Angels & Vagabonds - Part 5
Cup of coffee in one hand, Jack came out of the mess tent and sat down by the edge of the force field. This still seemed a kind of torture to him, but if Daniel wanted the smell of something he couldn't drink, Daniel was going to get whatever they could get to him. The sun hadn't come up yet, but it would soon.
Fourth day, and he had a pretty good idea Daniel was sleeping as badly as he was. Sure enough, after Jack settled, Daniel showed in the doorway, huddled into his jacket and vest.
Jack lifted the metal cup. “Thought I'd share.”
Sitting down, Daniel closed his eyes, pulled in a long breath. His expression didn't change, remained blank, but when his eyes opened, a smile lurked. “Thanks.”
“Y'know, we get back, I'm thinking steaks.”
Daniel stared down at him for a long minute, and Jack wasn't sure if he'd taken the right tack. It always could go either way with Daniel--up was just as easy as down. Then a smile flickered. “I'm thinking more of a shower that goes on for about a day.”
“BO extreme?”
“Let's just say I could do with more pollen and less ability to breath through my nose.”
“Ah. How's the drinks situation? Bar still open?”
Daniel shrugged, and that could mean anything, but Jack was thinking it meant close to closing hour. It reminded him of when he'd been in a desert with not much except a parachute to bury and a jet shot out from under him and planted somewhere into the ground. But he'd had survival training. If you could find plants and insects, you could get enough out of them to keep going. Daniel had four stone walls.
“Good news is my latrine's not seeing much use.”
Jack nodded. “Fits under small favors.” He blew on the steam from the coffee. He didn't know what else to say. Maybe nothing. But Daniel shook his head, looked away, then looked back, his body tensing. “Jack--?”
“Daniel, we're not gonna have that temple talk again.”
“Yes. We are.”
“No. Not before dawn. New rule. No bad stuff before dawn. Now sit there and smell your coffee.”
Daniel's mouth went mulish, but he relented and the faintest smile edged it back up. “You make it extra strong?”
“Well, Carter is thinking about using this batch to see if she can dissolve that energy field.”
“Could work.” Closing his eyes, Daniel pulled in another long breath. He looked up again, shivered, made a face, and said, “I was, uh, well, I was kind of--could you...uhm--”
“Got a little testy with her?”
“Yeah.”
“Brave of you. I've never heard so many 'yes ma'ams' as around here. I'm thinkin' the Marines are gonna make her an honorary drill sergeant.”
Another smile showed and Jack decided that had to hurt. Daniel's lips had started to crack and he could see red blotches on the lower one. The man's skin had to be hurting, too, drying out like that. Jack knew just how it went. Just how it felt.
“Not so much brave,” Daniel said. “More stupid. I mean, how dumb is it to irritate the person who can get me out of here?”
“Oh, dunno. Could be a strategy. Get her ticked enough she might punch her way to you to punch your lights out.”
“I could live with that.”
Jack frowned into his coffee, and silently cursed Daniel for coming up with those words.
“Uh, sorry.”
“What?” Looking up, Jack opted for dumb as dirt. He also turned the metal cup in his hands. Daniel could smell it, but he didn't have to watch someone drinking things he couldn't have.
“Uh-just…” Daniel waved a hand again, as if that explained the what. He reached up, took off his glasses and held them by one arm, left them dangling. “Jack...uhm, really sorry.”
Wincing, Jack looked down into the coffee, then up again, set his face to just as blank as what Daniel could sometimes offer. “For what?”
Daniel shrugged, tucked his glasses into a vest pocket and started drawing one finger along the base of the shield, just enough to make it glow. Jack looked at the coffee again, didn't find anything new in it, so he squinted at the horizon where the sun was starting to peek in a rounded crescent of bluish-white. “Not your fault, y'know,” Jack said.
“Oh?”
“Yeah. This round's on me.”
“Why? Man-in-charge takes all the credit?”
Lifting a hand, Jack tipped it left and right, like waggling wings. “More shoulda, woulda, coulda took that hike with you.”
Jack glanced up at the temple doorway again, but Daniel had his head down and didn't answer. A light breeze ruffed Daniel's hair, and Jack's stomach knotted tighter. If he'd come here with Daniel--hell, he could have complained the whole way out and back. They'd have spent an hour and would have been home long ago, all of them bitching about nothing much, about wasted trips. Instead, he'd sent Teal'c. Big shoulda there. Two men down because of that choice. And he was still waiting for Daniel to say something.
So he called out, “Hey.”
Daniel glanced up. With his glasses off and his face pulled thin and haggard and scruffy, he looked too damn young. What was he now--early thirties? Too young for this. But Daniel was too young for most of the things that had happened to him. Swirling the coffee, Jack watched steam rise and breathed in the bitter aroma. “You missed your cue,” he said, got the lure baited with a non-sequitur he knew Daniel would have to follow.
“What?”
Glancing up, Jack noticed that Daniel had taken a spot where the first sun would slant into the doorway and warm him. Nights got too cold here, and days too hot, but he just said, “Y'know. I angst--”
“You what?”
“Angst--getting hard of hearing in your old age? Then you reassure. Give me the regulation arguments, have to take it all on yourself--Saint Daniel at the ready.”
Something close to a smile twitched, but it was hard to be sure in the early edges of dawn. “Sorry. No spit for it.”
“Spit?” Jack said.
“Takes a lot of spit to argue with you.”
“Figures. I have to do everything, don't I?”
Daniel's eyebrows rose and he sat up a little. His eyes brightened because while Jack hated the unexpected, Daniel seemed to live for it.
“What?” Daniel asked. Again.
Jack lifted the cup to his mouth. He didn't drink but left it there for a few seconds before he lowered it. Couldn't have Daniel thinking this was all for show. “Okay--since you're not holding up your part, it'd start with me saying sorry. You come back, say it's not my fault.”
“Sounds dull--haven't we just been here?”
“Oh, just wait. Anyway, you say it's not my fault. I hit you with, course it is.”
“That team leader thing?”
“That's putting words in your mouth and I'm doing that, and no, not team leader. Too predictable. No, it's more, hey, sorry, I was thinking about my knees.”
“Knees?”
“Yeah, and back. And that Teal'c can hustle you better than I ever could.”
“Oh, right.”
“Yep. That's pretty much what you say, with that eye roll.” He gestured to his eyes with a finger and heard a soft laugh. “Then I tell you how I'd rather it was me in there.”
“Yeah, I'd rather, too.”
“Y'know, Carter said you'd get cranky without coffee.”
“No--more without water.”
Jack heard the tired in those quiet words. Winced at them. He didn't have anything to say in answer, just stared at the black liquid in his cup.
“Oh--sorry. Uhm, you were saying--am I winning this argument, by the way?”
Glancing up, Jack decided that, in this pale morning light and with his glasses off, Daniel couldn't see much of anything. He could see too much of Daniel--every new line etched on the man's forehead, the raw skin on his face and hands, the weary fatigue he couldn't keep out of his eyes. But Daniel never liked it if you went easy on him--took it like it meant you thought he was a wuss--so he sharpened his tone. “No. You're not winning. I'm ahead on points.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway, you say you wouldn't rather it was me because I couldn't read the squiggles.”
“Squiggles? Ah, that accurate description I so often use. But…” Daniel let out a long, audible, wistful breath. “You'd have explosives.”
Jack patted his jacket, realized he had C4 tucked into the inside pocket. He had a couple of grenades on his belt, too. Old habits. And, yeah, he would have blown the hell out of that place by now. Probably himself, too.
He didn't say that, but just shook his head. “Seems like all the writing we find sums up about the same--different versions of ‘tourist keep out’.”
Daniel nodded, gave an indifferent shrug. “Could have a point there. So me in, you out. You sure I wouldn't come up with something...better?”
Jack lifted the cup, blew on the coffee again, then asked, “Thought you were saving spit?”
“Oh, I've got spit to talk, just not for yelling and if we start it'll go there.”
“Suppose so. Anyway, that's when we both agree to blame Carter.”
Daniel's head lifted and a frown tightened his eyebrows, then the eyebrows arched up fast and high, Daniel's mood indicators at work, and Jack was just glad the man couldn't resist any kind of detour. “Sam?”
“Not a good idea?”
“She's trying to get me out.”
“Ah, but it was her idea to do the spectrum thing that brought us here in the first place.”
“So that makes this her fault? Why not General Hammond--he authorized it. Or you? You sent me to look at the temple. I was just standing by the 'gate.”
“Having such fun. I noticed.”
“It was a long walk here. I could have done without it.”
“Sure. In what universe?”
“Oh, probably the one where I went to college on a ROTC scholarship and had to serve time.”
“That's prison, Daniel. You do service for your country in the armed forces.”
“And yet, even the names--armed forces, Air Force--connotation of making people do things they don't want to do.”
“How else you gonna sign up to see the galaxy?”
Waving a hand out, Daniel said, “See the galaxy, get stuck in…” He broke off what he'd been about to say, but Jack could guess the rest. Daniel's head dropped, then lifted and he'd tucked away whatever emotion he'd been about to show. “So it's a draw?”
“Hun?”
“Argument? Guilt versus guilt. Or maybe it should be culpability versus blame?”
Frowning, Jack gave it the thought due--all three seconds. “Has a ring. Not quite a WWF, but not bad.”
“W-W--what?”
“Never mind. This coffee's getting cold, want me to get some fresh?”
With a nod, Daniel said a flat, “No.”
All Jack could figure for why the guy did that, sent those mixed signals, was that Daniel's mind had slipped out of gear with his body again. He'd gone quiet, too, and that wasn't what Jack wanted.
This was about keeping Daniel company, trying to get his mind off this, and he'd succeeded for what--ten minutes. Five? Damn. Jack wanted to fist his hands around something, but all he had was a metal cup with coffee going cold. Pitching his voice to harmless, he asked, “Hey, got enough spit for twenty questions?”
Daniel stared at him a moment, then his head dropped low, which left Jack looking at the top of man's head. Jack hadn't even gotten a smile with that one. Letting out a breath, he tossed the coffee he hadn't drunk onto the ground, watched it sink into sand. This whole world seemed thirsty.
Daniel's voice floated to him, distant and hollow, with just his name.
Looking up, Jack met blue eyes gone sharp again. “Yeah, Daniel?”
“I can stretch the water I have through the day, but that's it, and if we wait any longer, I--”
“Daniel, we're getting Carter's stuff today, so you're not…oh, go take a sip of something and take a rest.”
Daniel shook his head, and Jack looked away, bit down on the curses, but he had to look back and let loose some of the temper because if he didn't it'd spill even worse later. “You're being like that because I can't come up there and make you.”
A glimmer of humor came back. “Okay, if I'm good, what do I get? Do I at least win the guilt tripping?”
With a smile, Jack rose. “Oh, way better.”
He strode to the command tent, came back with Carter's laptop and a CD he'd had sent through with that last batch of equipment Carter had requested. Switching the laptop on, he got it set up, then he waited. Sure enough, curiosity got past Daniel's dislike of being told what to do. He slipped away from the doorway and while Jack couldn't see the man down any water, he'd bet Daniel would play fair.
When Daniel showed in the doorway again, Jack clicked on the screen button to start the CD playing. A shrill flute kicked in, then drums, and the whole mess pounded off into an Arabic something that Jack shuddered at, and which had to be waking up the camp with that unholy, non-European music scale.
He'd had Siler pick out the CD from Daniel's office, and as Marines stumbled out of their tents and Carter came out with her P90 in her hands, Jack knew this had been worth it.
Daniel gave a weak grin, then he settled in the doorway, back resting against it, eyes closed, and from what Jack could see on the man's profile Daniel looked to be soaking up the music, letting it take him someplace else.
Voices lifted in what sounded like wailing--Daniel probably knew the lyrics, but Jack didn't--and Carter came up to Jack's side. He swapped a glance with her, had to look away, because the aching desperation in her eyes was not what he wanted this morning.
When he looked at her again, she'd put hard optimism back in place for him. She gave a firm nod, and he wasn't sure if that was approval of his getting Daniel's music here or reassurance she'd crack this nut today.
He was really hoping for the latter.
#
Teal'c came through with Sergeant Siler and one other man, and Major Carter's EM pulse generator. He glanced around at this barren world, unsettled, impatient and the desire pulsing hot to again have the power of First Prime. Were it his choice, he would be here with all possible resources, with far more men and equipment. He would not have listened to weak explanations. Instead, he was here with less than Major Carter had requested, and Daniel Jackson would be made to suffer for the folly of others.
“You will bring Major Carter's equipment,” he told the other two, then set off for the temple. As he strode ahead, he activated his radio. “O'Neill?”
“Hey, Teal'c! Good to hear you. Now, why the hell am I hearing you? You scam your way out of the infirmary?”
“I did not. Doctor Fraiser believed me sufficiently recovered, and General Hammond allowed my return.”
“Teal'c!”
“Daniel Jackson, you are well?”
“Uh, yeah, sort of.”
“Teal'c, this is Sam, did you bring the equipment I requested?”
Aware that Daniel Jackson would overhear any transmissions, Teal'c frowned and said, “I will report when I arrive at the temple.” He waited to see if O'Neill or Major Carter would press for answers, but neither did. He did not expect further questions from Daniel Jackson.
He knew how lack affected a man--taking away food and water were the first steps to breaking any prisoner. And while he believed Daniel Jackson had a strength within him that did not easily surrender, his body would betray him. It would break.
That could not be allowed. And so he had not allowed himself to be detained.
Doctor Fraiser had approved him to leave her care, but had not wished him to travel to this world through the Stargate. General Hammond, however, had understood the need. Now O'Neill must be made to understand all that was transpiring back at Stargate Command.
#
"They what?”
Eyes dark, O'Neill faced off with Teal'c in the command tent. Teal'c stared back. He did not wish Daniel Jackson to hear this, and everyone in the camp must now hear O'Neill's voice.
Meeting O'Neill's stare, Teal'c kept his voice soft and repeated his information. “Major Carter's particle accelerator suffered damage during its storage. Those at Area 51 do not believe they can have it repaired in sufficient time to be of use to Daniel Jackson.”
“Tell them to just ship it to me! I'll fix it here.”
Teal'c glanced at Major Carter and shook his head. “That is not possible. General Hammond is being questioned even now as to the resources being taken up for the rescue of one man.”
“One--?” O'Neill choked off the words and turned away, hands fisting into his hair.
“Sir, we still have the EM pulse generator.”
O'Neill looked at her, eyes dark. Then he glanced back to Teal'c. “What else is going wrong?”
“General Hammond wishes to speak with you on a secure frequency. He does not wish Daniel Jackson to overhear what he must say.”
“God, could this week get any worse. Carter, get that equipment ready. Teal'c, while I'm heading back to the gate, go talk to Daniel. Let him--ah, hell, I don't know.”
“I do know, O'Neill. It is my fault Daniel Jackson is trapped.”
“What?” The word came from Major Carter and O'Neill at the same instant and Teal'c looked from one stunned face to the other. He turned and walked out. These were words that needed to be said to Daniel Jackson.
Stopping at the edge of the steps, Teal'c glanced down at them. He wanted to reach out and tear at the cut stone stairs with his hands. Instead, he folded his fists at his sides.
“Hey, Teal'c.”
He looked up and saw Daniel Jackson in the doorway of the temple. For a moment, he could not speak. This was not the man he had seen almost five days ago. This was a gaunt figure, worn by lack, but Daniel Jackson still offered a smile of friendship. Teal'c forced himself to meet the other man's steady gaze. “Daniel Jackson, this is my fault.”
“No. It's not.”
“The energy field was activated when I stepped onto the stairs of the temple. If I had remained outside and on guard as is my place, you would not now be trapped. Or if I had attempted to enter first, I would have--”
“Teal'c, someone has to be inside the temple before the field can be activated. If you'd come inside and I'd stayed out, it would have stayed off. It needs a…a messenger on the inside before a Jaffa can activate it.”
“What? Wait a minute, just how do you know all this?” O'Neill stepped forward. “I thought you still weren't done with that translation?”
Teal'c frowned. “When has it taken Daniel Jackson so many days to translate so few temple walls?”
“Yeah, that's what I'm thinking now.”
“Uh, well, yes, I am done with the initial translation, but I just wanted to--”
“You know enough to know how it works?” O'Neill asked.
“Well--”
“Daniel.” Major Carter moved to stand beside O'Neill. “We need you to tell us everything. Even the smallest detail could make a difference.”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Daniel Jackson turned away--he did not wish to talk of this matter. Teal'c frowned and sought some means to avoid the topic, but he could see no alternative. Major Carter was correct. They must know all they could if they were to be of assistance.
Daniel Jackson seemed to know this, too, for he turned back to face them. “Like I told Jack, this temple, it's a place between this world and the next. It's old--very old, and I think the people who built it may be long dead, but I believe they were slaves of the Goa'uld. There's, uhm...uh, a reference to Anubis.”
O'Neill frowned. “Yeah--and so? Snake-head?”
Shifting on his feet, Daniel Jackson rubbed at his forehead then gestured into the temple as if they could see the images on the walls. “God of the dead. Seems he was a long time out of the picture though, and this was a last ditch effort to reach him. They wanted the messengers to plead for his mercy and the relief of some catastrophe he'd left behind--not just for his slaves but his Jaffa, too.”
Teal'c nodded, and understood more than was said. He knew of Anubis by legend. Turning to O'Neill, he spoke what he knew. “This temple is indeed very old. Anubis was long ago banished by the System Lords for his cunning and evil.”
“That bad, hun.”
“Yeah, well, whatever--it seems…” Daniel Jackson's voice drifted off. For a moment, he glanced behind him, as if he had forgotten what he had been about to say.
Major Carter's soft voice carried to Teal'c with a single word, breathed out with fear. “Dehydration.”
Teal'c glanced at her, but she kept her stare on the temple and her voice to a low murmur. “It's getting harder and harder for Daniel to focus. Fatigue, dizziness, confusion, irritability--they're all symptoms of a lack of water.”
With an incline of his head to acknowledge her words, Teal'c turned back to the temple. “Daniel Jackson, if I activated the field, should I not be able to deactivate it?”
Turning back, Daniel Jackson nodded and lifted a hand that he allowed to drop to his side. “We kinda saw what happens when you tried to step back into it. It's, uhm, not designed for anyone to change their mind about this, and the hieroglyphs make it pretty clear what I'm supposed to do now.”
“Daniel, I don't want--”
“Jack, will you stop being…it may be the only way out. If I give myself, the system should reset. You could come up here, blow a hole in floor, and if I'm right--”
“You mean if your guess is lucky and giving doesn't mean frying into nothing!”
“I...well, I think it's a transport device into a tomb level--probably a room under here.”
“Probably?” O'Neill asked, face screwing up tight.
“Yeah, well, most likely. Y'know. Like rings. Maybe.”
“Oh, that's so reassuring.”
“Sir, the EM pulse generator could make this entire discussion moot.”
O'Neill glanced at Major Carter, and Teal'c saw the strain on his friend's face. O'Neill did not look as tired or drained as Daniel Jackson, but this ordeal wore heavily on him as well, carving new lines around his eyes and mouth. Major Carter, too, looked as if the sand on this world had scoured her raw, leaving her eyes red-rimmed and dulled, and her face pulled almost as gaunt as Daniel Jackson's.
“Hey, guys--I'm, uh, just going to lie down for a while.”
Teal'c glanced up in time to see Daniel Jackson step away. O'Neill swore, so softly the words could not be understood, then he turned, started walking toward the Stargate. “Carter, get that thing running. I've got to radio in to Hammond.”
Falling into step, Teal'd also headed for the Stargate. O'Neill would have need of him after he heard all that General Hammond had to say.
Go to Part 6
Fourth day, and he had a pretty good idea Daniel was sleeping as badly as he was. Sure enough, after Jack settled, Daniel showed in the doorway, huddled into his jacket and vest.
Jack lifted the metal cup. “Thought I'd share.”
Sitting down, Daniel closed his eyes, pulled in a long breath. His expression didn't change, remained blank, but when his eyes opened, a smile lurked. “Thanks.”
“Y'know, we get back, I'm thinking steaks.”
Daniel stared down at him for a long minute, and Jack wasn't sure if he'd taken the right tack. It always could go either way with Daniel--up was just as easy as down. Then a smile flickered. “I'm thinking more of a shower that goes on for about a day.”
“BO extreme?”
“Let's just say I could do with more pollen and less ability to breath through my nose.”
“Ah. How's the drinks situation? Bar still open?”
Daniel shrugged, and that could mean anything, but Jack was thinking it meant close to closing hour. It reminded him of when he'd been in a desert with not much except a parachute to bury and a jet shot out from under him and planted somewhere into the ground. But he'd had survival training. If you could find plants and insects, you could get enough out of them to keep going. Daniel had four stone walls.
“Good news is my latrine's not seeing much use.”
Jack nodded. “Fits under small favors.” He blew on the steam from the coffee. He didn't know what else to say. Maybe nothing. But Daniel shook his head, looked away, then looked back, his body tensing. “Jack--?”
“Daniel, we're not gonna have that temple talk again.”
“Yes. We are.”
“No. Not before dawn. New rule. No bad stuff before dawn. Now sit there and smell your coffee.”
Daniel's mouth went mulish, but he relented and the faintest smile edged it back up. “You make it extra strong?”
“Well, Carter is thinking about using this batch to see if she can dissolve that energy field.”
“Could work.” Closing his eyes, Daniel pulled in another long breath. He looked up again, shivered, made a face, and said, “I was, uh, well, I was kind of--could you...uhm--”
“Got a little testy with her?”
“Yeah.”
“Brave of you. I've never heard so many 'yes ma'ams' as around here. I'm thinkin' the Marines are gonna make her an honorary drill sergeant.”
Another smile showed and Jack decided that had to hurt. Daniel's lips had started to crack and he could see red blotches on the lower one. The man's skin had to be hurting, too, drying out like that. Jack knew just how it went. Just how it felt.
“Not so much brave,” Daniel said. “More stupid. I mean, how dumb is it to irritate the person who can get me out of here?”
“Oh, dunno. Could be a strategy. Get her ticked enough she might punch her way to you to punch your lights out.”
“I could live with that.”
Jack frowned into his coffee, and silently cursed Daniel for coming up with those words.
“Uh, sorry.”
“What?” Looking up, Jack opted for dumb as dirt. He also turned the metal cup in his hands. Daniel could smell it, but he didn't have to watch someone drinking things he couldn't have.
“Uh-just…” Daniel waved a hand again, as if that explained the what. He reached up, took off his glasses and held them by one arm, left them dangling. “Jack...uhm, really sorry.”
Wincing, Jack looked down into the coffee, then up again, set his face to just as blank as what Daniel could sometimes offer. “For what?”
Daniel shrugged, tucked his glasses into a vest pocket and started drawing one finger along the base of the shield, just enough to make it glow. Jack looked at the coffee again, didn't find anything new in it, so he squinted at the horizon where the sun was starting to peek in a rounded crescent of bluish-white. “Not your fault, y'know,” Jack said.
“Oh?”
“Yeah. This round's on me.”
“Why? Man-in-charge takes all the credit?”
Lifting a hand, Jack tipped it left and right, like waggling wings. “More shoulda, woulda, coulda took that hike with you.”
Jack glanced up at the temple doorway again, but Daniel had his head down and didn't answer. A light breeze ruffed Daniel's hair, and Jack's stomach knotted tighter. If he'd come here with Daniel--hell, he could have complained the whole way out and back. They'd have spent an hour and would have been home long ago, all of them bitching about nothing much, about wasted trips. Instead, he'd sent Teal'c. Big shoulda there. Two men down because of that choice. And he was still waiting for Daniel to say something.
So he called out, “Hey.”
Daniel glanced up. With his glasses off and his face pulled thin and haggard and scruffy, he looked too damn young. What was he now--early thirties? Too young for this. But Daniel was too young for most of the things that had happened to him. Swirling the coffee, Jack watched steam rise and breathed in the bitter aroma. “You missed your cue,” he said, got the lure baited with a non-sequitur he knew Daniel would have to follow.
“What?”
Glancing up, Jack noticed that Daniel had taken a spot where the first sun would slant into the doorway and warm him. Nights got too cold here, and days too hot, but he just said, “Y'know. I angst--”
“You what?”
“Angst--getting hard of hearing in your old age? Then you reassure. Give me the regulation arguments, have to take it all on yourself--Saint Daniel at the ready.”
Something close to a smile twitched, but it was hard to be sure in the early edges of dawn. “Sorry. No spit for it.”
“Spit?” Jack said.
“Takes a lot of spit to argue with you.”
“Figures. I have to do everything, don't I?”
Daniel's eyebrows rose and he sat up a little. His eyes brightened because while Jack hated the unexpected, Daniel seemed to live for it.
“What?” Daniel asked. Again.
Jack lifted the cup to his mouth. He didn't drink but left it there for a few seconds before he lowered it. Couldn't have Daniel thinking this was all for show. “Okay--since you're not holding up your part, it'd start with me saying sorry. You come back, say it's not my fault.”
“Sounds dull--haven't we just been here?”
“Oh, just wait. Anyway, you say it's not my fault. I hit you with, course it is.”
“That team leader thing?”
“That's putting words in your mouth and I'm doing that, and no, not team leader. Too predictable. No, it's more, hey, sorry, I was thinking about my knees.”
“Knees?”
“Yeah, and back. And that Teal'c can hustle you better than I ever could.”
“Oh, right.”
“Yep. That's pretty much what you say, with that eye roll.” He gestured to his eyes with a finger and heard a soft laugh. “Then I tell you how I'd rather it was me in there.”
“Yeah, I'd rather, too.”
“Y'know, Carter said you'd get cranky without coffee.”
“No--more without water.”
Jack heard the tired in those quiet words. Winced at them. He didn't have anything to say in answer, just stared at the black liquid in his cup.
“Oh--sorry. Uhm, you were saying--am I winning this argument, by the way?”
Glancing up, Jack decided that, in this pale morning light and with his glasses off, Daniel couldn't see much of anything. He could see too much of Daniel--every new line etched on the man's forehead, the raw skin on his face and hands, the weary fatigue he couldn't keep out of his eyes. But Daniel never liked it if you went easy on him--took it like it meant you thought he was a wuss--so he sharpened his tone. “No. You're not winning. I'm ahead on points.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway, you say you wouldn't rather it was me because I couldn't read the squiggles.”
“Squiggles? Ah, that accurate description I so often use. But…” Daniel let out a long, audible, wistful breath. “You'd have explosives.”
Jack patted his jacket, realized he had C4 tucked into the inside pocket. He had a couple of grenades on his belt, too. Old habits. And, yeah, he would have blown the hell out of that place by now. Probably himself, too.
He didn't say that, but just shook his head. “Seems like all the writing we find sums up about the same--different versions of ‘tourist keep out’.”
Daniel nodded, gave an indifferent shrug. “Could have a point there. So me in, you out. You sure I wouldn't come up with something...better?”
Jack lifted the cup, blew on the coffee again, then asked, “Thought you were saving spit?”
“Oh, I've got spit to talk, just not for yelling and if we start it'll go there.”
“Suppose so. Anyway, that's when we both agree to blame Carter.”
Daniel's head lifted and a frown tightened his eyebrows, then the eyebrows arched up fast and high, Daniel's mood indicators at work, and Jack was just glad the man couldn't resist any kind of detour. “Sam?”
“Not a good idea?”
“She's trying to get me out.”
“Ah, but it was her idea to do the spectrum thing that brought us here in the first place.”
“So that makes this her fault? Why not General Hammond--he authorized it. Or you? You sent me to look at the temple. I was just standing by the 'gate.”
“Having such fun. I noticed.”
“It was a long walk here. I could have done without it.”
“Sure. In what universe?”
“Oh, probably the one where I went to college on a ROTC scholarship and had to serve time.”
“That's prison, Daniel. You do service for your country in the armed forces.”
“And yet, even the names--armed forces, Air Force--connotation of making people do things they don't want to do.”
“How else you gonna sign up to see the galaxy?”
Waving a hand out, Daniel said, “See the galaxy, get stuck in…” He broke off what he'd been about to say, but Jack could guess the rest. Daniel's head dropped, then lifted and he'd tucked away whatever emotion he'd been about to show. “So it's a draw?”
“Hun?”
“Argument? Guilt versus guilt. Or maybe it should be culpability versus blame?”
Frowning, Jack gave it the thought due--all three seconds. “Has a ring. Not quite a WWF, but not bad.”
“W-W--what?”
“Never mind. This coffee's getting cold, want me to get some fresh?”
With a nod, Daniel said a flat, “No.”
All Jack could figure for why the guy did that, sent those mixed signals, was that Daniel's mind had slipped out of gear with his body again. He'd gone quiet, too, and that wasn't what Jack wanted.
This was about keeping Daniel company, trying to get his mind off this, and he'd succeeded for what--ten minutes. Five? Damn. Jack wanted to fist his hands around something, but all he had was a metal cup with coffee going cold. Pitching his voice to harmless, he asked, “Hey, got enough spit for twenty questions?”
Daniel stared at him a moment, then his head dropped low, which left Jack looking at the top of man's head. Jack hadn't even gotten a smile with that one. Letting out a breath, he tossed the coffee he hadn't drunk onto the ground, watched it sink into sand. This whole world seemed thirsty.
Daniel's voice floated to him, distant and hollow, with just his name.
Looking up, Jack met blue eyes gone sharp again. “Yeah, Daniel?”
“I can stretch the water I have through the day, but that's it, and if we wait any longer, I--”
“Daniel, we're getting Carter's stuff today, so you're not…oh, go take a sip of something and take a rest.”
Daniel shook his head, and Jack looked away, bit down on the curses, but he had to look back and let loose some of the temper because if he didn't it'd spill even worse later. “You're being like that because I can't come up there and make you.”
A glimmer of humor came back. “Okay, if I'm good, what do I get? Do I at least win the guilt tripping?”
With a smile, Jack rose. “Oh, way better.”
He strode to the command tent, came back with Carter's laptop and a CD he'd had sent through with that last batch of equipment Carter had requested. Switching the laptop on, he got it set up, then he waited. Sure enough, curiosity got past Daniel's dislike of being told what to do. He slipped away from the doorway and while Jack couldn't see the man down any water, he'd bet Daniel would play fair.
When Daniel showed in the doorway again, Jack clicked on the screen button to start the CD playing. A shrill flute kicked in, then drums, and the whole mess pounded off into an Arabic something that Jack shuddered at, and which had to be waking up the camp with that unholy, non-European music scale.
He'd had Siler pick out the CD from Daniel's office, and as Marines stumbled out of their tents and Carter came out with her P90 in her hands, Jack knew this had been worth it.
Daniel gave a weak grin, then he settled in the doorway, back resting against it, eyes closed, and from what Jack could see on the man's profile Daniel looked to be soaking up the music, letting it take him someplace else.
Voices lifted in what sounded like wailing--Daniel probably knew the lyrics, but Jack didn't--and Carter came up to Jack's side. He swapped a glance with her, had to look away, because the aching desperation in her eyes was not what he wanted this morning.
When he looked at her again, she'd put hard optimism back in place for him. She gave a firm nod, and he wasn't sure if that was approval of his getting Daniel's music here or reassurance she'd crack this nut today.
He was really hoping for the latter.
#
Teal'c came through with Sergeant Siler and one other man, and Major Carter's EM pulse generator. He glanced around at this barren world, unsettled, impatient and the desire pulsing hot to again have the power of First Prime. Were it his choice, he would be here with all possible resources, with far more men and equipment. He would not have listened to weak explanations. Instead, he was here with less than Major Carter had requested, and Daniel Jackson would be made to suffer for the folly of others.
“You will bring Major Carter's equipment,” he told the other two, then set off for the temple. As he strode ahead, he activated his radio. “O'Neill?”
“Hey, Teal'c! Good to hear you. Now, why the hell am I hearing you? You scam your way out of the infirmary?”
“I did not. Doctor Fraiser believed me sufficiently recovered, and General Hammond allowed my return.”
“Teal'c!”
“Daniel Jackson, you are well?”
“Uh, yeah, sort of.”
“Teal'c, this is Sam, did you bring the equipment I requested?”
Aware that Daniel Jackson would overhear any transmissions, Teal'c frowned and said, “I will report when I arrive at the temple.” He waited to see if O'Neill or Major Carter would press for answers, but neither did. He did not expect further questions from Daniel Jackson.
He knew how lack affected a man--taking away food and water were the first steps to breaking any prisoner. And while he believed Daniel Jackson had a strength within him that did not easily surrender, his body would betray him. It would break.
That could not be allowed. And so he had not allowed himself to be detained.
Doctor Fraiser had approved him to leave her care, but had not wished him to travel to this world through the Stargate. General Hammond, however, had understood the need. Now O'Neill must be made to understand all that was transpiring back at Stargate Command.
#
"They what?”
Eyes dark, O'Neill faced off with Teal'c in the command tent. Teal'c stared back. He did not wish Daniel Jackson to hear this, and everyone in the camp must now hear O'Neill's voice.
Meeting O'Neill's stare, Teal'c kept his voice soft and repeated his information. “Major Carter's particle accelerator suffered damage during its storage. Those at Area 51 do not believe they can have it repaired in sufficient time to be of use to Daniel Jackson.”
“Tell them to just ship it to me! I'll fix it here.”
Teal'c glanced at Major Carter and shook his head. “That is not possible. General Hammond is being questioned even now as to the resources being taken up for the rescue of one man.”
“One--?” O'Neill choked off the words and turned away, hands fisting into his hair.
“Sir, we still have the EM pulse generator.”
O'Neill looked at her, eyes dark. Then he glanced back to Teal'c. “What else is going wrong?”
“General Hammond wishes to speak with you on a secure frequency. He does not wish Daniel Jackson to overhear what he must say.”
“God, could this week get any worse. Carter, get that equipment ready. Teal'c, while I'm heading back to the gate, go talk to Daniel. Let him--ah, hell, I don't know.”
“I do know, O'Neill. It is my fault Daniel Jackson is trapped.”
“What?” The word came from Major Carter and O'Neill at the same instant and Teal'c looked from one stunned face to the other. He turned and walked out. These were words that needed to be said to Daniel Jackson.
Stopping at the edge of the steps, Teal'c glanced down at them. He wanted to reach out and tear at the cut stone stairs with his hands. Instead, he folded his fists at his sides.
“Hey, Teal'c.”
He looked up and saw Daniel Jackson in the doorway of the temple. For a moment, he could not speak. This was not the man he had seen almost five days ago. This was a gaunt figure, worn by lack, but Daniel Jackson still offered a smile of friendship. Teal'c forced himself to meet the other man's steady gaze. “Daniel Jackson, this is my fault.”
“No. It's not.”
“The energy field was activated when I stepped onto the stairs of the temple. If I had remained outside and on guard as is my place, you would not now be trapped. Or if I had attempted to enter first, I would have--”
“Teal'c, someone has to be inside the temple before the field can be activated. If you'd come inside and I'd stayed out, it would have stayed off. It needs a…a messenger on the inside before a Jaffa can activate it.”
“What? Wait a minute, just how do you know all this?” O'Neill stepped forward. “I thought you still weren't done with that translation?”
Teal'c frowned. “When has it taken Daniel Jackson so many days to translate so few temple walls?”
“Yeah, that's what I'm thinking now.”
“Uh, well, yes, I am done with the initial translation, but I just wanted to--”
“You know enough to know how it works?” O'Neill asked.
“Well--”
“Daniel.” Major Carter moved to stand beside O'Neill. “We need you to tell us everything. Even the smallest detail could make a difference.”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Daniel Jackson turned away--he did not wish to talk of this matter. Teal'c frowned and sought some means to avoid the topic, but he could see no alternative. Major Carter was correct. They must know all they could if they were to be of assistance.
Daniel Jackson seemed to know this, too, for he turned back to face them. “Like I told Jack, this temple, it's a place between this world and the next. It's old--very old, and I think the people who built it may be long dead, but I believe they were slaves of the Goa'uld. There's, uhm...uh, a reference to Anubis.”
O'Neill frowned. “Yeah--and so? Snake-head?”
Shifting on his feet, Daniel Jackson rubbed at his forehead then gestured into the temple as if they could see the images on the walls. “God of the dead. Seems he was a long time out of the picture though, and this was a last ditch effort to reach him. They wanted the messengers to plead for his mercy and the relief of some catastrophe he'd left behind--not just for his slaves but his Jaffa, too.”
Teal'c nodded, and understood more than was said. He knew of Anubis by legend. Turning to O'Neill, he spoke what he knew. “This temple is indeed very old. Anubis was long ago banished by the System Lords for his cunning and evil.”
“That bad, hun.”
“Yeah, well, whatever--it seems…” Daniel Jackson's voice drifted off. For a moment, he glanced behind him, as if he had forgotten what he had been about to say.
Major Carter's soft voice carried to Teal'c with a single word, breathed out with fear. “Dehydration.”
Teal'c glanced at her, but she kept her stare on the temple and her voice to a low murmur. “It's getting harder and harder for Daniel to focus. Fatigue, dizziness, confusion, irritability--they're all symptoms of a lack of water.”
With an incline of his head to acknowledge her words, Teal'c turned back to the temple. “Daniel Jackson, if I activated the field, should I not be able to deactivate it?”
Turning back, Daniel Jackson nodded and lifted a hand that he allowed to drop to his side. “We kinda saw what happens when you tried to step back into it. It's, uhm, not designed for anyone to change their mind about this, and the hieroglyphs make it pretty clear what I'm supposed to do now.”
“Daniel, I don't want--”
“Jack, will you stop being…it may be the only way out. If I give myself, the system should reset. You could come up here, blow a hole in floor, and if I'm right--”
“You mean if your guess is lucky and giving doesn't mean frying into nothing!”
“I...well, I think it's a transport device into a tomb level--probably a room under here.”
“Probably?” O'Neill asked, face screwing up tight.
“Yeah, well, most likely. Y'know. Like rings. Maybe.”
“Oh, that's so reassuring.”
“Sir, the EM pulse generator could make this entire discussion moot.”
O'Neill glanced at Major Carter, and Teal'c saw the strain on his friend's face. O'Neill did not look as tired or drained as Daniel Jackson, but this ordeal wore heavily on him as well, carving new lines around his eyes and mouth. Major Carter, too, looked as if the sand on this world had scoured her raw, leaving her eyes red-rimmed and dulled, and her face pulled almost as gaunt as Daniel Jackson's.
“Hey, guys--I'm, uh, just going to lie down for a while.”
Teal'c glanced up in time to see Daniel Jackson step away. O'Neill swore, so softly the words could not be understood, then he turned, started walking toward the Stargate. “Carter, get that thing running. I've got to radio in to Hammond.”
Falling into step, Teal'd also headed for the Stargate. O'Neill would have need of him after he heard all that General Hammond had to say.
Go to Part 6