omniDANIEListic FanFiction
Disclaimer: The characters portrayed within this story belong to the guys that own the Rights to Stargate SG1 so MGM, Gekko and unfortunately obvioues SciFi too...but I have a friend making beautiful SG1-clones and sometimes I let them out to explore our universe!
Those aformentioned characters inspire a lot of people watching and adoring Stargate SG1 so be indulgent. Many thanks to Gekko and MGM, Daniel Jackson, Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter and Teal'c plus their respective actors doing such a great performance!!
But I am tempted to cast an evil spell on SciFi.
Summary: see author's notes. Tag to "The Shroud"
Timeline: season 10
spoilers: The Shroud, s 10
Rating:Some Danny-whumping involved, of cos, angst, language, violence too, but nothing too serious so far
Size:
Author's Notes: Okay - Deep Breath - Here goes.
This is the first story that I've written that I've actually put up for public humiliation Wink (CP&UP being a
collaboration with Em, and on temporary hold till she's back in action, and just a bit of fun.)
I apprectiate that This may be every one's cup of tea. It focuses very much so on Jack and Daniel,
I just so love their friendship. But don't worry guys, the rest of our heroes aren't wallpapered.
It takes place after the events of The Shroud, and is kind of AU in that I ignore the events of the episodes
that came after. I wanted to write something that had them all having to deal with the consequences of Daniel's
and Merlins actions, Daniel dealing with his own feelings regarding them, and what it leads them and the team
into in their efforts to prevent to Ori invasion.
Where I refer to what transpired bewteen the time that he was captured by Adria and being De-Priorized,
it is all a lot darker than what we got on-screen. Nothing gratuitous or graphic though.
I hope you enjoy, I'm open to advice and critism, but please remember, as I rule I write for my own pleasure,
and I'm extremely nervous about posting this. Oh, and BTW, it hasn't been beta'd, so please don't hesitate to
pick me up on typos, bad grammar, etc. And please, it is fiction, so my somewhat strange imagination is at work
here
# Novel: Consequences Part 4 #
by Delta666
Vala stood rooted to the spot staring at the place where the white glow had taken Daniel and Jack. Now there was nothing there, it was as if the glow, and the two men had never been there, just an empty space strewn with ancient debris. She wanted to call out, but she was robbed of her voice. She wanted to do something, anything, but it was as if something was freezing her to the spot. Then, suddenly, after what seemed an eternity, she found she had regained control over her limbs. She turned and ran as fast as she could back to their shelter.
“Cameron, Sam, Teal’c!” She shouted at the top of her lungs. She hurtled in to the room. They were still all asleep. Frantically she shook each of them, but they weren’t waking up. It occurred to her that someone, or something had caused this. Panic rose in her chest. She HAD to wake them up! Maybe it wasn’t too late!
“CAMERON!” she decided to concentrate on getting at least one of them conscious. “CAMERON! WAKE UP!” She used all her strength to shake him as hard as she could, and finally she was rewarded as his eyes flickered open and he grumbled at her irritably.
“Vala, what the……where’s the fire?” He mumbled groggily.
“Cameron! Wake up, this is important. Daniel and General O’Neill, they’re gone!” She punctuated her words with rough shakes of the half-awake man. She considered flinging water over him and reached for a canteen. She was just about to hurl it when he seemed to snap out of it.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa hold up there Vala.” He knocked the canteen out of her hand.
“Cameron, you’ve been - affected by – something. Listen to me. Daniel and Jack - General O’Neill are gone.”
Cam glanced over to the spots where the two men had settled down for the night. He woke up fully when he saw they were vacant.
“Vala, what exactly do you mean by gone?” He asked warily, the look on her face causing him deep anxiety. She looked distraught, close to tears.
“Gone, as in GONE - with that glowy white light thing out there.” She waved an arm in the direction of where the energy barrier had been.
“Vala, calm down, did you see this, do you know for certain?” He was sitting bolt upright now, truly worried.
“Of course I know for certain. I saw it happen!”
“Okay, let’s get Sam and Teal’c awake.” He crawled over to the jaffa and started to try and rouse him, while Vala attempted to wake Sam up. While they were doing this Vala continued telling Cam what had happened.
“I woke up, whatever it is that’s affected you three obviously didn’t affect me, or Jack – General O’Neill, and, I somehow don’t think it was supposed to affect Daniel anyway. Soo, I saw that Daniel was missing and woke up Jack.” She decided to drop the General O’Neill. “We both realised that he must have gone out – there, so we went to fetch him back.” Her anxiety, bordering on panic was causing her to talk twenty to the dozen.
“Okay Vala, hold up a sec. Let’s get these two woken up, then you’ll only have to go through it once.” Cam suggested. Eventually Sam and Teal’c woke up. Teal’c was very concerned that he had fallen asleep when he’d promised that he would watch over Daniel.
“Teal’c, don’t sweat it.” Cam reassured him. “It seems that something caused us to sleep, you included big guy.”
“I could be connected with that energy field.” Sam muttered noting Vala’s tear filled eyes, and the grim set of Cam’s expression.
“Okay, what’s going on.” Automatically, her eyes strayed to the spot where Jack had settled down, and then she too saw that Daniel’s spot was empty as well. She felt a cold shiver run down her spine.
“Okay, where are Daniel and the General?”
“That’s what Vala’s trying to tell us.” Cam explained. “Vala, take a deep breath and start from the beginning.”
She managed to keep her voice steady as she recounted what had happened.
“They just vanished. Daniel, Jack, and the white glowy barrier. There was nothing I could do, Jack was trying to pull Daniel away from it, but it seemed to be pulling them in, and, Daniel seemed to want to go in to it.” She concluded.
“We need to go out there, maybe there’s some trace energy signature.” Sam said, falling back on technicalities as a defence mechanism. “Maybe they’re not actually – gone.” She added.
“Indeed. We should go and investigate the site. Perhaps Vala you are mistaken.” Tealc intoned, but there was an undertone of worry in his voice. He had gotten to know Vala well enough to see that she was almost in a state of shock, and that, where Daniel was concerned, she would not lie, which boded badly for the fate of his two friends.
Vala started him with a look that said she truly wished she was mistaken, but she knew she wasn’t.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They made their way to the place which only minutes before had been filled by the energy barrier. Sam wielded her instrument and frowned.
“There’s nothing.” She announced.
“Well, that’s fairly obvious.” Vala snapped and Cam squeezed her shoulder gently as a gesture of comfort.
“What I mean is, even the energy reading that has been present the entire time we’ve been here has gone. Apart from the usual background radiation, there’s nothing else.” Sam looked puzzled as well as concerned.
Teal’c was wandering about peering at the ground, looking for what, he had no idea, he just felt that he needed to be doing something. Cam contacted Reynolds to see if they’d seen anything odd. When he ended the call, having told Reynolds and his men to stay put, that they’d be coming down to them. He spoke to his team.
“Well, it seems that Reynolds and his men were affected by the same thing as us. They’d all fallen in to unusually deep sleeps. Even the guy on watch.” He looked at Vala how was staring in to space nibbling on her thumbnail, her other arm wrapped around her middle. His heart went out to her. She looked so - forlorn.
“Vala, did you have any problem waking the Colonel?”
She looked at him and shook her head. “No, none at all.”
“Well, I guess we can ponder on that later. I’m going to have to report in to General Landry, how he’s going to take this, I have no idea. In the meantime, Sam see if you can detect anything, Reynolds says that the floodwaters have receded and we should have little trouble crossing the river, so I’ve sent him and his team off to Malkon. See what those little buggers know about this.”
“You mean we’re just leaving?” Vala exclaimed.
“Vala. There’s nothing here.” Sam said gently. “Obviously they’ve been transported elsewhere, hopefully on this planet, but, we need to come back with specialised equipment to try and find them.” She rubbed Vala’s arm reassuringly. “Don’t worry, we’re not abandoning them. You know we’d never do that.”
Vala plonked herself down on a handy lump of masonry and sat huddled and shivering even though it was a conversely pleasant morning.
“It’s our fault. We should have been more supportive of Daniel when he was – Priorized. He lost his faith in us, didn’t trust us anymore, if he had he’d have told us why he was drawn here, we could have worked together as a team, found whatever he thought was here. Instead, he ran away from us, felt he had to do this alone.”
Sam perched on the edge of the rock next to her.
“Vala, he’s got the General with him, and he’ll never let anything bad happen to Daniel, I think you know that, don’t you.”
“Assuming that – thing didn’t just – dissolve them, or something.” She stared at the spot where they’d vanished.
“I don’t think that’s the case. Daniel was drawn here for a reason, I think he was meant to step in to the barrier, I’m positive that the fact that General O’Neill vanished too was a pure accident. We will find them Vala, we always have before, haven’t we.” She smiled and hoped that was in fact what had happened, and it all hadn’t been some horrible trap to destroy Daniel. She couldn’t help wondering if Adria had somehow survived, and wanted to punish Daniel for tricking her. She didn’t voice that last thought though. The last thing Vala needed to hear was that she thought her daughter might be responsible for the death of someone she clearly was more than a little fond of.
Cam took a deep breath, now he had to break the news to Landry. This was one call he was NOT looking forward to making. He got the SFs to open the gate and connected with the SGC.
The others all waited tensely for the outcome of his conversation.
“Okay, we hook up with SG-3 and head on back to the SGC.” He announced after having terminated the call.
“No!” Vala said.
“Vala, we’ve been ordered to report back. Landry want a first hand report from you, as the only witness, then, he’ll send us back with a whole bunch of scientists.” The last part he added of his own accord, for Vala’s benefit. She reluctantly agreed and they gathered up their gear and made their way back down to the river.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Well, you’d never have though that half the valley had been flooded a few hours ago.” Cam remarked as the surveyed the scene before them. It was a beautiful day, the river calm once more and, although broken, there was enough bridge left to enable them to cross back over.
As they made their way to the road Cam got a strange call from Reynolds.
“Mitchell, I think you might want to see this, it’ll only take a while, Landry said you were to meet up with us anyway, we’re at the village, you told us to check it out and see if they knew anything. Well, we’re here, at least, we’re at the coordinates Colonel Carter provided us with.”
“Okay, we’ll meet you there. Mitchell out.” Cam looked at the others and shrugged.
“The village, Reynold’s thinks something’s amiss.” He told them, not overly concerned. He had other things on his mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Oh!” Sam exclaimed as they entered the village.
“Oh indeed, are we in fact in the correct location?” Teal’c looked around with bemused expression.
“What’s happened, I mean, it wasn’t like this yesterday, and there’s no way the storm could have caused it.” Vala remarked.
“We checked out the entire area.” Reynolds informed them as he approached. The whole place is like this. I thought you said it was a thriving community.”
“Well, it was, yesterday.” Cam told him.
The village, or what was left of it looked like it had been abandoned for at least as long as the city. The beautiful Council Building was a wreck, the paving in the market square broken with weeds growing through the gaps, and in some places, trees. They could make out the remains of the market stalls. The houses still stood, but roofless, and with dark empty holes where the windows had once been.
“This can’t be! If we didn’t know better, we’d think this place had been abandoned for centuries.” Sam exclaimed wielding her instruments again.
“And, we definitely didn’t take a wrong turn somewhere along the line.” Cam looked at her for confirmation.
“No, this is exactly the same place we came to two days ago.” She confirmed, automatically checking her instruments. There was however, nothing to record, like back at the city, any energy readings had dissipated, and all that remained was the usual background stuff.
Vala was wondering around desolately kicking at bits of wood and broken masonry. She’d been harbouring a hope that the Malkons might have known what had a happened to Daniel and Jack.
“So, what the hell did we see when we came here, I mean, we talked to them, ate their food, drank their – corva. What the hell is going on?” Cam was totally bemused. It would have been less weird if the village had vanished. He watched as Vala crouched down and picked something out of the dirt. She came over to them and showed them what she’d found.
“Vala?” Sam stared at her head. Vala touched the place where her hairclip was, it was still there, but in her hand, grimy and tarnished, but without a doubt, was it’s twin, which she assured them was impossible as it was a one of a kind that she’d had for many years.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but I don’t like it one little bit.” She stated sounding almost afraid.
“We should investigate, whoever created the - illusion of the village, may well be the same people who took Daniel and the General.” Sam announced.
“I think we have to assume they’re connected.” Cam agreed. “Have either you ever come across technology that can do – whatever it was it did?”
Sam shook her head and looked at Teal’c.
“I have not, to create such an illusion, so realistically, would require the use of technology far greater than any that I have ever encountered.”
“Well, Reynolds we’d best be heading back, another puzzle for the egg-heads.” Cam said and smiled apologetically at Sam.
Vala sighed heavily and pocketed the trinket. Maybe there were some tests they could run on it, after all, Sam had all kinds of equipment in her lab.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Landry watched the return of four fifths of SG-1, SG-3 and the two SFs who’d been guarding the gate. He’d decide whether to send anyone back to 556 after the briefing. How he was going to explain this away to the IOA, he had no idea. Not only had Dr Jackson gone missing, but also a highly decorated USAF General, who technically shouldn’t have even been off-world. The crap really was going to hit the fan on this one.
After being cleared by Dr Lam, showered and changed, SG-1 and Colonel Reynolds gathered in the briefing room. To their surprise, Dr Lam was also present. General Landry joined them looking extremely grim.
“Mr Woolsey arrived shortly after you returned through the ‘gate, I had no choice but to tell him what I know.” Landry looked genuinely apologetic. “He wishes to interview Dr Lam and you.” He included all four present members of SG-1 in his statement. “Apparently the IOA got wind of this almost as soon as you reported in Colonel.” He looked at Cam.
“Which, suggests they have a mole in place.” Cam said angrily.
Landry looked very troubled as he took his seat and they began the briefing.
“So, at this point in time, we have no idea as to whether Dr Jackson and General O’Neill are even still alive?” He said thoughtfully, and unhappily.
“Well I for one refuse to believe that they’re dead. Sam thinks they may have been transported somewhere else, all we have to do is find out where, and go and get them back.” Vala said with forced cheerfulness.
“Whether that is going to happens depends entirely on my report to the rest of the IOA.”
They all turned and, with sinking hearts recognised the man who’d recommended the termination of Daniel’s life to the International Oversight Committee. Vala, for the first time since she’d been relieved of her host, seriously wished she could fry his brains with a ribbon device. Cam sighed and threw his pen pointedly on the table. Sam and Teal’c exchanged glances, and Landry looked at Woosley like he was something his retriever had just dragged in.
“I realise that I’m not exactly welcome here, but, since I was – present during the time Dr Jackson was a Prior, and was present at his psychiatric evaluations following that unpleasantness, it was only logical that I be involved in any decisions made regarding who to deal with the disappearances of both Dr Jackson and General O’Neill.” As he spoke he took a seat and pulled a thick folder from his briefcase.
“Woolsey, might I remind you, we do not leave our people behind.” Landry said firmly. “I will personally authorise whatever it takes to try and locate what are two very valuable members of both the SGC and the United States Airforce.”
“That decision may no longer lie with you General Landry. And, had my recommendations regarding Dr Jackson been taken in the first place, then it would never have come to this.” The weasely man said with a superior tone in his voice.
“Killed him you mean.” Vala spat. “Just like that, only, you were too cowardly to actually say it. Terminate his life, a nice cold clinical phrase.”
“Vala.” Cam warned.
“Ah, yes, Ms MalDuran, Do I need to remind you that you are only here thanks to the generosity of the leaders of this facility, and I can have you shipped of to Area 51 just like that.” He fixed her with a cold stare.
“And, Mr Woolsey, need I remind you that Vala was willing to sacrifice her life when she stopped the first Ori Supergate from being completed.” Landry said defending her. The two men locked eyes, challenging each other, but, hate it though he did, Landry knew that Woolsey ultimately had the upper hand and it was Woolsey who broke their silent challenge.
“Well, I imagine that once I have submitted my recommendations Dr Jackson and General O’Neill will no longer be your problem. Stargate operations will continue as normal, but IOA personnel will carry out any search for them. Dr Jackson is to be considered a threat to the security of Earth, and now it’s quite likely that General O’Neill may be compromised.”
There was a collective gasp from around the table. Landry looked resigned. He couldn’t override Woolsey; he didn’t have the clout, Woosley and the IOA held all the strings.
Vala rose, her eyes sparking with fury.
“That’s it, I quit, as of this moment, I am no longer a member of the SGC, and therefore, no longer under your command.” She looked apologetically at Landry, and then turned on Woolsey. “Or subject to your petty, vindictive decisions.” She glared at the IOA representative and ripped the patches from her sleeves and flung them on the table.
“General Landry, with your permission” She deliberately stood with her back facing Woolsey. “I’d like to be allowed to go through the gate one last time.”
“Vala, you don’t have to do this.” Sam pleaded with her.
“Yes, I do, I’m used to being out there on my own, I can acquire a ship, and I will find Daniel, and Jack, not that I intend bringing Daniel back here just to be incarcerated by him and his cronies” She glared even harder at Woolsey. “What Jack does will be up to him of course. But I refuse to abandon them.” She was resolute and conviction shone in her eyes.
“I think it would be in Dr Jackson’s best interests, assuming he is found, to bring him back here where he can undergo professional treatment. From what I’ve been hearing, he is clearly an extremely disturbed individual. If he and General O’Neill have, indeed, been transported elsewhere, and from what I’ve seen since I took up my post here, that is not beyond the realms of possibility. Then he’s clearly in no fit state to be roaming the galaxy” Dr Lam said in her cool professional way, and they all started at her, SG-1 in shock, Reynolds looking as if he wished the floor would open up and swallow him, Woolsey smug, and Landry trying his best remain detached and professional.
Sam bit back a retort, like it or not, she was a USAF Officer, and was not at liberty to vent her feelings during the briefing. Cam to looked like he was having a hard time holding his tongue. Vala went to speak, but Teal’c beat her too it.
“Like ValaMalDuran, I also am not a citizen of Earth, neither am I a member of the Airforce, so I too am at liberty to speak my mind.” He turned to Dr Lam. “Dr, I believe that you and your colleagues were at fault for not recognising that DanielJackson was not fully recovered from his ordeal, and I respectfully have to point out, that I no longer have confidence in you and the psychiatrists abilities to do what is best for him. MrWoolsey, I would rather still be serving as First Prime to Apophis than permit you to get your hands on DanielJackson, and although they cannot say it, I am certain that ColonelCarter and ColonelMitchell are in agreement with myself and Vala.”
“Well said Teal’c.” Vala managed a genuine smile of affection for the jaffa. “Although.” She admitted, we were all at fault for making assumptions.” She added in a positively heartbroken voice.
“I understand how the two of you feel, how all of you feel. But, take a moment to think about the consequences of your actions. Vala, I’ll hold on the resignation for now. Sleep on it, talk with Colonel Carter and Mitchell, then, if you’re still determined to leave us, I can’t stop you, and neither can he.” He looked pointedly at Woolsey. “As for you Teal’c, the same applies, I can’t stop you leaving if you want to, but think on this for a moment. With or without the IOAs intervention, you still might have the best chance of locating them, assuming they are still out there to be located.”
“May I remind all of you, should they be found, either by members of the SGC or one of the IOA teams, they are to be brought back to Earth to face judgement and reprisal for their actions.” Woolsey reminded them, and Cam was hard pressed not too punch that smug look from his face.
“General, I require the use of an office, I have ‘phone calls to make.” Woosley stood and waited expectantly. Landry summoned Walter and he led the current bane of the SGC’s existence to a vacant office. Reynolds and Dr Lam were dismissed, leaving only SG-1 remaining.
“Well, what can I say? My hands are tied.” Landry said speaking from the heart. “If I don’t go along with him, they’ll bring in their own people to run the SGC, and that will be that.”
“It’s okay Sir, we do appreciate that.” Sam assured her CO.
“Yeah, at least while your in charge, we can go out there. Do a few ‘missions’.” Cam added, punctuating the word with air quotes.
“Which is precisely why I feel that you Vala, and Teal’c would be best off holding our horses for a bit.” He looked pointedly at the two ‘off-worlders’.”
“I can see that, General.” Vala looked him straight in the eye. “But, that horrid little man, he makes my skin crawl, and whenever I think of what he wanted to do to Daniel…..” She shuddered.
“So, I take it that neither of you plan on doing anything rash in the immediate future then?” He asked them.
“I will remain patient General Landry, but, should I feel the need, I will not hesitate to take my leave and proceed independently of the SGC.” He gave the General a respectful bow, indicating that he did not hold him responsible for the actions of Woolsey.
“I appreciate that Teal’c, thank you.” Landry gave him a brief nod in return. He then turned his attention to Vala.
“Okay.” She said reluctantly, after several long, moments. “But, only as long as I think everyone’s got Daniel’s, and Jack’s, best interests at heart.”
“Thank you Vala.” He favoured her with a brief smile.
With that he rose indicating that the meeting was concluded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Landry waited until Woosley had finished his phone call, he tapped on the door and entered without waiting to be invited.
“General Landry, come to plead your case I suppose.” Woosley looked at Landry in a supercilious manner. Landry ignored the look and sat deliberately in the spare chair.
“I see no point. You’ve already made up your mind. You intend having Dr Jackson hunted down like a criminal, I can’t stop you sending our own teams out, but, if one of MY teams happens to find him first, I will have no compunction in going over your head to keep him out of your clutches.”
“I think you may have used that particular ace one too many times, General Landry. I am still not convinced that Dr Jackson ever reverted back to his former self, I believe that this was all some kind of ruse, that this latest aberration of his is actually his way of returning to the Ori, who I don’t believe for one minute were destroyed by that so called weapon.”
“Dr Jackson put his life on the line to attempt to thwart Adria’s and deal a serious blow to the Ori, He allowed himself to be restrained, even though he probably already knew there was a good chance that you would have him killed. What that man put himself through to save little weasles like you defies imagination. And, here you are, doing everything in your power to destroy him.”
Woolsey pretended to look surprised.
“That is not our intention at all, he will be well cared for, the best possible treatment, after all, we do appreciate that he has been instrumental in saving the world along with General O’Neill, Colonel Carter and Teal’c, on countless occasions. But, there will always be that doubt that he will never truly be free of Adria’s influence. We cannot afford to take that chance.”
Landry figured he had a pretty good idea as to what the people at Area 51’s idea of well cared for would consist of, and there was no way he would willingly let anyone, let alone Daniel Jackson be subjected to it.
“That’s just an excuse Woosley, and you know it.” Landry was beginning to tire of Woosley and his affectations.
“You really think that this is personal. That I hold a grudge because of what he did to me on the Odessey?” He said sounding affronted. Landry sighed, he had to admit, Woolsey might be a pain in the ass, and ‘horrid’ to use one of Vala’s pet words. But he knew better than to use his position to fulfil a personal vendetta. He truly believed what he was saying. And that made things a lot worse from Dr Jackson’s perspective.
“Well General Landry, if that is all, I have arranged for four teams to be despatched, they should arrive tomorrow, One of their first tasks will be to visit the worlds which Dr Jackson tried to convert, I want to find out how ‘soft sell’ he was when SG-1 weren’t observing him. In the meantime, your teams will continue to follow their arranged schedules, assuming that you consider that SG-1 such as they are, are fit for duty. Personally, I’d place them on stand down until the fate of Dr Jackson and General O’Neill has been determined.”
“Well, Woosley, you may hold the purse strings, and have a certain amount of clout, but, the decision as to how I deploy the USAF teams, is purely mine. So, to coin a phrase, it’s business as usual. Oh, and Woolsey, please ensure that your teams attend the requisite induction and orientation courses before they go-off world, one of the IOA’s suggestions, and one we do uphold.”
With that Landry left, throwing in the ‘course’ thing had been weak, and he knew it. But he’d just wanted to get in the last word.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a sombre group who assembled in Sam’s lab.
Vala perched on a stool and rested her head on her hands. She felt desolate now that her fury at Woolsey had calmed down. It was still there, but simmering rather than boiling.
“Well, trust Woosley to turn up like a vulture hovering over a corpse.” Cam said somewhat colourfully.
“I’d really rather you didn’t use that particular metaphor.” Vala said flatly.
“General Landry’s on our side, that something.” Sam said trying to sound optimistic.
“Yeah, for all the good it’ll do. We all know that the IOA have just been waiting for something like this to happen so they can use it as the perfect excuse to get their own people in to run the SGC. Landry’s going to have to dance to their tune.” Cam pointed out.
“GeneralLandry is not stupid, he will permit them to believe that he is complying with their wishes, and, too all intents and purposes, he will be.” Teal’c mused out loud. “But, he made it abundantly clear that he intends an SGC team to locate our missing friends before one of the IOA teams can. Therefore, we will be able to protect DanielJackson from them.”
Sam fiddled idly with a multi-meter. She hated all of this, the fact that Daniel, and Jack were missing, the fact that Daniel was now being regarded as some kind of galactic criminal, and the fact that they were going have to resort to subterfuge to do their job. It made her feel extremely uncomfortable. But, this was Jack and Daniel, she’d do whatever was necessary to find them, assuming they were somewhere to be found.
“Sam, I forgot, remember I found this in the village. Well what was left of it.” Vala held out the hairclip which she’d found wrapped up in a scrap of tissue in her pocket.
“I don’t see…” Sam looked a little bewildered.
Vala removed the clip from her hair and placed on the bench next to the one she’d found.
“Look, they’re identical. Now, I know for a fact that’s impossible. This one was made especially for my by an old….well let’s just say acquaintance.”
“So, he could have made more.” Cam said peering at the two trinkets.
“No, he couldn’t, you see, just after he made me this one, and, it was to my own design, he- errr- died suddenly.”
They regarded her with extreme curiosity, well aware that she had a rather colourful past.
“Look, gun runners can be artistic too you know, it was a kind of hobby of his, okay, I never…he was killed by a rather shady individual who he tried to cheat.”
“Okay let’s take a look, although, I’m quite sure what you’re expecting me to find.” Sam agreed, more for something to do than anything else.
“Well, I don’t know about you folks, but I’m starved.” Cam announced. Teal’c and he went off in search of something to eat while Vala paced around and fidgeted. After a while Sam looked up from her examination of the clip.
“Look, Vala, I know your upset. We all are. But fretting like this won’t bring him – them – back.”
Vala sighed heavily and sat on the stool she’d only recently vacated.
“I know, Sam, but I just feel so – frustrated – all the time we’re stuck here, we’re wasting valuable time looking for them, For all we know they’re out there hurt, or worse, and Daniel was pretty sick as it was.” She covered her face with her hands and tried to hold back her tears. Sam came round and placed a sympathetic arm around her. She too was distraught. Jack and Daniel were like family to her, she loved them both, and for a while had harboured a hope that her and Jack might have one day….but that was all in the past now. But it didn’t mean she cared any less for him.
“We’ll do everything we can Vala, it might not seem like that at the moment, but we can’t afford to give the IOA reason to come in and take over completely. You do understand that don’t you?”
Vala nodded her head, too upset to speak. Sam decided that moping around here was not going to either of them any good.
“Soo, how about following Cameron and Teal’c’s example and getting something to eat, then I’ll take a proper look at that clip and see if it can tell us anything.”
They caught up with Cam and Teal’c in the commissary. It was quiet, for which they were all grateful. Vala, who normally almost ‘out-ate’ Teal’c, picked limply at her food. She knew moping wasn’t the answer, but she felt so….bereft. They were all pretty quiet, it was still all too fresh in their minds, and Woolsey’s threats hung over them, adding to an already dark cloud.
“Do you think General Landry will send us out again anytime soon?” Vala asked, finally breaking the silence. “Only, if we have to sit around here, kicking our heels, I’ll just go stir-crazy.”
Cam shrugged. He wanted to get back out there, but he was also trained to obey orders, as was Sam, frustrating though it may be.
TBC
Any kind of feedback? Please write to kauno_saario@yahoo.com I'll be happy to pass it on to Delta666 and she
will get back to you!
# Novel: Consequences Part 4 #
by Delta666
Vala stood rooted to the spot staring at the place where the white glow had taken Daniel and Jack. Now there was nothing there, it was as if the glow, and the two men had never been there, just an empty space strewn with ancient debris. She wanted to call out, but she was robbed of her voice. She wanted to do something, anything, but it was as if something was freezing her to the spot. Then, suddenly, after what seemed an eternity, she found she had regained control over her limbs. She turned and ran as fast as she could back to their shelter.
“Cameron, Sam, Teal’c!” She shouted at the top of her lungs. She hurtled in to the room. They were still all asleep. Frantically she shook each of them, but they weren’t waking up. It occurred to her that someone, or something had caused this. Panic rose in her chest. She HAD to wake them up! Maybe it wasn’t too late!
“CAMERON!” she decided to concentrate on getting at least one of them conscious. “CAMERON! WAKE UP!” She used all her strength to shake him as hard as she could, and finally she was rewarded as his eyes flickered open and he grumbled at her irritably.
“Vala, what the……where’s the fire?” He mumbled groggily.
“Cameron! Wake up, this is important. Daniel and General O’Neill, they’re gone!” She punctuated her words with rough shakes of the half-awake man. She considered flinging water over him and reached for a canteen. She was just about to hurl it when he seemed to snap out of it.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa hold up there Vala.” He knocked the canteen out of her hand.
“Cameron, you’ve been - affected by – something. Listen to me. Daniel and Jack - General O’Neill are gone.”
Cam glanced over to the spots where the two men had settled down for the night. He woke up fully when he saw they were vacant.
“Vala, what exactly do you mean by gone?” He asked warily, the look on her face causing him deep anxiety. She looked distraught, close to tears.
“Gone, as in GONE - with that glowy white light thing out there.” She waved an arm in the direction of where the energy barrier had been.
“Vala, calm down, did you see this, do you know for certain?” He was sitting bolt upright now, truly worried.
“Of course I know for certain. I saw it happen!”
“Okay, let’s get Sam and Teal’c awake.” He crawled over to the jaffa and started to try and rouse him, while Vala attempted to wake Sam up. While they were doing this Vala continued telling Cam what had happened.
“I woke up, whatever it is that’s affected you three obviously didn’t affect me, or Jack – General O’Neill, and, I somehow don’t think it was supposed to affect Daniel anyway. Soo, I saw that Daniel was missing and woke up Jack.” She decided to drop the General O’Neill. “We both realised that he must have gone out – there, so we went to fetch him back.” Her anxiety, bordering on panic was causing her to talk twenty to the dozen.
“Okay Vala, hold up a sec. Let’s get these two woken up, then you’ll only have to go through it once.” Cam suggested. Eventually Sam and Teal’c woke up. Teal’c was very concerned that he had fallen asleep when he’d promised that he would watch over Daniel.
“Teal’c, don’t sweat it.” Cam reassured him. “It seems that something caused us to sleep, you included big guy.”
“I could be connected with that energy field.” Sam muttered noting Vala’s tear filled eyes, and the grim set of Cam’s expression.
“Okay, what’s going on.” Automatically, her eyes strayed to the spot where Jack had settled down, and then she too saw that Daniel’s spot was empty as well. She felt a cold shiver run down her spine.
“Okay, where are Daniel and the General?”
“That’s what Vala’s trying to tell us.” Cam explained. “Vala, take a deep breath and start from the beginning.”
She managed to keep her voice steady as she recounted what had happened.
“They just vanished. Daniel, Jack, and the white glowy barrier. There was nothing I could do, Jack was trying to pull Daniel away from it, but it seemed to be pulling them in, and, Daniel seemed to want to go in to it.” She concluded.
“We need to go out there, maybe there’s some trace energy signature.” Sam said, falling back on technicalities as a defence mechanism. “Maybe they’re not actually – gone.” She added.
“Indeed. We should go and investigate the site. Perhaps Vala you are mistaken.” Tealc intoned, but there was an undertone of worry in his voice. He had gotten to know Vala well enough to see that she was almost in a state of shock, and that, where Daniel was concerned, she would not lie, which boded badly for the fate of his two friends.
Vala started him with a look that said she truly wished she was mistaken, but she knew she wasn’t.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They made their way to the place which only minutes before had been filled by the energy barrier. Sam wielded her instrument and frowned.
“There’s nothing.” She announced.
“Well, that’s fairly obvious.” Vala snapped and Cam squeezed her shoulder gently as a gesture of comfort.
“What I mean is, even the energy reading that has been present the entire time we’ve been here has gone. Apart from the usual background radiation, there’s nothing else.” Sam looked puzzled as well as concerned.
Teal’c was wandering about peering at the ground, looking for what, he had no idea, he just felt that he needed to be doing something. Cam contacted Reynolds to see if they’d seen anything odd. When he ended the call, having told Reynolds and his men to stay put, that they’d be coming down to them. He spoke to his team.
“Well, it seems that Reynolds and his men were affected by the same thing as us. They’d all fallen in to unusually deep sleeps. Even the guy on watch.” He looked at Vala how was staring in to space nibbling on her thumbnail, her other arm wrapped around her middle. His heart went out to her. She looked so - forlorn.
“Vala, did you have any problem waking the Colonel?”
She looked at him and shook her head. “No, none at all.”
“Well, I guess we can ponder on that later. I’m going to have to report in to General Landry, how he’s going to take this, I have no idea. In the meantime, Sam see if you can detect anything, Reynolds says that the floodwaters have receded and we should have little trouble crossing the river, so I’ve sent him and his team off to Malkon. See what those little buggers know about this.”
“You mean we’re just leaving?” Vala exclaimed.
“Vala. There’s nothing here.” Sam said gently. “Obviously they’ve been transported elsewhere, hopefully on this planet, but, we need to come back with specialised equipment to try and find them.” She rubbed Vala’s arm reassuringly. “Don’t worry, we’re not abandoning them. You know we’d never do that.”
Vala plonked herself down on a handy lump of masonry and sat huddled and shivering even though it was a conversely pleasant morning.
“It’s our fault. We should have been more supportive of Daniel when he was – Priorized. He lost his faith in us, didn’t trust us anymore, if he had he’d have told us why he was drawn here, we could have worked together as a team, found whatever he thought was here. Instead, he ran away from us, felt he had to do this alone.”
Sam perched on the edge of the rock next to her.
“Vala, he’s got the General with him, and he’ll never let anything bad happen to Daniel, I think you know that, don’t you.”
“Assuming that – thing didn’t just – dissolve them, or something.” She stared at the spot where they’d vanished.
“I don’t think that’s the case. Daniel was drawn here for a reason, I think he was meant to step in to the barrier, I’m positive that the fact that General O’Neill vanished too was a pure accident. We will find them Vala, we always have before, haven’t we.” She smiled and hoped that was in fact what had happened, and it all hadn’t been some horrible trap to destroy Daniel. She couldn’t help wondering if Adria had somehow survived, and wanted to punish Daniel for tricking her. She didn’t voice that last thought though. The last thing Vala needed to hear was that she thought her daughter might be responsible for the death of someone she clearly was more than a little fond of.
Cam took a deep breath, now he had to break the news to Landry. This was one call he was NOT looking forward to making. He got the SFs to open the gate and connected with the SGC.
The others all waited tensely for the outcome of his conversation.
“Okay, we hook up with SG-3 and head on back to the SGC.” He announced after having terminated the call.
“No!” Vala said.
“Vala, we’ve been ordered to report back. Landry want a first hand report from you, as the only witness, then, he’ll send us back with a whole bunch of scientists.” The last part he added of his own accord, for Vala’s benefit. She reluctantly agreed and they gathered up their gear and made their way back down to the river.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Well, you’d never have though that half the valley had been flooded a few hours ago.” Cam remarked as the surveyed the scene before them. It was a beautiful day, the river calm once more and, although broken, there was enough bridge left to enable them to cross back over.
As they made their way to the road Cam got a strange call from Reynolds.
“Mitchell, I think you might want to see this, it’ll only take a while, Landry said you were to meet up with us anyway, we’re at the village, you told us to check it out and see if they knew anything. Well, we’re here, at least, we’re at the coordinates Colonel Carter provided us with.”
“Okay, we’ll meet you there. Mitchell out.” Cam looked at the others and shrugged.
“The village, Reynold’s thinks something’s amiss.” He told them, not overly concerned. He had other things on his mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Oh!” Sam exclaimed as they entered the village.
“Oh indeed, are we in fact in the correct location?” Teal’c looked around with bemused expression.
“What’s happened, I mean, it wasn’t like this yesterday, and there’s no way the storm could have caused it.” Vala remarked.
“We checked out the entire area.” Reynolds informed them as he approached. The whole place is like this. I thought you said it was a thriving community.”
“Well, it was, yesterday.” Cam told him.
The village, or what was left of it looked like it had been abandoned for at least as long as the city. The beautiful Council Building was a wreck, the paving in the market square broken with weeds growing through the gaps, and in some places, trees. They could make out the remains of the market stalls. The houses still stood, but roofless, and with dark empty holes where the windows had once been.
“This can’t be! If we didn’t know better, we’d think this place had been abandoned for centuries.” Sam exclaimed wielding her instruments again.
“And, we definitely didn’t take a wrong turn somewhere along the line.” Cam looked at her for confirmation.
“No, this is exactly the same place we came to two days ago.” She confirmed, automatically checking her instruments. There was however, nothing to record, like back at the city, any energy readings had dissipated, and all that remained was the usual background stuff.
Vala was wondering around desolately kicking at bits of wood and broken masonry. She’d been harbouring a hope that the Malkons might have known what had a happened to Daniel and Jack.
“So, what the hell did we see when we came here, I mean, we talked to them, ate their food, drank their – corva. What the hell is going on?” Cam was totally bemused. It would have been less weird if the village had vanished. He watched as Vala crouched down and picked something out of the dirt. She came over to them and showed them what she’d found.
“Vala?” Sam stared at her head. Vala touched the place where her hairclip was, it was still there, but in her hand, grimy and tarnished, but without a doubt, was it’s twin, which she assured them was impossible as it was a one of a kind that she’d had for many years.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but I don’t like it one little bit.” She stated sounding almost afraid.
“We should investigate, whoever created the - illusion of the village, may well be the same people who took Daniel and the General.” Sam announced.
“I think we have to assume they’re connected.” Cam agreed. “Have either you ever come across technology that can do – whatever it was it did?”
Sam shook her head and looked at Teal’c.
“I have not, to create such an illusion, so realistically, would require the use of technology far greater than any that I have ever encountered.”
“Well, Reynolds we’d best be heading back, another puzzle for the egg-heads.” Cam said and smiled apologetically at Sam.
Vala sighed heavily and pocketed the trinket. Maybe there were some tests they could run on it, after all, Sam had all kinds of equipment in her lab.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Landry watched the return of four fifths of SG-1, SG-3 and the two SFs who’d been guarding the gate. He’d decide whether to send anyone back to 556 after the briefing. How he was going to explain this away to the IOA, he had no idea. Not only had Dr Jackson gone missing, but also a highly decorated USAF General, who technically shouldn’t have even been off-world. The crap really was going to hit the fan on this one.
After being cleared by Dr Lam, showered and changed, SG-1 and Colonel Reynolds gathered in the briefing room. To their surprise, Dr Lam was also present. General Landry joined them looking extremely grim.
“Mr Woolsey arrived shortly after you returned through the ‘gate, I had no choice but to tell him what I know.” Landry looked genuinely apologetic. “He wishes to interview Dr Lam and you.” He included all four present members of SG-1 in his statement. “Apparently the IOA got wind of this almost as soon as you reported in Colonel.” He looked at Cam.
“Which, suggests they have a mole in place.” Cam said angrily.
Landry looked very troubled as he took his seat and they began the briefing.
“So, at this point in time, we have no idea as to whether Dr Jackson and General O’Neill are even still alive?” He said thoughtfully, and unhappily.
“Well I for one refuse to believe that they’re dead. Sam thinks they may have been transported somewhere else, all we have to do is find out where, and go and get them back.” Vala said with forced cheerfulness.
“Whether that is going to happens depends entirely on my report to the rest of the IOA.”
They all turned and, with sinking hearts recognised the man who’d recommended the termination of Daniel’s life to the International Oversight Committee. Vala, for the first time since she’d been relieved of her host, seriously wished she could fry his brains with a ribbon device. Cam sighed and threw his pen pointedly on the table. Sam and Teal’c exchanged glances, and Landry looked at Woosley like he was something his retriever had just dragged in.
“I realise that I’m not exactly welcome here, but, since I was – present during the time Dr Jackson was a Prior, and was present at his psychiatric evaluations following that unpleasantness, it was only logical that I be involved in any decisions made regarding who to deal with the disappearances of both Dr Jackson and General O’Neill.” As he spoke he took a seat and pulled a thick folder from his briefcase.
“Woolsey, might I remind you, we do not leave our people behind.” Landry said firmly. “I will personally authorise whatever it takes to try and locate what are two very valuable members of both the SGC and the United States Airforce.”
“That decision may no longer lie with you General Landry. And, had my recommendations regarding Dr Jackson been taken in the first place, then it would never have come to this.” The weasely man said with a superior tone in his voice.
“Killed him you mean.” Vala spat. “Just like that, only, you were too cowardly to actually say it. Terminate his life, a nice cold clinical phrase.”
“Vala.” Cam warned.
“Ah, yes, Ms MalDuran, Do I need to remind you that you are only here thanks to the generosity of the leaders of this facility, and I can have you shipped of to Area 51 just like that.” He fixed her with a cold stare.
“And, Mr Woolsey, need I remind you that Vala was willing to sacrifice her life when she stopped the first Ori Supergate from being completed.” Landry said defending her. The two men locked eyes, challenging each other, but, hate it though he did, Landry knew that Woolsey ultimately had the upper hand and it was Woolsey who broke their silent challenge.
“Well, I imagine that once I have submitted my recommendations Dr Jackson and General O’Neill will no longer be your problem. Stargate operations will continue as normal, but IOA personnel will carry out any search for them. Dr Jackson is to be considered a threat to the security of Earth, and now it’s quite likely that General O’Neill may be compromised.”
There was a collective gasp from around the table. Landry looked resigned. He couldn’t override Woolsey; he didn’t have the clout, Woosley and the IOA held all the strings.
Vala rose, her eyes sparking with fury.
“That’s it, I quit, as of this moment, I am no longer a member of the SGC, and therefore, no longer under your command.” She looked apologetically at Landry, and then turned on Woolsey. “Or subject to your petty, vindictive decisions.” She glared at the IOA representative and ripped the patches from her sleeves and flung them on the table.
“General Landry, with your permission” She deliberately stood with her back facing Woolsey. “I’d like to be allowed to go through the gate one last time.”
“Vala, you don’t have to do this.” Sam pleaded with her.
“Yes, I do, I’m used to being out there on my own, I can acquire a ship, and I will find Daniel, and Jack, not that I intend bringing Daniel back here just to be incarcerated by him and his cronies” She glared even harder at Woolsey. “What Jack does will be up to him of course. But I refuse to abandon them.” She was resolute and conviction shone in her eyes.
“I think it would be in Dr Jackson’s best interests, assuming he is found, to bring him back here where he can undergo professional treatment. From what I’ve been hearing, he is clearly an extremely disturbed individual. If he and General O’Neill have, indeed, been transported elsewhere, and from what I’ve seen since I took up my post here, that is not beyond the realms of possibility. Then he’s clearly in no fit state to be roaming the galaxy” Dr Lam said in her cool professional way, and they all started at her, SG-1 in shock, Reynolds looking as if he wished the floor would open up and swallow him, Woolsey smug, and Landry trying his best remain detached and professional.
Sam bit back a retort, like it or not, she was a USAF Officer, and was not at liberty to vent her feelings during the briefing. Cam to looked like he was having a hard time holding his tongue. Vala went to speak, but Teal’c beat her too it.
“Like ValaMalDuran, I also am not a citizen of Earth, neither am I a member of the Airforce, so I too am at liberty to speak my mind.” He turned to Dr Lam. “Dr, I believe that you and your colleagues were at fault for not recognising that DanielJackson was not fully recovered from his ordeal, and I respectfully have to point out, that I no longer have confidence in you and the psychiatrists abilities to do what is best for him. MrWoolsey, I would rather still be serving as First Prime to Apophis than permit you to get your hands on DanielJackson, and although they cannot say it, I am certain that ColonelCarter and ColonelMitchell are in agreement with myself and Vala.”
“Well said Teal’c.” Vala managed a genuine smile of affection for the jaffa. “Although.” She admitted, we were all at fault for making assumptions.” She added in a positively heartbroken voice.
“I understand how the two of you feel, how all of you feel. But, take a moment to think about the consequences of your actions. Vala, I’ll hold on the resignation for now. Sleep on it, talk with Colonel Carter and Mitchell, then, if you’re still determined to leave us, I can’t stop you, and neither can he.” He looked pointedly at Woolsey. “As for you Teal’c, the same applies, I can’t stop you leaving if you want to, but think on this for a moment. With or without the IOAs intervention, you still might have the best chance of locating them, assuming they are still out there to be located.”
“May I remind all of you, should they be found, either by members of the SGC or one of the IOA teams, they are to be brought back to Earth to face judgement and reprisal for their actions.” Woolsey reminded them, and Cam was hard pressed not too punch that smug look from his face.
“General, I require the use of an office, I have ‘phone calls to make.” Woosley stood and waited expectantly. Landry summoned Walter and he led the current bane of the SGC’s existence to a vacant office. Reynolds and Dr Lam were dismissed, leaving only SG-1 remaining.
“Well, what can I say? My hands are tied.” Landry said speaking from the heart. “If I don’t go along with him, they’ll bring in their own people to run the SGC, and that will be that.”
“It’s okay Sir, we do appreciate that.” Sam assured her CO.
“Yeah, at least while your in charge, we can go out there. Do a few ‘missions’.” Cam added, punctuating the word with air quotes.
“Which is precisely why I feel that you Vala, and Teal’c would be best off holding our horses for a bit.” He looked pointedly at the two ‘off-worlders’.”
“I can see that, General.” Vala looked him straight in the eye. “But, that horrid little man, he makes my skin crawl, and whenever I think of what he wanted to do to Daniel…..” She shuddered.
“So, I take it that neither of you plan on doing anything rash in the immediate future then?” He asked them.
“I will remain patient General Landry, but, should I feel the need, I will not hesitate to take my leave and proceed independently of the SGC.” He gave the General a respectful bow, indicating that he did not hold him responsible for the actions of Woolsey.
“I appreciate that Teal’c, thank you.” Landry gave him a brief nod in return. He then turned his attention to Vala. “Okay.” She said reluctantly, after several long, moments. “But, only as long as I think everyone’s got Daniel’s, and Jack’s, best interests at heart.”
“Thank you Vala.” He favoured her with a brief smile.
With that he rose indicating that the meeting was concluded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Landry waited until Woosley had finished his phone call, he tapped on the door and entered without waiting to be invited.
“General Landry, come to plead your case I suppose.” Woosley looked at Landry in a supercilious manner. Landry ignored the look and sat deliberately in the spare chair.
“I see no point. You’ve already made up your mind. You intend having Dr Jackson hunted down like a criminal, I can’t stop you sending our own teams out, but, if one of MY teams happens to find him first, I will have no compunction in going over your head to keep him out of your clutches.”
“I think you may have used that particular ace one too many times, General Landry. I am still not convinced that Dr Jackson ever reverted back to his former self, I believe that this was all some kind of ruse, that this latest aberration of his is actually his way of returning to the Ori, who I don’t believe for one minute were destroyed by that so called weapon.”
“Dr Jackson put his life on the line to attempt to thwart Adria’s and deal a serious blow to the Ori, He allowed himself to be restrained, even though he probably already knew there was a good chance that you would have him killed. What that man put himself through to save little weasles like you defies imagination. And, here you are, doing everything in your power to destroy him.”
Woolsey pretended to look surprised.
“That is not our intention at all, he will be well cared for, the best possible treatment, after all, we do appreciate that he has been instrumental in saving the world along with General O’Neill, Colonel Carter and Teal’c, on countless occasions. But, there will always be that doubt that he will never truly be free of Adria’s influence. We cannot afford to take that chance.”
Landry figured he had a pretty good idea as to what the people at Area 51’s idea of well cared for would consist of, and there was no way he would willingly let anyone, let alone Daniel Jackson be subjected to it.
“That’s just an excuse Woosley, and you know it.” Landry was beginning to tire of Woosley and his affectations.
“You really think that this is personal. That I hold a grudge because of what he did to me on the Odessey?” He said sounding affronted. Landry sighed, he had to admit, Woolsey might be a pain in the ass, and ‘horrid’ to use one of Vala’s pet words. But he knew better than to use his position to fulfil a personal vendetta. He truly believed what he was saying. And that made things a lot worse from Dr Jackson’s perspective.
“Well General Landry, if that is all, I have arranged for four teams to be despatched, they should arrive tomorrow, One of their first tasks will be to visit the worlds which Dr Jackson tried to convert, I want to find out how ‘soft sell’ he was when SG-1 weren’t observing him. In the meantime, your teams will continue to follow their arranged schedules, assuming that you consider that SG-1 such as they are, are fit for duty. Personally, I’d place them on stand down until the fate of Dr Jackson and General O’Neill has been determined.”
“Well, Woosley, you may hold the purse strings, and have a certain amount of clout, but, the decision as to how I deploy the USAF teams, is purely mine. So, to coin a phrase, it’s business as usual. Oh, and Woolsey, please ensure that your teams attend the requisite induction and orientation courses before they go-off world, one of the IOA’s suggestions, and one we do uphold.”
With that Landry left, throwing in the ‘course’ thing had been weak, and he knew it. But he’d just wanted to get in the last word.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a sombre group who assembled in Sam’s lab.
Vala perched on a stool and rested her head on her hands. She felt desolate now that her fury at Woolsey had calmed down. It was still there, but simmering rather than boiling.
“Well, trust Woosley to turn up like a vulture hovering over a corpse.” Cam said somewhat colourfully.
“I’d really rather you didn’t use that particular metaphor.” Vala said flatly.
“General Landry’s on our side, that something.” Sam said trying to sound optimistic.
“Yeah, for all the good it’ll do. We all know that the IOA have just been waiting for something like this to happen so they can use it as the perfect excuse to get their own people in to run the SGC. Landry’s going to have to dance to their tune.” Cam pointed out.
“GeneralLandry is not stupid, he will permit them to believe that he is complying with their wishes, and, too all intents and purposes, he will be.” Teal’c mused out loud. “But, he made it abundantly clear that he intends an SGC team to locate our missing friends before one of the IOA teams can. Therefore, we will be able to protect DanielJackson from them.”
Sam fiddled idly with a multi-meter. She hated all of this, the fact that Daniel, and Jack were missing, the fact that Daniel was now being regarded as some kind of galactic criminal, and the fact that they were going have to resort to subterfuge to do their job. It made her feel extremely uncomfortable. But, this was Jack and Daniel, she’d do whatever was necessary to find them, assuming they were somewhere to be found.
“Sam, I forgot, remember I found this in the village. Well what was left of it.” Vala held out the hairclip which she’d found wrapped up in a scrap of tissue in her pocket.
“I don’t see…” Sam looked a little bewildered.
Vala removed the clip from her hair and placed on the bench next to the one she’d found.
“Look, they’re identical. Now, I know for a fact that’s impossible. This one was made especially for my by an old….well let’s just say acquaintance.”
“So, he could have made more.” Cam said peering at the two trinkets.
“No, he couldn’t, you see, just after he made me this one, and, it was to my own design, he- errr- died suddenly.”
They regarded her with extreme curiosity, well aware that she had a rather colourful past.
“Look, gun runners can be artistic too you know, it was a kind of hobby of his, okay, I never…he was killed by a rather shady individual who he tried to cheat.”
“Okay let’s take a look, although, I’m quite sure what you’re expecting me to find.” Sam agreed, more for something to do than anything else.
“Well, I don’t know about you folks, but I’m starved.” Cam announced. Teal’c and he went off in search of something to eat while Vala paced around and fidgeted. After a while Sam looked up from her examination of the clip.
“Look, Vala, I know your upset. We all are. But fretting like this won’t bring him – them – back.”
Vala sighed heavily and sat on the stool she’d only recently vacated.
“I know, Sam, but I just feel so – frustrated – all the time we’re stuck here, we’re wasting valuable time looking for them, For all we know they’re out there hurt, or worse, and Daniel was pretty sick as it was.” She covered her face with her hands and tried to hold back her tears. Sam came round and placed a sympathetic arm around her. She too was distraught. Jack and Daniel were like family to her, she loved them both, and for a while had harboured a hope that her and Jack might have one day….but that was all in the past now. But it didn’t mean she cared any less for him.
“We’ll do everything we can Vala, it might not seem like that at the moment, but we can’t afford to give the IOA reason to come in and take over completely. You do understand that don’t you?”
Vala nodded her head, too upset to speak. Sam decided that moping around here was not going to either of them any good.
“Soo, how about following Cameron and Teal’c’s example and getting something to eat, then I’ll take a proper look at that clip and see if it can tell us anything.”
They caught up with Cam and Teal’c in the commissary. It was quiet, for which they were all grateful. Vala, who normally almost ‘out-ate’ Teal’c, picked limply at her food. She knew moping wasn’t the answer, but she felt so….bereft. They were all pretty quiet, it was still all too fresh in their minds, and Woolsey’s threats hung over them, adding to an already dark cloud.
“Do you think General Landry will send us out again anytime soon?” Vala asked, finally breaking the silence. “Only, if we have to sit around here, kicking our heels, I’ll just go stir-crazy.”
Cam shrugged. He wanted to get back out there, but he was also trained to obey orders, as was Sam, frustrating though it may be.
TBC
Any kind of feedback? Please write to kauno_saario@yahoo.com I'll be happy to pass it on to Delta666 and she will get back to you!
“Cameron, Sam, Teal’c!” She shouted at the top of her lungs. She hurtled in to the room. They were still all asleep. Frantically she shook each of them, but they weren’t waking up. It occurred to her that someone, or something had caused this. Panic rose in her chest. She HAD to wake them up! Maybe it wasn’t too late!
“CAMERON!” she decided to concentrate on getting at least one of them conscious. “CAMERON! WAKE UP!” She used all her strength to shake him as hard as she could, and finally she was rewarded as his eyes flickered open and he grumbled at her irritably.
“Vala, what the……where’s the fire?” He mumbled groggily.
“Cameron! Wake up, this is important. Daniel and General O’Neill, they’re gone!” She punctuated her words with rough shakes of the half-awake man. She considered flinging water over him and reached for a canteen. She was just about to hurl it when he seemed to snap out of it.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa hold up there Vala.” He knocked the canteen out of her hand.
“Cameron, you’ve been - affected by – something. Listen to me. Daniel and Jack - General O’Neill are gone.”
Cam glanced over to the spots where the two men had settled down for the night. He woke up fully when he saw they were vacant.
“Vala, what exactly do you mean by gone?” He asked warily, the look on her face causing him deep anxiety. She looked distraught, close to tears.
“Gone, as in GONE - with that glowy white light thing out there.” She waved an arm in the direction of where the energy barrier had been.
“Vala, calm down, did you see this, do you know for certain?” He was sitting bolt upright now, truly worried.
“Of course I know for certain. I saw it happen!”
“Okay, let’s get Sam and Teal’c awake.” He crawled over to the jaffa and started to try and rouse him, while Vala attempted to wake Sam up. While they were doing this Vala continued telling Cam what had happened.
“I woke up, whatever it is that’s affected you three obviously didn’t affect me, or Jack – General O’Neill, and, I somehow don’t think it was supposed to affect Daniel anyway. Soo, I saw that Daniel was missing and woke up Jack.” She decided to drop the General O’Neill. “We both realised that he must have gone out – there, so we went to fetch him back.” Her anxiety, bordering on panic was causing her to talk twenty to the dozen.
“Okay Vala, hold up a sec. Let’s get these two woken up, then you’ll only have to go through it once.” Cam suggested. Eventually Sam and Teal’c woke up. Teal’c was very concerned that he had fallen asleep when he’d promised that he would watch over Daniel.
“Teal’c, don’t sweat it.” Cam reassured him. “It seems that something caused us to sleep, you included big guy.”
“I could be connected with that energy field.” Sam muttered noting Vala’s tear filled eyes, and the grim set of Cam’s expression.
“Okay, what’s going on.” Automatically, her eyes strayed to the spot where Jack had settled down, and then she too saw that Daniel’s spot was empty as well. She felt a cold shiver run down her spine.
“Okay, where are Daniel and the General?”
“That’s what Vala’s trying to tell us.” Cam explained. “Vala, take a deep breath and start from the beginning.”
She managed to keep her voice steady as she recounted what had happened.
“They just vanished. Daniel, Jack, and the white glowy barrier. There was nothing I could do, Jack was trying to pull Daniel away from it, but it seemed to be pulling them in, and, Daniel seemed to want to go in to it.” She concluded.
“We need to go out there, maybe there’s some trace energy signature.” Sam said, falling back on technicalities as a defence mechanism. “Maybe they’re not actually – gone.” She added.
“Indeed. We should go and investigate the site. Perhaps Vala you are mistaken.” Tealc intoned, but there was an undertone of worry in his voice. He had gotten to know Vala well enough to see that she was almost in a state of shock, and that, where Daniel was concerned, she would not lie, which boded badly for the fate of his two friends.
Vala started him with a look that said she truly wished she was mistaken, but she knew she wasn’t.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They made their way to the place which only minutes before had been filled by the energy barrier. Sam wielded her instrument and frowned.
“There’s nothing.” She announced.
“Well, that’s fairly obvious.” Vala snapped and Cam squeezed her shoulder gently as a gesture of comfort.
“What I mean is, even the energy reading that has been present the entire time we’ve been here has gone. Apart from the usual background radiation, there’s nothing else.” Sam looked puzzled as well as concerned.
Teal’c was wandering about peering at the ground, looking for what, he had no idea, he just felt that he needed to be doing something. Cam contacted Reynolds to see if they’d seen anything odd. When he ended the call, having told Reynolds and his men to stay put, that they’d be coming down to them. He spoke to his team.
“Well, it seems that Reynolds and his men were affected by the same thing as us. They’d all fallen in to unusually deep sleeps. Even the guy on watch.” He looked at Vala how was staring in to space nibbling on her thumbnail, her other arm wrapped around her middle. His heart went out to her. She looked so - forlorn.
“Vala, did you have any problem waking the Colonel?”
She looked at him and shook her head. “No, none at all.”
“Well, I guess we can ponder on that later. I’m going to have to report in to General Landry, how he’s going to take this, I have no idea. In the meantime, Sam see if you can detect anything, Reynolds says that the floodwaters have receded and we should have little trouble crossing the river, so I’ve sent him and his team off to Malkon. See what those little buggers know about this.”
“You mean we’re just leaving?” Vala exclaimed.
“Vala. There’s nothing here.” Sam said gently. “Obviously they’ve been transported elsewhere, hopefully on this planet, but, we need to come back with specialised equipment to try and find them.” She rubbed Vala’s arm reassuringly. “Don’t worry, we’re not abandoning them. You know we’d never do that.”
Vala plonked herself down on a handy lump of masonry and sat huddled and shivering even though it was a conversely pleasant morning.
“It’s our fault. We should have been more supportive of Daniel when he was – Priorized. He lost his faith in us, didn’t trust us anymore, if he had he’d have told us why he was drawn here, we could have worked together as a team, found whatever he thought was here. Instead, he ran away from us, felt he had to do this alone.”
Sam perched on the edge of the rock next to her.
“Vala, he’s got the General with him, and he’ll never let anything bad happen to Daniel, I think you know that, don’t you.”
“Assuming that – thing didn’t just – dissolve them, or something.” She stared at the spot where they’d vanished.
“I don’t think that’s the case. Daniel was drawn here for a reason, I think he was meant to step in to the barrier, I’m positive that the fact that General O’Neill vanished too was a pure accident. We will find them Vala, we always have before, haven’t we.” She smiled and hoped that was in fact what had happened, and it all hadn’t been some horrible trap to destroy Daniel. She couldn’t help wondering if Adria had somehow survived, and wanted to punish Daniel for tricking her. She didn’t voice that last thought though. The last thing Vala needed to hear was that she thought her daughter might be responsible for the death of someone she clearly was more than a little fond of.
Cam took a deep breath, now he had to break the news to Landry. This was one call he was NOT looking forward to making. He got the SFs to open the gate and connected with the SGC.
The others all waited tensely for the outcome of his conversation.
“Okay, we hook up with SG-3 and head on back to the SGC.” He announced after having terminated the call.
“No!” Vala said.
“Vala, we’ve been ordered to report back. Landry want a first hand report from you, as the only witness, then, he’ll send us back with a whole bunch of scientists.” The last part he added of his own accord, for Vala’s benefit. She reluctantly agreed and they gathered up their gear and made their way back down to the river.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Well, you’d never have though that half the valley had been flooded a few hours ago.” Cam remarked as the surveyed the scene before them. It was a beautiful day, the river calm once more and, although broken, there was enough bridge left to enable them to cross back over.
As they made their way to the road Cam got a strange call from Reynolds.
“Mitchell, I think you might want to see this, it’ll only take a while, Landry said you were to meet up with us anyway, we’re at the village, you told us to check it out and see if they knew anything. Well, we’re here, at least, we’re at the coordinates Colonel Carter provided us with.”
“Okay, we’ll meet you there. Mitchell out.” Cam looked at the others and shrugged.
“The village, Reynold’s thinks something’s amiss.” He told them, not overly concerned. He had other things on his mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Oh!” Sam exclaimed as they entered the village.
“Oh indeed, are we in fact in the correct location?” Teal’c looked around with bemused expression.
“What’s happened, I mean, it wasn’t like this yesterday, and there’s no way the storm could have caused it.” Vala remarked.
“We checked out the entire area.” Reynolds informed them as he approached. The whole place is like this. I thought you said it was a thriving community.”
“Well, it was, yesterday.” Cam told him.
The village, or what was left of it looked like it had been abandoned for at least as long as the city. The beautiful Council Building was a wreck, the paving in the market square broken with weeds growing through the gaps, and in some places, trees. They could make out the remains of the market stalls. The houses still stood, but roofless, and with dark empty holes where the windows had once been.
“This can’t be! If we didn’t know better, we’d think this place had been abandoned for centuries.” Sam exclaimed wielding her instruments again.
“And, we definitely didn’t take a wrong turn somewhere along the line.” Cam looked at her for confirmation.
“No, this is exactly the same place we came to two days ago.” She confirmed, automatically checking her instruments. There was however, nothing to record, like back at the city, any energy readings had dissipated, and all that remained was the usual background stuff.
Vala was wondering around desolately kicking at bits of wood and broken masonry. She’d been harbouring a hope that the Malkons might have known what had a happened to Daniel and Jack.
“So, what the hell did we see when we came here, I mean, we talked to them, ate their food, drank their – corva. What the hell is going on?” Cam was totally bemused. It would have been less weird if the village had vanished. He watched as Vala crouched down and picked something out of the dirt. She came over to them and showed them what she’d found.
“Vala?” Sam stared at her head. Vala touched the place where her hairclip was, it was still there, but in her hand, grimy and tarnished, but without a doubt, was it’s twin, which she assured them was impossible as it was a one of a kind that she’d had for many years.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but I don’t like it one little bit.” She stated sounding almost afraid.
“We should investigate, whoever created the - illusion of the village, may well be the same people who took Daniel and the General.” Sam announced.
“I think we have to assume they’re connected.” Cam agreed. “Have either you ever come across technology that can do – whatever it was it did?”
Sam shook her head and looked at Teal’c.
“I have not, to create such an illusion, so realistically, would require the use of technology far greater than any that I have ever encountered.”
“Well, Reynolds we’d best be heading back, another puzzle for the egg-heads.” Cam said and smiled apologetically at Sam.
Vala sighed heavily and pocketed the trinket. Maybe there were some tests they could run on it, after all, Sam had all kinds of equipment in her lab.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Landry watched the return of four fifths of SG-1, SG-3 and the two SFs who’d been guarding the gate. He’d decide whether to send anyone back to 556 after the briefing. How he was going to explain this away to the IOA, he had no idea. Not only had Dr Jackson gone missing, but also a highly decorated USAF General, who technically shouldn’t have even been off-world. The crap really was going to hit the fan on this one.
After being cleared by Dr Lam, showered and changed, SG-1 and Colonel Reynolds gathered in the briefing room. To their surprise, Dr Lam was also present. General Landry joined them looking extremely grim.
“Mr Woolsey arrived shortly after you returned through the ‘gate, I had no choice but to tell him what I know.” Landry looked genuinely apologetic. “He wishes to interview Dr Lam and you.” He included all four present members of SG-1 in his statement. “Apparently the IOA got wind of this almost as soon as you reported in Colonel.” He looked at Cam.
“Which, suggests they have a mole in place.” Cam said angrily.
Landry looked very troubled as he took his seat and they began the briefing.
“So, at this point in time, we have no idea as to whether Dr Jackson and General O’Neill are even still alive?” He said thoughtfully, and unhappily.
“Well I for one refuse to believe that they’re dead. Sam thinks they may have been transported somewhere else, all we have to do is find out where, and go and get them back.” Vala said with forced cheerfulness.
“Whether that is going to happens depends entirely on my report to the rest of the IOA.”
They all turned and, with sinking hearts recognised the man who’d recommended the termination of Daniel’s life to the International Oversight Committee. Vala, for the first time since she’d been relieved of her host, seriously wished she could fry his brains with a ribbon device. Cam sighed and threw his pen pointedly on the table. Sam and Teal’c exchanged glances, and Landry looked at Woosley like he was something his retriever had just dragged in.
“I realise that I’m not exactly welcome here, but, since I was – present during the time Dr Jackson was a Prior, and was present at his psychiatric evaluations following that unpleasantness, it was only logical that I be involved in any decisions made regarding who to deal with the disappearances of both Dr Jackson and General O’Neill.” As he spoke he took a seat and pulled a thick folder from his briefcase.
“Woolsey, might I remind you, we do not leave our people behind.” Landry said firmly. “I will personally authorise whatever it takes to try and locate what are two very valuable members of both the SGC and the United States Airforce.”
“That decision may no longer lie with you General Landry. And, had my recommendations regarding Dr Jackson been taken in the first place, then it would never have come to this.” The weasely man said with a superior tone in his voice.
“Killed him you mean.” Vala spat. “Just like that, only, you were too cowardly to actually say it. Terminate his life, a nice cold clinical phrase.”
“Vala.” Cam warned.
“Ah, yes, Ms MalDuran, Do I need to remind you that you are only here thanks to the generosity of the leaders of this facility, and I can have you shipped of to Area 51 just like that.” He fixed her with a cold stare.
“And, Mr Woolsey, need I remind you that Vala was willing to sacrifice her life when she stopped the first Ori Supergate from being completed.” Landry said defending her. The two men locked eyes, challenging each other, but, hate it though he did, Landry knew that Woolsey ultimately had the upper hand and it was Woolsey who broke their silent challenge.
“Well, I imagine that once I have submitted my recommendations Dr Jackson and General O’Neill will no longer be your problem. Stargate operations will continue as normal, but IOA personnel will carry out any search for them. Dr Jackson is to be considered a threat to the security of Earth, and now it’s quite likely that General O’Neill may be compromised.”
There was a collective gasp from around the table. Landry looked resigned. He couldn’t override Woolsey; he didn’t have the clout, Woosley and the IOA held all the strings.
Vala rose, her eyes sparking with fury.
“That’s it, I quit, as of this moment, I am no longer a member of the SGC, and therefore, no longer under your command.” She looked apologetically at Landry, and then turned on Woolsey. “Or subject to your petty, vindictive decisions.” She glared at the IOA representative and ripped the patches from her sleeves and flung them on the table.
“General Landry, with your permission” She deliberately stood with her back facing Woolsey. “I’d like to be allowed to go through the gate one last time.”
“Vala, you don’t have to do this.” Sam pleaded with her.
“Yes, I do, I’m used to being out there on my own, I can acquire a ship, and I will find Daniel, and Jack, not that I intend bringing Daniel back here just to be incarcerated by him and his cronies” She glared even harder at Woolsey. “What Jack does will be up to him of course. But I refuse to abandon them.” She was resolute and conviction shone in her eyes.
“I think it would be in Dr Jackson’s best interests, assuming he is found, to bring him back here where he can undergo professional treatment. From what I’ve been hearing, he is clearly an extremely disturbed individual. If he and General O’Neill have, indeed, been transported elsewhere, and from what I’ve seen since I took up my post here, that is not beyond the realms of possibility. Then he’s clearly in no fit state to be roaming the galaxy” Dr Lam said in her cool professional way, and they all started at her, SG-1 in shock, Reynolds looking as if he wished the floor would open up and swallow him, Woolsey smug, and Landry trying his best remain detached and professional.
Sam bit back a retort, like it or not, she was a USAF Officer, and was not at liberty to vent her feelings during the briefing. Cam to looked like he was having a hard time holding his tongue. Vala went to speak, but Teal’c beat her too it.
“Like ValaMalDuran, I also am not a citizen of Earth, neither am I a member of the Airforce, so I too am at liberty to speak my mind.” He turned to Dr Lam. “Dr, I believe that you and your colleagues were at fault for not recognising that DanielJackson was not fully recovered from his ordeal, and I respectfully have to point out, that I no longer have confidence in you and the psychiatrists abilities to do what is best for him. MrWoolsey, I would rather still be serving as First Prime to Apophis than permit you to get your hands on DanielJackson, and although they cannot say it, I am certain that ColonelCarter and ColonelMitchell are in agreement with myself and Vala.”
“Well said Teal’c.” Vala managed a genuine smile of affection for the jaffa. “Although.” She admitted, we were all at fault for making assumptions.” She added in a positively heartbroken voice.
“I understand how the two of you feel, how all of you feel. But, take a moment to think about the consequences of your actions. Vala, I’ll hold on the resignation for now. Sleep on it, talk with Colonel Carter and Mitchell, then, if you’re still determined to leave us, I can’t stop you, and neither can he.” He looked pointedly at Woolsey. “As for you Teal’c, the same applies, I can’t stop you leaving if you want to, but think on this for a moment. With or without the IOAs intervention, you still might have the best chance of locating them, assuming they are still out there to be located.”
“May I remind all of you, should they be found, either by members of the SGC or one of the IOA teams, they are to be brought back to Earth to face judgement and reprisal for their actions.” Woolsey reminded them, and Cam was hard pressed not too punch that smug look from his face.
“General, I require the use of an office, I have ‘phone calls to make.” Woosley stood and waited expectantly. Landry summoned Walter and he led the current bane of the SGC’s existence to a vacant office. Reynolds and Dr Lam were dismissed, leaving only SG-1 remaining.
“Well, what can I say? My hands are tied.” Landry said speaking from the heart. “If I don’t go along with him, they’ll bring in their own people to run the SGC, and that will be that.”
“It’s okay Sir, we do appreciate that.” Sam assured her CO.
“Yeah, at least while your in charge, we can go out there. Do a few ‘missions’.” Cam added, punctuating the word with air quotes.
“Which is precisely why I feel that you Vala, and Teal’c would be best off holding our horses for a bit.” He looked pointedly at the two ‘off-worlders’.”
“I can see that, General.” Vala looked him straight in the eye. “But, that horrid little man, he makes my skin crawl, and whenever I think of what he wanted to do to Daniel…..” She shuddered.
“So, I take it that neither of you plan on doing anything rash in the immediate future then?” He asked them.
“I will remain patient General Landry, but, should I feel the need, I will not hesitate to take my leave and proceed independently of the SGC.” He gave the General a respectful bow, indicating that he did not hold him responsible for the actions of Woolsey.
“I appreciate that Teal’c, thank you.” Landry gave him a brief nod in return. He then turned his attention to Vala. “Okay.” She said reluctantly, after several long, moments. “But, only as long as I think everyone’s got Daniel’s, and Jack’s, best interests at heart.”
“Thank you Vala.” He favoured her with a brief smile.
With that he rose indicating that the meeting was concluded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Landry waited until Woosley had finished his phone call, he tapped on the door and entered without waiting to be invited.
“General Landry, come to plead your case I suppose.” Woosley looked at Landry in a supercilious manner. Landry ignored the look and sat deliberately in the spare chair.
“I see no point. You’ve already made up your mind. You intend having Dr Jackson hunted down like a criminal, I can’t stop you sending our own teams out, but, if one of MY teams happens to find him first, I will have no compunction in going over your head to keep him out of your clutches.”
“I think you may have used that particular ace one too many times, General Landry. I am still not convinced that Dr Jackson ever reverted back to his former self, I believe that this was all some kind of ruse, that this latest aberration of his is actually his way of returning to the Ori, who I don’t believe for one minute were destroyed by that so called weapon.”
“Dr Jackson put his life on the line to attempt to thwart Adria’s and deal a serious blow to the Ori, He allowed himself to be restrained, even though he probably already knew there was a good chance that you would have him killed. What that man put himself through to save little weasles like you defies imagination. And, here you are, doing everything in your power to destroy him.”
Woolsey pretended to look surprised.
“That is not our intention at all, he will be well cared for, the best possible treatment, after all, we do appreciate that he has been instrumental in saving the world along with General O’Neill, Colonel Carter and Teal’c, on countless occasions. But, there will always be that doubt that he will never truly be free of Adria’s influence. We cannot afford to take that chance.”
Landry figured he had a pretty good idea as to what the people at Area 51’s idea of well cared for would consist of, and there was no way he would willingly let anyone, let alone Daniel Jackson be subjected to it.
“That’s just an excuse Woosley, and you know it.” Landry was beginning to tire of Woosley and his affectations.
“You really think that this is personal. That I hold a grudge because of what he did to me on the Odessey?” He said sounding affronted. Landry sighed, he had to admit, Woolsey might be a pain in the ass, and ‘horrid’ to use one of Vala’s pet words. But he knew better than to use his position to fulfil a personal vendetta. He truly believed what he was saying. And that made things a lot worse from Dr Jackson’s perspective.
“Well General Landry, if that is all, I have arranged for four teams to be despatched, they should arrive tomorrow, One of their first tasks will be to visit the worlds which Dr Jackson tried to convert, I want to find out how ‘soft sell’ he was when SG-1 weren’t observing him. In the meantime, your teams will continue to follow their arranged schedules, assuming that you consider that SG-1 such as they are, are fit for duty. Personally, I’d place them on stand down until the fate of Dr Jackson and General O’Neill has been determined.”
“Well, Woosley, you may hold the purse strings, and have a certain amount of clout, but, the decision as to how I deploy the USAF teams, is purely mine. So, to coin a phrase, it’s business as usual. Oh, and Woolsey, please ensure that your teams attend the requisite induction and orientation courses before they go-off world, one of the IOA’s suggestions, and one we do uphold.”
With that Landry left, throwing in the ‘course’ thing had been weak, and he knew it. But he’d just wanted to get in the last word.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a sombre group who assembled in Sam’s lab.
Vala perched on a stool and rested her head on her hands. She felt desolate now that her fury at Woolsey had calmed down. It was still there, but simmering rather than boiling.
“Well, trust Woosley to turn up like a vulture hovering over a corpse.” Cam said somewhat colourfully.
“I’d really rather you didn’t use that particular metaphor.” Vala said flatly.
“General Landry’s on our side, that something.” Sam said trying to sound optimistic.
“Yeah, for all the good it’ll do. We all know that the IOA have just been waiting for something like this to happen so they can use it as the perfect excuse to get their own people in to run the SGC. Landry’s going to have to dance to their tune.” Cam pointed out.
“GeneralLandry is not stupid, he will permit them to believe that he is complying with their wishes, and, too all intents and purposes, he will be.” Teal’c mused out loud. “But, he made it abundantly clear that he intends an SGC team to locate our missing friends before one of the IOA teams can. Therefore, we will be able to protect DanielJackson from them.”
Sam fiddled idly with a multi-meter. She hated all of this, the fact that Daniel, and Jack were missing, the fact that Daniel was now being regarded as some kind of galactic criminal, and the fact that they were going have to resort to subterfuge to do their job. It made her feel extremely uncomfortable. But, this was Jack and Daniel, she’d do whatever was necessary to find them, assuming they were somewhere to be found.
“Sam, I forgot, remember I found this in the village. Well what was left of it.” Vala held out the hairclip which she’d found wrapped up in a scrap of tissue in her pocket.
“I don’t see…” Sam looked a little bewildered.
Vala removed the clip from her hair and placed on the bench next to the one she’d found.
“Look, they’re identical. Now, I know for a fact that’s impossible. This one was made especially for my by an old….well let’s just say acquaintance.”
“So, he could have made more.” Cam said peering at the two trinkets.
“No, he couldn’t, you see, just after he made me this one, and, it was to my own design, he- errr- died suddenly.”
They regarded her with extreme curiosity, well aware that she had a rather colourful past.
“Look, gun runners can be artistic too you know, it was a kind of hobby of his, okay, I never…he was killed by a rather shady individual who he tried to cheat.”
“Okay let’s take a look, although, I’m quite sure what you’re expecting me to find.” Sam agreed, more for something to do than anything else.
“Well, I don’t know about you folks, but I’m starved.” Cam announced. Teal’c and he went off in search of something to eat while Vala paced around and fidgeted. After a while Sam looked up from her examination of the clip.
“Look, Vala, I know your upset. We all are. But fretting like this won’t bring him – them – back.”
Vala sighed heavily and sat on the stool she’d only recently vacated.
“I know, Sam, but I just feel so – frustrated – all the time we’re stuck here, we’re wasting valuable time looking for them, For all we know they’re out there hurt, or worse, and Daniel was pretty sick as it was.” She covered her face with her hands and tried to hold back her tears. Sam came round and placed a sympathetic arm around her. She too was distraught. Jack and Daniel were like family to her, she loved them both, and for a while had harboured a hope that her and Jack might have one day….but that was all in the past now. But it didn’t mean she cared any less for him.
“We’ll do everything we can Vala, it might not seem like that at the moment, but we can’t afford to give the IOA reason to come in and take over completely. You do understand that don’t you?”
Vala nodded her head, too upset to speak. Sam decided that moping around here was not going to either of them any good.
“Soo, how about following Cameron and Teal’c’s example and getting something to eat, then I’ll take a proper look at that clip and see if it can tell us anything.”
They caught up with Cam and Teal’c in the commissary. It was quiet, for which they were all grateful. Vala, who normally almost ‘out-ate’ Teal’c, picked limply at her food. She knew moping wasn’t the answer, but she felt so….bereft. They were all pretty quiet, it was still all too fresh in their minds, and Woolsey’s threats hung over them, adding to an already dark cloud.
“Do you think General Landry will send us out again anytime soon?” Vala asked, finally breaking the silence. “Only, if we have to sit around here, kicking our heels, I’ll just go stir-crazy.”
Cam shrugged. He wanted to get back out there, but he was also trained to obey orders, as was Sam, frustrating though it may be.
TBC
Any kind of feedback? Please write to kauno_saario@yahoo.com I'll be happy to pass it on to Delta666 and she will get back to you!