Not far off Jack and Sam witnessed the same experience. Jack raised
his gun, but it clattered uselessly to the ground as they were taken underground.
Oddly enough, this reminded Jack of the twisting and same loss of gravity
as the gate travel. Finally the mad ride ended and he was thrown to the
ground, momentarily knocking the breath from his lungs. Behind him, he
heard Carter's startled exclamation as she landed. Their place of entry
was completely dark. No light shone anywhere and all he could hear was
the ragged breathing of the captain next to him and another two people
somewhere on his right. Trying to orient himself, he memorized sounds.
On his left, the echoing of water filtered through the silence, unnaturally
loud and noisy in the sudden silence. On his right the silence was broken.
"O'Neill?" It was Teal'c.
"Jeez Teal'c, what did Daniel touch now?" Jack could almost hear the
Jaffa's eyebrow raise.
"He did not do anything to my knowledge." Jack rolled his eyes.
"He always touched something." He drawled.
"Thanks for the appraisal," A voice beside his mocked. Jack jumped,
almost.
"Well, long time no see. So what exactly did you do?" He heard Daniel's
soft breathing behind him, or was that Sam's. Reaching out he groped in
the darkness. His hand hit something. But the wrong thing. Sam slapped
his hand away.
"Sir." She said, almost laughing.
"Sorry Carter, just looking for a door knob."
"There usually a little lower Sir." She said. Beside him, Jack finally
isolated where Daniel was. He was laughing softly.
"You still haven't answered my question Daniel." His voice seemingly
menacing.
"I swear, all I touched was the wall and some sort of.. well.. doorknob
thingy."
"Doorknob thingy?"
"Obelisk Jack." Daniel shot back.
"Mhmm," Jack mumbled. He felt like strangling his friend. Suddenly
from his right there came a sound, and then an intense light shattered
his field of vision. As he blinked he saw the silhouettes of two small
bodies.
"They have come," one said.
"Yes, we shall start right away." The other intoned.
"What? What the hell do you mean?!?" Jack's protest was cut off as
the beam of an energy blast caught him, lifted him then dropped his unconscious
on the floor. Each of his teammates soon followed, and each of them were
dragged away, their weapons and belongings left in the dark room.
Teal'c was aware of one thing when he woke. It was light. Gathering
his senses Teal'c grasped the floor. It wasn't the same as the floor beneath
the ground above. In fact it was the ground above. He opened his eyes.
The corneas coming slowly into focus, his eyes still not used to the bright
light from above. As he sat there waiting for his sight to return fully
he heard something. It was soft whimpering of sorts. Teal'c thought this
to be extremely strange, and after regaining partial sight he started in
the direction where he had heard the sound. Her grew closer to the source
and found himself looking at a bundle of cloth. Picking it up he realized
it was an SGC uniform. A voice from that bundle startled him. Although
it was quiet and childlike it reminded him of someone.
"Teal'c? Is that you? I can't see at all." It was Daniel. Sort of.
The Daniel Teal'c had remembered was about six feet tall. The man he held
cradled against him like a baby or small child was no less than a meter
tall.
"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c said, "Is that you? I am also blinded." The
body he held started to answer but then grabbed for something and sneezed.
"*sniff* Yeah, it's me. What the hell happened?" Teal'c's eyesight
began to return and now he could see Daniel fully. He was, and looked five
years old. Teal'c seemed to take a moment to try and figure out if he had
been changed somehow. He did not look, nor feel any younger than when he
had been taken. Teal'c was amazed. He had never viewed Daniel Jackson as
a child, not even in the earth term machine drawing called a photo. Daniel
had told him his foster parents had never really had the time to take any;
they were always so busy. Teal'c did not believe him and noted the wistful
look Daniel gave to Jack. Holding his friend as if he were a baby Teal'c
walked towards what he hoped was the direction of the Stargate. In his
arms, Daniel had started to struggle.
"Teal'c I am not an invalid," he sniffed and when he was put down sighed,
"but I look like one." He pulled the tails of his shirt up to avoid tripping
over them. Teal'c thought this was slightly amusing. In his real body Daniel
Jackson had been a little shorter than most of the team, but he exiled
in knowledge. Now looking at the tiny archeologist that barely reached
his waist he couldn't suppress his slight smile. As small as it was, Daniel
noticed it. "I'm glad you think this is funny Teal'c," he looked over the
Jaffa, or rather looked up, "How come you didn't change, morph or whatever
happened to me?" Teal'c shrugged slightly, he was picking up earth signals
and terms faster and fully understood some. Unfortunately Jack hadn't told
him of one. When they had gone up to town to buy some supplies, Jack had
barely missed a collision with another little car Jack had called the beetle.
Teal'c had been confused but listened to the ensuing conversation of the
male occupant in the other car and Jack. The other man had stuck up his
middle finger and drove off with a screech of tires. Teal'c, thinking this
was a placating gesture, repeated what he had seen to a couple of female
shoppers. They had left; sneering in his direction and making little 'humph'
noises in their throats. One had even come up to Teal'c and slapped him.
Teal'c had told her that on his world no woman did that to a man. The woman
had looked at him strangely and left. Jack, catching the tail end of the
conversation asked Teal'c what the woman had done. Teal'c told him she
had slapped him. Jack looked surprised and asked if Teal'c had done anything
to provoke the 'attack'. Teal'c had repeated the gesture and for some strange
reason Jack started to laugh. He later explained to Teal'c what it meant.
Teal'c felt pretty embarrassed after that incident. He really didn't use
earth terms that after that, but he had learned and remembered a select
few. Teal'c felt oddly strange when the flood of memories he usually kept
in check flooded through his mental gates. Maybe something did happen to
him down in the underground. Following his tiny friend he tried to control
his feelings, emotions and sensations.
Jack got up. Or he thought he was Jack. The body he knew was forty-eight.
The body he was in was fifteen. Jack frowned, he swore he would kill Daniel
as soon as he found him. Beside him another body swaddled in the seemingly
large uniforms of the SGC stirred. Blinking furiously, a head emerged.
"Colonel?" It was Sam. Well it sounded like Sam any ways. The girl
that was across from him was at least seven years of age. Long blond hair
also spilt out of the little nest she had created for herself.
"Carter?" He had a questioning tone to his voice. His voice was extremely
different though, it was a tad too high and as he skittered a hand over
his face he felt the beginnings of a really bad acne problem. Sam sat up,
rubbing a hand to her eyes.
"Colonel, somehow I don't feel quiet like myself." She pulled a hand
through her blond hair and then flittered to her waist. "I'm a child?!?"
Her startled realization caused her to bolt up.
"Easy. You can have a piece of him too when we find him." Sam looked
confused.
"Who?"
"Daniel." Jack said. She smiled slightly at his teasing expression.
Then she looked into the deep-set horizon. It would be dark soon.
"If," she said softly, "If."
Daniel had been in many ridiculous positions before, but none quite
like this. He was a child, a man in a child's body. To make it worse Teal'c
seemed to find it very funny. Reaching into his deep-set pocket he sneezed
promptly into the Kleenex he had placed there. His enlarged glasses slid
off the bridge of his nose and landed softly on the ground.
"Crap." He felt absurdly strange for swearing. His parents had died
a few months after his fifth birthday; they had always told him that the
evil medusa would turn him into stone if he ever swore. After they had
died he stopped believing a lot of things. That was one of them. A rustle
in the bushes next to him alerted him; stepping back hastily he tripped
over the tails of his SGC issue shirt and fell back, his mouth working
but not his lungs. Teal'c stood over him. The rustle had also alerted him
and he now had something in his hand. A boy, no older than fifteen Daniel
decided was being held by Teal'c an arm's length away from him. The teenager
was kicking in the air.
"Dammit Teal'c, let me go." Daniel sat up. It sounded a lot like Jack.
But somehow it wasn't Jack. The teen in front of him had a shock of slightly
red-blond hair that was a little longer than he had had it before and also
sported an impressive array of acne across the bridge of his nose, chin
and forehead. Behind him, Daniel could see a blond child hiding behind
the large grasses. She stepped out. Daniel could tell it was Carter. She
looked extremely young; a mane of blond hair shook loose from the hat she
had been wearing on entry to the planet. Daniel got up slowly; he was partially
hidden in the dense overhanging of a nearby pine tree. Teal'c had barely
let go of Jack before he let out a thunderous sneeze. Jack, who was beside
Teal'c jumped.
"I know that sneeze from anywhere. Come on Jackson, come out." Jack
could barely contain his fascination as his friend stepped out of the bushes.
Longish hair offset the owlish glasses perched on his head and Jack wondered
if anything else could have made the even younger archeologist younger.
Jack reached out his hand when Daniel had a bit of difficulty passing through
the bushes by the tree he had been nearly hidden under. Jack got down on
one knee and looked his team member in the face. "Daniel, what happened
to us?"
"How am I supposed to know," came the indignant reply.
"You got us into this mess."
"Thanks Jack, just what I needed, you're moral support." Daniel turned
away. Jack felt terrible, somehow he had insulted his friend, it
was particularly painful before but now it down right sucked because he
couldn't ever insult little children. It made him feel bad.
"Daniel, stop being a baby..." Jack cut himself off, knowing that was
exactly what his friend was, "and lets get going, maybe the Doc will have
some answers." Daniel turned towards him, cool and calculating. For some
insane reason Jack though he was about to throw a temper tantrum.
"Okay," Daniel waved to the assembled forest clustered around him,
"lead on." Jack threw a sidelong glance at his friend. Suddenly he felt
a rush of memories. He felt like he was in Boy scouts again. Looking on
the ground he saw some barely visible footprints leading from the opposite
direction. Hesitating at first he waved the group with him, for some reason
he grabbed both Carter's and Daniel's hands. Although Daniel glared at
him Jack held fast. He didn't want Daniel running into any more trouble.
"Warning, Incoming travelers" the loud speaker blared as the iris opened
with a screech of metal and folded into the gate. General Hammond stood
expectantly at the bottom of the ramp, awaiting his travelers. As soon
as Slater had announced it was SG1, he had gone down to the gate room.
He had gotten worried after Colonel O'Neill and the rest of the team had
not reported in for their twenty-four hour check up. From the wormhole
there came four figures, at fist the General doubted it was SG1. Teal'c
was there, a teenage boy was also there along with two smaller children,
one with large glasses set upon the bridge of his nose and the other with
long blond hair and shy blue eyes. When the gate disengaged the teenager
let go of the boy and girl's hand and gave the General a textbook perfect
salute.
"Colonel Jack O'Neill reporting, and ready to debrief sir." The General
just stood there in shock. The smaller boy tilted his head up towards the
General.
"It's us sir. I'm Daniel, Carter and Jack." The General stood there.
Sam also saluted.
"Ah, there's been a little incident General," she started "but I'm
sure it's reversible." She shot a pointed look at Daniel. He glared back.
Jack stood uneasily on his feet, shifting his weight.
"With your permission sir, may we report to the infirmary?" The General
nodded. And Jack once again took Daniel and Sam's hand. The little boy
shrugged and followed his team leader. Behind, Teal'c followed the ensemble
and the gate room was empty once again.
Doctor Janet Frasier sighed and clicked her pen light off.
"Well, as far as I can see you're all perfectly healthy and I have
no idea what has happened to you." She turned to the General who had joined
the team in the infirmary after the gate room shock. She shrugged apologetically.
"I'm sorry sir, I don't know what to do." The General nodded.
"Alright people, the Doctor has recommended all of you to stay on base
and in the infirmary." He sighed. "Until we can figure out what happened
to you we can not allow you to have any outside contact with this base."
Jack nodded, he was perched on a plastic chair, his legs crossed under
him. Daniel was on the bed beside him, sound asleep. Sam was on Jack's
lap, although he didn't seem to mind the Colonel seemed to enjoy the attention
from the former Captain. The General nodded once again and left the room,
taking Teal'c to explain their situation and offer any knowledge about
the situation. As soon as they had left and Dr. Frasier had stopped poking
and prodding them with needles Jack lay his head back onto the wall. Suddenly
he felt angry. He shook Daniel's shoulder non-too gently.
"Daniel, get up." Daniel stirred but did not wake. Sam looked at Jack.
"Oh leave him alone. Let's do something." She hopped off Jack's lap
and reached into a cabinet on the far side of the drawers. She drew out
a pack of cards. "What will it be? Crazy eight's? Fourteen? Go Fish?"
"Poker." Jack said.
"I don't know how to play."
"I'll teach you." Sam nodded. She tossed him the pack of cards. Jack
caught them and started to shuffle. He suddenly felt strange. He could
not remember how to play. Putting down the cards he slumped back in thought.
"What's wrong Jack?" Sam's voice filtered through his consciousness.
"I can't remember how to play."
"So?"
"So we're in big trouble."
"You're imagining things." Sam scoffed. She took the borrowed scrunchy
from her wrist and neatly swirled her hair into a loose bun. She yawned
slightly and blinked sleepily. "Suddenly I'm really tired. Go get some
sleep Colonel." She grabbed the bed beside Daniel and dived under the covers.
Soon her breath slowed and like Daniel she was out like a light. Dr. Frasier,
seeing that the two others =had fallen asleep dimmed the lights and Jack
stole a look at the doctor. She was staring at the group perturbed. Jack
shook it off and also buried himself in the covers, hoping it was all a
terrible dream.
Jack awoke to silent whimpering. As always he woke without moving, listening
to the source of the sobs. He located the source on the bed beside him.
It was Daniel. The little boy was asleep but seemed to be embroiled in
a terrible dream. Across from the beds a worried Dr. Janet Frasier entered
the room. Seeing that Daniel was in good hands he opted for watching as
she tried to sooth the distraught boy. Janet, as Jack preferred to call
her, rocked with Daniel until he once again fell into a fitful sleep. Janet
put him down. She checked if he had a fever and laid a hand on his forehead.
Noticing there was no warmth; Janet proceeded to go back to the nurse's
station. Jack decided to speak up.
"We're not going to get through this one are we Janet?" She turned
slightly; not the least bit surprised that he had somehow been watching.
She sighed and walked over to his bed.
"No, as far as I can tell you will all eventually lose your memories
to the point of your current age now. Like you, I was watching when you
forgot to play poker. Soon this place will cease to exist for all of you."
She turned sadly to Daniel. "The problem is he suffered severe physiological
trauma for a child his age. He watched his parents die, he was bumped from
foster home to foster home. He never really found stability Jack." Janet
stared at a spot on the floor and finally faced Jack again. "I don't think
he could survive to be ripped from his family again."
"Family?"
"You guys. You are the only family he has ever known, ever wanted to
know. With the loss of his, your and Sam's memory we will loose valuable
information." She gestured to Daniel, "The Abydonian and Goa'uld language,
and all other languages he has been able to decipher." She nodded towards
Sam. "A brilliant physicist and amazing woman who paved to way for her
own to lead instead of watch." And last of all Janet pointed to him. "And
a great soldier that is willing to risk it all to follow orders or save
his friends." Jack was speechless. He had never thought of them as that
valuable, and now that he knew he would be unable to continue his work,
and now, he was a teenager, a goddamn teenager. He liked his job, he liked
working with the people he worked with, hell he would rather be listening
to one of Daniel's boring lectures then watch his brilliant mind crumble
and dissolve all because of one mistake. Janet took his shock as a cue
and walked away. Her shoulders were visibly slumped. It wasn't fair. Nobody
deserved this. He had never thought about Daniel in that way. To think
of it, Jack had never heard Daniel talk about his past, never once had
he had a framed photograph of him and his parents, not once did he ever
reveal the darkest part of his life. And Jack suddenly felt angry. Once
again they would be ripped apart, once again would Daniel have to suffer
and once again they would learn, but this time they wouldn't do it together.
Daniel would remember him, and it would be when hell froze over before
he let some idiotic psychiatrists tear his friend apart. Jack was also
angry that Daniel hadn't ever shared his life with him. He had trusted
Daniel with the secret of his son's death, or the rather personal thoughts,
The messy divorce afterwards, and even his want to commit suicide. And
all through it Daniel was there. He never said he had his own problems,
but he just took it, trying to help his friend and himself. Jack felt worthless.
He blamed this for Daniel, and now he felt guilty and that would remain
imprinted in his mind for the rest of his life. And it was his entire fault.
Closing his eyes, Jack tried to rid himself of guilt and rid himself of
all other thought.
Daniel glanced over at his friend... Jack. For some reason he needed
to remind himself that the person beside him was his friend. On his right,
eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes was Sam. She was more fun than Jack was.
Jack preferred to stare while they had a mini food fight. Daniel wished
he would play too. It had been a long time since he had had real friends.
His parents had always changed; he had lots of parents. He wished he had
his real parents back, but he remembered his first foster parents telling
him it was okay to cry because they were gone. Daniel knew they weren't
gone, they were hiding. Daniel wanted to play outside but Aunt Janet had
told him it was icky up there. Daniel thought she was lying. His third
parents always told him lies. It wasn't as if he was stupid. Sam finished
off her bowl of food and shoved the tray aside.
"Let's play doctor." She suggested. Daniel agreed reluctantly. He didn't
like playing doctor, not after the men in the white coats had taken him
to a strange place because he was misbehaving. He didn't like their tests.
"I'll be the assistant," Daniel offered weakly, his hands were starting
to get wet and he had to rub them against the front of his pants to dry
them.
"No. You're the patient and I'm the doctor." She said it with such
authority he didn't dare question her. He sat on the edge of the bed. Sternly
she told him to lie down. He was very sick. She started to take notes on
the clipboard she had borrowed from the nurse's station, with a crayon
she made some disturbing noises. "I'm sorry Mr. Danny but you are going
to die." This was too much for the poor boy, with a shout he jumped off
the bed.
"No, I'm not! I'm not going to play this stupid game anymore, leave
me alone!" But Sam wouldn't she stepped closer, rising herself to her full
height.
"I'm the doctor. And you are going to die." Daniel clapped his hands
over his ears and tears streamed down his fine features.
"No, nnnooo." He whispered shakily. Sam's voice kept ringing through
his head, I'm the doctor and you're going to die.. The awful words kept
repeating themselves and He ran away, hiding in a tiny crevice in the space
between two shelves. He wedged himself in tightly and started to rock himself.
He couldn't get that awful phrase out of his head. He didn't want to die.
Fresh tears ran anew as he remembered his parents and everybody who had
died. In between the space he had wedged himself in he heard Janet question
his whereabouts. Sam told him where he was, and soon her concerned face
appeared.
"What's wrong Honey?" She asked, concern writing her features.
"I don't want to die." She looked surprised.
"Why do you think your going to die?"
"Sam said I was."
"Sam?" He voice held a slight unwavering tone like when his fourth
parents had gotten angry because he had accidentally broke a window. He
never wanted to hear a voice like that again. Janet tried to reach into
the space to pull him back. He just scrabbled back some more. Janet sighed,
irritation clearly etched over her face. "Honey, you aren't going to die,
no one is going to die..." The last word was cut off as a siren of sorts
started to blare. Janet let out a short explicit and ran from the room,
ushering the remaining children into the arms of a nearby nurse to take
them elsewhere. The infirmary was silent except for the blaring of the
alarm then he heard the roll of wheels rush into the once empty room. On
top of the stretcher, Aunt Janet compressed a man's heart. Daniel vaguely
remembered the man's name. Forester or something. Janet swore and jumped
off the man. She pulled on rubber latex gloves and ripped the man's shirt.
Daniel scooted closer to watch. Janet had forgotten all about him. He watched
as dark red blood started to trickle down the man's mouth. He watched,
half-terrified and half-amazed at the turn of events. Janet grabbed two
paddles from a machine nearby and flicked a switch. She started to bark
orders to the people assembled. But Daniel wasn't listening. He watched
and the man seemed to focus on a far off point, then suddenly the whites
in his eyes rolled and Daniel found himself staring at the man. His breath
leapt up in his throat and he backed away. The man's eyes relaxed and he
heard two words.
"Cardiac Arrest!" Daniel watched as they tried to feed life back into
the man. His body jerked as the paddles release a bolt of electricity in
to the man. Finally the team admit