CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"You don't have to keep me company, you know," Daniel told Sam.
"I know, but I want to." Sam settled into the chair Jack had been using. She silently gazed at Daniel's face for several seconds. "Thank you," she finally said.
"For what?"
"For saving my life. It was the dream, wasn't it. What was happening on the planet was what you saw in your dream."
Daniel's gaze dropped to his lap. "Yeah. I didn't realize it until just before the Al'Kesh showed up. For a second, I thought I was stuck back in the nightmare."
"Was I killed by one of the bombs in the dream?"
The archeologist nodded, remembering the horrific image of Sam's body being torn apart and tossed through the air like a rag doll by the blast.
Daniel returned his gaze to Sam. "So, what exactly happened to the Al'Kesh? I remember attacking it, but that's all."
"It was completely destroyed. What was left crashed right into the middle of the Jaffa that were chasing us. There weren't many left after that." Sam looked at him searchingly. "Daniel, did you know that blowing up that ship could seriously harm you, maybe even kill you?"
"I knew that it might be too much for me, but I didn't know what would happen, if there would be brain damage." Daniel looked straight into her eyes. "There was no other option, Sam. I did what I had to, and I'd do it again if it was necessary." He smiled. "Just don't get attacked by any motherships, okay?"
Sam answered the smile with one of her own. "I'll try, but I can't make any promises." The smile was replaced with a somewhat thoughtful expression. "So . . . I guess this means that you can see the future."
"Yes, I guess it does. I don't know why I'm not more surprised. Just one more thing to add to the list in my increasingly insane life."
Sam gave his hand a sympathetic squeeze. "Interestingly, this is the second time that someone has had a precognitive vision about something bad happening to me," she told him. "Do you know about what happened to Jonas, the mass that developed in his brain because of what Nirrti did to him?"
"Uh huh."
"Then you must know that it gave him the ability to see the future. One of the visions he had was of me being seriously hurt. He tried to prevent it from happening by keeping me from going on a mission because he thought that's when and where it was going to happen, but it turned out that the injury happened right here on base while I was overhauling the gate generator, which I had decided to go ahead and do because I didn't go on the mission."
"So, you're saying that by trying to prevent what he saw in the vision, Jonas caused it to happen?"
"That's what Jonas thought. He blamed himself for what happened, thinking that, if he hadn't interfered, I'd have gone on that mission and not gotten hurt. But I'm not so sure. I was intending to do that overhaul sooner or later anyway. It is possible that the accident would have happened regardless. Jonas may have just made it happen a little sooner. I told him that the future was not preordained, that it can and does change. Jonas proved that later when he prevented an attack on the SGC because of another vision. You proved it yet again yesterday."
Daniel's eyes slid away from hers. "But, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have been in that position in the first place."
"How do you figure that?"
"If I hadn't left the SGC, we would not have been on that planet."
"Yes, you're right about that, but you can't second guess every decision you make, Daniel. Sometimes, you have to just do what you think is right and be prepared for whatever consequences might occur because of it. Have you ever heard of the Butterfly Principle?"
"Um, yeah. Isn't that the principle that everything we do, regardless of how small, can have an impact on the future?"
Sam nodded. "Even the smallest of actions, like leaving ten minutes later for work than usual, affects things to a certain extent, and that effect is amplified over time, possibly resulting in major consequences years from now."
"You have to wonder what consequences will result from what I did yesterday."
"Well, I already know one consequence." Sam gave him a smile. "I'm sitting here alive, talking to you."
Daniel returned the smile, very happy about that particular consequence. His smile disappeared after a moment.
"I suppose that everyone in the SGC knows about all of this now," he said.
"I'm afraid so."
"How are they reacting to it?"
"The reactions are mixed. Some people are understandably a little uneasy. Others think it's pretty cool. But, regardless of how they feel about it, everyone here knows that you would never do anything to harm the people on this base."
"I guess I owe Captain Hopkins an apology."
Sam grinned. "Oh, you mean for that whopping bruise on his jaw?"
Daniel winced, shamefaced.
"Actually, after he found out what you could have done to him, he was glad that all you did was hit him. In fact, he told Colonel O'Neill to tell you no hard feelings."
"I should still apologize, though. I hated having to do things the way Teal'c and I did, but there was no other choice."
"I know, Daniel. We all do. The truth is that everyone here thinks that you showed a lot of courage doing what you did, and they understand why you did it." Sam smiled again. "I seem to recall a time a few years ago when all four of us did something similar."
"Yeah, this is my second time going AWOL, isn't it. No, wait a minute. It's actually three times, if you count the fact that I stayed on Abydos without permission from the bigwigs. Good thing I'm not in the military."
"Don't forget to count when we were wearing those armbands and decided to go on that unauthorized mission."
"Oops, you're right. Four times, then."
Sam smiled broadly. "And then there's the time that you beamed up to the Gadmeer ship, definitely not with the colonel's permission . . . either time."
Daniel looked at her in amusement. "Are you trying to build a case against me, Sam?"
They both laughed.
"Well, it looks like someone is feeling a bit more alert," said Janet as she walked up to the bed.
"I'm sorry. Did we wake you?" Daniel asked.
"No, not at all. If there were other patients here I would tell you to keep it down, but since you have the place to yourself right now, no harm done. How are you feeling, Daniel? I have to say that I'm pleased you got so much sleep."
"A lot better. The headache's almost gone."
Janet nodded. "The last CT I took showed that the bleeding has completely stopped, and you definitely appear to be a lot more alert now. I'd say that you're going to be just fine. I will want to keep you in the infirmary for another full day just to be sure, though."
"Of course you will."
"You were very lucky, Daniel. This could have been a whole lot worse."
"I know, Janet."
The doctor repeated some of the tests she'd run earlier and was very satisfied with the results, which came out normal. After that, she left Daniel and Sam alone.
"Would you like me to leave and let you get some more sleep?" Sam asked.
"I think I'm all slept out for the moment."
Sam asked Daniel for some more details on the planets he and Teal'c explored. About an hour later, she left so that he could get some more rest. He didn't go to sleep, however. Instead, he lay staring up at the ceiling, thinking about what had happened over the last few weeks.
It was a little after seven a.m. when Daniel got an unexpected visit from Colonel Reynolds, the commander of SG-3.
"How are you feeling, Doctor Jackson?" he asked.
"Pretty good. I'll be better once Janet lets me out of here."
Reynolds smiled. "I hear you. I feel the same way whenever I'm in the infirmary." The smile disappeared. "I wanted to thank you for what you did on P7D-187, Doctor Jackson. You saved me and my team. We'd have all been goners if you hadn't shown up and did what you did."
"I was just in the right place at the right time, Colonel. We all got lucky."
The man shook his head. "It was a hell of a lot more than luck, Doctor Jackson. These things you can do, they could save a whole lot of lives. All of us understand why you and Teal'c left the SGC. It was the right call under the circumstances. I just wanted you to know that and to know that we have a lot of respect for you and your abilities. We hope that you'll get your place back on SG-1."
Touched by the man's sincere words, Daniel thanked him.
Jack and Teal'c showed up not long after Reynolds left. They'd been there for about forty minutes when Sam joined them. Not long after that, General Hammond came to the infirmary.
"I'm glad to see that you're all here," he said. "It'll make things easier." He looked at them one by one, his face unreadable. "I just got off the phone with the president. He has been completely updated on everything, including Doctor Fraiser's medical report on Doctor Jackson."
"So, what's the verdict?" Jack asked, a little nervous.
A smile abruptly beamed over the general's face. "Doctor Jackson is back on SG-1."
"Yes!" Jack crowed at the same time as Sam gave a shout of delight. She bent over and gave Daniel a hug. The archeologist was grinning broadly.
"Thank you, General," Daniel said. "I really appreciate everything you did to get me back on the team."
"You are very welcome, Son. I'm as pleased about the result as you are. It is going to be good to have you back."
"What about the fact that I resigned?"
"Well, as it so happens, I never put it through. I kept hoping that we'd get you back."
Jack grinned. "So, Daniel can get back out on missions as soon as the doc releases him, right?"
"Not so fast, Colonel," said a new voice. Janet came up to the group. "There is something that I need Daniel and all of the rest of you to understand."
"Daniel is going to be all right, isn't he?" Sam questioned, suddenly concerned.
"Yes, he's going to be fine . . . this time." The doctor turned her full attention to her patient. "Like I said, Daniel, you were very lucky this time, but you need to understand that, if something like this happens again, you could suffer irreversible brain damage. You would be at high risk for a stroke. In fact, if you tried to do too much, it could kill you. You need to be very careful how you use these abilities of yours."
"You hear that, Daniel? No more blowing up Al'Keshes," Jack ordered firmly.
"I'll try to curb myself, Jack," Daniel responded.
"As your doctor, I'd highly recommend that you only use your abilities when absolutely necessary," Janet told him. "We have no way of knowing if using them has a cumulative effect on your brain."
"I agree," Sam said. "This is a complete unknown to us. The science alone is a big question mark. I think it would be best if all of us pretend like Daniel can't do these things and continue like we did before this happened."
Hammond nodded. "I concur. I will make sure everyone involved understands that we are not going to take advantage of Doctor Jackson's abilities unless there is a damn good reason to do so." He held out his hand to Daniel. "That having been said, welcome back, Son."
Daniel took the man's hand with a smile and shook it. "Thank you, sir. It's good to be back."
It had been several days since Daniel's reinstatement to SG-1, and things were mostly back to normal. There had been a few people on base who displayed a bit of uneasiness around him in the beginning, but the fact that he appeared outwardly unchanged soon eased their concerns. Daniel still occasionally received an odd look, but he was sure that would pass in time.
Neither Colonel Morrison nor Major Rice had been happy about the president's decision to put Daniel back on SG-1, but their complaints fell on deaf ears. The president had finally realized that Earth needed Daniel right where he was.
Rice had already requested that Daniel be "loaned out" to the NID for a special project, but his request was flatly refused by everyone. Daniel didn't doubt, however, that the man would try again someday.
SG-1 had gone on one mission since Daniel's release from the infirmary. Thankfully, nothing happened that required the archeologist's "special skills," as Jack was now fond of calling them.
On the surface, everything appeared to be as it was before all of this happened. There were even times when Daniel could almost forget that he possessed these abilities of his – almost but not quite. The reason for that was because he had become aware of yet another ability. Actually, he'd started becoming aware of it a while ago but hadn't wanted to give it much thought. It appeared that he now possessed a 'sixth sense', the capacity to perceive things beyond the five physical senses. The most obvious display of this ability was when he sensed the approaching danger on P8R-978, but he was noticing more subtle things now. For instance, he could sometimes sense someone's presence before he saw them. This was especially true in regards to people he knew well, like his teammates.
Daniel had told no one about this. The fact that he could light fires and move objects with his mind and had the ability to see into the future was more than enough for everyone to handle.
Daniel completed the translation he was working on and rose to his feet, intending to visit Sam. He was heading for the door when his sixth sense kicked in. A couple of seconds later, Eliza White came in.
"Hello, Daniel," she greeted with a smile. "Am I disturbing you?"
"No, not at all. How are things going?"
"Good. I still miss those sessions with my star pupil, though."
Daniel smiled at the comment. There had been no need for him to resume the biofeedback sessions after he returned to Earth since there was nothing more that Eliza could teach him.
The therapist lost her smile. "I'm actually here to say goodbye. I've completed therapy on all of the personnel I was working with."
"I'll be sorry to see you go. We're going to miss you around here."
"And I'm going to miss some of the people I've gotten to know here, especially you."
Embarrassed, the archeologist ducked his head. The therapist stepped forward and held out her hand, which Daniel took.
"It has been a great honor and pleasure to know you and to get to work with you, Daniel," she said. "Take good care of yourself, all right?"
"I will, Eliza. And thank you for everything."
Daniel watched the woman leave, hoping that things would go well for her. He then headed to Sam's lab. The astrophysicist was hard at work on some new alien device.
"Hey. So, I hear that you got final approval to accompany the Prometheus home," Daniel said.
Sam smiled brightly. "Yes, I did. I was pretty sure that the general was going to let me go, but Colonel O'Neill was complaining about the fact that SG-1 would either have to be on stand-down the whole time I was gone or would have to go on missions short one person. After all the time that we've been on stand-down lately, he's not happy about it happening again. But the general agreed that I really should go. As you know, the replacement hyperspace engine we put in the Prometheus was taken from an Al'Kesh, which is a much smaller ship. Because of that, we can't run it for very long at a time. We're going to have to leave hyperspace occasionally to cool it down."
"And you want to be there to babysit it," Daniel surmised.
"Basically. If there are any problems, I'm the one most qualified to fix them."
Daniel sat down. "And is that the only reason?"
"What other reason would there be?"
"I'm not sure. I just couldn't help but notice that you seemed to be awfully eager to take that trip." Daniel's expression made it clear that he knew there was something more.
Sam heaved a sigh. "Oh, all right, so there are some interesting stellar objects that we'll be passing close to that I want to get a better look at." Daniel kept staring at her. "Okay, one thing in particular. There's a gas cloud that has some fascinating properties. There are some things about it that indicate it's not just a nebula. Or, if it is, it's unlike any other nebula we've ever discovered."
Daniel started to smile. "Ah, so the truth comes out. I knew that there had to be something more to this than you wanting to play babysitter to a hyperdrive engine."
Sam laughed. "Just don't tell General Hammond or the colonel, okay?"
"My lips are sealed. So, when will you be leaving?"
"Day after tomorrow at 0700."
"Well, I hope that everything goes all right on the trip. We'll miss you."
"Thanks, Daniel. You're more than welcome to come along, you know, that is if it's okay with the general and Colonel O'Neill."
"Though I'd love to see this gas cloud of yours, I'd feel like a fifth wheel, Sam. I'd be of absolutely no use to you. Besides, I've still got a ton of work to catch up on. I can't believe how far behind the archeology and linguistics departments got during those two weeks that I was gone."
Sam got a big smile. "You just have to live with the fact that you're indispensable around here, Daniel."
"While being indispensable might be great for job security, it's not always so great if you'd like to find the time to sleep on occasion."
"Well, just don't overwork yourself too much. I don't want to come back and find you in the infirmary after having collapsed from exhaustion."
"Oh, believe me. I am going to be doing all I can to stay out of that place as much as possible. I've been in there way too many times since I descended." Daniel glanced at his watch. "Speaking of work, I'd better get back to it. Um, since we're going to be without you for a few days, how about if we go out tonight, sort of a bon voyage dinner?"
"That sounds like a great idea. Will we be inviting the colonel and Teal'c?"
"How about just the two of us tonight? It's been quite a while since we've done that."
"Yes, it has, hasn't it. Okay, just you and me. Where and when?"
They decided where they wanted to eat and what time to go, then Daniel returned to his office, looking forward to that evening.
"So, how are things going with your dad?" Daniel asked after swallowing a bite of his dinner. He and Sam were seated at a table that was quite a distance from the other diners, so they could safely talk about work without fear of being overheard.
"All right, I guess," Sam replied. "I haven't talked to him in a while. He's hip-deep in working on adapting the technology of the Telchak device into a weapon against the supersoldiers. I guess things are going along well. I'm hoping that General Hammond will let me go to the Alpha Site and work on the final stages."
"I'm sure he will, though Jack won't be happy."
"Of course."
Daniel speared another mouthful of food. "You know, speaking of the Tok'ra, I'm surprised that they haven't come calling yet about me."
"So am I. They know all about you. We had to tell them the whole story when we asked them to keep an eye out for you and Teal'c. As you can imagine, it piqued their interest."
"Yeah, I bet. Like I said, I'm surprised they haven't showed up yet."
"What will you say if they do?"
"That all depends on what they want."
"I wouldn't be surprised if they want to use you for a mission."
"It wouldn't surprise me either, even though the last time was a disaster."
"Yes, but that wasn't your fault, not really. It's true that you didn't carry out your mission, but it was a good thing that you didn't. Anubis would have gained power and become a major threat a whole lot sooner if the other System Lords had been wiped out. He might have gone after the Eye of Ra sooner, and we probably wouldn't have succeeded in destroying his super weapon since we couldn't have gotten help from Ba'al or any other System Lord. In the end, that part of it turned out for the best."
Daniel shook his head. "I should never have agreed to do it in the first place."
"Probably not, though you did gain some valuable intel. To be honest, I was surprised that you did agree to do it. It wasn't something that I thought you'd be willing to do."
"It wasn't something I wanted to do, but I thought it was the best chance we'd have to get rid of the System Lords."
"So, if the Tok'ra asked you to go on another mission, would you accept?"
"It would all depend on what was at stake. Janet's pretty adamant that I never use my 'special skills' again, but there are going to be times when I have to take the chance. And if it's something important enough, something that can save lives or really hurt the Goa'uld, I would have to put my own welfare second."
"I do understand what you mean, and I agree that the welfare of one person, no matter who they are, cannot outweigh the welfare of hundreds or perhaps thousands of others. But, at the same time, we don't want to lose you, Daniel. So, please don't be quick to give up your life for what you think is a worthy cause. You've given up your life way too many times already."
Daniel gave Sam a little smile. "Okay, I promise that, in the future, I'll be more choosey about what I get myself killed for."
Sam smiled at the comment. "I'm going to hold you to that."
They finished their dinner and paid the bill. Daniel then walked Sam to her car.
"Good night, Sam. I'll see you tomorrow," he said.
"Good night."
The major got in her car. She started it up and pulled out of the parking spot with a wave in his direction. With a smile, Daniel went to his own car, got in, and headed for home. As he drove, he thought back on all the things that had happened during the past weeks.
Oma once told him that being good or evil was the only thing that was truly within our control. Though he had apparently gained the power of precognition, Daniel had no idea what the future would bring. Whatever it might hold for him, he could only hope that he'd be able to live up to the faith that his teammates had in him and maintain the code of ethics that he'd always strived to live by.
Attention: Do not read beyond this point if you do not intend to read any of the other stories in this series.
Epilogue
