Daniel was feeling hungry and rummaged around in his back pack but could find nothing else to eat. 'I'm sure I have more food somewhere,' he thought. He, Sam and Teal'c had settled just inside the cave entrance while they waited for Jack and the others to return.
Teal'c was taking the opportunity to meditate and a number of the returning insects now surrounded him and appeared to be watching. It was a strange menagerie varying in size colour and noises, the sounds increased until it could not be ignored. They appeared to be discussing Teal'c. After attempting to ignore them for a while Teal'c opened his eyes and stared around at the floor of the cave. "This is most distracting," he announced in a mildly annoyed voice.
"Well they are curious about what you are doing," Axeiros commented from the speaker that had relocated itself above the cave entrance. "As am I."
"I am meditating," Teal'c responded and closed his eyes again attempting to ignore the low hiss and rattling noise around him.
"He needs to meditate to replenish his strength and allow the larval Goa'uld inside him to repair his body." Sam explained a touch distracted as she was writing notes on a pad retrieved from her discarded backpack. Daniel picked up the discarded pack and began rummaging through it. Finally Sam looked up and frowned. "What are you looking for?"
"Chocolate," Daniel mumbled. "Hungry."
"There's a bar in the side pouch if you're that desperate. Honestly Daniel are you sure you're alright?" Sam asked.
"I'm fine Sam. Don't worry about me," Daniel replied as he tore open the package and began to munch. A sigh emitted from the wall causing all three to look up and then at each other. Daniel shrugged his shoulders and Sam raised an eye brow.
Teal'c stood up and moved further away from them and the wall to resettle and concentrate on his Kel-No-Reem. Sam went back to writing and the cave reverted to the faint rustle and hiss of insects and the faint pulsing light from deeper in the cave. No one noticed Daniel get up and walk away from them. No one saw as he walked through the nanite screen and out of the cave. No one noticed for far too long.
Daniel was suddenly aware that he was outside. He spun slowly around in confusion trying to work out how he was now alone in the woodland. A deep gnawing hunger distracted him momentarily. "Need to find something to eat," he muttered. "Where is everyone? What am I doing…?" He stopped as the sound of voices reached him and he dived behind the nearest tree, instinct telling him to hide. After a moment a Jaffa walked into view followed quickly by two more. He could not hear what was being said but they looked unhappy. He shrank back into the shadows making himself as small as possible. Daniel was distinctly unhappy but in his head he heard a whisper. 'Don't let them find you."
'Axeiros? What am I doing out here?' Daniel responded as his mind sharpened and the hunger died away.
'I am sorry; I just wanted to look at the world through human eyes again. You are not far from the cave.'
'Jack is not going to be pleased with either of us. Why can't I remember getting here," Daniel thought back at her as he stared at the approaching Jaffa.
'My organic nanites took a while to understand your physiology. Some of Kasmilos nanites were already settled in you, I did not realise it would take time for them to merge their programming. Your mind seemed to shut down for a while. I only wanted to look at the world.'
Daniel could swear he could hear a sullen sound to her thoughts. 'Someone telling you off?' He thought at her and then looked up to find himself staring at the wrong end of a staff weapon. 'Shit!' was his last thought and in the cave Axeiros screamed in pain.
Zzzig skittered into the cave excitedly looking for Zzzag. "We havesss very big weapon. We kill all Goa'uld." She called at Zzzag with barely a hiss. Then she looked around at the cave and bounced gently on the spot as Jack and Kasmilos appeared beside her through the nanite curtain. "Where isss Daniel?"
Jack immediately scanned the cave and asked, "Carter, where is Daniel?"
Carter put down her writing pad and looked around as she got up a worried frown appearing on her face. A few feet away Teal'c's eyes flew open and he rose in one fluid movement looking round.
"Axeiros, where is Daniel?" Kasmilos called out with a sense of foreboding.
"He has just gone for a little walk," she replied.
"Daniel would not just go for a little walk," Jack responded with a frown. "Where has he gone?"
"Outside so I could see the woodland," Axeiros replied in a quiet voice.
"What!" Jack shouted then bit off further comment as Kasmilos intervened.
"Daniel would never do something so foolhardy Axeiros. What have you done?" He asked in an increasingly angry voice.
Jack threw down his pack and turned toward the inner cave, anger emanating from him but he didn't have a chance to move or respond. Axeiros suddenly let out a wailing scream of pain. "Daniel!"
"Where!" It was a one word demand that would accept no delay. Jack was furious and desperately worried about his friend. "Axeiros!" he hollered when she did not respond.
A weak voice emanated from the pulsing wall. "Directly in front of the cave. He had only taken a hundred or so steps before…."
"Before what?" Jack demanded as he checked his weapon and turned toward the exit.
"Before he realised where he was," she finished quietly. "He was in pain and then nothing. The insects say there was fire that hit him in the chest. I am sorry!" She called out to them as they all ran from the cave with Zzzag and Zzzig in the lead. They were moving faster than their human friends had ever seen them and they disappeared from view.
The spiders found the spot quickly but there was no sign of Daniel's body. "Wheressss him?" Zzzag hissed in frustration.
Zzzig noticed something flash in the undergrowth and sprang at it. She lifted the remains of Daniel's glasses as Jack reached them and he took them from her and looked around.
Teal'c knelt by the tree and read the trampled ground worry clear in his face. "Daniel hid here but they found him. Three of them," he continued as he looked up. "The mark of a staff weapon blast is on the tree and…" he stood up and pointed. "They went in that direction carrying a heavy weight… Daniel."
"Why didn't they leave the body?" Kasmilos asked distressed but puzzled.
"They want information. If they have a sarcophagus they will revive him to be questioned," Sam responded and looked at Jack who grimaced.
"At least he will be alive, but how do we get him out of the ship?" Jack responded trying not to think of what another time in a sarcophagus would do to Daniel.
Zzzag suddenly let out a strange wailing noise and Jack looked down at Zzzig. "The Goa'uld have Daniel at the mine already. Zzzag issss not happy assss they are leaving now."
The group looked up in time to see the ship rising ahead of the oncoming darkness caused by the nanites still pouring through the Stargate. Jack looked at Kasmilos who responded immediately to the unvoiced question. "I will send enough for whatever is needed," he commented as he began manipulating his small controller. "Axeiros is linked to Daniel and will be able to speak to him as soon as he wakes, if he wakes. If we can get him to leave the ship the nanites will protect him."
"Axeiros is a liability," Sam snapped angrily. "How can we trust her not to do something stupid?"
"Daniel has taken nanites into the ship. Now they are there can we use them?" Teal'c asked Kasmilos who immediately nodded.
"Then we just have to get Daniel outside of the screens. Make this planet look like it's blowing up and then make it vanish," Jack responded. "I agree with Carter, Axeiros cannot be trusted not to cause more harm."
"She didn't intend for this to happen," Kasmilos said quietly. "She has been alone for a long time and has controlled this world through her mind without boundaries to her behaviour. It appears she has forgotten how to ask politely for what she wants." From Kasmilos that comment on one of his own people was damning enough.
If Jack had not been so worried about Daniel it would have produced a wry smile. As it was his eyes narrowed and Kasmilos knew Axeiros had lost a friend.
"We getsss Daniel back, yessss?" A plaintive voice from behind Jack brought him round to Zzzag and he patted him reassuringly on his head.
"I hope so Zzzag, I really do. Zzzig ask Axeiros to hunt Daniel's mind on that ship. I'm certain they'll revive him and that they will not leave orbit." Jack thought rapidly as he spoke. "I think they are moving away from the wave of darkness until they know what it is and how to deal with it. They will try to get this information from Daniel and to do that they will have to revive him. We need to time the deception with his attempt to leave the ship."
"A diversion," Kasmilos commented. "I think the most difficult part will be persuading Daniel to step out of an escape hatch."
"Daniel Jackson would not do anything so foolish," Teal'c commented.
"He will trust Carter," Jack replied looking at his second in command.
Sam took a deep breath. "I will need to reconnect with Axeiros to speak to him."
"Sorry Carter," Jack apologised. "It will be his only way back. Unlike the rest of us he cannot fly any kind of aircraft so stealing a death glider is out of the question."
The group retraced their steps to the cave. "We are going to have to wait until Daniel is revived.
Daniel woke to darkness and confusion, his chest hurt and he couldn't see. "Well that seems normal," he said aloud but there was no response. He put his hands out in front of him to try to get his bearings and a light flickered on and he stared at the walls of a small cell. The metal walls and automated door looked ominously familiar and he put his head in his hands and groaned. "Not again."
'Daniel…. Daniel can you hear me?" The quiet voice echoed in his brain familiar and yet different.
'Axeiros? Not now I have enough problems," he responded.
'Listen Daniel… The ship has taken off and we need to set the plan in motion to fool them.'
'Sam is that you?' Daniel thought.
'Yes Daniel, we need you to get off the ship.'
'And how do you suppose I am going to do that?' Daniel's thoughts took on a sarcastic edge and he thought, not for the first time that he spent to much time around Jack.
'The nanites inside you will release you from your cell and deal with any guard outside. There are enough of the Kabeiroi nanites in you to do that. Then you must find a way off or you will be killed!'
'Or worse,' Daniel responded but looked at the door and tried to relax.
"He is ready for you to change the nanites instructions," Axeiros told Kasmilos back in the cave. I have instructed mine to remain within him for now." Everyone looked at Kasmilos who began sending the signal for the nanites to leave Daniel.
Back in his cell Daniel suddenly had an irresistible urge to cough and a small cloud of nanites shot out of his mouth and nose. They rose, consolidated and then drifted to the door and appeared to vanish into the door edges. After a moment the door slid open and Daniel poked his head carefully into the corridor. On the floor to one side lay a Jaffa motionless and Daniel threw the staff weapon across his chest and grabbed his arms dragging him into the cell. He stepped out into a deserted corridor and closed the door behind him. 'Now what?' he thought at Axeiros.