CHAPTER SEVEN

"He's not here," Daniel announced.  He was sitting up in the infirmary bed after having slept for over ten hours.  His headache was gone, and he felt a whole lot better.  It was now almost six a.m., and Sam and Jack had just arrived to check on him.

Jack frowned.  "What do you mean he's not here?"

"I mean Anubis is gone.  He's nowhere on the base.  I tried to find him the moment I woke up."

"Then he's left the mountain?" Sam asked.

"He must have, although I don't know why."

"So, what do you think he's up to?"

"I have no idea," the archeologist replied.  "Whatever it is, we're probably not going to like it.  His attempt to get me killed didn't work, and he wouldn't dare try taking over Hammond again."

"That's for sure," Jack said.  "Hammond gave strict orders that, if he does anything at all suspicious, whoever is around is to immediately report it to me or Reynolds, and, if that isn't possible, bop him over the head."

Sam smiled.  "He actually said that, sir?"

"Well, more or less."

"So, if Anubis can't take over the general again, he's going to have to figure out a way of dialing the gate and getting through it without anyone being able to stop him."

"The question is how can he do that?"  Jack turned to Daniel.  "The old spidey sense telling you anything?"

"The spidey sense is saying all kinds of things, but I'm not fluent in the language," Daniel replied.  "I know something's up, but your guess is as good as mine on what it is."

The archeologist pushed back the covers and swung his legs around off the bed.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked.

"That should be obvious."

"Has the doc said you could get up?"

"No, but my bladder doesn't care."

"Ah."

Daniel went off to use the bathroom.  When he came back, he started putting his shoes on.

"Is your bladder also telling you to do that?" Jack asked with mild sarcasm.

"Nope, this is coming from my brain."

"Daniel, maybe you'd better make sure that Janet says it's okay for you to leave," Sam said.

"Sam, I've been sleeping for over ten hours.  I feel fine.  The headache's gone, and I'm not tired at all.  Sooner or later, Anubis is going to come back, and, when he does, I need to be alert and ready for him."

"Okay, but you can't leave without telling Janet first."

"I know."

Janet agreed that Daniel was well enough to leave the infirmary, though she gave him the usual warning about taking it easy, knowing even as she did so that it would do absolutely no good.

The three teammates met Teal'c in the commissary.  It wasn't until he started eating that Daniel realized he hadn't had anything since the quick lunch he consumed yesterday at Janet's insistence.

The archeologist's teammates watched in amusement as he dug into the breakfast with uncharacteristic gusto.  They consumed their own meals with a bit more restraint.

It wasn't until the last crumb was gone that Daniel looked up from his plate.  He looked about at the others, a little embarrassed.

"I, uh, was kind of hungry."

"No.  Really?" Jack said with exaggerated surprise.

The others finished their lunch, their conversation about yesterday's events.

"Daniel Jackson, O'Neill has told us that it was you who was responsible for the plan that succeeded in helping him escape Baal's stronghold," Teal'c said.

"Well, sort of," the archeologist admitted.  "I was getting kind of frustrated.  I knew that I couldn't interfere directly, and Jack just wasn't cooperating in my attempts to help him ascend, so—"

"Wait a minute.  You tried to help the colonel ascend?" Sam asked, surprised.

"He didn't tell you?"  Daniel looked at Jack.

"No, I figured they didn't need to know that," the colonel responded.

"We didn't even know that you visited him back then until after you came to warn him about Abydos," Sam told the archeologist.  "He admitted it at the briefing."

Daniel turned his gaze back to Jack, cocking an eyebrow.

"I didn't want them to think I was nuts," the older man said defensively.  "I wasn't even a hundred percent sure you were real."

Daniel smiled slightly.  "They wouldn't have thought you were nuts, Jack, just hallucinating, though MacKenzie might still have insisted on a psych evaluation."

"Oh, he did anyway.  I told him to go find a lake somewhere, preferably on another planet, and jump in."

"I believe, O'Neill, that you also mentioned tying one hundred pounds of cement to his ankles before he entered the lake," Teal'c stated.

Daniel turned back to Jack.  "I should imagine that he didn't appreciate the recommendation."

"Not really," the gray-haired man replied, "though it sure seemed like a good idea to me."

Daniel returned his gaze to Sam and Teal'c.  "As I was saying, I couldn't directly help Jack break out without having the other Ascended come down on my head, and helping him to ascend wasn't working, so . . . I decided to get sneaky.  I knew that Lord Yu was not far away, and I realized that, if he attacked Baal, he might be able to knock out the power.  But I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to get him there.  I thought about going to him and telling him while he was in his sarcophagus, but I decided to go to Earth first.  As luck would have it, Teal'c was in Kel'no'reem, so it was easy to plant the idea in his mind without him being aware that I was doing so."

"And the Others were unaware that you did this?" Teal'c asked.

"I have a feeling that Oma knew, but she never said anything."

Daniel reached for his coffee.  He was bringing it to his lips when he stiffened.  He put the cup back down.  "Anubis is back," he announced soberly.

"Crap," Jack cursed.  "We need to let Hammond know and find out if he wants us to keep doing what we did yesterday."

"If you intend to hunt Anubis again, I will accompany you," Teal'c stated.

"I think we all should," Sam said.  "If we'd all been with Daniel yesterday, people would have been less likely to believe that he was taken by Anubis."

"That's not going to happen again, Sam," Daniel told her, "it wouldn't work a second time.  When Jack and I were after Anubis yesterday, he tried to kill us more than once.  It's easier for me to protect one person than it is two or three, so it would be best just for one person to be with me.  But you guys can take turns."  He smiled.  "Then Jack won't get all tired out."

"Hey!  I was not tired," the colonel insisted.  He paused at the look Daniel was giving him.  "Okay, so my knees were bothering me a little, but considering that we went up and down a million flights of stairs, I think they did pretty well."

"I will accompany Daniel Jackson on the hunt this morning," Teal'c said.

Jack was going to say no, but changed his mind.  The truth was that his right knee was still bugging him a little, and it wouldn't hurt to ice it for a while.

"Okay, but—"

"And I'll go with him this afternoon," Sam quickly said before Jack could finish.

Jack glared at her.  She returned the look innocently.

"Okay, then it's all settled," Daniel said.

Jack frowned, but didn't object.  "Before you guys go skipping off on your Goa'uld hunt, we need to find out if that's what Hammond wants."

Daniel, Jack and Teal'c went to Hammond's office as Sam headed to her lab.  The general decided that they should wait for a little while and track Anubis' movements.  If the Goa'uld approached any vital areas of the base, then the "hunters" could go after him.

The three male members of SG-1 left the office and got on the elevator, heading up to the floor Sam's lab was on.

"I wish I knew what he's up to," Daniel said.

"Goa'uld are usually predictable, but we can't say that about Anubis," Jack remarked.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.  "He has proven to be quite devious and canny."

The elevator door opened, and the three men got out.

"The only thing we do know is—"  A sharp gasp choked off Daniel's sentences.  An expression of horror filled his eyes.  "He's got Sam," he whispered.  He looked at Jack and Teal'c.  "Anubis has Sam."

Before his teammates could question how he knew, Daniel was gone, running away down the hall.  He barreled into Sam's lab, coming to a stop several feet away from the woman he knew was no longer in possession of her own body.

"Get out of her.  Now," he commanded.

"You are not my master, Doctor Jackson," Anubis said in Sam's voice, a voice that lacked the life and warmth that should be there.  "And you have no power over me.  If you attempt to do anything to stop me, I will kill your friend instantly."

In horror, the archeologist realized that Anubis had taken Sam because he knew that she was important to Daniel.

"What do you want?" Jack asked from his position behind Daniel.

"You will allow me to leave this planet through the Stargate."

"And Sam?" Daniel asked.  "We're not going to let you go in her body.  She'll eventually die, just like Colonel Vaselov is dying."

"I have no desire to remain in this body.  Though it is very attractive, I prefer to be in the body of a male.  Once I have reached my destination, I will leave her and find another."

Jack almost snorted.  "And you honestly think we're going to trust you?"

"I took you at your word once before, Anubis, and I learned that your word means nothing," Daniel said.  "That won't happen again."

"You have no choice," the Goa'uld said.  "Try to stop me, and she dies."

Daniel was torn.  He didn't know what to do.  He couldn't let Anubis kill Sam, but he also couldn't let the Goa'uld escape.  What he needed was time to figure out what to do.

Anubis took a step toward the door, but Teal'c blocked his way.

"Let him by, Teal'c," Daniel said.

Jack stared at the archeologist.  "Daniel?"

Daniel met his eyes, trying to convey his thoughts to the man.  "Let him by."

Jack searched his eyes for a long moment, then nodded.  "Let him pass, Teal'c."

The Jaffa reluctantly stepped aside and allowed the Goa'uld to leave the lab.

"Daniel, what are you doing?" Jack whispered fiercely.  "You know we can't let him leave Earth."

"I can't let him just kill her, Jack.  I need time to think."

They all got on the elevator, the three men watching the Goa'uld closely.  Daniel's mind was frantically searching for something he could do, some way to stop Anubis and save Sam.

As they entered the control room, Jack told one of the people there to get Hammond.  The General came in a moment later.

"SG-1, what is this about?"

"Anubis is in Carter, sir," Jack told him.  "He said that he'll kill her if we try to stop him."

The marines in the control room drew their weapons and aimed them at Sam's body.

"You will allow me to leave this planet," the Goa'uld said, "or I will kill this woman.  Then I will enter another and kill them as well.  I will kill you one by one until you are all dead or until you let me leave.  And, if you do not let me go even then, I will go beyond this mountain and kill still more.  I will kill hundreds, and you will not be able to stop me."

The deadly threat hung in the air.  SG-1 and Hammond knew that the Goa'uld would carry out that threat.  Hundreds would die, and they would have no way of stopping him.

Hammond stared at Anubis, knowing that he had no choice but to let the Goa'uld go.  "Very well," he said, hoping that he wasn't making a terrible mistake.

As Anubis turned toward the dialing computer, the general told a tech to contact the infirmary to have someone standing by just in case Anubis did something.

Daniel watched the Goa'uld, a desperate, perhaps even hopeless thought coming to his mind.  Closing his eyes, he blocked everything from his consciousness except for the feeling of Sam's life force, which he could still sense beneath the black cloak of Anubis' presence.  He reached his mind out to her, expanding his empathic abilities to that of the telepathic, seeking to speak to her mind to mind.

In the space of a single breath, Daniel's mind dove beneath the dark alien consciousness that held Sam hostage to the brightness that was his friend.  He spoke to her, not with words, for words would be heard by Anubis, but with images and emotions.  Sam spoke back to him in the same way, telling him what he needed to know.

Daniel withdrew from Sam's mind.  Opening his eyes, he saw Anubis finish entering the gate address into the computer and turn to face Hammond.

"Withdraw your men from the gate room," the Goa'uld said.  "No one is to accompany me."

As Anubis walked away, Hammond ordered the guards in the gate room to leave.

The instant the Goa'uld was out of the room, Daniel leapt to the dialing computer and frantically began typing in commands.

"Daniel, what are you doing?" Jack asked.  He received no reply.  The archeologist hit the final key just as Anubis entered the gate room.  The Goa'uld walked up to the ramp and stood at the foot of it.

While everyone else watched impotently as the gate dialed the address that Anubis would escape to, Daniel focused on something else.  He was only partially aware when the wormhole formed.  He waited as Anubis stepped onto the ramp and began walking up.

The Goa'uld was halfway up the ramp when Daniel whispered, "I'm sorry, Sam."  And then he struck.

Sam's body suddenly dropped like a stone to lie unmoving on the ramp.

"Shut down the gate!" Hammond yelled.

"No, don't!" Daniel cried.

Trusting the archeologist, Hammond shook his head at Sergeant Harriman.

For a breathless moment, nothing happened, then the blackness that was Anubis began rising from Sam's body.  Before withdrawing fully, it paused, and it was as if it was looking at them.

With a terrible feeling of dread, Daniel suddenly knew what Anubis was going to do.  Even as single scream of denial ripped from his throat, he felt it happen.  And then he was running, stumbling down the stairs and racing into the gate room just in time to see Anubis pass into the event horizon.  He scrambled up the ramp and crashed to his knees at Sam's side, gathering her still body into his arms.

"I need a medic!" he scream.  "I need a medic!"

Jack and Teal'c hurried up to them.

"He killed her," Daniel told them, crying.

"Ah, God," Jack rasped.

Janet hurried in with her team.  She ordered Jack and Teal'c to move aside.  She felt for Sam's pulse, finding none.

"She's dead," Daniel whispered.  "I can't feel her."

Janet met his eyes.  "But there's still a chance that I can save her, Daniel."

The medical team carried Sam off the ramp and loaded her onto a gurney.  Janet climbed onto the gurney, straddling Sam's body, and began chest compressions as they were rushed out of the gate room.

The trip to the infirmary was a nightmare, Daniel's eyes remaining glued to Sam's motionless face as he sought in vain for some spark of life within her.  Arriving at the infirmary, Sam was hooked up to a heart monitor as Daniel joined Jack and Teal'c, who were standing a few feet away.  The flat line the monitor showed only confirmed what Daniel already knew.

"She's in asystole!" Janet yelled.  "Get that crash cart over here!"

As soon as the cart arrived, Janet ordered the defibrillator to be charged to 200 joules.

Sam's shirt was quickly cut open so that the paddles could be placed on bare skin.  Janet grabbed the paddles and a nurse squirted gel on them.

"Clear!" Janet yelled, placing the paddles on Sam's chest.  Electricity surged into the astrophysicist.  Her body arced upward for several seconds, then fell limply back to the concrete.  The monitored remained flat-lined.

"Increase to 300," Janet commanded, not removing the paddles from her patient's chest, "and get an EEG over here.  I want to know what's going on in her brain."  Seconds later, Sam's body was shocked again, only to fall back, lifeless.

"Dammit, Sam!  Don't you do this to us!" Janet cried.  "360!" she told the medic.

Again, Sam was defibrillated and, yet again, her heart remained still and silent.  Janet called for one milligram of epinephrin and an intubation kit as she resumed chest compressions.  The drug was injected it into Sam's heart moments later.  As this was going on, the EEG was being set up.  The leads were attached to Sam's forehead.

As Janet began the procedure of putting a tube down Sam's throat, she heard a small sound of distress.  She looked up to see the nurses gazing at the EEG monitor, which had just been turned on.  What she saw made her freeze.  The readout on the EEG was flat.

'Oh no.'

Fighting back tears, Janet checked Sam's pupils for a response as two of the nurses continued CPR.  The pupils were fixed and dilated.

The doctor looked at the other members of SG-1, who were staring at the monitor, the expressions on their faces telling her that they understood what it meant.

Turning back to her patient, Janet next checked for corneal reflexes, but found none.  Refusing to give up, she was about to order that Sam be placed on a life support system when a hand was laid upon her arm.  She met Daniel's eyes.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, knowing in her heart that nothing she did would bring Sam back.

Not replying, Daniel stepped up to Sam.  His will hardening with the refusal to accept that she was gone, he placed a hand upon her forehead and the other one over her heart.  Eyes closing, head bowing, he tapped deep within himself, into the power that had saved Teal'c's life on Taonas, that had healed Daniel himself from a gunshot wound.  With single-minded purpose he turned it upon Sam – not just to heal, but to bring the dead back to life.

Time passed as everyone in the infirmary watched Daniel fight to bring life back to Sam's body.  Not a soul spoke, no one moved, barely a breath was drawn as they bore witness to what many would call a miracle.

Almost a full minute had passed when the EEG began showing activity.  An instant later, Sam's chest rose with a single breath as the heart monitor came to life.  Janet gasped, her hand grabbing onto Jack's arm.  Sam took a second breath, and then a third.

"My God," someone murmured.

A few more seconds passed before Daniel's head lifted, his hands falling away from Sam, who was now breathing regularly, her EEG showing a normal delta frequency.  On the heart monitor was a strong, steady rhythm.

The archeologist's gaze lifted to Janet's, and he smiled.  In the next instant, he collapsed, Jack just managing to catch him before he hit the floor.

Janet scrambled to his side.  He was semi-conscious, his pulse slow but strong.

"Daniel?  Come on.  Wake up," the doctor urged, lightly tapping his cheek.

The archeologist's eyes blinked open slowly.

Janet smiled down at him.  "That's it.  Come on back to us."

"Sam," Daniel whispered.

"She's okay, Daniel.  You brought her back."

He struggled to sit up.

"No, just stay down.  You're pretty weak right now."

"No.  No, I'm okay," he insisted.

Seeing that he looked a bit stronger, the doctor let him get up, though he appeared more than a little shaky on his legs.

Sam was put in a bed.  General Hammond, who had witnessed the amazing event that unfolded, smiled at the sight of Daniel sitting beside the woman he had just brought back from the dead, her hand held in one of his.

He turned to Janet and the other two members of SG-1, who were also watching the scene.  "Keep me informed, Doctor.  Let me know when she awakens."

"I will, sir."

With a final glance at the two scientists, the general left the infirmary.

Janet continued to watch Daniel and Sam.  "That was . . . that was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen," she said softly to Jack.

"I know what you mean.  I've watched him blow up spaceships and lift a Stargate, but that was. . . ."

"Without compare," Teal'c finished.

"Yeah."

The doctor nodded.  "Did Anubis escape?"

"Yes, but, right now, I'm not all that upset about it," Jack replied.

"He didn't," said a soft voice.

The three people turned to Daniel.

"Not really," the archeologist added.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"I managed to change the gate address to KS7-535."

Jack didn't have to be reminded which planet that one was.  "Chilly."

"Which planet's that?" Janet questioned.

"It is a frozen wasteland," Teal'c answered.

"Carter guessed that either the sun is cooling or the planet shifted to a wider orbit," Jack told her.  "And there's no DHD."

"But that means that, if Anubis had gone through with Sam, she'd have died," the doctor stated.

"I would never have let him take her," Daniel responded.  "I knew that he had no intention of letting her go.  Either he'd have stayed in her until she was too sick or he'd have killed her as soon as he found a host he liked better."

"So, what were you going to do?"

"I knocked Sam out."

Jack's eyebrows rose.  "You what?"

"I knocked her out.  I figured that Anubis couldn't control an unconscious body."

"Then that's what happened when Carter suddenly dropped like that?"

"Uh huh.  I knew that Anubis wouldn't have time to take another host, especially since he'd ordered everyone out of the gate room.  I guessed that the planet he'd chosen to go to had humans on it.  It would make sense.  He'd want access to another host."

"So, when you pulled your little trick, Anubis decided that he could just go on through and grab a host on the other side."

Daniel nodded.  "That's what I figured he'd decide to do."

"But, instead, he was transported to a world with no life," Teal'c said.

Jack smiled.  "Sweet."

Daniel looked back down at Sam.  "I didn't consider that he'd kill her to get even with me."

"But you saved her, Daniel," Jack told him gently.  "You won, and he lost.  You beat him."  He grinned.  "I'm betting that old Anubis is not a happy camper right now."

"Daniel, how did you knock Sam out?" Janet asked.

"That was tricky, and I wasn't sure I could do it.  Jack and Teal'c taught me the location of certain pressure points that, if pressed the right way, can render someone unconscious.  That's what I did."

"Psychically?" Janet said in amazement.

"Yeah.  Like I said, I wasn't sure I could do it, and I was afraid I'd push too hard, but I had no other choice."

"Okay, I've got a question for you," Jack said.  "How the hell did you know how to change the gate address?  Carter been giving you lessons or something?"

"No, that wasn't my idea, it was Sam's.  I didn't know what to do to stop Anubis, so I asked Sam, and she told me what I could do."

Jack stared at him in puzzlement.  "What?  When did you do that?"

"As Anubis was entering the gate address."

"Uh . . . Daniel, Carter was being controlled by Anubis then."

"He might have been controlling her body, but Sam's mind was still there.  It was just submerged beneath Anubis' consciousness.  I managed to reach her."

"So, while Anubis was busily orchestrating his big escape, you and Carter were having a nice little telepathic chat?"

"Not exactly, but it's too hard to explain."

"I bet.  So, when were you going to tell me that you added telepathy to your list of skills?"

"I don't think it would work with just anyone.  I've known for a long time that I have a stronger psychic connection with you, Sam and Teal'c than with anyone else.  I sensed that Sam was hurt on the Prometheus, again when she was Baal's prisoner and, most recently when Fifth had her.  I sensed when you were hit by that staff weapon blast on P3X-666.  I even sensed when Teal'c was hurt by Baal's Jaffa.  Yet there have been a whole lot of other people here who have been injured since I gained these abilities, and I haven't felt a thing.  Maybe it's because I already knew you three so well, or it could be the emotional connection.  I don't know.  Regardless of the reason, I think it allows me to do and feel things with you three that I can't with other people."  Daniel looked straight into Jack's eyes.  "As you've already suspected, there have been times when I've almost been able to read your mind, though it was not intentional."

"Ah hah!  I knew it!" Jack exclaimed.

Janet studied the archeologist's face.  "You look tired, Daniel."

"I am a little, although, after sleeping for ten hours, I shouldn't be."

"Well, bringing people back to life can sort of drain a person," Jack remarked.

"Why don't you go lie down for a while?" Janet suggested.

"I'm okay."  A yawn snuck up on him.  "Okay, so maybe I could use a nap," he admitted.  "I'll just lie down here for a while.  I want to be here when Sam wakes up."

Daniel removed his shoes and laid down on the bed next to Sam's.  A minute later, he was out.

Jack smiled slightly.  "Give me a call when Carter wakes up."

Janet also smiled.  "Will do, Colonel."

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