AN: Yes, this section is short, but the next section is longer and I can't really break it up. I'll try to get it up soon. Hint, the more reviews I get (particularly ones more detailed than just "good chapter," and particularly if some come from people who haven't reviewed before), the more motivated I am to write and the sooner the next chapter can be put up. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far.

"Oh, my God," Sam said, looking at one of her readouts. She wasn't a biologist or a medical doctor, but Janet was so short-handed she'd asked for Sam's help just as an extra pair of hands; Sam at least had been a biology major in college and on the review board for several military science experiments including a few with biological parts, so she wasn't completely ignorant.

Janet came up behind her. "What is it?"

"They're not multiplying. They're replicating."

"What's the difference?" Daniel asked over the microphone. They were in a containment/research lab identical to the one where O'Neill lay, growing older by the minute. Daniel and Teal'c were working constantly to refine their understanding of the tablet, but worked in the glassed-in observation area above the lab.

"Living organism multiply," Sam explained. "Machines replicate."

"Machines inside the body? How is that possible?" Teal'c asked.

"They're molecular devices that take atomic particles from their environment and use them to make more of themselves." Sam shook her head, remembering. "When I was at the Pentagon, I worked for a year with a group that studied nanotechnology. We were looking at it for a lot of different uses. One of them was medicine—creating artificial immune systems, repairing individual cells, even manipulating DNA to stop the aging process." With the confirmation that this was indeed something she had at least some experience with, Sam felt much more confident in her ability to contribute something to Jack's cure.

Janet snorted. "It sounds like Pelops succeeded in what you were experimenting with, only in reverse. Nice guy."

"Now you at least have a place to start," Daniel said. "We're beginning to get someplace."

Janet shook her head. "Chances are, we still won't solve this in time to do Colonel O'Neill any good. I'm sorry, but at the rate he's aging he'll be dead inside a week, two at the outside. The chances of our figuring out how these nanites work and turning them off in that period of time is very remote. I wouldn't even know where to begin!" She turned to Sam. "How involved were you in the technical aspects of that project?"

Sam shook her head. "Not very," she replied unhappily. "I'm a mathematician and a theorist; I worked out some of the programming for them, but they had medical researchers and engineers working on the actual practical side of things. And we never even got close to developing a working prototype." She shook her head again. "I just wish we could at least slow this stuff down so we could have more time!"

"You know," Daniel put in, "why is it working so fast in Jack? It didn't do that in the Argosians."

"Maybe the fact that the Colonel was far older than any Argosian could ever become when he was infected with these things has something to do with it," Janet suggested.

"Or," Sam said, getting an idea, "Maybe it's because he's here and not there. One of the problems we found was there was no way of cramming detailed enough programming into the nanites. They're simply too small to hold much information no matter how tightly you pack it. We tried controlling them remotely by computer, but couldn't get a receiver/transmitter small enough to fit, either. But I bet a Goa'uld could. And it would be the easiest, most reliable way to control and monitor the nanites."

"But Colonel O'Neill is thousands of light-years, at least, from the control device," Janet said. "Maybe they go haywire without it?"

"It is also possible that the nanites are made to do this when they are separated from the control device as a way of punishing any who dare leave," Teal'c interjected.

"Is it possible that that's also the reason he's still unconscious?" Sam asked. She might know the technology, but Teal'c had far more experience with the Goa'uld and how they thought.

"Yes."

"Charming people, the Goa'uld," Janet said.

"In either case, we need to get Jack back to Argos as soon as possible," Daniel said. "You and Sam can stay here and work on a cure on this end, and Teal'c and I can go through to take care of Jack and look for a control device. It's probably in that temple somewhere."

"Sounds like a plan," Sam said.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Jackson, but I can't allow it," General Hammond said. He shook his head. "We can send Colonel O'Neill through by himself, but I'm afraid I can't risk anyone else catching this stuff. I can't risk this base. We all know just how easy it is for an offworld contaminant to pass through our quarantine procedures. You can keep working on the samples you've collected so far, but that's it."

Sam's heart sunk down to the bottom of her shoes. They'd all presented their case to the general, but after his first refusal Daniel had been the one to keep arguing. Not being in the military chain of command had its benefits, and she was a bit envious of his freedom in this. Unfortunately, General Hammond didn't seem inclined to listen. She understood his reasoning, all too well, but … this was Jack they were talking about.

"Sir!" Daniel exclaimed. "We cannot just leave him there alone, and we need to find that control device!"

"Doctor Jackson," General Hammond said with a sigh, "Colonel O'Neill is one of the finest men it has ever been my pleasure to serve with. It will be a great loss to this country and to all of us in this room, but I am sure he would not hesitate to make the same decision for himself that I'm making now. We can send him through to Argos and hope that will slow these things down, and that he will wake up. We can send him instructions to look for a control device if such a thing exists. But I can't risk exposing anyone else to the nanites if we have no idea how to even slow them down, and I can't risk contaminating the base by allowing people to move back and forth between Argos and here. If you're right and this isn't really a disease, the quarantine and decontamination procedures we've been working on since the Broca virus may not even work on this stuff. I'm sorry." He nodded to Sam and left.