Paws In the Moonlight
The wolves were waiting when they came through the Gate, circling the magic glowing portal. The instant Jack saw them, he brought his P90 to bear on the creatures, Sam following suit. Teal'c held his weapon at the ready, as always, but did not assume a threatening combat stance. Daniel, on the other hand, made no move towards his weapon at all, instead stepping closer with his ever-constant curiosity.
"For God's sake, Daniel!" Jack hissed at the archaeologist.
"They're not threatening us," Daniel calmly replied and continued his slow advance, hands outstretched and opened in a non-threatening manner to the seated wolves. "Hey there," he continued in a soothing tone.
"Are you trying to talk to those things?" Jack asked in disbelief, P90 unwavering.
"I think they're intelligent," Daniel said, slowly gesturing towards the wolves. Now that he was looking, Jack could see that parts of their fur had been dyed in patterns with beads interwoven. The alpha male, a large white specimen, had an eagle's feather attached to the side of his neck.
Coming to a stop in front of the wolf, Daniel kneeled down to be at eye level. "I'm Daniel," he told it, tapping his chest.
In an unmistakable gesture, the wolf bowed his head to the human before raising crystal green eyes to inspect the visitors. Daniel held perfectly still as the alpha circled him.
Jack tightened his grip on his gun, ready to fire if the beast made any threatening moves towards any of his teammates. "Daniel, you better know what you're doing," he muttered.
Apparently satisfied with what he saw, the alpha turned to the other wolves and yipped once. Without hesitation they got to their paws and bounded into the dark forest.
Daniel barely noticed their departure, entranced by the piercing gaze of the alpha. Slowly, unsure of his reception, he stretched his hand out to the wolf.
A flash of something in its eyes was the only warning he got before sharp teeth sank into his skin. Daniel yelped and pulled his hand free, jumping back from the alpha.
Jack opened fire, bullets raking the ground at its paws, trying to drive it away from Daniel so he could get a clear shot.
"No!" Daniel yelled in alarm. "Don't hurt him!"
The wolf, looking almost taken aback, took the opportunity to make a break for the forest. Jack cursed as it vanished into the dark cover of the trees.
"You okay?" Sam asked, coming up next to him but not relaxing her guard.
Daniel looked down at his hand, still trying to grasp what had happened. The wolf's teeth had punctured the skin just above his wrist, leaving rows of bleeding wounds.
"You are injured," Teal'c observed in concern.
"I'll be fine," Daniel protested, digging out a strip of gauze and clumsily trying to bandage himself.
"Here, let me," Sam offered, and Daniel let her wrap it snugly over the wound. "We should get that looked at; there's no telling what kind of bacteria that thing was carrying."
Daniel hadn't considered that, but he still felt like there wasn't anything malicious in the alpha wolf's actions. "Okay, I guess so," he conceded.
"Well I don't see any signs of infection," Janet announced after a careful inspection of Daniel's hand. "We'll wait for your bloodwork to come back before letting you go off base, but for now you can go to the debriefing."
"Thanks." Daniel hopped off the gurney and exited, unsurprised to find Jack hanging around in the corridor. "Here to walk me to the briefing room?" he teased.
"Very funny." Jack gave him a stern look. "That thing could've taken your whole hand off; you're lucky it only bit you. What were you thinking?"
"I was doing my job," Daniel replied, swiping his access card for the elevator.
"Somehow I think I missed 'petting the wildlife' on the job description," Jack pointed out, prodding the elevator floor button.
"I was communicating," Daniel replied, rolling his eyes. "As in making it so we don't have to shoot potential friendlies, especially when outnumbered."
They were almost to the briefing room when everything abruptly came into sharp focus: sight, smells, sound, everything. Daniel stumbled slightly, catching himself with a hand on the wall and closing his eyes for a second.
"Whoa, you okay?" Jack's worried tones echoed loudly in his suddenly-sensitive hearing, and he winced at the volume.
"Yeah," he forced out, straightening with some effort. "I'm fine, Jack."
Jack looked like he didn't believe a word of it, and if Daniel looked as bad as he felt, he couldn't blame him. "As soon as the debriefing is done, your ass is going back to the infirmary," he ordered, then raised a finger to head off his friend's protest. "Ah! Infirmary, Daniel."
"Yes, Colonel Dad, sir," the archaeologist muttered, ducking a swipe at his head, grinning.
Throughout the debriefing, Daniel felt unexpectedly on-edge. He knew the other noticed his restlessness but they said nothing. His senses remained almost unnaturally sharp, except for colors, which were becoming slightly less vivid. The old dust burned his nose and he sneezed repeatedly, interrupting Jack's report.
"You sure you're okay?" Sam asked in concern.
"I'm fine," he insisted, embarrassed. "It's just allergies."
"Does anyone else have anything to report?" Hammond asked, drawing attention away from the archaeologist's predicament. When no further information was forthcoming, he continued, "Doctor Jackson, report back to the infirmary. Dismissed."
"So, Doc, he's fine, right?" Jack said as he strolled into the infirmary, teammates in tow.
Janet looked up from her microscope with a somewhat puzzled look on her face. "Actually, sir, Daniel's blood is showing signs of a virus, but not a type I've ever seen before."
Everyone turned to face Daniel, who looked startled. "But I..." he trailed off as Janet snagged his sleeve and hauled him over to an infirmary bed to examine him.
"Be honest, Daniel, this is very important," she said sternly, looking him in the eye. "How do you feel?"
Daniel briefly considered lying and insisting he was fine, but it was obvious they weren't buying it. "Everything seems...weird," he admitted hesitantly, struggling to find the words. "It's hard to explain, I just...it's like..."
"Take your time," Janet told him, taking his temperature.
"It's almost like I've been, I dunno, living in a bubble for my whole life and now I'm not in it anymore," Daniel finally said. "All my senses...you wouldn't believe how much I can hear, and smell...!"
"What about your vision?" Janet inquired, immediately turning her examination to the inside of his ears. "I can see you're squinting with your glasses still on."
Daniel fought the urge to pull away from the embarrassing intrusion, in front of God and everybody. Instead he took off his glasses and looked over at an eye chart on Janet's office door, twenty-five feet away. "Smallest print on that eye chart says 'copyright 1996 Vision Works.'"
Teal'c moved over to the chart, silently reading the tiny print at the bottom corner of the poster. "It is indeed as DanielJackson has said," he affirmed, turning to give the archaeologist a strange look. Even Daniel was a bit shaken, and he dropped his glasses onto the bed.
"It's a lot sharper than even before I needed glasses," he said, the weirdness of the situation starting to make him nervous. "It's not perfect though...at first I thought it was my imagination, but colors are getting duller."
"All right, everyone out," Janet ordered, gathering up medical equipment. "I'm going to run a full set of tests, which may take awhile."
"She can't find anything wrong?" Jack repeated skeptically as they moved through the lunch line. "I find that hard to believe."
"Nothing wrong," Daniel emphasized, heaping his tray with roast beef. "She did find differences in my physiology but nothing negative yet."
"See, it's the 'yet' part that worries me," Jack said, eyeing the sheer volume of meat on Daniel's plate. Deciding to stop the archaeologist before he took it all, he reached over to grab the fork away.
Both men were taken by surprise when Daniel jerked his food away protectively and literally growled at the colonel. There was a tense moment in which something new flashed in Daniel's eyes, then it was replaced by embarrassment. "Sorry, I...I don't know why I just did that."
"Daniel...you sure there's nothing wrong with you?" Jack repeated in concern, keeping his hands well away from his friend's tray lest Daniel actually bite him this time.
Before Daniel could respond, there was a blur of motion and a gunshot. Daniel's face showed sheer surprise, then he slowly toppled over, food scattering as the tray fell from lifeless hands. Jack stared in horror at the blood that saturated the archaeologist's jacket, right over his heart and spreading on the cold concrete floor.
Full of rage and grief, Jack sought out Daniel's murderer and found him with an arm around a civilian woman's neck, still-hot gun pressed to her temple. "Don't try to stop me or the precious civvie gets it!" the man snarled, yanking the scientist backwards towards Daniel's motionless body. No one dared stop him.
An inhuman howl split the air as the dead man lunged up, slamming the killer's feet out from under him before pouncing, straddling the traitor's chest. Unnaturally strong hands latched around the terrified assassin's throat and squeezed like a vice. His eyes bulged in terror as he struggled against an unbreakable iron grip.
Jack managed to push aside the absolute shock, and knelt at the formerly dead man's side. "Daniel, stop! We need him alive!" he said, although he wouldn't shed a bitter tear if Daniel snapped this guy's neck like a dry twig.
Just when it seemed Daniel was going to do just that, he released his grip and slugged the assassin across the face, knocking him cold. Slowly, he raised haunted blue eyes to meet those of the colonel. "Oh God, Jack...what is happening to me?"
"I don't know," Jack said, helping him stand and doing his best to ignore the frightening amount of blood. "But I'll make sure we find out. Come on."
For a third time that day, Daniel found himself stepping into the infirmary. Sam, who had been looking over the alien virus with Janet, gasped in horror at the state of the archaeologist's uniform. Hardly an inch below his shoulders was free of blood, and he left a trail of crimson bootprints behind on the concrete.
"What happened?" Janet demanded urgently, pulling Daniel's sodden jacket away from his chest, her face paling.
"He got shot," Jack said bluntly, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Through the heart, no less. Some crazy bastard jumped him in the commissary."
Janet's obvious concern ratcheted up a few notches at this news, which then turned to confusion as she yanked Daniel's T-shirt up and wiped away copious smears of blood to reveal only slightly reddened skin. "I don't understand," she exclaimed in surprise. "There's...there's no wound."
"That's the thing," Daniel said dryly, running his hand over where he had been fatally shot. "I'm not dead anymore, either."
Janet pressed lightly over the spot he indicated, then a little harder when he didn't react. "Does this hurt at all?"
Daniel shook his head. "Only a small ache now, and it's fading."
"I want to get a chest x-ray on you just in case," the doctor ordered, and Daniel didn't bother protesting. Something was seriously wrong with him, and denying it wasn't going to change a damn thing.
Within the hour, Janet
finished with her tests and called General Hammond and the rest of
SG-1 to the infirmary lab. "What's the bad news, doc?" Jack
asked, sitting next to a silent Daniel.
"Well," Janet began, putting up her scan results, "this is an x-ray I took right after Daniel was shot." She circled the large white shape sitting inside Daniel's torso. "You can clearly see the bullet still inside his ribcage, just behind the heart. Now, I took another x-ray fifteen minutes ago." She put up another scan, and the bullet was noticeably smaller and somewhat misshapen. "It seems that Daniel's body is treating the bullet like a disease, and is breaking it down and absorbing it into his bloodstream. I've never seen anything like this."
"Okay, how is that even possible?" Jack asked in amazement.
"It's the virus," Janet explained. "As near as I can tell, it's literally rewriting Daniel's DNA. So far there haven't been any negative changes that I can detect, besides his decreased ability to see colors, but until we're sure nothing more serious is going to happen I'd like to keep him here for observation tonight."
Nurse Richards looked over the clipboard as she swiped her passcard to the isolation room. Patient Daniel Jackson, affected by unknown alien virus. She prayed he would recover soon - all the nurses at the SGC liked Doctor Jackson. He visited them often, usually against his will, but he was always polite and courteous to them.
Richards lifted her eyes to the bed in the center of the room, and was taken by surprise when she saw it was empty, the covers barely disturbed. She quickly scanned the room, not seeing the kind man anywhere. "Doctor Jackson?"
A strange noise came
from the other side of the bed. Concerned that Daniel might be in
distress, Richards quickly stepped to the end of the bed. A pair of
blue canine eyes met hers, and she jumped back with a gasp. The brown
wolf rose to its feet, but before it could do anything, the nurse ran
for the blast door and quickly closed it, trapping the animal inside
before sounding the alarm.
An hour later, Dr.
Fraiser and the rest of SG-1 were gathered in the observation room
above Daniel's isolation chamber. The wolf was curled up under the
bed in the middle of the room, eyeing the watchers from the relative
sanctuary of the shadows, looking quite lost.
"So you have no idea where this...thing came from?" Jack asked, gesturing vaguely.
"None," Teal'c replied, at somewhat of a loss for what to do. "The nurse on duty confirms that the door was locked the entire time."
"But then where did Daniel go?" Sam asked, bewildered. "The isolation rooms only unlock from the outside, and Daniel wouldn't just...leave, without telling anyone."
Jack looked down at the frightened canine. As if sensing his gaze, the wolf met his eyes. He felt a weird vibe as they looked at each other, and he suddenly came to a realization. "Let me in there," he ordered, heading for the door.
The guard looked at him oddly. "Sir?"
"Let me in there now, airman," Jack repeated, staring him down.
"Yes, sir." The soldier rested a hand on his sidearm as he unlocked the door, and stepped aside to let Jack through.
Jack moved into the room, acutely aware of the watchers in the window and hoping he wasn't making a big mistake. Slowly, he knelt next to the bed and reached out to the wolf. "Hey," he said softly. "C'mere."
Hesitantly, the wolf crawled out from under the bed. In the light, Jack could see a pair of blue scrub pants tangled around its back legs, the other half ripped and abandoned at the head of the bed. Whining slightly, it - or rather, he - let Jack touch him on top of his head. Jack moved his fingers in a soothing motion through the soft fur. "Daniel, how do you get into these situations?" he whispered.
Reassured that someone else had a clue what was going on, the blue-eyed wolf relaxed...
...and Jack abruptly found himself with an armful of baffled, half-dressed archaeologist.
"Jack?" Daniel gasped.
"Yeah," Jack said, looking up over the linguist's head at the astounded faces of Carter, Fraiser, and Teal'c.
Few things were able to surprise General Hammond anymore, but this was one of them. "What exactly does that mean?"
Sam hesitantly spoke up. "Daniel thinks the wolves on P4X-523 are the origin of the werewolf myths, sir."
The general pondered that for a moment. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by that, given what Doctor Jackson has been experiencing. Is he dangerous?"
"I'm not sure, sir," Janet admitted reluctantly, feeling sick at the thought that the kind, thoughtful archaeologist could ever be dangerous enough to be locked up. "He hasn't shown any inclination to infect anyone else, and to be honest, I don't see any evidence he can transmit his condition. It may have only been a fluke, or perhaps since he isn't originally a wolf like them, he can't pass on the virus."
The trio looked down through the observation room window. The isolation room below was almost totally dark, but a single candle threw light on the calm face of Daniel Jackson, sitting cross-legged in the center of the bare floor. Teal'c mirrored his position on the other side of the candle, murmuring too quietly for the microphones to pick up. Jack had posted himself in front of the blast door, zat in hand in case anything went wrong, but looking rather confident that it would not be needed.
"Teal'c suggested using meditation techniques to keep him calm," Janet explained. "So far it appears to be working; he hasn't lapsed into wolf form since they started. We're theorizing that his emotions, specifically anger and fear, are what trigger the transformations."
"We can't have that happen offworld," Hammond said reluctantly. "It could be disastrous if Doctor Jackson became incapacitated in a firefight like this."
Sam hesitated, clearly not liking what she was about to suggest. "He probably shouldn't go offbase at all until he has this under control, sir," she suggested. "I don't want to keep him cooped up in here, but if he can't control his form, interactions with the civilian population could be just as bad. What if he was startled by something and transformed in public?"
Hammond didn't like it either, but he nodded. "I agree. Inform Doctor Jackson that he is not to leave the base until he demonstrates the ability to resist transformation reliably. Do you believe it's still necessary to keep him in the infirmary?"
Janet shook her head. "I can't be a hundred percent positive that he can't transmit his condition, but I can't see any way he would be able to. If he feels he's ready, I'm recommending he be put on light duty, but I want someone to be with him at all times just in case complications come up." She quickly backtracked at their looks of concern. "I don't mean medical complications," she clarified. "For instance, if he were to somehow get stuck as a wolf, he could be trapped in his office if the door was closed, and he wouldn't be able to call for help."
"That sounds reasonable," Hammond allowed. "Keep me posted on his condition."
"Okay, that's enough for today."
Daniel almost protested, but Sam gave him a look that he was quickly becoming accustomed to. "Okay," he agreed, and as he put the barbells back he realized he'd been casually hefting at least a hundred and twenty pounds. Huh. Could've sworn it was lighter...
Sam tossed him a towel as he sat up, and he had to resist the urge to shake his head to dry his hair. A faint, high-pitched whine had started up, but he was getting used to that. All the electronics on the base seemed to give off a hum that only he could hear, though none were quite as bad as those plants from PJ2-445. "I could've gone on longer," Daniel said, draping the towel over his neck.
Sam eyed him. "I don't doubt you could've, but you shouldn't strain yourself until we're sure this won't give out on you suddenly."
Daniel admitted that she had a point. "Yeah, I suppose it would be bad form if I accidentally crushed myself with a barbell." He rubbed his temples a little; the whining noise was getting louder.
"Hey, you okay?" Sam asked, touching his shoulder.
Daniel frowned. "Yeah, just picking up those stupid electronic noises again. It's worse than feedback."
Sam winced. "Ouch. That must be really tough on the ears."
"Fortunately aspirin is safe for canine-kind," Daniel agreed sheepishly. "I-" He stopped, tilting his head to the side. "That's not electrical noise," he realized out loud, concentrating. "It's going up in pitch...shit!" Dropping the towel and ignoring Sam's calls, he bolted for the door of the gym.
He avoided the elevator in favor of the stairs, following the increasingly loud whine to the science labs. More specifically, Sam's lab. "SAM!" he yelled, not noticing that it wasn't what he'd said at all. A strange scent hung in the air, but it was almost masked by the stench of heating naquada. One of Sam's generators had somehow been set to overload, and the noise he'd heard was the machine preparing to explode.
Sam had managed to keep Daniel in sight, barely, throughout his mad dash across the base, and immediately grasped the situation. Moving quickly, she lunged at the generator and rapidly adjusted the settings to stop the overload. The whining, which was audible even to the human ear at this range, fizzled out and died. Only then did Sam turn to Daniel, and whatever she was going to say left her brain entirely.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" he tried to ask, startled when it came out as a yipping noise. He checked himself over. Fur, tail, paws. Dammit, not again. He closed his eyes and focused on the meditation techniques that Teal'c had taught him, and felt his body go through the eerie feeling of shapeshifting almost immediately. Another thought hit him as soon as he became fully human, and he thanked any listening deity that his clothes had managed to stay draped around his wolf body this time. There was a rather large hole where his tail had been, but if he pulled the edge of his shirt down enough he could keep himself covered long enough to change.
"You must have really good ears to hear that from all the way down in the gym," Sam commented, dropping the subject of his absent-minded transformation for the moment. "Don't suppose you could hear who did this?"
Daniel shook his head, tugging his shirt down. "Sorry, I'm not quite that good." He looked around the lab, not seeing anything else out of place except the generator.
"I'm going to call security and notify the general," Sam said, moving towards the phone on her desk. "There's a spare pair of pants in the third filing cabinet," she told him, taking pity on his predicament.
Daniel didn't bother to ask why she had spare pants in her lab, but thanked her and ducked into the nearby bathroom to change, grateful that he and Sam wore similar enough sizes that he could borrow her pants in an emergency. They were a bit tight, but it was better than mooning the base on the way to the locker room. Also better than listening to Jack make 'full moon' jokes, Daniel decided, muttering under his breath about werewolves and colonels.
"You're sure it was deliberate?" Hammond asked from the head of the briefing room table. "There's no chance it could've just gone off accidentally?"
"No chance at all," Sam affirmed. "All my reactors stay locked down when not in use, and none of them were left out on the table. Security found fingerprints on the reactor casing that don't match my own or any of my assistants' but they were too smudged to analyze."
"Could it have been our assassin or one of his buddies?" Jack asked.
"The man who attacked DanielJackson remains unconscious," Teal'c denied. He eyed Daniel with respect. "Such a powerful blow has left him incapable of carrying out any other actions against the SGC."
Uncomfortable with the idea of his new strength, Daniel changed the subject. "I don't know who did it, but when I entered the lab there was this strange smell. I don't know how to describe it...but it was everywhere. And it smelled human."
As per usual whenever new symptoms of the so-called werewolf virus showed up, all occupants of the room eyed him carefully. "I didn't smell anything," Sam said, sounding intrigued. "Um...I never thought I'd be asking this question, but...do you think you could track our culprit?"
Daniel, in turn, had never imagined he'd be asked that question. "Very doubtful," he said after considering it. "The security team tracked in a lot more scents, dusted for fingerprints...the scent I noticed is probably quite masked by all the activity. It's kind of like trying to find a needle in a haystack, after the haystack has been covered in paint. I suppose it would be possible, but the time it would take...I'm sorry. I could try, but I don't think I can do it."
"It's all right, Dr. Jackson," Hammond assured him. "We'll just have to catch this culprit the old-fashioned way. What about the security tapes?"
"Those are a dead end too, sir," Jack reported. "The lab cameras 'conveniently' glitched for approximately 45 seconds. The only personnel who could be identified from the tape are Carter and Daniel a few minutes later."
"Whoever it is, they're probably long gone," Sam said regretfully.
"Whoever did this, you can be sure they're going to try again," Hammond pointed out. "I want this whole base to be on alert for any suspicious activity." Turning to Daniel, he added, "And Dr. Jackson if you catch any whiff of that scent again, I expect you to report it immediately."
Janet insisted on examining Daniel again as a follow-up to the assassination attempt, and discovered that the bullet was entirely gone, as were Daniel's allergies. "The virus has somehow boosted your immune system," she explained, "allowing you to recover from injury much faster than an ordinary, uninfected human. It's almost like the healing power of a symbiote, except a lot stronger. Even a Goa'uld host couldn't survive a bullet through the heart like you did." She shone her penlight in his eye, ignoring his annoyed growl. "How are you adjusting to the heightened senses?"
"It's getting better," he admitted. "Though sometimes it is rather disconcerting to be able to hear conversations ten levels away." He cocked his head to the side and grinned. "Siler's talking to Bessie again."
"Bessie?" Janet asked, baffled.
"His giant wrench," Daniel said, smirking. "Sometimes he sings to her when he polishes her. Calls her his Wrench Wench."
Janet stifled a laugh. "Daniel! I do hope you aren't about to go around telling everyone's secrets."
"Don't worry," he assured her, "I may be the ultimate eavesdropper, but my lips are sealed."
The off-world activation sirens suddenly sprang to life, blaring loudly in Daniel's enhanced hearing, and he jumped in surprise. They continued for a few more minutes, then silenced as the Gate closed. Daniel listened intently for any signs of trouble, but it was only SG-10 returning from a mission. Satisfied that there wasn't any emergency, he brought his attention back to Janet, who was watching him. "What?"
"You didn't transform this time," she pointed out. Daniel looked down at himself and was relieved to see that he had indeed retained his usual human form. "Looks like you may be allowed offbase soon," she said with a smile. "Do you mind going through a few more tests?"
"Janet, I'm all yours!"
Jack looked up from a mountain of files and folders just in time to see a rather bouncy Daniel enter his office. "Well, what's got you in such high spirits?" he asked.
"Jack, my friend, you are looking at a free man," Daniel announced with satisfaction. "I can control my transformations enough to go offbase, as long as I'm escorted. Janet signed the paperwork a few minutes ago."
Jack gladly abandoned the memos and survey reports. "Sweet! I knew you could do it."
Daniel gave him a relieved look. "Would you mind 'escorting' me back to my place? I haven't been home in weeks and I'm sure my fish miss me."
"I'll do better than that," Jack promised. "How about we all go out to dinner as a team? My treat."
Daniel's eyebrows shot up. "Where at?"
The colonel acquired a somewhat guilty yet sneaky look. "How about O'Malley's?" he asked, trying to subtly steer Daniel towards the elevator.
"O'Malley's?" Daniel repeated skeptically. "Jack, in case you've forgotten, we got banned three years ago after you started a bar brawl."
Jack acted indignant. "I did not! That was all you."
"No, it wasn't."
"Yes, it was. You gave me that look."
"Which look?"
"The 'start a fight' one, obviously."
Daniel scoffed. "I did no such thing."
"Yes, you did," Jack insisted. "Those guys called you a geek, I backed you up, and then you telepathically told me, 'Let's kick ass, Jack'."
"That would never hold up in court."
"So you admit it?"
"Don't make me bite you, Jack."
"How do you do that?" Jack asked in amazement after they'd been seated.
"Do what?" Daniel inquired innocently.
"That!" Jack stabbed a finger in his direction. "The begging puppy face that none can resist."
Daniel smiled faintly, opening his menu. "Just a little talent I picked up in foster care," he admitted, avoiding eye contact. "It's come in handy on quite a few occasions."
Sam laughed gently. "I never realized just how manipulative you can be."
Jack snorted. "I pegged him as a cunning little bastard the day he lied to General West and told him he could definitely locate our return address during our first little trip."
"As I recall, you told West, and I quote, 'He's full of shit'," Daniel added helpfully. "But I did do what I promised. Eventually."
The conversation swiftly shifted to planning pizza night at Jack's house for next week as the waitress approached to get their drink orders. While the others decided on their beverages, Daniel's attention was drawn to a familiar scent amongst the seething mass of smells in the room.
Teal'c noticed his distraction immediately, but said nothing until the waitress moved off. "What is it, DanielJackson?"
"Remember that scent I caught during the reactor incident?" he said simply, subtly scanning the room with all his senses.
They grasped his meaning right away. "What, he's here?" Jack asked in disbelief. "What, is he stalking us or something?"
"Can you tell where it's coming from?" Sam interrupted.
Daniel shook his head. "No. It's very faint; I can barely smell it. Give me a minute." He focused his senses even further, almost totally tuning out his teammates in an attempt to locate the source of the scent. It seemed strongest in the general direction of where the waitress was retrieving their drinks, but the source seemed to have moved on already.
"Whoever it was, they're gone now," he reported regretfully, turning back to the other three. Yet a sixth sense was screaming danger at him, and he had to keep a lid on his uneasiness as their drinks were delivered. The scent appeared to have strengthened again...
Realization struck right before Sam was about to take a sip of diet Coke. "Don't!" he exclaimed.
Fortunately, Sam was well-trained enough to obey immediately. "What is it?" she asked instead, putting her glass on the table.
Daniel swiftly pulled it towards himself and sniffed at it. "Yeah, this is what I thought," he said grimly. "No one drink anything."
"Daniel, what is it?" Jack demanded, recognizing the deadly certainty on his friend's face.
"Our little saboteur has poisoned all our beverages," Daniel explained in a low voice, checking the other drinks as well. Each one reeked of sickly-sweet poison and death. "If any of you had taken so much as a sip, you'd have been dead before morning. He must've slipped it in when the waitress was preparing them."
Teal'c's expression became murderous. "This coward attempts to slay his enemies in dishonorable ways. He must be stopped at once."
"Make our excuses," Daniel told Jack as he stood up. "I'm going to try and track him while the trail is still fresh." He hurried out the door, closely followed by Sam.
Away from the seated customers, the scent became much clearer. Now he could make out what was so strange about the smell under the scent of human male was the aroma of sand, gunpowder, and grease. He relayed this analysis to Sam as they moved down the street. "Probably NID, I'd guess," Daniel said angrily.
"Not again," Sam groaned. "Have they no concept of subtlety?"
"Apparently," Daniel concurred, picking up the pace a little. The trail was getting stronger, and he nearly ran past the spot where it suddenly disappeared. "Shit!" he exclaimed, doubling back. "I lost it."
Sam swore under her breath, coming to a stop and watching Daniel circle like a bloodhound. "Probably got away in a vehicle," she suggested.
"Likely," Daniel agreed, pointing at a space between two parked cars. "The trail ends here, and there's a fresh, lingering smell of gasoline fumes. It goes up the street a bit and then it's mingled with traffic too much to track." He glared at the semi-busy street. "The bastard got away again."
Needless to say, Hammond was furious when he heard what had happened at the restaurant. "This has gone on long enough!" he declared. "I want this saboteur found and arrested."
"How, sir?" Sam asked. "Whoever it is works fast, and Daniel hasn't been able to successfully track them."
"A trap," Daniel suggested. "What's the one place on base that won't look suspicious if all personnel are required to report to it?"
"The base infirmary," Teal'c said.
Daniel nodded. "We could say that Janet wants to make sure no one else was exposed to the werewolf virus through me, and order all personnel to report in for testing. I can hide out in the infirmary and try to identify the culprit."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "That actually might work."
Hammond nodded. "I'll inform Doctor Frasier immediately."
With as many people as there were in the base, the "testing" took quite some time. Daniel hid out in Janet's office for hours, using the slight cross-breeze from the ventilation system to test and discard personnel. It was very slow and tedious.
Another quartet of SFs. A quick sniff. Nope.
"How many left?" he asked quietly as Janet passed through the office.
She gave him a sympathetic look. "About fifty more on-duty personnel," she told him. "Still no sign of the saboteur?"
Daniel shook his head. "I don't even know if he's on base," he admitted. "Might've left altogether when the-"
Janet immediately noted his alerted state. "What is it?"
He got up and moved closer to the door. "He's here," Daniel said in a low voice, memorizing the scent-path moving across the room. Janet exited to keep up the faηade and he used her departure to cover him peering around the door. His senses homed in on an unassuming technician that he wasn't very familiar with. That's our guy, he confirmed. Leaning out a little further, he caught sight of the name patch. Dominic Sumner. Wonder if that's even his real name.
It was rather unfortunate timing that Sumner happened to look up in that instant, eyes locking onto Daniel before he could duck back behind the doorway. He knew he'd been caught.
Sumner waited until the nurse was finished drawing his blood, then nonchalantly headed towards the exit. "We're not done yet, airman," the nurse informed him, but he ignored her.
If he gets out of the infirmary, he's going to find a way off base, Daniel realized. Moving quickly, he moved in between the saboteur and his escape route. "That's far enough," he declared, drawing on every ounce of authority he'd become accustomed to wielding.
Sumner's eyes widened, and he drew a hidden sidearm from his jumpsuit pocket, swinging it up to aim at Daniel's forehead. "Werewolf!" he spat venomously, and pulled the trigger.
One of the nurses raised the alarm, and Janet rushed to the downed archaeologist. "Oh God, Daniel," she breathed in horror. Fifteen bullets to the head had chewed up his face, exposing blood, bone, and worse, rendering him almost unrecognizable.
"Oh my God," one of the nurses gasped, covering her mouth. "Doctor...?"
Janet checked him for a pulse. He can heal fast, but this... She was surprised to find a strong, steady pulse and nearly-even breathing. "Help me get him on a bed!" she ordered her shocked assistants.
"Ow."
They jumped back as Daniel abruptly sat up, shaking his head as if to dispel dizziness. A few bullets bounced on the floor as his face healed up like some bizarre backwards time-lapse photography. "That bastard," he moaned, swiping blood out of his eyes.
Janet hovered next to him uncertainly. "Daniel, how're you feeling?" she asked, unsure about the extent of his healing abilities.
"Pissed off," the archaeologist snarled, getting to his feet. "I'm really tired of being shot. Which way did he go?"
Janet forgot for a moment that, if he so chose, he could brush her aside like an insect, and put her hand on his chest to stop him from running after the saboteur. "It's okay, security's going after him. I want to look you over first."
"Later."
"Daniel-"
"Janet!" he growled, cutting her off. "He would've anticipated this happening and planned accordingly. I have to go. I promise, I'll let you look me over, but not now." And with that, he darted around her and vanished through the door.
Daniel shot him a really odd look. "Sorry, can't talk right now. I'm...chasing the saboteur, he attacked me in the infirmary." He tugged his arm away, and Jack noticed him clutching a M9 handgun in his left hand.
"What?" Jack questioned quickly, his own sixth sense warning him that something funny was going on. "Which way did he go?"
Daniel shifted anxiously. "He-"
"HEY!" Jack's jaw dropped open as another Daniel rounded the corner, skidding to a stop when he saw the first Daniel next to Jack. This Daniel was soaked in blood but didn't appear to be injured. "You can't escape me," he said.
The first Daniel's eyes widened, and he aimed the gun at his duplicate. "That's impossible!" he yelled. "I killed you!"
Jack took a hasty step away from the first Daniel, looking between the two in surprise. "What the hell?"
"You put fifteen bullets in my skull," the second Daniel corrected, slowly advancing on the first one. "But you didn't do your homework. I can't be killed that easily."
The first Daniel's eyes narrowed. "Those bullets were made of pure silver," he spat viciously, a shudder of fear visibly shaking him as he backed away.
The second Daniel whom Jack had, by now, figured out was the real one looked a little startled by that, but shook it off. "Apparently the legends were wrong about that," he said matter-of-factly. "Give it up. There's nowhere you can run where I won't find you."
The false Daniel obviously didn't believe him, because he turned and bolted in panic. Jack jumped reflexively as the real Daniel let loose a bonechilling wolf howl and lunged after him, catching up easily and slamming him to the floor. The false Daniel screamed and tried wildly to shoot behind him, but Daniel grabbed the gun and twisted it apart like silly putty before discarding it and pressing his knee further into the other man's back, pinning his arms up by his shoulders. "Who sent you?!" Daniel roared.
"No one!" the imposter squeaked around the severe pressure on his lungs. "Nicholls and I acted alone! No one else knew we were here! God, don't kill me!"
"Are there any more of you?" Daniel demanded. Behind him, Jack saw the security men approaching and signaled them to stop, watching Daniel's terrifying new interrogation skills with shock and a bit of morbid fascination. Remind me never to piss him off again, he noted mentally.
"No, it was just me and Kyle! I swear!"
The false Daniel squealed as Daniel jammed his arms higher. "Why'd you try to sabotage the base and kill us?"
"The Stargate program is too dangerous to keep going," the imposter wailed as his arms were twisted almost to breaking point. "We thought if we could shut it down, the Goa'uld would leave Earth alone!"
"And killing the first and only line of defense would accomplish that?!" Daniel looked disgusted at the usual narrow-minded viewpoint of those employed by the NID.
Jack decided it was time to intervene, but kept a safe distance while calling out to Daniel. "Daniel, security's here. Let them take over from here."
For a long moment, the colonel was sure that the archaeologist-turned-werewolf was going to totally ignore him and turn the imposter into tiny bite-sized kibble snacks. Finally, Daniel released his deathgrip on the saboteur, jerking him to his feet with absolutely no gentleness and shoving him into custody of the SFs. "He's telling the truth," he declared bluntly as they snapped the sobbing man into handcuffs.
Jack nodded and stared at the imposter curiously. "How did he...?"
"Look like me?" Daniel finished, calming a little. He reached out and pulled the collar of the imposter's shirt down, exposing a familiar circular device with a series of blinking lights running around the circumference. "Mimic device," he concluded, pulling it away from the imposter's skin. Instantly, his form wavered and melted into an unassuming technician as the illusion field dissipated.
"Son of a bitch," Jack muttered under his breath. "Put him in a holding cell," he ordered the guards. They dragged the suddenly-compliant saboteur down the corridor.
"What's going to happen to him?" Daniel wondered.
Jack shrugged. "Either they'll put him or rather, them, once his buddy wakes up in prison for the rest of their lives, or make them quietly disappear from the face of the planet. Either way they won't be doing any more damage." He finally got a closer look at Daniel. "You might wanna clean up a little," he suggested.
Daniel looked down at himself. "Yeah, I guess so," he said apologetically. "I didn't exactly have time to change my shirt."
"And what was that about you getting shot in the head?" Jack continued, arching his eyebrow. "I thought I told you not to do that."
Daniel rolled his eyes as they started down the hall. "Oh please, you said nothing of the sort. You told me not to get myself killed. And I didn't."
"No, you just took fifteen silver bullets to the head?" Jack repeated disbelievingly.
The archaeologist looked even more embarrassed. "It's not like I wanted to," he muttered. "Hurt like a bitch."
Jack shook his head. "Only you, Daniel, I swear."
"I want to go back to P4X-523," Daniel repeated calmly, ignoring the incredulous stares being directed at him from his teammates.
"Daniel, we were there five minutes before you got bitten by the alpha wolf," Sam reminded him. "Why would you want to go back?"
Daniel hesitated, looking down at his hands. "It's hard to explain, but I think what happened was just a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding?" Jack repeated in disbelief. "It attacked you and turned you into a werewolf."
"I wasn't attacked," Daniel corrected. "When I got down at eye-level and put my hand out, it may have been misinterpreted as a request to join their society. I almost got a sense of ritual to it, like it was something they'd done before. The alpha was startled when we reacted negatively. What if they just thought I was asking to join the pack?"
His friends were silent for a minute, exchanging glances. "I never thought of that," Sam admitted.
"Are you sure?" Jack asked, looking extremely way about the idea. "If they want to hurt you for running off-"
"They can't," Daniel interrupted. "I think I've pretty much proved I can't be killed easily, and any injury is likely to be temporary. I'm more worried they'll try to change you as well, but as long as you don't get as close to them as I did you should be okay."
"Should be?" Jack repeated again.
Daniel gave him a sly look. "Don't worry, Jack, I'll protect you from the big, bad wolf." Before Jack could sputter out an indignant response, Daniel had a head start down the corridor.
Behind him, the rest of the team exchanged amused looks. "Do you really think Hammond will let us go back there, sir?" Sam asked.
"Well," Jack replied after a moment, "if he doesn't, Daniel's reputation of being the most manipulative person I've ever met will be taken down a notch. Betcha ten bucks we go back there by tomorrow."
"I can't believe this," Sam said later that afternoon, standing in front of the Gate as it dialed. Ignoring Jack's smug smile, she stuffed a ten dollar bill in his hand. Teal'c pretended he hadn't noticed, and Daniel hid a laugh under the guise of a sneeze.
With the usual loud roar, the Gate kawooshed open and SG-1 headed out.
The planet was exactly how they left it, wolves around the Gate and all. The military members of the team went on alert as they saw they were surrounded, but true to form, Daniel immediately approached the big white alpha and kneeled down to eye level. He bowed his head, and received a reciprocal response from the alpha.
Daniel was only slightly surprised when several of the surrounding wolves abruptly shifted form, becoming something halfway between wolf and humanoid. The alpha himself remained in wolf form, and Daniel suspected he might not be able to shift at all. Behind him, the team tensed and tightened their grips on their weapons at this unexpected development, knowing that they would be pretty much useless anyway if the natives were hostile.
The werewolves ignored the team's weapons, focusing all their attention. "Welcome back, D'an'l," a female next to the alpha spoke up, inclining her head. "We have waited long for your return. Are you finally ready to join us?"
"Yeah, about that..." Jack started, but fell silent at a look from Daniel.
"I'm sorry," Daniel apologized to her, realizing that she had to be the pack's beta female. "I'm afraid that our first meeting was a...misunderstanding."
The alpha barked out a command to explain, green eyes examining the man in front of him.
"We were not aware of your customs and rituals," Daniel elucidated. "I did not intend to offer myself to be changed; I was only attempting to communicate. I understand now how my actions were seen through your eyes, and I apologize for the confusion."
The beta frowned. "You do not intend to join us? The change cannot be reversed, and you are without those of your own kind."
They'd suspected there was no cure, but hearing it said straightforwardly like that made it seem much more final. "Yes, I know," Daniel said regretfully. "If the circumstances were different, I would be glad to join you." He glanced back at his team, who were watching the exchange with concern. "The truth is, I already have the best packmates I could ever ask for. I may be different from them now, but I would never give them up for anything."
"Why did you come to our world if you did not intend to join us?" the beta questioned suspiciously.
"We're travelers," Daniel explained. "We explore other worlds and make allies with some of the cultures we encounter, as long as they are honorable. We were sent to this planet to scout it out and discover if it had any valuable resources. Now that we know you're here, we won't impose on your sovereignty."
The werewolves exchanged looks, and the alpha wuffed quietly. "On behalf of this pack, I offer you our most sincere apologies," the beta said, her expression shifting from suspicion to regret. "We did not know."
"Hey, it's okay," Jack butted in. "We've seen worse."
"You intend to remain among humans?" the beta asked Daniel, giving Jack only a small nod to indicate she'd heard him.
"Of course," Daniel replied, frowning slightly.
The alpha made a snorting sound to his beta female. She then approached Daniel and touched the arm of his BDUs. "This clothing is inadequate for shifting," she declared, eyeing it skeptically. "If you would permit it, we would gladly furnish you with suitable cloth that will change shape as you do."
Sam's eyes lit up at the mention of this new technology. "You mean it actually shifts form along with the wearer?"
The beta pondered this. "Somewhat," she said at last. "Some changes will be impossible, but the fabric knows what shape to take to be most comfortable and convenient. We can supply you with as much as D'an'l requires. It is the least we can do in reparation for our error."
"Thank you," Daniel said. "I appreciate that." Inwardly, he was cheering. Yes! No more embarrassingly ripped pants!
Major Rykerson stepped into the SGC gym and scoffed. Bunch of pansy flyboys, he thought, glaring at the Air Force personnel who were working out on the treadmills. He'd only been transferred to the SGC a few days ago, and already he was amazed that Earth was still standing, with these wussies running things. They need more Marines, he decided. I'll show 'em how a real soldier should be.
There was one other man using the weights, so Rykerson was careful to add slightly more weight to his barbells before he began his set. He recognized the dark-skinned man from the briefing he'd gotten on the SG teams this was some kind of alien soldier, supposed to be stronger than any human and supposedly trustworthy. Rykerson sneered and made sure the alien was watching him heft three hundred and seventy pounds.
The alien did not react as expected, merely raising his eyebrow as he continued his own set at the same speed as before. The Marine snarled under his breath, annoyed by the lack of respect.
The alien finished and put the barbells back into their rack, sitting up to greet someone who had just walked in. "DanielJackson," he rumbled warmly.
Rykerson's eyes narrowed as he took in the unassuming figure. So this was Daniel Jackson, SG-1's pet civilian graverobber. Probably a hundred-pound weakling, he mocked. "Geek," he muttered, so quiet that no one would be able to hear it.
Jackson's eyes went straight to the Marine, an annoyed-yet-amused expression on his face. Rykerson's confidence faltered. No way did he just hear that...
"Teal'c," Jackson returned the alien soldier's greeting. "Jack wanted me to remind you we're going to give O'Malley's another shot tonight." He shrugged. "I told him you already remembered, but he insisted."
"O'Neill is most persistent," the alien agreed, standing up. "I must kel-no-reem. You are welcome to use my weights."
Rykerson's mouth set into a thin line as he aggressively began another set, making sure Jackson saw it. The civilian's eyes narrowed as he watched the Marine. Yeah, that's right, I'm better than you, Rykerson growled. Wanna make something of it?
"Thank you, Teal'c," Jackson agreed, pulling off his jacket and going over to the weights. To the Marine's surprise, the archaeologist added even more weight onto the bar. His eyes widened. Holy shit, that's got to be six hundred pounds, at least! He's going to kill himself trying to lift that!
Jackson calmly reclined on his back, took hold of the bar, and easily lifted it off the rack. His own set forgotten, Rykerson gaped as the supposed weakling bench-pressed that much weight as if there was nothing on the bar at all. After a few reps, he noticed that Jackson wasn't even holding onto the bar properly; not only was he only using one hand, but at the top of each lift, he tossed the bar up slightly to add more force to its downward motion. Jesus!
After a few minutes of this, Jackson made a disgusted noise and put the weights back, sitting up and putting his jacket back on. He isn't even sweating!
"Sorry, Teal'c," he said apologetically to the alien, who was still watching as if he saw this every day. "It's too easy; I can barely feel the weight." He hopped off the bench, ignoring the dumbstruck Marine. "Maybe Jack will let me bench-press his truck later."
Right before he exited, the archaeologist stopped and turned his head a little. "I don't know who you think you are, but you're playing with the wrong people," he said, projecting his voice through the entire gym. The airmen on the treadmills had stopped to listen, and Jackson looked straight at Rykerson. "Here at the SGC, nothing is what it seems. Here, you're either damn good, or you're dead. Arrogance will get you killed pretty damn fast." He smiled slightly. "Enjoy your stay."
Rykerson was silent as Jackson left, and he looked at the bare three hundred seventy pound weight in his hands. He...he rigged the weights, he told himself, putting his own back. To reassure himself, he went over to the civilian's weights. He'd forgotten to take the extra weight off, so Rykerson grabbed the bar and strained to lift it. It didn't even quiver as he put all his strength into it. His eyes went wide and he stared in the direction the much stronger man had gone. I'm way out of my league, he realized in shock, and quietly slinked out of the gym.
Behind him, one of the airmen let out a small cheer. "We should so let Daniel scare the arrogance out of all our new recruits," he said enthusiastically.
No one disagreed with him.
El fin.