Jack had Teal'c spell him as Daniel's keeper when word came that SG-4 had arrived. He got back to the camp just as Doctor Fraiser was beginning her examination of the first body. "Find anything?" he asked.
"You'll have to give me a little time, Colonel," said Dr. Fraiser. "Now, get out of here, and let me get to work, or on your next physical, I'll use some of my extra large needles."
Jack raised his hands, and started to back toward the entrance to the tent. "Alright, alright. I'm leaving." He quickly ducked out through the tent flap. He saw Major Carter grinning at him when he got outside. "What?"
"It's just that you're more scared of Janet than I've ever seen you scared of a Goa'uld."
"Have you seen some of her needles, Carter? They're huge!"
"With all due respect, Sir, you're such a baby."
"Carter…why don't you take your toys, and go join Daniel? See if you can detect any of those things you detect coming from that column?"
Sam grinned at him. "Yes sir." She waved a hand at him in a way that kinda suggested a salute, before she gathered up some instruments, and left toward the ruin.
Dr. Fraiser had her preliminary autopsy report ready four hours later.
"So, what killed them, Doc?" asked Jack.
"I don't know," said Dr. Frasier.
"You have no idea?"
"I have examined all six bodies," said Dr. Frasier, "and I can find no obvious cause of death for any of them. There is no sign of trauma, there is no internal bleeding. The toxicological tests that I have been able to perform with the equipment I have here show nothing but normal decay byproducts."
"So, they just died for no reason?" asked Jack.
"There was a reason," said Dr. Fraiser. "I just can't tell you what it was, yet. I'm going to send some tissue samples back to the SGC. They'll be able to run more tests, maybe find something I missed."
"Can you at least give us a time of death?"
"Thirty-six to forty-eight hours ago."
"We knew that from their missed check-in."
"Sorry, Colonel, but I can't be more precise than that, not after this much time. If I had been able to examine the bodies earlier, before they had started to decompose, I might have been able to tell you more, but now it's starting to be difficult to distinguish between tissue damage caused by the decomposition, and damage that might have been the cause of death."
"How about disease?" asked Jack.
"It doesn't seem very likely. I haven't been able to identify any bacterial, or viral pathogens, but again, we're going to have to wait for the analysis of the samples I'm sending back to the SGC to be sure."
"So you've really got nothing."
"I've got nothing, Colonel."
Jack wandered back toward the dome. He sent Teal'c back to the camp, while he watched over Daniel. Carter was doing something with her toys outside the dome. Watching Daniel was really pretty entertaining, not that Jack would admit it out loud. He flitted to and fro across the chamber, from one set of inscriptions to another, speaking incomprehensible notes into a recorder while he was at it.
Daniel was back by the pillar, taking another look at the markings on it, when it happened. Jack heard a buzzing noise, and there was a flash of light. He raised his hand to shade his eyes against the brilliant glow emanating from the pillar. It expanded like a bubble, until it was about five metres in diameter. Daniel collapsed as it engulfed him.
"Daniel!" cried Jack. He saw the archaeologist lying on the ground, a few meters away from him. There was a blue glowing barrier between them. Daniel was lying on the ground, not moving, less than a metre inside the barrier.
Jack knew better than to try to cross that barrier. He poked at it with his fingers, and felt nothing. "Daniel!" he yelled again, but there was no response. Danny wasn't moving at all. He wasn't even breathing.
Nothing had happened when he touched the barrier, so Jack knelt down, and tried to reach for Daniel. His fingers wouldn't work. His entire arm had gone numb as it entered the field. His hand flopped uselessly against Daniel's shoulder. He couldn't grab hold of him. Jack pulled his arm back, and felt pins and needles in it. He looked around for something he could use, and he saw a camera on a tripod. He grabbed the tripod, and used it to reach into the field. He tried to hook Daniel's arm with its head, to pull it out of the field so he could drag him free.
Daniel's arm moved, but the tripod head slipped free before Jack could get his hand outside of the energy field. He tried again, but couldn't get Danny's hand any closer. It was only a few frustrating centimetres beyond the barrier. Jack tried to grab him with his own hand again, but his fingers just wouldn't work after they passed through the barrier.
And then it was gone. As suddenly as it had appeared, the barrier vanished. Jack grabbed the collar of Daniel's BDU, and dragged him away from the column, beyond where the barrier had been. He dropped down beside him and felt at his neck for a pulse. There was nothing. He keyed the microphone of his radio. "Medical emergency, at the dome!" he said. "Daniel's unconscious! I can't find a pulse."
Jack ignored the response that came immediately to his call. He tilted Daniel's head back, and blew a breath of air into his lungs. He placed his hands on Daniel's chest. "Don't! You! Die! On! Me!" he said as he compressed his chest. He went back and blew another breath of air into Daniel's mouth.
Jack kept doing CPR on Daniel, while he waited for the others to arrive, moving back and forth—blow a breath of air into his lungs, compress his chest five times, blow a breath of air into his lungs—over and over. "You! Can't! Die! On! Me!"
Carter was the first to arrive. She immediately took over the mouth-to-mouth respiration part of the CPR. "Janet's on her way, sir," she told Jack between breaths.
Dr. Fraiser entered the dome, followed by Teal'c and one of the medics from SG-4 carrying medical equipment cases. She dropped down opposite Jack and started her examination of Daniel. "What happened?" she asked.
"Blue light; some sort of energy field came out of the pillar, and he just collapsed," said Jack. "I tried to pull him out, but my arm just went numb when I reached into it. Then the field went away."
Dr. Fraiser prepared her defibrillator. "You touched the field too?"
"Yeah," said Jack.
"And your arm's okay?"
"Tingled a bit, when I pulled it out, but it feels fine now."
Dr. Frasier ripped Daniel's shirt open, and placed the defibrillator paddles against his skin. She looked at the display. "Flat line. Clear!"
Jack and Sam pulled away, and she pressed the buttons on the paddles. Daniel's back arched as the electricity flowed through his chest. Dr. Frasier looked at the display. "Nothing. We're going to intubate him!"
The medic had the tracheal tube ready. Sam moved aside to give him room to insert it into Daniel's throat, and hook it up to an oxygen bottle. Sam took over running it, while Jack resumed compressing Daniel's chest.
Dr. Frasier had the defibrillator recharged. "Clear!" she said. Jack and Sam pulled back, and she administered another shock to Daniel's heart. "Still nothing. Epinephrine!" she told the medic.
The medic handed her the biggest needle that Jack had ever seen. She stabbed it into Daniel's chest, and pressed the plunger home.
Jack and Sam resumed the CPR while Dr. Frasier waited for the defibrillator to recharge again. "Clear!" she called.
They pulled back, and Dr. Frasier pressed the buttons on the paddles. Daniel arched his back again. He fell back to the ground. Dr. Frasier checked the display on the defibrillator. "I've got a heartbeat!" She took a penlight from her pocket, and shone it in Daniel's eyes. "Pupils are responsive!"
Daniel started to cough around the tube down his throat. Dr. Frasier quickly removed it. He gasped in deep breaths of air.
"God damn it, Daniel!" said Jack. "You've gotta stop doing things like that!"
Daniel struggled to sit up. He pushed aside the oxygen mask that Dr. Frasier was trying to place over his face. "Like what?" he gasped.
