Journeys (4a/5)
Title: Journeys (Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Part I a b Part II a b c d Part III a b c d e
XXXXX
Part IV: The Lost
XXXXX
3 May 2003; Embarkation Room, SGC; 2000 hrs
"Close the iris!" Jack called, but it was already closing as he stepped through and made his way toward his team.
"Where's that med team!" Carter was snapping. "Come on, Skaara, stay with us--"
"Shut it down!" Jack ordered.
The ramp trembled. The wormhole shut down.
Dr. Fraiser, directing a gurney up the ramp, caught the railing for balance. She turned an alarmed look on Jack, but quickly returned to her job, ordering, "Let's move--I want him in OR One right away."
Jack watched them hurry out with Skaara's limp form. "What just happened?" Jonas said, staring at the iris, just now retracting from the Stargate.
"Abydos was hit," Jack said.
"You saw it?" Carter said.
"I felt it," he said. "Just before I came through."
Carter narrowed her eyes, then strode from the embarkation room. Jack caught Teal'c and Jonas's gazes, shrugged, and followed her up into the control room. "...full 'gate diagnostic," she was saying as they entered.
"Colonel," Jonas said while Sergeant Harriman hurried to obey, "what happened to...uh, Daniel?"
Carter glanced up at them but refocused back on the computers. "I don't know," Jack said. "He was doing his glowy thing. Told me to run and close the iris."
"A large burst of energy was transmitted through the wormhole just after Colonel O'Neill came through," Harriman said.
"We're lucky they closed the iris when they did, sir," Carter said, straightening to look at Jack. "A massive energy wave followed you through the wormhole."
Crap. "Redial," Jack ordered.
As the Stargate began to turn, General Hammond entered the control room. "Good--you're back," he said. With a glance out the window, he asked, "What's going on?"
"We think Anubis hit Abydos, sir," Jack said. "There are still on the order of ten thousand civilians on the planet. We're trying to dial now to check--"
"No time for that, Colonel," Hammond interrupted. Jack looked away from the Stargate in surprise, but the general's face was grim. "Do you have the Eye of Ra?"
Jonas held it up. "Yes, sir, we have it."
"Chevron six encoded," Harriman said, and even the general paused for a moment to watch. "Chevron seven..." The Stargate stopped. Nothing happened. "...will not lock."
"Their 'gate could be buried," Carter said. "Or something could be malfunctioning on their end."
"Maybe," Hammond said impatiently, "but it's not something we have time to figure out now. Lord Yu is in our orbit and has initiated communications with us.
"Son of a bitch," Jack said. He'd almost forgotten about what Daniel had said--what had he been thinking, leading not one but two System Lords to Earth?
"He says," Hammond went on, "that Daniel Jackson of SG-1 appeared on his ship and promised him the Eyes of Ra and Tiamat. As much as I don't want to believe that, I don't see how else Yu would even know about Mr. Jackson's...current state, much less his involvement and the fact that we have the Eyes."
"Sir, that's not possible," Carter started, looking confused. "Daniel would never--"
"Actually, he would," Jack said, torn between anger at Daniel and wishing he were there so he could explain to them how this idiotic plan wasn't going to fail miserably. "He said that he told Anubis we have the Eyes--said that Anubis was coming here to take them from us."
"What?" Carter said; she must not have heard that part.
"Apparently," Jack said, watching Hammond's jaw tighten, "he made some sort of deal with Yu--the Goa'uld--that we give him our two Eyes, and Yu gets to blast Anubis out of our orbit."
"He made...a deal with a Goa'uld," Hammond repeated.
"I know!" Jack said, somewhat gratified that he wasn't the only one who found that crazy. "That's what he said."
"Well...I guess it wouldn't be the first time Yu has helped us," Carter said.
"He has been almost an ally to us, at least where Anubis is concerned," Jonas offered.
"He's a Goa'uld," Jack countered.
"More importantly," Teal'c said pragmatically, "Anubis's ship is still superior to that of Yu, and he is still in possession of four of the six Eyes."
Hammond folded his arms. "Yu claims to have the collective forces of the System Lords behind him. He uncloaked his ships very briefly, and satellites confirm that there seems to be a very large Goa'uld fleet up there."
As Jack tried very hard to figure out how that was ever a good thing, Jonas said, "We'd still be giving two powerful weapons to Yu. Even if he is essentially the lesser of two evils..."
"I realize that," Hammond said. "But I'm not sure we have a choice."
"Dammit, Daniel," Jack muttered.
"Speaking of Mr. Jackson..." Hammond said. "I don't suppose there's a way to contact him?"
"Maybe he'll show up on his own," Jonas said hopefully. "He said there was a translation he would help me with, and he was very, uh...direct about helping us today. If this was his plan, maybe he'll come back to make sure it goes through."
Jack knew better, though, and so did the rest of them who'd really known Daniel. "I'm...not sure that we can count on him for anything anymore," Carter said.
"He would have done everything in his power to protect Abydos and its people," Teal'c said. "If something--or someone--prevented him from doing so..."
"He told us the Others would stop him," Jack said. "His brother's half-dead in our infirmary and their 'gate won't lock. Something happened to him."
Hammond sighed. "Unfortunately," he said, "we can't worry about him now. Abydos is one of the closest planets in the network; Anubis will be here soon. What do we do about Lord Yu? He's waiting for our answer, and from his last transmission, he's getting impatient."
"Is the Eye of Tiamat already here, sir?" Carter said.
"It arrived from Area 51 just after you left," Hammond confirmed.
"Have we attempted to reach the Asgard?" Teal'c said.
"We've been trying and will keep trying," Hammond said, "but so far, nothing. Besides, Anubis and Osiris have already shown they're not afraid of the Asgard; Thor almost died the last time he stepped in for us."
Jack looked at the console. Yu had saved his life--or his sanity--by using SG-1's information to take out Ba'al's outpost, and he'd saved Teal'c's and maybe even the entire Jaffa rebellion by exposing Kytano as Imhotep. He didn't seem to care much about the SGC, except in the general sense that humans were supposed to be lower than Goa'ulds, and he was probably less likely than any other Goa'uld to turn on them without direct provocation. When talking about Goa'uld integrity, though, that wasn't saying very much.
"It seems we have little choice," Teal'c said, "and we have little time. We have less than a day before Anubis arrives from Abydos."
"Colonel?" Hammond said. "Your opinion?"
Shaking his head, Jack said, "We don't even have the Prometheus right now, much less something that can stand against Anubis. We're dead if we don't do it, sir."
Hammond pursed his lips. "We have a few F-302s ready for deployment--I had them taken to Peterson as soon as Yu first contacted us, so they're close by, and we have several pilots who've trained on simulators. You don't think there's any way we could handle this, even use the Eyes on our own?"
"Uh...sir," Carter said, "if we give the Eyes to Yu, who presumably knows how they work, he just might have a chance against Anubis with the help of an entire Goa'uld fleet. A couple of F-302s with much weaker weapons and shields simply aren't going to cut it, even if I could figure out in time how the Eyes worked."
"And Anubis is Ascended," Jonas added. At Hammond's incredulous look, he said, "Or something. Daniel Jackson was very clear that Anubis is more than we thought he was."
Jack grimaced but could do nothing but shrug. It actually explained a lot about Anubis, unfortunately. "All right," Hammond finally said. "Sergeant, get Yu back on the line."
"Yes, sir," Harriman said.
Hammond put his hand over the microphone and said, "SG-1, the Eyes and a few other supplies are prepared for you. Bring them to Peterson. Stay in contact, and I'll give you further instruction on how to deliver them once I've spoken to him again."
...x...
"I still can't believe Daniel would have sent Anubis here," Carter said as they drove. "There must be something else we're missing..."
"You know what," Jack said, "I think this was exactly it. Abydos stays safe, Earth is protected by Yu, we stick a thumb in Anubis's eye...everyone's happy."
"Except that Abydos...well..." Jonas started, then trailed off.
"Apparently, someone miscalculated a little. Or else he'd be here right now!" Jack said loudly to the roof of the car. He waited a few seconds and even checked the rearview mirror, just in case, but no one appeared out of thin air.
A fresh tendril of grief tried to creep closer. They'd finally gotten to talk to him and gotten a chance to work together again, in whatever form that took...how could they have lost him again?
"I hate this," Jack muttered. He slapped the steering wheel.
Carter offered, "If I had to trust a Goa'uld..."
"Yeah, that's the problem," he said. "Who else but Daniel would do something as stupid as making a bargain with a Goa'uld and expecting him to hold up his end of it?"
"Yu has shown great determination to defeat Anubis," Teal'c said, "and Daniel Jackson's actions have proven insightful in the past."
"They've also been reckless," Jack snapped, drumming his fingers restlessly. "How many times have you had to tell him to tone it down, huh? Who's doing that now if it's not us?"
"Martouf?" offered Jonas, who mostly thought of Daniel as a particularly cool and shiny (literally) part of SGC mythology.
"Daniel respected--respects Martouf," Carter said. "That doesn't translate into taking his orders."
"Maybe he just knows what he's doing," Jonas said optimistically. "He knew about Kelowna, after all. He said he saw it but couldn't do anything."
"Which just means he's alone, powerful, and frustrated," Jack pointed out, remembering their conversation in Ba'al's prison, the way they'd snapped at each other that they should, could, shouldn't, wouldn't act. "Take it from us, Jonas--that's a dangerous combination."
Carter's phone rang. Jack focused on the road and not the fact that he wasn't sure whether or not he'd get a chance to yell at Daniel for this one.
"General Hammond wants us to deliver the Eyes by F-302," Carter finally said when she'd hung up. "Lord Yu will let us into his bay of his mothership."
Jack imagined floating around in space in a tiny glider, sticking their noses into the middle of a fleet of warlord who hated them. Apparently, he wasn't the only one thinking it, because Jonas said, "Is that, um...really the wisest idea?"
"Well," Carter said, "we could invite the Goa'uld to send an al'kesh full of Jaffa down to Earth to collect the Eyes instead, but the general doesn't seem to think that's a good idea."
"Also very true," Jonas conceded.
"Oy," Jack sighed.
"Besides," Carter added, digging through the supplies Hammond had sent with them, "the general wants to know how things are turning out so he knows if and when Anubis is going to hit Earth. If we go up ourselves, we can leave bugs behind."
"Ah," Jack said. "Now there's an idea I can live with."
"I'll key the transmission to the secure channel we use for communications with the Tok'ra--it should let us keep track of what's happening as long as Yu is in our orbit or relatively close to our system."
"Unless Yu gets blown up by Anubis," Jonas said.
"It's something," Jack allowed. "At least we'll know if he does, not that it'll matter much by then."
...x...
3 May 2003; Peterson AFB, Earth; 2045 hrs
"Teal'c," Jack said as they strode toward the F-302s on the runway, "take Jonas up in that one. Carter, you're with me."
Carter climbed into the back of one '302, holding the sack containing the Eyes. She put on her headset and then pulled out the transmitters they were to use as bugs, quickly turning one on, slipping it in with the Eyes, and securing it under a flap in the bottom of the bag with a simple strip of tape. Jack settled into his seat and waited for Carter to join him as Teal'c ushered Jonas into the next glider over.
Securing his headset, Jack keyed the SGC's channel. "SGC, this is SG-1. Do you read?"
"Loud and clear, Colonel," General Hammond's voice said through the earpiece.
"We're just about ready to take off now, sir," Jack said, making sure his mask was on tightly. He glanced over his shoulder to see the shield close over Teal'c and Jonas, checked that Carter was in place, and sealed the cockpit of their own '302.
"Stay in contact while you're up there," Hammond said. "We'll keep track of your progress from here. Good luck."
Teal'c powered his engines. "Thank you, sir," Jack said, following his lead. "Carter, we good?"
"Yes, sir, ready for takeoff," she said. "I've got the signal from Yu's ship. Transmitting to your terminal now. Teal'c, Jonas, you too."
Jack waited until the information blinked onto his screen. "Location received. Hold tight."
"Sir, the fleet is cloaked," Carter reminded him when they broke atmosphere and he scanned the space before them for any signs of Goa'uld motherships. "You'll have to go on the proximity sensors' data alone."
Jack adjusted his headset, switched to the correct channel, and hailed, "This is Colonel O'Neill of the SGC requesting entry to Lord Yu's mothership. Please respond."
Immediately, an unfamiliar voice answered, "Do you have the Eyes of Tiamat and Ra?"
"We do," Jack said. "Who's this?"
"I am Oshu, First Prime to Lord Yu," the voice answered. "Our bay has been opened for entry. I will meet you with three other Jaffa. If you take any hostile action, we will respond immediately with force and leave your planet to the mercy of Anubis."
Jack rolled his eyes, but just barely stopped himself from jerking the controls when a mothership suddenly appeared out of blank space, just in front of him and Carter. Now, that was something that had never happened before alien spacecraft had entered the picture. "Geez," he muttered. "All right, we're coming in. Don't shoot." Switching back to the other channel, he added, "Teal'c, wait for us to get in and then come in after us."
They glided carefully into the open hangar and settled. Teal'c swept in and landed beside them.
"We're in," Jack said into his headset.
The bay doors slid closed behind them. "Gravity and life support have been activated in the bay," Oshu's voice said. "You may disembark."
Popping the top of their '302, Jack quickly climbed out. He keyed open the door leading to the main deck of the ship, then led the way in with Carter. Teal'c followed, blocking the view of anyone who might be watching as Jonas accidentally dropped his hat and bent to pick it up, leaving another bug stuck in the corner.
As promised, four Jaffa strode in to meet them, staff weapons in hand but not at the ready.
"We brought the Eyes," Jack said.
Carter held up the bag and stepped forward to hand it over. "In here," she said, opening it and tilting it toward them to show the two jeweled devices inside.
The First Prime waved one of his men forward. "If you have tampered with them in any way..." he warned.
"Oh, for cryin' out loud, just take the damn things!" Jack snapped.
Jonas winced as someone started to bring his staff weapon to bear, then stopped upon the First Prime's signal. "Colonel..." he said quietly.
But Jack was pissed off and Daniel was dead again, but not before making a deal with a Goa'uld that involved ships shooting at each other above Earth, so he went on sharply, "We're not any happier about this than you are, pal. Actually, that's our planet down there, so we're probably a lot less happy. So if we could move it along..."
One of the Jaffa accepted the bag from Carter, who backed away again as he pulled out the Eyes and tossed the bag on top of a nearby cargo box. "They are real," the Jaffa said.
"Happy?" Jack said.
"You may go," Oshu said simply, touching a panel on the wall. The door opened, revealing the glider bay. "Leave immediately."
Jack didn't need to be told twice.
XXXXX
3 May 2003; Control Room, SGC; 2130 hrs
"Good work," Hammond said absently when they returned. "We've been receiving transmission on and off for half an hour now."
"On and off, sir?" Jack repeated.
"That location was not ideal for planting spying devices," Teal'c said. "Few Jaffa are likely to have been talking within range of our transmitters."
"But at least it's by the glider bay," Carter said. "People are going to be gearing up for the fight and passing through there. We should hear a lot more once Anubis arrives and it gets underway."
Jack folded his arms, almost wishing Anubis would just get here now and get all of this over with, preferably with Earth still in one piece when all was said and done. "How much longer do you think?" he said.
She looked up from adjusting their communications device and exchanged a glance with Teal'c. "We have never seen anything like Anubis's hatak vessel," Teal'c said. "Perhaps a few hours."
Hammond took a deep breath. "We've gone on alert," he said. "Britain, France, Russia, and China have, too. At the first sign of an attack--by Anubis or Yu--we'll hit back with everything we've got and start evacuation to the Alpha Site. People are on their way here now."
"Great," Jack muttered, already imagining more political rumblings about the SGC's way of dealing with things. He drummed his fingers on the opposite arm. "You said hours, right?"
"Perhaps," Teal'c reiterated.
"...lak konach garik'ko..." a Jaffa on Yu's ship finally said in passing.
"What'd he say?" Carter asked.
"He is informing his friend that he needs to use the latrine," Teal'c translated, sitting down and slipping on a pair of headphones to hear more clearly.
Jack rolled his eyes.
"And," Teal'c added, "the friend responded that he is hungry."
"Sir, permission to check on Skaara?" Jack said, hoping his tone conveyed how close he was to dying of anticipatory boredom.
"He just came out of surgery an hour ago, Colonel," Hammond said. "Dr. Fraiser says he's stable. You can check on him when this is over."
"I should go call a few more Goa'uld translators," Jonas said. "When the battle starts, it could get pretty hectic. We don't want to miss anything anyone says."
Jack pulled out a chair and sat down, almost wishing Anubis would just attack and get it over with.
Soon, Jonas had joined Teal'c at another console, and so had another man and two women from his department. Every once in a while, one or more of them scribbled out a line of speech, though, from what Jack was seeing, nothing interesting was going on yet. Jonas was frowning as he listened--the kid learned fast, but he wouldn't be completely fluent in Goa'uld military slang after only a year of study. Even Daniel had needed an almost obsessive fascination with Teal'c, enforced boredom, and a lot of practical experience before he had had the linguistic skill to play the part of a loyal servant who spoke Goa'uld.
Teal'c, on the hand, looked like he'd rather be out there in a glider, and Jack agreed.
"If Anubis really pushes it, he could be here any second," Carter said when nothing interesting had happened an hour later.
Waiting, Jack decided, was the worst part.
...x...
"General Hammond!" Teal'c said suddenly. "Anubis has arrived. Yu is preparing to deploy all udajeet and al'kesh from all hatak vessels under his command."
"We see Anubis in our orbit," Carter said, pulling her chair closer to her computer.
"China's seeing the same thing, sir," Sergeant Harriman reported, a phone to his ear.
"And Russia," another technician added.
"Anubis only seems to have brought his one hatak," Jonas said. "Yu is ordering his men to power his ship's weapon--"
"All ships and all weapons," one of the translators corrected.
"Al'kesh have been launched," Teal'c said. "Gliders are being prepared. They have been ordered to surround Anubis's ship and attack from all sides once their weapon is used to penetrate Anubis's shield."
"Wait, wait, wait," Jonas said, holding up a hand. "Something's happening--Anubis stopped. Yu's saying...or...um..."
Teal'c leaned forward and routed the receiver Jonas was listening to through the main speakers.
The room seemed to freeze. Jack listened hard, catching one word in ten as two voices snapped at each other in Goa'uld--something about surrender, kill, and several more terms that he was pretty sure all meant various shades of defeat. "And?" he said during a lull in the conversation.
"Lord Yu says Anubis is in violation of the Asgard Protected Planets Treaty," Teal'c said. "His ship is surrounded, and he must...surrender the Eyes or be destroyed."
"Oh, for--" Jack started in disgust. If one Goa'uld had all six Eyes, it wouldn't matter much if it was Anubis or Yu, except that Anubis would be a slightly quicker route to Earth's destruction.
"It doesn't matter," Jonas said. "Anubis isn't going for it."
Then...
Silence.
"What's going on?" Hammond said when nothing happened. "Major?"
"The ships haven't moved, sir," Carter said, looking over a technician's shoulder. "Yu's ships must be uncloaked now, too--we're picking up many more ships around the first."
"They're firing," Jonas said.
"Who?" the general said, clearly as frustrated as Jack was.
"Yu, Anubis...everyone, sir," Jonas answered.
Jack lasted another minute before saying, "Why's it so quiet?"
"I don't know, sir," several someones said all at once.
"No one's talking in range of our bugs," Jonas added more helpfully. "Their fighters must've been deployed already, so no one's hanging around the bay."
But then... "Several ships are disappearing, from what our satellites see," Harriman said. "It's not clear yet whether they were destroyed or are reactivating a cloak. Or leaving, jumping into hyperspace--"
"Anubis's ship was damaged," Teal'c interrupted as another burst of barked orders came over the line. "He is attempting to flee. Yu's Jaffa are reporting that several al'kesh escaped; it is unknown if Anubis is on one of them or is still on his hatak, but the hatak itself no longer seems functional. Yu has ordered troops to board the hatak to search for Anubis and the Eyes."
"At least Anubis's ship's dead in the air," Carter said.
"I'll feel better when all the ships are out of our air," Jack said. Whatever anyone tried to convince him, he was never trusting a Goa'uld with guns so close to them, even Yu.
"Several ships seem to have left our orbit over the last several minutes, sir," Harriman said.
Jonas shook his head. "Yu is still there, and there are still Jaffa searching Anubis's ship. Anubis...apparently isn't onboard anymore."
"He escaped," Carter guessed, "and some of Yu's forces probably pursued him--that would explain why so many ships suddenly left our orbit."
"And," one of the other translators added, "Yu's Jaffa found the weapon with the four Eyes. They're going back to Yu's ship and are going to pull back."
"So now Yu has all the Eyes," Jack sighed.
But just then a flurry of noise broke out from Yu's ship--someone speaking, Yu yelling, someone else calling out orders, clanking footsteps and weak reception obscuring each sound... "Kheste," Jonas swore, surprised into a rare slip of language, and even Teal'c looked intimidated by all that was going on before all sound stopped abruptly.
"Something has happened," Teal'c said.
"Something good or something bad?" Jack said.
"I am uncertain," Teal'c said.
"Sir, as far as we can tell, the ships have all left our orbit, with the exception of a few smaller vessels that could be simply disabled," Harriman said. "Unless they're cloaked or otherwise out of our sensors' range or sensitivity, the motherships are gone."
"Okay," Jack pointed out, "that's what I call 'something good.'"
"Can this be rewound?" Jonas asked, turning to Sam. "We'll need time to pick everything out. Too many people talking at once."
"Sir, our allies want to know what's going on," a voice from the other end of the console said.
"Then anyone who can speak Goa'uld will listen to the recording of that transmission as many times as you need to until you can tell me what the hell happened just now," Hammond ordered. "Don't celebrate yet, people. Anubis might still be out there somewhere, and Yu certainly is. Get to work." The translators jumped to obey. "And dial Abydos again."
XXXXX
4 May 2003; Briefing Room, SGC; 0800 hrs
"Still no lock on Abydos," Jack said the next morning.
"We've sent a message to the Tok'ra, asking them to send a scout ship to check," Carter added, "but, unsurprisingly, it might be a while before anyone's free and in the neighborhood."
Turning to Teal'c and Jonas, the general asked, "What about Yu and Anubis?"
"Yu is in possession of the Eyes of Osiris, Apophis, Seth, and Anubis," Teal'c said. "The Eyes of Ra and Tiamat appear to have been destroyed."
Carter's eyebrows flew upward. "What? Why?"
Jonas shrugged. "One of the Jaffa said something about the circuitry. Yu is really angry--the Eyes' crystals were fried, apparently from a power overload. And then someone found our bugs, so he got even more angry, and...it got confusing after that. He started yelling about some other things, too, which didn't make a whole lot of sense."
"Like what?" Jack said.
"Like..." Jonas looked down at his notes. "That they needed to get to Abydos quickly to kill Anubis before he got to the Eye of Ra. Of course, someone mentioned they were past that part, and Yu said not to argue and go back to their homeworld. I'm not sure what he was angriest at, by that point--the Eyes or the fact that his Jaffa were questioning his orders."
"When we had the Eye of Tiamat at the SGC," Hammonds said, "our best investigators--with help and advice from a Jaffa and a Tok'ra--didn't know how it worked. Is it possible Yu's Jaffa really did make some mistake?"
"Indeed," Teal'c said. "Even with what I have learned from the SGC, I would not have been able to use the Eyes. I had never even heard of such a technology."
"But," Jonas said, "judging by their conversation and the outcome of the battle, the weapon was effective. In fact, it sounded like the malfunction was in the ship's internal system, not the Eyes."
"So either Yu hasn't been taking care of his mothership," Carter said, frowning, "which I find doubtful for someone as experienced as Yu, or the Jaffa fumbled through the installation on their own, barely got it functional, and are making excuses. And if it's the latter, how did they know how to do it at all, and what loyal Jaffa would lie about it afterward?"
Teal'c opened his mouth, then closed it and glanced at Jack. "Daniel talked to Yu," Jack said.
"You think...?" Jonas said.
"I don't know," Jack said, deciding that, right or not, he was going to take comfort in the fact that Daniel had made a deal with a Goa'uld but might have sabotaged it, too. It didn't really seem like Daniel's MO, but then, neither did sending a fleet of attack ships to Earth. Desperate times. "Either that, or Yu is losing it."
"The upshot is that if Yu thinks his Jaffa did something wrong, he won't be coming after us," Hammond said. "Do we know what happened to the other ships in the fleet?"
"We don't have an exact count, sir," Sam said, "but we synched the conversation with satellite data, and it looks like Anubis was able to take out almost half of the motherships on his own before they were able to damage his shield at all, probably using the Eyes. We think very few motherships actually survived by the time Anubis had to retreat."
"But Anubis survived."
"We must assume that he did," Teal'c said. "His ship may have been damaged, but several al'kesh successfully entered hyperspace."
Hammond sighed. "And Yu has the other four Eyes."
"Better than all six," Jonas said. "If all of them together are ten times more powerful than the sum of its parts, that means four Eyes is...about...six-and-a-half percent the threat of all six together. Besides, Yu just lost a lot of his army. He'll need time to recover."
"However, Yu was able to penetrate Anubis's shield with only two of the Eyes, a feat that Thor could not accomplish," Teal'c pointed out.
"Thor was on his own," Jack defended his favorite Asgard.
"It is nevertheless true that even two of the Eyes were a formidable weapon against Anubis."
"Well, this will definitely give Yu an advantage over the other System Lords," Carter said, "but he also has all of their forces under his command. That could be good for us, if the other System Lords' resentment makes them start attacking each other again--or even Yu--instead of us."
"I'm thinking lots of war while they all grab for the Eyes," Jack said.
"Let's hope that keeps them busy for a while," Hammond said. "What's our next step?"
"Well..." Jonas said tentatively. "There's that tablet Daniel Jackson showed us. He said it was about an important Ancient city and seemed very adamant that we had to find it."
"The Ancients did have very advanced technology," Carter said. "If we can find the city..."
"Weapons," Jack suggested, "made by an advanced race of humans who didn't like the Goa'uld."
"Make that tablet your priority, Mr. Quinn," Hammond ordered, and stood. "Stay on top of this--find out whatever you can from the Tok'ra over the next days and weeks, and Teal'c, I want any news you can get from the rebel Jaffa. Dismissed."
XXXXX
5 May 2003; SGC, Earth; 1400 hrs
Skaara opened his eyes. He blinked, surprised when his eyelids moved slowly, and tried to sit up.
Someone moaned, and only when the pain struck did Skaara realize that it had been himself.
"Don't move," a familiar voice said from the other side. With an effort, Skaara turned his head and saw O'Neill looking down at him. "I'd ask how you're feeling, but I think I know already."
Skaara blinked again.
Then he remembered--Anubis had been on Abydos. There had been Jaffa, and the Eye of Ra, and guns, and Dan'yel--
"Abydos?" he managed.
O'Neill's eyes flicked away, for just a second, but enough for Skaara to know something was wrong. "We're at the SGC," O'Neill said. "We're working on getting back to Abydos, but for now, your job is to get better. All right?"
"Abydos," Skaara insisted, pushing himself upward until the pain overwhelmed him and he couldn't tell whether he was lying down or sitting up. "D-dan'yel said..."
When he finally made himself open his eyes again, there was a woman next to him--he had seen her before, but his mind was slow and would not tell him who she was--he found that his hand was clenched tightly on O'Neill's. "He's not here," O'Neill said quietly. "You need to relax for now. When you wake up again, I'll explain everything to you. How's that sound?"
"Mm," Skaara heard himself say. The woman smiled and did something next to him. When the burning agony in his stomach began to decrease, he turned again and mumbled, "O'Neill?"
"You're gonna be fine," O'Neill said, patting him on the shoulder. "Go to sleep. I'll come down and see you again."
...x...
True to his word, O'Neill was there again when Skaara next woke. Skaara lay where he was for a while, watching O'Neill before anyone noticed that he was awake.
Most times, O'Neill seemed to be exactly who the legends said he was--the hero of Abydos, killer of false gods, the leader of SG-1 of the Tau'ri. Now, the leader of SG-1 was facing away, and no one else was in the room. As Skaara watched him make comical expressions while holding a shallow metal tray in front of his own face, he began to see what had made Dan'yel say that O'Neill was very different from what the stories said. O'Neill stuck his tongue out, and Skaara was surprised by a weak laugh.
Immediately, O'Neill turned around. He quickly put the tray back down on a table and made his loping way toward the bed. "Hello," O'Neill said.
"Hello," Skaara tried to answer, but he had to try twice to make sound emerge from his throat. As he shifted, the pain made itself known again, but it was duller than before.
O'Neill frowned down at him and played with the edge of his blanket, pulling it higher and then smoothing it back down to where it had been a moment before. Skaara watched him curiously. "So," O'Neill said, "how's it going?" Skaara swallowed. "Ah--here--"
A cup appeared in front of him. O'Neill's other hand slipped under Skaara's head and lifted just enough to drink the water inside. Skaara drank slowly, knowing that he was still weak and unwilling to cough should he choke.
Still, he was sweating by the time O'Neill lowered him back to the bed. He thought he should say 'thank you' but could not catch his breath.
"Take it easy," O'Neill said quietly, pulling a chair close and sitting at the side of the bed. "How's the pain?"
Skaara waited a moment to let the world slow in its spinning before he said, "It is...better."
Looking relieved, O'Neill said, "Good, because ol' Doc Fraiser wasn't going to give you any more of the happy juice for another few hours. Think you can make it that long?"
"Yes," Skaara said, trying to remember more of what had happened. He raised his arm--why was it so weak?--and tried to feel for his bandage, only to have it grabbed before he could touch.
"Ah-ah," O'Neill said, holding up a finger. "Leave that there."
Skaara closed his eyes for a second. "How did I come here?"
"Got yourself shot," O'Neill said simply. "We brought you back, and the doctors patched you up. Not gonna lie--it was pretty bad, but they say you're out of the woods now."
"The...woods," Skaara repeated, confused.
"Trees aren't even in sight," O'Neill assured him, waving a hand and explaining nothing. "You've got a ways to go, but you will get better. So now, you get to rest here for a while, and then you'll start some physical therapy when you're a little better. Oh, that reminds me--I'm supposed to feed you before you fall asleep again."
O'Neill stood and pulled something behind Skaara so that part of the bed moved, gently raising him until he was nearly sitting. Then O'Neill turned around in a full circle before he spotted whatever he had been looking for. He picked up a tray full of small containers and carried it to a small table by Skaara's bedside. "What...?" Skaara said.
"What do we have here?" O'Neill said, lifting the lid from one of the containers and peering inside before moving to the next one. "Looks like...soup, juice...Jell-O, uh...tea, which isn't a food," he added to Skaara. "Got a preference?"
Skaara blinked.
After a few moments of strained silence, O'Neill said, "You've never had Jell-O before, have you?" He picked up one of the small, round containers.
"Wait, O'Neill--" Skaara started.
"Don't worry, it's good--it's not anything like cows at all. Cows are...like mastadges, sort of."
"No, I--what?"
O'Neill scooped a spoonful of brightly-colored...something. He frowned at the cup and said, without looking up, "Your brother was grossed out at first when he found out we make this from cows and such, but he got over it. He liked the red kind--said it tasted like some drink you guys make on Abydos by putting...fruit in... To be honest, I wasn't paying attention," he admitted. "You know how he was."
Skaara stared at the spoonful. As he watched, it vibrated and wobbled disconcertingly. "This is...a food?"
"For today, it's probably the closest you'll get to real food," O'Neill told him. "C'mon, try it."
He reached out tentatively to take the spoon for himself, embarrassed when O'Neill's hand stayed on the spoon but thankful when his hand shook. The first bite was unexpectedly sweet--he started to chew automatically, but it turned into water in his mouth and slipped down his throat. "Oh," he said, unsure what to think of a drink that disguised itself as a food.
"You feel sick at all?" O'Neill asked, watching him closely. Skaara considered, then shook his head. "Give it a second." Skaara waited obediently for several seconds, then shook his head again. "Good. You need to get your strength back, and you're gonna need more than a spoonful of Jell-O to do that."
"Wait," Skaara said, holding up his hand. He started to sit up more, then stopped. "What happened?"
O'Neill looked back down at the tray, but not quickly enough to hide his wince. "You know," he said, "this is a discussion better suited for when you're not gonna fall asleep halfway --"
"No, what of Anubis?" he persisted. "I did not see the end of the fighting--"
"Anubis left Abydos and came here," O'Neill said. "And then he left here, too. You're safe. We're just...trying to figure out what to do next."
Skaara thought about that, but his mind was slow. "Then why are you here and not helping the Tau'ri?"
Shrugging, O'Neill said, "Teal'c and Major Carter are collecting news from the rebel Jaffa and the Tok'ra. Jonas Quinn's working on some translation I can't help with. Besides, it's nighttime now. I've got nothing to do."
"Dan'yel said he would come to help you after Anubis," Skaara said, confused, and then, "Where is my brother? Have you seen him again since...since then?"
O'Neill stared at him, becoming oddly still for a man who normally could not seem to stop moving. "No," he said calmly. "Then again, most of us went a year and a half without seeing him, and then he popped up out of the blue. Who knows?"
"Perhaps he is still on Abydos," Skaara said, uneasy. Belatedly, he remembered, "Have you told my people that Anubis is gone?"
Finally, O'Neill put down the cup of Jell-O and turned to Skaara seriously. "Don't think too hard about this, all right? Doesn't mean anything for sure. But...we can't...reach Abydos."
Skaara sat up straight despite the pain that flared. "What?"
"Hey, calm down," O'Neill said sharply, poking a finger into Skaara's chest. "Your people were evacuated, right? The Stargate was smack in the middle of the area. Chances are, it got damaged in the fight just after we arrived at the SGC, but that doesn't mean anything happened to the rest of Abydos or your people. Anubis got here so fast, he probably didn't have time to go rampaging around your planet."
"But we cannot go back?" he said.
"We're trying the 'gate every once in a while, but that looks like a no-go. We've also got a hold of the Tok'ra, and as soon as they can, they're gonna send a ship out there to take a look around. They're just...a little busy and very short-handed. We've gotta wait it out, that's all."
"We have to wait," Skaara echoed hollowly.
O'Neill sat back with a sigh. "Look, you're in no shape to travel, anyway--with some work, you'll probably be back on your feet by the time we get some news."
Skaara thought of what Klorel would have been able to do to Abydos with a hatak. To younger Goa'uld like Klorel--even to many of the System Lords--Anubis was no more than a myth. It had taken most of the forces of Ra, Cronus, Sokar, Yu, and any other Goa'uld they could find simply to banish him the first time. Skaara wondered if O'Neill was telling him the truth or deliberately making it seem less grave than it truly was.
"I must know what happened," Skaara said finally. "You are speaking of my home, O'Neill."
"Yeah," O'Neill said. "But it's a long story, and you're injured. You need to get some food in yourself, get some sleep, and I promise I will tell you when you wake up. That's basically all I know yet, anyway."
Now, he wanted to demand, but there was nothing he could do now. Skaara knew that he was lucky to be alive, after the wound he had taken, and he knew that it would be difficult to recover fully. If he was to help, that was what he needed to do first. Besides...
"Dan'yel told me that you keep your word," Skaara said, remembering that brief, wonderful stretch of time when he had been able to sit on the floor of his house with his brother, talking of nothing and of life and of war, learning how to be brothers again and knowing that they would never be who they had been before Apophis's attack. "You will tell me? Everything?"
O'Neill's expression grew stiff, but he nodded. "Promise. And whatever happens--not that anything'll happen," he added quickly, "but in case...you know, if it takes a while for the Tok'ra to get back to us or something--we'll make sure you're taken care of. Daniel would kick our asses if we let anything happen to you."
"I trust you," Skaara said, and did not think about the fact that his brother had died to save SG-1--he very carefully remembered that his brother had been stubborn and, for all that he knew, might have lost himself again in the name of Abydos after losing himself once for Earth.
"Good man," O'Neill said, patting him gently on the shoulder. "Now eat your Jell-O."
When as much of the food as he could manage was gone and his eyes began to fall closed, he said, "Was Tobay here before?"
There was a long pause, and then, "No. You're the only one who got through the 'gate with us."
"I think I dreamed of him," Skaara mumbled. "Is he dead?"
"No," O'Neill said again. "Ascended. Remember? I think you saw it." A moment later, he added, his voice stiff and awkward, "I saw Daniel before. I was hurt pretty bad then, too. Maybe Tobay was...checking up on you the same way."
Skaara knew already that the knowledge that one's brother was Ascended and not dead was little comfort. Later, perhaps, it would help to know that they still lived on somewhere, but for now, he cared only that many of his brothers--men he had led into battle--were gone forever.
"You all right?" O'Neill said. Skaara nodded but didn't shake O'Neill's hand away as he let himself fall asleep.
Continued in Part IVb...