Chapter 3

Daniel drifted slowly back to consciousness, teased by the steady beeping sounds of the monitors beside his bed. His eyes blinked open once, then again, til finally he was able to open them and keep them open. What am I doing here? he thought groggily.

"He's coming around now, General," came a soft female voice.

Daniel struggled with remembering whose voice it was -- Dr. Brightman, that's it. I remember that.

"Daniel. Daniel, wake up," came Jack O'Neill's concerned voice. "Tell me what happened."

"Jack," he croaked, looking around in confusion. "How did I get here?"

"Teal'c had to carry you back. Dammit, Daniel, I told you this was a stupid idea. Why don't you ever listen to me," O'Neill barked, concern evident in his voice and his eyes.

Daniel went to turn his head and felt a flare of pain sear through his forehead. "Damn, that hurts," he moaned. "I feel like someone hit me with a sledgehammer."

"What's the last thing you remember?" O'Neill asked.

"I accidentally got transported to the planet with the shapeshifters," Daniel said rubbing his aching head. "They have some kind of security protocol on the transporter device. It wasn't overridden so I was knocked around pretty bad getting down there. A priestess from the temple found me and took me to the temple. Larinda, her name was Larinda."

The memories were coming faster now, and Daniel continued to rub his head as he struggled to make sense of them before they could disappear again. "Niirti had been experimenting on them, trying to make hoc tar by mating the shapeshifters with humans, then putting goa'ulds in the children born of those unions. But she lost control of the experiment. The first goa'uld who was successfully implanted, Janus, took over and chased her out before she could finish, but she disabled the transport device, trapping him on the planet. He didn't understand what she'd been doing. There were other goa'ulds in the mix too. Jack, she was trying to make hoc tar that were also harsesis."

"Slow down, Daniel. You're not making any sense," O'Neill said with concern.

"Yes, he is, O'Neill," Teal'c said his normally placid features twisted into a dark scowl.

"Superhosts with the genetic memory of the goa'uld parents," Carter said amazed. "How did she expect to get away with it?"

"She managed to keep the other goa'uld from finding out for almost 1,000 years," Daniel said wearily. "She probably hoped either no one would care enough to try to repair the transport station or the transport device's internal defenses would neutralize them before they could cause a problem. Or maybe she thought Janus would make short work of any interlopers. Who knows. We could speculate all day."

"What else do you remember?" Carter asked.

Daniel struggled to sit up, but Dr. Brightman gently pushed him back down again. "You need to rest, Daniel. You've given your central nervous system quite a shock. It needs some recovery time." She felt a stab of concern when he simply frowned at her but didn't argue the point. That was a sure sign he was either badly shaken or in significant pain.

Daniel rubbed his hands down the side of his face and concentrated. "The people, good god the people, they don't know the truth. They don't realize what they've become."

"What have they become, Daniel?" O'Neill asked with as much patience as he could muster.

"Larinda called them a species of duality. They only have limited shapeshifting abilities now. They can only shift between two shapes. Each entity is two separate people, that live two separate lives. And neither one knows about the other."

"That's impossible," Carter exclaimed. "How could two individuals share the same body and not know it?"

"Aurora," Daniel suddenly muttered. "Where's Aurora? We can't let her go back there alone. She has to understand what's happened to them before she goes back. Where is she?"

Carter shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably before finally admitting, "We left her back on P5C-898 when we brought you back here." At his shocked look, she added defensively, "we had no idea what she'd done to you, so we certainly weren't going to bring her back here."

"Never mind about that now," O'Neill snapped. "Get back to this two people sharing the same body stuff. What are you talking about?"

Daniel took a steadying breath, trying to get it all in order in his head before saying it out loud. "It's like a bizarre form of multiple personality disorder that lasts for a month at a time. There's a ceremony on the night of the new moon where everyone is given a strong drug that deadens the will so the current personality can't hold on, then the priestess activates a set of chimes that triggers the transformation. Then they all change into their other personalities. But some of them fight it . . . ."

Daniel's voice trailed off as he got caught up in the memory -- the feeling of desperation and panic as he stumbled toward the colisseum, trying to outrun his captors while the drug they'd given him fought for control of his body -- the events feeling as real as if were happening at that moment. He didn't even realize his breathing had turned to quick, panicked gasps until he heard O'Neill's sharp voice, "Daniel! Daniel! What's wrong with him, doctor?!"

The monitors beside the bed had started to blip and bleep wildly as they registered Daniel's suddenly increased heart rate and blood pressure, adding to the cacaphony of noise and sound around him. He concentrated on the sounds, using them as a focus to draw himself out of the too vivid memories.

Dr. Brightman had reacted immediately to the changes in the monitoring equipment and was already by Daniel's side with a syringe in her hand. "That's enough for now, General. He needs to rest. I'm going to give him a sedative to calm him down. His body can't take this level of stress much longer.

"No!" Daniel forced out between gasps that were slowly easing as he concentrated all of his attention on the sound of the monitors. "I'll be alright. No more drugs!"

Brightman hesitated for a moment, looking to O'Neill for permission to go ahead without Daniel's consent.

Daniel had opened his eyes again and seeing the look pass between them, interjected, "Please, Jack. No more drugs." Hating himself for doing it, he played his trump card and, looking pleadingly at O'Neill, added. "Please, Jack. You remember what I went through after they stuffed all that crap in me. No more drugs. I can handle this without them. See, I'm better already."

O'Neill frowned, sensing he was being played, but also noting that the monitors had gone back to their steady, normal rhythms. Brightman was still looking at him expectantly, the syringe of sedative at the ready. "I need him conscious for now, Doctor, but if that happens again, you have my permission to give him the sedative without waiting for further orders."

Brightman frowned disapprovingly, but said, "Yes, sir," as she recapped the syringe and put it into the pocket of her lab coat where it would be handy if needed.

"Thank you," Daniel said with relief, laying his head back on the pillow and closing his eyes for a moment. Bad idea, he thought as almost immediately images of twisted human beings, writhing and screaming and seeming to split into two before his eyes began to assault him. He popped his eyes open immediately and concentrated on the sound of the monitors before his breath could do more than give a little hitch. I'm not there. I'm at the SGC. I'm safe, he kept repeating over and over in his head, turning it into a calming mantra. "I really need to sit up," he said. "I'm feeling a little queasy. If I keep laying down, I'm going to get sick."

Brightman and O'Neill exchanged glances again, before O'Neill said, "Teal'c, would you help Daniel sit up, please."

"Certainly," Teal'c responded amiably, moving to Jackson's bedside and helping him into a sitting position as one of the nurses moved to activate the switches that would bring the head of the bed up, then settled some pillows behind him.

"Feeling any better," Brightman asked, automatically moving in to take his pulse as she checked the monitor for any sudden drop in blood pressure.

"Yeah, that's a lot better. Thanks." Daniel said, trying to force some gratitude into the small, but hopefully disarming, smile he shot her way. Thud, that one fell flat, Danny boy, he thought to himself as she only returned a steely calculating gaze that stated very clearly, 'don't try to play me with the boyish charm, you're way out of your league'.

"Shapeshifters," O'Neill said sharply, bringing the conversation back to its original topic. "What happened to you on that planet?"

"When I first woke up there was a priestess there. Her name was Larinda. And a consul named Octavius. The city is called Remana and it's modeled on first century Rome. I gained the priestess' trust after a few days and she took me to their central temple." He couldn't help the nervous laugh that escaped at the memory, even though it elicited another exchange of nervous glances from those around him. "It was the central chamber of a goa'uld ship. They had actually built the temple around it.

"Anyway, Larinda showed me one of their historical books and explained about the ceremony and how it all worked and told me she wasn't planning to participate so she could help me figure out what was going on. Then one of her attendants brought us food and some water. We both had some, then Octavius showed up holding the chimes. When he rang them, she started to change. Larinda was blonde with green eyes, but suddenly it was like she was two people. The other side of her head started spilling out black hair and I saw another face with intense dark eyes. I started to feel really sick and that's when I realized the food and water had been drugged."

Daniel stopped a moment and took a deep, calming breath. "When the transformation was complete, the dark haired woman was nothing like Larinda. Larinda had been kind and gentle and nurturing, but this one, she called herself Lysandra, was cold and cruel and incredibly arrogant. She started to argue with Octavius and that's when I realized his other personality was the goa'uld Janus. He said he was leaving her there to deal with the problems on the planet while he went to wreak his vengeance on Niirti. When she told him I'd told her, I mean Larinda, that Niirti was dead, he went crazy.

"I'd managed to make it to the door while they were arguing and jammed the control panel from the outside. I didn't have any idea where to go. Larinda hadn't told me where the transport site was, so I was just trying to hide. I headed for the coliseum figuring nobody would notice me in all the chaos once they started changing. I made it there just as the chimes sounded and then they all started pouring out of the building, screaming and crying, their bodies contorting into all sorts of strange shapes."

Daniel shivered involuntarily at the memory and the feelings of helplessness and terror they invoked. Carter's hand went automatically to his shoulder to steady him. He put his hand over hers and gave it a quick squeeze of thanks before returning to his story. "By then I could barely stand up, I was so sick. I could hear Larinda calling me from a distance. There was no cover in the immediate area and I knew I couldn't stay on my feet much longer so I tried to hide in the shadows at the foot of the coliseum. Then I passed out. When I woke up, I was back in the room in the temple where I'd first woken up. Larinda was there and she was very upset and crying. She said Lysandra had killed Octavius then gone after me but she reached the coliseum just as the chimes sounded. Larinda was able to retake control of their body and discovered from Lysandra's mind how to send me back."

The memories had been crystal clear until this point, but now Daniel found he had to reach for them again, dredging them stubbornly from the dark chamber they'd been locked away in for so long. All eyes in the room were on his haunted ones as he reached up and rubbed his temples in frustration, trying to force the memories out. Then suddenly they were there in front of him, just as crystal clear as the earlier ones had been.

Those watching saw his blue eyes widen in stunned shock. "What is it, Daniel? What happened next?" Carter asked, her heart constricting in panic at the look in his eyes, while her comforting hand remained steady on his shoulder.

"Um, she offered me a glass of water, but I wouldn't take it. I felt better than I had when I passed out, but I wasn't taking any chances."

"You thought it might be drugged again," O'Neill said dispassionately, but the hard line of his mouth hinted at the depth of the anger that was boiling underneath.

"Um, possibly, but I was also afraid putting anything in my stomach might make me sick again," Daniel stammered.

O'Neill, Carter and Teal'c exchanged worried glances, knowing something wasn't right about his sudden hesitation to say what they all knew was true. "And then?" O'Neill said.

Daniel's brow crinkled in a frown of concentration and he squirmed uncomfortably under their steady gazes, "She said she didn't know that they'd been planning to kill me and she swore she'd send me home as soon as it was done. I was still a little disoriented so I didn't catch the way she phrased it right away. Then she leaned over and kissed me." Daniel's face flushed bright red with embarrassment at the admission, but just as quickly all the color drained from his face leaving it pale and drawn. "Then I realized the drug was on her lips, but it was too late."

"Oh my god," Carter gasped, squeezing his shoulder sympathetically, before sitting down heavily beside him.

"I don't remember anything after that," he said careful to keep his eyes averted from the others so they wouldn't reveal the tiny lie. None of them needed to know the last thing he remembered was realizing he was naked under the blanket.

"So she blasted you with more drug so she could take the blood samples without you fighting her. But why?" O'Neill asked. "Why didn't she just take them while you were unconscious? And what did she need them for anyway?"

Daniel's head was aching from the strain of remembering and trying to cope with the things he was remembering. "Oh, sorry, I must have skipped that part somehow. It's all really mixed up," he said distractedly.

"It is a great deal to take in all at once, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said with a touch of concern. "What else have you remembered."

"When Larinda first became Lysandra she said there was a problem with the bloodlines becoming tainted because of all of the intermarrying among the inhabitants. The priestesses kept detailed records of marriages and matings to ensure there were several births from Janus' pure bloodline within every generation, but the other descendants of goa'uld who were continuing to intermarry were exhibiting increasing signs of irrational behavior and madness. She said they needed to introduce pure human dna back into the mix to try and dilute some of the effects of all of that goa'uld dna being mixed together.

"I don't think they understood at all that the madness was being caused by those affected being harsesis and having the genetic memories of the goa'uld parents. They seemed to think it was just a side effect of all the intermarriage among a species that is so fundamentally arrogant and strong-willed."

"So, she planned to use your blood for what?" O'Neill asked. "How could it help?"

"Niirti was a master at genetic engineering, sir," Carter broke in. "Maybe they thought they could use the information she left behind to manipulate the cells in the blood."

"Seems like a long shot. It's a little surprising they weren't just planning to do it the old-fashioned way." O'Neill said. "I mean, why let the golden goose, or gander, as the case may be, go before you're sure something like that is going to work."

"For one thing, sir, it would take too long," Carter said thoughtfully. "It would take several generations for there to be any noticeable affect on the gene pool. If the people are in as serious shape as Daniel is describing, they couldn't afford to wait that long for results."

"I think that was probably part of the original plan though, Jack," Daniel said, the flush rising in his face again. "When I first got there, Larinda kept saying that Lord Janus had sent me as an answer to their prayers. But I think once she realized what Lysandra and Octavius had been up to all along, she couldn't go through with keeping me prisoner there."

"So instead she pumped you with enough drugs to down a full-grown elephant, sucked out almost half your blood and dumped you on the transport platform with no idea whether anybody would be there to pick your sorry ass up and cart you off to a hospital before you died from either a drug overdose or massive blood loss. Quite the humanitarian."

"I'm not saying she's blameless in this, Jack," Daniel snapped back angrily. He closed his eyes against the wall of pain that seemed to be fed by the anger. "Damn, my head hurts," he muttered, pressing the palm of a loosely fisted hand to his forehead as if trying to forcibly push back the pain.

"Okay, that's it," Dr. Brightman said with finality. "Everybody out. His bp and heart rate are starting to go up again and I insist he be allowed to get some rest or that sedative is coming out right now."

"Okay, that's it kids," O'Neill said. "Everybody back to class, recess is over."

The attempt at humor fell flat, as Carter and Teal'c each gave Daniel's hand a quick squeeze and left the room with worry etched on their brows.

"That means you, too, General," Brightman said firmly.

O'Neill's brow went up at that. "Well, okay then. I guess I'm leaving too, Daniel."

"Jack," Daniel said wearily, his eyes closed, but the strain of the last few hours showing clearly on his face.

"What?"

He opened his bleary eyes to focus on O'Neill. "Send somebody back to check on Aurora. Please. She's a full-blooded shapeshifter. I don't know what will happen to her if she goes back there alone. She has no idea what's going on there. At least get someone to warn her what to expect if she does decide to go alone."

"It's already been almost 10 hours since they brought you back, Daniel. She's probably long gone by now."

"Maybe," he responded, his eyes closing against his will, "but promise me you'll try. What happened to me isn't her fault. It's the goa'ulds', as usu . . . ," Daniel's voice faded away as he slipped into sleep.

O'Neill looked over just in time to see Dr. Brightman recap the empty syringe and put it back in her pocket. She returned his gaze evenly and unapologetically. He nodded approval and turned and stalked out of the infirmary.

Carter and Teal'c exited the wormhole onto P5C-898 and strode quickly over toward the tree Aurora was sitting under. Carter had been surprised when their remote activation of the MALP they had left behind on the planet had showed the woman still there. She had assumed Aurora would have been through the gate to P3X-846 as soon as they were gone.

Aurora looked up at them as they approached and the incredible sadness in her eyes caught Carter by surprise. "Is Daniel still ill?" Aurora asked softly.

"He's resting. Our doctor says he should be fine in a day or two."

"And he remembers all that was lost?" Aurora asked sadly.

"We're not 100 sure yet, but he seems to have most of it back at this point."

"How awful for him," Aurora said, shaking her head. "What terrible memories to possess. It horrifies me that any of my people could be capable of doing such terrible things."

"What do you mean?" Carter asked with consternation. "How can you know what his memories are? We left here before he started talking about them."

"It is so difficult to explain," Aurora said wearily, leaning her head back against the tree and closing her eyes.

Carter felt an involuntary shiver go through her as she realized why the action seemed so familiar -- it was something she had seen Daniel do on more than one occasion.

"In order to be able to heal him, I had to take his form to see where the injury was," Aurora explained. "As I told you when you first found me, if I touch someone, I can duplicate them exactly."

"Including their thoughts and memories?" Carter asked incredulously.

"Yes," Aurora said. "It was wrong of me to examine those memories, I know, but I needed to know if my people are safe. They are not." She shook her head miserably. "And I do not know if I have the power to help them. I am only one. I do not know if it will be enough to undue such terrible damage."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Carter responded. "Daniel asked us to come back and let you know what he remembered because he didn't want you to go to the planet unprepared for what you'd find there."

"Then none of you are willing to go with me," Aurora said bleakly.

"Our superior has forbidden it," Carter said. "General O'Neill is not willing to risk the lives of any of our people after what happened to Daniel last time."

"That is understandable," Aurora said heavily. "Would it make any difference to this General O'Neill to know that it would be different this time."

"In what way," Teal'c asked.

She looked up at them, her eyes meeting each of theirs directly. "Because I know how to override the security protocols. Anyone who accompanies me will be properly prepared for the trip and, therefore, will arrive on the planet fully alert and functional and will not have lost their weapons or anything else they carry with them."

"Do you remember me using the words 'over my dead body', Carter?" O'Neill snapped the next morning as he, Carter and Teal'c gathered around the conference room table to discuss the latest developments.

"Yes, sir," she said, "but if Aurora really can override the security protocols, there shouldn't be any significant danger. From what Daniel told us, the inhabitants of the planet are not well armed. The safeguards built into the transport device are their primary means of defense against outsiders. We'd arrive on the planet fully armed, which would give us a big advantage over the locals."

"There are a lot of ifs in that scenario, Carter," O'Neill said impatiently. "The biggest one is whether Aurora really has the ability to do the things she says she can do. If it turns out she can't, your team will be at the mercy of the same people who almost killed Daniel. That's a pretty big risk."

"Teal'c and I are ready to take that risk, sir. We feel that there's a lot that can be learned down on that planet."

"And why is it again that we want to go there?" O'Neill asked. "It doesn't sound like they have any technological innovations that would be useful to us. Do they have naquada or naquadria reserves we could use? What's in it for us that you should take that risk?"

"Finding out how the transport system works would be . . . ," Carter started to say, but was interrupted by a tired voice coming from the direction of the stairs leading up to the conference room from the main operations level.

"We have to take the risk because we don't have any other choice."

"Daniel, what are you doing up?" O'Neill asked sternly. "Dr. Brightman told me she was keeping you in the infirmary at least until tomorrow."

Daniel shrugged as he went to his usual chair at the briefing table, "Let's just say I'm not Dr. Brightman's favorite patient right now and leave it at that."

"What do you mean 'we have no other choice', Daniel Jackson," Teal'c inquired.

"We have to know what's going on down on that planet," Jackson said firmly. "We know from what I remembered that we may possibly be dealing with harsesis and that the locals don't understand that or what it means. The situation on the planet was beginning to destabilize when I was there. We have no idea how much worse it's gotten in the two years since then.

"The system lords have been paying much closer attention to long abandoned planets since we discovered the Ancients' hidden defense system in Antarctica. We have no idea whether any of them have decided to investigate P3X-846 and what they may have discovered if they made it down to the planet. The implications of any goa'uld finding those people and attempting to use them, either as hosts or simply for the racial memory they may have contained within them, are incalculable."

"I have to agree with Daniel on this one, sir," Carter stated directly. "We can't allow such a potentially dangerous, unstable populace to fall under the control of the goa'uld. And we can't allow Niirti's research that's in the computers on that planet to fall into their hands either. We know from the fact that Aurora still exists and from having met the protectors of the Salish that there are other shapeshifters out there. With Niirti's research, it might be possible for other goa'uld to recreate her experiments and get it right this time. Think of how much worse it would be, sir, if we were up against goa'uld shapeshifters."

O'Neill sat with his head resting on his hand, a scowl marring his normally handsome face. He pondered what Jackson and Carter had said for a few minutes, then said with finality, "All righty then. Carter, you, Teal'c and SG-9 will move out at 0900 tomorrow morning. You'll go to P5C-898 to pick up Aurora and then head to P3X-846. I'll have our people unblock the stargate address in the dialing computer in case you need to come back home in a hurry, but don't come directly back from there unless it's absolutely necessary. I don't want to take the chance of leading anyone or anything back to Earth if this goes to hell in a handcart.

"I want everyone fully armed and carrying plenty of extra ammunition. And make sure you have enough C-4 to blow up the entire temple if you think it's necessary. If it looks like you're not going to be able to do anything for the people there, at least make sure Niirti's information is gone so no other goa'uld can do this again."

Jackson had held his tongue through the general's instructions even though he was seething inside. "And what about me? They need me on this one, Jack. The locals don't speak English; they speak a very obscure dialect of Latin."

"You're going back to the infirmary, Daniel, until Dr. Brightman clears you for duty. I don't want any personnel on this mission who aren't up to full capacity. It's dangerous enough for the people going without them having to worry about stragglers. As far as translators go, Dr. Benedetto has been studying that language for the past two years. I'll send him with them."

"Dr. Benedetto will be a greater liability to this mission than Daniel Jackson, even performing at less than optimum, would ever be, O'Neill," Teal'c interjected. "Dr. Benedetto is unaccustomed to following orders; he is not in appropriate physical condition for such an arduous mission, and in most of my interactions with him I have found him to be unfocused and easily distracted."

"I agree, sir," Carter chimed in. "Relying on someone so inexperienced to be our main source of communication with the inhabitants of the planet could be hazardous and potentially deadly."

"Besides," Daniel added, the irritation evident in his voice, "Dr. Brightman was going to clear me for duty tomorrow anyway. She's just pissed that I wouldn't wait til then."

O'Neill stared at each of them in turn, then gave a heavy sigh before relenting. "All right, but I want all of you to be very careful down there. These people have proven to be extremely dangerous in the past; don't underestimate them. And I want you back here in two hours for a full briefing with SG-9. Colonel Hamilton and his men need to know everything we know about what they're going to be facing down there."

After the briefing, O'Neill returned to his office and sat down to stare at the paperwork littering his desk. Restless, he got up and paced back and forth several times before coming to a decision. He picked up the phone on his desk, dialed and said to the secretary who answered, "This is General O'Neill, I need to speak with General Hammond immediately."