Troubled Times

by Nighshae

Things are finally starting to look up as the culprits who poisoned Daniel are caught.... Or are they? Definate teamfic with some long missed friends. Please, R&R.

8. Chapter 8

Well, it took three months and two nearly complete rewrites, but here, at last, is chapter 8. The next chapter is already in the works, and will hopefully be heading your way in a much shorter time than this one did. Enjoy

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So, Selmak left last night? Ashka asked her symbiote, Latara, silently. I heard there was a major chase last night, and Anise was grumbling over breakfast. Something about a kidnapping, though I don't know how a host could kidnap their symbiote.

:I don't understand it either: Latara agreed. :The council seems to have done something to have upset the pair and driven them off, but no one is talking about it. They only stated that everyone is to watch for the pair and escort them back as soon as they can be found.:

Ashka got settled better under the sand, their position just off to one side of the Stargate so they could hear and see if anyone were to come through. Others had done the same, using the opportunity to rest, one of the pair staying awake while the other slept. The symbiote needed less rest than the host did, so it was easy for them to keep watch while their host partner slept through the hottest part of the day.

It was nearly the end of the shift, the night watch was due and everyone was awake again when the Stargate began to turn, drawing their attention. The doubled guard all took shelter, the new shift hiding out of sight behind nearby stones and even the Stargate itself, while the day shift sunk back into their places the sand again.

The gate opened, and settled, a lone figure stepping through, his gray robes and silver armor identifying him immediately as a Jaffa. He looked around, lightly holding onto his staff weapon as the gate disengaged behind him, and let out an amused snort. "You grow careless, Tok'ra. At least four of you would be dead by now if I wished you so. Hiding behind rocks? At least the two of you behind the Chaapa'ia would have had a slight chance of taking me out before I was fully aware of you."

Ashka let Latara have control as she rose from the sand to face the old Jaffa. "Who are you, and how did you come here?" she demanded.

The old man gave her a stern look that reminded her of a teacher she'd once dared to question as a child. "I am Bra'tac of the Free Jaffa. I have come with a message for Malek, take me to him, or call him here to me."

"Malek is not one to just be summoned at a whim," answered one of the night shift, stepping out from behind the ring of the Stargate. "How do we know you are Bra'tac? And how do you know of Malek?"

"He is Bra'tac," another of the newcomers stated, joining the gathering guards. "I remember you well from the Alpha Site, Master Bra'tac. You helped keep the peace between Jaffa, Tok'ra and Tau'ri when the as'rak followed us to the safety of the base. From whom does your message come?"

"That is for Malek to hear," Bra'tac stated firmly. "I need to see him immediately. Can you take me to him?"

"I am afraid that is not possible, Master Bra'tac," Ashka stated, her tone respectful as she spoke to him. "But as Malek is head of security here, we must report to him upon our return to the base. If you would consent to wait, he could be here in a short time." She gave him a smile. "Time you could, perhaps, spend teaching the night shift to find better hiding spots to watch the Stargate?"

His surprised look gave way to a toothy grin. "A fair trade," he agreed. "Be off with you, though, my news to Malek is urgent."

She nodded, then turned and bolted off into the deepening darkness. Quite an interesting man, isn't he? She asked her symbiote silently. I have never seen a Jaffa warrior that old.

:I have heard of him: Latara replied. :His wisdom is said to rival Selmak's. I hope he comes bearing news of our eldest. I don't know what the Council did to so upset them, but they belong here, with us, not out on their own.:

Would they not have gone to the Tau'ri? Ashka questioned as they approached the ring transport area. Two others following her in came to a stop beside her, and the rings flashed up, then down, carrying them below.

Malek was waiting for them, and it didn't take long for her to deliver the news of the old Jaffa's arrival while the other two headed into the tunnels. He nodded and immediately headed topside, but doing no more than raising his eyebrow when Ashka followed him. "You have questions?" he asked as they both started back to the gate at a steady jog.

"What has become of Selmak and Jacob?" Ashka asked. "We heard only that they left in the middle of the night, and actually stunned several guards to do so."

"The Council demanded that the pair part ways, and Selmak move on to a new host," came the immediate reply. "They refused, and the Council, it seems, was willing to take steps to force the issue. They believe that Jacob's loyalty to the Tau'ri endangers the Tok'ra, and that he sways Selmak to their cause, rather than the Council's. It was the 'last straw', as the Tau'ri say. They have left the Tok'ra and gone to live with the Tau'ri."

Latara took control from a stunned Ashka. "The Council did something that foolish?" she demanded, incredulous. "And to Selmak? No wonder they left as they did. Do you believe it is possible that they might return to us, some day?"

"It is not likely," came the reply. "They are a good pairing, and neither will risk the Council doing something even more rash. Of the entire group, only Garshaw protested the move, and was overruled." He gave her one of his wry smiles. "If you come across word of the pair, she would be most grateful to know of it. She and Selmak have been very close friends for centuries. I fear she'll worry if she doesn't receive news of them from time to time."

Latara agreed as they came over the last sand ridge and approached the Stargate, and Latara noted that there seemed to be no sign of the gate guards. The naquadah in her blood told her they were there, but there had definitely been some improvements made to their hiding spots. "He's good," she stated, looking around. "Not a body in sight."

Malek nodded. "Giving lessons, old man?" he questioned, clasping arms with the waiting Jaffa. "If so, it seems they've learned them well." He made a move to Ashka with his hand for her to stay put, a discrete distance away from the pair but still within hearing.

"It helps to have someone who is leaving the area wait to be sure everyone else is out of sight," Bra'tac explained as the pair moved out of the circle of guarding Tok'ra. "I have news from the Tau'ri, Malek, and they have dire need of one of your Za'tarc detectors. There are enemies among them at their main base, and they need to find them. Daniel Jackson was attacked, poisoned once by parchment made with Inkartra poison in it, then attacked last night by an assassin while he lay ill. He survived by the bravery and fighting skills of his healer, but if there are more, such as his assassin, the Tau'ri need to know of them."

"Has he been cured of the poison?" Malek questioned, frowning. "I know that Jacob and Selmak were planning to return to the Tau'ri when they left here."

"They have done what was needed, and Daniel Jackson has been moved to a new offworld base to recover, surrounded by those who are less likely to be of the assassin's ilk. I plan on going there myself, to help with his recovery as I can, Teal'c has asked this of me. He and Jacob Carter are waiting for me elsewhere to take me there."

Malek nodded. "I will talk with Garshaw, and we will take a detector through to the Tau'ri as soon as possible," he assured the old warrior. "I have not met Dr. Jackson, but from what I have heard, he is a wise scholar."

"A scholar and a warrior both, few hate the Goa'uld as he does," Bra'tac told him. "Now, my message delivered, I must be on my way. Jacob was anxious to get back to his patient… Tell me, though, what was your 'wise' council thinking in trying such a move as they did on Jacob Carter and Selmak?"

"They were not thinking," Malek replied with a deep sigh. "That was the problem."

Bra'tac nodded as he began to dial the gate. "Perhaps in time they will understand the depth of their error," he told the Tok'ra as the gate established and he swiftly strode through, leaving them behind…

"Why did the Council make the move they did?" Ashka questioned softly, moving back to Malek's side once more.

"Because the speed in which the Tau'ri have taken out so many System Lords frightens them. And like so many children, they wish to get rid of their fright by pretending what causes it does not exist. Too many of them believe that when the Tau'ri are done with the System Lords, they will turn their attention to eliminating us as well. And that truly frightens them." Leaving them, he headed back towards the base, clearly deep in thought.

It was a most sobering thought.

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Light…

Dizzy…

Cold…

It was a feeling that was all too familiar to him. Slowly darkness gave way to a greenish, garish light as he sought to open his eyes and look around him. He could feel that his body was wrapped in something soft, almost confining, but he wasn't bound. He could hear his own breathing in his ears and there was a mask over his face, he recognized the feel of it from to many times in the infirmary. His arms were heavy like lead pipes at his sides and his legs felt no better. He tried to look down at himself, but without his glasses and the glare just above his face, he couldn't see much. He felt tired, dead tired, but wasn't sure why. Drugs perhaps? He had felt similar grogginess before when sedated, Lord knew how many times he had been in the infirmary at the SGC.

With some effort, he managed to lift one arm upwards, though it was slow going and his muscles protested the use. Cold fingers managed their escape, reaching up, feeling the cold, malleable plastic that surrounded his mouth and nose. Someone was keeping him from suffocating, but why? His hand went towards the green light and hit something soft just above his head, then poked it with his finger. Padding. . foam. . .padding? He felt a small stab of pain in the back of his hand He brought his hand up close to his face and looked at it, squinting against the dim light. He flexed his fingers, feeling how stiff they were and the back of his hand hurt. He could make out small details when he got them close enough, like the tape wrapped around the back of his hand. Surgical tape at that, he thought. He saw the small, plastic tubing. I.V.? To keep him drugged, he realized. His hand worked sluggishly around, finding a seam or divot not too far from reach, and then his fingers finally ran out of strength and dropped down, onto the thick, cottony softness of several blankets wrapped around him. Inside a box?

Another chill ran through him and he groped for more of the warmth that was the blanket. His eyes attempted to focus on the greenish glare of the light just above his face. A bio-luminous stick had been placed on the inside of where he was. A sense of calm came over him from either the drugs or the fact that the NID wouldn't have gone to all the trouble to make sure he was comfortable. But just who had him and why did they put him in a box? His tired mind went through several scenarios, trying to piece together what happened, but the drugs were starting to toy with him once more, making it difficult to think.

Another bone deep chill ran through him and he reached for more blankets, moving too fast and hitting the side of the crate, bouncing off more padding. Someone obviously was treating him as if he were a delicate artifact being shipped somewhere, completely and utterly insulated by thick foam. Oh, the irony. He managed to snag one of the thicker blankets to pull around his body in an attempt to ward off another shiver as it ran through him. He found that other than the coolness of the air, he wasn't really uncomfortable. In fact he could easily go back to sleep…

He felt a jolt suddenly and realized that who or whatever was carrying him had come to a stop. Now what, he pondered as he heard something thumped near him and above him. Soft light began to appear on one edge of the lid and Daniel closed his eyes against it. The lid came further up and he felt a warm hand touch his forehead and then tucking the blankets around him even more. Daniel couldn't make out who it was that was nearby, but as soon as she spoke, he thought he knew...

"Janet?" he managed to whisper past the oxygen mask.

"Er... no... I'm Abby," said the doctor, looking down at him. "You're all right, Daniel. Just rest and relax. That's all you need to worry about." Her tone was gentle, and reassuring. "I was just concerned with the valves on the oxygen tank when we went through the gate. Didn't want them freezing on us and causing some problems with the oxygen flow."

"I told you you didn't have to worry about that," came another voice nearby. "Hi, Daniel. The good doctor here just wasn't aware of some small details when it comes to traveling through the Stargate."

Daniel recognized it immediately as Reynolds, one of the long-time colonels that Daniel had worked with on occasion. "Where . . . am I?" Daniel asked, trying to open his eyes further, but without success.

"You're at the Beta site, Daniel," Abby informed him, reaching down to take his pulse as she brushed aside some of his mussed hair. "Sorry for your traveling accommodations, but it couldn't be helped."

"Beta?" he queried, confused. The Beta site couldn't be up already. It was still in the planning stages as far as he knew. And traveling accommodations? He'd have to ask about that, but later. Right now, he could hardly focus on what was going on.

"Your research facility," Reynolds informed him. "We've started working on the main base and have a temporary camp set up, just waiting for your arrival.

Daniel wanted to ask more, but he was feeling tired and wasn't in the mood to ask twenty questions. He closed his eyes, letting the doctor and Reynolds drift off into a conversation without him. He was grateful that they decided to keep the lid off the box as they began to move along the path again, and under some trees.

Soon, the warmth of the sun and the gentle rocking motion put him right back to sleep.

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"I didn't realize what you were so anxious about, doc, or I could have reassured you about those valves. We've never had trouble with bringing them through the gate," Reynolds told her as they continued slowly down the track that led from the backside of the Stargate. The others took the rest of the FREDs ahead of them, leaving he and the two medics with one other officer to follow. A team of four stayed behind with the gate, guarding it since the camp was about a quarter mile away. "Still, I'm surprised you agreed to bring him here at all, he doesn't look like he's in very good shape."

"Well, if the situation back at the base weren't so unstable, we wouldn't have. And we're hoping for some improvement soon," Abby replied, her concern showing. "Jacob Carter will be arriving here within the next few hours, and he said he'll be staying to assisting me with Daniel's care until he's back on his feet. Apparently the poison used on him was something that the General's symbiote is familiar with. I've been told that curing the damage will take some time, but he assured me they can help him and far faster than I would have been able to do alone."

Reynolds gave her a startled look, turning to face her as they moved among the trees and lost sight of the gate. "The General is coming here? That's surprising, usually the Tok'ra don't let him stay with us too long, they're always sending him out on one mission or another. Any idea how long he'll be able to stay?"

"I haven't heard the whole story yet, but I was told there was no problem with him staying as long as necessary to aide Daniel's recovery."

"Any idea how long that's going to take?"

"A month, perhaps two is what I've been told," Abby admitted. "He's going to be down for some time, but Dr Fraiser has told me that with General Carter's help, Daniel will make a full recovery, and much more quickly than I'm used to seeing in my patients. I wouldn't have given him any chance of a full recovery at all, and nothing other than very light duty after six months."

"Oh, yeah, a healing device is a pretty marvelous piece of technology, but if you don't have the protein marker left by a symbiote, you can't use one," Reynolds explained wryly. "And I don't recommend you trying out a symbiote, that's usually not the most pleasant of experiences."

"How many people have ended up with one?" she asked, curious. "A good one, I mean," she clarified.

"General Carter got Selmak, and they're still together. Major Carter got hijacked by Jolinar, but we knew nothing of the Tok'ra at that point, and as far as the SGC was concerned, it was a Goa'uld and had to go. She was being hunted by an As'rak, a Goa'uld assassin, who also came through with the refugees that SG-1 rescued, and when he caught up with her, Jolinar gave her life to keep the Major alive. I understand a young lieutenant with SG-14 also ended up with a symbiote for a short time, but both had been injured. They gave up their lives to give SG-1 a chance to escape a planet under Goa'uld attack."

"Doesn't sound like most of the encounters have gone well, then, except for the General's," Abby mused, frowning at the thought. It had been implied that several people had had much more disastrous encounters with the nastier groups of Goa'uld. Encounters that hadn't ended well for the humans involved.

"Colonel O'Neill's encounter went the worse, just last year," Reynolds admitted, removing his cap, brushing back his short cut hair and then replacing it. "He was exposed to a fatal disease, and was finally convinced to take a Tok'ra symbiote to save his life. Next thing he knew, he had been deserted by the symbiote, Kanan, and was in the hands of one of the worse of the system lords, Ba'al. He was tortured and revived in a sarcophagus more times than anyone wants to think about. Problem was, we knew where he was, but didn't have the forces to go after him. All we could do was pass the information about the base off to another system lord, and hope that the resulting chaos would give the Colonel a chance to escape."

"Obviously he did," Abby mused. "I bet Jack doesn't trust the Tok'ra much, though."

"Other than Jacob and Selmak, nope," Reynolds told her, shaking his head as they passed through a narrow track between some wide boulders. "He made it home, but was weeks recovering from the trauma he went through. I was one of the ones who helped out as he was getting through the withdrawal, and it was pretty bad at times. Even he can't recall how many times Ba'al killed him. He admitted that if Daniel hadn't showed up and stayed with him, he probably would have been driven mad."

"Okay, you just lost me… And brings up a couple of questions I've had. If Jack had been killed, how could he be revived?" Abby questioned, completely confused now.

Reynolds chuckled, looking down at the Zat he had strapped to his leg with a smile. "Ah, the wonders of alien tech… A sarcophagus can revive the dead, curing all wounds and restoring the person inside to full health. Unfortunately, repeated use over a short period of time causes some rather severe mental breakdowns, especially if the person using it isn't injured at the time. The SGC found that one out the hard way, a couple of years after they got started, and again, it was Daniel who wound up being the guinea pig. Took him nearly a week to get through the delusions, aggressiveness and psychosis that came with the withdrawal. I wasn't around back then, but what I saw with the Colonel was bad enough. It wasn't a pretty sight."

Abby thought back a bit. "Right, that must have been that 'unidentified addiction' I read about," she mused, putting things from Daniel's file together in her head at last. "The symptoms and everything were in the file I got on him, but the paperwork didn't go into any detail on what caused the addiction in the first place. You know, though, the first real conversation I had with Daniel, he asked me if he was dying 'again'. And he mumbled something about 'ascending'."

"Oh, that's a major question you have there, doc," Reynolds admitted. "I know of at least… three times that Daniel has been killed. Each time he was revived through one process or another… Well, at least twice. Some would argue that the third time, though, he didn't really die."

Pausing, he took a swallow of water from his canteen, then offered it to Abby. She shook her head, patting the one she had on her own hip, which was out of his line of sight. "You seem to know an awful lot about the SGC, Colonel, but you told me you're a recent arrival."

"I started at Area 51, then moved into the SGC when things started getting nasty between the SGC and the NID," he explained. "Part of my job was correlating all the SG teams mission reports. Anyway, if you look up Daniel's record, you'll find he's got three canceled death certificates. The first was the first mission, he had nothing to come back here for, and had gotten married on Abydos, so he stayed behind and the Colonel reported he'd been killed. That one lasted for about a year. The second came in the first year they were going out, all four were caught and the other three were implanted with the memories of seeing Daniel burned to a crisp. Things didn't quite add up, though, and they went back to get him when they figured out what had happened just in time to meet him on the beach. His captor had used some sort of memory device on him, wanting to know what happened to someone in the distant past, and was actually releasing him when the rest of SG-1 reached the planet."

"So he didn't die at all that time," Abby stated, thinking about his chart. There had been mention of several head injuries, including a week he'd spent in nearly complete seclusion due to a severe migraine and a bad case of photosensitivity. She would have to remember to keep him out of the direct sunlight most of the time. Besides, there was the problem of reactions with some of his medications…

"Nope. The third time was at Kelowna. They were building one of the most powerful bombs we've ever come across, and had a 'lab accident' when Daniel was watching through the lab window. He shot out the window, and managed to get in and disarm the bomb, but took a lethal dose of radiation doing it."

"And that killed him… I read about the damage done, and it definitely was lethal. But how was he revived? From what you've said, there's a lot missing out of the medical files I was given."

"He wasn't revived, because he didn't quite die… On an earlier mission, they had come across a being of pure energy who lives on a higher plane of existence. Oma Desala, Daniel called her. Radiation poisoning was about to kill him, when she showed up and offered him a chance to 'ascend' into her world. Daniel took her up on the offer, things hadn't been going well with SG-1 at that point, there was a bit of a team breakdown going on, and he felt he could do more good as an ascended being. He was gone about a year when we found him in human form, amnesiac, about seven months ago. SG-1 patched up their problems, and have been back to their old form ever since."

"Sounds like he became an angel, the way you talk about it."

"Some would agree with that assessment. And call him a guardian angel at that, he showed up when Ba'al was torturing the Colonel and stayed with him to keep him sane. Jack told me that Daniel offered to ascend him as well, but he turned him down cold, said he wasn't the type, and he knew that there had to be a way for him to get out of there. Daniel says he doesn't remember hardly anything from that time, just a few flashes here and there, and he knows he wasn't very happy with the Ancients' policy of non-interference. He came back because he couldn't stand to watch as terrible things happened to people he cared about."

"Oh, good God… So, basically, he proved that angels do exist…"

Reynolds' shook his head at that. "The Ancients aren't angels, doc, they've just given up having physical bodies and moved elsewhere. Far as we know, they lived on earth millions of years ago, but a plague nearly wiped them out. Those that survived learned to ascend, to leave their bodies behind. But they won't help anyone, all they do is stand on high and watch."

"Not very good angels then," she agreed, then looked around at the forest they were strolling through. "This is definitely a nice place, Colonel. Looks a lot like what I saw of Colorado."

"That's often the case," he told her. "We find variations of earth type flora everywhere we go, though there are a lot of desert worlds out there as well. Daniel loves those, reminds him of home; he was born in Egypt, after all, and Abydos was a desert world. At any rate, we chose this place because of the cave system we found, and its closeness to the Stargate. This world isn't in the Goa'uld listing, but rather came from the Ancients' download, so it's a 'safe' world. No Goa'uld has ever come here, and there's nothing to lead one here now."

"Caves, you say?" Abby questioned.

"Limestone caves. Pretty dry for the most part, there's a couple of places where streams break through, but we can harness those for water supply and pipe away the excess. We'll put in a water reclamation system and a one of our allies gave us a damn, good waste removal system, so we don't go polluting the local water table. Zats take care of getting rid of any garbage very nicely, we've discovered. All in all, setting up a base like this has very little effect on the local resources. We've gotten better about not leaving any traces on the surface. Our last Alpha site was destroyed a short time back, it was a collection of small buildings out in the middle of a clearing. Easy to target by a Ha'tac from space, it got blown to hell when the Colonel in charge had to use the self-destruct on the generator to be sure that Anubis didn't get anything out of the place. We lost some good people there."

"Must have been one big generator. Or a very, very small base."

"Naquadah generators are small, but put out one hell of a lot of power. We use one now to power the base back on Earth, saves us several billion dollars a year on electricity. You can set a generator up on a TV tray, but blowing it will take out everything in a two mile radius. We have one here, Siler came through yesterday and got it set up for us so that we have all the power we need. Your tent has proper lighting and energy to run your monitors and the like, as well as a small heating system so we can keep the place warm at night. There's refrigeration for your medical supplies, and even a freezer here, though you have to share that with the cook… We have enough food here to keep us for a month, and I'm not talking MREs. I'm talking real, home-style meals; Donaldson, on SG-9, is our camp cook, and a damn good one. Any time we end up bringing out a group like this, he takes over the chow line. He's turned camp cookery into a work of art, believe me."

"Hope he's good with soups, that's what Daniel's going to need for a while," Abby told him as they came around a final bend and she got her first good look at the camp. Or, rather, what there was to be seen of the camp. They hadn't cut any sort of clearing around the mountain's edge, so much of it was lost in the trees. What she could see, though, were a half dozen, four man and two man tents set up among the trees, which would protect them from the sun and keep them out of sight of an aerial attack. A light wind going through the area helped to keep thing cool, and keep any insects at bay as well. There were no formal 'lines' to the tents, they were scattered haphazardly over the area, but as she got closer she could see signs that someone had done some homework.

Here and there, between the close trees, barriers had been put up to discourage anyone from coming into the camp area and giving it a more defined boundary. Not to mention something for defenders to hide behind if it came to trouble. She had no doubt that the area outside the camp was full of silent sensors that would alert the camp if anyone tried to approach them without being noticed. "You need a couple of guard dogs, Colonel," she suggested.

"It's been considered, but we have enough trouble keeping the teams from bringing something contagious back to the base," he pointed out. "Trying to be sure that a team dog didn't bring something back as well is a problem we're not quite ready to face yet." He smiled. "Everett's been with the SGC from the start, he could probably tell you some pretty amusing stories about some of the bugs that have come back with one team or another."

"Oh, yeah, I remember the 'touched' virus SG-1 brought back from the Land of Light," Everett agreed from ahead of them, shaking his head at the memory. "That one came in, and before we knew it, we had half the base coming down with it and turning into brutish Neanderthals. And it was only Dr Fraiser's second day on the job… A lot of people were looking mighty sheepish when things settled down again, 'conduct unbecoming an officer' doesn't even start to cover some of the things that went on. Not that it was anyone's fault, mind you. Fortunately, the cure was pretty simple."

"Oh?" Abby questioned, curious.

"Dr Fraiser turned out to be immune to a disease that easily transmitted by touch from very, very aggressive patients. For quite a while, so was Daniel. Fortunately, it turned out that the common factor was their high use of antihistamines, of all things. The bug lived off of high doses of histamines, so by putting everyone on allergy medication, we completely eradicated the disease."

"SG-1 run into things like that a lot?" Abby asked.

"They're our first contact team, if it's going to be found, they're usually the ones to find it," Reynolds pointed out.

"They can't be the only first contact team you've got. I understand there are more than twenty teams."

"Usually they're the first ones in," he replied. "Once in a while, if we know from other intel what's on a planet, some other team might be assigned, but usually it's SG-1 who has the dubious honor of first setting foot on new ground." Reaching up, he scratched his head. "My team is often a follow-up team, though, we're usually having to go in to help them get out of some sticky situation or another. Or just providing general backup if there's reason to suspect that something maybe going on and another team is needed to watch their backs. Or hold a clear line of retreat to the Stargate. Now, the really fun team is SG-2. It's currently the only team that has more than four members, and its MO is to go in shooting as soon as they hit the gate. They're our extraction team, eight Marines, including a Marine medic and a demolitions specialist. They're the ones who go when we know that the mission has completely gone south and we're going to have to shoot another team out of a captive situation. They're gruff and tough, and we wouldn't trade them in for anything."

"So, there's only Air Force and Marines at the base then?"

"At the moment, yes. Far as I know, they've not gone looking for additional personnel from other branches of the military and the other branches have no idea, outside of the joint chiefs, of what's going on under the mountain."

"And if you were to get Navy or Army personnel assigned to the base?"

"They'd be welcome. The SGC is made up of the best of the best, and the smartest people our military has to offer, or can find to hire. It's also made up of free thinkers; it has to be, especially on the teams. They run into trouble, they usually don't have either the time or opportunity to call home and ask for orders, they have to get out on their own, and try to salvage the situation whenever possible. Now, we have some hard-asses, but the General knows who they are, and they usually don't get sent into a situation where they're going to run into other people. Unless it's Jaffa, of course, no offense meant to Teal'c. Some times it takes that hard-ass attitude to deal with even the Free Jaffa."

"Shaky relationship there?"

"A bit. I can understand where they're coming from, mind you. They just shook off slaving for the Goa'uld, they don't want to risk winding up in the same situation with us. Fortunately, out of all the commanding officers we could have gotten, we got General Hammond, who's as laid back as they come. And with Jack as his second, our relationship with the Free Jaffa isn't too strained, they're willing to ask, rather than just give orders."

They reached the main part of the camp at this point, and Abby looked around as more and more tents came into sight. "This is quite a comfortable set-up you have here, Colonel. Which one of these tent is mine?"

He pointed ahead of them to a large MASH style medical tent that was set up under several high trees. "Actually, we curtained you off an area in the medical tent, figured you'd want to stay close to your patient. Everett has a tent nearby, within easy calling distance."

Abby's reply was cut off by a low double hooting of a horn at the edge of camp. A pause came, then a second hooting as a red light started to flash. "Gate alert," he told her, motioning her to be quiet as he listened closely to the radio on his vest. "I read you, Teal'c," he stated into it after a long moment. "Welcome to Beta, and give my greetings to the General and Bra'tac as well. Follow the trail behind the gate to reach the main camp."

Someone turned off the alarm as he signaled a stand down. "Well, General Carter is here, with Teal'c and Master Bra'tac. That should liven the place up a bit… Master Bra'tac is Teal's teacher, a very, very old Jaffa. I've heard it said he's somewhere around a hundred and thirty-five years old. Or older. At any rate, listening to him and the Colonel verbally spar is quite a hoot. But don't let his age fool you, he's very, very dangerous in a fight. I've seen him, he's a good guy to have on your side in a battle, and more than capable of taking down any man we have around here right now. Or even any three men on the site. Except maybe Teal'c or the General. I've never seen General Carter fight, so I don't know what level of training he's actually got."

They arrived at the medical tent, and several other men came forward to help lift the box and carry it inside, then lift Daniel out of it and to the waiting bed. The sick man roused a bit as they got him out of the box's narrow confines, and began coughing as they adjusted the bed and got pillows set to make him comfortable.

Abby kept the air mask on him for now, hoping they'd be able to switch later to a cannula after Jacob and Selmak were done. Once they had him as comfortable as possible, she set about hooking up the monitors, medication IV's and giving him a thorough going over. Listening to his lungs, she was concerned by what she was hearing. "Definitely turning into full blown pneumonia," she told Reynolds and Everett, who was just coming back from talking to a young captain outside the tent. "I've got him on IV antibiotics, but if we don't see some improvement, we may have no choice but to take him back to the SGC."

"Doc, you haven't explained yet why you brought him here to begin with," Reynolds pointed out.

"Someone tried to assassinate him last night," she told him, as others hovered nearby. "One of the SF's tried to kill him. And it wasn't someone new, it was someone who had been in the SGC for years according to what Jack told me before we left."

"Damn," Reynolds murmured. "All right. Doc, what do you need to make him as comfortable as possible?" he questioned. "Will this tent be all right? Or do you need something underground?"

"Fresh air and sunlight is a good thing here, I think," she told them, motioning to the opened, screened in front of the tent. "The sunshine out there is warm, as long as there isn't a cool breeze coming in, he should be fine."

She went through what Daniel would require over the next few days, and Reynolds made sure that everything would be just as she needed. A talk with the camp cook brought reassurances that soups would be kept fresh and hot over the fire at all times. Reynolds was waiting for some broth for Daniel when the three newcomers arrived, moving at a steady jog through the woods to the camp. The colonel gave them a nod and pointed them towards the larger tent, and they headed on to see how things were going.

Abby looked up from her patient as the three men entered, recognizing two of them right off and giving the third a curious glance before turning to Jacob Carter, who wasn't slowing down a bit as he headed for the blanket-wrapped Daniel. "I am definitely glad to see you," she told him with a deep sigh. "That upper respiratory infection has definitely turned into pneumonia."

He nodded, taking the seat waiting for him and digging into his pack for the small healing device he carried with him. "Sel and I were afraid of that," he admitted. "We didn't like the sound of his breathing last night, but there just wasn't the time to deal with it right then, and we didn't have the energy." Sliding the device over his right hand, he brought it up and over Daniel's chest, closing his eyes as he and Selmak activated it, first making sure that all the poison really was out of Daniel's system, then going to work on loosening up the congestion in his lungs.

Asleep or unconscious, Daniel still grimaced uncomfortably as he shifted on the bed, almost wincing in pain as the beam ran slowly over his chest. Abby quickly raised the railing on the bedside opposite where Jacob was sitting, the last thing they needed was him rolling off the bed.

Everett, watching from the side of the tent, frowned. "He's had seizures before," he warned them softly. "When Major Carter tried to use the healing device on him, for the radiation poisoning, it triggered a seizure instead."

Abby nodded, frowning. "Get two CC's of Valium," she directed. "Let's head this off before it starts…"

Jacob frowned, then closed his eyes. He's right, Daniel's building up towards a seizure, he told Selmak. We've only had to heal him twice before, and we didn't have a problem either time. But I've never seen this happen when we've healed anyone else.

:It's a rare reaction: Selmak replied privately as Everett injected the drug into the IV port. :This Valium, what will it do:

"Doc, Selmak needs info on the drug," Jacob murmured.

"Valium is a muscle relaxant," Abby explained. "It will keep him limp so that his body can't seize up on us."

Jacob nodded, his attention turning back to what they were doing. At this point, it seemed that the last of the poison was out of his system, and the congestion in his lungs wasn't quite as bad, but Selmak hastened to warn him that there was still a great deal to do. And they couldn't just do it all at once.

Turning off the hand device, Jacob drew back and reached to draw up the railing on his side of the bed as Abby checked Daniel's lungs, listening to them carefully as she studied the monitors. "It's a good start," he told her, "but we're by no means done. He's got a long way to go."

"Definitely sounding better there than he did," Abby told him, drawing back and putting the stethoscope in her pocket. "I think you got things loose enough that cough will start being a lot more productive. We still need to watch him for fever and any signs of renewed congestion. Not to mention his heart…"

"The poison is completely out of his system now, we checked for that first off," Jacob assured her. "With it gone, he shouldn't have any more heart attacks unless his system comes under a major strain before we can fix some of the damage. He does need to start getting up and moving around in the next day or two, however. Even if it's just to get out of bed to go to the pot you got back there, or out to a chair to sit in the sunshine for a while. The weather here is fantastic this time of the year from the report I read on the place this morning, so we should probably get him out into it. It's time for him to start working on that tan again, he's been in the mountain way too much."

"Indeed," Teal'c stated, watching with Bra'tac from near the tent's door. "I have heard O'Neill complaining much of late about how much time DanielJackson and Major Carter have spend in their labs. Her recent trip to Chicago to speak to Sarah Gardner has been her only major excursion from the base in some time, as the archeology trip had been for DanielJackson."

"Yeah, Jack told me last night they were spending more time in the mountain than out of it these days. Both of them are doing eighteen-hour days unless George orders them out of the mountain for a rest. Even then, they're probably taking work home with them."

"They're both working themselves into the ground, then," Abby stated. "I barely had a chance to meet Major Carter before she left, but Daniel here is definitely exhausted, even without taking into account the poisoning. But what are they working so hard to do? My education on the SGC is still in the works, but growing, thanks to Colonel Reynolds."

"Anubis," Teal'c stated, growing graver than usual. "Both have been seeking ways to defeat him, and information that might lead to allies that will help us to fight him." He exchanged looks with the older Jaffa beside him. "Doctor Abigail Sinclair, this is Master Bra'tac, one of the oldest of the Jaffa and my teacher for many, many years."

Abby gave the old Jaffa a nod of greeting as Jacob explained further. "Master Bra'tac was kind enough to take a message back to the Tok'ra base for me, since Selmak and I can't go back there for a while. Although I was rather surprised when he came back with us to this base…" He gave the older Jaffa a curious look, waiting for an explanation.

"Things are going well for the Jaffa rebellion, I thought that perhaps my assistance could be of use here, when DanielJackson is again on his feet. He will need to regain his strength and stamina if he is to return to the field of combat. His duties with the Tau'ri will keep Teal'c away, and so I thought I could help."

"Selmak and I will be staying until he's recovered enough to go home," Jacob told him. "But I wouldn't mind the company. We're going to have to be careful not to push him too fast, too far. He's not a Jaffa, after all."

"This I know, but still, he is young. If pushed correctly, his body will respond by growing stronger, will it not?" he pointed out, looking from Jacob to Abby and back again.

Jacob nodded. "Once we have the damaged fully healed, which will take about a week, then yes, we could start him on a serious exercise plan to bring him back up to full strength." He held up his hand to forestall Abby's protest. "Between Bra'tac, Selmak and myself, Selmak assures me that we should have him back to his former self, with little signs of damage, in about a month."

"Safely?" Abby asked, her tone doubtful. "I mean, granted, you folks deal with technology far beyond anything I've ever heard of, but still, that seems way too soon for me. The condition he's in right now, I would have thought it would take at least six months to get him going again."

Bra'tac gave her a patient smile. "You will see much, then, of 'alien' tech before we are done," he told her, then turned to Jacob. "I will return in seven days time," he stated. "We will start with walking, then, traveling in growing distances around this encampment. You will have him ready?"

Jacob bowed his head, startling Abby into taking two swift steps back as he gave control to Selmak. "Indeed, old man, he should be on his feet by then," the Tok'ra assured him. "And knowing him as we do, you will either find a very reluctant student, or one most anxious to follow your teachings to return to his friends."

Bra'tac agreement. "I doubt it will be the first, and look forward to teaching the second. For now, I will be off, to make sure my affairs are settled for the time I will be gone," he stated, then turned and went out, Teal'c following behind him.

Jacob turned back to Abby, noticed her wide eyes, and smiled. "I am sorry to have so startled you, doctor," Selmak stated. "I am Selmak, of the Tok'ra, and I'm pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Your… voice..," she murmured, still a bit alarmed at the double tone. Her eyes went wider as his head dipped, then his smile changed to the more wry look she remembered from Jacob.

"Sorry about that," Jacob told her. "Selmak is good about letting me speak most of the time, she knows I don't like the idea of giving up control for long. We both forgot that you're new to this, and not familiar with the idea of a symbiote."

"It's very strange, listening to your voice like that. It's like hearing two voices at once," she admitted, taking another seat beside her patient. Daniel had relaxed again, and was sleeping peacefully, his breathing more than a little easier. Making a decision, she changed the mask over to an air cannula, so he's had an easier time coughing up the congestion when he woke. "He'll hopefully sleep for a few hours."

"Selmak's pretty sure that he will, unless we want to wake him up soon to get some broth or tea into him," Jacob told her. "This is actually the hard way to cure this, a symbiote would be able to heal him up in days. But there's no way in the world I'd even suggest such a thing to him. He's got good reason not to go for that idea, even if the Tok'ra had someone willing to do it."

Abby nodded. "They told me about what happened to his wife, and other people he's been close to. From what I've heard, he's had a very tragic life. But what about yourself, General?" she questioned. "How did you get introduced into this 'fantasy'?"

"Call me Jacob, I was retired long before I got dragged in to take in Selmak as an upstairs boarder," he told her, grinning as he tapped his temple. "Though, actually, she's more entwined around my spinal cord than really in my head."

"'She'?" Abby asked.

"Well, her last host was a woman, so I tend to think of Selmak as being a 'she'," he explained. "She hadn't had a male host in a long, long time. Now, in actuality, she's neither a he or a she, but that's beside the point. The only one to ever make a comment on the subject was Jack, and he shut up when he was reminded that I outrank him."

Abby chuckled. "He's loosened up a lot since I knew him ten years ago," she told him. "He's nowhere near as grim as he used to be."

"Oh, no, he's not grim at all, and he's definitely got a knack of pissing off the System Lords. Usually right before SG-1 kills them off."

"Sounds like you have some good stories you could tell."

"Oh, I have some doozies," he agreed. "Let me tell you about the first time I went through that gate, and met Selmak, though. Give you a little insight about the Tok'ra, and how they're different from the Goa'uld."

Abby got comfortable and set about to listen eagerly. She had a lot to learn, and wanted to definitely know more…

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Colonel O'Neill was just finishing his outline for 'housekeeping' with General Hammond when Harriman's voice came over the intercom, echoing through the halls. "Colonel O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter and Dr. Janet Frazier, please report to the gate room at the ready."

O'Neill sighed, flipped close the manila folder on his desk, his face solemn as he rose to his feet. Hammond rose from his own chair, giving O'Neill a concerned look. "You all right? The next few days are going to rocky for everyone, but you're right in the heart of this mess, Jack."

He gave Hammond a quick nod. "As 'all right' as I ever will be after today." He pushed the folder towards the general. Hammond took it, putting it under his arm. It contained information that they couldn't discuss out in the open, at least not until SGC was cleared of bugs and other listening devices. They had to be extremely careful and in some cases, overly guarded, in making sure they didn't tip off the people they were up against too soon.

O'Neill showed the general out the door of his own office, then locked it securely behind him. He gave Hammond a nod of his head and headed towards the gate room at a quickened pace while Hammond went the opposite direction, folder in hand. They were sure that the General's office was bugged, but a good, thorough check had revealed that O'Neill's office was clear, giving them a place where they could at least speak and go over things in hushed whispers. And he wanted to keep it that way.

Shouldering his heavy pack, O'Neill snapped the clips into place, then headed for the Gate room, making sure that he had what was needed. The gate was engaged already when he arrived, and he picked up his waiting P-90 from one of the guards before trading nods with Walter and heading through. The women would follow him in a bit, and he needed to be ready for them.

Carter scurried into the women's locker room, quickly turning the combination on her locker and flipping it open. Behind her, she heard Janet coming in and was ready when the big medical pack hit the bench behind her. "You know what's going on?" Janet asked, taking off her lab coat and tossing it aside into a nearby hamper. After opening her locker, the haggard doctor slipped off her shoes, tossing them in the bottom with little care for their shine. She shed blouse and skirt, reaching now for the black t-shirt and pre-loaded olive green cargo pants nearly identical to the ones Carter wore in the field. The field jacket followed, she'd get her tack vest when she got her weapons in the gate room.

"Not a clue," Carter replied, slightly hurried as she slipped on her boots having changed out of her own blue base uniform. "We've had some hostile activity on several worlds, but who knows? Could be one of a dozen situations, there's a lot of teams out right now. We'll know when we get there."

"I was hoping to get out of here…early…after today," Janet sighed, fiddling with her zipper. She put her hands down in defeat, her shoulders sagging as her eyes welled up. "I'm still trying to figure out what to tell Cassie when I get home."

Hearing Janet's tone, Carter stopped tying her boot and came over to her, her own voice tight in her throat. "Easy, Janet," the major put a hand on her friend's shoulder, giving it a comforting clasp.

"Dammit, Sam! I wish . . ." Janet's voice echoed in the locker room. "I wish that I could have seen that assassin coming. I just wish I had been able to take him down." Her fists clenched at her side. "If I had seen him . . . maybe . . ."

"Don't think about that, Janet," Carter told her. "It's not your fault. I'm just glad that. . that you're all right. He could have killed you.

"What am I going to tell Cassie?" Janet looked up into her friend's eyes. "She loved Daniel and he always made time for her, making her feel like part of the family here. The games of logic and trivia, each of them trying to outdo the other over ice cream or a rental movie; I don't know how many times Daniel lost to her. But . . .I think he did it deliberately." She let out a sigh. "It all seems like a blur. And we've been down this same road so many, many times."

Carter reached down and zipped Janet's jacket the rest of the way, then picked up her boots from the bottom of the locker. "Here," she told her. "We have to go."

Janet took the boots and sat down, slipping them on and tying them quickly. She adjusted her utility belt on her waist, making sure she had her knife and weapons holster in place and strapped down to her thigh.

Carter shrugged into her vest, then buckled on her own utility belt and holsters. She waited until Janet slung the large med kit over her shoulder, then both women headed out of the lockers towards the gate room.

When they entered, Harriman gave them a quick briefing from the control area while the SF's armed them up with pistols, Zats and Carter's P-90. "SG-17 was investigating some ruins when they came under heavy fire. Two of them took a hit, including their medic. Colonel O'Neill has gone ahead to help secure the area. Once he gives us the all clear, then we'll send you in. He should be messaging us fairly soon."

It didn't take long for O'Neill's message to come through on one of the MALP's audio communications link. "We're secured here for the time being. Send Carter and Fraiser through. Now," he ordered, the sounds of sporadic gunfire in the background. "We've got casualties."

Harriman quickly unlocked the iris, the heavy, gray metal shield spiraling back, revealing the blue, water like entrance to the wormhole.

Swiftly, Carter and Janet mounted the ramp, Carter taking up a protective position in front of Dr. Frazier, her P-90 in hand, ready for their arrival on the planet. Both women stepped through, the familiar coldness enveloping them like a form fitting glove.

Seconds later, they were standing in front of the gate, an open field before them. The sky above was bluish and the air a crisp coldness that nearly matched the coldness from the wormhole.

"Stand down," Colonel O'Neill's voice drew the women's attention as the gate disengaged behind them. O'Neill was standing off to one side of the gate, near the small staircase ramp that led down onto a grassy path. The MALP was parked in front of him.

Carter looked around. There was no sign of any scrimmage had occurred, no sign of another team and no sign of anyone being hurt. In fact, the place looked rather on the untamed side, with no sign of civilization. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Sir?" she asked, unsure of the situation. Janet looked equally puzzled.

"Ladies," O'Neill said, indicating the stairs down. "We need to talk."

They walked down the ramp, Carter lowering her gun as she spoke. "Harriman said that it was urgent, that SG-17 was taking some . . ."

O'Neill put his hand up, stopping her. "Like I said, we need to talk. Things aren't as they seem."

"I can see that," Janet said, her tone flat. Obviously there wasn't a firefight here, and she was annoyed at being dragged off the base for nothing

"We heard gun fire when you called us," Carter told him, her tone matching Janet's in the annoyance factor as she moved her P-90 into a safe carry position.

O'Neill produced a small recorder from his pocket without looking up as he dialed in another set of coordinates on the DHD. "Amazing what Walter can come up with in a pinch. Fortunately, we have plenty of security footage from other emergency calls for him to pull gun and staff fire from."

The gate activated, the blue kwoosh slicing through the air, then pulling back to form the entrance into the wormhole. "Let's go," O'Neill told them and headed back towards the gate.

Janet looked at Carter, shaking her head as she followed O'Neill through the wormhole. Carter followed as well, wondering where the hell they were going now.

She had her answer as soon as they came through.

They were all standing in a wooded site, guards arrayed in front of them, and O'Neill was looking rather nervous. "Welcome to the Beta site," he said, his tone like that of a real estate agent as he gestured around him.

"What are we doing here?" Janet asked, shifting the bag across her shoulders to ease the tension that was building in her back. She had been prepared to deal with casualties, and her emotions had been running high since the funeral. One of the guards moved to take the pack from her, easily carrying it off while the other two guards remained behind to watch the gate.

Jack looked at them both as they joined him, and he followed the guard around the gate. "I owe you ladies both a big apology and then some," he told them, turning towards the dirt path that lead through a copse of evergreen trees. He took in a deep breath, his hands behind his back as he walked. "As you know, things at the SGC aren't secure. We have a leak somewhere and, to be honest, it's not the place to talk at the moment, hence the little ruse to get you here where we could talk in private."

"Security has been doing sweeps, looking for bugs and, not to mention, viruses in the computer system," Carter said. "I've done my own looking around, double checking everything."

"It's not going to be enough, and the General right now is stepping up the sweeps. We've also asked the Tok'ra for help, hopefully they'll loan us a Za'tarc detector. That assassin last night is a good indicator that all of our 'sweeping' hasn't done a whole lot of good so far," Jack told her, ambling up the path past the hidden sandbag shelters. The gunners nodded to the group on their way through to the main camp. "If we couldn't even protect Daniel, then the base is just not a safe place anymore. That assassin wasn't just someone that was recently hired; that guy's been working here for the last five years. It's a case of the old adage, 'trust no one', and at the moment, he's not saying too much, he thinks there's still people on the base that could get him if he talks."

"Any idea of who sent him?" Carter asked.

"I suspected the rogue NID from start, and he's told us enough to know we're right about that. They've done it before and it wouldn't be beneath them to try something like this again. However, the real question is what's their motive for doing what they did? We don't have the answer to that one. Yet."

Carter thought about it, remembering the incidents in the past with the NID. And what had motivated those confrontations. "They've wanted to get their hands on Daniel ever since he came back from the Ancients."

"Well, that failed," Jack told them, hands deep in his pockets as they continued on the trail towards the base camp. The land about them was wooded, but with some spectacular boulders around that indicated past ice field activity. If you knew anything about rocks, glacier scaring was hard to miss.

"What about Area 51?" Carter speculated. "I mean, they're always trying to get their hands on the artifacts that have gone through there and having Daniel out of the way might give them an edge. There's a lot of stuff that he's held back that has turned out to be of major importance to us later on. And the whole idea of this site is to keep things in the SGC hands instead of turning it in to Area 51."

"You don't think they would go so far as to killing Daniel?" Janet's shocked voice interrupted them. "Surely not just to get their hands on some artifacts..."

"Janet, it's the rogue NID we're talking about. They'll do anything, including selling their own mothers to the highest bidder," Jack said. "We really don't know if taking out Daniel was their intention or if something much, much bigger is going down.

"You mean like a diversion," Carter surmised.

"I wouldn't put them past them," Jack replied. "Or someone's got a grudge and wants him out of their way."

"They'd have to know that even if Daniel was gone, we would create the Beta site," Carter said, gesturing around at the campsite as they finally came into sight of it. "That can't have been their only goal if it's part of it."

"No, I don't think so either," O'Neill confirmed. "But things are missing and so are people. I had Reynolds make some calls before he came here, and he told me that in the last three months, five shipments from the mountain to Area 51 have gone missing. In two of those cases, the couriers were found dead while the others have completely disappeared off the planet. No clue if they decided that the other side had a better benefit package and signed on, or if they're just dead and we haven't found the bodies yet. Some of the NID have disappeared as well, but we're not sure if they joined the rogue element, got killed for knowing too much or are out on an assignment." Jack looked troubled. "And to be honest, it might not even be the NID. It might be half a dozen rogue groups out there, each with their own agenda. But how they got into the SGC is something we need to figure out and fast. Or others are going to be taken out." He kept his voice even, knowing that the ladies had been under quite the stress in the last 24 hours. And this wasn't very easy for him, either.

Janet shook her head. "I . . .I just can't believe they . . . went this far . . . " she said as they walked towards one of the tents in the center of camp. It was the medical tent, far larger than any of the others scattered under the trees.

O'Neill's tone suddenly turned a little amused. "Well, contrary to the day's events, there is one thing that the NID did not succeed in doing, but we had to make them think they did," he told them, opening the door to the medical tent and holding it for the pair to enter. There, no more than ten feet from the doorway, was Daniel, lying in a hospital bed. He was asleep and Abby was checking his vitals. The doctor looked up, smiling.

Janet felt her chest tighten, the tears spilling on her cheeks. She thought they had buried her friend only that morning. And yet here he was, alive, and looking better than he had when she'd last seen him. She turned on O'Neill, her angry eyes promising retribution. "Damn you!"

O'Neill had half expected to be slapped, but he was pleased with just being chewed out. He had been agonizing over this the whole morning, and knew both women had needed to know the truth as soon as possible.

Carter looked at the colonel and knew what had happened. She took Janet by the shoulder. "Go to him," she told her. "Go on."

Janet gave Jack a death-glare. "Why didn't you tell me…tell us?"

"Janet, not here," Carter soothed, trying to get Janet calmed down. "Later. Right now, go see him."

Janet gave up her quest for answers, turning towards Daniel in the bed. Abby smiled and lowered one of the railings so that Janet could sit down on the edge of the bed and better see her lost friend.

Carter watched her go, then turned to the colonel. "You want to talk?"

He motioned to the door, watching Janet out of the corner of his eye. Abby was defusing the situation quickly, intervening by telling Janet about Daniel's current condition.

Leaving the tent, Carter fell into step beside him. She was mad as well, but O'Neill had his reasons for doing the things he did and usually, they were pretty damn good ones. And she wanted to hear them now. "What happened?" Carter asked him when they were some distance away from the medical tent.

"As I said, I owe you and Janet a big apology and then some. We came up with this plan on the spur of the moment, and let's just say that the assassin actually helped us out. While he was struggling with Abby, his foot got tangled up in some of the monitoring equipment and pulled a patch loose on Daniel's chest. With all the rushing around and subduing the assassin, Abby didn't realize it at first when she got things back online. The nurses came down, hearing the call from the other room and everything was in a panic, everyone thinking that Daniel's heart had stopped. They were grabbing stethoscopes and Abby went for those electric paddle thingies before they finally figured out that he was fine, only unconscious. Then the idea struck Abby that for all intents and purposes, Daniel was 'dead', so why not let everyone keep thinking that," Jack told her, then ran his fingers through his short cropped, salt and pepper hair. "The hardest thing was going to convince everyone that this was the case, but the funeral idea worked pretty good, and we did manage to get him off the base without anyone catching on. It was my idea not to tell any of you because, Carter, we needed genuine grief in order for this to pay off, we knew the NID, if they found out, would want his body for study. Siler and Walter knew as well since they had to help set it up, Siler put together the box used to carry him here." He sighed. "I knew that this was going to be hard on you, especially for Janet and don't think for a minute that I didn't agonize over not telling you. I wanted to so badly, but with security being the way it is at the SGC at the moment, I couldn't risk this being blown wide open."

"I don't know if Janet can forgive you," Carter told him after consideration. "I understand what you did and why you did it, but her? She's been fretting about what to tell Cassie when she gets home. You should have seen her in the locker room before we came."

"I know and that's been another big worry. I know how close Daniel and Cassie were. . er. . . are," he told her. "I expect that my next exam is going to be one of those uncomfortable ones." He fidgeted as he walked with Carter. "I'll just make sure that I have a nice, soft cushion afterwards."

"I take it that Abby's transfer went through," Carter stated, changing the subject after noting Jack's uneasy stance.

"Yes, her transfer came through and Hammond signed her on. Everett's here, on site, to help get her acquainted with off world life and the Stargate program. She only had a smidgeon of information before signing on, and there's a lot of our history for her to learn. However, she's a quick study, and I'm sure that Daniel will help her along as he recovers. He's just chock full of info as we well know. She'll do just fine."

"Daniel looked a lot better than I expected him to," she admitted. "Not so gray."

"Sel and I had a bit to do with that one," came her father's voice from a nearby tent, and a moment later Jacob came out to join them, giving his daughter a welcome hug. "Jack probably didn't tell you that we came through last night just in time to help subdue the assassin," he told her after a moment, stepping back to face her with a smile, his eyes gleaming with good humor as O'Neill shifted his feet, looking innocently up at the sky.

"No, he didn't," she replied, giving her CO another glare. "I'm delighted to see you, but a bit surprised too. How long will you be staying?"

"Oh, probably for some time. In fact, I think George is going to talk to the powers that be about my taking up command here at the Beta Site. At least for the first year or two until the place is well established and the base commander is fully trained."

"A…?" she stuttered, flabbergasted. "You're staying here? And the council is going to let you?"

"We've left the Tok'ra, Sam," Jacob told her, his expression sobering up now to one of sad disappointment. "I actually didn't get your message about Daniel, didn't know what was happening until I showed up at the SGC the middle of last night. Sel and I got back to base from our last mission yesterday evening and was told that the Council wanted to talk to us immediately, and most of the base was acting guilty and trying to avoid us. We get to the council chambers to find that they've brought in a pretty little thing that's probably never handled a weapon in her life, and we're informed that Sel is to leave me and take her as her new host."

"Oh, my God… What did you do?" she asked, dismayed. Selmak had been so good for her father, to think of the pair spliting up…

Jacob dipped his head and let Selmak answer her herself. "I told them to go take a long walk off a short pier, and left while they were trying to figure out what I meant," Selmak replied. "Malek and Garshaw were against the Council's move to separate us, and Malek helped us to get past the guards to gate back to Earth."

"They came through just in time for Jacob and I to reach the med bay as Abby sounded the alert about the assassin," O'Neill stated. "They took care of getting the last of the poison out of Danny last night, then left with Teal'c just after the group came here early this morning."

"Given that certain members of your government would like to do what the Council attempted to do last night, Jacob, Colonel O'Neill and I decided that taking up residence here would be a far wiser move than attempting to live peacefully on Earth," Selmak explained. "At the moment, we're aiding Dr Sinclair with Dr Jackson's illness. He is currently suffering from an upper respiratory illness, and we will help to deal with it and the lasting effects of the poisoning over a period of several days. "

Jacob took control back again. "We caught up with Bra'tac and sent him to talk to Malek about getting a Za'tarc detector sent to earth, then came here. Bra'tac will be back in a week, and together we'll work on getting Danny back on his feet and up to strength again." He smiled. "In the meantime, this means that I'll be here any time you want to come see me."

O'Neill hung back as the two of them continued to stroll, talking quietly as they left him behind. Smiling to himself, he turned back towards the medical tent, wanting to see for himself how Daniel was really doing.

When he arrived, he found that Janet had shed vest, utility belt and jacket and was sitting beside Daniel's bed, rubbing his back as he slept. They had him off the air mask, which was definitely an improvement, and Carter was right, he wasn't as gray as he had been the night before.

Abby saw him come in, spoke softly to Janet, then moved to join him at the doorway. "He's already doing a lot better than I expected," she assured him. "The congestion is breaking up, and he's breathing easier and with less strain. His heartbeat is stronger as well."

"Told you Jacob and Selmak could really help him," O'Neill pointed out, looking relieved. "What's the prospect of a full recovery?"

"A hundred percent. They assure me there's nothing wrong with Daniel they can't take care of." Abby shook her head. "Wish I had a pair like them back at the hospital. To be able to heal my patients like this all the time…"

"Can't do it," he told her, shaking his head. "Besides the nature of our work being so classified, people would be terrified of the idea of an 'alien' even living on the planet. And I'm not talking about the average, everyday person who doesn't know what we do for a living, I'm talking about people who do know about the SGC. You wouldn't believe how much hell we've gone through keep Teal'c safe over the years, and they still won't even consider letting him live off the base. He's restricted to the base unless one of us go with him."

"After all these years, he's essentially still a prisoner then?" Abby asked, appalled.

"Yep. You know, I figure the average Joe, if they knew what he had done to help our world, they'd say, 'sure, let the guy live a little, he's proven himself.' But our government, who says they're so for the freedoms of the people, won't let him step foot out of that mountain without an escort… How's that for ironic?"

"As far as irony goes, it stinks," Abby admitted, patted him on the shoulder, and went back to work.

O'Neill couldn't have agreed more.

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About twenty minutes after seeing Colonel O'Neill leaving with Carter and Dr Fraiser, Hammond was getting his first report on uncovered listening devices from Siler when the Stargate came to life, setting off the alarms all through the base.

"We're getting the Tok'ra IDC," Walter stated as it stabilized, reaching off to his side. "Opening the iris."

Two figures came through, carrying a case between them, and Hammond headed down the stairs to the Gate room to greet Garshaw and Malek with more good will than they were going to show any of the other Tok'ra for a while. Hammond's smile was warm as he faced them "It's good to see you, Councilor, Malek."

Garshaw gave him a regal nod of her head. "And it's a pleasure to see you again as well, General," she told him. "We received Jacob's message, and here is the Za'tarc detector he asked us to deliver to you. Is Jacob here, though?" she questioned.

"We haven't seen him since he went through the gate this morning," Hammond told her.

"Good, that means if he's not here, we can't follow through on the rest of the council's demands that he return Selmak as swiftly as possible," she told them, looking quite amused. "They were quite angry over his supposed 'kidnapping' of our eldest."

"Kidnapping?" Hammond asked, caught by surprise at the charge. "What happened? Jacob was here and gone before I arrived at the mountain this morning."

"Most of the council, Councilor Garshaw here being the only dissenting vote, have decided that Selmak is being 'misled and misguided' by her Tau'ri host, and set about procuring a new host for her, one that would be suitably subservient and not lead her to taking wild views that are completely opposite what the Council would wish." Malek explained dryly

"Actually, it was quite amusing when Selmak told the Council they could take their ideas for a 'long walk off a short pier'," Garshaw admitted with a smile. "Yosuuf is from a water world much like your earth, so she was quickly able to show me what Selmac meant, but most of the council is from desert worlds, and they were quite confused for a time. It was very… refreshing… seeing them so put out…"

"And fortunately, I was able to help them get out of there by the time the rest of the Council had finally worked things out and sent guards to stop their leaving," Malek told them.

"Formally, I have to ask that you return our ambassador as soon as possible," Garshaw stated. "Personally, I hope to see the pair some time soon, but not anywhere where the Council or their guards can find them. I rather think that Jacob has been good for Selmak, and vice-versa."

"I don't understand why they would want to break them up?" Hammond questioned, frowning with concern and confusion.

"For the last two thousand years, the only hosts that the Tok'ra have taken have all been from Goa'uld occupied worlds, so all of those hosts have been more… subservient. You Tau'ri, however, have not been beaten down by the yoke of Goa'uld oppression, so you're strong willed, and aggressive. This, the Council decided, makes you very bad hosts. The fact that they are usually talking to Jacob, rather than Selmak, is almost considered scandalous to them. Usually the host would only be urged to take that much control if the pairing were on assignment in human territories."

Garshaw dipped her head, and when she spoke again, it was in Yosuuf's more hesitant voice. "You have to understand, while we are given the choice to join with a Tok'ra, and accept that choice gladly, none of us ever come with the sort of experience needed to do the work that the Tok'ra do. So, we give up control to our symbiote's 'hands', as it were, for our mutual protection."

Hammond looked thoughtful, considering this, then began to look a bit more enlightened. "Jacob was special ops for a while, though," he stated. "He knows the ins and outs of doing covert operations, and techniques that the Tok'ra have never thought to employ."

"Yes, and this is a difference that the Tok'ra Council finds very… disquieting… They don't like disruption, and they don't like change. Jacob and Selmak have brought both," Yosuuf admitted.

"So they're hoping by kicking Jacob out, they'll get the old Selmak back and things will go back to the way they were."

"I'm afraid so," Yosuuf admitted. "And they wouldn't even think about how many new things that Jacob has taught Selmak that would help our cause. They simply can't accept change."

Dipping her head again, Garshaw took over the conversation once more. "As I said, formally, I must demand that Jacob be returned to us immediately so that Selmak can take a new host, and he will then be returned to you, unharmed. Informally, and completely 'off the record' as you say, I wish them both a happy life, and I hope to hear very many more curses about how they've disrupted one Tok'ra plan or another. The two of them, together, have forced us to take actions that we hadn't planned to take for several hundred years in the future, but have worked most effectively when taken now."

"I hope you'll forgive my saying this, but you Tok'ra have been taking things too damn slow," Hammond stated. "While you take your little, careful steps, the rest of the galaxy has been suffering two thousand years of oppression. If you'd been more aggressive in the beginning, who knows what those 'primitive' worlds would be like now."

"Very true, I'm afraid, but you know our reasons," Garshaw pointed out, her tone and look one of patience and understanding. "Our numbers are limited, and we can't replace those agents we lose, so we must be slow, and careful to preserve our kind."

"Yes, we are aware of concerns from the Council about that," he acknowledged. "At any rate, the pair are somewhere very safe right now, and steps have been taken to safeguard Selmak from anyone in our own government who might desire to do something… unfortunate… so don't worry about them, they'll be just fine."

Garshaw nodded in agreement. "We must be going," she told them, as Malek finished explaining to Siler how to run the Za'tarc detector. "The council is still in an uproar, and I don't believe it would be a good thing to let them discover what we brought you today. I just hope that it's some help to you."

"We've got our own loyalty problems right now," the General admitted. "This should help root them out so we can really start dealing with the bigger problems. Like stopping a branch of our own government from taking over."

Garshaw frowned. "I thought that your government supported the SGC and its endeavors?" she questioned.

"Officially, it does," Hammond told her. "But there are certain people who believe it would be more advantageous if they were running things, rather than us. Unfortunately, some of them are high government officials, and this makes things a bit difficult to deal with."

The two Tok'ra exchanged looks, then gave him sympathetic smiles. "Good luck," Malek told them. "I think the Councilor knows exactly how you feel, and I know I do."

"Yes, it's probably the same sort of thing," Hammond admitted, signaling the control room to start dialing out. "Good luck to you."

"And to you as well," Garshaw told them, watching the Stargate engage and heading home, Malek on her heels.

Once they were gone, Hammond turned his attention to Siler. "Is Major Carter's lab clear?" he asked him softly.

"Just finished it personally, sir. There were four," the mechanic told him. "It's clear now, though, and under camera if anyone tries to go in there. Plus I have an alarm on the door. I'll be doing Dr. Jackson's office next, but that's going to take a fair bit of time."

Hammond nodded, pleased with his innovations. "Hold off on that for now, and get that thing set up ASAP," he ordered. "I hate to think we have to do loyalty tests on our own people, but it's definitely starting to look that way now…"

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"Well, how did things go? Is the body on the way to Area 51?" one of the men asked the new arrivals.

"No, they knew we'd be coming and O'Neill took it onto himself to make sure we'd never get the body. Some line of bull about Jackson having so much interest in Tok'ra funerals, they gave him one. Destroyed the body in the backwash of the activating gate, completely disintegrated it."

"Damn, I was really looking forward to taking that guy apart," another stated, clearly disappointed. "All that research work, gone before I could even get it started. Fraiser clearly was hiding things in the reports she did after he 'descended' last year, there's no way the guy could have gone through what he did without being changed."

The first man held up his hand, though, cutting in. "Did anyone actually see his body?" he asked.

"No, they brought him in in a coffin," was the reply.

"So, in other words, that box could have held anyone, or been completely empty for all anyone knew?"

There was a pause. "Yeah, that's possible. But Carter and Fraiser were upset, as were a lot of others. Wouldn't they have known if he was still alive? Particularly Fraiser? And where would they have taken him?"

A fourth man spoke up. "He's offworld, I bet," he stated, joining the conversation. "Well away from anyone who we could slip in to try to finish him off. And if they could find someone who could counter that poison, either a Tok'ra or a Jaffa, they could keep him alive. Heal him. And bring him back, which would put our plan out of action."

"Yeah, which means your man wouldn't be called back to the SGC," the scientist stated, looking at the first man, the one they were all answering to. "We need Jackson dead, and we need to be sure he stays that way this time."

"Problem is, if he's off world, we can't touch him," the inside man stated. "We don't have anyone left on the inside, and I'm pretty sure the SF we had in there has likely told them everything he knows about us. I'm just glad he didn't know me, and I'm not on the list they have so far."

"This isn't going at all the way we thought it would," the first man stated, crossing his arms and tapping his fingers thoughtfully as he considered his options. "What about the bugs? They still in place?"

The inside man shook his head. "They're looking for them, actively looking for them, and finding them one by one. By the end of the day, at this rate, they'll have them all."

"Damn, that means we got no way of telling what they're doing next."

"No way at all. We knew it was a matter of time before they figured out what was happening, and started shutting us out. We're lucky to have gotten away with as much as we have."

There was a heavy sigh. "True. Well, do you have any good news at all?"

"One little bit. I think Kinsey said just the right things that they may believe he's behind all this. And he's putting together a list of people that he wants to see working at the SGC."

"Oh, that's promising," the first man mused. "Any way we can get a copy of that list? Or get some of our contacts onto it?"

"I'll see what I can do, but no guarantees. Kinsey's a first class rat ass bastard, and he don't do anything for anyone it if won't benefit him as well."

"Last thing I heard, he was still pissed off over Hammond blocking his bid to get the world leaders to support the NID taking over the SGC," the scientist stated, joining the conversation. "They took that alien at his word, hook, line and sinker, and caved right in to his wishes."

"The Asgard have a way of doing that," another man agreed with a shudder. "Freaky looking things. And damn stingy with their tech, too."

"Well, stingy with us, at least," the first man stated. "Thor's given a lot to the SGC, but it's in their hands, not ours, and they've taken great pains to keep it that way." He considered his next orders carefully. "Okay, we need to get more people in place in the SGC," he stated. "We especially need to be sure that it's our man in Washington who gets recalled to replace Jackson if he didn't survive the attack and is actually dead."

"Carter had to be called back from some place in Chicago, I heard that from one of the pilots when we came into Peterson, we had to hold waiting for her flight to land," one of the newcomers stated. "If so, it's possible that they're talking to Dr Gardner about hiring on some of her students from up there. Now, Gardner won't come herself, she's made it clear to the SGC and the NID she won't consider working for them, but if she's got some prized students that she can get jobs in the project, she probably wouldn't hesitate. And they wouldn't be people who would be willing to help us."

"No, she wouldn't send in anyone who would be easily shaken up over anything, she knows what goes on in the SGC better than most would. No, they would be the cream of the crop, strong willed and open to things that are different and unique. Not what we need…" Turning, he pointed to one of the men who had so far remained silent. "Find out what you can about the people she's submitting to Davis for consideration. We may have to make a move to discourage those people from taking the jobs."

"Discourage them permanently?" came the question.

"No, the body count is already getting to high. I don't think the SGC has much of a chance of coming after us, but Carson's NID group could possibly be a problem."

"Why? He doesn't like the way the SGC has control any more than the rest of us do," a woman who had been silent until now pointed out.

"No, but if we draw too much attention, the SGC will go to work on taking all of us down. And he can't afford them coming after him when they really want to take us down."

"If they go after him, that's to our advantage," she pointed out.

"Yes, but Carson'll come after us before they have a real need to try to take us all out," the first man stated. "I don't want to give him the excuse, and no one else better do so. Understood?"

There was a chorus around him of agreements, but he noticed some people were silent, seemingly intent on other subjects. Well, this situation would bear watching.