A/N: Wow. FINALLY I get to post! I have had the most INSANE week ever, all ending this morning with an extremely important job interview. Fingers crossed for me! Thank you all for your reviews, they're much of the reason I love posting on this site – it's great to get feedback!

Another side note to dietcokechic: now that I've realised what your name means, I only JUST realised that you're the FAMOUS dietcokechic of the barista series! I've only got halfway through (which is why I haven't reviewed… waiting till I'm up to date), but I'm all the more pleased that you like my fic!

Oh, and note to Bookworm: "me man, you woman, you do as I say!" hehe. You should all read "Jack's family" if you want to know what that's all about…(or just anyway, it's great)

This story's about to pick up the pace now that the intro has been properly done… hope you stick with it!

Chapter VII – Doug

Jack thumped his head back against the uncomfortable aeroplane seat again as he wondered for the umpteenth time if they were even remotely close to arriving in Australia. The seat was nice leather – the plane they were on seemed to be an old Air Force One so was pretty well equipped – but a seat on a plane is a seat on a plane… He looked around them and mused at the strangeness of all being crammed into one section of the plane. Granted it was the only area still fit for passengers to travel in – the rest of it having been gutted for god knows what machinery Sam and the General thought necessary for the mission – but it would have been nice to be housed in the Presidential suite area of an old Air Force One jet. Additionally, despite not flying commercially, they'd still given him a luggage allowance of 50lbs – not that he needed that much. Must be some heavy crap flying with them.

He felt his eyes close over again with a mix of travel weariness and boredom. The sensory loss heightened his hearing and he wasn't able to block out Jonas' droning voice any longer. Sam had spent the entire trip reading up on Australia, the machinery they would be using, and probably the cure for cancer. Teal'c had remained stoically poised in his seat of course, barring a couple of hours in Kel'nor'eem, but Jonas… Jonas had passed the time not working on aboriginal mythology, by regaling anyone who would listen with inane facts about Australia. Jack mused that the kid needed to get out a lot more. The price had been listening about how Australia's population was so small… how Sydney was the biggest city but not the capital (apparently it was some speck of dust in the middle of nowhere called Canberra), how a koala was NOT a bear, and how – somewhat sadly, Jack thought – people didn't actually ride kangaroos. He had now moved on to talk about the system of government. If there was one thing Jack was not going to stand for, it was unnecessary politics talk.

"So you see," Jonas was talking animatedly to Teal'c. "Although Australia is its own country, the head of state is STILL the Queen of England – I guess that makes her the Queen of Australia too." He paused, waiting for any reaction from the Jaffa, but got none. Undeterred he continued. "Of course she doesn't actually do anything - they've got a representative officially in charge."

Jack took his opportunity when Jonas paused for what must have been a life-saving breath to interject.

"Jonas," he said calmly, his voice betraying his actual feelings. "We don't care."

Jonas stopped still and looked around to where Jack was sitting behind him. Sam had also looked up from her reading, apparently curious as to how this exchange was going to pan out.

"I'm sorry Colonel?" Jonas asked innocently.

"We don't care about the Australian Government OR the population OR the geography, OR even about the flora and fauna! The country could be governed by a peacock for all I care!" His eyes had snapped open and his hands were raised in a gesture of surrender. "I'll admit I was disappointed to hear we wouldn't be riding kangaroos, but that's where my interest dies!"

"Ok." Jonas looked at Jack carefully, wondering what this was all really about. "I just thought it might be useful to have some background knowledge…"

"Why?" Jack looked completely bemused at such a thought. "We go off world every other day knowing NOTHING about those places…"

"It would perhaps be fortuitous if we did, O'Neill." Teal'c contributed to the conversation. "We would encounter fewer difficulties."

"We've been doing fine." Jack grumbled, sinking back into his chair and closing his eyes, trying to block them all out and return to his numb boredom.

"Teal'c's got a point, sir." Sam had put her files down in front of her and was looking at him, although his eyes were still closed. "It might be beneficial to learn more about where we're going rather than sulking all the way there."

Jack opened his eyelids a sliver to look sideways at Sam. "I'm the one sulking! You've hardly said a word to any of us!"

Jonas looked from Jack to Sam and back again before standing up and shaking the stiffness out of his legs. "I'm going to walk around a bit." He avoided looking at Sam or Jack, but motioned to Teal'c instead. "Coming Teal'c? Why don't we go see how the pilots are doing, maybe they can tell us how much longer we've got…"

Teal'c didn't need to be asked twice. In one swift, silent movement he was out of his chair, moving purposefully towards the front of the plane, leaving Jack and Sam alone, glaring at each other.

Sam held Jack's glare, but couldn't help feeling an increasing sense of unease. She swallowed slowly, trying to keep it all together, but images of their conversation at his house only 24 hours ago kept flying into her head. In a sense he was right; although she hadn't been sulking, she'd definitely been avoiding him. And to avoid him without raising suspicion, she just avoided talking to anyone – not that anyone should have noticed. Her favourite method of disengaging from the world around her and distracting herself had always been research - the fact that she was now somewhat of a hasty expert on Aboriginal mythology and Australian culture attested to this.

Jack's gloomy mood, however, had been blatantly obvious to everyone onboard. The poor pilots had quickly learned to leave the Colonel alone when they had begun the flight by joking about the long trip. Jack had merely glared back at them and told them to get on with it. Charming. Jonas had been doing a good job of ignoring his state of mind, not realising that his efforts to fill the silence were destined to antagonise him further. Teal'c had remained, well, Teal'c - but Sam knew that Jack would appreciate this. She'd tried to take his cue and leave the Colonel alone, but now she didn't know if it had been such a good idea. His fragile state of mind after their encounter with Baal couldn't have been substantially improved, despite his bravado on the morning they left.

Sam swallowed slowly again, and decided to take the opportunity Jonas had given them.

"Sir?"

"Carter." Jack's eyes were still half-closed, his body slumped into the chair; but the glare was there. He wasn't going to make it easy for her – he just wanted to get on with it.

"I haven't exactly been sulking sir." Sam sensed the edginess in his voice, but tried to counter it with hers, keeping it steady.

"Huh. Coulda fooled me." Jack broke the glare between them and closed his eyes, shifting his head so it was rested squarely on the headrest. "What exactly have you been doing then?" He mocked her language sarcastically.

"Trying not to think about the mission." Sam figured what she said was more or less true – it was an aspect of the mission that she was trying not to think about: him.

"Yeah, doesn't work, eh?" Jack softened a bit, turned his head back towards her and smiled. "Jonas isn't helping with his whole encyclopaedia of knowledge…"

Sam smiled back at him, glad she'd apparently broken through the 'wall of sulkiness'. "You know he's only trying to help, um, keep your mind off… things."

Jack's eyes glazed over slightly and he looked down towards the floor. "Yeah, well… as much as I appreciate the gesture… I prefer to brood." He heard Sam take a breath in preparation to respond but cut her off. "And I don't wanna talk about it, ok Carter? I'm fine. We're fine. Let's just sit – quietly."

"Y-yes sir." Sam felt herself sink into the chair at these words. She knew things had changed after their kiss back at his house, but she hated this feeling – the feeling that an enormous wedge had been placed in between them. She turned away to look out the window, only to be greeted with yet another view of clouds a long way below them. It took her a few moments to realise he was saying her name.

"Carter? Hello?" Jack had seen her disengage from the small space as soon as he'd pushed her away with his words. He'd meant what he said, but didn't want to make her feel isolated. He saw her flinch slightly as he said her name for about the fifth time. "Sam?"

"Sorry sir? You were saying something?" Sam turned away from the window to look straight in front of her, consciously not meeting his eye.

"I just-" Jack suddenly faltered, but fought on. "I mean… we're fine. Ok?" It was more a statement than a question.

Before Sam could answer, they heard the sound of Jonas talking very animatedly and loudly to Teal'c as the approached, supposedly to be able to announce their arrival well ahead of time. Sam again made a mental note of his impeccable tact. Just as they were coming back into the cabin, she glanced at Jack again. He was looking at her concerned, apparently oblivious to the approaching aliens. She gave him a small nod before returning her gaze to the window next to her; the clouds now appeared to be getting closer.

Jonas flopped down into his seat in front of Jack and sighed loudly, again filling the void of sound surrounding them. "Well, apparently we've just started our descent."

"It's about time." Jack muttered, his head lolling against the back of his seat. "I was starting to think we'd overshot the mark and were approaching South Africa."

Douglas Goonagulla fiddled with his security pass as he waited for the American visitors to descend from the enormous 747 that had just landed. He looked at his name and photo again with some amusement. No one had called him 'Douglas' in his entire life: it was Doug, or Dougie, or even Goonie to his friends. As he stood there fiddling with the piece of plastic hanging around his neck he wondered again if all this was really happening. Aliens, stargates, extra-terrestrial mineral ores… it all seemed so, well, science fiction to him. He'd never put great stock in any of those nutters who claimed to have been abducted by aliens, but somehow now it had all been put into a new context. Hell, apparently two of the visitors were themselves alien, although he'd been assured they at least looked human.

As soon as the plane had landed, some heavy-duty trucks had positioned themselves near the rear to unload some exceedingly strange looking equipment. No person had yet emerged from the plane however. He wasn't looking forward to the conversation they were going to have: in the first place, he was going to have to explain why Major Fletcher and Colonel McGregor weren't there – and that was going to take some doing.

As he fought his impulse to run away and hide underneath a rock, he saw a grey-haired man appear through the door on the side of the plane. He looked to be a hardline military type who had spent most of his life serving his country. Behind him, an impossibly large, almost frightening looking man appeared, with a more accommodating looking man standing next to him. Finally, and Doug's breath caught as he saw the fourth figure emerge, a stunningly beautiful woman with short blond hair stepped confidently out of the plane. One by one, they moved down the stairs and across the tarmac to where he was standing.

"Colonel O'Neill, I presume." Doug thrust his hand out to shake the grey-haired man's hand. "I'm Douglas Goonagulla, but everyone calls me Doug."

Doug was greeted by a grunt as the Air Force Colonel roughly shook his hand. Slightly startled by this gruff greeting, he turned to the others, looking for a cue.

"It's good to meet you Doug," Jonas reached his hand out to shake Doug's. "I'm Jonas Quinn, this is Teal'c, Major Carter and - you were right – that's Colonel O'Neill."

Sam stepped forward to take Doug's hand in greeting. "Don't worry about him, he's just jet-lagged."

"Carter, I don't need anyone making excuses for me." Jack snapped, looking around for any sign of a military presence in the greeting party, but saw none. He turned to Doug. "Jeez it's hot as hell here!" Despite the fact that it appeared to be late afternoon, the temperature had to be near 100F. "We were expecting some military types. Is there a problem?"

Doug tried not to flinch at the authoritative tone employed by Jack. Taking a deep breath, he tried to answer without his voice wavering. "Actually, Brian and Mike – I mean, Colonel. Major Fletcher and Colonel McGregor – were unable to make it back to the base to welcome you."

"They went to Uluru?" Sam asked quickly, before Jack could make some blundering comment.

"Yes." The relief on Doug's face was apparent as he turned to address Sam. "As we discussed with your General Hammond, it's unrealistic to close off our biggest tourist asset during the day, so for the moment any investigation of Uluru has to take place at night, when all the tourist buses have left. Of course," he added, somewhat pensively, "it would be better if we could leave Uluru alone altogether; it is a sacred site."

"We are aware of your people's discomfort with the difficult mission we have come to fulfil, DouglasGoonagulla." Teal'c inclined his head slightly in respect as he spoke. "However I am sure you have been abridged of the threat posed to not only your country but your entire world."

"Uh… yes." Doug looked warily at Teal'c, puzzled by his general demeanour. "So anyway, Bri- I mean Major Fletcher and Colonel McGregor were at Uluru last night and were not able to make it back to meet you."

Jonas listened to what the man said but sensed a certain unease. He looked at his watch with puzzlement before looking back to Doug. "What time is it?"

"It's about 6pm now, Mr Quinn." Doug replied nervously.

"Call me Jonas." Jonas said absent-mindedly while deep in thought. The concern on his face was palpable. He glanced over to Sam and realised she'd made the same realisation as he had.

"Doug," Sam asked gently. "If they were at Uluru last night, why couldn't they make it here by 6pm?"

"Uh, well," Doug felt himself unconsciously shuffle away from where Jack was standing, looking increasingly tense. "We ah, we um… we lost contact with them last night. They were there with some 10 other men… and apparently they, ah… disappeared… ah…in a flash of light."

A/N: Well there you go! Something to think about… where exactly have they gone? Although most of you will probably guess that, what d'you think they found there? Tune in next time to find out!

Let me know how you're coping with the random Aussie facts I'm putting in. I'm sorry if I ruined anyone's ideas of Australia with the kangaroo thing. And PLEASE remember that a koala is NOT, I repeat NOOOOOOOOT a bear! Common misconception... Oh, and apologies to anyone who's from Canberra... I was a bit harsh.

Please review!