Train of Thought
summary: A compilation of unrelated and humorous drabbles
disclaimer: I do not own Stargate or its characters. I just borrow and play
A/N: Please review! One short click and a few short words make this short chick mighty glad!
Part 1: Someone Axed The Program
There was a knock at the door. Jack O'Neill sighed. If that was another scientist wanting his opinion on the importance of whatever piece of dirt from P3X blah-blah-blah, he might just have to show them the importance of wearing bullet-proof vests on base. As if he didn't have enough to deal with right now.
Just as he was about to throw his plastic Bart Simpson figurine at the door and holler something rude, a small, yet confident voice asked permission to enter. His anger subsided somewhat. Sure, it was a scientist at the door, a geeky one at that, but also his 2IC, his great friend and occasionally his accidental cause for staring, Samantha Carter.
"Enter," he barked. Carter or no Carter, nothing was putting a dampener on his current foul mood.
Carter tiptoed into her CO's office, urging her body to produce waves of serenity and peace. It seemed someone was in the middle of a tantrum, and she had no desire to make it any worse. As she stepped towards the general, she took a mental note of his posture, hunched and tense. Yes, something was definitely up.
Jack looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She was treading so carefully, anyone would think she was worried of falling through the floor. He rolled his eyes. Surely his mood wasn't that obvious. Quite frankly, he didn't care. Just to prove it to himself, he threw his Bart figurine half-heartedly at the wall. It barely caused a thump.
"Something up, Sir?" Carter asked, taking the hurled doll as a cue to talk.
"They've cancelled the program," he said, swivelling his chair to face her.
"What?" Carter asked. She hurried over to the general's desk and sat in the chair opposite him. "When? Why?"
Jack shrugged. "It's beyond me. Apparently there's not enough support." He slumped back down into his seat. Carter's obvious concern made him lighten up a little, but no-one's sympathy was going to bring him out of this one. He felt a tantrum coming on and was in no hurry to stop it.
"How can there not be enough support?" Carter, asked, seeming to take the blow quite personally. "It's been, what…eight years? What happened?"
Jack was about to correct her miscalculation of the years but thought better of it. It didn't matter that Carter had no idea how long the program had been running, though why she didn't know was beyond him. It did matter however, that she was as startled and dismayed as he was, something he was sure would never be the case.
"I don't know what happened, Carter," he answered. "But apparently, the good people of the known world don't feel it to be a necessity anymore."
"Politicians", she groaned.
"You think it was them?" he asked, curiously.
"Of course sir, why wouldn't it be?"
Jack had to think about this for a second. Yes, it did seem to fit. Politicians always had a way of screwing with everything Jack O'Neill held dear.
"So, what are we going to do about it, sir?" Carter asked, looking half-hopeful, half-scared.
"We?" Jack asked back. Was she crazy? "What on earth can we do about it?"
Sam shrugged. "What we always do, sir. Show them we're made of tougher stuff than that." She nodded in agreement with herself. She was surely getting fired up about this.
"And do what, exactly?" Jack asked. He had never known his 2IC to want to cause such a scene and was a little worried that she was so serious about this. Hell, even he wasn't that concerned.
"We'll go to the president directly," she said. "Take all the politics out of it. We'll go straight to the top and demand him to reconsider."
"Ya know, Carter, I'm not sure it's really his decision," Jack cautioned.
"The hell it isn't!" Carter yelled. Jack gave her a look that she usually took to mean 'back off' and cleared her throat nervously. "Honestly sir, I can't believe you're so nonchalant about this."
"I wouldn't exactly call it life threatening, Carter."
"Are you serious?" she asked. She got another look from her CO. "…sir," she added, belatedly. "What is the world going to do? Nothing?"
"Well, it frees my time up a bit. More fishing," he suggested, beginning to wonder if something alien had infested Carter and was making her even more serious than usual.
"Sir, if this is an issue of support…"
"Support? No. I mean, no one wants to see it all end, least of all me."
"Then what's the problem? Just take your case to the president. We've done worse."
"Er, slightly different circumstances, Carter. There's no Apophis in this picture…or direct link to Earth's demise…" he added as an after thought.
Carter stared at him, a vision of determination. He shook his head, trying to ward off her hard stare.
"For cryin' out loud, Carter, the program isn't that important to me."
"Not important? Sir, you've got to be kidding. Earth can't survive without this program and you know it!" At this stage, her face started to get so red that Jack thought she might explode. She huffed loudly, shaking her head and stormed out of Jack's office, unable to control her temper or determination any longer. Jack jumped slightly at the sound of the door slamming.
"Geez," he murmured, shaking his head. "And I didn't even think she liked The Simpsons."