Embedded Files
The Sun On The Horizon
Chapter Two
Waiting
Gusts of wind ripped across the airfield’s surface. They created mini-tornados of dust that flung themselves in Jack’s face before dancing away into the air, taunting his earth-bound helplessness. He spat out a mouthful of grit and resumed his afternoon trudge back to the most recent addition to the SGC’s space fleet.
Jack sourly regarded the misshapen and patched exterior. Technically it was Jacob’s ship but not even the Tok’ra would want such a clapped out excuse for a vessel as this thing. He didn’t care – as long as it did its job getting them to Tsydon and back.
His easy, ground-eating stroll took him past the other ships held waiting for clearance to head for Tsydon. Only seventeen now: four had given up and sought out other markets for their goods. News about what was going on out there was sparse, but Jacob had returned three days earlier with reports that another Goa'uld had launched an attack on Ba'al’s homeworld. Why, it was unclear, but rumours abounded that it was someone in Anubis’ camp and that none of the current crop of System Lords had ever been known to take on such a powerful opponent as Ba'al before. Jack dipped his head away from another blast of hot, dusty wind and turned away from the desolate, stranded ships to walk down the side of the SS Spacemonkey.
Captain Roberts, perched on the boarding ramp, greeted him. ‘All quiet, Jack.’
‘Good to hear, Martin.’ He thumped up the ramp, still uncomfortable with the use of personal names, despite the need to maintain their cover as off-world traders. Twenty-some years in the Force bred a powerful habit to overcome.
In the dim, still smelly interior he found Teal'c and Beechworth putting the finishing touches to their evening meal. ‘Jacob back yet?’ He plonked himself down on a supply crate and stretched his legs out.
‘He’s sent his report to the Tok’ra but he’s gone with Aris to get some more fresh fruit and vegetables,’ Carter replied, not looking up from the dismembered gizmo on the deck before her.
‘Aris “knows” a guy,’ Ferretti added.
‘I’ll just bet he does.’ Jack accepted a bowl of something hot and spicy from Teal'c. He gave it an experimental sniff. ‘Dare I ask?’
‘It is bonetha, a favourite of the people of Abydos,’ Teal'c supplied with a mysterious smile.
Jack blinked and pinned him with an expectant stare.
Lieutenant Beechworth handed him a warm flatbread. ‘Doc Jackson showed me how to make it when we were on that mission to P2Z-158.’
‘P2…?’ Bad enough to try and distinguish one planet from another, but to expect a guy to remember them by designation…
‘Daniel was seconded to SG-2, sir,’ Carter said without looking up. ‘The planet was an abandoned outpost of Ra’s.’
He frowned, still not getting it.
‘Black hole, sir.’
‘Ah.’ He dunked the bread in the stew and shoved a generous amount in his mouth. ‘Mmm. What else did Daniel share, Sandy?’
‘Oh. Well, he told us some tales about Abydos, sir—Jack—si—er, about his life there and all.’
‘Really?’ Carter and Teal'c echoed Jack’s surprise. Daniel was usually quite reticent about his time on Abydos.
‘The planet we were on had some similarities to Abydos. It stirred some memories for him.’ Roberts joined the dinner gathering and glanced at Jack with a twinkle in his eye. ‘Actually, most of his stories were about other people – you in particular, sir.’
Uh oh. ‘Me?’ He completely failed to keep the sharpness out of his voice. ‘Why don’t you run a few of those by us, now. Help pass the time.’
‘Er…’ Beechworth stared at the deck plates, chewing thoughtfully on her lip. ‘Well, the doc did say the city’s kids latched onto you pretty quickly. Followed you round, imitated everything you did.’ Encouraged by Jack’s smile he went on. ‘They couldn’t get you to eat that lizard creature they served up.’
‘I have a delicate stomach.’
‘Yes, sir. What else—yeah, they were all so amazed when you showed them the Jaffa were just men, not the gods they’d always thought. Oh, and that you saved the doc’s life in a sandstorm.’
Kinda made up for getting him killed… Whoa there—
‘You saved Daniel in a sandstorm, sir?’ Carter piped up.
‘Uh huh, well, he was exhausted. I just covered the both of us till Skaara and his kids found us.’ Jack pinned Beechworth with a hard stare. ‘Daniel said I showed the Abydonians the face of the Jaffa?’
‘Yeah, he said it was the pivotal moment in the rebellion. Kasuf realised they’d been lied to for centuries. The people rose up against Ra and attacked the pyramid. If you hadn’t done that there wouldn’t have been a rebellion at all.’
The rest of the crew were staring at him in admiration, which jarred even more with the warning bells now clamouring in his head.
‘Way to go, sir.’
‘An honourable action, O'Neill.’
‘Yeah, Teal'c, it was.’ Jack frowned up at his friend. ‘Except it wasn’t my action. It was Daniel’s. Daniel was the one who hit the switch on the Jaffa’s helmet. Daniel was the one who convinced Kasuf that their god was false. It wasn’t me. It was Daniel.’
‘Maybe he was just trying to deflect attention away from himself,’ suggested Carter.
‘I don’t think so, ma’am,’ Beechworth said. ‘The doc clearly said it was the colonel.’
‘Why would Daniel Jackson alter the facts?’ Teal'c asked.
Jack felt something curdle in his gut. ‘He wouldn’t. Never. Daniel—alter history? No.’
‘Sorry, sir,’ Beechworth began. ‘I didn’t mean to…’
‘I’m glad you did mention it, Lieutenant.’ Jack glanced at Carter, then Teal'c. ‘Something’s not right.’ With Daniel was the unspoken worry.
‘What did he say in his report, sir?’ Carter asked.
‘He didn’t file a report – he stayed on Abydos, remember?’
‘Yes, but later, when he did come home. Didn’t he file a post-mission report then?’
Jack thought hard. Those first few months of the SGC had been chaotic: getting Daniel settled, officially alive again, in the midst of his grief, at the same time they were establishing frontline and support teams, sorting out the data from the Abydos cartouche and making first contact with new worlds… ‘He filed hundreds of reports. Damned if I know if he did a retrospective on Abydos. It was sealed from us… gone…’
‘Perhaps he just got confused,’ offered Ferretti.
‘And yet, Daniel Jackson remembered the event clearly. It was only the role he played that has become unclear,’ Teal'c rumbled.
‘That’s what’s got me concerned, Teal'c,’ Jack said. ‘He remembered what happened, but he’s got it all muddled…’ He trailed off at the sound of voices outside.
The sound of people clomping into the ship preceded Jacob, looking tired and disgruntled. ‘Evening all. I hope that’s dinner I smell.’
‘Abydonian Jambalaya, Jacob,’ said Beechworth from the tiny cooking facilities. ‘With a few native ingredients to liven it up.’
‘Washed down with a fine ale from my own private stock,’ announced Aris Boch, appearing behind Jacob with an armload of bottles.
Jack nodded to them both. ‘Still no clearance to depart,’ he told them. He sent a glance at the others, warning them the subject of Daniel and Abydos was closed while Boch was around.
His expanded team settled on the assortment of blankets, old chairs and mattresses that now decorated the ancient ship. Wreaths of fragrant herbs dangled from cargo hooks in the ceiling, fighting vainly to conceal the pervasive stench of the ship’s nether regions and the tart chemicals Carter had used to clean it.
‘How’d it go with the Tok’ra, Dad?’
Jacob looked at his daughter with a grimace. ‘They want me back—tried to convince me that an operative of lower rank could take this mission, that I should be used for more important tasks.’ He took in the indignant expressions around him with a complacent smile. ‘I told ‘em to shove it. I told them Daniel Jackson is possibly the most important person on either side of the Tau’ri/Tok’ra alliance, and he deserves all the help we can give him.’
‘Oh, Dad.’ Carter reached over and hugged her father.
Jack, too, found himself a little choked up. ‘Thank you, Jacob.’
Jacob winked and held out his bowl. ‘Any chance of dinner?’
Å
Day 12.
Stuck on Gaidhlig.
Still.
Departure controllers singularly unhelpful. “The blockade will lift when the blockade lifts.”
Another two ship crews gave up and left in search of other markets.
Soon may have to revise cover story to justify us wanting to trade only on Tsydon.
Boch has taken Teal'c, Roberts and Beechworth on a recce for information. He continues to profess repentance.
I do not, and will not, trust him.
Ever.
We’re due another check-in today. Bairnsdale can go. Cannot risk getting into a situation with The Big Wick and being ordered to abandon.
WILL NOT return without Dirt Boy.
Have developed a desire to keep a diary.
Apparently.
Jack leaned back in the battered recliner he’d dragged out into the sun. Behind him the ship squatted like a deformed toad. Smelt like one too.
On the far side of the landing field a wild assortment of cargo tramps, passenger carriers and shuttles zipped in and out of the bustle of warehouses and terminals. One particularly sleek plane hummed over his head. He watched it go, envying its occupants’ ability to move. He pulled his cap off and scratched his head.
Bet that’s a sweet bird to fly.
Daydreams filled his head: he pictured himself in command of that swift little ship, rocketing from planet to planet; making exotic trades with a wild variety of natives. Old customers would great him like family, buxom daughters would sob when he departed. Need Daniel to smooth the negotiations. Teal'c to do his ‘I shall squash you like a bug if you do not comply’ shtick. Carter could keep the ship ticking over. That’d be a great life. Welcomed in every tavern – no snakes – no unending war… One day.
Jack shook himself out of his reverie. ‘Bairnsdale! Time to go.’
Booted feet thudded down the ramp. Jack was curious to see Carter next to Bairnsdale, the two women tall and assured, no doubt armed to the hilt beneath their long duster coats.
‘S—Jack. I’d like to go too. There are a couple of things in my office I think would be useful.’ She cut off his already-forming protest. ‘I’ll be quick. In and out. Ten minutes, tops.’
‘What kind of “things”?’
She hesitated. ‘Be quicker to show you…’
Considering the amount of gear she’d crammed into the packs she’d brought, he wondered there was anything left in her office. ‘G’head.’
They moved off.
‘Don’t be late for supper. Teal'c’s cooking and you know how he hates his food getting cold.’ Don’t get into anything with Hammond. ‘And bring some donuts!’
Å
Evening came quickly. The planet’s diurnal cycle was eighteen hours long. Human stomachs still used to Earth time demanded their evening meal end up in the middle of the night. Since the team was on staggered watch shifts, it didn’t much matter.
Talk resumed over coffee and Carter’s donuts. With a cheeky grin, she’d presented two boxes, swiped from the officer’s ready room. Now she was sitting in a corner fiddling with a laptop.
Jack pinned Teal'c with an expectant look. ‘Find out anything today?’
Teal'c opened his mouth but Boch beat him to the punch. ‘As it happens, O'Neill, we did. There’s a lot of talk about the attack on Ba'al’s home world. People are speculating who’s behind it.’
‘Several sources claim Zipacna is responsible,’ Teal'c interjected smoothly.
‘Zippy?’ Jack grimaced as the image of the skirt-wearing, produce-adorned Goa'uld sprang to mind. ‘He wouldn’t have the balls,’ he said bluntly.
‘In the past, no,’ said Jacob. ‘But the Tok’ra have been gathering intel lately that suggests Zipacna has aligned himself with Anubis. If Anubis really does have the ordnance that Osiris was suggesting at the Summit, then Zipacna would be confident enough to attack someone like Ba'al.’
Jack grimaced. ‘Things are changing. The balance of power is shifting – in flux, at least. Minor Goa'uld becoming more powerful, challenge and counter challenge. No doubt double-crosses galore.’
Boch looked up from his meal. ‘There is a lot of talk in certain circles about Anubis, how there’s a frantic scramble among the Goa'uld to either align with him or secure other allegiances in preparation to making a stand against him.’
‘And Daniel’s in the middle of it all.’
‘Where does Yu stand?’ Ferretti asked.
‘He stands apart,’ replied Jacob. ‘As he’s always done. He’s never courted partnership with other System Lords, nor has he stood against them. He holds his own territory and has the fleet and armies to defend them.’
‘Why did Ba'al take the doc to Yu?’ Bairnsdale asked. ‘He kept him hidden for so long and then suddenly he’s showing him off, where everyone could see.’
‘Bargaining power,’ Boch said. ‘Ba'al wanted something from Yu and he needed Yu to know Doctor Jackson was under his control.’
‘Which leads back to why Ba'al needs Daniel,’ finished Ferretti.
‘I wonder…’ Boch began. ‘A couple of months ago I heard rumours of a secret group working within the Goa'uld, some of them may even be System Lords.’
‘As did the Linvris?’ Teal'c asked.
‘You’ve heard of the Linvris?’ Boch sounded impressed. ‘Yes, much like the Linvris.’
‘And just who is in this secret group?’ Jack finished his second donut and poured a coffee for himself and Jacob.
‘No idea, O'Neill. It’s secret. All I know is it’s a small group and they came together some time in the last year.’
‘Perhaps they have aligned themselves in response to the threat posed by Anubis.’ Teal'c chewed thoughtfully on his fourth donut. Jack weighed his chances of scoring another. Damn.
Boch nodded.
‘Jacob?’ Jack looked the general.
‘News to us, Jack. But I’ll make a point of asking at my next check-in.’
Bairnsdale leaned forward, excitement in her voice. ‘If Ba'al is part of this group, maybe he was trying to persuade Yu to join. He could have been using Doc Jackson as an example of his ‘superiority’ over the Tau’ri?’
The others joined in with various opinions. Jack tuned out, focused instead on his 2IC: sitting at the back, her meal ignored as she typed furiously on her laptop. He rose and snuck up behind her.
‘Watch’a doin’?’
Her flinch was as good as an admission of guilt. She recovered, entered a final string of code and cleared the screen before looking up at him, defiant and determined.
‘Sir—I’m worried about Daniel’s memory. I thought I could use the time here to review his mission reports and just check if there are any inconsistencies.’
Jack processed. Blinked. ‘You mean you’ve got his mission reports? Here? Are you nuts?’
Conversation behind them stilled. Carter flushed, but didn’t look away. ‘Sir, they’re triple encoded, protected by retinal scan and thirty-digit passwords. Any unauthorised attempt to access the reports will ignite the thermite I’ve placed inside the laptop.’
He kept the hard stare on her for a full twenty seconds. ‘You wired your laptop?’
‘Well—er—it’s not my usual one—it’s a spare—uh—yes, sir.’
He couldn’t help the stare melting into a grin. ‘Sweet. So. Find anything?’ Protocol be damned. Hammond would flip if he found out, but if anything could help them find Daniel, he’d sign off on it. He plunked himself next to her.
Carter blew out a sigh of relief. ‘I’ve just started looking, sir. He did file a report on his time on Abydos, though.’
‘Bring it up.’
The document glowed white on the screen, headed by the SGC logo and admonishments of Eyes Only – Top Secret. Jack settled down to read.
MISSION REPORT:
Offworld expedition to the Planet Abydos, 8 July, 1996.
Including personal recollections of the culture, language and social structure of the Abydonian people.
Daniel Jackson, MA, PhD, PhD, PhD.
Jack glanced at the page count: 379. Oy. ‘Ferretti, put some more coffee on, will you? Make it strong.’ This was gonna take a while.
Å
As it turned out, Daniel’s mission report ran for only two pages, and was sparsely, tersely detailed. Jack went through it once, then again. Daniel’s simply worded statements brought a wealth of images flooding Jack’s memory: pyramid; saw the mine; met the chief; stayed to dinner; caught by Ra; Kasuf led the uprising… No mention of Jack getting him killed in Ra’s throne room, or Daniel trying to persuade him not to kill them all.
It was perfunctory – a summation of events that had happened eighteen months prior to the telling. Following the main report was a much more expansive, carefully detailed, even loving report on every aspect of the Abydonian way of life. Jack skimmed it and made a promise to read it with the attention it deserved as soon as time allowed. He looked at the long list of mission reports: viewed like that he was actually impressed with the huge number of missions his team had completed. Finding any inconsistencies was going to keep Carter busy for a while.
Å
When Jack woke next morning – to an already bright, hot day – she was still sitting cross-legged on her mattress, laptop burning brightly in front of her. She had it hooked up to a small naquada generator. He grinned at the thought of what kind of energiser bunny that thing could be.
‘Morning, sir.’ Bairnsdale handed him coffee. ‘Ship is secure. Sandy and General—Jacob have gone to the shipping office for an update.’
‘Thanks, Joyce.’ Getting his people to drop the formal titles was an uphill battle.
‘Pleasure… Jack.’
‘Sam? Carter!’ When she finally looked up there was a puzzlement etched in her tired face. ‘You been at that all night?’
‘Yes, sir. I’ve found other inconsistencies in Daniel’s reports.’
‘Really?’ Jack felt a cold shock sweep over him. He really hadn’t expected her to find anything. Hadn’t wanted there to be anything to find.
‘Only little things; nothing that affected the mission or our safety. But, there’s something else. I’ve been checking the logs of who accessed Daniel’s reports.’
‘Why?’
‘I noticed something odd.’
He sculled his coffee and crawled over to her. ‘How odd?’
‘I’m not sure. It’s probably none of my business.’
‘Spill it, Carter.’
She flipped the screen back to the report list and highlighted a line of dates and names, all of which were the same: Colonel J. O'Neill, 24 October 1997.
‘What is that?’
‘Access logs. Sir, you accessed all of Daniel’s reports from the beginning of the program to the mission in which Nem took Daniel captive. I just wondered what you were looking for.’
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘Uh, yes, you did.’ She pointed at the accusing screen.
‘Did not.’
‘Sir—’
‘Carter, I haven’t read any of these files since Daniel originally sent them to me.’
‘But, your access code was used.’
‘Someone else must have…’ He trailed off as the flat rejection of that idea widened her eyes. Yeah, like he gave his authorisation code to anyone.
‘When was that?’
‘24 October… Oh, no.’
‘What?’
‘Sir, that was the day Hathor arrived and took control—’
Of the base and all the men, including me. ‘You mean, she—I—’
‘You weren’t yourself, sir.’ She sounded apologetic.
Sickened, he slumped back against the cold metal wall. Hathor had used him to plunder Daniel’s mission reports. She’d gained all sorts of sensitive intel on the planets they’d visited. Never gonna be free of that cow.
‘Just Daniel’s reports?’
‘Well, I’ve only checked Daniel’s. We can investigate further when we get back to the SGC.’
‘Must be how she got so much information on the base.’ It was a question that had never properly been answered. ‘It’s too late now, but we’d better check the rest of the base archives when we get back. What?’
Another frown was forming on her forehead. ‘If Hathor had accessed our reports, even just Daniel’s, why did she go through that charade with the memory scanner when she took us prisoner?’
‘Why indeed. And it was a charade, wasn’t it? None of the intel we gave up was worth a damn.’
‘None of this makes sense, sir. The more we investigate, the more questions we have.’
‘Perhaps Hathor sought to correlate your recollections with the written accounts in the mission reports.’ Teal'c spoke up from the shadowy corner where he’d been kel’no’reeming.
Jack felt as if he were slowly sinking in quicksand. ‘Why?’ he asked. Again.
‘To verify the accuracy of the reports?’ mused Carter.
‘Or to verify the accuracy of the memory recall device,’ Teal'c said.
Jack’s brain finally kicked in and latched on to the vital word. ‘Memories. Everything keeps coming back to memories. Daniel said Ba’al was searching his memories, too.’
‘Hathor was pretty interested in what happened to Ra. She could have wanted more detail about the uprising on Abydos. Daniel’s report was pretty sketchy – maybe that’s why she used the memory device on us.’
Jack grimaced. ‘Why is it every overdressed popinjay of an alien wants to futz with Daniel’s head?’
‘He has received more attention than one would assume to be usual,’ Teal'c commented.
‘What’s usual about someone channel-surfing through your past?’
‘Or playing your worst experiences over and over in 3-D?’
‘Or searching for a wife who’s been dead for thousands of years. He was fuzzy for days after we got him back from Nem.’
‘Or being subjected to a Goa'uld hand jewel three times.’ Teal'c’s voice was filled with anger. ‘I have not known even the strongest Jaffa to survive such an attack even once.’
‘Four times,’ Ferretti piped up. He, Bairnsdale and Roberts were sprawled on their bedding, listening intently to SG-1’s conversation.
Jack pinned the major with a hard stare. ‘I’ll say – for the tenth time today – what?’
Sam and Teal'c were likewise surprised. ‘Lou, Daniel’s been attacked with the ribbon device three times, not four,’ Carter said.
‘Not according to the doc.’ He frowned at the flat denial coming back at him. ‘Okay, when you and Doc Fraiser and Daniel came back from Egypt, I picked you up at the airport, remember? Daniel wasn’t feeling well so I drove him home while you went on to the base.’
Carter nodded and Jack remembered his own frustration at the delays caused by domestic flights that had foiled his and Teal'c’s attempts to reach their team.
‘Well, by the time we reached his apartment, Daniel was really unwell – balance was shot, headache, blurred vision, you name it. He said Amonet zapping him for the third time might have been the end of the cycle, but now that Osiris had got him he was afraid there were more System Lords lining up in the future. Bad things come in threes, you see.’
‘He must have been confused,’ Carter said dismissively.
‘Possibly he was – then. But the next day I called by with his Jeep. He’d left it at the mountain. He was feeling better, still headachy and tired but compos mentis, you know? He said getting drilled by those ribbon devices was the worst and four times was just ridiculous. He said if I saw another Goa'uld coming at him with one I had his permission to shoot them. Which was kind of a joke, but that’s how I remember what he said. Four times.’
Jack felt a shiver creep over him. He glanced swiftly at Teal'c and Carter. ‘Klorel got him on the Ha’tak.’
‘Osiris did it in Egypt,’ added Carter.
‘Amonet attacked Daniel Jackson…’ Teal'c broke off, still discomfited by the action he’d then been forced into.
‘That’s three. When else has Daniel mixed it with a System Lord, and we didn’t… what—notice?’
‘He didn’t name the perp, Jack. Sorry, I thought you knew,’ Ferretti said.
Teal'c and Carter were looking as appalled and confused as Jack felt. He was silent, every encounter SG-1 had made with a System Lord or even a Goa'uld raced through his head like a fast forwarded montage of bad movies.
Apophis—no.
Multiple dudes on Chulak—no.
Klorel—check.
Chronos—no.
Nirrti—no.
Yu—no.
Sokar—no.
Osiris—check.
Amonet—check.
Hathor… Daniel had spent a lot of time with The Cow. Had she violated his mind as well as his body? And then there was the Goa'uld Mardi Gras. The thing – well, one thing – he’d hated about that whole set-up was that Daniel had been alone in amidst a swarm of Goa'uld, his only backup out of reach on a Tel’tak. Osiris had nearly filleted him, Yu had nearly… what else had happened? But, no – Mardi Gras had been a whole year after the Egypt debacle. So that left…
‘Perhaps Hathor attacked Daniel Jackson at the SGC,’ Teal'c said quietly.
‘He was pretty out of it when we found him.’ Carter said the words reluctantly, as if invading Daniel’s privacy somehow.
‘And yet there was no mark upon Daniel Jackson’s skin, as such attacks invariably produce.’
‘There is another possibility, Jack.’ Ferretti leaned forward, his expression intent. ‘The doc spent time as a prisoner of Ra, remember? He thought he’d coerced Daniel into killing us outside the pyramid. Maybe that was the first time?’
‘Could be, Lou. He never really went into what happened with Ra.’
‘Would it be in the report he filed, sir?’
‘There’s nothing in his official report about being ribboned. The rest of the document is about Abydonian culture. He never mentioned it either, not to me, anyway. That’s the problem, Carter. If something happened to him, something that’s causing consequences now, we need to know about it.’ Jack glared out the open door at the rows of stalled traders. If it had been Hathor who’d ribboned Daniel, well there was no real way of finding out. But, if it had been Ra…
He got to his feet and ferreted through a crate of his gear. Sunglasses, GDO, canteen. ‘Carter, keep digging through Daniel’s reports. Concentrate on the times he was ribboned and both times we met Hathor. Teal'c, keep an eye on the kids and fill in Jacob when he gets back.’ He shoved a handful of power bars into his jacket pockets. ‘Lou, fancy a walk?’
Ferretti gave him the standard infantryman’s groan, even as he got to his feet. He grabbed his own gear, and was halfway to the door before Teal'c could arch an eyebrow. ‘How far are we going?’ Lou asked.
A thin smile tugged Jack’s mouth. ‘From here to the ‘gate. And, depending if Skaara’s at the pyramid or not, from the ‘gate to Nagada.’
'You are going to Abydos, O'Neill?' Teal'c enquired.
‘We’ll be back – six hours, tops.’ Jack swept his gaze over their astonished faces. ‘Don’t leave without us.’
Jack slapped Lou on the shoulder and took off at a steady jog, headed for the Stargate.
Å
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