Author's Note: First, Mariette, your review made me laugh! A sign that I'm doing a good job, definitely, so thank you for that. For the rest of you, thank you, thank you, and thank you again for taking the time to review! It's hard to know if you are doing a good job or not if you don't get feedback...and as usual, all feedback, as well as it's gently delivered is taken to heart. What works, what doesn't...

I'm not sure how much is left, but I'd say it's about 1/2 to 3/4'ths finished at this point. Probably more like 5/8'ths. The next chapter will reveal a lot!

Chapter Six

Uh-Oh

Jack came awake with the annoying realization that he had fallen back asleep despite his intentions otherwise. He raised his head up, noticing two things simultaneously; he felt much better, and Daniel was draped on a bed across the room. Daniel had an IV stuck in his arm, dripping liquid, the vitamin cocktail, and that made Jack remember Fraiser had been about to stick a needle in his own arm. He looked at his hand and saw the white bandage taped over the insertion site.

He pushed the soft cotton blanket aside, and brought his legs to the edge, only a small wave of dizziness reminding him of his dire condition. Of everyone's condition, he thought, irritably.

"Colonel, how are you feeling?"

Jack looked up, "Doc." He greeted. She looked exhausted, "Better."

She walked over and stalled his upward progress with a hand, "Hang on." She pulled the stethoscope from around her neck, "Let me have a look, then you're free to go."

Jack stayed still under her ministrations, lacking the energy to form any real protest. She pulled back and must have been satisfied because she didn't make him lay back down.

"I'm only going to warn you once Colonel. You need this vitamin cocktail every twelve hours. Don't make me find you." The smile in her eyes softened the harsh warning.

"Gotcha. How's Daniel?"

"Good. Tired. He collapsed before we could get a preventive course of this going in all our people. Sam's up and running, I was able to head off the worst with her."

"Teal'c?" Jack hoped that Junior, the Jaffa's symbiote, would prevent him from falling victim to this...whatever it was.

"No signs of cellular change." Janet looked at her watch, "I've got to go. A test I'm running is done." She fixed him with a penetrating stare, "Take it easy, okay?"

Jack nodded, and watched her retreating back. Take it easy? They were stranded on an alien world, their arrival apparently influenced by the Goa'uld, and falling victim to the disease that was killing the world's inhabitants.

He got up, happy that his legs held him solidly. He found his outer shirt resting on a chair nearby, and pulled it on, thankful they'd left his boots alone. He needed to find Teal'c, then Ka'ta, and find out what else they could do to solve this mess.
"Teal'c." Jack found the Jaffa keeping watch over Carter in the U'Tak'ans laboratory.

"Are you well O'Neill?" Teal'c raised a concerned eyebrow.

"Well enough." It was times like these that he appreciated the steadfastness of his friend, "Carter." He greeted.

Sam was busy typing on some sort of keyboard, "Sir...I've found something else." She tapped a few more times and brought up a display, then twisted around, beckoning him over.

"What is it?" He looked at the display, numbers...and more numbers.

"I think I might know what's happening to this city. These are energy recordings for the past three months. I talked to Sa'at, and every time the energy spiked, the Stargate disappeared."

Jack paused, "So you think someone is doing this?"

"The Nox had the ability to make things invisible." Teal'c remembered their mission to the Nox homeworld, a disastrous attempt at obtaining technology.

Sam turned to face the Colonel and Teal'c, "Yes...but not the Stargate...us."

"We're invisible?"

"Well...not exactly. I think we've been thrown out of phase...sort of an alternate universe."

Jack was getting confused. They had heard about alternate realities with their experiences with the quantum mirror, but this city wasn't leaning up against one big honking mirror, at least that he'd seen. "Carter, refresh my memory...don't you need a mirror for that sort of thing?"

"Well...yes, at least from what little we have seen. But Sir, remember when we were at the clearing where the Stargate had been? The grass was grown over...as if it had never been there at all."

Jack did remember that fact. It had struck him as odd. He sighed, "And the cellular breakdown, it's similar to this cascade...failure...thing?"

Carter smiled, "Exactly. It's the only hypothesis that explains everything that we've seen happening. Janet was right, it isn't contagious, and the reason why we are being affected now..."

"...Is because we've...phased...with the city?"

"Yes."

"Crap."

"Indeed."
After Carter's revelation, Jack had needed time to think. Time to regroup. He had headed to the edge of the clearing, where the Stargate had been. He found a spot in the grass and got comfortable.

Whenever he needed to think he sought privacy. His roof, with his telescope, was a favorite thinking spot. Sometimes he'd go there and get his thoughts organized...other times he'd go there to get lost in nothingness, needing a break from the constant churning of emotions and worries.

He had slept through most of this world's night, but he could still see some stars twinkling happily in the sky. He could make out the spot where the Stargate was supposed to be, feeling for all the world as lost as he had on Edora. If Carter was right, they were so screwed. He was in command. He was supposed to get them out of things like this, but he had no idea where to start. What a mess.

"I thought you'd be here."

Jack didn't bother looking, "Daniel."

Daniel dropped himself beside Jack, staring out at the empty clearing, "Sam told me her theory."

"Who would've thought."

"Yeah."

They were quiet for a while, watching the sun stretch lazily into the sky, fingers of day grabbing the night sky and winking the stars temporarily out of existence. "We'll get out of this." Daniel finally said.

"I'm not so sure." Jack grabbed a stalk of grass, and twirled it between fingers.

"We've been in worse situations."

"When?"

"There was the time when you and Teal'c were rocketed into deep space..."

Jack placed a hand on Daniel's sleeve, feather light, an unspoken request to stop, "That was only two of us." He was staring at Daniel with an intensity that he rarely portrayed, "Somehow, it made it better, knowing that only Teal'c and I would die. Knowing you and Carter were safe."

"Jack..."

"No, don't." Jack stood, reaching a hand to help Daniel up, "Let's go. It's almost time for Doc's happy juice."
They were almost back inside the city when they saw it; a Mother ship, hovering in all its glory, an alien insect waiting to eat its food. Jack and Daniel shared a panicked look, and then ran like a bat out of hell towards the building where Fraiser and most of the SGC personnel were staying.

"Doc?" Jack approached the entrance warily, waving at Daniel to follow him, slowly. There wasn't any answer. Shit.

The streets were eerily empty. No sign of any U'Tak'ans, Carter, Teal'c or Doc. He broached the door, shining his light with one hand, the other held ready on his weapon. The building was pitch black, and that didn't make him feel any better.

"O'Neill." Teal'c appeared in Jack's flashlight halo with little warning, "We were concerned you had been captured."

Jack felt himself relax, "No. Daniel and I were heading back when we saw it. How long?"

"Ten minutes Sir." That was Carter; she had come up behind Teal'c, "Janet's over here. We thought it might be a good idea to shut the lights down. Make it harder for them to find us."

"Good thinking."

They approached the SGC personnel huddled in a dark corner of the room. He saw Fraiser relax, "Colonel."

"Missed me?" He grinned nonchalantly. He wanted to put these unseasoned off-world members at ease. Nerves were the death of a soldier in an enemy confrontation.

"You bet." She said.

Jack got down on a knee, followed by his team, "What do we know?"

"Nothing. I was waiting to hear from you before doing anything." Sam had wanted to protect the medical personnel when she had seen the ship arrive.

Jack nodded; Carter had done the right thing by staying low, "Teal'c, I want you to stay out of sight. Stay with Doc and her team. Carter, Daniel...with me. Let's see what we can find out."

Jack wanted some type of defense for the medical personnel and if the worst happened, and they were captured while skulking through the city, he didn't want Teal'c identified. More than one Goa'uld had relished the thought of capturing the Shol'va.

"Be careful O'Neill." Teal'c cautioned.

"You too." Jack waved for the other three to follow him out. Janet watched as their shadowy forms disappeared in the gloaming black.