"Zugzwang," Daniel muttered in frustration as his hand hovered hesitantly over the chess board.
Jack's eyebrows shot up towards his hairline and the touch of a smirk played across his lips as Daniel eventually retreated his one remaining knight. "Just because I've finally got you on the run, that's no reason to get mouthy."
Daniel glanced up at him in momentary confusion before his brain caught up with his ears and he realized Jack's mistake. "Zugzwang," he repeated in his lecturer voice, as a precursor to the inevitable explanation. "It's a chess term. It refers to the obligation to make a move even if it's disadvantageous to your position."
"Oh!" Jack took Daniel's newly exposed bishop with obvious delight. "So you were actually trying to save face by flaunting your superior vocabulary. Is that it?"
Before Daniel could answer, the door to the room opened and Sam stuck her head around it. "Colonel? Daniel? General Hammond wants us in the control room."
Jack's features twisted in exasperation. "Aww, Carter!" he exclaimed as he rose to his feet and removed his jacket from the back of his chair. "I was beating Daniel at chess for, like, the first time ever!"
"Sorry, sir," Sam said with an impish grin, "but I don't think this can wait."
Jack waggled his finger at the back of Daniel's head as he followed the younger man to the door. "Don't think you're going to get off this easily," he warned, mock threat darkening his tone. "We're coming back to finish this game - and I'm going to win!"
Teal'c was already waiting for them when they reached the gate control room, as was General Hammond. Looking through the large window in front of them, Jack could see that the iris was open and there was an active event horizon shimmering across the surface of the stargate. Before he could ask what was going on, however, the General said, "Ah, here they are," and stepped aside to reveal a worried-looking Tok'ra on the transmission monitor.
"Hey, Aldwin," Jack greeted him cordially. "What's up?"
"We need your help," the deceptively young-looking host began. "Anise is missing and we have no operatives available to go looking for her."
This grabbed everybody's attention, and Daniel leaned forward to get a better view of the screen, his expression earnest. "What happened?" he asked, concern for their Tok'ra ally clear in his voice.
"She set off a few days ago in a ship to do an archaeological survey on a planet that has no stargate. She was due to arrive there later today but, a short while ago, we received a distress call from her. She managed to relay her position and that her ship was experiencing engine problems but then the radio signal was lost and we haven't heard from her since."
"Looking for more weird devices to test out on us, was she?" Jack muttered darkly. At a warning glance from General Hammond, he switched his expression to one of polite concern and cleared his throat. "So what can we do to help?" He couldn't see what use SG-1 could be in this situation, considering they had no ship and were likely much too far away to go after Anise even if they did.
"There's a planet with a stargate very close to Anise's last known location," Aldwin explained. "We sent a probe through as soon as we worked out the address and our readings show that there is evidence of a Tok'ra vessel not too far from the gate. Since we cannot spare anyone to investigate, we were hoping that you and your team would be willing to mount a search and rescue operation."
Glancing at General Hammond, who immediately nodded his approval, Jack quickly responded with all the sincerity he could muster. "Always glad to help out our Tok'ra buddies."
Aldwin's anxious features relaxed into a relieved smile. "Thank you," he breathed, then briefly looked off to the side of the camera. "I'm transmitting the gate address and data from the probe now."
Scant seconds later, Sam confirmed receipt of the information from her position seated at one of the computer consoles. Aldwin wished them luck and then signed off, the wormhole disengaging at the conclusion of his transmission.
The four men waited patiently while Sam rapidly reviewed what they had been sent before looking up at their expectant faces. "The ship appears to be about a half hour hike from the stargate," she reported. "There are no signs of obvious habitation in the area, but the atmosphere is breathable and there' s nothing immediately hazardous about the planetary conditions."
"Alright, SG-1," Hammond announced, "as soon as you're ready, you have a go."
* * * * *
Twenty minutes later, the four members of SG-1 stepped through the event horizon, and straight into a thunderstorm. As the forces of the wormhole pushed them forwards out of the gate, they were simultaneously buffeted backwards again by the strong winds of the planet. Rain lashed down in almost horizontal sheets and the ominous rumbling of thunder followed closely after each jagged strike of lightning.
"Whoa!" Jack cried, throwing his hands up in front of his face, then yelling back over his shoulder, "No hazardous conditions, eh Carter?"
"This storm must have come up since the Tok'ra sent their probe through, sir!" she shouted back over the tumultuous noise.
"Ya think?" Jack waved off her further comments. "Let's find some shelter! We can argue Tok'ra screw-ups later."
Teal'c scanned their surroundings, struggling to make anything out in the relentless downpour. The stargate was surrounded by an area of dusty earth with the occasional scrubby bush dotting the landscape. Off to the left, Teal'c noticed a rise in the ground and the beginnings of some trees. "O'Neill!" he cried out, pointing in that direction. "Over there!"
Hoping the others would understand and follow him, the ever-stoic Jaffa set off at a steady ground-eating jog towards the shelter he had identified. Once he reached the trees, Teal'c slowed down, spotting an overhang in the cliff face and beckoning his team-mates towards it. Soon they were all pressed up against the rock in an attempt to get out of the wet, although their efforts were futile. Even their brief exposure to the elements had already soaked them thoroughly. Sam shook water out of her hair while Daniel removed his glasses and attempted to dry them on his jacket. Discovering that the wet cloth served only to smear the drops of rain on the lenses into an impenetrable blur, he decided he was better off with natural vision and secured his glasses in one of his many pockets.
"Well, this is a good start," Jack commented with his usual sarcasm. "How long do you figure this'll last, Carter?"
"Its onset must have been fairly abrupt if the Tok'ra probe missed it," Sam replied after a moment's thought, "so I should think it'll end just as quickly." She glanced at her CO sheepishly and added, "Then again, not knowing the normal weather patterns of this planet, it could just as likely carry on for days."
"Very helpful, Carter, thank you." Jack's sarcasm slid up a notch. He appreciated that it was unreasonable for him to expect her to be able to predict the weather on an alien planet; he just hated getting wet, and the cold rain trickling down the back of his neck was ruining his mood. He took a couple of deep breaths and looked at his watch.
"According to what Aldwin said, it's only been about an hour since they lost contact with Anise," he worked out. "Whatever situation she's in, I doubt a few more minutes will make that much of a difference and it'll be hell trying to find her ship in that." He gestured out into the open, where the howling wind was whipping the smaller trees back and forth like rubber bands. "So, I suggest we wait it out for fifteen minutes and then set off anyway if there's no change."
After a rather miserable ten minutes, mainly taken up by shivering, Sam's initial assumption was proved correct when the rain suddenly slackened off and the harsh wind died down abruptly.
"Okay, kids, let's go," Jack decided, once the downpour had slowed to a light drizzle. "If we move quickly, we can make up time on the trip and maybe we'll dry off faster, too."
They emerged from underneath the outcropping and set off, passing the stargate again as they went. Behind them, the ground rose steadily and became the foothills of a mountain range while, ahead, rolling moorland spread out in gentle slopes with scattered vegetation obscuring the view. The going was quite hard in the aftermath of the storm but they made good time and it wasn't long before Teal'c pointed towards the horizon and announced, "I believe Anise's ship lies just ahead." Daniel squinted forwards and could just make out an angular shape that stood out from the surrounding greenery. Despite the fact that they had seen no signs of indigenous life anywhere so far, they approached the downed ship cautiously, weapons close at hand. As they drew nearer, it became apparent that the Goa'uld-style cargo vessel had crash-landed and skidded quite some distance, leaving a long track of upturned earth behind it and ending up with its nose buried in the ground at the foot of a small hillock.
Jack took the lead and reached the ship first. Circling around it, he came to the airlock door on the far side and entered the access code Aldwin had included in the information he had given them. The door swished open smoothly to reveal the small rectangular area used to allow entry to and from the ship when in space. Once he had opened the inner hatch, it took the four of them only seconds to check every inch of the compact ship. There was no sign of Anise, although Sam discovered her archaeological tools in the cargo area along with a few days' supplies. SG-1 gathered outside the ship again to assess the situation.
"At least we know she survived the crash," Daniel pointed out, optimistically. "Now we just need to figure out where she went."
Sam looked pensive and Jack waited for her to volunteer her thoughts. "It's possible she was able to detect the stargate on the way down," she mused, "but if she made it there, she would have gated back to the Tok'ra base long before we even set out. And if she was injured and couldn't get that far, we would have found her on our way here. The countryside is too open for us to have missed spotting her."
"Therefore," Teal'c concluded, "she must have set off in another direction for some reason."
"She probably went that way." Jack's voice floated down from the top of the rise into which the ship had ploughed. He had wandered up there to take a look and was now lying prone in the rough grass, pointing at something the other three couldn't see. They climbed up to join him and soon realised what he had meant.
On the other side of the hillock, the ground sloped gently down towards a small river that cut sideways across the land. In the distance, on the far side, they could see a large network of clearly artificial structures that was presumably a town of some kind, although it was too far away to see in any detail. However, what had caught Jack's attention was a single, much closer complex, which stood alone on the near side of the river. It was a compact structure made up of individual cubes, connected by cylindrical walkways that were suspended above the ground between them. The entire building was made of a smooth, non-reflective black material, with no discernible openings of any kind. The site was surrounded, at a distance of about twenty feet, by a two-story fence made up of interlocking strands of a similar substance. There was no obvious opening in the fence, either, but to one side several small enclosures were cordoned off from the main area. They appeared to contain groups of living creatures.
Lying just behind the top of the hill, Jack brought out his binoculars for a closer look. Each of the four pens held a collection of seven or eight animals, but no two were of the same species. They ranged in size from that of a chicken to that of a sheep and had any number of legs from none to eight. Some appeared feathered, others were covered in rough fur, while one particularly ugly specimen was completely hairless. They milled around in their groups quite peaceably and none of them seemed to have any carnivorous attributes such as prominent teeth or vicious claws.
After scanning the building itself, Jack reported, "No sign of activity, but then there's no sign of a door either." He lowered the binoculars and shifted so that he could see the rest of the team. "Recommendations?"
"Well, it certainly doesn't look very welcoming, sir," Sam commented, "but it seems likely that it's where Anise has gone."
As usual, Daniel put forward a non-military viewpoint. "We don't know that the inhabitants are hostile," he pointed out. "Anise may have been injured in the crash and they came to help her. I realize the place doesn't seem overly friendly, but there are plenty of places on Earth with fences round them and they have many different purposes. We can't make aggressive moves against them based purely on unfounded suspicions."
"We should proceed with caution, however," Teal'c advised. "It would be unwise to expose ourselves to unnecessary risk."
"I'm with you there, Teal'c," Jack agreed. "Okay, so this is what we'll do. Daniel and I will head down there and see if we can make contact with whoever's in there. Carter, you and Teal'c stay up here and watch to see what happens. Best case scenario, they'll tell us where Anise is and we'll just go home. But if there's trouble, the two of you will be able to make a threat assessment and go for backup if necessary. Understood?"
"Yes, sir," Sam confirmed immediately.
"Come on, Daniel." Jack pushed himself to his feet. "Let's go ask the nice folks for our friend back."
Sam watched in the fading light of early evening as the two men made their way carefully down the slope towards the alien complex. She found herself hoping fervently that Daniel's seemingly unshakeable faith in the power of communication would prove correct, while at the same time thinking it was unlikely things would be that simple. Daniel stopped a couple of feet away from the fence, with Colonel O'Neill just behind him, weapon at the ready. There was no response to their presence from the building and, for a moment, they didn't seem to know how to proceed. Then Sam heard Daniel call out, "Hello?"
A beam of blue light extended out from the top of one of the fence posts, splitting in two and hitting both men before moving up and down their bodies as if scanning them in some way. The light shut off as suddenly as it had appeared but was quickly followed by a single yellow pulse that shot out from the same place. It struck Daniel, who gave a strangled cry and fell to the ground. As Sam looked on in horror, another beam of light, this one green, enveloped the prone form of the young archaeologist and he disappeared before the Colonel could reach him. Jack looked about wildly for a second before turning round and running back up the hill to where the remaining members of his team waited.
* * * * *
*An interesting specimen, to be sure.*
*Its outward form is similar to that of the specimen we collected earlier from outside the compound, teacher.*
*There are differences between them.*
*Yes, but they are both unlike anything we have ever seen before. That suggests to me that there may be a connection between them.*
*It is possible, pupil. We shall examine them further.*
*The first was alone, but the second came with others. Could they have been looking for the first?*
*Your imagination runs away with you, pupil. You endow the specimens with sentience when there has been no evidence of that in them.*
*It was odd how the first one fell from the sky.*
*Indeed.*
*The others came from the direction of the conduit. Could they have travelled here along one of the circle paths?*
*They must have done so, and yet they do not seem to possess intelligence or powers of communication. It is very strange.*
*I will extract matter from the new specimen for analysis, teacher.*
* * * * *
"Dammit!" Jack cursed as he threw himself to the ground just over the top of the hill. "Now we've got two people to rescue!" He looked at Sam and Teal'c. "What is it with these archaeologists?" Suddenly he snapped into officer mode. "Carter, in the next five minutes, I want to know how long it's going to take you to get that ship spaceworthy."
"Yes, sir!" She leapt to her feet and ran for Anise's vessel.
Teal'c raised one of his eyebrows. "What are you thinking, O'Neill?"
"I'm thinking that after we go in there and bust Daniel and Freya out, we're probably going to need an escape route that's closer than the stargate."
"You plan to launch an attack on the building, then?"
"Well," Jack replied wryly, "I think even Daniel would agree now that the aliens in that place are hostile. It's time to show them that we don't take kindly to them zapping our friends and making them disappear."
After a few minutes of watching the alien structure carefully for any signs of activity, and seeing none, Jack and Teal'c made their way back to the Tok'ra ship to find out what Sam had to say. Predictably, they found her in the engine room, examining trays of multi-colored crystals. "Report?" Jack ordered abruptly.
Sam emerged from within the machinery, her expression set but not despondent. "The ship's systems aren't too badly damaged, sir. If I can cannibalise what's left of the radio and sacrifice some of the non-essential areas, I can have the engines and hyperdrive back on line in less than an hour."
"Good work, Major." Jack was all business now that it was one of his own team in trouble. "Get to it. Teal'c and I are going after Daniel and Freya and we're going to need this ship up and running by the time we get back. Now, if you finish your repairs and there's still no sign of us, your orders are to head back to the stargate on foot and report to General Hammond. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir." Sam clearly didn't like the idea of leaving them all behind, but she saw the sense in the plan and wasn't about to argue with her CO. "Good luck," she added, as Jack and Teal'c headed back outside. Then she turned back to her task with determination and tried not to think about what might be happening to Daniel.
* * * * *
Daniel's mind slowly drifted out of the fog of unconsciousness. He was cold and felt as if he was floating. Then, his instincts snapped him fully awake and sent him into a blind panic as he realized that he wasn't breathing. His brain sent frantic messages to his lungs but his body wouldn't respond. Slowly, as time ticked by and he didn't lose consciousness again, Daniel realized that he wasn't about to die, and there was no sense that his body was fighting for oxygen. He forced himself to calm down and assess his situation more rationally. His eyes were open but his vision was distorted more than usual by a thick liquid in which he seemed to be suspended. His mouth was also open and he could feel that his throat and lungs were full of the liquid but he couldn't move any part of his body. He could just about make out a transparent substance enclosing the liquid a few inches in front of him but he couldn't discern any details about what lay beyond. Suddenly, he felt something sharp press against his side. Pain blossomed throughout his abdomen and darkness closed in on his mind once more.
* * * * *
*See how their actions prove my theory, teacher. They demonstrate intelligence.*
*You think it intelligent that they try to gain access to a place that has already taken two of their kind?*
*They risk themselves to retrieve those who are lost to them. Surely that shows courage, loyalty... And their method may be crude but it is not without merit.*
*I see. One releases the other specimens from their pens as a distraction while the other infiltrates silently from the other side of the compound. It seems you were right, pupil.*
*So what shall we do?*
*We shall observe.*
Jack crept slowly through the small hole he had cut in the fence, hoping that his actions would go unnoticed in the commotion Teal'c was causing on the far side of the enclosure. They had concluded from what had happened before that the sensors that controlled the beams of light were sound activated and that was how they had come up with their plan. Hopefully, while the aliens inside were busy rounding up their loosed animals, Jack and Teal'c would be able to gain entrance to the building without being spotted. Jack reached the wall of the nearest cube and looked back to see Teal'c squeezing through the fence. He waited for the Jaffa to join him before whispering, "Any response from our friendly neighborhood aliens?"
Teal'c ignored the strange terminology; now was not the time to question O'Neill about his choice of words. "I encouraged the creatures to scatter as widely as possible," he replied. "They made much noise, as you predicted, O'Neill, and the same green light that transported Daniel Jackson began to strike them one by one as I left."
"Good work, Teal'c," Jack praised his friend, giving him a brief pat on the shoulder. "Let's hope that keeps them busy for a while."
Keeping close to the wall, they made their way slowly round the entire perimeter of the structure, looking for a way in. The material it was made out of was smooth to the touch and completely seamless, with no evidence of an entrance whatsoever. They eventually came back to where they had started. By this time, all of the animals Teal'c had released had been 'collected' by the beam of light, and Jack decided on a change of tactics.
"We've lost our distraction and we're not getting anywhere sneaking around out here." He pulled a block of C4 out of his jacket and hefted it in his hand. "It's time to give up the element of surprise."
Edging around the corner of the cube, he planted the explosive on the cylindrical walkway that emerged from the centre of one of its faces. The he rejoined Teal'c on the other side and detonated it. The noise of the blast ripped through the air and the wall against which they were pressed shuddered, as if in horror at their audacity. They waited for a couple of seconds, then ran back around to see the result of their handiwork. Smoke poured from a jagged hole in the cylinder above them and they quickly climbed up into the building, speed rather than stealth being the priority now that they had advertised their presence.
The inside of the structure was the exact opposite of its exterior. The walls of the walkway were pure white and glowed with an inner light, giving the place a sterile feel that reminded Jack of Lotan's terraforming ship. With a synchronicity born of almost four years working closely together, the two men readied their weapons and set off down the tunnel. There was no sign that anyone or anything was coming to investigate their invasion, and the whole place was filled with an eerie silence that made their cautious footfalls seem unnaturally loud.
After about fifteen feet, the passageway opened out into one of the cubes. Crouching in the mouth of the tunnel, Jack scanned the room and what he saw sent his heart straight into his mouth. Attached to the wall stood two large tanks filled with some kind of viscous liquid and, suspended within, were Daniel and Freya. They hung motionless, their eyes open but their chests frighteningly still.
"They pickled him?!" Jack exclaimed in disbelief, jumping down to the floor and dazedly approaching the tanks. He felt rather than saw Teal'c come up next to him as he stood gazing up at his imprisoned friend.
After a few seconds of stunned silence, Teal'c suddenly announced, "They are still alive." He gestured up at Freya. "Look at her eyes!" Jack immediately turned to examine the Tok'ra woman and was shocked to see her eyes move to lock gazes with him. Even with her features completely immobile, the mixture of fear and relief in her eyes alone spurred Jack into action. He stepped forward and raised the butt of his gun. Teal'c's hand shot out and stopped him. "Releasing them in such a manner may do them further harm, O'Neill," he warned.
"I don't see that we have much choice, Teal'c," Jack replied. "We don't have time to try and figure out these machines. We've got to get them out and we've got to do it now." With that, he shook Teal'c off, raised his gun again and struck the tank that enclosed Freya. The glass shattered, releasing the liquid inside and Freya came tumbling out, landing in the arms of the Jaffa, who had stepped forward to catch her. She immediately started choking, and Teal'c supported her while she expelled the liquid from her body. Once the fit had passed, she slowly raised her head to look at Jack. "Colonel O'Neill?" she spluttered, her voice weak and bewildered.
"That's right," Jack affirmed with a grin. "You okay?"
Freya closed her eyes briefly and her features hardened slightly, warning Jack that the symbiote had taken control. "I believe we will be fine," the harsh tones of Anise informed him. "How is it that you come to be here?"
"No time to explain," Jack responded, pushing himself to his feet and turning to the other tank. Using the same method as before, he smashed the glass confining Daniel and caught the young archaeologist as he slid free. Laying his friend gently on the ground, Jack was concerned to discover that Daniel still wasn't breathing.
"Don't do this to me," he muttered before starting CPR. To his relief, after only a few chest compressions, Daniel suddenly jerked and spluttered and a stream of the gooey liquid poured out of his mouth. Jack rolled him over slightly so he wouldn't drown and noticed blood on Daniel's jacket, apparently flowing from a wound in his side. "Daniel! Can you hear me? We've got to get out of here."
Almost before he finished the sentence, a green light suddenly appeared from nowhere and enveloped all four of them.
"Ah, crap!" Jack exclaimed as the room faded around him.
* * * * *
Back at the ship, Sam completed her repairs and went up to the cockpit to test the engines. They fired first time, confirming that everything was now in working order. "Yes!" she rejoiced, then paused to consider her next move. The Colonel's instructions had been quite clear; according to her orders, she was to start for the stargate immediately, since the ship was now repaired and the others had not yet returned.
However, they had not been gone very long, and she decided it would be worth giving them a few more minutes. A little while ago, she had heard what sounded like an explosion from the direction of the compound, but she had resisted the urge to take a look so now she climbed the hill to investigate. Through the darkness, she could just make out the empty animal enclosures, the remnants of smoke drifting up from the building and the now familiar lack of activity.
Knowing that the only thing she could do to help her team-mates was to return to the stargate and let General Hammond know what had happened, Sam got to her feet and set out at a steady jog, her sense of purpose renewed.
* * * * *
When the light receded, Jack glanced down to see Daniel's wide blue eyes looking up at him. "Jack? What's going on?"
"You got me," Jack replied honestly. "Glad to see you're back in the land of the living, though." As he rose and pulled Daniel to his feet, the younger man grimaced and put his hand to his side. "You okay?" Jack asked in concern.
"More or less." Daniel produced his glasses from one of many pockets and put them on. "Where are we?"
They looked around and saw that they were in another of the cube rooms, this one completely empty and with no tunnel openings in any of the walls. They crossed over to where Teal'c and Anise were also examining their surroundings.
"Looks like they noticed us after all," Jack commented to Teal'c, who inclined his head in agreement.
Anise stepped forward to address Daniel. "I am glad to see that you are alright, Dr Jackson. I am sorry to have been the cause of your ordeal." She looked round at the other two. "And I am grateful to all of you for freeing me."
"We're not quite home and dry yet," Jack pointed out. "Have either of you any idea who's holding us - what they want, how to talk to them, that kind of thing?"
"No," Daniel admitted. "After we approached the compound, I woke up in that tank." He glanced at Anise but she could offer no further information.
"So, now what?" Jack asked.
As if in answer to his question, there was a flash of green light and suddenly they were no longer alone in the room. The creature that had joined them bore a passing resemblance to a horse in general form, but there the similarity ended. Its eyes were wild and red in color and, instead of hooves, it pranced on clawed feline paws. Powerful muscles played across its body and it opened its mouth to reveal rows of vicious-looking canine teeth. It was at that moment that Jack and Teal'c realized they no longer had their weapons.
Jack looked at the creature in horror. "Uh-oh."
* * * * *
*What are you doing, teacher?*
*Their actions so far have been most interesting. I am recording their response to a new situation.*
*But the specimen you have introduced may damage them.*
*Indeed. It will be fascinating to observe how the others react when one of their number is injured.*
*But teacher, they are intelligent beings.*
*That is why the experiment is of value. We have never collected intelligent specimens before.*
*What will you do if they defeat the other specimen?*
*If they survive this challenge, I will set before them one that is more difficult.*
*You mean to allow them to be destroyed?*
*I wish to test their ingenuity and endurance. Accurate results cannot be measured if the experiment is incomplete.*
*No. I will not allow it.*
*You forget yourself, pupil. You have no power to alter the experiment.*
*You underestimate me, teacher.*
* * * * *
Jack and Teal'c instinctively moved in front of Daniel and Anise, who were both still groggy from their time in the tanks. Jack noticed that Daniel was still holding his side and filed the information away in his mind for further investigation once he'd figured out how to get them all out of the immediate mess they were in. He hadn't managed to come up with any bright ideas in the few seconds since the beast had appeared and he figured it wouldn't be long before they would be out of time. He cursed himself for his inability to protect his team and was immeasurably relieved that at least Carter was safe and should be on her way back to the stargate.
The horse creature, which had been gazing wildly around the room, seemed to recover from its disorientation, finally focusing its attention on the other four living things in its new prison. With a snarl, it launched itself at them. Jack saw it hurtling towards him, death beckoning from within its massive jaws, and he steeled himself for the impact.
It never came. Instead, just before the creature reached them, they were enveloped in green light once again and found themselves back outside the compound. The shift from the brightness of the room to the meagre light of two moons, coupled with the suddenness of their transportation from mortal danger, left them all stunned for a moment.
Jack regained his senses first. "Let's get back to the ship!" he suggested.
"But it will be of no use to us," Anise contributed. "The engines were damaged in the crash."
"Carter should have fixed it by now," Jack told her. "Let's go, before whoever let us go changes their mind."
As one, they turned their backs on the alien building and ran up the hill to the Tok'ra ship. Once inside, Anise started the engines while Daniel collapsed wearily against one of the walls. "What just happened?" He directed the question generally to the room but, unsurprisingly, it was Jack who answered.
"I have absolutely no idea, but I'm certainly not complaining."
The ship lifted slowly off the ground, struggling slightly to free itself from the hill, and Anise turned to Jack. "Where do you wish to go?" she asked him.
Jack glanced at his watch. "Carter should be almost to the stargate by now. We'd better catch up to her before she brings half the SGC back to launch an assault on that place. If you could just drop us off by the gate, that'd be great." He gave her a friendly grin. "Will you be alright getting home from here?"
The Tok'ra closed her eyes and it was Freya who replied. "We will be fine," she told him. "Thank you once again for rescuing us."
"Well, I'm not sure we actually had a whole lot to do with it," Jack pointed out, "but you're welcome."
* * * * *
A couple of hours later, Daniel lay in the infirmary at the SGC, thinking over the events of the day. Anise had ringed the three members of SG-1 down to the planet's surface just in time for them to join Sam before she dialled Earth on the DHD. The four of them had then gated home to report the ultimate success of the mission to General Hammond. Predictably, they had all been whisked off to the infirmary, where Daniel had been extremely glad to change out of clothes still covered in the liquid from the tanks. Dr Frasier had examined the deep puncture wound in his side and firmly prescribed a few days' bed rest, while Jack and Teal'c had been summoned to a full debriefing and Sam had wandered off to analyse a sample of the strange liquid.
So now, Daniel was alone with his thoughts. He had so many questions about what had happened; what were the inhabitants of the planet actually like, why had they put him and Anise in those tanks and, most bafflingly, how did it come about that they were set free so suddenly? It frustrated Daniel that they had come so close to making contact with a new species but had failed even to lay eyes on them, much less communicate successfully. He supposed he would just have to accept it, since they wouldn't be going back to the planet any time soon.
Footsteps from the other side of the room caught his attention and he turned his head to see Jack approaching his bed.
"How're you feeling?"
"Not too bad, considering," Daniel replied with a smile.
"Good!" Jack exclaimed. "Because we've got unfinished business." He pulled over a chair and sat down, producing a chess set from behind his back.
Daniel groaned. "Oh no! I though you would've forgotten about that! Do we really have to?"
"Yes indeed we do," Jack stated firmly with a wicked grin. "I've got you cornered - it's that zooglevong thing again."
Daniel chuckled at Jack's deliberate mispronunciation and took the set from him. "Okay, okay, but I'm setting up the pieces," he said with a knowing glance at his friend. "You'd probably try to put them back in the wrong places and get me in an even worse position than I was already in!"
"Who, me?" Jack was all innocence. "Believe me, the way things were going, I can certainly beat you without cheating!"
Daniel fixed the board with an intense stare of determination. "We'll see."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: My first ever fanfic, and still one of my favourites. What I call an episode fic.
© February 19, 2003 The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.