Diamonds Amongst Glass

 

by Travelling One

 

 

 

Email: travelling_one@yahoo.ca

Web: http://www.travellingone.com

Summary: On a paranoid tourist planet, SG1 is accused of being spies.

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. I have written this story for entertainment purposes and no copyright infringement is intended. Any original characters, situations, and storylines are the property of the author. Archive only with permission please.

October/03

 

NOTES: If this story is having problems fully loading, please press "Stop" and then "Refresh". If this doesn't work, please let me know. - T.O.

---

Amazing, the difference between reality and the indistinct transmissions relayed via computer monitor.

 

The MALP had shown people meandering around this massive hall, but apparently the Stargate had been facing away from the main area of activity. All the action, it seemed, was taking place to the rear of this cavernous architectural masterpiece. The interior of this structure was brightly lit, and now clear unobstructed visibility indicated long rows of transparent elongated transport vehicles, each filled with colourful seats and a varied assortment of passengers. Pausing before carrying onwards at sporadic intervals, the glass hovercrafts contributed to a choreographed choas of movement, colour, and sound.

 

As Jack kept a tight grip on his weapon, Daniel smiled at the uniformed man casually approaching them. "He looks friendly, Jack," Daniel whispered as they headed down the gate's walkway. Judging by the amount of activity around them, it did seem as though visitors through this Stargate were not an uncommon occurrence.

 

The usher, however, came no closer, nor did he speak. Instead, he motioned the four guests forward, pointing them around the gate to a line that had already formed behind a series of counters.

 

"What is this?" Jack muttered at Daniel's side, as SG1 took their places in the nearest queue.

 

Daniel was keeping a sharp eye on those up front. "I'm not sure yet." Frowning in concentration, he watched as small objects were pulled from people's packs and pockets, then handed to the employees manning the counters. "Jack?… I think…" He frowned as yet another individual left the line pocketing multiple small cards.

 

Jack wrinkled up his eyes. "I need more clues, Daniel."

 

"This looks a hell of a lot like a currency exchange, Jack."

 

Jack whooshed a quick breath from his lips. "We're in a currency exchange lineup? For crying out loud, Daniel. What are we going to exchange?"

 

"Well I don't know, Jack. Why don't I try to find out?"

 

"Our turn is soon approaching, Daniel Jackson."

 

Daniel tried desperately to hear the language being spoken at the counter, but could comprehend none of what was being said.

 

"Daniel Jackson!"

 

"Teal'c? What is it?"

 

Teal'c was looking curiously at a sign on the wall behind the seated employees; it seemed to be a list of some sort. "One of those words says 'Goa'uld'."

 

"What?" Jack exclaimed.

 

"Wait, Jack; he's right. But I recognize three of the other words as well; they're languages from three of the planets we've visited, each one using its own alphabetical symbols. I have no idea what the rest of the list refers to."

 

"And the words mean… what, Daniel?"

 

"Just the name of the language itself."

 

"What do you think it's for, Daniel?" Carter had been quiet, watching the activity in this place that looked like the junction of the universe. More people were coming out of the Stargate now and being directed to the end of the lines.

 

"I think it's all just a list of languages, Sam. I'm not sure what the choice is for though."

 

"Holy cow. Souvenirs?"

 

"What?" Daniel's gaze followed Jack's, his vision alighting upon what his other three teammates had just noticed. A long platform running perpendicular to the exchange counter displayed palm-sized replicas of the stargate, along with small DHDs. Daniel couldn't help smiling; such a paperweight would look great on his desk at the SGC. Or maybe they were pencil sharpeners, or booklights... he could use some of those, too. Daniel chuckled at the thought of Jack playing with his newest toy, spinning the gate while his pencils grew shorter.

 

Jack looked at Daniel suspiciously. "Here I was, thinking you archaeologists have to dig for your artifacts. You buy them?"

 

"State of the art archaeology, Jack."

 

SG1's turn approached and Jack held back, motioning Daniel up to the booth, before stepping up beside him. Pointing, the man behind the counter indicated the sign on the wall, then looked questioningly at the group of four and waited.

 

"Um, Jack?" Daniel whispered. "I think he wants to know which language we speak."

 

"Well, you and Teal'c both know Goa'uld," Jack shrugged. "Go for it." Stay alert, watch their reaction, change your response if the situation calls for it. Hell, it is one of their choices.

 

As Daniel spoke the word, the man cast him an odd look. Bored, almost. "Do you understand Goa'uld?" Daniel questioned in that language, and the worker nodded.

 

"That is my job. I speak whatever you need me to speak."

 

Daniel smiled. "You're a linguist."

 

The man waited.

 

"Um… okay… uh, what do we exchange for some of your money?'

 

The employee frowned, studying the newcomers. "This is your first time here? Most travellers bring what they wish to trade. If you have made no plans, this will do for a day." He motioned towards Jack's watch, gingerly touching it. The colonel didn't need to understand the words to know what was going on.

 

"Aw, for crying out loud…." Reluctantly Jack removed his watch, wondering exactly how much money they were getting in return.

 

"Eight hundred sintas." Passing a book and card to Daniel along with a flat gray rectangle of what might be vaguely compared to a linoleum placemat, the worker abruptly said, "Please move on," and Daniel knew he had all he was going to get.

.

"What's that for?" Jack queried, nodding at the book as they stepped aside to make room at the counter for the next traveller.

 

"Uh… I think this is… well, it looks like a phrasebook and dictionary; Goa'uld and their own language," Daniel flipped through the pages. Looking back at the cover, he stared hard at the lettering. Goa'uld phonetics, for pronouncing the words of an unfamiliar language. This would be a new experience.

 

"And what about that, Daniel?" Sam was peering over his shoulder, intent on the gray piece of plastic. There was one small white dot on it, lit up as though from an inner bulb, a mysterious interior florescence.

 

"I have no idea." Daniel touched the white spot, which immediately develped into a tiny photographic representation of the inside of a huge arched building.

 

"Hey! That's where we are!" Jack exclaimed. "So... what is that, a big postcard?" The image did indeed look like the building they were in. Many more white dots had appeared on the mat as well.

 

Daniel touched another of these, and the exterior of another building developed immediately, joined to the first by a green line. Jack put his finger on a third dot, and another building appeared, joined to the second this time by a yellow line. As Daniel touched the first image once more, a white line joined it to the third. "Guys… I think this is a map."

 

Jack observed the reactions of his teammates. Daniel's expression was one of astonishment and curiosity; Carter's eyes were wide with intrigue and wonder, amusement playing at her lips. Teal'c's features were noncommital, but he continued to peek at the map from over Daniel's shoulder.

 

"It's a transit map!" Daniel exclaimed more precisely.

 

"So we play tourist?"

 

Daniel's enthusiastic eyes met Jack's. "Sure."

 

"Think we should we find out what planet this is first?"

 

"O'Neill. The cover of this book says welcome to Kominda."

 

Daniel looked at the long list of writings on the soft yellow cover. "Thanks, Teal'c."

 

"You are most welcome."

 

"So, where to?" Jack looked at his teammates. "Daniel… see if you can find out where their government offices are. Maybe we should try to find out how this place …Come in…da… is run."

 

"And I'd like to wander around outside a bit sir, and see what sorts of technology they have," Sam hinted.

 

"Or maybe, Carter, we should just look for a department store. Then we can buy everything and bring it back with us."

 

"Jack, that watch of yours might not buy us more than a Happy Meal."

 

"Something else for you to find out, Daniel. We'll wait here."

 

_____

 

Forty-five minutes later, after looking up this planet's currency and comparing it to the card they had received, Daniel discovered that he still didn't know how much anything cost or how much the money was worth. They'd have to just wander around and find out for themselves. He had, however, been directed to a location that held supposedly all the information they'd ever need about how this planet - or city, anyway - was run.

 

"Now all we have to do is find the right vehicle," Jack announced a bit too cheerfully.

 

The four teammates looked around at the massive interior space. One far wall of the building opened into tunnels, allowing the transparent moving vehicles, about the length of two train cars each, to hoveringly maneouver their way over rods - modified state-of-the-art streetcar tracks, if one needed an Earth comparison - and disappear into the darkness beyond. Well, okay, not so much tracks as long single bars of humming glowing material of unidentifiable origin. Between the colours, the movement, and the sounds, SG1's senses were being bombarded with overwhelming stimulation.

 

"Sir, the seat colours inside these vehicles might correlate to the coloured lines on Daniel's map."

 

Jack nodded. "What I was thinking, Major. What colour are we looking for, Daniel?"

 

"Well, the line between this building and the government one is an alternating pattern of purple and white."

 

They looked around. "I don't see a train like that."

 

"There, sir. There's no vehicle there but the illuminated ground rods have the same pattern."

 

"Then I guess that's where we head."

 

As SG1 patiently waited for their transport to arrive, three teammates gazed around in confused awe while Daniel studied more of the language. It was like nothing he'd ever encountered before; without proper verb tenses and grammatical instruction, this book would be relatively inadequate. Phrase books never worked very well at the best of times; one could ask a question but then never understand the response.

 

_____

 

The ride on the vehicle proved to be smooth and effortless, surprisingly comfortable as the plastic-type seats melded to one's backside. There seemed to be a single stop only, and as the sign over the door lit up to display the same image as the building on Daniel's map, all the passengers disembarked.

 

"Follow the crowd,"Jack advised.

 

But people were all heading in different directions.

 

"Follow the pictures of that building," Daniel suggested, pointing to the illuminated pictographic displays on the ceiling. "This system is definitely designed for foreigners."

 

"Space travellers?" Jack queried.

 

"There were other people coming out of the Stargate after we did, Colonel," Carter ageed.

 

As they exited the transport system, SG1 took in their first outdoor views of Kominda, gazing upwards in awe.

 

Buildings surrounded them, monstrosities of glass tinted green, pink, blue, white, yellow. Their senses were bombarded with the novelty of the shapely architecture nestled amongst grassy lawns and colourful rock sculptures. A few pedestrians made their way into buildings that were connected by pathways and gardens; no roads were visible anywhere. No roads seemed necessary, for nowhere in sight were motor vehicles or any sort of surface transit. The air was clear and pure, the sky a faded green with wisps of gaseous clouds high above them.

 

"Wow."

 

"Nice description, Carter. Think we're in the Emerald City?"

 

"Close enough, Jack. What do you say we go meet the wizard?"

 

Jack met Daniel's relaxed gaze with a smirk of his own. "Lead the way, Scarecrow. Which building do you think we're looking for?"

 

"This one," Daniel stated matter-of-factly, pointing to his immediate left. "Scarecrow?"

 

"Use your brain, Daniel." Jack patted his friend's shoulder. "How do you know it's that building?"

 

"Instinct, Jack. I'm an archaeologist, remember? I can tell at a glance what a building is, has been used for, what lies within, what the people ate for lunch,…"

 

"Cut the crap, Daniel." Jack could sense Carter smiling behind him. "It matches the picture on this map, doesn't it."

 

"Perfectly."

 

The team entered the massive yellow glass building, its overhanging balconies creating three-dimensional patterns on the floors above the interior walkway. A row of uniformed women manned a long balcony on the ground floor.

 

"Ask them if we're in the right place to speak with a representative of their government, Daniel."

 

Daniel looked up a few necessary words in his booklet, translating them from Goa'uld. Even while repeating them a few times, he was uncertain as to how he would understand the woman's answer.

 

He need not have worried. Approaching the balcony, Daniel noticed a sign that he already partly recognized. "Guys? Wherever we are it costs forty-nine sintas to get in." That was a total of one hundred and ninety-six for the four of them.

 

Jack stared at Daniel. He'd received eight hundred for his watch.

 

"Daniel Jackson. I believe this building is a government museum." From their vantage point, they could see the interior walls were plastered with written documents, and a few individuals were wandering about, reading the information.

 

"For crying out loud, Daniel…" Leave it to Daniel to find a museum.

 

"Jack, he did say we'd find everything we needed to know here."

 

"Fine, Daniel. Let's pay the woman."

 

_____

 

As the teammates wandered the first and second of many rooms, they knew there was no way they could expect Daniel to interpret any of this stuff. The walls were covered with information, and Daniel's laborious and time-consuming dictionary searches were …boring. Jack was losing patience. "Okay, Daniel. Take a few pictures of these documents and you can work on them at the base."

 

"Okay." Daniel was relieved not to have to do this any longer in front of an impatient, irritable team. Leader. Team leader; Daniel had to admit that Carter and Teal'c were causing him no trouble at all.

 

"Oh!" They heard the exclamation from across the room. "Daniel, you might want to get some pictures of these."

 

Sauntering over to where Sam stood staring at the wall, Daniel recognized even from this distance what had caught her eye.

 

Squishy gel-like 2-D representations of the Asgard.

 

Daniel was still biting a portion of his lower lip when Jack remarked, "Asgard-protected planet, ya think?"

 

"This may be a wanted poster for all we know, Jack."

 

"Maybe you'd better try to read some of this," the CO suggested quietly.

 

"Sir, I really doubt we have anything to worry about. A Goa'uld-run world wouldn't have let technology get this highly developed."

 

"Maybe the slimy parasites just haven't been around in a while, Carter."

 

As Daniel frustratedly attempted to locate the words in the first sentence, his teammates looking on anxiously, he was quickly realizing the grammar of this language could not be translated literally, word for word. "Um, Jack?" Daniel frowned. "I really think I'd better take pictures of this and work on it at home."

 

"Having trouble?" Jack lifted an eyebrow.

 

"Well, I wouldn't say that exactly… I can translate 'very long after sections came with no ears' to mean 'the no-eared people came long ago', but that would be…"

 

"Quite a stretch."

 

"Right."

 

"So, you need more time."

 

"Lots."

 

"Okay. Get what you need and we'll see what else is out there."

 

_____

 

Once again outside, the team looked around at the clean, wide, traffic-less community and the colourful geometrical glass buildings looming above them. A few people walked the pathways but the feeling was of an eerily serene peacefulness.

 

"Everything's constructed in glass." That fact still fascinated Carter.

 

"Maybe they have nothing to hide."

 

Daniel threw Jack a quizzical look. "Must be hell to clean."

 

Jack shrugged, then pointed to where a large pink sign towered over the vast neighbourhood, a few blocks away. "Shall we?" he questioned.

 

"Lead the way, great leader," Daniel smirked.

 

"I'd rather you learn to say 'take me to your leader', but who are we supposed to ask?"

 

"More like, how are we supposed to understand the answer?" Daniel replied, frustrated with his unsuccessful attempts at the language. Translating from English into Goa'uld and then Goa'uld into whatever language they used here, was going to take him a while, and that was an understatement of massive proportions. He wished he was Nox, able to learn a new language within minutes.

 

As the team neared the pink sign they could see it rested on the roof of a multi-levelled building made up basically of round glass bubbles, each bubble glowing in shades of pinks.

 

Hesitating for a few moments as he looked around, Jack decided to lead the way inside.

 

Their eyes widened, and Sam couldn't hold back a chuckle. "Alien version of a fast food court, sir?"

 

Aisles of counters, all piled high with what looked like varying colours of scrambled eggs, were surrounded by locals and possible tourists each taking away platters of lightly coloured mush.

 

"Hungry, Carter?"

 

"That depends if it tastes like Asgard food or not, sir." If this was an Asgard protected world, maybe they'd shared recipes along with technology. Ew.

 

Daniel perked up his head. "You've eaten Asgard food?"

 

"No, Daniel. More like spit it out."

 

Daniel's long incredulous look brought forth no more explanations. Odd; he didn't remember that in any mission reports.

 

"We do not know how much money it costs for the food, O'Neill."

 

"Hell, I traded my watch, Teal'c. Surely it brought at least enough to buy lunch with?"

 

Teal'c only raised an eyebrow. "I do not believe I am hungry, O'Neill. Perhaps later I will indulge in an MRE."

 

"Me too," Daniel nodded.

 

"Fine with me." Jack adjusted his cap. "Let's go then, kids. Seeing as we're on the tourist route, I say we tour."

 

_____

 

"What now?" Jack was staring attentively at his younger male teammate.

 

"How should I know, Jack?" Daniel tossed his CO an innocent look.

 

"What else is on the map, Daniel?"

 

The archaeologist slid his finger from point to point, lighting up the transit routes. "The buildings aren't labelled, Jack."

 

"It appears that we will need to follow each route one at a time," Teal'c concluded.

 

O'Neill nodded his head towards a passing woman seemingly heading away with a purpose. "Or we can follow the people. Let's go." He picked up her trail.

 

"Jack, she may be going home, for all we know."

 

"Good. Let's see where the citizens live."

 

The quartet followed the woman into an underground transit stop. The train that arrived had seats the colour of smoky gray, and contained a handful of occupants. Daniel was busy fingering his map, puzzled. "Jack, this colour isn't on my map."

 

"Really?" Jack looked at his teammate curiously. "Maybe it takes us to the suburbs." Following the woman into the vehicle, SG1 sat on the contoured seats.

 

Ten minutes later, the moving transparent box-like car pulled into its single stop and all occupants rose to leave.

 

They exited onto a street crowded with towering gray buildings, cramped and featureless. There were only black walkways here, the lawns and flowers of the city seemingly non-existent. Every area of space was filled with construction and moving bodies. A few children were playing on smooth geometrical shapes in one open speck of land.

 

"No more glass," Carter observed.

 

"Yet no one's throwing stones," Jack declared lightly, tossing off a peripheral glance at his female scientist. "I wonder if that applies to towers," he remarked, tilting his head in mock inquiry.

 

"Maybe it depends if people live in them, Jack."

 

"Now there's a thought. Let's go find out," the CO directed softly. As the group of four travellers gazed up and around, Jack began to move once again, this time towards one of the largest buildings across the way. "So, ya think we're out of the tourist area, Scarecrow?"

 

______

 

The interior of the building was like nothing they'd ever seen. Layers and layers of row upon row of cylindrical horizontal pods jutted out of the walls from the floor to the ceiling, rising at least four storeys above them and nearly as wide, connected in height by glass-stepped ladders at either end. They could see feet sticking out from about a dozen of these pods, scattered across the vast open walls.

 

"This appears to be similar to a stasis chamber, O'Neill."

 

"Or…" Daniel frowned in contemplation, "the Japanese capsules where travellers spend the night. Only, those are a bit more like rooms. With beds, anyway."

 

Carter looked at Daniel in surprise. "Do you think this is some kind of a hotel, Daniel?"

 

"N…no; we're out of the tourist area, Sam. I think it's maybe more like where the people live."

 

Whistling, Jack raised his eyebrows. "Oh, come on," he exclaimed. At Daniel's startled look, he continued. "They live here?" What about their belongings?

 

"Well, at least it looks like they sleep here," Daniel concluded.

 

"Like a human multi-level parking garage?" Jack turned and made his way towards the nearest doorway in the opposite wall of the structure. Peering in, he saw two rows of pedestals, each with a step at the bottom, separated by low narrow barriers. Three people, two men and one woman, were holding their hands over a long chute pouring out sweet-smelling air. Returning to his small group, he grinned. "Think I've found the facilities," Jack remarked.

 

Once again outside, they could see the sun growing low in the sky. "Now what, Jack?"

 

O'Neill looked at the pedestrian laneways, curious but knowing this was an aimless search and leading to nowhere. What they needed was to learn about this world's form of government and defense, and try to make contact with its leaders. If that was anything like meeting the leaders of Earth, however, it would be a futile and frustrating search.

 

"Let's check out this area a bit more and then head home. We'll ask the general about next steps. Unless, of course, you'd like to sleep in a pod tonight."

 

"Well, actually, I wouldn't mi…"

 

Teal'c cut Daniel off. "I do not believe I could sit in comfort, O'Neill."

 

"I don't think sitting was one of their intended positions, Teal'c." Jack retorted.

 

"As I said."

 

_____

 

They had been roaming the walkways for close to half an hour, witnessing blocks and blocks of similar sleeping quarters. Eating establishments had been on the same scale as the one in the tourist area, but smaller and far less colourful. What appeared to be clothing shops looked like factories all turning out the same merchandise. Perhaps the plain brown clothing was itself the uniform of the common worker or resident.

 

"Jack?" Daniel had his head turned towards what looked like an open and bustling square further down the block. "There's a bit more time before dark. Still feel like exploring?"

 

"Hey, you know me. I'm all for new experiences."

 

Daniel flashed a quick smile. "That how you got this job?"

 

"Nope. Bribed the general."

 

"With…?"

 

"Promise of a Hard Rock Café t-shirt from every planet."

 

"Then you might be in luck. Where there's a crowd, there are t-shirts."

 

As they neared the busy agora, their mindsets tried to make sense of the activities, the signs, the chaos. Groups of people were aimlessly hanging around the large central platform, while mechanical devices seemed to be ticking off the time in near-seconds and passersby were pressing currency cards onto assorted glass panels. Large cubes giving off artificial light were in abundance. On the main platform, which itself stretched for a small city block, odd things were happening.

 

"This looks like a public arena," Daniel commented as SG1 took a closer look, "with a circus in progress."

 

Three young men were suspended in chains from a wire close to twenty-five feet above the ground. Judging by the grimaces on their faces, it seemed that they had been there a long while.

 

"O'Neill." Teal'c was watching a man playing a stringed instrument within a blazing ring of fire. Off to his side, a woman was standing on her hands in an eight-inch pool of water.

 

But Jack was staring at the participant of this exhibition meditating with one, two, three… six skewers embedded in his bare abdomen.

 

"Oh geez." Daniel had followed Jack's gaze.

 

"Do-it-yourself acupuncture kit?" Jack remarked cynically.

 

Sam appeared troubled. "What do you think's going on here, Sir?"

 

"Ritual, ceremony, punishment, fun… your guess is as good as mine, Carter."

 

"Jack, that guy over there is eating a live animal."

 

"I don't want to see it, Daniel."

 

"O'Neill, I believe this is a competition. Those people by the small table seem to be collecting payment while others have been deciding whether or not to participate." Teal'c motioned to where a few lounging individuals were talking with expressive body language, holding up assorted paraphernalia and motioning towards the platform. A long-haired male from the small crowd chose a metallic black object and made his way to an empty spot in the center, where he promptly sat down and removed his shirt.

 

"You think this is something like, um, the Guinness Book of World Records?"

 

"Perhaps they are here to win prizes," Teal'c agreed. "I believe those people are taking bets. Would this not be similar to your world's "Fear Factor", Daniel Jackson?"

 

"Been watching reality tv again Teal'c?" Jack grunted at his alien teammate.

 

"Perhaps this world does not have television."

 

"He's right, sir. Even at home people are becoming bolder in what they want to watch. Put this on a tv screen and it might make the ratings."

 

"This is an open crowd, Carter."

 

"Did your Romans not watch humans fighting beasts for entertainment, O'Neill?"

 

Daniel stared blankly at the Jaffa, then at Sam. "So, given time... this is what Earth might be doing? Parading questionable reality shows in public for everyone to see on their way home from work?"

 

Teal'c lifted an eyebrow but remained silent.

 

The theorizing came to an abrupt end, interrupted by a pushy young man sidling up behind them. Stepping forward and closing into personal space, he spoke rapidly, a jar of large white scorpions waving in his hand. Swinging Sam around, he enthusiastically shoved her towards the platform, as she swiftly shifted out of his grip and backed away. Seeing her resistance, the man grabbed Daniel's jacket and motioned towards a table where more handy articles awaited.

 

"Uh, no," Daniel shook the hand off. "Thanks, but I'd rather decline."

 

As more onlookers moved towards them, Jack's expression grew serious. "I think we'd better get out of here," he cautioned. "Quickly."

 

SG1 turned abruptly and headed across the opposite pavement. "Can't say as I'm thrilled with the entertainment here," Jack remarked when they had walked a minute or two.

 

"Oh… uh,… you might like this kind better, uh, sir." Jack turned to see an unusual mixture of surprise and humour in Sam's expression. Beside her, arm around Teal'c's waist, was a woman with knee-length, wavy, bright blue hair… wearing nothing but body paint. And the arm that Teal'c had managed to shrug off was now snaking it's way around Daniel's torso, as a second woman appeared behind them both. A third and fourth, similarly attired, were hurriedly crossing from the other side of the walkway.

 

"Oh for .… Daniel, get their numbers and call them back on Halloween. We're outta here now, kids."

 

Daniel blushed, "Not a good area of town, Jack?"

 

"Ya think?"

 

"I think the only good side of town might be the tourist area, sir."

 

"Yeah, that's been occurring to me too. What do you say we get back to the gray train."

 

_____

 

The ride back the way they had come was the only way to go; it seemed that even out here in the inner city… or was this suburbia… each of these trains had only one stop. With stations scattered throughout the vicinity, the people had to walk between each.

 

As SG1 made their way out of the vehicle, they could see each passenger pausing in front of sentries, ID cards being inspected.

 

"Daniel?" Jack frowned.

 

"What?"

 

"What are the inspectors looking for?"

  

"It appears that they are examining identification, O'Neill."

 

"I only have the currency card they gave me," Daniel whispered nervously as they neared the head of the line. He had nothing else but a map and language dictionary.

 

"Why would they want to know how much money we have, Daniel?" Jack retorted.

 

"Maybe it's a form of ID," the linguist surmised.

 

"So show them your driver's licence."

 

Further speculation was cut short as SG1 was next in line, and Daniel took the currency card from his pocket. The inspector's face tightened as he called to three other colleagues standing by the exit. As Jack moved forward, a large uniformed body stepped in front of him, blocking his way. One guard spoke into a hole in the wall before coming to join his co-workers now intent on detaining SG1. The first inspector was shaking his head, becoming more and more agitated. Speaking to the team of explorers with rapid bursts of energy, he waved his arms and pointed to the card and map.

 

Daniel shook his head. "We… we don't understand," he tried to explain. A second guard grabbed the dictionary from Daniel's grasp, examining the cover. Then he made his way to the hole in the wall once again. They could hear the word "Goa'uld" muttered at least twice.

 

And as motionless guards glared at them, SG1 could do nothing but wait.

 

And wait some more. Communication being nonexistent, they finally sat down, the gray plaster floor cold and uninviting. Only Teal'c remained standing.

 

"Look, it's been great but it's time we were heading home." Jack spoke loudly, receiving no response. "Dinner'll be getting cold, you know how the kids hate to be kept waiting."

 

After fifteen or twenty more minutes had passed, with subsequent vehicles having released their few passengers, a large man in a black flannel uniform arrived, flanked by half a dozen others dressed in black and navy outerwear. Gazing at the group with eyes drawn, he growled, "Goa'uld?"

 

"No," Jack and Daniel said in unison, rising.

 

The man took hold of the book and tried again. "Your language is Goa'uld?" he questioned in Goa'uld.

 

Both Daniel and Teal'c understood. "Our language is English," Daniel explained. "The only language with a translation book that we could understand was this one."

 

"Goa'uld."

 

"Yes," Daniel admitted. Was Goa'uld a bad thing here? Or were these books published specifically for visiting Jaffa? Why would Jaffa come to visit this place, though? Usually they just came and conquered; they didn't care about communicating. And why would they even be here, if this was an Asgard protected world? SG1's assumptions in the museum must have been wrong.

 

"You have only tourist cards."

 

"Yes. We came here to learn about your world."

 

"You are spies."

 

"What? No! No, we're explorers." Daniel was trying to keep from yielding to a rising panic. "Tourists."

 

"With only eight hundred sintas?"

 

"We... we, um... just came for the day."

 

"You are out of the tourist areas."

 

"We were exploring."

 

"Tourists are not allowed here."

 

"I'm sorry. We didn't know."

 

"Daniel? What's going on?"

 

Teal'c moved closer to Jack, and quietly explained.

 

"You did know. This area is not on your map."

 

"But we didn't know it was wrong to take this train."

 

"You should not have known about this train. Remove them," the man in flannel indicated to the guards, as citizens disembarking from yet another vehicle showed their passes and continued on their way, staring in curiosity at the strangers.

 

_____

 

The man in flannel disappeared, and SG1 was left in the custody of all nine guards, the question of communication again nonexistent. They were led down featureless hallways to another part of the station and a different set of rod tracks; weapons and packs having been removed, their only remaining possessions were a dictionary and tourist card. Four of the men herded Daniel and Jack into a smaller, seemingly private train, while Carter and Teal'c were left standing in the guarded station as the vehicle bulleted away.

 

"What the hell?" Jack spat at the officers, who sneered and responded incomprehensibly. Daniel picked frustratedly at the pages of his useless book, wishing for grammatical rules along with vocabulary. All he could manage was "mistake", "explore", "friendly world", and "negotiate". His attempts at explanation and communication were ignored.

 

Night had fallen by the time the two teammates were ushered into a different area of the city, the blackness veiling every inch of their surroundings. Obviously no one ventured out at night, as lights were not evident either along the deserted pathways nor in any of the silhouetted buildings. Only a distant moon at each of the opposite ends of the sky lit dim patches of ground before them.

 

Stopping, Daniel turned again to their custodians. "Please… this is a mistake," he said in English. "Mistake", he repeated in the language that was still so unfamiliar to him. "We meant no harm. Our friends?"

 

But the two members of SG1 were pushed and prodded down the alleys, through a doorway, and then led up a narrow ramp which turned the sounds of their shoes into soft chimes. Marched along an open walkway bordered along one edge by a railing, their eyes trying to focus in the dim green illumination, they could make out rows of round holes, some dark and open, others covered by a round sliding hatch reminiscent of a ship's porthole, and they knew they were in one of those accomodation receptacles. The guards stopped; pressing now on Daniel's head, the Earth scientist was forcibly lowered into a cylindrical pod. Sliding in head-first and rolling onto his back, Daniel felt around the edges of his enclosure, finding that his hands could touch the smooth rounded walls without his arms straightening. A few inches above his chest he could feel a netted pouch where air was pouring in. The hutch slid shut behind him, engulfing the pod in complete blackness. Daniel's breathing sped up with his heartrate. He'd wanted to try out one of these things? Be careful what you wish for.

 

"Jack?" he whispered.

 

"Daniel? You okay?" came the muffled voice in the dark pod beside him.

 

"So far."

 

"I guess they're putting us up for the night. Nice of them."

 

"Um… how long did Sam say the night is, here?"

 

"She didn't, did she?"

 

There was nothing comfortable in this place, and Daniel knew the night would be long. At least they didn't have to live here, as did the people of this city. This was like sleeping in a damn MRI machine.

 

"Do you think Sam and Teal'c will be okay?"

 

"They can take care of themselves." Given the chance, Jack refused to add out loud. "It doesn't do any good to worry." Not that he wouldn't.

 

Something touched Daniel's wrist, and he jumped, sucking in his breath, trying to pull away but the space left nowhere to go.

 

"Relax. It's me." Jack's arm was through the circular hole in the lefthand side of the tube. His fingers felt along Daniel's arm, settling for a moment on his friend's wrist. "Just to remind us we're not in solitary," he commented as lightly as he could, and Daniel didn't react. It was comforting to know that Jack was at least within reach in the receptacle beside him.

 

Daniel felt around with his other hand, noticing a similar hole on the right side, up around mid-chest level. He could reach into his neighbouring pod as well, if he wanted to. "What are these holes for, I wonder?"

 

For a moment there was no reply, then the whisper stunned Daniel like a sudden snake bite. "Chains, Daniel."

 

Chains?

 

Chains…

 

Oh Christ.

 

This was a prison block.

 

_____

 

Carter didn't know why she'd been separated from the guys, unless some of these housing pods were female only, unlike the one they'd seen earlier in the day. She missed her teammates, and could only hope they'd be together again tomorrow. Until then, it would do no good to worry.

 

Alone on an alien planet, she just hoped at least Jack and Daniel had the pleasure of each other's company; why Teal'c hadn't been sent with them she could only guess. Hopefully these people had nothing against Jaffa. At least Teal'c could speak the language with a few of them.

 

The touch surprised her; jumping, she batted the hand away, hearing it retreat through the hole. Calming her breath, she lay still. Curious, that's all. Whoever was in there beside her was just curious.

 

"Hello?" Sam whispered, holding her breath to increase the silence. "I'm Sam." But the only response was a cough.

 

Staring into blackness and pretending the receptacle was wide and tall and comfortable, Sam lay awake for the rest of the night.

 

_____

 

Carted deeper into the bowels of the commoners' neighbourhood which they'd been under the impression they were not supposed to see, Jack and Daniel were guided into a square gray building and finally released from the chaperone of eight armed guards. Given the massive outer size of the building, it was odd that there was nothing in the interior but a long narrow hallway sporting a single door. Four unfamiliar guards remained within.

 

Unrecognizable words were exchanged, and then the two members of SG1 were traded off and forced through the now open interior doorway.

 

Ushered into a fairly large and completely empty room, Jack's eyes noted the small green tiles covering every surface. A single exit in the far wall, through which they were now being hastily escorted, opened into nothing but a second, shorter hallway. Otherwise unadorned and bare, four small cylindrical receptacles nearly identical to those used for sleeping gaped out of the long wall of this corridor. Closing the door through which they had just exited, the warders proceeded to take their positions, and waited, leaving Daniel and Jack uncertain as to their own purpose or roles in this place.

 

Time passed and Daniel sat down on the gray concrete floor, legs crossed.

 

Jack soon joined him. "Déjà vü. This hasn't happened since, oh, at least yesterday."

 

"Think they're waiting for someone?" Daniel muttered between semi-closed lips.

 

"Either that or this is our daytime holding cell."

 

"What do you think the pods are for?"

 

"Afternoon nap?"

 

"There're four of them. Think they'll bring Sam and Teal'c?"

 

"At the moment, I'm kind of hoping Teal'c's talking his way out of this, Daniel."

 

For a few moments, the men were silent.

 

Suddenly a bell above them sounded, their eyes startled by a green light flashing on the wall. Motioning them to stand, the guards raised their weapons before opening the door.

 

"Visitors?" Jack muttered. More guards, or Sam and Teal'c? Or maybe the head of the government they'd been searching for? Right. Someone in charge, at least, with diplomatic tendencies?

 

Two guards disappeared into the room, then swiftly re-emerged… carrying the deceased body of an old woman. With eyes wide and muscles tensed, Daniel watched as they placed her at his and Jack's feet. Once more, the guards re-entered the chamber, returning this time with the body of a baby.

 

Using hand signals and body language, the two SG1 partners realized they were to place the bodies inside the open tubes. Once within the enclosures, a lever on the wall was pressed and with the sound of rushing water or forceful winds, the bodies were sucked through the horizontal chutes, disappearing quickly into the black holes beyond.

 

The sentries again took up their positions by the now closed door which led from the hallway into the large empty room, the small light black and the bell silenced.

 

"Oh shit." Jack's narrow eyes focussed on the shocked visage of his teammate. This was what they were supposed to do? Hang around waiting to dispose of the dead?

 

_____

 

Five more corpses had come through that day, and though Daniel and Jack had tried refusing their chore, both the threat of the weapons in their faces and the scare of Daniel being nearly pushed into the chute himself, had coerced them into complying. They had been expected to retrieve the last three bodies themselves from the cold barren room.

 

Now they were back in the sleeping pods, less hopeful than the night before.

 

"Hammond will expect us to be checking in pretty soon," Jack mused. His watch having been sold the previous day and Daniel's having been confiscated, he guessed that the passage of time here was just slightly off that of Earth's. After all, he wasn't any more sleepy or hungry than usual. Other than the fact, that is, that the colourful scrambled stuff they'd been served had tasted like nothing but salt and were even worse than MREs.

 

"And how will they find us, Jack? Assuming that another team comes to look."

 

"Try to be a little more pessimistic, will you, Daniel?"

 

"Try answering my question, Jack."

 

"How will they find us? I don't know, Daniel; their Plan A is their problem. Ours is to hope our Plan B works."

 

"We have a Plan B?"

 

"Yes… Plan B is for Carter and Teal'c to come up with a Plan C."

 

Daniel sighed, knowing this would be another long and uncomfortable night. Feeling Jack's hand resting longer this time on his wrist, he slowly surrendered to strange dreams.

 

_____

 

By the third day the guards had begun to leave them alone in the hallway for short periods of time, and an escape plan started to materialize. Cautiously, Jack entered the green-tiled room, moving swiftly and quietly to open the far door to check on the status of the entranceway leading to the outside world.

 

He found himself dodging three weapons pointing into his face, and made a hasty retreat.

 

"So, we can't get out that way," he grumbled, now back in the pod hall with Daniel.

 

"There isn't any other way out of here, Jack."

 

Jack eyed the chutes. "We can go through those."

 

Daniel's eyes grew wide. "And potentially end up in an incinerator? Maybe a research lab, or chewed up in some disposal unit? We have no idea where those things go, except that everyone at the other end is dead."

 

"Okay, so not the best plan."

 

The bell rang and the light flashed.

 

"What do you say we don't get that?" Jack suggested.

 

"What if they kill us for not doing our jobs?"

 

Jack shrugged, then sighed. In resignation, he moved to open the door, finding yet again more corpses within, this time an old woman, a man, and a young boy.

 

Daniel knelt down slowly, his grieving eyes passing over the still bodies. The woman was not as old as she had appeared from a distance, perhaps in her sixties if the lifespans here were comparable to those on Earth. Her weary face displayed a lifetime of responsibilities and strengths. The boy looked to be about seven, and wore a chain of triangles about his neck. His leggings and shoes were of a brown fabric, in a style similar to that of most of the adults of this community. From what the child had died was a mystery; Daniel hoped his death had been quick. Maybe many childhood diseases on this world were not yet cureable.

 

Daniel touched the cold forehead of the woman, then of the man and the child. In a speech Jack could not understand, Daniel spoke soft words of hope, of prayer, and of blessings. Jack looked on with the patience of one who knew that this was as important to his friend as it was to those awaiting their transfer to another existence, and remained silent.

 

Then Daniel rose, and together he and Jack lifted the bodies into the chute and sent them on to eternity.

 

_____

 

"What are you thinking, Daniel?" came the quiet voice in the darkness.

 

"I'm thinking I don't like my job."

 

The hesitant voice queried, "On SG1?"

 

"No, Jack. The one in the morgue."

 

"Oh. That one won't last. You don't have to worry."

 

Jack sounded so sure of himself; how could he be so certain? They still had no word of or from Sam or Teal'c; no one at home knew where they were and no one on base spoke the language of these people, making any rescue difficult and uncertain. Would they be kept here indefinitely, with no trial or chance to help themselves? What if some of the unwanteds... some of the prisoners... were kept for this world's entertainment? Teal'c no longer had his symbiote, thank goodness, but the man could certainly impress onlookers with his strength. And Sam's looks could definitely rival those of any of the women designed in paint. Daniel forced his mind to turn away from such unwanted pessimism.

 

Yet Daniel didn't know what to make of this society, or how to interpret any of what he'd seen without skepticism. What was out there, but a colourful downtown for the tourists and a dreary day-to-day existence for everyone else? Were they now considered a part of this community just for having taken the train into the wrong part of town, for having seen the way the other side lives? As such, had they been assigned their positions for life, jobs that their common citizens had no desire to do? Then why had they not been given the clothing of this world? And why were they being held like prisoners?

 

That last question was the only easy one. Any other treatment would have allowed them to escape and return home. Home, to tell their own world and allies what a horrible place this was. Like the spies they'd been accused of being, they might spread the word around the universe and that could ruin the tourist trade.

 

Only Jack's hand on his wrist could help calm the agitation Daniel felt with these revelations. And no, he wouldn't further upset Jack's night by telling him what he was thinking.

 

_____

 

The fourth day, Jack was led through to the pods while Daniel was detained in the outer hallway.

 

After realization finally sunk in that he was now separated from his friend, Daniel disheartenedly resigned himself to a long boring day with no one to talk to. What would his job be at this end, he wondered; retrieval of the bodies off some truck? No,… there were no trucks here. There were no streets for trucks to drive on.

 

It was a few hours of studying the dictionary still within his possession, before his questions were answered.

 

And even then, comprehension was slow in coming, for the two elderly women being ushered into the hallway were very much alive. Walking, whispering, and alive, the tears running quietly down their cheeks. Deep knowing eyes looked up at Daniel, through his own and into his soul.

 

And then they looked away.

 

Ushered by the guard into the green room and the door shut behind them, Daniel was instructed, through signals, to pull the lever by the door.

 

Which was when he realized that all those dead bodies he'd been disposing of had not come into the building in that condition.

 

Shock froze his muscles, and he couldn't move.

 

Angrily, the guard motioned towards the lever, but Daniel could barely catch his breath. Moving a limb was out of the question.

 

And even if his limbs had been willing, his heart and soul were not. Under no circumstances would he kill these people.

 

The guard snorted an invective and grabbed Daniel's hand. Swiftly and together, he pulled the lever on the wall, and the red light came on. He dropped Daniel's hand back to the younger man's side.

 

Shock held Daniel under its control, as his mind tried to make sense of what was happening. With a heartbeat still too rapid, he began to tremble, feeling weak. Lowering himself to the floor, tears rose to the surface and trickled out, Daniel's own awareness dim. For some reason, the elderly and the young were being put to death. Euthanasia? Those two hadn't looked ill. Punishment for a crime, or maybe an inability to contribute to society? Perhaps they were just good research specimens, wanted at the unknown end of the chute. Daniel had no answers so far, but he did know that this job was no longer within his capability, and if that led to his own punishment or death, then so be it.

 

He barely noticed that the red light had turned to green, only subconsciously aware that at that very moment Jack would be removing the women whom he'd think had died of natural causes, before sending them to their burial grounds.

 

_____

 

It was lunchtime, the thirty minutes when food was delivered and they were allowed to talk or sleep. The guard nodded as Daniel dazedly strode through the death room to the door that would lead him to his companion.

 

"Daniel!" Jack rose to his feet, leaving the plate of mushy pink stuff on the floor. "What's going on? Where have you been all morning?" Aware now of Daniel's drawn features and puffy eyes, he frowned, his eyes narrowing. "Daniel?"

 

"I came to say good-bye." Daniel's voice was trembling, as were his hands.

 

"Daniel?" Jack's dread was magnifying rapidly. "What are you talking about? Where are they taking you?"

 

"Jack - ." Daniel couldn't contain the first tear from spilling, but he didn't care. "Jack." He slid down to the floor and leaned his back against the wall. Feeling fear now himself, Jack knelt beside his distraught friend, unable to imagine what had happened outside the room that had literally come between them.

 

"Come on, Daniel. Talk to me." Jack touched his friend's cheek, stopping the tear from rolling further. This behaviour was scaring him big time. Something was obviously terribly wrong.

 

Daniel's wet eyes met Jack's, and he inhaled deeply before speaking. "They're killing people in that room. They come in alive and healthy."

 

For a moment Jack didn't comprehend, his hand frozen an inch from Daniel's face. "What?"

 

"This is how they get rid of anyone they… don't want around, for whatever reason. I don't really understand more than that, Jack." Daniel's voice crumbled as he swallowed, biting his lip to stop it from further revealing his emotions.

 

"They're killing those people we're sending off?"

 

Daniel nodded as Jack sat down flat beside him.

 

"Jesus, Daniel." Jack looked away, his scrambled thoughts tripping over themselves, when his focus suddenly snapped back to the friend by his side. "Why did you say good-bye like that?" he asked sharply. What were they intending to do with Daniel?

 

"They want me to pull the lever, Jack. They want me to kill those people. I won't do it." Grasping hold of his emotions, Daniel began to calm himself. "They made me pull the last one. I killed them."

 

Oh crap. Jack looked at his friend's stricken face. "You had no choice."

 

"There's always a choice. And when I refuse to kill anyone else, they'll probably kill me too." And you'll be pulling me out of that room and sending me down the chute, Jack. And that won't be your fault, either. "I had to warn you. And I needed to say good-bye."

 

"Daniel…" Jack's voice was rough. No way in hell would he be carrying Daniel's body out of that room, but lunch was nearly over and… then what?

 

And their eyes met as Daniel looked up but there was nothing more they could say.

 

Then too soon, the short break ended and Daniel stood up to leave, a guard motioning him back through the doorway. Jack's hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Listen carefully, Daniel. Whenever someone is sent into that room, take something hard that they're wearing, even a button, and throw it at this door. I'll open the door and let the people out, and you can lower that lever. Just give me thirty seconds, okay? No one will know."

 

For a brief moment Daniel nearly caught himself in a relieved and grateful smile, and then reality came back to life. "And where will we hide them?"

 

Jack paused. "They'll have to crawl through the chute, Daniel." He saw Daniel's defeated shrug. "At least it's better than the alternative… hopefully."

 

_____

 

Daniel's heart was racing as the afternoon began and an elderly couple was brought in. Their eyes met his and Daniel laid a hand on the woman's shoulder, his touch trying to soothe her terror. Terror of him. His eyes scanned their clothing, as Daniel escorted them into the room, and he pointed at the man's shoe.

 

Encountering no resistance, Daniel removed the shoe gently from the frightened man and tossed it at the door. As he backed quickly out of the room making sure that no one behind him was watching, he saw the outer door slowly shift. Briefly closing his eyes, he released a tense breath. Thank you, Jack.

 

For the rest of that afternoon, Daniel and Jack led old men, women, and a blind child to their unknown futures beyond a death room, futures that might lead to their very deaths at the end of a mobilized chute. But anyone else would certainly have killed them; at least this way they had a chance.

 

That night, as Daniel fell asleep with Jack's hand gently resting on his wrist, he knew that with this friend's help he had done everything in his power to aid a handful of people that day, and while his heart remained heavy his soul felt almost clean.

 

_____

 

But even that much luck couldn't last.

 

The fifth day passed as had the fourth, and nighttime brought more discomfort. Neither man was getting used to these sleeping arrangements, with the hard pods encouraging soreness and aching muscles. By the sixth day, hope in a Plan C by their other comrades had waned to near abolition, and severe concern for their missing teammates had augmented.

 

Daniel had sent five more people to their assumed deaths and hopeful escapes the sixth afternoon, and was feeling despondent by the time the work day had ended. After all, they really didn't know where all these people were actually ending up. An incinerator's fire would have been a fate far worse than being put to death quickly in some open room, however the latter was accomplished. Whether by gas or electricity or something poisonous in the air, it was still a more humane way to go than the other possibilities loitering in Daniel's mind.

 

Having waited already too long for Jack to show at the end of the day and being unwilling to risk their guards' impatience, Daniel went through the death room to urge his partner to hurry… and to see what was taking Jack so long.

 

He was not prepared to reach the outer pod room and find a strange man standing there in place of Jack.

 

Their eyes met, with neither recognition nor compassion.

 

Where the hell was his friend?

 

Too many bizarre and unwanted thoughts went speeding through Daniel's mind, thoughts too horrible to accept but too real to ignore.

 

Had they discovered what had been going on, and sent Jack through the chute? If so, then why hadn't they taken him as well? Did they think it had been Jack's plot alone?

 

Which meant… not only was Jack gone, but all those people locked in the room that afternoon had been sent to their deaths by Daniel's pull of the lever.

 

No one had let them out the other side.

 

He'd killed them all.

 

The sick wave of horror that spread first through Daniel's abdomen and then upwards to his chest caused him to fight to stay on his feet and keep his last tasteless meals down. The hate and the anger, aimed both at this situation and at himself, forced the tears to linger at the back of his throat, burning while his head screamed that he had not meant to kill anyone at all.

 

A heart usually full of forgiveness could not begin to forgive, and a mind normally full of ideas could not begin to think. He could make sense of nothing but fear and panic. He had to get out, had to avoid himself and what he had done, what he had been tricked into doing and forced to go along with. He had to get away from this place that killed people seemingly for no reason other than to keep population low and productivity up. He had to get home.

 

But first, he had to know what they had done with Jack.

 

Was he dead?

 

And…

 

… and where had the other guy come from?

 

_____

 

That night stretched on and on, longer than any that had come and gone before. There was no gentle pressure of a friend's warm hand on Daniel's wrist tonight; no answer when he whispered Jack's name into the pod beside him. There was no one to reassure him that those deaths hadn't been his fault.

 

Daniel closed his stinging eyes, trying to block out the impression of pure darkness and fear. He felt the hard ground beneath his shoulder blades, the smooth scoop of fiberglass beneath his head. He felt the air from above keeping his lungs from drying out and the coldness of the shadows blanketing his body.

 

Daniel knew, as well, that once morning broke and this long night was done, he would again be unable to fulfil his position as executioner. Sometime early the next morning, he would be facing his own fate.

 

_____

 

 

Bend. One more thrust of the shovel, scoop, toss, drop. Sigh, breathe, wipe away the sweat and bend.

 

One more thrust of the shovel, scoop, drop. Sigh, breathe.

 

Wipe away the sweat and bend. One more thrust of the shovel, scoop, toss, drop. Sigh.

 

Breathe. Wipe away the sweat and bend.

 

One more…

 

… until Teal'c's flash of insight had worked in his favour, bringing him finally into a position to bargain.

 

It had been by chance that he had thought of it, that he had steered the topic of discussion to this angle. His shouts in Goa'uld for the first five days had scored nothing but mild interest at the sand pits. Sand from the great quarries, delivered to the glass manufacturers who then supplied the construction sites.

 

But finally, his shouts of explanations and pleas for his friends had brought some men with whom he had been able to speak. One word, yesterday, had startled them into bringing him here, to this interrogation room in the middle of this downtown block, and he had been here ever since.

 

One word, just one word uttered to change Teal'c's circumstances and give him hope. That word was Asgard, and now he was awaiting O'Neill, the man he had tried to convince them was the favoured one of a small alien named Thor.

 

They had laughed, and looked both startled and humoured. Then they had laughed again, and told him that Thor was a myth. A story told to children, of alien beings who had once visited their planet. No one over the age of twelve believed these stories, they had argued, and yet they had listened.

 

For a revival of the stories could spice up the tourist trade, and they were partially ready to embrace any culture that might be able to feed them more myths and validate the oldest legends of their planet. Tourism aided their economy, kept their culture alive, and they were ready to listen to anyone who might bring business to their part of this galaxy.

 

Bring on this man named O'Neill.

 

But they would have to watch him closely, for this might be only the tricks of spies. While not many spies had visited over the years, the few that had come had proven that to trust them was to bring hardship and devastation. That would never happen again, as long as they kept a tight control.

 

Get the legends from these intruders, then send them back to the work stations.

 

_____

 

Jack had no idea where they were taking him, but he wished he'd thought to check every inch of that hallway. Not that he or Daniel would ever have thought that a whole side wall could slide away, making the join along its edge seem like a natural crease. Not that they could have escaped through there had they known, what with the other side being occupied by thirty factory workers or more. An escaping criminal or two would certainly have been noticed.

 

The moment he saw Teal'c Jack broke into a grin. That's my boy! "Plan C?" were the first words out of his mouth, as Teal'c offered a gentle tilt of his head. "O'Neill."

 

"Good to see you, old boy."

 

"Indeed, I am most pleased to see you well. Do you have knowledge of what has become of Daniel Jackson and Major Carter?"

 

"I know where Daniel is. Haven't seen Carter since we got here." As for what has become of Daniel, though, in the past few hours… well that was a different story. Jack was well aware that when Daniel realized he really was killing all those people, he'd stop working. And if the others found out what he… they… had been doing, Daniel would most likely be their next victim. It would take only a few hours of this sixth day before Daniel's time was up, and Jack was having trouble biting down the panic.

 

"So what's going on?" he asked softly.

 

"These people are interested in our knowledge of Thor," Teal'c explained.

 

"Thor?! So this is an Asgard protected world?" Jack queried.

 

"It is not."

 

"It is… not?" repeated Jack.

 

"Indeed. They believe the legends of the Asgard are no more than childhood fables. I have been attempting to convince them that this belief is false."

 

"I see. So where do I come in?"

 

"I have informed them that Thor prefers you."

 

"Ah…."

 

"I am not sure that they believe me."

 

"So now what?"

 

"Plan... C, O'Neill."

 

"Okay… which is…??"

 

"Up to you."

 

"Right." Jack released a sarcastic half-chuckle. "Plan C. Convince them that Carter's the one who knows how to actually contact these beings and Daniel… Daniel can speak in their language."

 

"They will not believe me."

 

"Try."

 

Teal'c nodded once, and began a conversation with the guard nearest his right shoulder.

 

_____

 

Daniel did not sleep at all that night. The loss of his friend and his fear of the upcoming day was sending images swirling through the blackness of his tiny empty tube. Sounds had echoed from other sleep chambers but none were the voice of his team leader. Trapped on an alien planet with no chance of escape and only hours in which to do so left him in a state of worry and terror. He felt bare and exposed without communication; words had always managed to comfort him and bring him hope. But now, the only words he knew - friends, explore, mistake - were falling on deaf ears.

 

Escape.

 

Daniel knew only one thing that could possibly, maybe, with a ghost of a chance, save him. The lesser of two evils. He preferred to face the unknown than ponder what awaited him at the hands of his captors. He had little choice but to take his life into his own hands, quite possibly finding out what fate had befallen Jack and the others. The few moments of sleep that had overtaken him had led to sensations of shadows and evil, waking him suddenly to a cold hard cylinder of emptiness. And thus the night dragged on, anticipation of his fate growing stronger with each new moment of restless energy.

 

So when his escorts finally brought him to the work station early the following morning and then departed, Daniel left the two remaining guards standing outside the main door and strode purposefully through the death room. As he had been hoping, Jack's replacement had not yet arrived at the other end, although Daniel had decided to do this no matter what, taking the chance that no one would have been willing to follow. Quickly sucking down his reservations before they could damage his resolve, Daniel crawled into the fourth chute.

 

He did not activate the controls, for if he were to end up in some garbage disposal or in an incinerator's fire, he preferred to get there without velocity. Slowly, carefully, were adverbs he preferred to put into physical action on his way to … somewhere probably not very nice.

 

No one would look for him for at least ten or fifteen minutes; by that time, they would never enter the pod to retrieve him. All Daniel hoped was that they would not notify whomever might be willing to wait at the other end.

 

And so he crawled, and slid… and crawled, through the long narrow tunnel, hoping the chute would not activate while he was in there and drag him along to the final destination with a dead body beneath him. Just let him get to the end of this in relative safety…

 

_____

 

"Sam, thank God!" Jack's blatant relief was marred only by the fact that their fourth team member was still unaccounted for.

 

The woman had been the last. If indeed she could contact an alien race such as these abnormal-looking creatures, how that would boost attendance through their portal! And if it was all just a lie, a ploy for freedoom, nothing would be lost.

 

In spite of the uncertainty as to where they were taking her, Carter had been more than willing to leave behind the oppressive machinery making molten takarpa eating utensils. Over the days, she had spent most of the tiresome tedious hours taking mental inventory of all the jobs that were definitely less boring. The rest of the hours she had spent inventing ways to make this equipment speedier and more productive... and cooler. By the end of each day, her average utensil count of four hundred plus, had been over the quota of many of the other workers.

 

If they were to release her for even a short while, this woman would have to prove her worth in contacting the skinny gray beings.

 

"Teal'c, you have to convince them to let me go home! I can't contact the Asgard from here, you know that."

 

"I am aware of this issue, Major Carter. Yet they refuse to allow you to leave."

 

"Promise them she won't say anything bad about this planet, Teal'c."

 

"Sir?"

 

"They're afraid of spies wrecking their tourist trade, Carter. Seems they're worried about us tarnishing their galactic reputation. Daniel thinks." Daniel. The younger man would have been dealt with yesterday; perhaps their refusal to retrieve him meant that he was already dead.

 

"Sir, if I really am able to contact the Asgard, hopefully they can get us all out of here."

 

"Yeah, they'll do that if they feel like it, if they're not saving another of their worlds from some enemy they've never told us about and if they're anywhere near our galaxy. I'm confident." Jack rolled his eyes. "Right now, the most important thing to convince them of is that we really really need Daniel."

 

_____

 

The retrieval of Daniel had been a forced issue, one that had not succeeded in occurring. But Major Carter had finally been allowed to return through the Stargate, under advisement. Were she not to return with the unusual alien, her teammates would not be released. Any interplanetary rumours about the negative aspects of this world would be seen as aggressive behaviour and dealt with "appropriately". That, to Major Carter, meant punishment for her companions.

 

"Any luck, Major Carter?"

 

"No Sir." Carter looked up miserably as the general appeared in the doorway. "The Asgard aren't responding."

 

"Keep trying, Major."

 

"Yes Sir." Damn right I'll keep trying.

 

_____

 

O'Neill continued to pace the small room, achieving nothing but stares and glares from the aliens holding Teal'c and himself captive. Fine; if he was making these people irritable or uncomfortable in any way, more power to himself. Not that he was intentionally trying to provoke them, no he wasn't.

 

No one had brought any news of Daniel, and Jack was certain that by now the archaeologist had not only realized he had been responsible for several deaths in that chamber, he had for certain refused to do it again. How they would have dealt with him would not have been pleasant, of that Jack was sure. Normally, he was confident that Daniel could talk himself out of nearly any situation; in this case, however, Daniel had no words. There was nothing the man could do to protect himself.

 

Jack slouched in frustration against the wall, then continued to pace as Teal'c eyed him curiously. The Jaffa remained stable in his seated position, the same position he'd been in for the five hours since Carter had left. And where the hell was Carter, anyway? Obviously Plan D was not working, if the Asgard couldn't be found.

 

_____

 

Daniel was nervously nearing the black flap signalling the end of the tunnel. He had been crawling for what seemed like hours, but at least no bodies had come gliding through to push him forward. Maybe no one had realized that he had escaped through the pod? Or maybe they knew it would not matter, as they sat laughing at what he was about to encounter at the other end.

 

This end.

 

Daniel closed his eyes for a single moment, then tentatively pushed forward the flap with hesitant fingers.

 

And the multiple foreign fingers suddenly grasping his wrists forced an involuntary gasp from his lips, as Daniel felt his hands being roughly grabbed and held. Then he was being pulled from all sides, as more hands were clutching his arms, his shoulders, his throat, and as he struggled, knowing the attempt at release would be futile, his eyes saw daylight and his movements ceased abruptly. For only inches ahead and way down below, his footing dropped off into a deep and massive quarry, perhaps half a mile deep and twelve hundred feet in width, littered with human remains.

 

The arms now on his back and ribs pulled him out and upward, rescuing him from diving straight down to a rocky and putrid end. Gaping and shaky, Daniel was set on his feet to the side of the chute's exit, only inches from the depths of the pit's edge. Gazing around, he saw the kindly faces of those whom he had recently saved from the death chamber. Several elderly men, women, and children all reached out their hands of help towards him, knowing eyes penetrating his own.

 

"Thank you," he breathed in English, and they nodded as if in acknowledgement of universal words of gratitude.

 

With eyes traversing the countryside, Daniel saw devastation and barrenness, a stark landscape of cracked ground and dry branches. Well off in the distance were the dwarfed outlines of the city's tallest buildings, the visible but distant skyline of curvaceous gray buildings marking the edge of habitable suburbia. This area of the community had clearly been neglected and avoided, its proximity to the disposal grounds making it taboo. These people were now refugees, prisoners of the land. How they had been getting food for the past few days was unanswerable, but it was clear that they had been living nearby and had nowhere else to go.

 

But it was still better than ending up in the putrefying heap at the bottom of the pit, wasn't it?

 

_____

 

"Carter? Aren't you glaringly alone?"

 

"Yes, sir. I haven't been able to contact the Asgard, Colonel."

 

"And you came back here because you missed us?"

 

"Sir? It's been hours and I wasn't getting anywhere. I wanted to tell you."

 

"You were safe, Carter. You should have stayed put."

 

"General Hammond let me return."

 

"Major Carter. These people no longer believe that we have contact with Thor's race. They think we have been 'bluffing'."

 

"Teal'c, tell them, uh, tell them Thor was busy and he'll come... when he can."

 

"Oh yeah, Carter. That'll convince, them."

 

_____

 

Daniel had no plan other than to make his way back towards the town and hop onto a train. He would be captured, but maybe this time they would give him a job other than killing people.

 

Or maybe they'd just kill him instead. Which wasn't a plan at all.

 

Sitting now in silence among people with whom he could not communicate, their eyes were able to convey understanding and support. A bond had been formed by the one small act of having saved each other's lives, and though he knew they had no future here in this small wasteland, Daniel's intentions had been understood and realized for what they were. In this emotionally cold land they called home, a young man with kind eyes, himself a prisoner of circumstance, had defied custom and expectation and risked punishment of his own to give these people one final chance. They had known what lay beyond, and had allowed him to rescue them anyway. They had not yet been ready to die.

 

Although his stomach was grumbling from its lack of food, having not eaten since the night before, Daniel refused the offer of a handful of small yellow berries. He could not accept sustenance when they themselves would need all that they could scrounge. Hopefully, his situation was more temporary than theirs.

 

"I must go now," Daniel smiled forlornly, knowing he was leaving them to an existence of despair and struggles. But he could do nothing even for himself; the single chance at reaching freedom on which he was about to embark would no doubt also be his last. He smiled forlornly and took an elderly woman's hand, the hand that had offered the precious fruit. "Thank you," he said. "I hope one day you will find peace."

 

The woman patted his hand between both of hers. Others gingerly reached out to touch his clothing.

 

Then he nodded and began to walk away.

 

Voices called out, "Par inah; par inah," but Daniel looked back only once. They would stop him if they could, but Daniel was not about to stay here forever, and Sam and Teal'c - if they were still well - had no idea where he was. And while Jack's fate was still unknown, Daniel couldn't bring himself to peer into the depths of the quarry to look for a green camo uniform.

 

_____

 

They sat around glumly, the silence uncomfortable and the air growing stale. The room had become uninspiringly dreary, the aliens getting on their nerves.

 

"They are now considering returning us to our work stations," Teal'c announced. "They are growing tired of speaking to me in Goa'uld. I am unsure for how much longer we will be allowed to remain."

 

"Get them to tell you where Daniel is first."

 

"I have tried, O'Neill, to no avail."

 

"Well try again."

 

"This I have done many times. They will not respond to my queries."

 

"Teal'c…!"

 

But Teal'c just blinked slowly and remained silent.

 

_____

 

They continue to ask about the man, their fourth. The woman has been home; she has alerted their world. More will come to destroy us, or perhaps they will spread the word of our world. They must be destroyed before this can occur.

 

But their world will wonder, and perhaps send more of their own; we cannot get rid of them all without arousing suspicion. They may even have powerful allies; we know nothing of this race nor the world from which they hail. We cannot take the risk.

 

Send them home. Allow them never to return.

 

But they must be silenced.

 

How?

 

The quiet conversation continued, in a language none of SG1 understood. They tried to gauge body language, but the tone was too hushed and the huddle too tight. What was going on?

 

Warn them that if they speak out, if they spread lies, their fourth member will be destroyed.

 

No. We have told them he is gone already; they must believe us.

 

For what reason?

 

They cannot know we have lost him; they would refuse to leave.

 

They cannot refuse. We are many. The welcome station will send them back the way they came. They are too much trouble here, and of no use to us, Be rid of them, return them to their world. Block out the world from which they came, and that to which they return. They must be allowed to come no more.

 

_____

 

"Carter?" Jack would have been relieved at this turn of events, had it not been for the fact that Daniel wasn't with them. While their captors had claimed that Daniel was dead, they had immutably refused to return the body. Likely nothing remained after passage through the morgue chute, that end still mysterious and unknown.

 

SG1 had been ushered back to the station hall, land of the Stargate and currency exchange. With no weapons and close to a dozen armed guards, Teal'c had been told in no uncertain terms that SG1 was to leave and never return, or all would meet the same fate as their fourth member. This land wanted nothing more to do with them.

 

They had all protested against leaving Daniel behind, but as the Stargate drew near and Plan D more distant, each one of them was at a loss as to what else to do. Allowed now to dial out, Carter stood before the DHD, ambivalence and rising panic keeping her motionless. "Sir? What do I do?"

 

"No choice, Carter. We leave. Dial anywhere we've left a MALP." Noting Sam's hesitation, he added sincerely, "we're not leaving him, Carter. We're just buying time."

 

And so the remainder of SG1 found themselves gating to Earth via friendlies, once again without Daniel Jackson.

 

_____

 

A hand was on his arm, halting him. Daniel had walked only minutes from the burial zone, and he spun around shakily. Nerves were already on fire and though he knew this would be one of the refugees trying to stop him from going, his heart was still pounding as if expecting capture.

 

The woman had been running and was now out of breath. She held out a piece of fabric to Daniel, thin light blue linen covered in multiple square markings, the still-wet dye having apparently been applied with a thin blade of dried grass dipped in berry juice. This had been done in haste, but Daniel had no idea what it was for. He frowned. "What does this mean?"

 

The woman pointed to the dictionary jutting out from Daniel's pocket, holding out her hand.

 

Opening the book, the words she pointed to finally made sense to the linguist; each family unit seemed to have a unique stamp, a type of label, functioning as an address. The top righthand corner referred to the community one lived in, the lefthand markings indicated the specific area, the bottom right was for the street or block, and the lower left symbols indicated the family's own unique signature. Postal addresses; these small square insignias were family and friends of the assumed dead, people who might be willing to help.

 

Daniel looked gratefully into the woman's eyes and took her hand between his own. "Thank you," he said, and she smiled shyly.

 

"Ada inha," and she bowed her head, turning back to rejoin her own unfortunate people.

 

Daniel wandered on aimlessly, his eyes searching his immediate path on the lookout for armed guards who might in turn be looking for him. If he could walk back to the downtown core instead of taking the trains, with this new aid he might have a slim chance of making it out of this place.

 

Withdrawing a pen from the recesses of a deep pocket, Daniel stopped behind a crumbling gray boulder and began to write on the reverse of the blue fabric.

 

Then he continued on his way across the dry barren landscape, towards the distant skyline and the outskirts of habitation.

 

_____

 

Having returned to Earth and the SGC without Daniel, trepidation and worry had slowed time considerably for SG1. And still they had had no plan, no news, and no way of retrieving their friend or his body. The uncertainty of the archaeologist's fate was killing them. The tiniest hope had lingered that Daniel might still be alive, might find a way home just as they had.

 

So when a MALP message from Kelowna had been suddenly transmitted six days later, SG1 almost expected Daniel to be returning home.

 

As the blue puddle of the vortex swirled back into place, Jack, Sam and Teal'c almost tripped down the steps from the control room to the gateroom in their haste.

 

They'd faced disappointment before, but seeing Jonas walk through that wormhole instead of Daniel had felt downright cruel. Not a pleasant way to welcome an alien guest, especially one who had become a team member and friend, SG1 knew, and under other circumstances they would have been pleased to see him. But Jonas understood, for it was the letter he'd thrust into Jack's hand that had silenced the team. It was the letter addressed to "Jonas Quinn, attention: SG1 or General Hammond," that now had them occupied in the briefing room, had them discussing an offworld rescue mission. For all Jonas could tell them was that the letter had come through their gate on Kelowna, attached to a miniature stargate for weight and velocity. A letter written on blue fabric, pen on one side and dye marks on the other, was enclosed in an envelope roughly made from a page of alien dictionary.

 

"If you're reading this, guys, that means you're still alive and I want you to know that I am too, so far. I've been trying to get home, and with help I may succeed. The insignias on the reverse are addresses. If this letter reaches you before I do, I've run into trouble, but I will never give up." - Daniel.

 

He was alive.

 

They could help him. Square stamps, each approximately an inch in diameter covered the handmade letter, revealing Daniel's potential map to safety.

 

And though Earth's address had been recorded upon their arrival and locked out of Kominda's welcome list of planets, they could still establish a functioning wormhole from Kelowna.

 

"And if it's a trick, Colonel?"

 

"Whoever sent that through had the coordinates for Kelowna, General. Daniel would only have given that to someone he trusted implicitly." SG1 guarded their allies' coordinates as they hoped their allies guarded Earth's, for no one wished a friendly planet to be attacked through any cause of their own. "No one we encountered on that planet had any reason for wanting us back, sir, or for wanting us to know that Daniel's still alive."

 

"If the messenger had wanted, he could have gone through the gate himself. Instead he just delivered Daniel's message, sir," Carter added.

 

"General Hammond. When we left Kominda, we were in the hands of those who wished never to see us again. Now it appears that Daniel Jackson is not only well, he has indeed made allies who are willing to aid his return."

 

"Sir, Daniel's getting close to home. We have to find him."

 

"I understand your concerns, SG1, and I'm all for getting Dr. Jackson back as speedily as possible. But I still have no reason to believe you could go over there now without being forcibly taken once again."

 

"Sir, Daniel's in trouble," Jack hesitantly began to argue. He couldn't let the general veto this mission, safety issues be damned. "He needs our help and wouldn't ask if he thought there was any danger to us."

 

"May I remind you, Colonel, that Doctor Jackson has not asked for our help."

 

"Not outright, sir. The way I see it," Jack continued, "he didn't want to write anything too explicit, just in case someone over there could speak English. He's hoping for a rescue, sir, but didn't want to outright ask. That's not Daniel's way." Daniel had sent a postcard from Kominda; wish you were here.

 

Hammond nodded. He had sensed that as well. "So where is Dr. Jackson?" Hammond was hoping for more theories. Abstract missions were unacceptable as far as his command went. "Why send a letter instead of returning himself?"

 

"Perhaps he has been injured."

 

"Then why wouldn't he just say that? I'm sorry Teal'c, this is far too cryptic for my liking."

 

SG1 had no doubt in their minds as to their teammate's cryptic yet obvious clues. He was desperately seeking help, and if he was still alive then they were damn well going to find him. "General, we can disguise ourselves as other visitors… Kelownans," Jack glanced over towards Jonas and then back at General Hammond, "These people like visitors, as long as they know their place. Once we're through the main city we can change into brown clothing." At General Hammond's questioning expression, he clarified. "What the people in the suburbs wear. We won't be in danger, sir, as long as we don't take the train back into the tourist area. It's easier to get in than out." Jack was nearly pleading with his boss. "Please, General. We can do this." My friend is out there counting on us, and I won't leave him behind for any longer than we already have. How Daniel had escaped his position as executioner and survived, Jack had no clue, and he longed to hear this story from the source.

 

Hammond looked thoughtful. "SG1, if those seals do identify the people who have been helping Dr. Jackson, you have a go at locating them. Mr. Quinn, are you available for a mission?"

 

_____

 

They were dressed as Kelownans, and SG1 held their faces down as Jonas led the way towards the information and currency counters. Daniel had the only currency card, so they would need more money for the number of days they might be on this planet. They had given Jonas several items to trade, jewellery and calculators being amongst the items offered up for the agents to choose from.

 

"Where to?" Sam inquired of her two teammates as Jonas made the necessary inquiries. They had nowhere to begin their search unless they could find some of the addresses Daniel had handed them. If Daniel had been able to send the letter on his own, he would have come through the gate himself. Whoever his messenger was, was now the primary target of this search and rescue mission. All they needed now was a street map.

 

"Let's get out to the suburbs. Then we'll ask around," Jack laid out the only plan they had. This so very familiar planet was stirring up only bad memories, and the sooner they left this building the sooner they could get away from the guards' eyes. Guards who were paying them no attention at the moment, thank goodness. Not for the first time on a mission Jack was happy for the anonymity of being in a crowded place.

 

"What's that?" Jack indicated the new dictionary with which Jonas had returned.

 

"This is Orconian, one of the languages I learned from Daniel's research. They speak it on Orcona and, um…."

 

"Ornacion, Orcona's satellite," Teal'c remembered.

 

"Right."

 

"Daniel said he knew some of the other languages on that list," Carter reminded them.

 

"I didn't think Goa'uld would be a good choice this time, Colonel."

 

_____

 

It seemed everyone knew what those seals represented; it was this planet's system of mail delivery. Carter had copied out each address separately on a sheet of notepaper, so as not to arouse suspicion. SG1 just wanted to appear as though they were searching out an old friend. Which is exactly what they were doing. And many of the people in this city, Jonas had discovered, also spoke Orconian. The Goa'uld language, apparently, was for the few visitors from those worlds formerly occupied by the parasitic race.

 

"Damn." Not that Jack wasn't pleased at this new turn of communication, but if Daniel had known that in the first place, there was a chance they could have avoided this whole mess.

 

"We're here." SG1 plus one had arrived in the suburbs via transit, no questions yet asked, and had changed into their brown street clothes. Having received directions to one of the addresses on Daniel's haphazard series of markings, they now looked up at the large black structure looming before them.

 

"A condo?"

 

"Well, we're pretty sure these people don't own their own homes, sir. Not with the kind of sleeping quarters we've seen."

 

"Those could just be one of several types of accomodation, Sam," Jonas suggested.

 

"Stay close," Jack ordered, leading the way inside.

 

The interior of this building appeared to be a factory of some sort, the workers in protective gear all standing behind rows of metallic tables, pounding on slabs of steel with various instruments. The noise was nearly deafening, headache material if they were to stay too long. Earplugs would have been a definite necessity. Jack let Jonas hold out the note containing the insignia to the worker at the table nearest the entrance.

 

Lifting her protective headgear and wiping her face with a sleeve, the woman frowned at the markings. Then she looked back at the four travellers dressed in odd Komindan clothing and motioned them towards a worker three tables down. "Zapphra!" she called out loudly.

 

SG1 made their way to the one identified as Zapphra, a woman who had seen many years herself. She looked at the insignia and nodded. "Yes?"

 

Although the language was not that of her own planet, she responded hesitantly to Jonas's queries in Orconian.

 

Jonas turned to the others, shouting to be heard. "She said Daniel came by a week ago. She said he was speaking Orconian."

 

"Daniel Jackson has realized that there are more tongues spoken on Kominda."

 

"He apparently stayed here overnight," Jonas continued. "She says he'd been sent by her uncle. She gave him gear to wear and he worked here until closing time. Then he just stayed behind after everyone had gone."

 

"Where is he now?"

 

"She doesn't know."

 

"Damn."

 

"Maybe she can at least tell us where to find some of the others, sir."

 

_____

 

The second location had proven futile as well, for that individual had not even seen Daniel. Now they knew what those little dots were above his addresses; Daniel had only searched out nine of the sixteen himself, marking them off. That, at least, narrowed down their search considerably. It also, however, raised the question of how Daniel had addresses of people he not only hadn't spent time with, but that he hadn't even met.

 

The third address had taken them to a sleeper pod building, and the team had been forced to wait until nearly nightfall for this individual to return. The occupant then managed to explain that while he had offered his own sleeping pod to Daniel one night, the archaeologist had refused to accept. The man had no idea where Daniel had gone from there.

 

"It's getting late, kids. We have to find accomodation for ourselves soon."

 

"We are nearing the next location, O'Neill. Perhaps whoever aided Daniel Jackson there may allow us to spend this night with them as well."

 

Jack didn't have to think for long. "Okay. Let's hope this one's home isn't a sleeper building."

 

_____

 

No, it wasn't a sleeper building.

 

It was a structure brightly lit from the inside, and the door knocker was answered by a shapely woman with long blue hair, wearing nothing but body paint. Her eyes seemed to light up as she recognized some familiar faces.

 

"Colonel?" Jonas wasn't sure what to do.

 

"Oh damn." Scowling, Jack gave his head a tiny shake, then heaved out a breath of air. "Ask if she's seen Daniel."

 

Doing as requested, Jonas turned back to the group, "She says she has, Colonel. Daniel spent the night here just a few days ago."

 

"He did?" Carter blurted without thinking.

 

"She doesn't know where he is now, but if we find him she'd like to invite him back," Jonas grinned.

 

"How about we don't ask to spend the night, Teal'c? You wouldn't mind too much?"

 

Teal'c's lips flickered, then the movement faded. "I would not."

 

"Me neither, sir," Sam piped in.

 

"Then we'd better find a dark section of park where no one will notice four vagabonds. Let's hope there aren't any night patrols."

 

_____

 

They'd forgotten that parks were virtually non-existent in the suburbs, and had satisfied themselves with a dark corner of an alley between locked-up factories. Having brought as little as possible in the way of supplies, knowing the locals didn't go around carrying large backpacks, they were making do with lying on jackets and each other.

 

"God, what we do for that boy," Jack shook his head in mock annoyance. Somewhere in this town, Daniel was wandering around even at this very moment, completely alone. And he had no idea of the fate of his teammates, or if anyone was even coming to look for him. Hopefully he wasn't chained to others in a prison sleeping receptacle.

 

"Where do you think he could be now, Colonel?" Jonas queried, nearly reading O'Neill's thoughts.

 

Thoughts that had been plaguing Jack all day. "Okay… he sleeps during the night so as not to attract attention on deserted walkways. During the day I'd say he's been heading back to the Gate station. He has to be careful, go slowly, lay low."

 

"He'll never be able to enter the Gatehouse unseen, sir."

 

"Could he not have procured the workers' clothing, Major Carter?"

 

"It's possible, Teal'c, but he would have been too conspicuous going into one of those shops. Besides, I think he would have needed an ID card for that."

 

"So he might be hiding out near the station wondering how to get in unseen." Jack looked up hopefully. They had to assume, had to believe, that Daniel was still free.

 

"Then his note would've told us he was there, sir."

 

"Unless he was afraid of someone else reading and understanding it."

 

"Like the currency exchange workers?"

 

"They couldn't speak English… could they?"

 

The teammates all looked from one to the other. "We never asked."

 

"That wasn't among their choice of languages though," Jonas frowned. Was that because they hadn't expected travellers to come through the gate speaking it? Or maybe it wasn't among their most popular ones?

 

"Never mind. So Daniel may or may not be right outside the gate house. We're not going back yet to find out. Five more of these addresses to check out, and then that can be our Plan B." Another Plan B. This planet certainly won for the most unsuccessful plans ever.

 

"I wonder how he got all these addresses, anyway," Carter voiced her thoughts aloud. "Especially if some belong to people he never even met." They'd all been wondering, yet answers had been so infinite it had been a futile topic of discussion.

 

"The secret Jackson charm," Jack muttered. "Who knows how it works."

 

The three present SG1 teammates fell silent, looking upon each other's faces for some new answers or clues.

_____

 

The fifth address had SG1 thankful they had not reached this place the previous night. Nightmares of Daniel here would not have been welcome in a dark foreboding alien alley. The doorway to the seemingly derelict building led into a gloomy room lit by a single glowing central cube, which also gave off a moderate amount of warmth in this damp interior. Live snakes hung in the shadows from hooks on the garishly painted walls in the aim of deterring all visitors, reaching out their long slim torsos and twiggling their tongues in anticipation. Ducking carefully past, SG1 observed mats in various corners of the windowless room, some with bodies still asleep, others empty save for the roach-like bugs skittering across the stained fabric. Thin hungry animals sat among their excrement, eyeing the newcomers warily. The smell was overpowering.

 

"Who's address is this?" Jonas held out the insignia, asking the one body that seemed to be awake though staring at them vindictively.

 

The man just shrugged.

 

"We're looking for a friend. Daniel Jackson."

 

Two more heads lifted at the name, and gazed at the seekers. "He's not here."

 

"Was he here?"

 

The others just shrugged.

 

"Look, he's in trouble. He needs help. We came to help him get home."

 

The silence nearly caused SG1 to give up and retreat, until one voice broke the tension. "He stayed here three nights ago. We don't know where he is now."

 

Jack looked around, imagining Daniel spending the night in this place. Picturing Daniel trying to desperately get home to safety, not knowing that his team was out here searching for him. He'd have to know they were looking, wouldn't he? Wouldn't he know that?

 

No, the truth was that Daniel didn't even know if the Kelownan officials had even given Jonas the letter. Daniel knew SG1 thought he was dead. For that matter, Daniel didn't even know if SG1 was home or still in Komindan captivity. The last thing the archaeologist had known was that Jack had disappeared from work, presumably having been sent through the chute and destroyed… just as Jack had believed they'd done to Daniel.

 

Teal'c was too curious, and having tired of gazing at the unkempt surroundings, posed the question for their Kelownan translator. "Ask why they do not sleep in the pods."

 

"We choose to be free," was the reply. "The pods are run by the Leaders. One must work for them in the factories and warehouses."

 

"Jonas, try to find out why they helped Daniel and how they met him," Sam suggested hopefully. As long as their questions were being anwered, she had many.

 

After a few minutes of discussion Jonas nodded towards the first man. "Daniel got this address from that one's younger brother. It seems the kid was homeless. Daniel saved the boy from the death chamber."

 

The news stunned at least Jack. Some of those kids were being put to death because they were orphans or runaways? He wondered if Daniel had known. This was a world in which Daniel himself would not have lived past the age of eight.

 

But it also meant that those people had survived the chute. "Tell him Daniel and I were partners in that."

 

The information translated, the ageless man sat up straighter. Body stance now more relaxed, he nodded at Jack. "Thank you, then," were the words translated by Jonas. "I could not find my brother a job in time. He was too young."

 

"Do you have jobs?" Jonas looked at the others, disbelief cornering his eyes and lips. Why were these people allowed to remain here? Did the Leaders know of this place and others like it? Did everyone who refused to work for them live in places such as this?

 

"I sometimes clean floors at the Station."

 

"The Station?" Where they house the stargate?

 

The man nodded. "I have an identification card. I am allowed to enter the visitors' zone."

 

"You mean... not everyone who lives here is allowed into the city?"

 

"The Glass City, no. They do not want us to be seen by the visitors." He shook his head, then frowned. "And you should not be here."

 

"Sam, give me the letter." With the handmade envelope soon in his hand, Jonas excitedly removed the blue fabric and held it up. "Have you seen this?"

 

The fellow nodded once more. "Your friend told me how to send it through the transit hole."

 

"Guys! This is the one who sent the letter to Kelowna! He works in the Gatehouse!"

 

Three heads perked up. "He's allowed to dial the gate?" The revelation startled Jack.

 

"He convinced them the message was an order for supplies. He got someone else to send it through."

 

SG1 didn't know whether to be thrilled at finding the present object of their tiring search, or disappointed. They were still no closer to finding Daniel.

 

"He couldn't think of a way to get Daniel through the gate. Workers need clearance to run the Gatehouse equipment."

 

"We still have six addresses that Daniel hadn't checked off before he gave this man the letter, Colonel. Daniel may have copied them down after sending the letter home, and continued to one of them," Major Carter theorized. "Or he may have returned to one of the other four that we haven't tried yet."

 

The others sighed. One of those adresses had to be close to the Station, didn't it? One where Daniel was still hiding out?

 

"Onward ho," Jack said wearily.

 

_____

 

And then they made their first mistake.

 

She'd looked innocent enough. Dressed casually, she was leaving the suburban area. Certainly she could have told them where to find the address they'd held out for her perusal.

 

How could they have known she worked in the records department? That she would think to ask for ID before giving out any information? That she would call for security when they hurriedly left without identifying themselves? Too close to the tourist area now and the downtown corridor, they hadn't known what else to do but excuse themselves and rapidly retreat.

 

So while they'd been trying desperately to lose themselves amongst the few pedestrians, recapture was inevitable. They stood out easily, for most people took the trains. As if answering their questions as to how a streetless society dealt with medical and other emergencies, two small flying machines now descended from a rooftop, soundless cubes resembling helicopters without the rotors... without the skids... actually not resembling helicopters so much as coasting glass toyboxes. As the nets dropped to encircle them, SG1 was immobilized and quickly surrounded.

 

"Damn." Jack sighed in frustration. This planned rescue had ended up getting them nowhere.

 

They'd let Daniel down, and chances were they had even put him in further danger. After a protested search of their clothing and belongings, their captors had found the letter. The four travellers once again found themselves being herded underground to destinations unknown. This time, they would probably not be so easily released.

 

"Sorry," Sam whispered to Jonas, SG1 once again detained in a gray featureless room. Their former teammate could have been safe at home, doing boring work for a boring Kelownan government. Safely.

 

"Up until now I'd been thinking I missed this," he whispered back.

 

_____

 

Daniel had been afraid this would happen, but what else could he have done? All he'd hoped was for a different guard to be there this time, one who did not know of SG1, one who did not recognize his clothing, one who might allow him to pass through the gate. But he had no proper ID, and they'd all been on the lookout for the missing one. The one who knew what their chambers were really for. The one who'd seen their death pits.

 

The response had been rapid. So close, he'd been so close. On this attempt he'd even managed to enter the building, and had almost reached the walkway of the stargate platform. On the floor by the DHD, the dialler was even looking the other way. How to distract him Daniel didn't know, but he hadn't had long to ponder the issue. Within moments Daniel felt strong arms placed upon his own, and realized that the weapons pointed at his face included two rifles and a zat gun. Defeated, he gave no resistance as they led him away.

 

Now, where he was being taken was uncertain; all the trains and stations looked alike, at least on this side of the downtown corridor, and Daniel had spent the past several days on foot. He was exhausted, stressed, afraid, and despondent. He felt a mess and knew he looked even worse. Having eaten only scraps and scrounged food for over a week, he was out of the necessary strength to fight for himself.

 

Until they reached their final destination, and he was led inside a dull gray room.

 

"Daniel!" Jack's smile was undisguised, as a quick pause gave way to a rush of energy and Daniel took four long steps into his friend's grasp. Jack pulled his missing teammate into a relieved embrace, as Carter and Teal'c let their own relief be similarly known.

 

"We'd thought they'd killed you, Daniel," Carter breathed in his ear. "Your note was such a relief."

 

"How the hell did you get those people to help you?"

 

Daniel took a step back, looking wistfully at Jack. "I took the chute. Those people, the ones we sent through,…"

 

Daniel's full response was interrupted by one of the guards, as SG1's eyes travelled to the object in the man's hand. Under one arm rested a local weapon, while his other hand tightly grasped a zat.

 

"What's going on?" Jack asked, doing his best to conceal his nervousness, forgetting these people knew no English. Some of these were the guards who had detained them on the first day, at least one of whom spoke the language of the Jaffa.

 

It was this one who addressed Teal'c, his final words of Goa'uld revealing triumph, words understood by not only Teal'c but by Daniel and Jonas as well. "No one runs from us," he pointed the zat towards Daniel. "You have not only avoided and shamed us, your eyes have gazed upon the forbidden burial grounds. And the rest of you," he looked up angrily, "were warned against returning. But we are grateful; you have given us a weapon far more simple and quick than our disposal pods or our eternal sleep chambers." He waved the zat, then aimed it again at Daniel. "Our legends have told of these tools. We will no longer have need of our old disposal units." With an indiscernable movement he fired the first shot, and Daniel dropped.

 

"Damn it! What did you do that for?" Jack shouted, snapping to Daniel's side as his teammate furled up on the ground, tensing and shaking. "Daniel?" The older man reached out to his friend but was pulled backwards by two guards. "Let GO of me," he raged to no avail, his struggles held in check by the stronger men. The rest of his teammates found themselves pulled into similar grasps.

 

Daniel felt the surges rush through his body again and again, but nothing equalled the next sight that met his partly open eyes. The zat was aimed at him again, and he cried out in Goa'uld. "Don't! God, no!"

 

His wide eyes stared in fear at the man whom he really thought might do this.

 

The cries of his teammates went silent as the second shot was fired and Daniel lay still, his startled blue eyes gazing up in shock and panic. Unblinking.

 

"Oh Jesus."

 

Nothing could have prepared them for this, this... murder. That was Daniel lying there, and the vaccuum surrounding SG1 sucked the sound from the air, the air from the room, the light from the day, their breaths from their bodies. Time stilled and the orbit of the planet waited for permission to carry on.

 

"God." The whisper was filled with pain, the pain with tears, and the next few moments were heavy with silence.

 

Anger would achieve nothing, terror would cripple, and grief would destroy.

 

And while doing nothing would cradle an endless eternity, they had no other option. They were powerless to act, powerless to help.

 

"H…oh," Jack breathed, then sank to the floor in a loosened grip, where Carter had already dropped, head in her hands and unmoving. "No."

 

"Daniel Jackson." Teal'c spoke quietly, his face filled with grief. Jonas stared, eyes wide and facial muscles strained.

 

No one moved but the guards, ignoring the teammates' anguish and chatting casually amongst themselves. They'd known of this device; now they knew how well it worked.

 

And they knew of one more function that it had. If that worked as well, this device would be of utmost importance to the way they ran their discipline program from this moment on.

 

The guard aimed the zat one last time at Daniel, the Earth travellers in shock and too scared to believe this was really happening.

 

Suddenly the room was bathed in light, and there was Thor standing before them. The faces of the guards were pierced with disbelief and astonishment. Aghast, they stood seven in a row, stiff and gaping.

 

"Yes!" Jack jumped up. "Thank you, General!!" Motioning towards his damaged and … dead teammate, the words jumped from his lips in a rush. "You can fix him, right?"

 

Thor blinked, appearing confused.

 

"Daniel's dead. You can heal him, right?" Carter and Teal'c looked on in hope, as Jack reworded the question in case Thor had not understood.

 

"We are not able to revive a dead human, O'Neill."

 

"Of course you can! You brought General Hammond alive after he was killed."

 

Thor blinked again. "We did not."

 

"You… well your alternates did, in that other universe!" Jack found himself openly pleading. Hammond had been hit with two zat blasts, right in front of their eyes, and returned alive only moments later. Well, maybe it hadn't been their Asgard. But the Asgard had to have a way; Daniel couldn't stay like this. Come on, you have to have something….

 

"I am sorry, O'Neill. To the Asgard, death is a permanent condition."

 

Oh crap, I don't want to hear that… "Come on! All that cloning you do! Hell, you can make people!"

 

"We have had need of cloning techniques, O'Neill. We have not needed to develop methods to revive dead humans."

 

No, there were no sarcophagi in the Asgard world. What the hell took you so long getting here, anyway? We saved your whole damn planet from those replicators and you can't even save one of our own? Too late, this time. You people are too damned late.

 

Jack's bitterness mixed with fury in the futility of the situation, as he realized grimly that he was arguing a useless cause. He could not force Thor to agree to what the Asgard did not have and could not do. Daniel was really gone this time. Jack's eyes fell upon Carter's stricken features, her trembling lip and glassy gaze, and he was forced to look away. How could he once again wake up in the morning knowing Daniel would never be around to talk to? Knowing the Asgard had been only minutes too late? The good guys were always supposed to be rescued on time... weren't they?

 

And then the zat blast knocked Thor to the ground.

 

"What? What the hell are you doing?" Jack yelled in rage as one of the guards lifted and easily carted Thor out of the room. "Hey!!"

 

The guards knew the strange alien was too important to risk losing; a chance of a lifetime had just been dropped into their hands. They would study him and he would bring them distinction and prestige for as long as the novelty lasted. Perhaps they could even sell small replicas of this unfamiliar alien creature previously known only from their children's fairy tales. They saw now that the dead man had not really been the only one who could talk with this Thor, as these others would have had them believe. They would keep the one called O'Neill whom this Thor liked so well, along with the translator with the gold on his face, and all would be well. The others they would dispose of.

 

The fury on O'Neill's face was disturbed only when his gaze once again returned to the body of Daniel lying there, so gone and so alone, his friend's panicked eyes appealling to the one whose heart had refused to listen. Jack wiped below his lashes, oblivious to the fact that Carter was doing the same.

 

And the horror escalated when the guard again turned to the archaeologist lying dead on the floor, and aimed the zat.

 

"NO!" But SG1's chorused cries were in vain, and Daniel's body vanished.

 

"Oh geez, oh crap. Shit, oh shit." Jack could barely catch his breath. "Oh shit."

 

God.

 

How could anything hurt this much?

 

It had been said that Teal'c had shed tears when his teammates had been thought lost on Hathor's planet. Somehow, tears from Teal'c did not seem so out of place this time. Jack understood, barely noticing through his own searing psychological pain. Carter would meet no one's eyes, her own world blurring and frighteningly fragile.

 

This mess was not supposed to happen on a mission to a supposedly friendly planet.

 

This was not supposed to happen anywhere. Not to SG1. Not to Daniel.

 

But for the people of Kominda, the ancient and lost zat was all they needed to do away with the unwanteds - the homeless, the disabled, the orphans, the elderly who no longer cared to work, and now they had definite proof of its existence. It was all they needed to replace the power-sucking vaccuum pods and messy smelly burial pits. And it had been brought back to their world by these spies.

 

Yet not all things go as planned, for what is triumph for some is loss for others. And right before their eyes, the spies disappeared in a short burst of illumination.

 

_____

 

SG1 found themselves lying beside a stunned and gasping Thor, aboard his ship and surrounded by his expressionless comrades. If worry could show in Asgard body language, it was trying to.

 

There was little movement, until another of the Asgard spoke up, "Are you well?"

 

Still in shock, none of SG1 responded. Thor blinked several times, then rose slowly. "I am well." Looking around dazedly, he addressed SG1. "Where is the body of Daniel Jackson?"

 

"They zatted him again," Jack's misery was pronounced, his voice rough. "Disintegrated him." The truth sounded foreign and painful, echoing in this cavernous alien vessel hovering now in enemy space. The vessel that had been too damn late.

 

"His death was from your… 'zat' weapon?" Thor inquired.

 

Jack nodded.

 

Speaking to his comrades, Thor instructed, "Bring up the others from that room."

 

Moments later, all the guards were gaping in surprise and confusion, staring at a large group of Asgard clones.

 

His thoughts still fueled by emotion, bitterness and grief and hatred colliding in tangled knots, Jack felt a momentary, empty triumph. Whatever justice or punishment the Asgard would deal out for such an unforgivable crime, it would never come close to compensating for what he and his team would be going through for the rest of their lives. There was no justice to be done.

 

Yet any punishment would be better than letting Daniel's murderers go free. Maybe he could convince the Asgard to allow SG1 to take the men back to Earth to be sentenced by Daniel's own people. The men of glass could learn how it feels to have their own hearts broken.

 

So when Thor reached for the zat still in the one guard's hand and heaved it between both of his own, Jack's initial surprise gave way to an intense hope combined with slight disappointment that the Asgard perhaps believed in "an eye for an eye". Denying his subconscious awareness that these aliens would be unlikely to intentionally kill anyone, Jack was not beyond taking the zat and completing the mission himself.

 

But to Jack's dismay and impatience, Thor made no mention of any retribution or penalty. Instead, the small alien ordered, "Return us to the surface."

 

_____

 

Once again, SG1, along with Jonas and Thor, found themselves on Kominda, in the familiar and now empty detention room. As Thor aimed the zat in the former direction of Daniel's body, Jack spoke up quietly. "What are you doing?"

 

Thor blinked, then turned his head slowly towards Sam. "You are aware that matter cannot be destroyed?"

 

"Yes, of course. It can only change form."

  

Thor blinked again, addressing the discouraged faces surrounding him. "This weapon does not cause disintegration."

 

"What?"

 

"It sends matter to another plane of existence."

 

"What?" Jack repeated, unable to contain the hope that something crucial was about to happen here, yet not grasping the significance of Thor's statement.

 

"Like the Crystal Skull?" Carter questioned excitedly. Thor just stared, appearing uncertain.

 

"You mean all the dead things we've zatted away are floating around in someone else's living space?" Comprehension was dawning. Was there a way to get their friend's body back, to bring him home and grant him a decent burial?

 

Ignoring Jack, Thor heaved the heavy weapon and aimed, firing unsteadily around the bare floor.

 

Slowly, in place of nothingness, Daniel Jackson's body appeared.

 

SG1 stood motionless and disbelieving, not daring to trust their eyes and not daring to hope.

 

Minutes ago, Daniel's death had been the worst thing in the world. Now, relieved to just have him returned to them at all, SG1 knew of a fate even worse than death. Funny how time and circumstance could change one's perspective. But Daniel's unfocussed blue eyes were staring blindly, and for once they were not a beautiful sight. They were heart-wrenching.

 

Jack hesitantly stepped forward, aiming to gently lower the lids. The need to touch his friend was both drawing and repelling him, and he was blatantly aware that the touch would bring neither warmth nor comfort.

 

"Do not." Thor's warning stopped O'Neill where he stood, one foot forward. "You have a single-cycle device on your planet which functions to recharge one's body?" Thor asked.

 

Sam responded after a long moment, puzzled. "You mean a defibrillator?"

 

Thor tilted his head an inch or two. "It functions much as a zat'nikatel tool," the small alien concluded nonchalantly.

 

Firing again - the fifth time for Daniel - the energy emitted caused the body to jolt upwards, and Daniel's eyes blinked and then fluttered.

 

An SG1 team unprepared for their internal surge of emotion stared in astonished awe, as a bewildered and shaken Daniel turned his head towards them.

 

"Daniel?" Sam gasped out. "Oh god. Daniel!"

 

And before they could reach him, all six were back aboard the Asgard ship.

 

_____

 

Daniel kept trying to sit up, but his aching, shivering body refused to cooperate. "What happened?" he groaned, accepting the jacket Teal'c gently placed over him.

 

"Oh, I'd say you died for a while," Jack tried unsuccessfully not to grin. This was so cool. "Again."

 

Turning towards Teal'c, he squinted. "First shot causes pain, second shot kills, third shot disintegrates... sort of, fourth shot…?"

 

"I did not know, O'Neill."

 

"You didn't know??" Jack let loose his incredulity.

 

"This is not a Goa'uld weapon," Thor began to explain. "It is of the Ancients. It was created for medical research purposes."

 

"And the Goa'uld mistook it for a weapon?"

 

"They misused it as a weapon, O'Neill," Thor replied. "They did not know of its complete properties, or perhaps they chose to ignore. The balance of positive and negative charges alternates with each release of the mechanism."

 

"Sweet," Jack remarked, then grinned back down at Daniel. "But it works for me."

 

"And me, sir," Carter smiled, one hand grasping tightly onto Daniel's, the other lightly stroking his hair.

 

"And me," Daniel mumbled weakly, "I think. From the sounds of it. Jack?"

 

"I'm here."

 

"I know. Those people…"

 

"It wasn't your fault, Daniel." Jack knew what was coming; he'd been expecting this, long before the man had been …killed.

 

"I didn't know you weren't there," the distraught man continued wearily, losing what little energy he had left.

 

"I know. There was nothing you could have done." And they would have killed you if you'd tried. "Nothing, Daniel. You did good, whatever you did."

 

"We'd better get him home, Colonel. He's just experienced five zat blasts, sir." Carter was worriedly listening, not understanding the necessity of this cryptic conversation.

 

"Wait." Daniel forced his eyes open once more, focussing on the guards still awestruck at their own misfortune. "The people we saved, Jack. They have nowhere to go and nothing to eat."

 

"So they are alive?"

 

Daniel nodded, careful not to move too much. "We have to get them out of there."

 

Jack looked up at Thor, who nodded. "Reveal their location, Daniel Jackson. We shall return them to their homes."

 

"To be killed again? Or zatted away?"

 

"This world had been protected by the Asgard for millennia. We will once again make contact and negotiate."

 

"Thank you," Daniel whispered, as he allowed his head to rest gently against Carter's knee, his eyes closed.

 

"Hey… hey, Daniel. Not yet. Have to ask you about a girl with long blue hair."

 

"Just someone trying to survive," they heard Daniel's low whisper. "Needed someone to talk to. She was nice."

 

"Someone to talk to?"

 

The nod was barely discernible. "Someone who'd listen. She was just trying to keep her grandmother out of the chambers. We did that for her, Jack. She was grateful."

 

Grateful enough to pay you back, my friend. That's good enough for me.

 

"You sure made some strange friends out there."

 

"They were all just trying to survive."

 

"As were we, Daniel Jackson."

 

Daniel nodded, his eyes still closed, Sam's soothing touch still on his forehead. "As were we," he agreed.

---

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