Paradise to Paradox
 
 
 
by Travelling One
 
email: travelling_one@yahoo.ca
Website: http:homepage.mac.com/traveller1/travelling-one/
Season: 5'ish
Mini Spoilers: Stargate the Movie; The Serpent's Lair; Double Jeopardy
Summary: The only predictable certainty lies in counting on the unpredictable, and SG-1 is in the middle of it. Or so they think. (And that's the vaguest I can get while telling the entire story.)
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.
 
July, 2006
 
 
Sounds buzzed around them, dainty and trivial and monumental, resonating through the floor, everywhere and nowhere at once. Coming from all around and over there, from cabinets and baskets - not really baskets, but there was no other way to describe them - and consoles and bits of small and larger machinery, though none of it larger than a washing machine or stove. It was breathtaking and hideous all at the same time, and it was not only Carter who was overwhelmed.
 
"I was right!"
 
And they all knew what she meant.
 
"So you were."
 
"Where are the people?" Daniel was certain that he, too, would be proven correct.
 
The MALP had shown nothing. Blank screens, but Carter had sworn she'd seen this stuff before the telemetry had gone off, and even though she'd fiddled with it, rewound and fast-forwarded and zoomed and distanced it, she could not prove anything to anyone else, especially not to General Hammond. Her teammates, God love them, had given her the benefit of the doubt.
 
For Daniel had sworn he'd heard voices, a language that he couldn't place, in the split-second of transmission. And so, he was certain there'd be people here, and he had jumped at the chance to support Sam.
 
Teal'c had thought he'd heard a language spoken too: Goa'uld. And it was for that reason that Hammond had nearly vetoed the mission. But the single word Teal'c had sworn he'd heard, the single word in Goa'uld that convinced Hammond to trust Carter, was 'freedom'.
 
While Jack believed in freedom, he swore he did, it wasn't enough to convince him, however. "Hey, they could have been knocking it, for all you know. One word does not a converted Jaffa make." For Jack had neither heard nor seen anything; he hadn't been in the control room when the solitary MALP signal had supposedly come through.
 
But Jack already trusted his teammates, so he was not all that difficult to convince. He knew he couldn't stand up to the dedicated pleas and theories and logic of Carter and Daniel, so he saved his energy and didn't even try. That was what Hammond got paid the big bucks for, he figured. But soon Jack realized that even Hammond couldn't oppose those alluring members of SG-1, and Jack wondered briefly why he wasn't making the exact same money as Hammond. After all, he had to put up with them every day.
 
"Aah, where are the people; that is the question." Jack pursed his lips and fingered his rifle. "Leave the MALP; we'll take it back with us later. Carter, what do you make of all this stuff?" he asked, moving carefully around the interestingly curious room.
 
"I have no idea, sir." But she was itching to get started on finding out.
 
"Jack?" Daniel sidled up to the colonel, ignoring the equipment and choosing his words carefully. "Mind if I go see what's in the next room?"
 
Jack looked at him and said, "Yes."
 
"Yes I can go?"
 
"Yes I mind." And that was that.
 
For the next hour, they listened to Carter mumbling her wows and Oh my Gods and this is fascinatings, while asking for elaboration just elicited "I have no idea, but it's incredible." And they looked at each other with Daniel asking again, "Jack? Mind if I go see what's in the next room?"
 
And Jack would say, "Soon."
 
So Daniel puttered around, almost touching things but not as much as Carter, and trying to look bored enough for Jack to take pity on him. "Now?" he'd ask.
 
Finally Jack said, "Fine, but I'm coming." Then to Carter and Teal'c he ordered, "Keep in radio contact. We're exploring; not going far."
 
"Sure, sir. Have fun." But Carter wasn't really paying attention anyway. By then, Daniel was a step ahead of Jack, passing through the doorway as Jack looked back once more at the involved scientist and the bored but alert Jaffa.
 
_____
 
Jack and Daniel found people.
 
"I was right."
 
"Why didn't they show their faces when we came through the gate?" The colonel whispered to Daniel, as several of the men and women looked up from what they were doing in this massive room filled with rugs and food and craftwork. People who just smiled at them and went back to whatever they'd been doing. "This is creepy." Jack was used to being treated in many different ways when he came through the gate with his team, but being ignored wasn't one of them.
 
"They're too busy to take notice of us," Daniel whispered back. "They're not afraid."
 
Nor curious? "Well that's helpful."
 
But Daniel ignored him and sat down beside a woman who was weaving a small dress, ostensibly for the toddler who sat on her knee. The woman smiled and continued on with her task.
 
Jack shook his head and wandered around the room, the size of which compared to an auditorium, without the seats or the stage or the bright lights. Natural light came in from windows all around the muralled walls. Outside, Jack could make out grass, and a pathway down to a lake.
 
"Do you people live here? Work here? What?" he asked one at a time, women and men and children who were sewing, carving, peeling food, slapping together what looked like pancakes onto a sizzling pot over a small fire. They all smiled and continued on with what they were doing. "Right. Nice talking to you."
 
Four women sat on a decorated blanket, intent on their basket-making. One was soaking something that looked like straw, others were weaving or painting with dye. Jack visually searched the room, one that extended around bodies and blankets and little straw stools in the shape of upturned palms. The smells were tempting and aromatic; breads and meat cooking, soaps and fragrances, jumbled together but not overpowering. Why hadn't these smells carried through to the other room?
 
Over on the floor by the doorway, Daniel was still by the woman with the child, and this time Jack stopped to watch his teammate from a distance. The archaeologist had a wooden hook and lengths of string in his hand; the intensity of his expression indicated his deep concentration. So Daniel was learning to crochet? Or whatever it was that woman would call it. Jack kept on observing. How the hell did Daniel do that, make himself so at home so quickly in a place like this? Jack's thinking headed in the bizarre direction of comparing himself to Robert Rothman; on a scale of one to anything Jack judged he'd be somewhere closer to the Rothman end than the Daniel end. People were not always Jack's thing either, and he shook his head in disgust. What a discovery. He'd be sure not to share that with Daniel any time soon.
 
Now, Teal'c he could relate to, almost. That symbiote thing creeped him out and he couldn't see himself voluntarily vowing to serve anyone, never mind a frilled snake-lizard. But had he been born onto Chulak, he didn't know for sure that symbiotism wouldn't have happened to him, and Jack shuddered at the thought. He would have been immensely relieved and honoured to have found friends in such men as Teal'c and Bra'tac. Had Daniel, on the other hand, been born into such a world... Jack couldn't finish that thought. Couldn't even come close to picturing it. Surely, somewhere out there on a Goa'uld world, someone just like Daniel had to have been pouched, Jaffa'ed. He wouldn't have had a choice, would he? Coming of age. And Jack shuddered again. Looking back at Daniel, he much preferred thinking of such a man working with wool while learning to speak his twenty-fourth or fifth, or sixth, foreign language, than think of him with a snake in his belly forced to serve a pompously conceited alien through murder and destruction. How many Daniels were in the ranks of Jaffa, somewhere, against their will?
 
As for Carter, well, her world was too far removed from Jack's to even consider enjoying watching her work, or taking part in that world. Given the choice, much as he admired and respected Carter, he'd rather be in here with a crocheting Daniel than in the other room with a calculating astrophysicist. Her language was one of advanced technology so far beyond him it was scary. Even so, he was happy that she was in her element, involved and enthusiastic. Happy for her. And happy to have her on his team.
 
Daniel, even with his inability to communicate, was communicating. Fascinating how he did that, and Jack had to admire the simple action of learning. The man was a genius at interacting with the unresponsive. Unassuming, effortless gestures that conveyed respect and honour. Natural and sincere; that was Daniel at work. It was a graceful sort of thing, and almost beautiful to watch. A ballet of life. Gentle; that was the word he was looking for.
 
Daniel raised his head and noticed Jack watching, and smiled. Handing the craftwork back to the woman, he bowed his head in respect and stood up. Jack continued to watch his friend as Daniel toed his way around and between blankets and families.
 
"Any luck?" Jack whispered as Daniel sidled up. Surely he had had success.
 
"No, not really. The few words I've heard I can't understand. Yet," he added, at Jack's look of disbelief. "I don't think the words for making sweaters out of wool will do us much good, in the long run. Sorry."
 
"You did your best."
 
"Obviously not."
 
After a long stare at the teammate who would never be able to witness, or understand, the real interaction that had just taken place, Jack could think of nothing to say but, "Well, they don't look like they're going anywhere. Let's head back to Teal'c and Carter."
 
_____
 
"No sir, I haven't figured out what any of this is for. It could take weeks to come up with anything useable."
 
"I don't get it. Next door are what appear to be the most trusting, simplistic people going, and in here are all kinds of doodads that even you can't figure out?"
 
"Yet. Sir." She added.
 
"The people encountered by yourself and Daniel Jackson are not necessarily those who created this machinery," Teal'c commented wisely.
 
"Which means…" Daniel frowned.
 
"There are others around somewhere," Jack concluded.
 
"Or were others. How old is this stuff, Sam?"
 
"I can't say, Daniel. But it's all in working condition judging by the sounds and lights, and none of it's rusted. Which doesn't mean a whole lot, but it isn't made of naquadah, as far as my readings can tell."
 
"So more people around somewhere," Daniel met Jack's eyes. "Or maybe records of them, at least."
 
"There is another doorway in this chamber, O'Neill."
 
Jack flipped off his cap, ran some fingers through his short hair, and snapped the cap back on his head. "Door number two, then. Or would that be three?"
 
_____
 
Teal'c led the way to the door he had seen on his previous inspections, a door he'd suspected they would eventually be opening.
 
"He was right." Daniel was more than a little stunned to see Jaffa filling the room, obviously working and living with the peaceful group of people next door.
 
"About what? Just 'cause they're not pointing weapons at us yet? We don't know that they're friendly." Too many to be friendly, according to Jack's suspicions. Way too many to trust, even though they still weren't aiming staff weapons or zats and Teal'c was already in the room communicating in Goa'uld. Jack's weapon was, however, ready and aimed. "Those people in there are probably slaves, Daniel."
 
"They didn't seem afraid of us."
 
"They haven't seen Teal'c yet. You and I look like one of them."
 
The trio stood there half in the doorway, watching Teal'c make the rounds as if he knew these warriors. Old buddies, or something. They were grasping forearms.
 
"Does he know them?"
 
"They might know him, Jack. The Shol'va."
 
"So he was right," Carter couldn't take her eyes off Teal'c's reception. He certainly was being welcomed. Teal'c represented freedom.
 
"Or this is a trap," O'Neill broke in with his own brand of pessimism. Usually optimistic, except when the rest of his team was. Things had to balance out, be brought into perspective. Too many satisfied customers smelled fishy.
 
"As in, they were waiting for us to come to a place with no MALP reception, so that they could smile us to death?" Daniel batted his eyelashes.
 
Jack just frowned and bit back his retort. Sometimes, he felt like the smart one.
 
Finally, Teal'c made his way back to his team. "They are indeed free. They have come to this planet to plan more rebellions in their homeworlds. They, as I, wish for a free Jaffa nation." Teal'c was nearly glowing.
 
"Down, boy. Are you sure they're telling the truth?"
 
"I am indeed."
 
"What System Lord did they get away from?"
 
"I am uncertain. They are from many planets."
 
"Uh huh."
 
"O'Neill, do you not believe that my people are capable of this?"
 
"Teal'c, of course I do, I just don't understand this place."
 
"There are more rooms here, Colonel." They followed Carter's gaze to a series of doorways along the right-hand wall.
 
"Yeah. Right. Lead the way, Carter."
 
_____
 
More machines and equipment littered the next room, and the next. Carter was in heaven, according to Jack's description, but still none of the stuff made any more sense to her than had the last batch. She had seen nothing like them on Earth or any other planet, and unfortunately they didn't seem to come with instructions. Daniel was feeling rather useless and embarrassed.
 
"Maybe there's a machine in here that makes people become… I don't know… peaceful?" Jack theorized. "We don't know that those Jaffa didn't come here to enslave those people." He caught Daniel's wide-eyed gaping gaze. "Do we? What?"
 
Daniel shook his head, and stared at Sam.
 
"No sir… but if you're right, we may have stumbled on the best weapons yet to conquer the Goa'uld."
 
And then Jack realized what he'd insinuated. "You mean something that makes them nice?" Now it was his turn to stare, first at Carter and then at Daniel. Then his eyes turned to Teal'c. "Did you feel anything in there? In here?"
 
"To what are you referring, O'Neill?"
 
"Oh, I don't know; something that makes you feel like picking flowers and having a picnic?"
 
"I did not."
 
"Teal'c's already nice, Jack."
 
Jack stared at Daniel for a long moment, then back at the equipment. "So. Which ones do we take?"
 
"We can't, sir. The people here need them. If something in here really does change people's perspectives, we can't leave them without it."
 
"So which ones do we copy?"
 
"Sir, I can't even figure out how to open the window. Whatever we're looking for could be one of the gadgets that's small enough to fit in a pocket, or it could be the whole lot of them all working together. We don't know anything about this place yet."
 
Jack sighed. "Door number five?"
 
"I shall take point, O'Neill."
 
_____
 
There was another roomful of Jaffa, and Teal'c was treated the same way in here as in the other room. What they'd been doing, other than socializing, was unclear. But even Teal'c could get no information other than scattered action plans for a major rebellion.
 
"Sir, if these Jaffa want to be allies, we'd have a formidable army when dealing with the Goa'uld."
 
"I'm sure Teal'c's getting the details, Carter. Daniel, go shadow him and let me know what they're talking about."
 
But curiously enough, when Daniel came close the conversations stopped, and the Jaffa turned away.
 
Smiling sheepishly and feeling like an outcast, Daniel returned to the waiting pair. "Guess I'm not Shol'va enough," he shrugged.
 
Jack patted him on the shoulder. "So much for allies."
 
"Oh, I don't know. Teal'c seems to be getting along pretty well. I just can't get close enough to hear any details."
 
"Yeah. Well."
 
And so for ten more minutes, they watched, while Daniel tried unsuccessfully to read Jaffa lips.
 
Yes, Jack thought, Teal'c he could almost relate to. Had they not had larvae in their bellies and spoken the language of the Snakeheads themselves, he might have felt at home in this room of warriors. Teal'c deserved to finally see his wish come to fruition, his life's dream of freeing his people. And to Teal'c, anyone with a symbiote in his belly was kin. For a moment, Jack felt a surge of gratitude to have been able to offer a way for that dream to become a potential reality; he was happy to have played a part in Teal'c's future.
 
_____
 
"Teal'c?"
 
"I still have heard no planet designations nor names of any System Lords. I am sorry, O'Neill."
 
"Do they sound like they'd be interested in working with us?"
 
"They did not seem to want to acknowledge the presence of the Tau'ri."
 
Arrogant sons of… "And where do they think you're from, Teal'c?"
 
"Chulak. They have heard of your Tau'ri world. They do not feel the need to accept more planets to aid at present time."
 
"Or accept aid from us?"
 
Daniel caught a quick glance at Jack as the CO sighed, his expression deflating from hope to resignation. "Should we keep looking around?"
 
"Starting to wonder if there's any point in that, Daniel."
 
"O'Neill. I am quite certain this place will prove to be of great benefit to our cause."
 
"Our cause? Or the Jaffa cause?"
 
"Are they not one and the same?"
 
Jack wasn't sure how to answer that.
 
"There's another doorway, Jack."
 
"Of course there is." This building was huge; one room led into another and so on and so on… but until they found some answers, he still didn't know what they were doing here.
 
Daniel led the way, and once again they found themselves surrounded by the quietest, most serene inhabitants they could have hoped to find. This room, however, was supported by columns covered in hieroglyphs. Even Jack's hopes rose as he eyed his younger teammate; Daniel's eyes were lit with joy as he circled the nearest pillar.
 
"Daniel?" Sam's voice was quiet. This was the first she had seen of these people, and the way they smilingly sat and ignored the team as they kept on with their tasks unnerved her. "Can you read it?"
 
Daniel's face now was marked by a deep frown. "No; these aren't like any hieroglyphs I've seen before." Disappointment marred his words, yet curiosity and hope tinged his tone.
 
"But you'll figure them out, right?"
 
"Sure, Jack, with a Rosetta Stone and a few years." Not that he wouldn't love the challenge… a few of those representations looked obvious. He could piece a few of them together, like a puzzle, if Jack could keep his impatience under control for a few days… "How much time will you give me?"
 
"Six minutes."
 
"Can you make that hours?"
 
"Nope." Jack nodded towards a huge windowed wall. "Outside awaits. First, let's see if we can find out where in this world we are." But Jack slipped his hand around Daniel's wrist, almost an apology. "Come."
 
They approached the window as half the glass wall slid open, revealing a wide open exit to the outside world. Glancing back at the columns, vowing to get Jack to give him extra time here, Daniel turned back to his team as together they moved, stepping out into the yard nearly as one, their guard up and their weapons held chest high. Jack turned a full 360, but nothing caught his eye. There was no movement anywhere but in the leaves of a few flowering trees.
 
"It is indeed peaceful here."
 
"Calm before the storm." Jack lowered his P90, but his tension didn't ease.
 
The team walked the short path down to the lake. The water was sparkling green, shimmering white where it caught the sun's rays. "That's…odd," Jack stated slowly.
 
"What?"
 
"The sun. It's in exactly the same position as we saw it an hour ago from the other room."
 
"Days must be long here, Jack."
 
"Right. Must be that." For some reason, Jack couldn't completely convince himself.
 
"Um…"
 
SG-1 followed Daniel's hand as he pointed to the right of Jack's foot. There, at the base of a large tree, was what looked to be a fishing line.
 
"Well well well. This place is getting better and better all the time." Jack lifted the thin bough that sufficed for a rod; attached to it was a long rope, the end of which was submerged several meters out into the water.
 
"Looks like you're not the only one who likes fishing, sir." Off in the distance, sitting on the banks, Carter pointed to three more men, apparently fishing as well. "Maybe you can talk to them, Daniel?"
 
"I can try." But inwardly something blocked his belief that he would have any more luck with them than with the indoor inhabitants or the Jaffa. As he started to head in their direction, he heard a shout from Jack.
 
"Whoa!" The line was wiggling, and Teal'c was helping O'Neill reel - or tug - it in.
 
"Oh my God, that's huge!" Carter gaped, her eyes wide.
 
"Indeed it is."
 
"Look at that!" Jack grinned at the sight of a twenty-two-inch fish - didn't know what sort it was - struggling to release itself from the line's grip. "Anyone want fish for supper tonight?" Did they trust alien fish?
 
"I hope not, Jack. Might be a while before you catch one."
 
"Daniel, what the hell do you call this?" Jack held the now unmoving trophy in his hands.
 
"I call that one hell of a large pottery shard."
 
Jack looked up sharply. "Very funny." But the look on Daniel's face… well, it wasn't humourous. Carter was still gaping, and Teal'c was doing his best to look puzzled. "Teal'c?"
 
"Perhaps Daniel Jackson calls them pottery shards, O'Neill. I believe the term I would use is arrowhead."
 
"What?" three voices chimed.
 
Carter broke in, her face a picture of disbelief and confusion. She had no idea which of her teammates had thought up this game or whether it had been a practical joke at her expense alone, but she wouldn't play along…for too long. "I think you've caught a delicious dry cell battery there, Colonel."
 
"What the hell are you talking about?" Jack's words were not only aimed at Carter, but at his archaeologist and Jaffa. He looked back down at the fish. "But quit it. Shame to throw it back in, seeing as it died for us."
 
There was silence as three teammates glanced nervously at one another, and then at Jack.
 
"What?" The team leader asked, his annoyance growing.
 
"Jack, this isn't funny."
 
Jack looked at his fish, then at Daniel, and back at his fish. "So quit playing games."
 
"Okay," Daniel said slowly. "Okay. We're on an alien planet and you've just caught a pottery shard -"
 
"Battery."
 
"Arrowhead."
 
"- so if you're pulling my leg here - and I don't know when you three got together to think this up - I'd really really like you to stop." Daniel's eyes were nearly pleading, unspoken signals informing his teammates that back on Earth this might have been funny… but they were not on Earth, and 64000 light years into the galaxy, games could be dangerous.
 
Jack saw the look of confusion - and hurt - on Daniel's face, and the growing alarm on Carter's. "You're serious?"
 
Now Daniel's eyes grew even wider. "That's a pottery shard. If I had to place it, I'd say Greco-Roman, circa 300 AD."
 
"How can this be, Daniel Jackson? I have seen these stone weapons on the Tau'ri world. You taught me to call them arrowheads."
 
"Damn. I see a twenty-inch flounder. Or facsimile thereof."
 
Three concerned faces turned to Sam, who looked unwell.
 
"Carter?"
 
"It may not say 'Duracell', but I know positive and negative terminals when I see them. Sir."
 
"O-kay," Jack dropped the thing at the base of the tree as if he'd been burned, then rubbed his palms on his fatigues. "What the hell's going on?"
 
But all that ensued was more silence.
 
"Back inside, everyone. We're heading back to the gate."
 
"Jack?"
 
"Daniel, if the four of us can't even agree on a fish, who knows what else is going on in our brains." And Jack turned, heading back towards the building from which they'd come, the rest of the team close - very close - behind.
 
The staff blast came from nowhere.
 
It shattered the internal peacefulness, the cry of a teammate exploding in their hearts. Jack swung around to see Daniel on the ground in the arms of Carter, her horrified expression aghast with shock. Daniel was shaking with pain, the hole in his upper chest still smoking.
 
"God damn it." The horror had dulled his senses for only a fraction of a moment, as Jack swung his P90 around, seeing no one. Teal'c was already scouring the vicinity, standing in protection over his downed teammate. Daniel's face was contorted with the agony of a scorched chest and throat, as he lay half in Carter's lap, trying unsuccessfully to catch his breath. He was dying, and they all knew it.
 
"I see no one." Teal'c's voice was low, fury underlying his outward calm.
 
Sam's face was strained with shock and emotion, as she stared down at Daniel cradled in her lap. She knew she was a sitting duck out there, but had no incentive to move. Things were happening in a blur, a slow-motion world in which she wanted only to dissolve. This wasn't happening, couldn't happen to Daniel, not again…
 
Jack stole a moment for a quick glance at Daniel, his peripheral vision still scouting the area for the root of the danger. His archeologist was losing consciousness, and though Jack knew logically there was nothing they could do for him, his heart told him they had to do something immediately. But the threat had to be taken care of, or the rest of his team could be next.
 
Carter's cry couldn't have been predicted. "There!" Sam freed up a hand and reached out for the rock at her heels, grasping it in her palm. Out in the open and otherwise unarmed, her real weapon hanging forgotten at her side, Jack suspected she was in shock.
 
"Carter! What the hell do you intend to do, throw that th - " And then Jack saw it too, a single fully-armoured Jaffa, and the sudden multiple bursts from his P90 bounced off the warrior's chest plate.
 
But it was the rock in Carter's hand that blasted their adversary into the ground.
 
O'Neill swung his gaze back to the major, as Teal'c scanned the area for further threats. What the hell?
 
"Jesus." Hail, Dorothy. Jack dropped to the ground by his badly injured friend. "God. Daniel." Where had he seen this before? Twice now, but the first time Daniel had died immediately. Three, but on the Nox world Jack had been too dead to see Daniel go down.
 
Crap. Of all the goddamned hells he never wanted to revisit, this had to be the worst. "Daniel." And his voice was as scorched as the hole in Daniel's jacket. As Daniel's hand weakly reached up, Jack caught it in his own.
 
Carter was holding onto the archaeologist, his head in her lap, as she brushed her hand through his hair. Tears were falling freely on her cheeks, and she said nothing more.
 
Daniel's eyes held the deep raw panic of pain and sorrow, his breathing thick and laboured. There was no sarcophagus this time. No… "Jack…" He clenched his eyes shut again and stiffened. It hurt too much to talk.
 
"Don't." Jack's free hand was on Daniel's cheek. "This time you're coming with us." To die with the knowledge that you're among friends. His own agonized eyes met Carter's wet ones, her expression a mixture of intense confusion and determination. "Let's get him home."
 
But Carter was holding the rock over Daniel's head now.
 
"Carter! What the hell are you doing?" Reaching out automatically to grab it away, Jack pulled his hand back sharply.
 
The rock was lighting up with a rich golden-white heat, flowing downwards.
 
And the wound started to heal.
 
Bewildered, Jack could do nothing but gape, and watch...for a minute, two, three...
 
His hand was still on Daniel's leg as the younger man slowly sat up, eyes wide and mouth open, flustered, distressed, and immensely grateful. Nothing hurt any more. Daniel had no words as his eyes met Sam's. After staring at her for what seemed like a full minute, her own eyes bright with confusion and emotion, he pulled her into a tight hug.
 
Jack stared at the two of them, entwined, Carter's cheeks still wet and Daniel's eyes wide open in stunned disbelief. Jack could see him shaking. He looked down at the rock Carter had dropped; just some lump of granite, gray and dead. What the hell had just happened?
 
"I believe there is no further threat." The words of a returning Teal'c brought them all back to the moment, and Daniel let go his grip on the woman who had just saved him from death. "The warrior was alone. It appears he was once a slave of Cronus."
 
"Cronus is long dead." Jack's voice sounded flat. The emotions still permeating his entire being were too fresh and strong to dispel.
 
"Indeed. This must have been a misguided Jaffa seeking to spy on the rebels." He looked deeply at Carter, who had eliminated this hateful warrior in one swift move, no Tau'ri weapon at the ready. "He is no more." Teal'c gazed down upon Daniel Jackson, now sitting up on his own, a disturbing scarred hole in his jacket but no other signs of injury. Teal'c had not witnessed the healing.
 
A disturbed uneasiness settled on the group, two members still kneeling on the ground beside a now seated Daniel. The ugly burn in his clothing attested to the fact that this had not been imagined. As for Daniel, the fresh memory of the pain lingered unforgivingly in all the cells of his body.
 
"Carter? Care to explain what just happened?" Jack's tone had taken on the air of suspicion.
 
"I…sir, I…no. I just …I saw the ribbon device sitting there, and I knew I had to use it." She bit down on a twitching lip, anguished eyes falling upon Daniel. "And then it became a healing device."
 
"It's a rock, Carter."
 
Her perplexed, disoriented emotions kept her from responding, but her eyes went wide as she stared at her CO. What could she say that would make any sense?
 
"Teal'c?"
 
"It is indeed a healing device, O'Neill."
 
Daniel had been too preoccupied with staying alive and concealing his agony to have noticed what Sam had picked up, and he looked at it now for the first time. "A polished stone. With Norse runes." Reaching out to take it from the ground where it had dropped from Sam's hand, he turned it right-side up. "Peace of mind," he read. Noticing other such stones scattered behind Sam, Daniel slowly stood, his two teammates finally relinquishing their protective, unintentional hold on his various limbs. He reached down to pick up two more of the shiny objects. "Energy. Good will. These are either wisdoms, or blessings." He knelt down to turn over a few more. "Trust. Sharing. Companionsh -"
 
"Daniel."
 
"…ip. What?" The archaeologist glanced up to see his teammates staring, but their expressions held no comfort.
 
"You're just holding rocks."
 
"Healing devices. Why are there so many?" Sam's voice wavered. What were they doing there in the first place? She had been too dazed with Daniel's injury to even have wondered about that moments ago, or cared.
 
"Let's get out of here." Jack stood, making sure his entire team was right behind him. "We ought to be safe inside." They already knew what was in that building.
 
Or did they?
 
As Jack stepped through the wide windowed doorway that parted to allow them through, his teammates only a step behind, it was apparent that something was definitely wrong.
 
"Where'd the columns go?" Jack stopped abruptly, his teammates all inside the room, just barely.
 
"And the people?" Daniel was beside him now, so close they touched shoulders.
 
Instead of the roomful of people working at their wares, and where columns of hieroglyphs had previously stood majestically holding up the ceiling, there was a huge roomful of colourful flowers, glittering jade walls, and a path of sand-coloured bricks.
 
But the singing was what shocked them the most.
 
From doorways on all sides of the room, and from behind tall flowers, stepped very small women and men, all humming in childlike voices. Approaching the stunned travellers, the foremost one bowed to Jack. "We welcome you to Munchkin Land," he sang.
 
"Oh, come on!" Jack swung sharply around to face his team. "This isn't…!" But other than adamantly shaking his head, he seemed devoid of the ability to protest. Or to think, for that matter. "Huh?"
 
"Sir?" Carter was still staring at the little people, all marching and dancing along that sandy path…creamy brick road…."I definitely can't explain this, sir."
 
"Uh… maybe I can." Daniel's expression was a combination of disbelief, wonder, surprise, and sudden insight. Jack wasn't sure how the man managed that all at once, but that wasn't the main problem to be figured out here at the moment. "Sam… what's the thing you most want to accomplish off world?"
 
"Finding technology to help us in our fight against the Goa'uld." The response was almost mechanical, so often rehearsed.
 
"Teal'c? What about you?"
 
But they all knew the answer to that. "To free my people."
 
"All the Jaffa, right?"
 
"Indeed."
 
"And I want to meet peaceful, happy cultures, get to know them."
 
Carter cut in. "Don't forget finding new languages and artifacts."
 
"Right. Like columns of hieroglyphs."
 
"So, what're you saying? That each of us -"
 
"Found exactly what we would hope for on a mission."
 
Our own personal hells? "Then something got screwed up, Daniel. There's no way in hell any of us want you to get blasted with a staff weapon!"
 
"But I did once, and you couldn't save me that time."
 
"I couldn't save you this time!"
 
"You would have, if Sam hadn't."
 
"How?"
 
"I have no idea." But then he smiled. "The Good Witch of the North?"
 
"Oh, for crying out… I would never ever want you to be hit with a staff blast again, Daniel!" Witnessing it twice was already three times too many.
 
"But maybe your subconscious still needs to save me, Jack."
 
As Jack's face went stiff, Teal'c cut in. "Nor have I ever wished for a teammate to be injured in my fight against the Goa'uld, Daniel Jackson."
 
"But… you do want final revenge against Cronus, right Teal'c?" The Goa'uld who had killed his father had loomed at the core of Teal'c's hatred since childhood.
 
"I have had my revenge."
 
"With one final good-bye gift." Daniel kept his gaze upon Teal'c. "And Sam wants to be able to use technology to aid others."
 
"Not the ribbon device, Daniel."
 
"Weapons against the Goa'uld, Sam." Daniel reminded her gently.
 
"It was a damn rock," Jack corrected him.
 
"Obviously not."
 
"What about you, Daniel? You wanted to practically die out there?"
 
"Of course not. Maybe I…" Daniel hesitated; he had no idea. This was a loophole in his theory. "Just had a role to play? Wanted to die with friends this time? Needed to help all of you out?"
 
For Daniel would do anything for anybody.
 
"You're saying we could have dreamt up anything, and no one came up with beaches and palm trees? What's the matter with you people?" Jack shook his head in semi-feigned disgust.
 
"Um... that sounds like what I'm saying. More or less. It's a guess, Jack."
 
"So. Let's pretend you're right, Daniel. We all got bits of what we wanted. How? Why? And?"
 
"And, and… and… I don't know." He bit his lip, unsure about anything more.
 
"Daniel?" Carter frowned; she realized where this might be leading, as unimaginable - or unreasonable - as it was. "What are you thinking?" she urged, knowing intuitively there was more to his theory.
 
"Okay. Okay; whatever is guiding this planet somehow reached into our minds to create our own little private worlds. A sort of wish list. Okay, with, um, some misunderstandings along the way. Or something." He shrugged; he didn't have it all worked out yet, that much was obvious. Maybe even hallucinated wishes don't come without trials and tribulations. Maybe one has to earn them, even in pretense.
 
"And it reached into my mind and came up with Munchkin Land?"
 
"Well, The Wizard of Oz, anyway. Where the fishing's good. Yes, I'd say that's about it." He sucked in his lip for a moment, knowing how freakish that idea sounded. "Anyone have a better explanation?"
 
"Oy." So if that was his undiscovered private dream-wish, his past team wish would be… would have been… saving Daniel, those times? Jack had to ponder that, but not for long. Had he had one wish on Apophis's ship, he knew what it would have been.
 
Sam shook her head. "Daniel…, we all saw equipment in some of the rooms, Jaffa in others, -"
 
"Who completely ignored everyone but Teal'c."
 
"And we all saw inhabitants in the rest of the rooms. Why did we each see different things in that healing device, or when the Colonel caught his… um, fish?"
 
"Battery-operated ancient fish artifact," Jack mumbled, then shrugged in apology at the apathetic looks. "Sorry. Go on."
 
"Because…" Maybe Daniel hadn't figured that out yet, but Teal'c picked up where he left off.
 
"Did I not take point through the doorways to the Jaffa chambers, Major Carter? And when Daniel Jackson took the lead, we encountered rooms full of local inhabitants." Teal'c had his teammates' complete and total attention. "The only room O'Neill entered first was this one, as we approached from the garden."
 
"A-annnd," Daniel could see where this was going, "we all went through to the outside together, didn't we? Until then, we'd been creating our own mini Utopias, and then we had to somehow mingle our separate versions together. Which is perhaps why it got screwed up on the way back. No one created that reality alone. We work together cohesively pretty much all the time, just as when you had to, uh, help me, back there. Maybe those runes were trying to tell us something."
 
"Wait a minute Daniel - " Sam caught her breath, and then Daniel's sleeve. "Didn't you stop for a second? I remember stepping out just ahead of you."
 
Staring at her, Daniel nodded. "I looked back at the hieroglyphed columns."
 
"And then you were the one caught in the… glitch." Jack really hadn't liked the idea that his need to make things right had caused Daniel this most recent pain.
 
"Or I caused it," Daniel smiled apologetically.
 
"So you're saying that if we go back outside and Carter walks back in here first, the room will be filled with equipment?"
 
"Yes. Should we try?"
 
Slowly O'Neill nodded. He wanted to do just that. "You three go out. I'll stay here."
 
And that was what they did, three members of SG-1 leaving together, with Carter taking the lead back in.
 
Jack watched them re-enter, not trying to mask his curiosity. The creamy brick road stayed put, along with the singing Munchkins. But the uneasy look of almost not-surprise in his teammates faces told Jack that the surrealism hadn't ended. "What? No machinery?"
 
"Indeed, O'Neill. There is machinery."
 
"Instead of flowers, Jack. But we, um, I still see Munchkins."
 
"Same here, sir. What about you?"
 
"No machines. Flowers, yes. Nothing changed when you came through."
 
"Yes it did, Jack."
 
"No it didn't."
 
"Yes it did."
 
"Oy."
 
Four members of SG-1 stared around them, uncertain what to do next.
 
"So what is the reality here, Daniel?" Jack waited, hands nervously tapping his P90.
 
"I have absolutely no idea."
 
"Perhaps some of this equipment is real, O'Neill, and is causing the effects we have experienced. Or perhaps it is malfunctioning."
 
"We have no way of knowing, Teal'c," Sam pointed out. Studying this place could take a lifetime, with nowhere to begin.
 
"Then let's get back to the gate." This time, there was no disagreement. "You take point, Daniel. I like the friendly aliens you've conjured up." Jack pondered the scenarios; of all that they'd seen, Daniel's version of things was the most peaceful. Carter hoped for weapons, Teal'c hoped for an army. And he - well, he wanted fish, apparently. Or a planet with green witches, wizards, and tornadoes. Good thing those characteristics hadn't been scooped from his mind.
 
Through all the rooms they wandered, passing busy, cheerful people, with Daniel in the lead. All smiled, but none spoke. Along the way they met no Jaffa, and saw no rooms filled with equipment. Daniel's Shangri-la, thought Jack, inwardly smiling. Nice. Gotta get him to think more of fish, though.
 
As they approached the gate, Daniel hit the chevrons on the DHD. The wormhole flung outwards -
 
And then SG-1 looked at each other, wondering what the hell they were doing in the infirmary.
 
"Finally!" the relieved voice of Doctor Warner rang through the room. "Doctor Fraiser, they seem to be coming 'round."
 
What? Jack scowled at the room, his mind a muddled lump of confusion. He sat up on the bed, wondering at the leads attached to his chest and head. Daniel was on the bed to his right, pushing himself upright; he was wired up as well. "Daniel?" Jack queried, irritation giving way to worry.
 
Daniel gaped at him. "Jack?"
 
"What's the last thing you remember?"
 
"Um, dialling Earth from the gate on 405." Daniel's face twisted up in confusion; he hated when this sort of thing happened. But if he was going crazy, he was in good company. His stunned eyes held Jack's, recognizing in them a similar state of mild panic.
 
"Right. Me too. Carter?"
 
"Same here, sir." Sam was sitting up on a bed of her own, fingering the cables that connected her with the ECG and EEG machines. Other than those three words, the astrophysicist was silent.
 
"Dialling the gate on 405?" Janet appeared puzzled. "Colonel? What happened to all of you?"
 
"That's what I'd like to know. One minute we were dialling home, and the next we wake up here."
 
"Uh, no, Colonel. That isn't what happened; you haven't been to P3X 405."
 
"Janet?" Carter's tone was filled with questions.
 
Turning first to the female member of SG-1 and then to the men, Janet realized none of them had any more answers than she did. "Sam, Colonel… when you went up the ramp, the moment you got close to the event horizon you all stopped and froze. You've been here in a trance all afternoon. We couldn't wake you."
 
There was a long, tense moment of silence, finally broken by Daniel. "We never left?"
 
"No, Daniel."
 
"Oy."
 
Now five people were batting looks back and forth, a game of eye tennis. Janet Fraiser had the oddest feeling that she was the ball.
 
"So…," Daniel volunteered.
 
"Why would someone screw with our minds from here? How?"
 
"For information?" Daniel suggested.
 
Carter nodded. "Or their entertainment?"
 
Jack's eyes narrowed, and he scowled. "What, you think someone was playing a practical joke? Monitoring us? How? We were here and the iris was closed."
 
"However, we were enticed with subliminal visions via the MALP, and then not allowed through," Teal'c reminded them.
 
"Maybe they scanned our minds and decided we're too... primitive?" Sam surmised, cringing. She knew how much they all hated the term.
 
"I don't think that's it, Sam." The ensuing pause was not intended to irritate, as Daniel formed his thoughts. But he knew his team wanted theories, if not answers, and they were waiting. "Maybe it was meant for our entertainment."
 
"I'm not following you, Daniel." Sam frowned at the floor, then back at her teammate.
 
"Chance at Paradise," was all Daniel said.
 
"Like what, a Utopian vacation?" Resort Utopian Hell, build your own holiday. Get your plans straight or watch a friend damn near die.
 
"Exactly." Daniel bit his lip.
 
"No. I still don't get why you'd be injured."
 
"Maybe whoever programmed the thing didn't see that as a bad thing. Knowing I'd survive," Daniel shrugged. "And maybe there's nothing beyond that gate to find, which is why the MALP video sent back nothing. Maybe it's just a small room with some laser projection device…or something," he added when Jack's face scrunched up even more. "I know it's far-fetched, but -"
 
"We have encountered unusual devices before," Teal'c helped him out, silently agreeing with the possibility, at least.
 
"Or," Jack had that look he got when no one knew whether to take him seriously, "maybe the MALP was really sending back signals of it's own version of Utopian Holidays. You know," he continued, "blank? MALPs have no imagination."
 
"MALP Utopia?" For some reason, Jack thought Daniel didn't look convinced. "So no matter how many times we send it through, it'll never see what we might see." Daniel slowly nodded his head. "I can buy that."
 
"You can?" Jack's eyebrows lifted.
 
Carter's eyes grew wide and excited. "Colonel, even if there's nothing in that room to find, whoever created the technology is definitely very highly advanced."
 
"Or just into high tech entertainment systems. Give Panasonic a few years," Jack retorted. "We can't go back, Carter, if the gate won't let us."
 
"So-o," Janet said a little too loudly, as she removed the last of the wires from Sam. "As there's nothing wrong with you people - as far as I can tell at the moment, anyway - it seems to me the rest of this discussion ought to be in the presence of General Hammond."
 
"You are so right," Jack grinned, quickly shifting up off the bed, pulling off his own electrodes and ripping off the scattered bits of tape. He looked innocently at Daniel's frown. "What? It feels good to be able to say that to someone."
 
Daniel watched as Sam and Teal'c followed the colonel to the door. "Jack wants to go to Munchkin Land," he whispered to Janet, not quietly enough.
 
Jack stopped in the doorway. "So, you want to knit sweaters."
 
"No, I didn't say…. oh forget it."
 
Jack turned and grinned at him. That aura of comfort surrounding Daniel was not quite showing through in this environment. "Well, back to reality, Daniel. The real planet - and it has to exist somewhere - doesn't belong in any of our Shangri-las. Not if it's a locked white room, anyway."
 
"Actually, Jack, it is kind of Sam's world. That race must be highly technological if they can have our minds project our own visions and connect us all to each other like that." The runes played at the back of his mind. Were those just his own imagination, or were they trying to tell them something?
 
"Wait a minute, Carter… weren't you the first one in the control room when that gate activated? When you sent the MALP, you didn't happen to think up a world where the technology extends to hallucinogenically-induced holidays, did you?"
 
"Jack, you're not thinking that Sam was the initiator of the idea of a wish-fulfilled environment, are you?"
 
"I don't know, Daniel; who was at the helm when the MALP went through? Who was closest to that event horizon when we almost went through?"
 
No voices responded, as suspicious looks were delivered in Sam's direction.
 
A flustered Carter was trying not to let her nervousness show. "Guys… I did not create that reality!"
 
"Shall we go observe the video tapes, O'Neill?"
 
"Colonel!" Sam's tone was escalating in desperation.
 
"Relax, Carter. We're teasing."
 
"Oh."
 
"Sort of."
 
"Maybe we should take another look at those tapes though." That was Daniel. "They might reveal something."
 
"I think so."
 
Sam watched with strangely inexplicable feelings of guilt as her three teammates departed, then turned and exchanged startled looks with Janet. "My wish-world?" she whispered, and rushed after them to refute whatever evidence the cameras might possibly reveal.
 
Behind her, Janet sighed. Technicians had been going over those tapes for hours. No clues to SG-1's situation had turned up.
 
Unless, of course, it was aimed solely at SG-1…? Janet rolled the tray table aside and set off after them, just in case the team happened to lapse once more into a state of hypnotic trance.
 
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