"I think I like this
part as much as the lovemaking," Jack murmured contentedly, kissing
Daniel's sweaty brow.
"Which was slightly
more than moderately okay this time." Daniel stretched sleekly, rolling
to drape a possessive arm over Jack.
"Mmmm," Jack sighed
lasciviously. "I've got a whole new interest in life." He
patted Daniel's pert behind fondly. "We shouldn't get too
comfortable. We can't keep radioing in the check-in just because
we don't want to get out of bed," he warned unconvincingly.
"That's what you
said last night," Daniel reminded him, kissing his shoulder.
"When we radioed in the check-in to have moderately okay sex."
"I was raring to get
out of bed and trail all the way up the mountain just to wave hello to
Carter and then trail all the way back down again, but my knee hurt,"
Jack explained fluently. "From having definitely too athletic sex
in the pool earlier."
"Do you think we
sound naked?" Daniel wondered idly. "On the radio?"
"Daniel, only you
would think about a thing like that," Jack snorted.
"It's easier than
thinking about not being able to tell anyone we're together," Daniel
said mildly.
"Now, I told you
there was a good reason for that!" Jack reminded him cheerfully.
"Teal'c will kill my ass if he suspects for one second I'm slaking my
depraved lusts on your helpless, quivering body."
Daniel smiled
dutifully.
"There's no way in
hell Hammond would push for a court martial," Jack said a bit more
seriously, cutting right to the chase. "Not with all the inherent
security risks to the SGC, let alone the loyalty he feels for both of
us." He watched Daniel silently digest this, swallow a hateful
necessity and put on his game face. Jack had broken a lot of
rules in his long, occasionally colourful career, often for far less
reason than he was breaking this one. It didn't make it right but
this was one compromise he was willing to make, one that wouldn't keep
him up at night. His honour might be questionable, but he was not
prepared to give up Daniel. "As long as our relationship doesn't
affect the team, I think unless the general catches us making out in
the briefing room, he simply won't 'see' anything adversely personal
between us."
"If we do affect the
team?" Daniel asked diffidently, clearly wary of encroaching.
"Then I meant what I
said to you," Jack said strongly. "You're the most important
thing to me. Early retirement is not the end of the world."
"You're still young,
Jack," Daniel argued. "You wouldn't consider a command?"
"Fly a desk while
you go off-world? It would make me crazy and I would make you
crazy."
"If General Hammond
retired, I wouldn't want anyone else," Daniel said soberly. "Do
you think the SGC would survive a man like Maybourne in command?
Would the Earth?"
"Have I told you how
annoying that is? The whole 'fly in the ointment' thing?" Jack
snapped, exasperated.
"No, but if you skip
the personal appearance during check-in, you can get your own back,"
Daniel proposed, shooting Jack a distinctly predatory look.
Jack gazed in humble
awe and gratitude at Daniel. "I finally found something you like
more than archaeology."
"And you were
sitting on it the whole time," Daniel gloated, teasingly groping Jack's
ass.
"What's on the
programme for today?" Jack asked cautiously, wondering exactly what he
was going to have to enthuse over next.
"I want to look
around the mausoleum," Daniel replied, distractingly caressing his
fingers through the hair on Jack's chest. "We deduced yesterday
that the evidence fits the scenario of a sophisticated society rescuing
a primitive culture and transplanting it here. I realise now that
the mausoleum literally is a monument to the culture that died out
forty thousand years ago. I want to look at it with fresh
eyes." An inquisitive hand skimmed down over Jack's hip and thigh
to delicately rest on his knee. "How's…"
"Fine. I'm
good to go," Jack interrupted, shocked all over again at just how
damned good it was to have Daniel's hands on him. "God, I love
you," he mumbled, hoarse in his gratitude, against Daniel's skin,
feeling this was something he couldn't tell Daniel enough, however hard
it was for him to get the words out. It won him a smile, a real
one, the one that lit up Daniel for him and liquefied his insides.
He was going to have
to work like a goddamn bastard to get his feelings under control.
Jack may have struck the mother lode here with Daniel, but he had two
teammates back home who depended on him just as much, who trusted him
to make the right decisions for all of them. They deserved as
much of Jack as Daniel got, but they didn't question the favouritism
he'd shown to Daniel from the start. They shared it to some
extent. Even so, Jack felt he'd lost his balance, and with him,
the team. No one could afford to have him distracted like this.
Daniel was just as
concerned as he was, that was one good thing.
Faint uneasiness
that he was compromising the protocols that kept them all alive led
Jack to acquiesce to the mausoleum gig when what he really wanted was
to stay in bed and see how fast Daniel could send him orbital again.
"Good news,
Colonel!" Hammond greeted them.
"There is?" Jack
queried, frankly surprised.
"Major Carter and
Teal'c are on their way to meet with the Tok'ra High Council right
now. It seems our allies have arranged for the diversion of a
pel'tac piloted by Martouf and Aldwin to your sector of space.
It's already en route and it's possible they could be with you in as
little as twenty-four hours," the general reported, not exactly doing a
happy dance of joy.
"They arranged it?"
Jack demanded, disbelieving. "They didn't make you grovel?
Carter didn't have to nag her old man on bended knee?"
"Jacob Carter is
unavailable," Hammond informed them dryly.
"He always seems to
be when Sam needs information or assistance from him," Daniel commented
as he came over to stand beside Jack.
"But he's first in
line when they need something from us," Jack snapped. "Odd how
they didn't rush to the rescue when you first informed them we were
trapped like rats here - what? A week or so ago?"
"In return for
rescuing you, Colonel," Hammond went on, looking as cynical as he
sounded, "the Tok'ra require your assistance on an unspecified mission."
Jack's enthusiasm
for unspecified Tok'ra missions showed.
"They are our
allies, Jack," Daniel pointed out dutifully if not wholly convincingly.
"Specifically Dr.
Jackson's assistance," Hammond went on.
Now that was
entirely different! Jack stiffened, telling himself any trifling
protective feelings for Dr. Jackson were perfectly natural, he was
after all a civilian for whom Jack was responsible. He would have
felt the exact same urge to beat Marty to a pulp even if he wasn't
falling like the proverbial ton of bricks for Daniel. In point of
fact, he still owed Marty one for Carter and Netu.
"I sent Major Carter
and Teal'c to ascertain the nature of this mission."
"Why don't you leave
the ascertaining to me, Sir," Jack invited the general. "I'll be
more than happy to ascertain in person when Marty and his little minion
get here."
Both Daniel and
Hammond shot him hard looks.
"I'm no happier
about this than you are, Jack," Hammond began.
"It shows?" Jack
asked sarcastically.
Daniel sighed.
"But I have no
choice but to go along with it…"
"For now!" Jack
interjected vehemently.
"It's our best
chance for rescuing you two men and so far, it's our only chance,"
Hammond reminded him.
"Out of the frying
pan and into the fires of hell, eh?" Jack enquired with awful
politeness.
"Martouf will have
to tell me something about the mission," Daniel pointed out with
annoyingly calm good sense. He blinked as Jack and Hammond broke
off their polite little pissing contest to look at him. "I'll
need the appropriate linguistic and historical reference books and
articles," he explained matter-of-factly.
"He never leaves
home without 'em!" Jack commented approvingly, fighting an insane urge
to see if he could get away with groping Daniel's ass. The camera
was pointed at their faces, after all. One brief, speculative
glance later, Jack decided Daniel was a damned interfering know-it-all
when he prudently sidled off to a more discreet distance. Jack
made a mental note to work on his poker face.
"I'm expecting
Carter to report back after the council meets, approximately eight
hours from now. In the meantime, be prepared for any
transmissions from the Tok'ra."
"We're armed for
Club Med," Jack pointed out briskly.
"The SGC will remain
on stand-by, Colonel," Hammond responded. "We'll send through any
weapons and equipment you may need as our intelligence is
updated. The next scheduled check-in will be at 1800, but as soon
as we hear from Carter, you'll hear from us."
"Sir."
"Hammond out."
"Damn!" Jack snapped
as the wormhole disengaged.
"It could have been
worse," Daniel said pacifically.
"How?"
"We could have been
stuck here for months. You'd go out of your mind with boredom."
Daniel was right in
some ways of course but…"There are compensations." Jack put his
hand on Daniel's hip, so sexy to hold this way the man who didn't like
to be touched. The freedom, the intimacy Jack had now was
intoxicating.
"Sophisticated
semantic-phonetic compounds?" Daniel queried, his eyes impish.
"Exactly."
Jack so wanted to kiss Daniel, which showed exactly how much he
listened to himself let alone anyone else. "I'm sorry."
Very focused on a
large, holding hand, Daniel was surprised, an eyebrow quirking as he
mentally shifted gears.
"I know how much you
wanted to find out what happened to these people, and with the gate
busted, we'll never come back," Jack explained sympathetically.
From the way Daniel got all dewy-eyed and defenceless, Jack suspected
he'd just earned himself major points there. "You wanted to poke
around today. So where do we start?"
"I honestly don't
know," Daniel remarked. "I've made so many assumptions."
Jack didn't like to
hear Daniel talk like that. He was well ware how selfish it was,
to not want to hear it, but he couldn't change the fact Daniel worked
in a field unit and he didn't want to. It was even more selfish
to be glad Daniel wasn't the morose, self-pitying type so he didn't
have to think about it too often.
He reflected that it
was strange how Daniel knew all of this about him and was pretty okay
with it so long as he could call Jack on it when he felt he needed
to. Personally, he would have run a mile if their positions were
reversed. No one was more aware than he that he was at best a
fixer-upper. It occurred to him then that getting naked with
Daniel had probably given him a lot more rights over Jack, or at least
made it harder for Jack to shut him up when he got started. Jack
shrugged. Daniel was just a little more familiar with the warts
and all stuff than he was with the wine and roses and being spoilt
rotten stuff, which he would be finding out about as soon as Jack got
him home.
"The architecture
here in the mausoleum is so different to that in the town, with this
incredible organic flow." Daniel walked over to smooth careful
latex-clad fingers over the wall of the gate chamber, looking over his
shoulder to Jack. "Why the rigidity of line and uniformity
there? Why, if the uber-species was capable of this artistry and
sophistication, is the accommodation they provided for our putative
refugees so uneasy, so unsuited to the needs of the people they built
it for?"
Jack wondered if
this was a rhetorical question, but he decided answering it would get
him subtly back in touching distance. "Time?" he suggested,
unable to shake that same embarrassed, sinking feeling he used to get
in seventh grade, when he was called on in Miss Timmerman's
class. He fell into step with Daniel, who was walking a slow,
observant circuit of the chamber. "Whatever happened, happened
quickly," Jack suggested. "The uber-species probably didn't have
much time to get the refugees here, and they had an immediate, pressing
problem of accommodation and policing. Pre-Simpsons evolved
societies get kind of freaky around aliens, and being kidnapped by a
bunch of 'em?"
"No, wait!" Daniel
threw up a hand, licking his lip nervously. "There's more to it
than that." He turned quickly to stare at the Stargate. "I
hypothesised that the Stargate was worshipped by the culture here,
imbued with mystical significance. You know, one of the earliest
translations I saw of the glyphs for the Stargate - based on Budge,
what can I tell you? - was 'doorway to heaven'. Imagine if you
were primitive…"
"I'm sensing you
don't think that would take much work in my case," Jack complained,
slightly offended by this.
"I'm thinking about
that four am alarm call you gave me this morning," Daniel reminded him,
flushing slightly.
Oh.
Well. That was of course different. "Context is
everything," Jack rebuked Daniel, a sleek, complacent grin surfacing as
he too recalled some slightly more than moderately okay sex.
"Exactly!" Daniel
said triumphantly. "How would you feel if you were taken by an
alien species through a portal you sent your dead into?"
"Maybe freaky isn't
the word for it," Jack admitted uncomfortably. "Daniel - about
the town? What would you see in a newly established refugee camp
on Earth?"
"Tents, rudimentary
sanitation, health services, central distribution of rations," Daniel
answered fluently.
"And later, the
construction of less temporary structures as other diseases caused by
overcrowding kick in and start culling the refugee population."
"Like the terracing
to make the refugees…" Daniel hesitated. "More comfortable?
Less afraid?" He stood staring into the middle distance, his arms
sneaking around to hug over his chest as he thought this through.
Jack leaned against
the wall, getting the familiar charge out of seeing how Daniel's
brilliant mind worked. Carter may have been smarter than Jack,
but he often took a sneaking pleasure in seeing Daniel being smarter
than Carter. Jack couldn't explain it, but the intuitive,
inspired leaps Daniel made were for him all the difference between
brilliance - which Carter certainly had - and genius.
"All the creative
energy of the uber-species went into this mausoleum, Jack," Daniel said
uneasily. "Not into the dwellings below. They invested
themselves into this memorial, not into the lives of the people
they…" Again, he hesitated edgily. "Rescued from
disaster? Transplanted for study? Harvested for slaves?"
"They didn't last
long, did they?" Jack asked compassionately as Daniel gazed around him,
certainly seeing the place with new eyes, but probably not the ones
he'd wanted. "It's all speculation," he offered, putting his hand
on Daniel's shoulder.
Daniel shook off his
abstraction. "It's our best guess." He glanced betrayingly
at Jack. "I wish I knew how they'd died," he confessed
softly. "What it was a sophisticated species couldn't save them
from."
"Maybe you have
enough text to make a translation?" Jack suggested consolingly.
"Maybe."
Daniel didn't sound optimistic. "The digital footage of the
smaller chambers is waiting for me back at base. Added to the
detailed rubbings I have, it might be enough."
"Who are we trying
to convince here?"
"That's really
annoying."
"Isn't it, though?"
"We know each other
way too well," Daniel mourned, his eyes dancing.
"Sucks all the fun
right out of it," Jack commented agreeably.
"It's a good thing
we've got all that make-up sex to look forward to, or I wouldn't give
you the time of day," Daniel sniffed, walking rather closer as they
made their way out of the gate chamber.
"Which way?"
Jack looked around vaguely at the chambers surrounding them.
"The chambers I've
surveyed have all been on the route between the Stargate chamber and
the entrance to the mausoleum," Daniel mused.
"It's weird how they
did that, the uber-species I mean. There isn't straight line in
the place but they still get you where you need to go," Jack observed
casually, watching Daniel run his hands gently over one of the
interminable carved faces. Deciding that reality was going to
bite about twenty hours from now and he may as well be bad while he
could, Jack ran his hands gently over the distracted archaeologist, who
wriggled a bit but otherwise failed to protest.
"Jack, that's a
brilliant idea!" Daniel enthused, looking over his shoulder to plant a
swift, admiring kiss on Jack's cheek.
"Thank you," Jack
accepted modestly, certain Daniel would tell him exactly how brilliant
he'd been in due course, preferably in layman's terms.
"You have this knack
for taking the most complex ideas and rendering them in their simplest
terms," Daniel went on, blithely assuming his sentiments were shared.
"That's me.
The common denominator," Jack joked.
"No, you're
absolutely right, Jack. Just because there's no pattern we can
discern doesn't mean there isn't one." Energised, Daniel began to
follow the contours of each chamber wall, checking between for another
opening big enough to let them through. "I focused my efforts on
the gate chamber and the larger one near the entrance which contained
the panels of text, moving on to survey the chambers that were accessed
on the route from one to the other, east to west. They were the
ones I considered to be the most important."
"Buuut," Jack
drawled, getting the point, "the people who built this place might have
different standards."
"Exactly!"
Jack walked to the
far side of the chamber and began to work his way back. He didn't
find a gap big enough to squeeze through, but Daniel did. It was
the only one apart from the one they usually used, so their decision
was made for them. "Let's get lost," Jack said lightly, leading
the way.
It was one of the
pleasantest times Daniel had ever spent with Jack. They walked
for a couple of hours, patiently wending their way through dusty honey
walled chambers, muted sunlight slanting down on them, filtered somehow
through the domed roof above to unexpectedly strike walls and pool on
floors. The effect was artful, a matter of design in Daniel's
opinion, not accident. Every shaft of light illuminated a
particular bas-relief or a subtle image on the floor. After the
third of these illusions in stone, Jack and he were sure they were
seeing the same pictographs they'd found in the small town below,
lovingly replicated, just as the event horizon was replicated in the
largest chamber near the western entrance.
Jack was right about
there being only one route through but progress was necessarily slow as
they had to check each of the chambers ahead of them in turn before
finding the correct one and moving on. They took a break for
water and an energy bar, sitting side by side with the stone faces of
the long dead all around them.
"Did you notice that
the way ahead always seems to be lit up?" Jack took a long
swallow of water, mulling this over. "We didn't see anything like
this on the main route from east to west."
"I've been thinking
about that," Daniel agreed amicably. "Speculating that perhaps
the aliens had a purpose for all of this. The path from the gate
chamber to the western entrance is the one of least resistance, it
takes you straight through the mausoleum and out onto the plateau."
"A defensive
measure?" Jack nodded approvingly. "I can see that. If
visitors are only here for material gains, they'll be more interested
in the town and the land outside than a seemingly empty temple.
You don't see much of anything in this place except for a few
tiny squiggles on the walls, not until you really start to poke around."
"Which you don't
unless you have way more manpower than we do or you've already explored
the chambers we have and found the texts," Daniel added, ignoring the
'squiggles' remark for now, although, naturally, he was going to
extract revenge later. "It feels to me as if our path is being
directed. Finding the pictographs led me to question my
assumptions about what I was seeing, which brought us back here."
"Maybe they're
hiding something in plain sight? Camouflage is a calculated risk,
but in this case deflecting attention from the mausoleum may have been
successful. There's literally nothing of value around here unless
you're prepared to move in and work for it. Not the obvious
choice of your average planet-raper." Noticing Daniel glancing
meaningfully at his energy bar, Jack offered him a bite. "Leave
the fingers!" he warned as Daniel leaned across.
Daniel ignored
this. He took a careful bite of moist, chewy goodness and suckled
on the tips of Jack's fingers before moving slowly away, leaving Jack
shivering and staring with a very different kind of hunger.
"Where do you pack
it away?" Jack huffed as Daniel settled back to savour the nuts and
cereals instead of more of Jack. He finished his energy bar with
a petulant bite.
"You have to work
for this too," Daniel said, a trifle thickly. "This route through
the north sector of the mausoleum. You constantly have to scan
the route ahead."
"We're doubling back
on ourselves too," Jack commented.
"Unless you really
wanted to know what was in this huge, empty space, would you make the
effort and persist?"
"I'm only persisting
because I'm totally enjoying the view," Jack pointed out as they got up.
Pleased by this
evidence of sensitivity, Daniel glanced up at the chamber walls as he
led the way, each of the faces unique, imbued with character and
dignity. "They are beautiful," he agreed softly.
"Mmm-hmm!" Jack
agreed with relish. "I'll have to put you on point more often."
Daniel stopped as a
reverent hand skimmed over his ass, wondering if all the sex and
satisfaction were dulling his natural Jack-honed instincts.
"Since when did I believe a word you said to me?" he sighed, milking
the martyrdom.
"Since I stopped
bullshitting you?" Jack suggested sweetly, apparently scenting danger.
Daniel smoulderingly
eyed his meek Air-Force love-toy and was soundly kissed for his
pains. "I must be out of my mind!" he complained, annoyingly
flustered.
"I've been thinking
that for a while," Jack pointed out with unflattering
promptitude. "If I was you, I would not be letting me get naked
with you, no way. It's just asking for trouble."
Daniel had to agree
with this assessment. He was finding Jack distressingly cute, not
annoying. The man had wiles all his own.
"Do you know much
about sociology?"
Slightly staggered
by this question, Daniel gaped over his shoulder.
"Gender roles," Jack
explained lightly. "Studies have shown that women are better off
emotionally and physically single, while men are better off in couples,
i.e., with the woman adoring him and ministering to his every need and
whim twenty-four seven."
"Which explains why
women are better off alone," Daniel said, unable to resist the Jackian
siren call despite himself.
"That's us!"
"I'm not ministering
to anything," Daniel denied briskly, nipping this beguiling domesticity
in the bud.
"I'm secure enough
in my masculinity to minister to you," Jack informed him, disturbingly
bright-eyed.
"You're scaring me."
"Don't be
silly." Jack gave him a little push - in the ass - to get him
moving.
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing."
"Jack! What do
you mean by ministering?"
"Nothing to worry
you at all," Jack declared, sincerity slithering from every soothing
syllable.
"Jack, I mean
it. You're scaring me!"
"Good."
Trying to buy time
to formulate a really cutting response, Daniel stalked away, rapidly
checking between each of the chambers in front of them. This
time, he didn't find a gap. "Check inside," he called to Jack,
refusing to accept they'd been led into a dead end. A sudden
shout from Jack sent him running to find the smooth walls of the
chamber he was inside fade into the roughness of rock.
"You've got to be
kidding me!" Jack marvelled, rapping his knuckles on the rock.
"They moved the caves here?" he asked, astonished.
"Maybe," Daniel
sounded a cautious note. He was trying very hard not to get -
well, he still thought 'orgasmic' was wildly overstating the
case. Of course, next time he and Jack were cuddled up in sweaty,
satisfied exhaustion, he could get an update on this now Jack had a
basis for comparison.
The dim light of the
chamber didn't penetrate far into what did look for all the world like
a cave entrance. Ignoring Jack's ironical look, Daniel took out
his flashlight, directing the beam at the walls while Jack walked a
little way into the opening to check out the terrain.
"Your actual dirt,"
he called. "The uber-species must have carved a whole hunk of
stone right out of the ground," he said as Daniel caught him up.
"The more we see,
the less sense this situation makes," Daniel frowned as they moved out
slowly, scanning the roof and walls ahead for structural weaknesses and
pictographs, of course. The cave complex followed the layout
they'd seen in the town, the entrance winding in on itself, a
protection against harsh weather conditions perhaps, or predators.
"They must have had
ships to be able to transport this."
Daniel nodded
agreement, conscious of his heart beginning to race as they closed in
on the central cave. They made their way through the narrow
opening, seeing light filtering through. "Seeing it like this, in
context - it changes everything," Daniel said quietly. "All our
perceptions were off."
"In the town, I saw
it as a dangerous bottleneck, but here, without having to factor in the
risk of structural fire, it's clearly defensible," Jack pointed out,
"even with just a couple of sentries standing guard"
The cave opened out
ahead of them and Daniel caught his breath, slowing his pace to drink
it all in. The subtly lit grandeur of the natural rock terraces
and the roof arcing overhead held him utterly spellbound. He
stumbled to a halt in the central floor of the cave, gazing raptly at
the eloquent, glowing pictographs bathed in soft ambient light, blazing
in their perfectly preserved vitality all around him. Tears
pricking his eyes at the ancient beauty surrounding him, Daniel wasn't
ashamed to find it quite magical, not just as a glimpse into lives and
beliefs long-buried in the distant past, but in the inexplicable
humbling commitment of the unknown alien species to commemorate its
loss.
"The town below -
it's nothing but a pale imitation," Daniel murmured, aware of Jack's
presence immediately behind him. Arms came around him; he wasn't
sure if it was opportunism or empathy making Jack want to share the
moment. "The people - the refugees? They must have been starved
for this place. The aliens who brought them here tried so hard to
replicate what we're seeing around us but all they made was a soulless
structural copy. They didn't capture the spirit, the feel of
it." He looked down musingly at the cave floor. "I wonder
if this was where the Stargate stood on the primitive's world? If
they came here to worship, to inter their dead? If it was more
than a tribal space, a gathering or meeting place - if it was sacred to
them?"
"They didn't draw
the Stargate that we could see."
"They drew what they
understood, I think. People they knew, animals they hunted or
raised domestically. Predators. The trees and flowers, the
things they saw every day and were part of their lives." Daniel
looked again at the wealth of pictographs. "The images
could be part of the burial ritual," he speculated, fascinated by all
the possibilities opening out for him. "But there really aren't
enough of them to commemorate the loss of every loved one. The
images towards the centre of the cave ceiling argue a certain level of
technological sophistication, because they're too far out for a man to
reach from the terraces below. It does suggest the cave was used
over time, maybe over many generations."
Daniel paused and
rested his head on Jack's shoulder for a moment. "You still
awake?" he enquired. "Or am I the only thing holding you up after
boring you into a stupor?"
"Some parts of me
are more awake than others," Jack hinted suggestively, rubbing himself
against Daniel's ass.
"Not a chance in
hell," Daniel retorted, wriggling free. "Philistine," he said
accusingly as he ditched his pack and took out his video camera.
Ignoring Jack's exaggerated Jagger-like pouting at him, Daniel
scrambled inelegantly up the rock face to reach the lowest terrace,
wanting a little distance between himself and Jack before he opened up
and allowed himself to really feel this place. Daniel had grown
used to Jack's blasé matter-of-factness, while his own awareness
of his responsibilities to his teammates, his need to be always alert
made him more shy of showing how deeply he was moved by the sudden
sense of oneness and connection with people divided from him by forty
thousand years, by an alien world and culture.
He walked up to an
outcropping on the wall and stood reverently before an exquisite,
intricately detailed group of animals, some clearly equine in origin,
reminding him a little of the Przewalski's horse, extinct now outside
Mongolia and China. The sense of rhythm, the energy and texture
of the grouping raised goosebumps. Four horses flowed with the
contours of the deep red pigment of the rock, their heads perfectly
aligned, flowing in turn into the grouping of larger horned animals in
front of them. The pristine clarity of line showed Daniel what
had been impossible to determine on the flat surfaces below: every
animal differed from its fellows.
"They were great
artists," he called down to Jack, who was doing a slow circuit of the
lowest level.
"There are
hands. On the walls. Everywhere I look - hands," Jack
answered, looking as if he wasn't doing justice to what he was
seeing. "They look old. I mean, they're fading into each
other. There are so many of them, one on top of another, I
thought the wall was this deep red colour."
"Hematite deposits
were mined on Earth by prehistoric man to obtain red pigment, the black
pigment is carbon, often bonded with animal fat," Daniel informed
him. "The mining activities of early man were driven by the need
to extract red pigment, which doesn't fade." He was disappointed
by the 'whatever' look on Jack's face but let it go, turning back
instead to mural. There was so little time. Daniel could
study this one group only, then he would have to move on and simply
catalogue the rest of the cave. It was hard not to blame himself
for wasting so much time, for taking the path of least
resistance. His feeling that the unknown aliens intended it this
way didn't ameliorate his biting frustration at making such an awesome
discovery when time was running out on them.
Looking intently at
the smooth, elegant outlines of each animal, Daniel decided that
brushes had been used. Lines drawn with a twig would have been
more hesitant, lacking the glorious sweep and curve he was so
admiring. Finger tips would have been used to add coloration to
the heads of the horned animals, while the intense red pigmentation at
the rear of the horses was finely grained. Excavators in the
Lescaux area had made intensive studies of prehistoric art
techniques. If he recalled their findings correctly, they posited
the use of hollowed bones, used as airbrushes. Bone marrow was in
fact one of the binding agents used in the pigments.
Carefully framing
each precious shot, Daniel filmed the first mural, finding it so hard
to move away from it. The skill and empathy of the artists, the
beauty they saw in wild things, in their lives - with everything that
separated them and defeated true understanding, still, he felt close to
them.
"Are you okay?" Jack
asked for perhaps the fourth or fifth time, as they wearily picked
their way down the path that led to the camp.
It was late, after
two am. Jack had given Daniel every minute he could spare and
more to complete filming of the pictographs. It was past time for
Daniel to let the cave and these people go. Jack needed him to
focus now on the upcoming mission. Turning impulsively, Daniel
stopped Jack and kissed him softly. "Thank you."
"No, thank you,"
Jack responded jokingly, happily groping Daniel's ass.
"For doing all that
running around and stuff," Daniel said crisply, peeling away a
resistant hand.
Jack gave him a
funny look. "You mean the mission prep?" he prompted, turning
Daniel around to get him moving again with a little smack on the rump,
a part of Daniel's anatomy he was growing excessively attached to.
"That."
Worried he might have been dismissive, Daniel hastened to reassure
Jack. "We're exactly the same," he promised earnestly.
"Sometimes I think we go so far beyond opposition, we wind up back on
the same side."
"The fact I know
precisely what you mean by that worries me intensely," Jack commented.
"I spent a whole day
filming cave walls and ceilings…"
"And little horseys."
"While you did -
stuff. With guns," Daniel said uncertainly, not entirely sure
what had eaten up Jack's day when there was no news to speak of about
the Tok'ra mission, except a confirmed E.T.A, nine hours from now.
"I secured our
equipment and armaments," Jack informed him, a suspicion of a laugh in
his voice. "Ready for transport on the pel'tac. Don't
worry, I crated all your stuff too."
"I admit I've been
distracted," Daniel confessed, his conscience pricking him. "Do
we have any intelligence? Did Sam and Teal'c find out anything of
use to us?" When he glanced back, he saw Jack pulling a face.
"I let you be
distracted," Jack admitted. "Just like I left securing the camp
until last, even though the pel'tac will be landing on the plateau in
front of the mausoleum."
"That part I
understand," Daniel said encouragingly, homing straight in on the
tent. "I refused to have sex with you in the cave!"
"You make me sound
so shallow and selfish," Jack mourned, eyeing Daniel aggrievedly as he
failed to get naked after several seconds safely under canvas.
"Shallow, selfish,
smug and shameless," Daniel condemned his love soundly, "but
tragically, sexy enough to get away with it."
Jack snorted with
laughter, flushing. "It blows me away when you say stuff like
that," he mumbled, getting all embarrassed.
Daniel made a
careful mental note of this, feeling he could use all the help he could
get in handling Jack.
"C'm 'ere!" Jack
ordered, snatching him into a fierce hug.
Worried now, Daniel
held Jack tight. "If you need to talk," he hinted. "Is it
the mission?"
"Let's go to bed,"
Jack murmured, need husking his voice as he gently pushed Daniel away,
hands already moving to his clothes.
As Daniel undressed,
he felt Jack's eyes on him, as warm as any touch. It occurred to
him to let Jack know he was with him, that unravelling the mystery of
this place was the work of many months, once they were safely
home. Not that it didn't hurt to walk away with more questions
than when he'd arrived and no more than the most cursory sensory
impressions of the marvellous accomplishments of two ancient, seemingly
extinct cultures whose fates were inextricably bound.
"I did all I could
here, Jack," Daniel insisted as he and Jack lay down and tangled up on
the tumbled sleeping bags, finding nakedness added volumes to his
powers of persuasion.
"Yes?" Jack asked
intently, stroking Daniel's face with grubby fingers.
"Yes," Daniel agreed
firmly, rolling on top of Jack. "I'm used to the
compromise. It's one I chose to make because being part of SG-1
gives me what I've always dreamed. Living cultures, Jack!" he
breathed reverently. "There's comfort and sanity in the science
and methodology of archaeology, and I do miss it, but to go back to
that and only that?" He shook his head in instinctive rejection
as he spoke. "How could I blind myself? How could I not
touch?" he asked, low-voiced. "Can you imagine the frustration I
feel, reading a language I can't speak? I can't go back to my
books alone, not when I can communicate, not when I can learn by
engaging with the living past."
Jack took all of
this without a blink, running his hands with single-minded appreciation
over every contour of Daniel's shoulders and back.
"I feel I have an
unfair advantage," Daniel remarked, giving an illustrative shimmy.
"So use it!"
"I think the alien
race are responsible for what happened to the primitives," Daniel said
simply. "The lengths they went to in order to preserve the memory
of these people makes me believe it was the only thing they could
save. Guilt is a powerful motivator." Although not as
powerful as Daniel's bare behind, apparently. "What do you think?"
"I think you're
right." Jack considered this. "Not just because you're
naked and looking at me like that," he added conscientiously.
"Not even because I want you to shut up and start shimmying again."
"I've been thinking
about a few things," Daniel went on, palliating his verbosity with a
few kisses against Jack's throat. "The way our choices have been
manipulated since we arrived. As you said, we've had to work hard
for everything, even the barest comprehension of what happened
here. It makes me think - you know the axiom 'set a thief to
catch a thief'?"
"You're thinking the
uber-species played us so well because it was their own game they were
playing? Makes sense."
"I think so
too. It makes me much more confident that I will find the answers
I'm looking for in those panels of text." Daniel musingly stroked
a finger through Jack's chest hair. "So much deliberation went
into the mausoleum, so much effort was made to preserve the memory of
the race that died, I find it hard now to believe that those panels of
text are meaningless. The uber-species want others to know what
happened, but they want you to work for understanding, to respect
it. They're teaching lessons learned." He gently kissed
Jack's 'supportive' face, feeling he really did have to let this go
now. "Tell me what Sam found out about the mission," he invited
Jack.
"Well, we're not
going to Hell," Jack responded ironically. "All Carter was able
to find out is that this is a rescue mission." He shrugged his
shoulders. "Naturally, for reasons the Tok'ra won't go into, only
a human, specifically you, will do."
Daniel found this
scenario highly unlikely. "The Tok'ra need an archaeologist - or
linguist - to mount a rescue?" he said dubiously.
Jack nodded
gloomily. "Which is enough to tell me this is a covert
operation. Wherever we're going, and believe me, Carter and the
big guy asked repeatedly, we're going in undercover and it's going to
take time."
This explained why
Jack was worried. "Any indications who it is they want us to
rescue?"
"The High Councillor
would only say that Marty and Aldwin would explain when they got
here. Oh, and they felt confident that when the situation was
explained, we would understand. Yeah, right. We understand
we're getting boned all over again just fine, thanks." Jack
looked pathetically up at Daniel, inviting him to kiss it all better.
Daniel obliged and
things got breathless and interesting for a while, until a nagging
thought snuck out. "Why aren't Sam and Teal'c here?" he
blurted. There was no way their teammates would let them go into
a dangerous mission without their back-up.
"That's the kicker,"
Jack said bitterly. "The Tok'ra were emphatic that no one who had
ever carried a symbiote could participate in the mission - Carter
couldn't get out of them why - which ruled out both her and Teal'c from
the mission."
"Are we going into
some kind of Goa'uld stronghold?" Daniel speculated. The Goa'uld
could sense the presence of other symbiotes, while Seth had known Sam
had once carried one. As her own senses had sharpened, Sam had
deduced that the symbiotes could detect the residual presence of
naquadah in the body rather than the symbiote itself.
"Looks that
way. Covert means no weapons, by the way."
"This is very
worrying." Daniel absently kissed Jack's nose. "I'm very
worried."
"Tell me about
it. You and me are going to be in it while Marty and Aldwin sit
on their hands in orbit and watch."
"If we're rescuing
someone important to them, they won't leave us." Daniel heard the
uncertainty in his voice. He had to keep reminding himself the
Tok'ra were their allies when they seemed more often to use the SGC
than to respect it.
"Not if everything
goes according to their plan, the plan they'll only partially reveal to
us. Where it gets freaky is if something goes wrong. Aldwin
would drop a bomb on us in a heartbeat and let's just say messing with
our minds and our lives doesn't exactly keep Marty awake nights," Jack
said cynically.
Daniel had to
ask. "The Tok'ra High Council think we'll be okay about all this
once we know what the mission is?"
"That worries me
more than anything," Jack admitted.
Conscious that they
were really losing the mood, Daniel asked if they could table further
mission discussion until tomorrow. Unless Jack really…
Jack didn't.
He pulled Daniel into a breathlessly tender kiss, smoothly rolling him
onto his back, resting all his weight on him, sure he would take
it. It was Daniel's turn to covet broad shoulders, a strong,
muscular back, tight buttocks flexing beneath his hands as Jack rocked
their bodies together. In their few times together, they'd found
the necessary rhythm, satisfyingly slow and steady, hot skin rubbing,
then slicking with sweat to slip and slide as greedy cocks ground,
pleasure panging heavy and low, shivering through their aching bodies
as they loved. Jack's mouth was on his; the kiss raged as they
moved together. Always together.
They sat shoulder to
shoulder watching the sun come up, savouring their scalding coffee and
their last moments of quietude and freedom in this place.
"So much has
changed," Daniel murmured, breaking the stillness as the sky streaked
with colour.
"I was just thinking
how much is the same," Jack grinned at him affectionately. "It
just came clearer. For me, anyway. Apparently, De Nile
isn't only a river in Egypt."
Excuse me?" Daniel
asked blankly.
"De Nile."
Jack rolled his eyes as Daniel continued to look at him in polite
incomprehension. "De-ni-al," he enunciated with exaggerated
patience.
"Oh."
"You have this way
of taking the best punchline and killing it utterly to death," Jack
complained.
"I have a great ass,
though."
Jack found no fault
with this agreeable sentiment and did kind of a check out it thing for
the purposes of verification.
"Have you considered
that maybe it's your delivery, not my sense of humour?" Daniel
suggested.
"No."
"Because I find
plenty of other things funny."
"No, you don't."
"Yes, I do."
"You do not!
I've never heard you laugh once and I've known you for four years."
"I'm laughing on the
inside."
"You're like this
itch I can't scratch!"
"I love you too,
Jack."
When the expected
retort didn't come, Daniel turned questioningly to find Jack staring at
him.
"I guess some things
have changed," Jack admitted reluctantly. He didn't fight the arm
Daniel put around him, sighing a bit and relaxing into it. "I've
always kept my private life far, far away from the Air Force. I
don't know how I'm going to adjust to being responsible for you in the
field and your lover at home. How can I separate the two?"
"I don't know.
I've never thought it through." Daniel smiled a little. "I
never thought we'd make it this far and now we have, I don't know where
we go from here any more than you do. I love you and I need to be
part of SG-1. I have to have both. Whatever that takes,
I'll do."
"I feel the same."
"Maybe the mission
will be a chance to see how we react to one another under pressure
without Sam and Teal'c being affected?" Daniel suggested
diffidently. "I trust you." He hoped Jack could return his
trust too.
"I'm not sure I
trust myself and this is the last mission I'd choose to test my
limitations," Jack argued.
"We already made our
choice, Jack," Daniel reminded him gently.
Jack hugged him
tight around the neck and kissed his temple. "I know. I'm
happy, I am, I just…" He shrugged off his unaccustomed hesitance
impatiently and told Daniel they had to get going. "Hammond wants
a final check-in."
The next hour was
too filled with the tedious chores of striking camp for Daniel to have
time to think, let alone speak. They took down the tent together,
then Daniel packed away his books, notes, maps, surveys and samples,
keeping his laptop accessible for the arrival of the two
Tok'ra. By the time he was done, Jack had finished his own
tasks and they left without fuss, manoeuvring Daniel's cases up the
narrow path to the main trail taking all their attention.
Daniel stopped and
looked down at the small town on the plain for a few moments, thinking
that it had seen more of death than of life, then he turned decidedly
and they began the long climb up to the mausoleum.
Unwilling to break
the comfortable silence, Daniel kept his thoughts to himself.
Oddly, Jack's determined realism gave him more hope they had a future
together than any extravagant, romantic promise. They'd always
worked at their friendship and he was beginning to accept that would
never change. He believed it made the bond they shared
stronger. They weren't blind about one another, they challenged
as much as they accepted. Somehow, they would find a way.
Daniel was certain of it. They loved one another, and they always
came together in the end.
Hammond's anger and
frustration bit through the viewing screen. "They're still
stonewalling us, Jack," he snapped.
"General, I have no
qualms whatsodamnever about stiffing the snakes and leaving them to
clean up their own mess," Jack said coldly. "What're they gonna
do? Dump us out the airlock?"
Hammond's face
relaxed into a reluctant grin.
"We're getting off
this rock," Jack informed him confidently. "Everything else is
open to negotiation." He hefted his MP-5 as he spoke.
"Remember we have a
treaty," Hammond warned him, amusement sparking.
"You can rely on me
to be as diplomatic as I'm capable of being," Jack promised
faithfully. Strangely, the general didn't seem to find this
reassuring.
"If you said you'd
be as diplomatic as Dr. Jackson can be," Hammond hinted.
Jack looked blandly
back at him.
"How's our boy?"
"Inclined to be
philosophical about it all." Jack was sure he didn't need to
state this did not tally with his position at all. Martouf had
loved his mate Jolinar for hundreds of years, hell, he was supposed to
have feelings for Carter, but Jack had seen that whatever feelings a
Tok'ra was supposed to have, expedience won out. Always. He
was no more prepared to accept that when Daniel was the focus than he
had been when the Tok'ra came for Carter.
"Major Carter is
running an analysis of all the planets with Stargates in your sector of
space," Hammond informed him. "We'll run the list by the Tollan
and the Asgard, see what we can shake up."
"I'm sure they'll be
as helpful and informative as ever," Jack said sarcastically.
"Sir, if it looks hairy, I will abort."
"You'll have my full
backing," Hammond told him curtly. "Do whatever you think is
necessary, Jack."
"I fully intend to."
"Next check-in at
0700, Colonel. Hammond out."
There was nothing
left for Jack to do but position everything they had to leave behind in
the path of the wormhole and book for the western entrance. The
snakes were expected any minute and Daniel's native inquisitiveness
meant he was more likely to be watching the roof of the mausoleum - he
was wondering this morning how that artfully focused sunlight was
filtered down into the chambers they'd explored yesterday - than the
skies.
As he walked swiftly
back along the familiar route, Jack was profoundly grateful his knee
could take his full weight again, although he was fully prepared to
suffer a relapse if he didn't like what he was hearing from the
Tok'ra. He'd been walking for about ten minutes when his
radio clicked.
"Come in, Jack."
"Go ahead, Daniel,"
Jack ordered.
"They're here."
Jack picked up the
pace and ran.
Jack was highly
amused to find Daniel using the two disconcerted Tok'ra as porters when
he arrived at the front entrance. Jack greeted Martouf and Aldwin
casually, gave them his best 'glad you were in the neighbourhood,
thanks for stopping by' spiel, then found himself toiling along with
them as each of the precious sample cases were stowed in turn under
Daniel's exacting directions. Jack was intrigued to see the
pel'tac's cargo was already piled high with carefully stacked crates.
As usual, he found
the Tok'ra poker-faced, but with these two, that didn't mean
much. Martouf's handsome, smiling face was always annoyingly
bland and Aldwin wasn't exactly what Jack would call a ray of sunshine
on his best day. When the last case was safely on board, Daniel
thawed visibly and thanked them nicely for their assistance. Jack
had a sneaking suspicion Dr. Jackson was way tougher on his dig teams
than Jack had ever been on Daniel.
When they walked
into the forward compartment, Aldwin headed straight over to the
pilot's seat and prepared for take-off.
"Kill the engines,"
Jack ordered curtly. "We're not leaving this rock until I'm
satisfied with your intelligence for this mission." Which would
be a cold day in hell as far as Jack was concerned.
Aldwin and Marty
exchanged a quick look, then Aldwin complied, turning to face them as
Marty took the co-pilot's seat. Jack and Daniel took the two rear
seats.
"Well, isn't this
cosy?" Jack commented brightly.
"It was not our
intention to withhold information from you, Colonel O'Neill," Aldwin
assured him.
"Really?" Jack
marvelled. "This week has been chock full of firsts."
Daniel coughed
slightly and avoided his eye.
"But we have a long
journey ahead of us and little time," Aldwin went on inexorably, as if
Jack hadn't spoken.
"Forgive our haste,
Colonel," Martouf supported his comrade. "We did not expect to
have to travel to this world. It is far from the course we
intended. The damage to the Stargate here was regrettable,
causing us a delay we can ill-afford."
"Why?" Daniel asked
straight-forwardly, eyebrows quirking over bright, quizzical eyes.
Jack decided Daniel
was never, ever going to outgrow that puppyish enthusiasm of his and he
was to poker faces what Kinsey was to ethical politics.
"The world we are
travelling to is home to a race called the Dhatura," Martouf answered,
resting his hands on his knees as he leaned earnestly forward.
"They are humanoid but an independently developed culture, violently
antagonistic towards the Goa’uld. The people have been subject to
harvesting raids for hosts in the past but are unwilling to block their
Stargate gate because they trade a rare mineral, highly prized by
another race with which they have close economic and cultural
ties. These people are known as the Sola.”
"Do you have the
co-ordinates for these worlds?" Jack asked. "General Hammond will
be checking in with us in about, oh…" He made a show of checking his
watch. "Twenty minutes. He's loathe to authorise a mission
he knows so little about," he said flatly.
"We will be happy to
transmit the co-ordinates when the general makes contact," Martouf
offered smoothly.
“As a consequence of
their hostility towards the Goa'uld, the Dhatura have developed a
technology which allows them to scan all gate travellers for the
presence of naquadah," Aldwin picked up the tale with his customary
precision. "They are unusually advanced for a humanoid species,"
he added stiffly.
"Tell that to the
Tollan," Jack retorted affably. "They kick Goa'uld ass on a
regular basis. Amazing how some species never seem to accelerate
up that learning curve, huh?" He smiled offensively at their
hosts.
"If the Dhatura are
so violently antagonistic to the Goa'uld, how did you discover they'd
developed this technology?" Daniel interjected, with a repressive look
at Jack.
"A Tok'ra operative
named Mell'e was able to transmit the information to us before she was
captured by the Dhaturan authorities."
"If this Mell'e made
it onto the planet, then presumably she didn't get there by Stargate,"
Jack commented.
"Mell'e did not
visit Dhatur, Colonel. She was trading with the Sola on behalf of
the High Council," Martouf explained. "It was a simple matter of
arranging an exchange of minerals, a trade highly beneficial to us
both."
"So what went
wrong?" Jack demanded.
“The Sola’s own
resources are depleted and they are desperate to maintain supplies of
the mineral on which their technology depends," Martouf went on.
"It is the basis of their trade agreements with the Dhatura.
Mell'e was able to learn much about the Dhatura during her talks with
the Sola." He hesitated, looking grave. "I regret to say
that a delegation from Dhatura discovered her presence and were
infuriated by the seeming Sola collusion with the hated Goa'uld.
When they refused to accept there was a difference between Goa'uld and
Tok'ra, the Sola immediately took Mell'e and her companion to the
Stargate."
"They were attacked
en route by Dhaturan forces," Aldwin broke in. "They are a
peaceable people, Colonel, and the Dhatura weaponry appears very
advanced."
"Oh, I get it," Jack
drawled. This was what they'd understand when they heard it,
huh? Well, the snakes were just going to have to limp along
without them and find some way to get their own shiny new toys.
"We have obtained a
large shipment of the mineral sought by the Sola," Martouf reassured
them. "It is payment to the Sola to permit you and Dr. Jackson to
infiltrate a party being escorted through to Dhatura.”
"I don't think so,"
Jack denied curtly. "We're not risking our lives for technology
you won't share with us."
"You misunderstand
us, Colonel," Aldwin argued. "We have no desire to secure
Dhaturan technology. Mell'e was tortured to death. Her body
was thrown back through the Stargate as a warning to the Sola not to
resume trade negotiations with us."
"Her companion is
alive," Martouf said sorrowfully. "He is being held hostage to
ensure our co-operation. Elek is one of the oldest and wisest
among us, the only one to have traded with the Sola in the days when
they could afford to choose their partners wisely."
Taken aback by the
pleading note in Martouf's voice, Jack allowed him to go on. It
wasn't like Marty to get emotional. The guy was a walking
toothpaste commercial.
"We were not
prepared for the Sola deterioration nor for their mutual dependence on
the Dhatura or we would not have risked…" Martouf broke off and looked
at Aldwin, seeming at a loss for words.
"You want us to
rescue Elek?" Daniel asked, his natural compassion warring with his
loathing of the symbiotes, something he struggled with even around
Jacob and those Tok'ra he knew.
"We know better than
to ask that of you," Aldwin said sharply. "Your disgust for our
kind is obvious even now."
Two for two, Jack
thought. Aldwin's matter-of-fact cold bloodedness was a universal
constant, like gravity. He didn't do emotions, full stop, and his
pragmatic murderousness still rankled with Jack. "In your case,
it's purely personal!" Jack fired back at him. "You dropped a
big, honkin' bomb on us, remember?"
"It was necessary,"
Aldwin said icily. "Though of course I regret…" He trailed
off into uneasy silence.
"Elek's host is
known to you," Martouf told Jack. "Selmak brought him back from
your world."
It actually took a
minute to sink in, the enormity of it. There was only one.
Only one. "Charlie, you loveless bastards!" he roared,
surging up to his feet, darting forward. "You gave those
murdering assholes Charlie!"
Daniel was there,
between them, holding him back. "Jack! This isn't helping!"
"Did you hear the
sonovabitch?" Jack raged, his grip bruising on Daniel's
shoulders. He felt as if Daniel was the only thing holding him up
as he flinched away from terribly dim memories of the boy he'd already
failed in every way that meant something to him. Charlie was a
responsibility he hadn't been willing to take. "They sent a
child!" he spat at Daniel, savage as the long-buried guilt lashed with
Daniel's compassionate gaze. "You're no different than the
Goa'uld!" he hissed at Martouf, straining past Daniel.
Marty's eyes
flashed, Lantesh's dead voice echoing round the small
compartment. "We sent Elek with the full agreement of his host,
believing the risk was small. We have kept the child close and
taught him much. We grieve his loss more than you can know,
O'Neill."
"Charlie is the only
child among us," Aldwin said quietly, his eyes dropping.
"He…" Aldwin paused awkwardly, unusually hesitant. "He
touches all of us" he said at last, reluctantly. "Elek will keep
him safe, I swear it."
"Not his soul!"
Daniel argued fiercely, with quick understanding. "Elek may be
able to heal Charlie's body, but he can't shield his mind. The
host survives! he cried passionately.
"Elek is a
hostage. It is not in the interests of the Dhatura to harm him,"
Lantesh disparaged Daniel's concerns. "They seek to safeguard
their trade treaty with the Sola and to guarantee our exclusion.
Mell'e's death was example enough. She suffered greatly."
"The Sola believe
that the Dhatura would never harm a child," Aldwin interjected.
"It is not in their nature."
"That's comforting!"
Jack flared.
"So it would be more
accurate to say Charlie will keep Elek safe?" Daniel countered
disdainfully, keeping his back to the Tok'ra, all of his anxious
attention focused urgently on Jack. He left Aldwin and Martouf
without a word to say, stepping aside to take his seat again as he gave
Jack a necessary out from his tantrum.
Jack looked at the
two Tok'ra with bitter contempt as he too sat.
“The Sola cannot
afford to keep prisoners with their depleted resources, and one of
their reciprocal trade arrangements is the disposal of waste," Martouf
said uncomfortably, finding Jack's staring very hard to take.
"The Dhatura dispose of fissionable waste on Sola in return for the
Sola disposing of human waste. The Dhatura have a huge prison
complex, the Panoptes, a short distance from the gate. Mell’e was
held there. We believe this is where Charlie is being held also.”
"A prison?" Jack
demanded, horrified at the thought of a child being exposed to
murderers - rapists - thieves - among all the other dangers he
faced. He was furious at being manipulated, certain there was
more to this than a desire to rescue Charlie. There always was,
with the snakes. They weren't capable of straight dealing.
He and Daniel really would be on their own. He realised it was
impossible for him to object to Daniel's presence on a mission like
this. A prison was the last place he would voluntarily take the
man - he was a walking wet dream, a temptation Jack was now intimately
familiar with. It galled him that to save Charlie, he would have
to place Daniel at terrible risk too. Daniel was right,
though. Guilt was a powerful motivator.
“Panoptes is from
the Greek,” Daniel straightened up. “It means all seeing.
If their prison philosophy is panoptic, that means we probably won’t
find any kind of segregation. We have to hope Charlie is not
being held among the general prison population.” He didn’t wait
for the impact of that to hit home, launched straight in to was to him
the obvious deduction. “If the Dhatura developed independently,
how is it their language and culture incorporates Greek
philosophy? Panopticon is still a little-used synonym for prison
today on Earth.”
“That is why we
requested you for this mission, Dr. Jackson,” Martouf answered, turning
to Daniel with something like relief. “Your cultural and linguistic
expertise are well known and respected among the Tok'ra. The Sola
report that the Panoptes is well-maintained, but clearly of antique
origin. Its construction is quite different from that of the
other Dhatura buildings, seeming to defy description. It is
possible that your knowledge of the ancient architecture of so many
cultures will assist in the escape."
“I’ve been giving
the Goa’uld some thought,” Daniel interjected. “Sola and Dhatura
are both words from the Hindi, but Panoptes is from the Greek.
It’s possible these two worlds were at one time disputed by Nirrti and
Cronus, so outflung neither of them has the resources to keep the
locals under the yoke.”
“It is possible,”
Aldwin agreed coldly. “Nirrti’s position among the System Lords
was weakened significantly by her regrettably abortive attempt to
assassinate Cronus, who has himself been faced by attack from the
Tok’ra, from Sokhar and now from Apophis, who has gained all that
Sokhar lost.”
“Peachy,” Jack said
witheringly. “We have to bribe the Sola to look the other way
just to smuggle us through the gate as the scum of the Sola?
Sweet. I’m brimming over with trust and confidence,” he snapped.
“Colonel O'Neill, if
you feel it is not worth the risk," Martouf began.
“Of course it is!”
Daniel interjected acerbically.
Jack had to smile at
Daniel’s vehemence. “This may be difficult for you two to grasp,
but we don’t leave our people behind. Especially not children."
"Dr. Jackson?"
Martouf prompted.
“I fully accept the
risks,” Daniel said emphatically. "I'm well aware violence and
humiliation are used to maintain order in prisons, and the guards will
be the least of our worries. I can take care of myself, and I do
believe I can help with the escape. The principles of Greek
architecture remain constant. I can get them out. I'm sure
of it.”
Jack grinned
suddenly as a vivid memory hit from nowhere, of Daniel making a similar
assurance to General West on the first mission to Abydos. “He’s
full of shit,” Jack muttered, grin widening as the two Tok'ra looked
shocked, and then Daniel got it, flashed Jack a killing look and a
tight grin.
“Jack didn’t believe
I’d get the gate on Abydos to work, Martouf,” Daniel said primly.
He glanced at Jack speculatively. “Are you certain I have to take
him along?”
"Where will you two
be?"
"Thanks to your old
adversary Aris Boch, this pel'tac has stealth technology," Aldwin
commented. "We will land on the surface of Dhatur and remain
cloaked at the agreed rendezvous point."
"What happens if we
can't rescue Charlie?" Jack asked softly, wondering whether they really
wanted the boy back, or his symbiote. "What happens if they do
torture him, if they do break Elek? What can he give up?"
"He will die before
that happens!" Lantesh snarled. "We are not as the Goa'uld.
The host does not mean less to us than the symbiote. Elek would
give his life to safeguard the boy."
"If there's one
thing I've learned in my dealings with Goa'uld and Tok'ra," Jack coldly
countered, "It's that there are no guarantees."
"Jesus, Jack,"
Hammond swore as Jack concluded his report, the unaccustomed profanity
disturbing.
Daniel was glad to
see Jack was thinking now, despite his rage. It was an anger he
fully shared. He was just as afraid for Charlie as Jack was, just
as frayed with every minute that passed uselessly while the child
remained in danger. The two days it would take them to reach the
Sola with their precious bribe would be interminable, cooped up on the
pel'tac.
"I agree you have no
choice but to attempt to rescue the child," Hammond said gravely.
"But I'm deeply concerned about the intelligence."
"I have no doubt
whatsoever they're using Charlie to blind-side us. They told us
this Elek was one of the oldest and wisest among us. They said
the same about Selmak and look how quick they were to take him out when
they had a chance to take out Sokhar - and us - the easy way. The
concept of loyalty seems alien to them."
"Or at least has
limitations," Daniel agreed. "They are so chillingly
pragmatic. Somehow, I find their calculating deliberation worse
than wrongs committed in passion or misguided belief."
"I never thought I'd
say this, but at least you know where you stand with the
Goa'uld." Jack scrubbed his free hand over his eyes, the other
clamped to his radio. "I don't trust the Tok'ra, we have to bribe
the Sola to get us to Dhatur and damned if I didn't forget to bring my
'get out of jail free' card."
"What choice do we
have, Jack? We can't leave that boy there," the general reminded
him.
"I know!" Jack
yelled. "I know we have no choice. None," he went on more
moderately.
Daniel put his hand
on the small of Jack's back and was angrily shrugged off. He
moved stiffly away, hurt but accepting of the rebuke, the line he'd
crossed. He was startled and grateful when Jack turned and
grabbed his hand for a quick, convulsive squeeze, brief apology in his
flinty eyes.
"I'm going to put a
team on Sola," Hammond informed them. "To keep the Sola honest
and to be back-up if needed."
"The Stargate is
heavily defended - that peachy advanced weaponry the snakes claim has
never sullied their priorities for this mission. Carter and
Teal'c will never make it through the gate, not with the naquadah in
their blood."
"They don't have
to," Hammond chuckled. "Who do you think I'm relying on to keep
the Sola from double-crossing you? Major Kovacek and SG-3 can go
through the gate to negotiate with the Dhatura."
"The enemy of my
enemy is my friend?" Daniel approved.
"That detection
technology would come in mighty handy to enemies of the Goa'uld."
"Stan is very
persuasive."
"I like it," Jack
agreed. "Tell Kovacek to be sure to take the Dhatura through
SG-1's greatest hits." He glanced smugly at Daniel. "That
ought to impress them." His face darkened suddenly. "SG-2
should go with Kovacek," he tersely informed Hammond.
"Colonel?"
"I just put
Makepeace on death row for treason. I guess that makes me enemy
number one around SG-3."
There was a pause.
"SG-2 it is.
I'll give you one week, Jack. Once you're inside the prison,
we'll have no way to contact you, so stay alert. Ferretti and SG-2 will
be on standby on Dhatura to attempt extraction or to cover your six in
the escape on the fifth day after you ship into the prison.
Carter and Teal'c will hold the gate open if you can't make it to the
pel'tac for any reason." Hammond's frustration that this was the
best they could do was evident. "Rendezvous in seven days.
Good luck," he said softly. "Hammond out."
The decisive click
of Jack's radio signalled the end of their communication with the SGC,
leaving Daniel feeling truly cut off for the first time on 897.
The video conferencing, being able to see and talk with their friends
had made a necessary difference. They'd never been allowed to
feel isolated, never had any real doubt that Sam and Teal'c would come
through for them.
"The Tok'ra will
have a back-up plan, just like we do. Let's not rush to tell them
ours," Jack warned him. "We have two days to find out what
they're up to."
"It's good to know
Teal'c and Sam are watching our backs." Daniel turned back to the
ship, unwilling to waste any more time.
Jack stopped him
with a tug on his wrist, his hand gentling at once, a thumb stroking
over Daniel's palm, a caress safe from prying eyes on the
Pel'tac. "I wish we had a choice, Daniel," Jack said quietly.
"We don't."
"I don't want to
take you into a prison."
"I know," Daniel
said pacifically. "I also know the risks and I agreed to
this. I don't feel any less protective of you." He was
never sure Jack adequately understood this. Daniel was always as
afraid for Jack as he was for himself. The fear was healthy,
though. He'd learned that you needed it to help keep you
alive. "I'm scared for you too, Jack. You take too many
risks."
"You trust me?" Jack
asked keenly.
"I trust you."
Daniel wanted to gift Jack with something more because his trust
mattered so very much to him. "It was always you, Jack. Not
your command. Just you."
"I love you, you
know?" Jack melted to tenderness for a brief moment.
"I love you too,"
Daniel promised, threading his fingers through Jack's for just a second
before they pulled apart.
"We have to go,"
Jack said regretfully, his barely controlled anger flaring again as
they walked towards the waiting Tok'ra. "Charlie's waiting."
He would use his
anger, Daniel knew. Just like he would channel his love for
Daniel, his fear for them all. Jack used everything, gave
everything to keep them safe, no matter what it cost him. Daniel
was more at peace with this than he had been. He couldn’t change
that part of Jack, but he did understand it and he was beginning to
accept that though he and Jack would never truly walk the same path,
they would always come together, two halves of a whole.
FINIS
“A roomful of
prison couture to choose from and I get stuck with the fuck-me
pants.”
Dr. Daniel Jackson,
Ties That Bind Part Two: "Liberty"
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