Chapter Text
Staff weapon blasts echoed loudly across the rocky plain. Angry shouts filled the air. SG-1 came sprinting over the stony, boulder-strewn ground toward the sounds, wondering what was going on. They paused, panting heavily, behind a mammoth boulder where they were hidden from view.
“Guys, where’s Teal’c?” asked Daniel, glancing back the way they’d come.
“Oh no,” said Carter. Daniel and Colonel O’Neill followed her gaze straight ahead across the gently sloping landscape toward the source of the commotion.
There was Teal’c a few yards away, clearly injured and surrounded by several contingents of Jaffa, being dragged roughly away in chains toward the base of operation Heru’ur had built here, supposedly in collaboration with some of the other system lords. To investigate this base was the reason they had come to this planet in the first place. The mission was strictly for reconnaissance to determine the size of the operation Heru’ur had set up here and any details they could about the structure itself.
The Stargate was completely unguarded when they came through yesterday, but now the area suddenly teemed with an entire Jaffa army that had materialized early that morning. SG-1 had covertly watched them set up camp between the Stargate and the base an hour ago. While investigating the army Teal’c had gone in a different direction from the rest of the group, and now he was hurt and being taken hostage by Heru’ur’s Jaffa. They had arrived too late to help him.
Jack swore. “We’ve gotta go after him!”
“There are too many Jaffa, sir. We’ll be captured or shot down,” Major Carter argued.
“And I’m sure it’ll be so much better once he gets taken into that base,” Jack retorted.
“We won’t do Teal’c any good if we’re all taken prisoner or killed,” said Daniel, eying the ranks of marching Jaffa that surrounded their friend. “We’re not going to leave him behind, Jack. We’ll come up with a plan to free him.”
O’Neill said nothing for a moment, then acquiesced reluctantly with a curt nod, rubbing absently at the pain that had formed behind his eyes at some point. As much as he wanted to go after Teal’c there really was no way the three of them were equipped to take on an entire army.
“For now we need to lay low somewhere and…” Major Carter trailed off.
“What’s wrong?” asked O’Neill.
Carter turned to face her C. O. “Sir, I’m… I’m not feeling too well.”
“Neither am I, come to think of it,” Jack replied. “I have a terrible headache. Daniel?”
“I feel fine,” said the archeologist.
“Ahh great.” O’Neill pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. “T’s been nabbed by Heru’ur’s Jaffa and now Carter and I’ve got some kind of alien plague.”
“All the more reason we should find somewhere to hide from those patrols until we can come up with a plan,” said Sam. “I don’t know about you sir, but I don’t quite feel up to any fighting just now.”
“I think I saw a cave a little way up the slope. We should be safe there while we figure out what to do. Do you think you can make it?” asked Daniel.
Jack’s gaze followed the direction Daniel indicated. “I think so. Carter?”
Sam gave a nod, rubbing her forehead with a pinched look of pain. She and Jack accompanied Daniel slowly up the incline over the uneven ground. The trek took about forty five minutes, though if they had been well it probably would have taken no more than thirty. When they finally arrived at the top of the craggy slope, they found themselves peering into the mouth of a dark cavern that was wide but not very deep. Daniel entered first to make sure it was safe. After a minute he poked his head out and gave the all-clear.
As Carter and O’Neill shuffled into the darkness of the chamber Daniel immediately set to work making his teammates comfortable. He got the sleeping bags out, then took some of the spare clothing from their packs and folded them into makeshift pillows. Once they were both lying down, he draped two blankets over each of them, then fished out the thermometer strips from the medical pack.
“How bad is it, Daniel? Must be at least a thousand degrees,” said Jack, casting an arm over his face.
“Just shy of 102,” he reported, checking the thermometer strips. “Sam too.”
Major Carter fell asleep almost instantly after this, but Colonel O’Neill propped himself up on one elbow, watching Daniel set up shop inside the cave chamber. Daniel looked up at O’Neill’s loud groan.
“What are you feeling, Jack?”
“Headache… bad headache,” O’Neill complained, rubbing his forehead. “Very thirsty. We gotta… get Teal’c outta there.” He waved a hand vaguely.
Daniel tossed him a canteen. “Yeah, I know, and we will, but not with you and Sam like this. You’re going to have to stay here and let me scout things out,” Daniel responded. “Okay?”
“But —”
“Rest, Jack. I’ll be back in a little while.” Daniel placed another two canteens of water next to them along with their weapons and a few other items. Then the archeologist donned his pack and exited the chamber at a hurried pace.
Jack lay back against the makeshift pillow. He glanced beside him at Carter. She was sleeping restlessly, her pale face scrunched up slightly in a grimace. He closed his eyes, pulled the blankets up to his chin and promptly joined her in slumber.
Daniel sprinted most of the way from the cave to Heru’ur’s base, despite the rocky terrain and moderate incline. So much for this being a low-risk reconnaissance mission. Not only had Teal’c been captured but now Jack and Sam were sick, and by the looks of it they weren’t going to be in any shape to mount a rescue. It was up to him, then.
The archeologist’s heart sank as he drew up as close to the gigantic base as he dared, its angular facade invading the natural landscape. There were a hell of a lot of Jaffa around, and he had no idea where inside the place Teal’c was being held, but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying to get him out of there.
In addition to the Jaffa guards there were plenty of slaves or otherwise subjugated people being brought in and out. He also saw through his binoculars what looked like tradesmen bearing goods, which the guards inspected thoroughly, and only some of these tradesmen were actually allowed inside the massive structure.
Daniel blew out a breath and set about learning all he possibly could about the base and how to infiltrate it.
Sam woke with a start, her head throbbing painfully and a powerful thirst drying out her mouth and throat. As her gaze swept around the dim cave chamber she spotted Colonel O’Neill beside her, groaning loudly and kneading his forehead. “Where’s Daniel?” she asked.
“He went off to scout out that snakehead base. How are you doing?”
“I’m very thirsty and my head hurts, sir,”
“Yeah, likewise. But look - Daniel left us water and Tylenol,” said Jack waving the items triumphantly with a smile that quickly turned into a grimace. He took the pills and broke off a few of the blisters before tossing the remainder to Carter.
Five hours later, Daniel returned to the cave, eager to sit down and rest. His trip had been fruitful, but he still had a lot to learn if he was going to have any hope of getting into that base undetected. To make matters worse, on the way back here he had begun to feel unwell, like he was coming down with whatever his teammates had contracted. He now had a decent-sized headache and shivered with a growing fever. But someone had to care for Sam and Jack until they could get home, and someone had to rescue Teal’c. They couldn’t afford for him to drop the ball, regardless of how he felt. Therefore, he wasn’t going to let them know.
“I’m back,” he announced, letting his pack fall with a thud onto the floor and shining his flashlight around. “How are you doing?”
“Thirsty,” said the colonel.
“Me too,” Sam chimed in. “These are empty,” she said, indicating the canteens he’d left them with.
Daniel handed them another bottle of water each, shocked at the amount of fluids they had drank. He set about monitoring their temperature again with thermometer strips.
“Your fever’s about the same - around 102 degrees,” he reported a few minutes later.
“God!” said Jack, moaning with discomfort. “Feels like my face is on fire.”
Daniel felt similarly, but he remained silent. “Here, how’s this?” he said, wetting a clean bandana he’d found shoved into one of the pockets of his pack with a bit of water and pressing it against Jack’s forehead.
“Ahh, that’s good.” O’Neill leaned back on the makeshift pillow and soon drifted off to sleep.
Daniel shivered, removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes, which were burning with tiredness. Given the way he felt, his fever had to be rising.
“Daniel, are you okay?” asked Sam, scrutinizing him in the dim light, though she looked as if she were about to fall asleep any second now.
“I’m fine,” Daniel lied, patting her shoulder in what he hoped was a soothing manner and tucking the blankets more snugly around her. Truthfully, his head was pounding and his stomach felt decidedly queasy. But there was no way he was going to let her worry about him when she needed to focus on getting better.
Sam held his gaze for a moment, then nodded and let her eyes fall shut. Daniel huffed a sigh, and closed his own eyes for a moment. The dwindling water supply was going to be a problem. As much as he wanted to rescue Teal’c right now, water had just become a top priority. That, and he needed more time to study the movements of the people around the base before trying anything. He emptied his pack and filled it with all of the empty canteens and a few other things, trying to ignore his splitting headache and churning stomach, then stepped out into the chilly night air. He was soon shivering from head to foot as he plodded down the incline in search of water.
Daniel staggered back into the cave the next morning, dizzy and utterly exhausted. His objective to study Heru’ur’s guards had gone relatively well, but as for the water…
He’d found nothing. No water. Just a barren, rocky landscape. At the rate his sick teammates were drinking fluids they would be out of water within a day or so. His own thirst was powerful as well, alternating with equally powerful bouts of nausea, but he only took a few small sips to wet his mouth, determined to give Sam and Jack the lion’s share.
Thermometer strips soon told Daniel that both of their temperatures were hovering around 101, which was encouraging since this was lower than the previous day, but it was only morning and he had no idea how the rest of the day would go. At least both were sleeping in a way that seemed more restful than before. The archeologist collapsed into his sleeping bag a few paces away from them and closed his eyes, exhausted and shivering convulsively, wishing they had packed more blankets. He needed to rescue Teal’c, but he felt awful and he hadn’t slept all night. As worried as he was about his three teammates, there was simply no way he would be of any use to them without at least some rest.
Daniel woke sometime later to the sound of Jack’s loud complaints. He sat up, waiting for his surroundings to stop spinning then stood shakily. His limbs ached and his throbbing headache was even worse than before, but he shoved the feelings to the back of his mind and went to see what the sick man needed.
“Ugh… my head still hursts, Daniel,” Jack complained. “Where’s that Tylenol?”
“Uhh…” Daniel hunted around, swallowing hard against his rapidly worsening nausea. He finally found some more pills in one of the packs and tossed them over to his commanding officer. He thought of taking some himself, but his stomach decided this was the perfect moment to revolt, and he was forced to dash out of the chamber to be noisily sick outside. He returned, swaying, a few minutes later wondering if Jack had noticed his absence, but the man seemed oblivious, preoccupied only with extracting the pills from their foil housings with a string of mumbled curses.
Daniel collapsed down into a seated position, his back against the wall, and leaned over with his pounding head in his hands until Sam sat up and asked for more water.
That evening, once the sun had set and darkness had fallen, Daniel made his way toward Heru’ur’s base with the few items he’d collected during the day. The basis of a plan had formed: pose as one of the tradesmen the guards were letting into the base. Once inside, steal a uniform and dress as one of the guards in order to find out where Teal’c was being held and bust him out.
There were so many holes in this plan, he knew, not least of which was the fact that he was in no shape to mount a rescue. He felt terrible and shook with both exhaustion and fever. A massive headache thumped against his skull, his mouth and throat felt like the desert sands of Abydos, he was very dizzy and his nausea was insistently making itself known. But he was still going to do it.
Glasses in the pocket of his pilfered robe, fingers crossed inwardly as he carried a borrowed load of goods, Daniel strode up to the entrance as if he belonged there. After a few very tense moments, the Jaffa guards let him through. Two more guards just inside the entrance lumbered menacingly behind him as he plodded into the gigantic structure. He had no idea if a real tradesperson would have known which way to go, so he kept his pace casual and swept his eyes all around to memorize the layout of the place.
His opportunity to slip away from the guards’ watchful eyes came unexpectedly. A scuffle had broken out between two groups of Jaffa. Some of them had different forehead markings from those of Heru’ur, Daniel realized. So the rumors of a collaboration were true. The guards who had been following him went to support Heru’ur‘s Jaffa.
While they were occupied Daniel took a slow step backward, then another and another. No one was watching. He turned and crept into an empty room, panting hard with adrenaline, which he realized was the only thing keeping him on his feet at this point. Even so, he couldn’t help dropping the goods and bending over to decorate the floor in an out-of-the way corner.
A control panel stood invitingly at the opposite end of the room. Vomiting finished, Daniel stole over to it and began to investigate the layout of the building: where would Teal’c be held? His research turned up a section of the base that was being used as a prison block. This seemed promising.
He ducked carefully back out of the room and tried to blend in with the rest of the people parading down the corridors. He found his knowledge of the Goa’uld language to be essential in preventing him from getting caught, but he realized there was no way he was going to be able to steal a guard’s uniform. Plus, he had no forehead markings to help sell the disguise. He’d have to make do with the outfit he had.
At last he reached the area where the prisoners were being kept. It was a series of spacious open rooms with the captives standing chained to the wall. The intermittent patrolling of the guards allowed Daniel to slip into the first room and begin his search. He almost didn’t recognize the Jaffa with all of the bruising and dried blood covering his face, but he finally spotted Teal’c, leaning heavily against the far wall and nearly unconscious from the injuries he had sustained.
Knowing he had to work quickly, Daniel took out the metal pins he had brought and proceeded to pick the locks on Teal’c’s chains, trembling with concentration and the effort of staying on his feet. More and more the archeologist felt dizzy and weak, but he kept reminding himself that no matter how awful he felt there was no one else available to help his friend.
Teal’c’s head snapped up. “Daniel Jackson,” he said, voice weak and laced with pain.
“Yup, it’s me. I’m here to get you out.”
A soft snick told Daniel he’d succeeded in picking the lock. The cuffs released the imprisoned Jaffa’s wrists. He draped Teal’c’s muscular arm around his shoulders.
“Where are Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter?”
“Set up in a cave not far from here, but they’re both sick. They came down with something just after you got captured.”
“You are ill as well,” Teal’c noted as they made their way out of the prison block, dodging the roving guards as best they could.
Daniel grunted under the weight of supporting the Jaffa. “D-don’t w-worry…about me. You’re injured. I need…to get you out of here.”
They made their way cautiously out of the room. After a time, Teal’c seemed to regain enough stamina to limp along on his own with minimal support, which was good for Daniel because he didn’t think he could hold the Jaffa’s weight much longer.
“Daniel Jackson!” Teal’c warned suddenly as a pair of guards appeared. Daniel, whose eyes were nearly closed in extreme exhaustion, ducked with Teal’c into an empty room just in time. Against his will he slid slowly to the floor, breathing heavily and shivering with fever, cursing at the time his body was choosing to give out. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Teal’c sitting beside him, not in much better shape, offering him a silent gesture of solidarity.
Once the Jaffa went by Teal’c and Daniel helped each other stand and supported one another down the hall toward the exit. Neither spoke. Daniel could tell Teal’c was in a lot of pain from his injuries, and he himself had a terrible piercing headache. That and he thought he might be sick again if he opened his mouth.
A loud shout startled both men. They stopped short at the appearance of a group of Jaffa neither of them had noticed. Thinking quickly (but perhaps not one hundred percent clearly), Daniel turned to Teal’c, yelling at him as if he were Daniel’s prisoner. Then he turned to the Jaffa and barked out some orders in Goa’uld, subtly trying to make himself look large and menacing while at the same time trying not to throw up.
The guards didn’t move. Daniel knew the tradesman outfit wasn’t helping sell his identity as a person of authority. Plus, ‘large’ and ‘menacing’ were two things Daniel was not. After a minute he realized his ploy wasn’t going to work. He dropped the act and signaled for Teal’c to run.
Both men staggered down the corridors, doing their best to move despite their handicaps as they were chased and shot at. So much for sneaking out of the base undetected. Daniel was so dizzy he stumbled more than ran, and so tired he could barely think. Teal’c also couldn’t run very well with his wounded leg and God knew what other injuries.
A group of visiting Jaffa with Apophis’ forehead markings came into view ahead. As they staggered by, Teal’c steered Daniel a little closer to them so it looked like they were part of this group. With his bruised face the warriors didn’t recognize him immediately, and he was able to grab the nearest of Heru’ur’s Jaffa and hit him as hard as he could, yelling insults and curses against Heru’ur.
His diversion worked. Heru’ur’s Jaffa believed that those of Apophis had started a fight. Soon the two groups were at each other’s throats. Daniel and Teal’c made a run for the exit in the ensuing chaos.
Daniel barely remembered the trip back to the cave. He must have led Teal’c there somehow, because they arrived to find both Jack and Sam still sleeping soundly.
“What is the condition of Major Carter and Colonel O’Neill?” asked Teal’c as Daniel lowered him gently down onto the rocky floor.
Daniel went over and put a hand to both of their foreheads in turn, doing his best not to collapse or throw up on top of them. “I-I think they’re getting better. Their temperatures are coming down.”
“That is well. However you —” Teal’c paused with a grunt of pain.
“I’m alright,” Daniel lied. “Rest…or…kelno’reem.” He handed Teal’c the last canteen of water.
The Jaffa took a long drink. “Thank you, Daniel Jackson.” Then he closed his eyes and fell silent.
Daniel would have followed suit, but his stomach had other ideas and he lurched back outside the chamber.