W E L C O M E T O T H E C H A O S H O R I Z O N

Thanks to: Lizbet and Celli for reading and liking, and Vanessa and Ruth for directions to sgfic and how to post. Feedback and beta'ing kudos to Cath (for helping me untangle some plots, and letting me steal her best lines), Perri (for helping me tangle plot lines like taffy), Dianne (for enthusiasm for something she didn't even know!), and Dawn (for in-depth examinations and plot-hole divination). Extra thanks to everyone else who commented on sgfic, and to Sting --- for "Desert Rose," the perfect Daniel-Sha'uri song. Comments appreciated! --- and Jack might even buy you a beer. You never know.
Spoilers: Up through third season's "Forever and A Day" -- at least, the first five minutes of that episode. After that, it takes a sharp left turn at Reality as we know it and goes somewhere else.
Content Warnings: some disturbing (but not graphic) violence and language. PG-13/R.

Eurydice Ascending
Sha'uri:
Where are we?
I gasped as we came through the Chappa'ai, breathing in cold, spicy air, so very different from my home. And very different from the room in the fortress we had just left, as well; open and green, with horizons that stretched up to mountain peaks that awed me, despite how much I had seen since I was taken from Abydos. For two moments I was able to look around this new world, while Amonet loosened the bonds on our wrists. Then she turned to Dan'yel, shoving him down the steps of the platform in a rage before pushing away his friend, who staggered backward and almost fell as well. A snarl curved Amonet's lips while curses formed in her mind, but she did not have time to hurl any of her threats at my husband.
A humming had been rising in the air, growing louder and more noticeable by the moment--- and for the first time since Dan'yel rescued me and kidnapped Amonet, the demon who resided within my body was afraid. She turned toward the sound, and we saw a tall stone monument that had been set before the dais of the Chappa'ai, which was now vibrating with energy. The jewel fixed into the top of the stone glowed white-hot, as if alive.
"No!" Amonet tried to back away, stumbling, then fell as shining blue light shot from the stone, enveloping our body in a power that seemed to burn inside us. The tone rose higher, to the point of pain, and the light blinded me as the demon inside of my body howled.
The last thing I heard as that place disappeared was Dan'yel's anguished voice: "I'm sorry, Sha'uri--- I'll come for you, I swear---" And then the dark closed in.
We were alone when I awakened sometime later, in an unfamiliar place. I could hear Amonet crying in my mind, still weak with what the light had done to her. For once the pain was hers alone, and not mine to endure. It would fade soon enough, and she would have control over my body again. I opened and closed my hands, then staggered to my feet, enjoying the brief feeling of being normal, and human.
The light--- a transport device? Amonet and Apophis used such things often--- had left us in the dark, and shivering. Rock walls surrounded us, the sound of water dripping echoed somewhere far away, and a chill breeze blew through an unlit corridor that looked nothing like the fortress of my husband's people.
Abruptly, Amonet was present in my mind, still in pain, but taking out her rage on me in spite of it. We could be anywhere! Amonet shrieked. Your accursed husband has stranded us in a tomb!
Before I could begin a retort, the sound of a horn trumpeted through the cavern, and a light blazed, filling the space before us. White and clear, the light contained the unfamiliar form of a mighty warrior, at least three hands taller than myself, wearing shining white-and-silver mail. Not one of my husband's people, then: the Taur'i usually prefer uniforms that blend with whatever landscape they are in. It seemed to be one of the light-bodies that the Goa'uld used to talk to each other over long distances, as if the reflection in water were captured and sent far away. I did not recognize the man, or his armor, but Amonet flinched, muttering, Asgard. No! I will not endure this!
Who? I asked her, and before the being within me could answer, the warrior's reflection spoke.
"I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet. The High Council of Asgard has designated Cimmeria a safe world for developing sentient species, by order four-zero-point-seven-three-point-seven. The Goa'uld System Lords were so informed." The man's tone was grim, and though I did not understand the meaning of all of his words, they filled the worm who had invaded me with horror, and for that alone I was glad. "You were warned not to come here under pain of death."
"No!" Amonet screamed wildly. "I did not--- I was brought here, I will leave---"
"For crimes agains the living host, and all those you have murdered and enslaved, the sentence is death." The image smiled in dark triumph, and my sullen joy turned to fear as sharp as Amonet's.
"No!" Dan'yel, where have you trapped us? What have you done---
"This is your prison. Your technology will not function here." We had brought none in any case. Dan'yel's friend Carter had taken the ribbon device that Amonet had turned on my husband. "There are no luxuries, no worshippers, no slaves to do your will. Only basic sustenance... and time."
Shocked, Amonet and I stared at Thor in mute disbelief.
"When you tire of this existence, go to the Hall of Molnir, and face the Hammer." He held out his own weapon, carved in the same fashion as the monument in front of the Chappa'ai. "There is no escape. Only the host may leave this place alive."
With a last cold nod, and a flourish of horns, the warrior disappeared, leaving us in darkness again.
I would be free...?
Never! Amonet screamed internally, then spoke aloud. "Never. Do you understand? I will never submit! I am Amonet-Ra, wife of Apophis, daughter of Amon, ruler of a thousand peoples! I will never allow myself to be slain, not while I possess the strength to prevent it! Your Dan'yel will have to kill us himself, for I will never willingly forsake this plane of existence!"
No! I screamed back at her. Ruthlessly, she pushed aside my soul, as she had a thousand times before.
And as a thousand times before, I hid in the shadows of my self, unable to stop her from doing as she pleased. But this time--- this time!--- I had hope. Dan'yel had delivered me to a battlefield which Amonet could not escape. It now remained for me to slay her. Finally, after so long, a way to end my enslavement was in my hands.
If only I could find the strength to do it.

Daniel:
I was supposed to go with her. It wasn't supposed to be this way, with Sha'uri there alone, and us here. I was supposed to be with her when she faced the Hammer. Oh, God....
"Daniel?"
I turned to Sam, not really seeing her, still hearing Sha'uri screaming in the back of my mind. Damn it. Damn, damn, damn. Amonet got her wrists untied much quicker than I'd expected she would, and then she was pushing me down the stairs and shoving Sam away--- and before I could even yell the light hit her and she was screaming. Screaming in agony, and then gone. Nice work, Dr. Jackson. Sha'uri's on her own now, all alone with that thing in her head--- she'll be scared, confused, and Amonet won't give up easily. She's not going to just let Sha'uri go---
"Daniel, I know you're upset, but she'll be okay. She will. We'll just hike to the labyrinth, and go in the exit door like we did last time, and I swear, she'll be okay until we get there." The concern on Carter's face was all for me, not Sha'uri. And since Sam doesn't lie just to comfort people and she's lousy at covering up how she feels, I knew she really believed that my wife was going to be fine.
It didn't help even a little.
"You can't know that, Sam." She was dragging me off the steps, down toward the group of people who were approaching us. Smart Sam. I probably would've stood there like an idiot for another week, waiting for Sha'uri to reappear and cursing myself for not tying the knots tighter. Should've gotten Jack to do it. There's no way he's ever tied a knot anyone could get out of. I should've thought of that....
"Unas is gone, there's plenty of water in the cave, there's nothing there to hurt her. Amonet can't go anywhere, Daniel. We'll have plenty of time to help Sha'uri and take her through the Hammer after we get there."
My head was telling me Sam was right. The Goa'uld that had lived in the labyrinth for hundreds of years was dead, and the maze that Sha'uri faced didn't hold any other terrors, except maybe the possibility of starvation. We'd be there in a day, a day and a half at most, long before there was any danger of that. There was plenty of water there. She'll be fine. She'll be okay.
And the instant that I tried to say that out loud, I imagined five different scenarios where she woke up hurt, or was attacked by the Cimmerian version of a mountain lion, or where the water in the cave had dried up, or Amonet started torturing her for fun.... Sometimes having a good imagination is not all it's cracked up to be.
My gut was flat-out not buying any of this. Understandably; look what happened the last time I let Sha'uri out of my sight. My heart just wanted her back and couldn't bear being separated from her again, not after we'd just found her. Sam could talk until Jack O'Neill wore a tutu, and it still wouldn't stop the sick feeling in my stomach.
Sam knew I wasn't actually getting this, I could tell, so she turned away from me with an almost-inaudible sigh to greet the group approaching the Stargate dais. "Gairwyn! It's good to see you!"
"As it is good to see you also, Major Carter. Dr. Jackson." I nodded back to the Cimmerians' leader, my mind still a hundred miles away with Sha'uri, hoping she was okay, hoping that she wasn't suffering too much.... "Where are Colonel O'Neill and your friend Teal'c?"
"They... had to stay on Earth. The Colonel had some official business to take care of," Sam answered, looking guilty. I snorted, and she sent me a sharp glance, then turned back to smile at Gairwyn again. Official business. A possible court-martial, yeah, that's official... I just hoped that Jack didn't have to actually face a military tribunal before we got back with Sha'uri. Colonel Kennedy had looked pretty annoyed, the last glimpse I'd gotten of him before Sam and I pulled Amonet through the Stargate.
"Olaf said that someone who came through the Ring with you was removed by the Hammer. Who did you bring here? Was it another mistake, as it was on your first visit?"
"Actually, it wasn't a mistake." Sam looked at me again, gauging my reactions, probably. Seeing if I was about to lose it? No fear, Sam. I can't afford it now. Sha'uri needs me. Whatever she saw was enough for her continue explaining, "Dr. Jackson's wife was possessed by a Goa'uld, and we wanted to remove it. We meant to go with her, but the beam came and went too quickly for us to do so. We're going to need a guide to help us get back up to the mountains, to the labyrinth Kendra took us to when we first visited Cimmeria."
Gairwyn was frowning in concern, glancing between me and Sam and shaking her head as my breath caught in my chest. "None of us have been to the labyrinth, as you have. One of us could guide you up the mountain, but not to the maze itself---"
"That's okay. Daniel and I can probably remember enough to get us the rest of the way, if someone can just take us up the first part," Sam said firmly.
Gairwyn is one of the toughest and most honorable people we've come across on our trips through the 'gate. She's not just an ally, but a friend. But I had to actively remind myself of this, hanging on to all we'd been through with her, in order to be able to believe that she wouldn't let us down when we needed her help.
She didn't disappoint me. "I would be honored to guide you, Major Carter. After the help your people gave us in defeating Herut-Ur, it is the least I can do."
"Thanks, Gairwyn." I smiled gratefully at her, then looked around the clearing in front of the 'gate, studying the trails up the mountain. "We'll just wait here for you to get some supplies before we get going. "
But she shook her head, apology on her sharply-cut features as she gestured at the sky. "I am afraid we will have to wait until morning, Dr. Jackson. The sun will set in less than an hour, and to start up the trail at night in winter would mean death for all of us."
"Tomorrow! No, no no no, you don't understand! We can't leave tomorrow, Sha'uri's waiting for us, she's all by herself up there---" Winter? God, it was spring on Abydos when we left, and early autumn on Earth. Not to mention early morning --- I never considered the time changes, or climate problems. She couldn't be serious, we couldn't wait that long, Sha'uri needed us now---
"Daniel, calm down! Please, just take a second and think about this, okay?" Sam wasn't letting go of my arm, otherwise I'd have been up the nearest trail and off toward the mountains on my own. Jack would've applauded her technique. "If we get lost in the mountains, it'll take that much longer to reach the maze. We can't see landmarks in the dark, and it's only a ten-hour delay. Nothing's going to happen in ten hours. It's a twenty-four hour hike in summer, and it'll take even longer now. The last thing we want to do is start it in the dark." Sam tightened her grasp on me, tugging on my arm and forcing me to look her in the face. "Daniel, it's going to be okay. I promise."
"You can't know---"
"Maybe not," Sam cut in on me, then her voice gentled. "But I'm betting on Sha'uri. If she loves you half as much as you love her, she'll manage to hang on until we get there. You have to have faith in that."
Faith. I've got a lot of experience with hope, I've been living on it for two and a half years; but it's not the same thing. I don't have any faith anymore; I've used mine up believing we'd find Sha'uri, that we'd get this far, that someday I'd get the chance to get her back.
Now that it's out of my hands, I'm terrified of losing her, of having her slip out of my grasp. Back into the hell she's inhabited for the last two years.
I wish Sam weren't right. I wish that running off into the night would actually accomplish something. It won't, though. I have to wait for sunrise, and then Gairwyn's going to guide us up the trail, and Sam and I are going to have to make our way across the mountain, find the path we took with Kendra over a year ago, and get to the labyrinth before anything terrible can happen to Sha'uri. And pray that Amonet won't prevent her from ever coming back before we find the maze.
Hang on, Sha'uri. Just hang on. We can bring you back, if you just hang on....

Jack:
I'd like to blame Daniel for this mess, but the truth is that I walked into it under my own power: eyes wide open, putting my foot on the trap door, then pulling the switch without flinching. I could've said no when Carter asked me to help. I could've let Sha'uri be turned over to Kennedy when he first started talking about taking her back to the Pentagon. I could've done a million other things, but I chose not to. And it wasn't just because Daniel's a friend, or because I couldn't help thinking that if we ever found Skaara, I'd end up doing the same thing. Those were reasons. Those were good reasons. But I didn't do this for good reasons.
No, the real reason I am currently flirting with career meltdown is because Colonel Algernon Kennedy is a uptight, rigid, self-righteous, narrow-minded, sanctimonious, second-guessing, desk-flying, regulation-quoting, control-freak of an asshole.
Wait. I take it back. That is a good reason to be doing this.
"Colonel O'Neill, do you mean to tell me that you didn't realize that Major Carter wasn't inputting the coordinates for SG-4's next trip through the Stargate until she and Dr. Jackson appeared in the Gate Room? How is that possible?" Kennedy's nostrils were flaring like he was trying to widen his face just using the muscles in his nose; even if he succeeded, it's still wasn't going to make him any more impressive. Not to me, anyway.
It was sheer bad luck this geek had been touring the facility for the numbers-crunchers back in D.C. when we brought Amonet back from P8X872. He'd practically done a little happy dance in the Briefing Room when we explained who she was; I had to keep kicking Daniel under the table to stop him from going for Kennedy's throat.
"With all due respect, sir---" General Hammond's eyes narrowed, and I moderated my tone so that I didn't sound like I meant the exact opposite of what that phrase implied. No reason to give them any more ammo against me. "There are millions of combinations for the 'gate. I've got maybe four of them memorized, and whatever Carter dialled wasn't one of them. That being the case, I just assumed that she was doing as Major Ramiros requested, and checking the coordinates for P2X344. I didn't have any reason to suspect anything strange was happening until Dr. Jackson appeared in the room with his wife."
"You mean the Goa'uld who is using his wife's body."
"Whatever." I shrugged. Amonet, Sha'uri; after they get back from Cimmeria the only one Kennedy will be talking to will be the one who married Daniel. Kennedy's just going to have to deal with that. "I agree with General Hammond. The most likely place for them to have gone is Cimmeria, where Dr. Jackson can send Sha'uri through Thor's Hammer, and have Amonet removed from her body. Too bad it doesn't do us much good, since we had that unfortunate little power surge after they went through the 'gate, and we can't send another team through until it gets fixed. Probably not for a day or so, at least."
"Unfortunate. Conveniently unfortunate." Kennedy was working the eyebrows now; it didn't even come close to General Hammond or Bray'tac using the same look. I stifled a yawn as he droned on in outrage--- when anger looks boring on a person, you know, they really need to get a personality. Or maybe a laugh track. "You ordered Lieutenant Simmons out of the control room shortly before this unfortunate occurrence. And you claim you're not responsible for it?"
"Of course I'm not." That would be the fault of the cup of coffee that was spilled into the main electrical outlet of the targeting computer and monitoring system, wiping the last few commands, just as Sam oh-so-casually speculated might happen if she left it there. Oops.
"And Major Ramiros now claims that though he believed you were the one ordering his team to the briefing room over the P.A. for a last-minute update, that he must have been mistaken. Especially since one of his people states that you were with her in the armory when he received the message." Hammond was giving me the fish-eye at this bit, looking for holes in the story and (I think) hoping not to find any.
"Airman Wensako seems to be pretty sure about that, sir." Of course, Kathy Wensako broke her watch on the last mission, and she owes Carter a big favor for helping her out with one of the lieutenants on SG-9; something about respect and a kneecap maneuver. I don't need to know about it. Or what Carter might have said to her to justify this before she split for Cimmeria with Daniel. Wensako just kept a straight face when I casually brought it up, and said that she knew I wouldn't disobey direct orders--- and that what I did about indirect orders was strictly at my discretion as a superior officer. "I couldn't be exact about the time myself, so I'll have to take her word for it."
"You don't expect me to buy this, do you?"
I met Kennedy's glare and smiled. "I would never sell you anything, Colonel." Or let you get your hands on it to be hauled away for dissection and interrogation, you self-important sonuvabitch.
"Amonet could hold the key to Earth's defenses from the System Lords, as I'm sure you're aware, Colonel. Your actions in this little debacle will come under the closest scrutiny---"
"Amonet's been a minor lord since Apophis was captured last year, and you know it. She doesn't know anything of strategic importance, and even if she did, there wouldn't be any reason for her to share. We never had any orders to turn her over to you." Not yet, we didn't. But they might have come through at any moment, and we all knew it. "So all this complaining about what they should've done instead of what they did is just a lot of hot air! Daniel's her husband, and he'd be her legal guardian if she were ruled unfit to take care of herself. If he wanted to take her to Abydos or Cimmeria or the other side of the galaxy, there's no court in the country that would say he couldn't do it."
"Except it would never get to court, O'Neill. Not when the Stargate is under the national security measures that keep it classified top secret."
"And that's the only reason you ever would've been able to take her out of this facility and turn her over to your N.I.D. and C.I.A. buddies."
"She's not a citizen of this country, or even this planet---"
Hammond finally had enough--- I could tell by the gun-barrel glare he turned on Kennedy at that last statement, which wasn't technically accurate anyway, given Sha'uri and Daniel's marriage. The General's a patriot, but no kind of chauvinist. He'd protect the rights of any Iraqi, Israeli, or Abydonian the same as if they were born in Washington D.C., and he's never been the one to go for the easy or convenient victories. One of the many reasons I respect the man.
"Colonel Kennedy, unless you wish to file formal charges against Colonel O'Neill -- which you have shown no grounds for at this time--- and until I hear otherwise from the Joint Chiefs, the matter of charges is closed! When the Stargate is operational again, we will search for Dr. Jackson and Major Carter and deal with the situation at that time. If you wish to file a complaint with the Secretary of Defense, I suggest you do so."
"Thank you, General. I'm going to do that now." Kennedy glared pointedly at me and I raised my eyebrows at him in a what-are-you-looking-at-me-for? response. Kennedy's lips thinned and he turned back to Hammond. "Don't think this will go unremarked by the Senate budget committee either, General. To have had a Goa'uld in our grasp, and then let her escape---"
Hammond cut him off without even looking at him. "You'll have to prove that there was any wrongdoing on the part of the SGC in the events that led up to such an incident, Colonel. Think very carefully about the accusations you'll be making when you submit that report."
Kennedy stormed out without saying anything else. Even leaving a room, he's boring. Maybe if we gave him a funny hat....
"How much trouble can he start?" I asked aloud.
Hammond rubbed a hand over his face, then glared at me. "Enough. This expedition couldn't have waited another 24 hours until the Goa'uld killing devices arrived from the Groom Lake facility? Dr. Fraiser could have justifed applying them using her overriding medical authority, and we wouldn't be dealing with Kennedy's objections."
"General, if we'd waited that long, he might have gotten his orders to take Sha'uri to Washington. Or to Nevada. Or who knows where else." I bit my tongue, and rocked back on my heels. "Not that I had anything to do with this. It was all Daniel's show." Daniel's a civilian. And if he gets Sha'uri back, anything Kennedy can do to him will seem worth it.
"And Major Carter?"
Carter's in a lot of trouble. No denying that. "I ordered her to help Daniel with Sha'uri as soon as we brought her back to the SGC. Clearly, she interpreted that to mean assisting Daniel in treating his wife. I'm sure she'll have a reasonable explanation for her actions when she returns."
"She'd better." Hammond tapped a pencil against his desk, then threw it down with a huff of frustration. "And they'd better come back with Sha'uri of Abydos, and not Amonet the Goa'uld System Lord. Because if this doesn't work, Colonel, there is no way that Kennedy is going to give the SGC a second chance to cure Dr. Jackson's wife. She'll be bundled up and taken away so fast that it'll make the Tollans' disappearing act look like a parade."
"Understood, sir." If it's Sha'uri who comes back through, Kennedy won't have anything special to claim for his paranoid colleagues back at the Pentagon--- just an Abydonian native with some Goa'uld memories, the same as Carter has. He'll still squawk, but he'll be stuck with it. If it's Amonet...
...if it's Amonet that the next SG team catches up with, then Daniel's going to get his heart broken again.
That Hammer of Thor's better still be working.

Sha'uri:
Dan'yel told me stories every night of our marriage. Alone in our tent on Abydos, listening to the sounds of the desert, he would tell of the world my people came from so long ago. Of the men who defeated the god Ra thousands of years in the past, driving him from Earth, and what might have been the truth or lies in that legend. I would close my eyes, and lay my head on his chest, feeling his fingers gently stroke my hair, and drink it all in, to dream of during the night. So many stories that there were even stories about storytellers, like Sheherazade and Odysseus, Coyote and Merlin. Dan'yel was my Taliesin, my Raven, my storyteller.
Neither of us knew enough, then, to wonder if more than just the stories of Ra were true. Not until the myths returned to Earth and Abydos, and took me with them.
Lovers lost and found wove their way through the tales Dan'yel told me. Eros fleeing Psyche, because she could not trust him. Theseus risking the labyrinth with Ariadne's help --- and then abandoning her. Isis searching the length of the Nile for Osiris, in order to reanimate his sundered flesh, but unable to complete her task.
And there was Persephone. Stolen by the god of the Dead (he who was both like and unlike my people's Osiris), she was separated from her mother and her world, forced to marry a stranger.... And now, in my blackest thoughts, in my most cowardly of hearts, I am afraid that Persephone was real. I am afraid that I am she. She never escaped the darkness, not truly. She was always compelled to return to her husband and king, and leave her home and the sunlight.
But here is where that story ends. If Hades died, Persephone would leave the underworld. I know this because Apophis is dead, and my mortal husband has come back for me. I refuse to stay in the dark. Even if I were Queen of the Dead, it would be nothing compared to being alive on Abydos with Dan'yel.
You think that now, Amonet sneered at me. Have you forgotten so soon what it is to be queen? To have the power and luxuries that being my host affords you?
Power? I am powerless. Voiceless. Nothing, unless you allow it. Invisible, just a vessel for your evil ba`. Luxury? That I can not feel, or touch, or enjoy? You keep all pleasure for yourself. To me, you only allow pain. I smoldered in rage, two years of helpless anger coming to a boil. I will be rid of you, demon. Dan'yel will come to this place, and we will kill you, together. He has promised me! And he always keeps his promises!
Brave words. But they are only words. This is what matters!
The sting of a poisonous sandcrawler was nothing as to the pain that went through me at that moment. How I could burn without a body, or scream without a voice, I do not know, but I did. It went on, and on... and then stopped, as I felt Amonet smile with my lips, and speak with my tongue. But her voice. Always, hers--- the reverberating and arrogant voice of a demon.
"You cower, as ever. Good. See that you remember what I can do to you."
She strode down the corridor to explore our prison, while I coiled in on myself, stifling all feeling of victory, so she could not sense it. Fool, I thought at her, but only audible to myself. You remember nothing.
When first I became Amonet's host, I fought her. Every moment was a battle, a war for my own body. I could not have won under those conditions, I know that now. But I refused to give her peace, to let her sleep, to allow her any rest. If I was going to suffer, she would too. In retaliation, she found and used my sole weakness: Skaara. She told Klor-el to inflict horrible pain on his host, and they allowed my brother just enough freedom to scream aloud. I could not continue to fight her after the first time she did that. I could only hate.
But Klor-el is not here. Skaara is not here. And when I know where this Hammer is--- when I know how to defeat you, demon--- we will have our battle. I swear it. The pain she had inflicted had been easy to withstand due long experience; agonizing, but bearable. I would bide my time. Wait until her guard was down, and then... then...
I brought my attention back to our surroundings, and saw light ahead of us, reflecting off water. Amonet stopped at the entrance to the chamber, lips thinning as she surveyed it with distaste. The Asgard had not been not lying: there were no amenities here, nothing of the Goa'uld's rich, sumptuous furnishings. There were not even carpets, or the simple hangings and decorations of my people. A low, rough ceiling, stone walls that may have been carved out with other rocks, and a large pool of clear water which welled from the floor greeted our eyes. A drop of water detached from the ceiling and fell into the pool with an echo that filled the silent room. Amonet was not impressed.
Once, I would have been, to see so much water so far above ground. Now I remained silent, remembering the wasteful fountains in the center of Apophis's court, as Amonet bent to the pool and drank thirstily. The dim light in the room seemed to come from small cracks running through the ceiling, but none were wide enough to have even slipped my hand through, could I have reached them. Which I could not have done--- all of them ran through the stone far above the pool, too far away even if the water had not also been a barrier. The demon drew back suddenly from the water with a gasp, and I brought my attention back to her shaking hands.
There were bones along the edges of the pool. Human, some of them. Others appeared to be the remains of Goa'ulds long dead. Dry, brittle with age, and shattered; something else had eaten them, after their deaths.
This is what will happen if we remain here, I said silently. We'll become nothing more than bones in a cave, food for nightcrawlers and worms.
"Instead of bones for the Asgard?" Amonet snarled aloud. "Live or die, we do it together, human. You have no life except through me, now." She rose, brushing off her robes, and turned to stalk back through the corridor. The hallway led to another open room, this one lit with lamps, instead of the uncertain sunlight (or moonlight? I did not know how long we had lain unconscious) filtering through stone in the water chamber. The lamps glowed from an unseen power source, like many Goa'uld devices did, but they did not look like Goa'uld work, being both simpler, and to my mind, more pleasing than that of demons. Neither did the carvings on the wall appear to be those worked by demonkind: a circling lizard, or maybe one of the dragons Dan'yel had described to me, worked around a tree, in infinite detail, with strange letterings surrounding it. Amonet flicked a glance at the picture and I could feel her jaw tighten. More water was trickling down the surface of the carved stone wall, draining down into a crack in the floor. We will not die of thirst here. There may even be fish in that pool. No matter when my Dan'yel comes, we will still be alive.
"Believe that if you wish." Amonet turned away from the wall and strode down the hallway again. "I do not intend to be here when your precious Dan'yel arrives, if he ever does. I am going to leave this place long before then."
If you can.
"I will! This place has stood for thousands of years; the Asgard could not maintained it perfectly. There must be--- there will be--- a gap in their web. This trap will not hold me for long, human. And then you will pay for your insolence in your brother's pain!"
I have a name. I am Sha'uri.
"You are nothing! Because I say you are nothing! Will you be si---"
It was Amonet, instead of I, who fell silent when she walked through the next doorway. We had found the Hall of Molnir: a carved hammer-head over the door opening to the outdoors made that much certain.
As did the rotting corpse on the floor next to it.
Unas, Amonet thought frantically, frozen in place. Perhaps one of Sokar's followers....
I stared in fascinated revulsion at the monstrous form collapsed next to the doorway. It had two arms and two legs, but there any resemblance to mankind ended. Its body was covered with dark, oily scales, its face knobbed and twisted with ridges like a lizard's. The arms seemed --- wrong; when I looked closer, I realized that the joints were not like a man's, and that the legs looked equally long and strange. Empty eye sockets stared at us sightlessly as insects buzzed around their feast.
He is dead. Amonet's mental voice was flat with shock, and then it slowly grew stronger with malice. The Hammer killed him, as well as his host. As it would kill both of us. It will not simply kill me, Sha'uri. It will kill you also.
No, I whispered, certain she had to be wrong. Dan'yel would not bring me to a place that would cause me harm. He would not. Unless---
Unless he did not know. He believed a story someone told him, and brought you here in vain hope of curing you. He is a fool, a fool married to a fool. Amonet's voice sharpened wickedly. Or perhaps he did know. Perhaps--- yes, I think it is so. Child, your husband has betrayed you.
He has not!
He has brought you here to die, along with me, and abandoned you. He has found a new wife. Perhaps even that Taur'i who came here with him, with the golden hair. You saw how fond of him she was---
LIAR! I screamed, turning inside myself, striking with non-existent fists at Amonet's voice, at the laughter she let bubble up and escape her to echo in the quiet of the room. You lie! Lies are all you know! Lies and malice! You are jealous that my husband lives, while yours is ashes!
Amonet gasped on a breath she had drawn to laugh, choking, then she cursed me in fury. "Stupid, stupid, slut of a slave. You will pay for speaking of my husband so!"
Pain, the pain of shattered fingernails and broken bones stabbed through me, but I held on through it long enough to tell her, It is still the truth. And you are still as trapped as I am, Amonet!
Then I fell back into the darkness, taking with me the harsh triumph of having caused her pain.

Sam:
I love Daniel like a brother--- and sadly enough, I usually like him more than I actually like Mark--- but if I had a couple of sleeping pills right now, I would shove them down his throat and pour enough water after them to drown him. I mean, it's been a day since we left the SGC and he hasn't had any coffee since then, and he's still vibrating! After a full day's worth of hiking, you'd think he'd be a little calmer, wouldn't you?
It's not like I don't sympathize with his frustration. I do. To be so close to something he's been working toward for so long; something that he's already lost twice... that has to be making him crazy. I just wish I had a bottle of Valium to medicate him with, for both our sakes. Or a nice, big rock, to whack him on the head, so he could relax and I could get some sleep. The Colonel would approve of that if he were here, I bet.
Every once in a while I realize that Jack O'Neill is not necessarily the ideal role model I could have in a commanding officer.
But then, the ideal role model wouldn't have bollixed up the 'gate as soon as we went through it. If he hadn't, there'd already be another team here looking for me and Daniel and Sha'uri. Since there isn't, the Colonel must have succeeded, which means that we've got a head start on getting to Sha'uri. Q.E.D. Go, team.
I really hope he isn't in too much trouble for that. And that Kathy Wensako managed to give him something like an alibi, like she said she would. It pays to remember who owes you favors when you're about to set yourself up for charges of misconduct and kidnapping. Or maybe they'll look at taking Sha'uri through the Stargate as theft? Stealing classified material, maybe? Whatever word Kennedy decides to apply, I'm going to be the one facing the worst of it. Daniel's a civilian, and I'm pretty sure they can't prove anything against the Colonel. Me, though--- well, I can kiss ever making Lieutenant Colonel good-bye. They might even make me resign my commission, if they don't out-and-out kick me out of the USAF.
The funny thing is, I don't care. It was worth it. Or it will be, once Sha'uri is herself again.
Daniel asked me why I did it while we were eating dinner. "You could have just let me take her through the 'gate alone---"
"And they would have re-dialled and gone through the wormhole two seconds after you did. Not to mention throwing me in the detention cell that Amonet had just vacated. You'd be having dinner with Colonel Makepeace or one of Colonel Kennedy's NID cronies right now if I hadn't volunteered to help. And if that had happened, you know they'd break the Hammer when they got to the maze just like we had to, that first time we came to Cimmeria. Then Sha'uri would have no chance at all."
"Yeah," Daniel admitted, stirring the ashes around the edges of the fire. Gairwyn brought along the equivalent of Cimmerian potatoes and some dried meat and cheese for the trip. They taste a lot better than MRE's, and we need to conserve our supplies anyway. Daniel and I only had time to grab our standard packs before we broke Sha'uri out of her cell, so we have to be careful. "But I don't like that you're going to get in trouble for me."
"You and Sha'uri, Daniel. And I know you'd do the same for me." I tested the temperature of the stuff that Gairwyn had bubbling in a little pot over the fire, and then slurped. Good food. It tastes like my grandmother's stew; maybe Gairwyn and she are related, somewhere a hundred generations back, like we speculated once. "I knew what I was doing, okay? And even if they do court-martial me, I'm not going to regret helping."
"You're sure about that?" Daniel was smiling a little, resting his chin on one pulled-up knee. "If Kennedy gets his way---"
"If Kennedy had gotten his way two years ago, Teal'c would have been dissected and experimented on until there was nothing left of him." I paused, then took one of the bowls that Gairwyn was handing me and ladled some stew into it. "And the same thing would have happened to me, only worse, if the Ash'rak hadn't tracked me down and made the whole argument moot."
"We wouldn't have let that happen," Daniel said instantly. "We would have figured something else out. Jack wouldn't have let N.I.D. take you away, and neither would the General."
"I know. I know you wouldn't have stopped trying." I glanced upward, watching the smoke spiral up to the peak of the hunter's lodge that Gairwyn had brought us to. I couldn't quite meet Daniel's eyes; remembering how helpless I was when Jolinar possessed me... is disturbing. Extremely disturbing. "But don't you see? There might not have been anything anyone could have done. The Hammer wasn't fixed yet, a year ago. We didn't have Machello's little Goa'uld-killers to use. If Kennedy or Maybourne or some other bureaucrat had decided I was going to serve my country as a lab rat, they'd have come into the SGC with outside personnel and dragged me out by my heels, and none of you could have stopped it." I brought my eyes back to Daniel, who was staring at me intently, and then shrugged, trying to be matter-of-fact. "I couldn't let that happen to Sha'uri."
"Thanks," he whispered, dropping his gaze back to the fire. "I still owe you, Sam...." His voice trailed off, and I knew he was thinking of all the nightmare what-if scenarios again. "I owe you big."
Gairwyn dished out some stew for him, then some for herself, sitting down next to me. "Your people do not know that you brought Dr. Jackson's wife here to be freed? And they would not like it if they knew? I do not understand. How could they wish anyone to remain possessed by an Etin?"
"Their priorities are... a little skewed." I took a bite of my Cimmerian potato, munching for a bit before going on. "They hoped to get information from the Etin inside of Sha'uri, but none of us --- Colonel Jackson, Teal'c, or me--- thought that they would succeed. We tried to tell the other... clan leader, I guess you'd call it... that it wouldn't work, but he didn't want to believe us. So Daniel and I had to be a bit sneaky in order to bring her here."
"Very sneaky," Daniel corrected me. "They know where we are, Gairwyn, but they can't come get us, not yet, anyway. Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter cooked up a plan to keep them away for a while." He put his spoon down, shaking his head. "And it would already be over, if she hadn't kicked me down the steps. Damnit."
"Daniel, don't start beating yourself up about that again. She surprised me with that move too, remember. She didn't escape the transport to the maze, and that's the important thing."
"Yeah."
"We will be at the pass early tomorrow morning; and from what you have said, even with the snows it should not take us more than another day's journey to reach this place," Gairwyn said comfortingly, then sighed. "I am only sorry that Kendra could not be here to make it with you. We lost so much when she was killed." She smiled at me. "Do you still have her healing gauntlet?"
"Yes, we do. I had to leave it on Earth, though. But it's come in handy since then. I'm still honored that you gave it to me."
"Who else could use it?" Gairwyn shrugged, and took another mouthful of stew.
"Sha'uri," Daniel said, staring into the fire. He turned to me, his eyes thoughtful. "She'll be able to do the things you can with the Goa'uld ribbon devices, if she makes it through this."
"When she makes it through this." I smiled at him encouragingly.
"When. Right. When." He shook his head, turning back to the fire. "I wonder what she'll think of that," he said softly.
"Your wife, Sha'uri --- is she a scholar also, Dr. Jackson? Or is she a warrior, like Samantha, and your friends O'Neill and Teal'c?"
"Ummm... " Daniel's eyes glazed and his mouth quirked upward. "Both, and neither, I guess. I mean, her people, the Abydonians, weren't able to use their written language again until recently, but she was studying their pictographs with me, before...." He ducked his head, and light glinted off his glasses for a second. "And Abydos doesn't have a formal army, either, but boy, could she get people going when she wanted to. She had their entire city up in arms to save me and Jack when we needed it. Not someone you want to have mad at you, believe me." His voice dropped down, grew huskier. "Mostly during our marriage, she was... gardening. Milling. She makes great yafetta bread. And weaving. She really loved that..." Daniel swallowed hard, and he took off his glasses, fiddling with them absently.
For as long as I've known Daniel, this had to be the longest speech I'd ever heard out of him about Sha'uri. I think it hurt too much to consider what he'd lost when she was captured; and everyone at the SGC knew the story, so no-one ever asked about her. We were all afraid of hurting Daniel any more than he'd already been hurt. None of us felt comfortable bringing her up. Colonel O'Neill might have known more about her than anyone else, but that's probably because he'd met her before, on that first mission; so Daniel could talk to him about Skaara and Sha'uri without having to explain so much.
I was sorry I hadn't asked about her sooner, and that it took Gairwyn to get Daniel to open up. "Daniel? That story that Colonel O'Neill told about how you and Sha'uri got married--- was any of that true?"
He grinned and put his glasses back on, laughing a little breathlessly. His voice was still tight, but he seemed to be okay with the question. "Well... It's like all of Jack's stories. About half true, and half... Jack. Umm, Sha'uri was a gift---"
"A thrall? You wife was given to you as a slave?" Gairwyn's brows came down in disapproval. "Cimmerians stopped allowing the practice of thralldom some time ago. Are things so very different at Midgard? I thought you said you abhorred slavery---"
"No! No, no. That's--- I'm telling this wrong." Daniel sat up straighter, his hands waving around like they do in the briefings where he passionately wants General Hammond to allow him to stay on some planet that the Colonel just as intensely wants us to skip going back to. I grinned and spooned up another bite of stew, remembering that Viking women went on raids with their husbands. // Careful, Daniel... //
"The first time we visited Abydos, they thought we were gods. Mostly because we came through the Circle, the Stargate, so they just assumed we were, the way half the people we meet seem to do. And I was wearing the symbol of Ra, their overlord --- it was a medallion that a friend had given me as a present." He shoved his glasses up and took another breath, while I listened in fascination.
"So Kasuf and his people were thinking we were there to choose slaves, and we had no idea that's what was going through their heads. They threw a big feast for us, there was dancing, and the military team all had a great time. Meanwhile Jack was furious with me, because I hadn't found the seventh symbol on the Stargate Dial Home Device --- theirs was damaged--- and he was convinced his team was never going to make it back to Earth. I wasn't having a lot of fun, that first trip." Daniel paused to take a sip of water from his canteen, and wiped off his mouth.
"Anyway, the main point is, we were supposed to be nice to everyone, or we'd never be able to get back home, to Midgard. And we couldn't tell them we weren't gods, because I couldn't speak the language --- it had changed, over the centuries, the pronunciation shifted. I was trying to learn it as quickly as possible, but some things just weren't translating, because Ra had such a stranglehold on them that there were certain concepts that they just weren't allowed to know of, and they weren't allowed to write. All the questions I tried to ask about the Stargate were dead ends." He shook his head, and I remembered the fragment of his Abydonian diary I had read more than a year ago: "Colonel O'Neill thinks I'm a geek. I have no idea how to get us home. I'm never getting paid." And I suddenly wondered, I mean, really wondered: how did he go from desperately trying to return to Earth, to staying there and being happily married?
"Then Kasuf brought Sha'uri to me that night." It was hard to tell in the twilight, but I think Daniel was blushing. He was definitely avoiding looking at either me or Gairwyn. "At first, I had no idea what he had in mind. I thought she was there to clean the tent or something, after all these other native women had given me a bath...." I stifled a giggle and deliberately did not look at Gairwyn. "But after he left, she started to take off her robe, and I--- well, I mean, of course I wasn't going to... you know."
"You know?" I blinked at him innocently, and he lifted his eyes long enough to glare at me.
"Yes, you do know, Sam. So just... let it go." He rolled his eyes and forged on grimly. I caught the tail end of a grin on Gairwyn's face. Sometimes Daniel is just too sweet. And soooo funny. "As I was saying... I tried to get her to leave, but Kasuf and the rest of the tribe --- her clan --- were waiting outside, and Kasuf thought that she'd offended me somehow. And Sha'uri was standing there looking fatally humiliated, so I... thanked him." He shrugged helplessly, and I clamped my jaw tight, feeling my nostrils flare with suppressed laughter. I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time, but you have to hear Daniel explain it, with that look on his face.... "What else was I supposed to do? For all I knew, she was going to be whipped or banished or something for failing to please the god. I mean, I know Kasuf would never do that now, but I didn't even know him then..." He sighed heavily.
"So, Sha'uri came back into the tent, and after we introduced ourselves, I tried to explain how we got to Abydos, through the pyramid where the Stargate was... and she wouldn't look at the drawings. That's how forbidden writing was. I had no idea how to handle the situation. I gave up, I was just talking to myself, trying to figure out what to do, and when I turned around, Sha'uri had mimicked me--- and drawn the symbol for Earth in the sand. I asked her where she'd seen it. I couldn't believe we were finally getting a break on the language thing, and then she took me into the catacombs of the pyramid, where the writing hadn't been destroyed by Ra's people."
He was quiet for long seconds, caught up in memories. I don't think he even knew that Gairwyn and I were there any more. "We spent the whole night in the crypt, going over the writing. She taught me the verbal language, via the pictures, and I taught her the written version. It was... wonderful." Daniel smiled again, a smile I don't think I'd ever seen on his face. Or, no... he smiled that way the first time I met him. At Sha'uri, asking her to come over and meet us.
"I told her the whole story of how Ra brought her people to Abydos, and how he'd been defeated on Earth--- it was all right there on the walls. It finally all made sense: the Stargate, the Abydonians, the pyramids.... And Sha'uri was just as absorbed in it as I was...." He was quiet for several long moments, and then he softly said, "I think I fell in love with her that first night. Just... like that."
I couldn't think of anything to say. Maybe because what I was feeling most strongly right then was envy. How sick am I, hunh? Daniel's been through the worst kind of Hell hoping and looking for Sha'uri for all this time, and all I could think was that I never had anything that easy or sweet with any of the men I've fallen for. Not Jonas, or Martouf--- not even Nareem. Nareem came the closest, I guess --- but we both knew it couldn't last, and there were things he wouldn't, and couldn't, share with me.
I don't begrudge either Sha'uri or Daniel what they had together. What they hopefully will have again. But it makes me wonder if I'll ever find it myself.
"Later, some of the boys were teasing me about doing work that wasn't proper for a husband--- and that was when I clued in that we were married. I was shocked, believe me. But... happily shocked, I can admit that now." His voice dropped again, slowed with the memory. "She hadn't told them, that we hadn't... done anything. She was too embarrassed because she thought I didn't want her. I somehow managed to make it clear that I thought she was incredibly beautiful, but that she didn't have to be married to me, if she didn't want to be. And she said that she didn't want to not be married to me...."
Daniel shook his head, his eyes widening behind his glasses, and his mouth turned up ruefully. "We still had to fight Ra. So that conversation didn't go into in-depth plans for the future, but after she saved my life, and I saved hers, and Jack saved the whole world by blowing up Ra, we just accepted it. We were married. I was going to stay. Jack and the others went home to Earth, told them I was dead, and I had the best year of my entire life." He stopped speaking, seeming to just run out of words. But his eyes were looking at all those other memories, all the things that must have happened during that year on Abydos.
"And now you will have her back with you soon," Gairwyn said softly.
"Yes." Daniel's response was automatic, then stronger. "Yes. I will."
"It is good," Gairwyn said decisively, then sighed. "I understand how much this has pained you. I would give much to have my husband back also. But he is in Valhalla, and is no doubt saving a space for me at the drinking bench even now." Daniel stifled a laugh, and I couldn't quite hold back a smile. Gairwyn's own smile at us held little grief; mostly it was just wistful. "I was lucky to have had him for so long. Almost two decades.... It would be harder, if I had fewer memories of him to warm me. I think it is only right that your wife be given back to you. One year of marriage is too short."
"I've always thought so," Daniel said softly.
We bunked down not long after that. Gairwyn dropped off within minutes; she's one of those people who make you think of the adage about the just sleeping soundly. Daniel is still tossing and turning in his sleeping bag, but I think he's asleep now. He does this on some of the trips we take, when he's upset; I really should be used to it. I get the feeling he won't be able to rest quietly until Sha'uri is back with him.
And I'm stuck wide-awake, thinking of Gairwyn's husband, and Kendra, who died in the war that broke out when Herut-ur came to Cimmeria a year ago. Because we broke the Hammer, in order to get Teal'c out of the labyrinth, the year before that, and he thought Cimmeria was open for conquest again. How fair is it, that they had to die for our mistakes?
They weren't the only ones. I try to tell myself that we're doing only good at the SGC, but sometimes, we don't know what the hell we're doing at all. Look at Linea. We set free a killer, just because she was helpful and seemed harmless, and now she's out there, maybe plotting other ways to kill worlds, and it's because of us. Look at the population of P3JX343; we almost killed the whole planet with one of our gadgets, just because we had no idea how their biology worked.
I could go on and on; and for every bad example, there's a planet we've freed, or a population we've cured, or just one person who we've helped. The truth is, we're the only ones who can help, and we have to do it. We've got a responsibility to all of those people out there who the Goa'uld are suppressing.
And more than that... to step through the Stargate and not know exactly what's going to happen; to meet all these people who were once a part of Earth, and see what they've become, instead of the things we've become; and the outside chance we have of finding something as exciting as cold fusion, or matter conversion, or the interior of a black hole--- that's what makes this more than a job. More than a career, or a duty. It's the impossible made real, for me. It's all the dreams I had as a kid, and I get to make them happen.
But if I had to give it all up tomorrow, just to make sure that Daniel and Sha'uri got their happy ending.... then damnit, I can live with that. I'll miss it. I'll miss the excitement, and the discoveries, and I'll miss the people worst of all. But I'd still have them, in a way. They can't deny what I've done for the project, not at this point. And I won't miss being afraid, or feeling like the fate of the universe might depend on not making a simple mistake, or dealing with the Kennedys and Maybournes and Senator Kinseys. I'm not going to let men like those dictate my actions, or judge whether I'm right or wrong. I'm not going to deliberately make a disastrous mistake, just because they tell me to. Keeping Sha'uri locked up on Earth wouldn't do anyone any good.
And I couldn't live with myself if I let Daniel down. Not after all this time. Not when I know exactly what Sha'uri is going through.
I thought of Jolinar, and wondered if I'd dream her memories again; and I wondered if Sha'uri would already be dreaming of Amonet by the time we reached the labyrinth. When the second moon rose, I was already asleep, but the only thing I dreamed of was Colonel O'Neill, party hats, streamers, a gallon of ice cream, and Teal'c reciting "Jabberwocky" while Janet played the xylophone.
Some dreams don't bear too close an examination.

Teal'c:
Twenty-four hours after the computer which dials the Stargate was "crashed," the repairs have been completed on its targetting system. Colonel O'Neill is not happy. I believe this is largely due to the fact that Colonel Kennedy has finally obtained written orders from the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the capture of Daniel Jackson, Major Carter, and the Goa'uld System Lord Amonet. The repairs to the Stargate means that he will soon be sending SGC personnel in pursuit of them.
Colonel O'Neill does not like Colonel Kennedy, and has frequently said so in forceful terms. Most of the personnel at the SGC have also expressed a personal antipathy to the Pentagon liaison. I myself have no particularly strong feelings toward Colonel Kennedy, but he appears to bear some animus toward me, perhaps due to my assignment to SG-1 over his stated preferences two years ago. While I believe that he was only following the dictates of his conscience and expressing his loyalty to his military in seeking my transfer to his authority, I am of the opinion that his chain of reasoning at the time was flawed, as it is now. No purpose can be served by forcing Daniel Jackson's wife to remain a host to the Goa'uld.
But I must admit to a bias in this matter. It was I who chose Sha'uri for consideration as the host of Amonet. While Daniel Jackson has never borne me any ill-will because of this action--- and has even defended the choices I was forced to make as First Prime of Apophis in other matters--- it will be a great relief to me when she is restored to herself. It will not mitigate my actions, but it will give me peace to know that a wrong that I was responsible for has been corrected.
My own family and people are the underlying motivation for all of my actions with the Taur'i. If Ry'ac or Druy'ac were taken from me and placed in danger, I would search for them with the same dedication that Dr. Jackson has devoted to his quest. He deserves to achieve the goal he has sought since we first met. And I would not wish the fate of a Goa'uld host on any human being, much less any person that was as dear to my friend Daniel Jackson as his wife Sha'uri. I know what it is to bear the enemy inside of me; but I am fortunate enough not to be ruled by the larva within me. I only wish I could survive the death of the infant Goa'uld I carry, or I would cease to assist the System Lords even in this small thing. But while I may die when the Goa'uld matures and seeks a host, that is a small thing compared to centuries trapped with an alien mind directing my own.
Colonel O'Neill's feelings on this are even stronger and more partisan than my own, and he has not failed to share them, either.
"Look, the least you can do is let me and Teal'c go after them. Nobody'll get hurt that way---"
"Oh, no. No way, O'Neill. You've already made your position very clear. In the absence of Major Davis, I've got the direct authority of the JCS in this matter, so I'll be picking the team to go through the Stargate. Colonel Makepeace and SG-3 leave as soon they finish preparations, and that's final."
"General---"
"Colonel Kennedy's orders are very clear, Colonel O'Neill." The General was no happier about this fact than O'Neill. "So stop asking. What will be done with Dr. Jackson's wife when she returns from Cimmeria is still open for discussion, however," he added, directing a warning look at Colonel Kennedy. General Hammond is a fair and impartial commander, and he possesses the tenacity of a hundred lesser warriors. While he will not defy his superiors, I believe that he will do everything in his power to prevent Sha'uri from being taken from the SGC. We can only hope it will be enough.
As this was being discussed, Colonel Makepeace entered the briefing room appearing most perturbed, and saluted the General hurriedly before speaking. "Sir, I'm afraid that my team is unable to report for our assignment as planned. Lieutenant Gallegos is currently AWOL, sir."
"AWOL? You don't have any idea where he is?"
"No, sir. We've checked his home, his family's place, and a few of the local hospitals, but he's apparently disappeared without a trace." The Marine Colonel's expression was combined of equal parts worry, anger, and embarassment, as could be expected when one of his command was missing. "None of his teammates have seen him since 2200, when he checked out at the upper gate."
"Can't you just get a replacement and go through anyway?" Colonel Kennedy demanded, while O'Neill rocked back on his heels and smiled sardonically at me. I raised an eyebrow, but did nothing else to communicate that I was also glad of this small delay to the expedition.
"Gallegos was our team's specialist in the Cimmerian culture as well as our medical expert, so I can not consider my team fit for duty without him, sir. And no, a replacement on a mission of this kind would not be a good idea," Colonel Makepeace responded grimly. "Going into a situation where the local attitude could be antagonistic, against an enemy Goa'uld, however disarmed she may be, I'd want a functioning unit. It's going to have to be another team, General. I'm sorry."
"Not your fault, Colonel," the General said, shaking his head. "See that Lieutenant Gallegos reports to me when he's found. Dismissed."
"Yes, sir." Colonel Makepeace saluted and left the Briefing Room, and General Hammond pursed his lips in thought before speaking again.
"Some of our teams are off-planet, but there should be another group we can recall to active duty within the next few hours. I'll put in a call to SG-6 personnel. Meanwhile, we may want to check with SG-7, and see if they can do it. I know they're all still in the SGC; they're scheduled to give me an update on their Naquadah reactor experiments at 1100."
Colonel Kennedy frowned in irritation. "Why not order them up here now? If they're all inside the SGC, it'll be easier to order them off-planet than SG-6."
"SG-7 is Research, Colonel. SG-6 is Search and Rescue, they're a more appropriate team to assign to this mission." General Hammond's tone was mild, but something in his eyes, like a hawk watching a sparrow, warned of the possibility of attack should Colonel Kennedy make an error.
"I see your point, General, but this is of the utmost urgency." Colonel Kennedy turned to one of his attaches and said, "Have one of the Airmen locate SG-7 and bring them to the Briefing Room, please."
"Yes, sir."
O'Neill began to prowl the room after the attache' left, something which he does when he is prevented from taking other action, as a predator will pace its hunting grounds when there is no prey to be killed. "A couple hours isn't going to make a difference, Kennedy. If the Hammer on Cimmeria works like it did last time, Daniel and Sha'uri and Carter have already been in the maze, Sha'uri's not a Goa'uld any more, and they're probably half-way back to the 'gate. This is pointless!"
"And if it didn't work? And Dr. Jackson attempts to flee elsewhere with his wife?" Colonel Kennedy shook his head decisively. "No, Colonel. I intend to take every precaution to see that Amonet reaches the Pentagon, and doesn't go indefinitely 'missing' while her husband looks for a cure. My superiors want a a quick solution to this one, and that's what they're going to have."
"A quick solution may not be the correct one," I said evenly. "In time, the most equitable course of action may reveal itself."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Colonel Kennedy glared at me, leaning back in his chair. "Your first instincts are still to protect your former masters, even if you won't admit it. Pardon me if I don't think waiting will solve anything."
"Kennedy---" O'Neill's voice dropped to a growl, and he took a step toward the other man. I sat as still as possible, controlling the irrational anger that rose in me at his accusations. He is entitled to his opinion. But that did not make listening to it any easier.
"Stand down, O'Neill. That's an order. And Kennedy, I don't think I like your tone." The General tapped his pen against the table, lowering his eyebrows sternly. "Teal'c has proven his loyalty to the SGC time and again. So you just swallow that attitude, mister--- I may have to follow the JCS orders, but I do not have to sit here and have you insult my soldiers. Understood?"
"Yes, sir." O'Neill was smiling as Colonel Kennedy squirmed in his chair and avoided looking in my direction. I felt my own tension ease at the General's words and O'Neill's support, and was again able to regard Colonel Kennedy without betraying my thoughts.
The attache returned at that moment with one of the lieutenants from SG-7, a medium-tall brunette whom I had seen work with Major Carter on both the laboratory reactor experiments and on the Stargate programming. The name tag stitched upon her uniform read "Pierson", and she saluted the General with one hand and then took a long sip from her coffee mug with the other.
"You wanted to see me, sir?"
"Pierson, where's your commanding officer?" The General asked, looking confused. "Major Lamory should be reporting in, not you."
"He's in the middle of the experiment, sir, and he can't come up here. We're still compiling data and the energy-release from the reactor is ongoing, and he said to say that he doesn't want to miss anything in case it starts to go off in another direction. It did the coolest thing when we started to up the input from array, sir---"
"Lieutenant, whatever experiment your team is engaged in will have to be abandoned," Colonel Kennedy broke in. "Retrieving SG-1 from off-planet has become a priority, and---"
"Sir! No, sir! I mean..." Lieutenant Pierson's eyes widened as she shook her head frantically, looking from O'Neill to the General to myself. "We can't! That's why I'm here, and not the Major! Because Joel and Ric are both sacked out --- Ric is supposed to take over for me in another two hours, when my shift is over--- and the Major's been monitoring this for at least eighteen hours, sir, and if we abandon the experiment now we'll lose all of it, it'll be worthless, we'll have to start over from the beginning---"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Lieutenant. Do us all a favor and slow down juuuust a microsecond, okay?" Colonel O'Neill shot a thoughtful look at the mug in the Lieutenant's hand. "Tell me something, Pierson. How long have you been awake?"
Pierson blinked at him, rolled her eyes up to the ceiling, then shrugged. "Uhh... what time is it, sir?"
"About 0900."
"Really? Wow. Approximately twenty-four hours, sir."
"Your entire team is either sleep-deprived or asleep?" Colonel Kennedy asked, aghast.
"Oh, no. The Major's fresh. He's good to go. And Ric will be fine in another two hours. He's always cool after his six-hour nap." Pierson took another sip from her mug, then added earnestly, "And I'm really okay too, sir, but we do have to finish this experiment. It's still got 72 hours to run, so if you'll excuse me, sir...."
"Thank you, Lieutenant. That will be all," General Hammond said, his mouth twitching. "Dismissed."
"Sir." Pierson saluted with the hand holding the mug this time, sloshing the liquid within it, then turned to leave, bumping into the door frame as she exited.
"And Pierson?" O'Neill called after her. "The decaff's in the orange pot."
"Decaff is for coffee wimps, sir!" she called back without stopping.
O'Neill shuddered, then turned to the General with a smile. "You'd think she was hanging around Danny-boy and not Carter, wouldn't you, General?"
"I really do have to talk to the Major about those experiment schedules again," the General replied, looking rueful. "Maybe see about getting some of SG-10 temporarily assigned to the lab..." He shook his head, then turned back to Colonel Kennedy. "It'll have to be SG-6, then. They're on stand-down, so we'll set mission briefing for 1100 and departure for 1130. As Colonel O'Neill said, a few hours shouldn't make any difference."
"Very well, General." Colonel Kennedy smiled tightly. Colonel O'Neill grimaced, then paced over to the window overlooking the Stargate, shoving his hands in his pockets. I took the opportunity to excuse myself, feeling that my continued presence was not contributing in a positive fashion to Colonel Kennedy's mood--- and feeling an urge to avoid the man's company.
Because of this, it was not until 1130 that I encountered him again, in the Stargate Control Room as SG-6 was preparing to depart for Cimmeria. Also there was Colonel O'Neill, whose presence he had "requested." Colonel Kennedy most likely still believed that O'Neill was responsible for the damage to the Stargate, though he still possessed no proof of this. He watched both of us carefully, as well as observing the actions of the technicians overseeing the dialing sequence.
O'Neill's mood had become grim but resigned. "At least the main problem's taken care of by now," he said to me quietly, out of Colonel Kennedy's earshot. "Sam and Daniel probably have it all under control. Amonet's dead, Sha'uri's back. Nothing more for Kennedy to do."
"That is the most likely scenario," I agreed. "However... I can not be at ease with the situation until they have returned. There are too many factors to be considered. But as we will not hear back from either team for at least another day, we must hope that we are correct, and that the Asgard's artifact has performed its task."
"Chevron six encoding.... Chevron seven encoding.... What the...? Uh-oh."
I frowned at O'Neill, whose expression reflected my surprise at the computer technician's announcement. "That's not the usual operating procedure," he said thoughtfully.
"What do you mean, 'uh-oh'? Uh-oh what? Why isn't it---" Colonel Kennedy's voice rose in alarm as the Stargate refused to activate.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we've lost power to the 'gate again. And the system's crashed--- looks like a software error this time, we'll have to do a complete system check---" The technician was apologizing profusely to Colonel Kennedy, but his tone did not match his words. Usually when the technicians who run the computers are faced with a "crash," I have observed that their moods vary from the merely annoyed to the murderous, including verbal and physical abuse of the offending systems. Now, however, I noticed that such an attitude was definitely not in evidence.
"I don't believe this!" Colonel Kennedy stormed out of the Control Room and down to the Departure area, gesturing to the technicians who were examining the leads to the Stargate, then walking forward to examine it himself. After a moment, Colonel O'Neill followed him, stopping to speak to one of the Stargate technicians as Kennedy approached another. The members of SG-6 looked confused, circling the ramp as if uncertain what to do, and I overheard the tallest member of the team ask her commanding officer, "So, are we not going, or what, sir?"
"SG-6, you are on stand-down until we have fixed the 'gate again," Colonel Kennedy said, marching down the ramp. "But be prepared to leave for Cimmeria at a moment's notice."
"Sir, with all due respect, my team's ten weeks overdue for a furlough," SG-6's commander retorted. "Regs say you either play us or bench us within 24 hours of the start of our stand-down, sir. If we're still on assignment, that's fine; but if not, we're allowed to leave the SGC and not return for another 48 hours, barring a national security emergency. Please inform us if this qualifies as such now."
"It does not," General Hammond said over the public address system. He shook his head at Colonel Kennedy, who clenched his hands into fists. "I'm sorry Colonel, but Lieutenant Colonel Xavier is correct. His team has been owed leave for some time now, and this additional delay could take even longer than the last one. We'll find another team when the 'gate is fixed again."
Two of the members of SG-6 gave each other a high-five, and the tallest took off her helmet and sang out, "Lilith Fair, here I come!" I could see O'Neill smiling delightedly through the glass at me as Colonel Kennedy nodded resentfully to the General. I made my way down the stairs to the Gate room to speak with O'Neill, after momentarily being blocked by two of the computer technicians in the stairwell.
"Enemy action," O'Neill said a few minutes later, drawing me down the corridor into the locker room. "I'm telling you, Teal'c, the rest of the SGC is rooting for Daniel and Sam, and they've decided to make it impossible for Kennedy to get what he wants. I never would've believed they'd all do this, but three times is too many for coincidence."
"I concur. I have also observed some incidents of which you may be unaware which support that theory."
"Yeah? Like what?"
"That prior to his departure from the SGC last night, Lieutenant Gallegos was intercepted by Colonel Makepeace and told to 'get lost and stay lost.'"
"He didn't... Makepeace? I thought it was Gallegos' own idea---"
"On the contrary," I said, shaking my head. "The Colonel was most explicit, and also told the lieutenant to remain lost for forty-eight hours. At the least."
O'Neill stared at me in amazement and began to grin. "Damn. I'm going to hate buying Makepeace a beer, but it looks like I owe him one... Anything else?"
"Yes." I waited until O'Neill gestured impatiently for me to continue, then said, "As I was leaving the Control Room a few minutes ago, I came upon Lieutenant Harriman and a civilian technician---the one with the many earrings and the spiked hair---"
"I know her, yeah. Kid's a terror when it comes to security protocols."
"Indeed. They were dancing in the stairwell. When I inquired as to the reason for the dancing, Lieutenant Harriman did not answer directly, but did inform me that it was theoretically possible to have 93 players participating in a game of Doom II at one time. The tech added that when one reached 94 players, there were inevitable problems with the computer system. She then stuck out her tongue as Colonel Kennedy walked by the stairwell, made a V-sign with her fingers at his back, and returned to her victory dance with the Lieutenant."
O'Neill gaped, then chortled, leaning against a locker. "They must have had half the guys upstairs at NORAD in on it! And Rod Xavier knew a good opportunity to stonewall when he got one. This is just beautiful! What about SG-7?"
"What about them?"
"I'm guessing that they're not really as busy or whacked-out on caffiene as Lieutenant Pierson's report would have Colonel Kennedy believe?" O'Neill looked at me expectantly.
I stared back at him, confused. "There was nothing abnormal in the behavior of Lieutenant Pierson. The members of SG-7 always behave in that manner."
"You're kidding me."
"No."
"Whoa. 'Kay." O'Neill blinked, muttering, "Yeah, the General's gonna have to assign some more personnel to them pretty soon, I think..." He laughed softly again. "But in the meantime, we bought Daniel and Sha'uri another day. Kennedy's doomed. No way he's going to win this one. Not with the entire SGC against him."
"I hope you are correct, O'Neill." I would like to believe this as easily as O'Neill. But it is not in my nature to do so. I shall meditate on this matter tonight, and upon the good will which has given Daniel Jackson a second chance. It is this kind of fellowship which has bound me closer to the Taur'i than any command of Apophis's ever did. I only hope that this mission to free Sha'uri is as successful as my own inclusion among them has been.

Sha'uri:
It was many hours later, I think, when I came back to awareness of myself after the pain Amonet had inflicted on me. We were in the room with the pool of water. Amonet had waded in up to her knees, and she was shivering with the cold. I watched impassively as she attempted to catch the small fish that swam around the rocks at the edge of the pool, missing them time and again. The fish would not be very good to eat even if she caught them, I guessed; they looked to be mostly bone and fin, too small to make much of a meal. If she would even know how to prepare it.
She missed again, slapping her hands into the water and frightening a clutch of the silvery swimmers, then screamed in rage, splashing water everywhere in a tantrum worthy of the smallest child. I couldn't help but laugh. The queen of thousands, reduced to fishing for her dinner, and failing to catch even one. I wish my brother could see this!
"Silence," she hissed, turning to wade out of the water, shuddering again as the wind blew through her robes. Gold thread and heavy silk were soaked through, hampering her movements, and she bent to wring out the hem. "I grow hungry. There must be some way to catch them...."
There is.
"How?"
I am not going to tell you.
"You must!"
No.
"We will starve!"
Why should I care? I can't feel hunger. I am not the one who will suffer, if this body wastes away. As soon as Dan'yel comes, he will bring me a feast. I can wait until then.
"I will not endure this!" Amonet fumed, and paced along the bank, then stopped, concentrating, and I could feel her lips pull back in a smile. "This should motivate you..."
I could feel it: the growling of her --- our --- stomach, the pangs of missing a day's worth of meals. Oh!.... Perhaps you're right. Perhaps we should catch a fish.
"I knew you would see sense. How do I do this?"
I stifled all amusement, hoping that she wouldn't realize that this was an opportunity I'd wished for, and that I had hoped to lure her into listening to me, so that I could test my answer to the riddle facing me: how to bring her to the Hammer. Wade back into the water. She glared at the surface of the pool, which had become still and clear again, then reluctantly stepped in, muscles tensing at the cold. Stay still. Do not move. Wait. The fish swam around us, darting around our body and circling, coming close to taste the glittering skirt. Amonet trembled with impatience, but did not move. Good. Good... Slip your hands into the water. Don't disturb it. Let your fingers float. Our hands did not cause more than a ripple as they broke the surface, hanging down like reeds in a river. Wait... waiiit... one moment more....
My hand--- for at that moment it was mine, and not Amonet's--- closed around one of the fish, bringing it to the surface with my fingers clasped around it tightly. Amonet laughed and twirled around, then hurried out of the water, looking around for a rock with which to stun our catch. "Yes! A beautiful fish to eat, all for me! I am so resourceful. I will not starve before I find my way out of here. I will survive!"
Of course you will, I said sardonically. Now what will you do?
She stared at it a moment, unsure, then re-gathered her wits. "I will roast it over one of the lamps in the other room. Then I will peel off the scales." She stalked down the corridor, looking around for something to spear the fish upon, while I thought about the moment during which I had control over my body again.
Strangely, I could sense that it was growing easier to fight against Amonet, the longer we were here. Before, when I would have such pain inflicted upon me, I would return to myself much weaker than before, and need to conserve my strength, refraining from contending with her for a time. Now, I sensed that she was no stronger than I was; that I had not lost as much energy and strength through my resistance. And she had not noticed the moment during which I caught the fish, when it was my will that moved my body, and not hers.
I pondered this while she searched in vain for a stick or tree branch, or any other rod upon which to affix the fish, and then raise it up to the burning lamps to roast. It grew cold and clammy in her hands, and she regarded it with distaste as she returned to the pool, finally sitting down on one of the rocks. "We must eat. Disgusting creature.... if only there were some way to cook it, this would not be so repellant..." She dug her nails into its sides, fighting back the urge to gag. It bled a little, and she set her teeth, stripping off the outer layer while I waited, hoping. There had been times, before --- when Amonet wished to avoid some unpleasantness --- when she would force me to do something she did not wish to....
She couldn't do it; she could not force herself to bite into the raw flesh of the fish. "Eat this for me," she commanded, loosing her control of our body just a little, her ba' watching me to make sure I would do what she commanded.
Obediently, I lifted the fish to our lips--- then let it fall from my fingers into the pool of water as I spun around, running for the door.
STOP! I had taken barely six steps before she reasserted control, seizing all feeling from my limbs and slamming me back into the corners of my mind. How dare you!
Easily. I have nothing to lose.
Amonet lashed out, sending waves of pain through me. I said nothing, thought nothing, held myself and my ba' as still as I could, until she was finished. Wave upon wave of pain shot through me, and had I a body I would have been left trembling with weariness after she was done.
It hurt. But it always hurt. I could not try to regain control of my body again, at least not very soon. But this punishment hurt less than it had before. Perhaps I would not have so long to wait. Interesting...
I watched as Amonet turned back to the shore of the pool, and cried out in frustration to see that the fish I had dropped was already being consumed by a water-lizard. "Look what you have done. Now I have nothing to eat!"
Why don't you catch another?
She shrieked and sent another surge of pain through me, but it did not stop me from laughing.
Hours later, she finally lay down to sleep in a corner of the room with the serpent-markings on the wall. It was slightly warmer in there than in the other rooms, and the floor was at least smooth beneath us. Amonet was still hungry, and growing angrier.
Asgard... this is all their fault. Theirs and your husband's. When I am free of this place, I will hunt him down and strip the flesh from his corpse for a wall-hanging. As well as the rest of the Taur'i.
If you can catch them. You can not go to Earth. It is as forbidden as this planet. I smiled to myself, remembering the fortress of Dan'yel's people. And they are mighty warriors. They have killed many Goa'uld. If you went through the Chappa'ai to his home, they would only seize us again... Besides. He will be here soon.
He has abandoned you.
He would never abandon me. I turned away from my silent conversation with Amonet, hiding away, remembering the last time I saw my husband.
Abydos. A year ago. And I, pregnant with another man's child. I was so ashamed that I lied to my father, told him that Dan'yel knew where I was, that it was his child, that he had sent me home for safekeeping. I could not bear to have my father know that I was still a slave to Amonet, and that the child was not my husband's. The laws against adultery are strict among my people; and though I was not the one who sinned, I still felt that I had betrayed my family and my husband.
Then Dan'yel came, and after a few moments of fearing that I was still Amonet, and anger at what had happened, he forgave me. Unconditionally. Better: he told me that there was nothing to forgive. And he made me believe it too.
At the worst moments of my life, Dan'yel stood by me and made me brave. He loved me when I felt full of sickness and lies. Despite how long it has been since we have been together, despite all of the things that have happened, he still loved me enough to bring me to this place, to save me. I think, maybe, that he will be in disgrace with his people for doing this. I know that there was something strange about the way I was released from the cell in the Taur'i fortress. His friend, Samantha Carter, was the one who did this, and not O'Neill. I think he lied in order to free me; the shouts behind us as we plunged through the stone circle were not the farewells of friends.
Dan'yel would have given his life for me, when I was first taken. I would have hated to see him taken and made the host of Klor-el or some other demon, but he would have done it. For me.
Dan'yel is coming. We have time to wait.
Finally, Amonet fell asleep. But for once, I did not. As the demon's thoughts drifted into shadows, I was almost pulled down as I was every night. But not quite.
I could not believe it was true. It was not possible. I dared not move, in case it were a trick, so I lay there for long moments, savoring the chill feel of the marble floor against my skin, listening to the water falling down the surface of the stone walls. I opened and closed my fingers, relishing the feeling of muscles moving in my hands, and then I opened my eyes to slivers.
Amonet stirred, and I froze. I waited, as a sleepy murmur of awareness came from her, and then subsided. I swallowed, enjoying even that, enjoying the feeling of hunger in my belly and the stubbed toes that Amonet had gotten from the rock floors. The demon was drifting deeper into sleep as I waited, farther away from me....
I put my hand on the floor, and slowly, very, very slowly, pushed myself into a sitting position. Amonet drowsed on. I closed my eyes, and slowly got to my feet. Nothing. No alarm. No fear.
One step. Another. One foot in front of the other....
I was at the doorway into the Hall of Molnir when my rising excitement finally alerted Amonet that something was wrong.
What... NO!
I fought her with everything I had this time, with no thought to the consequences. I made it another three steps--- torturous, unbearably painful progress that caused me to collapse into a heap on the floor as Amonet's panic sent shockwaves of agony through me.
Mortal fool! You will kill us both! Stop this! STOP! I command you! I demand that you give way to me!
I lay there, fighting, as awareness of my body faded and even the pain of scraped legs melted away.
Amonet pushed herself upward, still trembling, and turned away from the door and the Hammer above it. "Never do that again," she said through her teeth. An order she expected to be obeyed.
I remained silent until she was back in the room of the carvings, then whispered, You will never sleep soundly again, Amonet. She paused, surprised, and I went on. There is no Skaara here to torture. No Jaff'a to keep me prisoner. You can not feed yourself. You have no one to help you. And my husband is coming for me. We will see who lasts the longest.
She slumped against the wall and slid down it, staring unseeingly at the carved dragon and tree while I hid away to nurse my pain in silence.

Daniel:
We were lost for almost an hour before Sam managed to pull us back on track. I might have been the one that remembered to bring my notebook from two years ago with the map of the maze's location, but Sam's the one who has the wilderness sense. She could do this without me, but I'd be pretty lost without her.
Every time I start feeling pessimistic about getting to the labyrinth and finding Sha'uri as soon as possible, I remind myself of how lucky I am to have friends like Sam and Gairwyn. Not to mention friends like Jack and Teal'c; if it hadn't been for Teal'c's quick thinking and better reflexes, Amonet would have killed me, back on P8X-872. And Jack covered our exit from the SGC so smoothly that I have to wonder how long he and Sam had been thinking about this possibility. But that's Jack: Mr. I-WILL-get-my-own-way-so-just-get-out-of-my-face probably had this half-planned since Chulak.
Gairwyn left about two hours ago. We hit the entrance to the pass, and the territory she was unfamiliar with, and she suggested we split up. She's going to get help; either a healer from one of the villages up here, or maybe an extra person and more supplies, to help us on the way back. Someone there might know the terrain better than she does, too, and be able to guide us better, and hopefully cut our travel time.
Sam and I haven't been talking much since then; we're saving our breath for the climb. I'd guess we're a couple thousand feet higher than Cheyenne Mountain right now. Good thing we're used to high altitudes. The slopes are getting steeper as we climb, and our progress is getting slower. I wish we had a Jeep, or a helicopter--- anything, really--- so that we didn't have to waste time like this. But we didn't exactly have the option of requisitioning anything like that from supplies.
Sam said she pretty much had to come along with me and Sha'uri after she ordered the airmen guarding Amonet to release her from her detention cell. Otherwise they would have thrown Sam in there in Amonet's place the second we escaped. At least this way, she says she gets to take a vacation before she's put in the stockade. Talk about friendship. I know she has her own reasons for doing this, but it still amazes me that she circumvented regs like that. I can't believe there's a cover story in the world that could explain "misunderstanding" orders to this extent.
I kept wondering, all the way up to the Gate Room, how much Sha'uri understood of what was going on, and how much Amonet guessed. We couldn't put her in handcuffs, not when we were supposedly just going for a "chat" with the General and Kennedy in the Briefing Room. Admit it. You didn't want Sha'uri to be that vulnerable. Emotion getting in the way of good sense again, as Jack would point out.
I should have done it anyway. I've got a whole list of should've's, now... I have to stop that. Can't think about that. Concentrate on the trail, and getting to Sha'uri. My feet are slipping on the rocks under the snow again, and I can't afford a fall that could lead to an injury. Can't afford any mistakes. We've made one too many as it is....
Sha'uri must have known something was wrong when Sam shut the door to the Gate Room in the guards' faces, then walked over, apologized, and punched out the one soldier on-duty in there. Amonet definitely knew something was wrong. If Sam hadn't been holding the M16 on her, she wouldn't have gone through the wormhole. I have to remember that, and have to hang on to all the things that Sha'uri would have seen too, would have witnessed silently while Amonet was in control. She has to know that I'm --- we're --- coming for her, that if Amonet's fighting the idea of going through the Hammer, it will be something that can help her. Kendra was right, what we saw on Apophis's ship with Skaara proved that: something of the host is always there, even if it can't always take action. I have to hope that Sha'uri isn't too confused and scared to know that there's a way out.
We take a rest, and I look around, shaking my head in disbelief. Kendra wasn't kidding, the last time we were up here. These hills do look really different when they're covered with snow. Something about all the color being blanked out, no greens, no browns, none of the light flashing off the rocks and mica formations... Just fields of white, with the occasional grey patch of stone, and the bare trunks of what could be evergreens and pines. Most of them are buried anyway, with only a few feet sticking out above the frozen snow. If we didn't have a map, and Sam didn't know her wilderness, I'd swear we were trapped in Brigadoon! The clouds match the rocks, and there's no blue or gold sun to focus on, just mile after mile of fog rolling above us. Everything for the last twenty miles has looked exactly the same to me.
We found the stream that flows off the mountain, though. It'll lead us to the aqueducts the Asgard built to channel the mountain glacier runoff around the maze. Sam guesses that we're about another eight hours or so away. It'll be dark before we get there, but Gairwyn and Sam both agreed that we'd be better off if we keep going, and take shelter in the outside rooms of the maze, instead of stopping for the night again. It should only be a few more hours past sunset by the time we get there, and any shelter is better than camping in the open at this elevation.
I can't take wondering about Sha'uri any more. I've got too many questions, and Sam might have some of the answers...I have to ask. "Sam?"
"Yeah?" She's re-adjusting her boots, lacing them up tighter. They might be all-weather gear, but they still aren't insulated enough against this snow."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure. What?"
"What it was like... when Jolinar wasn't bonded to you any more?" Sam looks up, shocked, and I immediately felt ashamed. Just because you're going nuts, is no reason to make Sam crazy along with you.... "Ignore me. Forget I asked that, okay? It isn't anything I really need to know."
Sam's quiet for a long moment, and I think that she's upset with me; then she hands me her canteen so I can take a drink of water, and she shakes her head as I sip. "I don't think it's comparable, Daniel. Jolinar gave up her life for me willingly. Anything I could tell you wouldn't apply."
"I know. Never mind. I just couldn't help wondering..."
"No, it's okay. I know how worried you are. I just wish I could tell you anything helpful." She stretches, squinting at the top of the mountain, then turns back to me. "You remember how depressed I was? How I wouldn't talk to anyone for days afterward?"
"Yes." She'd curled up like a little girl on her hospital bed, barely blinking, barely breathing. Not crying; just this incredible sadness in her eyes, like she'd lost part of herself and couldn't believe it was gone. It didn't make any sense to me at the time--- which made it even scarier. "I remember. You had us pretty worried."
"Sha'uri might be like that too. It wasn't just that Jolinar gave up her life so I could survive. That was bad enough, but..." Sam takes the canteen back from me, takes a long swig, then screws the top back on without looking at it, her eyes stuck on the middle distance. "I felt her die. Felt it in a way I can't even describe to you. It was like I was dying with her, every sensation going through me at the same time. And the fear, and how it felt to fight it... at the end, when it was all over, she was so peaceful...." She shuts her eyes, smiling painfully, and I can almost feel it along with her. "It isn't something you can forget."
"Sam...." There are things you can't help someone else deal with no matter how much you want to, if you haven't been through them. I would give anything to help you Sam, to help Sha'uri after this is over.... But I know that all I'm going to be able to do is hope that Sam will be able to share some of her own amazing strength with Sha'uri, or that Sha'uri will somehow find the same determination inside herself. She had it in her two years ago, but I can't know if it's still there, not after all she's been through....
"I don't know if Amonet can be forced to leave Sha'uri without Sha'uri experiencing her death too. Kendra said it was like needles in her brain--- it probably won't be any easier than it was for me, Daniel. I'm sorry. I wish I could lie to you, but I don't want you to think this is going to be easy." Sam raises her gaze to mine, studying my expression with more than just sympathy or concern. Pain for Sha'uri, and regret at causing me pain with the truth are both clear in her eyes.
Sometimes I wish that everything would just go back to the way it was before, and that Apophis never came to Abydos--- but if that happened I never would have met Sam Carter, and had her for a friend. And I can't regret that. I can wish a lot of other things away, but not Sam, or Jack, or Teal'c. They're the ones that made the last two years bearable, and sometimes even made it fun.
"It's okay, Sam. I needed to know." She still looks so sad. "Really, I mean it. I can handle this. Just... keep reminding me that you got through it. Tell me what to do, and I'll do it. Whatever it takes."
She grins and punches me lightly on the shoulder. "Quite an offer, there, Dr. Jackson. But don't worry about what to do." Sober again, her hand moves to squeeze mine tightly, then lets go. "Just be Daniel. We'll get her through the rest. All of us will."
"Thanks." I hope. I hope you're right, Sam. I hope that's all it takes.
We start hiking again then, without speaking, but I keep turning over what she said in my mind. One foot, then the other, left foot, right foot, one mile, then two, then four... and inside my head, I can't even feel it any more. My muscles were aching several miles back, but I've gone past that into this chilled numbness that doesn't distract me from my thoughts.
I suppose I'm obsessing about the after-effects and how hard it might be to get Sha'uri through this as a way of avoiding the deeper doubts. Like, what will she be like after two and a half years as a Goa'uld host? Sam is still dealing with Jolinar's memories after a year, and they were only joined together for a few days. Will Sha'uri even be the same person?
Why do I even ask myself that? I know better.
I slap a few tree branches out of the way to relieve my feelings, and Sam shoots me a look of concern. I can't tell her I'm fine, so I just look away, trying to find the next landmark.
Of course Sha'uri won't be the same. I'm not. In a million ways, I've changed. There are things I've done--- been in battles, gone on commando raids, died a few more times--- that I never would have dreamed of, back then. I've become more pragmatic, and more ruthless, since I left Abydos. Jack had me trained in weapons--- pistols, rifle, knives--- and I'm actually good at some of them. Pistols, especially. If you'd given me a gun when I was back on a dig in Egypt, I wouldn't have known how to hold it, much less load it and take down a Jaffa with it. Now I can shoot with either hand, and not hit any of our guys, either. Just their guys. Just the Goa'uld and their armies.
God, I hate them....
I can't even imagine what Sha'uri's been through. But if I've changed this much, she has to have changed --- experienced --- even more. She may never want to be married to anyone again. She may want to just go back to Abydos and hide in a cave. She could, maybe, just not feel the same for me as I do for her, after all this time. I wouldn't blame her if she couldn't. Look what being a host did to Sam; she still has moments where she doesn't know what's going on in her own head. Sha'uri may want to make things simple for herself, and just stay the hell away from anything to do with the Goa'uld, including me.
I can't assume that I'll get her back, just because she'll be free of Amonet. I can't go into this thinking everything will be the same and return to the way it was, even though it's what I've been praying for every night since I lost her. I'm so stupid that this is just hitting me now. But maybe if I had thought of it earlier I would've had even more nightmares, so I guess it's kind of a blessing.
The road widens here, like it did just a few miles before the aqueducts. The going from now on will be easier than it has been. Sam's looking more cheerful. But why shouldn't she? She thinks the hard part of this trip is over...
The hell of it is, I was almost... resigned, really, to not getting her back, or at least not getting back what we had, when I returned to Abydos a year ago. I hated admitting it, but it had been an entire year, and I was starting to face the fact that I might never see Sha'uri again, and that the life I'd loved with her family and people was never going to be given back to me. I was never going to stop looking, and it still hurt like hell, but I could deal with that. I didn't want anyone else, I knew that I was probably going to be alone for a long time, if not always, but that was... do-able. I had good friends, especially Sam and Jack and Teal'c; I had the work with the SGC, I had a purpose. It wasn't perfect, but I'd had perfect and lost it, so forget finding that again. It hurt less to admit that, than hoping did.
But then she was there, and seeing her again, and being with her... that was all it took to make me want my life back again. My wife, back again. It was exactly like it was before, in some ways. All she had to do was look at me, with that expression of complete trust, and I would've walked blindfolded into a blizzard for her. There was no way I could let her have that baby alone. The father didn't matter, what mattered was Sha'uri, making sure she didn't die, that the baby didn't die, that Amonet didn't get her hands on the child. We did that much, at least. At least for a while...
That's something else we'll have to deal with, if--- when--- this is over. Finding Sha'uri's baby, wherever Amonet sent him. Sha'uri should know where. That's something for her to hang onto, to fight for. She may not want the rest of her life back the way it was, but I know she'll want to fight for her son.
The aqueducts. Exactly like I remember; except they're iced over now, with the water running just under the surface. You can hear the rush of it without seeing what's moving beneath you.
"Almost there, Daniel." Sam turns and smiles at me. "We won't even need the map, now, and there's no chance we'll get lost. Everything will be okay."
"Yeah...." I hope so. Because I don't know what more I can do now. Except pray.

Jack:
Since when has informing someone of the facts been a court-martial offense?
We'd been scraping the sides of the SGC barrel when Kennedy put in an off-world call to SG-2, hoping to get them off PX3-499 and headed to Cimmeria. Kennedy didn't intend to give Ferretti any details about the assignment until he and his team returned to the Gateroom, but when Feretti demanded some reason to come back and break off exploring a possible Naquadah site, I stepped in. Well, shoved in... Okay, both. It's a gift.
"It's Daniel, Major. He's pulled another stunt like he did on Chu'lak, with Apophis's guards. Kennedy wants you to come in and fetch Dr. Jackson back from Barbados."
"What---?" Kennedy didn't even have five seconds to get confused before we heard weapon fire over the MALP's radio transmitter.
"Sir! We've got a sniper! We're gonna have to call you back---"
"Do you need back-up, Major Ferretti?" The General was leaning forward, his knuckles on the console, and giving me this look.
"No, sir, we can handle it--- but we'll have to break off contact until 1000---" More weapons fired; not Goa'uld. Semi-automatic. Like the ones Ferretti's guys were carrying. "Hopefully! Feretti out!"
I don't know why I get that look more than some people, but I do. Teachers, superior officers, ex-girlfriends, my ex-wife--- and every once in a while, I get it from my team. That what-did-you-just-do? look. Of course, this time I deserved it. But still. The General couldn't know that... well, okay, he could. He's been my CO for two years. If he hadn't lost all his hair before I was assigned to him, me and my team would have done for his hairline over the course of our missions.
Then again, he wasn't saying anything, just looking, and if he was just looking, he couldn't think of an exact charge to accuse me of, and that meant I was safe. And so was my team. He could glare and shoot me that look all he wanted.
Kennedy didn't bother with looking, he just started screaming. "OUT! OUT OF THE CONTROL ROOM!"
"Now, Colonel---"
"O'Neill, I think you should do as Colonel Kennedy is requesting."
"That was deliberate sabotage! I may not be able to prove it, but I know it when I see it, and if he's not out of here in five seconds---"
I opened my mouth to argue, caught the Texas-Ranger kinda glint in Hammond's eye, then shut my mouth and nodded ruefully. "Maybe leaving would be best, sir." Considering I can't do any more damage here, anyway... I backed out of the room with my best apologetic aw-shucks expression, which didn't stop Kennedy from foaming at the mouth, but did keep the General from immediately throwing my ass into a detention cell.
Which was why I was wandering around the corridors and chortling to myself. It pays, oh man, how it pays, to have code words for getting out of trouble known to the guys who've been under your command before you need 'em. Barbados equals vacation equals "find something else to do, you don't wanna hear these orders."
That and mentioning Daniel and Chu'lak were sure to put Ferretti onto at least part of what was going on. He was still in the infirmary when Danny-boy tried to sacrifice himself to be with Sha'uri on Chu'lak. But he knows about it. Nobody around here who doesn't. And Ferretti was there when Apophis grabbed Skaara and Sha'uri, and took out half of SG-2. If Daniel wanted anything to do with Sha'uri, Ferretti'd back him.
By now, Kennedy had to know that no one wanted to go after Daniel and Sam. He's a blowhard, but he's not completely stupid. But we were getting short on possibilities now; SG-2, 3, 6 and 7 were all out of the question. SG-11 was due back on base in another 30 hours, but until then, they were incommunicado on a training mission. SG-8 and SG-10 just got sent in as back-up to SG-4 off-planet; a diplomatic crisis brewing with the locals there that actually took precedence over escaped Goa'ulds.
The General had tried calling in the President to get Kennedy off our collective backs; but for now, he was out of reach. The JCS was adamant that Kennedy, being their man on the spot, handle the "situation." And so far, we'd been given the distinct impression that they didn't give a damn how it happened, they just wanted Amonet back from Cimmeria. Now.
I wandered into the locker room, most of my good mood starting to fade. Another few hours' delay. SG-9 and SG-5 were due back within the next three. Either team could be sent through. I kicked one of the lockers shut, then opened it and kicked it shut again, just to hear it slam. Not satisfying enough. Too damn easy. Where's something big to throw, damnit? Preferably through a window. Too bad they can't put in windows 28 stories underground. I'd've really liked to smash some glass around about then.
The thing was, they should have been back already. They weren't way overdue. Not yet. It takes about four days, total, ninety-six hours, worst case scenario, to get to the maze and back. We were hitting hour forty-six. The best-case scenario hadn't happened, obviously. Which meant that two of them --- or one of them--- had to wait at the maze for the other one or two to show up, so they could all come back together without getting separated. They would have been back eight hours before if they'd all been zapped to Thor's place the second they bounced through the 'gate.
Cimmeria's fairly safe, as planetary contacts go, since it's under the protection of the Asgard. The only Goa'uld on the planet was going to be Amonet, and she'd be in the maze thirty seconds after she walked through the 'gate. Technically, there was nothing to worry about. Daniel and Carter were fine. Sha'uri was going to be fine. Kennedy, that goofball, wasn't even a real issue; when they came back without Amonet, he wouldn't have a reg to stand on. And that was what was going to happen.
But you don't get to be Colonel by taking situations at face value, and the previous analysis doesn't take two things into account: Daniel Jackson and Sam Carter, and their unique abilities to find trouble, and get out of it, in ways that no sane universe would ever put up with.
Daniel Jackson is a brilliant, insightful, and dedicated guy. Everyone says so. Hell, even I say so. He's the reason we have a working Stargate in the first place. He is also the single biggest walking disaster area it's ever been my privilege to work with. If you want to find the one sinkhole in a 1000-square-mile desert, ask Daniel to walk across it and he'll get sucked in without even trying. When he's trying to do something, you'll end up with a sandstorm that takes out you, the enemy, and any locals who wandered by out of curiosity--- and when it comes to Sha'uri, Daniel tries very, very hard.
Sam Carter is also brilliant, insightful, dedicated, blah blah blah. Nobody who's ever spent five minutes with her can miss it. She comes in second in the How We Got a Working Stargate honors. The biggest difference between them --- aside from the X-chromosome that makes working with Carter such an interesting experience--- is that Carter doesn't randomly wander into disaster. Carter sizes up the disaster coming at her, realizes how completely she's screwed, loads her M-16 for bear without taking her eyes off it, and then takes her best shot at getting the disaster before it gets her, all without moving one inch. She's still standing. Which tells you something about her aim.
One of the things I know is that Daniel is a lot stronger than he looks. If he doesn't get Sha'uri back, it won't kill him. But it'll kill any enthusiasm he has for the SGC and a huge chunk of his dreams to lose her now, like this. I also know that if any of our guys try to take Sha'uri away from him, the least said guy would have to worry about would be a 'Zat gun blast to the face from Dr. Jackson. Which would lead to some kind of trial, which would lead to a delightful "detainment facility", which would kill him.
I also know that Sam Carter, among her other accomplishments, has one of the keenest consciences I've ever come across. She's practical down to the bone (unlike Daniel) and she's never gone off half-cocked in the time that I've known her. But she will take any risk up to the point of no return without counting the personal cost to herself. She's got a lot of reasons, including her friendship with Daniel, to want Sha'uri to be free of Amonet. She'd be perfectly willing to trash her entire career for their sake.
I don't intend for either of them to have to make those choices.
These two people, along with Teal'c, are my closest friends. We've saved each other's lives so many times that we had to stop keeping score. It got too messy, especially when saving them or me sometimes meant dying--- and then coming back from death to save each other again. I know stuff about them that no one else in the universe knows. And I know that if there's a worst case here, they'll find it. Sha'uri's an unknown quantity in all of this; and how much can she do, trapped inside Amonet?
If we're lucky, Sha'uri's going through the Hammer right now. Or she's been through and is back to human already. I started pacing around the locker room, kicking any bit of equipment dumb enough to get in my way. Which'll make all of Kennedy's plans collapse like matchsticks. But he ain't going to admit that. Not until she's standing in front of him without a snake in her head. So, more stalling. More delaying. Anything I could think of. There was still Major Carter's career to salvage, even if the Hammer hadn't... hell. Don't go there, O'Neill.
If Sam and Daniel came back to the SGC on their own, without having to be dragged back, it would make all the difference in whatever court martial Kennedy was sure to insist on. If not... They wouldn't dare let her off the project. They need her too bad. She's the expert, the astrophysicts whiz-kid, the one with the Tok'ra memories. They'll just boot her out of the USAF and re-hire her as a consultant, like Danny.
Oh, she'd love that. Right. Not gonna happen. I won't let 'em hang you if I can help it, Carter. I just need time to think of something else to keep 'em occupied--- We'd been damn lucky to get the help we had from the other personnel. But there was no way to directly ask for more, not without getting caught, anyway. Nope. Kennedy's attache's were hovering, just waiting for me to pull something. Gotta think of another plan now, O'Neill. Your team's counting on you....
"Colonel O'Neill." I jerked my head up, automatically on guard, relaxing when I saw that it wasTeal'c, looking as amused as he gets.
"Yeah?"
"I have heard that SG-2 will not be returning from their latest assignment. And that Colonel Kennedy is cursing your ancestors and your personal habits through several levels of the SGC."
Gossip has to be the fastest beast in the known universe. Forget jaguars, or antelope, or those flying bugs on the Nox planet. Gossip can outrun them all. "What, he didn't get in any shots at my karma while he was at it?"
"On the contrary. He appeared to have an abiding interest in it."
"I'll bet." Teal'c tilted his head, giving me his polite version of what's-up? without saying anything. He's not much for unnecessary words. Not like a certain anthropologist I know. Or his separated-at-birth-verbal-twin of an astrophysicist. "Teal'c, do you think there's any chance we could take the Control Room hostage without getting shot?"
Didn't even make him blink. Someday I'll rattle him--- not today, though. "I would say that it would be strategically difficult and tactically unsound. Many personnel aside from ourselves could be hurt. And the operation of the Stargate could be compromised."
"Damn. I was afraid you'd say that." I brooded for a minute, opening and kicking the locker door again, then elbowing it shut and leaning against it. "He should've let us go through. They're members of my team, for chrissakes. My responsibility. Kennedy's got no concept of what he's doing."
"I would tend to agree. But I can not fault Colonel Kennedy's chain of reasoning in forbidding us to go, since he is correct. Our personal loyalties to Daniel Jackson and Major Carter would outweigh our orders to bring them back."
"Why, Teal'c, do you think I'd disobey a direct order from the Joint Chiefs of Staff? When I'd given my word to come home like a good little boy?"
Teal'c did his Spock-eyebrow impression, but added in a blink of amazement that I'd even asked. "I have been informed by Major Carter that you were probably never a good little boy. She is of the opinion that you were a--- hellion, was her term." He was almost smiling. "And while I did not know you as a child, I have observed enough similarities to my own son to believe that she is correct."
"Where does Carter get these ideas about me?" Better yet, how can I embarrass her about 'em the next time I see her? I grimaced and pushed away from the locker, stalking for the door. "Well, hell. If I can't go find 'em, and I can't delay any more of the teams, I'm going to catch a nap. Wake me up if SG-5 or SG-9 gets back, will you?"
"Certainly."
I stopped then, and turned around. "Speaking of which-- when are you going to get some shut-eye?"
Immensely calm, Teal'c replied, "When Daniel Jackson has returned with Sha'uri. I will meditate and rest after you have slept, Colonel, but I do not intend to sleep until they have returned."
Which made us almost even, since I'd had maybe six hours of sleep since this mess started. "Cool. I'll spell you in four if the other teams aren't back by then." Teal'c nodded, and I stalked off to officer's quarters, hitting the bunk like a ton of bricks. I didn't try to sleep. I didn't meditate, either. I kept thinking about the possibilities, and how to get past Kennedy if they went past the time-limit of ninety hours that I'd imposed on this little trip, and how to keep the next team from leaving, and....
The next thing I knew, Teal'c was shaking me, telling me SG-9 was back from P4J-907. And that Kennedy had ordered them to Cimmeria.
"What has happened to SG-9?"
I'd actually been worried. Hell, I'd even been resigned to SG-9 going; I was just working on Plan B --- getting me and Teal'c to Cimmeria while Kennedy's back was turned. Nothing had really materialized on that idea yet, but it was going to be more workable than stopping SG-9.
I should've known better.
"Sir, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid SG-9 can't leave the facility---"
"No. Way." Kennedy was turning his glare on the Doc now, but she practices face-offs with General Hammond, and Kennedy's not even close to his league. She also faces off with me on occasion, and sometimes she wins. Usually when she's got a syringe in her hand.
"Are you trying to tell me that you're confining SG-9 to the base for medical reasons? On what grounds?" General Hammond demanded.
Fraiser didn't even flinch. "Yes, sir. They've all fallen ill in the last few hours. It could be a bug they picked up on P4J-907. So far none of the other personnel seem to have contracted it. Or...."
"Or?" Kennedy had his head buried in his hands.
"Or it could be food poisoning from the moo shu pork at the cafeteria last night." Fraiser was avoiding looking at me, oh yeah. "Captain MacIntyre claims he felt ill before he left, sir, and that he had moo shu pork for dinner last night."
You gotta love the Doc. For as long as she's been stationed here, she's bitched about the so-called "Chinese" food in the cafeteria; and the fact that they don't serve moo shu pork. She knows that. I know that. She knows I know that, because whenever I used to lose a bet with her (which was all of twice before I stopped betting against Fraiser) she made me drive to Denver for Chinese from her favorite place to celebrate. Not Springs, oh no. That would be too easy. A three-hour drive because she joneses for "real" Chinese food. I ask you! Janet Frasier is a woman with no compunctions about getting her own way.
So there's no way this is food poisoning. I could've kissed her, I really could've.
"This is absurd." Kennedy dropped his hands, and got to his feet, pointing a finger at Janet and shaking it at her. She looked from the finger to him without changing expression. "You're in on it! You made this up! Those people are not sick!"
Go Janet go Janet go Janet! I chanted to myself, keeping my face as innocent as possible.
"Pardon me, sir, but they most certainly are." Doc could've performed surgery with that voice, that's how steely it was. "If you would care to come down to the Infirmary and hold the basins for SG-9 while they lose their breakfasts, by all means, do so! And you might want to change their bed linens, while you're at it! But I have far too much work to do to waste your time with stories. SG-9 is quarantined for the next 48 hours---"
"You can't do that!"
"Oh yes, I can. General, I'm invoking my medical override and grounding SG-9. If you have a problem with that, you can get someone from the Academy Hospital to back me up. Now, unless there's anything else, I have patients to get back to." Carter's got a habit of always letting her eyes get too wide and her voice too fast when she's trying to sell a story; a problem which Fraiser does not have. She sounds like she couldn't give a damn if you believe her or not. General Hammond didn't. Colonel Kennedy didn't.
But they weren't gonna be able to break her, and they knew it. I might have been wrong, but to me, General Hammond looked relieved.
"Dismissed, Doctor. Keep us apprised of their condition."
"Will do, sir."
I didn't say anything. Anything I'd could've said would've been gloating, and I was saving mine up for when Daniel and Sha'uri and Carter came through that wormhole. I'm going to be buying beer for everyone in the SGC before this is over....
"This is ridiculous. I'm being deliberately stonewalled! Your personnel are sabotaging a mission approved by the JCS, General. I demand that we requisition a team from the Groom Lake facility, before anything more can go wrong---" Kennedy was spluttering, nearly choking on his disappointment.
"Careful, Colonel. Be very, very careful." Hammond drummed his fingers on the desk, a clear sign he'd like to send someone to the stockade. "Surely you don't believe that SG-9 deliberately became sick? Or that SG-2 was not under attack? Let's concentrate on getting a team to Cimmeria, instead of recriminations over things that can't be helped." He was smiling now. Actually, I wouldn't put it past SG-9 to get a little sick on purpose... and for the Doc to exaggerate it way past the normal level of concern. If I can think of that, General Hammond had probably thought of even more possibilities. But hey, if he didn't want to share his thoughts, that was his call. "A team can be ordered from Peterson or Groom Lake if no other SG teams are available, but we haven't run out of options yet. Until then, we'll stick to on-site personnel."
Kennedy's never going to make Major General at this rate. Man, was he mad. Simmering, steaming, boiling, mad. Along other emotions that would be fascinating on a volcano, but on Kennedy, it just reminded me of stewed vegetables.
He got his temper scaled back to shaking, sending me and Teal'c dagger glances across the table, then exhaled. "Very well. SG-5. Where are they?"
"They're down in the artifacts room, unloading their samples from the last mission, sir," one of his weasel attachments spoke up. "Major Pulaski said they'd be up in a minute."
"Good." He glared at me again.
"What did I do?" I asked, trying to look hurt. Teal'c made a sound next to me that could have been instantly-choked-off laughter--- at any rate, he was vibrating very slightly in his chair.
"Don't get me started, O'Neill. Your behavior in this debacle has not gone un-noted, and right after Major Carter, I'm going to request a tribunal for your court-martial---"
An airman knocked on the door just as Kennedy looked ready to erupt. "Uhhh, sir, you're not gonna like this...."
Oh, but I was going to love it. I could already tell.
....I did love it. It was sheer genius.
Through one of the observation windows into the labs, SG-5 waved at us, looking depressed. Okay, kinda depressed. Slightly distressed. Mildly apologetic. But not really.
"SG-5 is currently locked in the lab with one of the artifacts they picked up on the last planet. It's generating a field that won't let them open the door, sir." Silers, the head 'Gate technician and one of our grease-monkey-of-all-trades, was trying to adjust the frequency on some gadget he'd stuck--- literally, it looked like it was just hanging in the air without support--- in the wall. "They're perfectly safe--- so far--- but they can't get out. They can't get their hands or any tools through the field to turn the knob on the door, much less go through it themselves."
I wanted to applaud. I settled for a discreet grin for Major Pulaski, who shrugged and smiled back through the glass. Let's see you prove this is deliberate, Kennedy. Especially when we're the only experts on alien artifacts. Whatever it was, I was willing to bet that Pulaski knew exactly how to turn it off. His guys were looking just a little too relaxed, but what the hell. Kennedy couldn't get his hands around their throats, at this point.
"This is unbelievable." Kennedy had gone beyond shock, or anger, or outrage, into flat disgust. It was all I could do not to grin at him. "How can it be doing that?"
"We're not sure, sir." Silers blinked up at him, then went back to jimmying the what-cha-ma-callit he'd stuck in the wall. "We're hoping that we can cancel it out, though, with this device. They appear to be connected somehow---"
"Get it fixed. Get them out of there. Get them to the GateRoom. As soon as possible." Kennedy wasn't giving up yet. I would've admired him for that... except that I didn't think it had anything to do with determination or principles, but just a sick need to save face, at this point.
"Yes, sir."
"If you gentlemen will excuse me..." I think my work here is done. So to speak. I ducked out before Kennedy could start yelling again, Teal'c right behind me as I took the nearest stairwell up a flight, ditching the attache' at the elevator on the next floor. I grinned at his frustrated expression as the doors closed on him, then turned to Teal'c.
"SG-11's not due back for another 24 hours. Before that happens, they're gonna need a briefing about what's going on. Then they can make their own choices. Find somebody, anybody, who can meet them at the 'Gate and fill them in. Do it fast, do it discreetly---"
"I have someone already in mind, Colonel."
"Great. Don't tell me about it. I can't afford to know. We've got another forty hours or so before they should be back." The doors of the elevator opened, and I stepped out. "I'll have something figured out for our excursion before then."
Teal'c bowed his head to me as the elevator doors closed again, and I headed toward the elevator out of the SGC, up to the top of the mountain.
The elevator shaft only goes up to two flights below the exit, so the last bit of time before you break cover on the mountain feels like you're climbing out of a pit, and then the light hits you--- sunshine out of darkness, or the shine of a half-million stars all sitting on top of the mountain, watching you. I'd lost track of any real sense of time hours ago, so I was surprised that I was coming out under moonlight and stars, the cool air hitting me like a blessing after the staleness of the SGC's hallways. Maybe I'd been awake too long, inside that concrete bunker for too long, if this was such a relief. Conducting a running skirmish of misdirection for two days straight will do that to you, O'Neill.
I nodded to the sentry on duty, then started pacing away from the exit point, along the edge of the timberline. There's an electric fence and other guards out in the night, but you can ignore them if you want to. They'll ignore you as long as the sentry notifies them by radio of your exit. A lot of personnel come up here for a smoke, or just a break when they're on a long stretch of duty. There was only one other person there, off to the left, smoking a cigarette whose embers flashed near ground level.
Taking a moment to stare upward, and knowing I couldn't see Cimmeria's star from Earth, I finally picked out the section of sky closest to it. "Hurry up, guys," I muttered under my breath. "We can only hold the fort for so long..." I shook my head, feeling stupid. Superstitious. I gave up on prayer years ago, after God didn't give me the answers I wanted to my demands, and Daniel and Carter being in trouble didn't change that. It just gave me another reason not to trust the guy in the white robe and flowing beard. Positive thinking doesn't do anything but keep your frame of mind receptive to finding solutions--- it sure doesn't solve the problems of three people light-years away.
They're overdue. But we have to give them enough time. Another day and a half, maybe. Kennedy wasn't going to back down now; and Daniel and Carter stood too lose too much if we threw it in at this point.
We. Damn. When did the whole SGC decide to back Daniel and Carter, in the face of a JCS order? The second they left? Was it because of Kennedy being a such a rat, or something else? It was one thing for me to mess with the 'Gate after they left; they're my team, and my friends. But for everyone else to do it, unasked, even--- I can't ask any of them why, yet. T