Chapter 4, part 1.
"And we have no way of identifying them?" Landry asked, his eyebrows up and his voice grumpy. Out of the nine people crowded in the conference room, he was the only one without a cup of coffee, even though a fresh pot was standing right in front of him. It made Alice wonder if he was trying to cut back on his caffeine intake.
"No, sir. Colonel Shevchenko tried to open a communication channel with the unknown Ha'tak, but they didn't respond, and jumped into hyperspace immediately after blowing up the other ship," she replied and sipped at her own coffee. "Their IFF and energy readings were not recorded in our database, so there's no way of knowing who they were."
"The Jaffa that captured us were part of Wael's faction," Mitchell added. "They deal with Lucian Alliance and other mercenaries, maybe it was a deal gone wrong."
"I wonder if it had anything to do with what happened to them before they got to that planet," Hailey mused. "According to the ship's log, they sent representatives to purchase Goa'uld symbiotes from the Alliance, but the party came back accompanied by a number of humans, and the whole group attacked the Ha'tak's crew."
"That makes me think they ran across Jareth," Alice put in. "He would be able to turn the Jaffa against their own allies with no problem—assuming that his abilities work on them, which I think we have to do." She paused for a moment and then added pensively: "It would explain the heavy patrols, too. They no longer knew whom to trust, even among themselves. And maybe—just maybe—they were right. Somehow that other Ha'tak knew exactly where they were—it essentially came out from hyperspace guns blazing."
"You think it was Jareth who blew 'em up?" Vala asked, her eyebrows going up. "I don't know the bloke, but when he saw the Gagarin, wouldn't he have gone after it, too?"
Alice shook her head. "Jareth knows our battlecruisers' capabilities, and he knows a Ha'tak has no chance against them. He wouldn't risk it. If anything, the fact that they fled almost immediately after spotting us, and well before we were in weapons range, tells me it might have been him. He's too smart to pick a fight with us." She reached for the coffee pot and refilled her cup. "But it is possible that there was someone aboard our Ha'tak who tipped him off as to its location—and possibly its state, too. Remember, by the time the other ship showed up, ours was already pretty much disabled—with no sensors and no hyperdrive, it was essentially a sitting duck."
"I thought people affected by Jareth's abilities turned into vegetables when he's not there." Watson said, but the rising intonation of his statement made it a question.
Alice nodded and then shrugged. "Yes and no. If a person who's been bent receives clear instructions, they will follow them even when Jareth is nowhere near—we've seen that happen before. The first time we met Jareth, he was gone from the planet, and yet all the affected people still put up a fight against our teams, because defend the castle was the last command from Jareth. Only after they had been subdued and brought back to Atlantis, they started exhibiting altered behavior." She sighed. "Plus, I'm pretty sure that he hasn't stopped experimenting—my bet is on him trying to extend his abilities to cover as much distance as possible."
"You know him best, Major, and your theory seems sound, but it's still just a theory," Landry noted. "It could still have been something or someone else."
"Of course, sir." Alice nodded again. "Still, I am pretty sure at least the incident recorded in the ship's log was caused by Jareth."
"They didn't mention a Wraith there, though, did they? Only humans?" Mitchell asked.
"These Jaffa would not have known a Wraith when they saw it." Teal'c's voice was calm and composed as usual. "They might mistake it for a human-alien hybrid."
"Which is exactly what the Wraith are," Doctor Jackson added, and then shrugged. "Which, I guess, is neither here nor there…"
"At the very least we have a clue where to look for Jareth, though." Alice put down her cup, empty again, and decided against another one. She was tired, true, but three cups of coffee in quick succession couldn't be good for her. "The ship's log recorded the place of the attack: a planet called Wenet. Anyone heard about it before? Teal'c?"
"I have not, Major Boyd," the Jaffa replied, bowing his head slightly.
"I have," Jackson announced, a frown on his face. "Not as a planet, though. Wenet is the Ancient Egyptian name of the fifteenth administrative division of the Upper Egypt. Its main deity was Thoth, a god of wisdom, writing, hieroglyphs, science and magic, though originally he was associated with the moon. He had allied himself with Anubis even before his botched ascension."
"Oh hello," Vala piped up again. "I know that name."
"Could be that Wenet is somewhere in Anubis's original domain of influence," Mitchell noted. "What happened to Thoth, do we know?"
"We killed him on Tartarus," Teal'c declared calmly.
"He was responsible for the genetic engineering of the Kull warriors and served as Anubis's chief scientist. Teal'c, Sam and Jacob Carter encountered him on Tartarus and had to kill him when he discovered them, before they got rid of the queen producing the symbiotes for Kull warriors," Jackson elaborated. "That may narrow down our search—Wenet may be directly linked to Thoth, maybe it was his principal base of operations before he and Anubis were both exiled, or perhaps it was his place of exile."
"General Landry, is the Tau'ri dialing computer fixed now?" Teal'c asked, a propos of nothing, it seemed.
"Yeah, we managed to get it working a few hours ago," the general confirmed. "Why?"
"We may have some records on which territories had been under Anubis's rule before the other System Lords defeated him," Teal'c explained. "We are collecting Goa'uld histories on Chulak."
"That's excellent, Teal'c!" Alice exclaimed, and immediately turned to Landry: "Sir, permission to go with Teal'c back to Chulak and pursue this lead?"
Landry huffed. "Haven't you had enough, Major? You've been on your feet for over twenty hours. You and your team should get some rest. You can go tomorrow."
"Sir, I believe time is of the essence here," she insisted. "Jareth might move on and the trail will go cold if we don't get there soon enough."
Landry shook his head and addressed Teal'c. "Can you ask your people to try and find this information and let us know as soon as they do?"
Teal'c bowed his head again. "I shall go immediately, General Landry."
"Fine. Boyd, you'll go as soon as we get the location, but in the meantime, I am ordering you to get some sleep, understood?"
"Yes, sir," she sighed. Well, until the Jaffa got back to them with the info, there was really nothing for them to do, so they might as well rest for a bit. She had to admit she was beat—not just because she'd been awake for so long, but the adrenaline had sapped all the vital forces out of her, as it usually did after the danger had passed.
"Alright, people. SG-1, it's good to have you back. SG-7, that was a good rescue. I like your style, Major," Landry complimented her, and Alice smiled tiredly. "And good thinking to get the 302 back."
"Thank you, sir. I only wish the other wan wasn't destroyed." She shook her head.
"Well, that was out of your control, but retrieving one of them has saved the taxpayers about hundred million dollars, so good job on that." Landry stood up, and Alice, Watson, Morgan, Hailey and Mitchell all got up to their feet, too. "You're all dismissed."
It felt like she had just fallen asleep five minutes earlier when somebody shook her awake.
"Get up, Alice," a familiar voice said before she even opened her eyes. "Teal'c has come through with the location of the planet."
She lifted her eyelids and focused on the figure leaning over her: Doctor Jackson. It figured—he was the only person in the SGC who called her by her first name. She sat up in her bed and he stepped back, smiling at her.
"Why are you here, Doctor?" She asked, looking at the electric clock on the nightstand. It wasn't even seven in the morning, which meant she slept less than five hours. "Shouldn't you be home?"
"I'm fine," he dismissed it with a wave of his hand. "I wanted to read up a little on Thoth and the Hare nome before you go."
"You lost me, sir," Alice admitted, stretching her arms and back before she got to her feet. She was wearing a green uniform, all crinkly from sleeping in it now.
"Nomoi were the administrative divisions in Ancient Egypt," he explained. "Hare nome is another name for Wenet. Quite an interesting history. One of the earliest artifacts we have is a statue from the Fourth Dynasty, four and a half thousand years ago. It depicts an anthropomorphized depiction of Wenet, along with the pharaoh Menkaure—and the goddess Hathor."
"Oh hello," Alice said, echoing Vala's last night's words. "I know that name."
Jackson nodded. "In Egyptian mythology, Anubis was the god of the dead and the king of the underworld during the Old Kingdom, later displaced by Osiris in that role. Interestingly, in the late pharaonic era, he was often depicted as the guide of souls from the world of the living to the realm of the dead—and guess which other god sometimes served the same function?"
Alice shrugged, stepping up to the wardrobe and looking for a new uniform.
"Hathor herself. And seeing as she was chummy with Thoth, it leads me to believe she had conspired with Anubis against Ra and the other System Lords."
"How does it help us, though?" She asked, putting the fresh uniform on her bed and turning around to look at Jackson.
"I'm not sure it does," he admitted, and then grinned at her. "But it's very interesting, isn't it?"
She chuckled and shook her head. "If you say so, Doctor."
"You know you can call me Daniel," he said offhandedly.
This surprised and alarmed her a little. "Oh, no, sir, I couldn't…" She mumbled.
"Nonsense." He waved his hand at her dismissively again. "We're both doctors, aren't we?" He shrugged, and then paused for a minute before he added: "You know you've saved my ass yesterday, right? If these Jaffa had succeeded in handing us over to Wael, we'd be dead."
"That's who they were waiting for, wasn't it? For Wael to come collect you?"
He nodded. "Probably. It's possible they wanted to trade us to Lucian Alliance, too—there's a pretty big bounty on our heads." He shrugged. "Either way, we would have been dead in the water if not for you."
"I'm sure Major Hailey would've found a way to get you out," Alice contradicted.
"Maybe, maybe not. Doesn't change the fact that you saved us. That was a daring rescue, too—very well thought-out. And, I hear, some great flying, too."
"Well, thank you." She sighed. "And now, if you don't mind, sir… uhm, Daniel," she corrected herself under his chastising glare. "I'd like to take a quick shower and change."
"Of course." He smiled to her brightly. "I may actually go home and grab some sleep now." And he let out a big yawn, as if to confirm his words.
"You should," she agreed, smiling back.
"Alright, I'm going. Good luck, Alice."
She nodded thanks and watched him leave. She then turned around and grabbed the prepared uniform, but before she could move on, she noticed her cell vibrating on the nightstand. She picked it up and looked at the notifications. Four missed calls and eight texts—and almost all of them from Dee. She rolled her eyes and plopped down on the bed again to answer.
I am alright, just busy at work, she wrote. We talked about this, Dee.
The reply came back almost immediately. Thank G, I was worried! & I know but I can't help it! :( Are u coming home now?
I slept at the base, going back to work now. Don't wait up for me.
Man u weren't kidding when u said u were gonna spend most of ur time work
You have no idea. Have a good day, Dee.
She then replaced the phone on the stand, got up and headed out towards the locker room to take a shower.
It was almost midnight when she got back to the room that constituted her on-base quarters and plopped down onto the bed. She was tired—exhausted, really—and discouraged. She, Watson and Morgan had spent the entire day on Wenet; it was a planet with two distant suns and many moons, and an old Naquadah mine, depleted by now. It also hosted a couple villages within a few miles of the Stargate, where the descendants of Thoth's original mining operation still lived. The SG-7 had spent many hours talking to them and trying to find out any clues as to Jareth's whereabouts, but they came back with nearly nothing—people there were not really forthcoming. They had confirmed that Jareth and his entourage had been on the planet, and that they had met with a party of Wael's Jaffa, but no one had seen where Jareth had gone—or at least, no one was willing to say. The villagers' main source of income was catering to the needs of the mercenaries who liked to come trade to this forgotten planet, and discretion was a big part of their job.
Having reported to Landry their lack of news, Alice dismissed her teammates and came to her room, trying to decide whether she had it in her to drive back home or if she should crash there. Landry had given them all a day off to recuperate, which she wasn't planning to take. She preferred to keep busy—but she was so exhausted…
She removed her boots, turned off the lights and lay down on the bed, grabbing her phone to check for messages.
Still work? Deanna texted at around nine in the evening; to her credit, it was the only message she'd sent since the morning.
Yeah, I'm beat. Gonna grab some shut-eye here, Alice texted back. There were also texts from her mom and Aaron.
How are you doing, honey? Wrote Eileen. You've been quiet.
Just working a lot, mom. How are you? How's the novel going? Alice replied, redirecting mom's attention to her own work: she had been working on her very first graphic novel, cooperating with some writer Alice had never heard of, but who was apparently big in the fantasy community. She didn't expect to hear back immediately, though; mom would already be asleep at this time, even if it was an hour earlier in LA.
Aaron only sent her a picture of Ike with a big frown on his little face, and next to it was a photo of a white-brown cat with a very grumpy expression. Alice smiled tiredly, texted back a laughing emoji, and then put the phone back on the nightstand and turned onto her side. Five minutes later she was fast asleep.
She woke up with a start, shaking and sweating in her uniform, under the comforter. The nightmare that woke her was so vivid—she could still taste the panic she had felt. In it, she was back in Jareth's castle, strapped to the chair in his laboratory, but instead of the Wraith, Karim leaned over her, a scalpel in his hand, his face serene as it had always been, even as he started to carve her up into pieces… She shuddered, remembering that her chief worry in the dream wasn't what he was doing to her—it was that, aside from the eerie calmness that was so like him, he was all wrong—his skin was ashen and swollen, his lips blue, blood streaking down his cheeks from a gash on his forehead… she felt a shiver travel up her back again and shook her head in the darkness.
"It was just a dream," she told herself out loud. "Snap out of it, Boyd."
Sitting up, she threw a quick glance at the clock. Five-thirty, her usual wakeup hour. Might as well get up, she thought, unwilling to admit to herself that she didn't want to get back to sleep for fear of finding herself in the nightmare again.
By seven in the morning she was already in her lab, having done her usual morning workout routine, showered, and eaten a light breakfast at the commissary. She was already deep into her work when, a couple hours later, a knock on the doorframe pulled her out of the hyper-focus.
"Colonel!" She exclaimed, getting to her feet and smiling automatically—she couldn't help that reaction whenever she saw Carter.
"Good morning, Major," the older woman said with a smirk of her own and entered the room. "I was just on my way to see Doctor Lee when I saw you were in here. I was under the impression you got a day off today." There was a chastising undertone in her voice and Alice instantly felt defensive.
"I'm fine, I don't need a day off," she protested heatedly. "I have too much work to do."
"Work that's still gonna be here on Monday," Carter noted and then sighed. "Listen, Major, I know how you feel—trust me, I've been there. But you know what I have that you don't?" She didn't pause to let Alice answer, but continued immediately: "Hindsight. And I'm telling you now, you need to take it easy."
Alice shook her head, momentarily amused—while Carter didn't know it, Alice did have the benefit of hindsight, too, although hers was a much wackier one. How else could one describe having met herself, only forty years in the future?
"I'm really fine, ma'am," she countered, and quickly changed the topic: "Why are you here, Colonel?"
"Oh, you know. I heard about what happened to SG-1—and about your excellent rescue mission, good job on that, by the way—and decided to come check on them." Carter shrugged. "Plus I have a meeting with Landry in an hour or so."
Alice cocked her head to the side and raised her eyebrows. "You seem to be meeting with him a lot lately." Her intonation made it a question.
Carter nodded and smiled, but didn't reply otherwise.
"So, I take it a congratulation is in order?" Alice ventured, looking at the colonel penetratingly.
"How do you figure?" Carter's expression was innocent, but it didn't fool Alice.
"General Landry's been the head of the SGC for seven years now, and in rank for even longer than that," Alice said, shrugging. "He's already been reappointed to grade twice, so he's probably looking at promotion—or retirement, because I doubt the President will extend his tour again. That means that there's gonna be a vacancy—and who better to fill it with than you?" Alice smiled again.
"Well, aren't you crafty." The older woman grinned at her. "It's unofficial yet, so please keep it to yourself—but yeah, the brass tapped me to head the SGC starting next month. I've been meeting with Landry to get as much information and knowledge as he can impart on me."
"Well, congratulations, ma'am." Alice was still smiling. "I think that's an excellent choice, and if I may be so bold—I think you'll make an amazing commander. I'm looking forward to serving under you."
"Thank you, Major, I'm looking forward to working with you, too." Carter made a little bow and then chuckled. "I hope others have not connected the dots yet."
"Oh, I had a bit of help," Alice admitted. "Teal'c had said something—he said it would soon be much easier to keep in touch with you. It didn't make sense to me at first, I mean I know he has no intention of coming back to the SGC permanently, so the change must have come from you." She paused, and then asked tentatively: "But if you become SGC's CO, who's gonna be the captain of the Hammond?"
Carter looked at her, her eyes measuring, and then nodded, as if to herself. "We were thinking Colonel Reynolds deserves to get his own command now."
"Really?" Alice couldn't hide her surprise. "Not Mitchell?"
"Ow, psh!" Carter waved her hand. "Cam was mortified with the mere suggestion. I don't think he's ever gonna give up SG-1."
Alice smirked, shaking her head. "Yeah, no kidding. He's very like Colonel Sheppard in some respects."
"Isn't he?" The colonel chuckled again. "I always thought so, too. Either way, he's staying put, and so we offered the Hammond to Reynolds. He was happy to accept."
"And that, in turn, creates an opening in SG-3," Alice mused.
"Yeah, I don't know who's gonna fill that in yet." Carter looked at her watch. "Alright, Major, it was nice chatting with you, but I need to get a move on if I want to talk to Bill before my meeting with Landry. As I mentioned, please keep the contents of our discussion to yourself, will you?"
"Of course, ma'am." Alice nodded solemnly.
"And, Major—" Carter's eyes twinkled with amusement "—as a superior officer, and your soon-to-be CO, I am ordering you to take today off, alright?"
Alice sighed and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Yes, ma'am."
"Good. And remember that the weekend is for resting, too," she cautioned, waving a finger at Alice. "Don't get back here until Monday, unless you are officially recalled earlier than that for whatever reason."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good. Have a nice long weekend, then, Major."
"Thank you, ma'am, and you have a good day."
Carter smiled at her again and then walked out of the room, leaving Alice a little exasperated at being patronized, and at the same time satisfied that she had guessed the situation correctly—and, she had to admit, happily looking forward to having Carter as the CO. Landry was no doubt extremely competent in his role, and a good man overall, but Carter had been Alice's role model ever since she had joined the Stargate Program, eight years ago. Having the opportunity to work closely with her, and perhaps even to have her mentor Alice was going to be, in her book at least, a true gift.
Deanna was not home when Alice arrived half an hour later—quite normal; she'd be at work at this time of day. But that meant that there were many hours ahead of Alice where she had nothing to do—and it scared her. The only reason she hadn't broken down yet, she knew, was because she had been too busy—and too exhausted the day before. The nightmare that cut her sleep short was only a prelude to what would be a hellish day—and so she had to find something to do.
She went up to her room to change—she was wearing the same clothes she went to work in two days prior—and as she was walking back downstairs, she felt her phone vibrate in her jeans' back pocket.
The novel's going okay, waiting for more material from Josh, her mother just texted back. You were up late last night. I hope you are not overworking yourself again, honey.
Alice sighed and dialed her mom's number, plopping down onto the couch in the living room. Eileen answered after only one ring.
"That's a surprise," was her way of greeting her daughter. "Is everything alright?"
"Yes, mom, everything's perfectly fine. I'm calling to assure you that I am not overworking myself. In fact, I have a day off today."
"Oh, that's wonderful, darling! Are you making some plans?"
"Well, actually I thought I might come home for a spell," Alice looked at her watch. "I could make the early afternoon flight from Denver, be home around four-thirty, five, depending on traffic? I know we've just seen each other, but I don't think an occasion like this will come along again anytime soon."
"Of course, honey, that would be wonderful!" Her mother enthused. "You know I love it when you're home. I wish I could have you all the time—but I'll take what I can get!" She laughed. "I only wish Jake could join us, too."
"Yeah, me too," Alice replied, non-committal. Jake was on Atlantis and didn't have any leave coming up for a couple months, she knew. "Alright, so let me get going, need to book a flight and pack and all."
"Excellent, see you in a few hours!"
"See ya."
Alice disconnected, smiling. That did it—when she was around mom, she could not give in to the darkness, which was the whole point of the trip. She immediately got up and grabbed her laptop to look for tickets through ITT—the military's travel office—and, that done, went up to pack a carryon. Before leaving for the airport, she texted Deanna to tell her she was going home for the weekend, and then got on the road.
Dee texted back when she was still en route, so she only read the message once she parked her car and started walking towards the terminal.
Oh, damn :( happy for u but tbh I was hoping we could spend the wd 2gether & do sth fun
Sorry, I wasn't really planning on this, I got some time off today and decided to visit my mom on a whim. We'll hang out next weekend, I promise.
I'll keep u to that ;) Have fun!
"That was great," Alice complimented her mom's cooking, getting up and reaching for the plates.
"Oi!" Eileen swatted Alice's hand away. "Don't—you're on leave here, you don't clear the table! I'll do that."
"You cooked, I should at least help with the cleanup," Alice complained, sitting back down.
"Nonsense." Mom busied herself with the plates instead. "You rest. Don't take it the wrong way, honey, but you look awful. Skin and bones, still, and the bags under your eyes have bags. You're not getting enough to eat or sleep again!"
After Alice had come home for six weeks of convalescent leave—following the injury she'd sustained in the future timeline—her mom had instituted a rigorous regime of much more food than Alice really needed, and sent her to bed every evening at ten, as if she was a little girl again. Alice hadn't protested then, but what Eileen didn't know was that she had rarely actually slept—most of the time she lay awake for hours, staring into space, unable to shed tears and silently struggling with the enormity of what had happened to her—what she had done.
"I just had an intense couple days, that's all," she said dismissively. "I'll be alright."
"You won't unless you start taking care of yourself," her mother pressed, actually coming back to the table to look at her, her expression scolding. It made Alice feel defensive—and transported her again to the time when she was a child who had done something wrong. "You know, you need to be healthy to do your work. If it continues like this…" Eileen shook her head. "You're gonna burn out."
"I'm not." Alice got on her feet, feeling frustration building inside her. "I told you, I'll be fine. I'm gonna go call Aaron, see if he's doing anything tomorrow."
She heard her mother sigh deeply behind her as she turned around and walked over to the living room. She sat down on the couch and dialed Aaron's cell.
"Hiya," he greeted her, amusement in his voice. "Calling me before, like, midnight? To what do I owe the honor?
Alice rolled her eyes. "Come on, not you too." She sighed. "Actually, I got a day off today so I'm back home for the weekend."
"Really?" There was astonishment clearly audible in his voice. "Just like that, you hopped the plane and came home?"
"Yep. I get a discount on airplane tickets, so why not? I won't probably get another chance to visit for a while."
"But does that mean that you're coming to the reunion?"
"Wait, what?" She felt blindsided by the question.
"You forgot? We talked about it a while back, when you were on your sick leave here. Class of '97, fifteen years since graduation, remember?"
"Huh!" She shook her head, wondering what else she had missed at that time. "I did forget, if you can believe it."
"Well, then, that's a happy accident that you're here this weekend. You will come, won't you?"
Alice sighed. "You know I'm not a party person. I'd rather stay home…"
"Oh, come on!" Aaron sounded agitated. "You can't go against fate! Plus, I'd really love it if you could come. Would be great to have at least one friendly face there…"
"What about the band, aren't they coming?"
"Yeah, but I mean—from the stage, they're no help."
"Oh, you're gonna perform?" She snickered. "How'd you get roped into that one?"
"Kaycee Parker," he replied somberly. "We used to date for a while, remember? She essentially manipulated me into agreeing. I am more nervous about this than any concert we'd ever done before—why is that?"
"Hmm," she mused. "Probably because you used to know these people when you were a teenager—they know things about you most people don't, they'd seen you grow up. Now you are successful and all but you're still afraid of them judging you."
He huffed. "I'd like to protest, but that sounds about right. Then you see—I'll need all the reinforcements I can get."
She sighed again. "I'm not really in a mood for parties, Aaron."
"Come on, pleeeease?" He pleaded. "It's just one night. You don't need to do anything—we'll just stand aside, drink Martinis and make fun of all of them. Maybe you'll even enjoy yourself a bit. It'll get your mind off of work at the very least."
She looked up at the ceiling. He was right about that—a reunion party sounded awful in itself, but Aaron would be there, and it did offer a sizeable distraction from the dark cloud hanging over her shoulders. "Alright, I'll come."
"Yes!" He exclaimed so loud that she reflexively jerked the phone away from her ear. "It starts at six pm. Do you want me to come get you?"
"No, I'm fine, I'll get mom to give me a ride, or simply walk there. It's not like it's far."
"Alright, then. See you there?"
"See you there."