DISCLAIMER β I don't own Stargate or any of the charaters from the show; however I did make up a few alien characters of my own for this fic. I am writing this fic purely for my own entertainment and the entertainment of others. No money has changed hands. No infringement of copyright is intented. This is fun, no?
A/Nβ Thanks again to those of you who replied! You made my day. Here is the next part, for your reading pleasure. )
The Pandora Experiment
3. Missing In Action
"Major Carter, have you seen Colonel O'Neill?"
Samantha Carter looked up from her work to see the stocky figure of General George Hammond framed in the doorway of her lab. Sam couldn't judge by the expression on the general's face, but deductive reasoning told her Hammond was most likely not in a good mood. Hammond would not be here in her lab, looking for Jack under normal circumstances, so it didn't take the mind of a brilliant astrophysicist to conclude everything wasn't as it should have been inside Cheyenne Mountain. Most probably, Jack was avoiding his commanding officer, and If the colonel was avoiding the general for some reason, this might be a likely place for him to hide. Sam decided that if Jack was, in fact, trying to avoid the general, she did not want to know why. She was overcome with a powerful sense of relief at being able to tell Hammond honestly that she knew nothing of Jack's whereabouts.
"Colonel O'Neill was here earlier, sir," Sam said. "He left, though. He said he wanted to see SG-13 depart for their latest mission."
"Yes," said Hammond. "That was at 1100 hours."
Sam glanced at her watch, and then at the clock on the wall of the lab. Both timepieces confirmed that it was now 1400 hours. No wonder she was hungry. She realized she'd worked through lunch. She said to Hammond, "I haven't seen the colonel since he left here, although he did mention something about checking on Daniel after he saw SG-13 off."
Hammond made a face, the meaning of which Sam was sure she didn't want to learn. "Have you seen Dr. Jackson today, major?"
"Not since breakfast, sir. Why?"
General Hammond, it seemed, was not about to answer that particular query. "If you see Colonel O'Neill, tell him to report to my office ASAP."
"Will do, sir."
"Very good, major. Thank you." With that, Hammond did an about-face and marched out of the lab.
Not a happy man, Sam decided as she watched him leave. Definitely not a happy man at all.
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Commander Tobar did not appear to be a happy man. Chief Historian Kinyi thought briefly on what might be the cause of the commander's grim expression as she watched the soldier march in her direction. Tobar was never really pleasant-tempered at the best of times. Kinyi speculated part of the reason for his gruff disposition came from an evident discomfort in his leg. He seemed to be limping more markedly than usual today. Tobar had been wounded several years ago, and although the wound had healed sufficiently for the commander to return to active duty, the leg would never be as it was before. It could have been restored, Kinyi thought. The problem was that Tobar would not let the healers regenerate it. He wore the reminder of his wound like a badge of honour, the stubborn fool. Kinyi smiled to herself. Stubborn and cantankerous he might be, but she loved him anyway. She had thought to tell him so, many times, but that would be outside the dictates of their customs. She already belonged to a bonded group and they could not have an odd number. Her mates would never have accepted Tobar, anyway.
Tobar had almost reached her location, and Kinyi prepared herself for the onslaught of temper she could see forming in his expression. His ire was not caused entirely by the pain in his leg, she knew. She looked around quickly at the other historians, who were all working busily, uncovering the treasures of this world's past. Surely Tobar's trouble had nothing to do with Kinyi's colleagues and their eager students.
"Professor Kinyi," Tobar called out.
Kinyi did her best to smile at him. "Goddess greeting, Commander Tobar," she said. "See what I've found here."
"I've no time for rocks and the like," Tobar grumbled.
"But this isβ"
"Professor Kinyi, hear me," Tobar said. "I have no love for your dusty treasures. Have you seen First Lieutenant Chena?"
"I have not," she answered. "Was he not with you?"
"It's his turn to keep watch and I cannot find him."
"Well, I don't know where he is," Kinyi said. "I have been working here for hours. Have you asked the other soldiers? The technicians?"
Tobar's expression became positively terrible to look upon when she'd mentioned the technicians. "I don't suppose you have seen Liyal today?" he said.
"Not since we came through the gateway. As I've told you, I have been working here for hours, Tobar."
Tobar made a growling sound and glared with a fierceness that would have made a lesser being than Kinyi shiver in anticipatory dread of what might come next. "I'm taking two of my men back to the gateway. We will look for Chena and Liyal on the way. Make sure everyone else stays here. Lieutenant Taiya will be in charge until we return. If you should need anything, speak with her."
Without waiting for Kinyi's acknowledgement of his orders, Tobar turned and limped away from her. Kinyi returned to her work, using a small brush to clean away the dirt from the stone tablet she'd uncovered. Her mind was not completely on her work any more, though. She wondered what Chena and Liyal had gotten themselves into this time. They were undoubtedly the chief mischief-makers on this exploration team, and they had been spending a lot of time together during the past several weeks. No doubt Tobar would accuse them of conspiring to play some immature trick. Kinyi preferred to give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they only wanted to start a new bonding group and were off in the pretty, fragrant Ksenian forest spending time together in private. Of course, with Liyal and Chena's collective reputation for trouble on a grand scale, Kinyi supposed that even if the latter were true, the soldier and the technician could still manage to cause more than a minor incident.
