Five Year Olds and Footholds

by Cleo the Muse

Kidfic! Little Stargate episode re-write challenge; an alternate take on "Foothold"

Five Year-Olds and Footholds by Cleo the Muse
Older Kids
Gen, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Challenge, Friendship, Kidfic (Aware Danny)
Synopsis: Little Stargate episode re-write challenge; an alternate take on "Foothold"
Status: Completed August 20, 2008

---

Five Year-Olds and Footholds

The Stargate roared into life, discharging a blue wave of energy into the SGC's embarkation room. Seconds later, the vortex had settled into the familiar rippling pool of the wormhole's event horizon, and moments after that, SG-1 stepped through.

"Ah, Jesus!" exclaimed Colonel Jack O'Neill, the second his feet hit terra firma. Yanking off his ball cap, he flung his head, spraying his scowling teammates with droplets of water.

"Welcome back, SG-1," greeted General Hammond flatly, waiting for the team at the base of the ramp.

"Thank you, sir," sighed Major Samantha Carter, the team's second-in-command. "It's good to be back."

"You're overdue," Hammond reminded the team.

"Bit of a wild goose chase," Jack answered, a little loudly.

To his left, Doctor Robert Rothman shifted uneasily, futilely wiping the lenses of his glasses with a damp handkerchief. "I-I thought the ruins we found were the 'Kheb' Daniel said Sha're told him about," he managed, though his voice was distorted by his stopped-up-even-more-than-usual sinuses.

"However there was no sign of Amaunet's Harcesis child," finished Teal'c, the final active member of the team. The stoic Jaffa, though every bit as water-logged as his companions, looked as imperturbable as ever.

"Just rain," added Jack unhelpfully. "Much rain. Wind... lightning... hail... Did I mention the rain, sir?"

For once, not a flicker of amusement showed on Hammond's face, but three-quarters of the team were too busy blinking water out of their eyes to notice. Teal'c noted the unusual solemnity, but felt it prudent to wait for further information.

"Report to the infirmary," Hammond ordered mechanically.

Jack stuck a pinkie in his ear and rubbed hard. "I think we'd all like to change first, General. I personally have mushrooms growing out of--"

Just then, a voice came across the PA. "Attention all levels. Stand by for contaminated materials transfer."

"Infirmary," Jack agreed hastily, handing his MP5 off to one of the SFs. "Yes, sir..."

Exiting the 'Gate Room, the team headed down the corridor toward one of the elevators, where they were met by Major Warren. "Infirmary?" he asked.

Jack, still trying to dislodge the water from his ears, looked up in surprise. "What?"

"Oh, I'm just escorting you up as a safety precaution, sir," Warren answered, leaning over and punching in the floor number for the infirmary. "There's a big chemical spill on Level 23."

Sam grimaced. "What kind of chemical?"

"Tetrachloroethylene rupture."

Robert gaped. "Rupture?"

Warren nodded. "The entire level's been sealed off. Hazmat team's cleaning it up now."

Jack frowned. "Where's Daniel?"

"He's fine, sir," the major assured him. "There's no danger."

Apparently satisfied with that answer, the colonel nodded. "What's on 23 again?"

"Storage facilities, hazardous materials containment... and the laundry, sir," Sam answered. "Tetrachloroethylene is a chemical solvent used in--"

"Nasty?"

"Inhaling the vapors can cause dizziness, headaches, nausea, difficulty walking, and in extreme cases--"

Jack waved her off. "I get it!"

"--Paranoid delusions," she finished.

"Not something we want to breathe in, eh?"

"No, sir," agreed Warren. The elevator doors opened on 21, and he gestured for them to precede him out the door.

Now it was Colonel O'Neill's turn to feel some uneasiness with the "escort". Since when was a major assigned to make sure an experienced SG team knew how to find their way to the infirmary?

Doctor Janet Fraiser and her medical team were waiting for SG-1, and soon had them ushered into separate curtained-off alcoves for their post-mission exams. After getting all the required blood samples drawn--leaving Jack muttering to himself about "vampires"--Janet returned to Jack's alcove and ordered him to drop his pants.

"How's a needle in my butt gonna get water out of my ears?" he complained, but rolled off the bed.

"It isn't," Janet smiled sweetly. "Come on, sir... You know this is standard procedure."

"We should rethink this procedure," he griped. "And where the heck is Daniel? He's usually waiting for us at the door."

"He's been confined to quarters, for the time being," the doctor answered, pausing as she exited the curtained area. "High concentrations of tetrachloroethylene can prove fatal to those with severe respiratory ailments, small children, and the elderly."

"Rats... I was hoping to ask him about this 'Narcissus' child--"

"Harcesis," Robert corrected, helpfully.

"Whatever. We're still talking about a baby, right?" Any forthcoming response was drowned out by another PA announcement, but before Jack could repeat his mostly-rhetorical question, a needle bearing nurse entered the alcove.

"Listen... really jam it in this time, okay?" Jack joked, grimacing when the nurse gave a nod and a smile.

In the next alcove down, Sam Carter had just finished her last blood test and had loosened her belt to receive her own shot from Janet. "So if Sha're's child was born with all the knowledge of the Goa'uld, it should be able to communicate at a much younger age, right?" She frowned, feeling a little woozy. "Colonel? Teal'c?" Why hadn't her teammates answered?

"Just relax," Janet soothed, injecting the last of the contents of the syringe.

Sam nodded, but was hit with a sudden wave of dizziness. Before she could call out, she blacked out, falling across the bed.

Janet Fraiser smiled, capped the needle, and pulled back the curtain. Surveying the four unconscious team members, she announced, "Let's begin."

--

Teal'c slowly drifted back to awareness. The first thing he noticed was the agitation of his symbiote. The second was that there were familiar voices around him, but none belonged to his teammates. Carefully lifting his head, he noted the unconscious form of Major Carter nearby, and wondered how she had come to be in such a state.

For that matter, how had he?

"--Must have something to do with the alien symbiote inside him," came the voice of Janet Fraiser, sounding distant. Feeling uncharacteristically groggy and exhausted, Teal'c turned his head. "It took an extremely large dose just to sedate him in the first place," continued the doctor.

"What is the problem with the human?" asked a voice which sounded like General Hammond, but his use of the term 'the human' in describing Major Carter sounded ominous.

Teal'c's eyes widened in surprise. Though a doorway and a privacy curtain partially blocked his view, he was able to see Sergeant Siler standing immediately next to General Hammond, but beyond him were two armored figures who looked nothing like anything Teal'c had ever before seen. Perhaps, his mind suggested, this was not General Hammond at all, and if so, then it was just as likely Doctor Fraiser was not herself, nor was Sergeant Siler.

"Her body chemistry has been altered. It is related to her prior infestation by the dominant parasitical species in this galaxy," Alien-Fraiser answered, confirming Teal'c's suspicions. Doctor Fraiser, in deference to Major Carter's feelings on the matter, always referred to the Tok'ra Jolinar by name.

"Is there a way to compensate?" asked Alien-Hammond.

"I have not found it yet."

Inwardly, Teal'c began forming a plan. Somehow, the command staff of the SGC had become compromised, but Goa'uld infestation could be ruled out based on the imposters' curious lack of knowledge regarding Jaffa physiology. The real Doctor Fraiser would have known Teal'c's symbiote could rapidly counter sedatives, though it was intriguing to note that Major Carter's experience with Jolinar of Malkshur had apparently left her with a similar resistance.

What had O'Neill referred to this situation as? Foothold, Teal'c suddenly recalled, remembering the training exercises the SGC had conducted so that personnel would know what to do in the event of a Goa'uld incursion on-base. Teal'c knew his first step had to be freeing himself, then gathering weapons and allies from within the SGC's unaffected population--which, from the sounds of things, included only himself and Major Carter--then either retake the base or seek assistance in retaking it from forces outside of Cheyenne Mountain.

"--You may study them further. Only then will we know if this is a viable new homeworld," Alien-Hammond was saying, and Teal'c felt a stir in his abdomen which had nothing to do with his symbiote. Alien-Hammond had said "study" with a cold amusement Teal'c associated with Colonel Maybourne's desires to "study" Teal'c after the incident in which the Jaffa was stung by a rather large alien bug.

"Take that one first," Alien-Fraiser instructed as the footsteps of Hammond and two other individuals faded away. Teal'c quickly feigned unconsciousness, and in seconds, someone was sweeping back the curtain which had partially obscured his view of the aliens. The wheels squeaked noisily as the gurney upon which he rested was rolled out of the infirmary, and the only thing Teal'c could do, for the moment, was watch the ceiling go by through slitted eyes.

The light brightened as the gurney was angled into the elevator. "Level 23?" came the voice of Major Warren, clearly still guarding the lift. Teal'c reasoned he, too, was an alien imposter, much as Doctor Fraiser and General Hammond surely were.

"No, this one's going to 16," answered another of the aliens, this one bearing the voice of Sergeant Siler.

The elevator doors swished shut, and the lift ascended. When it opened out onto a new floor--presumably Level 16--Teal'c sensed he was, for whatever reason, otherwise alone. Waiting just long enough for the elevator doors to close, he surged up from the gurney, grabbed for Alien-Siler, and laid the creature out cold with a single hard blow. Pausing only to retrieve the false sergeant's keycard, Teal'c wheeled the imposter into one of the unlocked and unoccupied holding cells, shut the door, then raced down the hall for the nearest armory.

A faint scuffle brought him up short, and he immediately pressed himself against the wall for fear his escape had already been discovered. The sound came again, and Teal'c was able to pinpoint it to the cell across the wall and down from where he now stood. Hoping, perhaps, that he might find another ally, Teal'c bolted across the hall and opened the door.

A huddled figure sat on the bunk behind the heavy steel bars, tightly pressed against the wall. Another muffled sob came forth from the cell's occupant, and Teal'c felt his heart ache. "Daniel Jackson."

The tousled blond head jerked up in surprise, revealing red-rimmed eyes. "Teal'c? Oh, god, no, stay away!"

"I am not here to harm you," Teal'c assured the boy, using his stolen keycard on the panel near the door. Obligingly, the electronic lock on the cell door hummed and deactivated, and the Jaffa wasted no time in opening the cage.

"Stay back!" Daniel rasped. "I won't tell you anything!"

Teal'c fell to his knees next to the bunk. Trying not to further frighten his young friend, he spoke as soothingly as possible. "Daniel Jackson, what has transpired here? The SGC has been overrun with individuals who appear to be SG personnel, as well as others who resemble armored warriors."

Daniel blinked and smeared back tears and snot with the forearm of his sweatsuit jacket. "Teal'c?"

"It is I, Daniel Jackson," he promised. "I am unsure how much time has elapsed since SG-1 returned, however the sedative the alien Doctor Fraiser administered was insufficient to keep me unconscious long."

Apparently satisfied, Daniel lunged and wrapped his arms around Teal'c's neck. "Way to go, Junior," he whispered shakily.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed, patting Daniel on the back reassuringly before withdrawing just enough to look the boy in the face. "Major Carter's possession by Jolinar has given her a similar immunity to whatever their true purposes involved, and I fear it will not be long before my escape is discovered. We must hasten to arm ourselves, rescue her, and contact forces outside of this base."

"Okay," Daniel agreed quickly, releasing Teal'c and sliding off the bunk. Smiling inwardly at how the boy bravely composed himself with the same ability to focus he possessed when he had been an adult, the Jaffa led the way back out into the corridor. Shortly thereafter, they located one of the base armories, and Teal'c once again used the keycard liberated from Alien-Siler. Reaching up, he grabbed a belt off one of the hooks--one which already had a zat'ni'katel and holster mounted on it--and buckled it around his hips. Knowing that Major Carter would also need to be armed, he retrieved a second holster--this one containing a standard-issue M9 Beretta--and turned to leave.

To his surprise, Daniel Jackson was standing on the tips of his toes, retrieving a zat from a nearby crate. "You're gonna need my help," he declared defiantly, sensing Teal'c's eyes upon him.

"I fear you are correct, Daniel Jackson," he agreed, but if O'Neill knew he had allowed a child to arm himself with a deadly weapon...

Daniel Jackson, however, was no ordinary child. Behind the wide blue eyes and innocent face of a five year-old Tau'ri lurked the intellect of a brilliant scholar and a veteran warrior. The emotions of a child further complicated matters, but Teal'c was confident the young archaeologist would deport himself in a manner befitting a member of SG-1.

Inclining his head in silent agreement to the boy's actions, he led the way once more, returning to the empty guard station next to the elevator. Behind him, the slap of bare feet on concrete told him of the child-sized archaeologist's determination to keep up, and Teal'c mentally resolved to add "shoes" to the required list of materials needed to stage a successful escape.

Dimming the lights, Teal'c pointed to a shadowed spot directly across from the elevator. "Conceal yourself there," he commanded, "and wait for my signal." Immediately, Daniel slipped his small frame into the space between the protruding pipes. Seconds later, the whine of a primed zat told him the child was, indeed, prepared to take any necessary action.

They did not have long to wait. Within a few minutes, the elevator dinged softly, and the doors slid open and spilled a rectangle of light into the darkened corridor. A gurney bearing the unconscious form of Major Carter entered Teal'c's sight, followed by the white-clad form of one of the SGC's medical corpsmen. Teal'c took quick aim and fired, enveloping the medic in the electrical blast. A second shot snaked out from across the room, and a cry and thud from within the elevator signaled that Daniel had successfully struck another target.

A child though he might now be, Daniel clearly still possessed the excellent aim instilled in him by Colonel O'Neill throughout many hours at the base and mountain-top firing ranges. If Daniel was to have to return to adult size the "natural" way, Teal'c had little doubt the linguist would become a formidable warrior long before he reached his original age.

Motioning for the boy to follow, Teal'c checked inside the elevator, noted that Major Warren had been left insensate by Daniel Jackson's well-aimed zat, then hauled the unconscious medic inside. Finally, after securing Warren's weapon, he grabbed Major Carter's gurney and pulled her inside the elevator.

"Where to?" Daniel asked nervously, freeing his right hand from the two-handed grasp he'd had on his weapon and hovering next to the control panel.

"Where is safe?"

"Not Level 23, that's for sure," the boy answered, wrapping his arms around himself and shuddering.

"We were told the level had been flooded with tetrachloroethylene gas."

Daniel's eyebrows rose. "Um, not sure what that is, but no. That's where they do all their... changing. They wrap everyone in cocoons, and there's this big, nest-thing--or maybe it's more like a spider web--and... and... well, I didn't really get a good look at it 'cause I was too busy trying to keep from getting caught."

Teal'c opened his mouth to ask for further clarification, but was interrupted when Major Carter groaned and rolled her head. Catching sight of the Jaffa she groggily murmured his name and tried to sit up.

Stepping to her side, Teal'c laid his hand on her shoulder. "Major Carter, there is little time... are you capable of standing?"

"Yeah," she agreed, and tried once again to sit up. She swung her feet over the gurney's edge and tried to stand, but become suddenly dizzy and would have fallen if not for Teal'c's intervention. "Oh, I feel sick," she complained.

"You are suffering from the effects of a sedative," he informed her.

Sam nodded and pulled herself back up on the gurney. Now sitting, she noticed the fallen forms of Major Warren and the medic. "What's going on? What the hell happened to them?" Her gaze swept back to the other side of Teal'c, where she met the wide-eyed stare of the SGC's youngest employee. "Daniel!" she exclaimed.

"They are not who they appear to be. There's been an alien incursion within the SGC."

"I'm still me," Daniel clarified, as Teal'c handed her the Beretta.

Still not firing on all cylinders, she shot Teal'c a confused look. "What?"

"In the infirmary, I witnessed Dr Fraiser and General Hammond speaking of a procedure which had failed to work upon both of us," he elaborated. "They spoke of invasion."

"What? How does that add up to aliens?"

"They built a nest of some sort on Level 23," Daniel answered. "Somehow, they're able to take on the appearance and memories of someone they cocoon and hang from the nest... web... whatever it is."

Teal'c glanced over his shoulder. "Daniel Jackson, please proceed to your base quarters... you still require shoes."

"Level 18," Daniel corrected, punching the button on the elevator. "I took my shoes off in my office when... when I took a nap."

Despite the gravity of the situation, Sam smiled at her young friend's discomfort. As though being too small to continue going through the 'Gate with the rest of SG-1 wasn't bad enough, Daniel also had to deal with the many other drawbacks of being a child: limited tolerance for sugar and caffeine, less complicated but more polarized emotions, a shorter attention span, and, of course, the need for more hours of sleep.

"That's why I realized there was something wrong," he continued, fingers tracing the ridges and grooves decorating the zat's surface. "I woke up when someone opened my office door, but they didn't come in. I then heard what sounded like Janet say 'the child is not here', then the door was closed."

"Janet would never call you 'the child'," Sam protested, knowing the doctor knew how sensitive Daniel was about his new size. Of course, Janet should also have known that Daniel's favorite napping spot was under his desk, where he could curl up into the makeshift nest of pillows and blankets he'd made on the floor.

"Nor would General Hammond refer to you as 'the human', Major Carter," Teal'c added, stepping out of the elevator as it opened on the designated floor. The hall appeared to be empty, so he motioned for his teammates to follow.

"What about the Colonel and Rothman?" she asked, steadying herself only briefly before trailing Daniel and Teal'c down the corridor. "We have to know what's happened to them."

"They've probably already been duplicated," Daniel answered a little breathlessly, working hard to keep up with his much taller friends. There was a further note of misery in his voice that Sam found especially painful, and she knew it was because of the father/son relationship growing between Colonel O'Neill and Daniel. The pair had always been close, of course, but with Daniel's new-found physical and emotional dependency, the bond had strengthened even more for the orphaned child and the still-grieving father. Complicating matters further was the vague resemblance the child-sized Daniel had to the colonel's deceased son Charlie, but the two were making their new relationship work just like they had their improbable friendship.

"We should go back to 16, then," she decided aloud. "There's a security office there that we can use to check out the cameras on all the other levels. We at least need to see what all we're up against."

Teal'c once again led the way into Daniel's office, and once he gave the all-clear, the boy wasted no time in racing to his desk and pulling on his socks and sneakers. Now properly shod, he rejoined his friends at the door, and the trio returned to the elevator once again.

Sam led the way this time, and when she reached the door of the security office, she simply knocked. When a female voice from within invited her to enter, she turned the knob a few times and lied, "It's locked."

In a moment, the door was opened, and Teal'c wasted no time in zatting Sergeant Westerholm. Stepping past the unconscious SF--or rather, the alien pretending to be her--Sam waited for Daniel to slip into the room, then shut the door. Daniel crawled into one of the chairs while Teal'c hovered over his back, and Sam claimed the other for herself. Punching a few commands into the computer, she frowned at the static-filled screens which appeared. "Not a single camera's operating on Level 23."

"Guess they don't want us peeking," Daniel quipped.

The PA came to life again, but this time it was an announcement for an incoming wormhole. "Try punching up the 'Gate, then," Sam suggested.

Daniel nodded and scooted his chair over to the terminal in the corner. His tiny fingers soon had the correct keys pressed, and several images of the 'Gate Room appeared on the various monitors. The alien impersonating General Hammond waited at the base of the ramp, much as he had when SG-1 arrived, and a few moments later, the camera positioned directly above the Stargate showed the arrival of two armor-clad bipeds.

"That's them," Daniel muttered, enfolding himself in another of his self-hugs. "Big, mean, and ugly."

Motion on the primary monitor caught Sam's eye, and she watched as two human-looking figures joined Alien-Hammond at the bottom of the ramp. Stretching between Teal'c and Daniel, Sam zoomed in, and grimaced.

"The Colonel O'Neill and Doctor Rothman we know would not welcome aliens so blithely," Teal'c frowned.

"Not without having a big-honkin' gun ready, anyway," Daniel agreed snarkily, "and Robert's not exactly a 'people-person'."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.

"Locker room," Sam ordered. "We need keys, wallets, and street clothes if we're going to leave the mountain and try to get anywhere."

Daniel hopped off his chair. "I'll stand guard."

Before Sam could voice her objection to that, Teal'c interrupted. "With regard to clothing, we will not need to obtain anything other than outer garments. The citizens of Colorado Springs are accustomed to seeing personnel in military uniform."

"Oh, I think we need to go further than Colorado Springs," Sam replied, leading the way out of the security office. "We have no way of knowing how far this invasion goes. If General Hammond has been compromised--"

"We can't trust anyone in the Mountain," Daniel concluded.

"Exactly. And much as I hate to admit it, Foothold protocol requires that we contact the NID for assistance in recapturing the base."

"Ew," Daniel muttered.

Fortunately, the locker rooms were on but a single level up, so the trio found a stairwell and proceeded upward. With Daniel standing guard--inside the locker room, at Sam's insistence--the adults retrieved jackets suitable for the cool Colorado air. Sam, realizing by the presence of her favorite leather jacket that she had last arrived on-base on her motorcycle, opened Colonel O'Neill's locker and snagged his truck keys.

They exited the locker rooms and returned to Level 16. Moments after their boots--and in Daniel's case, sneakers--left the staircase, an alarm klaxon began to sound. "Our escape has been detected," Teal'c reasoned.

"That rules out the elevators and stairs," Sam sighed, knowing her teammates would know this particular stairwell terminated at the crossover level, Level 11. The primary stairwells, which reached from 11 all the way up to ground level, were each located behind a guard station.

"What about the emergency hatch?" Daniel suggested.

"Can you climb that far?"

"Yes." Young though he might have been, the stubborn set to his jaw was a familiar expression. Daniel, Sam realized, would push his tiny frame to its limits.

Teal'c realized that his teammates' progress would be slowed, both by Major Carter's continuing fatigue, and by Daniel Jackson's reduced size. "I will purchase time for the two of you to depart this mountain."

Daniel looked as though he wanted to protest, but Sam recognized the necessity of Teal'c's actions. "Keep 'em busy as long as you can... we'll come back for you."

Teal'c bowed, handed his jacket to Daniel, then drew his zat and moved swiftly down the corridor. Daniel looked on the verge of tears, but gamely clutched the light-weight garment to his chest and used it to conceal the zat he still carried.

Nodding, Sam led her young friend down the corridor to one of the escape hatches and began to loosen the oversized wing-nut which bolted the door shut. She jumped--and so did Daniel--when the sound of a handgun firing echoed down the hall, but the answering whine of a zat told them both Teal'c was still defending their escape.

Once the hatch was opened, Sam tucked Teal'c's jacket and the concealed zat into a shadowed nook, then helped Daniel step across the ladder well and onto the first rung. The child-sized archaeologist then gamely clambered up the ladder, and Sam followed swiftly after.

Teal'c, meanwhile, had ambushed two SFs as they raced down the corridor, disabling each man with a solid blow rather than discharging his zat. As he made to step across one of the fallen men, he noted that the man he had struck with the edge of the zat was bleeding from a small cut. As he crouched over the guard and inspected the surprisingly human-looking blood, he heard the scuff of a boot behind him.

Pain flared in his right bicep even as the report of a 9mm handgun sounded from behind him. Ignoring the discomfort, Teal'c whirled and fired, enveloping his h uman-looking attacker in the zat's painful blue energy. Unwilling to waste further time in examining his fallen foes, he continued down the hall.

Footsteps ahead alerted him to the approach of more SFs, so he quickly laid out a crude ambush: allowing a few drops of his own blood to fall to the floor, Teal'c then concealed himself inside one of the holding cells. As the men stopped to examine the spatter, the Jaffa slammed the door open on one and shoved the other into the wall opposite. Letting both men fall to the floor, he glanced back down the corridor in the direction from which he'd come, and was surprised to see one of the aliens in its natural form.

Before he could charge, a security barrier descended and blocked his path. Fearing he was being trapped, Teal'c spun about and raced in the opposite direction, but a second barrier was already being lowered. Then, to his horror, a smoking canister was pitched under the door before it closed. Thinking quickly, he tried one of the cell doors, but someone had engaged the electronic locks, and he was trapped in the resulting tiny enclosure.

It wasn't long before darkness overwhelmed him once more.

--

Having climbed sixteen stories, Sam felt her strength faltering, but to her surprise, Daniel still seemed to be going strong. The sedative, she reasoned, was still affecting her muscles.

"Sam," Daniel grunted from several feet above her, "I've released all the bolts, but I can't lift the hatch... it's too heavy."

"I'm coming," she answered, heaving herself up the remaining rungs. Daniel slid as far to the side as he could to allow her past, and after a little careful maneuvering, she was able to reach the hatch and push it open. The cool night air which poured in was a refreshing change from the stifling ladder well, and she was soon sitting on the edge of the shaft's cover, helping Daniel climb out, too.

"We can't stop now," the boy reminded her, looking mussed and sweaty from the climb's exertions. Sam realized she probably didn't look much better, but nodded in agreement. Jumping down on the ground, an action which reminded her she was still slightly nauseous from the sedative, she turned around and helped Daniel get down, then shut the hatch.

"It's a long way back to town on foot," she groaned, pausing another moment to catch her breath.

"So we take Jack's truck," Daniel reasoned. "You did grab his keys, didn't you?"

"Daniel, they'll be guarding the parking lot exit."

He shook his head. "They might have the memories of SG personnel, but they don't have their reactions or personalities down-pat."

"Like Janet not looking for you under your desk," Sam reasoned.

"Yeah, and them leaving the guard stations on each level empty. The one that looked like Tracy probably wasn't even paying any attention to the monitors, otherwise she should've seen us running around on Levels 16 and 18. And there's no way the one that looked like Colonel Makepeace shouldn't have been able to keep me from knocking him over."

Sam stared. "You knocked over Colonel Makepeace?"

"Alien-Makepeace," Daniel corrected. "He caught me sneaking around on Level 23, but I did one of those moves Teal'c taught me and knocked him down and got away."

"But if the gate guards have been compromised..."

Daniel shook his head. "I don't think it's reached outside of the mountain, yet. I overhead them saying something about needing to secure the base before they moved on to 'the humans at ground level' and 'in the higher command structure'. NORAD controls stuff up here, so--"

"--They might not have contacted the front gate yet," Sam finished. "It's a risk--"

"--But one, I think, we have to take. You're exhausted, I'm exhausted..."

She looked over at her companion, noting, for the first time, dark circles under his red-rimmed eyes, shadows which stood out in sharp contrast to his pale skin. "Yeah," she agreed simply. Taking a moment to get her bearings, she set off into the woods, leading the way to the base car lot.

They emerged cautiously from the tree line, and seeing no guards patrolling the lot--which would have been a clear sign that security had been alerted--Sam and Daniel jogged toward Jack O'Neill's full-sized truck. Using the keys she'd liberated from the colonel's locker, Sam soon had the truck unlocked, Daniel strapped into his booster seat, and herself behind the wheel.

The gate guard approached as she pulled up to the guard house. "You're leaving rather late, ma'am," he remarked, looking in the window.

"Colonel O'Neill's been delayed, so I'm taking Danny home for him," she answered, trying to act casual. Daniel, doing his part, gave a tired wave.

"Yes, ma'am. Have a good night, and drive carefully."

Sam managed to hold on to her sigh of relief until after she'd turned off of the road which led to the mountain. "Well, that was easier than I expected."

"Yeah, me too," Daniel agreed. "So, where to now? Jack's place? Yours?"

"The airport," she answered. "We need to get to Washington, where we can talk to someone in person."

"Someone from the NID?"

"Yes. We can't tell anyone what's going on without having a secure telephone line, and all those are back at the Mountain"

Daniel grimaced. "Okay, airport it is."

It took about two hours to get to the airport in Denver, during which Sam tried fitfully to come up with a plan for contacting the NID. She usually knew the office numbers for several personnel, and unfortunately, the only one she could recall at the moment was Colonel Harry Maybourne.

Maybourne. The guy who'd tried to hold the Tollans hostage. The guy who'd gotten orders to remove the bug-infected Teal'c from the SGC and take him to be "studied". The same guy who Colonel O'Neill was sure was responsible for the theft and illegal operation of the Stargate from Antarctica, though nothing could be proven.

No, Sam wasn't about to share that part of the plan with Daniel... not yet.

Daniel fell asleep during the drive, but it didn't take a lot of cajoling to awaken him once she'd parked the truck in the "long-term" lot. Rubbing at his eyes, he unbuckled his booster seat and held out his arms to be lifted to the ground.

"Guess I better leave this here," Sam sighed, removing her Beretta and stashing it in the glove box.

"Oh, yeah," Daniel muttered, swiping at his eyes again.

At just after five in the morning, the airport was beginning to come to life, but it didn't take long to find an open ticket counter. "I need the first available flight to Washington DC," Sam requested, leaning heavily against the counter. "Two seats, one-way... doesn't matter where in the plane."

The too-bright-eyed-for-this-early clerk gave Sam and Daniel odd looks. "No checked luggage?"

"We're in a bit of a hurry," Sam explained.

"My daddy's been taken to the hospital," Daniel chimed in, exuding cuteness even in his exhausted state.

Surprised at his quick thinking, Sam nodded in agreement. "My husband's military, too," she added, picking up on Daniel's fabrication. "There was some sort of accident while on maneuvers, and--"

"No problem, ma'am," the clerk soothed, tapping keys on her computer. "I can get you two seats in coach on the five forty-five, but they'll be boarding in just a few minutes... you'll have to run."

"We'll take it," Sam agreed. She grimaced as she handed over her credit card to make the purchase, but hoped that by the time the aliens got around to checking for electronic records, she and Daniel would already be on their way. She gave their names as Samantha and Daniel Carter, grabbed their boarding passes, and began to jog for the departure gate. Daniel stumbled along beside her as best as he could, but after they cleared the metal detectors, Sam carried him piggy-back the rest of the way.

They made it just as the final boarding call was being announced, and were shown their seats by one of the flight attendants. Daniel fell asleep before the airplane finished taxiing to the runway, and Sam joined him after the jet lifted into the air.

--

Teal'c slowly drifted back to awareness. The first thing he noticed was the agitation of his symbiote. The second were the restraints securing his limbs, chest, and even his neck.

High-heeled shoes clicked on the floor, signaling the arrival of Doctor Fraiser. "Hey, Teal'c... how are you feeling?" she asked congenially.

Haze clouded Teal'c's memories. Doctor Fraiser sounded so... normal, but didn't he remember her saying some very un-doctorly things earlier? And why was he restrained? Rather than voicing his questions aloud, he craned his neck as best he could, indicating the straps pinning him to the gurney.

"You, uh, went a little crazy on us," the diminutive doctor answered, "so we had to sedate you. Do you remember what happened?"

"I do not," he lied. He remembered something, but he couldn't be sure it was real.

"SG-1 was exposed to chemical fumes from the spill. You became delusional and attacked several people, trying to escape from the base."

Approaching footsteps signaled the arrival of someone else, and Teal'c slitted his eyes open enough to identify General Hammond. "Teal'c," the base commander began, "glad you're awake." Teal'c's distorted memories had the general sounding much colder, less like the kindly patriarch he knew so well. "Has Doctor Fraiser explained the situation?"

"She has," Teal'c replied, though he still wasn't sure what to believe.

"Good. We're hoping you can tell us where Major Carter is."

"She also had an adverse reaction to the chemical," Doctor Fraiser clarified. "One of the side-effects is hallucinations... paranoia. Your symbiote protects you from a lot of things, Teal'c, but apparently not tetrachloroethylene."

Hallucinations... paranoia. If true, then that would explain his distorted memories.

"Where is she?" Hammond asked.

"I do not know," Teal'c replied, truthfully. If all had gone well, then Major Carter and Daniel Jackson would have successfully made their escape via...

Why was there no mention of Daniel Jackson?

"Teal'c, if she doesn't receive medical attention soon, she's just going to get worse," Doctor Fraiser warned. "I won't lie to you: she could die."

"What of my teammates?" he asked.

"Colonel O'Neill and Doctor Rothman have been successfully treated," General Hammond reported.

"And Daniel Jackson?"

"He's been confined to his quarters until the spill has been successfully contained," the doctor answered. "Even brief exposure could prove fatal to a child his size."

Teal'c remembered hearing something of the sort before, and gave a small nod of acknowledgement to Doctor Fraiser and General Hammond. He wanted to ask for the removal of the restraints, but the pull to engage in a restorative session of kelnorim was too strong to resist.

While he meditated, he would attempt to sort through his distorted memories, including the one which featured a frightened but defiant young Daniel Jackson imprisoned in one of the base holding cells.

--

Sam woke when the plane jolted down on the tarmac, and sat up as quickly as her persistent headache would allow. Glancing to her right, she beheld the bleary-eyed Daniel Jackson, who was just beginning to rouse himself.

"Are we there yet?" he mumbled.

Sam nodded and blinked at the brilliant sunlight streaming through the cabin windows. "Looks like it." Glancing at her watch, she noted it was now just past nine in the morning in Colorado, which meant it was after eleven locally. She cringed at the thought of braving DC traffic at lunch-time, but acknowledged inwardly that without Daniel's suggestion they take Colonel O'Neill's truck, she wouldn't have made it to the nation's capital until much later in the day.

After staggering out of the terminal at Dulles with Daniel in tow, she spotted a row of pay phones and quickly commandeered a free one. Slipping a few coins into the slot, she dialed Maybourne's office number and hoped that if he wasn't physically in his office, he at least had call-forwarding to a mobile phone.

The phone picked up on the second ring. "Maybourne."

"This is Major Samantha Carter," she began. "We have a Foothold situation."

"Major Carter? Where are you?"

"I can't tell you that, sir," she answered, stepping around to the side of the phone. Daniel followed her, and to her surprise, leaned against her left leg.

He wasn't usually this clingy.

"If memory serves, there's an outdoor café outside NID headquarters," she continued.

"In DC?"

"Two o'clock."

Maybourne drew in a breath. "Uh, I'm going to need a little more than that."

The three-hour gap was already more than enough time for him to place whatever agents he wanted in the area. "I repeat, we have a Foothold situation."

"Major, you are way outside your appropriate chain of command."

"I have reason to believe that may be compromised, sir," she answered tiredly, which should be a clear sign to Maybourne that neither Colonel O'Neill nor General Hammond was to be trusted.

"Understood," Maybourne replied.

Sighing again, Sam reached around and hung up the phone, then ran her fingers through her hair. So far, so good... as long as Maybourne followed procedure, of course.

"Who are we meeting?" Daniel asked.

"Maybourne," she answered, and echoed the little archaeologist's "ew" response. "I know, but he's about as high up in the NID as we can go without contacting some of the civilian directors, and those guys would want to verify my credentials with the SGC before accepting my call. Besides that..."

"His was the only number you remembered?" Daniel guessed.

"Yeah." Unable to resist, Sam reached down and ruffled his hair, smiling a little as Daniel's face scrunched up in a pretended glare. "All right, we have three hours before we're to meet with Maybourne. Much as I'd love to spend it sleeping, it'll take us at least an hour to get across town. How about we grab some food first?"

Daniel's stomach growled in agreement.

--

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the lunch crowd at the café was just beginning to thin. From their vantage point on a skywalk which crossed over the western end of the café, Sam and Daniel watched as Maybourne entered the area, looked around, and seated himself at a recently-cleaned table.

"All right," Sam sighed, unable to note any obvious agents planted in the crowd. If her head had been a little clearer, maybe she could have spotted a less-obvious agent or two, but the effects of whatever sedative Alien-Fraiser had used on her were pretty persistent. "Let's head on down."

Daniel tugged on her jacket sleeve. "Wait... you didn't tell him I was with you, did you?"

Frowning, she mentally reviewed her abbreviated conversation with Maybourne, then shook her head. "Why?"

He fidgeted. "Well, if he doesn't know I'm here, I can hang back and listen in. Then, if he springs any surprises on you, maybe I can help."

"Daniel, I hate to say this, but you're a little kid. Physically a kid, I mean. What do you think you can do?"

"Not much, I know, but at least you'll have your own ace-in-the-hole, ya know?"

The stubborn set of his jaw was back, so Sam gave in. "All right, stay up here for now, and after I meet with Maybourne, come down and stick close to one of those big planters. Don't look like you're trying not to be obvious--""Huh?"

"Keep it casual, Daniel, I mean it. No sneaking around or drawing attention to yourself."

He rolled his eyes. "I know, Sam... I'm not a little kid you know." He said the last part with a small grin.

"I know, Daniel. Anyway, if I think it's safe, I'll let you know, okay?" Surprising herself again, Sam dropped to one knee and, before he could raise his arms, gave him a quick hug. He gave a muffled squeak and wriggled free. "Sorry," she apologized quickly, wondering why he chose now, of all times, to protest her showing him affection.

"It's okay," he answered quickly. "Go meet with Maybourne."

Taking a deep breath, Sam made her way to the stairs and descended to street level, running her fingers through her hair once more as she approached the colonel's table. A waitress was already on her way over to the table, and as Sam sat down, the waitress offered and poured a cup of coffee.

She dearly hoped Daniel wasn't watching this part.

"So... you came to the one person you don't trust," Maybourne smirked before Sam could even enjoy the drink.

"I don't know how far up the chain of command the infiltration goes," she answered. "It may well be contained within the SGC, but since General Hammond has been compromised--"

"He sounded fine to me on the phone."

Sam stared at him incredulously. "What?"

"He called me, Major," Maybourne replied. "Calm down. He's concerned for you, that's all."

"I told you we had a Foothold situation!" Sam exclaimed.

Maybourne looked unperturbed. "Major, a chemical spill causing paranoid delusion is infinitely more plausible to me than aliens taking over the SGC!"

She dropped her head into her hands. "My god," she muttered, unable to believe how stupid Maybourne had been. "You don't think I can tell the difference between the two? I wasn't the only one who saw these people in their true form!"

"If you're talking about Teal'c, Major," Maybourne answered, "I've been assured he's being treated for his exposure as well. Apparently it's a little rough-going because his symbiote was affected, but I understand he'll make a full recovery." He gave another one of his trademark smug looks. "As will you."

This, Sam decided, was the perfect opportunity to unveil her "ace-in-the-hole", as Daniel had referred to himself. "I'll be right back," she promised Maybourne coldly, rising from the table and turning to go find her friend.

Instead, she was intercepted by Colonel O'Neill and Robert Rothman.

"Oh, hi, Carter," O'Neill greeted casually, looking cool and calm in civilian clothing.

Sam turned around and stalked back to the table. "Maybourne, you are an idiot every day of the week... why couldn't you have just taken one day off?"

Maybourne rose. "That's insubordination, Major." He glanced around, meeting the gazes of the curious onlookers who'd turned at Sam's outburst. Most of them quickly went back to their meals.

"For crying out loud, Maybourne, cut her some slack," O'Neill responded.

Sam hesitated. The words were right, but his emotions just seemed... off. Was this the real Jack O'Neill or not?

"She's not exactly herself," her CO continued, pulling out a chair.

"Neither were we," Rothman added, grabbing the final free chair at the table. Reluctantly, Sam sat down with her "teammates", willing, for the moment, to hear their explanations.

"Major Carter, believe me, we know what you're feeling," Rothman continued, sounding a little less stopped-up than usual. "It's the chemical."

"I don't believe it," she countered. She didn't know what Daniel and Teal'c had seen, but her two friends--a stoic Jaffa and a brilliant anthropologist--didn't get paranoid over nothing, and the visuals from the 'Gate room security cameras had confirmed what they had seen. Moreover, she'd never had a sedative effect her quite like the one given to her by the Janet Fraiser Look-Alike, which made her suspect foreign--possibly alien--compounds had been added.

"All right," O'Neill began, "exactly what are the side effects of this tetra-chloro... ethel-mermaline stuff again?"

That sounded like the colonel. Burying her face in her hands again, Sam answered, "Hallucination, delusion--"

"'Paranoid delusion', I think it was," he interrupted, "but go on."

"Look, I know what I saw--"

"We were affected by the fumes the moment we got on the elevator," Rothman interrupted.

"Didn't even realize it was happening," agreed O'Neill. "I vaguely remember having some water in my ear... that's it."

Sam shook her head. "Doctor Fraiser injected me with something."

"She was trying to sedate you," he countered. "She didn't give enough to Teal'c, he sprung you, and off you went. He's fine, by the way--beat the crap out of a couple of SFs--but he's fine."

"We're telling you the truth, Major," Rothman added.

Nearby, Daniel had been sitting next to a planter, tearing pieces from a discarded bread roll and tossing them to a flock of fearless pigeons. He'd been following the conversation as best he could from several feet away--not to mention behind a quarter ton of concrete and greenery--and the sudden silence which followed the supposed-Rothman's entreaty made him fear Sam was wavering in her resolve.

So far, no mention of his escape had been made, which left him to wonder if the alien invaders still believed he was locked in his cell on Level 16. That, for him anyway, was conclusive proof that this Jack was not the real Jack: 'his' Jack should have been frantic to find out where he was.

Somehow, he needed to prove to Sam, beyond a doubt, that this Jack was not the real one, and hopefully, clue in Harry Maybourne at the same time. The only thing he'd been able to go by so far was that the imposters didn't have the same reactions as their human counterparts, only memories. From the sounds of things, they were getting better at mimicking behaviors, but Daniel was reminded of a pet parrot one of his foster families had had when he was a kid: it could repeat back anything it heard or had been taught to say, but not understand a word it was saying. In a fit of pique, the then-thirteen year-old Daniel had taught the bird a number of naughty and rude phrases in a dozen languages. Nobody ever found out why he laughed whenever the bird spouted "gibberish".

Shaking his head at the derailment of his train of thought, Daniel wondered if he might not be able to trick the false Jack into tapping into the wrong memory.

"You should have followed procedure," Sam snapped at Maybourne.

"I fully intend to return with you, just to make sure everything's all right."

Sam turned to her CO. "And you agreed to that?" At his answering nod, she swung back to Maybourne. "Shouldn't that tell you something?"

"I wouldn't tell them where we were meeting until they agreed to my inspection of the SGC."

Given that it was a three-and-a-half hour flight from Colorado, that meant the SGC found out--or at least suspected--where Sam and Daniel were headed already, which made Daniel worry that some of them, at least, were catching on to the thought processes of their human counterparts.

There was only one thing left to do. Rising and brushing off the seat of his pants, Daniel bolted around the edge of the planter, calling out, "Daddy!" He swung out behind Maybourne and flung himself at "Jack". "Daddy, why didn't you come home yesterday? You said we were going to play catch!"

Sam struggled not to let her mouth fall open, watching as O'Neill stiffened for a moment, then unfroze, as though someone had pressed a "play" button on a Jack O'Neill remote control. "Sorry, Sport, but I got caught up at work. Make it up to you next time, okay, Charlie?"

Maybourne's lips moved, sounding out "Charlie?" in Sam's direction. She kicked him under the table, warning him to go along with it.

"That's what you always say, Daddy," Daniel pouted, clinging onto Jack like a limpet. "Can we go home now?"

"Sure, Sport," O'Neill answered, voice still flat. Directing his attention to Sam and Maybourne, he demanded, "Well? Are we ready to head back or not?"

"Yes, sir," Sam answered immediately. "You coming with us, Maybourne?"

The other colonel's lips tightened. "Wouldn't want to miss it."

--

Kelnorim had done wonders to restore Teal'c's strength and reconcile his disjointed memories, so when he came to this time, he was unsurprised to find himself still restrained in the infirmary. The invaders, it seemed, were taking no chances with him, and he was concerned what the consequences might be once they discovered he knew the truth about them.

It didn't take long for Alien-Fraiser and Alien-Hammond to approach him again, asking once more for information regarding Major Carter's whereabouts. Teal'c professed his ignorance of her present location, then asked to be freed from the restraints.

"I'm sorry, Teal'c," answered Alien-Fraiser, as he knew she would. "There's still a chance you could relapse. Three of the men you attacked have concussions."

The phone rang, and Alien-Hammond went to answer it. "Yes? You're certain she's been located? Very well."

Teal'c felt his blood run cold. They had found Major Carter? And what of Daniel Jackson?

Alien-Fraiser turned back from the "general" as he hung up the phone, a decidedly un-Fraiser-like gleam in her eyes. "Then we can begin experimenting immediately."

Clenching his jaw, Teal'c could only hope Major Carter and Daniel Jackson had somehow managed to acquire outside assistance, and would not be long in returning. As he felt the pinch of another syringe, he suspected he didn't have much time remaining.

Darkness descended quickly once more.

--

The alien posing as Jack O'Neill didn't seem to want to let either Sam or Daniel out of his sight, but he did agree to take Daniel--or "Charlie", as he currently believed him to be--to one of the lavatories on the plush aircraft owned by the NID. With him occupied and the Alien-Rothman futzing with the drink bar, Maybourne was able to slip a pen and notepad out of his jacket pocket and scribble a brief note.

ChO or DJ?

Sam took the pen and pad and circled "DJ", then added "but ET thinks he's" and an arrow pointing back to "ChO". Showing it to Maybourne briefly, and getting a confused frown, she added a quick notation, "DJ thinks ETs have all memories, but not reactions. Called him "Dad", which made ET access wrong mem."

Maybourne, of course, had met the down-sized Doctor Jackson not long after the age-reducing incident had occurred. Before he could even voice an interest in questioning Daniel, let alone conducting any sort of tests, Colonel O'Neill had declared that "over his dead body" would Maybourne even lay a finger on Daniel. Sam was hoping Maybourne remembered how Colonel O'Neill and the down-sized Daniel treated one another pretty much the same as they always had.

Apparently, so was Daniel, or he wouldn't have engaged in this subterfuge.

Maybourne took the paper back and added quick note. "Maybe DJ got same chemical."

Before Sam could write a reply to that, Daniel and Jack returned. "Your tax dollars at work," O'Neill commented, eyeing the luxurious interior of the plane. He directed Daniel to sit in one of the seats across from where Sam and Maybourne sat, then seated himself next to the boy. "Cozy little jet you got here, Maybourne."

Daniel gave Sam a furtive look, then began to tug his jacket off. It was all Sam could do to keep from gasping in horror when she noted the angry-looking bruises around the boy's wrists and biceps. With a gut-churning dread mixed with no small amount of pride in her "little brother", Sam realized he had just provided Maybourne with the final evidence that not all was "fine" at the SGC.

A muscle twitched in Maybourne's cheek, but he didn't give any other sign he'd noted the signs of abuse the child-sized archaeologist had obviously endured recently. "You've alerted General Hammond to expect me?"

"Oh, yes," Alien-O'Neill replied, sounding more and more like the real colonel all the time. "He's awaiting your 'thoughts'."

"So how exactly is Teal'c?" Sam asked, not comfortable with Daniel sitting so close to the imposter, but unable to think of any plausible reason to move "Charlie" away from "Dad".

Alien-Rothman finished messing around with the bar and handed out glasses of orange juice to both Sam and Daniel. "Well, he's, uh... he's Teal'c," he answered, grimacing. That, too, jived with the original, as Rothman was just as intimidated by the Jaffa as he was fascinated.

Daniel simply cradled the drink in his lap without tasting it, and Sam--also suspicious of foreign agents--turned around to set hers down on the arm rest lining the cabin wall. As she did so, she noted that Maybourne had holstered a sidearm at the small of his back.

"Is the chemical spill completely cleaned up?" Maybourne asked, leaning forward a little more, exposing the weapon more fully to Sam.

"As of this morning, the Hazmat team had gotten the last of it," Alien-O'Neill answered, "but they're still going to keep Level 23 sealed off until they can figure out what happened in the first place."

As he spoke, his image seemed to distort, briefly appearing as one of the armored aliens Sam had seen on the security cameras. Daniel noticed to, and the quick-thinking linguist jostled his elbow against an arm rest, spilling his orange juice.

"Sorry! I'll clean that up," Daniel exclaimed, hopping off the seat and heading for the bar. At the same time, Sam drew Maybourne's sidearm and rose to her feet, weapon aimed at the imposter.

"Carter?" Alien-O'Neill asked. "What are you doing?"

"Don't move," she warned. "Daniel?"

"If I had a zat, I'd be happy to back you up," the boy answered, moving next to her.

"Put the gun down," Alien-O'Neill ordered.

"She's hallucinating again," Rothman declared, and Sam turned the pistol briefly toward him.

Alien-O'Neill took that moment to lunge, and the only thing Sam could do was take quick aim and fire off two shots. Two blooms of purple sprouted on his chest, and as the creature fell back into the seat, whatever technology was being used to perfectly mask its appearance rippled and dissipated.

Maybourne looked shocked, Daniel looked horrified, and Alien-Rothman stood gaping like a fish.

"What the hell is that?" the bearded archaeologist managed, looking nervous as Sam brought the weapon to bear on him once more.

"You know what that is," Daniel answered, snapping out of his momentary fugue and wrapping his arms around his chest. "Actually, you probably know better than we do, so why don't you explain who you are to us?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Daniel," Rothman complained.

"Oh, so I'm Daniel again? A few minutes ago, I was Jack's son Charlie."

"Charlie? I never met Charlie. Why would I think you were Charlie?"

"He did," Daniel pointed out. "You might have the memories of Robert Rothman, but you're not Robert Rothman."

Maybourne glanced sharply to the left. "Look out!"

A gunshot echoed through the cabin, just narrowly missing Daniel. Boy, colonel, major, and imposter-archaeologist dove for cover, but Sam came back up taking aim.

The approaching figure looked like Major Paul Davis, the SGC's Pentagon liaison, but the inhuman screech it let out belied its appearance. Sam snapped off two more shots, quickly felling the alien. Like the false O'Neill, it also rippled and re-formed to its natural, alien appearance.

"Go check the pilot; he's one of mine," Maybourne instructed.

"You first," Sam retorted.

Glancing down at the weapon she had trained on him, he dug in his pocket for his keys. Holding up a tiny knife so she could see what it was, he unfolded the blade and made a small cut on the heel of his palm. Dark red blood flowed freely, and he held it up for inspection. "Good enough?" He jerked his head toward Alien-Rothman. "Doctor Jackson and I will keep an eye on him. Go." He held out his hand for the return of his pistol, and Sam reluctantly returned it. On her way to the cockpit, she picked up the pistol dropped by the false Major Davis.

The pilot was still pure-blooded human, thankfully, so Sam returned to the cabin area, tucking her newly-acquired weapon into the waistband at the small of her back. "He's fine," she informed Maybourne. The colonel nodded, looking down at the Alien-Rothman, who was now sitting in one of the seats in the same row as the body of Alien-O'Neill.

Daniel, meanwhile, was cautiously examining the corpse of the alien who had been impersonating his best friend-slash-guardian. Grabbing for a tiny nub protruding from the side of the alien's head, he peeled it off, grimacing at the gooey strands that still connected it to the dead alien's temple. "Ew," he commented.

"What is that?" Maybourne asked, looking similarly disgusted. At Daniel's shoulder-roll and Sam's shrug, Maybourne grabbed Alien-Rothman by the collar of his shirt. "What is that damn thing?"

"I already told you," Rothman denied, "I didn't know that Colonel O'Neill was--"

Maybourne tightened his grip, this time around the creature's throat. "Tell us how that thing works." Rothman uncharacteristically sneered, instead.

Ignoring Maybourne's attempted strong-arm tactics, Daniel curled his small fingers around the disc affixed to the center of the dead alien's torso. Grunting, he managed to pop the device off, turning it over in his hand. "Sam..." he began.

Sam was already on the same wavelength. "Hold on a second, Maybourne." Stepping around the colonel, who reluctantly released his grip on Alien-Rothman, Sam pushed aside the button-down collar of the imposter's shirt. Unsurprisingly, she found a similar device attached to Alien-Rothman's breastbone, and with a small amount of force, she had it tugged free. Rothman's features rippled, reforming as one of the ugly aliens. For the first time, Sam realized the creatures weren't wearing armor, but rather had natural carapaces, like they were some bipedal form of lobster.

"So this is how they look like us," she hypothesized, staring down at the disc. "Where's the real Rothman? Is he still alive?"

"You can talk to us now, or you can talk to my colleagues later," Maybourne added. "Either way, we'll find out the information we need."

"Looks like the discs also control their ability to speak our language," Daniel reasoned when the alien only growled softly. "And more: this one here didn't just look or sound like Jack, it felt like him, too. I hugged Jack, held his hand when he walked me back from the bathroom... it's not just an illusion."

Sam waved the disc. "So maybe they access our people's memories through this?" Daniel gave her a look that wordlessly said, "why don't you try it?"

Nodding, Sam gently set the device on the palm of her left hand and pressed down. Suddenly, her hand appeared to grow larger and rougher, and as she looked up in surprise, she noted the frames of glasses in her peripheral vision.

The Rothman alien didn't like what he saw and tried to lunge. Thankfully, Maybourne still had his weapon ready and put a well-placed bullet in the alien's right shoulder. "Sit down!" he added needlessly, but Daniel's lips quirked slightly at the very O'Neill-like reaction.

Sam-Rothman stepped past Maybourne and peered at her reflection in the mirror over the mini-bar. "It works," she breathed in amazement, letting her fingers brush against the side of her face. "I can even feel my... his... the beard."

Daniel wasted no time in pressing the device he held against his palm. "I think this one's broken," he pouted.

"Or maybe it doesn't work on someone your size," Sam reasoned, peeling the device away and retaking her normal form. "You're right, Daniel, it's more than just a projected illusion. Since I didn't feel any different, it must be generating some sort of tangible volumetric display... manipulating air particles... maybe even creating a very convincing visual, audio, and tactile illusion. It might be too much of a drain on its field-generating capabilities to make someone the size of these guys look and feel like someone your size, and vice versa." She frowned. "I couldn't hear Rothman's thoughts, though."

"That's probably what this does, then," Daniel answered, holding up the smaller device he'd removed first. "Looks kinda like one of those Tok'ra memory devices, only... rounder." He licked his lower lip. "If you're right about me being too small for it to work, then maybe that's the reason why they locked me up in a cell instead of trying to duplicate me."

"They locked you in a cell?" she gaped.

"Um... Teal'c didn't tell you?"

Sam crossed her arms. "Daniel, you were with us the whole time... you know Teal'c didn't tell me that."

"Oh." Daniel shoved a finger up the bridge of his nose, as though he was pushing up the glasses he currently didn't need. "Um, that's how I got... you know... the bruises. After I got away from Makepeace, I was running like mad through the halls, trying to find somewhere to hide until I could figure out what to do next. One of them--it looked like Captain Reed, but I guess it wasn't really--cornered me when I made a turn and found the door in front of me had been locked. He wasn't exactly... nice... about hauling me off to the infirmary."

"What happened in the infirmary?"

Daniel's armed tightened around his chest in misery. "Uh... well, they strapped me down to one of the gurneys, and the alien versions of Janet and General Hammond started asking me questions. I wouldn't tell them anything, so Alien-Janet gave me a shot of something. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in one of the holding cells."

Sam felt her heart melt. "Oh, Daniel..."

"Touching as this is," Maybourne interrupted tersely, "I'm going to have to ask you both to put those devices down."

The scientist fingered the shape-changing device. "I wonder what caused their images to blink out," she mused aloud.

"They were just sitting there," the colonel snapped. "Now put it down."

Sam shook her head. "Something interrupted both signals at the same time, Colonel. We should figure out what it is."

"We were leveling off," he answered. "Cabin pressure?"

"Engine interference," Daniel suggested. "It has to be something electronic, right?"

"Or wave-based," she replied, "like engine noise." She turned to Maybourne. "If we can replicate the condition, sir, we can find it."

Reluctantly, Maybourne nodded. "All right." He glanced at his watch. "We should be nearing Peterson in the next hour... you have that long to figure out what it was."

Sam nodded and headed back for the cockpit. Daniel slipped his jacket on, then followed her.

--

Jack O'Neill woke with what felt like the biggest crick in his neck ever. Opening his eyes slowly, he was surprised to find himself staring at the floor.

At the floor?

He jerked his head upright, senses awakening quickly. He seemed to be encased in some sort of rigid harness, and suspended from the ceiling by ropes made of something hot pink and organic-looking. Glancing around further, Jack spotted the dangling form of General Hammond, and was close enough to give the older man a good shake. "General?"

Hammond remained unresponsive, however. Giving up on rousing his superior, Jack looked around at some of the other personnel "hanging around" with him, noting a few lab-coated scientists, Rothman, Major Warren, the creepy guy who worked in the main armory... even Sergeants Siler and Harriman.

Jack didn't see any other members of his team, though, and that made him worry. It was entirely possible that whatever whammy had been used to knock him out hadn't worked on Teal'c, but when combined with the absences of Carter and Daniel, Jack was left torn between fear and relief. On the one hand, his three missing teammates might very well be plotting some sort of elaborate plan to free the trapped SG personnel from... whatever this pink thing was. On the other hand, they might be trapped in another net somewhere else, or have already been made snacks for whatever critter had designed this bizarre version of a spider's web. Daniel, in particular, with that soft little kid skin, might--

Nope, Jack wasn't even going to go there.

Realizing he needed to get out of his very vulnerable position, Jack began to twist around, searching for a way to either detach the ropes or disengage the harness. In his struggles, he accidentally bumped Hammond, and as he muttered his apologies to the unconscious general, the sound of someone gasping made him struggle to turn around.

"What the--?" began a familiar voice.

"Who's that?" Jack asked.

"Major Davis."

"Colonel O'Neill," he responded. Looking up, he spotted Doctor Fraiser, also confined in a similar manner as all the rest.

"What's going on?" Davis asked. "How'd we get like this?"

"You're asking me?"

A sudden mechanical sound alerted them motion outside of the cargo area, moving toward them. Knowing he had nowhere to hide, Jack tucked his nose back into the smelly harness and let his limbs dangle limply, feigning unconsciousness. As the personnel door began to open, he could only hope Major Davis had the sense to do the same.

An occupied gurney was pushed into the room, followed by a medic, Doctor Fraiser, and a nasty-looking guy that looked like a cross between an Unas and a giant crab. The gurney was then maneuvered into an alien shell on the floor, which began emitting light in sequential bands. When the gurney emerged on the other side, the hapless airman aboard was encased in one of the harnesses like what Jack was imprisoned in, and a pair of the Pepto-Bismol ropes were attached to the "ribs" of the harness.

Now since Jack had one Doctor Fraiser dangling above him and another on the floor below, he was reasonably certain one of the two was an imposter. As the Fraiser below approached the gurney and retrieved a metal object from next to the head of the recently-entrapped airman, Jack decided a smart man's money would be on that Fraiser being the fake.

Fake-Fraiser attached something to Big Ugly's head, turned, and picked up a second device. This one went on Ugly's chest, and in seconds, the creature's appearance rippled, then solidified... as the just-captured airman!

"Hook him up," ordered Fake-Fraiser. The medic nodded, and the unconscious airman was lifted into the air to hang along with everyone else. Fake-Fraiser turned to go, froze, then turned her head suspiciously upward.

Jack shut his eyes and played dead.

Once the cargo hold door had opened and shut and the sounds of the doc's heels and the squeaky wheels of the gurney had faded, Jack opened his eyes again, noting the room was, as empty as it had been when he awakened.

Plus one "resident", he added mentally.

He spent several minutes attempting to locate some sort of catch or clasp on his harness, and from the noises he was hearing from behind him, Davis was doing the same. Finding nothing immediately, he settled for peeling the organic headband-thing off his forehead, then pitching it to the ground. Then, out of curiosity, Jack groped around the sternum portion of the harness, and as his fingers encountered what felt like a hard ring, he gave it a sharp tug.

...And landed none-too-gracefully on the floor below. Wincing, Jack rose and dusted himself off. "Davis! The latch for that thing is--" A muffled thump told him the major had made the same discovery. "You found it," he finished dryly.

"Yes, sir," Davis replied, removing his own "tiara" and discarding it. "If there's another Fraiser, my guess is there's another you and me walking around, too."

Jack spotted a wheeled staircase and scooted it over to beneath the "real" Fraiser. "Why are we the only ones awake?"

"Maybe a... maybe a malfunction?" Davis guessed, examining the alien Xerox machine. As Jack climbed the ladder, he asked quietly, "Colonel, what are you doing?"

"I'm gonna wake her up," he whispered back, pulling Fraiser toward himself and checking to see if she was conscious.

"Do you think that's a good idea, sir?"

"It's an idea." Wrapping his fingers around the headband, he pulled it off. Immediately, an alarm sounded, so he quickly pushed it back into place, silencing the alert. "Maybe they didn't hear that."

Knowing better, of course, he raced down the steps and took position behind the door. Davis concealed himself behind a large crate. Within minutes, the electronic lock on the door was disengaged, and Alien-Fraiser hurried into the room, staring up at her--its--counterpart.

"Excuse me," Jack began casually, stepping up behind her. Fraiser turned, and Jack--inwardly wincing at hitting a woman--laid a punch across her jaw.

"Well that was weird," he remarked, because that really had felt like he was hitting a woman.

Davis helped him to get "Fraiser"--who weighed a lot more than the real doc did--maneuvered into a sitting position. Despite the weight, she otherwise felt like Doc Fraiser... not that Jack was used to grabbing Janet by the shoulders or ankles... never mind.

Figuring the alien wouldn't have come to investigate the alarm without having some sort of armament, he carefully patted down her--its--pants-legs, muttering, "C'mon... a nice alien like you has got to carry a..." He trailed off, coming up with a nine-mil holstered at the small of the doc's back. "Hello."

"What about the other thing?" Davis asked.

Jack stared, first at Davis, then at the face of "Janet". "The other thing," he repeated. Setting the weapon down, he reminded himself that she was just an alien, and not the "real" doc. Opening the top few buttons of the doc's blouse and loosening her tie, he spotted blue lights flashing beneath her undershirt. He pushed the v-neck down a little further, and got his fingers curled around the edges of the obviously-alien device.

It took a little bit of force to tug the device free, as though it was attached to the alien with a suction cup. As soon as it came free in Jack's hand, though, the alien's form began to ripple and extend. Jack and Davis both jumped back as the diminutive doctor morphed into one of the big, hard-shelled aliens.

"Whoa!" the colonel exclaimed, snatching the pistol of the floor and holding it at the ready without even bothering to un-holster it. "Yeah, that's an alien, all right." Grimacing at device, he added, "Why don't you find something to tie it up--"

Without warning, the electronic lock buzzed again, and the door began to open.

--

The convoy pulled off the road just outside of the line of sight of the main gate at Cheyenne Mountain, and all the people inside began to climb out and assemble in neat rows. Maybourne strolled through them like a Training Instructor inspecting his recruits, while Sam and Daniel more slowly--and stiffly--clambered out of the van in which they'd ridden.

"All right, Major," Maybourne began, glancing at his watch. "You have two hours to get in there and deactivate those imagers. At that time, my men and I are prepared to enter the facility and eliminate anyone who resists."

Sam nodded tersely, checking her pocket again to make sure the tape recorder she'd been given was still there. Thankfully, Maybourne's plane had been fully-stocked with the tools of his trade, and she and Daniel were able to make a pretty good recording of the engine noise on the plane.

"I'll take care of it, sir," she acknowledged aloud. Taking only a moment to get her bearings, she moved off into the woods, heading for the escape hatch through which she and Daniel had made their escape... what, only eighteen hours ago?

The crunch of broken deadwood had her whirling in surprise, aiming her sidearm at chest-level. Fortunately, her pursuer wasn't quite that tall. "Daniel!"

"What?"

She frowned at her young friend. "You were supposed to stay with the vans."

"Why?"

Her mouth opened and closed for a minute as she tried to come up with a response that wouldn't make him mad at her. "Because you aren't even armed," she pointed out.

Daniel crossed his arms. "Well, assuming no one has moved it, we left a perfectly good zat waiting in the ladder well on level 16."

"It's too dangerous."

"Sam," he sighed, "I know I look like a kid, sound like a kid, and sometimes even act like a kid, but where it really matters--" Daniel tapped a finger against his temple "--I'm still me. I have to do this."

"The colonel's going to kill me," Sam warned.

"I won't let him," Daniel promised. "Besides, it was... well, seeing you shoot the alien that looked like him shook me up pretty badly. I need to see the real Jack... see that he's all right."

Watching Daniel's slim shoulders pull together and his arms wrap around his rib cage, Sam knew she couldn't say her young friend hadn't done his part every step of the way. Whether it was the "recon" of the base he'd done before being captured by the aliens or the part he'd played in confusing the alien imposters, her "little brother" had performed admirably.

"Okay," she decided, "but I'm taking point. Watch my back and do not, I repeat, do not enter a room until I have cleared it. Got it?"

"Got it," he agreed. "Shall we?"

By the time they reached the escape hatch, Sam and Daniel had already lost forty-five minutes of their allotted two hours. Sam slipped on the device that made her take on Rothman's appearance, then tucked her pistol away once again. The rescuers then had to perform a reversed version of their initial exit in order for Sam to be able to close the hatch and take the lead down the ladder, but they were soon on their way, taking only brief rests every five floors.

At Level 16, Sam stepped off and rooted around in the darkness for only a moment before recovering the jacket-wrapped zat abandoned hours earlier. Smiling to herself, she called for Daniel to move down a few more rungs, then helped the boy off the ladder before tucking the bundle into the hood of his sweatsuit jacket. "There's your zat," she declared.

"Thanks," he answered, a smile coloring his voice. "Next stop, Level 23?"

"My lab's on 21."

"Yeah, but the 'web' I told you about is on 23. Maybe we can free some people and get some help?"

Sam put her hands on her hips. "You just want to see the colonel first, don't you?"

"Well..."

"I understand, Daniel," Sam smiled. "Actually, I was just thinking the same thing... getting help that is, not seeing the colonel. Er, not that I mind seeing the colonel, it's just that--"

"Can we go now?" Daniel interrupted.

Drawing her sidearm from its place in her--or rather Rothman's--waistband, Sam cautiously pushed open the hatch. "Okay... stay behind me, stay low, and try to keep out of sight. Hopefully, in this disguise, I can walk around pretty freely, but the same can't be said for you."

"Maybe, if anyone comes, I should pretend to be your 'prisoner'," Daniel suggested, pulling the zat out of his hood and removing it from Teal'c's jacket. "This is the level with the detention cells on it, after all."

She bit her lower lip nervously. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

Fortunately, they made it to the elevator without incident, though they did find it necessary to take a circuitous route when they spotted an SF making a round through the halls. In a mind-boggling bit of technological wizardry she didn't even want to contemplate, the Rothman disguise came complete with its own access card, which Sam then used to operate the elevator and direct it to Level 23. Once there, she led the way to the storeroom Daniel told her held one of the larger "webs". For his part, her youngest teammate carried his primed zat in a two-fisted grip, ready to blast anyone who tried to sneak up on them.

Upon reaching the storeroom, Sam took a deep breath, swiped Alien-Rothman's card through the reader, then slowly opened the door.

"Hello."

Sam brought up her weapon, staring in surprise at the figure before her. "Colonel?"

"Yes."

"It's you?"

The man who looked like Colonel O'Neill squinted his eyes. "Yes."

She saw movement out of the corner of her eye, and noted another person hovering nearby: Major Davis. "It's good to see you." Glancing upward, she took in the "web" Daniel had described to her, but hearing about it hadn't prepared her for the sight of so many familiar figures dangling like life-sized marionettes. "Oh, my god. Daniel and I figured they had to be keeping you alive in order to access your minds, but--"

"Whoa, hey," O'Neill interrupted. "Who are you?"

"Sir?" He gestured at her with his gun. "Oh! Sorry." Reaching into her--Rothman's--shirt, Sam pulled off the imager.

"Major Carter!" Davis exclaimed.

"Oh." Apparently satisfied, O'Neill lowered his weapon. "In that case, it's good to see you, too."

"Jack!" Unable to contain himself any longer, Daniel bolted around the door and tackled his friend around his knees. "God, Jack, I've missed you."

"Backatcha, Danny," Jack answered, bending over and returning the enthusiastic embrace. After ruffling Daniel's hair, he pulled back, letting his gaze wander over to Sam. "So... what have you kids been up to?"

"Oh, dodging the bad guys, consorting with the enemy, and kicking alien butt," Daniel answered, giving a small, nervous smile.

"'Consorting with the enemy'?"

Sam ignored the question. "Sir, every one of the people in this room has been duplicated by the aliens."

The colonel looked over his shoulder, then looked back. "I noticed that."

"The procedure didn't work on me, Teal'c, or Daniel," she continued. "We escaped, but Teal'c's been captured."

"Where is he?"

"I don't know... we haven't had time to find him, sir. Look, Colonel Maybourne's forces are moving in soon, and--"

Jack grimaced. "Maybourne? How'd he get a--"

"I called him," Sam admitted.

"Well, now I know what you meant," he muttered, giving Daniel an "are you nuts?!" look.

"Colonel, in 29 minutes, those forces are gonna break down the front door and shoot anything that resists. We need to get our people disconnected."

He looked over his shoulder again. "Yeah, I pulled that headband thing off of Fraiser... her evil twin came running."

Sam frowned. "Well, how did you two get free."

"You killed 'em," Daniel answered, gesturing at her handgun with his zat.

"I'm sorry?"

"I killed the aliens impersonating both of you on the plane," Sam clarified.

"And they don't know you did this?"

"I don't know, sir," she admitted. Knowing the colonel would want the shortest explanation possible, she finished, "There is a specific tone that, if sustained, will disrupt these devices. The machine's in my lab."

O'Neill nodded. "Go."

Without further hesitation, Sam pressed the device into place over her sternum, once more taking on the appearance of Rothman. Opening the door, she tucked her firearm into the waistband of her pants, then walked back to the elevator. Daniel hefted his zat and moved to follow, but Jack caught him by the hood of his jacket.

"Not so fast, Danny."

"Jack!"

"Give Davis the zat."

Daniel frowned and crossed his arms. "Sam might need back-up."

"She'll be fine, Daniel. You, however, are about three feet too short to be running around in alien-infested corridors." Jack held up a finger as the boy opened his mouth to protest. "However, I am willing to compromise: you stay here and guard our people, while Davis and I go find an armory."

Daniel sighed heavily. "Jack, I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Sam: I know I look like a kid, sound like a kid, and sometimes even act like a kid, but where it really matters--" he rapped his knuckles on the top of his own head "--I'm still me."

Jack squatted down so he could look the child-sized archaeologist in the eyes. "Daniel, where it matters most is right here," he corrected, poking a finger at the left side of Daniel's chest. "If anything was to happen to you, you know where it'd get me?" He slapped his hand over his own heart. "Right here, buddy."

Daniel's eyes widened. "But Jack..."

"No buts, Daniel, please," the colonel answered, swallowing hard. "You're the closest thing I have to a kid of my own, and I don't want to see you putting yourself in any further danger... is that clear?"

His lower lip trembled and his eyes filled, but Daniel managed to keep it together. "Okay," he half-sobbed, half-sighed, "but I'm still not giving up my zat."

Smiling at his brave little best friend, Jack couldn't resist giving him another hug. "Zat anyone that isn't me, Davis, or Carter."

"Or Teal'c," Daniel added, swiping the back of his sleeve across his nose.

"Or Teal'c."

"Or Rothman."

"Rothman's up there," Jack corrected, pointing at the archaeologist dangling over his head.

"Well, Sam might look like Rothman."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Fine. 'Or Rothman'."

"Or one of Maybourne's guys."

"No, feel free to zat any of them... especially Maybourne."

"Jack!" Daniel protested.

"Kidding." Peeling back the retention strap, Jack freed the handgun and pitched the holster aside. "Oh, and you might want to go ahead and zat that ugly guy right there," he added, pointing at the figure on the floor. "I hit it pretty hard when it still looked like Fraiser, but just to make sure--"

Before Jack could even finish the sentence, Daniel had raised his zat and squeezed off two shots at the hulking form.

Exchanging a surprised look with Davis, Jack carefully opened the storeroom door, then led the way down the hall to the nearest stairwell, climbing up to Level 21 to access the small armory located not far from the infirmary. Without a keycard, Jack had to enter his pass code to access the vault, but he soon had the door open. "Head back down to 23," he ordered Davis, grabbing a zat for himself and handing the major an MP5 and a few extra clips. "It's not that I don't trust Daniel, of course, but I'd feel a lot better if there was more standing between the aliens and our people than a five year-old with a zat."

"Yes, sir," Davis agreed, "but that is one scary five year-old."

"Isn't that the truth," Jack grinned, tucking his pistol into his waistband.

Figuring Carter should probably be messing around with the stuff in her lab by now, the colonel resolved to find and free Teal'c. The detention cells on Level 16 seemed like the best place to start, so he walked purposefully to the elevator and manually entered his access code again. Remembering how emotionless General Hammond had seemed to be when SG-1 first returned from their mission--however many hours ago that was--Jack kept his face and voice carefully neutral as he approached the only guarded cell.

"I've come for the bald prisoner," he stated simply. Without hesitation, the guard on the right turned around and swiped an access card through the electronic lock. Stepping inside the cell, Jack looked down at the hulking figure seated on the cell's lone bed. Teal'c had white gauze wrapped around his right bicep and his wrists were secured to his waist with heavy duty restraints, but the Jaffa looked unbowed. "You will come with me."

"I will submit to no further experiments," Teal'c replied, not even bothering to look up.

Experiments? Jack had to clamp down on his reaction to that little statement. "Oh, but you will," he offered instead, adding just the smallest amount of inflection to his voice.

Teal'c cocked an eyebrow and looked up, and Jack tried to mimic the Jaffa's trademark raised eyebrow. Recognition crossed the big guy's face only briefly before being reined in, and the colonel turned to the guards. "I'll take it from here."

"Can't allow that, sir," the nearest SF protested.

"Oh, but you can," he answered, turning and raising the zat he held in his right hand. Before the men could react, they were both sent to the floor in twitching heaps.

Teal'c finally stood. "Colonel O'Neill, I presume."

"What gave it away?" Jack joked, retrieving a set of keys from the mouthy guard and using them to unlock the Jaffa's restraints. "Let's go see if Carter needs any help, shall we?"

--

"That's it," Sam congratulated herself, watching as Rothman's hand fizzled out and was replaced with her own. Peeling the imager off her skin, she checked her watch and grimaced when she saw she had less than three minutes until Maybourne crashed the aliens' party. Picking up her jerry-rigged sound machine, she carried it over to the shelf next to the intercom, and was about to start it when the door to her lab opened.

"General Hammond," she blurted, staring at the furious face of the base CO before remember that this wasn't really the general. In fact, shortly after she pressed the power button on her new harmonic generator, the angry visage of the kindly Air Force officer was replaced with the inscrutable but ugly alien rather poorly pretending to be him.

Losing his disguise made him even angrier, unfortunately, and before Sam could react, the alien had struck her hard. She flew backwards and slammed into another piece of equipment littering her lab, hearing something glass shatter as she went down. Rolling over and looking up, she noted the alien looming menacingly over her, and wondered if she was going to have time to reach the handgun she'd left on her lab table before the strong creature could snap her in half.

"General Hammond, tech control," came a hurried voice over the PA. The alien hesitated, looked at her once again, then stalked out of the room, obviously heading to more pressing business.

Retrieving her sidearm, Sam paused only to lock the base intercom into the "on" position, then gave chase. Unfortunately, the alien beat her to the elevator, and moments after that, she was ducking for cover when a second, machine gun-wielding alien rounded a nearby corner. Two more of the invaders joined it, and it was a few minutes before she could dispatch all of her foes.

Shortly after the base alarms began to sound, an inhuman shriek split the air. Moments later, she spotted Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c crouched down in the corridor just ahead.

"What the hell was that?" O'Neill asked Teal'c.

"Colonel, on your six!" she called out in warning, jogging up behind her teammates. "What's going on?"

"I don't know; they just ran," he answered, looking back at her.

"Perhaps there's an evacuation," Teal'c suggested.

"Well, we can't let that happen, sir."

"Why not?" the colonel asked.

"They've had access to our minds," she reminded him. "They know everything about us."

"Everything?"

"Everything."

Looking a bit stunned, O'Neill nodded and led the way down the corridor. Finding the stairs, the three members of SG-1 raced down as quickly as they dared, increasing their pace even more as they heard the familiar klaxons warning of a wormhole connection being made with the Stargate. As they burst into the Control Room, Teal'c quickly zatted the only two aliens in the room.

"Close that iris!" the colonel ordered.

Sam began accessing the primary terminal, but immediately hit a roadblock. "I can't sir; it's been overridden." Inspiration struck. "I'm shutting down the 'Gate."

Jack, meanwhile, was exercising his oft-hidden talents with computers by entering the commands necessary to seal the 'Gate Room doors. As a familiar voice from behind him ordered, "Everyone freeze!" he typed in the last command and raised his hands in the air only a fraction of a second after Carter.

The Stargate shut down just before another group of the aliens could enter the wormhole. As the humans--and lone Jaffa--in the Control Room watched, one of the aliens whirled about and savagely twisted the imager still affixed to its chest. A red light began to blink on and off more and more rapidly, and the intercoms in the 'Gate Room began to pick up a guttural noise which might have been speech.

Sensing what was coming next, Jack took one hand off his head and slammed it down on the blast shield control. Before the barrier was all the way down, a brilliant flash sent everyone in the Control Room diving to the floor. Blinking the spots from his eyes, Jack straightened up and retracted the blast shields.

"What happened?" Maybourne asked as they all rose and stared in horror at the carbon scoring liberally coating the room beyond the window.

"They self-destructed," Sam answered.

"Their destruction appears to be complete," added Teal'c.

The major nodded. "That's a lot of damage."

"Coat of paint," Jack quipped. "Little touch-up... gonna be fine." Turning around, he walked past Maybourne and hurried down the Control Room steps.

"Colonel O'Neill," the NID operative began in exasperation.

"Can it, Maybourne," he called over his shoulder. "I left my kid guarding Major Davis and the rest of our people up on 23. Gotta go make sure he didn't shoot anybody he didn't have to."

--

"...I've ordered P3X-118 locked out of our dialing program," General Hammond finished.

"The human counterparts of those aliens woke up spontaneously," Carter continued, glancing at Major Davis and Janet Fraiser, who were seated to her right. "We're assuming the signals stopped when they went through the Stargate."

"Those who escaped still possess all the knowledge obtained from being linked to your minds," Teal'c reminded them, though it was believed that of the people currently occupying the briefing room, only Robert Rothman had had an imposter who survived, and even that creature was in the custody of the NID.

"That's creepy," Jack joked, drawing an exasperated look from the kid seated to Hammond's left.

"We changed all our codes; that's all we can do," Hammond answered.

"So how did this happen?" asked Rothman.

"The aliens came through the 'Gate impersonating our SG-6," Daniel replied, stifling a yawn.

Doctor Fraiser nodded. "We rushed them to the infirmary," she confirmed. "We don't remember anything after that."

"Good," Daniel answered, drawing confused looks from all but Teal'c and Carter. The blond major gave him a small smile.

"General Hammond asked me to come here," Major Davis added, "but wouldn't say why. Presumably, their next step after the SGC was the Pentagon."

"Well, a high-frequency blast from the harmonic generator every time a team returns should prevent it from ever happening again," finished Carter.

Footsteps signaled the arrival of Colonel Maybourne. Deciding on the best way to creep out the NID agent, Jack called his name and smiled. "Good save."

Maybourne's cheek twitched, but that was as far as he got to an answering smile. "I thought you'd like to know the alien posing as Doctor Rothman expired."

"What of the aliens who were not caught in the 'Gate Room explosion?" asked Teal'c.

"We're guessing they were linked to their leader in some form or another when he self-destructed."

"And what about the aliens who escaped through the 'Gate?" chimed in Carter.

"I guess we'll never know," Maybourne replied. "We'll have to hope the same thing happened to them."

"We appreciate your help in this matter, Colonel Maybourne," offered Hammond, genuinely.

"Credit Major Carter and Doctor Jackson," Maybourne corrected, nodding to the pair at the head of the table. "I do." Swallowing down the proverbial piece of humble pie, he said his farewells. "I'm sure we'll see each other again."

"That'd be nice, Harry," Jack smiled, having fun keeping the other colonel off-balance. Hammond dismissed the meeting after the door closed behind Maybourne, and Jack quickly invited everyone out for a victory dinner.

"No thanks, sir," Carter yawned. "All I want to do right now is sleep."

"Me too," added Daniel, throwing in his own yawn.

"Actually, I want you all to remain on base for the night," Fraiser ordered.

"Not in the infirmary," Daniel gulped.

Teal'c's jaw clenched. "Indeed."

"Daniel, is there something I should know?" the doctor frowned.

The SGC's youngest employee ducked his head in embarrassment. "Just a few bruises," he admitted. "And don't be surprised if I'm a little jumpy around you or General Hammond for a while."

Jack opened his mouth to demand to know what his kid had been through while he was hanging around on Level 23, but Carter shook her head, mouthing "later".

"Come on, Daniel," she offered, coming around the table and holding her hand out for the boy to take. "Let's go find some beds, shall we?"

"Colonel O'Neill, a moment?" Hammond asked, motioning toward his office.

An hour later, after clean-up arrangements had been made for the pink mess on Level 23, Jack headed up to Daniel's on-base quarters, planning to check in with his young charge and maybe indulge in a little fatherly tucking-in of covers.

He found the twin-sized bed a little fuller than normal, however. Carter had kicked off her boots and lay with her left arm around Daniel's back. The child-sized archaeologist was snuggled into her side, using her left shoulder as a pillow. Both were sound asleep.

Grabbing a blanket off the trunk at the foot of the bed, Jack laid it over the blissfully slumbering pair. "Goodnight, kids," he smiled.

---

Author's Notes: That's all, folks!