L is for Laryngitis
It had started earlier that week with what felt like his usual seasonal allergies. Given the time of year, he hadn't thought much of the congestion, sneezing, and tickle in his throat given how red and watery his eyes were. He'd taken some antihistamines, passed the medical exam with flying colors, and traipsed off to whatever planet they'd ended up on. At this point, he was too tired to remember the alphanumeric designation.
They'd made it through the gate just fine, but trouble in the form of a Jaffa patrol found them shortly thereafter. In the ensuing firefight, Daniel had somehow managed to get separated off from the three of them, captured, and thrown in some filthy dungeon cell that was doing wonders for his allergies or whatever all this was. The lack of ornate gold façade made it clear that the dungeon was not of Goa'uld construction. For the first time in his life, he found himself wishing he were prisoner in a ha'tak or at least somewhere cleaner and warmer. A Goa'uld holding cell wouldn't be nearly half as damp or covered in black mold, festering hay, and who knew what else.
They hadn't tried to interrogate him. For that at least, Daniel was thankful. They seemed not to know who he was or to recognize him as part of SG1, content to let him rot in the cell. Daniel certainly felt rotten.
What he had thought had been allergies had morphed into something more sinister, that or he was also terribly allergic to the cell. He couldn't tell and he really didn't care. His sinuses pounded, his eyes swum, the tickle in his throat had morphed into a deep, rattling cough that rubbed his parched throat as dry as sandpaper. Swallowing hurt. He was pretty sure that if the Jaffa holding him caught on and tried to interrogate him, they'd be out of luck. There was little chance he had any voice at this point. He couldn't tell if he had a fever given how cold it was in the dungeon. To top it all off, it wasn't like he had anything to help with any of the above, so he alternated between curling up feeling sorry for himself and investigating some way out.
He'd ruled out the main door. Thick padlocks held it shut tightly. There was a small, iron barred window up at the very top of the wall, but it was far out of his reach, too small for him to fit through, and the walls were covered in a layer of thick, black mold that both made them slippery and made Daniel wonder how much worse he'd be feeling if he was clawing up through it, breathing in airborne spores. He'd found one possible alternative, a manhole cover sized drain in the floor that had been covered in the indescribably filthy hay. Kicking the hay away from the drain had unleashed a coughing fit so hard it sent floaters dancing through his field of vision and nearly had him on his knees. He was kneeling by the grate, trying to determine how it was held in place in the dim lighting of the cell when he heard the voices.
"Are you sure it's this way?"
"To be completely honest, no, sir, I'm not. Daniel would be the one to know about ancient sewer system design, but he's not really here to ask right now."
"Yeah. It's too bad we can't ask Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello, or Raphael. They'd know, too."
"I am most astonished, O'Neill. I did not believe you had been listening to Daniel Jackson's lectures on the history of Taur'i art."
"They're Ninja Turtles, Teal'c. He's making a joke."
"The turtles of Earth train to become ninja warriors?"
The voices of his teammates rose louder as they grew closer to the grate. Daniel tried to speak and announce his presence above them, but screaming as loudly as he could produced no more than the faintest whisper. Frustrated and exhausted, he kicked angrily at the grate, surprised by the resounding clang.
"Did you hear that? Hold up."
The sound of sloshing feet and their accompanying voices stopped abruptly. Daniel kicked at the grate again, this time pounding out a careful SOS.
"Daniel?"
Daniel repeated the SOS.
"That's got to be him, sir."
"I am not certain. It may be a ruse used to entice and trap us."
Halfway through repeating the SOS kick for a third time, a chorus of sneezes caught him off guard. He heard a laugh from below.
"That's definitely him. Hang on, Danny-boy, we're coming for you."
The sloshing sound renewed more vigorously accompanied now by muffled grunts and indecipherable exclamations. Daniel stepped back from the grate, unsure of what was about to come up from the sewer. Moments later, the grate shook and rose a bit out of its plating. Daniel reached down, squeezing his fingers around the heavy grate and helping to shift it to the side.
He peered down into the dark sewer and grinned. Teal'c stood up to his waist in the dank water below. On his shoulders sat Jack who had his legs wrapped tightly around Teal'c's upper body. Jack's arms were holding fast to Sam's feet, which were perched on his own shoulders, forming a three-person tower. Sam grinned back at him, fingertips still gripping the base of the plating that had held the heavy grate in place.
"Come on in, Daniel, the water's fine!" Daniel shook his head in disbelief, wondering where they'd learned that particular trick or whether he'd reached the point of hallucination, and waited till Sam and Jack had climbed down and the three of them had moved a safe enough distance back before lowering himself into the sewers, dragging the grate back into place above him as he went with a satisfying thud.
He dropped the distance down into the startlingly cold water, slipping a bit and going fully under. He was thankful for his congestion, blocked as his nose was from inhaling the disgusting sewage, and for the strong arms, which lugged him, sputtering and coughing, to his feet.
"Easy, there, keep at least one lung, would you?" Daniel smiled weakly, glad that Jack had yet to let go. The tunnel was spinning. He leaned more heavily on Jack and closed his eyes, catching his breath.
"You okay? You look like crap and not just because we're in the sewers." Daniel felt Jack's wet hand against his forehead and tried not to think about what it was wet with.
"Talk to me here, Danny-boy." Daniel opened his eyes to meet Jack's worried ones.
"I feel like shit," he tried, half expecting no sound to come out and surprising himself and Jack when the sound that came out of his mouth sounded nothing like him and 100% like a Goa'uld.
Jack jumped back from the half-embrace, raising his zat. Daniel slipped and struggled to stay upright on the slick sewage. Carter and Teal'c followed Jack's example, surrounding him with raised weaponry. Daniel raised his hands in a gesture of peace, his attempt to explain caught in a fit of coughing.
"I don't feel anything, sir. I think he's just Daniel." He heard sloshing approach cautiously from behind as he fought to stay upright.
"I also do not detect the presence of a symbiote." Cough quieted, Daniel straightened, keeping his hands raised. Jack was eyeing him cautiously.
"Do what you've got to do, just please can we go home?" he rasped. He felt Sam come up behind him and investigate the back of his neck.
"There's no sign of trauma and I'm still not getting anything." She gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
"Can you open your mouth, Daniel?" Daniel nodded, opened his mouth, and closed his eyes against the bright light of Sam's flashlight.
"It looks pretty red, but given everything that's not surprising. I'm no medical doctor, sir, but it doesn't look like there's a point of entry anywhere." Daniel opened his eyes again and shivered.
"I also do not believe Daniel Jackson has become a host. However, he does appear most unwell." Daniel felt Teal'c wade up behind him to his left, close enough that their bodies were slightly touching and he leaned against him, grateful for the support.
Jack drew closer, squinted a bit and seemed satisfied, though he kept his zat primed.
"Think you can walk out of here? It's a ways." Daniel nodded.
Jack hadn't been exaggerating. The maze of sewage-filled tunnels wrapped back and forth for what felt like miles. Sam took the lead, pinpointing small markers she had left as they entered like breadcrumbs. They continued through the near darkness in silence, Jack casting glances back at him that transitioned from suspicious to concerned as the time passed and, Daniel assumed, Jack accepted that he really had not become some sort of host. Every so often, they'd get close to a grate, its presence signaled by a tiny shift in the light and the sound of Jaffa murmuring above. It didn't seem as if they were particularly upset and Daniel concluded that they hadn't discovered he'd escaped yet.
After what felt like many hours of sewer diving, the tunnels opened into a wide, filthy lake ringed in trees. They waded out onto the shore in the cover of darkness and crept the short distance back to the gate. Before he had taken two steps down the ramp, he found himself surrounded by a biohazard team, escorted to decontamination, and then to the infirmary.
Janet had taken one look at him and assigned him a bed. She'd run him through the usual tests, including an MRI, and proved conclusively that he was Goa'uld-free, but perfectly miserable. Despite the nasal and throat swab, the bright flash of the penlight, and the repeated cold stethoscope, Daniel was beyond thankful to be curled beneath the warm blankets and was fast asleep before he could attempt any sort of voice-less conversation.
He'd slept a few short hours in the infirmary before an arm had shaken him awake. He'd come face to face with the night nursing staff who'd informed him that there'd been some sort of situation and he needed to relocate to his on base quarters. Having dragged himself from the infirmary bed to that bed, Daniel had gone back to sleep without question, tossing and turning for the rest of the night.
He woke an indiscernible amount of time later, trapped in a twist of sweat-drenched blankets, to the sound of raised voices outside his door.
"What do you mean he's being summoned to the briefing room? He's my patient. It's bad enough he got bumped from the infirmary. There is no way I'm clearing him for anything other than rest right now."
He blinked blearily and cast a hand around for his glasses, finding them and checking the time – 0700.
"The Tok'ra can kiss my ass, colonel."
The door rattled with a knock and then swung in to reveal the petite doctor and Jack. Daniel drew the twist of covers higher and sat up. Whatever had brought the two of them here must have been somewhat urgent, Daniel concluded – Jack hadn't yet changed into his uniform.
"Morning, Daniel. How are you feeling?" Daniel swallowed experimentally. Despite the glass shards in his throat, he had to admit that he felt marginally better. Drained, exhausted, sore, and somewhat out of it, yes, but he was considerably less congested and his head was not, in fact, pounding.
He opened his mouth to communicate as much, but, no matter how many times he cleared his throat, not even the earlier Goa'uld sound came out. Janet looked sympathetic, but behind her, leaning against the door, Jack was smirking.
"You can't talk at all right now, can you? Oh, this is going to be interesting - a linguist with laryngitis." Daniel shot him a glare that did nothing to diminish the smirk. Janet rolled her eyes at the two of them.
"Other than your throat, is anything else bothering you?" Daniel shook his head and acquiesced to Janet's inspection of his throat with a penlight, her check of his pulse, and a thermometer under his tongue.
"Very well, colonel, given that he's already been essentially discharged from the infirmary and given that this seems to be viral and improving on its own, I will allow you to enlist his help with whatever is going on. However," Janet paused, shifting her gaze from Jack to Daniel, "if you start feeling worse in any way, you are to come back to the infirmary. No going off world. No overexertion. You should be resting and drinking fluids as much as possible. You are NOT cleared for active duty, do I make myself clear?"
Daniel and Jack both nodded.
"And none of you should be leaving the planet. You're still confined here for the next forty-eight hours until cleared after swimming through alien waste. Understood?" Daniel and Jack nodded again and, shaking her head in a mixture of amusement and exasperation, Janet left.
Jack waited till Janet was out of earshot before pestering him.
"You really can't talk at all?" Daniel glared at him, extracted himself from his twist of blankets, and stumbled over to his closet for a clean uniform.
Jack crossed his arms and watched as Daniel fumbled through the closet. He didn't look as awful as he had the day before and definitely not as awful as he'd seen Daniel look when ill, but the man was clearly under the weather. He was never the fastest at gathering items and changing gears, especially first thing in the morning, but the man didn't usually lean as heavily into the door jamb or breathe like finding a clean uniform was the equivalent of running a marathon. Jack frowned.
"So the Tok'ra are here and they're asking for your help by name, but you can say no. Or, well, you can shake your head and I can go tell them you're not up for playing with the snake heads today." From his vantage point halfway in the closet, Daniel glared back at him until he got the message to turn around. Jack stayed facing the door until the rustling sound of Daniel getting dressed stopped, replaced by a dry cough.
He turned back to find Daniel sitting on the edge of his bed, looking worn out, but slightly more put together, though the way he gripped the edge of the mattress as if the room was a tilt-a-whirl had him looking like he was feeling considerably worse than he had when Fraiser had been in the room. Perhaps this was a bad idea…
Instinct kicked in before his brain and Jack found himself kneeling in front of Daniel with a hand on Daniel's forehead. The way his eyes closed and he leaned slightly into the cool of Jack's palm had him flashing back too many years ago to similar predicaments with a sick Charlie. He had to hold himself back from running a reassuring hand through Daniel's hair and tucking him back into bed before calling the principal's office and marking him absent.
"Should I go get Fraiser and tell the Tok'ra you're staying home from school today?" A smile flickered on Daniel's face and he shook his head, mouthing words.
"Yeah, I didn't get that. You got paper somewhere?" He followed Daniel's pointed finger to a desk in the corner with a legal pad and pen, surrendering them to Daniel's outstretched hand.
Moments later, he held the paper up with the question, "why are they here?" written hastily across. Jack shrugged.
"No idea. Hammond called me and told me to gather the troops. Carter's on her way and Teal'c is around here somewhere. I haven't seen them yet and Hammond was short on details, just that the four of us were needed." Daniel nodded and drew his arms around himself in a hug. Jack's frown deepened. Either the man was cold, trying to physically keep himself together, or both and none of those options were a good sign.
"You don't have to be up for this. I can tell the Tok'ra you'll see them next time or bring anything urgent to you so you can work on it from here… You really look like shit." Daniel smirked and mouthed "thanks" followed by something else that Jack couldn't decipher. Following his confused expression, Daniel wrote "I'll go to the meeting. If I feel any worse, I'll go to the infirmary. I just need coffee." Jack smiled.
"How about this, then, huh? I'm going to run and change. Then, I'll grab us both some coffee, meet you back here, and we'll see what the snake heads have dragged in. You rest for a bit. I'll be back by 0745. Okay?" Jack waited until Daniel, nodding in confirmation, curled back up on the bed before leaving for the locker room.
Jack had hoped Daniel would have looked at least slightly improved with the slower, assisted start, but the man shuffling next to him, sipping at commissary coffee, looked like he was barely putting one foot in front of the other and, behind his glasses, his eyes had the pinched look they always got with a particularly bad headache. Jack made a note to cut the meeting as short as possible and keep Daniel as much out of the line of action as was feasible.
Hammond was standing action-ready at the head of the briefing room table when they made it up the stairs. A flicker of concern passed over his face in Daniel's direction and, had the meeting not started at that very moment, Jack was sure that Hammond would have ordered Daniel back to the infirmary. Concern reflected from Carter and Teal'c as well and Jack was glad to note that Jacob was the Tok'ra operative at the helm. Jacob, at least, was human enough to pick up on the way Daniel folded himself into his chair and curled around his coffee cup. Jack wasn't certain, but the looks Jacob was sending to their end of the table looked more fatherly than military.
"Thank you all for coming. George tells me you've only just got back, but we need your help. We have a bit of a situation." Jack did his best to pay attention to Jacob's spiel, but he found himself divided between the details of what seemed like very boring galactic politics and the need to monitor the man next to him who was coughing more than Jack liked. Just when he'd been about to halt the meeting and send Daniel to the infirmary, Jacob called on him.
"…and that's where you come in, Daniel." Daniel raised his head from where it had sat in his hands, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose in a valiant attempt to curb his pounding headache. He'd removed his glasses a while ago and had been tuning out the blur that was Jacob, focusing instead on riding out the meeting and making it back to bed. He felt infinitely worse than he had when he woke up that morning. Every swallow felt like fire in his throat and coughing felt like a staff weapon blast. Jacob was continuing. Daniel put his glasses back on and tried to pay attention.
"The operative managed to smuggle out the plans to Heru'ur's new fortress, but they're in code. Our best Tok'ra couldn't crack it. I'm hoping that, with your combined experience and Daniel's linguistic skills, you can do what we could not and, when you've decoded the data, that we can share the knowledge it contains. The Tok'ra high council believes that the infiltration and destruction of this base will be a big step in the right direction to curb Heru'ur's forces and, in doing so, disrupt the power dynamic of the system lords." Jacob was holding out some sort of gou'ald device from which a hologram of what Daniel assumed was Heru'ur's new base flickered brightly. Letters and numbers jumbled through the image, flashing what could be labels and information. Daniel ran a hand through his hair and sighed. That was going to be hard to crack.
"The new base is on the planet Hun'ak. When this has been cracked and the necessary data retrieved, we'll join forces and take it down." Jacob was looking at the four of them, as was Hammond, though their expressions were considerably different. Jacob's eyes held a certain weary hunger. Hammond's just looked concerned… or maybe, Daniel admitted, he just wanted Hammond to be concerned so he could crawl his way back to bed and pretend he hadn't just been handed an overwhelming cryptographic project that he had no hope of completing when he felt his horrid.
He was vaguely aware that Jack was talking. Jacob handed the hologram device to Sam and it became clear that the meeting was adjourned. He blinked slowly and felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Come along, son." It was Hammond. Everyone else was suddenly standing on the opposite end of the room, bent over the device. As he wondered if the blink had maybe been more of a nap, Daniel realized Hammond had apparently switched roles with Jack.
"Can you make it to the infirmary under your own power?" Daniel nodded and stood, trying not to hold too embarrassingly tightly to the table. The room was moving too fast. He felt a strong grip on his elbow.
"Take your time, son, we'll go together." He was never quite sure what to make of General Hammond. When he'd first met him, Daniel had been a bit afraid of the man, or rather intimidated. He wasn't sure if he'd mellowed over the years or if since that very first meeting, he'd just let his guard down and grown from a military hard ass to one of the many Daniel not only considered a friend, but someone he'd trust with his life. As he leaned against the cool wall of the elevator, coughing so hard his eyes ran with tears, and felt a hand on his arm helping him stay upright, Daniel realized that, while Jack, Sam, and Teal'c were the three people he trusted most in the world, there were a few others he could count on to get his ass where it need to be, which was, in this case, the infirmary.
"Doctor Fraiser?" He was vaguely aware of Hammond talking with Janet, but more concerned with responding to the gravitational pull of an infirmary bed. He walked out of his shoes and rolled under the covers, succumbing to sleep.
"Daniel?" Janet was shaking his shoulder. At least, he assumed so. It was her voice that was talking.
"I know you're exhausted, but I need you to wake up just for a little bit. Come on. That's it. Let me see those blues." He cracked open his eyes. She was hovering over him, stethoscope in hand. He squirmed deeper into the bed, away from the cold, hard disc.
"Hey, there. I know you're not feeling great. Your fever's up and I'm worried about pneumonia. Can I take a listen before we get a quick chest x-ray?" Daniel closed his eyes again and dragged a hand across his face, realizing in doing so both that someone had removed his glasses and that he'd slept through getting an IV.
The cold hard disc seemed like ice against his chest and he gasped, triggering a slew of coughing. He felt Janet's hands on his shoulders helping him sit up as he coughed, grimacing at the surge of pain from his throat and the ache in his diaphragm from the repetitive action.
"That's it, Daniel, just breathe." His hands were shaking. He hid them in his hair and lowered his arms to his knees, holding his pounding head. The stethoscope moved around his back. The infirmary felt cold and even his skin felt uncomfortable.
"Okay, you can lie down if you want. I'm going to send for a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia." Daniel nodded, falling back into bed and pulling the covers back up, shivering. At least this was warmer than that cell he'd been in…
From the hard infirmary chair, Jack glanced over at the x-ray film Janet was holding up to a light box. She was discussing it in muted tones with someone he assumed was a nurse. The ghostly image of what looked like ribs meant nothing to him, but, based on the fact that Daniel was still out cold and looked paler than the white sheets he was curled up in, it probably meant they weren't going to get this whole Heru'ur base Tok'ra thing solved any time soon.
"How's he doing, doc?" Janet was back at Daniel's bedside, looking at the numbers on the monitor and fussing with his IV pump.
"The x-ray looks like this is probably viral bronchitis and not pneumonia… which is good news," she explained at Jack's blank look. He nodded.
"What's the plan?" Daniel was shifting in his sleep. Jack pulled the blanket up higher over his shoulder and he quieted.
"Rest, fluids, and supportive care are all we can do for a virus. He should start to improve in the next few days. What did the Tok'ra want earlier?" Jack watched as Janet checked Daniel's pulse against what the monitor was showing and then smoothed a wrinkle in his sheets.
"Oh just some base thing. Carter's working on transcribing the hologram or whatever. Teal'c is helping. Jacob brought the thing here with the idea that Daniel would crack the code and we'd blow it up, but it might just come to blowing it up without cracking everything." He shrugged and stared at the still sleeping Daniel. Janet nodded and put her hand on his shoulder.
"Give him another 24 hours. I can't promise he'll be up and cracking, but he'll be a bit more like himself. Let him rest and do what you've got to do. Come back in the morning." Jack nodded and followed Janet out.
The doc was right, Jack concluded, as she usually was. He'd gotten waylaid by other responsibilities – a training talk to recruits, a team leader meeting, and a stack of paperwork – and, by the time he made it to the infirmary to check on Daniel, it was already close to noon. He looked light years better than the day before and was sitting up in bed, sifting through a pile of paper with Carter, and scribbling in a notebook.
"Hey there, kids. What's up?" Carter flashed him a smile and Daniel looked up briefly, clearly distracted by the papers full of images from the hologram.
"We're working on the map of Heru'ur's base. Based on the specifications, Daniel and I think we've almost got it cracked." Jack raised an eyebrow and looked at Daniel. Daniel opened his mouth as if to speak, but only got as far as the faintest of a whisper before his body had other ideas and a coughing fit took over.
"Still trying to get rid of the lungs, I see. How's that going?" Daniel kept coughing and rolled his eyes.
"Janet's put the kibosh on any off world travel for the next two weeks as far as Daniel's concerned, sir, but she think's he'll at least be able to go home tomorrow." The expression on Daniel's face made it clear exactly what he thought about that decision and it wasn't happiness. Jack dragged a chair over and looked down at the spread of papers.
"Alright, well, what've we got on the intel?" Daniel opened his mouth to try to talk again, but the act of attempted speech triggered another coughing fit. Jack pat him on the back.
"Let's have Carter do the talking on this one, eh? Something tells me you might be better off writing for a bit." Daniel rolled his eyes again and cast around through the pile of paper on his bed for his notebook as Carter explained.
"Well, sir, based on other gou'ald constructions, we can assume certain elements are present and use those elements to crack the code. For example, this here is obviously a ring platform and this space is clearly a glider bay. Daniel is using the gou'ald words for those locations to decrypt the code and translate the rest of the data about the structure." Jack looked back at Daniel. The man had obviously become distracted in the search for the notebook and was now writing something Jack couldn't decode on the edge of one of the pages. He looked slightly frenzied and feverish, but more like himself.
"Ah. Gotcha. Sounds exciting." Carter flashed him a grin and turned back to the pages at Daniel's feet. Jack watched them for a moment, heads bent together over the pages, riffling through them with pens in hand before deciding he was probably better off annoying Teal'c as he gave sparing lessons to the new recruits.
It seemed the predictive power was strong with each of them. Not only did sitting in the audience in the gym watching the recruits take on Teal'c and making quiet, untraceable fart noises whenever Teal'c squatted prove to make a supremely entertaining use of his afternoon, but Daniel and Carter were successful in breaking the code and Daniel was indeed discharged in time for Jack to give him a ride home. The fortuitous series of events timed so perfectly that Jack, waiting on a bench in the locker room for Daniel to change into his street clothes was even present to witness one of the new recruits shyly presenting a very puzzled Teal'c with a bottle of Beano. It took all of his special ops training not to break into raucous laughter.
He was still struggling not to laugh as he walked with Daniel up to the surface and drove him home. As the miles rolled on through dusk, Jack gazed over at the man nodding off in his copilot seat. It was unnerving to be around a quiet Daniel. Sure, he still made attempts to communicate. It wasn't as if he were totally silent and stone faced, but not hearing him ramble endlessly about who knew what was disquieting.
He made a command decision and took the exit for his house instead of Daniel's apartment. There was plenty of extra pajamas, etc and he was pretty sure Daniel had left a toothbrush in the guest bathroom at some point. He'd gone grocery shopping earlier in the week and had enough to share. It didn't make sense to kick the sick man out of his car to convalesce alone.
When they pulled up into Jack's driveway, Daniel didn't even look surprised. Part of Jack wondered if he even noticed. Jack let Daniel do his own thing and, by the time he'd collected the mail, dragged the garbage to the curb, and changed into his own end of the day attire, Daniel was passed out in the guest bed. Jack followed suit.
The morning came early. Hammond and Jacob had planned a final briefing for 0600 with a departure at 0630 to rendezvous with a Tok'ra operative in possession of a tel-tak. They'd then fly said tel-tak to Hun'ak, plant the C4 in the most strategically powerful spots, detonate, and get out of there. Jack replayed the plan in his head as he sipped his coffee, staring at the dawn cresting over the treetops in his backyard. He thought of waking Daniel, but, as he was supposed to be resting and recovering, thought better of it. Swinging his keys around his finger, he sent the sleeping Daniel a wave and headed off for the SGC.
Daniel awoke much later. The sun had risen and the heat of the sunbeams through the window of the guest room was making him feel uncomfortably warm and more feverish than before. Dragging the comforter with him lest the change in temperatures between the rooms make him even more miserable, Daniel relocated to the couch. He flicked through the channels on the TV, found nothing interesting, and was dozing on the brink of fully falling back to sleep when a radically different sensation surrounded him along with a large temperature differential.
Opening his eyes, Daniel suddenly found himself lying not as he had been on Jack's lumpy couch, but rather on the floor of what he guessed was an Asgard ship, wrapped as he was in his blanket. Extremely perplexed and more than somewhat embarrassed to suddenly be wherever he was in a borrowed pair of Jack's sweatpants and an old t-shirt, Daniel wrapped the comforter more tightly around himself and stood, walking barefoot around what he thought might be the bridge, searching for whoever brought him there in the hopes that they would return him back.
"Greetings, Daniel Jackson. I am most sorry for the interruption. I was attempting to summon O'Neill." The gray alien appeared through the door and marched around the edge of the room over to the control crystals. Daniel opened his mouth to explain, his earlier predicament making itself known as no voice followed through on the talking command and his body chose instead to substitute a coughing fit. The Asgard looked up at him in a way that was at once scientific and sympathetic. He looked kind of like Thor. Was this one Thor?
"You are ill. I will return you immediately…" A loud keening noise Daniel assumed was some sort of alarm interrupted the Asgard and, mumbling something Daniel didn't quiet catch, he or she scurried from the room.
Just as the alarm silenced and he was beginning to hope he was about to be beamed back down to Jack's couch, he felt the ship move and then, with a simultaneous sinking realization, felt the jolt in the pit of his stomach that only accompanied a jump to hyperspace. Gazing out the window at the streak of stars, Daniel slumped down in the corner of the Asgard ship, drawing his blanket around himself and coming to the awful conclusion that he was suddenly, without his consent, and without a voice on a mission with the Asgard and that as long as the rest of his team was offworld, no one was even going to know he was gone or go looking for him. Closing his eyes, he folded his arms on his knees and drifted off to sleep, too tired and sick to put up any sort of a fuss.
Gating to the rendezvous, picking up the tel-tac, and flying over to Hun'ak or whatever it was called had been a piece of cake. Hun'ak, however, was decidedly less appetizing. They'd orbited the planet a few times before Jacob had located the most defensible position closest to the base and ringed them in. That was when the fun began.
While it was true that the base itself looked, at least from a distance, just like the specifications the Tok'ra intel had provided, what hadn't been part of the description was the surrounding area. Jack bit his lip and muttered about his level of hatred for incomplete intel and Tok'ra surprises. Civilians in the form of merchants, tradesman, farmers, women, and children filled the area. Coming out from behind a sand dune to find the base and the surrounding civilization supporting its construction had instantly and intensely reminded Jack of Abydos. For the first time since they'd left, he was both very glad Daniel wasn't along to put up a fight about the humanitarian impact of the mission and wished that at least Daniel's linguistic abilities were with them. With one look at her, he could tell Carter was thinking the same thing.
"Sir? How are we going to get all these people away from the base without raising suspicion?" He sent her a look. A pained scowl flashed briefly before military stoicism set in.
"We don't really have a choice here, Carter, the few for the many. We stick with the plan." Yeah, it was better Daniel wasn't there and this was definitely part of the whole shebang he'd be leaving out of the report. Drawing the ridiculous robe he'd been given lower over his face, Jack gave the signal and the three of them crept out, mingling with the locals.
Daniel woke with a lurch as the ship decelerated from hyperspace. Spinning below the window to his left was a planet he did not recognize, but then again, he hadn't seen that many planets from this altitude and, with the ones he had, he wasn't certain he remembered enough to reliably identify more than two or three, one of them being Earth. His head hurt too much to think clearly, anyway.
The whoosh of the panels announced that the nameless Asgard was returning through the door.
"There was no time to wait for O'Neill. It is you who must act instead." Daniel closed his eyes and sighed. So much for a sick day…
"We orbit the Asgard protected planet Hunash. The gou'ald Heru'ur has violated the protective treaty and begun building a base in this system on this planet." Daniel opened his eyes and blinked, rubbing his glasses against the shirt hem. There was no way. Hunash was a similar word to Hun'ak, but that just wouldn't be…
"A gou'ald tel'tak has just entered this system. It is cloaked. It beamed three lifesigns down onto the surface who we believe may be instrumental in the last phase of the base's completion. This ship is not equipped to disable the base. You must infiltrate the base's forces, obtain information on the ship's design, and bring the information back so that its weaknesses can be identified and it can be destroyed." Daniel opened and closed his mouth, letting out a silent groan of frustration. Now would be a really good time for his voice to come back.
The Asgard was moving the stones around on the controls. Daniel tried hand signals to no avail. Apparently, gesticulations, even very large, easily interpreted ones, were not a thing that crossed the Asgard linguistic and cultural barrier, at least as far as this particular Asgard was concerned. Daniel arrived at the conclusion that this guy was definitely not Thor and probably had some sort of intellectual defect. Anyone else would have at least tried to pick up a human healthy enough to follow through with the mission at hand, let alone tried to figure out why said ill human was now waving his arms and stomping his feet to get their attention. As his gesticulations changed to ones that involved one particular finger, the air around him started to buzz and he found himself relocated down on the surface of the planet.
Miraculously, they'd managed to blend in seamlessly. The maelstrom of the hustle and bustle of workers around the base site lent itself easily to infiltration. Based on what Teal'c translated of the surrounding gou'ald, the base was maybe a day away from completion. A fleet of Jaffa and, as was rumored, Heru'ur himself, were anticipated to arrive the next morning for the unveiling of the new structure. Bopping from one herd of workers to the next, it took maybe an hour or so to plant enough C4 to blow the whole thing sky high.
Jack had taken a quiet moment in a deserted storage cabinet to inform Jacob about the gou'ald's anticipated arrival, advocating to wait out the night on the planet and blow the C4 the next morning when it could do the most damage, possibly even taking out Heru'ur. He'd been holding onto a giddy wave of anticipation at the thought of leveling another gou'ald, letting it wash away the guilt of possible civilian casualties when an all too familiar noise echoed from an air vent.
Securing his Tok'ra communication device in his pocket in exchange for his zat and flashlight, he followed what sounded like, but couldn't possibly be, the sound of coughing to the vent on the far wall. Crouching next to the grate, he primed his zat and kicked the grate off, pointing the light and the zat into the opening. The face cringing behind raised hands was absolutely not what he expected to see.
"DANIEL?! What the HELL are you doing here?" He slid his zat back in his holster and reached roughly into the air vent, dragging the man out by what may have been his hair or perhaps a handful what he slowly realized was the comforter from his guest bedroom. Coughing and spluttering, Daniel regained his footing in the storage closet and shook free of Jack's grasp, looking sheepish.
"I don't even know where to start with you. What the hell is going on?" Daniel mouthed something at him. Jack frowned. Of course in all the moments where he really needed an explanation, Daniel didn't have a voice.
"Try again?" Daniel swallowed, cleared his throat, and appeared to be yelling, but really only emitted a whisper of a sound. Jack struggled to make it out.
"Did you say Asgard?" Coughing again, Daniel nodded.
"The Asgard brought you here? In my pajamas?" Blushing and wrapping the comforter more tightly around himself like a strange puffy cloak, Daniel nodded. Jack ran a hand through his hair and tried to ascertain the reason there would suddenly be Asgard involvement.
"Seriously, we're talking Thor here?" Daniel shook his head and rolled his eyes. He cleared his throat and tried to talk again to no avail. Jack offered him his canteen.
"No. A stupid one… he was looking for you, got me instead." The voice was barely more than a whisper, but it was audible. Jack shook his head and drummed his fingers against his thigh in thought, motioning for Daniel to keep the canteen.
"Okay, but why? Is this a protected planet?" Daniel nodded. Jack let out a low breath.
"Alright. Fine. That doesn't really affect us, then. We can still blow it up and make Heru'ur's day. Might affect the arrival tomorrow, though… Is whatever Asgard idiot who sent you here still up in orbit?" Daniel made a disgusted face and nodded. Jack continued thinking out loud.
"Okay. Might be a good way to get all the people out of the line of fire. Big ship?" Daniel raised an eyebrow and nodded again.
"People?" he rasped. Jack kicked himself.
"Been outside yet?" Daniel shook his head. Jack winced. This wasn't going to be pretty.
"Yeah. There are people, lots of them. Why don't we have a look-see." Switching off his flashlight and changing it for his weapon, he made for the door. Daniel made a slightly more audible squeak noise and tugged on Jack's shirt sleeve, coughing. Jack turned around.
"What?" Still coughing, he made a sweeping gesture at himself and then finger guns. Jack rolled his eyes. If anyone had told him that morning that this mission was going to devolve to playing a bizarre version of charades in a gou'ald closet, he would have played hooky and stayed home with the sick man, at least then they'd be playing this game out of harm's way.
"The gray assed idiot didn't even arm you?" Un-holstering the zat, he handed it to Daniel and, thinking again, freed a few zip ties and his hunting knife from his pocket. Between the two of them, they managed to make the comforter into a less conspicuous outfit choice that blended in more smoothly with the fashion of Hun'ak.
"Better?" Grinning at the pile of feathers on the floor, Daniel nodded. Jack rolled his eyes, hoping no jaffa came in later and suspected an invasion of geese.
"Good. You owe me a comforter. Let's go." Switching to hand signals, he peered out of the doorway and, finding the coast clear, snuck down the hallway to where he'd agreed to meet Carter and Teal'c, Daniel on his six.
Carter and Teal'c were crouched behind the pile of foundation stones, watching the action of the camp at a safe distance. The sun was starting to set and, with it, the level of action of the camp. People were milling about more slowly, settling around campfires and tents. Jack knelt next to them. Wheezing slightly, Daniel more collapsed than sat next to him. Jack smirked at the look on Carter and Teal'c's faces.
"Surprise! The Asgard figured we could use a hand. If the C4 doesn't blow, we can just give them all Daniel's virus." Daniel gave a silent wave. Smiling and shaking his head at the continued speechlessness of Carter and Teal'c, Jack filled them in on the change of circumstances.
"Sir, can we trust this Asgard ship to remain cloaked? Do we know that Heru'ur won't be scared off by an Asgard presence and, even if it stays cloaked, how are we going to communicate with this Asgard to get all these people aboard while we blow the base?" Daniel winced. Trust Carter to find the possible loopholes in the plan.
"Indeed, O'Neill. We have no way to communicate with the Asgard. Though perhaps, it is best that Daniel Jackson is here. We may be able to create a diversion while you and Major Carter destroy the base." Jack surveyed the three of them. Daniel looked pale, exhausted, and slightly feverish, but like the day's adrenaline had accelerated the healing process and he was ready to take part. Carter, seeming to jump to Teal'c's conclusion, looked hopeful and Teal'c had the smug look he got whenever he knew his idea was best. Jack nodded.
"Alright, I'll bite, T. What's your plan?" They stayed hunched behind the pile of stones until darkness fell completely and then, in the obscurity of torchlight, staked a claim in a deserted tent to spend the night.
Jack woke before the dawn and sat at the tent entrance, watching the camp come to life. Teal'c had long ago snuck out in search of a worthy disguise for the two of them. He reappeared now from the edge of the tent city, a bundle in his arms.
"What'cha got, T?" Teal'c spread the spoils on the tent floor. Armor worthy of a first prime and a gold threaded cloak spilled out from the bundle.
"Nice!" Teal'c smiled and bowed his head.
"These were meant to be gifts for Heru'ur and his companions upon his arrival. Those guarding them have found themselves otherwise occupied and should be led to believe that the gifts have been taken for offering." Jack clapped Teal'c on the back and nodded in approval.
From where she sat riffling through supplies, Carter flashed an approving grin. Daniel, wrapped around a steaming mug of milky tea he'd somehow managed to snag from a neighboring campfire, nodded as well.
"Did someone fill in Jacob?" The hairs on the back of Jack's neck went up and his fingers itched for a trigger at the sound of Daniel's current voice. He was back to the low bass, multi-toned sound of a gou'ald.
"Ack! No talking for you, but yes, he's aware." Smirking, Daniel sipped at the tea and investigated the robe.
"I believe it will fit, Daniel Jackson." Nodding at Teal'c, Daniel placed down the mug and wriggled into the ornate cloth. Jack had to admit that he looked the part.
"And we're certain that Heru'ur hasn't been here yet? No one will know what he actually looks like?" Carter shrugged, checking for the last time that all was secured.
"We cannot be certain, Major Carter. However, as I was procuring these supplies, I overheard discussion of jaffa placing bets on Heru'ur's appearance." Jack smiled. Daniel raised an eyebrow.
"What were they guessing?" Teal'c grinned.
"You will make some jaffa quite pleased this morning, Daniel Jackson." Carter let out a laugh. Daniel crossed his arms and made a face like he wasn't sure if he was being made fun of.
"Uh… Why?" Jack winced and glared at him.
"Less talking, more walking. Time to get a move on, people. The sun's rising." SG1 was in position by the time the pink glow of dawn replaced the early morning's dark blue.
Crouching in yesterday's stone pile, Jack held out his Tok'ra communication device and watched people scurrying among the tents. Cloaked, Jacob had ringed Teal'c and Daniel out of the tent and down over on the far side of the settlement, a safe distance from the rigged explosion. As Daniel and Teal'c put on their show, Jack and Carter were set to detonate the C4. Jacob was meant to keep an eye on the situation above between the Asgard and whatever ha'tak Heru'ur decided to ride up in.
Surveying the gathering crowd, Daniel cleared his throat and swallowed nervously. His throat hurt less than the day before, but a lot was riding on his voice holding out in imitation gou'ald tones and the thought of forcing the growing crowd of people into false submission and fear put a bad taste in his mouth and a gnawing ache in his chest that had nothing to do with his current state of health.
Stomping back and forth in front of the crowd with the hood of his armor raised and his staff weapon primed, Teal'c certainly looked the part. Donning his most haughty expression, Daniel gazed at the sea of people. There had to be at least a thousand of them. The camp must have emptied.
"The almighty Heru'ur graces you with his presence. Bow before your god!" Teal'c apparently had arrived at the same conclusion about the success of their diversion and sought to begin. The sea of people fell to their knees. Daniel rose to his feet.
"Has the base been completed as I commanded?" An older man who must have been in charge rose on quaking legs and fell prostrate at his feet. Daniel fought the urge to help him back up again.
"It has, my lord, as you have commanded." Teal'c nudged the man with the butt end of his staff weapon.
"My lord Heru'ur did not command you to speak, old man." Daniel held up his hand. Teal'c stepped aside.
"What of the weapons within? Speak." Daniel listened as the older man rambled, fighting the urge to cough and hoping that Jack and Sam blew the C4 soon before he blew their cover.
"The Asgard vessel isn't cloaked, Jack." Jacob's voice crackled in over the Tok'ra communication device. Jack sent a hopeful grin to Carter, her finger poised on the detonator.
"Any sign of Heru'ur?" The line was silent a moment.
"No… Wait, yes! A Ha'tak just jumped out of hyperspace. I'm picking up on their transmission. Hold on…" Jack held his finger up, ready to give the signal.
"The Asgard is citing the treaty and raising weapons. The Ha'tak is, too. They're going to battle it out… No, wait, go! They're ringing down into the base. Go, go, go, go, go!" He gave the signal. Carter pressed the detonator and, just as the lavender sheen of a ring transmission sliced the space above the base, the structure engulfed in a giant ball of fire.
"Get us out of here, Jacob!" Identical rings centered around him and Carter and, in the blink of an eye, they were back on the tel'tac.
"Get Daniel and Teal'c. Let's get out of here!" He called, sliding into the copilot seat next to Jacob as they zoomed to the other side of the encampment.
Daniel was desperately hoping that Teal'c had picked up on the telepathic panicked signal he was trying to send. Not only was he pretty sure that his last "kree" had used up what little imitation gou'ald voice he had left, but he was also very sure that he could no longer fight the urge to cough. Clamping his mouth shut and breathing shallowly through his congested nostrils, he felt his diaphragm spasm and his face grow red, hoping he was giving off an impression of anger and not constipation.
"Your god grows angry at your disobedience!" Teal'c was storming back and forth between the crowd. Daniel focused on the base in the distance. Suddenly, a beam shot down from above and the base erupted into a fireball.
The crowd erupted similarly into mass hysteria. Daniel dropped the act, sucking in air and giving in to the coughing fit. Teal'c stopped pacing, standing close enough for the fall of rings just in time for them to appear around the pair of them. Daniel was never more thankful to see the inside of a tel'tac.
As the sound of coughing filled the hold and they made the jump back to hyperspace, Jack let out the breath he'd been holding.
"Well, that was a close one. Next time, the Asgard better mind their own little gray butts." Jacob smirked and bowed his head, Selmak taking over.
"Their involvement was most advantageous, in fact. With the Asgard presence, it is unlikely Heru'ur will attempt to build a second base in this star system." Shrugging agreement, Jack made his way back to the hold to check on the rest of his team.
Daniel had striped off the gou'ald attire, returning to the base layer of Jack's pajamas. Teal'c had done similarly with the armor. The three of them sat against the back of the hold, Teal'c cross-legged between the two of them. Still coughing and snuffling quietly, Daniel looked most of the way asleep, head drooping lower and lower till it just about rested on Teal'c's shoulder. Teal'c didn't seem to mind. From somewhere in the pockets of her uniform, Carter had produced a deck of cards and, from Jack's perspective in the doorway, looked to be teaching Teal'c the game of poker.
"Deal me in." He slid down next to Carter and accepted his hand. He never quite knew what to expect, he reflected, especially going on missions with the Tok'ra, but even with ridiculous surprises from allies and teammates alike, they'd yet to be dealt something they couldn't wrangle. Staring at his hand, he reconsidered. Maybe this time, he'd let Teal'c win.