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(continued from part 2)
Jack gets up and picks up the wall phone. Daniel can't hear the conversation, but a few moments later Sam walks in. She regards him cautiously.
"Daniel?" she says.
"Sam?" he answers -- equally warily -- and she smiles. He can tell it's an effort.
"I realize this all has to seem pretty strange to you," she says.
"Pretty strange," he agrees, "considering that everybody's been telling me I'm dead. And I know you are."
Sam winces just a little. "Well," she says softly, "our Daniel is dead. I'm sorry about your Sam."
He shakes his head, baffled.
"The device we found on P3R-233 is, for lack of a better word, a quantum mirror," Sam says, coming over and sitting down at the table. "I'm pretty sure it allows travel between alternate realities."
"Like Star Trek," Jack says helpfully.
"Yes, sir," Sam agrees dutifully. "Daniel, the theory behind alternate realities is that every possible variation of reality exists, and that every time a decision is made, a new -- alternate -- reality is created. All of those universes exist side-by-side, and this Quantum Mirror of yours has apparently been designed to allow travel between realities. By touching it, you've stepped from your reality into ours."
Her explanation doesn't make a lot of sense to Daniel, but at least it offers a glimmer of hope. Not madness. Not death. Science.
"So ... here ... I'm ... dead," he says slowly. Then he laughs shakily. "And in my universe, everybody's dead."
If everything they're telling him is true, it explains the oddness in Sam's reaction and Jack's. it's not so much that they think he's an impostor. It's that they're grieving for a dead man.
Him.
"Yeah," Jack says. "We got that. You want to explain it again -- slowly?"
Daniel tells them as much as he knows: that Apophis and Amaunet rallied the System Lords into an alliance to attack and destroy Earth.
"And it was my fault," Daniel says. "They did it because of me. Apophis always thought we were a threat after Chulak. But the reason he could get all the System Lords to go along with him was because of what Amaunet told him about us. And she knew what I'd told Sha're."
Jack shakes his head slightly. "Ra wanted to kill all of us before he'd even met you. Whatever happened isn't your fault."
"We need to know when it happened," Sam says urgently. "If it was three months ago--"
"Three months?" That's the second time someone here has mentioned three months as if it were some sort of important cut-off date. "We went to Oannes two months ago," Daniel says. "PX8-925 was about six weeks ago."
Sam frowns. "But the Oannes mission was three months ago, not two. There shouldn't be that much time-slip. Unless..." she glances at Jack.
"Come on, Daniel. Let's take a walk," Jack says.
#
They go down to Sam's lab, walking through the familiar corridors of the SGC. Teal'c joins them on the way; he regards Daniel with aloof disinterest, and Daniel reminds himself that this Teal'c is not -- precisely -- his friend.
They reach Sam's lab. The Quantum Mirror is there, shut down and empty, sealed behind a Plexiglass shield.
"We had to put that up," Sam says, nodding at the shield. "People kept getting sucked into alternate universes. It happens any time you touch the surface while it's activated. But there's always a mirror on the other side, so you just have to touch it again to get back."
"I don't understand," Daniel says. "Why was my Earth destroyed and..." And not yours? It seems rude to ask someone why they're still alive, though, so he stops.
"That's the thing," Sam says. She sounds both excited and grim. "According to my calculations, the only reason for the time-slippage would be if you came from a quantum variation fairly far away from ours. The closer ones to our own reality would be closer in time, because the speed of light is a constant in the creation of new universe, so you have to take that into account. The trouble is, I don't think your universe is quite far enough away."
"For what?" Daniel asks.
"For us to ignore it," Sam says.
She switches the controller on. The center of the mirror shimmers and fills, but it doesn't reflect Sam's lab. It's showing the SGC Control Room, for some reason, but the computers are dark, and show the marks of weapons fire.
--flip--
The lab on P3R-233. It looks the way Daniel remembers it, but the flashlight he dropped on the floor isn't there.
--flip--
The lab on 233 again. Different artifacts on the table.
--flip--
A storage room filled with crates.
"Looks like Area 51," Sam comments. "Intact, but it won't be for long, on the basis of what I keep seeing. All of these variations we've just seen are close to our own reality, and when you start going further out, most of the SGCs we're able to see through the Quantum Mirror have already been invaded -- and destroyed -- by the Goa'uld, just as you say your Earth was. I think your reality may just be ahead of ours, not really divergent from it, and that means that Apophis will be attacking Earth -- our Earth -- soon. We have to figure out where the attack is coming from in time to stop it." She shuts down the Mirror again.
"So?" Jack says. "Daniel? Any ideas?"
It is so much as if he's home again, as if the nightmare never happened, that he wants to reject all he knows. But what he knows could save this reality.
"When we couldn't dial back to Earth, Teal'c and I went to the Land of Light. We were there for about a month. We realized that the only way we were going to find out what had happened on Earth was to go there by ship, so... Teal'c went to Chulak. And I followed him."
"That would have been most unwise, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c says. He sounds primly disapproving, as if it had all been Daniel's idea. Daniel sighs.
"Yeah. Well. If you'd -- if he'd -- told me what he was going to do, maybe I wouldn't have. But when he vanished, I thought he might need help. I got into the city, overheard a guard patrol talking, and found out that Apophis and someone named Prince Klorel were away at war. So I snuck into the Palace to look for him. Amaunet caught me while I was leaving."
The others are all looking at him, not quite willing to ask questions yet. He shrugs, wrapping his arms around himself. There are so many things he'd like to forget. The sight of Amaunet wearing his wife's face is one.
"Teal'c wasn't even in the Palace. He told me later -- after he got me out of there -- that he'd gone to a priestess he knew named Shau'nac at the temple of Apophis. She told him just about what Amaunet told me. So if there's a Shau'nac here, I'm betting she knows as much about Apophis's plans as the other one did."
Jack looks at Teal'c, and Teal'c nods. Teal'c regards Daniel with faint suspicion, as if he's not quite certain why Daniel should know these things -- or tell them to them.
"Will it work, T?" Jack asks.
"Perhaps," Teal'c says reluctantly.
Jack shrugs. "All righty then. Let's go talk to General Hammond."
#
Daniel is alone later in temporary quarters -- better ones now -- when the door opens. He spent the rest of the afternoon with Robert. Robert has Daniel's old office and all of his books; he -- the other Daniel Jackson -- left the books, if not the office, to Robert in his will.
Robert has told him about the memorial service, the wake; those are the parts of the story everyone knows. The second funeral -- the one with the body -- people know about that, too. It's the part between that Daniel has to guess for himself. The part where SG-1 went back to Oannes convinced that their belief in his death was all a trick, that he was still alive, only to bring home the body that settled the matter past all disputation.
He knows about hoping, and having hope destroyed. Hope is worse, because part of you is already imagining that everything is going to be all right when you find out that it isn't. He's a little surprised Jack's willing to talk to him at all; Jack has never been good with being jerked around by either people or circumstances. It's not that -- he thinks -- Jack would blame him for being alive when what Jack has to think of as the 'real' Daniel is dead; it's just that Jack wouldn't want to be reminded of his failure.
Daniel knows that Jack thinks of Charlie's death as his own personal failure. He felt responsible when Kawalsky died, too, as if anyone could have prevented it. And Daniel knows, as certainly as if he's been told, that his counterpart's death -- more so than if it were Sam's, more so than Teal'c's -- would be another failure in Jack's mind.
Is another failure.
Teal'c is standing in the doorway. Odd. Daniel had been sure it would be Jack.
#
Teal'c regards him silently. Daniel wonders if it's supposed to make him nervous. Teal'c makes a lot of people nervous, but he's always thought of Teal'c as a friend. He gestures for Teal'c to come in, moving the books that Robert has loaned him -- is it really a loan if the books, in some sense, used to be his? -- aside to make a space on the bed, though he doubts Teal'c will want to sit down.
"I wish to speak to you, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c says.
"I, ah, oh, yeah. Sure. I mean, go ahead."
He wonders what this is about.
"Tomorrow I go to Chulak to speak to Shau'nac. I am certain that she will tell me all I wish to know."
Daniel doesn't doubt that. Most people do.
"There are things I wish to know from you as well."
"I, ah, I've told Jack and Sam everything," Daniel says tentatively.
"You have not," Teal'c says. "You have not told them of the fate of my counterpart in your universe."
Oh.
"I don't really know," Daniel says. "He... left."
Teal'c stares down at him. "I would not abandon Daniel Jackson."
Daniel sighs and gets up, walking over to the table in the corner. There's a coffee service set up there. He pours himself a cup.
"No. That's not what happened. He..." Daniel stops, not entirely certain how to explain. "Earth was gone. Amaunet told me. Shau'nac told him."
"So you have said."
"He wanted ... kel'mar."
Teal'c was looking at him before, but now his attention is even more focused.
"And did you not wish revenge, Daniel Jackson?"
"I... yes. No. Everyone and everything I've ever known is gone. Killing the Goa'uld won't bring them back." He sighs, knowing this isn't what Teal'c wants to hear. "But letting the Goa'uld go on to kill other people isn't the answer either. I think -- I hope -- that I can still save Abydos -- their Gate is still sealed, so I don't think the Goa'uld have gone there yet -- and convince other worlds to rebel against the Goa'uld. Teal'c -- my Teal'c -- told me the Goa'uld would turn on each other once they'd destroyed Earth. He told me their alliance would be unstable. On Chulak, he said he was going to pledge himself to one of the other System Lords, to try to sow dissent among the Jaffa from within, the way Bra'tac had done. He thought he had a chance of trading Apophis's secrets for his life."
"His plan has little chance of success," Teal'c says after a moment.
"I told him that," Daniel says sadly. "He wouldn't listen to me."
"What of Master Bra'tac? Did they not speak?"
"Bra'tac wasn't on Chulak. I went to his house. It was closed up. It looked as if he planned to be gone for a long time."
"Do you know where he had gone?"
"Teal'c didn't say. I don't know if he knew -- he said Shau'nac told him as much as she did in order to get him to, ah, 'repent,'" Daniel says awkwardly.
Teal'c smiles faintly, and nods. "Yes. Shau'nac is a loyal servant of Apophis. I shall go to her and present myself as eager to rejoin the Goa'uld. I am certain that she will be forthcoming."
"You'll be careful?" Daniel asks before he can stop himself. Teal'c looks surprised.
"I know I'm not ... real ... to you," Daniel says carefully, because the last months have taught him how little he really understands Teal'c, "but you're real to me. And I just don't want..."
"I must go and return safely if I am to save Earth," Teal'c says firmly. "Of this I am aware. Rest well, Daniel Jackson. Perhaps, in your reality, my counterpart has achieved kel'mar."
Daniel nods. It would make Teal'c happy, even though he can't imagine how it could be possible.
"He wanted to avenge Jack."
"Here, O'Neill will not need to be avenged."
#
He's on his way out the door for the day, doing a last swing through, checking on things that -- mostly -- don't need to be checked on. He opens the door to The Other Daniel's temporary quarters, and Daniel's sitting there, crouched over the table with a pile of books and a cup of coffee in his hand. He looks up as the door opens, and even though O'Neill has had three days now to get used to the idea that the fact that Daniel is back is more of Carter's wacky science, it's still a shock, because he's been seeing Daniel out of the corner of his eye every place he looks since 866, and now he can stare straight-on and Daniel's still there.
"I was about to head out for the night. Thought I'd stop in and see if you needed anything," O'Neill says.
"I guess I've got pretty much everything." Daniel gestures at the books, the coffee. "Saw Teal'c earlier. He says he's going to Chulak tomorrow."
"Yeah. He figures he's got the best shot at this going alone, and General Hammond agrees, so..."
And that really sucks, and O'Neill spent the better part of the afternoon arguing against it, but it's not like they have an all-Jaffa SG Team to send through the Gate to back Teal'c up, either, and a bunch of Tau'ri are not going to exactly be inconspicuous on Chulak, especially if things are going down over there the way they might be.
"That's good, then. Good. Maybe you can..."
Daniel stops, but O'Neill knows what he was going to say anyway. Maybe you can save your Earth.
For a moment O'Neill imagines Earth gone, and everyone dead. Imagines the world Other Daniel's been living in. Daniel never was a soldier, and all Stargate Command's best efforts hadn't been able to turn him into one. O'Neill can't imagine what Daniel was going to do wandering around the universe alone.
This man isn't the friend his lost. But he owes that friend's memory something.
"Why don't you come home with me? I hear this place gets really depressing at night."
And Daniel smiles, and puts down his book, and comes.
#
"Everything's the same."
"Light the fire. I'll get the beer."
Daniel died a few weeks after his birthday, at the end of July. It's the beginning of October now. Dark and chilly. There's a fire already laid in the fireplace, and Daniel moves to light it as O'Neill heads for the kitchen. He brings back two beers and hands one to Daniel.
Daniel tilts it back, grimacing -- as always -- at the taste. Three beers and Daniel will be pretty much dead drunk. He never did have any head for beer.
He stares down into the kindling fire, sipping his beer. "Thanks for this, Jack," he says, gesturing. "You don't know--" He stops.
"You needed somewhere to be," O'Neill says, because that's part of the truth.
He wonders how much they're alike, this Daniel and theirs. Carter said some of the universes are so much alike that you could step through the Mirror and never know you had.
He sits down in the chair, watching Daniel, thinking back to that first night -- Daniel just back from Abydos. If he'd known then that Daniel would die, would he have let Daniel join SG-1 at all? But without him, the rest of them would have died half-a-dozen times over.
Daniel turns away from the fire and comes to sit down on the couch. He stares down at the bottle in his hands. "Teal'c said I didn't tell you everything."
O'Neill raises an eyebrow at him.
"He wanted to know what happened to the, to the other Teal'c. Why he wasn't with me."
"And?"
"I told him he went off to fight the Goa'uld."
"Sounds like Teal'c."
"And then I got to thinking that I hadn't told you everything either. I mean, I answered all your questions, but there are things you aren't going to ask about."
"You want a pizza? Because I bet you skipped dinner, and I don't think there's anything in the fridge."
#
Daniel knows this is a delaying tactic, but he's missed pizza. He's even missed beer. So Jack phones for pizza, and while they're waiting, he lets Jack talk about unimportant things. Television programs Daniel doesn't watch. People he knows only slightly. They're on to their second round of beers by the time the pizza arrives. There's a third bottle with the pizza -- pepperoni and cheese and it's hot and salty and biting into that first slice, there in Jack's living room, Daniel is sure that this, this is what Civilization is all about. The right to drink beer and eat pizza in a quiet living room and know you can do it next week, next month, next year.
And he's had three beers now, and he's pretty sure he's drunk enough to say what needs to be said.
"I told you about Oannes," he says, pushing the half-empty pizza box away. "But I didn't tell you how -- your -- Daniel died."
"Daniel!" Jack snaps, and if Daniel's drunk enough for this conversation, it's clear that Jack isn't. Probably never will be. Needs to have it anyway.
"Listen to me. I know you- I know you blame yourself. But what happened on Oannes wasn't your fault."
Jack gets to his feet. He walks over to the fireplace. His back is to Daniel.
"I lost a member of my command, Daniel. How is that not my fault?" There's anger in his voice, but it's not directed toward Daniel. Not yet.
"I was there. I know what happened. I have to have made the same choices here that I did there."
"You didn't die." Daniel knows Jack doesn't want to blame him for being alive, but it's hard for him not to. It's odd; he doesn't feel the same way about this Jack; doesn't blame him for being alive when his own Jack O'Neill is dead. It was just massively disastrous bad luck.
That's what it was for Daniel-here, too.
"But I could have. There was a risk. Nem told me there was. We both made the same choice. We must have."
"I don't want to hear this, Daniel," Jack says, and there's a warning note in his voice now.
Daniel laughs shakily, and knows he's drunk. "Yes you do. Of course you do. You want to know what happened. I know you do. You want to know everything. And I'm the only one who can tell you."
He knows Jack won't drive after three beers, but he could call The Mountain and have someone come and take Daniel back. Order him to shut up now. He doesn't. He turns around, looking down at the carpet, at the beer in his hands, anywhere but at Daniel. Finally he nods. "All right."
Daniel only hopes that Jack will listen, really listen.
"Nem wanted to know what had happened to Omoroca, in Babylon, five thousand years ago. He thought I knew -- and I did know -- but the memories were buried in my subconscious mind. I forced him to use a device on me that would bring those memories to the surface. He told me it could kill me. I didn't think I had a choice; if he didn't get what he wanted, he was going to hold me prisoner there until I remembered by myself, and I knew I never would."
"We were coming back for you!" Jack says, raising his head to meet Daniel's eyes. Daniel knows it isn't him Jack is talking to, but the other one. The one Jack can't talk to any more.
"I know," he says quietly, though he hadn't. He'd been convinced they'd left him for dead. He'd been terrified. "But even if I knew you'd get your memories back, I had no way of knowing that Nem wouldn't just take them away again -- or kill you -- the next time. I couldn't even be sure that that you'd even find me. I had to do it."
"You should have waited!"
"I had to get back," Daniel says. "To ... them."
Jack turns away, unwilling to let Daniel see his face. Daniel hopes it's better to know. That it helps Jack to know that his Daniel never gave up, wasn't killed in anger, didn't die for nothing.
"And he died," Jack says after a moment.
"It almost killed me," Daniel says. "It could have. But... if Nem brought him back to you... he must have found the answer Nem needed."
Jack just shakes his head.
"I'm sorry," Daniel says. "I wish--"
"No," Jack says. "Leave it, Daniel."
#
A few minutes later Jack comes back over and sits down. He turns on the television. There's a game on. They sit in silence for almost an hour. In other circumstances, Daniel would be bored, but the surrealism of his circumstances fascinates him, even if the events themselves do not.
"You want coffee?" Jack says suddenly. "I've got coffee."
"Coffee would be good," Daniel agrees.
"Because, you know, you really can't handle beer."
Jack has worked -- something -- out in his head, the way he always does if given enough time. This is a peace offering. Problem solved. Discussion closed.
"There was this guy once. He told me there was a rule against drinking wine with pizza. So I drink the beer." I understand. We're good, Daniel tells him implicitly. Silence, indirection, these are languages too.
"Yeah. Sheets on the spare bed are pretty clean."
"Okay. Good. You want me to make the coffee?"
"You probably know where everything is."
#
In the morning, they drive back to The Mountain. Jack signs him back in and nobody says anything. He takes Daniel down to the commissary with him for breakfast and Daniel sits with him and Sam and Robert; Teal'c has already left for Chulak. Except for the fact that Robert is here in a team uniform and Daniel's has no insignia, he could imagine that the last months never happened.
Robert has only been on the team a few weeks, and things are still awkward. Jack intimidates the hell out of Robert, and that's not a good basis for a working relationship. Daniel knows that Robert is SG-1's seventh AT specialist since their loss; it's a lot of performance pressure. He'd like to think he could do something to smooth their relationship -- though maybe things will go a little better now -- but more of his mind is occupied with his own problems. Can Sam send him back to his own universe? There's everything he needs here to save Abydos, if he can just figure out how to get it through the Mirror.
If he can get through the Mirror to the right place.
Then Sam mentions that Senator Kinsey is going to be here in a few hours for some kind of hearing.
"Doesn't General Hammond usually go to Washington?" Daniel asks, puzzled.
"Not this time, I guess," Sam says, equally puzzled.
Jack shrugs, but Daniel can tell he's tense. "Hammond mentioned it yesterday. Something about the budget. Don't worry about it, Carter."
After breakfast, he walks Daniel back to his quarters and tells him to stay put. Guest ID and limited freedom of the Base are on the agenda for later today, but he doesn't have them yet. But the books he took from Robert's office yesterday are still here, and he never has enough time to read. About the time he's trying to decide if it's worth the trouble trying to talk the airman on the door into going for more coffee, another airman comes and tells him that he's summoned to the Briefing Room.
#
"So despite your mission report, Dr. Jackson isn't actually dead."
Daniel regards the man at the foot of the table. Silver-haired, dissatisfied, flanked by aides and Major Samuels. He must be the Senator Jack was mentioning at breakfast. He has the look of a querulous toad.
"Care to tell me how many other times you've lied in your reports to the Pentagon, Colonel O'Neill?"
"Oh for crying out loud, Kinsey -- that isn't our Daniel!"
"Really?" Senator Kinsey says archly.
He glances at General Hammond. The General nods -- permission to speak -- and motions for Daniel to sit down.
"It's true, Senator," he says. "I'm, ah, actually from an alternate universe. Your Daniel Jackson died on P3X-866, the planet also referred to in our mission reports as Oannes."
"And how -- if I may ask -- did you get here, in that case?"
Sam explains about the Quantum Mirror, but Senator Kinsey simply refuses to believe her. It's worse than that, though. Daniel listens in horror as Kinsey explains that he intends to shut down the Stargate Program immediately.
"But- But you can't do that! Not now! Jack -- General Hammond -- you've got to tell him! Senator, Apophis is coming to destroy the Earth -- he's coming with ships, with a fleet, right now. In my universe, he's already done it -- Earth is gone, the SGC is gone, everyone's dead--"
"And I suppose you saw this with your own eyes, Dr. Jackson?" Senator Kinsey asks, smirking.
"I was offworld, Senator. That's why I'm alive."
Senator Kinsey gets to his feet.
"Well this has all been very interesting. And frankly, Dr. Jackson, once this program has ceased operation, I think you should get professional help. But I've heard nothing here today -- not your ridiculous fantasies, not Colonel O'Neill's warmongering imperialism, not Captain Carter's ludicrous notions of Science for the sake of Science -- that have convinced me to keep Pandora's Box open one minute longer. The Stargate Project is a clear and present danger to these United States, and I, for one, will not rest until the Stargate is buried forever."
"Save the speeches, Kinsey," Jack growls.
"Colonel O'Neill," General Hammond says warningly.
"Senator, you have to listen to me," Daniel says. "The Goa'uld have spaceships. If we bury the Stargate, we won't stop them from coming. We'll only destroy our only means to fight them."
Kinsey smiles. "If they want to come, let them. I do not believe that the Divine Providence which has shaped this great nation of ours will allow what you are telling me to come to pass. If your Goa'uld challenge us, we shall prevail."
Kinsey's insane.
Daniel tries to follow him as he walks away, but Jack stops him.
He looks back at the others, not believing that this is any kind of a joke, but hoping they're going to tell him that somehow it isn't true. But what General Hammond says is that because of Senator Kinsey's recommendation, the SGC will have to cease operation as soon as the teams that are offworld return.
"Jack- General Hammond- You can't let him do this--" Daniel says. How can they accept the evidence of the Quantum Mirror, of what he's told them, and let Senator Kinsey do this?
"I'm sorry, son," General Hammond says, sounding disgusted and weary. "I'm afraid that 'Senator' outranks 'General.'"
"We'll see about that," Jack says grimly. "General, doesn't what Daniel has to say cut any ice in Washington?"
General Hammond shakes his head. "I'll go make some calls."
#
Teal'c is one of the last people back through the Gate before it's shut down 36 hours later. He should have stayed away. He comes back with information from Shau'nac that makes Daniel want to scream, cry, hit something: here, as well as there, Apophis is preparing to invade Earth. The fleet hasn't left yet, but it will soon.
Teal'c is debriefed, though it's just a formality now, since the SGC is shutting down. The worst of it is that he's trapped here now, unable to leave. Daniel sits in on the debriefing, since the comparisons he can still offer between his world and this are -- apparently, even though Kinsey has decided to kill them all -- still vital.
Here they aren't facing the combined forces of the System Lords. Shau'nac is certain. It is only Apophis and his son, Prince Klorel who will come. Shau'nac believes, in fact, that Apophis is keeping his plans a secret from the other System Lords. It will probably be only two ha'tak.
"Why?" Daniel asks. "Why would it be different here and there?"
Sam shrugs, baffled. "Daniel, there are so many variables--"
"Doesn't matter," Jack says, cutting her off. "Intel's good, and this gives us better odds. So what are we facing, T?"
"One ha'tak is sufficient to destroy a world from space," Teal'c says. So much for better odds. "If Apophis wishes to send troops down to the surface, a Goa'uld mothership carries five thousand warriors in addition to its crew, and is able to carry more. Additionally, it carries many death-gliders;al'kesh, which are mid-range heavy bombing craft; and tel'tak, which are unarmed cargo vessels, but which contain transport rings. I do not believe there are transport rings on the surface of this planet, but should a tel'tak be landed here, troops and materiels can be ringed down from the mothership to the tel'tak, and in a matter of a few hours, the ring platform inside a tel'tak may be removed and placed in a permanent planetary location to serve as a staging area."
"Oh, that doesn't sound good," Jack drawls.
"But we know where he is, right? The, the, where he's coming from?" Daniel says. "He's still there? We can still stop him?"
"Shau'nac does not believe that Apophis' fleet will depart its present location for some days yet, Daniel Jackson."
"General Hammond?" he says. "I know you have orders. I know I didn't see it actually happen in my world. But now you've got Teal'c's information. Apophis is going to attack Earth. He'll destroy everything here. You've got to do something. Please--"
"Daniel." Jack puts a hand on his arm and squeezes gently. Daniel groans in frustration.
Robert just looks stunned.
#
It's a few hours after the debriefing. Daniel is down in Sam's lab. Sam's packing.
"I don't really see the point to this," he says tightly. You should go to San Diego; say goodbye to Mark and the kids while you can.
"Orders," Sam says. "They tell me to close up shop, that's what I have to do." She's angry, but not at him.
Jack comes in then, and seems relieved to see him here. Daniel's got a Guest ID now -- which gives him limited freedom of the Base -- but he hates running into people who know he -- the other him -- is dead. He's just come up from Robert's office. Right now Robert is trying to decide whether to resign from SG-1 or just take his accumulated leave before the end of the world. It's a tough choice.
"Daniel, let's take a walk. Not you, Carter. You just keep ... following orders."
#
Jack walks Daniel back to quarters. It's as private there as you can get with a bedroom that has security cameras.
"I know this is hard," Jack says, closing the door behind them.
"Hard?" Daniel demands angrily. "Watching a bunch of bureaucrats kill everyone on Earth? What would make you think that, Jack?"
"Don't give up just yet," Jack says. "General Hammond's on the horn right now. He's flying to Washington in a couple of hours to try to change Kinsey's mind."
"We can't just sit here and wait for them to attack," Daniel says desperately. "There's nothing here that can stop them. You know that."
"I know," Jack says. "But we've got a lot better shot at taking out two motherships if we can go through the Gate at full-strength: at least four SG Teams and a couple of nukes. We can't get that kind of manpower and equipment with the Program shut down. Look, when was the last time you slept? Or ate something?"
Daniel pushes his glasses up and rubs his eyes. "I don't know."
He hasn't slept since that night at Jack's house. He came back to The Mountain the next day, thinking about the future, and discovered there wasn't going to be one. He supposes he should ask them to send him back through the Mirror while there's still time, but what can he do on the other side without help they can't give him now?
"Well, get some rest, would you? By tomorrow, I think you're gonna be the only person down here that reads Goa'uld, and Carter's probably gonna need a little help with those mothership blueprints."
"We can't let him win," Daniel says. He isn't sure himself who he means: Apophis or Senator Kinsey.
"We never let them win," Jack says firmly. "Come on now. Get some sleep. Do that, and we'll all go out for pizza later. Or maybe Chinese."
"It's been a long time since I've seen the sun," Daniel says plaintively. He thinks of the eternal sunshine of the Land of Light. They could save a few hundred people -- of all the peoples of Earth -- if they sent them there. If there was enough time.
"Hate to tell you, but I think it's raining up there. Still."
"Yeah. Okay. Sleep." He's sure he can't sleep, but Jack's words have given him hope. Nuclear weapons destroyed Ra's ship. They can destroy Apophis's. Daniel sits down on the bed and begins to unlace his boots.
#
General Hammond is in Washington for three days, and the SGC becomes progressively emptier during that time as his staff follows the orders they've been given before he left. The Teams have been stood down and sent home on leave; the Infirmary is on a skeleton staff; nearly everybody on 18 has been sent home and half the techs on 19 are gone. The only people in the SGC are the technical staff, the maintenance crews, the clerical and support people, and the security force.
And SG-1.
And him, of course. He has nowhere else to be. If the Program is shut down, well, it doesn't matter, as Earth is doomed. But if not...
He needs to go home.
#
"I'd send you back right now if I could," Sam says. "But you have to understand. There are millions of quantum variations. I know yours is close to ours, relatively speaking -- but finding the right one -- exactly -- could take weeks. I don't have weeks. If I guess wrong, I could kill you."
They both look toward the Quantum Mirror. It's dark; just a piece of rock. Time is the one thing Sam doesn't have, and they both know it. The Mirror is supposed to be shipped to Area 51 along with the rest of the alien artifacts, but so far Sam has managed to block that.
"Ah?" Daniel says, looking puzzled. Sam goes on.
"It was lucky for you that you came to a universe where you didn't still exist. If you'd gone through the Mirror into one where you were still alive, well, two identical objects can't co-exist. Either you both would have died, or ... just you."
"Why me?" He's curious in spite of everything.
"You'd be the most recent arrival, and inherently unstable."
"Maybe there would just have been a really big explosion."
Sam smiles grimly. "There's that."
Daniel looks back at the Mirror. Home is somewhere through it -- Sha're, Skaara, and a world he needs to save. But right now he feels the need to be here, too.
Maybe he can still do some good.
#
He's down in Robert's office again when Jack pokes his head through the door. The two of them are closing down the Department practically by themselves. There are a thousand things to do; deciding what artifacts get shipped to what archives, just to begin with. He and Robert have been overseeing the packing and crating up on 14, with a few breaks back in the office to try to keep up with the endless demands from Area 51 for information they simply don't have any more. If they did the packing right it would take months to clear out Cataloguing and Translation. They're not doing it right. He and Robert have at least been trying to make sure that the airmen don't break anything, not that its going to matter if General Hammond can't win in Washington.
"Okay," Jack announces to the room at large, "the commissary food officially sucks. Come on, you guys, we're going out for lunch."
"I've really got a lot of work to finish up here, Colonel," Robert says nervously. Daniel expects Jack to snap something back -- they're all under a lot of stress -- but he doesn't. Jack is looking at Robert with a very odd expression. Then Jack looks at him.
"Daniel?" Jack asks.
"Pizza or Chinese?" Daniel asks in return. He's already getting to his feet.
"O'Malley's," Jack says.
#
O'Malley's is busy and noisy and Sam looks puzzled about being dragged out of The Mountain for lunch; she doesn't have as much work to do as Daniel and Robert do, but there's still a lot. Teal'c just looks impassive. He's going to die when Apophis reaches Earth, but he hasn't said a word about it.
Jack waits until the server has taken their orders and left.
"General Hammond got back from Washington this morning," he tells them. "Kinsey won't budge. The Joint Chiefs won't move on the basis of Teal'c's info to overrule him."
"What about Teal'c?" Daniel asks. "They've at least got to let him go home to his family."
"Oh, they will," Jack says sourly. "Next month some time, Hammond figures. Kinsey's a compassionate man."
"Next month will be too late," Teal'c observes calmly.
Jack sighs deeply. "Yeah, it will. So I figure we fire up the Gate now. From Chulak, I figure I can get to those other coordinates, maybe do a little damage. I won't have a nuke, but there's still plenty of C-4 in the armory."
Teal'c regards him impassively. "We will go there together, O'Neill."
For a moment -- here in a crowded restaurant in Colorado Springs -- it’s a replay of that moment at the Chulak Gate. Only this time both Jack and Teal'c are going off on a suicide mission, and Daniel knows he can't let them go alone.
"I'm going with you," Daniel says. "We're all going together, right?"
Daniel sees Jack hesitate, making up his mind. But Jack will take him, Daniel knows he will. It's why he's here and Robert isn't.
Jack nods briefly, then looks at Sam. "Captain?" Jack says. "This isn't an order. In fact, it's probably treason. If we get back alive -- which I seriously doubt -- you and I are going to be court-martialed."
Sam smiles. "Yes, Colonel. Thank you. I understand that. I'm going." She hesitates. "What about Robert?"
"Dr. Rothman has a previous engagement, Carter."
#
After lunch, they spend most of the rest of the day stealing what they need. C-4, weapons, commando gear, a MALP. All of Daniel's gear has to be replaced, but that isn't very difficult.
Jack sends Robert home precisely at 1700 hours.
They wait until midnight to make their move.
They couldn't do this at all if the SGC weren't in the middle of being shut down, because the Gate Room and the Control Room would be filled with soldiers and techs. But General Hammond is in his quarters, and Level 28 is deserted. Nobody even notices the patchwork SG-1 in full commando gear -- plus MALP -- making their way to the Gate Room from the armory.
He isn't carrying much besides a Beretta, grenades, and thirty pounds of C-4. None of them is carrying much besides explosives this trip.
They have to send a MALP through first because they're dead if they walk into the middle of a bunch of Jaffa, but the delay is going to increase the risk of them being stopped before they can get through the Gate. A trade-off, but one Jack insisted on. Jack and Sam disable all the doors between the Gate Room and everywhere else, but the moment Daniel punches in the coordinates Teal'c has given him, warning klaxons sound throughout the Base. General Hammond will be here in minutes, and he will have no choice but to arrest them all.
They send the MALP through. Dark on the other side. Sam switches to infra-red.
"Goa'uld," Daniel says, seeing the familiar not-quite-Egyptian motifs appear.
Sam sends a radio signal to the MALP to retreat. It will dissolve once it enters the event horizon going 'backward', but they don't dare leave it where it is.
They run for the Gate.
#
They're not on a planet. They're not even on a normal ha'tak -- they get to a window where they can look out and see. They're on something much bigger -- something that can contain a Stargate. And they're trapped.
They have their C-4, but Shau'nac said there were two ships. Even if they blow up this ship, the other will still reach Earth.
"Oh, god," Daniel groans. "We've failed."
"Not yet," Jack says absently. "There's gotta be a way to get over to the other ship. We'll think of something. Now you and Carter go make yourselves interesting while Teal'c and I go talk to the driver of this bus."
"Jack--" he says. He isn't sure what he wants to say. Be careful? Pretty stupid advice considering that this is a suicide mission.
"Run along and play," Jack says. "We'll rendezvous back at the Gate Room."
#
For the next hour he and Sam set charges, until all their C-4 is gone; the time they spent going over the information on ha'taks that they got from Teal'c has paid off; Sam is sure that the ship will explode when the C-4 does. She's careful, setting the charges to trigger with both a timer and a radio detonator, though she'll have to be fairly close for the radio detonator to work. Based on the coordinates -- and Teal'c's estimate of the top speed of a ha'tak -- the ship will take weeks to reach Earth, but even if it's only a few days, Sam has set the timer to go off in 24 hours: long before the ship reaches Earth. They just need to find a way to get to the other ship to do the same thing, though Sam thinks there's a good possibility that the explosion of one ship in hyperspace will destroy both.
So Earth is safe, though Daniel will never see Abydos again.
#
Sam's placing her last few blocks of C-4 on the Stargate itself. Not that she thinks she can blow it up, but there's the possibility that the naquaadah will increase the force of the explosion and at least disable the DHD. Teal'c was fairly certain that nobody would come to the Gate Room while the ships were in transit -- that's why they picked the Gate Room for their rendezvous point -- but while Sam's working, they hear people coming and hide.
It's Skaara. The Jaffa address him as 'my lord Klorel,' and Daniel feels a wave of revulsion: his playful, laughing brother-in-law, Sha're's brother, has become the host of the son of Apophis.
Jack and Teal'c are Klorel's prisoners. There is a form of vo'cuum linked to the Stargate, and through it Klorel reports this news to Apophis, who orders him to execute them on the pel'tac, where the Jaffa may witness their deaths.
Daniel and Sam go to rescue them.
But everything goes wrong, even though they manage to fight their way onto the pel'tac. They don't have weeks or even days until Apophis's ships reach Earth. They're in Earth's solar system now. They can't get to the second ship -- they don't have Klorel as a hostage, because Jack had to kill him to save Daniel's life.
They're trapped on the pel'tac, out of transmitter range of the C-4. And then they're captured.
#
He awakens blind. In the darkness, he hears Teal'c's voice telling Jack that this is the aftereffects of a Goa'uld shock grenade, and it will soon pass. Daniel doesn't care.
He saw a sarcophagus earlier. Klorel will rise from the dead. His resurrection will be brief; his ship will explode within a day. But by then all the cities of Earth will be gone.
He finds a wall by touch and curls up against it.
"Daniel? Hey. Take it easy. We're just having a bad day, that's all," Jack says out of the darkness.
"Everyone on Earth is going to die," Daniel says. "It happened in my universe and now it's happening here! We tried to stop it and we failed! We failed!"
"Just calm down. It's going to get better," Jack says calmly. "You'll see."
#
His sight comes back slowly, and by the time it does, Daniel can see Jack prowling the cell, looking for a way out. They all hear the sound of Jaffa boots in the corridor and Daniel gets to his feet. He's not sure what's coming, but he doesn't think it can be good.
But Jack was right and he is wrong. It does get better.
Master Bra'tac is the one who comes to their cell. He's come -- not to rescue them, precisely -- but to ally himself with them. He has once more become Apophis' First Prime, and for some reason he is here on this ship with Klorel instead of on the other one with Apophis. He tells them that the ships are holding off their attack against Earth until Klorel rises again.
Sam says that it's now less than an hour until the C-4 goes off on its timer. They've been unconscious for most of a day, which means that Klorel will rise soon. It only took the sarcophagus half a day to revive Daniel when he was killed on Abydos, so even though Jack shot Klorel several times, Daniel does not think it can take much longer for Klorel.
Bra'tac says he knows of a way to get to the other ship. There are transport rings on the pel'tac deck. If they can reach them, and make their way to Apophis' ship, there's still a chance. For what, Daniel isn't sure.
Bra'tac gets their vests and weapons back -- though he cannot get the packs with the rest of their explosives -- and they make their way upward through the mothership.
#
They stop outside the door to the pel'tac. Bra'tac insists on going in alone, saying they'll know when it is time to follow. A moment later -- even through the door -- they hear the now-familiar whine of the ribbon device.
"Let's go!" Jack says. "Daniel, watch our backs."
Sam thrusts her MP5 at him and follows Jack through the door. Sam has one of those Jaffa weapons -- a zat'nik'atel. Of course Jack is already calling them 'zats.'
Daniel hears gunfire and screams from inside. He's out here because it's safer, but he doesn't really feel safe. He draws his Beretta as well.
A moment later two Jaffa come around the corner and he opens up with both the MP5 and the Beretta. The submachine gun rides up in his hand and the noise is deafening. He yells for Jack, but he can't even hear the sound of his own voice over the sound of the weapon. Some of the bullets glance off the heavy armored Jaffa collars. Most plow right in through the chainmail. One ricochets upward, and one of the Jaffas' faces is gone in a spray of blood. Daniel stares in horrified fascination, barely remembering to release his grip on the trigger as they begin to fall. It's over so fast.
He's doing fine until the third one appears. He starts to swing the MP5 back into firing position again, but he's too late. The Jaffa lowers his staff-weapon and fires.
He's been hit by one of these before. He remembers it from Abydos. The shock. The pain. The fact that the blast from a staff weapon doesn't just burn; the pulse hits as hard as a bullet, and Daniel is flung backward as hard as if he'd been punched. He feels things snap and give in his chest. It makes his hand clutch the trigger again, and he sprays the corridor with bullets, a jerky uncoordinated burst that catches his attacker across the knees. The Jaffa bows into the last of the burst and his face explodes.
Then Jack is there, lifting him up. Daniel feels more things tear inside.
"Daniel! Dammit!"
I just keep dying, don't I? Jack can't be here now. They don't have time.
"No! Leave me. I'll be dead anyway -- just get out of here -- go!"
"I am not leaving you here!" Jack is still dragging him upright, trying to get him on his feet.
"Get out of here!" Daniel gasps. "You're just going to blow up with the other ship anyway! Go! Just -- go! I'll stay and -- and -- and watch your back."
Because he's dying.
Jack lowers him gently to the deck again. He ruffles Daniel's hair quickly, and then he's gone.
Daniel scrabbles until he gets his hands on the MP5 again. It feels slippery and heavy in his hands -- heavier than before -- and the front of his shirt is wet. But he kicks backward until he has a bulkhead at his back and can push himself into a sitting position. He blinks, forcing his eyes open wide. The corridor is clear.
Breathing hurts, and he tries to concentrate. The others have to have had a clear shot at the rings. They've already gone. Maybe they can destroy the other ship. Save Earth, if not themselves.
There's a sarcophagus in the Gate Room. If I can get there I have a chance...
He loops the carrystrap of the gun over his shoulder and drags himself to his feet. The pain is so bad it blinds him for a moment; he's panting, short shallow breaths that don't seem to bring him any air. He takes a wavering step and hears something snap underfoot. His glasses. Doesn't matter, since he can't really see, but it angers him that he keeps losing his glasses.
He inches down the hallway slowly, clinging to the wall. He's fading fast, and the ship will go up soon, but it's important to keep trying. Jack would want to know that he kept trying to stay alive, though there won't be any way -- this time -- to let him know.
The sarcophagus is a long way from here. He'll never make it.
Got to try.
Keep moving.
The wall is rough beneath his palms, covered with alien hieroglyphs, but his hands are slick with sweat and keep slipping. When they do, he lurches harder into the wall than he intends to. Tears and sweat are running down his face, but he forces himself onward. Will the sarcophagus be there? Will it work in time to save him?
It's getting dark.
Move.
He slips in his own blood and falls, and the impact makes him scream. But it's all right, nearly there, he drags himself up again and hammers wildly at the door opening mechanism, lurching through on will alone, knowing he's dying by heartbeats. The sarcophagus is there, and right now he doesn't care if the ship explodes while he's in it; all he cares about is getting into it because that means the pain will stop.
Move.
He drags himself to the edge of the sarcophagus and falls in. Pain steals his breath at the impact, and as the wings of the lid fold over him, the light surrounds him.
#
A month ago they saved the Earth from the Goa'uld. O'Neill isn't sure how he feels about Skaara being dead. He'd like to grieve for him, but he's seen Klorel up close now. So it seems almost like a release.
"You sure you've got everything you need?"
"Yes, Jack, I'm sure," Daniel says patiently.
Daniel is standing in front of the Quantum Mirror in Carter's office. He's been going back and forth through it all morning, since you can only go through the Mirror with what you're actually carrying, and he needs to take a lot of ... stuff.
Guns. Ammunition. Explosives. Grenades. Medical supplies.
A GDO, just in case.
Books. Not Daniel's kind, though there are a few of those, too. Books on tactics. Survival. Evasion and escape. Books on making weapons. Everything you need to start a rebellion.
And -- O'Neill hopes -- win one.
"Spare glasses?"
Daniel grins at him. "Three pairs in hard-sided cases. And a repair kit."
"Good. Now remember, get off 233 as fast as possible. Teal'c says it's... Crush Me."
"Korosh-ni, O'Neill. The planet is not safe for human life. But I believe that Daniel Jackson will be safe for as long as it takes him to transport his equipment to the Stargate and return to the Land of Light."
"You're sure about this?" O'Neill asks, although he's pretty sure that Daniel's sure.
A month ago he, Carter, Teal'c, and Master Bra'tac got back to the SGC to find Daniel waiting for them. He'd managed to get to Klorel's sarcophagus, then used the Stargate on the Goa'uld ship to go through to the Land of Light. He'd radioed the SGC from there, and Hammond had brought him home.
Only this isn't Daniel's home. His Earth is gone, but Daniel's a survivor. A fighter. He's going to fight for Abydos now. Maybe he can still save Sha're. O'Neill has promised they'll still try to save her here.
"I'm sure," Daniel says. "And Jack? Thanks. For everything."
"Call it even," O'Neill says. "And Daniel? Kill a few of the snakeheads for me."
"I'll do my best."
Daniel hugs Carter -- awkwardly; the pack on his back is heavy -- and Teal'c clasps his forearm in that Jaffa thing. He turns to O'Neill, holding out his hand, and they shake formally. Daniel grins, as if they're sharing a private joke. Maybe they are.
Then he turns away and touches the Mirror one last time. There's a flash of light, and he's on the other side. He waves to them, then turns away, starting to gather his equipment together. O'Neill takes the controller from Carter's hands and shuts it down. The Mirror goes dark.
See you around, Dr. Jackson.
"Come on, kids. Let's find Rothman and see what the Commissary is doing about lunch."
###
Jack gets up and picks up the wall phone. Daniel can't hear the conversation, but a few moments later Sam walks in. She regards him cautiously.
"Daniel?" she says.
"Sam?" he answers -- equally warily -- and she smiles. He can tell it's an effort.
"I realize this all has to seem pretty strange to you," she says.
"Pretty strange," he agrees, "considering that everybody's been telling me I'm dead. And I know you are."
Sam winces just a little. "Well," she says softly, "our Daniel is dead. I'm sorry about your Sam."
He shakes his head, baffled.
"The device we found on P3R-233 is, for lack of a better word, a quantum mirror," Sam says, coming over and sitting down at the table. "I'm pretty sure it allows travel between alternate realities."
"Like Star Trek," Jack says helpfully.
"Yes, sir," Sam agrees dutifully. "Daniel, the theory behind alternate realities is that every possible variation of reality exists, and that every time a decision is made, a new -- alternate -- reality is created. All of those universes exist side-by-side, and this Quantum Mirror of yours has apparently been designed to allow travel between realities. By touching it, you've stepped from your reality into ours."
Her explanation doesn't make a lot of sense to Daniel, but at least it offers a glimmer of hope. Not madness. Not death. Science.
"So ... here ... I'm ... dead," he says slowly. Then he laughs shakily. "And in my universe, everybody's dead."
If everything they're telling him is true, it explains the oddness in Sam's reaction and Jack's. it's not so much that they think he's an impostor. It's that they're grieving for a dead man.
Him.
"Yeah," Jack says. "We got that. You want to explain it again -- slowly?"
Daniel tells them as much as he knows: that Apophis and Amaunet rallied the System Lords into an alliance to attack and destroy Earth.
"And it was my fault," Daniel says. "They did it because of me. Apophis always thought we were a threat after Chulak. But the reason he could get all the System Lords to go along with him was because of what Amaunet told him about us. And she knew what I'd told Sha're."
Jack shakes his head slightly. "Ra wanted to kill all of us before he'd even met you. Whatever happened isn't your fault."
"We need to know when it happened," Sam says urgently. "If it was three months ago--"
"Three months?" That's the second time someone here has mentioned three months as if it were some sort of important cut-off date. "We went to Oannes two months ago," Daniel says. "PX8-925 was about six weeks ago."
Sam frowns. "But the Oannes mission was three months ago, not two. There shouldn't be that much time-slip. Unless..." she glances at Jack.
"Come on, Daniel. Let's take a walk," Jack says.
They go down to Sam's lab, walking through the familiar corridors of the SGC. Teal'c joins them on the way; he regards Daniel with aloof disinterest, and Daniel reminds himself that this Teal'c is not -- precisely -- his friend.
They reach Sam's lab. The Quantum Mirror is there, shut down and empty, sealed behind a Plexiglass shield.
"We had to put that up," Sam says, nodding at the shield. "People kept getting sucked into alternate universes. It happens any time you touch the surface while it's activated. But there's always a mirror on the other side, so you just have to touch it again to get back."
"I don't understand," Daniel says. "Why was my Earth destroyed and..." And not yours? It seems rude to ask someone why they're still alive, though, so he stops.
"That's the thing," Sam says. She sounds both excited and grim. "According to my calculations, the only reason for the time-slippage would be if you came from a quantum variation fairly far away from ours. The closer ones to our own reality would be closer in time, because the speed of light is a constant in the creation of new universe, so you have to take that into account. The trouble is, I don't think your universe is quite far enough away."
"For what?" Daniel asks.
"For us to ignore it," Sam says.
She switches the controller on. The center of the mirror shimmers and fills, but it doesn't reflect Sam's lab. It's showing the SGC Control Room, for some reason, but the computers are dark, and show the marks of weapons fire.
--flip--
The lab on P3R-233. It looks the way Daniel remembers it, but the flashlight he dropped on the floor isn't there.
--flip--
The lab on 233 again. Different artifacts on the table.
--flip--
A storage room filled with crates.
"Looks like Area 51," Sam comments. "Intact, but it won't be for long, on the basis of what I keep seeing. All of these variations we've just seen are close to our own reality, and when you start going further out, most of the SGCs we're able to see through the Quantum Mirror have already been invaded -- and destroyed -- by the Goa'uld, just as you say your Earth was. I think your reality may just be ahead of ours, not really divergent from it, and that means that Apophis will be attacking Earth -- our Earth -- soon. We have to figure out where the attack is coming from in time to stop it." She shuts down the Mirror again.
"So?" Jack says. "Daniel? Any ideas?"
It is so much as if he's home again, as if the nightmare never happened, that he wants to reject all he knows. But what he knows could save this reality.
"When we couldn't dial back to Earth, Teal'c and I went to the Land of Light. We were there for about a month. We realized that the only way we were going to find out what had happened on Earth was to go there by ship, so... Teal'c went to Chulak. And I followed him."
"That would have been most unwise, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c says. He sounds primly disapproving, as if it had all been Daniel's idea. Daniel sighs.
"Yeah. Well. If you'd -- if he'd -- told me what he was going to do, maybe I wouldn't have. But when he vanished, I thought he might need help. I got into the city, overheard a guard patrol talking, and found out that Apophis and someone named Prince Klorel were away at war. So I snuck into the Palace to look for him. Amaunet caught me while I was leaving."
The others are all looking at him, not quite willing to ask questions yet. He shrugs, wrapping his arms around himself. There are so many things he'd like to forget. The sight of Amaunet wearing his wife's face is one.
"Teal'c wasn't even in the Palace. He told me later -- after he got me out of there -- that he'd gone to a priestess he knew named Shau'nac at the temple of Apophis. She told him just about what Amaunet told me. So if there's a Shau'nac here, I'm betting she knows as much about Apophis's plans as the other one did."
Jack looks at Teal'c, and Teal'c nods. Teal'c regards Daniel with faint suspicion, as if he's not quite certain why Daniel should know these things -- or tell them to them.
"Will it work, T?" Jack asks.
"Perhaps," Teal'c says reluctantly.
Jack shrugs. "All righty then. Let's go talk to General Hammond."
Daniel is alone later in temporary quarters -- better ones now -- when the door opens. He spent the rest of the afternoon with Robert. Robert has Daniel's old office and all of his books; he -- the other Daniel Jackson -- left the books, if not the office, to Robert in his will.
Robert has told him about the memorial service, the wake; those are the parts of the story everyone knows. The second funeral -- the one with the body -- people know about that, too. It's the part between that Daniel has to guess for himself. The part where SG-1 went back to Oannes convinced that their belief in his death was all a trick, that he was still alive, only to bring home the body that settled the matter past all disputation.
He knows about hoping, and having hope destroyed. Hope is worse, because part of you is already imagining that everything is going to be all right when you find out that it isn't. He's a little surprised Jack's willing to talk to him at all; Jack has never been good with being jerked around by either people or circumstances. It's not that -- he thinks -- Jack would blame him for being alive when what Jack has to think of as the 'real' Daniel is dead; it's just that Jack wouldn't want to be reminded of his failure.
Daniel knows that Jack thinks of Charlie's death as his own personal failure. He felt responsible when Kawalsky died, too, as if anyone could have prevented it. And Daniel knows, as certainly as if he's been told, that his counterpart's death -- more so than if it were Sam's, more so than Teal'c's -- would be another failure in Jack's mind.
Is another failure.
Teal'c is standing in the doorway. Odd. Daniel had been sure it would be Jack.
Teal'c regards him silently. Daniel wonders if it's supposed to make him nervous. Teal'c makes a lot of people nervous, but he's always thought of Teal'c as a friend. He gestures for Teal'c to come in, moving the books that Robert has loaned him -- is it really a loan if the books, in some sense, used to be his? -- aside to make a space on the bed, though he doubts Teal'c will want to sit down.
"I wish to speak to you, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c says.
"I, ah, oh, yeah. Sure. I mean, go ahead."
He wonders what this is about.
"Tomorrow I go to Chulak to speak to Shau'nac. I am certain that she will tell me all I wish to know."
Daniel doesn't doubt that. Most people do.
"There are things I wish to know from you as well."
"I, ah, I've told Jack and Sam everything," Daniel says tentatively.
"You have not," Teal'c says. "You have not told them of the fate of my counterpart in your universe."
Oh.
"I don't really know," Daniel says. "He... left."
Teal'c stares down at him. "I would not abandon Daniel Jackson."
Daniel sighs and gets up, walking over to the table in the corner. There's a coffee service set up there. He pours himself a cup.
"No. That's not what happened. He..." Daniel stops, not entirely certain how to explain. "Earth was gone. Amaunet told me. Shau'nac told him."
"So you have said."
"He wanted ... kel'mar."
Teal'c was looking at him before, but now his attention is even more focused.
"And did you not wish revenge, Daniel Jackson?"
"I... yes. No. Everyone and everything I've ever known is gone. Killing the Goa'uld won't bring them back." He sighs, knowing this isn't what Teal'c wants to hear. "But letting the Goa'uld go on to kill other people isn't the answer either. I think -- I hope -- that I can still save Abydos -- their Gate is still sealed, so I don't think the Goa'uld have gone there yet -- and convince other worlds to rebel against the Goa'uld. Teal'c -- my Teal'c -- told me the Goa'uld would turn on each other once they'd destroyed Earth. He told me their alliance would be unstable. On Chulak, he said he was going to pledge himself to one of the other System Lords, to try to sow dissent among the Jaffa from within, the way Bra'tac had done. He thought he had a chance of trading Apophis's secrets for his life."
"His plan has little chance of success," Teal'c says after a moment.
"I told him that," Daniel says sadly. "He wouldn't listen to me."
"What of Master Bra'tac? Did they not speak?"
"Bra'tac wasn't on Chulak. I went to his house. It was closed up. It looked as if he planned to be gone for a long time."
"Do you know where he had gone?"
"Teal'c didn't say. I don't know if he knew -- he said Shau'nac told him as much as she did in order to get him to, ah, 'repent,'" Daniel says awkwardly.
Teal'c smiles faintly, and nods. "Yes. Shau'nac is a loyal servant of Apophis. I shall go to her and present myself as eager to rejoin the Goa'uld. I am certain that she will be forthcoming."
"You'll be careful?" Daniel asks before he can stop himself. Teal'c looks surprised.
"I know I'm not ... real ... to you," Daniel says carefully, because the last months have taught him how little he really understands Teal'c, "but you're real to me. And I just don't want..."
"I must go and return safely if I am to save Earth," Teal'c says firmly. "Of this I am aware. Rest well, Daniel Jackson. Perhaps, in your reality, my counterpart has achieved kel'mar."
Daniel nods. It would make Teal'c happy, even though he can't imagine how it could be possible.
"He wanted to avenge Jack."
"Here, O'Neill will not need to be avenged."
He's on his way out the door for the day, doing a last swing through, checking on things that -- mostly -- don't need to be checked on. He opens the door to The Other Daniel's temporary quarters, and Daniel's sitting there, crouched over the table with a pile of books and a cup of coffee in his hand. He looks up as the door opens, and even though O'Neill has had three days now to get used to the idea that the fact that Daniel is back is more of Carter's wacky science, it's still a shock, because he's been seeing Daniel out of the corner of his eye every place he looks since 866, and now he can stare straight-on and Daniel's still there.
"I was about to head out for the night. Thought I'd stop in and see if you needed anything," O'Neill says.
"I guess I've got pretty much everything." Daniel gestures at the books, the coffee. "Saw Teal'c earlier. He says he's going to Chulak tomorrow."
"Yeah. He figures he's got the best shot at this going alone, and General Hammond agrees, so..."
And that really sucks, and O'Neill spent the better part of the afternoon arguing against it, but it's not like they have an all-Jaffa SG Team to send through the Gate to back Teal'c up, either, and a bunch of Tau'ri are not going to exactly be inconspicuous on Chulak, especially if things are going down over there the way they might be.
"That's good, then. Good. Maybe you can..."
Daniel stops, but O'Neill knows what he was going to say anyway. Maybe you can save your Earth.
For a moment O'Neill imagines Earth gone, and everyone dead. Imagines the world Other Daniel's been living in. Daniel never was a soldier, and all Stargate Command's best efforts hadn't been able to turn him into one. O'Neill can't imagine what Daniel was going to do wandering around the universe alone.
This man isn't the friend his lost. But he owes that friend's memory something.
"Why don't you come home with me? I hear this place gets really depressing at night."
And Daniel smiles, and puts down his book, and comes.
"Everything's the same."
"Light the fire. I'll get the beer."
Daniel died a few weeks after his birthday, at the end of July. It's the beginning of October now. Dark and chilly. There's a fire already laid in the fireplace, and Daniel moves to light it as O'Neill heads for the kitchen. He brings back two beers and hands one to Daniel.
Daniel tilts it back, grimacing -- as always -- at the taste. Three beers and Daniel will be pretty much dead drunk. He never did have any head for beer.
He stares down into the kindling fire, sipping his beer. "Thanks for this, Jack," he says, gesturing. "You don't know--" He stops.
"You needed somewhere to be," O'Neill says, because that's part of the truth.
He wonders how much they're alike, this Daniel and theirs. Carter said some of the universes are so much alike that you could step through the Mirror and never know you had.
He sits down in the chair, watching Daniel, thinking back to that first night -- Daniel just back from Abydos. If he'd known then that Daniel would die, would he have let Daniel join SG-1 at all? But without him, the rest of them would have died half-a-dozen times over.
Daniel turns away from the fire and comes to sit down on the couch. He stares down at the bottle in his hands. "Teal'c said I didn't tell you everything."
O'Neill raises an eyebrow at him.
"He wanted to know what happened to the, to the other Teal'c. Why he wasn't with me."
"And?"
"I told him he went off to fight the Goa'uld."
"Sounds like Teal'c."
"And then I got to thinking that I hadn't told you everything either. I mean, I answered all your questions, but there are things you aren't going to ask about."
"You want a pizza? Because I bet you skipped dinner, and I don't think there's anything in the fridge."
Daniel knows this is a delaying tactic, but he's missed pizza. He's even missed beer. So Jack phones for pizza, and while they're waiting, he lets Jack talk about unimportant things. Television programs Daniel doesn't watch. People he knows only slightly. They're on to their second round of beers by the time the pizza arrives. There's a third bottle with the pizza -- pepperoni and cheese and it's hot and salty and biting into that first slice, there in Jack's living room, Daniel is sure that this, this is what Civilization is all about. The right to drink beer and eat pizza in a quiet living room and know you can do it next week, next month, next year.
And he's had three beers now, and he's pretty sure he's drunk enough to say what needs to be said.
"I told you about Oannes," he says, pushing the half-empty pizza box away. "But I didn't tell you how -- your -- Daniel died."
"Daniel!" Jack snaps, and if Daniel's drunk enough for this conversation, it's clear that Jack isn't. Probably never will be. Needs to have it anyway.
"Listen to me. I know you- I know you blame yourself. But what happened on Oannes wasn't your fault."
Jack gets to his feet. He walks over to the fireplace. His back is to Daniel.
"I lost a member of my command, Daniel. How is that not my fault?" There's anger in his voice, but it's not directed toward Daniel. Not yet.
"I was there. I know what happened. I have to have made the same choices here that I did there."
"You didn't die." Daniel knows Jack doesn't want to blame him for being alive, but it's hard for him not to. It's odd; he doesn't feel the same way about this Jack; doesn't blame him for being alive when his own Jack O'Neill is dead. It was just massively disastrous bad luck.
That's what it was for Daniel-here, too.
"But I could have. There was a risk. Nem told me there was. We both made the same choice. We must have."
"I don't want to hear this, Daniel," Jack says, and there's a warning note in his voice now.
Daniel laughs shakily, and knows he's drunk. "Yes you do. Of course you do. You want to know what happened. I know you do. You want to know everything. And I'm the only one who can tell you."
He knows Jack won't drive after three beers, but he could call The Mountain and have someone come and take Daniel back. Order him to shut up now. He doesn't. He turns around, looking down at the carpet, at the beer in his hands, anywhere but at Daniel. Finally he nods. "All right."
Daniel only hopes that Jack will listen, really listen.
"Nem wanted to know what had happened to Omoroca, in Babylon, five thousand years ago. He thought I knew -- and I did know -- but the memories were buried in my subconscious mind. I forced him to use a device on me that would bring those memories to the surface. He told me it could kill me. I didn't think I had a choice; if he didn't get what he wanted, he was going to hold me prisoner there until I remembered by myself, and I knew I never would."
"We were coming back for you!" Jack says, raising his head to meet Daniel's eyes. Daniel knows it isn't him Jack is talking to, but the other one. The one Jack can't talk to any more.
"I know," he says quietly, though he hadn't. He'd been convinced they'd left him for dead. He'd been terrified. "But even if I knew you'd get your memories back, I had no way of knowing that Nem wouldn't just take them away again -- or kill you -- the next time. I couldn't even be sure that that you'd even find me. I had to do it."
"You should have waited!"
"I had to get back," Daniel says. "To ... them."
Jack turns away, unwilling to let Daniel see his face. Daniel hopes it's better to know. That it helps Jack to know that his Daniel never gave up, wasn't killed in anger, didn't die for nothing.
"And he died," Jack says after a moment.
"It almost killed me," Daniel says. "It could have. But... if Nem brought him back to you... he must have found the answer Nem needed."
Jack just shakes his head.
"I'm sorry," Daniel says. "I wish--"
"No," Jack says. "Leave it, Daniel."
A few minutes later Jack comes back over and sits down. He turns on the television. There's a game on. They sit in silence for almost an hour. In other circumstances, Daniel would be bored, but the surrealism of his circumstances fascinates him, even if the events themselves do not.
"You want coffee?" Jack says suddenly. "I've got coffee."
"Coffee would be good," Daniel agrees.
"Because, you know, you really can't handle beer."
Jack has worked -- something -- out in his head, the way he always does if given enough time. This is a peace offering. Problem solved. Discussion closed.
"There was this guy once. He told me there was a rule against drinking wine with pizza. So I drink the beer." I understand. We're good, Daniel tells him implicitly. Silence, indirection, these are languages too.
"Yeah. Sheets on the spare bed are pretty clean."
"Okay. Good. You want me to make the coffee?"
"You probably know where everything is."
In the morning, they drive back to The Mountain. Jack signs him back in and nobody says anything. He takes Daniel down to the commissary with him for breakfast and Daniel sits with him and Sam and Robert; Teal'c has already left for Chulak. Except for the fact that Robert is here in a team uniform and Daniel's has no insignia, he could imagine that the last months never happened.
Robert has only been on the team a few weeks, and things are still awkward. Jack intimidates the hell out of Robert, and that's not a good basis for a working relationship. Daniel knows that Robert is SG-1's seventh AT specialist since their loss; it's a lot of performance pressure. He'd like to think he could do something to smooth their relationship -- though maybe things will go a little better now -- but more of his mind is occupied with his own problems. Can Sam send him back to his own universe? There's everything he needs here to save Abydos, if he can just figure out how to get it through the Mirror.
If he can get through the Mirror to the right place.
Then Sam mentions that Senator Kinsey is going to be here in a few hours for some kind of hearing.
"Doesn't General Hammond usually go to Washington?" Daniel asks, puzzled.
"Not this time, I guess," Sam says, equally puzzled.
Jack shrugs, but Daniel can tell he's tense. "Hammond mentioned it yesterday. Something about the budget. Don't worry about it, Carter."
After breakfast, he walks Daniel back to his quarters and tells him to stay put. Guest ID and limited freedom of the Base are on the agenda for later today, but he doesn't have them yet. But the books he took from Robert's office yesterday are still here, and he never has enough time to read. About the time he's trying to decide if it's worth the trouble trying to talk the airman on the door into going for more coffee, another airman comes and tells him that he's summoned to the Briefing Room.
"So despite your mission report, Dr. Jackson isn't actually dead."
Daniel regards the man at the foot of the table. Silver-haired, dissatisfied, flanked by aides and Major Samuels. He must be the Senator Jack was mentioning at breakfast. He has the look of a querulous toad.
"Care to tell me how many other times you've lied in your reports to the Pentagon, Colonel O'Neill?"
"Oh for crying out loud, Kinsey -- that isn't our Daniel!"
"Really?" Senator Kinsey says archly.
He glances at General Hammond. The General nods -- permission to speak -- and motions for Daniel to sit down.
"It's true, Senator," he says. "I'm, ah, actually from an alternate universe. Your Daniel Jackson died on P3X-866, the planet also referred to in our mission reports as Oannes."
"And how -- if I may ask -- did you get here, in that case?"
Sam explains about the Quantum Mirror, but Senator Kinsey simply refuses to believe her. It's worse than that, though. Daniel listens in horror as Kinsey explains that he intends to shut down the Stargate Program immediately.
"But- But you can't do that! Not now! Jack -- General Hammond -- you've got to tell him! Senator, Apophis is coming to destroy the Earth -- he's coming with ships, with a fleet, right now. In my universe, he's already done it -- Earth is gone, the SGC is gone, everyone's dead--"
"And I suppose you saw this with your own eyes, Dr. Jackson?" Senator Kinsey asks, smirking.
"I was offworld, Senator. That's why I'm alive."
Senator Kinsey gets to his feet.
"Well this has all been very interesting. And frankly, Dr. Jackson, once this program has ceased operation, I think you should get professional help. But I've heard nothing here today -- not your ridiculous fantasies, not Colonel O'Neill's warmongering imperialism, not Captain Carter's ludicrous notions of Science for the sake of Science -- that have convinced me to keep Pandora's Box open one minute longer. The Stargate Project is a clear and present danger to these United States, and I, for one, will not rest until the Stargate is buried forever."
"Save the speeches, Kinsey," Jack growls.
"Colonel O'Neill," General Hammond says warningly.
"Senator, you have to listen to me," Daniel says. "The Goa'uld have spaceships. If we bury the Stargate, we won't stop them from coming. We'll only destroy our only means to fight them."
Kinsey smiles. "If they want to come, let them. I do not believe that the Divine Providence which has shaped this great nation of ours will allow what you are telling me to come to pass. If your Goa'uld challenge us, we shall prevail."
Kinsey's insane.
Daniel tries to follow him as he walks away, but Jack stops him.
He looks back at the others, not believing that this is any kind of a joke, but hoping they're going to tell him that somehow it isn't true. But what General Hammond says is that because of Senator Kinsey's recommendation, the SGC will have to cease operation as soon as the teams that are offworld return.
"Jack- General Hammond- You can't let him do this--" Daniel says. How can they accept the evidence of the Quantum Mirror, of what he's told them, and let Senator Kinsey do this?
"I'm sorry, son," General Hammond says, sounding disgusted and weary. "I'm afraid that 'Senator' outranks 'General.'"
"We'll see about that," Jack says grimly. "General, doesn't what Daniel has to say cut any ice in Washington?"
General Hammond shakes his head. "I'll go make some calls."
Teal'c is one of the last people back through the Gate before it's shut down 36 hours later. He should have stayed away. He comes back with information from Shau'nac that makes Daniel want to scream, cry, hit something: here, as well as there, Apophis is preparing to invade Earth. The fleet hasn't left yet, but it will soon.
Teal'c is debriefed, though it's just a formality now, since the SGC is shutting down. The worst of it is that he's trapped here now, unable to leave. Daniel sits in on the debriefing, since the comparisons he can still offer between his world and this are -- apparently, even though Kinsey has decided to kill them all -- still vital.
Here they aren't facing the combined forces of the System Lords. Shau'nac is certain. It is only Apophis and his son, Prince Klorel who will come. Shau'nac believes, in fact, that Apophis is keeping his plans a secret from the other System Lords. It will probably be only two ha'tak.
"Why?" Daniel asks. "Why would it be different here and there?"
Sam shrugs, baffled. "Daniel, there are so many variables--"
"Doesn't matter," Jack says, cutting her off. "Intel's good, and this gives us better odds. So what are we facing, T?"
"One ha'tak is sufficient to destroy a world from space," Teal'c says. So much for better odds. "If Apophis wishes to send troops down to the surface, a Goa'uld mothership carries five thousand warriors in addition to its crew, and is able to carry more. Additionally, it carries many death-gliders;al'kesh, which are mid-range heavy bombing craft; and tel'tak, which are unarmed cargo vessels, but which contain transport rings. I do not believe there are transport rings on the surface of this planet, but should a tel'tak be landed here, troops and materiels can be ringed down from the mothership to the tel'tak, and in a matter of a few hours, the ring platform inside a tel'tak may be removed and placed in a permanent planetary location to serve as a staging area."
"Oh, that doesn't sound good," Jack drawls.
"But we know where he is, right? The, the, where he's coming from?" Daniel says. "He's still there? We can still stop him?"
"Shau'nac does not believe that Apophis' fleet will depart its present location for some days yet, Daniel Jackson."
"General Hammond?" he says. "I know you have orders. I know I didn't see it actually happen in my world. But now you've got Teal'c's information. Apophis is going to attack Earth. He'll destroy everything here. You've got to do something. Please--"
"Daniel." Jack puts a hand on his arm and squeezes gently. Daniel groans in frustration.
Robert just looks stunned.
It's a few hours after the debriefing. Daniel is down in Sam's lab. Sam's packing.
"I don't really see the point to this," he says tightly. You should go to San Diego; say goodbye to Mark and the kids while you can.
"Orders," Sam says. "They tell me to close up shop, that's what I have to do." She's angry, but not at him.
Jack comes in then, and seems relieved to see him here. Daniel's got a Guest ID now -- which gives him limited freedom of the Base -- but he hates running into people who know he -- the other him -- is dead. He's just come up from Robert's office. Right now Robert is trying to decide whether to resign from SG-1 or just take his accumulated leave before the end of the world. It's a tough choice.
"Daniel, let's take a walk. Not you, Carter. You just keep ... following orders."
Jack walks Daniel back to quarters. It's as private there as you can get with a bedroom that has security cameras.
"I know this is hard," Jack says, closing the door behind them.
"Hard?" Daniel demands angrily. "Watching a bunch of bureaucrats kill everyone on Earth? What would make you think that, Jack?"
"Don't give up just yet," Jack says. "General Hammond's on the horn right now. He's flying to Washington in a couple of hours to try to change Kinsey's mind."
"We can't just sit here and wait for them to attack," Daniel says desperately. "There's nothing here that can stop them. You know that."
"I know," Jack says. "But we've got a lot better shot at taking out two motherships if we can go through the Gate at full-strength: at least four SG Teams and a couple of nukes. We can't get that kind of manpower and equipment with the Program shut down. Look, when was the last time you slept? Or ate something?"
Daniel pushes his glasses up and rubs his eyes. "I don't know."
He hasn't slept since that night at Jack's house. He came back to The Mountain the next day, thinking about the future, and discovered there wasn't going to be one. He supposes he should ask them to send him back through the Mirror while there's still time, but what can he do on the other side without help they can't give him now?
"Well, get some rest, would you? By tomorrow, I think you're gonna be the only person down here that reads Goa'uld, and Carter's probably gonna need a little help with those mothership blueprints."
"We can't let him win," Daniel says. He isn't sure himself who he means: Apophis or Senator Kinsey.
"We never let them win," Jack says firmly. "Come on now. Get some sleep. Do that, and we'll all go out for pizza later. Or maybe Chinese."
"It's been a long time since I've seen the sun," Daniel says plaintively. He thinks of the eternal sunshine of the Land of Light. They could save a few hundred people -- of all the peoples of Earth -- if they sent them there. If there was enough time.
"Hate to tell you, but I think it's raining up there. Still."
"Yeah. Okay. Sleep." He's sure he can't sleep, but Jack's words have given him hope. Nuclear weapons destroyed Ra's ship. They can destroy Apophis's. Daniel sits down on the bed and begins to unlace his boots.
General Hammond is in Washington for three days, and the SGC becomes progressively emptier during that time as his staff follows the orders they've been given before he left. The Teams have been stood down and sent home on leave; the Infirmary is on a skeleton staff; nearly everybody on 18 has been sent home and half the techs on 19 are gone. The only people in the SGC are the technical staff, the maintenance crews, the clerical and support people, and the security force.
And SG-1.
And him, of course. He has nowhere else to be. If the Program is shut down, well, it doesn't matter, as Earth is doomed. But if not...
He needs to go home.
"I'd send you back right now if I could," Sam says. "But you have to understand. There are millions of quantum variations. I know yours is close to ours, relatively speaking -- but finding the right one -- exactly -- could take weeks. I don't have weeks. If I guess wrong, I could kill you."
They both look toward the Quantum Mirror. It's dark; just a piece of rock. Time is the one thing Sam doesn't have, and they both know it. The Mirror is supposed to be shipped to Area 51 along with the rest of the alien artifacts, but so far Sam has managed to block that.
"Ah?" Daniel says, looking puzzled. Sam goes on.
"It was lucky for you that you came to a universe where you didn't still exist. If you'd gone through the Mirror into one where you were still alive, well, two identical objects can't co-exist. Either you both would have died, or ... just you."
"Why me?" He's curious in spite of everything.
"You'd be the most recent arrival, and inherently unstable."
"Maybe there would just have been a really big explosion."
Sam smiles grimly. "There's that."
Daniel looks back at the Mirror. Home is somewhere through it -- Sha're, Skaara, and a world he needs to save. But right now he feels the need to be here, too.
Maybe he can still do some good.
He's down in Robert's office again when Jack pokes his head through the door. The two of them are closing down the Department practically by themselves. There are a thousand things to do; deciding what artifacts get shipped to what archives, just to begin with. He and Robert have been overseeing the packing and crating up on 14, with a few breaks back in the office to try to keep up with the endless demands from Area 51 for information they simply don't have any more. If they did the packing right it would take months to clear out Cataloguing and Translation. They're not doing it right. He and Robert have at least been trying to make sure that the airmen don't break anything, not that its going to matter if General Hammond can't win in Washington.
"Okay," Jack announces to the room at large, "the commissary food officially sucks. Come on, you guys, we're going out for lunch."
"I've really got a lot of work to finish up here, Colonel," Robert says nervously. Daniel expects Jack to snap something back -- they're all under a lot of stress -- but he doesn't. Jack is looking at Robert with a very odd expression. Then Jack looks at him.
"Daniel?" Jack asks.
"Pizza or Chinese?" Daniel asks in return. He's already getting to his feet.
"O'Malley's," Jack says.
O'Malley's is busy and noisy and Sam looks puzzled about being dragged out of The Mountain for lunch; she doesn't have as much work to do as Daniel and Robert do, but there's still a lot. Teal'c just looks impassive. He's going to die when Apophis reaches Earth, but he hasn't said a word about it.
Jack waits until the server has taken their orders and left.
"General Hammond got back from Washington this morning," he tells them. "Kinsey won't budge. The Joint Chiefs won't move on the basis of Teal'c's info to overrule him."
"What about Teal'c?" Daniel asks. "They've at least got to let him go home to his family."
"Oh, they will," Jack says sourly. "Next month some time, Hammond figures. Kinsey's a compassionate man."
"Next month will be too late," Teal'c observes calmly.
Jack sighs deeply. "Yeah, it will. So I figure we fire up the Gate now. From Chulak, I figure I can get to those other coordinates, maybe do a little damage. I won't have a nuke, but there's still plenty of C-4 in the armory."
Teal'c regards him impassively. "We will go there together, O'Neill."
For a moment -- here in a crowded restaurant in Colorado Springs -- it’s a replay of that moment at the Chulak Gate. Only this time both Jack and Teal'c are going off on a suicide mission, and Daniel knows he can't let them go alone.
"I'm going with you," Daniel says. "We're all going together, right?"
Daniel sees Jack hesitate, making up his mind. But Jack will take him, Daniel knows he will. It's why he's here and Robert isn't.
Jack nods briefly, then looks at Sam. "Captain?" Jack says. "This isn't an order. In fact, it's probably treason. If we get back alive -- which I seriously doubt -- you and I are going to be court-martialed."
Sam smiles. "Yes, Colonel. Thank you. I understand that. I'm going." She hesitates. "What about Robert?"
"Dr. Rothman has a previous engagement, Carter."
After lunch, they spend most of the rest of the day stealing what they need. C-4, weapons, commando gear, a MALP. All of Daniel's gear has to be replaced, but that isn't very difficult.
Jack sends Robert home precisely at 1700 hours.
They wait until midnight to make their move.
They couldn't do this at all if the SGC weren't in the middle of being shut down, because the Gate Room and the Control Room would be filled with soldiers and techs. But General Hammond is in his quarters, and Level 28 is deserted. Nobody even notices the patchwork SG-1 in full commando gear -- plus MALP -- making their way to the Gate Room from the armory.
He isn't carrying much besides a Beretta, grenades, and thirty pounds of C-4. None of them is carrying much besides explosives this trip.
They have to send a MALP through first because they're dead if they walk into the middle of a bunch of Jaffa, but the delay is going to increase the risk of them being stopped before they can get through the Gate. A trade-off, but one Jack insisted on. Jack and Sam disable all the doors between the Gate Room and everywhere else, but the moment Daniel punches in the coordinates Teal'c has given him, warning klaxons sound throughout the Base. General Hammond will be here in minutes, and he will have no choice but to arrest them all.
They send the MALP through. Dark on the other side. Sam switches to infra-red.
"Goa'uld," Daniel says, seeing the familiar not-quite-Egyptian motifs appear.
Sam sends a radio signal to the MALP to retreat. It will dissolve once it enters the event horizon going 'backward', but they don't dare leave it where it is.
They run for the Gate.
They're not on a planet. They're not even on a normal ha'tak -- they get to a window where they can look out and see. They're on something much bigger -- something that can contain a Stargate. And they're trapped.
They have their C-4, but Shau'nac said there were two ships. Even if they blow up this ship, the other will still reach Earth.
"Oh, god," Daniel groans. "We've failed."
"Not yet," Jack says absently. "There's gotta be a way to get over to the other ship. We'll think of something. Now you and Carter go make yourselves interesting while Teal'c and I go talk to the driver of this bus."
"Jack--" he says. He isn't sure what he wants to say. Be careful? Pretty stupid advice considering that this is a suicide mission.
"Run along and play," Jack says. "We'll rendezvous back at the Gate Room."
For the next hour he and Sam set charges, until all their C-4 is gone; the time they spent going over the information on ha'taks that they got from Teal'c has paid off; Sam is sure that the ship will explode when the C-4 does. She's careful, setting the charges to trigger with both a timer and a radio detonator, though she'll have to be fairly close for the radio detonator to work. Based on the coordinates -- and Teal'c's estimate of the top speed of a ha'tak -- the ship will take weeks to reach Earth, but even if it's only a few days, Sam has set the timer to go off in 24 hours: long before the ship reaches Earth. They just need to find a way to get to the other ship to do the same thing, though Sam thinks there's a good possibility that the explosion of one ship in hyperspace will destroy both.
So Earth is safe, though Daniel will never see Abydos again.
Sam's placing her last few blocks of C-4 on the Stargate itself. Not that she thinks she can blow it up, but there's the possibility that the naquaadah will increase the force of the explosion and at least disable the DHD. Teal'c was fairly certain that nobody would come to the Gate Room while the ships were in transit -- that's why they picked the Gate Room for their rendezvous point -- but while Sam's working, they hear people coming and hide.
It's Skaara. The Jaffa address him as 'my lord Klorel,' and Daniel feels a wave of revulsion: his playful, laughing brother-in-law, Sha're's brother, has become the host of the son of Apophis.
Jack and Teal'c are Klorel's prisoners. There is a form of vo'cuum linked to the Stargate, and through it Klorel reports this news to Apophis, who orders him to execute them on the pel'tac, where the Jaffa may witness their deaths.
Daniel and Sam go to rescue them.
But everything goes wrong, even though they manage to fight their way onto the pel'tac. They don't have weeks or even days until Apophis's ships reach Earth. They're in Earth's solar system now. They can't get to the second ship -- they don't have Klorel as a hostage, because Jack had to kill him to save Daniel's life.
They're trapped on the pel'tac, out of transmitter range of the C-4. And then they're captured.
He awakens blind. In the darkness, he hears Teal'c's voice telling Jack that this is the aftereffects of a Goa'uld shock grenade, and it will soon pass. Daniel doesn't care.
He saw a sarcophagus earlier. Klorel will rise from the dead. His resurrection will be brief; his ship will explode within a day. But by then all the cities of Earth will be gone.
He finds a wall by touch and curls up against it.
"Daniel? Hey. Take it easy. We're just having a bad day, that's all," Jack says out of the darkness.
"Everyone on Earth is going to die," Daniel says. "It happened in my universe and now it's happening here! We tried to stop it and we failed! We failed!"
"Just calm down. It's going to get better," Jack says calmly. "You'll see."
His sight comes back slowly, and by the time it does, Daniel can see Jack prowling the cell, looking for a way out. They all hear the sound of Jaffa boots in the corridor and Daniel gets to his feet. He's not sure what's coming, but he doesn't think it can be good.
But Jack was right and he is wrong. It does get better.
Master Bra'tac is the one who comes to their cell. He's come -- not to rescue them, precisely -- but to ally himself with them. He has once more become Apophis' First Prime, and for some reason he is here on this ship with Klorel instead of on the other one with Apophis. He tells them that the ships are holding off their attack against Earth until Klorel rises again.
Sam says that it's now less than an hour until the C-4 goes off on its timer. They've been unconscious for most of a day, which means that Klorel will rise soon. It only took the sarcophagus half a day to revive Daniel when he was killed on Abydos, so even though Jack shot Klorel several times, Daniel does not think it can take much longer for Klorel.
Bra'tac says he knows of a way to get to the other ship. There are transport rings on the pel'tac deck. If they can reach them, and make their way to Apophis' ship, there's still a chance. For what, Daniel isn't sure.
Bra'tac gets their vests and weapons back -- though he cannot get the packs with the rest of their explosives -- and they make their way upward through the mothership.
They stop outside the door to the pel'tac. Bra'tac insists on going in alone, saying they'll know when it is time to follow. A moment later -- even through the door -- they hear the now-familiar whine of the ribbon device.
"Let's go!" Jack says. "Daniel, watch our backs."
Sam thrusts her MP5 at him and follows Jack through the door. Sam has one of those Jaffa weapons -- a zat'nik'atel. Of course Jack is already calling them 'zats.'
Daniel hears gunfire and screams from inside. He's out here because it's safer, but he doesn't really feel safe. He draws his Beretta as well.
A moment later two Jaffa come around the corner and he opens up with both the MP5 and the Beretta. The submachine gun rides up in his hand and the noise is deafening. He yells for Jack, but he can't even hear the sound of his own voice over the sound of the weapon. Some of the bullets glance off the heavy armored Jaffa collars. Most plow right in through the chainmail. One ricochets upward, and one of the Jaffas' faces is gone in a spray of blood. Daniel stares in horrified fascination, barely remembering to release his grip on the trigger as they begin to fall. It's over so fast.
He's doing fine until the third one appears. He starts to swing the MP5 back into firing position again, but he's too late. The Jaffa lowers his staff-weapon and fires.
He's been hit by one of these before. He remembers it from Abydos. The shock. The pain. The fact that the blast from a staff weapon doesn't just burn; the pulse hits as hard as a bullet, and Daniel is flung backward as hard as if he'd been punched. He feels things snap and give in his chest. It makes his hand clutch the trigger again, and he sprays the corridor with bullets, a jerky uncoordinated burst that catches his attacker across the knees. The Jaffa bows into the last of the burst and his face explodes.
Then Jack is there, lifting him up. Daniel feels more things tear inside.
"Daniel! Dammit!"
I just keep dying, don't I? Jack can't be here now. They don't have time.
"No! Leave me. I'll be dead anyway -- just get out of here -- go!"
"I am not leaving you here!" Jack is still dragging him upright, trying to get him on his feet.
"Get out of here!" Daniel gasps. "You're just going to blow up with the other ship anyway! Go! Just -- go! I'll stay and -- and -- and watch your back."
Because he's dying.
Jack lowers him gently to the deck again. He ruffles Daniel's hair quickly, and then he's gone.
Daniel scrabbles until he gets his hands on the MP5 again. It feels slippery and heavy in his hands -- heavier than before -- and the front of his shirt is wet. But he kicks backward until he has a bulkhead at his back and can push himself into a sitting position. He blinks, forcing his eyes open wide. The corridor is clear.
Breathing hurts, and he tries to concentrate. The others have to have had a clear shot at the rings. They've already gone. Maybe they can destroy the other ship. Save Earth, if not themselves.
There's a sarcophagus in the Gate Room. If I can get there I have a chance...
He loops the carrystrap of the gun over his shoulder and drags himself to his feet. The pain is so bad it blinds him for a moment; he's panting, short shallow breaths that don't seem to bring him any air. He takes a wavering step and hears something snap underfoot. His glasses. Doesn't matter, since he can't really see, but it angers him that he keeps losing his glasses.
He inches down the hallway slowly, clinging to the wall. He's fading fast, and the ship will go up soon, but it's important to keep trying. Jack would want to know that he kept trying to stay alive, though there won't be any way -- this time -- to let him know.
The sarcophagus is a long way from here. He'll never make it.
Got to try.
Keep moving.
The wall is rough beneath his palms, covered with alien hieroglyphs, but his hands are slick with sweat and keep slipping. When they do, he lurches harder into the wall than he intends to. Tears and sweat are running down his face, but he forces himself onward. Will the sarcophagus be there? Will it work in time to save him?
It's getting dark.
Move.
He slips in his own blood and falls, and the impact makes him scream. But it's all right, nearly there, he drags himself up again and hammers wildly at the door opening mechanism, lurching through on will alone, knowing he's dying by heartbeats. The sarcophagus is there, and right now he doesn't care if the ship explodes while he's in it; all he cares about is getting into it because that means the pain will stop.
Move.
He drags himself to the edge of the sarcophagus and falls in. Pain steals his breath at the impact, and as the wings of the lid fold over him, the light surrounds him.
A month ago they saved the Earth from the Goa'uld. O'Neill isn't sure how he feels about Skaara being dead. He'd like to grieve for him, but he's seen Klorel up close now. So it seems almost like a release.
"You sure you've got everything you need?"
"Yes, Jack, I'm sure," Daniel says patiently.
Daniel is standing in front of the Quantum Mirror in Carter's office. He's been going back and forth through it all morning, since you can only go through the Mirror with what you're actually carrying, and he needs to take a lot of ... stuff.
Guns. Ammunition. Explosives. Grenades. Medical supplies.
A GDO, just in case.
Books. Not Daniel's kind, though there are a few of those, too. Books on tactics. Survival. Evasion and escape. Books on making weapons. Everything you need to start a rebellion.
And -- O'Neill hopes -- win one.
"Spare glasses?"
Daniel grins at him. "Three pairs in hard-sided cases. And a repair kit."
"Good. Now remember, get off 233 as fast as possible. Teal'c says it's... Crush Me."
"Korosh-ni, O'Neill. The planet is not safe for human life. But I believe that Daniel Jackson will be safe for as long as it takes him to transport his equipment to the Stargate and return to the Land of Light."
"You're sure about this?" O'Neill asks, although he's pretty sure that Daniel's sure.
A month ago he, Carter, Teal'c, and Master Bra'tac got back to the SGC to find Daniel waiting for them. He'd managed to get to Klorel's sarcophagus, then used the Stargate on the Goa'uld ship to go through to the Land of Light. He'd radioed the SGC from there, and Hammond had brought him home.
Only this isn't Daniel's home. His Earth is gone, but Daniel's a survivor. A fighter. He's going to fight for Abydos now. Maybe he can still save Sha're. O'Neill has promised they'll still try to save her here.
"I'm sure," Daniel says. "And Jack? Thanks. For everything."
"Call it even," O'Neill says. "And Daniel? Kill a few of the snakeheads for me."
"I'll do my best."
Daniel hugs Carter -- awkwardly; the pack on his back is heavy -- and Teal'c clasps his forearm in that Jaffa thing. He turns to O'Neill, holding out his hand, and they shake formally. Daniel grins, as if they're sharing a private joke. Maybe they are.
Then he turns away and touches the Mirror one last time. There's a flash of light, and he's on the other side. He waves to them, then turns away, starting to gather his equipment together. O'Neill takes the controller from Carter's hands and shuts it down. The Mirror goes dark.
See you around, Dr. Jackson.
"Come on, kids. Let's find Rothman and see what the Commissary is doing about lunch."