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More String Theory: An AU Series
Dr. Samantha Carter joins the SGC and discovers a life she never expected.
Action/Adventure, Drama, Angst, Romance, S/J
Teen: minor language and violence
A/N: We are starting off on a much larger story arc with this ficlet. So much so that I am publicly making a promise to post one update a week until the end of this arc so as to keep ya'll from lynching me for leaving you with so many cliffhangers. This is perhaps foolish of me, but here it is, sketched out in LJ blood. Lol.
Ficlet 27: Fringe Benefits
Evan Lorne is quite aware that being on SG-1 has its perks. Not anything obvious like more money or private quarters, but in a million little ways that he couldn’t have imagined before. Like when a mysterious deep space message is received by the SGC, they are usually the first to know about it. Mostly because Daniel is the one interpreting and translating it.
Just this very morning Evan had been having a quiet cup of coffee with O’Neill when Daniel ran into the commissary with that ‘I just found a new shiny object that might change life as we know it’ gleam in his eyes. Evan’s noticed over the last year that this look is usually followed by hours spent watching Daniel mumble to himself and peer at dusty old walls, while Teal’c and O’Neill escape to ‘check the perimeter.’
This morning, though, Evan was instead treated to a rendition of the Jack and Daniel Show that often leaves him with a crick in his neck from the rapid fire back and forth, and a wry grin from the way these two seemingly opposite men compliment each other even as they drive each other completely batty.
Today, it went a bit like this:
Daniel [excitedly and with wild hand gestures]: “Jack! Did you hear about the deep space message Walter picked up yesterday?”
Jack [sedately, picking invisible fuzz from his coffee]: “Yeah.”
Daniel: “I just finished the translation.”
Jack [mildly and with little overt interest]: “Anything interesting?”
Daniel [with annoyance]: “You could say that. Beware the Destroyers. They come from 3, 32, 16, 8, 10, 12.”
Jack: “That’s it?”
Daniel [brow creased, looking slightly deflated]: “Uh, yeah.”
Jack: “Not exactly wordy, are they?”
Daniel: “No, not really.”
Jack: “And the numbers?”
Daniel: “Gate address, I imagine.”
Jack: “Do we have any idea where the message came from?”
Daniel [looking a bit more animated]: “Dr. Lee traced it to P3R-233.”
Jack [considering]: “What are our chances this isn’t a trap?”
Daniel [wryly]: “With our luck?”
Jack: “Right.” [Pushing to his feet and gesturing to Evan] “Might as well go pay a visit to Hammond.”
Evan considers the built in entertainment value of his team just another perk. Of course, the flip side of being the first to know everything is that SG-1 is also always the first to voluntarily throw themselves into insanely dangerous situations.
Like right at this moment.
They are standing in a large room draped in shadows as the wormhole behind them shuts down. Feeble grey light slants into the space from various windows and skylights. There is not the tiniest sign of life.
The four of them linger on the steps, none of them particularly interested in straying too far into the grey space. Except Daniel, that is.
By now, Evan automatically follows Daniel every time they set foot on a new planet. O’Neill has made it pretty clear that Evan’s main duties are to stay positive and keep Daniel out of mortal peril as much as possible. Easier said than done.
Daniel is the only one of them not obviously creeped out by this desolate place. His specially attuned radar has him striding away from the gate, peering into rooms ringing the main hall. He’s just about to disappear entirely into one doorway when Teal’c’s voice reaches them.
“We must return to Earth as quickly as possible.”
Teal’c’s voice betrays no overt emotion, but Evan has long ago learned to trust that particular tone. Reaching out, Evan grabs Daniel by the back of the collar and bodily drags the sputtering man back. These days it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Evan can’t quite make out O’Neill’s reply to Teal’c’s pronouncement over Daniel’s protests that he saw Something Important and needs to go back for just a minute.
Evan tries to remind himself that he wanted to be on SG-1. Remember all the perks.
When O’Neill finally catches sight of them, he nods approvingly at Evan’s corralling of Daniel and points his finger at a rather menacing black marker looming off to the side of the Stargate. Daniel, fickle man that he is, instantly forgets all other Things of Importance and begins examining the marker as if it’s the only artifact in the galaxy.
“It is the korosh-ni,” Teal’c explains. “A symbol left behind by Apophis on worlds he has completely eradicated and left poisoned. It is not wise to linger in such a place.”
“Good enough for me,” O’Neill says. “Back to the gate.”
“But-,” Daniel sputters.
“We’ve got the answers we needed, Daniel.”
“Don’t you know what this means?”
O’Neill ignores the question, already heading back to the gate and gesturing for Evan to dial it up. Evan starts pressing the glyphs, but Daniel hasn’t quite given up yet.
“It means the ‘destroyers’ are the Goa’uld, specifically Apophis,” Daniel says.
O’Neill heaves a sigh. “And the gate address they sent us might provide a way to strike at Apophis before he gets the chance to destroy Earth. Yes, Daniel, we all got there. Now can we get out of here?”
Daniel opens his mouth to argue, but at this point Evan imagines it’s more out of habit than actual umbrage.
O’Neill just raises a finger in the universal gesture of ‘don’t push your luck’ and takes on the task of corralling Daniel up to the active wormhole himself, leaving Teal’c and Evan to follow.
Evan glances at the ugly, black scar of a sculpture again. “Korosh-ni?” he asks.
Teal’c nods.
Evan sighs. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Indeed,” Teal’c agrees.
They share one look and follow their teammates through the Stargate.
* * *
“You want to what?”
Evan is pretty amazed at Hammond’s ability to still sound stunned when SG-1 comes up with a crazy plan. It’s not like they do it everyday, but often enough that Hammond should know to expect it. Or maybe it’s just that SG-1’s plans are getting crazier and crazier.
Evan glances at Hammond. Yeah. There’s a vein beating out a particularly vivid pulse just above his temple. This plan must be crazier than usual.
“This is a very real chance of striking at Apophis before he finally gets around to decimating Earth,” Jack says.
“He has never made a direct run on Earth before,” Hammond points out. It’s true that Apophis has so far preferred to kill them off by means of subterfuge and bounty hunters, but the threat of a full on attack has been on everyone’s minds for the past year.
“Apophis has been busy dominating the system lords, but now that he’s won, he has more than enough time to turn his attention to the humans,” Daniel says. “He won’t have forgotten our flight from Chulak, or the death of Ra.”
“He destroyed these people’s planet. We would be foolish not to assume the same fate is on its way to us,” Jack adds.
“I agree we can’t ignore this, but your plan...” Hammond pauses, running a hand over the top of his head. Not for the first time, Evan wonders if the general had more hair before he took on command of the SGC. Or met Jack O’Neill. “It would be suicide,” he finally finishes.
“Maybe,” O’Neill says with a shrug. “Maybe not.”
Hammond looks in no way reassured by O’Neill’s cavalier attitude. “I’m not ordering anyone on this mission, Jack.”
“And if you had volunteers, sir?”
Hammond looks around the table at each of them. When his gaze falls on Evan, he gazes steadily back, not letting any of his own misgivings about this mission show.
Hammond nods his reluctant approval and pushes to his feet. “Be careful,” he says.
“Always, sir,” O’Neill replies.
They remain seated at the table after Hammond disappears into his office. O’Neill looks at each of them in turn before saying, “You heard what Hammond said, this mission is completely voluntary. No one will think less of anyone who doesn’t want to go. We know this may be a long shot.”
Evan barely manages to disguise a snort of disbelief as a cough. A long shot? Snowball’s chance in hell is more like it.
Teal’c speaks up first, staring straight ahead. “I will accompany you, O’Neill.”
“Me, too,” Daniel says, his eyes bright as if with fever and Evan remembers with a jolt just another thing that might be waiting for them on the other side of this insane trip: Daniel’s abducted wife who is even now under the control of Apophis’ queen.
O’Neill’s gaze is on Evan now, waiting for a response.
Evan knows these three men each have something intensely personal invested in this particular mission: loved ones to save, freedom to win. These are goals more than worthy of the risk.
He nods at the others. “Wouldn’t miss it, sir.”
O’Neill smiles a feral sort of one-sided smirk that Evan finds bizarrely comforting. “We leave at 1500 hours.”
Getting the chance to be a big damn hero: just another perk. Yup, his life certainly has gotten interesting since he joined SG-1.
next
Dr. Samantha Carter joins the SGC and discovers a life she never expected.
Action/Adventure, Drama, Angst, Romance, S/J
Teen: minor language and violence
A/N: We are starting off on a much larger story arc with this ficlet. So much so that I am publicly making a promise to post one update a week until the end of this arc so as to keep ya'll from lynching me for leaving you with so many cliffhangers. This is perhaps foolish of me, but here it is, sketched out in LJ blood. Lol.
Ficlet 27: Fringe Benefits
Evan Lorne is quite aware that being on SG-1 has its perks. Not anything obvious like more money or private quarters, but in a million little ways that he couldn’t have imagined before. Like when a mysterious deep space message is received by the SGC, they are usually the first to know about it. Mostly because Daniel is the one interpreting and translating it.
Just this very morning Evan had been having a quiet cup of coffee with O’Neill when Daniel ran into the commissary with that ‘I just found a new shiny object that might change life as we know it’ gleam in his eyes. Evan’s noticed over the last year that this look is usually followed by hours spent watching Daniel mumble to himself and peer at dusty old walls, while Teal’c and O’Neill escape to ‘check the perimeter.’
This morning, though, Evan was instead treated to a rendition of the Jack and Daniel Show that often leaves him with a crick in his neck from the rapid fire back and forth, and a wry grin from the way these two seemingly opposite men compliment each other even as they drive each other completely batty.
Today, it went a bit like this:
Daniel [excitedly and with wild hand gestures]: “Jack! Did you hear about the deep space message Walter picked up yesterday?”
Jack [sedately, picking invisible fuzz from his coffee]: “Yeah.”
Daniel: “I just finished the translation.”
Jack [mildly and with little overt interest]: “Anything interesting?”
Daniel [with annoyance]: “You could say that. Beware the Destroyers. They come from 3, 32, 16, 8, 10, 12.”
Jack: “That’s it?”
Daniel [brow creased, looking slightly deflated]: “Uh, yeah.”
Jack: “Not exactly wordy, are they?”
Daniel: “No, not really.”
Jack: “And the numbers?”
Daniel: “Gate address, I imagine.”
Jack: “Do we have any idea where the message came from?”
Daniel [looking a bit more animated]: “Dr. Lee traced it to P3R-233.”
Jack [considering]: “What are our chances this isn’t a trap?”
Daniel [wryly]: “With our luck?”
Jack: “Right.” [Pushing to his feet and gesturing to Evan] “Might as well go pay a visit to Hammond.”
Evan considers the built in entertainment value of his team just another perk. Of course, the flip side of being the first to know everything is that SG-1 is also always the first to voluntarily throw themselves into insanely dangerous situations.
Like right at this moment.
They are standing in a large room draped in shadows as the wormhole behind them shuts down. Feeble grey light slants into the space from various windows and skylights. There is not the tiniest sign of life.
The four of them linger on the steps, none of them particularly interested in straying too far into the grey space. Except Daniel, that is.
By now, Evan automatically follows Daniel every time they set foot on a new planet. O’Neill has made it pretty clear that Evan’s main duties are to stay positive and keep Daniel out of mortal peril as much as possible. Easier said than done.
Daniel is the only one of them not obviously creeped out by this desolate place. His specially attuned radar has him striding away from the gate, peering into rooms ringing the main hall. He’s just about to disappear entirely into one doorway when Teal’c’s voice reaches them.
“We must return to Earth as quickly as possible.”
Teal’c’s voice betrays no overt emotion, but Evan has long ago learned to trust that particular tone. Reaching out, Evan grabs Daniel by the back of the collar and bodily drags the sputtering man back. These days it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Evan can’t quite make out O’Neill’s reply to Teal’c’s pronouncement over Daniel’s protests that he saw Something Important and needs to go back for just a minute.
Evan tries to remind himself that he wanted to be on SG-1. Remember all the perks.
When O’Neill finally catches sight of them, he nods approvingly at Evan’s corralling of Daniel and points his finger at a rather menacing black marker looming off to the side of the Stargate. Daniel, fickle man that he is, instantly forgets all other Things of Importance and begins examining the marker as if it’s the only artifact in the galaxy.
“It is the korosh-ni,” Teal’c explains. “A symbol left behind by Apophis on worlds he has completely eradicated and left poisoned. It is not wise to linger in such a place.”
“Good enough for me,” O’Neill says. “Back to the gate.”
“But-,” Daniel sputters.
“We’ve got the answers we needed, Daniel.”
“Don’t you know what this means?”
O’Neill ignores the question, already heading back to the gate and gesturing for Evan to dial it up. Evan starts pressing the glyphs, but Daniel hasn’t quite given up yet.
“It means the ‘destroyers’ are the Goa’uld, specifically Apophis,” Daniel says.
O’Neill heaves a sigh. “And the gate address they sent us might provide a way to strike at Apophis before he gets the chance to destroy Earth. Yes, Daniel, we all got there. Now can we get out of here?”
Daniel opens his mouth to argue, but at this point Evan imagines it’s more out of habit than actual umbrage.
O’Neill just raises a finger in the universal gesture of ‘don’t push your luck’ and takes on the task of corralling Daniel up to the active wormhole himself, leaving Teal’c and Evan to follow.
Evan glances at the ugly, black scar of a sculpture again. “Korosh-ni?” he asks.
Teal’c nods.
Evan sighs. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Indeed,” Teal’c agrees.
They share one look and follow their teammates through the Stargate.
* * *
“You want to what?”
Evan is pretty amazed at Hammond’s ability to still sound stunned when SG-1 comes up with a crazy plan. It’s not like they do it everyday, but often enough that Hammond should know to expect it. Or maybe it’s just that SG-1’s plans are getting crazier and crazier.
Evan glances at Hammond. Yeah. There’s a vein beating out a particularly vivid pulse just above his temple. This plan must be crazier than usual.
“This is a very real chance of striking at Apophis before he finally gets around to decimating Earth,” Jack says.
“He has never made a direct run on Earth before,” Hammond points out. It’s true that Apophis has so far preferred to kill them off by means of subterfuge and bounty hunters, but the threat of a full on attack has been on everyone’s minds for the past year.
“Apophis has been busy dominating the system lords, but now that he’s won, he has more than enough time to turn his attention to the humans,” Daniel says. “He won’t have forgotten our flight from Chulak, or the death of Ra.”
“He destroyed these people’s planet. We would be foolish not to assume the same fate is on its way to us,” Jack adds.
“I agree we can’t ignore this, but your plan...” Hammond pauses, running a hand over the top of his head. Not for the first time, Evan wonders if the general had more hair before he took on command of the SGC. Or met Jack O’Neill. “It would be suicide,” he finally finishes.
“Maybe,” O’Neill says with a shrug. “Maybe not.”
Hammond looks in no way reassured by O’Neill’s cavalier attitude. “I’m not ordering anyone on this mission, Jack.”
“And if you had volunteers, sir?”
Hammond looks around the table at each of them. When his gaze falls on Evan, he gazes steadily back, not letting any of his own misgivings about this mission show.
Hammond nods his reluctant approval and pushes to his feet. “Be careful,” he says.
“Always, sir,” O’Neill replies.
They remain seated at the table after Hammond disappears into his office. O’Neill looks at each of them in turn before saying, “You heard what Hammond said, this mission is completely voluntary. No one will think less of anyone who doesn’t want to go. We know this may be a long shot.”
Evan barely manages to disguise a snort of disbelief as a cough. A long shot? Snowball’s chance in hell is more like it.
Teal’c speaks up first, staring straight ahead. “I will accompany you, O’Neill.”
“Me, too,” Daniel says, his eyes bright as if with fever and Evan remembers with a jolt just another thing that might be waiting for them on the other side of this insane trip: Daniel’s abducted wife who is even now under the control of Apophis’ queen.
O’Neill’s gaze is on Evan now, waiting for a response.
Evan knows these three men each have something intensely personal invested in this particular mission: loved ones to save, freedom to win. These are goals more than worthy of the risk.
He nods at the others. “Wouldn’t miss it, sir.”
O’Neill smiles a feral sort of one-sided smirk that Evan finds bizarrely comforting. “We leave at 1500 hours.”
Getting the chance to be a big damn hero: just another perk. Yup, his life certainly has gotten interesting since he joined SG-1.
next