Thank you Lakewater. I'm very pleased you find it interesting.
Ok, this takes place sometime in season 2, after The Fifth Race...And actually, I didn't even think about that name when I wrote this. I'm hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 1: The Sky is Falling!
Well, maybe not that stormy, ok, just a little rain. Oh, all right, someone had left their hose on in an upstairs apartment. I was just coming home from a work. The stars twinkled above me in the sky as I paused to look up to see which apartment had left their hose on, so I could report them to management. It was the one directly below mine. Figures, they were idiots at the best of times, and this was Saturday, the day of beer and drunkenness.
I let myself in to the building, said "Hi" to the night guard, and made my way over to the elevator. Before I could press the button, though, the night guard stopped me.
"It's broken," he called, from his post next to the door.
"What?" I asked incredulously. "It was working this morning!"
"Talk to maintenance," shrugged the guard. "Someone's broken it."
"Whatever," I sighed. Grumbling about randomly broken down elevators and what should be down to the maintenance who allow it, I opened the door to the stairs. Now, unfortunately, my apartment was at the top of the building. Which meant climbing up thirty floors-ok, twenty-OK, five floors to the top. Still, tired and weary as I already was, climbing up to the top of my building was not something I had planned on doing. Which explained why, when I did arrive at my apartment, I conked out immediately on my bed.
My apartment, as you know, was on the top floor of my building. I mean, like, the top. It was sort of between the actual top floor, and the roof. Small, cramped, and perfect for one person, I'd inherited it from my Grandmother after she'd died when I was 18. The thing I loved most about my apartment was the skylight that opened onto the roof. Technically, I'm not supposed to go up there…but who's going to catch me? Nobody really comes on the roof anyway.
So there I was, unconscious on the bed, still dressed, with drool coming out of my mouth. Charming. I was like that for a while, until a bright light shining through the skylight hit my face.
At first, I thought it was the sun. But when I opened my eyes, I found it was too un-natural to be the sun, plus, it was only 5:00 in the morning. I sat up, and squinted out the skylight, shielding my eyes. A great, white, ball of light was coming towards me, growing bigger and brighter as I watched. After a second, it occurred to me that if the light was solid, it would crash through the skylight and hit me. So, just to be on the safe side, I rolled out of my bed, and stood at the edge of the room, watching fearfully. The brilliant light had now filled my room, and was still growing brighter. Soon, I had to close my eyes against it, and just wait.
CRASH
With the sound of something metal falling through glass the whatever-it-was crashed though the skylight into my room. Almost immediately, the light faded away, leaving red spots in my vision. I opened my eyes again, blinked away the spots, and looked at my bed.
It was covered in glass and metal from the skylight, and the light of the moon now illuminated it fully. The thing that had crashed into my apartment lay on my pillow. It was a biggish, silvery orb, light pulsating from it gently. Almost unaware of what I was doing, I walked over to it, holding out my hand to touch it. Some distant part of myself was aware of the glass cutting into my bare feet, and of the fact that anything that had just burned that brightly must be burning hot, but I was in some kind of trance. I didn't notice the glass, and as I touched the orb, I found it was quite cool, as if it had been lying in a refrigerator all day. I put both my hands on the orb…and suddenly, the light returned, a shock ran through my body, and I was thrown across the room. My head hit against the wall, and I knew no more.
OhdearOhdearOhdearOhdearOhdearOhdear
I woke up the next morning to the sound of knocking at my door. Groaning, I sat up. I had been leaning against the wall across from my bed, and my head felt like it was about to crack open. For a moment, I wondered what the heck had happened. Then I remembered the orb. I sat bolt right up.
It was there, lying on my pillow exactly as it had done the night before. The glass lay around it, and the skylight above was shattered. I looked at my feet, and was surprised to find that they had healed overnight. In fact, my headache was already disappearing. This was getting weirder by the minute.
The knocking at my door grew louder and more insistent. I stood up carefully, avoiding any glass, and made my way out of the bedroom to the front door. Not bothering to check my appearance, I flung it open.
The day guard stood there, looking startled. For a moment I wondered if he expected someone else, but then I remembered that I had just woken up. I was dressed in rumpled clothes, bare feet, and my brown hair was sticking up all over the place. I probably looked crazy.
"Er, Hello," said the guard.
"Hey," I said. "Uh, Can I help you?"
"There was someone here to see you earlier," said the guard. "But we couldn't reach you, so I sent them away. I wanted to make sure you were all right-"
"Someone was here to see me?" I interrupted. The Guard nodded.
"Two people actually," he said. "A brown haired guy and a blonde woman. You know 'em?"
"You've just described half the people in my class," I said dryly.
"Oh, well, I just wanted to check that you hadn't been murdered or anything…" the guard trailed off. "You are ok, right?"
"Yep," I lied. "Everything's fine." Yeah, some weird ball thing had crashed through my window the night before, but I was great.
"Ok, then," the guard smiled at me. "See ya."
I closed the door, and retreated back to my room. I glanced at my clock. 9:00 in the morning. I frowned. Who would be looking for me earlier than 9:00 in the morning on a Sunday? Whatever. I had more pressing matters, starting with the glass all over my room. I carefully cleaned it up, and nailed a board over my skylight. I left the orb where it was, feeling too frightened to go near it again.
After I was finished cleaning, I took a shower and changed. I gobbled down my breakfast, and sat at my desk, trying to get something done for work.
Unfortunately, the orb kept drawing my attention. I couldn't keep my eyes off of it. It no longer pulsed. In fact, I got the distinctive feeling that it was, for lack of a better word, dead. But I was fearful of it; because of the shock it had given me. A shock, which seemed to have healed my feet, and given me odd drawing abilities…
Drawing abilities? I looked down at the paper where I'd been absently doodling. I dropped the pencil in surprise. I had drawn seven symbols. They looked vaguely familiar, except for the last one, which looked like an A without the line in the middle, and a circle on the top. I stared at it for moment.
I shook my head, and leaned forward on my desk, my head in my hands. The headache had returned, and it was getting worse. I pressed my hands against my eyes, as though hoping I could somehow push it away. Then, suddenly, it was gone.
I looked up, blinking in surprise. But I wasn't in my room anymore. Instead, I was standing in a long metal hallway. High-tech was the only was to describe it. People walked up and down the hall, talking quietly. I noticed a window, and walked over to it. Outside, all I saw was stars.
I staggered back, tripped over my feet, and for the second time that day, found myself lying on my bedroom floor. Panting, I stared up at the ceiling. I turned my head slowly, to look at the orb. It was just sitting there, innocently. I felt sure that whatever was happening had to do with it. Slowly, I got up, and walked over to the desk. I picked up the orb, and carried it to my closet. It was heavy, heavier than it looked, which was saying something. I placed it in my closet and shut the door tightly. I leaned against it, and closed my eyes. Hopefully, this would be the end of all the strangeness.
Someone knocked on my door.
"What now?" I muttered, hurrying to the door. For the second time that day, I flung it open, this time angrily.
"What?" I asked, rather rudely.
The man and woman in front of me exchanged glances. Belatedly, I realized this must be the two that had come to see me this morning. The man was brown haired and blue eyed, and wore glasses. That unconnected part of me thought he was cute. The woman was blonde and also had blue eyes.
"Um, I mean, hello?" I said quickly.
"Hi," said the man. "Are you Bridget Darrow?"
"Yeah," I said.
"Oh, good," said the man. "I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson, and this is Captain Samantha Carter. We were wondering if we could talk to you."
"Uh, why?" I asked.
"We want to know if you saw anything weird last night," said Samantha Carter.
"Like what?" I asked suspiciously.
"Anything," said Daniel. "Er, can we come in?"
I hesitated for a moment. Then, "Sure." I stood back to let them in.
Dr. Daniel Jackson and Captain Samantha Carter walked past me into the kitchen. I closed the door and followed them.
"Can I get you anything?" I asked. If there was anything my Grandma had taught me it was manners.
"No, that's ok," said Captain Carter.
"Do you have any coffee?" asked Daniel hopefully.
"Only decaf," I replied.
"Oh," he looked disappointed, and I fought off the urge to hug him.
"So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked.
"Did you see anything strange last night?" asked Carter.
"Strange like what?" I said.
"Like, lights in the sky, a meteor, something like that," said Daniel.
I blinked, and turned to the counter under the pretense of pouring myself some coffee. Something did happen to me last night, a strange metal object crashed into my bedroom, but should I tell them? I had no idea what they would do if I did. They were military, as far as I could tell. At least, Captain Carter was anyway. I didn't have the greatest faith in the military, for…reasons. But what did I have to lose?
"Miss Darrow?" prompted Daniel.
"What?" I turned around, and gave him a quick smile. "No, sorry, I didn't see anything last night."