Chapter 43
Teal'c pulled in a slow lungful of incense sweeten air and opened his eyes. His vision wavered in the haze of the many candles, flickering around the room. Teal'c blew out the candle in front of him, the one he'd been using to try and focus. He'd failed. He simply didn't have the mental calm he needed to achieve a true Kelnoreem. Teal'c looked around the room that had been the residence of Daniel Jackson for so long. He had hoped that being here would bring him closer to his friend, but all it brought him was sadness.
The room was barren; it contained little of the history and character of the man who had lived there. In fact apart from a few books, folders and the coffee maker a person could be forgiven for thinking that this room was vacant. Daniel Jackson had existed, in the barest sense of the word for years, and what was worse was his friends hadn't even noticed.
Teal'c took another deep breath and made a decision. It was something he thought that O'Neill would have done had he been there, but since he was not it was up to Teal'c to fill the role of protector of Daniel Jackson from Daniel Jackson. Teal'c fully expected his friend to return to them whole after the latest run in with the powers that be, and he would return to find he had a home once more. Teal'c stood up and blew out his candles and incense. He would consult Samantha Carter, on how to evict these students from Daniel Jackson's house.
Daniel woke up slowly, having slept deeper than he ever remembered. Staying at Jack's so long had drained him, more than he could have imagined, he wondered if the man even knew he'd been hanging out with an astral projection all this time. He sat up and rooted around in his pack for an energy bar, he swallowed it and checked his watch.
"Ah crap," he muttered and lay back down.
Daniel woke up again in Jack's spare room with the unmistakable feeling of being watched. "Jack," he groaned, without looking up, he'd recognized the images of thoughts that inevitably came from his friend.
"You were wrong," Jack said, from where he stood at the door, "Last night when you told me I trusted Carter more than you."
"I was?" Daniel turned over on the bed and looked at Jack, "How so?"
"Carter has the science to back her up, but mostly her plans, insane and risky as they might be, usually include the team, she doesn't lone-gun it, especially when the planet is on the line. You," Jack snorted to himself, "You scare the crap out of me! You're brilliant and brave and scary, and selfless and stubborn and pigheaded and arrogant. You constantly undermine my command and you are constantly putting yourself between us and potential enemies. It took me years to figure you out, to understand why you are the way you are."
"And what did you figure out?" Daniel sat up in bed.
"I figured out that, because you're so brilliant and selfless, you can see all the wonders around us. You would do anything to protect them, and when you can't, you blame yourself. I don't know what it says about you that you believe that it's your lot in life to protect all things at the cost of your own life," Jack held up a hand to halt Daniel protests.
"You don't see yourself in the world Daniel, just as an observer and protector and that scares me, because you can't see that the people you love, love you back and are so utterly devastated when you die on one of your crusades.
"Not many people get the chances that you have to live again, and equally they also don't get all the shit you've been through to do it. I know you're tired, I know you're sick of one thing or another coming along to smack you while you're down, but you have to keep fighting Daniel, you have to live," Jack took a deep breath, slightly embarrassed by his revelations, but stubbornly determined to make his point.
"I'm going to make coffee," he said, "and then we're going to sit down and discuss your plan to save the galaxy, again. But I want you to think about something first, I'm paraphrasing a very smart man I met a long time ago, and I think it applies here now, you see 'I don't want to die, and your friends they don't want to die, moreover they don't want you to die, it's a shame you're in such a hurry to,'" Jack didn't give Daniel the chance to respond he just turned around and left the room shutting the door behind him.
Vala listened to Jack in the other room, and wondered if she'd ever have anyone who could know her so well, and not be afraid to be so brutally honest with her. Of course it was difficult to find such people because she was so often less than honest about her personal history and motivations. Come to think of it, she thought, as she walked down the hall to the bathroom, Daniel might be the person who'd come closest to knowing her story in it's entirety, the problem was that Daniel had been more successful in hiding himself from her. That direction of inequality, threw her, and made her think about what Mitchell had said how she'd taken up the history stuff to try to relate to Daniel better, being a flagrant flirt hadn't worked, and changing to fit a persona wasn't new to Vala she was a con artist after all, but the fact that she hadn't realize how hard she was working at being Daniel's friend left her unbalanced and she didn't like that feeling one bit.
"It's a device," said Daniel sitting down at the table in the kitchen.
"Of course it is," said Jack serving up scrambled eggs, and bacon as Vala sat down next to Daniel, "Isn't it always a device?"
"Do you want to hear this or not?" asked Daniel.
"Sorry," said Jack, "Please continue."
"Merlin left the knowledge in my mind, but I had to dig through everything else to find it."
"That's why you went nuts with all those reports?"
"No," said Daniel, "as least not consciously, I think the knowledge was trying to find its way through but it kept dislodging other things with it."
"So what is it?" asked Vala digging into her breakfast.
"It's something the Alterans built but ultimately chose not to use."
"And this device does what? Kills all the Ori?"
"No," Daniel frowned, "The Ori are dead, Jack. Merlin's weapon worked. There are only two things left that we need to sort out to free the galaxy from their threat."
"Adria is one," said Vala.
"The army is the other," said Daniel.
"Oh, is that all?" said Jack rolling his eyes, "Just an army of religious zealots, and their demigod General?"
"Just bare with me a minute, who controls the army?" asked Daniel.
"Adria," said Jack.
"And?"
"And the Priors." said Vala.
"Exactly!" said Daniel smiling excitedly, "The device will render them inert."
"How pray tell will it do that?" asked Jack.
"It's sort of a similar deal to Merlin's device; in fact, he'd worked on this one too, with another Altearan."
"Altearan?" asked Jack.
"Ancient, before they were old." said Vala.
"Oh," said Jack looking back at Daniel who was frowning at them. "Continue."
"Anyway, when the Ancients realized they were dying out and they had to either die or ascend they had the choice, to use their ascended powers to shape the galaxy or let it develop naturally, after the device on Dakarra started the protein chains that would result in life."
"Daniel," Jack warned.
"Jack," Daniel warned back, and then he sighed, "You have to understand this to understand the device, now, the Ancients knew what the Ori were and theorized that if they followed parallel evolutionary paths they could meet up on the ascended plain, and also if they could remake a galaxy of life then so could the Ori.
"The Ancients knew that the Ori would use their powers to influence any successive race of beings in their galaxy, and while they disagreed with this use of power they ultimately decided to do nothing."
"That's a shock," said Jack. Daniel continued without acknowledging him.
"The only thing they did was block our galaxy from their view, it seems that Ancient ascended knowledge is more comprehensive, which allowed them to limit the powers and the effected area of the Ori."
"So?" said Jack.
"So the Ancients aren't the ones that did that, it was this device. They only turned it to a low setting that masked our area from their perception. It's like taking a digital photograph and deleting a few hundred pixels out of the thousands that it's made of. You just don't notice that small of a gap."
"After all, the universe in infinite," said Vala. Daniel smiled at her.
"Exactly, and when we used the Ancient communication device what we essentially did was point out the empty spaces."
"What does this have to do with dealing with Adria and the Priors?"
"The device blocks ascended powers, it cuts off the flow of energy from the ascended plain and our own, it will render the Priors inert, powerless," said Daniel quickly losing picking up steam, "I know where to find it, I'm going to secure and bring it to safety, you have to give the others the key and meet me." He reached out to pick up a pad and paper that were lay on the counter, but his hand passed right through them. Jack stood up in shock.
"Daniel!" he cried, Daniel looked at him with fear on his face.
"I'm running out of time," he said, "give the key to Vala she can take it to Sam and Mitchell, take the ship, I'll be in touch," as he spoke his image faded in and out.
"Daniel where's the key?" asked Jack as Daniel was nearly gone.
"Check your mail," he called and vanished completely.
Mitchell couldn't believe his eyes, he was being reassigned! He was being reassigned to Area 51! What was truly unbelievable was he was being reassigned, to Area 51, in an E-mail! He would have stormed up to the General's office demanding to know what the hell was going on, but for the second E-mail in his in-box.
Colonel,
Orders are final, report to the letter, nothing I can do.
Landry
Mitchell was still ready to throw a gasket when Sam walked in a print out in her hand
"I'm being transferred!" she cried, "They couldn't even tell me in person they sent me an e-mail! An E-mail! I mean, how cold can you get?" She was shaking the print-out at him, "I tried to get in to see the General but he's incommunicado, he has to know about this," then she saw his face and saw his e-mail account open on screen. "You too?" she asked.
"I've been honored with the duty of test flying the new X309 light aircraft prototypes." he said pulling up the memo, "and Landry does know, he said there's nothing he can do."
"What about General O'Neill?"
"The orders came from the Pentagon, he's been cc'd on everything, he knows," Mitchell shook his head in confusion. "I don't understand I thought getting you guys back together was what he wanted."
Teal'c came in his face grave, "I have been recalled to the High Council, Bra'tac requests it personally."
"What does he want?" asked Sam.
"It is a matter of extreme urgency and discretion, he could not divulge much in the communiqué." Teal'c frowned at his two teammates, "I am concerned."
"So are we," said Mitchell, "we've both been transferred to Area 51, effective immediately."
"But what of Daniel Jackson?" asked Teal'c.
"He's gone," said Sam shortly, aware of the possibility of surveillance, and knowing full well she'd been cast as the traitor in this drama, "the other SG teams are going out after him."
"I guess the IOA doesn't want us in the way when they send out the death squads," said Mitchell.
"I don't know why," said Sam, "it's not as if we can do anything for him, we don't even know where he went!"
"This is most troubling," Teal'c's frown deepened, "Does O'Neill know?"
"We were just discussing it," said Sam happy to move past Daniel, who was meant to be safe somewhere, and on to more pressing matters.
"He's been kept in the loop, but he's not doing anything about it," said Mitchell.
"Then as always we must trust his judgment," said Teal'c cryptically, "I will be departing for the High Council in one hour, I will see you before that."
"Of course, we'll see you off Teal'c, hopefully we'll have this sorted out by the time you get back," said Sam.
"I have no doubt," said Teal'c, he bowed slightly and left.
"Me thinks that Jaffa doth not protest enough," said Mitchell.
"You're right," said Sam, "even for Teal'c that was an under reaction, maybe General O'Neill has a plan for us outside the base."
"I hope so," said Mitchell.
Fun times were had by all. :D Cynic
