CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Daniel and Teal'c spent that night as personal guests of "King Arkhan".  Early the next morning they joined a large group of villagers at the Stargate.  The pedestal that the gate had been mounted on was damaged, and several villagers got busy repairing it as the others worked on attaching ropes to the gate itself in preparation of lifting it.  Daniel, of course, would be helping with the lifting, and not by pulling on ropes.

As the archeologist watched the proceedings, he sensed someone hurrying up to him.  He pretended not to be aware of them until there was a tug on his pant leg.  He looked down at a little girl, recognizing her to be the one he'd seen with Maybourne yesterday.

"Hello there," he greeted with a smile.

The child held up a bouquet of flowers.

"Are those for me?" Daniel asked.  Upon receiving a nod, he took them.  "Thank you.  They're very pretty."

With a shy smile, the girl ran off.

A few minutes later, someone else approached him.  The archeologist recognized him as Fen, the man who almost revealed Daniel's identity.  Fen's head was bowed as he stopped before the linguist.

"I have come to beg your forgiveness," he said.  "I betrayed you.  Worst, I betrayed my king, who commanded us not to reveal what we knew, and my people, who almost died because of my actions."

"You were trying to save your wife, Fen.  I understand why you did it.  In your situation, many people would have done the same thing."

Fen lifted his eyes to Daniel.  "Would you?"

The archeologist hesitated.  He thought about what he would have done if it had been Sha're in Alein's place.  Then he thought about what she would have wanted him to do if it had been her.  She would have wanted him to remain silent.

"I don't know, Fen.  I lost my wife to the Goa'uld many years ago."  He gazed at the man.  "I'm just glad that you didn't."

A while later, the villagers and Daniel lifted the Stargate back up.  As soon as the archeologist was certain that it was firmly in place and wouldn't be toppling over again, he dialed Earth.

"Daniel.  Nice to hear from you," Jack said.  "So, you ready to come home?"

"Yep.  Everything's all settled here."

"Then come on through."

Daniel turned to Maybourne.  "Well, it's been . . . interesting, Maybourne.  Thanks for the hospitality."

"Any time, Doctor Jackson.  You, too, Teal'c.  And tell Jack that he's welcome here whenever he has a yen for the simple life."

"I'll pass on the message.  Actually, I'm a little surprised that you like it here.  You never struck me as the kind of guy who'd enjoy this sort of life."

Maybourne smiled.  "Between you and me, I'm surprised, too.  I guess I didn't know myself as well as I thought I did.  Besides, I couldn't very well leave my wives, now could I."

Daniel's eyebrows rose.  "Wives?"

Maybourne smiled over his shoulder at three pretty young women.  They all smiled back at him.

Daniel shook his head.  "You know, I think I'll keep that little fact to myself.  I can just imagine what Sam would say if she found out."

With a wave to the villagers, who all waved back, Daniel went through the gate with Teal'c.

An hour later, the two men were in the briefing room with Jack and Sam.

"So, Daniel," the general said.  "We're all eager to hear the tale you have to tell."

Daniel and Teal'c recounted the events that led up to the death glider attack.  Jack and Sam listened in amazement as Daniel then described how he brought down the eight gliders.

"Pretty impressive, Daniel," Jack said.  "Frankly, I didn't think you could do it."

"Neither did I," Daniel admitted.  "I guess I'm getting better at wrecking Goa'uld ships.  I've certainly had enough practice."

Jack searched the face of his best friend.  "This raises a very important question.  Are your powers getting stronger?"

Surprised by the question, Daniel didn't answer right away.  "I, um . . . I don't think that they're actually getting stronger, I just think that I'm able to handle more now without overdoing it.  Back when this first started, I likened the overuse of my abilities to overusing a muscle.  Well, the more you use a muscle, the more accustomed it becomes to being used."

"Yeah, I think Teal'c suggested the same thing."

"I do know that I can do a lot more now than I could in the beginning.  A lot of things that gave me a headache back then barely faze me now."

"Yeah, I bet you could lift a Stargate all by yourself now without breaking sweat."

"Well, I don't know about that.  I'm not planning on seeing if I can.  The fact is that I've also learned how to manage the use of my abilities better.  I can accomplish the same thing and use less power.  If I'd tried to actually blow up all eight of those gliders, it would have been way too much.  Instead, I targeted the engines and the pilots, which resulted in the same thing.  It was only with those last three that I had to get more. . . ."

"Spectacular?" Jack filled in, wishing he could have seen that enormous fireball attack those three gliders.

"I was going to say aggressive.  I didn't have time to attack each glider individually.  It was that last attack that pushed me over the edge, especially since I, um . . ."  Daniel's gaze fell away from Jack, "wanted to be sure that the fire was hot enough and hit hard enough that the Jaffa would die quickly."

The comment sobered everyone and made Jack frown.  Yet again, the archeologist had been forced to take a lot of lives, and, yet again, it was probably bothering him.

Jack looked at the three people sitting with him at the table.  "I hate to bring this up so soon after such a rough mission, but I got a call about that mission with the Al'Kesh.  They've still got it in their heads that, if our mystery Goa'uld isn't on Tartarus, you're to go looking for him.  And they want that to happen right away.  I told them that they were just going to have to wait another day or two since Daniel might need a bit of a breather after knocking eight death gliders out of the sky.  I'm sure that Fraiser will back me up on that."

"Oh, there's no doubt about that," Daniel responded.

Sam smiled.  "Did Janet give you a hard time?"

"No, she just gave me her doctor frown and sighed rather loudly.  I think she's given up on the lectures.  But then, it's not like I had a lot of options available to me."

"Okay, then that settles it," Jack said.  "Tomorrow, we'll get together in a nice little conference call and tell them what we will and will not do on that mission.  If we can all come to an agreement, we'll schedule the mission for Wednesday."  He got to his feet.  "I'd say that's it for now.  Daniel, come join me in my office."

As his teammates left the room, Daniel followed Jack into the office.

"So, how are you doing?" the general asked after he'd settled in his chair.

"Fine.  The headache was gone when I got up this morning."

"I'm not asking about your physical well-being, I'm asking how you're feeling about having to kill all those Jaffa."

"I've killed Jaffa before, Jack, a lot of them."

"Yes, but never to protect your identity."

Daniel's gaze dropped to the desktop.  "I know that it was necessary.  I don't like it, but I do know that.  I just wish the pilots of those gliders had chosen to turn around instead of attacking.  They didn't know who I was, so there wouldn't have been a problem if they'd gotten away."

"That was their choice, Daniel.  That's just the way it is sometimes.  And I know how you killed some of them is bothering you, but when lives are on the line, you can't be selective about how you eliminate a threat."  Jack studied his friend's face.  "There's something you need to understand.  Your safety and keeping secret the truth of who Dan'yar really is are more important than a thousand Jaffa who are willingly serving the Goa'uld."

Daniel looked at him.  "And what about the ones who aren't doing it so willingly?  We don't know how many who wanted to be free died yesterday."

"You can't think about that, Daniel.  It'll drive you crazy if you do.  Besides, I killed a hell of a lot more Jaffa yesterday than you did.  I'm the one who pulled the trigger on Ares' ship.  As far as I'm concern, what's important is that all of us made it out alive, and all those people on that planet are now safe . . . oh, and we bagged another snake while we were at it, and that always makes for a good day."

Daniel nodded, knowing that Jack was right.

The next morning, Daniel found a surprise in his office.  Someone had apparently decided to get cute and hung eight origami death gliders from the ceiling.

Jack, who'd stopped by, studied the unknown person's handiwork.

"Well, clearly it must be someone who has a lot of guts," he remarked.  "Either that or someone with not much common sense.  Everyone on base knows what you did to Ferretti for the stunt he pulled."

"Jack, it's just some paper gliders.  It didn't cause any harm.  I'm not going to go out and seek revenge."

"Well, no, of course not.  But still."

"To be honest, I'm kind of glad about it."

Jack stared at him.  "You are?"

"The base just found out that I single-handedly brought down eight death gliders with the power of my mind.  Something like that could make people a little nervous.  The fact that someone did this," he held up one of the paper creations, "means that they know they have no reason to feel that way."

"I see what you mean."  Jack picked up one of the gliders and studied it.  "So, do these things fly?"

"I don't know.  I haven't tried."

Jack drew back his arm and sent the paper spaceship sailing across the room.

"Sweet," he said with a little smile.

Daniel handed the rest to him.  "Here.  You can play with them in your office."

"Thanks.  This paper is a lot more fun than the piles I've got sitting on my desk."

"So, when are we going to talk to those guys about the mission?"

"This afternoon.  As you probably already know, Carter's off getting that puddle jumper up and running."

Daniel nodded.  "I'll be going through to bring it here as soon as she's finished."

"And then you'll be flying it to Area 51 after it gets dark.  The eggheads there are very eager to get their hands on it."

"I bet."

---

Daniel was on his way to lunch when Ferretti came up to him.

"So, I heard about those death gliders," he said.

"The ones I blew up or the ones someone hung in my office?"

"The ones you blew up.  Somebody hung gliders in your office?  The grapevine is failing me.  I didn't hear about that."

"They were just origami.  No big deal.  Actually, Jack is probably playing with them in his office right now."

"Ah, so no buckets of pink paint will be descending upon any other heads?"

Daniel smiled faintly.  "Nope, I reserve that for people who deliberately get me drunk because they think it'll be funny."

"Daniel, I can guarantee that will never happen again.  So, anyway, about those gliders.  Eight of them?  Wow.  You really have become a one-man army, haven't you."

"Ferretti, if you think it was easy, think again.  Teal'c had to hold me up to keep me from falling afterwards.  Every time I do something like that, I feel like my head is going to explode.  It isn't the least bit fun, and it certainly isn't any fun knowing that I'm taking lives."

The lieutenant colonel's expression had sobered.  "I know, Daniel.  I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to make light of it.  It's just that what you can do is so amazing.  You're a big hero to nearly everyone here."

The archeologist shook his head.  "I'm not a big hero, no bigger than a lot of other people."

"Yes, Daniel, you are.  You're the only one who doesn't see that.  I don't know if Jack ever told you, but there was a lot of talk several months ago that you'd be offered command of your own team."

Startled, Daniel stared at him.  "You don't know?"

"Know what?"

"I thought for sure that Jack would have told you or that it would have made it onto the base grapevine.  I was offered command of a team, not long after the mission to rescue Sam and Teal'c from Baal."

Ferretti's mouth fell open.  "You were?"

"Yeah.  I turned it down."

"You did?"

"I had no desire to leave SG-1."

"Whoa.  How'd the brass take your refusal?"

"They weren't happy, but General Hammond saw to it that they didn't keep pushing me.  They've never said anything about it since then, at least not that I know of."

"And what about Jack?  I bet he was happy that you didn't want to leave the team."

Daniel smiled, remembering his friend's reaction to his decision.  "Yes, he was happy."

Ferretti stared at him closely.  "So, you really didn't want your own team?"

"No, and I still don't.  I'm perfectly happy where I am."

Ferretti grinned.  "Well, I guess nobody can be dissatisfied with how it's been working out."

"I suppose not, although you never know when that might change."

---

It was just after lunch when Sam dialed home with the news that the puddle jumper was repaired and ready to go.  Daniel gated to the planet and piloted the ship through the Stargate and into the gate room.  He then flew it up and out the opening that at one time had been the missile silo hatch.  The ship was landed on the mountain top near the door and covered with camouflage nets to temporarily hide it.

All of SG-1 were present for the conference call that was made two hours later.  Right at the start, Jack told the men on the phone that he was not going to let any of his people go park themselves in the middle of a battle, where any stray shot could blast them to bits.  There were a few objections to that.

"So, tell me," Jack said.  "Would you be willing to go with them?  Would you happily sit in that Al'Kesh as weapons fire is blazing all around you and ships are being blown up right and left?  Because, if you are, I'll tell SG-1 to go pick you up on the way."

"Obviously, we don't want them to take a position right in the middle of the battle," General Stevenson said.  "They could sit on the fringes, just close enough for Doctor Jackson to scan the ships and find out who is in command of Anubis' fleet."

"Okay, ya see, there's a problem with that logic.  Battles in space can range all over the place, especially the big ones, and everything is moving a whole lot faster than troops on the ground or ships at sea.  What's at the fringes one second could be the eye of the hurricane the next."

"Doctor Jackson, how far away can you be from something and still see things?" General Wayne asked.

"That all depends.  The farther away I am, the harder it is.  I have doubts that I'll even be able to see anything on Tartarus from as far away as we're going to have to be."

"Yet you were able to see Colonel Carter when she was stranded on the Prometheus, and that was a much greater distance."

"That was a different situation.  I know Sam.  We have a personal connection.  And I was familiar with the Prometheus.  I've never been to Tartarus, and I don't know the person I'm looking for.  I have nothing specific to focus on.  The only advantage is that I have a precise location to look.  This ability isn't like a spy satellite that you can aim at a target and spy on people with.  It's a lot more complicated than that, and it's not nearly as reliable."

Jack and SG-1 were put on hold so that the others could discuss things.

"All right, this is what we propose," said General Wayne when he and the others came back on the line.  "Go to Tartarus and do your best to see what's there.  If you can't, then come on home.  If you can and don't find out what we want to know, then you're to attempt to gain intel on a battle that Anubis' forces are fighting.  If you believe that you can take up a position far enough away from the battle to be out of danger yet still scan the ships, then we expect you to do so.  Otherwise, what you do will be left up to your judgment.  I just want to make it clear that we believe it's important to find out who is controlling Anubis' forces."

After the call was ended, Jack focused his gaze upon Daniel.

"Okay, so give it to me straight.  What do you think your chances are of being able to see anything?"

"I honestly can't answer that, Jack.  I've never done this before, not from so far away."

"Then I guess we're going to find out."

---

Once darkness had fallen, Daniel and Sam headed for Nevada in the puddle jumper.  The archeologist decided to take the opportunity to familiarize himself with the ship and its capabilities.  That's how it is that he discovered something.

"Hey, it has a cloak," he said.

"It does?  I didn't know puddle jumpers had cloaking devices.  I never even thought to ask."

"Well, this one does at least.  I guess it makes sense.  If you're going to be taking trips to other periods in time, you'd want to be able to hide the ship so that history wouldn't be altered because someone saw it."

"Yes, you're right.  So, I guess we wouldn't have had to wait till dark after all.  We could have flown it to Area 51 anytime without worrying about being seen."

After leaving the ship in the hands of the scientists at the secret base, Daniel and Sam did not go back to Colorado.  Since they would have to have to come right back there to get the Al'Kesh in the morning, it had been decided that they might as well stay the night at Area 51.

Early the next morning, Teal'c arrived, and SG-1 headed out on their mission.  It didn't take long to get to Tartarus.  Teal'c stopped the ship well outside the range of the powerful sensor array that protected the planet from surprise visitors.  Cloaked, they sat still in space as Daniel attempted to see within the structures on the planet.

As Daniel had feared, never having seen the base before nor even the planet it was on – coupled with the distance to the target – was making it very difficult to get a "lock".  The minutes passed without success.  He was just about to give up, when a fleeting image came into his mind.  He focused upon it, putting even more effort into his attempt.  The image grew clearer.  He was seeing the inside of a room that he realized a moment later contained a throne.  The room was empty.

Now that he'd finally succeeded in seeing within the base, the rest was relatively easy.  From room to room he searched, his mind traveling far faster than anyone could by foot.  In a matter of minutes, he knew that they were not going to find their answer there.

"He's not there," he told his teammates.  "There was one Goa'uld, but he was just a scientist.  So whoever it is that took Anubis' place, he's not there."

"Then I guess this means that we need to gather some intel on where he might be," Sam said.  "That was the deal we made."

"We can gather the intel, Sam, but I don't know if it will do us much good.  It took quite a while for me to see the base, and it was just sitting there.  To try and find a single individual amidst dozens of rapidly moving ships is going to be a lot harder, and we'd have to be right around the same distance from them to be safe.  I'm not saying that it's impossible, but I can't give any guarantees."

"No one is asking for guarantees, Daniel, definitely not me.  The fact remains, though, that our orders are to continue to the next part of the mission."

Daniel nodded.  "So, I guess it's on to Albaren, then."

What they learned on Albaren was pretty surprising.  Amaterasu and Lord Yu had joined forces in a concerted effort to defeat the one controlling Anubis' armies, and their first target was the very place that SG-1 had just come from: Tartarus.

"They are on their way there as we speak," said the Jaffa the teammates were talking to.

Thanking him for the information, Daniel, Sam and Teal'c headed back toward the Al'Kesh.

"Do you realize that, if we'd gone just a few hours later, we'd have flown right into the middle of that battle?" Sam said.

Daniel's expression was thoughtful.  "Sam, this might work in our favor."

"How so?"

"Well, if the battle had been taking place out in open space, we'd have had to stay far enough away to be out of the line of fire, but in a solar system. . . ."

Sam smiled, knowing where he was going.  "There would be planets to hide on."

"The fifth planet of that solar system is a rocky, airless world with no life," Teal'c said.

"We could fly in, head straight for the planet, take shelter in one of the impact craters, and let Daniel do his thing."

Daniel nodded.  "And being right there in the midst of the battle will make it a whole lot easier for me to see things.  We might actually be able to do this."

"But that planet is well within the range of the sensors on Tartarus," Teal'c pointed out.

"Which means that we're going to have to wait for the fight to begin before we make our move.  Once the fighting starts, those sensors are going to be way too busy to notice us."

Sam thought about the danger of flying into the midst of the battle.  "You know, we wouldn't have to do this.  We could stay outside the battle zone and see if you can do it from there.  That's all our orders require that we do.  I say that we try that first, then, if you don't succeed, we'll decide what to do then."

The others agreed, and Teal'c took the ship back to Tartarus.

They exited hyperspace much farther out this time, far enough that there would be no danger of running afoul of the attacking ships.

Sam looked at the screen.  "It's all quiet so far.  We must have beaten them here.  Wait a minute.  There they are!  A big fleet just dropped out of hyperspace.  It's approaching the planet.  That's strange.  I don't see any ships coming to intercept them."

Daniel abruptly stiffened.  "Sam, something's happening."

Seconds after Daniel spoke those words, dozens more ships suddenly appeared on the screen, surrounding the enemy fleet.

"It's a trap!" Sam cried.  "Anubis' ships must have been lying in wait somewhere."

The battle was instantly underway.  As it raged, Daniel reached out with his mind and attempted to see the face of the one who had taken over Anubis' armies and was, at that very moment, using them to fight two of his fellow Goa'uld.  Flashes came to Daniel, mixed up images of ships, and explosions and death, but it was too much and going too fast for him to find what he was looking for.

He opened his eyes and shook his head.  "It's no use.  I can't lock onto any one ship."

Sam looked at him closely.  "Do you think you could if you were on that planet?"

"I can't say for sure, but, yes, I think so."

"Then we need to make a decision.  Do we end our mission and go home or do we try to achieve our objective?"

Daniel didn't respond.  He was staring out the window in the direction of the battle.

Sam touched his arm.  "Daniel?"

The archeologist turned to her.  "What?  Oh.  I'm sorry."

"You seem troubled, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c remarked.

"Yeah.  Though I didn't really see much of anything, I now have a feeling that I didn't before."

"What feeling?" Sam asked.

"I think we need to know who that person is, Sam."

"Then we must do all we can to gain that knowledge," Teal'c responded.

The two men focused their attention fully on the leader of SG-1.

"What do you say, Sam?" Daniel asked.

"That I guess we're going to be getting a whole lot closer to the action."  She settled in the co-pilot's seat.  "Let's do this."

It did not take long to get close enough to the fight to see it with the naked eye.  The blasted remains of countless ships were already scattered about.  Still more ships were on fire.  And amidst them all, other ships were locked in mortal combat.

As they entered the battle zone, Teal'c and Sam had to keep a close eye on the sensors and what was outside the window.  Even a small piece of debris could cause significant damage at the speed they were traveling.  It turned out that Daniel's senses were equally as good as the sensors, and he helped guide Teal'c.

The closer they got, the worse it became, and they were all relieved when they finally reached their destination.  Teal'c took the Al'Kesh into one of the deepest craters of the dead planet and came to a landing, keeping the ship cloaked just in case.

As Sam and Teal'c looked on, Daniel closed his eyes and cast his senses outward.  All around them ships were battling furiously, weapons fire lighting the darkness of space.  Invisible and untouchable, Daniel's mind sought one ship in particular, the one he knew would contain the person who controlled the forces of Anubis.  Being so much closer now, it didn't take long to find it.  Bigger than the rest, the mothership sat like a general overseeing its troops.

Daniel's mental sight penetrated the hull and started its next search, but he had barely begun when he quite suddenly sensed something, something he had not been prepared for – something that sensed him.

With a gasp, Daniel withdrew.  His eyes flew open.

"It's Anubis!"

"What?!" Sam cried.  "But how is that possible?"

"I don't know, but it is him.  I didn't have to see him, I felt him."  Daniel turned to the astrophysicist.  "Sam, he sensed me, too.  He knows I'm here, and he will come after us.  We have to get out of here!"

Not waiting to be told, Teal'c flew out of the crater, intent upon getting them away from there as quickly as possible.

They had barely cleared the planet's surface, however, when disaster struck.  A nearby mothership opened up on several attacking ships, and one of the shots hit SG-1's ship.

"We are losing power," Teal'c said as he fought the controls.  "The hyperdrive is no longer functional, and the cloak is failing."

"Get us back down on the planet!" Sam ordered.

Their descent was closer to a crash than a landing, but, thankfully, the hull remained intact.

"Teal'c, how bad is it?" Sam asked.

"The outer hull is damaged, but does not appear to be in danger of breaching.  We have lost power to many of the systems, but life support is intact."

Sam came up and began scanning the damage reports.  "Well, it's bad, but I think it's fixable.  Fortunately, we've got space suits onboard, so we can go out and make repairs."

Daniel was not looking at her.  Instead, his gaze was focused outside.  "Sam, we're not going to have time.  Yu and Amaterasu are losing the fight.  It's not going to be long before the battle is over.  After that, Anubis will start hunting for us, hunting for me.  And, if he finds us. . . ."  Daniel turned to Sam, meeting her eyes.  "He'll try to take me as a host, Sam.  He'll force me to use my abilities until I'm too tired to fight him, then he'll take me."  His gaze intensified.  "We can't let that happen."

Sam knew what he was saying, what they were going to have to do.  They could not let Anubis find anything except dead bodies.

"We could . . . open the hatch," she said quietly.  "That would do it."

"Anubis would be able to revive us with a sarcophagus," Teal'c pointed out.  "We must make sure that will not be possible."

"I could . . . I could blow up the ship," Daniel said, just the thought making him sick.

"God, no, Daniel," Sam responded.  "I couldn't let you do that."  Her expression firmed.  "I'll rig the engines to explode."

She walked away, intent upon the task that would end all of their lives.

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