Natural Satellite

Author: Kedd
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Stargate: The Movie; 1x03 "The Enemy Within"; 1x05 "The Broca Divide"; 2x21 "1969".
Summary: As Stargate Command stuggles to find its legs, General Hammond and Colonel O'Neill find a balance of their own.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Completed: January 18, 2009.

At first he'd thought that the Airman was nervous because it was a General signing out for the night, until he noticed that the guard's eyes kept jumping to the same spot every time. Hammond tried to take a quick glance over his shoulder as he replaced the clipboard, but didn't notice anything immediately out of place. Still, if something was wrong he'd rather deal with it now than wait for a phone call after he got home for the night. A slight frown on his forehead, Hammond purposefully fumbled the pen, allowing it to roll forward onto the table. The clatter drew the Airman's attention, and as the two reached for the pen, Hammond took the opportunity to whisper quietly. "Anything wrong, Airman?"

The slight twitch the Airman gave indicated that, at the very least, there was something going on, and Hammond suppressed a sigh. It was the first time he'd left the base in nearly two weeks – and he had only a long day to look forward to tomorrow. Between the quarantine situation and the resulting mess from clearing it up, he'd been looking forward to what remained of a quiet evening. Still, the soft "No, sir," surprised him.

He stood up to his full height and squared his shoulders, blue eyes piercing the face of the guard who suddenly had his attention completely focused on the officer in front of him. "No, sir?" Hammond questioned. He looked the other man directly in the eye, watching him for any traces of deceit. If the guard was covering for a fellow Airman who'd left his duty post for a quick smoke-break, neither of them would be getting off lightly.

The Airman wilted slightly under the pressure, but didn't cave completely. "Well, not really, sir." Hammond waited. He'd long since discovered that the young could usually be out waited, and the condemning silence of a commanding officer was usually enough to prompt the lower ranks to talk. Still, the Airman hesitated, but when his eyes were pulled back to the side again his shoulders stiffened with resolution. "Permission to speak freely, sir?" the man asked.

Hammond nodded, relieved that the guard had decided to confide in him.

"It's Colonel O'Neill, sir. He signed out nearly an hour ago, but hasn't left yet, sir. He's just been standing outside the entrance."

Well, that explained the nerves, at any rate. Nobody liked a senior officer hanging over their shoulder while they worked, even if it was an officer who was quickly gaining a reputation as an eccentric.

The Airman leaned closer and lowered his voice, "I don't think he's even moved for the last half hour, sir. Is he all right?"

Now that was a very good question. After all, the Colonel had required an exceptional amount of sedatives to keep him under control and he'd also been the first one Doctor Fraiser tried the cure on. It was possible the Colonel was still suffering some after-effects of the treatment, although from what he'd seen of her so far, Hammond would be very surprised if Doctor Fraiser would let anyone leave without being properly cleared. Still, they were dealing with an alien disease and, as the last few weeks had shown, they just might not have picked it up in time. He felt the beginnings of a headache coming on; that was what all the meetings and paperwork for tomorrow were going to deal with. That, and explaining how the situation had occurred in the first place. Pleased with the Airman's concern and his attention to his duty, Hammond didn't let any of his worry show on his face. Instead, he gave a small smile and patted the guard on his shoulder. "I'll check on him as I head out, son, but I'm glad to see you're keeping a close eye on things up here." The Airman's stance became a fraction sharper with those words of praise and Hammond smiled to himself as he walked towards the entrance of the tunnel. If only all problems were as easy to solve as that one.

He paused at the entrance, giving his eyes time to adjust to the darkness and locating his officer. The guard was right. O'Neill was standing not too far outside the tunnel, encased in shadows, staring upwards at the sky, completely motionless. Hammond squinted slightly to focus his eyes more rapidly. In fact, if the Airman hadn't said anything, he likely would have walked right on past O'Neill and never even known he was there. For a man who was usually full of motion, the Colonel was abnormally still. The slight twinge of concern that Hammond had felt when he noticed the guard's nervousness grew, and he knew that, at the very least, he'd be talking to the Colonel to make sure he was okay.

Hammond made no attempt to mask his footsteps as he moved onto the gravel that lined the edges of the roadway, but there was no obvious change in the Colonel's posture as he headed towards him. Clearly, the Colonel had been aware of his presence long before he approached. Finally, he stopped just to the side of the man, tilting his head so that he too was staring out at the night sky.

"General, sir." O'Neill voice broke the silence of the evening, although the low tone wasn't loud enough to attract any undue attention from the guards who should be patrolling the area.

"Colonel." Hammond was willing to wait out his officer, see if he wanted to talk. If not, well, time spent in silence gazing at nature's wonders was hardly time ill-spent. It seemed that he'd rarely had moments such as this over the last few months, since Apophis had come through the Stargate, and he couldn't help but sigh. He'd forgotten how relaxing it was simply to gaze up at the stars and the moon, even if he was now aware of the dangers that lurked out there.

The Colonel had glanced over at him when he sighed, but didn't speak. In fact it wasn't until Hammond was contemplating leaving that the Colonel broke the silence. "Pretty incredible, isn't it, sir? What's out there?"

"Incredible's one word for it, Colonel." He regretted the dryness of his tone even as the words left his mouth. But 'incredible' was seeming more and more like 'incredibly dangerous' the more they explored. Hell, this time, men who'd not even left his base had been infected and injured, to speak nothing of those who'd died before they realized what was happening and restrained personnel appropriately. Still, based on O'Neill's record and the incident with Kawalsky, the Colonel wasn't a man who took the loss of lives casually, and even mild criticism was unlikely to help him get the man to open up. "Sorry, Colonel. My mind's still inside the mountain, it seems, along with all the paperwork for a new post-mission protocol."

He got a small wave of dismissal in return and something half-way between a grimace and a smile. "I know what you mean, sir," was the heart-felt reply. Hammond had to repress a smile of his own. Despite a number of reasonable and helpful suggestions that had come from the Colonel on how to organize various aspects of the base, it was already apparent that the Colonel despised paperwork. The necessary forms got completed, but anything that could possibly be done without a form was accomplished that way, even if it meant the Colonel wouldn't receive credit for some of his ideas that they'd adopted. Hammond was coming to appreciate that aspect of the man though. It was clear that the Colonel wasn't looking for advancement, or commendations, or any other sort of recognition. There was a blunt honesty to the man that Hammond admired, even as he recognized the fact that the same trait would likely cause no end of trouble for him in the future. After all, the Colonel had already demonstrated a willingness to speak his mind, regardless of who was in the room.

"It is a nice night, though." The General offered up the platitude as an olive branch, hoping that it would be enough to salvage what little conversation they'd had.

"Deceptively so," was the mildly cynical response he got in return, and Hammond had to suppress a sigh. It seemed he wasn't the only one whose thoughts were now dwelling on the men they'd lost so far, and in a war that was so far from being won that they'd barely even let the horse out of the gate. Still, what they were doing wasn't something anyone had ever thought possible, and it wasn't all going badly.

"You know, Colonel, I remember watching Neil Armstrong taking his first steps on the moon." The Colonel was silent, his eyes shadowed as he looked up at the nearly full moon hanging over their heads. "I was with my father at the time. He was in the hospital – had just suffered his first heart attack two days earlier." He waved off the Colonel's mumbled condolences. "It's a long time ago, now, son. I just considered myself lucky to be stateside at the time and able to get there quickly." He'd been in-between tours in 'Nam, on light duties while recovering from injuries, and had always been thankful he'd been able to be there. It was one of the last times he'd spent quality time with his Pa. "I remember watching that footage and thinking that it wasn't fair we could send a man to the moon but couldn't prevent all the death happening here on Earth." He noticed O'Neill give him a sharp look at that, and Hammond let a small grin play over his face. "Pa lived long enough to see the moon landing program cancelled. But I'd served in 'Nam before that and it hasn't gotten any easier seeing good men die."

"Especially when the war seems unwinnable." The Colonel sighed, and Hammond wondered whether he'd been referring to that old war fought in the steamy jungles of Vietnam or the new one being fought throughout the galaxy, but hadn't come to any conclusions before the Colonel continued. "Not that it's any easier if a mission's a success. Dead's dead." The Colonel paused, as if puzzled, before adding, "Mostly."

Hammond nodded. "True. But we're making a difference," and he grimaced, because he knew that a well-seasoned field officer like O'Neill had probably heard all the platitudes before from brass and non-coms who thought they could understand war by reading about it. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded."

"Not like the typical line of motivational bull fed to the lower ranks, then, sir?" O'Neill's wryly amused tone came out of the darkness. The 'sir' tacked onto the end failed to detract from the inherent insolence of his statement.

Hammond chuckled. He'd been right about the Colonel speaking his mind. "No, Colonel, not like that at all." He paused to gather his thoughts. "When my father woke up and watched the footage of the moon landing he thought it was a real turning point. After all, we had a man walking on the moon – what couldn't we do? For a small-time farmer from Texas the idea of walking anywhere except on good ol' American dirt had been beyond comprehension, and here was a man, an American, on the moon. I think part of that stuck with me when I was shipped back to 'Nam a few months later." He didn't mention the encounter he'd had in the interim, another experience which had shaped his outlook on life. He looked up at that same moon, still shining down on the world below. "Hard to believe we're now walking on other planets and don't even need a rocket to get there." The Colonel let out a small grunt, but when Hammond paused, didn't seem to have anything else to contribute. "I guess what I'm saying, Colonel, is that what you're doing out there now would have been un-thinkable not all that long ago. Heck, just the other day you and your team cured half an alien population of a disease that's been plaguing them for God knows how long."

O'Neill nodded firmly. "I know that, sir. And, I appreciate it." A wave of his hand encompassed both the statement and Hammond's current presence. "I'm just readjusting my thinking, I guess. I spent years gazing at the stars, wondering what was up there, and when I found out it wasn't like anything I'd imagined." The Colonel stopped, and Hammond wondered if he was cataloguing all the strange things they'd already seen, with only a half dozen trips through the 'Gate. The Colonel gave him a lopsided half-smile that brought out the deep-set lines life had carved into his face, "It was, of course, much, much worse." While his tone belied the content of his statement, the General couldn't help but think that the words struck more closely to the truth. O'Neill seemed to sense his unease, and smiled more fully. "You don't need to worry, General, I'm a naturally optimistic kinda guy." At the General's stare, O'Neill shrugged and added, "I just have a bad tendency to brood that's all. And a habit of preparing for the worst. And an over-active imagination. But really, that's about all I have."

The General chuckled before he could stop himself, the Colonel's contradictory descriptions somehow still working to accurately describe what he knew of the man in front of him. "Go home, Colonel. Rest." He clapped a friendly hand on the Colonel's shoulder. "Come back with your optimism intact for tomorrow, God knows we'll need it to deal with all the changes we have to implement before we send any more teams off-world." The Colonel pulled a face at that, and Hammond had to purposefully put his military mask in place to prevent another laugh at the man's antics. He got the feeling that O'Neill didn't need any additional encouragement.

They started walking towards the parked cars together, falling naturally in step, a comfortable silence hanging between them. They split up upon reaching the parking lot, O'Neill giving him a gesture that fell somewhere between a wave and a salute as he walked off to his large truck. Hammond watched his springy stride as the Colonel moved across the parking lot before turning towards his own car and despite his own weariness couldn't help but smile at that hint of the Colonel's irrepressible nature. He glanced up once again at the night sky, and couldn't help but feel that the stars were shining just a little brighter than they had been when he first left the mountain. He shook his head slightly. For all of the guard's concern about the Colonel, O'Neill had done more for him than the other way around.