Chapter 11 – The Bust
Daniel sat beside Sam in the back of the rental car, Teal'c having called shotgun, much to their amusement. He could detect a mixture of emotions playing across her face. "Sam, are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she assured him. He gave a look of disbelief, and there was an awkward pause before she admitted. "No."
"We'll find her. You know we'll find her." He knew that as surely as he knew they were SG-1.
"Yes but… this should never have happened to her. I should never have left her!"
"It's not your fault. You didn't really have a choice but to leave her with her aunt. You couldn't exactly take her against he will," Daniel reassured.
That wasn't quite what she'd meant. "I did have a choice. I should have kept her. When she was born. If I hadn't given her away, this wouldn't have happened."
"You don't know that, Sam."
"You don't understand. I was responsible for her safety and I just handed her over. Metaphorically. I didn't even hold her once!"
"You knew she'd be put in a good home. And she was. From what I've heard about her and seen in that video, they took good care of her." Daniel hoped this would comfort her a little.
"Did they? She was kidnapped! I wouldn't have let that happen."
Daniel knew assigning blame wouldn't help. "Neither did they. They're dead, remember?" he reminded. "And they had no control over who her aunt was. She fooled everyone."
"If I'd kept her, she would never have met Penny."
"Perhaps, perhaps not. She still might have gone to Princeton and started the same research."
"But I would have run a full background check on the company first," Sam argued.
"If you'd kept her, would you be in the Air Force now?" Daniel questioned.
"I… probably not. You're right, there's no way of knowing if she would have been safer if I'd kept her. But even so, I still abandoned her. I thought my dad was bad, but at least he was around sometimes."
"Sam, why did you decide to give her away?"
"Well… I knew that as a single mother I'd need to continue my work to support us. And if I slowed down, I'd lose my research grants. If I kept up my research, I wouldn't have enough time for my child, but if I found another job, I'd be miserable. And I knew Dad wouldn't be too happy if I asked him for help."
Daniel considered the situation. "You were afraid you couldn't give her what she needed on your own, so you put her in a better situation. You didn't abandon her, you put her in a good family. Because you worried that you wouldn't be there for her like your dad wasn't, you made sure you couldn't do that."
She hadn't looked at it that way. "I… you're right, I just still regret giving her up, now that I've met her."
Daniel gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder. "It'll be alright. Just think about the good side of the situation. Cynthia had the chance to grow up in a loving functional family, you had the chance to realise your dream of being an astronaut – and far beyond – and now you have a second chance to be her mother."
"Thanks for reminding me of that, Daniel. I did know all that, deep down, but it's hard to admit that what I did wasn't such a bad thing."
"I know, Sam. I know."
"We'd better get her back!" she stated vehemently.
"We will. Jack, Teal'c, and I are here to make sure you get her back."
"Indeed, SamanthaCarter."
"Youbetcha. Even if we have to drag her from Netu."
"O'Neill, I believe Netu has been destroyed."
"I'm aware of that, Teal'c."
Daniel was relieved to see Sam smiling at the banter. "So… Sam, a daughter? Even after talking about her like that, it still feels unusual to think of you having a daughter. Especially a teenage daughter."
She nodded. "It's weird for me too, and I knew I had a child."
"I can tell she's yours though, just from watching a few minutes of video."
"The NID thought she might be some sort of Asgard experiment," commented Jack from the drivers' seat. "But that's because the pregnancy isn't on her regular medical file, not even on the copy they go their hands on."
"That's a relief," Sam replied.
Daniel's mind worked quickly through this information. "But if it is on the full version, does that mean Janet knows?" he wondered.
"She knew of the pregnancy, but I didn't tell her the details until recently, and only after she promised something in exchange."
"And what might that be?"
"I'm not saying."
"C'mon, Sam!"
"Are you sure you want me to tell?"
"Of course I am."
"She agreed to date one of my friends."
Realisation dawned. "You put her up to it!"
Jack had his own moment of realisation. "Ohhhhh! That's what's been different about you and the doc lately. When were you going to tell me you finally found yourself a woman, Dannyboy?"
"Uh… next time I died?"
"I might help you along, just for not telling me. But I'm happy for you. I was starting to think you would die alone. For the rest of your many lives."
"Funny, Jack. Real funny."
"Though I must say, Napoleon is quite a step down from the Destroyer of Worlds," the general added in mock disappointment.
"I hope you enjoy your check-up when we get back to base after this mission," Daniel threatened.
"You wouldn't."
"If I ask right, Janet might let me borrow her second-favourite needle."
"Only her second favourite?"
Daniel shrugged. "It used to be her favourite. Until we got together."
"Daniel! That's too much information," Jack protested.
"Indeed."
Sam just smirked.
Daniel remembered a question he hadn't had time for in the briefing. "Where did Cynthia get the Ancient Gene?"
"She buys clothes on EBay," Jack mentioned confusingly.
"Jack?"
"That's as good a place as any to buy ancient jeans."
Daniel shook his head at the general's antics. "Uh, thanks for the tip. Sam?"
Sam was marginally more helpful. "Obviously it wasn't from me, and we can rule out gene therapy, so it must have come from her father. I thought you could have worked it out for yourself, Daniel. Unless that's not what you're really asking."
"No, I suppose it isn't. I'm just interested because somewhere out there there's a gene carrier who we wouldn't otherwise know about."
"That's the most roundabout way I've heard of asking a woman who the father of her child is," Jack observed dryly. "But no less obvious. Carter, there's no pressure to tell us, though it might be worthwhile to know whose kid we're rescuing."
Sam understood that he was saying she could tell if she wanted. "Actually, he's a gene carrier we've known about for a while," she admitted.
"Someone in Atlantis?"
"No, Daniel. Longer than that."
"You can't mean…"
"Surprised?" Jack asked. "I was."
Daniel couldn't accept this revelation. "Has the world gone mad?"
"Yep. Ever since your wonderful Ancients invented their 'Astria Porta'. And then you were born. I'm not sure which caused the most trouble."
"Jack!"
"Daniel?"
"You're the father of Sam's daughter."
"Yes?"
"And you told me off for keeping Janet a secret."
"For a several weeks. I've only known three days. About any of this."
"Oh. Sorry. Sam? Why didn't you tell me?"
"It wouldn't be fair to tell you and not Jack. And I couldn't tell him and stay on SG-1. And with the adoption, there would be nothing to gain from knowing."
"True." Daniel realised what a bad idea it would have been to tell Jack he had a kid who'd been adopted away. "So... what does Pete think of all this?"
"He... wasn't happy. He didn't want anything to do with Cynthia, but changed his mind when I dumped him. I'm through with him."
"That must have hurt."
"He'll get over it."
"You know I meant you."
Sam nodded. "I'll be okay. So long as we get Cynthia back. She means a lot more to me than Pete ever did. And so do you three guys."
"I understand," Daniel answered.
"Yep, the four of us – five of us now – are family," Jack agreed.
"And Janet."
"Alright Daniel, the six of us."
"Indeed," Teal'c intoned. "I am proud to call each of you family."
"Speaking of getting Cynthia back, we're getting close to our destination. Remember: Carter and Teal'c will take the back, while Daniel and I will approach from the front. Avoid killing anyone. Yet.".
"If I have to shoot anyone, I'll aim for the legs," Daniel agreed.
"And no one shoot towards any devices in the lab, especially if they look electrically active," Sam warned. "We don't need any holes ripped in spacetime, or us. Which is another reason not to bring zats, apart from national security."
"Yeah, well hopefully we won't need to shoot anyone. We just need to look threatening."
"I shall do my utmost to appear as a threat, O'Neill," Teal'c promised.
"Glad to hear it, T. Here we are."
"I just wish we knew what's in there, Sir. I can't figure out why Prometheus isn't picking anything up. Perhaps they have electromagnetic shielding to prevent espionage."
Daniel nodded. "I can see why a company without scruples would fear other companies acting in like manner."
"Regardless of their magnets, we're going in," the general ordered. "We're here. Good luck."
The two teams split up and carefully made their way to their positions. There was no sign of any guards, but they still took utmost care not to be seen. The plan had been to blow the doors, but both teams found this to be unnecessary. "Carter, this door has already been blown open," Jack reported.
"Same here, Sir," she replied.
"Proceed with caution." They did so, but everyone had the feeling that they were too late. It wasn't long before they found why Prometheus hadn't detected anything. "Two bodies. Shot."
Sam and Teal'c soon found three more. A full search of the building resulted in a sixth. "We're too late, Sir. There's nothing here."
"If there ever was," Jack replied, disheartened. "There's no evidence that she or any of her gadgets were here." He bent down to examine the man he'd found in uniform. "This guy's dressed up as an Air Force colonel… but no dogtags. And his wallet contains… hmm, his license says Bejamin Hoyden, not Colonel Rogers. Curious."
"O'Neill, I have something," called Teal'c from the next room. Jack hurried in and the Jaffa held up a pen which had been resting under a table.
Sam, who was closer, recognised it easily. "It's a space pen."
"Engraved with the name 'Cynthia Sanders'."
"She must have had time to leave it here before being moved elsewhere. At least we know we're on the right track," said Daniel from the other end of the room.
Jack and Sam looked longingly at the single connection to their missing daughter. "This means the Trust must have her," Sam realised. "That makes search and rescue a lot more difficult. She might not even be on Earth."
"Wouldn't Prometheus be able to detect if they beamed her up?" Jack wondered.
"Yes, I'll have them check for anomalous energy readings."
"You do that. Meanwhile, I'm wondering why one of our dead guys was posing as an AF Colonel."
Daniel had a theory. "Perhaps they didn't want Cynthia to know she'd been kidnapped by Velocindustry people. Putting the blame on the Air Force would leave them in the clear if they eventually let her go."
"And Penny told her she was suspicious of us," Sam added, with a sinking feeling.
"So she might think you're behind this?" Daniel asked, a little bluntly.
General O'Neill's expression darkened dramatically. "If so, these men are lucky they're already dead."
"I believe there are no signs of struggle in this room," Teal'c appraised.
"That's a small comfort. I don't think we're going to find anything here that will tell us where she is now. Someone else can deal with this. We're better off seeing if we can track down the Trust. Perhaps Barrett has found something by now."
"We can only hope, Sir," Sam replied, giving the room where her daughter had been one final look before leaving.
Meanwhile, far underground…
"Why does this 'god' of yours need my wormhole research? Can't he just come here by himself if he's so awesome?" Cynthia demanded. This crazy talk wasn't doing much to motivate her.
"Of course, but He wishes to test our obedience."
The teen shrugged. "I don't have any, sorry."
Tammy shook her head sadly. "You don't want to disappoint your god."
"Since when was he my god?"
"Since he chose to bless you with this duty. Aren't you the least bit interested?"
"Nope. Perhaps if you made the slightest bit of logical scientific sense, but I don't go for your religious nonsense, sorry."
The short woman smiled as if she held a great secret. "You'll change your mind when you see when we've got in the next room."
"Does it involve food?" Cynthia asked hungrily.
"Come and see for yourself," Tammy invited. She moved to the wall opposite the entry and flicked a switch. With an electric hum, the wall began to slide to the side, revealing a larger, higher room on the other side of the partition. A few of the 'NID' guards stood around, keeping watch. Some cabling ran into it from the computers in the smaller room. Two huge industrial generators rested either side of a massive object which was protected by a white sheet.
Cynthia analysed what she could make out of the shape. "That can't be what I think it is…"
"Shall we see?" Tammy motioned for the blonde genius to follow her, and together they tugged on the covering sheet. It fell away, revealing what Cynthia had guessed, but not expected. It was a giant metal ring, of similar proportions to the two that she'd created, but at a much larger scale that she'd envisioned being built. Several people could walk through it simultaneously. Wrapped around it was a mass of coils and coolant pipes, and a web of control cables. "It's enormous!"
"Isn't it? And you're the one who made it possible. Every inch of it is based on your designs."
"I work in metric," the teen corrected. "But this is got to be twice as big as I imagined making. The cooling requirements…"
"We used your idea of a liquid helium core," Tammy explained.
"And you think it will really work?"
Tammy smiled. "That's why you're here. To make certain it does."
"How long have you been working on this?"
"I haven't personally – after all, I barely understand it – but we only started just over two weeks ago, and construction started in earnest after you got that reversal trick working. Now, down to business. You can check over everything and make sure it's up to specification and will actually work. Then I have some programming for you. I don't want you to rush, but you mustn't waste any time either."
"Uh… what about the other ring?" Tammy wondered. She didn't intend to help, but she wanted to know as much as possible about the situation.
"What do you mean?"
"There's not much point in me checking over this one if the one at the other end isn't working."
"My Lord has his own Chappa'ai."
"His what?"
"My Lord says it means the Gateway to the Stars."
Cynthia rolled her eyes. "Do you really believe I'm buying into this? I figure you've actually got another one of these somewhere, and you want to deploy troops, or a weapon or something. This 'god' nonsense is supposed to keep me from asking what you're really up to. I thought you knew I was smarter than to fall for that!"
"You doubt the power of your God," Tammy stated sadly. "I will give you a taste of his power." She turned on her heels and left the room. Cynthia watched her leave and then began looking over the huge portal. It seemed very well made, and she guessed it had a high chance of actually functioning. The specs on the generators seemed promising too. As for actually connecting to something on the other end… she had no idea what Tammy was really up to. Thinking of which: here she was, holding a pronged metal stick.
"What's that for?"
"You'll find out if you don't do the duty your God demands."
"How about you cut the mumbo-jumbo and tell me what's really going on?"
Tammy shook her head. "You do not believe. Feel the wrath of your Lord Ba'al!" The guards didn't flinch at the girl's screams. After several seconds of pain, Tammy stepped back. "An ingenious device, is it not? Do you need further demonstration?"
"No, please no! I'll do it, just keep that thing away from me!" Cynthia shouted. She wished she could stuff the torture device down the woman's throat, but she knew she wouldn't get very far with the armed guards watching.
"You made the right choice. Now get on with it!"
Cynthia nodded, though her face was still defiant. Silently, she began the careful process of checking over the device she'd invented.
AN: Sorry this wasn't up sooner. Had uni classes plus I distracted myself reading other fics. In my defense, this was a fairly long chapter. I hope it was enjoyed.
I should point out to a few people that at this point in time, Ba'al hasn't had much to do with SG-1 apart from Jack, since this is set prior to the whole mess with replicators and Dakara. This is Season 8, remember[edited for a more sensible adjective