DISCLAIMER: I do not own Stargate SG-1. Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I have written this story for entertainment purposes only. No money has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Written in 2008. This is the result of wondering how Descent might have been if the original team members had been in it. Big thanks to Jmas, Seanchaidh and all the others in the group for their wonderful feedback on this story. Thanks guys!
***Another Day At The "Office"***
SOMEWHERE
He was... aware.
He was… floating?
He wasn't certain.
There was a familiar yet disconnected feel to it all.
Was he awake?
He wasn't certain of that fact.
Yet he was aware that he was alive.
In his semi-conscious world, he tried to move but found he was immobile – but moving.
Where was he?
He tried to remember . . .
He had been taken prisoner by Anubis ... yes, he remembered that. The Goa'uld had used a mind probe on him.
O'Neill? He'd been there too.
Heimdell! Yes, Heimdell had been working on the genetic study of the ancient Asgard when Anubis arrived. O'Neill had tried to rescue him, but had failed.
Major Carter and Teal'c? Yes, they had been there too.
Doctor Jackson? No, O'Neill said he had been gravely wounded and was on earth – some type of radiation sickness, some mention of his being alive but non-responsive? He remembered that O'Neill had a worried look on his face, and it wasn't all for him. No, O'Neill had been worried about Daniel Jackson.
Thor tried one more time to move…
Without success.
Finally, he fell into a deep sleep; his dreams a jumble of strange lights and sounds as the stars floated by.
TOK'RA CARGO SHIP
Pel'taks weren't built for comfort. The seats had to be piled with pillows for anyone to find a comfortable position. Anyone stuck in those seats for hours would have a weepy backside by the time they reached their destination. Sitting in the seat near the back of the hold, Jack tried moving left, then moving right, finally he just gave up and sat back on the uncomfortable chair.
You'd think that a culture as advanced as the Tok'ra would have figured out the many advantages of seat padding, right?
In the much more comfortable pilot's seat sat Jacob Carter who was acting completely oblivious to Jack's predicament. It was an act. Jack could tell Jacob was silently laughing to himself. At least, if it wasn't Jacob, then it was Selmak. Those two were far too much alike for his comfort and both took great pleasure in irritating him. Then again, maybe that was a good thing. Each was blended with someone they got along with. Now, if Jack could just do something about their slightly vindictive sense of humor …
Carter and Teal'c were standing behind Jacob, both watching the control panel and the view screen, intensely interested in what lay ahead of them. The mission was simple. Find, search and secure the pyramid ship that was floating all by its lonesome near Earth. After their last pyramid ship was lost to Apophis and the lego-like replicators, the SGC scientists and the high I.Q. boys at the Pentagon were itching to get hold of another one, and guess what floated right into their midst?
Here was their chance. The ha'tak supposedly abandoned out there in space was getting closer as Jacob slowed down the pel'tak on their final approach.
Daniel stood at another view port, gazing out into the darkness. He'd been a little quieter than usual when on missions, but it was his first mission in over three months. Although he was quiet, he didn't seem tired or in pain. He was walking and talking –-enough, O'Neill. Doc gave him a clean bill of health. He's over the radiation, he's not limping, he's not worrying so you quit doing it yourself. Right. As if. That incident on Kelowna was too damn close, even for Daniel's legendary luck.
The fact that Daniel's luck wasn't just legendary but well known to enemy and ally alike was proven fact when the team stepped through the Stargate to meet Jacob. The looks on the other Tok'ras' faces were of complete astonishment. Proverbially speaking, several jaws dropped, a few eyes bugged out, but no one could say Daniel didn't have nine lives. Jacob had been the first to run up to Daniel to greet him, even before he said hello to his own daughter.
"Daniel!" Jacob had grabbed Daniel's hand and gave him a half-hug, the whole time smiling. "You're looking good! Are you all right? Are you sure you're okay to go on a mission? Did George and Fraiser -"
"Jacob!" Jack chimed in quickly. "Relax. Take a breath. He's fine. You guys did a good job healing him."
Jacob smiled, nodded his head and patted Daniel on the shoulder, said, "Good to see you again, Daniel," and then moved to say hello to Sam as other friendly Tok'ra said their hellos to the man who cheated death once again.
Jack knew that Jacob thought of Daniel as a son. Jacob's silent, horrified reaction to Daniel's poisoning was evident in his eyes. He never stopped trying to heal him even after his own strength gave out. When Jacob tired, he switched the healing device to low power to continue the process. Carter asked Jacob to rest for few minutes, but Selmak told them that they wouldn't stop. They couldn't. Daniel was too important to the resistance movement. Selmak could have said that Daniel was too good a friend to do any less, but he didn't have to. That was apparent to anyone who cared to look. Both Jacob and Selmak were on the verge of collapse by the time other the other Tok'ra arrived to help.
It had been a close call.
Once again, Daniel had defied the odds and was standing there in the pel'tak with them, gazing out the window into space.
And it almost didn't happen.
Jack wanted an easy mission for Daniel's first time back after his recovery. This was believed to be an easy mission, one that would be over with in a couple of days. Jack had plans for the team once they finished and went home. Actually, he and Kasuf had made plans. The Abydonian Elder had made Jack promise that when Daniel went back on active duty, the team would come to Abydos for a celebration. What was it Kasuf had said? His people felt safer knowing that Dan'yer was with O'Neill's tribe, walking among the gods, fighting the demons. It would be a "welcome back" celebration, and since Anubis attacking Earth and then the pyramid ship floating by had stalled any celebrations they were planning themselves, the Abydonian party sounded like something they'd enjoy, but work came first.
Jack moved to stand beside Daniel. His friend was fine. He was healthy. He was just feeling a little out of sorts, but that wouldn't last long. Give him a couple of strange looking scribblings to decipher, and he'd be cruising on cloud nine, chattering away and talking to himself. Yeah, it would be just like old times. They'd get to listen to his fast-talking ramblings while he translated.
Still, Jack needed to hear the words for himself. "You okay?" he whispered to Daniel. He didn't want to attract the others' attention if he could help it. The last thing Daniel would want would be too much attention.
"Yes, Jack. I'm fine. I was just thinking. We've been traveling all over the galaxy for seven years, and we don't even think anything about it anymore. Do you remember how we felt when we first realized we were dealing with people who had space travel?"
Who could forget the first time they saw an alien ship land and guys with glowing eyes trying to blast people back to the Stone Age? Jack blew out a whiff of air, then answered, "Oh, yeah. It felt like we were ants throwing rocks at a skyscraper."
"Now look at us."
Gazing out the window, Jack knew exactly what Daniel meant. They weren't just working at a dream job, they were living it. It was a wild ride and no one was ready to get out of the front car yet. "Yep." He paused for a moment, and then asked, "Would you do it all over again?"
Daniel was silent for a moment before he said, "Most of it. I'd change a few things."
"Me too." Okay, Daniel was fine. Now it was time to annoy Jacob a little. Time to get even for all the "amusement" the host and symbiote were getting at Jack's expense.
"So, Jacob, are we there yet?"
"Almost, Jack," Jacob called from his still annoyingly comfortable pilot's seat. "You knew it would take a while to get back to Earth's solar system. But it looks like our analysis was right. The ha'tak's dead in space, and it's completely intact."
Sam was quickly taking note of the control panel indicators. "We're close enough to perform some preliminary scans, sir," she told him.
"And?"
"We're not getting anything," she said as she studied more of the readouts.
We're not? "Nothing? I'm going to take a guess and say that's a bit unusual?" Jack prodded.
"That's a bit of an understatement, sir," she told him. "It's settled in a stable planetary orbit, there are no life signs, the life support is in good condition, the shields and weapons are down, and there's no evidence of electromagnetic fields."
Okay, it was dead in the water, so why did everyone look a little… ambivalent? "And?" he repeated.
"Dad, have you ever known a goa'uld to do anything like this before?"
Jacob shook his head. "No, this is a first."
"Teal'c?" Sam asked for his opinion.
"I have never seen any goa'uld leave an intact ship abandoned unless it was no longer operational."
"And this one's operating just fine," Jacob added. "Or at least that's what the readouts say."
"No, no, no, no, no," Jack waved his arms and walked around the cabin. "Don't tell me that a ship just sitting out there for us to get our grubby little mitts on isn't a good thing. I don't want to hear that."
"It may not be, sir," Sam said as she studied the scans in depth. "There could be something very wrong here."
"I just hope we haven't come a long way for nothing," Jacob told them.
A noise from behind him caught Jack's attention. Doctor Friesen and Major Davis walked into the cockpit area. While Friesen was there to help Carter check on the condition of the pyramid ship, their Pentagon liaison had been "asked" by the big boys in Washington to tag along on the mission to observe and report on salvage operations and do an economic feasibility study on salvaging junked spacecraft for military research. Officially, that is. Unofficially, he'd asked to go through the gate at least once, just to see what it was like. Hammond couldn't say no all the time, could he? Finally, this particular salvage operation showed up and there was a valid reason for him to go. The major was grinning from ear to ear, and it didn't look like he had any intention of not grinning for some time to come. "Davis, you look like a cat that snatched a canary. Wanna share?"
"It's my first time through the gate and in space, Colonel," Davis told him, still unable to control his grin. "I had no idea it was this... amazing!"
"Indeed it is," Teal'c told him, apparently amused with the major's enthusiasm.
"Yeah, barrel of monkeys until something goes horribly wrong. And it will. It has to. Never fails," Jack reminded everyone.
Davis seemed to try to get control of himself. "So what's our status?" Yes, time to get down to business or at least appear to be serious in front of an Air Force general even if he couldn't stop grinning.
Sam glanced up from the control panel. "The ship is only a few hundred kilometers ahead of us."
Jack nudged Davis with his elbow. "You can say ship ahoy if you want to."
"Oh my… sir!" Sam almost yelled as her eyes seemed to light up at the results she was seeing. "This is incredible! If these scans are correct, that may be Anubis' ship, the one he used when he kidnapped Thor. There may be information in the ship's computers that could inform us of Anubis' plans."
"Look at this," Jacob pointed out. "No life signs verified, all the escape pods have been jettisoned, power and life support are functioning normally… there's just nobody on board."
Davis didn't seem to understand the problem although he saw the concerned faces around him. "This is bad?" he asked.
"Very bad," Daniel said. "Think about it. Why would any Goa'uld abandon a perfectly good ship?"
It took a brief moment for Davis to realize the truth. "They wouldn't."
Ah, space, the final frontier. When Jack looked out the window and saw Earth, the final frontier didn't look so final anymore. Still, he never tired of that sight in the window. Who would have thought that Mama O'Neill's little boy would be riding in a cargo ship to a killer mother ship that could blow up every city on the planet?
As Jack gathered his gear, Jacob said, "Jack, rather than fly into a cargo bay, I think we should use the transport rings to get us there until we have a better idea of what's going on. The sensors say there's nothing there, but –"
"Yeah, knowing our luck, that's gonna be one big goose egg." He motioned toward Davis and Friesen. "Boys, you're about to experience another new alien bit of fun called transport rings. Loads of laughs." Then, to Teal'c, "Radio Hammond. Let him know what we're up to and we hope to have something for him in a couple of hours. Daniel –" Yikes, what to do about Daniel? Could he take the chance and risk his friend's life so soon after getting him back to full speed? He didn't think he could take Daniel getting hurt or worse, not this soon. Maybe he wouldn't object to letting Jack taking point on this mission?
"Yes, Jack?"
Daniel had THAT look on his face, the one that always told Jack that Daniel was reading his mind and didn't like what was printed on the page. "Ride shotgun with Teal'c this time? Let us get the lay of the land before you two bring the pel'tak in."
Jack knew that was a sorry reason, but he and Daniel looked at each other in the eyes and understood where the other was coming from – even if the younger man didn't agree. "Okay," Daniel said. "This time. Only."
Yeah. Daniel was fine.
"Good. Let's get packed up and over there."
As the crew readied their weapons, Jacob saw Daniel sit in the co-pilot's seat and he sat back down in the pilot's chair. He smiled when he saw Daniel shake his head. "He's still worried about you, isn't he?" Jacob whispered.
"Janet cleared me for duty," Daniel said glumly. "I'm fine. I think he got into some bad habits over the last few months."
"You can't blame him, Danny. It was hard on him. On all of them."
Daniel looked up at Jacob, eyebrows raised in question.
"I know, it was harder on you physically, but it was difficult for them, too. Me, I had the easy job. All I had to do was cure you of the radiation and then go back to my job out here. The three of them had to watch you struggle to get yourself back together all that time, and they couldn't do anything to help. For that first month, they honestly didn't know if you'd make it. That's why they hardly left your side. Jack O'Neill isn't the type of person who can sit by and do nothing when a friend is hurting." He gave Daniel a playful punch in the arm. "Don't worry. He'll be all right once he sees you in action a couple of times. I think you're gonna have to let this mission slide."
Daniel nodded his head, a small grin turning up his lips. "Can I get that in writing?" he asked.