Tag #16 – Through a Glass Darkly
Daniel stared at the scarred face of General O'Neill, still trying to wrap his brain around the fact that it wasn't his friend standing in front of him. This Jack O'Neill had never met him, he even seemed very different, but there was still a bit of his Jack in him. Unfortunately part of that was the stubborn part, because this Jack refused to consider helping Daniel save his Earth.
"The Jack O'Neill I know would do it," he tossed out in frustration.
"Well apparently you and I have never met!" O'Neill snapped, cold brown eyes searing into the archaeologist. Yet anger wasn't the only thing Daniel saw in him…there was hopelessness and despair, the look of a man who knows he's marching to his doom but is going to do his damndest to take down as many enemies as possible.
"No," Daniel conceded. "I guess not." He could vaguely hear the chaos of the control room around him as everyone rushed around to do whatever they could to help, which more often than not was absolutely nothing. He straightened slightly, focusing solely on the general, knowing he had to try at least once more. "Look," he started, "all I know is because I came here, I have seen what can happen. And I have a chance, to keep this from happening from the Earth that I come from, if you help me."
The hardened general kept the eye contact as if searching for something, and Daniel didn't look away. Please, Jack. As much as I hate to say it, there's nothing you can do here. Do you really want to condemn my Earth to destruction at the hands of the Goa'uld? He tried as hard as he could to bring that across to O'Neill, well aware that this may be his last chance.
Finally, the general looked down at Dr. Carter. "How much time, doctor?"
"Twenty-two minutes," she replied almost immediately.
O'Neill looked grimly back up at Daniel. "Okay, the argument is academic. We could never hold them that long anyway."
Despite his apparent indifference, Daniel could see that he truly did want to help, but didn't think it would work. "Well maybe we could buy some time," the archaeologist suggested as an idea hit him.
"How?" O'Neill asked, obviously willing to give it a shot if he thought it could work.
"Not how," Daniel corrected with a sad smile. "Who."