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[note from Fig Newton: This fic is not mine. I am temporarily hosting it for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ivorygates. It is broken into three parts due to LJ posting constraints.]
TILL HUMAN VOICES WAKE US
(GEN)
(Season One AU: Set just after FIRE AND WATER)
The last day of his life begins like any ordinary day.
He arrives at The Mountain for the morning briefing. It's a mission to PX8-925, their first mission since Oannes. At least Oannes had a name in the reports instead of just the meaningless string of letters and numbers assigned by the Gate computer that doesn't really represent the planet itself. Most of the time they never do manage to find out what the natives call -- or called -- the planets they visit.
This morning there probably won't be any natives at all. The MALP (Mobile Analytical Lab Platform) went through last week to check for air quality and found none of the indicators that would tell them that there were any people there -- or any large animals, for that matter. Today's mission will be a standard reconnaissance to see if anybody might have been there once and left anything interesting. Daniel knows Jack will be hoping for weapons. Daniel is always hoping for one of two things: information that will lead them to Sha're, or something interesting.
Weapons are not interesting.
At the briefing they go over everything one more time. He isn't really sure what the point is. Jack didn't listen last time and he probably isn't listening this time; the man doesn't read his memos and Daniel knows perfectly well that Jack doesn't even read the reports he and Sam write. He's still more than a little irritated by the mess Jack left in his apartment, too. He'd thought the idea had been to close it down because they thought he was dead, not throw the contents of his bookshelves all over the floor and leave. He still hasn't gotten everything back in order.
Jack does pay attention when Sam mentions she's having some problems with the Gate, though, and at the last moment it looks as if the mission is going to be scrubbed; Sam says the dialing computers are throwing out anomalies and she's going to have to spend the morning running a full diagnostic. Daniel's sure Jack will take the opportunity to postpone the mission, even though Sam says her work won't interfere with routine Gate operations, but instead Jack suggests making it a threesome and having Sam catch up to them later if everything checks out.
So they go.
#
No matter what happens afterward, going through the Gate is always a rush, and arriving on each new planet, taking that first breath of alien air with reassembled lungs, makes Daniel feel as if he's been given the chance to start his life over again. This time he doesn't feel any heavier than he did on Earth, which is nice; he hates the clumsiness that a change in gravity brings. He follows Teal'c down the steps, glancing around curiously. They're in a second-growth forest; the new trees have come up pretty near the Gate. The air smells a little like woodsmoke -- probably a forest fire from a lightning strike -- and a lot like flowers, but though his nose prickles, it's not too bad, and he can load up on more antihistamines later if it gets worse. The light is bright, and he checks the position of the sun; it's already near noon here. It's early morning on Earth, and they'll spend probably at least half a day here and go back and it will still be early afternoon in Colorado Springs. His days aren't twenty-four hours long any more. They haven't been since he went to Abydos.
He passes Teal'c and the DHD and looks back. Jack, as usual, is still standing on the steps surveying his surroundings before moving out, still framed by the radiance of the incoming wormhole. Daniel spares a moment to wish Sam were with them; routine means basically just a long hike through pretty scenery unless they find something and without Sam here he won't really have anyone to talk to. Jack will be complaining about the existence of trees -- how can anybody not like trees? -- while acting as if he expects them to attack at any moment, and Teal'c isn't really very chatty. Neither of them takes a lot of interest in the things that Daniel finds fascinating; he's gotten used to it, but sometimes it's hard to find common ground.
He realizes he'd better stop walking before Jack calls him back -- those trees might attack at any moment -- and so he stops and turns, looking back toward the Stargate.
And so he and Teal'c are both looking back at Jack in the moment when the event horizon flashes from blue to white.
Two-hundred fifty pounds of Jaffa warrior suddenly lands on top of him, driving him to the ground and forcing all the air from his lungs. A moment later Teal'c is up and running, shouting Jack's name: O'Neill. It's precious seconds after that before Daniel realizes he needs to be up, moving, that something's gone horribly wrong.
He staggers to his feet, coughing and gagging as he tries to fill his lungs, running back toward the Gate, back up the steps that he walked down less than five minutes before. Teal'c is kneeling on the stones and he doesn't see Jack anywhere.
Then he does.
"Oh, god, no."
The body lying prone before the Gate isn't just burned, it's been carbonized. Daniel thinks of Pompeii, of Nagasaki, of twisted desiccated mummies in catacombs, but this isn't any of those things: it's Jack's dead body. He slides to his knees on the opposite side of the body from Teal'c, and as he does, he sees Jack's MP5. It's warped because all the rounds inside it have exploded with the sudden heat. He reaches for it reflexively but the metal's still too hot to touch.
"The-- Did the-- How did the--" Sam said the Stargate was acting up this morning, but she said it was safe. How could this have happened?
The air smells of charcoal and the faint scent of burned flesh. Jack is dead, and the Goa'uld haven't killed him, nobody's killed him, it's a stupid Gate malfunction, and nobody should have to die this way, nobody...
Teal'c reaches down to turn Jack's body over, but the dry fried pieces just ... crumble ... and Daniel hears himself make a sound he doesn't want to hear. Then Teal'c is moving, standing, reaching out to lift Daniel to his feet as well.
"We must dial Earth at once, Daniel Jackson."
"I-- Teal'c-- What--?"
Teal'c shakes him roughly and he gasps.
"Daniel Jackson! We must dial Earth at once! I believe Stargate Command to be under attack!"
Teal'c drags him roughly down the steps to the DHD. Daniel's head is spinning with shock. Attack? Not a malfunction? He dials Earth by reflex. Sam set the Gate computers up with an answerback system a few months after the Program started that could ping the destination Gate and get its Point of Origin Glyph so he doesn't have to worry about finding that on any of the planets they visit any more; he had their return address before they left this morning and he dials it now. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven...
No lock.
He waits for the light to fade in the DHD and tries again. He's numb inside. How can Jack be dead? How can the SGC be under attack? They left less than five minutes ago and everything was fine...
He keeps trying, mechanically, until Teal'c takes his hands -- gently this time -- and stops him.
The Stargate isn't working. And Jack is dead.
He looks into Teal'c's eyes, and knows that Teal'c has no more idea of what to do now than he does. What they were going to do when everything went wrong was always Jack's job. Or Sam's. She's Jack's Second in Command. Teal'c was First Prime to Apophis until they freed him. It's like being a general, except that the Goa'uld don't allow their Jaffa that much independence. Teal'c commanded armies in the field, though. Led men into battle, led them to death in the name of a false god.
At the SGC, he's a sergeant. Tech Sergeant Teal'c, according to all the paperwork, so Jack and Sam both outrank...
Sam was back at the SGC when this happened.
A blast of energy killed Jack. It came through the open wormhole from Earth. From where Sam was. And now they can't get a lock on Earth. That means there's something wrong with the destination Gate. Not wrong as in 'the iris is closed,' and not wrong as in there's been a power failure at the SGC; neither of those things would interfere with the DHD getting a lock. Wrong as in the Stargate might not be there. He doesn't want to think that, but he can't stop himself.
He gestures at the DHD. "Teal'c, I... What do we do?"
"Is it not the custom among the Tau'ri to bury the dead, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asks quietly.
He wants to shout, argue, insist that Jack isn't dead. That some miracle can save him. That this isn't happening. All he can do is nod.
#
They walk a little distance away from the Gate and find a clear flat space. Teal'c gets out the entrenching tool from his pack and begins to dig. They only have the one, so all Daniel can do is watch. After a few minutes, he shucks off his pack and his vest and starts hunting around for suitable stones to cover the grave with. He's trying not to panic, but he's really not sure what a rational response to the situation is right now. A blast of energy came through the Stargate while it was still connected to Earth. They couldn't get a lock on Earth after that. They're marooned here.
And his best friend is dead.
#
He can only carry a few stones each trip. One time, when he comes back, Teal'c is gone. One time, when he comes back, Teal'c is filling the hole in again, and he helps, getting down on hands and knees to shovel the loose earth back in over what lies beneath, and when they're finished, the two of them walk back and forth across the earth, tamping it down, then lay the stones across it and walk across them again. There weren't enough for a cairn, but he found enough to make a top layer over the fresh-turned earth, to mark the grave.
When they're done, they go back to the Gate.
He reaches out and touches the dial of the DHD. Dial Home Device, only they can't, can they? Something terrible has happened at the SGC, and there's no way for them to get home and find out what's happened to their friends. He presses the seven symbols for Earth once more, and once more there's no lock. He closes his eyes in frustration and pounds his fist softly on the edge of the DHD.
He doesn't know what to do.
"The Stargate may yet serve to take us to another destination," Teal'c says.
"I... Do you think it still works at all?" He hadn't thought of trying to go somewhere else. He'd only been thinking about getting back to Earth.
"I do not know, Daniel Jackson. Nevertheless, I feel it would be prudent to make the attempt."
He looks at Teal'c, hesitating. What if the whole Gate system's down? The SGC doesn't really understand it, although they use it. What if the whole system's just ... exploded?
"Should we wait?" he asks hesitantly. "Maybe...?" If it's only a malfunction, they'll fix it.
He can't imagine a malfunction bad enough to have sent that burst of energy through the wormhole that would leave anyone alive behind it to fix it. Sam, General Hammond, Walter, Sgt. Siler ... he recruited Robert just a few weeks ago for AA&T; is Robert still alive? Or is everyone in Stargate Command dead?
"If our enemies have taken possession of Stargate Command, once they have consolidated their position on Earth, they may seek us out," Teal'c answers. "I believe we have remained here as long as we dare."
Daniel nods. Teal'c's right. The two of them need to leave. He knows hundreds of Gate addresses; leaving isn't the problem, assuming the Stargate works. A destination is.
"The Land of Light," he says slowly. "Councilor Tuplo said we would always be welcome. And Drey'auc and Rya'c are there, aren't they?"
"Indeed," Teal'c agrees. His voice gives nothing away.
Daniel dials. His hands start to shake as he presses the glyphs. He doesn't know what would be worse: if the Stargate doesn't work or if it does.
Seventh symbol. And the Gate engages. Both of them simply stare at it for a moment, then Daniel walks slowly up the steps. There's no mark on the stones where Jack's body lay. No blood. Nothing.
The MALP is still there, but, like Jack's MP5 -- that's gone now; Teal'c must have buried it with Jack -- it's been fried. The side nearest the Gate is blackened; the treads have melted. All the glass in the panels is gone. Some of it is in tiny melted droplets on the stone. Other pieces were cool enough at the moment of explosion to shatter and retain their integrity. He touches the MALP, hesitantly. It's still hot.
For a moment longer he stands there, facing the shimmering pool of light. We don't leave anyone behind. Jack always said that. But they're leaving Jack behind now. For a moment Daniel's face twists with a grief he can no longer control. Jack would have wanted to be buried next to Charlie. He takes a deep breath and walks through the event horizon.
#
On the other side it's dark; he'd forgotten it would be. But torches burn beside the Gate, so there's light to see by. He remembers the last time he was here in the forest and can't quite suppress a wince at the memory, but it's different now. Now the path back to the Light Side is neatly kept, edged with lamps of glowing pale stone. The Mykene don't use glass for many things, but they work alabaster in the traditional fashion of the Ancient World.
Teal'c's symbiote will protect him from the histaminalytic virus here, and the SGC has taught the Mykene to refine an herbal cure from native plants, so not only is there no chance Daniel will devolve again, he won't have any allergic reactions to the local plants once his supply of antihistamines runs out. The shots Janet gives him are good for a week, and he has a few pills in his pack for emergencies. That's it.
He wonders if Janet is still alive. The infirmary is only a few levels above the Gate Room.
The two of them walk through the dark forest toward the Light Side, then up the hill toward the Palace. By the time they're close, Daniel can see Melosha on the steps, waving to them. He raises a hand in return, but he can't quite bring himself to wave back. The shock is starting to wear off, the way it did when Sha're was taken, and all he can see, in his mind, is a heap of charcoal in the shape of a man. Breaking. Crumbling. Death, alien and absolute.
#
High Councilor Tuplo and his wife Leedora greet the two of them with puzzled delight. After a moment, Tuplo asks them where Jack and Sam are.
Teal'c says they are not with them, then regards the Mykene court impassively. Tuplo waits for more, but when it becomes obvious that there isn't going to be more, says he will send for Drey'auc and Rya'c.
While they're waiting for them, Daniel explains to Tuplo that he and Teal'c need to stay here for a while, if it's okay with the Mykene. Tuplo is delighted to have them as guests, and says they may stay as long as they wish. Daniel thanks Tuplo for his kindness; the words come automatically to him, as if someone else is speaking.
Rya'c is so happy to see his father again. He shows off the baseball glove that Jack gave him. Jack had been going to teach Rya'c baseball, but there'd never been time. Drey'auc is more suspicious about the reason for Teal'c's unannounced arrival. She obviously wants an immediate explanation for why they're here.
"Something," Daniel begins, knowing the explanation must be made, though it's an effort to speak, to keep his voice calm even and professional, "something may have happened on Earth. We aren't really sure. We were on a mission through the Stargate--" he knows that Tuplo's people are a little vague on the concept of 'planet' "--when there was an accident and we, um, well, we couldn't get home."
"What about the others who travel with you?" Drey'auc asks him sharply, her eyes flaring with suspicion. SG-1 rescued her and Rya'c from Chulak. The two of them spent time in the SGC afterward. She knows there should be four of them here now.
Daniel opens his mouth to answer, and he simply ... can't.
"Colonel O'Neill is dead. Captain Carter was at Stargate Command and her fate is unknown, as is the fate of the Tau'ri."
Daniel winces before he can help himself. The fate of the Tau'ri is unknown. Tuplo looks puzzled, trying to figure this out, but if he's waiting for more information from Teal'c, he won't get it.
"Have your enemies followed you here?" Tuplo asks, after a moment.
"They have not," Teal'c says firmly.
Daniel wonders why Teal'c's so sure they have enemies. All he knows for sure is that something went wrong. But that's the way Teal'c and ... Jack ... always were. Always looking for enemies. Expecting them, when Daniel always hoped for friends.
"Husband, what will you do now?" Drey'auc asks.
"A wise warrior considers before he acts," Teal'c answers.
#
The sun never sets in the Land of Light. The sun never moves, actually, because the planet doesn't rotate. The entire habitable area of the planet is a belt of land about fifty miles wide that circles the entire planet at the equator. A little more of it is on the light side than the dark. Outside of that, the entire planet is desert where nothing lives. You can only see the stars from the forest.
Tuplo gave him a room in the Palace, and Daniel tried to sleep. He's so tired, even though it's only noon now in Colorado Springs, and he really wanted to be alone. But he couldn't sleep, though he still craves solitude, and so he's come back here to the forest to look at the stars. It would take Sam to tell him which one is home from here, and he thinks Sam may be dead.
Daniel stares up through the trees, focusing on the lights in the sky, trying not to remember the sights and sounds of the last few hours. How all that was left of Jack's body crumbled and broke like soft charcoal when Teal'c shifted it. How the small black flakes shimmered and sifted through Teal'c's fingertips and the intense burned scent made Daniel's nose itch.
He needs to stop thinking of anything at all, and so he looks at the stars. Teal'c has gone to Drey'auc's house. At least he has a family to return to. Daniel's family -- what's left of it -- is on Abydos, sealed behind a buried Gate. His closest friends are at Stargate Command and on SG-1. He doesn't know what's happened to them, and he has no way to get home.
He hugs himself tightly, trying to crush away the latest in the series of stunning losses that have defined his life. He's not a soldier; god knows he's gotten used to death since the first time he saw the suns in the sky of Abydos, but what he doesn't know is what to do about it. He never really has.
Maybe he should just go back to Abydos and tell Kasuf he's failed. Except that the Abydos Gate is buried -- will be for most of another year -- and he can't get there.
He keeps trying to come up with a plan, something to do, but all the plans he can come up with start with getting back to the SGC somehow. And he can't do that.
#
"Daniel Jackson."
He comes to with a gasp, flailing, and realizes he'd fallen asleep where he was, sitting on the ground in the forest. He's cold and stiff and he's knocked his glasses askew. He straightens them carefully. He broke them once before -- on Abydos -- and thought then that he'd never be able to get them fixed. This time it may be true.
Teal'c is standing over him, holding a lantern. He holds out a hand. Daniel takes it, and Teal'c draws him to his feet.
"Uh. Teal'c." His voice sounds rusty and his throat aches. "I'm sorry. I came out here to look at the stars and I fell asleep."
"It is most unwise to sleep in the forest. Since the departure of the Touched, I am told that many large forest creatures have become bold and importunate in their behavior."
Right now, being eaten by wolves sounds like an improvement.
"How did you find me?" he asks, in order to change the subject. He's nowhere near any of the forest paths.
"Councilor Tuplo informed me that you had mentioned wishing to go for a walk. It was a simple matter to follow your trail. Come."
They walk back out into the eternal day. When Daniel checks his watch, he realizes that despite the lying sun it's late at night back home. Almost tomorrow.
They should have been back from the mission hours ago. Jack would have taken them on a brisk five-mile hike, on a heading directly away from the Stargate, because if there were anything to see on PX8-925, it would probably have been built in line-of-sight of the Stargate. Jack would have complained about trees, and that he was bored, and about anything else he could think of, but he would never have stopped watching for trouble, and his hands would never have left his gun. They'd have come back. Debriefed. Daniel would have caught up on his paperwork, gone home. Maybe had dinner in the Commissary with Sam first, or maybe the two of them would have gotten take-out and gone back to Sam's place.
A normal ordinary day in his normal ordinary life.
There's a heaviness in his chest and a tightness in his throat. 'Normal' and 'ordinary' are gone forever, even if rescue comes. He thinks he's had one too many losses. How many friends can you lose before you don't want to have any more friends?
Jack was a good friend.
He stumbles, and Teal'c's hand is under his elbow to steady him. he looks up.
Teal'c rarely shows much emotion. It's not as if the Jaffa don't have them; it's that they're private things. Daniel hasn't gotten a lot of opportunities to study Jaffa culture -- and now, he realizes, he probably never will -- but he knows that anything the Jaffa display openly, their Goa'uld overlords can use against them.
Jack called the Jaffa 'myrmidons' once and smirked in that way of his when Daniel looked surprised that he knew the word. Daniel had come to suspect that a lot of the 'dumb Colonel' act was just that: an act, though a very good one. And the word had fit. The Goa'uld do their best to turn the Jaffa into insects. The Jaffa respond by living their lives behind a mask.
Eyes show behind masks.
Teal'c's eyes are on him now, filled with compassion. He's almost four times Daniel's age, victim of the Goa'uld all his life. How many friends has he lost in his lifetime?
Daniel nods shortly. He's fine. He'll survive.
He's always survived.
"There is a Jaffa word that means 'revenge' in the Tau'ri language. Do you know it?" Teal'c asks suddenly.
"Kel'mar," Daniel says. "You taught it to me."
"You know that it also means 'lifeblood,'" Teal'c says. "That is because, to the Jaffa, revenge is life. We will discover who has killed our brother O'Neill. And they will pay. This I promise you, Daniel Jackson. Kel'mar."
Daniel's breath hitches in his chest. He takes a deep breath and suddenly he's lightheaded. He blinks hard. His eyes are wet, but -- thank god -- it's not quite tears.
Revenge.
He's tried so hard not to hate anybody. He thinks of Chulak; of the tank of Goa'uld larva exploding in a hail of bullets; thinks of how he felt in that moment, the gun hot in his hands.
He doesn't want to be that person again.
"Teal'c," he says. "We can't... become the Goa'uld. No matter what it costs us."
Teal'c continues to regard him silently.
"I will take you to where you may rest," Teal'c says at last.
Later Daniel will remember that moment and wonder if there was anything different he could have said. Something that would have changed things.
#
It's almost a month later when Teal'c disappears. The Mykene have an elaborate and accurate system of clocks -- the Ancient Egyptians did, too, so it's not that surprising -- and mark the passage of the day with horns and gongs. The unceasing noontide in which the Land of Light exists is driving both him and Teal'c slowly mad, Daniel thinks.
At first he dialed out on the DHD twice a day. Then once a day. Now it's every third day. He never gets a lock.
He went back to PX8-925 once to leave a note for the SGC, just in case anyone came looking for them there. It was safe enough even if someone else found it: nobody outside the SGC is going to know where 'that place where Jack and I got turned into cavemen' is. He only stayed long enough to tape the page from his field journal to the DHD with the duct tape he always carries and dial back. He doesn't believe in ghosts, but 925 is haunted.
Haunted by disaster.
And the worst of it is, he doesn't know what's happened and maybe he never will. He's talked about it with Teal'c. Jack always said there was a Plan B. Daniel takes its existence on faith, but he can't seem to figure out what it is.
His life has become a matter of surviving each twenty-four hour period. He spends a lot of time in the Mykenesian archives; he finally has all the time he's ever wanted to study this culture. Is knowledge useless when there's nobody to share it with?
When he isn't in the archives, he works in the fields. It's something to do. The Mykene's Cretan ancestors imported much of their grain; they grew barley and grapes on Crete, they had sheep and goats and cattle. The Mykene have wheat in addition to barley, and they also grow flax. Both wheat and flax require extensive irrigation; Daniel has suggested improvements to the system of canals and waterwheels that irrigate the step-terraces. Terrace farming is Meso-American or Chinese, not Cretan; the farming system looks more Asian than anything else. It's an interesting cross-pollenization, but there's nobody left to care.
He's adapted before, called another world his home, but it was his choice before. This time it's an exile. He tries to make the best of it, but Daniel feels as if he's been imprisoned. Imprisoned in Paradise.
But this Paradise has a serpent.
He's been analyzing the Mykene culture. He can't help it. Analyzing cultures its what Daniel does; it's as natural to him as breathing; he reads cultures as easily as he can read a page of print in any of twenty-three languages, living and dead. And the Mykene have a problem, one the SGC created by helping them.
It's unfair. They couldn't not have helped them. But helping them has created another problem, because the histaminalytic virus that the SGC helped them find a cure for apparently kept their population down. Without that bizarre and horrible form of population control -- Leedora has told him that none of the Touched ever bore or fathered children that she knows of, and about a third of the population fell to the Touched virus every year -- the Mykene are facing what amounts to a population explosion, and the Land of Light just isn't that big. In a few generations they'll be facing a Malthusian nightmare.
He wants resources he doesn't have. If Janet were here, she could explain about birth control. If Sam were here, she could improve their farming technology to buy them more time. If Jack were here, he could ... be Jack. Explain to Tuplo (Daniel has tried, and failed) that the Mykene need to consider the possibility of relocating elsewhere. He's suggested Argos. The two cultures are similar enough, and the whole planet's available. And safe.
But what Daniel wants most of all, on the day he hikes down from the palace (where he's living) to Drey'auc's house in the town, is to know where Teal'c went and why he didn't tell him he was going.
All Drey'auc can tell him is that Teal'c left that 'morning.' Drey'auc knows that Teal'c took his staff weapon, but went dressed in native robes; that's disturbing, as Daniel has mostly been wearing the local clothing but Teal'c hasn't.
Daniel looks for Teal'c at several places in the town and the surrounding fields, already knowing it will be useless, before he goes to the Stargate. There's nothing there -- no clue to where Teal'c went -- but he's pretty sure by now that Teal'c went somewhere through the Stargate, and Daniel can't imagine any place that Teal'c would go alone. Teal'c is his friend.
His last surviving teammate, if Sam is dead, and Daniel thinks she must be, or else she would have come for him by now. Somehow. They always came back for each other. When Jack was on Argos. When Daniel was here.
Where did Teal'c go? And why?
Daniel dials Earth again.
No lock.
No Gate. Or buried Gate. And either way, a disaster of epic proportions and he'll never know just what happened because to know he'd have to be on Earth. And since Earth apparently no longer has a working Stargate, that would take a spaceship and a pilot who could find Earth.
He walks away from the Gate. He wishes he were willing to allow himself the fantasy that Jack is here, alive, just behind him in the forest, that he could ask Jack what the hell is going on and what to do. Not because he can't take care of himself; he's a better survivor than Jack thinks.
Thought.
But because Jack has a certain perspective that Daniel knows he lacks, particularly on Teal'c. Jack understood Teal'c in a way Daniel knows he never will. Sometimes they thought the same way. Jack would know what Teal'c was thinking now.
Daniel. You're stranded in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people in funny hats. What do you have and what do you need?
He stops. For a moment he wonders if he's starting to hallucinate, but no. Just remembering. Jack would always ask him these kinds of stupid questions, nagging him, telling Daniel he had to learn how to think.
To think Jack's way, was what he meant.
And now -- when it's much too late -- Daniel wishes he'd listened just a little more, because no matter how many times they'd almost lost Jack -- Abydos, Chulak, Argos, Cimmeria, half a dozen other places -- he'd never believed it could actually happen.
What do you have and what do you need?
He has a Stargate that will go anywhere in the Gate Network but Earth. To get to Earth -- to find out what has happened there -- will take a spaceship.
He and Teal'c need a spaceship to get to Earth.
Where do you go when you need a spaceship?
Teal'c has gone to Chulak.
#
He wants to follow Teal'c immediately, and knows he doesn't dare. He's been to Chulak twice. The first time SG-1 just walked right in -- that was before the Goa'uld knew what kind of a threat the Tau'ri could be. The second time they sneaked in disguised as members of the priesthood of Apophis, and because of that the Chulak Gate is guarded all the time now. Daniel speaks fluent Goa'uld, but he's not completely certain he can bluff his way past the guards at the Gate.
Still, he has to try.
#
He goes back to the Palace and puts on his uniform. It seems strange to wear it again after so many days, but it's cold on Chulak and he's not running off to rescue Teal'c wearing a Mykenesian kilt and a pair of sandals. The cloak Tuplo gave him for walking in the forest will cover most of it; for the rest he'll just have to trust to luck and the fact that whoever's at the Gate won't expect a Tau'ri to come through speaking Goa'uld. He can tell them he comes with a message from Ra, if anyone asks. The Goa'uld play at being gods: Apophis may know that Ra is dead, but Daniel's betting he hasn't told the rank and file.
Rank and file. Kipling. Jack would quote Kipling to him at odd moments. Another surprise.
'They're hanging Danny Deever in the morning...'
Teal'c already has most of a day's head start on him; he only hopes Teal'c's still alive. Daniel bundles the cloak up under one arm and heads back to the Stargate. By now he knows the Palace well enough that he's able to slip out unobserved and make his way to the forest without meeting anybody. He just doesn't want to have to explain.
He goes through clutching his gun, his cloak pulled tightly around him, but even though it's full day when he steps out through the Chulak Gate, there's nobody in sight.
#
He takes a deep breath of relief, settling his gun back into its holster, and wonders where everyone is. Where Teal'c is, for that matter. It occurs to him that if Teal'c has stolen a spaceship, he's going to be flying it somewhere, maybe even back to the Land of Light -- it certainly won't fit through the Stargate -- but in that case why didn't he tell Daniel what he was going to do? Didn't he think Daniel would notice he was gone, and follow him?
Teal'c is his friend, but it occurs to Daniel that he doesn't really understand him.
Still, he's here now, and Teal'c might be here too, and in trouble. He needs to know. He hesitates, looking up the deserted roadway. He knows the route to the city; it's about three miles. Thanks to Master Bra'tac, he also knows a back way there. If he cuts through the forest and follows the river, he can come up on the village through the refugee camps on the south.
#
It's a long slow hike to the camp -- about twice the distance it would be to the city by road. He stops as soon as he's off the trail to stash his cloak in his pack and put on his glasses. If anybody sees him he's in trouble anyway, and he needs to be able to see.
It's evening when he gets to where he remembers the refugee camp being -- the Jaffa have their social castoffs, just like any other society -- but it isn't there.
He takes cover and looks around. He knows the camp should be here. He was never at the site, but it was described in the mission reports. It was a big place, along the bank of the river, and visible from the city. He can see the city and the river, so he should be able to see the camp.
No camp.
But after a few minutes in hiding, watching, he can see that it was here at one point. Teal'c may have been their tracker, but Daniel is an archaeologist. The signs of habitation will always be clear to him.
Okay. The camp is gone. And he needs to get into the city. Not only to find Teal'c, but because it's starting to get dark and he'll never survive a night out in the open with nothing more than a cloak; they didn't bring overnight gear on their last mission, so even though he has his pack with him, he has none now. He'd been hoping to pick up some gossip at the camp -- by eavesdropping if nothing else -- but now that's out. And there's one person in the city who can help him find Teal'c.
#
It's after dark by the time he can actually get to Master Bra'tac's house. The streets are deserted and the houses are dark, and if Daniel didn't hear quiet voices coming from behind the shutters of one or two of the buildings, he'd really start to believe that he was completely alone here on Chulak. As it is, it's pretty clear that something big is going on.
Considering that Chulak is Apophis's stronghold, that really doesn't make him feel very good.
He reaches Master Bra'tac's door. The house is as dark as all the rest. He taps quietly at the door, but there's no answer, and the door is locked. He could shoot open the door, he supposes, but that's no way to stay undetected. He doesn't dare stay on the street long; he's the only one out here.
He goes around the side of the house and down the alley. As he remembered, there's a back door. It's locked too, but there are windows above, and they only have shutters.
The climb is a nightmare -- he's terrified of heights -- and when he gets there, the shutters on the window are barred. But Chulak is a primitive world -- it's bizarre; the Jaffa fly around in spaceships and fight with energy weapons and live in homes out of the Early Middle Ages -- and the shutters aren't locked, only barred from inside. He pulls out his knife and uses it to lift the bar holding the shutters closed. Housebreaking; Sam would be proud. Clinging to the wall and the sill, Daniel swings the shutter out and gets himself inside and closes the shutter again -- and bars it -- all within a matter of minutes.
Jack would be proud of him, too.
Of course, then he's in a pitch-dark room. He pulls the flashlight out of his pack and shines it around the room. Jaffa don't sleep, but they kel'no'reem. This room is set up for that; cushions on the floor and candles everywhere. He stands and listens, but he hears nothing. If Master Bra'tac were here, he would have heard him.
"It's Daniel," he whispers, just in case Bra'tac is waiting outside the door to hit him. "Teal'c's friend. From Earth."
Nothing. The house is empty.
Flashlight in hand, he explores the house.
Everything is shut up, as if Bra'tac expected to be gone for a very long time. The proof is the fact that the kitchen is completely empty of food. There's a pump and a sink, though, and the pump still works. Daniel washes his face and hands and drinks from a trophy cup that looks as if it's solid gold, then eats one of his Powerbars, stuffing the wrapper neatly back into his pack when he's done.
Where the hell is everybody? And if they're all gone -- all the Serpent Guards, anyway, and Master Bra'tac -- where is Teal'c? Isn't this the first place Teal'c would come?
Well, obviously not. Or if he did, he knew how to lock the front door behind him when he left.
Daniel paces through the deserted rooms, poking through chests and cupboards. He realizes he'd been counting on too much -- on finding Teal'c, on finding Bra'tac. On finding someone who could tell him what was going on, and give him some idea of what to do next.
If Teal'c is here -- and has been captured -- they'll take him to the Palace.
He's scared; he's willing to admit that. This is enemy territory, and there's no backup, and no hope of rescue. And if he wants to know where Teal'c is, he needs to go back out onto the streets. Going out by the alley door will be safest, and he can risk leaving it unlocked. He has no way to lock it, anyway.
#
He approaches the Palace cautiously, realizing as he does that he has absolutely no idea of how to get in. The first time the Gate Priesthood escorted them right inside. The second time they never came near it.
He doesn't see any Serpent Guards, though torches burn on the Palace steps.
That's odd. The Goa'uld are constantly at war with each other. Ra and Apophis were enemies. Would a Goa'uld leave his throneworld undefended?
Or maybe the real question is: why would a Goa'uld leave his throneworld undefended?
Serpent Guards or not, trying to walk in the front door is probably not a good idea.
He'll circle around the back. Maybe there are gardens that he can sneak in through. Do the Goa'uld have gardens? He's about to find out.
He wishes there were newspapers on Chulak, something that would tell him what's going on. It's only about an hour after sunset, and the only places showing any lights at all are the Palace and another smaller structure most of the way up the hill behind it. It wasn't this way the last time they were on Chulak. The whole town was lit by torches and lanterns, but he's seen no sign of them this time.
His breath smokes on the night air as he makes a wide circle around the Palace, heading for the back. Maybe they don't guard the place at night because it's so cold. He's almost convinced himself of that when he nearly runs right into a patrol.
#
They aren't Serpent Guards, and that's what saves his life. They're making enough noise that he hears them long before they approach. He throws himself flat and they walk right past him.
Six Jaffa women. Five are carrying staff-weapons. One is carrying a lantern on a pole. They're all wearing boots and trousers and chain-mail shirts with sashes across them.
They're talking about the war. How it will be a glorious victory for the god Apophis and Prince Klorel and will gain them much new territory. How, perhaps, many of the warriors who serve them can gain enough honor in the fighting to be granted wives. They laugh and tease one another as they pass.
Daniel lies perfectly still, heart hammering, until the sound of their footsteps and their laughter has faded.
Apophis -- and Klorel -- have gone to war.
With who?
Does it matter? Not really, Daniel admits to himself. Except that it means that Apophis isn't here.
And Sha're might be.
#
"My Dan'yel."
The voice is Sha're's. He opens his eyes, blearily. His head hurts.
Amaunet smiles. "You have come back to me, my Dan'yel."
It's not his wife's face. It's cruel, hard.
He's chained to a wall.
"I'm not your 'Dan'yel,'" he says.
"But you are," she says. The Goa'uld harmonic is in her voice now, and her eyes flash white. "You are the last of the Tau'ri, and I will cherish you."
He shakes his head. It only makes his headache worse.
He'd gotten into the Palace easily. Most of it had been deserted. He'd found the dungeons easily; they hadn't even been guarded, and no wonder: they'd been empty.
He hadn't meant to go looking for Sha're. Not really. Thor's Hammer has been broken, and that's her only chance of being freed of Amaunet. But what if the Asgard had come back and fixed it? If he could capture her, take her there and see...
In the end it didn't matter. He'd run into Amaunet on his way back to the upper levels of the Palace. She'd been surrounded by Serpent Guards--
--oh, so that's where they all are--
--and raised her hand and struck him in the face with a beam of light. He'd begged Sha're to stop her, but it hadn't done any good.
And now he's here. It looks like her bedroom. He doesn’t want to think about why Amaunet has a way to shackle people to the wall in her bedroom.
"Tell me, Dan'yel, how did you survive?" Amaunet asks. She puts a hand on his chest. Sha're's hand.
"Don't touch me!" he shouts, struggling against the chains.
She reaches out her hand, never looking away from him, and one of the armored Jaffa standing by hands her something. It looks like a crowbar. She touches him with it, and the pain is worse than anything he could imagine, worse than her hand device. He screams.
"Tell me," she says again. "I can cause the host such pain as this," she adds, watching him.
Sha're.
"I don't know what you want to know!" he says desperately. "Survived? Survived what?"
"The destruction of the Tau'ri," Amaunet says. "The destruction of Earth."
"No," Daniel says. But he's terrified that it's true. "You can't have destroyed Earth. You can't."
Amaunet raises the stick again, but lowers it before using it. "The host has many memories of you, Dan'yel. She cherishes every moment you spent together, all that you told her of Earth -- and you told her so much. Her memories were very useful to my lord Apophis when it became necessary to him to convince the System Lords that the Tau'ri were a threat requiring our alliance. She knew -- you told her -- that the Tau'ri could offer no resistance to the combined fleets of the System Lords. Even now, your homeworld is no more than a lifeless cinder. Your people will kill no more gods, make no more shol'va. Because of you -- and Sha're."
"No! Don't listen to her! I know you can hear me! Sha're! I love you! Sha're!"
Amaunet snarls in fury. She flings down the stick and raises the hand covered with the jeweled glove again. The light knocks Daniel's head back against the wall, and his last conscious thought is that he hopes she's going to kill him now.
Sha're...
#
He doesn't know how much time has passed when he awakens. He's now the sole occupant of the dungeon, and morning light is filtering in through the high windows. His head hurts so much he can't quite force his eyes open. With a little work he manages to roll onto his knees and throw up.
Knowing what he knows hurts worse than what Amaunet has done to him. After Chulak, Apophis tried to attack Earth through the Stargate for days, then stopped. He must have thought he'd destroyed them, until he ran into SG-1 on the Nox homeworld. But he never tried to attack the Earth Stargate again. He must have realized it was useless.
He's found another way.
Daniel spent a year of happiness on Abydos with Sha're. He talked to her -- of course he did; she was his wife. She was endlessly curious about the life her husband had led before he came to live among her people. He'd told her everything he knew. All the history of Earth, everything about his life. She'd asked so many questions. About his wristwatch. His ballpoint pen. Skaara's lighter. It had made him understand how little he knew about his own culture. He'd cudgeled his mind for scraps of information, trying to make Earth real for her: cars, airplanes, movies. Telling her that it wasn't magic, it was science.
Amaunet turned everything he told Sha're into a weapon.
He crawls into a corner of the dungeon and weeps.
A few hours later -- he still has his wristwatch, for some reason, though his pack, his vest, and his glasses are gone -- he hears the rattle of armored boots on stone. Guards coming to drag him out for another round of torture, he supposes.
It's only one. The Serpent Guard opens the gate and stands on the stone steps.
"Go away," Daniel says. "Or come in. I don't care."
The Serpent Guard advances down the steps and crosses the floor. He stands over Daniel, and the red-eyed helmet regards Daniel anonymously. Daniel wonders what he's waiting for.
Then the helmet folds back.
"We must go at once, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c says. "Soon the absence of the guards will be noticed. There is not much time."
Daniel stares up at Teal'c. If he didn't hurt so much, he thinks, he could manage to be surprised. "Teal'c?" he croaks. "I was supposed to rescue you."
"Come," Teal'c says urgently, sliding the Serpent-helmet into place again.
#
They hurry from the dungeon. Daniel moves as quickly as he can, but everything aches, and he keeps stumbling. At one point Teal'c drags him into a room and rummages through chests, pulling out a long hooded cloak and thrusting it at him. It's gold, and it glitters, and Daniel knows it belongs to the Goa'uld. He shudders and drops it. He can't help himself.
"Teal'c. I saw Sha're. Amaunet. She said--"
"There is no time, Daniel Jackson."
Teal'c's voice sounds strained. It echoes hollowly within the enclosing helmet, and the fear in it galvanizes Daniel. He knows that Teal'c isn't afraid for himself, but for him. He picks up the cloak and manages to get it on this time, pulling the hood forward over his face. Teal'c goes to the door, checking the corridor. Whatever he sees satisfies him, and they go on.
It's nearly noon. The suns are high overhead. The day is bright and cool and smells of pine, and he thinks of that other day, a month ago, that day just before the world ended. The Palace steps are deserted, and the two of them walk down them slowly, Teal'c moving as if he has every right to be here, and Daniel follows, clutching the billowing glittering cloak around him and hoping that nobody they meet will notice his boots. He expects at any moment to hear shouts, staff-blasts, to be called back.
But they make their escape unhindered.
"How did you know where to find me?" he asks, when they're outside the city.
"Word was brought to the Temple that a mature symbiote would be needed for an implantation," Teal'c says. "The False God Mehen was most pleased to tell Shau'nac that the last of the Tau'ri was to become one of them." The Serpent-helmet turns toward him, its red eyes unblinking. "You are indeed fortunate that Shau'nac chose to inform me."
"I, ah, I... You were in the, ah, Temple?" His head still hurts, but the walk is taking care of the stiffness. Daniel still feels lightheaded and nauseated, though. Even more now that he knows what was about to happen to him.
"I went there immediately upon my arrival. I have known Shau'nac for many years, and I knew that she would conceal my presence here. She was most willing to inform me of Apophis's recent activities, in hopes I would repent and seek his forgiveness at this proof of his power." Teal'c's voice is without inflection.
"Then you know," Daniel's voice is equally flat.
"I am very sorry, Daniel Jackson."
"They destroyed-- They destroyed Earth! It's gone! They've won!"
"They have not won while we yet live. I do not doubt that Apophis's enemies have betrayed him the moment victory was achieved. Their alliance was a fragile one, easily shattered once the moment of victory has passed. Even now they will be fighting among themselves."
What good does that do Earth? Daniel thinks bitterly. But there are more worlds than Earth in the universe.
Abydos.
If the Goa'uld can be defeated, Abydos still has a chance.
#
When they reach the Stargate, Teal'c retracts the hood of the serpent armor. It's safe for him to show his face now. The area's still deserted and Teal'c is armed.
Daniel steps to the DHD and begins to dial. In a few moments they'll be back and safe in the Land of Light. All he wants to do right now is sleep for a week. Then the two of them can figure out what to do next.
"Tell Drey'auc and Rya'c that I shall always hold them within my heart," Teal'c says. "Tell them to be strong."
"I, um, what?" Daniel says, pausing in mid-dial. "Aren't you going to... tell them yourself?"
"Our paths now diverge, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c says. "O'Neill my brother is dead at the hands of Apophis. Only kel'mar remains." His eyes burn into Daniel's, and Daniel sees something he missed before, though all the clues were there.
Teal'c isn't quite sane any longer.
"Teal'c, you can't be serious! You have a wife, a child! We need to discuss--"
"Drey'auc will understand what I must do. I fight now for her, and for all Jaffa. Even though I am known to be shol'va to Apophis, I am privy to many of his secrets, and may yet trade them for my life. Rising in the ranks of service to another Goa'uld, I shall do as Master Bra'tac has done, and sow dissent among the Jaffa from within. With the destruction of the Tau'ri, this is the only hope of freedom for the Jaffa, and of vengeance for O'Neill."
"Jack wouldn't want-- They'll kill you!"
"If I die, I die free. And we two shall be avenged. Go now."
"I am not letting you do this," Daniel says through gritted teeth. He turns away from the DHD. He has no illusions about his ability to take Teal'c in a fight, but it's words that have always been his weapons. He's sure he can make Teal'c listen. Understand that this is not the way.
Teal'c raises his hand. He's holding some sort of weapon that Daniel has never seen before, and for one horrified moment Daniel is certain that Teal'c is going to kill him.
There's a flash of light. It's the last thing Daniel sees.
#
He wakes up, aching all over again, on the ground beside the Stargate in the Land of Light.
Teal'c isn't there.
He rips off the Goa'uld cloak and throws it as far away from him as he can, then just lies there, pounding his fist slowly against the ground in frustration. Teal'c has gone off to take on the entire Goa'uld Empire by himself, and this time Daniel knows he won't be able to find him and bring him back again. At last he sits up, groaning. His headache has come back full--force, and every muscle hurts as if ... well, he's not sure what to compare it to.
He's lost all of them now.
Eventually he gets up and goes to give Drey'auc Teal'c's last message.
#
He stays in the Land of Light for another week before he realizes that he simply can't bear to stay here for the rest of his life. He told Teal'c he didn't want to become like the Goa'uld, but that was before he knew they'd destroyed Earth.
He still doesn't want to become like the Goa'uld, but maybe, somewhere, out there, he can find a way to fight them. There has to be something he can save out of all of this.
Because as bad as everything was out there in the Galaxy, it's worse now. The Goa'uld have formed an alliance to reduce Earth to a radioactive cinder -- something too enormous and horrible for him to think about; his mind keeps sliding around it the way it slid around the fact of his parents' death -- but after that, as Teal'c said, they'll fight among themselves. And as they fight, they'll go after each others' territory.
If Apophis had kept Ra's death secret before, he would have had to tell the others about it to get them to attack Earth. So now Ra's domain -- all the worlds he controlled -- is up for grabs, and all of them know it. Eventually someone will go to Abydos by ship, to enslave Daniel's friends and what's left of his family once more. They'll unseal the Stargate when they get there.
The Abydans won't accept the rule of another 'god' so readily. For five thousand years they worshiped the Goa'uld Ra, thinking he was a god, until he and Jack and Kawalsky and Ferreti and the others had freed them from their enslavement. They know the gods who come from the stars in golden pyramids are false. They'll say so, and die for speaking the truth.
He needs to find weapons and go to Abydos as soon as he can get there. He can help them protect their planet, but that's only the beginning. If even Apophis's First Prime was willing to turn against the Goa'uld -- and Teal'c was -- then others must be, too. They'll fight. All of them will fight.
But they need weapons. Knowledge. Somewhere through the Stargate there must be the knowledge that can save them all.
He knows hundreds of Gate addresses -- all the ones in the Abydos Cartouche Room, just to begin with. He even knows SG-1's next ten projected mission destinations. It's a place to start, before he goes on to randomly dialing addresses. At least he's fairly sure he can survive on those ten worlds.
Teal'c left all his SGC gear behind, which is good, as most of Daniel's is gone now. Even laced down as tight as it will go, Teal'c's vest hangs on him, and of course Teal'c never carried a gun. At least he has a knife, a pack, MRes, grenades. He misses his pens, his journals, his duct tape.
He misses his glasses most of all. He'll never be able to replace them.
Tuplo tries to talk him out of going, and when he can't, he and his family press additional gifts upon Daniel. Extra food supplies. A bedroll. A supply of their antihistamine cordial.
"Die well," Drey'auc says to him, when she tells him goodbye at the Gate. Daniel wonders how many times she said that to Teal'c.
"You and Rya'c live well," he answers.
Someone should.
#
(continued in part 2)
ivorygates. It is broken into three parts due to LJ posting constraints.](GEN)
(Season One AU: Set just after FIRE AND WATER)
The last day of his life begins like any ordinary day.
He arrives at The Mountain for the morning briefing. It's a mission to PX8-925, their first mission since Oannes. At least Oannes had a name in the reports instead of just the meaningless string of letters and numbers assigned by the Gate computer that doesn't really represent the planet itself. Most of the time they never do manage to find out what the natives call -- or called -- the planets they visit.
This morning there probably won't be any natives at all. The MALP (Mobile Analytical Lab Platform) went through last week to check for air quality and found none of the indicators that would tell them that there were any people there -- or any large animals, for that matter. Today's mission will be a standard reconnaissance to see if anybody might have been there once and left anything interesting. Daniel knows Jack will be hoping for weapons. Daniel is always hoping for one of two things: information that will lead them to Sha're, or something interesting.
Weapons are not interesting.
At the briefing they go over everything one more time. He isn't really sure what the point is. Jack didn't listen last time and he probably isn't listening this time; the man doesn't read his memos and Daniel knows perfectly well that Jack doesn't even read the reports he and Sam write. He's still more than a little irritated by the mess Jack left in his apartment, too. He'd thought the idea had been to close it down because they thought he was dead, not throw the contents of his bookshelves all over the floor and leave. He still hasn't gotten everything back in order.
Jack does pay attention when Sam mentions she's having some problems with the Gate, though, and at the last moment it looks as if the mission is going to be scrubbed; Sam says the dialing computers are throwing out anomalies and she's going to have to spend the morning running a full diagnostic. Daniel's sure Jack will take the opportunity to postpone the mission, even though Sam says her work won't interfere with routine Gate operations, but instead Jack suggests making it a threesome and having Sam catch up to them later if everything checks out.
So they go.
No matter what happens afterward, going through the Gate is always a rush, and arriving on each new planet, taking that first breath of alien air with reassembled lungs, makes Daniel feel as if he's been given the chance to start his life over again. This time he doesn't feel any heavier than he did on Earth, which is nice; he hates the clumsiness that a change in gravity brings. He follows Teal'c down the steps, glancing around curiously. They're in a second-growth forest; the new trees have come up pretty near the Gate. The air smells a little like woodsmoke -- probably a forest fire from a lightning strike -- and a lot like flowers, but though his nose prickles, it's not too bad, and he can load up on more antihistamines later if it gets worse. The light is bright, and he checks the position of the sun; it's already near noon here. It's early morning on Earth, and they'll spend probably at least half a day here and go back and it will still be early afternoon in Colorado Springs. His days aren't twenty-four hours long any more. They haven't been since he went to Abydos.
He passes Teal'c and the DHD and looks back. Jack, as usual, is still standing on the steps surveying his surroundings before moving out, still framed by the radiance of the incoming wormhole. Daniel spares a moment to wish Sam were with them; routine means basically just a long hike through pretty scenery unless they find something and without Sam here he won't really have anyone to talk to. Jack will be complaining about the existence of trees -- how can anybody not like trees? -- while acting as if he expects them to attack at any moment, and Teal'c isn't really very chatty. Neither of them takes a lot of interest in the things that Daniel finds fascinating; he's gotten used to it, but sometimes it's hard to find common ground.
He realizes he'd better stop walking before Jack calls him back -- those trees might attack at any moment -- and so he stops and turns, looking back toward the Stargate.
And so he and Teal'c are both looking back at Jack in the moment when the event horizon flashes from blue to white.
Two-hundred fifty pounds of Jaffa warrior suddenly lands on top of him, driving him to the ground and forcing all the air from his lungs. A moment later Teal'c is up and running, shouting Jack's name: O'Neill. It's precious seconds after that before Daniel realizes he needs to be up, moving, that something's gone horribly wrong.
He staggers to his feet, coughing and gagging as he tries to fill his lungs, running back toward the Gate, back up the steps that he walked down less than five minutes before. Teal'c is kneeling on the stones and he doesn't see Jack anywhere.
Then he does.
"Oh, god, no."
The body lying prone before the Gate isn't just burned, it's been carbonized. Daniel thinks of Pompeii, of Nagasaki, of twisted desiccated mummies in catacombs, but this isn't any of those things: it's Jack's dead body. He slides to his knees on the opposite side of the body from Teal'c, and as he does, he sees Jack's MP5. It's warped because all the rounds inside it have exploded with the sudden heat. He reaches for it reflexively but the metal's still too hot to touch.
"The-- Did the-- How did the--" Sam said the Stargate was acting up this morning, but she said it was safe. How could this have happened?
The air smells of charcoal and the faint scent of burned flesh. Jack is dead, and the Goa'uld haven't killed him, nobody's killed him, it's a stupid Gate malfunction, and nobody should have to die this way, nobody...
Teal'c reaches down to turn Jack's body over, but the dry fried pieces just ... crumble ... and Daniel hears himself make a sound he doesn't want to hear. Then Teal'c is moving, standing, reaching out to lift Daniel to his feet as well.
"We must dial Earth at once, Daniel Jackson."
"I-- Teal'c-- What--?"
Teal'c shakes him roughly and he gasps.
"Daniel Jackson! We must dial Earth at once! I believe Stargate Command to be under attack!"
Teal'c drags him roughly down the steps to the DHD. Daniel's head is spinning with shock. Attack? Not a malfunction? He dials Earth by reflex. Sam set the Gate computers up with an answerback system a few months after the Program started that could ping the destination Gate and get its Point of Origin Glyph so he doesn't have to worry about finding that on any of the planets they visit any more; he had their return address before they left this morning and he dials it now. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven...
No lock.
He waits for the light to fade in the DHD and tries again. He's numb inside. How can Jack be dead? How can the SGC be under attack? They left less than five minutes ago and everything was fine...
He keeps trying, mechanically, until Teal'c takes his hands -- gently this time -- and stops him.
The Stargate isn't working. And Jack is dead.
He looks into Teal'c's eyes, and knows that Teal'c has no more idea of what to do now than he does. What they were going to do when everything went wrong was always Jack's job. Or Sam's. She's Jack's Second in Command. Teal'c was First Prime to Apophis until they freed him. It's like being a general, except that the Goa'uld don't allow their Jaffa that much independence. Teal'c commanded armies in the field, though. Led men into battle, led them to death in the name of a false god.
At the SGC, he's a sergeant. Tech Sergeant Teal'c, according to all the paperwork, so Jack and Sam both outrank...
Sam was back at the SGC when this happened.
A blast of energy killed Jack. It came through the open wormhole from Earth. From where Sam was. And now they can't get a lock on Earth. That means there's something wrong with the destination Gate. Not wrong as in 'the iris is closed,' and not wrong as in there's been a power failure at the SGC; neither of those things would interfere with the DHD getting a lock. Wrong as in the Stargate might not be there. He doesn't want to think that, but he can't stop himself.
He gestures at the DHD. "Teal'c, I... What do we do?"
"Is it not the custom among the Tau'ri to bury the dead, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asks quietly.
He wants to shout, argue, insist that Jack isn't dead. That some miracle can save him. That this isn't happening. All he can do is nod.
They walk a little distance away from the Gate and find a clear flat space. Teal'c gets out the entrenching tool from his pack and begins to dig. They only have the one, so all Daniel can do is watch. After a few minutes, he shucks off his pack and his vest and starts hunting around for suitable stones to cover the grave with. He's trying not to panic, but he's really not sure what a rational response to the situation is right now. A blast of energy came through the Stargate while it was still connected to Earth. They couldn't get a lock on Earth after that. They're marooned here.
And his best friend is dead.
He can only carry a few stones each trip. One time, when he comes back, Teal'c is gone. One time, when he comes back, Teal'c is filling the hole in again, and he helps, getting down on hands and knees to shovel the loose earth back in over what lies beneath, and when they're finished, the two of them walk back and forth across the earth, tamping it down, then lay the stones across it and walk across them again. There weren't enough for a cairn, but he found enough to make a top layer over the fresh-turned earth, to mark the grave.
When they're done, they go back to the Gate.
He reaches out and touches the dial of the DHD. Dial Home Device, only they can't, can they? Something terrible has happened at the SGC, and there's no way for them to get home and find out what's happened to their friends. He presses the seven symbols for Earth once more, and once more there's no lock. He closes his eyes in frustration and pounds his fist softly on the edge of the DHD.
He doesn't know what to do.
"The Stargate may yet serve to take us to another destination," Teal'c says.
"I... Do you think it still works at all?" He hadn't thought of trying to go somewhere else. He'd only been thinking about getting back to Earth.
"I do not know, Daniel Jackson. Nevertheless, I feel it would be prudent to make the attempt."
He looks at Teal'c, hesitating. What if the whole Gate system's down? The SGC doesn't really understand it, although they use it. What if the whole system's just ... exploded?
"Should we wait?" he asks hesitantly. "Maybe...?" If it's only a malfunction, they'll fix it.
He can't imagine a malfunction bad enough to have sent that burst of energy through the wormhole that would leave anyone alive behind it to fix it. Sam, General Hammond, Walter, Sgt. Siler ... he recruited Robert just a few weeks ago for AA&T; is Robert still alive? Or is everyone in Stargate Command dead?
"If our enemies have taken possession of Stargate Command, once they have consolidated their position on Earth, they may seek us out," Teal'c answers. "I believe we have remained here as long as we dare."
Daniel nods. Teal'c's right. The two of them need to leave. He knows hundreds of Gate addresses; leaving isn't the problem, assuming the Stargate works. A destination is.
"The Land of Light," he says slowly. "Councilor Tuplo said we would always be welcome. And Drey'auc and Rya'c are there, aren't they?"
"Indeed," Teal'c agrees. His voice gives nothing away.
Daniel dials. His hands start to shake as he presses the glyphs. He doesn't know what would be worse: if the Stargate doesn't work or if it does.
Seventh symbol. And the Gate engages. Both of them simply stare at it for a moment, then Daniel walks slowly up the steps. There's no mark on the stones where Jack's body lay. No blood. Nothing.
The MALP is still there, but, like Jack's MP5 -- that's gone now; Teal'c must have buried it with Jack -- it's been fried. The side nearest the Gate is blackened; the treads have melted. All the glass in the panels is gone. Some of it is in tiny melted droplets on the stone. Other pieces were cool enough at the moment of explosion to shatter and retain their integrity. He touches the MALP, hesitantly. It's still hot.
For a moment longer he stands there, facing the shimmering pool of light. We don't leave anyone behind. Jack always said that. But they're leaving Jack behind now. For a moment Daniel's face twists with a grief he can no longer control. Jack would have wanted to be buried next to Charlie. He takes a deep breath and walks through the event horizon.
On the other side it's dark; he'd forgotten it would be. But torches burn beside the Gate, so there's light to see by. He remembers the last time he was here in the forest and can't quite suppress a wince at the memory, but it's different now. Now the path back to the Light Side is neatly kept, edged with lamps of glowing pale stone. The Mykene don't use glass for many things, but they work alabaster in the traditional fashion of the Ancient World.
Teal'c's symbiote will protect him from the histaminalytic virus here, and the SGC has taught the Mykene to refine an herbal cure from native plants, so not only is there no chance Daniel will devolve again, he won't have any allergic reactions to the local plants once his supply of antihistamines runs out. The shots Janet gives him are good for a week, and he has a few pills in his pack for emergencies. That's it.
He wonders if Janet is still alive. The infirmary is only a few levels above the Gate Room.
The two of them walk through the dark forest toward the Light Side, then up the hill toward the Palace. By the time they're close, Daniel can see Melosha on the steps, waving to them. He raises a hand in return, but he can't quite bring himself to wave back. The shock is starting to wear off, the way it did when Sha're was taken, and all he can see, in his mind, is a heap of charcoal in the shape of a man. Breaking. Crumbling. Death, alien and absolute.
High Councilor Tuplo and his wife Leedora greet the two of them with puzzled delight. After a moment, Tuplo asks them where Jack and Sam are.
Teal'c says they are not with them, then regards the Mykene court impassively. Tuplo waits for more, but when it becomes obvious that there isn't going to be more, says he will send for Drey'auc and Rya'c.
While they're waiting for them, Daniel explains to Tuplo that he and Teal'c need to stay here for a while, if it's okay with the Mykene. Tuplo is delighted to have them as guests, and says they may stay as long as they wish. Daniel thanks Tuplo for his kindness; the words come automatically to him, as if someone else is speaking.
Rya'c is so happy to see his father again. He shows off the baseball glove that Jack gave him. Jack had been going to teach Rya'c baseball, but there'd never been time. Drey'auc is more suspicious about the reason for Teal'c's unannounced arrival. She obviously wants an immediate explanation for why they're here.
"Something," Daniel begins, knowing the explanation must be made, though it's an effort to speak, to keep his voice calm even and professional, "something may have happened on Earth. We aren't really sure. We were on a mission through the Stargate--" he knows that Tuplo's people are a little vague on the concept of 'planet' "--when there was an accident and we, um, well, we couldn't get home."
"What about the others who travel with you?" Drey'auc asks him sharply, her eyes flaring with suspicion. SG-1 rescued her and Rya'c from Chulak. The two of them spent time in the SGC afterward. She knows there should be four of them here now.
Daniel opens his mouth to answer, and he simply ... can't.
"Colonel O'Neill is dead. Captain Carter was at Stargate Command and her fate is unknown, as is the fate of the Tau'ri."
Daniel winces before he can help himself. The fate of the Tau'ri is unknown. Tuplo looks puzzled, trying to figure this out, but if he's waiting for more information from Teal'c, he won't get it.
"Have your enemies followed you here?" Tuplo asks, after a moment.
"They have not," Teal'c says firmly.
Daniel wonders why Teal'c's so sure they have enemies. All he knows for sure is that something went wrong. But that's the way Teal'c and ... Jack ... always were. Always looking for enemies. Expecting them, when Daniel always hoped for friends.
"Husband, what will you do now?" Drey'auc asks.
"A wise warrior considers before he acts," Teal'c answers.
The sun never sets in the Land of Light. The sun never moves, actually, because the planet doesn't rotate. The entire habitable area of the planet is a belt of land about fifty miles wide that circles the entire planet at the equator. A little more of it is on the light side than the dark. Outside of that, the entire planet is desert where nothing lives. You can only see the stars from the forest.
Tuplo gave him a room in the Palace, and Daniel tried to sleep. He's so tired, even though it's only noon now in Colorado Springs, and he really wanted to be alone. But he couldn't sleep, though he still craves solitude, and so he's come back here to the forest to look at the stars. It would take Sam to tell him which one is home from here, and he thinks Sam may be dead.
Daniel stares up through the trees, focusing on the lights in the sky, trying not to remember the sights and sounds of the last few hours. How all that was left of Jack's body crumbled and broke like soft charcoal when Teal'c shifted it. How the small black flakes shimmered and sifted through Teal'c's fingertips and the intense burned scent made Daniel's nose itch.
He needs to stop thinking of anything at all, and so he looks at the stars. Teal'c has gone to Drey'auc's house. At least he has a family to return to. Daniel's family -- what's left of it -- is on Abydos, sealed behind a buried Gate. His closest friends are at Stargate Command and on SG-1. He doesn't know what's happened to them, and he has no way to get home.
He hugs himself tightly, trying to crush away the latest in the series of stunning losses that have defined his life. He's not a soldier; god knows he's gotten used to death since the first time he saw the suns in the sky of Abydos, but what he doesn't know is what to do about it. He never really has.
Maybe he should just go back to Abydos and tell Kasuf he's failed. Except that the Abydos Gate is buried -- will be for most of another year -- and he can't get there.
He keeps trying to come up with a plan, something to do, but all the plans he can come up with start with getting back to the SGC somehow. And he can't do that.
"Daniel Jackson."
He comes to with a gasp, flailing, and realizes he'd fallen asleep where he was, sitting on the ground in the forest. He's cold and stiff and he's knocked his glasses askew. He straightens them carefully. He broke them once before -- on Abydos -- and thought then that he'd never be able to get them fixed. This time it may be true.
Teal'c is standing over him, holding a lantern. He holds out a hand. Daniel takes it, and Teal'c draws him to his feet.
"Uh. Teal'c." His voice sounds rusty and his throat aches. "I'm sorry. I came out here to look at the stars and I fell asleep."
"It is most unwise to sleep in the forest. Since the departure of the Touched, I am told that many large forest creatures have become bold and importunate in their behavior."
Right now, being eaten by wolves sounds like an improvement.
"How did you find me?" he asks, in order to change the subject. He's nowhere near any of the forest paths.
"Councilor Tuplo informed me that you had mentioned wishing to go for a walk. It was a simple matter to follow your trail. Come."
They walk back out into the eternal day. When Daniel checks his watch, he realizes that despite the lying sun it's late at night back home. Almost tomorrow.
They should have been back from the mission hours ago. Jack would have taken them on a brisk five-mile hike, on a heading directly away from the Stargate, because if there were anything to see on PX8-925, it would probably have been built in line-of-sight of the Stargate. Jack would have complained about trees, and that he was bored, and about anything else he could think of, but he would never have stopped watching for trouble, and his hands would never have left his gun. They'd have come back. Debriefed. Daniel would have caught up on his paperwork, gone home. Maybe had dinner in the Commissary with Sam first, or maybe the two of them would have gotten take-out and gone back to Sam's place.
A normal ordinary day in his normal ordinary life.
There's a heaviness in his chest and a tightness in his throat. 'Normal' and 'ordinary' are gone forever, even if rescue comes. He thinks he's had one too many losses. How many friends can you lose before you don't want to have any more friends?
Jack was a good friend.
He stumbles, and Teal'c's hand is under his elbow to steady him. he looks up.
Teal'c rarely shows much emotion. It's not as if the Jaffa don't have them; it's that they're private things. Daniel hasn't gotten a lot of opportunities to study Jaffa culture -- and now, he realizes, he probably never will -- but he knows that anything the Jaffa display openly, their Goa'uld overlords can use against them.
Jack called the Jaffa 'myrmidons' once and smirked in that way of his when Daniel looked surprised that he knew the word. Daniel had come to suspect that a lot of the 'dumb Colonel' act was just that: an act, though a very good one. And the word had fit. The Goa'uld do their best to turn the Jaffa into insects. The Jaffa respond by living their lives behind a mask.
Eyes show behind masks.
Teal'c's eyes are on him now, filled with compassion. He's almost four times Daniel's age, victim of the Goa'uld all his life. How many friends has he lost in his lifetime?
Daniel nods shortly. He's fine. He'll survive.
He's always survived.
"There is a Jaffa word that means 'revenge' in the Tau'ri language. Do you know it?" Teal'c asks suddenly.
"Kel'mar," Daniel says. "You taught it to me."
"You know that it also means 'lifeblood,'" Teal'c says. "That is because, to the Jaffa, revenge is life. We will discover who has killed our brother O'Neill. And they will pay. This I promise you, Daniel Jackson. Kel'mar."
Daniel's breath hitches in his chest. He takes a deep breath and suddenly he's lightheaded. He blinks hard. His eyes are wet, but -- thank god -- it's not quite tears.
Revenge.
He's tried so hard not to hate anybody. He thinks of Chulak; of the tank of Goa'uld larva exploding in a hail of bullets; thinks of how he felt in that moment, the gun hot in his hands.
He doesn't want to be that person again.
"Teal'c," he says. "We can't... become the Goa'uld. No matter what it costs us."
Teal'c continues to regard him silently.
"I will take you to where you may rest," Teal'c says at last.
Later Daniel will remember that moment and wonder if there was anything different he could have said. Something that would have changed things.
It's almost a month later when Teal'c disappears. The Mykene have an elaborate and accurate system of clocks -- the Ancient Egyptians did, too, so it's not that surprising -- and mark the passage of the day with horns and gongs. The unceasing noontide in which the Land of Light exists is driving both him and Teal'c slowly mad, Daniel thinks.
At first he dialed out on the DHD twice a day. Then once a day. Now it's every third day. He never gets a lock.
He went back to PX8-925 once to leave a note for the SGC, just in case anyone came looking for them there. It was safe enough even if someone else found it: nobody outside the SGC is going to know where 'that place where Jack and I got turned into cavemen' is. He only stayed long enough to tape the page from his field journal to the DHD with the duct tape he always carries and dial back. He doesn't believe in ghosts, but 925 is haunted.
Haunted by disaster.
And the worst of it is, he doesn't know what's happened and maybe he never will. He's talked about it with Teal'c. Jack always said there was a Plan B. Daniel takes its existence on faith, but he can't seem to figure out what it is.
His life has become a matter of surviving each twenty-four hour period. He spends a lot of time in the Mykenesian archives; he finally has all the time he's ever wanted to study this culture. Is knowledge useless when there's nobody to share it with?
When he isn't in the archives, he works in the fields. It's something to do. The Mykene's Cretan ancestors imported much of their grain; they grew barley and grapes on Crete, they had sheep and goats and cattle. The Mykene have wheat in addition to barley, and they also grow flax. Both wheat and flax require extensive irrigation; Daniel has suggested improvements to the system of canals and waterwheels that irrigate the step-terraces. Terrace farming is Meso-American or Chinese, not Cretan; the farming system looks more Asian than anything else. It's an interesting cross-pollenization, but there's nobody left to care.
He's adapted before, called another world his home, but it was his choice before. This time it's an exile. He tries to make the best of it, but Daniel feels as if he's been imprisoned. Imprisoned in Paradise.
But this Paradise has a serpent.
He's been analyzing the Mykene culture. He can't help it. Analyzing cultures its what Daniel does; it's as natural to him as breathing; he reads cultures as easily as he can read a page of print in any of twenty-three languages, living and dead. And the Mykene have a problem, one the SGC created by helping them.
It's unfair. They couldn't not have helped them. But helping them has created another problem, because the histaminalytic virus that the SGC helped them find a cure for apparently kept their population down. Without that bizarre and horrible form of population control -- Leedora has told him that none of the Touched ever bore or fathered children that she knows of, and about a third of the population fell to the Touched virus every year -- the Mykene are facing what amounts to a population explosion, and the Land of Light just isn't that big. In a few generations they'll be facing a Malthusian nightmare.
He wants resources he doesn't have. If Janet were here, she could explain about birth control. If Sam were here, she could improve their farming technology to buy them more time. If Jack were here, he could ... be Jack. Explain to Tuplo (Daniel has tried, and failed) that the Mykene need to consider the possibility of relocating elsewhere. He's suggested Argos. The two cultures are similar enough, and the whole planet's available. And safe.
But what Daniel wants most of all, on the day he hikes down from the palace (where he's living) to Drey'auc's house in the town, is to know where Teal'c went and why he didn't tell him he was going.
All Drey'auc can tell him is that Teal'c left that 'morning.' Drey'auc knows that Teal'c took his staff weapon, but went dressed in native robes; that's disturbing, as Daniel has mostly been wearing the local clothing but Teal'c hasn't.
Daniel looks for Teal'c at several places in the town and the surrounding fields, already knowing it will be useless, before he goes to the Stargate. There's nothing there -- no clue to where Teal'c went -- but he's pretty sure by now that Teal'c went somewhere through the Stargate, and Daniel can't imagine any place that Teal'c would go alone. Teal'c is his friend.
His last surviving teammate, if Sam is dead, and Daniel thinks she must be, or else she would have come for him by now. Somehow. They always came back for each other. When Jack was on Argos. When Daniel was here.
Where did Teal'c go? And why?
Daniel dials Earth again.
No lock.
No Gate. Or buried Gate. And either way, a disaster of epic proportions and he'll never know just what happened because to know he'd have to be on Earth. And since Earth apparently no longer has a working Stargate, that would take a spaceship and a pilot who could find Earth.
He walks away from the Gate. He wishes he were willing to allow himself the fantasy that Jack is here, alive, just behind him in the forest, that he could ask Jack what the hell is going on and what to do. Not because he can't take care of himself; he's a better survivor than Jack thinks.
Thought.
But because Jack has a certain perspective that Daniel knows he lacks, particularly on Teal'c. Jack understood Teal'c in a way Daniel knows he never will. Sometimes they thought the same way. Jack would know what Teal'c was thinking now.
Daniel. You're stranded in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people in funny hats. What do you have and what do you need?
He stops. For a moment he wonders if he's starting to hallucinate, but no. Just remembering. Jack would always ask him these kinds of stupid questions, nagging him, telling Daniel he had to learn how to think.
To think Jack's way, was what he meant.
And now -- when it's much too late -- Daniel wishes he'd listened just a little more, because no matter how many times they'd almost lost Jack -- Abydos, Chulak, Argos, Cimmeria, half a dozen other places -- he'd never believed it could actually happen.
What do you have and what do you need?
He has a Stargate that will go anywhere in the Gate Network but Earth. To get to Earth -- to find out what has happened there -- will take a spaceship.
He and Teal'c need a spaceship to get to Earth.
Where do you go when you need a spaceship?
Teal'c has gone to Chulak.
He wants to follow Teal'c immediately, and knows he doesn't dare. He's been to Chulak twice. The first time SG-1 just walked right in -- that was before the Goa'uld knew what kind of a threat the Tau'ri could be. The second time they sneaked in disguised as members of the priesthood of Apophis, and because of that the Chulak Gate is guarded all the time now. Daniel speaks fluent Goa'uld, but he's not completely certain he can bluff his way past the guards at the Gate.
Still, he has to try.
He goes back to the Palace and puts on his uniform. It seems strange to wear it again after so many days, but it's cold on Chulak and he's not running off to rescue Teal'c wearing a Mykenesian kilt and a pair of sandals. The cloak Tuplo gave him for walking in the forest will cover most of it; for the rest he'll just have to trust to luck and the fact that whoever's at the Gate won't expect a Tau'ri to come through speaking Goa'uld. He can tell them he comes with a message from Ra, if anyone asks. The Goa'uld play at being gods: Apophis may know that Ra is dead, but Daniel's betting he hasn't told the rank and file.
Rank and file. Kipling. Jack would quote Kipling to him at odd moments. Another surprise.
'They're hanging Danny Deever in the morning...'
Teal'c already has most of a day's head start on him; he only hopes Teal'c's still alive. Daniel bundles the cloak up under one arm and heads back to the Stargate. By now he knows the Palace well enough that he's able to slip out unobserved and make his way to the forest without meeting anybody. He just doesn't want to have to explain.
He goes through clutching his gun, his cloak pulled tightly around him, but even though it's full day when he steps out through the Chulak Gate, there's nobody in sight.
He takes a deep breath of relief, settling his gun back into its holster, and wonders where everyone is. Where Teal'c is, for that matter. It occurs to him that if Teal'c has stolen a spaceship, he's going to be flying it somewhere, maybe even back to the Land of Light -- it certainly won't fit through the Stargate -- but in that case why didn't he tell Daniel what he was going to do? Didn't he think Daniel would notice he was gone, and follow him?
Teal'c is his friend, but it occurs to Daniel that he doesn't really understand him.
Still, he's here now, and Teal'c might be here too, and in trouble. He needs to know. He hesitates, looking up the deserted roadway. He knows the route to the city; it's about three miles. Thanks to Master Bra'tac, he also knows a back way there. If he cuts through the forest and follows the river, he can come up on the village through the refugee camps on the south.
It's a long slow hike to the camp -- about twice the distance it would be to the city by road. He stops as soon as he's off the trail to stash his cloak in his pack and put on his glasses. If anybody sees him he's in trouble anyway, and he needs to be able to see.
It's evening when he gets to where he remembers the refugee camp being -- the Jaffa have their social castoffs, just like any other society -- but it isn't there.
He takes cover and looks around. He knows the camp should be here. He was never at the site, but it was described in the mission reports. It was a big place, along the bank of the river, and visible from the city. He can see the city and the river, so he should be able to see the camp.
No camp.
But after a few minutes in hiding, watching, he can see that it was here at one point. Teal'c may have been their tracker, but Daniel is an archaeologist. The signs of habitation will always be clear to him.
Okay. The camp is gone. And he needs to get into the city. Not only to find Teal'c, but because it's starting to get dark and he'll never survive a night out in the open with nothing more than a cloak; they didn't bring overnight gear on their last mission, so even though he has his pack with him, he has none now. He'd been hoping to pick up some gossip at the camp -- by eavesdropping if nothing else -- but now that's out. And there's one person in the city who can help him find Teal'c.
It's after dark by the time he can actually get to Master Bra'tac's house. The streets are deserted and the houses are dark, and if Daniel didn't hear quiet voices coming from behind the shutters of one or two of the buildings, he'd really start to believe that he was completely alone here on Chulak. As it is, it's pretty clear that something big is going on.
Considering that Chulak is Apophis's stronghold, that really doesn't make him feel very good.
He reaches Master Bra'tac's door. The house is as dark as all the rest. He taps quietly at the door, but there's no answer, and the door is locked. He could shoot open the door, he supposes, but that's no way to stay undetected. He doesn't dare stay on the street long; he's the only one out here.
He goes around the side of the house and down the alley. As he remembered, there's a back door. It's locked too, but there are windows above, and they only have shutters.
The climb is a nightmare -- he's terrified of heights -- and when he gets there, the shutters on the window are barred. But Chulak is a primitive world -- it's bizarre; the Jaffa fly around in spaceships and fight with energy weapons and live in homes out of the Early Middle Ages -- and the shutters aren't locked, only barred from inside. He pulls out his knife and uses it to lift the bar holding the shutters closed. Housebreaking; Sam would be proud. Clinging to the wall and the sill, Daniel swings the shutter out and gets himself inside and closes the shutter again -- and bars it -- all within a matter of minutes.
Jack would be proud of him, too.
Of course, then he's in a pitch-dark room. He pulls the flashlight out of his pack and shines it around the room. Jaffa don't sleep, but they kel'no'reem. This room is set up for that; cushions on the floor and candles everywhere. He stands and listens, but he hears nothing. If Master Bra'tac were here, he would have heard him.
"It's Daniel," he whispers, just in case Bra'tac is waiting outside the door to hit him. "Teal'c's friend. From Earth."
Nothing. The house is empty.
Flashlight in hand, he explores the house.
Everything is shut up, as if Bra'tac expected to be gone for a very long time. The proof is the fact that the kitchen is completely empty of food. There's a pump and a sink, though, and the pump still works. Daniel washes his face and hands and drinks from a trophy cup that looks as if it's solid gold, then eats one of his Powerbars, stuffing the wrapper neatly back into his pack when he's done.
Where the hell is everybody? And if they're all gone -- all the Serpent Guards, anyway, and Master Bra'tac -- where is Teal'c? Isn't this the first place Teal'c would come?
Well, obviously not. Or if he did, he knew how to lock the front door behind him when he left.
Daniel paces through the deserted rooms, poking through chests and cupboards. He realizes he'd been counting on too much -- on finding Teal'c, on finding Bra'tac. On finding someone who could tell him what was going on, and give him some idea of what to do next.
If Teal'c is here -- and has been captured -- they'll take him to the Palace.
He's scared; he's willing to admit that. This is enemy territory, and there's no backup, and no hope of rescue. And if he wants to know where Teal'c is, he needs to go back out onto the streets. Going out by the alley door will be safest, and he can risk leaving it unlocked. He has no way to lock it, anyway.
He approaches the Palace cautiously, realizing as he does that he has absolutely no idea of how to get in. The first time the Gate Priesthood escorted them right inside. The second time they never came near it.
He doesn't see any Serpent Guards, though torches burn on the Palace steps.
That's odd. The Goa'uld are constantly at war with each other. Ra and Apophis were enemies. Would a Goa'uld leave his throneworld undefended?
Or maybe the real question is: why would a Goa'uld leave his throneworld undefended?
Serpent Guards or not, trying to walk in the front door is probably not a good idea.
He'll circle around the back. Maybe there are gardens that he can sneak in through. Do the Goa'uld have gardens? He's about to find out.
He wishes there were newspapers on Chulak, something that would tell him what's going on. It's only about an hour after sunset, and the only places showing any lights at all are the Palace and another smaller structure most of the way up the hill behind it. It wasn't this way the last time they were on Chulak. The whole town was lit by torches and lanterns, but he's seen no sign of them this time.
His breath smokes on the night air as he makes a wide circle around the Palace, heading for the back. Maybe they don't guard the place at night because it's so cold. He's almost convinced himself of that when he nearly runs right into a patrol.
They aren't Serpent Guards, and that's what saves his life. They're making enough noise that he hears them long before they approach. He throws himself flat and they walk right past him.
Six Jaffa women. Five are carrying staff-weapons. One is carrying a lantern on a pole. They're all wearing boots and trousers and chain-mail shirts with sashes across them.
They're talking about the war. How it will be a glorious victory for the god Apophis and Prince Klorel and will gain them much new territory. How, perhaps, many of the warriors who serve them can gain enough honor in the fighting to be granted wives. They laugh and tease one another as they pass.
Daniel lies perfectly still, heart hammering, until the sound of their footsteps and their laughter has faded.
Apophis -- and Klorel -- have gone to war.
With who?
Does it matter? Not really, Daniel admits to himself. Except that it means that Apophis isn't here.
And Sha're might be.
"My Dan'yel."
The voice is Sha're's. He opens his eyes, blearily. His head hurts.
Amaunet smiles. "You have come back to me, my Dan'yel."
It's not his wife's face. It's cruel, hard.
He's chained to a wall.
"I'm not your 'Dan'yel,'" he says.
"But you are," she says. The Goa'uld harmonic is in her voice now, and her eyes flash white. "You are the last of the Tau'ri, and I will cherish you."
He shakes his head. It only makes his headache worse.
He'd gotten into the Palace easily. Most of it had been deserted. He'd found the dungeons easily; they hadn't even been guarded, and no wonder: they'd been empty.
He hadn't meant to go looking for Sha're. Not really. Thor's Hammer has been broken, and that's her only chance of being freed of Amaunet. But what if the Asgard had come back and fixed it? If he could capture her, take her there and see...
In the end it didn't matter. He'd run into Amaunet on his way back to the upper levels of the Palace. She'd been surrounded by Serpent Guards--
--oh, so that's where they all are--
--and raised her hand and struck him in the face with a beam of light. He'd begged Sha're to stop her, but it hadn't done any good.
And now he's here. It looks like her bedroom. He doesn’t want to think about why Amaunet has a way to shackle people to the wall in her bedroom.
"Tell me, Dan'yel, how did you survive?" Amaunet asks. She puts a hand on his chest. Sha're's hand.
"Don't touch me!" he shouts, struggling against the chains.
She reaches out her hand, never looking away from him, and one of the armored Jaffa standing by hands her something. It looks like a crowbar. She touches him with it, and the pain is worse than anything he could imagine, worse than her hand device. He screams.
"Tell me," she says again. "I can cause the host such pain as this," she adds, watching him.
Sha're.
"I don't know what you want to know!" he says desperately. "Survived? Survived what?"
"The destruction of the Tau'ri," Amaunet says. "The destruction of Earth."
"No," Daniel says. But he's terrified that it's true. "You can't have destroyed Earth. You can't."
Amaunet raises the stick again, but lowers it before using it. "The host has many memories of you, Dan'yel. She cherishes every moment you spent together, all that you told her of Earth -- and you told her so much. Her memories were very useful to my lord Apophis when it became necessary to him to convince the System Lords that the Tau'ri were a threat requiring our alliance. She knew -- you told her -- that the Tau'ri could offer no resistance to the combined fleets of the System Lords. Even now, your homeworld is no more than a lifeless cinder. Your people will kill no more gods, make no more shol'va. Because of you -- and Sha're."
"No! Don't listen to her! I know you can hear me! Sha're! I love you! Sha're!"
Amaunet snarls in fury. She flings down the stick and raises the hand covered with the jeweled glove again. The light knocks Daniel's head back against the wall, and his last conscious thought is that he hopes she's going to kill him now.
Sha're...
He doesn't know how much time has passed when he awakens. He's now the sole occupant of the dungeon, and morning light is filtering in through the high windows. His head hurts so much he can't quite force his eyes open. With a little work he manages to roll onto his knees and throw up.
Knowing what he knows hurts worse than what Amaunet has done to him. After Chulak, Apophis tried to attack Earth through the Stargate for days, then stopped. He must have thought he'd destroyed them, until he ran into SG-1 on the Nox homeworld. But he never tried to attack the Earth Stargate again. He must have realized it was useless.
He's found another way.
Daniel spent a year of happiness on Abydos with Sha're. He talked to her -- of course he did; she was his wife. She was endlessly curious about the life her husband had led before he came to live among her people. He'd told her everything he knew. All the history of Earth, everything about his life. She'd asked so many questions. About his wristwatch. His ballpoint pen. Skaara's lighter. It had made him understand how little he knew about his own culture. He'd cudgeled his mind for scraps of information, trying to make Earth real for her: cars, airplanes, movies. Telling her that it wasn't magic, it was science.
Amaunet turned everything he told Sha're into a weapon.
He crawls into a corner of the dungeon and weeps.
A few hours later -- he still has his wristwatch, for some reason, though his pack, his vest, and his glasses are gone -- he hears the rattle of armored boots on stone. Guards coming to drag him out for another round of torture, he supposes.
It's only one. The Serpent Guard opens the gate and stands on the stone steps.
"Go away," Daniel says. "Or come in. I don't care."
The Serpent Guard advances down the steps and crosses the floor. He stands over Daniel, and the red-eyed helmet regards Daniel anonymously. Daniel wonders what he's waiting for.
Then the helmet folds back.
"We must go at once, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c says. "Soon the absence of the guards will be noticed. There is not much time."
Daniel stares up at Teal'c. If he didn't hurt so much, he thinks, he could manage to be surprised. "Teal'c?" he croaks. "I was supposed to rescue you."
"Come," Teal'c says urgently, sliding the Serpent-helmet into place again.
They hurry from the dungeon. Daniel moves as quickly as he can, but everything aches, and he keeps stumbling. At one point Teal'c drags him into a room and rummages through chests, pulling out a long hooded cloak and thrusting it at him. It's gold, and it glitters, and Daniel knows it belongs to the Goa'uld. He shudders and drops it. He can't help himself.
"Teal'c. I saw Sha're. Amaunet. She said--"
"There is no time, Daniel Jackson."
Teal'c's voice sounds strained. It echoes hollowly within the enclosing helmet, and the fear in it galvanizes Daniel. He knows that Teal'c isn't afraid for himself, but for him. He picks up the cloak and manages to get it on this time, pulling the hood forward over his face. Teal'c goes to the door, checking the corridor. Whatever he sees satisfies him, and they go on.
It's nearly noon. The suns are high overhead. The day is bright and cool and smells of pine, and he thinks of that other day, a month ago, that day just before the world ended. The Palace steps are deserted, and the two of them walk down them slowly, Teal'c moving as if he has every right to be here, and Daniel follows, clutching the billowing glittering cloak around him and hoping that nobody they meet will notice his boots. He expects at any moment to hear shouts, staff-blasts, to be called back.
But they make their escape unhindered.
"How did you know where to find me?" he asks, when they're outside the city.
"Word was brought to the Temple that a mature symbiote would be needed for an implantation," Teal'c says. "The False God Mehen was most pleased to tell Shau'nac that the last of the Tau'ri was to become one of them." The Serpent-helmet turns toward him, its red eyes unblinking. "You are indeed fortunate that Shau'nac chose to inform me."
"I, ah, I... You were in the, ah, Temple?" His head still hurts, but the walk is taking care of the stiffness. Daniel still feels lightheaded and nauseated, though. Even more now that he knows what was about to happen to him.
"I went there immediately upon my arrival. I have known Shau'nac for many years, and I knew that she would conceal my presence here. She was most willing to inform me of Apophis's recent activities, in hopes I would repent and seek his forgiveness at this proof of his power." Teal'c's voice is without inflection.
"Then you know," Daniel's voice is equally flat.
"I am very sorry, Daniel Jackson."
"They destroyed-- They destroyed Earth! It's gone! They've won!"
"They have not won while we yet live. I do not doubt that Apophis's enemies have betrayed him the moment victory was achieved. Their alliance was a fragile one, easily shattered once the moment of victory has passed. Even now they will be fighting among themselves."
What good does that do Earth? Daniel thinks bitterly. But there are more worlds than Earth in the universe.
Abydos.
If the Goa'uld can be defeated, Abydos still has a chance.
When they reach the Stargate, Teal'c retracts the hood of the serpent armor. It's safe for him to show his face now. The area's still deserted and Teal'c is armed.
Daniel steps to the DHD and begins to dial. In a few moments they'll be back and safe in the Land of Light. All he wants to do right now is sleep for a week. Then the two of them can figure out what to do next.
"Tell Drey'auc and Rya'c that I shall always hold them within my heart," Teal'c says. "Tell them to be strong."
"I, um, what?" Daniel says, pausing in mid-dial. "Aren't you going to... tell them yourself?"
"Our paths now diverge, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c says. "O'Neill my brother is dead at the hands of Apophis. Only kel'mar remains." His eyes burn into Daniel's, and Daniel sees something he missed before, though all the clues were there.
Teal'c isn't quite sane any longer.
"Teal'c, you can't be serious! You have a wife, a child! We need to discuss--"
"Drey'auc will understand what I must do. I fight now for her, and for all Jaffa. Even though I am known to be shol'va to Apophis, I am privy to many of his secrets, and may yet trade them for my life. Rising in the ranks of service to another Goa'uld, I shall do as Master Bra'tac has done, and sow dissent among the Jaffa from within. With the destruction of the Tau'ri, this is the only hope of freedom for the Jaffa, and of vengeance for O'Neill."
"Jack wouldn't want-- They'll kill you!"
"If I die, I die free. And we two shall be avenged. Go now."
"I am not letting you do this," Daniel says through gritted teeth. He turns away from the DHD. He has no illusions about his ability to take Teal'c in a fight, but it's words that have always been his weapons. He's sure he can make Teal'c listen. Understand that this is not the way.
Teal'c raises his hand. He's holding some sort of weapon that Daniel has never seen before, and for one horrified moment Daniel is certain that Teal'c is going to kill him.
There's a flash of light. It's the last thing Daniel sees.
He wakes up, aching all over again, on the ground beside the Stargate in the Land of Light.
Teal'c isn't there.
He rips off the Goa'uld cloak and throws it as far away from him as he can, then just lies there, pounding his fist slowly against the ground in frustration. Teal'c has gone off to take on the entire Goa'uld Empire by himself, and this time Daniel knows he won't be able to find him and bring him back again. At last he sits up, groaning. His headache has come back full--force, and every muscle hurts as if ... well, he's not sure what to compare it to.
He's lost all of them now.
Eventually he gets up and goes to give Drey'auc Teal'c's last message.
He stays in the Land of Light for another week before he realizes that he simply can't bear to stay here for the rest of his life. He told Teal'c he didn't want to become like the Goa'uld, but that was before he knew they'd destroyed Earth.
He still doesn't want to become like the Goa'uld, but maybe, somewhere, out there, he can find a way to fight them. There has to be something he can save out of all of this.
Because as bad as everything was out there in the Galaxy, it's worse now. The Goa'uld have formed an alliance to reduce Earth to a radioactive cinder -- something too enormous and horrible for him to think about; his mind keeps sliding around it the way it slid around the fact of his parents' death -- but after that, as Teal'c said, they'll fight among themselves. And as they fight, they'll go after each others' territory.
If Apophis had kept Ra's death secret before, he would have had to tell the others about it to get them to attack Earth. So now Ra's domain -- all the worlds he controlled -- is up for grabs, and all of them know it. Eventually someone will go to Abydos by ship, to enslave Daniel's friends and what's left of his family once more. They'll unseal the Stargate when they get there.
The Abydans won't accept the rule of another 'god' so readily. For five thousand years they worshiped the Goa'uld Ra, thinking he was a god, until he and Jack and Kawalsky and Ferreti and the others had freed them from their enslavement. They know the gods who come from the stars in golden pyramids are false. They'll say so, and die for speaking the truth.
He needs to find weapons and go to Abydos as soon as he can get there. He can help them protect their planet, but that's only the beginning. If even Apophis's First Prime was willing to turn against the Goa'uld -- and Teal'c was -- then others must be, too. They'll fight. All of them will fight.
But they need weapons. Knowledge. Somewhere through the Stargate there must be the knowledge that can save them all.
He knows hundreds of Gate addresses -- all the ones in the Abydos Cartouche Room, just to begin with. He even knows SG-1's next ten projected mission destinations. It's a place to start, before he goes on to randomly dialing addresses. At least he's fairly sure he can survive on those ten worlds.
Teal'c left all his SGC gear behind, which is good, as most of Daniel's is gone now. Even laced down as tight as it will go, Teal'c's vest hangs on him, and of course Teal'c never carried a gun. At least he has a knife, a pack, MRes, grenades. He misses his pens, his journals, his duct tape.
He misses his glasses most of all. He'll never be able to replace them.
Tuplo tries to talk him out of going, and when he can't, he and his family press additional gifts upon Daniel. Extra food supplies. A bedroll. A supply of their antihistamine cordial.
"Die well," Drey'auc says to him, when she tells him goodbye at the Gate. Daniel wonders how many times she said that to Teal'c.
"You and Rya'c live well," he answers.
Someone should.
(continued in part 2)