There was a moment... just a moment... when Jack didn't just know what the others knew but understood it all as well as they did. For that moment, the entire universe opened up before him and, through the eyes of an astrophysicist, he could view the galaxies in all their grandeur. Simultaneously, through the eyes of an archaeologist and anthropologist he saw the civilisations scattered amongst the stars and how, despite their relative inconsequentiality in both time and space, they were no less glorious to behold. Through the eyes of a century-old Jaffa, he could see the wonders of freedom juxtaposed with the cruelty of slavery and how, in a cold, unfair universe, there was still a place for honour.
Then, for the slightest, slightest, instant, through the eyes of a former ascended being, he could see past infinity...
The brightness around him became overwhelming and he pulled his hand up to shield his eyes.
As he pulled it down, however, he slowly became aware that he was no longer able to see anything in universal terms and, belatedly, that he was no longer in the pedestal room. Instead, he was standing on a plush carpet in the lobby of what looked to him like the hotel and casino in Vegas where he'd lost rather a sizeable chunk of his pay a couple of years before he'd met Sara. Though Vegas hotels never closed up for the night, this one appeared rather deserted. He became aware that he could make out the sound of distant conversation.
As he went to walk towards it, however, he realised that Daniel was nowhere to be seen. Looking down at where the vine should have been wrapped around his wrist, he found it was bare. Feeling his heart beat faster at the revelation, he tried to suppress the desire to panic. That vine somehow kept his friend going so its disappearance couldn't be good.
Telling himself his friend had to be okay, he followed the sound of conversation towards a door where it seemed to grow louder. With a last glance back, in the hope Daniel would suddenly have appeared, he shifted through it.
He was greeted by a familiar voice booming, "Hey, if it isn't my favourite Irish cat! O'Neill, get your ass over here!"
Looking round, Jack saw an equally familiar figure sitting at one of the semicircles of green felt.
Disbelieving, he said, "T?"
With a watermelon grin and a slick suit, Teal'c was almost unrecognisable.
"Grab a chair, cat. This table's smokin'."
Sitting down on the stool, uneasily, Jack felt rather out of place sitting in his fatigues when this place was most certainly black tie...
Shaking his head free of such a ludicrous thought, he focused on the rest of the table. Past Teal'c, sat a woman with long blonde hair pinned in delicate curls. His gaze trailed further down to where the pale flesh met the sleek curve of the black halterneck dress. Following the elegant line of the arm to the perfectly manicured hand, Jack practically fell off his seat, as she said, "Split those."
As the dealer did so, Jack incredulously said, "Carter?!"
Turning towards him, he saw the flawless complexion and succulent lips on what was undeniably the face of his second-in-command.
Smiling knowingly, she said, "Well, if it isn't the Colonel himself... Are you joining us?"
Though the first comment was undoubtedly addressed to him, the question, oddly, was addressed to his shoulder.
Before he could answer, a voice behind him said, "Sure."
As she smiled briefly, Jack span round to see...
"Dan...iel?"
His relieved outburst trailed into a question as his friend came into view. Though it was undeniably Daniel, he looked disquietingly like a certain fictional agent of the British MI6.
As he slid into the seat to his right and began setting a small stack of chips down onto the felt, Jack asked, "You okay? The..."
Gesturing to where the leash should be strung between them, he looked up to see Daniel didn't look that concerned by its absence.
After a pause, he replied, "It's still there, Jack... can't you feel it?"
Arching his eyebrows, he nevertheless found, if he concentrated, he could still feel the shadow of the vine wrapped around his wrist.
As he looked up in surprise, Daniel murmured, "We're still in your mind. This is just a different representation of it."
"My mind's a casino?"
Smiling slightly, his friend shrugged, "Apparently so."
"So, Irish," Teal'c interrupted, "you putting some chips on the table or what?"
Just as he went to say that he didn't have any money, a large stack of chips appeared in front of him. Looking round to see the back of a croupier's head as he wandered off, he said, "Huh? But..."
"House credit, cat. They know you're good for it."
It'd take him a minute to actually tally the chips before him but a quick glance assured him that, even with the accumulation of his rather generous wage, he'd be paying them back with vital organs if he lost all that.
Sending a questioning look at Daniel, he saw his friend shrug before saying, "Since I came complete with chips and yours were just provided, I'm thinking we're supposed to play."
As the cards were shuffled, he pushed a couple of chips in. Hardly even flicking his eyes in the direction of the chips, the dealer stated, "This is a high stakes table, sir."
This was stupid. How were they fixing anything playing blackjack? Getting up from the table, he turned around.
"Leaving so soon, sir?"
"Yeah, I'm..."
Then the dizziness hit. Falling to his knees, he felt as if the walls were covered in magnets and he was made of metal and being pulled in every direction at the same time. He could hear thunder cracking all around him as the rain pelted down. Turning back towards where the table had been, he grabbed blindly for the stool and tried to pull himself back and...
And he was kneeling on the carpet in the casino holding onto the back of the stool as if it were a lifeline. Feeling self-conscious, he got up and sat on it again.
The croupier dryly inquired, "Not leaving us then, sir?"
Shakily, Jack replied, "No... um..."
Reluctantly pushing forward a larger stack of chips, Jack glanced round at his friends. What was this place?
Daniel was looking at him with pleading eyes.
"Jack, what the hell just...?"
"I dunno. But don't think they want us leaving the table."
As the first cards were dealt, he looked around and tried desperately to grasp the point of this place. He looked down to see the jack of spades lying on the felt before him and glanced round to see that Carter had queen of diamonds, Teal'c had the ace of clubs and Daniel had the two of hearts. He wondered if there was a message there but all he could see was that Daniel hadn't got off to the best of starts. Dealer had an ace.
With the skill of a consummate croupier, the second cards had been dealt by the time Jack'd noted the first ones. He now an ace, meaning he had blackjack so his stake was safe at worst. Now able to sit back and take in the rest of the game, he looked around. Carter had another queen, this time of spades. Teal'c had a ten. Daniel, meanwhile, was looking at the king of hearts.
He looked up at the croupier and, with a sideways glance at him, gestured for another card. As it fell, Jack saw it was another of his namesakes. Daniel'd lost. Carter, meanwhile, smugly shoved another pile of chips forward and, signalling, said, "Double down, sweetie."
The card was set down in front of her, face down. Common sense said that she'd just lost double what she needed to but experience told him that she'd likely just doubled her winnings because that card was going to be an ace.
The dealer turned over his facedown card to reveal the eight of hearts. Carter's card was flipped to reveal the ace of diamonds and she smiled in a way that suggested she'd known that all along whilst Teal'c just grinned and chuckled slightly as the chips were pushed towards him. His large pile was also augmented but Daniel...
He turned to his friend and muttered, "What're we supposed to do?"
Shifting through his stack of chips, he replied, "Win, I guess. I mean, that's the point of this game in real life, right? This could represent a competition for dominance of you. Although... well, I mean, this is your representation... what do you think it means?"
Jack just stared blankly at his friend until he clarified, "I mean, what does this place represent to you?"
"This place? Uh, well last time I was here I kinda got a little stuck at this table and lost. A lot. Then tried to win it back and lost a lot more. This isn't the type of game where you can win the pot. Doesn't matter how good you are. Unless you can walk away, house is always gonna win."
Daniel frowned as he absorbed his point and absentmindedly set his new stake down on the table.
"Okay, so maybe it's not about winning. Maybe it's about still being in the game when the time runs out."
"When what time runs out?"
"You told me that we all got torn into pieces and the only way to put all the pieces together is to let the process continue. But once they're all back together then someone could claim dominance and we'd be a Ha'ranas again, right?"
"Sort of... yeah, I guess."
"Well I guess that's what we're fighting for."
"Colonel," the overly-sultry voice of Carter interrupted, "some of us have money to make."
As he looked round in confusion, she gestured to the empty felt where he had thus far failed to place his stake.
Obliging her, he muttered, "And what's with those two anyhow?"
"Asking the wrong guy. I thought you said they'd turned sociopathic but they don't seem very..."
"This isn't what they were like out there."
"Well, they're pretty context-appropriate. Even I came in costume. Guess it could be your head twisting us to fit the setting."
As they played on, he asked his friend, "So it was your idea we came here. Any bright ideas beyond playing cards?"
"Jack, I know you say there's some part of me that knows what it's doing but I've gotta tell you it's not giving a hell of a lot away to me. Maybe you would have been better off just letting me..."
Gruffly, he replied, "No, I wouldn't've."
"But now maybe none of us will..."
"Maybe not but if there was a chance we could all get out I had to take it. And I'm not sorry I did, Daniel. That said this'd be a hell of a lot easier if we knew what the plan was."
Nodding in agreement, his friend replied, "Yeah..."
From his position at the end of the curved table, Daniel could look across at the other three with nothing obscuring his view. Jack, aside from an unnaturally careworn expression, looked like himself. The others, however, looked different - and that was much more than just the costume change he'd had. When he'd managed to catch Sam's eye... there'd been so little depth behind that gaze that he'd had to look away. It reminded him of when he'd first looked into Sha're's eyes after she'd been possessed by Amonet. Outwardly, nothing had fundamentally changed but the eyes had been a window that revealed the missing soul. When he'd looked into Sam's eyes, the only thing he'd seen was his own reflection. His friend's image might be here but she was clearly elsewhere.
As he yet again lost his stake, he saw Jack cast a worried gaze across his rapidly dwindling pile of chips. He couldn't say he wasn't a little concerned himself because he'd had less chips than the others to begin with and he was yet to even win his stake back never mind actually win something. Sam's pile was rapidly growing but, then again, she had abilities that let her beat the odds in this game. Jack was winning more than losing and, besides, would need to lose seriously to make a dent in his pile. Finally, Teal'c hadn't really advanced in either direction since the game began as he kept winning back what he'd lost. He freely admitted that his own game was chess, not cards, but even by utter chance he should at least break even a couple of times. Losing constantly like this was almost as unlikely as a streak of wins.
Looking up into a triumphant Teal'c's gaze, it was hard to see past the unusually ebullient expression; to look past the grin like the Cheshire Cat and see the man beneath. However, as he finally locked eyes with him, he found himself again looking into two depthless pools. It was no more his friend than the woman that looked like Sam was.
As the cards proved to be against him once again, he looked around at his friends before glancing over his shoulder at the rest of the casino. Aside from this table, the rest of the place was actually rather hazy and ill-defined. He wondered if Jack looked round would that bring it into focus? In here, Jack really was the centre of the universe... Squinting, however, he thought that he could see someone standing in the distance watching them play. Nudging Jack, his friend turned to him questioningly and, catching his gaze, he gestured for him to turn to face behind him.
As predicted, as his friend's gaze swept the room, the casino floor behind them came into sharp focus but, where the figure had stood moments before, there was no-one to be seen.
Seeing nothing, his friend asked, "What is it?"
"I... must've been seeing things."
Just then, the girl came around getting drinks orders. As not-Sam and not-Teal'c ordered theirs, Jack kept his questioning expression on him but then the waitress reached him and he was distracted. Looking back over his shoulder, he thought he could make out the fuzzy image of the figure again but, this time, he went to get up from the table.
"Hey! What're you...?"
He looked down to see his friend's hand now tightly grasped his arm.
"Didn't you hear me? They don't want us leaving the table."
"Sorry," he replied, "wasn't thinking."
Sitting down again, he glanced up once more to where the figure might've stood before the girl came to his side.
"Something I can get you, sir?"
He was about to wave her away when, quickly, Jack replied on his behalf.
"He'll have a Vodka Martini. Shaken; not stirred."
He went to roll his eyes at Jack when he saw his friend's concerned gaze had fallen upon him. Once the girl had gone, he said, "You can't get up from the table, okay? Trust me on that one."
Responding to the concern, he nodded slowly before looking back round at what seemed to almost certainly be a figure in the distance. Feeling down to where he could still sense the now-invisible bond between him and Jack, he looked down at the chips, across at the others then back at the figure again.
Watching Daniel's movements warily, Jack distractedly set his stake down in front of him. Looking down at his rapidly shrinking pile of chips, his friend shook his head.
"I don't think I can win here, Jack."
Then, suddenly, he scooped up his chips and, before he could respond, shoved them down before himself.
"Daniel, what're you..."
The first card had flicked down in front of him. He watched, frozen, as the rest of the cards were dealt and Daniel's second fell down. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the two jacks. Of course, there was still a risk but...
"Hit me."
In utter disbelief, he felt his head snap round to see his friend's determined expression.
"Daniel...?"
But before he could ask him what he thought he was playing at, he saw the king of hearts land on the felt. His own heart felt like it might heave out of his chest and land beside it as the implications sank in.
Voice heavy with dread, he breathed, "You're outta the game..."
As the croupier waited impatiently for him to deal with his own cards, he turned to Daniel.
"Take some chips, quickly, before it's time to bet again."
His friend shook his head.
"It'd just be stalling again."
Helplessly, he said, "That's the plan, isn't it? Come on, y'can't just give up."
Impatiently, the croupier demanded, "Sir..."
Ignoring him, he pressed his hand on the felt before his friend and silently demanded a response.
His friend turned and locked eyes with him.
"I'm not. Keep playing."
"What?"
"You said I needed to do something, Jack. This is it."
"You know what you're doing?"
Daniel's eyes darted away so he amended himself.
"No, you don't."
But those eyes came back to lock with his.
"I know that this isn't a game we can win. So I think I have to lose. Play."
Glancing down at his cards, he saw he had the ten and queen of clubs. Teal'c, Carter and the croupier were all looking at him but if he made a decision then he couldn't stall the game anymore. And Daniel'd already lost.
He turned to argue with his friend but he just replied, "Trust me, Jack."
Not breaking gazes with his doomed companion, he said, "I'll stand."
He was only vaguely aware of the game progressing as he kept his helpless gaze fixed on his friend. Those blue eyes were filled with determination but, equally, with anxious uncertainty.
As the croupier's second card flipped over, it was revealed to be a nine. He'd won; Daniel had...
As his chips were lifted from the felt, Daniel rose from his seat and said lightly, "Well, I'm out."
"See you round, cat."
Jack's hand snapped out and again wrapped round Daniel's arm to halt his progress.
"You can't..."
"Find some way to keep everyone in the game as long as you can."
"But..."
"Please, Jack. Just keep this going."
"You've no idea what'll happen to you when you..."
He trailed off as he saw that his friend was all too well aware of the chance he was taking walking away from the table. Reluctantly, he lessened the grip on his friend's arm.
With false lightness, the civilian tugged lightly on the tux.
"Hey, the name's Jackson, Daniel Jackson."
For a moment, they shared a dopey grin before Daniel slipped from his grip and stepped out from the table.
"Hey, wait..."
His friend didn't vanish before his eyes. There was just a reality with Daniel in it one moment and a reality where he'd never been there the next.
Grasping helplessly at the air, he breathed, "Damn it..."
Shutting his eyes, he felt the sensation of the tether had faded even more and now felt like gossamer web around his wrist. But it was still there. He was still there. He just wasn't here anymore.
Turning back to the table, Jack sat back down again. He had a job to do.
Blinking rapidly, a disorientated Daniel took in his surroundings. Huh? Where was this? He'd expected to end up back in the pedestal room or possibly in another construct imagined up by Jack but this didn't look like either of those. Instead, he seemed to be in an official building which could've been mistaken for one on earth but for the odd architectural flourishes and the fact the signs were written in the language of Grelmin's planet. He appeared to be the only person here.
Brushing his hand along the cool smoothness of a marbled desk, he marvelled at the sheer solidness of his surroundings. As he did so, he caught sight of his sleeve and realised his tux had changed to something similar to the outfit Grelmin had been wearing when he'd told them all to go terminate themselves. Starting to get a sort of idea about where he might be now, he wrapped his arms across his chest and tried not to shiver.
Each footfall echoing too loudly in the eerie silence of this marble Marie Celeste, he made his way forward through the cavernous room wishing he had the first clue what he was doing here.
"Hello?"
The only reply was his own voice echoed back to him. As the echo reached him, his mind wandered onto the Greek mythology and lonely little mountain nymph Echo pining for vain Narcissus until she faded away to nothing but a disembodied voice. Of course, that wasn't even really a myth just a Grecian fairytale but he couldn't help but wonder if his choice to leave that table meant he was soon destined for a similar, and all too real, fate as a mere echo of consciousness within Jack's mind. In coming here, had he followed the wrong instinct?
Swallowing down the doubt, he began to search with more purpose. Calling out for the figure watching them in the casino, he raised his voice, "Grelmin? Grelmin, are you here?"
Sweeping his gaze around, he caught his reflection on the sheer marble desk and... it wasn't him.
"No way..."
For the bemused face staring back at him was that of the scientist he was looking for.
"I...am him?"
He looked down at his actual hands then reached up quickly to his face. Contrary to the reflection he cast, both face and hands were definitely his.
Then, finally, it struck him; he must be inside Grelmin's personal memory matrix. Jack'd told him that his glowy version had been able to access the matrix to some extent which explained why this place seemed eerily familiar to him. What he was doing here was something more of a mystery. Surely, without whatever latent knowledge had helped him access the matrix previously, his only way in here would be by invitation...
"Occupier."
Spinning around, he came face to face with the real Grelmin currently wearing SG-1 fatigues. The scientist smiled at him.
"Welcome, Occupier."
"What am I doing here?"
"My thanks for removing yourself from the process. Assessment has revealed your matrix contains too many anomalies; I believe these would have led to instabilities in the Awareness. It is a pity; you possess many favourable aspects which would have enhanced the whole but I cannot risk compromising the Ha'ranas."
Leaning against the desk, Daniel sighed. Perhaps nothing Grelmin had done had been done with malevolent intent but calling a man that'd committed virtual genocide against his own people ‘misguided' seemed rather an understatement. He got the impression there wasn't a hell of a lot he could say that would convince the man that this whole Ha'ranas thing was not all that good an idea.
Instead, he glanced around again.
"So where is this? Or, should I say: where was this?"
Looking around, the scientist replied, "You have stood in this place before, Occupier. This is where what you call the Stargate still stands. This is how it looked before it was destroyed by an attack through the Stargate by our enemy."
Sure enough, as Daniel followed Grelmin's gesture down the corridor, he saw that at the other end of the massive hallway there was a door through which he could just make out the sweeping arc of the great circle of naquadha. He wondered for a moment how he could've missed the signs of a ruin on the ground, even with rain and allergies getting in the way, but then remembered the unusual properties of the plants would've meant that they would've destroyed and covered the remains in a lot less time than normal. Only the height of the Stargate from the ground had saved it from a similar fate.
"This is why your people couldn't get through the gate to find other sources of food."
"It took many months to uncover the Stargate from beneath the remains and erect it above them."
Not really talking to Grelmin, he said, "And by then, you'd already happened to them."
Earnestly turning to the scientist in a fervent bid to understand the man, he pleaded, "Why did you do it, Grelmin? How could you knowingly starve your own people to death?"
"That was not my intention. They refused to seek my assistance for longer than anticipated."
"But you destroyed the planet's ecosystem. You knew that was going to kill people. Maybe more died than you intended but you'd already justified the death of some of them. You killed men, women, children... you killed all the animals, the insects even... without them to pollinate them even most of the plants should be dead except your mineral seems to have kept the originals alive all these years."
"My discovery was worth more than even this planet. Besides, they would only have destroyed themselves in the war."
Becoming aware that there was probably no way he would ever understand what had driven the scientist to the point of self-justified genocide, he said, "You know, you're not the first person I've ever encountered who's trying to create a more advanced human; you're not even the first who's tried shoving a load of consciousness in the same head; but, even if humans are slowly evolving into something more advanced, it's not something science can just speed up without consequences. And if your process won't work without removing so much humanity that there's none left then the product isn't an advanced human; it's something else altogether."
The blank expression was all he needed to know the point had been utterly lost on Grelmin. He sighed again and tried to ignore the swallowed doubts pressing down on whatever it was passed for his heart in here.
Trying again, no matter how pointless it might be, he continued, "Once, we met a girl who'd been created rather than born. Her ‘father'' was a genius who had probably considered her his greatest creation but people wouldn't accept her so she made herself ‘toys' for company which she ended up destroying her father's world with in a fit of temper; they got out of her control and, in the end, they nearly destroyed two galaxies. She didn't mean to hurt anyone and her father hadn't either but..."
His own leaden heart growing heavier still at his mention of Reece and her creation of the Replicators, he recalled looking into her eyes in those final moments before Jack shot her. Even though she'd just broken his wrist, he couldn't bring himself to hate her; he'd been so sure that she was listening to him; that she was going to make her ‘toys' stop and ‘go to sleep'. When his friend made it through the door and fired upon her, he'd been so angry at him. But, he'd seen later, his friend had been right, neither of them could've known that for sure and, given the possible consequences, it was a chance they just couldn't take. It still didn't make looking her in the eyes as she ‘died' any easier.
Bringing himself back to his point, he continued, "She wasn't evil; but when he made her he'd missed things out. She was an amazing creation and, in a lot of ways, she was better than a human but he made her wrong. When you started splitting people into pieces and filtering out the incompatible bits, you changed what they were. You can believe that the creation of the Ha'ranas is a wonder of science and maybe you're right but you missed things out too; you made them wrong."
When it became clear Grelmin's mind simply refused to acknowledge his words had any merit at all, he grew frustrated and, stepping away from the marble desk, turned back towards it. Then, with a sharp intake of breath, he asked, "What're you...?"
Because, when he'd turned to where he'd previously cast the reflection of Grelmin, he'd seen his own reflection... only his reflection hadn't turned with him because it wasn't mirroring him...
He straightened up and turned back sharply.
"What're you doing, Grelmin?"
"Four conscious minds are required; the process cannot function with less. Yours has proved unsuitable therefore I shall have to include my own."
"What?!"
"It is not an ideal situation as I will be unable to coordinate but the compromise is necessary to continue."
"Wait, no, you can't do that... How will you finish the process if you're a part of it?"
"The awareness has always had the ability to complete the process; I simply must better explain to him what is involved."
"Yeah, like Jack'll listen to..."
As his gaze drifted over their reflections again, he finished lamely, "...me."
Snapping his head back round, he continued, "You're going to pretend to be me."
"Despite all I have done to assist, the awareness seldom heeds my advice. However, I have observed that he follows the advice you give even when he does not fully believe you or understand your intent. Overlaying your image onto my matrix may prove useful."
The doubts surrounding his heart compressed around it until it stopped beating altogether.
Leaving the table was the worst move you could've made.
"As I no longer require this memory matrix, its original function can be restored to allow rapid completion of the process. That shall unfortunately require your eviction from this occupancy; your erasure from the device."
With that, the clean marble around them was replaced with rubble.
Still not caught up with the turn of events, waiting for his heart to beat again, Daniel heard the scientist say, "As I withdraw from the device, the layers of the memory matrix deteriorate. This is as the planet was in the last months of my former corporeal existence."
He bowed slightly to him before stepping out of the scene like stepping from one page of a book to another. Grasping helplessly after him, Daniel looked around at the ruins. Any plans he'd had for trying the gate to see if he could escape this place were rapidly quashed when he saw that it had yet to be uncovered from the rubble of the enemy attack.
Trying to feel for the connection to Jack, it felt fainter than when he'd arrived here but it was still there. Pressing his hand where it should be, he closed his eyes, "Sorry, Jack. Bad plan; really, really bad plan."
Jack looked around the table at his opponents. His own betting, he could handle and keeping himself in the game for a reasonable time shouldn't be too tricky given the huge line of credit the house had given him. As Carter and Teal'c's piles had been roughly equivalent to each other, his own massive line of credit was presumably the advantage that Gizmo liked to rave on about. God, his head ached just trying to think beyond this representation... but, anyway, they had a problem... because Teal'c was betting big and his pile was definitely beginning to shrink.
And that wasn't his only problem for, as quickly as the slick Jaffa's pile could disappear, Carter's pile could grow. With his team, there were a few rules he'd learned when it came to games. One, never play chess with Daniel unless you were in the mood to walk into checkmate; two, never play poker with Teal'c because, new to the game as he was, you were dealing with a guy who'd had a century to perfect his poker face and, three, no matter how innocent she looked, never ever trust Carter when it came to blackjack... mostly because, mathematical genius that she was, she'd turned out to be rather proficient at the counting of cards. The problem with that was that Jack had a rather strong suspicion that if she ended up with more chips than him that might just hand the control over to her. And Carter wasn't exactly herself right now.
As if all that wasn't enough of a headache, there was another issue. With gambling, you had to know when to quit but, here, quitting wasn't an option. With the possible exception of Carter, if they stayed at the table too long they would eventually lose their stake and anything they'd won. Bottom line, even if he could stall the game, he couldn't keep it going indefinitely and, even in the short-term, keeping the game going might prove far more impossible than it sounded.
He breathed, "Hope you know what you're doing, Danny."
Not having a clue what he was doing, Daniel was making his way towards the pedestal device. His journey was made more difficult by the fact that, every so often, another layer of the memory matrix seemed to be stripped away and he'd find himself lurched forward in time by what seemed to be weeks, although the plants were supposed to grow fast so could've been less. He didn't know what good getting to the pedestal would do but it was the only place he knew on this planet so he guessed it was his best bet.
At least he was feeling at full health for the first time in ages but, since the part of him that had at least had a plan was the part that had been draining him, he guessed it'd finally given up and gone fully dormant. That wasn't really a good thing. However, it did mean he made good time reaching the area near the building (not counting the fact that time kept skipping, of course). The time lurches seemed to have abated for the moment.
Almost totally clear of vegetation at this point in time, Daniel could see the full scale of the building. There was most certainly a lot more to the building than their first brief search had uncovered but that wasn't really something he cared all that much about right now. What did interest him was that there was a person, the first he'd seen, standing in the open doorway of what passed for Grelmin's office.
Slowing as he neared the figure, he saw it was a woman who was holding onto the wall with one hand and holding her head with the other.
As he neared her, he said, "Are you all right?"
Hearing him, she looked up with eyes filled with confusion but, as her gaze alighted upon him, she swiftly darted her eyes away.
"Professor Grelmin." After a pause, she continued, "I had to come back. I had to thank-you for what you have given me. Because of your gift, I finally understand what you have done for our people."
As he walked closer still, her gaze swept the ground and she reached down to pick something up from next to the wall up which thorny vines were slowly beginning to wind.
"Look, I'm not really..."
He trailed off as the woman drew herself up imperiously before him. And he found himself backing away from the undeniable look of murder in her eyes. He'd looked into eyes like those before. The eyes of a creature without conscience; the type of creature Jack, Sam and Teal'c were soon fated to become. He was looking into the eyes of a genuine Ha'ranas; one of Grelmin's dubious ‘success' stories.
She spat, "Because of your ‘gift', I can see everything now. I see now... you are responsible for all of it."
Suddenly, it struck him that the reason time had stopped lurching forward was because he'd reached the final layer of the memory matrix. Meaning the last memory of Grelmin. Meaning the reason he'd been forced to put his memory into the matrix in the first place. But, even as it did, something else struck him -much more literally.
Having just spent a third lot of chips on celebratory drinks, Jack wondered if the alcohol would have any effect. At the very least, it was slowing play down slightly and his incessant distraction meant Carter had lost a sizeable number of chips for only the second time in the entire game so far. Well, it was the only tactic he had for right now so...
"Another Black Russian, big guy?"
Draining his glass, Teal'c smiled, "Hey, keep ‘em comin', cat."
As if the grin and the accent weren't weird enough, seeing Teal'c drink was the icing on the weirdness cake.
He turned to Carter.
"And for the lady?"
He'd never ever refer to the blonde Major as ‘the lady' unless they were sparring and he felt she wasn't putting her back into it - comments like that always ensured he came away with a few healthy bruises - but this Samantha Carter seemed to be more the femme fatale sort.
She smiled and, picking up her empty glass, waved it slightly.
Nodding, he turned to the drifting waitress.
"Hey, can we get the same again. Thanks."
Passing her a few chips, he turned back to the game when, gasping, he felt the undeniable feel of something sharp sinking deeply into his flesh and snapped his head down, fully expecting to see the blade, but there was nothing to be seen. Clutching at his abdomen, where the injury should be, he looked around to see the others, focused back on the game, were completely ignoring him.
The feeling didn't disappear but began to dissipate until he was able to think past it. After the first few moments of confusion a terrible thought came upon him.
Daniel.