Thank you all so much for your reviews and also your kind and generous wishes for my daughter's health. We're still no clearer on what's happening with her, and she's still suffering so maybe some more tests will be called for. I'll keep you all informed as soon as we hear something.

I'm glad you are enjoying this fic, and I will endeavour to keep you all enthralled. Thanks again for all your support.

Censure.

By LetitiaRichards

Previously:-

Teal'c turned back to see his friend was almost asleep, he dipped his head in acquiescence.

"Indeed Dr. Fraiser. Perhaps tomorrow."

Chapter 7

Jack slept long and deep that night. In fact it was the best night's sleep he's had in a long while. He woke feeling much better than he had done since before the mission.

Janet greeted him with more tests just to make sure he wasn't just saying he felt better to fob her off. She ordered another round of tests to see why, which Jack greeted with a long-suffering sigh, but made no objections which amazed but also worried her.

Jack managed a good breakfast and Teal'c came by with his candles once more; ready for another try at reaching his elusive memories.

The Colonel sighed in resignation, but surprisingly acquiesced without a fuss, which had Janet worrying all over again. This complaisant attitude of his, just wasn't like the Jack O'Neill she knew at all.

Teal'c proceeded to light the candles and after killing the lights, took his place, cross legged on the floor, making sure that O'Neill was comfortably settled first. This time as a precaution, Janet had insisted that the rails on the bed were there to stop him tumbling from the bed should he become disoriented or pass out again.

Jack closed his eyes and found himself drifting fairly rapidly into a deep state of peace and oneness with his spirit. The images of yesterday returned, only clearer this time.

He was floating, looking down on himself as he entered that room.

Looking about the room, he noticed there was a slight buzzing noise. He carefully picked his way over the debris lying about the floor to reach a small computer like machine which lit up on his entrance. He swore loudly when he slipped on the rubble, jarring his knee badly. The air around him turning blue with his curses and when he could he kicked at the offending rock, sending it crashing into the wall. He then felt a presence in the room with him, but could see no-one. A voice, mechanical, not human, intoned a brief message, but he didn't understand the language, despite it sounding familiar. There was a bright flash of light; a sharp pain in his ear; dizziness; then he felt himself falling as he passed out; never feeling the pain of actually hitting the floor.

He felt the anger of what happened rise up and swallow him. Why him? What had he done, except explore the room? The sudden pain in his head swelled until he felt it would explode. He grabbed it, trying to ease the pressure, crying out in distress, but just as Teal'c reached him, he slumped in Teal'c's arms and was pushed back against the pillows, his eyes rolling back in his head as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Teal'c lowered the bed once more, pressing the alarm button and moments later Janet hurried through the door.

"What happened Teal'c?" she asked, reaching for her stethoscope.

Teal'c kept lowering the bed down until Jack was lying almost flat again.

"I do not know Dr. Fraiser. He appeared to be at peace and I am certain he was recalling more details. He seemed to grow angry about something just before he passed out."

Janet ordered a repeat of the tests once more. This mornings tests had shown that the 'thing' for want of a better word, had actually stopped growing, and she supposed that was why he appeared to be feeling better, but right now she wanted to know it things had changed for the worse again.

OoOoOoOoO

Daniel yawned and stretched his aching back. Sam had long gone; struggling to stay awake any longer, she had retreated to her quarters for the rest of the night.

Daniel however was only now feeling the effects of pulling an all-nighter in an effort to find the solution.

He grasped at the coffee pot, only to realise that it was empty. He glanced at his watch, surprised to see that it was mid-morning already, and he hadn't noticed. Sam was still absent so he guessed she was sleeping later than she normally would. It had been very late when she had left him to it. Or should that be early rather than late?

He switched off the machine and placed the disc back into its cover and marked his place. Standing up stiffly and yawning once more, he made his way to the sofa and slumped down sleepily. Lying curled up on the cushions and pulling the patchwork blanket over himself, he was asleep in no time at all.

Strange words kept churning through his mind, keeping him from achieving a peaceful slumber. One word kept bugging him until he woke an hour later desperate to find the exact translation. He fumbled with his glasses and staggered from the couch to the bookcase, dragging down a dusty tome.

Opening it up, he scoured the pages looking for something very similar.

His finger came to rest on one word and he stared at it long and hard, trying to put it into context with the others he'd read.

"Did you get any sleep at all Daniel?"

Sam's voice drew him from his thoughts.

"Ah, yeah, about an hour I guess. Sam look at this. This has been puzzling me for hours, but I think I may have found something now!"

She hurried over to the bench and studied the list of words that Daniel was pointing out.

"Correction? Censure?" she asked, baffled by his logic. Daniel I'm not following you. What has that to do with anything?"

"Ah...last night...er...no, this morning, I came across a disc that talked about their penal system. They had a building rather like a court house, but where they also carried out 'Correction' techniques too," he was growing more excited as he went on, but Sam still didn't see what he was getting at.

"Don't you see Sam? According to the disc..." He rummaged round looking for the appropriate disc and inserted it into the machine and pressed play. "This is all about their law and order. Something was bugging me all night but now I think I know what happened to Jack."

"That's great Daniel, so tell me what do you think might have happened?" Sam urged quickly.

"Jack..." he began when the phone interrupted him. He gave a groan of frustration but picked up the receiver.

"Jackson!" he growled at the interruption.

"What? When? Okay we'll be right there!"

He dropped the phone back onto its cradle and hurried from the room, explaining to Sam as he dragged her along.

"It's Jack," he said grimly. "he's had another relapse."

They waited impatiently for the elevator to deposit them outside the infirmary, both wrapped up in their own dark thoughts; then they hurried to Jack's room where they met Janet and Teal'c. A moment later, General Hammond joined them too.

Sam gulped back the tears when she saw Jack lying there, unconscious and so pale. Janet had even got him hooked up to a ventilator and several monitors now, so perhaps Daniel's discovery would be too late after all.

"Dr. Fraiser, could you explain why Colonel O'Neill is in a coma?" Hammond asked, not liking seeing his 2IC, and friend so ill, because that's what Jack was now after all these past years of working closely together.

Sam gasped at this. She hadn't realised it was that bad. Jack had been hooked up to various machines over his time, but she knew that was what Janet would do anyway. Her hand flew to cover the gasp but Hammond heard it and cast her a sad smile.

"I'm sorry Major, I thought you knew."

"No sir. I had no idea," she sniffed, wanting to throttle Daniel or Janet for not telling her. "What happened?"

Janet looked as if she'd been crying too, but with a deep breath to fortify herself, she began to explain that Jack had probably recalled something that had happened to him but had experienced another bad headache and had fallen into a coma before he could tell Teal'c anything. She'd run more tests and confirmed her worse fears when the object inside the Colonel's brain had almost doubled in size, causing the pressure to build up inside his brain. There was nothing that she could do for him.

"I don't know if it's any good now, but I do have a pretty good idea why this is happening to him," Daniel volunteered. "but, I don't know how to put it right."

All eyes turned to him and he began explaining his theory.

"I don't know if you've noticed this, but I have, Jack seems to get bad pains in his head right before he passes out?" There were surprised and puzzled nods from everyone there. "Well, from what he told Teal'c yesterday, he recalled a pain in his ear, right before he passed out on that planet."

There were 'yeses' all round. They knew that, but what had that to do with anything?

"I believe, according to those discs, that this is some form of punishment..."

"What?"

"Why?"

"How?"

The questions flew at him from all corners of the room, and he held up his hands to stop the flood.

"I don't know the answers to all those questions," he explained. "I only know what I translated as 'Correction' ...a...a form of 'Censure' for those citizens who needed to be punished for crimes they had committed."

"But Colonel O'Neill didn't commit any crime Daniel!" Sam cried angrily. "All he did was to enter that room."

"I know, I know Sam. I need to look into it further, but that's what I've learned so far. Right now I need to go back and see if I can find a way to undo this."

"Are you sure this is what happened Dr. Jackson?" Hammond asked, needing to be sure it was a true translation. It all seemed a little too far fetched. Not that he didn't trust the man to know his work, he did, and he knew Jack would stake his life on his theories, like right now Jack was totally reliant on the Doctor's expertise and knowledge.

"I'm pretty certain General, but I need to get back to my lab."

"Go son, and God speed!" Hammond said, dismissing him to turn back and take another look at Jack before he too left the room with an order to contact him if there was any change in the Colonel's condition.

TBC