V is for Viable
Jul. 16th, 2018 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stringertheoryTitle: V is for Viable
Rating: PG
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Characters: Samantha Carter, with appearances by Cameron Mitchell, Vala Mal Doran, and Teal'c
Word Count: 1053
Categories: gen
Spoilers/Warnings: Set just before "Line in the Sand" (10.12) begins. Spoilers for the series up to that point.
Summary: Sam reflects on the state of the team as they prepare to test Merlin's device. Written for the Off-Screen Missions Alphabet Soup.
Sam emerged from the Gate and immediately regretted forgetting to pack her sunglasses. PY4-893 was even brighter and sunnier in person than it had appeared in MALP footage. The small moon offered the interstellar traveler stable weather, plenty of open space, and a complete lack of habitation. Perfect for the first test of Merlin's device.
The first purposeful test, anyway.
Desert covered the majority of the moon: a hard-packed landscape of dark red mesas dotted here and there with scrub and things that passed for cacti. Sam kept expecting to see roadrunners; aside from the color variation, the view resembled nothing so much as the setting of the cartoons of her youth. A vision flashed through her mind of anvils falling from the sky as soon as she turned on the device. Her lips twitched in amusement, but she kept the thought to herself.
The team made quick work of setting up her temporary laboratory, Cam and Teal'c erecting a shade cover while Sam and Vala pulled out equipment. Everyone was quieter than usual, going about their tasks with little wasted conversation. Normally Sam might have attributed the mood to nerves about the experiment, but she knew it was more than that. Everyone had been quieter than usual for weeks now.
Daniel had been missing for 24 days, 13 hours—Sam glanced at her watch, did the calculations—6 minutes, and 49 seconds. There hadn't been a single hint as to his whereabouts in all that time. The last update Teal'c had received from the Jaffa nation had been disheartening at best, and in the past month, three more planets had fallen to the Ori.
They were losing a battle they had no way to fight—yet.
“So what miraculous event do you have planned for us this evening?”
Sam, struggling to get two leads connected, glanced up at Cam with only partially fake exasperation. “Y'know, you pull off a miracle one time—”
“Or two. Or three. Or four.”
Sam let out a huff of laughter caught somewhere between amusement and agreement. The small smile Cam gave her in response didn't manage to soften his eyes. She could see the weariness under his usual twitchy energy. Being constantly on alert, geared up for a fight without a fight to be had would do that to a person. He held her gaze for a moment before adjusting his cap and walking to where Teal'c was keeping a cursory guard.
Teal'c acknowledged Cam's arrival with the barest nod and went back to surveilling their bare surroundings. Internally, Sam sighed. Teal'c—well, Teal'c was always quiet, but recently there was a resignation to his silence that worried her. It wasn't that he'd given up; he would never. Maybe it was just the feeling of having fought this particular battle before. They'd eradicated one false religion together, only to see another one invade their galaxy. And it was kind of their fault, accidental or not.
Sam's gaze drifted toward the distant horizon, hazy in the heat. There was always something. She interfaced her laptop with the device and launched the necessary programs for an initial diagnostic, then knelt to set up the naquadah generators.
Vala already had everything neatly laid out, ready to be connected. She'd recently taken it upon herself to become Sam's lab assistant, at least for the duration of the experiment. Sam was sure it was more an excuse to keep busy than it was any deep interest in the workings of the device itself, but Vala had acquitted herself well and had proven to be observant, intuitive, and clever. If nothing else, Sam had been grateful for the company when hours spent in the lab each week had started to exceed hours spent outside it.
“Do we have any more of the double-jacks? This one has a broken clip.”
“I believe so, hang on.” Vala dug in the bag at her side for a moment, turning a moment later with a spare cable in hand. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.”
Sam watched her from the corner of her eyes as they worked. Of them all, Vala appeared to be hiding her feelings best. Of them all, she was perhaps the most affected. From the beginning, she'd played a pivotal role in everything that had happened. Beyond getting her burned alive, Vala and Daniel's astral trip to the Ori galaxy had been the catalyst for the Ori coming to the Milky Way and the battle they now faced. Her own child was the Orici, the living focus of Origin and the commander of its armies—and Daniel's kidnapper. The trauma of it all was inescapable, and Sam knew Vala carried guilt as well, knew she felt every loss, every death even if she never talked about it.
There was nothing Sam could do so ease that pain. There was nothing any of them could do, aside from trying to stop the Ori. And so far, they were failing.
Generators wired and ready to go, Sam rose and dusted off her knees. The diagnostic program had run its course, so she connected the device to the generators, then completed a power level diagnostic. She input the parameters for the test they had planned and triple-checked all the settings and connections. This experiment had to go well. As little as it resembled a weapon, Merlin's device was the only one at their disposal at the moment—if they could make it work. And Sam was going to make it work.
If the best they could do for now was hide, then Sam would figure out how to hide the whole damn galaxy, if she had to. But first, she had to start small.
“You ready to disappear a thing?” Cam's voice cut in on her thoughts.
“The device doesn't actually make anything disa—” Sam began, before catching Cam's amused look. She rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop the smile. “Yes, I'm ready to disappear a thing.”
“All right, gang, let's do this!”
The team gathered around her makeshift workstation. Sam could tell they were anxious; she could read it in the lines of Teal'c jaw, the intensity in Cam's eyes, in Vala's silence. She pressed the button and held her breath.
Rating: PG
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Characters: Samantha Carter, with appearances by Cameron Mitchell, Vala Mal Doran, and Teal'c
Word Count: 1053
Categories: gen
Spoilers/Warnings: Set just before "Line in the Sand" (10.12) begins. Spoilers for the series up to that point.
Summary: Sam reflects on the state of the team as they prepare to test Merlin's device. Written for the Off-Screen Missions Alphabet Soup.
Sam emerged from the Gate and immediately regretted forgetting to pack her sunglasses. PY4-893 was even brighter and sunnier in person than it had appeared in MALP footage. The small moon offered the interstellar traveler stable weather, plenty of open space, and a complete lack of habitation. Perfect for the first test of Merlin's device.
The first purposeful test, anyway.
Desert covered the majority of the moon: a hard-packed landscape of dark red mesas dotted here and there with scrub and things that passed for cacti. Sam kept expecting to see roadrunners; aside from the color variation, the view resembled nothing so much as the setting of the cartoons of her youth. A vision flashed through her mind of anvils falling from the sky as soon as she turned on the device. Her lips twitched in amusement, but she kept the thought to herself.
The team made quick work of setting up her temporary laboratory, Cam and Teal'c erecting a shade cover while Sam and Vala pulled out equipment. Everyone was quieter than usual, going about their tasks with little wasted conversation. Normally Sam might have attributed the mood to nerves about the experiment, but she knew it was more than that. Everyone had been quieter than usual for weeks now.
Daniel had been missing for 24 days, 13 hours—Sam glanced at her watch, did the calculations—6 minutes, and 49 seconds. There hadn't been a single hint as to his whereabouts in all that time. The last update Teal'c had received from the Jaffa nation had been disheartening at best, and in the past month, three more planets had fallen to the Ori.
They were losing a battle they had no way to fight—yet.
“So what miraculous event do you have planned for us this evening?”
Sam, struggling to get two leads connected, glanced up at Cam with only partially fake exasperation. “Y'know, you pull off a miracle one time—”
“Or two. Or three. Or four.”
Sam let out a huff of laughter caught somewhere between amusement and agreement. The small smile Cam gave her in response didn't manage to soften his eyes. She could see the weariness under his usual twitchy energy. Being constantly on alert, geared up for a fight without a fight to be had would do that to a person. He held her gaze for a moment before adjusting his cap and walking to where Teal'c was keeping a cursory guard.
Teal'c acknowledged Cam's arrival with the barest nod and went back to surveilling their bare surroundings. Internally, Sam sighed. Teal'c—well, Teal'c was always quiet, but recently there was a resignation to his silence that worried her. It wasn't that he'd given up; he would never. Maybe it was just the feeling of having fought this particular battle before. They'd eradicated one false religion together, only to see another one invade their galaxy. And it was kind of their fault, accidental or not.
Sam's gaze drifted toward the distant horizon, hazy in the heat. There was always something. She interfaced her laptop with the device and launched the necessary programs for an initial diagnostic, then knelt to set up the naquadah generators.
Vala already had everything neatly laid out, ready to be connected. She'd recently taken it upon herself to become Sam's lab assistant, at least for the duration of the experiment. Sam was sure it was more an excuse to keep busy than it was any deep interest in the workings of the device itself, but Vala had acquitted herself well and had proven to be observant, intuitive, and clever. If nothing else, Sam had been grateful for the company when hours spent in the lab each week had started to exceed hours spent outside it.
“Do we have any more of the double-jacks? This one has a broken clip.”
“I believe so, hang on.” Vala dug in the bag at her side for a moment, turning a moment later with a spare cable in hand. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.”
Sam watched her from the corner of her eyes as they worked. Of them all, Vala appeared to be hiding her feelings best. Of them all, she was perhaps the most affected. From the beginning, she'd played a pivotal role in everything that had happened. Beyond getting her burned alive, Vala and Daniel's astral trip to the Ori galaxy had been the catalyst for the Ori coming to the Milky Way and the battle they now faced. Her own child was the Orici, the living focus of Origin and the commander of its armies—and Daniel's kidnapper. The trauma of it all was inescapable, and Sam knew Vala carried guilt as well, knew she felt every loss, every death even if she never talked about it.
There was nothing Sam could do so ease that pain. There was nothing any of them could do, aside from trying to stop the Ori. And so far, they were failing.
Generators wired and ready to go, Sam rose and dusted off her knees. The diagnostic program had run its course, so she connected the device to the generators, then completed a power level diagnostic. She input the parameters for the test they had planned and triple-checked all the settings and connections. This experiment had to go well. As little as it resembled a weapon, Merlin's device was the only one at their disposal at the moment—if they could make it work. And Sam was going to make it work.
If the best they could do for now was hide, then Sam would figure out how to hide the whole damn galaxy, if she had to. But first, she had to start small.
“You ready to disappear a thing?” Cam's voice cut in on her thoughts.
“The device doesn't actually make anything disa—” Sam began, before catching Cam's amused look. She rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop the smile. “Yes, I'm ready to disappear a thing.”
“All right, gang, let's do this!”
The team gathered around her makeshift workstation. Sam could tell they were anxious; she could read it in the lines of Teal'c jaw, the intensity in Cam's eyes, in Vala's silence. She pressed the button and held her breath.
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on 2018-08-15 11:05 am (UTC)Thanks so much for contributing to the Soup!
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