MEMOIRS OF
BRIGADIER GENERAL JACK O’NEILL
(Retired)
Part V
Chapter Four
By Arrietty
2006
I groaned as I tried to turn over onto my side; the floor was hard and something very heavy was lying on my head. Reaching up with my hands, I pushed a body off my head and opened my eyes. I blinked at the bright light, then wham, straight into each eyeball.
“Doc!” I whined. “Get orf me.” Pushing away with my hands I scrambled rather wobbly to my feet.
I watched as Siler injected something into Daniel’s arm.
“It won’t work. He’s a real Goa’uld; eyes glowing, double voiced, snake infested-.“ I went into a choking fit as my throat protested at the abuse I was putting it through.
“Siler, if he’s right, that won’t work,” Fraiser quickly said. “We must tie him up and get back into contact with the Tok’ra; maybe they can help.
I nodded, and then regretted it as my head began spin.
“Carter?” I croaked out.
“She’s all right, sir. She’s in the infirmary. Where you are going, I might add.” With that said, she physically pushed me down the hallway towards the infirmary. I turned back to see Siler and his henchmen tying Daniel up and dragging him off to the cells.
As soon as we reached the infirmary I shrugged off Doctor Fraiser, who was propelling me to an empty bed. I could hear Carter’s voice talking with someone behind a curtain. Having found my land legs again and not being so wobbly anymore, I strode to the curtained cubicle and poked my head around.
‘Of all the stupid things to do Jack, this takes the cake.’
“Erm… sorry.” I quickly withdrew my head. I felt my face go hot and Fraiser was looking at me strangely.
Ducking my head back behind the curtain, “No, actually I am not sorry,” then stepped inside it. “Hi ya kids.” I grinned and waved a hand out stiffly.
Carter was propped up on some pillows; her face looked like someone had used it as a punching bag and her arm was in a sling. Sitting on the bed beside her, legs stretched out along the top and with his arm around her, was the other Jack. He had a haunted look about him, but he was still looking mightily pleased with himself.
I noted the bruised knuckles on his hands and put two and two together ‘yes I can do math’ and realized why he had reacted to her name earlier.
I gave them a lopsided grin and then straightened my features. “Don’t let anything stop you two. That’s an order.”
As I flicked my way through the curtains back out into the infirmary, I noticed they were following my orders, totally oblivious to anything in the room.
Feeling like I had done a job well, I stretched my arms then took two steps.
“Argh!”
Four Jaffa had just grabbed hold of me and stretched me in four different directions and I was sitting on the floor holding my head. At least that is what it felt like.
“We have to get you back to your own universe,” Fraiser stated.
“Ya think!”
I turned towards the voice and saw two anxious faces staring out from behind Carter’s curtain.
“You’re not following orders,” I admonished. “I’ll be fine.” I waved them away and was pleased to see them disappear behind the curtain.
Fraiser helped me up and we quickly walked towards the Stargate room. It seemed that Paul Davis was in charge until O’Neill recuperated. There were a few shell-shocked personnel walking around the corridors who really should have been resting, but they seemed to need to keep busy. Siler was in the ‘gate room, checking things over as usual.
As I reached the ramp, the Stargate burst into life. “We’ve entered the co-ordinates you gave us, Colonel, and here are your things.” ‘I did?’ As he handed them to me, his face broke into a large smile. “Thank you for your help and I am sorry that you were treated so badly when you first arrived.” He spoke as though it could have been prevented. “Sir?” he asked at my puzzled expression.
I relaxed as I recalled giving him the coordinates earlier and which planet they were for. I returned Siler’s smile.
I am sure that I saw a smirk on Fraiser’s face as she handed me a plastic bag with some of my clothes in it.
“I promise no starch.”
Yup a smirk. Rolling my eyes at her, I gave her a small grin. “I wish I could stay and help you out, but-“
Once again the entropic cascade failure attacked me and I fell to the floor.
I slowly stood up, speaking as I went. “- the escargot casing failure will get worse.”
She smirked again.
Gathering my things, I slowly walked up the ramp. Just as I turned to go through the ‘gate I looked up to the control booth. Standing close together, flaunting regulations stood Jack and Sam. How it should be, ‘should’ve been.’ With a wave and a feeling of regret I stepped through the Stargate into the whirlpool of energy and was spat out the other side into a tangled, untidy heap.
Immediately, before I even had a chance to stand, the entropic cascade failure hit me again. As soon as it ended, I staggered to my feet and ran. I only suffered three more attacks before I reached the cave. Delving into my bag, I dragged out the device, switched it on and touched the pillar. The room spun around and I fell to the ground unconscious.
~*~
This time I woke up with a headache. My ribs hurt, my knees hurt and now my head felt like a very large Jaffa was tapping it with his staff weapon. I slowly sat up and rubbed the back of my neck, promptly regretting it. “Ow!” I carefully stood up, trying not to joggle my head too much and looked around the cave. Once again it was exactly the same as it was the first time I had seen it. The only time that it had been empty was when I first went through the mirror/pillar - whatever it is called.
I stuffed the plastic bag of clothes into my overfull back pack and staggered to the cave entrance. The sunlight was blinding, so I pulled out my sunglasses and slid them on. I most probably made history that day and didn’t look up at the sun.
All I wanted to do was go somewhere safe, somewhere where I could rest and not worry about Goa’ulded friends and seeing people I cared about suffering or dying in front of me. The nice fuzzy feeling I had felt at seeing the other me with Carter had fled when I stepped through the Stargate. A feeling of loss enveloped me as I walked back towards the Stargate. I needed to heal. Part of me wanted to get back to my own world, but another part of me wondered if there was another SGC out there, one where an O’Neill was dead and a Carter was missing him? The Carter I had left behind in the last world had been the closest to my Carter so far. ‘So far.’ That thought scared me - I didn’t want a ‘so far’, I wanted home. Or did I? I didn’t know anymore.
I didn’t even register what glyphs I punched into the DHD, I was on automatic pilot. With a feeling of relief I stepped up towards the giant blue puddle. I was going somewhere that I knew I would get a good response, somewhere that would be safe. Just as I stepped into the vortex a little voice in the back of my mind said, ‘Maybe.’
“Crap.”
It was a wasteland. Not a person in sight. I stared in disbelief at what used to be a busy highway with people and tradesmen going on their way, horses and carriages rumbling over the cobblestones. But now… nothing. Just stones and weeds. The buildings were tumble down ruins. The wind whistled around the empty spaces that once had washing waving about like flags in the wind.
“Mariam, Eimon.” Their names came involuntary from my mouth. They weren’t here. They never were here; this place had been derelict for years, maybe hundreds of years.
The sky was clear blue; no clouds marred the beautiful hue. Not sure what to do I hobbled down towards their street, but when I reached it there was barely anything there. Most of the house was gone, Just a few rooms and a corner of the kitchen. I was surprised to see the large earthenware urns propped up against the wall just as it had been when I lived here.
I wandered in and out of the ruined houses looking for something; I didn’t know what. I think if I had actually come across a living being I would have been surprised; nothing could live here. The light wind that I had felt earlier was building up into a storm. Looking up at the sky I was surprised to not see any clouds; the sky was still clear blue. Deciding to take some shelter I moved into the next-door neighbor’s house. They were never that nice when I stayed with Mariam, but I didn’t really care. A large tumbleweed rolled past the window. There was nothing here of interest either, so I went back to Mariam’s house. After moping around for a bit, I decided I should go back to the mirror planet. I needed to get home. Moving from one alternate universe to another wasn’t doing me any good. I noticed the wind had picked up as I stepped out of the ruined building. Suddenly, without any warning, I was picked up by the howling gale and bodily thrown against the side of the building. Dust, plants and bits of debris slammed into me as I tried desperately to get my breath back. With great difficulty I slid along the wall, and then flipped around behind it. Though the wind was still buffeting me around in there, at least I could move.
Seeing the large jars were unaffected by the wind, I pushed them out of the way and crouched down covering my head as the wind churned the dust and small stones around me. Looking down at my feet, I watched a small insect scurry across the floor and straight into the wall. Intrigued, I pushed more urns out of the way and ran my hand along where the insect had gone. A thin hairline crack ran horizontally along the wall about one inch up. The crack was about four feet long. Dust and rubbish had packed into the crack, but I started to push the surrounding wall. Nothing happened at first, then I felt some slight movement before I was suddenly falling down some really hard stone steps that had sharp corners.
“Oomph!” I landed at the bottom in ungainly heap. I carefully checked to see if any part of me was injured and more importantly that my weapons hadn’t been damaged. Everything seemed okay for now, so I pulled out my flashlight and shone it up the long flight of stairs. I was one lucky man; that was quite a tumble. Maybe the fact I had bounced on every step all the way down had slowed my landing. Grimacing, I flexed my arm and rolled my shoulder around its socket. I then shone my flashlight around me and saw a long tunnel.
“Cool.” I couldn’t go back up while that wind was blowing and this looked interesting.
~*~
Thirty minutes later, I found another short set of steps; I quickly climbed up them and pushed at the hatchway at the top. It broke free suddenly, and my head popped out into the wind. Not something that I would recommend anyone to do in this kind of weather, but still I survived and I quickly dropped back down. But I had seen enough to know where I was. I was on the side of the hill that rose up behind the town where Mariam had lived and in fact I used to run along here when I was jogging every day.
I quickly climbed back down the steps and continued along the tunnel. I found two other openings, one similar but it was further away of course. However, I couldn’t get the second hatchway open. Finally the tunnel stopped; I had come to a cave in. I was disappointed because I wondered where it eventually went to. Earlier on I had seen a tunnel going out at right angles to this one, so I retraced my steps and followed that. I was glad there weren’t too many tunnels or I could have got lost and wandered around in them for days. This tunnel meandered all around, so I had no idea where I was or which direction I was in.
Finally I came to a long row of steps leading up above me. I started to climb them, wondering where they went. They were long, as long as the first set of steps I had originally descended. If I didn’t know any better they could have been the very same steps. I had soon reached the top only to find that the way was blocked by a huge stone. Putting my flashlight down between my feet, I started to push. It was hard work with it being above me, but after a while the stone started to move and I heard the grating sound of stone and against stone. This time when it finally moved, I didn’t pop my head out. Not that I needed to have worried as the wind had seemed to have died down. Cautiously, I climbed out onto the surface and looked straight at the Stargate. I had almost gone around in a complete circle, because now I was back in the town. I reached back down and retrieved my flashlight, then pushed the stone back until it locked into place. Walking down the steps of the Stargate over to the DHD, I looked back at where the tunnel had been and I couldn’t see anything different. It was perfectly hidden in the stones leading down from the side of the Stargate.
~*~
Tucking the information about the tunnels away in the back of my mind, I dialed ‘the’ planet. I knew the address by heart, back to front and inside out now. This was getting very old very quickly.
I wasted no time in returning to the cave, almost running. As I reached the cave entrance, for the first time I stepped into it without checking to see if anyone or anything was inside. I scanned the shelves before I pulled out the doohickey from my pack. I seriously thought about grabbing some of the technology off the shelves, but that could wait until I got home. They should be still there in my reality. I clicked the dial around one more notch on the gadget and, hoping it was the correct one, I touched the mirror.
The room started to spin, with lights reflecting off the surfaces. Nausea rose up inside me and I fell unconscious to the floor.
~*~
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