CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Jack stood and watched a crew sweeping up the remains of the Replicators.  It was going to take a while to get rid of it all, but better that than what could have happened.

The warning of an unscheduled gate activation began sounding.  Wondering who it was this time, Jack went to the control room.

"It's Colonel Carter, sir," Harriman told him.

"Let her on through."

Sam came walking through the gate along with her father.  They went up to the control room.

"Where's Teal'c?" Jack asked.

"He and Bra'tac are still handling things on Dakara," the lieutenant colonel replied.

"I suppose that's wise.  I know they took care of the rest of Anubis' ships, but have they put any thought into what they'll do if the guy sends more ships to take back the planet?  Or was Anubis on one of the ships that attacked?"

"No, sir.  We're pretty sure that he wasn't."

"Too bad.  At least maybe he'd have been out of commission for a while."

"If Anubis does send more ships, he's probably going to face quite a formidable force," Jacob said.  "Teal'c and the others haven't wasted any time in announcing loud and clear to the galaxy that the free Jaffa have taken Dakara and successfully rebuffed Anubis' forces to keep it."

"With a little help from our not so friendly Replicators."

"Well, it's understandable that they'd leave that part out.  Anyway, they're already getting back some responses.  As they'd hoped, taking Dakara was like a shot in the arm to the movement.  They'll probably have Jaffa from all over the galaxy joining with them."

"Well, viva la revolution!" Jack exclaimed.

"More ships are already on the way to help secure Dakara," Sam said.  "The Jaffa have also taken over the enhanced Replicator ships that survived, which means that they're going to have some impressive firepower at their disposal.  If we arm all the Jaffa with the Telchak energy weapons, they'll be able to turn the tide against Anubis' supersoldiers."

"What about that big honkin' weapon on Dakara?  We got control of the thing for the express purpose of using it to kill those supersoldiers."

"Dad and I talked about that a bit, and we realized that hitting exactly the right frequency necessary to destroy the Kull warriors but leave all other organic life forms untouched would be extremely tricky.  It wouldn't be the same as it was for the Replicators.  We'd have to be right on the money, not even a fraction lower or higher."

"So, no galactic supersoldier house cleaning?"

"No, I'm afraid not, sir."

Jack looked back and forth between father and daughter.  "I've got a question for you.  Did you notice if the Replicators where you were happened to . . . stop in the middle of everything?"

"Yeah," Sam replied, "it was really strange.  They just. . . ."

"Froze," she, Jack and Jacob all said at the same time.

Sam nodded.  "It actually bought us the time we needed to calibrate the weapon."

"Any idea why that happened?" Jack asked, looking quite thoughtful.

Sam had a feeling that she knew what he was thinking.  "You think Daniel had something to do with it?"

"I don't know."

The worry that Sam had tried to keep a lid on escaped.  "Sir, if he was onboard that Replicator ship, then. . . ."

"Carter!" Jack interrupted.  "We don't know anything."

Sam nodded.  "No, sir."  Despite Jack's words, she couldn't halt the fear that Daniel was now dead, his body floating somewhere in the cold depths of space.  But she couldn't give up hope, not yet.

All eyes went to the view out the window as, yet again, the Stargate began turning, accompanied by still another announcement of an off-world activation.

"For crying' out loud," Jack sighed.  "Who is it now?"

They waited for the wormhole to establish.

"Well, Walter?" Jack asked.

"Sir, it's SG-1's IDC."

"Daniel!"  Sam exclaimed.  "It's Daniel!"

Hoping she was right, Jack told Harriman to send out a radio request for identification.  But before that could be done, they heard a voice over the speakers.

"Hellooo, it's me," said Daniel.  "And, yes, it's really me."

A big grin spread over Jack's face.  He leaned down and spoke into the microphone.  "Well, I don't know, Daniel.  How can we be sure of that?"

They all heard a sigh.  "Shall I blow up something in the gate room?  I've never tried to do something like that through a wormhole before, but I suppose I could give it a try."

"That won't be necessary, Daniel.  Come on through."

The iris opened.  Moments later, everyone was treated to the wonderful sight of Daniel coming through.  Jack, Sam and Jacob went down to the gate room to met him. Sam immediately came up to him and gave him a tight hug.

"I've been so worried about you," she said.  She felt Daniel stiffen against her for a second and looked at him.  "What's wrong?"

He smiled.  "Nothing.  What you said just reminded me of something someone else said recently."

"I'm glad to see you didn't get yourself killed," Jacob said with a smile.

"Ditto," said Jack.

"Daniel, was it my Replicator double who took you?" Sam asked.

"Yeah.  She wanted the Ancient knowledge in my head."

"Okay, Daniel, Carter, go on to the infirmary," Jack said, "then get yourselves cleaned up.  Debriefing in an hour.  Jacob, I think you might possibly benefit from a shower as well."

"You won't get an argument from me," the Tok'ra responded.

An hour later, they all sat in the briefing room and told their tales.

"She came really close to tricking me into giving her what she wanted," Daniel said after recounting Replicator Carter's ruse.  "Unfortunately, she did later manipulate me into revealing the existence of Dakara."  He told them how she'd done it.

"Not your fault, Daniel," Jack said, seeing that it was bothering the man.  "We can't control the stuff that pops into our head."

Sam nodded.  "I probably would have done the same thing."

"So, you were actually able to block her from gaining entrance to both your subconscious and conscious mind?" Jacob asked.

"To a certain extent," Daniel replied.  "She could apparently read any thoughts that I had, the stuff on the surface, but she couldn't get inside my stored memories and knowledge, not even when I was unconscious.  I already knew that I could somewhat block entrance into my mind.  I found that out in the confrontation with the Methra."

"Yes, Sam told me about that little adventure."

"Anyway, in the end, I was the one who tricked her."

Jack leaned forward in his chair.  "How?"

"Once she realized that she wasn't going to get what she wanted by coercion or trickery, she tried forcing her way in.  I could probably have kept her out indefinitely if she hadn't played dirty.  She kept bombarding my mind with these . . . images.  They were . . . pretty horrific.  It was affecting my concentration.  I was afraid that, sooner or later, she'd break through.  That's when I got an idea.  Actually, it came from a conversation I had with Oma when I was ascended.  Have you ever heard the quote, 'If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.'?"

Sam nodded.  "It's from Nietzsche, right?"

"Yes.  I first heard it when I was studying Nietzsche.  He was a philologist before he turned his attention to philosophy.  As the Replicator was trying to get inside my head, it suddenly occurred to me that it could work both ways.  If she was inside my mind, I might be able to get inside hers.  So, I let her in.  All the time that she was scanning the Ancient knowledge, I worked on infiltrating her mind and learning how to take control of the Replicators.  What helped was that I saw a lot of what she unearthed of the Ancient knowledge.  It helped me figure out how to gain control."

Jack smiled.  "Sweet.  So, RepliCarter handed you the weapon that you used against her."

Daniel's eyebrows lifted.  "RepliCarter?"

Jack shrugged.  "It's easier to say than Replicator Carter."

"I suppose."  Daniel shook his head.  "She was apparently so certain that I couldn't possibly succeed that, even after she found out what I was trying to do, she didn't break the connection."

"Well, that wasn't too bright."

"It's not surprising, though," Sam remarked.  "The human-form Replicators were all pretty arrogant and viewed humans as being far inferior to them.  Fifth wasn't quite so bad in that regard."

"Yes, well, I'm still glad that he's dead, too," Jack stated, not having shed a tear when Daniel told them about the Replicator's demise at the hands of the very thing he created.

Daniel continued his narrative.  "It took a while to finally figure out how to gain control.  When I did, I made all the Replicators freeze."

"Yes, we kind of noticed that.  They were pretty darn easy to shoot after that."

"If you hadn't managed to do that, I don't think we'd have gotten the Ancient device calibrated in time," Sam said.  "You saved all of us."

"Again," Jack said.

Daniel glanced away, a bit in embarrassment.  "After I made some of the Replicators blow up their own ship, uh, RepliCarter got a little ticked off.  She broke the connection and tried to skewer me with a sword that used to be her hand."

Jack stared at him.  "She made a sword out of her hand?"  He looked at Sam.  "Don't tell me.  You've seen Terminator 2, haven't you."

"Not until you played it on one of our movie nights, sir."

Jack grimaced.  "Okay, so it's my fault."  He turned back to Daniel.  "Since you're sitting here alive and well, I'm guessing that you objected to her intentions."

"Somewhat.  I threw her across the room.  That's when I had a vision of what was about to happen.  I knew that the Ancient device was going to be fired, and, if I didn't get off that ship, I'd end up floating around all by myself in a very cold, dark, airless place."

Sam shuddered as she recalled her earlier thought.  "How did you get off?"

"I took control of the ship and made it fly to the nearest planet with a Stargate."

"So, you were able to take control again?" Jacob asked.

Daniel nodded.  "Now that I knew how, it was pretty easy, although I probably couldn't have reestablished control of all of the Replicators since I no longer had access to that sub-space link.  I'd rather not think about how close I came to not getting off.  By the time I beamed down to the planet, the weapon had already been fired.  I just made it by the skin of my teeth."

They were all shaken by how close Daniel had come to being killed.  If the Ancient device had been activated just a couple of seconds sooner, he wouldn't have made it off the ship in time.  That was way too close.

"Well, you made it," Jack said.  "That's all that matters.  And close shaves are pretty much S.O.P. in this job.  There wasn't much time left on the clock when I called off the detonation of the nuke."

"I would have made it back here sooner," Daniel said, "but it turned out that the DHD on the planet I beamed to was damaged.  I had to fix it."

Sam's face brightened.  "You can fix a DHD now?"

"Apparently.  Among the Ancient stuff that RepliCarter pulled from my mind was a lot about the Stargates.  I can still remember some of it."

That piqued Jack's attention.  "How much can you remember?"

"Bits and pieces.  It was so much, coming so fast, and a lot of it was beyond anything any human being could comprehend.  And, no, Jack, no plans for a big space gun."

"Dang.  What a disappointment."

Sam turned to the base commander.  "Sir, what's the public explanation for the evacuation?"

"Yeah, that was a tricky one.  I don't think anyone would have bought a gas leak.  The official story is that a small, experimental nuclear device suffered a little glitch.  The evacuation was just a precaution since there was no real danger that the device would actually explode.  The president is anticipating that there will be lots of questions and a lot of people getting all stirred up that such a dangerous device was sitting in the middle of a heavily populated area.  He'll promise that it will never happen again, and, hopefully, that will be the end of it."

Jack looked at Daniel, who was staring at the tabletop, a frown knitting his brow.  "Something wrong, Daniel?" he asked.

"Um . . . yeah, I guess there is."  The archeologist looked at everyone.  "I've been so distracted with all the stuff that happened that I didn't realize something until just now.  You know that bad feeling I had before all this started?  Well . . . I still have it."

"Oh, please tell me you're joking."

"I wish I could."

"You mean something else is gonna happen?"

Daniel nodded.  "And, this time, I think it does have something to do with Anubis."

"Maybe he's going to attack Dakara and try to regain control," Jacob said.

"Oh boy," Sam murmured.   "What do you think someone like Anubis would do with that weapon on Dakara?"

"Nothing very nice," was Jack's reply.

"But Anubis had to already know about it," Daniel said.  "True, he obviously doesn't have all of the knowledge of the Ancients, but he'd have definitely known about that device."

"But would he have known exactly where it was?" Sam wondered.

"He's had control of that planet for years, he can read Ancient, and he can pass through walls at will.  He could have searched the temple at any time and gotten inside that chamber.  I don't see how he could not have known where it was.  Besides, if the Jaffa legend about Dakara being the place where Anubis rose from the dead has any truth in it, it may have had something to do with that device."

"So, if he was going to do something with it, he'd have done so by now, right?" Jack asked.

"Um . . . I guess."

Jack stared at Daniel.  "You guess?"

"Jack, we have no way of knowing what kind of ultimate plans Anubis has."

The general frowned.  "You know, I'm thinking that getting rid of that thing might be a very good idea."

"I tend to agree."

"Then I'd say that we need to have a little talk with the Jaffa and tell them that."

"That might not be easy," Jacob responded.  "That temple is if great historical and theological significance to them.  They're not going to readily agree to it being destroyed."

"Would the entire temple have to be destroyed?" Sam asked.

"Pretty much," Daniel replied.  "The amount of explosives we'd have to pack into that mountain would level everything in the immediate vicinity."

"Well, then it sounds like the person who needs to try to convince them is our good friend Dan'yar," Jack observed.

---

"Dan'yar" went to Dakara the next day.  He met with a group of Jaffa in a torch-lit chamber.  Among those assembled were Teal'c, Bra'tac, Aron and Toloc.

"Dan'yar," said the eldest Jaffa, Toloc.  "It is an honor to finally meet you face to face."

Daniel dipped his head in a short bow.  "The honor is mine as well."  He turned to the man beside Toloc.  "Aron, it's nice to see you again."

Just then, another person entered, and Daniel smiled upon seeing him.

"Ka'ter."

The green-eyed Jaffa came forward with a big smile and promptly pulled Daniel into a hearty embrace, which made a ripple of surprise pass through most of those assembled.

"It is good to see you again, my friend," Ka'ter said, holding Daniel at arms' length.

"Likewise."

"We are all honored that you have come," said a Jaffa named Sen'ek.  "But what has brought you here?"

"It's about the Ancient device that's inside the temple.  As you all now know, it's very powerful.  It has the power to destroy all life in this galaxy.  For that reason, it's very dangerous.  I'm here to ask that you allow it to be destroyed."

That caused a murmur among the Jaffa assembled.

"But in order to destroy it, the temple must be destroyed as well," said one.

"Yes, I'm afraid so.  There's no other way."

There was some more murmuring.

"Hear me, brothers," Teal'c said.  "I have fought many battles at Dan'yar's side.  I have seen first-hand his knowledge and wisdom.  If he says we must destroy the weapon, then it must be destroyed."

"I am in agreement," Bra'tac declared.  "Yes, this temple is an important part of our past, but it is a past that was one of servitude to false gods.  It is not a symbol of our freedom, but of slavery."

Ka'ter nodded.  "Bra'tac and Teal'c are right.  Since the day I first met Dan'yar, I have come to see with my own eyes the honor, truth and wisdom of his actions.  His words should be listened to and heeded.  I say raze the temple to the ground and build in its place a new monument, one that is a symbol of our freedom from oppression."

Toloc held up his hand.  "We hear all your words, and we do not doubt that Dan'yar is a man of honor and wisdom.  Yet what he is asking us to do is not an easy thing.  For many thousands of years, from the very beginning of our race, this temple has been a powerful symbol to our people.  To destroy it would be to destroy the most important place in our history.  It is our very birthplace!"

"I understand the significance of this place, Toloc," Daniel responded.  "If there was some way to destroy the device yet preserve the temple, I'd do everything I could to see that done.  But that weapon is a threat to all of us.  As long as it exists, we will be living under its shadow.  And Anubis knows of its existence.  History is very important to me, but so is the future.  If Anubis ever decided to use that weapon against us, none of us would have a future.  He could easily dial any gate on any world, on Chulak, on Albaren, on the worlds that each of you call home, then activate the weapon and send the power through to wipe out all life on that planet.  You wouldn't be able to stop it."

That disturbed every Jaffa there.

"But would he not be destroyed as well?" asked one.

Daniel shook his head.  "No.  The body he was inhabiting would be destroyed, but Anubis himself would survive since he's not made of flesh and bone."

"Then why has he not done this before now?" asked Aron.

"I don't know.  It could be that he was afraid that the other System Lords would attack Dakara and destroy the temple if he started wiping out worlds in their territories."  Daniel looked at all of them.  "If I had to choose between preserving a part of the past or preserving the future for my children, I'd choose the future."

Toloc's expression was thoughtful.  "You words, are, indeed, wise, Dan'yar.  We will discuss this at length.  There are others not here today who must be a part of this decision.  They will be called for an assembly."

Daniel gave a nod of his head, knowing that he couldn't have expected an answer today.  "Thank you, Toloc."

The call for an assembly was sent out among the Jaffa, and the meeting was arranged to take place the next day.  Daniel and his teammates would be attending, as would Jack, who said this was too important for him to miss.  Personally, Daniel would have preferred not having Jack there.  If the vote went in the wrong direction, the man would very likely have a few choice words to say that wouldn't exactly endear him to the Jaffa.

"Okay, so what's the plan if they say no to getting rid of that thing?" Jack asked the archeologist.

"What makes you think I have a plan?"

"Because you know that thing needs to be gone, and you're the only one with a prayer of destroying it behind the backs of the Jaffa."

"Jack, I may be able to do more now than what I could in the beginning, but I'm certainly not that strong."

"Would destroying just the control console be enough?" Sam asked.

"Anubis might have the knowledge of how to rebuild it.  It would delay him, but it might not stop him."

"Would he not have the knowledge of how to construct the entire device?" Teal'c questioned.

Daniel shook his head.  "The Ancients built it after they ascended, Teal'c.  They used powers that Anubis could not."

Jack thought of something.  "Okay, if they built it after they went glowy, what happened to their policy of not interfering?"

"Well, it could be that they hadn't made that policy yet, or maybe they all thought that they had the obligation to fix things since they probably played a big part in accidentally spreading the plague across the galaxy.  I mean, when you think about it, the Stargates likely had a big role in the plague being spread from planet to planet as infected people traveled through them.  And the Ancients would also have been traveling the galaxy via ships."

"Infecting still more planets," Sam remarked.

Daniel nodded.  "At this point, it doesn't really matter what their reason was.  One way or another, we need to convince the Jaffa to destroy that thing."

---

By that evening, Daniel was so tense that he couldn't sit still.  Not going home, he prowled his office restlessly.  The feeling of impending danger was growing steadily stronger.  At last, he knew that he had to try to see what that danger was.

Sitting in his chair, he closed his eyes and cast his mind into the future.  For a moment, he saw nothing, then, suddenly, it struck with such violence that he toppled from the chair.  Thrown out of the vision, Daniel sat stunned on the floor.  He then scrabbled to his feet, grabbed the phone, and dialed a number he'd called many times.

"This had better be good," Jack said.  "I've got a piece of prime rib sitting before me that's begging to be eaten."

"Jack, Anubis is going to attack Dakara.  I just saw it.  He's going to send more ships than the rebel fleet can hope to stop.  It'll be a massacre."

"Crap.  When is this going to happen?"

"I don't know, but really soon."

Jack gazed down at his steak longingly, then sighed deeply.

"I'm on my way," he said.

Daniel contacted Sam, who was also still on base.  They met with Jack in the briefing room once the general arrived.

"Okay, what exactly did you see?" Jack asked Daniel.

"I saw Anubis attack with a big fleet of ships.  At the same time, supersoldiers came pouring through the gate.  Only a few of the Jaffa had the energy weapons, so they had no hope of stopping the soldiers.  They were overrun, slaughtered.  That's all I saw.  The vision hit me so hard that it overwhelmed me."

"And you don't know when this will happen?" Sam asked.

"No, just that it's soon."

Jack gave a short nod.  "All right.  Carter, how many of those weapons do we have?"

"We've been stockpiling them, sir, so we have quite a few."

"Get them crated up and ready for transport.  We'll take them with us to Dakara tomorrow, along with some rocket launchers and whatever else we think we might need.  Daniel, I know you're not gonna like this, but we need to figure out a way to destroy that temple on Dakara if the Jaffa say no, although I'm hoping that, once you tell them what you saw, they'll be smart enough to realize that it needs to be destroyed."

Daniel nodded.  Normally, he wouldn't have wanted to defy the Jaffa and destroy something that held such importance to them against their will, but the fate of the galaxy was on the line.  That was a lot more important than any historical monument.

"We'd probably have to use the nuclear device, sir," Sam said.  "Anyone in the area would be killed."

"Then we'd have to warn them in time for them to evacuate," Jack responded.

"This might irreparably damage our relationship with the Jaffa," Daniel said.

"I'm willing to take that chance."

Sam took charge of seeing to it that all the weapons were boxed up and taken to the gate room.  She also made sure that a certain other item was put in a crate as well: the Naquadah-enhanced nuclear bomb that would have been used to destroyed the temple if they hadn't succeeded in holding off Anubis' first attack.  Sam now wished that it had been left there.  It would have been a lot easier to use it.  Now, they'd have to somehow sneak it back into the temple.

Dressed as Dan'yar, Daniel went through to Dakara.  He contacted Teal'c, who was on one of the ships in orbit, and got beamed aboard.  He met with his teammate and Bra'tac privately.

"We've got a problem," he announced.  He told them about his vision.  "The SGC is getting all the Telchak energy weapons we have ready to bring here, but even with them, we might not be able to stop Anubis from taking back the planet."

"This is grave news," Bra'tac said.  "We must tell those who are assembling tomorrow that Anubis' attack is imminent and stress how vital it is to destroy the Ancient weapon before he comes."

"Will they listen?" Daniel asked.  "Are all of them going to see that the temple isn't important enough to risk the whole galaxy for?"

"They will have to be made to see," Teal'c declared firmly.

Daniel looked at the two Jaffa.  "Guys, I need to tell you that we're also bringing a nuke with us.  We're going to try to sneak it into the temple.  If the Jaffa say no, we're going to destroy the temple anyway."

Teal'c and Bra'tac exchanged a long look.

"Such an act would threaten the Jaffa alliance with the Tau'ri," the older man said, "but I do not disagree with your plan."

Teal'c nodded in agreement.  "We must destroy that weapon, regardless the cost."

---

The next day, as Daniel, Sam and Jack prepared to meet with the Jaffa leaders, the crates full of weapons were transported to Dakara.  SG-3, 5 and 11 were put in charge of distributing the weapons to all of the Jaffa on the planet and have the remainder taken up to the ships in orbit.

Daniel's tension had settled into a solid knot in his stomach, his sixth sense sending him a loud, insistent warning.  He tried to calm his nerves.  As Dan'yar, he needed to appear calm, self-assured and in control.

At last, the time came for him, Sam and Jack to leave.

"Daniel, you might want to dial it down a bit," Jack said as they stood in the gate room, awaiting the address to be connected.

Daniel frowned.  "What?"

"That look on your face is scaring me, Daniel, and I know you."

Perplexed, the archeologist looked at Sam.

"Your expression is kind of . . . intense," she told him.

"Oh.  Sorry."  Daniel attempted to relax a bit.

"Better," Jack said.  "At least now you're not going to scare all the Jaffa off the planet before we get a chance to talk to them . . . although that might have had its advantages."

The gate finished dialing, and the three of them went through.  The members of SG-3 were waiting on the other side.

"How's it going, Reynolds?" Jack asked.

"We've pretty much got all the energy weapons distributed.  Most of the Jaffa on the planet are now armed with them, and several crates are onboard the ships.  Nobody questioned why we were doing this today."

"Good."  Jack lowered his voice.  "What about the nuke?"

Reynolds shook his head.  "We haven't been able to get it in that building, General.  The Jaffa have the place under guard.  The nuke is stashed in one of the other buildings."

"Is it close enough to do the job?"

"That I don't know."

"Sir, the device is inside the mountain, and it was built by the Ancients," Sam said.  "If it's as tough as the Stargates, we need to make sure that nuke is sitting right under it."

"Right," Jack responded.  "We'll get it in there somehow."  He turned back to the leader of SG-3.  "While we're in there talking to the head honchos, I want you and the other teams to start quietly spreading the word that Dan'yar says Anubis will be attacking soon, perhaps even today.  I want all of them prepared for battle."

"Yes, sir."

Jack, Daniel and Sam went to the place where the Jaffa leaders were meeting, the same room as the previous meeting.

As they entered, a wave of silence swept out from their location to fill the room as each Jaffa became aware that Dan'yar had arrived.  Daniel felt the eyes of every one of them on him as he, Sam and Jack walked forward.  He saw several familiar faces, including Ishta, Ka'ter, M'zel, Raknor, and Har'tec.  Toloc was standing with Teal'c and Bra'tac, so that's whom the archeologist aimed for.

"Dan'yar," the old Jaffa greeted.

Daniel dipped his head in greeting.  "Toloc."

"We have awaited your arrival before starting the discussions."

"Thank you.  First, there's something I must tell all of you."  He looked about at the other Jaffa and raised his voice.  "Last night, I had a vision of the future.  I saw Anubis attack Dakara with many ships and soldiers."  The announcement stirred a reaction among the Jaffa.

"Let him come!" one shouted.  "We are strong, and our numbers many.  We will defeat him."

Daniel shook his head.  "In the future I saw, you were defeated.  To try to prevent this from happening, the Tau'ri have been distributing among you weapons that can kill the Kull Warriors.  I see that most of you have one.  But those weapons might not be enough to stop Anubis from taking back Dakara.  If the temple falls back into his hands, he'll have a weapon that could kill all of us."

"When is he going to attack?" Raknor asked, frowning.

"I don't know, but it's going to be very soon.  It might even be today.  This is why we have to destroy the temple.  We have to make sure that Anubis can never use it."

That got an even stronger reaction, some of agreement, some disagreement.

"Perhaps you did not see clearly in your vision," a Jaffa suggested.

"Okay, I'm going to step in here, if you don't mind, and make one thing crystal clear," Jack said.  "His visions are never wrong.  Never.  If he saw it happen, then it'll happen, unless we do something to stop it.  Dan . . . Dan'yar is right.  We've done what we can to prevent the slaughter by arming you guys with those weapons, but that may not be enough.  They can't stop the ships that are going to come.  Now, you can bet that the main reason why Anubis is so eager to get this place back is that weapon.  Once it's gone, he'll have less reason to attack this place."

"O'Neill is correct," Bra'tac said.  "Destroying the weapon will lessen Anubis' interest in Dakara."

"But it would also destroy something that is sacred to all Jaffa," one man said.  "Our race was born in this very place."

Teal'c took a step forward.  "Is a dead place of stone and earth more precious than the lives of our children and children's children?  Is the history within these walls of greater value than the future of our people?  We have fought these long years for a future without slavery, yet you would throw it all away to preserve this?"  He gestured at the structure around them.

"Teal'c speaks wisely," Bra'tac declared.  "Of what use will this temple be if there are no Jaffa left to revere it?"

Ka'ter spoke up.  "Two years ago, my brother died in the battle against the Goa'uld.  He did not give his life for Dakara, he gave it for all of us, all Jaffa who yearn for freedom.  I doubt there are many of you here who has not lost a friend or loved one in this fight.  If Anubis wins back Dakara and uses that weapon to destroy us, then my brother and every other rebel Jaffa who has perished in this fight will have died for nothing."

"Then we must use it against him!" shouted Ishta.  All eyes turned to her.  "We must use it to strike at Tartarus, the center of his power.  When his ships come, we will use it to destroy all who are upon them.  This weapon can be used to defeat our enemies."

"Ishta, it wouldn't just kill the Kull Warriors," Daniel said.  "We don't know how to set it to kill just them.  In fact, at this point, we don't even know how to set it to killed anything except Replicators."

"Then we must learn," said Har'tec.

Daniel shook his head.  "You don't understand.  Unless it was set perfectly, when that weapon was fired, it would wipe out not only your target, but also everyone on this planet, in this entire solar system, plus the solar system of the planet you targeted."

"More than that," Sam said.  "According to the sensors on the ships that were here when we used the weapon against the Replicators, the energy wave expanded well beyond this solar system.  We don't know how far, but it could have been a great distance.  You could wipe out all life on nearby worlds, if you fired it."

"Would it not be worth the lives of thousands to save the lives of countless billions?" reasoned one Jaffa.  Several nodded in agreement.

Daniel didn't like how this was going.  How could he convince them that it was too great a risk to keep the weapon while they tried to figure out how to make it work?

In the next second, it suddenly didn't matter anymore.  Jack and Sam felt Daniel stiffen beside them, eyes locked on some distant sight.

"It's too late," he announced.  "Anubis is coming.  He'll be here within minutes."

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