Mirror Mirror
Part Two
"I can't believe I have to wear this getup," Jack grumbled in the artifacts room. He saw Ferretti turn to exchange a smile with Carter and scowled at them both. "I saw that!"
He was wearing a skirt. An honest-to-God skirt. Okay, so it was an extra-long chain mail tunic over a padded vest and leggings – but to Jack's mind, it was still skirt-length. Peachy.
"Sir, at least you have a weapon," Carter pointed out. She lifted her left arm and the gold spiral of the ribbon device shone in the overhead lighting. "I only have this and Daniel's completely unarmed."
There was some consolation in the fact that the rest of his team was also ridiculously dressed-up to look like Goa'uld or Jaffa. Daniel even had makeup on – much to the archaeologist's dismay. He was wearing an outfit which had been cobbled together based on the clothing Ska'ara had worn on Tollana and looked...impressive. To say the least.
Jack nearly had a heart-attack when the younger man first stalked into the room and ordered: "Kneel before your god!" The effect of Goa'uld harmonics produced by the voice-distortion unit combined with the outfit had been dramatic. Daniel found himself held at gunpoint by some shaken SF's until he turned the VDU off and got Teal'c to vouch for him.
Carter had made just as dramatic an entrance – although for an entirely different reason. Clad in a dress that clung to her like no man's business, throat and arms bare but for some intricate enamelled jewellery and with a shadowy hint of long, slim legs under the layers of translucent material, Carter left no doubt in any man's mind that she was an attractive woman under her customary BDUs.
Daniel had taken one incredulous glance at her and grinned broadly. Teal'c's eyebrow had jumped high enough to dislodge his brand and the twitch of his mouth indicated that he found the change of style amusing. Jack's first thought had been that she looked delicious in the outfit. The second had been a blunt mental thwap to remind him that this woman was his 2IC and they'd made an agreement to keep anything unprofessional 'in the room' after that incident with the za'tarc testing two years ago.
Fortunately, Carter had been juggling her headdress as she fitted her ribbon device and didn't notice the appreciative glances sent her way. Jack relieved her of the headdress, earning him a brief smile and a chance to admire the way the material whispered over her skin, while she got the ribbon device onto her hand, wriggling her fingers to get it comfortable.
The device on her hand served to remind the men in the room that she was fully capable of using the Goa'uld weapon and had killed a one-time System Lord in such a manner. By the time she looked up, they had their shock – and appreciation – under control and were all business once again.
He answered her question indicating the ribbon device. "That is a weapon, Carter."
"Not my weapon of choice, sir."
"Well, Carter, I think that the sight of Ammonet wielding a P-90 down the corridors of Apophis' palace might be a bit of a giveaway that you're not the snake-head they're meant to think you are."
She smiled, "I guess the staff weapon isn't your weapon of choice, either."
"Definitely not." He turned to Ferretti, "Are we ready to go?" Ferretti, his team and a squad of SFs would come through the mirror with them to hold the artifacts room in Apophis' ship. If SG-1 needed backup, they'd have it. Hopefully they wouldn't, but there were days when it seemed like nothing went right for them.
"Ready, sir," Ferretti winked at Carter, then went to join his team, waiting behind Daniel.
Daniel was next to the mirror with the 'dialling device', trying to find the reality Ska'ara had left behind. He got it fairly swiftly after some muttered consultation with the young man and made a 'you first' sweep of his arm to the SFs.
The SF team went through the mirror, spreading out through the room to ensure that no nasty surprises lurked in the darker shadows before signalling the 'ok' to SG-1 and SG-2.
SG-2 went through next, fatigued and weaponed.
Then it was SG-1 and Ska'ara's turn.
They made the transition without trouble and Jack checked out each of his team.
Daniel was already entranced with the bits and pieces in the room, blowing dust off weird-looking things and making soft exclamations at the things he found. Jack caught the eye of Lieutenant Klavins and the young man gently turned the fascinated archaeologist towards his CO so Daniel caught Jack's expression. The younger man rolled his eyes in exasperation, but refrained from further touching anything.
Teal'c was putting the helmet of the serpent armour on so his face would be covered. He would play the part of the anonymous soldier – a dead man walking through the halls of Apophis' palace would definitely alert someone that all was not as it seemed. It was hard to tell how Teal'c felt about this second foray into an alternative reality. At least this time Jack didn't have to worry about his friend going around killing his counterpart. Someone else had already done it for him.
Carter was talking to Ferretti and the Captain of the SF squad. "You have at least forty-eight hours before entropic cascade failure will set in. If we're not back in forty hours, you're to return through the mirror to the SGC."
"Or come after you."
"Negative, Major," Jack interrupted Ferretti. "If it takes us forty hours to get Ska'ara through to the Stargate in this place, then either we're crawling there without our legs, or we're dead. You go back through the mirror as ordered. Keep your team's radios tuned to channel five, we'll be on channel three. If we need your help, we'll switch channels and let you know."
Carter continued, "Captain Selleck has the controller and has been fully briefed by Daniel on how to operate it. Don't lose it or break it – if something happens to it, then we won't be able to find our reality again. And from the sound of it, this is not somewhere we want to be staying."
"You've really thought this through, haven't you, Major?"
She grinned up at him, "Yes, sir."
Jack exchanged exasperated glances with Ferretti. Carter had that happy-excited look she got when she was on the verge of a technological breakthrough. Or when she blew something up. She'd probably been waiting for the chance to experience an alternative reality for years – since her alternate self and Kawalsky came through the mirror. Scientists!
"Good luck," Ferretti told them both and Jack grimaced and took his place at the entrance to the room along with Teal'c and Ska'ara. Nearby, Daniel was tugging at his outfit.
"Would you stop that?" He demanded.
"It's too tight," the archaeologist grumbled. "I can't take a deep breath in this thing."
"Too much high-fat commissary food, Daniel and not enough time in the gym. Do a few rounds against Teal'c the next time the urge comes upon you to study one of your thingummies."
Reminding Daniel of the bits and pieces in the room was a mistake.
"Jack, we have to take some of these things back through the mirror."
"Daniel..."
"It could provide some very valuable insights into Goa'uld development and history – the kinds of races they've stolen from, what those races were capable of, what they tried against the Goa'uld and what failed..."
"Daniel, if what they tried failed, then it's not going to be much use to us."
"It'll show us what not to try against the Goa'uld, Jack. Success is just continuing to try something until you don't fail at it! And since we've probably developed in a different branch of technological evolution to the races that made this stuff, we might be able to make it work for us!"
Jack groaned. At this rate Daniel would keep this up all the way down the corridor – completely ignoring the fact that Klor'el didn't give a damn about stupid dusty things sitting away in a back room somewhere. "All right, all right! We're taking the stuff!"
He would concede the point about different branches of technological evolution and Carter was certainly smart enough to make something work after it had been broken for a thousand years. That was even without the attraction of developing something tough enough to really deal the Goa'uld a strong punch in the belly.
"Ferretti, talk with Hammond about bringing some of this stuff through while we're gone – send someone decent, not one of the egg-heads from the labs. Carter?"
"Sir?"
"Got any recommendations for someone to give this junk a once-over and work out what to take through and what to leave behind?"
She glanced around, the headdress she wore jingling a little. "Lieutenant Vaillant will look at it with a combined military and scientific view, sir. She also knows when not to touch something questionable."
"You heard the Major, Major; Vaillant it is. Try not to touch anything that will set off the sirens, okay? That always gives away the fact there's intruders on the base...in the palace...wherever..."
"Yes, sir."
"Right. Let's move out, folks."
The doors hissed open with SFs clearing the corridor before the party of five stepped out. Teal'c and Ska'ara headed up the procession, Ska'ara artfully restrained. The restraints were a sham – the young man would be able to break them instantly and the zat gun tucked in a fold of his slave clothing would provide him with his own defence if it came down to it. Hopefully it wouldn't, of course.
Sam and Daniel followed behind, strolled behind the Jaffa and his Abydonian captive as if they owned the place. Technically, the people they were imitating did own the place.
Daniel was taking this opportunity to extend Sam's knowledge of the Goa'uld language, quietly explaining words and phrases that might be useful to them here.
Jack was last in the procession. If it made Jack's skin crawl to listen to his friends talking in the eerie harmonics of the Goa'uld voice – enabled by the voice distortion units carefully attached inside their clothing and at the base of their throats – it made his neck itch to know that there was nobody watching his back this time. They were all facing forward.
On the other hand, nobody would be stupid enough to fight 'Ammonet', 'Klor'el', the 'First Prime of Apophis' and a Jaffa on account of a slave. Jack hoped.
This whole First Prime thing was freaky enough.
Ska'ara had informed them that the best place to look for Sha're would be Ammonet's chambers. Since Sha're was Ammonet's lotar, she was frequently sent on errands back to her mistress' rooms to fetch and carry things.
So they were on their way to the chambers of the wife of the leader of this set of snake-heads. Who was herself a snake-head inhabiting Carter's body – the Carter of this universe. To pick up Daniel's wife – who wasn't their Daniel's wife but the other Daniel's wife – the other Daniel who had a snake in his head too.
I am so gonna demand that the General do something about that mirror. Carter may love it to death, but it gives me a headache. They passed a set of cringing slaves. At least the disguises are working. Of course, if I have to talk to anyone, we're all going to be in big trouble...
They walked coolly into Ammonet's chambers and promptly fanned out, looking for places to hide and wait. In the middle of the floor, Ska'ara stopped and turned. "O'Neill!"
"Ska'ara, this is not the time to have second thoughts..."
"O'Neill, I have just realised that Sha're will not be here for several hours."
Jack came to stand in the middle of the room and regarded the young man with exasperation at this piece of late-breaking news. "Why not?"
"She is...called to Klor'el's quarters at this hour of the day."
Jack scowled. "Wouldn't Klor'el have his own servants?"
The rest of his team, realising a conversation was taking place, moved in around them. "Klor'el would have his own lotar, certainly," Daniel commented. His 'Goa'uld voice' startled Ska'ara, who jumped back from him. Daniel held up his hands. "Hey, Ska'ara...it's okay. It's me."
"Might be an idea to turn that off, Daniel. You, too, Carter." Both members of his team turned to adjust their VDUs.
"So what does Klor'el need with Sha're?" Daniel asked in his usual voice.
Teal'c answered, having opened the helmet of his armour the better to join in the conversation. "Perhaps there are certain...services Sha're renders Klor'el that cannot be substituted by someone else."
"But what kind of services..." The archaeologist's voice trailed off as the understanding came to him. He went white. "Oh."
Carter grimaced, "It makes sense. In a Tok'ra blending, what one feels the other feels. While the Goa'uld aren't symbiotic in the way the Tok'ra are, they would have free access to the mind and memories and emotions of the host – in Klor'el's case, the Daniel of this reality."
"Have I ever mentioned how much I hate these reality mirror things?" Jack commented to no-one in particular. "Ska'ara, where are Klor'el's quarters?"
"Very close, O'Neill. Down two corridors."
"Are they heavily guarded?"
"No. There will be one guard at the entrance to his quarters, but none inside. Klor'el is a powerful and ruthless Goa'uld – he is Apophis' son. Within Apophis' stronghold there would be little need for many guards."
"That's why there's four of us – five," Jack hastily amended, looking at Ska'ara, "And only one of him." He glanced from Ska'ara to Teal'c. "The Stargate's not too far from here – right?"
"That is so, O'Neill. It will not take us long to get there." Ska'ara turned to Teal'c. "You know where Klor'el's rooms are?" While the young man had taken some time to accustom himself to the presence of a man he had only ever known as an enemy, once the adjustments were made, his acceptance had been complete.
"I believe so, Ska'ara. They are beside the perfumed gardens, are they not?"
Ska'ara nodded, then held out his hands for the restraints to be fastened again. They lined up at the door and proceeded out, Carter and Daniel switching the VDUs back on as they left the chamber.
On their way to Klor'el's quarters, there was one tense moment when a squad of Jaffa came around the corner. Daniel's sharply-rapped out orders made them turn about and go back the way they had come, their shod feet echoing down the passageway.
"Close call," Jack muttered.
"They wanted to know how we caught the missing slave," Daniel indicated Ska'ara. "I told them it would be duly revealed in time."
"Good diversion, Daniel."
"O'Neill," rumbled a voice inside the serpent armour, "We are about to arrive at Klor'el's rooms."
"Okay. Daniel, you're going for Klor'el – use the element of surprise in your favour. Carter, you're taking out the Jaffa and any miscellaneous servants. Ska'ara, you'd better take care of Sha're – she won't trust the rest of us. Teal'c, you're with me on guard and backup" The instructions were issued in a low voice that carried far enough to reach the ears of all five rescuers, but not much farther. "Everybody clear on that?"
Jack saw their heads nod, even if he couldn't see their faces.
"Then let's go."
----
Teal'c felt O'Neill's plan worked very well.
The Jaffa on duty at Klor'el's quarters was dealt with in one blast from the ribbon device MajorCarter wore. They burst in on a surprised and infuriated Klor'el and a tearful Sha're. The Goa'uld was zatted once by Daniel Jackson; and Sha're, dressed in the scanty clothing of a body servant, clung to her brother and stared at the four others.
A rapid exchange of Abydonian followed as Major Carter stepped forward and stripped the ribbon device from Klor'el's hand before the Goa'uld regained consciousness. She handed the device to Daniel Jackson who grimaced, but put the weapon on. During that time Sha're was made to understand that the four strangers with her brother were friends – no matter who or what they might look like.
Strangely enough, it was Teal'c's own presence which caused her to accept the others, although her eyes kept glancing fearfully from Daniel Jackson to the prostrate Klor'el.
As O'Neill and Daniel Jackson discussed the next set of moves, Teal'c saw Sha're's eyes remaining on the body of her husband and after following her gaze, he moved: "O'Neill."
The Goa'uld was waking up.
Two zats, two staff weapons and a ribbon device were promptly focused on him, but the man who held a hand out to his wife was in control of his body again – at least for a while. "Sha're..." The voice was rusty and strained, but it possessed no Goa'uld overtones.
"Dan'yel?" She took one step closer to her husband, but was stopped by Daniel Jackson's restraining hand on her shoulder.
"The Goa'uld could regain strength at any moment."
"Sha're..."
She winced at the plea and only said his name again.
Klor'el-Daniel Jackson's eyes travelled over his wife lovingly, then widened as he took in the sight of his counterpart standing at Sha're's shoulder, finally coming to rest on Ska'ara. "Ska'ara...who...how?"
"They are from another world. Like ours, but not like."
"We're from an alternate reality." Daniel Jackson told his 'other'. "Ska'ara appealed to us for help, so we came."
"Get her...away...from here," rasped the host, looking directly at O'Neill. "Please, Jack."
O'Neill's voice was more gentle than usual. "We will, Daniel."
"Sir, we should tie him up before the Goa'uld regains control..."
"Do it." He grimaced, "Sorry, Dr. Jackson."
"I...understand..." The man winced and transferred his gaze to Major Carter. "You'd better...hurry, Captain-Doctor..."
Major Carter tied him up, gently but firmly. "Sir, what are we going to do with Klor'el-Daniel?"
"Leave...me...behind..."
"No can do, Dr. Jackson," O'Neill stated. "You're a security risk to us. You've seen us, you know we came from somewhere, you're smart enough to figure it out. And we don't leave our people behind." A determined expression crossed his face as he glanced from Daniel Jackson to Daniel Jackson. "We're taking him with us."
Teal'c saw the glance Major Carter gave Colonel O'Neill and knew she was thinking how much more difficult the objective would be with an unwilling prisoner. She said nothing, though, aware that her CO knew such things and also aware that he would not leave anyone behind if there was the most remote possibility of successfully getting them to safety.
Prostrate on the floor, the alternate Daniel Jackson asked: "Sha're...?"
She moved to his side and knelt, "Dan'yel?"
They spoke in Abydonian, a brief, private exchange. Breathless on his part as he gasped the words out, struggling against the Goa'uld who held him imprisoned in his own body. Sha're reached out one hand and traced her fingers down his cheek and Daniel Jackson – the one Teal'c knew – turned away, his expression agonised. Difficult enough to lose a wife, but how much harder to see another version of her and be reminded of what he had lost?
Teal'c grieved anew for his friend's loss and felt the guilt of his own part in Sha're's abduction.
Major Carter touched Daniel Jackson's shoulder as he turned away and he gave her a brief, grim smile.
Down on the floor, Sha're gasped and jumped back, her brother placing himself between her and the returned Goa'uld.
"You attempt to escape your god, Sha're? You will be punished indeed! Ska'ara, you shame your family who served the gods for many years."
Ska'ara spat on the floor, indicating his disdain of the Goa'uld. "My family was enslaved by the Goa'uld parasite Ra – who was your master's enemy! We served him before my people knew better."
"Your souls shall be damned for all..."
"Oh, spare us the 'god' routine," O'Neill snorted. "It's getting way old. Right, Carter, let's pick him up and move!"
She hauled Klor'el up and the Goa'uld turned to look into her face and smiled. Daniel Jackson's grin – and yet with a malice that Teal'c had never seen on his friend's face. "You were once a host."
"Yes," she stated coolly and held up the ribbon device. "So you know I can use this against you."
"You will not. Not against this host who is your friend."
In the face of the Goa'uld's mockery, she remained calm and unruffled. "Not my friend."
"He wears the face of your friend. As you wear the face of my master's wife in whom he takes much pleasure." The harmonics of the voice leered at Major Carter and her lips thinned, but she didn't respond to the taunt.
"Ah, shut up and get moving," O'Neill prodded the Goa'uld with his staff weapon. "Teal'c, bind Ska'ara and Sha're, Klor'el behind Teal'c and Daniel and Carter behind him. I'm on your sixes."
"And if we run into any Jaffa, sir?"
"We'll tell them we found this impostor wandering around the halls or something." He intercepted the look she gave him, "I don't know, make something up! Improvise?"
"Shoot everything in sight?" Daniel Jackson offered with a half smile.
"As long as we zat Klor'el first," O'Neill said. "Daniel-the-other will understand. Right, let's get this circus on the road!"
Teal'c shook his head. Although he understood the meaning of the phrase O'Neill used, he had still not seen a circus. When they returned through the mirror, he must remind O'Neill to take him to see one.
One corridor out from Klor'el's chambers, they ran into a squad of Jaffa.
They took one look at the party and promptly began firing on them.
"O'Neill!" Ska'ara yelped as he dived for the safety of the walls, pulling out his zat with one hand and dragging his sister along with the other.
Teal'c moved for the other wall, firing a shot at the leader of the Jaffa. A familiar face and voice shouted orders in commanding Goa'uld: the leader of the Jaffa was none other than the First Prime of Apophis – the Jack O'Neill of this universe. From behind him, Teal'c heard the discharge of a second staff weapon as Colonel O'Neill fired upon the approaching Jaffa, steadfastly ignoring the slightly eerie sight of his counterpart in opposition to them.
Daniel Jackson pushed his counterpart down to the floor, zatting him once in the process and Major Carter lifted the hand with the ribbon device. A burst of power slammed into the Jaffa, making them stumble back and the Jaffa O'Neill barked an order in Goa'uld for his men to scatter behind him as he aimed his staff weapon at the Major. Before he could fire it, Major Carter had again 'slammed' back the Jaffa and the electric whine of Ska'ara and Daniel Jackson's zat-fire began to fill the corridor.
"Carter, Daniel, get undercover now!" O'Neill yelled and the two leapt for the walls, narrowly missing a pair of staff weapon blasts.
The fire fight was swift and deadly for the Jaffa. SG-1 was accustomed to such fighting and covering for each other against Goa'uld minions. These Jaffa had encountered Tau'ri before – but evidently not the kind of warfare SG-1 practised.
The last Jaffa went down to a well-placed staff-blast by O'Neill and they gingerly emerged from their positions either side of the corridor.
Of their own numbers Ska'ara nursed a shoulder singed by staff-weapon fire and Daniel Jackson was in gasping pain on the floor after being zatted by one of the Jaffa. O'Neill's concerned voice came behind him, "Daniel?"
"I really...really...really...hate getting hit by those things..." Daniel Jackson gasped, his muscles twitching as the last tendrils of electrical energy pulsed through him. A little further away, his counterpart was similarly twitching in pain while Sha're knelt close by, watching him.
Major Carter's skirt swished gently as she stepped among the Jaffa, inspecting them for dead. With Daniel Jackson's zat in her hands, she coolly disintegrated body after body until she came to the last man: the leader.
A trickle of blood ran out from behind his head and she bit her lip and stiffened her shoulders before handing the zat to Teal'c and kneeling down beside him to take his pulse.
"Is he alive?"
She glanced up and nodded. "Yes." As she spoke, the dark eyes opened and his hand grabbed at her shoulder. "Yatak roskek! Shol'va!"
Teal'c guessed Major Carter didn't understand the words, but the meaning was clear enough and in response, she slammed her fisted hand – the hand with the ribbon device – into the side of his head, knocking him out. The hand on her arm dropped limply to the floor.
"Good work, Carter," O'Neill stated as he crouched down beside her. He glanced over his counterpart, gaze lingering on the gold serpent brand at his forehead. "This is me?"
"Looks like it, sir."
"Peachy. Jaffa O'Neill, my evil twin." The man grimaced. "Another problem to deal with... Teal'c, pick him up, we'll take him with us..."
"Uh, sir..."
"We don't have time for an argument here, Carter. In a little while we'll have every Jaffa in this palace on our tail."
"That's exactly it, sir. We don't have time. Your counterpart is a Jaffa."
"Yeah and the First Prime, too. If I'm gonna be evil, I'm gonna be damned good at being evil!"
As his friends argued, Teal'c fastened the hands of the First Prime together with some plastic restraints, then tied the ankles together similarly. O'Neill was a resourceful man, whatever Apophis had done to him. While he restrained the man, he listened to Major Carter's words.
"Sir, you'd never willingly serve the Goa'uld. At some stage your counterpart must have been brainwashed or drugged. We don't have the time to deprogram him right now and as long as he's faithful to Apophis, he's a danger to us. Remember Teal'c on the mothership after Vorash?"
Teal'c remembered. The memory gave him no pleasure.
"We're taking Daniel's evil twin."
"Colonel, we can send Klor'el through the gate to Cimmeria where his symbiote will be destroyed like Kendra's. We can't send him – the First Prime – through, because even if he makes it through the maze below the Hammer, without his symbiote he'll die. Remember why we destroyed the Hammer – our Hammer in our reality – in the first place?"
Kneeling beside O'Neill's counterpart, Teal'c suddenly turned to look back along the corridor. He could feel the vibrations in the floor which indicated the approach of another squad of Jaffa. "Others are coming, O'Neill."
"From which way?" Teal'c indicated the direction and O'Neill grimaced. "Daniel, Ska'ara, Sha're – fall back and take the first room we can open and hold. Carter, help me take Evil-Daniel. Teal'c, you get to bring Evil-me. We'll work out what to do with him when we've found some cover. I hate to say it, Major, but keep that zat handy." In two steps, he returned to Klor'el-Daniel's side, taking the bound arm and, with the help of Major Carter, hauled the enraged Goa'uld to his feet. "Move it, snake."
Hauling O'Neill's 'evil twin' over his shoulder, Teal'c followed his friends to locate the nearest sanctuary for their small group.
End of Part Two