The Briefing

"So…" Sam said a tad bit confused as Janet finished her statement on Colonel O'Neill's condition. Now, Samantha Carter, astrophysicist, could usually follow along with Dr. Janet Fraiser's detailed analysis of a problem, she may not have understood everything but she usually got what Janet was getting at. Or at least the gist of it. But listening to Janet's explanation, she actually didn't quite grasp what Janet was trying to tell them, and by the looks of it, neither did Daniel… and she didn't think Teal'c did either, though his expression was neutral. She had a sneaking suspicion that Janet had done that intentionally. But why? If the Colonel was going to die, she had never known Janet to not state it as it was, even if it did hurt them all; nor had she ever known the doctor to skimp out on the details when she didn't understand what was happening. What could be wrong with the Colonel that Janet would not want to tell them? Of course, it did occur to her that maybe this was the best way to describe the problem—but she didn't think so. Janet could always bottom line stuff. And she always did—at least up 'til now.

"Essentially…" General Hammond cut in sharply, looking at the Janet sternly. Janet returned the look with an innocent one and Hammond sighed, seeming to understand why Janet didn't want to bottom line it.

There was a silent pause that seemed to just keep extending.

Finally, just when she was about to break it, the General spoke up: "I'm afraid Colonel O'Neill is off active duty indefinitely."

Daniel cleared his throat then. "Could – could someone please explain to me why?" He drew out the word 'why', a sure sign that he was starting to get impatient.

And could she empathize fully with that.

Janet glanced at him and then around at the rest of them with a slightly guilty look, before sighing, looking down at her open folder. "Essentially," she repeated the General's earlier word, "the Colonel is… a werewolf."

Daniel nearly choked on his coffee. "Wha – what?" He looked kind of shocked and disbelieving, maybe a little incredulous.

Her sentiment exactly, but she kept quiet. A look similar to Daniel's would do.

Janet started to straighten out the papers in front of her. "I don't like to use that particular word—it's not at all scientific—but unfortunately it is fundamentally true. Last night the Colonel physically changed. His appearance, bone structure… he physically transformed into something – very – wolf-like. And enough of his genome and bio-chemical makeup is mutated so that if given the right stimuli, I think it could happen again." Janet's tone was snappish and she sounded irritated. Sam briefly wondered if her friend had gotten any sleep last night.

There was another silent pause as she and the other two members of SG-1 absorbed this information.

"I don't understand," Sam said finally, desperately trying to grasp the concept of a myth that she had only ever thought about when it was in a horror movie she was watching. Okay, so she dealt with secrets, parasitic beings pretending to be gods, and wormholes and technology that brings someone back to life, stuff that exists mainly in Sci-fi shows. But it's all technology! And if she studied it, she could find out step-by-step how it worked! Janet had said this was a virus… A virus that had gotten into Colonel O'Neill's body and that last night, had apparently turned him into a 'wolf-like' creature. It sounded like… like… like it was off some weird unexplainable mystery show—or something… Where they talk about ghosts and UFO sightings. Well, okay, the last one was a bad example.

"But – uh, it wasn't a full moon last night." Daniel broke through her thoughts with the statement. Everyone looked at him. "It's just, uh, that according to the legend – "

"But it's a full moon tonight," Janet cut in, a look of realization crossing her face.

"You think he'll change again tonight, doctor?" General Hammond asked with concern.

Janet shut the folder in front of her. "I don't know, sir, but I guess we'll find out sooner or later. I haven't figured out what caused the response yet, let alone the exact catalyst for the actual change." Janet leaned back in her chair looking slightly defeated.

General Hammond apparently noticed as well. "Well, doctor, you have an hour until the specialist arrives, I suggest you take a break."

"Yes, sir." Janet replied tiredly.

"Sir," Sam said quickly as an idea occurred, "what if we went back to P97-3X4. Try to find out whatever we can from those people." She glanced at Janet. "You said that the virus might have been transmitted through the bite the Colonel received. They might know something."

Janet nodded. "That's a good idea, sir. It might help if they know anything."

"Is that safe?" Hammond asked.

"Yes. Uh, yes, they were quite friendly," Daniel answered with a slight undertone of embarrassment.

It took Sam a couple seconds to swallow her grin before she turned to Hammond and nodded seriously. Not once while they were there did the people act hostile or dangerous in any way, in fact they were welcomed with open arms, and a very interesting party of sorts. Oh yes, they were 'quite friendly'.

-One week ago-

Sam slowly took the small cup offered to her from the shirtless man kneeling in front of her as she sat in one of the many chairs surrounding a large bonfire, and looked at its contents. The liquid inside was a green-blue colour and looked kind of thick, like syrup. She looked back up at the man kneeling in front of her.

"What is it?" she asked as politely.

The man smiled and held up his own cup. "It is tradition," the man, Palshic, answered with a heavy accent all the townspeople had if they weren't speaking their own language, and brought his own cup to his mouth and downed it with one swallow. He then rested his forearm on her knees and reached up, gently pushing the cup she held toward her mouth. "We are a very traditional people. We are very proud of it."

Sam didn't really want to insult them, but was still uncertain, so she glanced sideways at Daniel who was sitting nearby. A scantily clad woman was kneeling in front of him as he too looked at his drink. He looked at the woman and opened his mouth to say something when she shook her head raised her own cup and downed in one go. Placing down her cup, she reached up and wrapped her hands around his hand that encircled the cup pushing it closer to his mouth.

"It is tradition," the woman said softly and seriously, repeating what Palshic said to Sam. "It is a matter of trust between our people. We welcomed you here, trusting what you say is true, that you will not invade us. Now you will trust us. Besides," she added after a pause, "it is very good. Oh, and don't let it touch your tongue."

Sam looked down at her drink, took a deep breath, and swallowed the stuff. It was odd. At first it burned her tongue as though someone had stuck a hot poker on it and she coughed a couple times; then it went away and she began to feel this tingling sensation run through her body. It was strong stuff, whatever it was. It made her feel refreshed, and energetic—as though she'd just woken up and taken a nice shower. She decided she liked this stuff.

Palshic stood up and offered his hand to help her up, she took it and stood. She looked to the side just in time to see Daniel drink his. He too started coughing, and then stopped. The woman kneeling in front of him had placed her hands on his chest, just under the collar bone, and began to slide them down, unhurriedly.

"Feel it move down," the woman said quietly, slowly, and then reversed the direction of her hands running them back up his chest. "Feel how it affects you. It is nice, yes?"

"Hey kids, having fun?" Colonel O'Neill came up, with a cup of the same drink in his hand.

"Yes, sir, but I think Daniel's having the most." She grinned as she said that loud enough for Daniel to hear.

Daniel quickly cleared his throat and got up as the woman did. "I was just… uh…"

"Following the tradition?" Sam finished for him with a helpful tone. He blushed slightly, and she suppressed an uncharacteristic giggle, grinning. It crossed her mind briefly that the green-blue drink might already have had an effect on her.

"ColonelO'Neill, DanielJackson, MajorCarter," Teal'c greeted as he came up to them, "this beverage is most satisfactory." He held up a small cup.

"What is that, your fourth, fifth?" O'Neill said raising his eyebrows.

"Fourth," Teal'c replied firmly.

"Ah." O'Neill gave an I'm-not-gonna-comment look.

"O'Neill, did you not just finish your third?" Teal'c retorted, wiping off the Colonel's smug expression.

He looked down at his empty cup. "Yee-ah." He shrugged.

The rest of the night had been interesting. The leader of the town of Iryshrow, Maeshrin, came and started talking to a reluctant O'Neill, introducing him to different people as he dragged him away. Maeshrin was a good leader and friendly, but he hadn't talked with any member of SG-1 other than Colonel O'Neill besides the initial introductions. Daniel had said that this culture 'circled around hierarchy within the single town', that everyone apparently had a specific status. Like the military—only more complicated, she found as she listened to Daniel trying to explain it to O'Neill earlier before the dinner they'd had at Maeshrin's house.

Later, she saw the Colonel sitting around the fire, drinking a different type of alcohol talking to Teal'c.

Daniel had gone off to talk to… someone, about the wall that stood about twenty feet away from the fire, furthest from the town, near the surrounding forest. The wall was covered in pictures that seemed to tell their history, they had been told on the tour they had taken of the small town. Many of the pictures were gruesome and slightly disturbing, but she could see the story—it was like looking at a picture book.

She, herself, had gone to talk to Kimshal, who knew about most of the technology in the town—which was a surprising amount. Apparently, they used the Stargate often and traded with a few other species on different planets for technology as well as with the nearby towns so that technology spread throughout the continent. The Lyacanthes, as was the name of there race, were very advanced in some ways, medical science, and not so in others, weaponry, and there trading system with other towns and through the Stargate was very complicated—that was mostly due to the fact that there was no higher government, the only times the separate towns interacted was to trade.

After talking with Kimshal for a while, he had offered to teach her a traditional dance and she had agreed. All in all it had been a rather fun night.

-Present time-

"You leave in an hour then," Hammond said, ending the briefing, "Dismissed and good luck."

The three members of SG-1 and Dr. Fraiser stood up. As they left Sam walked beside Janet.

Janet glanced at her. "I hope you find something Sam, I really do."

She nodded. "Me too. Do you think I could visit him?"

Janet shook her head. "He's being kept sedated, he's in a lot of pain. I'm sorry."

"Okay, talk to you later," she said as she turned down a different hall than her friend.

"Bye, Sam, good luck."