Author's Note: This might be my last chapter till the New Year. The editing might not be the best either as I'm rushing through it so I can get it posted before we leave. :P But in any case, I'm off to catch a bus for my 20 hour bus ride to the desert. I'll take the story with me just in case, but no guarantees. So, Happy Holidays everyone! :D
Author's Note2: Ask and ye shall receive. It just so happens I had written a scene from Teal'c's perspective, and it's in this chapter. It wasn't easy, I'll tell ya that! But I do very much love Teal'c's subtle dry wit.
SF – Special Forces, or Security Forces. I've only ever heard them called SF's on the show, so it could be either. *shrug*
-----
They were no more than a couple feet from the little city when the ship exploded. The ground creaked and groaned and then with a violent shudder threw everyone to the ground. A couple seconds later an explosion erupted filling the air with a roar that drowned out every other bit of sound like a vast black blanket. All Sam was aware of was a dark mass rising above her. Instinctually she tried to cover Daniel as much as possible even while she felt someone else leaning over her.
When the ground settled again and the sound of the explosion faded, Sam could once again hear the heavy gasping of her own breath, along with everyone else's, but for the longest time they were like echoes in her head. She looked up to see that every tree around them was completely uprooted and bent forward away from the blast. A thick layer of dust hung in the air and there was at least an inch of dirt plastered on everyone. By some miracle alone they had all managed to escape the disaster in one piece.
Spitting dirt from her mouth Sam looked up at the Colonel, or who she assumed was the Colonel. The man had been leaning over her and was now sitting up rubbing the dirt from his face as he asked, "You okay?"
Nodding, Sam turned to see how Daniel was, but he only elicited a groan at her touch. Alarmed she checked for a pulse finding it strong, but the extra stress to his body had proved too much. "Sir, Daniel's unconscious. We need to get him back, fast."
"And we will Carter, we will." Everyone else was getting slowly to their feet brushing themselves off. Looking back revealed nothing more than mounds of torn up dirt intermixed with bits of ruined buildings for a radius of at least a mile. The ruins they'd come to explore where completely nonexistent now with only an uneven crater in their place. They'd been lucky the native's city was at the edge of the buried ship or there'd have been nothing left of them, either.
"Wow," Sam murmured in awe as she stared out at the amount of mass destruction.
Teal'c looked over her shoulder in equal wonderment and commented quietly, "You may repeat that."
MacGyver gave the man a funny look, and then vigorously brushing the dirt from his hair asked, "Repeat that? Do you mean 'you can say that again?'"
"Indeed."
Smirking somewhat at the jaffa's dry humor Carter checked Daniel over glad to see the bandage was still firmly in place. Janet would kill them if the wound got even more infected than it probably already was. "I think it's safe to move Daniel," She told the Colonel.
"Great," O'Neill responded. "The sooner we can get to the gate, the sooner you guys can get going."
Sam looked up at him startled. "You're not coming with us, sir?"
"No Carter, I'm not."
"With all due respect, sir, the General is going to want to-" But she stopped short as something occurred to her that should have the second she and Teal'c had found the Colonel and his twin here, together. "Sir? Does the General know about your brother?"
The identical men gave each other a look that only reaffirmed to Sam that they were hiding something. She'd just assumed that after the Colonel had realized the mix-up the General had sent him here to fetch them, but as she thought about it she knew the General wouldn't have sent him alone.
"No," O'Neill finally admitted but very much like someone in trouble and not wanting to admit to the whole crime.
"Then how did you get here?"
The Colonel looked around at the devastated site, the settling cloud of dust, anywhere but at her as he replied quietly, "I sort of snuck through the gate."
Sam couldn't believe what she was hearing and opened her mouth to ask how when Teal'c inserted, "DanielJackson mentioned that your brother is hiding. Would not the SGC be able to provide sufficient protection?"
"Teal'c has a good point, sir" Sam quickly added, having never really believed that MacGyver could be hiding from the DXS. Near every DXS agent she knew revered the famous MacGyver. That was where half her stories came from.
"It's a little more complicated than that," MacGyver told them, but looking just as unwilling to explain as the Colonel.
"Look, Carter," O'Neill stated, "I promise we'll explain everything later, but right now I need you guys to trust me on this one. This is a matter of utmost secrecy. No one, not even the General can know that Mac and I are related which means I need your help to convince them that Mac is me when you guys go back."
But before she could say anything MacGyver interrupted exclaiming, "Whoa, wait! You want me to pretend to be you? I think we've already established I'm not very good at that."
"Come on Mac. You've pretended to be tones of people before," Jack argued.
"Ya, all of whom didn't really exist!" Mac insisted.
Smirking, Jack told him confidently, "You'll do fine. And if not, the rest will happen on its own." Sam didn't understand that last comment, but then the Colonel was turning pleading eyes back on them again. "So what do you say? Carter? Teal'c? Will you help us out?"
Teal'c's response wasn't immediate, but it was sure. "I will do as you ask O'Neill."
Carter wasn't so ready to commit to this unexpected violation of regulations. The idea of purposely withholding information from the General like this went against everything she'd been taught. The Colonel seemed to understand her dilemma and asked her, "How about if I order you to help MacGyver impersonate me?"
That felt better, but…"And you promise you'll explain what's really going on when we all get back?"
He crossed his heart and grinned. Internally Sam sighed knowing she'd do it, and knowing he knew she would, too. "You know Janet's going to notice MacGyver's not you during our physicals anyway."
"No she won't," Jack stated confidently.
"Sir, you have a scar on your neck that I know she'll notice isn't there anymore," Sam insisted, but she wasn't all that sure anymore as the Major suddenly realized MacGyver had already gone through one physical as Jack.
And then MacGyver questioned curiously, "Scar? About an inch or so long, goes right up and down the vertebra?"
Carter regarded the man with surprise but she noticed the Colonel wasn't shocked in the slightest as he casually asked, "How did you get that?"
"Sam and I were out hiking in the Alps a few years ago when I slipped on some mud and hit my neck on a sharp rock."
The Colonel looked at him incredulous. "Slipped on some mud?" MacGyver just shrugged but the Major was beside herself with disbelief.
"You hit your neck on a rock hard enough to cut it but not break it?" Sam demanded of MacGyver. He didn't answer so she turned to the Colonel exclaiming, "Sir, the chance of both you and your brother getting the same scar let alone around the same time just isn't possible!"
Groaning audibly, Jack begged her, "Just leave it alone Carter! We'll tell you everything later, but right now Daniel has to get home, so please, will you just trust me?"
Biting her lip Sam was torn between forcing the answers out now, and the urgency of getting Daniel back and into proper medical care. It only took a moment for her to make up her mind, but before this was over she was determined she was going to find out what was really going on!
*****
MacGyver stepped from the mass of blue that was the wormhole and shuddered. The cold faded quickly, but it was still disconcerting to think he'd been broken down, flown across millions of light years of space and put back together again. What if they got something wrong?
Ahead of him Carter and Teal'c had been carrying Dr. Jackson's limp body, and even now he was being transferred to a gurney as the resident medical team took over. The General was standing at the end of the ramp watching the procession as keenly as the rest of SG1.
The act had to begin now, Mac knew, so he might as well get used to it. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves Mac approached Hammond. "Colonel what happened?" The General immediately questioned.
"The planet wasn't as empty as we thought it was, sir," Mac responded just as Jack had coached him. The group had spent the time walking back to the gate coming up with a common story for their reports, figuring out a plan for smuggling the real Jack back to Earth undetected, and teaching Mac how to be Jack O'Neill.
The General considered what Mac said, then with grim resignation stated, "Colonel, something strange happened here while SG1 was away."
"Sir?" Mac asked sounding as confused and curious as possible.
"I received a phone call from a man claiming to be Jack O'Neill."
Teal'c and Carter stepped up next to Mac as the gurney with Daniel left for the infirmary. "Someone's trying to impersonate the Colonel?" Carter asked, sounding surprised, but she still gave MacGyver a brief nervous glance. Hopefully the General hadn't noticed.
"Possibly Major, but in any case I want you all to report to Dr. Frasier for a complete checkup," and his tone said it would be as complete as the doctor could make it.
"Yes, sir," Mac and the Major replied while Teal'c simply nodded his head in compliance. The General left them then, but Mac was quick to notice that three SF's fell into place behind them to become their constant shadows.
Boy, wasn't this going to be fun!
*****
Doctor Janet Frasier was hesitant to cross her infirmary to where the rest of SG1 was waiting. It'd been a busy day, and while most of it hadn't concerned her General Hammond had confided in her his fears that the SGC's flagship team, and personally her favorite of the lot, was compromised.
And he'd put it up to her to find out.
"Ma'am, Dr. Jackson's fever has dropped to 101," A nurse said walking up to her. They'd just spent the last half hour cleaning Daniel's wound of the infection that had developed. It wasn't too serious, but that could have been different without the proper antibiotics. Wasn't that always the case when SG1 came back from a mission? Janet wondered to herself. After a moment she realized the nurse was still there and responded crisply, "Good. Let's keep an eye on it just in case. And let me know when he wakes up."
The nurse nodded and left, leaving Janet alone with her disturbed thoughts once again. Then with a sigh she realized she'd still have to do her job no matter how long she stood there, just like any other day. Striding across the infirmary she could see where the Colonel, the Major, and Teal'c sat waiting on the beds. The three SF's in escort gratefully stayed by the door of the infirmary but continued to keep watchful eyes on their charges. Janet noticed as the Colonel glanced at them, but neither he nor anyone else from SG1 said anything.
"Welcome back guys," Janet greeted with a forced smile.
They all looked at her and the Colonel was the first to ask, "How's Daniel?"
Oddly, the worry in their eyes did much to reassure Janet's fears that this wasn't really SG1. "He'll be fine. A week's bed rest and a pot of coffee, in that order, and I'm sure he'll be back to his usual self." The relief in their eyes brought about a genuine smile, and feeling much more confident Janet began the usual examinations.
Normally she'd have had nurses help, but Hammond had been strict in his instructions that she do it all herself personally. At least the wait had given them a chance to shower and change. "So," she asked conversationally as she first checked the Colonel over, "what happened?"
"I'm sorry?"
Frasier paused, briefly looking into his open and curious brown eyes. "On the planet?" She clarified as she felt around his throat and neck as usual, but the small seeds of doubt had already replanted themselves in her mind.
"Oh, you know. The usual. We went, we saw, the natives got restless, we came home," O'Neill replied with a shrug.
No new scars, no signs of puncture wounds, a couple scratches but nothing really of any significant importance. She asked him to open his mouth and checked the inside of the throat finding once again nothing. Still, one of the perks of doing their post mission checkups was getting the stories ahead of time only for once no one was saying anything, and that was quite unlike SG1.
"I'm going to need to take some blood," Janet told him.
Sam looked suddenly quite nervous and asked, "Is that really necessary Janet?"
Before Janet had to tell them it was the Colonel replied with a smile, "It's all right Major. I don't mind."
Janet had to admit, she was surprised. Forcing her suspicions down, Janet commented with a forced grin, "It's nice to have a cooperative patient for once." But all he did was smile at her; a warm smile that was usually a rarity for Jack O'Neill.
It was another twenty minutes before Janet finished the checkups on Sam and Teal'c. No one really said anything, but Sam kept shifting with nervous energy. Something had her worried and Janet was almost afraid to find out what it was. She took blood samples from all of them. It was good practice if just to check for alien components, although that wasn't the main reason, and everyone here knew it. Still, they kept things casual, and when she was done SG1 went their own way with their SF escorts in tow.
It'd be another thirty minutes before the DNA samples from the blood could be compared to what they had on file. It was while Janet sat her desk with all four files of the members of SG1 laid out in front of her that she finally felt she could give a sigh of relief. Gathering them up again the Doctor went in search of the General.
"Well?" Hammond asked getting right to it as she closed the door of his office behind her.
"As far as their DNA and physical makeup is concerned, they are SG1."
"Could there be a margin of error Doctor?" Hammond asked, still prepared to hear the worst.
"No, sir. I don't think so. They were an exact match, and the blood work came back clean." Yet there was the way they'd been acting.
Seeing her look of hesitation the General put out suggestively, "But?"
"But they are hiding something, sir. I don't know what, but I'm sure Sam was nervous about something. And the Colonel, well…"
"What about the Colonel?"
Janet hesitated but then finally told him, "It's just that I've never seen him so relaxed before, sir."
The General's eyebrow shot up in such a way that Janet had to wonder if he'd picked that up from Teal'c. Janet realized being too relaxed wasn't exactly evidence of a conspiracy and wondered briefly if they were overreacting. "This morning he did sleep in, and Sam did mention he'd had some disturbing news the night before, maybe while they were off planet the Colonel was able to get whatever was bothering him off his chest?" Janet suggested with a smile.
It was certainly much easier to except that kind of explanation than to think there was something seriously wrong with SG1, and Frasier knew Sam well enough to know that the Major had a tendency to reflect some of the Colonel's emotions.
The General was considering the possible explanation as well, and finally nodding told her, "Perhaps. If it wasn't for that phone call and then having someone break into the SGC I would have put it down to them needing some time off, and while the two cases may not be related, we need to be sure. How is Dr. Jackson doing?"
She'd already given him the initial report while waiting for the blood work to be done. Smiling, she told him, "The antibiotics are doing their job, his temperature is back to normal and he should wake up by tomorrow morning at the latest."
The General smiled with relief. As Janet knew, far too often SGC personal didn't get so lucky, and it was always nice to hear when someone would make it no matter what the injury.
*****
Teal'c watched as MajorCarter nervously played with her pen. It had been almost two hours since their return to Earth and Hammond had finally called SG1 to their post mission briefing. As yet, the team hadn't had a chance to talk privately and while that didn't bother the jaffa MajorCarter constantly looked on the verge of saying something.
It was true there were many questions to be asked. O'Neill's brother MacGyver was a very different man than O'Neill and the circumstances of his arrival peculiar. But MacGyver was O'Neill's family, and to the jaffa family was the most important thing there was. Teal'c would do anything to protect O'Neill, he could do no less to protect O'Neill's family, and if that meant lying to the General then that was what had to be done. Lying wasn't exactly a new art to the jaffa, he'd spent half his life covering up his true feelings for Apophis after all.
Perhaps MajorCarter has never had to lie before, Teal'c silently mused. MacGyver also played with his pen, but he was slouched back in his chair completely at ease, almost a complete opposite of MajorCarter sitting across the table from him. Teal'c stood up and walked over to the coffee urn. He'd been told repeatedly that coffee was a stimulant, but from his observations of his teammates, they were far more relaxed with it than without. Especially DanielJackson.
The General walked in right as Teal'c handed MajorCarter a cup. She stood up straighter in attention but the General had a tendency to forego most formal actions around the SGC and waved for them to be 'at ease.' Sam relaxed, immediately turning to her cup of coffee and gratefully downing at least half of it in one breath.
Teal'c's lips flickered briefly into a smile as he filled it back up again and then filled a second cup for MacGyver. "O'Neill, would you like some coffee?"
"No thanks Teal'c, I don't-"
"O'Neill," Teal'c interrupted the man and calmly repeated, "would you like some coffee?"
MacGyver looked up at him surprised at first, but then quickly replied, "Why yes Teal'c, I would love some coffee, thank you."
The jaffa smiled and nodding handed him a cup. "General?"
"That's all right Teal'c. If we can I'd like to get this briefing underway," the General replied opening his folder.
Teal'c took his seat next to Carter, who had already half emptied her cup again, but as he'd suspected would happen she was looking far calmer than before. MacGyver on the other hand took but a sip and placing it away from him turned his complete attention onto the General.
The General was regarding them all with no small measure of thought, but with a sigh began, "First things first. As you know Dr. Frasier says Dr. Jackson will make a full recovery. Now. I want to know what happened on P5X-239."
They took their turns explaining the events from the mission trading off to explain the different aspects of what 'happened.' They told him about the ruins, the old goa'uld dialect, the attack which resulted in the collapse of the passageway and DanielJackson's injury, and of the strange residents of P5X-239.
"Were they jaffa?" The General asked.
"They were not," Teal'c told him. "They were merely posing as jaffa. Their symbol of allegiance was also not one I recognize."
Then Carter added, "We're hoping Daniel will recognize it."
The General had a thoughtful look on his face, one Teal'c had seen the General wear whenever he was sorting facts in his mind. And then the General asked, "If they all had the tattoo on their foreheads then how did you know they weren't jaffa?"
"Because neither Teal'c nor I could sense the presence of any goa'uld symbiotes inside any of them-" Carter told him.
There was a sudden shift of movement in the corner of Teal'c's eyes and he turned to see that MacGyver had knocked over his cup of coffee. "Sorry," the man murmured to the group and standing looked around for something to clean it up with.
Reaching behind him Teal'c pulled out the paper towels from under the desk the coffee urn stood upon and handed them over to the man. Grateful MacGyver smiled then hurriedly cleaning up the mess apologized again. "Sorry about that. Just keep going, I'll have this cleaned in a second."
Both MajorCarter and the General were giving MacGyver looks Teal'c couldn't interpret, but after a moment MajorCarter slowly picked up where she left off. "We also got a good look at their stomachs later on and that confirmed that they were in fact human."
The atmosphere of the briefing wasn't quite the same after that. MacGyver finished cleaning up the coffee mess and settled back into his seat as casually as if it hadn't happened, but MajorCarter kept giving the man nervous looks. Something the General was noticing, Teal'c was sure, but Hammond didn't make any comments other than the occasional question about the mission.
They told him the rest, the discovery of the ship, the rooms of sarcophaguses, the goa'ulds, and the device at the ship's center. MacGyver pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over to the General.
Turning the smooth transparent disk over in his hands, the General handed it back and questioned, "What is it?"
MacGyver just shrugged, although Teal'c distinctly remembered the object giving off several holographic symbols before. Then Carter told Hammond, "We're not sure, General, but it could be an information device of some sort. With blowing up the ship we might never know."
"The rubbings I took of the device might tell us more," MacGyver added, earning him another peculiar look from the group.
The General leaned back. "Dr. Jackson will be on light duty for at least a week so for now I'd like SG1 to concentrate on seeing what they can find out about the device and the occupants of P5X-239."
"Sir, if I can ask," MacGyver said before the General could dismiss them. "What happened while we were gone?"
Teal'c raised an eyebrow as he looked at the General. The jaffa could see now the tired lines around Hammond's eyes. Sometimes it was rather hard to tell time at the SGC and the jaffa had long since started using other means of indications of late and early. Right now, it was rather late.
"I told you already about the strange phone call earlier today. We checked your place," he paused as if asking for MacGyver's forgiveness. MacGyver of course nodded, giving it, but then, it wasn't really his place. Then the General continued, telling them grimly, "We didn't find anything, but not too long after we had a break in."
"What did they take?" MacGyver quickly asked.
"It wasn't that kind of break in," the General told him, and with a sigh said, "As far as we can tell they broke in to use the gate, but we're not sure where to."
Teal'c calmly asked, "For what reason would someone do such a thing?"
Before the General could respond MajorCarter asked, if a bit hurriedly, "Could it have been NID? We know they've tried establishing a rouge operation off world before."
"It's a possibility, Major," the General agreed. Then he opened his mouth to say something more but the door to the briefing room opened and an Airman entered.
"I'm sorry sir, but NORAD is on the phone. It seems our cameras weren't the only ones affected by the virus. The whole mountain is in a blackout."
Teal'c felt a pain of sympathy for the General. It was now very late.
"Virus?" Carter asked.
"Something our unscheduled guest left behind," Hammond told her. "I'll be right there," he told the Airman, and then turning back to SG1 said, "I expect full reports on my desk by tomorrow afternoon. And until our security problem is resolved, I'm requesting that no one leave the base."
"Yes, sir." They all stood up ready to leave but then MacGyver quickly asked, "General, sir? Do we still need our…shadows?" He looked very pointedly at the SF's stationed at the door.
The General hesitated, thinking, but then said, "No, I don't think so. But you understand why it was necessary?"
"Of course, sir," MacGyver promptly replied smiling. Not the thin smile O'Neill would have given, but the fully trusting smile Teal'c was noticing MacGyver was partial to. That gave the General pause for a moment, but then he dismissed them and left.
When SG1, minus their escort, were finally alone in an elevator together, MajorCarter let out a shuddering breath. "I can't believe we just did that."
"What?" MacGyver asked as if he really didn't know.
"Lied to the General like that!" Sam hissed at him under her breath.
MacGyver just smiled broadly saying in encouragement, "You did fine, Sam."
"Carter," MajorCarter corrected.
"What?"
"You're supposed to call me Carter."
O'Neill's brother looked at her slightly perplexed so Teal'c added, "She is correct. Colonel O'Neill calls MajorCarter Carter except during times of distraction, affection, or great distress."
They both turned to him with wide eyes. Teal'c returned their stares calmly. Then as the elevator stopped and the doors opened he stepped out into the halls. Sam and MacGyver were quick to follow and they headed for the infirmary to check on Daniel.
"There's still something-" MacGyver began but broke off as a couple people appeared in the hall. When they had passed them by he tried again but barely got a word out before more people showed up. Finally, he just opened the door to one of storage rooms and gestured them inside.
"Okay," MacGyver said to them as soon as the door was closed. "We need to figure out what we're going to do when Jackson-"
"Daniel," MajorCarter corrected again.
"What?"
"The Colonel calls him Daniel."
MacGyver made a face. "Why is he Daniel but you're Carter?"
"Because Daniel's a civilian."
Nodding his head in understanding MacGyver then pointed to Teal'c. "And you're Teal'c because you're a…," he took a deep breath as if he was still trying to accept it. "An alien?"
"That is correct," Teal'c replied his lips twitching ever so briefly with humor. Only on Earth was it so strange for the jaffa to not be known. In turn, only on Earth had the jaffa encountered such strange humans.
"You know, you look pretty human to me," MacGyver stated.
Teal'c pulled up his shirt and contracted the muscles that would open his pouch. In response the young goa'uld symbiote poked its head out with a cry of annoyance. MacGyver's reaction was as satisfactory to the jaffa as it was predictable as the man quite suddenly backed up into the shelves behind him.
"What the hell is that?"
"An infant goa'uld."
"Get it outta there!"
Teal'c coaxed the goa'uld back into the pouch and pulled his shirt down. "I cannot."
Then MajorCarter explained, "The goa'uld act as the jaffa's immune system until the symbiote matures."
MacGyver calmed down some as he guessed, "And when it matures it takes over a host?" They nodded, but he shuddered from head to toe. "So are you telling me that that thing in your gut is the same kind of thing that was in the kamikaze kangaroo creatures?" Again they nodded and again he shuddered. "So how many of them are there?"
"This was the first Setie we have come across."
"No, I mean the snakes."
"The Goa'uld control a large portion of this galaxy," Teal'c told him solemnly.
"That explains why Jack's here," MacGyver grumbled.
Then before they could say anything the door opened and DoctorFrasier walked in surprised to see them all there.
"Ah, hi Janet," Sam greeted hesitantly.
"What going on?" the Doctor questioned frowning with worry.
MacGyver smiled at the woman. "We ran out of paper and needed to get some more."
"From a medical storage room?"
They all looked around as if for the first time. "Good point."
DoctorFrasier opened her mouth to question them further but the PA came to life calling her to the infirmary.
"Is there anyone else there other than Daniel?" MajorCarter quickly asked.
"No," DoctorFrasier responded still regarding them with suspicion. "And I'm sure there's nothing wrong so it probably means he's woken up early."
The rest of SG1 exchanged looks then silently followed after DoctorFrasier.