Part VII
Reunion
They had fallen back together like clockwork; all the pieces still fit perfectly. But whereas the clock had been rusty and slow before, it would soon be shiny and run smoothly again.
I
Sam wiped a hand across her brow to keep the sweat from trickling into her eyes. Her back and arms ached from sitting hunched over the mortar, hammering and crunching the quartz with a pestle. She had taken breaks in between, but the material was almost as hard as granite. She needed a lot of muscle power to break it. She paused again, straightening up and carefully moving her sore shoulders. She had been on it for two days now and the fruits of her labor sat in a bowl beside her.
If only the pestle doesn't break, she thought – not for the first time – and stared into her mortar. She was abusing the pestle for a hammer, but it was all she had.
The quartz had been the breakthrough on her quest to modify Jelica's drug.
Or rather what was enclosed in the stones.
She had sensed it on her first morning in the canyon. Recharged from a surprisingly good sleep she had explored her campsite. Maybe it had taken her a while to recognize the signs, the 'sense' of naquadah, because of the memory stamp. But she had picked up on it eventually and once she had recognized what it was that was making her feel a bit edgy, she had also realized there was a LOT of it here. And from there it hadn't taken her long to discover it in the soil.
Like a mad woman with a witching stick Sam had hiked the canyon, following the 'feel' of naquadah until she had reached a ditch where the concentration seemed the highest.
And there she had found Jellica's miracle plant.
It grew as dense as a carpet in that area. It was so plain and nondescript, just some sort of gray-ish green ivy. But even if Sam hadn't been a rocket scientist she would have known the ivy carried naquadah, pulling it from the ground consisting of rich, dark soil interspersed with quartz-like rocks. The naquadah was highly concentrated in those stones.
The large, dark veins were visible even on the stones' surface.
Sam had taken chunks of the quartz to her shelter. Once she had extracted the first pieces of naquadah she had made a discovery almost too good to be true. She had been so excited, and almost busting with it. It had felt strangely disappointing that there was no one she could share the news with.
Jelica had given her son three cups of his medicine every day and Sam had the measurements of ingredients memorized. She hoped she could reduce the dose to two cups per day if she used the pure naquadah, not the much weaker plants.
She picked up her pestle to continue when her ears picked up a sound she hadn't heard around here before.
Was that...
No, it couldn't be.
But there it was again.
Laughter. A child?
And something else. A soft thud-thud-thud on the forest floor.
Someone was coming. On a horse? Bringing a child?
She put down her pestle and stretched her back as she got up. She rounded Jelica's hut – which was hers for the time being – and skimmed the dense treeline above the canyon rim.
Now she heard voices, getting closer. She couldn't make out the words, but it was clearly the excited chatter of a child.
She pulled back until she was hidden by the wall but could still peer around the corner. A moment later she saw them breaking through the trees. A big, black horse – resembling a Frisian for all Sam could tell. Mounted on it were a man and a little boy in front of him. They continued along the rim, probably looking for a way down.
Sam wished she had binoculars. The light was always a little diffuse around here. She couldn't see any reason for a random traveler to come this way. There was no real trail leading into this part of the woods and the natives where known to give the area around the monastery a wide berth.
And yet, the horse was carefully guided down the slope not far from her position, animal and rider focusing on finding a way between rocks and plants.
It couldn't be...
But as the newcomer moved closer there could be no doubt. A cap was pulled down over the guy's face, shading his eyes, but she didn't need to see them to know that the colonel had finally found her. She recognized that tall, lean figure and his voice as he muttered encouragingly to the horse.
She stepped out into the open when the horse had reached safe ground again. Silently she looked on, relieved but a bit awkward about seeing her CO again after all this time. After not even remembering who he was, not knowing he existed, for so many months. She had to remind herself that he hadn't remembered her either so they were on even ground.
Still, for a moment she didn't know what to feel, what to say, how to react. Her mind was drawing a total blank. Then she ran through stupid lines like; It's great to see you, sir. Or; How have you been, sir? All those phrases...
She focused on the small boy peering out from behind the massive neck of the horse. He was wearing a cap, too. It was orange but smudged with dirt.
"Jack," the little one whispered loudly, "Sam's hair is longer than I remember."
The colonel bent down to the boy's head and replied in the same stage whisper. "Yeah, but she still looks like Carter, right? Has to be her."
The boy giggled and slapped a hand over his mouth. Then he hid behind the horse's neck.
She resisted the urge to finger her hair. She knew it was shaggy and in need of a washing. Who was this kid? Was there something she didn't remember? Something Jadah hadn't told her? But they hadn't been on this planet long enough for any of them to even have children. And as far as she recalled they had never taken their kids through the gate with them. Hell, as far as she remembered none of them had kids.
So, who...? And how could he know what her hair had been like before?
She was so focused on solving that riddle, she almost startled when the horse stopped only a few feet away from her.
"Carter, you look great. Love what you did with your hair," the colonel greeted her with a smirk.
She snorted. "It's the latest grunge look. Paid a fortune for getting it exactly like this."
He pulled the cap off his head and scrubbed a hand through his short graying strands. Then he lifted the boy under his armpits and, without thinking, she stepped forward to take him.
The kid immediately wrapped his arms around her neck, hugging her hard. "Sam! Hi, Sam!"
"Hey there," she said, a little overwhelmed. "How are you?"
"My butt hurts," he told her with a shrug. "Jack says it's sore from being in the saddle for hours and hours and hours."
The colonel grimaced as he dismounted. "You probably don't want to know the state of my ass. But I can assure you – it's worse."
"Ouch."
Then there was that moment when they faced each other and she realized she was glad to see him. She opened her mouth to say so, but he was faster. "It's good to see you, Carter."
"Likewise, sir."
She waved back over her shoulder. "Me casa su casa. It's not a palace, but it's not too bad, actually. "
The boy wriggled and she let him down. "Can I take off my boots, Jack? Can I? Please?"
"Carter? Any poisonous plants around here? Reptiles? Toe-biting things?"
"Uh, no, sir. Not that I know off."
The boy took that as permission. He sat down quickly, untied his boots, pulled them off along with his socks, and left them where they were as he sprinted off to the small stream.
"Whoa! Danny! Stop! Right there!" the colonel hollered. "Stay away from that water. And do you think your shoes can walk to the house on their own?"
"But my feet are hot and achy!"
"Danny, shoes."
He slunk back, grabbed his boots and toddled off towards the house, grumbling something under his breath.
The colonel tugged at the horse's reins. "Been a long, long journey."
"Danny." Sam echoed. "Sir, is that... but how... did Daniel descend as a kid? The last time I saw him he was still, you know..."
"Glowy?"
"Something like that."
They walked towards the house. Danny had left his boots at the front door and run back to the stream. He got rid of his pants and shirt in no time, clambered over the rocks by the shore and hopped into the water, squeeing and cheering as he splashed around.
"It's a long story I'm happy to share as soon as I take care of the horse and... oh, for crying out loud... Danny! How deep is that creek, Carter?"
"Not deep, but it has sharp rockss on the bottom. He might cut his feet."
The horse's reins were handed to her and as she took off the heavy saddle, leaving it by the boots, she heard Colonel O'Neill telling Danny off for jumping into the water.
"But I'm all hot and dusty and my feet hurt and my butt hurts and..."
"And I feel for you, but you don't just jump into unknown water, period."
"I know the water. I looked at it. I saw it wasn't deep."
"Not good enough."
"Ja-a-a-ack! Lemme down, lemme down!"
The colonel came into view as he rounded the horse, a wriggling, huffing boy hoisted under one arm. "Did I mention it was a long journey?"
"Yes, sir. There's a can of tea inside and some leftover soup from lunch."
"Tea and soup. What do you say, Danny-boy?"
"I'm already hot. Why would I want tea and soup?" Danny pointed out, wriggling some more.
Sam bit back a chuckle. She had no trouble to believe this was a mini-version of Daniel. She wasn't quite sure how to feel about it, yet.
The colonel sighed. "Carter, is there a spot at that creek where this young gentleman can cool his feet and any other sore body parts?"
"If you walk upstream a bit there's a nice sandy spot where he can take a bath," she confirmed. "The horse can drink there, too."
"Thank you." He took the horse from her again. "We'll be right back. You don't happen to have coffee, do you?"
She gave him a wistful sigh. "Ohhh, I wish."
"Yeah." Colonel O'Neill hoisted Danny up a bit. "Let me take this fish to water."
She watched them move down the bank. The colonel releasaed Danny and freed the horse of its bridle to let it drink, leaving the reins around its neck. She heard him tell Danny not to wander up- or downstream, or "...you're going to wear a bridle, too."
That threat was answered with laughter and Sam thought how strange and wonderful it was to hear that sound. As she went into her small house to heat up the soup she was humming.
ooo
"I experimented with the naqudah I found in those rocks and it's actually different from the element we know. The best part is; it has a melting point resembling gallium. Gallium turns liquid at 89 F, which is basically room temperature. And it stays that way unless it cools off. That means if it is added to the drug in liquid form we only have to keep it warm enough. Wearing it close to our bodies would do the trick. Plus, it will work perfectly in Teal'c's bloodstream because body temperature is at 98,6 F."
"Isn't that stuff poisonous, like mercury?" The colonel eyed the small glass tube filled with a black substance.
"Well, I don't have any means of measuring that, here, but since Jelica fed this to her son for years and it helped him live, my assumption would be, no. Granted she only gave him the plants, not the pure naquadah, but I'm almost sure this is not poisonous."
She got the eyebrow. "Almost sure?"
Sam shrugged. "Pretty certain, actually."
"Okay." He handed her back the tube. "Once the symbiote is out, Teal'c will be history either way. So this is still our best shot, huh?"
"Yes, sir. Jelica's drug worked. It was just weak. If the higher dose of naquadah combined with the healing abilities of the plants does the trick, Teal'c might feel almost normal again. If I'm missing something else..." She shook her head. "At least it will still keep him alive. It kept Jellica's son alive with this recipe so it should work for Teal'c, too."
"When will it be ready?"
"Tonight. I'm not sure if the ivy blossoms are really a significant part of the drug, but I'm still going to add them. The ivy is only in bloom during full moon and tonight the moon will be at its fullest."
"Not good for moving around in the dark," Jack muttered.
"I thought we were going to knock at the front door?" She shoved the liquid naquadah back into the pocket of her jacket.
"Yeah." The colonel rubbed a hand over his eyes. He looked tired. "I know I'm not the most positive voice of the group... but that seems too easy to work out."
"Maybe it will work because it is so easy," Sam suggested.
"Maybe. Maybe not." He stirred the soup in the pot over the small fire. It smelled good. Herbs, wild potatoes and meat from the small bird she had found in her trap yesterday. She had been grateful and surprised to find a lot of Jelica's belongings still intact. The pot, bowls to eat from, even a couple of spoons, and several other items.
She watched Danny chase a frog. Until a moment ago the boy had kept them posted about where the frog was going and what it was doing. Now he had reached the stones by the bank. He paused, considering his options, then threw a quick look over his shoulder to see what the colonel was doing. Then he turned his attention back to the frog.
She suppressed a chuckle at the kid's dilemma of wanting to go after the frog and not being allowed to clamber over the stones into the water. Bouncing on his toes, Danny looked over at them again. "Ja-ack? Are you busy?"
Colonel O'Neill sniffed the soup and stirred some more. "Yes, Danny, I'm busy. Leave that poor frog and c'mere. Lunch is ready."
"Ohhh!" He bounded over and settled down between them, eagerly accepting the bowl. "That smells good, Sam!"
"Thank you, Danny. I think the unthinkable happened. I finally learned how to cook," she said with a grin.
"Remember, it's hot," Colonel O'Neill reminded the boy.
Danny held the bowl to his face and blew over it. "It smells reeeaaallll good."
Jadah had taught her the fine arts of cooking in her wonderful comfortable kitchen. Out here Sam could only improvise with what little she had, but it was enough to fill their bellies.
"You're right, Carter. This is great," the colonel said, smacking his lips.
"The lack of take-out and restaurants is hightly motivating," she replied.
"When we're home again I want to go to Starbucks and have all their specials," Danny announced. "And eat a ton of cheesecake."
Sam exchanged a look with her CO. From what he had told her over the last hour as they had swapped reports on their time on Ba'th she knew where Danny had come from. And that the colonel didn't know if Danny was a permanent or if Daniel needed that part of him back at some point.
"It's a date," she said nevertheless. "Starbucks. Gosh, I can't believe I have lived without coffee for so long."
The colonel stared at her. "No coffee? All this time?"
"Jadah doesn't believe in coffee. Tea is her remedy for everything."
"There are lots of coffee shops in Ba'th. The town Ba'th. Where we come from," Danny said. "But Starbucks is still bet-ter."
They finished their lunch and cleaned the dishes. The colonel and Danny argued a little over the necessity of afternoon naps. When the boy had fallen asleep curled up in the soft grass and covered by a black and brown rabbit skin, Sam went back inside to work on Teal'c's drug.
She felt restless and even more edgy than she could put down to the naquadah. It was like a constant buzz in her head and slight goosebumps on her arms. Like an awakening.
She had spent months living the life of a healer, sheltered from harm and angst in Jadah's cozy world. And even when she had left and spent her days in the wilderness, out here, she had only done domestic things. Hunted, collected herbs, cooked, worked on that drug.
Tonight she would finish what was supposed to help Teal'c survive. Then she and the colonel – with Danny as their diversionary tactic – would move out to the monastery and...
And there she felt the anxious excitement crawl up her spine.
S&R.
She hadn't been in any kind of combat situation for months. She had no idea if she could just shrug off Sam the healer and become Major Carter again. She went through the motions of adding crushed herbs, flower juices and strips of tree bark to the simmering cauldron over the stove.
I have turned into the wicked witch, she thought and felt the insane urge to laugh wildly.
But, she realized as she added a small amount of the belladonna schnapps she had brought with her, to the liquid, she wasn't afraid. At least not afraid for her life or scared of getting hurt. If she was afraid of anything it was failure. What if she wasn't up to the job anymore? Starting with this drug here – what if she had gotten it wrong? What if Teal'c died because she had missed something?
At the same time she felt like a young horse before its first race. She could literally feel the adrenalin pouring into every nerve ending of her body.
She and the colonel had gone over all the intel they had gotten from Daniel, had worked out a schedule and discussed the lack of weapons and ways to defend themselves. Going by what Daniel had told them, freeing Teal'c shouldn't be too hard. But, as the colonel had pointed out, you never knew what might be hiding in the shadows. Or how well trained those monks really were.
The slight awkwardness between them had faded away in the common ground of strategies and working out a way to get the job done.
Like it was supposed to be.
She wondered if, after tonight, she would be someone else again. If she would feel more like the person she used to be. Could she be a soldier, go back into the field and still not forget what she had learned at Jadah's? Could she have her own herb garden and maybe a small greenhouse and spend her free time there? Or would she go back to putting all her energy into work and quantum physics again, holed up in her lab at the mountain? And slowly forget Jadah's legacy? Or lose interest in it?
"Carter?"
She turned to where he was standing in the doorway. Something was wrong. She could see it in the way his jaw was tightly set.
"We need to move out."
"What happened?"
"Daniel just stopped by. He says they are getting Teal'c ready for the extraction ceremony tonight. We can't wait any longer. I'll get the horse."
She nodded and moved the cauldron from the fire. It would slowly cool down and – hopefully – by the time they returned she could add the naquadah and the ivy blossoms. She would rather have a flask of the drug to take with her, just in case... but that couldn't be helped.
She followed the colonel outside. Danny was sitting in the grass, knuckling his eyes and yawning. She looked at the little boy and suddenly felt such a cold spear of fear lancing her heart that she had trouble breathing for a moment. What if this was a terrible mistake? What if those monks hurt this precious little part of Daniel? He was so small. So vulnerable.
She glanced at the colonel and saw her thoughts mirrored in his brown eyes.
Danny got up, dragging the rabbit skin with him as he toddled over to join them. Sam thought of that kid from the Peanuts with his security blanket, and felt like smiling despite her worries.
The colonel crouched in front of him and took one of his hands. "Do you remember your lines, buddy?"
"Yep."
"And when you get into trouble..."
"I call for Daniel and he'll come. And if he can't I'll try to get away and wait at the secret exit. Or I'll yell for you as loud as I can and you'll come for me ASAP."
"Good man. Ready to move out?"
They were. And they did.
It took them thirty minutes to reach the part of the woods where the monastery was. The colonel tied the horse to a sturdy tree and they made the rest of the way by foot.
Two and a half of SG-1 on their way to get their lost team mate. It was like old times even though one of them was riding on top of the colonel's shoulders, wrapped in a rabbit skin.
II
Jack silently vowed not to wish for things he couldn't have. Like binoculars. Or his P90. His tac vest. A radio. A real combat knife. A zat.
What he had were Carter's hand-to-hand combat skills and a mini-Daniel with vague mental powers. And, if the sketchy rescue plan really worked out, an ascended Daniel to jump in if things went awfully wrong.
Peachy.
Maybe they could get their hands on pain sticks. That would be cool.
The monastery was a glum, dark place with thick old walls. Jack made out two spires, but no battlements.
It's a monastery, he reminded himself, not a castle or a fortress.
They kept hidden behind a line of gnarly, crippled trees, watching the wooden double doors for a while. No guards. No one came, no one went. The windows were nothing more than black holes in the walls, high and small, no glass. The place appeared to be locked down tight, but – if Daniel was right - that was only smoke and mirrors.
"It's a very bad place," Danny murmured beside him.
"Keep up the positive thoughts, Danny," Carter said. "You need them for the monks." But she didn't sound like she had happy thoughts either.
Jack absently rubbed Danny's back, addressing Carter, "Signal me when you've made it around to the water."
"Three for all is clear, two for trouble, one if I need backup," she confirmed.
"Go."
"Wait, Sam." Danny placed his palm on her cheek. "Good luck."
A smile blossomed on her face and Jack wondered what she saw, what she felt.
"Thank you, honey." She dropped a quick kiss on Danny's tow head and moved away without a sound.
He followed her with his eyes as she vanished between the trees until he couldn't see her anymore. Then he returned his focus to the building again.
A river ran behind it; swollen and dangerous in spring, but relatively tame around this time of year. Daniel had clued them in about the mill wheel and the small side entrance beside it. The monastery drew its power from the river. Every week one of the monks stopped the wheel, opened the door beside it and came out to clean the wheel of branches, stones and anything that got caught in it.
Carter had done her own research and perimeter walking when she had arrived at Jelica's canyon. She had examined that door by the wheel and said the lock was old and rusty. It was their way out if leaving through the front door wasn't going to be an option.
They waited for her signal in silence. Jack worked on emptying his mind of all his worries and focusing on the next step. But having Danny here was a distracting factor, because the kid wasn't always predictable and worrying about him was something Jack couldn't switch off easily.
Danny touched his face, sending him an image of the night sky over the Ba'th ruins. Jack saw the sheet of lightning as it raced from the sky, saw particles of silver erupting from it like fireworks, then plummeting down like snowflakes. As they met the ground, they began to morph into a tiny vortex, faster and faster, until only one blinding puddle of silver and white illuminated the whole arena.
That's what the twins and Mikele saw when you fell from the sky, Jack thought in wonder. Or maybe it was what Daniel had seen when he had been split.
The light faded and on the ground lay a perfect new little human, curled into a ball, lily-white skin glistening in the moonlight.
Danny pulled his hand away. "Don't worry about me, Jack. I can go back to the sky if something happens to me. I can be with Daniel and Oma again."
Jack ruffled the blond hair gently. "I still want you to be careful, okay?"
"'kay."
There was the mirror reflection. Once, twice, three times.
Jack wrapped Danny in the rabbit skin and cradled him in his arms. "Give me your best performance."
Danny's head lolled back, his eyes closed halfway and he moaned softly.
"Perfect," Jack murmured.
He strode across the clearing like a desperate man would – fast, pressing the boy to his chest, eyes darting this way and that. He saw no one appear in any of the windows. No one ripped the front door open to aim a weapon at him.
They stopped by the oak door and Jack hammered against it with one fist. "Hey, there! I need help! Anyone? My boy needs help! Please open up! Jadah, the healer, sent us here for help!"
Nothing.
He waited a moment, then tried again. Yelling and knocking. Knocking and yelling.
Finally there was the sound of a heavy bar being removed, then the doors swung open, revealing a hooded figure holding up a candle. The room or hall behind it was pitch black.
Oy.
"What is your wish?" an old, brittle voice rasped out from somewhere under that hood.
"My boy here, I believe he's a sinner child!"
The hooded head came closer and bent over Danny, who let out a pitiful moan.
"This child is too young to be a sinner," the monk said.
"But Jadah, the healer, said to bring him here and have him examined because he's," Jack cleared his throat, "weird. He has these, you know... attacks."
"No sinner child has been brought here in many generations and we are preparing for a ceremony tonight," the monk said, then coughed. Jack could hear the dry rattling sound more in the man's chest than as an actual cough.
"Please. Don't turn us away," he forced the monk to step backwards as he pushed inside. "Jadah said you'd help."
"I cannot. I must insist that you leave," the old man yelled. Or tried to anyway. His voice didn't reach the actual volume of a yell. It stayed raspy and brittle. More coughs shook the body under those robes.
"You're sick," Danny piped up from his nest of rabbit fur as Jack started closing the heavy doors. He had to put Danny down and use both hands to swing them shut. How this fragile little monk had been able to open them was beyond him.
"Of course I am sick. This is a drafty, moldy place," the monk said sourly. "You try living in a place like this for over a hundred years without getting sick."
"Are you that old?" Danny asked in wonder.
"Lived a long life. Too long if you asked me."
"Do you live here all alone? With just the sinners?" Danny asked. "Will I have to live here with you until my snake can be taken out? Is it boring here? Do you have coffee?"
The monk let out a hacking sound Jack recognized to be laughter. "You are certainly not a sinner, boy, don't worry about that."
"How many sinners are here?" Danny asked when Jack picked him up again.
"Just one." The monk coughed again. "And your dada, if that's what he is, should never have come here. I should never have opened those doors. Whatever you think your boy suffers from, he is not a sinner."
"How can you be so sure? You haven't even looked at him. Shouldn't you examine him or something?" Jack asked.
"You come from Jadah, the healer outside the woods?" The old man asked.
"Yeah, she sent us."
"Jadah. Well, well... I have not heard her name in a very long time. I used to know her great grandmother, Jelica. Before I was turned into a monk. I have not seen any of her family in a long time. We rarely leave this place. We grow our own food and herbs. But Jadah is known far and wide for her skills." Cough cough cough. "However, she's also known to be part of the resistance group. She and her family have tried to break the sinner spell for ages." Again the hacking laughter. "Of course there is no spell. No spell. Never has been a spell."
Jack's eyes had adjusted to the darkness by now. They were in an entry hall. In two corners, stairways went up to a gallery. On the ground level a corridor led into darkness and he couldn't make out anything beyond that. The candle in the monk's hand wavered as he was shaken by coughing again.
This was a dying man.
"Once we were many," he told them. "But at one point authorities decided they didn't need us anymore because no more Jaffa were arriving through the portal and there hadn't been any recordings of descendants from our local Jaffa in years. We were left to fend for ourselves and no new monks were sent here to be trained in the tending of Jaffa and their symbiotes.
"We were five monks still in the service, but most of them are dead now. Dead. They, and all the brothers from before, lived their lives in dedication to a lie. That stupid sinner legend... all a lie. Not many people know it is, though. If you come from Jadah you must at least know part of the truth."
"You are part of the resistance group," Jack guessed.
The old man snorted and spat on the ground. "Resistance group. If there ever was such a group – and not just a couple of fools - it is long gone. The poor soul we have to free of the symbiote tonight has been the first Jaffa to arrive in generations. I don't know where he came from, but he will be the last Jaffa I have to prepare for his journey."
"But you opened your door for us," Danny said softly. "You let us in when you heard Jadah sent us. You must still believe in the resistance."
"Ack! It's pointless."
"Yet, you let us in," Jack said gently. He strained his ears for the sounds of a battle or any other sign that Carter had been made and needed help, but it was eerily quiet around them. And eerily depressing. Like the outside world didn't exist. As though any sound, any color, any light had been purged by the dusty, dark and deadly atmosphere of the monastery. Yes. Jack could smell death. It was in the fusty air, the ancient bleak walls. This place had seen a lot of killing.
"Come with me," the monk muttered and shuffled ahead of them.
"Where are we going?" Jack asked sharply, but followed anyway. What choice did he have?
"I need wine," was the curt answer.
They walked down what seemed to be an endless corridor. Torches glowed in their holders on the wall, giving enough light to see, but not enough to make this place any cozier. They went down three flights of stone steps and into a new corridor, then took a turn to the left and one to the right. Like Daniel had pointed out to Jack this place was a lot bigger than it appeared to be from the outside because it had several underground levels.
Finally they reached another hall that turned out to be a kitchen. A large stove dominated the back wall and Jack could make out shelves and counters. The torch light was a little more bright down here and he saw pots and pans, a knife-block, dishes next to a large wash stand. It smelled of old fat and sod.
"If the resistance group, as you call it, had been better organized and if people had not been scattered all over the world, once upon a time we might have been able to do something. But the drug Jelica and Tanita invented was too weak to sustain all the Jaffa who lived here at that time. We had too few people in the main city and we only had the pigeons to carry messages." More coughing. The monk went to one of the shelves. He took down a goblet and a large carafe. He filled the goblet with trembling hands and drank thirstily before he continued. "Pigeons were shot down, messengers were captured and memory stamped. As the years went on and the portal sent less and less travelers, everyone thought the time of stamping had come to an end and no one bothered to keep the group organized anymore."
"But now that the portal has opened again..." Jack started. He hoped Carter had found Teal'c by now. They had to join her and keep those other monk-guys at bay.
"I am old. I will soon be gone. As well as my brother, Ibrihim. Ach, Ibrihim's mind is even more fragile than his body these days. But with the new Jaffa the authorities sent new monks. Two of them. They brought him here, unconscious and shackled on a horse wagon. Young ambitious men who hold daily prayers and meditation with the Jaffa. Men who believe what they are doing is right and just." The monk took a rattling breath and drank more from his goblet. Jack could smell the sour wine even where he stood. "Fools. But they were stamped to believe they had always worked as sinner monks. This has been unheard of before, but they did not need training when they arrived here."
"The first Jaffa who came here were the former servants of Ba'th's goddess Isis and Horus. They came out of free will to prevent their symbiotes from spreading out and taking hosts," Danny said.
The hooded head turned slowly towards the kid. "You know about the ancient times? How can you? How is that possible? Even those who used to be in that resistance group never knew the whole truth about Jaffa."
"Let's say we're well educated," Jack said before Danny could lunge into a full-blown lecture.
The hood nodded. "I see, I see. Well, in the ancient times, once the gods had left and abandoned their armies, the Jaffa came together here to await the maturation of the prim'ta and their death. Instead of leaving through the portal they wanted to reach the afterlife and the first generation of monks helped them on their way to the end until no Jaffa was left. Here and there a son or a grandson, a nephew, showed up when their turning point had come. Sent by their families. But without symbiotes to put into them their suffering was short and they died soon. It was around that time the sinner legend somehow wormed its way into people's head."
"They programmed the sinner legend into the memory stamps of everyone who arrived after Isis and Horus left," Danny said. "And they made sure people wouldn't be able to read the old writings in their ruins or on scrolls anymore. Slowly the truth was forgotten."
"In time no more direct descendants arrived here. But there were other worlds. Whenever the portal opened and Jaffa came through, the authorities sent them here. No one wanted Jaffa walking free on Ba'th, They had to be locked away."
"But you know the truth. Were the monks kept in the know like the Mentors and Shadows?" Jack asked.
"The first monks were in the know because the Jaffa themselves hired them. Later, the truth was handed down always from the oldest monk to one of his most trusted brothers or pupils so that it would not be completely forgotten. It was tradition. My mentor gave me the truth before he died and I kept the secret as it was expected of me. I even kept some of the truth from Jelica and Tanita who approached me about the drug and the resistance group. They had Mentors in their family. I never did completely trust them.
"Those new monks they sent with this last Jaffa are stamped," the old man repeated sullenly after he had recovered from another coughing fit and drunk more wine. "Authorities probably thought no one was still alive here, thought it was easier to just stamp those young men to make them believe they had been trained to be sinner monks all their lives."
"And once Teal'c is dead..." Danny started and then gasped when he realized he had given them away. But they were already made, so it probably didn't matter.
The monk either didn't care or hadn't noticed the slip. He started pacing as he rasped out, "Once that Jaffa is dead those young men will be condemned to live in this place to their deaths. Buried alive, their only goal to await new sinners. If there ever will be new sinners. They will endure the hard work of gardening, taking on the pointless task of trying to make repairs on this rotten, old building. They will slowly go mad like Ibrihim. Or they will get sick from the mold or the rats living everywhere. They will never walk free again because they are stamped to believe their destiny is to stay here."
"We can help," Danny blurted out.
The monk laughed. "When your dada called outside and said Jadah sent you I had hope. I don't know why or for what exactly, but I did. Foolish old man that I am. What can you do? Why are you here? What do you think you can accomplish?"
Jack hitched Danny higher and stepped close to the monk. "Show him."
Danny's arm stretched out and his hand vanished under the old man's hood. For a moment they stood frozen, the silence only interrupted by the ragged breaths of the monk.
"You defeated your own memory stamps," the guy whispered finally. "And you believe you can escape. And destroy the venus trap?"
"Well, that's the plan," Jack said.
"If the trap is destroyed no one will ever be stamped again and you are all free to leave this place," Danny added.
"And you want to take your Jaffa friend. But his symbiote has to come out today, without it he will die."
Danny's hand touched the old man's face once more. Probably giving him a picture of Carter refining Jelica's drug. Maybe giving him a huge dose of hope and confidence.
When he pulled his hand away, the monk shuffled out of the kitchen. "We must hurry."
