By Lady Grey
Brata’c stepped out of the chappa’ai onto the metal ramp, glancing to his left at the familiar face of his best student. He gave Teal’c a brief nod, then looked up at the commander of the Tau’ri military base. HammondofTexas stared down at him from the control booth, his expression grave in light of the message Brata’c had sent to open the protective iris.
“Greetings, Master Brata’c,” the bald man said formally.
“Tek ma’te,” Brata’c called back. He turned on his heel smartly as he stepped off the ramp, marching at Teal’c’s side out of the embarkation room and up the stairs to the briefing room. All three men took their seats at the table.
“What news of the alliance between Tilgath and Ramius?” asked Teal’c.
Brata’c sighed. “They are long overdue, Teal’c. This does not bode well.” He turned to HammondofTexas. “I request Teal’c accompany me to the meeting place, with your permission.”
Hammond nodded. “Of course. Will you need any additional personnel?”
“More would draw attention to our presence,” Brata’c explained. “It is best if only two appear at the meeting place.”
“I am ready,” said Teal’c.
With a nod, Brata’c rose from the table. “The sooner we depart, the better.” He gave a slight bow to Hammond, also rising from his chair.
Moments later, he and Teal’c were walking up the ramp into the event horizon, then out onto an alien world.
Brata’c had never been to this place before, but he knew where the two Jaffa factions had been set to parlay. He led the way down the path, watching for the trail to disappear into a dry creek bed. They followed it to its end at the foot of a small hill, climbed that slope and descended to a flat plain backed by a grove of trees.
The smell of smoke and blood announced what had happened there long before the two arrived. Everywhere bodies lay in the wan sunlight, twisted and broken, scorch marks and pools of blood indicating the severity of the battle that had taken place. This was not what was supposed to have happened here. Tilgath and Ramius, two lesser Goa’uld underlings, had met to join forces against Ba’al.
“These warriors are of both Ramius and Tilgath,” Teal’c observed grimly.
Brata’c nodded. “This meeting did not go well.”
The younger Jaffa bent down to examine the wounds of a fallen warrior. “Some of these warriors have been shot in the back. It would seem they were killed while retreating.”
The truth of that assessment sickened the older man. “There was no honor in this battle.”
Just ahead lay a body dressed in golden armor. Brata’c knelt beside it, studying the decoration for an indication of identity. “Tilgath,” he told his companion. Three bloody craters punctured the corpse’s abdomen. Brata’c touched his fingers to them, then slowly rose to his feet.
“Ramius must have betrayed their allegiance,” suggested Teal’c, still trying to make sense of what had happened here.
Shaking his head, Brata’c nodded toward a body not far away, propped up against a crate. On the fallen warrior’s forehead was a golden emblem. Both sides lay decimated, bodies strewn among what appeared to be tribute crates, the goods with which the Goa’uld had intended to trade for their alliance. These were fresh kills, which could mean danger was still present. They would need to stay alert as they pieced together what had happened here.
“The First Prime of Ramius,” he said, wandering closer, sick at heart for this devastation. It made no sense. How could both sides have killed each other off at a meeting to forge an alliance? Why would they have done this?
He squatted down beside the body of the First Prime, still trying to answer his own questions.
The man’s eyes opened, surprising Brata’c. “He is alive!” he crowed.
“You must go from this place,” the First Prime breathed, fear in his eyes and whispered voice.
Brata’c grasped the man’s shoulders, desperate for an explanation, knowing he didn’t have much time to get it. The warrior’s wounds were mortal. “Why did your master betray Tilgath? Speak!”
With a weak movement of his head, the warrior told him, “We came to forge an alliance. My master did not do this. He barely escaped alive.”
“Then what happened here?” asked Teal’c.
The wounded man winced. “One warrior. You must—ahh!”
An energy weapon discharged nearby, striking the fallen warrior and silencing him forever. Brata’c and Teal’c both turned to face their attacker and returned fire. Their staff weapons had no effect on the enemy soldier, clad in strange-looking black armor with glowing eyes in the helmet. The intruder raised his left arm and began firing at them from a device mounted on his wrist.
The two men dove for cover as the blasts followed them. The man in black continued toward them at a steady pace, making no move to try to protect himself. As he approached Brata’c’s position, the elder Jaffa rushed out and attacked, but the enemy soldier easily disarmed him and tossed him aside as if he were an untried boy. The warrior then turned toward Teal’c, aiming carelessly as he continued to advance on the younger Jaffa.
Teal’c fired his zat at the soldier, shot after shot apparently having no effect, but as the stranger drew closer, his steps grew shorter. He stopped, wavering slightly, and then crumpled to the ground and lay still. Cautiously, Teal’c and Brata’c approached, both filled with surprise and disbelief at what they had just witnessed.
What this warrior in black had survived was surely not possible. He had eventually succumbed, but neither man was certain what had finally tipped the scales in their favor. They needed the answer to that question, and for that they would need help.
Teal’c glanced at his old friend. “I will return shortly,” he promised.
Brata’c nodded and turned his gaze back to the still, dark form lying at his feet.
SG-7 carried the body through the stargate, with Teal’c and Brata’c bringing up the rear, while Daniel watched from the foot of the ramp, at Hammond’s side with Sam.
“What the hell happened out there?” demanded the General.
“Our intelligence was correct. The summit between Ramius and Tilgath did indeed take place; however when we had arrived, Ramius had already fled,” Teal’c explained.
Daniel pulled his gaze away from the body being moved from the stretcher onto a gurney, to meet Teal’c’s worried eyes.
“All those who remained had been slain, including Tilgath,” added Brata’c, his expression grim.
“By this one man alone?” asked Hammond incredulously.
Brata’c sighed. “From the way he fought us, I do not doubt it.”
“An Ashrak?” asked Hammond.
Daniel remembered the secret assassin who had visited the base years earlier and slipped unseen among them, almost killing Sam before being stopped.
Teal’c shook his head. “He was unlike any warrior we have previously encountered.”
That worried Daniel. His teammate wasn’t one to make rash statements. If anything, Teal’c erred on the side of understatement. “Obviously, you were able to take him down.”
“He withstood the brunt of our weapons fire before finally succumbing,” stated Teal’c firmly.
“Its armor must protect it from energy-based weapons,” suggested Sam. “If that's the case, we could be dealing with an entirely new kind of technology.”
The black armor was a design neither Daniel nor Meretseger could remember seeing before, so that was certainly a possibility.
“And we believe this wasn't a set-up by Ramius to kill Tilgath?” asked Daniel.
Brata’c shook his grizzled head. “Ramius' Jaffa were equally as decimated. His First Prime said his master barely escaped alive.”
“So, obviously, someone found out about the alliance and wanted to stop it,” Daniel concluded.
The only questions remaining were the identity of the soldier in black, and who had given the order to take out both factions.
Hammond turned to address Sam Carter. “Major, run whatever tests you have to.”
She glanced at Daniel, her lips thinning out into a tight line, then returned her attention to her commanding officer. “I'd like to call the Tok'ra in on this one, sir, with your permission. Specifically, Selmak, if he’s available.”
She turned to Daniel. “No offense, Meret, but Selmak may have much more up-to-date information than you on this issue. We need to know if they’ve seen anything else like this in the field.”
“No offense taken, Major,” Daniel replied for his symbiote, “and you are correct in this matter. Selmak’s expertise is, indeed, warranted, if he is available.”
“Do it,” ordered the general. “I want to know everything we can about this warrior.”
This changed things, putting the deadline Daniel was already awaiting on hold. Eight days earlier, he had left Jack on the Naga homeworld, returning to Earth to plead his case to the SGC and the Joint Chiefs. Now that Jack was host to the symbiote, Thoth, he wanted ironclad assurances that he’d be able to resume a normal life, if he returned to home and duty. Per his request, Daniel had put forth the question, and General Hammond had relayed it up the chain of command. They were still waiting to hear a final answer, but now, with this situation in play, Jack’s circumstances would have to take a back seat.
If there were more of these soldiers out there with armor impervious to any weaponry the Tok’ra and the Tau’ri had available, this could be terrible news, indeed.
Daniel walked with Teal’c and Brata’c up to the briefing room to listen to their report, while Sam headed for the control room to send a message to the Tok’ra, requesting support to examine this powerful new tool for an old enemy.
The Next Day
Sam stood at the foot of the ramp, waiting for her dad’s arrival with a sense of anticipation and unease. Her stomach tightened as the suspicions swirled around in her mind. Something was going on between Colonel O’Neill and Daniel; she was sure of it.
Last week, she’d been in the house they’d shared in Arcadia during the months they’d been isolated there, and though she hadn’t meant to snoop, something had led her into the bedrooms.
One was obviously in use; the other not. Which could only mean one thing; they were sharing a bed.
She hadn’t said anything to anyone about it, arguing with her suspicions, trying to convince herself that there was some explanation other than sex, but it just sounded like excuses. She just couldn’t imagine Jack O’Neill as a gay man, especially not after all the flirtations between the two of them over the years. If she were wrong, she didn’t want to make unfounded accusations, but if she were right, she owed it to the Air Force to report him; it would be her duty to do so.
She just had to be sure – which meant confronting Daniel.
The colonel could lie through his teeth, and she couldn’t tell – he’d done it expertly during that NID sting operation years back – but Daniel was another story. He wasn’t good at lying, especially not to his teammates. He’d tell her the truth; all she had to do was ask.
The thing was, she wasn’t sure when or if she should do that. Should she just ignore her suspicions and let things be until the answer was obvious? Should she investigate it now, while O’Neill was still off world in his self-imposed isolation, or wait until he returned? Timing was important, and she was struggling with the potential decisions and fears. Maybe talking about it with someone whose opinion she trusted would help.
Her father would know what to do. He’d been career Air Force, after all, and as a retired General, he might already have dealt with issues such as this. She was glad he was coming to visit, even if it were only on Tok’ra business.
Jacob stepped out of the event horizon alone. He looked fit, but his expression was dark and troubled. He gave her a brief hug, put his arm around her shoulders and headed for the gate room door. “How ya doin’, kiddo?” he asked pleasantly.
Sam could feel the tension in her father’s body. “Can’t complain,” she returned. “Have you heard about any more of these attacks?”
He stiffened further and dropped his arm, increasing his pace. “Enough to know we have a problem,” he returned tightly. “Hints and whispers mostly. You were right to call the Tok’ra for backup on this.”
She knew he’d hear about the details in the upcoming briefing, but her mind and heart were on other things. “How long can you stay?” she asked quietly, slipping her arm around his waist, giving him a quick hug.
“Not long. Maybe I could manage a couple of days. We’ll see.” He kissed her hair and embraced her shoulders briefly in the hall. When they reached the spiral staircase leading up to the briefing room, he let her go and took the lead, hurrying up to the next floor.
General Hammond, Teal’c, Brata’c and Daniel were already waiting for them, and stood to greet him.
Jacob went straight for Daniel, catching his hands and squeezing them. “My sister,” said Selmak. “How I have missed you and longed for your counsel.”
Daniel smiled, his face lighting up. “Dear brother,” Daniel returned for the symbiote he carried, “we have excellent news.” He let go of Jacob’s hands and gestured toward a chair at the end of the table. “Please, sit. Let us begin.”
“How about the bad news first?” Jacob asked, taking his seat, glancing at Hammond for permission to begin.
“Of course,” said the general. “We hope you’ll be able to help us figure out the capabilities of this new threat, and where it originated.”
“Tell me what you know,” said Jacob.
Each of those seated around the table told their piece of the puzzle, until all the details had been delivered.
“Have you done an autopsy on this soldier yet?” asked Jacob.
Sam shook her head. “I wanted to wait for you, in case the armor might be booby-trapped. We didn’t know if you’d seen any of these yet or not.”
“Just hearing the gossip, so far,” Jacob assured her. “We’d better get this show on the road, then.” He turned to General Hammond. “With your permission, George.”
Sam’s attention drifted to Daniel as he scribbled notes into his briefing folder. Her teammate seemed positively serene, where usually he’d have been frowning and chewing his lip with worry. This was devastating news, some of the worst yet in their history with the stargate. A seemingly indestructible, undefeatable foe threatened, but Daniel was taking the news in stride.
Jacob noticed, too. “You don’t seem too upset about this, Danny. Wanna share?”
“We have hope,” Daniel declared. His head dipped, his voice altered when he looked up at Jacob again with bright eyes. “Because Thoth has been found and freed from his prison,” Meret announced. “He will join in the fight…” Daniel turned his head to make eye contact with General Hammond. “…and if the Tau’ri will not accept his terms, I am certain the Tok’ra will give him and his host whatever latitude they require.”
A moment of silence fell. All eyes turned to Jacob, registering his utter surprise. He sat back in his chair, stunned speechless for a moment, mouth hanging open in shock. “Thoth?” he whispered.
He leaned forward, his brown eyes darkening, widening in disbelief. “Thoth? You’ve. You found Thoth? He’s alive? Holy Hannah!”
Hammond cleared his throat, drawing attention back to him. He lifted his steely gaze to meet Daniel’s. “Meretseger, if I had the power to grant Colonel O’Neill’s request to resume command of SG-1, he’d already be home. I’m sure you understand this; however, if he continues to hold out without returning to duty on his own—“
“Whoa, hold on here,” Jacob interrupted. “Where is Jack? What happened to him, and what does he have to do with Thoth? We could use his help with all this right about now.”
Teal’c answered with a note of pride. “ColonelO’Neill is now host to Thoth, GeneralCarter and Selmak. They have not returned to Earth because they believe they would be kept prisoner here, and that attempts would be made to force them to share Thoth’s knowledge with the Tau’ri; knowledge he believes they are not ready to utilize.”
Jacob’s surprise was fading, his sharp mind already moving ahead, contemplating the meaning of Meretseger’s announcement. He smiled. “Jack O’Neill is host to Thoth? You’re not kidding?”
“I would never jest about so weighty a thing,” Meret assured him.
“No, no, of course not,” Jacob hurried to say. “I just.” He put his hands to his head, still grinning. He chuckled softly. “Wow. That’s.” Putting his palms on the table, he eyed Daniel thoughtfully, and when he spoke again, the voice was Selmak’s. “I would not have dreamed such a thing possible, sister. I am overjoyed for you both.”
He reached across the table and squeezed Daniel’s hand. Daniel squeezed back.
Jacob spoke in the guttural language of the Goa’uld, with eyes only for Daniel, who blushed and nodded, his glance going to Teal’c, who Sam knew understood every word. The two symbiotes were apparently having a private conversation in the midst of the meeting, something personal and intimate, judging by the red in Daniel’s face.
He smiled.
Teal’c looked positively smug.
She felt shut out. Sam wondered what the hell they’d said and promised herself to work on learning more of the language. She’d caught a reference to Ra and Thoth, plus something about another service to the Jaffa, which made no sense to her. Maybe her father would explain later, when they were alone.
Jacob let go of Daniel’s hand after a final fond pat, dipped his head and became the general again, focused and in command.
“Pardon the private conversation with Meretseger, General, but this is an excellent turn of events,” he stated. “One that gives us a little hope.” He eyed Hammond, his gaze deadly serious. “My advice, for whatever it’s worth at this stage of the game, is to give Thoth whatever he wants. What are his terms?”
The tiniest little grin softened Hammond’s face. “For Colonel O’Neill to have his life back here on Earth, his command of SG-1 returned, and no demands placed on him to produce advanced weaponry to fight the Goa’uld.”
Jacob smiled fondly. “Thoth’s first host, Herr-miis, was far older and wiser than the Tok’ra, George. His people may have pre-dated the Ancients, or at least been concurrent with them. The Naga invented the stargate technology, and the Ancients refined it. He may well be the single most valuable ally against the Goa’uld we’ll ever have. I’d listen to him, if I were you.”
“It’s not up to me, Jacob,” Hammond returned quietly. “If it were, Colonel O’Neill would be sitting here with us today.”
Turning to Daniel, Selmak said, “Tell me where he is. I must speak with him.”
Daniel glanced at Hammond for permission, who gave a brief, single nod of approval.
Sam watched as Daniel tore a page of paper from his briefing tablet, drew the glyphs of the stargate address on it, and handed it to the Tok’ra. “Follow the yellow brick road to Oz,” Daniel said with a smile. “Three days’ journey into the mountains, on the island in the middle of the lake.”
Jacob took the paper, folded it and slipped it inside his suede tunic. “If the Tau’ri aren’t smart enough to take advantage of this gift, the Tok’ra are.”
“If you can get him to cooperate and give the Tok’ra weaponry that can be used to fight the Goa’uld, we really don’t care who gets the job done,” Hammond declared. “As long as those weapons are not then turned on us, we’d be perfectly happy with that arrangement.”
Jacob chuckled. “You don’t know Thoth,” he said warmly. “If he’s got weapons, he’s not giving them to anybody. His areas of providence in the court of Ra were wisdom, medicine, writing, science and education. He was all about learning, about making things better for everyone. Ra was the destructive one.”
“So how can he help us?” asked Sam. She’d done a little reading about the mythology of Thoth, and he sounded like a decent person, all about fairness and balance. She hadn’t seen much of the symbiote’s personality while she had been in Arcadia, just a more serious Jack O’Neill recovering from the ordeal of implantation.
She still couldn’t believe that he’d willingly taken the symbiote and was curious as hell why he’d done it. After his experience with Kanaan, she’d thought Jack would never be a host again, but he’d been different after his brief experience hosting Meret, the symbiote now carried by Daniel. It had been completely voluntary, though. She had witnessed O’Neill put his mouth over the dying alien’s a little over a week ago, inviting the symbiote into himself so it could live.
The change in body chemistry had almost killed Thoth and made the colonel pretty sick as well, but they’d recovered well enough. The day they’d been set to leave Arcadia to return to Earth, Thoth had taken Jack to the island in the middle of the lake and set a force field around it, preventing anyone from setting foot on the island and holding hostage the Naga technology as part of his demand for Jack’s freedom.
She had expressed concerns to General Hammond that the symbiote was acting much more like a Goa’uld than a Tok’ra, and had even put it in her official report. Daniel had been upset about that and had tried to explain, but Sam wasn’t buying it. As far as she was concerned, Jack had again been hoodwinked by a symbiote and was now prisoner to it, a virtual slave to its will.
She’d been hoping to speak privately with her father, to see if the Tok’ra might be able to safely extract the thing from O’Neill, but apparently he was siding with the snake.
Jacob’s expression softened as he looked at her, thinking about his answer to her question. “I don’t really know, Sam. All I’m sure of is that he was so far ahead of everyone else when Selmak was young, I can’t even begin to imagine what his people might have learned in the centuries since, and I’d lay a bet the size of Fort Knox that he’s got access to all of that collected knowledge. I intend to find all that out shortly.”
He turned back to the General. “I’ll be informing the Tok’ra High Council of this development. Word of Thoth’s return will no doubt spread like wildfire, and with that kind of uncontrolled excitement, the wrong people are sure to hear about it, too. We’ll be dispatching support to Thoth’s planet for his protection, just in case.”
“Thank you, Jacob,” Daniel murmured. “Meret is relieved to know you’ll be looking after him, until he can come home.”
“That’s another thing.” Jacob glanced down at his hands, then lifted sad eyes to regard Daniel. “Even if he could come back to Earth right now, he wouldn’t be safe here. The Tok’ra would require extra safety precautions to be taken for him – just as we do for you, Meretseger. You both know why.”
Daniel flushed pink again and nodded. “Yes. I’m prepared for that, but Jack’s gonna fight you. He doesn’t like being babysat.”
“He’s going to have to get used to seeing bodyguards,” Jacob told him, “because from here on out, both of you’ll have a small army of Tok’ra everywhere you go.” He eyed the General again. “That goes for here, too. They’ll be fine on the base, but off it, starting now, we will require a minimum of six full-time escorts, yours or ours, on constant duty for their protection. Your choice.”
“May I ask why?” Sam felt as if she were invisible, as if everyone at the table understood what was going on but her. She was missing some big point here that the others had obviously gotten. She knew Thoth was important for his contributions to the Tok’ra uprising long ago, and because he and his original host had saved the lives of all of the Tok’ra once upon a time, but Thoth could have changed since then. He could have become someone they might not want on their side.
The look Jacob shot her demanded silence. She knew that look from childhood; one that made it plain she was to obey orders without question. “Not now, Sam,” he murmured gently.
She clenched her jaws, her face heating up, embarrassed that he would treat her like a child at that assembly. Still, she said nothing and lowered her gaze to her tablet.
“I’ll pass that on to my superiors,” Hammond returned thoughtfully. “It’s that important?”
“The future of the Tok’ra is at stake,” Jacob assured him. “It’s absolutely necessary, as a requirement for our allied status, whether Jack likes it or not. He’ll agree to it, I promise you, even though it’ll chafe him to do it.”
“I agree,” said Daniel evenly.
Sam met her father’s gaze across the table. She could see there was much he was holding back. He wanted to talk to her, to explain, but that was evidently not the appropriate setting. Maybe once the briefing was concluded, she’d corner him and find out what they were keeping from her.
“For now, we need to decide what to do about this new soldier,” Jacob stated, returning the briefing to the original topic.
“If we’re going to understand his capabilities, we’ll need to study it, determine its weaknesses as well as its strengths,” Sam stated. “Doctor Fraiser’s ready to begin the autopsy whenever you are. I’ll be watching from the observation booth.”
“Then let’s get started,” Hammond suggested. He adjourned the meeting, and everyone headed up to the isolation room where the body was being kept.
Janet Fraiser met Jacob in the hallway outside the isolation rooms. Once they were properly scrubbed, gowned and had their protective equipment in place, they entered the room for the initial examination.
“We’ve already attempted to do an MRI and CT scan,” Janet told him, “but the suit seems to block every type of non-invasive examinations we’ve tried. I’ve theorized that the armor contains some new technology that repels or neutralizes both the scans and any destructive energy directed at it. We won’t learn anything more till we take this outer layer off and see what’s inside.”
Sam sat at the communication panel in the observation booth, gazing down into the isolation room, watching her father and her friend work on this problem. She had wanted to scrub in on the procedure, but autopsies were not in her field of expertise. Of course, she might have been of some use with the armor, but Selmak had even more to offer on that front than she did herself.
Still, if she weren’t in the observation booth, she wouldn’t be sitting next to Daniel. She just felt funny around him now. Stealing a glance at his face, she saw that he was intent on what was happening below them, and she struggled to keep her focus on her job and the threat at hand.
Jacob and Janet went after the armor, prying the faceplate off the helmet. A hissing sound escaped, and as they lifted the piece away, disgusting strings of goo dripped off the inside surface. The face of the creature beneath was horrifying – translucent white, ghostly humanoid, with flesh that looked more like gelatin than skin, revealing the skull and internal organs quite clearly.
“Looks like he’s fused right into the suit,” Janet commented.
A piece of black equipment lay over the creature’s mouth and nose. Jacob retracted it, detaching it from the inner workings of the suit. “This is some kind of breathing apparatus,” he mused.
They proceeded with the dismantling until they had all of the mechanical devices removed, leaving only the gelid mass of the creature’s body. The armor was handed off to technicians to clean, and the corpse was taken back to Radiology for an MRI, X-rays and a CT scan. A full biological workup and autopsy would follow, once the non-invasive tests were completed.
Hours later, Janet popped one set of X-ray films up onto the fluorescent panels in the autopsy room where the group had gathered, to illustrate their findings. “It's a Goa'uld. Quite frankly, that's not as shocking as the host.”
“How so?” asked General Hammond.
“It has an incredibly unusual organ structure,” Jacob answered.
Janet nodded her agreement. “Everything's out of proportion. Physiologically, the heart and lungs had to be abnormally large to supply enough blood and oxygen to its muscles. Basically, it's like someone tried to genetically engineer the perfect athlete without any concern for longevity.”
“Leaving it to the symbiote to sustain its life,” Teal’c surmised.
“An engineered host,” Daniel summed up.
“A seriously flawed one,” agreed Jacob. “Even a Goa'uld symbiote wouldn't be able to compensate for long. We're still in the process of analyzing genetic data, but for now we can tell you there was no evident trauma from energy weapons.”
Hammond frowned. “What does that mean?”
Jacob crossed his arms over his chest, his expression grim. “The warrior's armor appears to possess an advanced energy absorption technology. If it works the way I think it does, it wouldn't matter how many staff or zat blasts were fired at it. Nothing would get through.”
“Are you suggesting that Teal'c and Brata’c didn't kill this Goa'uld?” asked the General, worry etching his brow.
Janet’s expression was grave. “Yes, sir. Apparently, the host was on the verge of pulmonary failure long before it encountered them.”
Hammond gaped. “It had a heart attack?”
Jacob nodded, making eye contact with the tall Jaffa. “Sorry, Teal'c. You didn't stop it. You and Brata’c just got lucky.”
Doctor Fraiser glanced at an open folder on a nearby countertop. “Its entire cellular structure is less then three weeks old. It is organic, but it was definitely created in a lab.”
Sam considered that information, remembering Nirrti. “Well, we know the Goa'uld have been trying to physically perfect a host that would be superior to humans.”
“Well, this thing's definitely a lot stronger than humans,” Janet agreed, “but it's far from superior.”
Daniel eyed the photos of the body distastefully. “Traditionally, the Goa'uld are also somewhat vain about their appearance.”
Jacob’s expression was weary, disheartened. “This was obviously intended to be a new form of foot soldier, possibly a reaction to the recent uprisings of the Jaffa. What's most interesting is that this being wasn’t alive when it was first grown. It was given life after it reached its mature state.”
That comment raised eyebrows all through the room.
“Like Frankenstein’s monster,” Daniel added a moment later.
Sam frowned at her father, trying to put all the pieces together. “How do you know that?”
Selmak answered. “Remnants of a unique energy signature within its cells. It is similar to the residual effects left by the use of a sarcophagus.”
Daniel stared at the x-rays, the wheels turning behind his eyes. “Could it give life to something that wasn't alive in the first place?”
“No,” Selmak answered, shaking his head. “A sarcophagus is designed to boost health and longevity, heal the injured or revive the recently deceased. They’re nowhere near powerful enough to animate non-living cellular matter.”
“Then what could have?” Sam challenged.
Meretseger chose that moment to speak in her own voice. “This is the work of Anubis,” she announced firmly. “Legend has it that the Ancients created the technology on which the sarcophagus is based. The original device was far too powerful for use on human beings, but Anubis has access to some of the Ancients’ knowledge. Only he could have created a device to animate lifeless matter.”
Brata’c growled slightly. “If Anubis is truly behind this, then his strategy is to assassinate any minor Goa'ulds vulnerable to attack, absorbing their troops and resources, in preparation for battle with Ba'al and the System Lords.”
Hammond met his troubled gaze. “How many more of these so-called minor Goa'ulds have suffered recent attacks?”
Jacob answered when Brata’c remained silent. “The Tok’ra know of at least three. We had no intelligence on the attacks themselves, since no one survived, but the efficiency with which these attacks were carried out sounds much like the attack on Ramius and Tilgath. I’d say it was at least one of these new warriors; maybe more.”
“Do we have any idea where they're coming from?” asked General Hammond.
Both Jacob and Brata’c shook their heads.
Sam pondered the problem, going back over all they had learned from the dead warrior, but there was so much more they didn’t know.
Teal’c, silent since the meeting began, added his quiet wisdom to the discussion. “We were only able to learn a limited amount from our study of this warrior and its armor. We need additional information that can only be obtained from interrogation.”
Worried glances bounced all around the room from one grave face to another.
Hammond was the one who stated the obvious. “Which means we need to capture one of these creatures alive.” He turned to eye Sam directly. “So we need to find some way to penetrate that armor, Major, and take one of these things down without killing it.”
She nodded, knowing already that this would be an incredibly difficult task. On the upside, she had her father there to help her. On the downside, her mind wasn’t fully focused on the problem at hand.
“Yes, sir,” she returned meekly.
“We’ll adjourn to give you time to analyze the technological problem,” Hammond told her. “Send word when you have something, and we’ll meet again.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jacob turned and walked with Daniel, conversing in Goa’uld for privacy, and Sam kept a respectful distance behind them, desperately wanting to listen in, but not daring to do so. They continued talking in the elevator with Daniel giving her nervous glances and reassuring smiles, and when the car stopped on the 18th floor, he exited alone.
Sam moved up beside her father as he punched the button for his destination – apparently heading to the commissary for a meal on Level 22 – and as the doors closed, he apologized for leaving her out of the conversation with Daniel.
“That was Tok’ra business, kiddo,” he told her. “I wasn’t trying to be rude. There were just some arrangements that needed to be made with Meretseger. Things that don’t concern the Tau’ri.”
He gave her a polite smile, one she knew from their long history together meant that he didn’t want her to ask questions.
Sam swallowed her heart down, her gaze on the ground as she stood beside her father. “I wanted to talk to you about something, Dad,” she began, her throat tight, burning. “I need your advice.” She was bursting with this new knowledge, desperate to share the burden with someone. It couldn’t wait another moment.
Jacob put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a little squeeze for support. “Of course, Sammie. I can’t promise I can help, but I’ll try.” He grinned. “Selmak kicks my butt regularly for not keeping in touch better, but it’s busy out there, y’know?”
She grinned, some of her tension easing, relaxed by the familiar banter. “Yeah, me, too.”
“So what’s the big problem? Boyfriend troubles?” He squeezed her playfully again.
Her train of thought faltered slightly as an image of Jack leaped into her mind.
“Um.”
Jacob’s eyes grew serious as he studied her. “Just say it, Sam.”
Without thinking, she did. “I think the Colonel and Daniel may be having an affair.” She waited for the recoil of his body, the disbelieving laugh, the indrawn breath of shock, but none of that happened.
He just kept looking at her.
As if he already knew.
“Dad?” She stared up at him, alarmed now. The look in his eyes confirmed her suspicion, and her mouth fell open in horror as he stopped to face her. “You knew? How could you not tell me?!”
He stiffened, lifting his chin, looking down at her sternly, disapproval etching into the lines in his handsome face. He hit the stop button on the elevator, and the car shuddered to a halt.
“I engineered it, Sam,” he admitted coolly, holding his finger on the button. “I put them together because it was necessary, and it almost destroyed them.”
The top of her head suddenly felt weightless. Her skin prickled on the sides of her face and back of her neck. She couldn’t think. All she could do was stare at him.
“Meretseger is a queen,” he went on quietly, gently. “For the first time in centuries, the Tok’ra nation is increasing, while the Goa’uld are at zero population growth. The Jaffa are dying out with them, because even Tretonin can’t help them for long. It’s made from the bodies of the Goa’uld, and without symbiotes of any kind, the source for Tretonin will disappear. Meretseger did her duty last year, when we had a safe place for her to spawn.”
Oh, God.
Everything was suddenly, perfectly, horribly clear.
She remembered Daniel’s shell-shocked face after Hathor’s rape of him to supply her young with a source of human DNA, to make them compatible with human hosts.
Meretseger would have needed the same thing, which meant…
Her stomach clenched violently. She turned away and bent over slightly, sucking in deep breaths, trying to keep from throwing up.
“The choice was either someone Daniel knew and trusted, or a stranger,” Jacob explained, his big, warm hand settling between her shoulders, rubbing small, comforting circles against her fatigue jacket. “Neither Jack nor I wanted a repeat of what had already been done to him by Hathor. That left Jack… or me.”
Sam whirled around, unable to believe what she’d just heard, until she saw the truth of it in her father’s anguished eyes.
“If Jack hadn’t been able to… help… I’d have done it myself, Sam. Keep that in mind.” He sighed, reaching for her, pulling her close with one arm, still holding the Stop button. “The lives of thousands are at stake here. Jack and Daniel have made the best of a bad situation. It’s made them stronger, I think. After it tore them apart.”
She knew exactly when he was talking about, remembering that terrible, difficult time when Daniel had first rejoined the SGC as Meretseger’s host. Jack had barely been able to stay in the same room with him. Both men had suffered tremendously, and she and Teal’c had been helplessly stuck in the middle.
Then there had been that mission to the Zilchoz homeworld, where Daniel had sacrificed himself to save Jacob and a handful of other Tok’ra who had crash-landed there, and their ship had accidentally killed one of the aliens. Jack had taken Meretseger into himself, refusing Sam permission to do so, even though she had volunteered. Now she knew why he’d forbidden her to host the symbiote, because she would have been privy to the details of their mating, through the memories of Meretseger.
She felt sick. Fighting back tears, she pushed away from her father’s embrace, straightened her fatigue jacket and looked him in the eye. She was hurt, resentful that she hadn’t been the one to host Meret. She was female, after all, and if she’d been Meret’s host, Jack would have been with her.
Jealousy spiked inside her. For an instant, she hated Daniel.
Then she remembered him after the accident that had paralyzed him from the neck down, how he had begged her to kill him and end his suffering. She remembered how he had agonized over Jack’s rejection of his friendship because he was Meretseger’s host. Daniel had given himself up to death as much to end his personal pain as to satisfy the Zilchoz code of honor. Meret’s presence in Jack’s mind had somehow healed him, and when Daniel had been restored to them through the miracle of Zilchoz science, Sam had been overjoyed to see the return of their camaraderie and familiar banter.
Because she loved them both.
“Poor Daniel,” she whispered, the jealousy draining away and leaving her limp, numb.
“Both of them have made a great sacrifice for countless others, Sam,” said Jacob, releasing the Stop button. He punched the button for Level 25, where alien VIPs were housed. “One they’ll continue to make as often as needed.”
“So that time you took them away last year…”
His arms tightened around her as the lift doors opened on the 22nd floor, and then closed again and began heading down toward the 25th floor. “Yes.” He sighed. “Tell me about what tipped you off.”
She explained about the shared bedroom in Arcadia, and added more recent suspicions regarding their Earth living arrangements. Every time she’d been to their house, they’d given every appearance that Daniel had his own separate room, but now she was suspecting that might also be a ruse.
Jacob nodded when she finished. “I knew they’d done some bonding on our last trip out, when we copped Apollo’s sarcophagus in case anything went wrong with transferring Meret back to Daniel from Jack – which it did. I really didn’t think anything of it, since they came home with their friendship intact. If that meant they were still lovers, I’m good with that.”
He chuckled. “I’d have been more surprised if they hadn’t become full-fledged lovers, once Jack was host to Thoth. They’ve made the best of it, kiddo. Used it to build a bridge between them. I can’t say I understand it completely, other than they’ve always seemed to be on the same page with what counts.”
A tiny smile sneaked into the corner of Sam’s mouth. “Same page, different book.” She slipped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder.
The elevator door opened on Level 25 and they walked to the nearest VIP quarters, which Sam unlocked with her access card. They stepped inside the dark, quiet room, turned on the lights and closed the door to finish their conversation in private.
“And now Jack is host to Meretseger’s mate.” Jacob’s body shook a little with a silent laugh. “That’s truly a match made in heaven, Sammie. Almost a cosmic irony. Your scholar is host to a protection goddess, and your warrior is host to the greatest scholar of all time. Talk about balance.”
A weight seemed to lift off Sam’s heart. The torch she’d carried so long for Jack O’Neill sputtered and died, the coals dying out quickly, with only the lingering warmth of genuine affection that remained behind.
That was probably why Jack had always been so hesitant whenever she’d approached him to express her feelings or probe him for interest over the last year. He might have been attracted to her at one point, but it never went anywhere because Daniel had been there right beside her. There had always been something between the two men, from the first moment she saw them together. She had recognized it, but never dreamed it could ever become something sexual.
Which it obviously was, by necessity.
“So, you still thinking about reporting them?” asked Jacob quietly.
“General Hammond already knows, doesn’t he?” she inquired, stroking one palm across his suede-covered chest.
“Jack told him. Off the record, of course.”
“And Teal’c?”
“Just knew, according to Daniel.”
“So why didn’t somebody tell me?”
“You can lay that on my shoulders, Sammie. I told them not to say anything. Assured them it would be best for you.” He shrugged. “I thought you’d figure it out eventually, and that you were smart enough not to go shooting your mouth off before you were sure. They deferred to me, since I’ve known you longest, but they wanted to tell you. Danny even suggested it while we were talking a little while ago in the elevator. He’s wanted you to know for a long time.”
Jacob hugged her once more, then pulled away and gazed down into her face.
“Which I was gonna do as soon as I got you alone, later tonight,” he finished with a grin. “My advice to you is to leave it alone. If the military decides to take action, they’ll have to answer to the Tok’ra. This is something we’d go to war over, if pushed hard enough, and I don’t think even Uncle Sam’s homophobia is strong enough to want that kind of outcome.”
He chuckled. “Hell, we’ve been trying to get Meretseger to leave the Tau’ri for over a year now. If Thoth joined us, so would she, ‘cause wherever Jack goes, Danny will be with him. They just need each other. All four of them.” He shook his head. “You know, I don’t believe for a minute that Jack and Daniel would be lovers if it weren’t for Meretseger. Something happened when Jack hosted her. I think he learned something valuable, and it changed him. He and Danny – they just work. I don’t know how, but they do. Pretty weird for a couple of straight guys, huh?”
Sam’s mind couldn’t grasp all of that. This was another of those impossible events that seemed to happen regularly around the stargate: people died and were resurrected; they became prisoners in their own bodies under the control of alien beings, and straight men became lovers. And on top of all that, Jack O’Neill had ‘fathered’ a large number of Tok’ra babies a year ago with Daniel, those baby symbiotes now keeping hundreds, perhaps even thousands of Jaffa alive. She shook her head in wonder. It boggled the mind.
“You know, one thing being a host has taught me is that a lot of the prejudices and opinions I’d had as an Air Force officer were small-minded. We live in a big universe, and humanity needs a lot of flexibility to survive in it. A lot of things I used to think were important don’t really matter, when you look at the Big Picture. Same-sex love is one of those things. I can see the beauty in it now, because of Danny and Jack.”
Jacob put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a delighted squeeze. “Thoth! Holy Hannah, Sam. This is about as big as it gets. The High Council are gonna go ape-shit over this. Wow!”
She couldn’t help smiling at his enthusiasm, but a sense of bewilderment kept her off balance. Did this mean that Colonel O’Neill and Daniel were both really straight? Did Jack really have an interest in her that he simply couldn’t pursue, because of the complication with Daniel being Meretseger’s host?
Sam decided she didn’t want to know. It would make things even more difficult than they already were, so she’d just have to move on and look elsewhere. It was well past time for that, anyway.
“I’m hungry,” she announced, ready for a change of subject and scene. “Wanna grab dinner with me in the commissary?”
“They got any blue Jell-O?” he asked as he opened the door for her.
“I think it’s a staple now,” she said with a chuckle, strolling back down the corridor with her father. She enjoyed a quick meal with him discussing inconsequential things, and as they headed for the commissary for dinner before getting started looking for the Achilles’ heel in that armor, she let Jack O’Neill go at last.
Three days later, they had made a little headway, enough to steer them toward a possible solution. Sam and her father had a plan, but before they could put it into action, Selmak wanted a word with Thoth. Jack’s ultimatum deadline was approaching and the administration’s answer had come back with a firm demand for him to return to the SGC without a deal on the table, along with orders for Daniel to remain on Earth.
Jacob shook his head at their folly, kissed his daughter goodbye and told her to think hard about where her loyalties lay.
She wondered what he meant by that and went to visit Janet for information on Goa’uld physiology that she would need to finish work on their snare.
“Oh, I wish I was an Oscar Meyer weinerrrrrr,” mumbled Jack as he tugged a little on the end of his fishing pole. “That is what I’d truly love to be-e-e…”
**I wish I were.**
“You wish you were what, Tweety?” he asked aloud. The scent of rain on the wind was stronger now, dark clouds sweeping in over the mountains to cover the valley. The temperature was dropping, heralding the first breath of approaching autumn on this alien world.
**I was correcting your grammar, Jack. The subjunctive mood is expressed by the statement, ‘I wish,’ and the verb should be plural, as in, ‘I wish I were.’ You already know this. You have a degree in English.**
“But that’s not how the song goes,” insisted Jack. He tried it again, this time increasing his volume.
**Oh, for crying out loud!**
Thoth seized control of Jack’s vocal chords and changed the raspy, off-key melody to a smooth, smoky, pitch-perfect rendition of the whole song, grammar corrected. He abruptly relinquished control of Jack’s throat with an exasperated sigh.
**If you’re going to sing, don’t do it half-assed, O’Neill. You’re hurting my ears.**
“Didn’t know you had any,” Jack returned calmly. “Ears, that is. And I never claimed to be able to carry a tune. I sing for my own torment, little buddy. And uncross those mental arms, wouldja? Nobody likes a cranky snake, and I’m bored as hell, too, ya know.” He grinned slightly and scratched his balls through the lightweight black pajama pants he was wearing. “Didn’t know I had such a nice voice. Thanks, Tweety.”
Thoth’s slight irritation at Jack’s choice of nickname was passing quickly. He was getting used to it, even if it were completely silly reasoning that had led Jack to the moniker.
He turned his gaze from the limp fishing line out over the surface of the lake, choppy now with wind. Most of the fishing boats had gone back to shore in advance of the storm, but a speedboat was now making its way steadily toward the island on which Jack resided. He’d been there for the better part of two weeks, isolated from everyone except his newly acquired symbiote, now his constant companion.
The deadline Thoth had set for compliance with his request for Jack to resume his regular status on Earth was drawing near, with just another day until he might have to lock up the island of the Naga forever. Thoth’s original host had been the last survivor of his race, and the Naga had a wealth of technology that both Herr-miis, the last of those people, and Thoth wanted to keep out of the hands of less advanced human beings.
Though Jack and Thoth had argued over that issue most of the last two weeks, they had finally come to a compromise with which both were happy. All Jack needed was the opportunity to return to Earth as a free and willing participant in the war against the Goa’uld, and he’d happily deliver some of what the Tau’ri wanted. As he watched the boat coming closer, making a beeline for the island, he struggled to tamp down his hopes and a building sense of excitement.
The gleam of a gold emblem shining on Teal’c’s dark forehead came into view, but the other figure with him wasn’t Daniel or Carter – at least, not Major Samantha Carter. Her father, Jacob, dressed in Tok’ra leathers, stood just behind Teal’c, waving now and smiling as he caught sight of the fisherman on the dock. The boat slowed and eased carefully closer, bumping gently against the invisible force field that enclosed the island completely. The boat slid sideways, running along the edge of the energy barrier enclosing it.
“Greetings, Thoth!” Selmak called, his voice deep and throaty.
“Hey, Jacob, Selmak, T,” Jack returned brightly. “What’re you doing here?”
“We have come to tell you how delighted we are that you have been found again, my old friend,” said Selmak enthusiastically.
“Backatcha, Selmak.” Jack nodded, then glanced at Teal’c. “Has the administration made their decision yet, buddy?”
The Jaffa’s face turned grim. “They have declined your offer, O’Neill.” He glanced at the passenger on his boat. “But the Tok’ra have a proposal of their own.”
A weary sigh slipped out. “They keepin’ Daniel there for bait?”
“So it seems.”
“Where is he?”
“He is allowed the freedom to go between your home and the base, as long as an escort is available. I have provided his protection during your absence.”
“Thanks, T. We appreciate that.”
“What will you do now, Thoth?” asked Selmak.
Jack stood up slowly, leaving his line dangling in the water, dropping the pole at his feet. He reached into the pocket of his BDU trousers and pulled out a device that Thoth had made a few days back. He pushed a couple of buttons and stepped forward, knowing that the field would have shut off upon his command. He walked to the end of the dock, entered a code into the device and spoke into it to record his voiceprint command, reestablishing the force field around the island.
Then he held out his hand toward Teal’c. “Come get us, T. The island’s now off limits to everyone but me. Anybody tinkers with this doodad and it’ll lock everyone out permanently.”
“A wise precaution,” commented Selmak.
Teal’c steered the boat closer to the dock, and Jack leaped lightly onto the sleek craft.
“Will you be returning to Earth with us?” asked the Jaffa.
Jack gave him an enigmatic smile. “In a manner of speaking,” he said mysteriously. “Home, James.”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow. “That is not my name, O’Neill.”
“Tweety likes it.” Jack gave him a playful look.
“Tweety?” asked the Jaffa.
Jack’s chin dipped slightly, and Thoth spoke in his altered voice. “This nickname pleases my host. I have decided to allow him to use it, however demeaning it may be.”
“But Tweety?” asked Jacob, scratching his head, puzzled over the choice.
“Yeah.” Jack lifted both eyebrows. “I Thoth I thaw a puddy-tat, y’know? Thoth ith hard to thay thometimes.”
Jacob chuckled and shook his head. “Selmak is groaning, Jack. I could never get away with something like that. Thoth is a rare breed, my friend.”
“That he is.” Jack flashed a crooked grin and noticed Teal’c’s long-suffering look. “You should hear what he calls me.”
“Well? We’re waiting.”
Jack grinned. “Not a chance, guys.”
--And you better not let it slip, Tweety.—
**I make no promises, Jonathan.**
For a moment, Jack was speechless, even in the depths of his mind.
--Is that your revenge for the nickname I stuck you with?—
**Sometimes, if the shoe fits, it’s ugly, my friend. Figure it out for yourself..**
Jack could feel that smug reply all the way to his toes. Thoth was no one to be trifled with, and as flippant as Jack liked to be, he had the feeling that the snake could match him spade for spade. Jack smiled, looking forward to the mental repartee to come. He’d found a worthy opponent at last, one who could take what he dished out and still keep Jack on his toes.
This was gonna be fun.
The boat turned and picked up speed, cutting through the choppy waves as the first drops of rain began to fall.
Jack strolled around inside the ancient Naga observatory, where months before, Daniel had found Alex Epstein’s journal. He checked his watch for the zillionth time, thinking about how much his life had changed in those few months. What had begun with the exploration of yet another alien ruin had become a life-altering journey, one that he did not regret making.
It had been hours since Jacob and Teal’c had left through the stargate for Earth. By now, T should have been able to recover what Jack had requested, and either given it to Jacob to bring back or gotten permission from Hammond to deliver it in person. Jack patiently paced the mosaic floor, biding his time until he had what he needed.
Finally, he heard the first chevron lock into place and the machinery of the wormhole generator kicked into gear. He hurried to the outside doorway to watch the dial finish spinning up, the familiar sideways flush giving way to a placid upright pool.
A moment later Jacob stepped through alone. As though he knew Jack would be watching, he shook his head and strolled over to the DHD. He waited for the event horizon to destabilize and then proceeded to dial another gate address as he stood in the pouring rain. He laid a pair of small objects on the face of the DHD and headed for the ‘gate. Moments later, he was gone.
Jack jogged out to the DHD, picked up the wallet and keys that Teal’c had taken from Jack’s locker at the base and passed to Jacob to bring to him in secret. After checking to see that his ID, credit cards, ATM card and cash were all there, he returned to the shelter of the observatory. He rolled back the sleeves of his BDU jacket; beneath them, the golden gauntlets of the siri antarus gleamed in the dim light filtering in from the stormy sky outside. He entered Earth’s address from Thoth’s memory, already knowing where he’d arrive. He spread his arms in a graceful arc and waited for the wormhole to stabilize.
This technology was different from what the Ancients had created. The Naga had managed to go further with the science, integrating a scanner on the device implanted on each world that received the signal, so that a view of what lay at the destination could be seen from the point of departure. The wormhole receiver on Earth had been buried beneath the surface of the planet in a massive cavern Jack recognized from boyhood trips to New Mexico.
The receiver calculated the nearest open space in its proximity, so that even if the device itself were buried under thousands of years of sediment, the traveler would still arrive in an open space, rather than imbedded into solid rock. Stepping through the event horizon wasn’t as much of a crapshoot, since the traveler could see right where he was going, before he left. All of the marked worlds in the Naga stargate system were planets that could support Naga life, absent of such things as toxic gases, excessive heat, or cold. They were planets filled with wonders yet safe for travel, and only those who had one of those amazing personal stargates could reach them without a space ship. Most were planets the Ancients never visited, and Jack had plans to catalogue and locate every one of them for further exploration.
Jack walked into the wormhole on the homeworld of the Naga, and came out behind a tour making its way through Carlsbad Caverns. No one noticed the appearance of the wormhole, since Naga technology was much quieter than that of the Ancients’ device, and when he arrived, he rolled down his sleeves to hide the device that had transported him across the galaxy. He hung back from the crowd, aware that he’d stick out as he was currently dressed, in his military clothing.
--You’re on, Tweety. Make us blend in.—
On cue, Thoth activated the holographic disguise he’d invented, putting on a form that looked like the Anasazi priest, Ree, but dressed in blue jeans, a black tee-shirt and a black leather jacket. He slowly merged with the tour group and followed them until they went topside. He headed for the nearest ATM and withdrew the cash he’d need to purchase transportation to Colorado Springs. It was unlikely that the NID or anyone else would be tracking any expenditures on his accounts, because everyone thought Jack O’Neill was off-world. No one expected him to suddenly appear elsewhere on the planet, and with his holographic disguise, no one would recognize him on the trip home.
--Fuckin’ brilliant, little buddy.—
**That I am, Kemosabe. That I am. Thank you for the appreciation.**
A short while later, Jack boarded a bus bound for Colorado Springs. It would be a long, tedious trip, but he thought it was safer than trying to rent a car or buy an airplane ticket. He was pretty sure the metal detectors would go off in response to the siri antarus and the disguise mechanism, so it was just more prudent not to tempt fate. The bus might be slow, but it would get him where he was going, and that was what counted.
Jack unlocked the door to his house, punched in his access code before the alarm system that Daniel had insisted on having installed went off, and dropped the holographic disguise as soon as he was safely inside. He did a quick inspection of the house to search for surveillance devices. He didn’t find any, but wanted to take no chances. He’d timed everything to make sure he got there just before Daniel was due home.
Jack was in the process of packing when Teal’c arrived with his charges. He hurried toward the foyer, keeping quiet and listening to make sure only Daniel and Teal’c had come inside the house. Outside, five more airmen would be setting up a perimeter around the house, per the terms of the Tok’ra’s latest requirement for Meretseger’s safety, duly reported to Jack on the walk to the stargate from Arcadia. When Jack was sure just the two men had entered his house, he stepped around the corner to greet them.
“Jack!” Daniel breathed as soon as he laid eyes on him, both relieved and worried at once. “Have you lost your mind? It’s not safe for you to be here.”
“Which is why we need to hurry. Take everything you absolutely have to have, but pack light.”
Jack smiled at Daniel fondly. “Missed you, babe,” he murmured, stealing a kiss, heedless of the Jaffa watching their reunion.
When he let Daniel go, he greeted Teal’c with a firm handshake and a gentle slap on the shoulder. “Hey, T. I owe you one. A big one.”
“You owe me several,” Teal’c corrected, “of varying sizes.”
“Yup. You’re right about that, big guy.” Jack headed straight for the mantle, eyes roving over his ribbons and commendations, all the things that marked the accomplishments of his military career, and left them where they were. Instead, he took his personal photos of Charlie and Sara, pictures of his team and other family members, quickly removing them from their frames and stuffing the pictures into a manila envelope he’d brought with him from his office. Then he headed into the bedroom, put the pictures into the suitcase he had mostly filled, along with every other item he really loved: Charlie’s baseball glove and team ball, a pair of Charlie’s baby shoes, a lock of Jack’s mother’s hair. His favorite clothing and other personal items were already in the suitcase, along with a supply of some of Daniel’s things.
Daniel followed suit with his own suitcase and a smaller carry-on bag from the spare bedroom. Within twenty minutes, both were making one last round through the house for anything they’d forgotten. Daniel took the military memorabilia from the mantel and carefully placed the shadow boxes and displays into his suitcase, cushioned beneath his clothes. On top of everything else, he placed Jack’s Class A uniform, still in its plastic bag from the dry cleaners. The cap he tucked into the last available space, and re-zipped his bag closed.
Teal’c stood silently by, watching and waiting.
“Ready?” asked Jack, eyeing his mate.
“No,” Daniel confessed honestly, “but this’ll have to do.” He sighed and gave Jack a broken smile. “I wish it hadn’t come to this.”
“Me, too.” His gaze roved over the bedroom. “I’ll miss this place, but as long as I have you, I’ll be home.”
“What about Teal’c?” asked Daniel. “Won’t he get in trouble for letting me slip away with you?”
Jack pulled a zat he’d brought with him and gave the Jaffa a lopsided smile. “No. We talked about that already. Thanks, T. Wish I didn’t have to do this, you kno