AU: Major Charles Kawalsky has a hard time on the trip to Taonas and learns something about his new team.
Chapter 21: Lost in fire
Monday, 15th March 2004 (Earth Time) – Ronan's Tel'tak, Chulak – Major Charles Kawalsky
Walking onto a Tel'tak when not firing upon its occupants felt foreign. Prior to today, I had never been on one where the mission was simply transportation rather than disabling the ship and killing its crew. Seeing two men who were physically identified as former First Prime's to Apophis grated my sensibilities despite knowing this version of Teal'c was a good man. Hell, my version probably would have been the same, but for whatever reason, we never got to discover that side of him. My best guess was because we didn't have Daniel Jackson, which meant that we were in the Abydonian gate room when Apophis came through to take people. We managed to kill three of the four Jaffa with only Teal'c and Apophis escaping taking no one with them. Jack didn't have a reason to follow because Skaara was right beside us. We didn't go to Chulak and I didn't get snaked there like this realities counterpart had.
It was only after that fight, that Skaara showed us the temple with the multitudes of Gate addresses. We took two rolls of film worth of pictures home and gave them to Samantha who worked out that they were other locations. Her excitement over stellar drift and the realisation of what the Stargate could do for our planet caused a smile on my friends face a mile wide. I still remember him looking at me as she geeked out over the possibilities, yet for some reason it still took him over six months to ask her out on a date. A night – I am told – in which all the rules of first dates were broken – despite his broken ribs and leg – not that I was surprised since after that night, they were practically living together, engaged two months later and finally married on the day that marked twelve months since they met for the first time.
Jack, Ferretti, Brown, and I explored and fought our way from planet to planet, upsetting Apophis more and more with each person whose illusions of him being their Almighty were shattered after a visit from us. We had wondered why he hadn't attempted to come through our gate again until that fateful day when he did. Of course, his ships had already been in orbit for 24 hours laying waste to major power centres while Teal'c and ten of his most loyal Jaffa infiltrated the SGC through the systematic bombing of the missile silo trap door at the top of the mountain followed by a ring transporter through the gaping hole right into the belly of Level 28, giving them access to the manual iris override. The memories of Teal'c storming my SGC and killing my men were on repeat in my brain. Teal'c seemed to realise this and sought to break the tension in the small vessel.
"Major Kawalsky. I assure you; I am not your enemy. Allow me to present my mentor, Master Bra'tac. The one who taught me all I know." He stated in his typical dry voice. Master Bra'tac reached forward in what was probably supposed to be a greeting but instead raised my hackles and put me even more on edge.
"All you know?" I repeated, "Did he teach you how to raid a base and enslave a population?" I asked accusingly, making them both look at me. I knew my words were rimmed with bitter sentiment; it was still hard to not see them as the enemy even though I knew this Teal'c would fight to protect his SG-1 and the Earth with his final breath. He had proven that more than once since my arrival on this side.
Master Bra'tac tipped his head forward, "I did, and many other things, including incredulity towards the false god Apophis and any other Goa'uld who touts himself as such." He replied in response, his face hardened as he looked to Teal'c who wore an equally hardened demeanour, "Though, never once have I conspired unjustly to kill a man of honour that one would call friend." He stated clearly and with accusation embedded heavily within his words telling me that he knew of my crime in my reality.
"Teal'c told you?" I asked, suitably chagrined at having that particular part of my history revealed to a complete stranger.
"I did not." Teal'c responded, then turned his back. Master Bra'tac watched him leave before turning back to me. "Teal'c stated that your O'Neill was dead unjustly. It is you that revealed by whom." He then turned and walked to stand by the younger man, both with their hands behind their backs. Daniel and Jack were sitting down, so I did the same on the opposite side of the hold only to find both of them staring at me. Jack's face remained emotionless, but something told me he had heard the entire conversation.
When Teal'c entered less than five minutes later to state that we had broken the atmosphere on Chulak, it took a while for me to reconcile that it had been so fast and that I had felt nothing as we entered the vacuum of space. Jack's immediate departure from the cargo hold didn't register an alarm until the sound of zat fire echoed through from the pel'tak. All three of us took flight to find out what had happened.
"O'Neill!" Master Bra'tac's voice broke through as we arrived finding Jack in a standoff with the man, both armed with zats, both ready and willing to fire.
"Jack. What are you doing?" Daniel tried to get his attention, but it didn't waiver. Not that I would expect him to take his eyes off a perceived threat. The pilot, Ronan, was slumped in his chair, his hands resting to the sides of the red ball that controlled this tub. The Colonel's face scrunched up in a display of pain, his eyes closing slightly as he tried to choke out something. Keeping my eyes on the older Jaffa, I moved closer and stood next to my friend.
"Tr-tr-trait-or." He breathed as he fought a wave of pain. With a swift mod, I crouched to the side of the unconscious man and searched him. Since Jaffa garb did not have pockets, I checked the known places but found nothing. It was only by random happenstance that I cast my eyes over the armour running down his leg to the top of his boot. The shiny round object not much bigger than golf ball sat nestled neatly in the top. Reaching down, I freed it then stood up to reveal my find.
"What's this?" I asked giving the old Jaffa a harsh look while holding up what could only be a Goa'uld communication device, only a lot smaller than we were used to seeing. His eyes widened as he cast them over us and finally the unconscious Jaffa.
"I have been betrayed." He murmured in disbelief, then closed his eyes and dropped his zat. The Colonel followed suit. "O'Neill, I did not know." He said with honesty reflecting from his face. My friend smiled and stepped forward clapping his hand on Bra'tac's shoulder before casting his eyes to Daniel, taking a step towards him, and passing him what looked like a slip of paper.
"What's this?" Daniel asked, looking at the crumpled note. With swift and sure fingers, he unfolded it. "An address. Jack?"
"Praclarush Taonas." Jack said in what sounded like Ancient, then pointing to the paper without expression.
"She said I would know when. Huh! Wow." Daniel said in amazement. The Colonel smiled again, a little broader this time, and nodded then stalked toward the engine room.
"What do you mean? What would you know?" I pressed while Teal'c removed Ronan's slumped form and trussed him up against the wall after stripping him of all his armour and zatting it bye-bye. "Sam… well Samantha because you know…" He replied, a little chagrined.
"Yeah, you were a complete asshole." I berated him for his treatment of the Lieutenant Colonel. "So, Samantha passed on a message?" I prompted as he turned to the console.
"Yeah. She told me that Sam gave him something and that when the time came, I would know what to do." Daniel continued then hastily punched the co-ordinates written of the piece of paper into the navigation panel.
"Which is this Pracarus place?" I prompted for more information. He looked at me and shook his head.
"Praclarush Taonas." He corrected. "It literally means 'lost in fire'." He translated.
"Right. Well, let's just hope it's not too lost." I replied.
"Yeah, let's hope. Unfortunately, we won't know until we get there, and Jack is beyond being able to tell us." He muttered as he tapped the green and gold keys on the console referring to the crumpled yellow post-it note he'd placed in front of him, the sticky no longer sticking properly. "We need to do whatever we can to support him with limited information." Daniel stated just as he entered the final co-ordinate, the numbers flashing up on the heads-up display. Daniel opened his mouth to translate the time of arrival just as a sudden surge of power had him falling backwards into me landing us both on the floor in a sprawl of tangled limbs. Somehow Teal'c and Bra'tac managed to stay on their feet, though they both turned their heads at the same time to look at us, the movement seemingly mechanical in nature.
"Ah, so just another day at the office then." I responded with a wince making Jackson laugh while he struggled to sit up then straighten his glasses.
"Daniel Jackson. Major Kawalsky. Do you require assistance?" Teal'c asked from his rigidly attentive position as Bra'tac took his place behind the navigation ball. Holding my hand out, Teal'c moved to haul me up and then offered his hand to Daniel.
"How long will it take?" I asked Bra'tac, looking over his shoulder at the spiralling lines of text running from right to left and top to bottom in Goa'uld lettering. Daniel approached from behind me.
"If I'm not mistaken, roughly 24 hours." He stated from behind me. "Correct if I'm wrong Master Bra'tac, but isn't that 100% faster than our initial timeframe?"
"You are not mistaken, Daniel Jackson." Bra'tac replied, turning to look over his shoulder at the three of us. "O'Neill of Minnesota is truly amazing." The look of excitement and admiration for my CO and friend could only be described as unbridled, perhaps excessive.
"Yeah, so amazing that it will kill him in a matter of days." I bit off momentarily forgetting that Jack could walk back in at any moment when Daniel scowled at me.
"Not as long as we get him into the stasis chamber."
"You're assuming that the chamber is there and working." I threw back at him, still reeling over the fact that the Lieutenant Colonel version of Sam had spilled her guts about her future O'Neill's sojourn and that Samantha had lapped it up as truth, then passed it all onto Daniel who ran with it despite the hostility the Lieutenant Colonel had shown him before the kid showed up.
"Of course it will be there." He pronounced laconically, "Her time travel accident is not going to affect what the Ancient's left at this outpost thousands of years ago."
"No, but you are taking her word that there is even an outpost there. Have you seen it? Sure, there was a gate and a DHD, but nothing else. How do you know she isn't sending us all into a frozen wasteland on a wild goose chase?" I stated knowing I was playing devil's advocate because all the other Samantha Carter's – two not including the Colonel – I had known or met, they had always been above reproach, honourable to a fault and completely devoted to her Jack O'Neill, regardless of whether they were romantically involved or not.
"Because I know her. Look, I know I was… harsh and hostile, but she is our Sam. She may be displaced from her time, but she is our Sam. The day we lost her…" He paused and looked at the gold embossed ceiling. "I was stupid, believe me, Jack pointed that out when he dressed me down the next morning before he stopped speaking English."
"It was like losing a sister, Major Kawalsky." Teal'c added, his head tipped and hands still behind his back. His words reverberated through my mind, and I looked at him truly for the first time seeing a sheen of moisture coating his eyes. It made me do a double take because never once had a seen any semblance of emotion on this face, nor heard it in his words. "She was the bonding agent that held us together."
Daniel chuckled and sniffed, then wiped his eyes from under his glasses. "It's glue Teal'c. The word you need there is glue. She was our glue. Jack came unstuck first, then me, and finally Teal'c." He said, nodding in the Jaffa's direction. "Don't look at me like that, Teal'c. You couldn't hide from us what her death did you, and you shouldn't have to. She was your sister as much as she was mine."
"Indeed."
"What was Jack?" I asked, though I was pretty certain I already knew the answer.
"Devastated. After nearly seven years of waiting, they finally stopped pretending. For three weeks, give or take." Daniel confessed on their behalf casting his eyes carefully towards Teal'c who was looking at the floor. "She died in his arms." He added sorrowfully. When I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, I looked up to find Jack standing there with a faraway look on his face and his hands buried in his pockets. I watched as he dipped his head and looked at his shoes, before turning slowly and walking back into the cargo hold taking his place on some crates before leaning against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest.
We had to get him home safely. Then we had to find Thor. We owed it to him. He deserved to see his family again even if it wasn't this realities original Major Samantha Carter. On a personal note, I owed it to Samantha and Grace after taking away their chance for a happy family by orchestrating the death of my best friend at the behest of a man unworthy of anyone's loyalty.