Season 8 Episodes 16 & 17 – Reckoning

Episode summary: The free jaffa seize Dakara, which has a hidden super-weapon capable of destroying all life in the galaxy – or just certain types of life. Ba'al is also trying to seize this weapon on behalf of Anubis, but doesn't particularly want it to fall into Anubis' hands himself. Ba'al agrees to work with Sam and Jacob to program the device to work against the replicators. Daniel is kidnapped by RepliCarter, who probes his mind to find the weapon's location. Replicators attack the SGC. Daniel manages to take brief control of the replicators via his link with RepliCarter's mind, and halts them long enough to give Jack in the SGC, Teal'c onboard a goa'uld ship, and Sam & Jacob on Dakara, an advantage. RepliCarter finds the location of Dakara and kills Daniel, but she is too late to stop the weapon, and Jacob activates it, destroying all replicators in the galaxy, including the replicator ship Daniel was on. Ba'al is ambushed by rebel jaffa and flees, giving a big boost to the rebel jaffa cause.

It was late, really late, and God she was tired, but Sam couldn't go home.

Daniel might be dead, in fact it was probable that he was dead. How was she supposed to just drive her car home, put on her pyjamas and go to bed when Daniel was probably dead?

Not to mention that the war looked like it was ending, after four long years of waiting, and hoping. At this point, even given the bone-deep fatigue in her limbs, she thought she'd probably need a sedative to sleep. Or maybe just a quick blow to the head.

She sighed anxiously and closed her laptop. The report was done, it had been done hours ago. Proof reading it for the hundredth time wasn't going to achieve anything.

She wandered up to Jack's office, but it was empty. Maybe he could sleep.

Instead she went to Daniel's office. She wished she hadn't as she stood in the doorway – she got a sudden, powerful memory of the hours she'd spent hanging out in this room, mourning him, the last time he'd died. She thought bitterly that she hadn't known how lucky she was at the time. At least then they'd known that Daniel had ascended. This time it was just a giant question mark. He'd been beamed away by a replicator – almost certainly her own duplicate – and that was it. That was the last time they had seen or heard from him. If he was still on board a replicator ship when the weapon was activated, he was dead. But really, they had no way of knowing for sure either way.

Maybe that was why Jack could sleep, she thought. Daniel had a habit of beating the odds. Given enough reasonable doubt …

She sighed in frustration and spun around to head back to her lab, and ran straight into the solid wall of Jack's chest.

"Woah, Carter, sorry." He steadied her. "Didn't mean to sneak up on you."

"It's my fault, I should have looked where I was going." She said distractedly. "I thought you'd gone home, sir."

"Couldn't sleep." He said distractedly. "Plus I wanted to be close at hand in case Teal'c calls in …"

"Right." She nodded. "Any more news?"

"No, they're still consolidating their support at Dakara. I'm kinda waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"You think Anubis will make another move against them?"

"You think he won't?" Jack asked incredulously.

Sam shook her head. "I'm sure he will, it's just a matter of how and when."

Jack canted his head to the side with a raise of his eyebrows in acknowledgement. He looked over her shoulder. "Whatcha doin' down here?"

"Nothing really. You?"

"Nothing."

Sam made a frustrated sound in her throat and decided to just say what was on her mind. "If he was onboard a replicator ship …"

"Ah! Carter, we've had this conversation."

"Yes, and you cut me off that time as well." She said, irritated. He raised his eyebrows and motioned for her continue.

"If he was onboard a replicator ship when the weapon went off … do you think he would have been able to ascend again?" She asked.

He shrugged. "Maybe, I don't know. Oma helped him last time, right?"

"Yes. But maybe she was around this time too, maybe she could have helped him again."

"In which case … wouldn't he have dropped in by now to let us know he was alright?"

Sam's heart dropped, and she looked at the floor. She knew he was probably right … but it was killing her, not knowing. She needed to cling onto some hope.

"Sam … like I said before in my office. We don't know for sure he was on that ship. We don't know that he's dead."

"So what, we just sit on our hands and hope for the best?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Jack asked, exasperated. "We know he survives, in some manner or another, because he's going to father Serena at some point in the next five or so years."

"I know, but even so …"

"I know you're worried." He put a hand on each of her shoulders. "And I know this goes completely against your usual urge to fix everything. But we just have to wait this one out. Let the chips fall where they may."

She looked into his eyes and let out a long slow breath, trying to take some comfort in his gaze. He was right. She couldn't influence the outcome either way. Worrying about it wouldn't achieve anything.

"And hey, at least it seems like the war ending might not be far off." He said with a smirk.

She gave him a wry smile in return. "There's that." She acknowledged.

He patted her shoulders and let her go. "Go to bed, Carter. We'll probably have another long day tomorrow."