A/N: Hope you're still enjoying. Personally I don't like Chapter 16 - no cliffhanger. So I posted this chapter too. Please R&R.
The following morning Jack began to make his way back to the mountain with determination. He had slept for less than an hour the previous night and was determined that it would not happen again any time soon. As he drove along the main road, fatigue almost got the better of him and he swerved to avoid a motorbike overtaking him. He cursed under his breath at the driver before glancing at his speedometer. Realising he was doing little over ten miles per hour he sped up, mentally slapping himself to keep awake.
On arriving at the base Jack went straight to Daniel's office. He found the younger man flat out across his desk, his glasses crooked across his nose. Jack walked up behind him and ruffled Daniel's hair up. "Hey, wake up." Daniel awoke with a start. His glasses fell onto the floor and he leaned down to pick them up and place them back on his face. "You should get that fixed," Jack commented, pointing to the large crack across the left lens. "Is this coffee?" he asked, gesturing to a cup on the desk.
Still half asleep, Daniel squinted at the cup. "Uh… it was about twelve hours ago."
"It'll do." Jack stated and downed the cold liquid in one gulp, shuddering at the bitter taste. "It's cold but it's caffeine. Rough night?" he continued, looking down at Daniel.
Daniel sat up, "I was dreaming. Not last night: yesterday. Vivid dreams, I couldn't shake them off. This was the first peaceful sleep I've had in two days."
A look of concern crossed over Jack's face, "Dreaming about what?"
Daniel hesitated. "Sha're," he finally answered. We were on Abydos together. It was strange. Everything was fine and then suddenly she changed…"
"She blamed you for her death didn't she?"
Daniel spun around on his chair and made eye contact with Jack. "How did you know?"
"Because I saw Charlie and Sara. Same thing. We were talking and then he changed and told me it was my fault he died." Jack became uncomfortable talking about his dream and tried to explain, "It was the nishta. Gotta be."
"Nishta?" Daniel asked.
"The Goa'uld, she told me she'd mixed some nishta with something from the infirmary. Made me feel drowsy then I started dreaming. Or hallucinating. I'm not sure which."
"Where did she get it from?" Daniel asked. Jack shrugged. "She must have given it to me too." Daniel continued.
"Makes sense." Jack said. He quickly changed the subject, "I'm gonna go have a little chat with Hammond about going after Carter." He started to leave the room. Daniel called after him.
"You didn't sleep last night, did you?"
"So?"
"Look, I wanna see Sam back and safe as much as you do, but we're in no fit state to go on a rescue mission. Don't be stupid. You're not thinking straight. I don't…"
Jack didn't let him finish. "I'm fine, Daniel. A little tired, but I'm fine. I'm gonna find her, but if you don't wanna come with me then that's fine." With that he left the room. He knew he wasn't fit enough to go, but he was damned if he was going to stand back and wait for everyone else to do something while Carter was missing on some damned Goa'uld planet, trapped inside her own body. He didn't bother going to see Hammond. If he had the same attitude towards him that Daniel did there was no way he would get authorisation to go after her. He went straight to the locker room.
When he emerged a few minutes later, dressed in black, he was greeted by Daniel and Teal'c, but was not happy to see them. He ignored Teal'c. "What do you want, Daniel?"
"Look, Jack. I realise that there's no way I'm gonna convince you to back down from this, so if you're going then we're coming with you." Jack walked away but Daniel grabbed his arm. "It's all or none of us, Jack. It's your choice. We've got a much better chance of bringing Sam back alive if we all go."
Jack hesitated, torn between pride and need for backup. "Fine," he said, "go to the infirmary, get some kind of sedative. Meet me in the armoury in ten minutes."
"Sedative?" Daniel asked, his eyebrows raised in question.
"Yeah, Daniel, sedative. 'Cause we got a control room full of people who aren't gonna let us through the gate on an unauthorised mission if we just ask politely. Unfortunately that's not the way it works in the Air Force."
"You haven't spoken to General Hammond?" Daniel's response was more of a surprised accusation than a question, and he already knew the answer. This was Jack's way.
Jack was beginning to get impatient. "No, Daniel, I haven't. If you thought this was a bad idea I honestly don't think he's gonna disagree with you. Armoury - Ten minutes." With that he started down the corridor towards the armoury.
Daniel and Teal'c met Jack in the armoury just five minutes later, and Jack knew they were serious about going. "Get it?" Jack questioned Daniel. Daniel nodded back and Jack handed out weapons: a Zat and P-90 for himself and a Zat and tranquilliser gun for Daniel. Teal'c retrieved his staff and they were ready.
The corridors were deserted away from the armoury, but the control room made up for it. Jack stood around the corner and looked around the corner. He could see seven people in all. He indicated this to Daniel and Teal'c and quietly crept in with the sedative that Daniel had stolen from the infirmary, followed by Daniel with another dose. They managed to use it on four men before the other three people in the room noticed something amiss. Daniel quickly moved around the corner and loaded up the tranquilliser gun. He rushed back to see that Jack had drugged one more person, and another had hold of Jack, holding him back. Daniel aimed and fired. Moments later, Jack was free and Daniel aimed at the last remaining person. She spun around and held up her hands, "Don't shoot!" she yelled.
"Alexa?" Daniel lowered the gun.
"Are you going after Major Carter?" she asked, letting her hands fall back down.
"Yeah," he answered. Jack went to the computer, closed the access doors and searched for the planet Sam had gone to. As soon as he began to dial up, the alarms went off. Alexa stepped up to Daniel.
"Let me help. I can hold off anyone who tries to stop you. I want to see Sam back, too."
Daniel smiled. "Thank you," he said gratefully. He nodded to her and followed Jack and Teal'c out of the door and into the Gate room. Once inside, Daniel looked back up at Alexa. She smiled and turned around as someone came into the control room.
"C'mon Daniel. Get a move on!" Jack yelled just before he ran through the event horizon of the 'gate. Teal'c followed. Daniel watched for a few more seconds, as Alexa was held back and someone tried to disengage the gate. Alexa mouthed 'go' to him through the window and he turned his back and followed Jack and Teal'c through the gate.
The three emerged on the other side of the gate and were greeted by silence. They found themselves in a large room, the only light from the Stargate. The wormhole disengaged and there was almost total darkness. A single flame in the corridor ahead provided just enough light for them to see each other. Jack motioned towards the door and he and Teal'c took up positions at either side. Daniel crouched bedside Jack and waited as Teal'c stepped forward to check for movement down the corridor. He nodded that it was clear and Jack began moving forward, followed by Daniel. The sound of distant footsteps grew closer, but the direction from which they were coming was unclear. Teal'c began walking down the corridor, but was stopped by a loud voice behind him.
"Stop!" Teal'c spun around and saw that the voice belonged to a Jaffa. Teal'c raised his staff to take a shot. The discharge flew down the corridor before being absorbed by a force shield. The blue shimmer obstructed Teal'c's view, and when it cleared he saw that six more Jaffa had joined the first. All of them had weapons and the first Jaffa disengaged the force shield. Teal'c realised he had no chance and dived back into the room he had come from. Jack looked around the corner and began firing at the group. Two Jaffa fell, and two more from Daniel's Zat blasts.
Jack leaned around the corner again and set off another round. It lasted a few seconds before he was suddenly out of bullets. The first Jaffa was still standing, and raised up his staff. He took aim and fired, blasting Jack's thigh and causing him to fall back against the wall. He cried out in pain and Daniel reached out and dragged him back into the room. Jack closed his eyes, willing the pain away while Daniel continued to fire.
The collective noise from the guns and staffs drowned out the sound of the door behind the Stargate opening, whilst the group of Jaffa kept Daniel and Teal'c busy firing. Jack tried to ignore the growing pain in his leg and looked up. He found himself facing the wrong end of a staff weapon, while Teal'c was shot down by a Zat blast, and Daniel was knocked off balance by another Jaffa, who had come through the door, and pinned to the ground with a staff. Jack grabbed the staff pointing at him, but his weakened state meant that he was no match. The Jaffa pulled back the staff and brought it crashing down onto Jack's injured leg. He cried out before the staff made contact with his jaw, and the Jaffa's fist with his face. Daniel yelled out for them to stop and was silenced by the staff holding him down. Daniel instinctively grabbed his own face where he was hit and heard a low voice. "Disarm them." The voice barked. "Lord Osiris will be most pleased." The voices around Daniel faded, as did the feeling of being dragged across the floor, as he felt the impact against the side of his head of something cold and hard. Blackness was all he knew.
