Smaller Victories
Part Four
Did I even have that pep talk with myself about distraction?!
We were in the briefing room. Nothing happening really. Yet
another request for help from the Tok'ra. I sometimes wonder how the
hell they ever managed without us.
They want Daniel to go on some undercover mission right in the heart of
Goa'uld territory. I'm not the only one whose whole demeanour was screaming
'absolutely no way on this or any other planet.'
We'd been out the night before, the team, just the four of it. Unofficial
debriefing. The team is the most important thing and its good to know
we're okay.
I spent a significant portion of the night talking to Daniel, listening
to him.
I promised him that he never bored me. Not even when he went off on
tangents about ancient ruins and even more ancient history. We got onto
the subject of the alien on the planet. I made a comment about him
always wanting to communicate with the aliens and he retaliated with the
'you wanted the damn weapons' line, which was only to be expected.
There was no venom in his words and once I'd accepted that he was right
and was wrong, yet again, I was rewarded by one of those smiles that lights
up his face and the whole room right along with it.
Worth every moment.
It was late when I reached home. I poured myself a scotch and took
it up to bed with me. But I didn't sleep. Thoughts of what might
have happened kept me awake. Lying there, my mind started to concoct
images of Daniel with that alien on the planet.
The man's a danger to himself looking like that. In the five years
we've been gating off-world no one has ever dared look at Teal'c or me the
wrong way. One or two have tried it on with Carter and immediately regretted
it.
But Daniel's oblivious to the extra attention humans, Goa'ulds and aliens
alike all pay him. They have a tendency to look at him as if he's on
the menu and even before I realised that I needed him more than oxygen there
was no way any of his would-be suitors were getting their paws anywhere near
him.
And that included Mr Wonderful.Daniel dropped into his chair and leaned
forward, attention immediately focused on the proceedings.
Typical. We're late, we get the stare from hell and stony silence.
Daniel's late, he gets an award-winning smile from the general. Has
this whole base adopted him as a member of their extended family?
Then I noticed what he was wearing. My whole body noticed.
We've all got those blue sweaters - they came with the fatigues we tend
to wear while we're hanging around on the base. So why does Daniel
look so incredible in his?
I hardly heard a word of what was said. My body felt like it was overheating.
I wondered briefly whether I might actually have been infected by something
at sometime and these intense reactions to Daniel were just the symptoms.
But I kinda knew that was wishful thinking.
Afterwards I headed for the showers, stripped and stepped under the cold
water, staying there as long as I could, turning off the sluice just before
something important froze off.
I towelled myself dry and was dressing when the klaxon sounded and the sergeant
at the control computer announced an unauthorised off-world gate activation.
It was some time before I had another chance to worry about my overactive
hormones.
~ ~ ~
It never quite reached the status of 'foothold', but it was close.
Luckily I was out of the way for the initial confrontation and I managed
to stay out of the way while the base staff and SG units were herded into
holding cells.
I sprang Teal'c with little difficulty and together we managed to make it
to the armoury.
Quickly we freed and armed enough of our guys so that there was more of
us than them. After that, it was easy to round them up and throw them
into the same holding cells they'd kept our guys in.
We found a GDO on one of the aliens.
While we were waiting for Maybourne and co. to tell us what to do with the
prisoners who didn't speak English and didn't really stand a chance of being
rehabilitated into our society, we attempted to question one of them.
That, of course, was when we realised that Daniel wasn't anywhere to be
found.
I led the search of the base, growing more and more panicked with every
level we confirmed as clear.
We tried everything, even called his cell phone and his home in case he'd
skipped out on us without anyone noticing. My hopes weren't high.
After that, Janet had to check the base's morgue. We'd lost a few
men in the firefight.
He was nowhere and that was impossible. I was about to search the
entire base again when one of the soldiers guarding the aliens in the cells
radioed up to us.
He'd found our missing archaeologist.
~ ~ ~
I knew they were grinning, despite not possessing any orifice that could
be called a mouth.The ten or so aliens in one of the holding cells had parted
ranks to revel two of them sitting on the floor, backs to the wall.
Daniel was crushed between them.
Luckily, certain pre-programmed reactions take over at moments like that.
The first was to make direct eye contact with the hostage and make sure he
was basically okay. Danny's arms were pinned behind his back, ankles
locked together. Even from outside the cell I could hear that his breathing
was laboured. They must have grabbed him as they were herded inside.
We knew how strong they were, a couple had put up an impressive fight and
when we hadn't been able to subdue them we'd opened fire.
It couldn't possibly have been Daniel's fault that he was in that situation,
but still he looked at me so apologetically that I felt an aching in the pit
of my stomach.
"You okay?" I asked him as gently as I could. Seeing as how I wanted
to tear the 'head' off every single alien in there, I was surprised at how
remarkably calm I sounded. (Although Daniel later described my tone
as 'deadly', so maybe I shouldn't praise myself too much for my professionalism
in the face of a deadly threat to Dr Daniel Jackson.)He didn't speak.
He nodded. He was lying. I could see the fear in his eyes, the
pain in his creased features.
The alien standing closest to the bars said something. I couldn't
tell you what and frankly I didn't give a shit. I got the door unlocked
and six or seven arms men aiming P-90s into the cell before I stepped inside
myself, taking deliberate steps toward Daniel.
As I got close enough to touch him, the talkative one at the front shouted
what any trained soldier would have recognised as an order, in any language.
Faster than I've ever seem anything move, the two aliens either side of
Daniel leaned in. One grabbed him under his arms while the other forced
his head forward. Daniel cried out in surprise but a moment later it
turned into a howl of pain as the alien above him sank its teeth into the
back of his neck.
Its head exploded with an immensely satisfying shattering crack. The
second one was granted a moment's grace as I swung my P90 and fired again.
I knew the other guys would cover me as I dived in for Daniel. Grabbing
his shoulder I yanked him out of there, dragging him along the floor, trying
to ignore the fact that he'd gone as limp as a fucking rag doll.
A couple of the aliens came for us but didn't get within touching distance.
The results of their wounds were like something from an early Peter Jackson
movie; green slim splattering the walls of the otherwise grey cell.
I heard the cell door slam and lock behind me. "Get a medical team
in here, stat!"
Swinging my gun down, I crouched in front of Daniel. His legs were
still stretched out in front of him as he lolled forward, chin dropping to
his chest.
I've seen a lot in my time. I'm used to the sight of blood, even my
own doesn't bother me. But I quickly discovered I had an aversion to
Daniel's blood being anywhere outside of his body.
Wrapping my fingers around under his throat, I found a pulse and mentally
monitored it for a couple of seconds. Then I reached up to sweeping
the short stands of hair away from the wound. I couldn't help myself.
And I couldn't help the grimace that accompanied the wave of nausea.
I could only hope that it just looked messy, cos I could have sworn that the
white peeking through was the bone of his spinal chord.
Fraiser and her team arrived, gently but firmly pushing me out of the way,
asking me about his vitals.
They dumped him, somewhat harshly it seemed to me, face down on to a gurney
and rushed him out of the room, heading up for the infirmary. I knew
he was in the best hands. Janet loved him as much as the rest of us.
But I always hated to think of what she was having to put him through.
I stood, frozen to the spot for a moment, barely registering Teal'c and
Carter as they rounded the corner in through the door. They demanded
to know what had happened, where we'd found him, if he was okay.
He hadn't looked okay.
"Colonel!"
Nice one, Major. Nothing like someone yelling your rank into your
ear to get your attention.
"They must've grabbed him," I told them vaguely, indicating the mess in
the cell. Only when I saw the looks on their faces did I turn to see
what was going on with our alien prisoners. "Oh, Jeez...." They
were eating the dead! Licking the damn goo off the walls, making a
feast of the body parts that remained.
No wonder the other guys had all retreated. They were as disgusted
as I was. A couple of them looked as if it was only a matter of time
before their lunch came back up.
I left the room with an expression of repulsion on my face and an 'I'm fed
up with all these damn aliens' flavour to my stride. But once out in
the corridor, I made a fast and particularly inelegant beeline for the infirmary.
~ ~ ~
part five