Pioneers of the Industry

  

by Travelling One  

Email: travelling_one@yahoo.ca

Web: http://www.travellingone.com/

Summary: SG1 may have found all the Goa'uld-fighting equipment they could possibly want... but who will know if they can't stay alive long enough to contact Earth?

Related episodes: Broca Divide, Cure, Torment of Tantalus

Season: 7

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

December/03

 

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

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Jack's fingers drumming the tabletop were definitely getting on her nerves. How the hell could he be bored? This could turn out to be one of their most impor...

 

"I don't get it, Carter. I thought gate addresses were always seven points in space. Except for other galaxies, and those are eight…"

 

"They are, Colonel. Six points plus the point of origin." So at least he'd been thinking about it. At least he'd been listening.

 

"Major Carter, can you explain?"

 

Sam shook her head. "General, I don't understand it myself. Something is happening before the seventh chevron can even be entered."

 

"Then how come the wormhole's connecting to another gate, Sam?"

 

Carter let out a frustrated breath. Why, indeed. There practically seemed to be a homing device at that other end, locking and connecting after only six chevrons had engaged. The same result happened each and every time they'd tried to dial up since the cold dialling system had located this planet less than a month after the technicians had originally tried the address.

 

"I can't think of any distance factor that could be overridden or otherwise compensated for," Carter thought out loud, "but it's almost as though the inhabitants were trying to shortcut the process of dialling up."

 

"And it worked?" Jack exclaimed in astonishment. "They know how to do that?"

 

Carter smiled in relief at the CO's renewed interest, but the drumming hadn't stopped. Maybe all this time... "Actually, sir, I think they know a lot of things. Knew, that is. We've already done a preliminary study of the environment, and there seems to be highly advanced technology in the room the MALP gated to. The equipment there shows amazing potential for study…" Carter flipped to the next slide, then the next.

 

"So we go? Any indication of hostiles or who the toys might belong to?"

 

Thank you, sir! "I don't believe anyone inhabits the place any more, Colonel. The air's rather thin and the gravity is lower than what we're used to. Atmospheric pressure is adequate and stable but the temperature seems to be a bit cool for human comfort."

 

Jack's eyes narrowed. "So, slightly non-human?"

 

"I don't think so, sir. I think that whoever was there left when some natural catastrophe hit the planet. Their atmosphere has been altered."

 

"But the equipment is of a high technology?"

 

"It would suggest that, General."

 

"What's that green stuff?" Each successive slide showed it; the atmosphere in the room did indeed, if one looked very closely, seem to be tinted green.

 

"I have no idea, Colonel. It's possibly being emitted from one of the machines; maybe it was a form of lighting. There's no indication of radiation or contamination. And… there's more, sir." Carter studied the now intense and curious faces around her, faces waiting to discover what she possibly could not have told them yet. "We know this gate wasn't from the cartouches Daniel found on Abydos, it was on the list Colonel O'Neill uploaded into the system from the knowledge of the Ancients. Sirs… the coordinates are untraceable; they not only seem to indicate that this planet is in our galaxy, it appears to be in an area of our own solar system, which is impossible…. unless there's a planet we haven't found yet, or… um," she paused, clearing her throat. "It's been cloaked."

 

"What? Now that's impossible."

 

"Yes sir. The most logical explanation is that the coordinates of the planet were intentionally altered so no one could find it. It could be anywhere."

 

"Sam, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Excitement was growing in Daniel's body language.

 

"I think I'm thinking what you're thinking," Jack interrupted.

 

"As am I." Teal'c had long ago learned how to take part in Tau'ri conversations, although he had yet to get the wording down pat.

 

"Well, we have no reason to believe this is the Lost City we've been looking for, but it definitely has mystery surrounding it, and I'm guessing the equipment up there has something to do with that."

 

O'Neill looked over at General Hammond, sitting at the head of the table. "General?"

 

Hammond looked thoughtfully at the astrophysicist. "You're certain the environment is safe, Major?"

 

"The readings indicate it will be a lot like walking halfway up Everest, sir. We'll have to take warm clothing. And we'll need oxygen which could be monitored to adapt gradually to the levels in the room. We should be able to wean ourselves from it within a couple of days."

 

O'Neill snickered. Had his smartass scientist just asked for at least forty-eight hours in that playroom? "Let's not forget the lead weights in our boots." Didn't she say substandard gravity, as well? Could be fun.

 

Hammond stared at the team for a moment before speaking. "I'll let you have a go, Colonel. Bring plenty of oxygen, whatever supplies you need for at least forty-eight hours, and a naquadah reactor."

 

"I thought telemetry showed a DHD? Why the reactor, General?"

 

"Just in case, Colonel."

 

Sam cut in. "And we might be able to use it to jumpstart some of that equipment, sir."

 

"Doesn't anyone think the fact that the wormhole keeps engaging with only six chevrons might be kind of important?" Daniel asked slowly, not feeling quite at ease with this yet.

 

"For some reason, it's able to extract or home in on the gate of origin, Daniel. I don't think it would be a problem for us getting there or back. If it doesn't continue to engage with six chevrons, all we have to do is enter the seventh."

 

"See what you can come up with, SG1. Mission at 1500 hours, people."

 

_____

 

"Oh wow."

 

Carter had just wired the string of low wattage artificial lighting up to the naquadah reactor. The view before them now revealed a room the size of an indoor sports arena, a huge warehouse, the ceiling perhaps the equivalent of fourteen storeys above their heads. The massive equipment filling the hall consisted of at least eighteen double tank-sized machines; some smaller equipment was possibly concealed beyond the less visible pieces of crafted metallic workmanship. So far, from what they could tell, no doors were in evidence, but an elevator-like device, transparent and cylindrical, wove its way up to the platform and catwalk just below the ceiling. A tall narrow staircase rose alongside it. Various balconies, overhanging protrusions, and narrow walkways seemed to run the perimeter of the building on alternating levels. In the vastness of the space and with the limited lighting, the highest reaches were nearly in total darkness. The dusty faded greenness was coming from somewhere, yet permeating the atmosphere.

 

"Sir, it could take me… well… longer than our allotted two days to study all this," Carter commented suggestively through the mask and oxygen tubing covering her nose and mouth.

 

"Uh, same here."

 

Daniel was off to one side, and O'Neill turned to see him gazing upward. There, above Daniel's head, swirled drab holographic floating… shapes. At his feet stood a small DHD-like device - which the scientist had apparently already engaged.

 

"That looks familiar."

 

"Why would they put this at the base of the stargate unless it was … um…?" Daniel faltered in his thoughts.

 

"A map of this place?"

 

"No, I was thinking more like a welcome message." Daniel just gazed in awe.

 

"See what you two can come up with in the next forty-eight hours, okay?" While Jack knew his team needed more time…. likely much more time… than the allotted two days, he was not willing to stay that long in this piteously dismal and uninvitingly cold environment. But he knew they'd win, they always did. Their standing orders were to find technology… and all that, and this looked like it might be just the place they'd been searching for.

 

"Sir, I'd like to call home for some portable generators…"

 

"I want my laptop." Daniel roamed around the device, glancing upward.

 

"Okay, make a list of what you need and dial up. Carter, how long before we can we take these things off?" Jack waved his hand around his air mask. The canister strapped to his back was less heavy here than on Earth, and so was he. Weighted boots were being made available should they call home with the request, but according to Carter the atmosphere, being so close to normal, created enough air resistance to counteract most of the gravity differential. What the heck; the equipment had no problem staying put and all he had to get used to was a bit of a lighter, more carefree step.

 

"I don't advise it until later tomorrow, sir. We'll have to adjust the oxygen levels gradually."

 

"Super. Should be fun to sleep in these." He turned around, ready to dial home. "Whoa." Jack caught his breath. "Carter? Carter!"

 

The others turned, witnessing for themselves what had Jack so worked up. The gate they had walked through not more than ten minutes ago was smaller than normal, and very very smooth. No glyphs were on it; nothing at all. "Crap! Carter?"

 

"O'Neill." Teal'c was standing by the DHD; this, too, had nothing engraved on its circumference.

 

"Not a problem getting us home, Carter?" Jack growled.

 

"I… I had no way of knowing, sir…"

 

And as Daniel and the others stared gaping, Teal'c pressed the central dome of this unusual DHD. The vortex flashed to life.

 

Jack spun around. "How'd you do that?"

 

"This dial-home-device is operational, O'Neill."

 

"Where did it dial to, Teal'c?"

 

"Of that I am uncertain, Daniel Jackson."

 

And the four teammates continued to gape into the water-like surface of the event horizon. Then as suddenly as it had appeared, the blue ripple vanished, leaving nothing but empty space.

 

"Okay… what was that?"

 

"I had removed my hand, O'Neill."

 

Jack stared blankly at the Jaffa. "Okay, then press it again."

 

Teal'c pressed the dome, once again drawing forth an almost immediate rippling wormhole.

 

The voice startled each of the staring figures. "Please identify yourselves."

 

"General?" Jack strode over to peer into the MALP's lens. "It's SG1, sir. Is that you?"

 

"Colonel O'Neill? We'll open the iris and turn on the MALP telemetry to P3X 010." A moment's pause and sounds of a keyboard clicking, then, "We're picking up your visuals, Colonel. What have you got? Did you just dial in a few moments ago?"

 

"Uh, affirmative, General, that was us. The gate here has no symbols on it, but for some reason the DHD connected directly to Earth."

 

"Major Carter? Care to explain?"

 

"Sir, I think that maybe this gate was pre-set to dial the last incoming planet, just as the seventh symbol was automatically picked up at our end. Short cuts, sir. These people likely used their gate a lot and wanted to get in and out quickly."

 

"A last-number redial button?" Daniel muttered, only Teal'c near enough to hear. "How would they have gated to anywhere new?"

 

"Perhaps this was a secondary device," came Teal'c quiet offering. "Or one of several."

 

Daniel looked up at him sharply. "Then they completely manipulated the entire stargate system!"

 

Carter continued. "This gate has been manufactured presumably by these inhabitants, General. It's smaller than most, more like the one the Tollans built."

 

"Are you saying you've accessed a former Tollan world? Colonel?"

 

"Can't say yet, General. Daniel found a holographic device like the one on the planet that Ernest Littlefield was rescued from, sir. This place could have been built by anyone."

 

"But not by the Goa'uld?"

 

"Not too likely, sir," Sam responded. "We don't think the Goa'uld knew about this planet. If you recall, sir, it wasn't on our primary list from Abydos."

 

"So what's your assessment, Colonel?"

 

"General," Daniel cut in, "we'd like a few extra days here."

 

"Daniel?!" Jack slapped his teammate on the arm.

 

"Jack, there's no point in getting acclimated to the air in here and then just picking up and leaving right away. When we come back we'd have to start all over again."

 

"Oy." Daniel was right, Daniel was always right, and Jack knew his scientists had far better reasons for staying than he had for leaving.

 

"Colonel?" Hammond sounded impatiently confused.

 

Jack sighed. "General, there's a ton of toys here for Carter and Daniel to play with. Requesting two additional days, sir."

 

"Sir," Carter intruded, "I'd like a few small generators,…"

 

"And a laptop," Daniel added into the MALP. "I want to input some pictures and see what I can come up with."

 

"Agreed, Doctor Jackson. Major Carter. We'll have supplies sent asap."

 

"Oh, and General,?" Jack interceded before the transmission could end, "Send another technician or engineer or two to help Carter out. There's a lot of machinery here." And maybe they can help speed things up a bit.

 

"Will do. Report in every six hours, Colonel."

 

_____

 

"Colonel, you know Lt. Dr. Joe Bardenna? He's been helping me with…"

 

"The naquadria experiments. I remember," Jack nodded.

 

"Colonel O'Neill," Bardenna held out his hand, trying not to appear nervous as he glanced around the semi-lit room, the cavernous stretches and corners bathed in blackness and shadows. Catching sight of another familiar and friendly face, he smiled. "Daniel."

 

Daniel grinned. "Told you you'd end up offworld someday."

 

"And never look back." Bardenna was apprehensively glancing around. "Not quite the way I'd pictured it."

 

"Oh, you'll grow to love it," O'Neill shot him a deceptive smile. "The rooms are already made up, meals set to eat, fresh oxygen hosed in. Best travel deal in the books."

 

Joe looked at him in uncertainty, then addressed both Daniel and Carter. "Trevor and Gavin are prepping to arrive tomorrow, Sam. Daniel, if you need help with your work, General Hammond said for you to tell him next check in and he'll send Jacovic."

 

"Yes, I might take him up on that."

 

"He wants to come, Daniel, and the general sent enough supplies through for a second team."

 

Smirking, O'Neill wondered if Hammond knew his motives for requestiong additional help, knowing his two scientists could be pried away from their work only with the right incentives. Way to go, General. Like he wanted to have to stay more than four days in this place, and General Hammond more than likely knew that. "Carter, why don't you and Daniel show the man around?"

 

For the next few hours, Carter and the lieutenant doctor had wandered the vast chamber, studying whatever looked most promising. Daniel had also been wandering, looking for anything that documented what this place may have been. He had, within the first hour, ascertained that the low hideaways were full of miniscule slides, covered with symbols, which he had already found a way to photograph and enlarge using the laptop that General Hammond had sent. It had been five hours since the team had arrived on this planet, and only Jack - and possibly Teal'c - were looking useless, not so nearly involved any longer in their fourth game of magnetic chess. Good thing he'd thought ahead; Colonel O'Neill had long ago tired of looking at the massive black paraphernalia and had settled for annoying Teal'c.

 

"It's freezing in here." Jack announced, wrapping the sleeping bag he was sitting on around his legs, themselves swathed in layers of heavyweight pile and cotton thermals. After a moment's thought he removed himself from his wrappings and stood up. Traipsing along effortlessly, his steps altered by his slight degree of weightlessness, Jack scuffled for extra warmth and padding from one of the supply bags. He let a spare blanket flutter to the ground before retrieving it; engineers Trevor Drake and Gavin Fishman could bring more with them when they came. Getting sidetracked, Jack nipped a pen from his pocket, and then his flashlight. Tossing one into the air and then the other, he caught each with ease, repeating the motions as he juggled the objects contentedly in the slightly reduced gravity.

 

"That's good, Jack. I'm glad you've found something to play with." Daniel paused from his makeshift seat a few meters away before returning to the task of deciphering the impossibly foreign symbols. He was getting nowhere. There were markings on those thin metallic slides that looked almost like the writings of the Ancients, the writing found on the planet Heliopolis - but not quite. There were diagrams and illustrations, but without any context Daniel didn't have a clue as to what he was looking at.

 

It was only a few minutes later that Jack's voice sounded over the radio transmitter. "Carter? Carter!"

 

"Sir?" Sam was somewhere across the room.

 

"I need you here."

 

"Where, sir?"

 

"By the stargate."

 

"What's up, Jack?" Daniel had by now wandered over, noting that both Teal'c and Jack were looking somewhat disturbed.

 

"The stargate won't do anything." Their six-hour check-in was due.

 

"What?" Daniel pressed the DHD's dome, but nothing happened.

 

Jack scowled. "Believe me now?"

 

"Sir? What have you got?" Carter bounded up, Bardenna at her back.

 

"The gate's not working, Carter."

 

Sam pressed the DHD. Jack's look, though partially obstructed, scorched the air.

 

"We all tried that, Sam."

 

"Maybe it's out of stored power. We have opened the gate twice already. I'll try hooking it up to the reactor."

 

Ten minutes later, having connected a generator to the lighting and the reactor to the DHD, the team was forced to admit that power was not the problem.

 

"Now what, Carter?"

 

"Uh… maybe the last call dialling spent its time limit. If we don't check in, General Hammond will dial us up and then most likely the sequence will reset itself."

 

"It's that 'most likely' part I'm not so happy with, Major."

 

"It's my theory for now, Colonel."

 

Grimacing, Jack shrugged. "Then back to work, kids. We'll let Hammond call us instead of the other way around."

 

But Hammond didn't call in.

 

Two hours later there had still been no word or attempt at communication from the SGC.

 

_____

 

"Quitting time, Carter. Daniel. Joe. Teal'c…."

 

It had been ten hours since they had arrived on this planet, making that 0100 hours Earth time. Having left Teal'c on first watch while the three scientists worked, O'Neill had already caught three hours of shut-eye. Jack could still see Bardenna by Carter's side, and wondered if the man's interest was solely in the machinery. Not that there was much to look at with an oxygen mask covering half her face and her poly fiberfill parka and hood covering most of the rest of her; that could have been Daniel for all he knew. "I'm on watch now."

 

Five minutes later Daniel came sauntering over, dropping lightly to his knees onto his sleeping bag. "I'm so not looking forward to this," he muttered, twisting his newest oxygen canister around to his left side. "Can't we take these off yet?"

 

Jack grinned; the face mask had been uncomfortable, but once asleep he had barely noticed it. "Carter says no. She's been adjusting them for us so we'll give it another day."

 

"Don't you guys ever bring along pillows?" Bardenna grumbled, stuffing an end of his sleeping bag over his pack to soften it up. "Tell me he's not sleeping." He had just noticed Teal'c sitting straightbacked and cross-legged on the outskirts of the group, eyes already closed.

 

"Welcome to SG1." Daniel's peripheral glance at Jack revealed the other man's matching grin.

 

Masks and hoses were adjusted, sleeping bags huddled into, and four remaining SGC members got used to sleeping in lightweight cocoons by the time morning had arrived in Colorado.

 

_____

 

The morning found Jack increasingly apprehensive. "No one's tried to contact us yet." Sitting hunched in front of the stargate, blowing cold mist out of his puckered lips, he rubbed his gloved hands together in restlessness.

 

"You're thinking they can't?" Daniel's expression betrayed his anxiety. "That the six chevrons won't connect from Earth any more?"

 

"Then they'll use the seventh, Daniel." Carter reassured him. "There shouldn't be a problem." So why hadn't they? Carter was determined not to let her doubt show, not yet.

 

"Not necessarily, Sam. Remember, we tried this address a few weeks ago but it was the cold dialling system that finally got through."

 

Jack was looking so much less than pleased, assessing the situation. "So whatever stopped us from connecting the first time might be happening again?"

 

Daniel fixed Jack with a disturbed stare.

 

"Will not the cold dialling program open the connection as soon as it is again ready?"

 

"No, I doubt that, Teal'c." Carter corrected.

 

"Why not?" To Daniel, this conversation just kept getting less and less enticing.

 

"Once the gate's been opened and a world contacted, it's no longer considered by the program to be an unknown destination. It won't keep dialling this address."

 

"Don't tell me we're stuck here, Carter. I so don't want to hear that."

 

"Just until General Hammond makes it through again sir. He'll keep trying."

 

"Yes, he will… and just in case, we're on half rations until we get the gate up, kids."

 

_____

 

They had all been weaning themselves from the air tanks, little by little if possibly a bit too soon. When headaches threatened to surface or the age-old dust started yet another sneezing or coughing attack, the air masks went back on for shorter and shorter periods. So far, the cold temperatures had not been debilitating and the heavy clothing had not hindered their work.

 

Having given up on extracting any significant data from the welcome message, Daniel was concentrating on some modified cuneiform he'd found, hoping against hope that this would turn out to be a Rosetta Stone of Techno-world. All he had determined so far was that something had gone as planned… or not as planned, and the inhabitants had left. Experiments had worked… or not worked; he really didn't know what those intervening words meant.

 

Sitting on a crate watching his archaeologist at work, Jack had been revelling in the new freedom of his lips, forming silent o's. Now stretching as he rose, he addressed his occupied teammate.

 

"So, how's it going?"

 

Daniel glanced up briefly. "Good… good, Jack."

 

"Getting anywhere?"

 

"Um, no. But I will be, I'm convinced of that."

 

"Oh. When?"

 

"When what?"

 

"When will you be getting somewhere?"

 

"Eventually."

 

"Eventually. And you're convinced of that."

 

"Yes, solidly convinced."

 

Jack shook his head. "Well, then. I won't keep you from getting somewhere eventually." As he stepped away, Jack's last glance was of Daniel nodding at his laptop, frowning.

 

Carter and her colleague Bardenna had already agreed that several of the machines, what with their wide tubing, pumps, lines, and valves linked throughout the structure, possibly even to the outside world, were of immense importance to the maintenance of the rest of this huge complex. Without instructions, it was going to be difficult to deduce whether or not this equipment played a role in the planet's defences, however. That part would hopefully be up to Daniel to discover. The equipment seemed to be constructed from many of the metals found on Earth, only three of them giving any evidence of the presence of either naquada or naquadria. Unable to ascertain what those machines had been used for, the two scientists had separated to search for more immediately discernible pieces of equipment… if that was at all possible.

 

"Daniel!" The call had come in from Dr. Joe Bardenna, somewhere across this vast galactic space.

 

"What do you have, Joe?" Daniel rubbed the back of his neck and stretched, speaking into his transmitter. The cuneiform was giving up no more secrets than those little holograms floating around on his computer screen.

 

Joe's voice sounded odd. Awed? Off. "Come. I'm in a room off the west corner. Past the dinosaur." While they had noticed storage compartments and a few rooms filled with smaller bits of paraphernalia off the main chamber, for now they had opted to concentrate specifically on the equipment in this giant hall. Most of the gargantuan equipment had already earned themselves nicknames.

 

Daniel walked past the dinosaur - the largest of the machinery - and stepped into the smaller room to its right. "Joe?" He could see a beam of light coming from a connecting chamber, one they had not noticed in their preliminary scouting of the complex the previous day.

 

Joe saw the surprise turn to shock in Daniel's eyes.

 

"Oh geez." Daniel took a hesitant step closer to the containment cubicles.

 

"What do you make of those, Daniel?"

 

Daniel closed his parted lips, aware finally of his gaping expression. "Neanderthal… and … and I don't know what those are. What was this place?"

 

"A lab, I'd say."

 

"They were experimenting with primitive man?" Daniel couldn't stop staring at the perfectly preserved specimens, estimating at least thirty or forty in the full-sized upright tanks, some more modern than others.

 

"I think those machines could have been for collecting and engineering DNA samples," Joe motioned to the interior of the room, where a series of ominous-looking devices sat behind exposed partitions.

 

"Asgard?" Daniel wondered out loud. He knew they'd done DNA experiments, cloning and such. But why were there so many variations of the early human species?

 

"What?" Joe wasn't following Daniel's line of thought.

 

Daniel stepped from case to case, the lifelike specimens staring back at him through their open, gleaming eyes. "Archaeologists have long known that Neanderthals and modern man overlapped in their habitation of Earth during the same time periods but in different locations for a few thousand years. We just never understood why…" Daniel's speech grew slower, drifting off with his final word. Who'd been playing with the humans on Earth? The Asgard? Was this some intragalactic space laboratory?

 

The missing link between Neanderthals and modern man. The questions asked for so long by proponents of multi-regional evolution versus those of the migration theory. The one variation of mankind that joined the species of Neanderthal to the present form of the human race. The last step in man's evolution. Why was Neanderthal DNA found to be significantly different from that of present day humans?

 

Because it had been altered? No wonder they'd never found answers to all their questions.

 

They were still here in this lab.

 

_____

 

Already two hours later, Daniel dazedly left Joe working in the lab. Noting that Carter was still occupied and deep in concentration, he went to search out Teal'c or Jack. Bardenna had managed to start up one of those small pieces of equipment, the one that looked like it might contain stored data, by using a portable generator.

 

Now, as Daniel sought out his CO to distract the man from his boredom with this amazing discovery that he'd probably find even more boring, Daniel's news was instantly forgotten.

 

"Holy crap."

 

Daniel peered up to where the exclamation had originated. It took him a moment before realizing that Jack, in the far reaches of darkness, was at the top of the stairway, a good fourteen storeys above where he stood. In this otherwise silent and cavernous chamber, the sound had carried with ease.

 

"Jack? What've you got?"

 

But the team leader remained silent, continuing to stand with his back to the room far below.

 

"Jack?"

 

Wondering if Jack could even hear him, Daniel tapped at his clipped-on radio. "Jack?"

 

"Come up here, Daniel." The voice was guarded; the subdued words were veiled in mystery.

 

"Why?"

 

But Jack gave no response.

 

Curiosity was never something Daniel had been easily able to conquer nor did he want to, and so he began the long upward climb into the shadows. "Is there a really good reason for me to be doing this, Jack?" He tried once more.

 

And still the CO said nothing.

 

"Unless there's a ring of golden elephants dancing around Santa Claus up there, you're so going to regret this," Daniel muttered as he climbed.

 

Taking the lower steps two at a time, needing to see what had his team leader so mesmerized, and arriving half out of breath after having paused twice at the final flights, Daniel reached the narrow landing where Jack was still standing staring out a small dark skylight, or porthole, at eye level in the upper wall and low angular ceiling. The man had barely moved an inch.

 

Until now.

 

Jack stepped to the side as he reached out a hand, grasped Daniel's shoulder, and pulled the archaeologist gently into the spot he himself had been occupying, directly below the slightly convex skylight. Daniel peered out the angled window into the darkness beyond.

 

"Oh my god."

 

The two men stood for a moment, saying nothing, Jack still with his hand on Daniel's shoulder.

 

"Oh my god." Daniel's focus remained pinned on the single view of the outside world. "That's Earth."

 

And this is the moon.

 

_____

 

"Colonel? Daniel? What's everyone up to?" A curious and neglected Carter was either calling from below or through the radio, or perhaps they were hearing the echoes of both.

 

The two men in question had been standing together, staring out that window onto a grayish white landscape and paint black sky, highlighted by a huge beautiful blue and white world floating not so high above. From this vantage point they could make out the South American continent.

 

"We're on the moon, Carter." Awe and stirred emotion, simplified.

 

A moment of silence ensued before the less than scientific response emerged. "The moon?"

 

"As in green cheese, man in, Sea of Tranquility, cow jumped over."

 

"But that's … but… "

 

"Exactly what I've been thinking, Carter."

 

_____

 

So this was the moon, and they were below some crater. Or something.

 

Sam's vision focussed momentarily on her internal thoughts."So this place hasn't been depleted of its natural oxygen due to some catastrophe, like I'd thought, sir; it's still filtering in air from unnatural sources!" Carter's insight was voiced excitedly. "This was never a planet whose people were forced to leave… it was never an inhabited world at all, so this machinery had to have been put here solely to benefit Earth, somehow. In which case," her eyes widened even further, "it's doing a remarkable job of stabilizing the atmosphere in here and controlling life support systems, and there's obviously some type of centrifugal system creating an artificial gravity level! This is… this is amazing, sir!"

 

Studying her face intently and absorbing these new facts, Jack gave his astrophysicist's enthusiasm a moment to settle. "Here's an idea. Why don't we just turn on all the machines in here, Carter? Hit the air quality button, heat, light, all at the same time? What do you say?"

 

"Sir, we can't. Even if we could figure out how they operate, we might trigger some mechanism that has a negative effect on Earth… its gravity or tides, for example. What if one of them controls weather, or the moon's orbit? We have to know more, sir."

 

"This must have served as a space station and been in use thousands of years ago, preceding the Egyptian revolt two thousand years ago and even the Goa'uld occupation of Babylon," Daniel ran his theories off rapidly. "The experiments indicate that someone was here at least thirty thousand years ago…"

 

"What exp…."

 

Jack was cut off by Carter's confusion. "If this equipment was already here during Babylon, Daniel, and we're right in thinking at least some of it is a defense system, why would it have taken two thousand more years for the Egyptians to have defeated the Goa'uld?"

 

Daniel tilted his head slowly, concentrating. "Maybe this is why they were defeated. This equipment was being built by the Babylonians, with the help of their alien allies! I mean, I think this place was here long before that, but they wouldn't have needed defence systems when it was first built!" Daniel jumped up, his reduced body mass landing him gently on two feet.

 

"Not quite the effect it has back home, eh?" Jack grinned smugly.

 

Ignoring him, Daniel continued. "What if," he paused, eyes lighting up, "what if Omoroca was up here helping supervise the construction of this equipment? I mean, Nem lived underwater but he certainly had some advanced technology. And I've found some cuneiform… we know Omoroca came to Earth during the days of Babylon to fight the Goa'uld. She might have transported to and from Earth using this … gate, keeping out of the Goa'uld's way until she was finally trapped by Belus!"

 

Dr. Bardenna looked on, listening. Goa'uld occupation; Babylon; Omoroca; Belus; this was all way beyond his comprehension. He'd been excited to come through the gate to another world where his skills were needed, but this he just hadn't envisioned. Was this what SG1… what all the teams… did every day? Here they were, trapped on a planet … Earth's very own moon… at the mercy of the SGC, and he was starting to wish he'd waited back at the base with Drake and Fishman. Were those two right now working on getting the gate to connect to the moon… that they didn't even know was the moon? How could SG1 be so excited, when their means of transport home was so questionable?

 

"Yeah, I always wondered how the wife of that walking sushi would have lived on Earth." Jack flicked his thumb with his forefinger. "Then again, how would she have lived here? Anyone see any water around?"

 

"They can live out of water too, Jack, for periods of time." Daniel's mind was on full speed ahead. "The writings... they said she 'came forth from the heavenly egg......' "

 

"The moon?" Sam was caught up in Daniel's enthusiasm.

 

"Yes! She walked among men by day and returned to the great sea at night."

 

""Water, Daniel."

 

"No, Jack; you said it yourself... Sea of Tranquility, or Serenity, or Cogitum - Sea of Knowledge, or whichever one is out there; I mean, we don't know exactly where we are."

 

"And there's ice under the craters at the poles, sir. I mean, we're talking thousands of years ago."

 

"Water source, Sam?" Daniel questioned. "Maybe how they powered up this equipment?"

 

"Or solar energy, Daniel."

 

"And the gate, Carter?"

 

"The gate? Oh. Oh. Uh, that's got an internal power source when connected to a DHD, independent of any generator or external power supply. This one was obviously built only as a conduit between Earth and the moon. So in fact, it's not a true stargate at all and was never meant to be one."

 

"So we're really stuck here."

 

"For what reason would the cold dialling program open the gate when we could not? And why does it refuse to open once again?" Teal'c had processed the dissertations of Daniel Jackson and Major Carter, but did not see how their tangents would aid them in getting off this natural satellite.

 

"Long shot here,"Jack looked from Carter to Daniel, "and I'm no scientist, but how could a gate work between the Earth and moon anyway? Maybe the day or two we were able to dial up was just a fluke... an anomaly?"

 

"No sir, I think what we have here is a cross between a stargate and transport rings, created to work longer distances than the rings, but to run on the same principle as the stargate. This is a true transport line between two direct points in space."

 

"So no point of origin needed."

 

"No sir. No point of origin needed."

 

"So why won't it work any more?"

 

"I have no idea, sir."

 

"None of this helps us, does it?" Bardenna anxiously stated his rhetorical question. Why the hell did the rest of these people look so calm?

 

"Oh-oh." Carter's eyes grew wide in sudden realization. Four heads turned her way, Bardenna realizing that if Carter was about to worry, things had just gone from bad to worse.

 

"Sam?" The concern in Daniel's voice was undisguised.

 

"If this air we're breathing is unnatural and has been recirculating in here for several thousand years, we could be inhaling all sorts of organisms and bacteria. Even mold spores…."

 

"Like opening a tomb or pyramid for the first time in two thousand years."

 

Jack snapped his attention to his archaeologist's face, then Carter's, grimacing. "Masks and tanks back on, everyone. ASAP," he ordered. "Have we got hazmat?"

 

"No sir, we brought the oxygen and tests didn't show up any contaminants. If there was any indication of trouble we were supposed to gate home."

 

"Alright, we'll be fine. Carter, get busy with those machines. One of them's got to be able to supply oxygen to this place."

 

"It already is, sir. That machine's obviously still working, although at reduced capacity or we'd have zero air in here. Whatever I do will just give us the same air quality, only more of it. The filtraton system has been in operation all this time, and I'd guess it's pretty worn out and clogged by now."

 

"Um, I think I'll go and try to decipher the writings, now that I know a bit of what I'm looking for," Daniel's thumb indicated the direction of his computer. "Actually, I think I'll have a more careful look around. I found a room I meant to check out this morning."

 

"Bardenna, you and Carter find the oxygen generator," Jack ordered. "And then see if it needs fixing."

 

Joe stared blankly at the colonel. Was he expected to carry out that order?

 

Daniel retrieved an oxygen canister and headed out towards the western wall, where he and Bardenna had previously discovered three small adjoining chambers and several vestibules crammed with machine parts. A few specific items had caught his attention upon preliminary investigation, and now he headed directly to one of them.

 

Gazing down upon a small base covered in dome-like bubbles that he had thought intriguing the day before, another modified version of those holographic DHDs, Daniel hesitated only briefly this time, his finger lightly skimming over the small colourful domes. Maybe he should look for data about what these colours meant before pressing anything, but… maybe this was the data. He had more faith in the Ancients' visual displays than in slides covered with undecipherable symbols. Taking a deeper breath than normal, he pressed a blue one.

 

A flicker of electrical energy pulsed out towards him forcing him backwards, sparks cascading out from the circumference of the bubble.

 

Nothing more happened.

 

"Short circuiting, you're old, I can understand that," Daniel spoke quietly to the device.

 

Reaching out tentatively this time but keeping at arm's length, Daniel pushed lightly on the small red bubble. Inhaling sharply, his eyes widened as small spherical forms shot up into the air, coming to hover and slowly rotate only inches above his head. What they represented was quickly obvious.

 

"Jack? Sam" He tapped his radio. "I've got another meaning of life hologram thing going on in here."

 

Less than two minutes later his teammates plus Bardenna were at his side.

 

"What is it, Daniel?"

 

Daniel looked upward, motioning. "Earth. Moon. Sun. Mars, Venus, Jupiter…"

 

As they watched the orbits of their own home world and its satellite, a quick beam shot out, vanishing immediately as though a figment of one's vision. But each time the moon reached the same position in space, there it was again.

 

"What's going on?" Jack questioned, noting the stunned expressions on three out of four faces. Teal'c remained statuesque. "What?"

 

"Jack… that's the way home."

 

"Daniel….?"

 

"The beam, sir. It represents the wormhole between Earth and the moon. It only functions when the moon is in this" Sam pointed, "position."

 

Seeing Jack's still-puzzled expression, Daniel clarified. "During full moon, Jack."

 

"Oy." Once a month, or thereaboouts?

 

"There was a full moon yesterday, Colonel. Actually, two days ago, and our dialling system first connected to this gate the day before that. There must be a day's leeway on either side so that the connection works for approximately six days out of every thirty-two, with the full moon on the first and thirtieth days. We must have arrived just before the connection shut itself down."

 

"Finish the math, Carter."

 

"It will be twenty-six more days until we can use the gate again, sir."

 

_____

 

'This had to have been manufactured into the plans, sir, as a precaution to keep this place hidden from the Goa'uld. Quite ingenious, when you think of it.'

 

Except when it backfires and fucks us up.

 

Pondering Carter's words, Jack fiddled with the oxygen canister secured to his back, and tried to juggle six MRE packs as they floated lightly in the air. He had long ago tired of watching Teal'c stare at the Earth, way up there in the harsh cold darkness at ceiling level. This was one time he wished he could help the scientists at work instead of feeling downright useless. His skills of strategy and defence would do no good stuck on a worthless piece of rock with waning air and food and water supplies.

 

Daniel had spent the last eight hours frantically pressing more of the colourful bubbles on the single piece of equipment, and now he intercepted one of the MREs on its way down to Jack's hands. O'Neill welcomed the distraction, hoping Daniel was taking a very long break.

 

"Didn't hear you come up," Jack lied. He hated talking through this damned mask but talking to Daniel through it was still far better than trying to keep his own mind occupied. It was 2200 hours back home, on this their second day of technological captivity, and Jack was plowing straight through to complete mind-sucking boredom. Worry for his teammates was adding to his aggravations and feelings of complete and utter frustration.

 

"Find anything?"

 

"Um, yes. Experiments." Forgot to mention that before, Jack. Sorry. Anything useful to us? No.

 

"On?"

 

"Humans."

 

"What?" Jack dropped the food packets and turned to Daniel. "Goa'uld were here?"

 

"No. Asgard. Probably."

 

"Daniel, for crying out loud, stop being so cryptic. I hate the sound of my voice in this thing."

 

"Specimens, slides, cell samples. There's one room full of the stuff. Neanderthal, modern humans, and everything in between… Jack, this place is at least thirty or forty thousand years old! Archaeologists have known that Neanderthal and more modern humans existed during the same time periods on Earth, but they've never been able to find a direct connection between them. That's because, Jack, they all existed here, in these labs. Thor once told you the Asgard had been watching Earth for a very long time, right? Well, they were doing it from here. This was their base. They brought up the life forms from Earth and experimented on them. The Asgard have always been trying to create the perfect human form!"

 

"And they're still trying." Jack snarled. "So, where does that leave us? Any way to contact the Asgard?"

 

"Um, not that I can see, no. Any devices they used thousands of years ago would be obsolete by now anyway. They're not even really the same Asgard; you know how they've evolved, Jack."

 

"Damn."

 

"The writings talk of experiments. Conquering the Goa'uld and having to leave. I don't understand enough, though."

 

"You will. You're doing fine." Jack frowned. "What do the 30,000-year-old Neanderthal experiments have to do with your Babylonians constructing or bringing this equipment here?"

 

"I have no idea." Daniel sighed in frustration. "I'm, uh, I'm going to go back now and … figure that out."

 

"Time to rest, Daniel. Sleep."

 

"A couple more hours, Jack. This is important."

 

"Yeah. Leave the cavemen, Daniel, and skip ahead to the space aliens."

 

_____

 

"What are you doing?" Daniel stopped in the entranceway, his flashlight spotting Bardenna sitting in a corner of the cluttered and otherwise dark lab, the engineer's oxygen tank and connected mask both lying on the floor at his side. Slowly, he looked up as Daniel came to sit beside him, remaining silent.

 

Daniel picked up the mask and held it out. "You really should be wearing this, Joe."

 

Bardenna shook his head.

 

"You know Sam says the air could be bad."

 

Dr. Bardenna's voice was quiet. "Save it for someone else."

 

"What? No. Come on, Joe. Put it on."

 

"Dr. Jackson, you're aw…"

 

"Doctor Jackson?" Daniel frowned.

 

"Daniel. Right. Of course. Daniel. Daniel, you're aware that we have to be here for twenty-six more days."

 

Sitting shoulder to shoulder beside this man, backs against the wall, Daniel nodded in the semi-darkness of his light's low beam. The shadows cast by bits of machinery and tanks of prehistoric specimens threw eerily cyclopean forms onto the walls and high ceiling. Daniel's breath shuddered, the strange stillness of the lab unnerving, unwelcoming.

 

"We each have less than three more days' worth of water and oxygen. We'll all die."

 

"Unless Sam - and you - can find a way to get the gate to work." Daniel looked at the man at his side. What was going on? The guy's first mission, and he was likely thinking it was his last. A bit of encouragement would be in order. "You and Carter, Joe. The two of you will come up with something."

 

"We can't. The gate was engineered to do exactly what it's doing. Engineered by the Asgard or the Ancients, both races far ahead of us technologically. We can do nothing to alter its timing."

 

"And you intend to do what, Joe, by doing this?" Daniel lifted the mask again. "Getting sick is going to help us?"

 

"We don't know the air is bad. That's just a guess, Daniel…"

 

"Sam's guess, Joe." Carter's guesses were better than most theories.

 

Bardenna shrugged. "One of us has to be around to open that gate in twenty-six days and tell General Hammond this stuff is here. If our people can eventually get this equipment working, it's potentially all we'll ever need to defeat any Goa'uld attack."

 

"And your oxygen …"

 

"Between us and the men that didn't arrive, we have enough for twenty more days. Lowering the oxygen level to ninety percent I can help stretch that to twenty-two. Even at one hundred percent, a single person using it might get sick on the last days but still manage to stay alive long enough to get home. And if the air isn't bad, we'll all make it out anyway."

 

Daniel's heart jumped a quick beat when he realized what the engineer was expecting. "You're saying we should all take off our masks except for one of us?"

 

"Yes."

 

Shit.

 

But as the unsavoury suggestion settled, Daniel realized it made sense.

 

_____

 

"No goddamn way!" Jack bellowed.

 

"You have to," Bardenna insisted.

 

"Like hell we do. I'm not telling my team to remove their life support."

 

"You have to."

 

"Geez, this is like talking to a brick wall. Carter? Teal'c? Help me out here." Jack angrily searched the faces of his teammates. He already knew Daniel agreed with Dr. Bardenna.

 

There was silence, as the others pondered the options.

 

"Christ, I need my scientists working on this stuff! How can you do that if you're sick?"

 

"We may not get sick at all," Carter took her cue. "The air filters might still be doing what they were meant to do; they could even be self-cleaning. Or maybe it doesn't even rely on filters; there might be a much more advanced system in place here than the one I'm imagining. Without air samples and the proper testing equipment there's no way to know for sure. We had the masks off for long periods this morning and so far we all seem fine."

 

"The incubation period for airborne diseases is an unknown factor here. And we don't have enough food or water for four weeks." Bardenna reminded her.

 

"We'll manage." Jack insisted.

 

"How?" Joe scowled.

 

"We can survive without food for two weeks."

 

"But not without water," Bardenna persisted.

 

"Joe," Sam began gently, "the SGC sent quite a lot of supplies. They were expecting two, possibly three more men to show up."

 

"Enough to last each of us twenty-six days?" Bardenna glared at Carter, knowing the answer in her silence. Enough to last eight people for three days, maximum.

 

Jack screwed up his face, jumping in again. "How the hell will removing our oxygen save food or water anyway, Doctor? Tell me tha…" Jack paused in realization. "Crap. You want us to die? Four of us have to die so one of us can survive on the rations we've got? Are you nuts, Bardenna? When did this death wish start, before you left Earth?"

 

With a sudden movement that caught all off guard, even the lesser gravity didn't stop Bardenna from leaping at Jack. Shoving him down as they both tumbled to the ground, the engineer leapt up immediately and ran off towards the far room.

 

"Colonel? Are you okay?"

 

"Hell yes." Jack lifted himself up, noting that his knees didn't hurt him half as much as his pride. "How long's he been without proper air, Daniel?"

 

Daniel's eyes widened. "Uh… I only found him an hour ago, Jack."

 

"He left me over six hours ago, sir."

 

"So it could've been all that time?"

 

"He had it off earlier than we did this morning too, Colonel."

 

"I believe Doctor Bardenna began removing his oxygen during the night, O'Neill."

 

"Crap."

 

"I'll go after him, Jack."

 

"Yeah. Remind him I'm still the leader of this mission, would you?"

 

_____

 

Daniel found the engineer standing again in the lab, its interior black as ink until his flashlight beam cut a narrow yellow path.

 

"Joe?" When Bardenna neither responded nor shifted to look his way, Daniel moved in closer and continued. "Look, Jack usually makes the right decisions. If he thinks this will work out, it probably will."

 

"Major Carter disagrees."

 

"She's only guessing."

 

Bardenna let out a chuckle. "We know how good her guesses are, don't we."

 

"Come on, Joe. Sam recommended you for a reason. Hammond trusts you. We're going to get home and we need your help to do it."

 

Bardenna shifted, turning towards Daniel. "Here's my help." In one swift movement he rushed at Daniel, slamming the archaeologist into the wall. Letting go as Daniel struggled free of the strong grasp, Bardenna turned and slammed his own fist into the nearest glass containment cubicle. Again and again he bashed the tank with his fist, as Daniel looked on stunned from his spot at the wall, not wanting to get too close, not knowing how to end this. Suddenly the glass gave way, spilling both fluids and a post-Neanderthal moderately human form onto the floor between them. Joe halted his outburst, staring at the preserved experiment, impervious to his sliced hand.

 

Taking a small, tentative step, Daniel slowly reached out his upturned palms in a gesture of friendship. "Joe…"

 

Joe's bleeding fist swung into Daniel's chin, throwing the archaeologist backwards into the contiguous tank, Daniel's oxygen mask flying off with the force.

 

"OW. Shit. Oh, damn." Daniel leaned hunched over against the glass receptacle, holding his chin in his palm to ease the pounding pain, as Bardenna took two steps backwards.

 

Suddenly there was a gun in Bardenna's uninjured hand, his dead flashlight traded in a quicker-than-the-eye-can-see movement, gravity nearly irrelevant what with the intense determination present in the man's will and demeanor. The weapon was pointing straight at Daniel, from three feet away. "Here's my help," he repeated.

 

Daniel straightened up, staring blankly, his mind a million pieces of a jigsaw puzzle scurrying against the clock to fit into some sort of meaningful, logical order. "Joe… .Please…."

 

"If I kill you all, I'll make it home."

 

"Joe… we can all get ho…"

 

"Shut up, Doctor Jackson."

 

Daniel bit his lower lip in contemplation and rising panic. "Think about it, Joe… you don't want to make it back without us. You'll spend the rest of your life in prison."

 

"All that matters is getting this equipment in the hands of the SGC. You know that, Doctor Jackson." The gun moved up evenly towards Daniel's face.

 

Daniel's mind was racing and getting nowhere. He could signal Jack, but by then it would be too late. And Jack would be shot the second he appeared in the doorway, then Teal'c, then Sam. Daniel found his mind going blank with the fear and dread of what would become of his teammates after this man pulled the trigger once.

 

His shaky words were emitted weakly, his jaw aching painfully and now going on stiff. "Come on, we're friends, Joe…"

 

"Teal'c will live, won't he. He has immunity, he won't get sick. Two people, two people dividing the rations between them… two people can live on half the rations, can't they, Daniel?"

 

"Five of us will, Joe. We'll get out of h…"

 

"You and me. You and me can survive. Help me kill them, Daniel."

 

Daniel froze, his mind drawing blanks. What the hell could he say to conv…

 

The hand suddenly turned towards its owner's own face and the fingers pulled the trigger.

 

"NO!!" Daniel jumped at the man's hand, far too late to do anything but catch the matted mangled body as it fell. With ten percent less gravity, the slide to the floor for both living and dead was easy.

 

"Daniel??" Jack was running, jumping into the room, Carter and Teal'c at his heels, each one spreading their beams of light around the pooling area.

 

"Oh my god."

 

"God, Daniel?" Jack dropped to the floor where Daniel sat unmoving, half in a puddle of blood, a disfigured body in his arms and a semi-prehistoric corpse at his side.

 

Jack's hand was on his teammate's arm, the other against his back, holding him in a sitting position. "What the hell happened?"

 

Daniel was staring wide-eyed at the bleeding remains lying across his knees. "I couldn't stop him."

 

"Daniel Jackson. Are you unhurt?" They couldn't tell; blood was everywhere.

 

"I couldn't stop him. He wouldn't listen."

 

"Daniel…" Jack was interrupted as his friend slowly turned, Daniel's look one of agonizing horror and despair.

 

"I couldn't stop him."

 

"Get your mask on." Jack caught Teal'c's eye. "Let's get him out of here."

 

Together they lifted Daniel up off the floor and away from the tragic end of the SGC's latest casualty.

 

"Let's get him cleaned up. Daniel, can you do this?" Jack indicated the clean pants Carter was already removing from one of the packs in the main chamber. His parka and those damn gloves would have to remain, even though they had taken the brunt of the damage. Both were covered in blood, but it was better than freezing. "Daniel?"

 

Blankly, Daniel looked up at the person talking. "What?"

 

"You have to get changed. We don't have extra water for washing, so you'll have to keep some of this on."

 

Daniel blinked, then nodded. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I couldn't stop him."

 

"Daniel, stop it. I know that. Later you can tell us what happened, just… right now just get out of these pants. It'll be cold for a minute. Here." Jack shrugged out of his own jacket and gloves. "Take these." Shivering off the momentary chill, he helped a dazed friend remove his outer clothing and get into clean dry gear. Gingerly picking up the messed jacket and gloves, Jack's glance caught Carter's before he slipped into them himself.

_____

 

"Luna. Moon. Lunacy."

 

"What?" Jack was sitting by Daniel's shoulder, staring closely into his friend's somewhat more coherent expression. A little bit of water had been sacrificed to brew a cup of tea for Daniel, and the warmth and night's rest had seemed to bring Daniel closer to the present, the shock beginning to lift. The unsettled, restless night had seemed to drag on forever, until sleep had come for them both only three hours ago. Teal'c had been awake when Jack had finally succumbed to sleep, and he was awake still when Jack opened his heavy eyes in what should have been early morning. Morning here blended into afternoon and afternoon into evening, time meaning absolutely nothing without daylight. Something he should have been used to, working inside a mountain. Carter looked tired, a significant lethargy showing in her movements.

 

"Lunatic. The word comes from the belief that madness was caused by fluctuations of the moon. They went mad."

 

"Who, Daniel?" Sam inquired gently. "Joe? He was depressed. He couldn't handle the stresses of offworld travel."

 

"That wasn't just depression. That wasn't Joe. He was violent." Daniel was staring into his empty mug. Talking felt strange; drinking felt strange. His chin was swollen and still throbbing. "And not just him."

 

"Who?" Carter repeated with concern.

 

"The… the … whoever was here. The Ancients, the Asgard, the people of Oannes. Something went wrong with their experiments; they had to leave. It makes sense now, the translations, those missing words…. Something went wrong. They … they poisoned themselves. I don't know what's in the air… lead, gases, chemicals… but they poisoned themselves. They were going mad and had to leave."

 

_____

 

"I do not understand how a race with such advanced technology could make such an error."

 

"Look what the Asgard did to themselves, Teal'c. They made mistakes." Daniel felt so tired, so fed up with all this. He wanted to be home, and it was only the third day.

 

"Yeah, and what about the Ancients, where are they? Or those Furling things? Probably DNA'ed themselves right out of existence," Jack agreed with Daniel. Advanced technology in no way indicated perfection.

  

"Should we not abandon the attempts to operate this machinery?" Teal'c queried.

 

Carter interrupted as Daniel was about to speak. "The devices here are too incredible to be left alone, Teal'c. Even the fact that all this is here, has been up here all these thousands of years, so close to home, so available… we can't just ignore it. Some of it might be in excellent working condition, and we need it now more than ever…."

 

"So why did the race that built this place never come back to maintain it, Sam? Other than knowing how inhospitable the environment had become, that is…?" Daniel's voice trailed off.

 

"Maybe they gave up. Maybe the Goa'uld on Earth were conquered. Maybe they eventually forgot it was here…."

 

"Maybe they all killed themselves," Jack interceded.

 

"They didn't do it here,' Daniel noted. "No bones lying around."

 

"The point is, sir, that maybe we … Earth scientists… can figure it out now and get it all back on track. One of us has to open the gate twenty-five days from now."

 

"Even with all the extra supplies Hammond sent, it still comes to less than five days of oxygen each, Carter. "

 

The cavernous underground chamber 384,000-odd kilometers from Earth became even more eerie as four teammates glanced from one to the other, glimpsing shadows of worry and anxiety, the artificial lighting lending to the alienness of the environment by flickering ever so slightly. Even the technologically created generator admitted its instability in this artificial atmosphere.

 

Finally, there was a movement, the one action that no one had anticipated.

 

"But over eighteen between us. Joe was right." Daniel slipped his mask, oxygen hose attached, over his head, and tossed it to the ground where it bounced gently for a moment or two before settling. Definitely not a dramatic effect. "Someone can have my four and a half days' worth."

 

"Daniel…!" Sam's concerned voice rang out through her own mask, as the archaeologist stood gracefully and slipped away into the darkness beyond the lights' reaches. The silence was as manifest as the artificial lighting glowing inside a chamber below the moon's dead surface.

 

Teal'c finally spoke. "Do you believe Daniel Jackson is suffering from the same illness as Doctor Bardenna?"

 

A moment's hesitation, and Jack responded. "Not unless I am too." And then he threw his own mask into the ring. His uncovered voice was subdued. "You two can draw straws." Knowing that Teal'c could probably last longer than Carter on poorer oxygen, even without his symbiote, he realized that the former Jaffa might be able to actually make it through the twenty-five days. But he also knew that Carter's skills were essential to the continued investigation of this technology. And there was no way in hell that he was going to be the one to order a teammate into the definite unknown of possible madness or suicide.

 

_____

 

Jack found Daniel staring at a dark wall, his flashlight casting a singular circle on the floor by his left boot, arm hanging limply at his side. O'Neill took a hesitant step closer. He hated this, watching for signs of emotional illness.

 

"Daniel?"

 

Daniel turned slowly, his eyes bright and lashes damp. "You too?" He frowned, noting Jack's lack of oxygen.

 

Jack nodded. "What am I needed for?" he joked. But you; you need to translate whatever the hell happened on this moon.

 

"It's over."

 

"We don't know that, Daniel." Intent on changing the subject, Jack motioned with his eyes. "Your chin still looks sore."

 

Daniel nodded. "It doesn't matter, Jack." He glanced down at the floor. "I guess I should get back to work. Every minute counts now, huh?"

 

"Anything I can do to help?"

 

Daniel shrugged. "At this point, I doubt there's anything I can do to help."

 

"So, mind if I just watch?"

 

Daniel met Jack's somber gaze. "Looking for company? Or just think I might be the first of us to go crazy?"

 

"I'm bored."

 

"Oh. Right. Okay." Neither of them wanted to face their grim situation alone, anyway.

 

_____

 

Daniel had returned to his magic chamber of holographically-exasperating substances, where the intangible moon had stopped rotating around the holographic Earth and the planets had stopped swirling the dance of the solar system. All was still while Daniel watched larger, even more frustrating visions float around himself and Jack.

 

"Hey! Isn't that…"

 

"A map of the outer room," Daniel finished the sentence. "This is what you thought that device by the stargate was for." It hadn't been. "But now that I've found it I don't know what to do with it. We've already seen everything out there."

 

"Look at that spinning one. What's that stuff?"

 

"I don't know. It looks like it's generating a form of energy."

 

"What about that one?"

 

"I have no idea."

 

"Looks like a hairdryer. What's it doing?"

 

"I think those are plants. It's spreading seeds."

 

"They were trying to seed the moon?"

 

Daniel squirmed, and watched a moment longer. "No, they wouldn't have needed to grow anything if they didn't want to populate this place, and this was a secure facility, if Sam's theories are right."

 

"So what is it?"

 

"I have no idea. Unless it's symbolic. DNA. Seeding Earth or some other planet with the perfect human."

 

Jack narrowed his eyes, the doubt evident in both his face and voice. "Oh come on, now you're guessing."

 

Daniel nodded.

 

"Okay, where's the machine that heats this place?"

 

"Jack, I have no idea what to look for. Maybe Sam would know."

 

Teal'c had appeared in the rounded doorway, and now he watched his two teammates in their animated discussion. The thought couldn't help but enter his mind as to which of them he might lose first.

 

The two men stopped mid-thought, and turned to face Teal'c. Though they had not chosen to find out, they now knew that Major Carter might possibly be the last one of them alive.

 

"We did not draw straws, O'Neill."

 

Jack nodded slowly. "I know that, Teal'c."

 

"I removed my oxygen mask before Major Carter could do the same. It was not her choice. However, I do not believe I will become ill."

 

"Teal'c, do me a favor and go get Carter. There's something we need to show her."

 

_____

 

But Carter had refused to come, so the others found themselves reporting to the main chamber, following their flashlight beams to where Sam sat huddled over a single portable generator, hooking hoses into a metal container drilled with holes.

 

"Carter? We found something that might help us figure out the equipment in here. "

 

Sam continued working.

 

"Sam?" Jack's voice was gentle. He knew it couldn't be easy for her, knowing her teammates and friends were risking their lives so she could survive. He was not prepared for the outburst.

 

Jumping up at the sound of their footsteps, almost bouncing - damn that effect - Carter turned on her teammates. In the dim light it was hard to see the tears. "I don't give a damn what you found, Colonel! How dare you! How the hell dare you think I want to stay here alone after watching you all kill yourselves!" She ripped her oxygen mask off and tossed it behind her.

 

"Carter!"

 

"Sam…"

 

"Shut up, both of you! Why the hell do you think I want to be the last one to be here? Tell me!" She turned to a stunned Daniel. "You can stay alive and interpret all that information; you can tell Earth what all this is, probably sooner than I can. You've already figured out more about this place than I have. What the hell were you thinking?" And now the tears were obvious, and Sam covered her face in her hands. "Oh god."

 

No one was quite sure how much of that was stress of the situation, or how much… something else.

 

Daniel bit his lip, his own eyes moist, and was the first of the men to reach her. He grasped Sam in his arms, and they stood, both now holding onto each other as Jack silently rested a hand on Carter's back, massaging gently.

 

"Put the oxygen back on, Major. One of us has to make it home."

 

"So you do it."

 

"You know I won't."

 

Minutes later, with a shuddering breath, Sam stood straight. Giving each of her teammates a defeated look of anguish, she sighed and bent to pick up her mask, embarrassment subdued. "Show me later. Right now, I think I might have a way to filter some fresh air in to the rest of you."

 

Daniel frowned. "How, Sam?"

 

"I followed some of those pipes through what are probably air vents into the adjoining rooms…"

 

"So you found the oxygen generator?"

 

"Maybe…"

 

"Turn it on."

 

"But the air it's sending out, Colonel, …:"

 

"Will at least be heavier than what we're breathing now. It'll stop the dizziness and headaches, if nothing else."

 

"Sir… the pipes also go through a couple of those small storage compartments, which means there's a bit of old oxygen being pumped into the enclosed spaces. If I hook up some of the oxygen tanks and configure them to funnel out at a thirty percent rate, the compartment would act as a reservoir and the oxygen would last three times as long, without any of it leaking into this room. You'd be breathing the air at a greatly reduced risk."

 

"Of what benefit would that be, Major Carter? We would not all have suffient oxygen to survive for twenty-five more days."

 

"Closer to twenty-four now, Teal'c. The point is, if you can breathe even some clean air, maybe the effects would be diluted."

 

"And we'd have to stay in a cramped closet, three of us, for oh… close to four weeks?" Jack pointed out a hole in the plan.

 

Carter bit her lip and gazed at the floor space that harboured her invention. "I don't want any of you to die, Colonel."

 

"Uh, Sam." Daniel touched Sam's downcast cheek, unsuccessfully attempting to hold her vision. "The tanks would have to be replaced how often? That would take oxygen away from you, and you're going to need all of it."

 

Sam knew this was a drawback that they would have realized right away if not sooner, and now she tried her last plea. "I can't watch you die. I don't want to be alone here."

 

"It's no longer a choice, Carter. Sam… turn the generator up and wear your mask. I'm making this an order, one of many more, I'm hoping… actually, one of many in a long and fruitful life of future orders. Please follow it."

 

_____

 

"God, what's that?" Daniel covered his eyes, the bright green beams nearly blinding as they cut through the previously dark interior space.

 

Green laser pulses shot out from the minute holes covering the generator's surface, arching above the heads of the cowering humans, bouncing off the ceiling and walls and momentarily opening up the far recesses of the complex to wild visibility.

 

Then after only moments the beams faded, until the green glow misted the room and bathed the teammates in soft light.

 

"I guess we woke up the air conditioner, Carter."

 

_____

 

"We don't know anything will happen to us." Jack tried again to be convincing.

 

Daniel continued staring at his laptop. "Of course we don't."

 

"We have now been breathing the air as long as Doctor Bardenna, with no ill effects." Teal'c hovered, alternating between keeping Carter company and then Daniel, making himself available to whomever seemed in the most need to vent their frustrations or air their newest revelations.

 

"Only more of it. Maybe that's all we really needed." Jack appreciated the big guy's positive attitude. The hopefully combined oxygen generator carbon dioxide removal system had indeed been on, continuing to supply air to this complex for many thousands of years, just seemingly turned way down according to Major Carter. Perhaps all the machinery had been treated this same way, as though the aliens had lowered all the output before leaving on vacation. Carter had also found what she thought was the temperature and humidity control system. This, too, had been functioning at reduced capacity while continuing to minimize temperature variation. Had it not been working at all the complex would have been -233ºC by night and 123C by day, securing its temperature from the moon's surface. Or, as Jack pointed out, perhaps this environment was exactly as the aliens preferred it; his memory reminded him that Nem's underwater structure had been lacking in warmth and fresh air as well. For that matter, the Asgard ships could also do with a little more heat.

 

Both machines were now set to replicate the conditions back on Earth. The room had warmed up appreciably in the past eight hours; this, along with the lack of hard canisters attached to their bodies, had made it easy to catch up on some sleep. In the warmth, Jack had thankfully been able to remove the blood-stained clothing and gloves he'd taken from Daniel. Only worry and anxiety had kept the relaxation at a minimum and made deep sleep hard to attain.

 

"Uh, I'm not so sure."

 

Two dark pairs of eyes searched out Daniel's.

 

"That it's what we needed. I've been having headaches. Strong, intense flashes."

 

"From your work," Jack jumped in, unwilling to accept what Daniel was alluding to. "The writing on that screen is damn small."

 

"Maybe."

 

Jack peered at Daniel through slitted eyes. "You're fine."

 

"I'm fine." Daniel nodded, not removing his focus from the screen.

 

"Joe didn't complain of headaches." Argument point number one.

 

Daniel shook his head. "No, not unless that's what caused his anger and depression."

 

Jack sat down beside his friend. "What happened in there, Daniel?"

 

Daniel paused. Closing his eyes to an event he didn't want to remember, Daniel rested his bruised chin in his fingertips. "He just gave up. One minute he was sitting beside me talking, the next minute he was acting out wildly, out of contr…" Daniel's eyes shot up. "Oh my god."

 

"Daniel?"

 

"He reminded me of Johnson."

 

"What?"

 

"In the briefing room, when Johnson went after Teal'c!"

 

"Are you referring to the time Lieutenant Johnson was suffering from the illness of the Touched, Daniel Jackson?"

 

"Yes, Teal'c! It was like… that!"

 

"What does that have to do with Bardenna?"

 

"We were in the lab, Jack." The lab that had been closed off since yesterday's horrible scene. Joe had been left in there, covered with a blanket. "The experiments on the Neanderthals, altering human DNA… Joe had been going over those dried specimen samples for hours." Daniel was becoming animated, this newest revelation his first potentially logical theory in days. "It's not the air, Jack - it's the experiments!"

 

"I really am following you here Daniel, but why don't you explain it to Teal'c?" Jack crossed his arms and waited. Daniel would get to the point sooner or later; Jack just preferred to skip the commercials.

 

"What kind of virus turns normal people into Neanderthals, Jack, but an experimental one? Joe killed himself before anything else could happen to him, but it wasn't the air that made him crazy, it was the Touched virus… or whatever went on in that DNA lab!"

 

Jack grimaced. Crap, that was all they needed now, on top of everything else.

 

"Are you saying this is the same virus that infected those on the dark side of the Land of Light, Daniel Jackson?"

 

"Yes… or a variation of it."

 

"Please explain how such a virus could have reached the Land of Light when this laboratory has been out of operation for at least two thousand of your years?"

 

"We have no idea how long the virus has been lingering on that planet, Teal'c. And don't forget, whichever race was playing around in this lab may have visited the Land of Light in more recent times. For all we know, they may even have sent one of their experimental beings there. Even if it has been thousands of years, the virus could still have had its origins right here in this lab. It might even be the behaviour of the Touched that gave birth to the term 'lunacy'. Madness."

 

"Daniel, the Neanderthals existed thirty thousand years ago, not two thousand."

 

Daniel had pondered this question before, and now the answer dawned. His eyes widened. "Seeds… experiments." He looked around at his teammates' puzzled, uncomprehending expressions. "They changed human DNA thirty thousand years ago, then used the experiments to create a virus to kill the Goa'uld two to four thousand years ago! Some of these machines were being developed to spread the Touched virus!"

 

"Why would they want the Goa'uld to turn into Neanderthals?"

 

"No, Jack! That's probably the primitive form the experiments evolved from. They were more likely trying to get the Goa'uld to be self-destructive, like Joe. Killing each other or themselves by means of a parasitic virus would be an ironic way to get rid of a parasitic race, don't you think?"

 

"Perhaps the intention of such an experiment was to destroy the symbiote, as was the goal of Machello's Goa'uld-killing device," Teal'c surmised.

 

"But the virus affects humans, Daniel, so wouldn't other people have come down with it?"

 

"How do you know they didn't? The concept of lunacy had its origins in ancient Rome, when people's minds were believed to be most affected during a full moon.… which is when these aliens may have been using the gate to send their viruses down to the reigning Goa'uld."

 

Jack's expression darkened. "Daniel, I hate to bring this up right now…. but weren't you in the lab working with Joe?"

_____

 

"You don't have enough for all of us for a month, do you?"

 

Daniel's attempted insistence on passing out an antihistamine to Jack and Sam had been refused. Teal'c, they knew, was immune to the disease; while no longer having a symbiote, the tretonin he took daily acted as his immune system and assured him of much the same benefits.

 

"Keep them for Carter and yourself," Jack advised. "You were most exposed, and Carter needs to stay healthy."

 

"I only have twelve more, Jack."

 

"I wasn't exposed, sir. Daniel should keep them."

 

"We don't know what's hanging around this room, Carter, and we all had some contact with either Joe or that thing in there that fell out of its tank. Let's take precautions."

 

"In which case you need them as well, sir," Carter reminded him as Jack threw her a scathing look. "Six each won't do either of us any good. You keep them, Daniel."

 

"We are not certain that your chemicals will be effective on this strain of the illness, Daniel Jackson."

 

"Gee, thanks Teal'c." Daniel squinted at the large man, already the recipient of a burning scowl from Jack. "What about the MREs, Sam?"

 

Carter raised her eyebrows before speaking; she'd already done the math. "Well, what they sent for the eight of us now works out to one each for twenty-four days. We've already used some, so that leaves us with twenty-one each. They also sent some apples and energy bars."

 

"We'll save those until the MREs run out. Otherwise there'll be three days with nothing at all." Jack had also been doing the math. "It's not much."

 

"It's the best we can do, sir. We'll manage." And it would have been even less without Joe Bardenna's rations.

 

"How are we doing with the water, Carter?" Jack suspected he already knew that too.

 

"They sent us each two litres a day for drinking and MREs, and one for washing. Subtracting what we've already used, that leaves us with fourteen litres each for the twenty-four days, sir."

 

Just over half a litre each per day. They'd have to make it work. "Water for drinking only, MREs - one a day - from the package, no washing. It's manageable."

_____

 

"I knew this had to be here."

 

Jack and Daniel were on the thirteenth level, this time having gone up the stairs to the twelfth, along the darkened landing and around the five-foot-wide walkway to a smaller flight of stairs. What they had found was the first of a possible series of airlocks. "I knew they'd had to have gone to the surface."

 

"At first, anyway," Daniel agreed. "After they finished building this place they might not have had any reason to go out there."

 

Jack stared out the transparent walls of this outer compartment now lying exposed to the two teammates. At his side, Daniel couldn't take his eyes off the world above them, one he knew so well from a different vantage point.

 

"That's Africa."

 

"Uh huh."

 

The sight of distant Earth in a black sky was mesmerizing, and Jack realized that Daniel had never seen it from a distance. The man beside him hadn't been with the team when they had escaped from Apophis' ship in the death gliders. Just beyond their glass showcase was the stony flat landscape of the dead satellite they were stranded on.

 

"It never really hits you, you know," Jack reflected. "We go to far off planets, and we get there and all these people are living there. It never really feels as though we've left Earth." When Daniel didn't reply but kept on staring at the view before him, Jack continued. "It feels like we've left home this time. There's no one and nothing out there but rock." What Armstrong and Aldrin would have felt must have been overwhelming, and they didn't even have a stargate to take them home within seconds.

 

Then again, at the moment neither did SG1. Left stranded on the moon with no amenities and few supplies was not an enticing way to spend a month.

 

The men resumed their internal musings, respecting each other's privacy.

 

Jack's soft voice broke the silence. "I want to walk on the moon, Daniel."

 

"You do?" Daniel raised his brows, turning his gaze upon his CO. "I thought Sam was the astronaut among us."

 

Jack shrugged. "How many men have ever walked on the moon? That we know of," he added.

 

"How many men have walked in Hell, Jack? Or on Abydos, Argos, Tollana, Orbana, Cimmeria…. Like you said, we're always leaving Earth. What's special about the moon? You still couldn't tell anyone you'd done it."

 

"No. But I've never watched Netu from Earth as it's phases changed. I've also never stayed up late watching men land on Argos, Daniel. This moon was magic when I was a teenager."

 

Daniel turned back to watch the blue and white ball in the black sky. "Okay. Does that mean you think we'll get out of here?"

 

"I don't know what to think, Daniel. You and Carter are doing all the work. I can only watch and wait and goad you on. You tell me if we'll get home."

 

"If you're relying on me, don't hold your breath."

 

"You're doing your best, Daniel. And whatever that is, it's a hell of a lot more than I've been offering."

 

"You don't think you've been doing anything here?"

 

"Let's see… uh… No." Then Jack chuckled. "Come to think of it, we've been here four days and I have beat Teal'c at chess, oh, four times. I knew I never should've taught him to play."

 

Daniel smiled. "See, Jack? That's what you do."

 

"What, let Teal'c beat me at chess?"

 

"No, joke."

 

"Oh, that's good, Daniel. SG1: the astrophysicist, the linguist, the warrior, and the joker."

 

"If you weren't here Jack, who would I be talking to?"

 

"You'd be working."

 

"Right. Me and Sam, working all day long every day. Nothing else but worry, work and sleep. You provide the distraction, the companionship, the encouragement. Don't you think we all need that?"

 

Jack heard something else in Daniel's voice, in his demeanor. "Are you scared, Daniel?"

 

"No. Um, well…. twenty-four days is a long time to be on strict food and water rations. I'm already starting to feel it. I'm hungry. And I keep thinking of water, and coffee, probably because I know I can't have it."

 

"Me too." Jack reached out to rub Daniel's shoulder. "We'll make it. We're good at this."

 

Looking at the friend he was keeping such a close eye on, dreading any signs of the illness that had attacked Bardenna, Jack held out hope that every extra minute of clarity meant less chance of the illness germinating. There had been no guarantee that the antihistamines would work for this strain of the virus, but so far it was looking optimistic.

 

"Yeah. Well if we're going to make it I guess I should be getting back to work."

 

"If we get home…. after we get home, I want to come back here with a space suit and step out this door, Daniel."

 

Jack could hear Daniel nearly smile. "Mind if I come?"

 

Jack nodded, his own smile quickly arrested. "That'd be good."

 

_____

 

The night brought restless fatigue and anxiety. While the first few days on any mission always fostered hope and excitement, trust in the SGC, and the belief that all would be well, it was clear to SG1 that this time they were on their own. There would be no timely rescue coming from the SGC or alien allies, for no one even knew where they were. Their way home was clear and the connection intact, yet they were at the mercy of time, and time this time had no mercy to share. No enemies were at the gate, no bars or chains surrounded them. They were free to dial up and return to safety and warmth, food, and a comfortable, hospitable atmosphere. The only thing standing in their way was time.

 

Twenty-three more days and they could go home.

 

But they were on unforgiving rations of MREs and water, and only Major Carter was still breathing imported oxygen, even though optimism was growing that the chamber's air supply was safe. Exasperated with the discomfort of the mask, she had been tempted to remove it more than once, and would have, had it not been for the selfless risk her teammates had taken for her benefit. She would do it for them, and she would do it to obey the order of her commanding officer. Still, she was not eager to fix the mask those times in her sleep when it twisted around and nearly slipped off.

 

It was Daniel's watch when the shadow crept away and moved off. The artificial Earthly lighting was turned down to minimum during the sleeping hours, and while it seemed unnecessary to have anyone on watch, they still kept up the habit.

 

Daniel knew the form was not large enough to be Teal'c, so in the darkness he followed Jack's quiet footsteps across the vast chamber and into the small room beyond the dinosaur. He hesitated outside the junction to the lab where Bardenna had committed suicide and now lay cold as ice, himself frozen at the thought that Jack had any desire to go near there, never mind enter within.

 

Pausing, trying to decide whether to follow and wake Jack from whatever bizarre state of mind had led him here in the darkness of the unfriendly night, or wait a few moments and see if the man would come out revealing his own answers, Daniel heard the sounds of Jack being sick, and he closed his eyes in understanding.

 

Privacy. Privacy, and secrecy.

 

Jack didn't want anyone else to know. And this would be the only room no one else would enter.

 

"When did this start?" Daniel startled the other man as he emerged, hunched over and breathing deeply.

 

"Geez! Shit, Daniel. I nearly had a heart attack on top of everything else."

 

"Avoiding the question?"

 

"Fuck off."

 

Jack shuffled away slowly, leaving Daniel leaning against the cold wall. And then he stopped, turning back. "Sorry, Daniel. That was uncalled for."

 

"Yes, it was. But you're angry and frustrated."

 

Jack sighed. "Yeah. Look, let's get away from this room, okay?"

 

Daniel pushed off lightly from the wall with his shoulder, and followed Jack into the main outer room, where they stopped and dropped to the floor behind Frankenstien, the oddest and ugliest of the machinery.

 

"I didn't feel so good this afternoon. I've been fighting it this whole night."

 

"You have a fever?"

 

"Yeah."

 

"And…?"

 

"Cramps. Nausea. Chest pains. Those aren't too bad though."

 

"God, Jack."

 

"Look, Daniel. You shouldn't even be this close to me. We don't know what this is and you have to make it the rest of the way. Promise me you'll do everything you can to make it home."

 

_____

 

Although he'd tried to get everyone to stay far away from him, he never made it an order, knowing full well it would be one they'd be forced to break. He hadn't been able to do much besides rest since the full effect had hit. Breathing had become laboured when the chest pains had accelerated, although the nausea had thankfully subsided.

 

"Daniel, you have too much work to do to be here," Jack coughed.

 

"I'm on a break, Jack," Daniel sat beside his friend. "And I've…"

 

"Go. You're the most susceptible, Daniel, and you know it. Carter's got oxygen and Teal'c's … well, Teal'c's Teal'c. I don't want you here."

 

"You know, if you die now, that's the last thing you'll have said to me."

 

"Oh for c… Daniel, the last thing I'll have wondered is whether or not you're going to get sick too."

 

"I won't get sick."

 

"I suppose you're willing to make that a promise?"

 

Daniel was silent.

 

"Didn't think so."

 

_____

 

Daniel had figured out two more pieces of machinery using the holographic representational mechanism along with some of the more decipherable slide data, and both appeared to serve as protective shields within a range of hundreds of thousands of kilometres - enough to service the distance between Earth and the moon. Not surprisingly, these were the devices within which were traces of naquada. He had not yet figured out anything about the machine that evidenced naquadria in its composition. This was definitely equipment the base and Washington would want to get their hands on, and Carter had already begun studying the first of the two.

 

But none of that was of any good to Jack right now. While the antibiotics were helping, they didn't have enough, and without a full course Jack would not sufficiently recover. Helplessly, a frustrated Daniel worked into the early morning hours - not that time made a difference here on the moon, but his body clock still operated according to Earth's schedule - looking for something covertly accessed; transport rings, a camouflaged teltac, any sort of communications device that might have been used to contact Earth between the periods of the full moon. Were these people entirely cut off from the planet for twenty-eight consecutive days? Or had their method of contact been removed with them when the race was forced to leave this place?

 

But so far, there was nothing here that could aid Jack and get them home earlier than twenty-three days into the future.

 

And Daniel had not told anyone about the sharp jabbing pains in his own chest.

_____

 

"You still here?" The tired voice was barely audible.

 

"I was working. Just taking a break," Daniel stated truthfully. "Feeling any better?"

 

"A little. You okay?" Jack was sitting up against the wall, his chest behaving more humanly and the fever lessened. Teal'c had remained with him throughout the two days while Carter and Daniel had worked well into each night, trying to figure out all this equipment and find any sort of alternate communication system. Jack knew that his teammates' nerves were frayed and that none of them held out much hope of getting home any time soon. Twenty-one more days seemed like forever. Desperate situations never enticed him, and this one was damn fucked up.

 

Daniel nodded wearily. "Just tired," or so he hoped. No need to complain when there was nothing he nor anyone else could do for him. None of them were feeling in the best of health or moods these days; only Carter was still breathing clean air but even she was having difficulty contending with the minimal food and water rations, and they all knew O'Neill needed more than his small share of liquids in order to get better.

 

"Here." Daniel held out some water.

 

"I've had more than half a litre already today, Daniel, and you know it."

 

"You need more, Jack. Your body can't heal itself when it's being starved and dehydrated."

 

"Put it away, Daniel. I'm not taking anyone else's share."

 

"Jack..."

 

"No." Jack weakly pushed Daniel's hand away, adamant in his refusal. "How's it going, Daniel? Any luck?"

 

Giving in, Daniel slumped down against the wall beside him. "We've found what seems to be a shield of some sort, although how it worked or what exactly it shielded Earth from is eluding us. But we're almost positive this was a secure defensive base. From what little I've been able to translate, the experiments here all outdated the Goa'ulds' presence on Earth. The DNA experiments were begun here by some as yet unidentified race; there seem to have a been a number of presences here over tens of thousands of years, Jack. The Goa'uld situation is fairly recent compared to what's gone on here, historically. The DNA lab was used over time by various alien races, the last possibly being the Asgard but I'm not certain. When the Goa'uld came several thousand years ago - apparently they'd got wind of experiments being conducted to create the perfect human form and they were out looking for the perfect host - this base was turned into a main line of defence. The last of what I've translated indicates that they were close to victory and hopeful of keeping the Goa'uld away permanently."

 

"Why haven't the Asgard told us about this, if Earth was an Asgard-protected world?"

 

"Because I don't think it was. I think it was an Earth-protected world, with Earth humans working side by side with the alien races. I don't know for sure if Thor or the present-day Asgard even know about this complex."

 

"You said they've been watching us from here."

 

"They've been watching us. Maybe from their ships. I don't think Thor's people have been … here here. I think the early Asgard were here. Maybe Thor wasn't even referring to his generation at all." Daniel saw Jack's eyes closing. "I have to get back to work now, see what else I can come up with. You get some more rest, Jack."

 

"Yeah. Sure I will." Jack slid down to his sleeping bag and curled up. Sleep, yes. Rest, well, that was another story.

_____

 

"Daniel?"

 

His coughing hadn't woken him up this time, but the chest pains cut through his lungs with every breath. Opening his eyes to the sound of the voice, Daniel saw Sam, Teal'c and even Jack leaning over him. He'd lain down to sleep long after the others, and remembered fitful troubled dreams. Right now he felt like crap.

 

Carter knelt, that worried look in her eyes. In her hand she held out an oxygen mask. "You have a fever, Daniel." she commented. "This will help your breathing."

 

"What's going on, Sam?" Daniel whispered through raspy breaths. "What is this?"

 

"I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty certain it's the air being circulated from the generator. You have the signs of early pneumonia, similar to what the colonel has. The generator seems to function on two alternating systems, although they were probably intended to back each other up. The primary system, the one that was on when we arrived, works in some way I won't be able to figure out unless I can either take it apart or … you find some instructions. The secondary system, though, seems to run on similar principles to electrolysis, converting water into hydrogen and oxygen. When the heaters were turned up, the ice stored in the reservoir tanks in a rear room began melting, and the backup system kicked in."

 

"What?" Jack cut in. "Where did the water come from?"

 

"That I'm not sure I can tell you, Colonel. It's possible they just kept importing it from Earth."

 

"Can we drink it or wash with it? We've got purification tablets."

 

Carter shook her head. "It's a few thousand years old, sir. And even then it may have been recycled back into the generator. It's most likely that bacteria from this water is dissipating into the air, causing an infection fairly comparable to Legionnaire's disease. The incubation period seems to take three or four days. Daniel, you also spent a lot of time in close proximity to Colonel O'Neill these past couple of days, without the benefit of protection or oxygen."

 

"I told you to leave me alone," Jack complained. "So now what, Carter? You said the antibiotics are finished."

 

Carter's expression was somber. "Yes sir. All we can do is wait."

 

_____

 

Day nine on this planet and day two of feeling like chewed up crabmeat. Jack was not yet cured and seemed to be fading as well, going from fine to exhausted in the course of a few hours of non-activity. Sleep helped to revive him for a short while; Daniel, on the other hand, had little energy to do so much as sit up.

 

Looking down at his friend, leaning against the wall behind him, Jack held out little hope that either one of them would make it through many more days. His calendar counted down now to nineteen; they had been here for an unbelievably long nine days only. Nowhere near enough. And once Carter's air supply ran out, she would likely start getting sick as well. Unless she could figure how to stop the generator's back-up system from functioning and cleanse the air of what was already in it. Of the three of them who had been breathing the generated air only Teal'c was showing no negative effects.

 

Jack brushed at Daniel's sweaty hair.

 

"Jack?"

 

"Yeah."

 

"How are you doing?"

 

"Hanging in, Daniel. Although it would be easier if this hotel had a bar." Damn hard to care for a sick person when water was unavailable to quench a hot body or sore dry throat. An ounce of water from their pitiful supply was being sacrificed to cool the sweat on his teammate's forehead; there was little else they could do.

 

"Sam?" Daniel's voice was shallow, faded.

 

"She's doing okay, buddy."

 

A slight nod of the head was the final communication.

 

Waiting and watching for several minutes more, Jack sighed. Feeling helpless wasn't his best trait.

 

"O'Neill. I am not pleased with Daniel Jackson's condition."

 

"Teal'c, your knack for understatement is actually getting better than mine."

 

"You do not believe he will survive." Nor am I certain about yourself, O'Neill.

 

Jack tried not to respond, but Teal'c's stare did not back down. "No Teal'c, he's… not doing well. We have too much time left. A lot of people die from infections like Legionnaire's even with the best medical care."

 

"And what of yourself?"

 

"I'm doing okay. Getting there." His tired eyes betrayed his words.

 

"I wish to offer Daniel Jackson a choice, O'Neill. And yourself as well."

 

"What kind of choice could there possibly be, Teal'c?"

 

"I remain well."

 

"…ye-sss, you do…"

 

"Daniel Jackson's immune system is not performing its task of curing his illness."

 

"What are you getting at?"

 

"I wish to offer him tretonin."

 

Jack's eyes widened. "You want to give Daniel a drug made from mashed up symbiote?"

 

"I believe it may help."

 

"That's an experiment, Teal'c."

 

"You are already sitting here awaiting Daniel Jackson's death."

 

"It suppresses the immune system permanently, Teal'c."

 

"I believe the Tok'ra developed an antidote, did they not, O'Neill?"

 

"Shit. Get Carter and ask what she thinks. Then I'll ask Daniel."

 

_____

 

As Carter had pointed out, the tretonin that Teal'c was taking had been engineered by the Tok'ra specifically for Jaffa. This particular batch was not meant for human use. Yet they could not deny the fact that Daniel would likely not make it another nineteen days; allowing his own weakened immune system to heal him was as uncertain and risky as using a low dose of Jaffa tretonin.

 

So Jack had taken it first, determined not to make Daniel into the first experimental subject. He knew this would damage their own immune systems permanently, but they'd have to worry about that, um, nineteen days from now. The Tok'ra, hopefully, would have their antidote available, although relying on the Tok'ra for anything was less than optimistic, in Jack's opinion. If the tretonin worked as it was supposed to, leaving its two subjects in perfect health for nineteen more days, that was all that counted. As for Jack, his health had improved within hours after the first injection.

 

Now they watched closely as Daniel slept, Jack barely moving from his friend's side and Teal'c sitting in the shadows. Sam's concentration was intense, her determination to somehow get all her teammates home alive and healthy driving her steadily. She refused to let herself think too frequently of Daniel's condition, content to know that her CO would call her at the first sign of a negative reaction. Even if the tretonin worked, Teal'c refused to indicate exactly how much of it he had to spare. He himself was forced to take it daily; she knew he carried a large supply for those times they were forced to remain off world for extended periods, but how could he have enough for the three of them? And Sam knew that it was more than likely she would be needing it as well before their time here was up.

 

Daniel had not responded at all at first, until nearly six hours later. Then he had suddenly sat up, requesting water.

 

_____

 

Jack was standing again on the landing below the porthole, looking out at a cloud-covered Earth. There was a storm happening somewhere over the Pacific.

 

The footsteps on the staircase behind him were too light to be Teal'c's, and Daniel had just barely woken up, still not strong enough to be climbing. Remaining with his back to Carter, he waited.

 

The steps ceased before reaching the top, and silence ensued.

 

"Carter?" Jack broke the stillness, his gaze out the window unwavering.

 

"I'm sorry, sir. For my earlier reaction."

 

"It's forgotten, Carter." Now Jack took half a step to the side, into a position that allowed him to see his teammate. She had found something intriguing to look at on the floor, it seemed.

 

"I couldn't stand the thought of ... you and Daniel and T... Teal'c..."

 

"I wouldn't want to die knowing you'd be alone here, Sam. Neither would Daniel or Teal'c."

 

"I know. Thank you, sir." Never having met his gaze, Sam turned to retreat.

 

Jack knew his next words would allow Carter the choice of company and self-forgiveness, or of keeping her own space, should that be what she really needed. "Shame you came all the way up here just to apologize. The Earth's got some interesting weather happening."

 

There was a pause... a long pause, before Carter spoke. "I'd like to have a look at that."

 

Jack nodded, turning back to the window, moving to make room for Sam.

 

His team was prevailing, and so far things were looking up. With eighteen days now left to go, one meal a day and half a litre of water each, contaminated air being inhaled but tretonin kicking in to keep them healthy, they didn't need to worry about anithistamines and the disease of the Touched. Perhaps all they needed to do for that was stay away from the lab anyway. As long as the tretonin lasted and no one got dehydrated, they'd make it home.

_____

 

Except that Daniel had tried to ignore the fact that his insides felt like jelly and dizziness had him tipping over each time he stood up. Believing still that he might be working on borrowed time, he weakly returned to the holograph room, his frustrations threatening to overwhelm him. For some reason the tretonin was taking too long to work its magic; maybe his dose had been lower than Jack's.

 

The planets rotated around his head from one bubble of the machine; holograms of DNA molecules floated steadily from another, and Daniel was forced to sit on the floor with eyes closed. Something was wrong, very definitely wrong; this weakness and breathlessness felt different somehow than the flu-like symptoms he'd experienced over the past two days. Everything inside him felt as though it was churning, his organs dancing figure eights and his blood changing from hot to cold inside his veins. Something was way way wrong.

 

God… could it be that he was allergic to the tretonin?

 

He leaned his head against the panel, the floor and ceiling swimming in and out around him in a nauseating game of spatial tag. He couldn't pass out; there was too much he needed to do.

 

Taking some deep breaths of the deceptively poor air, Daniel reached up to grasp the top edge of the device, weakly pulling himself up.

 

Standing, leaning on the equipment for support, he was well aware that he could not get this stuff out of his system. It wasn't something that just wore off. One dose of tretonin and it had you for good.

 

Right before dropping back to the ground, Daniel realized that something had changed in the holographic moon's orbit.

 

Shifting slowly and carefully to a position flat on his back so that he could look up without falling over, Daniel watched the planets go through their nauseating motions, and his heart caught in mid-beat. Waiting a moment to verify his sudden revelation, he watched the moon rotate one more time around Earth.

 

His watery vision hadn't deceived him.

 

There had been no beam between the satellite and the Earth during the phase of the new moon.

 

Daniel's sense of panic brought adrenalin into his system, partly overriding the fatigue and dizziness. "Sam? Jack?" His shaky voice cracked over the radio. "I think we have a problem."

 

Within seconds the other three members of SG1 had appeared beside him, panicking at the sight of their teammate lying flat on the floor.

 

"Daniel? What happened?"

 

Weakly raising a finger, Daniel pointed at the floating forms. "The beam's not working. I think we might have lost the connection between this gate and Earth's."

 

The teammates all stared in shock as the planets revolved, and no beam flashed out.

 

"What? What did you do, Daniel?"

 

"I…" Shit, he had no idea. The forlorn look on Daniel's face made Jack almost want to apologize for his question, as Daniel's eyes closed.

 

"You're not just on the floor for the vantage point, are you, Daniel?" Jack was staring at his teammate. Daniel was pale, and there was sweat around his hairline. The younger man seemed to be having difficulty breathing.

 

Unable to risk speaking, Daniel moved his lips. No.

 

"Crap. Teal'c!?"

 

Teal'c's voice was matter-of-fact, and laced with concern. "It appears that Daniel Jackson has had a reaction to the tretonin." They could not risk giving him more, and it was too late to give him less.

 

"Damn it. What now?"

 

"I do not know, O'Neill."

 

Jack looked up at the orbiting planets, and the moon that no longer had any connection with Earth. Now he longed for eighteen more days; at least that was better than never. He looked back down at the teammate lying with eyes closed on the floor beside him. "Figure it out, Carter," he barked. This was so not good.

 

_____

 

I'm sorry, I'm sorry… Daniel had no idea if this was something he'd done while playing around with the contraption, or if he'd hit something when he'd fallen. Sam, on the other hand, had no idea if it was something she'd done while playing around with the DHD. Jack was certain, however, that it was nothing he'd done.

 

But if indeed it had been something done by Daniel, then that meant he had shut down the gate using this device. In which case this machine was not just a model, it was an intrinsic part of the gate system's controls. Camouflaged as a model to deter sabotage.

 

Almost frantically, Carter and Teal'c returned to the device. And Daniel insisted on sitting up to read the inscriptions all over the lower panel.

 

Which only brought him back down to the floor within seconds, his head spinning and joints shooting lasers. He realized his head was resting on a blanket folded into position by Jack. This was at least one way O'Neill knew to make himself useful.

 

Daniel blinked, trying to clear his vision enough to look at the holograms. There'd been something, all those lines and dots…

 

Shit he felt sick. Felt like he had a symbiote crawling around inside his belly. Closing his eyes, he saw those dots, that series of dots, lines and dots…

 

"They're dates."

 

"What?" Jack peered at his friend. Daniel needed water, nourishment…

 

"Sam?" Daniel tried unsuccessfully to sit up, his head throbbing and insides rolling. Settling back down, he was forced to close his eyes once again and focus on the blackness below his lids. Only there wasn't blackness, there was a nauseating display of dots and lines and shifting bubbles…

 

"Daniel, ssh." Sam was at his side, her masked face close to his. "What is it?"

 

"The panel. Dots, lines. Dates. See if you can program the connection."

 

"What?" She frowned. "How?"

 

Daniel couldn't bring himself to speak again, he was too close to passing out. Feeling a hand stroke his hair, he knew it wasn't Sam's. He'd already heard her footsteps moving back to the device.

 

_____

 

"Major Carter. How was that accomplished?"

 

"What? What did she do?" Jack looked up in the sudden disturbance of the silence that had promoted his daydreaming. Beside him, Daniel was wrapped in blankets but still shivering. Damn it, enough. His team needed to get out of this place.

 

"Major Carter was once again able to connect the beam between the moon and the Earth."

 

"She did? You did?" Jack stared up at Carter. "It's working?"

 

Sam watched the moon's orbit. "Hold on, Colonel." A minute passed, as the moon circled around Earth. "Oh-oh."

 

That was a four-letter word in Jack's present world, and he didn't like the sound. "What, oh-oh?"

 

"The connection was made the during the moon's last quarter, sir."

 

"And this means…?"

 

"We just missed it three days ago."

 

"And that means we have twenty-six more days to wait?"

 

"Yes, sir."

 

"I've made it worse." Daniel's dejected voice seemed disembodied, coming in its swathed whisper.

 

"No, Daniel." Carter looked down in disillusionment at her ill teammate. "Maybe it was pre-set to change at intervals, just to confuse the Goa'uld."

 

"Or maybe they could set it themselves?" Jack asked hopefully.

 

"So the Goa'uld would not have known which day of every month was the one that would be accessible!" Jack's theory did not negate Carter's.

 

"So this isn't necessarily a random thing?"

 

"Sir, you could be right, it might be controllable." Carter was studying the dots and lines, to see if there was any pattern or any observable relation to the moon phases. She could use Daniel's help here, but…

 

"Keep at it," Jack encouraged. "If these are controls, you'll figure out how to change them again. I'm convinced of that."

 

"Thank you, sir."

 

Random change turned out not to be too hard; it was controlling the changes that didn't seem to be working. It seemed about as random as searching for the exact alternate universe using a mirror remote, just… harder. Carter kept playing with the Braille-like panels, and every so often the moon phase beam would change. New moon to full and back again, but nothing in between, and the new moon was still four days away. Four days longer than they cared to wait, but it was a start. So this wasn't random; all she needed to do was keep playing and eventually she'd hit on the moon phase they were in… right? Later, Daniel could figure out how to interpret the code so they could control the connection at will. Later… after he was at home and healed.

 

Jack watched impatiently as Teal'c and Carter experimented with their trial and error results. Daniel was in discomfort, fading in and out of consciousness. His reaction to that tretonin couldn't have been anticipated, Jack reasoned. There was no reason for him to have denied the man his chance at being cured. Still, Jack couldn't shake the guilt. He'd thought his own testing of the medicinal symbiote had been enough. We'll get you home soon, Daniel. We're nearly there, I promise. He laid another wet towel on Daniel's forehead, then smoothed down his friend's hair, letting his palm linger.

 

It took four hours for Carter to realize that she couldn't plot the exact moon phase that they were presently in. She'd managed to reach the last quarter a number of times, a phase they had just missed, although she had tried the gate just to be sure. No matter how much she randomly played around, she was unable to get the beam to react to the waning crescent, the present phase of the moon. Sam knew the new moon was likely as precise as she could get. Anything more exact was either impossible or much harder to program in, she realized, wishing more than ever for Daniel's help. He might have been able to understand the exact coding of how those dates and symbols worked, probably some ancient calendar. "Sir, I might have to leave it programmed at the new moon." Assuming, of course, that this was not just a model and really did have some control over the gate.

 

"Which is when, Carter?"

 

"Four days from now. Assuming there's a day's leeway on either side, just as we had getting here, the gate might be functional in three days."

 

Shit. Three days was damn better than eighteen, and this morning he would have jumped for joy. Looking down at Daniel, Jack doubted that the man had that long. And Jack really didn't want to wait that long. "It's alright, Carter. Keep trying, and if nothing changes we'll go in three."

 

"Yes sir. I'm sorry." Glumly, she looked down at Daniel's shivering but wrapped up form. "Daniel could probably figure out those symbols, sir, if it's even possible. This might be as specific as the program was intended to get."

 

"It's okay, Carter. You've done good."

 

_____

 

No longer having to worry about air, Carter gave the rest of her oxygen to Daniel. If she got sick, well, she'd be home by then. Unless those weren't really controls at all and the connection was still programmed to work seventeen days from now… shut up, Carter. Can't think like that.

 

"How's he doing, sir?"

 

"I was hoping he wouldn't get worse, but he hasn't responded to me in three hours."

 

"His immune system was weakened from his ailment, O'Neill. I am sorry." Teal'c had avoided speaking to his teammates throughout the previous night and early morning. It was his fault that Daniel Jackson was dying. He could neither face their wrath nor their forgiveness.

 

"Teal'c, it wouldn't have mattered. We had nothing else to give him. And the stuff helped me." They could at least afford to use more of the rations now, believing that the gate would function in two more days. If not, they were all screwed. "The oxygen's helping his breathing a little."

 

The minutes dragged on, one second at a time. These two days would prove to be longer than their time in Netu. In the meantime, Carter was afraid to continue experimenting with the connection, worried that she might not get it back again to the new moon if she failed. She still was in the dark as to how to read the controls. Perhaps there was nothing even there to read, like Machello's self-created language. Maybe it was all just a random input. In which case she might lose the connection entirely and work for days trying to get it back to where they already had it now. No, best to leave it alone and pray that Daniel could hang on.

 

"Carter, try the gate. And keep trying every hour until it works."

 

"Yes sir."

 

Jack lay down beside Daniel, puffing up a blanket on which he rested his own head. Facing his unconscious friend's drawn and weary face, he spoke too softly for his other teammates to hear. "I'm going to walk on the moon, Daniel. And you sure as hell are coming with me."

 

_____

 

The last day, and activity had basically stopped. Carter brooded by the DHD, testing it every half hour. Teal'c brooded in a corner, watching O'Neil watching Daniel Jackson, knowing his suggestion had only made things worse. He would not have wished to harm his friend and teammate, but he could not have known.

 

Jack remained by Daniel's side, continuing to remind his friend that there was only one more day to go. If Daniel had any control in there at all, if power of the mind could do anything, he would make sure Daniel hung on. "Tomorrow, Daniel. We're going home tomorrow. You can do this."

 

Daniel had no strength to sit up. He wouldn't move, wouldn't eat. He needed help just to turn over and relieve himself into the jar, and then help turning back again. He had no energy to drink, nor to brush the slipping tear from his earnest eyes. Jack did that, meeting his friend's lethargic gaze, the trusting blue eyes filled with sorrow and determination. Daniel would do what he could to reach tomorrow… and hopefully they weren't wrong about the new connection to Earth. If they were, there was nothing more any of them could do.

 

"One more day, Daniel. We're leaving tomorrow. Home. Dr.Frasier. Comfortable beds." Antibiotics, IVs. But whether or not Janet Frasier could actually help at all was another significant worry in Jack's laden conscience; he was afraid that what they really needed was the Tok'ra. Which meant that Daniel needed to make it through more than a day; he needed to hang on until someone from the alien race could be contacted and find the time to visit Earth.

 

Once more he rested his hand on Daniel's head. "One more day, Daniel," he whispered softly. "We're going home tomorrow. You can do it." Then he slipped his hand into Daniel's, closing his fingers tightly.

 

Daniel had no conception of the passage of time. While he hoped the hours had been flying by during his interludes of unconsciousness, he suspected only minutes had passed between each. He heard Jack's voice each time he awoke, felt a warm hand grasping his own, and assumed it had been only minutes, making the day drag painfully slowly and doubt fill his thoughts. He did not know how much longer he would keep waking up. His internal body felt a mess; his abdomen was painfully sore from the coughing and his lungs and stomach were going round twelve in the ring. Aching, swollen joints prevented him from moving and his throat hurt too much to speak. Bewteen the headache and chills, he didn't know what other part of his body there was left to attack or keep him alive.

 

If it wasn't for the persisent voice by his ear, he could easily have allowed himself to give up and stay asleep. "Soon, Daniel. A few more hours and we'll be home. Pass go, collect two hundred dollars… or whatever they owe us by now… then dine at Park Place. My treat. Pick you up at seven so make sure you're on time." The hand squeezed his, and the voice returned as the wet towel on his forehead was lifted and replaced. "You're doing good. You'll make it. Just a few more hours."

 

So when the vortex finally threw its beautiful blue light into the dusty green-tinged warehouse, the low cheer that rang out overrode the tear that flitted down the cheek of the female astrophysicist and the quietly emitted, involuntary sob. Within seconds of her MALP communication, Daniel was through the wormhole in the arms of his two male colleagues, a medical team being demanded even before the three had entered the wormhole.

 

_____

 

"So…" Daniel was recuperating in the VIP room, thrilled to have all the water available to him that he could possibly want, happy to again have food to satiate those incapacitating hunger pains. Carter was just happy the penicillin had ended her symptoms almost the moment they had begun... and that she hadn't had to watch anyone else die.

 

"So." Jack felt enough relief for the four of them, relief that his whole team had returned intact, although barely. Without the oxygen and extra liquids, not to mention hope of returning home much sooner than expected, Daniel probably wouldn't have made it. It had been too close this time, and Jack hated when that happened.

 

"SO… if all the equipment we need to defend Earth is up there on the moon, and we can get it to function, will there be any reason for Washington to keep the Stargate project running? I mean, besides going back and forth to the moon every month?" The thought had worried Daniel since its inception into his mind about five minutes into the post mission briefing. The look on Hammond's face had been priceless when he'd realized just where all that machinery had been all these years and where his team had been stranded. But SG1's standing orders had basically been fulfilled, so what now?

 

"I think, Daniel, that Washington pretty much agrees with the general that we need to keep an eye on things out… there. And keep the other eye on those allies and enemies we've managed to befriend and piss off. In case there are any more races we haven't yet encountered, friend or foe, I think they'll keep the program up and running. So not to worry," he grinned.

 

"Oh. That's… good." Daniel wasn't completely convinced, but it sounded right. He looked at the team leader perched on the edge of the bed, one leg tucked up under his opposite knee. "You okay?"

 

Jack lifted an eyebrow. "Me? I'm fine."

 

"So, no effects from the tretonin…?"

 

"You mean am I surviving without it? Yep. That Tok'ra stuff works, as you can see for yourself." Jack had to give credit where it was due this time; the Tok'ra's antidote had, after all, saved his teammate's life. Daniel's immune system, boosted by the strong antihistamines in his bloodstream, had tried to reject that mashed tretonin symbiote even while the tretonin was doing its best to take full control. Thus the battle had raged on, neither side winning, leaving him virtually unprotected from any infectious organism or bacteria. Even the age-old dust had begun to attack. Without that antidote they would not have been able to restore Daniel's internal systems to normal, nor his own for that matter, and for that Jack was more than willing to cut the good snakes some slack. Hell, a lot of slack. Maybe he'd even cooperate next time Anise came by.

 

"Good."

 

"Yeah."

 

"So…"

 

"So you like my jokes, huh?"

 

"What?"

 

"You like to have me around on missions because of my jokes. Said so yourself."

 

"I was delirious, Jack."

 

"No, you were fine."

 

"I was sick."

 

"Later on."

 

"What?"

 

"What?"

 

They looked at each other in momentary silence. "Who's turn is it?"

 

"Um…"

 

"You still coming?"

 

"What? Where?"

 

"They're sending a team back to the moon as soon as you can figure out the coded control panel. Carter brought back photos and tracings, along with the notes she made when she was playing around with it. They'll bring back Bardenna's remains then too, and fool around with the rest of the equipment."

 

"And you're going along to take a walk?"

 

"Yup. You still coming?"

 

"With the Touched disease and Legionnaire's running rampant?"

 

"Hazmat, anitbiotics, lots of air, food, and water. And we can come back any time, once you figure out that code. But I'll understand if you don't want to."

 

"You'll need someone to keep you company."

 

"Someone who appreciates my humor."

 

"Someone to humor you, you mean."

 

"That means you're coming?"

 

"To leave my footprint beside yours on the moon? Wouldn't miss it for the world."

 

---

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