Disclaimer:  Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions.   MacGyver and it's characters are the property of Henry Winkler/John Rich Productions and Paramount Pictures.   This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

            Arriving at the SGC infirmary early for her shift, Janet Fraiser went through her usual routine of acquainting herself with what had occurred in her domain during her absence and checking her schedule for the day. Of course, no two days at the SGC were the same and sometimes any semblance of 'normal routine' went AWOL from the outset. She hoped that this day would not be one of the latter. For once. Just for a change.

            A pile of test results from the previous day was neatly stacked on her desk. She looked through them and promptly made a mental note to herself to consult with Sam Carter on some rather intriguing aspects of some of them before she submitted her daily report to General Hammond.

            That done, she headed for the side-room housing her current civilian patient. It came as no surprise to her that Teal'c was still standing guard at the door. Nor was she particularly surprised to find that her patient, although apparently asleep, had company.

            MacGyver and Daniel Jackson were seated on chairs in a corner, probably so they wouldn't disturb Sam Malloy with the quiet, but discernibly intense conversation they were engaged in. Jackson, she noted, seemed to be doing most of the talking. Jack O'Neill was perched on a storage unit, a slightly bored expression on his face, as he idly tossed a large bag of saline solution back and forth from one hand to the other.

            "Good morning, gentlemen," Fraiser announced her presence as she adopted a purposeful air and advanced into the room, heading for the chart clipped to the rail at the foot of her patient's bed. "I trust you haven't all been here all night." She knew from Teal'c exactly how long everyone had been there and about the various comings and goings during the night but she wasn't about to reveal all her cards at once. It paid to keep Colonel O'Neill on his toes sometimes.

            Ardent denials flew at her, along with requests to 'keep it down' because Sam was asleep. At that point the patient woke up, sleepily demanding to know what was going on, then, realising O'Neill was present, vociferously demanded to speak to the Colonel.

            Not one to readily tolerate 'mutiny' from either her patients or their visitors, whether they be military, civilian or, upon occasion, alien, Fraiser threw the 'visitors' out, firmly quashing their objections as she did so. She then equally firmly quashed the protests made by her by-then very lively patient, by threatening to have him put in restraints if he didn't quieten down and stay still so she could examine him.

****************

            Jack was still muttering darkly about power-hungry megalomaniacs with delusions of omnipotence, when Fraiser emerged back into the main body of the infirmary a while later. Ignoring him, she came to a halt in front of MacGyver, who practically pounced on her the moment she stepped from his son's room.

            "Well, as far as I can see, your son is in remarkably good health, Mac," Fraiser announced, her manner one of pleased surprise. "I've not only been able to take him off all the monitors and drips, but I've also removed all of his external stitches. There's some scarring just as I would have expected under normal circumstances but it looks like it's been there for a couple of months or more instead of being totally new. In fact, to look at him, if I didn't know better, I'd swear blind there was no way he'd undergone major surgery only a couple of days ago."

            "So. Kid's got a clean bill of health then?" This rather hopeful summary came from O'Neill. "And he can get outta' here?"

            "Oh, I'd say so, Colonel. Fraiser nodded, then turned back to her patient's very relieved looking father. "I've never seen anyone heal this fast. Did you use that alien crystal again, Mac?"

            MacGyver shifted almost guiltily under the petite medic's inquiring gaze. "Yes," he admitted, just as Malloy appeared in the doorway of the side-room, clutching a military-issue hospital sheet strategically about his person and voicing a slightly impatient demand to know when he was going to be allowed his clothes and to talk to O'Neill.

            Fraiser saw MacGyver's face positively light up at the sight of his son up and walking and clearly bursting with impatient energy. She realised that the conversation she wanted to have with the man about his usage of the alien crystal, was going to have to be put on hold for a while as he murmured a polite 'Excuse me' and stepped past her, heading for his son, who had gone abruptly silent and was staring, slightly slack-jawed, at the mountainous figure of Teal'c whom he had suddenly found was effectively blocking his escape route.

            "It must run in the family," Fraiser remarked with a hint of slightly dry exasperation.

            "Doc?" O'Neill inquired archly.

            "Mr. Malloy appears to be just as bad about following instructions to stay put as certain other people I could name," Fraiser retorted, giving the Colonel 'The Look'. Seeing that O'Neill was about to retaliate with some smart-ass response, Daniel decided it was a good moment to jump in.

            "We, um, really need to talk to Sam about some things. Can we er...?" He gestured vaguely towards where MacGyver was busily ushering his once again highly vocal son from view.

             "I'll have someone bring him some clothes," Fraiser conceded. "And then he's all yours, gentlemen."

            "Thanks, Doc," O'Neill said happily, beginning to head for his young cousin's room. He stopped and looked round though as Fraiser called after him.

            "Oh and Colonel?"

            "Yes, Doc?"

            "I'd like to see Mac and yourself before either of you leave the infirmary, Colonel."

            "Oh-key-dokey," O'Neill cheerfully acknowledged with a vague hand wave as he continued on his way. Daniel made to follow him, then halted and looked at Fraiser.

            "Anything we should be worrying about?" He asked hesitantly.

            "No, I just want to run another set of blood tests to check for any changes in levels of that alien substance."

            "Oh." Daniel said. "Oh..." He repeated as it suddenly dawned on him how fast O'Neill's cheery mood would evaporate should anyone be foolish enough to reveal Fraiser's intentions to him. Grimacing slightly, he remarked. "I'm sure Jack will be suitably thrilled."

            Fraiser just smiled knowingly and headed for her office. Daniel watched her go for a moment, then hurried in the direction of Malloy's room. He was, after all, just as curious as MacGyver and O'Neill to find out how young Sam knew about the K'Rin'sha crystals and how much he knew.

***************

            Slouching into his young cousin's room, hands stuffed firmly into his pockets, O'Neill found that MacGyver had persuaded Sam to sit on the bed. The younger man was still very much on the fidget though.

            "Jack! I gotta' talk to you." Sam bounced off the bed again as he spotted the Colonel, barely remembering to grab at the sheet around his middle to preserve his modesty as he did so.

            "Yeah, so ya' yelled earlier," O'Neill retorted. "You wanna try sitting down an' calming down, or do I need to get Fraiser back in here with a nice, big, sharp, pointy needle to do it for ya'?"

            Sam blinked at O'Neill, decided it wasn't an idle threat, took a deep breath and hauled himself back onto his bed, dragging his sheet with him. Then movement at the door behind O'Neill caught his attention. It was Daniel slipping quietly into the room. Shooting an expressively questioning look at both his father and the Colonel, Sam tilted his head significantly in Daniel's direction.

            "It's okay, son," MacGyver beat O'Neill to answering the non-verbal question. "That's Daniel Jackson. He's on - "

            “Jack’s 'team',” Sam finished, nodding slightly as he realised he'd recognised the bespectacled man in the 'team' photo he'd seen on O'Neill's mantelpiece. "Yeah, I know." He cast Daniel a smile and gave him a  wave. "Hi."

            "Er... Hi," Daniel returned with one of his half-shy little smiles.

            "Anything ya' gotta say to me about that lump of rock your Dad has, you can say in front of Daniel. He was there when Mac got it an' he knows as much about it as the rest of us do." Jack shot a glance in Daniel's direction. "Maybe more." He looked back to Sam, to discover that the young man was now regarding Daniel with a studious expression he found remarkably reminiscent of Daniel himself when examining some 'fascinating' old rock.

            "You're not military, are you?" Sam inquired of Daniel, openly curious.

            "Ah..." Daniel glanced at O'Neill, read no objection in his dark eyes. "No. No, I'm not," he admitted, stepping forward to stand beside O'Neill near the foot of the bed.

            "Scientist?" Sam ventured shrewdly.

            "Archaeologist actually," Daniel admitted honestly.

            Seeing the look of burning curiosity that appeared on Sam's face, O'Neill decided to jump in before the young man could pursue Daniel with a barrage of questions which Jackson would undoubtedly answer before giving any consideration to that quaint military hang-up known as 'classified'.

            "So. Sam. What was it you were so all-fired-up about wantin' to see me about?"

            Sam dragged his attention away from Daniel and redirected it at O'Neill. He took the Colonel somewhat by surprise by requesting seriously. "Let me see your hands, Jack."

            O'Neill looked at MacGyver, who gave him a slight shrug and an expressive look that requested: Humour him okay?

            "Oh-kay," O'Neill said slowly. Hauling his hands from his fatigues' pockets, he held them out before him, palms downward. Sam shuffled along the bed to get nearer O'Neill tactfully hauling his sheet with him then reached out to the older man and turned his hands over. O'Neill made no attempt to stop him and witnessed, with some surprise, the broad grin that spread across Sam's face as the K'Rin'sha crystal was revealed. Malloy lightly ran a finger over the alien crystal and it flared momentarily to life with a blaze of rich blue light. The crystal in MacGyver's hand reacted almost simultaneously in a similar fashion.

            "Cool..." Sam murmured, still smiling. Releasing the Colonel’s hands, Sam looked up, regarded both O'Neill and MacGyver and, nodding slightly as if in approval of something, announced. "Okay. We can talk now."

            Deftly keeping his bed-sheet modestly arranged around himself in order to manoeuvre without embarrassing himself, Malloy drew his legs up so that he could sit cross-legged on his bed, while MacGyver, Jack and Daniel at Sam's suggestion all took a moment to settle themselves.

            MacGyver hitched himself up onto the bottom end of the bed, his left leg folded under him and his right leg dangling over the side, so that he was partially facing his son. O'Neill snagged a chair, reversed it and straddled it, resting his forearms on the backrest. Daniel, meanwhile, retrieved the room's other chair and brought it around the bed to place it beside his team-leader, whereupon he adopted the conventional manner of seating himself.

            "Okay, kid. We're sitting about as comfortably as we're gonna get. You wanna start telling us what an' how ya' know about these things?" O'Neill invited tersely, making a gesture with his left hand that left no doubt as to what particular 'these things' he was referring.

            "Take your time and don't mind him, Sam. Patience has never been his strongest suit," MacGyver advised, shooting a warning look at O'Neill that said: 'Watch it, Jack. This is my son you're talking to, not some rookie airman.' "Just start at the beginning an' take it from there."

            Sam nodded and sucked in a deep breath, which he released slowly before casting a quick glance over his audience. He then seemed to decide it would be easier to focus on his father. "Remember back about four years ago when we were in Brazil? You were working on that Phoenix Foundation environmental research project about jungle deforestation and its impact on global warming, an' they hired me too, to do some related aerial photography."

            "Not something I'm gonna' forget in a hurry," MacGyver nodded, wiping a hand over his face as he noticeably shuddered.

            "What went wrong?" O'Neill asked. He knew Mac’s propensity for finding trouble and, combining that with the reaction he had just witnessed... Well... it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure something had gone wrong with the project in question. Badly wrong. He was aware of the open-mouthed look Daniel shot his way, but he ignored it in favour of focusing his attention on his two relatives.

            "I thought Sam got himself killed." MacGyver stated simply. The pain of the memory was written clearly all over his face as he gazed at his son.

            “Ahhh...” O'Neill's understanding of MacGyver’s reaction was just as clearly visible. Sam's gaze shifted to him.

            "Dad was working in the field lab an' I was out in a chopper, doing what Phoenix were paying me to do, when some guys with things to hide objected to smiling for the camera," the young man explained. "Long story short they got cranky an' tried to Swiss-cheese the chopper. Enrique, the pilot, tried to get us back to base, but the damage was too severe an' we went down in some pretty dense jungle."

            "Took nearly a week to find the crash-site," MacGyver said, his dark eyed gaze remaining fixed on his son. It was clear he was mentally reliving each and every one of those several days his son had been missing. "Even though we had a pretty good idea of where to start looking." He glanced at Jack. "Don't need to tell you what it's like to find anything in very dense, very remote jungle." His gaze returned to Sam even as O'Neill nodded grimly. "We found Enrique's body when we eventually found what was left of the chopper." The grimace that crossed MacGyver's face plainly indicated that the find had been far from pretty. "There was no sign of Sam or Lucy. Just blood. An awful lot of blood."

            “Oh... God...” Daniel looked quietly horrified.

            "Ah... Excuse me...? Lucy?" O'Neill enquired.

            "Lucy Dewhurst. She's a climatologist. She was part of the project team," Sam answered. "She... ah... She'd come along for the ride."

            “Uh-huh...Pretty is she?” O'Neill twitched an eyebrow suggestively. A hint of pink graced Sam Malloy's cheeks.

            "Doctor Dewhurst is old enough to be my mother, Jack!" The journalist protested indignantly. Then a slightly mischievous smile graced his features as he shot his father a sideways look. "But Dad certainly thinks she's pretty."

            "Saaaam!" A hint of pink graced the Phoenix operative's cheeks.

            "Yeah?" O'Neill was grinning, a twinkle entering his eye as he arched a suggestive eyebrow at MacGyver. "Little jungle romance was there, huh?"

            "Jaaack!" MacGyver glared as the pink on his cheeks deepened. "My...friendship with Doctor Dewhurst is none of your business. Either of you." He included his son in the glare as he uttered that last statement.

            "Ah...Aren't we straying from the point here?" Daniel interjected, recognising that MacGyver was about to be subjected to some serious teasing by his cousin and deciding to try to rescue the man. He knew from experience how merciless Jack could be sometimes and while he was fairly sure MacGyver could give as good as he got, it looked like he was in danger of being out-numbered two to one which didn't quite seem fair.

            "Thank you, Daniel." MacGyver aimed an appreciative look at the archaeologist. "Two days after we found the chopper wreckage, we picked up a radio distress call that gave very precise coordinates and said if I wanted to find my son, I should go there ASAP without broadcasting my arrival."

            "Guess you found him," Daniel observed with one of his shy little smiles.

            "Yeah. Also found a bunch of Fourth Reich wannabes an' a nerve-gas plant. Things kinda' hit the fan after that."

            "Bad guys tried to destroy the evidence, but Dad managed to disarm the nuclear warhead in time," Sam threw in. It was clear he was trying to sound casual, but admiration and respect for his father were written all over his face.

            “N-nuclear w-warhead?” Daniel croaked, looking stunned and doing an excellent impersonation of a fish-out-of-water. He stared at MacGyver. "You disarmed a nuclear bomb?"

            "Habit he has, Daniel," O'Neill tried to smother a smirk, while his tone suggested that disarming nuclear ordnance was something MacGyver indulged in every other day or so just to keep from getting bored. He ignored the look his archaeologist graced him with and regarded his cousins instead. "All of which has what to do with these exactly?" He asked, flashing the crystal in his left palm and aware that the alien device was glowing softly again, as was MacGyver's.

            "Lucy and I were both pretty badly hurt when the chopper went down," Sam jumped in. "Some natives found us and took us to their village. Their er 'medicine man' healed us using some kind of crystals that looked a lot like the ones you an' Dad have. Only the ones he used were green an' a lot smaller."

            "So Lucy knows about the crystals too?" MacGyver questioned, frowning.

            "No." Sam shook his head. "Actually she doesn't. She ah, doesn't even know just how bad either of us was hurt. She really does think she just had a bad concussion and was unconscious for several days." He saw the looks being bestowed on him by his audience and shifted uncomfortably. "I....er....They'd um, put us in separate huts. I went looking for her soon as I could get outta bed without passing out... The 'medicine man' was using the crystals on her when I found her. She was hurt way worse than I was."

            "Why didn't you tell me?" This quietly pensive question came from MacGyver.

            "I was sworn to secrecy." Sam answered simply. There was apology in his dark eyes though. Then he looked to O'Neill. "Jack, if you've brought any of those people here, you need to send them back. They don't belong here. They - "

            "Whoa! Back up the wagon. What makes you think any of those people are here, kid?" O'Neill frowned.

            "Dad said..." Sam began.

            “No, I didn't. You assumed,” MacGyver corrected. "It was Jack who helped me save your life." Okay, so it was only the partial truth, MacGyver admitted to himself, but it was the greater part and it was enough for now.

            “Oh...” That brought Sam up short. "Yeah...I guess." he conceded. Then he aimed a warm, but shy smile at O'Neill. "Owe ya' one, Jack."

            "Anytime, kid," O'Neill smiled warmly and there was no doubt that he meant it as he reached out to his young cousin and patted him on the knee in a paternal manner. "You just keep your old man outta' trouble for me an' we'll call it even. Mind you," he grinned, "keeping' Mac outta' trouble's kinda' like telling the sun not to rise. Man's a trouble-magnet of the first order."

            "Tell me about it," Sam rolled his eyes and shot a grin at his father who attempted to look innocent while sputtering indignantly.

            “Bit like Danny-boy here,” O’Neill inclined his head in his team-mate's direction while continuing to address Malloy. "He can find trouble in an empty room."

            "Oooh yeah," Sam nodded sagely, clearly empathising while Daniel started sputtering indignantly.

            "Listen, kid. We need to know everything you know about these things," O'Neill gestured with his left hand and became suddenly serious again which took Daniel by surprise, though he hadn't missed the fact that while O'Neill had been joking with Sam, a look had flashed between the Air Force man and MacGyver, which had seemed to have been an entire conversation in and of, itself. "And this 'medicine man' guy."

            Sam became business-like in an instant himself. "There's not really that much to tell," he began. Then he frowned and cast a shrewd look from O’Neill to his father and back. "I'm missing something here, aren't I?" He looked to his father again. "Dad?"

            "This is important, Sam." MacGyver regarded his son steadily.

            "I know." Sam stated, meeting his father's gaze unwaveringly. Then he looked at O'Neill and said quietly. "That mission you were on wasn't in Brazil, was it?" His gaze shifted back to MacGyver. "And you didn't get those 'Stones' there, did you?"

            "No, we didn't." MacGyver admitted.

            "But we really do need to know what you know about the ones you saw in Brazil," Daniel jumped in at that point, his tone as earnest as his expression. He met the dark-eyed gaze that focused on him and felt an odd...connection, seem to click into place. It was akin to that odd connection he had always felt around O'Neill even if he and the then-suicidal, hard-ass Colonel hadn't exactly hit it off the first time they had met. It was a connection that he knew had finally fallen right into place on Abydos, in that instant their eyes had met over the nuclear bomb that was destined to bring about the end of Ra. It was also akin to the same odd sense of 'connection' that he had more recently been feeling around MacGyver. It wasn't as strong as the 'bond' that he and Jack seemed to have, but it was there all the same. An odd sense of... almost familial belonging and trust.

            Daniel saw a flicker of something-indefinable register in the dark eyes of the journalist and just 'knew' that the strange sense of 'connection' was mutual. Then the moment was gone and he saw the barely perceptible nod of acknowledgment that Sam gave him before the young man started talking again.

            "As I said before, there's not really much to tell. I found the 'medicine man', D'Gryak was his name. You met him, Dad, remember? When we went back to the village to get Lucy."

            "Yeah," MacGyver nodded. "Odd little guy. Kinda' gave me the creeps."

            "Little?" Sam frowned. "Dad, he was taller than you are!"

            “No...” MacGyver shook his head, frowning. “He was five foot nothing if he was an inch.”

            "Ya' must be thinking of someone else," Sam disagreed. "Most of the villagers were on the short side, but D'Gryak wasn't. He was tall. Kinda' stuck out like a sore thumb. Remember?" As MacGyver's frown deepened, Jack just couldn't resist the temptation to throw in a smart-ass remark about memory being one of the first things to go with old age. It earned him a dirty look from his cousin, but he just grinned innocently back while Sam chose to ignore the interruption and addressed himself to Daniel.

            "Anyway, like I said, I found D'Gryak using the crystals on Lucy. Naturally I asked about them and he said they were 'Gifts from the Wise Ones' - some kind of tribal deities probably - and had been handed down through his family from father to son for generations. He also said that in the wrong hands they could be used to do harm instead of good and therefore knowledge of them was forbidden to those 'not of The Blood'." He saw the look that flashed between his father and his cousin, but before he could comment, Daniel was urging him to ignore the duo and continue with his story. Sam regarded the archaeologist and decided to take the advice. "He asked me to swear on my blood that I would say nothing to anyone about the stones until the day 'the Twins who are Blood but not brothers', revealed themselves to each possess similar 'Gifts from the Wise Ones'."

            “Jack and your father...” Daniel bounced excitedly to his feet. "Yes...Of course!" He exclaimed delightedly, beginning to pace. "Yes... There was a reference to that in the Prophecies of S'Lell."

            "Who?" Sam stared blankly at the agitated archaeologist, clearly more than a little bemused by the reaction he had caused.

            "The Twins who are of The Blood but share not the blood of Brothers, shall be the first of the Sleeping Ones to Awaken. That's what that passage meant." Daniel continued pacing as he muttered ecstatically in some tongue that wasn't English.

            "Ah...Daniel... Hey Earth to Daniel! Come in, Daniel." O'Neill endeavoured to bring Jackson back from the Cloud Nine he was clearly wrapping himself in. Daniel stopped pacing, but ignored the Colonel in favour of regarding Sam intently.

            "What else, Sam?" The archaeologist asked. "There is something more, isn't there?"

            "Ya' got some paper an' a pen or something?"

            "Now there's a dumb question," O'Neill muttered under his breath as Daniel immediately produced both a notebook and a pen from one of the pockets of his fatigues. It earned him a 'Shut up, Jack,' look from his team-mate and brought a slight smile to MacGyver's face.

            Sam quickly found a blank page and busied himself for a few moments before handing both pen and notebook back to Daniel.

            "What?" O'Neill questioned, seeing the look that appeared on the archaeologist's face.

            "Daniel?" MacGyver questioned at the same moment also in response to the look on Daniel's face.

            "D'Gryak showed you these?" Daniel finally looked up from the page to Sam Malloy.

            "Yeah," Sam nodded. "He said they were symbols of 'Great Meaning' or something but he wouldn't say anything more except that I should only reveal them to 'The Twins' and someone they trust implicitly. I'm guessing he meant you."

            "Daniel?" O'Neill and MacGyver spoke the name simultaneously and both with the same quizzical intonation.

            "I...Ah... I think you need to see this, Jack," Daniel said, holding his notebook out to his team-leader, while still gawping at Sam.

            "Whoa!" O'Neill exclaimed, eyes widening in surprise as he surveyed what Sam had written. He then stared at Malloy for a moment before reaching forward to pass the notebook to MacGyver.

            "Hey! These are- " The Phoenix operative began. The incredulous expression that appeared on his face, mirrored the one that had, seconds before, flitted across O'Neill's.

            “Yeah,” O'Neill nodded, cutting off what Mac had been about to say. "Sure look like they are."

            "They are," Daniel confirmed, nodding.

            "Someone wanna' clue me in here?" Sam asked, looking expectantly at each of the three older men in turn. "Guys?"

            "Stay there." O'Neill directed the command - his tone left no doubt that it was a command at Sam - and rose to his feet. Daniel opened his mouth to say something. O'Neill cut him off sharply. "No, Daniel."

            "But I was just- " Daniel objected as O'Neill strode towards the door.

            “Well don't!” O'Neill threw over his shoulder. "Not a word."

            "B-but..." Daniel endeavoured to object again.

            "That's an order, Daniel!" O'Neill barked as he disappeared out the door.

            "Whoa!" Sam observed, watching the Colonel's abrupt departure. Then he looked at his father and, raising an eyebrow slightly, inquired shrewdly. "Classified?"

            "An' then some," MacGyver agreed, nodding and staring again at the Gate symbols which Sam had drawn in Daniel's notebook.

***************

            No sooner had O'Neill exited the room than Teal'c announced from the doorway that a nurse had brought clothing for Sam. MacGyver slid quickly to his feet, handed Daniel's notebook back to the archaeologist and headed for the door. A nurse whom he recognised, was standing under Teal'c's watchful presence with a bundle of neatly folded military issue clothing topped off by a pair of boots in her hands. With a smile and a murmured 'thanks', Mac relieved her of her burden and returned to the foot of his son's bed with it.

            "I'll wait outside," Daniel announced, rising to his feet even as Sam started to disentangle himself from his cross-legged sitting position.

            MacGyver nodded at the archaeologist, then, having quickly surveyed the items the nurse had given him, addressed his son. "Looks like ya' got everything here. Shout when you're decent. I'll be outside with Daniel an' Teal'c."

            "Okay, Dad," Sam nodded and his father left him to dress in privacy.

***************

            Stepping from his son's room, MacGyver cast a quick glance around the main body of the infirmary and saw that O'Neill was busy talking with someone on the phone. He didn't need three guesses or K'Rin'sha crystal enhanced telepathy to figure out who his cousin was talking to. He turned his attention to Daniel. The younger man was standing with his arms crossed, a pensive expression on his face and was chewing at his lower lip as he stared across the room at O'Neill.

            "Daniel?" MacGyver inquired.

            "Hmm?" Daniel dragged his attention away from staring at his team-leader.

            "You okay?"

            "Yes. Yes, I'm fine," Daniel answered. "Just ah, thinking."

            "The Gate symbols Sam drew?" MacGyver asked.

            "Um...Among other things," Daniel nodded. The slight shift in the archaeologist's stance caused MacGyver to look round. He found O'Neill bearing down on them, a serious, but business-like expression on his face.

            "Oh-kay. This is what we're doing," O'Neill announced. "Hammond's in his office. Give me about ten minutes to bring him up to speed, Mac, then you an' Teal'c bring the kid up to the Briefing room. Daniel, you're with me." With that, the Colonel turned and began to head for the exit, tossing a, "C'mon, Daniel," over his shoulder.

            Daniel glanced at MacGyver and Teal'c and gave them a 'See you later, guys' look, before starting after O'Neill.

***************

            Sam Malloy's gaze roved alertly as he followed his father from the infirmary to the elevator. Not that there was anything of stunning interest to see; military drab decor and armed guards in the corridors and a handful of bustling enlisted personnel who all looked like people with places to be and things to do. But Sam took mental note all the same. He was a journalist after all and it was habit to pay attention to his surroundings.

            Once in the elevator, Sam turned his attention to Teal'c and endeavoured to engage the unusual big man in conversation. He quickly discovered Teal'c was not the talkative type. His responses to his questions consisted of four responses; 'Yes', 'No', 'I cannot presently speak of that’, or simply a silently raised eyebrow.

            "I think I'd have more luck getting blood out of a stone," Sam muttered disgustedly as the elevator presently halted and the doors opened.

            "Why should anyone wish to engage in such a futile pursuit?" Teal'c enquired, cocking his head slightly and raising an eyebrow.

            MacGyver chuckled as Sam shot the dark man a slightly askance look as if he wasn't certain whether or not it was a serious question, or indeed whether or not it was military 'humour' at work: Sam had come across some military types with extremely warped senses of humour in his relatively short life.

            "You'll get used to the big guy, Sam. He's...not from around here," the Phoenix operative smiled as he led the way out of the elevator. He cast a smile over his shoulder at Teal'c. Glancing over his own shoulder, Sam could have sworn he detected the barest flicker of amusement sweep across the dark features and the barest twitch of an eyebrow.

            “Right...” Sam muttered sceptically as he favoured his father with a 'You don't say?' look. As MacGyver grinned, Sam turned his attention back to scanning their surroundings.

            Presently he found himself in a large room which, he assumed from the large conference table and the chairs arranged around it, had to be the 'Briefing Room' to which his father had said he was taking him when they had left the infirmary. Sam scanned the room as MacGyver led him over to the table and invited him to take a seat.

            Sam took note of everything. The three flag-stands and the three flags which hung from them at one end of the room; the American flag, the Air Force flag and one which he did not recognise. On one wall he noted the impressive and unusual emblem which bore the letters SGC and bore a symbol very similar to one of those which he had drawn in Daniel Jackson's notebook. The large expanse of glass along one wall didn't escape Sam's alert gaze either. Nor did the fact that there was a metal shutter of some kind closed over the far side of the glass, effectively blocking the view of whatever lay beyond it.

            At his father's urging, Sam settled himself into one of the comfortable chairs and continued his scrutiny of his surroundings even as MacGyver settled into the seat beside him. Sam was aware that Teal'c, rather than accepting his father's invitation to sit with them, instead took up what could only really be described as a 'guard stance' behind them. Absently Sam found himself wondering what Teal'c thought they were going to do that required him to 'guard' them so closely. Perhaps it's just because we're civilians and he's military? He knew some military had an almost innate distrust of civilians especially when they were in military 'territory' - a distrust that tended to heighten around journalists... Sam had had some experience of that particular little military phobia.

            "That the 'Big Cheese' around here?" Sam leaned closer to his father to inquire while aiming his gaze towards a window he had spotted. Through the open slats of the blind on the far side of the glass, Sam could see a small office and the four people who were in residence. Three of the people he recognised; Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter and Daniel Jackson. The fourth... The fourth was seated behind a desk and the shoulders of his uniform jacket bore the rank insignia of a two-star General.

            "Yeah. That's Hammond. Nice guy when ya' get past the military exterior an' one heck of a Texas horse-trader," MacGyver answered, inwardly recalling how the General had managed to outmanoeuvre him when he had been trying to get permission to go with SG-1 on the rescue mission to save Jack. It wasn't often anyone managed to outmanoeuvre him like that. A smile flickered across his face. "I think you'll like him, son."

            "Excuse me, Mr. MacGyver, sir."

            Sam and MacGyver both looked in the direction of the speaker.

            "Telephone call for you from a Mr. Willis at the Phoenix Foundation, sir. It sounds urgent."

            "Thanks, Sergeant," MacGyver rose to his feet.

            "You can take it over at my desk, sir." The Sergeant indicated towards a corner of the room where a desk and computer terminal sat. Sam noted that the man's name-tag read 'Davis'.

            "Wait here, Sam," MacGyver instructed before following Davis to the latter's desk.

            Sam nodded, allowed his gaze to follow his father for a moment and then switched his attention back to the foursome in Hammond's office.

***************

            Presently the gathering in Hammond's office appeared to break up. Jackson and Carter moved out of Sam's field of vision. The journalist guessed they probably left the office by means of a door not readily visible to him from where he sat. He recalled that when his father had led the way along the corridor that had brought them to the 'Briefing Room', they had passed a door that had borne the legend 'Major-General G. Hammond'.

            The two men remaining in the office resumed talking and from what Sam could see, if the body language was anything to go by, it appeared that the conversation was pretty intense in nature.

            After some several minutes of this had passed, Sam witnessed the General rise to his feet while O'Neill scooped something up from the desk and moved smartly to a door that appeared to lead into the Briefing Room. Sam's supposition was proved correct as O'Neill opened said door and then stood aside to allow Hammond to precede him through it. As O'Neill followed Hammond, Sam saw that what the grim-faced Colonel had scooped up from the desk were a couple of manila folders.

            Courteously, Sam rose to his feet as the General approached the table. He also politely 'Sir'-ed the General as O'Neill carried out the requisite introductions.

            "Pleased to meet you, son." Hammond's tone and manner was cordial. He gestured that Sam should re-take his seat. "Sit. Please."

            "Thank you, sir," Sam responded politely. He waited until Hammond was settling himself in the chair at the head of the table however, before making any move to sit down again himself. He noticed as he did so that Jack was looking pensively in the direction of Sergeant Davis' desk.

            Glancing in that direction himself, Sam saw that his father was still on the phone. Rather than hovering beside the desk however, the Phoenix operative was now sitting in the chair behind it, had the telephone receiver jammed between his left shoulder and ear and was busily tapping at the computer keyboard. Sergeant Davis was hovering discreetly to one side, seemingly busy sorting through some files and sundry bits of paper.

            As Jack settled himself into the chair immediately to Hammond's left, he took Sam by surprise by observing to the General. "Looks like Phoenix have come up with something on that other matter, sir."

            "Good," Hammond stated briskly. "The sooner we get that cleared up, the better."

            "Yes, sir," O'Neill agreed. He then looked across the table at Sam and, eyebrows rising slightly, inquired. "You trying to catch flies, kid?"

            Sam realised he had been gawping and quickly regained control of his jaw although he couldn't, for the life of him, figure out how O'Neill knew MacGyver was talking to anyone at the Phoenix Foundation.

            "Now then, Mr. Malloy," Hammond's voice grabbed Sam's attention, "there are several matters that we need to discuss. As I am sure you are well aware by now, this is a highly restricted military installation and you technically have no clearance to be here."

            "Yes, sir. I am aware of that," Sam nodded. "I hope Captain Carter's not going to get into any trouble for- "

            “I have already spoken with Captain Carter on the matter," Hammond interjected in business-like tones, "and have decided to let Colonel O'Neill deal with it."

            "Carter'll be cleaning the base latrines with a toothbrush for the next month," O'Neill threw in totally straight-faced. "At least."

            "What? Jack, she saved my life! You can't seriously intend to-?" Sam began in high indignation, until he spotted the twinkle in the Colonel’s dark eyes that belied the expression on his face. "You are kidding, Jack?" He ventured. "Right?"

            "Military discipline is military discipline, kid," O'Neill remained totally poker-faced.

            “Ri-ght...” Sam nodded slowly. He realised that he was getting his leg pulled to some extent, but he wasn't sure by how much. He knew that the military took discipline seriously. They also took blatant breaches of security extremely seriously and his presence on the base was, he knew, a serious breach of security. Then it occurred to him that more was going on than was immediately apparent. It also occurred to him that perhaps some fancy footwork was going on, which was why Hammond had apparently delegated the matter to O'Neill. He decided that he might just do Carter more harm than good by making a fuss.

            “Colonel...” Hammond spoke again, his tone business-like.

            "Yes, sir," O'Neill nodded and opened up the folder that lay on the table before him. He looked across at Malloy. "Sam, there's some stuff you need to read and sign for us." He lifted some of the papers from the folder, turned them around and pushed them across the table in Sam's direction.

            "Non-disclosure forms?" Sam surmised before he even looked at the papers.

            "Yep," O'Neill nodded. "Your just being here kinda' necessitates it, kiddo. An' then there's a whole load of things we need to discuss, a lot of which is highly classified."

            "The crystals?" Sam asked, gesturing slightly towards his cousin's left hand. He saw Jack turn that hand over momentarily to reveal the blue crystal embedded in it and, as the man glanced down at it, it glowed gently.

            "For a start." O'Neill's gaze came back up to regard Sam. "We gonna' have a problem here?" he asked seriously.

            "Not sure yet," Sam responded. He looked at Hammond, pensively. "Dad says you're a heck of a Texas horse-trader, sir."

            Hammond stared for a moment, then a smile crept onto his face and he chuckled as he remarked. "Given the amount of trouble some people around here who shall remain nameless seem to habitually get themselves into, I have to be."

            "Sir?" This slightly indignant utterance came from O'Neill, who then protested. "Can I help it if Daniel's a trouble-magnet?" He then began to explain at length about the proclivity of a certain archaeologist/linguist to poke around places and touch things he'd been expressly instructed not to go anywhere near even with a ten-foot barge pole.

            "I'll sign the transfer request any time you care to put it on my desk, Colonel," Hammond stated with the sort of weary calm that suggested he'd heard all this before, numerous times. Then he added with apparent seriousness. "I'm sure any other unit in this command would be more than happy to have the benefit of Doctor Jackson's expertise on a permanent basis."

            O'Neill promptly launched into a dissertation on how unfair it would be to inflict such a walking archaeological hazard on another unit and how much safer it would be for everyone if Daniel remained on his team who were used to his unrivalled ability to find trouble in an empty room and who therefore had the advantage of experience with which to both anticipate and handle it accordingly.

            "Are you done, Colonel?" Hammond inquired mildly as his subordinate's ramblings began to show signs of becoming repetitive.

            "Sir?" O'Neill blinked at the General as if just having remembered the man was there. He saw the look Hammond was gracing him with and switched on his best militarily-alert, all-business expression. "Yes, sir."

            Malloy chuckled, shaking his head. Then, grinning broadly, he informed Hammond. "Dad was right, General."

            "About what, son?" Hammond inquired.

            "He said I'd like you." Then, looking across the table at O'Neill who had started quietly muttering something under his breath about dire consequences falling upon the head of any team-commander trying to permanently appropriate his team's archaeologist, Sam asked. "You got a pen, Jack?"

            A pen was duly produced whereupon Sam began to leaf through the various forms he'd been presented with. Once he was satisfied they were what they purported to be and didn't have any nasty surprises lurking in the small print, he began filling them in and initialling and signing where necessary. In triplicate naturally.

            While Malloy was thus engaged, O'Neill started to complain that Teal'c was making him nervous the way he was hovering at Sam's back like some Angel of Doom and ordered him to sit down. Teal'c obeyed, taking the chair immediately to Sam's right just as Samantha Carter entered the Briefing Room by means of the stairs leading up from the Control Room below. The Captain moved immediately towards the group at the table.

            "Carter?" O'Neill inquired, gracing her with a look that eloquently expanded on the unvoiced part of the question he'd just put to the woman.

            "There's no correlation with the Abydos cartouche, sir," Carter answered. "It's a totally new address."

            "Hey, Sam," Sam Malloy looked up from his form filling and grinned at the Captain, clearly pleased to see her. "Good to see you again."

            "You too," Carter answered, returning the smile. "Glad to see you looking so well, Sam. See they've ambushed you with paper work already."

            "Yeah," Malloy agreed. "What is the military's crazy fixation with everything being in triplicate anyway?" He inquired, before his smile became rueful. "Think those crystals Dad and Jack have are any good for writer's cramp?"

            Carter grinned back in amusement and somehow managed to quash the urge to giggle at the sorrowful and put-upon look Malloy concluded his question with as MacGyver joined the group. The Phoenix operative had a handful of computer printout with him.

            "Morning, General," the Phoenix operative greeted as, without ceremony, he settled into the seat at Sam's left and directly opposite from O'Neill. "Hey, Sam," he smiled across the table at Carter. She smiled back, nodded and responded with a respectful "Sir", as she herself settled into the vacant chair beside her team-leader.

            "Mr. MacGyver." The General acknowledged. Gesturing at the papers MacGyver had set down on the table, he inquired. "Something from your people at Phoenix?"

            "Yes, sir," MacGyver nodded as Malloy set his borrowed pen down on his completed paper work and shoved the whole lot across the table towards O'Neill. Pulling a sheet from amongst the several before him, MacGyver slid it towards his son. "These faces look familiar, Sam?" He inquired.

            Sam duly regarded the photographs that were on the sheet. His eyes widened and he nodded. "Yeah," he said firmly and pushed the paper across the table towards Carter. "At least I recognise two of them. The first two. They're the guys were at Jack's house. I'm not sure about the other one. I think he might have been at the Tavern the other night."

            "They were all at the Colonel's house," Carter chimed in as soon as she set eyes on the trio of photographic quality pictures.

            "So I take it we got I.D.'s on these characters?" O'Neill enquired, peering at the images and mentally marvelling at how closely the photo-fit ones MacGyver had come up with the previous day from Carter's descriptions, matched up to the pictures he was now seeing.

            "Yeah," MacGyver nodded. His expression was grim as he placed several sheets of printout before General Hammond. “According to Willis at the Phoenix Foundation, his enquiries about these three have raised red flags all the way to the Pentagon. Seems a lot of people have a lot of interest in these guys. The CIA, the NSA, DEA, DXS, Military Intelligence... ”

            “Alphabet soup time, huh?” O'Neill interjected.

            "Big time," MacGyver nodded, passing more printout across the table to his cousin and the remainder in his son's direction. The top sheet on both piles possessed a small photograph identical to the first on the sheet of three that Malloy had passed to Carter and O'Neill.

            "First up," MacGyver began to summarise the first sheet of information. "Edward Peter Cameron. Ex-CIA, supposedly killed five years ago in Central America when a combined CIA/DEA/Special Forces Op against a drug cartel run by drug-lord Vincento Ganchero went pear-shaped. Most of the team that went in, didn't come back."

            "Set-up?" O'Neill surmised, looking across at him.

            "Yeah." MacGyver nodded. "Seems that way. Current thinking, apparently, is that Cameron was the one responsible. Next up..." MacGyver paused while papers got shuffled. "Is one Tony Von Deane. Booted out of the NSA four years ago for alleged misappropriation of agency funds. Also prime suspect in the disappearance of some classified military ordnance though no one could actually prove it at the time."

            "Sweet," O'Neill murmured. "An' this guy?" He began to survey the next sheet of paper.

            "Oh he's a real nice guy." MacGyver's tone suggested the man in question was anything but. "Carmen Santarelli. Ex-Army and an expert with explosives. Military threw him out due to 'mental unsuitability'. Seems he enjoyed blowing things up rather too much. He's now a mercenary. Works for anyone willing to pay big money. Ya' got something real nasty ya' want doing he'll be in the top five on your short list." He paused briefly, then sighed heavily. "What happened to Grierson's family has all the hallmarks of his handiwork."

            "Nice company ya' been keeping, kiddo," O'Neill looked to Malloy, who was looking more than a little grim-faced by that point. Switching his attention to Hammond, the Colonel observed. "Just the sort of low-life Maybourne'd get to do his dirty work."

            "Maybourne?" Malloy pounced on the unfamiliar name. "Who's Maybourne?"

            "Oh, just a nasty little two-faced, devious, back-stabbin', underhanded, low-down, duplicitous son of a... " O'Neill began venomously.

            “Thank you, Colonel,” Hammond endeavoured to stem the tirade.

            “Diseased camel,” O'Neill finished determinedly, but his expression suggested he'd just drastically modified what he'd been going to say. He looked across at MacGyver. "Did I mention back-stabbin'? Nasty? Duplicitous?"

            "Colonel...." Hammond's tone was sharper. The warning in it was unmistakable. O'Neill didn't look particularly repentant, but he shut up. On that subject at least.

            "So, sir. If the Phoenix people have any idea what rock these three slime-balls might be hiding under, I can have a coupla' teams ready to go kick it over inside of twenty minutes. An' then we can have a serious conversation about their interest in Sam." The Colonel's manner was deadly serious and left no doubt as to the outcome of the 'serious conversation' should the trio concerned be uncooperative about it in any way, shape, or form.

            "Thank you, Colonel, I'll bear that in mind," Hammond informed his subordinate before switching his attention to MacGyver. Tapping the papers before him, he instructed. "I want all this information passed on to the local civilian and Federal authorities."

            "Being taken care of even as we speak, sir," MacGyver responded. His manner was as serious as Jack’s as he continued. "I appreciate any concerns you might have regarding jurisdiction in all this, General. Don't worry. Sam an' I can get any back up we might need from the Foundation's Denver office."

            "The hell with- " O'Neill immediately began to object, shooting a sharp look across the table at his relatives. It was a look that spoke volumes.

            "Colonel..." Hammond's tone was sharp and told his subordinate to hold his tongue. As O'Neill fell silent, but bristled visibly, Hammond informed MacGyver. "I'll bear that in mind too, Mr. MacGyver. However." The General's gaze travelled back and forth between the Phoenix operative and O'Neill as he told them both quite firmly. "If I might remind both of you, neither of you are yet cleared to leave this facility and... "

            “Sir..." O'Neill immediately protested even as MacGyver attempted his own protest of. "General..."

            "Until those crystal devices can be safely removed from your hands," Hammond ignored the attempted interruptions, "I'm afraid I have no choice but to keep you restricted to the base." He gave both men the benefit of his sternest C.O.'s look full blast. The duo both subsided but only momentarily. They suddenly blinked across the table at each other and, as the crystals in their respective left hands emitted a brief flare of bluish light, chorused.

            "Gloves!"

            It caused a slightly disconcerted stir among the rest of those seated around the table. Unsurprisingly, Teal'c's reaction was the most restrained, being merely the barest twitching of an eyebrow.

            O'Neill shifted uncomfortably under the stares coming at him from four differing directions, while MacGyver looked at Hammond and elaborated helpfully.

            “Gloves, would hide these things, sir...” The Phoenix operative made a vague gesture of demonstration as his crystal glowed a soft blue again.

            “Yeah... Right...” O'Neill threw in his agreement. A slightly uneasy look crossed his face as he realised that his crystal was also emitting a soft blue glow. “Gloves...” he added, grimacing slightly as he waggled his fingers, then turned his hand over and closed it as if attempting to conceal the alien device embedded in it.

            “But, sirs...” This came from Sam Carter, who had a pensive frown on her face "We really know next to nothing about how the crystals work and even less about just what they can do. And with all due respect, sirs, as I understand it from what Daniel's told me, neither of you has much control over them." This earned her a dark look from O'Neill. It was a look that questioned whose side she was on. “Sorry, sir...” She finished  apologetically.

            "Nice try, gentlemen," Hammond said, trying to hide a smile and not being entirely successful, "but you are still both restricted to this facility until I say otherwise," he finished firmly.

            "General Hammond, sir... Dad's a civilian. You can't..." Malloy began to object on his father's behalf.

            “It’s okay, Sam,” MacGyver assured quietly.

            “Who happens to be in possession of a piece of highly classified material.” Hammond paused only long enough to draw breath. "Which brings us on to the other matter we are all here to discuss." He fixed a direct look on the journalist. "Colonel O'Neill and Doctor Jackson tell me you have seen crystal devices like your father's and the Colonel's before."

            Sam looked at MacGyver, who nodded encouragingly and said.

            "Go ahead, Sam. Tell the General everything you told us." MacGyver made a gesture that encompassed O'Neill and himself.

            From Malloy's expression it was all too apparent that he had a lot of questions and was struggling to quell the urge to demand answers.

            "Sam?" MacGyver spoke gently, quietly, but the inflection in his tone echoed the understanding that was visible in his eyes as he regarded his son.

            Malloy sighed deeply before wiping a hand over his face and up through his hair in a manner that was familiar to anyone acquainted with his father. Then, nodding, the journalist turned his attention to the patiently waiting General seated at the head of the table and began to tell the man about events in Brazil some years before.

            Good journalist that he was, Sam related his tale to Hammond as factually as he knew how. The General, for the most part, simply listened attentively, interrupting only a couple of times to seek clarification on a point. Sam Carter also interrupted a few times and while Malloy did his best to answer her questions, he openly admitted that he had more speculations than actual hard facts regarding some aspects of what had transpired in Brazil. MacGyver chimed in from time to time with his own observations on events, while O'Neill being O'Neill threw in the occasional smartass comment. The only one who listened without interrupting at all, was Teal'c.

            "And that, General, is basically all I can tell you," Malloy eventually concluded.

            "I've read military reports that were a lot less concise than you have been," Hammond responded and ignored the look of suddenly suspicious indignation that shot across O'Neill's face. "Thank you, Mr. Malloy."

            “The symbols you drew in Daniel's notebook...” This came from Carter. "You've no idea what they mean?"

            "No," Malloy confessed with a shake of his head as he switched his attention from the General to the Captain. Then a shrewd look appeared on his face as he observed. "But I'm thinking they're connected in some way to whatever it is you guys really do around here, 'cos unless I'm totally missing my guess, I'm looking at one of those symbols right over there." He jabbed a finger towards the SGC emblem that hung on the Briefing Room wall. "I'm right, aren't I?" He pursued triumphantly as a slightly startled expression swept across Carter's face. He surveyed the others at the table and when no one spoke, he protested. “Hey, c'mon, guys. Fair's fair here. I told you what I know, and I signed all the paperwork in triplicate. Ya' can't leave me hanging here...”

            "He's right we can't," Daniel Jackson's determined voice floated over from the direction of the spiral staircase at one end of the room. "We need to tell him everything, General."

            "Doctor Jackson." Hammond's tone strongly indicated that the decision in the matter was not up to the archaeologist.

            "I think Sam's as much a part of the Prophesies of S'Lell as Jack and MacGyver are." Daniel's tone was insistent as he stepped purposefully over from the stairway to stand behind MacGyver's and Sam Malloy's chairs. "Seeba certainly thinks so," he added, adopting a folded-arm stance and an expression that broadcast quite clearly that he was fully prepared to argue with the General on the matter until they were both blue in the face and then some if necessary.

            "Prophecies of who?" Malloy frowned round at the archaeologist even as Hammond crisply addressed the SG-1 man.

            "So Colonel O'Neill has already informed me, Doctor Jackson. At some length I might add." He shot a look in O'Neill's direction that indicated his 2-I-C had been as determinedly insistent as rank had permitted him to be without getting himself thrown in the brig for gross insubordination.

            “I happen to think she's right, sir. About Sam needing to know what we know about these things, I mean...” Jack displayed the crystal embedded in his left hand. The alien device was emitting a soft blue glow. “As for the mumbo-jumbo stuff... Well... I think everyone pretty much knows where I stand on that...” He looked across at MacGyver cousin and asked. "Yours acting up again too?"

            "Uh-huh," MacGyver nodded. He confirmed the fact by revealing the crystal in his own left hand. Like O'Neill's, it was glowing a soft blue. Switching his attention to Hammond, MacGyver adopted an air of frustrated determination. "General, Sam's signed all the paper work. Can we get on with this? Please?"

            Hammond studied the owners of the several pairs of eyes that regarded him with varying degrees of expectancy and/or stubborn determination. After a moment he reached his decision, nodded briefly and then, with a glance at MacGyver followed by a 'Go ahead' gesture to his 2-I-C, he said simply. “Colonel...”

            O'Neill looked across at his relatives, then aimed a silent question at the archaeologist hovering behind them. As usual, Daniel interpreted the unvoiced question correctly.

            "It's a valid address, Jack. R'Fyaa identified it immediately as a 'protected' destination. Seeba just...smiled and nodded. She didn't seem surprised that Sam knew it," Daniel announced.

            O'Neill nodded, then looked at MacGyver, who inclined his head in acknowledgment of the silent question that had been put to him. Turning to his son, MacGyver spoke. "Sam, your guess about that," he indicated towards the SGC emblem on the Briefing Room wall, "was pretty much spot on."

            "Yeah...?" Malloy's expression was intent albeit surprised as he focused his attention on his father while, at a silent gesture from O'Neill, Jackson began to head around the table.

            "Those symbols you drew for us... The seventh one represents Earth. The other six are coordinates for another planet," MacGyver informed his son, who promptly stared at him as if suspecting that perhaps senility was setting in ahead of schedule.

            "And we can go there," Daniel chimed in eagerly as he reached and settled into the vacant chair beside Sam Carter. The statement earned him a disconcerted stare from Malloy who was clearly wondering if he'd just heard correctly and if insanity was contagious.

            "They have a device here called a 'Stargate', Sam," MacGyver continued. Malloy's gaze returned to his father at a goodly rate of knots.

            "A... 'Stargate'?" The journalist frowned dubiously.

            “Oh yeah...” O'Neill confirmed. “Honking great big metal ring thing. Shoots us through a wormhole, an' spits us right out another Gate at the other end...” He made an eloquently demonstrative gesture with his right hand as he spoke. "Wa-ay more fun than the rides at Disneyworld," he concluded smugly.

            "Which they use to travel to other planets," MacGyver ignored his cousin's interjection. “I mean the Stargate, not Disneyworld rides....”

            "Other... planets...?" Sam Malloy's gaze, which had shot across to O'Neill, returned to MacGyver. Scepticism dripped from the journalist's slowly uttered words. “Riii-ght...”

            "I know how far-fetched it sounds, Sam," MacGyver said steadily, "but it's true."

            "Uh-huh." Malloy still looked sceptical, but there was a distinctly pensive expression creeping into his dark eyes. "This 'Stargate' thing... Is that what caused all that ruckus that woke us up earlier?"

            "Yes. It was one of the other SG teams coming home from a mission."

            "Maybe if Sam was to see the Gate?" This suggestion came from Daniel. It was uttered in a helpfully polite tone, but there was an underlying note that suggested he was ready to argue his position if required.

            "Actually, General, that might not be such a bad idea," O'Neill regarded his superior steadily. It was clear from his whole demeanour that he was ready and willing to support whatever argument Daniel might be prepared to hit Hammond over the head with.

            "Very well." Hammond's expression was slightly grim. He glanced round at an SF hovering discreetly by the Briefing Room door. "Raise the blast door." The SF nodded.

            “Sam...” MacGyver addressed his frowning son and rose to his feet, indicating that the journalist should accompany him as the distinct rumble of well-oiled machinery started up and the steel barrier concealing the Gate Room from the Briefing Room began to slowly rise.

            "Whoa...!" Malloy breathed softly a few minutes later as, standing by his father's side at the observation window, he stared at the newly revealed view of the Gate Room and the huge circular object which resided there. As MacGyver smiled at his son's reaction, the younger man questioned. "I take it that's the 'Stargate'...?”

            "Yeah," MacGyver answered. “Jack and his team SG-1 travel through it on a pretty regular basis.”

            “To... 'other planets'.” Sam still sounded dubious.

            "Yeah," MacGyver said again. "Long story short, Sam. That mission of Jack's that I told ya' went pear-shaped?" As Sam looked at him, MacGyver continued. "Well, that was on another planet."

            "You're trying to tell me you've been to another planet, aren't you?" Sam said slowly, comprehension visibly starting to dawn in his dark eyes.

            "Two actually," MacGyver answered almost sheepishly. Sam Malloy stared at him, his jaw dropping slightly.

            "Two?" He echoed, eyebrows rising incredulously.

            “The second was kinduva detour. We were trying to get some innocent people away from some bad guys Jack'd kinda' ticked off. Anyhow, 'nother long story short, the second planet is where I was given this...” MacGyver looked down at the alien crystal embedded in his left hand. A soft, bluish glow was still emanating from the alien device.

            "So... The people you told me helped you save Jack's life were...are... aliens?" Sam sounded as if he was trying desperately to make sure he had the facts straight. "And those crystals are some sort of alien technology... So... that would mean the crystals I saw in Brazil are probably... 'alien' too. Are you telling me D'Gryak was...is some kind of alien?"

            MacGyver shrugged expressively as he regarded his son. "It's quite possible. The K'Rin'sha look a lot like us. Not too surprising really since most of them are apparently of Earth-Human origin."

            Sam Malloy's jaw dropped again as he stared at his father.

            "'Nother long story," MacGyver smiled.

            As he watched his son's stare return to the dormant Stargate, MacGyver was aware of the gathering at the conference table breaking up. He was distracted however, by a quietly uttered question from Sam.

            "What was it like, Dad?"

            "Scary," MacGyver answered honestly as his own gaze travelled to the huge alien device in the chamber below them.

            “I'll bet...” Sam nodded solemnly.

            "Least I had some idea of what to expect. First time Jack went through, there wasn't anyone to tell him what it would be like."

            Malloy tore his gaze away from the fascinating sight that was the Stargate, to stare up at his father with unmistakable surprise. "Jack was the first man to...?" He asked.

            "Yeah... Well, for a coupla’ millennia anyhow far as I know," MacGyver nodded.

            “Whoa...” Sam Malloy breathed. “Cool...” He added in awestruck tones, his gaze returning to the dormant Stargate.

            "It was. Very." O'Neill's voice intruded. MacGyver and Malloy looked round as the Air Force Colonel hove to beside them. "Freezes your ass every time you go through, but you get used to it." He grinned wryly. “Kinda'...” Then, adopting a slightly more serious air, he eyed MacGyver and announced. "The General wants us to let Carter drag us off to her lair... See if she can't figure out how to detach us from these things." He flashed the still softly blue-glowing crystal in his left hand. "We're not gonna' get off this base any time soon otherwise."

            MacGyver's gaze flickered to his own crystal. It too was emitting a soft blue glow. Looking back at Jack, he ventured dubiously. "Don't suppose we could sneak out the way I came in, huh?"

            "Been sealed," O'Neill responded gloomily, then he brightened abruptly. "I know where we can get a cutting torch though!"

            "Let's try plan 'A' first, Jack," MacGyver suggested. O'Neill frowned. Mac waggled his left hand, displaying his K'Rin'sha crystal briefly. "The lab," he elaborated. O'Neill looked faintly disappointed and shrugged in a resigned fashion.

            "Spoilsport," he muttered, then looked to Sam and began to enquire. "You wanna' stick with us, kid, or-?”

            “Actually, Jack, I'd kinda' like a closer look at that thing if that's okay?” Malloy jerked a thumb in the direction of the Stargate.

            O'Neill visibly hesitated, then looked suddenly at MacGyver before switching his attention back to Malloy. “Oh-kaay...” he nodded. Looking over his shoulder to where the rest of his team was discreetly hovering, he called. "Daniel, Teal'c... Take Sam here down to the Gate room an’ let him take a closer look at the Gate, then bring him on up to Carter's lab."

            "Thanks, Jack." A broad grin plastered itself across Malloy's face. He didn't quite bounce up and down in excited anticipation, but he came remarkably close to it.

***************

            "Whoa...It looks even bigger from down here than it did from up there," Sam Malloy observed as he stood at the foot of the ramp and stared up at the impressive sight of the inactive Stargate. "It's gotta' be what...? Twenty feet across?"

            "Give or take," Daniel Jackson confirmed. He was standing beside the journalist. He was also watching the expressions that were chasing one another across Malloy's face; the curiosity, the fascination, the wonder... Teal'c hovered behind them, looking as inscrutable as ever.

            "Can I...?" Malloy gestured towards the Gate.

            "Ah... Sure," Daniel nodded, whereupon Malloy headed up the ramp. Daniel remained where he was, simply watching as the younger man took an up-close and personal look at the Stargate. Teal'c advanced to stand silently at Jackson's side, also observing the journalist.

            With some caution, Malloy extended a hand towards the metallic-looking surface of the edge of the inner ring of the Gate. He was surprised that when his fingers touched the surface, it wasn't as cold as he had expected. He stepped closer and peered intently at the structure, asking as he did so. "What's this made of? It looks like metal, but... It isn't quite, is it?"

            A look of surprise flitted across Daniel Jackson's face. Teal'c twitched an eyebrow slightly. "It's ah... Naquadah. Well mostly. We think," Daniel answered.

            "Naquadah? Never heard of it. What is it?" Malloy was beginning to trace the outline of one of the symbols on the inner ring with his fingers by that point and was exuding fascinated curiosity at a rate of knots.

            "It's an alien mineral of sorts," Daniel answered. "Captain Carter could tell you more about it than I can."

            Malloy nodded, then froze as he felt the faintest of vibrations suddenly tingle through his fingers from the surface he was touching. He frowned as a distinctly odd sound began to fill the air and he heard Daniel call out in an agitated tone. "Sam, come away from there NOW. The Gate's activating!"

            A second later a klaxon sounded, red alert lights began to flash and a disembodied voice echoed around the room with the pronouncement.

            "Incoming wormhole! Security to the Gate room! Security teams to the Gate room!"

            "SAM, MOVE OR YOU'LL BE KILLED!" Daniel yelled, starting to run up the ramp with the clear intention of dragging the journalist away from danger. Malloy didn't need warning twice. He bolted down the ramp, Daniel spinning and following him back down as he passed him. Teal'c grabbed them both and yanked them out of the way as a fully-armed security team erupted into the chamber and took up well-rehearsed defensive positions around the foot of the ramp.

            "What the-? WHOA!" Sam exclaimed, his jaw dropping and his eyes just about popping out of his head as he looked round in time to see the incoming wormhole establish itself in its usual flashy manner.

            "Closing the iris." The pronouncement echoed around the chamber as the initial surge of the wormhole settled down, flattened out. A few seconds later, the defensive iris snapped into place.

            "Stops anything unfriendly from coming through," Daniel confided to Malloy as the latter reacted in surprise to the closing of the iris.

            “Oh...” Was all Sam was capable of saying right at that moment.

            "SG-11 codes recognised. Opening the iris." The disembodied pronouncement echoed around the chamber. As the iris opened again, the disembodied voice continued after a moment. "Receiving incoming message."

            Malloy stood rooted to the spot, simply staring at the rippling surface of the wormhole as a second disembodied voice announced itself as Major Drummond and proceeded to deliver a brief and concise report to the effect that SG-11's present mission was running to schedule, peaceful negotiations with the indigenous people were continuing and the team expected to return to base at noon the following day. A few moments after the incoming message ceased, the Gate shut down and the assorted security personnel all relaxed and began to file from the chamber.

            Malloy remained rooted to the spot, still staring at the now inactive Stargate. He had 'dumbstruck' written all over him.

            "Sam? You okay?" Daniel questioned worriedly.

            "Uh... Yeah... Ah... That happen a lot, does it?" Malloy gestured vaguely towards the Gate.

            "Pretty often yeah," Daniel couldn't help smiling at the younger man's reaction to what had just happened. Sam blew out a slow, but deep breath and observed.  “Waay cool...”

            "Maybe we should go catch up with Jack and your Dad now, huh?" Daniel suggested.

            “Uh...Yeah...” Sam agreed. Then he looked directly at Daniel and Teal'c and, quite visibly getting his wide-eyed awe under control, he stated. “Good plan. I have a few questions...” Then he amended wryly. "Actually, I have a lot of questions."

***************

            O'Neill and MacGyver along with Sam Carter meanwhile, had been ambushed by Janet Fraiser as they waited for the elevator to take them up to Carter's lab. The elevator doors had opened and Fraiser had been in the car, about to step out. She was not pleased that the two men had once again escaped the infirmary before she'd had a chance to corner them both for more blood tests and she made her displeasure transparently clear. Thus it was that the duo found themselves detoured to the good Doctor's domain instead of heading straight for Carter's lab despite O'Neill's best efforts at protest.

            Just as they reached the infirmary, they all heard the 'red alert' klaxons go off. Before O'Neill had a chance to use it as an excuse to bolt, Carter announced that it was probably just SG-11 making a scheduled check-in from their current mission to a world designated by the SGC computers as P8D-746. Fraiser firmly quashed the objections which O'Neill endeavoured to voice about why he should perhaps just go back 'downstairs' and check anyway, much to MacGyver's ill-concealed amusement. Seeing his mirth only made O'Neill crankier of course and by the time Fraiser had got them both seated opposite each other on adjacent infirmary beds, some pretty sharp banter was flying back and forth between the two men.

            Fraiser and Carter looked at each other, shook their heads and exchanged long-suffering looks while trying to conceal amused grins.

            MacGyver did not remain the target of O'Neill's annoyance for long. As soon as Fraiser approached him with a needle and some empty vials, the SG-1 man's caustic wit was redirected at her. It had to be admitted though, that MacGyver did an excellent job of throwing in distracting remarks that ensured that not all of O'Neill's crankiness went Fraiser's way. Fraiser just shook her head, ignored the SG-1 man's bitching and drew two vials of blood from him before he quite realised it.

            O'Neill was still muttering darkly when Fraiser left him nursing his left arm and turned her attention to MacGyver whom she found to be rather more co-operative and who already had his left sleeve rolled up and his arm at the ready.

            While Fraiser was busy with her two 'patients', Carter leafed through a file which the medic had handed her before 'indulging her vampire-fetish' as O'Neill had so colourfully described the request for blood samples.

            "Well, these results don't tell us much," Carter quickly concluded.

            "I know," Fraiser agreed as she relinquished two freshly drawn vials of MacGyver's blood to a nurse, who promptly bustled off with them and O'Neill's samples in the direction of the lab. "They only confirm what we already know, which is very little."

            "Ah...?" O'Neill had his best 'somebody-want-to-enlighten-me?' look plastered across his face and had finally stopped complaining about being nothing more than a pincushion for blood fetishists.

            "Can I take a look?" MacGyver inquired.

            "Sure," Carter said and moved to set the file down on the bed beside him so that he could easily leaf through it one-handed while he waited for the neatly punctured vein in the crook of his left arm to stop leaking blood into the small piece of cotton wool covering the needle wound.

            "Well?" O'Neill asked impatiently after a moment of watching him frown at the papers. As the Phoenix operative looked across at him and before he could say a word, O'Neill added. "In English if ya' don't mind.  I get enough of the mind numbing techno-babble from these two." He inclined his head expressively at Carter and Fraiser.

            MacGyver smiled and shook his head, knowing full well that Jack’s 'dumb old soldier' act was just that; an act. "Okay. In English. The tests 'these two'," Mac inclined his head towards Carter and Fraiser, "not to mention half the base ran on us yesterday, confirm we're perfectly healthy."

            "Well, I already knew that," O'Neill remarked dryly. "What about these things?" He waved his left hand vaguely.

            "The scans we ran confirm the presence of a foreign body in your hands, but even with computer enhancement, we just can't seem to get a clear picture of the actual structure of those things, or how they've insinuated themselves into the tissues without causing any determinable damage. It's almost as if the... crystals or whatever they are, are somehow shielding themselves and the area of your hands immediately surrounding them, from all our- " Carter jumped in. She was unmistakably in full, fascinated-but-puzzled scientist mode.

            “Ahh!" O'Neill interrupted the fast-flowing tirade, his hands waving frantically in front of him in a distinctive 'I-don't-want-to-be-hearing-all-this' manner. As Carter fell obligingly silent, O'Neill looked across at his cousin in an almost hopeful manner.

            "Sorry, Jack. That's about as plain English as it gets," the Phoenix operative sighed apologetically as he checked to see if his arm had stopped leaking. It had, so he tossed the bit of cotton wool into a box on the unit between the beds which bore the legend 'Hazardous Waste Materials'.

            "Oh." O'Neill looked profoundly disappointed. His gaze switched to Carter and Fraiser. "In other words, you know squat about these things," he said in annoyance.

            "Well, I wouldn't say that exactly, sir," Carter responded defensively. O'Neill glowered darkly.

            "Neither would I, Jack," MacGyver said calmly. 

O'Neill's displeasure shifted targets. "Okay, Genius. Floor's all yours," he said acidly, his hands gesticulating eloquently.

            "All the tests run here at the SGC have been 'passive', but we both know these things," MacGyver waggled his left hand, "are pieces of some form of functional alien technology."

            "So? Therefore? And?" O'Neill wanted to know.

            "So we- " MacGyver began, only to be cut off by Carter, who jumped in with.

            "So we find out just what exactly you can do with it and see if we can't work backwards to how."

            "We know what it does, Captain," O'Neill responded irritably. "It heals, switches lights on and opens doors. It also makes us hungry and/or gives Mac headaches. All we need to know right now is how to get the damn' things out of our hands!"

            Carter winced slightly while MacGyver murmured his cousin's name in a reproachful manner.

            "Headaches? You didn't say anything yesterday about headaches," Fraiser accused, fixing MacGyver with one of her sternest expressions.

            "That's because I don't have any," MacGyver protested, endeavouring not be intimidated by the look being bestowed on him by the petite medic. "Unless you count Jack." He shot a sideways glare at his cousin while Carter struggled to muffle a grin and a snigger. Looking back to Fraiser, MacGyver found her stern expression was still in place. In fact, if anything, Fraiser had upped its intimidation factor a couple of notches. Suspecting that it had defeated better men than him, MacGyver sighed and caved in gracefully. "Okay, so I had a couple of headaches on Sanctuary," he admitted reluctantly. He shot Jack a look that strongly intimated that he was sooo going to pay for 'dropping him in it' with Fraiser. O'Neill shrugged slightly and endeavoured to look apologetically innocent. "I wasn't the only one," MacGyver added. O'Neill winced as Fraiser's intimidating look raked over him.

            "Was probably just the cold," O'Neill attempted to bale himself out of the hole he suddenly found he was joining MacGyver in.

            "Cold?" Fraiser raised an interrogatory eyebrow. Her steely gaze didn't so much as waver.

            "Uh...Yeah." O'Neill said defensively. “It snowed. We went outside to ah...” he shifted slightly, almost as if embarrassed, then adopted an aura of defiance, "play with some of the local kids. Help them build a snowman. That sorta' thing." He then cast the two women a look that dared either of them to make something of that admission. Quite wisely, neither chose to take up the dare.

            "And you both had a headache from being out in the cold?" Fraiser inquired.

            "Ahhh...Yeah." MacGyver made the admission.

            "What was that you said about lights and doors?" Carter questioned, frowning at O'Neill.

            O'Neill and MacGyver exchanged looks and a swift, but silent conversation seemed to accompany the looks before O'Neill announced.

"Ya' kinda' had to be there, Captain. Now. How about we get back to the problem at hand, huh?" He waggled his left hand expressively. "No pun intended," he added hastily in response to the wincing looks that crossed the faces of his three companions. "Honest."

            Before anyone was able to offer any verbal comment, the slightly worried-sounding voice of Daniel Jackson floated over from the doorway. "Ah, so this is where you guys got to. You could have had someone tell us you'd come here instead of the lab." The archaeologist sounded mildly pissed.

            "Are you okay, Dad?" Sam Malloy questioned, following Daniel into the room. He looked somewhat concerned at finding his father in the infirmary instead of where he had been expecting to find him.

            "Yeah, I'm fine, Sam. Relax." MacGyver cast his son a reassuring smile. "Doctor Fraiser just wanted to run some more blood tests on us because of these things." He indicated the alien device embedded in his left palm.

            "Oh. Right." Malloy visibly relaxed. Jackson too looked relieved by the Phoenix man's explanation even as O'Neill gave him a look and a slight nod that confirmed MacGyver's statement.

            "So," O'Neill turned his attention to Fraiser. "If we're done here...?" His expression eloquently completed the question: Can we go now?

            "For now." The Doctor nodded.

            "Great." O'Neill was on his feet almost immediately.

            "But if either of you," Fraiser's gaze raked over both the older men, "have any more headaches, or any other symptoms that could be attributable to your using, or simply just having those crystals, I want you back here right away so I can check it out. Understood?" Her tone matched her expression and both warned of dire consequences should either of them fail to comply with the instruction.

            O'Neill and MacGyver nodded dutifully. Fraiser's attention shifted to Malloy and she reminded him that she wanted to check him over again later in the day. She also reminded him that she expected him to take things easy in the meantime.

            Malloy nodded as dutifully as his father and cousin had done, whereupon Fraiser turned to Carter and announced that the trio were all hers.

***************

            "Oh-kay, Carter. So whaddya want us to do?" Jack O'Neill breezily enquired as he trailed the young woman into one of the SGC's several labs.

            "You might want to take a seat, sir," Carter indicated some lab stools. "It'll take me a few minutes to set up some of this equipment."

            "Fine. Okay. Whatever," O'Neill responded and promptly went to lay claim to one of the lab stools. "Grab a seat, kids. Carter's got doohickeys to dig out, dust off, plug in and whatever." He threw over his shoulder at the others.

            MacGyver and Malloy settled on two more stools and Teal'c remained standing by the door while Daniel merely folded his arms and hovered near the end of the bench.

            "Daniel?" O'Neill enquired, eyebrows arching as he regarded his hovering archaeologist.

            "Jack?" Daniel responded, returning the quizzical look being aimed at him.

            "Daniel?" O'Neill repeated, altering the inflection on the utterance fractionally.

            "Oh." Enlightenment spread across Daniel's face as his nimble mind translated the verbal shorthand. “Ah... I've got a meeting with the General and our guests in...” Daniel paused to check his wristwatch. “About ten minutes, so there doesn't seem much point in... ah...” He gestured vaguely.

            Having obtained an explanation for why Daniel was making no attempt to sit down, O'Neill nodded, then turned his attention to Malloy.

            “So... Sam...” he began.

            "Be right with you, sir!"

            "Not you, Carter, the other Sam," O'Neill informed her.

            "Sorry, sir," Carter responded with slightly sheepish apology.

            “So. Sam...” O'Neill once again addressed his younger cousin. "Guess you were probably still in the Gate room when SG-11 checked in, huh?"

            “Uh... Yeah...” Malloy nodded. The look that entered his eyes positively broadcast the awe he had felt at witnessing the Gate activation at such close quarters.

            "So. Cool or what?" O'Neill grinned exuberantly. He was about to say something further, but an odd tingling on the edges of his senses distracted him. He looked to MacGyver. The older man was resting his left forearm on the lab bench, his open hand palm upwards and he appeared to be staring intently at his K'Rin'sha crystal. The alien device was emitting a blue-tinged white glow that seemed to be growing slowly stronger.

            O'Neill's right hand came up reflexively in a gesture demanding silence as both Sam Malloy and Daniel Jackson made to speak. The younger men held their silence, but Daniel stepped quickly around the lab bench to tap Carter on the shoulder, the Captain being too busily engrossed in fiddling with bits of hardware to have noticed anything. She looked up and round, a questioning look on her face.

            "I think you should be watching this," Daniel told her quietly, his blue-eyed gaze riveted to the glow emanating from the region of MacGyver's left hand. Carter followed the direction of the distracted archaeologist's gaze. Her frown deepened as she saw where his attention was so raptly focused.

            "What's he doing?" She asked, noting that O'Neill seemed to be similarly engrossed by the glowing crystal.  "Ah...sir?" Carter flipped a few switches and began to move to where MacGyver sat motionless. The man seemed totally oblivious to her approach. O'Neill, however, was not.

            "Not now, Carter!" His tone was on the sharp side, but he didn't even so much as glance in her direction. Although the bulk of his attention was focused on his cousin, he was peripherally aware of exactly where everyone else in the room was and exactly how they were reacting to what they were witnessing. It was an oddly intense awareness.

            The Colonel had, by then, swivelled on his stool so that he was directly facing MacGyver. His left forearm was resting on the lab-bench in a manner similar to the way MacGyver's was. The Mage crystal given to him the previous day by Alaeya was glowing a rich, yet at the same time gentle, blue.

            O'Neill was not entirely sure what MacGyver was doing, but he could feel his own crystal reacting and he was becoming increasingly aware of the depth of the concentration that MacGyver was exerting on whatever it was he was doing. He registered movement behind him, but he didn't react to it. There was no need. His oddly heightened sense of awareness told him it was only Malloy shifting from his stool and coming to stand at his right shoulder.

            No one else in the room moved, but there were some collective gasps of surprise as the crystal embedded in MacGyver's hand began to slowly un-embed itself. The intensity of the Phoenix man's concentration didn't waver. MacGyver didn't so much as twitch a muscle for some moments as the crystal finally emerged from his hand to simply rest on his palm. Then, quite unhurriedly and his aura of concentration remaining intense, he closed his hand, turned it over, slowly opened it again and, as he drew his hand back towards himself, he blew out a heavy, exhaustion-tinged breath and his eyes closed.

            "Whoa! Way to go, Mac!" O'Neill exclaimed with openly impressed exuberance as he stared at the colourless and seemingly inactive crystal that now resided on the lab bench.

            MacGyver's dark eyes opened and he blinked at the crystal himself for a moment before a slow 'Hey it worked' smile began to spread across his face. His smiled deepened considerably as he looked to O'Neill and told him. "Your turn, Jack."

            "H-how did you just do that?" The question came from Daniel while a slightly disconcerted look flashed across O'Neill's face as it suddenly occurred to the Air Force man that he had no idea how MacGyver had done what he'd just witnessed him do.

            "Do what?" Carter looked even more disconcerted than O'Neill was. Several sets of eyes fixed her with uncomprehending looks. "What?" She questioned bewilderedly of the owners of said uncomprehending looks.

            "Carter?" O'Neill queried as MacGyver quietly sucked in and blew out, another deep, slow breath and rubbed his hands over his face in a slightly weary manner. MacGyver’s action grabbed O'Neill's attention even as it caught Sam Malloy's.

            "Dad? You alright?" The journalist only just beat O'Neill to giving voice to their joint concern. O'Neill threw in a concerned observation however.

            "Ya' look kinda’ pale there, big guy."

            "I'm okay," MacGyver assured the duo, neither of who looked entirely convinced. Daniel, meanwhile, was focused on Carter. Frowning at the woman, he questioned.

            "Are you saying you didn't just see that?"

            "See what, Daniel?" Carter wanted to know.

            “Ah...Mac's crystal...” Daniel gestured at the alien device now resting on the bench. "It's ah, right there. On the bench. Mac just... removed it. Somehow."

            Carter's gaze searched the lab bench. Her frown deepened. She shook her head slightly as she confessed. "I don't see it, Daniel."

            Confused looks were exchanged all round as what the Captain had just said sank in with everyone in the room. MacGyver shifted slightly on his stool and held up his left hand to openly display his now crystal-free palm to the young woman. She blinked in stunned incredulity.

            "It's gone!" She exclaimed, staring.

            "From my hand, yes," MacGyver confirmed, "but it's right..."

            “....there on the bench in front of us,” O'Neill interjected. "Plain as day. Bit on the dull side now," he conceded, "but it's there." His hands moved expressively, but he kept them well away from the dormant-looking alien device just in case.

            "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm not seeing it," Carter shook her head.

            "Right," O'Neill decided. "Everyone who can see the pretty rock, raise your hand." So saying, he raised his own right hand in the manner of a school student seeking permission to be excused. He caught the slightly pained look that Daniel sent his way and gave the younger man one of his 'What?' looks in return.

            MacGyver meanwhile, looked round at his hovering son. "Sam?"

            "Uh...Yeah... I can see it. Looks kinda' like a pretty uninteresting paperweight ya' wouldn't give a second glance to now though," Malloy answered. He moved to lean between his father and O'Neill, his right hand snaking out towards the crystal.

            "Ah! Don't touch!" O'Neill's reflexes were fast. He slapped the younger man's hand away from its transparently obvious goal. "Being super-glued to a paper-weight isn't all it's cracked up to be, ya' know." His attention switched to Carter, whom he saw was now standing at the opposite side of the bench and was waving one of her hand-held scanning devices over its surface. "Carter? Whatcha' doin'?"

            "I'm trying to get a fix on the crystal, sir," Carter answered. Her expression was puzzled, but intent. "But it doesn't appear to be registering on this equipment."

            "Teal'c." O'Neill called over to the Jaffa still standing by the door.

            "Yes, O'Neill?"

            "Can you see Mac's crystal on the bench here?"

            Teal'c approached the bench and scrutinized its surface carefully.  "Indeed I do..."

            "There ya' go!" O'Neill announced triumphantly to Carter.

            "...not," Teal'c finished.

            "What did I tell ya'?" O'Neill continued triumphantly. Then abruptly his manner switched to one of surprise and his head snapped around. "Huh? Teal'c?"

            "I can see no crystal upon the surface of this bench, O'Neill," the Jaffa stated with solemn dignity.

            "What?" O'Neill blinked, visibly deflated. "You can't? Oh."

            “So...” Daniel jumped in. "Why can the four of us see it," he made a gesture encompassing O'Neill, Malloy, MacGyver and himself, "but Teal'c and Sam ah, our Sam can't?"

            "Maybe it's Goa'uld sensitive somehow?" Carter postulated.

            "That would explain why Teal'c can't see it, but not you, Sam," MacGyver pointed out.

            "Ah. No. Actually it might," Daniel jumped in again. "Sam ah, has a Goa'uld protein marker left in her blood from Jolinar."

            "Oh. Yeah. Then that would make sense," MacGyver nodded pensively. Catching O'Neill's reaction out of the corner of his eye, Mac told him. "Daniel and I talked a lot while you were out of things. He told me about the Jolinar stuff."

            "You wanna' tell me?" Malloy asked hopefully. "Goa'uld? Jolinar?"

            "I will, Sam. Later," MacGyver promised before requesting. "You want to do me a favour and ask one of the SF's in the corridor outside to step in here for a moment?"

            "Mac?" O'Neill questioned even as Malloy frowned but didn't move.

            "We should test the Captain's theory," MacGyver explained. "This is the most obvious way."

            "He's right, sir," Carter agreed, nodding as she looked at O'Neill.

            "Okay." O'Neill made a 'go-ahead' gesture.

            "Sam?" Mac prompted his son, who was still hovering beside O'Neill and himself.

            The journalist sighed softly, nodded and headed for the door.

***************

            "Oh-kay. Next theory," Jack O'Neill invited, washing his right hand over his face.

            Carter's theory had just been shot down in flames by the simple test MacGyver had put it to. The S.F. summoned from the corridor had spectacularly failed to detect any sign of the crystal sitting on the lab bench, as had a lab technician who had wandered in in search of a piece of equipment needed in one of the other labs.

            "Anyone?" O'Neill prompted after a few moments crept past and nobody volunteered any thoughts. "Oh-kay. So what now?" His dark-eyed gaze swept over his companions.

            "Well, Sam can't run tests on something she can't find," MacGyver reasoned. "So... Let's try something." So saying, he reached out with his right hand and picked up his crystal. "Can you see it now?" He asked the officer as he held his hand out, palm up, the dormant crystal resting on its surface.

            "Yes!" Carter nodded. She frowned pensively. "But it looks different... Much duller. Like Sam's paperweight you wouldn't look twice at."

            "Ah...No." Malloy contradicted. "It looks clearer, brighter, than it was when it was on the table."

            "I'd have to agree with Sam," Daniel announced pensively. "Ah him." He added, indicating Malloy as everyone gave him an unmistakable 'Which one?' look. "It looks more like it did the first time I saw it on Sanctuary before Mac and it got so attached to each other. Only more 'alive' somehow."

            "Alive?" O'Neill's eyebrows rose as he regarded his archaeologist sceptically. Daniel gave him a vague little half-apologetic shrug in return.

            "Teal'c? How about you?" MacGyver asked, ignoring his cousin and Daniel as Carter busied herself with some of her monitoring equipment now that she could actually see what she was trying to scan.

            "I too am now able to see the object you are holding, MacGyver," the big Jaffa solemnly confirmed.

            "And how does it look to you?" Carter asked, frowning at the monitoring equipment which was stubbornly refusing to oblige her with any useful information.

            "It appears to be like a small stone that one might find upon the ground and give no thought to," Teal'c pronounced solemnly.

            "Oh-kay, so this is getting us nowhere fast," O'Neill sighed heavily.

            "I'd like to try something," MacGyver announced pensively. He looked to O'Neill. "Remember what Seeba told us last night about Sam?"

            "Ah, Mac... Are ya' sure that's such a good idea?" O'Neill suddenly sat up straighter and cast the older man a concerned look. He wasn't sure how exactly, but he abruptly just 'knew' what MacGyver intended. The Phoenix operative was, however, already talking to Malloy, telling him briefly of how Jack had obtained his crystal the previous day and of what Seeba had told Jack and himself about Malloy allegedly having the ability to 'carry' a crystal of ‘his First House' in the same manner as Alaeya had done.

            "Okay, Dad. Let's try it," Malloy volunteered, having no problem figuring out where the conversation was headed.

            "Are you sure, Sam?" MacGyver asked. "No-one here is going to force you to try this and no-one'll think less of you if you'd rather not. You know that, don't you?"

            "Sure, Dad, I know." Malloy did not hesitate. He trusted his father completely and knew he would never knowingly do anything that would put him at any kind of risk. "What do I do?"

            "Hold out your right hand we'll try that first."

            "Sir...?" Carter said dubiously as she suddenly realised what the Phoenix man intended.

            Ignoring Carter's protest, MacGyver carefully placed his crystal on his son's out-stretched right palm. The crystal flickered momentarily blue-white, but that was all that appeared to happen at least as far as MacGyver, O'Neill, Malloy and Jackson were concerned. Carter too witnessed the flicker of light, but then...

            "It's disappeared again!" The Captain exclaimed,  alarmed.

            "Ah... No, Sam," Malloy shook his head as he regarded the now clear crystal that rested on his palm. “I can still see it. It...” He frowned slightly. "It feels... warm." He sounded surprised by the realisation.

            "Probably residual heat from your father holding it," Carter theorised. Her frown was firmly back in place as she noted the distinct lack of helpful readings her monitoring equipment was registering. She made one or two adjustments. "But there's still nothing showing on this equipment."

            "You sure you plugged it in, Captain?" This slightly dry remark came from O'Neill. It earned him a dirty look. He merely shrugged a 'Hey-I-was-only-trying-to-be-helpful' shrug in return.

            Intrigued by the alien artefact, Malloy drew his hand closer to himself and, as he stared in fascination at the transparent crystal, he absently turned it over onto his left palm. Vivid blue light flared and the journalist let out a yelp of surprise tinged with fright and panic as the device suddenly sank into his flesh.

            "DAD!"

            Reflexively, MacGyver reached to counter his son's immediate response of clawing at the embedding stone. O’Neill meanwhile, swore colourfully as his own crystal flared vividly blue and he felt the edges of his senses tingle with an oddly indefinable sensation.

            "Sam, don't!" The Phoenix operative warned, establishing a firm hold on his son's wrists. Malloy froze and looked at his father, panic in his dark eyes. "Deep breath. Relax." MacGyver advised. It was visibly an effort for the young man, but Malloy did as instructed. "Jack? You okay?" MacGyver threw the question at his cursing cousin without looking away from his panicked son.

            "Yeah...." was O'Neill's rather terse response. His crystal had dulled again, but the 'jangling' on the edges of his senses remained.  It was a bit like an itch one couldn't quite scratch, but that was about as close as O'Neill could have come to describing it if anyone had asked him to do so. Fortunately, no-one did. "Nice one, Mac," he added dryly, gritting his teeth against the distracting sensations rippling through his nerves. "Next bright idea?"

            "Hang in there, Jack," MacGyver advised. He could 'feel' the 'jangling' that his cousin was experiencing, but he kept his attention focused on his son. "Okay, Sam. I want you to give me back the crystal."

            "H-how?" Malloy questioned, his anxious gaze dropping to the uninvited 'guest' that had taken up residence in his hand. "Dad, I..."

            "Sam, look at me." MacGyver's tone requested compliance. Malloy's gaze came back up to meet his again. "Okay. Trust me, son." Malloy nodded, swallowing apprehensively. "It's okay, Sam. We can do this." MacGyver assured with quiet confidence. As he spoke, he released his grip on his son's wrists and instead clasped Sam’s left hand in his own. "Give me the crystal, son," he urged gently.

            “Dad... I...” Sam began anxiously, only to fall silent in response to the confident reassurance he saw in his father's dark eyes. All his panic just fell away as his trust in his father effectively drowned it. "Dad?" He asked, concern for his father rather than for himself stirring as he saw the man’s chocolate brown eyes seem to lose focus. Sam shivered slightly as an odd sensation swept through him, followed by a brief, warm flare that seemed to be centred in his left hand, which was neither particularly unpleasant nor painful. Then it was gone and his father was gently releasing his left hand. Glancing down, Sam saw that the alien crystal was no longer embedded in his flesh, but a bluish glow was emanating from the region of his father's left hand. "Dad?" He questioned anxiously as he saw the slightly dazed look that was on his face.

            “I'm okay...” MacGyver answered absently.

            "Sirs?" Carter directed her anxious question at both MacGyver and O'Neill. The latter had an expression on his face that matched his elder cousin's in the 'dazed' stakes. She also noticed that O'Neill's crystal was emitting a strong blue glow again and Daniel was hovering anxiously at his elbow, clearly ready to offer support should it be required.

            “Whoa...” O'Neill breathed, giving his head a noticeable shake before blinking at his two cousins. "Next time you guys decide to do that, give a guy some warning, huh?"

***************

            “Sorry... Sorry...” Daniel Jackson apologised to the two Airmen he collided with as he shot out of the elevator and bolted in the direction of the Briefing Room. He was late. He had been so engrossed in events in Carter's lab that he had totally lost track of time. It had taken a phone call from Sergeant Davis to remind him that he was supposed to be attending a meeting in the Briefing room with General Hammond and their K'Rin'sha guests.

            Hurrying into the Briefing Room, Daniel apologised profusely for his tardiness and went immediately to the chair which Hammond waved him to. As he settled into his seat, he exchanged greetings with the K'Rin'sha in their 'Primary' tongue and apologised again for being late. R'Fyaa and Seeba both nodded politely across the table at him. He cast a smile towards Alaeya, who was endeavouring along with Sergeant Davis to keep little Melia out of mischief at the Sergeant's desk in the corner. Alaeya smiled back, before her attention was distracted by the chattering little girl who was pouncing on some coloured crayons that Davis had somehow procured from somewhere.

            Hammond attempted to bring the meeting to order and resume the discussion that he and the K'Rin'sha's emissaries had been engaged in when Daniel's tardy arrival had interrupted them.

            "Ah, excuse me, General, if I may interrupt?" Daniel interrupted. “There are a couple of things I was hoping I could ask our guests...”

            Hammond regarded the archaeologist carefully for a moment then, visibly quashing irritability, nodded and made a 'go ahead' gesture.

            "Thank you, General," Daniel responded. He then looked across the table at the K'Rin'sha 'Keeper', R'Fyaa. "It's ah, about those crystals Jack and MacGyver have." He didn't miss the slight smile that twitched at the corners of Seeba's mouth and it occurred to him that she already knew what he was about to ask. Somehow that thought unnerved him slightly. He blinked disconcertedly at her.

            Hammond caught the archaeologist's reaction and inquired in slightly clipped tones. "Is there a problem, Doctor Jackson?"

            "No. Ah... Well... Actually, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure," Daniel confessed. Seeing the General frown, Daniel quickly began to describe the events he had just witnessed in Captain Carter's lab. The General listened attentively, his frown deepening as he absorbed the information being imparted. As Daniel reached the conclusion of his brief report, the General tautly asked. "Mr. MacGyver, Mr. Malloy and the Colonel are alright?"

            "Yes, sir," Daniel nodded. "In fact Mac was making another attempt at removing his crystal when I left them and Captain Carter was attempting to monitor it with some more-sensitive equipment." He paused, then before Hammond could say anything further, Daniel glanced across the table and continued. "I know we understand very little yet about K'Rin'sha crystal technology, but I was rather hoping to find out why only some of us were able to see Mac's crystal when it was on the lab bench." He focused his attention on the K'Rin'sha opposite him now. "We thought at first Teal'c's symbiote might be the reason he couldn't see it and that the Goa'uld protein marker Captain Carter has in her blood might be why she couldn't see it either, yet I could. But that theory fell at the first test."

            Daniel looked to Hammond again. "A lab tech came in and he couldn't see the crystal, nor could an S.F. we called into the lab." Daniel returned his attention to the 'aliens'. "It might have something to do with that unidentified substance Doctor Fraiser found in Jack, Mac and Malloy’s blood except I don't have any of it. So, it must be something else." He looked at the SGC's guests, his expression broadcasting his hope that they would have some viable explanation for this quandary that had been unearthed.

            "There are many Circles," Seeba stated enigmatically.

            "Excuse me?" Daniel questioned bewilderedly, his mouth dropping open. Hammond looked equally unenlightened.

            "Some are easy to determine, others are not. Some encompass much, others are... unique," Seeba continued. "Some exist within others and many interconnect in ways that make some things less obvious to the eye until one is ready to see them."

            “Uh-huh...” Daniel frowned, chewing on his bottom lip. "That ah...doesn't help much," he confessed.

            Seeba smiled enigmatically and settled back in her chair, clearly not about to elaborate on what she had said or translate it into any more comprehensible a form.

            "Circles?" Hammond looked slightly irritable. "What do circles have to do with it?"

            "K'Rin'sha societal structure involves Circles," Daniel said pensively to Hammond. "Mage Circle, Healers' Circle and so on. It's a bit like old style Craft Guilds or, in more modern-day terms, Unions. Sort of. Only it's way more complicated than that." As Hammond stared at him, clearly struggling to keep up, Daniel's gaze switched back to the duo on the opposite side of the table. "But I don't see how that explains why I was able to see Mac's crystal on the lab bench when others couldn't."

            "When you are ready to know, Young One, you will know." Seeba smiled her enigmatic smile again.

            “Ri-ight...” Daniel looked anything but convinced as he stared at the blind Seer.

            "Ah, General Hammond," R'Fyaa interjected composedly at that point. "My companions and I will be leaving later today. Perhaps for the moment we should concentrate on the subject we originally intended to discuss this morning?"

            "Indeed." Hammond nodded his agreement, his manner becoming brisk and business-like. The scheduled topic for discussion, indeed the subject which Daniel Jackson's arrival had interrupted, was that of some worlds known to the K'Rin'sha which R'Fyaa had been authorised to provide information on. Worlds which the Tau'ri might well find it beneficial to make contact with.

            To Hammond's way of thinking and, he had no doubt, his Superiors' way of thinking too, such intelligence was rather more important to Earth in its war with the Goa'uld right then than solving the quandary, intriguing though it was, which the archaeologist had raised.

            "But..." Daniel endeavoured to protest.

Hammond cut him off. Firmly. "I'm sorry, Doctor Jackson. Perhaps when we're done here, there will be an opportunity for you to pursue that particular question further with our guests before they leave, but right now we have slightly more important matters to be discussing."

            Jackson considered protesting further. The look Hammond gave him however warned him that it would be pointless. It also reminded him of the importance of the primary reason for the meeting in the first place. Giving Hammond a look in return which promised that he had every intention of pursuing his question later Daniel nodded and turned his attention fully to the meeting's scheduled agenda.

***************

            "Wow... That's amazing, sir. How are you doing that?" Sam Carter inquired as she blinked in rapt fascination at the glowing ball of slightly blue-tinged white light floating in mid-air above the bench in the middle of her lab.

            Angus MacGyver's concentration shattered. The ball of light vanished, plunging the room momentarily into darkness until everyone's eyes readjusted to the low level the lights had earlier been turned down to.

            "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure," MacGyver confessed, leaning his elbows on the bench and gently rubbing at his temples. He had a headache that was developing in intensity at a rapid rate of knots. "I just sort of visualise it and concentrate and it happens."

            He had done the 'light-bulb' trick several times by that time and this most recent attempt had produced the largest and most spectacular light display so far. Carter had him 'wired up' to an assortment of equipment in an effort to determine what exactly he was doing, how he was doing it and what physical effects it was having on him. She also had O'Neill similarly 'wired up' in an effort to determine what effects if any MacGyver's usage of his crystal were having on her superior, since she had noticed that his crystal seemed to react whenever his cousin's was being used.

            "Sir, can you do that too?" Carter looked hopefully at O'Neill, whose crystal was presently glowing a greenish-tinged blue in his left hand.

            "No idea," came the succinct reply. His tone suggested he wasn't overwhelmed with enthusiasm to try either.

            "Do you think you could try, sir?" Carter asked. She didn't exactly plead, but the eagerness in her tone was quite unmistakable. She was most definitely in full-blown, intrigued scientist mode.

            “Carter...” O'Neill definitely did not sound enthusiastic.

            "Please, sir?"

            O'Neill sighed. Heavily. "Alright. Just so long as you realise I have absolutely no idea how to do... that." He grumbled, waving a hand vaguely towards where the blue-white 'light ball' had been.

            //Visualise and concentrate, Jack. I'm finding it easier to do now that I've done it a few times.// O'Neill heard his cousin's voice echo softly inside his head.

            //Yeah, an' that headache ya' got's getting worse every time ya' do it.// O'Neill shot back.

            "Colonel?" Carter prompted, unaware of the 'silent' conversation that had just passed between the two men.

            "Gimme a moment here, Captain. This isn't exactly like flicking a switch ya' know," O'Neill waspishly informed his subordinate. He was getting strong echoes of the headache Mac was developing and it was making him cranky.

            "You guys okay? Dad? Jack?" This concerned question came from Malloy, who was sitting beside some of Carter's monitoring equipment, watching some of the readings that were being displayed. He had caught the momentary fluctuations that had registered on the screens that were displaying the two older men's brain-activity patterns.

            MacGyver merely waved a hand vaguely in his son's direction and went back to rubbing at his temples and trying not to dislodge the electrodes taped there in the process. O'Neill, on the other hand, was snappish.

            "Just peachy. Now ya' gonna' let me concentrate here, or what?"

            Malloy frowned. Alarm bells were starting to ring softly in the back of his mind. He recognised Jack’s tone only too well. It was the exact same tone his father employed when something wasn't quite right physically and he was stubbornly refusing to give in to it whatever ‘it’ was. Sam decided to hold his peace though for the moment and let Jack try the 'light-bulb' trick, then he would suggest that perhaps a break was in order.

            Aside from the quiet humming and beeping sounds coming from some of the various bits of monitoring equipment, silence descended upon the room as O'Neill turned his attention to emulating MacGyver’s efforts at creating a ball of light. As he concentrated on the task, he was strongly aware of the Phoenix man's presence and proximity; felt an odd sense of... guidance, seep through the bond between them. Then a sense of amazement swept through him as he saw the small ball of light that began to form itself in the palm of his left hand.

            //Concentrate, Jack// The softest of cautions resonated gently in his mind as his sense of amazement distracted him from the task at hand and he nearly lost the slowly forming 'light ball'. He re-focused, again feeling an odd sense of guidance from Mac which gently receded as his control over what he was trying to do was re-established.

            “Whoa... You're doing it, sir...” Carter breathed with eager enthusiasm as she watched the tiny ball of light which seemed to be gradually forming itself in the region of her superior's left hand and which, after flickering briefly, slowly rose to float a few inches above that hand. The 'light ball' was barely the size of a tennis ball, but it was holding steady. "This is amazing," she repeated her utterance of earlier as she quickly scanned the monitors Malloy was keeping an eye on and began to jot down some notes.

            "It's different though," Malloy observed, frowning at the small light ball. "The colour's not the same. Look."

Sam duly looked. “You're right. It's a lot bluer...” the Captain observed. "I wonder why that is."

            "There was quite a bit of blue in the first one Dad's crystal produced," Malloy reminded her. "Maybe they need to practise to get it as white as that last one Dad did? Or maybe it needs to be bigger to be whiter?"

            "Perhaps." Carter frowned. She didn't look convinced however and quickly made a few more notes.

            Malloy turned his attention back to his cousin and his father and noted that a small 'light ball' was forming again around the latter's left hand. Without taking his eyes off the newly and rapidly forming 'light ball', Sam reached out a hand to tap Carter on the arm. She looked quizzically at him, then looked round as he gestured towards the older men.

            Questions raced in Carter's mind, but she didn't dare give voice to them. She had learned that distracting MacGyver caused him to lose control over any 'light ball' he was attempting to use his crystal to form, resulting in the 'ball' vanishing and his having to start again to reform it, so she kept quiet and simply watched in avid fascination.

            MacGyver's newly forming 'light ball' quickly grew to the same size as the one O'Neill was endeavouring to maintain. It was whiter though. Quite discernibly so. As the two Sams watched, the second 'light ball' became bluer until it matched O'Neill's, then both 'light balls' became whiter and began to expand until they were about half the size of a soccer ball. Then odd reddish flecks started to appear within one of the 'light balls' as they both rose higher into the air above the lab bench, causing both Sams to frown and reflexively check the monitoring equipment.

            “Ah, if I'm reading this right, we're getting increasing energy readings here...” Malloy frowned, indicating one of screens which was giving readings on various energy levels within the room as a whole.

            "You're right," Carter nodded, surveying the readings herself and trying to make sense of them. She frowned as she made some adjustments to the equipment. Her frown deepened. She did not like what the instruments were telling her.

            A startled and slightly panicked exclamation of "Oh crap!" erupted from O'Neill, distracting the two Sams. The duo looked up to stare in stunned surprise as they discovered that the red-flecked 'light ball' was rapidly turning a vivid red while it visibly expanded with alarming speed. Simultaneous to this, the second 'light ball' was becoming a bright, silvery-white and was flattening out to a disc shape, its expanding circumference barely keeping pace with that of the red 'light ball' while it also shifted in mid-air so that it was between the reddening 'light ball' and the end of the bench where the two gawping spectators were.

            O'Neill's yelp was followed a scant few seconds later by a warning cry of "Get down!" from MacGyver as the latter threw himself from his stool towards his cousin.

            It was Malloy who reacted first to MacGyver's warning. He dove off the stool he was perched on, throwing himself at Carter, who was standing beside him. They crashed to the floor even as MacGyver and O'Neill were hitting the deck. The red-glowing 'light ball' seemed to explode in a flare of energy, a large chunk of which was deflected up and away from Carter and Malloy’s end of the room by the silvery disc, the diameter of which almost doubled in the instant before the red 'light ball' released its explosive energy burst. An instant later the room was filled with the sounds and smells of equipment shorting out in a spectacular display of fireworks that triggered the base's security and fire-alert systems.

***************

            "You will find the people of Zyara to be very friendly, despite some of their slightly bizarre customs," R'Fyaa smiled congenially at the C.O. of the SGC.

            "Bizarre?" The General enquired politely. He wondered what the K'Rin'sha might consider 'bizarre'. After all, some of his SG teams had come across worlds over the past year or so where 'bizarre' didn't even come close to describing the 'customs' of the indigenous people.

            "Ah...How so?" Daniel Jackson asked, looking up from the notes he had been scribbling. Eager and intrigued curiosity was plastered all over his face.

            Just as R'Fyaa opened his mouth to answer, klaxons rent the air with a cacophony of wailing.

            "Sergeant?" Hammond immediately demanded above the noise, looking across the room to where his aide, Sergeant Davis, was supervising the child, Melia, along with Alaeya.

            "On it, sir!" The Sergeant shot back, a phone already in his hand.

            Hammond was in the midst of apologising to his guests for the noisy interruption to their meeting when Davis hurried over to the seated group, a slightly anxious look on his face.

            "Sir. There's been some sort of an explosion on Level 19. The astrophysics section. Captain Carter's lab. We have two men down. Medical and damage control teams are already on their way." the Sergeant reported crisply.

            "Wh-What?" Daniel immediately looked alarmed, all thoughts of 'bizarre' alien customs gone from his mind in an instant at the Sergeant's announcement. "General?" He requested urgently, already halfway out of his chair.

            “Go ahead, Doctor Jackson.” Hammond nodded grimly.

            "Excuse me." Daniel threw across the table at R'Fyaa and Seeba. Without even waiting for nods of acknowledgement from either of them, he was already bolting for the door.

***************

            The intense sense of disorientation was nauseating. The fierce pounding inside his skull was equally nauseating, as was the distinctive smell of burning. O’Neill's stomach lurched threateningly. Vaguely he was aware of being curled up and jammed into a small space. He was more aware that MacGyver was squashed into that small space with him and that he was in no better condition than he was. Trying to pull himself together, O'Neill began to attempt to untangle himself from his cousin and extricate them both from the cramped space which, he suspected, had possibly just saved their lives.

            As he was thus occupied, O'Neill became aware of anxious voices and of hands tugging at him. He registered that someone was trying to pull him away from his cousin and out from under the lab bench which he vaguely remembered he and Mac had sought refuge beneath. He couldn't see straight, but he knew MacGyver wasn't reacting and grabbed blindly for the older man. His hands fastened onto material and he held on, grimly determined not to let go as he felt himself being partially hauled free of the confining space.

            "Colonel O'Neill, sir, it's okay. You can let go of him, Colonel. We'll get him, sir." Carter's urgent voice penetrated the roar of the jackhammer pounding relentlessly inside O'Neill's skull.

            "It's okay, Jack, we've got you." Another familiar voice also managed to reach through the deafening pounding. Recognition registered: Sam Malloy!

            "You guys okay?" O'Neill rallied himself to enquire worriedly. He blinked at a shadowy form that swam vaguely into his very blurry vision through the smoke-obscured glow of the emergency lighting. The low light bored painfully into his skull, causing him to squint against it and choke back a pained groan as he coughed.

            "We're fine, sir." Carter's voice again. "Not a scratch on either of us."

            "What the hell happened?" O'Neill wanted to know, struggling against the pounding in his brain and the ominously threatening lurches of his stomach.

            "You an' Dad kinda' blew up the lab, Jack. Now c'mon. Let go of him so's we can get ya' both outta' here."

            O'Neill finally released the vice-like grip he'd been maintaining on whatever part of MacGyver’s clothing it was that he'd managed to grab. Instantly he felt himself being rapidly dragged somewhere. Finally freed of the cramped space he and his cousin had been squashed into, he tried to assist whoever was helping him. Breathing became rapidly easier as the air became fresher and less smoke and fume laden. But the light was getting much brighter and more painful to his eyes and he blinked frantically against it. Vaguely he registered Carter's voice telling him to take it easy.

            "Mac! Where's Mac?" He demanded, as he felt himself be propped up against something. He brought his hands up to his face in an attempt to shield his eyes from the light that now burned intensely into his skull as he endeavoured to get his bearings. He abruptly realised that he was no longer in the lab, but on the floor in the corridor outside. Reflexively he tried to evade his worried 2-I-C and return to the lab, to MacGyver, whom instinct told him was unconscious and still in there. He had no idea how badly he might be hurt. He just knew he needed to get to him.

            "Whoa, sir. You'll only be in the way. Sam and the SFs’ll get him out." Carter's voice penetrated O'Neill's pounding brain as she expertly thwarted the escape bid he was too distracted by nausea to successfully carry out. "Are you hurt anywhere, sir?"

            "I'm okay!" O'Neill lied through his teeth. He made another disorientated bid to escape his 2-I-C and the whole world did a couple of rapid back-flips which seriously upped the stakes in his battle with his rebellious stomach as light again bored agonisingly into his skull. With a groan he was forced to screw his eyes shut and protect them with his hands against the blinding glare as he slumped back down on the floor, steadied by his subordinate.

            "Stay still and let me check you over, sir." There was a distinct snap of authority in Carter's voice. O'Neill recognised it as her best 'You're-out-of-commission-here-sir-so-I'm-taking-charge-and-don't-argue' tone. Too nauseated at that precise moment to do anything else, O'Neill stayed where he'd been put and tolerated the hands that ran gently over him, searching for any broken bones or overt sign of serious injury.

            "Teal'c! Where's Teal'c?" O'Neill demanded as he succeeded in fighting down the roaring distraction of the jack-hammer continuing to pound relentlessly inside his skull and the still intense nausea just enough to enable him to attempt to push himself up into a sitting position despite a protest from Carter.

            "I am here, O'Neill." The familiar voice of the big Jaffa rumbled somewhere close by. To O'Neill's ears, it sounded  stressed.

            "You okay?" O'Neill wanted to know. He endeavoured to squint in the direction of the voice and choked back an “Oh, God.” as fire again seemed to burn through his eyes in response to the brief exposure to the light of the corridor before he hastily closed and protectively covered them again.

            "I shall be." The Jaffa's voice rumbled levelly.

            A pained groan distracted O'Neill from questioning the Jaffa further, as did Malloy's voice, which was saying.

            "Easy, Dad. Easy. I've got you. You're okay."

            "Mac?" O'Neill questioned anxiously just before a wave of nausea that wasn't exclusively his own, hit him with the force of a truck impacting an unmoving object at high speed. “Oh God...” he managed to mutter before he had to twist abruptly away from his hovering 2-I-C as his rebellious stomach finally won its battle to eject its contents.

***************

            An emergency medical team hard on her heels, Janet Fraiser assessed the situation in the corridor outside the wrecked astrophysics lab in a quick, experienced glance as soon as she clapped eyes on it. Swiftly snapping orders, she directed one of her team to attend to MacGyver, who appeared to be in the midst of losing his breakfast all over the floor. His anxious son was kneeling close to his side, a hand moving in slow little circles on the Phoenix man's back, clearly trying to do what he could to be supportive of the ailing man. Teal'c hovered at a discreet distance, his expression giving little away to those who didn't know him. Fraiser knew him however and she knew grim discomfort when she saw it. She despatched another of her team to the Jaffa's side.

            As her orders were carried out, Fraiser dropped to a crouch beside O'Neill, who was on his knees sagging against the corridor wall, huddled up, clutching at his head, with his eyes screwed tightly shut. The vomit on the floor nearby indicated that MacGyver wasn't the only one having trouble holding onto his breakfast. Sam Carter was crouched at the Colonel's back, a hand hovering uncertainly; clearly wanting to offer comfort, but her expression indicating that she knew it would probably be rejected.

            "What happened?" Fraiser demanded to know. She shot the question at Carter then, as Sam began to answer her, she attempted to get O'Neill's attention. "Colonel? It's Doctor Fraiser. Can you look at me, please?" She saw him respond to her voice. His hands remained clamped to his head, but he turned it slightly and endeavoured to squint at her, only to groan and screw his eyes tightly shut again with a highly expressive grimace.

            "The light hurts my eyes."

            "Okay," Fraiser remained calm. "Where else do you hurt?"

            "Headache. Bad headache." This admission was ground out through gritted teeth. “Ah God...” His hands seemed to clamp more tightly to his head. “Mac too...”

            "Nausea? Dizziness?" Fraiser questioned, managing to get a hand to her patient's neck to check his pulse which she found was strong but extremely rapid.

            “Oooh yeah...” This was accompanied by a slight nod and a groan. "Get Daniel. Oh God..." The Colonel seemed to curl up into himself. “Get Daniel...”

            "Easy, Colonel." Fraiser remained outwardly calm. She knew he had an extremely high pain threshold and for him to be admitting to pain, it had to be seriously bad. Quickly she pulled a hypo and a small bottle from her emergency medical kit. "I need you to give me your arm a moment please." As he obeyed, Carter correctly interpreted the glance that Fraiser threw her and reached to push his sleeve up his arm. "This'll help, then we'll get you down to the infirmary and get you taken care of." Fraiser assured as she quickly swabbed his arm and then delivered the freshly drawn contents of the hypo into a vein.

            O'Neill appeared to attempt to nod his acknowledgement, but a soft groan accompanied the movement. “Get Daniel...” He reiterated his earlier request.

            "We will, Colonel." Fraiser assured. She looked around at the orderlies hovering at her back. "Okay," she ordered. "Get him to the infirmary. Stat."

            As the orderlies loaded the unresisting Colonel onto one of the stretchers they'd brought with them, Fraiser turned her attention to the other most visibly noticeable casualty of events in the wrecked astrophysics lab.

***************

            Daniel headed straight for the infirmary. Skidding to a halt just inside the doorway of the main section, he looked frantically around for his team-mates and friends. Almost immediately he spotted Carter, Malloy and Teal'c. Carter was sitting on the edge of a bed having her blood pressure checked by a nurse. Malloy was fidgeting unhappily on the edge of another bed, also being cursorily checked over by one of the nursing staff and it was clear that he was only submitting to it because Teal'c was seated beside him and effectively blocking his most obvious escape route -  intentionally or not.

            "Are you guys alright?" Daniel questioned, hurrying over to the little group, anxiety positively dripping off him.

            "We're fine, Daniel," Carter was quick to reassure him. As Malloy nodded vaguely and muttered a slightly distracted agreement, Carter went on. "Teal'c's symbiote was distressed there for a bit but..."

            “It will be fine.” Teal'c interjected calmly. "As am I."

            "What about Jack? And MacGyver?" Daniel questioned worriedly. Noticing that Malloy's attention seemed to be mainly focused towards the other end of the infirmary, he glanced in that direction. It was then that he realised that the lighting at the far end of the infirmary had been drastically reduced and that two adjoining cubicles there had been curtained off.

            "Janet's with them both now." Carter answered, her anxious gaze following her team-mate's as her nurse moved away, jotting something down in a folder.

            "What exactly happened?" Jackson asked. Folding his arms and chewing at his lower lip, he listened attentively as Carter began to rapidly outline events in her lab. Before she was through, Fraiser emerged from the gloom at the other end of the main ward. As Carter rose to her feet and she and Daniel began to move to intercept the approaching Doctor, Malloy shot upright, somehow dodged around Teal'c and beat them to it, demanding to know if his father and cousin were alright.

            "I think they'll be fine, Sam," Fraiser assured the young man as Carter, Daniel and Teal'c joined them. She allowed her gaze to encompass the SG-1 team-mates as well as Malloy. "They both seem to be displaying all the classic symptoms of a chronic migraine attack. Nausea, dizziness, vomiting, violent headache, acute light and sound sensitivity. In addition both their blood-sugar levels are way down which isn't helping. Mac's more so than Colonel O'Neill's."

            "That's ah, probably due to using the crystals," Daniel offered. He looked at Carter. "Mac used his more than Jack did, right?"

            "Uh, yeah," Carter nodded.

            “Hmm...” Fraiser nodded pensively. "That makes a lot of sense. Usage of those crystals definitely seems to play havoc with the human body's metabolism." Her gaze swept the little group again, noting the various expressions of relief spreading across all their faces. "Well, there's no way either of them are going to be able to face eating anything right now, never mind keep it down, so I've put them both on drips and given them something to alleviate the migraine symptoms."

            "Can I see Dad?" Malloy questioned, starting to edge past the Doctor in anticipation.

            "Ah, I'm sorry not just yet, Sam." Fraiser shook her head. "You can sit with him in a while, but right now both he and the Colonel are asking to see Daniel." She gave the journalist an apologetic look before she turned to Daniel and added. "Alone."

            "M-me?" Daniel looked surprised, his mouth dropping open like a stunned mullet.

***************

            "Hey! Watch that damn light!" O’Neill's extremely cranky-sounding voice erupted from the gloom as Daniel stood with the cubicle curtain drawn aside, blinking and trying to determine which man occupied which infirmary bed. Alike though O'Neill's and MacGyver's voices were, Daniel would have recognised that particular tone as his team-mate's anywhere.

            Hastily stepping forward Daniel carefully arranged the curtain back into place in his wake. "Sorry guys," he apologised quietly but contritely. At least he now knew where O'Neill was.

            "You had sooo better have brought the serious pair of heavy-duty shades I told Fraiser to send ya' in here with." Again it was O'Neill's voice that came out of the gloom.

            "Sorry, Jack." Daniel couldn't help a slight smile at the attempted humour. He offered his own attempt in return. "Tried to smuggle them past her, but she frisked me and confiscated them." It brought forth a dark and uncomplimentary mutter about the good Doctor's 'god complex' which Daniel chose to ignore. His eyes were beginning to adjust to the drastically reduced light level in that section of the infirmary and he was now able to see that O'Neill was sitting up on his bed, his knees drawn up to his chest, his folded arms resting on his knees and his forehead resting on those folded arms.

            Jackson looked over at the other bed. MacGyver was curled up on his left side, his right arm arranged strategically to protect his eyes as if even the very subdued lighting was more than he could tolerate right then.

            "So...." Daniel said, stepping forward between the beds to stand closer to his SG-1 team-mate. He kept his voice low. "Headache's pretty bad, huh?"

            “Yeah...” The honesty of the response surprised Daniel. He saw O'Neill's head come up and witnessed his attempt to squint at him before bringing a fist up to his forehead and pressing the heel of his hand to the bridge of his nose. The attempt at levity, which followed hard on the heels of the honesty, didn't surprise Daniel. It was pure O'Neill. "Usually needs a three-day pass for one this good," the Colonel remarked. "Only I don't remember leaving the base."

            "Janet said you both wanted to see me?" Daniel said seriously, folding his arms in the self-hugging manner he tended to adopt when worried by a situation. O'Neill motioned him closer. Obligingly he moved nearer as the older man shifted to rest his elbows on his knees and massage his temples gingerly with his hands.

            "We need a favour."

            "Sure, Jack. What?" Jackson responded. He witnessed O'Neill squint at him again then, impatiently gesture him closer still and indicate the side of the bed. Daniel hesitated only momentarily before he moved to perch carefully on the bed-edge and look at his ailing Colonel intently.

            "Need ya' to take these damn' crystals an' keep 'em somewhere safe for a while."

            "Wh-what?" Daniel stuttered, taken aback. Whatever he had been expecting O'Neill's request to be, that most certainly hadn't been anywhere on the list. Not even close.

            "Seeba keeps telling us... you're a 'Keeper', so time to start 'Keeping', Danny."

            "Ah... I don't think that's quite what she means, Jack," Daniel pointed out disconcertedly.

            “Daniel... Please...” This time it was not O'Neill who spoke. It was MacGyver and his voice sounded strained. "We'll explain later... Right now we need..."

            “...Ya' to trust us on this.” O'Neill finished for his cousin as the older man broke off what he was saying to take a sharp intake of breath, which eloquently betrayed him to be in acute discomfort.

            "I don't know, guys. Maybe it would be better if...." Daniel was still disconcerted.

            “No!" The emphatic response came from both older men simultaneously. It was also followed immediately by a soft 'Oh God' from MacGyver, who rolled onto his back, both his hands going to his head in a manner that broadcast pain even in the gloom.

            "Be safer... with you, Danny," O'Neill spoke quietly, appearing to squint at Daniel again. His tone spoke volumes to the archaeologist. He heard the pain in it and the plea for co-operation that anyone who didn't know O'Neill as well as he did might easily have missed.

            "S-safer?" Daniel was more than bewildered. "How?"

            "Won't react to you... like they might to Sam... right now." This came from MacGyver. His voice, like O'Neill's, spoke volumes to Daniel. "We really need ya'... to help us here." Another soft 'Ah God' followed as MacGyver shifted back onto his side, curling up again as he did so, his head buried in his hands.

            "Daniel?" That single utterance from O'Neill and the particular inflection that was put on it, made Jackson's mind up for him in an instant.

            "Okay. Tell me what to do." A determined aura settled about the archaeologist as he regarded O'Neill in the gloom. O'Neill's hand reached out towards him to briefly settle on and lightly squeeze his shoulder. It was a simple gesture that eloquently communicated the depth of the gratitude which the Colonel lacked the words or the ability to otherwise express. The retrieved hand then returned to nursing its owner's head.

            "Take Mac's first," O'Neill instructed, squinting painfully. "His hangover's waay worse than mine."

            Daniel still had no idea how to do what had been requested of him, but he rose to his feet and stepped over to MacGyver's bedside.

            "How do I do this?" Daniel asked, glancing over his shoulder at O'Neill and anxiously chewing at his lower lip.

            "Take my hand." This softly uttered instruction came from MacGyver. Looking back to the Phoenix operative, Daniel saw that he was shifting slightly and extending his left hand towards him. Daniel took a deep breath, tried to convince himself that insanity really didn't run in his family and reached to take the older man's hand in both his own. For some moments nothing seemed to happen, then Daniel felt a flare of gentle heat permeate his hands, saw a flicker of blue-white light momentarily escape between his fingers and heard the older man emit a soft groan which was almost immediately followed by a deep sigh that was unmistakably one of heartfelt relief.

            "Mac?" Daniel frowned as he felt a noticeable relaxation in the hand he was still holding in his own.

            “That's helpin'...” Came the soft response. Unmitigated relief was clearly audible in his voice. “Thanks, Daniel. Owe ya'... Big time...”

            Carefully Daniel released his hold on the older man's hand and discovered that MacGyver's crystal now rested on his own left hand. Remembering what had happened to Malloy, Daniel hastily deposited the crystal into one of the breast pockets of his fatigues shirt.

            "Mac? You okay?" He asked, looking down at MacGyver, who was uncurling slightly and settling into what was quite visibly a more relaxed position on the bed.

            “Be fine... Jus' need to rest...  a-while... Help Jack now...”

            "Okay." Chewing concernedly at his lower lip, Daniel studied the relaxing Phoenix operative for a few moments longer before he moved back to O'Neill's bedside. "Jack?" he prompted, watching the way in which his team-mate was rubbing at his temples. O’Neill squinted at him again.

            "My turn, huh?" Straightening his legs out, O'Neill gestured for Daniel to sit again. Jackson did so and found himself being offered O'Neill's left hand. As he had done with MacGyver, Daniel grasped the proffered hand in both of his own. He waited. As before, nothing seemed to happen for a while. “Bear with me here, Danny... not quite sure how this works...” O'Neill confessed apologetically. “Thinkin' straight's  trickier than usual right now...” he added wryly.

            "'S'okay, Jack. Take your time," Daniel answered calmly. "No rush... Just go with it."

            "Last time I did that I kinda' blew up Carter's lab."

            “Oh...” Daniel chewed worriedly at his lower lip at that remark. Then he felt the flare of gentle heat in his hands again as a bluish tinged glow flashed between his fingers and O'Neill abruptly snatched his hand away with a muted yelp that could quite easily have been an expression of panic or of heart-felt relief. It was more instinct than anything else that caused Daniel to press his own hands together as O'Neill's fled and he felt them close on something. Carefully he opened his hands to cradle the object he could feel and discovered he was holding a crystal again.

***************

            Presently, with the two K'Rin'sha crystals secreted about his person and their owners' instructions ringing in his ears, Daniel Jackson emerged from the curtained-off cubicle-area. He took great care to arrange the drapery in his wake to ensure that the seepage of light from the other end of the room was kept to an absolute minimum. Then he stood for a moment, chewing pensively on his lower lip and lost in his own thoughts, before turning to find Malloy purposefully heading his way, his self-appointed Jaffa bodyguard hovering discreetly on his six.

            Daniel cast a fleeting glance at the curtained-off cubicle area, then stepped deliberately forward to intercept the approaching journalist; his hands coming up in front of him in a 'whoa-hold-it' manner.

            "It's okay, Sam. They'll be fine," Daniel spoke quickly but quietly. “Your Dad's asleep now, and Jack's ah... nodding off, so I'd wait a little longer before I went in there if I was you. Jack's  cranky... Liable to take your head off...” He gave the younger man one of the slightly apologetic, slightly soulful looks that invariably worked on his team-leader. Malloy proved to be no less immune and, although he sighed reluctantly, he nodded acceptance of the archaeologist's advice. In fact the journalist jerked a thumb over his shoulder and announced.

            "The General's here. He wants to know what happened. I think he’s pissed."

            Daniel looked past Malloy and the hovering Teal'c and noted that Hammond had indeed arrived and was in conversation with Janet Fraiser and Carter. The two women appeared to be doing most of the talking, while Hammond looked grim. In fact, Daniel found himself inwardly agreeing with Malloy's assessment of the General's mood; the man did look a tad unhappy.

            Chewing on his lower lip again, Daniel debated with himself the chances of sneaking past the little group unnoticed and decided they rated around 'nil'. He really didn't want to have to explain why O'Neill and MacGyver had wanted to see him especially since O'Neill had insisted he tell no-one that he had their crystals in his pockets. O'Neill hadn't explained the reasoning behind the instruction but that was nothing new. Daniel just hoped they knew what the heck they were doing.

            Giving Malloy a slightly taut little half-smile, Daniel gestured that they should rejoin the two women and the General. Malloy sighed again and nodded, falling into step at Daniel's side as the archaeologist began to move. Teal'c discreetly brought up the rear.

            As they reached the others, Daniel heard Carter state apologetically to Hammond. "I'm afraid I really can't tell you any more than that until I see what data can be salvaged from the equipment in my lab, sir."

            "Very well, Captain," Hammond nodded in a business-like manner.

            “Ah...” Daniel just couldn't help butting in, despite not really wanting to draw any awkward questions his own way right then. "What about the security tapes?" He asked. As everyone looked at him with varying degrees of inquiry, he waved a hand in his characteristic, slightly-embarrassed-for-pointing-out-the-obvious way. "Shouldn't what happened be on the security tapes?" He asked, before going on to suggest. "Maybe we should let R'Fyaa take a look? He might be able to- "

            "Tell us what exactly the Colonels..." Carter caught her own slip and swiftly corrected it. "Er, the Colonel and Mr. MacGyver did and why what happened...happened. Of course!" Carter nodded enthusiastically, while at the same time managing to look thoroughly disgusted with herself for not thinking of something so glaringly obvious herself.

            "Have the relevant tapes brought to the Briefing Room right away, Captain," Hammond promptly ordered. Carter nodded and hurried off. Hammond turned to Daniel. "Doctor Jackson?"

            "General?" Daniel decided to play innocent.

            "Colonel O'Neill and - ?" Hammond began.

            "Oh, I'm pretty sure they'll be fine," Daniel answered, endeavouring to sidestep what he knew the General actually wanted to know: Why had the two men wanted to see him? "I think it's just a side effect of whatever they were doing in the lab. Mac's had a similar sort of reaction before on 'Sanctuary' just not this bad." He glanced sideways at Fraiser, then continued to inform Hammond. "I think we should just leave them to sleep it off."

            "Doctor?" Hammond looked at Fraiser. The medic nodded pensively and stated that since she had medicated the two men for the 'migraine-like' symptoms they'd both been displaying, the best course of action now would be to let them rest quietly, keep a quiet eye on them and let Nature take its course. Hammond nodded. "Very well." His tone dismissed the medic to her duties. As the woman moved away, Hammond's attention turned to Malloy. "Mr. Malloy, I realise you are understandably concerned about your father right now, but there is really nothing you can do here for the moment and since you were present in Captain Carter's lab when the incident occurred, you may be able to help throw some light on what exactly happened. I would like you to join the rest of us in the Briefing Room." His expression softened with understanding at the slightly torn look that flitted across Malloy's face as the young man cast a glance down the infirmary towards the curtained-off cubicles. "I know you'd probably rather stay here, son, and I'm not going to insist on- "

            “No, it's okay, sir.” Malloy quite visibly made an effort to push his anxieties aside as he regarded the General. "Anything I can do to help, I'd be glad to."

            There was unmistakable approval in the nod and the brief smile Hammond bestowed on the journalist before he switched his attention to Jackson. "Doctor Jackson, aside from our guests, you're the only one here with any real, practical experience of how this alien technology works. I'd like your viewpoint on what occurred."

            "Yes, sir," Daniel nodded. Then his hands moving vaguely, he added. “I'll ah... catch up... I need to ah...” As Hammond regarded him quizzically, he went on. "I need to ah...Men's Room..."

            “Very well,” Hammond nodded dismissively, needing no further information from the archaeologist on the subject. "Join us in the Briefing Room when you're ready, Doctor Jackson."

            "Yes, sir." Daniel nodded. He heaved an inward sigh of relief as Hammond moved off, accompanied by Malloy with Teal'c following closely on their heels. Now that he was left to his own devices, he would be able to carry out he hoped the instructions he had been given by O'Neill and MacGyver without anyone being any the wiser.

***************

            Emerging from the Infirmary Mens' Room that he'd ducked into in support of the delaying excuse he'd given and to allow Hammond and the others time to be well on their way before he actually departed the Infirmary himself, Daniel proceeded to hurriedly ascend a couple of levels. Reaching level 18, he headed straight for his office.

            Normally he paid no heed to the security camera placed high on the wall in one corner of the office, but now he was all too aware of its presence. He endeavoured to act normally as he went to his desk and rummaged purposefully. At least he hoped it appeared to be purposeful to anyone who might be watching, or might have reason to review the tapes at some future date. After a few moments, he pounced on some candy-bars which he made a show of retrieving and stuffing hurriedly into a pocket of his fatigues. He then gave the piles of files and papers on his desk a quick frisk as if desperately searching for one in particular before pouncing on one and, plastering what he hoped was a suitably triumphant expression on his face, heading for the door with said file quite visibly clutched in hand.

            Endeavouring to appear buried in his own thoughts (Daniel had noticed that people tended not to bother him if he appeared to be in what O'Neill always laughingly called 'absent-minded professor' mode) he headed for the elevator and rode it down to the level housing both the Briefing Room and General Hammond's office. No one gave him so much as a second glance as he scooted hurriedly from the elevator, muttering to himself in Abydonian.

            The S.F.s in the corridor leading past Hammond's office towards the Briefing Room certainly didn't bat an eyelid at the softly muttering 'absent-minded-professor' who bustled purposefully past them, clutching a file which he disappeared into Hammond's office with and re-emerged without a few minutes later. Nor did they betray any indications of surprise when Daniel halted just outside Hammond's office door and blinked blankly around as if he'd forgotten where he was going next, before he turned and headed for the Briefing Room. In fact the S.F.s just exchanged slightly pained looks which suggested they'd witnessed nothing unusual in the archaeologist's behaviour, but remained at a loss to understand how SG-1's notoriously cranky-tempered C.O. put up with such an obvious 'geek' on his team.

***************

            Quietly entering the Briefing Room, Jackson noted that those assembled around the big table consisted of Hammond, Malloy, Carter, Teal'c and R'Fyaa. Sergeant Davis was at his desk in the corner, apparently busy working at his computer terminal. There were a couple of SFs stationed within the room, but there was no sign of the female contingent of the K'Rin'sha delegation. That latter realisation surprised him and he wondered where they were as he silently made his way to a vacant chair.

            Carter was giving a running commentary to the images that were running on a monitor which had been brought close to the main table and which seemed to be the focus of everyone's undivided attention. Just as Daniel unobtrusively sat down beside R'Fyaa, Carter used the remote she was holding to freeze the monitor display while she turned to Hammond to say. "Nearly all the equipment down that end of the lab is totally fried, sir, so it's not going to tell us much. I'll need some time to study the data that we should be able to retrieve from the rest, but what I can tell you right now, sir, is that the energy spike that Sam and I saw register just before those... 'energy-balls' blew, was pretty massive." Her expression was both sombre and puzzled as she added. "To be honest, I'm surprised we all got out of that room alive."

            "Now that Doctor Jackson has finally joined us, I think you'd better re-run that again, Captain," Hammond instructed, having finally noted the archaeologist's arrival. Carter nodded, quickly rewound the tape and hit 'play' on the remote.

            Daniel sat glued to the 'replay' seeing for the first time, the whole run of events that had occurred in Carter's lab. The tape started with MacGyver's last attempt at producing a 'light ball' before Carter had persuaded O'Neill to try his hand at doing the same.

            "That looks like one of the 'Light Ball' things Mac made just before we found the way into the Guardian High Circle Chamber on 'Sanctuary'," Daniel observed to no-one in particular as he frowned intently at the screen.

            "Yes, he made a series of them, but none of them lasted very long," Carter agreed. "They seemed to abruptly vanish as soon as his concentration was interrupted." She saw Jackson nod pensively as if unsurprised by her observation.

            "Aside from Dad getting a headache, things were going fine until Sam asked Jack to try making one," Malloy helpfully threw across the table at Daniel as events on the screen unfolded.

            “That one of Jack's is...'off'...” Daniel frowned as he continued to watch the screen. "Looks way too blue...Whoa...That one of Mac's is blue too." He glanced at R'Fyaa. "Should they be blue like that?" He asked, looking back to the screen without waiting for the older man to answer him. "Oh wait...They're changing... That looks more like...uh, are those red bits in that one of Jack's?"

            "That's when the energy readings started to rocket," Carter commented as Daniel stared in fascination at the continuing events on the monitor screen.

            "And right after that..." Malloy made a gesture that was reminiscent of one of Jack O'Neill's eloquent 'there-ya-go' ones, as the proverbial rapidly hit the fan on the display.

            "Whoa!" Daniel exclaimed as he witnessed the sudden devastation that seemed to be simultaneous with everyone in the lab abruptly diving for cover. Carter stopped the tape. "Ah... Could I see that again?" Jackson looked across the table at his team-mate. “Just that last bit...” His right hand moved expressively. “From where that one of Jack's started turning red and the other one began changing shape...” He looked hopefully at Carter, then at Hammond who nodded his permission. Carter promptly re-wound the tape and replayed the bit the archaeologist wanted.

            "There!" Daniel pounced suddenly, jabbing a finger across the table at the screen. "Can you replay that slower?" He requested, his gaze remaining riveted to the screen.

            Carter backed up the tape and replayed the action once more, more slowly.

            "Right there!" Daniel pounced again and Carter froze the tape. "See! The energy was deflected by the other one!" Enlightenment seemed to positively radiate from him. "That's a 'Mage Shield'!" He gasped in awed tones. "They made a 'Mage Shield!" He looked at R'Fyaa. "That is a 'Mage Shield', isn't it?" He questioned excitedly, almost bouncing up and down in his chair.

            "Excuse me?" Hammond demanded in bewilderment.

            "I'm right, aren't I?" Daniel eagerly asked of R'Fyaa, who smiled and nodded with the proud approval of a learned Professor towards a particularly bright and favoured student. R'Fyaa then addressed the assembly in general.

            "From what I have seen, I'm afraid it would appear that Jack attempted to run before he remembered how to walk, to borrow one of your Tau'ri expressions," the K'Rin'sha 'Keeper' explained. "Instead of the simple illumination which the other was earlier creating, he strayed into much more advanced territory. They both did. Fortunately, they realised it in time and were able to act accordingly, thus saving your lives." He inclined his head towards the two Sams and Teal'c. "As well as their own although they undoubtedly now pay the price for it."

            "Excuse me?" Hammond still looked bewildered. He wasn't alone however.

            "A 'Mage Shield'?" Carter questioned even as Malloy asked. "Pay the price? You mean the migraines?"

            "Yes, Young One," R'Fyaa nodded sagely at Malloy. "Do not concern yourself unduly, but learn from their error so that you yourself do not repeat it in time." As Malloy's jaw dropped and he stared disconcertedly across the table at the 'alien', Jackson jumped back into the conversation with eager curiosity.

            "So... That ah, red thing... What was that exactly?"

            "It was a form of offensive energy we call 'Warrior Fire'. Fortunately your Guardian-Warrior is not yet fully awakened to what he is and was tempered both by his link with the other and by the fact that he was using a 'Mage' crystal rather than a 'Warrior' or 'Guardian' crystal. Were it not for that and that your Mage was using the more powerful 'Guardian' crystal and was able to initiate the formation of a Shield, then there would undoubtedly have been loss of life and the damage to this facility would have been much greater than it is." R'Fyaa regarded Daniel intently as he imparted this information.

            "Are you saying that that device given to Colonel O'Neill is a weapon of some kind?" General Hammond wanted to know. His tone indicated he was struggling to keep up and was becoming a progressively unhappy camper with each passing moment.

            "Of itself, no." R'Fyaa turned his attention to Hammond.

            "He wouldn't be able to use it at all if it weren't for Mac, would he?" Daniel interjected suddenly, his whole manner denoting that he had just made one of the inspired deductive leaps which, since the inception of the SGC, he was rapidly becoming infamous for.  R'Fyaa just smiled sagely at him.

            "Daniel?" Carter questioned, frowning. She could usually keep up with him, but there were times when he made leaps that were beyond even her.

Daniel, however, ignored her in favour of continuing to talk with R'Fyaa. "It would have been way worse if he'd've had the other crystal, wouldn't it?"

            "Possibly," R'Fyaa nodded. He again had an expression on his face reminiscent of a Professor delightedly watching a bright student working something through and heading inexorably towards the correct deduction.

            “Or a 'Warrior' crystal...” Daniel's expression betrayed him to be reasoning out loud. "Which Mac would only be able to use because of Jack. Right? Normally you can only use a crystal of your First and/or Second Houses, right? Unless you're a Guardian, in which case you can use a 'Guardian' crystal as well...to sort of serve both purposes. But 'linked' Guardians can use crystals of both the other's Houses even if those Houses are different to their own, can't they? So...Mac could use a 'Warrior' crystal because that's Jack's 'First House' even though it's neither of his." He blinked, a look of 'light dawning' spreading across his face. “My God...” he murmured.

            R'Fyaa just smiled a satisfied smile and nodded.

            “So that's why the Circle asked me all those questions about them... and about... all this...Us...” Daniel waved an expressive hand at the SGC in general. "You wanted to be sure... You needed to be sure... " Daniel stared at the K'Rin'sha 'Keeper'.

            “Indeed." R'Fyaa nodded. "Such Power cannot be entrusted lightly."

            "Doctor Jackson?" This came impatiently from Hammond, who was beginning to look like he felt he was getting more and more out of his depth with each passing second.

            "Huh?" Daniel looked round, saw the expression on Hammond's face not to mention the equally frustrated and irritable looks everyone else, bar R'Fyaa, were aiming at him and promptly looked apologetic. "Oh. Sorry," he said. “It's just...” He paused, clearly trying to think of some simple layman's way of describing what he had just figured out. "Let's just say that with those crystals Jack and MacGyver have, even though that one Jack was using is a 'Mage' crystal instead of a 'Warrior' crystal which is what he should really be using since his 'First House' is..." He saw Hammond's impatience level rise a notch or two. "Ah... never mind, we can go into that later... As long as they both have one of those crystals and are on the same side of the same Stargate at the same time, they could, given time and practice, probably each go one-on-one with a Goa'uld System Lord and wipe the floor with him or her."

***************

            Janet Fraiser meanwhile, was in the critical-care section of the Infirmary, checking on the condition of Sergeant Will Baker, who was still in an extremely poor condition in the wake of the emergency surgery he had undergone much earlier that day in the wake of SG-3's disastrous mission to the world designated as P9G-485. One of her nurses entered the section to quietly inform her that one of the SGC's K'Rin'sha guests had come to the infirmary and wished to see her. Fraiser told the nurse to have her visitor wait in her office. The nurse nodded and went to carry out the instruction while Fraiser finished up what she was doing.

            Briskly entering her office some several minutes later, Fraiser found S'Baya seated in a chair, patiently waiting for her.

            "Good morning, S'Baya," Fraiser greeted her visitor with due courtesy. "What can I do for you?"

            "Day's greetings to you, Honoured Doctor," Seeba inclined her head in a polite fashion. "And it may be that I can do something for you."

            "Oh?" Fraiser raised an eyebrow as she moved behind her desk to settle in her chair.

            "I should like to see Jack and MacGyver if you will permit."

            "The Colonel and Mr. MacGyver are both resting at present," Fraiser answered, "and I'd prefer that they not be disturbed."

            “Yes...” Seeba nodded, a slight smile on her face. "I expect they are, Doctor. You have my word that I will not disturb them." Her blind eyes seemed to regard the petite medic steadily. "It may be that I can speed their recovery a little."

            "I see. And may I ask how exactly?" Fraiser's response was cautious as she watched her visitor produce a small pouch from somewhere within the folds of the robe-like garb she was wearing.

            "I am a Seer," the alien woman continued as she opened up the pouch. "But my Second House grants me some small use of these."

            Fraiser blinked as she witnessed two small green crystals tip out of the pouch into Seeba's right palm. "Are those the 'Healing crystals' that I saw Alaeya use when Mr. Malloy was...?" The Doctor began, her interest piqued.

            “Indeed.” Seeba nodded. "Will you permit me to render what aid I am able to our two friends?"

            Fraiser considered for a moment, then rose to her feet, nodding, as she announced. "Alright, but I insist on being present."

            "Of course," Seeba returned with a smile.

***************

            Quietly the two women entered the curtained-off, twin cubicles housing O'Neill and MacGyver. Neither man stirred.

            O'Neill was on his back, one knee raised and his right arm draped strategically across his eyes as if he was trying to shade them, even in his sleep, from the drastically reduced lighting level in that part of the infirmary. MacGyver was curled up on his right side, almost foetally, his fisted left hand resting on his temple as if he too were trying to protect his sleeping eyes from what little ambient light there was around him.

            It was to MacGyver's bedside that Seeba went first. Fraiser took up a watchful stance at the foot of the bed and made no move to interfere as she saw the greenish glow that flared from the region of the alien woman's hands as Seeba brought them up to hover over the prone man. MacGyver stirred and mumbled something Fraiser couldn't quite make out, but she witnessed what could only be described as an openly fond smile flicker across Seeba's face as the woman softly murmured something incomprehensible in a gently soothing tone. The stirring man settled again almost immediately, with a soft sigh that Fraiser could have sworn was one of contentment.

            Presently, as Seeba's left hand continued to hover over the region of MacGyver's head while her other moved slowly back and forth from the region of his shoulder to his hip without actually touching him, Fraiser observed her patient gradually start to uncurl from the foetal-like position he was lying in. His fisted left hand slowly shifted to rest on the pillow in front of his face and his fingers began to slowly uncurl, relaxing. The slight frown that marred his sleeping features also began to give way to the relaxed peacefulness of deep and tranquil slumber.

            Fraiser further observed with some degree of surprise it must be said that when some several minutes later the green glow from Seeba's crystals faded to nothing, the alien woman reached to gently ruffle MacGyver's shaggy hair before leaning over him to plant a light kiss on his temple. The affection that was on the alien woman's face as she straightened and drew back again, lightly touching his shaggy hair as she did so was quite unmistakable. For a further moment or two she seemed to simply stand 'watching' the sleeping man as if lost in some reminiscent thoughts, before she almost soundlessly retreated to where Fraiser stood.

            Her voice pitched at a level clearly designed to avoid disturbing the sleeping MacGyver, Seeba announced with regal calm.

            "He will sleep a while longer and be fine when he wakes." Moving around Fraiser, she added. "I will attend the other now," and headed towards O'Neill's bedside in a purposeful manner.

            Careful to avoid disturbing MacGyver, Fraiser moved around to where Seeba had been standing and checked his pulse. It came as no great shock to her to find that it was slow and steady. Nor was she surprised to note the shallow regularity of his breathing. He was clearly and without doubt, so soundly asleep that the arrival of a full marching band, playing at full volume, probably wouldn't disturb him.

            Leaving MacGyver's side, Fraiser moved around his bed to hover at the foot of O'Neill's bed. Seeba was already at work with her crystals again in much the same manner as Fraiser had witnessed her use them on MacGyver.

            As Fraiser watched, O'Neill shifted slightly, his raised knee slowly straightening out and, as the glow from Seeba's crystals faded again, his right arm shifted away from his face to rest on his chest. The Colonel looked about as relaxed as Fraiser had ever seen him look. Seeba however, showed no signs of moving. She appeared to be waiting for something and, as Fraiser moved quietly around the end of the bed to stand at her elbow, O'Neill stirred and his dark eyes flickered open, blinking in the low light for a moment before alighting on the duo at his bedside. His voice was drowsy but contained unmistakable concern as he voiced a one-word query.

            "Mac?"

            "The other will be fine. As will you, old friend. Rest again now." Seeba smiled gently as she uttered the reassurance. She extended a hand to rest it briefly on O'Neill's right hand as she spoke.

            Used to O'Neill being as stubbornly uncooperative as they came, Janet was thus more than  surprised when the Colonel merely moved his head in the slightest of nods and, without any semblance of protest whatsoever, meekly closed his eyes and dropped straight back off to sleep.

            More for her own peace of mind than anything else, Fraiser quickly checked her patient's pulse and respiration. That action confirmed to her that he was just as deeply out of things as his older cousin. Looking up at Seeba, she found the alien woman appeared to be 'watching' her, a slightly enigmatic smile on her face.

            "I really hope you can tell me how you did that," Fraiser remarked quietly and with a wry smile. "It usually requires heavy sedation to get the Colonel to be so co-operative."

            Seeba's expression warmed in the gloom. "He does not trust as readily as the other," she said. "But you have that trust, Honoured Doctor. Guard it well. It is thing to value greatly."

            Before Fraiser could do more than blink in surprise, Seeba inclined her head in a gracious and respectful manner and was gone from the curtained-off cubicles.

***************

            There was a very pensive expression on Fraiser’s face when she stepped from behind the cubicle curtains a few moments later.  It was replaced for only the briefest of moments by surprise when she realised that Seeba appeared to be waiting for her a little way down the ward. She had half-expected the K’Rin’sha Seer to be long gone.

            “We really need to talk,” Fraiser said as she approached the Seer.  A glimmering of an idea was floating around in the back of her mind, but she needed more information before she could even begin to think about acting on it.  “Would you care to step into my office again?”  she invited.  She saw Seeba tilt her head slightly in a pensive fashion as the woman’s blind eyes seemed to look right into her.

            “There is one about whom you are greatly concerned,” Seeba announced.  “One of those whose return caused so much noise and disturbance some hours ago.”  She straightened.  “You wish to know if I might be able to help heal his injuries.”

            “Whoa... ” Fraiser was openly startled.  “How...?”

            Seeba smiled with some amusement, then chuckled softly.  “Do not be alarmed, Honoured Doctor.  I do not read minds.  I overhead some of your young warriors talking in the corridors earlier.  They spoke of the unexpected return of one your SG teams and of one of the team’s members being killed, whilst another required extensive medical attention.  When I came here to your infirmary I was told you were in the... what is it you call it?  ‘Intensive care’ unit.”  Seeba smiled again and gave a little shrug.  “A simple deduction on my part...”  She tilted her head inquisitively.  “A correct one, yes?”

            “Actually... Yes,”  Fraiser admitted with a smile of wry amusement at her own reaction to having initially thought the other woman had been somehow reading her mind. And relief at discovering a much more mundane explanation for the Seer’s insight on what she’d been thinking.

            “I would be honoured to do what I can to be of help to the injured warrior, but it may not be much if his injuries are indeed severe,” Seeba said.  “As I told you before, I am a Seer not a Healer though my Second House grants me some small usage of these Healing Crystals.”

            “Sergeant Baker’s injuries are severe,” Fraiser said.  “His legs were crushed by heavy blocks of falling masonry.   We were forced to amputate his left at the top of the thigh and the other just above the knee.  He also sustained several broken ribs, internal injuries and a skull fracture.”

            “Then I fear there is little that I will be able to do.  Such injuries would require the attention of skilled Healers of at least Third Circle level and materials that I do not have and could not use even if I did,” Seeba responded regretfully.

            “It was just a thought,” Fraiser smiled with grim acceptance of what had been a long-shot anyway.

            “I did not say I could do nothing,” Seeba said.  “The warrior is undoubtedly very weak, yes?”

            “Yes,”  Fraiser confirmed.

            “Then perhaps I can give him a little strength, as I did for Jack when his people brought him to my wagon on the world you call P4X-994,”  Seeba offered.

***************************

            Half an hour later saw Fraiser and Seeba stepping from the intensive care unit.  Sergeant Will Baker was still poorly, but after being attended to by Seeba and her Healing Crystals, his condition was considerably more stable and the prognosis for a good recovery was greatly improved.  Seeba on the other hand, looked on the pale side.  Fraiser, only too well aware of the effects that usage of K’Rin’sha ‘technology’ had had on O’Neill and MacGyver since their return to the SGC, solicitously inquired if Seeba was alright.  Her question brought forth a confirmatory assurance combined with an admission of being a little tired and a request for some hot water with which to brew some tea.

            Fraiser promptly ushered the Seer into her office and bade her take a seat. Seeba sat and, Fraiser silently noted, appeared to be glad to be able to do so.

            Briskly, the Doctor set about switching on the small electric kettle that lived on top of one of her filing cabinets. It wasn't exactly 'regulation' for it to be there, but she knew Hammond knew about it unofficially and as long as its presence didn't interfere with the smooth running of the infirmary, a 'blind-eye' would remain turned. She also knew that Hammond was aware that she'd originally brought it in in order to brew tea for Daniel Jackson when, one time not long after the SGC had initially been established, the young man had been injured during the course of an off-world mission and had had to spend a few days confined to the infirmary. The whole base knew Jackson was a caffeine junkie and since strong sedatives and strong coffee were not a good mix, Fraiser had persuaded him onto a particularly soothing herbal tea that would compliment the treatment he needed rather than contradicting it. The kettle had remained ever since and, given the propensity SG-1 had for finding trouble and winding up in the infirmary in various states of disrepair, it had seen a fair amount of usage.

            As Fraiser dug a couple of clean mugs out of one of the filing cabinet drawers and a small box of teabags, Seeba announced that without wishing to cause offence to the Doctor, she would prefer that her drink be made from her own tea rather than Fraiser's.

            Looking round, Fraiser found the alien woman holding out a small packet made from neatly folded paper.

            "No offence taken," Fraiser said and took the packet. Opening it carefully, she found it contained a light-coffee-coloured powder. She then followed Seeba's instructions, which were to dump the lot in a cup, pour the hot water on and stir the resultant brew for a moment to ensure all the powder had dissolved. A pleasantly aromatic smell arose from the mug as Fraiser stirred its contents. She recognised some of the herbal aroma, but not all. Her curiosity aroused, she inquired about the 'tea' as she handed it over to her visitor.

            "It is a restorative made from herbs readily available on my world," Seeba explained as Fraiser busied herself with a conventional tea bag and the other mug. "I will leave some with you so that you may study it if you wish."

            "Thank you, that would be appreciated," Fraiser nodded as she went to settle in her own chair.

            "You have questions," Seeba stated, sipping at her 'tea' and levelling her blind-gaze steadily over the rim of the mug at the human Doctor.

            "That's something of an understatement," Fraiser admitted. She did indeed have questions. Lots of questions. A whole helluva long list in fact that seemed to be doing nothing but grow and grow. MacGyver had done his best to tell her what he could, but he had been hard-pressed to provide more than just speculative theories. Daniel Jackson too had expounded assorted theories while O'Neill... O'Neill had basically just shrugged his shoulders and floundered helplessly. And to date, Fraiser had not been able to prise very much out of her so far relatively brief encounters with the SGC's K'Rin'sha guests.

            "Then if I would not be keeping you from your duties perhaps we can speak together now?" Seeba offered magnanimously.

            "That would be great." Fraiser wasn't about to let this apparently golden opportunity that had just landed in her lap escape. Certainly she had 'duties', but nothing that couldn't wait just a little longer and if anyone needed her urgently for anything well, she wasn't exactly going to be hard to find. "How about we start by you explaining exactly what I just watched you do with Sergeant Baker, and also earlier with the Colonel and Mr. MacGyver? Then perhaps you can tell me how they did what they did for Mr Malloy yesterday, because they certainly haven't been able to."

            Seeba smiled, nodded and sipped unhurriedly at her 'tea'.

***************

            Proceedings in the Briefing Room having finally broken up and having received permission from General Hammond, Malloy made his way back to the SGC's infirmary. He was not alone. Daniel Jackson had volunteered to act as escort and Teal'c accompanied them both.

            "Are you okay?" Daniel enquired as they stepped from the elevator on Level 21. The concern in his voice was matched by the expression on his face as he eyed Sam. Malloy didn't respond. He was visibly miles away and on auto-pilot and had been since they'd left the Briefing Room. Daniel tried again. "Sam?"

            The blank look and the vague "Huh?" that he was graced with brought a flicker of a smile to Daniel's face. Malloy might be MacGyver's son, but Daniel could see definite shades of Jack O'Neill in him too.

            "Sorry. I was miles away," Malloy apologised.

            "That's okay." Understanding spread across Daniel's face. "You've had a lot of weird stuff to take in one way and another."

            “Yeah...” Malloy agreed, rubbing absently at his right shoulder. He shot Daniel a sudden, half-shy little smile that the archaeologist recognised as pure MacGyver. "Scoop of the century... Pulitzer Prize stuff ... An' I can't take never mind print a picture or write a single word."

            "Yeah," Daniel sighed heavily. He knew that feeling only too well. He saw Malloy shoot him a pensive and extremely shrewd look.

            "Same boat, huh?" The journalist observed. Daniel just nodded, a slightly soulful expression on his face. “Bummer...” Malloy remarked sympathetically as they reached the main entrance to the infirmary. Behind them, Teal'c twitched an eyebrow.

            As they stepped through the doorway, the two younger men immediately looked towards the far end where they had each last seen O'Neill and MacGyver. They were both pleasantly surprised by the sight that greeted them. The area was no longer enshrouded in gloom. Nor were the two cubicles curtained off. Indeed the two patients were both visibly wide-awake and were sitting up, facing each other, their legs dangling over the side of their respective beds. They were also very much the centre of attention of Fraiser and two of her nursing staff. MacGyver was looking vaguely uneasy about something and appeared to be trying to soothe ruffled medical feathers, while O'Neill was being his usual aggravating self and was exuding 'attitude' in all directions.

            "For cryin' out loud, Doc. We told ya' at least ten times already we have no idea where the damn' things are right now. They were gone when we woke up." O'Neill bitched impatiently as his two team-mates and younger cousin hove into the vicinity. "And we're fine. We don't need another whole bunch of damn tests to tell us that, so can we just go now?" As if sensing the arrival of the trio, he shifted slightly and looked over his shoulder. "Hey, guys." He gave the trio a blatantly hopeful look. "About time you got here to rescue us from these Napoleonic power-mongers."

            “Jack...” MacGyver chided, wincing slightly in a manner that broadcast disapproval of the aggravation his cousin was so blithely dumping all over Fraiser and her nurses.

            “Colonel O'Neill...” An exasperated Janet began.

            "Captain Fraiser?" O'Neill gave the medic the benefit of one of his best 'are- we-done-yet?' looks.

            "Don't even try that one, Colonel," Fraiser bristled dangerously. "This is my infirmary and I'm your Doctor. Right now that means I out-rank you and well you know it!"

            O'Neill had the good grace to look mildly chagrined for all of about two seconds. Looking past the petite medic, he invited MacGyver to help out. "Feel free to jump in here any time, Mac. She just might believe you since she clearly doesn't believe me for some reason." His expression suggested he hadn't a clue why the medic looked as if she was barely containing an urge to spit nails.

            "Well, maybe if you stopped being such a major pain in the ass for five minutes, Jack, that'd help," Daniel threw in before MacGyver could offer any comment. It earned the archaeologist a 'who's-side-are-you-on-anyway?' look from O'Neill and a muffled snort of amusement from Malloy.

            MacGyver endeavoured to be the voice of reason and conciliation and soothe Fraiser's visibly ruffled feathers again. "As Jack's been saying, Doctor Fraiser, the crystals were gone when we woke up just now. And we do both feel fine. Honestly. A bit hungry again maybe, but aside from that..." he assured her with unmistakable sincerity.

            “Right!” O'Neill quit glowering accusingly at Daniel to agree with Mac. He then helpfully pointed out. "We did miss lunch ya' know."

            Fraiser looked from MacGyver to O'Neill and back with a slightly frazzled exasperation on her face.

Daniel jumped in. "Ah...Janet. Why don't we...." he indicated himself, plus Malloy and Teal'c, "take them up to the Mess Hall? Get Jack out of your hair for a while. If he keels over or anything, Teal'c can always um, toss him over his shoulder and bring him back."

            "I don't know, Daniel," Fraiser was clearly tempted by the thought of her infirmary becoming an O'Neill-free zone again for a while; especially since she couldn't actually find any obvious signs of there being anything physically wrong with him. Or MacGyver either for that matter. "I'd really like to know what happened to those crystals."

            “Um... Ah...” Daniel did one of his better 'deer-caught-in-headlights' impersonations. “Er...” He looked at O'Neill and MacGyver, seeking guidance.

            "Perhaps we should consult with the K'Rin'sha." Teal'c rumbled calmly. "They may be able to offer enlightenment."

            "Yeah. Right. Exactly," O’Neill immediately exuded leaderly approval at Teal'c while at the same time giving Fraiser a blast of 'attitude' that indicated Teal'c's suggestion was so obvious he didn't know why the Doctor hadn't thought of it herself. "But first order of business is Mac an' I hit the Mess hall. That'll be okay with you, won't it, Doc?" He jumped down off his bed as he finished speaking, his tone having indicated he wasn't really asking a question but actually uttering a statement of a done deal.

            “Well... I...” Fraiser spluttered.

            "Great. That's settled then," O'Neill beamed brightly. He rubbed his hands. "C'mon, kids, we're outta here." Even as he spoke, he was already ushering Daniel away from Fraiser lest the woman decided the archaeologist knew more about the 'disappearance' of the K'Rin'sha crystals than he was supposed to.

            "Thanks, Doc. And my apologies for... Jack." MacGyver offered with courteous appreciation as he too rose to his feet and executed a neat sidestepping escape-manoeuvre around the frazzled medic and her equally frazzled nurses. "Ladies." He threw one of his best smiles at the threesome which quite effectively distracted all of them from any and all thoughts any of them might have been entertaining about attempting to foil his and O'Neill's break for freedom.

            Malloy tried to smother another amused grin and a snicker at the slightly glassy-eyed look that washed over the nurses' faces in automatic response to his father's smile. It was a reaction he had seen more than once before and it amused him every time for his father always seemed blithely unaware of it. Malloy strongly suspected that despite appearances, Mac was perfectly well aware of the effect his smile had on people and used it to good effect when the situation called for it.

            "What?" MacGyver inquired curiously of his son as the two of them with Teal'c trailing in their wake started briskly off after Jack and Daniel.

            "Nothing, Dad," Malloy shook his head. Amusement remained plastered all over his face for a moment more before he sobered and asked with genuine concern. "Are you an' Jack okay, Dad? Really?" He knew his father didn't much like hospitals and wasn't adverse to over-exaggeration of 'good-health' in order to get himself discharged when he really ought to be staying put. Going on the performance he had just witnessed O'Neill give, Sam strongly suspected that the Colonel was similarly inclined.

            "Will be soon as we get outta here an' grab something to eat," MacGyver answered.

Sam gave him a critically appraising look. "Ri-ight," the journalist said. His tone and expression denoted he wasn't fooled in the slightest. "You won't mind if I worry anyway," he said and it wasn't a question either.

            MacGyver graced his son with a warm little smile and placed an arm around the young man's shoulders to give him the gentlest (in view of his son’s recent injuries) of affectionate, paternal hugs. "Love you too, son," the Phoenix operative murmured with quiet honesty.

***************

            O’Neill meanwhile, had successfully ushered Daniel Jackson out into the corridor and the pair were heading for the elevator.

            "You didn't tell her, did you?" The archaeologist frowned at his companion. "Why didn't you tell her you and Mac gave me the crystals?"

            “Because what she doesn't know she can't tell."

            "Wh-what?" Daniel gawped, his jaw sagging noticeably as he stared at his friend and colleague.

            "If Hammond or someone were to ask, she'd be obliged to tell," O'Neill shrugged. "I assume you have put them somewhere safe?" He asked, his expression unreadably military as they reached the elevator and came to a halt.

            "Yes. Yes, of course I did!" Daniel was a picture of outraged indignation. "I put them in the- "

            “Ah! Don't want to know!” O'Neill raised a hand in a swift 'Shut-up, Daniel' gesture. "Ya' wouldn't want me to lie to Hammond when he asks me - which he will - if I know where those damn' rocks are, would ya'?"

            "Why not?" Daniel retaliated, a touch of acid in his tone. "It wouldn't be the first time."

            O'Neill was in the midst of looking askance at his archaeologist when MacGyver's voice floated over his shoulder.

            "Hey, guys. There a problem?"

            "Nope," O'Neill denied, glancing over his shoulder to find that the others had caught up with them. “Just...ah...Ya' know...” He made a vague gesture with his crystal-free left hand before reaching to punch the elevator's 'call' button.

            “Oh...Right...” MacGyver nodded, understanding immediately despite the fact that the startlingly clear telepathy they'd been sharing since he'd first been given his K'Rin'sha crystal on 'Sanctuary', no longer seemed to be working now that they were both crystal-less. The strong sense of each other that they'd always shared whenever they'd been around one another for a while remained though and was still as strong as ever, if not stronger.

            MacGyver caught the quizzical look his son was levelling at him. “Tell ya' later,” MacGyver quietly assured him. "You too, Daniel," he added as he saw the frown that flitted across the archaeologist's face. "For now, I'm afraid you're just gonna' have to trust us. Think ya' can do that?" His gaze flickered between the two younger men and also encompassed Teal'c. He received three silently pensive nods in response as the elevator doors slid open.

***************

            "Better let me do the talking here, Mac," O’Neill advised as they neared the entrance to the Briefing Room. As MacGyver quirked a curious eyebrow in response, O'Neill grinned cheekily. "You're an even worse liar than Daniel on a good day."

            MacGyver shrugged, acknowledging the possible existence of a grain of truth in his cousin's statement. He never had been good at barefaced lying and he knew Jack knew it as well as he did.

            They had still been in the Mess Hall with Daniel, Malloy, and Teal'c when they had received a summons to present themselves to Hammond in the Briefing Room a.s.a.p.. Since none of the others had been included in the summons, they left Sam with instructions to stay put and Daniel with instructions to look after him. They had also requested that Teal'c endeavour to keep both of them out of trouble.  Then in the elevator, they had idly speculated as to which of the trio had been assigned the most arduous task, coming to the conclusion as they stepped forth, that Teal'c had probably gotten the short straw.

            Entering the Briefing Room, they discovered that Hammond had company. Janet Fraiser was seated on Hammond's right, some folders resting on the table in front of her. Opposite her sat Carter, who also had a pile of papers in front of her. Both women had expressions on their faces that denoted them to be bombarding the General with scientific theories.

            "Ah...We can come back later if you're busy, sir?" O'Neill suggested hopefully as Hammond looked round and spotted him before he had the opportunity to bolt unnoticed.

            "Colonel O'Neill. Mr. MacGyver. Take a seat, gentlemen," the General invited, indicating the vacant seating further down the table. His tone indicated that O'Neill could try for a strategic withdrawal if he liked, but it wouldn't get him anywhere.

            "Doctor Fraiser says your crystals have vanished," Carter aimed her statement at both newcomers as O'Neill stepped around the table to take the seat beside her, while MacGyver elected to settle beside Fraiser. "Have you any idea how that could have happened, sirs?"

            "As far as I know we had 'em when we hit the infirmary, we don't have 'em now, an' we were pretty much outta' things in between," O'Neill countered, poker-faced. "You're the scientist, Carter; you tell me how it happened."

            "I wish I could, sir," Carter confessed with open frustration.

            "Ah, Daniel and Sam said we pretty much trashed the astrophysics lab," MacGyver said in an apologetic and slightly embarrassed manner. "Sorry about that, General," he told Hammond with honest sincerity.

            "Don't worry about it," Hammond responded, his manner indicating he wasn't about to dish out blame for what had occurred. "I'm just glad that no-one was seriously injured or killed. I don't suppose either of you..." His gaze flickered between them.  "...can explain what exactly happened?"

            "Ah... Not really, sir," MacGyver answered, shifting uncomfortably.

            "Things just kinda' got away from us, sir," O'Neill threw in. He didn't look any less ill-at-ease than MacGyver. "It was really kinda' Carter's fault, sir," he added. Looking at his 2-I-C, he continued. "I did tell ya' I didn't have a clue how to make those light ball things ya' had Mac playing with." He looked across at his relative, visibly pleading for corroboration as he said. "Didn't I warn everyone I didn't have a clue how you did that light-ball stuff?"

            "Yeah," MacGyver confirmed truthfully.

            "I mean ya' know me an' technology, Captain," O'Neill defensively informed his 2-I-C. "We don't exactly get along, an'- "

            “Thank you, Colonel," Hammond interjected, recognising that the SG-1 team-leader was about to launch into one of his long, meandering rambles that would leave none of them any the wiser. "I think we get the picture."

            "Daniel told us about the theory he and R'Fyaa came up with about what happened," MacGyver threw in as O'Neill's intended ramble subsided into a quiet mutter that no-one was quite able to catch. He realised he had Hammond's full attention, plus that of Carter and Fraiser and shifted uneasily again. "Sounds about as good an explanation as any to me," he offered.

            "Assuming that Daniel and R'Fyaa are right..." Carter began, only to be interrupted by O'Neill.

            “I think we can safely assume they probably are." Catching the look Hammond graced him with, the SG-1 commander shrugged and said. "You know Daniel, sir. He might come up with some pretty off-the-wall ideas sometimes, but he's right more often than he‘s wrong." Hammond 'harrumped' and Carter attempted to finish what she'd been trying to say.

            "Assuming the theory's right, do either of you have any idea how you did what you did?" Carter looked from MacGyver to O'Neill and back. They studied each other across the table and O'Neill shrugged expressively. He hadn't a clue and he wasn't going to even attempt to explain anything.

            "Not really," MacGyver confessed to the Captain.

            "But you knew things were going wrong. You threw out that...'shield'. How?" Carter pursued determinedly.

            "I don't know exactly. I just sorta' knew we were in trouble," MacGyver answered, his gaze returning to his cousin who plastered an expressive 'Ya' think?' look on his face. "We both did." Mac looked back to Carter. "An' just sorta'... reacted. Call it instinct if ya' like. I don't know how else to explain it. It just felt right."

            Carter frowned at the distinctly less than scientific explanation.

            "He's a scientist," O'Neill interjected, waving a hand in MacGyver’s general direction as he addressed Carter and Hammond. "So if he can't explain it, how d'ya' expect me to?" He then looked at Hammond hopefully and asked. "Can we go now, sir?"

            "Not just yet, Colonel," Hammond responded, giving them an inquiring look. "I'd still like to know what happened to the crystals you both had." MacGyver tried not to shift uneasily and looked at Jack. O'Neill sighed heavily and wiped a hand over his face.

            "Thought we'd already covered that, General?" The Colonel complained. "We had 'em when the Doc here doped us up and had us carted off to her lair. We don't have 'em now. How are we supposed to know what happened while we were in La-la land, dreaming sweet dreams of Apophis and his Merry Snakeheads getting theirs?"

            MacGyver was acutely aware of Fraiser bristling beside him and shooting O'Neill a dark look that would have incinerated most people on the spot. The Colonel, however, refused to spontaneously combust and looked anything but repentant. Before MacGyver had a chance to attempt a rescue, Carter jumped in with.

            "We tried asking R'Fyaa and Seeba if they could clue us in on what might have happened with your crystals."

            "And?" MacGyver promptly grabbed the dangling straw of distraction.

            "They were very politely evasive," Fraiser answered. The look she was still aiming at O'Neill hadn't warmed any. "However," she continued, her manner becoming that of the consummate professional she was as her gaze flitted between O'Neill and MacGyver. "They did appear anxious to assure us that neither of you would be adversely affected by the apparent disappearance of the devices."

            "Hey. Well. That's good," O'Neill looked suitably buoyant. "See. We told you we were fine." His attention switched to Hammond. "Can we go now, General?" He repeated his question of earlier. "I mean we're obviously only going to go around in circles here. We can't tell you any more than we already have. An' I got this stack of paper work in my office you wouldn't believe."

            Hammond snorted. He knew how much his subordinate truly hated paper work. He sensed however, that a long, rambling dissertation on the subject was imminent if he insisted on keeping him in the Briefing Room much longer.

            "Very well, Colonel. You're dismissed," Hammond told O'Neill. He then deflated O'Neill's ebulliently pleased look by adding. "I'll look forward to all those overdue reports being on my desk by close of business today."

            Carter hid a smile behind her hand as O'Neill's self-satisfied look vanished in an instant to be replaced by a slightly horrified, 'you're-not-serious-are-you?' one. She too knew how much her C.O. hated paper work. Fraiser cast O'Neill a smug look that said it served him right. A brief flicker of amusement crossed MacGyver's face but, as Hammond rose to his feet, the Phoenix operative assumed a more sombre air as he too got up.

            "Be right back," he said across the table to his cousin before he set off after Hammond. In a few quick strides he easily caught up with the General just as he reached his office door. "Excuse me, General. Could I have a word? In your office, sir?"

            Hammond cast the Phoenix operative a slightly curious look, then nodded and proceeded on into his office saying. "Very well, Mr. MacGyver."

            Following the General into the office, MacGyver pushed the door gently shut in his wake, well aware of the frown Jack was aiming after him.

            "So. What can I do for you, Colonel?" Hammond enquired, heading for and settling into the comfortable, leather swivel chair behind his desk.

            "I, ah... " MacGyver began, only to break off as an odd, yet somehow acutely familiar feeling washed over him and pulled at his senses.

            "Colonel?" Hammond frowned at the sight of the tall Phoenix operative standing by his office door and staring blankly across the room as if suddenly transfixed by something. "Colonel, are you alright? Should I get Doctor Fraiser... ?"

            "Huh? Oh. No. Sorry, General. I'm fine," MacGyver endeavoured to plaster a reassuring expression on his face as he resolutely exerted his will and clamped down on the distracting sensations that were tugging at the edges of his awareness. "I, ah... Something just occurred to me, but it's not important right now," he said, giving himself another mental shake and advancing towards the concerned General's desk. "May I?" He asked, indicating one of the vacant chairs. At Hammond's nod of assent, MacGyver sat down.

            "Are you sure you're alright, Colonel?" Hammond asked. He still had a slightly concerned frown on his face as he studied MacGyver carefully.

            "Yeah," MacGyver nodded. Then, looking Hammond directly in the eye, he said honestly. "Ya' know, sir, I really wish you'd drop the 'Colonel' stuff. I'm not military. It's really only kind of an honorary thing some guys in a back office in Washington- "

            “I’ve seen your files," Hammond interjected seriously. "You and I both know the rank is rather more than just honorary. You've earned it." He raised a placatory hand and smiled as he saw the half pained, half exasperated expression that appeared on MacGyver’s face. "Alright, Mister MacGyver, just what was it you wanted to see me about?"

***************

            Leaving Hammond's office a short while later, MacGyver was not in the least surprised to find that O’Neill was hanging around in the otherwise pretty much deserted Briefing room, clearly waiting for him. The Air Force Colonel had his hands stuffed in his pants pockets, his backside perched on an edge of the conference table and his outstretched long legs were lazily crossed at the ankles.

            "Okay," O'Neill said. "You gonna' throw me a bone here or what?" He cast a significant glance towards Hammond's office as he uttered the query, then eyed MacGyver with something akin to wary curiosity.

            "Figured I'd remind the General that the trail to the guys who attacked Sam's only gonna' get colder the longer I sit around here," MacGyver answered.

            "And?" O'Neill's casual slouch lessened noticeably.

            "Well, I was kind of hoping he'd turn me loose tonight."

            "Little over optimistic there, huh?" O'Neill observed, reading his cousin's expression and body language like a book.

            "Yeah," MacGyver conceded with a faint smile. "But ya' know, as 'Two-Stars' go, Hammond's a pretty reasonable kinduva guy." He cast a glance towards the General's office, then, his smile widening, he informed his cousin. "We came to a compromise. If Doctor Fraiser gives me the all clear in the morning, I'm outta' here by mid-day."

            "Great," O'Neill's face lit up and he positively exuded enthusiasm as he rose to his feet. "About time we got to kick some Bad Guy ass."

            "Colonel O'Neill." Hammond's voice echoed crisply across the room. "A word. In my office."

            "Yes, sir," O'Neill glanced past MacGyver to see Hammond retreating back to his desk from the doorway of his office. He then eyed Mac with sudden suspicion. "Oh-kay, big guy. There something going on here I should know about by any chance?"

            "Hey, I'm just a civilian. What would I know about the workings of the military mind?" MacGyver shrugged innocently. O'Neill snorted with open scepticism as he began to step around him. “Ah, Jack...” O'Neill halted and regarded the other man. “I know where Daniel put the ah...” MacGyver raised his left hand slightly and made a vague, yet eloquent gesture with it.

            O’Neill frowned bewilderedly. He watched his cousin's gaze flicker significantly towards Hammond's office and back and read the expression in his eyes. A look of dawning enlightenment slowly spread across the Air Force officer's face. It was mixed with a healthy dose of incredulity. "Nah... He didn't...? " He blinked at MacGyver.

            "Uh-huh." MacGyver returned. "I didn't see them, but I definitely 'felt' them. They're in there somewhere." He watched O'Neill's expression change to one of bemused appreciation at the sneakiness of a certain archaeologist.

            “Way to go, Daniel...” The Colonel chuckled, a broad grin spreading across his face as he resumed course towards Hammond's office as his name was called impatiently by the General.

***************

            "You wanted to see me, sir?" O'Neill said politely as he ambled into his superior's office, apparently unconcerned that Hammond had just bellowed for him.

            "Close the door and take a seat, Jack." Hammond indicated one of the vacant chairs before his desk.

            Wariness flitted across O'Neill's face at the invitation to be seated accompanied by the General's use of his first name.

            "Sir," he responded cautiously. He duly closed the door and headed for the chair. Just as he was about to sit, an oddly familiar 'tingle' suddenly washed through his senses, causing him to freeze. Recovering quickly, he settled into the chair, hoping that Hammond hadn't noticed his momentary lapse. He saw the slight frown the General was levelling at him however and decided that distracting tactics were called for. "Mac said you're allowing him to leave tomorrow if he checks out okay with Fraiser in the morning."

            "Yes, I am," Hammond nodded. "As Mr. MacGyver very politely just reminded me, he's a civilian with a high security clearance and a government contract that already binds him to non-disclosure so, unless Doctor Fraiser can give me a valid medical reason to keep him here, he can leave any time he chooses." Hammond's tone was a shade terse.

            "Yes, sir." O'Neill kept his expression strictly neutral. The General was clearly smarting slightly from whatever MacGyver had said to him no matter how 'politely' it had been phrased. Jack was well aware that his cousin had a knack of ticking off military Brass. He had a similar knack himself, but there were distinct limits on what he could get away with before he landed himself in the brig. MacGyver had no such constraints to consider.

            "So, sir. About that leave SG-1 has coming...?" O'Neill inquired hopefully.

            "I'll get to that in a moment," Hammond stated. He fixed a steady look on his subordinate. "We both know the first thing Mr. MacGyver is going to do when he leaves here is go after the people who attacked his son."

            "Yes, sir," O'Neill nodded. He endeavoured to keep his expression from betraying just how much he wanted to help his cousin in that regard.

            "It is, of course, strictly a civilian matter, so I cannot possibly authorise the involvement of SGC personnel," Hammond went on.

            "No, sir. Of course not, sir," O'Neill nodded dutifully. He had a strong sense of where the conversation was heading though. There were times when he could read his C.O. just as easily as his C.O. usually seemed to be able to read him despite his best efforts.

            "And the proper military authorities are looking into events concerning Airman Grierson and his family, in full co-operation with the relevant civilian authorities," the General continued, "so that aspect of the matter is also out of our hands."

            "Yes, sir," O'Neill nodded dutifully again.

            "However, since Grierson was one of ours, albeit only briefly, I shall be keeping a very close eye on the progress of the investigation."

            "Of course, sir."

            "Which brings me to the matter of the leave you and the other members of SG-1 are due and which I am inclined to allow you to take from midday tomorrow."

            "Yes, sir." O'Neill resisted the urge to leap triumphantly from his chair and punch the air.

            "Provided, of course, Doctor Fraiser gives both Doctor Jackson and yourself a clean bill of health in the morning and- "

            “Daniel, sir?” O'Neill blinked at his C.O., wondering suddenly if Hammond knew that he and MacGyver had given their K'Rin'sha crystals to Daniel.

            "If I might remind you, he spent as much time among the K'Rin'sha as you and Mr. MacGyver did, Colonel." Hammond held up a hand in a gesture that O'Neill recognised. It said along with the expression on the General's face that the matter was not open to debate. "Humour me, Jack." The last was not a request.

            "Sir." O'Neill had long-since learned that some battles were best not even entered into if one wanted to stand a chance of winning others of greater significance.

            "I shall also expect your outstanding paperwork to be cleared before you leave, Colonel."

            "All of it, sir?" O'Neill's controlled expression slipped quite noticeably.

            "Yes, Colonel. All of it, or you're not going anywhere." A twitch of a smile tugged at the corners of Hammond's mouth. Getting paperwork out of his 2-I-C was akin to extracting blood from a stone sometimes and Hammond was determined to make the most of the golden opportunity he currently had to aid in the extraction process.

            "Sir, it'll take me a week just to find my desk under all the- " O'Neill protested, a look of horrified desolation spreading across his face.

            “It’s not negotiable, Colonel." Hammond interrupted, trying to keep an amused smile at bay. "No paperwork, no leave."

            “But, sir...” O'Neill tried again. Then sudden suspicion flared. He regarded Hammond. "Mac wouldn't have anything to do with this, would he?" He wouldn't put it past his cousin to have had a hand in the General's insistence on him clearing up his paperwork backlog before allowing him to take the leave he was due. If he were stuck on the base, bogged down under a ton of paper, he wouldn't be able to help Mac out with the hunt for Bad Guys. He was well aware that his cousin had a protective streak a mile wide. Keeping him stuck on the base would be a typical 'MacGyver' tactic to keep him out of things and 'safe'. Dammit, I'm a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force and I've spent years in Special Ops. I don't need 'protecting'! He thought irritably, though he knew fine that were their situations reversed, it was the sort of thing he'd do himself. MacGyver wasn't the only one with a strong protective instinct; especially where family were concerned.

            "I know it's one of your pet hates, Jack," a twitch of an amused smile flitted across Hammond's face, "but paperwork goes with the territory. You know that as well as I do." His manner becoming business-like once more, he continued. "Now I suggest you go and make a start on yours before I decide to delegate some of mine." He tried to hide another amused smile behind a stern facade as he witnessed his 2-I-C shudder visibly at the implied threat.

            "Yes, sir," O'Neill agreed, as he rose to his feet. It was true. Paperwork did go with the territory, but he still had his suspicions. He was definitely going to have to have a chat with Mac. Meanwhile, it seemed prudent to execute a strategic withdrawal before Hammond decided to make good on his veiled threat and buried him under an extra couple of tons of paperwork.

            He made it as far as the door before he heard.

            "Jack."

            "Sir?" He halted, his hand on the door handle and looked round at Hammond..

            "We both know that provided it doesn't reflect badly on the U.S. Air Force or this Command, what you do on your own time is nobody's business but your own." Hammond's tone was business-like. The look in his eyes belied the equally business-like expression that was on his face. "But you might consider keeping me apprised of how the fish are biting."

            For a moment O'Neill simply stood looking at his C.O., then a smile appeared on his face and his eyes twinkled. He understood. Hammond knew that he intended to help his cousin find the guys who had hurt Malloy, nearly killed Carter and destroyed Airman Grierson and his family. Officially he and MacGyver would be on their own when they left the base. Unofficially, however, back-up if it were needed would only be a phone-call away.

            "Yes, sir," O'Neill said, his eyes expressing a silent, but sincere 'thank you' before he turned, opened the door and departed the General's office.

****************

            One quick glance around the Briefing Room informed O'Neill that MacGyver hadn't gone anywhere, but was in fact standing by the huge, reinforced glass observation window, his thumbs hooked idly into the belt of his fatigues pants. He appeared to be staring at the Stargate in the room below, but it was patently obvious that his mind was miles away.

            O'Neill ambled over, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he hove to at his side. "Penny for 'em," the Colonel invited as he too surveyed the Gate room, where Sergeant Siler and several technicians were busy with some routine maintenance.

            “Oh... Ya' know...” MacGyver shrugged slightly after a moment, blowing out a breath as he waved a hand vaguely at the room below them. It was obvious he had not been at all startled by his cousin's presence, despite having been miles away in his own thoughts.

            O'Neill considered for a moment then, nodding slightly, he said, with heartfelt sincerity as he continued to regard the Stargate himself. "Yeah... I do, Mac."

            The two men remained like that, just standing in silent, yet companionable contemplation of the huge alien device in the room below them for some several minutes. Then O'Neill spoke again, his tone lightly conversational. "Hey... Nice try by the way, big guy." At the look of non-comprehension Mac bestowed on him, he elaborated. "I can get through paper-work real fast when I'm motivated, ya' know." The sheepish expression that immediately appeared on MacGyver's face was all the confirmation O'Neill needed of his suspicions of a conspiracy.

            "Can't blame a fella' for trying," MacGyver said with a shrug and a slightly sheepish smile before he levelled a deadly serious look at his cousin. "Look, Jack, I can't ask you to get involved in any of- "

            “Ya’ don't need to, Mac,” O'Neill interrupted, aiming an equally serious look back at him. "Those guys tried to take out two of our kids; one of 'em, twice. They're also responsible for what happened with Grierson and his family. You're gonna' have to do a helluva lot better than get Hammond to bury me under a ton of paper if you think I'm letting you take these guys on alone." Grim determination was written all over the Colonel. "This is personal in oh so many ways, Mac."

            MacGyver simply stood there, meeting his steely-eyed gaze with one of his own for several moments before nodding acceptance. Gratitude and understanding was clearly visible in his eyes. "Appreciate it, Jack," he said, reaching out to briefly grasp O’Neill’s upper arm.

            "Anytime," O'Neill returned with a smile. Then, tilting his head slightly in the direction of Hammond's office, he said. "We've got back-up if we need it. Unofficially, of course, but we've still got it."

            MacGyver's gaze flickered towards Hammond's office where, he noted, the General appeared to be busy on the phone. Regarding his cousin again, MacGyver told him. "Thanks, Jack, but I shouldn't need it. Pete's already put the resources of the Denver office at my disposal."

            "Yeah, I know, an' I'm pretty sure Hammond knows it too, but the guys here are a lot closer an' can pack a lot more firepower."

            “Jack, I'm not looking to start World War 3 here," MacGyver said grimly, a slightly pained expression in his eyes.

            "Neither am I, but you know as well as I do that guys like the ones we're going after, aren't gonna' just meekly stick their hands up an' come quietly just 'cos ya' ask 'em nice," O'Neill pointed out.

            "Maybe not, but I'd still like to do this without- " MacGyver began determinedly.

            “I know, I know," O'Neill nodded, his hands coming up in front of him in a placating manner. He knew how much his cousin despised the use of guns to solve a problem; any problem. "Don't get your shorts in a knot. I'm just sayin', is all." He witnessed the other man take a deep breath and sigh heavily. "So," he continued, knowing he'd managed to successfully deflect a long-standing difference of opinion - for the moment at least. "Any ideas on where we start tomorrow?"

***************

            MacGyver did indeed have a couple of ideas regarding the commencement of their 'Bad Guy Hunt' the following day and he started filling his cousin in on them as the pair departed the Briefing Room. They were a goodly way down the corridor when they heard Hammond's voice floating after them, its tone crisp and business-like.

            "Colonel O'Neill. Mr. MacGyver."

            Halting, the duo looked over their shoulders to see Hammond at the doorway of his office. He issued a brief gesture that indicated their presences were required and disappeared from view.

            O'Neill and MacGyver exchanged curious glances before turning and backtracking to see what the General wanted.

            "There a problem, sir?" O'Neill inquired dubiously a few moments later as he and his cousin stood in front of his superior's desk.

            "I just had a call from the VIP level," Hammond announced from behind his desk. "S'Baya is apparently expressing a desire to go up to the surface for a short while. It seems she is being quite insistent about it. She is also being equally insistent that the two of you accompany her."

            "Be happy to, sir, if you're okaying it?" O'Neill promptly jumped in, happy to volunteer for just about anything that would legitimately keep him away from paperwork a while longer.

            "I'm inclined to," Hammond said after a moment of regarding the two men before him. He didn't miss the faintly pensive frown that was gracing the Phoenix operative's face. "Mr. MacGyver?" He inquired, his tone making it clear he wanted to know if he had a problem with the request that had been made of him.

            "Hmmm?" MacGyver's frown deepened momentarily as if his mind had been somewhere else and he'd just snapped back to the here and now and had fleetingly forgotten where exactly that was. "Oh. Sure. No problem, General. In fact I could use a breath of fresh air myself to tell ya' the truth."

            Hammond regarded them - MacGyver in particular for a moment longer - then, inclining his head in the slightest of approving nods he told them. "Thank you, gentlemen."

            Recognising that they were dismissed, the two cousins headed for the door by which they had entered the room.

            "Colonel." Hammond's voice floated after them. O'Neill halted at the door to look round. "I would remind you that our guests are scheduled to leave through the Stargate in approximately one hour."

            O'Neill checked his wristwatch. "One hour. Yes, sir," he confirmed with a nod before hurrying after Mac who was already en route towards the elevators.

****************

            When the elevator doors opened onto Level 25 where the VIP quarters were located, O’Neill stepped purposefully out into the corridor. "I'll see you up top, Mac," he said, turning to look at MacGyver who remained in the elevator and who reached to punch a button on the control panel. He saw his cousin's silent nod before the elevator doors slid shut, separating them.

            As the elevator continued its ascent, O'Neill headed off towards the quarters assigned to the K'Rin'sha delegation. He found that the entire group were gathered in R'Fyaa's room. "Hey guys," he said by way of announcing his arrival even as he simultaneously knocked on the already open door. "Your tour-guide for the surface is here."

            "Jack!" The delighted shriek from Melia instantly assaulted his ears and seconds later he was down on one knee with his arms full of exuberant five-year-old.

            "Is not the other with you?" This slightly puzzled, slightly disappointed question came from Seeba some moments later when Melia had calmed down and O'Neill had recovered from the child's enthusiastic welcome.

            “Ah...” It took O'Neill a few seconds to realise the woman was referring to MacGyver. "No. He'll meet us up top. He's just checking up on his kid first." His gaze roamed the K'Rin'sha delegation. "So... If everyone's ready...?”

            "I am due to meet again with your General Hammond before we return to our people," R'Fyaa announced from where he sat at the room's table, several of the texts Daniel had loaned him spread out before him, along with a pad upon which he had been making some notations when O'Neill had arrived. “And much as I would really enjoy...” The 'Keeper' gestured vaguely at the mountain above their heads. "I'd really like to try and finish this," he gestured at the texts and his notepad, "before then."

            "Oh-kay," O'Neill nodded. He had always thought that anyone who preferred to bury their nose in books when they could be outside enjoying the fresh air and doing 'other things' wasn't exactly playing with a full deck, but he tactfully (for once) refrained from saying so. His gaze roamed the female contingent of the K'Rin'sha and he clapped his hands together in an anticipatory fashion. "Guess it's just us then, ladies."

            "Alaeya is required here," Seeba stated. Her tone denoted that there would be no debate on the matter. "However, Melia will accompany us."

            "Oh-kay," O'Neill said again. He cast Alaeya a look that said clearly that he'd willingly go to bat for her if she'd rather go outside than stay put. The teenager cast him a warm smile in return that indicated she understood his silent offer and appreciated it, then she shook her head slightly, declining that offer. "Ya' sure, kiddo?" O'Neill asked. The girl nodded and indicated the books spread across the table saying simply.

            "I am required here."

            O'Neill nodded, reading the girl's eyes, which requested that he not make a big deal of the matter. Looking down at little Melia who had practically glued herself to his side, he picked the child up and, smiling warmly at her, told her. "Well... Looks like it’s just you, me, an' your Mom then, sweetheart, 'til Mac catches up to us up-top." Mischief twinkled openly in his eyes. "Whaddya' say we go have some fun while these bookworms bore themselves silly?"

***************

            "Hey guys," MacGyver greeted as on approaching the Mess hall, he encountered his son, plus Daniel and Teal'c, leaving it. "Where're ya' off to?"

            “Ah...” Daniel Jackson looked slightly startled, almost guilty and definitely panicked. He had, after all, been categorically instructed by his team-leader to stay in the Mess Hall. He had further been instructed to keep Malloy there too until told to do otherwise by said team-leader, or the man now standing before him. "Ah...my office," the clearly caught off-guard archaeologist began. “It's ah, quiet and...” He stopped as he realised MacGyver wasn't listening to his attempt to explain. The Phoenix operative's attention was focused on Malloy, whom he was regarding with ill-concealed concern.

            "You okay, Sam?" MacGyver questioned.

            "Little tired, Dad," Malloy confessed truthfully. "Bit sore again too." He rubbed gingerly at his chest. He then tilted his head slightly towards the Mess Hall he'd just left. "Gettin' kinda' busy in there, an' Daniel said it'd be quieter in his office. Apparently he has a couch." He cast his father a wry little smile that hinted at a private joke with the older man, whose own smile in return indicated that he picked up on it immediately.

            “He, ah, didn't want to go back to the infirmary...” Daniel made another attempt at offering an explanation as MacGyver's dark-eyed gaze alighted on him. “I, ah, thought, um...”

            "That's okay, Daniel," MacGyver gave the archaeologist a smile that expressed both gratitude and appreciation of his efforts to look out for Sam. He knew how stubborn his son could be sometimes. Mule-headedness ran in the family after all. Moving smoothly to his son's side, he placed a gently protective, yet supportive arm around the slightly pale-faced journalist's shoulders and suggested. "How about we go down to my quarters, Sam? It's pretty quiet there too. Not much in the way of passing traffic. An' I'll bet the bed's a lot more comfortable than the couch in Daniel's office." He shot a slightly apologetic glance at the archaeologist. "No offence, Daniel."

            "None taken," Daniel responded as MacGyver began to unobtrusively usher his unresisting son towards the elevators.

***************

            "So..." O’Neill observed as he escorted Seeba and Melia a short distance from the surface exit they had just emerged from onto the mountainside. "What did you want to talk about that couldn't be discussed in front of the flapping ears downstairs?"

            Seeba smiled as if amused by something.

            "What?" O'Neill questioned, failing to comprehend the woman's reaction.

            "I simply thought you might enjoy some time with the little one before we have to leave, Jack," Seeba answered. "I know she would."

            "Really?" O'Neill's face lit up. "That's it?" He asked, as if not quite believing such sneaky good fortune had just come his way.

            "You both deserve it," Seeba smiled as she moved a few paces from the Colonel to settle herself on a large boulder that often served as a makeshift seat for SGC personnel sneaking outside on a break. "And I should like her to see this," Seeba waved a hand at the wild, mountain woodland around them, "through your eyes. Show her this little patch of your world, Jack. Go on," she gestured in a shoo-ing fashion. "Enjoy yourselves. I will wait here for the other and enjoy this pleasantly warm sunshine while I do so."

            O'Neill hesitated, visibly weighing up the situation and any potential risks it posed. Melia tugging at his hand and pleading with him to play with her speeded up his decision.

            "Okay," he nodded at Seeba. "But the S.F.s'll have to stay with you 'til Mac gets here," he told her. "If you need anything..."

            “I will so inform them," Seeba nodded in return. "I will be fine here," she assured. Then, with a distinctly impatient maternal shooing gesture at the Colonel and the young child tugging at his hand, she insisted. “Now go on. Both of you. Go...”

            O'Neill signalled to the two S.F.s who had followed them outside. The duo, who had been close enough to over-hear what had been said, nodded their understanding. They then unobtrusively planted themselves a short distance away where they could keep a discreet, yet watchful eye on the alien woman, allowing her some semblance of privacy and solitude as she sat, clearly enjoying the late afternoon, Colorado sunshine, while O'Neill and a happily excited Melia moved off in the direction of a well-trodden path that disappeared into the surrounding woodland.

***************

            "Hey... Not bad for the military," Malloy observed as, seated on the edge of the large bed in the VIP room that was serving as his father's assigned quarters, he surveyed his surroundings with critical curiosity.

            "Yeah," MacGyver agreed with a smile as he deposited his son's newly removed boots on the floor by the bed. "Crashed out in a lot of places way worse over the years." He rose up off the knee he'd been down on while separating his son from the boots he'd just relegated to the floor. "C'mon. Let's get ya' comfortable here," he continued, reaching to grab and rearrange pillows.

            "Thanks, Dad," Malloy said as he allowed his father to help him to settle himself with his back against the newly stacked pillows and his feet up on the bed.

            "Ya' sure you wouldn't like me to get Doctor Fraiser down here?" MacGyver inquired as he stood regarding his son with ill-concealed paternal concern.

            "No. No, I'll be fine." Malloy's tone said quite clearly 'Don't fuss, Dad'. He saw the look that flickered in the older man's eyes. "Really," Sam insisted, endeavouring to employ a rather less sharp tone and reassure the concerned man. "Just need peace 'n' quiet for a bit, that's all."

            MacGyver resolutely clamped down on his over-protective paternal instincts. He knew only too well that Sam shared his own acute dislike of being overly fussed over when feeling under the weather and also shared his own need to sometimes just be left alone to lick his wounds in peace for a while. "Okay, Sam," the Phoenix operative nodded understandingly. "There's something I have to take care of but it shouldn't take too long. I'll come right back when I'm done, okay? Meantime, ya' need anything, ya' just sing out... Teal'c'll be right outside the door."

            Rubbing gingerly at his chest again, Malloy nodded and gave his father a slightly wan little smile.

            "Try an' get some shut-eye if ya' can. It'll help." MacGyver advised, reaching to give his son's arm a gently paternal squeeze. Malloy nodded. "I'll be back in a while." Again, Malloy nodded. MacGyver regarded him for a moment or two longer and then retreated to the door, where he paused to glance back at his son. A smile flickered across his face as he saw Sam's eyes were already shut. Very quietly, he stepped from the room, closing the door gently in his wake.

            Teal'c, who had been standing guard in the corridor, rumbled an inquiry as to how Sam was.

            "Think he's gonna' sleep for  while," MacGyver answered. "Best thing for him right now."

            "Indeed," Teal'c inclined his head in solemn agreement as MacGyver cast a glance along the corridor towards the rooms that had been allocated to the SGC's K'Rin'sha guests. A frown crossed Mac's face as he noted that the SF's who had been on duty when he'd taken Sam into his own quarters, were no longer there. "Where... ?" He began to ask, gesturing vaguely at the SF-free section of corridor. Before he could finish voicing his intended query, Teal'c was answering him, informing him that R'Fyaa and Alaeya had gone with Daniel for the Keeper's final scheduled meeting with General Hammond. Teal'c further went on to announce that Daniel had informed him that Seeba and Melia were outside on the surface with O'Neill and were expecting Mac to join them.

            “Yeah, I know about...” Mac gestured vaguely at the tons of rock over their heads. Then he regarded Teal'c in a serious fashion. "Teal'c. I hate to have to ask this since Sam's my responsibility and not yours, but- "

            “I will be honoured to continue to guard Sam Malloy for as long as you require, MacGyver,” Teal'c rumbled, moving to place himself dead-centre of the doorway to MacGyver's quarters. It was clear from the stance he adopted and the determined aura that settled over him, that no one was going to get past him.

            "Thanks, Teal'c. I appreciate it." MacGyver's honest sincerity was unmistakable. "I'll be as quick as I can," he promised.

            Teal'c inclined his head slightly in acknowledgment.

***************

            Stepping outside into the late afternoon Colorado sunshine, MacGyver stood for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the change in brightness from the synthetic light inside the SGC and to appreciatively suck in a few breaths of the fresh, un-recycled, mountain air. He then cast an amiable nod at the two extremely young-looking SF’s who were on duty at the exit he'd just used, well aware of the rapid double-take the pair had done as he had stepped outside. It was a reaction he was becoming used to from various members of the SGC who'd not actually clapped eyes on him before. Even some of those who had seen him around the place before tended to look twice just in case they ought to be saluting a superior officer, although Mac had observed that on the whole, the SGC seemed pretty relaxed in that particular regard.

            Then, just as MacGyver surveyed his surroundings, one of the SF's volunteered helpfully. "Colonel O'Neill went that way, sir."

            "Thanks," MacGyver responded, noting the direction indicated by the airman. It was the same direction as some deep instinct was already telling him to take to in order to find Jack. He set off along the path in question, giving the two airmen a cheery wave of acknowledgment as he did so.

            Within a matter of moments he found himself entering a well-trampled, clearing area. He immediately spotted Seeba sitting by herself on a large slab of sun-drenched rock. Her sightless eyes were closed and she had her face tilted towards the sun. She had about her a distinctly contented aura.

            Nodding to the two burly SF's who were hovering discreetly under the shade of a big old pine tree, MacGyver made his way across the clearing to where the K'Rin'sha woman sat.

            "Hi." MacGyver announced his presence before reaching the woman, not wishing to unduly startle her since she seemed to be miles away in her own thoughts.

            "Old friend,” Seeba acknowledged, aiming a welcoming smile at the Phoenix operative. "How is your young one?"

            "Resting in my quarters," MacGyver answered, glancing around for any sign of Jack.

            "The other is with Melia," Seeba announced. "They are amusing themselves," she added as a squeal of childish laughter accompanied by a loud splashing sound and an indignant male yelp of surprise echoed through the trees.

            "Yeah," MacGyver observed with an amused smile. "Sounds like it."

            "Will you sit with me a moment, old friend?" Seeba asked, indicating the vacant space beside her on the rock as she spoke.

            "Sure," MacGyver accepted the invitation and settled himself beside the alien woman. After a few moments of easy silence had elapsed, he asked curiously. "So, what's on your mind?"

            Seeba smiled, then, tilting her head slightly, she regarded the Phoenix operative with her penetrating blind gaze as she told him. "You actually."

            "Me?" MacGyver blinked, more than slightly surprised by the woman's statement.

            "Yes," Seeba nodded. "There are things of which we should speak before I journey through the Gateway."

            "Yeah," MacGyver nodded, his manner becoming pensive as he absently rubbed at his left palm.

            "True mastery of the crystals will come to you, my friend, but it will require patience and practice if you wish to avoid mishaps such as you and Jack experienced earlier." Seeba smiled at the Phoenix operative.

            "Yeah, about that... " MacGyver began.

            “You have the knowledge you will need within you. Both of you do. It will just take you time to properly access and understand it.”

            "You've told me that before," MacGyver observed ruefully.

            "And do you yet believe me?" Seeba inquired, tilting her head slightly.

            MacGyver sighed and wiped a hand over his jaw before looking at the alien woman and saying. “I'm beginning to think I don't have a lot of choice. Part of me says it's all impossible, but what I've seen... what I've experienced...” he trailed off, shaking his head slightly.

            "I know," Seeba smiled kindly. Reaching out, she rested a hand gently on her companion's forearm. "You find it all disconcerting, don't you?"

            "That's one way of putting it," MacGyver admitted. "It kinda' feels a bit like I've stumbled into the Twilight Zone." Seeing from the expression that appeared on Seeba's face and the way she inclined her head slightly that she did not comprehend the reference, MacGyver waved a hand vaguely. "Never mind. It's just... I've seen some weird stuff in my time, but lately it seems like every time I turn around, things just get weirder. Ya' know?"

            Seeba smiled again and the fingers she had resting on his arm tightened briefly in a gesture of understanding. Her expression became more serious as she spoke again. "What you must remember is that both crystals are yours. Their primary response will therefore always be to you. That said, you must also remember that so long as you are in possession of one of them... it matters not which it is,  Jack will then be able to use the other to some degree."

            "Because of the 'Linked Guardian' thing?" MacGyver ventured.

            "Yes," Seeba nodded. "And when Jack is ready to seek out and receive his own crystals, he will find his way to them. You and he will then come into full use of the Powers of each other's Houses in addition to those of your own. The young Keeper, Daniel, has already surmised this." Approval appeared on the woman's face. "He was a wise choice to entrust your crystals to." MacGyver's eyebrows shot up in surprise at Seeba's last remark. "Be not alarmed, old friend. He has not broken your trust by speaking of that which you and the other asked of him. I simply 'see' what others do not and can not." Seeba continued quickly, her tone one of earnest reassurance.

            “The 'Seer' thing...”

            "Yes." Seeba smiled again, her fingers tightening on his arm again. Then, she rose to her feet, saying. "Come. We have but little time remaining. Let us walk together and enjoy it while we may and then see what mischief the 'children' are up to."

***************

            "But I don't see anything, Jack," Melia complained in hushed tones to the Air Force Colonel who was down on one knee at her side.

            "It's right up there in that big old tree there," O’Neill said softly. His movements slow and deliberate, he pointed carefully towards what he had spotted and wanted the child to see. "'Bout five branches up on the left side there. Do you see it now?"

            Melia shook her head impatiently. O'Neill shifted his position slightly.

            "Follow where I'm pointing," he quietly instructed. Melia leaned in closer to him and squinted along his arm, using it as a sighting-guide.

            "Oh! I see it!" The child exclaimed in delight. High up in the tree, a big owl ruffled its feathers slightly and blinked at its two observers.

            "Quietly now, or you'll scare it away," Jack cautioned, smiling at the captivated expression on his young charge's face as she stared at the bird which stared back.

            "It has such big eyes, Jack. Why does it have such big eyes?" The little girl asked. Thoroughly enjoying himself, O’Neill began to explain to the child about owls and was thus occupied when the sound of approaching voices alarmed the bird he and Melia were watching.

            "Aw, Jack...It's gone away," Melia complained in greatly disappointed tones as the owl launched itself from its perch and disappeared deeper into the woodland.

            "Yeah, honey, so it has." There was an unmistakable note of disappointment in his own tone. He looked accusingly over his shoulder at the newly arrived duo who had just ruined the wildlife lesson he had been giving. "Hey, crash in here like a herd of elephants why don't ya' guys?" He complained irritably, rising to his feet.

            "Seeba! MacGyver! Jack showed me an owl!" Melia exclaimed excitably as she looked round, saw her adoptive mother and MacGyver approaching and bounced enthusiastically over to them. "It had such big eyes. Jack says that's because it can see in the dark." The girl was chattering nineteen to the dozen. "And we saw squiggles too."

            "Squiggles?" MacGyver cast an amused glance at his cousin, who mouthed back 'Squirrels' as Melia chattered enthusiastically on about the various other wildlife, furred, feathered and otherwise, that O’Neill had spotted and pointed out to her. Ambling over to join Mac and Seeba, O'Neill quietly inquired after Malloy. "A bit sore and tired again, but too stubborn to go back to the infirmary so I took him down to my quarters. Teal'c volunteered to keep an eye on him 'til I get back down there," MacGyver responded. He inclined his head slightly as he regarded Jack. "Guess you've been having a good time, huh?"

            "Oh yeah," O’Neill admitted truthfully, watching Melia still happily chattering rapidly away to Seeba, who appeared to be listening intently to the child's every word and 'oohing' and 'aahing' at appropriate moments. "She's a great kid."

            "Yeah," MacGyver nodded his agreement, then, not having missed the glimpse of sad reminiscence that had flitted through his cousin's eyes, he asked. "You okay?"

            "What? Yeah. Yeah, I'm good." Jack responded, quickly suppressing the memories that had been surfacing of times spent introducing his late son to the wonders of nature and wildlife. He checked his wristwatch and was dismayed to find how much time had flown past. "Guess we'd better be heading down to the Gate, huh?" He said, keeping his expression resolutely business-like.

            "I guess." MacGyver agreed, sounding as unenthusiastic as his cousin at the prospect. He reached out to briefly touch O’Neill on the arm, conveying much with the simple gesture, then turned, switched on a cheerfully sunny smile and said to Melia. "So, Melia. You gonna' tell me about these 'squiggles' Jack showed ya'?"

***************

            The atmosphere in the Briefing Room was relaxed and convivial. Hammond's meeting with R'Fyaa had gone well and the conversation had turned less formal while they awaited Seeba and Melia's return from the surface. R'Fyaa was regaling Hammond and Daniel with a story about a youthful off-world adventure he had had as a Novice Keeper apprenticed to a particularly crusty old harridan of a Second Circle Keeper with delusions of infallibility. It was a tale involving the embarrassing mistranslation of some indigenous texts involving local etiquette and was causing much amusement to both his host audience and to young Alaeya.

            As the group dissolved into hearty laughter at the punch line to the tale, O’Neill's voice floated over from the doorway, its tone one of slightly indignant mock annoyance.

            "Hey... Sounds like these guys got themselves a fun party goin' on in here. Whaddya' say we gatecrash, huh kids?"

            "Come in, Colonel," George Hammond invited, endeavouring to get hearty guffaws under control as he looked round over his shoulder and gestured at the Colonel and his companions to enter the room. Not that O'Neill was showing any indication of waiting to be invited. The Colonel was already halfway en route to the conference table, Melia in his arms and Seeba and MacGyver following him.

            “So, what did we miss?”  O'Neill inquired, his eyes twinkling as he set Melia down and looked hopefully round the room for someone to enlighten him.

            "A mistranslation...story," Daniel answered between snorts of the laughter he was trying valiantly to get under control. O'Neill's eyebrows shot up in an inquisitive manner which somehow just seemed to set Daniel off into another bout of laughter. The smile that spread across the Colonel's face, combined with the mischievous twinkle in his eyes and his intrigued 'Yeah?' in response, did nothing for Daniel's self-control. Nor did the Colonel's ensuing crack about the archaeologist clearly being in imminent danger of laying an egg if he wasn't careful and maybe they should send for Fraiser or a Vet pronto.

            "It clearly struck a chord whatever it was about," MacGyver observed, smiling himself, the mood of hilarity that filled the room being somewhat infectious.

            "I'll torture it out of him later," O'Neill confided to him in a tone pitched just loud enough for the still snickering archaeologist to be able to overhear; assuming he was in any condition to hear anything. Then the Colonel added thoughtfully. "Maybe someone should throw some cold water over him before he does himself a mischief and I have to explain it to Fraiser." He then looked bewilderedly at MacGyver, who simply shrugged in return with equal bewilderment as the mention of cold water sent Daniel off into another paroxysm of laughter. "Must be acute caffeine deprivation or something." O'Neill decided. "Though that usually makes him crankier than Apophis after we've just taken out a couple of his Mother-ships."

            "Doctor Jackson, are you alright?" This question emanated from General Hammond, who was beginning to regard SG-1's archaeologist with some concern. He had never seen the younger man so gripped by such intense and genuine amusement. Indeed he had rarely seen the young man laugh period, though he had witnessed him sometimes smile at some of O’Neill's bad jokes.

            "Um... Yes... Yes, I'm... ah, fine, General," Daniel managed to gulp out before ducking his head and busying himself with blowing his nose on a Kleenex.

            "General Hammond," Seeba began, effectively distracting everyone's attention away from the archaeologist. "I should like to thank you for your kindness in permitting Melia and I to spend time on the surface of your world with MacGyver and Jack. It was a most enjoyable excursion."

            Hammond, who had courteously risen to his feet when Seeba had first entered the room, responded with polite diplomacy that it was nothing and he had been pleased to do it.

            "I too, should like to express our gratitude for the kind hospitality all your people have shown towards us, General," R'Fyaa said. He too was on his feet, Alaeya standing by his side. The K'Rin'sha Keeper extended his right hand towards the General, who accepted the proffered handshake as R'Fyaa went on. "It has been a pleasure meeting with you, General, and I am confident that the discussions we have had will bear fruit for both our peoples. Certainly the recommendations I shall be making to the Guardian High Circle of the K'Rin'sha will be in favour of co-operation and exchange between our peoples."

            "I am very pleased to hear that, sir. I shall be making similar recommendations to my own superiors," the General acknowledged.

            "Terrific," Jack interjected ebulliently. “That means I get to come visit Melia next time SG-1's in the neighbourhood? Wherever exactly the neighbourhood is...” he finished, frowning slightly but hopefully.

            "Indeed, Colonel. You will always be more than welcome on any K'Rin'sha world," R'Fyaa smiled at O'Neill. "As will you, MacGyver," R'Fyaa looked at the Phoenix operative. "Though I trust it will be under rather less traumatic circumstances." As O'Neill muttered a soft but heartfelt 'Amen' to that last observation, the alien 'Keeper' turned his attention to Daniel who finally seemed to have regained his composure, though for some reason appeared to be deliberately avoiding looking at Jack. "As will you, Daniel. I very much look forward to further opportunities for exchange between us."

            "I look forward to it too," Daniel acknowledged, visibly radiating keen enthusiasm.

            "So..." R'Fyaa turned his attention back to Hammond. “If you would be kind enough to have one of your people enter the Gate co-ordinates I gave you earlier, General, we shall take our leave...”

            "Of course," Hammond nodded. “If you will come this way...” He invited, indicating towards the exit through which O'Neill and the others had earlier trooped, just as a slightly nervous Airman entered the room and approached with an apology for intruding, quickly followed by an explanation for said intrusion.

            "There's a Colonel Redman to see you, sir. I told him you were in conference, but he's very insistent..." The Airman broke off as a tall, heavy-set man clad in dress blues which bore the rank insignia of a full-bird Colonel strode into the room with an air of determined authority about him. He had an attaché case in his left hand and two armed men clad in 'special ops' black garb following hard on his heels.

            Redman's gaze swept the room in a cursory and slightly disdainful fashion before alighting on Hammond. He snapped off a crisply textbook salute to the General before announcing equally crisply.

            "General Hammond, sir. I'm Colonel Redman. I have orders regarding the immediate disposition of the aliens and all technology relating thereto."

***************

TO BE CONTINUED....

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