Something's Cruvus

 

 

by Travelling One

 

email: travelling_one@yahoo.ca

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

Summary: Missing scenes for The Fifth Race. While Jack's brain is downloaded with Ancient information and working at 90% capacity, there's more going on in his mind than anyone could imagine.

Season: 2

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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"Cruvus, what is tha-at?" For a moment, Jack swears he sees a flash of Daniel in bell bottoms, with slicked-back hair and beads, but the image disappears quickly. He'd laugh, except for the intensity of his confusion.

 

The next thing he knows, his teammates are looking at him as if he's grown horns, and Hammond is telling him to take some time to relax, just nowhere off the base. Work arrest; that has to be an oxymoron. The real irony is, Jack knows he's feeling fine. And despite the fact that his doodles are so much more awesome today than ever before, there's nothing cruvus with him.

 

_____

 

"What, cozars?…Cozars." What's the problem here? "Gotta bend your cozars." And as Teal'c stares at him even more strangely than usual, Jack freezes as he catches a glimpse of a fiery prod being held to the Jaffa's forehead, the heat surprisingly - and thankfully - causing no pain to his golden tattoo. Taken aback, Jack is thrust out of his visual daydream triggered by the other man's words.

 

"I believe you are referring to your legs, O'Neill." And Jack realizes Teal'c's right.

 

_____

 

When in doubt, go to Daniel. When in distress, go to Daniel as well. Daniel has some sort of medicinal mind effect over him, or something. Must be that soothing voice, or the calm façade assuring that everything will be all right, if one just hangs around him a little longer.

 

"All right, what the hell is going on with me?" Jack bursts into Daniel's office.

 

"What do you mean?" The infuriatingly calm voice in times of stress calms Jack's nerves.

 

Okay, so Daniel isn't all knowing. Barging in on him in a snit doesn't automatically enlighten. Nothing wrong with a little drama when you're having the crap scared out of you. Works up Daniel's reassuring manner real quick, too. "Well, apparently, I've lost the falatus to speak properly."

 

And Jack has the sudden horrifying sensation that Sha're - Daniel's heart and one true love - is holding a gun on the man. And the feeling doesn't stop but explodes into a vision, where he can see that no, that isn't a gun, it's a freaking hand device, and Daniel's on the floor looking dead.

 

Stop it, just stop it! Jack shakes his head, rubs his eyes. Daniel is now searching his dictionaries, when Jack sees the circular message on the screen, and he starts reading. Jack's brain is flowing so full of information that shouldn't be there, but he can't place any of it, can't even describe it, like those dreams that shred all sorts of items and experiences and topics into a Mixmaster jumble of silliness. Just try to explain them in the morning.

 

But one thing he does understand, is that something very bad is going to happen. Something very very bad, and he has to warn his people. To do that, first he has to understand the inside of his brain.

 

"Jack, are you reading this?"

 

"I don't know; you tell me." Please. Daniel, please. I need you to figure this out. But instead Daniel turns into an old man before his eyes, white hair and beard and lying there dying; how does he know that's even Daniel? Jack rubs his eyes again, harder. What the hell is happening to him?

 

And then Jack is doing all sorts of mathematical equations, and he doesn't know why or what they mean, but they're blocking out those annoying visions of his teammates in trouble. Visions that are starting to worry him. The last one was of Carter and Teal'c, standing in front of a broken DHD under a burning hot sun. He could feel the young captain's fear.

 

_____

 

He understood that. He doesn't know why his brain is working at over 90% capacity, but if Janet says it is, it is. She has the pictures to back it up. It must be the reason he needs to build this contraption, as well.

 

"Colonel, what are you doing?"

 

Jack stops to look at the power source he's just removed from Teal'c's staff weapon, and suddenly he doesn't even know why he's there.

 

_____

 

The little machine is almost finished. Jack knows that, but he doesn't know how he knows. He just knows that before he can use it, something else needs to be done.

 

And so, he's nearly finished inputting the changes into the computer system before Hammond has him stopped. "I'm not fargats!" he shouts, but no one cares. This is important! I have to save you. Me. You. All of you. Let me go, Teal'c! But he knows the words won't come out the way he wants them to, in the language of his teammates.

 

The more he panics, the more his old brain gives up.

 

And now he's not only confined to base, he's not allowed to touch anything. He gets that order; he can still understand English, even if his recalled vocabulary is quickly deserting him.

 

And Hammond is swinging from the ceiling, unconscious, and Daniel's being held on a rope by an ugly animal that reminds him, just a little bit, of that thing in Thor's cave. An Unas, it called itself. And there are more of them, more and more and more, coming out of the shadows.

 

And Sam and Teal'c are sweating under two hot suns.

 

"Etium,… Sir." I understand.

 

_____

 

"Jack may have knowledge of the original gate builders downloaded into his brain."

 

Thank you, Daniel. It's about time someone figured that out.

 

"Ego indeo navo locas." I need to leave here, I need to get this out of my head, I need to talk in English to tell you what I've been seeing … and Daniel is lying in the infirmary, but Jack can't tell why. There are bugs everywhere… no… spiders; gray, silver, metal… metal spiders, everywhere, as large as his palm. They're on the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling, on himself and Teal'c…

 

"…you need a new location. You need a new location?" Daniel looks so lost, so curious, so determined to help.

 

No one can help. That's why he needs to leave.

 

"Where do you want to go?" Carter asks, and Jack sees her covering herself from a hot, hot sun. And Daniel is standing on the wrong side of a balcony, traffic flowing too far below. Daniel!

 

God. If these thoughts don't stop soon, Jack is going to be the one on that balcony, and he may or may not be able to stop himself from going over the edge. For he will go crazy with this stuff in his head. Daniel…

 

He knows Daniel is doing his best. He knows that, and wants to tell him he understands.

 

What he doesn't know is why Daniel is wearing that really weird outfit, like a gigolo on Halloween. It had better be Halloween. Good thing this is all just in his mind, his very weird mind.

 

"Sir, this is base eight math!"

 

So? Jack doesn't know what good that will do anyone.

 

_____

 

Janet told him he will lose the ability to write. He'll lose the ability to speak and comprehend. He may lose the ability to do everything.

 

But that's not good, because he suddenly, horribly sees Janet lying in a coffin with a staff blast in her chest and he feels the pain as though it's his own. God, no. He knows he has to warn her, has to tell her not to go off world. When? Where? He rubs his eyes, lays his head in his arms.

 

He loves Daniel for saying that. For refusing to leave him. For being so adamant about it in front of General Hammond. The man is fearless in the face of what he believes in, and sometimes that's a really good thing. Thank goodness he still believes in Jack.

 

For Jack no longer believes in Jack, and that balcony is looking nearer and nearer.

 

His only hope is that little contraption he's been building. And he doesn't even know why.

 

_____

 

Then suddenly he does.

 

The truth hits him like a slap in the face, from Daniel.

 

Carter and Teal'c are trapped off world with a broken DHD, under two very very, very hot suns. In a few hours they will die.

 

Yes, Daniel. More than knowledge of a language was downloaded into my brain. He can fix the DHD. He will tell Carter how to do it.

 

If over 90% of his brain is functional, doesn't that also mean the psychic part may be working too? Woken up, or however that works? However it works, it works. For Sam and Teal'c are trapped, and there's no other answer as to how Jack knew that.

 

Knew it hours ago when it hadn't happened yet.

 

Jack remembers the fiery hole in Janet's chest. He remembers Daniel on a rope pulled by an Unas. He remembers Hammond hanging from the ceiling.

 

He feels sick.

 

Right now, he can't help Janet, and he can't help Daniel.

 

He can do something about Sam and Teal'c, though. He can save them.

 

_____

 

"Jack, what are you doing?"

 

Jack knows his answer is not in English, but it doesn't matter. What matters is getting this thing hooked up, before they stop him and lock him up. He saved Carter, he saved Teal'c. He has to save the rest of them. Has to save Daniel. For what he's seen has shocked and scared the crap out of him.

 

"I think that means 'good'".

 

Close enough, Daniel. Again, Daniel is all covered in bandages, bleeding even from his eyes, and Jack knows now that this is real. Will be real, unless he can tell them all.

 

"Jack, I really don't know if this is a good thing."

 

Leave me alone, Daniel. Have to save you. For Daniel is bleeding, and dying, and someone is telling him Daniel jumped through a window to save everyone.

 

Jack feels sick.

 

Not if I save you first, Daniel.

 

"I don't think he understands us any more."

 

Like hell I don't. You're the ones who don't understand.

 

_____

 

"General, what if all these anomalies that have been happening to Jack are part of some big plan?"

 

"What plan?"

 

It's getting worse; Daniel can barely see him, his eyes all cloudy and unfocussed. There's no place left on him Jack can even touch.

 

"Well, earlier Jack was telling me he had to go through the Gate. Maybe everything up until now has been leading to this."

 

Janet says Daniel's insides are melting away; dissolving, betraying him; he's bleeding to death inside and out.

 

Jack wants to soothe him, take the pain away, but there's nothing he can do. Daniel knows his eyes can't cry; Jack knows his own will, later.

 

"That's why the Gate needed all the extra power."

 

Jack doesn't hear Hammond's response; he's too busy listening to that man saying Daniel deactivated some radioactive bomb with his bare hands.

 

Hammond's talking to him, he thinks. "I'm just supposed to let you go?"

 

"He's already gone, General. I don't think we have much of a choice."

 

The man says he's from Kelowna. It happens on Kelowna.

 

We won't go there.

 

"I will accompany you, O'Neill."

 

"I really think he needs to do this alone, Teal'c."

 

Daniel's talking. He's saying good-bye. Some woman is in the gateroom, watching, doing nothing.

 

No way. No way in hell. That's my friend, there.

 

I'll be back, Daniel, back to tell you. Warn you. Save you.

 

"Jack. You understand that if you do this, if you go, you might not be able to come back."

 

That's just a chance I can't afford not to take.

 

Don't worry, Daniel. I'll be back. Stop saying goodbye.

 

I'll be back.

_____

 

"Ego… deserde…asordo." When Jack looks at those creatures he sees Roswell. And then, those spiders again, crawling everywhere. He wants to step on them all, crunch them under his feet.

 

Roswell reaches out to him, something's glowing in its palm…

 

…and he's gone.

 

When he awakens, he no longer feels sick and anchored with the weight of the world. His headaches are gone, but the tiredness he's felt for days still lingers. But now there's more. There's excitement, and challenge, and hope. Daniel and Carter… and Hammond… and Teal'c will love this.

 

"…I really, really appreciate you getting all that stuff out of my head, but you folks should understand that we're out there, now, and we might not be ready for a lot of this stuff but we're doing the best we can. We're a very curious race."

 

And soon Jack is walking back through the wormhole; how, he doesn't know, nor does he care, really. For he doesn't have a brain that's working at over 90% capacity, and that's perfectly fine with him.

 

Daniel doesn't know that yet, he realizes. Daniel is standing at the foot of the ramp, looking way too apprehensive to be healthy. "What happened?" he asks, his eyes and voice revealing too much concern.

 

Jack wants to tell Daniel something.

 

"Do you still possess the knowledge of the Ancients?" Teal'c asks.

 

"Nope. Don't remember a thing," Jack answers almost cheerfully. He really, really wants to tell Daniel something, something important, but he can't remember what. "But you know that meaning of life stuff?" That must be it, must be what he couldn't wait for Daniel to know. Now, he can't wait to see the look on Daniel's face, the interest, the curiosity, and he's more than willing to face all the questions. "I think we're going to be all right."

 

 

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