Chapter Twenty-six
"Okay, we can do this two different ways." Jack announced. "There's the covert approach and the 'cause mass chaos' method."
"At Ba'al's age he must return to his Sarcophagus at night," Gabriel pointed out "there's a good chance he's 'sleeping'."
"Not to mention he's feeling particularly full of himself at the moment." Sam added. "And therefore not expecting an attack."
"Alright, covert for now...but I'll be damned if I'm leaving this ship without blowing something up."
"You can start with the door." Gabriel offered.
Jack nodded and riffled through the back pack he had brought along. Finding a silencer he handed it to Sam and she added it to the sidearm she now carried. It didn't take much of a charge to remove enough of the grated door to allow them to slip out. They stayed back a moment to see if anyone would come running. When no one challenged them they stepped out into the hall.
"Why didn't he post any guards?" Jack asked.
"Arrogance." Gabriel supplied. "In the Gou'ald world it is considered to be a great insult to be held captive without guard."
"Does that mean Daniel will be unguarded."
"Not likely, he's currently a special case. Ba'al would not take such a chance."
"Any thoughts on where he might be?"
"I...uh...if I know Ba'al," Gabriel swallowed hard "then I know exactly where Daniel is."
"And do you know Ba'al?" Jack asked unknowingly repeating Daniel's inquiry.
"All too well."
"Then show us the way."
Gabriel nodded and looked around to get his bearings straight. With confidence he turned right and began to lead them upwards through the ships levels. Several times they had to duck into storage rooms and such to avoid patrolling Jaffa. However all in all the journey was not as difficult as Jack had feared it would be.
"Where is everyone?" Jack asked quietly.
"Probably tearing the Alpha Site apart." Sam guessed.
"Yeah," Jack sighed "I am not looking forward to trying to explain that."
"Sssh." Gabriel admonished.
Gabriel lead them to an intersection and halted them with a hand signal. He cautiously peeked around the corner and then ducked back. He held up two fingers, Jack looked to Sam and she nodded. With the silenced sidearm in hand Sam glanced around the corner to see where the guards were standing.
Sam drew back, made a quick mental calculation and then stepped out into the hall with the weapon raised. The gun spat quietly twice and Sam nodded to let the others know it was clear. Jack quickly made his way to the dropped guards and grabbed one by the collar to drag him out of view. Gabriel touched the other and pulled his hand back in surprise.
"What's wrong?" Sam asked with her weapon ready again.
"This one's human."
"Human?" Jack repeated.
"He has no symbiot, he is not Jaffa." Gabriel explained.
"Isn't that a bit odd?"
"Extremely." Gabriel answered. "Something's not right."
"One problem at a time." Jack said firmly.
Gabriel nodded his agreement and pulled the human guard out of plain sight. He lead them through the hallway that the guards had been protecting. At the end was a single door. Gabriel just stared at the metal barrier for a moment.
"This is it." Gabriel announced as he went to open the door.
"How do we know Ba'al's not still in there with him?" Jack asked in a whisper.
"Because there's no sound."
Jack paled at Gabriel's response. He wished his heart wasn't pounding so hard against his ribs. He noticed that Gabriel seemed to be waiting for permission to open the door. Rather than response Jack reached out to the access panel and opened the door himself.
Although he had already prepared himself for what he would see it didn't help his reaction to it when faced with the reality. His heart that had been working so hard seemed to suddenly skip a few of its vigorous beats before stumbling back into rhythm.
The eerie light of the ring stained Daniel's skin a tranquil blue, giving him the look of being frozen in ice. With his head bowed in exhausted surrender his only motion was laboured rise and fall of his stomach as he attempted to keep breathing. Even from across the room Jack could hear the painful rasping of the effort.
"Daniel..."
Daniel made no reaction to their arrival and seem oblivious to it. Jack rushed up and instantly went for the buckles of the leather straps holding Daniel's wrists captive. When Gabriel grabbed his arm to stop him Jack glared at him murderously.
"You can't just let him down."
"Why not?" Jack demanded angrily.
"He needs the ring for a little longer." Gabriel explained. "Trust me on this."
Jack thought about it for a moment and then nodded.
"First you need to take the pins out of his knees."
"Pins?" Sam repeated in horror.
"Silver pieces used to keep him from being able to stand or kick."
"Why do I get the feeling you've seen this before?" Jack growled.
"I have, never to this extent. However the ring used in the turning of a Tok'ra."
"You lied to us." Jack hissed.
"I had to."
Jack took a breath to argue further when he noticed that Sam was making better use of her energy. Having found one of the 't' shaped spikes she yanked it out quickly. Jack looked up to see if Daniel had even noticed, he hadn't. Jack knelt down and pulled another restraint from the other knee.
Standing back up Jack gingerly placed his hand under Daniel's jaw and brought his head up. His sapphire eyes were open, but he was looking away. Jack moved into Daniel's line of sight and Daniel shifted his vision away once again, refusing to make eye contact. Allowing Daniel to put his head back down Jack turned his attention to Sam.
"He...he's probably in shock, Sir." Sam said quietly.
Gabriel walked carefully around the ring, afraid to get caught in its healing horizon. Jack didn't like the way the Gou'ald eyes suddenly brightened with tears. Gabriel reached out to touch Daniel's back, but froze before he did so.
"Gabriel?" Sam asked in concern.
"I will see him dead for this." Gabriel growled darkly.
With his blood running like ice in his veins Jack walked around the ring. He closed his eyes against the sight, but it was too late, the image was forever imprinted in his mind. Like the bony stubs of broken wings a pair of ornate dagger hilts protruded from Daniel's shoulder blades. Every breath he took lanced the buried silver through his lungs, only to have them heal again.
"Sir?"
"Stay there, Carter." Jack replied vacantly. "That's an order."
"Jack, you're going to have to pull them out. I can't risk touching him until the ring is off."
"Perhaps we should turn the ring off first and..."
"Let him drown in his own blood?"
"I...uh...I didn't think of it that way." Jack admitted. "I was hoping that if the ring was off he'd quickly pass out..."
"I know you don't want to hurt him, but the best thing is to just remove them."
Jack closed his eyes against the sting of tears and nodded. He opened his eyes with a deep breath and reached out to take one of the hilts. Once again Gabriel took his wrist to stop him. This time Jack just looked at him expectantly. Gabriel forced a sad smile.
"Sam?"
"Yes?" Sam answered anxiously.
"I need you to steady Daniel so that Jack can take both of the knives at once." Gabriel instructed. "Wrap one arm around his waist...the other I'm afraid you're going to have to put over his mouth to keep any noise to a minimum."
Sam nodded, realizing that this had to be done.
"Jack, those blades will be healed into the bone, so make sure you pull as hard as you can."
"Right."
Sam stepped up to Daniel and placed her arm around his waist as though they were going to dance. It wasn't until she reached up to put her hand on his mouth that she got a reaction from him. He calmly turned his face away from her to try and keep her from silencing him.
Not wanting to prolong the inevitable Sam simply forced him to face forward. She put her delicate hand over his mouth and held it there firmly. He still refused to look at her, however his expression slowly turning to one of confusion.
"I'm sorry, Daniel." Sam whispered.
"Ready?" Jack asked morosely.
"As we'll ever be."
In one swift motion Jack gripped both daggers and jerked them free. Sam had braced herself for a violent reaction, however, Daniel had remained calm and hadn't even whimpered. The only change was that she could now feel his hot breath brushing across the back of her hand as he was finally able to breath freely again. She took her hand away from his mouth and he slowly bowed his head once more.
Jack dropped the gory blades and looked to Gabriel. Gabriel walked around to the control panel on the ring and after waiting for another minute he shut it down. Sam released Daniel and Jack took her place in supporting him while she freed him from the leather restraints.
Jack helped Daniel to sit down on the cold stone floor, making sure he was steady before releasing him. Daniel seemed awake, but completely disinterested in his surroundings. Jack took off his lightweight jacket and draped it over Daniel's bare shoulders. Sam knelt down in front of him and gently ran her fingers through his hair trying to get his attention.
"Daniel? It's Sam..."
When she didn't get any response Sam put her hand on his shoulder. He pulled away just enough to let her know the contact was unwanted. She sighed and took her hand away. Strangely enough the sigh seemed to get a reaction out of him. For a brief moment he looked around nervously before zoning out again.
"It's alright, Daniel," Sam assured "we're going to get you home."
"He'll be okay," Gabriel said unconvincingly "he just needs some time."
"I think now would be a good time to switch to 'mass chaos'" Jack suggested. "I've got the important parts of this bird rigged to blow. And I've got a sizable charge ready on Anshar's ship as well, which by the way Ba'al's goons boarded just before I came over. We can blow that first to send everyone into a frenzy, get to the Alpha Site and then cripple this one."
"I disagree, I think it's more important that we..."
Gabriel and Jack started to argue about their next move however Sam had stopped listening when Daniel suddenly reached out and took her hand. She shifted her whole attention to him and he actually brought his eyes up to meet hers.
He knit his brow like he was trying to understand what was happening. Sam could see him losing his focus, slipping away once more into his own mind. He looked around vacantly as tears slipped down his cheeks. He brought his gaze back to Sam once more, shaking his head slowly.
Sam waited anxiously for him to say something. However, he didn't quite make it to the surface and went back to staring at the floor. Tears spilt from Sam's eyes as well as she watched him go back into his own world. It was worse than seeing him trapped in his memories, at least then he had been interacting with something. Jack and Gabriel's argument caught Sam's ear again when Jack said something odd.
"Gabriel, only a shmuck gets out of the shower to pee."
"Wha...what does that even mean?"
"It means 'let's not do any more work than we have to'."
"I just think you're underestimating Ba'al and that if we don't see to his death personally he's going to escape and he won't rest until he has me, and the first thing he'll do is head towards Earth and destroy it in hopes of flushing me."
"I'm not starting a fight with Ba'al on his own ship with Daniel in this condition. We need to get him home and if Ba'al survives then we'll deal with him later."
"Then take Daniel back yourself and I'll deal with Ba'al."
"You can barely run ten feet before having a stroke." Jack countered. "You can't win against him. If we don't manage to destory this ship we will certainly at least cripple it. He'll be stuck here and we can come back later and clean up the mess."
"Ba'al will be long gone by the time you can even dial the Gate."
"I don't care." Jack finally admitted. "Daniel's more important, and a series of distracting explosions is the best way to get him out of here."
Gabriel sighed. He had seen Daniel's memories, and he knew what it was like to argue with Jack. However he was finding that experiencing it for himself was far more frustrating.
"This mission is officially a total scrub," Jack growled "let's get out of here."
Gabriel looked down and Sam and Daniel, and suddenly realized that Jack was right. He flashed Sam a sad smile and then nodded. Sam turned her attention back to Daniel and was suddenly struck with a thought.
"Gabriel, what about the research we came here to get?" Sam asked. "Did you ever find any of it?"
"Sort of, but it is protected by a series of passwords."
"But you know where it is in the system?"
"Yes."
"Carter, why does any of that matter now?" Jack asked irately.
"Sir, we can't let Daniel have gone through all of this for nothing. We need to at least try and get that data before leaving. We are never going to get a chance like this again."
"Sam, it would take even you hours, if not days to hack into Ba'al's database."
"Don't have to...got a better idea."
"Carter?"
"Sir, we don't have to copy the information onto a Crystal...because it's already on one."
"What?" Jack asked.
"Sam, I know what you're thinking, but there a thousands of Crystals involved in Ba'al's system. How will we know which ones to take and how to configure them later?"
"That's what I'm here for."
Gabriel stared at Sam for a moment and she met his challenge with a confident smile. Gabriel returned the smile and nodded his approval. It was a long shot, but it could work. They both turned to Jack and looked at him expectantly.
"Under one condition." Jack said firmly.
"You'll get to blow something up, Sir." Sam smiled. "In fact I suggest we destroy Anshar's ship now so you can use the distraction to get Daniel out of here and Gabriel and I can use it to get into his lab. Once that's done we can set off a crippling charge here for some more 'chaos' and join you."
"Be back at the Base by dinner?"
"Just maybe." Sam smiled.
"Finally, a plan that sounds sane." Jack beamed.
"It does?" Gabriel asked.
"Well...in comparison to what we've been doing."