Chapter 2
Unexpected Discoveries
This time, Kakashi's trip through the tunnel of light was much less harrowing than his first time, but he still stumbled a bit as he was pushed through the other end. He caught his balance as quickly as he had lost it though, and he doubted if any of those around him even noticed it. Of course that could have been because of the bright sunlight shining down on them. But before Kakashi could begin to think of a way to use the blinding light to his advantage, the tight grip of the soldiers on his arms made it clear that he was no better off than he'd been on the other side of the tunnel. It wasn't long before he was being forced to follow a well-traveled path away from another stone ring.
His fellow prisoner was just ahead of him, with two more of the strangely dressed guards on either side of him. He suspected the freak with the glowing eyes was somewhere behind them, but honestly he didn't really care about that at the moment. Currently, his mind and his sense of smell were trying to comprehend the fact that they had somehow ended up in another place that he had no references to in his vast array of scents and memories. In fact, based on the strange aromas assaulting his nose, Kakashi was starting to wonder if they were even on the same world anymore.
The sound of a staff weapon discharging just in front of him drew Kakashi's attention to where that blast had been aimed. In an area just to the side of the path lay the smoking carcass of something that may have, at one time, resembled one of the Inuzuka's war-hounds...that is, if it wasn't for the fact this creature had eight legs and three heads. Kakashi had already ruled out a genjutsu by opening his sharingan eye just enough to verify there were no illusions involved. Unfortunately, that short expenditure of his barely recovered chakra was enough to make him unsteady on his feet, and therefore he was easily herded with the other prisoner into a large stone complex.
More of the armored guards lined the walls, each standing at attention and clutching more of the staff weapons. In addition, a few scantily clad men and women pressed themselves against the stone walls as the arriving party walked by. Kakashi had seen the look of abject terror in those unarmored men and woman before. Without fail, it was the face of people who had been forced into servitude. Kakashi narrowed his eyes and added that fact to the lengthening list of reasons he really despised his current captors.
After several minutes of walking, he and the other prisoner were shoved through an open doorway. While the man next to him stumbled forward under the weight of his wrist chains, Kakashi slid to a stop and spun on his heel just in time to see a large slab of what he assumed to be stone slide into place over the opening. The small room remained brightly lit by a series of recessed fixtures that ran along where the ceiling and walls met. After pulling his mask back up to cover his nose, Kakashi stepped closer to the sealed entrance and ran the fingertips of his right hand across where the slab met the wall. The surface was stylized to look like stone, but upon closer inspection it was clear to him that it was actually some form of metal. That might just work to his advantage down the road.
"It's locked from the outside, and I'm afraid it looks like they've finally learned not to place any access panels on the inside of their cells."
Kakashi turned toward where the man was sitting with his back up against the far wall and one knee pulled toward his chest. He had his glasses in his hand and was trying to clean one of the lenses with the bottom of his shirt – a task made a bit challenging thanks to the thick metal cuffs around the man's wrists. Kakashi considered what the other had said and let loose a sigh before moving to join the man on the floor.
"It seems to be the way my day is going."
The man chuckled and put his glasses back on before facing Kakashi. "Mine too." He stretched his right hand out toward Kakashi as far as the chain would allow, but then he seemed to think better of that gesture, and instead gave him an awkward half-bow. "I'm Daniel...Daniel Jackson. Sorry to meet under such...umm...unique circumstances."
Kakashi couldn't sense anything threatening about the man sitting in front of him. Hell, he couldn't even sense more than a tiny bit of chakra from him. Of course, Kakashi wasn't exactly in the best shape to sense such things at the moment, but still, it seemed that this man was the only one who might be able to explain just what the hell was going on, as he seemed to know the language of their captor as well as his own tongue. And something told him he'd need all the help he could get to survive this one. His decision made, Kakashi tucked his chin toward his chest in a slight bow.
"I am Kakashi Hatake. And I doubt you had much to do with how we met."
The man...Daniel...showed no recognition of Kakashi's name which reinforced the thought that he was nowhere near the Five Great Countries. Daniel rubbed his palm on the fabric of his pants. "No, I suppose I didn't."
Kakashi tried to settle back against the wall a bit more and jarred his dislocated shoulder causing a hiss to escape his lips. He'd need to do something about this before too much longer in order to avoid any permanent damage to the joint.
"Does it hurt?" Before Kakashi could give the sarcastic answer that lay on his tongue, the man continued speaking after shaking his head. "Right...obviously it hurt or you wouldn't have hissed. Sorry about that. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Kakashi thought about that for a moment. Short of running headlong into the wall to knock the joint back into place on his own, Kakashi figured a second set of hands could be just what he needed. Still, he wasn't entirely sure he was ready to trust this stranger. But then again, he had no idea when the enemy would be returning, and he'd prefer to meet them with two working arms.
"Have you ever fixed a dislocated joint before, Daniel?"
Kakashi watched as the man's expression became quite serious. "I have...a time or two. But nothing as large as a shoulder."
Kakashi nodded once. "Anything larger than a finger?"
Daniel's cheeks seemed to color from embarrassment. "Does a toe count?"
"Ah, no. But thank you for answering truthfully. All I will need you to do is hold my arm straight out from my body. I'll do the rest."
Daniel frowned at him. "I always thought the pain in resetting such a dislocation would knock a man out."
Kakashi chuckled. "I'm not like most men, Daniel. And I've had to do this before so I already know what to expect."
Daniel's face easily showed his skepticism at Kakashi's words, but he nodded all the same. "Okay. If you say so."
Kakashi rose to his feet with Daniel following shortly after. Once he'd widened his stance to allow him the proper angle to start at, he used his uninjured hand to lift the other until Daniel gingerly took a hold of it. Kakashi then placed that free hand against Daniel's shoulder and met the man's eyes.
"Whatever you hear, do not release your grip on my arm. You will want to pull against it to lessen my pain, but you must resist that urge. Am I clear?"
Daniel's eyes went wide at Kakashi's words, but the man nodded in understanding. Kakashi closed his eye and took a deep breath, all the while picturing his misaligned joint within his mind. Although he hadn't lied to Daniel about having a dislocated shoulder before, he'd left out the fact he'd been thirteen...or that it took four ANBU guards to hold him down while the medic had repositioned the bone to where it belonged. Instead, Kakashi concentrated on how his bone seemed misaligned and then, with a warning squeeze to Daniel's shoulder, he started to manipulate the joint by twisting his body in a way that it could use the man in front of him as a levering point.
Kakashi bit back more than one cry of pain as the tender joint tried to keep him from abusing it any longer, but with a bit of tenacity, Kakashi managed to pop it back into place. Of course, that joint was making it quite clear how displeased it was with being treated in such a way, and Kakashi quickly removed his hand from Daniel's shoulder to cradle the inflamed appendage in such a way that it took some of the pressure off of it. Then he made his way back to the wall and slid his back down it until he was seated once more.
"Well, that didn't look the least bit comfortable, Kakashi."
Kakashi looked up at Daniel and found the man standing there with his hands held awkwardly in the cuffs. "It wasn't comfortable, Daniel. But it was necessary."
The two simply stared at each other for a bit before Daniel let out a large sigh and joined Kakashi on the floor. The man leaned his head against the wall and his eyes slid closed. Kakashi soon did the same, and the two stayed that way for quite some time. The only thing keeping Kakashi from enjoying the peace and quiet was the constant throb of pain in his abused shoulder.
After a few more quiet moments, Kakashi figured it was time to get some answers before the enemy returned. He opened his right eye and noticed Daniel was staring at him. Obviously the man had more than a few questions for him as well. Kakashi figured he'd learn more if he allowed Daniel to think he had the lead in the questioning, so he let the man speak first.
"Forgive me for asking, Kakashi, but you weren't from the planet we were on before this one, were you?"
Kakashi fought back the urge to smile at the knowledge his thoughts about being on a different world were being confirmed. Instead he shrugged his uninjured shoulder. "What gave it away?"
Daniel let loose a small laugh. "Let's see...you definitely don't understand the native tongue of that world, and your attire certainly didn't blend in."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow at that. "Really? What was it about my outfit that gave me away, hmm?"
Again Daniel laughed. "I think it may have been the fact that it wasn't a loincloth."
Kakashi grinned. "Ah, I see. I will try not to overdress the next time I'm thrown onto an unknown world."
"So you didn't arrive through the Stargate?"
Kakashi ran a hand through his hair. "I assume that would be the stone ring? If so, I believe it is how I arrived...but I never knowingly stepped into it."
Daniel went to move his hand up to his own hair, but the fact his wrists were still chained together made him abort the motion with a slight huff. "I don't know of any other way to exit through a Stargate except to step into one in the first place."
"I did tell you I wasn't like most men." Kakashi bent his leg until he had an easy reach to the sole of his sandal. "Would you like me to free your hands, Daniel?" The look of doubt on the other man's face brought a sly grin to Kakashi's lips. "Well, the cuffs certainly don't look the least bit comfortable...but if you'd prefer to keep them on..."
Daniel lifted his wrists so quickly they he nearly whacked himself in the chin with the chain dangling between them. "Please...get them off!"
Kakashi chuckled as he worked loose the metal senbon he kept stashed in the heel of the sole. Once the four-inch long needle was revealed, he moved closer toward Daniel and set to work on the latch of the cuffs. Surprisingly, that latch wasn't trapped, and in less than a minute he'd managed to free the man of his cuffs.
"You, Kakashi Hatake, are full of surprises."
"So I've been told before. Now please, Daniel Jackson, explain to me why they would put us in the same cell."
Daniel rubbed at his freed wrists. "You really have no idea where you are, do you?"
Kakashi sighed. "As you've pointed out, Daniel, I'm not from around these parts."
"Right. Okay, the first thing you need to know is that the Goa'uld don't consider any of us as a threat to them."
"Goa'uld?"
"The creep with the glowing eyes. They tend to have god-complexes, and consider the majority of the sentient life in the universe as their own personal belongings."
"Great. So because of this superiority complex of theirs they see no danger in placing us together?"
"Exactly! Of course, they aren't complete idiots. Even they do learn from their mistakes...eventually."
Kakashi glanced down at the chains near Daniel's feet. "And just what lesson did you and your people teach these Goa'uld that would result in you being placed in chains while I am left free?"
Daniel scratched at the back of his ear. "It may have had something to do with the fact that we have sort of killed off a few of them over the years."
Kakashi smirked. "I can see how that might have colored their opinion of you."
"But what about you, Kakashi? How is it that you know how to fix a dislocated shoulder and pick locks faster than anyone I've ever known?"
Kakashi lifted his eyebrows at that. "Do you know many people who pick locks Daniel Jackson?"
Kakashi noted the slight frown on Daniel's lips. "In fact I do. Sam Carter can trip a lock quicker than I ever thought possible...until I met you, that is. Jack O'Neill tends to take a bit longer, and Teal'c...well, Teal'c just uses brute strength."
"Were these the people with you today?"
Daniel ran a hand through his hair. "No. Thankfully they're still back home."
"Will they search for you?"
"Yeah...probably. What about you, Kakashi? Surely someone will come looking for you, right?"
Kakashi thought about that for a moment before answering. "I doubt it highly."
He watched a look of confusion grace Daniel's face. "Won't anyone notice you're gone?"
Kakashi rubbed at the back of his neck. "My companions will not think I survived my departure."
Before any more questions could come from the man, the doorway slid open and three of the armored soldiers stood at the entrance. Two of them activated their staff weapons and pointed them into the room while the third stepped forward and glared at Kakashi.
"You are to come with us."
Kakashi furrowed his brow at the unknown language and glanced over to where Daniel had wisely hidden both the chains on the floor and the fact that his wrists were free. "Am I to assume that was some sort of command to move, Daniel?"
Daniel sighed at him. "I'm afraid so."
The guard took another step into the room. "Kree!"
Kakashi ran all the angles through his mind, trying to think of some way to use this situation to his advantage. Unfortunately he was still too injured and exhausted to do much of anything. He had no choice but to go along with the guards until he could get a better idea of what his options were. And if nothing else, he'd get a better view of just where they were being held, which would definitely help when it was time to escape.
He started to work his way up the wall, cradling his arm as best he could, and trying not to jar his still injured ribs, but evidently he was not quick enough for the guard. The one without a staff weapon was at his side and jerking him to his feet quickly enough that Kakashi's ribs and shoulder caused a gasp to leave his lips. He was pulled over to where the others were waiting, and then pushed out into the hallway. Not another word was spoken to him from the time the door slammed shut behind him, to when he was forced into yet another brightly lit room.
This time, there was no attempt to communicate with him as he was led to where a large golden structure sat on the floor. A handful of the barely clothed servants stood on each side of the item, and it had carvings covering the top and sides. As they moved closer to it, the top split in two with a mechanical hiss, and opened to reveal a man-sized recess. Kakashi wasn't liking the implications of what this meant.
The servants moved forward to surround him, and when he tried to dodge their groping hands he was blocked by the guards and their weapons. The servants' hands quickly stripped Kakashi of his uniform shirt and yanked his mask back down to his neck. His heart raced as he was manhandled into the device and pushed roughly against the bottom by the guards. The cover started to slide into place over him with a loud grating sound, and just as Kakashi started to gather up what little chakra he had left to try and stop the process, a cloud of fine mist covered his exposed face and he almost instantly felt himself drifting toward unconsciousness.
General George Hammond looked down at the Stargate from the control room hoping that SG-4 would dial in with some lame excuse for why they were more than one hundred and forty minutes overdue for their check-in. But he knew from experience that, if a team was this late for a scheduled contact, it usually meant trouble. Add to that the fact that Dr. Daniel Jackson was on the mission – a man who held far too much knowledge of the SGC in general, and he really couldn't afford the luxury of waiting any longer to send a recovery team in. He turned toward where several of the enlisted personnel were watching him. Among them was the Gate Technician who'd seemingly become the mascot of the SG teams over the years, and it wasn't hard to see the concern in Walter's eyes. George nodded once to the tech and sighed.
"Dial up the gate, son."
"Yes sir." Walter swiveled in his chair and immediately brought up the dialing program.
The sound of warning alarms and the inner circle of the Stargate spinning nearly drowned out Walter's normal routine. "Chevron one encoded!"
George blocked the rest of the list of chevrons being selected and chose to concentrate instead on the group of tense individuals entering into the Embarkation Room at that very moment. Technically, each and every one of them should have been off-base today, enjoying a well deserved vacation, but when he'd personally reached out to them and explained the situation, they had all demanded to be on the recovery mission. Not that he could blame them. After all, Major Carter, Colonel O'Neill, and Teal'c were all members of SG-1 with the missing Dr. Jackson, and George knew that each of them likely held themselves responsible for their missing teammate. Even though everyone was well aware that nothing could have stopped Daniel from joining SG-4 on this mission once his mind was set on it, this trio still would blame themselves.
Meanwhile, SG-18 was assigned to going along as tactical and medical support. After all, there were two main reasons a team didn't check in: they were injured and unable to get to the gate, or they have run into hostile forces and been detained. Both situations would require the specialized skills of SG-18.
"Chevron seven locked!"
Walter's words were followed by the familiar sound of the wormhole taking hold within the center of the Gate, and George leaned forward to speak into the mike that connected with the Embarkation Room.
"SG-1...SG-18...your mission is to go through the Stargate and bring SG-4 and Dr. Jackson home. You have twelve hours to investigate before you are expected to contact the SGC with your findings. Is that clear?"
Colonel O'Neill turned until he was facing him and gave a curt nod. George watched as the man turned back to the remainder of his team and SG-18 and motioned toward the gate with his P-90. A moment later and all but Jack had stepped through the event horizon. The man turned back to look expectantly toward the observation room, and George leaned toward the mike one last time.
"God-speed, Colonel."
One more nod of Jack's head and then the man was gone. Ten seconds later and the Stargate was deactivated, leaving him anxious for the next twelve hours to pass by so that he'd know just what they were dealing with. He placed one hand on Walter's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"Keep me posted, Walter."
"Yes sir."
George made the silent walk from the Gate Room to his office wishing more than anything that he could have gone along with the teams. Maybe then he wouldn't feel quite so helpless.
Tsunade blocked out the sounds all around her as she read over the last lines of the report in her hands. Then, when they still didn't say what she wanted them to say, she reread them again. After the tenth time with the same results, she realized that the characters on the page would never change, and a soft sob escaped her throat as a rogue tear slid by her eyelashes and landed on the offensive characters.
Third Battalion General – Kakashi Hatake – Killed In Action
She clenched the paper in her hands and closed her eyes. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't have lost another Hatake. Not now. Not when Konoha needed him the most. Not when there was so much left unsaid.
"Lady Tsunade?"
Her aide, Shizune, placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, reminding her that she wasn't alone in the tent. Tsunade used the back of one hand to wipe away the tears that she simply didn't have the luxury of shedding right now, before lifting her gaze away from the traitorous report and looking into the faces of her shinobi once more. She could see the loss and pain in every one of their eyes – some more than others – and it made it clear that she would not be alone in her grief when the proper time came. But that time was not now. No. As the Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, she and the other Kage still had work to do before they could officially declare the Fourth Shinobi War a success.
And once that work was finished, Tsunade would make sure that everyone - civillian and shinobi alike - knew of the sacrifice Kakashi Hatake had made to ensure a lasting peace for the Five Great Nations.
When the minutes since Kakashi had been taken from the cell stretched into hours, Daniel wasn't sure just what it might mean. After all, he knew personally just how many different possibilities could arise when taken from a Goa'uld cell under guard. He just hoped that his new friend's experience wasn't one that ended with his death...or worse than that, his use as a host.
Daniel's mind continued to feed him various different scenarios for Kakashi's whereabouts throughout the time spent alone in the cell. So many, in fact, that by the time the door to the room slid open he was fully expecting some mutated Jaffa/Goa'uld mix to stumble through the opening. But it wasn't anything of the sort. Instead, the unconscious body of the silver-haired man was carried into the cell and placed gently on the ground. The servants who'd brought him left without so much as a glance Daniel's way. The door slid shut once more, and the only sound in the room was the steady breathing of the man across the room.
Daniel sat immobile for a handful of minutes, unsure of what to do. But soon his curiosity got the better of him, especially when he noticed Kakashi's outer shirt was missing and the sleeveless shell that remained allowed him to see a swirled tattoo of dark red ink covering a good portion of the man's upper left arm. He also noticed the mask pooled around Kakashi's neck once more, and Daniel frowned at that. If there was one thing he'd already learned about the man, it was that he preferred to have that mask covering his face.
Daniel pushed himself up and crossed over to where Kakashi was still lying on the hard floor. He knelt next to the man and carefully tipped the silver-haired head to the side and pushed the hair off the back of Kakashi's neck. A sigh of relief left Daniel's lips when all he saw was smooth, unmarred skin. Whatever else had happened during Kakashi's time away from the cell, the introduction of a Goa'uld host had not been a part of it.
Daniel gently turned Kakashi's head back to a more natural position and then he pulled the mask into place before sitting back and scratching at his ear. He was about to go back to where he'd been sitting before, when Kakashi's right eye snapped open and the man's right hand circled Daniel's wrist with crushing force.
"Shit! Kakashi, it's me..." Daniel shook his head at his stupidity and tried again, this time in Kakashi's language. "Please, Kakashi. It's just me...Daniel Jackson."
Slowly a look of recognition filled Kakashi's dark gray eye, and eventually his iron grip lessened on Daniel's wrist. "Daniel? Then I am back in the cell."
Daniel sighed and smiled down at the silver-haired man. "Yes, Kakashi. Are you okay? Where did they take you?"
Kakashi released Daniel's wrist and slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. "I am fine. In fact, I am pain-free for the first time in awhile."
Daniel narrowed his gaze at the man. "I don't suppose they took you to a large golden box with carvings all over it, did they?"
Kakashi blinked back at him, the faint trace of a frown barely visible beneath the mask covering his lips. "They did. I was drugged into unconsciousness just before the lid covered the device with me inside."
Daniel frowned. "You were placed in a Sarcophagus. It's a device the Goa'uld use to provide healing and lengthen the life of their human hosts."
"This sounds like a good thing, Daniel. But by the look in your eyes there is more to the story."
It was almost unsettling how easily he was read by this stranger, but Daniel couldn't deny the man's words. "Continued use of the device can lead to addiction...or worse."
"Worse?"
"Yeah, worse. I'm pretty sure that the continual use of these things are partially to blame for the insanity that seems to be present in the vast majority of the Goa'uld."
He watched Kakashi roll his shoulders and twist his body. "I see. Considering how well I seem to have been mended, I can understand the allure. Still, I don't think I would want to rely on such a thing when there are other methods for healing available."
Daniel couldn't help but agree with that one. "Good point, Kakashi. I just wish I'd managed to think ahead and stick an extra med pack in my pockets this time around."
Kakashi turned his attention toward him. "Are you injured?"
Daniel chuckled and rubbed at the chaffed area on his wrists from where the metal cuffs had dug into his skin while he'd worn them. "It's nothing to worry about Kakashi. It'll heal on it's own, in time."
"Will you allow me to try something, Daniel?"
Something in how he'd said that made him extremely curious to see what Kakashi what talking about. "I guess so."
Kakashi shifted so he was facing Daniel and then reached out and grabbed both of his hands and guided them to rest on Kakashi's knees. "If this works, Daniel, you will feel a slight sensation of heat until I am finished."
Daniel bit his lower lip but nodded his understanding. Kakashi seemed to take it as his signal to begin, because the next thing Daniel knew, the long fingers of Kakashi's hands went through a number of strange positions before the man settled his palms over each of Daniel's injured wrists. A faint green glow was emitted from Kakashi's hands, and as the man had warned, a slight warmth spread out across the wounded skin. It never became more than a bit uncomfortable, and when the glow faded away and Kakashi pulled his hands back, Daniel was surprised to see no sign remaining from the injury at all.
"How did you do that?"
Kakashi ran a hand across the back of his neck before answering. "It is something I learned long ago. I used a basic jutsu to channel my chakra into your body and assist your own chakra to mend you on a cellular level."
Daniel ran the fingers of his left hand over the unblemished skin of his right wrist. "Okay, I think I know what chakra is. That's part of the Eastern philosophy that the spiritual energy of a person circulates through them and concentrates in certain parts of the body, right? But I've never heard of a jutsu before."
Kakashi seemed to be surprised at his words. "I must admit, Daniel, that I have never met someone who knows of and has chakra, but who does not know about the means of forming it into jutsu. Do they not train your children in such things?"
"Our children? No. Hell, adults barely ever look beyond the basics of chakra. I only know about it because I spent a semester in college studying metaphysical texts."
"I see. So your shinobi do not rely on jutsu in their battles?"
Daniel shook his head. "Shinobi? I don't think we have any of those where I'm from, Kakashi. Is that what you are? A shinobi?"
He watched a yawn escape Kakashi's mouth when he started to respond. "Forgive me Daniel. It seems your healing took a bit more out of me than I expected. Would you mind if we continued our chat later?"
"I'm sorry. I should have recognized that you weren't completely recovered yet. Please, get some rest. It isn't like there'll be anything more interesting to talk about later. And thank you for healing me in the first place."
Kakashi curled his eye up into a crescent, and Daniel thought he saw the faint outline of a smile behind the mask. "We are in similar circumstances, so it would be senseless to hold back aid if it might help us both in the future. We will talk more later."
With that, Kakashi lowered himself back onto the floor and seemingly fell asleep a moment later. Daniel sat there a bit longer staring between his healed wrists and the mysterious shinobi before he gave in to his own exhaustion and sank down to the floor beside the masked man. Like Kakashi had said, they would definitely talk later.
There'd been no sign of Daniel once they reached planet P3X-4...no 5...whatever the heck the designation was, and with only six more hours before they had to report in, things were definitely not looking good. They'd discovered the bodies of three out of four members of the SG team, and the only reason Jack hadn't lost it totally was because Danny's body wasn't one of them.
Or, as Teal'c had put it – Daniel Jackson is not among the corpses, O'Neill. Leave it to Teal'c to put it so delicately. Still, it had been enough to give them all hope that maybe, just maybe, the kid was still alive ...somewhere. Now it was just a matter of seeing if Danny left them any crumbs to follow.
Jack cradled his P-90 in his arms, feeling somewhat comforted by the familiar weight of the weapon, and watched as Sam worked her magic on the DHD. Or he wanted to watch...if it wasn't so damned boring.
"You done yet Carter?"
He watched her push her blond hair behind one ear as she answered him. "No sir. I still have to find a way to piggy-back the laptop operating system into the main control crystal. If I don't get the synchronization just right, I run the risk of erasing the locations from its memory crystals and disabling the DHD permanently."
Jack frowned. "And that would be bad, right?"
Sam placed her hands on her legs with a sigh. "Yes, Colonel. That would be very bad. It would not only make it impossible to tell what address Daniel was taken to, but it would strand us here indefinitely."
"Oh. But you can do it, right?"
Sam rolled her eyes at him. "Yes sir. If you leave me alone long enough."
Jack shifted his P-90 and shrugged. "Why didn't you just say so?"
He moved over to where Teal'c was squatting in front of the gate and watched as the Jaffa ghosted his fingers over the ground. "You find something, T?"
Teal'c tipped his bald head up to look back at him. "So it would seem, O'Neill."
Jack lowered himself until he was squatting next to him. He saw a clear footprint in the dirt and scratched at his ear. "You found a footprint. Well good going Teal'c. Now we can all go home."
Teal'c raised one eyebrow in that way that meant Jack's attempt at a joke had fallen flat once again. "I do not think that learning that Daniel Jackson was not the only one taken is reason for us to return to the SGC, O'Neill. Am I mistaken?"
Jack rested his P-90 across his knees. "It was a joke Teal'c. Wait a second. Did you say Danny wasn't the only one taken?"
"Yes, O'Neill."
"But we've accounted for the rest of SG-4."
"Of this I am aware, O'Neill."
"Then who the heck else would have been taken?"
Teal'c traced his fingers over the footprint once more. "I am not certain of that. But this print is not Goa'uld or Jaffa in nature. Nor is it Daniel Jackson's."
Jack stood up and turned toward where Carter was still working on the DHD. "And how do you know the print isn't from whoever took Danny?"
Teal'c stood and pointed to a series of prints leading toward the Gate. "Because the ones over here are Daniel Jackson's, and the two seem to have been brought to the Chappa'ai at the same time, O'Neill, by Jaffa."
Jack looked where Teal'c was pointing and frowned. "Great. That's just great."
Teal'c cocked his head to the side. "Are you not glad to know that Daniel Jackson might still live, O'Neill?"
Jack slung his P-90 over his shoulder and placed one hand on Teal'c's shoulder. "It's not that, T. This just means that Daniel is probably gonna want us to save whatever poor sap was captured with him."
Before the Jaffa could respond, Sam let loose a victory cheer near the DHD. "Colonel! I've got the address!"
Jack walked over to where Sam was grinning like a fool. "That's great Carter. Now, can you put the thing back together so we can let General Hammond know? We only got five hours before we have to report in."
The smile disappeared and she quickly started removing the wires she'd hooked into the DHD's crystals. "Yes sir. Just give me a minute to get it back together."
Jack swung his P-90 back in front of him and crossed his arms over it. "Take your time Carter. I'd rather you were sure the thing works before we walk through it again."
A slight blush crossed Sam's cheeks and Jack chuckled a little before turning around to face the Gate once more. He sighed and whispered what was on his mind, hoping that somehow his friend might hear him. "Hang on, Danny. We're on our way."
