Daughter of My Heart, Chapter Thirty-Two
[Set during Lifeboat]
Bit by bit, Daniel remembered. Sometimes the memories came in flashes, something on TV or in a book launching his thoughts backward in time. Other times, they came in dreams, as vivid as they'd been to live in the first place. His parents. Abydos. Sam and Cassie. Day after day, a little more would resurface, another piece of the puzzle that was Daniel Jackson falling into place.
He'd been back on Earth for three months now, and had regained enough of his former self to resume active duty. And though it felt good to be getting off-base, away from the nagging sense that there were still memories just beyond his reach, it was undeniably strange to be going off-world without Sam.
Jack and Teal'c were old familiars, and Jonas, while he'd stuck around, had been a kindred spirit. But even with Lieutenant Hailey's unquestionable brilliance, the new team dynamic was...strange. SG-1 had always been a team of misfits: The outcast archaeologist. The traitor Jaffa. The emotionally shattered colonel. And Sam... It'd taken a long time to understand just why she fit so well with the rest of them, but the more he'd come to know her, the more he'd understood that she'd been just a little out of place everywhere she'd been in her life, too. Too athletic to be a nerd, too smart to be a jock, she'd joined the Air Force to live up to her dream of becoming an astronaut, only to stand out as one of the few women on base. When they'd first met, she'd been haughty, defensive, and at times, judgmental. But the more they'd all come to know each other, the more she'd relaxed and come to shine. SG-1 had worked well as a team, intuitive, attuned, in sync.
But Lieutenant Hailey...she was young. Younger even than Daniel and Sam had been when they'd joined the program. And despite her overall know-how, she lacked the experience, the confidence, the je-ne-sais-quoi that had defined the team for so long. Beside her, Daniel felt like a battered old veteran, too many battles fought, too many horrors seen, too many sacrifices made. Even with lingering gaps in his memories, he found he often had to remind her of something, correct her on something. She was too new, too fresh. Wet behind the ears, almost.
He sometimes wondered if this was how Jack had felt with him, in the beginning.
He'd tried asking Sam once if she'd given any thought to coming back to the team, but that conversation had gone over like a load of bricks. For all the progress they'd made getting used to the idea of maybe sort of being friends again, there were still subjects he wasn't allowed to broach. Her career was one of the big ones.
"Does anyone else here see what I'm seeing?," Jack asked, snapping Daniel back from his thoughts.
"It looks like a ship, Sir," Lieutenant Hailey promptly replied.
"Indeed," Teal'c concurred.
"Anyone we know?," Jack asked, changing course to investigate.
"It is not a design I am familiar with, O'Neill," Teal'c replied, following his lead.
Daniel and Hailey fell into step behind them, taking up the rear. "It looks like it crashed," Hailey noted as they drew closer to the wreck.
"Yep, looks like," Jack replied, motioning for them to take one side of the door while he and Teal'c checked out the other.
"Clear," he said, taking a step inside. The others followed, fanning out into defensive positions as they crept along the deserted hall.
"Oooh," Hailey breathed as they rounded a corner, the walls lined from floor to ceiling with pods.
"Don't touch!," Jack hissed, taking a closer look at one himself.
"They're all full," Daniel mused, checking along the nearest bank of pods.
"They appear to be alive," Teal'c noted.
"The pods probably cushioned the impact," Hailey observed.
"Okay, kids, lets do a headcount," Jack said. "Hailey, you're with Teal'c. Daniel, with me. We'll meet back here in twenty. And whatever you do, nobody touch anything that might wake them up! I'd like a support team in here before that happens. Understood?"
"Yes, Sir," Hailey replied smartly, turning to following Teal'c toward the next compartment.
"Don't you think it would be easier to look for a ship's manifest?," Daniel asked, once the others were out of earshot.
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Did you see the bridge on the way in? It's a wonder these systems are working, let alone any others. Get counting."
"Right," Daniel said, pacing along one side of the compartment as Jack took the other. They were about halfway through when the noise started. Daniel turned, looking for the source, and was immediately swallowed by a ball of light. He collapsed, senseless, to the floor.
Sam frowned at the phone on the wall as it started to ring...again. At this rate, she'd never finish this analysis on time. Grumbling, she walked over and grabbed the receiver, barely managing a greeting before Janet's urgent voice came over the line.
"Sam, I need you in the infirmary, ASAP," she said, sounding breathless.
"Why? What is it?," Sam asked, heart thudding as a million possibilities raced through her mind.
"I think you need to see this to understand," Janet replied cryptically.
"I'll be right there," Sam said, her analysis forgotten as she raced along the halls. Janet met her at the infirmary doors, ushering her to the observation room above Isolation Room One. Below them stood Daniel, raging.
Only it wasn't Daniel.
"Janet...?," Sam asked, a sickening dread settling in the pit of her stomach.
"Things didn't go as planned on P2A-347," she said, shaking her head. "The other members of SG-1 were knocked unconscious as well, but so far, Daniel is the only one to exhibit any sort of unusual behaviour."
"Do you know what's causing it?," she asked, unable to tear her eyes away from a man suddenly so unfamiliar to her.
"According to his EEG, he's housing twelve distinct neural patterns on top of his own. We've met three different personalities so far, but Daniel hasn't surfaced."
"What do you need me to do?," Sam asked, sparing a quick glance at the doctor.
"Talk to him. If anyone can reach him, it'll be you."
Sam tried to quell the feelings stirred by the doctor's words, nodding silently instead before heading down to the isolation room. She knocked twice before pushing the door open, taking a few tentative steps inside.
"Who are you?," Daniel sneered, eyeing her speculatively.
"I'm here to speak with Doctor Daniel Jackson," she replied, jaw set against this personality's apparent disdain for her.
"I know of no such person," he spat, turning away.
Sam felt her blood run cold, but she persisted. "Daniel, I know you're still in there. If you can hear me, we need to talk."
"I want to go home. I want my mommy and daddy," a small, trembling voice said, turning Daniel's saddest eyes on her.
Sam stumbled back a step, startled. "I know you're scared," she improvised, "but do you think you could let me talk to my friend for a minute? His name is Daniel."
"Will you help me find my daddy?," the frightened little voice asked.
"We want to help you, but first we need to understand what's going on," Sam replied, desperation clawing at her heart.
"Your Doctor Fraiser and I have been working on a theory to that end," a third personality spoke.
"Can you let me speak to Daniel?," Sam pleaded. "We just want to know he's still all right in there..."
The man was shaking his head. "I am unable to summon another personality," he replied regretfully. "Your friend would need to surface of his own volition, and I believe the Sovereign is making it difficult for him to do so."
"How are you speaking, then?"
The man gave a wry smile. "I am not blind in my devotion to the Sovereign, as so many others are. As it is, it will only be a matter of time before he takes control once more. The Sovereign is very...persistent."
"Yeah, well, Daniel has his moments too," Sam replied, searching the man's eyes. There was something unsettlingly unfamiliar about the way he looked at her, so unlike Daniel's warmth.
"What are you still doing here?," the man snarled. "I'll no sooner give you your friend than allow another to slander my name."
This was getting to be too much. And this personality, the Sovereign, Sam presumed, was really starting to irk her. If talking wouldn't work, there was only one thing left she could think to do. Without hesitation, Sam pulled back and slugged the man. The Sovereign toppled, clutching his broken nose.
"Sam?"
"Daniel?"
"Oh, god, Sam. You've gotta help me. There are so many of them..."
"You need to fight them. You need to maintain some sort of control."
"Sam," he gasped. "I can't... I can't," he wheezed, and then the eyes were unfamiliar once more.
"He's scared. He's scared like me," said the frightened voice. "Are you going to help us?"
"Yes. We're going to help you," Sam replied. "Just hang in there, okay?"
The head nodded, and Sam stepped into the hall, sinking to the floor as the door clicked shut behind her.
Janet knew her friend well enough to know when she was holding herself together with little more than sheer strength of will. As soon as she stepped into the hall, Janet was out of the observation room, rushing toward her.
She found her on the floor, face gray and drawn, knees pulled tight against her chest. "Come on, let's get you someplace else," she said, helping Sam to her feet. She led the way to her office, gently closing the door behind them.
"He's still in there," Sam confirmed, her voice somewhat numb.
"I heard," Janet said, a small smile tugging at her lips in spite of herself. "I knew you'd be able to reach him," she added, deciding not to give her friend too hard a time about adding a new ailment to her patient's current dilemma in the process.
Sam shook her head, meeting Janet's gaze. "It's been him all along. I..." She stalled, staring helpless at the doctor.
"Took you long enough to realize," Janet said, eyebrows raised.
"He just... It hurt, Janet. Having him back but not really having him back..."
"I know. But we'll have to worry about that later. Right now, I need to find a way to get rid of these extra personalities."
"One of them is a child."
"Yes," Janet replied. "So far, the Sovereign is the only one I really don't care for," she added. "Unfortunately, I have no idea how to get them out of Daniel, much less preserve them for their crew members to sort out later."
"The Entity," Sam replied vaguely. At Janet's blank look, she continued. "The life-form that took over my body, then stored my consciousness in the MALP room," she explained.
Janet's eyes lit up. "If we could somehow recreate the environment it created, we might be able to set up some sort of interface to bleed off the extra personalities," she said, smiling.
"I'll get to work on the computer system," Sam replied eagerly.
"And I'll go talk to Tryan to see if he can give us any help."
"I do not believe you could successfully separate the individual personalities," Tryan explained.
"Not all of them," Doctor Frasier agreed. "What we want to do is preserve the 12 crew members of your ship in a piece of technology introduced to us by another alien, one capable of transferring a human consciousness into a machine. It's a temporary solution at best, but if Sam can get the interface set up, you should each be able to communicate without vying for control over Daniel's body, and we might be in a stronger position to help you."
Tryan shook his head. "If we are in this body and not our own, it is because our own bodies are already dead," he reiterated. "You may preserve us, but we would have nowhere but your machine to go. No life to live..."
"Okay. But you said someone did this to you. One of your crewmen."
"Pharrin," Tryan agreed.
"Okay, so maybe he'd have a way to let you mind-share with some of your own people," she offered.
"Perhaps," Tryan agreed, contemplating the point. "However, he would first need to wake the rest of our people, before any others were lost."
"Let me talk to our scientists. I might be able to help you there," Doctor Frasier said.
"You need to find Pharrin as well," Tryan replied. "Before he tries anything else to 'save' us."
"I'll see what I can do," she replied, turning to leave the room.
"When you find my daddy, will you bring him here to see me?," a small voice asked.
"Is Pharrin your daddy?," Janet replied, startled. The boy nodded. "I'll see what I can do," she said again, smiling at the sudden flash of hope in the child's eyes.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Doctors," General Hammond said, watching as Sam and Janet hooked the new interface from Daniel to the MALP room computer system.
"Me too, Sir," Janet replied, smiling reassuringly at the latest personality surfacing within Daniel.
"I'm ready when you are," Sam said, straightening from her crouch.
"Okay," Janet replied, moving toward her patient. "This might hurt a bit," she said, settling Daniel's body onto the table and connecting the electrodes to the power source. At a nod from the dominant personality, Janet flicked the switch, jolting Daniel's body into convulsions. With some effort, Janet and two of her nurses kept him relatively stable until, finally, Sam said "Okay, we're done." Janet hit the power switch and the convulsions stopped.
"Only one neural pattern now," one of the nurses confirmed. "It's Doctor Jackson."
Janet breathed a sigh of relief, turning to Sam.
"I have all twelve personalities here, all of whom seem to have plenty to say," she said, indicating the computer monitors she'd set up.
"Vitals are returning to normal," Janet said, smiling as Daniel groaned.
"General Hammond to the Gateroom," the voice crackled over the loudspeaker. "General Hammond to the Gateroom."
"Let's hope that's our man," Hammond said, turning to leave. "Good work people."
"What happened?," Daniel croaked, as General Hammond left the room.
"What do you remember?," Janet replied, watching him carefully for signs that things hadn't gone exactly as planned.
"A ship...a lot of noise in my head...Sam," he said, disoriented. "She broke my nose," he added with a frown.
"I was aiming for the Sovereign," Sam defended, coming to stand beside them.
"Oh," Daniel replied, puzzled. "Was he part of the noise?"
"Very much so," Janet replied with a grimace. "How are you feeling?"
"Sore," Daniel replied. "Tired."
"We'll get you back to the infirmary, and then you can get some rest."
"I'll go see if Teal'c and Colonel O'Neill have returned with Pharrin," Sam added, slowly backing away.
"Good luck," Janet said, already busying herself with readying the gurney.
With some help from one of their Naquadah generators, Sam, Pharrin, and Janet managed to successfully revive the remaining crew members from stasis, and found volunteers among them to host some of the additional personalities whose bodies hadn't survived. Pharrin himself was relieved of the bulk of his own burden, housing now only one additional personality, that of his son.
It was only Sam's second time off-world in well over a year, but while she felt some of the familiar nostalgia for gate travel, none of her former regret resurfaced once she returned to her lab. Instead, she felt more as if this were a homecoming, getting back to her roots as a scientist, rather than soldier.
And that evening, before going home to their daughter, she stopped in to visit Daniel.
"Hey," she said shyly.
"Hey," he replied.
"Janet says you should be out of here in a day or two."
"So I've heard."
"Do you have any plans for after your release?"
"Oh, you know. Read a book. Get some sleep. Listen to Jack lecture me some more about getting roped into yet another alien trap. Same old."
"How about dinner?," Sam asked, smiling. Daniel's eyebrows lifted questioningly. "I'd really like to talk to you," she said, her smile wavering slightly. "Just the two of us."
"Okay...," Daniel drawled. "When and where?"
Sam's smile brightened. "After work the day you're released. My place."