Standing in the dim light offered by the emergency generators, Janet hovered over her desk, a phone receiver pressed to her ear.
"I understand, General, but we have to make sure the auxiliary generators don't go down. There are two patients that are relying on that machinery to keep them alive."
She picked up the telephone and pulled the phone cord along with her as she edged out to the door. She could still see light down the hallway, toward the ICU, but everything from her office and into the main ward was bathed in the glow from the emergency lights.
"I know, Sir, and I understand. Right now the circuits leading into the ICU are untouched, but I'm worried that they might be next. Everything around them—"
Janet paused, her words flashing a possible scenario in her mind.
"General," she began, thoughts still racing, as she walked back to her desk, resting the base of the phone on the edge. "What if they're building a safe zone around their main target?"
Her eyes widened as she listened to the General's response.
"Yes, Sir, I'll find them now. Fraiser out."
Racing out the door, she ran for the ICU, on the lookout for Teal'c and Daniel. They were supposedly in the area.
The lights in the hall dimmed and then went out as she turned the last corner, only a few steps from the ICU door. She hesitated, stopping short. She wasn't armed unless you count the stethoscope in the pocket of her lab coat and that wasn't the best weapon.
Footfalls echoed down the hallway behind her and she turned, a bobbling flashlight blinding her momentarily.
"Daniel? Teal'c'"
Breathing heavy, Daniel stopped at her side, the P90 he carried uneasily in his hands. "We got here as quickly as we could."
Teal'c brushed by her, his gun armed and ready, heading for the ICU.
As the door opened, the light from within spilled out into the hallway, silhouetting the Jaffa in the doorway. He stepped in, pivoting on his heel and freezing, his fingers tightening on the hilt of the gun.
She could hear clicking.
Racing to Teal'c's side, Daniel close at her heels, she peered around the Jaffa, her eyes finding what she was dreading.
There were replicators in the room—nearly a dozen of them. Lori Johnson, new to the program, but a damn fine nurse, was lying on the floor several feet away, a puddle of red growing beneath her still frame.
Pulling her gaze from the body, she focused on her patients, the replicators climbing on the beds, the walls, and the machinery.
One was sitting on the Colonel's chest.
XXX
It was something he couldn't ignore.
There was something crawling on him, several somethings if you had to be specific.
He knew what it felt like—dreamed about it often enough after the whole incident with the robot—but they'd taken care of that particular problem.
At least, he thought they had.
But there was something crawling over him and it felt like it was nibbling on his leg, a little higher up than he would have liked.
What if it was what it felt like?
A sharp pinch on his leg, right where he remembered getting that cut, made the decision for him.
There had to be a way to him to see what was happening. Thinking back, he didn't remember anything wrong with his eyes. It had gotten dark because he'd dropped his flashlight and the dust had formed over him. But there was nothing wrong with his eyes, per say. He was just having problems with his body listening to what he wanted it to do.
But what if his eyes were already open and he was blind?
A fleeting second of sheer panic settled over him, but he pushed it down, shoving it back into the box it had popped out of.
With every inch of his strength, he wrenched his eyes open only to discover that it would have been better if they were closed.
There was a replicator on his chest.
XXX
"Oh my god…" Daniel said, the words pulled from deep within. "Janet…Jack's eyes just opened."
Heart thumping in his chest, Daniel took a few steps further into the room, his first instinct to go to Jack's side, but stopped when the replicator at the foot of Jack's bed reared up and hissed.
This was not good.
"Daniel…" Janet warned, her hand touching the back of his arm and he nodded.
And then all hell broke loose.
Alarms ringing, bells clanging, and lights frantically flashing. Jack was panicking. And how could he blame him? He can't hear, can't move, and the first thing he sees when he opens his eyes is a replicator sitting on top of him. What could be worse than one of your nightmares coming true?
Daniel stepped forward again, instinctively wanting to go to his friend's side, but the angry hiss of several replicators, their backs rising in warning, stopped him mid-stride.
"Daniel…" Janet's warning came again, her voice strained, heavy with emotion. Here she was a doctor and her patient was in pain—in obvious agony—and there was nothing she could do about it.
"I know. I'm not going any closer," Daniel said, his eyes refusing to look anywhere else, his heart beating as frantically as the monitors across the room. "We have to get those things away from him."
"I can effectively remove the replicators from O'Neill's person with little risk of injury," Teal'c said, his gun still pointed at the intruders.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Janet said, as she tried to contain her emotions. "We have no idea what they'll do to Major Wales or the Colonel and we can't risk you hitting any of the machinery. Right now it's the only thing keeping them alive."
And standing there, watching their friend, was agonizing.
But the sound of the alarms changed, Daniel glancing back to Janet, his eyes wide, his thought immediately turning dark. "Janet…"
"No, listen. They're slowing," she said, her hand on his shoulder.
And sure enough, the franticness was gone. There were still alarms blaring, but one by one the readings leveled off until everything fell silent once again except for the clicking of the replicators' feet.
Jack's eyes were closed again, but Daniel could only begin to imagine what was going on behind those lids and the amount of sheer determination Jack had to exert in order to get himself under control—even in the absolute worst circumstances.
He was a fighter, not one to give in to anything—especially not his fear.
Daniel glanced back and smiled tightly, his thoughts spinning back to what Janet had said a few minutes before, her words all too true. If the power went out in here—
"Janet, the lights are still on in here."
"Yes, they are, Daniel," Janet said, patting him on the back lightly, her tone patronizing. In his current frame of mind, however, his brain translated her words into 'Thank you, Captain Obvious'.
"No, no, no. I mean, the lights are still on in here." He waved his hand, encompassing the room with his gesture.
Janet's eyes widened a little and she nodded slowly. "Yes, they are."
"They're not in the hallway. Why didn't the replicators shut them down in here too?"
"I don't know."
"Doctor Fraiser, what does it appear as if the replicators are doing?" Teal'c asked, his baritone voice low.
Janet moved slowly, trying not to spook the watch-replicator at the end of the bed. Squinting her eyes a little, she observed them for a few moments before finally answering. "I'm not sure, but it looks as if one of them is under the blanket, down by the Colonel's knee."
"Then, we are in agreement," Teal'c said, dropping his gun to hang at his side. "I do not believe O'Neill or Major Wales to be in immediate danger."
Daniel and Janet whirled on the Jaffa, their response spoken at the same time. "What?!"
"If the replicators intended harm, would they not have killed Major Wales and O'Neill as they did Nurse Johnson and Airman Stewart? I believe there is something else that they desire."
Teal'c paused for a moment, his dark eyes thoughtful. "Doctor Fraiser, is there any significant difference in O'Neill and Major Wales that would explain the way in which the replicators have converged on them?"
Janet shrugged, obviously unsure of what he meant. "I don't know. It could be anything. They have the toxin in their bodies and now the antitoxin. That's really the main difference."
"Are there other differences?"
"I'm not sure what you mean."
"Observe their behavior," Teal'c said, inclining his head toward the beds at the end of the ward. "Most of the replicators are concentrating on O'Neill. Only two are currently on Major Wales bed and they are not injuring her."
"Not directly, no, but I can see that her blood pressure is up, just like the Colonel's, and if we don't get them out of here soon I'm going to have other problems on my hands."
"Is there a difference in Major Wales' and O'Neill's conditions?"
"Slight. He had more of the toxin in his system because of the cut on this leg. It allowed easier access to his bloodstream." Janet paused and Daniel could see her thinking back to what she'd seen on their charts, running down the columns, comparing them in her mind. "If I remember correctly, there were also trace amounts of the dust entity itself in his system. I didn't think much of it, since his kidneys would end up clearing it out with the help of the dialysis machine."
"Perhaps that is what they seek."
"The dirt?" Daniel's disbelief dripped from his words.
"What other explanation can you provide, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked, turning his gaze on the archeologist.
"I don't know," Daniel said, unable to meet Teal'c's eyes. "But I do know we have to get them off of Jack."
"I am aware of the situation, however, at present I see no way in which to accomplish this task. Doctor Fraiser, would Major Carter be able to confirm my hypothesis?"
Janet nodded slowly. "I think so. She's the only one who's looked at both the entities from the planet and the replicators."
"Then I believe it is time to consult with Major Carter. I shall remain here. Return when you have additional information."
Daniel opened his mouth to protest, but a glare from Teal'c and a tug on his arm by Janet changed his mind. He let himself be led out of the room by the doctor, his thoughts whirling.
One thing he knew for certain: Jack was going to kill them the first chance he got.
XXX
There was a damn bug on his chest. Hell, they were crawling all over him, covering him, suffocating him…
He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, hard enough and frantically enough that he swore it was going to leap right out of body.
They were crawling on him.
Feeding on him.
And he was alone.
He was in hell.
He could feel them on his body, their Lego-like feet sliding on the sheet, trying to find purchase, the sharp ends finally digging into his flesh and moving somewhere else, but never far enough away.
He wanted them off—now.
But try as he might, his muscles refused to obey his commands, refused to move, to budge, leaving him completely helpless, at the mercy of these bugs.
He couldn't hear them chattering, but they had to be. And it had to be loud enough for someone to hear, to notice. Did anyone even know they were here?
What if the base been overrun? Was the SGC infested, its personnel lying dead in the hallways? Was he going to die here, alone and helpless?
He was a dead man…he had to be, but, why wasn't he dead yet?
Think, Jack, think, he scolded himself. They should have killed him already, but he was still alive—if this was living. Being swarmed by bugs wasn't his definition of life as he knew it.
There was something he was missing. The bugs, however, weren't missing out on anything, continuing to crawl over him, poking and prodding the wound on his leg.
He was disgusted and terrified at the same time. He knew what these things could do, how they killed, what they were.
There were better ways to die, easier ways to die.
But he wasn't dead yet.
Closing his eyes, he shut out the sight of the replicator on his chest, as if by that very gesture they'd go away.
But he could still feel them.
Pushing away the fears that clouded his mind, he concentrated on making them disappear.
He could feel his heartbeats begin to slow a little as reasoning slowly returned. Giving himself a heart-attack wasn't the answer. Killing the bugs was.
And he hoped like hell that his team had a plan.
XXX
He could hear them arguing halfway down the corridor. While he knew it had been less than an hour since Doctor Fraiser's report about the replicators in the ICU, as base commander he needed to know what was going on.
In reality, he couldn't sit behind his desk any longer.
Rounding the corner, he paused inside the door, watching the antics within. Daniel Jackson was pacing back and forth, his hands waving in the air. Major Carter was standing in front of her microscope, hands on her hips, glaring in the archeologist's general direction. Doctor Fraiser, noticing his arrival, flashed him a smile from where she sat on a stool on the other side of the lab.
"Daniel, I do know what I'm doing, you know," Sam was saying, her voice tight with anger.
"Well, it certainly doesn't seem like it. Either they're similar or they're not. What's with this 'they seem to have properties in common' crap? We don't have a lot of time here."
"Progress, people?"
Hammond could swear he heard their necks snap as their heads turned in his direction and he held back a smile. Sometimes it was good to be a General.
"Major Carter thinks that the entities on P3S-295 have similarities to the replicators, Sir," Fraiser replied, her voice level.
"I take it Doctor Jackson disagrees."
"I don't disagree, General," Jackson said, stepping forward. "I just don't understand where all of this is going. We need to be doing something to get those things away from Jack."
"We are, Daniel," Carter replied, forcing the words out through her clenched jaw. "There has to be a reason why the replicators are interested in the Colonel specifically and the remnants of the entities from P3S-295 seem to be the only plausible explanation. While they are two very different types of entities, there are some similarities on the cellular level."
"Anything we can use to kill them?" Hammond asked, base defense his highest priority.
"No. The sound device we used on the dust entities won't work here."
"Then what options do we have?"
Carter pursed her lips, her eyes taking on a glaze that he was used to seeing when she was thinking. "From the behavior Janet and Daniel described, it seems as if the replicators are protecting the Colonel. Am I right?"
"I'm not sure if I'd use the word 'protecting', Sam," Fraiser said, rising to her feet. "They won't let anyone come close to them, but they're not acting like they normally do when in contact with humans."
"As if replicators are normal," Daniel muttered, turning to walk a few steps away, his hand coming up to rub the muscles of his neck.
"Why not, Janet? What are they doing?"
Fraiser shrugged. "They seem to be interested in the wound on the Colonel's leg."
"Isn't that where you believe the dust entities from P3S-295 entered his bloodstream?" Hammond asked, pulling the information from the reports he'd received earlier.
"Yes," Fraiser nodded, her head tilting to the side before he locked gazes with Carter. "Do you think they could be looking to consume the remnants of the dust entity?"
"It's possible," Carter nodded. "But why is the real question."
"How similar are they?" Fraiser asked.
"Very. They have the same chemical composition. It's just arranged differently."
"Lots of metals?"
"Yes."
"What if they can sense the entity's presence? What if that's the best 'technology' they can find? Or, what if their motives are more personal in nature?"
Jackson snickered. "They're a toy, remember. Reese made them."
"Yes, they were created," Fraiser said, turning to the archeologist. "But these replicators are acting on their own. Reese isn't here to control them. What if they believe they have some bond to the dust entities?"
"What, are they looking to join with them or something?" Jackson asked sarcastically, his fingers making quotation marks in the air.
"Why not?" Fraiser challenged. "This is alien technology, alien life forms, anything is possible."
"So what do you suggest, Doctor?" Hammond asked, amazed at the speed of the ideas swirling around the room. No wonder why Jack looked dazed sometimes.
"If they follow the same pattern as other replicators, when they're done with one thing they move on to the next, correct?" Fraiser asked, looking between Jackson and Carter for confirmation.
"So, we just wait until they're done with dinner?"
"Doctor…" Hammond warned and the archeologist raised his hand, mouthing an apology to him.
"Basically, yes. We wait," Fraiser answered.
"And then?" Hammond asked.
Daniel's response surprised them all. "And then we kill every last block of them."