There
had been no time for Jonah to tell Therra what the bowl, what his dream
meant. Barely enough time for him to remember what she had
witnessed in the night, to feel a sinking in the pit of his stomach
knowing they would fight, that this was it for them.
No time at all between dreaming and waking, and the worker coming for
them.
Therra stood now between Jonah and Carlin, each of them staring
straight ahead, at Brenna, who was anxious and ill at ease. They
turned as the door banged open, startled to see the man called Teal'c
carried into the office on a stretcher, frighteningly still, his arms
crossed over his chest as if they had been arranged in death.
"Put him down over there," Brenna instructed, the workers lifting
Teal'c onto her pallet, no better or worse than the bed of any worker
here "You’re dismissed," she said brusquely and the two men filed
out, taking the empty stretcher with them.
"What’s the matter with him?" Therra, not privy to Jonah and Carlin's
speculations, asked.
"He’s dying," Brenna answered bleakly, her eyes filled with regret.
"Kel'No'Reem," Carlin said abruptly, puzzling, as if he couldn't quite
touch the meaning of the words.
Therra and Brenna both looked at him questioningly.
"What?" Jonah asked, trusting Carlin. He too felt this was
important, it struck a chord.
"I’m not sure what it means," Carlin answered, "but I think," he
hesitated.
"It’s a kind of meditation," Jonah interjected, not knowing where this
came from but feeling its truth. He - knew this. It meant
something. "He has to do it every day or he gets sick." He
spoke with increasing confidence. "Right?"
"So why doesn’t he do it?" Therra frowned.
"Because he can’t remember," Jonah said, frustrated. Carlin was
right. The treatment they gave Teal'c for night sickness was
killing him for the lack of something as simple as this, something
Teal'c found as easy as breathing. Something even Jack
could do.
"Colonel O’Neill is correct," Brenna confirmed. "As you have began to
suspect, all of you have had your memories altered."
Even though they knew this to be the truth, they were still shocked to
hear it here, without a fight, from the one person they'd judged to be
responsible for their plight. At least, until the dream Jonah had
during the night. He'd begun to see more clearly.
"You are Major Samantha Carter," Brenna informed Therra, whose eyes
widened. "Doctor Daniel Jackson," she said to Carlin, "And
your friend here is named Teal'c."
Carlin was…Daniel?
Daniel.
Over Therra's head, Jonah stole a swift glance at the dark, rumpled
hair, intense blue eyes, skin creamy beneath the dirt.
Daniel.
It…fit.
"Where does Homer fit in?" Jonah asked Brenna, this man both he and
Carlin - Daniel - knew.
"You are all they sent down," Brenna said. "At first I thought it
was necessary to protect the city, but now things have gone too far…you
don’t belong here. You need to return to your own world. Your memories
will come back more quickly once you return home," she promised
earnestly.
"Home?" Not even the city he'd seen in his dream, but another
world? Why didn't this surprise him more? If his whole life
was supposed to be just this plant. For the first time, he saw
the ring of bright water from Carlin's dream. A shimmering puddle
surrounded by stone, exactly as described. Now it was here, in
his mind.
"Yes," Brenna replied, "through there." She motioned to the wall
behind her, moving around her desk to press some device beneath it
which they couldn't see from where they stood.
Jonah looked up, frowning as a section of the wall slid open to reveal
a doorway. And there stood the man from his dream. The man
who trapped them here and stole from them who they were. The man
who used the slaves here until the day they died.
Brenna was shocked. "Administrator Calder!" she gasped.
Yes. That was the name. He knew this weasel of a man.
Two guards flanked Calder, what Jonah recognised as weapons trained on
him, Daniel and Therra.
"Brenna," Calder greeted her in his thin, complaining voice. "I
must say I’m disappointed but not surprised. You see, I’ve been
watching you growing weaker for some time now."
"I’ve been coming to my senses," Brenna retorted bitterly.
"Either way," Calder shrugged, uncaring, a small man in every
way. "You’re no longer of any use to me!" He raised his
weapon, aiming at Brenna as she backed away from him in fear.
Calder shot her and she screamed, falling backwards, grasping her right
arm. Calder motioned to his guards to close in on Jonah and the
others.
"As for the rest of you," Calder said coldly, "It’s time you found out
what the surface of the planet is really like."
Without warning, Teal'c stood up behind the guard beside the bed,
slamming the heel of his hand up into the startled man's chin as he
turned. At once, Daniel darted forward, smashed his elbow deep
into Calder's belly, taking his gun from him as he fell to the floor.
Jonah snatched away the gun from the other guard, brutally back-handed
him across the face and dropped to his knees as the man fell, training
his weapon on the wheezing, frightened Calder.
Teal'c slammed the other guard's head into the wall as Daniel moved
into position by Jonah, also aiming his gun.
Carter rushed over to Brenna, putting pressure on her wound.
"Teal'c, you alright?" Jonah called. He knew this man.
"I am," Teal'c confirmed.
"What happened?" Daniel asked. Like Carlin, he always had the
need to know.
"When I removed my bandages and realised I was unlike the rest of you,"
Teal'c replied calmly, "I began to remember. I placed myself in a deep
state of Kel'No'Reem for the night. My symbiote restored me to health."
Carter looked up urgently. "Brenna should be alright if we can
get her to the, er."
"Infirmary," Jack stated firmly, sure now. His mind was not awash
with new memories, he was not disoriented. He felt one certainty
replace another, illusory, fading from reality. Who he was had not been
taken from him, just hidden. What he needed, he reached for, he
knew. He knew.
"Right," Carter muttered.
"You’ll never make it back to the Stargate!" Calder threatened, his
voice high and desperation tinged.
"You know something?" Jack replied softly. "We’ve got you as a
hostage. I don’t see a problem."
"Jonah!" Daniel called out imperatively, demanding his attention.
"Jack!" he snarled, caught on the raw that he was less real, less a
certainty to Daniel than Daniel was to him.
"Right," Daniel acknowledged curtly. "We can’t. We have to
tell these people what’s happening."
Jack looked down at the snivelling Calder. The thought of walking
away from here, leaving this coward with anything turned his
stomach. There were rules, a welter of images - the screw-ups,
the many dangers of interference. Still. He was not about
to leave these people living the lie which enslaved them, to be worked
to death by those of Calder's ilk. He had no doubt the
comfortable city-dwellers would fight bitterly to maintain the status
quo. The workers were not safe here and never would be.
"Yep," he told Daniel crisply. "You’re right." Daniel often
was; this too he knew.
They opened the door to the plant, dragging Calder out with them.
Jack held his gun to the administrator's head. "Everybody!" he
yelled out. "Can I have your attention please?"
Obedience was stamped into them, literally. The activity below
ceased, heads lifted, a murmur of shock running through the workers.
"I’d like to introduce you to someone," Jonah said loudly. "This
man," he pointed to Calder, "has been keeping you locked up down here
while he and his friends live it up on the surface."
"What are you talking about?" It was Kegan, of course, always the
first to make her mouth go and the last to drop a grudge.
"Don’t listen to them," Calder yelled out, panicked. "They shot
Brenna!"
Brenna was all the authority they knew, she was order to them,
safety. Another murmur of shock ran through the crowd.
"It’s true!" Calder insisted desperately, seeing the workers swayed.
"Listen to me!" Jack's voice rode over his. "There’s a big domed
city up there. Full of people you serve! They’ve been hiding the truth
from you your entire lives!"
"It’s a lie!" Kegan yelled back.
Bitch hated him.
"He’s telling the truth, Kegan," Daniel called down to her.
Despite herself, Kegan had to listen to him. She had too much
feeling invested in Carlin not to.
"You can’t let them get away!" Calder ordered, apparently
believing he had some authority here.
"Who are you?" Kegan called to Calder.
She was quick, Jack had to give her that.
"That’s a good question," he drawled.
"My name is Calder," the administrator babbled, finally seeing the
danger he was in. "I was a supervisor in the mines before I was
transferred!"
"Yeah, whatever!" Jack shut him up impatiently. "You want proof?"
he hollered at the workers. He knew what his dream meant, where
that gleaming city was. He raised his weapon and took aim at the
artfully snow-packed skylight above.
"No!" Kegan screamed.
Jack fired, the skylight shattering and shards of glass raining down on
the panicked workers. Braced for a cascade of killing snow and
ice, it took them a moment to adjust, to look up, disbelieving, at the
golden light streaming in, bathing them with warmth.
"No ice! No snow!" Jack promised as the crowd below began to laugh and
cry in hysterical relief, clustering close together, basking in the sun
they'd never seen or didn't remember. This was all the proof they
needed. Jack could only be glad their euphoria would keep them
under control for now. That would grow harder when they
understood what had been done to them. He needed an option ready
for them, a choice they could make.
"You’ve accomplished nothing!" Calder barked. "These people will
never be accepted in the city!"
"I think you’re right about that," Jack agreed.
"That’s why we’re going to offer them a better place," Daniel asserted,
understanding as Jack did what the workers needed.
"There’s this nice little tropical planet out there where the beaches
go on forever!" Jack told Calder, eyeing the man contemptuously.
"This, I remember clearly. You and your people can do your own
shovelling for a while." The thought pleased him greatly.
Brenna, and therefore Calder, was so resistant to mechanisation the
lovely citizens of 118 were going to have it hard if they wanted to
survive. He was sure the enraged populace couldn't happen to a
more deserving administrative worm.
"You’re destroying a way of life!" Calder accused him viciously.
"That’s a shame," Jack shrugged, uncaring. "Teal'c, show these
people how to get out of here!" he ordered. It felt good, like
Carlin - Daniel - knew it would. It was right for him. He
knew what needed to be done. It came easy to him. Teal'c
was the one the crowd would respond to, calm and impressive, he would
speak and be believed. This was right for Jack. He was
supposed to lead, not follow. More than that, he was
right. He and Daniel were together. They were meant to be.
He walked away from Calder without another thought. Brenna was
cradling her injured arm, Carter standing over her.
"It hurts!" Brenna gasped, still unable to believe what had happened
here.
"I know," Carter told her. "Try not to move it. We’re going to
take you home with us." She helped Brenna to stand and then
Daniel led her away, all his attention, his kindness, focused on her.
Jack watched him go, understanding they had a lot to talk about
here. He could understand Daniel wanting to be away from him just
now. He didn't know what to say either. This intensity,
this overwhelming need was not what they shared. Never what they
were intended to feel. Not what Jack had planned for them.
They were friends.
And there was Carter, another friend, if not the same, his second in
command, standing in front of him.
"So. Colonel," she acknowledged, framing the words heavily.
"Major," he replied warily, wishing for the moment he was as certain of
her as he was of Daniel.
"That bald man you were trying to remember?"
"General Hammond." Jack reached and the name was simply there for
him. Not the Homer Daniel knew after all.
"Right." Carter smiled at him.
"He’s from Texas, you know. It’s all coming back," Jack commented
inanely.
"Yes, Sir."
Jack looked down. He was thinking about what she'd seen, as
Therra. Jonah and Carlin, totally consumed in one amazing,
animalistic fuck. Therra was torn, Therra could be hurt.
Carter couldn't be. Whether she believed it was due to the memory
stamp or not, whether she believed it was Jonah and Carlin or Jack and
Daniel, or both, she had to see now, she had to understand that Jack
could never choose her. He didn't see her, not that way. It
would never happen. What he said, he meant only that and no more,
but he hadn't been able to control what she was hearing.
She had seen it now, seen at last how completely excluded she was in a
raw act of love she couldn't walk away from. She would always
have the memory of the sex. What she did with that was up to
her. There was no possibility, no doubt the two of them fucking
so intensely was anything but consensual and to implicate him was to
implicate Daniel. Destroy them both, and with them, the team.
Carter wouldn't do that. She was here, now, in front of
him. It was enough. She had more grace than he was capable
of, even if he knew what motivated her at the core. The hypocrisy
would choke her and so it kept her silent. How could she destroy
Jack for a relationship she wanted with him on some level? Or
Daniel, her friend, for having what she wanted?
If he hadn't taken the chance, hadn't had that compulsive urge to
settle finally where he stood with her, how deep the weirdness went, he
wouldn't understand now what would keep her mouth shut. He kissed
her in the time loop, with no consequences for either of them, she
kissed him back. She meant it and he was giddy with relief he
didn’t. That was over for him.
In that ugly mess over the Enkarans, which almost cost him Daniel, he'd
believed it was finally over for her. He hadn't spared her,
hadn't spared Daniel, but Daniel fought back, found his own way, and
Carter gave in. She took Jack's way and they both remembered
times she wouldn't have. He pushed, he gave Carter her shot,
hoped, almost, for her sake she'd take it. She told him she
wanted to, and then she did what he said. Therra's feeling for
Jonah had to be hurting Carter now.
She couldn't trust her own motives in speaking up about seeing the two
of them fucking, she was guilty and maybe in her own mind, in some
ways, complicit, and because of that, she never would speak out.
He really hated she was going through this and that she'd have to do it
alone. There wasn't a single thing he could do for her, not a
thing she would let him do, and she would never be able to turn to
Daniel with this now.
"Sir," he said at last, finally looking at Carter, testing out the word
and the limits it put on her. Their relationship would never be
more than this because Jack would always choose the chain of command
over her. For what little it was worth, he was sorry. He
knew she would hate that. She was standing here, telling him
so. "Let’s go home," he ordered.
"Yes, Sir," she acknowledged smartly.
Jack followed her out, and up to the city, thinking this was not what
he'd planned at all. He was never meant to lose control. He
was meant to have it all. Daniel, his team, his command at the
SGC and the Air Force. Everything, on his terms. Daniel had
agreed to this, agreed Jack was right. The two of them were good
together.
They were friends.
Jack was not about to lose that and he was frightened now he
would. He wanted to get to Daniel, see he was okay. Be
straight with him, all Daniel ever asked. He didn't know what to
say, or even where to start, but as long as he didn't shut Daniel out,
it would be okay.
He had to believe that.
It had taken them months of building trust to reach a point where
Daniel was beginning to ask for sex, to more than accept and respond,
but to assert what he wanted. Months to reach a comfort zone
which could broaden a little, because Jack had wanted so badly to give
Daniel the pleasure of oral sex.
Everything had to be easy for Daniel, he'd promised himself that.
He knew from the start how much he'd asked of him, how much Daniel was
giving.
The part of Jack which Jonah knew had fucked Daniel raw, shoved him
down and took his body hard as if he had a right to it. Took him
again and again. He'd never touched Daniel that way, had never
meant to. It was more than a friend could ask.
Jonah fucked everything over, in every way he could.
Jack had to get to Daniel.
"I have been a fool," Brenna confided, her voice beaten and low.
"I believed when I took on this responsibility it was for the good of
the city."
She was in pain, leaning against Daniel as he led her down the starkly
lit, utilitarian hallway, but it seemed to help her to talk, so he
listened.
"I accepted the sacrifices entailed, willingly gave up the life I knew
in the city." She smiled tightly at Daniel, her fingers spreading
as the blood began to seep through the quilted fabric of her jacket
despite the pressure she was obediently keeping against the
wound. "The workers weren't quite real to me. Not at
first. They were merely a necessary tool and I cared more for
their efficiency than for them."
"The memory stamp may have contributed to that," Daniel said
uncomfortably, appalled by this pragmatism and trying hard not to show
it Sometimes, he found it near impossible to remain objective,
non-judgemental, to not apply his standards to a culture or an
individual raised with principles and ethics not his own. It was
difficult for him to empathise with Brenna, to find a common ground on
which to communicate. "The workers were efficiently stripped of
their individuality. They're living, breathing people, but at the
same time, I can understand how they might seem to you to be ciphers,
little more than computer constructs." Cogs in the machine,
nothing more.
"I was serving my people, helping them to survive. I was proud to
do so. I am not proud I took so long to see that the workers were
people too." Brenna stumbled and Daniel steadied her against
him. "That they learn and grow, have feelings as deep and real as
my own. I have never been a harsh task-master, have never asked
for more than the workers can give. Their welfare has always been
important to me. I have striven to be fair." She sighed,
knowing without Daniel saying it was not enough. "Our methods
merely make the workers blind to their slavery, no more. We
literally made it their honour to serve."
"Something changed for you," Daniel encouraged her, wanting to keep her
moving. They had to reach a point where they would be able to
climb up to the city and Brenna was tiring. "Something made you
question. Come to your senses. " This was what she'd said
to Calder.
"I accepted the necessity of the workers," Brenna mused. "They
made possible the life I and others led. I have had many ideas
over time, to make the plant safer, to reduce the workloads, free up
workers for other tasks. In time, I hoped that I would serve the
city best by freeing our people from the need for workers altogether."
"Brenna, the power plant is a like a ghetto and a prison in one."
"Ghetto?" Brenna queried. "I don't know this word."
"Essentially, it's a defined space in a city used to house those deemed
undesirables, outcasts."
"Yes," Brenna nodded. "I grew in time to understand that this is
what Administrator Calder meant it to be. He would boast to me
how the city had no crime, and still he sent people down."
"He wouldn't accept any of your proposals." The time they'd spent
imprisoned was enough for him to know that. Calder's stupidity
and short-sightedness could've got Jack and Daniel killed and
ultimately it would endanger the city above. "Looking at the
events we've witnessed in our time in the plant, the way he's
permitting the machinery to degrade and to require more and more effort
to maintain it safely, it looks like he's creating the need for more
workers, not less."
"This was my fear also. If the workers could be freed from their
tasks, I did not see that it was wrong for them to return to the city
above. Why could a place not be made for them?"
"If the city had the resources to support them?"
"Yes."
"You were assuming that because you learned to see the workers as
people, just like you," Daniel said gently, pained less by her
naïveté than by the cynicism he too should have learned to
expect. "Others could too."
Brenna's pale face flushed. "I know how I must seem to you," she
choked.
"We've owned slaves on our world too," Daniel told her. "It's a
dark part of our heritage, an abhorrent practice which persisted for
thousands of years, and for much the same reasons as here. It was
deemed a necessity to safeguard the economy and resources of more than
one society. A large part of what made slavery socially
acceptable on the scale that it was, right up to modern times, is
indoctrination into a belief system which denied the wrong in owning
human beings as property."
"I wish that I could say the same, Dr. Jackson, but our people know
nothing of the workers," Brenna admitted bleakly. "What we know
is our own comfort and the rich lives we can lead. I do not know
if my people are strong enough to accept that all of us must share
equal responsibility for our survival."
"To be honest, we don't think they are," Daniel admitted calmly,
refusing to dodge the issue. "We don't think the workers are safe
here, so we're taking them with us. We're taking all of you to a
world where you'll be safe, where you'll all be free and can govern
yourselves."
"Us?" Brenna was dismayed. "Am I not to return with you?"
"Aren't you one of them now?" Daniel asked her.
She started to answer him, then was distracted. "Here," she
gestured.
He looked away from her and saw two metallic doors ahead of them.
An elevator Thank god.
"This leads to an area behind the Administrator's office," Brenna told
him. "It must have been decided long ago to keep the plant a
secret from the city. The entrance is here so only the most
trusted members of the Administrator's personal staff will know."
"Are there guards?"
"They are here." Meaningfully, she nodded her head back the way
they had come. "There are no more. Those two were Calder's
personal guards."
"Daniel! Wait up!" Jack called out.
Brenna lifted her wounded arm with effort, touching her thumb to a
panel on the doors, which slid open as Jack and Sam caught up with them.
"This could be a problem," Sam said at once, her brow creasing.
"It is a security measure, designed so that only I go in or out of the
plant," Brenna responded.
"If the security system is computer controlled, then we'll need to
access it and add other authorised users of the elevator," Sam told
them as they moved inside.
"It is a simple administrative procedure."
"The foremen of the sections," Daniel suggested, supporting Brenna as
she leaned gratefully against the wall. "I mean, we’re going to
have to impose some sort of order on the evacuation, or it will be
chaos. The workers are free in name only. We may as well
use the control structures they're used to and which we know they
respond to."
Sam frowned.
"Think about it," Daniel ordered. "They're still stamped."
"I agree," Jack calmly backed him up. "We evacuate the workers
section by section, surrounded by the teams they know, supervised by
their own foreman. Make this as easy as possible on them.
And on us. Let's stay in control of this situation, kids.
We're kind of outnumbered here."
"The longer the workers remain here, the more stressed the situation
will get," Daniel pointed out briskly.
"Then we gate them straight through to 500," Jack decided.
"Hawaii Five-O is the only gate address you have committed to
memory. You do know that, don't you?" Daniel asked sarcastically,
recalling Jack's appalling pun with a pained shudder.
"I don't keep a book of 'em, Danno," Jack shrugged philosophically, as
if this explained everything. His eyes never left Daniel's face
though. "Carter, I want you to program yourself into the security
system, get back down here ASAP and brief Teal'c. Daniel and I
will take Brenna back to the SGC with us, fill Hammond in, and get
emergency supplies rolling out to 500. Give these folks a
start. Brenna?" he asked.
"Colonel O'Neill?"
"Jack," he corrected her automatically. He never used his rank to
demand respect, but preferred to earn it. Daniel had known this
about him for a long time. "How many workers are we looking
at, here?"
"Twelve workers in each section, twenty-eight sections in all. We
have some who are injured or have a sickness, also," Brenna answered
wearily, her eyelids fluttering. Sam moved across to her, nodding
jerkily at Daniel, her eyes tight. He backed away and Sam took
his place, putting her arm around Brenna's shoulders, murmuring to her
to stay awake. Then she moved round in front of Brenna, did
something with her wound which Daniel couldn't see.
He wasn't really left with any option but to move over next to Jack,
glad they had too much preoccupying them all for Jack to be paying any
more attention to him than he already was. This watchful
intensity was unnerving him. He knew they needed to - to
talk. He knew that.
His mind was a blank.
"Oh!" Brenna looked up, her face urgent. "The portal - the
Stargate - has been moved to this building from the museum. When
you came through, it became something Administrator Calder needed to
control."
"Figures," Jack sneered disgustedly. "Although it makes life
easier for us. For a city supposedly free of crime, I remember it
being littered with guards."
"There is little I can say," Brenna answered in a stifled tone, taking
this personally. "This is all the life we've known."
"You did the right thing in the end," Sam assured her.
The elevator doors opened then and Jack cautiously moved out with
Daniel covering him.
"We need only go through this hallway," Brenna interrupted, coming out
with Sam supporting her. "It leads to the waiting area outside
the Administrator's office. You will find only his assistant
there. She can make the changes required to the security system from
her terminal as no elaborate measures were ever considered
necessary. The secrecy was considered enough. It may be I
am the only supervisor to question. I don't know. It will
be her honour to serve," she added bitingly.
"Carter?"
"I'm on it, Sir."
"Can the assistant tell us where the Stargate is?" Jack led them
down the short hallway, pausing beside the door.
"It is in the basement of this building, where it is secure. I'm
sorry there is no access to it direct from the plant. The only
guards are stationed on the ground level at the entrance, from the
central square," Brenna replied. "Administrator Calder has been
in to the Stargate several times to communicate with your world.
There is a device of yours."
"The MALP?" Sam suggested.
"I guess that's why Calder wanted us to take a one-way trip to the
surface," Daniel realised. "He knew Homer wouldn't give up until
he could miraculously produce our perfectly preserved corpses."
"Hammond," Jack corrected, grinning. "General George Hammond."
"Bald guy? Old?"
"That's the one. No toga, though," Jack informed him solemnly.
"Oh." Daniel nodded, slightly disappointed. Not Homer,
then. "Do you know the origin of?" he blurted out, some instinct
he didn't understand. He felt Jack needed to hear from him.
He always felt this way.
"Not now, Daniel," Jack retorted repressively, self-preservation
kicking in. "Carter? We're going to secure the Stargate and
dial out to the SGC. See if we can't get Hammond to open the
door."
"Iris," Daniel corrected him.
"I was speaking meta - never mind," Jack caught himself up hastily,
reprovingly tapping the finger Daniel had held up.
"What should I tell Teal'c, Sir?" Sam asked. "Over three hundred
refugees will be a significant drain on SGC resources."
"Tell him I think it will help Homer make up his mind in favour of
helping these people if they're already in residence on Hawaii Five-0."
"Sneaky," Daniel commented.
"I'm good," Jack noted modestly.
"They can bivouac in the environs of the temple for now, then work to
reclaim the town," Daniel suggested, recalling there were far more than
beaches to P2B-500, though not from where Jack had been ogling and
fantasising about Mary Steenburgen in a thong.
"Gate them through in their sections, Carter, taking the first through
yourself."
"No," Daniel argued immediately. "Go through the gate yourself
with the MALP, Sam, show them what 500 is like, let them see you there,
then gate back. If they see it, they're more likely to believe
it's real and it'll be easier to get them to go through. As Jack
says, we need to maintain control."
"That's a good suggestion, Daniel," Jack agreed.
"I can escort each group through," Sam announced, "settle them, then
gate back, be ready for the next while Teal'c controls the flow of
workers up from the plant."
"I'll get Hammond to send a team through to you as back-up, ASAP.
So? Everyone clear?" Jack demanded. Satisfied, he
nodded. "Let's go." He eased the door open fractionally,
confirming there were no visible threats, then went through, scaring
the crap out of the receptionist, who dropped in hysterics down behind
her desk.
Feeling like the barbarian at the gate, Daniel fielded Brenna from Sam
as she stalked around behind the desk, yanked the terrified woman up to
her feet and punched her hard.
"That's my girl," Jack muttered approvingly, then led Daniel and Brenna
over to the administrator's personal elevator. "This is getting
old," he complained as they rode down, then noticed Daniel frowning at
him. "It's just an expression," he said irritably.
"You have a lot of those," Daniel retorted darkly. He had
a gloomy conviction…
"You remember!"
Daniel was saved from further comment by the elevator swooping to a
halt. Jack wasn't satisfied with Brenna's
threat-assessment. He made them stay on the elevator car, the gun
barrel wedging the doors apart, while he checked it out.
"This is not the flight to freedom I imagined," Brenna said shakily.
"I remember worse." Daniel kept his eye on the gap between the
doors. "No one else is shooting at us," he explained. Jack
came into view and gave the thumbs up, then helped him to force the
elevator open again.
"This way, right around the corner." He glanced at Daniel as they
walked. "We can get home, right? You do remember the
address?"
"Apartment 8-3."
"Do I look amused?"
"I also remember a pyramid, surmounted by a sun," Daniel amended
generously.
"And two funny little guys," Jack frowned as if wondering where this
particular snippet was coming from.
"Ferreti and Kawalsky."
"Kawalsky," Jack repeated. Then he pulled a face, literally
shrugged it off. "It's not like this stuff is news, is it?"
"No. It was there, who we were. The whole time, right
beneath the surface. We just couldn't see it or touch it."
Daniel walked into the room with Jack and stood there for a moment,
staring up at his Stargate. He handed the silent Brenna off to
Jack and went over to the DHD, just letting his hand flow from chevron
to chevron as it had a thousand times before, flooded with fierce joy
as the wormhole boiled out of the ring of stone.
His Stargate.
His dream.
Recovering from her shock at the eruption of the wormhole, Brenna
braced herself against the side of the MALP, staring at the shimmering
blue light dancing over the walls and ceiling as Jack got on the radio,
sending through a signal on their frequency. The response was
near immediate, Hammond's cool voice greeting Administrator Calder,
asking for news with teeth-gritted diplomacy.
Jack swaggered in front of the camera.
"Colonel O'Neill!"
"Homer!" Jack responded ebulliently, holding his arms wide. "SG-1
is five by five, Sir. Ready to come home."
"What the hell happened, Colonel?" Hammond demanded urgently.
"We got ourselves press-ganged, Sir. No time to explain.
Daniel and I will be bringing through an injured woman, the one
who helped us escape, while Carter and Teal'c are staying behind to
secure the Stargate. It's a volatile situation, but they're
safe. Permission to come through the gate?"
"Opening the iris. Give it a ten count then come home when
ready," Hammond ordered. "We'll have a medical team standing by."
"Let's go." Jack took hold of Brenna's shoulder, then let her go so
fast she staggered, crying out in pain, as he spun around, raising his
gun.
"O'Neill!" Teal'c's deep voice boomed a warning, then he stepped calmly
into view. Kegan was with him. "This one trusts
nothing." He inclined his head towards her. "She insists
that she will see all for herself."
"No," Daniel said sadly, looking at her tight, pugnacious
expression. Kegan didn't trust.
"I'm not the only one," Kegan retorted bitingly. "Teal'c," she
enunciated carefully, "has told us we have to leave and why.
We've had our say in this. We," she hesitated, glancing up at
Teal'c.
"Took a vote," he supplied graciously.
"We'll go to this place you offer us but we need to be sure." Her
dark eyes were on Brenna, who couldn't meet her gaze, her white face
falling.
"The workers do not wish to exchange one enslavement for another,"
Teal'c supplied fluently. "They wish to live free." His
voice rang with approval.
"That's good," Daniel said softly. "That's good, Kegan."
She looked at him fleetingly, her face softening.
"Colonel O'Neill?" Hammond's concerned voice sounded again from the
MALP.
"Four to come through, Sir," Jack responded. "In ten."
Teal'c bowed. "With the help of the workers, I will secure this
building. Major Carter instructed me to inform you a message has
been sent out to the city in the administrator's name that today the
building will remain closed. This will give us much needed time
for the evacuation. There is much for us to discuss with the
section leaders, many decisions to be made, such equipment and tools as
are required to repair the structures in the town on P2B-500 to be
stripped from the plant. Major Carter is advising."
"What about the city?" Brenna gasped.
"That is not our concern," Teal'c responded coldly. "Though it
appears to terrify Administrator Calder greatly. He will have
much to answer for if he survives the day." He smiled,
unpleasantly. "When Kegan returns here to share what she has
learned with the others, we will be ready."
Jack nodded tight approval, handed off his and Daniel's guns to Teal'c,
then took Brenna over to the gate, leaving Daniel to follow with
Kegan. Her chin came up defiantly as she stared at the shimmering
event horizon.
"You've never backed down from a fight," Daniel reminded her quietly,
then he took her arm and drew her through.
Catching her when she stumbled in utter shock as they stepped out onto
the ramp in the gateroom.
General Hammond was there, standing to one side with Jack as Janet and
her medical team lifted Brenna onto a gurney and worked rapidly to
stabilise her.
Jack's eyes were on Daniel.
"General Hammond, this is Kegan," Daniel introduced her, keeping his
hand on her arm as she clung to his side, the only sign of nerves she
would show. "She's the elected representative of the slave labour
force we liberated on P3R-118."
Hammond's eyebrows rose at this revelation but he bowed his head to
Kegan. "Welcome to Earth."
She nodded brusquely, her only acknowledgement.
"She took care of me," Daniel added gently, the shock of this jolting
her.
Hammond smiled at Kegan with genuine warmth. "Then we're doubly
glad to see you here, Kegan." He turned, making a courtly
gesture, inviting her to walk with him. Proudly, Kegan stepped
away from Daniel's side and went down to join him. "It's
customary for us to medically examine all travellers who come
here. It's for your safety and ours. Dr. Fraiser and her
team will run some tests on you, on Dr. Jackson here, and on Colonel
O'Neill. Nothing here will harm you, I give you my word."
Kegan looked back at Daniel. He smiled at her a little and she
was satisfied, walking with the general as he followed Janet and the
gurney.
"She may be a bitch," Jack whispered, as Daniel drew level with him,
"But she's got balls." He'd waited for Daniel, fell into step
with him. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Now, see, I remember this. You say this, a lot." Jack's
big, beautiful hands were eloquently disapproving. "Usually, it
means the opposite."
"This is not the time," Daniel hissed, distressingly aware of the
general's proximity and a buzz of panic. "We - we can't talk!"
"Soon," Jack promised, looking at him intensely. "Soon, Daniel."
Daniel shot him a strained glance and Jack surprised him, squeezing his
shoulder, leaving his hand comfortably there as they crowded onto the
second elevator with Kegan and the general for the short ride up to the
Infirmary. Kegan looked at everything.
"We've had a helluva time, General," Jack sighed, rubbing his eyes with
his free hand.
"You look exhausted," Hammond said sympathetically, making nothing of
the supporting hand burning Daniel's shoulder. "You both do."
"They work," Kegan spoke up. "Just like the rest of us.
Only Carlin-"
"Daniel," he corrected her.
"Daniel," she stumbled over his name, "questioned. I didn't
listen."
The stony admission was apology in itself.
"I should've listened," she said, her voice thick. I should've
trusted, she meant.
"I didn't listen either," Jack told her, rubbing Daniel's shoulder
absently. "Helluva time," he said tiredly.
"Our memories of SG-1, of our own identities, were erased, Sir," Daniel
reported as the elevator doors opened and they moved out. "It
took us until now to get them back."
"Yeah," Jack agreed grimly. "We found some ventilation shafts in
the city, checked 'em out, and discovered Calder had Kegan and the
other workers imprisoned in a power plant underground. The whole
thing was a lie. Everything. I told him we wouldn't trade
with him under any circumstances."
"The workers had their memories altered. They literally knew
nothing but the plant and the fact they were working to help their
people survive an ice age," Daniel explained.
"Calder described that as humane."
"I'd describe it as horrific," Daniel countered. "Stripping away
every trace of personal identity to ensure the workers embrace their
slavery, take pleasure and pride in working themselves to death for
people who didn't know and probably wouldn't care they were even alive,
every spark of resistance and individuality snuffed out as a sickness,
a stigma." He shuddered. "It's anathema."
"It's who we are." They all looked around at Kegan, getting
through this mostly on pride. "It's all we were meant to
be." Her voice was shaking.
"Away from that place, your own memories will begin to surface," Daniel
promised her, understanding just how hard it was to not be able to
trust your own memories or judgement, to question everything, yourself
most of all. There were no certainties, no one thing which could
help to anchor you. It - suffocated. And unlike him, Kegan
had no assurance there was any more to her than this, that she had ever
lived another life. He didn't know which alternative was worse.
She shook her head, trembling, stuffing her hands under her armpits to
hide it, refusing to give in. It had to be harder for her than it
had been for him because she had proof. She was hit by
everything, at once, with no time for any kind of adjustment. She
hadn't questioned, hadn't searched this out. It was diametrically
opposed to the rules she lived by and still, she was here.
Daniel had to admire her courage.
"General?" Jack said suddenly. "Permission to take Kegan to the
surface when she's cleared medically." It didn't come out as a
request. Jack was going to do this.
"She's never seen the sun," Daniel informed the general softly.
Hammond looked down at her consideringly, smiling as she met his eyes,
her chin tilting in that way it did. "Permission granted," he
said kindly, apparently liking what he saw.
"We've offered to relocate the entire workforce to P2B-500," Jack
managed to get out as Janet energetically bore down on them, her white
coat snapping. "Three hundred and thirty -six people."
Hammond's eyebrows went up, the breath hissing between his teeth
"Three hundred and thirty-six skilled, resourceful workers who just
need a start," Daniel added. "They can reclaim the town and the
surrounding fields in time, but they're going to need food, tools,
seeds, clothing and supplies until they can sustain themselves from the
planet's resources."
"Dr. Warner is treating Brenna now," Janet reported. "X-rays and
ultrasound confirm the bullet passed through, fracturing her arm.
Warner is debriding the wound, will administer antibiotics to fight
possible infection and then splint her arm. We're not expecting
any complications." She beamed up at Daniel and Jack, positively
misty-eyed. "Gentlemen and?" she prompted.
"Kegan," Daniel supplied.
"Kegan," Janet smiled. "This way, please."
"I remember her," Jack complained darkly to the world at
large. "Napoleonic power monger," he grumbled, just loudly enough
Janet heard him as she escorted Kegan over to the nursing team, eyeing
her shabby, filthy clothing askance and offering the unparalleled
thrill of a steaming shower.
"Janet has Teal'c's complete respect and instant, unquestioning
obedience," Daniel remarked. "Which is a helluva lot more than
his god ever managed. You think she takes your lily liver as
anything but a compliment?"
"I don't smell that bad," Jack accused a wrinkled-nosed nurse.
"You do to me," Daniel chose to share, accepting the hospital gown the
nurse thrust at him, before she swept the curtain closed around his
cubicle, leaving him to change. His heart beating uncomfortably
fast, for the first time Daniel let himself remember all that he and
Jack had - there were teeth marks, in his shoulder. Jack's face
had been buried there, rubbing restlessly over his skin as he drove up
into Daniel's body. Delirious, moaning out his name, Jack bit
down…
Hands trembling, Daniel stripped, reaction crashing in, unable now to
put from his mind the burning discomfort he'd stubbornly ignored.
He was stiff and sore, and moving as if he weren't was exhausting
him. He pulled on the gown, laced it wearily, listening with half
an ear to Hammond and Jack talking daunting logistics. SG-3 were
gating out immediately to back up Sam and Teal'c, help organise the
evacuation. SG teams 4, 5 and 11 would go through to 500 and set
up a refugee centre. Jack asked about SG-1, Hammond told him he
needed him to co-ordinate, and then Janet was there, smiling.
"Take a seat," she ordered, "Let me check your blood pressure."
He knew her smile and the warmth in her brown eyes. She was
thrilled to have them back, not trusting them to her
subordinates. The fact she was here with them and not with Brenna
said it all. Janet and the general had been losing hope.
Daniel sat as easily as he could, doing his utmost to ignore the
twinges of pain. Jack had - they had fucked hard and for a long
time. Had done so again, and then again. He hurt.
He didn't know Carlin.
Did he?
He endured the light in his eyes, Janet's careful fingers and honeyed,
soothing tones, looking steadily ahead until she tweaked aside the gown
to listen to his chest. He breathed at her instruction, she
nodded satisfaction, then her gloved hands were at his throat,
delicately probing the shallow wounds.
She lifted the gown, examined his thighs, then calmly ordered him to
stand, sending out her nurse to fetch swabs and some other things she
needed. Dumbly, Daniel turned when he was told, braced himself
against the bed, a cool, lubricated finger sliding into him and the
sound of her voice. Despite his determination, despite her care,
pain hissed from between his teeth and his mind greyed out.
At last he turned again to sit and this time her hand was there at his
arm to steady him.
"Daniel," she murmured, her voice discreetly lowered. "There are
lacerations and bruising on the anterior wall of your rectum. The
presence of semen indicates anal intercourse has occurred on at least
one occasion very recently. I've taken swabs of the semen and I'm
treating you with STD prophylaxis." She smiled at him, her face
very gentle. "Can you tell me what happened?" she invited him
softly.
"I wasn't assaulted," Daniel blurted out.
Janet nodded understandingly, not pushing him, just with him, granting
him his dignity, quietly waiting for whatever he would say.
"The sex, the, er, intercourse was consensual."
"The lacerations and bruising indicate an element of force."
Janet moved a little closer to him. "Everything you say to me
will be kept strictly confidential," she promised. "It goes no
further."
"I'm not used to it," he said, feeling desperate, his clenched jaw
aching. "That's all." He hadn't had a second to himself,
not a moment, to try to decide how he felt about this. He was
distressed and resentful that his intense physicality, his sexuality,
was being judged as damaging by someone other than himself, doubly
difficult from such a close and trusted friend as Janet. She
wasn't someone he could close off; she was one of the few people to
have been granted, over time, the power to affect him.
"I understand your memory was altered, that you weren't yourself,"
Janet went on. "This man - Carlin? The personality you were
stamped with? If his sexuality was different to yours?" she
hinted. "I can understand how that could confuse an issue of
consent."
Daniel didn't know what to say to this. There was nothing.
He would not say anything about his relationship with Jack, would not
implicate him in any way. They were friends.
"But you're the one left dealing with consequences of Carlin's consent
to intercourse, far more consequences than just the physical," Janet
was quietly insistent. "The anxiety you're experiencing now could
be amplified later by feelings of guilt, sexual confusion or inadequacy
- trauma. You could begin to question your own sexuality, your
sense of self. It's understandable with all that's happened to
you recently. I would like you to undergo counselling."
"No."
"As a civilian employee, your legal rights are protected. Your
confidentiality would be guaranteed," Janet promised, in a slightly
distant tone. She didn't need to spell out to him that the rights
of Jack or any other military personnel were not the same. "And I
do think counselling is important. All of SG-1 have been through
a very traumatic experience, you'll all need time to adjust, to fully
recover your memories. I'll be recommending to the general,
though I'm sure he's already decided, that at the resolution of this
particular mission, we stand SG-1 down until I clear you all for duty."
"You mean we have to undergo counselling whether we want to or not?"
Daniel snapped, straightening up with care. "If we as a team have
to, then we have to, but I - I don't need it."
"Daniel, you said yourself this was a new experience to you."
Janet's sympathy was very difficult for him. "Post-traumatic
stress is a genuine concern. This isn't a civilian hospital and
though you do have rights and as my patient I will respect those rights
absolutely, as C.M.O., I'm obligated to protect the interests of this
command and the welfare of all the members of SG-1."
"You're saying I have no choice in this if I want back on the team," he
recognised bitterly.
"I'm saying I'm trying to help you, Daniel," Janet countered with
maddening sympathy, "the best way I know how, and I hope you'll believe
that."
"I'm not traumatised, Janet," Daniel retorted in frustration.
"Why won't you believe that?" he demanded, knowing if he had to, if she
made him, he would lie. To protect Jack, of course he
would. His dear, his very dear friend. "I wasn't
raped. I had sex and that is none of your
business! Just leave it. Please!"
Janet had never taken her eyes from him the whole time they were
talking, never intruded into his personal space after the physical
examination, but was respectful of him throughout. Stilling, she
looked up suddenly, over his head, at nothing, and in an instant was
busy with her clipboard. "'ll prescribe an analgesic for the
pain, nothing which will make you drowsy," she informed him rapidly,
sending her nurse running with the script. "And for now, I'll
clear you for duty. I'll be there, planet-side," she hinted
warmly.
Confused by her abrupt change of mood, he blinked hard.
"I'll schedule counselling sessions for all the members of
SG-1," Janet announced decisively. "To assess your readiness for
duty." She smiled at him then, handing him a robe, her eyes
reassuring. "You can go take a shower now. Heat is good for
sore muscles."
Daniel was not easy to embarrass. He'd always refused to let the
opinions and judgements of others daunt him. Janet was concerned
and wanting nothing but to help him. Why was he so bewildered by
this? So humiliated?
He walked out of the cubicle into what seemed a roar of sound, General
Hammond in the middle of it all, waiting to speak with Janet. He
talked of the medical team basing itself on 500 to assess each of the
workers as they arrived, identify any possible medical
requirements. Already back in BDUs, a scrubbed, jump-suited Kegan
beside him, Jack looked questioningly at Daniel.
Janet didn't seem to react to Jack at all, her attention focused on the
general, until he asked her a sharp question Daniel didn't quite take
in, and Kegan demanded to know why they were helping. What did
they expect to get out it?
"Only that in time, your people come to be self-sufficient," Hammond
answered her calmly, his gravitas and dignity impressing as they so
often did.
More relieved than he could say that Janet had finally taken him at his
word, Daniel went off to clean up in the Infirmary shower room.
Jack was safe, and a fresh uniform waited for him, a pair of glasses,
part of the well-oiled base routine. Beginning at last to feel
anchored in Daniel, not Carlin, he stripped, stepped stiffly under
blessed hot water and let his mind empty.
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