Capitulation

 

 

 

 by Travelling One

 

email: travelling_one@yahoo.ca

Website: http://www.travellingone.com/

Season: 4 or 5. This is more or less a tag to Double Jeopardy.

Summary: Harlan wasn't about to give up his friends so easily; it hadn't even been a few hundred years yet. Neither would SG-1.

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of MGM Global Holdings Inc, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Film Corp. I have written this story for entertainment purposes and no copyright infringement is intended. Any original characters, situations, and storylines are the property of the author.

 

August/06

 

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"So." Jack wasn't sure how he felt about this, but it wasn't really his opinion that counted here anyway. These were people, more or less and so to speak, with feelings, at least. "You're repaired." There was a slightly odd and unexpected sensation of jealousy that coursed through him; if only it were always that easy.

 

Robot Jack squinted right through him, as if knowing exactly what he was thinking. And that made Jack uncomfortable. "Yes." A little fluid insertion, new battery packs, some hammering here and there. "Good as new." Except for one.

 

"Thanks for letting us visit," Robot Sam interrupted the uneasy silence. "It's just that, you know… "

 

"Homesick?" Jack finished as her voice drifted off. He didn't blame them; couldn't. He knew now he'd feel the same if roles were reversed; he'd had a few disturbing insights on Cronus's ship. Still, his thoughts had been conflicting when the robots had dialled in this morning and asked to come; he'd given an outright No before his team had made him see it from a different point of view. He didn't know what he was afraid of, really; these guys were out there one way or another, again going on missions to stave off the boredom, and having them back here might be a chance to convince them to stop meddling. At least, that's the way Hammond looked at it. Daniel had accused Jack of not wanting to confront his real feelings; what if it really had been them who'd woken up unable to go home? Hammond and Janet had graphically informed them of the details of what that "team" had gone through on base. There was some guilt at play in there, as well as intense empathy.

 

"Well, kind of," Robot Carter nodded sheepishly.

 

God, she was so much like the real thing. Jack didn't know what to feel, any more.

 

"Come," his Carter said. "I'll take you to have a look at the labs."

 

The energy in Robot Carter's eyes lit her face; she was returning to a home that had never been hers, yet one she remembered so vividly, fondly and with sadness, a longing and emptiness inside that could never be filled.

 

"Colonel?" Hammond nodded to the Jack of his base, flesh and blood and prototype. "A word?" Looking at the visiting Jack and Teal'c, he indicated the briefing room chairs. "We won't be long. Please, have a seat."

 

As Jack followed Hammond into his office, the robot colonel made his way over to Daniel, standing uncomfortably by the huge window overlooking the gate room. It had been over three years since Daniel had seen and spoken with these replicas. A deep sensation of regret flared within him as he caught Jack staring into his eyes, his expression hauntingly wistful.

 

The hint of pain and loss in that face left Daniel awkwardly stumped for words, groping for a way to reach the man who he knew lived inside this mechanical body, without more deeply penetrating the wound. "Jack," he began softly. "How are you?"

 

"We miss you."

 

The abruptness caught him off guard. This Jack must have engaged in extensive soul-searching, overwhelmed by isolation from everything but his own team members, imprisoned for eternity on an alien base that continually threatened to collapse around them. "I'm sorry."

 

"You're the real reason we've come."

 

Daniel's eyes narrowed with initial surprise. "Why?"

 

"Come back with us so Harlan can make another copy of you."

 

"What? …um," Now Daniel's eyes went wide, a mixture of horror and sorrow coagulating in a pit in his stomach. "No."

 

"Please."

 

"Jack, don't ask me to do this."

 

"I already have. Come on, Daniel. What's the big deal? You know it's safe. I wouldn't ask you to do it otherwise."

 

"Because… because… I don't want a copy made of me." Hadn't even wanted the first one, but he hadn't been given a say at the time. He didn't intend for the hurt that he saw now in Jack's eyes. He didn't want to cause more misery.

 

"Daniel." Jack's voice sounded off, distant, pleading. Sorrowful and scary. "Our team is SG-1. Four of us."

 

"Jack -" Daniel frowned, turning his head away. Before him, two stories down below, loomed the stargate, pretending to be so innocent and unassuming.

 

"Daniel, do you have any idea what it was like to see you die like that? Right, we knew you weren't really you. But to us, Daniel, you were. You were our archeologist, our linguist… our friend. Carter needs someone to talk to who understands her. Teal'c needs someone to protect."

 

"And that would be me?"

 

"You know it."

 

"So why are you the one asking me to do this?"

 

Jack stared at Daniel, the friend he hadn't seen since he'd had his head blown off. Knowing this was the real one, alive and living on a planet that should have been his, made it that much harder… and that much more special. This was Daniel, the man who'd lend a hand to anyone who asked. If he wouldn't do this for his closest friend…

 

But to be honest, Daniel's closest friend was sitting in the office of General Hammond. Jack felt his spirit deflate. To Daniel, this Daniel who stirred so many memories in him, he was nothing but a fake. An imposter, worthy of being relegated back to a dismal alien warehouse with nothing to show for his pitiful pleas but a ten thousand-year solitary sentence in hell.

 

"Because… I want you back even more than Carter does." Jack never would have admitted that, but the real Jack was never this desperate. Or in such need of friendship.

 

He saw the effusion of emotion in Daniel's eyes; this was the Daniel he remembered, and the one he had lost.

 

The two Teal'cs had been patiently waiting together at the long table, but now Robot Teal'c appeared beside the two men, Daniel flesh and blood, Jack not so much but filled with the pain of longing.

 

"Daniel Jackson. Adjusting to life without your presence has indeed been difficult. As a member of our team, you had been a member of our family as well. We do not wish to continue on missions without you at our side."

 

Jack was nodding, alternately looking at the floor and into Daniel's eyes. He couldn't hold either gaze for very long. "Come on, Daniel. Three years with no one but the four of us is a long time to develop some deep companionships. What you have here is nothing compared to what we've gone through. We've had nobody but each other… and now you're missing."

 

And Daniel understood. If he had been mechanized and could have had a robot Sha're at his side… he hadn't seen what these guys had gone through while battling Cronus, but he'd heard the details and read the mission reports, and his gut had clenched in compassion at the deaths of his teammates… even if they were not really real. At the time he was secretly glad that they'd all perished together; had only one of them made it off Cronus's ship, it would have been a truly painful existence.

 

And now, three of them had.

 

Daniel stared unseeing at the stargate down below, until finally he pulled himself away. "Okay…Jack. I'll come back with you."

 

Gratitude swirled through Jack like that milky white life blood he'd opposed with such passion. Yes, this was his Daniel. But the smile on his face never made it to completion.

 

"Like hell you will!" Jack's angry voice reverberated from the general's doorway. "What the hell's going on here?"

 

Daniel took a few steps towards his CO. "Jack, they just want me to, uh, pose for another copy of myself."

 

"No way."

 

"Jack -"

 

"No."

 

"It's safe."

 

"You're not going."

 

"Jack!" The robot raised his own voice at himself, an act that always seemed disconcerting. He knew his prototype would be a pain in the ass to deal with. "You know damn well I wouldn't ask him to do this if there was any danger in it."

 

"Maybe."

 

"Look - " Robot Jack paused, lowering his voice. He could count on Daniel to be the voice of reason and support this cause, but not in a verbal fistfight with his CO. "Look. When you went to Altair, Jack, and got yourself into this mess - leaving my team to suffer the eternal consequences, by the way - we were… SG-1 was already pretty tight, right?" He stared at his counterpart, who just stood without acknowledging. "And then the four of us were together for three more years, bored, scared, and miserable. We took care of each other, Jack. Got to know each other pretty well, looked out for each other. You know the feeling?"

 

Jack knew it all too well. There was no way he wanted to be convinced of it with these others, though, in spite of the little voice of misgiving and doubt inside his head.

 

"And then Daniel died. No, let me rephrase that; he was murdered, and all we could do was watch it happen. And now we're faced with a few thousand years without him." Robot Jack was in his double's space now, and even General Hammond was standing motionless. Both Carters had arrived inconspicuously back in the room, witnessing the interaction from near the stairs. Much as she'd wanted to visit the labs, Robot Sam had known this conversation was the reason for them having come. "But Daniel here can give him back to us. In a couple of hours, we could have our Daniel back again. Wouldn't you want Daniel back from the dead if you could have him?"

 

That hit a nerve, but Jack knew it was irrelevant. He spoke slowly, quietly. "But he won't be your Daniel. He'll just be a new copy."

 

"He won't know what you've gone through together, he'll only know what I know." Daniel agreed.

 

"We'll fill him in." Robot Jack was adamant. "He'll know about us. He'll know what you've gone through together."

 

Robot Carter added from the stairwell, her voice soft, "He'll know what he means to us."

 

"But he won't understand." Jack O'Neill was no longer angry, his voice quiet and compelling. He knew his point would not be easy for these others to accept. "It'll be Daniel, this Daniel, waking up, thinking he's the real one. Thinking he's the one who's coming home. And then you'll tell him, no, you're the one who's staying behind." Jack paused, sensing the atmosphere grow tense. "You remember what it was like when you guys woke up? Seems you came back here without us. You honestly believed this is where you belonged. And now you want Daniel to go through that all over again?" Jack paused. "He won't have your old Daniel's memories. He'll have this one's." This time Jack met Daniel's gaze, and saw the reality sinking in.

 

Daniel took in Jack's words, and felt his heart pull tight., closing inside him like a fist. He would be waking up, and be told he was no longer human and could never return home. It didn't matter that the new one wouldn't really be him; it would think it was.

 

"Do you really want to put him through that?" Jack finished, hoping he could make them see what he saw. Make them understand what he already knew.

 

It would be no different than taking this Daniel to Altair and leaving him there.

 

The room was silent. Teal'c stirred, both of them, and Robot Carter stared at her boots. Sam had missed some of what was going on, but she had a pretty good idea. Her eyes now on her own double, she could sense the anguish and grief.

 

Robot Jack cleared his throat.

 

No. He remembered only too well how he'd felt - how he still felt - at being unable to return home. A prisoner, stranded for millennia, and he'd done nothing to deserve his fate. None of his team had.

 

He missed Daniel. Wanted him back. Wanted him around for the next thousand years. Didn't know how they'd cope without him.

 

But he wouldn't put another Daniel through that.

 

He closed his eyes, blinking back the pain and understanding, then turned to his Sam and Teal'c. "Come on, kids. Let's go…home."

 

No one said a word. Faces downcast, the mechanical team retreated to the gateroom, waited for the blue pool now the sole determiner of their lives, and turned their backs on the SGC.

 

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