Tag #15 – Prosthesis
As he had before in the isolation cell at the SGC, Daniel stared contemplatively at his hand, forming a fist and then straightening his fingers. If he listened very closely he could hear the faint whirring of servos making the fingers move, but it didn't feel any different. It felt almost exactly like his old body…the organic one.
"It really doesn't feel so different," he said out loud, running those same fingers through his hair. Even that felt real, even though he knew it would never need to be cut again.
Jack shot him an astounded look from his perch on the railing. "Are you kidding? This is totally different. I know stuff I shouldn't have a clue about, and I swear I can…sense…you guys being around. It's freaky."
"I agree," Teal'c added, still looking disconcerted at the absence of his symbiote. Daniel shuddered as he thought about what must've been going through the first synthetic Teal'c's mind as he Goa'uld mind took him over. Fortunately this Teal'c was sane, but he didn't share the experience of waking up with the others. "I also sense your presences, in a similar manner to how I once detected the presence of a Goa'uld within myself and others," the former Jaffa continued.
Daniel frowned in slight confusion. "That's not so weird."
The other three stared at him. "What do you mean?" Sam asked curiously. "I certainly think gaining new senses is bizarre."
"I think one of the reasons I didn't figure it out right away was because I already had a sense of sorts, when other people were around," Daniel tried to explain. "Nothing felt wrong until we went back…I mean, to the SGC…now that I'm thinking about it, I couldn't sense anyone but you guys."
"Daniel, that's…ah, not quite normal," Jack stated bluntly, eyeing the younger man. "What, is it some kind of archaeologist's sixth sense or something?"
Daniel shook his head. "I have no idea, Jack. All I know is that it's gone now, but in a way it's still here." He paused. "I'm not making much sense, am I?"
"Not really."
He shrugged. "Well, we've got eleven thousand years to talk about it. For now we should probably bury the Gate like we told…ourselves…that we would." He still found it odd to talk about his other self; the pronouns were quite confusing.
"No."
Daniel's eyebrows shot up. "No?"
"No," Jack repeated. "I lied to the, um, other me. We're not just giving up. Harlan said the others had portable batteries or something. We can get our hands on some of those and keep exploring through the Stargate. Who knows, we might find something of use to Earth, and then we can build our own GDOs to deliver the goods. Even if we can't go ourselves."
One by one, the other members of SG-1 agreed. And because Daniel could no longer sense what he used to, he had no idea what the future held.