The A/Ns at the end of this chapter include a quick timeline of how these episodes are related and where these 'invented' episodes fit in.
CHAPTER 2
Jack sighed at that, resigning himself to the need for his participation in this one, final mission.
"When do we leave?"
"Now," they heard Thor's authoritative voice declare as they were simultaneously engulfed in an explosion of light.
SG1 found themselves, not unexpectedly, in the hold of an Asgard ship, which was soon hurtling through hyperspace to their destination. Surrounding them were supplies from the SGC that had already been stored aboard ship in anticipation of their arrival.
"Looks like Thor was pretty confident we'd say yes," Daniel noted drily.
""I'm just glad we don't have to eat Asgard food," was Carter's comment. She was already looking through the boxes of MREs that were aboard.
"Here's my laptop, and my portable lab," Carter added ecstatically. She sat down to take inventory of how much of her treasured equipment had been transported to the hold. Teal'C sat down next to her watching curiously, already snacking on a box of graham crackers he'd found.
Jack settled down too, reclining against one of the softer packs along the wall opposite his teammates, not speaking and looking uncharacteristically grave. Before long his eyes closed. It wasn't long before the others, having been called to the SGC in the wee hours of the morning, followed suit. Soon the only sound in the hold was the steady breathing of the three T'auri and a meditating Jaffa.
They all woke at the same time, jolted to consciousness by Thor's voice.
"We are at the planet in question," he announced gravely. "Follow me." Thor took them to the forcefield-protected window, from where they could see a planet, blue and green and very much like Earth, with a Goa'uld mothership in orbit around it.
"We are invisible to the enemy. We will proceed to the other side of the planet to transport you down to the surface, where we are out of sight of the Goa'uld. There is a slight chance they will be able to detect the transport beam, so all precautions will be taken. We will beam you close to the location of the device."
"We're going to need more details than that," Jack objected.
"Of course, O'Neill. I will go over our intelligence and maps now, if you will follow me."
With a frustrated shrug, O'Neill followed, gesturing to the others to accompany them.
This was going to be a piece of cake, O'Neill tried unsuccessfully to convince himself again. The four of them stood in a stand of trees, backpacks on their shoulders, ready to set off towards the site where Thor's maps indicated the device was hidden. The terrain around them was densely forested and quite peaceful for the time being. O'Neill felt anxious in spite of the serene surroundings, and silently signaled them to move out.
It didn't take them long to locate the device, since Thor had been able to beam them down almost right on top of it. Carter ran up to the strange little monolith and bent down to study its structure. She was really close, too close for Jack's peace of mind.
"Don't touch it!" He admonished from force of habit. Carter jumped back, then gave him an irritated glance before continuing her careful survey.
"Looks like an access panel under there, sir," she pointed. "And I'm going to have to touch it in order to find out how to fix it."
Jack came up to her side and peered under the edge of the monolith to see the panel she was talking about. After examining it visually, he sat back on his heels.
"Go ahead, just be careful."
Carter suppressed an urge to roll her eyes and began working at the panel, looking for a hidden latch. As the minutes ticked by, her grin faded and was eventually replaced by a thundercloud of a frown.
"You can't open it? Come on Carter!" Jack was edgy, keeping an eye on her and her efforts while monitoring the wooded terrain beyond the clearing.
"Okay, you try, sir," she challenged him and moved aside. He leaned down next to her and reached for the edge of the access plate. No sooner than Jack had laid his hand on the it, the stone plate came loose under his hand and fell to the ground with a thud. Jack jumped back involuntarily. Sam was stunned, but forgot her amazement at Jack's accomplishment as soon as she looked at the intricate workings now revealed inside the monolith.
"Wow," she said, her scientist's heart beating in double time.
"It looks a little like that technology we saw on Madrona."
"Refresh my memory." Jack looked lost.
"Well, remember after we returned the Touchstone? The Madronans were so grateful that they threw us that big party, and Daniel and I were taken on a tour of the city. They had a monolith in the center of the city, similar to this, and the Madronans showed us the inside. That's how I knew where to look for the access panel. The difference was, theirs was all lit up inside, but this one looks...dead. I didn't know its function until now. I'm guessing that's why they had never heard of the Goa'uld."
"I don't remember a party."
"No sir, I guess you wouldn't," Sam said with a mischievous glance at Teal'C and Daniel.
"What?" Jack looked outraged now, and very uncomfortable.
"Let's just say, you really enjoyed the Madronan hooch."
"That's enough, Carter," Jack declared, understanding dawning sheepishly across his face. "Just... get back to work."
"Yes, sir," Sam smirked. She lowered herself onto the ground so she could see inside the workings of the device.
"It looks like this is going to be relatively easy, sir. There's a...uh...doohickey...in here that has worked loose from its receptacle and fallen onto the floor of the chamber..." she stopped her explanation in mid-sentence while she tried to reach it with slender fingers.
Jack smiled at her affectionately and moved closer to see what she was doing. He loved watching her concentrate like this, with her brows delicately puckered and her mouth open just slightly. He tried to remember the last time Carter had had to resort to the word 'doohickey' to describe something technical.
"Almost got it..." she was working so hard to reach the object that her whole body was visibly tensed up now, "...there." She sat up triumphantly, then frowned again.
"That should have worked! It should have lit up like the Madronan device when I replaced it into its receptacle. What's wrong with it?"
She began to reach back into the casing, but instead froze suddenly and darted an alarmed glance at Teal'C. Jack noticed her reaction and likewise turned towards Teal'C, defensively raising his
90 to eye level.
Teal'C was on guard, his staff weapon pointed towards the western edge of the clearing. Jack didn't need any explanation, for he could read Teal'C's posture and it unequivocally said 'danger.' Within seconds, the four had taken cover as best they could along the eastern side of the clearing, weapons ready.
"Carter," Jack whispered in her ear. "Signal Thor to beam us up."
"Sir," she said, shaking her head negatively, pointing at the monolith with its casing cover lying on the ground in full view. The inner components of the mysterious device were still exposed. Jack got her meaning immediately. They would have to stay and insure the monolith was not sabotaged by the enemy. He silently signaled to Daniel and Teal'C to prepare to do battle.
A small squad of Jaffa burst into the clearing, and as Sam had feared, were drawn immediately to the stone device, looking with excitement and alarm into the newly revealed chamber. Jack didn't wait any longer to signal the surprise attack. They charged in, zatting the Jaffa almost instantly, and Sam ran to replace the casing cover. She rubbed a little dirt around the edges to make the monolith looked dusty and untouched.
"Okay, Carter, now signal Thor. It's too dangerous to stay down here for now."
"Yes sir," Sam reached into the pocket of her vest for the Asgard stone, but her hands flew back to her weapon when another contingent of Jaffa arrived in the clearing, this one larger than the last, and began firing at the four teammates.
Behind the Jaffa stood an evil sneering being which could only be a Goa'uld. He strode arrogantly into the clearing, his personal forcefield protecting him, and began shooting at them with a zat.
Teal'C jumped out of the path of the blue zat fire with ease, agilely avoiding injury, but Daniel was hit and fell to the ground, paralyzed and in great pain.
"Not again, Daniel groaned, referring to his unfortunate tendency to draw enemy fire. The Goa'uld laughed and aimed his zat at Daniel again.
"No!" raged Jack, jumping in front of Daniel to shield him from a second, fatal blast. Jack pulled out his pocket knife and zinged it through the Goa'uld's energy shield, counting on the fact that this Goa'uld had probably never before encountered the T'auri and therefore did not know his force field was vulnerable to low-velocity weapons.
Jack smiled in grim satisfaction when the knife sunk into the chest of the Goa'uld. In his arrogant confidence that his shield was impenetrable, he wore no armor, only an ostentatiously ornate robe. With disbelief and shock in his glowing eyes, he froze for a second, then turned and shakily fled the clearing.
Even in the midst of the chaos erupting around her, Sam's mind was still occupied with the problem of the malfunctioning Ancient defense device, knowing that if she could get it to work it would simply transport the enemy away and they and the planet would again be protected. She crawled to the stone and clawed tenaciously at the casing.
She remembered Thor's earlier comment that O'Neill possessed some sort of Ancient gene, making him compatible with Ancient technology. She had no idea what he had meant at the time, but after seeing the stone coverplate fall off at Jack's touch, she was beginning to have a suspicion.
"Colonel! I need you!"
"Go," cried Teal'C, turning to the Colonel and gesturing towards Sam. He and Daniel, who was recovered enough now to hold a weapon, were fending off the enemy quite well. The Jaffa were confused and dismayed by the sudden retreat of their 'god'.
Jack was at Sam's side immediately. The casing cover plate once again slid off effortlessly as soon as he touched it.
"Now what?" he shouted over the din.
"Touch that panel," she directed, hoping her hunch continued to be correct.
Jack looked at Sam skeptically before he plunged his hand into the opening, feeling along the back wall of the chamber, until his hand encountered a strange handle made of a pliable substance behind the workings Sam had adjusted earlier. He molded his palm around the substance and jumped back when the components within lit up with a whirring noise. But as soon as he withdrew his hand, the lights faded and winked out.
"Again!" Sam urged.
More forcefully now, he again grasped the soft handle and the monolith lights came on again. This time, he stayed firmly in place while the humming noise grew to a fevered pitch. The Jaffa dropped their staff weapons and covered their ears as the noise increased unbearably. Daniel and Teal'C fell to their knees soon after, also overcome by the horrible screeching filling the air.
"Sam..." Jack cried anxiously. He was shaking and sweating from the energy flowing into his body through his hand.
She reached out to him and grasped his shoulder.
"Don't let go...don't..." she was rendered speechless by a wave of blinding light, sound, and gravity that blasted out of the monolith, spreading like a tremendous shockwave in every direction. When they dared to open their eyes again, the Jaffa were simply gone. Jack, however, still hung desperately onto the handle behind the control panel, afraid to let go even yet.
"Everybody okay?" he choked out hoarsely, trying to look at each of them but limited by his position. He sagged visibly with relief and fatigue as each of his team answered in the affirmative.
Sam waited a few minutes more before she reached inside and placed her hand over his. Her intention had been to suggest he let go slowly, so she could monitor the effect on the device, but the energy surge that washed through her hand as soon as she touched Jack's drove all conscious thought from her mind.
She gasped and looked at Jack in amazement. She could feel the pulsing life of the mysterious machine, and something else, too. Something she couldn't quite put a name to, something already intimately familiar to her although she had never experienced it like this.
"What is it?" She whispered to him, mesmerized by the sensations emanating from her contact with his hand. Daniel and Teal'C were right next to her now, watching with astonishment.
"I can't describe it. Life force, maybe? It's like I'm part of this thing. I could swear it's alive." Jack's voice faltered as he closed his eyes and his head sank forward.
"Sir? Are you okay?"
"Tired," was all he answered.
"Let go of it," Sam demanded, fear for him suddenly crowding out all other thoughts.
"Can't," he whispered.
"Then I'll help you let go of it, Jack. Here we go."
Sam grasped his hand as hard as she could, lacing her fingers through his, and began pulling his hand away gently at first, then with more and more force.
"I can't move his hand! My hand is stuck, too!" Sam cried out desperately to Daniel and Teal'C. Jack's eyes were now closed, and Sam could feel the energy increasing in its intensity as it pulsated through his body and cascaded into hers.
"Try it again, Sam, and we'll pull with you."
"No, don't touch me. We might all be trapped by the energy field. I'll try again."
Jack heard her voice from afar as his mind slowly lost its grip on reality. The hum of the machine was overwhelming his senses and beginning to sound more and more like his nightmare river. The smaller hand gripping his so tightly seemed to him to be all that was holding him back from slipping into the rushing torrent. Looking up, in his mind's eye, to see what was holding him, he thought he saw Sam, her one hand clinging to a branch above their heads while the other hand held him in an iron grip. To his half-aware mind, her hand appeared to be slowly slipping. Soon they would both be swept away. The painfully familiar panic threatened to overwhelm him.
"Let me go, Carter. Save yourself," Sam heard the Colonel murmur softly in his semi-conscious state. Sam remembered the dream Jack had so vividly described to her the night before, and a new determination filled her. She wanted so badly to give his fears a new ending.
His words from the night before filled her thoughts...
"I'm your CO, Sam. I'm not supposed to be personally involved with soldiers under my command. But with you, there's nothing but personal. I can't separate my feelings for you into categories. I try, but as soon as we're out there, working together, doing our jobs, it all gets lumped together again. It scares me."
"Why does that scare you? Why is that so wrong?"
"Because it's just a matter of time before my hand slips off that branch. Your career could be derailed completely. I won't do that to you. Or, I'll make a decision in the field based on my personal feelings, and someone will get hurt."
"You're scared because you can't control this. You're terrified to lose control. You don't have to save me from anything, Jack. I can look after myself. You're taking on way more responsibility than is yours to take. If that's why you're resigning, then you're resigning for the wrong reasons."
One finger at a time, refusing to give in, she finally managed to work his hand loose and win the battle. He fell bonelessly against her as they lost their balance from the sudden lack of resistance. Daniel caught Sam before she could fall backwards under the Colonel's weight. It seemd to Jack's muddled awareness that Sam had somehow managed to snatch them both from the threat of the raging river and he was now lying on the bank, safe at last. He gratefully sensed her arms locked around him and blacked out.
"Look," Sam directed, pointing within the monolith casing. The lighted panels remained on this time, humming steadily and quietly. "I think it's fixed now."
Teal'C picked up the cover and looked questioningly back at Sam. She nodded affirmatively and Teal'C popped the panel into place.
"Sam?" He was beginning to revive now. Sam held him securely, cradling him against her while he came around.
"What just happened?" He asked groggily.
"We did it, sir," Sam reported triumphantly.
"We're not sure, Jack, but somehow you fixed that thing," Daniel added in amazement.
Sam pulled out the Asgard stone and pressed it. Their surroundings on the planet disintegrated into nothingness and then morphed into Thor's ship as the Asgard transporter beam captured them.
Thor stood waiting to greet them. If Asgards could smile, Thor would have been wearing an ear-splitting grin right about then.
"Your mission is successful!" He crowed. "This planet is protected from the enemy once more. We are once again in your debt."
Only then did Thor take notice of the scene before him. Jack was still curled up in Sam's arms, not quite conscious. Daniel had fallen to his knees as soon as he had fully materialized on the deck of the ship and was rubbing his arms spasmodically. His face was pinched in pain.
"You are in need of rest and sustenance. Come." Thor led them to their quarters. Sam and Teal'C were on either side of the Colonel, practically carrying him along. They lowered him onto a cot and turned to Thor.
"You will be returned to Earth now. After you are rested, I believe you will have questions for me. We will talk later." Still looking uncharacteristically elated for an Asgard, Thor bowed slightly and left them alone.
"Okay, what just happened down there?" Daniel ventured. "Why did that machine turn on when Jack touched it? And what's wrong with him now?"
"It is said among my people that the Ancients possessed the ability to give life to inanimate objects. The legends of Chulak say they can heal with a touch, and turn their bodies into energy. Thor said that O'Neill is somehow related to the Ancients. Perhaps he has some of these powers and is unaware of his ability."
"I don't know how he did it, but he fixed that machine somehow," Sam agreed. "But I wish I knew what it did to him. He's still unconscious."
She was sitting next to his still form on the cot with worry shadowing her eyes.
"We'll keep an eye on him while he rests. Thor didn't seem too concerned, Sam. I think we should all do as he suggested and get some rest while we can."
Sam nodded at Daniel and slid down to the floor beside the Colonel, laying her head down near his on the cot. As exhausted as she was, it didn't take her long to fall asleep.
"What's going on?"
It was some time later that Jack's groggy whisper woke Sam from a deep state of sleep. The lights in the room had been dimmed to allow the team to rest. Sam could barely make out Jack's features, but he was rubbing the heels of his palms on his eyes and trying to stand up. She placed her hand on his chest to keep him on the cot until she could help him get oriented.
"It's okay, sir, we're on Thor's ship. The mission was successful."
"Carter?"
"Yes, sir, it's me. How do you feel?"
"A little loopy."
"A little?"
"Okay, a lot loopy. Are there any meds in that pile of supplies Thor brought with us?"
"Like headache meds?"
"Yeah."
Sam walked quietly across the dark floor and brought her backpack over to Jack. She pulled out her own medkit and handed him a bottle.
"Here."
"I can't get the top off," Jack confessed after a brief struggle. He fell backwards onto the cot and handed Sam the bottle. "What happened?"
"Well, you fixed the device on the planet by touching it," she informed him while handing him 2 pills and a canteen. "Do you remember?"
Jack was silent while he swallowed the pills, then he sat up next to her, close to her side so their whispered conversation wouldn't wake the others.
"I remember some things, but it's pretty fuzzy right now." He turned and looked at her sharply all of a sudden.
"What do you mean, I touched it and fixed it?" Jack asked uneasily.
"It was you and your 'special' gene," Sam said in a teasing tone.
"Whatever," he whispered. "Thanks, by the way. For pulling me out of there." Jack reached over to her and pulled her against his side with a sigh. Sam nestled into his arm and pillowed her head on his shoulder.
"I'm glad you're okay," she whispered. "Jack, when you were attached to the Ancient device on the planet, and I was holding your hand, I felt something really...well, indescribable. But I think it was- somehow- it was you."
He looked down at her uncomfortably. "It was just the machine. It seemed alive. I felt something I'd never experienced before. I guess you could feel that too."
"I did. But it was more than just the device. I could feel you in there, too. Don't tell me I didn't. I know you. Besides, I've experienced other life forces: Jolinar, the Entity- and that was definitely you." Sam's arms tightened around him. "It was incredible."
Jack closed his eyes and tried to remember the minutes they'd spent in the monolith's energy field together, searching desperately for any reciprocal memory of Sam's conscienceness. He envied her experience, wishing fervently that he could have likewise sensed Sam's life force, her soul, in the same way as she had described. Jack unconsciously pulled her closer and buried his face in her hair, breathing in its fragrance.
"I wish..." Jack started, then paused.
"What?"
"Nothing. Let's get a few more hours of sleep, what do you say?" Jack pulled her down next to him with a sure arm and settled onto the cot with a sleepy groan. He was so tired that he was asleep in a few minutes, but Sam lay awake a long time, drinking in the bittersweet sensation of lying in Jack's arms, the worries they'd temporarily left behind on Earth now growing like shadows in her mind again. She wondered what he'd been about to wish for.
She replayed his sweet words to her during their memorable talk back at his house...
"...I can't figure out why you care so much for me, but it makes me very happy that you do," Jack responded to her declaration. "But, it also makes this whole situation more complicated."
"Why? Nothing's changed. You and I have felt like this for a long time. Why resign now?"
"Because I decided to start being honest with myself. Stop pretending what I feel for you is something other than what it is." Jack paused and shifted away from her, uncomfortable with his feelings but needing to express them to her.
"When I said I was 'personally involved', I meant I think about you all the time. Every time I make a decision, I take you into consideration. Most of the time, I don't even make a decision until I've asked you your opinion first. I depend on you for other stuff, too. I know you'll laugh at my jokes. I seek out your company above anyone else's. You make me want to be a better person. You...complete me."
Nestled up to Jack's side in the dim room, Sam savored the memory and wished sadly that time could just freeze at this moment, while everything seemed so simple and right.
Because she honestly didn't know where they would go from here.
A/N
Timeline as promised:
As you know by now, this fic begins a few weeks after 'Entity,' with Colonel O'Neill still trying to get over the horror of having fatally zatted Carter. Even though she survives on a fluke, he can't forgive himself and is petrified of what he might do if faced with a similar situation at some point in the future.
At this point in the actual show, SG1 has yet to discover the full extent of Jack's abilities as a descendant of the Ancients, but I think a few hints of what they learn about him later in Season 7 could have slipped out like this, here and there along the way.
In 'Double Jeopardy', the next actual episode after 'Entity', the events of Chapters 1 and 2 of 'Command Decision' have already occurred and Jack is still conflicted over whether he should resign. Newly arrived from Thor's rescue mission (Chapter 2), they are interrupted in the briefing room scene (coming next in Chapter 3) by the sound of klaxons and the arrival of Harlan. During 'Double Jeopardy,' there is a scene where alternate Sam dies in front of the real Sam and Jack. (Not to mention the fact that all the other clones apparently also die.) Sam andJack exchange a look that takes on deeper meaning given the background developed here.
The last scene of that episode shows SG1 having successfully defeated the Goa'uld Cronus and having commandeered Cronus' mothership. They can't park the ship in orbit around Earth (my assumption), so they fly it to the Tok'Ra base where they join forces with Jacob and eventually expose Tanith, the Tok'Ra who is actually a Goa'uld in disguise infiltrating the Tok'Ra. This is where the episode 'Exodus' picks up, which has another scene that creates more emotional anguish for O'Neill, namely, the apparent death of Teal'C. Jack escapes Tanith's ambush but before he is rescued he witnesses Tanith ringing up to the mothership carrying Teal'C's body. Unknown to SG1 for now, Teal'C is revived and imprisoned by Apophis.
This series will attempt to follow (if muse cooperates) the inner conflict and turmoil of O'Neill through 'Exodus' and beyond as he continues to wrestle with the issues he believes are compromising his ability to command. (Does anyone have a different take on or additions to how I interpreted (and embellished on) the sequence of events of these episodes?)