Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, and the stargate wasn't my idea even though I think its really cool.
Jack was sitting at his desk pretending to work when the email popped up. Surprisingly, it was from Hank Landry, the new commander at the SGC. He opened it, the first email he'd opened all day out of all that he'd received. Landry wanted him to make a trip to the SGC to help the scientists out; they'd found an Ancient colony and had nobody on base that could activate any of the technology. In the attempt to get him to come the general promised that Jack would be able to handpick his team of scientists.
As long as I don't get stuck with Felger and I get out of the Pentagon, I'm in. Jack thought to himself, picking up the phone to check in with Landry before phoning Hammond to get permission to go offworld.
"Are you kidding, Jack!" Hammond wasn't taking it as well as Jack had hoped. "The President has had us preparing this information for months; you can't walk out on a project like this!"
"Of course I won't, sir," he smirked. "I'll be flying the jumper out on them, not walking."
"Jack, these are important presentations… what if the Ori attack, we need to have these ready and the right people informed to calm the masses in time..."
"Sir, you know you're better at that than I am anyways…"
Eventually Hammond gave in, letting a grinning Jack leave for Cheyenne Mountain that afternoon.
There was no welcoming committee or anything when Jack arrived at his old stomping grounds, not that he'd expected one. The airmen at the check in looked startled when Jack's name popped up on the screen. "Good morning, sir. Glad to see you back."
Jack just nodded and made his way to the locker rooms. His locker had been taken over by Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell. He made his way to the locker in the back where he had left all of his spare fatigues and pulled some out. They smelled of locker but he put them on anyways, hoping it wouldn't be noticeable later.
Landry's office was in a state of panic. Not only were the Ori driving them all to the brink, but Ba'al had recently stolen a number of 'gate addresses. Numerous reports were in the in-box, requisition requests, and on his desk, his laptop flashed that he had 32 new emails. Landry walked in shortly after Jack, looking stressed and a bit surprised that he had gotten there so fast.
"Hey, Jack! Wasn't expecting to see you so soon."
"Landry, sorry to be so punctual."
"Not a problem at all, in fact your being here gets rid of about half the requisitions on my desk- you'll be taking away the scientists that keep sending them," Landry said with a smile. Jack chuckled as well and escorted himself to Daniel's lab; he was heading up most of the research by translating it all for the scientists.
As was expected, Daniel looked like he had won the lottery, only more tired and off color and less rolling in money. Vala was sitting in his chair, spinning in circles and talking about absolutely nothing. Jack decided that he liked her immediately. Looking around the room, many more people were sitting around examining things. Daniel finished translating something and handed it to one of the airmen at the door, he looking around and cracked his knuckles.
"Oh, hi Jack!" He said. His voice was full of exhausted enthusiasm. Daniel launched into a full scale explanation of the project, where they'd be going, what they'd be doing, what had been done, what had to be done, what to bring, the best way to pack the jumper… anything and everything. Jack tuned him out, instead he shifted his eyes to Vala who had made an annoyed face and Daniel and was mocking him behind his back. "And yesterday, the sharks at the zoo were doing back flips and one of them ate my phone which I finally found this morning on p3x724," Daniel finished looking at Jack for a response.
"Oh, really Daniel. That's great. When do we leave?"
"You didn't hear a word I said, did you?"
"Course I did! I always listen when you talk."
"I like him Daniel; he listens worse than I do" Vala put in. "Does that mean you'll criticize him instead of me for awhile now?" Daniel threw her a look.
"What?" Jack asked, looking between the pair of them.
"Well," Vala started, "he just finished telling you about the sharks at the zoo that ate his phone."
"Oh."
"Welcome back, Jack," Daniel said with a smile. "Sam's in her lab, can you run this down to her on the way?" He held up a thick stack of digital prints from wherever, they were each covered in a layer of transparency paper with word in red marker all over it. Trying not to smudge the marker, Jack walked out of the room.
"You didn't even get mad at him!" Vala complained as he left the room. "Whenever I…"
"Vala, shut up!" Daniel barked.
Sam's lab was much the same as Daniel's only it was full of scientists. Felger included. Seeing the man almost made Jack turn around to find a good hiding spot but he was spotted first. "General O'Neill!" The man's excited voice stopped all work in the room. Sam looked up disdainfully at her fellow scientist before throwing her former CO and apologetic look and turning back to her work.
Jack came in the door hesitantly and put the stack of prints on the corner of Sam's desk. Felger came over and began talking, much like Daniel had only moments ago. Finally, Sam shoved the prints at Felger and barked, "Work!" in her most soldier-like voice. Felger did what he was told, grabbing the prints and immediately dropping half the stack.
Sam only stared at the papers scattered all over the floor of her lab. She had wanted to kill the man many times today, but this was the closest she had ever come to it. "Lunch?" Jack asked her, seeing the look she was giving Felger. Sam nodded, still visibly tense.
After a failed attempt to get Daniel to put down his translations and come to lunch, the pair of them headed to the commissary with only Vala in tow. They found Teal'c and Mitchell there too, and they all had a very pleasant meal together. Vala found Jack very entertaining and she didn't refrain from saying so. Though Jack appreciated her comments, he still didn't feel comfortable around her. Mitchell was another story altogether. He obviously respected the general, and wanted to get on his good side but the friendship the three members of the original SG1 had was a little intimidating.
Almost five hours later SG1 and a team of scientists and translators were preparing to leave for the Ancient outpost. SG1 was inside the jumper with Jack at the controls. Sam had taken the seat next to him leaving the other four to make themselves comfortable in the back. Daniel was seated next to Vala, keeping her hands away from the time device while answering all her questions.
Annoyed by the constant chatter from the back seat, Jack closed the doors, shutting them off from the back compartment. "How did you get wrapped into that one?" He asked Sam, humor in his eyes. Sam shrugged in response.
"She's not that bad, sir," she admitted. "Once you get used to her."
"In other words you've found my replacement?" He chuckled at Sam's bumbling attempts to reply.
A few seconds later they were all unloading the jumper on the other side of the wormhole.
Daniel didn't help much; he was too excited about being back at the Ancient-outpost-close-to-home and ran off in the direction of the archives, closely followed by a few of the lazier linguists. Felger went immediately to one of the consoles and began hitting buttons, beating even Sam. Jack chuckled as he unloaded his share of the equipment.
The unloading was interrupted when the entire outpost began shuddering. Felger stepped away from the console with is hands up. "That was not me!" He exclaimed. While Jack radioed Daniel to see what he'd done Sam went to the console to make sure Felger wasn't lying. Why did I let him come along, again? Jack asked himself, not coming up with an answer.
"We haven't touched anything, Jack, just looking around. What's going on?" Daniel's voice crackled over the radio.
"Sir, it wasn't Daniel. It was Felger over here," she tried pushing a few buttons without any response. "What did you do?" Felger only shrugged.
"Daniel, get back up here," Jack ordered coming to the console.
Sam threw Felger a look; he'd pressed just the right combination of buttons to set the alarms off around the entire complex. Sam turned her glare to the panel below her, "What did you do, press random buttons?" She asked him. She had a barely working knowledge of the Ancient language; luckily it was enough to decipher the keys on the panel below her. She hit a combination of buttons and the blaring noise turned off, the halls shook for a few seconds before the reverberations stopped.
"What was that shaking?" Daniel asked, coming into the stargate room with his entourage of linguists.
"Felger here set off the alarm and it was loud enough to make the old halls shake," Jack said. He hadn't liked Felger before and he really didn't like him now. "One more mishap like this, Felger, and you're home."
"But… I… You can't…" Felger stuttered looking at Sam for reassurance and not getting any.
"I do believe I can," was all Jack said, holding up a finger in warning. He then sighed and turned to Sam. "Carter, you should get started."
"Yes, sir," she responded.
It gave Jack great pleasure to be dialing the 'gate to send Felger home after only two days. Though it was a relatively short time he was glad he had restrained himself for so long; the man just got under his skin. Luckily, Sam had seemed to agree that her fellow scientist was more trouble than anything else; she hadn't protested when Jack had barked at Felger to get his stuff and meet him at the 'gate.
The 'gate 'kawooshed' and Jack sent his IDC through, Felger gave him one more reproachful glance before following the direction Jack's finger was pointing and stepping though the event horizon. As Felger stepped through Jack heard a familiar voice call out, "Sir!" It was Sam. He spun around in time to see his friend get sucked into the wall.
"What did you do now?" He asked, walking over. To his surprise the walls seemed to be trying to suck people up all over; scientists backed away from the walls as computers were sucked in and then spat back out at high velocities. "Everybody out!" He yelled, running towards the control chair to see what he could do. "Get to the 'gate!"
Scientists and linguists ran through the 'gate as fast as they could, leaving their computers to the hungry walls. Nothing happened when he sat in the chair; instead he jumped out of the chair and continued to urge the teams to get out of the crazy outpost.
So, what do you think? Should I keep going or am I a lost cause?