Author's Note: Thanks for the feedback! I try to update daily, although sometimes life gets in the way and it's every 2-3 days, but I will be updating frequently!

Chapter 3

Pesky Power Problems

Jack finished tucking his black t-shirt in his pants, and hopped off the infirmary bed, grabbing his uniform shirt from the bed behind him. Frasier had released him with a warning to stay on base and come back if he felt anything abnormal. He had irritated her by snapping back that abnormal was all he ever felt since joining the SGC.

"You've been released?"

Jack saw Daniel watching him from the doorway, "Don't you have something your supposed to be doing?"

Daniel dropped his elbow from his front, where he had been holding it against his chest, and straightened, "Yes, I do."

Jack waved impatiently, "Then go...do."

"Your it."

"What?"

"What?"

"Never mind." Jack said, exasperated, as he finished buttoning his blue SGC shirt.

Daniel smiled, "Janet wants me to keep an eye on you."

That sneaky... "I'm fine." To prove his point, he strode to the door, adding a bounce to his step for emphasis.

Daniel rolled his eyes, "Whatever, come on. Sam's got your tennis ball in her lab, running tests."
"Teal'c, can you flip the switch over there...this light keeps fritzing." Carter sighed. She was tired of leaning over this ball. It didn't do anything. No EM pulses, nothing poking out, or radiation being emitted. It just sat and stared at her, taunting her lack of progress.

"Fritzing?"

Carter groaned and turned to face her irascible commanding officer, pasting on a cheerful smile, "Sir. I see Janet let you out."

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking." He peered around her shoulder, "What are you doing to it?"

The ball had several electrodes attached, wires running to different machines on her counter.

"I'm looking for any source of power. Any sign that it was responsible for your..."

"Shocking experience?"

"...yes. That." Sam turned back to study a read-out. She tapped the machine. "Damn!"

"Maybe this isn't a good time..." Daniel said, turning back to the door, contemplating an escape.

"Major Carter seems to be experiencing difficulties with her equipment." Teal'c pointed out the obvious.

"Ah...the fritzing comment." Jack pulled a stool over and perched his lanky frame on it. He wasn't going to admit it to anyone but he still felt sore from getting zapped by...whatever had zapped him.

Daniel was watching him carefully, "Maybe you should...."

"No."

"I didn't even finish what I was..."

"No." Jack glared, "I know what you were going to say and the answer is no. I'm fine, I'm not going to lay down, and I don't need to see Frasier." Jack finished, aware as he ended his mini-tirade that Carter and Teal'c were staring at him now. "For crying out loud, all I did was sit down!"

"Indeed."

"Okay, that's it. Carter, good luck figuring...black bean out...I still have reports to deal with." He slid off the stool, intent on leaving behind his watchdog.

Daniel went to follow, "Ah..ah." Jack waved his hand, "You stay here and help Carter."

Daniel went to reply but Jack beat him to it, "That's an order." And he stormed out of the room before any protests could be lodged.

"Well...that didn't go so well." Daniel observed.

"Indeed."
The base lights blinked, stuttered, and went out, dousing the floors of the SGC into a darkness so complete that everyone on the various levels froze wherever they were. Seconds later the loud mechanical clicks signaled emergency power kicking in, and red lights flared on throughout the corridors.

Jack was sitting at his desk typing when the power outage struck. He watched in disbelief as the screen winked out, taking his almost complete report with it. "No!" He hollered at the computer.

The red lights illuminated his office, and then, just as quickly as the power had gone out and emergency power on; the regular power flicked back to life with an electrical groan, almost like an engine with the gas pedal fully throttled, trying to go up a steep grade on a mountain pass.

"What the hell is going on?" He asked aloud. Carter. He would go find Carter. She always knew what was going on.
"I don't know what happened." A harried looking Major Samantha Carter was studying the readouts on the screen in the gateroom. "There wasn't anything before the power went down. No surge, or drop-off...nothing."

Daniel was standing off to her side, trying to figure out what some of the information actually meant. "That's not supposed to happen...right?"

"No." Sam gestured at the display, "The system is meant to have multiple breakers to prevent overloads, surges, anything. This shouldn't have happened."

Jack waltzed into the gateroom, noting Carter's tense and frustrated state, "What happened?"

Sam twisted in her chair, glared, then turned back to her screen, typing more commands. "The log indicates nothing unusual." She typed one more command, returning the computer to normal mode, and stood up, "If there's an answer, I'm not going to find it here."

"Major Carter, were you not experiencing electrical problems a while ago?" Teal'c asked, remembering the earlier problems in her lab.

Sam pushed her hands in her pockets, and paused, thinking. "Yes, but..."

"Have not all these power fluctuations occurred since we returned from PX7- 388?"

Carter knew where Teal'c was going, but she didn't think it was possible, "Teal'c, I've tested that ball in every possible way. It's nothing but a dead sphere with inscriptions."

"Something got Jack in my office." Daniel bit his lip, thinking. He needed to take a closer look at the surface on the ball.

"It was found beside O'Neill."

"It's a ball. It didn't knock me out and it isn't causing the power to do a bad impression of The Little Engine that Could." Jack figured the ball was probably what he had said from the beginning-a child's toy.

"Then how do you explain all of this?" Daniel asked.

"That's not my job." Jack smiled wryly, "Have fun Carter."

"...where are you going...Jack!" Daniel chased after Jack's retreating back. Teal'c inclined his head towards Carter and with hands clasped behind his back retreated from the room, following Jack and Daniel.

"Guys!" Carter called at them. Thanks, she thought irritably, and headed off to her lab.
"Do you think we should've helped her?" Daniel dug his spoon into a bowl of green jello.

"And do what?" Jack asked, "Unless you suddenly sprouted a degree in physics I don't think you can help."

"Moral support?" Daniel offered, sucking the jello off his spoon.

"I believe Major Carter was becoming...irritated...with my moral support." Teal'c lifted his own spoon gingerly, and held his cup of blue jello in his other hand.

"Let's face it, our moral support is about as much help as ..." Jack never finished his sentence because right as he was going to speak, the power dropped with a loud whine as all the mechanical systems came to an abrupt cease of activity, plunging the commissary in darkness.

Again, all personnel froze waiting for the emergency lights to cast its devilish tint to the underground levels...except seconds ticked by and no flare of red came to life.

"Uh...Jack?"

"Yes Daniel?"

"Is this supposed to happen?"

"No."

"Just checking."

"This is most unpleasant."

They sat in the quiet, hearing conversations begin to rise in level around them, as other's realized the emergency lights weren't going to provide any relief.

"Jack?"

"Daniel?"

"Are we just going to sit here?"

Jack sighed. He was getting ready to do something, though he wasn't sure what, when the regular lighting came back on, blinding everyone in the return to full brightness.

Daniel set his jello down, having kept it in his hand from earlier, "Maybe we should go help..."