Daniel Descending
Jun. 26th, 2011 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stringertheoryTitle: Daniel Descending
Rating: PG
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Characters: Daniel Jackson, Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter, Teal'c
Word Count: 2900
Categories: humor, friendship
Spoilers/Warnings: Set post "Homecoming" S7E2. Spoilers for the series up to that point.
Summary: Daniel comes back to Earth, one memory at a time. Contains: the team helping Daniel remember, a dinner party, Star Wars, and—of course—cake.
Dusk was just falling as Daniel arrived at Sam’s house with cheesecake and a comedy. Jack and Teal’c arrived shortly after, also bearing gifts of food and film, ready for the impromptu gathering the group had arranged the day before.
General Hammond had ordered them to take the weekend off, all but threatening to have them escorted off the base if they tried to stay. Following Daniel’s recent return and the crisis that quickly followed—and the patchiness of Daniel’s memories as they came back—the general felt it best that the team took some time to recuperate and relax. Oddly enough, Jack had agreed and suggested a get-together. When Sam voiced her approval of the plan, he immediately volunteered her place for the meeting.
And so it was that they found themselves there on Friday night, full from dinner and arranged around the small living room, trying to decide what to watch. From his position in one of the room’s armchairs, Jack listed their options.
“We have the movie Daniel brought, any of Carter’s limited selection,” he advised, gesturing to the two shelves below the television, “or Teal’c’s choice: Star Wars.”
Teal’c, who was walking past as Jack held up the tape in question, snagged it as he passed by. He paused to pop it into the player before he settled down in the other armchair, glass of cranberry juice in hand.
“Star Wars it is, then,” Jack said. “Don’t worry,” he told Daniel, “you’ll like it.”
Daniel, who was sharing the sofa with Sam, didn’t look convinced. “What makes you say that?”
“It’s your favorite movie.”
“Funny,” Daniel replied. “I don’t recall this being my favorite movie.”
“That’s because it isn’t,” Sam cut in, tucking her feet up under her. “It’s Teal’c’s.”
“Indeed,” Teal’c said, a small smile on his lips as the opening credits began to play.
“How is the memory thing going?” Jack asked.
“It’s... okay.” Daniel picked at the label on his beer. “Things have been coming back so fast... it feels like I have a sandstorm in my mind. I keep getting flashes of memories, trickles of insignificant facts or moments, or then big sections that come back as one large jumble of information.” He sighed and took a drink from his bottle. “It’s a bit like learning a language, actually. There are words you recognize, and maybe you can understand entire sentences even though you don’t comprehend the entire passage. Sometimes you can loosely translate what a text says, but you don’t have a firm enough grasp of the language to get the full nuance of it. It’s all about trying to patch together what you know and use it to find the context for what you don’t so that you can puzzle that out as well.”
“You haven’t had trouble remembering anything important, have you?”
Daniel frowned slightly as he pondered the question, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, beer dangling from his fingertips. “I couldn’t remember my log-in password the other day,” he replied, “but I think that was because it had been changed several times while I was gone.” He shook his head. “Really, it’s less about if a memory will come back than if it comes back before it’s needed.”
“Like how?” Sam inquired.
“Like when you can’t remember someone even though you should.”
“Do tell,” Jack said and took a swig of his beer.
Daniel leaned back on the couch and let out another sigh. “I was talking to one of the nurses the other day and even though she looked familiar, I couldn’t place her. I couldn’t even remember her name, but the way she talked to me, the way she looked at me made me feel like we knew each other as more than just acquaintances. I didn’t want to upset her, so I kept up the conversation as I tried to figure out who she was. When that conversation began to trail off into awkward silence, I gave up and just asked her if we were friends. She got this strange look on her face like she was deciding what to say, and for a minute I was worried that I’d insulted her by not remembering.” He gave a pained half-smile. “It was after she hinted that we had been more than friends that I remembered who she was.”
“Nurse Bailey?” Sam asked, a knowing smile on her face.
“Yeah,” Daniel replied. “How’d you guess?”
“That girl’s been after you since she arrived at the SGC,” Jack said. “She’s been trying to get you to ask her out for years.”
“Well, she finally succeeded.”
“Did you ask her out on a date, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c asked, somewhat amused.
“Before I remembered how I knew her.”
“Oh,” Jack said, “awkward.”
“Yeah.” Daniel peeled the label off his bottle. “Thankfully, other than that particularly painful incident, there haven’t been any other uncomfortable situations. For the most part I’m just trying to process it as it all comes back.”
“How much have you remembered?” Sam asked.
“It’s hard to tell. I actually started to go through mission reports to try to help jog my memory, but... there are a lot of them. Most of the ones I flipped through I already remembered, though, so it seems that I’ve regained the majority of what I lost. I’m pretty sure I have all of my pre-Stargate memories back, and everything about Sha’re.”
“That’s good,” Sam said, giving Daniel a smile.
“I remember how we first met Teal’c—”
“A most fortuitous meeting,” Teal’c stated with a nod of his head.
“Wasn’t it just,” Jack agreed.
“—When Jacob became a host for Selmak, and the time we escaped from that prison planet.”
“Ah, Linea,” Jack said.
“Who became Ke’ra,” Teal’c added.
“Who became quite interested in you,” Jack tacked on, pointedly not looking at Daniel.
“I also remembered Kynthia from Argos—”
“Who became quite interested in the Colonel,” Sam cut in with a grin.
“—And our robot duplicates—”
“So wrong.”
“And... Hathor.”
Jack looked up sharply. “I thought we agreed to never talk about that again.”
“Did we?”
“We did.”
“Not that it went well for any of you,” Sam said, somewhat cheekily.
“Which is why we don’t talk about it,” Jack advised, hauling himself out of his chair. “Anyone need a beer?” Daniel and Sam both replied to the affirmative, so he headed into the kitchen. As he grabbed another round, he called back to Daniel, “What about the time you turned into a caveman?”
“So did you, sir,” Sam countered.
“As I recall, Carter, you went pretty wild yourself.” He handed her a freshly opened beer. She took the bottle quickly and looked away, blushing slightly.
“The planet seemed to have a rather... strong effect on you all,” Teal’c said.
“I remember that—the Land of Light. Nice people. Weird hats.”
“Much like a lot of the fine folks we meet on our cross-galaxy journeys,” said Jack. “Reminds me a little of the people of PX7-941–a lively crowd, great parties. Remember that shindig they threw when we returned that gadget the N.I.D. stole, the ‘Touchstone’?”
“Mostly the morning after,” Sam replied, a grimace on her face.
“Ah, yes—their ‘firewater’. Who knew a group so primitive could brew something so strong? You were three sheets to the wind after half a glass,” he told Daniel.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Halfway through the night you stood on one of the tables and attempted to give a speech about the friendship between our two planets,” Teal’c advised, “but you misjudged the distance and proceeded to walk off the end of the table.”
“That’s right!” Sam laughed. “You were so wrapped up in what you were saying you forgot to look where you were going. Thankfully you had a soft landing, but I’ll never forget the image of you striding, somewhat wobbly, into thin air and doing a faceplant into a large pile of pillows.”
“And there was that girl, what was her name—”
“Ayan,” Teal’c supplied.
“Ayan, who hauled you up to be her partner for some dance they did in our honor.”
“A dance?” Daniel looked somewhat uneasy at the revelation.
“Oh, yes,” Jack replied with gusto. “It was an elaborate ordeal, with lots of feather fans and intricate footwork and hip shaking.” He flicked a bottle cap across the room, earning an exasperated look from Sam. “You know, Daniel, if this whole archaeologist-saving-the-world thing doesn’t work out for you, you should look into burlesque. You’re quite the dancer.”
“I believe that by that point in the evening, Major Carter had also become involved in the celebrations,” Teal’c said, smiling.
“Indeed,” Jack replied with a smirk.
Sam gave the colonel a bland look and raised an eyebrow. “I seem to recall finding you passed out in someone else’s bed the next morning, sir.”
“Alone, Carter. I was in someone else’s bed alone.”
“At that time,” Sam added under her breath. The two exchanged a look.
“You know,” Daniel said, “I’m pretty sure I didn’t remember any of that the first time around.”
“I think you’re right,” Sam said, frowning slightly. “The way I remember it, you woke up a day and a half later, no worse for the wear, and only able to remember up to us returning the Touchstone.”
“Lucky dog,” Jack muttered.
Silence fell momentarily as they were distracted by the movie they had mostly forgotten was on. On screen, a daring rescue plan was underway, stormtroopers Han and Luke escorting prisoner Chewbacca into the cell block. The quartet watched as Han and Leia bantered back and forth before Leia took charge and blasted their way to freedom.
“Ah, young love,” Jack said, finishing off his beer.
“I admit,” replied Teal’c, “that I did not at first understand the basis of this relationship. They do not appear to be an ideal couple. In fact, they do not seem to have much in common beyond being stubborn.” He cocked an eyebrow as the couple in question threw a few more barbs each other’s way. “But they do appear to enjoy arguing with one another.”
“Actually, they remind me a little of you two,” said Sam, glancing in Jack and Daniel’s direction. The two stared at her in disbelief, looked at each other for a second, then turned back to stare at her again.
“... What?”
“I’m going to get another beer,” Daniel mumbled, pushing himself off the sofa.
“Bring me one, would you?” Jack asked. He was still looking at Sam with a slightly disturbed expression on his face.
“And me,” Sam said, waving her empty bottle. Daniel stopped to stare at her again, brow furrowed, before walking on to the kitchen.
“Thank you,” she threw over her shoulder, smiling.
“So you think you’ve gotten most of your memories back?” Jack pulled his gaze from Carter to glance at Daniel, who was opening the three bottles he had just pulled from the fridge.
“Most of them,” Daniel replied, walking back into the living room and passing around the beers. “I guess.”
“Do you remember the time you became addicted to the Goa’uld sarcophagus?” Teal’c asked.
“And enjoyed the life of a prince while we slaved away in the mines?” added Jack, giving Daniel a pointed look.
“Yeah, sorry about that.”
“Me, too.”
“It’s not like you’re the only one who got a raw deal out of the package,” Daniel retorted. “Sarcophagus detox is brutal.”
“Yeah, well, so is the recovery from days spent mining.”
“I see what you mean, Major Carter.”
Teal’c voice carried the hint of a smile, and he was looking between Daniel and Jack with an amused expression. Jack ignored him and started to ask Daniel a question, though he stopped short on seeing his face. Daniel’s brow was deeply furrowed and he exuded the air of someone in deep thought.
“Daniel?”
“Hmm?”
“Got something you want to share with the class?” Jack asked, gesturing to the room’s other occupants.
Daniel glanced around without really focusing on anything. “Mining.”
“Come again?” Sam asked.
“Mining,” Daniel repeated. He glanced at the others, who were watching him with expectantly. “It made me remember something,” he clarified. “Well, partially remember something—whatever happened to the workers we encountered on that ice-age planet, P3R... P3R—?“
“118?” Sam posited.
“Yeah.”
“We moved them to P5J-771,” Jack replied.
Daniel pondered for a moment. “Tropical planet, rich resources, endless beaches?”
“Yup.”
“Nice.”
There was a lull in the conversation as everyone’s attention was once again drawn to the television. The film was building to its climax. Rebel soldiers scurried across the screen, climbing into futuristic fighter planes and preparing for battle.
“Do you remember the time device?” Jack asked suddenly. Daniel gave him a blank look. “You know, our own personal ‘Groundhog Day’, when we were stuck repeating the same half-day over and over again?” he said, drawing a circle in the air with his free hand. “You remember the loop?”
“Only one of them.”
“Nice to see your sense of humor survived intact.”
The sound of laser fire filled the room as the Rebel fighters clashed with Imperial forces on screen. A small pocket of fighters approached the looming ship, cutting in to fly close to the vessel’s surface. As they zoomed along, Jack scratched the back of his head and stretched.
“Looks vaguely familiar, doesn’t it, Carter?”
“A bit, sir.”
“Oh, yeah. There’s Oil Slick’s personal chambers,” Jack said, pointing toward the screen. “And if you tilt your head just so—” he tilted his head to the right, and the others followed suit “—when they zoom past that tower right... there, you can see Anubis himself standing on the bridge.”
He took a drink of beer as Obi-Wan urged Luke to use the force. On the sofa, Daniel was still tilting his head from side to side, staring at the screen in deep concentration.
“‘Oil Slick’?” Teal’c asked.
“Oily, black skin—flowing, black robes—big... black... hood—the guy’s a walking oil spill.”
“I wonder why he doesn’t just take a human host?”
“He probably doesn’t want to,” Daniel replied, giving up on the film and turning to answer Sam. “Being trapped in a human body would severely limit his powers.”
“And he likes the melodrama of being a non-corporeal bad guy.”
“That, too.”
The Death Star exploded on screen as the surviving Rebel fighters scurried to escape the blast.
“What about the Atoniek armbands that Anise brought to the SGC for testing?” Teal’c questioned. “Do you remember those?”
“Uh... yeah—yeah!” Daniel replied, face lighting up as the memory came back. “They were great! I could read like the wind!” he said, a wistful expression on his face.
“I know!” Sam said, equally excited. “I wrote an entire book on wormhole physics in two hours. Of course, I can’t publish it since it makes facts out of theories based on real-world observations of something that the scientific community has yet to actually investigate, but it was nice to get it all down. It was something I’d been wanting to do for ages but never had the time.”
“I ate a lot.”
The others turned to look at Jack. “That you did, sir,” Sam agreed.
“Speaking of—wasn’t there cake?”
“Cheesecake’s in the fridge,” Sam advised with a smile and a roll of her eyes.
“Eeeexcellent.”
“That was one thing I remembered early on,” Daniel stated. The others looked at him. “Jack likes cake.”
“That he does,” the man himself affirmed, voice slightly muffled by the fact that he was shoulder-deep in the refrigerator at the time. He emerged with the cheesecake, setting it on the counter and pulling out plates. “But he is not above sharing. Anybody want some?”
“I would like a slice, O’Neill,” Teal’c replied, rising from his seat to join Jack in the kitchen.
“I think I’ll have some, too,” Sam said, following him.
“Hey, Sam?”
“Yeah?” she answered, turning back to Daniel, who was frowning over the back of the sofa at the cake.
“Do I like cheesecake?”
“I... don’t know.” She glanced to the others who could only offer shrugs. “How about we find out?” she advised, handing him a plate.
“That’ll work,” replied Daniel as she held out a fork.
Rating: PG
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Characters: Daniel Jackson, Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter, Teal'c
Word Count: 2900
Categories: humor, friendship
Spoilers/Warnings: Set post "Homecoming" S7E2. Spoilers for the series up to that point.
Summary: Daniel comes back to Earth, one memory at a time. Contains: the team helping Daniel remember, a dinner party, Star Wars, and—of course—cake.
Dusk was just falling as Daniel arrived at Sam’s house with cheesecake and a comedy. Jack and Teal’c arrived shortly after, also bearing gifts of food and film, ready for the impromptu gathering the group had arranged the day before.
General Hammond had ordered them to take the weekend off, all but threatening to have them escorted off the base if they tried to stay. Following Daniel’s recent return and the crisis that quickly followed—and the patchiness of Daniel’s memories as they came back—the general felt it best that the team took some time to recuperate and relax. Oddly enough, Jack had agreed and suggested a get-together. When Sam voiced her approval of the plan, he immediately volunteered her place for the meeting.
And so it was that they found themselves there on Friday night, full from dinner and arranged around the small living room, trying to decide what to watch. From his position in one of the room’s armchairs, Jack listed their options.
“We have the movie Daniel brought, any of Carter’s limited selection,” he advised, gesturing to the two shelves below the television, “or Teal’c’s choice: Star Wars.”
Teal’c, who was walking past as Jack held up the tape in question, snagged it as he passed by. He paused to pop it into the player before he settled down in the other armchair, glass of cranberry juice in hand.
“Star Wars it is, then,” Jack said. “Don’t worry,” he told Daniel, “you’ll like it.”
Daniel, who was sharing the sofa with Sam, didn’t look convinced. “What makes you say that?”
“It’s your favorite movie.”
“Funny,” Daniel replied. “I don’t recall this being my favorite movie.”
“That’s because it isn’t,” Sam cut in, tucking her feet up under her. “It’s Teal’c’s.”
“Indeed,” Teal’c said, a small smile on his lips as the opening credits began to play.
“How is the memory thing going?” Jack asked.
“It’s... okay.” Daniel picked at the label on his beer. “Things have been coming back so fast... it feels like I have a sandstorm in my mind. I keep getting flashes of memories, trickles of insignificant facts or moments, or then big sections that come back as one large jumble of information.” He sighed and took a drink from his bottle. “It’s a bit like learning a language, actually. There are words you recognize, and maybe you can understand entire sentences even though you don’t comprehend the entire passage. Sometimes you can loosely translate what a text says, but you don’t have a firm enough grasp of the language to get the full nuance of it. It’s all about trying to patch together what you know and use it to find the context for what you don’t so that you can puzzle that out as well.”
“You haven’t had trouble remembering anything important, have you?”
Daniel frowned slightly as he pondered the question, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, beer dangling from his fingertips. “I couldn’t remember my log-in password the other day,” he replied, “but I think that was because it had been changed several times while I was gone.” He shook his head. “Really, it’s less about if a memory will come back than if it comes back before it’s needed.”
“Like how?” Sam inquired.
“Like when you can’t remember someone even though you should.”
“Do tell,” Jack said and took a swig of his beer.
Daniel leaned back on the couch and let out another sigh. “I was talking to one of the nurses the other day and even though she looked familiar, I couldn’t place her. I couldn’t even remember her name, but the way she talked to me, the way she looked at me made me feel like we knew each other as more than just acquaintances. I didn’t want to upset her, so I kept up the conversation as I tried to figure out who she was. When that conversation began to trail off into awkward silence, I gave up and just asked her if we were friends. She got this strange look on her face like she was deciding what to say, and for a minute I was worried that I’d insulted her by not remembering.” He gave a pained half-smile. “It was after she hinted that we had been more than friends that I remembered who she was.”
“Nurse Bailey?” Sam asked, a knowing smile on her face.
“Yeah,” Daniel replied. “How’d you guess?”
“That girl’s been after you since she arrived at the SGC,” Jack said. “She’s been trying to get you to ask her out for years.”
“Well, she finally succeeded.”
“Did you ask her out on a date, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c asked, somewhat amused.
“Before I remembered how I knew her.”
“Oh,” Jack said, “awkward.”
“Yeah.” Daniel peeled the label off his bottle. “Thankfully, other than that particularly painful incident, there haven’t been any other uncomfortable situations. For the most part I’m just trying to process it as it all comes back.”
“How much have you remembered?” Sam asked.
“It’s hard to tell. I actually started to go through mission reports to try to help jog my memory, but... there are a lot of them. Most of the ones I flipped through I already remembered, though, so it seems that I’ve regained the majority of what I lost. I’m pretty sure I have all of my pre-Stargate memories back, and everything about Sha’re.”
“That’s good,” Sam said, giving Daniel a smile.
“I remember how we first met Teal’c—”
“A most fortuitous meeting,” Teal’c stated with a nod of his head.
“Wasn’t it just,” Jack agreed.
“—When Jacob became a host for Selmak, and the time we escaped from that prison planet.”
“Ah, Linea,” Jack said.
“Who became Ke’ra,” Teal’c added.
“Who became quite interested in you,” Jack tacked on, pointedly not looking at Daniel.
“I also remembered Kynthia from Argos—”
“Who became quite interested in the Colonel,” Sam cut in with a grin.
“—And our robot duplicates—”
“So wrong.”
“And... Hathor.”
Jack looked up sharply. “I thought we agreed to never talk about that again.”
“Did we?”
“We did.”
“Not that it went well for any of you,” Sam said, somewhat cheekily.
“Which is why we don’t talk about it,” Jack advised, hauling himself out of his chair. “Anyone need a beer?” Daniel and Sam both replied to the affirmative, so he headed into the kitchen. As he grabbed another round, he called back to Daniel, “What about the time you turned into a caveman?”
“So did you, sir,” Sam countered.
“As I recall, Carter, you went pretty wild yourself.” He handed her a freshly opened beer. She took the bottle quickly and looked away, blushing slightly.
“The planet seemed to have a rather... strong effect on you all,” Teal’c said.
“I remember that—the Land of Light. Nice people. Weird hats.”
“Much like a lot of the fine folks we meet on our cross-galaxy journeys,” said Jack. “Reminds me a little of the people of PX7-941–a lively crowd, great parties. Remember that shindig they threw when we returned that gadget the N.I.D. stole, the ‘Touchstone’?”
“Mostly the morning after,” Sam replied, a grimace on her face.
“Ah, yes—their ‘firewater’. Who knew a group so primitive could brew something so strong? You were three sheets to the wind after half a glass,” he told Daniel.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Halfway through the night you stood on one of the tables and attempted to give a speech about the friendship between our two planets,” Teal’c advised, “but you misjudged the distance and proceeded to walk off the end of the table.”
“That’s right!” Sam laughed. “You were so wrapped up in what you were saying you forgot to look where you were going. Thankfully you had a soft landing, but I’ll never forget the image of you striding, somewhat wobbly, into thin air and doing a faceplant into a large pile of pillows.”
“And there was that girl, what was her name—”
“Ayan,” Teal’c supplied.
“Ayan, who hauled you up to be her partner for some dance they did in our honor.”
“A dance?” Daniel looked somewhat uneasy at the revelation.
“Oh, yes,” Jack replied with gusto. “It was an elaborate ordeal, with lots of feather fans and intricate footwork and hip shaking.” He flicked a bottle cap across the room, earning an exasperated look from Sam. “You know, Daniel, if this whole archaeologist-saving-the-world thing doesn’t work out for you, you should look into burlesque. You’re quite the dancer.”
“I believe that by that point in the evening, Major Carter had also become involved in the celebrations,” Teal’c said, smiling.
“Indeed,” Jack replied with a smirk.
Sam gave the colonel a bland look and raised an eyebrow. “I seem to recall finding you passed out in someone else’s bed the next morning, sir.”
“Alone, Carter. I was in someone else’s bed alone.”
“At that time,” Sam added under her breath. The two exchanged a look.
“You know,” Daniel said, “I’m pretty sure I didn’t remember any of that the first time around.”
“I think you’re right,” Sam said, frowning slightly. “The way I remember it, you woke up a day and a half later, no worse for the wear, and only able to remember up to us returning the Touchstone.”
“Lucky dog,” Jack muttered.
Silence fell momentarily as they were distracted by the movie they had mostly forgotten was on. On screen, a daring rescue plan was underway, stormtroopers Han and Luke escorting prisoner Chewbacca into the cell block. The quartet watched as Han and Leia bantered back and forth before Leia took charge and blasted their way to freedom.
“Ah, young love,” Jack said, finishing off his beer.
“I admit,” replied Teal’c, “that I did not at first understand the basis of this relationship. They do not appear to be an ideal couple. In fact, they do not seem to have much in common beyond being stubborn.” He cocked an eyebrow as the couple in question threw a few more barbs each other’s way. “But they do appear to enjoy arguing with one another.”
“Actually, they remind me a little of you two,” said Sam, glancing in Jack and Daniel’s direction. The two stared at her in disbelief, looked at each other for a second, then turned back to stare at her again.
“... What?”
“I’m going to get another beer,” Daniel mumbled, pushing himself off the sofa.
“Bring me one, would you?” Jack asked. He was still looking at Sam with a slightly disturbed expression on his face.
“And me,” Sam said, waving her empty bottle. Daniel stopped to stare at her again, brow furrowed, before walking on to the kitchen.
“Thank you,” she threw over her shoulder, smiling.
“So you think you’ve gotten most of your memories back?” Jack pulled his gaze from Carter to glance at Daniel, who was opening the three bottles he had just pulled from the fridge.
“Most of them,” Daniel replied, walking back into the living room and passing around the beers. “I guess.”
“Do you remember the time you became addicted to the Goa’uld sarcophagus?” Teal’c asked.
“And enjoyed the life of a prince while we slaved away in the mines?” added Jack, giving Daniel a pointed look.
“Yeah, sorry about that.”
“Me, too.”
“It’s not like you’re the only one who got a raw deal out of the package,” Daniel retorted. “Sarcophagus detox is brutal.”
“Yeah, well, so is the recovery from days spent mining.”
“I see what you mean, Major Carter.”
Teal’c voice carried the hint of a smile, and he was looking between Daniel and Jack with an amused expression. Jack ignored him and started to ask Daniel a question, though he stopped short on seeing his face. Daniel’s brow was deeply furrowed and he exuded the air of someone in deep thought.
“Daniel?”
“Hmm?”
“Got something you want to share with the class?” Jack asked, gesturing to the room’s other occupants.
Daniel glanced around without really focusing on anything. “Mining.”
“Come again?” Sam asked.
“Mining,” Daniel repeated. He glanced at the others, who were watching him with expectantly. “It made me remember something,” he clarified. “Well, partially remember something—whatever happened to the workers we encountered on that ice-age planet, P3R... P3R—?“
“118?” Sam posited.
“Yeah.”
“We moved them to P5J-771,” Jack replied.
Daniel pondered for a moment. “Tropical planet, rich resources, endless beaches?”
“Yup.”
“Nice.”
There was a lull in the conversation as everyone’s attention was once again drawn to the television. The film was building to its climax. Rebel soldiers scurried across the screen, climbing into futuristic fighter planes and preparing for battle.
“Do you remember the time device?” Jack asked suddenly. Daniel gave him a blank look. “You know, our own personal ‘Groundhog Day’, when we were stuck repeating the same half-day over and over again?” he said, drawing a circle in the air with his free hand. “You remember the loop?”
“Only one of them.”
“Nice to see your sense of humor survived intact.”
The sound of laser fire filled the room as the Rebel fighters clashed with Imperial forces on screen. A small pocket of fighters approached the looming ship, cutting in to fly close to the vessel’s surface. As they zoomed along, Jack scratched the back of his head and stretched.
“Looks vaguely familiar, doesn’t it, Carter?”
“A bit, sir.”
“Oh, yeah. There’s Oil Slick’s personal chambers,” Jack said, pointing toward the screen. “And if you tilt your head just so—” he tilted his head to the right, and the others followed suit “—when they zoom past that tower right... there, you can see Anubis himself standing on the bridge.”
He took a drink of beer as Obi-Wan urged Luke to use the force. On the sofa, Daniel was still tilting his head from side to side, staring at the screen in deep concentration.
“‘Oil Slick’?” Teal’c asked.
“Oily, black skin—flowing, black robes—big... black... hood—the guy’s a walking oil spill.”
“I wonder why he doesn’t just take a human host?”
“He probably doesn’t want to,” Daniel replied, giving up on the film and turning to answer Sam. “Being trapped in a human body would severely limit his powers.”
“And he likes the melodrama of being a non-corporeal bad guy.”
“That, too.”
The Death Star exploded on screen as the surviving Rebel fighters scurried to escape the blast.
“What about the Atoniek armbands that Anise brought to the SGC for testing?” Teal’c questioned. “Do you remember those?”
“Uh... yeah—yeah!” Daniel replied, face lighting up as the memory came back. “They were great! I could read like the wind!” he said, a wistful expression on his face.
“I know!” Sam said, equally excited. “I wrote an entire book on wormhole physics in two hours. Of course, I can’t publish it since it makes facts out of theories based on real-world observations of something that the scientific community has yet to actually investigate, but it was nice to get it all down. It was something I’d been wanting to do for ages but never had the time.”
“I ate a lot.”
The others turned to look at Jack. “That you did, sir,” Sam agreed.
“Speaking of—wasn’t there cake?”
“Cheesecake’s in the fridge,” Sam advised with a smile and a roll of her eyes.
“Eeeexcellent.”
“That was one thing I remembered early on,” Daniel stated. The others looked at him. “Jack likes cake.”
“That he does,” the man himself affirmed, voice slightly muffled by the fact that he was shoulder-deep in the refrigerator at the time. He emerged with the cheesecake, setting it on the counter and pulling out plates. “But he is not above sharing. Anybody want some?”
“I would like a slice, O’Neill,” Teal’c replied, rising from his seat to join Jack in the kitchen.
“I think I’ll have some, too,” Sam said, following him.
“Hey, Sam?”
“Yeah?” she answered, turning back to Daniel, who was frowning over the back of the sofa at the cake.
“Do I like cheesecake?”
“I... don’t know.” She glanced to the others who could only offer shrugs. “How about we find out?” she advised, handing him a plate.
“That’ll work,” replied Daniel as she held out a fork.
no subject
on 2011-06-27 06:32 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-06-27 10:20 pm (UTC)