Maadi: An Immortal Spacemonkey Story
A/N: This story takes place after Nightmare: An Immortal Spacemonkey story. Daniel is taking a break and going on a well-deserved vacation. His destination: Egypt. The usual characters will make an appearance, along with a few original ones. I hope you enjoy this one.
Disclaimer: I don't own SG1. I wish I did, but I don't. I promise to return the characters to their original owner in one piece, once I am through with them. I am just borrowing them for a bit.
Chapter 6
Daniel revived briefly in the car, but was quickly shot once again with a zat, returning him to a state of unconsciousness. If he had been more aware of what was happening, he would have seen the convoy of five cars heading north, north-east of his home, taking a round-about way through the city. Even at night, the city was alive and busy, forcing the cars to weave around slower cars, over-burdened trucks, and taxis driven by madmen.
Their route eventually took them to El Dar al-Ahmar, an area that was towards the east-central part of greater Cairo, well east of the Nile. The lighting, what little there was, was poor, barely illuminating the streets and dark, twisting narrow alleyways. If it had been daytime, it would have been easy to see that the area was overcrowded and many of the buildings were shoddy in appearance, clearly being up to current code was not a priority. In reality, the neighborhood was one of the poorer areas in Cairo, crowded with nearly a hundred thousand people in an area that was less than a square mile. While there were some impressive monuments to past glories and magnificent mosques, it was easy to see that poverty was not uncommon in the district. Because of all of that, it made it an easy place to find anonymity and to easy disappear among the buildings and people.
It made it an excellent place to Ba'al to find safe refuge.
"Check him for any trackers," Ba'al ordered his underlings. "The last thing we need is for his friends to track him."
Daniel, having finally come to, once again, fought the hands that were roughly searching his body, looking for anything that could tie him to his home and the SGC. He knew it was pointless to fight back, earning him several punches and slaps for his trouble, but he couldn't help it.
One of the men, wrestled Daniel's watch out from his clenched fist, yelling in triumphant. Daniel fought back, kicking at the men, knowing that it wouldn't help him in the near future, but every second he could buy to let the Apollo track him, the greater his chances were for surviving Ba'al.
Ba'al took the watch, sneering at Daniel, dropped it on the ground, crushing it beneath his heel.
~SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1~
The white light that swept Jack, Paki, and Alima away deposited the trio on the bridge of the USS Apollo.
"General," Colonel Ellis greeted his commanding officer. "You brought us guests?" The colonel raised an eyebrow at the unexpected visitors.
"They were with Daniel and me at Daniel's home in Egypt. We couldn't leave them behind. I didn't see them specifically, but we could hear zats and staff weapons being used. This wasn't a normal Earth home invasion," Jack explained to the bridge before turning to the wide-eyed civilians. "Paki, Alima, welcome to the USS Apollo, the SGC, and what Daniel has been working on for the past ten years maybe." He gestured expansively towards the forward view screen that was showing a breath-taking view of Earth from space.
"Speaking of which, where is Daniel?" General O'Neill asked, looking at the transportation specialist, First Lieutenant Morelli.
"I can't lock on to his tracker, Sir," the man replied, looking at his screens with frustrated intensity. "I had it for a second, but it cut out. If you said that you heard zats, he and the tracker might have been hit by one and shorted it out or they could have been blocking the signal somehow," the dark-haired man said.
"Carter designed those things herself to not short out if we get hit with a zat. And if they are blocking the signal, how did I get out?" Jack demanded.
"Maybe you weren't the target, sir," the lieutenant ventured. "Doctor Jackson is a valuable target to our enemies."
"Can you scan the area and see if you can find him that way," Jack barked at the man, not in anger, but frustration.
"I did sir, but there is no one, human or otherwise, in the home."
"Goddamnit," Jack swore, rubbing the back his head, feeling a headache building.
"We'll find him, Sir," the young airman said, "He's part of SG1, you don't count any of them out."
~SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1~
"Doctor Jackson," Ba'al, pronounced, looking like the smug bastard that he was. The arrogance of the man enveloped him and filled the room like the stink off a trapped skunk.
"Ba'al," Daniel said groggily, recovering after being shot with a zat. "Why are you here, interrupting my vacation? Do you have any idea how hard it was to get time off?" he snarked, unable to help himself.
"Your petty concerns are not my concerns," Ba'al sneered.
"So sorry," Daniel said, irritated. "What do you want then? I have a week left of my leave and I have plans."
Ba'al, enraged by Daniel's tone, backhanded him, knocking him from his sitting position, leaving him sprawled on the floor.
"You could have called and just asked like a normal person," Daniel shot back, unable to stop himself from smarting off.
"Move him," Ba'al commanded his underlings, gesturing towards a set of manacles attached to the stone wall.
Daniel fought back, kicking and punching wildly, but there were too many people, in too small of an area, for him to fight off. He registered what felt like a pipe being used on him, hitting him in the ribs. They had him by the throat, his arms and legs were immobilized. Working quickly, the men, Jaffa and human it seemed, chained him to the wall, stretching out his arms and legs in a spread-eagle position.
"Sonofabitch," Daniel snarled, thoroughly pissed off. "How many of you guys are there? What do you want?"
Ba'al smirked. "I want to know about Ascension and your time among them."
"I'm not telling you anything," Daniel scoffed.
"After a while, everyone talks," Ba'al said, brandishing a pain stick in one hand and a ribbon-device in the other hand.
Daniel looked at the Goa'uld with cold eyes. "Have you not met me before? I'm not like everyone else and I can't tell you what I don't know. The Ancients removed any active knowledge of my time Ascended. And if there is anything worth knowing, they won't allow you, a lesser being, to learn it."
"We'll see," the monster intoned, confident that he would learn what he wanted to know.
~SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1~
"What now? Where is Daniel?" Alima asked, standing to the side with Paki, who was busy goggling at the view screen, amazed beyond everything at what he was seeing. "Where is he?"
Jack looked over at Daniel's caretakers and groaned.
"General," Colonel Ellis said, looking at the civilians, wondering who they were and how much paperwork their mere presence was going to cost him.
Jack sighed. "This is Paki and Alima Abdullah. They are care takers for the home where Daniel was staying," he explained. "Get me a copy of our NDAs and I'll take care of it. And can you get hold of Colonel Carter or Colonel Mitchell. We are probably going to need them. Teal'c and Vala too. Might as well get the whole damn band back together while we're at it."
He then turned to the civilians and addressed them. "Come with me and I'll explain everything."
Paki and Alima, having no real choice but to follow. Jack took them aft and down, to the ship's mess hall. A cook, unasked, brought the three bottles of water and said that breakfast was going to be served soon.
"General O'Neill," Paki began, "what happened to Daniel and who were those people that invaded our home?" The man was rattled, to say the least.
"This is what Daniel has been working on, pretty much for the past ten, eleven years. In the early 20th century, a device was found on the Giza plane. They didn't know what it did at the time, but it was eventually brought to the U.S. to be studied. Daniel was hired in the nineties to decipher the writing on the device, a giant ring of previously unknown stone. Long story short, it was a gate between worlds built by a race of beings called the Ancients and co-opted by a race of parasitical aliens to spread their asshole-ness across the galaxy, and enslave or destroy those who opposed them. Daniel opened up the gate, known as the Stargate for the US Air Force. Ever since then, he has been part of a team, my team for several years, traveling to alien worlds, exploring, meeting interesting people, and fighting a couple of wars that we may or may not have had a hand in triggering. The people that attacked us, while I am not one hundred percent sure, are possible aliens or enslaved humans based on the weapons used. I heard Jaffa staff weapons and a zat. Usually that means a Goa'uld is involved. The Goa'uld are the parasitical aliens I mentioned earlier."
"Why would they take Daniel?" Alima asked, worry clearly evident on her face. While she was his Watcher, she loved Daniel like he was her son, like he was family.
Jack sighed. "That is another long story, but the Cliff Notes version is that Daniel has a reputation for pissing off several beings across the galaxy, earning himself a lengthy list of interesting and notable enemies. Also, several years back there was an accident on another planet where he stopped some idiots from nuking themselves, but the cost was he poisoned himself with a lethal dose of radiation."
"But Daniel is," Paki began but Jack interrupted him before he could say anything that would incriminate Daniel.
"He died. Maybe he would have eventually recovered from radiation poisoning, maybe not, but if he did recover, his time with the SGC would have been over. He either would have been forced to leave and go into hiding or he would have been treated like a lab experiment by the NID. However, he was given the option of ascending to a higher plane of existence by a being named Oma De Sala. From there, he became a being of light and joined other aliens living on this higher plane, until he got kicked out of the glow-club for not following the rules and came back to live among us mere humans.
"His time among the Ascended was wiped from his active memory, but knowledge of the Ancients, the original builders of the Stargate system, is in his subconscious, inaccessible, but it is still there. There are many in the United States government that would love to know all of the secrets that Daniel learned while among the Ascended. There are also many off-world beings that would love to know those secrets. People have attempted to get the information out of Daniel before this. None of them have been successful. The last time people tried, they kidnapped Daniel, along with Duncan Macleod, of the clan Macleod. Those people did not survive that encounter. Daniel took it very personal because they found out about his status among the long-lived," that bit he lowered his voice. "They were killed and their bodies were dumped in a ravine. Daniel, not Danil thankfully, said that he would not be the reason that the government would find out about Immortals. He also said that he would not be the reason that the Goa'uld or other hostile aliens would find out about Immortals. Well, some have, but they were killed."
Paki and Alima were beyond shocked. Gob smacked did not come even close to the surprise they were feeling. Yes, they knew about the oddities in the world. They were Watchers and their family had served as Watchers and caretakers for Daniel's properties over the years. They knew about some of Daniel's darker times, the years he rode with the Horsemen. Aliens were beyond anything they could have predicted.
"So how are you going to get Daniel back?" Paki asked, his arms crossed in front of him.
"Sir," came a hesitant airman from behind the trio sitting at the table, NDAs in hand.
"Thank you, Airman," Jack said, taking the papers and a pen from the kid then dismissing him.
"Once we get the team here, we'll figure something out. "Sam Carter is as brilliant as she is beautiful and the others are beyond brave and resourceful. They'll find him and we'll bring him back home before you know it," Jack said, smiling tightly, hoping that the Watchers believed that he meant every word he said.
~SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1~
Daniel, despite how painful his arms were, couldn't help but look at Ba'al with an extremely sarcastic look. "I can't tell you what I don't know. The Ancients made sure that any knowledge I have of Ascension and their secrets cannot be forced out from me. Others have tried and it isn't possible."
Ba'al rolled his eyes. "Nonsense. They just lack the proper tools and you lack the proper persuasion," he said, looking smug while powering up the hand-device.
"Oh good, a hand device. Normal torture then, I was afraid you were going to make me listen to Barney or use death by mosquitoes," Daniel said, looking bored. "I've been tortured by way worse people than you, you lack game in that area."
"It is amazing what skills you can pick up after a few thousand years," Ba'al smiled, stepping closer to the archeologist.
Daniel snorted at that. "No shit."
The hand-device glowed and shot an amber beam, hitting Daniel squarely in the forehead.
The beam rattled Daniel, shaking his head, the concussive force and pain it caused, caused his brains to feel like they were being liquified. He couldn't focus, he couldn't stop the screams coming out of his mouth. He had been hit before by a ribbon-device, numerous times in the past, but he couldn't remember it hurting this bad.
Abruptly, Ba'al switched off the device. "Anything rattling loose yet Dr. Jackson?"
Daniel took a deep shuddering breath. "Besides my molars? Not really? Did you juice that thing up? Seems stronger than usual," Daniel observed, trying wipe the spit from his mouth on his shoulder.
"I said I have the correct tools to extract info," Ba'al said.
"Seems to me you're compensating for something," Daniel snapped back and was rewarded with a punch to the face. "Yep," Daniel then replied, spitting blood out of his mouth.
"You'll soon tell me everything," Ba'al said with an air of supreme confidence.
"No, I won't," Daniel shot back. "I've withstood worse than this. This is nothing. You are nothing. And when I'm free, I'll kill you and I won't show you any sort of mercy."
"You talk confidentially for someone chained to a wall. You aren't going anywhere and I will get my answers," the Goa'uld said and then turned the ribbon-device back on, rattling the Immortal's brains.
"You'll see for yourself what I'm capable of doing," Daniel ground out just before the screaming started again.
~SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1~
As the Abdullahs were finishing signing their names to the stack of documents Jack had given to them, four people dressed in civilian clothes entered the ship's cafeteria, carrying assorted gear and weapons.
"You look like the Eddie Bauer catalogue meets the Michigan Militia," Jack snarked as a form of greeting.
"We don't want to attract the wrong attention by going into Cairo with military and US insignia on display, sir," Cam explained.
"While I wish to rescue DanielJackson, causing an international incident on your planet seems most unwise," Teal'c rumbled.
"Your planet?" Paki asked quietly.
The woman with long black hair and a wide grin laughed. "Yes, your planet. Me and the Big Guy here are aliens."
"Vala!" Sam snapped at her teammate. "We don't know these people.
"Oh please," Vala said, rolling her eyes. "They are on a spaceship above your planet, finding out about aliens at this point is no big deal. I'm Vala Mal Doran, Daniel's true love."
Jack snorted at that one, turned towards the shocked Watchers. "This is Vala, who is not Daniel's true love. I would also introduce you to the big guy here is Teal'c and this is Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell and Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter," he said, gesturing to each person in turn.
"Guys, this is Paki and Alima Abdullah, they watch over Daniel's home when he is gone and keeps records of everything," Jack then said, emphasizing the word watch, hoping the others would get what he was saying.
"By the way, none of this," Jack said to the Abdullah's, "can be reported to your superiors until the program officially revealed to the public."
Paki nodded. "We understand that General. We are used to keeping certain topics under wraps.
"So, what are we doing to find our wayward archeologist?" Cameron asked, wanting to get the ball rolling.
"I'll need to see the data surrounding Daniel's tracking device. I might be able to learn something through that," Sam said. Jack then dismissed her to work her magic elsewhere.
Jack took his leave also, excusing himself to go brief General Landry about the latest happenings, leaving the Abdullahs in the capable hands of Mitchell, Teal'c and Vala.
Mitchell and the others took the civilians to an observation deck, letting them have a moment to observe Earth like very few have ever been able to do.
"By all that is holy," Alima breathed.
"Beautiful, ain't it?" Cam grinned, learning up against a bulkhead, watching the married couple, seeing awe and amazement pass across their faces.
"All of this is what Daniel has been up to?" Paki asked, turning away from watching the continent of Africa pass by. "How? Why?" the man asked, unable to fully form the questions running through his mind.
"It has been an amazing ride," Cam replied. "Without Jackson, I honestly don't think we would have made it. He is great in a fight, someone to watch your six, but he also has been a voice of reason."
"DanielJackson also has had to endure more heartache than anyone I have known in all my years," Teal'c voice lowly rumbled. "He lost his wife to the enslavement of the Goa'uld and then again when I killed her to save his life, not knowing at the time that she would not have ended his life. He never became angry with me or lashed out. He forgave me and told me I was not to blame. Despite what he has admitted to in his past, DanielJackson might very well be the kindest person to live."
"His wife?" Alima, asked, feeling troubled. "I always would ask him why he was alone, why he didn't have a wife. Was he in mourning all this time and I only hurt him more with my words?" Alima looked distressed, afraid that she had just added to her Immortal charge's burden.
"Shar'ae was the love of his life, and losing her pained him, but he isn't closed to finding love again," Jack said, breezing into the observation area, hands in his pockets. "He appreciates your concern. Truly Alima."
"Is all of this," Paki asked, gesturing out the window vaguely, "related to why Ustaaz was so despondent when he came home?"
"Ustaaz?" Vala asked.
"It means professor," Jack clarified.
Cameron cleared his throat, wordlessly asking the General if he could answer the question. Jack nodded.
"To answer your question Paki, yes, it is related. He was off-world on a mission and encountered a poisonous snake that dumped a lot of venom into his system. We were told by the locals that one of the side effects was that a person would experience their greatest fears before they died. Daniel had to live through a scenario in his head where the government found out about people like him. He was experimented on repeatedly and forced to fight for his life, while his friends either betrayed him or ignored him. Even though none of it actually happened, it felt real," Cam explained. "For someone like Daniel, I can't begin to imagine how horrible his deepest fears could be. It messed with his head. He also had to confess all of his sins on another planet to escape a force field. And before that, we were trapped on a ship for probably 50 years, caught in a time-dilation bubble, it's very long story that is probably very classified," Cam faltered, seeing a slightly irritated look on General O'Neill's face. "Anyways, Daniel is the only one who remembers what happened and he won't tell us what went on. He said nothing horrible happened, but he won't say what went on. He won't talk about it."
"He mentioned some things to me about it. I actually got him to share, which was amazing. Then I pushed him into a pool," he said, looking a little pleased with himself. "Daniel is tired and needed a break. He was getting it, but then this happened," Jack sighed, his look turning from pleased to exasperated.
"General O'Neill and SG-1 to the bridge," came a call over the intercom, cutting off any further discussions about Daniel's mental health.
Jack gestured for the Abdullahs to follow the group and took everyone to the bridge, where they found Sam sitting at one of the consoles, staring at a screen, reading a bunch of data that only she understood.
"What's going on Carter? You found our boy?" Jack asked his former second in command.
"Kind of," she said without bothering to actually look up at the general. "He had his tracker with him for about twenty minutes, so I was able to follow his movements for a short amount of time. The data we get from our trackers uploads a position every five minutes to one of our servers and is stored for a while. So, while I wasn't able to follow him in real-time, the information is still available."
"Where did we lose him then and why?" Vala asked, her grey eyes narrowed, worried about her friend.
"Why I can only guess. He probably had his watch on him and was found. Someone probably destroyed it. As for where, here are the coordinates where it last gave a signal before it was cut off," Sam said, also worried about her friend, pointing to a set of coordinates and a map of greater Cairo on the screen.
30o02'N,31o15'E
"Where exactly is that?" Cam asked, puzzled.
"A district called El Darb el Ahmar," a technician sitting next to her piped up, also looking at the display.
"Oh no," Paki exclaimed in dismay.
"For crying out loud, what now?" Jack exclaimed.
"El Darb el Ahmar isn't a bad area, but it isn't the safest for strangers," Alima said.
"More importantly, it is a compact area, high density with people and buildings. Anywhere from sixty to a hundred thousand live there and it is extremely poor, which buys people, with money and determination, anonymity. Add that to how the streets and buildings are mazes like I've seen your American cornfields, it is extremely hard to find someone who does not want to be found. You will need an exceptional tracker that can pick up on the signs that Daniel is there," Paki further explained.
Jack looked thoughtful, understanding what Paki was implying that they needed, or more like who they needed to find Daniel.
"I'll get hold of Adam," Jack pronounced. "And if not him, I'll see if Siler or that Scott kid is available. Hell, I'll call up Macleod if need be." And with that, Jack left the group again to arrange for their own Immortal bloodhound.
~SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1~
Daniel screamed in pain. His brains were being cooked by the hand device. Ba'al figured that if he tortured him long enough, scrambled his brains like eggs he would cough up details on Ascension and the power of the Ancients. Unfortunately for Daniel, that particular information was securely locked away, beyond his ability to actively access.
Ba'al swore and turned off the hand device. He had used it enough, at a high enough setting, that was causing the device to overheat. He did not expect Dr. Jackson to be able to hold out long enough for the device to become unstable.
Daniel sagged, the chains on his arms were the only things to hold him up. He hurt bad enough that he couldn't find the strength to stand on his own two feet. Unfortunately, his arms felt as if they were about to pop out of their sockets and he was basically kneeling, without actually being on his knees, in front of Ba'al, showing subservience and defeat.
Instead of allowing Daniel a moment of peace, Ba'al then jammed a pain stick into his sternum, causing his eyes to light up and an amber glow to spill out of his mouth as he screamed.
Ba'al then abruptly pulled the pain stick back and spoke to the captured member of SG-1, his voice echoing in the chamber. "All you have to do is tell me what I want to know and this will end."
Daniel laughed hollowly, his throat feeling like he had been swallowing broken glass. "I can't tell you what I don't know, you sonofabitch!" he rasped. "The Ancients locked that information away and no matter how much you torture me, I can't tell you anything," he continued his rage, his voice becoming less harsh and gravely, feeling his Quickening healing the minor injuries to his throat and vocal cords.
"You are a liar," Ba'al said smugly. "I will find out the secrets of the Ancients."
"You're going to regret this," he wheezed out, knowing who was going to make an appearance pretty soon. Daniel then gathered what little will he had left and spit right up in the face of Ba'al, knowing that he was risking a lot by doing this, but also knowing that it had to happen.
Ba'al, predictably, became enraged that a mere human would show such absolute disrespect. The false god lashed out, grabbed a near-by discarded piece of pipe, and swung the weapon down, crushing Daniel's skull, ending his life.
A/N: El Darb el Ahmar is a real place in Cairo. At about the time this story was set, before the Arab Spring, this area was a pretty impoverished area in Cairo, but has since gone through some attempts by the government to improve the lives of the people who live there. From all of the pictures of the area I've seen, it is a pretty interesting place and is rich in history. It was also noted that it wasn't a very dangerous area, but it could be dangerous for outsiders. I would liken it to neighborhoods in the Detroit or St. Louis areas. Outsiders are looked at with hostility and suspicion and are targets for attacks. If you know the area and are known locally, most people are safe. I hope I didn't insult anyone who actually lives there or is from there. That was not my intention.
I also wanted to use Ba'al in this story, mostly because he was the absolute best villain in the Stargate Universe. Cliff Simon, may he rest in peace, played the character wonderfully, with a mix of evil, sarcasm, and hotness.
What did you think? Good, bad, indifferent. Feel free to leave me a review and let me know what you think. I can take criticism, as long as it is constructive. Flames will be ignored.