triumvirate - chapter three - you can't imagine how much fun we're having

[openended]

Sam stretches under the blankets and rolls over, frowning when her hand connects with empty blankets instead of the very masculine chest she’d expected. She opens her eyes, hoping to find him just a few inches out of reach but try as she might, she can’t make his form appear in the crumpled blankets. The clock reads 4:02 in the morning. She listens for the sounds of someone trying to be quiet - even with his tendency to be completely silent, she knows her house and what sounds can be attributed to the heater rumbling to life and what would be someone in the bathroom - and frowns, hearing none.

“He left,” Daniel says sleepily, stroking her bare stomach with his thumb. “Something about Hammond and mission reports and a threat about being demoted back down to lieutenant if they weren’t done by lunch.” He nuzzles her neck. “I told him where your notes are.”

“Mmm,” Sam hums. She rubs her toes against Daniel’s calf and tucks herself further under the covers; she hasn’t yet pulled the down comforter out of storage and it’s colder in bed when she isn’t surrounded by two warm, male bodies. Daniel pulls her closer and she sighs happily.

Daniel presses a kiss against her temple. “Are you okay with this?” It’s been two weeks since Jack joined them and the only nights the three of them haven’t been together have been nights Sam forgets to come home from the base, which are becoming less and less frequent as they cover more and more of the UAV’s range and still can’t find a civilization. He thinks he should be able to feel if she weren’t okay with the change in their situation, but if there’s one thing he’s learned while being with Sam it’s that she’s a master of hiding her emotions when she wants to, even if they are linked to each other.

“Yeah,” she says quietly, turning over so she can look him in the eye. For a while it was exhausting, since it had been the two of them focusing on her until Jack’s recent discovery that Daniel can be fun too (Daniel had known all along that Jack could be fun, but hadn’t pushed), though she hadn’t really minded. “What about you?” She props her head in her hand.

Daniel traces her spine with his fingertips and mirrors her position. “Yeah, I’m okay with it.” It’s different, for sure, and there are moments that he just wants to curl up with Sam, but Jack has been a surprisingly easy addition; it had been awkward for the first few days while they figured out how to balance sex with everything else, but things have smoothed out to something resembling, oddly, normal.

Sam covers a yawn and lies down again, tucking her head underneath Daniel’s chin. Daniel tugs the blankets up around her bare shoulders and makes a mental note to remind her about the comforter in the morning.

I heard that.

I know. Sweet dreams.

The cursor blinks against the white background, mocking him. Jack looks over at Sam’s notes, typed and impeccably organized from the incoherent scribble that takes over her field journals. He finds absolutely no inspiration in her documentation of P4G-556 and its glow-in-the-dark mushrooms and villagers who tried to convince him that it would be best if they ate the glowing fungi and drank something that looked (and smelled) suspiciously like liquefied blue Jell-O. They’d passed on the food and drink - wisely, given how the villagers ended up acting later that night - but the rest of her notes are full of science and words he’s picked up over the years out of self-preservation, but that doesn’t imply he knows what this particular combination of science words means.

He groans and drops his head on his desk, barely missing his keyboard. It’s not that he believed Hammond’s threat of demotion, but he just wants these done and any other time, Sam and Daniel are on base and things take four times as long with their thoughts floating around his head. He’s not as adept as the two of them at blocking out other people’s thoughts, and they happen to be the two most focused people he knows when they want to be. It’s a good - no, great - thing in bed, but really annoying when he’s trying to type up a simple mission report about the pastoral society on P84-569 and he hears two, sometimes three or four, languages plus physics, which he thinks should qualify as a language all its own.

He was glad Daniel was still awake when he left; it made it feel less like he was sneaking out (sneaking out to do work, which would certainly be a first). Even after knowing that Daniel and Sam were together, he found it hard to believe. But over the past two weeks, he’s learned that they just click. He’d been afraid of upsetting that, of somehow breaking them, because they certainly deserve to be happy and he refuses to stand in the way. And yet, he’s seamlessly moved into their lives, even earning himself a drawer at Sam’s (“Don’t give me that look - it doesn’t mean anything. You’re over here enough that carting pajamas and soap back and forth is silly.”) and a neon yellow toothbrush in her bathroom.

Rubbing the back of his neck, he exhales deeply and convinces himself that if he tries really hard, he can have this mission report typed up in an hour. After all, as far as spectacularly weird missions go, P4G-556 won’t even make the top twenty.

Jack takes the steps two at a time to reach the control room and nods at General Hammond. Daniel’s already there, standing behind Sam and staring at a dual monitor display. One monitor shows UAV footage of a walled city, with what are unmistakably guns aimed at the plane; the other shows a trio of solemn-looking aliens. Jack frowns: the aliens almost look human, if not for their silver eyes and dusty purple skin. He stays out of range of the camera; later he’ll ask Sam how she made contact with an apparently very advanced alien civilization on a planet they were beginning to think was mostly sand and rocks.

“Why have you contacted us?” The female alien asks, evenly.

Hokari, Sam thinks for Jack’s benefit since he missed the introductory part of the conversation. That’s Culture Minister Ryō.

“We’re peaceful explorers,” Daniel starts with the standard SG-1 explanation. “We came to your planet to meet others and expand our horizons. However, we ran into a bit of a problem when we stepped out of the Stargate. A beam of light rendered myself, Major Carter, and one of our teammates unconscious. When we came to, we could hear each other’s thoughts. We were hoping you have a way to reverse this.”

Ryō’s eyes shift to meet those of the two men who flank her. “The reset protocol,” she says. “It activates automatically upon the closing of an incoming wormhole. It is not designed to be effective on those not of our species.”

Shut up, Jack.

I wasn’t going to say anything, Daniel.

You were thinking it.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Sam jumps in, “what does it do?” Even if she can’t get her hands on the technology, or these people won’t help them, maybe an understanding of its purpose and how it went wrong can help fix it.

Another glance. This time, the man on Ryō’s left speaks. “We are a very sensitive telepathic species. When a member of our species leaves our planet, they are exposed to numerous mental contaminants. The reset protocol ensures that any mental harm they may have encountered while away is erased immediately and prevented from causing catastrophic disaster to our society.”

Health Minister Jaantha, Sam thinks. She doesn’t know much about telepathy, but she’s not sure how thoughts can have a lasting harmful effect on someone; she’ll ask about it later if she gets the chance.

“Quarantine,” Daniel says.

Jaantha nods. “Indeed. We have similar protocols on all landing bays and spaceports.”

Who’s the silent one?

War Minister Kríka.

General Hammond steps forward. “Ministers, we haven’t had success in finding a way to reverse this effect. Would it be possible for one of you to come here to examine our people?”

“Absolutely not,” Kríka says instantly. “Our allies have sent word that you are currently embroiled in a war against the Goa’uld. A representative of our world setting foot on yours would indicate we have joined that war as an ally of yours. As we currently have no desire to partake in this war, this is not ideal. Additionally -”

“- surveys of your world indicate inhospitable mental conditions. A representative, even an experienced shielder, would be incapacitated nearly instantly,” Jaantha finishes.

“We apologize for your inconvenience,” Ryō concludes, “but we must give precedence to the safety and preservation of our own people.”

Sam blinks. “Would it be acceptable for the three of us to visit your world?”

The three Ministers hold another eye conference and return their attentions to the screen.

“You three are no threat to us. Send word when you are coming and we will ensure there is a representative available to escort you to the city.” Kríka nods and the video feed goes dark.

“Kinda pompous, don’t you think?” Jack steps forward out of the shadows, his hands shoved in his pockets.

Sam manipulates the UAV controls so it flies smoothly along the outskirts of a city. “I think they have reason to be, sir.” She zooms in on the video footage. “This is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.”

Jack squints at the screen. “Can you get any closer?”

She shakes her head. “I tried. They have automated defenses that start shooting if anything gets too close. It’s how they knew we were here, so to speak. This is as close as I can get.”

Daniel tilts his head, looking at the sleek spires that tower over the smooth wall defining the city’s edge. “That’s strange,” he says. “It just popped up in the middle of the desert.” It’s been his experience that while cities do exist in deserts, they’re usually nomadic or pre-industrial; anyone with the technology to build something this complex either didn’t come from the desert or wised up and left - it’s not the most resource-rich area.

Sam shakes her head again. “Not really.” She turns the UAV so it’s flying away from the city and back toward the gate. A quick command pulls up a graphical representation of the planet. Red dots appear scattered across the continents. “After we saw the aliens on the MALP, I contacted the Tok’ra and had them send over whatever they had on this planet in case they knew something we didn’t. They don’t, but they did a survey a few years ago. The planet’s mostly ice caps and desert; it looks like they used up most of their resources to get this advanced. Contained cities,” she gestures to the dots, “make sense to help ration what they still have.” She looks up at General Hammond. “Sir, if they know enough about us to know that we’re fighting the Goa’uld and that we have ‘inhospitable mental conditions,’ they probably know that Earth has everything they don’t any more.”

Hammond nods and turns to Jack. “Keep an eye out, Colonel O’Neill. But I need you three back out in the field, which means you need to get this,” he gestures to the three of them, “fixed. You leave at 0600 tomorrow.”

Jack steps into Sam’s lab. “What do you have?”

Sam looks up from her laptop screen, “not much. Tok’ra intelligence is pretty spotty. At one point they approached the Hokari for permission to hide out and were apparently denied.”

“With all their ‘mental contamination’ worries, that’s not a surprise.” Jack gingerly picks up the pile of books stacked on a chair and sets it on the floor. He flops into the chair. “Anything newsworthy?”

Daniel frowns at his notes. “I have no idea how they get anything done. Their government is insanely complex.”

Jack looks at Daniel. “That’s not newsworthy.”

Sam exhales and blows a lock of hair out of her face, ignoring their banter about what qualifies as newsworthy. “Their technology appears to be only slightly less superior than the Asgard. But,” she holds up a finger when she senses Jack about to ask after big space guns, “given how reluctant they were to even walk into the gate room, I doubt they’d be willing to help us along.”

“Anything we need to watch out for?”

“There’s a small prostitution problem. Possession of mind-altering drugs is strictly prohibited. And littering is a really bad thing,” Daniel says.

“So as long as we keep a tight grip on Carter, you leave your pot at home, and I don’t spit my gum out on the sidewalk, we’ll be okay.” Jack grins at the two of them.

Two Hokari meet them at the gate, the beam turned off for the moment, and neither looks particularly thrilled to have been dispatched to escort the humans to the city. Introductions are quickly made and by the way the female - Kaia - rushes them to the transport pod parked neatly beside the gate, Jack wonders if there’s some sort of big event she was granted access to only if she came back in time. Kaia looks at him disdainfully and Jack remembers that she can hear his thoughts and hopes that he won’t accidentally cause an interplanetary incident. Her expression remains the same as she gestures for him to take a seat inside the silver pod. While her companion sits at the control panel and types in commands, Kaia sits facing the three humans.

Jack squirms in the seat. He’s been on third-world trains that have more comfortable seating. Everything may look pretty and shiny, but either the Hokari have vastly different skeletal structures despite their appearances or they don’t care much for comfort.

“You will be taken to Desert City University’s telemedical facility,” Kaia says as the transport pod smoothly lifts off the ground and takes off, gaining speed. She tightly grips the edge of her seat for a brief moment, adjusting to the feeling of accelerating backward. “The reset protocol is designed to affect only Hokari neurological signatures. Our scientists are hesitant to agree that the protocol is what has triggered the telepathy in the three of you and will likely perform many tests before designing a reversal strategy.”

Jack accepts Daniel’s elbow in his ribs for what it is - code to shut the hell up and try not to think anything rude - and stares outside until the fast-moving landscape gives him a headache. While hours spent with Teal’c have helped somewhat, more often than not he can’t keep an inappropriate thought to himself; neither Carter nor Daniel mind much anymore - they have the same trouble - but he knows that now is not the time for that. He recites hockey stats, starting with the Avalanche, to himself and stares straight ahead.

“Could you tell us a little about your culture? You seem so developed and yet so isolated. We haven’t seen anything like your technology.” Daniel’s determined to get something out of this trip other than aliens with slightly-purple skin poking and prodding him.

At that, Kaia allows herself to smile, briefly. “You are a remarkably rudimentary society for one who has developed an extraplanetary exploration program. Given your affinity for random appearances on planets about which you know precisely nothing, it is astounding you have survived this long. And it is unlikely you have discovered all the technologically advanced species this galaxy holds.”

Daniel looks across the transport pod at her. “With respect, you didn’t answer my question.”

“I am a representative of the War Ministry. It is not in my list of duties nor knowledge base to give lectures to primitive offworld explorers on Hokari culture, history and society. Ito,” she nods her head slightly in the direction of the driver, “is Special Assistant to the Under-Minister for Hokari Literature. He is better equipped to answer your question.”

Sam raises her eyebrows and thinks that was a rather haughty way for Kaia to say that she didn’t know anything. She doesn’t acknowledge the glare Kaia shoots in her direction; it’s the other woman’s fault for eavesdropping.

Ito takes his eyes off the desert in front of him to turn and look at his passengers. “Kaia is one of the many Special Assistants to the Under-Minister for Planetary Peacekeeping. Please forgive her rudeness; manners are not considered top priority by the War Ministry.”

For a moment, Kaia looks as though she’s going to argue, but merely settles into her seat with a deeper frown.

Satisfied, Ito returns his gaze to the transport pod’s trajectory and begins to address Daniel’s question. “We belong to and are leaders of the Hokari Collective, a group of cultures and worlds all under our protection from the Goa’uld and other threats. You have seen the first line of our defense technology: we are well-equipped to defend ourselves and others against most any threat…” he trails off.

Daniel blinks at the sudden lack of information until he realizes that he’d inadvertently thought that this was helpful but not at all the information he was looking for. He smiles and thinks about what he might like to know, allowing Ito to tailor his lecture to his audience.

“Because each species has a unique neurological signature, we are required to adapt our reception filters when we encounter a new species; for this reason, we generally do not visit alien worlds. Three visitors like yourselves represent little additional telepathic noise amidst the billions of Hokari, but it would require considerable time and effort to determine how to successfully filter the minds of your entire planet.”

“If you’re protecting other worlds, you must have contact with them,” Sam says.

Ito nods and looks over his shoulder. “Yes. We have ambassadors who are specifically trained to visit other planets.”

Daniel thinks, not for the first time, that they’re extraordinarily lucky that they were only connected to each other. He can’t imagine how overwhelming it would be to be connected to the entire planet.

Kaia nods at him, clearly unimpressed with - and unwilling to address - Daniel’s concerns about a connection to the entire planet. She focuses on Jack’s thoughts, briefly interrupting Ito. “The Collective protects thirteen worlds in addition to any planet in the Hokari system; you are currently on Hokari Prime. These worlds have either expressed interest in our protection, or have required our assistance when faced with the Goa’uld. You have undoubtedly noticed that we have exhausted the majority of our natural resources; in exchange for our protection, the planets of the Collective provide us with necessary resources to develop and produce weaponry and technology.” She leans back in her seat, deferring again to Ito.

Sam listens to Daniel ask questions about history and culture while she stares out of the transport pod’s windows as they rapidly approach the city. She looks upward and barely manages to hold back a gasp at the small ships dotting the sky, some landing inside the city, others taking off. The UAV footage hadn’t even come close to conveying the sheer size and magnitude of the city and the flight patterns above. Activity swarms around the outside walls: transport pods similar to theirs wait in line for entrance to the city while modules of some sort zoom past on a network of tubes Sam thinks are for supplies.

“Major Carter is correct. In lieu of geographic proximity, the supply tube network allows fresh seafood from the Oceanic region to arrive here within the day; technology repairs leave our factories here and arrive in the Mountainous regions in hours. However, access to the cities is tightly controlled. As you undoubtedly noticed, the Stargate is far from any Hokari population center. This is explicitly to prevent any successful infiltration of our people.” Ito slows the transport pod and slides it into place in the line in front of a gate.

Jack counts five pods in front of them and makes a mental bet with himself whether it’ll be more like the US-Canada border in Manitoba or the US-Mexico border in Tijuana. “Why not put the gate some place useful and guard it? Or put an iris on it?”

Kaia pauses halfway to joining Ito in the front compartment; her credentials are what will allow the three strangers into the city. She frowns in confusion, and then receives a mental image of the SGC’s iris. “It is rare, but occasionally a Hokari will leave our solar system to find residence elsewhere. Without Ministry-issued credentials on a ship, it is extraordinarily difficult to receive docking approval. Pedestrians require significantly less paperwork.”

“It’s kind of a hike,” Jack counters.

Kaia turns and faces Jack with an expression Jack can’t read. “It is for security.”

They’re dropped off rather unceremoniously at the steps of a dauntingly large building. Sam looks upward, craning her neck to see the top of it. Made entirely out of glass, she can see into the building through the fourth floor before the angle gets in the way; she wonders how the building is structurally sound without any visible supports. Ito tells Daniel to call on him at the Culture Ministry if he would like a specialized tour of the city once the med techs are finished; Kaia stalks off as soon as she exits the transport pod as if she’s already forgotten the three humans and their dilemma.

“Ah,” Ito says as an extraordinarily tall man strides out of the front door of the building, trailed by much smaller woman. “This is Chancellor Akō; he is the head of the telemedical facility here.”

Chancellor Akō manages a forced smile. “I will oversee your examinations and potential treatment. This is my assistant, Mika. She will take you inside and begin several tests. Ito, may I have a word?” He steps aside without so much as a glance in the direction of Jack’s outstretched hand.

“Come with me, please,” Mika says in the bored tone all three of them are beginning to think is the norm here. “I apologize for the Chancellor’s demeanor,” she says once they’re inside and out of earshot, “we are all very perplexed as to how this occurred. The reset protocol is explicitly designed to function only on Hokari neuropathways else we would have extreme difficulty each time an alien arrived as it activates immediately upon sensing an intrusion. The protocol was his design and he is…reluctant to admit that it may have malfunctioned.” She smiles as they step into a glass elevator.

Sam watches the activity as they ascend past floors housing medical labs, surgery bays, robotics facilities and things she can’t even name. They pause to admit additional passengers and she finds herself enthralled by the holographic scan of an entire body being manipulated by a diagnostician while the patient watches with rapt attention. As soon as the doors close, they’re swept up again and after an additional floor, move sideways. She’s struck by how little she feels the abrupt movement and looks around for anything that could hide inertial dampeners, but the entire car is made of glass.

Mika steps out when the car comes to a halt in front of a door labeled Telemedical Diagnostics - Reset Protocol Division - Bay 1. The door swooshes open to reveal a stark white laboratory with two silver cots, each connected to a computer station by a mass of colored wires Jack thinks will end up in a knot if he even looks at them too closely. “Colonel O’Neill and Doctor Jackson, please remain here. Marko will be with you shortly. Major Carter, please come with me.” She takes two steps toward a door marked Bay 2 before she realizes that she isn’t being followed.

“Sorry, but we don’t split up off world,” Jack says, standing half a step in front of Sam.

Mika flashes the three of them a smile that borders on patronizing. “I apologize, Colonel O’Neill. Our cultural protocols require different rooms for males and females regardless of species or tests. I must insist.”

Jack notices that Sam’s as uncomfortable with this as he is. “Can you leave the door open?”

Mika nods once. “Yes.” This time, Sam follows her out of the room.

“Are these people robots?” Jack whispers under his breath.

Daniel shrugs and bides his time by peering at all of the equipment in the room. None of it appears to have any labels or language and none of it is on (or if it is, it’s asleep and if SG-1 has taught him anything it’s that touching things to see what happens rarely ends well). “They’re fairly well-established trade and military partners in the galaxy and they’ve clearly managed to develop a relationship with the worlds they protect. If they can’t actually go anywhere to meet new allies and have to do it all essentially over the phone, they probably picked up the habit of stating whatever the cultural or social quirk is to avoid any confusion.”

“And the shoulder pads.” Jack makes a face; their hosts dress like bad extras from Star Trek.

Daniel barely manages to transform a laugh into a cough when the main doors swoosh open at the presence of a large man who might be better suited to professional football than medicine.

“You must be Marko,” Jack says amicably.

Marko blinks. “I am. Let us begin.” He gestures for Jack and Daniel to get on their respective cots. With a wave of his hand over a sensor, the room’s many screens come to life all at once, showing brilliantly-lit graphical displays. He prepares two syringes and explains, at Jack’s protest, that it contains an element that will follow electrical impulses throughout their bodies and allow them to link up with the displays. “It is harmless,” he assures his stubborn patient.

Jack mutters that the reset protocol was supposed to be harmless to them and look how well that turned out, but he rolls up his sleeve.

Sam watches as Mika programs the machine next to her, nimble fingers flying over the LCD controls. Sam finds judging the age of the Hokari difficult, but something about Mika’s movements makes Sam estimate that they’re approximately the same age. “You don’t agree with this,” Sam says quietly.

Mika stops mid-command and looks over at the blonde lying on the table. “I do not understand your decision,” she says, honestly.

Sam sits up and stares at her hands for a moment. “We’re not a telepathic species. Suddenly not being alone in my own mind is…strange. I don’t like it.”

“But you care for Doctor Jackson and Colonel O’Neill, do you not?”

“Deeply,” Sam says, unprepared for the emotions that rise up within her at the thought. She swallows them down.

Mika tilts her head. “Then I do not understand. If you care for these men, why would you want to be separated from them?”

Sam bites her lip and looks away, collecting her thoughts. “It’s not that I want to be separated from them. It’s that I want to be able to sit with them and be completely silent. I want to read a book on the couch with Daniel and not have to filter out whatever he’s reading. I want to play Halo with Jack and not hear him sneaking up on me.”

“We have ways to do as you ask. We can teach you.” Mika injects a needle into Sam’s vein.

Sam shakes her head and holds the piece of cotton to her arm like Mika pantomimes. “You’re taught how to control and filter the telepathy from childhood, while your brains are still developing. We’re adults. Even if it could become an unconscious habit, it would take years.” Sensing that Mika still doesn’t understand, Sam tries a different tactic. “You’ve grown up with this; it’s all you’ve known - right?” She waits for a nod. “Imagine that it was suddenly taken away from you. You could no longer hear your friends, family, loved ones, people on the street.” The terror registering on Mika face makes Sam almost regret bringing this up. “Wouldn’t you do anything in your power to get it back?”

“Of course,” Mika answers and motions for Sam to lie down on the cot while she connects wires to the blonde’s head.

Sam glances at the door, to reassure herself that Daniel and Jack are still close by, despite that she can hear them mentally arguing with each other about what position Marko would play if he were human. She smiles; Daniel doesn’t know anything about football. She looks back up at Mika, the fear almost gone from the other woman’s face. Sam frowns; it was a hypothetical question that shouldn’t have Mika that scared. Unless wiping out the telepathic link is an actual possibility.

Mika looks up sharply from the screen in front of her. She turns to the closed door on the other side of the lab and then looks over her shoulder; her face is briefly concerned before she catches Sam watching her and returns her features to a schooled neutral.

“What’s wrong?” Sam asks, about ready to think loudly for Jack and Daniel and interrupt their linebacker versus wide receiver argument.

The door opens and a short, green-skinned alien sprints in and slams shut the door to the adjacent lab. Before Sam can register what happened or that Jack’s voice is shouting from the other side, three other aliens enter the room. One of them, clearly the leader, steps in front of the other two and holds a weapon at Mika’s head. He fires and Mika crumples to the ground.

Jack! Daniel! Get in…

Before she can finish the cry for help, the weapon has been turned on her and the last thing she sees is a flash of green light.

[navigation: forward to Chapter Four (overpowered) // return to index]