Chapter 14

Sam returned to the SGC the next morning feeling stiff, but relatively alert and able to function. She wrote her mission report, careful to maintain emotional distance from the wild ride down the canyon. Writing about the events of those hours brought them back to life in her mind, and she finished as quickly as she could, printing it out without her customary double check for spelling and grammar errors. If there was a problem with the end result, she was pretty sure somebody would let her know. She stuffed the report into a file folder and headed for the conference room. If she was lucky, the coffee would be freshly brewed and piping hot.

She was lucky. She poured herself a mug of ambrosia and stood by the window, sipping it quietly while she thought about the memo that had been on her desk when she'd arrived. It was one of those "For: All SGC Personnel" memos that Jack had always hated, so she'd found it ironic that this one had come from him. According to the memo, today was his last day as temporary CO. General Landry would be returning on Monday.

Her initial reaction had been surprise. She'd slipped so smoothly into the routine of having Jack around that she'd forgotten that his presence here was temporary. Now, faced with his imminent departure, she was thinking hard about what she needed to say to him. It was fairly obvious from their few exchanges over the past days that they needed to talk, but the thought of it made her palms clammy with nervous sweat.

The object of her thoughts came in then. He was deeply engrossed in conversation with Daniel, so he didn't see her at first, so she took the opportunity to observe him as the two men laughed and joked. He looked more relaxed than he had during the entire year he'd spent as CO of the base. In many ways, she wished now that she, Daniel, and Teal'c had fought harder to keep him as team leader. Jack O'Neill just wasn't designed to sit behind a desk.

He noticed her then, and flashed a quick smile in her direction. "Feeling better today, Carter?"

She nodded. "Much."

"Good." He pulled out his chair. "Then let's get this show on the road."

The three of them sat down, but as the briefing began, Sam couldn't help feeling a little nostalgic. She was glad that Jack seemed comfortable with his decision to retire, but she'd miss seeing him around the base every day.

"So who's going to tell me exactly what happened over there?" Jack asked.

"Buttons," Daniel said, eliciting a quickly stifled laugh from Sam.

"Buttons?" Jack looked puzzled.

Daniel grinned at Sam and then cleared his throat. "It turns out that the device on Dakara has a similar, though highly refined, purpose to that of the original Antikythera device found here on Earth in 1901."

"Which supposedly predicted the movements of the sun and the moon, right?" Jack said.

"Right, only in this case, the designers took the concept a step further." Daniel pulled some pictures out of his folder, handing copies to Sam and Jack. "These are aerial images of the area below where we located the device." He waited for a few seconds to give the others time to look at the pictures. "The canyon where the device is located eventually widens out into flatlands. If you remember, when SG-7 did the geological survey, they mentioned it."

"Yes," Jack said. "And as I recall, I commented that it must've been some drought."

"Right." Daniel was getting excited again, his words coming more rapidly. "Apparently, the device the Jaffa found uses the changing positions of Dakara's sun to regulate water flow."

"Excuse me?"

"We think the device was built as a sort of remote controlled dam for a vast system of underground springs."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "On a planet that's ninety percent desert. Odd, that."

"Yes. Well. I'm no expert on geology, so I can't explain that," Daniel said. "But apparently thousands of years ago somebody figured out a way to bring the water to the surface and control its flow so that crops could be grown. They made the device self-maintaining so that people wouldn't have to spend their time pushing buttons and levers. They could spend it growing and harvesting their crops instead."

"Evidently somebody pushed a button," Jack said sardonically.

Daniel nodded. "The local citizens would've found it difficult to survive without their crops. They'd have had to look to somebody else for help, making them vulnerable to takeover by a more advanced race."

"So you think the device was sabotaged."

"Or simply turned off, yes."

"And then you and Carter came along…"

"Right."

"One question," Jack said, turning to Sam. "Why didn't the locals just turn it back on?"

Sam shook her head. "I don't know for sure, but it's possible that the device had been functioning unattended for so long that when it stopped, nobody knew how to get it working again."

"Nobody except the person who turned it off in the first place."

"Right. And that person apparently never changed his mind."

"Or hers," Sam said with a slight smile.

"Or hers," Jack nodded. "Wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened."

"No, Sir. It wouldn't."

"So," Jack said. "Is there anything about this gizmo that I can take to the Pentagon?"

Daniel shrugged. "Maybe, if they've suddenly taken an interest in the growing cycles of corn."

"That's what I was afraid of." Jack closed his folder and pushed it away from him. "Right, then. That's that." He capped his pen and dropped it on the table beside the folder, then leaned back in his chair. "So," he said conversationally. "Did you get the memo?"

Sam didn't miss the irony of Jack asking if anybody had seen a memo, and a swift glance in Daniel's direction was enough to tell her that he hadn't either. "Memo, Sir?"

"You know… The one that said today was my last day?"

"Oh," Daniel said, pretending surprise. "That memo."

Jack glared at Daniel. "Yes. That memo."

"Got it." Daniel's voice was suspiciously casual, but his eyes twinkled with laughter. For her part, Sam was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

"What about it?" She asked, her tone suggesting that the contents of the memo hadn't been anything remarkable.

Jack sighed theatrically. "It's nice to see some things don't change around here."

Daniel and Sam adopted innocent grins.

Jack snorted. "Anyway," he said, "I was thinking about having a little barbeque tomorrow afternoon."

"A barbeque, Sir?"

Jack gave her a pained look. "Yes, Carter. A barbeque. You've heard of those, haven't you? Charred meat. Beer…"

"Oh!" Daniel threw Sam a conspiratorial grin. "That kind of barbeque."

Jack threw up his hands in defeat. "All right, you clowns. I give up. The shindig starts at 1800." He stood up and headed for the door. "And by the way," he said as he opened it. "Teal'c's coming."

And then Sam and Daniel were alone in the conference room, both wondering who'd really been in control of that last conversation.

"What do you suppose he's up to?" Daniel asked.

Sam shrugged. "You know him as well as I do. Care to guess?"

He shook his head. "No way."

"So I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Undomesticated equines couldn't keep me away."