"Daniel, I need help."
"Barbara, could you please not sneak?" the man in question was sitting hunched over his table looking through photos of a monolith that SG-7 has brought back from their recent mission. And when he had heard the girl standing from across of him he startled. But that movement cost him greatly. The startle rattled the table bringing some of the paper piles down to the floor. The linguist deeply exhaled before looking at the girl.
"I am sorry, but I did knock on the door several times," tried to explain herself the girl, picking up the papers and putting them back on the table. "How much were you told by General Hammond about the future events?"
"I… actually?" Daniel started to deny any knowledge but then he remembered that he had had some papers on the subject on his table. In one of the paper towers. That were now completely shuffled. "God damn it. I was given a copy of the papers. I didn't read them yet. And it is unlikely I will read them any time soon," he motioned towards the papers that Barbara just lifted, knocking some of them down. The papers ruffled as they fell down. Unimpressed gaze from Barbara forced a chuckle from the man. "Sorry."
"If you didn't read then what about O'Neill? I am not taking any chances. You have to impress it upon Colonel O'Neill that he should not speak out of turn, before being offered to speak at the table. Otherwise there will be an unplanned recess. We should have 4 days to explain it to O'Neill. We should also try and prevent the alteration between Teal'c and Cronus. Bad blood. Well, you don't really expect anything else when Cronus killed Teal'c father…But Nirriti capitalizing on that… It was beneficial for the Treaty…" continued Barbara as both she and the linguist entered the Gate room.
Barbara was requested to wear a dress for the ceremony with the Secretary of Defense. She couldn't wear the BDU as she was civilian and for the ceremony she had to dress the part. Daniel was also dressed in nice casual suit. The pair met with the rest of the SG-1 who were standing by General Hammond and talking with Arthur Simms, the Secretary of Defense of United States of America.
"Secretary, allow me to introduce to you Dr. Daniel Jackson, our head linguist," Hammond took the chance to introduce the man as he walked towards the group. The men greeted each other and then the General continued. "As well as Barbara, our resident… reality traveler."
Barbara shyly nodded in greeting, deciding to keep quiet.
"I have heard quite a bit about all of you, but especially about you, Barbara. A very nice addition, thank you for the information," the Secretary gushed a bit. "It came to help very nicely, especially during the recent rescue of the SG-1 team."
"Thank you. It was the least I could do," Barbara's answer was quickly translated by Daniel and was greeted by amused grins on the officers faces. Teal'c just elevated one of his eyebrows.
"Oh, shy are we now?" O'Neill swiftly moved to give a small noogie to the girl. "And who was it who managed to sneak the contents of the whole salt shaker into my coffee today?"
"It is for the yesterday's dress. And if you were drinking that coffee instead of solving that crossword I wouldn't have managed to do it. So, it is really your fault!" the girl wiggled out the colonel's hold and changed her position to stand behind Teal'c and glaring behind the Jaffa.
The adults just laughed as Daniel translated.
The whole ceremony went the same as it was in the episode.
Secretary Simms spoke, Hammond took over. Captain Carter was promoted to Major.
And O'Neill disappeared in a flash of white light after he started his speech with "Normally, I'm a man of very few words…"
As the flash of light had dissipated O'Neill found himself standing near a gigantic window with a magnificent view over the Earth. Another flash of light forced him to turn around and lo and behold the previously empty spot now held a low throne-like chair with an Asgardian sitting in it.
"Greetings, Jack O'Neill."
"Greetings. Have we met?"
"I am Thor," introduced himself the Asgardian. "I apologize for taking you by surprise, but I have come on a matter of great importance."
"We're in orbit around Earth, right?" asked O'Neill, motioning at the window, eyebrows furrowed. As he got a positive answer, the colonel tackled on. "You know, we have satellites, telescopes. They can see things like spaceships."
"Our ships have never been detected in orbit around Earth before," replied Thor, a slow shake of head accompanying his answer. The human visibly thought through the answer before shrugging.
"Oh. All right. Sorry, you were saying something? A matter of great importance?.."
"We received word of what transpired with your people and the Goa'uld named Hathor. As the result the Gia'uld System Lords have turned their attention towards you."
"What, for killing Hathor? They should be thanking us. She was planning to overthrow them, you know," the colonel was getting agitated. Kill one Goa'uld and everybody is suddenly against you. Not that it was their first Goa'uld, and after Ra they had other Goa'ulds angry at them.
"Her intentions are irrelevant. Earth has once again proven it can be a formidable threat to the Goa'uld."
"Oh, now we're a threat to them?" couldn't help but quip O'Neill.
"They have decided it is a concern to be dealt with. The System Lords are capable of launching an assault one hundred times more powerful than that which you previously withstood at the hands of Apophis."
"Okay, that could be a problem," agreed O'Neill , eyebrows furrowed waiting for the reason why this meeting has even occurred. And now he was very sorry he didn't read the copy of papers of future events that Barbara had provided General Hammond with.
"The Asgard agree. I have come to offer our assistance," the Asgardian nodded. "With your permission, the Asgard will attempt to negotiate with the Goa'uld System Lords to include Earth in the Protected Planets Treaty."
"That's a good thing, right?"
"It would prevent this attack."
"Good. Um, to be honest with you, I'd rather have a fleet of your ships here. A few of these babies and we could just…" Colonel O'Neill cut himself off as Thor bent his head to the side and gave him a curious look. O'Neill quickly found himself agreeing. "We could try the negotiating thing."
"I will contact the System Lords. You may return to your planet now."
"Ah, Thor, one more thing!.." But the Asgardian had already disappeared in another flash of white light.
Steam was rising from a cup of coffee sitting in front of him. The strong smell of freshly brewed coffee was gently tickling his smell buds. But Maybourne couldn't force himself to put down the papers that he was faxed this morning from the SGC. It was one thing to read about the exploits of SGC from the reports of the team itself. And it was completely different to read the retypes that girl did.
Just over the next half year, the team would find itself in so many, various situations. Will face several kidnappings of their own; meet another pair of reality travelers, who will be different from Barbara; will gain some very interesting schemes of new technology. There will be another invasion and he, Harry Maybourne, will play an important role in saving the base from the invasion.
He couldn't wait and put his hands on that brat with her device.
After O'Neill was returned to the base Hammond had gathered all of SG-1 and Barbara in the Briefing room. And as O'Neill opened his mouth to tell what had transpired onboard Thor's ship he was cut off by General Hammond.
"Colonel, I know that you have met with Thor and he offered to speak with the System Lords to open negotiations to include Earth in the Protected Planets Treaty."
All of SG-1 looked in confusion at the General who nodded at Barbara, before explaining. "Barbara had provided information. And her retypes had word by word what Secretary Simms was speaking about today at his speech. Did no one of you read the papers I distributed?"
"I told you, General."
The confusion had intensified in the next moment as another flash of white light appeared and disappeared leaving behind Thor in his throne-like chair.
"Uh, may I introduce to you Thor. Major Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson, you remember Thor? Thor, this is Teal'c, Barbara and Major General George Hammond. He's the leader of our facility here," O'Neill quickly introduced everyone.
"The System Lords have agreed to negotiate. They will arrive in four days. We have chosen you, O'Neill, to represent your planet at the proceedings," Thor explained from his chair, his gaze focused only on O'Neill.
"Uh, that's great and all, but that could be a mistake. You see, Doctor Jackson here is an extremely educated and articulated man, very well versed in all the languages…"
"Commander Thor?" Barbara interrupted O'Neill's attempt to move the responsibility to another member of SG-1. The Asgardian curiously shifted his gaze at the girl. Then he moved and gave an accusatory look at the colonel.
"She came to us like this," he tried to explain.
"Commander Thor, I didn't come in contact with the device O'Neill had. I was wondering if you could also give us some pointers on the proper etiquette for the planet that is participating in the treaty? Wouldn't want to step on some Goa'uld toes," Barbara leaned forward, resting her chin on intertwined fingers.
"Ancient? How?" Bewildered asked Thor. It has been a long time since he has seen any of the Ancient around. Were the Ancients finally coming back? "What may I call you?"
"Barbara. You may call me Barbara, Commander Thor," replied him the girl. Before she managed to continue and ask for more instructions Thor continued.
"You are our choice, O'Neill. You have led your people into the galaxy through the Stargate. Further instructions to aid you in preparation will follow."
And then there were two flashes of light.