Author's Excuses: Usually, I never ever take this long to update. Very sorry about it. It's this summer job I've got, and writer's block of some sort, and there's been all kinds of other stuff for me to think about. But here's the next chapter. Slow as I might be, I do intend to finish this story some day, never worry about that.
"Daniel, are you nuts?" Jack shook his head at his friend. "Just look at yourself. Barney says the walk to the gate will take us over an hour. You're in no shape for that right now."
Daniel was lying on a makeshift bed on the floor--a blanket and a sleeping bag spread to cover the soft leaves, twigs and grass that made up the original dinosaurian bedding. Though he'd propped himself up on his elbows and spoke eagerly, he looked far from well. His face was pale and drawn, and the fact that he'd refused water told clearly how sick he felt.
"I'll manage," he insisted. "If Anubis is getting nearer, then we've got no choice. Jack, the technology there was powerful enough to transform the planet from a lifeless wasteland into this, and to create the dinosaurs based on a few DNA samples. We can't let Anubis have it."
Carter's eyes went wide at Daniel's words, but then narrowed in a frown. "How can you know that, Daniel? We haven't even found any concrete proof that there's something there."
"Because I remember it. I learned about it when I was Ascended. Come on, Jack, you've got to trust me on this one. I know it wasn't a hallucination, it was the real thing, and we really need to get going," Daniel pleaded, and sat up with his back against the reed wall. It took him that long to figure that his upper body was bare. "What's happened to my clothes?" he added, in a more subdued tone.
"They got dirty. You've got spare ones in your pack, right?" Jack answered. 'Dirty' was a bit of an understatement--'wet and covered with mud and puke' would've been closer to the mark. Whatever, Jack thought, and tossed the pack to Daniel.
"This means we're going, right?" Daniel checked, as he dug out a clean t-shirt.
Jack nodded slowly. Carter cast him a surprised glance, and Teal'c raised an eyebrow.
"We're going. Just..." Jack was about to tell Daniel not to blame him when he'd start feeling too sick to walk, but decided against it. Daniel really should blame him. He had every reason to. It really was Jack's fault he'd gotten this way. "Just take it easy, Daniel, all right?" he said, instead.
Jack's idea was that they'd head to the gate with as small a party as possible, but Barney wouldn't let them go without him and a bunch of guards, and Leo insisted he'd have to come with them as interpreter. Jack decided that it might not be such a bad idea after all. If they should run into some huge angry meat-eater dino, let alone a bunch of rebel Goa'uldosaur-supporters, it wouldn't hurt to have a few friendly Neotroodons on their side.
Luckily, gathering the party was quickly done, and soon--all too soon, when it came to Daniel--they were making their way through the dense jungle again. All of SG-1 walked protectively near him: Jack by his side, Carter in front of them and Teal'c behind. The dinosaurs spread out around them as ordered by Barney. They did most of the scouting and guarding, since they could move around in the jungle way faster and easier than any of the humans.
They'd only been walking for some fifteen minutes, when Daniel suddenly took a few running steps to the bushes on their left. He'd been looking more than a bit green around the gills, so Jack could easily guess what he was up to. He ran after him, but shook his head at Carter and Teal'c, who'd moved in to follow as well.
Jack knew Daniel couldn't have gone far, but the damn thick growth of all sorts of green stuff made locating him surprisingly hard. By the time he found him, Daniel was sitting with his back against a tree, his knees pulled up.
Jack sat down next to him. "You okay?"
"Mostly," Daniel answered wearily.
"Did you..." Jack couldn't figure how he could be tactful even if he wanted to. "You threw up again?"
Daniel coughed a bit and explained, "Tried to. Couldn't. There's nothing left."
"Daniel, you really should drink. Dehydration makes people feel sick too, so it's definitely not helping a bit."
"I know," Daniel answered, and fumbled for his canteen. It looked awkward enough that Jack reached to help him, picked it up, opened it and gave it to him. Daniel accepted it and took a sip, then a bit more, before setting the canteen to the ground. He closed his eyes and leaned back. "Sorry, Jack," he said softly.
"Oh, for crying out loud. You've got nothing to be sorry about."
"I figured I could handle the walk. Not so sure anymore."
"Well, like you said, we've got to get to the gate before Anubis. If there's some weird Ancient stuff there, you might be the only one who can figure it out. Besides, I'm the one who should apologize."
"Why's that? I get shot by a dino dart and get sick and you need to apologize? Jack, that makes no sense."
"See, Daniel, the truth is that you don't know the whole truth," Jack began. Daniel would have to learn it all sometime, this was a moment as good as any. His not knowing about it kept gnawing at Jack's conscience. "What happened was, once you'd went down, Barney got us the antidote. We had no idea how it'd work or what the right dose might be. Carter didn't want to give it to you, but I made it an order. Now, I'm pretty sure she's blaming herself, because she was the one who gave you the injection, but the truth is, I gave the order, so I'm responsible. Bottom line is, it's our fault you're sick."
"You can't be sure, Jack. At least I'm alive. Without that antidote, I might not be. Besides, how can you know this isn't all because of the poison itself?"
"Guessing on the way you looked once we'd gotten that antidote into you... But no, you're right. There's no point in anyone blaming anyone," Jack said, though he couldn't really convince himself. Nevertheless, it eased his guilt quite a bit to hear that Daniel wasn't about to start blaming anyone. Of course he wasn't--that wasn't Daniel's way of doing things. But still. "You feeling any better?" he changed the subject.
"Water hasn't tried to make a reappearance yet."
"And that's..." Jack was cut mid sentence by the awfully familiar sound of a staff blast, followed by the flame of it hitting the tree just above their heads. "Damn," he cursed, leaped up, and gave his hand to Daniel, pulling his friend to his feet.
As they made their way back to the main party, Jack heard and saw a few Neotroodons, a few fleeting shadows among the leaves, heading towards where the attackers would probably be. Just as Jack and Daniel got back to the others--a worried-looking Carter and Teal'c who already had his staff weapon armed--they heard more sounds from where the staff blasts had come from. A fierce dinosaurian roar, and then a loud voice yelling something in Goa'uld, which quickly turned into a blood-curdling scream of pain.
It sounded to Jack that the dinos were doing pretty well against the Jaffa. SG-1 had no idea of how many Jaffa they were facing. Their goal was, above all, to get to the gate, and if they could avoid fighting the Jaffa and getting seen by them, they should. Of course, the Jaffa might've seen him and Daniel already, but on the other hand, they could've just been aiming at the sound of their voices. Jack knew when to fight and when to flee, and this time they weren't going to fight.
"Get going," Jack hissed, urging the party to move on. The humans and the remaining dinosaurs instantly obeyed his orders, lead by Barney. Teal'c cast Jack a dark look--he wouldn't have wanted to run--but he probably understood Jack's reasoning, and started running nevertheless. Daniel looked somewhat shaky on his feet, so Jack pulled his arm over his shoulder and half-dragged him along.
After a while, there were no more sounds from the Jaffa, and then, the four Neotroodon guards returned, sporting blood all over them. Jaffa blood, it seemed, since Jack couldn't spot any injuries on any of them. They ran to Barney's side and growled their news to him. Barney was quick to report them to Jack.
"There were only two Jaffa, and they were easily disposed of. Easily, but not fast enough, I fear. It's most likely that they were only the scouts of some larger party, and since they made such a noise, that larger party will now know that something has happened," the Tok'rasaur explained.
"Well, for all they know, it might've been just a random bunch of wild animals that attacked them," Jack noted.
"Let us hope that is what they think, and that they will not attempt to pursue us."