Sam stood outside Colonel O'Neill's front door and chewed her lip. She shouldn't be here. The general had ordered her to get out of the base, go home and get a couple of hours' rest. She had left the base intending to do just that. When she got in the car, all roads led to the colonel's house.

She knew the colonel wasn't here but she still reached out and rang the bell. It echoed through the house. There was no answering movement from inside. A moment later, she pushed it again and held it in for a full minute. The house remained quiet.

Without thinking about it, she dug into her pocket to pull out her set of spare keys and fumbled through them until she separated out the colonel's. They all had keys to each other's places and Hammond had copies in his office as well; their job being what it was, it was necessary. The last time she'd used it was a year ago, when the colonel had been trapped on Edora. That time, though, all of SG-1 had been here. She shouldn't be here by herself.

She put the key in the door and went in.

The house was clean and quiet. No overturned furniture, no signs of violence or foul play. It ironic that she was disappointed that everything looked normal. The thought stopped her and she looked around again. It didn't look normal; it didn't look normal at all. There were no scattered belongings or magazines lying on the tables or garbage in the trashcans. Everything was picked up and packed away, down to the knickknacks and pictures that usually sat throughout the house. It took five quick steps to cross to the kitchen. It was immaculately clean, no dirty dishes, no food sitting out. She pulled open the refrigerator door. It was empty. Not just the normal 'nothing but beer and ketchup' empty either. It was bare and smelled of bleach. Her heart in her throat, she pulled open the freezer. It was the same. "Damn him." She slammed the door shut as hard as she could. "Damn him."

"Sam?"

Daniel's voice startled her and she turned to see that he stood in the door, Teal'c right behind him. It took her a moment to find her voice. "Daniel. Teal'c. What are you doing here?"

"Same thing you are, apparently. We had hoped to find something to tell us that we're wrong about what Jack's doing."

"Well, we're not." Sam almost spat the words out. "Just look around."

Daniel spun in a circle and surveyed the house. "It does look like he cleaned up in here, doesn't it?"

"Cleaned out," Sam insisted. "Cleaned out. Look around. Does this look like the colonel is coming back?"

"No." He walked around the kitchen and randomly opened and closed cupboard doors. "His office looks the same. That's why Teal'c and I came." Daniel glanced around the room, sighed and rubbed his neck

"God. I didn't even think to check his office." Her voice broke for a moment. Then she motioned helplessly around her. "He's gone."

"I am afraid that Major Carter is correct," Teal'c said. "It is apparent that O'Neill does not plan to return."

They stood together in the quiet of the colonel's house. It should feel different; it should feel like the colonel was gone. There should've been an emptiness about the place; a bareness that showed the loss that they felt. There should have been some sign of the sacrifice being made. But there wasn't. No sign. No notes. Nothing.

Sam let out a deep sigh. "Ahh . . . Daniel. Why did he do this?"

Daniel didn't answer. She didn't expect him to. She didn't need him to.

Colonel O'Neill wasn't that big of a mystery, not when it came down to doing his job, not when it came down to putting other people's lives first. For the colonel it was a matter of honor, of doing the right thing. If it was a choice of his life or the life of others, there was no question which he would choose to sacrifice. It was what made Jack O'Neill the man he was. It was what made the fact that he wasn't coming back so easy to understand and so hard to accept.

"So what are we going to do now?" Daniel asked the question.

"I do not believe that there is anything we can do, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said. "We must wait for the Tok'ra to contact us."

"Dad wasn't even sure he could contact Anise or if she'd tell him anything when he did," Sam pointed out. "And if the Colonel is already on the planet . . ." Sam trailed off, not wanting to voice aloud what that meant.

The ring of the phone cut through the silence that filled the pause and Sam and Daniel jumped. They turned as one and stared at the phone as it rang again.

"Should we answer that?"

Sam crossed to the phone but didn't pick it up. "I don't know."

The fourth ring was cut off as the answering machine kicked in. "This is Jack O'Neill. You know the drill." A beep followed and a female voice drifted into the room. "Jack? Jack, are you there?" There was a slight pause and a deep sigh. "This is Sara. Give me a call as soon as you can, Jack. I need to talk to you about . . ." There was another pause.

Daniel looked over at Sam. "Sara? Jack's ex-wife?"

Sam nodded. They had met Sara once, a couple of years ago, when an alien life form had impersonated the colonel. Sam remembered Sara as confused and scared, but also strong in the face of what had been an insane situation. The colonel hadn't spoken of her since that time, but then the colonel didn't talk about a lot of things.

"Listen, Jack, you can't just drop this stuff on me and not tell me about it. Not anymore."

Sam could almost feel the frustration and anxiety of the woman on the other end of the line. It was obvious that the colonel was having the same effect on everyone.

There was another deep sigh. "Damn it, Jack!"

The resigned desperation in Sara's voice matched what Sam felt and she picked up the phone before she realized that she had decided to. "Sara? I'm sorry. This is Major Samantha Carter, I work with Colonel O'Neill."

"Major Carter?" Sara's voice continued to echo through the room as the answering machine recorded the conversation

"Yes. We met a couple years ago." Daniel walked over and stood next to Sam. She knew he wondered what she planned to do. She didn't have an answer for him.

"I remember. You were a captain then, I think."

Sam smiled. "Yes, I was."

Sara cleared her throat. "Did something happen to Jack?" Sam identified with her fearful anticipation.

"We're not sure what the colonel is doing," Sam admitted. "We're here at his house trying to see if there is any indication as to what he's planned."

"He's not on a mission?"

"Like I said, we're not sure what he's doing." Sam kept as close to the truth as possible. "Is there anything you can tell us?"

Sara gave a short, humorless laugh. "I never knew what Jack was doing, even when we were married. He stopped by earlier this week and dropped off a box for me with my dad but he left before I got home."

"I don't want to pry, Sara, but could you tell me what was in the box?"

"Some of Charlie's stuff that Jack had, some things that were ours when we were married. And, ah, a letter."

Sam debated for a minute then asked the question. "What did he say in the letter?"

"I haven't opened it. I, ah, didn't want to, in case . . ." There was a deep, shuddering sigh. "You know, I thought I was beyond this, but I don't suppose I ever will be."

Sam looked at Daniel and his look mirrored her helplessness. Sam took a deep breath and asked what she didn't want to. "Like I said, I don't want to pry, Sara, but there could be something important in there. Do you think you could read it? I don't want to know what it says, just let me know if it tells anything about what he's doing."

There was a long pause. "Okay. Give me a minute."

Teal'c, who had listened to the conversation from across the room, walked over and stood next to Daniel. They heard Sara's footsteps, and then there was a pause, followed by the distinctive sound of ripping paper. Sam drummed her fingers against her leg as she waited; she tried not to think about the fact that the colonel had actually left Sara a letter.

It was a full minute later before Sara's voice came back across the line. "Major Carter?" Her voice was thick and she cleared her throat twice before she continued. "He doesn't say anything about what he's doing, but I know Jack. I know, from this letter, he doesn't think he's coming back."

Daniel swore and shook his head at Sam.

"I know you can't tell me details," Sara said, "but I'd like . . ." Her sentence ended with another deep, shuddering breath.

"I honestly don't know anything, Sara," Sam said. "But I promise you, I'll let you know as soon as we do."

"Thank you, Major."

Sam held the phone until a dial tone filled the air. The answering machine clicked off when she hung up. After a second's hesitation, she pushed the delete button. It beeped and reset the message count to zero.

Daniel cleared his throat and Sam took a deep breath before she met his eyes. "General Hammond said he'd call me on my cell when Dad contacted us again," she said. "I had planned to go home, but I think I'm just going to wait here until he calls." It didn't feel right to leave.

"I'll stay with you," Daniel offered.

"As will I," Teal'c said.

Sam nodded. "Good. I don't want to be alone."

They walked into the living room together and Sam sat down on the sofa. "I wish he would have left out his National Geographic's," she said. "I didn't finish reading the article on the folklore of Ireland."

"It was a very informative article, Major Carter," Teal'c said. He had crossed to the window and looked out at the colonel's backyard. "It detailed many of the legends and tales of the land, of which O'Neill seemed to know a great deal."

Sam smiled at Teal'c. "Yeah, leave it to the colonel to know about that."

Daniel sat down in the armchair and flipped through the stations. He settled on a History Channel documentary. Sam stretched out on the sofa and tried to relax. The documentary droned on in the background and she found it strangely comforting to lie there. She could almost believe that the colonel was safe. He would walk into the room any minute and complain about Daniel's choice of shows. The channel abruptly switched and Sam looked at the television in surprise. "You didn't like the show?"

"No," Daniel said. "I just noticed that Jack didn't set it up to tape The Simpsons." He looked across at Sam. "I figure I better tape it for him. He can watch it when he gets back."

Sam leaned back and closed her eyes against the emotions that threatened to spill over. "Good idea, Daniel. We'll all watch it together, once we get him home." It felt so good to think it: Once Jack was home.


&&&&&


Jack hadn't expected to wake at all, but if he did, he thought darkness and the suffocating weight of stones would greet him. Instead, sunlight shot down at him and hot wind scraped sand across his face. The blinding light burned his eyes and he blinked blearily into it. He sat up despite the queasiness the movement induced. Double images swam before him, and he tried not to think what damage these repeated concussions could cause. The world slowed to a halt, and he made out the scattered rubble of the destroyed pyramids. Smoke and fire still issued from the ruins. He had no idea how he'd climbed free of the pile of debris that had collapsed on him. His chest felt as if it were still crushed under the rocks, his head pounded with pain and climbing to his knees caused him to vomit blood-tinged bile onto the dusty ground.

Jack struggled through the pain and nausea and forced his shaking legs to stand. The sun, like the moon, bathed the world with an unsettling red shade. The only sounds were the muted roar of flames and the gusting of the hot wind that swirled the dust around him. It looks like hell. My hell.

The world spun. Jack vomited again, lost his balance and fell. The bones in his right knee ground together when he landed on it and white flashes of pain danced in front of him. Please don't let me die here. With his eyes closed, he fought for focus. He couldn't die, not yet, not here.

The nausea passed and he again climbed to his feet. The drumbeat in his skull made it impossible to think, and his rasping breath was loud in the silence. His legs shook as he stumbled through the ruins scattered around him. Light-headed from pain and unable to catch his breath, he made ten steps before he fell. He landed on something soft and smooth. It took him a moment to realize that he'd fallen on the supplies that Juniel had taken from him. He blinked at the pile and tried to understand how everything he needed had gotten stacked together. It took two tries to grab his watch from the top.

None of it made sense, but Jack couldn't fight through the noise and static in his brain to figure out why. He dropped the watch in his pocket and sat next to his supplies. The med kit was at the bottom of the satchel and he pulled it free from the other supplies. Trembling fingers made it hard to work the clasps, but he managed to open the kit and pulled out an unbroken syringe of morphine. When he rolled it in his hand, the liquid inside swirled like the dust around him. The painkillers he'd taken earlier could still be in his system. He had a concussion and he reacted unpredictably to morphine even under the best of circumstances. Pain washed over him in waves and the world slipped around him.

He didn't bother to swab his skin. The pain of the needle barely registered but the cold numbness of the morphine hit him like a physical blow. One moment he was sitting with the syringe in his hand, and then he was flat on his back as the world spun around him. He rolled to his side, retched, and relished that the movement caused him no pain. The vertigo subsided and he climbed to his feet.

He still couldn't get a decent breath of air and he could feel a grinding in his left side that signified cracked — if not broken — ribs. His right leg shook from weakness and he could still feel the kneecap catch as he bent it. A steady trickle of liquid etched a path though the dust on his face and he didn't bother to check to see if it was sweat or blood. It didn't matter.

Slowly, careful not to injure himself further, he gathered his equipment into his satchel and swung it gingerly onto his shoulder. Feeling no pain was as much a danger as it was a blessing. It would be easy to damage something beyond repair and use. He started across the clearing. His right knee only held if it was locked straight and movement made the world tilt dangerously. As he walked, a persistent, deep drone echoed through his head that made it hard to hear the sound around him. The world dimmed at the edges, an ominous greyness that encroached upon his sight.

Dust billowed with each step. It settled on his clothes, caked his skin and stole what little breath he had. It no longer hurt to cough, but lack of oxygen made him dizzy and he fell three times before he made the tree line. He dropped onto an old fallen tree and leaned back to listen to his own ragged breath.

A sudden and undeniable feeling of being watched jolted him upright, and he peered around the woods. The wind stirred the leaves and dislodged crimson dust from the tops of the trees, but Jack knew that he was the only living thing left on the planet. The skeleton in the pyramid danced in front of his eyes in a sudden flash of memory and the haunted feeling he'd had earlier swept back over him. The wind gusted again and red-dust colored shadows lurked at the corners of Jack's vision. A new, irrational panic swam in the back of Jack's mind. He closed he eyes and waited for the feeling to subside. Great. Now I'm seeing things. I'm never helping the Tok'ra again. The forest continued to sway in front of him after he opened his eyes, and the paranoia didn't subside. God, I hate morphine. He pushed the feelings to the side and focused all his energy on returning to the Stargate.

The clearing around the Stargate hung heavy with the smoke from the burnt tents and it now mixed with the red dust from the destroyed pyramids. The dark shapes of dead Jaffa lay scattered around the remains of the tents but he ignored them, as he ignored the movements of the shadows that continued to linger in his peripheral vision. He made his way back to the small dry riverbed and the cave where he'd hidden his equipment. The crystal he'd taken from the DHD lay where he'd left it and there was no sign that anyone had disturbed it.

He sat amid his supplies and futilely tried to pull in one decent lungful of air. He despaired at the thought of moving the equipment to the gate. The gully had seemed shallow and too near the Jaffa when he had arrived but now he couldn't make the trip without pausing to rest at least twice. Even without the heavy ordinance and C-4 that he had used in the assault on the pyramids, it would take him four of those trips to carry it all to the gate. The impulse to leave the equipment behind appealed to him for a moment, but he knew he'd feel naked without his armament. Besides, he'd worked so hard to get it and bring it halfway across the known universe, it seemed a shame to leave it now.

It took him six trips, not four, and he could feel the morphine wearing off by the time he dropped the last of his equipment at the base of the gate. He pulled the crystal from his pocket, limped over to the DHD and hoped he remembered how to put it back in. The black scar of a staff blast across the front of the DHD froze him in place. Damn. DHDs were far from indestructible. If the DHD didn't work, he'd be trapped here — trapped in this hell. He shook himself free of the thought and carefully examined the inside of the device. There was no visible damage and when he replaced the crystal in the DHD, it hummed to life.

Jack would have sighed with relief if he could've taken a deep enough breath. He settled for punching in the gate address, pleased to see each coordinate lock into place. The final chevron glowed in acceptance, but Jack paused before he pushed the middle button. This wasn't part of the official plan. The DHD was supposed to have been destroyed the moment he arrived on the planet, thereby insuring that no one — not even he — would be able to leave. Jack had other plans. Nirrti had used this planet as her killing fields and he didn't intend to spend the rest of his life on it.

Besides, he knew his team. They would never leave well enough alone. Once they had deciphered what he'd done, they would demand the gate address and send a probe through. When that happened, he'd end up having to tell them to stay the hell away. There would be the inevitable final good-byes and farewell recriminations. He'd done that once already, back on Argos when the nanites aged him, and he wasn't going to go through that again. Outside of burying the gate, an option the Tok'ra had refused to consider, there was only one option: leave the planet.

It had taken him five nights of furtive research to find the perfect alternative. PT9-780 was a small, uninhabited planet that the SGC had discovered early in the program. It had been fully explored and used as a base of operations for training missions. Carter and her merry band of scientists used it to test all the gizmos and gadgets that they stuck on the MALPs and UAVs. It had been a perfect geek playground until one of their little experiments had fried the DHD. They'd managed to retrieve the personnel still on the planet by doing a manual dial, but they'd been unable to fix the DHD. With no reason to keep the planet on the dialing rotation, it became a footnote in the SGC files until Jack's search for the perfect bolthole.

The MALP and UAV he'd sent to the planet had revealed no changes since the previous visits. There was no sign of gate travel and no indication of other visitors. There was no reason to believe that the planet had suddenly developed a population that he would kill the moment he stepped through the gate.

There was no guarantee that it hadn't, either.

Jack rubbed angrily at the itchy dust that covered his face. When he pulled his hands away, he stared at the deep-red stains that covered them. He'd already sentenced one planet full of people to death, could he accept the possibility of doing that again?

"Out, out, damn spot," Jack muttered. He rubbed his hands clean against his pants and then pressed the inner button of the DHD. The gate sprang to life. After he tossed his equipment through the gate, he waited for it to disconnect. Then he limped back to the DHD, pulled the top open and laid it out so the inner workings could be seen. The crystal removed with a simple twist, and he put it in his pocket for safekeeping. He knelt in front of the scorch marks on the DHD before he pulled out the Tok'ra communications device. The damaged, dismantled DHD was clearly in the shot.

At a touch of the activation button, the device blinked to life and, a second later, the hologram of a Tok'ra appeared before him.

"Colonel O'Neill. What is the status of the mission?"

"The mission is completed." It was difficult to talk and Jack wished he'd taken another shot of morphine. "And I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

The Tok'ra — Vertin? Verla? Vertas — ignored both Jack's obvious injuries and his sarcasm.

"Did you destroy all the contagion? Did anyone access the gate or send any messages?"

"I planted the explosives as instructed. Although you might want to tell your operative that I found three pyramids down here, a boatload of Jaffa and more than fifty prisoners that were being used to test the virus."

The image of Vertas nodded at him. "Yes. We received that information just after you ringed down. It was too late to pass it along to you."

"Right," Jack said. "And the check's in the mail."

Vertas looked puzzled but didn't ask what Jack meant. "I was instructed to ask if there was anything that I can do for you before I report back to Anise."

"Two things. First, this is a message to the folks back at the SGC." Jack flashed a small blue crystal at the screen. "I'm sending it to you now. It's for the SGC — eyes only. Understand?" He waited for Vertas to nod before he continued. "Tell Anise to give it to my team when she talks to them."

"Anise does not plan to brief your team, Colonel O'Neill."

Jack smiled at that. "No, I don't suppose she does. Just see that she gets it. When they demand to see our communications, she should give this to them." He slipped the crystal into the communications device and it blinked to show that it transmitted his message.

"Very well. I will see that it reaches Anise. What is the second thing I can do for you?"

"Let everyone know that this is the last contact I will have. I'll destroy this communications device as soon as we're through here. I will not respond to any attempts at contact."

"That was not the plan, Colonel. This device has atmospheric monitors on it. We will require that you—"

"Ain't gonna happen," Jack cut him off. The image of Vertas swam in front of him and he couldn't breathe. He blinked to clear his vision, but it didn't help. "I did my bit. Now you're gonna let me be. That's the new plan."

"There is valuable data . . ."

Jack ignored Vertas, picked up the staff weapon that lay near him, used it to pull himself to his feet and blasted the communicator. The device smoked under the impact and the hologram blinked out. Jack shot the device several more times and stopped only when the communicator was a melted blob.

"That felt good," Jack said. He used the staff weapon as a crutch and waited until the shaking in his arms passed. The creeping sensation of being watched pushed at him again but the weight of the weapon in his hand eased his panic. He squinted around the clearing. There's nothing to see, Jack. Everything's dead. Despite knowing that, he still stood for another minute and peered into the darkening surroundings. Nothing.

Fighting to ignore the paranoia, he turned back to the DHD. The crystal slid easily back into place, and he quickly dialed out to PT9-780. Once the gate opened, he removed the center of the DHD and laid it to the side, careful not to pull the wires apart. The gate wavered but stayed open. He pulled a small block of C-4 from his vest, set the timer for ten seconds, dropped it into the middle of the DHD and headed for the gate.

It wasn't much time, but he couldn't shake the feeling that if he'd leave it any longer something would follow him through. He did a countdown in his head and cursed that his injuries slowed him down, the DHD was too far away from the gate and the platform had too many steps. The C-4 detonated the moment he fell through the event horizon, and the wormhole shuddered around him.

He was spit out into cool darkness, and he tumbled into his equipment that lay scattered around the gate. The wormhole snapped closed behind him. Pain roared in his head as he rolled over onto his back and blinked up into the star-filled sky of his new home.


&&&&&


Daniel watched Jacob and Anise emerge from the Stargate and exchange greetings with General Hammond. Daniel, along with the other members of SG-1, had wanted to be in the gate room to meet them, but the general had confined them to the briefing room. It was an effort, Daniel knew, to keep their ugly mood from infecting the entire base. They had spent the night and most of the morning at Jack's house, then raced back to the SGC as soon as the general had told them Anise was on her way. That was more than three hours ago. As each minute had passed with no indication of the Tok'ra arrival, the team had become more and more irritable until they couldn't even talk to each other.

Daniel gave a last disgruntled look at the gate as it closed and, once sure that General Hammond, Jacob and Anise were on their way up, began his now-familiar path around the room. Teal'c spared him one raised eyebrow and then went back to contemplating his fingers that were once again steepled in front of him. Daniel envied Teal'c's outward calm but he could tell from the Jaffa's tightly clamped jaw that he, too, felt the pressure. Sam had given up waiting after the first fifteen minutes and commandeered the only computer in the room to continue her investigation into what, exactly, Jack had been doing when he had blacked out the SGC. Daniel thought that it was an exercise in futility but after several churlish exchanges, he'd stopped pointing that out to her. Unable to sit, he'd taken up pacing again. To occupy his mind, he counted the number of laps he'd completed since they'd returned to the SGC.

He'd just finished lap number one hundred thirty-four when General Hammond appeared at the top of the stairs; Jacob and Anise followed. The general nodded for them to have a seat around the table, and they did so in silence. General Hammond and Jacob also sat at the table while Anise walked to the front of the room. From the way that she glanced at them, Daniel suspected she was aware of the unwelcome reception that she had walked into.

"You are aware of situation with Nirrti's lab and the contagion that we discovered there." When the statement was met with silence, Anise continued. "As you suspect, we approached Colonel O'Neill to help the Tok'ra eliminate this threat to all of us."

"Colonel O'Neill is under my command," General Hammond said. "You have no authority to ask any of my people to do anything without first speaking to me."

"We . . ." Anise shot a look at Jacob before she continued, "I felt that the fewer people that were involved in the decision, the better our chances for success.

"There is also the fact that this is a Tok'ra issue. We discovered and investigated this problem. Our operatives risked and lost their lives in order to gather the information. We came up with the vaccine and the plan to destroy the contagion."

"This is about credit?" Daniel asked, exasperated. "It must really bug you that you need a lowly Tau'ri to actually carry out your plan."

"We lost several Tok'ra before it was discovered we were unable to tolerate the vaccine. Many were willing to sacrifice themselves to stop this. The loss of even one Tok'ra lessens us in a way that you cannot comprehend."

"Whereas Jack is expendable?" Daniel didn't try to rein in his anger. "It doesn't matter if he dies?"

"Enough." Jacob cut off any reply the angry Anise might have had. "This is not helping anyone — especially Jack."

Daniel took a couple deep breaths and realized he was standing. He sat down shakily and muttered an apology to Jacob.

Anise started to say something, but Jacob's raised hand stopped her. He nodded his head and when he spoke, it was Selmak who addressed them. "It wasn't about credit, Dr. Jackson. It was about secrecy. When the subject was discussed by the Tok'ra High Council, some were concerned that, if we fully involved the Tau'ri, you would demand complete access to the information that we have. There was the possibility that you would want to study the contagion yourself."

"Yes," Sam said. "If this virus is half as deadly as you purport it to be, we should investigate it and devise a more effective vaccine."

"I told the High Council you would feel that way," Anise said.

"Would it not be in everyone's best interest to develop such a vaccine?" Teal'c asked.

When Anise didn't answer, Jacob did. "The vaccine is a deadly poison to a symbiote when injected into a host's body. Some of the council was concerned that that information could be used against us if it fell into the wrong hands."

"There are those that still feel that way," Anise said. "The compromise was to limit full disclosure only to those who need to be informed."

Daniel scoffed.

Anise looked across at him. "Colonel O'Neill understood the necessity."

"He would wouldn't he?" Jack O'Neill never told anyone, anything. "The man thrives on secrets and black ops. You had to know that Jack's reasons for not telling anyone were entirely different than yours."

"Motives are immaterial as long as the goals are the same. In this case: secrecy."

"If it worries you so much, why tell us now?" Sam asked.

"The general has made it clear that not being forthcoming about this mission will adversely affect the Tok'ra-Tau'ri relationship."

"You're damn right it will," Hammond said. "Our relationship is based on trust and if you cannot trust us, there will be no relationship."

"Do you trust us with all your weaknesses, General?"

"Can we focus on what happened to Jack, please?" Daniel cut in. "You came here and offered Jack the opportunity to play the hero, which he jumped at. Let's just skip to the 'where he is now' part."

"Vertas, the Tok'ra in orbit around the planet, has just contacted me. He reported that Colonel O'Neill spoke with him a short time ago and stated that the mission was completed successfully. The pyramids and the contagion were destroyed."

"And the colonel?" Sam asked. "How was he?"

"Vertas did not detail Colonel O'Neill's condition; he merely reported the success of the mission."

"You have a recording of the communication between Colonel O'Neill and your operative?" General Hammond asked.

"Yes."

"We will need to see it."

Anise's eyes narrowed at the demand. "I assure you that I have told you all the pertinent information."

"I'm sure you have. We will still need to see the communication."

Anise reached into the bag hung at her side and pulled out a small oval device that she set on the conference table. "When Colonel O'Neill spoke to Vertas he instructed that this message be shown to you when you asked to see his transmission from the planet."

"A message from Jack?" Daniel asked. "Just when were you going to tell us about it?"

"When you asked to see his communication from the planet, as the colonel requested." Anise pushed a button on the device and a hologram of Jack appeared over it.

"Yeah. I hope I've got this thing turned on right." Jack's voice echoed through the room, disproportionately loud when compared to the small image it resonated from. "Anyhow, by now I'm sure you've figured everything out. I just wanted to let you know that I'm doing this by my own choice. Anise said that we have very little time to deal with this and I am the logical choice for this type of mission." The holographic Jack shook his head. "Yeah, I know. I can't believe I'm saying it either, but she's right. This is a one way trip and the fewer people going on it the better."

The holographic figure held up his hand as if he could hear the protests that Daniel and Sam had started to voice. "Just be quiet, you two. It would have shaken out like this anyhow. Neither Sam nor Teal'c could've been part of the operation and, face it, Daniel, you're not SF. I can handle this myself. There was no need to lose anyone unnecessarily on this mission. Besides, I probably would've been stuck with a bunch of marines who don't like to fish." He shuddered. "Can you imagine that?"

The familiar figure of Jack, dressed in black and fully armed, glanced around and peered at something behind him before he looked back at the recorder. "Ok, we're almost there. I just wanted to let you know that I'm fine and doing this with a sound mind and all. As sound as it ever was, I suppose." He gave a patented O'Neill self-effacing grin. "General, a full account of my contact with Anise, my preparations and my reasons for accepting the mission is in a report that should be in base mail. I put in a resignation letter, just in case that will make things easier for you. I'm sorry for the problems I caused. I meant no disrespect to you, sir.

"I also wanted to tell my team one more thing . . ."

Jack faded off and leaned conspiratorially forward, and Daniel found himself doing the same thing.

"Listening, kids?" Jack asked. "Good. Now, stay the hell away from here!"

Jack's commanding voice snapped Daniel back in his chair. It had a similar effect on the other members of the SG-1, and General Hammond frowned at the holograph as Jack went on.

"Don't send me any care packages, don't send a MALP through, don't drop mailbags from orbiting ships, because I'm not gonna answer. Got that? The last thing I need is you hovering around me, ruining my peace and quiet." Jack stopped and ran his hand through his hair. "That about covers it." He looked around, then snapped to attention and saluted. "It's been an honor and a privilege to serve with all of you." He reached forward and the image faded before them.

The room was silent for a moment as they tried to come to terms with what Jack had said. Daniel couldn't believe Jack's last message was one that ordered them all to stay away. After four years of working together, Jack had chosen to end their friendship with the Tok'ra equivalent of a message on an answering machine. It felt so . . . unfinished, so unfair. And so typically Jack. Daniel rubbed the back of his neck and glanced over at his teammates. He could see that the message had affected them in the same way.

General Hammond found his voice first. "You have the communication between Colonel O'Neill and the orbiting Tok'ra ship?"

"We have a record of that communication, yes," Anise said.

"I want to see that, now."

"Colonel O'Neill requested that this be the only message we show you." Anise gestured to the device in the middle of the table.

"I'm requesting to see the other message. Will that be a problem?"

"No," Anise said. "I was just trying to honor Colonel O'Neill's wishes on the matter."

Daniel gave a small snort. "Anise wanting to honor Jack's orders," he spoke quietly to Sam but didn't care that his voice carried to the others around the table. "That's a new one."

Anise's eyes snapped to him for a moment, but the general spoke before she could.

"Please show us the communication."

Anise stared at Daniel a moment before she turned back to the general and nodded. "As you wish." She placed another communicator on the table and pushed the button.

The holographic Jack that appeared above the table this time hardly resembled the man they had watched moments before. This Jack crouched close to the recorder, an image of a dismantled and scarred DHD stood behind him. His face was battered and bruised, with several deep, inflamed gashes clearly visible. Dark stains covered large portions of his uniform and bloody wounds could be seen beneath several rips. Daniel could see the telltale scorch marks from a staff weapon blast low on Jack's left side. If Jack's favoring of his right knee wouldn't have given away that injury, the bandage wrapped tightly around it would have. Sam gave a small gasp at the sight of Jack, and the general swore under his breath.

Daniel didn't pay attention to the conversation Jack had with the Tok'ra, instead he focused on the way Jack moved and spoke. He seemed perpetually out of breath and took small, shallow gasps of air between words. His eyes were bright and feverish, and a trickle of blood ran down the side of his face. Daniel watched as a drop of it fell from Jack's chin; a perfect holographic teardrop of blood that disappeared from the camera's view before it hit the ground. He watched a second drop form when the words Jack said cut through his fixation.

"Ain't gonna happen," Jack's voice was sharp, but he swayed as he spoke. "I did my bit. Now you're gonna let me be. That's the new plan."

"There is valuable data—"

Daniel could clearly hear the annoyance in Vertas' voice as it rang through the room but before the Tok'ra had finished his sentence Jack had pulled himself to his feet. It wasn't until Jack pointed it at them that Daniel realized that he held a staff weapon. Light danced around the opening, there was a brilliant blast of light and the hologram disintegrated.

It took Daniel a moment to pull his eyes away from the spot where Jack had been. From the silence around the table, he wasn't the only one so affected.

"General, with all due respect—"

General Hammond held up his hand to silence Sam and looked over at Anise. "We will need the gate address for this world."

"Absolutely not."

"I'm afraid I must insist," Hammond said, his voice calm and authoritative.

Anise stared at Hammond. Daniel thought that her attempt to look formidable would work better if she didn't wear such ridiculously sex-kittenish clothes. Hammond didn't blink and Anise broke eye contact first.

"Sending any form of device to this planet is an unacceptable risk, General Hammond," Anise said. "A risk that even Colonel O'Neill has wisely ordered against."

"Even if Colonel O'Neill had acted under the authority of the US Air Force, I am his commanding officer and he cannot order me to do anything."

Daniel flicked his pen in his fingers as he waited for Anise to answer. He wondered how far the general would go to get the address, wondered how much Anise would lose to keep it a secret.

After a moment of silence, General Hammond rose from his seat. "You will not be allowed to leave the base until you have supplied us with the address."

Daniel smiled grimly. Go General! Hammond was good at playing hardball.

Anise glared first at the general and then at Jacob. "This reckless behavior is exactly why we should not have told the SGC about this."

"You lost that option," Hammond said, "when you chose Colonel O'Neill to do the mission."

"At the very least, we will need the address in order to lock it out of our dialing program," Sam said. "It wouldn't do to have us accidentally going to this planet."

An idea struck Daniel. "Besides we can help you."

Anise narrowed her eyes at him. "In what manner?"

"Jack destroyed your communicator and your way to monitor the planet. You give us the gate address and we send a MALP through with any scientific equipment you need.

"We can place another monitor on the planet without your help."

"No. You can't." Sam cut in. "You can't ring anything down because you risk bringing the virus back up with the ring transfer."

"That right," Daniel agreed. "The gate is the only safe way to get more equipment there, but you can't use it because Jack will watch for it and he will just blast anything you send through." For once Daniel was pleased with Jack's trigger-happy reputation. "Jack says he doesn't want to talk to us, but I doubt he'll destroy a MALP before he hears what we have to say."

"I could have a MALP ready to go in thirty minutes," Sam said. She glanced over at Hammond. "What do you think, sir?"

"It sounds like a workable compromise. Anise?"

When Anise didn't say anything, Selmak spoke. "It will allow you to continue you research into the toxin, Anise. We accepted the possibility we would have to share this information with the Tau'ri."

"Very well," Anise said. "I will have to return to my lab to retrieve the equipment I need."

"That sounds fair," General Hammond agreed. "However, we will require the address before you leave."

Daniel thought Anise would refuse, but she nodded. "On the condition that you do not send anything to the planet until I return."

"Fine," General Hammond said. "Just don't take too long. I want to speak to Colonel O'Neill as soon as possible." The general nodded to the two SFs that Daniel hadn't noticed standing at the top of the stairs. "These gentlemen will escort you to the operations room where you can give Sergeant Harriman the address. Once he has that, he will dial you out of here."

Anise looked as if she had swallowed something distasteful, but she didn't say anything as she followed the SFs down the stairs.

"With you're permission, General, I will prep the MALP," Sam said. She barely waited for his approval before she headed downstairs.

Jacob looked over at Hammond. "You play a dangerous game, George."

"I didn't start this, Jacob. You have no right to use my personnel without SGC approval." Hammond stood and crossed to his office.

Daniel turned to Jacob. "You think the general is handling this wrong?"

"I think this whole situation was handled wrong." Jacob sighed. "Sometimes I think the biggest problem we face isn't the Goa'uld but our own stubborn pride."

"Maybe," Daniel agreed. He reached across the table and pressed the button on the second communicator. Jack's battered form flickered to life above the table once more. "Then again," Daniel said, "that stubbornness may be the only thing that saves us."