I've finally got around to incorperating that Tollan-esque monitor like the one Skaara/Klorell wore, as suggested by Stoko a while back. Thanks for the suggestion! And thanks to the reviewers, as always. You're great!

Chapter 15: Green and Blue

Thor made a sudden, silent dash back out of the door, and Sam and Einar slipped through after him. The short alien bee-lined down one of the corridors and into another room. Einar, sensing the unexpected tension of that moment, shoved O'Neill's mind back into control, not waiting for him to mentally ask for it. It was a dizzying sensation – neither of them had ever tried it before, forcing the other into command. With two minds competing for use of a single body, each took every chance they got to be in control. Jack had been unprepared for the action, and almost stumbled crazily into the wall. Sam steadied him and took the lead, trailing after the panicked Asgard. The two of them burst into the other room of the Asgard ship to which Thor had fled.

A dozen Asgard crew looked up from consoles.

There was a surreal moment of stark silence as the dark, alien eyes widened. Yet, it was shattered as the Roswell-esque crew members all dived for cover, ducking behind seats, panels, bulkheads… gasping indecipherable words in their own language. Caught off guard by such behaviour from a race so cool and calculated, Sam slowly stared at Jack.

"Do you remember when you asked Einar if he wasn't popular?" Jack conveyed, whispering through the side of his mouth.

Sam nodded mutely.

"Well, this is your answer," he inclined his head with an irritated frown. His ears were flat again – Sam wondered if this was a point where he didn't want to be at the metaphysical steering wheel.

"Hey, Thor! Buddy!" Jack barked. "Don't panic! It's just your old pal O'Neill."

"Strange as it looks," Sam added matter-of-factly, "that's actually true. It is him."

Jack opened his mouth to say more, but sighed as he decided against it. It wasn't just the volume of his own voice hurting his ears either. It just sounded like a very feeble explanation in light of the peculiar situation: he was trapped in an Innarim body; Sam was carrying a Hakonan staff weapon as opposed to a P-90 and was sporting a Norse tunic rather than any kind of SGC uniform; something about him had completely thrown the Asgard off balance. From the aliens' point of view, they probably looked more like visitors from one of those pesky alternate realities.

A shaky, slender hand reached up to one of the Asgard control panels. With uncertainty, it grasped one of the smooth stones, and shifted it to another section of the panel. In an engulfing flash of white light, Sam found herself transported to yet another area of the ship. This was small and featureless save for an uncomfortable looking bench – presumably a bed – and a firmly sealed door with no access panel. She'd been in enough alien brigs to recognise one from the inside.

Einar, however, was not transported here with her.

A brief, searing beam heralded Thor's arrival in the cell. Yet, he now looked like the composed commander Sam knew.

"Major Carter," he bowed his head in greeting, "your presence is unexpected. As is that of your unusual companion."

"Thor," she began hastily, "where'd you put him?"

"He is in another brig of the ship," Thor assured. "We thought it best to contain and separate the two of you until it was determined what exactly was transpiring."

"Well… that was O'Neill," she reiterated.

"Major Carter, it shocks me to even consider the possibility that you are forgetting that Colonel O'Neill is a human like yourself…"

"I know, long story," she threw up her hands in exasperation, "but trust me. Can you beam him in here?"

Wordlessly and expressionlessly, Thor beamed out, before beaming back in with the Innarim after only the briefest of pauses. His ears were no longer flattened against his skull, and Sam chose to interpret this as Einar's regained control. He looked around sharply, startled by the constant transporting, but quickly retrieved his bearings upon seeing Thor and Sam there with him.

"Ah, hello. You must be Thor – O'Neill said you're a friend," Einar held out his hand.

Thor merely stared at it suspiciously, eyes narrowed. He made no move to put his own fragile hand anywhere near the one that so easily dwarfed his own.

"Major Carter, you claimed that this was in fact O'Neill," he stated flatly.

"It's not just him though, Thor," she began. "The one speaking now is an alien called Einar. It's really quite fascinating. Just over a week ago, we found an alien lab on PX3-"

"If I may," Einar interjected, holding up a single finger to silence her politely, "O'Neill has compiled a short summary. Found lab, nasty accident, trapped with alien mind, trouble with NID, found another lab, tried to fix problem, another nasty accident, gated to Cimmera, need help."

Thor nodded once and blinked.

"I must say, we had not expected you to come looking for us. We have recently received a message from Stargate Command requesting our assistance. Our own business took priority, but when we had completed our immediate tasks we replied to it," he explained in his cool, calm and collected tone. "We have been informed that O'Neill was in some predicament, but were unaware of the nature of it. Details were unclear. General Hammond has appealed to us to help locate and return both of you to the SGC. Can I assume this is also your intent?"

"NO!" the pair exclaimed simultaneously.

Thor simply blinked again, his posture seeking explanation.

"We can't go back to Earth," Einar said fervently. "O'Neill and I would be interrogated by the NID, and Sam would most likely be court-marshalled."

"The fact of the matter is that Einar and the Colonel are both trapped together in one body. At first it was Colonel O'Neill's body, but now they're in Einar's. We left without authorisation to try and solve this mess ourselves," Sam added. "Like the Colonel said in his summary, there was another accidental failure, and we're low on options."

"So far we haven't had many offers for help," Einar stated grimly. "I mean, if the SGC won't trust us, what chance do we have with anyone off-world? Not even the Cimmerans seems too eager to help."

"Yes, forgive our reaction to your arrival. The Asgard are not a superstitious people, but encountering what appears to be the incarnation of a sworn mythological enemy does tend to unsettle one," Thor nodded cautiously at Einar. "Our race has long heard of the Innarim, but found little evidence to confirm their existence. The Asgard regarded the Innarim as an irrational prophecy or fictional legend."

"No prophecy," Einar dismissed with a casual wave of his hand. "Just didn't try to draw too much attention to ourselves. Not that it made much difference."

"The Asgard are advanced in neuro-sciences," Sam stated factually, in professional, 'Major' mode. "You've helped the Colonel before when he had the knowledge of the Ancients downloaded into his mind. Do you have any way to remove the Colonel from Einar and put his consciousness back into his own body?"

"Perhaps," Thor admitted, inclining his head.


After a quick, Asgard equivalent of a CAT scan, in order to analyse both Einar and Jack's position, they were left alone in the ship's medical bay while Thor examined the results. It was a good half an hour before the short alien came back, in which both the human and alien minds grew impatient. Sam carefully watched Jack as he paced back and forth – given control once more by Einar simply to work off his frustration by doing something other than simmer annoyingly at the back of his head.

"What, Carter?" Jack suddenly snapped.

He knew she'd been watching him, she thought, without even looking up. She resolved to be more careful of her actions around him while he was in Einar's body.

"Sir?"

"What are you looking at me like that for?" he snarled.

"You just seem…" she grasped for an acceptable description, "more annoyed than usual, sir."

His head whipped up, eyes almost blazing: "You're saying I'm always annoyed?"

"Not always…"

"Just lately?" he offered, his voice thick with displeasure. "Ever since Einar showed up? You expected me to dance around with joy?"

"Sir," Sam appealed, "all I mean is… it's obvious something more is bothering you."

Grumbling deeply, Jack stopped pacing and plonked down on the bench next to her. He rested his muzzle in one hand.

"It's just…" he began awkwardly. "Not to turn into Mr. Pessimistic, but what if I'm stuck like this? Everything's too bright, too loud, too strong… and everyone we've met so far runs off in terror, even allies. Is this all I have to look forward to?"

"Don't worry, sir," she assured. "If Einar was transferred out of his body, there has to be a way to transfer you back into yours. Logically speaking."

Thor halted the conversation as he returned to the room. Jack tried to read his expression, but the Asgard was as neutral and indifferent in his features as ever.

"Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter," Thor greeted formally. "The scans have been examined – I regret that while we know much of human neurology, the Innarim are another matter entirely. It is something far more complex than we expected."

Because he was designed… Sam bit back the thought, refusing to give away the true nature of the Innarim. Too soon – it was far too soon for that revelation…

"Though it may be possible with further study of the scans we have, at present we lack the knowledge to safely isolate and transfer one mind from the body and into another."

Jack grumbled again, reverberating deep in his wolven throat.

"However," Thor continued, "there are two other points of interest to mention to you both. Firstly, the presence of two minds layered onto the structure of a single brain seems to have caused previously dormant parts of the brain to activate. Where most humans and similar species only use about 10 of their brains, the combination of O'Neill and Einar uses about 20 instead."

"Really?" Sam leaned forward eagerly for further details.

Damn, Carter's interested. We'll be here all day now.

This could be important. Listen, or at least let her listen and then explain it to you later.

"You're saying that each of their brains would have compensated for the neural pattern of an extra mind by forcing it into unused areas of the brain, so it doesn't interfere with the original mind for that body?"

"Yes, Major Carter."

Are you getting any of this?

Yes.

And…

Well, you know one of your Earth automobiles. When I show up, I get shoved in the passenger seat, because you never really need to sit there.

"Then it'd be possible to have more than two minds in a single body – there could be up to ten?" Sam stampeded on with the possibilities.

"Perhaps, but we digress…" Thor chided. "All that matters is that they seem to co-exist with relative stability, and the absence so far of any serious side-effects that could damage either of them is a promising sign."

"The second point of interest?" Jack urged.

"Yes," Thor nodded. "We have been researching the bond between host and parasite in the hopes that it would aid us in interrogating Goa'uld prisoners, or even suppressing the parasite itself. From this we have developed a device much like that you have already encountered with the Tollans."

Sam stung at the memory and the loss of Narim in particular. Thor held out an armband, fitted with a simple light. It was deactivated, and thus not lit.

"This device taps into the mental state of the wearer, and the light uses a system of colour-coding to identify the active, controlling mind. From the neurological readings we have, it has been set to display green for O'Neill and blue for Einar."

Thor handed over the armband to Jack, who shrugged and tied it to his upper left arm. He tentatively tested it out, watching the light switch from green to blue several times. It finished on green. Jack grinned, his former gloom pushed aside.

"Thank, Thor," he gave the Asgard commander a thumbs-up. "You're a real pal!"

"You are welcome, O'Neill. Each mind can now be easily identified. Though it may take time to find a solution to your dilemma, this at least may allow your superiors to place more trust in you should you ever need to return to Earth prematurely."


After a short farewell, Thor beamed them back down to the Hammer obelisk that marked the Hall of Thor's Might. Backtracking, they returned to Gairwyn's village to gather some supplies (amid Olaf's complaints) and then proceeded towards the Stargate. Jack relinquished control to Einar, still uncomfortable with the Innarim's body, and discussed their next move.

"Well, we can't go back to Earth, yet. Even with this Asgard armband, there's no way they'll trust us," Einar sighed. "Not to mention, there'd be absolutely nothing stopping the NID from getting their hands on me if we go back with both O'Neill and me in this body."

"There's the fraternisation rules, too," Sam added awkwardly. "Even though it wasn't the Colonel's mind… there'll be tapes of you and me being a bit too close…"

"Ah, that too," he admitted ruefully. "Yet, I don't think they could just accuse you two of fraternisation straight away, could they? There was no way of telling O'Neill and me apart then. How can they know for certain which one of us was actually in control at the time?"

He stopped to adjust the armband now attached high up on his left arm, before standing in front of the DHD and dialling a new address.

"That's enough of a technicality to keep them second guessing for months."

The gate activated with the usual kawoosh of energy, and Einar moved away to climb the small set of stone steps just in front of the gate itself. Sam watched his back curiously. He was being very flippant about kissing her at all, but why bother at all if he had meant nothing by it? Sam reasoned she could easily write it off as him being an alien in any other situation, but this was far too complex for such a simple explanation. After all, didn't he and Jack share their feelings? What if Jack still cared for her and Einar inevitably picked up on it? Would that explain why he was behaving so dismissively – he was now segregating their emotions? Or perhaps Jack's canny ability to repress or ignore the difficult emotional side of things was diffusing into Einar's personality?

"On the other hand," Einar stopped right in front of the event horizon, "you have exactly the same problem."

Sam was shaken from her thoughts: "Huh?"

"Think about it," he instructed, glancing over his shoulder. "How can you be exactly sure which one of us was really in control back in the gateroom?"

With that, he grinned cheekily and stepped through the watery portal. Sam hesitated, stunned, but only briefly before climbing the steps herself and passing through the wormhole.