Chapter 4

Daniel woke to find Larinda stooped over him crying. He felt disoriented and confused, realizing the white room he was in was wrong, but not sure why. Hadn't he been outside somewhere? "I'm so sorry, Daniel," she was saying. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know that they were planning to kill you. I swear it. We have to do something to help our people before the madness destroys them. But not that way. Not that way!"

Pieces of what had happened started to come back to him. He wasn't sure how long he'd been unconscious, but physically he felt somewhat better. There was still a nasty headache, but the nausea and disorientation had receded.

Larinda started to hand him a glass of water, but he shook his head and waved it away. "What happened to Lysandra?" he asked weakly.

"She killed him," Larinda said, the shock obvious on her face. "When you escaped, Octavius went to chase you. She was so angry at the way he'd treated her. She saw the knife in the door panel, pulled it out and stabbed him with it. Gods, I could see and feel it all. It was awful. The way his eyes glowed. I don't understand."

"He was Janus," Daniel responded absently, rubbing his eyes to try and clear away the last of the cobwebs clouding his brain. "The glowing eyes are one of the telltale signs of a goa'uld."

"He was hiding among us all this time and I never realized it," she said numbly. "He had the perfect cover as Octavius. As one of the consuls he would always know what was going on. I was such a fool."

"You haven't told me what happened to Lysandra. Is it possible she can come back?"

Larinda looked away from him, her lips trembling as she spoke, "She went after you. But she came up to the coliseum just as the chimes started. I fought her for control. There was still enough of the drug in our system that she wasn't able to hold on. I'm in control now," she smiled weakly at him. "And I was able to pull some other useful knowledge from her mind before she gave up. I know how to get you home now, and, once all this is done, I swear I'll do it. I swear."

Before he had time to fully process what she'd said, she leaned over and kissed him. It took him by surprise, her lips so soft and gentle on his own, but as he instinctively kissed her back, he realized there was something wrong – something on her lips left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth. He pulled away from her, having only a second to realize what she'd done, before the drug hit his system, chasing away thought and reason. There was only the sensation of her soft lips on his and her body pressing against his own, then the world disappeared into the grey mist again.

"It is the radio signals from the walkie-talkies," Samantha Carter said excitedly. "But I wasn't able to recreate the effect until I shut down the console and reactivated it again. Watch what happens when I activate one of them now." She pressed the button, and spoke into the device, "Carter to O'Neill."

Across the room a small shimmer of light appeared from a hole in the wall. "Did you see that," she asked excitedly. That's right about where Daniel was standing when he disappeared."

"Alright," O'Neill said. "Stay here and activate it again. I'm going to go find Daniel and bring him back."

"Sir?!" Carter protested. "We have no idea how this system works. I don't think it's a very good sign that Daniel hasn't returned on his own. How do we know that if you go through, you'll be able to make it back?"

"And what if Daniel's injured and can't make it back on his own, Carter? Are we just supposed to leave him there - wherever there happens to be? I assume you haven't figured that part of it out yet, so we could just send a ship for him."

"Of course we're not going to leave him, sir. But we've gotten this far. I think we can afford to give it a little more time before jumping haphazardly into a rescue mission that might only result in more people being missing."

The argument at the main console had the attention of everyone in the room, so no one noticed the tiny shimmer of light that momentarily flickered across the room.

Deeply engrossed in the notepad containing his translations, Dr. Benedetto didn't even notice the heated exchange going on between Carter and O'Neill as he walked into the room and headed toward the wall with the Latin inscriptions. His concentration only left the notepad when the toe of his shoe hit something soft but unyielding. He looked down, perplexed by what he saw. "Excuse me," he said in a weak voice. When that elicited no response from the squabbling military officers, he yelled, "EXCUSE ME!" All eyes turned his way. "Has someone called a doctor for Dr. Jackson? He looks quite ill."

After a moment of stunned silence, Carter jumped toward Daniel snapping, "Quick, get him away from that wall before he disappears again."

Daniel could hear the rush of familiar voices around him and struggled for consciousness. He opened his eyes to see Samantha Carter stooped over him. "Sam, Sam, take out the crystal. Take it out. Before they can follow. Please. Don't let them take . . . ," his voice trailed off as his eyes closed again and his body went limp.

Badly shaken by Daniel's condition and the fear in his voice, Carter moved quickly over to the console, ripped the cover of the control panel open and pulled out the crystal, smashing it to pieces under her boot.