Jack was being run by Jack as they stepped through the gate. Two of the members of SG-5 went ahead of him and the other two went behind. Janet was beside him. The weather had certainly improved a hell of a lot. Now it was bright and sunny and the scent of flowers was heavy in the air. Breathing in deeply, he smiled. This was more like...
He felt odd. His eyes began to itch. His whole head felt like it was inflating.
"Something's wrong. I don't feel so..."
Sneezing so dramatically that he doubled over, Jack righted himself in time to see a smiling Janet press a couple of pills into his hand and hand him a water canteen. Downing the pills, he asked, "What's wrong with me?"
"Nothing that Daniel and I don't put up with every day of our lives."
"Huh?"
"It's your allergies, sir."
"What? Doc, you know as well as I do that I don't have allergies."
"You're having an allergic reaction to the pollen in the air, sir."
"Wha..."
After sneezing four times in a row, Jack said, "Doc?"
"Look, sir, I highly doubt you'd have spontaneously developed this severity of allergy. Basically, I think it's Daniel."
"Daniel? How?"
"Well, sir, the brain is heavily involved in everything the body does. Including the release of histamine. Now, we've never dealt with a situation like this before but my guess is that Daniel's presence is causing this."
He sneezed several more times.
"Well, tell him to quit it."
"It's not a conscious thing, sir. If Daniel could consciously control it then he wouldn't need anti-histamines."
After sneezing dramatically, he replied, "Which I dow deed... oh, add I soudd like Da-duel. This just gets better add better."
With the unsympathetic face of someone who lived with allergies every day of her life, the Doc said, "These aren't ones that I'd normally recommend in the field but you're not on active duty and the pollen count here is off-the-chart. Give them time to kick in and you should be fine, sir."
"Hey, you've got allergies too, so how cobe you're dot sdeezing?"
"I took mine before we left."
"If you dew this was goidg to hap-ped thed why dot give be sobe before we left base?"
"Couldn't be sure, sir."
"Dod't give be that. You just thidk that this is fuddy."
"Sir, you know I'm trying to avoid pre-emptive medication to get a clearer picture of your condition."
Perhaps a logical answer but the glimmer in her eye suggested that, yes, she also thought it was pretty funny. Well, he probably deserved it. Had ribbed Daniel about his allergies in her hearing once too often, obviously.
Wiping his red eyes, the Colonel started walking again. Janet fell into step beside him. After a pause, where his blew his nose and wiped his eyes again, he said, "Doc?"
"Colonel?"
"Since I'm not exactly gonna be around when Daniel's translating... be so kind as to remind him that we're looking for a way to reverse this; not a history lesson."
"Sir, Daniel's in the same situation as you. He knows how urgent this is."
"Oh, I know that... it's just Danny can have the tiniest difficulty prioritizing sometimes. Doesn't always see the distinction between fascinating and relevant."
"Sir, I'm sure his only concern right now is finding a way out of this situation for you all."
"I'm completely sure of that. Remind him anyway."
"Sir..."
"Don't make me make it an order, Doc."
She smiled slightly at the ground.
"All right, I'll remind him."
"Thanks."
There was another sneezing fit before he looked up accusingly at her.
"Doc?"
"They do take a little time to work, sir."
Rolling his puffy eyes at her, he stayed silent as they continued to walk along. After a couple of minutes, she said, "Sir, I think it's only fair to warn you of one of my other concerns..."
As he sneezed again, he sourly replied, "Dod't wadt it to be a surprise?"
"I'm afraid this is a lot more serious than Daniel's allergies, sir... Teal'c is chemically dependent on Tretonin. He has no immune system without it."
"I dow that, Doc... what about it?"
"Well, sir, I didn't want to bring it up but the fact Daniel's allergies are affecting you makes it more possible."
"Bakes what bore possible?"
"Hopefully nothing, sir, but we have to at least consider the possibility that his presence could adversely affect your own immune system."
"I dod't udderstadd. How could it do that?"
"I'm hoping it won't, sir, but as it appears that at least some more automatic processes are being affected by the presence of the others it is a possibility."
Jack screwed his face up at the prospect. Well, she thought he did but, actually, it turned out that it was the precursor to another sneezing fit. Or, maybe, a bit of both.
When he looked up again, he blinked uncertainly.
"Jadet?" Then, sneezing again, he sighed, "Great, I get hijacked iddo adother body add take by allergies with be?"
Assuming she must be speaking to Daniel, she felt a twinge of guilt.
"Sorry, I had thought this might happen. I should've given him the anti-histamines earlier."
"Hey, dot like I'b dot used to it already, right? Hey, wait, you bean everyode's got allergies dow?"
Janet nodded.
"Your presence seems to have given it to everyone. Or, at least, to you and Colonel O'Neill."
Daniel looked guilty for a second before blowing his nose.
"Great, Jack's gonna kill me... although, right now, that'd literally be suicide."
Janet smiled sympathetically.
"He knows it isn't your fault, Daniel. And the anti-histamines should have kicked in by the time he takes over again."
The civilian didn't look very comforted by her reassurances but wiped his eyes and continued to walk forward. After a pause, she dutifully said, "He said I should remind you to focus on the text directly related to the device rather than its context."
Pulling up short, he replied, "I doubt that's exactly Jack's phrasing of it."
"Well..."
Sam rubbed irritably at Jack's eyes as she sniffed in a congested fashion. Apparently, according to an increasingly guilty Janet, she'd been spared the worst of the sneezing fit and was just experiencing lingering symptoms that might persist until no longer exposed to the allergen. She'd still experienced enough of the sneezing to know that she felt even worse for having dragged a post-pneumonic Daniel onto this allergen-infested world in the first place.
As they neared the building, she began to contemplate how unlikely it actually was that they were going to be able to make any progress on the device when they all kept blacking out. As well as the time constraints it put on you, it was near impossible to keep a train of thought going between one surfacing and the next despite the fact that, from your point of view, no time seemed to have passed between them. Plus, with her understanding of the device being contingent on being able to understand what it was meant to do, not sharing a body with Daniel would definitely have expedited matters. If she could even just have talked to him, rather than some sort of clumsy relay via SG-5, it would have been an improvement.
They were right up next to the building now. The vegetation did cloak the vast proportion of it but, without the blinding rain, it was easy to see the building must extend further than that single room.
She stood impatiently as she was babysat by SG-5's lieutenant and Janet whilst the other three performed a quick sweep of the perimeter of the building. Feeling thoroughly useless, she moodily kicked at the ground whilst they waited for their return. As they did so, the brief shake of the head from each indicated that nothing had been found.
Castleman said, "Clear, far as we can see, but there's not a lot of building left back there. Looks almost like the vines have been punching through the walls. We think we may've found another opening but it's totally covered in vines way bigger than the ones at the front here. I tried hacking one of the big ones out the way but it was almost like..."
"Like steel?"
"Yes, sir."
Couldn't help but wince at the ‘sir' but Sam recovered to say, "That corroborates some of my research from my report on the properties of..."
Suddenly something hit her. The Colonel hadn't read her report so he'd never known about the strengthening effect the soil seemed to have on the plant life here. That was why the vine had snapped in the version of this planet inside his head.
Just as she went to suggest they head in, she felt an odd paralysis come over her; despite the fact the Colonel's body was still moving. Her... the Colonel's arms, head and legs all seemed to move of their own accord. Then the lips opened and she heard herself say, "Great, we're here."
Reaching the Colonel's side, Castleman said, "Who...?"
Still feeling paralysed, Sam watched herself nearing the entrance as she heard the Colonel say, "It's Doctor Jackson. Listen, if I do submerge for any great length of time then I might not have a chance to look at everything so I just need to be clear... The engravings are probably going to contextualise the pedestal device but exact instructions are more likely to be in some other form so we'll be looking for... records... probably electronic records but possibly written. We're looking for something to tell us more about specifically how the machine works."
Suddenly, Sam felt the expression change on the Colonel's face, and the tone alter, as he said, "The instruction manual would be nice."
Then, she felt the face contort again, as ‘Daniel' replied, "Jack? How come I can hear you all of a sudden?"
"Beats me. I'm not blacking out anymore when you take control."
Speaking up, she said, "It's happening to me too, sir."
"I also remain conscious, O'Neill."
"Carter, you got any idea what's going on?"
No, really, she didn't but the Colonel would just never accept the words ‘I don't know' from her. Shrugging, she replied, "Well, sir, I guess this is what's supposed to happen. I mean, it would have been difficult for us to operate long-term if we kept blacking out."
"As opposed to this which is so straightforward."
"Sir, you've got to admit that this is an improvement."
"Actually, Carter, I think I was better off being blissfully ignorant about what you three have been doing to my body."
His face changed slightly as Daniel said, "Guys, I just thought of something. Does whoever's in control of the voice control the body as well?"
The Colonel said, "Let's see. T, you stretch your hand out in front. Daniel, count to 100 or something..."
"One, two, three, four, five..."
Sure enough, the hand raised.
"...six, seve... look, it works."
Before anymore impromptu tests, of who could control what, were carried out, Janet interrupted them.
"Are you all feeling all right? Maybe we should take you back to the base? I promised the General if there was a change in your condition..."
Their hand came up to halt her and, what could only be their CO, said, "Ah! Your words, if I remember, were that you'd bring us back if there was deterioration... This is just a development."
Feeling he was being a little less than honest, she added, "This is going to take some getting used to, sir."
She felt the expression change again as the Colonel replied, "Yeah, well, hopefully we won't have enough time like this to get used to it cos you and Daniel are gonna figure out how to get you lot back into your own bodies before we get the chance, right?"
Sam couldn't even decide if it was her or Daniel who actually uttered the ‘but...' that was quickly silenced by the Colonel's more insistent, "Right?"
He seemed to take the lack of reply as a ‘yes' and continued, "So can we hold off on taking us back for now? Doc?"
Janet nodded with reluctance.
Turning to her for a second, he asked, "Can... uh... we have a second here, Doc?"
Looking puzzled for a second, realisation dawned and, nodding slowly, Janet backed off a bit.
Moving away from the scrutiny of SG-5, Sam felt herself moving as the Colonel shifted to stand slightly round the side of the building. Even from here, she could see some of the damage the plant life had caused to the building's exterior. There were parts which would probably collapse if the vines were removed from them.
Once sufficiently away from the others, the Colonel asked, "So we're all here? All okay?"
What she guessed, from the tone, was Daniel replied, "If we're calling this okay... then, yeah, I guess I am."
Feeling the expression fall from the face, she heard what had to be Teal'c.
"Indeed I feel no ill effects from this alteration in our condition. It is pleasant to hear your voice again, O'Neill."
What somehow felt like Daniel's expression took over again and qualified Teal'c's statement with a dry, "Yeah, well, in a manner of speaking, of course."
It wasn't until the Colonel's tone reappeared and a concerned, ‘Major, you okay?' had left his lips that she realised the guys were going to wonder why she hadn't spoken up.
She grabbed control of the vocal chords.
"Sorry, sir. Yeah, this is weird but I don't feel any harmful effects at the moment. Like I was saying, it's probably part of the natural progression of whatever's happening to us."
Feeling someone pinch the bridge of the Colonel's nose, she couldn't actually swear to whether it was Daniel or the Colonel who said, "That'd sure be more reassuring if we knew what this was all naturally progressing to."
Then she decided it had to be Daniel because the Colonel replied, "See, that's something we don't need to know because you and Carter are getting us back into our bodies ASAP, aren't you, Danny?"
Not really wanting to rain on the Colonel's positivity parade, she, nevertheless, felt duty-bound to say, "Sir, I think we have to at least consider for a moment that this may not be reversible."
But obviously the Colonel wasn't in the mood for anymore rain because he replied, "No, Carter, we don't... because if this isn't reversible there's no way we're not going to end up going nuts and if I consider that for a moment then I am going to end up going nuts ahead of schedule."
She tried to think of good reply but, she had to admit, the Colonel had a point. There was just no way all four of them could co-exist in the same body for long. Best friends and team-mates they might be but the reason SG-1 worked as well as it did was that it was made up of four very individual individuals. If two of them had been alike, one would have been surplus to requirements. And, yes, they were the closest knit of the close-knit teams but there was still plenty of time spent apart and that time was needed because... well, first and foremost, so that Daniel and the Colonel didn't kill each other.
Their relationship was one that had had to survive the rockiest of rocky roads. And, whilst she knew both of them would hit her for even thinking it, she really couldn't help but think of them as a married couple. Not that she thought either was in love with the other, or attracted to the other... or any other man, for that matter. It was just that their relationship could really only be described in terms of chemistry. The classic opposites attract seemed to hold true... you just couldn't hope to meet two such different guys with such a strong bond between them. Thing was, strong as their bond was, that whole ‘hate-love dichotomy was so true for them. And stick those two together for too long and well... it wasn't pretty.
Not that that relationship was going to be the only one this situation put a strain on. For instance, Teal'c and the Colonel were, as she'd glibly put it to Daniel during one of their recent coffee ‘sampling' nights, engaged in the world's longest pissing contest. Of course, as a female, they weren't something she had much personal experience of, but basic training onwards, there'd been enough of them going on for her to know one when she saw it; even one as subtle, friendly and refined as that between the Colonel and Teal'c. Cue her fellow coffee-drinker who, always the anthropologist, replied it was simply an inevitable result of having two alpha males in the same group. If that gentle game of one-upmanship was the result of them being in the same group what would be the result now that they were trapped in the same body?
Not that she was under any delusion that she was going to be dealing with the situation any better than the guys were, because she was well aware that she wasn't. Daniel and she were close; she was closer to him than she was to her own brother. In fact, the Colonel often viewed them as two halves of a whole. But they were still two very different people with two very different approaches to a problem and were both far too driven and focused on their own areas of expertise to survive long in a situation where they had to compromise all the time. And she and the Colonel... how was that going to work? Did you still have to follow military protocol when you were sharing the same body? Salute yourself? Ask yourself for permission to speak freely all the time? Even at the best of times, there were occasions when the smart retort was only stopped by biting her tongue... but, when there was no occasion where she could let off steam out of earshot? She couldn't keep it up full-time... it just wasn't possible. And that wasn't even going into the more complex side of their relationship... which she simply wasn't going into... at all.
However, that thought, even cut short, couldn't help but bring her back to the thought that she currently resided within the body of a man. Full of hormones her mind wasn't wired up to deal with and missing the ones she was used to. That was another reason she doubted she'd cope with this situation long-term. For now, she guessed, perhaps they'd all be better off adopting the Colonel's attitude to the situation. Make this all a temporary problem that would soon be solved and you didn't have to ask yourself questions that included the words ‘rest of my life'.
She was roused from her contemplation as, turning to the building, the Colonel added, "Now, come on, kids, let's do what we came here to do."
Janet looked sidelong at Major Castleman to reassure herself that she wasn't the only one seriously weirded out by watching Colonel O'Neill's body twitch from one personality to another. His carefully neutral expression assured her that she wasn't. Satisfied, she looked around the room they now stood in. The walls were heavily engraved and, in almost the centre of the room, stood the pedestal device that was responsible for SG-1's current... condition. Despite being curious, she was slightly wary of approaching the device even though the power was dead. At least one of the SG-1 members appeared to share the feeling because the Colonel had carefully circumnavigated it but not yet approached it.
As the Colonel neared one of the walls, what she assumed to be Daniel said, "Is it okay if I grab control of the body for the moment? It'll make it easier... Otherwise it's going to be like giving directions."
His face contorting slightly, Colonel O'Neill replied, "All yours, Danny."
As ‘Daniel' began to search around the room again, the Colonel's face contorted again as he said, "This is way, way, way too weird.... You can say that again, sir... Indeed."
Daniel's pleading tones evident, the Colonel continued, "Guys, could do with a little less audience participation here."
"Point taken, Daniel. Shutting up... Sorry, Daniel... Very well, Daniel Jackson."
Looking round at Castleman, ‘Daniel' said, "All right, from the outside it's pretty obvious that this building's bigger than this room so there must be others. I don't see anything here that could indicate a passage into them from this room, though. Given that the pedestal's energy seems to envelop the room, it's probably shielded off from the rest of the building in some way. My guess is there's at least one other exterior entrance."
Castleman replied, "We did a sweep around whilst you were... someone else. Think we found one but it's behind some serious vegetation. You think we need in there?"
"Don't think we're going to find many solid answers in the wall markings."
"Okay, we'll see what we can do."
As the Major headed out, Daniel settled down to his work. Occasionally scribbling something down, he worked his way along the wall.
He murmured, "Yeah, I get it now. What I thought referred to competition must mean combination instead. Yeah, it's called the Ha'ran... think that's how it's pronounced, anyway... well, anyway, it seems to be their term for what happened to us."
Face contorting, it was presumably the Colonel that said, "Question from the ‘audience': are you saying that this was what that thing was actually meant to do?"
‘Daniel' replied, "I can only tell you what they wrote on the walls, Jack. But, yeah, it was designed to take people and... well, combine them."
"Yeah, but why?"
"I'm not sure."
"Why, would someone wanna do this?"
Snapping slightly, Daniel replied, "Actually haven't found the ‘FAQ' section, yet, Jack."
Colonel O'Neill's face contorted to look sulky for a moment before Daniel's expression returned and, satisfied, he continued to work. Leaning back against one of the engraved walls, Janet figured she'd better get comfortable. If the Colonel's rants were even 50% accurate then, when Daniel was doing this sort of thing, it took a fair amount of time.
There was no sound, for the next age, save the scratching of pen against paper. It remained like that until, eventually, footsteps approached and Major Castleman reappeared.
"Major?"
Janet smiled slightly as she saw the Major salute uncertainly. There certainly wasn't anything in any manual of military protocol that told you how to address civilians sharing a body with a superior officer and the Major appeared to be playing it safe.
Bringing the hand down quickly, he said, "Doctor, we managed to shift enough of the vines out the way to get in the other entrance and there's something that might interest you."
"Another room?"
"Yes, sir... looks like some sort of office, really. But it's what we found in it that might interest you..."
The room itself was decidedly unimpressive. Three blanks walls with a fourth broken and warped by the snaking vines and a floor covered in moss and leafy creepers. It housed nothing but tables sprawled with damaged books and something vaguely reminiscent of recycled paper except for the silvery glaze that seemed to cover each sheet. But SG-1's gaze was drawn to the silver disc, about six inches in diameter, two inches thick and covered in symbols, which was sitting in the middle of what seemed to be the main desk. From the top of it, a yellow glow appeared as they walked into the room.
Jack turned to Castleman.
"You thought Daniel'd be interested you found a desk-lamp?"
Responding with the traditional rolling of the eyes used by all people who knew him at all well, Castleman added, "Just move closer, sir."
As ‘they' did, they saw that the glow grew stronger. Jack was about to make an additional ‘lamp' quip when, suddenly, a projection of a figure began to appear. To begin with, only the basic form could be seen but, as they moved closer, it began to be fleshed out.
Presumably Carter said, "Seems to be detecting our proximity. Possibly motion detectors or..."
But she was cut off as the figure became detailed enough to not only make out it was a middle-age man but also which middle-age man it was.
Before he could stop himself, he yelled, "Hey, I know that guy! That's Doctor Orderly-technician!"
It was a very odd contortion which occurred as three people sharing the same face all tried to look funny at the fourth guy. Janet and Castleman threw in funny looks of their own.
He explained himself.
"Before, when I thought you guys were dead... I kept seeing this guy that no-one else could see and he kept telling me to be ready for something... or someone who was coming to destroy me. He seemed to know what was happening to me even though I could never get a straight answer out of the guy. Assumed I was going nuts."
Before Carter or Daniel could offer any theories, the figure began to speak but the language was unfamiliar. There was a short pause before the figure spoke again. Even he could tell he was just repeating the same phrase.
As he went to begin speaking for the third time, going to adjust the glasses that weren't there, Daniel focused, "Um... same language as the walls but... okay... um...something about information storage... and um... the mind... linking... um... inquiries... okay..."
Jack felt his lips uttering words he didn't understand. The small figure appeared to pause and what he said altered.
Pausing to listen, Daniel said, "Okay, Grelmin seems to be his name... and he says he's the inventor of the process of Har'an..."
"This is the guy responsible for what's happened to us?"
It seemed to be Teal'c, making a brief appearance, who asked, "What is the nature of this device, Daniel Jackson? Surely we are not communicating directly with this Grelmin?"
Jack felt his head shake slightly before Daniel appeared to remember the others couldn't see him and vocalised.
"Don't think so..."
There was another flurry of unknown words from his lips and another response from the little flashing man. This one went on for nearly four minutes. Jack bit back the temptation to ask what he was saying mid-conversation. Daniel was currently their best chance of getting everyone back to their own bodies and the best thing any of the rest of them could do was let him do his job.
Eventually, Grelmin cut off and, slowly, Jack felt his lips begin to move again.
"Actually, Teal'c... I may have been wrong about that. In a way, we sort of are... apparently, faced with his own death, Grelmin used his technology to... er... I guess it'd translate as siphon... as much of his mind as possible into this device. It seems that at least a part of Grelmin is actually inside this device."
Probably-Carter asked, "What about his body?"
"He doesn't go into details about it."
Jack felt his knees bend as one of his passengers dropped them into a crouch on the mossy floor. He wondered why until he realised what he was looking down at. It was covered in moss but it was undeniably a skeletal hand.
Finding the rest of him under the table, he said, "Well, that answers that question anyway."
The Doc came to crouch next to him and began examining the remains.
As he straightened up again, he continued, "What else did he tell you?"
I'm a little unclear about what he's saying but it seems like what I'm talking to now isn't actually Grelmin. It's some sort of pre-recorded interface. He says that if we want any more information than what is stored in the recordings, it would involve a direct neural link to the device."
Jack cut him off before he could make a case for that being a good idea.
"But I think we'll stall on that for now. Danny, ask Gizmo there how he could be in the gizmo when he also seems to be floating about in my head."
"Gizmo, Jack?"
"Well, he's called Gremlin, isn't he?"
"Grelmin."
"That's what I said."
His face totally straightened.
"Your reference is inaccurate, O'Neill. Gizmo was not a Gremlin but a Mogwai. Though those Mogwai spawned from him may have evolved to become Gremlins, he himself did not."
Rolling his eyes which he knew, from experience, they'd all felt him do; Jack threw his hands up in defeat.
"All right, fine, then he's called Gizmo cos he's in a gizmo." Pointing at himself accusingly, he continued, "And you watch way too many movies, T. Daniel, ask him the question."
Jack felt the slight smirk tug at his mouth but couldn't decide whether to pin the blame for it on Daniel, Teal'c, or the silent Carter who was, nevertheless, doubtlessly enjoying the show. He gave up trying to decide as Daniel asked Gizmo the question.
After the reply, Daniel said, "Our Mogwai friend says you're a Ha'ranas which translates loosely as ‘one who had been combined'. He says that the ‘him' that's in your head is a... I guess a sort of organic recording. It's there to communicate with the... he calls it the awareness which I guess is like the conscious part of your mind... He says the idea is to ease the process of Har'an."
Jack made a face as he snatched back the voice.
"Yeah, tell him he did a great job of that."
Carter seemed to come alive finally with a slight trace of amusement to her tone that made him think that he should blame her for the smirking.
"Daniel, why don't you ask him how the process works?"
Feeling himself nod, Jack heard another flurry of those unfamiliar words. Another pause then Daniel said, "He's says such questions require the link. I think we're starting to run out of pre-recorded answers here."
"Daniel, what exactly..."
As Carter began to speak, the left hand raised up to about shoulder height, then the fingers and thumb came together to form a mouth which seemed to synchronise with her speech as she continued, "...did he say about the neural link. How would we activate it?"
"I think we..."
As Daniel replied, the other hand raised and became another mouth, this time synching with Daniel's words, "...just have to press a couple of the buttons on the device to activate it. He says it would connect us to his awareness directly."
The other hand began to ‘speak' again as Carter asked, "And then we'd be communicating with the actual creator of the technology?
"According to the message, yeah... Jack, seriously, what are you doing?"
The ‘Daniel' hand turned towards him and shook its head as Daniel continued, "This is serious, Jack... and I know it's you doing it so don't bother playing innocent."
The hands quickly dropped back to his sides as he replied, "Hey, just a little visual aid to keep up with who's speaking. You know, cos you two have that annoying habit of finishing each other's sentences and everything. But, seriously, are you two suggesting we actually consider linking to the guy that created that wacko machine in the first place?"
He had to fight the urge to raise the ‘Carter' hand again as she replied, "Sir, this technology is like nothing I've ever seen. It's completely alien even from what they used to separate the consciousness of the passengers of the Stromos from their bodies. Grelmin may be the only chance of us ever getting out of your head and back into our bodies."
What appeared to be Daniel added, "You got any better ideas?"
After a long, long pause, Jack sighed and, turning to Castleman, said, "All right, you'd better wait outside. Don't want anyone else vacating their body cos I've officially got the ‘no vacancies' sign up in the window now."
As the Major nodded and headed outside, Jack looked down, "You too, Doc."
She looked up from the remains.
"I should stay to monitor..."
"Doc, seriously, I'm all for getting in touch with my feminine side but one woman in my head is enough."
Reluctantly, she got up and left.
Once she was gone, ‘they' said, "Ready, sir?.... As I'll ever be, Major. Daniel, link us up."
His hand pressed down on some of the buttons and, suddenly, a full-size version of Gizmo was standing next to him. Blinking uncertainly, Jack looked around to see that his three friends were standing around him. For a second hope swelled within him. Had it been reversed? No, that wouldn't make sense with all their bodies still being on earth. Besides, he saw the slight yellow shimmer round the outline of each of them. They were just projections... like Gizmo. The three of them looked just as confused by events as he did.
Grelmin looked around at them and nodded, "Greetings, Ha'ranas."
Daniel, looking like it'd taken him a moment to remember that he didn't have to wait his turn to speak, said, "So you do speak our language?"
The figure shook its head.
"No, the neural interface is using your knowledge of mine as a point of reference to allow translation, awareness. Your language is not one I have encountered. How fortunate it is that you have encountered one so similar to mine."
Jack had got it together enough to say, "All right, Gizmo, how do we undo this ‘Hairiness' thing?"
Blinking, Grelmin opened his mouth to speak when, suddenly, the image flickered and vanished altogether; along with the images of his friends.
After a stunned moment, he asked, "Uh, what just happened?"
He could feel Teal'c take over his expression before he'd even begun to speak.
"It would appear that the neural link was somehow severed."
Finding himself bending towards the device and beginning to scrutinize it carefully, he assumed one of his kids had just taken over. Carter, judging from the fact it was the device rather than the symbols upon it that he found himself focusing upon.
Confirming his theory, he found himself saying, "I think it's out of power, sir. I'd guess that's why it cut out. We could take it back to the base and I should hopefully be able to find a way to power it up again."
Nodding to himself, Jack replied, "All right, Carter, pack it up, Gizmo's got a lot of questions to answer; Daniel, gather up any of this other stuff you think might be of any use. Teal'c and I..."
He was cut off by what had to be Carter.
"Um, with all due respect, sir, exactly how many pairs of hands do you think we've got?"
Blinking, Jack realised that whilst his team were all able to talk to one another again, it wasn't exactly going to be business as usual. Maybe they could think in four directions at one but they could only really move in one.
He corrected himself.
"Okay, figure out how to detach Gizmo first, Carter. Castleman!"
Carter replied, "Yes, sir."
The Major appeared in the doorway.
"Sir?"
"Have your men gather up all this paperwork. And if the Doc thinks it'll tell her anything useful, use one of the stretchers to take what's left of this guy back to base with us."
"Yes, sir."
Jack found himself again bending over the disc. This whole experience was very unnerving. Not that he'd wish them out of his head for a second. Not until it was out of his head and back into their bodies. He hadn't yet allowed himself to contemplate, though, what this would be like if it really was irreversible. Could all four of them really survive within the same head for the rest of his life? Daniel, King of the Workaholics trapped eternally with a man with the attention span of a gnat and Carter, Queen of the Eggheads stuck in the same male head as a man who she'd had to explain the concept of wormholes to so many times that last time she'd actually ended up agreeing they were made by giant space worms. Not that the king and queen were going to fare much better being stuck with each other than they were being stuck with him. True, they probably wouldn't annoy each other as much and sometimes seemed to be nearly telepathically linked anyway. But, after all, there were only 24 hours in a day so not a chance in hell the royal pair would ever have enough time to put all the time they wanted to into their respective kingdoms. Teal'c, Sultan of the Recalcitrant Tongue and Raised Eyebrow, would be restricted to communicating via mirror. And, he, Emperor and Lord of the Mental Guard, would be forced to share every single moment with three other people. Okay, so his team were the people who knew him best in the whole world and were his best friends as well as his colleagues... but even so...
He was roused from his contemplation as his lips began to move.
"It appears this device used the same type of purple crystalline substance that the pedestal device uses as a power source. If I am able to rig up something to power it then I should, theoretically, be able to activate the pedestal again."
Pulling back control, he hopefully asked, "Slam it into reverse, you mean?"
He knew from the way his face scrunched up that his hopes were unfounded before he heard himself reply, "I doubt it would be that simple, sir. I'm just saying that if information from Grelmin or from our own investigation reveals a way to reconfigure the pedestal that we may be able to get it active again."
He'd known Carter for seven years. But, in all that time, he didn't think he'd ever really watched her work. Oh, he'd often been in the same room for some of the time. Sometimes, he'd even held things open for her or attached this doohickey to that weird alien plant thing. But he'd never really sat and watched her. In situations like this, Carter tended to disappear into her lab and reappear several minutes/hours/days later with the finished product. He never saw the equations being scrawled across her board and the testing and retesting with the devices that he didn't understand the readings of. Or all the attempts that didn't come off as planned and the re-evaluations that followed with absent-minded muttering that she probably wasn't even aware of.
They'd returned from the planet after finding Gizmo's gizmo as both Daniel and Carter were agreed that getting that working again was probably the most likely way they were going to make progress on this problem. Added to that incentive to return, Janet had been rather keen to give them another battery of tests now that their condition had altered. So SG-5 had escorted them back to the base, picked up a few of what Jack couldn't help but think of as Carter's underlings and headed back to the planet to start intensive study of the actual device.
As Carter got into the more practical part of the current exercise, it took all his restraint to relinquish his limbs to her completely. The deft movements required were made hard enough by the fact she was using hands that weren't hers without the added problem of random movements caused by three other people using the hands. He busied himself with trying to remember the capitals of all fifty states and other such trivia. Daniel had suggested using such distraction techniques last time he'd complained that he simply couldn't sit, for all intents and purposes, completely still for this amount of time. They worked okay but occasional erratic movements of the hands appeared to show that none of them could resist the odd movement. Not a good idea when those hands you were moving erratically were currently soldering.
The voice that was his but not, yelped, "Argh, goddamnit! Damn! Ow!"
Sucking at his finger, Jack said, "Maybe it isn't the best idea for us to do this, Carter."
As his voice disconnected from him again, he heard himself say, "Sorry, sir, I'll be more careful."
Jack sighed deeply as he looked down at his bandaged hand. It'd taken a mere seventeen separate incidents with the soldering iron to convince Carter that maybe someone else would be better doing the more practical part of the exercise.
Not that that meant Jack was now off the hook of having to stay still. No, because if Carter wasn't going to need the body then it obviously had to be turned immediately over to Daniel because he and Teal'c had both acknowledged, albeit reluctantly in his case, that it was going to be those two that would bear the burden of getting them all back to their own bodies. That meant that, apart from the odd rest break like this, Daniel had full control of the body for now and was deeply entrenched in translations.
As the blessed rest break came to a close, Jack steeled himself for another half hour of sitting perfectly still. As Daniel took over everything, Jack felt the hands and arms begin to move of their own accord and the head shift from side to side in an unnerving manner. But, Jack had to admit, as disconcerting as it was to have no control over the way your limbs or head moved, it was nothing compared to the unsettling feeling of having no control over your own eye movements half the time. Whilst it was becoming relatively easy to relinquish control of the hands, feet and mouth to whomsoever currently had the greatest need, he'd still find himself stealing back the eyes every few minutes almost beyond his control. Daniel's cunning plan to stop this was to allow him to borrow the left hand when he didn't need it urgently. Probably wasn't too keen on him using it to tap annoyingly repetitive rhythms on the desk but didn't actively stop him from doing it. It actually worked for a little while but then he'd steal the eyes back again. He wasn't the only one guilty of it though. It just seemed that eye movements were especially complicated to relinquish consciously. He would have thought, optimistically, that it would become easier over time except that would, rather less optimistically, suggest that they were going to be stuck like this long-term.
As Daniel turned the page in what he assumed were Gizmo's notes, Jack found himself focusing on the page of squiggles. He silently willed Daniel to search for solutions not historical contexts. Silently, because Daniel was still sulking from the last time he'd said it out loud.
Sometimes the linguist would verbally keep them up-to-date with what he'd found out but, on other occasions, they had to make their own sense of what he wrote down. That was easier said than done because, as he'd explained earlier, the easiest way for him to translate this was from the alien language into the similar one on earth. But because he was fairly fluent in... what was it he'd called it? He couldn't remember... oh, well, because he was fluent in... language B, Daniel tended not to rewrite into English for the benefit of those that needed subtitles. Hence why, despite the fact he'd been staring at this stuff for half the day, Jack really didn't know if they were making any progress.
As far as Daniel had explained things, the main device had something to do with a famine that had presumably led to the eventual wiping out of the entire population. These people, paraphrasing from the inevitable lecture on the subject, seemed to share the Ancient Egyptian/Goa'uld penchant for using every inch of available wall space in official buildings for propaganda about their campaigns and triumphs and, in this case, the general wonderfulness of the device that would save them. When he'd rather insistently inquired how exactly it could have saved them all when they were all dead, Daniel and Carter had come together with some shrugged explanation about how putting multiple consciousnesses into the same body would ease the burden of rationing but, obviously, in the end it hadn't been enough to stop their annihilation.
Now that Daniel had finished with what they'd written on the walls, he'd moved onto the stuff they'd found with Gizmo's gizmo. Jack wondered how the man could find hour upon hour upon hour of this stuff so fascinating that he'd do without nourishment, sleep or human contact just to keep doing hour upon hour upon hour more of this stuff. Having sat here for what seemed like forever, Jack could think of a million things he'd rather be doing; including his own paperwork. Yep, he was that bored of this.
Daniel broke into his chain of thought, "That's odd..."
After giving him a generous gap to actually finish the sentence, Jack seized control of the mouth.
"What's odd?"
"I've just been scanning through these pages, so maybe I've missed it, but I can't see anything about the famine anywhere in here."
"So what does that matter? I think the walls told us enough, don't you?"
"Sure... it's not essential.... just odd."
About to yell at... himself about the difference between ‘essential' and ‘odd' being the same as that between ‘relevant' and ‘fascinating', and about how he should concentrate on the former in both cases, Jack was halted by the appearance of one of Carter's underlings at the door.
It really should've been easier for the civilian scientists to address... them seeing as they didn't have the question of how military protocol applied to a situation where two officers of different rank, a civilian and a Jaffa were all sharing the same body.
That was obviously a mistaken assumption because, excited, the man said, "Major!... uh, I mean, Colonel!... no, I mean, ma'am... uh, sir... uh... um... you...? No, sorry, I mean..."
Before the scientist could trip any more awkwardly over his own tongue, Jack lethargically straightened up.
"SG-1'll do, Doc... now, what is it?"
"Um... SG-1, I need to talk to Major Carter."
"We can all hear you, Doc... just say whatever you need to say."
"Um... oh... okay... uh, Major? Uh, we've connected the device to the naquadha reactor like you asked."
Jack felt himself move back slightly from control of the face as Carter's expression took over, "Good. You haven't tried to activate it, have you?"
"No... uh... Major. Okay, well I'll just be... uh..."
Seeming to have no idea what to say next, the underling just turned and disappeared back out the door without another word.
After a moment, what was presumably Carter said, "Daniel, is it okay if we...?"
He felt an odd twitch as Daniel took control and cut her off.
"Hey, I'm as eager as you are to get that thing running again. I'm sure Grelmin can tell us more than any of this can."
With that, SG-1 headed out the door and after the retreating scientist.
Watching O'Neill's hands skilfully manipulate the naquadha reactor and the sensors surrounding him, Teal'c decided that independent movement must be growing easier. He had not had much opportunity to determine this fact for himself but he did not resent his companions for this. If a solution was to be found then they must allow Daniel Jackson and Major Carter to work with as few interruptions as was possible.
Inside his head, Teal'c was practising an odd variety of Kel'noreem. He could not allow himself to close O'Neill's eyes; nor could he cause O'Neill's body to still. Instead, he had to retreat within the mind and focus on the centre of it. It allowed him to remain calmer and negated his desire to move. When he grew deep enough into his trance, he felt almost as if the tendrils connecting him to this body were loosening.
In the past, he had instructed O'Neill and, more recently, Daniel Jackson in the ways of Kel'noreem. In O'Neill's case, it had been to save his friend and maintain his own body when his friend and he had been transferred into each other's bodies. In Daniel Jackson's case, it had merely served as a deep type of meditation with which to centre a soul still adrift after its descent from the ascended plane. Whilst O'Neill was trying to remain still by conscious thought, despite his suggestion that meditating was less difficult, Daniel Jackson had agreed with him and was also trying to Kel'noreem whilst Major Carter made the final preparations.
One by one, the tendrils connecting him to the body seemed to be falling away and he felt his concentration increase with each connection that faded. He could no longer feel the hands he shared moving; nor could he see through eyes that were still open. The lack of sensation allowed him to fall still deeper into the trance...
Then, all of a sudden, the eyes could see again... but the scene had changed most dramatically. Stumbling backwards, he fell heavily to the ground and felt the mud squish unpleasantly beneath him. Ducking his head, he climbed back to his feet and looked around disbelievingly. How had he returned to this place?
That was when he realised that he was, indeed, him again. Unconsciously reaching up to trace across the brand on his forehead and down to where his symbiote pouch had once been, he raised an eyebrow. This development made no sense. How could he be back on this planet and in his rightful body?
It was then that he noted the form lying, face-down, in the mud. The form that wore fatigues like those he wore and was, unmistakably...
"Daniel Jackson!"
Reaching down, he grabbed his friend and pulled him from the mud. The mud seemed to object and tried to suck him back down but he redoubled his efforts and the mud gave up its prize. Kneeling, he turned the civilian over to assess his condition. His friend was covered in mud which, as he brushed it away, appeared to hide ghostly white skin. As he went to shake him, however, Daniel Jackson's eyes shot open and he looked around wildly.
Focusing up at him, his eyes mirrored the confusion Teal'c currently felt within himself. Then his friend's gaze drifted over his shoulder and the confusion in those eyes turned to shock. Swiftly following his gaze, Teal'c's expression suddenly matched that of his friend. That is, the friend that was in his arms.
That point required clarification because Daniel Jackson also stood behind him wearing fatigues unsoiled by mud and an expression of gentle knowingness as he looked around at the scenery. He could feel the Daniel Jackson in his arms groan in pain but kept his eyes fixed on the one standing a few metres away from them both.
Before he could approach him or ask him anything, however, the upright Daniel Jackson appeared to notice them for the first time. He frowned at the figures before him and took a step closer to see his double in Teal'c's arms struggling for breath. Upright Daniel Jackson opened his mouth to speak then, appearing to think better of it, looked away again.
The version of his friend that lay in his arms took priority again as he groaned more deeply. His breathing was growing progressively shallower and the white tinge of his skin was beginning to grey. The pulse beneath his fingers was fluttery and uncertain. Teal'c glared back round at the other Daniel Jackson, silently demanding an explanation.
Speaking this time, the doppelganger said, "I know what you want, Teal'c... but it'd kill him if I tried to give it."
He felt his friend arch up in agony and turned back to face him. The lips were going blue as the breath almost stilled. Teal'c desperately looked around again to look at the other Daniel Jackson.
That one appeared to be considering something then, locking eyes with him, said, "Stay away..."
About to assure him he would not approach, he was silenced as Daniel Jackson raised his hand and swung it in a vicious arc towards his own face. The palm connected resoundingly with his opposite cheek...
And, suddenly, Teal'c felt pain blossoming in his own cheek as if Daniel Jackson had struck him rather than himself. The unexpected force caused him to lose his balance and crash inelegantly forward into what should have been mud but what, in fact, turned out to be concrete floor.
That was when he felt his mouth move and O'Neill's voice say, "Arrgh! Goddamnit!"
Teal'c opened his eyes to see himself back in the laboratory he had been in before. Grasping at the air which had previously held the dying form of his friend, he grabbed unthinking control of the voice in the middle of O'Neill's angry cursing.
"Daniel Jackson? Daniel Jackson?"
O'Neill's hand, which had been rubbing pointedly at his bruised jaw, froze at the desperation in his voice.
"T, what's going on?"
Uncaring if he sounded harsh, Teal'c snapped, "Be silent!"
He could feel from his own expression that O'Neill did not appreciate his words but the statement had the desired effect in that it silenced his friend. Major Carter seemed wise enough not to add her own voice to the equation. And yet there was still silence from his friend.
"Daniel Jackson?!"
Again he was greeted by silence. He was about to shout again when, suddenly, his lungs overfilled with air as O'Neill took an unnecessarily long inward breath. No, not O'Neill...
This time quieter but more hopeful, he said, "Daniel Jackson?"
Brokenly, his friend replied, "Teal'c...? Oh... a dream..."
O'Neill, with venom in his voice, pulled them all to their feet.
"All right, T, now can we explain the slapping me and telling me to shut up or are we going to continue acting like a freak with no explanation at all?"
Reassured even by that hesitant response, Teal'c, without a hint of apology, explained, "I was ascertaining that Daniel Jackson was still with us, O'Neill."
Feeling his expression twist again, he heard O'Neill say, "So you slapped me?"
"I did not. Daniel Jackson slapped us."
There was a confused pause before the shaky tones of Daniel Jackson offered the question on everyone's mind, "I... I did? Um... why did I... uh... do that?"
Forgetting how odd this was going to sound to at least two occupants of this body, Teal'c replied, "I do not know. Your double did not explain why he did such a thing. He told me there was no time for explanations."
Obviously the statement silenced any questions from O'Neill or Major Carter because there was a long pause then his friend said, "Oh... him. Teal'c... what just happened there?"
"Of that I am unsure, Daniel Jackson... it appeared to me that we had returned to the planet and you were...unwell once more." He did not say ‘dying' for the sake of the others who would only be disturbed by the revelation.
Daniel Jackson seemed to appreciate his understatement because he did not correct him.
"So it wasn't just me?"
"It was not."
"And you saw that other me as well?"
"I did. His presence appeared to have a negative effect on your condition."
There was only so long O'Neill could be silenced and they appeared to have reached the limit because a familiar expression gripped the face.
"Okay, could someone explain what you two are talking about?"
Deciding it was likely that he retained a more perfect memory of events than Daniel Jackson did, Teal'c replied, "I was attempting to meditate, O'Neill, when I found myself back on the planet where this occurred to us. Daniel Jackson was there also. He was... unwell. There was also another Daniel Jackson present. He told me he could not explain his presence. It was he who slapped us, O'Neill."
That seemed to have silenced O'Neill again because the tone suggested it was Major Carter who replied, "Back on the planet again? Like it was when we left it? And there was another Daniel there?"
"Indeed there was, Major Carter."
"Well, we already thought that our original experience there was some sort of shared dream or hallucination. Maybe your meditation put you back into that dream state."
"What of the other Daniel Jackson? He was not present before."
"I don't know. Maybe it means something but experiences in dreams don't always have to be meaningful."
What had to be O'Neill asked, "Bottom line: everyone okay for now?"
Almost unable to feel the shifting control, Teal'c joined the seamless reply, "Fine, indeed, I guess so, sir."
So seamless, indeed, that O'Neill seemed compelled to ask, "Okay, was that everyone answering at once or do we have an extra crazy person along for the ride?"
Teal'c held back to allow one of the others to reply. However, they appeared to be doing the same and, eventually, O'Neill said, "Never mind. Okay, everyone's all right for now. So let's just get this thing up and running and let's leave the dream interpretation for when we're all back in our own bodies."
Going to incline his head in acquiescence, Teal'c remembered his situation and, instead, replied, "Very well. I will speak of it no more."
He felt his hands spread out as O'Neill said, "All right, Carter. I'm all yours."
It was an odd feeling as his expression twitched. An occupant of the body appeared to have winced at his statement and yet another appeared to have restrained themselves from chuckling and, yet, Teal'c could see no reason for either reaction.
After a longer pause than seemed necessary, Major Carter said, "All right, here goes nothing..."
As she activated the naquadha reactor, the collective SG-1 held O'Neill's breath. For several seconds, nothing appeared to happen but, then, the glowing beam shot up from the centre of the silver device and quickly formed into the figure of Grelmin. Then, just as suddenly, he disappeared.
Looking across at O'Neill, Teal'c realised that he was, yet again, in the simulation of his own body. However, this time, his image appeared more stable. As he looked down at his yellow-tinted hands, they seemed almost solid. Daniel Jackson and Major Carter had also reappeared.
As O'Neill noticed their reappearance, he asked, "What happened to Gizmo?"
Then, suddenly, he felt a presence beside him. Turning quickly, he came across the sight of Grelmin. He was now life-sized and seemed so solid and real that only the odd yellowish tint that occasionally washed across him betrayed that he was not. Oddly, he was wearing fatigues with the SG-1 insignia on them.
He looked elated, "Greetings to you once more, my most wonderful Ha'ranas."
Daniel Jackson said, "Grelmin, please, tell us how to reverse this."
Ignoring him entirely, the man continued, "You must make progress, Ha'ranas."
O'Neill reached out, experimentally, towards Grelmin. He appeared to contact a solid surface because he twisted the material of Grelmin's T-shirt and, threateningly, snarled, "You must fix us, Gizmo."
Stuttering, the scientist said, "There is no need for violence, Ha'ranas."
"Yeah, think I'll be the judge of that."
Daniel Jackson tried to come in between and separate them but found himself unable to as he was still incorporeal.
He appeared to settle for saying, "I don't think this is helping matters, Jack. Besides, I doubt you can actually inflict pain on a figment of your imagination."
Defiantly holding on for a few more seconds, O'Neill eventually let go and stalked away from Grelmin.
Grelmin tried to smooth out his fatigues.
"I do not understand why you have not made progress in some direction, Ha'ranas."
Daniel Jackson placated, "Well, maybe you could help us make some progress. Tell us more about the process. How it works."
Grelmin looked uncertainly at them all for a moment before, defiantly, he replied to O'Neill, "No, I cannot discuss such things with you at this time. When you have made some progress... then return and we shall talk. My awareness will remain inactive until that time."
With that, he disappeared. The device, however, remained on and he, Daniel Jackson and Major Carter remained in their independent, though insubstantial, forms.
After a pause, O'Neill said, "Well, that did us a whole lot of good."
Stepping forward, Major Carter's hand brushed through the device. Stepping back, she said, "Sir..."
"What?"
"Sir, if we can remain like this then it might actually be useful. You get at least the illusion of having your body back to yourself and Daniel and I can research independently. Obviously we'll require some assistance but..."
Daniel Jackson said, "Good idea. I get the feeling we're really not getting to learn anymore from Grelmin until we make some ‘progress'. Am I the only one who didn't like the way he said that?"