Title: Translations

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.

Pairings: Gen.

Summary: AU. Claire and Melburn Jackson stayed on Abydos after the first mission in 1982. Fifteen years later, Jack O'Neill leads a team to bring them back to Earth, but he returns instead with their newly orphaned, fourteen-year-old son, Daniel. Explicit spoilers up to early season 2.

Spoilers: Things will make more sense if you have an idea of what happened in canon. Some familiar missions are only mentioned in passing or treated in a "missing scenes with a twist" sort of way to avoid rewriting the show. There may be background information about characters or the Stargate universe from later seasons; some minor characters from later seasons are introduced or mentioned sooner in my AU timeline. There may be specific details from missions up to early season 2. Later stories in this series cover—or touch on—events up to season 10.

Notes:

1) The first Abydos mission happened in about fourteen years earlier than it did in the movie; thus, all of the Jacksons' ages are different. Everyone else is the same.

2) I've tried to keep linguistic and scientific details reasonable (as much as this universe allows). Since I don't find it reasonable that most planets they find have English speakers, I'm saying that it was a production issue instead of a story issue—that is, they did it in the show to avoid constant subtitling and silly-sounding fake languages that they didn't have time to make up each week. For Abydonian and Goa'uld languages, I've tried to use canon language and vocabulary when possible, but my interpretation of the words may be wrong; either way, everything should be understandable from context (or else it's not meant to be understood).

3) Please enjoy! Any and all feedback is always welcome.

XXXXX
Chapter 1: Abydos
XXXXX

7 October 1997; SGC, Earth; 2000 hrs

"General Hammond," Major Samuels said in introduction; "Colonel Jack O'Neill."

Jack stepped into the office, out of uniform and standing as casually as he possibly could without being overtly disrespectful. "Retired," he clarified.

"I can see that, Colonel," the man behind the desk said amiably, as if at complete ease, though Jack was sure neither of them was at all relaxed. "Me, I'm on my last tour. I'm thinking of writing a book."

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Jack prompted, "Major Samuels mentioned something about the Stargate."

George Hammond gave a tight smile in return. "Down to business. I can do that." Without a pause, he went on, "You were on the team that went through the Stargate in 1982."

"I'm sure you've seen the files, sir," Jack said in answer. "I was there." A movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he squinted out the open door. An SF closed it as soon as he was caught looking, before he could take a good look at the man inside. "Is that..."

"That's right, Colonel: Major Charles Kawalsky," Hammond said. "He served with you on a number of occasions—in fact, you were the only two who returned through the Stargate in 1982."

More worried now, Jack didn't bother hiding the edge in his voice when he asked, "Why are we being questioned?"

"Well, it's been nearly fifteen years since your trip through the 'gate. Has your perspective changed?" Hammond's eyes were sharp, searching.

Last chance to change your story, he meant, but Jack hadn't spent years in special ops for nothing; it would take more than this to spook a reaction from him. "It's been nearly fifteen years," Jack parroted with a shrug. "A lot's changed. What exactly do you need, General?"

"It seems a little clarification is necessary," Hammond told him, folding his hands on the desk in front of him. "The Jacksons..."

"It's all in the report," he said, knowing now where the question lay but unwilling to cede it unless he was forced. Hammond raised his eyebrows at the interruption. "Sir."

"Is it?" Jack glanced back as Major Samuels spoke up behind him. "You didn't like Claire and Melburn Jackson very much, did you?"

Raising an eyebrow, he answered, "They were scientists, Major—geeks. Not my usual crowd."

"So you didn't like them," Samuels summarized.

"I didn't say that," Jack retorted. He and the two archaeologists had come to respect each other; he wasn't about to betray their trust after all they'd been through together. "They were a perfectly nice couple and didn't get in our way too much. They also saved our lives and got us home. Little thing like that kinda makes people grow on you."

"And your commanding officer, Colonel John Michaels," Samuels continued, "and the rest of the team were killed."

Jack bristled. "Ra's forces attacked and overpowered us. Colonel Michaels, several more of our men, and many of the natives who helped us were killed in action. They saved our lives and were essential in defeating Ra."

"The report says that attack was the reason why the 'gate on the other side wasn't destroyed immediately," Hammond said, picking up the thread, "despite orders to detonate the nuclear device once you'd arrived and determined a threat to Earth."

"I assume so," Jack said, forcing his eyes not to flick over in the direction Kawalsky had gone. "Colonel Michaels was the only one who knew about the bomb initially. Kawalsky and I didn't learn about it until we were being held in Ra's prison."

"But with the help of the Jacksons, you eventually regained control and did, in fact, detonate the weapon?"

"Yes," Jack said. That wasn't a lie.

"So, to the best of your knowledge, Claire and Melburn Jackson and everyone else you knew on Abydos is dead, correct?" Hammond said, with a look in his eye that Jack really didn't like.

"That's correct," Jack said. Okay, that was a lie, though he'd thought they'd covered their asses pretty well..."We sent a robot probe through after we got back, sir, and it was flattened on the other end. Obviously, the Abydos Stargate was buried in the rubble."

"But somehow," Hammond said, leaning forward slightly, "it got unburied."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Sir?"

The general gestured for Jack to follow him to where they could see the room where the Stargate was stored. Jack looked out the glass to see something on the ramp...

Something counting down.

"Oh my god." Jack turned incredulously to the general. "You're sending another bomb through. General, the threat's eliminated—it's closed from their end!"

"Countdown's already started," Hammond said firmly. There was nearly an hour left on the timer, Jack saw when he looked again. "Unless you have something to add?"

Son of a...

Michaels was dead; so was everyone else who'd gone with Jack and Kawalsky. Jack had retired, but Kawalsky was still in the service; this could ruin the man's career. Still, Jack had been in command by the end of the Abydos '82 mission, so there was a chance Kawalsky wouldn't take the blame when he had been following orders.

Besides, they'd lied on their report back then to protect the Abydonian people. If the 'gate really wasn't buried anymore and they let a bomb get through now...

Decision time.

"General Hammond," Jack said, straightening. "I regret to inform you that my report was not entirely accurate."

With a knowing, grim smile, Hammond clarified, "You didn't detonate the bomb."

"Oh, we did," Jack said. "And it was aboard Ra's spacecraft, so it did kill him and eliminate the threat to Earth. However...Ra's ship was in orbit above the planet at the time. The 'gate wasn't destroyed. The Jacksons are alive and living with the people on Abydos. After we came home, they buried the gate in rocks, making my return or anybody else's impossible. The threat from their side is eliminated, too."

"Well," Hammond said, his voice flat with tightly coiled anger, "there are four bodies lying in the infirmary that say otherwise."

Jack stiffened. "What?"

"Something came through that 'gate, Colonel," Hammond told him, no trace of smile on his face now. "The threat's not gone. We'll send the bomb through on schedule."

...x...

There were...creatures of some sort in the infirmary. Jack looked from the overwhelmingly human features to the pouches on their stomachs. "Well?" Hammond said.

"I very much doubt that they came from Abydos," Jack said, though he wasn't so certain now that he saw the weapons the aliens had brought through the Stargate—he had seen those before, after all, during the fight against Ra's forces over a decade ago. He hesitated, then said, "General, let me take a team through that 'gate. We'll find out what's going on. Kawalsky and I have been there before, we know the lay of the land, we know the people..."

"You think you know them," the general said. "It's been fifteen years in a harsh environment with no advanced technology, in the aftermath of a revolution. They didn't any supplies they didn't bring with them. Do you know what the average life expectancy was in ancient Egypt?"

"No?" Jack said, which was true. It wasn't something he'd thought about—he'd had them to think about it—though he supposed it was..."...Less than it is here?"

"Considerably so, according to the Jacksons' own work," Hammond agreed. "We have to take precautions. They could be dead by now. You don't know what you'd be walking into."

"Well, there's an easy way to find out." Jack snagged a box of tissues from the desk. "You don't mind if I borrow this, do you?"

Hammond raised his eyebrows. "Colonel?"

"Claire Jackson has allergies," he explained. "We'll send her a message. They'll understand."

XXXXX

10 October 1997; SGC, Earth; Nagada Village, Abydos; 1200 hrs

It wasn't that Jack was complaining about having confirmation that the Jacksons were alive, alerted via their return message on the tissue box. And the chance to go through the 'gate again? Sweet. He just had a problem with—

"Another scientist," he sighed, standing before the ramp that led to the stone ring and eyeing the astrophysicist unhappily. "General..."

"Captain Carter's inclusion in this mission is not an option, Colonel," Hammond told him firmly. "It's because of her expertise and her team's work that we have computers able to dial the 'gate at all. Personally, I'd think you'd like this better than the manual dialing you had to do last time."

Jack glanced at her, where he could hear Sam Carter rambling excitedly about how much energy the Stargate must release, it was really just incredible...

"Oh, for crying out loud," he muttered, adjusting his grip on his gun and stalking up the ramp.

"Colonel," Carter said brightly as he met her at the ring, both of them staring into the shimmering surface. "This is...this is...well, astronomical! You can actually see the fluctuations in the..."

With a final roll of his eyes, Jack placed a hand on her back and unceremoniously helped her into the fluctuating whatever before stepping through...

...and found himself staring down the business end of a lot of automatic weapons and some lower-tech—but very pointy—spears and knives. Jack and the rest of his team had brought their own guns to bear, too, before Jack even registered the motion.

Movement at the far end of the room caught his attention, and he flicked his gaze toward the exit just as a slight figure scampered out into the darkness.

"Nice to meet you, too," Jack said to the room, and then, more quietly, "Kawalsky? You haven't been brushing up on your Abydonian lately, have you?"

"Sorry, sir," Kawalsky said tensely.

"Of course not," he muttered. Hammond's warning that he didn't really know the situation here suddenly seemed much more realistic, There was little doubt Jack's team would win in a firefight, but as far as they knew, these were innocent young men, and Abydos had helped them before. Earth had come here for help, not to fight. "Any ideas?"

And then a familiar voice rang out. "Cha'hari!" Jack's gaze darted toward a man who'd just stepped into the crowd. "Cha'hari."

"Lower your weapons!" a woman's voice added from a few feet away.

The boys—many of them not even old enough to be cadets, he could see, now that he was looking—instantly obeyed the command. Recognizing the couple who stood there, even after fifteen years, Jack lowered his own and saw his men do the same around him.

Dr. Claire Jackson stepped forward, her head tilted questioningly to one side. "Captain O'Neill. Um...welcome back?"

Behind them, whispers broke out. he would swear he heard 'O'Neill' a few times.

"Dr. Jackson," Jack said, moving to stand in front of his men. "And...Dr. Jackson. It's Colonel now, but it's good to see you two well." They'd gone totally native, it seemed, dressed comfortably in sandals and sand-colored robes, no hint of the uniform or tac vests they'd worn on the first trip so long ago.

"No need to be so formal," her husband assured him, adjusting the glasses that he'd somehow managed not to break or lose in all this time away from Earth. "It'd get confusing, calling us both the same thing."

"Melburn, then," Jack acknowledged. "How're you doing?"

The Jacksons glanced at each other. "Good," Melburn said with a forced lightness. "Great."

"Greetings from Earth, Docs," Kawalsky spoke up, holding up a pack of tissues. "Brought a little something for you, ma'am."

"Is that you, Captain Kawalsky?" Claire said after a moment, accepting the tissues with a small smile. "Or are you a colonel now, too?"

"Major," he corrected.

An awkward pause settled around them, punctuated now by hissing whispers of 'Kawalsky' and 'O'Neill' that were barely audible over the crackling of the torches. Jack cleared his throat. "So," he said, unnerved by the distance that fifteen years had created. For being surrounded by familiar and friendly people, he felt like someone had left a few things out of the briefing on Abydonian customs and courtesies. Then again, this time, he had been the closest to an expert on the local customs, so maybe that was what the problem was. "Were you waiting for us, or are we just lucky you happened to be standing here?"

"We were nearby when Dan'yel came to tell us the Stargate was active," Melburn said looking around. "Where did he—" A movement behind him made him stop and make a half-turn. "Dan'yel," he called. When the shadowed figure only shifted slightly, he added, "Well, come on in, Danny. Don't be shy."

Dan'yel stepped into the light and turned out to be a boy—even younger than the 'gate guards, probably, though not by much.

Oddly, Jack found himself thinking of the way Charlie had always let his hair grow unruly until it dropped into his eyes and interfered with seeing baseballs, just like this Dan'yel's messy strands that were now brushed carelessly away with a hand. It was a stupid thought, though, and Jack quickly squashed it and forced himself to relax—this boy was older, taller, his features nothing like Charlie's except in the most superficial ways, and then only from a distance or when half-hidden in shadow.

The boy said something in the local language, too fast for Jack to pick out any of the smattering of words he actually knew. Melburn replied in kind.

"Colonel Jack O'Neill," Claire said, taking a few steps to place her hand on the boy's shoulder. "We'd like you to meet Daniel."

"Hi, Daniel," Jack said. "So you were the messenger, huh." He stopped and looked more closely at the boy's—Daniel's—blue eyes wide with excitement, his light hair bleached blond in the Abydonian sun among the sea of black hair that surrounded them... "Wha—whoa. Yours?" he asked, looking at the Jacksons. "You have a son?" Melburn was grinning and Claire combed an affectionate hand through her son's hair.

"Hello, Colonel O'Neill," Daniel said politely. "I'm very pleased to meet you."

Jack extended a hand. Daniel stared at it for a moment before clasping it in return. "You speak English," Jack observed, mildly surprised. There was an accent, he thought, but light; the boy sounded practically American.

"So do some of the others—we've been teaching them. And English isn't all our Daniel speaks, either," Melburn said, pride evident in his voice. "We did bring a lot of language reference books with us."

"I remember," Jack replied wryly. "I had to carry some of 'em."

"What's happening?" Daniel asked, his head tilted exactly as his mother's had been a moment ago, staring up through hair just long enough to cover the top half of his eyes. "Why have you come back?"

Jack caught the elder Jacksons' eyes over Daniel's head. "No offense," Claire said, "but I'm wondering that myself."

"Yeah," Jack said. "About that...is there somewhere we can talk? There's a lot to explain."

The couple exchanged another look. "Of course," Claire said. "We were just about to have our evening meal. Why don't your men take a rest? Just let us help get everyone settled, and then we'll go somewhere a little quieter."

"Can I come?" Daniel asked eagerly.

Seeing Jack's look of warning, Claire said, "Actually, Danny, why don't you stay with, uh, Major Kawalsky and the others."

"But—"

Melburn said something—not in English or Abydonian, but rather in what Jack recognized as Arabic, the man's first language according to his file—and Daniel's eyes brightened in interest. Jack stayed near the entrance of the room while all three Jacksons stepped toward the rest to explain to them what was happening. Carter was holding a camera to record everything in sight and already talking to Daniel about something or other when the elder Jacksons came back.

"What'd you tell him?" Jack asked Melburn as they stepped out of the room, leaving the boy behind with the others.

"That he could play interpreter," Melburn explained. "You'll have to excuse him—he loves learning about other cultures, but obviously, he's never actually met outsiders like you before."

Jack couldn't hold back an amused snort. "He really is your son, huh? Three languages in the space of a minute."

"He certainly is," Claire said as they ducked into another room. "We've tried to give him an education as well as we could: languages from Earth, reading, as much history as we can cram in, basic math...but it's hard from here. He's always been fascinated with the Stargate—in fact, he was playing with the guards, standing in front of the 'gate, when you sent that box of tissues. You can't imagine how excited he was."

"Yeah?" Jack said, quirking a smile as he pictured that. "So those...uh, 'gate guards..."

"The boys take shifts, all hours of the day," Claire explained. "It's just a precaution, but they take their job very seriously."

"I noticed," he said. Hammond's offhand remark about lifespans niggled at his brain. "I also noticed they're very...young."

Melburn grimaced. "Takes some getting used to, but children here come of age sooner than they would on Earth. Our Daniel spends time at the Stargate now mostly because he's friends with the guards, but even he'll be old enough to join one of the shifts by the next Solstice festival if he completes his rite of passage."

Jack couldn't help blurting, "You're not serious. You'd let him?" The first Abydos mission had been less than fifteen years ago—no way the kid was old enough for duty as a guard of anything.

Claire shrugged, looking unconcerned. "We can't really stop it. The boys guard that room voluntarily, so if our son wants to join when he's of age, well, who are we to say otherwise?"

"Besides," her husband added, "there's been no sign of activity in the past years, or even in the few months since we unburied it. If the Stargate program on Earth was shut down, it's not like we're expecting...um." He frowned at Jack. "Then again, since you're here..."

"There's been...a bit more interest in the 'gate lately," Jack told him. "Everything runs much smoother nowadays Earthside. They've got computers that take care of dialing now, so..."

"Really?" Melburn said. "That must be fascinating to see."

Seizing on the statement, Jack told him, "See for yourself. They'd be happy to demonstrate it for you back on Earth."

'Happy' was perhaps not the right word, given the circumstances surrounding their disappearance, and the Jacksons knew it. Claire's voice was just a little too casual when she said, "No, I think we'll pass on taking a trip back. We've got our family to think about now." Before he could try again with a more direct approach, she turned the tables and asked, "I remember you had a wife, isn't that right, Colonel? Any kids of your own?"

Jack's mind blanked for a moment. To recover, he looked around the room in feigned interest, then managed, "Not anymore." He turned back to see them exchanging another glance, so he fumbled for a topic and said, "I hope you taught those kids back there about gun safety," which, as it turned out, wasn't so much of a change in topic after all.

"Oh, of course," Melburn said, his tone saying that any idiot would have done the same. Jack smiled politely around clenched teeth. "There were lots of eager volunteers from the start—wanting to be like the great Jack O'Neill, no doubt—so we made sure to be careful. By the way..." Melburn paused to pull something out of a bag he was carrying.

"The people here are very grateful to you," Claire said, "and so are we, for letting us stay here when you left. But since the truth can't stay buried forever...well, we've kept journals."

Melburn handed him two notebooks—bound notebooks, from Earth, no doubt. "What's this?" Jack said.

"Records of the mission and some of what happened afterward," Melburn said. "If the truth about Abydos is out, now, maybe you should take these back to Earth with you. All the information we gathered is in there, including things you weren't present for during the mission. Of course, you'd be welcome to return to Abydos, as long as the people here aren't disturbed or harmed."

Jack tried to think of a polite way to say, 'I'm taking you back with me if I have to drag you.' "You sure you want to give these to me?" he said.

"We trust you, Colonel. No offense to the people you work for," Claire said delicately, "but last time the Stargate was opened, this place barely escaped being destroyed. You know better than we do what kind of information might cause a repeat of that."

Then he realized what they were really asking. They wanted him to use what information Earth needed, but not to let the wrong people get information that might harm Abydos. He decided that now was not the right time to tell them that Abydos had barely escaped another nuke sometime in the last seventy-two hours.

Well, what the heck. He'd lied in an official report before. This time, it would only be judicial editing, at the worst, and probably not even that. "I understand," he told them. He accepted the two notebooks—bound notebooks, from Earth, no doubt. "I'll make sure these are dealt with properly. You know, under the circumstances, I'm surprised you trust me that much."

Relief shone through their eyes. "Thank you," Melburn said earnestly. "After the way you helped these people, fighting on the ground with them—with us—instead of taking the easy way out with the bomb, I think we'd trust you with our first-born son. You're a good man, Colonel."

Jack cleared his throat. "Ah...right. Anyway, speaking of missions, we're not here just to take in the sights. Someone who looked like Ra came through our Stargate and attacked us, and we could use your help figuring out what's going on."

Claire winced. "I'm sorry to hear that...but what makes you think they came from here?"

...x...

10 October 1997; Nagada, Abydos; 1430 hrs

"So there are other Stargates?" Captain Carter asked when they returned and filled her in. "I don't think that's possible."

"Why not?" Claire asked, her voice mild but with an edge of challenge. A burst of laughter interrupted them, and they turned in amusement to see Air Force officers sharing a joke with the Abydons, Daniel doing his best to chatter animatedly with all of them at once. Jack shook his head as Kawalsky choked on some drink to a renewed round of laughs and returned his attention to the conversation.

"Well, after you came here, to Abydos, people on Earth kept trying to reach other 'gates," Carter said. "We've tried literally hundreds of different permutations of the symbols, using Earth as the point of origin, and nothing's worked."

"We tried the same with a few of the addresses we found, and none of them worked," Melburn admitted, "but we think the Stargates at those destinations might have been buried or destroyed. That's why we unburied our 'gate in the first place, after our son wandered into that room and discovered all the cartouches. We're pretty sure they're all addresses—coordinates."

"I don't think so," Carter insisted, still skeptical.

"This Ra look-alike that came through your 'gate had to have come from somewhere," Melburn pointed out, "and we'd know if anything happened on our end."

"Okay," Carter conceded, "but I still don't see how..."

"Well, we're not astrophysicists," Claire put in, "but celestial objects aren't stationary, are they? The coordinates might have been right when they were recorded thousands of years ago, but..."

"Oh, of course!" Carter's back snapped straight, her eyes lighting up in excitement. "According to the expanding universe model...oh, geez—"

"—and accounting for the movement of stars through the galaxy—" Claire inserted smoothly, nodding.

"Right, right, then—"

"—then, the relative position of..." Melburn put in somewhere between the two of them.

Jack let his eyes widen, then glaze over as the three of them geeked out. He tuned back in when they stopped to take a breath, grinning happily at each other, which he took as his signal that a conclusion had been reached. "So," he said, "what did we just figure out?"

"Sir, we need to get those addresses down," Carter said.

"It'll take some long time to copy them all," Melburn warned them. "I mean, it's a big room."

"Not a problem," Carter assured him. "I'll just get footage of everything, and we can sort them out when we get back. Sir, permission to..."

"Yeah, sure," Jack said, waving his hand and pushing himself to his feet. "Come on, and bring your camera."

"Colonel, do you think you can find the place on your own?" Claire asked, her eyes flicking to her son, who was grinning at something Ferretti said. He then did a one-eighty and said something to one of the native women, who answered him while playfully flicking the hair from his eyes, eliciting a disgruntled "Pari, Sha'uri."

Convincing the Jacksons to return to Earth would take more effort than Jack had expected. Having kids changed things.

"Sure, I remember where it was," Jack said, pushing that objective aside for the moment. "Go on," he added when Daniel waved at her. "Carter, let's go. Kawalsky," he called, beckoning to his second-in-command.

The Jacksons beamed at him. Claire gave him a friendly pat on the arm, and then they joined the others.

Kawalsky's head came up, and he trotted over to join them. "What's up, sir?"

"There's a room filled with Stargate addresses," Jack told him.

He frowned. "You mean, other Stargates?"

"That's right. Captain Carter's going to record the walls on video, and we're going to watch her back while she's at it."

Carter paused for a brief second as they started off. "Sir, with all due respect, I can take care of mysel—"

"This isn't about where your damn sex organs go, Captain," Jack cut her off, not in the mood to deal with the feminist chip on her shoulder. Carter flushed slightly at the reminder of her own words. "I need you to pay attention to what you're doing. The sooner you're done, the sooner we go home. If you want, Kawalsky can handle the camera and you can watch his back."

"Yes, sir," Carter said. "And, no, sir, I'll handle it."

"But she's right, too, Colonel," Kawalsky said. "I don't think we need to worry about the Abydons doing anything to us."

"It's not the Abydons I'm worried about," Jack said. "At least some of the men still remember us, I think, but this is still unknown territory for now."

"Yes, sir," Kawalsky said. "Oh, wait 'til you hear this: you remember that little kid, Skaara, from when we were here before? He was, what, five? Running around everywhere and trying to get at the artillery and join in..."

"Kasuf's kid," Jack recalled.

"Yeah, well, he's in charge of the 'gate guards now."

Jack only remembered the boy as being constantly underfoot and fearlessly brave in the way only small children could be; it was surprisingly easy for him to reconcile that child with a young man who'd pointed a gun at them earlier that night. "I'm not surprised."

"Yes, sir. That kid had cojones, you gotta give him that," Kawalsky said.

"Hope he's got more sense than he had last time we met him," Jack said.

XXXXX

10 October 1997; SGC, Earth; 1900 hrs

Recording the data was boring, but easy. Returning to base camp, though, was a different story.

Jack made his way through a blur of petrified and bleeding and dying and dead men and women in the 'gate room of the pyramid, trying—and likely failing—to cover his frustration as he slowly pieced together what had happened, until—

"Medic!" Kawalsky was already yelling by the time Jack ran through the ring into Stargate Command. "Get the medic!"

"Close the iris!" yelled another voice from behind the control room window.

"They're all through!"

"Close the iris!"

"Wormhole disengaged!"

A metallic sound made Jack turn around, and when he saw the unfamiliar shield, he said, "What the hell is that?" General Hammond came into view. "Sir," he added.

"Get the gauze on him!"

"Our insurance against more surprises," Hammond said distractedly, looking around himself in confusion. "What the hell happened, Colonel?"

"...stop the bleeding from the..."

Jack tore his gaze away from Major Ferretti's prone form and answered, "Base camp was hit while Carter, Kawalsky, and I were away on recon, sir. Ferretti was injured. The rest of our men...didn't make it. Some of the locals didn't, either."

"Same hostiles who attacked us?"

"That's a fair guess, sir. The Abydon boys thought it was Ra—had the glowy eyes."

Hammond looked around. "Where are the Jacksons?"

Jack's jaw tightened. "Sir...I regret to inform you that Claire and Melburn Jackson were killed in the attack. Their son Daniel was kidnapped by the aliens, along with two of the native Abydons."

Hammond stared at him, and for a moment Jack thought he was about to say, You mean the way they were 'killed' the last time? But maybe the man could sense the truth in the statement this time, and he only said, "Take the night, Colonel, and get Major Ferretti to the infirmary. Meet me in the briefing room with the rest of your team first thing in the morning. I'm going to need to hear this."

"Yes, sir."

Jack remained standing, stiff and at attention, after the general had turned away. Kawalsky was hovering beside the medical staff working on Ferretti. Carter seemed unsure whether her attention should be on Kawalsky, Ferretti, or the general, and her wide eyes finally settled on Jack. Clenching his hands into fists, he called, "Carter, Kawalsky, debrief at 0900 tomorrow."

He should have stayed retired.

XXXXX

11 October 1997; SGC, Earth; 0900 hrs

"We arrived on Abydos and were met by the 'gate guards," Jack said the next morning. "Melburn and Claire Jackson—"

"Wait a minute, Colonel," Hammond interrupted. "By 'the 'gate guards,' you mean—"

"Native Abydons," Jack clarified. "The Jacksons set up a round-the-clock watch on the Stargate after they unburied it."

The general folded his hands on the table. "So they did unbury the 'gate. Anyone who knew how to use it could have come through."

"Yes, sir, but because of the guards, they were certain that the aliens who attacked us here did not come from the Abydos Stargate."

"And we're taking their word for it."

Jack bit down on the urge to say that the Abydonian people hadn't ever lied to them before, while the US Air Force couldn't claim the reverse was true. "I saw the looks on their faces after they were attacked, sir," Jack said. "I don't think they'd ever seen anything like it, either."

Hammond looked like he was willing to be swayed, but despite Jack's impatience, he understood the need to be absolutely sure, too. "I would have thought they'd seen something a lot like it before, under Ra," Hammond said.

"No, sir," Jack said. "Not necessarily. The 'gate guards are mostly teenaged boys—too young to remember much more than campfire stories about Ra."

"Besides," Kawalsky said, "the guys who attacked Abydos went somewhere through that 'gate. We know that for sure, and they didn't end up here."

Hammond's eyebrows shot up. "You're saying the Stargate isn't just two-way?"

"That's what the Jacksons think—thought, sir," Carter said. "They found a whole room filled with Stargate addresses, probably going all over the galaxy. Those aliens could have come from anywhere. Even if it wasn't Ra, it could have been someone related to him."

"His cousin Ray?" Kawalsky quipped.

"The same species," she retorted. "The reports from the Abydos mission said that Ra took over a human host. He sounds like some sort of parasite, and for all we know, there could be a whole race of them."

"The question I'm interested in now is where they went," Hammond said, "and whether we can stop them from coming here."

"They left through the Stargate before we got back," Jack said, "but we think Ferretti might have seen the symbols."

"What about the Abydonian people? Could one of them have seen?"

"I don't think so, sir," he answered. "From what we understood, Ferretti must have been the only one close enough to see and badly enough injured that the aliens either didn't bother with him. "

"From what you understood, Colonel?" Hammond repeated.

Jack grimaced. "I only speak a couple of words of the language. A few of them spoke enough English for us to communicate, but they were shaken up. And without the Jacksons or their son, we didn't have anyone to interpret."

It felt cheap to say, as if he only wished the archeologists hadn't died because they needed a translator. The image of Claire Jackson's eyes, glazed over in death, and Melburn's still body... He hoped their son hadn't seen it happen. No, wait—he hoped the son wasn't dead.

"And their son," Hammond said, as if reading his mind. "He was taken by the aliens?"

"Yes, sir. I got that much out of them. Daniel Jackson and the two children of their leader." Skaara and the daughter whose name he'd never learned.

"And the Abydos Stargate? Is there a chance of going back if we do find another interpreter?"

Jack grimaced. "I told them to bury the 'gate, sir."

Hammond was quiet for a moment. "So we won't be able to get back through if we need it."

"The point was that no one could get through it to their side, since they have no way to defend themselves. But...they said they'd open it again for us, in exactly one year, in the hope that we'll find their people. If we don't send a message through then, they'll bury it forever."

"I see," Hammond said noncommittally. "So they think we're going to look for their people."

"General, if Ferretti remembers those symbols, we can go find them," Jack said. Abydos wasn't their home, but it still felt wrong to leave the captured kids to their own devices, and if the Jackson boy was still alive, they owed it to his parents to bring him home safe. Not to mention Sergeant Weterings, who'd been taken from Earth in the first attack—they could bring her back, too.

("...trust you with our first-born son.")

Jack really wished they'd rephrased that.

"I'm not without sympathy for the people who were captured," Hammond said, "but I'm not sure it would be wise to open ourselves to attack. The people on Abydos are closing their 'gate, and I have half a mind to look for a way to destroy the Stargate on our side."

"With...all due respect, sir," Carter said, "we can't bury our heads in the sand. Think of what we could learn! These civilizations are obviously much more advanced than we are..."

"And they have ships," Jack added. "They found out fifteen years ago that we could be a threat to them, and now they know where we're from. If they can't get through the Stargate, they'll come in ships."

"Well, fortunately for you," Hammond said, including Jack and Carter both in his gaze, "the President happens to agree. We will be forming nine teams to perform reconnaissance, identify threats, and, if possible, make peaceful contact with the inhabitants of the worlds we find. Obviously, our first priority is to deal with the current situation. Colonel, if you had to defend yourself from these hostiles in the field, could you do it?"

Jack shrugged. "We beat him once—or someone a heckuva lot like him."

"I'll take that as a 'maybe,'" Hammond said dryly. "Captain Carter, you're confident the new coordinates will work?"

"It'll take time, but yes, we should have two or three viable revised addresses a month," she said.

"Good. Colonel O'Neill..."

"Sir?" Jack said.

"You will lead the team designated SG-1," the general said. "The team will consist of you, Captain Carter, and at least two other officers to be assigned after this mission. Major Kawalsky, you will lead Captains Casey and Warren on SG-2."

Kawalsky looked up, surprised. "I will? I mean, yes, sir."

"For this mission, you will both proceed to the location that Major Ferretti identifies, if he can," Hammond went on. "This is reconnaissance. Liberate the captives if possible, and if you meet the hostiles in battle, attempt to eliminate them, but your primary task is to assess the threat."

"Sir?" Heads turned as Major Samuels stood, a note in his hand. "Ferretti's awake. It looks like he remembers the symbols."

Jack was out of the room while Carter was still saying, "Then we can go as soon as I've adjusted the coordinates for..."

XXXXX

12 October 1997; Chulak; 1600 hrs

They wasted nearly half of their allotted twenty-four hours trying to sneak around the new planet. As it turned out, accidentally stumbling into a patrol of people who didn't speak any language they recognized had turned out to be the quickest way to get anywhere.

"Um," Carter said once the two of them had been thrown into a dungeon full of people. "I think we found the captives, sir."

"Well, that didn't take long," Jack tossed back, picking himself off the ground. Unfortunately, they hadn't recognized any language that anyone else was speaking, which could be a little problem, since it also didn't look like anyone wanted to let them out.

"On the bright side..." Carter started.

"...we did find them," he conceded, looking around at the other prisoners, huddled in varying states of fear and confusion. "In a manner of speaking."

"I was going to say they haven't killed us, sir."

"That too," he allowed, turning and feeling her match his movements until they stood nearly back-to-back, eyes scanning the space around them.

"Although what worries me more is why they didn't kill us," she went on matter-of-factly, "and that we have no way of communicating around here. Or of getting out before Major Kawalsky and the rest have to dial back home, which will happen in...less than eight hours."

Jack broke off his survey of the room to scowl at her. "You're a pessimistic sort of person, aren't you, Carter?"

"No, sir, I don't think so, though it seems appropriate at the moment. But on the bright side..."

"How 'bout we leave the bright sides alone for now, Captain," he said.

"Yes, si—"

"Hello?" a voice called. They both spun around to see someone stop short at their sudden movement. Bright blue eyes blinked out at them, and soon, normally light hair dulled by dirt and grime followed out of the shadows. "H-hello? Are you...um, from Earth?"

Carter bent forward in the dim light. "Daniel? Daniel Jackson! Is that you?"

The boy froze, then came out further. "Captain-Doctor? And O'Neill—um...Colonel."

"Yeah, kid," Jack said, recognizing the not-quite-believing expression he'd seen on Melburn Jackson's face in the past, the wondering tilt of the head that came from Claire. He mouthed 'Captain-Doctor?' at Carter, who flushed a little, then said, "It's us. O'Neill and Carter. We've been looking for you."

Still almost completely unmoving where he was, Daniel's gaze darted around the room. "How did they catch you?" he said nervously. "You weren't there when they came for us in Nagada."

"We came here looking for you," Jack told him. "We're here to rescue you."

Daniel seemed to think that was pretty lame, because he straightened slightly from where he'd been crouching on the ground, looking thoroughly unimpressed. His eyes flicked briefly to the barred entrance sealing them all in here. "Oh," he said. "Well...good."

"I'm working on it," Jack said defensively.

Daniel blinked at him. "Colonel O'Neill," he said carefully, hesitantly, "did you see—are my parents with you? I saw, in Nagada, they...they...but they're...? Are they?"

Jack felt his jaw trying to clench and forced himself to relax enough to say, "No, Daniel. I'm sorry. Your parents...didn't make it." Daniel flinched like he'd been hit and took a step back. Jack winced and started to approach, bending lower. "Listen, we—"

"Na nay!" Daniel growled, wrapping his arms around himself as if cold but glaring at him. "Nutei soi! Go away!"

"Daniel—" Jack started again, reaching out to...well, something. Pat the kid on the head, maybe.

"Stop!" Another boy—in his upper teens, maybe early twenties—appeared suddenly in front of Daniel like a shield, and Jack stepped back, startled. His coloring was darker, like a native Abydon's, and his accent bled through more thickly. "You will stay away," the boy ordered fiercely. "Rhe'u!"

Jack looked up to exchange a look with Carter, then turned back. "You're one of the ones who were taken on Abydos," he said, vaguely remembering the face now. "Skaara, right? Kasuf's son? You were guarding the Stargate. The, uh...the..."

"The cha-pai," Carter put in, sounding out the foreign word carefully.

"We're not trying to hurt you, or Daniel," Jack assured Skaara. "We came here when we found out you were taken by...the guy who looked like Ra. Glowy-eyes guy."

Skaara's eyes remained narrowed in suspicion, but he only glanced back and said, "Dan'yel? Mi'la tu'tu?"

Daniel broke off his glare and mumbled something back. Skaara dropped a brotherly hand onto Daniel's shoulder, then turned Jack again. "You are O'Neill?" Skaara asked. Jack nodded. "Claire and Mel say you helped them," he continued. "We all hear stories of how you killed Ra."

"That's right," Jack said. "Claire and, uh, Mel and I...we helped kill Ra."

"Then it is true?" Skaara pressed. "We saw them fall at the chaapa'ai, but we did not believe."

Jack hesitated slightly, then said simply, "You saw right." He looked past Skaara to Daniel, who had uncurled himself. His face was dry and his expression seemed to be closer to shock than grief, but Jack knew all too well that would come later, when there wasn't so much effort spent on being tired and scared.

Before he could think of something to say, however, Daniel dropped to sit on the ground and muttered, "Sorry."

"You've got nothing to be sorry about," Jack answered automatically, a little taken aback by the change in mood.

"I was rude," he argued stubbornly.

"Hey, I'm ruder than that on my best days." Jack paused, then asked, "Okay?"

Daniel didn't answer, but he looked up at Skaara, then said to Jack and Carter, who'd dropped into a crouch next to him, "They...they took away Sha'uri."

Jack spent a moment trying to remember if that was a word he knew before realizing it was a name.

"My elder sister," Skaara said, rage and of terror both clear on his face. "She was like a sister to Claire also. And to Dan'yel."

"They...they took her?" Jack asked. "Who? Do you recognize them?"

"It was Ra." Skaara's voice was hushed, the way children told ghost stories at night. "I remember him, from many years ago. His eyes had light."

"Light," Carter repeated. "So either Ra isn't dead, after all, or..."

"It was not Ra," Daniel said, finally meeting Jack's eyes again. "It was Apep. I think I heard them call him Apophis here."

Jack was starting to wonder if maybe this kid was speaking another language after all. "It was who?"

"Another false god—it must be he," Daniel said authoritatively. "I've read some of my pa...some of the books from Earth, with the myths of the gods. Ra ruled the day; Apophis the serpent ruled the darkness. The Jaffa here wear his mark." When Jack stared blankly at him, he explained impatiently, "The men who guard us. Them call themselves 'Jaffa,' and they wear a mark that represents Apophis."

"You mean the little snake doohickey they've all got on their foreheads?" Jack said, peering more closely at one of the guards near the entrance.

"The...the what?" Daniel said. Apparently, his English didn't extend to words like 'doohickey.'

"Never mind," Jack said. "I get the picture."

"We will save Sha'uri?" Skaara asked. He'd dropped his defensive stance and looked for all the world like a young soldier waiting for orders, hoping—trusting—that his CO would pull some brilliant solution out of his ass. Unfortunately, this time...

"I can't promise you anything at the moment," Jack said frankly. They had no idea whether or not the woman was even still alive.

"But you are great warrior," the boy insisted. "I hear—"

"—stories, yeah, I got that. Listen, Skaara, I want to save your sister, too, but first we have to find a way out of here. We'll try, but we have to save who we can." He tilted his head significantly toward Daniel, feeling a little guilty for using the Abydon's obvious protectiveness against him, but it was a preferable alternative to letting everyone get killed. They were on a time limit, too—Kawalsky's team would leave soon...at least, if the man followed his orders.

Sure enough, Skaara threw another longing glance toward the guarded exit, but nodded. "I understand, O'Neill."

"Good man," Jack said, sizing up his new recruit. When Skaara straightened just a little bit at the praise, he made sure to continue in the same, hearty tone, "So, Danny—"

"Daniel," the boy said sharply.

Jack paused. So this boy wasn't going to be mollified with enthusiasm. Fine. No one strategy could fit all. "Daniel," he amended, keeping his voice calm. "We might need your help, okay?"

Carter shifted next to him, looking doubtfully at the boy.

"There are a lot of people in here," Jack continued. He'd relied on kids little older than Daniel to fight a war before, when was no other choice. They'd have time to coddle if—when—they got out of this place. A dungeon was not the place for a breakdown. If Daniel was anything like his parents, the one thing that could keep him focused was to have a task to do, and besides, it might actually prove helpful. "You speak a few languages, right?"

Daniel squinted uncertainly at him. "About twelve. Or maybe nine or ten, depending on whether you count related dialects, and I cannot claim to be completely fluent in—"

"Okay, that's...right, fine," Jack interrupted hastily. Twelve? Geez. "Well, if we're going to get out, we'll need every person in here to move it, exactly when we say to move. No hesitation. Can you speak the same language as other people in here?"

"I...I don't know; I haven't met everyone. But I think...mostly it's the Jaffa's language, and I figured out a few words. Some of them speak something similar to Abydonian dialects. There was no English that I heard, but—"

"Good," Jack cut in again. Get the kid started, and he'd probably never shut up. Then he realized that no English-speakers meant their kidnapped sergeant probably wasn't here anymore. That thought wasn't helpful. He pushed it aside for now. "Now—"

Then the sound of grinding metal caught his attention, and he jumped to his feet. A ripple seemed to move through the room as some of the captives sprang upright and others shuffled away. Those Jaffa guards with the black snake tattoos on their heads were coming in.

And if it hadn't been bad enough as it was, the one in front had a gold mark and was, no question, a very large man, especially with the thick armor he wore. It was not a comforting sight.

"That's the guy in charge?" Jack asked quietly.

"In charge of the Jaffa, I think," Daniel said, already standing as well, his body screaming tension. When Jack glanced at him, he clarified, "He is not in charge of Apophis."

"Shaka ha!" the man shouted suddenly, making Jack tense in anticipation. "Kree hol mel Goa'uld!"

"You know what he's saying?" Jack murmured.

It was Skaara who answered, "They are going to choose who will become the children of the gods."

Oh. Well, that explained everything. "What does that mean?" Jack said.

The guard's eyes found their small group, as if he'd heard them whispering, and he ground out, "Ya wan ya daru! Show respect to your masters!"

As if the words were a cue, a young-looking man—though Jack knew enough not to trust appearances—appeared at the entrance, flanked by more of his guards. A woman, wearing a veil over her face, stood beside him.

"That's Apophis," Daniel murmured.

When Apophis spoke, the voice still threw him, even though he should have been expecting it after having met Ra. The overlaid tones, deeper than it should have been out of the man that stood there, unnatural in a way that screamed wrong wrong wrong, were enough to make his skin crawl.

Apophis rumbled out something Jack didn't understand, then repeated it again, in another language, until finally, in English, "Behold...your queen!"

The woman lifted her veil and swept her gaze over the crowd, pride and confidence shining clearly through the regal bearing and the Abydonian features.

"Sha'uri," Skaara's voice whispered from behind, and then he was pushing past. Daniel moved to follow, and Jack barely had time to catch his wiry arms, pulling him back even as he struggled to free himself from Jack's grip. "Sha'uri!" Skaara repeated, louder, echoed by Daniel's voice.

"Daniel, Skaara," Jack warned.

"They're parasites, sir," Carter said softly, urgently, at his side. "She could be infected."

Neither of the boys paid any attention, and Skaara shouted again, "Sha'uri!" The woman turned a cold gaze onto their group.

Her eyes flashed.

Daniel froze in Jack's grip. Skaara stopped, too, and took an uncertain step back, just before his sister raised a hand encased in a metallic device, and he flew back to land in a sprawled heap on the ground.

'Infected-by-alien-parasite' was starting to look like a strong possibility.

"Skaara?" Daniel said, horrified, then whipped his head toward the man standing before them. "Apophis!" he shouted.

"Holy crap, kid, shut up," Jack hissed, trying unsuccessfully to clamp a hand over the boy's mouth.

"Na nay!" Daniel snarled. "False god! Ne way na ga we!"

The Jaffa with the gold brand twitched, and Jack glanced in his direction, tightening his grip on Daniel's arms. The Jaffa was looking at Daniel with an odd expression stealing over his otherwise impassive face. For a brief instant, his eyes met Jack's over Daniel's head.

It didn't last long, though. The Jaffa's gaze hardened, and he took a few steps toward them. Daniel stilled, as if unsure whether to pull away or shrink back. Jack instinctively straightened and started to push the boy behind himself when the Jaffa reached out and grabbed Jack's wrist, his deep voice barking out a question they couldn't understand.

"Uh, sorry," Jack said, not sorry at all, except that he wanted his arm back. "I'm new here."

"What is this?" the other growled, in English this time. "This is not Goa'uld technology."

"Nope," Jack agreed, still not sure what 'Goa'uld' meant. "It's a watch."

"Where are you from?" the Jaffa persisted.

"Earth," Jack said, then shrugged. "Well, Chicago, if you wanna be specific..."

"Your words mean nothing!" the guard said, dropping Jack's wrist. "You will kneel to your god!"

That woke Daniel, who said defiantly, "We will not be slaves to a false god."

"Dan'yel," Skaara said, stumbling to his feet again and clamping a hand on the boy's arm. Jack had just begun to hope that maybe Skaara would be able to shut the kid up when Skaara leaned forward and spat at the guard.

Jack wanted to slap a hand over his eyes. Maybe there was something in the air on Abydos that made the kids stupid. They had spirit, okay, but still. Stupid.

Then Apophis came forward, Sha'uri trailing behind him with that disturbing smirk on her otherwise flawless face. "They are passionate," he said, his voice distorted. "Worthy to be hosts to our heirs."

"They are too young," the alien wearing Sha'uri's body said. Skaara recoiled upon hearing her voice, and Daniel shuddered. "Too weak. A warrior must be strong."

"Perhaps," Apophis acknowledged, considering, then hooked a hand under Skaara's chin. "But this one is old enough. Perfect. A fine specimen."

"Hey!" Jack snapped. "Get your hands—"

Stars exploded in his vision as someone's fist slammed into the side of his head. As he rose dizzily again, he heard, "We choose him."

"Na nay!"

Jack pulled his eyes open and found Skaara's wide eyes on him as he struggled fiercely against the guards dragging him away.

"Skaara!" Daniel screamed. Carter lunged for him and pinned his arms against his body as he started forward. "Skaara!"

"Dan'yel!" Skaara cried. "O'Neill! Dan'yel! Na nay...Na nay!"

"Dammit," Jack spat. "Skaara! Let go of him! Skaara!"

But more arms blocked his path, until he was left with only the sneering face of Apophis. Skaara's voice was fading as he disappeared out of sight. Apophis turned to the Jaffa and ordered, "Kill the rest."

Then he whirled and left, the door slamming shut behind him and his queen.

The familiar sound of a priming staff weapon—many priming staff weapons—made Jack jerk around to face the line of guards who stood before them.

Another staff weapon activated, and Jack found himself staring into the eyes of the Jaffa leader. A choking sound came from a few feet away, where Daniel, wide-eyed and trembling next to Carter, was still looking in the direction Skaara had been taken. The head Jaffa's gaze flicked for a moment toward the shocked boy, pausing.

And Jack made his decision. "I can save these people!" he shouted, not backing away when the weapon swung toward him. "Help me!" A flash of hope darted across the man's face, and Jack erased all trace of desperation from his voice as he repeated firmly, "Help me."

The Jaffa's eyes narrowed. "Many have said that," he replied bitterly, and Jack felt his heart sink.

Then the Jaffa whirled and blasted his own man off his feet. He tossed the staff weapon toward Jack, who caught it with a fierce surge of adrenaline as the Jaffa roared, "But you are the first I believe could do it!"

Chaos broke out as the guards were still for a few seconds, confusion making them hesitate. By then, their leader had moved back to crouch side by side with Jack, and the two of them had taken out half of the line before having to start dodging return fire.

A small voice rose over the captives' shouts. "Bradio, bradio!"

Ducking a streaking flash of energy, Jack turned and saw the prisoners scrambling into corners and hiding where they could. Daniel was at the back of the room with Carter, yelling at people as he and Carter shepherded them behind what little cover there was. His voice was cut off for a moment as she yanked him to the ground, just barely ducking a stray staff blast. When Jack looked back, the Jaffa at his side let loose a final blast, and the last of the hostiles dropped—dead or incapacitated, he wasn't sure and didn't really care—and they were done.

Fixing his attention at the back wall, Jack yelled, "Get down! Get out of the way!" It didn't matter what language he spoke, he figured, since the people still alive hugged their walls tighter at the sight of a man screaming at them and pointing a staff weapon.

One blast, two...and they were free. Almost.

Carter was the first one on her feet and scrambled to take position outside the small hole in the wall. Daniel scampered after her but stationed himself inside the dungeon, still shouting, "Bradio! Re!" Slowly, then in a rush, the prisoners peeled themselves away and fled toward freedom.

Something strangely like pride rose at the sight, but then the last of the prisoners threw himself out of the room and there was no time for anything else but escape.

"Carter, go!" Jack ordered. "Take 'em to the Stargate!"

"Yes, sir!" she answered, already running out of sight.

"Daniel, stay with her!" Daniel didn't move, his gaze fixed on the unmoving form of a captive who'd been too slow to escape a stray staff blast. "Daniel Jackson!" Jack shouted. The boy's eyes snapped to him. "Follow Captain Carter! Don't get separated!"

Jack watched him nod jerkily and stumble out, then ducked to fit through the hole himself. He paused when he realized he could no longer feel the Jaffa's presence beside him. "Hey, c'mon!" he called when the man stood his place, staring about himself at the destruction.

The Jaffa met his eyes again, all expression erased. "I have nowhere to go," he intoned flatly.

"For this," Jack replied, beckoning impatiently, "you can stay at my place. Let's go!"

The man tilted his head, as if considering, assessing, then made an odd motion, almost like a bow, before following Jack through the wall.

"What's your name?" Jack asked.

The Jaffa glanced at him, then, back into the distance. "Teal'c."

"Teal'c, where will they take Skaara and Sha'uri—the hosts?"

Hefting his weapon, the man started off, Jack trotting beside him. "To the chaapa'ai. The Stargate."

Jack picked up their pace. "Guess we're all going the same way, then."

From the next chapter ("Stargate Command"):

Daniel squirmed again and shrugged Jack's hand off, taking two steps back to fold his arms across his chest like a shield and glared at Jack this time, looking insulted and disgruntled and distrustful all at once. "And don't patronize me, either."