Chapter Two
"Sir!" the urgency in Major Samantha Carter's voice startled Colonel Jack O'Neill,
"Carter?"
"You HAVE to see this!" she said dumbfounded.
The two were sitting on the sofa in Doctor Daniel Jackson's office as the archaeologist flittered around trying to organise himself. Teal'C was standing by the door content to watch Jack as he played with a yo-yo. It was a Thursday afternoon and the team had been allocated a three-day weekend so Jack organised a trip to the Rocky Mountains. The difficulty lay in trying to get the last team member ready: Daniel.
An hour ago Teal'C had arrived (on time) by the elevators a large rucksack held loosely in his hand.
"It's supposed to go on your back," Jack instructed while they waited.
Giving up, ten minutes later, they marched to Sam's office. Her bag was packed and waiting by the door but she was still on her laptop; a colleague listening to her explain some scientific stuff. She immediately apologised and started shutting her computer off.
When they moved onto Daniel he had asked,
"Are we having lunch today?"
"Daniel It's fourteen thirty! Lunch was hours ago!" Jack answered and Daniel frowned glancing at his watch,
"Oh I must have lost track of time I've been reading about the . . . "
"I don't care! Tell me you've at least packed?"
"Err . . ."
So Jack and Sam had sat down on the sofa which was added after Daniel nearly threw his back out sleeping over his desk (Jack had moaned about it for weeks because it meant they missed a mission). Sam smiled apologetically at Jack and got her laptop out as Daniel started pilling books on his desk.
Sam turned the screen so her team leader could see it and as soon as he did he froze – the yo-yo unravelling and rolling to land just where Daniel was stepping,
"Ahh!" he cried out falling backwards against his desk knocking books and papers everywhere. The other three members of SG-1 didn't notice – fixated by the image on the screen,
"It looks like the black hole near P2W-451 O'Neill," Teal'C commentated.
"It can't be," Jack said,
"I know sir but . . ." Sam trailed off her thoughts scattered – if he hadn't felt exactly the same Jack would have heralded the moment.
"Guys?" Daniel moved in front of the screen rubbing his back,
"What's going on?" none of the three answered him and he frowned again,
"Helloooo?" he moved closer but the image of the screen didn't tell him anything,
"That really is annoying," the archaeologist muttered, remembering the numerous times Jack had described his frustration when Daniel ignored him.
Sam eventually passed the laptop to Jack and moved to Daniels' computer. After a few minutes of furious typing she turned the screen around to face the room – the frozen image of Hank Boyd and SG-10 stared out,
"…" Daniel gasped as he looked between the screens; the two pictures were almost identical!
Jack stood up and uncovered Daniels' phone from where it had been buried in papers. A tense emotionless expression fixed on his face as he was connected to General Hammond,
"Sir? Do you have a minute?" the commander was about to ask good-humouredly which member of his team needed to be ordered off base for their holiday, when he registered the tension in Jack's voice,
"Of course Jack where are you?"
"Daniels' office,"
"I'll be right there," Most generals would not respond so immediately to their second-in-commands but General George Hammond was not like most generals and the SGC was definitely not like most military bases.
After Jack put the phone down he turned to compare the images.
"How could that be on the internet?" he asked Sam,
"I don't know sir . . ." Sam bit her lip deep in thought,
"Could someone have got into our systems taken the photo from us?"
"No," Sam's response was instant;
"And even if they could – the angles all wrong. It's clearly the same area of space but this image has more detail like the camera was nearer or focused closer,"
"And there is no way this is some kind of coincidence?"
"No sir, look at the star formations, identical!"
"So what are we saying someone went to the planet sightseeing and took a photo?" Daniel asked sceptically,
"When you put it like that it sounds crazy," Sam sighed,
Jack remained silent; the helplessness at not being able to help SG-10 still gnawed at him almost a year later,
"Where'd you find the photo?" he asked,
"It was in a physics journal – I've been reading it since I was a teenager. This one was published almost a year ago but when I saw it was about black holes I put it to one side – it was right after …" Sam looked away – she remembered well the dressing down Jack gave her at the time.
"A friend from college was asking what I thought about it he's doing a PhD about them, wanted my opinion."
"Do we think this is a coincidence, published right after?" Jack asked raising an eyebrow,
"Guess not," Sam looked at the photo again. Daniels' laptop went into screen saver but no one touched it. Sam scrolled down and scrunched her nose up,
"Photo is credited to Lytton Mercer, what is that French?" she wasn't expecting an answer but Daniel had one anyway,
"Both names are English actually; Mercer is an old term for merchant and Lytton means the town by the torrent." He blushed when his teammates frowned at him,
"I like knowing the meanings of words and names – linguist," he explained,
"English as in . . ."
"England!" Sam exclaimed after searching the internet,
"He's twenty-eight lives in London, England,"
"What else do you know about him?" Sam clicked and typed and a couple of minutes later,
"Lytton Mercer, twenty-eight, born in London still lives right there in a place called Chiswick. Was paid a couple of hundred dollars for this photo," Sam scowled at that,
"According to this it's his first published picture and he works … in a photo shop!"
"Of course," Jack looked at his team like that was obvious and asked,
"Where are you getting this from?"
"I hacked the journal's website. They record basic information about people who contribute,"
"What else?"
"There isn't anything else here,"
"Anything else you can find," a few clicks later,
"He's no computer expert – I found a website he set up a couple of years ago and it's …" Sam winched as a particularly neon bright flashing page attempted to blind her,
"Could you not hack somewhere else?"
"Like where sir: bank records? Local police databases? I'm not really comfortable doing that," Jack frowned but didn't press the point,
"Guess that only one more option!" he said with worrying cheer,
"What?" Daniel asked nervously. Jack's smile grew,
"Come along my good friends!" he said with a terrible accent.
Daniel literally flinched,
"What was that?" he asked, Sam was giggling and Daniel finally caught up,
"Wait you're going to England?" Daniel asked,
"We are, yes since we can't do anymore here,"
"What are you doing?" General Hammond appeared in the doorway,
As Jack and Sam explained, Daniel picked up Jack's yo-yo and started to re-organise his office. He had been off world during the whole thing – stuck for over two weeks. Luckily he and the three other teams were safe during the whole episode. When Jack got to the part about wanting to go to England to speak to this guy the General rubbed his head,
"Jack your team is on holiday – I'll get SG-8 to investigate,"
"Sir! We'd really like to be the ones looking into this," Sam nodded eagerly,
"Jack you haven't had a holiday in god knows how long and you might not get another chance soon. Now you've been planning this trip for weeks and I think you should go,"
"General Hammond if someone took this picture they must have been there on that planet . . . maybe they can save SG-10!" Daniel injected calmly before Jack could say something he would regret.
"Is that likely Doctor?" George asked Sam doubtfully,
"Not with our level of technology … but we've seen some fairly advanced technology out there sir, maybe this guy wasn't there himself but if he could help – shouldn't we at least talk to him?" Sam spoke passionately and Jack beamed in pride as George nodded back,
"You're right Major however given our current budget constraints you'll have to go at your own expense,"
"Yes sir," Jack had enough money stashed away to pay for his whole team if they needed him too . . . and if they still wanted to come.
"This will be classed as your holiday also,"
"Yes sir," George looked at each of them making sure they were still committed to going. At their determined faces he nodded and turned to leave, pride filling him – it was a long-shot, even they agreed but they were still willing to go.
"I'll call some contacts over there see if I can't get you a guide," outside the door he heard Jack yell,
"I think we'll be alright talking to a camera guy!"
"Jack!" Daniel's admonishment was the last thing he heard and he smiled – sometimes he wouldn't trade his job for the world.
WC 1566
