Murphy's Physics

Murphy's 13th Law: "In the end, only Entropy wins."

"You can't have him."

"Colonel, you don't understand... my life's work! Decades of research! The sacrifice of Ganon and Timyr--"

"He's not yours-- or anyone else's-- work! He's a nine-year-old boy and he doesn't want to have a snake in his head. Nor does he want to be a guinea pig in Anise's Lab of Horrors. You came here to find out if your buddies were alive or dead and to recover their research. You got your answers and your precious data. Take it and go back home."

SG-1 and So'len were standing beside their ship, landed some distance from the hull of the ship where the Tok'ra had found the record crystals of his deceased partners. Carter and Daniel were still poking around in the craft, which had been salvaged beyond repair to construct the living quarters where Tegan had lived alone for so long. Teal'c was standing behind Jack as he laid down the law for So'len concerning Tegan.

But So'len wasn't listening. "I am not leaving here without the child! He is the cumulation of the research! We need him... to study him... in order to understand--"

Jack resisted the urge to seize the Tok'ra around his neck and shake him. "Not going to happen, Sullen. It's his choice. Making him a Tok'ra is just going to up the ante on whatever bounty the System Lords set on his head. You don't need him-- you've already got the memories of the Tok'ra. There's nothing he can add to your research."

"We will protect him! They will never stop hunting--"

"Protect him? He's been doing a damn good job of protecting us! I don't think he needs our help, and he certainly doesn't need the Tok'ra's idea of protection. Shall we ask Shawn'loc about that? How about Kanen and Shaylin? Your protection is for crap! You Tok'ra would throw away anyone's life to reach your goals, even if those lives are not yours to throw away. Not everyone has the same goals as you, buddy!"

"The goals of the Tok'ra were once your goals, Colonel O'Neill, "So'len said, his chin raised defiantly though his eyes still reflected his fear of this fierce Tau'ri man. "Do you not wish an end to the Goa'uld and all the evil that they perpetuate?"

"Not at the cost of a child's life!"

Daniel used the pause in their shouted argument to gently intervene. "So'len, please try to understand. The Tau'ri value life and freedom. If we don't give Tegan a chance to choose his own path, we are no better than the Goa'uld."

"I will let him choose. Allow me to speak with him."

"I already spoke to him," Jack said firmly. "He's not interested."

"Can I not hear it from him?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

Jack leaned back against the hull of the ship, lazily checking his wristwatch. "'Cause he's probably about a million light-years from here by now."

"WHAT?" So'len was tugging at his hair in frustration. Daniel and Sam looked surprised, too, though Teal'c wore his usual serene smile.

"Oh, yeah. The slaves and jaffa aboard Emu's ship were rather grateful to be released from service, him being a great big pain in the butt and all. Teal'c arranged for them to meet up with Bra'tac so they can join the rebel Jaffa. They were pretty keen to join up, "O'Neill swiveled toward Teal'c with a grin, "Weren't they?"

"Indeed, they were most enthusiastic," Teal'c did not bother to try to suppress a wide smile.

"You have given a harsesis over to the hands of the jaffa? And you think they will not use him in their skirmishes against the goa'uld?" So'len was practically apoplectic at this point.

"Oh, no. Tegan is just going to drop them off at the meeting place. There's a handful that decided to stay with him, those who don't have homes to go back to anymore. He told them they could stay with him if they agreed not to treat him like a god."

So'len's face was turning red, and his eyes were flashing as his symbiote grew more agitated within him. "You have prejudiced him against us! What did you say to him that drove him away?"

O'Neill's face lost all trace of amusement as he retorted, "I didn't have to say anything to Tegan. He's got the memories of the Tok'ra, remember? Specifically, the memories of your partners Ganon and Tymir. Don't you wonder why they snuck off while you were busy finding a new host and never returned? They didn't trust you, So'len. You knew that the experiment would fail, didn't you? Well, so did they! They realized that you had manipulated them. They suspected that you'd try to use their child, so they took the first chance they got to escape together."

So'len looked shocked. "No, no... that is not how it was at all! I genuinely believed that we would succeed-- that we can still succeed! With the right genetic manipulation, the harsesis can mature to blend with a symbiote and be able to produce larvae. If the child had been born female--" So'len looked from the Tau'ri soldier to the jaffa entreatingly. "Please. With the child I can continue the experiment. You know what this might mean to the Tok'ra!"

"I am more concerned with what this means to a little boy. The kid's got the right to choose, and he doesn't need you-- or me-- to think for him. He knows who he can trust. I told him to look up Selmac if he ever needed anything from the Tok'ra."

"And you," So'len sneered at O'Neill. "I am sure you told him that you could trust you."

"You know what," O'Neill smiled, "I didn't have to tell him that, either." Jack nodded to Teal'c, who came to stand beside So'len like a silent but menacing shadow. So'len did not resist as the jaffa escorted him to the cargo hold where he would be secured for the duration of the voyage home. SG-1 followed them aboard.

Sam Carter slipped into the co-pilot seat, beginning the pre-flight check. "Think you can handle her, Sir? This is no Death Glider."

"Yeah, I can do it. Teal'c's been giving me lessons." He settled into the chair with a sigh, reaching by habit for the non-existent seat harness. He shook his head slightly, then took the controls. Smoothly, the ship responded to his commands and they began their journey.

Daniel was standing behind O'Neill, tugging on his lip. "Do you really think Tegan will be alright, out there on his own? I mean, it's a big galaxy, and the Goa'uld won't give up on looking for him."

"He'll be fine," Jack answered confidently. "That's why I call him 'Tigger'... he bounces back."

Sam smiled as she listened to them bantering, then turned to examine the control panel beside her. Under the console, she knocked her knee painfully against something metal. "Ouch! What is this--" She extracted a long, flat package wrapped in cloth. Ignoring O'Neill's protests, she and Daniel unwrapped it.

"It looks like a steel boogie-board," Sam said, turning it over.

O'Neill looked embarrassed. "Well, yeah... Tigger gave it to me."

"What is it, Sir?" Her clever fingers found a panel and she opened it, regarding the matrix of crystals and wires within.

"It's one of those anti-gravity sleds that he was riding around on, down on Planet Murphy. I asked him to make me one." As Daniel and Sam exchanged glances, Jack turned toward them. "What? It looks like fun! You know, Carter... F. U. N.? As in 'playing-with-a-naquada-reactor' fun!"

"What do you think General Hammond will say about this?"

"Let him get his own! Besides, he won't know if you don't tell him."

"Well, we'd have to have a pretty good reason not to, Sir." Sam grinned at Daniel, who winked back.

"Who gets to ride it first?"

"Oh, for cryin' out loud! You don't even like heights, Daniel!"

"No, but I like digging up artifacts. There's a mission on the boards for P7X-555 to spend a week investigating some ruins we suspect were left behind by the Ancients--"

"You want me to agree to spend a week watching you stare at rocks? Come on, Daniel!"

"No, actually," Daniel said, adjusting his glasses with a smirk, "I want you to let me go with the SG team that Hammond recommends, on temporary assignment, as I want to enjoy the trip. Then when I get back, I'll need your help with the translations..."

"You ungrateful, manipulative--"

"I'd like a longer look at the mechanisms that make this device work," Carter injected, before Jack could build up steam.

"Wha--? I'm not gonna let you take it apart! What if you can't put it back together right?"

Teal'c approached silently behind the arguing team, his dark eyes glittering with amusement. "I, too, have a condition for my compliance, O'Neill."

Jack groaned, covering his eyes with one hand. "Et tu, Brute?"

"You speak in a Tau'ri dialect with which I am unfamiliar. You once promised, did you not, that you would show me the wonders of your world? I have read that there is documented, in the middle-west of your continent, a mass of hand-made string that measures in size greater than any other mass of string in existence. I wish to see this marvel with my own eyes."

"The world's largest ball of twine? Teal'c, you've seen the wonders of the universe through the Stargate, and you want to go to Kansas to see a big ball of twine?"

"You did promise, O'Neill."

"Keeping alien technology as a recreational vehicle is a pretty big secret," added Sam.

"Come on, Jack. It'll only be for a week."

"Fine! Fine! I'll do it!" Jack turned back to the controls with a tight sigh. "Just when you think you can trust people..." he mumbled, then shouted over his shoulder, "First we got to get back to the SGC. I expect you all to help me get this thing past Hammond. And don't think I am going to forget this little conversation!" Jack clamped down his jaw to prevent his own grin from being seen. In an annoyed voice, he continued loudly, "Thank god we aren't on Planet Murphy anymore. At least now, I know that nothing else can go wrong--"

As he spoke these words, a line of crystals on the control panel lit up, blinking baleful red.

"D'OH!"

fin