Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Q?
Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews! Reviews are good for writers. They let us know what we're doing right, which makes us all warm and glowy, and they show us what we need to do better. Like things we need to explain or clarify.
A little explanation/clarification regarding Steven Kodaly's question about how Q can do tricks if he's stuck in a human suit. I forgot that Stargate fans aren't necessarily Star Trek fans too. And for those who are, it may have been awhile since you watched Star Trek. I know for me it has. I even had to look up what episode the following comes from. In an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation titled "Deja Q," the Q Continuum stripped Q of his powers and banished him because of his many misdeeds. They allowed him to choose what form to take and where he wished to be sent. He chose to be human and be sent to the Enterprise. During his stay, he selflessly put himself in danger to save the crew and a planet full of people the Enterprise was trying to save. Because of this, the Q Continuum reinstated him and returned his powers. Therefore, he was only temporarily stuck in a human suit. That's why he can do his tricks. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
Now, on with the show.
Quickening
The infirmary was perfectly silent until Daniel twitched, and the others jumped.
"So, he's in there?" Vala asked. "Can you actually feel him?"
Sam and Mitchell shuddered.
Daniel groggily mumbled a response, and his head lolled to one side.
"What do you do in a situation like this?" Mitchell asked after several minutes of anxious silence.
"What do you mean?" Sam asked.
"I've never been in a situation like this before," Vala said.
"But you've both been in weird situations."
"Plenty," Sam said.
"Define weird," Vala said.
"Weird, strange, unusual."
"Alien?"
"Yeah."
"Then anything usual in my life would be weird to you," Vala said.
"Right. But you've been in situations alien to you."
"Other than things you've done with us," Sam said quickly.
"Sure," Vala said.
"So, what did you do? If you had to wait for some reason."
Vala smiled lasciviously.
"Never mind." Mitchell looked to Sam.
"Well, usually we talked about whatever was on General O'Neill's mind. Which was sometimes weirder than the situation itself."
Mitchell raised his eyebrows. "For example. . . "
Vala half listened to them as she leaned over Daniel, scanning him as if she could see Q moving about inside him.
After considering, Sam said, "We were waiting outside a temple once. Daniel was supposedly learning how to light candles and do other stuff with his mind."
"On Kheb," Mitchell said.
"Yeah. Well, the General was bored, actually we were all bored. So he started making a list of reasons why Martha Stewart could be an alien."
"She's definitely strange," Vala said.
"There was also when the General had the ancients' knowledge downloaded into his brain for the second time. Before he went ancient, he tried to convince us all that Mr. Burns is a goa'uld."
"I can see that," Mitchell said.
Vala rolled her eyes and sighed. She had just begun drumming her fingers when Q flashed back, stretching and flexing.
"I forgot how cramped it is in there," he complained.
"You've become a cell in someone's body before?" Mitchell asked.
Before Q could answer – mainly because she really didn't want to know the answer – Sam asked about Daniel at the same time as Vala.
"There are a lot of white blood cells around that wound," Q pointed to the bandage on Daniel's abdomen. "And he's got a rib pressing against lung. If you don't get him to a doctor soon, the rib could puncture the lung."
"No internal bleeding?" Sam said.
"Nope. But if that wound was just a teeny bit lower, you wouldn't have needed me. Although, I did observe autopsies."
"Thank you," Sam said loudly to forestall Q from continuing.
"Lucky you were standing in front of him when Adria threw her tantrum," Q said to Vala.
"If you're not going to do anything else, then why don't you just leave," Vala snapped.
"Well. You're welcome," Q snapped and vanished.
"Was that necessary?" Sam asked.
"He was being a pompous ass," Vala said, glancing at Daniel's wound.
"He was also helping. And we may have been able to talk him into helping more."
Vala grimaced. "Sorry."
"Sensors have detected another planet," Teal'c said and silenced a beep. "We will arrive within one hour."
"Let's hope this one has a stargate," Sam said, stifling a yawn.
"You should get some rest," Mitchell said.
"Don't start that again," Sam said. "That's an order."
"We're the same-"
"Seniority."
Mitchell dropped it.
"Easy," Vala said, helping Daniel onto his elbow and holding a cup to his lips.
Daniel drank and lay back.
"Not much longer now."
"You keep saying that."
"Well, we're bound to find a planet soon."
Daniel closed his eyes and tried to take a deep breath. "Where are we exactly?"
"Lost in deep space."
"How very helpful."
"How would knowing where we are be helpful?"
"Maybe we have friends in the area."
"So far, we haven't met anyone. Which could be a good thing."
After a pause, Daniel suddenly tried to bolt up.
"I wish you'd stop that," Vala said, trying to force him back down with her free arm.
"The people in the chapel," Daniel said, his forehead creasing in pain.
"Cameron and Teal'c fed them again."
"I was supposed to bring them proof the Ori are just using them. Now they probably think I was lying."
"What were you going to take them as proof?"
"I recognized the man who stepped forward as their spokesperson. He was on the same ship when I was a Prior. I can use that to tell him things that he did."
"To convince him you were there." Vala smiled.
Daniel nodded, then grabbed the edge of his table/bed to keep from falling off as the ship lurched.
"What the hell was that?" Vala cried, leaning over Daniel's chest to protect him from anything that might fall and help him hold his position.
"Vala?" Sam's voice came over radio. "Are you guys ok?"
"Yes. What happened?"
"Somebody fired on us," Mitchell responded.
"Who?" Vala and Daniel asked, and Daniel began coughing.
"We don't know yet," Sam said.
On the bridge, Teal'c opened a comm. channel. "This is Teal'c of SG-1. Our weapons are superior to yours. Cease-."
"Why are you firing on us?" Mitchell interrupted, earning him an irritated eyebrow raise.
"SG-1?" a voice said.
"This is Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter. Who am I speaking to?"
In answer, the vessel fired at the Ori ship.
"Target their weapons," Sam ordered.
Teal'c did so and fired. "The enemy's weapons have been disabled."
"Maybe they'll talk now," Mitchell said.
"Target their engines," Sam shouted as the enemy vessel began moving away.
Teal'c fired several shots at the ship, and after several explosions, the ship stopped.
"I believe I indirectly destroyed their communication abilities as well," Teal'c said.
Streams of smoke and fuel flowed from the other ship.
"I'm locking onto any life signs," Sam said.
The rest of the ship exploded.
"I read four life signs," Sam said. "But because two were near explosions, I could only beam the other two away."
"Let's go welcome them," Mitchell said. "Teal'c, make them comfortable in the ring room or whatever the Ori call it."
Teal'c nodded and erected a force field around the 'ring room'.
Mitchell and Sam stopped by the infirmary first.
Vala was crouched over Daniel, who was lying on his side on the floor.
Sam knelt beside Daniel and lightly placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey."
Daniel was breathing heavy and shivering. All he could do was look up at her.
Sam sucked in her bottom lip. "We need to get him on his back."
Sam and Vala eased him over. He immediately went into a wheezing fit.
"Get an oxygen mask," Sam ordered. "And see if you can find a blanket."
Sam examined the growing blood stain on Daniel's side.
"The stitches broke when he landed," Vala said. "I tried to catch him." She bit her lip.
"I'm sure you did," Mitchell said and fitted the oxygen mask over Daniel's mouth and nose.
"Try to breathe normally," Sam told Daniel as she peeled away the bloody bandage and prepared to restitch the wound. She cleaned it, sprayed it with antiseptic and administered a local anesthetic.
Mitchell shook out a blanket he'd seen earlier when he and Teal'c searched the place, and Vala helped him tuck the blanket around Daniel yet out of Sam's way.
"If you can handle things here, I'll go see about our visitors," Mitchell said.
Sam nodded, and Mitchell strode from the room, balling his hands into fists as he went.
"Who are they?" Vala asked.
"We don't know yet." She stopped midstitch when Daniel began wheezing again.
"His lips are turning blue!" Vala said.
"Hold this," Sam said. "And I need your jacket."
Vala set Daniel's head gently on the floor, took off her jacket, and took the needle from Sam.
Sam took off her jacket and folded it together with Vala's. She pressed them against Daniel's chest.
"What are you doing?"
Sam didn't take her eyes off Daniel's face. "Q said he had a rib pressing against his lung. It wouldn't take much movement for the rib to pierce his lung. If it only made a small hole, holding something soft against his chest like this should help."
"And if it made a bigger hole?"
Sam shook her head.
The two women watched intently until Daniel gasped and coughed. Sam removed the oxygen mask so he could catch his breath.
"How you doin'?" she asked.
"My head hurts," Daniel answered, breathing rapidly.
"Yeah," Sam said.
"Actually, everything hurts." With that, he passed out.
"Daniel!" Vala and Sam caught his head before it smacked against the floor.
"I hope you had a damn good reason for firing on us," Mitchell said, approaching the force field. "Because I've got a friend who's didn't need to be injured more."
"Too bad it wasn't you," a woman with grayish skin said with a sneer.
"Excuse me? How can you have a grudge against me? We've never met, and believe me I'd remember if we had."
"You were the reason my love was murdered."
Mitchell worked his mouth trying to form words. "What the hell are you talking about?!"
"Does the name Netan ring a bell," the man with the woman, who also had grayish skin, finally spoke.
"You've got to be kidding," Sam said.
Mitchell shook his head in disbelief as much as denial.
"She should find Ventrell," Vala said from her position beside Daniel. She had her free arm resting gently on the jackets over his chest to keep them in place. "He's the one who did it."
"But I'm the one who gave him the idea to use the infighting to his advantage."
"And Daniel's the one suffering the consequences," Vala said.
Mitchell looked to the floor and shoved his hands in his pockets. "How's he doin'?"
"Not good," Sam said. "We've been able to keep his temperature from dropping further, and his blood pressure is better. But the longer it takes to get him home, the bigger the hole in his lung will get."
"Q," Vala called.
"What is it now?" Q asked, flashing in with a large crescent-shaped weapon.
"Whoa." Mitchell jumped out of his way.
"What is that?" Vala asked, intrigued by the shiny blade despite her concern for Daniel.
"It's a Klingon Bat'leth. Did I forget to mention that I can't help you anymore? It certainly doesn't sound like me."
Vala clenched her jaw and growled, "Listen to me, you-."
Sam put a hand on the other woman's arm. "Vala," she said.
"He doesn't look so good," Q said, leaning over Daniel.
"We were fired on," Sam explained. "He fell when the ship shook, and his rib punctured his lung."
"Is he in shock?" Q asked, tossing his Bat'leth into oblivion.
"He started to go into shock, but Sam got him stabilized," Mitchell said.
"Impressive,' Q said.
"We need to get to Earth, now," Vala said in a calm voice through clenched teeth.
Q studied the worried expressions around him. "I'll see what I can do."
When Q vanished, Vala let out a sigh of relief. "We'll be home in no time," she said to Daniel's sleeping form as she lightly leaned her arm on the jackets over his chest.
Everyone looked around expectantly.
"Yep, no time at all," Vala said.
"We have arrived at the planet," Teal'c reported via radio.
Sam sat slumped against the table with her head in her hands. "Is there a stargate?" she asked, looking up.
"I am scanning."
The only sound in the infirmary was Daniel's labored breathing, which had somehow improved in the hour since Q left, although no one had mentioned it for fear that speaking the thought would nullify it.
"There is a stargate."
Mitchell jumped to his feet as Vala and Sam relaxed their shoulders.
"I am searching for a place to land."
"Thanks, Teal'c," Sam said. She placed her hand on Daniel's head and bit her bottom lip.
Q stood with his back pressed against a whitish curved structure as air rushed back and forth past him, blowing what little hair he had on his head.
"What's wrong?" Mitchell asked.
Sam puffed up her cheeks and blew out air. She dialed Earth's address and pressed the red globe in the center of the DHD for the third time.
The gate lit up, spun and kawooshed.
"I guess it needed to warm up," Sam said.
"Well, it doesn't look like it's been used in a while," Mitchell said, gesturing toward the waist high grass surrounding the gate for as far as they could see.
"Stargate Command, this is Lt. Colonel Carter, come in please."
There was a pause, presumably while Sgt. Harriman confirmed SG-1's IDC.
"Colonel, you'll be happy to know we just dispatched the Odyssey to your coordinates," General Landry said. "They were instructed to route all available power to the hyperdrive to get there as fast as possible."
The Colonels exchanged confused looks.
"General, how do you know our coordinates?" Sam asked.
"Q told us. And he told us of Dr. Jackson's condition. Has there been any change?"
"I don't know how much Q told you, sir. The hole in Daniel's lung doesn't seem to have gotten bigger, but his other wound is infected and he's running a fever. I'd like to send him and Vala through now, sir. The rest of us can fly with the Ori ship to the alpha site."
"I'll have a medical team waiting."
"Thank you, sir. We'll dial in again when we're ready to send them through."
Sam and Mitchell made their way over and around fallen trees back to the ship.
"I can stay and help," Vala offered as Sam helped her limp to the stargate behind Mitchell and Teal'c, who were carrying Daniel on the stretcher they'd found in the Ori infirmary.
"You need to get that ankle checked out."
"At least it's not broken like I initially thought. Ow," Vala added as she stepped on a root hidden by the tall grass and jarred her leg. "This is the best path to the stargate?"
"This is the only path. You still need to be checked out. You probably sustained a concussion too, remember."
"Hard to forget with the pounding headache."
"Besides, Daniel's gonna need some company when he wakes up. Even your company." Sam nudged Vala's uninjured shoulder and grinned.
"You should be checked out too by the way," Vala said.
"As soon as we get this ship home."
"Probably not a good idea to leave the ship with those two anyway." Vala nodded to the men ahead.
"I heard that," Mitchell said.
"We are perfectly capable of handling the ship, Vala Mal Doran."
"I know you are, Teal'c," Sam said. "But I do know more about the engines."
"She's got a point there,' Mitchell said. "I can fly the ship, but I don't know thing one about how the hyperdrive etc. works."
"I have little more knowledge than you on the inner workings of the hyperdrive, Colonel Mitchell."
"Big of you to admit it," Mitchell muttered, remembering his "adequate" assistance with the Prior outside the chapel.
"What about our prisoners?" Vala asked.
"We'll find 'em a nice place to stay," Mitchell said. He stopped at a large fallen tree. "You're sure you didn't see a way around this?"
"I did not," Teal'c responded.
"Too bad the rings were hit," Vala said, cringing at the massive obstacle.
"I can probably fix it," Sam said. "But it'll more time than this."
Sam left Vala leaning against a tree trunk and took Mitchell's end of Daniel's stretcher.
"Here goes," Mitchell said, and climbed over the tree. "Hopefully, he won't wake up this time."
Daniel, who had been in and out of consciousness since his temperature started going up, had regained consciousness as they carried him across the bridge over the river near the only clear place big enough to land the ship. On the other side of the bridge, Sam gave him a sedative.
When Mitchell was on the other side of the tree, he reached as far across as he could. Sam and Teal'c eased the stretcher to Mitchell. All was going well when one corner of the stretcher bumped a knob on the tree trunk, and Daniel's body was jarred.
Sam hissed in a breath as Daniel's head lolled from side to side. No one moved for a full minute. "Ok," Sam said, and they resumed the task.
Then, Sam held Teal'c's end of the stretcher while Teal'c climbed over the tree. When Daniel was safely over the tree, and still asleep, Sam went back for Vala.
The whitish curved structure slid forward, causing Q to slip. He pressed his back harder against the hard surface. Air blew past him at almost hurricane force. He glanced up at the jagged point of the structure, and, literally, stretched himself taller and broader in an attempt to patch the widening opening created by the point.