Changing Directions
Part 5 of the Origins Sequence
Sequel to 'Miscommunications'
By Gumnut 28 Oct - 1 Nov 2004

Teal'c had never heard such heart wrenching screams in his life. As First Prime he had been present at many deep interrogation sessions involving many different types of torture, but until this day he had never heard a creature scream in such pain.

Much less a dear friend.

He held O'Neill's body as it bucked, desperate to fling off an unseen source of agony. The man had bitten through his lip and blood trailed down the side of his face. Ambassador Niikrahl was shouting into some communication device as Doctor Fraiser yelled for her team who had just entered the room.

Then suddenly the muscles beneath his hands went limp.

"O'Neill!" Thor's voice jumped an octave.

"Damnit, Colonel! Don't do this to me!" The Doctor shouted. "He's arresting!" She ripped the hospital scrubs from his chest.

And O'Neill disappeared in flash of white light.

There was a sudden shocked silence in the control room broken only by harsh breathing and a swearing Furling. "Mikbar, Thor!"

"Sergeant, see if you can get hold of the Asgard." The General's face was white and Davis's wasn't much better.

Teal'c stood, swallowed his reaction, and moved to help Daniel to his feet. The archaeologist had fallen during the emergency with the Colonel and was now determined to get to his feet and assist. Teal'c knew him to be as foolish as the Colonel when it came to medical issues, so clamped a hand to his shoulder to both help him up and restrict his movement. Major Carter cornered him on the other side, and the now patientless Doctor chose him as a new target.

"Janet, I'm fine."

The Doctor was pale and her eyes bright, suffering, as all of them, from shock at the sudden removal of her near death patient.

"Do you think he will be okay?" The simple question said more about the state of Daniel's mind than anything else.

"O'Neill is in the hands of the Asgard, Daniel Jackson. They have proven themselves faithful allies on multiple occasions."

"No, reply, General."

"Keep trying, Sergeant." Hammond turned to Niikrahl. The Ambassador was still speaking urgently into what seemed to be a communication device hidden in his right hand. "R'tannelah, I don't care what you think. I want those scan results and I want them now." A pair of red eyes stared at the General, flickering in frustration.

Teal'c, having seen the errant Doctor Jackson into the capable hands of the medical team, moved to stand beside the General. Major Carter moved in behind him.

The Furling frowned. "What do you mean you can't find them? I said forty ossobars, adjust accordingly." A pause. "Do it, R'tannelah, or I will personally see you escorted to the kamma barracks and skinned of your commission!"

The Furling glared at the walls while they waited. None of them needed to ask what he was asking his ship to look for.

Something beeped.

"Have you found them?" A muffled reply. "Thankyou, Captain. We will speak of your conduct at a later time." The Furling looked up, catching Hammond's eye. "We have located an Asgard vessel in polar orbit of your planet. I have no doubts that that is where Thor has taken O'Neill. I am sure he will render what assistance is necessary."

The muscles in Teal'c's shoulders relaxed slightly, but his face echoed the frown on Niikrahl's features.

What in the name of Apophis had happened?

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It took several hours but eventually after a brief confirmation of Jack's health and location from Thor, the Colonel was beamed down to sickbay into the arms of a much relieved Fraiser.

"Hiya, Doc."

Janet nearly dropped her clipboard. She turned to find a half-asleep Colonel on the bed behind her, rubbing his eyes and attempting to sit up.

Thank god.

"Colonel! No, no, lie down." She turned to the duty nurse. "Inform General Hammond." O'Neill mumbled at her. "No, sir, stay put, I need to do some tests."

"Damnit, Janet, I'm fine."

She reached for her stethoscope. "That's exactly what you said last time, five minutes before you went into cardiac arrest."

He looked up, and there was something in his eyes that caught her, something that tore at her. It was only there for a bare moment, an exhaustion, a need, and then it was gone. The man acquiesced, lying back on the bed as she checked his vital signs.

By the time her nurse returned, he was asleep.

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"What do you mean he's gone!" Jack glared at Daniel, watching as the other man cringed slightly, raising a hand to his head.

"Thanks, Jack. Please remember that not all of us have the friendly neighbourhood Asgard around to solve all our medical problems."

Damn. "Sorry."

Daniel flicked a glance at him. "As I was about to say...Thor gave his apologies to the General and left. Apparently there was an emergency."

Sigh. He had to admit that Thor was the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet as well as the Asgard ambassador to the Alliance and, consequently, a busy man. But something in Jack was simply disappointed. It would have been nice to catch up; it had been a while since he'd seen the little alien.

"Niikrahl?"

"He said he had some business to attend, but said he wished to speak with you before he left."

O'Neill slid his feet off the bed and sat up.

"So how are you?" He appraised the archaeologist who had obviously been allowed out of the infirmary, unlike himself. Janet had chained him here, acting as if he was fragile or something even though as far as he was concerned, Thor had waved that handy Asgard wand of his and fixed him all up. Janet just needed all those poking and prodding tests to prove what he already knew.

"Getting there." Daniel dismissed the question. "Jack, what did you mean when you said Thor had 'called you'?"

O'Neill hesitated. It all seemed almost like a dream now. His name called in the dark, the urgency, the amulet, the numbers.

The numbers?

Daniel jumped as Jack leapt off the bed, grabbed the nearest pile of papers and began fossicking through them. They had returned him to his former room, his flotsam was still scattered around the place, and, hopefully, so was that scrap of paper he had grabbed in the middle of the night.

Papers scribbled with Asgard characters were chucked onto the bed. Staff reviews, mission reports, they all ended up in a haphazard stack in the middle of the blanket. No success. Damn. He upturned the lamp, shooed Daniel off the chair and received a puzzled frown in return. Shifted the nightstand.

"Damnit, where the hell is it?"

"What, Jack?"

"A scrap of paper with numbers written on it." He bent double, shifting bedsheets to peer under the bed. God, he hoped the cleaners or the nursing staff hadn't thrown it out. There wasn't much furniture, the clatter of disturbed medical instruments as he shifted the metal cabinet on the far side of the room an echo to his urgency.

For a moment he thought he had it, a screwed up piece of paper jammed in the wheels of the cabinet, but a quick examination had the crumpled sheet thrown over his shoulder in the direction of the bed and the rest of his stuff. Damnit. He shoved the cabinet against the wall with a bang, his eyes roaming around the room, scanning for other possible hiding places.

A corner of plain white was sticking out from under the headboard. Yes!

A moment later he was staring at the seven hastily scribbled sets of digits.

"Jack?"

He looked up at Daniel and was about to pass the paper to the archaeologist when he realised that his friend already had something to read. And he was frowning.

"Daniel?"

The puzzled expression lifted from the paper and was suddenly aimed directly at him. "General?"

Oh shit.

The piece of paper, the cabinet, an angry toss...damnit. His promotion advice.

The President's seal rustled in Daniel's hands.

"Congratulations, Jack."

The unspoken ramifications hovered in the air and the room suddenly seemed claustrophobic.

"I haven't accepted it yet." Paper crumpled. He held the numbers out to Daniel and brushed the topic aside. "Are these familiar?"

Daniel frowned again, but took the scrap and stared at the scrawled handwriting. "An address? Thor gave you this?"

He gave the briefest of nods. "Said he'd been captured. Said I should go to the planet."

"Why?"

"Something about saving 'young ones'. He was rather...upset." A scream of memory emphasized the statement in his head.

"He seemed fine earlier."

"That's just it! Why would he contact me out of desperation and then simply brush it aside the next day?"

"I don't know, Jack, but, playing devil's advocate, you have to remember that he is an alien. Different culture, different view of the universe. Perhaps he wasn't as upset as you thought he was." Daniel paused a moment. "Jack, there is also the fact you have not been yourself. Are you sure you are remembering things correctly?"

O'Neill glared at him. "I'll pretend I didn't hear you say that, Daniel, and alien or not, I think I know Thor well enough to know when something is wrong. Something isn't right."

"Well, why don't we dial it up and see what happens?"

xxxxxxxxxxx

The thought had been in the back of his mind, but for some reason it took Daniel's statement of the obvious to goad him into action. Jack was rather annoyed at himself. Recent events must have affected him more than he realised.

It hadn't taken much to get Carter in on the project. Hammond had followed not far behind.

Janet, on the other hand, had not been happy in the least.

"For crying out loud, Doc, I'm fine. I'm fixed. Hunky dory. Fit as a fiddle. Look, even my knee is behaving itself." He lifted the usually offending limb and auditioned for showgirldom.

All to no effect. Doc still stood with her arms crossed, that daunting frown on her face.

He appreciated the fact that he had scared her...yet again...but this was important. And it wasn't like the last time he had been subjected to Asgard medical science. He hadn't been dizzy or anything remotely resembling sick after this latest encounter. "Janet, please."

The puppy dog look always worked eventually. A few minutes later he had her signature on the correct piece of paper and he was out the door, various yelled restrictions following him down the hallway.

And now he stood staring through the glass of the control room window watching the stargate spin, hoping for an answer.

"Chevron six...engaged." He flicked a glance at Davis and briefly wondered if the man said those words in his sleep. It now seemed rather odd to have a gate spinning without the measured intonations of the gate team. He found he even missed them occasionally when he was off world...

He shook himself and shoved his hands in the pockets of his BDUs, both relishing the return to decent clothing and wondering if he'd left his sanity behind on Thor's ship.

The wormhole exploded into life with its usual brilliance, and the tension in the control room escalated just that tiny bit as it always did when they encountered a new possibly viable gate.

Carter was seated beside Davis, armed with the remote control of one of the IMP devices they had recently started to use for initial contact. The little gadget reminded Jack of a remote control toy racing car. In fact, the look on Carter's face the afternoon she had walked in on him and Teal'c in the supply room with a pair of the little probes had been worth the frowning reprimand delivered shortly thereafter by the General.

They had started using the IMPs, otherwise known as Initial Mechanised Probes, after throwing away several million dollars worth of MALP to inhospitable environments. They were Carter's idea, of course, his second in command had smarts spilling out of her ears, and he distinctly remembered her scribbling the idea down on a napkin at O'Malley's. No more than a set of four all terrain rubber wheels mounted with a camera, atmospheric sensors, and optional audio link, they were far less expensive for that initial contact with another world that may or may not involve instant disintegration on the other side.

And besides, they were fun to play with when he got bored.

The little gadget buzzed up the ramp and, with a plop, disappeared through the shimmering event horizon.

"Probe en route."

He watched the visual feed waiting for the static to clear and reveal what he needed to know.

Unfortunately it didn't.

"We've lost the signal." Davis sounded almost apologetic.

Carter queried the computer, her hands darting over the keyboard, before turning to look up at him. "I'm sorry, sir, I'm getting no response. I don't think the probe even reintegrated on the other side."

"Cause?" Hammond's voice startled him slightly. The man was so quiet he had forgotten he was there. For god's sake, O'Neill, pull yourself together. Why the hell was he so jumpy?

"There could be several explanations, sir. An obstruction in front of the gate, the gate itself could be damaged, the IMP could have been damaged. The usual list of first contact possibilities." She returned her attention to the keyboard, fingers dancing in precise patterns.

"Send another." His voice sounded clipped to his own ears and the sudden look Daniel shot him agreed with the impression.

Hammond frowned slightly in his direction, but nodded his ascent. The gateroom staff set it up and Carter directed it through the wormhole.

They stared at the monitors once again.

Static reflected off their faces.

In all he managed to persuade Hammond to send two more IMPs, but they all had the same result, and it was Carter's frank statement of 'It's a dead end, sir' that brought it all to a halt. It didn't seem like they were going anywhere anytime soon.

He left the control room more concerned than when he had arrived.

Of course, Daniel followed him.

"Jack, wait up."

He turned, no longer in the mood for talking. "Daniel, I-"

He was interrupted by the klaxon. "General Hammond to the control room!" As one they both turned and retraced their steps. There was a crunch and a muffled expletive from the direction of the gateroom.

"Hammond, what is it with this fankel siren anyway?"

O'Neill skipped the steps to the control room and made directly for the gateroom itself. Sure enough, Niikrahl stood in the middle of it, one hand clutching the mangled remains of the klaxon. Siler was going to be pissed.

"Ambassador?" In the corner of his eye he saw Hammond appear in the window beside Simmonds, and thankfully the siren was silenced moments later.

"O'Neill, I am leaving and wish to make my farewells." He stared Jack up and down, frowning. "You seem healthy."

What was it about Niikrahl that made him feel like a kid talking to a parent? "Did you speak to Thor before he left?"

"Briefly. He rambled on something about some new colony in the Lana galaxy. Personally I think it's a poor neighbourhood to move into, too many bad rumours associated with it."

"Bad rumours?"

The Furling glanced down at him, and again O'Neill got the impression of an amused parent. For crying out loud, if he pats me on the head, I'm going to rip his arm off.

Some of that thought must have been in his expression. Niikrahl straightened. "Anyway, you are well?"

"I'm fine." Something occurred to him. "Did Thor say anything to you about being captured?"

"Captured? No." He frowned. "What is going on, O'Neill? You're as edgy as a piqor who's fallen into a nibbledeath nest."

He glanced at Daniel who poked his eyes in Niikrahl's direction as if to say 'If you're that worried about it, tell him'.

His gaze bounced off that of Hammond's, refracted through the glass of the control room window.

He turned to Niikrahl.

"Thor, contacted me."

xxxxxxxxxx

Jack only had to mention the gate address to find the first of his answers.

They ended up in the conference room once again, Niikrahl sitting on the floor. It all gave Daniel a bizarre sense of deja-vous. Niikrahl held a copy of the gate symbols in one hand. "I can tell you why you couldn't enter the gate." He looked up. "This is a Furling planet. Unauthorised access is restricted."

Sam's eyebrows rose. "How?"

Niikrahl turned in her direction. "That is information we prefer to keep to ourselves."

"But it explains a lot." Daniel leant forward in his seat. "How many Furling planets have we encountered in our explorations? Very few, yet you are one of the five major races. How many 'dead end' gates are actually Furling planets with restricted access?"

Niikrahl eyed him. "It is a simple but effective deterrent."

"Can you get us there?" Daniel darted a glance in Jack's direction. The man seemed to be verging on obsession.

"I could."

"From here?"

"Yes."

Jack stood. "So what are we waiting for?"

"For permission, Colonel." Hammond pinned Jack with a tolerant stare, before turning back to Niikrahl. "This colony, Ambassador-"

"An archaeological expedition with agrarian pursuits, and I agree with O'Neill. If there seems to be a problem involving this planet, what are we waiting for? I will return to the stargate and await your activation of the wormhole."

Insert the standard flash of red light here.

At least it wasn't white, less stressful on the eyes.

xxxxxxxxxx

Niikrahl swore.

A string of invectives that defied any form of translation.

He held a device in his right hand and pounded it with his left. "There is no response. The security system has been compromised. Mikbar!" He palmed another device and spoke into it, his voice muffled.

O'Neill stared down through the control room glass and instinctively knew Niikrahl's next move. He made a dash for the gateroom.

"Niikrahl! Ambassador!" The Furling turned towards him as he entered the room. "I'm coming with you."

His red gaze caught him, considering. "Something is amiss, O'Neill, I must investigate. You are welcome to accompany me."

O'Neill turned in the direction of Hammond to find a rather resigned expression on his superior's face.

Half an hour later, SG-1 beamed aboard the Furling vessel.

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FIN.