Title: Never Alone
Author: OXBastetXO
Category: Drama, Horror
Spoilers: The Movie, Spirits
Sequel/Season Info: Second
Rating: PG-13
Content Warning: a tad on the gory side, and rather dark for me
Summary: After a disastrous mission, Daniel wakes up in the infirmary, alone and with the fate of the SGC resting in his hands, if he can just figure out what happened before it happens to him.
Showtime and MGM/UA owns Stargate: SG-1 and all there in. I'm just borrowing them for a bit, and I promise to give them right back when I'm done. Well, most of them, I might just keep Jack and Daniel for a bit longer.
Author's Note: This is one of my older fics. This was originally written in 1999. It was a Halloween fic and seemed like a good time to put it up here. Enjoy!
Never Alone
by
OXBastetXO
The steady beat of the medical monitors played a strange counter point to the quietness. Daniel slowly opened his eyes and groaned. The infirmary. Great, just great. How did he end up here...again. He squinted and the room slowly pulled in to focus. It was empty.
That was odd.
He closed his eyes and swallowed against the dryness of his throat. He must have been out for a while. He opened his eyes again and looked around him. There was a glint of glass on the table beside his bed and he reached over clumsily. His fingers brushed along the frames of his glasses and he picked them up. Painfully, he slipped them on. A dull ache radiated from his middle and right shoulder. 'Ok, remember not to do that again,' he thought wryly.
With his glasses on, he could get a better look around him. Ok, this was different. He was in the main room of the infirmary but there wasn't a soul in sight. No other patience, no nurses, no doctors, nothing. Oh, this was decidedly odd. He had thought when he didn't see, Jack or Sam, or even Teal'c that something might have happened to them. There was always someone there.
Daniel stopped himself. This was ridiculous. Why did there have to be someone there? They had their own lives. They couldn't always be looking after him. They were probably tired of have to wait around waiting for Daniel Jackson, human target, to wake up, but that didn't explain where everyone else was.
There was always someone in the infirmary, always. Gate travel wasn't the safest of occupations. He shifted in the bed and pain shot through his shoulder. Case in point. The pain slowly settled back down from agonizing to its former status of just bad.
Exhaustion slowly tugged his eyes shut and worries slipped away.
Daniel woke several hours later to a blinding headache and intense thirst. He forced his eyes open and was met with the same scene as before, nothing. The infirmary was as still as a tomb. Daniel shuddered involuntarily at that thought, and then scolded himself. He was an adult. Why should he be scared of being alone? Did it matter why, he was. That worry had nagged him all his life. After his mother and father died, it became real. He was alone for so long and then he had found Sha're. Beautiful Sha're with her exotic other worldly looks and keen, sensitive mind. Then Apophis took her and he was alone again.
Daniel pushed these thoughts out of his mind. He had to think. Maybe something happened and everyone got called away. Maybe something came through the gate and everyone was dead. Maybe..."Stop!" The loudness of his own voice shocked him. He took a deep breath to try to clear his head and pain surged through his abdomen.
'Ok, first things first. How did he end up here? ' He thought. Memories slowly flooded back. They had got to PX1825. The natives had taken a dislike to Jack for some reason. Daniel struggled to remember. His hat! They hadn't like his hat? 'That didn't make sense,' he thought. His brow furrowed in concentration. They had wanted his hat and Jack didn't want to give it to them and then they had fired on them. He had been shot! Twice! Daniel closed his eyes and groaned. They had fired on them with some kind of primitive crossbows and he had tried to push Sam out of the way and had gotten hit, twice. Ok, that would explain why he hurt so badly. Now, what about where everyone had gone? He looked around him and sighed. He had no idea.
"Hello?" He tried experimentally. Nothing. Man, his throat hurt. He looked over at the table beside the bed and saw what he was looking for, the ice pitcher. At least that was were it was supposed to be. He reached out with his left arm and snagged the table. He managed to get a hold on it and pulled it closer. After a couple of tries he got some into a cup and downed he contents in a gulp. Then, he refilled the cup.
Sipping the water, he frowned. Something was wrong. There should be someone around. He moved his other arm and winced at the pull in his shoulder. The IV tubes attached to the back of his hand caught his eye and he looked up. The IV bags were empty that wasn't right.
"Enough of this," he said, and tried to lever himself into a sitting position. The room did a slow loop-the-loop and he laid his head back down. "Ok, that wasn't bright." He struggled to sit up again and this time made it, how be it he was shaking like a leaf.
He waited a couple minutes to get his equilibrium and stood. Pain shot through his abdomen, but he managed to keep on his feet. The IV tubing tugged at his hand and he carefully undid the tape and pulled it out. He quickly pressed the tape down over the wound to try to stop the bleeding.
Stiffly, he walked over toward Frazier's office. She was going to skin him alive if she saw he was up and moving round, that was if she was still around. He knocked on the door to the office and then tried the handle. The door opened easily to reveal an equally empty office. No trace of the petite doctor. "Oh, this isn't good."
Suddenly, he became aware of a breeze. He glanced down at what he was wearing and blushed. One of those lovely hospital gowns with rear room with a view. He looked around and saw the words 'Clean Linens' on a door beside Frazier's office. He tried this one and found it was open too. After a quick look around he found a pair of scrubs about his size and a pair of those disposable slippers. He liked those slippers, they were pretty warm. It took a bit of struggle but he managed to dress himself. Panting like he had just run a marathon he slumped back down on his bed. The brief excursion around the infirmary had exhausted him. "Just a quick rest,' he thought. 'Just a quick rest and then I'll find out what happened.' He leaned back and drifted off to sleep.
ooOOoo
"Heads up everybody. Looks like we have company."
Daniel looked up from the DHD and saw the procession of native coming toward them dressed in brightly colored robes. Loud primary colors in garish patterns. He struggled to place the designs. Mesopotamian with a little Celtic or Nordic thrown in.
The native in the lead held up his hand in greeting and spoke a few words. 'Ok, I think I know this,' Daniel thought quickly. He repeated the greeting and native smiled. So far, so good. Then the man pointed to Jack and then to his head.
"Uh, Jack. I think he wants your hat."
Jack frowned. "My hat? I don't think so." He glanced over to Sam and Teal'c and shrugged. "We just met. Tell him to get his own."
Daniel turned back to the man and found himself looking down the shaft of a crossbow. "Um, Jack. I don't think we should argue with them."
Jack started to take his hat off, but suddenly the natives charged. Daniel saw the native swing his crossbow around toward Sam and Daniel shoved her hard out of the way. Sudden, something slammed into this shoulder spinning him around and then pain exploded in his abdomen. He looked down to the shaft of an arrow sticking out of him.
Sam grabbed him pulling him down screaming something. He looked up at her and she looked so concerned. Jack appeared in his range of vision pointing Sam toward the DHD while he and Teal'c laid down a barrage of cover fire. Jack quickly dropped down beside him, his dark eyes looked worried. 'Oh, it must be bad,' Daniel thought hazily. Everything was getting fuzzy. He looked back up at Jack and frowned. One of those native arrows was sticking out of Jack's leg. That wasn't right. The greens and browns of the material was stained black with blood. Jack snapped something to Teal'c and the big Jaffa kneeled next to him. He started to pick him up and pain flared in a blinding wave and then... nothing.
ooOOoo
Daniel jerked awake with a cry. Pain flared through his abdomen and right shoulder in a blinding wave. It took him a couple of minutes to remember where he was, that no one was there.
He gritted his teeth and forced himself to set up. A wave of nausea flooded through him and he swallowed against the bile that surged to his throat. He was not going to throw up, not now. It would hurt too much. He had to do something about this. He was no good if he hurt too much to move. He had to find out what had happened.
Shakily, he got to his feet and grabbed on to the side rail of the bed when his knees started to buckle. He took a deep breath and lunged across the infirmary. He made it about as far as the end of the room. He leaned heavily against the wall, soaked in sweat and panting. He looked at the door beside him and nearly cried in relief. "Medical Storage" was painted on the door and it was open. Someone must have been in there when what ever had happened had happened.
Daniel stumbled in and looked around at the shelves and cabinets in growing frustration. Rows upon rows of dressings, splints, crutches, and drugs stared back at him. He slumped back against the doorframe. He had no clue what he was looking for or even where to start looking. His eyes drifted over the counter top closest and he recognized something.
A field kit.
Some one had been working on restocking a field kit. How was that going to help him? He shuffled forward and picked at it with his left hand. He flipped the case open and froze. Three small capped hypodermic needles tumbled out of the kit. Daniel's eyes widened in recognition. Morphine. Each kit was equipped for almost any emergency and they all had a small supply of morphine because it was a fast acting powerful painkiller.
Daniel grabbed up one of the needles and struggled with clumsy fingers to pull the cap off. Finally, he just grabbed the cap in his teeth and pulled the syringe free. He clenched his teeth and plunged the needle into his thigh and shoved the plunger down. A burning sensation spread through his leg and then started upward. Daniel slumped back against the counter as the drug moved through his system dulling his pain and relaxing his tensed muscles. Suddenly, panic exploded in his mind. Too much, he cursed. He had given himself too much, he thought as the strangling cotton of the painkiller wrapped around his mind. Exhaustion pulled at his limbs making them heavier and heavier. He pushed himself away from the storeroom and staggered back towards his bed. He barely made it before his legs gave out from under him. He collapsed and an insane giggled slipped out at the absurdity of the situation. Some small sane part of his mind told himself this wasn't funny, but that only made him laugh worse. Pain pulled his abdomen in a wave stealing his breath. Daniel lay gasping on the bed wondering what was wrong with him. 'The morphine,' he thought. It was metered out in pretty high dosages. Enough to knock a man out, or just make him plain loopy, another giggle slipped out. Sleep tugged at his drugged mind and he tried to fight it; but the combination of the drug and his weakened body proved too much, and darkness closed in around him.
Hours later, Daniel finally woke up. He figured it had to be hours because he could finally think again and the pain was back. It was back, but at more manageable levels then before. He painfully pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked around. The room was still just as empty. He was just as alone as before. He swallowed against the lump rising in this throat and force himself to focus on what was going on. He had to find out what had happened to everyone.
Looking around, something caught his eye he hadn't seen before. A chair had been pulled up beside his bed; it was a wonder he hadn't tripped over it earlier. A fatigue jacket was slung across the back of it. He snagged the shoulder of it and pulled it toward him. A name had been stenciled on it. He turned it around.
"O'Neill," he read aloud. Jack had been here. He had been here before whatever had happened did. He hadn't been alone and this meant Jack had been ok. At least ok enough for Frazier to let him sit here until Daniel had woken up.
Tears burned his throat and eyes. Daniel sniffed and rubbed at his nose with the back of his hand irritably. He had to pull himself together. This wasn't the time to get sentimental. He had to find out what had happened to everyone.
Daniel realized he was shivering and pulled Jack's fatigue jacket on and draped it over his injured shoulder.
Shakily, he got to his feet and wandered back to the storeroom. He found the field kit where he had left it and picked up the last two syringes of morphine, stuffing them into the pocket of the jacket. He should be ok, just so long as he didn't give himself the whole ampoule.
He took a deep breath and headed out of the infirmary. He saw a pile of something white on the floor and paused. He used his foot to scoop it up to look at it. I was a lab coat; a deep brown stain covered the front. That stain was blood. He searched for a nametag.
Frazier.
His stomach lurched. Not, Janet. An image of the petite doctor raced through his head. She couldn't be...no, he refused to believe she could be dead. The spunky doctor was a lot tougher than she looked. She could take care of herself. She couldn't...he swallowed against the lump in his throat threatening to choke him. He had to find out what had happened. Where everyone was?
He pushed on toward the corridor. Just outside the swinging doors, he found two rifles laying on the ground, but no sign of their owners. Ok, what ever had happened, it hadn't been good. Fear for his friends welled up inside of him again. Their fine, he told himself they had to be. Slowly, he made his way to the command room. If there were answers there would some there.
He got about as far as the elevators and he had to stop. The corridor had started swimming around him. He found an open lab and sank into a chair in front of a console. Daniel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The fire in his gut was blazing now, as was his shoulder. He opened his eyes and glanced down hit his shirt. A frown spread across his face. The front of his shirt was stained deep crimson in a couple of spot. He slid the shirt up and the dressing on the wound on his abdomen was soaked. He swore softly. He should have checked it earlier and all this running around the base wasn't doing it any good either. He looked around the lab from where he was sitting. There should be at least a first aid kit in here. Over next to the door he spied the box and with a kick sent the chair he was sitting on rolling over toward it. One handedly, he pried the box off the wall and set it in his lap and scooted himself back toward the console.
He set the box down and pried the cover open. He smiled when he saw the packs of sterile gauze. Good enough. He gently pealed off the dressing from his abdomen and bit his lip when he saw the row of staples crossing a good six inches of his stomach like miniature railroad tracks. He dropped the old dressing in the wastebasket under the desk and used his teeth to rip open one of the packs from the first aid kit. Gently, he pressed down and using his teeth again ripped off enough tape to hold them down. It was slow and tedious work one handed, but finally he finished. He let out a shuddering breath and let his head drop back. Sweat soaked his shirt and dampened his hair down. With a shaky hand, he brushed his hair back. He moved a bit and a twinge reminded him to check his shoulder, but the dressing there looked fine for now. Apparently, he wasn't aggravating it as much as the other one.
He slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out one of the syringes of morphine. He hated to use it, but the way his wounds were throbbing now; he would never make it to the control room. He slipped the cap off and poised the needle over his thigh. He hesitated for just a moment and then shoved it into his leg. The needle stung, but he forced himself to focus this time. He pushed the plunger down, but only half way this time and then he pulled the needle out. Relief flooded through him as the morphine shoved back the brunt of the pain. It was still there, but at least he could think. He struggled to put the cap back on the needle and after a couple clumsy attempts managed to recap it. He slipped it back into his pocket. He hoped he wouldn't need it; but knew if he didn't find someone soon, he would. In the back of his mind, he remembered some lecture Doctor Frazier had given them about not reusing needles, but he didn't have much choice. He had no clue what he should look for in the drug cabinet in the supply room and it was just plain dumb luck he found the field kit in the first place. He knew that he couldn't depend on that luck again. So, he had to make what he had last as long as he could.
Daniel slowly got to feet. He had to get the command room. If he was going to get answers, he had to start there. He walked down the corridor leaning heavily against the wall. Everywhere he looked there were discarded weapons, flack jackets lay on the floors missing their occupants, and empty helmets were strewn all over the place. Like when the aliens from PXY887 had invaded the SGC. They had just made people disappear. An insane thought ran through his head. What if they hadn't left like they had said they would? What if some had stayed behind to take over this planet? What it...Daniel closed his eyes and push these thought of his mind. They had left. He had seen them leave. They weren't the enemy and then knew that the people of Earth weren't theirs. He took a deep breath and bit his lip. There had to be a logical answer here. He just needed to find it.
He opened his eyes and looked around. There had been a fight, a big one, but there was no sign of who had won, or who had lost. Bullet holes pockmarked the walls and blasts of some kind of energy weapons left traces of carbon scoring, but there was the conspicuous lack of blood. Daniel had been enough firefights since he had joined the SGC to know there was always blood. So much blood. Suddenly, his stomach heaved and before he could stop it he began to retch. Pain exploded in his abdomen and black spots swirled at the corners of his vision threatening to swallow him. He slumped to his knees; his good arm wrapped around his middle, and squeezed his eyes shut gritting his teeth against the burning pain.
Slowly, it began to ebb and he swallowed against the nausea still clenching his stomach. He took few deep breaths to clear his head and the nausea and pain both receded back to levels he could manage, if just. Shakily, he pushed himself to his feet, clinging to the wall. It took few more minutes to motivate himself to move. Up ahead of him, he could see light spilling into the corridor from the steps leading to the command room.
He frowned and his brow furrowed in confusion. He looked around the corridor and his frown deepened. Every door up and down the corridor was open. They shouldn't be. The automatic systems locked this place down tighter then anything when the internal alerts went off. Blast doors, elevators, all the doors to the command room, the embarkation room, and Hammond's office. They should be shut, not hanging open like this. He pressed on and slowly made his way up the steps to the command room. Monitors glowed in the darkened room. He sank into a chair in front of one of them and one-handedly pecked out a command and hit enter. Information scrolled across the monitor and Daniel felt his heart sink as he read. The last entry had been more than twenty hours before.
Something, the report didn't say who, had come through the gate and people started disappearing. The staff from the command room had been the first. Daniel looked around the empty room thinking of the people who worked in here making sure everything went smoothly. Harriman, who made sure this place ran like clockwork. Simmons with his boyish enthusiasm and that little crush on Sam. Tears stung Daniel's eyes, but he made himself keep reading. The rash of disappearances kept up until all that remained were General Hammond, SG-1, Doctor Frazier, and some of the other medical staff. That's were the report ended. They must have come back to the command room and then, it was anyone's guess.
Daniel tried to think of the protocols if the base had been compromised. Wildfire. If the base security had been breached, the Wildfire protocols were suppose to kick in the self-destruct and lock down the base. He glanced over at the monitor tied into the self-destruct. It was blank. He tapped a command into the keyboard in front of him and a message scrolled by. "System status normal." Ok, the computers were working, so why hadn't they blown up yet. He hesitated and hit the command for the self-destruct. A message scrolled across the screen that made his breath catch in his chest. "Bad command or file name." The program for the self-destruct was...gone.
"Oh, boy," he whispered.
He pushed himself away from the console and saw a flash of something black behind him and he turned as fast as he could to see, but it was gone. Nothing was there but shadows. He shook his head and headed for Hammond's office maybe he could find out something more there. He started to head for the stair to the upper level and suddenly a wave of vertigo hit him. He grabbed for the railing and his fingers grazed the edge as he slumped to the floor. Vaguely, he heard the klaxon announcing an off-world activation and then it all just faded.
ooOOoo
The Stargate blossomed in a rush of energy and then settled into the standing pool of glistening light. Suddenly, four figures emerged into the embarkation room.
"Ok, this is...quiet," Major Louis Ferretti said as he and his team walked down the ramp.
"Where is everybody?" Captain David Nevin frowned and shifted his grip on his rifle.
"Don't know, and don't like," Ferretti said. "Nevin, Lancaster, you check around here. Micheals, with me." He started for the Control Room.
SG-2 split up and Micheals lead the way up the stair to the Control Room. "Empty up here too." He started over for the control board. "System is still up."
Ferretti scowled and started for the upper level and froze. "Doctor Jackson!"
He quickly dropped down beside the injured archaeologist and turned him over. Daniel moaned and his eyes sluggishly opened. "Ferretti?"
"Hey, Daniel. What happened?" He quickly examined him. He was dressed in medical scrub and a fatigue jacket, now that was an odd combo. His frown deepened when he saw the spreading blood stain on his middle. He slipped up the edge of his shirt and saw the clumsily dressed wound crossing his abdomen.
Daniel stared at him strangely for a few more moment and reached up to touch him. "Real?"
Ferretti brow furrowed in concern. "Daniel, what are you talking about? Of course I'm real."
A ghostly smile lit Daniel face. "Good." Then his eyes slipped back shut and he drifted unto unconsciousness.
"Michaels, tell me you know what is going on here," Ferretti snapped.
Michaels fingers flew across the keyboard and information scrolled across the monitor. "From the logs over the last couple of days, something came through the Stargate and everyone just started disappearing."
"What came through?" Ferretti demanded, getting to his feet and grabbed a phone off the wall punching in the number for the infirmary. No answer. He cursed the slammed the receiver down. "Where is everybody?"
"Don't know, sir." Michaels pushed away from the computer terminal. "Looks like its just us, sir."
"Just wonderful." Ferretti turned his attention back to Daniel. He was bleeding pretty badly from the wound in his abdomen. Ferretti slipped off his pack and dug out his field kit. Slipping on a pair of rubber gloves, he peeled back the blood soaked dressing and frowned. A neat row of surgical staples stared back at him; blood seeped out around the edges. "This looks pretty resent."
He could here a clicking sound behind him and then a quite beep. "It is. SG-1 just got back about thirty-five hours ago. Report says that Doctor Jackson and Colonel O'Neill were injured."
"No kidding, tell me something I don't know," Ferretti said, pressing a fresh dressing down on Daniel's abdomen trying to stem the bleeding.
"Major Ferretti!" Nevin called from down in the corridor.
"Up here," Ferretti said, taping the bandage down in place and pulled Daniel's shirt back down. He climbed back to his feet as Nevin ran up the stairs to the Command Room.
Nevin came to a stop gasping for breath. "Sir, Lancaster is gone!"
"What?" Ferretti frowned. "What do you mean 'he's gone'?"
Nevin shook his head. "That's just it, sir. He's gone. He was there one minute and," he shrugged. "When I turned back around, he was gone. Nothing. Not a sound, nothing."
Ferretti swore and tapped his hand against his leg nervously. "This is nuts." He turned back to Michaels. "You got any thing more there?"
Michaels exhaled. "The program for lock down and for the self-destruct are gone. The programs are just missing."
"Missing how?"
"I don't know, sir. Those systems are hard wired in. They just can't be gone. I mean, the Wildfire protocols are on a totally different system than the main frame. They're in a system that is totally shielded, nothing short of a massive EM pulse could disrupt them."
Ferretti gave him a blank look. "Electromagnetic pulse, but it couldn't be that. I mean, it would have fried the rest of the systems and everything else is working. It's as if something just reached down and scooped the Wildfire protocol our of the system." Michaels frowned and his hands flew across the keyboard and as information scrolled across his frown deepened. He turned back to Ferretti, "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm not going to get anything more from here."
"Great, just great," Ferretti snarled.
"On the bright side, sir. The elevators are off-line, so whatever caused all this didn't get out."
"Oh, that's a bright cheery thought. Whatever little monster that gobbled up the computer system and made the sudden vacancies down here is here to keep us company."
"F...Ferretti?" A quiet voice called from the far side of the room.
Ferretti hurried back over to Daniel's side. The archaeologist was struggling to sit up.
Ferretti put a hand on his chest to hold him down. "Whoa, you just lay still, Jackson."
Daniel struggled to push his hand away with his left hand. "Ferretti, let... let me up."
Daniel closed his eyes a wave of pain shot through him. He gripped Ferretti's arm in a painful grip until it passed.
"Daniel, you just stay still, ok?" He started to dig in his field kit and pulled out an ampoule of morphine. It should quiet him down some.
The younger man opened his eyes as Ferretti pulled the syringe out. "No!" he said quickly trying to push him away.
Ferretti cursed as he nearly dropped the needle. "Jackson, what are you doing? This will help you."
"No," Daniel said, struggling to reach for something. Ferretti frowned. "In...in my pocket," Daniel whispered, his face twisting in pain.
Ferretti put his hand in left pocket of the fatigue jacket Daniel was wearing and understanding spread on his face. "What the..." his voice trailed off as he pulled out to syringes out of the other man's pocket. One of the needles was only half full. He looked down at the injured man. "You've been doping yourself up?" A cold shudder passed though him. If he had given him the morphine he very well could have overdosed him and killed him.
Daniel nodded. "Nobody else...here."
Ferretti nodded. "How long ago did you give yourself the last dose?"
Blue eyes opened and stared at the ceiling for moment. "Don't...don't remember." He turned his head to look at him and frowned. "Sorry."
He patted Daniel's shoulder soothingly. "It's ok. You just gave yourself half a dose?"
Daniel nodded again. "So, I'll just give you another half dose and thing should be fine." Ferretti squirted half the content out of the ampoule he had taken out of his kit and shoved Daniel's sleeve up. He gave the inside of his arm a couple of thunks to make the vain stand out and injected the morphine. Daniel's eyes slid shut and he relaxed as the morphine started to take effect.
"Hey, Jackson, don't go to sleep on me quite yet," Ferretti said, gently tapping the archaeologist's cheek. Daniel's eyes opened sluggishly. "There we go. Come on, stay will me just a little bit longer," Ferretti said.
"Kay," Daniel said slowly. He began to shiver. "Cold."
It was getting colder and Daniel was slipping deeper into shock. "Nevin, get one of the blankets from the packs." Ferretti helped Daniel to sit up into a more comfortable position. Nevin gave him the blanket and he wrapped it around Daniel. Then he got the injured man to focus on him. "What happened to everyone, Jackson?"
Daniel shook his head. "Don't know." He swallowed trying to keep focused on Ferretti. "There wasn't anyone around when I woke up. Infirmary was empty."
"Then how did you get here?" Ferretti's eye narrowed.
"Walked." Daniel said, giving him a game smile. "Took a while."
Ferretti huffed in disbelief. "I bet."
"Sir, maybe we should move him up to the debriefing room. The temperature is really starting to drop here," Nevin said quietly.
Ferretti nodded and the two men helped Daniel to his feet and started up the stairs to the next level. It was a bit warmer in the debriefing room. They got Daniel settled into one of the chairs by the table and Ferretti pulled Nevin aside. "What's going on with the temperature in here?"
Nevin shrugged. "Michaels said a bunch of the systems in the computer are corrupted. Ventilation systems are off-line and the temperature controls are all over the place. Something has the temps in the control room and down in the gate rooms set to about 50 degrees."
Ferretti snorted and shook his head. He clapped Nevin on the shoulder. "Go give Michaels a hand. I'll stay up here with Jackson. We need to find out what is going on ASAP."
"Yes, sir," Nevin said and headed back down to the control room.
Ferretti sighed and headed for Hammond's office. He had a call to make, and it wasn't one he was looking forward to. He hesitated outside the door, lifting his hand to knock and then remember that there wasn't going to be anyone there any ways. He grasped the doorknob and gave it a twist. It opened easily. He quickly crossed the room and stopped at the edge of the desk. Taking a deep breath, he picked up the red phone. Nothing. No dial tone, nothing. The infamous red phone was silent. Oh, man, now what?
OoOOoo
Daniel shifted in the chair and let his eyes slid shut. Things would be ok now. Ferretti and SG-2 were here. He wasn't alone anymore. They'd find out what happened to everyone. A shiver went through him and he pulled the blanked tighter around him. The pain in his gut wasn't so bad now. That shot of morphine Ferretti had given him had knocked back the pain pretty good, except the burning in his shoulder, that just seemed to be getting worse.
He heard the door to Hammond's office open and he looked up. Ferretti walked over toward him with a grim expression on his face. Bad news.
"Phone lines are out, even the direct line to the President."
Not good.
Ferretti sank into a chair beside him and leaned forward. "How you holding up, Jackson?"
It took Daniel a couple of moments to comprehend that is was a question. His brain felt like it had been wrapped in a woolen blanket. "Been better," Daniel said finally. His word slurred slightly as he struggled to say them.
Ferretti nodded and laid his back of his hand against Daniel's forehead. "Feeling pretty doped up, huh?"
Daniel nodded and gave him a small smile. Then, he saw the concerned look on Ferretti's face. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Ferretti said, his face said the opposite.
"What?" Daniel demanded.
Ferretti shrugged. "You just feel kind of warm's all."
Daniel nodded slowly. "Shoulder hurts," he mumbled leaning his head back.
He heard Ferretti get up and then suddenly the throb in his shoulder graduated to a full fledged pain. Daniel's eyes napped open with a startled shout. Ferretti grabbed him and held him down until the pain eased. Cursing, Daniel glared at him. "What are you doing?"
Ferretti grimaced, "I'm sorry. I barely touched you. I was trying to get a look at your shoulder." He paused and Daniel saw something he didn't like in the man's dark eyes. Fear. "Looks like it's gotten infected, a little."
"How bad?" Daniel asked. He felt to tired again. Why did he feel so tired? Must be the morphine, he reasoned.
"A bit." Ferretti glance back over his shoulder and then back to him. "You just hold on, I'm going to see how Michaels and Devin are doing. You going to be ok?"
Daniel nodded. He didn't have the strength for much else. Ferretti gave him a quick smile. "I'll be right back."
Daniel closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
ooOOoo
Daniel felt someone tucking something around him and his eyes struggled open. Ferretti stood over him tucking another blanket around him. "'Sup?" he asked thickly.
Ferretti tried to give him a reassuring smile and totally failed. Daniel's brow furrowed in concern. "What's wrong?"
"Just getting colder in here," Ferretti tucked the blanket tighter around him. "It's starting to frost up in the control room."
Daniel looked over his shoulder. "Where's Nevil and Michaels?"
Ferretti stood back up and moved away nervously. He started emptying out the contents of one of the pack he had brought up with him to the debriefing room.
"Ferretti?" Daniel sat up straighter in the chair ignoring the protest in his shoulder and stomach. "What's wrong?"
"They're gone!" Ferretti snapped.
"Gone?" Daniel echoed hollowly. "How could they just be gone?"
"I don't know," Ferretti snarled. He stopped and sighed. "Daniel, I'm sorry. I don't know. When I got back down there they just were gone."
"Like everybody else," Daniel said quietly. "Like Jack and Sam and Teal'c and Janet and Hammond."
"Hey," Ferretti said, laying his hand on Daniel's uninjured shoulder cutting him off. "Hey, we'll find them," he said firmly making Daniel look up at them. "I know it."
Daniel swallowed and gave him wry smile. "Like you knew I would find how to get us home on that first mission?"
Ferretti laughed. "Yeah, but you did."
"Yeah," Daniel said quietly, his head drifting back to rest on the top of the chair back. Something black swirled on he edge of his vision and suddenly Ferretti was gone.
Daniel sat up quickly and the room swam for a moment until he got his balance.
"Ferretti?" he called getting slowly to his feet. He clutched onto the table top to keep upright. "Ferretti!" Nothing but silence answered. "This isn't funny, Ferretti. Where are you?"
The dark shadow he thought he had seen suddenly separated itself from the wall and came towards him. A roiling inky smudge slowly crept across the carpeting swallowing all the light around it. As it neared Daniel could start to make out the shape of a cat. He knew he should run, escape, but he couldn't move. All he could do was watch it slowly creep towards him and then, darkness.
Daniel woke up to cold. So cold his whole body ached with it. He was laying on cold, slightly damp concrete. He struggled to sit up and pain throbbed in his injured shoulder in time with each beat of his heart. 'Ok, I'm still alive, that's a good thing. I think,' Daniel thought. Panting, he slumped against the cement block wall behind him. Ok, he was still somewhere in the SGC. Now, where was another problem.
He squinted until his eyes adjusted to the darkness and then he saw a figure slowly stalking toward him. He tried to back up, but the wall pressed tight against his back. Pain flared through his middle threatening to steal his breath away.
The figured slinked till his could feel its fetid breath on his face. He struggled not to gag as the creature sniffed him and then snorted sending a nauseating wave of putrid smelling breath against his face, cloying his lungs. The creature growled and could have sworn it was saying something.
"Grrrrrworrrrdsssss...arrrreeee...diffffffficult...tooooo...forrrrrrrrmmm," the creature purred in his ear.
Daniel sagged against the wall. "You talk?"
The creature stalked away from him and a tiny shaft of light fell across it. Daniel drew in a sharp breath at the sight. It had a long sinewy body like a cat, but covered with some kind of scales and a face that was almost human, well humanoid. Then he saw a flash of its tail. It was something like what a scorpion would have with a large dangerous stinger in the end. Daniel slowly became aware of a burning sensation in his thigh. He thought it had just been from when he had injected the morphine but as his eyes adjusted to the darkness he could see a tear in the pant leg. He had been stung, that's what had knocked him out in the debriefing room. The shadow! It must have been this thing. It had to be some sort of camouflage, like a chamaeleon. No wonder, no one had known what had come through the Stargate.
Something about the creature was so familiar, but so strange. Suddenly, he remembered. "You're a manticore." His eyes narrowed. "A martikhoras," he said remembering the old Persian name. But it was just a myth, his mind kept screaming. So had Ra been until they had met him.
The Creature hissed and its eyes flashed. "Yoooou...ssssssspeeeak...oooooolllld...worrrrdsssss...Ooooollld...naaammmmessss."
Daniel mind whirled. A martikhoras was flesh eater, a man-eater. Did that mean the others...Jack...Sam...Teal'c? No, not that. He was still alive, they must be, somewhere. They had to be. He swallowed hard and tried to think of something, anything to say to this...this monster.
"The others? The others like me, were are they?"
The martikhoras paced around him. "Ooootheerrrrrsssss...herrrrrrrreeee." He stopped in front of Daniel and its long fleshy tongue flicked out and dabbed at the front of Daniel's shirt. In the flash, he saw three rows of deadly teeth. Each row just inside the other. "Tasssssstteeee," it murmured.
Daniel's eyes shot down to this shirt and he saw a crimson stain spreading across his middle. He must have ripped a few of the staples when the thing has dragged him down here.
His mind panicked and he tried to crawl away. The martikhoras seemed to chuckle at this and let him go like a cat toying with a mouse before it pounced. Daniel's hand brushed up against something sticky and he let out a started yelp. He looked down and nearly retched then and there. Beside him was the corpse of what had to have been one the SGC guards. All that was left was a bit of bone and torn camouflage material, and, Daniel noted, a gun. Daniel wrapped his fingers around the sodden object and tried to get a look at the magazine.
The creature stalked toward him and Daniel knew he had to act now or he was going to join the guard as dinner. He brought the gun up and fired. The shot reverberated in Daniel's ears as the creature recoiled. It let out an angry hiss and charged. Daniel closed his eyes and fired again and just kept pulling the trigger until all that was left was the dry click as the hammer hit on an empty chamber. Daniel opened his eyes and saw the creature lying at his feet. It wasn't moving. It was dead. It had to be. He sagged against the wall and started to tremble.
"Hey! Who's out there?"
Daniel opened his eyes. Jack? That sounded like Jack. "J...Jack?"
"Daniel! Daniel is that you?" the voice called back, muffled by the cement block wall.
"Yeah! You guys ok?" Daniel called back. The gun slipped from his hands and clattered down onto the floor. He was suddenly exhausted as the adrenaline wore out of his system.
"Carter, get this door open!"
"I can't, sir. It's locked from the outside."
"Daniel! Daniel, can you hear me?"
Daniel forced his eyes back open, when had they shut? "Yeah."
"Can you unlock this door? It should be right beside you."
Daniel looked around behind him and saw the door about ten feet away. It could just as easily be ten miles right now. "Yeah, sure. Piece of cake."
Daniel painfully pushed his way to his feet and staggered over toward the door. He fumbled with the lock for a couple of moments before it would release. The door swung open just in time for him to collapse into Jack's arms. Safe. He was finally safe. He closed his eyes and drifted away.
ooOOoo
The steady beat of the medical monitors played a strange counter point to the quietness. Daniel slowly opened his eyes and groaned. The infirmary. Great, just great. How did he end up here...again? He squinted and the room slowly pulled in to focus. He saw Jack sitting beside his bed and smiled.
"Hi," he said, well, tried to say, croaked would be more accurate.
"Hi, yourself," Jack said, standing. He took Daniel's hand in his. "How you feeling?"
Daniel shifted in the bed and frowned as his shoulder and stomach protested. "Tired," he said with a sigh. "Had an awful dream."
"It's ok now," Jack said soothingly. "Why don't you just try to go back to sleep for a while? You gave us a pretty good scare there," Jack gave his hand a quick squeeze. "Just go to sleep and don't worry. We'll be here when you wake up."
Daniel nodded. Everything was ok now. Everybody was safe. "Not alone," Daniel whispered.
"Not alone, Daniel. Never alone," Daniel thought he heard Jack say as he drifted back into a deep dreamless, healing sleep.
ooOOoo
Jack sighed and watched his team mate go back to sleep. He tucked Daniel's arm back under the covers and reached up to brush Daniel's hair back out of his eyes. He still felt warm, but not like before. He heard someone coming up behind him and turned to see Doctor Frazier coming over.
"How's he doing?" she asked, checking the monitors and then taking Daniel's wrist to check his pulse.
"Woke up for minute and then went back to sleep."
Frazier nodded. "Good." She flashed Jack a reassuring smile. "He's going to be fine. Fever's down. The infection in his shoulder is clearing up and other than a few ripped stitches and a dose of that alien venom, he made it through basically unscathed. Fortunately for us, the venom was just a mild tranquilizer," Frazier said, absently rubbing her shoulder. She caught Jack watching her and gave him a self-conscious smile. "We're all pretty fortunate."
"Yeah," Jack echoed. He looked back down at Daniel. The younger man's sleeping face has relaxed into a peacefully expression. Fortunate, indeed. He remembered how his heart had nearly stopped when the door had opened and Daniel had collapsed in his arms. He had seen corpse with more color than he had. Then he had seen the alien. Monster really. Daniel had managed to kill it and get them free when in all rights he should have been up here in the infirmary drugged to his gills...healing. Not running around the SGC, alone. Alone and hurt and with some psychopathic monster prowling the place. At least he had Ferretti and SG-2 for a little bit until that critter carried them off.
Frazier finished her examination of Daniel and tucked the covers back around him. She patted Jack on the shoulder. "He's going to be fine. You should get some rest."
Jack nodded. "I will. I just want to stay for a little longer." Not alone this time, Danny.
Frazier nodded and left.
Jack settled down in the chair and watched the steady rise and fall of Daniel's chest. Everything was ok now. He heard a noise behind him and glanced, but nothing. He shook his head. 'I'm just still jumpy,' he thought and sat back down. Behind him, he didn't see a dark shadow slip out of the room.
fin?