Chapter 7

"Heeeeey, Danny-boy!"

The archeologist cringed inwardly. He should have known that Jack would track him down, eventually.

He had almost made it back to the beginning of this whole mess, too. He took cold comfort from the fact that the alien cube was now safely tucked in his pocket. If he could just get a chance to study the building without people hovering...

Daniel forced a look of careful innocence on his face, and turned to look at Jack, who was jogging up the path after him.

"Hey, Doc Fraiser wants to take a look at your...ah..." The colonel gestured awkwardly toward his forehead, to indicate Daniel's condition. "You know. Whatever it is she's looking at."

Daniel gave a patient smile, but shrugged. For a moment, their eyes locked, and for the first time since this whole thing had started, he felt a connection to another person. A sense of communication without struggle. Suddenly, Daniel raised a questioning eyebrow, and hiked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the direction he'd been going.

The colonel gave a half smile of understanding. "Want to take a look at some funny rocks, I take it?"

Slowly, Daniel grinned and gave a bit of a nod.

"Think it'll help?" Jack asked, doubtfully.

Daniel rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, but turned to walk that direction without another word.

Jack hesitated only a moment, but eventually just rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. But I'm coming with you."

Daniel slowly started to grin as he walked, and Jack trotted to catch up.

As Daniel approached the building, he also approached a gaggle of scientists who had been working non-stop on the building since arriving. Somehow, however, the crowd of people didn't bother him. The cube in his pocket began to vibrate slightly, and a pleasant feeling of "rightness" washed over him. He was where he belonged. Now all he needed was the last piece of the puzzle.

"Daniel?" The linguist heard his name called, and choose to ignore it for the moment. Instead, he paced around the building to take a look at a different wall.

"Look, Daniel, I don't mean to rain on your parade, but your science buddies have been all over this place..."

Daniel continued to ignore Jack's nattering. In fact, after all the time he'd spent ignoring Jack's complaints, it almost helped him concentrate.

A few more minutes of silence ticked by, while Daniel traced a finger over an unfamiliar letter. As his gaze glanced over the words, he could feel the pressure of a tension-headache building behind his eyes. The runes swam before his eyes and numbly he realized that he was having trouble deciphering them.

"Danny...?" Jack's complaints continued, but it was a moment before Daniel realized that Jack was speaking a foreign language.

Startled, Daniel turned, but as he looked at Jack in clear shock, the man didn't seem to even realize anything was wrong.

Concerned, Jack looked at Daniel, and said, "Y'otak? Herr ahble ve?"

The cube was buzzing harder, and the now full-fledged headache pounded in Daniel's temples as he tried to comprehend what he was hearing.

Desperately, he glanced around at face after concerned face, but none of that concern was directed at Jack.

Oh, God. It's getting worse. The realization hit Daniel like a load of bricks.

The cube in his pocket was no longer merely buzzing, but seemed to have developed a warmth that he could feel even through the fabric that contained it.

For a moment, Daniel met Jack's gaze, and saw his own horror reflected there. Perhaps it was this momentary warning that allowed Jack to react as Daniel turned with desperation and pulled the cube from his pocket.

As chaos erupted around him, Daniel only had a moment to register the curious change in the box. At some point during its stay in his pocket, it had developed a smooth, opalescent sheen. Letters scrolled across its surface, just on the edge of his understanding. He felt that if he could just look at it in the right light, he would know exactly what it said...

Some people were shouting warnings and some leaping to stop him, but it might as well have been the clucking of hens as far as Daniel was concerned. Only Jack was close enough to react as Daniel, acting partly on some gut instinct that it was right, held the cube out, mere inches from the wall.

As Jack grabbed Daniel to try and pull him away from the wall, a white light shot from the wall, enveloping them both in blinding brightness.

Then, everything went black.

Daniel and Colonel O'Neill had disappeared in a blinding flash of light. At first, Sam simply stared at the empty place where they had stood, uncomprehending.

In a detached sort of way, a part of her wondered at the enormous power involved in the transfer of two human beings from one place to another....

Or in their disintegration, a niggly, pessimistic part of her added. With a start, Sam shook herself out of her shock, and looked around to take in the chaos of activity that had erupted in the wake of Daniel's actions.

Scientists were shouting orders, soldiers were shouting contradictory orders, and in the middle of it all, Teal'c stood at her side, with only a slight frown to betray his worry.

She took a deep breath and ran her fingers through her hair, trying to keep calm. Jack's disappearance meant that she was in charge. Once she felt prepared to deal with this responsibility, she straightened her shoulders.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" she shouted, mimicking the tone of voice she had often heard her commanding officer use. Blissfully, silence descended upon the work site.

She leveled a commanding look at anyone within eyeshot, which gave her time to gather her thoughts and decide upon the next course of action. As the group of scientists and soldiers alike looked at her in surprised silence, she said in a milder tone, still pitched to carry but no longer shouting, "Now. All the archeologists to return to the Gate. You've got plenty of recordings to work on your translations."

She glanced toward two of the anthropologists who had been in the middle of taking readings around the strange building, and said, "I want you two working on figuring out exactly what just happened. It looked like a transfer beam, so we're going to work under the assumption that Colonel O'Neill and Daniel are alive somewhere."

Finally, her gaze returned to the soldiers, standing stiffly at attention. "The rest of you...I want you combing these ruins in groups of two. If you find anything, and I mean anything that looks suspicious, do not under any circumstances touch it. Call me on the radio for further orders."

As the group of people continued to watch her in stunned silence, a twinge of irritation twisted her features. "Well? What are you waiting for? GO!"