Author's Notes: A little change of pace, bit of a breathing space, and a little bit of exposition.
DISCLAIMER: All characters and property of Stargate SG-1 belong to MGM/UA, World Gekko Corp. and Double Secret Productions. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author.
Sam took another drink from the cup of steaming coffee someone had just handed her and rubbed her aching eyes with her other hand. How many hours had they been at this? She had lost count.
Somewhere behind her Teal'c was tirelessly pouring over the material they had managed to access from the terminal in the 'safe room'. That was the term someone - she didn't remember who - had coined for the room that had been shut off and protected from the attack that had devastated the rest of the complex. The room where they had found Daniel - with what it had been keeping confined within here all that time.
Teal'c had returned from his mission to bring the Colonel home several hours ago. He had not been willing to volunteer much information about what had happened back at base. Only that the Colonel was better, and was with Daniel.
Daniel, however, was not better. When Teal'c had left him, he was still comatose, still slipping away. Still being controlled and consumed by that thing that was clinging to him.
Sam felt helpless, distressed and deeply torn. A part of her wanted very much to be back in the infirmary, to be with both of the men, as if by merely being there she could do something. However, she knew that that was an illogical, emotional desire. Thinking more of herself than either Daniel or the Colonel. Her presence in that room could do nothing to ameliorate the situation in any way. This was where she could help. Do the most good. By doing her job to the best of her ability, and finding out what they needed to know in order to save Daniel. This is was where she was most needed.
That was why the Colonel had put her in charge. He had put all his faith in her, trusting her to do her job, to be the best, to find the answers. By doing so he told her that he was confident that Daniel's life was in good hands.
Well, she was not about to disappoint him. She didn't care how long it took, how long she had to look for it, how long she had to forsake all other considerations, she was going to find all the answers they needed.
* I won't let you down, guys. There is an answer here, and I am going to find it. I promise.*
The safe room had already yielded a number of deeply intriguing secrets, none the least of which was the pedestal and the receptacle where 'the blob' had been housed.
The grid in the basin appeared to be the terminus of set of integrated systems that were completely isolated from all the other systems in the complex. Clearly they were all meant to function together as a life support system for the entity, and the fact that that life support system was self-contained and self-generated gave Sam to believe that whatever this thing was, it had been important to the scientists here that this specimen alone of all the others should survive.
Maybe they had meant to return for it once whatever had happened here had - blown over. If that was their intention, it was evident they had, for whatever reason, not been able to carry it through. However, they had succeeded in their intention to preserve the specimen. For quite an impressive amount of time.
Her original estimates as to the amount of time the complex had been abandoned had been four to five hundred years. Upon further examination of what remained she found she had to substantially amend that original assessment. It was far too conservative.
Whatever that thing was, it had been in that receptacle, for at least eight hundred years. There was no way to know how long it had been a captive prior to that period, but that unknown span of time aside, the fact remained that it still had been here, alone, trapped in this room under that glass for a very, very long time.
She wished she knew more about what Janet must have been able to discover about the nature of the creature itself: even given what she extrapolated about it based upon what she had learned from examining the support system she still could not fathom how a living being, no matter how different it was from the life forms she was currently acquainted with, could have survived for so long on so little.
The metal grid lining the basin was a series of emitters that were connected to a solar power grid on the roof of the complex. The solar grid was linked to a series of regulators that were themselves powered by a source she had never seen before but seemed to be self-renewing that kept the solar energy at consistent, extremely low amperage. It appeared to function both as a power regulator and as a capacitor, constantly compensating for any power fluctuations or shortages - solar not being the most reliable of sources - in such a way as to insure that the current was never interrupted and was a constant amperage.
Even though obviously a much more reliable power source for the basin's grid existed in the control system that regulated it, the fact that the grid was solar-powered suggested to Sam that for some reason the creature needed solar energy. She wouldn't have thought there was a difference. Power was power was power, but it was dangerous to make assumptions like that. There had to be a reason for the Goa'uld to have gone to so much trouble to set this system up. Her experience of that rather reprehensible race had more than taught her that they did not do anything just for the hell of it. A whimsical or innovatively inventive species they definitely were not.
Then there was the nutrient system. This was the most amazing thing that Sam had ever seen. Once the R&D guys got hold of this thing, they were going to be on the ceiling for years. The technology contained within it was really quite - breath taking.
The nutrient solution itself was almost disappointingly simple. Nothing more than a kind of amino acid, vitamin, mineral-rich slurry with a few proteins thrown in for good measure. It was the delivery system that took her breath away.
Again, it was all self-contained. Once set in motion, it would continue to perform its function until turned off. Powered by the same type of system that regulated the solar grid, its components at first glance seemed deceptively simple. A clear, sealed chamber about the size of a breadbox (funny, given what it was that that particular analogy should spring to mind) that was three quarters full of a wispy, fibrous brown substance that she could not even begin to identify except to be reasonably certain that it was organic. A finely meshed screen bisected the receptacle very nearly in half, separating the portion that housed the organic material from the actual reservoir that contained the slurry. A network of extremely fine filaments like a web conducted the slurry to the metal grid where it soaked the cushiony honeycomb network.
That was all very well and good and not all that remarkable but there was more. For you see, there could be only one purpose that she could see, for that particular arrangement of components. The slurry had to come from somewhere; somehow, the brown stuff was converted into it. Trying to figure out THAT one was going to keep a lot of white-coated goons very happy.
Somehow, some process that was currently not discernable to her actually converted one type of matter into another. Somehow the molecules of the brown stuff were actually being rearranged and reconstituted into the slurry. That could be the only explanation for what she was seeing. The implications were - astonishing.
Well, they already knew that the Goa'uld had the ability to manipulate matter. The transport rings were proof of that. The Stargate as well. Even though they did not invent it, the Goa'uld probably understood how it functioned better than the human scientists who were only beginning the process of attempting to convince it to yield its secrets to them. However, if this humble little device functioned on some of the same principles and they were able to figure out how it worked, well the implications.
The scientist in Samantha Carter wanted to toss her dignity into the air and execute several cartwheels across the room. The opportunities for pure research and discovery that this font represented were as exciting to her as if she had discovered the Holy Grail. In a strange sort of way, maybe she had.
However, worry and shame quickly replaced the elation. Whatever this system had been built to protect, no matter how wonderful it seemed to be to her, it had kept alive something that was killing Daniel. Wonder and scientific curiosity be damned, as well as all the possible benefits to the world that might be contained herein. If this thing cost Daniel his life, she'd blow it up herself.
Any further morbid speculating in that direction was cut short by the sound of Teal'c's voice.
"Captain Carter," he said in a tone that for him was positively taut with excitement. "I believe I have accessed the data that concerns the creature and the purpose of this place."
Sam was instantly at his side, peering at the screen of the computer terminal they had brought and set up next to the Goa'uld device. It hadn't been easy, but with Teal'c's help and a lot of inspired inventiveness they had managed to jury-rig an interface between the two pieces of equipment. Downloading the data was dreadfully slow and prone to constantly crashing the system, but it was barely possible.
As soon as she reached the computer, she automatically inserted a fresh disk into the drive and hit the back up. Then she had to content herself with standing at Teal'c's side as he took in the columns of alien script that slowly scrolled up the screen.
"Well?" She finally said impatiently after she had allowed exactly two and a half minutes to elapse.
"It is difficult." The Jaffa said crisply." There is much information here. This particular section appears to be concerned with the purpose of this complex. The creature is only peripherally mentioned."
"What were they doing here, Teal'c?" Sam tried to keep the frustration out of her voice at having to rely on someone else to do her reading for her. Wasn't Teal'c's fault that she couldn't read Goa'uld.
"Very curious," Teal'c said slowly. "This project appears to be largely concerned with investigating ways to make certain - improvements to the human host bodies by experimenting with other life forms in order to see if they can be used to effect these - improvements. The entity in this room appears to be their highest hope for achieving this objective."
"Improvements? " Sam echoed. "What kind of improvements?"
"Their concern seems to center around the human potential for - I believe you would call it - psi abilities."
"What?" Sam looked at him as if she had not quite heard him right. "That's - absurd!"
"Nevertheless that is what they appear to have been trying to do here, Captain Carter."
Any further comments she might have made were abruptly cut short by the strident, high pitched skreel of deafening sound that ripped through the air all around them. Sam covered her ears to protect them against the assault as a series of red, flashing characters suddenly appeared on the computer screen.
Teal'c's eyes widened noticeably with alarm. "Captain Carter," he shouted at her over the din. "We must leave this place at once. Someone has activated an auto-destruct device. We have less than five minutes before it explodes."
She put a hand on his arm and pushed him toward the door. "Go alert the others - get them out of here. I am going to try and save as much of this data as I can. Go!"
Teal'c favored her with a look that plainly communicated his enormous displeasure with her instructions but he did not argue with her, merely turned on his heel and bolted from the room.
Fighting past the pain of the sonic attack Sam went to work on the computer. She finished downloading the current file, halted the transfer and put a fresh disk in the drive. After pocketing the disk that already contained precious data she hit the button that started the transfer again and crossed her fingers.
Slow. So slow. Hurry up hurry up hurry up DAMMIT!
The seconds crawled by. She thought her head was going to explode from the noise that was making her senses swim. Still the machine ticked over with agonizing lethargy. Please, please hurry.
An iron grip encircled her arm, scaring her out of her wits. "Captain Carter!" Teal'c shouted into her ear. "There is no more time. We must leave - now!"
"Just a few more minutes - "
The Jaffa was not going to give her that time. Resolutely, he began to haul her away from the computer. She shrugged loose just long enough to grab for the second disk, then he had a hold of her arm again and was whirling her around and literally dragging her out of the room and down the corridor after him while he tore down it himself in a dead run.
Sam could barely keep up with him. Several times she was sure he was going to pull her right off her feet. The Jaffa was not gentle, but then he didn't have time to be. Linked in that implacable grip they desperately pelted down the corridor toward the egress as if their very lives depended on it.
Well, guess they did.
How long had it been since the initial alarm had sounded? She didn't know. The open door to the outside loomed before them. They were less than ten feet away now. They were going to make it.
Without breaking his stride Teal'c somehow reached around and scooped her up into his arms, putting on a further burst of speed, holding her against his body almost as if he was trying to somehow shield her.
It was then that everything became sound, fury, madness and fire.