Summery: A routine trip off-world has long-lasting effects for SG-1. Meanwhile, Jack has terrestrial trouble too, when his half-sister is recruited to the SGC and his worlds threaten to collide and all his secrets are in danger of being exposed.
Disclaimer: I do not own "Stargate SG-1" the series. I believe it is owned by MGM. No copyright infringement is intended. No disrespect is intended. I am merely intrigued by the possibilities.
A Matter of Degrees
by: Visions2share a.k.a. Vi
Jack was sitting at the UAV controller station in the control room beside Walter, who was eyeing him suspiciously. No wonder since it was usually Carter's seat, and he tended to avoid acknowledging any familiarity with computers or electronics other than his Gameboy.
Doc Fraiser had decided they needed to know how the maze had done to Carter - whatever all it had done. Carter, and Daniel, and Teal'C thought there must be a machine somewhere in the ruins that they hadn't seen. Daniel was all for going back to look again, but, thankfully, General Hammond put his foot down on that.
They already had UAV footage and the footage Teal'C had captured with the aerial drone - and it hadn't been fully reviewed. Hammond had ordered they exhaust all available resources before he would agree to the risk of sending anyone back to the planet. It had taken twenty-four hours for them to review every frame of footage they had looking for any sort of technology. No dice.
Daniel had tried again to convince General Hammond to send them back, but Jack wasn't too anxious to revisit the place that turned Carter into a shivering, crying, vacant eyed shadow of her usual bright, sparkly, controlled self. Desperate to keep General Hammond from giving a green light for a return trip, Jack had suggested that since the aerial footage hadn't caught it, perhaps it was beneath the ground, under the maze.
General Hammond had ordered a special UAV be prepared to run ground penetrating scans. Carter normally handled these things, but she was nowhere near her capable self. There were several other scientists at the SGC that could have prepared the drone, but they'd all agreed to keep the number of people who knew what was going on as small as possible for Carter's sake. So, Jack did it himself. He didn't like to admit to such skills, but in the current circumstances, for Carter, he'd do it.
He probably wasn't as fast as Carter would have been. Especially since he required sleep, not just caffeine, to function and Doc Fraiser had sent him, and Daniel, each home for a mandatory thirty-six hours' downtime late Sunday afternoon.
But even with the time away from the mountain by midday Tuesday, they were making headway. Daniel and Teal'C were buried under a mountain of rubbings and pictures of each panel pulled from the video in a desperate search for any clue to how the maze worked. And Jack was staring transfixed at the images the UAV was sending back.
The maze in the image on the computer screen wasn't the arid, dusty, baked stone he'd seen in person. It pulsed with glowing veins that stretched out through all the walls - continuous, unbroken, never ending.
…
"Are you saying the walls are alive, Colonel?" General Hammond demanded.
"No, sir," Jack answered after pausing long enough to make Daniel wonder.
"Then what is your explanation for walls with a circulatory system that seems to pulse like a heartbeat?" the General pushed.
"Analyzing the UAV data, I think we are seeing that the stone walls aren't solid. They are rigged like electricity is in a house but with crystals rather than wires. They are likely the conduit the maze uses to transmit thoughts from a man outside the maze to a woman on the inside."
"How is that possible?" General Hammond asked, although Daniel wasn't sure he expected an answer.
Jack, being his normal, ever so helpful self, just shrugged.
"General," Sam's voice warbled and was muffled by her pile of blankets, "we've seen crystals used for all sorts of things. From the Asgard radios to the Tok'ra tunnel crystals that are programed to grow different shaped tunnels. And the inside of a DHD is a mass of crystals used for everything from powering the gate - wirelessly - to all the functions we can barely replicate with our most advanced supercomputers. From what we've seen, the Ancients seemed to possess the knowledge to make crystals serve an innumerable number of functions. We -,"
"I think what the Major means, sir, is we don't know how it works, we just know it does," Jack said.
"Do we know how these crystals decide who to pair in a soul match?"
"It would be in their programming, sir," Sam answered. "Interfacing between crystalline technology and our own is still very hit-or-miss, sir. We haven't figured out any sort of reliable interface. In this case, to even access the crystals, we'd need to break open one of the walls."
"I'm not sure breaking the walls is a good idea," Daniel objected. He'd spent his adult life preserving ruins, after all. "We have no idea if breaking the stone would harm the crystals. And if it did, then interfacing might well be a moot point."
"Accessing the crystals," Sam argued, " is our only chance to understand how they work and maybe reverse the process."
"Yet, if the crystals no longer function when accessed, it is, as DanielJackson has said, a bovine's opinion."
"Nice, 'Friends' reference, Teal'C," Janet said, much to Daniel's further confusion, "and I think breaking the walls should be a last resort. If they are capable of having this effect on Major Carter when they are, we assume, working properly, what might they do to anybody in the vicinity if they malfunctioned?"
General Hammond had been following along, listening to everyone's arguments, and Daniel was prepared to keep arguing, when the General turned to Jack and asked, "Do you have an opinion on this, Colonel?"
"There is a theory in theoretical neuroscience that posits," Jack answered sounding more like Sam, or Janet, or even Daniel himself, than Daniel had ever heard him do before, "every brain operates on a unique frequency determined by experiences and conditions during the twenty-odd years of its development. Maybe the maze broadcasts the man's thoughts inside the maze and only the woman with a very similar frequency can hear it?"
Sam had fought her way free of the blankets and stared, apparently fascinated, at Jack in lecture mode.
"I read that paper," Janet said, shaking herself, "although I'm shocked you did, Colonel. But agree, it is as plausible a theory as to how the maze works as any."
Sam still stared silently at Jack.
"The crystals that power Stargates still function after thousands of years," Teal'C said, "they are not, however, in perpetual operation. I do not believe they would still be functional were they to be consistently in service. How then are those in this maze still doing so?"
Daniel looked at Sam, expecting her to answer, but she was still staring at Jack and didn't seem to have even heard Teal'C's question.
"I think they are solar powered. Kinda," Jack answered when it was clear Sam wouldn't.
"Colonel?" General Hammond prodded.
"They pulse in time with the UV rays from the suns. Which are oddly in sync. Neighboring stars are usually a-synchronistic," Jack seemed to get lost in his own thoughts for a moment, "but I doubt that is relevant. I think the crystals use the suns as a power source but also concentrate the UV rays on the woman in the maze to modify their physiology. I don't know about the other symptoms, but Carter's lasting lowered body temperature could well be the result of extended exposure to high levels of ultraviolet radiation."
…
Who was this man? And what had he done with her colonel? The Colonel O'Neill she knew was brilliant, yes, in tactics and strategy and knowing how to best blow up absolutely anything. He was an accomplished and passionate amateur astronomer and cosmologist. And after years of listening to Daniel had a decent basic understanding of history - at least as it was relevant to gate travel. He even had some amount of medical knowledge able to tend battle field injuries and diagnose diseases like chicken pox and even scarlet fever.
But he wasn't a scientist - didn't like them - hell, he only barely tolerated Daniel and her when they were digging in on some esoteric topic or another. He did not read papers on neuroscience theory or apply theoretical work, in any field, to problems they encountered off world. Well, to be fair, he did that sometimes, but not on purpose; he'd just be sarcastic and mouthy and give her, or Daniel, or Janet, or even Teal'C an idea and then humorously take credit.
But he had just referenced a theory that Janet had heard of, and applied it to their current, her current, problem. He'd analyzed the UAV data and presented well reasoned findings. He'd even completed a basic translation of the ruins that had Daniel stumped for weeks and weeks, and condensed the information down to easily understood bits. Apparently, he was much more capable than she had ever known.
No wonder she hadn't been able to find anyone to replace him.
Sam felt herself start to melt into a pile of goo. Wait. Cold things didn't melt.
"... possible to reverse the effect. If we -,"
"Janet," Sam interrupted whatever her friend was saying, "I feel warmer."
Janet spun around to the monitors. "Up about half a degree. First time it's risen while you are awake," Janet confirmed. "So far, every time your temp has gone up you've been in REM sleep and your brain waves have indicated persisted, prolonged, dreams."
"Does this mean she's getting better?" Daniel asked, grinning at her.
Sam shivered.
"No, I don't think so. It just dropped back to eighty-eight degrees again."
"Then why did it change?" Daniel asked, and Sam tried to focus through the cold to come up with an answer, but was drawing a blank. And getting colder.
"Her focus must have shifted," the Colonel said. "When she's focused on the here and now, cold and miserable," he waved a hand at her huddled form, "but if the dreams warm her...," he trailed off.
"May be thinking about them does too!" Daniel finished.
"Sam, sweetie," Janet asked, "what were you thinking about when you got warmer? Was it the dreams?"
"N...n...no," Sam denied through her chattering teeth.
Janet moved so she was all Sam could see. "It's important. You have to tell me," as if Sam was going to forget they had an audience? Forget he was in the room? Impossible. "What were you thinking about?"
Part of Sam's mind, the rational scientist, knew she had to answer. The rest of her was too embarrassed to be completely honest.
"Si ... Sin ... Since when d ... does the Colo ... Colonel know about the ... theo ... theor ... theoretical neuro ... science?"
"Good question," Janet said and then lowered her voice to a barely audible whisper, "You were thinking about the Colonel?"
Sam refused to answer, but Janet seemed to read the answer in her eyes anyway because she nodded and turned back to the others.
"So maybe we're right and her subconscience is replaying the dreams to try and artificially warm her core."
Why did she have to phrase it that way? Sam would really prefer her core not be a subject of conversation with any of the men gathered. Well, most of the men gathered. And she would require a less populated bedroom for such an intimate topic.
Oh, she was warmer again.
Author's Note: I am totally B. all this science and medical stuff. I assumed you would know that since it is science FICTION but thought I'd better leave a disclaimer just in case. Thanks for reading! ~ Vi