Archaeology (20b/30)
Title: Archaeology ( Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Pairings: Gen
Chapter1a-- 1b Chapter2 Chapter3 Chapter4 Chapter5 Chapter6 Chapter7a-- 7b Chapter8 Chapter9a-- 9b Chapter10 Chapter11 Chapter12a-- 12b Chapter13a-- 13b Chapter14a-- 14b Chapter15a-- 15b Chapter16a-- 16b Chapter17a-- 17b Chapter18 Chapter19a-- 19b Chapter20a
Teal'c found him in his office after Sha'uri returned to Abydos to explain to her father and all of their people. "Daniel Jackson," he said. "We have not spoken in days."
("You're my teacher," Daniel insisted. "I'm learning from you."
"Very well...chal'ti," Teal'c said.)
"Well, it's been very busy," Daniel said, not looking up from his work. There was an error in one of the plans someone had drawn up as a more primitive, Tau'ri adaptation of his original design. They were trying to take shortcuts--
("I am to blame for the abduction and deaths of your kin," Teal'c said.)
--which was unacceptable. "Did you need something?" Daniel said.
"Sha'uri wishes me to serve her on Abydos," Teal'c said. Daniel nodded, reaching under his glasses to rub a tired eye. Sha'uri would know what to do with Teal'c. "But I will not leave you if you have need of--"
"You'll do what we need you to do," Daniel interrupted. "Just like everyone else. I'll manage." His friends were too distracting. No wonder they had been such a pain when--
No. That was Apophis's memory. He closed his eyes and forcibly separated it from his own thoughts, but the conclusion was the same: they were too distracting to have here now.
But Teal'c didn't move. "Something has changed in you. What did the Harsesis do to you?"
Daniel slammed his pencil back down on the table. "Did it ever occur to you, between teaching me to fight and telling me Goa'uld histories, that maybe I want to be done with all of this? You want to win the war, I want to win the war--I'm giving us a way to win the war."
"I thought you had learned better than to believe that was all that mattered," Teal'c said in a low voice. "You have said yourself that victory means nothing if we--"
Picking up his pencil, Daniel set to work again. "I don't have time to be your chal'ti right now, Teal'c."
Teal'c took a step further into the office. "Then I have failed you."
("Danny!" his mother screamed. Teal'c raised his weapon.)
"If Sha'uri wants you on Abydos, you should go to her," Daniel said.
"Do you wish me to go, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c said.
("There's a Goa'uld in you," Daniel said, and, "Sometimes I want to kill it.")
"I think you should," Daniel said stiffly, and made a mental note to warn Sha'uri about him. She would know how to handle him.
...x...
Just over two months into their project, Sha'uri appeared at the SGC again and found him in his office. "You have a djera'kesh," she said. "I want to take it back with me to Abydos."
"Why would you need a hand device?" Daniel said, already thinking rapidly over the possible uses and knowing that, within them, there still remained the primary purpose--that of torture, death, and personal protection.
She raised an eyebrow. "It will speed many of our operations. As you know well, there are many functions that cannot be accessed by one such as yourself."
"I have two people who can use it," Daniel said.
Still smiling slightly, she said, "The Tok'ra? You cannot trust him. And Major Carter--you told me you have had problems with her."
"I'll handle Sam," Daniel said. There were already people keeping an eye on her activities. He supposed that, if he wore a rank on his shoulders, she would listen to him without so much as a second thought. How much had he and Teal'c had to plead with her to be wary around General Bauer, while she might have simply proceeded on his orders otherwise? And now, because the orders came from Daniel...
"We cannot allow this to continue longer than it must," Sha'uri said quietly. "The faster I provide naquadah, the faster you can build the devices."
Daniel nodded, conceding the point, and reached behind his desk for the ribbon device. When she looked amused at where he'd been keeping it, he reminded her, "I've put together designs for a modified version of the Goa'uld personal shield using this. I wouldn't mock if I were you."
She took the device and threaded it over her hand. "Ah, yes," she said. "You cannot use the real thing." Daniel clenched his jaw as he watched the main crystal begin to glow. It wasn't until she allowed the device to inactivate that he realized he'd been tensing for...something.
Sha'uri wouldn't attack him, though. She didn't have enough influence on Earth, and they needed to finish building their weapons network before anything else. It was when they finished the weapons system that he'd need to be wary.
"When the AG network is ready to be launched," Daniel said, "we'll launch the completed satellites from Earth first."
"Why would we do that?" she said coolly.
"They are being built by people from Earth," he pointed out. "Even you've been using the SGC's resources in your mining operation, and you have to admit most of the labor is being done here."
"And Abydons are the ones working in the mines," she countered. "Without our people and what they provide, and without the part of the designs that Amaunet knew, you have nothing."
"Well, we have the designs now," Daniel said. "Jack has four other sites ready for teams to start working, and believe me, we can find miners on this planet. If you'd like, we can start using those instead of Abydos for our naquadah supply, but then we'd also need a lot less without Abydonian participation--just enough to cover this planet with our shields."
Her smile slipped slightly. "Abydos is your home, Dan'yel," she said.
"So is Earth," Daniel said. "And the SGC is the greater threat to the System Lords--if they attack us, they will attack me first. You can afford more time--it'll only take about a week, Sha'uri."
"I can afford? When did the Abydons stop being your people?" she said.
I have the bigger, better trained army, he thought. "They didn't," he said. "Sister, we need each other to finish this. Think of how much Earth has done for the Abydonian people. We can't protect Abydos if it's at the expense of Earth."
A noise at the door interrupted them. Daniel turned to see Jack at the door. "Whoa!" Jack said, staring at the ribbon device.
"Do not worry, Colonel O'Neill," Sha'uri said, smiling gently at him as she held up her hand in the ribbon device. He flinched slightly, then began to relax when nothing happened. "I know exactly how to use this properly."
"Ye-eah," Jack said, not looking reassured. "That's comforting."
Sha'uri turned back to give Daniel a somewhat less warm smile. "That is good advice, brother. I wish you luck with your efforts on Earth."
Daniel watched her leave, then said, "Do you need something, Jack?"
Jack was still looking in the direction she'd gone. "What was that?" he said, jerking a thumb out into the corridor. "Was that a ribbon device on her hand?"
("Kneel," Daniel said, raising the device on his hand. Jack knelt.)
"What did it look like?" Daniel said, blinking to dispel the image and the rush of foreign hatred that came with it. "There are other functions than hurting people--shielding, moving material, even the heat generated... They'd all be useful for a mining operation and the minor construction taking place there. Jack, did you need something?"
"Yeah--what's with the construction on the lower levels?" Jack said.
"The control stations we have right now aren't powerful enough to accommodate the new weapons systems once they're built," Daniel said. "Don't worry; everything's planned out to the proper specifications. Sergeant Siler's watching over it."
"And about that," Jack said, taking a few steps into the office and frowning at the empty space where the other desk used to sit. "Well, not about that exactly, but where's Carter? And I thought Martouf was working on stuff with her."
"Martouf's being cared for in a facility better suited for the neurological damage he suffered," Daniel said. "He's been getting worse. And Sam's...visiting her brother, I think. I told her to take a few days off--the stress was getting to her."
"Uh-huh."
Daniel raised his eyebrows. "Is there something you want to say?"
"The stress was getting to her?" Jack repeated. "This is Major Samantha Carter you're talking about, right?"
"Jack, you know as well as I that Sam is good with technology and imminent danger, but people? Maybe I made a mistake giving her the burden of overseeing the science efforts. I've had a few other names suggested to me. Sam's used to taking orders"--except from me--"not giving them."
"Because...you've got a lot of command experience."
"I've got thousands of years of command experience in my head," Daniel pointed out. "It's why people are"--finally--"willing to trust my decisions."
"Good advice?" Jack said.
"Obviously, I won't use it the same way Apophis did," Daniel said, rolling his eyes, "but the knowledge and experience are there, all the same."
"Right, well...where's Teal'c? I haven't seen him in weeks."
Daniel forced himself not to look away. "On a mission for me and Sha'uri."
"What mission?" Jack said.
"The mission she sent him on," Daniel said, exasperated. "Jack...don't you have work to do?"
"Nope," Jack said. "I'm sitting on base, watching miners go through the Stargate." He made a halfhearted motion with his arm, like something zooming through the 'gate, then dropped it.
"Well, I do have work," Daniel said, sitting down.
"Okay, so, about that..." Jack started. Daniel paused, scowling. "You've been working non-stop for...what, two months now? You haven't even left the mountain since then."
"There's a lot of work to do," he said slowly. "I need the technical staff to have exact instructions if everything is to be built correctly."
"Yeah, well," Jack said. He shrugged. "Happy birthday."
Sparing a glance at a calendar on the wall, he said, "I suppose it is, not that it makes a lot of difference at the moment."
"I thought maybe you'd want to come home for a day," Jack said. "I'm just worried about you, Daniel. I know how you can get when you want to finish something."
"How I can get?" Daniel repeated, looking up in annoyance. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Jack threw his hands up. "This! Working and not leaving the damn office. You told me you wanted to do something that didn't include bombs and weapons--"
"And you looked at me like I was crazy!" Daniel retorted, standing back up. "Wake up, Jack. We have a war to win, and we can't win it by wasting time."
"You know," Jack said, "before, you would have taken a day off to read and learn a language or something. I might've called it wasting time, but you never would have."
Daniel tapped his forehead. "Do you know how many languages Apophis knew, Jack? I don't need to learn another one now. And right now, I need you to make sure we have enough naquadah to build the system that will protect Earth from the Goa'uld forever."
Jack stared at him for a long moment. Impatient, Daniel sat back down and went back to the progress reports he'd been reading. "I just don't like what this is doing to you," Jack said. "It's a little... It's odd. For you."
("I'm not your kid!" Daniel snapped at Jack.)
Squashing another wave of frustration, Daniel forcibly produced a sigh and said, "And in less than a year, we'll be safe. We'll never have to deal with the Goa'uld again. You know how much I've wanted that, Jack, and I know you do, too. You trust me, don't you?"
"Daniel..." Jack said, looking remorseful, which meant Daniel had already won. "Yeah. Of course. I trust you. Just...take care of yourself."
...x...
"Come in," Daniel said at the sound of a knock. General Hammond opened the door. "General. What can I do for you?"
Hammond folded his hands in front of himself. "Mr. Jackson, we need to talk."
"Go ahead," he said.
"I hope you realize," Hammond started, "how much I've come to trust you--to depend on you--over these last years. You're...special to us and to me, you have to know that."
Daniel looked down, toying with his pen, then back up. "Yes," he said. "In many ways, I grew up under your command--under your roof, as it were."
"And I've never had cause to be anything but proud of the man you've become," Hammond said, and Daniel was surprised and disgusted by the pride that tried to surface. "Until now."
"What do you mean by that?" Daniel said calmly, quashing the odd moment of weakness. The base was his now, by order of the President. Friend of Hammond's or not, no man wanted to be remembered through history as the president who had resisted efforts to protect the planet from alien attack.
Stepping further into the office, Hammond said, "Do you remember a conversation we had once about a man named Machello? You said he'd spent his life fighting the Goa'uld, and after a while, he lost sight of what mattered. You said he'd become like a Goa'uld. I don't want to see that happen to you, but I'm starting to think I'm too late to stop it."
"I'm not stealing people's bodies, General," he said angrily.
"You're not taking hosts, no," Hammond said. "But that's not all the Goa'uld do. They take hosts because they have to, to take power."
"I haven't taken any power," Daniel said, pushing back from his desk and standing up. "Whatever authority I have was given to me by your Commander-in-Chief, General Hammond."
"Mr. Jackson, if you still respect me at all, listen to me," Hammond said, walking closer and placing his hands on Daniel's desk. "Do you remember what I told you then? What made us different from Machello?"
("Machello was alone," the general said.)
"Did you count how many people you passed coming in here?" Daniel said. "All of the offices in this mountain are filled with people working alongside me. There's an entire country of people working with me, and a planet full of them just a wormhole away. You don't have anything to worry about."
"Where are your friends?" Hammond pressed. "Son, the times I've been the most afraid for you--physically or mentally--were when you didn't have your team. Where are they now?"
"They're fulfilling their role!" Daniel said. "Just like I am, and just like you should be. And if you can't do that..."
Hammond straightened. "Then what?" he said, challenging but with a whiff of apprehension. He knew where the power lay, too.
Daniel folded his arms, looking thoughtfully at the older man. After the number of times he'd stood before commanders and wished they didn't see him as a troubled and troubling child, he found it was surprisingly refreshing to see the tables turned. "You liked being in charge of the SGC's operations. Now that we're not working in that way anymore...well, you were about to retire before this program started, weren't you? I think that would be best."
An expression crossed Hammond's face that would have seemed surprised if his bearing hadn't looked so resigned at the same time. "Daniel. You're really doing this. Is that what happened to Dr. Fraiser? Or did you threatened her and her daughter?"
"Of course not. Janet resigned--there's not much work for her to do around here, and she felt more useful elsewhere. You may have noticed our death toll is almost zero these days."
"What if I refuse to step down?" Hammond said. "What will you do to me, Mr. Jackson?"
"Nothing," Daniel said. "I won't let anyone hurt you, your granddaughters, or anyone in your family. But you won't do anything to me, either; don't bother trying. It's time for you to retire, General. You'll see in a few months, when our project's done. You'll be honored by the world as the general who held the Goa'uld at bay until we were able to find the Harsesis."
"You know better than anyone that what the world believes isn't the same as the truth," Hammond said softly, but uselessly.
Daniel sat back down. "I'm sure you don't need anyone to escort you to the proper location, General, but I'd be happy to call someone if you need it."
"No," Hammond said, turning, and Daniel knew he'd won that one, too. "I'll show myself out."
...x...
There was no knock before Sam barged through his door. "Permission to speak, sir?" she said facetiously.
Daniel looked up, amused, and waved the SFs away when they tried to follow in Sam's typically unsubtle path. "What would you do if I said 'no?'"
"I talked to Skaara, Daniel," she said, pushing the door shut before she stalked to his desk.
"What were you doing on Abydos?" Daniel said. "I gave you specific instructions--"
She laughed, not quite maniacal, but close enough, for Sam. "What the hell is going on? Your brother says Sha'uri's making everyone work the mines, just like it was under Ra! He says there are Jaffa around, and if they're not biologically Jaffa, they're her loyal soldiers and overseers anyway. I've never heard Skaara say a word against her, and... Don't you see what's happening?"
"Skaara doesn't remember Ra any better than I do," Daniel said, and then tapped his temple and amended, "Actually, he remembers Ra a lot worse. If it weren't for the fact that the Goa'uld are never really children, I'd have a lot of interesting childhood memories of Ra."
"Daniel!" she snapped, then took a breath, raking a hand through her messy hair. "Daniel," she said more softly. "God. What happened to the person who...who told me to risk court-martial and defy a two-star general because it was the right thing to do?"
"And who was the one who didn't want to listen?" Daniel retorted. "You were willing to build an enhanced nuclear bomb, Sam. I'm asking you to build shields."
"Shields with missiles," she said. "You don't think I found other pieces of your grand design? And you're advocating enslavement. Of your own people--your own family. If that's how Sha'uri sees Abydos, is that how you see Earth?"
Of course not. Earth, with six billion people, most of whom didn't know about the Stargate program, much less Daniel's name, was a trickier situation than Abydos. But it was the better base, too--Abydos's one advantage was its mineral supply, and that wasn't infinite. Eventually, the one who held Earth would be better off.
"Two months, Sam," Daniel said. "In two months, we'll be done. No one on Abydos will ever need to work in the mines again. No one on Earth will ever need to risk his or her life traveling through the Stargate again."
She pulled a chair closer to his desk and sat down next to him. "What'll you do? You fought for years to be able to explore and learn things--think of what we've learned, Daniel! And now you're saying you'll launch the AG network, and then you're done?" She looked around the room. "What, you'll hole up and read every book in the world for the rest of your life?"
"You're oversimplifying things," Daniel said patiently, pushing down his irritation--there was more to him than reading and being their junior member who couldn't be trusted to handle anything important. "There'll be more to do after the network's in place."
"Well, obviously there's be a diplomatic side to things," she said, "since the whole world will...know..." She trailed off, staring at the desk.
"As we've seen ourselves, over and over," he reminded her, "there's a lot of cleanup left to do after a major event like this. As SG-1, we usually left that mess to the local people. Well, now, I'm one of the local people, and I'm going to help--"
"You're not going to help," she interrupted, standing quickly and backing away. "You're..." She looked around the room again, then at one of the security monitors. "My god, Daniel--you're building a fortress out of this planet!"
"The very definition of which," Daniel said, standing up, too, "is that the defenses will be essentially impenetrable."
"To people outside it, yes!" she said. "But you--you were planning this all along. You want to rule this planet--like your sister is doing on Abydos."
"That's insane," he said, part of him amused to say that after however many times he'd been called that by someone. "I know a lot of things right now, Sam. I'm just trying to put it to use."
"Yeah, you know those things because of that damn Harsesis," she said, still backing toward the door. "What did he do to you? The truth, this time."
"You should be more polite to my family," Daniel said, tapping the security call button with his foot.
"He's the son of two Goa'uld!" she said. "We've seen what they can do. Mind control...and, and...sending Trojan horses and..." She yanked the door open. "I'll get some answers out of him myself."
"He's on Abydos with his grandfather!" Daniel said, loud enough for everyone in the corridor to hear. "Sam, that's crazy--you need to get some perspective back--"
She marched back to him. "I want my friend back," she said angrily. "But I also want the world safe from him."
"And how will hurting my brother do that?" he said reasonably. "Shifu is a little boy who's growing up like any other little boy on Abydos. Sam, leave him alone. Calm down before you do something stupid."
"I will not calm down, Daniel!" she said. "You're out of--"
"Major, we'll escort you out of the mountain," Captain Lawrence said as a security team came around the corner.
Sam turned to look at Daniel, her eyes wide. "I can't believe you're doing this," she said. "To me. Is this what happened to Teal'c?"
Daniel nodded to the security chief. "Maybe you'll feel better after you've had some time off," he told Sam. "Go home, Sam. Get some rest. Okay?"
As she was led away, looking stunned, one of Daniel's assistants came out of the office down the hall to say, "Wow. She's really lost it."
"The stress must have been too much," Daniel agreed, watching until she was safely out of sight. Turning to his assistant, he added, "I don't think she should have access into the mountain anymore, much less the Stargate. Did you hear what she wanted to do to Shifu--that little boy you met last time?"
"I'll take care of it immediately, sir," the young man said. "Should we have someone watch her outside the mountain, too?"
"For her own safety," Daniel agreed, then returned to his office and closed the door.
He reached into his drawer for his long-range communications device and activated it. It wasn't long before Sha'uri's face appeared. "Dan'yel," she said. "It is good to see you well."
"Have you been watching your brother?" he said without preface.
She smiled very slightly. "Has Major Carter visited you?"
Angrily, he said, "You knew they were talking and you didn't stop them?"
"I was certain she would not pose too many problems for you, Dan'yel," she answered. "And as I have already told you, I am watching Skaara closely. He began asking questions about Teal'c."
"Skaara has the ears of almost every man and boy in Nagada," Daniel warned her. "A lot of people will listen to him."
"Perhaps you forget how many people listen to me," she said. "See to your planet, brother, and I will see to mine."
Our planet, he thought. My planet. "Good," he said. "And watch over your son. Anyone who questions us will start wondering about Shifu, and it's not like he can defend himself."
She looked surprised for a moment, then nodded. "I will, Dan'yel," she said, and he thought that might be the only sincere thing they'd said to each other in months.
...x...
Daniel waved Jack in when his arrival was announced. "Jack," he said, smiling as he reached into his pocket and quietly activated a modified force shield around himself. "It's nice to see you."
"You, too," Jack said, a little more subdued than normal, though that might have been because he was too absorbed in looking around the office. "Is this place bigger than it used to be?"
"Well, I got Nyan into a good school," Daniel explained, "and we don't do much translating or archaeology anymore, so it just made sense to expand the spaces that were being used."
"So the SGC is pretty much..." Jack gestured vaguely around himself. "Your house."
"Not so different from before when I lived here all the time," he said, "except that there's a little more space to move around now." Jack nodded, looking awkward. "I know I haven't been able to talk to you in a while, but--"
"Ah, you've been busy," Jack said, waving it off. He glanced at the console where Daniel was sitting. "Obviously."
Daniel switched on the monitor, making Jack jump as images appeared on the far wall. "Did you come to watch the launch?" he asked, knowing Jack knew about the top secret date, even though he'd been taking off direct involvement with the project months ago.
"Is that today?" Jack said, unconvincingly, and then, "Is Abydos launching today, too?"
"No; those won't be ready for a few more days," Daniel answered, watching the personnel on the screen make their way to their posts. "But soon, yes, and Sha'uri should be arriving any minute to watch this with us."
"How is she?" Jack said, turning in a slow circle as if unsure where to focus his attention. "She must've been pretty busy on Abydos."
(don't trust her)
"Apparently," Daniel agreed calmly. "You know, we've divided things and...there's just been so much to finish that I don't know everything that's been going on. But it's almost over, right?"
"Mm-hm," Jack said. "So...is there some sort of schedule, or...?"
"You're actually a couple of hours early for the scheduled launch," Daniel told him, "but it's okay--we're mostly just waiting now."
"Ah," Jack said.
"How have things been?" Daniel said, then saw an alert on his screen. Jack started to answer, but Daniel held up a hand to cut him off as he reached with the other for his communication device. "Lieutenant Grane," he said once he saw the face in the ball's metallic surface.
Jack leaned over to see what he was doing. "What is--since when have you had one of those? And who is that?"
"He's been stationed on Abydos," Daniel said absently. "Lieutenant, what is it?"
"She's launched their network ahead of schedule, sir," Grane reported. "I think she's planning to target Earth, and there are some modifications that you were never sent."
"Sir?" Jack repeated as Daniel's grip tightened on the ball, and then, "She? As in Sha'uri? Is that--you planted a spy on Abydos?"
Daniel gave Jack a sharp look and deactivated the communications device without a word, then said, "You know that already, don't you? Sam told you when you visited her in her cell."
He was rewarded by a slight tensing of Jack's muscles, but no answer.
Returning to his task, Daniel stood up and reached into his drawer for the weapons he'd need. "I should have known she'd lie," he muttered. "They weren't supposed launch their network until after we did--"
"Why is that?" Jack said as Daniel began to leave the room. He turned around to see Jack frowning at him. "I mean, why not just launch all at once on both planets?"
"The politics are a little more complicated on this side," Daniel pointed out, "and the Goa'uld threat is more serious here. I don't have time for this, Jack--if Sha'uri's launched ahead of schedule and is targeting Earth before we're ready to get ours into the air... Major," he added to one of his subordinates as he left the room, "get the network into orbit now, deal with the repercussions on Earth as quickly as you can by whatever means necessary, and go on alert for an attack from Abydos."
"Yes, sir," the major said.
"Daniel!" Jack said, following him out. "What do you mean--"
Ignoring him, Daniel passed a control device to the major. "I'm authorizing you to use the override if you encounter resistance from Washington."
"What?" Jack said, then grabbed his arm and pulled him to a halt. Four guards pulled their weapons and aimed at him. Jack let go and held up his hands. "Daniel, what the hell is that?"
"Our way to win the war," Daniel said, then added to the guards, "Everyone stand down. No one, under any circumstance, hurt Colonel O'Neill. Jack, we've seen what happens when we leave things to bureaucrats. I can't have people waste time when we have the means to end all of our problems before real damage can happen."
"You think Sha'uri's going to attack Earth because she got her system up first," Jack said, following him down the hall to the transport room. "What were you going to do when you got your system up first?"
"I think she's going to attack Earth because my operative told me so," Daniel said, pulling the door open. "She knows she can't work effectively from Abydos, so she wants to take Earth before we have a chance to stop her. The situation isn't the same in reverse."
"No," Jack said, still following him, "because you just handed over a button to take over the President! Daniel, this is--holy crap, you're bringing a gun and...and a...what is that, a knife? To meet your sister!"
"She made the first move."
A door slammed shut, leaving the two of them alone in the room. "Stop right now and take that override thing back," Jack said, but his command voice was tired and out of practice. "This is treason--this is...worse than treason. This is what the Tollan were afraid of when--"
Daniel turned around, holding up another controller. "Don't worry; if my man betrays me, I can still override him or anyone in the world I want. Jack, this is the way things are going to be now. You can stand with me or--"
Jack reached under his jacket, pulled out a gun, and fired.
The bullets stopped less than an inch from Daniel's chest and dropped to the ground, easily blocked by his personal shield. He sighed, watching Jack lower his gun. "I feel sorry for you," he said honestly. "I know what it must have cost you to pull that trigger."
"Yeah," Jack said quietly, slumping and staring at the gun in his hand.
"Don't worry," Daniel added, reaching for the control panel on the wall and stepping onto the platform. "I've already given you immunity with my people. You're going to be a hero, Jack." Rings shot up around him and transported him below to the embarkation room.
...x...
Daniel found Sha'uri at her console in Ra's pyramid. "So it's true," he said, glancing at the monitor long enough to see that she'd sent their weapons system into orbit minutes ago. Earth's coordinates had been set as a target, and guided missiles were on their way, but the network on Earth should be up by the time they arrived. "You lied about how much you'd managed to complete on Abydos and launched before schedule."
She nodded to the guards around her, who obediently left the two of them alone in the pyramid. Daniel looked back at her console, saw that she was still wearing her ribbon device, and clasped his hands behind his back to reach for the knife he kept there. He still had his shield and she would have her own, but a ribbon device or a knife could still penetrate enough to kill.
"I have a proposal," Sha'uri said, standing up. "Join me."
"Why would I?" Daniel said. "I have all of Earth at my disposal. We can build faster there than you can here. Besides, I've heard that a few key people--including your father and your brother--have become suspicious of you."
"And I hear the same is true of you on Earth, from your friends," she retorted. "You imprisoned Major Carter even before I was forced to do the same with Skaara. But together, we can do much more. You cannot rule a planet on your own."
"I don't need to," he said. "I have a lot of people loyal to me. The answer is 'no,' sister."
"What a shame," Sha'uri said, and raised her ribbon device.
Daniel drew his knife and plunged it toward her--
--and felt something sharp ram into his chest before he could finish.
The knife dropped from his fingers. Daniel looked down to see Sha'uri's other hand holding a blade of her own, his blood spilling onto her fingers, and he thought with an odd sense of wonder that, for all the times he'd thought he was going to die, the only time he actually had so far was at the hand of his brother, and that now it would happen again fighting his sister.
26 April 2001; Infirmary, SGC; 2200 hrs
"Dan'yel!" Sha'uri cried. "Na nay--Dan'yel..."
With a gasp, Daniel sat up and turned toward her voice. "Sha'uri," he said, patting himself and finding no blood or weapons or... "Oh, gods," he said as images flooded his mind--not those of Goa'uld devices, this time, but rather of what he would have done with that knowledge. "What did we--"
"Dr. Fraiser!" Skaara called.
Daniel just had enough time to register his brother's presence before Sha'uri flung herself onto his bed and lifted his shirt up frantically. "Oh, my brother," she breathed, sagging when she found nothing wrong and wrapping her arms around him. "Forgive me."
"I'm sorry," he said back, clutching her to himself. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't believe...how could I have..."
"I would have killed you," she said. "I would have--"
"And I was going to--" he started, then gave up and squeezed her tight, tangling his fingers in her hair.
"That is what we were asking," she whispered into his shoulder. She pushed back suddenly, her eyes wide. "Shifu. We asked for knowledge of the Goa'uld. Where is my son?"
"Sha'uri," Skaara said, utterly confused as he looked between the two of them. "Dan'yel. What--"
"Where is he?" Daniel said urgently, turning to Janet as she hurried into the infirmary. "Where's Shifu--"
("You can't do this," Janet said angrily. "This isn't right!"
"We won't be needing your services anymore, Janet," Daniel said. "These men will escort you back to the surface.")
"Are you okay?" Janet said as Daniel flinched away from her.
"F-fine," Daniel lied.
"They just woke up?" Janet said to Skaara, who nodded wordlessly. "Shifu is with SG-1 and Aldwin right now, so don't worry. I need you both to--"
Sha'uri scrambled off the bed, freeing Daniel to extract himself, too. "We have to stop them," Daniel said, grabbing Sha'uri's hand and leading her out of the infirmary.
XXXXX
26 April 2001; Observation Room, SGC; 2200 hrs
Jack thought there was something unnatural about how Shifu didn't seem at all worried about being strapped into the zatarc detector and didn't even flinch when Aldwin stuck the memory disc onto his temple. He decided he'd liked the kid more as a baby, when there hadn't been any sign of zapping people into comas.
"Questions are plentiful," Shifu was telling Aldwin sagely as Teal'c stood guard at the door and Carter helped to set up the machine. "Answers are few."
Yeah. There hadn't been any of this crap, either.
"He'd better have a few answers about how to wake up Daniel and his mom," Jack said quietly in the observation deck. The general didn't answer, but he looked like he agreed.
"First question," Aldwin said. "What is your name?"
"Shifu," Shifu said.
Jack glanced up at the monitor. Truth. Not particularly helpful, in the 'what's in a name' sense.
"Are you Harsesis?"
"I am many things," Shifu said.
"Oh, come on," Jack muttered.
Aldwin looked similarly frustrated but said more precisely, "Do you possess the genetic knowledge passed on to you by Apophis?"
"Yes," Shifu said.
Jack looked up at the monitor again. Truth. So he was the Harsesis. "That still doesn't mean he has good intentions," General Hammond said, looking up at the screen, too.
Echoing the general's thoughts, Carter said, "What did you do to your mother and Daniel?"
Shifu turned to looked at her thoughtfully, then said, "Dreams sometimes teach. I am teaching them."
"Teaching them what?" Carter pressed.
"That the true nature of a man is determined between his conscious mind and his subconscious...and that the evil in my subconscious is too strong to resist."
Which Jack thought was pretty much a load of crap until Daniel appeared in the doorway with his sister in tow and walked into the lab. "The only way to win is to deny it battle," Sha'uri said. Skaara showed up behind them a second later, looking considerably more confused about this than his siblings were.
Shifu nodded, watching them as Sha'uri quickly undid the straps holding him to the zatarc detector. "As Oma teaches."
Dr. Fraiser walked into the observation deck. "They woke up just now," she said. "They were very insistent on getting to the boy."
Daniel looked around the lab, skimming over the people gathered in there, and finally smiled feebly at Shifu. "I suppose I should start listening to her," he said.
"What happened?" Carter said.
Not looking away from Shifu, Daniel pulled his sister closer to himself and said, "We were having a dream."
"You were...a dream, like both of you were having the same one?" she said. Daniel and Sha'uri looked at each other. "About what?"
"I--I don't..." Daniel started, then stopped. "It doesn't matter. But..."
"We must choose a different path," Sha'uri said.
"Yes," Daniel agreed, looking down at the floor.
Shifu nodded again. "Then it is time for me to continue on mine."
Skaara was looking up into the observation deck wearing an expression that said, 'what the hell?'
Jack nodded to Hammond, then quickly descended into the corridor outside the lab in time to see Sha'uri drop to one knee as Shifu climbed out of the zatarc detector and to the floor. She brushed her hand over his hair and down his cheek. "Will we see you again?" she whispered, which was when Jack realized something was going wrong and slipping very quickly out of their control.
"All roads eventually lead to the great path," Shifu said.
"Eventually," Daniel said wistfully.
"Many cross on the way," Shifu added.
"I am very proud of you, my son," Sha'uri said, starting to cry softly as she pulled him in for a hug that Jack had a feeling was to be their last.
"Thank you, mother," Shifu said, smiling for the first time when she released him. He turned to Daniel and added, "And I am proud of you, brother." Daniel stared at him but didn't answer. He looked like he couldn't do much more than stand still at the moment. Shifu looked up briefly at Skaara and nodded once. Skaara glanced at Jack, who had no more idea about what was going on than anyone, and awkwardly patted the boy on the head. "My burden is released," Shifu said.
"What is happening?" Aldwin said. "We cannot just let him leave?"
Before Jack could warn him about what had happened last time they'd seen Shifu, on Kheb, with the glowy mom, Carter spoke up to say, "I don't think we have a choice."
Shifu closed his eyes. He began to glow, more and more until Jack was squinting there was nothing left of the boy but light, just like Oma Desala, and it floated gently toward the door. Daniel tugged Sha'uri to her feet and hurried out of the lab, following Shifu.
An alarm started to sound. Quickly, Jack turned toward the observation window and called, "General, I highly recommend you order all personnel to stand down and get the heck out of the way. The alternative might not be so pretty."
Before anyone could answer, he gestured to Carter and Teal'c and left the lab, catching sight of Skaara as he rounded a corner in the direction of the stairs.
"All personnel, this is General Hammond. A glowing energy being is moving through the base, likely heading for the 'gate room. Lower your weapons and do not attempt to intercept it."
Jack reached the control room and saw Daniel and Sha'uri standing in front of the window with Skaara hanging close by and the energy-being hovering before an active wormhole.
"The 'gate just opened, sir," Sergeant Harriman said.
On the ramp, Shifu's figure appeared again amidst the bright light and turned around to wave at them.
Sha'uri raised a hand slowly and leaned against Daniel, resting her head against his shoulder. Daniel grasped her hand in his own and waved back at Shifu. The boy turned around and stepped into the event horizon. The Stargate deactivated.
From the next chapter ("SG-5"):
Jack dropped into a chair. "Is that what you meant last night when you said you had to choose another path?"
"I'm not transferring to SG-5, Jack; it's one mission." Which didn't answer the question. Jack raised his eyebrows. "It's a little more complicated than that," Daniel amended. "I think. I haven't quite figured out what it means yet."