Chapter 7: The Plunge and What Followed
Set during Season 6, "Descent"
Space. The Final…
Dany shook her head to clear it, leaned over Major Carter's head to blink out the window. "Window" was a bit of a misrepresentation, as what was in front of her was a complex combination of shielding and a glass-like substance, mostly the former. Beyond that…
She wasn't really listening to the conversation between Carter and Selmak, though Major Davis probably expected her to.
"Are we there yet?"
She turned to see her uncle stretching. "Sorry," he said, leaning over a control consul.
"Not yet, Sir. Just close enough to do some scans."
"Scan anything yet?"
"Nothing, Sir."
"Nothing."
Carter went on, and Dany went back to staring out the window. The ship was just there. Floating. Or whatever objects in space did.
Space…
"What are you smilin' at?"
Beside her, Jonas fumbled into an explanation. "Oh, it's just that it's my first time in space."
"Oh."
"We'd only begun to consider the possibility of space travel. To actually be out here is…It's amazing."
"Indeed," said Teal'c.
"Until something goes…horribly wrong," amended Uncle Jack.
"It's my first time too," Dany put in.
"Really?" Her uncle smiled at her.
"What's our status?"
Dany straightened, aware that her position over her superior's head was probably not a professional one. Waiting for a cue from her boss, she wondered when she had become so compliant.
Minutes later, she was passing her CO his gear. Glancing back at the bridge, she saw Jonas staring woefully after them and shot him a half smile. Whatever Jonas's skills, he was still green, and she had to agree with her uncle's decision to leave him behind.
Then again, in space, she was pretty green herself.
"Ready?" Davis was asking.
"Yes, sir."
SG-1
They ringed down into an empty corridor and proceeded to the peltac. An odd, sort of repetitious static followed them. And then there was the frozen self-destruct…
"Carter, you and Davis see if you can disable that self-destruct altogether."
"Yes, Sir."
"Sir." Davis stopped by Dany on his way out. "Stay here with Jacob."
"Yes, sir." When he was gone, she looked at her uncle. "I'm confused. Who's the boss of me?"
"He is," Uncle Jack said, assuming Anubis's throne. "Unless we disagree. In which case I am…all-ordering."
Dany snorted.
SG-1
"It's speech," Dany told Jacob when they were alone.
He looked at her.
"The noise. It's someone speaking. Probably through the intercom. But it's garbled, like it's on a bad frequency."
"Can you make it out?"
She raised her eyebrows.
"I'm just asking."
"It's repetitive. There's a pattern. It may even be the countdown, but I don't know enough about motherships to be sure."
"Over there." Jacob indicated a series of panels before responding to Carter's request to open a door.
She did known a little bit about Goa'uld communication systems, the same way she knew a little bit about radios, and at Major Davis's insistence. But she knew a lot about languages, and the more often the sound repeated itself, the more certain she was that it wasn't Goa'uld.
"Lieutenant O'Neill, come in."
Dany fumbled for her radio. "Sir?"
"I think that sound is coming from the ship's intercom."
"Already on it, sir."
"Keep me apprised."
Jacob glanced over at her as Davis's voice faded. "How's the new job?"
"Oh, you know, stranded motherships, self-entitled politicians…" Dany crossed two crystals and shocked herself. "Ow!"
The radios clicked again, this time more softly. "Carter, I want you and Davis back on the peltac with Dany and Jacob."
"What's going on, Sir?"
"Friesen's dead."
Jacob looked at Dany. "Go meet them in the hall."
Dany nodded, unsure whether or not to add "sir" and where Jacob fell in her uncle's theoretical chain of command. She was several corridors down before she heard her uncle's failed attempts to reach Jacob on the radio and, abandoning everyone else's opinions on the matter, raced back.
She found Jacob on the floor of the peltac. Her uncle and the others weren't far behind her.
"Sir, we're got another problem."
Looking out the window, Dany saw that Earth was getting closer and quickly. She didn't need to pay attention to Jacob's lamentations about the state of the controls to know what came next.
"We're gonna crash."
"…The ship should survive in one piece," Jacob was saying.
"What about us?" Dany demanded.
"Looks like we're goin' in," said Uncle Jack.
SG-1
"Well, that was fun." O'Neill rolled out from a section of wall at the back end of the room. "Everybody okay?"
A variety of yes's floated back to him from disparate corners of the room, plus a grunt that had to be Dany. As O'Neill got to his feet, he saw Davis pull her out from under the control consul. "Thoughts? Plans? Ideas?"
"Well, Sir…" And Carter was off on a long-winded explanation about life support and the engines. He waved her silent halfway through.
"Take Davis and see what you can do. If nothing else, Hammond'll rescue us…Dany?"
"Back on that sound?"
"Right."
SG-1
In the end, they had fifty percent life support, no engines, and imploding walls. On Colonel O'Neill's orders, Carter and the Lieutenant had left to assess both the damage and the virus. Meanwhile, Davis was starting to have his suspicions about the virus and that sound…
"She's a tough kid," Jacob commented from his place at the foot of Anubis's throne.
Davis retrieved his laptop and took a seat near him. "The Lieutenant? She's not much of a kid."
He opened his laptop, hearing Jacob snort and carefully avoiding the older man's eyes. "Well, she's been through a lot more in the short time I've known her than a lot of people do in a lifetime. At least a lot of people from Colorado…You know Jack told her to join the Air Force so she'd have something to do? Something bigger than herself to focus on?"
Davis shook his head. "No, but I have to agree with his logic. I've been trying to keep her busy."
"I think that's wise," Jacob said. "It's what I'd want if it were me, and God knows we need all the good people we can get out there fighting the Goa'uld…but Selmak seems to think it'll catch up with her eventually."
Davis paused, hands hovering above the keyboard. "I've been thinking about that too. I wonder-"
Carter's voice interrupted him. "Dad, we've got evidence of flooding here."
"Stand by."
Rushing to help Jacob to his feet, Davis got them both over to the control consul.
"There's been a breach on the engineering level."
"We're nowhere near engineering!"
"Looks like the seawater penetrated to the central access shaft, and now the pressure's pushing it up through the core of the ship. We're flooding from the inside."
"Dad, the door's closing behind us!"
Davis looked at Jacob in alarm.
"It's a security measure. All the doors are sealed around the breach. I'll try to open them from here."
Not being someone to go off script, Davis had been given his job for a reason. Now, however, he was feeling something akin to panic.
"Dad, how's it comin' with that door?"
"It's gonna take some time, Sam."
Time wasn't something they had. Davis ran a hand across the back of his neck.
"Jacob?"
"Yeah, without the proper codes, I can't get access to the security program."
"I'm going down there." Davis made for the door.
"To do what?" Jacob called after him. "The local controls are locked out." He turned back to his radio. "Jack, I'm going to try to find a back door to the program."
"How long's that going to take? I'm looking at some major shrinkage here."
"I don't know. This is kind of a unique situation."
That was an understatement. If he was honest with himself, Davis knew his anxiety was largely due to the only person under his command being in that flooding room. God, if Dany drowned…
"Give me a few minutes," Jacob was saying.
"Jacob, we could blow the doors," Davis suggested.
"Nah, in such a confined space, the concussion would kill them."
"They'll be dead if we don't. We can't leave them in there to drown, Jacob. We have to do something!"
"What the hell do you think I'm trying to do!"
It was Jacob's daughter down there too, of course, and that wasn't lost on Davis. Another minute passed, then two, then…
"I can't do it…Sam?...I'm sorry."
And Davis felt his heart drop past his boots.
There was a beeping sound, an alert.
"What is that, Jacob?" Davis asked automatically. It seemed irrelevant in that moment.
Jacob's voice was just a little breathy as he answered. "The security protocol's been erased…Jack? Sam? Come in."
The first response they got was, unexpectedly, from Teal'c, who it seemed had made it on board to rescue them. Then…
"Dad, this is Sam. We're okay."
"Yes!" Davis clapped Jacob on the shoulder, then backed off as the older man winced.
He couldn't resist grinning at Lieutenant O'Neill as she and the others emerged looking, as they were, half-drowned. "Alright, Lieutenant?"
"Cold, sir."
"Just a little," O'Neill added.
The Lieutenant looked at him. "Remember that winter at the cabin? When Charlie and I fell through the ice and Dan had to fish us out?"
"Yes…" O'Neill answered warily.
"That was a good day."
"I'll make you some hot chocolate when we get home." O'Neill squeezed his niece's shoulder.
SG-1
It wasn't as easy as all that. They had to save Thor, for one, and get off the ship, for another. Then SG-1 was left behind. Dany had wondered, in those long, tense minutes, why even when she went with her uncle on a mission, she was still stuck wondering if she'd ever see him again. A brief glance at Jacob told her he was thinking similar thoughts.
Now, hours later, examined, debriefed, and warm, she was sitting in her office waiting again, this time for her uncle to finish up so they could open some beer and light a bonfire. A nice, warm bonfire. She stared at the paperwork on her desk, not really seeing it.
"Lieutenant?" Major Davis came in, looking better than the rest of them, despite his own adventures. He was carrying an intimidating stack of folders. Inwardly, Dany groaned. "How are you doing?"
She sneezed, then glanced at him as she snatched up a tissue.
He smiled, set the paperwork in front of her.
"What's this?" Dany blew her nose, then selected the top file.
"A couple of things. First, some reorganization."
Dany opened the file. "Liaison for the SGC?"
"That's right. You'll still be reporting directly to me, but the president and the joint chiefs feel the majority of your time should be spent here. After the latest incident with Anubis, I'm inclined to agree."
"I guess I'll be spending a lot of time on the phone."
"That's right."
"What's the other thing?"
Davis hesitated before pushing the second folder closer to her. It was much thicker than the first. "I spent some time speaking with Jacob. This is everything we have on the System Lords: their movements, their territories, their feuds, their organization. At the end is the most recent intell the Tok'ra have on the whereabouts of your brother."
Dany did not immediately touch the file. When she did, she drew it over with the same respect she might show a grenade. Then she looked up at her boss.
"Jonas will be taking over much of Dr. Jackson's work, which leaves you with a little more time. I figure, as long as you're here, you can take some of that time to look into this. It's possible you may see something the Tok'ra haven't. Of course, I don't expect this to interfere with the rest of your work."
"Of course not, sir."
Davis moved toward the door.
"Thank you, sir."
He nodded once in her direction, then left.
