Just a Small Experiment - Part Sixteen
Sam headed back to her lab to get Janet, the doctor needed to run the priority tests on the blood samples a nurse drew from the teenage boy in the holding room. She shook her head as she walked. The kid certainly sounded like Colonel O’Neill, that was for sure.
“Oh, goody,” he said when she’d come back with the nurse in tow. “We’ve gotten to the part where you and Fraiser run some tests, find a cure, and make me big again.” He smirked. “I like it.”
Sam hadn’t known how to respond. But he seemed to understand that, simply giving her a wink as she left once again. And now she had to wait for those test results. In the meantime, she couldn’t help but worry about the colonel.
Two women’s voices reached Sam’s ears just before she arrived at her destination, and the blonde physicist smiled. Apparently Sabrina was there for her weekly session with Danny. Somehow that was comforting beyond the usual.
“Hey, Sam, what’s the problem?” the psychologist asked once Sam stepped into the lab. “Janet mentioned a security breach.”
“Yeah, about that,” Sam started, smirking wryly. “Things just got really interesting around here.”
“Again?” Sabrina asked, her eyes widening.
Sam and Janet laughed. “Yeah, again,” Sam agreed, coming around the table and putting a comforting hand on Danny’s shoulder. She smiled down at him when he gave her a grateful look at the action.
Sabrina shook her head. “The action just doesn’t stop around here. Is it anything life threatening?”
“No, no, nothing like that,” Sam assured her. “At least, I highly doubt it. A teenage boy showed up at the gate with Colonel O’Neill’s ID and claims to be him.” She turned to face Janet. “Actually, they need you in the lab to run tests on the blood samples Nurse Williams just took from him. That should give us the answers we need.”
“Right,” Janet said. “I guess that means I’m off. I’ll let everybody know when I have the results.” She paused after she took a couple of steps toward the door. “Did General Hammond authorize the use of the alien device from P7T-923?”
“He did,” Sam confirmed. “He wants results as soon as possible.”
Janet nodded. “Then I’d better get a move on. I’ll talk to you all later.” She quickly left.
Sam looked over at Sabrina and gave her a wry look. “You know, contrary to what you’ve experienced since you’ve come here, we aren’t always dealing with a crisis. We can go for weeks without one.”
Both women turned surprised gazes toward Danny, who was trying to smother giggles behind the hand that was now covering his mouth. His eyes widened for a moment until he saw matching smiles form on the adult’s faces. “You sound silly,” the little boy said through another giggle once he pulled his hand away.
“Do I?” Sam asked with a laugh. “I bet I can make you sound silly too!” She started tickling the child’s stomach.
Danny’s expression became one of complete shock, then crumpled into a wide grin, his eyes squeezed shut, as he started to squeal with laughter. He threw himself against the back of the stool he sat on, squirming as he tried to evade Sam’s twitching fingers to no avail. The game was forced to come to a halt a little bit later when he started to slip right off the seat, Sam abandoning the sensitive flesh to catch him before he could fall.
They both continued to laugh, winding down, as Sam lifted Danny up entirely and embraced him tightly. “Oh, it is so good to hear you laugh!” she declared happily, spinning around.
“What did you do?” Danny asked curiously through the last of his giggles, pulling back just enough in Sam’s arms to see her face. “What was that you did?”
“You mean with my fingers on your stomach? That’s called tickling, I was tickling you. Sometimes people tickle each other when they want to hear them laugh, or help them feel better. But if you ever don’t like it, or you’ve had enough, you just have to say so. Tell me or whoever else might be doing it to stop.” Sam’s smile softened.
“It felt funny,” Danny said. He considered it. “But I think I liked it.”
Sam just laughed and pulled him back in close for another hug.
A soft sigh reminded them they weren’t alone. Guardian and ward looked over at Sabrina who stood watching them as she wiped at her eyes. “That was wonderful to see,” she commented simply.
“Did we make you sad?” Danny asked, his eyes growing large as his smile faded.
“No, no, of course not,” Sabrina reassured him quickly. “These are happy tears. I’m glad you and Sam are so happy together. It makes me feel very good.”
Danny looked confused. “You can cry when you’re happy?”
Sam and Sabrina shared a look. “Yes, you can,” the psychologist answered gently. “Sometimes we cry to release strong emotions, when we feel something very strongly, no matter what kind of feeling it is. So you can cry when you’re happy, sad, angry, scared…” She gave a little shrug. “Just about anything, really.”
Danny’s head dropped. “They said not to cry, that it was bad,” he whispered. “But Jonas told me it was okay to cry after he found me when I was hiding in my first home, so I did.” He looked up hesitantly, his eyes darting between the two women. “It’s really okay to cry?”
Both adults’ hearts broke when Danny’s voice did as he asked the simple question. “I always wondered why he acted so guilty after he cried in front of me,” Sam whispered, giving the boy in her arms a squeeze.
“You never knew you had to give him permission,” Sabrina excused her, then focused on Danny. “It’s more than okay to cry when you feel you need to,” she told him. “It makes you feel better.”
“Haven’t you always felt at least a little better after you cried with me?” Sam asked.
There was a long moment of silence, then Danny nodded. “But I didn’t think I was supposed to,” he added.
Sam squeezed her eyes shut for a couple of seconds, fighting back the grief and anger that welled up inside of her at yet one more sign of the emotional abuse the people at the lab had inflicted on all the children in their care during the experiment. Her boy needed her to stay calm for now. She’d get her release later. “I want you to feel free to cry whenever you feel like you need to, all right, Danny?” she said gently. “You have my permission.”
Danny finally looked up at her. “It’s okay?” A tiny smile touched his lips when Sam merely nodded, and he let himself fall back into her arms, resting his cheek against her shoulder.
“So how long do think it’s going to take before you have the results of those tests?” Sabrina asked after a respectful silent pause.
“Probably a little over an hour, maybe an hour and a half,” Sam replied, absently rocking back and forth as she stood. “The device Janet mentioned takes an hour, and then she’s going to want to do a preliminary analysis of the results before calling us together for a briefing.”
“Maybe we should grab an early lunch then,” Sabrina offered. “I can watch Daniel later while you attend that meeting.”
Sam shifted her head to look Danny in the eyes. “Will that be all right? Are you hungry enough to have lunch?”
Danny hesitated, then nodded. “I’m hungry,” he confirmed.
The women smiled. “Then I guess we’re going to do lunch,” Sam said. “Let’s go see what the commissary has to offer.” And the three of them were off.
* * * * * * * *
“All right, people,” Hammond said early that afternoon once Janet had let him know she had her results. She and the members of SG-1 had then been called to the briefing room to discuss them. “What are we looking at here?”
“Well, according to these results, within an acceptable margin of error, the boy’s DNA is virtually identical to Colonel O’Neill’s,” Janet said as she opened the file she had brought with her. She shook her head. “A very small margin of error.”
“What does that mean, exactly?” Jonas asked.
The physician looked at him. “In a court of law, the DNA sample we took from the boy would be considered a high-probability match to the DNA we have on file from Colonel O’Neill.” Her gaze suddenly dropped to the folder in front of her. “There is a tiny abnormality, however.”
The rest of the people at the table frowned in surprise. “Tiny abnormality? Like the fact that he’s suddenly quite a few years younger than he’s supposed to be?” Daniel quipped.
Janet sighed as she looked up again. “I wish I could tell you exactly what it means. I’ve called in some specialists, and we’ll run more tests. But there is something it could mean.” She let her gaze go from person to person around the table.
“Do you speak of the possibility of the boy being a clone of O’Neill?” Teal’c asked, saying what everyone was thinking.
“If that’s true, what would be the point?” Hammond queried.
“And who would do it?” Jonas added.
Daniel gave him a look, one eyebrow arched above his glasses. “Well, the NID comes to mind, at least the rogue faction. Not that I know what in the world they thought they could gain from this…”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t think there’s anyone else on the planet that would be able to able to pull this off,” she said. She looked at Janet. “Were there any signs of nanotechnology in those blood samples?”
“No,” Janet replied. “The only thing I found out of the ordinary was the abnormality.”
“If it was the rogue NID, they’ve changed their tactics. Daniel doesn’t have any memories of the original,” Jonas said, gesturing at the adult Daniel at the table. “From everything we’ve seen and heard, this child has all the memories of the colonel.”
“Perhaps the retention of memories was unintentional,” Teal’c offered.
Sam nodded. “That could be. Maybe the technology they used to make the clone without the memories malfunctioned, or they were interrupted before they could finish the process.”
Hammond frowned slightly. “You sound like you’re assuming the Jack O’Neill we’re holding is a clone,” he reminded them.
Daniel shook his head. “No, that’s not it, General,” he refuted. “We’re just trying to cover all the angles of this particular theory.” He looked at Sam. “Earlier you said the NID were the only people on this planet that would be able to pull this off. What about people from a different planet?”
“Well, we know the Asgard have cloning technology, so another advanced race developing the technology wouldn’t be unheard of,” the blonde major said thoughtfully. “Aside from the goa’uld, I can’t think of anyone who would do this, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t someone.”
“One way or the other, either a clone or somehow made younger, I think we need to get a hold of our allies and see if they can help fix this,” Janet declared. “I can’t be sure we’re going to be able to come up with a solution, so their advanced knowledge will be invaluable.”
“If O’Neill has not been made younger, we must determine where he has been taken and retrieve him,” Teal’c said.
Everyone looked at one another at the reminder of the consequences of one of the scenarios they were facing. “I think we need to check Colonel O’Neill’s home and see if we can find anything that will tell us what happened,” Sam said slowly after a long moment.
Hammond nodded. “Agreed. Take the boy with you. Perhaps he’ll notice if anything is out of place.” He stood, the others quickly following suit. “I’ll send messages to the Tok’ra and Asgard. Let’s figure this thing out, people. Dismissed.” He left for his office.
Jonas cleared his throat nervously once the general was gone. “So what do we call the boy?” he asked. “I mean, if it turns out he’s not the original Colonel O’Neill…”
“We call him Jack O’Neill,” Daniel said firmly. “Until we find out otherwise. He has all the memories; we have to respect that. The rest we can deal with when we come to it.”
“And I think we shouldn’t mention our suspicions about being a clone,” Sam added. The others agreed.
Janet closed her folder and picked it up off the table. “I’m going to go back to working on these results and prepare for the arrival of the experts I’ve called. Let me know if you find anything at the colonel’s house.”
Sam nodded. “We will.” She shared a smile with the physician then watched her leave.
“I guess we should go get Jack,” Daniel said. “We have a house to search.”
The team members shared a look at the declaration, knowing nothing about this situation was going to be easy. With a silent agreement, they left to complete the general’s orders.
* * * * * * * *
An hour or so later, the five members of SG-1 walked into Jack O’Neill’s house, four of them pausing briefly at the sight within. Directly through the foyer could be seen the dining room table - and the trash strewn across it. Empty beer bottles, Chinese take-out cartons, dirty chopsticks, and the crumpled bags the food came in littered the wooden surface, as well as four light blue placemats, a bowl of peanuts and another bowl of pretzels sitting next to and on top of a chess board minus its pieces.
Teal’c turned to his right and headed down the hall toward the living room while the others moved forward into the dining room. “This is a beautiful home, Colonel,” Jonas said, looking around the room and through a doorway to the right that revealed the kitchen, while Daniel watched Sam pick up one of the discarded cartons and sniff it. “It’s a lot of space, and you have the yard, too. There weren’t a lot of properties like this near the capitol on Kelowna.”
Jack switched his gaze from Sam to Jonas at the slight hint of wistfulness in the alien man’s tone, and his expression of light irritation faded as Sam and Daniel paused in their examination. “Yeah, well, that’s one of the benefits of living in the suburbs. Carter here knows what I mean. And you’ve seen her place, right?”
“Oh, yes, a couple of times now,” Jonas confirmed, nodding. “I’ve just never been here before.”
“Right,” Jack said softly.
“You know, it’s nice to know some things don’t change,” Daniel said with a gesture at the grubby display, knowing it was about time to change the topic.
Jack scowled at him. “It’s not like I was expecting visitors, Daniel.”
Daniel’s eyebrows rose. “So were you preparing for hibernation? This is a whole lot of food for one evening. And an empty wine bottle?”
“It’s not all from one sitting.” Jack looked at Sam. “Do you know what we’re looking for?”
“Well, not exactly, sir,” Sam answered as Daniel picked up a chopstick and looked at it dubiously and Jonas walked around the table and sniffed at the wine bottle the bespectacled man had mentioned. “We just need to see if there’s anything here that can explain what’s happened to you.”
“That would be nice,” Jack commented.
Sam smiled at him. “We’ll start by sending this stuff back to the lab for analysis.”
Jack’s expression turned haughty. “Well, if they find MSG I will never order from them again.” Jonas’ gaze rose from the green glass in his hand while Daniel and Sam shared a look at the unusually-obvious attempt to keep things light. Jack sighed. “Isn’t there anything else we could be doing? Something that would feel… I don’t know… more useful?”
“Doctor Fraiser is doing everything she can with the blood samples that were taken from you earlier, at least until the specialists she called in arrive,” Jonas told him as Teal’c entered the kitchen from the living room through another doorway. “There’s nothing else on that front we can help with.”
“Not to mention this is the last place you remember being…” Daniel’s sentence trailed off as he tried to be diplomatic with his description.
Jack wasn’t worried about being nice. “Older,” he finished his friend’s statement bluntly. “Fine, point pounded into my thick skull.”
Teal’c opened the refrigerator and pulled out a plastic storage container after a moment of investigation. He brought it to his face, lifted the lid, then held it a bit away from himself. “Are you conducting some sort of scientific experiment, O’Neill?” the Jaffa asked.
“Hey, come on. That salsa’s still good,” Jack protested, hurrying over and snatching the container out of Teal’c’s hands. Almost out of reflex, he put the salsa back into the fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer, opening it as soon as he’d straightened to his full height again.
Sam, Daniel, and Jonas had been sharing an amused look at Jack’s actions, but before the now-younger colonel could take a swig from the green glass bottle Sam moved closer and took it out of his hand. “Not a good idea, sir. We don’t know if it’s contaminated.” She set the bottle down on the counter next to her.
Jack’s eyes widened slightly. “You mean they might have shrunken me by doping my beer?” he asked, outraged. “Now come on, that’s just not fair!”
“Um, what was the last thing you ate, Colonel?” Jonas asked from his position behind Sam.
Jack considered it for a moment. “Four cheese burritos with guacamole on the side.”
Daniel blinked. He hadn’t seen any evidence of that meal amongst the mess in the dining room… “Anything else?”
“A beer. Then I hit the sack.”
“So, whatever happened to you must have occurred once you went to sleep,” Sam surmised.
“Then I guess we should check your bedroom,” Jonas added. Jack thought for a moment, then agreed with a shrug.
The master bedroom of the house was actually quite spacious, at least when four people weren’t conducting an investigation in it. Jonas and Sam were checking out the two nightstands on either side of the bed, Daniel was looking in and around Jack’s dresser, and Teal’c had gravitated to the bookshelves opposite the full size bed. Jack merely watched from the doorway, a bit disturbed by his friends going through his more intimate personal belongings.
When Daniel opened one of the top drawers and started rooting through Jack’s underwear, however, the colonel reached his limit. “Hey!” he cried, storming around to Daniel’s right side. “Do you mind?” Daniel just dropped the boxer briefs he’d been holding, threw his hands up into the air, and stepped over to the small bookshelf next to the dresser. “Thank you,” Jack snapped as he forcefully shut the drawer.
Turning around, Jack checked what the others were doing. Sam was looking through the wooden chest at the foot of his bed, Jonas was examining something behind the headboard, and Teal’c was sorting through books - which was totally messing up Jack’s system of organization. He rolled his eyes and stomped over to the larger bookcase.
“Teal’c,” Jack started to whine as the Jaffa reached up to turn on one of the small lamps attached to the top of the wooden structure. The sudden bright light caught Jack in the eyes as he was forced to look up into his friend’s face, startling him into silence.
And then he gasped. Instead of his bedroom, all Jack could see were glowing green globes spinning around him in a white mist, followed by the face of an Asgard moving into his line of sight.
“Whoa!” Jack blurted out, jerking himself out of the vision. He blinked furiously as he struggled to catch his breath.
“O’Neill?” Teal’c asked, unconsciously placing the book in his hand back on the shelf.
“What is it?” Daniel asked, concern lacing the question.
“Are you all right, Colonel?” Jonas added as he, Sam, and Daniel moved over to the other two to see for themselves what was going on.
Jack absently nodded as he considered what he had just seen. “Either I’m remembering a particularly bad dream,” he began slowly, still mulling over the vision, “or the Asgard paid me a little visit last night.”
The others shared a shocked look at the announcement. “The Asgard?” Sam asked. “Are you sure, sir?”
“Trust me, I’m sure,” Jack said wryly, fully back in the present.
“Well, this adds a whole new twist to the story,” Daniel muttered, closing his eyes and shaking his head.
“We should probably get back to the base and let General Hammond know about this development,” Jonas suggested. “If the Asgard are involved, I don’t think there’s anything here to find.”
Sam nodded. “You’re right, Jonas. Why don’t we get going?”
With that, the five of them left the house and returned to the mountain.
* * * * * * * *
Sam went immediately to the VIP room that had been set aside for her and Danny, having called Hammond from the car on the way in to set up the necessary briefing. She slipped inside quietly, correctly guessing that the boy would be napping. She smiled at Sabrina, who sat at the small table to Sam’s right reading a book.
The psychologist returned the smile and gestured for them to go out into the hall. “What did you find at Colonel O’Neill’s house?” Sabrina asked once the door had closed behind them.
“A shock and a half,” Sam replied. “The colonel had a flashback and remembered being visited by the Asgard.”
“Whoa, that doesn’t sound right,” Sabrina said with a frown.
“No, it doesn’t,” Sam agreed. “I’ve asked for a briefing in about a half hour so we can talk it over.” Her expression turned apologetic. “I hate the idea of having you stick around so much longer than you normally would if there’s somewhere else you need to be.”
Sabrina rolled her eyes and smiled. “I told you before you left for Colonel O’Neill’s house, I’m yours for the day. I always make sure I have my Fridays open in case something happens. And before you even think it, there’s nowhere else I want to be either. I’m glad I can help my friend when she needs it, and Danny’s a joy to spend time with.”
The blonde woman sighed. “It still feels like I’m taking advantage.”
Sabrina reached out and placed a gentle hand and the blonde’s shoulder. “You’re not. I’m just glad I can do my part. You’ve all accepted me here, and that means a lot.”
“You’ve done so much for Danny and me,” Sam said with a gentle smile, covering the hand on her shoulder with one of her own. “I think we can call it more than even.”
“So have you heard anything from Thor?” Sabrina asked after they shared smiles for a moment longer then dropped their hands back to their sides.
Sam shook her head. “No, nothing yet. We’ll definitely be sending another message, but in the meantime…” She sighed and shrugged.
The psychologist nodded. “You have to deal with what you’ve got.” She paused, a thought occurring to her. “Now, if the Asgard were involved, is there a possibility that the young man could be…”
“A clone?” Sam finished for her. “We were talking about that even before we found out about the Asgard’s involvement. I have to admit it seems like an even greater possibility now.”
“Wow.” Sabrina blew out a long breath through pursed lips. “This is getting really complicated.”
Sam laughed briefly. “That’s the standard procedure around here, I thought you knew that by now.”
Sabrina laughed as well. “Yeah, well, consider the trend noted. Now, I think you have a briefing to prepare for. Daniel and I will be fine.”
“Thanks again. I’ll talk to you later.” Sam gave the other woman one last smile and left.
* * * * * * * *
“And you’re absolutely certain that the Asgard are involved?” Hammond asked Jack once he’d been filled in on what had happened at the house. “You have to admit, that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“The memory was pretty clear, sir,” Jack said, his posture in his seat relaxed with an undercurrent of anxiety. “I’d recognize those big black eyes and that pale grey skin anywhere.”
Daniel sat across from Jack, frowning as he lost himself in thought. As the general huffed in confused frustration at Jack’s declaration, a memory occurred to the anthropologist. “Um, General, I’ve just thought of something. Jack’s account reminds me of a number of UFO abduction files I’ve read. There might be something there that could give us an answer.”
Jack looked at him, his mouth twitching into a half-smirk. “So you can remember that, but not my birthday? I think I’m offended.”
“Well, Jack, it looks like you’ll be having a lot more of those for me to remember.”
“This encounter is incongruous with all previous contact we have had with the Asgard,” Teal’c commented as Jonas and Sam fought back snickers at the look on their team CO’s face. There was a twinkle in the Jaffa’s eyes that spoke of his appreciation of the humor in the situation as well.
Sam cleared her throat and forced a neutral expression onto her features before Jack could snap at her in irritation. “Thor has indicated that the Asgard have been keeping an eye on human development on Earth in the past,” she offered.
Hammond shook his head slightly. “But we’re allies now. We’ve cooperated with them on a number of missions.”
“Well, we have rogue elements in the government here,” Jonas said thoughtfully. “Who’s to say it’s any different for the Asgard?”
“It’s never been mentioned before,” Hammond refuted.
“That’s not exactly something people usually go around advertising,” Jack countered. “I mean, think about it. The only reason we admitted to it was because the NID had come close to ruining our relations with our allies by stealing all that technology. You can’t tell me we would have freely ‘fessed up otherwise.”
“Jack has a point,” Daniel said. “And the Asgard have an even better reason to keep a secret like that: the Protected Planets Treaty. If it was known that there was a lack of unity amongst the Asgard, the System Lords would start testing their ability to enforce it in a heartbeat.”
There was a long moment of silence as they all considered these new lines of thought before Jack raised a hand to recapture everyone’s attention. “Oh, and thinking of cooperation, I just thought I’d make sure it was perfectly clear that I would not have agreed to this.” He gestured at his teenaged body.
Hammond sighed. “We never thought you did, Colonel.”
“But what I can’t figure out is what they could possibly hope to gain from secretly making you younger against your will,” Jonas said.
“Don’t ask me,” Jack said. “I got nothing.”
“General, um, I’d like to cross-reference some of those old abduction accounts, see if I can find any connection,” Daniel requested, doing his best to keep things on track.
Hammond nodded, happy to have some sort of course of action to attempt to find some answers. “Please do, Doctor Jackson.” He looked at Sam and Jack, who sat next to each other to his left, pausing a long moment before he spoke. “Colonel, in regards to the briefing tomorrow afternoon at thirteen hundred, I’d like you to run it with Major Carter. Considering the situation, it might be best to have someone else there to help ease the pilots into acceptance. Unless you think it would be better to have the major run it on her own?”
Jack shook his head fiercely. “No, sir. I’m the one with the most experience with the F-302s. I should definitely be there.” He hesitated for a couple of beats. “Um, sir, I really can handle the briefing on my own,” he finally began to protest.
“Colonel, you are going to be facing a room full of seasoned pilots,” Hammond cut him off firmly. “You know as well as I do that they’re going to have one hell of a hard time taking the opinion of someone who looks like a teenage boy seriously, and that would be in a normal situation. Now, these pilots are new to this particular program. Even with everything they’ve been told and have read for themselves, I don’t think they’ll be able to just accept the uniqueness of these circumstances without some backup. Major Carter will provide that backup.”
“But, sir…” Jack began to protest again.
“Jack,” Hammond said with a note of finality. “You have no idea how close I came to letting Major Carter run the meeting on her own. Don’t make me rethink this decision.” The general rose to his feet. “Now, I’ll leave it to the both of you to figure out how to work with the new arrangement. Dismissed.” He turned and left for his office.
Jack blew out a loud breath once the older man was gone. “Well. That’s that then.”
Daniel stood up. “I’m going to go back to my office and start on that search. Teal’c, Jonas, you want to come help me while these two figure out the details of their meeting tomorrow?”
Teal’c bowed his head as Jonas nodded. “I would be pleased to offer my assistance,” he declared, then rose to his feet.
Jonas followed suit. “Let’s see what we can find.”
“We’ll join you as soon as we’re done here,” Sam told them, then paused and looked at Jack. “Um, if that’s all right with you, sir.”
“Of course it’s all right,” Jack replied, surprised at the question. He shook off the feeling. “Let’s just get this sorted out, shall we?”
The three non-military members of SG-1 headed out of the briefing room and left the officers to their talk.
* * * * * * * *
Sam met Jack in the office Daniel and Jonas were currently sharing after stopping by her VIP room to check on Danny. The boy had been in the middle of reading a new children’s book Sabrina had brought him, but the psychologist said she’d bring him up when he was finished. Sam had accepted the offer with a grateful smile before leaving, not able to resist giving Danny one last hug on the way out. The smile she got in return made it more than worth it.
She got another smile from the other Daniel in her life when she reached the office on level eighteen. “So how far have you gotten?” the physicist asked as she stood between Daniel and Jonas behind Teal’c, the Jaffa sitting at the computer while the two brown-haired men looked through files. Jack sat in a chair to Teal’c’s right, leaning in to look at the monitor.
“It would appear that a great many of the Tau’ri have encountered beings from other worlds,” Teal’c commented.
“Yeah,” Daniel replied as Jack snorted. “Little do they know how close they are to the truth.” He continued looking through the file he was holding.
Jonas did the same. “Now what exactly are we looking for?” the Kelownan asked.
Daniel gave him a quick glance. “Well, any abduction accounts that match Jack’s story,” Teal’c began to type when he heard that, “and, um, obviously anyone claiming to have physically regressed several decades overnight. We just need to enter our search parameters into the database.”
“It is already done,” Teal’c announced. Daniel and Jonas put aside their files and leaned in with Sam to take a closer look at the computer screen.
“Wow, that’s a lot of people,” Jonas commented.
“Indeed,” Teal’c agreed.
Jack rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair. “Good luck wading through that. Should I have your meals brought in to you?”
Sam shook her head in slight amusement. “They just need to narrow down their parameters further, sir,” she said.
Daniel nodded. “Exactly. Let’s see if any of these match Jack’s story precisely, what he said he saw. Four green lights.” Teal’c typed in the new commands, calling up a new, shorter list. “That’s a little more reasonable.” He paused, narrowing his eyes slightly as he read over the information presented. “That’s interesting,” he said after a moment. “Of the narrowed down accounts, the most recent is from…”
“Nineteen years ago,” Jonas said quietly, his brow also knitted in consideration.
“Eight are here in the States,” Daniel declared after another quick skim of the list. “You know, if these addresses are still valid, we should go talk to these people in person.”
“What do you hope to learn?” Teal’c asked.
Daniel gave him a small, tight smile. “I guess we’ll know when we learn it.” He patted the Jaffa on the shoulder.
Jack’s eyebrows rose as he considered the anthropologist. “It’s going to take you some time to make travel arrangements.”
Daniel shook his head. “I don’t think so, not once I find out which addresses are valid and figure out the most efficient itinerary. It might be best to get a private charter plane, though.”
“So you’re not a slave to an inflexible schedule,” Sam said, nodding. “I’ll see if I can arrange a plane and pilot for you once you know when and where you’re going.”
“Thanks, Sam,” Daniel said with a smile.
“Would it be all right if I went with you?” Jonas asked.
Daniel nodded. “That would be fine. An extra set of ears and eyes should come in handy.”
Sam’s expression turned regretful. “I wish I could come with you, too,” she said. “But there’s Danny to think about as well as the meeting tomorrow, and then I thought I’d help Janet with her tests. I also have some other projects that should keep me busy. I’ll go over everything with you when you get back, though.”
“That’s great, Sam,” Daniel told her.
“I believe I will stay here,” Teal’c declared after noticing the panicked look starting to grow in Jack’s eyes. “Doctor LaTendresse has requested my assistance with a translation of a Goa’uld tablet recovered by SG-21. However, I will also assist you and Jonas Quinn when you return.”
“Sounds like a party’s going to be waiting for you, Danny boy,” Jack said with a smirk. His team didn’t miss the relief in his eyes at Teal’c’s intention to remain behind. They knew he was still rightfully freaking out a bit over his situation.
Daniel smiled back at the teenager. “I’ll try to remember the party favors.”
Back to Gen Fiction Back to Part Fifteen Go to Part Seventeen
