Chapter 5

Ancient Revelations

Jack was counting the number of holes in the ceiling tile above his bed. He had woken a short while ago and felt fine....maybe not fine...but fine enough to leave the infirmary. Fraiser had shot his hopes down with an emphatic no. Something about being zapped twice and wanting to keep him for observation a little longer. He tuned her out around that part of the conversation, once he got the salient points.

"You look bored."

Jack turned his head away from the ceiling, in the general direction of Daniel's voice. "Daniel, there isn't a level of boredom more extreme than what I am."

Daniel walked over, noting Jack's pale face, the soft fringes of hair poking into the pillow, and the general weak appearance of someone stuck in a bed. It didn't matter if a person was sick or not, you looked weak if you were in an infirmary bed. It was some law of nature.

"How do you feel?" He asked, and slid into the customary chair. He knew Jack would hate it if he kept standing. It was bad enough for him to be confined to a bed, but to have his less-than ideal situation enforced by his friend's standing around him didn't help. Unless he was very sleepy and wore out, everyone knew you sat.

Jack was going to make his usual flip comment but while Daniel had been studying him, he had done some studying of his own. Daniel looked exhausted, frustrated and...on edge. "Better." He said.

"They think you can solve the ball puzzle." Daniel announced, suddenly, startling both himself and Jack.

Jack rolled his head back in the direction of the ceiling, "I don't think so. I don't think it likes me."

Daniel inwardly smiled, "It's your electric personality."

"I've heard some bad puns in my life, but that takes the cake."

"Sorry, couldn't resist." Daniel wasn't sorry- he was still smiling.

"What do they want me to do?"

His smile faltered, "When you touch it, activate it, or whatever it is you are doing, Sam can get readings."

"They want me to get fried so Carter can get more readings?"

"I think the hope is that you won't get fried."

"Peachy."

The conversation came to an abrupt stop when the lights groaned and blinked out. There was hollering and a generalized panic towards the hub of the infirmary. Jack couldn't hear exact words but he got the impression something was very wrong.

They were in total darkness for seconds, which ticked into minutes. Daniel was becoming alarmed, both with whatever was happening in the other room and with the length of the power outage. The longer it remained down, the longer the base was susceptible. No power meant there was no iris.

He could sense Jack moving on the bed, swinging his legs to the edge. He reached out, trying to keep him down but was too late. He encountered an arm but from the position that was higher than expected, he knew Jack was standing.

"Where are you going?" He whispered.

"To figure out what's happening." Jack hissed back.

Daniel was going to argue but decided to go with him. He grabbed at Jack's arm, "I'm going with you."

Jack didn't answer, he gripped Daniel's arm, and the two began to feel their way gingerly in the direction of the commotion.

They were close. Jack could tell because he could clearly make out what was going on by the frantic conversation, and flashes of light. An SG member was losing his life. He tugged at Daniel's arm, and felt for the door. He could make out the path now that there was subdued lighting from the flashlights Fraiser must have had on hand.

He recognized the man on the bed. Major Stevens of SG-7. His face was covered in blood. A white gauze pad wrapped around his head, his face all ready ghostly white from blood loss. Jack swallowed, standing there, hunched over from the discomfort in his body, but unable to do anything.

Daniel was watching with horror. They were doing CPR in the weak battery powered light. Stevens's body jerked with each compression but remained lifeless. He saw Janet snap at a nurse, and wait for her reply. The nurse shook her head, defeated. Janet stopped compressions, and announced in a dreadful voice, "Time of death...what time is it?" She asked, frustrated.

"1428 Doctor." The nurse had flashed the light against an old wind-up clock that had been brought in. All the battery-powered clocks were being affected by the same phenomena as the main and emergency power.

"Thank you." Janet took one final look at the man lying on the bed. "Prepare him."

It was at that point the power kicked on with a mighty groan, much louder than before. Jack winced, it sounded like things were getting worse. Much worse. The problem had claimed it's first casualty.

This was his fault. He had brought the ball back. He had joked and called it a toy. His toy had killed the man lying feet from him.

"Colonel!"

Jack opened his eyes, unaware he had closed them in remorse. Fraiser was staring at him with surprise...and pity.

"We heard..." Daniel started to explain, but couldn't finish.

"I'm sorry." Jack said, gesturing helplessly at the body.

Janet was guiding him back towards his bed before he could say Doc. Daniel followed. She helped him back into bed, pulling up his sheet, bothered by his lack of protest.

"It wasn't your fault." She helped get the pillow settled.

"Yes, it was." Jack didn't wait for Doc or Daniel to disagree, "Get Carter...and that ball. I want to figure this out."

An hour later SG-1, Doctor Fraiser and General Hammond had converged around Jack's bed, along with the troublesome device.

"Are you sure about this Colonel?" General Hammond asked, concerned about all his people. He had been angry when he had learned of Stevens death, linked directly to the outage, his life support equipment crashing and the lapse of time from the power loss to direct support by personnel proving too much of a stress on his battered body. He had been brought in shortly before the last outage. There hadn't been time to stabilize his condition.

"Yes." Jack answered, stone-faced.

Hammond turned towards Carter, "Are you ready Major?"

Sam nodded, "I've got a monitor that I rigged...well, kind of using the upstairs power Sir."

"NORAD?" Daniel asked, surprised.

Sam flushed, "Yes. Their power remains unaffected. Whatever is causing our trouble, it has a limited area of influence."

Jack looked at the ball, "Ready Teal'c?"

Teal'c was standing on Jack's left-hand side, a rubber rod from Sam's lab in his hand. "I am O'Neill."

"Doc?"

Janet nodded, not trusting herself to talk. She was as worried for him as anyone else. She hated having to patch them up time after time, only to have them wind up hurt and in her care again.

He lifted it carefully, and rolled it in his palm, trying to figure out what it was he had done twice before. The patterns of the inscriptions began to mesmerize him. He ran over the etchings with his thumb, following a pattern instinctively. Seconds later the room was filled with an audible click, and the ball unfurled, sections peeling away like quarters of an orange, and flashing light began to strobe.

"That's never happened before." Daniel stated.

Sam was staring at Jack, confused, "Sir, what did you do?"

Jack looked at them, "I don't know." He was as lost as they were.

"Did you get that?" Carter asked Daniel, who had been watching Jack's movements with the ball. He nodded, still staring at the ball, which had begun to vibrate.

"Uh...Jack?"

"I don't know!" He said, clearly frustrated, not knowing if the ball was going to explode or turn purple.

The vibrating increased, until the sections began to lift back, and snap in their original place. The vibrations, flashing light...it all stopped. The ball was back to lying quiet and innocent in Jack's hand.

"What the...?" Jack didn't know whether to be relieved or angry.

"Major?" Hammond looked questioningly at Carter, wanting answers.

Sam looked as flustered as the rest of them, "I don't know General. If I had to guess, I'd say it reset itself."

"Did you get the readings?" Janet wasn't anxious to repeat that anytime soon. She didn't know if they were all going to get blown up or what when it had started flashing.

Sam turned around and looked at the laptop she had brought with her. "Looks like it. Wow." She studied the screen more intently, "That's odd."

"What?" Daniel turned to look at what she was studying on the screen.

"I expected the readings to be higher than this. They are lower than the last time the Colonel was shocked."

"And that's a bad thing?" Jack said.

"Uh...no Sir." Sam tapped a few more keys. "I need to go back to my lab and work on this General."

Hammond nodded, "Good luck Major."

"I will accompany Major Carter." Teal'c inclined his head towards Jack, "Do not get out of bed O'Neill." He ordered.

Jack's mouth dropped open in surprise, staring at the Jaffa and at the big grin spreading across Janet's face. He snapped his jaw shut. Napoleonic didn't do her justice.

"I'm fine." He finally said, to no one in particular. Teal'c and Carter were gone, along with Hammond, leaving Fraiser and Daniel beside him, as usual.

"Not until I say you are. Now rest." She ordered and with a warning look, left him alone with Daniel.

"What just happened?" He asked, slightly shell-shocked by how fast things had gone.

"I think you've got some subconscious remnants from the Ancients." Daniel had seen the almost trance-like state Jack had fallen into while holding the ball.

Jack didn't say anything but if his frown was anything to go by, he wasn't happy by the news.