Never Gentle Lullabies
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Stargate: SG-1 › General
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Category:
Stargate: SG-1 › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
2
Views:
3,556
Reviews:
4
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Stargate: SG1, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter 1
For those curious, I write the characters a bit different than from what they
are like in the show from the very beginning since this is, after all, slightly
AU-ish. Daniel is a bit more...silly. Sam is a bit more uptight and Jack
is...well, he's Jack. :p But, by the end of this story they all should be pretty
similar to the characters you know and love. Any suggestions or feedback would
be lovely. Enjoy.
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Chapter 1
February 10, 1996; SGC Viewing RoomDoctor Daniel Jackson stood at the edge of the SG viewing platform, nose
nearly pressed against the glass, and tried not to feel like a kid on his first
trip to the candy store. Sweat was beading against his forehead, palms and spine
making him fidget and shift uncontrollable. It was almost impossible from him to
keep from grinning like a maniac or the anthropologist that he was. How long had
he been waiting for a moment like this?
polishing them again with the hem of his standard issued black tee shirt before
slipping them back on his nose. This was just too good to be true. Never in all
the years he spent studying had he imagined that one day he would be in the
position he was in now: Being one of the key players to what could possibly be
the biggest break-through in human history. Letting another grin slip through, Daniel watched as Jack O’Neill, the ever
present leader of SG-1, sheathed another knife into the wrist-band of his
uniform. How typical of him. Daniel grinned again. It was little less than two months since he had joined the SGC and he was
almost positive he had the man pegged dead on. Colonel Jack O’Neill, despite his outward personality and shoot first nature
was a cautious man. Very cautious. One might even say, overly cautious. From the
moment that General Hammond had given the green light on traveling through the
Stargate, the man had checked and double checked his supply of weapons. Almost
to the point of fanaticism. And not only that but the man carried enough weapons
on his person to supply a small army or wage a small war. Whichever came first.Scratch cautious. The man was plain paranoid. Leaning back onto the balls of his feet, Daniel continued to watch the other
man’s fluid movements: check that knife is securely fastened; Unroll sleeve
slowly to make sure that the knife and it’s sheath are completely covered; Make
sure the sleeve doesn’t somehow hinder the ability to get to the knife if it’s
needed; Double check that the knife is securely fastened…Daniel wanted to giggle. Wanted to shout out with bundled up excitement and
bounce around the SG viewing room. He didn’t. Instead he turned his back to the
other man and looked up at the glyphs etched into the hardened stone (or, at
least he thought it was stone) of the Stargate shown on the monitors before him.They were truly an amazing sight. Just as amazing, if not more so, than the
Stargate. Each one them, every single one, represented something that could very
well unlock a gateway into another world. Another galaxy. It was just too
extraordinary. But despite the incredibleness of it all, a small part of him still wished he
could have more time to study each one of them individually. Find out what they
represented and what secrets that they held. What they could mean for the future
of this planet; this galaxy. But, it was only a small part of him. A very small part. Daniel sighed, his smile slipping a notch, as he reached out a hand and
traced gently over one of the glyphs on the screen before him. It was Glyph 1,
Earth. One of the few hieroglyphs on the Stargate that he knew. Even now, he was still riding on the high he had gotten those few days ago
when he had figured out that was what it was. It had been like a bolt of
lightening hitting him. Setting everything into it’s proper place so that a
little bulb could pop on and make it easier for him to figure it all out. And when he had gotten the chance to explain his findings to General Hammond,
Colonel O’Neill and the others. It had been…just…god, he couldn’t even put it
into words. Never, in all his , ha, had he had anyone, much less anyone as
important as those men and women in the SGC briefing room, listen to him.
Actually listen and, most importantly, believe what he was saying. It had felt like…paradise. His own slice of heaven here on earth. He just
couldn’t push that feeling away. Not then and not now, three days later. It was
as if a dam had been broken and he hadn’t the skill nor the inclination to close
it again. God, it felt so good.
But, as any scientist would tell you, there were draw backs. Lots of them.
Especially now that they were drawing so close to the time when they would enter
the Stargate and find out if he, Daniel Jackson, noted Ph.D. Anthropologist and
Linguist, was really as good as he claimed to be. That he claimed he could be.
After all, he had been the one who figured out the last glyph on the cartouche,
explained it to the board, or whatever they called themselves, and found out
that the glyphs did unlock something, somewhere.
listen to him again, they wouldn’t give him more time. The time he needed to
know that he was right. To know that he and the rest of SG-1 wouldn’t
step into the Stargate to never come back again.They had pulled the preverbal rug from beneath his feet. It was frightening.“Sir…” Daniel turned around again at the sound of Captain Samantha Carter’s voice.
Doctor Samantha Carter. Carter. Sam. Whichever. Yet another member of the SGC,
and now SG-1, that had spent a monumental amount of time towards unlocking the
secret of the Stargate. Two years, two y-e-a-r-s, she had spent
researching the SG. Reading every available manuscript and essay ty toy to find
some kind of answer to what the SG was, why it was made and, more importantly,
how it worked. Yet, through all that time, it had taken her to be THE leading
expert on the SG, she hadn’t been the one to figure it out. He had. Daniel. A
civilian.‘So there.’ Daniel thought, mentally sticking his tongue out at the military
personnel in general. How many times had he heard the word civilian bandied about in the last two
months he had been there? More times that should be legal, that’s for sure. He
had had to fight tooth and nail to secure his position on the team. As if any of
the rest of them, Carter included, could figure out the glyphs on the other side
that would help them find the way back home. He didn’t mean that smugly either. It was just a fact. Any of them would need
years of study and research to be able to figure out what he did. And even if
they did, there was still a matter of finding the correct cartouche on the other
side.Smile slipping yet another notch, Daniel watched as Captain Carter made her
way into the room, two dossiers held firmly under one arm, eyes trained directly
on Colonel O‘Neill.
Okay, maybe he did mean it a little smugly. But, could you really blame him?
“What is it, Carter?” O’Neill asked irritably, unsnapping the wrist-sheathand placing it on the table before him. Daniel couldn‘t help his look of
reproach at the object. Admittedly, whatever planet they ended up on could turn
into a hostile environment but…a wrist-sheath? For gods sake this wasn’t
the return adventures of Rambo!A look of aggravation fluttered over the woman’s face before quickly being
shoved away in favor of a look Daniel had rarely seen in the three weeks he had
known the woman. It was a look that said plainly “be respectful to your
superiors”. “Sir, I’ve been looking over these data reports that the UAV sent back and
I’ve found…well, I think I’ve found an anomaly.” She said, holding the dossiers
full of read-outs under her arm a little more firmly as though the Colonel was
going to snatch them out of her hand and call her a liar. It was no secret how Colonel O’Neill felt about Captain Carter and, to some
extent, Daniel too. He’d said it more than once, he “had a problem with
scientist”. Whether it was because of he genuinely disliked them or because he
just didn’t like them on one of his missions, Daniel couldn’t say. Either way,
however, he knew he sure in the hell was here to stay and Carter too. The
woman wasn’t a push-over by a long shot.“You think, Captain?” Jack pressed calmly, one eyebrow quirking into a
expression Daniel could only categorize as exasperated.Carter didn’t even bat a lash. “Yes, sir. If I may--” She responded, urinuring towards the small metal table
that was set up in the SG viewing room. It was no bigger than three pre-school
art tables but it served it’s purpose.The Colonel nodded his acquiesce, only hesitating briefly. Point for him.“Well you see, sir--” Carter continued, walking towards the table as the
others followed. She stopped briefly, slipping the dossiers from beneath her arm
and setting them on the table. Flipping one open, she quickly rifled through the
contents looking for what she need. Seconds later, two laminated glosses shinned
side by side. Each of them depicting two similar yet different sets of markings
and symbols. Occasionally there was a splash of text giving the details of when
and where the symbol and marking was recorded.Small multi-colored sticky notes also adorned the edges of each page in
various positions. Holding cryptic little messages like: G2-Questionable, PX3.
Obviously the blonde had tried and failed to make sense of all the read-outs.What the references on the notes where, however, Daniel couldn’t say. Not
without consulting the big book of military lingo, if that’s what it was. With
Carter though, there wasn’t a big guarantee that that‘s what it was. The
scientist in her was constantly battling it out with military side of her. Which
side won varied from situation to situation.Pushing his glasses up his nose, Daniel moved closer to the table. If Carter
had found something, he wanted to take a look at it. Maybe it could unlock
another secret to the SG. Maybe not. It was worth finding out in any case.“I was studying these preliminary read-outs that the UAV sent back after our
first real--” She floundered for the correct term before settling on one.
“…contact and if you’ll notice, there seems to be some inconsistencies. Like
here…” She pointed to one of the larger pieces of laminate paper on the table.
“…there are several set of markings. Each one photographed and processed into
the UAV and transmitted back to SGC at different intervals.”Jack leaned forward, eyes scrunched slightly in the corners in concentration.
“They look like the symbols on the Stargate. You know the…glyphs or whatever.”“Hieroglyphs.” Daniel murmured, pushing a lock of hair out of his face as he
leaned forward to have a closer look. They did look similar to the glyphs on the
Stargate but something wasn’t quite right about them.“Glyphs, symbols. Whatever. It’s all the same.” Jack insisted,lingling the
sd ned neglected glossy towards him and turning it over in his hands. The back
looked just like the front, same symbols and marks with the exception of the
time and position changes. Carter shifted, her expression pinching slightly. “Actually, sir…”Jack sighed, sliding the glossy back onto the edge of the table and leaning
back in his chair. “I take it they aren’t the same, Captain.”The blonde shook her head, sharp blue eyes flickering up to look at Daniel as
he pushed the two pages together, assessing the similarities. “No, sir, they’re not. Not exclusively. ”Daniel barely noticed. The markings on the pages were like nothing he had
ever seen before. Primitive yet not. Like they had been constructed so even a
child on the planet could understand them but so different from all of the other
languages that he had seen and knew that he couldn’t begin to start piecing
together some kind of basis for it. It didn’t look Egyptian like he had hoped it
would be. Nor did it look like a derivative of some kind of Latin alphabet.
Perhaps something simpler. A code, perhaps? Based on something unique to the
planet. Lunar cycles, maybe.“Keep going.” Daniel jumped at the sound of Jack’s voice. He had forgotten they were even
there. For a moment Carter continued to stare, eyes flicking form the glossies back
to Daniel then to the glossies again, before she nodded. Pulling the other
dossier towards her, she quickly flipped it open and pulled out another set of
papers. On these there were small graphs with spiky multi-colored lines running
across them. Beneath the graphs were small pictures of, what looked to be , sand
dunes.WhatWhat are these?” Daniel asked, studying the graphs with the same intensity
he had the marking and symbols of the other page. “Climate readings?”He looked up in time to see Jack turn his face back towards Carter, obviously
waiting for an answer as well.“Very similar, yes.” Carter said, sparing a glance at the graphs. Daniel
nodded and looked back down at them. “So, if I’m reading these correctly, these would suggest a sever change in
climate in the few hours that the UAV was there?” Daniel asked.Carter nodded. “Yes. Which would suggest that…”“That this mission is more risky than we first believed.” Jack finished
sarcastically. Carter grimaced. “Well, sir…”Daniel took pity on her. “I think what she’s trying to say, is that because
there are two different readings, one providing a new similar set of symbols and
one providing a definite climatic hazard that we can’t be sure that this mission
isn‘t a calculable risk, am I right?” he asked, looking at her over the
Colonel’s head as he pulled out a chair for himself.Carter nodded. “That’s exactly it, sir.”Jack was quite for almost a full minute. His eyes shifting back and forth
between the two sets of papers even as Daniel leaned forward to do the same
himself. If what Carter was suggesting was true, then there was a completely different
level of risk involved with traveling through the Stargate. Not just climate
wise. If Daniel couldn’t “crack” the code of the symbols, they could quite
possibly be stuck on the planet indefinitely. Finally Jack spoke again. “I assume that you are not finished?”Sam shook her head. Daniel didn’t think she would be. Not by a long shot.O’Neill sighed. “Then continue, Captain.”“I’ve been doing analysis of the soil sample the ground probe brought back.”Daniel’s head snapped up. Soil sample? Ground-probe? What the heHe hHe hadn’t
been told about this. Carter didn’t look at him. Neither did Jack. “And…?”“I can’t be positive without testing it against another sample but I’ve found
an aberration in the soil…er…sand.” She finished. Jack snorted. Carter’s lips tightened.“What I mean, sir, is that this aberration is in the form of, as close as I
can tell, an organic source similar to something found on Earth.” “What do you mean, Captain?”Daniel wouldn‘t mind knowing that himself.“Cinnamon, sir.”Both Daniel and Jack blinked. Cinnamon?“As in of the French toast variety, Captain?”Sam nodded. “As close as I can tell, sir.”Jack sat back, the expression on his face showing his obvious confusion. ‘You and me both, Jack.’ Daniel thought, still staring at Sam Carter as if it
would will her to speak more. Speak sense.“Let me get this straight…” Jack began, using one hand to gesture vaguely.
“you want me to call General Hammond and tell him that we need to rethink this
mission because the place has weather changes and you found cinnamon in their
soil?”Carter’s lips pinched again. “Cinnamon like substance, sir, and yes, that is
what I’d like. It may not be much but I still have a few more tests I’d like to
run.”Jack stared at her for all of two seconds before he turned his back on her.
“You have till oh-thirteen-hundred to come up with a better explanation to why
we shouldn’t go through with this mission, Captain.” The man held up a hand, forestalling any protests the woman might have given.
“An explanation that I can give to General Hammond, Captain. One that does not
involve spices. Otherwise, we are still running on a green light basis.
Understood?”Carter’s face flushed red with irritation but she gave a short nod and
salute. “Yes, sir.” Picking up the read-outs, she quickly stuffed them on top of the dossiers and
beat a hasty retreat. Daniel didn’t blame her. After all, Cinnamon?