Stargate SG-1 & Atlantis - Far Horizons (33 page)

Balen was already at the door, pressing her ear against it, as Jack pushed himself up through the hole and stayed crouched for a moment.

On the far side of the room sat a pedestal with something glowing and definitely Ancient on top. Cautiously, he got to his feet. “That it?” he said.

Balen nodded but didn’t leave the doorway. “They’re out there.”

“Who are?”

“Trouble,” she said.

Jack moved so that the pedestal was between himself and Balen, but kept his eyes on the device. It was a domed hexagon, with Ancient letters or numbers written on each of its segmented sides. Genes or no genes, he couldn’t make any sense of it.

“Activate it,” Balen said. “Do it now.”

He glanced over at her. “How?”

“Just touch it,” she said. “All it needs is your genetic marker.”

The device looked innocuous, small — not much larger than a dinner plate. “And this will kill all the Oranians on this base.”

“On the planet,” Balen said, still nervous next to the door. “Now hurry.”

“How many?”

Irritated, she glanced back over her shoulder. “What?”

“How many Oranians on the planet?”

“I don’t know. What does it matter? They’ll all be dead.”

Jack cocked an eyebrow. “That’s why it matters.”

Balen’s eyes narrowed. “They’ll kill your friends.”

“So you say.”

She shifted, turning her back on the door now — perhaps she’d figured out the greater threat was inside the room. Jack’s hands dropped to his P90.

“Activate the device,” Balen said. “Kill the Oranians, or we’ll all die here.”

“And what happens when it’s done?” He nodded toward the weapon she held loose at her side. He didn’t recognize its design, but it looked lethal. “You kill me and make off with the doomsday device?”

Balen bared her teeth in what might have been a smile. “We could be allies, you and I,” she said, a lascivious glint in her eye as she strolled closer. “We could do great things, O’Neill. Explore the galaxy, get rich. With this device, we could rule worlds.”

“Yeah,” Jack said, “I’m more of a hockey fan.”

Balen’s face hardened. “Activate the device,” she said, her weapon coming up in one smooth motion.

“I’m gonna guess,” he said, lifting his own gun, “that you need me alive to activate this thing.”

“Only barely.”

“Thing is,” Jack said, “I don’t need you alive at all.”

“Well that’s odd.” Daniel stared at the door panel in surprise. “It’s working.”

“Just means there’s power here,” said Cam. “The lights are on too.”

“Or,” Daniel said, “there’s someone inside that room with the ATA gene.”

“Will you hurry up?” Vala hissed from a dozen yards farther down the corridor. “They’re coming this way.”

He didn’t need her to tell him that, he could hear the gunfire. “Who do you think they’re fighting?” he asked Cam.

“It is irrelevant,” Teal’c said. “All that matters is destroying the device held within this room.”

“Right,” he said, smiling at Teal’c’s patient reminder to focus. “You guys ready?”

“For what?” said Cam.

Daniel shrugged. “For whatever’s in here.”

Mitchell raised his weapon, and so did Teal’c. Behind them, Vala backed closer to them, although her eyes were still turned in the direction of the firefight. “Let’s just get inside,” she said. “Before we have company.”

Daniel pulled his Beretta from its holster, holding it low as he pressed his hand on the door activation panel. It shot open and Mitchell was through it immediately, Teal’c at his shoulder. Daniel and Vala followed, fanning out behind them, weapons raised. The door hissed shut.

“Don’t move,” Mitchell barked, although it didn’t look like anyone was moving in the unexpected tableau before them. A woman — Lucian Alliance, by the look of her clothes — stood with her back to them, the Oranian pistol she held aimed at the head of a young, oddly familiar, US airman who had his P90 pointed right back at her.

“Welcome to the party,” said the airman, without shifting his focus from the woman. “I hope you brought snacks.”

It was the voice that gave him away, knocking the ground out from beneath Daniel’s feet. “Jack?”

A flicker of a glance in his direction, then a flash of the same astonishment he felt. “Daniel?”

Jack’s weapon wavered for a fraction of a second and the woman pounced, reaching across the pedestal to grab his vest. “Back off!” she yelled, hauling him toward her over the device as she pressed her gun to his head. “Back off, or he dies.”

Jack dropped his P90, letting it hang from his tac vest, and flung his arms out wide, as far from the device as possible.

No one else moved.

“I mean it,” the woman said, glaring at Daniel. “I’ll kill him.”

“She won’t,” Jack said. “She needs me to activate the device. I have some kind of gene…”

“Yeah,” Daniel said. “We know.”

“You want your friend to live?” the woman said. “Then leave. Now.”

Cam threw Daniel a glance, deferring to his decision. Carefully, Daniel lowered his weapon. Mitchell and Teal’c did the same, but Vala was standing directly behind the woman, unobserved. “Careful,” Daniel said, his words aimed at Vala although his eyes were fixed on the woman holding the gun to Jack’s head. “Easy does it.”

“Now back off,” she said, shifting a little closer to Jack. Vala moved with her, silent as a thief.

“Just shoot her,” said Jack.

“You’re a fool,” the woman hissed. “You’re turning your back on a fortune.”

“Really? I thought we were here to avenge the deaths of your people.”

She grinned, showing wide teeth. “What better way to avenge them than by stealing the most valuable weapon in the galaxy from under the noses of the Oranians?”

“Huh,” Jack said. “Oranians have noses?”

Daniel almost grinned, touched by bittersweet nostalgia despite the precarious situation — or, perhaps, because of it. He glanced past the woman’s shoulder, caught Vala’s eye. It was time. The woman must have seen the look because she half turned, but not before Vala’s well-placed shot sent her twitching to the floor in a haze of blue energy.

Released, Jack backed away, watching them all with a mixture of doubt and suspicion. Daniel didn’t miss the tense hold he had on his weapon.

“Daniel,” Vala said, lowering her zat. “What’s going on? Who is this guy?”

“I’m Jack O’Neill,” Jack said. “Who the hell are you?”

He’d recognized the cold sweep of Asgard transporter technology the moment the beam touched him, dissolving his mind and reforming it someplace else.

Not an Asgard ship, though. Human.
Prometheus
?

He was in what they’d called ‘guest quarters’ but, despite the soft furnishings and the decent meal they’d provided, the airman stationed outside his door gave the lie to the term ‘guest’.

He’d been there several hours. Time enough for the others to mop up the mess on the planet and to put the Ancient weapon permanently beyond use. They were in motion now, travelling faster than light back to Earth, and probably trying to figure out what the hell to do with an extra Jack O’Neill.

Lying on the bed, hands behind his head, he stared out at the blurred star field and wondered whether he should have made a break for it back on the planet. Once he’d reached the Stargate he could have gone anywhere, could have been free. But free to do what? His life had always been about service, and, without that, what meaning would there be in wandering the galaxy? But the thought of returning to his life on Earth, of knowing that incredible things were happening beyond his reach, was profoundly depressing. It was almost enough to make him wish he’d taken Balen Tark up on her offer.

When the door to his quarters eventually opened, he wasn’t surprised to see Daniel and Teal’c standing outside. They looked different from how he remembered them — older, changed by experiences he hadn’t shared — but they were still the same men. To him, they looked like old friends. Whether they were or not remained to be seen.

He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, but didn’t stand as they entered. Teal’c nodded to the airman and the door slid shut, leaving them alone together.

“So,” Daniel said after a short silence, “this is a mess.”

“I’m guessing,” Jack said, “there is no Major Hartkans?”

“Nope.” Daniel moved further into the room and took a seat in one of the chairs next to the small desk in the corner. Teal’c remained standing near the door, hands behind his back. He looked odd with hair, the lines on his face more profound, but he still looked like Teal’c.

“Hartkans,” Daniel said, “is ex-NID, a former member of a shadow organization called The Trust. Now it looks like he’s working with the Lucian Alliance. Balen Tark is one of the new leaders that emerged after their failed attack on Earth.”

“And what’s the Lucian Alliance?”

“A loose coalition of smugglers, arms dealers and thieves,” Teal’c said. “They have grown to prominence in the power vacuum created by the destruction of the Goa’uld.”

Jack glanced at Daniel for confirmation. “So that’s true, then?” he said. “Turner fed me a lot of crap. I didn’t know how much to believe.”

“It’s true,” Daniel said, “the System Lords are gone.” He let a beat fall. “Including Ba’al, by the way. He was executed by the Tok’ra. I saw him die.”

“Good,” was all he said, because ten years on he still had nightmares and he didn’t see them ending just because Ba’al was gone. He pushed a hand through his hair, as if he could scrub away the memories.

“And the Jaffa are free,” Teal’c added, with restrained but deep pride.

Jack smiled, though he felt a weight of sadness. “I wish I could have been there to see that.”

“You know why you couldn’t,” Daniel said. “You know why you shouldn’t be here now.”

“Paperwork?”

“Something like that.”

A long beat fell. “So now what?”

“Now you go home.” A frown creased Daniel’s forehead, the furrows cutting a little deeper than of old. “Colonel Caldwell wanted to beam you to the SGC for a full debrief, but Cam and I convinced him it wasn’t necessary.”

“I don’t know,” Jack said. “I wouldn’t mind seeing the old place again.”

“The brig?”

“Even that.”

“Jack…”

“You have no idea!” he snapped. “To know all this is out here and to have no one —
no one
— to talk to about it? No way to help. To be cut off from everything and everyone that matters?” He dropped his head into his hands, trying to keep a lid on it all. “You have no idea, Daniel.”

There was a long silence, Daniel for once apparently lost for words.

It was Teal’c who spoke in the end. “There are many things that matter, O’Neill,” he said. “Not all of them are to be found beyond the Stargate.”

“There’s nothing that matters more than this,” Jack said, looking up. “And you know it.”

Teal’c lifted an eyebrow. “You were willing to die for the Tau’ri,” he said. “Is Earth so perfect that there is no cause there worthy of the same sacrifice?”

“It’s different,” Jack said. “Out here —”

“There is great evil in your world, O’Neill. I have seen it. There is war, there is suffering, and there are men as cruel and corrupt as any System Lord. Why do you not oppose them?”

“Hey,” he objected, “I can’t even join the military — I’m barred, remember? And what else can I do? I’m just one man.”

“As was I, when first I opposed the Goa’uld.” He fixed Jack with a look. “There is always a way to fight for the people of your world, O’Neill.”

Daniel gave him a sideways look. “Um, Teal’c? I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

“Why not, Daniel Jackson? O’Neill is a man of great skill and ingenuity. This cloned body he now possesses gives him youthful vitality to complement his experience and wisdom.” His attention returned to Jack. “You could make a difference to your planet.”

“He could get himself killed.”

Jack felt his heartbeat kick up a notch. Maybe Teal’c was right. Maybe he’d been so fixated on what he couldn’t do out here that he hadn’t considered what he could do closer to home. Iraq, Syria, Somalia, a dozen other hotspots around the world — could he somehow make a difference? Could he help make Earth a planet worth dying to protect? “Well, it’s a thought,” he said and watched the smile twitch the corner of Teal’c’s mouth.

A stomach-lurching shift in the ship’s motion made Daniel glance up at the ceiling. “We’ve dropped out of hyperspace.”

“Home already?”

Daniel just nodded to the window behind Jack’s head. He turned, standing slowly, breath catching as it always did at the sight of the beautiful blue planet.

“Home,” said Daniel.

Jack moved to the window, pressed a hand against the glass. This would probably be the last time he ever saw this sight, ever left the confines of the world below. It was the end. “I miss you all,” he said, without looking around. “I miss the SGC. I miss my life.” He took a breath, blew it out slowly. “But you don’t miss me. Jack O’Neill is still in your lives. And I’m not him.”

Neither of them tried to deny it, but he heard Daniel get to his feet and come to stand by his side at the window. “I’m sorry,” he said after a while. “It must be very difficult.”

Jack just nodded. “Hartkans told me George Hammond died.”

“Yeah,” Daniel said with a catch in his voice. “A couple of years ago.”

“I wish I’d known. I’d have liked to pay my respects.” He hesitated before he spoke again, bracing himself for the answer. “What about Carter? She’s not with SG-1 anymore?”

“She’s okay,” Daniel assured him. “She’s Colonel Carter now, commanding the
George Hammond
. That’s a ship,” he added, as if Jack couldn’t guess. “Like this one, only better.”

Relieved, proud, and a dozen other things he tried not to feel when it came to Carter, he said, “Well, that’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah.” Daniel cleared his throat. “Listen, um, you should probably know that she and Jack are —”

“Don’t,” he said, cutting him off. “I don’t want to know.”

Daniel nodded and after a moment said, “And that’s why you can’t stay. You can’t be a ghost in your own life.”

“I know that.”

“It’s tough, but — God, look at you. You’re young, you’re strong. Don’t waste time looking back.”