WORLD ENOUGH, AND TIME: AN ALTERNATE REALITY NOVEL BY BIBLIO
CHAPTER 14: SMOOTH OPERATORS

CHAPTER  14: SMOOTH OPERATORS

"Where's Dr. Jackson?" the general asked peremptorily as Jack came into the briefing room.

"Spending some quality time with his runes. He's on his way." Jack pulled out a chair and sat close by Hammond. "What's the big emergency?"

"I'm here!" Daniel dashed in at a dead run with Carter hard on his heels.

"There's been a dramatic development," Hammond informed them.

"I think we gathered that on our own." Not a fan of the obvious whoever it came from, Jack shot a cool look at the general.

"SG-9 and SG-3 have successfully captured the alien Seth," Hammond snapped, annoyed with Jack's attitude and showing it.

"Really?" Daniel burst out, freezing half-way into his chair.

"Really," Hammond confirmed seriously. "SG-9 headed up a textbook insertion into the main compound of the cult at 0130 this morning."

"Cult?" Jack repeated blankly, failing to understand the connection.

"The Children Of Seth," Daniel said impatiently. "I told you about them."

"Should have paid attention, Colonel," a smooth voice suggested.

Jack turned as two men, still in full combat gear, came barrelling into the briefing room. He recognised the tight, humourless face of the Marine leader Makepeace, but the shorter, lightly bearded man – a captain - he didn't know.

"Dr. Jackson, I presume?" the smooth-talker said smilingly, taking Daniel's hand warmly into his own. "It's good to meet you."

"Er..."

"The intelligence you provided made all the difference to achieving our objective."

"It did?"

Colonel Makepeace nodded curt agreement with this praise as he went around to take a chair on the opposite side of the table to Daniel. "Good job."

"Thanks. I think?" Daniel looked to Jack for rescue.

"Colonel O'Neill, Dr. Jackson, Captain Carter," General Hammond responded to their linguist's confusion. "Let me introduce Colonel Robert Makepeace, SG-3 team leader, and Captain..."

"Jonas Hansen," Carter interrupted in a strained, flattened tone. "We, er, we know each other," she explained uncomfortably, avoiding everyone's eyes.

"Captain Carter and I knew each other well at one time," Hansen agreed neutrally but made no more of it. He seated himself without fuss, tactfully ignoring the weird, charged look Carter and Daniel were exchanging.

"Captain Hansen is SG-9's team leader," Hammond pointed out redundantly.

"Our diplomat led an assault?" This left such a bad taste in Daniel's mouth, Jack philosophically braced himself for a scrap. "I'm sorry. Did I misunderstand the function of SG-9?"

"Not at all," Hansen replied calmly. "However, the intelligence you yourself provided suggested Set the Destroyer, also known as cult leader Seth Fargough, would respond to any attempt to negotiate as a hostile act and that ultimately his followers were in more danger from him than they were from SGC personnel. Intel we gathered on the ground from local law enforcement and an ATF team stationed nearby confirmed the risk."

"I would concur with that assessment," Makepeace unsurprisingly seconded him. "We secured the alien with minimal casualties given the tactical situation."

"M-minimal?" Daniel touched one precise fingertip to the tabletop and only Jack knew how angry he was. "Define minimal."

"The cultists were armed too, Dr. Jackson," Hansen explained patiently. "Heavily armed in fact, with AK-47s, a couple of 50-cal machine guns and an alien sidearm we brought back for Captain Carter and her team to study."

"Answer the question, Captain Hansen," Daniel insisted. "Please."

"Dr. Jackson," the general intervened. "When balanced against the risk and the necessity of neutralising this alien threat, casualties were light."

"Light?" Daniel scowled darkly. "That's better than minimal?"

"Daniel," Jack warned him he was going too far, low-voiced and serious.

Stormy eyes clashed with his for a second, then the fight went out of Daniel. He was too upset to be able to maintain his anger, not backing down so much as he was willing to allow Jack to field some hits. That was huge, from Daniel. Huge. Jack knew it. That was trust.

"Did we lose any people?" he asked Hansen and Makepeace directly.

"It was a textbook insertion," Hansen promised.

Hansen was far from boastful about this and Jack tended to believe him. He could kind of see why this man had taken SG-9 instead of any of the names he had put forward to Hammond and the Joint Chiefs. He was controlled and careful, and he was handling Daniel's somewhat naïve hostility well, not faulting the civilian for fighting his corner.

Jack didn't want to be impressed, but he was.

Of course that didn't mean he liked the guy.

"And the cultists?" he asked.

"Completely brainwashed to believe that thing was their god," Makepeace said distastefully.

"Four of the cultists were killed during the assault," Hansen reported, stating the fact in a way that told Jack he standing up for his team on the necessity of it. Which was the way it was supposed to be.

Daniel made an almost inaudible protesting sound he bit off at once.

"Additionally," Hansen went on with his report, "Three cultists were wounded and underwent emergency surgery while the rest are being treated for shock at McChord's medical facilities."

"I share your regret at these losses," Hammond gravely assured them all. "But twenty-five cultists have been rescued unharmed and will be returned in due course to their families. We've saved a lot of lives tonight, people."

"Who's taking care of debriefing them?" Carter spoke up at last, having recovered some of her composure.

Jack wondered what was going on with her, and what Daniel knew about it that he didn't.

"Regrettably, debriefing falls within the jurisdiction of the NID," Hammond replied. "Their operatives are already on the ground at McChord."

"NID?" Jack pulled a face. "If those guys are muscling in, I bet you had a helluva time hanging onto the big bad wolf."

"Not a concern," Makepeace noted with a sly, sidelong grin at Hansen.

"There were some...issues," Hansen agreed mildly. "Nothing we couldn't handle."

Yeah. Hansen was right. Jack should have paid attention. He would be from now on, and this smooth operator would be top of his 'to watch' list.

"And Seth?" Daniel enquired, having regained some of his equilibrium. "He really is Set the Destroyer?"

"MRI confirms it." Hansen smiled. "He was wounded during the incursion, took a bullet through the shoulder, entry and exit wounds clearly visible."

"Helluva thing," Makepeace agreed. "The wound healed right up before we even got that thing to McChord."

This made sense to Daniel and he explained willingly enough. "Ra – the parasite chose our species because our bodies are so easy to repair, but he needed the intervention of technology in the form of a sarcophagus."

"We didn't find anything like the technology you described in the compound, Dr. Jackson," Makepeace assured him. "And believe me, Seth healed up pretty good under his own steam."

"I ordered the MRI," Hammond confirmed on a point of information. "The alien is under close guard, being examined by Dr. Fraiser and a medical team as we speak."

"I apologise for waiting on those results before attending the briefing, General," Hansen demurred gracefully. "I wanted to know what the hell was inside the man that could allow that thing to do what we saw it do."

"The heavy, metallic-sounding voice, the glowing eyes. Tremendous healing ability," Makepeace immediately picked him up on this. "Everything Dr. Jackson and Colonel O'Neill referenced in their report. That's a human body, alright, but the alien is doing the driving. No doubt in my mind we're dealing with the same species."

"What is inside him?" Carter asked with slightly appalled fascination.

Jack would make sure she hit up Fraiser for the inside straight later. The two of them being bosom buddies had to be made to count for something. He was aggravated and edgy, aware of taking a misstep because he'd brushed Daniel off. Hansen was being cool about not rubbing it in, which only added to Jack's consciousness he'd screwed up. This was a triumph and everyone, including Hansen, knew it. Everyone, he consciously amended, except maybe Daniel, who just couldn't think the way they did. He was probably glad on a personal level Jack hadn't headed up this particular mission.

"There's some kind of snake inside him," Hansen said grimly. "Wrapped tight around the man's spinal column and up into his brain stem. Dr. Fraiser thinks the parasite is controlling all the higher functions of the human host body."

"Scary stuff," Carter remarked.

"You're telling me." Hansen looked significantly at the general. "What scares me is how many more of them there are."

"Do we know who he is?" Daniel asked. "The host? Can we find out?"

"Dr. Fraiser is taking care of it as part of her medical examination," Hammond said reassuringly.

"It's talking some kind of alien language," Makepeace announced. "We know it speaks and comprehends English, it was communicating clearly enough with its followers, but as soon as we slapped on the cuffs and it came around from being wounded, it started spouting some kind of gibberish."

"I guess that's why I'm here," Daniel acknowledged resignedly. "You want me to talk to Seth."

"We're assuming the language it's using is Ancient Egyptian," Hansen replied, his tone more conciliatory than Makepeace's, too smart to alienate an asset with Daniel's unique expertise. He had Black Ops written all over him.

"You haven't let on that Daniel speaks this language?" Jack asked quickly, hoping they hadn't stupidly given away an advantage. "If it's talking, believing its safe because no one here could possibly understand it?"

"That's a significant advantage," Carter quickly backed him up.

"So you, er, you want me to not talk to Seth?" Daniel clarified.

"We want you to observe the interrogation unseen and translate anything the alien might say in response to our questions," Hammond informed him.

"That's not enough," Daniel objected strongly. "With respect, I don't think you – any of you – fully comprehend these aliens. They're not just calculatedly assuming the personas of gods in order to attain power, they're living as gods. There's a level of belief there, conviction in their own power and superiority. These aliens are our gods, our ancient gods. To understand them, you have to understand their history, our mythology."

"Dr. Jackson," Hammond tried to interrupt.

"For example, I can tell you the four cultists Captain Hansen killed were all women." He looked around at Hansen as an uneasy silence fell. "Am I right?"

"You're right," Hansen said evenly, an arrested look on his face.

It happened sooner or later to everyone who had to deal with Daniel. They tended to see his big blue eyes and his funny little ways and miss the whole thing about him having a mind like a steel trap until he was taking them out at the knees.

"Members of Seth's harem," Daniel explained rapidly. "Had there been any children present, then the dead would have been..."

Carter murmured agitatedly, looking reproachfully, almost angrily at Daniel, not wanting to face the reality of that particular scenario.

"We saw that with Ra," Jack defended him. "When I got the drop on him with the staff weapon, the children in his court rushed to shield him with their own bodies."

"So you shot through the women to get to Seth," Daniel persisted, looking directly at Hansen. He stated this as fact, not a question.

"They were armed, Dr. Jackson," Makepeace spoke up in support of their actions.

"You were there, you saw this?" Daniel asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Those are the facts," Hansen stated smoothly. "Just as I reported them."

"Neutralise?" Daniel asked of Hammond. "Does that mean capture? Or kill?"

Hammond took a deep breath.

"Our body count was significantly lower than that of Colonel O'Neill and the mission he led against the Ra alien," Hansen defended himself. "The Colonel wiped out the entire population of that world, women and children included, when he detonated the nuke that killed him."

"Gentlemen," Hammond intervened, his expression severe.

"No," Jack interrupted. "It's okay, General. Captain Hansen is right. We killed a lot of innocent people."

The children on Ra's ship!

Dammit, why had Jack never thought of them before!

He hadn't wanted to, he guessed. He saw enough ghosts without those small faces in his dreams. He and Daniel, they never thought about the children when they had their idea, their brilliant plan, their moment of pure, wired connection, almost reading one another's minds.

He didn't think Daniel had made this particular connection, hoped, despite what Hansen was saying to them now, he never would.

"Our alien target is alive and in custody, and we secured valuable alien weaponry and technology along with potentially valuable intelligence," Hansen said sleekly. "Our losses," he spoke again directly to Daniel, "in those circumstances, were light, Dr. Jackson. I hope you can see that."

"I – I see a lot, I think," Daniel agreed ingenuously.

"Captain Carter, I'd like you to examine the alien devices recovered by SG-3 and SG-9," Hammond ordered.

"Of course." She couldn't disguise her eagerness to have at it.

"Use all of the resources at your disposal," he urged her.

Jack guessed Sgt. Siler and his team were in for it as well as poor Brown.

"Sir."

"Colonel O'Neill?" Hammond said sternly. "I'd like you and Captain Hansen to conduct the interrogation of the alien."

"I'll be leading that interrogation," Jack insisted unequivocally, seeing his chance to claw back some control of this situation.

"Of course," Hansen replied in apparent surprise before Hammond could address this. "You are the higher-ranking officer."

Interesting choice of words. The correct term was superior, but because Hansen didn't think it, he couldn't say it. For whatever it meant, however he might use it, Jack mentally filed this tidbit away.

"And I get to sit in a back-room and watch," Daniel said colourlessly.

"However we as individuals might feel or judge the terrible necessity of inflicting casualties on our own people, make no mistake that it was an absolute necessity this alien threat to our nation's security be neutralised," General Hammond summed up with more patience than Jack could have found.

"If only it were just about the good old US. But apparently we're making unilateral decisions on behalf of the entire planet now." This was Daniel's parting shot, his hasty exit a beat or two ahead of the general's actual dismissal.

Jack put up his hands. "I'll take care of it," he promised Hammond wearily, having to break into a run to catch up with Daniel far down the hallway. "Whoah!" he said, taking Daniel's arm to get him to slow down. "What's your problem?"

"I don't like that man."

"I gathered."

"You don't like him either, Jack."

"True, but that's not the point. He did his job, he did it well, and he could've been a lot more unpleasant than he was back there about me not doing mine."

Daniel didn't like this. He didn't like Jack putting himself down even when Jack was right to do it.

"And what gives with him and Carter?"

"Oh, they were, they were engaged." This only slipped out because Daniel was distracted, being sweet and worrying over how Jack was feeling and stuff.

Carter and Hansen? Dear God, what was up with her? Hansen couldn't be more obviously a control-freak if he had it tattooed across his forehead.

Of course, Jack had a few scars of his own along that line and he was goddamned lucky Daniel wouldn't put up with his crap for a nanosecond.

Although, it had to be said repeated failure didn't actually stop Jack trying. In fact, it sort of whetted his appetite for the fight. He'd be disappointed if Daniel ever did give in.

All part of Daniel's oblivious charm.

Jack tried hard, he tried real hard not to look back, to think of all the times and all the ways he took Sara on, and she caved.

"So?" he invited Daniel, consciously disengaging from those thoughts. "You want to spit out what's really bothering you?"

Comfortable now, Daniel was willing to amble along at Jack's side as he steered them towards the elevator. He didn't need any urging to talk. He wanted to talk. There were things he needed Jack to hear. "He lied."

"Oh, I think that goes without saying," Jack said dryly. He lied himself.

"Specifically, he lied about the women. If their assault was so textbook, if there was no warning, then how could those women have been armed? They were Seth's harem, there to service his, um, needs."

"You know this for a fact?"

"It's all in the historical record."

"You're saying Hansen shot through those women?"

"I'm not stupid enough to say it."

"Just smart enough to think it." This was why Daniel asked the question of Hammond about what neutralise actually meant. Capture was always the secondary objective if that particular rule of engagement was set for a mission. Capture was...desirable.

"I also worry about this alien knowing us in ways Ra couldn't possibly comprehend."

Unconsciously, Daniel was drifting closer as they walked, until his shoulder, his arms were brushing against Jack's. Then he could settle.

"He's lived among us, undetected, for three thousand years. He's lived through all the changes in our civilisation, which means he knows us in ways we can't possibly know ourselves. It's a cliché, I know, but Seth literally has seen it all. I think he knows man so well, so intimately, he can manipulate us so thoroughly, that even through our veneer of sophistication and cynicism he can reach something inside, convince that he's a god. And he does it so well, so completely, his disciples are ready to kill and to die for him."

"I'll keep it in mind," Jack promised.

"Be careful."

Always.

They were on the elevator, riding up and about to go their separate ways, before Daniel spoke again.

"I think about that mission," he confided, looking across at the elevator doors. "About all the things that happened, the things we did, the choices – the decisions we made."

Jack patiently waited him out.

"I think a lot about what kind of man I am, about the difference between a soldier who kills for duty and someone like me, who just picks his fights."

"Don't."

"Jack..."

"Just don't."

Daniel was a better man than him. Every day, Jack counted on that. He counted on Daniel loving him. Seeing him more clearly than anyone had, but still having all this feeling for him.

They both knew about the children they'd killed. Jack was sorry for it, that Daniel had realised sooner and taken it so hard. Gone through it alone.

On some deep, personal level, he was glad they'd never talked about it, probably never would.

But for all the regret he knew they both felt over a split-second decision that had saved more lives than it cost, he liked to think of Daniel looking out for him, protecting him.

The two of them, it was complicated. He guessed it would always be.

He caught at Daniel's arm before he could get off the elevator.

"Let me worry about Hansen."

Daniel would've said something, but he swallowed the words and only gave a quick, acquiescent nod.

Jack would take care of Hansen.

Daniel...would worry for Jack.

Complicated.

Seth the Destroyer was not precisely a young man, but he looked pretty good for three thousand years old. His arrogant dark-eyed face was handsome, his dark hair long and flowing, unmarked by grey. His goatee was neatly trimmed and the white pants and long robes he wore were more of a fashion statement than a religiously inclined hair shirt.

He sat disdainfully at the table placed precisely in the centre of the observation room, unmoved by the chained handcuffs binding his feet together and his wrists to his sides, by the deliberately threatening darkness pooling around him or the blazing light directly overhead that Jack and Hansen were waiting in.

"Who are you?" Jack asked him.

"I am your god."

"You're an alien parasite inside a human host," Jack unhurriedly corrected him.

Hansen came forward, placing glossy copies of the MRI scan on the table before their god. The sinuous shape of the parasite was clearly visible around the host's spinal column.

Out of the response to this, Jack could only make out one word, repeated several times. Seth.

"Seth is life. Seth is happiness. Seth is almighty." This was Daniel, reporting in from the observation room via Jack's earpiece.

Seth was full of it.

"Our medical team are figuring out how to pull your snaky little ass out of there," Jack informed Seth matter-of-factly.

"There would be no point. Nothing of the host survives." Seth spoke as if Jack and Hansen were a vile smell beneath his nose, utterly rigid with distaste at their impure presence.

Seth wasn't bad at this, Jack thought. He wasn't about to give them anything they didn't practically cut out of him, but his bottom line here was protecting the snaky little ass in question. After that, he'd screw Stargate Command for everything he could get from them. Jack could work with that.

"The survival of either host or parasite isn't high on our list of concerns," Hansen said smoothly.

"The threat you represented has been neutralised," Jack immediately picked up the cue. "Anything else is gravy." He shrugged easily.

"Open to negotiation," Hansen spelled it out.

"Let's start with who, or rather what you are," Jack invited.

Seth smiled. "I am your god."

"Be more specific," Daniel advised. "Play into his delusion."

"Tell us the name of the race of gods," Jack tried again. Seth looked at him directly for the first time. Jack was still shit on his shoe, but shit that could talk.

"We are the Goa'uld."

"I believe him. I don't know that name. Not in the historical record."

"Then Ra was a Goa'uld." Jack said this absently, a mere throwaway line, knowing it would get a reaction even if Seth didn't show it.

There were all kinds of nasty implications there for him. That they knew Ra was real and an alien, that to know this they had to have opened the Stargate and gone through to his world, and finally, that Ra was no longer with them.

"Didn't put up much of a fight," Jack confided, hitching his butt up on the corner of the table.

"Careful, Jack," Daniel advised. "In mythology, Ra led the counsel of the gods that banished Seth to the desert, or rather Earth, barring him from rule for all time."

So, if Ra was an enemy, leader of the faction that imprisoned Seth, it meant his death now presented Seth with a possible opportunity. Unless he enjoyed eking out his precarious existence in exile with no more than a handful of credulous followers to pander to his god-like ego.

Jack thoughtfully eyed the chains binding Seth. "Comfy?" he enquired offensively. "Shame you had to get caught now, what with the fallout from Ra's death, the power vacuum and all."

"Nature," Hansen picked up his cue, "abhors a vacuum."

"Someone has to fill those gold sandals," Jack said jovially. "Hell, why not us? After all, we were the ones who offed his Holiness."

"You?" Seth spat. The rest was unintelligibly Egyptian.

"If it is true you have slain the Supreme System Lord Ra, the others will rain down death upon you," Daniel translated.

"Well, it won't be you," Jack retorted pleasantly, deciding to bait his hook and try some fishing. "We're doing great, especially since we started using the Stargate to bring back all this really cool stuff!" he enthused.

"We don't actually need you," Hansen told Seth icily, following Jack's lead. "If you want to live, you have to make it worth our while to keep you alive."

"And you've been trapped here out of the loop for so long anything you could tell us would be of negligible value anyway." Looking faintly bored, Jack swung an idle foot, not troubling himself to make eye contact. "Personally, I think the best use we can put you to is medical experimentation. At least, that will be my recommendation to the leader of this facility."

"And then I will take pleasure in watching them cut you open." Hansen didn't bluster, he only smiled, and Seth didn't react visibly at all. Their god believed Hansen and so did Jack.

"Is it worth even more of our time? Asking questions you don't have answers to?" Jack mused aloud. He jumped up from the table, his decision made. "Fraiser and her medical team are standing by, right?" he asked Hansen.

"They are."

"Then let's get this piece of crap back to its cell and schedule the procedure for 1900. That should give them time to prepare for the autopsy."

"Done." Hansen gestured and several guards came out of the shadows to surround Seth.

They strolled away without a backward glance, Daniel and General Hammond coming down the steps from the observation room to meet them.

"You handled that well," Hammond praised them. "Both of you."

Grudgingly, Jack had to admit Hansen was good at his job.

"You've given our prisoner a lot to think about."

"Let's get out of here before he catches sight of us," Jack advised. "What's your assessment?" he asked Daniel as they walked.

"I think you were right to remind Seth he doesn't know anything about the current political situation among the Goa'uld and I also think you managed to hide it quite well that we don't know anything either," Daniel gave his considered opinion. "You used the little information he did let slip to good advantage."

"Thank you, Daniel." Jack was moved by this glowing praise from his favourite critic. "General, you should speak with Fraiser and Dr. Warner. Seth may be out of the loop, but he's no fool. He knows he has to give us something big to get his nuts out of the fire, something concrete, but he's also not going to give it up until he has no other choice."

"There can't be any doubt or hesitation on their part. They're going to have to be prepared to cut into him," Hansen supported Jack. "Take it all the way. If they don't, he'll know we're bluffing and he may never tell us anything."

"I wouldn't trust anything he did tell us, not under any circumstance," Daniel said dryly. "Seth is most well-known among the ancient Egyptian gods for murdering his own brother, Osiris."

"Nice."

"I'll take that under advisement," General Hammond assured Daniel, seeming relieved he was on board for this fishing expedition.

Jack was glad of it. He didn't want to see the influence Daniel was able to exert with the general damaged because his undeniable expertise came in a difficult package along with his inconvenient ethics and too-freely expressed opinions. There were ways of sticking it to the man and still being considered worth all the hassle. Jack would be happy to show Daniel how.

"Now what?" Daniel asked.

"We wait."

Jack wouldn't have necessarily chosen for Daniel to be here observing while Fraiser and Warner did their surgical thing, but neither of them had been able to express a choice in the matter. Daniel was their linguist and his presence was required. Hammond, Hansen, Makepeace, Jack, Daniel and Carter were lined up in a neat row on the observation deck, looking down into the OR.

Seth was strapped face-down on a neurosurgical table, surrounded by a terrifying array of monitors and medical equipment, medical and security personnel. Jack had to give him credit; snake or not, he had balls. He was making them sweat it out to the last. Maybe it was godly bravado, maybe he genuinely didn't believe they would act on their threat. Whatever the cause, he was stonily silent.

"I think there's a problem, Sirs," Carter said worriedly. "He's still conscious."

"That's kind of the point, Sam," Hansen replied.

"No, I think I know what Sam means," Daniel interjected. "Seth was administered pre-meds to prepare him for the surgery."

"And questioning," Jack reminded them.

"He should be doped up and he's not," Carter summed up. "I know this isn't normal surgical procedure, that we're trying to bluff Seth into talking, which means holding off on administering the general anaesthetic for as long as possible, but even so..." Concerned, she stared down at the scene below.

"Get to the point, Carter," Jack ordered.

"What if the anaesthetic won't work on the patient, Sirs? We can't expect Dr. Fraiser and Dr. Warner to cut into a conscious patient."

"The SGC's medical staff have been fully briefed and will perform their duty as ordered," General Hammond replied coolly.

"What about their duty as doctors?" Daniel objected predictably. "If not to the alien, then at least to his human host."

"That thing down there heals so quickly, we don't know if it feels pain as we understand it," Hansen argued. "We don't even know if we can kill it. But until those two doctors cut into it, it is going to believe it has options, it has value to us."

"It's right," Carter snapped, apparently unaware that ole' Doc Fraiser could take care of herself just fine. She didn't need anyone to fight her corner.

"It has rights," Daniel jumped off a tangent.

"Under whose law?" Hammond asked him directly. "Under the jurisdiction of which government?"

"Ours?" Daniel glared.

"I'm sorry this makes you uncomfortable, son," Hammond replied. "The alternative is that we hand over the alien to the NID where, believe me, their medical teams will experiment on the parasite and the host for real."

"The lesser of two evils, huh?" Daniel recognised angrily.

"Whenever possible."

"Oh, see!" Carter interrupted anxiously. "The anaesthesiologist!"

Fraiser and Warner were exchanging agitated looks over the cage-thing they'd placed high on Seth's back, then they both turned to the general for guidance.

Hammond activated coms. "Proceed, doctors," he ordered before they could blow their cover.

Even with everything that was at stake, Jack could see Daniel and Carter were rooting for Fraiser to tell the general to go stick it in his ear.

Jack understood why they'd feel this way. Fraiser was their friend. She was damn fine doctor and she was also a good officer. Fraiser was in fact doing what Sam Carter would have done in the same position. She was following her orders and hating herself for it, but following the surgeon Warner's lead.

Together they reached for their patient, Warner angled his scalpel, braced, and made the cut.

Seth screamed, a raging, primal roar that made all of them jump violently. Before they could recover, his body arched, seemed almost to flex, and he burst free of the leather restraint binding one of his wrists to his side. He lashed out, striking Warner so hard he was thrown onto his back several feet away. He fought then to free himself of the other restraint, throwing off the SFs who rushed him.

Jack was first out of his chair, shoving past the general to tear down the stairs three at a time with Carter right behind him.

Hansen pounced on the microphone. "Shoot him!" he screamed. "Shoot!"

One of the SFs drew his firearm, got off a shot, hitting Seth high in the arm. It didn't slow him down much. He was off the table, plucking up Fraiser by the throat as she ran to help Warner. Another SF lost his head, firing and missing Seth's leg. Jack slammed into the man, took his sidearm from him and pulled up close enough he could see the light flare in Seth's eyes.

Seth tightened his grip reflexively on Fraiser, leaving her clawing at him as she strangled. "Release me or this one dies!" Seth snarled.

"The only one dying here is you, pal," Jack retorted. He was aware of Carter taking up a defensive position to his left, her hands steady on the sidearm she had aimed. Whichever way Jack took this, she'd back him.

"Release me!" Without visible effort, Seth lifted Fraiser until the tips of her toes barely touched the floor. Part of his body was exposed but how many hits would it take for him to go down? He could snap Fraiser's neck ten times over before Jack or anyone could get to them.

Then Daniel pushed past Jack, his hands outspread, talking, talking his head off, low and fast and soft, in the same language Seth used. All Jack could understand was Seth slowly, slowly lowering Fraiser so her feet were on the ground and she could hold her own weight. No one knew what Daniel was saying, he didn't have time to explain. All they could do was hold their positions, wait for their opening.

Only one person wasn't willing to wait.

Hansen was fast and he was quiet. He was out in front before Jack even knew he was there, and then he was standing beside Daniel, his arm outstretched, his weapon unwaveringly aimed at Seth's head. "Let the woman go," he ordered.

Seth's world narrowed to that single point, the muzzle of Hansen's pistol. He was aware of nothing else, except the sound of Daniel's voice. Only the two of them understood the words, but they had an impact on Seth as powerful, as immediate as the weapon. Daniel was making the promises, Hansen the threats. It was the oldest play, so old Seth must have seen it a thousand times before anyone in this room was even born. So why was it working? Was it Daniel that Seth believed? Or was it Hansen?

"The woman will die," Seth threatened, tightening his grip.

"Irrelevant. I will kill you," Hansen promised.

Daniel started forward instinctively and Hansen blocked him with a hard arm thrown across his chest, grabbing onto a handful of his uniform, high, at his throat.

It was fast, then.

From this angle, Jack didn't see Hansen's final move, only Seth's eyes widen. As the alien threw Fraiser down, Hansen struck, pouncing forward, the muzzle of his gun coming to rest against Seth's forehead at the same time Fraiser hit the floor and rolled into a gagging ball.

"Apophis!" Seth spat. "I will give you Apophis!"

"Apophis, also known as Apep, the serpent god, ancient adversary of Ra," Daniel explained in rush as Carter ran to help Fraiser. "Seth took Ra's side against Apophis."

"Write it down," Jack ordered Seth, coming forward to stand by Hansen. "The address. Write it down and pray to your god it checks out."

One of the SFs dashed forward with paper and a pen.

"I'll do it," Daniel insisted, taking it from the man.

Seth, seeming to look through Hansen, dictated the symbols in a clear, carrying voice. It was only now Jack was up close and personal he could see the arrogance was a front. Their alien had no doubt Hansen would kill him. No doubt at all.

"Captain Hansen!" Hammond snapped. "Stand down!"

Hansen did as he was ordered without protest or prevarication, backing off to let the SFs restrain Seth once more, eyeballing the alien every step of the way. Jack doubted the man had even broken a sweat.

"He's bleeding," Fraiser croaked from where she lay in Carter's supporting arms. "Seth. Let me..." She struggled feebly.

"You’re in no condition, Doctor," Hammond told her firmly, stepping back against the wall to make room as the medical staff pulled themselves together and rushed to her aid and to Dr. Warner, still out cold on the floor. "Secure the prisoner and take him back to his cell," he curtly ordered the SFs holding Seth.

"What did you think you were doing?" Daniel demanded of Hansen, his voice shaking with anger.

"Negotiating," Hansen replied coolly.

"Wh-wh-wh-what?" Daniel stuttered incredulously. "In order to negotiate, there has to be something in it, something for both sides to take away. I was trying to..."

"I know what you were trying to do, Dr. Jackson, but in these specific circumstances, with this individual, you were wrong," Hansen argued tightly. "Seth's life is ours, to give or take, and he knows that now. We took all his other options away. Believe me when I tell you that's the only reason he's talking."

"Reluctantly, I'm inclined to agree," Hammond commented. "That was one helluva risk you took, Captain," he informed Hansen coldly, watching the shocked anaesthetist and a nurse trying to tend to Fraiser.

"A calculated risk, Sir," Hansen replied confidently. "I had to make Seth believe that holding on to Dr. Fraiser as a hostage was pointless, that there was nothing in it for him."

"I'd say you succeeded admirably," Jack said acidly.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry about putting Dr. Fraiser through that," Hansen apologised before turning to lead away the party of SFs guarding Seth.

"It's over now," Hammond stated with flat finality. "Captain Carter, I want you to check out the address Seth gave Dr. Jackson. Verify that it's a legitimate destination our Stargate can obtain a lock on and report back."

Carter didn't want to leave Fraiser but couldn't argue it. She got to her feet, took the address from Daniel, then walked out of the OR like she had a poker in her ass.

"What did you say to Seth?" Jack asked Daniel, who was standing off to one side, watching but no longer a part of things, just doing what he did best, which was thinking a million miles an hour. "What did he say to you?"

It took Daniel a moment or two to focus. "It hardly matters now."

"I'll be the judge of that," Hammond countered calmly.

Fraiser, who had more backbone than most anyone Jack had met, was on her feet and directing the efforts at resuscitating Warner, despite the finger marks they could see purpling her neck. She didn't waste breath arguing when Hammond ordered her to take care of herself first.

"Tell us more about this Apophis," Jack invited Daniel.

"In Egyptian mythology, Apophis was the great adversary of Ra, the embodiment of the powers of darkness, dissolution and non-being," Daniel recited willingly enough. "His power was considered to be so great, the ancient Egyptians believed he would exist forever in an endlessly malevolent cycle of attack and defeat. He was associated with frightening natural events such as earthquakes, storms and solar eclipses." Daniel grinned with mordant humour. "Basically, you could say Apophis is the single underlying threat to the stability of the cosmos."

"Peachy," Jack said through gritted teeth.

"General?" Daniel appealed to Hammond. "In mythology, Apophis is as much the enemy of Seth as he was of Ra. Be careful. Please. Don't trust anything Seth tells you. Regardless of what Captain Hansen chooses to believe, Seth told us about Apophis because there is something in it for him." He shot a frowning, unhappy look at Jack.

"Then I guess we're relying on you to find out what that something is," Jack said heavily. "No pressure."

"I brought you a sandwich." Daniel, standing hesitantly in the doorway to Sam's lab, wasn't sure what reception he was going to get. They weren't exactly seeing eye to eye right now.

Sam was tired and snowed under with work, but her face lit up when she saw him. Or at least the sandwich. "What is it?" she asked, eyeing her booty greedily as he came in.

"Bacon, egg salad, tomato relish. Diet Coke, because I know you think it tastes better," Daniel recited.

Sam took it from him, unwrapped it and took a massive bite, almost moaning with pleasure.

"How are you doing?" Daniel futzed nervously with her microscope. "I've been worried."

Sam accidentally inhaled some of her Coke, choked and then laughed. "That's about the last thing I expected to come out your mouth!" she snorted. "I thought you were pissed at me."

"I was, kind of."

"I was pissed at you too." She grinned at him. "Kind of."

"You were engaged to him?" he blurted out, long past the limits of his tact, patience and understanding today.

He badly wanted to know what had drawn Sam to Jonas Hansen, what she knew of his character that could have led her to not only get involved with him, but get in so deep she accepted his marriage proposal. He couldn't think of any other way to try to balance out his own innate dislike.

It bothered him he was unable to make a fair or even a clear judgement of Hansen.

"I know," Sam groaned. "Believe me, Daniel, there's nothing you can say to me I haven't said to myself a dozen times over."

"You told me, at least you implied to me, Jonas was a – a fixer-upper."

Daniel could not begin to comprehend how Sam could ever have imagined she could effect change in Hansen.

"You don't think..." Sam frowned.

"I think he's controlling," Daniel broke in.

"At least as controlling as Colonel O'Neill," Sam complained moodily. "And my Dad." She took another huge bite of her sandwich, refusing to elaborate on this remark.

Daniel chose to let her criticism pass without comment, not about to get into a discussion of Jack's complexities with Sam.

"Jonas scared Seth, Sam," he said carefully. "He believed Jonas didn't care about saving Janet's life, that she was no use to him as a hostage."

"It was an act," Sam argued defensively.

"A good one."

"Jonas is good at his job. He takes risks and they pay off."

"Janet could have been killed. Is that a risk you would've taken? Or Jack?"

"I'd like to have seen how Colonel O'Neill acted if you were the one taken hostage," Sam surprised him. "I don't think we'd have seen any attempt to negotiate. Just one dead alien."

"I hope not."

Sam softened. "I don't know how you've hung onto your good opinion of him, Daniel, I really don't," she chided him, but gently this time.

"I know him better than you do," Daniel replied uncommunicatively.

"And I know Jonas better than you."

Okay, he walked into that one, dammit!

"He wasn't happy when I gave back the ring, Daniel. I told you that." Sam looked seriously at him. "And I'm telling you now he's been good with me today. He hasn't made things tough for me and he seems – when we sat down and talked a while ago, he seemed to have really pulled himself together. I know you don't like a lot of what Jonas did today but it is his job and he did it well. What I will say, from experience, is that he's a game player. Don't play, don't react, and he'll move on to someone who will. He's past that point with me."

She was so relieved, so grateful for this, it pained him. And honestly, what could Daniel tell her except he disliked Jonas? It was personal on his part and it wasn't anything Sam wanted to hear from a friend. She was raw enough about her poor judgement without Daniel getting on her case about it.

"I'm glad you're okay," he told her.

"Tired is what I am." She took another big bite of her sandwich.

"You love it."

Sam winked at him.

"Did you hear we got a lock on the co-ordinates Seth gave us?" she said thickly, taking a gulp of her Coke. "You think the general will let us go?"

"You want the mission?" he asked Sam instead of answering.

"I want everything," Sam admitted with absolute honesty. "I've worked all my life for this, Daniel. I want it all."

"I guess I do too." It just didn't come in a pretty liberal package with an idealistic bow tied on top. Like Sam, he would have to learn to curb his enthusiasm and his unruly tongue, and live with compromise.

"Thanks, Daniel." She smiled at him. "This is a great sandwich." She waved the tattered shreds of it in evidence. "The way to a woman's heart," she joked.

He guessed, despite their differences, they were still good.

SG-1 and SG-2 were in conference at two tables they'd pulled together in the virtually empty Commissary.

"I'm sorry," Daniel apologised inclusively. "I know you guys keep referring to the historical record as 'intelligence' but you have to understand that was never the intent for gathering archaeological and anthropological evidence about our past."

"Don't be silly, Daniel," Jack scolded him, eyeing his plate thoughtfully. "Why do you have more French fries than we do?"

"More onions," Kawalsky weighed in.

"More everything," Ferretti complained.

"There's no sinister conspiracy of favouritism, guys," Daniel grinned. "I just asked for extra."

"I..." Sam tried to say.

"Ah!" Kawalsky shouted her down. "You've got nothing to say to this, Carter. You have salad on your plate."

"Chick food," Ferretti sneered.

"I have chick food on my plate," Daniel politely drew their attention to this.

"As well as," Jack countered. "Not instead of."

"Sam does have two desserts," Daniel defended her.

"Thank you, Daniel," she said clearly. "And if you're too stuffed to scarf down that lemon pie, I'm happy to make it three."

"Gotta respect that," Ferretti admitted after a reflective moment.

"You think we're gonna get the mission?" Kawalsky asked Jack.

"I don't know what the general or the joint chiefs will decide," Jack admitted frankly. "But if we do get a go, SG-2 will be covering our six."

Sam glanced up in surprise. To Daniel, it looked as if she didn't know how to feel about this. "What about SG-9?" she asked hesitantly, very aware she might be asking for a stinging put down from Jack.

"Not if I can help it," Jack said flatly.

"But Captain Hansen..." Sam persisted.

Daniel admired her loyalty even if he did feel it was misguided in this case.

"I won't work with a man I don't know which way he'll jump when we're up against it." Not willing to discuss it or explain himself further, Jack bit deep into his burger.

"With respect, Sir, that makes Captain Hansen a lot like you," Sam stuck up for him.

"Excuse me?" Jack said forbiddingly.

"We could go for a show of hands on that one," Daniel intervened promptly. "But I doubt you'd like the outcome."

"If the mission is approved, we will effectively be gating in behind enemy lines to engage in covert reconnaissance," Jack stated with crisp clarity. "It will be a combat mission, pure and simple. I want men behind me I know and I trust."

Kawalsky and Ferretti made a big deal of looking around behind them in apparent puzzlement.

"I guess he means Brown," Kawalsky shrugged.

"Where is Sgt. Brown?" Daniel asked curiously.

"Having dinner with his wife," Ferretti said cheerfully. "She's one of the armoury sergeants."

"Sweet."

"Colonel," Sam again tried to speak.

"Give it a rest, Captain," Jack instructed her irritably. "You're like a broken record."

"She does have a point though, Colonel," Kawalsky surprisingly acknowledged. "Hansen has the track record with Seth. That's got to count for something."

"Not as much as you might think," Jack retorted coolly. "It's Daniel the snake wants to talk to."

"Why?" Kawalsky asked right out as the others reacted with some dismay to this.

"As I tried to explain earlier, he's looking to negotiate," Daniel said simply.

"You are not like the others," Seth stated, taking his time about looking Daniel over.

"I'm an archaeologist," Daniel replied straightforwardly. "A historian."

"Yet you ally yourself with the impure military forces," Seth queried, his gaze shifting to Jack, who was standing broodingly directly behind Daniel.

"You've fought battles of your own," Daniel reminded him, carefully keeping his tone conciliatory. "Against Ra, against Apophis, against your brother Osiris."

"Osiris' fate was worse than my own."

"Can you tell us about that?"

Seth only smiled at Daniel's transparency.

"Then perhaps you'd be willing to tell us more about the Goa'uld."

"We are your gods."

"Yes," Daniel agreed unhesitatingly, following Jack's rule of lying with a truth. And there was truth to Seth's assertion. He was a mythological figure made flesh, a literal alien reality. "You've helped to shape who we are, helped to build our civilisation. You're still the subject of scholarly endeavour, still known to us today."

Daniel caught the hint of real gratification in Seth's nod of acknowledgement.

He was relieved his strategy of accepting Seth's delusion was paying off. Neither Jack nor the general had been easy to talk around to his way of thinking. Seth was their prisoner and they didn't need or want to play nice.

For Daniel, the Goa'uld's assumption of godhood was no accident. Far beyond mere arrogance or egotism, they felt the need for adulation, for worship. And Seth, for all his understanding of modern man was infinitely greater than that of Ra, shared the same rigidity that had kept the society Ra ruled over both ignorant and stagnant.

Exiled and severely isolated for three thousand years or more, Seth had repeated the same pattern again and again, limiting his own power because he demanded the worship of his followers as much as he demanded their obedience.

"Can you tell us what we'll be facing on Apophis' world?" It had been impressed on Daniel he was not just to have a nice chat about history and ancient cultures.

"Fear not," Seth said grandly. "Your god will be with you."

Behind Daniel, Jack snorted.

"You mean to accompany us?" Daniel enquired, making sure Jack understood the context. "May I ask why?"

"Without my protection, you will not reach Chulak. You will not penetrate beyond the Stargate itself."

"Forgive me, but if you are both an exile and an enemy of Apophis, I'm not sure how your presence could accomplish anything except adding greatly to the risks of our mission."

"Apophis will not parlay with a lowly human slave. You are so far beneath us..."

"Can we stick to the point?" Jack interrupted cuttingly.

"I, er, I think that is the point," Daniel said pensively. "We have no evidence that we as a species hold any intrinsic value to the Goa'uld outside of our usefulness as a workforce." And potential hosts, of course. "But Apophis will parlay with you?"

"Of course. We stand as equals."

Daniel didn't believe this for a second. Without slaves, without armies, without a world to rule or technology and weapons at his back, Seth couldn't stand on equal terms with any Goa'uld. The only thing he had of value was himself, the parasite. "You mean you can stand safely before Apophis as a petitioner."

"What of his forces?" Jack asked keenly. "Will his soldiers respect those same rules?"

"They will do as their gods bid them," Seth said indifferently.

"You're guaranteeing that you will get my team to Apophis?" Jack came forward, standing fully in the light, frowning down at Seth.

"You doubt the word of your god?"

"No," Daniel got in before Jack could speak again. "No, we don't. I believe you can do exactly what you say."

"Then it is agreed."

This was as clear a dismissal as it was possible for their god to give. Somewhat irked, Jack handed Seth back over to his guards and stalked from the interrogation room.

General Hammond was waiting for them on the observation deck.

"That was interesting," Daniel decided when Jack was closing the door behind them.

"That thing is full of shit," Jack observed precisely and seemed to feel better for it. Then he smiled at Daniel, clapped him on the back, and invited him to tell them what they hadn't known about Seth or Apophis an hour ago.

"Seth has his own agenda."

"I said, what we don't know," Jack reminded him.

"No, seriously," Daniel argued. "He just told us straight out what he wants from us. He wants us to take him with us on the mission to Chulak because we're his ticket to Apophis."

"Is that something we can turn to our advantage, Dr. Jackson?" Hammond enquired. "Is it possible to negotiate with these aliens?"

Daniel shook his head. "Not a chance."

"Nope," Jack backed him up. "We're just workhorses or worse, transportation for those things."

"We're not real to them."

"Oh, I think you were pretty real back there," Jack said quizzically.

"Based on what I know about ancient Egyptian culture, I believe Seth can safely petition Apophis for an audience," Daniel explained. "And if we're with him, we'll be granted the same safe passage. What I don't believe is Seth's motivation for offering us that." Daniel leaned back, resting against the table edge. "It's clearly to his advantage to get to Apophis so it can't be to ours."

"I would tend to agree," Hammond noted. "The two of them are enemies."

"So Seth can hardly be planning to throw himself on Apophis' mercy," Jack said sarcastically. "Same goes for him being an exile. I highly doubt they'll be breaking out the fatted calf when Seth snakes through their Stargate. My gut instinct? The Seth-man wants us to kill the king of the snakeheads for him," he decided unhappily. "But that doesn't make tactical sense. As soon as we off Apophis, his soldiers will turn right around and do the same to all of us, including Seth."

"No, they won't," Daniel contradicted. "That's what you would do, but the ancient Egyptians didn't think that way. There were more patricides and fratricides than..."

"There's something in it for Seth?" Jack interrupted.

"What does Apophis have that Seth doesn't?" Daniel asked instead of answering.

"Everything," Hammond replied.

"So that's what he's playing for." Jack whistled. "Everything."

"I'm not saying Seth could hold onto it," Daniel hastened to explain. "Only that if the historical record is to be believed, if he kills Apophis, as a fellow god, or rather a Goa'uld, he has the option to take it."

"Possession is nine-tenths of the problem," Jack said dryly.

"What does Seth possess of sufficient value to get him that audience with Apophis?" Hammond asked.

"Himself?" Daniel suggested.

"Intelligence?" Jack looked up at the ceiling, holding out a cupped palm. "I don't see destruction raining down on us, do you?"

"He'd have us, too," Daniel agreed. "Information about our world and our current level of technology and weaponry. If Ra saw us a threat, then I imagine these other System Lords would too."

"This," Jack judged pithily, "just keeps getting better and better."

"I don't see what choices we have," Daniel admitted. "We have too many questions that need answers and we are not going to get them from Seth. There's nothing we can do to him except kill him and that's no answer at all."

"I don't know about that," Jack muttered darkly.

"You're right about needing answers, Dr. Jackson," Hammond said soberly. "The one that concerns me most is this question of retaliation for the death of Ra. If we don't take this opportunity to study our enemy then what hope do we have of defending ourselves if these Goa'uld System Lords do launch an attack?"

"Slim to none," Jack sighed. "It took a nuke in the face to finish off Ra."

"There's another question," Daniel succumbed to another tangent. "Why Ra appears to have been a different species or at least of different genetic make-up than the parasite inside Seth. He could have been an earlier generation, or a mutation, or perhaps the later parasites were the mutation..." He became aware of a silence. "Sorry. There just has to be a reason why Ra was the Supreme System Lord."

"Speaking of Ra." Jack heroically suppressed his amused enjoyment of Daniel's incorrigible curiosity. "We have no way to know who he told about our unexpected arrival on his doorstep. He was the only one who knew exactly where we came from. About Earth, I mean. That limits the risk somewhat, but we were there several days, Sir. Ra could have communicated with anyone and we'd have no way to know it. Until they were parked in orbit."

"Then that settles the matter," Hammond decided. "This mission is now a tactical necessity. With Ra gone, Apophis appears most likely to profit from his demise and assume his power. I would consider this alien our greatest threat and I expect you to use whatever means necessary to gather intelligence that might help us repel a possible attack, Colonel."

"Then we're taking Seth with us," Jack announced. "If he could use us a meal-ticket, then we can use him the same way."

"Captain Hansen is your best option for ensuring Seth's co-operation in those circumstances." Hammond's tone suggested this was not open to discussion.

"He's there strictly to keep Seth in line," Jack swiftly countered. "I run the show with Kawalsky as back-up."

"Agreed."

"That's good work, Daniel," Jack thanked him. "Let's you and me go talk about ancient Egyptian armies."

"Thank you, gentleman," Hammond called after them. "You're dismissed." He was not without humour.

Jack didn't talk about anything with Daniel until they were safely in his office and he was closing the door hard on the world outside.

"Before you ask, no, I doubt it would make any tactical difference if we told General Hammond the people of Ra's world are still alive."

"Abydos," Daniel corrected him absently. "The people of Abydos."

"How do you know?"

"It's one of the things Seth and I talked about."

"The things you said didn't matter?"

"I told him we irradiated the planet. I think it was sacred to him, I think Ra was sacred. He was so shocked, he let the name slip."

"You did a good thing," Jack said softly. "The right thing." He was waiting and smiling when Daniel walked into him and they put their arms around each other.

"I am so tired," Daniel admitted, pressing closer to Jack, burrowing thankfully into the warmth of his shoulder, his throat, smiling back as Jack made room for him. "I love you," he said to Jack because he needed to. "Everything is changing."

"Not us," Jack promised gruffly.

Daniel could only hold him tighter and bring him closer. He thought the two of them were changing most of all. They were the good part, the very best part in all of this.

Chapters:  | WEAT novel home | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |

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