A/N: As promised, here is the next chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter 3 – The First Year
Carter had just finished delivering the bad news. Not only was their first plan not going to work, but also neither of their back-up plans would work either. Plan B was to beam down to the planet and gate home from there and plan C was to use the 302's to fly away from the Odyssey. Neither of the plans would allow them to save the Asgard core that contained all their knowledge, but that didn't matter because neither option allowed them enough time to escape the blast wave that would come from the ship. The only reaction that Carter received was stares of disbelief.
After giving everyone a moment to take in what she just said, Carter had one last piece of information to deliver.
With a little bit of an up-beat tone in her voice Carter said, "But hey, on the bright side I can modify the beaming technology with the matter converter so that we can literally manufacture whatever we need so we don't have to worry about running out of food and water…"
"So let me get this straight Carter," O'Neill interrupted "we are stuck here for god-only-knows long, possibly never able to get off and being able to manufacture food and water is supposed to make us what… excited?! Don't get me wrong it's nice to know we won't have to worry about running out of the essentials, like cake, jello, and coffee, but the two just don't balance out."
Without anyone saying another word, the meeting broke up and everyone went their separate ways.
***
The initial shock of their situation wore off after a couple of days, and within a week everyone had settled back in to the routine that they had established in the first week they were in the time dilation field; that this was an extended vacation that should be enjoyed, well at least in the way that they would normally enjoy a vacation.
Cam and Teal'c continued working out and training together.
Daniel dove right back into learning everything he could from the Asgard knowledge base, with Vala still pursuing him relentlessly.
With all of his paperwork caught up, Landry started tending to some plants on board.
Carter went back to working on trying to come up with a solution to the problem that they were in, a challenge that she would have enjoyed if not for the dire consequences that they all faced.
O'Neill resumed his Simpson's marathon and figured that if he was going to be here for a while that he should at least be comfortable, so he used the matter converter to create a nice, comfortable recliner for himself. If anyone asked about it he would just tell them that it was for his knees, an excuse which almost always worked without raising suspicion.
***
Around the start of the fourth month things started getting a little interesting on the Odyssey. With in a matter of days, the atmosphere on board completely changed.
The first major change came when during breakfast one morning Daniel and Vala were joking around and openly flirting with one another. Up until this point Vala had been constantly pestering Daniel about one thing or another while he pretended to be going over some information from the Asgard core, trying his best to ignore what was being said.
Teal'c finally spoke up and simply asked, "Dr. Jackson, what has changed between yourself and Vala Mal Doran?"
Daniel turned to look at Teal'c unable to say anything, while Vala started mumbling incoherently.
Letting out a little laugh, O'Neill interrupted and said, "T, isn't it obvious, they are seeing each other."
Teal'c only response was to raise one eyebrow.
"You know T, seeing each other as in sleeping together," O'Neill managed to say with a relatively straight face.
A moment of silence followed his comment, when Daniel finally asked, "Is it that obvious?" not seeing any point in trying to deny what had just been said.
At that point everyone turned to face them and simply gave a little nod saying that it was.
The next day O'Neill stopped by the room that had essentially become the equivalent of Carter's lab at the SGC. As he entered he said, "so whatcha doin'?"
Carter didn't even look up and said, "The same thing as yesterday, trying to figure a way out of this mess, Sir," grateful that unlike her lab on the base that there wasn't anything for him to pick up and fiddle with here. "Is there something I can do for you Sir?" she asked hoping that she might be able to get him out of here quickly.
"Well, actually I was hoping that you might use the matter converter to make a few bottles of beer," O'Neill said trying not to sound too desperate.
"I'm sorry Sir, but you know as well as I that alcohol is not allowed on board," Carter replied intentionally avoiding making any kind of eye contact, she really just wasn't in the mood for this today.
O'Neill then said, "Me no function beer well without."
"If you make one more reference to The Simpson's I'm going to have to have Teal'c destroy your DVD's," she said with a deadly serious tone in her voice.
"Come on, I'm just trying to…" but Carter cut him off before he could finish.
"Sir, we are all sick and tired of you going around the ship quoting The Simpson's all day. It never ends, ever since you finished your marathon you have been throwing out quotes left and right. Yesterday it was something like 'you've tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is never try.' Now do you really think that that is going to help me to figure out a way out of this mess," Carter said almost yelling.
Seeing that his last comment had been the proverbial straw, O'Neill decided that he should leave before she had Teal'c follow through with her threat.
On the way back to his quarters O'Neill passed by Cam's and heard a lot of noise followed by a loud crashing sound. It was pretty clear that he had finally had enough of being cramped up on this ship and was quite literally blowing of some steam.
The next few days showed a noticeable rise in the tension between everyone evidenced by the strange lack of conversation during meal times. Finally one day the silence was broken when Vala said, "So Sam, would you like some extra help in your lab?"
After thinking it over for a second Sam happily replied, "You know Vala that would be great. Two heads are better than one and I've been looking at the same data for so long that another perspective might just be what I need."
After that the mood on the Odyssey lightened up quite a bit. The only ones that seemed to be enduring the situation well were General Landry and Teal'c, which seeing as how they are the only ones that are able to actually sit back, relax, and not do much of anything, it wasn't all that surprising.
That night after everyone had gone to bed, O'Neill snuck into Carter's lab to use the matter converter. He didn't want anyone else to find out about his hobby, Teal'c was the only other person that knew about it and seeing as how he hadn't told anyone about it in the six years since he picked it up, there was no reason that he would now. It only took a minute for O'Neill to manipulate the controls before a potter's wheel, clay, paint, glaze, and a few other small supplies appeared in front of him. After seeing the effects that his Simpson's marathon, and subsequent related commentary, was having on everyone else on board he decided that finding another way to occupy his time would help him avoiding being the first one to test the Asgard healing pods that had just recently been installed, so he figured that there was no better time than the present to get back into 'throwing'.
O'Neill would have to make at least one more trip back here to get a kiln, but in the mean time he headed to the one part of the ship that no one would ever think to look for him in, his office. Since he never used it the only things in there were a chair and desk with his name on it, which meant there was plenty of room for the new additions. After a couple of more trips to Carter's lab to use the matter converter, O'Neill had a decent sized kiln, more clay, storage containers to keep the clay moist, and some shelves for finished work. By the time he got everything back to his office and set up, it was time to call it a night and get some sleep.
The next day O'Neill was able to slip away after breakfast without be noticed and aimlessly wondered around the corridors of the ship eventually ending up at his office. After changing into an older pair of BDUs, to keep anything from getting on his other clothes and subsequently having questions asked about what he was doing, nope definitely wasn't going to take any chances, he got to work.
Ever since he took the job in D.C., O'Neill hadn't had much time for 'throwing', stupid, annoying paperwork he thought, it was a lot harder to avoid it when you were 'the man'. The few hours between breakfast and lunch he spent relearning everything that he had forgot by not being able to practice that much over the last few years, and fortunately the learning curve was much quicker this time around.
After changing back into his other clothes, O'Neill began to make his way back for lunch. As he gradually went in that direction, he decided that this was the perfect time of day to get away and that when he did it again tomorrow he would try to make a pot and then slowly work his way up to more difficult items and designs.
It took about a week for O'Neill to settle into routine of having breakfast, 'throwing', lunch and from then until dinner he would check and see how everybody else was and what they were up to, careful to avoid any Simpson's related comments.
***
Carter wasn't quite sure what had changed, but whatever it was she, and everybody else, were extremely grateful for it. For the past month O'Neill had not made one comment about The Simpson's, and she was finally relaxed around him again, well as relaxed as anyone can be around a CO that was a couple notches higher in their chain of command. When he walked into her lab later that afternoon, it was just like the old days.
While walking through the doorway O'Neill said, "so whatcha doin'?"
Before Carter even had the chance to respond, Vala stepped in and simply said, "We are trying to find alternate ways to get out of this situation that don't end with our deaths."
"Yea, the whole dying thing gets kind of old after you already died a few times." He then just stood there for a minute thinking something over, while Carter and Vala stared at him, hoping and praying that he wasn't trying to think of a line from the Simpson's that would fit into their current conversation. He then suddenly spoke up and offhandedly said, "Wouldn't it just be great if we could go back in time and stop ourselves from ever getting in this mess in the first place," like it was the simplest thing in the world to do.
"I'm sorry Sir, but that just isn't possible, slowing down time within a localized field is not even close to the same thing as reversing time altogether… but it was a good idea," Carter said, somewhat disappointed that they couldn't.
After O'Neill and Vala left a little while later, Carter decided it was she had a hobby, other than doing extra work, and figured there was no time like the present to start learning how to play the cello. It was something she had wanted to learn for more years than she wanted to count, but there had always been something else going on. The conversations from earlier had been playing over and over again in her head for a while now and it forced her to accept that this was one problem that she couldn't will herself to find a solution to. From previous experience she knew that if she kept at this pace for much longer that she would get burned out in the next couple of weeks and then not be of any use to anyone for quite some time after that.
The following day Carter did something that was completely out of character for her: she voluntarily took a day off from work. She had been spending so much of her time cooped up in her lab that she had no idea what everyone else on board was doing and wanted to find out.
Not surprisingly Daniel was going over the vast amounts of information that were contained in the Asgard core, and enjoying every moment of it. When he wasn't doing that he was with Vala, and their interactions together were so cute, she thought. They had only been together for a short while and were already acting like an old married couple.
Vala had calmed down quite a bit and had taken to roller skating through the corridors of the ship, and had pretty much stopped entertaining herself at the expense of the others on board.
General Landry had turned a few connecting rooms close to his quarters into a greenhouse. Since he couldn't do any bird watching on a ship stuck in a time dilation field in outer space, this was as close as he could get to enjoy the outdoors he loved so much. Not only that but he was getting tired of the oxygen being produced by the matter converter, it just wasn't right: oxygen was supposed to come from plant life not from an alien machine, there were some things you simply couldn't program machines to understand.
Teal'c and Cam had continued training with each other. When they weren't doing that Teal'c had taken to playing ping-pong by himself, and was getting really good at it. Cam on the other hand did a lot of running, and played the occasional game of chess with General Landry or General O'Neill.
Carter could not for the life of her figure out what General O'Neill was up to. He would disappear after breakfast and not show up again until lunchtime and nobody had a clue where he had been going or what he had been doing. She had even tried to follow him once but found it impossible to keep up with him. There was already one mystery Carter couldn't solve and the prospect of adding another to that, especially one that involved General O'Neill, was something she wanted to avoid if at all possible. But no matter what she did, said, or asked, she could not get one piece of information about what he was up to. After a couple of weeks it turned into a sort of game between the two of them that they both enjoyed, and even looked forward to. She would try and come up with new ways of getting information out of him, and he in turn would come up with increasingly amusing ways of dodging it.
***
Six months passed with little variation in their daily routines, and before anyone knew it a year had gone by on the Odyssey.
TBC
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