Chapter Thirteen
A few minutes later, following quick exams for those members of SG-1 without duplicates, all five current members of the team were escorted to isolation quarters. It was only with a fair amount of finagling that Daniel was allowed to begin his translation while they were held, and only then after the SFs retrieved the references he requested since he was permitted to get them himself.
Daniel, who much preferred working in his own office alone, frowned at the Carters. He shook his head at Jack, who was not looking forward to spending time locked up with both Carters - certainly not with cameras and witnesses and most definitely not while both of them were being bitchy. Teal'c was also staring at the women, inherently distrustful of anything so unnatural.
Uncomfortable with the way her teammates were watching her, Carter 1 perched nervously on a chair across the room. Carter 2, however, was too angry at having been separated from her posse of adoring SFs to care that her friends were angry. She sprawled on the couch and took a nap.
Daniel turned back to his books and got to work, hoping that the machine's result wasn't permanent and praying that if it was, he wouldn't have to be the one to tell Jack. With nothing else to do short of getting into trouble with Carter 1, an idea which Jack was keeping in reserve in case he got really bored, he watched Daniel as intently as he could without bugging the younger man. He knew Daniel couldn't stand to be watched and Jack didn't want to risk slowing down the process.
Daniel worked for quite a while before he sat back with an intrigued expression. "Huh."
Jack was across the room in a flash. "What? What does that mean?"
"Oh, nothing, it's just interesting."
"What is?"
"The device's original purpose. It was created to ease the strain on the community during wartime."
"What did they have to fight over?" Jack hadn't been impressed by the mud houses even after the copy machine from hell had been discovered.
"They used it on their armies so the military half could go to war and leave the other half to stay home and tend their farms."
An image of Carter in overalls and a flannel shirt popped into Jack's head and nearly caused him to choke from laughing so hard.
Daniel glanced at him, completely unaware of what Jack found so amusing. With no explanation forthcoming, Daniel shook his head and continued. "It also eased the minds of the soldiers' families because at least part of the soldier was guaranteed to survive."
As much as he hated to admit it, the mud house people had a point. It was a good idea to allow part of the soldier to survive. He'd lost so many friends over the years he'd be willing to only have half of each back rather than lose them entirely. Still, as nice as it seemed, it didn't feel right. It just wasn't right on some level. "So what went wrong?"
"I haven't finished translating it yet, but it seems to indicate the problem came in trying to get the halves back together."
The blood ran cold in Jack's veins. "But it can be done, right?"
Daniel ducked his head, sincerely wishing he hadn't said anything. "I don't know yet, Jack. As far as I can tell, the biggest problem was that the halves didn't want to go back together." He peeked at the Carters, who were sitting warily next to each other because there was nowhere else to sit. "This section is a warning that they won't get along and that the halves should be kept separated at all times."
Jack glanced at the two women who turned and backed away from each other at Daniel's words. "Why?"
"I'm not done, Jack. I don't know."
Jack's eyes were darting between Daniel and the Carters who appeared ready to square off against one another. "Ballpark, Daniel? Is it the damn bickering or are they likely to start killing people or what?"
Daniel slowly took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Jack, I can't give you a ballpark until I translate it."
Jack decided the Carters were stable enough for the moment and turned on Daniel. "Can you skim ahead?"
Daniel shook his head and put his glasses back on. "Doesn't this conversation seem the slightest bit familiar, Jack?"
"We have this conversation or one quite similar everyday, Daniel."
"Yes, we do." Daniel looked sick. "That is disturbing on so many levels."
"So, no to the skimming?"
"No to the skimming."
Jack nodded and was quiet for a beat. "Why did you bring it up if you weren't done, Daniel?"
"I didn't bring it up. You asked."
"Ah." Regardless of Daniel's answer, Jack was sure the frustrating exchange was not entirely his fault, although like with all their frustrating exchanges, he was too confused to determine how it wasn't entirely his fault. "So back to work then?" In the silence, Jack felt it coming. The silence somehow had tone and Jack waited patiently.
"You know, this whole thing could have been avoided if I had been allowed to work on the translation first."
Jack smiled inexplicably. "You never disappoint me, Danny." Jack patted his friend on the shoulder. "But the device will work, right? Provided I can order them to do whatever they have to do to make it work?"
Daniel shrugged noncommittally, revealing that he was as confused by Jack as Jack had been by him. "I don't know."
Carter 1 walked over to them. "If it doesn't work, sir, we still have plan b."
Jack took a deep breath and reminded himself that he didn't really want to hurt her. "Need I remind you that killing her is not actually a viable solution, Carter?"
"Never mind then, sir." She went back to the couch to glare at her other half.
Daniel looked worried. "She's not serious."
Jack shrugged, not as concerned since it was not the first time he'd experienced Carter's decidedly homicidal streak. "You'd better finish this before we find out."
Two hours later, with Dr. Fraiser's recommendation, SG-1 was freed from isolation. They were still restricted to base, but Jack was free to get far away from the Carters.
Which is why he was particularly perplexed as to why he was hanging out in her lab with both of her. He knew it was partially because he was a little concerned they would try to kill each other. But he also knew it mostly had something to do with the fact that, although he was always transfixed by Carter, having just kissed both of her made her even more fascinating than usual. They were working quietly on different things, both ignoring the way Jack staring unabashedly. Surprisingly enough, they weren't the slightest bit territorial about the projects.
Carter 2 noticed Jack's confusion and smiled. "As much as I don't like her, sir, there's really no one else I'd trust to touch anything in here."
Jack looked offended. "Oh, so science projects you can share; me, you have to fight over." He froze at his own words, knowing he'd once again crossed that invisible line that would undoubtedly get him in trouble. Carter 1's face was red as she buried her nose in a book.
Carter 2 met his eyes and grinned. "You're better looking than most science projects." It was Jack's turn to blush and hide his face.
"Will you shut up?"
Jack peeked up to see Carter 1 toss a pen at Carter 2. Carter 2 hadn't been expecting to get beaned by a flying pen, but it didn't take her long to recover. She turned and hurled it back at Carter 1. Luckily, before it could degenerate further, Walter's voice sounded through the intercom.
"Major Carter to the control room." The Carters looked at each other and Jack waited for each to blame the other for something. Then Walter's voice sounded again. "Whichever Major Carter can fix a problem with the dialing computer to the control room."
Jack watched as the Carters contemplated one another. Carter 2 shrugged. Carter 1 spoke up. "I'll go." She looked nervous and Jack was mortified to realize she was worried about what he and Carter 2 would do when she wasn't there.
Carter 2 innocently went back to whatever she'd been working on, but as soon as Carter 1 was gone, she looked at Jack. "Hungry?"
He grinned. "Starving."
