Author's Note: I have to say, I'm amazed at the response this story has gotten so far. o.o Thank you for so many wonderful reviews! I did get some good writing time in already this week, so here's another chapter, I hope I don't end up disappointing anyone and I certainly do intend to finish this story. *dons fireproof coat, boots, and headgear just in case* Oh, and thanks to the woman who shared her SG1/MacGyver experience with us. ;)
Author's Note2: With the whole, um, situation with Jack and Mac, well…it'll be a while before everything is fully explained, but there is a reason for everything. And thanks a bunch to my friend Laurel who helped me figure it all out. :D Oh, and every scene is from only one person's prospective so depending on the perspective depends on how the characters are referred. Having reread it a few times over now I think it should be clear who's who, but if not, let me know. :)
Author's Note3: DXS is the Department of External Services. They're a lot like the CIA and they were MacGyver's employer for the first season of the show. After that he went to work for the Phoenix Foundation.
Author's Note4: Thanks be to 'I love MacGyver!!!!' for finding my technical error. 'Embarkment' is now 'Embarkation.' And while I know it's more commonly referred to as the Gate Room, it isn't always so I'm going to use that to my advantage. Therefore for the sake of that part of the story I'm going to leave it as the Embarkation Room. And if we only find one error per chapter I'm going to feel really good about myself. Usually there's at least five! ;)
And because I forgot in the first chapter…Disclaimer: I write fanfic for fun and social enjoyment. Any characters created and/or used within this story are there for the pleasure of me and my readers and nothing else. MacGyver and Stargate: SG1 are shows owned by someone else…la la la…etc. etc. etc. :P
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It was with muffled senses that MacGyver first heard the noises that pulled him sluggishly away from his dream. "What is it?"
"O'Neill, it is time for you to wake."
"Sir? Sir, are you alright?"
O'Neill? Suddenly Mac came completely and utterly awake, jerking upright and startling the two strangers leaning over him. A woman with short blond hair and a tall muscular black skinned man exchanged looks before turning back to him, the woman with concern etched into her eyes. "Sir, Have you been here the whole time? Why didn't you answer your phone?"
Sir? Phone? "I didn't hear it," He replied slowly. "What time is it?"
"It is almost noon," The big man replied, and then suddenly smiled, or at least Mac thought it was a smile. "It is good to see you are safe O'Neill."
"Are you okay?" the woman asked insistently.
"Ya, ya I'm fine," Mac quickly replied sitting up further. Truth be told, he didn't feel fine at all. How the hell am I supposed to get out of this one? He silently demanded of himself. And what happened to Jack anyway? MacGyver quickly weighed the options. He could tell them he wasn't Jack, and get them into far more trouble than imaginable. No, he and Jack had agreed the secret was worth dying over. Was it? Was it really? If the guys who took Jack were the same ones who took him before, Mac didn't think they would kill Jack. That was some comfort at least. So what now? Take Jack's place and hope his friend could get out of his situation on his own? Which he probably would, Mac realized. Then MacGyver looked again at the two strangers waiting for him.
How hard could it be to pretend to be an Air Force Colonel for a day or two anyway? He'd been a DXS Agent, it couldn't be all so…different…could it? Silently MacGyver wished he could just disappear into the depths of the couch the way pocket change had the tendency to do.
*****
Sam exchanged a worried look across the table with Daniel for the third time in the last thirty minutes but after a moment returned her gaze to her commanding officer. Jack wasn't acting like himself, that much was obvious. He told them repeatedly that he was fine, just tired. Hammond had insisted on a quick physical, which the Colonel had readily agreed to, one of the first indications that he wasn't feeling himself. O'Neill hated getting physicals and always found a way out of it if he could.
But Janet had pronounced him perfectly fine and with the Colonel's assurance that nothing was wrong the General had ordered a go-ahead on the mission. It wasn't more than a small exploration of ruins anyway; the MALP hadn't found any traces of anyone living on the planet they were destined for.
Sam wondered if maybe the Colonel was worn out, that whatever the news was last night had affected him more then he was admitting to. She was seriously considering talking to the General after the briefing and privately suggesting to him that the Colonel might need more time off, but now she wasn't so sure even that would help.
Very unlike O'Neill, Jack was adamantly paying attention to what was being said. And he kept looking around the table and moving his lips as if he were memorizing something. To her greater surprise, Jack even opened the briefing report and for all intent and purposes looked like he was actually reading it instead of just skimming like he usually did.
There was something else that bothered her even more than the Colonel's newly tentative behavior. He was sitting slouched in his chair, looking completely relaxed to the untrained observer, but there was a minute edge to his movements, and a slight nervousness in his eyes she'd never seen before.
"Alright SG-1 you have a go." General Hammond concluded. "You disembark in thirty minutes."
"Right," Jack replied, and then quickly added, "sir." But even the way he said that sounded off to Sam. Maybe she really should talk to the General about the Colonel getting some more time off after this mission.
*****
MacGyver followed closely behind Teal'c as they entered the oddest room he'd seen yet. He'd winged things before, sometimes on a constant basis, but even this was almost too much for him. Following Teal'c and Jackson around he'd mostly been able to guess at what he was supposed to do, and was a bit surprised to find himself now decked out in combat gear, and housing at least one long knife, four grenades, a couple blocks of C-4, and no less than three guns on his personage. It had taken all of his will power not to fidget while dressing. It wasn't as if he didn't know how to use guns, he knew more about guns than most expected but that didn't mean he liked them.
Where on Earth were they going that they needed this much firepower anyway? For that mater, Mac still hadn't figured out where they were going at all. The briefing report had talked about a site with abandoned structures and ruins, even gave the place a designation number, but never actually said where it was. On top of that, it had talked quite a fair bit about rocks and minerals, one of which he'd never heard of before and Mac was sure he knew most, if not all of them, but Naquadah was something completely foreign to his vocabulary.
Following his 'teammates' to the embarkation room, as they kept calling it, Mac kept expecting them to head upstairs. Honestly, a mountain seemed like a silly spot for a base if they were always heading someplace else. Maybe it was somewhere in Africa, Sudan, or some other place with ruins. But instead of going up, they only went further down into the depths of the mountain to a room with a large metal ring stationed at the far end.
It was as he was taking his first steps inside the renovated silo that something huge, wet looking, and blue shot out of the ring only to snap back in reverse as if being sucked back by some sort of back draft to leave a horizontal pool of blue water shimmering within the odd metal structure.
MacGyver nearly jumped right out of his skin and only barely caught himself in time to not cry out in exclamation. As it was, it was a struggle to convince himself to relax enough to smooth his features back to normal. Whatever this was none of it would be new to Jack, he just had to keep remembering that. Ya, sure Mac, he thought sarcastically then wondered what crazy thing would happen next.
Looking behind him MacGyver could see a room looking out over this one. Standing there the General leaned down to talk into a mike, "SG-1, you have a go."
"Ready to go, sir?" Carter asked at his side.
Go? Everyone kept saying that. Go where? But MacGyver refrained from asking the obvious and said instead. "Sure, after you, Carter." So far he'd only been able to figure out their ranks and last names. Although he wasn't sure Teal'c had any other name. In fact, he wasn't sure about that man at all.
Carter nodded and began up the ramp towards the ring and its glistening pool with the rest at her heals. MacGyver followed after them, if a bit more hesitantly. Go There?!?
He watched as his 'team' walked through the ring and disappeared into the depths of the pool. Trepidation, sheer horror, and absolute fascination raged for control inside Mac's mind. All too soon he found himself but an inch away from the strange phenomenon and his fingers itched to just reach out and touch it.
All right Mac, just put one foot in from of the other, you can do this, he coached to himself. "Awww Man!" He stepped through and for a split second MacGyver thought he could actually feel his molecules dispersing.
******
"Just tell us where the artifact is MacGyver!"
"I can't tell you what I don't know."
His kidnapper, so internally dubbed Gravel Voice, gave Jack a hard disbelieving glare before punching him rather hard in the stomach. This wasn't the first such hit that morning.
Jack sagged slightly between the two people holding him and coughed deeply to clear his bruised lungs. "I'm getting real tired of that," Jack grumbled but was only hit again. He thought for a moment that a rib might have cracked.
Not much to Jack's surprise Gravel Voice had directed him to an abandoned warehouse in the middle of town. Probably even the same one Mac had been at. There they had met up with two more of his buddies and the trio had now taken to trying to interrogate Jack.
It wasn't exactly a high quality set up. No other bad guys had appeared, and for all these guys had managed to take him at gunpoint they didn't exactly come off as any kind of professionals. That ruled out any government agency. So who were these guys?
"Why don't you tell me a bit more about it and maybe I can tell you if I've seen your artifact," Jack sarcastically suggested. His supposedly restrained hands were already working at the knots of the ropes and it wouldn't be long before he had them undone. He might as well try and gleam any information he could from these thugs while he was here.
Gravel Voice let out a sound of frustration and looked ready to punch O'Neill yet again. Jack just stood there waiting for it, but it never came. Then to the Colonel's surprise Gravel Voice began chuckling, a gleam of insanity growing in his eyes. Okay, maybe they weren't thugs after all, maybe they were psychopaths. "You know someone here, don't you? We tracked the package here, we know the address you sent it to, and it doesn't exist! But I know you're a genius which means someone must have picked it up for you." Gravel Voice leaned in close to Jack and stated menacingly. "This can go the easy way, or the hard way."
"My sentiments exactly," Jack responded, returning the look glare for glare. For a moment Gravel Voice seemed startled, and more than a little disturbed by Jack's behavior. No doubt it was quite unlike Mac's had been, Jack realized, but he didn't care. Mac could get out of situations his way, but Jack had his own method, and the knot was loose enough now that it'd take but a twist of his wrists to free his hands completely.
Gravel Voice stepped back a pace, uncertainty covering his face, which quickly hardened to anger as he growled out. "I don't have time for your games anymore MacGyver. We'll find out who has it one way or another, so you can either tell us now or die." At which point Gravel Voice pulled out his gun.
"Oh, see, now we're starting to talk the same language," Jack casually replied. "In fact I was just about to tell you, you can either let me go-" and he stopped mid-sentence as he let the ropes fall to the ground. In just a couple of seconds, Jack had sharply back-fisted one of his holders in the face, then pivoting quickly, expertly planted his elbow to the back of the head of the other before striking the temple of the one still dazed effectively knocking them both unconscious. They hadn't tried to block or anything. Yep, thugs. That left one to go.
Jack didn't wait as instincts took over and he immediately tackled Gravel Voice to the ground, slamming into him hard and solid. His mind registered the sound of the gunfire, even recognized the pain in his side, but it didn't slow him down any and within moments Jack had the man on the ground, a knee against his back and an arm twisted in place to hold him still. The gun now in Jack's hand was pressed against the neck of his would-be captor.
-"or I'd have to kill you," Jack finished with a snide smile. "Now, why don't you tell me who you are and why you want this artifact?" A hoarse chuckle started low in Gravel Voice's throat, a sound that only rose in a quick crescendo to manic laugher. "Care to share the joke?" Jack demanded, feeling quite disconcerted by the sound and a tad light headed.
"You don't think we're the only ones looking for it, do you MacGyver?" Gravel Voice asked. He laughed some more, now a harsh bitter laugh that just as suddenly turned to choking.
Jack jerked back in alarm as foam spurted from the man's mouth. The guy was dead within moments. Quickly looking around for anyone else O'Neill could only see the other two still unconscious on the floor. How did Gravel Voice get poisoned? It must have been self administered which begged the question, why would he suicide?
Okay, two thugs, and one psychopath!
There was a sharp stitch in his side and looking down Jack realized with some surprise that his shirt had turned red. He pulled it up to find a small bullet hole in his left side leaking freely. Feeling behind him he also found an exit hole, which was some small relief, but he was still loosing blood, and quickly. He had to get out of here, find Mac, and figure out what was really going on!
For an abandoned warehouse serving as a bad guy's retreat, it wasn't exactly fortified as such. Easily finding his truck, Jack quickly headed home, but took several winding routes to get there just to be sure he wasn't being followed. There wasn't even a hint of anyone tailing him. More and more Jack wondered who those guys were. Were they the same ones who'd grabbed MacGyver before?
Pulling into the driveway, Jack sucked in a breath and quickly headed for his front door. It was awkward getting the key into the slot and the door open without getting any blood anywhere. He really needed to do something about that. The truck would need a thorough cleaning later, too.
"Mac?!" Jack called out, disturbed as only silence answered. Was he too late? Did these 'others' Gravel Voice had talked about already get to MacGyver? The real MacGyver? Jack made a thorough search of the house but still turned up with nothing. Not even a cryptic note left behind. "Great, this is just great!" Jack growled out then sighed. His side was numb and he was having a harder time focusing.
He needed to get himself fixed up. Gratefully the bullet had gone through or there would have been complications even he couldn't fix. No vital organ's had been hit either. Janet would say he was lucky, but Jack knew better. Cleaned, bandaged, freshly dressed, and full of painkillers, Jack sank down on the couch wondering what next? He had to find MacGyver.
Taking a deep breath Jack closed his eyes and sat thinking but after ten minutes nothing had come to him. "Damn. Maybe it's been too long," he grumbled, but then jumped as someone suddenly rang his doorbell. "There's no way," Jack murmured with disbelief and cautiously rose to answer the door. It'd never been that easy.
But it wasn't Mac, just the mailman, who honestly seemed surprised Jack was even home. "Oh, sorry. There's a package with your mail that I need you to sign for."
Silently, Jack took the box addressed to him as well as the bundle of envelopes that normally had to be squeezed into his far too often overfull mailbox. The mailman looked at the electronic pad Jack was signing and with a smile waved goodbye, disappearing back down the sidewalk towards his mail cart.
"Well I bet we can all guess who your 'friend' was, Mac," Jack groused to the empty living room and then tossed the package on the couch. He put the envelopes, bills no doubt, on the table to deal with later, but there wasn't any artifact inside the box, only a food processor he'd forgotten he'd ordered online several weeks ago. "Bout time it got here," Jack grumbled if just to release some of his confusion. This day was quickly going from bad to worse!
Letting his head fall back and closing his eyes Jack let out a long sigh. Right now he'd rather just sleep it all off, that or get some better painkillers from Janet. Nothing about this situation felt right, and he didn't have a clue where to look next.
Then, with a frown, a thought occurred to Jack, and reaching over he picked up his pile of letters. Amongst them was a letter addressed to MacGyver at an address that wasn't even remotely similar to Jack's. How it ended up with his mail was something Jack didn't care to think about. Opening it up, he found an iridescent smooth flat white stone. There were no markings on the outside but just looking at it Jack somehow knew it was alien. "Sweet," he sourly murmured letting it fall into his lap.
Well, first things first. By now Jack could only imagine how his team was reacting. He had to call in, come up with some excuse why he was gone. Then he had to find Mac. The old fashioned way if need be.
"This is Hammond."
"General, I'm sorry I didn't-"
Hammond cut Jack off. "I'm sorry, who is this?"
"I'm me, sir, O'Neill." Jack slowly said into the phone.
"That's not possible, I know where Colonel O'Neill is."
"That's right sir, yes, yes you do," Jack replied quickly, realization hitting him smack full in the face. He suddenly knew exactly where Mac had gone. "In fact sir, we're not even having this conversation." He hung up the phone before the General could say anything else and snapped at himself, "Now you've gone and done it Jack!"
He didn't have long; the General would no doubt be sending a team over to look into the mysterious phone call right now. That gave him twenty minutes at most. First step was to get rid of any evidence that he'd been here, especially the blood in the bathroom. Next was to pull out the tools he'd need from his hidden stash.
A towel cleaned off most of the blood from his steering wheel and soon enough Jack was on his way to Cheyenne Mountain, via the back pass. There was absolutely no way he was leaving Mac on an alien planet!
*****
This was an alien planet. The thought kept repeating in his head like a broken record. They'd explored half the 'site' with still no signs of life. That was just fine with Mac, he wasn't sure how he'd react if he saw some actual aliens anyway.
"O'Neill, the ruins appear to have been abandoned for some time," Teal'c commented at his side as they wandered the confusing labyrinth of stone corridors.
"They do, don't they?" Mac murmured out loud, but internally exclaimed, and this is what Jack does for a living?!! Explore alien planets? Mac had had no idea this was Jack's life. Well, it wasn't like they went out of their way to talk much. More often than not they went out of their way to avoid each other, really.
Then his eyes caught sight of something familiar and Mac stopped, stooping down to gaze with unadorned amazement at the writing running along the bottom of the passageway they were following. Most of the structure didn't seem to have any writing anywhere, this was the first he'd seen, and it was just like the writing at the dig in Oregon!
"Jack?" "O'Neill." "Sir?"
It was yet another second before Mac realized they were talking to him and responded. "Right, sorry." Trying to sound as in charge as he could he ordered, "We should keep going. Be on your guard." Personally MacGyver thought it sounded like something a Colonel might say, but the others were still giving him the most peculiar of looks.
Then Daniel knelt down to look at what Mac had seen. "Hold on Jack. This…it looks like Goa'uld but…Teal'c?"
MacGyver couldn't stop himself from grinning. They knew what the language was! Or close to it anyway. Now he really knew Jack could help him out.
Teal'c bent over to look at the writing and rising stated, "If it is Goa'uld than it is of no dialect I have ever seen before."
"Right," Mac stated, if a bit too eagerly. "Let's see where it goes." For the writing was obviously leading somewhere. MacGyver nervously noted that the rest of the team were now giving each other concerned looks. Guess that means that's not how Jack acts. Well, nothing else he could do now but continue onward.
Deciding not to wait for them to call him on his faux paus, Mac started walking further down the hall, his 'team' slowly following behind.
If this was how the rest of his first trip to an alien planet would be, searching ruins, and discovering new things, then MacGyver decided things wouldn't be all that bad after all. Unfortunately, there was the other part of off-worlding he had yet to be introduced to, the dangerous part, and the next thing MacGyver knew they were being openly fired upon from behind.
This wasn't the first time MacGyver had ever been shot at, although it was the first time it was with energy blasts, and frankly, he didn't much care for it. "Get down!" He called out needlessly, turning back to see what was happening. A shot of energy passed by his face so close he could actually feel the heat radiating from it. The burst missed him and struck the passage's wall with brutal force leaving a deep scorch mark to rest around a sizable hole as evidence.
Mac wasn't exactly sure what happened next. He remembered seeing his 'team' return fire, and then Jackson in front of him was stuck by a blast in the thigh and fell. Mac didn't think, he just reacted, and grabbing Jackson's collar yelled out, "Get back! Retreat! Whatever the hell you say. We've got to go!"
Dragging an unconscious Jackson with him, MacGyver moved around the corner of the passage into a large room. Jogging back he peered around the corner to see what was happening. Both Carter and Teal'c were still holding their positions, half the…aliens?...were dead and the other half looked ready to fall or flee. They didn't really look like aliens, more like Ancient Native Americans actually, dressed in leather and covered in paint, although they each had identical tattoos on their foreheads. A clan symbol maybe? Teal'c also had a kind of tattoo on his head. Mac briefly wondered if it meant something.
But these 'Indians' weren't firing with bows and arrows. They were using long staffs that shot out energy like he'd never seen before. Another blast went slicing by his head and Mac reactively ducked back into the room right before another struck the ceiling just above the doorway.
A loud rumbling noise filled the air, and Mac instinctually knew what would happen next. He dashed back to Jackson to try and offer some protection even as the rocks began to fall and the structure around the entrance all at once caved in.