Caveman
Chapter 4
Back at the SGC, Hammond ordered a debriefing as soon as Jack was released from the infirmary. It took a long time for Jack to relate his experience, his observations of the Alveonans and his wish to help them by fixing up their dome. Although Sam had been disappointed to learn that the Alveonans hadn't built the temples themselves, and therefore couldn't help her understand the technology, she was eager to see the control room for herself, as they had told Jack they could help non-Ancients to use the transporter. She was also curious to learn how they could glow, as she was certain the explanation had something to do with the quantum theory! Teal'c wanted to know if the Jaffa legend about the Alveonans was completely true, and Daniel was eager to study their culture.
Hammond had agreed to a new mission and SG-1 was once again at the temple. Jack had just disappeared from the central tile, and SG-1 didn't know how long time it would take for him to come back with his new friend, so they just sat down and settled for a long wait. But only moments later were the walls flashing again, and Jack was back with an Alveonan female. Immediately, SG-1 was subject to a heavy collective headache as they all could hear the visitor in their heads. Jack was glad he was wearing the crown he had retrieved from the other temple, but the Alveonans could not design crowns for his friends before Telna, Eolan's sister, had met them and determined which gemstones each of them would need to be best protected. She touched each of them in turn to read their minds and body specifications, then she returned to her side of the planet, and the headache disappeared immediately.
"What was that?!" Sam complained.
"That... was someone else's mind in your head!" Jack informed smartly. "Be glad it was only Telna, and not the six of them!"
"Jack? What's on your head?" Daniel wanted to know.
"Oh... that? You'll get one too! All of you! That's the only way to keep their minds out of yours. Ah! Here she comes" Jack said as the walls were flashing once again.
"That was quick!" Sam noticed. As Telna was appearing on the central tile, headaches came back full force, but Telna gave each of them a crown, and suddenly they were fine.
"Ah. Now we all look like we are part of some Greek tragedy" said Jack with a smirk. The crowns were beautiful, each of them with different kinds of twigs and gemstones. Sam noticed that the headache was not completely gone, and she could hear a whisper in the background, which was not from her mind, but it was much better than without the crown. She wanted to study her own, but removing it from her head was definitely not a good idea, so she satisfied her curiosity by studying the ones on her friends' heads. Daniel's was of light twigs intertwined with green and yellowish stones, while Teal'c had red and blue ones. Jack had both amber and dark blue gems with dark twigs, but for some reason he had more gems than the two others, probably because his Ancient gene made him more sensitive to mind reading, she thought... She was curious to see her own crown... But soon, Daniel, holding hands with Telna, disappeared from the room, then, the Alveonan woman returned to fetch Teal'c as they had agreed, so that Daniel and Teal'c could meet and learn to know her people. That left Sam and Jack alone in the room, and they suddenly felt it was awkward. Eolan's words were spinning in Jack's head. Your mate. Feelings. Colors. A shame. And then, they realized that the faint whisper in the background of their minds had not ceased after Telna's departure. As it was only them left, it was now clear that they could hear whispers of each other's feelings and thoughts. These had been trivial at first, but when they were suddenly left alone in the room, Jack's thoughts had gone to her. As they filtrated in Sam's mind, hers automatically began to focus on him, and they could only stand there, lost in the revelation of emotions they were not supposed to have, and certainly not supposed to let the other know... Admiration. Tenderness. Care. Respect. And the now obvious certitude that the physical attraction they felt was not one-sided.
Jack was the first to react. He swiftly removed his crown and reached for hers. After a few seconds staring at each other in bewilderment, they began to breath again and lowered their eyes, both needing to break the contact and pull themselves together. Uncertain, Jack lifted his eyes again to meet hers. She held his gaze steadily, clearly assuming what he had seen, and acknowledging what she had learned. That woman is strong... Jack thought. He was not so sure that he had the same strength when it came to the feelings part. But she was smiling a knowing smile at him, and he returned it gladly, although he was embarrassed that she had had access to a part of his mind he barely acknowledged himself. Facing each other, he took both her hands in his, and concentrated on the control room. However, having just seen in her mind and shown her his own, holding her hands was doing strange things to him and it was very difficult to concentrate. He could feel Carter's amused smile, even with his eyes closed. And he just knew that smile was getting bigger and bigger as he found it more and more difficult to concentrate... Without realizing it, he was crushing her hands in his. She closed the space between them, nearly touching him, and whispered "Sir". He opened his eyes and jumped backward at the unexpected proximity. She managed to hold her giggle back, but she had a flashing smile on when she suggested they could take a break and try again later.
"You're having far too much fun Carter" he said, acting grumpy. The truth was that he was embarrassed, but surprisingly happy, and he had to turn away from her to hide his smile.
After a casual conversation over a cup of coffee, Sam and Jack were back in the temple, and holding hands, they transported to the control room. They tested each crystal panel to see how many of the crystals were still functional, and Jack even found a supply of replacement crystals under the main control panel. The alpha site had no use for the dome, tropical climate would actually be a problem for computers and other electronics, so they decided to pack the extra crystals and take them to the Alveonan temple. Sam wanted to try and learn how the dome was working, hoping she would be able to use the theory to develop shields. As she activated one of the panels, Jack felt his body vibrate on some kind of waves. However, Sam didn't seem to be affected by the waves, she didn't even notice them, busy as she was with the readings on her laptop's screen. She pushed some buttons to amplify the effect she had obtained, when she heard an awful scream in her back. She jumped and turned around, only to find her CO yelling in pain on the ground. Immediately, she turned the panel off, but Jack remained motionless. She hurried to check his pulse but she could not find it. She checked again, and again, and fearing that he had suffered a stroke or a heart attack, she began CPR, calling for him to hold on and to wake up. If she could not revive him, they would be stuck there until one of the Alveonans came to get them. That is, if any of them was still around when people would realize that they were missing. But she had no mean of contacting anyone, the radio did not work in the temple, and she could not get help to save him... Come on Jack! Hang on! Come back to me, please! Please! Tears were running down her cheeks as she felt she was losing the battle. But she wouldn't give up. Once again she blew his lungs up, holding his nose tight and lifting his chin to liberate the air ways. He turned away from her and lifted a hand to free his nose, which she had held a little too hard in stress. Relieved beyond words, she laughed:
"Sir! You're back! Thanks god you're not dead! Oh my god..." Only then, she allowed herself to fall apart and cry.
"Hey.. Carter? What's the matter with you?" he whispered as he weakly came to his senses.
"Oh Sir!" was all she could say, squeezing his hand. It took some time for his sore brain to process the strangeness of the situation. He was laying in a kind of basement with panels, his body aching and his brain feeling like cotton wool. She was crying. He needed to sit up, so he struggled with that task and she helped him rest his back against the wall. Once he felt steady, he opened his arms and invited her to seek comfort there, which she did with a sob. He rested his spinning head on the top of hers and closed his eyes, feeling he had done the best he could.
When she had regained control of herself, she stole some extra seconds of the hug before her professionalism took over and she pulled away to check on her CO.
"Are you alright Sir?"
"You tell me Carter. What happened?" he said, still rather pale.
"I'm not sure Sir, but I think you had a heart attack. I thought I had lost you Sir. I couldn't find a pulse on you!"
"A heart attack? Never had heart problems before.."
"I'm not a doctor Sir, maybe I'm wrong, Janet will have to tell you what it was. I activated a panel on the controls, and suddenly you were yelling in pain on the floor. When I stopped the panel, you just collapsed and I had to give you CPR for.. I don't know.. it felt like hours!"
"I'm sorry I scared you like that Carter. What's that panel for?"
"I was not affected at all, so I'd say it must have something to do with the Ancient mind activation. But I'm not testing that again!"
"No... better not" he said with a tired voice, his head falling back against the wall. Sam worried again as he turned suddenly very pale.
"Sir?!" she called, alarmed.
"Carter" he said "You realize that if I had died, you had no mean to get out of here? This is just insane! We NEED to get stairs down here!"
"Good point" Sam approved. "Sir, we should go back to the SGC, you need to go to the infirmary and have Janet check you up"
"In a minute Carter, in a minute..." he said, needing to rest before he could even consider standing on his feet. "Look, d'you have some more things to do here? I could really use a 5 minutes power-nap..."
"I'd rather not touch anything down here before I'm sure we can get help if something should happen again. I'm not sure you would survive an other jolt today, I won't take the chance Sir!"
"Alright. Then, get some rest too..." he said, lowering his head carefully to the floor. She moved closer to him and offered him her laps as pillow. He hesitated at first, this was not really appropriate, was it? Well, he didn't care, he just wanted to sleep, and he would sleep better there than on the floor so... Thanking her, he settled down and closed his eyes with a sigh, falling asleep immediately.
Sam couldn't rest. The floor was hard and she had too much adrenaline left in her system to relax. They had been lucky... She was surveying his breathing, observing him as he slept. He was resting his chin on the hand he had laid on her knee. She liked how his long eyelashes were softening his otherwise very masculine traits. The hair was getting gray on his temples already. She yearned to stroke the top of his head where hair peaked in any direction, but she didn't dare, afraid he would notice. She had placed her other hand on his upper arm and it was how far she would go. He was her CO after all, although in the year they had worked together she had developed rather unsettling feelings for him. Yeah OK. She admitted. She had a crush... A bad crush... She knew he didn't return the feeling, still attached to his wife... Ex-wife... But what she had seen in his mind some hours ago had unsettled her and her certitude that he only saw a soldier and a geek in her... He was waking up already, obviously remembering where he was this time. He rolled over on his back to look at her.
"Hey. Thanks Carter, that helped" he simply said, rubbing his eyes.
"Anytime Sir" she smiled. They stood up and, taking the extra crystals with them, they held hands to leave the control room. They appeared on the tile in the temple and walked out in the nice smelling air of the forest. Sam was eager to have Jack checked at the SGC and walked briskly on the path. But after a couple of minutes, her brain registered a thud behind her, and that's when she noticed that she had heard no footstep following her for the last half minute. Turning back in a hurry, she found Jack on the path, face down on the forest soil. She checked for his pulse while barking in the radio: "This is Captain Carter! I need a stretcher at the temple, fast. Dial SGC at once. Colonel O'Neill needs medical attention immediately!"
"Roger that Ma'am" the radio answered. "Two men on their way"
Waiting for the help to arrive, Sam sat down at Jack's side, wiping the beads of sweat and the dirt on his forehead, worried that he looked so pale. What had she done to him down there that he would collapse from the little effort that bringing them back had required from him?
"You were lucky Sir" Janet commented sternly.
"Yeah?" Jack replied with a hint of sarcasm. He couldn't quite agree that having his head fried in an Ancient toaster would qualify as "lucky".
"What was it Janet? Heart attack?" a worried Captain asked from the end of the bed.
"More like a stroke actually. His brain sort of shut down"
"Oh my god! But he is OK now, isn't he?"
"Incredibly enough, I don't think he will suffer any sequel but I need to keep him under observation for a few days. From what you described to me, I would have expected him to remain in a coma for quite a while, and chances were great that he would have been paralyzed, at least tempora..."
"Hey! HE is sitting right here! D'you mind?" Jack interrupted, annoyed. He felt like he was five again and the adults would talk over his head as if he weren't there. He had hated it then, still did.
"Sorry Sir" both women apologized, turning to him with the same contrite smile. He could not repressed an amused smirk.
"Good. So tell me what happened back there?"
"You collapsed as soon as we were out of the temple Sir"
"Yeah, you told me that already Carter, but why did my brain shut down?"
"I wouldn't know Sir, we would have to have a look at that panel and understand what it does..."
"I can tell you what it does! It felt like I had my head in a microwave!" Jack complained.
"You think it was sending waves of energy?" Sam mused. "But then, my brain should have been affected too Sir."
"Nope, yours' too big.." Yes! He had managed to make her smile! He didn't like when she looked so worried.
"We could assume that the energy wave activates the specific Ancient gene you are supposed to be the only one to have" Janet offered.
"I don't understand this. It should be the other way around! The Colonel's mind is usually activating the devices, how could the devices activate his gene?" Sam wondered.
"You tell me. You are the scientist here" Janet posed. Jack had a very goofy smile plastered on his face.
"What?" Sam asked, forgetting to acknowledge his rank in her stupor.
"I just love when other people say that." he said, settling back in his bed. If he had not been a superior officer, Sam would have thrown a pillow at him, he was sure of it! He smiled even broader at the thought.
"Guys! These people are a-ma-zing!" Daniel exclaimed when he entered the infirmary for his routine check as Teal'c and himself were back from the alpha site "They are the foundation to any fairy and elves tale on Earth! They can see your thoughts, make things appear and disappear, they use telekinesis and telepathy, they are in perfect harmony with the nature around them, and they told me their people live in different environments so that not all of them are depending on a tropical forest, many of their relatives live in temperate climates too! And they also refereed to the Greek myth of Phaeton, son of Helios, who burnt the Sahara. You know that the Sahara was initially a tropical forest right?!"
"Hey! My head!" Jack protested. He knew that when the overenthusiastic archaeologist made this face, he could go on for hours... Daniel looked at him, both hurt to be interrupted and surprised to find Jack in a bed.
"What happened to you anyway?"
"Ah... my head got fried in an Ancient toaster"
"There was an accident in the control room at the temple" Sam supplied guiltily. "When I activated one of the panels, the Colonel passed out"
"Not your fault Carter. You couldn't know" Jack assured.
"Thank you Sir" she said, contrite.
"So T. Had a nice trip?" Jack attempted to change the subject.
"Indeed. The Jaffa legends were entirely true O'Neill"
"I'm pleased to hear that" And especially pleased that, contrary to Daniel, Teal'c could express himself in so short sentences, he thought. Both newcomers were directed to beds for their routine check-up.
"You'd better get some rest now Sir" Sam said.
"I'll do that. You going home Carter?"
"Actually there was something I wanted to.." she said, pointing toward her lab.
"No way Carter. You need your rest too. Go home!"
"Is that an order Sir?" she asked coldly.
"I'd rather you do it because I asked. And because it's reasonable" Jack answered softly.
"Fine" she smiled. "See you in the morning Sir"
"Good night Carter"
Jack was smiling broadly at the frustrated doctor.
"I don't know how this is possible Sir, but all your tests are fine, and I double-checked. I never expected that you would recover so fast, that's incredible!"
"So I can go?!" he asked eagerly.
"Well, your tests give me no reason to keep you here, unfortunately. Although I..."
"Ah! You said I could go!" Jack interrupted.
"I know I did. Your tests are fine. But they shouldn't be. There is something I do not understand and that worries me. I want to run those tests again this evening though"
"Right. Fine." Jack conceded. "I'll stop by before I go home"
"Fine. See you tonight Sir" Janet sighted. "And Sir?... Take it easy today, will you?"
Jack could see the concern in her eyes and nodded with a smile before he left. She knew that once she had said the results were fine, there would be no way to keep him at the infirmary. But really, he shouldn't be that fine, and she was beginning to question her instruments...
Siler and his team had been sent to the temple to try and open a hole in the floor, which would make the access to the control room possible without mind activated teletransport. Sam was on her way to check the progress of the work, hoping she would soon be able to walk down those stairs and continue her study of the panels. As she arrived, she heard a cry and a string of curses followed. An airman ran outside, holding his bleeding hand to his chest, and fell on the ground. Siler came running after him and Sam joined them, already searching her pockets for her first aid kit. Siler helped the young man sit up and rest against the nearest tree while Sam attempted to clean the wound.
"I stumbled and cut myself on the saw... Entirely my fault Sir..." the young man apologized to Siler.
"That's a bad cut Johnson, we'd better take you back to the infirmary" the Sergeant answered.
"I... I don't think I can walk that far Sir..." Johnson said. The pain and the sight of the blood were getting to him and he looked rather green, Sam was afraid he would faint, or be sick.
"Just sit there Airman, I'll call for a stretcher" she said, reaching for her radio. The airman sent her a grateful glance and let his bandaged hand slip to the ground, blood already making its way through the material. Siler and Sam exchanged a concerned look, helping him to lay down as they waited for help.
Looking at the medical team hurrying out of the forest to take his man back to the SGC, Siler sighed and turned back to the temple where his team had resumed their work. He explained to the Captain what they were trying to do, she had the competence to understand their technical work and he appreciated to exchange with her.
"This material is incredibly hard and our tools won't go through" he said. "We've already ruined three of our best saws on it and the stone is barely marked. I begin to wonder it we should try explosives... What do you think Captain?"
"I'm not sure it would be a good idea Sergeant. I'm afraid it could do more damage than good..."
"I'm aware of that Captain, but the tiles are so tightly fitted to each other that we have no leverage to lift them mechanically, and our tools don't seem to be strong enough"
"I see your point Sergeant, believe me..." Sam answered while looking for alternatives. "Could you try and dig a passageway from the outside? I believe there was no instruments on the western wall of the control room, that would be a good entrance point"
"We could try that... But don't you think we will face the same problem when we come to the wall of the control room?"
"That's possible of course, but I believe you could get help from these machines that were too large to enter the temple, and if that doesn't work and you have to use explosives, the risk of damaging the temple would be less if it explodes from the outside, don't you think?"
Siler approved and called his team to give them the new instructions. Having no more to do there, Sam decided to return to the base.
As she was leaving the gate room, she nearly crashed in an airman.
"Oh, sorry Airman, are you alright?"
"Sorry Ma'am, I wasn't looking where I was going.."
"Airman Johnson?!" Sam asked in disbelief as she recognized the young man.
"Yes Ma'am"
"Aren't you supposed to be at the infirmary?"
"No Ma'am, I've been released"
"You can't be serious?! Your hand had such a bad cut, I would have thought you were in for surgery!"
"I know Ma'am, I thought so too, but as you see, it is nearly healed" he said, showing his hand with a little plaster on it.
"That's not possible!?" Sam cried. "The cut was so deep that I could see the bone!"
"Well... Doctor Fraiser said it was nothing and that I could go back..."
"What is it Captain?" General Hammond intervened as he had heard their argument from the control room.
"General! Airman Johnson cut his hand badly at the temple on the alpha site. I was there and I helped Sergeant Siler take care of him. I cleaned the cut, and it was so bad that I could see the bone, I was certain he would have needed surgery, and here he goes, his hand almost healed after barely a couple of hours!"
"Is that so?" Hammond asked, concerned as he was eyeing the plaster on the man's hand. "Are you sure of what you saw Captain?"
"Of course I am Sir! Sergeant Siler was there and he was very concerned too!"
"I also thought I would lose my hand Sir..." Johnson confirmed.
"Call for Doctor Fraiser to meet us in the briefing room this instant" the General said as he walked back to the stairs, a frown on his forehead.
"Captain? You back already?" Jack asked as he spotted her. But she had no time to answer.
"Colonel, call your team and follow us" General Hammond ordered. Surprised by the unexpected concerned tone of his superior, he complied, wondering why the airman was joining too.
As they all sat in the briefing room and the situation was explained, Doctor Fraiser took the opportunity to raise Jack's case too. His recovery had been all too fast for her liking and now that Johnson showed the same healing ability, she wanted to run new tests on them both. Jack sent a murderous glance at the innocent young man.
"Wait!" Daniel intervened. "Jack never showed this kind of ability before. Why would he now?"
"I have no idea Doctor Jackson, but the fact is that he does now!" Janet replied.
"Could this have something to do with the Ancient gene?" Sam suggested, turning toward Johnson.
"I have been tested for that at the alpha site Ma'am, and I don't have it" the young man supplied.
"And still... you nearly cut you hand off, and when I removed your blood soaked bandage back at the infirmary less than one hour after the accident, there was barely a scratch left, and the scans showed no sign of internal injury" Janet said, frustrated.
"What you are describing resembles very much the healing powers of a sarcophagus, Doctor Fraiser" Teal'c observed.
"This is correct Teal'c, but we have nothing near that kind of technology" General Hammond acknowledged. "How are these miraculous recoveries even possible then?"
"Well... Remember what I said when we first went back to the planet to study the temple?" Jack offered. After a moment of silence in the room, Daniel said:
"You said the forest had completely regenerated although we had ruined it while doing our measurements some weeks before"
"Exactly. Now, how did that happen?"
"Could it be something in the forest? Or in the dome?" Hammond suggested.
"Both Colonel O'Neill and Airman Johnson were laying on the forest soil while waiting for help to arrive" Sam observed.
"Only Silva..." Jack mumbled.
"What?" Daniel asked.
"Oh, that's something Eolan told me. They call the forest Silva, and they kind of... interact with it. Get energy from it. They think of the forest as a person, an equal..."
"And you think the forest would have healing powers?" Hammond wanted to know.
"Well Sir, it looks like it could be the explanation for both Airman Johnson and Colonel O'Neill's miraculous recovery" Janet summarized. Jack grunted and six pairs of eyes turned to him.
"Then, why did Thompson die?" he frowned.
A silence fell in the room. The subject was still sensitive in Jack's mind, he blamed himself for the young man's death and his team had learned to act carefully around him when Doctor Jerry Thompson was mentioned.
"Well Sir" Janet tried. "Doctor Johnson was not really injured, he was poisoned by those bugs. Perhaps the forest can't cure that?"
"That would be correct Doctor Fraiser" Teal'c informed. "The sarcophagus would not cure poisoning either. It can only heal wounds and set the body back to its former state, but it can not remove or annihilate the effect of an extra substance in the body, nor can it regrow missing parts of it"
Jack's jaws tightened, but he seemed to accept the explanation and didn't comment on it. General Hammond however, was delighted.
"So it would appear that we have access to something with the healing powers of a sarcophagus! That's good news people! SG-1 and Doctor Fraiser, you will study this further. I want to know if there is a risk of addiction, and the Alveonans should be able to answer any question the doctor has about what we can expect. You are leaving tomorrow at 0700 hour. Dismissed"