Read SG1-15 The Power Behind the Throne for Free Online Page B

back before and it could hardly be worse than Ne’tu. No, it was the thought of bringing back the Mujina that placed a chill in his heart, because of all of them, Daniel Jackson understood the implications of a creature that could twist itself to represent all things to all people. History was riddled with examples of power corrupted. In each of those cases there was nothing
super
natural to amplify them. If mankind alone was capable of such darkness, what was it capable of with a creature like the Mujina at its side?
    They were going into the Ninth Circle, fully intending to hunt the devil and, if they were lucky, drag him back out with them. It didn’t bear thinking about, so of course it was all he could think about.
    “It can’t be allowed to fall into the hands of the Goa’uld, surely you understand that?” the softer voice of Selina Ros said. He had noticed the symbiote had a habit of allowing its host to rise to the surface when the conversation turned uncomfortably moral. But then, perhaps everything in its world was starkly black and white?
    “I just can’t help thinking it’s a case of damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” Daniel said, surprising himself with his honesty.
    “Isn’t that always the way?” she said, sounding unerringly like Jack. It was precisely the sort of thing he would say.
    “But it shouldn’t be, should it?” he didn’t know who he was trying to convince, himself or the Tok’ra. “Sometimes there should just be a right thing to do.”
    “It would make life simpler. But — ”
    “There’s always a but,” he finished for her, as though that were all she could possibly have to say on the matter. She nodded. Her faint smile didn’t reach all the way to her eyes. “We need to join the others.”
    “You will do the right thing, Daniel Jackson,” she said, as though that were meant to comfort him. It didn’t.
    “And that’s where the problem lies.”
    He took the co-ordinates through to Hammond in the command room so that they could be input into the dialing computer. Jack and Teal’c were already there. The towering Jaffa gave him a curious look, his brow furrowing slightly around the gold glyph that marked him Jaffa. It left Daniel with the disconcerting feeling that his thoughts had been scoured, leaving his doubts red and raw on the surface. He tried to shrug it off. Now wasn’t the time to unburden himself to the others. Selina Ros was right; the Mujina could not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Goa’uld. The implications did not bear thinking about.
    “Something wrong?” Jack asked.
    “No more than usual,” Daniel said, managing a wry smile. “Jerichau has been telling me what to expect from this prison planet.” He told them what she had said, skimming over some of the more colorful images but making damned sure he got the point across.
    “As ideas go, this is sounding worse and worse,” Jack commented, fastening one of the straps on the sleeve of his evac suit.
    “Indeed,” Teal’c said. “I have heard speak of such phenomena. I believe it is quite beautiful to see the sky aflame.”
    “I’m sure it’s beautiful, T-man. I’m more worried about the practicalities than the aesthetics. Things like how much heat is going to be generated from the oxygen burn off and what, exactly, it’s likely to do to us. The idea of being vaporized because I spent too long staring at the sun doesn’t really appeal all that much. Not sure I want to go to my grave with a burning sky being the last thing I see, it’s a little too biblical, if you get my meaning.”
    “You do not wish to die,” Teal’c said flatly, his flair for stating the obvious not letting him down. It earned a smile from Jack.
    “Atta boy, Teal’c. Daniel, go get suited up.”
    He nodded. Daniel walked toward the closed door, and then turned, as though pulled up by a sudden thought. “Jack?”
    O’Neill turned to look at him. Daniel wanted nothing more than to take him to one