either side of Daniel and Teal'c's bed. Sam watched them from where she was curled up on a spare gurney across the way. Janet had insisted that they sleep, and as the Colonel had been known to sit vigils for his team that lasted days at a time and Bra'tac had yet to follow anybody's orders but his own, it was left to Sam to be sure Janet didn't feel entirely thwarted.
Of course, Janet could make her lie down, but she couldn't make her sleep.
Sam shifted a little and kept watching. It was like Daniel and Teal'c were suspended in the center of a triangle, with her at one corner and the Colonel and Bra'tac taking up the other two. As long as they stared, as long as they willed, Daniel would continue to improve and Teal'c would hang in there. She could hear the rasp and wheeze of his breathing even from here.
If only there was something she could do. There was nothing for the Colonel and Bra'tac to fight. The General couldn't order anyone to do anything because there was nothing to be done. There was nothing for Sam to fix, and there was plenty for Janet to heal but she couldn't do much without touching.
Sam sighed and clenched the corner of her pillow in one hand. Waiting sucked.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"I'm never going to get paid."
Teal'c smiled a little. "Perhaps if you take a small break you will be able to think of something. You are quite clever, Daniel Jackson."
Daniel gave him a grateful smile. "Maybe. Ugh, I just don't know. It doesn't look like any kind of writing I've ever seen." He flopped over backwards on the scaffolding against the coverstone and groaned. His voice echoed hollowly around the concrete room they were currently occupying. "This sucks, Teal'c."
Suddenly, Daniel sat bolt upright, the abrupt motion making the scaffolding sway. "What if it isn't writing?" He glanced down at Teal'c where he leaned heavily against the wall. "We've been assuming this whole time that it's writing, but what if it isn't? What if it's something else entirely?" He rose to his knees, peering intently at the symbols from up close, then turned and scrambled down the ladder to get a further away view.
"Does that one in the middle look familiar to you, Teal'c?"
Teal'c shrugged. "It resembles an hourglass."
"Noooo," Daniel said, long and drawn out. "No, it's something else. I've seen that before, but not in writing..." He angled his head from side to side. "Maybe... maybe... okay, think, Daniel, think." He pressed his fingertips to his temples for a moment, then looked back up at the symbol. "Free associate. Okay: Symbol. Hourglass. Um, tunic. Star. Star? Of course! It's Orion, Teal'c! It's a constellation!" He laughed delightedly. "They're all constellations, not writing at all!"
His laughter faded suddenly and an odd expression came across his face. Teal'c levered himself upright and stepped closer.
"Is something wrong, Daniel Jackson?"
"Yes," Daniel said slowly. "I've already done this, haven't I? I mean, I've already figured it out. And you weren't here then, either." He turned to face Teal'c. "I haven't met you yet."
Teal'c got very still. "What do you remember, Daniel Jackson?"
Daniel frowned. "I remember the Stargate. I remember... we're SG-1. We go to planets and you... you were all sick, drugged or something. You were all in the infirmary but I wasn't because... because I had a cold and I had to stay behind. And whatever they gave you made you hallucinate..." his voice trailed off. "What's going on here, Teal'c? How did we get here? I was hurt, I think. Shouldn't I be in the infirmary?" He peered more closely at Teal'c. "You don't look too good, Teal'c." His face paled as something else occurred to him. "Are we dead?"
"We are not." Teal'c sighed and closed his eyes briefly. "Come with me."
Daniel opened his mouth to ask where they were going, but before he could form the question Teal'c had leaned over and touched him gently on the forehead. Like rain down a watercolor the concrete room and the coverstone melted away to be replaced by a dark plain under a starry sky. Daniel's jaw dropped.
"What - where - "
"The kasq naloh."
"Earth sea," Daniel translated automatically, his brain starting to catch up with the rest of him. "But - "
"Not the real kasq naloh. A mental projection of it only. It is easier for me to maintain." He gave Daniel a grave look. "I will explain all that has happened here, Daniel Jackson, but I must ask you not to interrupt. Will you hear me?"
Daniel nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Bra'tac noticed it first, an easing of Teal'c's breathing followed by a slight relaxation of his features. Jack and Bra'tac exchanged glances.
"That's good, right?"
"I do not know."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"When I awoke from the alien sedation, I mistook you for one of the enemy creatures and did you great harm. You lay in the infirmary, incapable of consciousness, with little hope of survival without Doctor Fraiser's machines, for some time before I remembered an old legend of a Jaffa named Is'khar who partook of the alinor plant and was able to keep his companion alive and even heal some of his wounds using the healing powers of his own symbiote. It is a practice forbidden to the Jaffa for it can be used to keep a Jaffa without a symbiote alive until one can be procured for him, and as the removal of the symbiote is the greatest punishment a Goa'uld can bestow upon his Jaffa it is not acceptable to circumvent this. I am currently attempting to impart enough of my symbiote's healing abilities to you to heal you from the damage I have done. I believe we have been successful." Teal'c bowed his head. "I regret that neither O'Neill nor General Hammond would fulfill ren'o'lisha on your behalf. I offer you my deepest and most humble apologies for the wrong I have done you."
"Ren'o'lisha means blood debt, Teal'c," Daniel said, his forehead creased with dawning apprehension.
"It does."
"Teal'c, it was an accident. You were hallucinating - that much I definitely remember. You didn't do anything wrong."
Teal'c did not answer. Daniel frowned. "It's not about that, is it?" Daniel asked, his gaze sharpening. "I mean it is, but that's not all. A blood debt is a serious thing." He covered his mouth with one hand, thinking hard, then suddenly reached out and placed both his hands on either side of Teal'c's head.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The screaming of the alarms made everyone jump. Fraiser was peering closely at the monitors and muttering to herself before Jack had even had time to catch his breath.
"What? What is it?"
Fraiser gave Daniel's prone form a frazzled look. "I don't know. His brain activity just increased but his pulse and respiration plummeted. I have no idea why."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The plain shivered, trembled, faded and came back. Frowning, Daniel tried again. This time the plain vanished fully to be replaced by a darkened room. Teal'c heard a sharp intake of breath and the bedside lamp clicked on to reveal Daniel Jackson, his forehead marked with the distinctive burn of a ribbon device. Teal'c was halfway through an apology before he realized that Daniel must have pulled him into one of his own memories.
"Are you ill, my husband?" said a feminine voice. Daniel rolled over quickly; evidently he hadn't been expecting it any more then Teal'c had.
"Apparently," he said, staring intently at the face of a woman Teal'c immediately recognized as Sha're. Teal'c's breath caught in his throat. Sha're's presence here, Teal'c knew, was impossible. She had been forever denied the chance to share Daniel Jackson's bed by Teal'c's own actions.
"Go to sleep," Sha're murmured soothingly. "Tomorrow you will rise and return to your travels through the Cha'apa'ai." A lock of hair tumbled forward across her shoulder and hung down, partially obscuring her face.
"No, I won't," Daniel Jackson said dreamily, his face more content than Teal'c could ever remember seeing. "I don't need to any more." He pushed back Sha're's hair, twining it around his fingers. "I've already found you."
"You must continue so you can find the boy," Sha're reminded him gently. Teal'c's eyebrow rose in surprise. This had to be a part of the message Daniel Jackson had insisted he had received from his wife. It was the only thing that would explain her presence.
"Where is he?" Daniel Jackson asked, apparently unconcerned by his wife's unexpected appearance.
"To continue your travels, you must first forgive Teal'c. He did what is right."
Teal'c's head snapped back in shock.
"When he killed you," Daniel Jackson's voice was hard.
"Yes."
"But you're here."
Sha're smiled. "Yes." She stroked his face soothingly. "Now go back to sleep."
Daniel Jackson rolled back over and the light faded. Slowly, the stars and the plain reappeared. Daniel let go of Teal'c's head and stepped back.
"It took me a long time to forgive you," Daniel said quietly. Teal'c was still too numb to do anything but listen to Daniel Jackson's words. "I was very angry. I told you several times that there was nothing you could ever do to repay me for what you'd done."
Teal'c bowed his head in acceptance.
"But you know what I realized? Sha're didn't just give me that dream as a warning. She gave me that dream to give me time to screw everything up so the next time it happened I would do it right." He smiled a little at Teal'c's surprised expression. "I don't know how many times in the dream I woke up to find Sha're alive, and every time I fell back asleep I would wake to find her dead again. And every time she was alive she told me to find the boy, that the boy would save us all, that finding the boy was more important than anything else. But you know what? Even with all that, even though she only had a limited amount of time to tell me where to find him, she refused to tell me a thing before I forgave you. You know what that means, don't you?"
Teal'c shook his head.
"That means that Sha're thought our friendship - yours and mine, Teal'c - was more important than the Harcesis. And if there's one thing I know about Sha're it's that she's never wrong. Not about things like that, anyway." He reached out and grabbed Teal'c's shoulders, leaning close so Teal'c would have no choice but to look him in the eye. "I punished you a thousand times in my dream, Teal'c. And when it was all over I knew that I'd been wrong. You didn't deserve any punishment. You didn't kill Sha're, Teal'c, you freed her. You did what I couldn't." He released Teal'c and stepped back. "And I'm sorry I didn't tell you that before. I'm sorry I didn't realize how much you needed to hear that."
Keeping his eyes locked on Teal'c, he sank to his knees in the dark prairie grass.
"Will you forgive me, Teal'c?" He bent his head and crossed his wrists against his chest, copying the posture he had seen Teal'c and Bra'tac adopt before Oma Desala.
There was a rustle in the grass and Daniel felt Teal'c's hands on his shoulders, pulling him upright. He raised his head but before he could catch a glimpse of Teal'c's face he was enveloped in a bear hug that would have done Jack proud. Surprise kept him immobile for a split second and then he returned the hug with all the might he could muster. He could feel Teal'c trembling faintly.
Time passed, minutes or years, Daniel wasn't sure. Finally Teal'c pulled back, wiping his cheeks with one hand. Daniel gave a watery chuckle, unsurprised to find his own face a little wet too. Teal'c gave him a tentative smile and tipped his head back to stare up at the sky. "She was a warrior."
Daniel gave a small, sad smile. "Yes, she was."
Teal'c looked down. "We should return."
"Okay."
The plains faded away, washed out by the brilliant flash of a meteorite arcing across the sky.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Daniel's throat hurt. It felt a little like someone had cleaned out his esophagus with a wire brush and then force-fed him a mouthful of hydrogen peroxide. His head ached too, with the fiery intensity he normally associated with near-death ribbon device experiences.
He blinked, trying to clear his vision.
Blue eyes met brown under the gleam of a Jaffa tattoo.
Daniel smiled.
FINIS
Cerebral hypoxia. That was when the brain was starved of oxygen.
Acute passive hyperemia. That was when the airway and the anterior, external, and internal jugular veins were cut off simultaneously but the carotid arteries were not. It meant the blood had backed up in Daniel's brain and hadn't been able to get out.
Petechiae. Those were the little pinpricks of blood on Daniel's neck and face. They came from the acute passive hyperemia.
Bilateral bruising. Those were the marks around Daniel's neck.
Sam shifted in her seat. So much for the strangulation.
The occipital bone. That was at the back of the head. Daniel's hadn't broken, which might have made things better because then the pressure inside his skull would have had some release. According to Janet it wasn't that common to get bruising around the eyes and along the back of the neck without a fracture, but Daniel had it, the lucky guy. He also had a contusion on the back of his head which was a bruise, which lead to an edema which was swelling, which lead in turn to intercranial pressure which was just what it sounded like. He also had an endotrachial tube to help him breathe and one blown pupil. Sam had taken Janet's word on that one.
It was amazing what ten minutes talking to the CMO and half an hour online could get you. In Sam's case she now had the same buffer of words Janet had, but without the understanding. She knew things about the cerebrum and the cerebellum, and the brain stem and the medulla oblongata. She knew which of Daniel's symptoms came from strangulation and which from the concrete wall his skull had crunched against. All of it led to the conclusion that Daniel was never coming back.
Sam closed her eyes. If she had to spend one more minute staring at the minute spikes on Daniel's EKG she was going to start screaming and they would have to sedate her to make her stop.
She got up and began walking aimlessly through the corridors. It was late night, or maybe early morning, and there were few personnel in the halls. Those she passed gave her sympathetic glances and Sam spent a few minutes trying to wonder at the efficiency of gossip in Cheyenne Mountain, but her mind refused to settle on anything for long.
She looked up, not surprised to find she had ended up in front of Daniel's office door. She gently pushed the door open with one finger and walked in.
There was something about Daniel that made everywhere he was seem more lived in. At first she had assumed that it was because of the way he seemed to accumulate stuff. It appeared in stacks and piles, settled in drifts on his desk, a general cloud of clutter that followed him everywhere.
Later she realized it had to just be something about his personality. He had agreed to help her move from her apartment to a proper house and after a day of lifting and carrying had spent the night on her couch. The house was filled with boxes, the walls were bare, she had not yet explored the nooks and crannies or imprinted any part of her personality on anything, and somehow it still felt like the right place to be. Drawing on the evidence of previous moves which had made her feel rootless for weeks, she concluded it had to be something about Daniel.
It was hard to make herself believe that was gone now. Daniel, her partner in crime, her scientific ally against the Colonel, her little brother. She was waiting for some miracle, for some last minute reprieve that would return Daniel to them whole and safe. Because Daniel always came back. No matter what happened, no matter how awful things looked, he always came back. He had to.
Sam turned and began walking the halls again, some restlessness driving her forward. Under Janet's guidance she had tried the healing device that afternoon. She had stood for ten minutes over Daniel's still form and the damn thing hadn't even lit up. Janet said that maybe it was because Sam was emotionally at a bad place to control it, but Sam couldn't bring herself to care about anything other than her own failure to make the device work.
She was the only one from the team who had stayed in the infirmary after Teal'c had offered his life in place of Daniel's. From what she'd heard, the Colonel had gone straight to the gym and beaten the hell out of a punching bag with enough intensity to make even the Marines nervous. Teal'c had locked himself in his quarters and refused to come out.
Sam hesitated at an intersection, then made the turn that would take her to Teal'c's room.
"Teal'c?" There was no answer, not that she was really expecting one. "Teal'c, I know you can hear me." She waited again, hands flat against the cool metal of his door, hearing nothing. "Teal'c, it wasn't your fault. I know you don't believe that right now, but it really wasn't." She chewed her lip. "You didn't know what you were doing. There was no way you could have fought those hallucinations because you couldn't have known they were hallucinations." Well, that was clear, Sam. You go girl. She shifted her weight and tried again. "If you blame yourself for that, you might as well say that what all the men did under Hathor's control was their fault too. And you couldn't stop there, either. You'd have to blame Daniel for what he did when he was on the sarcophagus, and all of Seth's disciples for being under the nish'ta, and... and Rya'c for trying to destroy Earth after being brainwashed by Apophis, and I know you don't blame him for that." She leaned her forehead against the door. "You can't judge us differently, Teal'c. If you blame yourself for Daniel then you blame us for everything else. You can't forgive us and not forgive yourself. It's not fair and it's not the way it works."
There was no answer from inside. After a few moments, Sam turned and kept on walking.
There were times when General Hammond loved his job, when he thought there was no way anyone else on the planet could possibly have a job as wonderful as his. Generally those were the times when it was brought home to him that despite the vastness of the galaxy and the cruelties the human race was capable of, it was also capable of incredible beauty and tremendous grace. Those were the times when he thought they might have a chance, that just maybe it would all work out well in the end. The good would be rewarded and the bad would be punished and the Colonel would actually catch a fish.
Of course, there were also times when everything seemed hopeless. Good men died. For every step forward they took a wormhole back, and the suspicions of their higher-minded allies seemed right on target because when you really got down to it the human race was way too fallible to be messing around the galaxy without constant supervision. Days like those had him wishing he'd taken an early retirement.
And then there were days like today. On a galactic scale, of course, today would hardly even register as unfortunate. If one lonely person on one tiny planet orbiting a small sun at an almost indistinguishable spot on one arm of a middling galaxy stopped being able to think for himself, what tragedy was that?
Incredible. Monumental. Unimaginable. All the ten-dollar words in Doctor Jackson's erstwhile vocabulary strung together in one long, bumpy, multisyllabic sentence would not be enough to encompass the sheer tragedy of this single loss.
General Hammond rubbed his head tiredly and reflected that it was a good thing he'd been completely bald before he'd taken this job. It was probably best his hair had disappeared naturally instead of being torn out by the roots.
Major Carter was moping in the infirmary, and Hammond was afraid that any moment she would retreat to her lab and start blowing things up to make herself feel better. Colonel O'Neill had pounded every punching bag in the gym into submission, and then pounded one of the Marines too. He was currently cooling his heels under Major Ferretti's watchful eye. Hammond dreaded the next conversation he was going to have with the man, because O'Neill was Doctor Jackson's legal next of kin and at some point he was going to have to decide what to do with his friend.
And Teal'c... Teal'c was inconsolable. He had sunk himself in a pit of guilt and remorse so deep Hammond was surprised he was still capable of functioning. He'd tried to resign from the SGC twice already and only the fact that he clearly felt himself unworthy to even be in Hammond's presence had kept him from protesting Hammond's refusal to let him go.
It was enough to make a man want to quit and take up something easier, like relocating the Great Lakes to Arizona armed with only a teaspoon and a ziploc bag.
A knock on the door had Hammond hastily pulling his thoughts in line. He straightened behind his desk and called for his visitor to enter. It was about time for Teal'c to come in and try to resign again.
Sure enough, the Jaffa slipped noiselessly through the door and immediately dropped to his knees before Hammond's desk.
"General Hammond."
Hammond sighed. "Teal'c, please get up."
The Jaffa didn't move. "I wish to submit a request."
Hammond rested his head in his hands. "Go ahead."
"I would like to contact Master Bra'tac."
Hammond brightened a little. Bra'tac was pragmatic enough to recognize the situation for what it was and forceful enough to make Teal'c actually listen, something none of them had accomplished. Hammond cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner. "That's an excellent idea, Teal'c. I'll have him contacted immediately."
"I thank you. You are truly a wise and powerful leader, General Hammond."
Hammond grimaced. Teal'c had fallen into the patterns of interaction he'd learned working for the Goa'uld and it made Hammond uneasy. He kept waiting for Teal'c to start calling him `My Lord'.
"Not so wise, Teal'c, or I would have thought of Master Bra'tac myself. Do you want me to tell him anything in particular about the circumstances here?"
Teal'c considered. "If it is no trouble, please remind him of the Jaffa Is'khar. He will know what I mean."
"It's no trouble, Teal'c. I'll let you know when he gets here."
Master Bra'tac's cloak swirled as he strode down the ramp into the Gateroom. He stopped before Teal'c and General Hammond and inclined his head. "Teal'c. Hammond of Texas."
Hammond smiled, but it was strained. "Master Bra'tac, good of you to come." His eyes flicked in Teal'c's direction. Bra'tac took the hint.
"Let us proceed to your quarters, Teal'c."
Without a word, Teal'c turned and left the Gateroom. Bra'tac followed silently, mulling over the situation as he walked. Teal'c's earlier invocation of the Jaffa Is'khar had him intrigued and not a little worried, and General Hammond's palpable distress in the Gateroom only served to heighten his sense of foreboding.
Finally, they arrived. Teal'c ushered Bra'tac inside and closed the door.
"Did you bring it?"
Bra'tac did not move. "Perhaps." Teal'c frowned and Bra'tac gave him a quelling look. "I may have, I may have not. Either way, you will not have it until I am satisfied."
Teal'c gazed back at him steadily. "Daniel Jackson lies in the infirmary, gravely injured from a hurt I inflicted. He will not recover unless I help him. I claim ren'o'lisha."
Blood debt? Bra'tac's eyebrows rose. "You claim it? You are not the one injured, my friend."
"I claim on behalf of Daniel Jackson."
Bra'tac's gaze sharpened, challenging. "He has not requested it himself?"
"He cannot. He is incapable of speech."
Bra'tac crossed his arms over his chest. "Then I see no reason to give you the alinor."
Teal'c's jaw tensed. "It is a matter of my honor, old man. You have no right to deny retribution."
Bra'tac shook his head. "I have every right, Teal'c. I have taught you since you were a chal'ti. When I see you ready to do something foolish, it is my prerogative to stop you before you do yourself harm." He shrugged. "Beyond that, it is I who hold the alinor."
Teal'c stared angrily at Bra'tac for another moment, then his shoulders drooped and he turned away. "I have done him such injury, Bra'tac. This goes far beyond any simple physical harm. I have injured his soul."
Bra'tac heard the pain in Teal'c's voice and closed his eyes. "Teal'c... I have known you for most of your life. You have been to me like a good son." He opened his eyes, looking past Teal'c's room into the world beyond. "I do not wish to lose you needlessly."
"You do not know that I will die."
Bra'tac's hands rose in a half-gesture and dropped to his sides, the first unnecessary move Teal'c could remember seeing him make. "You were the youngest Jaffa to ever become First Prime, Teal'c. That was formidable, yes, but it does not make you invincible."
Teal'c turned back and grasped Bra'tac's shoulders. "It is my honor, Bra'tac."
Bra'tac gave a bitter laugh. "Honor. Much is done and said for honor that is not at all honorable." He sighed. "But I do trust your judgement. Take me to Daniel Jackson."
Teal'c squeezed Bra'tac's shoulders and let his hands drop. "I thank you, Master Bra'tac."
Bra'tac shook his head irritably. "This is foolishness. Proceed before I change my mind."
Major Carter was asleep by Daniel Jackson's bedside, one hand loosely gripping his around the many wires and tubes. Teal'c halted at the door for a moment, a wave of guilt and shame washing over him so powerfully that for a moment he couldn't breathe.
It wasn't just Daniel Jackson he had hurt. It was his team. It was people like General Hammond and Doctor Fraiser. It was the whole base, whether they knew it or not. He alone had deprived them of Daniel Jackson's brilliance and compassion. He alone was responsible for the death of that curiosity and intellect. Where System Lords and alien viruses had failed, Teal'c had succeeded.
Bra'tac pushed past him and Teal'c remembered to draw breath once more. Bra'tac made his way to Major Carter's side, barely glancing at Daniel Jackson's still body, and touched her shoulder gently. She stirred and woke, looking instinctively first at Daniel Jackson before realizing who stood next to her.
"Master Bra'tac?" She smiled, covering her disappointment well, but her eyes were dark with sadness and fatigue. "I'm glad you could come." Her eyes flicked past him to Teal'c. "Tell Teal'c it wasn't his fault. He won't listen to any of us."
Bra'tac smiled gently. "I will do my best. Please, you should get some rest. We will watch over Daniel Jackson."
Major Carter glanced once more at Teal'c and relinquished Daniel Jackson's hand, stepping back. "All right." She hesitated. "You'll let me know if... if anything changes?"
"We will."
"Thanks." She turned to go, then impulsively turned back and kissed Teal'c on the cheek. She was gone before he could react.
Master Bra'tac looked down at Daniel Jackson with a jaundiced eye. "These machines, will they be in the way?"
Teal'c shook his head. "They are fine. If Doctor Fraiser has them to refer to she is less likely to interrupt."
Bra'tac nodded. "Very well. Situate yourself, if you are still determined to do this."
"I am." Teal'c gently lifted Daniel Jackson's head off the pillow and slid behind him, wary of disconnecting anything, until he was sitting cross-legged with his back against the wall and Daniel Jackson's head in his lap. He shifted a little, getting comfortable, then looked at Bra'tac.
"I am ready."
Bra'tac withdrew a small glass vial from a pouch on his belt. He hesitated, turning it over in his hands, then gave Teal'c an inscrutable look and uncorked it.
The gentle smell of a plain after a rainstorm drifted through the infirmary. Bra'tac eyed Daniel Jackson speculatively, then mentally dismissed the tube coming out of his mouth and tipped a small quantity of alinor down Daniel Jackson's throat. It would be absorbed into his system regardless. He handed the vial to Teal'c and stepped back.
"I will stand watch."
Teal'c nodded. There was nothing else to say. He upended the vial into his own mouth and swallowed quickly.
Bra'tac stood with his arms crossed at the foot of the bed and watched as Teal'c's eyes slid closed. He cast a wary glance in the direction of the many mysterious machines surrounding the two men on the bed. Sooner or later, one of them would register the changes to Daniel Jackson and bring the doctor.
He stood stiffly at the end of the bed. There was only waiting now.
Teal'c fell into blackness. It surrounded him, pushing its way into his ears and nose and mouth until he was aware of nothing else. He thrashed, searching.
Far away, he felt himself called. He strained in the direction of the call, propelling himself through the blackness until finally, far below, he caught sight of a light. It was tiny, pulsing weakly, but it was alive.
He sank down to the light, hovering over it for a moment. Finally, he reached out with a hand that didn't exist and caressed it with one intangible finger.
There was a soundless crash and an invisible burst of light and he found himself standing in a tent. A woman was seated at a rickety table placed near the center pole, her blonde hair pulled back and tucked under a kerchief. She was bent over a stack of papers, muttering to herself as she chewed the end of her pencil.
On the ground nearby was a small cradle made from a wooden packing case. With one foot, the woman rocked it absently back and forth as she worked.
Teal'c knelt on the sand beside the crate and looked at the baby within. He was asleep on his back, clad only in a cloth diaper because of the heat. As Teal'c watched, the baby's eyes opened and focused on Teal'c.
Teal'c smiled.
Janet stood up from her desk and mentally braced herself before leaving her office. She knew what she would find. Daniel, still brain-dead. One or more of the members of SG-1 hovering in the infirmary. If it was Sam, she would probably be clutching the healing device in one hand, intent on trying again. The Colonel would ask why Daniel wasn't better yet and loudly imply something wasn't being done right. Teal'c would say nothing. That was the hardest to take.
She rounded the corner and caught sight of Master Bra'tac standing against one wall. Good. Maybe that meant Teal'c had finally left his room. She came further into the room and frowned. When she had hoped Teal'c would leave his room, she had not meant that he should meditate on Daniel's bed.
As she neared, Master Bra'tac straightened and intercepted her.
"Do not touch them."
Janet leaned around him, trying to get a good look at the monitors surrounding Daniel. "Master Bra'tac, what is going on?"
Bra'tac dragged her away from the bed by one arm. "Teal'c is attempting to revive Daniel Jackson. Please do not disturb them."
Janet pulled herself up to her full height and glared. "Excuse me?"
"Doctor Fraiser, is there a problem here?"
Janet turned to face the General. "Sir, did you approve this? Why wasn't I told? Master Bra'tac, I insist you let me examine my patient!"
"No." Master Bra'tac folded his arms across his chest and leveled a stare at the indignant doctor that had been known to make fully trained Jaffa quail. "You may observe the monitors, but you may not touch either of them. That will disturb the process."
"What process?" General Hammond demanded, just as Janet leveled a glare right back at Master Bra'tac and said "Let me pass!" in a voice that had commanded everyone from Cassie to General Hammond, and tried to shove past Bra'tac to the gurney.
Bra'tac picked Janet up bodily and deposited her back next to General Hammond. "I will explain," he said sternly. "But you will not disturb them."
Janet and General Hammond gaped at him for a moment, Janet sputtering indignantly, then General Hammond turned to the airman at the infirmary door who seemed to be wavering between calling for help and zatting the whole lot of them. "Go get Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter." He turned back to Master Bra'tac. "This had better be good."
Bra'tac crossed his arms again. "I will wait for O'Neill and Major Carter," he said, and cast a dark look in the general direction of his protege that suggested he'd be collecting on a big favor some time in the future. "I intend to explain once only."
Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter skidded into the infirmary, their eyes going immediately to Daniel. Carter frowned. "What - " she began.
"I will explain." Master Bra'tac said. "You will proceed no closer to them." He glared until he had collected a nod from each of them. "Very well. Teal'c is attempting to heal Daniel Jackson using a drug called alinor."
"But - " Janet protested.
"You will not interrupt me, or I will not continue," Bra'tac snapped, his patience clearly gone.
"Go ahead, Master Bra'tac," General Hammond said in a tone that indicated his own patience wasn't that far behind Bra'tac's.
"The alinor permits a Jaffa to establish a link from his own symbiote to whomever he touches. It is a difficult process and very dangerous. It was forbidden by the System Lords and is frowned upon even by Jaffa, because it is primarily used to keep Jaffa without their symbiotes alive until a new symbiote can be obtained. A Jaffa rarely loses his symbiote unless it has been taken from him by a Goa'uld, so to keep him alive is seen as a rebellion against the decision of a god. Using alinor is a dishonorable thing."
Bra'tac glanced at Janet. "Touching either party is not permitted. While under the influence of the alinor, the Jaffa cannot control where the healing power of his symbiote goes except by touch. If an uninjured person makes contact with either participant, a small amount of healing power will be diverted. The symbiote is under great strain trying to protect two people at once, and it is not unheard of for it to die in the process."
"And you agreed to this?" Jack blurted before he could stop himself.
Bra'tac looked unhappy. "I was against it. I am still against it." He shrugged. "Teal'c insisted it was a matter of honor, and I could not refuse him."
Jack shook his head. "This is nuts. This is just nuts. What the hell was he thinking?"
Bra'tac stiffened. "I realize the concept of honor may be foreign to you, human, but for a Jaffa it is everything. Without honor we have nothing."
"That was a rhetorical question, Bra'tac. Means you don't have to answer it."
Daniel hopped up the dune, singing a sand song. He stopped at the top and looked back. "Teal'c, why do the stars have stories?"
Teal'c followed him. "It is a human thing, to name the stars. My people have no names for them."
Daniel frowned. "Why not?"
Teal'c smiled down at his young charge. "Humans make stories of their gods and use the stars to illustrate them. I suppose it makes them feel closer to divinity. Jaffa have no need of such things. We know the gods for what they are."
"Real gods? You know real gods?"
"False gods." Teal'c quirked an eyebrow. "Dead false gods."
Daniel chewed his lower lip. "If they're dead and false, why do people believe in them?"
Teal'c crouched down at Daniel's level. "Belief is a strange thing, Daniel Jackson. If a person believes enough in a dead false god they see neither the falsehood nor the fallacy, and they will ignore such things with all their might no matter how much evidence they see to the contrary."
Daniel looked worried. "Then how do you know what to believe?"
"Believe in the truth, Daniel Jackson. Believe that it exists, and then find it."
"Daniel! Dinner!" Daniel's mother came into view around the corner of the dune. She stopped and smiled up at him. "What are you doing up there? You're going to be all over sand, young man," she scolded.
Daniel brushed off his shorts and peered down at her. "I'm talking to Teal'c, Mom. He's telling me about gods." He wrinkled his nose. "Dead false gods, but people think they're real anyway because they're dumb."
Daniel's mother smiled indulgently. "Well, tell `Teal'c' you have to come in for dinner now. You can come back and play later."
"It's not playing, Mom," Daniel grumbled as he slid down the dune. "It's important."
Jack spun the infirmary chair left and let his eyes unfocus until the whole infirmary was a blur, then stopped himself and spun right. Left. Right. Left. Right.
Okay, that was probably enough. He was starting to feel kind of sick.
He stopped and found himself staring at Daniel and Teal'c's infirmary bed. Fraiser had bowed to Bra'tac's insistence she not touch either of them, but she had erected a plastic tent thingy around the two of them to keep out any germs while Junior worked overtime. Bra'tac had raised an eyebrow, obviously unimpressed, but had said nothing.
Jack squinted at the monitors. Lots of spiky lines. He didn't really know which one was which, but since Janet spent the most time staring at the one on the left he guessed that was the EKG. She had made a vaguely optimistic noise the last time she looked but had refused to say anything definite. Jack was choosing to take it as a good sign.
He gave a contemplative little half-spin that left him facing the rest of the infirmary. He was glad Teal'c was doing something to help, and really hoped it worked, but after this was all over, when Teal'c and Daniel were both okay, he and tall dark and boneheaded were going to have a long talk about letting guilt push you into doing dumb things. He'd just have to make sure to do it somewhere away from Daniel so Daniel couldn't bring up that whole Abydos nuclear bomb thing.
He gave another little half-spin and found himself looking at Fraiser's office. She and Carter had disappeared a few minutes ago to drown their sorrows in Fraiser's chocolate stash. Neither of them was very good at waiting. Unlike Jack, of course, who could actually wait for quite a long time, as long as he was convinced it was worth it.
He spun the chair again, coming to an abrupt halt as Bra'tac's foot caught the bottom of the seat.
"Be still, human," Bra'tac growled. "You are making me ill with your fidgeting."
Jack raised his hands in an `okay, okay' gesture and Bra'tac retired to his post along the wall next to the bed. Bra'tac was like an Unas with a toothache. He was angry with Teal'c for putting himself in danger and irritated that everyone seemed to assume he should have talked Teal'c out of this Eleanor thing. Jack figured letting Bra'tac blow off a little steam by yelling at the human was only fair.
He inched his chair around until he was facing Daniel and Teal'c again. The monitors looked the same, Daniel looked the same, Teal'c looked the same. He was having a hard time actually convincing himself that Daniel was brain dead. Daniel and brain dead just didn't go in the same sentence. It was like using Apophis and nice together. It just didn't work. Daniel couldn't be brain dead any more than Apophis could stand on a corner with a Salvation Army collecting tin and a hand bell. It was sacrilege. Besides the bruises and the wires, Daniel just looked asleep.
So, Daniel was asleep, Teal'c was meditating, the monitors were beeping rhythmically. Jack glanced over at Bra'tac, who appeared to be reaching new levels of pissiness. Time to vent a little of that steam. Jack gave his chair another spin.
"Enough, human!"
Daniel shifted from foot to foot, craning his neck so he could see around Teal'c. "That stone is awfully heavy. Do you think that stone is too heavy? I wish they wouldn't stand under it like that."
Teal'c glanced behind him into the rest of the museum. "It is quite heavy, Daniel Jackson. What were you saying about this statue?"
"Nefertiti," Daniel said absently. "Not the real thing, this is just a replica. She was married to Akhenaten and mother of Tutankhamun."
"She is quite beautiful," Teal'c said, and time inexplicably slowed. Behind him, he heard a loud snap, heard someone yell, heard Daniel scream. He whirled just in time to see the coverstone Daniel's parents had been under fall, saw Daniel's father try to push his mother out of the way. A small blur in the corner of his eye was Daniel throwing himself towards the accident as if somehow he could cover the space between them in enough time to accomplish something. Teal'c started after him, but one of the workmen got there first, picking up Daniel and depositing him along one wall as people scrambled around the ruins. The workman vanished into the crowd, leaving Daniel alone.
Teal'c glanced over at the ruins. He recognized the scene now. It was what he and O'Neill had seen while in the Gamekeeper's virtual world. Teal'c had never realized before what exactly had happened. He had only known that Daniel Jackson's part of the virtual world had to do with his parents dying. He had not known how.
He looked back at Daniel. The boy slid down against the wall, tucking his knees in close to his chest as if making himself smaller would help somehow. At the ruins, the frantic workmen had uncovered a hand. It was too smeared in blood for Teal'c to tell who it belonged to.
Teal'c crouched down in front of Daniel, blocking his view of the accident. "Daniel Jackson."
Daniel shivered convulsively, staring blankly through Teal'c's shoulder, and gave no sign he'd heard.
"Daniel Jackson." Teal'c reached out and touched Daniel's face gently, drawing his fingers over Daniel's eyes, closing them.
"There is a place on my world where the plains seem to stretch on forever," Teal'c said, his voice soft and gentle, rhythmically hypnotic. "During the day the grass blows in the wind like waves. It is called the kasq naloh, the earth sea, for this reason. Once a year there is a great festival there. The people gather at night to see the stars race across the heavens. It is said that each falling star is a warrior. The fastest and brightest are the ones who died with the most honor, and each family tries to see their own warrior in the heavens."
He stroked Daniel's hair, soothing the shivers. "My people do not name the stars. We know that they are not gods, we know that they are not really warriors falling from the sky. But we also know that it is the job of the living to remember the dead, and so we gather each year and pretend."
Daniel's eyes opened. He was still shivering a little and his face was wet with tears. "Are my parents dead?"
"Yes."
Daniel closed his eyes again, then opened them, staring desperately at Teal'c. "What do I do now?"
"You must be strong, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c straightened, unconsciously deepening his voice to that of a commander. "You must go forward. You must choose how best to remember your dead. You are one now, Daniel Jackson, and you must be strong."
Daniel blinked up at him. "Strong like you?"
Teal'c did not look away.
"Stronger."
"Teal'c?"
"Yes, Daniel Jackson?"
"Why do you call me that?"
"It is your name, is it not?"
"Yes, but why do you always say the whole thing? Why not just Daniel?"
"I am according you the respect of a great scholar. Among my people warriors are called by one name only, scholars by two or even three. Priests and tradesmen are known only by their station unless they are among family."
"Teal'c, I'm not a great scholar."
"You will be."
"Okay."
Janet looked at the EKG, then bent closer and looked again. Frowning, she checked the connection between the readout and the wires linked to Daniel, then fired a challenging look in Bra'tac's general direction and leaned down as far as she could without actually touching her patient.
"Janet?" Sam's worried voice distracted her from her scrutiny. "Is something wrong?"
Janet straightened. "Well," she said slowly. "I was reluctant to say anything at first because I wasn't sure, but... I think Daniel's brain waves are getting stronger."
Sam's jaw dropped. "That's impossible!"
Bra'tac looked smug. "It is the alinor. Teal'c is winning the battle."
Jack let out a completely unprofessional war whoop. "Way to go, Teal'c!"
Janet held up her hands warningly. "This doesn't necessarily mean anything is going to change for the better. He still has a long way to go before he gets to anything even approaching normal, and even then I have my doubts that he'll ever be the same again. But given that we are dealing with alien technology..." she shrugged. "I wouldn't get my hopes up, but maybe you lot can stop cluttering my infirmary and go get some rest finally." She gave Bra'tac a hard look. "Under normal circumstances I'd give him an MRI, but they're not exactly portable."
The Colonel was grinning from ear to ear. "Celebratory coffee in the commissary, kids. Let's go."
Janet gave him a quelling look. "They're not out of the woods yet, Colonel."
The Colonel's eyes flicked minutely in the direction of Sam and Master Bra'tac. "Well then we'll need to fill up on caffeine for the rest of the vigil, won't we?"
Janet followed his gaze, noticing how pale and drawn Sam looked and how Bra'tac seemed about ready to go off like a claymore. She pasted a smile on her face. "Excellent idea, Colonel! I don't want to see any of you back here for at least an hour. And that includes you, Master Bra'tac. I give you my word I'll keep them safe."
Bra'tac crossed his arms more tightly and gave her a dark look. "You will send for me if there is a change?"
"I'll send for all of you. I promise. Now scoot."
"It wasn't his fault, Teal'c."
"Are you not angry, Daniel Jackson?"
"Of course. But being angry at him won't do anything."
"Please explain."
"It wasn't his fault. Being angry at him does us both a disservice. All it accomplishes is to make him miserable and me look like a hot-tempered idiot. I'll get over it."
"But he caused you injury."
"Well, I guess if you can call a few books in a mud puddle an injury, yeah. It was an accident, Teal'c. He said he was sorry. These things just happen. They're nobody's fault."
"Of course, Daniel Jackson."
"I think I know what happened," Carter said with the hollow satisfaction of someone who has been puzzling over something pointless for a while and just figured it out.
"Well then, what happened?" Jack asked, stirring his coffee with one of those little wooden stirry things. Bra'tac had taken one look at the coffee and opted instead for water. Jack couldn't blame him, although he would have liked to see Bra'tac's expression when confronted with soda. Teal'c's had been priceless. Ah, for a camera...
"Well, it was bothering me that they drugged us and then left us at the Gate. I mean, they had us at their mercy, so why didn't they take care of us then and there?"
"We're talking about the alien gas guys, right?"
"Yes, sir." Carter nodded emphatically, setting down her coffee with only a small splash. "I think it was just their form of a defense system. They were banking on the fact that their actions would carry across cultural boundaries and translate to anyone. I mean, being knocked unconscious and left at the Gate is pretty easy to understand, right? And then if anyone came back, they just do it again until it works for good."
Jack shrugged. Whatever. "I guess that makes sense."
"I have heard of no such creatures," Bra'tac said dispassionately from the end of the table. "But if it worked upon Teal'c it is likely that any Goa'uld who went there was also affected and thus sent no further expedition."
"I wonder if that's a common defense," Carter mused. "It seems pretty effective."
The conversation trailed off. The ghost of Daniel's intellect seemed to hang in the air between them as they all left the thought that Daniel would know carefully unspoken.
Jack made a show of checking his watch. "Well, I guess the Doc won't kick us out if we go back a few minutes early. Any takers?"
"That was fascinating. It never occurred to me that you could get that kind of result from a - Teal'c, are you all right?"
"I am fine, Daniel Jackson. Please continue."
Jack watched Fraiser make her rounds of not-touching. It was actually kind of funny, if you ignored for a moment the fact that two of his best friends were lying in an infirmary bed. Fraiser had that itchy test-giving look about her that usually meant needles, only needles probably counted as touching in Bra'tac's book. They counted as a lot of things in Jack's book, none of them nice.
Fraiser straightened, looking worried. Jack's heart gave a leap.
"Doc? Something wrong?"
Across the infirmary he saw Carter and Bra'tac immediately come to attention.
"Janet? Is Daniel okay?"
"Daniel's fine," Fraiser said absently. "Not to be crude, but he really can't get worse at this point."
"What of Teal'c?"
There was a long pause before Janet answered.
"I don't know, Master Bra'tac. I think the strain is starting to get to him. His breathing seems shallower and he's perspiring, but without touching him I can't say what's wrong. He's not connected to any of the monitors so I really have no idea."
Jack slumped back into his chair.
Great.
Daniel leaned back in his chair, looking stunned. "Oh my God."
Teal'c appeared like a shadow beside him. "What is it, Daniel Jackson?"
"I think I just figured something out."
Teal'c waited patiently. When Daniel did not seem inclined to continue, he spoke again. "What have you discovered?"
"All right," Daniel paused for a moment, obviously getting his thoughts in line. "Okay. Here's the deal. Up until now we've always assumed that the Great Pyramids were first built during the fourth dynasty. But if you don't think about that, if you just look at the heiroglyphs... my God, it's obvious."
Teal'c frowned. "I do not understand, Daniel Jackson."
"I don't think the pyramids were built then, Teal'c. All the other structures from that time and later are covered in heiroglyphs, but the pyramids aren't. Why? Why would you build something that incredible and not put something on them, some sort of prayer or incantation, or... or even a name or something?" He put one hand to his face, looking pale and scared. "Teal'c, nobody's going to want to hear this."
"Why would they not?"
"Because the only reason I can think of for the pyramids to have no writing is if they were built before the Egyptians invented writing, and not only does that fly in the face of over a hundred years of theory and scholarship... it also kind of points to the idea that maybe we didn't build them. And nobody wants to hear that something that incredible, something that awe-inspiring, wasn't actually a triumph of human ingenuity and perseverance. And they're really not going to want to hear it from some wet-behind-the-ears grad student."
"Scientific progress in either direction is still progress, Daniel Jackson."
Daniel shook his head sadly. "I wish that were true, Teal'c."
Teal's thought for a moment. "Do you believe this theory of yours to be the truth, Daniel Jackson?"
"Yes."
"Then you must prove it."
The Colonel and Bra'tac looked like bookends, one on either side of Daniel and Teal'c's bed. Sam watched them from where she was curled up on a spare gurney across the way. Janet had insisted that they sleep, and as the Colonel had been known to sit vigils for his team that lasted days at a time and Bra'tac had yet to follow anybody's orders but his own, it was left to Sam to be sure Janet didn't feel entirely thwarted.
Of course, Janet could make her lie down, but she couldn't make her sleep.
Sam shifted a little and kept watching. It was like Daniel and Teal'c were suspended in the center of a triangle, with her at one corner and the Colonel and Bra'tac taking up the other two. As long as they stared, as long as they willed, Daniel would continue to improve and Teal'c would hang in there. She could hear the rasp and wheeze of his breathing even from here.
If only there was something she could do. There was nothing for the Colonel and Bra'tac to fight. The General couldn't order anyone to do anything because there was nothing to be done. There was nothing for Sam to fix, and there was plenty for Janet to heal but she couldn't do much without touching.
Sam sighed and clenched the corner of her pillow in one hand. Waiting sucked.
"I'm never going to get paid."
Teal'c smiled a little. "Perhaps if you take a small break you will be able to think of something. You are quite clever, Daniel Jackson."
Daniel gave him a grateful smile. "Maybe. Ugh, I just don't know. It doesn't look like any kind of writing I've ever seen." He flopped over backwards on the scaffolding against the coverstone and groaned. His voice echoed hollowly around the concrete room they were currently occupying. "This sucks, Teal'c."
Suddenly, Daniel sat bolt upright, the abrupt motion making the scaffolding sway. "What if it isn't writing?" He glanced down at Teal'c where he leaned heavily against the wall. "We've been assuming this whole time that it's writing, but what if it isn't? What if it's something else entirely?" He rose to his knees, peering intently at the symbols from up close, then turned and scrambled down the ladder to get a further away view.
"Does that one in the middle look familiar to you, Teal'c?"
Teal'c shrugged. "It resembles an hourglass."
"Noooo," Daniel said, long and drawn out. "No, it's something else. I've seen that before, but not in writing..." He angled his head from side to side. "Maybe... maybe... okay, think, Daniel, think." He pressed his fingertips to his temples for a moment, then looked back up at the symbol. "Free associate. Okay: Symbol. Hourglass. Um, tunic. Star. Star? Of course! It's Orion, Teal'c! It's a constellation!" He laughed delightedly. "They're all constellations, not writing at all!"
His laughter faded suddenly and an odd expression came across his face. Teal'c levered himself upright and stepped closer.
"Is something wrong, Daniel Jackson?"
"Yes," Daniel said slowly. "I've already done this, haven't I? I mean, I've already figured it out. And you weren't here then, either." He turned to face Teal'c. "I haven't met you yet."
Teal'c got very still. "What do you remember, Daniel Jackson?"
Daniel frowned. "I remember the Stargate. I remember... we're SG-1. We go to planets and you... you were all sick, drugged or something. You were all in the infirmary but I wasn't because... because I had a cold and I had to stay behind. And whatever they gave you made you hallucinate..." his voice trailed off. "What's going on here, Teal'c? How did we get here? I was hurt, I think. Shouldn't I be in the infirmary?" He peered more closely at Teal'c. "You don't look too good, Teal'c." His face paled as something else occurred to him. "Are we dead?"
"We are not." Teal'c sighed and closed his eyes briefly. "Come with me."
Daniel opened his mouth to ask where they were going, but before he could form the question Teal'c had leaned over and touched him gently on the forehead. Like rain down a watercolor the concrete room and the coverstone melted away to be replaced by a dark plain under a starry sky. Daniel's jaw dropped.
"What - where - "
"The kasq naloh."
"Earth sea," Daniel translated automatically, his brain starting to catch up with the rest of him. "But - "
"Not the real kasq naloh. A mental projection of it only. It is easier for me to maintain." He gave Daniel a grave look. "I will explain all that has happened here, Daniel Jackson, but I must ask you not to interrupt. Will you hear me?"
Daniel nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
Bra'tac noticed it first, an easing of Teal'c's breathing followed by a slight relaxation of his features. Jack and Bra'tac exchanged glances.
"That's good, right?"
"I do not know."
"When I awoke from the alien sedation, I mistook you for one of the enemy creatures and did you great harm. You lay in the infirmary, incapable of consciousness, with little hope of survival without Doctor Fraiser's machines, for some time before I remembered an old legend of a Jaffa named Is'khar who partook of the alinor plant and was able to keep his companion alive and even heal some of his wounds using the healing powers of his own symbiote. It is a practice forbidden to the Jaffa for it can be used to keep a Jaffa without a symbiote alive until one can be procured for him, and as the removal of the symbiote is the greatest punishment a Goa'uld can bestow upon his Jaffa it is not acceptable to circumvent this. I am currently attempting to impart enough of my symbiote's healing abilities to you to heal you from the damage I have done. I believe we have been successful." Teal'c bowed his head. "I regret that neither O'Neill nor General Hammond would fulfill ren'o'lisha on your behalf. I offer you my deepest and most humble apologies for the wrong I have done you."
"Ren'o'lisha means blood debt, Teal'c," Daniel said, his forehead creased with dawning apprehension.
"It does."
"Teal'c, it was an accident. You were hallucinating - that much I definitely remember. You didn't do anything wrong."
Teal'c did not answer. Daniel frowned. "It's not about that, is it?" Daniel asked, his gaze sharpening. "I mean it is, but that's not all. A blood debt is a serious thing." He covered his mouth with one hand, thinking hard, then suddenly reached out and placed both his hands on either side of Teal'c's head.
The screaming of the alarms made everyone jump. Fraiser was peering closely at the monitors and muttering to herself before Jack had even had time to catch his breath.
"What? What is it?"
Fraiser gave Daniel's prone form a frazzled look. "I don't know. His brain activity just increased but his pulse and respiration plummeted. I have no idea why."
The plain shivered, trembled, faded and came back. Frowning, Daniel tried again. This time the plain vanished fully to be replaced by a darkened room. Teal'c heard a sharp intake of breath and the bedside lamp clicked on to reveal Daniel Jackson, his forehead marked with the distinctive burn of a ribbon device. Teal'c was halfway through an apology before he realized that Daniel must have pulled him into one of his own memories.
"Are you ill, my husband?" said a feminine voice. Daniel rolled over quickly; evidently he hadn't been expecting it any more then Teal'c had.
"Apparently," he said, staring intently at the face of a woman Teal'c immediately recognized as Sha're. Teal'c's breath caught in his throat. Sha're's presence here, Teal'c knew, was impossible. She had been forever denied the chance to share Daniel Jackson's bed by Teal'c's own actions.
"Go to sleep," Sha're murmured soothingly. "Tomorrow you will rise and return to your travels through the Cha'apa'ai." A lock of hair tumbled forward across her shoulder and hung down, partially obscuring her face.
"No, I won't," Daniel Jackson said dreamily, his face more content than Teal'c could ever remember seeing. "I don't need to any more." He pushed back Sha're's hair, twining it around his fingers. "I've already found you."
"You must continue so you can find the boy," Sha're reminded him gently. Teal'c's eyebrow rose in surprise. This had to be a part of the message Daniel Jackson had insisted he had received from his wife. It was the only thing that would explain her presence.
"Where is he?" Daniel Jackson asked, apparently unconcerned by his wife's unexpected appearance.
"To continue your travels, you must first forgive Teal'c. He did what is right."
Teal'c's head snapped back in shock.
"When he killed you," Daniel Jackson's voice was hard.
"Yes."
"But you're here."
Sha're smiled. "Yes." She stroked his face soothingly. "Now go back to sleep."
Daniel Jackson rolled back over and the light faded. Slowly, the stars and the plain reappeared. Daniel let go of Teal'c's head and stepped back.
"It took me a long time to forgive you," Daniel said quietly. Teal'c was still too numb to do anything but listen to Daniel Jackson's words. "I was very angry. I told you several times that there was nothing you could ever do to repay me for what you'd done."
Teal'c bowed his head in acceptance.
"But you know what I realized? Sha're didn't just give me that dream as a warning. She gave me that dream to give me time to screw everything up so the next time it happened I would do it right." He smiled a little at Teal'c's surprised expression. "I don't know how many times in the dream I woke up to find Sha're alive, and every time I fell back asleep I would wake to find her dead again. And every time she was alive she told me to find the boy, that the boy would save us all, that finding the boy was more important than anything else. But you know what? Even with all that, even though she only had a limited amount of time to tell me where to find him, she refused to tell me a thing before I forgave you. You know what that means, don't you?"
Teal'c shook his head.
"That means that Sha're thought our friendship - yours and mine, Teal'c - was more important than the Harcesis. And if there's one thing I know about Sha're it's that she's never wrong. Not about things like that, anyway." He reached out and grabbed Teal'c's shoulders, leaning close so Teal'c would have no choice but to look him in the eye. "I punished you a thousand times in my dream, Teal'c. And when it was all over I knew that I'd been wrong. You didn't deserve any punishment. You didn't kill Sha're, Teal'c, you freed her. You did what I couldn't." He released Teal'c and stepped back. "And I'm sorry I didn't tell you that before. I'm sorry I didn't realize how much you needed to hear that."
Keeping his eyes locked on Teal'c, he sank to his knees in the dark prairie grass.
"Will you forgive me, Teal'c?" He bent his head and crossed his wrists against his chest, copying the posture he had seen Teal'c and Bra'tac adopt before Oma Desala.
There was a rustle in the grass and Daniel felt Teal'c's hands on his shoulders, pulling him upright. He raised his head but before he could catch a glimpse of Teal'c's face he was enveloped in a bear hug that would have done Jack proud. Surprise kept him immobile for a split second and then he returned the hug with all the might he could muster. He could feel Teal'c trembling faintly.
Time passed, minutes or years, Daniel wasn't sure. Finally Teal'c pulled back, wiping his cheeks with one hand. Daniel gave a watery chuckle, unsurprised to find his own face a little wet too. Teal'c gave him a tentative smile and tipped his head back to stare up at the sky. "She was a warrior."
Daniel gave a small, sad smile. "Yes, she was."
Teal'c looked down. "We should return."
"Okay."
The plains faded away, washed out by the brilliant flash of a meteorite arcing across the sky.
Daniel's throat hurt. It felt a little like someone had cleaned out his esophagus with a wire brush and then force-fed him a mouthful of hydrogen peroxide. His head ached too, with the fiery intensity he normally associated with near-death ribbon device experiences.
He blinked, trying to clear his vision.
Blue eyes met brown under the gleam of a Jaffa tattoo.
Daniel smiled.
FINIS
