Location: Stargate Command, Briefing Room
Time: The following day
Back at the SGC, the briefing with General Hammond had just concluded. The mission had been successful in uncovering valuable artifacts from the ruins of P3R-844, but James knew that was only a small part of what he had learned. The Phase Shift Masking technique had worked, and it had saved him from the Goa'uld, but at a steep price.
As he sat with the rest of SG-1, debriefing about the ruins, James found it hard to concentrate. His head still pounded, and his body felt heavy from the strain of using the masking skill. He was no closer to controlling the flood of knowledge in his mind, and now he had another problem: masking his presence was draining him faster than he'd expected.
"James," General Hammond said, pulling him out of his thoughts. "I understand you had an unusual reaction during this mission. Care to explain?"
James hesitated. He hadn't told anyone about the full extent of the Phase Shift Masking skill yet. "I… I managed to hide myself when the Goa'uld were probing for us. It's a new skill I've picked up from the Ancient knowledge."
"Hide yourself?" Jack asked, frowning. "You mean like cloak?"
"Sort of," James said, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's more like phasing out of sync with everything around me. I can't be detected—not by visual scans, not by energy signatures. But it's… draining."
Samantha's eyes lit up with curiosity. "That's incredible. If you can perfect it, we could use that to avoid detection on future missions."
James nodded. "Yeah, but it's not without risks. I can only maintain it for a few minutes, and it takes a lot out of me. If I push it too far, I could… I don't know, phase out permanently."
Jack's eyebrow shot up. "Permanently? That's not something we want happening, is it?"
"No," James agreed. "It's not. But right now, it's the only thing keeping the Goa'uld from finding me. If they realize how much Ancient knowledge I have, we're all in trouble."
Teal'c, who had been silent until now, spoke up. "You have gained much power, James. But as O'Neill has said before, great power can also bring great danger. You must be cautious."
"I know," James said, sighing. "I'm trying. But I don't know how long I can keep this up."
General Hammond gave him a sympathetic look. "You're doing everything you can, James. If there's anything we can do to help, you let us know. In the meantime, we'll continue monitoring Goa'uld activity closely. If they get any closer, we'll be ready."
James nodded, but deep down, he knew this was only the beginning. He had found a way to mask his presence, but the knowledge inside him was still growing, still pushing at the edges of his mind. It was only a matter of time before he'd have to confront it—before the Goa'uld found him again.
And when that day came, he'd need more than just a mask to survive.
Location: Stargate Command, Quarters
Time: One week after P3R-844
James sat alone in his quarters, head cradled in his hands. The pounding behind his eyes had grown unbearable, a constant thrumming that felt like it was driving him mad. Every day, the Ancient knowledge bubbled up more forcefully, seeping into every thought, every movement. No matter how much he tried to suppress it, it was always there, waiting to overwhelm him.
He barely slept anymore, his dreams a tangled mess of symbols, blueprints, and incomprehensible equations written in a language he didn't fully understand—except that now, he did. His mind was breaking, and he knew it. But with each fragment that crumbled away, more knowledge rushed to fill the gaps. More knowledge than any one human should be able to hold.
It wasn't just a skill he had unlocked anymore. The knowledge had fused with him, changing him, and it wasn't going to stop.
He glanced at his reflection in the small mirror by his bed, his face pale and gaunt. The deep-set eyes staring back at him didn't even feel like his own anymore. He was losing himself. And yet, beneath that fear, there was something else—a drive, a compulsion to use what he knew, to build, to change things.
He'd been to the labs in secret, late at night, unable to stop his hands from moving. He'd been modifying the base computers, accessing systems he shouldn't be able to touch, writing in code that didn't exist on Earth.
And then there was the language—the Alteran. It had started slipping out in moments of stress, words that none of the others could understand. Sometimes, he didn't even realize he was speaking it.
[Mental Overload at 78%]
[Warning: Critical threshold approaching.]
James squeezed his eyes shut. The interface was still there, the ever-present notifications tracking his deterioration. He knew he was close to breaking completely, just like O'Neill had when he'd been overwhelmed by Ancient knowledge. But O'Neill had been saved, his mind freed by the Asgard. James had no such hope. If this continued, the knowledge would consume him.
A/N: The AI thinks that the timeline is after Jack already went through this, even though he hasn't in this story, James has instead.