Jack saw the knife strike into Teal'c's pouch, and he could almost feel it in his own.
Whoa, hello! I don't have a pouch!
But instead of a blade, he felt a dull and very uncomfortable distention; he was dazed, somewhere in the SGC with Dr. Frazier's hand buried forearm-deep in his belly, and an instinct that was newly his, screaming at him that hands did not belong in pouches and he should defend himself.
STOP!
Jack had read Dr. Frazier's report of how Hathor had brought him within a larva's breadth of becoming a Jaffa--but he had never really remembered it before now.
Just--breathe.
It had been that kind of night. Jack had been agitated--awake and pacing, searching for any means of escape. Now, yielding to exhaustion, he was assaulted by his memory.
He sat up and wiped his face with his hands.
Keep it together, now, he thought.
He looked at his watch. He couldn't remember if it was this watch, or another like it, which had provided Jack's first contact with Teal'c.
He and his then-team had been in a stone hall on Chulak, among a collection of kidnapped humans. At the time, he didn't understand what was going on, but he would soon learn the Goa'uld were choosing hosts for their young.
Jack was saying something to Skaara when a serpent guard grabbed Jack painfully by the forearm.
"What is this?" the guard demanded.
Jack sensed his arm might easily have been snapped by the startling strength of the alien's grasp. Yet it's painful authority was without malice. The guard was looking at the device strapped to Jack's wrist.
"It's a watch."
"This is not Goa'uld technology. Where are you from?" he demanded.
"Earth. Chicago, if you want to be specific..."
"Your words mean nothing," the guard said, "Where are you from?"
"Excuse me," Daniel interrupted. The scholar drew Earth's Stargate point-of-origin symbol on the bark-strewn floor with his finger, "This is where we're from."
Jack saw something in the guard's dispassionate face, but there was no time to ponder it . Without a word, the guard dragged the butt of his weapon in a line, obliterating the symbol. His serpent-helm closed, and he walked away.
The colonel shook the memory from his head. He focused on the watch-face; it read 13:O2--just after lunch, SGC time--forty-eight hours since he had embarked on this damned mission, and fifty since he had eaten. Twenty-nine hours since he had slept.
And about twenty seven since his friend lay dead at his feet. He remembered the smell.
Damn.
Jack looked back into the chamber, after the captives were freed. The guard who had helped them escape wandered aimlessly, looking at the wreckage of his fellows, whom he had just killed.
What the hell is he waiting for?
"Hey. Come on!" Jack motioned him to follow.
The mask of dispassion had fallen. The guard looked at him with an expression of loss, despair, and absolute resignation.
"I have nowhere to go."
Jack realized that the guard had assisted them--had helped all the captives escape--with the expectation of being killed. It had not occurred to the alien that he might survive. In his mind--while making that decision--he had given up his own life for the lives of his prisoners.
A man like that doesn't deserve to die. "For this, you can stay at my place," Jack said, "Let's go!"
The guard hesitated, still dazed by his own rebellion. And then, tentatively, he followed.
"What's your name?"
"Teal'c."
I wonder if he had any regrets? Jack pondered. But the answer came to Jack quickly: Teal'c would regret not seeing his son Rya'c grow to adulthood. It resonated with Jack's own daily grief; Jack's son Charlie had died a few years ago, and so, like Teal'c, Jack would never see his own son become an adult.
He winced inwardly, expecting the memory of Charlie's death to come vividly to his mind. But it did not.
At least Teal'c died knowing Rya'c and Dreya'c are safe. And Bra'tac will help...
With Teal'c gone, Jack doubted there was a force of nature strong enough to keep Bra'tac from seeing to their needs.
"Undomesticated equines," Jack thought. It was a private joke, between himself and Teal'c. With it, he banished the memories which distracted him.
Horses. Hell. He punched the back wall. I feel like a god-damned hamster in here, he thought. Maybe if I had a little wheel to run on I could work off some of this stress.
There was a hiss, and a change in the flow of air.
What?
Jack looked up.
The door to the cell beside his was wide open.
No one was there.
Well, that's spooky.
He stood, and peered through the mesh wall of his own cell and out the door of the adjacent one.
Three of the guards were visible. Two were in conversation, sitting at a sort of desk. The third toiled over a tablet of the type SG-1 had found on Argos--a notepad technology similar to a personal digital assistant. Jack guessed he was writing a report.
With a quiet "shuup", the door hissed closed.
What the hell?
He heard another "shuup" out in the corridor.
OK, this is getting weird.
Then abruptly, his own door rose, shuup!
Howdy! This kind of weird I can take!
He peeked out of the doorway; the guards remained oblivious.
Shuu... The door hastened down; Jack dove across the corridor, into the opposite, open-doored cell. There was no cover in the hall.
"Ammit!" One of the Jaffa cursed, "What chaos is this?" Jack heard a fist slam into the desk.
Uh-oh, somebody noticed...
Shuu... The door to his new cell sped downward; Jack forced his steel scrap into the track, jamming the door but two centimeters above the floor-slot. He heard the Jaffa pound swiftly down the hall, and the shuup of his original cell door, opening.
With his cheek on the floor, he watched the Jaffa's feet step into his old cell.
Shuup.
The cell door closed behind the Jaffa.
Shuup! Shuup! Doors were popping open and closed at random, all over the place.
What the HELL is going on here!?!
His original door went halfway up, revealing the bottom half of the Jaffa, then changed directions and slammed closed.
"Kree! Kree!" The Jaffa shouted and began to pound on the door.
A heavy tread came barreling to assist him. Jack saw the Jaffa's boots standing in the hall.
Shuup! Shuup!
His own door went up, almost in the same moment as that of his original cell.
Jack leapt to his feet. The Jaffa in the hall had his back turned, staff on the right, Zat-gun strapped on his left, facing his fellow who looked out from Jack's cell--straight into Jack's eyes.
Think fast!
Jack grabbed the Zat-nikutel with his left hand, the staff with his right, and kicked 'Mister Hallway' hard in the butt, launching him into the far cell. The two Jaffa fell in a pile.
Shuup! Shuup! The doors came down, locking them in.
And locking Jack in the hall, without cover.
Yeah, this is chaos, all right!
He shot both weapons blindly toward the guard station, and charged.
Back to Fan Fiction Turn the Page
rev. 1/27/00
© the owner of this webpage/LadyElysium
