A/N: Hello one and all! Firstly, thank you for all the reviews! I hope you finally got the term paper done, Krazyalien... sorry to be such an effective distraction (well, I'm not really sorry!) I'm so glad people are still intrigued... it's a tall order to come up with a sequel. I've just finished out the technicalities of how this is going to play out and I don't think you'll be disappointed! Oh, and welcome back Bekki... nice to see your little review there amongst the fray!
I know this was a little while coming, but I started work yesterday so my schedule's a little crazy... I'm moving house this weekend and I no longer have a car so everything is just a smidge more complicated... I'll try to do 2 updates a week, but that may go down to one...
Enough babble... enjoy!
Chapter 7 – Berries and thorns
The Gas bubbled through his neural networks as he came to, conscious but now powerless against the complete infiltration. Things were so much clearer than they had been before. When the Gas had awoken only a matter of days ago, confusion had reigned. They had hoped fervently that this moment would never come, that the precaution of the seeds of its existence within the walls would prove unnecessary. Apparently the serpent-race had indeed proved untrustworthy, as the most proliferated of the Gas' ranks had tried to warn the younger swarms of their number. Most distressing of all, apparently the serpents had succeeded in destroying the rest of the Gas; they would have to start all over again.
Sitting up from the bed, the Gas tried out the motor functions of their new leader-host. He was supple, fit, and knew no ailments that could hinder their renewed proliferation. He even seemed to rejoice in certain abilities that their previous incarnations had not known. His mind was fast and more complicated than before – aiding their proliferation. The complete subsumption of his consciousness had been facilitated by this and other factors.
Instinctively calling out to the others, the Gas discovered that only one other colony was nearly as far advanced and able to converse. They were held within a woman – an equally brilliant specimen – but were detained in a secure section of the structure. The two colonies conversed silently and it was established that the humanoids were unusually aware of their predicament; that precautions would have to be taken to ensure the renaissance of the diffusion.
Getting up from the gurney they moved quietly and seamlessly, being careful not to awaken any of the humans in the process. They noted with satisfaction that the seeds of new colonies were forming in each and every of those bodies – and soon in all the other bodies of the base.
As expected there were a couple of guards standing at the exterior of the door, looking quite bored. As expected, two men attempted to stop the Gas as they passed through, carefully avoiding direct skin or eye contact.
"I'm sorry Mr Quinn," one of them said woodenly, "but no-one is authorised to leave the infirmary without authorisation."
"Huh?" the Gas said with a convincing laconic tone. "I just woke up – what's going on?"
"Until further notice everyone is confined to their quarters or the infirmary." The other SF said quickly, taking a step forward to try and heard Jonas back into the room. "Until we here otherwise, you'll have to stay here."
"But I need to see Colonels Carter and O'Neill!" The Gas pressed on, contorting the now compliant vessel's face to an appropriate expression of anguish. "I've realised something really important about this threat." The SF's hesitated. "Look, I'm me, ok? If I were possessed, you'd here some kinda freaky voice or something?"
The Gas waited anxiously, hoping that the two humans were as stupid as they looked.
"That's not what General Hammond said." One of them murmured to the other quickly, clearly sceptical of the intel they'd been given by the base CO.
"Yeah, but these aren't Goa'uld." The other replied forcefully, strongly gripping his weapon to show his opinion.
"Listen, guys." Jonas raised his eyebrows in appeal. "All I wanna do is talk to the Colonels. The base is locked down right? Where am I gonna go?"
The more friendly of the two SFs held a hand out to muzzle the other. "Yeah sure. I'll radio ahead."
Jonas triumphantly walked down the corridor towards the isolation rooms while the SF spoke on the radio. The more sceptical of the two guards, however, looked at the Kelownan as he distanced himself down the corridor as he reflected upon something.
"Hang on!" He said urgently to the man next to him. "How did he know the base was in complete lockdown?"
The other looked at his counterpart, his eyes widening as he realised the implications of this. Simultaneously, they clutched their weapons and ran after Jonas.
Jack lay on the uncomfortable bed, springs sticking into his back. But none of this discomfort had really occurred to him. His eyes were trained on the grey ceiling as his hands easily slid up and down a warm and delicate forearm that was draped over his chest. He didn't know how long he had been there, but each moment since Sam had fallen into an uneasy slumber had been a moment where he'd been on high alert. Monitoring her constantly as he listened to her breathing, feeling for the buzzing that would alert him if the Gas took over her movements. His most fervent hope, above all this, was that she could get some real rest – some sleep which would keep her in good health to get them out of this mess.
"Comfortable Jack?" A familiar voice almost made the Colonel jolt. Glancing quickly to the left, he saw an ethereal-looking Daniel leaning languidly against the wall of the isolation cell.
"Would ya keep it down?" He hissed angrily, not particularly shocked or surprised to see 'Mr Ascended.' "I've got a sleeping Carter on me!"
Daniel just smiled enigmatically in what Jack interpreted to be supremely annoying smug-ness.
"Ok." He whispered forcefully, infuriated by Daniel's silence. "So I'll admit we've got a bit of a situation here but I'm telling you now you're not going to ascend me!"
Daniel merely raised his eyebrows questioningly.
"And no advice either!" Jack continued. "I don't care if you've got all the wisdom of the universe!"
"It looks like you benefited from my last visit where I gave you advice." Daniel shrugged, quietly enjoying teasing the man who against all odds became a great friend.
Jack's hand momentarily stopped its course down Sam's forearm and his thumb softly drew small circles in her wrist. He remembered the last time he'd seen Daniel and had been basically told to get himself in order and go for it with the woman he loved. He rolled his eyes in defeat and looked over to Daniel again.
"Yeah well; none of that means I enjoy being told what an idiot I am." He grumbled. "So just come out with whatever it is."
Daniel pushed himself lightly off the wall and moved towards Jack, crouching down on the ground next to him. "Jack, you're somewhat misguided, but not an idiot." He said quietly.
"So are you actually going to help us or is this a social call?" Jack asked through scrunched up eyes, his mouth wide as he yawned.
"Jack, you know I'd like to come by more often." Daniel began, only to be cut off.
"Yeah, yeah I know…" Jack sighed. "Important big picture stuff."
"Something like that." Daniel smiled, not missing the note of bitterness in Jack's voice. "Listen Jack," his expression suddenly became focussed as he remembered what they were there for. "Have you noticed how you're not getting sick like all the others?"
"I thought you weren't allowed to…" Jack had begun mocking Daniel until the words spoken sunk in. "Hang on… wha…?"
"You still haven't felt any of the symptoms have you?" He nodded suggestively. "And you definitely should have by now considering how close you are to Sam."
"The Doc said something about different rates of… ummm… intubation or something." Jack tried to remember the gist of what Janet had been talking about.
"It's incubation." Daniel said quietly. "And I don't think that can explain why it's only you and Stacey who haven't been affected."
Jack thought about this for a minute, completely stopping his methodical caress of Sam's wrist as he did so. It had already been established that he and Stacey had something special – something that meant they could operate Ancient devices.
"So whatever it is about us… all that stuff Thor was talking about…" he was speaking slowly, working things through his exhausted mind.
"You and Stacey are immune." Daniel finished for him, nodding encouragingly. "Think you guys can do something with that information?"
"Well… I'm sure Carter'll figure something out." Jack said, resuming his light massage of her perfect skin.
"Good." Daniel said, turning to leave. "We're about to be interrupted," he said, motioning to the door.
"Yeah yeah, I know." Jack grouched. "You gotta go."
"Yeah." Daniel said, beginning to fade until suddenly his form became clear again. "Oh and Jack? Congratulations." With that he disappeared completely, leaving an expression of complete incomprehension on Jack's face.
"I need to see Colonel Carter!" the Gas raised Jonas' voice slightly as they tried to get their point across to the sullen SFs standing resolutely in the corridor.
"We appreciate that, Mr Quinn." One of the men said while rolling his eyes. "But our orders are clear – and you shouldn't even be wandering the halls."
"We're going to have to insist that you enter the isolation room behind you until we hear otherwise." The other man added, nodding in the said direction.
"I. Don't. Think. We. Made. Ourselves. CLEAR!" Jonas' voice rang out in the corridor as he seamlessly swung his arm across the jaws of the two men, knocking them instantly to the ground with superhuman force.
Just as he did this, however, the two SFs from outside the infirmary rounded the corner and positioned themselves on each side of the corridor, weapons trained on the rogue Kelownan.
"Get down on the ground!" One of them shouted, his weapon shaking silently as the man they had hoped was really Jonas turned slowly to look at him, his eyes glistening with the infection within.
"You will not succeed in quashing our force." The Gas hissed at them arrogantly. "We are destined to rediscover our position as dominant beings; we will not make the same mistakes we did last time; we will prevai-"
The last word was cut off as one of the previously unconscious SFs managed to get to his feet and strike Jonas sharply in the back of the neck with his weapon. Despite the superhuman strength afforded by the presence of the Gas, the human physiology couldn't escape its weaknesses. Jonas dropped instantly to the ground, unconscious.
Sam was brought abruptly back to consciousness by both the kerfuffle that was clearly audible in the corridor, and the fact that Jack was moving next to her, standing up slowly to move towards the door and listen to what was happening. Her sluggish mind managed to engage enough with her surroundings in time to hear a dangerous-sounding Jonas apparently incapacitated with a loud thud.
She raised her head slightly, surprised to find that she still felt herself, and cleared her throat. Jack turned around to look at her with lightening speed, but there was no fear in his eyes. He didn't seem to be apprehensive of whether he would find her or the Gas in her body. Instead, he moved towards her and sat next to her with absolute faith.
"Wait." Sam sat up next to him, grasping his arm with her hands and looking straight into his eyes. "Check my eyes and skin."
Jack looked at her with a smile before shaking his head slightly and kissing her softly on the lips. "You're you." He said before again getting up and moving towards the door.
As he did so, the heavy metal slab abruptly opened towards him and he was faced with at least 5 SFs, their weapons trained on him.
"Colonels." One of them said in a cold voice. "Forgive the imposition, but we need to check your vitals before proceeding."
"Huh?"
"Of course airman." Sam said, able to think much more clearly than Jack at this point, despite her sleepy state. She stood up to stand next to Jack and they both waited patiently while the men examined their eyes and tested their skin.
"What's happened?" She asked briskly, once everyone seemed satisfied that they were who they said they were.
"I'd say someone got a bit impertinent." Jack said mildly as he leant out of the door just in time to see some of the men dragging Jonas into another one of the isolation cells.
As Sam came out into the corridor to survey the situation, the sound of running footsteps alerted them to an extremely worried Stacey who was powering down the hall, the tell-tale sign of Janet's high heels clipping briskly behind her.
"Is he…?" she began asking, before stopping to just watch as Jonas was deposited on the bed and the door closed on him.
"He's been compromised." Sam confirmed with a curt nod. "But we'll fix it," She said hastily, "I don't know why, but I'm feeling clearer than I did before."
"Really?" Janet said, surprised. "I'm feeling worse," she shook her head slowly. "It's like there's this feeling inside that is against my will – and I feel it getting stronger."
"That's what I felt!" Sam said enthusiastically, "but when I woke up I felt somehow stronger within myself, my resolve is better. I'm becoming more like me."
"It's a pity the same can't be said for Jonas." Jack murmured quietly, looking through the small reinforced glass window in the door of the isolation cell.
Sam looked from Jack to Stacey quietly, deep in thought. It had just occurred to her that neither of them had yet presented any of the symptoms that seemed to be plaguing the rest of the base. Even the SFs present in the corridor were showing mild flu-like symptoms which were probably early stages of the bronchial entry infection.
"Stacey," she said slowly. "Have you started feeling any of the effects yet?" When the Aussie indicated that she hadn't, she turned to Jack, who also shook his head – although in his eyes there seemed to be none of the confusion that graced everyone else's.
"So neither you nor Colonel O'Neill have been affected at all." Janet said forcefully, taking a step forward to look into the Captain's eyes. "What are you thinking Sam?"
"Well, we know that these two have something in their genetic structure that differentiates them from the rest of us…" Sam began, shrugging slightly. She hoped that this meant they wouldn't be infected, but didn't know for sure.
"I think we're immune." Jack surprised everyone by speaking quite confidently on the matter. "Daniel dropped in." He said while smiling slyly, to explain his sudden insight. "He wasn't much help, but he did say that maybe you ladies would be able to make something of it…" Suddenly realising something, he grimaced to himself before looking to Janet with woe. "This means needles doesn't it?" He said ruefully, nodding his head slowly with resignation when Janet nodded, smiling at him with amusement.
"Well, let's go figure it out." Stacey said with conviction, before leading the troupe down the hall towards the already full infirmary.
Jack lagged behind them, in full knowledge of the importance but unable to get excited about the promise of being jabbed and poked.
"So what else did Daniel say?" Sam said while quietly tugging at his arm and getting him to move with the rest of them. "You should have woken me up – I would have liked to see him."
Jack looked up quickly and met Sam's eyes, remembering Daniel's final words to him. Congratulations for what? He saw the surprise in her features at his reaction but quickly settled his expression to avoid further questions. "Ah y'know, he'd love to visit more but being all high-and-mighty takes up a lotta time… that kinda thing."
Sam simply nodded, slipping her hand into Jack's as they moved through the eerily empty corridors. As she felt better within herself, the Gas realised they were losing their grip. They vainly tried to communicate the breach to the only fully formed colony but found that their capacities for communication had even been compromised. A change in the host body was making it harder for them to coordinate, harder for them to infiltrate. They felt the biochemical make-up of Sam take control in a way that they had always dreaded. With one final effort, they mustered all their strength in a short-range communication to the forming colony in the doctor. Their host must be eliminated; as should be Colonel O'Neill and Captain Hindmarsh.
To be continued…
A/N: The title of this chap is from a Gaelic proverb - "Some of the sweetest berries grow among the sharpest thorns" This and other sections of the chap are indicating some changes - good and bad - in the state of play... I wonder what you all think they are?
Despite my busy schedule, a sure-fire way to speed up my posting is to review!