AN EVOLUTIONARY GAP
By: Sadie
Category: Action Adventure/Romance
Couple(s): Daniel/Janet, Sam/Jack
Season: Seven (pre-Heroes)
Spoilers: Everything up to season seven is at risk.
Disclaimer: Because Showtime/Viacom, Sci-Fi Channel US, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions and Gekko Productions owns Stargate and I don't. Yet. Bahahahahaha.
Summary: "And you can't stop yourself from touching extraterrestrial goo!" retorted the Colonel. Daniel didn't correct Jack. "The goo touched me!" didn't seem like a good counter-argument.
Authors Note: First off a huge THANKS (and a fruit basket... do you want a fruit basket?) for Mara Jade Jedi and Caitlin for betaing this first chapter for me. Also, I'd thought I'd mention that this is heavily inspired by the book Blood Music by Greg Bear. And hey, look! It's a fanfic from me with plot! And Teal'c isn't trapped in a closet! Wow!
Chapter One: "A Giant Pond of Green Jello"
Colonel Jack O'Neill surveyed his surroundings with little interest. There were lots of trees. He recognized oak, spruce, and birch –but those were the names of trees from home. He wasn't on Earth; in fact, he was on another planet. Not that you could really tell, Jack thought. If he hadn't known any better, he'd think he was in British Columbia.
Jack wandered around a rock pile utterly bored. What he wouldn't do for something to –Jack stopped his line of thought immediately. The last thing he needed was ironic wish fulfillment. He was just asking for it –a sun exploding, a Goa'uld mothership, a blackhole or (Jack shuddered) something completely different.
The thought was already out there; however, so naturally something had to happen. Jack's eyes widened and his mouth propped open slightly at the sight of the 'something'. He took off his shades to look at it with his naked eyes. Hidden behind the rock pile and a few conveniently placed spruces (that weren't really spruces) was a giant pond of green Jello. Huh. Just when he'd thought he'd seen everything.
"Hey Carter," crackled Sam's radio.
She finished taking her soil sample and answered her commanding officer: "Sir?"
"You'd better come over here. I've found something… weird."
"Weird?"
"…Unusual?"
"More specifically…?"
"It's a pond I think."
So far, Sam wasn't that impressed. "A pond, sir?" Sam began to move on to take her next soil sample.
"It's fluorescent green, Carter, which leads me to think that it's not water."
Sam smirked and restrained herself from commenting on the Colonel's observational skills. Instead she echoed, "Green water?"
"More like green Jello… just get over here, will you? I'm about five klicks south from the base camp."
"Okay, sir. I'll be there soon."
A few minutes later, Sam finished taking her soil samples, and was getting ready to go and join the Colonel, when she heard someone call her name.
She looked up to see Daniel Jackson walking towards her. The Major smiled in greeting and waited for him to join her. "Are you going to Jack's Jello Pond?" he asked, air quoting the words 'Jello Pond'.
"Just going now," Sam answered, shrugging on her pack.
"I'm coming with you. Sounds weird." And it would probably be more entertaining than watching Teal'c meditate, Sam speculated.
Confirming her suspicion, Sam asked, "Getting bored with base camp?" Daniel had very little to do on planets like these –ones where there was lots of vegetation, but no signs of civilization. Daniel shrugged in reply and the two teammates set out towards the Jello Pond.
Goo. Daniel decided on first inspection that the pond looked decidedly goo-like. Jello was a bit too solid a description for what seemed to be a more fluid liquid.
"Good, you're here." Jack greeted his two teammates. He eyed the slime warily.
"I'm going to grab Teal'c and check in with Hammond," Jack told them, ready to hand over his discovery to the 'geeks'. Before leaving the Colonel asked, "I'm assuming you're gonna want to take a sample of it, Carter?"
"Probably, sir." Sam's head was buried in her pack, searching for her latex gloves.
It was probably because of all the cartoons Jack watched, but fluorescent green goo just screamed toxic and radioactive. "Just be careful touching it… got it Daniel?" he instructed, shouting over his shoulder. The Colonel frowned as he watched Daniel move closer to the pond's edge.
Daniel made some sort of grunt that either meant that he was agreeing with the Colonel, or calling him a Jack-ass under his breath for treating him like a child.
Naturally, (keeping with the theme of the mission) that was when something strange happened.
"Teal'c? You there?"
Teal'c's eyes immediately opened. He was sitting on a flat rock by the base camp. Contrary to appearance, he hadn't been sleeping. In fact, Teal'c had been in a deep state of mediation, acutely aware of all of his surroundings (there was an irritating fly-like insect that had been buzzing by his ear for the last hour). Teal'c's hand shot out, killing the fly instantly. That done, he answered his radio.
"O'Neill?"
"Carter's going to be there in ten to help you pack up camp. I'm taking Daniel home."
They were not scheduled to leave for another day. Teal'c curiosity was peaked. "What has happened?"
"Oh Daniel got attacked by a giant blob of goo," O'Neill answered with almost a casual tone.
Teal'c's left eyebrow raised. Once again, the Jaffa warrior found himself confused due to Tau'ri euphemisms (or was it just O'Neill-isms?).
"Interesting," he replied into his radio, "I will begin taking down the camp immediately O'Neill." Ever efficient, Teal'c began to do just that.
Too often today Jack had been feeling the urge to smack Daniel in the head.
"Jack, I really don't need to go back to the SGC. I'm fine," argued the archeologist as they walked towards the Gate.
"It's not your call, Daniel."
"I feel fine," he repeated, stressing the word 'fine' as if Jack had been deaf the first dozen times.
"Carter might have missed it, but I saw that stuff sink into your skin. Until Doc Fraiser pokes your ass with needles and declares you non-radioactive, you're not fine."
Daniel hated how stubborn Jack could be. He was intolerable (and Daniel told him as much).
"And you can't stop yourself from touching extraterrestrial goo!" retorted the Colonel.
Daniel didn't correct Jack. "The goo touched me!" didn't seem like a good counter-argument. Instead he chose to grind his teeth a bit harder. The two men walked in silence the rest of the way to the Stargate.
"Teal'c!"
The man in question finished stuffing a pack with the last of the two tents. "Major Carter," he greeted.
"Almost ready to go?" Teal'c answered by nodding, and pointed to the equipment pack a few meters away from him. Sam went over to finish tying up the pack.
"How is Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c inquired.
"He was whining about the injustice of being forced to go back to the SGC last I saw him. He's fine."
"You believe O'Neill was too hasty in his decision?"
"I didn't say that," Sam answered as Teal'c walked over to help her put on her eighty pound pack.
"Ten dollars says that nothing's wrong with him." Sam was worried, but she was determined not to let it show. By making a light-hearted bet, she could pretend the situation wasn't serious.
"Twenty dollars and the watching of Star Wars next movie night," was Teal'c's retort. Was he just as worried? Was he playing along for the same reason she was? Or was it just to make her comfortable?
Sam added her own amendment, "We'll watch Princess Bride when Janet gives him a clean bill of heath." Internally Sam wondered when she had started using humour to cover up her feelings. Had she inadvertently picked up the Colonel's bad habit of hiding behind a façade of sarcasm?
Teal'c eyebrow shot up. "Agreed," he replied. As Sam scanned the campsite for any forgotten items, she tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach that the odds were in Teal'c's favour. Did Daniel ever return from a mission with 'a clean bill of health'?
"Offworld activation from PX3 489, sir. Receiving SG-1's GDO."
This news was received with a sharp nod from the sergeant's commanding officer General Hammond. SG-1 was on time for their scheduled radio check. Good. Hammond liked it when things ran smoothly.
"Sir," a live video feed of Colonel O'Neill addressed the General, "Requesting permission to return to the SGC, a.s.a.p."
Hammond frowned. Maybe things weren't as smooth-running as he'd hoped? "Why, Colonel?"
"Daniel touched some green Jello-like thing and it went right into his skin. I'd like Fraiser to have a look at him."
"I'm fine, General," Hammond heard in the background, and Jack gave the off-screen protester a withering look.
"Does Major Carter need to stay behind to finish her preliminary surveys?"
"Nope. She's already done. She and Teal'c are packing up camp right now."
"We'll see you in a few minutes then," Hammond said, granting his permission.
"Thank you, sir. Daniel, quit moaning and…" The radio transmission cut off.
"Open the iris, sergeant, and call Dr. Fraiser and let her know that she has an unexpected post-mission physical."
"What seems to be the problem?" inquired Dr. Janet Fraiser as Daniel and Jack trooped into the infirmary.
"What typically happens when I specifically tell Daniel not to touch something?"
"He touched something," Janet concluded.
Daniel's teeth were going to dull soon from grinding.
"I feel fine." His protest was weak, but not unheard by Janet.
"I'll be the judge of that," she replied. Turning slightly, she called out to a nurse lurking on the outskirts of the infirmary: "Sally, could you set up the MRI for Dr. Jackson?"
Daniel gave his doctor a charming smile –a last ditch effort to get out of the unpleasant situation. Janet would have none of it. "Can I have your arm, Daniel? I want to take some blood."
Daniel groaned and Jack looked almost gleeful. Jack slowly backed out of the room to leave the doctor and patient alone, but wasn't quite fast enough –
"Janet? Jack was near the contaminant too. I wouldn't let him leave yet." Daniel jerked his head towards the Colonel who had one foot out in the hallway.
"Sir, he's right. Don't go anywhere. I'm going to want a full physical from you too."
Jack's expression almost made the atrocious situation worth while for the archeologist.
A pin-light in the eye, a cold stethoscope on the back, a wooden stick stuck down the throat, needles jabbed in unmentionable regions, a CAT scan, and a MRI scan later, Janet addressed the reunited team with her findings:
"I want you to tell me immediately if you have any symptoms Daniel, but from what I can see, you're fine."
"I am?"
"He is?"
"That's weird."
"Indeed."
"MRI, x-ray and blood work all came back clean," Janet told the doubting Toms.
"Well what do you know," muttered the Colonel, and walked away from the group to report to Hammond on a black phone on the infirmary wall.
"Teal'c…?" hedged a smug Sam Carter.
"You are the victor… this time, Major Carter."
"Wait a second. What was that…?" asked a confused Daniel. Sam shrugged innocently and Teal'c didn't bat an eye (not particularly unusual).
"You bet on whether I'd gotten infected with something?" concluded the perturbed archeologist. Of course he was right, but his teammates would never admit to it. Verbally. (Sam's victorious smirk spoke for itself.)
"Post mission briefing in twenty minutes kids," Jack announced, rejoining the group.
"They bet on whether I'd get sick!" Daniel whined to Jack.
Jack's response was typical: "Really. Who lost and why wasn't I in on it?"
Daniel sighed and muttered something unintelligible under his breath. They knew better than to ask.
It wasn't until a few days later that a slightly nervous Daniel Jackson found himself once again in the infirmary.
"I'm looking for Janet…?" he asked a nurse who was sticking a tongue depressor down Siler's throat.
The nurse smiled and waved distractedly in the direction of Doctor Frasier's office.
Daniel knocked anxiously on the door.
"It's open!" Janet shouted from inside the room. Daniel came through the door in a whirlwind.
"Hey Daniel, what can I do for you?" Janet asked. If Daniel wasn't so freaked out, he'd probably notice how Janet's whole face brightened at his intrusion.
"Hey," he replied, and launched right into his problem: "Do you remember how you told me the other day that I should report any symptoms--"
Janet was all business now, "What happened?"
Daniel pointed to his eyes, "I'm not wearing contacts." She noticed he wasn't wearing glasses either.
Janet frowned and led him briskly into the main infirmary. There were tests to be done.
TBC
(I like reviews more than Jack likes Jello...)
