CHAPTER SIX

Janet finally released Daniel later that afternoon.  During the hours that the archeologist was in the infirmary, he hadn't spoken a single word in Ancient, which made everyone happy.  The problem was that he also hadn't succeeded in digging out anything from the Ancients' knowledge.  He appeared to be at a standstill.  Daniel knew that it was all still there, but something had happened to push it back out of sight.

His frustration at being unable to access the knowledge led to Daniel toying with the idea of trying the meditation again, but it didn't take long to change his mind.  His previous experience had shown that it was too dangerous.

The archeologist made his way to his office, his arms full of the things that Sam had brought to the infirmary.  He set everything down on his worktable.  He stared at the woefully empty sheets of paper.  With the exception of the words Praclarush Taonas, which he was now pretty certain was the name of the planet where the Lost City was, there has been nothing for him to write down.  Daniel's sixth sense was warning him that time was running out, but he didn't know what to do to gain access to the Ancients' knowledge.  He had begun to wonder if it should have been someone else who took the download.  When Jack did that first time, he had succeeded in giving them a new way to calculate the distance between planets, had shown them how to repair a malfunctioning DHD, had built a new power generator, and had found the way to the Asgard homeworld, which resulted in the Asgard becoming their allies.  So far, Daniel hadn't done much of anything at all.  He certainly hadn't gotten them much closer to finding the Lost City, the whole reason why he took the download in the first place.

"Hey, you okay?"

Daniel looked up in surprise to see Jack standing in the doorway.  Once again, his ability to sense the presence of others had failed him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Daniel replied.

Jack came into the room.  "Didn't look like it to me just then."

Daniel went over to his desk.  "I'm just frustrated."

"Still getting nothin'?"

"Not a thing."

"Give it time, Daniel.  It'll come.  It did with me."

Daniel met his friend's eyes.  "I don't think we have time, Jack.  I have this terrible feeling that something is coming, something that we're not going to be able to stop if we don't find the Lost City."  He sighed and looked away.  "I'm beginning to think that I made a mistake."

"In what way?"

"I thought that, because of the differences in my brain, I might be able to handle the download better and that, because of that, I might be able to access the information easier.  Obviously, I was wrong.  If it had been you, you'd probably be busy building something right about now and calculating the quickest route to the Lost City with math that even Sam couldn't understand."

"No, I'd probably be sitting on my couch at home, drinking beer.  It's only Sunday.  I probably wouldn't have started getting weird until tomorrow or the next day.  You're way ahead of the game."  Jack searched his face.  "Daniel, don't start doubting yourself.  You will come through for us.  I have no doubt of that.  Frankly, the fact that you were apparently able to take control and put a halt to all that Ancient stuff taking over is really good news.  It means that there is a very good chance that the download won't get the better of you.  Who knows?  Maybe you'll actually be able to keep it all, and we won't need the Asgard to suck it out."

Daniel shook his head.  "I don't see how that could be possible, Jack.  There is so much there, millions of years of knowledge.  My mind couldn't possibly manage to consciously contain it all."

"Yet the Ancients could, and they were basically human before they went all glowy."

"Humans far more evolved than I am.  Besides, we really don't know for sure if each of the unascended Ancients possessed every bit of their knowledge.  For all we know, the repositories are only supposed to download part of the knowledge in each person, not all of it."

"Well, even if you could keep a little bit of it, that would be cool.  I bet there are the plans for all kinds of neat gadgets and weapons floating around in that skull of yours right now."

"Yeah.  Now, if they would just float to the surface, that would be great.  I would be delighted if just the lochus of the Lost City floated to the surface."

"Uh oh," Jack said, his expression troubled.

"'Uh oh' what?"

"You just did it again."

"Did wha. . . .  Oh.  What did I say?"

"Lochus."

"Location."

"It's happening again."

"Yeah, I guess it is."

"Maybe you should take another nap.  That helped last time."

Daniel shook his head.  "I need to let this happen, Jack.  What good is that knowledge going to do if I keep hiding from it?"

Over the next several hours, Daniel continued to speak occasional words in Ancient.  He soon got to the point where he was aware every time it happened and knew what he'd said.  It was a little strange having to translate for himself.  Everyone had noticed that the incidents were happening with ever increasing frequency.  By that evening, Daniel had twice spoken almost entire sentences in Ancient.

Though he knew that he should tell someone, Daniel kept quiet about the fact that his headache had returned and was getting progressively worse.  He was also once again experiencing moments when a sudden flood of Ancient knowledge hit him with overwhelming force.  That he could not hide since, every time it happened, he nearly ended up on the floor.

Sam, Jack and Teal'c were Daniel's almost constant companions.  The archeologist was under orders not to be alone for more than a few minutes at a time, and his teammates were making sure he followed that order.  Jack wouldn't even let him go into the men's room alone.  When Daniel decided that he wanted to take a shower, he almost had to physically throw Jack out when the colonel decided it would be too dangerous to let the archeologist shower alone just in case he had another "attack" and fell.  Fortunately, Jack got the hint, and Daniel got his moment of privacy.  If Jack had known that Daniel did suffer another attack while in the shower, any hope the archeologist had of even a minute of privacy would have been gone.

Daniel wouldn't have minded the sudden flashes if they'd accomplished anything, but they were so sudden and so severe that he couldn't sort out what he'd seen, and nothing but ghostly images were left behind after each incident.

That all changed when SG-1 was getting ready to go get some dinner.  Daniel had just stood up when a violent burst of images sent him crashing to his knees.

"Daniel!" Jack and Sam cried, rushing to his side.

Caught in the midst of the barrage, Daniel didn't hear them.  Nor did he feel their grip on his shoulders.

The flood of images ended at last.  Daniel lifted a shaky hand to his head.

"Daniel?  You okay?" Sam asked.

"Yeah.  I am now."

Daniel's teammates helped him to his chair.

"That looked like a bad one," Jack commented.

"Yeah, it was pretty intense.  I saw. . . ."  Daniel's eyes widened.  "I remember!  I saw it!"

"Saw what?"

"The Lost City or at least I think it was the Lost City," Daniel babbled excitedly.  "There were these . . . these huge spires, and balconies, and-and little ships flying overhead shaped kind of like cylinders with one end sloped downward."

"Whoa, Daniel.  Slow down," Jack said from his kneeling position beside the chair.  He laid a hand on the archeologist's shoulder.

Daniel looked at him intently.  "It was the Lost City, Jack.  I know it."

"Did you see where it was?" Sam asked, getting excited.

The linguist shook his head.  "But I'm getting close, Sam.  I'm sure of it."

Jack got to his feet.  "Okay, I think we should tell Hammond.  Carter, Teal'c, stay with Daniel.  I'll go talk to the general."  He strode out of the office.

Daniel closed his eyes and massaged his temples.

"Do you have a headache?" Sam asked.

"Um . . . yeah, for a while now."

The major frowned.  "You should have told us.  You should have told Janet."

Daniel gave a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck.  "I doubt there's much she could do short of giving me a stronger painkiller, which would probably make me sleepy.  It's okay.  I've had worse headaches, like all the times I was ribboned."

Sam's frown deepened.  "That doesn't mean that you should just grin and bear it.  I'm going to call Janet and see what she can suggest."

"She's just going to insist that I go to the infirmary and take a bunch of tests, Sam."

Despite Daniel's words, Sam called the doctor, who did, indeed, insist that Daniel come to the infirmary, especially after she found out about his most recent attack.  Once he got there, having complained the entire trip up, Janet flashed her trusty little penlight into his eyes, took his pulse and blood pressure, and asked a million pointed questions about how he was feeling.  Then came the CT scan, which Daniel had known all along was coming.  In the end, she couldn't find anything definitive, though she did say that the archeologist's blood pressure was elevated.

"Okay, can I go now?" Daniel asked, sounding a bit whiny.  As Janet opened her mouth to speak, he added, "And if you say that you want to keep me here for observation, I swear I'll do something violent."

The doctor smiled slightly.  "No, I see no point in keeping you here, Daniel.  You are free to go."

Daniel blinked in surprise.  "I am?"

"Uh huh."

"Oh.  Uhhh . . . okay.  Good."  He got off the exam table.

Janet handed him a bottle of pills.  "These should help with the headache."

"Janet, I can't afford to get sleepy."

"Don't worry.  You should be okay with those.  It's not a heavy dose.  It's just a bit stronger than the over-the-counter stuff.  Just don't take any more than one every six hours."

"Okay."

Daniel joined his teammates, and they went to the commissary for a belated dinner.  Partway through the meal, Daniel's eyes became fixated on Jack's SG-1 patch.  He abruptly reached up and tore it off, then put it on the table and stared at it.

"Daniel?  Whatcha doin'?" Jack asked.

"At."

"What?"

"At."

Jack pointed at the patch.  "That?"

"That."

"That is At?"

Daniel nodded in affirmation.

"Okay, so, what exactly does that 'At' mean?"

Instead of answering, Daniel got up from the table and quickly left the commissary.  Jack, Sam and Teal'c stared at each other for a moment, then hurriedly followed.  The archeologist went to the control room, where he asked the technician to spin the ring on the Stargate.

As the ring turned, Daniel had the technician stop at each of the glyphs as they showed up on the monitor.  He jotted something down on a piece of paper each time.

"Daniel, what—" Sam began.

"Just wait, Sam," the linguist interrupted distractedly.

General Hammond had joined them and was watching with just as much bewilderment as everyone else.

Finally, Daniel finished whatever it was that he had been doing.

"Okay, so are you going to clue us in now?" Jack asked.

"Each symbol on the Stargate has a corresponding sound, probably so that they can be spoken aloud," Daniel explained.

"Like an alphabet," Sam said.

"Yes."  He looked at everyone.  "Do you realize what this means?"  Only blank stares answered him.  He impatiently explained.  "Praclarush Taonas!  Six syllables!  It isn't just the name of the planet, it's also the gate address.  Look."  He showed them what he'd written, which turned out to be all of the Stargate glyphs with single syllable words beside each of them.  Daniel pointed to one.  "This is 'nas'.  And here is 'pra'.  They're all here, every syllable of the name."

"And 'at' is the sound for Earth's symbol?" Sam asked.

Daniel nodded excitedly.  "Yes!"

"Can you write down the address?" she asked.  Daniel immediately did so and handed the paper to her.

Sam sat at one of the consoles and checked the gate address log.  "Daniel, we dialed this address over two years ago, but we couldn't establish a wormhole.  The gate must be buried."

"Lost in fire," Daniel murmured.  "My vision.  The Stargate must have been destroyed or buried by volcanic activity."

"But what we're looking for could still be there," Sam reasoned.  She turned back to the computer.  "I could use the address to calculate the planet's location in space, but we'll need a ship to get there."

"Prometheus," Daniel suggested.

Hammond shook his head.  "I don't believe that the president would allow Prometheus to leave.  It would be Earth's only defense should one of the Goa'uld choose to attack us, and he is very concerned by that vision you had about an armada of Goa'uld ships."

"Okay, then what about Osiris' Al'Kesh?  It's still at Area 51, right?"

"Yes, it is," Sam confirmed.

The general nodded.  "Very well.  I will contact the president."

"And I need to start packing," Daniel announced, then turned on his heel and left.

"Start what?" Jack said in surprise.  He took off after Daniel.  "Hey!  Exactly how long are we gonna be gone?!"

Jack, Sam and Teal'c gaped at Daniel as he hurriedly gathered bits and pieces of equipment, piling them all up in a corner of the room.

"Not exactly what I was thinking when he said that he had to pack," Jack said.  "Carter, was I like that when this happened to me?"

"Sort of, sir.  You did start doing things without knowing why."

"It appears that Daniel Jackson is preparing to make a device of some sort, just as O'Neill did," Teal'c surmised.

Sam shook her head.  "Well, I sure can't figure out what it's going to be.  Daniel?  Do you have any idea—"

"Nope!  Not a clue," the archeologist called out in reply, not pausing in what he was doing.  Then he did pause.  "Well, not no clue, just not much of one.  For some reason, I keep flashing on a ring platform."  Shrugging, Daniel returned to what he'd been doing.

"Well, I am clueless," Jack stated.  "I'm also getting dizzy watching him, not to mention hungry.  We didn't finish our dinner."

At that moment, General Hammond came in.  He watched Daniel with a surprised expression for a while, then turned to the others.

"The president has authorized the trip.  However, the vice president has insisted on coming here to be filled in personally and assess the situation.  He will be arriving in the morning."

That news succeeded in stopping Daniel.  "We can't wait that long.  We have to go as soon as possible."

"Can you tell me why, Doctor Jackson?"

"No, I just know that time is of the essence."

"I'm afraid that Vice President Kinsey won't accept that as a reason to leave before he gets here."

"Forget Kinsey," Jack said.  "The president gave us the green light.  That's all we need."

"I'm sorry, but I do not have the authority to let you leave before the vice president gets here, not unless an imminent threat becomes known."

With an exasperated sound, Daniel returned to his "packing".  It was quite late before he finished.  Janet, who wasn't about to leave the base until after this situation with Daniel was resolved, ordered him and his teammates to get some sleep.

Though Daniel did try to follow the doctor's orders, he found it almost impossible to rest.  The dam that had been holding back the bulk of Ancients' knowledge was apparently cracking, and things were leaking through.  A hodgepodge of images, words, and thoughts were slowly filling Daniel's mind.  He was able to sort through the jumble enough to know that none of it had anything to do with the Lost City, but he also couldn't make use of any of it.  It was too much, coming too quickly and too chaotically.

By the time morning arrived, Daniel's head felt like it was going to suffer a nuclear meltdown, and he was totally exhausted.  Jack had insisted on staying in the room with him and had to keep him from falling when he got out of bed.

"Daniel?" the colonel asked softly in concern.

The archeologist sighed.  "I guess there's no point in saying that I'm fine."

"No."

"Okay, I'm not fine.  In fact, I feel lousy."

"Which is exactly how you look."

"I just need a shower, some coffee, and a handful of those pills Janet gave me."

"Okay on the shower and the coffee, but if I let you O.D. on painkillers, the doc would stick a needle in me someplace I really don't want to think about."

Daniel took his shower and got his coffee, and, thanks to the call Jack made to the infirmary while he was in the shower, he also got a visit from Janet.  The doctor was extremely worried about the archeologist's condition and was not at all happy about the idea of him traipsing across the galaxy.  Only the fact that Daniel absolutely had to go kept her from packing him off to the infirmary and keeping him there.  She gave him a stronger painkiller for his headache, plus something he could take to help him sleep on the trip.  Though she didn't tell him, the sleeping pills were a pretty high dosage.  She wanted to make sure they worked.

The klaxons and the sound of an unauthorized gate activation sent Daniel and Jack to the control room.  The caller turned out to be Bra'tac, whom Jack, Daniel and Hammond met in the gateroom.

"Master Bra'tac.  It's good to see you again," the general greeted.

The Jaffa nodded.  "I am afraid I am not the bearer of good news.  We have had word from Jaffa loyal to our cause.  Anubis is gathering the full force of his fleet.  He will be here in three days."

"Oh, that's just wonderful," Jack muttered.

"The ships in my vision," Daniel said.  "They were heading for Earth."

Jack turned to Hammond.  "Sir, permission to go get that Al'Kesh immediately.  It's going to take us a while to get to Nevada, bring the ship back here, and load all that stuff into it."

"Of what do you speak?" Bra'tac asked.

"Well, there's been some stuff going on since your last visit," Jack answered.  "To make it quick, we're pretty sure we know where the Lost City is, and we're preparing to go there."

"This is, indeed, good news.  But you must hurry."

"Which is what I've been saying all along!" Daniel exclaimed in irritation.

Hammond nodded.  "Let's go to the briefing room so that you can fill us in on what you know, Master Bra'tac.  I will then call the president and tell him the news."

The three of them went up to the briefing room, where they were joined by Sam and Teal'c.

"Why is Anubis picking now to attack us?" Sam asked.

"I do not know the reason why," Bra'tac admitted.  "The Jaffa who spoke to me could not answer that."

"It's because of the repository," Daniel said.  "Anubis knows that we got there first.  He must believe that we've learned the lochus of the Lost City."  He turned to Hammond.  "Sir, noo indeeo to leave now."

Everyone stared at Daniel, who didn't bother to translate.  They could figure it out for themselves.  Bra'tac, not knowing what was going on, was completely confused.

"I'll explain it to you later," Jack told him.

Hammond called the president to let him know what was happening.  He learned that Kinsey would arrive at the mountain in about fifteen minutes.  The president was going to call him and fill him in on everything.

While they waited for the vice president to get there, everyone told Bra'tac about what was going on.  The Master Jaffa was excited by the thought of the knowledge that now resided within Daniel's mind, but was concerned by the threat that knowledge was posing to the archeologist's life.

When Kinsey arrived, he came into the room with the same sour expression that he often wore.  "So, you did it again," he said.  "Yet again, you've screwed up and put this planet at risk."

"No, what we've probably done is save this planet again," Jack countered.  "If we hadn't gotten to that repository first, all that knowledge would now be in Anubis' hands, and we'd be in really deep trouble."

"Instead, you've incurred his wrath and brought him and his fleet down upon us.  And all you have," Kinsey turned his glare upon Daniel, "all Doctor Jackson has is an empty promise that he can lead us to this so-called Lost City of the Ancients."  He snorted derisively.  "Like I believe that.  You're just trying to cover up your mistake."

Daniel uttered something to Kinsey in Ancient, and, though no one understood what he'd said, it didn't sound very complimentary.

"Whatever it was that Daniel just said, I agree with him," Jack stated.  "Kinsey, I've said it before and I'll say it again.  You're an ass."  He started to rise.  "Now, if you will excuse us, we have a very long flight ahead of us, and we've wasted enough time with you."

Kinsey glared at him.  "You're not going anywhere, Colonel, not until I say so."

"With all due respect, Mister Vice President, the president has already authorized SG-1 to go," Hammond responded, his voice and expression making it clear that he deemed Kinsey worthy of no respect at all.  He turned to SG-1.  "You have a go.  Major Carter, I suggest that you call Area 51 and let them know that you're going to be getting the Al'Kesh."

"Yes, sir," Sam stood up and left the room.

Furious, Kinsey also stood.  "I want to call the president immediately."

Hammond waved his hand in the direction of his office.  "I believe you know where the phone is."

Kinsey stormed past them and went to the office, slamming the door behind him.  The general turned to Daniel.

"Doctor Jackson, are you all right?" he asked, not liking the parlor of the archeologist's skin.

"Eetium, sir.  Um, I mean yes.  Well, not really, but I guess I'm as well as can be expected.  Egoo indeeo. . . ."  Daniel stopped and sighed.  Pronouncing his words slowly and firmly, he started again.  "I need to gather a few more things for the trip."

"Of course.  Teal'c, please accompany him."

Once Daniel and Teal'c were gone, Hammond turned to Jack.  "He's getting worse."

"Yes, sir," Jack replied in a subdued voice.

"Daniel Jackson does not look well," Bra'tac observed.

"He looks like hell, and I'm betting that he feels like hell, too.  I know for a fact that he got virtually no sleep last night, and he looked like death warmed over when he got up."

"Do you think that he is physically capable of making this trip?" the general asked.

"Probably not, but we really don't have a choice, now do we.  Out of all of us, Daniel is the one who has to go."

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