Murphy's Physics
Murphy's Sixth Law: "Anyone who isn't paranoid simply isn't paying attention."
Within the hour, Jack O'Neill was trekking determinedly under the bulk of two field packs overstuffed with supplies. The gravity of this place-- Planet Murphy, Jack reminded himself firmly-- was indeed slightly less than Earth-normal, so the weight didn't bother him too much. Indeed, the most difficult part of the mission had been getting away from the ship without Daniel. He had wanted to come along, but Jack ordered him to stay and help So'len as much as he could. In the end, Jack pressed a P90 into Daniel's hands and told him frankly that he feared that a Goa'uld or Jaffa might have survived the destruction of their own ship.
"This ship may be the only way off this rock. The same thing might occur to them. Guard it until we get back. Please." Courtesy as his final weapon, Jack persuaded Daniel to remain in the last.
The RDF signal from Teal'c and Carter's radios was coming to him clearly. The sun was shrinking down toward the sharp intermittent mountains, turning again from pinkish to a golden-orange colour. There was a dip in the ridge that bordered the valley. He made it his goal to reach that point or further before night fell and he was forced to go to ground.
The temperature dropped with the sun, which after a burst of colour seemed to dive behind the horizon in great haste to escape from the absolute darkness. There were no moons and no stars visible. Even with the high-powered hand torch he had brought along, O'Neill could barely see to make a path. He was forced to stop at the crest of the ridge and hunker down against a large boulder to wait for daylight. He wrapped himself in a blanket and made a meal out of an energy bar.
Teal'c and Sam were safe. They had reported well before nightfall that they had found a cave and built a small fire. Jack wished, not for the last time during that long, chilly watch, that he was with them in that cozy cave, toasting MRE's over a campfire, and listening to Carter theorize about whatever entered her mind while Teal'c practiced his Kel'no'reem. And since wishes were free, Daniel could be there, too, searching the walls for primitive drawings or combing through the dirt for ancient alien can-openers. It painted a perfect picture in his mind, a fair substitute for sleep.
Several hours into the night, just as he was sure that his knees were locking up permanently from the cold, a pale yellow moon peered over the horizon, shedding a grudging luminescence over the landscape. There was not enough light to make out a path, but O'Neill was given a glimpse of an alien world in peaceful slumber.
There came a sound to Jack's ears that didn't fit the scenery. It was like the sound of a hummingbird's wings, or perhaps the subdued growl of a machine. It was so faint that it would have been impossible to hear but for the absolute silence of the night. The face of the gibbous moon rippled like a disturbed reflection in a pond.
Without taking his eyes off of the disturbance, Jack sought with knowing fingers and brought out his binoculars. These had been a gift his team had chipped in on and presented to him. They were powerful, light, and most importantly now, had infrared sensors that could be turned on or off. He had never seen anything like them on the market (such things were available, but they were bulky and very, very expensive) so Jack was fairly sure that Carter had probably built them herself. He lifted them to his eyes, thumbing on the night-vision array.
The scenery changed very little; instead of the washed-out yellow light from the moon, the mountainside became greenish, with a bright green sun shining down. The strange rippling disturbance disappeared. He swept the sky again, then turned his attention to the ground.
Everything around him was cold, though when he zoomed up on the terrain over which he intended to walk on the marrow, he saw pale white pockets of heat here and there. Hot springs or thermal vents, perhaps. He worried a bit about the quake yesterday, wondering if they were in for more such events. One good after-shock might cause him some trouble in this rocky and dangerous place. But there was nothing to do about it if it did happen, except to hold on like hell and ride it out.
There! A hint of movement in the corner of his eye. He twirled the focus on his binocs. There was a patch of brightness against a distant hill: a hot spot on a distant peak, perhaps. As he watched, it moved slowly, down and then back up, hovering. The readout on his binocs gave a distance far too short to be the mountain in the distance. It was between him and that point, hanging in the air.
And then it moved, arching smoothly through the still night like a bird gliding on outstretched wings. Faintly, Jack heard the noise again, a soft thrumming against his ears.
On impulse, Jack picked up a rock and threw it as far away from himself as he could. He heard it crash and rattle down the slope, dislodging other stones that joined in the canopy. The patch in his sights turned toward the sound, and the noise became a little louder as it approached. All he could see was a blurb of light in his sights, taking on a reddish hue as it came closer. He could see now that a distorted yellow-green shape was on top of it. This was no thermal vent or night-hunting bird.
Suddenly, the thing changed directions and sped away, down the slope and away from Jack's hiding place. The noise faded before the vision disappeared beyond the range of his binoculars.
"Sounds like the Nox technology, Sir. They could make the fenri disappear."
"Yeah, but it didn't really sound like a fenri, Carter. It sounded-- I don't know-- kinda mechanical. Like a can-opener or something."
Jack O'Neill and Sam Carter walked a few paces behind Teal'c. Their reunion had taken place late the following day. Jack promptly filled them in on the strange thing he had seen. He was eager to hear what Sam would make of this puzzle.
"The Nox possess the technology to make things disappear, but I wonder if we'd still be able to see them in the infrared. Nur'ti used phase-shifting, like the Reetou, to disappear, but that doesn't show up on infrared, either, due to the excitement-- or rather deceleration-- of particles. You see, when particles blue-shift, it means that they are actually moving toward a given point, the point of the observer being..."
This was the moment when Jack's eyes glazed over. "Carter!" he barked. "I'm just a poor, dumb country boy from Minnesota! You're making my brain bleed!"
"Sorry, Sir." Sam offered a small apologetic smile. "To tell the truth, I'm not sure what is happening. I need more data, and perhaps a glimpse of your night-time visitor." She gave a gentle little cough, glancing at him sidelong.
Jack stared back at her. "What?"
"Well, Sir, you said that So'len used a Goa'uld healing device on Daniel."
"Yeah."
"Why didn't you let him heal your injuries as well?"
"My injuries?" Jack reached up and touched his still-swollen nose and cheekbone. "I'm fine. I've done worse than this to myself shaving."
Carter shook her head a little. "It could account for your 'seeing things', Sir, if you don't mind my saying..."
"I wasn't 'seeing things' when Daniel appeared out of nowhere, Carter! Something fishy is going on around here!"
"Yes, Sir. I am sure you're right." Sam placated her commanding officer. Time to change the subject before she earned a court marshal. "Do you think that this might have anything to do with the reason we came to this place?"
Jack was briefly taken aback by her suggestion. Their original mission had been to investigate a sub-space beacon that belonged to a long-lost transport vessel that had been sent to collect evidence of civilizations founded by the Tok'ra. The Tok'ra had enlisted the Tau'ri's help because of their alliance, and the fact that no Tok'ra agents could be spared for the journey at this time. The Tok'ra council had deemed that an immediate attempt to retrieve this evidence was very important to the future survival of the Tok'ra as a race, but Jack suspected that it had more to do with the fact that the Tok'ra were trying to keep them out of involvement with other missions; missions that they feared would be compromised by the Tau'ri's policies of 'direct confrontation'. O'Neill had resisted becoming involved, but had been forced to agree when General Hammond ordered SG-1 to participate.
So in the light of how completely balls-up the mission had gone so far, he had very selectively forgotten about the lost vessel. The presence of a Goa'uld ship in the vicinity now seemed even less like a coincidence then it had before.
"The Goa'uld are looking for it, too? Why?"
Teal'c halted and turned back, his face set in thoughtful lines. "If there is some useful technology that this expedition discovered, the Goa'uld would be very interested in obtaining it, or at the least, keeping it from the hands of the Tok'ra." The powerful man turned again to the forward, his sharp eyes taking in every detail of the area. "Perhaps we should ask So'len if he has any information on what was discovered during this expedition; for the Council deemed it so important, surely they must suspect something of what was found."
"Tell you what, Teal'c," Jack said with a sigh, annoyed by his own obtuseness, "Why don't you do my thinking from now on, and I'll walk around and look inscrutable; what do you say?"
"If you wish it, O'Neill."
"Let's get back to the ship, kids. I got a few questions for our friend Sullen."