Well, this is AU. And I am moving the Stargate start a couple of years just to fit with this timeline. Let's see present is in italic and I should actually start apologizing to anyone out there that has some deep knowledge of how the Air Force (or any other military institution) works. I think I screwed up badly half of the time… but as I said …it is AU. So let's pretend that my scarce knowledge gotten from JAG mixed with my need to create something that could accommodate the history is okay. Please? J
And then I should add that any grammar screw ups are all mine.
Disclaimers: I don't own Stargate or their characters. *sigh*
Anyhow… hopefully you will enjoy and stick around till the end… I have quite a few chapters almost ready, so at some point they will be up fast and then I will probably be hit by my ending block… which if you read me before, you know it's bad…
Well, enough about this…
Enjoy.
M.
Chapter 1 – Let's start from that thing.
"We are gathered here today to…" she trailed, the quite common words being said for a totally different reason one would hope at this point of their lives. She risked a glance to the man at her side, without noticing the curious stares in her direction, she was rarely lost for words and hearing her dragging a phrase was an enormous surprise to those listening. Her fleeting look was received and he cleared his throat as an answer.
"To tell you some little thingies," he completed, shrugging when he finished, noticing his wording was as simple as could be expected from him, he stole a quick look at his companion worried face and added as if it was nothing too much and a lot self-explanatory, "That are highly classified"
A sigh from her part was all the answer he needed to know they weren't as profound or enlightening as they sounded for him making both of them fall back to the old habit of pressing their jaws, a sign which showed those in the table how troubled they really were. It also pointed to the other people that both, man and woman, would need a time to organize their thoughts thus they held their breaths, and bit lips to try not to intervene and hurry them up, they didn't need more pressure added; and while the man glanced everywhere except them, the woman fixated her squint on a distant point in the wall while chewing the inside of her cheeks.
"We are kind'a in trouble," he left out, after a few more seconds, his breathy affirmation was accompanied by his hand nervously scratching the back of his head. She, on the other hand, just nodded eagerly at the end of such sentence, her eyes wide and her hair moving uncontrollably giving her an appearance of being younger than she was.
"You... both… are in trouble?" The oldest man around questioned, not quite believing what he just heard.
"Yes, General," They stated with as much confidence as the situation might allow. The older man sighed, passing a hand through his face knowing easily that, if both were involved, and they already confirmed they were, it was to be a complicated and big issue… and more likely not something the top brass would like or accept easily.
And yes, believing their statement about being in trouble was not a farfetched possibility. Being in trouble wasn't something they didn't do often, at least not if you knew who those two were or how many troubles they could get themselves into, in short amounts of time. The only really surprising thing for the older man in the room was that none of the other ones sitting next to him seemed to know about this matter. He frowned, that was something he wouldn't expect from them.
"So, let me understand this, you are in trouble, so you thought you should let us know about this … situation… outside the mountain and that's why you brought us here too ..." The other woman in the room trailed, giving them enough rope to hang themselves if they didn't trade carefully and they both thought 'it had to be her', since they knew that bringing her around could only meant they would get questions which would need answers, and they also understood that, answering them was exactly what they needed to do.
"Let you know some ... hmm …" she tried
"Thingies?" He completed raising his eyebrows, trying his best to help her.
They looked at woman at the table doubtfully and then, they exchanged yet another glance, agreeing with it in a silent conversation. Yes, they needed her in the table not only because she was a close friend, but because she would question them without any fear or doubt. However, all and all, that didn't make answering any easier.
"Thingies..." she nodded agreeing with him, "Small parts of history if you wish,"
"A walk down memory lane…" that wording caused a surge of strange looks at his general direction, "What? I think that sounded better," he shrugged the weirdness off with a raised eyebrow, and she laughed, she knew all too well he always got this 'poetic side' when nervous, "Way better"
"Those, ahem, thingies are, well… classified, hidden, buried and pretty much still going on." She continued stalling.
"Jack! Sam! For crying out loud! Can you two just cut the crap and get to the point?"
"Geez! Daniel, thanks... don't you see! We ARE trying for heaven's sakes!" Jack exclaimed nervously. He hated interrogations, he despised having to talk in public, and he abhorred briefings. But this, this was not an interrogation, nor a briefing… and the people at the table didn't exactly ranked in his list as 'general public'.
"We just don't know where to start." Sam sighed, looking somewhat lost. They exchanged weary glances before looking at the people at the table. Janet, Daniel, Teal'c and George Hammond, their friends… their family. A moment or two passed quietly, in a blink of an eye,
"I believe it is better if you start at the beginning," Teal'c pointed, crooking his head.
"Can we not start at the beginning?" Colonel and Major pleaded at once, and their friends sighed and nodded confused. The military pair still didn't have the sightless idea of what to say or how to say it, and taking the start out of the equation, didn't help them to untangle the issue either.
"How about?' Daniel provided, "Start with the …thing… which gave you this need to tell us whatever you two have to tell us?" He knew them well enough to know hurrying them up into talking would only manage to make them build their walls faster. Yes, the only moments in which those two were good under pressure were the almost end of the Earth, and/or live and dead situations, in which case they did stuff exceedingly fast and precisely… everything else, it just took a lot of time.
"Sounds good to me, what'cha think, Carter?" She chewed the inside of her cheeks, then nodded. Her short hair moving a little to cover her eyes. The gleam in her eyes made him notice her readiness to speak more than just a short line.
"Well, as Daniel pointed out, this will start not at the beginning. It will start with 'the thing' which made us evaluate your need to know," she left out a sigh "Here we go, this started a couple months ago…"
"Actually, much, much longer ago, but..." he corrected and she glared at him, making him stop whatever he was about to say.
"The thing which started to move the pieces of the puzzle came 3 months ago, with the mission to P34XZ0..."
SGC
3 months ago
"Ready to P34XZ0, kids?"
"P34XZ0 has great soil and is a potential Naquadah mine. Plus, is sunny and there's no Goa'uld as far as we …" Sam started to answer
"Ack!" Jack raised a hand to stop his 2IC chatter, she was the finest officer around… but simple questions? Those were a no-no with her.
"Know…" she finished nonetheless.
"It was a simple yes or no question, Carter. You understand that?" She nodded and sheepishly smiled, "And?"
"Ready, Sir." She said grinning, noting she didn't actually answered with his selected choices. He rolled his eyes at her, and she beamed at him while the ring started to move.
The mission briefing pointed the mission as a "simple recon" mission. They were going to a deserted planet to bring some artifacts from the ruins of a city which wasn't far away from the gate and to study whatever it might be still standing there before returning in two days tops.
Yes, it sounded like the ideal calm mission, but let's face it, whenever those words were mentioned in a SG-1 briefing, those would end up being the worsts missions ever and they all were very aware of such fact. But when the chevrons locked, the 'kawoosh' happened and the event horizon set, they crossed to the other side without a hint of a doubt and bantering each other away.
Once on the other side, Teal'c, then Daniel, the F.R.E.D, Sam and finally Jack arrived on a sunny, windy and beautiful P34XZ0 day. Jack and Teal'c set into check and protect the surrounding area, planting C3 charges just in case they needed to blow something away to get cover, and Daniel kept Sam accompanied while she checked her gadgets. Once her equipment returned everything normal, she replaced them back on their own spot at the FRED, and they set for a short wait, considering they still needed Jack and Teal'c to return from their security trek before walking to the ruins. As expected, everything pointed like, indeed, this was a deserted planet, and the only signs of civilization were the ruins of a city the UAV scan picked up on its way around.
"City ruins are 50 klicks that way," She pointed south, "everything looks normal and as we already knew there's no sign of radiation or even an unbearable temperature here"
"Already, kids, let's go for a stroll then," Jack said taking point, followed by Daniel. Sam took the third position with the F.R.E.D moving slowly by her side, and Teal'c took the end. As every time the FRED tagged along, they were forced to walk slower than they normally would, which they accompanied with their normal banter and the incredible amount of dumb things they could come up on those strange moments of peace. Which as usually came to an end fairly quickly, as they were nearing to the end of the path in between the woods and out to clearing separating them from the ruins, maybe it was the training 3 of 4 members had or just the simple experience, but they automatically fell silent when they were 6 or 7 feet away of it. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary when Jack walked out of the woods and stopped. Then he shook his head and continued to walk, Sam was now behind him. However, it was the moment when Teal'c walked out when he heard something weird.
"Fall back!" Jack screamed to his team and turned around towards the woods, Sam looked at him with widened eyes, a spike of sorts buried in his arm. "Go back to the gate!" he screamed, and felt something weird happening with his body, his warning came a second too late as he heard a second wave of needles being fired. He looked in the general direction of the whistling sound, then he looked in front of him. Sam was just a two feet away from the woods, so without hesitations he jumped to cover his 2IC back.
A groan and a thud made her turn around, saying Sam was shocked when she saw Jack lay in a very awkward position on the floor bed, with some metal spikes piercing his back and arms, was an understatement. She blinked at the sight and heard another wave, this time the sound was closer, and she didn't need to turn around to know she was not out of reach, with the certainty of no escape left, she repeated Jack previous action, jumping with as much force as she could to bring both Daniel and Teal'c to the floor. She felt her body reacting weirdly and felt how the fabric of Teal'c pants grazed the tip of her fingers and yet another wave was heard, before she couldn't hold herself anymore and everything went black.
Unknown Location
When he woke up, he had to blink a couple of times to get his sight fixed. The room being all white did nothing to help his confused eyes, using his observational skills deduced that, once again, he was stuck in a hospital room and thankfully not in a sarcophagus as he first thought when he opened his eyes to the blinding white light.
Then, his memory was back and he remembered the events previous to this room. He remembered Jack covering Sam and falling to the ground and how Sam's body connected loudly with the ground not too far away from Jack. He remembered tripping on a tree root and seeing, from his position on the floor how Teal'c was still walking to the gate. A prick in his neck was the last sensation he felt before losing all resemblance of control of his body and then… he woke up in the white room.
Analyzing the situation he thought, maybe, just maybe, Teal'c got through the gate and returned with a backup team to save them. However, as much as he hoped that was the result, both his mind and body screamed at him with facts to make an educated guess and affirm such thing wasn't possible. The room, wherever it was, was not one he knew from before, it was oddly comforting and completely bizarre at the same time.
"Dr. Jackson, welcome, if you please go this way," a voice came from seemingly nowhere and a door he couldn't see before was opened, or rather, a white panel of the wall disappeared in front of his eyes to give space to a still white corridor.
"Definitively not a hospital," he muttered and did as the voice said, "Where are you taking me?" he asked walking slowly following the only direction available.
"To the waiting room, so you can be with your friend."
"My friend?"
"Yes, the one called Teal'c, he told us much about you and your other friends."
"Okaaaay…. Sorry, who are you?"
"I am Arandu, we are here"
"Here, where?" he asked, the corridor ended in a wall that soon was too disappearing open.
"DanielJackson is great to see you well," Teal'c greeted from the back of the room
"Teal'c! Are you okay? Did they tell you anything? Sam? Jack?" he asked and except for the first question, he only got no as answers. He sighed and looked around, it was yet another plain white room, no doors or windows were visible, but so far their host didn't show more traces of being evil.
"Arandu? I'm guessing English is not your main language?"
"You are correct, Dr. Jackson"
"So you learned our language. How?" he said intrigued to know more about the voice which was currently talking with them.
"We accessed to your mind in order to learn your language and evaluate your qualifications as good or evil."
"Ok, so we are with mind readers... nice." He muttered to himself. "What about my other friends?"
"I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson, we can't disclose any information about them. Unless, you are related."
"Related? I'm their friend! I just need to know if they are alive!" No one answered him back. Frustrated, Daniel paced around for a while under the careful watch of Teal'c. Then he stopped.
"Hey! Arandu? How should I prove I'm related to them?" He shouted to the ceiling, feeling somewhat a déjà vu as memories of him screaming to nothing in particular showed themselves on his mind.
"Your memories must match," the voice announced simply
"My memories… how is this done?"
"You have to concentrate on memory or a series of memories in which your relationship was conformed or approved as one. Then, using the information you present us, we find corresponding ones in your friend. If your memories match the memories of your friend, you get entitled to know about the wellbeing of your related friend."
"What kind of relationship are we talking about?"
"You must be either brother, sister, mother, father, child or spouse of the subject".
"I'm his brother." He stated, thinking of a day when Jack told him in his own set of words, he was like a younger brother to him. He smiled fondly at the memory, it was one of the weird times in which Jack O'Neill was just sincere.
"I'm sorry, Daniel Jackson. Your memories don't match"
"I'm her brother," he said then, concentrating on the memory of the day he asked Sam to go out on a date with him and she smiled totally busted him, telling him he was doing it to get someone jealous and that such thing wouldn't work because everyone knew she loved him as a brother.
"I'm sorry, Daniel Jackson. Your memories don't match," or maybe she said like a brother. He groaned, for him as a brother and like a brother sounded exactly the same, maybe for these people wasn't, he started to pace again.
"Be patient, Daniel Jackson. I'm sure they are well"
"But, Teal'c, don't you remember the way their bodies were sprawled on the floor? They probably broke something when falling, and that's even if they are alive..." he trailed and it was in this exact moment another hidden door chose to disappear.
"If who is alive?" Sam asked, walking into the room.
"Sam! You're alive!" Daniel ran and hugged her.
"Yes, I think I am…or heaven looks too darn similar to a hospital." She joked, and frowned when glancing around, "where is…"
"He is not here... Yet. And no, we don't know anything about his condition either," Daniel answered before she could ask.
"Did you ask her?"
"Wait, her?"
"Yes, Mbyja… the Furling elder?"
"The what? Did you just say Furling?" Sam nodded. "I haven't met her. I heard Arandu and he didn't say anything about being a Furling"
"I too, met Arandu only"
"You didn't ask," Arandu voice replied.
"And, what did he tell you?"
"Wait? You didn't ask about our wellbeing?"
"Of course I did, she told me your friends are waiting for you. What did they tell you about the Colonel?"
"I'm not related to him, I can't know his status, which sucks by the way... I tried to convince him I was his brother or your brother. None of it worked, our memories didn't match," He whined
"How long has it been?"
"I don't know we have been sitting here with no way to measure time"
"Mbyja? Can we have our watches back?"
"Sure, Samantha," in one of the walls a small hole appeared, and inside 3 watches sat.
"Thanks." She smiled, grabbed hers and looked at the time. "Well, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe we have 4 hours before our due report, and then 3 more before the General sends someone to get us back" and both Teal'c and Daniel nodded.
"Do you know how much time will take us to walk back to the gate?"
"Two of your hours," Arandu voice answered.
"Ok, so we go report this and come back again" Daniel supplied
"We can't leave him behind," Sam said firmly
"But we will come back, it is just a report"
"If we report we were attacked and held in an unknown facility, The General will order us to return immediately and he won't let us come back until a full blood analysis comes back clean."
"Indeed" Teal'c said and Sam slid to the floor.
One hour and a half later, Daniel was still set into carving a hole in the floor with his pacing. Teal'c decided to do some kelno'reem, and Sam was staring a point in the wall. They still had two hours and a half left to give the report and a two hour walk; which left her with no too many options.
Sam sighed, managing with that to stop Daniel. Since, weirdly to him, it sounded like defeat. "Try mine," she whispered somewhat annoyed.
"What?" Daniel said, looking really puzzled
"According to you we have to have matching memories to prove we are related and we want to know how the Colonel is, don't we?" Daniel nodded "Well then try my memories, Mbyja."
"But what memories Sam?" She didn't answer, few seconds passed and another door disappeared. "I know for sure you are not his sister or mother or daughter…"
"Come through this door, please Samantha," She smiled grimly to her friend and walked to the door, as soon as she crossed it, the wall appeared again.
"What the hell?" Daniel said, feeling completely puzzled. Not too much later, the same wall did its disappearing act and Sam walked into the room again, a smile graced her face.
"Well, Colonel O'Neill is somewhat ok. He has a broken knee, hand and ankle, 4 broken and 6 bruised ribs and he is still sleeping. They can't help him with the broken things until all the drug effect wears out."
"Drugs?"
"Yes, you might find this interesting, Mbyja explained to me that this planet was often visited by Goau'lds. Thus, in order to protect themselves, just like the Nox went airborne, they Furling council decided to move their facilities to the underground. They created the city ruins that we saw by blowing their old city to almost nothing, by doing so, they recognized that whomever was coming from the gate or from space, will be moving in the general direction of the ruins, which hide the entrance to their facilities. Therefore, they planted strategically, a series of artifacts which are auto activated when Jaffa's are near enough."
"The needles"
"Yes, it throws super silent 'poisoned' needles. That's the reason why we weren't attack when we just walked in"
"Because we aren't Jaffa and then Teal'c came to the clearing after you"
"And their readings went crazy, the artifact immediately marked us as Goa'ulds or slaves of them because we are of human nature. Somehow, the Colonel heard the noises and as he noticed he was going down, he decided to cover me to give us time to scape, and when I felt I wasn't going anywhere"
"Yeah, I remember what happened. But if those artifacts are in the clearing, why they kept shooting?"
Well, once it starts shooting, it doesn't stop until everyone is in the floor. They recalculated the angles to shoot and hit the moving targets. That's why by being the last ones in the line, Teal'c and you got injected with one dose each, and as I jumped to cover you and they were already recalculated to get you and me and Teal'c, I ended up getting 5 times the regular dose… the Colonel, well, he got at least 10 times the regular dose."
"Something sounds off"
"No, actually, the poison is for Jaffa. So a dose is good to bring Teal'c down, it takes the double or triple time to leave the human body. In my case, due to the naquadah and the protein marker in my blood, the drug has almost the same duration than for Jaffa's…"
"And Jack doesn't have it," he added with a sigh.
"No, they don't really know how long it will take him to wake up. They also don't know how we both managed to hold the effects for so long before coming down. Anyways, they know for sure the duration that the poison was going to have on Teal'c since Jaffa body are similar, because of the symbiont. Now, humans are highly differentiated, thus they aren't sure yet if your allergies give you a longer duration under the sedatives or shorter effect… and for that you are no comparison point with the Colonel…and I, adding to my messed up blood, I am a female"
"What you'll you want us to do, Major Carter?" Teal'c asked a few moments later
"You need to go back to Earth and wait for us there, ask General Hammond not to send anyone. We will send my idc then radio signal them once we are ready to cross and we will wait for instructions"
"But Sam! We can't go without you! We can't leave you behind"
"Think like this, Daniel, you are not going without us, you are just going first. We just don't know for sure how long it will take for us to return, knowing how stubborn he is, he could be awake in a couple hours… or in a couple of days for that matter." The archeologist looked at her warily "Look, it's quite simple really, if you don't go and the General sends another group, we would be stuck here for who knows how long, waiting on times we don't know for sure will be short or long, and it could go on forever. So, I'm not ordering you, I'm just asking you to trust me and please leave this planet. When the Colonel awakes we will return... we are in good hands."
"Sam... Tell me something only you can know …"
"I'm not a droid, clone or hologram Daniel; I'm just trying to do the right thing and at this moment that is for you to go home and for me to stay here. Can you do it?"
"Yes. Arandu, can we have the things we brought with us? We are leaving" A door opened in the opposite side of where Sam's door was and a panel moved to let them see their packs. A glimmering greenish boy and also glimmering purplish girl not older than 9 appeared in the room.
"It was a pleasure to meet you, DanielJackson and Teal'c. We will take good care of your friends," the girl said.
"You've met the Asgards, you know the Furlings are not a harmful race" the boy said and Daniel nodded and both he and Teal'c started to walk outside.
"Daniel?" Sam said as he was about to cross the door "Don't over think this, would you?"
"Oh, I'm definitively overthinking it, but I assure I would say or write nothing about my conclusions"
"Thanks"
