Chapter 10
The MP had unlocked the cell door as Jonas joined the group hoping that all was well with Sam. He was the first to notice the slight shift in her eye's just before she doubled over in pain. Sam was instantly on her knees, grabbing her head with a scream.
"Carter!" O'Niell shouted running to her side followed by Jonas. Neither knew what to do as they knelt on either side of her trying to reach her through the haze of whatever was causing her such agony.
"Get her to Dr. Fraiser immediately!" Hammond shouted.
Jonas was the first to grab a hold of Sam before being slammed back when a ball of energy came out of her up his arm and striking him in the chest. He flew across the room hitting the opposite wall as another ball of energy went through the ceiling.
O'Niell sat up and then was on one knee weapon drawn. He to had been knocked down from the force of the energy that had burst from Sam. Unlike Jonas though, he'd avoided being hit by the energy itself.
"What the hell was that?" O'Niell asked, ready to shoot at the first thing that moved. When nothing further happened, he quickly returned to Sam's side. She was unconscious but breathing. He looked across the room where Jonas lay against the wall, the hand he'd griped Sam with red from the contact and the sleeve darkened all the way to his shoulder and chest as the energy had traveled into him. When the airman next to Jonas looked up to O'Niell and Hammond and confirmed he was still breathing both of them sighed in relief.
"Sound the alarm, airman," Hammond said to the MP that had unlocked the cell. "I want this place on lockdown until we figure out what's going on and that there isn't some ghost running loose in the complex." As the man headed off, Hammond then directed the airman by Jonas to alert Dr. Fraiser immediately.
Both Jonas and Sam were in the infirmary and under Janet's care in less than fifteen minutes. Sam had begun to come to in transit, however, she seemed too confused to answer any questions right away while Jonas faded in and out of consciousness incoherent, mumbling something about having made a mistake.
O'Niell and Hammond watched as Janet and another doctor checked vitals and treated their patients. Teal'c soon joined the men, staff weapon in hand. He handed O'Niell a zat and then inquired as to what had happened to their two teammates. O'Niell told Teal'c all he knew.
Just then, Janet turned to Hammond and informed him that Sam was okay and able to talk.
"Major, do you know what just happened?" The General asked.
"Sir, the woman, Jenna," Sam paused closing her eyes when she sat up as pain like a hot needle shot through her temples. "I'd asked her to try and remember how she ended up in my mind," she continued, "and she did. In her reality when she was on Kheb there were a series of deaths that were the result of some unknown discharge of energy that essentially 'fried' the victims' brains."
"Kheb. You mentioned that planet earlier when you spoke of this woman but I didn't get a chance to ask, why does that name sound familiar?" asked Hammond.
"It is the planet of Jaffa myth where the Harcesis child was once hidden by Amonet," Teal'c supplied.
"I see. Continue, Major."
"Well, Sir, Jenna's superiors discovered, with the help of their Tok'ra that an entity of unknown origin was behind the attacks. They'd traced this creature to Jenna's apartment where she'd been able to deflect it. It bought the Tok'ra a little time for one viable plan of action before this entity was able to strike again. Unfortunately, in order for the plan to work Jenna had to draw it out, by whatever means she'd used to repel it, and lead it to the Stargate where she'd hold it within herself. They believed that they had only one shot to destroy it and that was to use the neutrinos from the Stargate as a way to completely eradicate the entity."
"Wouldn't that mean she would have had to be standing in front of the Stargate when it formed?" O'Niell asked.
"Yes, Sir. It's why this had to be voluntary because she'd have to die in order for the entity to be destroyed."
"Leave it to the Tok'ra to devise a plan that involved a sacrifice that someone else would have to make." O'Niell's distaste for the Tok'ra's methods were still very raw as he folded his arms imagining how easy the decision had to have been when made.
"Despite how things came about," Sam continued. "Somehow, because of some cosmic fluke and bad timing, the astronomical odds of which I won't even try to fathom, our wormholes both intersected at the exact moment that I crossed the event horizon on this side. Their energy, Jenna's and this entity's merged with mine instead of dissipating as they'd planed.
"The reason Jenna couldn't remember how she ended up here was because she'd initially blocked her own memories in order to keep this creature contained and buried within her own consciousness so that one of the Tok'ra could activate the Stargate and destroy them both. Earth was simply the first planet that she'd thought of when she'd initiated the dialing sequence that would kill them both. Sir, this thing is now loose again because I made her remember what had happened in hopes of getting her out of my mind."
"There's no way you could have foreseen any of this, Major. It sounds as though she knows she was never intended to survive in a physical form or as a 'ghost', for lack of a better word. We simply have to find this entity before it can do any more harm and find a way to destroy it that doesn't include someone sacrificing themselves."
Before anything else could be said, O'Niell noticed something in one corner of the room. Startled, he turned to Hammond.
"Excuse me, Sir," O'Niell said. "I'll be back in a moment. I'm going to see if I can rustle us up a solution."
"A solution, Colonel? From where?" Hammond asked stopping O'Niell before he'd made it out the room.
"Trust me, Sir, I'll tell you everything when I get back." With that O'Niell was out of the room before Hammond could utter another word leaving the others staring at his back and Teal'c standing at attention staff at the ready.
***
O'Niell walked out of the infirmary and to the first room he came to and entered Janet's office. Closing the door, he turned to a man who had suddenly appeared sitting on the corner of Janet's desk dressed in a tan sweater and slacks with short brown hair wearing wire-rimmed glasses. He was wearing the exact same thing that O'Niell had last seen him in. The man needs to really think about expanding his wardrobe. Thought O'Niell.
"For someone who's supposed to exist on another plain of existence and not interfere you seem to be popping up a lot, Daniel. Now tell me what the hell you know and how do we go about stopping this little poltergeist of ours."
Daniel Jackson paused a moment before answering. Since choosing Ascension over death, he'd been loyally following the rules he now lived by, but the circumstances of his former teammates' predicament had caught the attention of Oma Desala and the rest of the Ascended. The thought of this entity even existing in their reality offended them.
"How ya doing, Jack?" Daniel asked in his usual calm manner.
"How am I doing? Well, Daniel," O'Niell said gesturing with his arms, "I'm doing great. The spirit of some dead girl inadvertently released the spirit of some baddie. Both of them nearly took out Carter and incapacitated Jonas and may now be running rampant through the mountain doing God knows what, but other than that, yeah," O'Niell said emphasizing with a thumbs up, "I'm just peachy."
"Yeah…about that girl," Daniel crossed his arms ignoring O'Niell's sarcasm as he usually did continued, "she's currently lying 'dormant' in Jonas's body. You can worry about that one later. I'm here primarily because of the other one."
"Really? Just one? This just gets better and better, doesn't it? Okay…tell me about it." O'Niell crosses his own arms, leans against the door and looks at Daniel. "You have my undivided attention, Daniel. Enlighten me."
"Well," Daniel started. He brought one hand up and unconsciously rubbed the back of his head then lowered his arm so that he began gesturing with one finger up as if he were back in the class room lecturing. "This being that seems to be on the loose is one of us, the Ascended, Jack. More specifically the alternate reality embodiment of Oma Desala."
"An anti-mother nature, huh? Something tells me that there's more to this than this entity being Oma Desala's evil twin."
"That would be correct. She's quite mad and hell bent on destroying this woman whom managed to contain her the first time. That is if she can't force her to ascend to a higher plane of existence and become her follower first, which is pretty much what she was trying to do when she killed the people in Jenna Reeyu's reality."
"So, she's going to go after Jenna first. The same woman who is now sitting pretty inside of Jonas's head?"
"Yeah."
"So what do we do about it?" O'Niell asks moving away from the door.
"She became our problem the moment she became a threat on this plane. Alternate reality or not, she's like us and existing in our reality now, therefore we need to take care of her as if she were one of us before she decides she wants to go on an accidental killing spree while attempting to make more like herself."
"So, what, I do nothing?" O'Niell asked annoyed. He didn't like being left out when there had to be something he could do.
"Don't worry, Jack, I'm sure you'll get to shoot something before the day is out."
"Very funny, Daniel. If you don't watch out it may even be you."