The Sentinels Chapter Four
Summary: SG-1 has learned that not all the Ancients died out. Jack O'Neill is one of them. As enemies rise and fall the Sentinels are forced to come out of the shadows and take the stand as the Greatest Race impacting the course of history like never before. Slash
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Word Count: 3,276
Chapter Four
Lt. Col. Samantha Carter had a mystery on her hands, and no one could help her solve it. Brig. Gen. Jack O’Neill was not in his office, hadn’t been all morning and when she checked with the entrance guard he’d said Jack hadn’t signed in yet. She’d tried talking to Daniel, and although he was in his office, he’d locked the door and refused to allow anyone to enter, telling them to leave him alone. Teal’c had been Kel’no’reem-ing all night so he couldn’t know anything and she didn’t think anyone else on the base was brave enough to try and have a non-professional relationship with their CO except Lt. Col. Louis Ferretti, who’d been friends with Jack for a long time.
Despite knowing Teal’c didn’t know what was going on, Sam went to the gym where he was training some of the new recruits. The only person who would know anything was Daniel and she needed Teal’c so they could gain up on him. Standing in the doorway, she winced in sympathy as she saw the young green eyed brunette Lieutenant sparing with Teal’c get knocked flat on his ass.
“You are improving Lieutenant Reed,” Teal’c told him.
“Doesn’t feel like it,” Reed said, standing up slowly. “My ass still has an unfortunate relationship with the floor.”
“You’re not alone Lieutenant,” Sam said walking in. “Would you mind if I cut this session short, I need Teal’c’s help with something.”
Reed’s green eyes sparkled, “That would be awesome!”
“Tomorrow’s lesson will make up for the time lost today,” Teal’c quashed his glee.
Reed nodded and left, shoulders hunched. Sam noticed a look of satisfaction on Teal’c’s face and couldn’t help but laugh. Teal’c raised an eyebrow at her, but because he really didn’t expect an explanation from her he left to put away his training weapons. When he came back he was refreshed and ready to take on a new problem.
As they headed for Daniel’s office Sam explained what was going on. “General O’Neill hasn’t come to work toady, that’s not like him, and Daniel isn’t talking to anyone. I was wondering if you would help me convince Daniel to tell us what’s wrong.”
Teal’c nodded, “Of course.”
They descended the two levels to Daniel’s office in comfortable silence. When they arrived, Teal’c tried the door, even though Sam had mentioned it was locked, and when he felt the resistance of the knob he looked at Sam with a raised eyebrow.
“You didn’t believe me,” Sam accused indignantly.
“Daniel Jackson has never expressed this kind of behavior, I had to test it for myself,” Teal’c answered, not offended. He bowed his head slightly in apology.
Sam accepted that with a small understanding smile. She knocked on the door, there was no answer.
Teal’c raised an eyebrow. “Daniel Jackson,” he called out.
“Go away,” they heard Daniel yell back. “Please.”
“What’s going on Daniel, what’s wrong?” Sam asked.
“Ask General O’Neill,” Daniel answered with such a venom it startled them both.
Sam knew about Daniel and Jack’s relationship(Teal’c did too) and although in the beginning she’d been heart broken she’d come to accept it. Ever since she’d met Jack she’d been struggling with herself over the feelings she had for him, had even thought he felt the same when they’d been tested as Zatarc until last year after Daniel had been returned from Ascension. Jack’s reaction and adamant refusal to allow several conscious minds stay downloaded in Daniel’s brain had set off warning bells in her head.
After Daniel was returned to normal and released form the base she followed him back to Jack’s where she spied the two in a few intimate moments before leaving. She’d gone home and moped about how obvious it had been. Ever since Daniel had returned Jack’s behavior had been different. He was happier, more relaxed and less serious. He joked more often, annoyed everyone more then he had the year Daniel wasn’t with them, and it had almost been like Daniel had never left. Daniel was what made Jack whole.
For a while she’d avoid them unless possible, until she realized that they weren’t any different now then how they’d been before. She stopped lusting after Jack, he was beyond her reach, and allowed her brother to set her up with a detective friend of his named Pete Shanahan. Things with him were going well and she found herself falling in love.
“He’s not here Daniel,” Sam told him. “He’s......Missing.”
They heard Daniel moving around in his office and seconds later the door opened. He looked dis-shelved, his clothes were the ones he’d worn the day before and there were dark circles under his eyes. His hair was as wild as it could be and his eyes were slightly blood shot. Though he’d sounded angry before he looked genuinely concerned.
“What?”
“He is not here, and Col. Carter has been unable to get a hold of him,” Teal’c answered.
Daniel paled, “Have you been to the house?”
Sam shook her head, “We wanted to know if you knew anything before heading over.”
“We had a fight, I didn’t stay there last night.”
“That would explain your look,” Sam said smiling.
Daniel blushed, “Yeah.”
“Shall we go to O’Neill’s house?” Teal’c asked, bringing them back on track.
Sam nodded, “I’ll meet you two on the surface, I have to talk to Walter and Colonel Reynolds.”
When they both nodded Sam went up to the Control Room. Walter was at the main control computer running the daily diagnostic scans, looking for any anomalies that may have been registered by the computers in the last twenty four hours but not the technicians.
“How are things going?” Sam asked him as she came to stand by him.
As easy going and accepting guy as he was, Walter couldn’t keep the annoyance from his gaze at the question. “Where are you going Colonel?”
Sam smiled in apology, “Daniel, Teal’c and I are going to General O’Neill’s. I’ll be leaving Col. Reynolds in command but if anything serious happens please call me.”
Walter nodded, “I figured as much. Everything will be fine here, I’ll page Col. Reynolds to the briefing room for you.”
Thank you.” Sam said, walking to the back of the room and up the spiral staircase.
Reynolds was paged and she waited anxiously at the head of the table questions whirling though her head. Where was Gen. O’Neill? For the amount of times he complained about the time he had to be in for work he was never late and if he was, by some unfortunate circumstances, he would call ahead. Had he been in an accident on his way to the base? No, he never ran into those kinds of problems on Earth, he drove like he flew. He never hit anything and nothing ever hit him.
Colonel Reynolds walked in and greeted her warmly. “Have you heard anything from General O’Neill?”
Sam shook her head. “Daniel, Teal’c and I are going to his place before we start calling around to hospitals.”
“And you’re leaving me in charge,” Reynolds said. “Understood, go. Don’t worry about anything here.”
Sam thanked him and left, going to the service elevator and up to the main floor. The door opened to reveal Daniel and Teal’c waiting for her. Daniel immediately handed her a handgun and a Zat. The Zats had a newly designed holder modeled off those the Goa’uld used that completely hit their shape and, although they were a bit big, everyone thought they were good for hiding when taking off base.
They took Sam’s car, Sam insisting it was more reliable than the jeep Jack still hadn’t convinced Daniel to get rid of. Daniel childishly stuck his tongue out at her, but got in the front anyway. The drive was silent, no one wanted to mention what they might find at Jack’s place and Sam couldn’t bring herself to make Daniel think of the possibilities logically. He probably already had every possible scenario going through his head. He would blame himself if Jack ended up hurt, or worse, and Sam hoped that never happened.
Sam parked behind Jack’s truck and together the three of them walked up the driveway and entered the house. Sam looked around critically assessing everything she saw. They split up, Sam taking the living room and kitchen, Daniel the bedroom, bathroom, and office and Teal’c took outside.
The kitchen, she noticed, was far cleaner than it had been the last time she’d been here around a year ago and she figured it was because Daniel practically lived here. There weren’t any experiments in the fridge, there were other drinks besides beer and there was actually some healthy food. Smiling, Sam quickly looked through the cupboards and drawers. She absently flipped the garbage can open and was taken by surprise when she saw the bloody bandages at the top of the pile.
“Sam! Teal’c!” Daniel yelled.
Teal’c walked in through the back and went with Sam to find Daniel. It wasn’t hard since he was standing in the hallway at the entrance to his and Jack’s bedroom. Sam peered over his shoulder and gasped at the sight of the entire room destroyed.
“Do you think.......?”Sam couldn’t finish the question, but she had to voice it.
Daniel shook his head. “Jack wouldn’t do this, he has to sleep here too.”
“This damage is vicious, full of malice. Nothing was spared.” Teal’c commented.
Sam frowned, “Homophobic hate crime?”
“No one but you two and Major Davis knows about the two of us.”
“How did Maj. Davis find out?” Sam asked.
Daniel blushed. “Walked in on us making-out.”
Sam would have laughed had Jack not been missing. Instead she smiled and slipped past Daniel into the room. Daniel followed and began to ‘sort’ though the mess throwing the completely damaged sheets and clothes into a pile, the rest into another. He laid items on the bed, some broken, some not. Sam studied each of the items, pictures had been ripped and frames broken. Anything that suggested it was owned by two gay men was damaged.
“There is blood here,” Teal’c stated.
Startled, Daniel dropped what he had and went to where Teal’c had remained standing in the doorway. Sam followed. Teal’c knelt down and showed them the blood on the door frame and the floor.
“How did we miss that?” Sam asked, amazed at the size of the blood pool that they had all just casually walked by.
Daniel began to tremble. “Jack” he whispered.
“This isn’t the only blood in the house.” Sam told them. Daniel’s head snapped to her. “There are bloody rags in the kitchen garbage and I’m hazarding a guess that all this destruction happened before you got home Daniel. Why did you get into a fight?”
Daniel shook his head. “I’d rather not talk about it but.......Jack may have had an injury when I got home. I don’t know. He was in the living room.”
Teal’c stood and they silently walked the several paces needed. The first thing Sam noticed was there was no glass, even though the room looked relatively the same as it normally did. Daniels old glass figurines were gone, there wasn’t any glass in the picture frames and all the light bulbs were gone.
“Where the hell did that come from?” Daniel asked himself, staring at the wall by the hallway.
Sam saw what looked to be a wall mounted plasma TV that had to be at least thirty-six inches and wide-screen. It was very nice, but if Daniel had never seen it before then where had it come from. Why did Jack get a new TV when, once Sam looked for it, the old one was still there. Teal’c examined the TV for a moment before he started looking around the room.
Daniel watched him, “Teal’c?”
“The remote.”
Sam’s eyebrows rose, “There’s no power button on the TV?” Teal’c shook his head. “Then touch it. Maybe it’ll just turn on that way.”
Daniel, who was closest, brushed his had over it. Nothing happened. He did it again but the screen remained blank. He turned towards Sam, his look demanding answers.
Sam shrugged, “It was just an idea.”
Daniel growled and turned back to face the screed, “Turn on you stupid thing.”
Sam’s eyes widened in surprise when the screen flickered to life and started rolling information up like a computer. The words scrolled by too fast for her to catch them and then they main window loaded, dividing into three smaller windows bordered in blue.
Sam blinked, “Is that Ancient?”
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.
Ælyn waited patiently as her older brother Kael sharp-shooted with a 50RDG(50 Round Drone Gun) the five humans martial arts training. They had to pass through the training room to get to one of the secondary control room the quickest. They’d wasted a lot of time in the enchanted loop, and Ælyn wanted to start hacking into the systems.
Once the final human was dead, Kael turned to her with a playful smirk. Ælyn rolled her eyes and pushed him forward while she covered their six. Her main forte was science and research, she hated fighting. She had the training for it, like everyone else in the family, but it was a last resort for her. It was Kael’s job to protect her while she wreaked havoc around the small city.
The city itself felt very eerie to her. Ancient Technology and large structures built with such technology like Atlantis and Vaclus hummed in a small part of her brain. All she had to do was concentrate on that humming and the technology would react to her. But here there was no humming. That didn’t mean she couldn’t feel a connection to the city, she did, but her the hum was replaced with an angry crackle often punctuated with a roar. Accompanying it was a dull burn leaving no doubt in her mind that it was to imitate fire.
In addition the structure was not built like any Ancient cities she’d been in before, leaving her to assume that this was the style in which Auroros had been built. There was a lot of artistic flare to it, flourishes added that the Ancients had long ago abandoned using. And where cities like Atlantis were blue, silver and brownish-red, this city was black, crimson and silver.
“I wonder what father will do with this place once we’re done here,” Kael muttered as he peered around the door into the secondary control room.
Ælyn shrugged as she followed him in and pulled out her laptop from the bag she carried, “How ‘bout we think about that after we’re done, hmm?”
Kael scowled at her but nodded. He vaulted up onto the high beams supporting the room and trained his gun on the doorway. Ælyn set the Ancient laptop on one of the control panels and wirelessly hooked the two systems up. She needed to work quickly and efficiently, it would do them no good if she got caught.
Fingers flying over the keyboard she altered the command codes to one she created and started shutting down systems. She cut power to the shields, the cloak and the drone chair. She uploaded a virus into the operating systems of the other weapons as well and into the primary control system.
“We’re going to have a lot of company once they figure out what you’ve done,” Kael said, obviously bored.
Ælyn chuckled, “Don’t worry, there’s already a team on their way.”
“You’re sure it’s not four of our siblings who’ve met up?”
Ælyn scowled, “I already made the life signs detector distinguish between us and the humans, it’s humans coming down here.”
“Are you sure they’re coming down here?”
“Kael!” Ælyn yelled annoyed.
Kael laughed, “Just making sure sis.”
Ælyn glared up at him momentarily then began to go from console to console setting up shields around them. Kael would easily be able to avoid hitting the consoles with any drone-bullets, but she didn’t think the humans would take precautions if given the chance to fire a weapon.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.
Kael waited patiently for the human strike force to arrive, Mindless Self Indulgence songs running through his head. He’d purposefully annoyed Ælyn, not because he didn’t trust her but because it was fun. He didn’t like being serious, just look at the music he listened to, especially on missions such as this. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation, he did and he would never joke about Sagi having a god complex. That didn’t mean he was the straight-faced, hard-ass soldier, he wasn’t, not by a long shot. He’d joke and enfuriate his partner on missions, it was his way.
He’d even go as far as to taunt his adversaries and as cocky and arrogant as it sounded, he could afford it. Immortality and an unlimited unrestrained amount of power gave them all a reason to be cocky in the face of danger except when that cockiness put mortal lives at risk. He’d learned that quickly, but because he rarely did anything ‘risky’ around mortals anymore he didn’t have anything to worry about. Here Kael could be as cocky and arrogant as he wanted, here the laws didn’t apply.
“Here they come,” Ælyn told him.
Kael grinned, “Bring it on, baby!”
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.
Though they were calling it a city Raiden would classify Sagi’s new place as a large mansion. It was, at the most, one eighth the size of Atlantis class cities, possibly only a little bit larger if one included the subterranean levels.
As an expert in explosives, Raiden was going to use his talents to blow off sections of the city without taking the entire thing out. A complete self destruct would certainly solve their problem when it came to the humans, but Sagi would easily be able to escape and they’d have to hunt him down.
With him he had his older brother Loki who was every bit as troublesome as the Norse God and Asgard Scientist that shared his name. He wasn’t particularly pleased he’d been paired with Loki, inanimate objects that exploded were his thing, not human explosives. Loki was hard to handle, especially if he was in one of his mischief making moods, and the task of reeling him in was usually left to one of five people: Hephaestian, Sagi, Kalas, Jeremiah’s oldest son Jaden or their father. They were the only people Loki would really listen to.
Raiden steered Loki into a room and processed to set up an explosive charge. He’d already set two up on outer sections of the complex and had another two to go before they started hunting Sagi’s human followers.
Loki chuckled evilly.
“What are you doing?” Raiden asked suspicious.
Loki had cut a chunk out of the wall paneling and was doing something with the conduits. The blade of his knife was clenched between his teeth, his light purple eyes were darkened and narrowed and every few seconds he gave another evil chuckle. He waved the question off so Raiden stood and moved so he could look over his shoulder.
Suddenly Loki spun around, one hand grabbing the knife in his mouth and he threw it. Raiden turned sharply, following the knife’s path with his eyes as it embedded into a human’s chest. Loki quickly had three more thrown, one into each of the human’s companions.
Loki smirked at Raiden and turned back to what he was doing, “Don’t worry little brother, this is good trouble.”
Raiden let out a bark laugh, “Only you would ever call trouble good.”
Next