I've based this around a character of mine own: Dr Keri Marks. Read on to find out more!
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate SG-1 or the characters, just the character of Keri Marks.
*****
Keri had been working for six hours solid on this ancient tablet that SG-2 had brought back from PX4-735. She was nearly finished translating the difficult scripture on it. She believed, to the amusement of the rest of the research team, that it was a set of instructions for a type of collection or database that might contain important information concerning the evil Goa'uld. Of course, if she could prove it then it would be very valuable. The database would have to be found and retrieved; a high priority mission. It would probably be assigned to the almost legendary SG-1, but she did have a small glimmer of hope that SG-2, the unit on which she worked as a civilian consultant, would be allowed to take this one. It was about time they got some of the exciting missions. Just another ten minutes or so, she smiled to herself, and then I'll prove them wrong.
There was just one problem. The last sentence or section of data was baffling her. It was slightly different to the rest of the text and it was putting her off. It could be a reference to a specific part of the database, or it could be a possible location to look for it. Piles of dictionaries and reference notes lay scattered on the desk around her. She was still going nowhere. It didn't help that she had to share the research lab/library, not being important enough to have her own office.
That was something else that SG-1 were privileged with; they all had their own offices/rooms etc. She enviously thought of Dr Jackson's office, filled with the wondrous finds of their travels, all that space to work and explore the past of other planets. She'd only ever been in there once. As far as she knew, Dr Jackson himself was a fairly reasonable, not-at-all selfish, rather good-looking archaeologist. She doubted he remembered her. After all, she'd only been working here about a month, and he was the man who made the whole Stargate program possible. Why would he ever notice her? However, there had been that chance encounter in the hallway one time, where she'd made an utter idiot of herself by bumping into him……
As she thought, and her mind drifted between her work and other things, she didn't hear the soft knock on the door, or the quiet footsteps. She chewed abstractly on the end of her pen; her coffee sitting almost untouched by her notes, steaming away quietly.
"Am I interrupting something?"
The sudden voice startled her and she jumped, dropping her pen and accidentally spilling her lukewarm coffee all over the desk. She stood up quickly and grabbed some of her notes and the tablet, but wasn't quick enough to save the reference books or the rest of her notes.
"Great! Just what I need!" she muttered sarcastically. The visitor, she was surprised to see, was Dr Jackson. 'Oh this just gets better!' She thought. 'Not only have I ruined the last two hours of my work but I've probably convinced him that I'm the clumsiest person on the planet!!'
He winced in sympathy for the accidental damage and moved closer.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I just came by for a book," he explained.
"It's okay. It's my fault." She sighed, looking at the mess all over the desk,
"And I was so nearly there!"
She resigned herself to separating the soggy notes from puddle of coffee, now dripping onto the floor.
"Well, I don't have a deadline to reach just yet. I can give you a hand, if you like."
Keri glanced up.
"That would be so helpful! Thank you, Dr Jackson." She looked very relieved and extremely grateful. He smiled at her, vaguely embarrassed, and immediately corrected her,
"Call me Daniel. Please."
"Okay, well, I think I should be able to get these sorted out," she held up the pile of soggy papers. "It's mostly on the computer now anyway. I'll just have to rewrite the end bit. However, the last part of the translation is proving complicated, to say the least. I would really appreciate some help with that."
"Sure, no problem."
*****
Half an hour later, the remainder of the report was finished and the translation complete. Daniel sat back and gave a relieved smile,
"You were right, that last bit was definitely trickier. But I think we got there eventually. I agree with you that it describes an important database, containing details of the Goa'uld we haven't encountered before. Even the Tok'ra will be interested in this!"
"Do you think it's that important?" she asked, amazed.
"Certainly. We're always looking for something new to help us fight the Goa'uld. Maybe this database will contain 'gate addresses for Goa'uld home worlds or details of how they have been fought in the past. Anything's useful."
He thought for a moment.
"I'll set up a meeting with General Hammond and see if we can recover this database."
"That would be great!"
He got up to leave, but just as he got to the door, Keri called,
"Didn't you come for a book or something?"
He turned back, flushed and embarrassed, grabbed a book, mumbled something and fled. Keri smiled in amusement and shook her head, before turning to the tedious task of cleaning the desk and floor.
*****
Keri walked nervously up the stairs, towards the door of the briefing room. The meeting had been set up, as Daniel promised, and it also seemed he had recommended to the General that SG-2 be allowed this mission. She was really looking forward to her first proper assignment. Well, she'd been through the Stargate before, but not a lot, and certainly for nothing really interesting, something she could get really excited about. And this was it, her chance to prove herself.
She stepped into the room and took her place beside her team leader, Major Ferretti, and the other members of her team, Captains Trest and Fells. Looking around, she noticed the four members of SG-1 were also present and she wondered why. The general started the briefing by running through the discovery of the tablet and its supposed translation.
"Thanks to Dr Marks, and I believe also to Dr Jackson, the translation of this tablet has been completed in record time." He smiled over at Keri, who noticed Daniel was also looking at her. The general gestured for Daniel to continue and lead the discussion of the alien database. He stood up and moved around the table until everyone could see him.
"From the little we've gathered from the stone tablet, these people were possibly a more technologically advanced race than we first assumed. According to Major Ferretti's team, the small town shows signs of a civilisation a couple of hundred years less advanced than Earth, possibly in the early Edwardian times, if one were to compare histories. However," he paused and began to pace the width of the room, "the network of caves in the hillside, where the tablet was found, was obviously built by far superior technology. The tablet also talks about a deposit of information about the Goa'uld, a sort of early computer database, possibly containing details of their origins, their technologies, their home worlds et cetera. The point is, this database is too advanced for the people of PX4-735 to have created. The last lines on the tablet talk of a world currently under Goa'uld control that used to belong to another race, the ones who made this database, and were possibly enslaved by the Goa'uld or wiped out."
The general concluded,
"This is a top priority mission, and will be very dangerous. The chances of running into the Goa'uld are very high, so that's why SG-1 will accompany SG-2 on this one, as well as a unit of marines. I want you ready to go in one hour. Dismissed."
Colonel O'Neill went over to talk to Major Ferretti, who apparently were old friends, delighted to be working together again. Keri stood, slightly shaky at the idea of working alongside Dr Jackson in the field. Not many teams got to work with Colonel O'Neill and his people. It should be a valuable experience. As she went to leave the room, Daniel came over and fell into step beside her.
"You know, this is my first big mission of any kind. I'm still trying to getting used to going through the stargate!" she confided in him. He patted her on the shoulder.
"It'll be fine. Just stay with me and the others and try not to get shot!"
Keri was struggling between a feeling of panic at getting shot and the emotions churning through her from Daniel's seemingly innocent touch. She tried for a smile, and felt it come out more like a grimace.
He laughed at the nervous expression on her face.
"Hey, relax! We're just going in, getting the database, and leaving. If anything does happen…" he shrugged. "Well, Jack's in charge, he'll take care of it."
Keri looked back over her shoulder at Colonel O'Neill, talking animatedly to Major Ferretti.
"Do you trust him?" she asked Daniel seriously.
"With my life. Come on, I'll help you take these things back to the research lab."
He grabbed a handful of the books and notes from her arms and grinned at her. She smiled back, slightly nervously and just concentrated on walking in a fairly straight line towards the labs.
*****
To be continued…