Chapter 3

O'Neill was leaned over, elbow on knees when Carter came into the observation room. He didn't look up or move. The doctor was drawing blood, checking on Daniel. She walked up to the window, watching. O'Neill's eyes glided to her.

"We should talk," he said.

Carter forced a smile. "Daniel's going to be alright."

"Not about Daniel."

She turned. The spotlights of the observation room were focused, casting deep shadows on whoever was under them, but not lighting the area very much. Under the harsh light, O'Neill looked years older. He hadn't slept or shaven in two days. He looked exhausted and with the sharp shadows, even gaunt. He was dressed in jeans and a plain red T-shirt. His sneakers were kicked off on the floor, one of his telltale signs that he probably slept in that same chair last night.

"About what?"

O'Neill smiled. "Had a chat with Landry. Seems Teal'c made a reference toward Kim at the base, something about wondering if her kind knew about the virus?"

Carter didn't answer. The question actually made her angry, angry that he didn't trust his friends that had saved his life, and whose lives he'd saved, enough to tell them about his wife.

O'Neill shifted in the chair, turning sideways to lay an arm across the back of it.

"Sam, please sit down."

She did, but only because instinct made her obey a commanding officer, not a lying friend.

"So you know she's thu'lo, then?"

"I guessed it."

"When?"

"Yesterday she brought you clothes and pizza. I came to the door and heard you two talking. I just put the pieces together."

"I was going to tell you. All of you."

She looked at him. The comment was hard to believe. "When? And why does General Landry know about her and we don't?"

"We talked about when would be the best time to let you three know. Four, I guess, because that Colonel Mitchell would have had to of known. Sam, you know I suck at politics."

"This is politics? You married her because of politics?"

"No. I married her because I love her. I didn't tell you because of politics."

"I don't understand."

"You know, Daniel could explain this better than I could." O'Neill looked at him, hesitating. His voice cracked, just briefly, when he spoke again. "I'm sure he could grasp a marriage that bridges a racial or political gap, but that's not why I asked her. That's just what it's turned into. We've sort of become the ambassadors of the thu'lo and Tau'ri. I was going to tell you, Sam. I wanted to wait until at least after the wedding."

"Oh. Until after the wedding." Carter turned to the window.

"Not a good answer?"

"Not really, sir."

"Sam."

She looked at him

"We're not on base. We aren't in uniform. We aren't on a mission. We are two civilians and I need to make this okay with you."

"So you're saying we can disregard rank right now?"

"Yes."

"Fine. Then why do you have to make this okay with me?"

"You're my friend."

"Am I?"

"Of course!"

"And you lie regularly to your friends?"

"I just told you that after the--"

"Why not before? Why not the day you called me to tell me you proposed? If we're such good friends, why not trust me like I thought you did?"

O'Neill didn't answer. His hand slid off the back of the chair. Slowly he nodded.

"Sort of messed this up, didn't I?"

"Just sort of."

He turned in his chair, facing the window. Silence fell between them, silence that gave Carter time to think and to mull over his words. It wasn't like him to apologize like this. Kim had changed him, or was it age?

"How old is she?" Carter asked.

"A thousand or so."

"Years?"

"She's been around a long, long time. The one thing thu'lo have over the others is that changing hosts like they do extends their lives beyond normal expectancy."

"Are you sure the hosts are brain dead?"

"Yes. They've provided us facts. Kim even took Lam with her to a couple joinings." O'Neill's eyes narrowed. "They're everywhere, Sam. You never know who they are because... They just want to live here like us."

"And none of them are bad? Evil?"

O'Neill grimaced. He looked at her. "That's a part of them I'm not too keen about. If one of them starts turning, and begins thinking it's a god or something, they kill it. Solid evidence must be provided, the majority votes, and it's swift. Other than that, they seem to have morals just like us and just as varied as other humans."

"And you trust them?"

"Wholly."

"Even after all we've seen and--"

"You asked if I trust them. You have my answer."

Carter drew a breath, nodding.

"I never meant to make you feel I didn't trust you. I do."

Carter smiled. Her anger was starting to ebb.

"So... Kim seems to be doing some good on you."

O'Neill laughed, slouching in the chair. "Kim turns everything she touches into light. She's full of so much energy and life. Michelle had that too. That spark that you just can't help but be attracted to. It's their lifestyles that I think allows them to be so vibrant."

"You never did tell me what Kim does for a living."

"Works for World Delivery."

"The mailing company?"

"Yeah."

"She's never aspired for anything greater?"

"No. Kim's pretty content. She has kept up on technology, her kind and ours. Fixes my computer every time I break it just looking at it."

Carter chuckled.

"She's a-typical though. Most don't stay in jobs like she has, but she said she likes keeping busy and active."

"Sounds like her husband."

Carter started to speak when an alarm went off. They looked in the room. Carter sprung to her feet, stepping close to the window. The heart monitor had gone to a straight line. She looked at the airlock, watching Doctor Macey and two nurses hastily dress.

She felt the warmth of a body next to her, knowing it was O'Neill. Macey and the nurses rushed to get Daniel's heart started. It began beating as instantly as it had stopped. Doctor Macey gave orders to the nurses as they moved away. He walked over to the speaker by the window and tapped it. O'Neill moved to the one on their side, turning it on.

"I'm going to put him into a light coma. I don't think he'll last much longer if we can't figure out what this is."

O'Neill nodded.

Macey turned off the speaker and went back to Daniel.

Carter crossed her arms over her chest, drawing a breath. She prayed Mitchell found something on the planet.


Mitchell really hated environmental suits. They were hot and heavy and he felt like he was a chicken in one of those roaster bags. The helmet had a very limited view and he'd discovered several times that underneath the layer of soft moss and decaying leaves, there were lots of sharp rocks that loved nothing more than find painful acupuncture spots on his palms and knees.

He stopped walking, staring at the tunnel entrance. He'd forgotten that they'd found Daniel near it, even as he now remembered noticing it that day and wondering where it led. He remembered that in that early morning light the sun was at the right angle he could see the outlines of lights along the ceiling and grimy tiles poked out from under years of dirt and through roots. He walked to the edge and stopped. He saw a backpack lying just inside and it was not dirty. Mitchell walked up to it, picked it up and held it up to the daylight. He immediately recognized it as Daniel's. To reassure himself he unzipped it and found a pencil box Daniel used for notes and sketches, his field journal and two books he carried on most missions. Mitchell turned the radio in his helmet on, turning to face the woods outside.

"I found something," Mitchell said. "I'm transmitting my coordinates." He turned his arm, getting the coordinates from the digital compass and relaying them to SG-5 and Teal'c.

"Copy," Colonel Murphy, leader of SG-5, replied. "We'll meet at your coordinates."

"There's a tunnel here. I'm going in. Hold position outside until I request otherwise."

"Copy that, sir."

Mitchell pulled a flashlight off his belt and continued down the tunnel. He could see a flickering light at the end that looked like sunlight dancing off water. He flicked on his flashlight, making his way down the dark passage. Mitchell flicked the light up and it reflected off the tiles. The tiles were getting cleaner and he could see they were shiny ceramic or porcelain, meant to make the tunnel feel lighter than it really was. As he walked, the beam of the flashlight passed over the florescent lights that were set at intervals overhead. Most of them were smashed, others were burned out, but a couple few were burning dully behind their dirty covers. That meant there was a power source still active somewhere on the planet. He looked ahead again. Now that he was closer, he could see the lights were actually flickering florescent lights reflecting off even shinier tiles than the ones he'd passed so far.

"Colonel Murphy?" Mitchell said.

"Yeah?"

"Better get in here."

"On our way."

Behind him beams of light flashed along the walls toward him but Mitchell didn't stop walking. He reached the edge of the light and stopped at the edge of a laboratory. Computer technology that far surpassed anything on earth filled the room. Rooms that had once been sealed with airlocks now had doors that hung open on dried out hydraulic hinges. There were two corpses in one room, leaning against an airlock. Mitchell guessed those airlocks must have worked to the end to the people's dismay. Various equipment, all of which was foreign to Mitchell's eyes, had been smashed to pieces. Long ago viscous substances of various colors had dried on the walls, some melting into each other to create new colors. SG-5 and Teal'c stopped around him.

"Do you think this is where he came in contact with the virus?" Colonel Murphy asked.

Mitchell turned to one of the men behind him.

"Start taking samples of anything that looks like it could be a virus. Lam gave us freezer canisters so we can transport back any undamaged vials. Donald."

"Sir?"

"Put those computer skills to work. Find a way to link up with these computers and download everything. We don't have a lot of time, men, so move."

"Yes, sir."

They spread out, quickly gathering anything that might contain the virus that infected Daniel.


Landry was doing reports to keep himself busy and his mind off Daniel. It was strange how, in the little time that he'd known the man, he'd actually come to like him. Landry looked up when someone knocked on his door.

"Come in," he called.

Lam walked in. She crossed quietly to a chair and sat down. She started shaking her head, spreading her arms, palms up. She stopped and clasped her hands between her knees and in one motion her body drooped to reflect her defeat.

"You don't know what the virus is, do you?" Landry asked.

"I've found notes about it, some journal entries... Apparently this used to be one of Ra's worlds and when he enslaved the people, they were already beginning to make technological breakthroughs. Computers, digital devices... They took everything underground and turned all their research towards finding a way to defeat Ra and free themselves. They created this virus, but before they realized what they'd done, it had already spread to half the world's population. No one was left to find the cure."

"There is no cure?"

"No. And what's worse is that it only spreads when the patient dies. So long as Daniel is alive, the virus is dormant. When he dies, it becomes active and airborne, infecting others and the cycle repeats. I have never seen a virus like this and I don't know how to cure it."

"Do you know how it's killing him?"

"It caused higher brain function in areas that aren't normally used, and in the process, brain swelling."

"Do you know if it can kill goa'uld?"

"There were no notes about it. I did find a couple of entries that Ra and two other gods came during the peak of the pandemic. Since Ra was killed when the first team went to Abydos, and General O'Neill and Daniel were on his ship and not infected, it stands to reason it doesn't kill or infect goa'uld."

Landry looked down at the report in his hand. It was about the Ori's latest weapon, but it was meaningless right now.

"Thank you for the update, Carolyn."

Quietly she asked him, "What's going to happen to him, Dad?"

He looked up at her. He wasn't used to her using that voice.

"You like him?"

She blushed, looking away. Landry sat back, smiling.

"He's a good man, Carolyn."

She looked back at him, her smile fading. "I can't find out if he's dead. What are we going to do for him, Dad? I'm going to keep trying to find a cure, but I don't think I have the time I need to do that. I think he's running out of time and fast."

"Weeks?"

"Days, maybe hours. And once he dies, I don't know if even a quarantine room in the CDC is going to contain it. I don't know what measures they took on PX9 3G5 to try and quarantine it, but whatever they tried, didn't work. They all died."

"I don't know right now. I have to talk to the President and make a decision."

"If it didn't kill the goa'uld, then maybe--"

"Let me deal with this, Carolyn. Keep looking for that cure in case we need it."

She left, softly closing the door behind her. Landry sighed, looking at the red phone on his desk. Even if their relationship was shaky and they had little in common, he still wanted only the best for his little girl. He didn't want to see her cry. So he had to try everything he could to save her from loosing a man she cared about. Landry picked up the phone.