A/N: Here we go. One step closer to the end. Enjoy!
Jack stared into the crackling flames before him, the scent of burning wood cloyingly sweet in his nostrils. The villagers laughed and smiled around him, celebrating their fresh victory. For a moment, Jack could almost let himself stop to wonder at their circumstances. Daniel Jackson had stumbled upon a society he now believed to be descendants of Earth's ancient Egypt. Their god, whose symbol Daniel wore around his neck, was in fact an alien, who looked human but very clearly was not.
When Jack and his team had returned to the pyramid, they'd been ambushed. They'd nearly been executed, and would have been if Daniel Jackson hadn't proven his mettle. He and his villagers had provided enough distraction for Jack and the others to disappear into the crowd, with Jackson quick behind them. Now they hid in a small cavern, listening to the winds beyond the rock wall, the false peace it afforded dangerously alluring.
But despite the overwhelming sense of security here in this cave, Jack refused to let himself fall victim to it, just as he refused to see this Ra character as anything but a threat. God or no, he looked like a man, and until he was death and his brain cooked, he would continue to think of ways he could be killed. And so, while the others smiled and celebrated their recent victory, Jack remained on edge, all too aware of how few of them there truly were.
Colonel Marshall was dead, dropped in the first ambush inside the pyramid. Ferretti had reported back to him on what he and Kowalsky had missed while chasing Jackson and getting caught up in the native village. Cotteran had died as well, his body never recovered from the antechamber of the pyramid. And now Brown was lying dead in the sand. As impressive as Jackson's resurrection and consequent rescue had been, his merry band of villagers hadn't been able to save everyone. So now Jack had five men to work with. Only five trained men and a gaggle of teenagers against an army.
Well, he couldn't forget Jackson. Or Jackson's prize wife. What was her name? Sherry? Cherie?
Jack's gaze lifted to the woman, only half-listening as Jackson struggled through the native language recounting his experience inside the pyramid. Whatever her name was, she was beautiful, giving new meaning to the term 'desert flower'. She was way out Jackson's league and to Jack it seemed strange that she was as attracted to the Doctor as she was.
But then, who was he to judge? The same could have been said about him and Sam. Come to think of it, Share reminded him a little of Sam. She had spirit, and seemed to subtly resist the expectations forced upon her as both a woman and the daughter of the village chief.
Even now, the woman's eyes were not on her task of grinding grain, but rather on the conversation that was happening around her. An intelligence shone in her gaze that set her apart from the cowed villagers who bowed so willingly to a supposed god. In another time, on another world, Jack suspected Sam and this quiet desert flower might have been friends.
But there was no point in considering that possibility. Sam would never come here, and he'd be damned if anything from this godforsaken planet found its way back to Earth.
Jack refocused on the conversation, and realized that its tone had shifted dramatically. Jackson's eyes skewered him from across the fire, his usually unshuttered features dark with judgement. Jack met the hard stare unflinchingly, refusing to be cowed. He had an idea what Jackson might know—there were only certain things that could elicit that kind of damnation from fellow man.
Charlie leaned forward, responding to the sudden tension. Jack saw the motion, but didn't respond, and in his lack of reaction Charlie stood down. Dark eyes still watched, ready to move if necessary—hopefully in Jack's defense. But how long that devotion would last once Jackson spewed the truth was anyone's guess.
"You going to tell them about the bomb?" Jackson spat, the words searing hot in the cave's sudden silence. "Or should I?"
Now all eyes were on him. His team fell deathly still, shock sharpening their gazes until Jack could almost feel tiny holes burning through his skin from the heat. The villagers looked back and forth between all of them. The only sound was that of Sha're and her grinding stone. Those sharp, dark eyes took in the whole scene, seeing more than anyone gave her credit for.
"Jack." Charlie's voice brought his focus back to the topic at hand. Jack turned his head slightly, meeting his friend's hesitant gaze. Next to Kawalsky, Ferretti stared in just as much disbelief. The Lieutenant was just a kid. Too young for this. But then, they'd both been too young to die in the Iraqi desert. Maybe they were just old enough to die in an alien one.
"Jack, what bomb?" Charlie asked.
"It was a contingency plan only," Jack stated bluntly. "It Colonel Marshall's mission, and I was read in on the brief for if Marshall was incapacitated."
"Well, now he has it," Jackson delivered heavily. "Ra intends to send that nuke back to Earth, along with the mineral they mine here, which will magnify its effects a hundred fold."
It was as if the air had been sucked out of their little cave. Ice stole into Jack's blood, sending goosebumps pimpling across his skin. That kind of firepower—the entire mountain would blow. The mountain, the Midwest… maybe even half the continent. And then the nuclear fallout—Jesus. Suddenly, the human race seemed very, very small.
"Not if we blow it here, first." Jack leveled a hard look at all of them. The village kids stared blankly at him, not understanding a word he said. But the rest of his men, even Jackson, all fell dangerously still.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Jackson asked, condemnation thick in his tone.
"Exactly what you think it means, doc," Jack replied scathingly. "If we blow it here, now, that bastard won't get a chance to send it through the Stargate back to Earth."
"And kill everyone on this planet? Including ourselves?"
"YES!"
The word echoed across the small space, and Jack felt the whisper of desperation in his mind. Sam was back on Earth. Sam and everything else any of them had ever known was under threat from an alien threat, and as absurd as it sounded when it was said aloud, it didn't change the fact that it was true.
"What gives you the right to decide who lives and who dies?"
Jack glared at the archaeologist, both angry and shocked at the man's holier-than-thou judgement. "I am the ranking officer of this mission. That gives me the right. We are all under orders to eliminate any threat we find on this side of the gate, and if that means blowing us all to hell, then so be it. And before you go all native on us, Doctor Jackson, you might want to remember which side of that Stargate you came from."
His footsteps were the only sound in the cavern as Jack left the fire, silently seething. He sat heavily against the wall in a dark corner, sucking in a deep breath. Fire burned in his chest, and it wasn't all anger. It was fear, and not for the people on this planet. Sam. He'd come here to lose her, but she'd followed him anyway, hadn't she?
A few moments later, a body settled next to him, and Jack knew without looking who had dared to come after him. Kawalsky's shrouded form was silent, but Jack could feel the betrayal oozing from his friend. It rolled off him in waves, but when he spoke, his voice was calm.
"It's one thing to throw away your life, but everyone else's?" Kawalsky shook his head. "That's cold, man."
"We can't let them send that bomb through—"
"I'm not saying we should!" Charlie countered, an edge finally creeping its way into his voice, offended at Jack's unintended insinuation. "But blowing us all up… that's not Plan A. It's not even Plan B. It's freaking Plan Zulu, and if your head was on straight, you wouldn't even consider it until the shit really hit the fan."
Jack blinked. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"This is clearly the stupidest thing you've ever tried," his friend continued unashamedly. "I have the strongest urge to shoot you for not keeping me in the loop, but I figure I'll let Sam handle that."
"Sam won't ever find out what happened here."
"You think she won't be able to put two and two together? Or did you seriously come here without seeing Sam's name all over that damned program?"
Jack had no rebuttal. It was true. The pieces had clicked together faster than Jack had ever puzzled anything before. Granted, it didn't take much—Cheyenne Mountain, beyond-top-secret project, theoretical wormhole physics… and the haunting memory of Sam gushing about her new job. It seemed so long ago now, but he'd made the connection within moments of laying eyes on the damn thing.
"She's gonna blame herself, you know. You die out here, and she'll see it as her fault. Sam opened the Stargate. Somehow, some way, she made this all possible, and if it kills you, it's on her."
Kawalsky eyed him through the shadows, daring Jack to try and convince him that Sam wouldn't react just that way.
"She'll leave the project, you know," he continued. "She may wash her hands of physics altogether. She'll lose everything she ever loved, and all because you have your head so far up your ass you don't see the truth."
"What truth?"
"Why the hell are you here? You think they couldn't find some other Black Ops Captain, one who hasn't just come back from a 4-month stint as a POW?"
Jack froze. What was he saying? Jack had been necessary on the mission. At least, that's what he'd been told, and if he were honest with himself, he hadn't looked much farther into the invitation than "suicide mission," and only was he starting wonder if he should.
"And the one day," Charlie continued, "the one day the both of us are to Cheyenne Mountain to be briefed on Sam's pet project and she's nowhere to be found? Come on, Jack, that more than stinks. It reeks."
Jack blinked. He hadn't thought… he'd thought…
"Sam might be pissed enough that she'd go out of her way to avoid you," Kawalsky continued, as though reading his mind. "But me?" Dark eyes glinted as they rolled above an impish grin. "No way. She still likes me, man."
Jack huffed, mimicking his friend's humor. But truth be told, his heart was now heavier than before. He was slowly coming to terms with the idea that Sam might still forgive him for what he'd done, that maybe he'd been wrong to come here without saying goodbye. But now another concern weighed on him, darkening his thoughts.
In the end, Kawalsky nodded, his job done. "Think about it, then let me know how it factors into your plans."
Kawalsky left him to his thoughts, and Jack surveying his now treacherous thoughts. The clarity of purpose that had strengthened his resolve to die on this planet was now clouded, shaken by the revelation of new facts.
It began to feel more and more like this was an attack. An attack on him specifically. Even so, if it ended there, Jack may not have cared. But it went further than that. By getting him through the Stargate—and now belated Jack fully realized that Charlie was here too—the powers that be had succeeded in leaving Sam alone on Earth.
This attack on him was an attack on Sam. Jack didn't want to think about who might have the desire and authority to pull something like this off, but the thought of leaving Sam alone and vulnerable didn't sit well with him. Suddenly, the situation was more than just himself. But then again, maybe it always had been. He'd just been too out of it to see that.
Jack wiped his palms on his BDUs and rose. It was time to reconsider his strategy.