Wednesday, April 21
Reality L583

"Unscheduled offworld activation."

Jack was just coming out of Carter's lab when he heard the announcement. He hurried to the control room and joined Hammond behind the consoles watching the gate whoosh on.

Sgt. Harriman shook his head. "No sir, there's no signal," he said, apparently in response to a question Jack hadn't heard.

"Damn. Close the iris."

The metal barrier sealed itself across the opening, and Jack glanced over to see Hammond gazing unhappily at the stargate. "What is it, sir?"

"SG-13 is six hours late for contact. There have been several offworld activations, but there haven't been any signals. We've tried calling them several times, but we haven't had any luck so far. We can't even contact the MALP."

Jack looked at the gate. Ordinarily he wouldn't have had to be told that information by this point. Ordinarily, he'd have known about it for hours. He was ears deep in his worry about Daniel, but that was no excuse for neglecting his duties. "Where were they?"

Hammond opened his mouth to respond, but Harriman spoke suddenly. "I'm getting a signal, sir, it's SG-13."

"Open the iris," Hammond ordered immediately. The metal panels spiraled out, and Jack heard Harriman give the all clear to the team on the other side. People started coming through and Hammond immediately turned to go down to the gate room. Jack followed close behind.

Dave Dixon, whose rank of Lt. Colonel was so new it still squeaked when he turned around quickly, stumbled through the gate with his archeologist hanging off his shoulder. Cameron Balinsky had blood all down his right leg from a wound that seemed, from the torn fabric, to be on his hip, but he was managing to support himself with Dixon's help. The other two team members were already at the base of the ramp, being tended by Fraiser and her team. Burns and broken bones, it looked like. Both Dixon and Balinsky looked slightly scorched as well, and Balinsky had a head injury. A couple of medics came and collected the archeologist and Dixon presented himself in front of the general.

"What happened, Dixon?" Hammond asked.

"A volcanic eruption about three miles out from the gate, sir."

"Good lord!" Hammond exclaimed. "Did it cut you off, or what? What took you so long?"

"We dialed home seven or eight times, but we never got the confirmation of our code. Balinsky was unconscious, and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. Timmons finally figured out that our radio signals were being blocked by electromagnetic interference from the volcano. When Balinsky came to, he suggested we go through to P3X-797."

"The Land of Light," Hammond said and Dixon nodded.

"We did, and I guess the GDO worked from there."

"Good," Hammond said. "Well, you'd better get yourself and your team to the infirmary pronto."

"Thank you, sir."

"We'll debrief when you're ready."

Dixon nodded and trailed after his team, going straight to the gurney where Balinsky had been placed. The way the archeologist looked up and teased his commanding officer brought a lump to Jack's throat. Dixon began to harry the medics and Jack had to turn away and go back upstairs to the control room.

Hammond came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. "My office, colonel." Jack followed Hammond into his office and took a seat when directed to. "Jack, are you all right?"

Jack looked up and shook his head. "No, I don't think so, sir. There's a version of me out there torturing our Daniel, and we're no closer than we were a week ago to finding him."

"What about Captain Carter's experiments?"

"I found her crying in her lab earlier today and sent her to Fraiser. I haven't heard back from the good doctor, but I think we can safely say that she hasn't found anything."

Hammond sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I suppose you're right. How's the foreign Dr. Jackson holding up?"

"He's holding up," Jack said. "He's translating like a demon. I guess it keeps his mind off things."

"Like a pair of two-year-olds," Hammond muttered. "Now we're left with hoping that Maybourne shows up tomorrow."

"And the last person I want to count on is Maybourne, no matter whose he is."

"One can at least hope that he's as much unlike our Harry Maybourne as you are unlike their Jack O'Neill."

"Indeed."

Reality A001

Samantha left to get Daniel's lunch, but on the way there she found her way obstructed by Lt. Colonel Maybourne. "I enjoyed coffee with you last week, Lt. Carter. I wouldn't mind seeing you again sometime."

She gave him an incredulous look. "I . . . I see. Thanks, but no thanks."

"It could be fun," he suggested, taking a step closer to her, and Samantha was ready to slug him one.

"Sir, I'm really not interested," she said.

He shrugged. "No skin off my nose," he replied and headed away down the hall.

Struggling to remember how she'd reacted the last time someone had hit on her obnoxiously, she rolled her eyes and walked down to the kitchen, keeping her expression sour. She had expected a note or something, so that had been a little startling. She fetched Daniel's lunch and wondered just how she was going to get out of spending the afternoon with the archeologist, but when she got to the room, she found that Colonel O'Neill was already there. Unlike so many occasions in the past, despite the fact that O'Neill had roughed him up the previous day, Daniel seemed comfortable in his presence. She gave up trying to figure men out and left the tray. She headed down to the same level as Maybourne's office and went to the restroom. She had a phase shifter on her already today, in case of need. Activating it, she went to Maybourne's office where she found him ready and waiting for her.

"Good afternoon, my dear. How badly is Dr. Jackson's arm broken?"

"We don't know yet," she said. "Hammond hasn't allowed him to be x-rayed."

"Well, he'll want the man's arm in working order, so he'll have to do it by this time tomorrow, I suspect."

"Lovely," she said sourly. "Is that what you brought me here for?"

"No," he replied. "I'm going to the alternate reality your Daniel is from tomorrow, and they'll want news of their man. Is there anything I need to know? Has our Colonel O'Neill done anything to him? I do know that the broken arm wasn't his fault."

"He roughed him up a bit yesterday, but nothing serious," she said, blinking. "You're actually going there tomorrow?"

"I am."

"Ask them if it would be better for their Daniel to know that we're trying to get him home, or if it would be better for him not to know." She bit her lip. "He's . . . he was awfully willing to let Hammond kill him rather than translate that Jaffa thing yesterday."

"I'll ask," Maybourne said. "I'm not sure how you'd go about telling him."

"I was actually thinking you could get the Daniel they have to translate a note into Goa'uld or something that I could mix into a project I take him."

"That's not a bad thought," he said. "I'll suggest it if they think he needs boosting. Can you tell me what his mood is like?"

"More than a little alarmed, but right now he seems almost comfortable with the colonel. I think he thinks he knows what to expect from him."

"Does he know?" Maybourne seemed almost to be asking himself, but she answered anyway.

"How should I know? I don't understand either of them, or our original Daniel. How that man could think being beaten up repeatedly was a sign of friendship is beyond me."

"I'd say it's a guy thing, but I'm sure you've heard that before and know it for the bullshit it is." He grinned at her expression. "It's very simple, there is a very similar abusive relationship in our Daniel's past. Because of that previous experience, when O'Neill started smacking him around, I suspect it made him feel safe and cared for. It's unfortunate, but it's all too common for abused children to enter into abusive relationships as adults, either as the abuser or the abused."

"Abusive relationship?" she asked, astonished. "What abusive relationship? Wait, you're not suggesting that they are . . ." She couldn't say it, the idea was so absurd.

"Of course not," he said. "I'm merely suggesting that they were in an abusive relationship, which you are already on record as agreeing with."

"But what abusive relationship? What do you know that I don't?"

"I'm afraid that information we have gleaned about Dr. Jackson's private life is just that, private."

"He's dead!"

"Even so, we plan to bring him back. It would hardly be appropriate for me to violate his privacy in that way."

"Sir, if there is an explanation for the behavior that led to Daniel's death, I want to know what I need to do to prevent the same thing from happening again."

Maybourne looked perplexed. "I had never intended that the two men should meet again. It would probably be best for them to be kept apart."

"I don't think that's going to happen, sir," she said. "They're like brothers, and the reason Colonel O'Neill is so crazy is that he feels guilty for what happened. They'll need counseling, but they'll also need each other."

"I figured we'd put Dr. Jackson in another facility to do his work. I mean, it would be –"

"Imprisonment," she said incredulously. "What, were you planning to do the same thing with our Daniel that we've been doing with the others? Absolutely not! If there's one thing this experience has taught me, it's that holding Daniel prisoner is a bad idea."

"Are you saying that Dr. Jackson would view it as imprisonment if he were not permitted to see his murderer?"

She rolled her eyes. "He won't think of Colonel O'Neill as his murderer. He'll say it was an accident."

"In the strictest sense, I suppose it is," Maybourne said slowly. "Manslaughter, but still, he was killed by that man."

"By his actions, perhaps, but Daniel won't blame the colonel. He'll say that Colonel O'Neill was just looking out for him, that he just gets carried away sometimes when he's worried, he doesn't mean anything by it." She shook her head. "He told me, two days before he died that Colonel O'Neill would never really hurt him."

"That's insane!" Maybourne protested.

She gave him an irritated look. "I thought you were the one who understood all this abused child stuff."

"I do," he said in a subdued voice. "That doesn't make it any less insane."

"Well, take it from me, they may both of them need some kind of help to avoid falling into the same patterns, but they will not be okay with being separated. You might, maybe, be able to convince Colonel O'Neill that it was for Daniel's safety, but you'd never convince Daniel. And we have positive proof that he's the most stubborn man alive in any reality."

"Nothing is set in stone as of yet," he replied. "You will, of course, be part of the decision making process, being the only sane person who knows the two of them well enough to have sound judgment in this area."

"I'm glad to hear it," she said, noting that 'part of the decision making process' was a fairly meaningless phrase. She'd have to push him later to discover just what he meant. "Is there anything else you need from me?"

"What is Dr. Jackson's mood like? That may be something they'll need to know on the other side."

She pursed her lips. "Well, I told you he was frighteningly willing for Hammond to kill him yesterday, but our Daniel would have reacted the same way from what I understand."

"Hammond wouldn't have killed him no matter what. That was a test from start to finish. He wanted to see whether Jackson's will was broken or not. He got the clear message that it most definitely was not. I'm not altogether sure that's a good thing, but it should have the benefit of putting off any possible offworld missions for a bit longer."

She blinked at this information, then shook her head. "That's not the point. Daniel didn't know it was a test, and he was willing to be killed rather than translate that document."

"I'm really not sure I should tell them that," Maybourne said, looking alarmed. "Carter, you aren't serious, he wouldn't have died rather than do it, would he?"

"Have you seen the video footage of the 'consequences,' as Hammond put it, sir?" He shook his head. "Hammond told him he could translate the document or have his arm broken. He calmly asked which arm, then extended the relevant one when Hammond told him." Maybourne's eyebrows rose. "He would have died. I guarantee you. So would ours, and so would any of the other five that we've had here. They are all stubborn idiots with strong moral codes."

"Anything else?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so. I mean, what good would it do? I suppose you could tell them that Daniel has done every project they've given him so far until the one that would have ended in the death of a thousand innocent Jaffa, but I don't know what it would mean to them, precisely."

"Has Daniel gotten any medical attention for that arm?"

"Just some ice I got and what the colonel did."

"What the colonel did?"

"He splinted it and jury-rigged a sling. I really hope Hammond doesn't get mad about it, but we couldn't just leave him like that."

"I see. The colonel did that?"

"Yes sir," she said. "He's . . . you probably shouldn't tell them this, but he's kind of going in and out of a delusional state. He keeps thinking that this Daniel is our Daniel. It's very disconcerting."

"I'd imagine," Maybourne said, seeming very uneasy. "Just how crazy is O'Neill?"

"It's hard to guess, sir," she said. "And Hammond just feeds it, so it's not getting any better."

"Well, if Hammond keeps attacking a man that O'Neill thinks is the original Daniel from this reality, while simultaneously pumping O'Neill full of drugs to make him more violent and aggressive, Hammond is going to catch himself a severe case of death."

"Yes sir, I had noticed that," she replied.

"I will contact you again soon. Probably not tomorrow, because I'll be going through the mirror."

"I'm supposed to have dinner with the colonel tomorrow night," she said, feeling like a traitor. "Is there anything you need to know from him?"

"Nothing leaps to mind at the moment," he said. "But let me know if you find out anything that seems important."

"Of course," she replied. "I'd better go. Someone may be looking for me soon."

"I will see you on Friday, then," he said. "With news from the other reality."

"How do you intend to get him home?" she asked.

"It became considerably more complicated with the introduction of the bomb into his body. We may have to eliminate Hammond first, and that will take planning."

"Right," she said. "Let me know, and I'll tell you if I learn anything useful."

He nodded and she left, heading to the restroom. She had to wait for five minutes for the stall she wanted to open up, but then she headed for her lab immediately. She'd better get her work done so Hammond didn't get upset with her.

Once Daniel had finished eating, Jack took his tray away and gave it to one of the guards outside. Daniel looked over at him. "Is there any chance I could go for a walk sometime soon? Even just through the halls. It would be nice to see walls other than these for a change."

"I don't know, Danny," Jack said. "We'll see what Hammond wants to do about your x-rays."

Daniel bit his lip, then nodded. He hadn't even considered that they'd have to take him out of here for medical treatment. Unless they had a portable x-ray machine. He sighed and got to work. He didn't want to think about that.

"You need to take a break, Danny," Jack said.

"I just did," Daniel replied. "I ate lunch." He was aching and tired, but the end of this damned monument was in sight, and he wanted to finish it.

"Danny . . ."

"Jack, I don't want to stop. Hammond's only putting up with me because I'm useful. I've got to stay useful."

"He also said you could take today off, didn't he?"

"Only because of the arm."

"Come on, Danny, beat me at chess a couple times. It's been a long time since we've played."

"If Hammond gets angry, it will be at me, Jack."

"He won't get angry, Danny. It'll be fine."

Daniel let himself be persuaded. He also let himself be persuaded to play the game from his bed. Jack got his arm out of the sling and packed it in ice. "This is pretty awkward, Jack," he said, but Jack propped him up on pillows so he was at a better angle to see the board.

He fell asleep shortly after he checkmated Jack and dreamed that he was in a dungeon somewhere being tortured. When he awoke, he found that Jack had covered him with a spare blanket. The man himself was across the room, reading a book that Daniel hadn't seen in the office before. It was a bright red paperback, but Daniel couldn't make out the title because his glasses were off.

He couldn't see the clock clearly from where he was, but he guessed he'd been asleep for awhile. "Jack?" he said.

"Daniel." Jack got up and came across the room immediately. "You okay? You need anything?"

"A large shot of morphine might be nice."

Jack chuckled. "Funny, too. You on morphine is hysterical."

Daniel squinted up at him. "That's not my fault," he said. "Can I have my glasses?"

Jack handed them to him and said, "So, you want to play another game of chess?"

"Not sure I can. I'm kind of sleepy still."

"Well, if you're too sleepy for chess, you're definitely too sleepy for work."

"Work. I should work," Daniel said muzzily.

"Damn it, I shouldn't have mentioned that," Jack muttered. "Here, why don't I read to you for awhile."

"Can you?" Daniel asked.

"Can I what?"

"Read."

"You're even a smart ass when you're half asleep," Jack complained. "Do you need another pillow?"

"I'm good," Daniel said. "But I really should get back to work."

"You're done for today," Jack said. "Lay back and listen."

Daniel listened as Jack started reading to him. It was a melodramatic murder mystery, and Jack gave it his all. Daniel found himself very amused by the gusto with which Jack read the story. He had difficulty imagining his own Jack getting quite so enthusiastic. He was still reading about forty-five minutes later when Samantha came in with his dinner. She actually brought in a rolling table with three trays on it and pulled the desk chair over to join them.

It felt oddly homelike until he recalled that he was locked in here and couldn't go back to his own reality. Occasionally it was very difficult to remember that Jack and Samantha were his jailers since they resembled his own friends so nearly. And it didn't help that they were almost the only people he'd seen. Samantha was the only person he'd seen in more than two weeks who was consistently nice to him.

His world was narrowing, inevitably, to the work and the people he saw. He needed to get out of here. Much longer and he was going to have a hell of a time returning to normal. Habits form amazingly quickly, but breaking out of them can take years.

The lights dimmed and they left him alone, though Jack promised that he would check on him periodically during the night. Despite all that had happened, that made Daniel feel safer. He disregarded the thought that told him he should resist such feelings and went to sleep.

Thursday, April 22
Reality L583

When Jack walked into Carter's lab, he found that she'd wired every monitoring device he'd ever seen and some others that he'd never seen before up to the mirror. Obviously she was preparing for Maybourne's promised second visit.

"I'm not going to miss anything this time," she said, reading his mind. "I've even got cameras recording in three different spectra."

"That's great, Carter," Jack said. "Um . . . he's going to need someplace to stand when he comes through."

She glared at him, then started shifting things around so that there would be space. He wondered how early the man would show up. He'd just said he'd be back in a week.

"Do you think that's enough room?" she asked after a few minutes.

"I think so," he said, gazing at the open space. "I really hope he has Daniel with him this time."

Carter gave him a worried look. "I don't think he will, sir," she said. "I got the impression that he was having difficulty getting close to him."

He shook his head. "I know. I don't expect him to, I just . . . it would be nice."

She smiled sadly. "It would be nice."

"I wish I knew what to make of this," Jack said. "I don't like the thought that Daniel may come back afraid of me."

"I don't think that's likely," she said. "I mean, you're you and he's him." She blinked. "Um . . . I mean . . ."

He snorted. "I know what you mean, Carter. But Daniel will still have spent two weeks getting beaten up on by someone who looks and sounds an awful lot like me. If I come on our guest Daniel unawares, he still sometimes flinches away from me."

"But you're still not his Colonel O'Neill. It may make a difference, sir."

"I suppose." Jack sat down and gazed unhappily into the mirror. "I want our Daniel back and that Daniel home."

Carter nodded and started hooking yet another monitor up to the mirror. Jack suddenly found himself looking at a reflective surface that nevertheless did not reflect the room around him. Harry Maybourne stepped into view, looked at someone who must be behind the mirror on his end, and then looked at him. He made a clear gesture requesting permission to come through. Jack nodded.

A moment later Maybourne was in the room with him and the mirror winked out. Carter looked up and gave a little start of surprise. "Good morning," Maybourne said.

"Hello," Carter replied.

"Did you get what you needed?" Jack asked Carter. She nodded mutely, and Jack turned to Maybourne. "How much time to you have?"

"About six hours today. Someone will reactivate the mirror at approximately thirteen-forty this afternoon."

"Did you bring specs or a controller with you?" Carter asked.

"I'm afraid not," he said. "I put your request in, but they haven't ruled on it yet."

"Damn."

Maybourne was looking around the lab, eyes wide. "Good heavens, you've filled this room up a bit, haven't you?" Maybourne said, glancing around.

"I'm learning everything I can about this thing," Carter said. "Without a controller . . ."

Maybourne nodded. "Well, where is General Hammond?"

"I'd better call him," Jack said, reaching toward the phone.

"Just a moment," Maybourne said. "This may seem like an odd question, but how does your General Hammond feel about Dr. Jackson? On a personal level?"

"He's very fond of him," Jack said.

Maybourne's brows raised. "That's just so . . . different," he said, shaking his head.

"Why?" Carter asked. "How does your Hammond feel about Daniel?"

"First of all, he's not my Hammond," Maybourne said sharply. Carter blinked and looked uncomfortable. "And second, he despises Dr. Jackson. He'd be just as happy to do without him if he could, but he didn't realize how much he needed the man's skills until he was already dead and past recall."

"And he's in charge of the SGC?" Jack asked.

"He is."

"Great. Look, I need to call Hammond . . ." Jack blinked. "Our Hammond. You say you're here for six hours?" The other man nodded and Jack went to the phone. Hammond said he'd be down in a few minutes, and Jack hung up. He turned back to the others. "Carter, is anyone using the lab next door?"

"No sir. This is kind of out of the way."

"Right, then we're going next door. There's nowhere to sit down in here. Let the general know and come in with him when he gets here."

"Of course, sir," she said, and Jack ushered Maybourne out into the hall and down to the next lab.

Jack gestured for Maybourne to sit down, then called Rothman. They'd started allowing the second archeologist in to see the visiting Daniel because it was easier for Daniel to communicate his needs for secondary source materials directly to the other academic. He asked Rothman to relieve Teal'c and send him on. Teal'c had been mightily disgruntled to miss Maybourne's visit the previous Thursday, Jack wasn't going to make him miss this one, too.

"So how's Daniel?" Jack asked. Obviously he was still alive, or Maybourne would probably not have bothered to show up, but he still had to know.

"That's actually something I wanted to talk to you about at length," Maybourne said. "But it had probably better wait until everyone's here." Jack pursed his lips, dissatisfied. "He's alive, colonel."

"But is he well?" Jack asked.

"That depends on your definition," Maybourne replied. Jack wanted more answers, but obviously he wasn't going to get them just now.

Hammond and Carter showed up first, and Jack sent for coffee. "What are we waiting for?" Maybourne asked after a moment.

"The other member of SG-1," Jack replied.

"Kowalski?" Maybourne asked.

"Um . . . no, Major Kowalski is dead." Carter glanced uneasily at Jack who had stiffened at the name. "For nearly two years, and he was never on SG-1. He had his own command, SG-2."

"I see. Then who –"

The door opened and they all turned to see Teal'c enter. Maybourne jumped to his feet in apparent alarm. "It's a Jaffa!" he exclaimed, fumbling for a weapon that wasn't on his belt.

"Yes, we know," Jack said. "Teal'c, this is Lt. Colonel Maybourne. Maybourne, this is Teal'c, the other member of SG-1."

To his credit, Maybourne relaxed very quickly. "I see. You're not First Prime of Apophis?"

"I was," Teal'c said with admirable aplomb. "But I have joined with the Tau'ri in their fight against the Goa'uld, the false gods."

"Okay," Maybourne said. "Well, then, now can we get down to business?"

"Of course," Hammond said. "What have you got to tell us?"

"Well, first of all, I now have a contact who can actually get in to see Dr. Jackson. Lt. Carter has finally agreed to help out."

"Lt. Carter?" Hammond repeated. "Would that be Samantha Carter?"

"Yes sir," Maybourne said. "She was demoted about a year ago for suggesting that her superior officer might have been abusing one of his subordinates. The fact that the man later killed his subordinate doesn't seem to have altered anyone's opinions any."

"Are you saying your Colonel O'Neill killed your Daniel?" Carter asked, looking appalled.

"Yes," Maybourne said grimly. Jack felt his gut clench. That was the man who had their Daniel in his power. "It was an accident, in truth, but if Carter's warning had been heeded, Dr. Jackson would probably not have died."

"The man he half killed and left for dead here was no accident," Hammond said. "How is our Daniel?"

"I'm getting to that. I think you should have a little background so that you'll understand the situation as it's playing out." Jack contained his desire to strangle information out of their guest and Hammond nodded sharply for him to go on. "During the several missions to Abydos that followed the initial activation of the stargate, Dr. Jackson and Colonel O'Neill became quite close, rather like brothers, and –"

"Several missions to Abydos?" Jack asked.

Maybourne knit his brows. "Fascinating as it might be to go into the details of how our realities differ, colonel, I think we should stick to the point for now."

Jack crossed his arms and grimaced. "Go on," he said.

Maybourne nodded. "Like brothers, they tended to roughhouse a bit, but it was nothing more than you'd see between two male friends ordinarily. It seemed perfectly normal at first." Jack nodded, finding this more than a little weird. He had difficulty imagining himself roughhousing with Daniel. "But both men had physical abuse in their backgrounds, and that led both of them into dangerous areas. Jackson would do something foolish, and it would worry O'Neill, who would respond as an abusive father or older brother might. This, too, might have been relatively harmless, but for other developments at the SGC."

"That doesn't sound relatively harmless to me!" Jack exclaimed.

"Bruises, colonel," Maybourne said. "Black eyes. Nothing serious, nothing remotely close to life threatening."

Hammond gave Jack a stern look and he subsided again. He wanted to know how Daniel was, and this wasn't sounding promising.

"What were the other developments?" Carter asked.

"The other Hammond, the Hammond from my reality, is an unmitigated bastard." Jack's brows rose at this bluntness. Hammond just waited patiently for Maybourne to go on. "He wants results, period, and results for him means getting as much alien technology to help us fight the Goa'uld as possible, and damn the consequences. And since he has backing all the way up to the Oval Office, there's not much anyone can do to stop him."

"And?" Carter asked.

"Once a week, every member of the SGC gets a vitamin shot. The theory is that they're all active people without a lot of time, and this guarantees that they won't get sick as readily as they might given that they don't eat as regularly as they should." Jack blinked. He could just imagine Janet Fraiser's reaction to that suggestion. "Unfortunately, it has become a means of controlling the mood and behavior of those who aren't performing up to Hammond's standards."

"Good lord!" Hammond exclaimed. "Are you telling me that he's drugging his people?"

Maybourne nodded. "It's tailored to the individual. For example, Lt. Carter is getting depressants to make her more apathetic, less inclined to take action when she sees things that should be changed. Not enough to hinder her scientific reasoning, but enough to remove her impetus to act." Jack glanced at Carter who looked as if she felt ill. "Before he died, Dr. Jackson was given a similar mixture. Hammond never liked his tendency to sympathize with the people SG-1 met, and he didn't approve of the influence Jackson's pacifist beliefs had on Colonel O'Neill."

"What about your me?" Jack asked.

"That's the key. Colonel O'Neill was given drugs to stimulate aggression and violent behavior. This made it less likely that he would give in to Dr. Jackson's pressure to be nice to people, and it also gave him strong motivation to get what he wanted no matter what the cost."

"And had the added side effect of making him even more likely to beat Daniel into pulp," Carter said, sounding horrified.

"An already unhealthy relationship was intensified, the abuser becoming more aggressive and the abused becoming more passive. This set the stage for Dr. Jackson's death, which was genuinely an accident."

"So, what about the additional Daniels?" Jack asked. "How do they come into the picture, and what reason does this Jack have for beating the holy hell out of them?"

"That's a bit more complicated. Hammond, as I said, had no use for Dr. Jackson until after he was dead. Once he realized how much Dr. Jackson actually did for the program, he became very angry and demanded to know what they were going to do without him. O'Neill snapped mentally. He was racked with grief and guilt, and he remembered the transdimensional mirror. They stole their first Daniel, and problems started almost immediately."

"He wasn't their Daniel," Jack said. "O'Neill wasn't able to make it up to him, because he wasn't the right man and all he wanted to do was go home."

Maybourne nodded. "And that set the pattern. The new Daniel would work for a time, but he'd keep trying to convince people to let him go home, O'Neill would eventually lose his temper, and they'd go out to find a new Daniel. Meanwhile, Hammond is demanding results yesterday, and looking himself for a Daniel that can be molded to his way of thinking."

"Are you trying to tell us that your O'Neill is not responsible for his actions?" Teal'c asked in deadly tones.

Maybourne looked at him uneasily. "No, I'm not. He's certainly responsible for the way his friendship with Dr. Jackson developed, and he made some piss poor choices, but at this point he has lost his mind. He has brief moments of lucidity, but . . . let me tell this in order. The answer, Teal'c, is both yes and no. There are things he's responsible for, but he didn't know he was being drugged, so the influence of the drugs was beyond his control."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, looking unconvinced, but Hammond nodded for Maybourne to go on.

"So, now we come to your Daniel. He has not followed the same pattern as the others. He has fallen into the correct behaviors to fit with O'Neill's preconceptions of how Daniel should act, and he has managed to keep O'Neill calm and non-abusive for the most part."

"How?" Jack asked.

"I don't know a lot of details. I haven't seen him, and I haven't seen the video footage. Lt. Carter says it's like he knows what to expect from him. I don't really understand why, but I don't know your Daniel."

"So, Daniel hasn't been hurt?" Jack raised an eyebrow. That didn't sound very much like the O'Neill the other Daniel had described.

"I wouldn't say that," Maybourne said. "What I do know is that Dr. Jackson has not rebelled for the most part. He's done every project they've asked of him, and on the first night he saved the lives of a team that was trapped on a planet where the natives had decided to kill them all to propitiate an angry god and stop an earthquake." Jack blinked. That was Daniel for you. Kidnapped from his own reality, probably smacked around a bit, and still he saved the other guys' teams from nasty deaths.

"Why wouldn't he rebel?" Carter asked. "He's incredibly stubborn. What are they asking him to do?"

"For the most part it's been garden variety translations. Nothing of immediate military significance, a couple of things that were merely socially significant. There was no reason for him to object to any of it, until yesterday." That last word felt like a portent of doom. Jack gulped.

"What did they give him yesterday?" Hammond asked.

"Hammond – the other Hammond . . ." Maybourne looked at the general to see how he was reacting. Hammond gave an impatient nod. "Hammond decided to give him a little test, to see how acclimated he was." Maybourne looked sour. "He's been so submissive that I think Hammond was hoping that they'd be able to get him to do whatever they wanted. He gave Dr. Jackson an intelligence report that was a clear plan to attack a town full of ordinary Jaffa, no guards, no Goa'ulds, just women, children and old men."

Carter's eyes widened and her hand came up to cover her mouth. Teal'c looked a touch more stoic than usual. Hammond blinked a couple of times, and Jack said, "How bad is the damage?"

"O'Neill roughed him up a bit, I'm told, but Carter said it was nothing serious, and I'd guess he gave up trying to persuade him. Then Hammond gave him a choice. Do it or have his arm broken."

"Which arm?" Jack asked.

"Left," Maybourne said. "Carter says he simply extended it and let them do it."

"That's Daniel," Jack said grimly. "So, he's got a broken arm."

"Yes," Maybourne said. "Now there are a couple of other things. Carter is concerned. She said that he was completely willing to let Hammond kill him rather than translate that report. She thinks that he might be less willing to sacrifice himself if he knew that we're working on getting him home, but there's no way for her to tell him that because he's monitored and recorded round the clock."

"How could we help?" Hammond asked.

"If you could get the Jackson here to write a note in Goa'uld or some other language that only Jackson can read, Carter could get that in to him in one of the projects she takes him to work on. That's the only way we can come up with, and since he's the only one in that reality who can read most of those languages, we don't have any way to write it there."

"I don't think we should take this to that Daniel," Carter said, and Jack shook his head.

"I agree. We haven't even told him about you. Didn't want to get his hopes up or make him wonder if we were negotiating to give him back in exchange for our Daniel." Maybourne nodded pensively. "But as it happens, he's not the only one here who can write in Goa'uld."

"No indeed," Teal'c said. "What should the message say?"

"Don't get your fool ass killed," Jack said.

"I shall attempt to paraphrase," Teal'c replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Is the General Hammond of your reality actually likely to kill him?" Hammond asked. "The others have merely been beaten badly and traded out."

Maybourne took a deep breath, and the disquiet in his expression alarmed Jack deeply. "Your Dr. Jackson has been extraordinarily cooperative, not complaining about his treatment or his captivity too much. He has kept Colonel O'Neill on an even keel, no mean feat I can assure you. And he has broken records as far as productivity goes. Hammond plans to keep him, but he believes, quite accurately I'd imagine, that he needs a way to control him."

Jack straightened slowly in his chair. "Just how does he plan to control him?" Maybourne's brows rose and he leaned away from the hostility Jack was radiating.

"He's had a tiny bomb surgically implanted in Dr. Jackson's chest, right next to his heart."

The silence in the lab was impenetrable for a moment. "A bomb?" Jack repeated, feeling the cold fires of his rage stoking higher.

"Yes, with a remote control that we haven't been able to locate or identify. All we know for certain is that it's in Hammond's possession."

Carter looked stunned, and Teal'c's eyes had narrowed. Hammond's cold soldier mask had dropped into place. "It doesn't seem very practical to kill a man he's gone to so much trouble to acquire."

"Ah, but Hammond has it firmly in mind that Dr. Jackson is completely replaceable, and if he can't have this one, no one will."

"This complicates a rescue attempt," Jack said.

"You put your finger right on the crux of the matter," Maybourne said. "And one of the biggest complications. We can't risk attempting rescue without careful planning. He's closely monitored, and Hammond is a greedy, vengeful moron who will kill what he can't keep. According to what I've been told, he's set it up so that if Dr. Jackson were to escape during an offworld mission, all they'd have to do is activate the remote control though the gate and he would be dead."

"My God," Carter murmured. "What would make someone do that to Daniel?"

"An overriding need to dominate," Teal'c said abruptly. "Such a man would see DanielJackson as nothing more than an asset to be controlled, and discarded if it does not meet expectations." Maybourne nodded agreement, and Jack scowled. No one could control Daniel. He was a force of nature.

"Daniel will rebel, eventually, it's inevitable," Carter said. "What will happen then?"

"Probably another broken limb or something of that nature," Maybourne said. "As long as I have the mirror at Area 52, Hammond doesn't have the ability to seek a new Daniel." He grimaced. "And if the general requests it, we will conveniently 'lose track' of it."

"That's good to know," Hammond said.

"So you said 'one of the biggest complications.' What else is there?"

Maybourne sighed. "O'Neill's insanity. As I said earlier, he has moments of lucidity, when he knows that the man in the cell is a Daniel Jackson from another reality, but more and more frequently he's descending into a delusional state where he's convinced that the man they're holding is the Daniel Jackson from our reality. Shattering that illusion could be very dangerous. The man is still being pumped full of aggression enhancing drugs, and he's on a hair trigger."

"So if Daniel tries to convince him he's not from there . . ."

"The consequences could be devastating," Maybourne said, nodding. "But on the upside, Hammond's interference has pissed him off. O'Neill now wants to get rid of Hammond, and that could cause just the distraction we need."

"What kind of time frame are we talking about here?" Jack asked.

"Impossible to predict," Maybourne said. "But I've got Lt. Carter working with me, and she's working with O'Neill as well. She knows now that she's being drugged and is fighting against the influence. O'Neill has become very defensive of Dr. Jackson, and one can hope that will keep him from damaging him himself." Maybourne shrugged. "So that means Jackson got through to him." Jack raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Depending on your point of view," their guest qualified.

"That's not how abuse works," Jack said. "He may be very defensive of Daniel himself, but that won't stop him from . . ." He shook his head. "It's the 'my Odie' syndrome. 'I can hit him, but no one else can.'"

"Unfortunately, you may be right," Maybourne said. "Though the fact that Daniel Jackson is injured should have the effect of putting on the brakes for the time being at least."

"The broken arm," Jack said, closing his eyes. "Damn the man for not being practical."

"You cannot damn him for being himself, O'Neill," Teal'c said.

"I can damn him for anything I want to," Jack replied sourly. "Damn it! I want to string that bastard up by his ears and feed him to hungry iguanas!"

"I do not believe iguanas would attempt to eat something that large, even if it were hanging."

"Teal'c!" Jack exclaimed in pure exasperation.

The Jaffa opened his mouth but before he could speak Hammond said, "Never mind. Let me see if I've got this straight. Our Daniel Jackson has sustained a broken arm and miscellaneous bruises, and has a bomb implanted in his chest." The word 'bomb' reverberated with all the rage Hammond was suppressing. "Otherwise he is unhurt?"

"Yes," Maybourne said.

"Because of the bomb, you don't feel you can make concrete plans to retrieve him, but you now have an ally on the inside."

"Correct."

"Besides this note, what do you want from us?"

Maybourne shrugged. "Nothing at this point. I'm afraid there isn't much you can do, but I do need that note, and I wanted to keep you in the loop."

"I can't tell you how much we appreciate that," Hammond said, and Jack nodded. "What are your plans?"

"For the moment, I plan to pray," Maybourne said. "I can't even get onto the floor of the mountain where Dr. Jackson is being kept, Carter and I have to use phase shifting technology in order to meet, I got the news just this morning that Hammond had the doctor up O'Neill's last dose of aggression enhancing drugs on Tuesday . . . and I can't even guess what new crisis is going to develop tomorrow."

They were all silent for a moment. Jack thought about Daniel, alone and with a broken arm, locked in somewhere. "What are the conditions Daniel's being kept in?" he asked suddenly.

Maybourne reached out and took a piece of paper and sketched out a box. "The room he's being kept in is about ten by fifteen feet. He's got a single bed, which by the way is an enormous improvement over the cot that's been there in the past. O'Neill had it bought in while he was sick." He was sketching as he spoke. "There's a desk here, book cases along here and here. There's a bathroom here with a tub shower arrangement and a laundry chute here. His food is brought in daily by either Carter or O'Neill, or if they're offworld, by one of the airmen who –"

"Wait, are you saying that Daniel never gets out of this room?" Jack asked.

"The one time he was taken out of the room since he was brought there, he was unconscious the whole time. Warner refused to operate outside the confines of his sterile surgery."

"What about for the broken arm?" Carter asked.

Maybourne's expression darkened and Jack felt his eyes narrowing even before he spoke. "He hasn't been given medical treatment for the broken arm. Carter and O'Neill iced it, and O'Neill put together a makeshift splint, but no pain meds, not even an x-ray. I gather that Hammond wanted him to think about the consequences of refusal."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Your Hammond is an idiot!" he said. "I can think of few more certain ways to get Daniel to dig his heels in than that."

"Indeed," Teal'c said.

"I never said he wasn't an idiot," Maybourne said. "He's blinded by his greed and a desperate desire for advancement. President Kinsey seems likely to give –"

"Kinsey!" Jack and Hammond exclaimed together. Hammond gave Jack an alarmed look and then went on alone. "Robert Kinsey is the president in your reality?"

"What is he here? I figured he'd be some kind of sweetness and light goody two shoes." He looked at them. "From your expressions and tones, I'd guess I'm wrong."

"I guess that depends on your definition, colonel," Hammond said. "Here he's violently opposed to the stargate program and all it represents."

"Whereas in my reality he wants to march in and seize whole planets and convert them forcibly to the American way."

"Oh boy," Jack said, shaking his head.

"Here he succeeded in shutting us down right before the Goa'uld attempted to invade Earth," Carter said. "We only defeated them because Daniel con –" She broke off and Jack thought he saw the glint of tears in her eyes. "Because Daniel convinced us to take matters into our own hands and go through the gate anyway."

"I see," Maybourne said slowly. "Hammond sent a large strike force through the gate. None of them came back, but both ships were destroyed in orbit."

Carter blinked. "It was just the four of us."

"And Master Bray'tac," Teal'c said.

Carter gave an embarrassed cough. "I meant that it was only the four of us from the SGC," she said. "There were Bray'tac and all the other Jaffa who helped and died on the ships."

Teal'c graced her with that immensely respectful nod of his. "True, Captain Carter."

"The Jaffa helped you to defeat Apophis?" Maybourne asked incredulously.

"There are bound to be any number of differences between our realities," Hammond said. "As you said, that really isn't our focus just now."

"Of course," Maybourne said. "Any other questions? I know very little more about the care Jackson is receiving."

"You said your O'Neill didn't intend to kill his Daniel," Carter said. "How did it happen, then?"

"As I understand it, O'Neill was chastising him physically, the back of his head hit a door frame, and he refused to see the doctor. O'Neill put him to bed, and he was dead by morning." He must have seen Jack's expression, because he said, "You've got to understand, they were both participating. When Carter expressed concern, Hammond let it slip to the two of them, and they were both mad at her."

"They were co-dependent?" Carter asked.

"Very much so, and the drugs they were each being given reinforced that."

"As the stronger man, O'Neill should have controlled himself," Teal'c said grimly. "It was his responsibility."

"Well, regardless," Maybourne said, "is there anything else you want to know?"

"Have you figured out if you can send the other Daniels to their homes?" Jack asked. "There's a nice man here who wants to get back to his family."

"We will be able to, but we haven't got all the records yet. I've got someone getting them for me, but it may take time . . ." Maybourne puttered to a stop. "Wait, family? What family?"

"This fellow's Sha're wasn't taken," Jack said. "They have two kids."

Maybourne's eyes widened. "It's a damn good thing Hammond didn't know that. I don't know how O'Neill would have taken it, but Hammond would have gone and gotten them to use as hostage to that Daniel's good behavior." Jack shuddered at the thought of two-year-olds being used as hostages. So did Hammond. Teal'c merely glowered. "Hey, if he'd done that, you'd probably still have your Daniel, and I'd be talking to his friends now."

"And for some strange reason you think we'd think that's better?" Jack asked.

"Point," Maybourne agreed. "Well, we should give some thought to what you want your Daniel to know."

"I've started a list," Carter said, and Maybourne gave her an odd look. "Of things Daniel should know," she said, clarifying unnecessarily.

"Really? And what's on this list, pray tell?"

She glared at him, but gamely began to read aloud. "The Daniel that was left here is okay and will recover completely. We know he's not you. We're looking for ways to bring him home." She looked up. "By 'him' here, I mean our Daniel."

"Right, Carter," Jack said.

"We've got allies in the reality he's in now," she continued. "He's not to get himself killed, because we won't give up until he's home . . . anything else?"

"Lay a lot of emphasis on the not getting killed part," Jack said, leaning over to Teal'c.

"I will," Teal'c replied. "Is there anything else that needs to go into this missive?"

"If he's likely to see Maybourne, maybe his involvement should be mentioned," Jack said. "Otherwise Daniel might take one look and run in the opposite direction."

Maybourne raised his eyebrows. "Am I that bad here?"

"Worse," Jack said. "Think your Hammond."

"I see," Maybourne said. "Well, I don't know how likely he is to see me soon, but perhaps you should mention me as a friend and ally."

Teal'c nodded and with Carter's list positioned where he could see it, he began to write. "Don't forget, Teal'c," Jack said. "Tell him not to get his fool ass killed."

"Those exact words, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.

"Well, yeah. In Chulakian or whatever, but yeah, those words."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow disdainfully at Jack's butchering of the language name, but he nodded and returned to work.

"Um . . . Teal'c?" Maybourne said. Teal'c looked up. "Do you know some Goa'uld history, or some kind of fairy tale . . . something to mix the note up with a little, so that it doesn't look like a note, you know?"

Teal'c looked thoughtful. "Indeed. Perhaps, also, I should have some paper that does not look quite so . . ."

"Machine made?" Jack said.

"I know where Dr. Lee keeps that paper he was testing," Carter said. "Some of the sheets are blank. I'll go get some." She was up and moving before she even finished the sentence. Jack glanced over and saw Maybourne watching her with appreciation.

"It would be nice to see the Carter in my reality so animated, or see her act with such decisiveness," Maybourne said after a moment. "She's been drugged with downers for the past eight months at least, and that takes a toll on anyone. Add to that the fact that she got demoted, her best friend died, her commanding officer went crazy because he killed her best friend . . . she's not in a cheerful frame of mind these days."

"No, I'd guess not," Jack said, sighing. "You haven't seen Daniel?" he asked.

"Not even video images of this one, truthfully. We haven't got our tap back yet, and Hammond doesn't trust me."

"With good reason," Teal'c observed.

Maybourne shrugged. "True." He pursed his lips. "As much as I don't like the idea, we may have to wait until Kinsey's impeached, and that won't happen till the evidence is in."

"How long is that likely to take?" Hammond asked.

"Six months at the outside."

"That is unacceptable," Hammond said as Jack spluttered.

"Over my dead and rotting body!" Jack exclaimed when he finally regained control of his tongue. "Over their dead and rotting bodies."

"It's not ideal, I know," Maybourne said. "But it may be necessary."

"No way! I am not leaving one of my people in a little box for six months with a crowd of psychos who look like his friends beating up on him."

"When you put it that way . . ." Maybourne said slowly. "But he is getting out of the box soon, I believe. That was the point of the bomb."

"And that's another thing!" Jack growled. "I don't want him staying someplace where the guy in charge thinks it's nifty to put a bomb in a guy's chest to keep him from running off. Call me crazy, but I object in the strongest possible terms."

"You don't understand the difficulty –"

Jack rose and leaned over the table. "What I understand, Maybourne, is that, given enough time, Carter will work something out. We'll find her whoever she needs to do it, I can assure you, and we will get to your reality and we will get Daniel back. Six months is not only not acceptable, it's not happening. My man will be out of there as soon as it is humanly possible for us to do it, or sooner if you help us." He grinned tightly. "I recommend you help us."

"That's enough, colonel," Hammond said. "Sit down." He was putting on a stern face, but Jack could tell that the general was just as glad that he had stated his intentions so baldly. It saved the general from having to do it himself and allowed him to be diplomatic. "Lt. Colonel Maybourne, we will work with you in every way possible, but you must see it from our point of view."

Teal'c looked up and Jack realized that he had been writing. "I will tell him the date of his capture, to reassure him that it is indeed we who communicate with him . . . is there anything else I can say that would be confirmatory?"

"Not with the whole parallel reality thing," Jack said. "He'd never know if it was the right reality or just a very similar one. But at least he'll know that it's not people looking for the wrong Daniel."

Teal'c nodded thoughtfully. Hammond cleared his throat. "When will you make your next visit, Maybourne?"

"For certain next Thursday, sooner if I have news before then."

"Damn it! Daniel's already been there two and a half weeks!" Jack growled.

"I can't get to him myself, and I can't get you to him," Maybourne said. "And if you come through the mirror, you'll be in New Mexico, not Colorado, so it won't do you a hell of a lot of good."

"So move the damned thing," Jack said patiently.

"You really don't want it to be in Hammond's reach, O'Neill," Maybourne said. "Without the mirror, he has a vested interest in keeping your Daniel alive. With it, he can chuck him and get a new one."

"You have a point, Maybourne," Hammond said. "I certainly hope you can get back to us sooner than a week, though. We have a man here who desperately wants to get back to his family, and we want our man back."

"I can understand that," Maybourne said as Carter came in with the parchment paper. "I don't see anything I can do to make events move faster at this time. If something comes up, believe me, I'll seize the opportunity with both hands."

"Glad to hear it," Hammond said.

They were all silent for a moment, watching Teal'c start to work on the note. Maybourne cleared his throat apologetically after awhile. "I don't suppose I could have some lunch," he asked.

"Of course," Hammond said.

Jack went to order lunch for five. He hoped that this Maybourne was as trustworthy as he seemed, for all their sakes. It had become impossible to hide that there was something odd about Daniel, but the whole base did not yet know that they had a man from an alternate reality living in a VIP suite. Not yet. Time was passing too quickly, and the secret wouldn't hold much longer.

Could Daniel hold out another week? Could either Daniel?