Name: Better Ways To Self Destruct (aka 'Politics...Oy')
Pairing: Sam/Jack
Summary: Teal'c and Daniel get invited for dinner whilst Sam follows orders and... snoops.
Notes: This took me a while to do for a couple of reasons, the main one being college work, the other being uncoporative computers that like to lose sections of my work! I hope it's been worth the wait for everyone. :)
Feedback: Please keep reviewing! I love hearing from you all.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG1 and the characters are the property of MGM. There is no infringement intended and no profit made.
-Part 8-
Humans Not Dogs
At first, the only thing O'Neill recognised was that he needed to carry on sleeping; and, for his sleep to continue, his radio needed shutting up.
Thwack.
It bounced off the floor and skidded across the room.
"Colonel?" The voice seemed to jump as the radio collided with the wall. "Sir, can you hear me? It's Carter."
Crap.
He sat up and rubbed his eyes; they were invigorated out of their sleepy state and he blinked around the room. Calmly he noted that it didn't seem quite so dark anymore.
"Sir?" Carter's voice came again.
"Patience is a virtue, Major," he muttered even though she couldn't hear him, and used his foot to find the floor. The bed was only a few inches from the ground; he shuffled off it, deciding his best bet would be to keep low and use his arms to navigate. As Sam's attempts to communicate became slightly more concerned, he followed her voice, groping around on the floor ahead of him.
And then it came into focus, just for a second; lying undamaged on the floor just centimetres from his left hand. He grabbed it, but not before his vision swam again, the shades of the room becoming vague and meaningless as he sat up against the wall. He tried to ignore the dizziness as the varying greys blotched themselves over his eyes.
Jack depressed the button on the radio: "For crying out loud, Carter, can't you let a man sleep?"
"Colonel," she responded. He could hear the small smile that curved her words. "Sorry sir, I didn't mean to wake you."
"No matter, no matter," he grumbled. "What's up?"
"I've found something, sir, and… it doesn't look good."
He groaned. "Why do we always have to get involved with the dodgy ones?"
"I'm standing in front of a building near the centre of the manufacturing quarter."
"What kind of building?"
"An 'Atmospheric Modification Plant,' sir," Carter replied; "I think this might explain the fluctuating level of toxins in the air around the city near the Gate."
"What happened to that just being fallout from the war?" Jack wanted to know.
"It was the only explanation at the time, sir," Sam explained. "There was no evidence that anything else was causing the atmospheric conditions."
"And you think these people are involved somehow?"
"Well, sir, let's just say it worries me that the plant is certified by the Triyan Council of Warfare."
"Ah crap," he sighed. "Well, I guess I did tell you to go snoop… Alright, go ahead and check it out. Just don't take too long, okay?"
"Yes sir. I'll be back as soon as I've had a look around."
Silence fell over him again. He opened his eyes, having closed them for the duration of the conversation. His vision swam and he was suddenly very glad he was sitting down; he might have fallen over otherwise.
"Gah."
He pressed his hands against his eyes. This sucked. He had been better off with total blackness: at least then he hadn't had to worry about losing balance. This felt like that time someone had spiked his drink in '77. He had been damn lucky Kawalski had been there to pick him up and take him home.
Brushing aside the emotions that rose at the thought of his late best friend, he reattached the radio to his vest. He didn't make a move for the bed: he refused to crawl back across the room. For all he knew, Gale could be waiting to pounce on his weakness. He wouldn't give her the satisfaction of finding him unprotected and on all fours.
Man, that sounds so wrong.
He leaned back against the wall behind and realised with great dismay that his headache had returned with a vengeance. For the moment he wasn't sure he cared about what these people had done to themselves during the war. He just wanted Carter to get back here and find a way home.
---------------
The caves seemed less crowded when they returned. Daniel wondered if there were actually fewer people there or if his heightened awareness of their situation made him see them as individuals rather than a collective nation. He watched somewhat helplessly as Sarai disappeared deeper into the underground shelters. He felt compelled to follow but Teal'c advised that she might require to spend time in solitary reflection. Daniel had to agree.
As they spoke, a young man approached. He was a junior member of what little government they had here and he had volunteered to act as liaison to the foreigners. Though wary at first, Yosef had been intrigued by the strangers who had come through the Stargate and had taken to them quickly. He was one of the few Dueteri who were completely unafraid of Teal'c.
"Doctor," he greeted as he drew closer, "Teal'c. It is good to see you again."
"You too, Yosef," Daniel smiled as Teal'c gave a courteous head-nod.
Yosef made a show of peering around the two men before saying regretfully: "I am sorry to see you do not return with your friends."
Ever since Daniel had described Jack and Sam, Yosef had expressed his hope to meet them – though Daniel had a suspicion he was eager to encounter the female member of their team for reasons other than professional interest.
"No," Daniel replied, "but we managed to contact our homeworld. A probe is searching for them from the air as we speak."
"Really?" Yosef asked, enthusiasm splashed over his face. "You managed to activate the Stargate from this side?"
As Yosef was gazing pointedly at Daniel, the archaeologist thought it only polite to add: "Yes, it's really all down to Teal'c."
"Really?" Yosef repeated, turning his attention to the stoic Jaffa. "Teal'c, my admiration climbs even higher for you." Teal'c inclined his head and Yosef asked, "Is the barrier destroyed?"
"It is not," Teal'c answered him: "it is merely damaged."
"Shame, shame," Yosef sighed. "I have long hoped the defences of our land would somehow be rendered inactive."
"Can't they be deactivated?" Daniel enquired.
"Yes," Yosef replied slowly, "but many of our people believe the old defences are the only protection we have."
"They do not protect you against your own atmosphere," Teal'c commented.
"It is true," Yosef agreed. "Our government do not see how deactivating our old defences will help, but I believe there must be land beyond ours, another continent, in which the air may be less polluted by the effects of war."
"Never mind about another continent, how about another world?" Daniel responded. "We know dozens of hospitable planets that we could take you to through the Stargate."
For a moment Yosef's green eyes lit up quite startlingly; then their brightness was smothered by a sigh. "If only the others did not fear it. Though…" He trailed off, in thought. "Maybe… maybe now is the time to persuade them."
"Maybe," Daniel added, making an effort to sound cheerful. Yosef beamed back at him.
"Then come – we have much to prepare, much to do."
"We – we do?" asked Daniel uncertainly, glancing at Teal'c. "I mean, we really should…"
"We must not become distracted from our search for our friends," Teal'c finished. Yosef's face fell a little.
"No," he agreed, "no, of course not, my apologies. You are here now, though, and hungry; I will take you to where you may eat."
"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said quietly, "we still have much land to search and explore."
"I agree, Teal'c, but if we want these people to help us, we have to make some kind of effort," Daniel replied. "We have to persuade them that we're willing to be their friends. We have another four and a half hours before the SGC reactivates the Gate… that's plenty of time. Maybe we should just go eat with them."
"Very well," Teal'c answered. He lifted his head in concession and Yosef beckoned them to follow.
---------------
Despite having gained permission from Colonel O'Neill to enter the Triyan factory, Sam was having slight difficulties in following his order to snoop. This was mostly due to that fact that, as far as she could see, the building had only one accessible entrance. She knew better than to wander in through the front door; instead she took several steps back and looked upwards.
The building was impressively tall but hastily built. The walls looked as though they had been thrown together at the last minute with an almost comical range of shapes and sizes of brick. There was one ledge to the right; and though there weren't any windows, there were ventilation grates.
Sam quickly planned her route up the ready-made footholds in the crumbling mortar. She could find a secure path until about two-thirds of the way up, but that was all she needed. With a quick glance to check no-one was around, she set her right foot in one of her assigned gaps and pushed herself up, grasping onto a broken brick that jutted out of the wall at an angle.
A few minutes later she had pulled herself onto the ledge. Relieved to be in a defensible position again, Carter turned to cast a wary glance over the alleyway below. No-one, that was good; she turned back and proceeded towards one of the grates on the wall.
The grates were at head height with sizeable gaps in between the slats. Presumably this flat section of roof was as some kind of service platform for the ventilation system. Keeping her distance in case the outlets were emitting some kind of gas, Sam drew out her spy lense, an eyepiece that extended to enable the viewer to direct their vision at awkward angles or into small places. She guided it carefully through the slats.
Inside it was dark. At first her eyes were confused by the blinking of coloured lights in the blackness, but a moment later her vision had adjusted. Her attention was drawn to the far wall. There, huge pistons forced phosphorous gas through transparent tubes. There was no other movement: just the intermittent lights and the hulking pistons, gas disappearing into vats and emerging in different colours. The strangest thing about it, Sam thought, was the total absence of sound.
And just as she thought it she heard footsteps and voices – not from inside the building but from outside, below her. Instantly she crouched, withdrawing the spy lense and tucking back into her vest pocket. Two men approached and from the sound of it, they were engaged in a heated discussion. She hoped it would stay that way, because if they looked up, they would catch sight of her instantly.
"…since the war, but it is necessary; nothing less," she heard the first man say as the pair strode into earshot.
"You know as well as I do how the winds pick up at this time of year," the second responded angrily. "Another week and they will be bombarding the plains."
"Is it our doing that nature assaults our enemies for us?" the first man laughed. "Come, Cain! This is the time of year we are most vulnerable, yet you ask for our only defence to come to an end?"
"It is no defence," Cain challenged, "but an on-going assault. The war ended long ago."
"And every year since we have had this same, boring discussion," the other man sighed. His tone was level but contained more than a hint of impatience. "The answer is still the same, man. Honestly – you of all people should know what our enemies are capable of."
"They are human as we are," Cain replied, struggling to restrain himself.
"Oh, are they?" the first man asked airily. "I was under the impression they were… 'Dueteri dogs'." He chuckled, and the chuckle became a laugh, a sound that only faded as he entered the building and slammed the metal door behind him.
Cain stood for a moment, staring at the grafitti on the wall below; and as Sam peered over the side of the ledge, she saw him bury his face in his hands and turn away in anguished grief.
---------------
The meal was a communal affair, the type of thing Daniel was used to. Teal'c was stationed beside him, his broad presence noticeably agitated. It was difficult for the Jaffa warrior, a man of action, to sit and eat when his friends were lost and in danger; yet he was aware that Daniel was seeking these people's help for that very reason, and he trusted Daniel Jackson's judgement.
"Sarai isn't here," Daniel observed quietly to Teal'c during a break in conversation with Yosef. Teal'c cast his gaze around the chamber. There were no more than a dozen families here and they had very little. Daniel had gone so far as to offer some of his rations to the hungry crowd.
"Perhaps she chooses to dine alone," Teal'c suggested.
"Maybe, Teal'c," Daniel said, "but I get the impression these people are obliged to share whatever they have, just to keep each other going. I can't believe this is all that's left of a whole nation."
"It is indeed a tragedy," Teal'c replied. A silence stretched out between them; Yosef was talking animatedly to a council member that had made the mistake of walking within conversational range.
"Do you think we'll be able to do it?" Daniel asked Teal'c. "Save these people, I mean; get them through the Gate."
"No matter when the war here ended, their own fear now threatens," Teal'c answered sagely. "If they cannot overcome their fear, it will be their downfall. It is rarely possible for all to be brought to safety when they themselves strive to prevent it."
"Yeah…" Daniel sighed, looking around the cavern with a pained frown. "We have to try, though, right?"
Teal'c nodded slowly and Daniel turned back to look upon the Dueteri, another dying race.
A/N: I'll have Part 9 up as soon as I possibly can, but when that will be I really can't say.Still, it'll be worth the wait for you fans of Sam/Jack UST... -eg-