Jack
O'Neill inhaled deeply, hesitating before swiping his access card.
He
hated these situations. He was well
beyond hating these situations. He knew
the threat of the Goa'uld was continuous, and they could lose a solider at any
time. But these close encounters were hitting way too close to home.
Way
too close.
With
a sigh, he pushed himself forward and entered cautiously, finding Daniel
sitting quietly on the small bed they had provided for him within his cell.
"Hey,
how'd you get that notebook?"
It
wasn't the brightest thing to say, but it was the first thing that had come to
mind.
Daniel
shrugged, pausing as he placed his pencil down. "One of the SF's brought it in for me. I figure I might as
well be doing something constructive while I'm locked up. No one seems to
object." He chuckled apprehensively. "Guess I'm the model prisoner or
something."
Jack
nodded and looked down at the floor. He hated to see Daniel this way. Just like he had hated when Carter was
locked up. Damn, just the thought…
"I
assume that you've checked out just fine?" Daniel asked him quietly,
staring blankly at his notebook.
"Yeah.
We all did. Doc Fraiser is just waiting
for MRI's to come back for you and the others."
"There
must be a problem, then, if it's taking this long," Daniel said weakly,
voicing Jack's unspoken fear.
"Look,
Daniel," Jack began, approaching the cell. He rubbed his chin anxiously.
"Just tell me what really happened on 139."
Sighing,
Daniel did not answer, and instead turned his head to face the wall.
"Daniel,
you're not helping your case here."
"The
lab was filled with all kinds of weird vials and liquids. There were slides with cells and tissue
samples. Even some things growing in
jars," he said dimly.
"Did
you touch any of them?"
Again,
Daniel gave him the silent treatment.
"Dammit,
Daniel!" Jack ran his fingers through his hair, scrubbing at the back of
his neck as he tried to shake the nerves that were rattling him.
"I
told them not to go any closer." Daniel leaned his head against the wall
and gazed mournfully at Jack. "I told them to keep their distance while I
tried to figure out what the lab was for, based on the notes I had found."
"You
keep dodging my question, Daniel."
Daniel
shook his head, the muscles in his face tightening. "I'm not one of them,
Jack. I'm not. I wouldn't lie to you about something like this. Especially something like this. You've got
to believe me."
Jack
pursed his lips together and looked down at the ground. He wanted to believe him. Every part of him
wanted to believe Daniel was telling him the truth.
"Daniel,
I'd really like to believe you."
"I'm
not one of them."
"I
know. I know," Jack muttered, wishing he felt the same. "So, when the
MRI and the blood tests come back, then we'll know for sure," he stated, a
lift to his voice.
"No
chance of springing me now?" Daniel asked with a nervous laugh.
"'Fraid
not," Jack stated, feeling miserable. "You know the drill. Let's just
wait for those results and then we'll talk."
Daniel
nodded, and sighed, bowing his head over the notebook.
"Colonel?"
Jack
turned to face a young lieutenant that had entered the room. "Sir, General
Hammond would like to see you in the infirmary right away."
"Sure,"
he answered. "Hey, I'll be back," Jack told Daniel, smiling uneasily
as he followed the young woman out the door.
"Glad
you could join us, Colonel."
Jack
noted the serious expression on Hammond's face, mirrored in the petite doctor's
as well. Breathing out slowly, Jack just knew this wasn't going to be good.
"What's
up?" he asked, moving to join Carter and Teal'c, who had arrived there
just moments before he had.
"We
just got the results back from the MRI's done on SG-11 and SG-17." Hammond
stepped aside, allowing Doctor Fraiser to do her work.
"There
were several abnormalities discovered when we ran the initial testing,"
Fraiser stated, holding a chart in hand. "So, I wanted to take the time to
study them in more detail before I jumped to any conclusions."
"What
did you find?" Carter asked, keeping her voice level.
Doctor
Fraiser sighed. "I'm not going to lie to you, Sam. The results are
disturbing."
"Disturbing?"
Had Jack just heard correctly?
The
doctor nodded, moving over to where she had the x-ray and the MRI results
posted. "This is an x-ray we performed on Captain Mueller," she
informed them. Taking a pointer, she
tapped at the base of the skull, circling a small area.
"What
is that?" Carter asked.
"I
don't know," Fraiser said honestly.
"It
looks like a…bug," was the best way Jack could describe it. "Like a
fat little june bug or something."
"It
could be," Doctor Fraiser admitted. "Whatever it is, it's about the
size of your thumb, Colonel."
"SG-11
and SG-17 went to a planet and came back with bugs?" Jack shrugged. "Happens all the
time."
"Yeah,
but how many bugs do you know that make your eyes glow, Colonel," Carter
remarked, staring at the results.
He
was only trying to make light of the situation. Jack sighed, cocking his head as he conceded to her point. Truth
was, he'd rather have any situation but this.
"So,
what else can you tell us about these things?" Jack asked, bringing his
mind back to the conversation.
"Well,
Colonel, as you can probably tell, just by looking at the results…"
"They
appear to act like the Goa'uld," Teal'c stated bluntly.
Fraiser
nodded. "They attach themselves to the brain stem. Normally, a symbiote's
long body would then either remain flush against the spine or wrap itself
around the vertebrae. In this case, we have the same kind of parasitical
attachment, but the body is small enough to remain against the cranium."
"So,
are they Goa'uld?" the general asked, searching those under his command.
"They
are unlike anything I have previously encountered," Teal'c informed them.
"Well,
they have to be connected somehow," Carter said. "Or else we wouldn't
have witnessed that display in the briefing room."
"Baby
Goa'uld?" Jack offered. "I mean, younger than the symbiotes like
Junior or what we encountered on Chulak?"
He
wasn't even going to mentioned Hathor and her brood.
"I
do not believe so, O'Neill. As I have stated, I have never seen such a
creature."
"Maybe
this is just something new in the evolutionary process," Carter offered,
her statement nearly a question as she appealed to Fraiser.
"I
wish I could say for sure," Fraiser responded. "But even with my
experience with both infant larvae and mature symbiotes, I have never come
across anything remotely close to this."
"How's
Captain Mueller?" Hammond asked.
"She's
unconscious at the moment and under heavy restraint." She paused, appearing to choose her words
carefully. "All of those infected with these tiny parasites are
unconscious. We're not sure exactly what is causing their lack of
consciousness, but we're working on additional blood work and tissue samples to
uncover the cause."
"Unconscious?"
Well, Daniel wasn't unconscious. Jack
breathed a sigh of relief. He noticed Teal'c and Carter relax as well.
A
bit.
"Janet,
did any of the people who went to P9R-139 avoid infection?" Carter asked.
She
nodded. "Aside from you, SG-13, and 19? Colonel Edwards and Major Lorne.
They’ve been released, but are under guard for the next twenty-four
hours."
"And
Daniel?" Jack asked, getting restless once again.
Doctor
Fraiser opened her mouth to speak, but didn't say a word. Instead, she moved over and recovered
another chart, placing it carefully on the table beside her.
Jack
eyed her cautiously, refusing to look at his teammates.
"I've
gone over Daniel's results several times—"
"Out
with it, Doc."
With
a sigh, Doctor Fraiser held up an x-ray of Daniel's skull, posting it for
everyone to see. She didn't bother to
explain, and allowed the gravity of the situation take hold.
Hell,
she didn't need to talk. A picture
tells a thousand words.
Jack
bit his lip, and turned away as he heard Carter mutter in surprise. Teal'c
remained silent.
"I'm
sorry, Colonel," Fraiser said softly.
"Yeah."
He turned around to face them, avoiding the picture that Fraiser had posted. He
felt betrayed. Utterly betrayed. "So, how'd it get in? Any scar on the
neck or…" He exhaled, feeling his anger rising. "How could you miss
something like that?"
Fraiser
did not flinch. "Colonel, please. Daniel did not exhibit any scarring on
his neck. And when I first examined him
upon your return through the Stargate, there didn't appear to be anything
physically wrong with him. No lacerations to the throat, or any abrasions to
the front of his chest. In hindsight, I should have examined the cuts on his
left arm more carefully. That is the
only way this could have found entry, based on my results thus far."
"Yeah,
well hindsight does us a lot of good now."
"Colonel,"
Hammond warned, "Stand down. Doctor Fraiser is doing everything she
can."
"Janet,
I'm sorry, but that-that doesn't look like a Goa'uld," Carter said,
staring at Daniel's results.
"I
know, Sam. That's what has me
puzzled." Fraiser shook her head. "It's different than the smaller
parasites that have affected Captain Mueller and the others."
Jack
was exasperated. "The damn thing is curled up on his spine and sucking on
his brain!"
"That
is correct, O'Neill. However, Major Carter is also correct. This does not appear
to be a Goa'uld," Teal'c agreed.
Forcing
himself to look closer, Jack stared at the results, his stomach turning. The
Goa'uld, or whatever it was, was long and narrow, wormlike in structure,
without any appendages or other funky things sticking out of it. True, it was
different than the little june bug things, but that made his case even
stronger. Whatever the hell was in Daniel was pretty damn close to being a
Goa'uld.
"Looks
like an snake to me."
"It
indeed appears to perform in the same manner as the Goa'uld," Teal'c
admitted.
"That
may appear to be the case, Teal'c," Janet said. She paused, pointing to her results. "However, as you can
see, this creature lacks the physical characteristics of a mature
symbiote."
"So,
are you telling me it's immature? Like
what happened to Kalwalsky?" Jack asked.
"No,
Colonel, I don't think so. Like I said,
I am not really sure what we're dealing with here."
"So…"
Teal'c
straightened his back, exchanging glances with his fellow teammates. "I do
not believe this to be a Goa'uld."
"Is
this some entirely different race we haven't yet encountered?" Hammond
asked, dropping his arms to his side.
"Sir, it's a possibility." Carter cringed, staring at Daniel's chart. "Or maybe it's a subspecies of Goa'uld. I haven't sensed the presence of any Goa'uld on this base."
"Whatever
they are, they don't have any naquadah in their systems," Fraiser told
them, closing Daniel's file. "Neither the small parasites nor the larger
one in Daniel seem to indicate there was ever any naquadah in their
blood."
"So,
they shouldn't be able to use any of the Goa'uld technology," Carter
stated more than asked.
"Let's
hope not," Hammond said. He turned
to Jack, keeping his gaze level. "You know that we're going to have to try
interrogation."
"If
it is anything like the Goa'uld, it will not share information freely,"
Teal'c announced.
"I
don't care about the information. What we should be talking about is getting
that thing out of Daniel," Jack said irately. "We know what Goa'uld do to their hosts. Hell, we know what the Tok'ra do. If that
thing is a snake, then we haven't even been talking to Daniel. He must be
freaking out by now."
"I
understand that, Colonel. And believe
me, I am not going to sit back and let Doctor Jackson go through that kind of
torture. But before we do anything, we need to know what we're dealing
with."
Jack
stared at the general, not at all pleased with the situation.
"In
the meantime, I'll contact the Tok'ra," Carter said, gazing at Jack
sympathetically. "We know they have ways of removing symbiotes. It worked
on Sarah Gardner."
"Yeah,
and look how stable she turned out," Jack muttered. The aftermath had not been pretty, and the
poor gal had been signed up for some serious counseling. But could you blame her for having issues?
That Osiris was a bitch. Or bastard, depending on how you looked at it.
"Get
right on that, Major," Hammond ordered, ignoring Jack's comment.
"Yes,
sir."
Jack
watched her leave quickly, exiting the infirmary. Building a new resolve, Jack
then turned to Hammond, gazing at him levelly.
"Permission
to interrogate—"
"I
don't think that's a good idea, Jack."
"General?"
He shifted his weight uneasily. "General, we've got to get through to
Daniel somehow. I figure I'm the best
one to do it."
Hammond
seemed to consider the possibility. "Fine. But Teal'c and I will accompany
you."
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