CHAPTER SIX

Daniel entered the brig, his teammates at his side.  Osiris had asked to see him.  Though he would rather have had nothing more to do with her, he was a little curious about what she wanted.

"Daniel Jackson.  I am pleased that you have agreed to speak with me," the Goa'uld said.

"What do you want, Osiris?" Daniel asked.

She looked at the others with an expression of scorn.  "What I have to say is to you alone."

"Too bad, because we're not going anywhere," Jack told her.

Daniel looked at him.  "It's all right, Jack.  She can't hurt me."

"Daniel."

"It'll be fine.  I'll be out in a few minutes."

Jack hesitated before nodding.  He, Sam and Teal'c then left.  Daniel turned back to Osiris.

"Why do you allow those who are inferior command you?" the Goa'uld asked.

"I don't consider them to be inferior.  They're human beings, just like I am, like Sarah is."

"Your powers make you superior.  They are nothing, but you have the power of a god."

"Ah, now I'm back to being a god, huh?"

Osiris smiled.  "Your power makes you great, Daniel.  It could destroy the Goa'uld."

Daniel did not miss the fact that Osiris had called him by his first name.  Already guessing that she was going to try to talk him into something, he remained silent.

"I know that is what you and your people want," she continued, "to see an end to the Goa'uld.  I could help you.  If you release me, we could work together to destroy the other System Lords.  With my knowledge and your power, we would be unstoppable."

"And what would you get out of it?"

"I would only ask that, once Anubis is defeated, I be given the territories and armies he possesses.  Such a small thing to ask."  Osiris smiled again.  "As a gesture of my good faith, I will even move to another host so that Sarah will be free.  I know that is what you desire."

Daniel shook his head slightly.  "Even if I was interested in your offer, Osiris, I know exactly what would happen if I took it.  If we did actually manage to get rid of all the other System Lords, including Anubis, and you took over control of Anubis' armies and territories, sooner or later you'd target Earth.  You wouldn't be able to stand having us around, and you'd know that, once we were gone, you could have everything, which is what you want.  No Goa'uld can ever be satisfied unless they have it all.  Not only that, you'd want revenge against me for beating you.  So, no deal, Osiris.  I'm not that stupid.  Now, if this is the only reason why you wanted to see me, I'm just going to leave, because I have much better things to do."

Osiris' expression changed.  "I will see you die, Doctor Jackson," she said, her voice now cold, hard and full of hatred.  "I will see you suffer slowly and painfully."

Just then, two Tok'ra came in.  Daniel met the Goa'uld's eyes one last time.  "No, Osiris, you won't."  Then he walked out of the room.

A few hours later, Daniel entered the infirmary.  He went to the bed where Sarah lay.  Sitting on the edge, he gazed down at her.  She was free.  Sarah was free.  Though delighted, Daniel's joy was bittersweet.  He was glad that he'd managed to do things right and make it possible for the Goa'uld to be removed from Sarah, but, at the same time, he couldn't help but think about how he failed to do the same for Sha're.

At that moment, Sarah awoke with a start.

"It's all right.  You're safe." he told her soothingly, reaching out to touch her.

"Daniel?"

"I'm here," he said as she sat up.  "It's all over."  Their arms came around each.  "You're free."

Sarah began to cry.  "I'm so sorry."

"Shhh.  It's not your fault.

"I couldn't stop it."

"We're gonna get you through this."

Daniel held onto her, stroking her back comfortingly.  Now would come the hard part, trying to help Sarah recover from her ordeal and cope with what happened.  He swore to himself that he would do whatever he could to get her through it.

---

Sam watched Daniel and Sarah from the doorway of the infirmary.  She was happy for Daniel.  She knew how much it meant to him that Sarah was free.  Sam was also happy for Sarah.  Though she had been an unwilling host to a Tok'ra for a while, Sam could still only imagine what Sarah had gone through as a host to a Goa'uld all this time.

Janet came up to Sam, her eyes on Sarah.  "She's going to have a long, hard road ahead of her."

"Yes, I can imagine so.  I remember what it was like to deal with having been taken as a host, and I was one for only a short while, and it was to a Tok'ra, not a Goa'uld.  She's been a host for three years.  Who knows how many awful things the symbiote made her do during that time."

"Daniel is determined to see her through it the whole way.  He wants to postpone his vacation until after she's well enough to handle things on her own."

"But that could be weeks, even months."

Janet sighed.  "I know."

Sam shook her head.  "He's always doing that.  He's always putting other people ahead of himself.  Sometimes, I wish he wouldn't.  He has gotten hurt so many times because of it."

"Yet he'll keep right on doing it."

"I know."

Sarah laid down and closed her eyes.  After a moment, Daniel got up and came toward them, a frown on his face.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked him.

"Sarah told me that she thinks it would be best if she tried to get through this without my help," Daniel replied.

"Why?"

"Because I remind her so strongly of what happened to her.  Whenever she sees me, she remembers what Osiris did to me, and that makes her think of everything else.  I guess I can understand her feelings.  Maybe it would be best for her to get help from someone who has no connection to what happened to her."

The doctor nodded.  "I think you may be right."

"Do me a favor though, Janet."

"What's that?"

"Don't have her talk to MacKenzie.  She needs someone who cares."

"I couldn't agree more."

Daniel and Sam left the infirmary and went to his office.

"So, how are you doing?" Sam asked.  "This whole thing can't be easy on you."

Daniel sat down.  "Oh, I'm all right, glad it's over."

"Yeah, I bet.  I'm really happy that you saved Sarah, Daniel.  It must make you feel good."

Daniel nodded slightly.  "Yes, it does, though. . . ."

"You can't help but think about Sha're," Sam guessed.

"Yeah."  The archeologist gave a sigh.  "But I can't live my life dwelling on all the 'if-onlys' anymore.  I did that for a lot of years, and it just made me miserable."

"I know what you mean.  I have a whole lot of 'if-onlys' in my life."  Sam took a seat, deciding to talk about something happier.  "So, have you had any thoughts on where we're all going on our vacation?"

"I haven't given it much thought.  Jack will probably nix just about every idea I have."

As if speaking his name had conjured him up, Daniel at that moment felt Jack approaching.  Teal'c was with him.

"Hey, kids," the colonel greeted as he and the Jaffa came in a moment later.  "Whatcha doin'?"

"Actually, sir, we were talking about where we're all going to go on our vacation," Sam replied.

"That's a good question.  Where are we going?"

"I don't know, Jack," Daniel answered.  "I guess we need to decide on a place that will make us all happy."

Jack shook his head.  "No, this is for you, Daniel.  You decide."

Daniel's eyebrows rose.  "You mean you'll agree with whatever I decide?"

"Yep."

"I can pick anywhere?"

"Anywhere.  Hammond said that we can even go off-world if we want to.  He figures that the SGC owes you at least that much.  Remember, though, that we only have a week, that is unless you've changed your mind about that."

"No, a week is long enough."

"Okay, so what's it gonna be?  Where are we going to go?"

Daniel thought about it for a while.  "Fishing," he finally replied.

The mouths of his teammates all fell open, even Teal'c's.

"Did you say . . . fishing?" Jack asked, hardly believing what he'd heard.

"Uh huh.  Well, actually, I doubt that I'd be doing much fishing, but you can.  Sam and I can go exploring, I'll have some artifacts to play with, and I'm sure that Teal'c will be able to find something to do, too."

"Daniel, where are you thinking of going?" Sam asked.

The archeologist smiled.  "M4A-826"

Sam also got a smile.  "Daniel, that's perfect!"

Confused, Jack looked at the two scientists.  "What?  What's perfect?  Which planet is M4A-826"

"Remember the amusement park, sir?"

"The. . . ."  Jack's eyes widened in remembrance.  "You mean that place that was sitting right on the shore of that big, beautiful lake?"

Daniel nodded, smiling.  "The lake with all the fish."

Jack's face split into a grin.  "Daniel, I gotta hand it to you.  I couldn't think of a better place to go."

And so it was that, two days later, SG-1 went to M4A-826.  The planet was one of the addresses that Jack had input into the computer when he was carrying the knowledge of the Ancients in his mind, which meant that it was one the Goa'uld never visited.  About a mile from the gate, there were some ruins that looked as if they had once been some kind of amusement park.  SG-1 only had two days to explore the place last time, and Daniel always wanted to go back.  So did Jack, but not because of the ruins.  It was because of the lake beside which the ruins sat  He'd wanted to fish that lake in the worst way, especially after he caught sight of the size fish it contained.  Now, they were going to have a whole week there, and they weren't on a mission.

Upon arriving, the first thing SG-1 did was find a good place to set up camp.  Because they were on vacation, they were not going to be living on MREs.  Jack had brought a camp stove and lots of real food.  He'd wanted to bring a BBQ grill along, too, but Hammond flat out refused to allow him to haul something like that through the gate.  As it was, the general made noises about the four-man inflatable raft Jack had insisted on bringing, not to mention the lounge chairs, fishing gear, beer-filled cooler, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.  Because of all the camping equipment and everything else, it had been necessary to take a FRED along to carry it all.  When Hammond started to complain, Jack just pointed at Daniel.  The general took one look at the happy, excited glow on the archeologist's face and shut up.

The moment camp was set up, Jack was off fishing, claiming that he was going to catch their lunch.  Sam, Daniel and Teal'c headed off to explore the ruins.  When Teal'c chose to linger in the alien version of a fun house, Daniel and Sam moved on ahead.  They discovered a maze and decided to split up and see who could find the end first.

After wandering around for about fifteen minutes and running into numerous dead ends, Daniel finally spotted the exit.  He ran for it . . . and collided right into Sam, who had also been running to the same destination.

Laughing, the two friends argued good-naturedly over who had won, then, calling it a tie, they exited through the door.

---

Jack watched Daniel, Sam and Teal'c as they approached.  They had just spent several hours in the ruins, and, apparently, they'd had a good time, or at least Daniel and Sam had.  Big smiles were gracing the faces of the two scientists, and they were talking excitedly about something.

"So, did you catch anything?" Daniel asked as the three of them came up to Jack, a hint of doubt in his voice.

Jack grinned.  "As a matter of fact. . . ."  He opened up the cooler he'd brought to hold any fish he caught and showed his teammates the three beauties he'd managed to land.

"Wow.  You actually caught some," Sam said.

Jack gave her a glare at the note of surprise in her voice.  "Yes, Carter, I did, and, if you'll give me a bit more time, I'll catch another one so that we can each have one."

"I couldn't possibly eat a whole fish, Colonel."

"Don't worry about that.  I'm sure that Teal'c will eat whatever you don't."

"That is if Teal'c likes it," Daniel said.

"Who wouldn't like freshly caught trout?"  Jack looked at the fish, which bore no resemblance to trout or any other fish he'd ever seen.  "Or whatever these are."

"Are we sure they'll be safe to eat?" Sam asked.

"Carter, there's no way that I'm not eating what I catch.  If you don't want to take the chance, you can eat something else, though you'll really be missing out.  I, for one, am looking forward to cooking these babies up."

Daniel's eyes were full of humor.  "Proud of yourself, Jack?"

"O'Neill does, indeed, appear to be quite pleased with himself over his successful capture of these aquatic creatures," Teal'c stated.

"Hey, watch it or I'm going to make you two clean the fish," Jack groused.  He then told all three of them to leave him be so that he could get back to his fishing.

Jack did manage to land another fish, and all four of them dined on the fruits of his labors for lunch.

The colonel patted his stomach contentedly, an expression of smug satisfaction on his face.  "What did I tell ya?  Pure ambrosia."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far, Jack," Daniel responded, "but, yes, it was pretty good."

"Yes, it was," Sam agreed.

"Indeed," Teal'c added.

Jack's smile turned into a grin.  "Great!"  He stood and picked up his fishing rod.  "I'd better get busy catching our dinner."

"Dinner?  Jack, you don't expect us to eat fish for every meal, do you?" Daniel asked.

"Well, no, of course not.  We'll eat other stuff for breakfast."

"Sir, as much as I enjoyed the fish, I really don't want to eat it twice a day for the next week," Sam told her C.O.

"Why not?  You go on a fishing trip, you catch fish, you eat fish.  That's the whole point."

"Did you not say that fish are not important in fishing?" Teal'c reminded him.

Daniel and Sam fought back smiles as Jack tried to figure out how to answer.

"Uh, well, yes, I did say that, and it is true," he finally replied, "but if you do manage to catch fish, then you're supposed to eat them."

"Why don't you just catch and release, Jack," Daniel suggested.  "Lots of fishermen do that."  When Jack began to object, Daniel continued.  "I'm with Sam.  I don't want to eat fish twice a day every day we're here.  We brought a whole bunch of other food with us.  There's no point in letting it go to waste."

Jack heaved a big sigh.  "Oh, all right.  If you want to eat something else for dinner, go ahead.  Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to go catch my dinner."

For the rest of the afternoon, as Jack fished, the others continued to explore the ruins.  Sam stayed with Daniel as he went into full archeologist mode and tried to figure out the culture that had built the amusement park.  She found herself fascinated by the way his mind worked to piece together all the information and clues he gathered and create a logical theory about who the people that had lived there were.

"The roots of the amusement park industry can be traced clear back to medieval Europe," he explained.  "Places called pleasure gardens were built on the outskirts of many major European cities.  They had live entertainment, games, dancing, fireworks and primitive amusement rides.  They were extremely popular up until the 1700's, when a lot of them closed due to political unrest.  Not all of them did, however.  One is actually still in operation today, north of Copenhagen.  It opened in 1583 and is the world's oldest operating amusement park.  The thing is, though, that stuff like this," he waved his hand around at the huge rides, many of which looked similar to roller coasters, "didn't start coming into existence until the mid ninetieth century, although they had large ice slides in Russia as far back as the seventeenth century."

"So, what are you saying?" Sam asked.

"I find it hard to believe that the Goa'uld were still taking people from Earth in the mid-1800's, which means that this culture developed this kind of amusement park independently from Earth."  He gestured at some faded writing on a sign.  "I don't recognize this language at all.  I have no clue to its origin.  Considering that this was a gate address not included in the Abydos cartouche, it could mean that this was a completely alien society, though, judging by what we've seen, they must have been humanoid and around our size."

Sam nodded, agreeing with him.  "Any idea why this place was abandoned?"

"Well, it wasn't attacked.  There's no sign of damage anywhere.  Judging by the condition of the ruins, I'd say that this place was abandoned around a hundred years ago.  My best guess would be that they either simply left this area or that they left the planet.  I do have another theory, though."

"What's that?"

"On the UAV footage, we saw several other large ruins, but none of them looked like cities, and there is absolutely no sign of any kind of habitations in the area, with the exception of those buildings that looked like they might have been hotels of some kind.  That could only mean that nobody lived here, which would, in turn, mean that the people who came to the amusement park were transported from some other area.  The closeness of this place to the Stargate makes me wonder if it was visited by people on other planets."

"Are you saying that you think this whole planet was like some kind of vacation spot, that no one actually lived here permanently?"

Daniel shrugged.  "I don't know.  I just know that it appears that there wasn't a community living within the area that the UAV covered.  But, if this was just some kind of . . . of pleasure planet, it may be that whoever developed it simply stopped coming here for some reason."

Sam looked around with new eyes.  "Wow.  A pleasure planet.  And here I thought that the people of Earth loved to have fun."

Daniel grinned.  "Come on.  Let's go see what else we can find."

With a matching grin, Sam took off with Daniel to continue their exploration.

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