Part 2: Present
"I tried to write it down, but I could never find a pen..."
Jack had, with the support of his own team, along with SG-7 and SG-9, stormed the Council room.
"What is the meaning of this?!" a tall man, presumably Community Director Whilbarr, demanded.
"Your Enforcers didn't let us in when we asked nicely," Jack replied.
"If you think there is anything to gain from killing us-" Whilbarr began, but Jack interrupted.
"Don't flatter yourself," Jack snapped, "We're not interested in you. Believe it or not, this is a courtesy call. The man who's missing, Jonas Quinn? He's part of my team, and I'm here to look for him."
"I assure you, Kiri's Enforcers are doing-"
Jack interrupted again, and enjoyed it. It wasn't often he got to use his preferred method of diplomacy.
"We're not here to get in the way of your investigation," Jack said, "But we're not gonna sit on our hands with a missing man out there. That isn't how we operate. Someone took a member of my team, and I want him back."
"Jack..." he could almost hear Daniel's soft voiced warning, but chose to ignore it.
"Now, we are going to go to the last place he was seen. And we are going to do an investigation of our own. Your choice is how difficult you want to make this."
Jack was bluffing. Even if he had every SG-team at his disposal right now (which he didn't), he couldn't hope to take an entire city, especially not without more bloodshed than he was willing to inflict. But he was betting that Whilbarr didn't know that, or that the Council didn't really want to resort to violence over this.
"Jack," Daniel voice's in his mind was saying, "This is their city, and their rules. If you do this, you ruin any chance of them becoming our allies. Remember, they didn't do this. Someone attacked them, and we got caught in the middle. You can't take your anger out on them."
But Jack didn't give a damn right now. He'd lost one of his team, his best friend in fact. He was not ready to lose another, even if that other was Jonas, whom he wasn't overly fond of.
Besides, Grogan had been at the diplomatic solution angle for probably around twenty hours now, and hadn't managed to make the slightest dent. The Kirian government wasn't going to listen to reason. Far as Jack was concerned, preventing Grogan's team from visiting the scene of the bombing and searching the surrounding area for signs of the missing person was a hostile act.
Daniel would have understood that, even if his ghost didn't.
Whilbarr glared at Jack, outrage plain on his face.
"You are no better than the Jinaz," this remark came not from him, but an Enforcer Teal'c had pinned to the wall, "You say you come in peace, but the first time things do not go your way, you resort to violence. In all likelihood, it is they who bombed our city and took your man."
Jack twitched, then turned towards the Enforcer, and recognized him from earlier. The man was short for a Kirian, only an inch or two taller than Teal'c. In other circumstances, Jack might've tried to get along with him. Unlike the members of the Council, the Enforcer did not seem cowed by the weapons the SG-teams were carrying. Easily overpowered by Teal'c, he nonetheless looked fierce, ready to fight again at the slightest opportunity. Here was a man who understood something other than just talk. But what most interested Jack was not what the Enforcer looked like, but what he had said.
"And why, pray tell, would the Jinaz want Jonas?" Jack inquired, "And who the hell are the Jinaz?"
"They are a violent people, who believe Kiri has held too much power for too long," Whilbarr spoke now, "Kiri is the most powerful city and government on our planet. We have achieved a state of order through judicial methods. Our economy flourishes, and our people thrive. The Jinaz would have us control our populace with martial law."
"And what would they want with Jonas?" Jack repeated his earlier question.
"They likely have spies in our city. The Jinaz have long used terrorist means to try and force us to see things their way. Likely they believe they can gain weapons and technology from you which would aid them in overthrowing the Kirian government."
"Jonas can't give them anything," Carter said, "Not even if he wanted to."
"He can give them the address to your world," Whilbarr pointed out.
"That wouldn't do them any good," Carter said, "We have a protective barrier called an 'iris'. Even if Jonas gave them our address and they gated to Earth, they would hit it and kill themselves."
"They do not know that," Whilbarr pointed out.
"That's stupid," Jack broke in, "Only idiots would try to invade a militarily superior planet."
Jack noticed that Carter made a face, and Teal'c looked over his shoulder at him. They knew full well that SG-1 had done just that on more than one occasion. The Goa'uld always had them outmatched in both manpower and firepower. They had always survived such encounters by the skin of their teeth, with a combination of tactics, determination and sheer luck.
"We do not know for certain that it was the Jinaz," Whilbarr said, "It could as easily have been the Riktari."
"The who?" Jack asked.
"Riktari is the other city nearby. They also do not appreciate the peace that Kirian law has brought to Guf'yn."
"It is not their way to use explosives," the Enforcer spoke up, disdain in his voice, "Their way is to make promises they do not intend to keep, and to propose arrangements they have no intention of agreeing to. They are liars, and thieves, but if there is dirty work to be done they trick someone into doing it for them, or else pay them off."
"And then there's you guys," Jack said, "Maybe you weren't satisfied with the answers you were getting."
"Jack..." Daniel's voice warned.
"Maybe you staged the whole thing, and that's why you don't want to let us look into it."
"Jack!"
The insult finally seemed to break Whilbarr's resolve. His face darkened, and it took him several attempts to get himself under control enough to speak in a level tone.
"Put away your weapons," Whilbarr said stiffly, "And Aniyuv will show you to the scene of the attack."
"Director!" the Enforcer protested, and Jack realized he must be Aniyuv.
"You will show them, Aniyuv. And tell them what you and your men have discovered thus far," Whilbarr glared angrily at Jack, but spoke mildly, "We will prove that the Kirian have nothing to hide."
Sam wasn't sure about Colonel O'Neill's tactics this time, but she was as eager to actually do something as he was. She hated that it had taken so long to get to Kiri. The whole way here, she'd been plagued by visions of Jonas lost, hurt or lying dead somewhere and nobody knowing it. But Marshal seemed to think that Jonas had actually been captured, taken away by someone. Sam wished Marshal had been able to at least give a clue as to who that had been. But Marshal probably didn't know them by name, and had lost consciousness again before she was able to provide a description.
"Kofield, you and your team head back to the 'Gate with Marshal," O'Neill said.
"With respect, sir," Kofield replied, "No way."
"Come again?" O'Neill snapped, clearly irritated.
"I came here with four people: Reiner, Lauder, Marshal and Quinn." Kofield said, then added, "Quinn may be on your team, but I was responsible for him from the moment I stepped through the 'Gate with him. And I'm not leaving this rock until I get him back for you."
"Marshal needs medical attention," O'Neill told him.
"Reiner can handle getting her and the others back to the 'Gate," Kofield pointed out.
"Major-" O'Neill began, but Kofield interrupted him.
"I'm not going, sir. You can do whatever you want to me when we get back for disobeying orders, but I'm staying right here on Guf'yn until we find Jonas Quinn."
Jack glanced at Grogan, who merely said, "If I'd kept a closer eye on Quinn, this would never have happened. I'm the one that left him and Marshal alone."
Jack shrugged, "Fine. Major Kofield, you can stay, but your team needs to take Marshal back."
"Yes sir," Kofield said, then turned to give Reiner his orders.
Reiner did not look happy with the arrangement, but he obeyed his leader. SG-team devotion at work.
Sam sighed, wondering if that would be enough to save Jonas.
Aniyuv led the way to the scene of the attack, though he appeared to be profoundly unhappy about it. Colonel O'Neill and Major Kofield walked with him, but Sam and SG-9 hung back in case they ran into trouble. Trouble seemed increasingly likely, as all around them Kirian people were stopping and staring.
Ayelas had seemed appalled by O'Neill's choice of tactics, but she had followed them when they left the CN&D building, and had fallen in beside Sam. She looked very upset, but not with the team from Earth. Sam remembered that this was the woman that they had made initial contact with. Jonas, Marshal and SG-7 had stayed in her home. A home that was now reduced to rubble.
Everything about Ayelas, from her eyes to her movement made it obvious she was just not quite human. She was far from a strange creature to Sam, who had traveled the galaxy and seen many bizarre and wondrous things. But Ayelas, she had probably never seen anything but her own people.
"We must've seemed very strange to you when you first met us," Sam said.
"Not strange," Ayelas responded in a mild tone, "Terrifying."
She turned her head enough to meet Sam's eyes, but continued walking.
"I suppose seeing people unlike any you've seen before would be-"
"You misunderstand," Ayelas told her, "You were not terrifying for your strangeness, but your familiarity."
"I'm sorry?" Sam tilted her head curiously.
"The Kirian no longer believe in a god, but the deity we believed in during more primitive days is present in many works of art. He is defined by his shortness, round eyes and unusual skin."
Sam happened to know that Jonas, the first human Ayelas had met, wasn't short. But, looking around, she realized that all the Kirian were over six feet in height. By 'round eyes', Sam could only assume Ayelas was referring to the pupil shape, not the eye itself. The Kirian were mostly pale, but some were dark skinned. What Sam realized was that the light played on their skin differently from the people she'd come here with. In artificially lit rooms, Ayelas and Sam had nearly the same skin tone. But under the natural light of Guf'yn, Ayelas seemed to glow slightly and looked far paler.
Over thousands of years, the Guf'yn had changed physically from Earth humans. But it seemed that their god had not. Of course not, a Goa'uld wouldn't change hosts if it didn't need to. But that meant that the Guf'yn had seen their god recently enough to recognize that they themselves had changed, whereas their deity had not. Whichever Goa'uld held power here, they had not been absent for long.
Sam was still contemplating the implications of that when they turned a street corner, and the block they were headed for came into view. Sam broke stride for a moment, and her breath caught. A soft cry came from Ayelas. Sam glanced at her, but she seemed to be holding together surprisingly well for someone who had just seen the ruins of what had been her home this morning.
Destruction always looked terrible, but something about encountering such chaos in a city which was uniform and neat made it worse. Buildings on either side of the cobblestone street had been gutted, their fronts smashed in or out, the stone broken. On a building whose front had been otherwise entirely razed, a door had remained stubbornly upright, and now looked horribly out of place in a sea of rubble. Metal structural supports that hadn't collapsed stood and hung at crazy angles, bent and useless. A thick layer of dust from the shattered stones lay over everything. On one side of the street, two buildings had been completely collapsed, but a building between them had been virtually untouched. Enforcers were roaming the street, moving cautiously, looking for evidence or survivors.
It was beginning to get dark, they didn't have much time to find something before night closed in.
"Ayelas," Sam said gently, "Which of these buildings did you live in?"
Wordlessly, Ayelas pointed. After looking at the crumbling pile of rock and twisted metal that had once been an apartment building, Sam glanced at Colonel O'Neill.
"Spread out," He said, his voice cold, "See what you can find."
He didn't need to tell them what they were looking for. SG-9 might not have been a search team, but they had the training they needed nonetheless. They were looking for any sign of Jonas, and what had happened to him. Sam just hoped he hadn't been buried beneath the debris after Marshal had last seen him. Even if he'd been captured by whoever had done this, that meant he was still alive. If he was still alive, they still had a chance to get him back.
But looking at the destruction, Sam found it hard to believe anyone had gotten out alive.
Evidently reading the distress on her face, O'Neill moved over to stand near Sam.
"We're gonna find him, Carter," Jack said softly, "Jonas is a lot tougher than he pretends to be."
"Yes sir," Sam replied without conviction.
Colonel O'Neill then led the way towards the building, and Sam followed him. Usually she had a lot of faith in whatever her leader said or did. But not this time. Sam, unlike the Colonel, had learned to see past the surface smiles Jonas offered whenever he was nervous, the jokes about his own skills that he used to hide his feelings of inadequacy. Almost as soon as Jonas had become a member of SG-1, Colonel O'Neill had set in on him with teasing and "friendly" mockery. Sam hadn't even thought about it, just followed the example set by her leader. She hadn't known then how terrified Jonas was of not being able to fit in, of being rejected. At least, that's what she told herself. But the truth was that she'd enjoyed making Jonas uncomfortable.
Truthfully, it was only because she was friends with Janet Fraser that she begun to realize. Because Janet had monitored him so closely when he first arrived to make sure he was carrying no diseases they should be worried about, or lacking an ability to fend off diseases the rest of them were immune to but still carriers of, Jonas had spent a lot of time with her.
At first, Janet had tried to harden her heart to the Kelownan, but Jonas was so easy-going, so open and cooperative, and so contagiously enthusiastic that it soon proved impossible. Still, it was months before Jonas let Janet in. He kept up the front of being happy-go-lucky, acting like everything was fine until one day he couldn't any more. The armor cracked, and Janet saw the truth.
What Jonas saw in himself was that he was worthless. And useless. His core beliefs about life had been not just shaken, but completely shattered by Daniel's actions. Jonas had given up his world, and everything that entailed, giving himself completely to Earth for the sake of SG-1. For Daniel Jackson, and for Colonel O'Neill, two practical strangers to him.
Jonas was scared, desperate, and utterly alone. He was in no condition to take taunts and teasing as jokes. He took them seriously, and every cut at him made him that much more afraid. Sam would never have even noticed, if Janet had not told her. Jonas was damned good at keeping his true feelings -particularly about himself- to himself.
She knew that, if anything, Jonas was a lot more fragile than he'd led Colonel O'Neill to believe over the past few months. When the Colonel said Jonas was tougher than he pretended to be, he was actually thinking of Daniel, not Jonas.