Briefing was at nine thirty the next morning. SG-1 was heading back to yesterday's planet with the hazerdous material suits to collect the sarcophagi. When General Hammond, commander of the SGC, walked into the briefing room he found Jonas and Teal'c sitting warily, and as far away from Colonel O'Neill as possible. The Colonel himself was continually mumbling under his breath and scribbling on a sheet of paper. Hammond raised an eyebrow at this strange sight.
"Don't look at me," said Jonas, "he's been like that all night, ranting about how 'illogical' the movie was."
"Actually I was going to ask where Major Carter is," said Hammond in his Texan drawl, "When was the last time she was late for a briefing?"
"When we first gave her a naquadaa generator," mumbled O'Neill. Hammond just shook his bald head and moved over to the intercom.
"Major Carter to the briefing room. Repeat, Major Carter to the briefing room." They waited five minutes with no sign of the Major. Hammond turned back to the intercom.
"This is Hammond to security. Can you tell me where Major Carter is?"
"She's on her way, General. I think you woke her up." replied the airman on the other end. Jack was distracted from his paper.Woke her up? he mouthed disbelievingly. Hammond shrugged.
"Thank you." he said to whoever was on the other end of the phone. At that moment a bleary Major Carter hurried into the briefing room, dragging a brush through her tousled hair.
"Sorry, " she smiled, "must've slept in or something."
"At least we know you're sleeping," Jack informed her. Sam replied by leaning over to see what he was writing.
"How wormholes-" she started.
"Can we please get on with the briefing?" interrupted Hammond. Sam sighed in agreement and plopped into the chair next to Jack.
"Thank you. Now, you'll be leaving at 11:00 hours. We're sending SG-3 and a doctor with you this time, just in case..."
Teal'c strode ahead of the group in the late morning sunlight. It was a fine day on P4X-878, warmer than the last time they'd been here. But to the Jaffa all did not seem right. For example, his friends were all oddly relaxed. Jonas Quinn was rambling on wistfully about his homeworld, O'Neill was admiring the cloud shapes, and Major Carter was unusually quiet. Should they not be on alert after the events of the previous day? Plus, everything he could hear sounded muzzy and echoey. Must've not gotten enough kel'nor'eem last night, he had had trouble concentrating. Those airmen next door were rather loud...
"Teal'c!" all chattering seemed to cease as Colonel O'Neill called out the Jaffa's name, "What's the matter buddy? You seem kinda' outta' it."
"I was unable to kel'nor'eem properly last night," the big man explained.
"Meh, I didn't sleep much last night either. Not tired. You don't think that was insomniac gas do ya'?" Jack laughed as they reached the ruins. "Harris," he ordered a young lieutenant, "You stay out here and watch the rover. It's too big to go inside. We'll be back within fifteen minutes." The rest of the group donned their red suit hoods and strode into the passageway.
Major Carter took out her little tricorder - like device and began pressing buttons, checking the area before they whent any further.
"Gas has cleared," she informed them, "but there also seems to bee an alien life form awful close by." Jack and SG-3 immediately went to alert mode and held up their weapons. Sam inspected the scanner blearily.
"Sorry sir, my mistake. It's just Teal'c's sybiot," she patted Jack on the shoulder apologetically. The Colonel shook his head in disbelief and kept going.
Once in the sarcophagus room the humans were faced with a predicament.
"Stupid narrow passageways," muttered O'Niell, "now we gotta' carry these things," he gave a dramatic sigh, "Jonas, Teal'c you take the far one, Clarke, Thompson, the one after that, Gregory you're with me, and Makepeace help Carter." Everyone moved to their respective positions and got a good hold on the sarcophagi.
"Okayyy," breathed Jonas, " lift on the count of three. One, two, THREE," he and Teal'c lifted, "Hey, these are lighter than I thought."
"If that is your attempt at humor Jonas Quinn, it does not appear to be remedying the situation," Teal'c grunted.
"No, seriously," said Jonas, "this is easier than I expected." He frowned, "Teal'c, you okay?" The other, stronger, alien was struggling with the effort of holding up the large stone box.
"Let us simply proceed quickly," he told Jonas.
Jonas just shrugged, "Okay." They all proceeded down the corridor, stopping half way to catch their breath. At this pont Jonas dropped his box in exasperation, "Seriously! Did I get the light end or something?" Colonel O'Neill glared at him.
"Would you stop trying to make us all feel bad?" he growled sarcastically. Jonas just shook is head. This was really odd, "Fine." he sighed. But as soon as they got back, he was going to have a word with a doctor.
Dr. Janet Fraiser, the SGC's petit, brown haired chief medic was scribbling notes on her worn clipboard.
Paperwork, thought Jonas, all that paperwork she has to fill out every time we simply stick our noses in here to say hi.
"Well Mr. Quinn," she told him, "as far as I can tell you're perfectly fine. No bacteria, virus, nanites or any other kind of alien organism to be spoken of. Hormone levels a little off, but there are any number of explanations for that, and none of them particularly bad."
"No offense, Dr. Fraiser, but I know what I did was unnatural," Jonas sighed. How could he prove his point? "You remember the first week I was here?" he asked, "I broke my nose and two fingers sparring with Teal'c. I'm not the most physically fit person."
"Perhaps you're a really tolerant one," suggested Janet.
"Tolerant!"
"Physical exertion doesn't bother you," Janet explained.
"Fine," Jonas muttered in defeat.
"Look," said Dr. Fraiser, trying to console her friend, "If anything else happens, try and bring me a little more proof and I'll take a look at it. I promise, okay?"
"Fine," Jonas said again, beginning to walk out of the infirmary, "I'm gonna' go find Jack, see if he wants to get lunch or something."
"Ha!" Sam looked up from her computer and toast.
"Ha what, sir?" she asked Colonel O'Neill. Her CO waved a piece of paper at the whiteboard at the back of Sam's lab.
"That equation!" Jack almost shouted, "I knew something was wrong with it! It's been bugging me ever since we got back!" Major Carter set down her snack and rested her chin on her hand. Now this, she had to see.
"Look," said Jack, "this right here," he pointed to a set of polynomials in the middle of the board, "makes no sense whatsoever," (like it ever did to him?) "because if it were true there's no way you could keep a stable wormhole for as long as we can."
"Oh really," said Carter.
"Really!" smiled Jack, no catching the sarcasm in her voice, "Look, for the equation to work it would have to look something like this." The Colonel began moving about the whiteboard replacing numbers and variables. If Sam hadn't had that equation memorized she would have shot him.
"There," said Jack, standing back and capping the marker triumphantly, "done."
Major Carter stared in disbelief at the changed equation. It seemed to make so much more sense now.
"Weird, eh?" said Jack, "Never thought I had it in me."
"Okay," she breathed, "either you have a hidden physics degree, or the impossible has happened and hell should be freezing over any second now. Sir."
Sitting in his quarters, Teal'c's eyes flew open. Since he didn't dream during kel'nor'eem, what he'd just experienced definitely wasn't one. But he'd just seen them, Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter, standing in the woman's lab talking about a difficult equation. The large jaffa stood and shook his head. Was it a memory then? Was his symbiot trying to tell him something? Was - god, he wished those airmen next door would stop being so loud!
Teal'c stormed down the corridor to throw open the door and give those two a good jaffa piece of mind. As the door hit the wall with a loud metal on concrete clang, one of the airmen jerked awake, and the other looked up from her paperwork in silent surprise. Yet none was more shocked than Teal'c, who knew these two could never have been loud enough to hear down the hall. The jaffa shook his head and muttered,"I apologize." He decided the best course of action would be to go look for Jonas. He had a feeling the younger man wanted lunch.
TBC