The day started as any other day on the base, Daniel and myself met Teal'c at the mess to grab some breakfast at 0630 and then made our way up to the squad room for our usual morning debriefing, then our commanding officer Coronel Jack O'Neill would just about make it in time with his morning cross word puzzle and coffee in his hand.
Coronal O'Neill and Daniel put a bet on nearly every day. Jack always bet that he could finish a cross word puzzle correctly, whereas Daniel bet that he couldn't without help, which is why I had a phone call every morning from the Coronal asking bizarre questions from his puzzle, all ones I could answer but refused to because I was in on the bet with Daniel, not that the coronal knew. So far I was up $50! I just hope he didn't find out.
It wasn't long before we were all sat in the briefing room waiting for our CO, General Hammond to come and tell us which planet we were going to next. Hopefully it wasn't another sandy planet, I was still finding sand in places I rather not say.
"I hope it's going be a nice sunny planet next, no sand just some where I can do some fishing and have a steak." Jack lounged on his chair, hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling, just picturing his perfect planet, I bet he pictured beautiful women handing him beer as well. Jack just looked around when no one replied to his paradise island. "What?" he asked, finding no words I just laughed when he looked at me and gave him the look, the look he well knew as your being silly but I kinda like it and as always he just smiled back at me and gave me a look of his own which I knew said 'I know you find it funny'. I never know what to reply to that look so I just looked down and shook my head in response. As I took my usual spot opposite Jack with my mug of coffee, Daniel finally managed to come up with a cocky enough response for Jack.
"You know on a different planet it's not going to be made from a cow, it'll probably be some weird animal that has three heads." Daniel mumbled from over his glasses, arms full of notes, books and somehow a coffee. As he slowly managed to put all of his notes on the table, he finally took his seat next to me. I knew what Daniel was hoping for, it was the same as me, somewhere nice and cool that had ruins and gadgets so Daniel and I had something to get excited about. We could definitely go without the heat for a while, the last planet reached over 100ᵒ and with our packs on our backs, we got hot pretty quick. When we got back none of us could stand to be touched and we spent two days in infirmary with Janet. Not somewhere I would go back too anytime soon.
"Yeahhhh well, more to eat." Jack replied with a smirk as he stretched out on his chair. "Teal'c, you've been unusually quiet." Jack noted as Teal'c took his seat next to Jack, I don't know how he does it, be so sarcastic but look so serious. Years of practice I guess. To this Teal'c done his usual eyebrow raise, Jack turned in his chair to look at Teal'c when he opened his mouth but before anything could come out General Hammond walked into the room, with reports under his arm. Both Jack and I stood at attention as we were the only officers at the table, to which the General nodded at us signalling us to sit down.
"Coronal, Major, hope you folks had a pleasant night." The General asked, not really wanting an actual answer as we knew he wanted this meeting to be quick and brief. But as usual Jack and I just answered a simple 'Yes Sir'.
"So where too this time Sir? Somewhere with some big old buildings for Carter and Daniel to get excited about?" Jack queried with a smile, hoping for somewhere completely different. The General laughed in response.
"Actually Coronal, just that indeed." Jack's smile quickly faded with that answer, to which I giggled at, that warranted me with a look that quickly got me to quiet down. "The planet known as 'P3X-626' which SG-6 had a previous mission too, has a vast amount of ruins we believe have been left by the ancients. Now by the images you can all see in the report, there seems to be some kind of dialect on the ruins. Dr Jackson, do you recognise any of these symbols?" General Hammond asked, looking directly at Daniel as he quickly skimmed through the photographs that SG-6 had previously taken.
"I believe so Sir, I think I could make a rough translation." Daniel added, looking up at the general. Daniel loved this part of the missions, learning old languages and cultures and to be honest so did I.
"Good, while Major Carter and Dr Jackson are checking out the ruins, Coronal I want you and Teal'c to meet the locals see what they know about them, there could be technology there that we could use." General Hammond added as an order, knowing that talking to the locals was the last thing Jack wanted to do.
"Yes Sir" Jack added, looking a bit sorry for himself probably feeling as if he pulled the short straw. But he knew better than too question the General, well sometimes anyway.
"Good, well that'll be all folks, be ready to ship out at 0900." With that General Hammond got up from his chair along with Jack and I, with a quick nod the General left to go back to his office behind him.
"D'oh!" Jack exclaimed and grumbled out of the briefing room to go wash and pack his kit. Daniel and I just looked at each other and laughed at his exit, unlike Jack we were looking forward to this mission, there was no sand, no boiling sun and no one shooting at us which unlike Jack was our paradise and with that the three of us left the room to get ready for our upcoming mission.