I. Complications
It was mostly Daniel's fault. The whole team was in agreement on that point, even Daniel; though by the third or fourth time O'Neill groused about "damn archaeologists" and "civilian interference," Daniel's patience began to wear thin.
"Would you rather I hadn't ducked, Jack?"
"It was just a zat, Daniel. How many times have you been zatted?"
"I'm sorry my instinct for self-preservation is such a problem for you."
Carter stepped in. "Sir, it was really my fault. If I hadn't let down my guard that man wouldn't have been able to grab my zat."
"Save it, Carter. I need you to take another look at that DHD and see if you can repair it. As far as I saw, only one blast actually hit it."
"Yes, sir."
"Colonel O'Neill. Will General Hammond not send a search team if we do not report back at the appointed time?" Teal'c said, scanning the area for further threats.
"Yeah, he will send a team," O'Neill said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "To the planet he thinks we are on."
"I thought the Russian team was going to pass along the gate address to this planet, sir," Carter called from beneath the smoking DHD.
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SG-1 has been joining an already-established Russian team on a joint diplomatic mission to a planet called Roark. The Tauri delegation had just stepped forward to meet their welcoming party when the stargate had re-activated behind them, delivering a group of three tall, skeletal men who immediately began howling for help. The Roarkian ambassador and her party had looked uncomfortable, but ignored them.
"Aren't you gonna, I don't know, help them?" O'Neill said sardonically.
"Colonel O'Neill," Ambassador Maeva Bovee said stiffly. "There is nothing we can do for them."
"There must be something," Daniel said incredulously. He moved in their direction, but the ambassador grabbed his shoulder.
"I tell you, there is nothing. This is a sad but not infrequent occurance. These . . . strangers . . . invariably die within a few days of passing through the ring. Our medicine can do nothing for them. And in any case they will only lash out at us if we try."
"Do they always exhibit the same symptoms?" Daniel asked curiously.
"Symptoms?"
"Irrational behavior. Violence. Malnourishment."
"I see. Yes. Yes, they all behave the same way."
Carter's eyes met Daniel's across the circle. "Australia," Daniel said, and Carter nodded.
"Of course!"
Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Of what do you speak, Daniel Jackson?"
"Australia, Teal'c. It's, well, it was, originally, a penal colony," Daniel said excitedly.
"It's a fairly remote continent," Carter explained, jumping in before Daniel could get lost in a long-winded historical lecture. "At one time it was common practice for criminals and other undesirables to be exiled there."
"Let me get this straight," O'Neill cut in. "You're saying that the people of some other planet are using this planet as a dumping ground for their terminally ill citizens."
"In a nutshell, yes, sir," Carter said.
"We can't just leave them to die," Daniel said.
"Sir, I agree. It may be something as simple as a vitamin deficiency or a lack of antibiotics," Carter said, looking to O'Neill.
"I should know better by now," he said unhappily. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
"There are only three of them, sir," Carter said, checking her weapon.
"You don't understand," Ambassador Bovee said, looking distressed. "They are terribly strong and they are not in their right minds."
"Would it not be prudent to send them back to their homeworld?" Teal'c suggested.
"We do not allow them anywhere near our gate. We fear angering the leaders of their world. We are not a militant people."
"We have to help them," Daniel said, his face set in an expression that said I'm going to help them no matter what you say. "Jack? Sam?"
"Let us try to talk to them, Ambassador. We'll be very clear that we are not acting under your orders." Carter headed for the men. After a moment's hesitation the ambassador, though frowning, signalled to her bodyguard to let the Earth team pass. Daniel was already ahead of her, holding up his empty hands to prove he meant no harm.
"Did I mention I have a bad feeling about this?" O'Neill said to Teal'c.
"Indeed you did, O'Neill."
"As long as we have that on the record. Come on, T." And O'Neill and Teal'c followed Carter and Daniel toward the still-howling men.
What happened next had been a bit of a blur. Daniel had reached the men first, with Carter close behind. The men appeared to calm down a bit as Daniel spoke to them. Sam reached out to check the pulse of the man closest to her. And suddenly he had her zat, and another grabbed Daniel's sidearm, and the whole thing had escalated into a hostage situation which culminated in Ambassador Bovee dialing the gate to send the men- and their hostages-home.
"The address!" O'Neill had shouted as he was dragged backward toward the gate. "Tell the Rus-" His voice cut off abruptly as he vanished into the open wormhole.
The situation on the other side was chaotic. O'Neill twisted out of his captor's grasp as they stumbled out of the gate. To his left Carter was grappling with someone tall and hairy. Daniel, glasses slipping down his nose, was yelling something incomprehensible and firing his zat wildly into the crowd. Shots rang out, interspersed with the discharges of Teal'c's staff weapon. He saw Daniel duck and a beam of energy hit the DHD. And suddenly the noise died down and the crowd dispersed, fading away into the forest surrounding the temple ruins and leaving behind only the bodies of the three men they had originally made contact with.
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"I didn't get a chance to talk to the Russians," O'Neill said, pulling Sam's zat gun from the hand of one of the bodies. "I don't know if you've noticed, Danny-boy, but these humanitarian aid situations always end up with people dying."
Daniel, who had been examining some carvings on a nearby section of wall, looked over his shoulder at his commanding officer. "I don't know if you've noticed, Jack, but people are dying no matter what we do. I couldn't walk away, knowing we could have helped."
"Yeah, well, I didn't exactly see us helping anybody just then," O'Neill said, clearly disgusted with the whole situation. "That's the last time I buy anyone's sob story."
"So you did believe him. It wasn't completely my fault," Daniel said, digging a notebook out of his pocket. O'Neill ignored him.
"Carter, how's it coming?"
Carter stood up, brushing dust off her pants. "Not good, sir. It was a direct hit. I'm afraid some of these crystals are really fried. It could take some time to get this thing operational."
O'Neill raised an eyebrow. "Some time, Carter? Could ya be more specific?"
"I'm sorry, sir. It could be days."
"Oh, for crying out loud." O'Neill muttered. He spun on his heel impatiently, heading out toward the half-crumbled outer wall of the temple. "Teal'c, with me. We're gonna do a little reconnaisance. Daniel?"
The archaeologist's eyebrows raised quizzically behind his glasses. "Yes?"
"Just- just don't duck next time, okay?"
"Okay, Jack." He turned back to the inscription he was translating, unfazed. It was his fault today. Yesterday it had been Carter's fault; the day before, Teal'c was to blame. The team was always in some sort of trouble and it always got out again; and damned if he wasn't going to get as much translating done as he could before the inevitable shooting began again.
