Chapter 21: Down To The Wire
-
A light dusting of snow had begun to fall as the threatening clouds finally let loose on the forested area below. Hidden in the snow Jack and his team were spread out. They were positioned strategically around the power plant and were slowly creeping up to the abandoned structure on foot through the forest. Jack had decided to scout the area ahead by himself and was just close enough to see the sharp outline of the dilapidated structure through the crowded branches of the surrounding fir trees.
Jack called out a hushed halt to his team via his earpiece, and then he grabbed his binoculars and began to survey the power plant as he planned the rescue operation's next move.
As he adjusted his view to focus in on one of the buildings many openings he was startled by rustling sound behind him and to his right. Jack immediately dropped the binoculars and swung his weapon around at the sound.
"Hey, Jack." Daniel said unperturbed by the weapon that was trained on him. He stood casually behind Jack, hands in his pockets and his frame glowing eerily in the dim forest.
Jack quickly lowered his weapon, "Daniel, jeez, you can't sneak up on people like that you nearly gave me a heart attack." Jack admonished, still shaken with surprise at his ascended friends sudden appearance.
"Sorry." Daniel acquiesced, but didn't seem overly concerned.
Jack threw a quick anxious glance over his shoulder at the building in the distance. "Listen Daniel, I'd love to chat but your timings pretty bad, we're kinda in the middle of something here . . ." Jack started.
"I'm here because of Jonas." Daniel announced, his tone laced with anxiety, interrupting the older man.
"Crap, he's already dead isn't he?" Jack sighed dejectedly.
Daniel raised his brow and shook his head, "No. No." And then his expression shifted and he looked down before continuing, "At least not yet." he finally disclosed.
Jack was relieved and confused, "So you're here to help then? Isn't that against the rules? You know the whole 'non-interference' shtick?"
"Actually this is a sanctioned visit." Daniel clarified with a shrug.
Jack raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Really? Well, let's go kick some butt . . ."
"Um, I can't help you in that way." Daniel hedged, looking at his feet and kicking lightly at the needles littering the forest floor. Looking back up again he let out a swift breath and announced, "Listen, Jack, I'm here to warn you."
"Okaayy..." Jack said slowly, not sure where this was all headed.
"Look," Daniel paused to let out a quick sigh, a look of trepidation painting his features. "The NID have instigated a genetic transformation in Jonas, and what's been done—cannot be undone. Without a doubt it will change him, and . . ." Daniel paused again.
"And?" Jack encouraged raising his eyebrows.
"The council is—no, we, are concerned that these changes will be too much for him to bear, and that could be very bad for, well, everyone." Daniel announced his demeanor more deliberate.
"What the hell are you talking about Daniel?" Jack asked his ire rising.
"Jonas is hanging by a thread. And if you go in there you may have a chance to save him." Daniel started, stressing the 'if', "However, this might be your only chance to stop Jonas before he can't stop himself."
"What do you mean stop him, Daniel . . ." Jack asked, but before he could finish Sam's voice came over the radio into his ear.
"Awaiting your orders, sir."
Jack broke away from the conversation and turned his attention to the radio. "Everyone hold for a minute." He barked lowly over the line.
Daniel took the momentary distraction as an opportunity to speak, trying to explain himself, "Jack, we don't know exactly what the NID has done to Jonas but what we've been able to see is something that frankly worries us; and it's very possible that it could upset the balance."
"The balance? The balance of what?" Jack asked in a disgruntled tone. He had a very bad feeling about where this was going.
"The universe." Daniel said simply.
"What exactly are you asking me to do Daniel?" Jack pointedly asked, tired of beating around the bush.
"Not asking, just suggesting. Strongly. Strongly suggesting." Daniel contravened.
"Daniel for crying out loud! Suggesting then?" Jack returned, his patience at an end.
Daniel pursed his lips. "It might be better if you let him go."
Jack gave his friend a look of stupefaction, "Whoah, whoah wait a minute, are you saying that you want me to let Jonas die?"
"It may be the only way." Daniel said his own voice filled with sorrow.
"The only way for what Daniel?" Jack asked barely controlling the irritation in his voice. This wasn't the Daniel he remembered.
"Jonas may not be able to handle what he is becoming and, frankly, we believe that what's been done to him will make more powerful than you or I or anyone can imagine." Daniel looked at Jack with compassion, "I know that this hard to understand but you have to believe I wouldn't be here saying this if I felt there was another path."
Jack was silent for a moment contemplating what he'd just been told. Daniel decided to use the moment to speak again, "Jack, this could be your only chance. If Jonas survives this, his powers could be so great that no one could stop him not even if we wanted to." Daniel tried another tactic. "We are talking Pandora's box here, Jack."
"What if I do save him? Are you saying there is no chance Jonas could overcome this, this thing? And what makes you think he'd use his power for evil anyway? He's been through a similar scenario before and proven just the opposite." Jack asked narrowing his eyes.
"I can't see into the future Jack, so I can't say anything for sure. Understand, I want to believe Jonas would choose to use them for good, if he could; but the kind of power we're talking about controls you, not the other way around."
"Yeah well, I say we give him a chance, hell, Jonas denied Nirtti and her offer of power." Jack reminded him.
"Jack it might not be that easy this time." Daniel said defensively, and then offered, "I can't and I won't stop you if you try to save him. But what you have to understand is that if you do, whatever happens, that outcome is because of a decision you make right now."
The weight of Daniels words fell heavily onto Jack. He looked back at the building that held Jonas, contemplating the life or death decision.
"Daniel, I never gave up on you, you know." He said finally and turned his gaze back to his friend. "I should have, lots of times. Yet every damn time we thought we'd lost you I couldn't give up, I couldn't let you go. Do you know why?" Jack asked.
Daniel was silent waiting for the older man to continue.
"It was because you never gave up on me even when I had given up on, hell, everything. On Abydos you made me hope again. And because of that you deserved all the hope I had." Jack cleared his throat and looked away, his emotion at the words making it impossible to hold Daniels gaze. "When you died this last time, I only let you go, because you asked me to. You had a choice. But Jonas, right now, he doesn't have a choice. And he deserves one." Jack finally met his long time friend's gaze.
Daniel was surprised at the other man's words, not anticipating such a heartfelt response from the seemingly apathetic man. "Okay Jack." Daniel said, "I hope it's the right thing," and then he added calmly, "for all our sake."
Jack said nothing, letting the silence stretch between them. Eventually he regained his stoic demeanor and breaking away from Daniel he refocused his scrutiny on the area ahead of him. Then putting a finger to his earpiece, he contacted the awaiting team. "Sam, Teal'c, what do you got?" Jack asked.
"Everything's all clear from what we can see." Sam called back, an unspoken question in her voice.
Jack looked back at Daniel but the man had disappeared leaving Jack once again on his own. Jack sighed and reset his attention on the mission at hand. "Yeah, its all clear here too, lets do this thing."
...
The team slowly approached the room they had left not three hours before. So far there had been no signs of the men they had been pursuing. This room was the last place to look.
Sam was worried that Jack's assumption that the NID had returned here was incorrect and the moments that ticked by were just wasted time. But Jack seemed very sure that they would find Jonas here and Sam clung to hope on his confidence alone.
Finally they reached the doorway to the room. Jack gave the nod and the team surrounded the double doors. Jack then quickly approached the left side and used hand signals to announce his intentions. The surrounding party lifted their arms indicating they were 'ready' in return. Jack wasted no time and slammed his shoulder onto the panel to force the door, breaking the already damaged lock easily.
The room was mostly as they left it but the table that had formerly held what could only be described as instruments of torture was now occupied by the half-naked and bloodied body of Jonas Quinn.
The sight shook Jack to the core, his breath catching in his throat at the appalling sight. He'd never seen the younger man in such a condition and it took his mind a second to register that the blood stained occupant of the room was really Jonas. But as soon as awareness hit him so did the reality and urgency of the moment. Jack's training quickly overcame his emotion and he sprung into action.
The team advanced inward and Jack reached the motionless figure first. His approach created a clamor of noise as his rushing feet knocked the stray implements of torture that lay discarded on the floor into one another.
Jonas's body was shockingly pale. Blood covered most of his frame and bruises and abrasions littered the rest. He was deathly still, and the florescent lights strung high above, revealed the face of a broken man. His eyes were closed, ringed by dark shadows and his nose and mouth were rimmed in the residue of dried blood and his lips were parted slightly, displayed an unmistakable blue cast.
"Carter!" Jack called as he dropped his weapon and placed an ear against the kid's chest, careful to avoid the odd tube that protruded from it.
Carter was by his side in an instant. "He's not breathing." Jack announced to her.
Sam wasted no time and a nearby soldier. "Get a medic in here stat!" she ordered.
Jack was about to start chest compressions but Carter stopped him gripping his forearm. "Sir, don't. You could make things worse." Jack was about to protest but the rapid arrival of the requested medical detail interrupted him.
Jack and Sam stood back helplessly, unable to do anything except watch in abject dread as the three medics proceeded to treat their damaged teammate. The men surrounded Jonas in a flurry of action passing medical jargon back and forth like a tennis ball at Wimbledon.
Jack struggled to understand the commotion the medical team was making, distracted by alarm and concern for Jonas.
When one of the men suddenly jumped on the metal table and straddled the unconscious figure Jack's heart leapt into his throat. He watched in abject dread as the medic did some sort of survey of Jonas's mouth before forcefully tilting his head back; and with the aid of a metal device skillfully thrust a plastic tube down Jonas's throat. Jack immediately realized they were intubating Jonas in a manual effort to get him to breathe. He'd seen triage before on the battlefield and in the infirmary, but today it felt like a new experience, somehow foreign and altogether wrong.
Sam, stood quietly next to him but her own internal emotions unknowingly echoed her commanders. She desperately wanted to turn away from the scene but the fear of losing her friend froze her focus on the chaos. She barely noticed as Teal'c came up behind her, his strong figure shadowing her as they all allowed themselves to be drawn into the dramatic event as helpless spectators.
As the medics forcefully opened Jonas's airway, Sam's eye caught on Jonas's right arm lying limply off the side of the table. She found herself morbidly entranced by the trails of red fluid that were traveling down, from his bleeding shoulder, to his motionless and limp hand. She fixedly observed the flowing tendrils as they met and collected at the tips of Jonas fingers, welling into droplets that built and released, leaking viscous fluid onto the concrete floor.
Abruptly a medic blocked her view as he found the wound and began to stem the crimson flow, breaking Sam's strange reverie.
The interruption forced her back into the present and she turned to see that Jack and Teal'c had already moved on, and were now working diligently to secure and contain the area. She realized then that she still had a job to do, that they still needed to find the men responsible, but before she could fully snap into that reality, Jack caught her eye.
"Carter, we are gonna find these scumbags. Davis and his men will secure the compound. Medivac is three minutes out. Stay with Jonas and bring him home" He ordered her, moving with Teal'c to the exit.
She nodded to him numbly in response, watching them leave, until the cacophony of the fetid opera playing out in front of her reclaimed her attention.
Startled by a sudden ripping sound, she watched, as one of the medics split open Jonas's pant leg, exposing another blood-covered appendage. She promptly tuned back into the medical exchange issuing from men huddled around Jonas.
"I've got another GSW left extremity, mid femur, through and through. Distal pulse." The medic announced examining the exposed area.
"Femoral?" The man astride Jonas who was now executing chest compressions gave a quick response to man behind him.
"Could be. it's pretty messy down here." The other medic replied.
"Pack it, and get a line in. Crystalloid with lactated ringers, let's push for an SBP of 90, people." The other man quicked charged.
His constant control of the back-and-forth quickly identified him as the team leader. Sam observed his fastidious ministrations, her chest tight with worry. The leader caught the eye of the medic nearest him who had just finished treating Jonas's shoulder. And as if they had choreographed it in advance the two men unspokenly switched roles. The leader of the team carefully descended from the table, allowing himself and the other men full access to their patient as he turned his attention to the bruising on Jonas abdomen.
What felt like half a second passed when a medic checking Jonas's pulse called out, "Mike, I'm getting nothing over here!"
Mike, redirected his attention immediately and asked "Atropine?"
"Already administered." his teammate responded.
"Right, shit. Get the AED," he directed.
The other man wasted no time and quickly pulled a machine from a bag on the floor. Sam immediately recognized the device and her blood pressure skyrocketed at the sight of it.
"Alright everybody stand clear." Mike announced pulling out the paddles and placing them on Jonas's exposed chest. "Charging to two hundred!"
Jonas's back arched as the defibrillator sent its energy through him. At the same moment the radio in Sam's ear crackled to life as Major Davis came over the line. "Major Carter, the medivac has arrived."
Sam was partially relieved at the news, but as she watched Jonas's body flail as the medic gave him a second hit from the defibrillator she wondered if it wasn't already too late.
A/N: What did you think? Please send me a review and let me know :) :) Also, thanks very much to those who have reviewed, this chapter is dedicated to MerryLittleMess, Kindred Spirit and Nouvel Oblique. Your reviews keep me going, you guys rock! :D