A/N: Yes, I promised I wouldn't do it, but here's a sequel to 'Sgt. Dionne Warwick.' You don't need to read 'Sgt.' first, but it may help with one small joke at the very end. It's finished, but I'm gonna upload one chapter a day. Have fun with that.
AU, because the only thing I ever remember them saying about SG-10 was they were the team that got sucked into the black hole. Obviously, this SG-10 is not that team. I'm thinking that they were probably the 'lost' team's replacements. Also, if SG-10 was investigating a black hole, I doubt they were a black ops unit. This SG-10 changed functions about the same time they were replacing the old team. Yes, Manda, Doogie Howser was that kid doctor on TV. Also, slight spoiler for Atlantis episode "The Defiant One." Slight as in, if you haven't seen it, you won't notice the spoiler.
This is unbetaed so I'm fairly certain all the characters you know and love are gonna by OOC. Tell me. I really want to get this right, so if my Daniel does something stupid, tell me. Or if you don't like something. Or anything. Since I'm new at this I want you guys to help. Just be polite about it. And (I love my betas! I really do! But you guys know nothing about SG) if anyone wants to beta this, holla!
On a totally unrelated matter, aren't all fanfics AUs? I mean, if we had to write them, it obviously didn't happen on the show and as such isn't canon. I tried to raise this point with "Sgt..." it went over well so that's going on all my fics now.
NOTE: I'm refuse to say two particular words. I'm pretty sure you'll figure out what they are.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Stargate. Gekko does. (That always makes me think of the little lizard with the British accent.) Some other people own it as well. They are all much richer. I think everybody's done a "team member becomes kid fic" so I stole that from the same person everybody else did. There were a few quotes that were inspired by Danvers and the yoghurt thing belongs to Anais.
"What the hell did you do? Didn't she tell you to not frinking touch anything? 'Cause she sure as hell told me not to touch any damn thing! She frinking told Sniper not to touch any damn thing. And I know she frinking told you not to touch any frinking thing, 'cause I was there when she frinking told you! So why the hell did you frinkin' touch that frinkin' thing?"
I knew I was hysterical, but I didn't care then and I sure as frink don't care now. When I stepped out the 'gate on P8X-179, Alien was well into her third or fourth scan of the immediate area.
"Medic!" Davis yelled. I jumped and reached for my bag before I realised it wasn't a 'we-need-help' shout. I ambled over to the s.o.b. acting like my heart wasn't trying to beat its way out my chest.
"Sir?" Before he could tell me what he wanted, Alien called.
"Cover your eyes." As one, we turned to Alien and stared at her appearance. She had goggles on over her glasses and looked exactly like a mad scientist from a '50s movie. A bad '50s movie. Alien help up some weird device. "UV scan," she explained. We turned our backs and covered our eyes as we listened to the humming of her equipment. Briefly, I wondered why the hell she needed to do an UV scan. "Clear." We turned back around and watched as Alien began to pack up her equipment.
"Sarge," Davis called. Absently, she flapped her hand at a point slightly to the left of us and continued working. "Guess we're going to have to begin this without her. She knows it anyway."
"I sure frinkin' hope so; she's the intel dude," I muttered watching Sniper flinch when I cursed. That's part of the reason I do it so damn much.
"We're here as an advance scout team. Our mission is to look around and decide who gets to come to the planet 'first'." Davis said. "I hope this is an A5 mission; we've not had one of those in forever."
Davis was referring to the codes we use to describe a mission. A5 would be the easiest; a planet perfect for an Area-51 research team. Next is a C2 rating. That means a SGC research team; they're gonna be armed and probably babysat. After that is a C1 rating 'indicating that a SGC military team needs to make first contact'. G0 is the term used to say we gotta do intel and go back to Earth to regroup before coming back and taking a hostile out. I hate G0 ratings, because they mean the most work for the team. The highest rating is a L3. It's when a planet is so frinkin' dangerous, they lock it out the damn computer so no one can frinkin' return. Ironically, they don't cause very much work on my part. I just bandage stuff and tell Janet what happened while she tries to patch us up.
We were all lost in the thoughts of our last mission (a L3 to the tenth power) when Alien decided to scare the frinkin' crap out of us. I'm surprised all her equipment is in one damn piece, if she always treats it like that. She muttered an apology and kept on throwing her damn equipment around.
"Well, now that my heart has started beating again!" Davis looked pointedly at Alien who just as pointedly ignored him. " Anybody have anything else to add?" Sniper and I looked at each other before shaking our heads as Alien ran up.
"We need to go that way," she said pointing off into the forest. Davis started to say something, but she kept on walking.
"Guess we're going that way," Davis muttered as he shouldered his ruck. He looked at Sniper who had followed Alien without even waiting for Davis to say anything before turning to me. "I'm going to have to talk to her about the Absent Minded Professor Syndrome, aren't I?"
"Well, a little more than 'that way' would be nice, but...as long as we're still listening to you when it counts, I think we're okay."
"If you think so, James," Davis said. "Let's go." I grumbled to myself as we took off across the damn forest after our teammates.
SG10SG10SG10SG10
O'Neill was right. Every frinkin' planet we go to is either covered in frinkin' trees or a frinkin' desert. I spoke on this topic at great length to Davis as we traipsed after Sniper and Alien. Which was why I was slightly mortified when after about half a klick the trees gave way to prairie. And I felt even worse when prairie slowly gave way to desert. At least, Davis wouldn't screw with me about it. I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn't even notice the ruins until we were on them.
"Oh my God." Silently, I agreed with Sniper. The ruins were vast, stretching well over a klick in all directions. I didn't recognize the architecture, but even destroyed and weather-beaten, the buildings were elegant and beautiful. All of us stared in quiet awe. Even Alien who had grown up on digs.
"It's beautiful. Any idea..." Davis trailed off.
"None. Doric columns. That's a minaret. Egyptian recessed doorways. Germanic arches. See that; Welsh ha' penny bridge." Alien paused for a moment. "It's almost like somebody went to Earth, toured the entire planet, and came home and made their own versions." She started into the ruins, but I reached out and grabbed her.
"I'm not too damn sure that's a good idea, Alien," I said as a sudden feeling of panic gripped me. She muttered something in a language I'd never heard before and walked into the city. "Alien?" She didn't glance back. "Sarge?" Davis and I shared a look.
"Sgt. Jackson, A-TEN-HUT!" Davis bellowed in his best 'I'm-a-lieutenant. Obey-me.' voice. Alien never even flinched. "Shit." We followed our errant friend into a cul-de-sac towards the middle of the city. She went straight to a square column and stopped.
"Alien?" Sniper asked cautiously, after she'd been staring at the column for a while.
"Yeah?" Alien responded as she turned around. I looked at her eyes; dazed, slightly panicked, and a slight remnant of the blankness they'd shown when I grabbed her earlier.
"Oh, um, sorry. It's just so pretty..." She was trying to make sure Sniper and Davis didn't notice. We both lived in utter fear of that moment. "Um, stay here. You can look around; just don't touch anything 'til we come back and translate this stuff." Alien pointed. "There's something shiny over there and we're getting a slight EM reading. That's where we're gonna be if you need us." Alien took off and I followed until we were far enough that Sniper and Davis couldn't hear.
"You okay?" I asked softly.
"Perfectly fine," the little translator said too chipperly.
"You sure? It's just that you looked kinda dazed a minute, ago. Almost looked like somebody whose blood sugar was falling," I said nonchalantly as I watched her. Alien froze before turning to me and offering a sheepish grin. I opened my mouth to tell her that if she couldn't make sure to eat, I'd talk to Dr. Fraiser, but I stopped.
This was her frinkin' life. If I told somebody about this, there was a damn good chance she'd get kicked out the army. Hell, who was I trying to fool? They'd kick Alien out of the army and at best, she'd be forced to stay in the Mountain and work on what we brought back. At worst, she'd be back at Oxford; playing with reactors during the day and teaching classes with names like "The Evolution of Modern English" at night. Alien wouldn't be able to deal with going back to Oxford. She'd been called nuts for so long that to find out everything was real and she couldn't tell anybody would most likely drive her nuts, if she wasn't already. "Okay," I conceded to my hypoglycemic friend as I handed her a chocolate bar, "but if you start to feel light-headed or the lost feeling comes back...tell me." I watched as she headed off in the direction the doohickey in her hand indicated and hoped to whatever gods may be out there that I didn't do the wrong thing.
Please, remember: any criticism should be constructive. :)