NOTES: Love the reviews! I'm so pleased to have gotten so many people involved and thinking about the possibilities. Remember, this is not the same timeline as that of the regular show, so I've taken liberties with the course of events. The timing is as close as I could manage, given the lack of dates on the show. Thank you, PurpleYin, for betaing this.

DISCLAIMER: Stargate: Atlantis and all things associated with it belong to other people, though Tamura and Gupta are mine.

SPOILERS: Before I Sleep

RATING: T

MARKHAM'S JOURNAL

December 1, 2004

It was a cloudy day that threatened rain, but we went to the memorial and the beach anyway. After lunch, Dr.s Simpson and Kavanaugh took off down the beach. They said they were going to go exploring, but they took one of the blankets with them. This got me thinking a bunch of things, most of which I wouldn't put on paper, but there are practical sides to some of them. What would we do if Dr. Simpson got pregnant? Dr. Tamura was clearly uncomfortable with the question and left to gather seaweed. Dr. Corrigan pointed out that women had been successfully giving birth without the aid of modern medicine since the beginning of time. Miss Gupta laughed at us. She explained that, with the exception of those few who had religious, personal or medical reasons not to, all of the women who'd come to Atlantis had been put on weekly contraceptives that required no refrigeration and safely prevented ovulation. I had no idea such things existed. She says it was more practical than bringing feminine necessities to Atlantis and that the supply we have should last another year or so. I needed a swim after that.

December 6, 2004

Got a haircut. Shot a turkey. Finally beat someone at chess.

December 8, 2004

It rained today, but that turned out to be a good thing. On "Sundays," since we're always together, we'd taken to leaving the radios in camp. If we'd been at the beach, we wouldn't have heard the message, a transmission from the Prometheus. They've come for us. They should put down early tomorrow morning. I'm so excited, all wound up and completely tired at the same time. It's been five months.

December 9, 2004

They spotted our chevron and landed about 100 yards off shore. I'd never seen the Prometheus. It's impressive. They came ashore, a dozen of them, in a pair of inflatable rafts with motors on the back. Gen. Hammond was among them. He shook my hand and said, "Well done, son." Dr. Jackson of SG1 was there, too. It felt crowded to have so many people in one place. We gave them a tour of our little world and finished packing our things into the ship. The General spotted my straw hat and complimented it, wondering how something like that had survived in such good shape all this time. He was surprised to learn that it was a product of our village. He asked to wear it, saying he's not used to working outdoors. He seemed to get a kick out of it and had no problems helping us load stuff into the ship.

We set the goats free. Miss Gupta and I felt bad about having clipped the turkeys' wings, so the General suggested we take them to Chef on Prometheus.

The General came with us as we flew our ship to his and we showed him all the features we'd figured out.

It's kind of strange leaving our little camp behind, to finally be going home.

First we all got medical exams. I lost 15 pounds, about as much as everyone else but Dr. Tamura, who was so thin to begin with she only lost 5, but we passed thanks to the hard work of Dr. Tamura and Miss Gupta. Then we debriefed as a group. Separate debriefings will begin tomorrow. Gen. Hammond kept me and Dr. Simpson a bit longer to discuss returning to Atlantis to retrieve the bodies and perhaps some technology. Dr. Simpson figures the water and pressure will probably have made most equipment useless, even that of the Ancients. That we'll have to struggle to open every door, one by one, will make it a daunting task at best. Atlantis is, or was, the size of a city. It would take a very long time to explore it all even if it wasn't underwater with every door locked shut, let alone now. There's also the question of how deep the Seals can safely dive, but Dr. Simpson thinks salvaging the other ships in the bay is possible.

We had a celebratory feast made out of our turkeys and I met up with Sgt. Sanchez, a friend of mine from the SGC. Dr.s Corrigan and Simpson also have friends on the Prometheus. I did my best to stick with Dr. Tamura and Miss Gupta, since they were alone in the crowd of Americans. Dr. Tamura in particular seemed a bit stressed by all the people and retired early.

I have my own room and will be sleeping on clean sheets in a real bed after a hot shower that'll be as long as I want. It almost seems unreal.

December 10, 2004

Today the salvage and recovery operation began. Dr. Simpson and I went down in the ship so she could instruct the Seals directly. Plus the Seals could stay down longer since we could keep them supplied with air by dropping off tanks the same way we dropped off our message. We recovered two ships and all the bodies in the Gate room. Tomorrow we'll start on other rooms. As Dr. Simpson predicted, none of the tech we've recovered is useable. She says, if the ships hadn't been in the bay or the bay had been much deeper, the ships might have been ruined as well.

All I did was sit on my ass in the ship all day. I can't believe how tired I am.

December 11, 2004

Now that the Seals know how to open doors in Atlantis, Dr. Simpson and I aren't needed as much. So I spent about half of the day teaching Cpt. Cho how to pilot the ship. He's got the gene and is a pilot, so he picked it up pretty fast. "Very intuitive," is how he described the ship's responses. Wish I could agree with him.

We recovered another pair of ships. It's pretty cool how it's done. The Seals put these cylindrical bags under a ship and fill them with enough air to lift the ship off the deck. Then they push it into the middle of the bay as though it doesn't weigh a thing. There, they put a rigging on it and attach it to the underside of my ship so I can lift it to the surface. As nice as it is to be hauling something out of Atlantis besides bodies, I can't help but wonder who's going to fly them all? There are seven of them. Where will the pilots with the gene come from?

I discovered other enlisted personnel share rooms, but none of them seem to mind I get my own.

December 12, 2004

I always knew Kavanaugh had a stick up his butt, but I never expected this. Now that Cpt. Cho can take over the ship salvage operation, I finally got my individual debriefing. Questions were raised about my conduct, some of which could only have come from Kavanaugh. At first I was just shocked, totally blindsided. Then I got so mad I had to excuse myself to the bathroom to calm down. Fortunately, we were far enough into the debriefing that this didn't seem too odd.

I did my best to answer the questions and explain the reasoning behind my actions as calmly as I could, but I just couldn't get over the fact that, in the middle of trying to survive, that man was keeping a record of every time I looked at him cross-eyed. I saved him, fed him, stitched his wounds and this is the thanks I get?

In the end, I told them I stand by my actions and that it would be a while before I could transcribe my journal into a computer. They suggested I use a photocopier. My surprise at the thought showed on my face and got a laugh out of them. They told me not to worry and to relax. I suppose things could have gone worse.

Someone's here. It'd better not be Kavanaugh.

That was Dr. Corrigan. I don't know how he does it, but he really got me over what happened today. After listening to me vent about the debriefing, he said it was understandable for me to be mad but that I shouldn't take it personally. He hadn't talked to Dr. Simpson about her debriefing and Dr. Tamura never says much, but Miss Gupta and Dr. Corrigan had both had similar experiences. We all have ways of coping, he said, and he thinks finding fault in others is how Dr. Kavanaugh copes. After all, Dr. Simpson was the one who did most of the work on the ship. What else did Dr. Kavanaugh have to wrap his intellect around? Put that way, it makes sense, but I still think it's idiotic, not to mention disloyal.

I asked him how the others were and he said everyone's a bit stir-crazy. Unlike me and Dr. Simpson, the rest of them have gone from working hard everyday to having almost nothing to do. He's hoping that will change for him and Dr. Tamura, since he's proposed further exploration of the continent. After coming all this way, wouldn't it be nice to go home with something more than just the ships to show for it? And now that there are two pilots, it's a real possibility. I assured him I would tell my superiors, not that anyone has figured out who my immediate superior should be, that I'd be happy to fly them wherever they needed to go.

I asked how Miss Gupta and Dr. Tamura were doing. I haven't seen either of them since the party. He said Miss Gupta seems to be getting along well, though Dr. Tamura seems more withdrawn. It's one of the reasons he proposed she be allowed to further explore the continent, not just him. When I said I was worried about her and though she might need counseling, he laughed and assured me we were all getting counseling, that it was just a matter of time before I got mine.

December 13, 2004

This morning, Dr. Simpson was in the mess hall waiting for me and we talked about our debriefings over breakfast. Seems hers was as interesting as mine, but since she's not military, she could say what she pleased. She assures me she had a few choice words about Dr. Kavanaugh and his "reports" on everyone's behavior. She also had a few choice words for the man, himself. Frankly, I'm glad. Anybody deserves better than him, especially someone with the guts she has.

I told her what Dr. Corrigan had said, but she was unforgiving. She thinks that just because that's how he copes doesn't make it all right. She was so angry about it, I couldn't help but smile. I'm glad one of us got to call it like they see it.

After dropping Dr. Tamura and a pair of other doctors near camp, Dr. Corrigan, Dr. Jackson, Dr. Gustavsen, who is a geologist, and I explored the continent. Before landing, the Prometheus made a topographical scan of the continent and we began our exploration based on Dr. Gustavsen's recommendations, which Dr. Corrigan and I had cross-referenced with our grid system. I've always been aware of how smart Dr. Corrigan is, but listening to the three of them was something else. I barely followed half of what they were talking about even though their specialties only partially overlap and they occasionally had to speak in laymen's terms to each other. Fortunately, there was some spelunking and rock climbing I could help with, otherwise I might have felt like a chauffeur.

We didn't discover anything today, but Dr. Gustavsen says there are plenty of other places to look. Dr. Jackson agrees with Dr. Corrigan's belief that there should at least be another Gate somewhere, though the Prometheus detected no concentrations of naquadah. Seems Gates can be made of other materials. All three are frustrated that they have no idea of the time frame involved. When was the last time the Ancient's inhabited the planet? Knowing that would help Dr. Gustavsen narrow down his search. Considering the city's condition, there's no telling and there's no carbon dating equipment on Prometheus to test the items we've pulled out of the city.

When we picked up the other scientists, I was pleased to see Dr. Tamura seemed more relaxed. She even smiled at a joke I made. It made me feel better about finally having my psych exam. I'm still on active duty, so I suppose it went okay, though I was assured I wasn't through the grieving process. Something to look forward to.

December 14, 2004

They finally gave up on Atlantis today.

They've salvaged the Gate and all the ships, recovered all the bodies they could find and hauled up as much of the equipment as possible so personal items might be returned to family members. There are seven missing, including Col. Sumner, Maj. Sheppard and Dr. Weir. Seems at least one of the rooms that was searched had broken glass, so we think Col. Sumner and three others must have been pulled into the ocean. We have no way of knowing who the third person on Maj. Sheppard's ship was, only that he couldn't be Cpl. Martinez, who is also missing. So that leaves us with three potential MIAs besides the two we know for sure. Of the three, Dr. Simpson is fairly certain Dr. Zelenka was on the ship because the other two missing Dr.s did not work in fields that would make them useful in getting the ship to work. She's also fairly certain it was a man and that she saw a non American flag, which further suggests she's right. Under her recommendation, Maj. Sheppard, Dr. Weir and Dr. Zelenka have been officially listed as MIA. Once we get back to Earth, the SGC and our allies will be made aware of them, in case they show up someday. I didn't know any of them, but I sure hope they find a way to make it back. We lost too many people that day. Even three more survivors would be a triumph.

None of the technology that's been brought up has worked, so there's no real reason to stay.

December 15, 2004

We held a final memorial, today. It seemed appropriate to me, seeing as it's our Sunday. We all gathered in the Prometheus' fighter bay. Gen. Hammond made a speech about humanity's need to explore and to learn. He said the Atlantis expedition embodied those essential elements of the human spirit and represented an amazing accomplishment, bringing so many nations of the world together in a single, united cause, that that was as significant as anything they might have discovered in Pegasus. I've never been one for speeches, but I've never been part of the topic of a speech, either. It made me proud and sad and hopeful all at the same time. I really hadn't spent any time thinking about it, maybe because it kind of hurts if I do. What might we have discovered if the city hadn't flooded? A weapon or defense to protect Earth against the Goa'uld? A cure for cancer? A solution for starvation? The Replicators' off button? Dr. Jackson says Col. Carter once met an Ancient, that she looked and acted as human as we do. He has faith that, in time, we can accomplish all the things they did and that we don't need to ride the coattails of others to get there. Of course, this is coming from a man who died and came back, or so they say, so I suppose he has a different perspective on things.

Thankfully, Dr. Corrigan offered to speak for all of us. I know I'm grateful for not having to get up in front of all those people. I can only imagine what it would have been like for Dr. Tamura if we'd all been asked to speak. He did a good job, echoing Gen. Hammond's sentiments but in a way that was less grand and more personal. He talked about how this sort of expedition brings out not only all the potential of humanity in general but in individuals, too. Given our experiences, his talk of the importance of every person's contribution is understandable. What if Miss Gupta hadn't been there to help Dr. Tamura with her food poisoning or Dr. Kavanaugh with his wounds? What if Dr. Tamura hadn't been there to tell us what was safe to eat and how to use all those different plants? What if Dr. Corrigan hadn't been there with his wealth of practical knowledge and ability to keep us cohesive and focused and sane?

During the meal that followed the memorial, the six of us were seated together. It was the first time we've all been in the same place at the same time since the celebration of our rescue. Needless to say, Dr. Kavanaugh was not treated very warmly. Although Dr. Corrigan did his best to keep things pleasant, Dr. Simpson wouldn't even acknowledge his presence. I almost felt sorry for the guy, but it's his own fault. Even so, it was nice catching up with everyone.

Dr. Kavanaugh excused himself as soon as he could, but as the event wound down, Dr. Corrigan persuaded us to go with him to the gym. There, we found a volleyball net set up. Even aboard the Prometheus, the guy was thinking of what was best for the group. To be fair, Dr. Simpson offered to be referee, with Dr. Corrigan and I on one team and Dr. Tamura and Miss Gupta on the other. Some Airmen gathered around as we played, yelling encouragement to the ladies and booing me whenever I scored. We won that game, though not easily. Since that first time on the beach, Dr. Tamura has proven herself to be quite the ace and playing on a hard surface with a real volleyball made her that much better. Once she and I switched partners, Miss Gupta and I had quite the challenge on our hands. We made the Dr.s work for it, though they won by the skin of their teeth. Surprisingly, Dr. Tamura didn't seemed to mind the attention, not during nor after the games. I'm glad she seems to be feeling more comfortable; they say the ride home will be nearly three weeks long.

That evening, the five of us gathered in one of the small amphibious vehicle bays along the starboard side of the ship. With the hatch open, it let in the sunset and ocean breeze. It was almost like being at the beach. Dr. Tamura had persuaded Chef to let her cook us dinner and she'd gotten permission from the General to do what she had planned for us. The meal was made up of a combination of foods from Earth and our village, served with white rice, something both she and Miss Gupta had apparently been missing a great deal and are happy to eat regularly now. Then she gave us all paper, pens, beeswax candles and lighters. Without any of us knowing, she had been planning this since before the Prometheus had arrived, making the squat little candles out of the wax from the beehives. She taught us to make little boats out of the paper and as we made them, she explained why we were doing it. In Japan, some parts of the country float these little light boats as a means of remembering and honoring relatives who have passed away. Given the international makeup of the expedition members, there was no chance we'd be able to go to all the different funerals, so, instead, we could do this. She had us write the names of everyone we remembered, one per paper, and we talked about them, checking to be sure none of us wrote the same name twice. We launched over 70 little boats, our recollections covering almost the whole expedition. I don't know if it was the foreignness of it or what, but instead of making me feel sad, it gave me a very strong, deep, meaningful feeling, like I was a part of something vast and eternal. I'll never forget the sight of them glowing across the surface of the sea, with the shadows of Atlantis in the water below.

December 16, 2004

With the salvage of Atlantis complete, there are now two groups of us exploring the continent and we finally found something new. It wasn't a DHD or a Gate or more ships or drones, but at least we found something. Since no one knows if Atlantis was abandoned 1,000 years ago or 100,000 years ago, Dr. Gustavsen had been choosing locations based on a variety of ages. Right after lunch, at the edge of a huge plain, we spelunked into a chamber filled with what Dr.s Corrigan and Jackson believe must be farming equipment. Despite their best efforts, Gen. Hammond doesn't believe it's worth the effort to salvage the big stuff. Earth has tractors. Even so, the Dr.s ringed out all the smaller devices and computery things they could lay their hands on. It may not be an earth-shattering discovery, but it's the first evidence that the Ancients used the continent. Not only does it give the Dr.s the justification to keep exploring, it narrows down a time frame for Dr. Gustavsen. He says, given the similarities to Earth's structure and weather cycles, the chamber has been untouched for about 10,000 years. Dr. Jackson was disappointed to hear it had been so long, but Dr. Corrigan said there could be many reasons to explain it, that there may still be Ancients elsewhere in Pegasus.

And we finally found what we believe was once cultivated grain. Dr. Tamura promised to let us know tomorrow, even if it doesn't matter now.

December 17, 2004

To the best of their ability to analyze it, Dr. Tamura and the others believe the grain was once cultivated. While incapable of offering any particular span of time, Dr. Tamura's findings support the idea that it's been a long while since the Ancients used the continent for growing food. She also says it would have fed us well, had we not been rescued.

The other team exploring the continent discovered a harbor that had little salvageable equipment. Out of the four places we looked today, all our team discovered was a chamber like the one the farming equipment was in, but it was empty.

December 18, 2004

With the help of an Airman who has the gene, Dr. Simpson has figured out how a number of the Ancient devices work, though none have martial or even very practical applications. Farming practices and predicting the weather on this planet won't be much help to Earth, though there's some small hope a number of the weather systems can be adapted. Neither team discovered anything new and, according to Dr. Gustavsen, we're running out of likely places to explore.

December 19, 2004

Isn't that the way of things? In the last place we look, we make our biggest find, one Gen. Hammond agrees is worth the effort to salvage. Our team found what Dr.s Corrigan, Jackson, Simpson and Kavanaugh all believe is a drone making facility. If they can figure out how it works, it could solve a lot of problems and almost make the trip worthwhile. We came here to find technology to protect Earth and this sure qualifies.

They brought the Prometheus to the field where we found it. Feeling the ship land on land was even more amazing than watching it land in the ocean. The equipment is too big to ring up to the ship, so it's being dismantled by hand into manageable pieces, hauled to the surface with the cranes used to haul ordnance up to the fighter bay and moved into the ship with pallet loaders. I didn't know Prometheus had a pallet loader, let alone two.

It's a slow process, one Dr.s Corrigan and Jackson are organizing. Since the ships from Atlantis aren't really useful and dismantling Ancient machines isn't really one of my skills, I had little to do but watch. Gen. Hammond made a ship-wide announcement about the find and Dr. Tamura and Miss Gupta made a point to find me during lunch to hear all the details. Both were as pleased as I am about having at least partially accomplished our mission. We're also glad Dr. Corrigan finally had a major success here.

After lunch, Gen. Hammond approached me with congratulations and a surprising request. He asked me to take some of the crew who weren't helping with the drone facility to Lake Frigid Blue for some R&R. Cpt. Cho took a bunch of 302 pilots while I had a combination of scientific and enlisted personnel. Chef supplied us with plenty of food and even some beer, though, as one of the pilots, I didn't drink any. Never would have guessed Airmen would love the water so much. I got to play some volleyball, enlisted verses officers. Even when we switched things up a bit, my team won all three times. I kind of missed playing against Dr. Tamura. She's better than any of those Airmen.

December 20, 2004

Gen. Hammond doesn't see a need to rush, so he's only doing two salvage shifts a day. That way no one is too tired and all the work is done in daylight. Guess he doesn't want to risk the facility nearly 100 people gave their lives to find. I appreciate the sentiment. I got to introduce a new batch of Airmen to Lake Frigid Blue. I'm hoping to be able to play some volleyball on the way back to Earth, but if I win every game, I don't think I'll be able to find any opponents. So this time I acted as referee. There were two batches, one before and one after lunch. Some of them had never been off the ship since it left Earth. Others had never set foot on an alien world. All of them were appreciative, even when the enlisted guys got creamed by the officers this time.

Before we left this morning, I got to have my second psych eval. Dr. Reynolds, no relation to Colonel Reynolds, has read my journal and suggests, now that I'm not keeping it for military records purposes, that I use it to express my feelings more. I thought that's what I had been doing. Anyway, he's pleased with my progress but cautions that I may grow depressed and restless once our trip back to Earth gets underway and there's little to nothing for me to do. I said, after five months on daily double duty, I could use the vacation. He laughed.

I hooked up with Dr. Corrigan during dinner and he filled me in on how things were progressing. They should be done sometime tomorrow.

December 21, 2004

It rained. Unlike the Atlantis salvage operation, rain made work on retrieving the drone facility too risky to man and machine alike. But just because it was raining in the area where everyone was working didn't mean it was raining up by the lake. So this time, I got to take people who'd been working on the salvage for some R&R. Dr. Corrigan wanted to continue exploring potential sites that predate the four outposts we've found, most of which are outside of the weather front causing the rain around the Prometheus, but he couldn't get permission.

December 22, 2004

It was raining by the lake, so Cpt. Cho and I took those getting R&R to the first mountain area our group visited months ago. Someone brought the equipment to play baseball. It was great, though playing on a slope was a bit of a challenge. One guy messed up his ankle sliding into third, but Gen. Hammond didn't get mad at us about it.

By the time we got back from the afternoon's R&R run, the facility had been picked clean and all of the Prometheus' equipment was back where it should be.

December 23, 2004

It's been two weeks since the Prometheus arrived. We've pulled from this world all we could. It's time to go.

They held a small ceremony for us and let Dr. Corrigan name the planet. He decided on Aviquies, which he says could be interpreted a number of ways, something about wandering dreams and lost friends. I can't remember, but it sounded very fitting when he explained it. I couldn't get over how blue it was and how small it seemed as we flew further away. Then, in a blur, the Prometheus went into hyperdrive and it was gone. It may have been a short time in my life, but I know these five an a half months will stay with me forever.

December 25, 2004

The food here sure beats what we used to get at the SGC or any other command I've ever worked under. Although there's no official honoring of Christmas, there was an air of celebration on Prometheus and special food all day. I haven't been this full since Thanksgiving.

Now that she has finally finished cataloging everything, the quarter master returned our personal items retrieved from Atlantis. It turns out we were right about the chess set being Dr. McKay's. It was kind of strange seeing my stuff again, especially the weird things the pressure did to stuff like my extra tube of toothpaste and the styrofoam I packed around my CD player. It's like this stuff belongs to another me from a lifetime ago. There was a photo in a book with some other stuff in a ziplock bag that didn't pop. It was from a trip a bunch of us took to Tijuana before our deployment to Atlantis. Sometimes I really I miss Sgt. Stackhouse and the other guys.

December 26, 2004

I think I ate too many sweets yesterday and my stomach isn't used to sugar anymore. I stayed in bed late, but since I have today off, it was no big deal. Of course, no one knows quite what to do with me now that we're headed home. I've been told there have been and will be Marines on other flights, but at the moment, I'm the only Marine on the Prometheus.

While Dr.s Corrigan, Simpson and Kavanaugh are busy with the Ancient technology, Dr. Tamura's work tends to require her to set up an experiment then wait a while for it to get done before she can test the results, so she has short bursts of work followed by long periods of nothing to do. Miss Gupta's kind of in the same boat as me. No one knows what to do with her. So we three have commandeered a conference room to play catch-up on current events. I'd been asking the people I flew for R&R about movies and TV shows and music. Since Dr. Tamura and Miss Gupta aren't Americans, we're mainly sticking to movies and current events during our group catch-up sessions. All this time and I hadn't known Dr. Tamura was a baseball fan. Miss Gupta isn't, so we've stuck to highlights. I can't believe the Red Sox won the world series. I'd have owed Parlins $200. Sadly, it doesn't surprise me we're still in Iraq. Miss Gupta is relieved there's been no major conflicts between India and Pakistan but is disappointed at the lack of soccer coverage available.

I find it amusing that, after working with them both during the salvage operation, Dr. Jackson has chosen to partner with Dr. Simpson, leaving Dr. Corrigan to work with Dr. Kavanaugh. And here I thought SG1 was supposed to be so tough.

December 27, 2004

My third major psych evaluation followed by another physical. I passed both.

Some offduty personnel join us when we're watching movies. They have a pretty impressive video library onboard. Today was Dr. Tamura's turn. I was surprised she picked a horror film, Resident Evil. That was one creepy flick. I hadn't realized how much I missed popcorn.

I didn't find this out until after the fact, but the Prometheus has been making periodic stops to scan likely planets as we make our way out of the Pegasus galaxy. Seems we may have stumbled across the reason the Ancients left here. While stopping by one world, we were attacked by three small fighters. I was kind of surprised to learn this, considering there were no alerts and I felt nothing. The Rail guns took quick care of them and Cpt. Cho used one of the Ancient ships to collect the debris. Seems the pilots were not human. Miss Gupta says the biologists and medical personnel are having a field day with the remains, lots of wild speculation. There was also a huge ship on the surface, bigger than Prometheus, but no more fighters challenged us. Even weirder, the world had a Gate in space. Now we know why the Ancients had space-worthy ships that fit through the gate. It's caused Dr.s Corrigan and Jackson to wonder why the Ancients would make Gate travel so prohibitively difficult. Without our borrowed technology, we couldn't access a space Gate and without the built in DHD on the Ancient ships, we couldn't use one if we did find one. We took the Gate with us, though there's some debate as to how useful it'll be in the Milky Way. At least now Earth has one it can take apart and play with. They've always been too precious to experiment on before.

December 28, 2004

The Black Ops. guys let me train with them today. I learned to use two different disruptors, one good against Anubis' Kull warriors and the other against the Replicators. Flying on an intergalactic ship and firing disruptors, I felt like I was in a video game or sci-fi show. I also got to refamiliarize myself with a Zat gun.

Miss Gupta apparently chose a chick flick to take advantage of my absence.

With encouragement from the not so subtle hints of the Black Ops. guys, I got a haircut. I wouldn't say anything to the barber, but Miss Gupta does a better job.

December 29, 2004

With permission from Gen. Hammond and Chef, Dr. Tamura is preparing a few Japanese New Years treats. She's planning a little party for the six of us, assuming Dr. Kavanaugh will come. Apparently, News Years in Japan is more like Christmas in the US, a time for family and food and general laziness. Since we have nothing better to do, Miss Gupta and I are helping her cook between experiments while the galley's not in use. Today we did a gelatin dish, something to beans involving sugar and something else with sweet potatoes and nuts from Aviquies that took a lot of elbow grease.

As part of our current events catch-up, we listened to lots of different music that has been released while we were away. Somehow, Dr. Tamura found an Airman who likes Japanese pop music, though I suppose it makes sense with all the airbases there. I'd never heard any before. If it weren't for the words being in another language, you'd almost think it was American.

We picked up another Gate, this time from over a lifeless planet.

December 30, 2004

Our attempt to pound rice into something Dr. Tamura wanted for the New Year's party didn't work out, but we helped her make noodles by hand and they turned out fine. It was really something to see. Chef wasn't thrilled with us using the biggest table in the galley to do it, but thanks to Dr. Tamura promising him a bowl, he didn't stop us. Seems Chef spent some time in Japan, too.

Got to play some volleyball. Still no worthy Airmen.

December 31, 2004

Technically, it's already the first, but I'm still a bit too wound up to sleep just yet.

It seems appropriate that today is the day we officially left the farthest reaches of Pegasus. Early this morning, we stopped for one last look. It seemed so far and was almost scary how much black there is between galaxies.

For dinner, Dr. Tamura had us all eat a bowl of her noodles in a special broth. It was really good, the first of the holiday food. She and Miss Gupta talked to us about how the new year was a time to start things with a fresh slate, to forgive grudges. We got Dr. Simpson to agree to be civil to Dr. Kavanaugh tomorrow.

We used the SGC's time to count down the new year. There was champagne and everything. More surprising, all three ladies gave Dr. Corrigan and I kisses for the new year. Miss Gupta lamented that neither of us are Indian or she'd be tempted to introduce us to her folks. After that kiss, any man would wish he were.

I need a jog. I hope the gym's open this late.