He flexed his tingling fingers and tried to pull his thoughts together.
Their situation was bad. Daniel — wherever the hell he was — needed urgent medical attention and the mission to Tollana was a little over twenty-four hours away.
Worse still, he felt like his team was falling apart, and he was starting to doubt that, even if they got out of this mess, he’d be able to rebuild the trust that had once bound them so closely.
He was tempted, so tempted, to drop the whole charade and just tell them everything. But Hammond’s orders had been explicit: No one can know, Jack. Not even your team. The future of the planet depends on the success of this mission.
Jack knocked his head back against the rocky wall in frustration. Sometimes he wished he was more of the maverick everyone imagined him to be, but while there might come a time — and soon — when he felt it necessary to disobey Hammond’s orders, he hadn’t reached that point yet.
So he had to carry on. He had to keep up the jackass routine, get them home, save Daniel, betray his team and save the world. Again.
And after that? Hell, after that he was going fishing. And no one could stop him.
Beneath his hand, Carter stirred. She opened her eyes, winced in pain, and groaned.
“You’re okay,” he said, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “It gets better.”
“Sir… ?” She blinked, rubbed at her face with clumsy hands. “God, what happened… ?”
“They shot us,” he said. And what he wanted to add was, You were right, by the way. We should have stayed at the camp, close to the gate. But he couldn’t — all part of the act — so he just said, “Daniel and Teal’c are missing.”
“What?” She struggled to sit up and he helped her, resting her back against the wall next to him. “How long have they been gone?”
“I only just woke up,” he said, watching as she started shaking the pins-and-needles out of her hands. “That’ll take a few minutes.”
She nodded, but didn’t look at him. He hated that she was wary around him now. “That was no zat, sir,” she said.
“No.”
“But I’d sure like to take a look at one of those weapons.”
A creak drew his eyes to the door. “You just might get that chance, Major,” he said, pushing himself to his feet. She tried to follow, but he waved her back down. “Stay there.”
He took a step forward as the door opened and Aedan Trask strolled into the cell. He was still armed, although the weapon dangled casually from a hand hanging loose at his side. “Ah,” he said, smiling, “you’re awake. How do you feel?”
“You shot us.” Jack put himself between Aedan and Carter. “How do you think I feel?”
“Apologies for that,” Aedan said, although he didn’t sound very apologetic. “This is a dangerous world, eh? But no harm was done. The stunner only disables you for a short time.”
Jack glanced past the man’s shoulder but couldn’t see anyone else. The door opened onto a narrow passageway and he could see more light at the end of it and hear a bubble of chatter. He wondered how hard it would be to rush the man, to grab his weapon. If Carter had been less incapacitated…
He heard her scramble awkwardly to her feet behind him, no doubt thinking along the same lines. Unfortunately, so was Aedan Trask. He lifted the weapon, aimed it loosely in their direction. “No need for any of that,” he said. “You’re not our prisoners.”
“Really? Then I gotta tell you, your guest rooms suck.”
From behind him, Carter said, “Where are our weapons?”
“In a safe place,” Aedan said. “You’ll have them again when you leave. In the meantime, your friends are enjoying our hospitality.”
Jack lifted an eyebrow. “Are they, now?”
Stepping back from the door, Aedan gestured down the passage with his weapon. “See for yourself. Your friend, Teal’c, woke quickly from the stunner and we didn’t use it on your injured companion. Meagan, our medic, is treating him. Come on.” He flicked his head towards the door. “It’s a cold night, but the fire’s warm and we’ve food to share. You’re welcome here, Jack O’Neill and Carter.”
“It’s Sam,” she said, moving on wobbly legs to stand next to Jack. “My friends call me Sam.”
Aedan smiled. “Sam,” he said. “Come on, your friends are waiting.”
With that he turned his back on them, leaving the door open, and headed down the narrow passageway. If they’d wanted to jump him, now was the perfect moment.
Jack looked at Carter, silently asking her opinion.
“I believe him, sir,” she said with a shrug. “For what it’s worth.”
He wanted to say, It’s worth a lot. But all he allowed himself to say was, “Me too.” And then he headed out after Aedan, forcing himself to leave Carter, still woozy from the stunner, to follow as best she could.
“There.” The woman — Meagan — sat back on her heels and admired her handiwork with a pragmatic eye. “You’ll be more comfortable now, Daniel.”
He lay on his back on a straw pallet, his shirt pushed up to expose the gash in his side. Meagan had washed out the FastClot and he felt better for it. There was no new bleeding either, which he took as a good sign. Then she’d covered his wound with a herbal poultice that she claimed would prevent infection — interesting, he’d noted through the pain, that she knew the word ‘infection’ — and redressed the wound with a sterile dressing from Daniel’s pack.
As she tied off the bandage, Daniel opened his eyes. The worst of the pain was over now and he could concentrate on the world again.
“Daniel Jackson.” Teal’c sat at his side, watching him with the steady focus he’d learned to interpret as concern. “Would you like me to administer a dose of morphine?”
Yes, he thought. And no. He started to tug his shirt down, but Meagan batted away his hands and did it herself with an irritated tsk-tsk. She was one of the oldest women in the group, although it was difficult to judge her age accurately in the smoky yellow light of their lamps. He thought he’d put her at about forty. Not old by American standards, yet she was clearly treated with the reverence of an elder here and it was unsurprising given that everyone else looked so young. Her hair was graying, braided and beaded like all the others, her eyes merry with lines around them that crinkled when she smiled. “Morphine?” she said, considering the word. “What is that?”
“It helps with pain,” Daniel explained, wincing as he shifted to allow her to readjust his shirt. “But it leaves you pretty out of it.”
Meagan frowned at the expression. “It clouds your mind?”
“Yes,” he said, and glanced at Teal’c. “Maybe later?” He wanted to talk to these people while he was still lucid, first and foremost about the whereabouts of Jack and Sam.
Teal’c nodded and turned his eyes on the rest of the room. He was uneasy, but that was an improvement on his previous state of ‘extremely pissed off’.
When Teal’c had woken from the stun blast halfway into the cave network, the confrontation had almost proven disastrous, but luckily Teal’c’s reflexes had been fogged by the stunner and Daniel had been conscious enough to talk him down before he could do too much damage. Nonetheless, a couple of Aedan’s men were sporting bruises and black-eyes and casting Teal’c wary glances from the far side of the room or, rather, the cave. Teal’c had set himself up like a sentry next to Daniel and, despite being unarmed, was watching the whole room as if daring anyone to challenge him. So far, no one had accepted that dare.
“Can you help me sit up?” Daniel asked Meagan.
“You’re a stubborn one,” she said, but not without approval. She nodded to Teal’c. “Take his other arm, help me.”
In silence Teal’c did so and between them they eased Daniel upright. There was something solid behind him, like a heavy cushion, and he leaned against it for a moment as he adjusted to the new level of pain and then waited for it to recede.
Meagan watched through narrowed eyes. “
I’ll fetch you something,” she decided, “for the pain and the fever. It’ll not cloud your mind.”
Daniel nodded his thanks, teeth gritted and still unable to speak. Next to him, Teal’c shifted restlessly.
“I am concerned for O’Neill and Major Carter,” he said, his gaze turning toward the room to which they’d been taken to sleep off the effects of the stunner. “Why have they not woken yet?”
“Junior?” Daniel managed, with a feeble gesture toward Teal’c’s stomach. It was the obvious explanation, but Teal’c didn’t look convinced.
Meagan returned then, holding a steaming wooden cup in her hands. “Here,” she said, offering it to Daniel. “It’ll help.”
He sniffed — it smelled herbal, faintly acrid.
“Are you sure that is wise, Daniel Jackson?”
Meagan frowned. “It’ll do him good,” she said, offended. “I’ve a fair bit of skill in medicine.”
“I can tell that you do,” Daniel said, smoothing things over. “And, really, thank you Meagan. For everything.” He blew on the steaming liquid and took a tentative sip. It was soothing, if just for the heat alone, and he felt himself start to relax. “It’s good,” he said, taking another sip. “Very good.”
Megan cast Teal’c a triumphant look and stood up. “When you’ve supped that,” she said to Daniel. “You should rest.”
“Okay,” he said. “But first I was hoping I could ask a few questions… ?”
Her head tipped to one side she said, “About what?”
“Um, well, everything really.”
“Everything is a big subject.”
He laughed a little, and then winced at the jolt of pain. Although, actually, it was more like discomfort now that he came to think about it. He eyed the drink with rather more respect and took another sip. “Let’s say, your world then,” he said. “What’s it called?”
Meagan shrugged. “We’ve no use to call it anything of note. It’s our home and nothing else.”
“But what about when you speak of it to others?”
“Others?” She frowned, but then her face straightened into a sterner expression. “The only ‘others’ are the Devourers. And we don’t speak to them.”
There was that name again. Devourers. It sounded terrifying and Daniel wondered what sort of people it could describe. He hoped they’d have no call to meet them any time soon.
“But what about your lives, the history of your people?”
“Ah…” Megan gave a small smile, settling a little, her eyes creasing. “Then you should speak to Elspeth. She wastes her days learning about such nonsense.”
Nonsense? Okay. He glanced around the room. “And Elspeth is… ?”
Meagan looked about and then called out, “Elspeth Burne!”
Elspeth was the girl from earlier, he remembered now, from outside the caves. She was sitting on the other side of the fire, eating one of the MRE’s Daniel had dished out in exchange for their help, and looked up, startled, when Meagan called her name. “Come here, girl,” Meagan said, beckoning her over. “The stranger wants to ask you about all that nonsense you peddle.”
With a muttered word to the women she was sitting with, Elspeth stood up — taking the MRE pack with her — and made her way over to Daniel.
“Hello,” he said as she came to stand in front of him, looking down with an appraising expression. “I’m Daniel. I, ah, didn’t mean to disturb your meal.”
Meagan made an impatient gesture and Elspeth sat on the end of the Daniel’s pallet, crossing her legs beneath her. “You didn’t,” she said, and carried on eating. She glanced again at Meagan, and then at Daniel, and said, “What is it you wanted to know?”
“Everything,” Meagan said, with a roll of her eyes. “So that should keep you talking all night.” She gestured again to Daniel. “Drink it all, and then rest. You’ll feel better tomorrow.”
He watched her as she made her way across the room. Aedan had emerged from one of the passageways that led onto the room, and they stopped to talk together. This room, Daniel figured, was a kind of central point — a gathering place and living space for the small community.
“Meagan doesn’t hold with tales of the past,” Elspeth said, sniffing at a packet of crackers. “She thinks it’s a waste of time learning them, she only wants to learn what she can use now. Like herb lore and so on.”
“Well, she has a point,” Daniel said, turning back to the girl. No, girl wasn’t right. She was a young woman, hardened and lean like all her people. “But I think that stories of the past can help us too, they can teach us lessons — point in the direction we should travel.”
“Aye…” She looked at him with surprise, eyes widening. “That’s what I think, that’s exactly how I feel. But no one here agrees, they say there’s no time for that. They say I’ve a head full of dreams.”
He laughed. “Oh, I can so identify.”
The expression puzzled her, but didn’t dim the light in her eyes. He recognized it at once, the pleasure of discovering a kindred spirit.
“So,” he said, “tell me about your people. Meagan says this world has no name.”
Elspeth pursed her lips and then said, “She’s right in a way. You’ll not find a soul in this room who’d give it a name, though I’ve seen it called the Lallans.”
“Seen it?” asked Daniel. “Where?”
“In the books,” replied Elspeth, but then pressed her lips together as if she’d revealed something she shouldn’t. Too late, though. Daniel had heard the magic word.
“You have books? Where? Can you show me?”
“I don’t like to show them. Most people mock me. They don’t understand.”
“I promise I wouldn’t mock you, Elspeth. I’d really like to see.”
But it was no use; the girl shook her head, braids fluttering about her shoulders and Daniel knew that pushing the matter wouldn’t help. He settled for the next best thing.
“Then tell me what you’ve found. Tell me about your past. Your people.”
“My people?” she said with a speculative look. “Do we not share the same past, Daniel? Or do you truly come from the world beyond the Eye?”
Teal’c shifted, making his presence known, a reminder not to say too much.
Daniel cleared his throat. “Ultimately, we all share the same past,” he said. “But some of us know more about it than others, and you strike me as someone who has a lot to teach.”
Elspeth nodded, looking pleased, her braided hair swaying and the beads clattering together. “That’s true.”
Scholars were the same the world over, it appeared; academic vanity was always their weak point. “And I would be honored,” he said, “if you’d share with me what you’ve learned.”
“Very well, then,” Elspeth said, settling herself. “The story of our people begins with the war.”
“The war that destroyed the Stargate?”
“The war,” she said, like she was telling a story, “that destroyed everything.”
And this, he thought, with a sudden fierce joy, this is why I still do the job. After the trauma of losing Sha’re, of losing his purpose, this was the reason he still got up in the morning.
“Tell me —”
“Daniel.”
Startled, he glanced up to see Jack prowling into the room. Brow furrowed he was scanning the area with his customary vigilance, checking for exits and hidden dangers. Daniel could practically see his fingers twitching for lack of a weapon. “Jack,” he said. “Feeling better?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing.”
He raised his cup in salute. “Much better.”
“Daniel…” Jack’s frown dug deeper. “What have I told you about drinking the local brew?”
“I did endeavor to warn him,” Teal’c said. “I was unsuccessful.”
Daniel met Jack’s gaze and held it. They were both smart men and they both knew the likely outcome if he didn’t get home soon. “I figured, what’s the worst that could
happen?”
Jack just grunted in reply and moved further into the room, picking his way through the people gathered around the fire, eating and watching him with open curiosity. Eventually he reached Daniel and dropped down on the floor next to him. He stifled a groan as he did so, as if moving was an effort, and sat there for a moment flexing his fingers, shaking them like he had pins-and-needles.
“Where’s Sam?” Daniel said, looking around. “Aedan said she was with you.”
“She’s coming.”
And a moment later Sam appeared at the end of passageway, one hand braced against the wall for support, looking groggy and unstable on her feet.
Teal’c immediately stood up. “Major Carter.” He flung a disapproving look at Jack. “You require assistance.”
She tried to wave him away. “I’m fine.”
But Teal’c ignored her, hurrying over to take her arm and lead her to a space on the opposite side of the fire. “Sit here,” he said. “I will find you food and water.”
With a grateful smile she eased herself to the ground. “Thanks, Teal’c.”
Jack said nothing, his angry glare apparently engrossed by the dancing flames.
Looking between them, Daniel couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. “Is she okay —?”
“She’s fine,” he growled. He jerked his head toward Aedan, who was still talking to Megan on the other side of the room. “You find out anything useful yet?”
Swallowing his irritation — and admittedly this wasn’t really the time or the place to make a scene — Daniel resettled his glasses on his nose and said, “As a matter of fact, Elspeth was about to tell me about the war.”
“When they nuked the gate?”
“I don’t know. That’s what she was about to tell me.”
Jack gave a shrug as if to say, Don’t let me stop you.
So he didn’t. Elspeth was watching the exchange curiously, her inquisitive gaze darting between Daniel and Jack, as she steadily worked through the last of his MRE as if it were the finest meal she’d ever eaten. Perhaps it was. But she smiled when he looked at her again, licking gravy from her fingers.
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