Jack:
***
She lies there, with an alien consciousness in her head. Her body, her face, her eyes. But not Carter.
And Daniel thinks it wasn't wrong for her to try to communicate with the entity.
Sometimes I wonder if the man has eyes in him! Look at her, lying on the gurney with that thing in her like a snake in the head - but worse! Even when she had that damned Tok'ra inside, we knew she was in there. Then, she appealed to me from her imprisonment - her voice, her words. It was bad enough then, believing her controlled by the snake, but at least there was the hope that we could get it out and her back.
She's not there now. She's not in that body, staring out at me from blue eyes that usually gleam with the thought processes active in the mind behind them.
Damn you, Carter! You had to know, didn't you? You just had to find out what the thing wanted of us - only to discover what it wanted was you. Damn scientists and people whose curiosity gets the better of their common sense. I should've followed my instincts instead of letting you and Daniel sway me.
The pair of you were always trouble - my instincts screamed it from the day they showed me the geek who was assigned to my team for the Abydos mission. It was a bad case of deja-vu that day in the briefing room when General Hammond told me you'd be on my team whether I liked it or not. Burdened with another scientist - peachy.
Okay, so opinions change, and I've gotten used to you and Daniel. I've gotten...fond of you.
But the pair of you are still trouble. You get around me so easily. Voices of conviction and belief that I can't ignore, because underneath the layers of cynicism lies an echo of the hopeful reason you so expertly argue. You persuade, and I let myself be persuaded.
My job is to protect, as Daniel pointed out oh-so-helpfully in the MALP room. My job is to protect the people of this planet, and the people who help *me* protect this planet. That includes the two of you - frequently saving you from yourselves and the situations you generate with your enthusiasm.
It was a trap, and whatever Daniel says, you *were* wrong to try to communicate with it. For crying out loud, this thing had already tried to wipe out the base computers! It was the wrong thing to do - we should have blown it to hell.
I should have overruled your judgement, told Hammond in no uncertain terms that after what it had already done to us it would be a mistake to try to talk to it. I should have hauled both you and Danny back from the raw edge of your curiosity and your indefatigable belief that words and communication can fix anything.
It was wrong. *You* were wrong.
And now you're paying the price.
*I'm* paying the price.
Damn you. Both of you.
***
Teal'c:
***
Daniel Jackson was correct. It is my job and O'Neill's to protect.
As O'Neill would say, it is our job to protect Daniel Jackson and Major Carter. Often we must protect them from themselves and their desire to know more about the planets we go to, the people we meet there, and the technologies they use.
We have failed to protect Major Carter.
The entity misled us when it encouraged Major Carter to communicate with it via the 'memory mainframe' in the MALP room. Its purpose was not communication but subjugation of Major Carter's body.
It was successful.
It distresses me to see the entity in Major Carter's body. Doctor Fraiser has tried everything she knows, but cannot find any indication that the mind of our friend is intact.
This time is difficult for all of us. There are many on the base who carry feelings of guilt for what has happened to the Major. General Hammond feels it for permitting her to attempt communication with the entity, Colonel O'Neill feels it for not cutting the connection sooner, Daniel Jackson feels it for his suggestion that we attempt to communicate with the entity, Dr.
Fraiser for her inability to do anything regarding the entity's possession of Major Carter.
And I?
I carry no guilt. Regret, yes. I regret that Major Carter's nature dictated she attempt communication with the entity, and that it subsequently took over her body. But the guilt is not mine to carry - nor is it the responsibility of my friends. We assessed the threat, and looked at the risks, and we felt them minimal in the light of the gain. That we were wrong in our assessment should not cause guilt - we could not know we were wrong.
And yet...
This negotiation with the entity is difficult. As I have told O'Neill before when we believed her lost to the Tok'ra symbiote, we must not look at the thing which inhabits her and see our friend. In this, O'Neill is unsuccessful - it is no easy thing to see a face we once called friend, a face that is now the enemy sitting within an unassailable stronghold. Unassailable because our friend is still within her body, suppressed and subdued to the creature which holds it - as she was once suppressed and subdued by Jolinar of Malkshur.
That time, the execution was stayed, Major Carter released from her bondage through the sacrifice of the one who had imprisoned her.
This time, I fear there will be no reprieve.
***
Daniel:
***
Sam had it right.
How many times have we been in the same position as this entity? Stuck on a planet without hope of return, and hoping that someone would take pity on us?
We should show mercy because someday we may be in need of that same mercy.
Jack would argue the point, of course. He would say that our being merciful to the entity has no bearing on whether some other creature will show us any pity. And in a strictly tit-for-tat situation, he's right.
It isn't that simple, though. By being in a position to require mercy, our own behaviour should be influenced such that we pass on mercy to someone else.
In short: *What goes around, comes around.*
Sam would understand. Or maybe she wouldn't, being military and all.
No, she *would* understand. To have just blown the thing up would have been against everything that's in her as a scientist and an explorer. It's similar to the situation we found ourselves in with Urgo. He was a living, sentient being - we couldn't just 'switch him off'. Whatever its intention in blowing up the computers, we had to communicate with this being, if only to discover that it didn't want our help, it wanted to survive - and if that meant destroying us, then that was what it would do.
Maybe I'm talking to myself so I don't feel so guilty about convincing Jack to let us attempt communication. Maybe I'm deluding myself about my 'superior motives' because I have to cling to *something* in the face of Sam's possession.
There's an eerie emptiness in her expression - in the flat gaze of the entity. I guess it's not accustomed to facial muscles. But to watch Sam's face, set in sullen repose as Jack tries to negotiate with it...
God, I'm sorry, Sam.
Jack and Teal'c aren't talking to me with anything more than the barest civility. Guess I can't blame them for that - their first instincts are to protect. And, because they put their trust in Sam's judgement and mine, they 've failed in their protection. We took the choice from their hands with our combined arguments, and being angry at Sam isn't an option right now, so they're angry at me instead.
We had to do it. We *had* to.
It was the right thing to do.
But if we never get Sam back, I don't know if Teal'c and Jack will forgive me - especially after my statement that it wasn't wrong - whatever happens.
If we never get Sam back, I'm not sure I'll forgive myself.
***
"Whatever happens, whatever the outcome of this is; Sam wasn't wrong to try to communicate with the entity."
~ Daniel Jackson: 'Entity' ~
***
Story Notes: AUTHOR'S NOTES: Someone once pointed out that if a certain other character of Stargate SG-1 had gone through everything Sam had been through in Seasons Four and Five, there would have been enough H/C fics to print out and reach to the moon. In their absence, I'm trying to fill the gap. I was thinking about Daniel's words in 'Entity' about the difference between him and Sam,
and Jack and Teal'c, and it spawned this set of thoughts.
and Jack and Teal'c, and it spawned this set of thoughts.
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters, settings, etc, are the property of their respective owners. Any original characters and plots are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. ... [ read more ]