The day was young. The sun had only risen less than half an hour ago. Colonel Jack O'Neill jogged down the trail at a steady pace. His heart raced. It had been a while since his last run. It had been a long week and he needed some way to releave some of the stress. As the trail made a narrow left turn he thought back to that last Monday. The day it all happened. What a crazy insane week it had been for them.

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He arrived at Stargate command like he had the same time every morning for the last five years. Scattered random thoughts flashed through his mind as he slipped off his bike helmet and set it on the back seat. They were scheduled to go to PX91024

today and he wondered what they would find. Or what was usually more correct (what would find them?).

"Good morning Luitennate." The man simply nodded as he checked the Jack's id. He handed it back. Where would he go first? There breifing was not for another two hours. Sam. She was probably in the science lab working on some new experiment, or more than likely she was trying to figure out what the device they had brought back from px105397 was. He walked down the hallway, made a left and then a right. Silently he peered into the lab. He smiled to himself as he watched her.

Major Sam Carter was sitting on the edge of a stool and starring intently at the screen of her laptop. The bangs of her short blond hair hung. They dangled on the tops of her eye lashes.

"You can come in." Jack caughed. Suddenly he felt embarrassed. She looked up at him as he walked over to her. "I don't like it when people spy on me." She smiled.

"I..I wasn't sure. You looked busy." He stammered.

"Yeah well I've been here since four trying to figure out what makes this thing tick." Jack thought that that sounded more like a phrase that he would have used. He looked at the laptop he could not make sense of any of the data. Science had never been his strong point in high school.

"Any ideas?" He asked her. Sam stepped down from the stool and walked over to the table where the artifact lay. She sighed.

"Honestly. No. So far to me all it seems like is a box. A box with allot of markings on it that I cant make out."

"Just a box?" She nodded. Jack eyed it more closely. His hands pressed against the table he leaned in closely. "It's a pretty cool box." Sam could not disagree.

"What I do know is that the material is some form of Jade."

"Jade?"

"Yeah. It's a type of ornamental stone that was first used in pre-1800 China as well as New Zealand. It was used mostly to carve weapons such as axe heads and knives."

"This doesn't look like a weapon."

"Yeah. I know. "

"And why does it have to be anything more than just a box."

"Sorry?"

"I meant, maybe it is just a box. You said Jade is a type of ornamental stone. Maybe its just an ornament. Just a decoration. Why's it have to be some big dangerous scarey artifcat?"

"It doesn't."

"Ok then. For now it's a box. As soon as Daniel gets here to get a better look at it I'm sure that he'll find some way of prooving that it's more than just a box but until then- let's go to the mess hall and get some jello."

"Jello?" Sam was ammused. "Sir. It's eight in the morning."

"I know that." Jack assured her. "But I want Jello. Are you coming or not?" By now he was standing in the door way. Sam was torn. Although she knew she was not going to be able to get anywhere until Daniel came. So she willingly followed Jack to the mess hall.

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He stopped long enough to catch his breath. The air was cool and a chill went down his spine. If things could have been done differently. If only he could go back. Then again. Would he have changed anything?