Chapter 12
The next morning Noli was dragging her chair into Daniel's office. Daniel himself was face down on his desk, his head resting heavily on his folded arms. He came to when he heard someone come in and looked up with a tormented look on his face.
"Hey", he croaked. "You don't like your office anymore?"
Noli's face wrinkled up in disbelief. "Do you know how bright it is in there?" she whined.
"Yeah... About that, do you mind turning that light off?" Daniel shielded his eyes from the meagre spotlights that lit his bookshelves. Noli made an affirmative grunt and flicked the switch, leaving the room half-lit, before she proceeded into the room and placing her chair in front of Daniel. She collapsed into it and sat very still for a moment.
"So how you doin'?" she then said in a dark, new yorkish voice. Daniel smiled in spite of himself. He ungracefully rested his face in his hand.
"I'm great. If great means wishing things would stop moving around so you can fully focus on the railroad spikes in your head."
"What the hell did we do last night? And why?" Noli looked upset, then closed her eyes and sat very still again.
"As I recall it, you were the one who insisted we make a chart of bitterness versus carbonisation." Noli snorted loudly, still with her eyes closed. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a wrinkled napkin, full of incoherent notes.
"Here you go, my friend. Our research."
"You saved it?" Daniel sat up and took the napkin. He turned it about and tried to understand how it was meant to be read. Noli had, apart from the shaky diagrams and calculations drawn little things along the side - some stars and hearts, the usual phonepad doodles, and two little figures with Daniel's and Noli's names under them. The ink had bled out a bit, but one could still see the details that were meant to distinguish them both from any other stick figures: Daniel's glasses, Noli's ponytail, the basic outline of their clothes. It was a silly, childish drawing that for some reason instilled a comforting feeling in him. He carefully eavened out the creases on the napkin with his fingers and glanced up at Noli. She had layed her head down on the table and was sighing deeply. Daniel smiled a little crooked smile and folded the napkin up and put it in the top drawer of his desk. Then he folded his arms and layed his head down on them to rest for a little while.
A deep voice woke him up from his painridden slumber. Teal'c was standing in the door, peering into the dusk.
"Daniel Jackson."
Noli inarticulately went "Sch" and her arm flew out and waved at him to go away. Daniel pulled himself together and sat up.
"Yeah", he answered and tried to adjust his glasses. Teal'c had a slight air of disapproval on his face, but the amusement was predominant.
"Are you alright?"
"Sure, Teal'c, never better", said Daniel tiredly. "What's up?"
Teal'c turned to Noli. "And you, Noli Brennan?" Noli turned her head so she could peek at him without having to lift it.
"I'm so hung over... I have to sit down", she slured. If Teal'c had moved a muscle, he would have looked confused.
"You are already sitting down."
Noli mumbled "God" and turned her head back.
Daniel was feeling a bit impatient, just wishing this day would be over soon. Preferably without him having to do anything or go anywhere. He closed his eyes hard, pinching the base of his nose and asked: "Was there anything you wanted, or...?"
Teal'c seemed to recall his business. "General Hammond has summoned a meeting. He has news as to what took place yesterday."
"Do I have to go?" Noli's voice was thick. Teal'c gave her a look and she straightened up, sighing. "Alright. Come one, Daniel, you can lean on me." She pushed herself up from the desk and offered him her arm. Daniel chuckled in spite of himself and got up, but hooked his own arm under Noli's since she was actually looking worse than he was feeling. She greatfully leaned on him on their way to the briefing room. He was taller and considerably stronger than her and she didn't feel guilty about burdening him with a small portion of her weight, even though he was obviously not feeling tiptop either.
They were met with amused little grins from Jack and Sam as they entered the room. Noli reached for the water pitcher and plopped down in a chair in one sweeping motion, and poured herself a big glass of water that she drank in a few big gulps. She immediatly refilled the glass and emptied it two more times before she sat it down and looked around at the others. She pushed the pitcher over to Daniel and stated:
"Yes. Yes, I am sick. Thank you. Please continue."
"We haven't started yet." Jack's voice had a tone of glee. General Hammond cleared his throat.
"Now that we're all here I think it's time we did. As I'm sure you're aware I've been sparing no resources trying to get to the bottom of this, shall we call it assasination attempt. I know there was no immediate threat to your lives but as I understand it digesting the hexavalent chromium would eventually have lead to serious danger to your health, and even possible death. Not to mention the seriousity of having a saboteur inside the SGC. We've been running background checks and conducting investigations on everyone who may have had access to food deliveries, the kitchen and the labs. We couldn't bind the contamination to any outside source, which would mean that whoever did this manufactured the substance on the base, and no one else that ate in the cafeteria showed sign of being exposed, which pointed to the goal of hurting SG-1 specifically. Luckily for us, the person responsible hasn't been as careful covering their tracks as one would expect. We found the residues from the manufacturing in lab 14, and surveillance tapes show only one person accessing that room that wouldn't normally be there, and that person is captain Ichmanivov." At this, Jack got a grim look on his face. "I knew it!" he muttered. General Hammond continued. "He has shown signs of mental instability before, but he's done a good job of hiding just how far it has taken him lately. Now, it took us a while but he finally admitted to attempting to disengage SG-1 in order for the russian team to gain a more prominent position in the SGC. He also claims to have acted alone, and I've found no evidence saying otherwise. You were the last people to get lunch in the cafeteria that day and he could easily contaminate the food just before you got there. Anyway, I'm happy to conclude that the matter has been resolved and the captain will be courtmarshalled shortly."
"Wow." Sam stared in disbelief. "I can't believe he thought he'd get anywhere with this."
"I can't believe how quickly it was resolved", said Noli. "And the machinery will just take it from here?"
"Yes, well, there is still the problem of explaining how the contamination was discovered. I suspect there would be doubts as to the accuracy of our report. Plus, I'm sure doctor Brennan would prefer it if it was not accounted for on any official records that might in any way get into the wrong hands. Frankly, so would I."
Noli bobbed her head slowly. "You're very right."
"But what could we say? None of us tasted anything wrong, or saw the food getting tampered with." Sam had a troubled look on her face. She understood completely the reluctancy of both general Hammond and Noli to account for the real reason the sabotage was discovered. Anything that strange would inevitably lead to inconvenient questions about the activities in the SGC. But she also didn't want to have to lie in court.
"We could just say I had a hunch", suggested Jack. "'Cause I did."
"Actually, I did taste it. You're just not supposed to be able to... Basically, I tasted something, and there just happened to also be hexavalent chrome in there," said Noli, carefully rubbing her temples. "Tell them I'm generally paranoid."
"Very well." General Hammond was content. "Now, if everyone is feeling fit for fight, I suggest you return to your duties. Dismissed."
"How about it, Daniel?" said Jack spitfully. Daniel answered with a dirty look. Sam chuckled.
"Come on guys, we've got that little planet with the orange sky to check out today."
Noli made a face at the thought of an orange sky and was happy she wasn't part of any away team.
"I'll be on the floor", she announced in a thick voice as they left the room. Daniel felt a little envious, but kept quiet and stayed so for most of the remainder of the day.
A/N: Ridiculous! But now we don't have to worry about that anymore.
To you who've left comments: Thank you! Bribes are always the best way to get quick updates (plus, I need to get cracking at the rest of the story so bring the inspirational reviewing).