10

CRIMSON MADNESS

CHAPTER NINE

General George Hammond sat at his desk staring blankly at the wall opposite him. He dreaded to turn his chair 180 degrees or he would be looking at the Star gate through his reinforced glass window. It was one of those times when he damned himself for not taking the retirement when he had had the chance. It was one of those times when he wished he could pull out the bottle of single malt Scotch in his bottom desk drawer and get shit faced. It was one of those times his felt his heart so heavy with concern for his friend and one of the finest officers he had ever served with, Jack O'Neill, that it would never be light again.

Hadn't he been here before, waiting out Jack's return and in what condition? The last time he had managed to arrive at Jack's home, climbed the ladder to Jack's roof and found the silver haired colonel about to eat a bullet from his sidearm. George knew it wasn't the first time that Jack had sucked on the blued metal of an automatic. Was this time going to be any different? They could rescue the body but could they rescue the mind? "On course to the Nox, condition grim but stable," had been the message from his old friend and Tokra, Jacob Carter.

The sound of the star gate engaging again brought him back to the other realities such as the return of SG12. He had a visitor from Langley due to arrive, an old friend and the CIA liaison, A.D.D. Vixen Blackwell. There were hundreds of personnel under his command who were his responsibility. It was Hammond's duty to see they all remained safe. He commanded the first line of defense against alien invasion. It was not boring, but was daunting. George sighed heavily and closed the bottom drawer of his desk with his knee.

9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

They were only two hours away from the Nox home world, even a Tokra had to rest and Jacob/Selmak had taken up a vigil next to Jack. He had drifted off for an hour or so of sleep when he was alerted by Jack's sudden movement.

"Jack, how you doing?" Jacob asked softly.

"Jacob." Jack managed to utter, forcing himself to focus.

"That's right; we're getting you to some help." Jacob patted Jack on the arm and pulled up the blanket over his chest, as if he was tucking in a sleeping son.

"No, Jacob, you shouldn't. I don't know if, this time, there is any coming back." Jack was dragging himself into lucidity. There were things that had to be said and he harvested what reserve of strength he could.

"Jack…" Jacob tried to reprimand in a consoling way.

"No, have to say it. Listen to me Jacob. I love her, I think from the first minute I met her, at least since Antarctica. "

Jacob was amazed at the sad smile that curled Jack's cracked and blood stained lips.

"I almost killed her, I wanted to. Jesus, Jacob! I would die for her. I can't tell her, she would never screw the regs. " One skeletal hand reached up from under the blanket and weakly clutched at Jacob's arm. "I could never tell, her, it would have, it has been killing me because I can't, and we can't." He was going to make his death bed confession to the father of second woman he loved in his life, and who was probably going to be his last.

"Jack, I know. We all know. I admire how you two have managed to restrain yourselves. "It was the voice of Selmak, then it returned to Jacob with a quick flash of glowing eyes. " I wish I had done the same years ago." Jacob had his own confession. His mind went back, back to a time. " Jack, she is about your age a little younger. She was a captain in intelligence. Smart as a whip and just as dangerous. It could have ruined both of us. She left the service when there was a flirting of rumors. I lost track of her, but Jack, our affair, no, I forced her out of the service. She told me she couldn't bear to be in the Air Force and not be able to be with me."

"Jacob, why are you telling me this?" Jack was keenly interested and amused, for these few moments he felt normal again.

"Because Jack, I loved her, I still do. If she is out there she thinks I'm dead, the cancer thing. But if I had it to do over again I would have never let her leave the service, I would have never let her go."

"Sam, did she, does she know?"

"I couldn't tell her, she would think I was dishonoring her mother's memory. So Jack even if you two can't while you are in the service, tell her how you feel. She deserves that much."

"You lost track of her?" Trying to divert the conversation away from what was a painful revelation Jack asked the question.

"You think it would be easy to find a 5'4'' woman named Vixen, but it isn't. " Jacob sighed with a soft laugh. He looked over at Jack and watched the man slip back into what appeared to be sleep. "We'll get your there soon, don't worry son."

Jack was slipping back into sleep, his energies expended with the conversation but his soul lighter with his confession. He was surprised at Jacob's reaction and revelation. It was too bad he couldn't tell Jacob that Vixen Blackwell was now with the CIA assigned to the OMA. It was even sadder that the petite spook had copies of all the mission files. She knew Jacob was alive, maybe that was why she had had a brief affair with Hammond. The woman liked bald generals and perhaps Hammond had just been a surrogate for the one she had walked away from. It was too oddly comforting that Jacob was a kindred spirit and that Sam's dad knew the pain that had been bayoneting his heart from that first look across a conference room table

9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

Refers to "Spooky" and earlier fiction.

Office of Military Affairs part of the CIA

The eight hours were at an end and Selmak placed the cargo vessel into synchronous orbit around the Nox home world. The communication from the Nox was simple, and direct. Lya was ringed to the vessel to discover the severity. She arrived with Ohper with her. The older wiser of the Nox had a child like quality to him and smiled in recognition of Daniel and Sam, his smile dwindled as he came to gaze of O'Neill. Ohper looked questioningly at Sam and Daniel.

"Lya, Ohper, Jack, has been hurt badly., One of our enemies had him, tortured him had poisoned him." Daniel began but he could not come up with more words just a lamenting plea for help."

Lya stepped to Jack and sensed the damage done to him and being done to him. She remembered this warrior and while the Nox were non violent they would not refuse a request for their help. She too looked at the other inquisitively.

At this moment Umbra stepped from the shadows. Still weak herself she was a counterpoise to the fairy wood nymph appearance of the two Nox. Lya drew back but Ohper, smiled a bright smile and walked towards the vampire.

"You are very different from these others, even the Tokra. You are not as dark as you think yourself sweet child." Ohper took both of Umbra's hands into his.

In that moment of contact Umbra felt a charge run through her, a pure sweet taste of joy and innocence seasoned with such wisdom that she felt humbled to silence.

"You could not heal him, but you kept this one , O'Neill alive with your very own life essence. " Ohper released one her hands and pointed at her like she was a child, but to him she was.

Lya , was eyeing Umbra with just the deepest of suspicion that a Nox could possess. She would accept the word of Ohper and she could sense he had no reluctance.

"She will come with us." Ohper patted Umbra's hand, and took it with the gentleness of a doting father. "We must go."

"But the sunlight , Umbra has to be away from it…" Daniel tried to explain.

Ohper shook his head the foliage within it making the soft rusting sound of a forest floor. "She will not come to harm."

Jacob/Selmak actually, had lifted Jack to his feet and had wrapped one arm around him. "We must go now. You must wait for our return." With the Sam touched the controls and the five were ringed elsewhere.

Nafrayu, the question asking boy was holding hands with Anteaus when the five arrived. They were before a simple forest hut with a comforting campfire burning. The smell of the smoke was more incense, sweet, calming and of the welcoming earth.

"I remember this one!" Anteaus commented not without a hint of annoyance.

"She is beautiful and strange, she is alive but not" Nafrayu commented taking Umbra's hand. He lead her to a near by fallen moss covered log. "I will make you better." Umbra had no time to comment or try to refrain the boy child before they both became invisible. Nafrayu knew he alone, with out the help of the others could help this woman of shadows. The others were need with their combined strength to help the one called O'Neill.

The Nox extended their hands over the supine body of O'Neill. Jack moaned in protest that was nothing more than an impotent gasp of what little breath he had left in his battered lungs. For a few moments the three were invisible but as they needed more of their strength they became visible.

Umbra could see this taking place from the corner of her eye, but she was more occupied with the young child who had taken her aside.

"The same sickness that is within the one called O'Neill, is within you. You tried to save him by sacrificing yourself. Very noble. You are a strange being. "

"I am of an old race that lived along side but never equal to the humans of the mother world. Many of us were taken away just as were the Rusno, those who were in my tribes neighbors. We came to this new planet and there both being strangers to this alien world the necessity came for a symbiotic relationship. The humans raised cattle and we fed from them instead preying upon them as once we did . My people require blood, fresh blood, to sustain us. In turn for the cattle which we took only as we needed , we protected the humans from dangers. " Umbra began the summation of her world. The boy had not asked but his simple comment that she was different caused her to defend her race.

"Something changed?" Nafrayu stroked her deep russet hair.

"The one who caused all of this, she stepped through the stone circle with her helmeted cohort. We offered our hand in peace, she took us, she took my mother and possessed her body. That is the creature that has lived for so many years and did all of this to the brave silver haired one. There was nothing left of the soul of what I knew as mother. She, this Camazotz, her aspect was nearly identical to that of the one call Samantha, the one that O'Neill doth love to his own death unspoken."

Nafrayu continued to stroke the vampires hair and hands. He smiled soft smile of the pure innocence of youth but it was so deceiving for his hundred years of age and wisdom in such a juvenile. Umbra felt her heart, that had bore for centuries itself , the loss of her mother, herself persecuted, devaluation for her inabilities to rescue her mother and what little she did for O'Neill, beat perhaps with the weight of a gentle sparrow, upon her rib walls. The poison from the Goa'uld was leaving her body dissipating like morning mist under a strong summer sun. Umbra grabbed the strange elfish boy and wept upon his moss covered shoulders, as the gentle healing a washed her .

9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

Anteaus, Lya and Opher were visible and drained from the healing of O'Neill. Restoring his life that one time when first these strangers had come through the gate had been easier. This time they were not dealing with something natural but the unnatural microscopic machines that still possessed O'Neill following commands for a dead Master. The body was healed but they could no nothing more for his psyche.

The two male Nox left the air, vanishing into the woods after a few steps. Lya, who had the most experience with the humans knelt exhausted next to O'Neill. She stroked his pale forehead cool and now feverless. The ravages of his abduction and subsequent torment still evident, but his blood was clear of the invaders.

"O'Neill.?' She asked softly her voice the chiming of blue bells in a meadow.

Jack managed to open his eyes. He could no longer feel the infestation that had possessed him, turned him into a creature that he would have gladly unloaded a clip into. Yet, he was free of the physical infection but it was the damage to his mind, his heart and soul that not even the Nox could heal.

"You know then O'Neill, we could only heal your body . I am afraid that you will have to recover here on your own." Lya touched Jack on his chest. He could feel the feather like weight of her finger tips on his sunken chest. "You must O'Neill we would not see you die from within.

"Lya, it would have been better if I died." Jack meant it.

"there is still too much for You to accomplish, O'Neill. There is love in your heart that even you do not know. You must heal, find a place where you will find peace and come once again to know yourself. " Lya smiled and as gentle as a breeze she helped Jack sit up. "We will let the one you call Janet come for you now."

A moment later the thunder small combat boots grew closer. Janet, alone, with a bundle under her arm and medical bag at the ready nearly pounced on him.

"You should have let me …." Jack began looking into Janet's deep brown eyes.

"We don't leave anyone behind." Janet told him with a soft commanding voice. Lya smiled in approval of the softly spoken words.

"Please Doc, just some clothes." Jack realized he was just wearing the loin cloth like garment from Camazotz's castle.

Janet knew better than to say anything more. She had seen him through times as rough as this, well maybe not, but she had seen him naked more than her first husband. There was no more sense of propriety between the two. She helped Jack into a pair of blue class d pants, he was going commando of course. And then a matching shirt. The clothes hung off him. The Nox may have been able to heal him but they could not restore the 30 pounds he had lost and the muscle that had been devoured once the body fat had been depleted.

There was no refusal for her assistance when Janet wrapped an arm around his waist. Jack needed to sleep, he needed to be away from everyone also. He had to be alone with himself. Lya was right he could not let himself die from within.

9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

Rather than Jacob transporting them back via the Goa'uld vessel the Nox allowed SG1 and Janet to transport back to the SGC. Jacob headed back to the planet that had been Camazotz's home base to assist Teal'c and the SG3 . While it was the top priority to get Jack back for full medical recovery, there were three members of the original rescue party that seemed to have been forgotten on P3x666.

Janet immediately rushed Jack to the infirmary leaving Sam and Daniel to debrief Hammond. They gave him the quick summary and then were ordered to the infirmary themselves. Umbra was silent but in awe at the wonders that was the SGC. She had no worries of being affected by strong daylight this deep within the mountain.

Jack had been placed in isolation in one of the VIP quarters. Janet was his friend as well as his physician and she had been through this with him before. Well, perhaps not as seriously as this time. Everything she had read in his medical file still paled to this latest assault. She feared more for his mental status then his physical, the Nox had been unable to heal him completely for removing the Nanocytes had been more difficult than had been bringing Jack back to life on that first contact.

Once everyone was settled in Sam, Daniel and Umbra filled Hammond in on virtually every moment of the rescue mission. Hammond, to his credit, remained stoic through the lengthy debriefing. Umbra was given guest quarters and Sam and Daniel were ordered rest. They all needed a few hours of silence, peace, recovery now that Jack was home.. Daniel joined Umbra in her quarters and allowed her to feed. They made love and then both slept in the secure embrace of the other.

It was not what he had been looking forward to but George Hammond knocked on the door of Jack's temporary quarters. Jack was sitting in a corner of the dark room, arms across his knees, head down. Hammond's second in command looked up with eyes that were dull with internal agony..

"What do you need Jack? Anything son, anything?" Hammond sat down on the empty bed.

"George, I can't be here, or home." Jack scrubbed his eyes with the back of his palms.

"No problem son. We'll figure this out. "

Jack tried to smile, somehow through all of this, stepping back on the ramp of the SGC he had formed his plan. He sighed and began to relay it to his friend and commanding officer. In the early hours of the morning when only a skeleton crew was present the gate was opened and a message sent through the answer came back in the shape of a wolf.

9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999