Rising from the Ashes of Ascension

Chapter 6

Disclaimer: As much as I might wish, I do not own Stargate: SG1, Highlander: the Series, or any recognizable characters from either show. If I did, I wouldn't be working in the public schools system. However, any characters that are not from either show are mine and I will use and abuse them as I see fit. Everyone else will be returned eventually, for I am only borrowing for awhile, but they might end up a bit scuffed.

Warnings: Potty language, violence, and occasional sexual references

Things had been going fairly smoothly for SG-1. Sam had been working on the designs for a new naquadah power generator and so far the upgrades were coming along smoothly. Teal'c had completed another training cycle for the new recruits into the Stargate program; he had declared the newest class to be adequate, but in need of true field experience. Jack had finally finished up three weeks of paperwork that Hammond had been yelling at him to get done for the past two weeks.

Daniel had also been busy straightening out his life after death. He had filled out all of the necessary forms necessary to get himself off the MIA list and back among the living – officially.

As he filled out the last form, in triplicate, with Jack hovering over him like a helicopter, he suddenly realized why when he had died before (before the Stargate) things had been much easier. "I remember when I died back in the Sixties."

"Oh really? Let me guess, too much LSD even for a groovy Immortal cat like yourself," Jack queried, curious about Daniel and his life during the time of peace, love, and understanding.

Daniel laughed at that. "You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? I had been living in Chicago for about a year in the middle part of the decade. I had been invited to a party at a friend of a friend's apartment that wasn't too far from my place. I had nothing better to do at the time, so I thought, why not? I'd kick back, enjoy myself, have a nice conversation, and listen to some cool music, that kind of thing. This one idiot had brought some really bad pot – pretty much ditch weed and not a whole lot of THC. Everyone was pretty annoying thinking they were high, but weren't. The smell alone was bad enough to choke a donkey. I got sick of the idiots and decided to walk home. It wasn't too far away, and the night air was pretty nice."

Jack looked at his quizzically. "So you didn't touch the stuff," he asked, not quite believing that his friend had been a teetotaler about drugs in the Sixties. The man was an Immortal and it wasn't like drugs would kill him dead.

Daniel smiled. "Not that night," he said. "Anyway, to make a long story a tad shorter, I was walking down the road, not really paying attention, but at the time I had thought I was close enough to the side of the road and wouldn't get hit. Unfortunately for me, a car came along and hit me. I got mowed down by a powder-blue Buick driven by a seventy year-old man who was going about fifty miles an hour, at least according to my Watcher at the time. I had barely left the parking lot of the apartment that I had been at. The damn thing slammed into me and I then slammed into the windshield which then catapulted me up and back. Eventually I hit the ground about twenty feet from where I had started, one hundred percent dead. From what I had been told, it was pretty grizzly – my face got turned into hamburger."

Jack looked slightly disturbed at hearing this. "Is there a point to this Daniel or are you trying to make me lose the hamburger I ate for lunch?"

"Sorry," he said. "The point was I didn't die alone, away from the eyes of mortals. Nope, I got to die in front of pretty much everyone at the party. Cops were called, reports were made, and my dead body was taken to the morgue. I obviously got better, but by the time I had healed and come back to life, Jerry Goddard was officially dead. I had to leave just about everything behind. I managed to sneak back into my apartment and grab a few things like my swords, some money, and whatnot. After that, I just disappeared. I moved back to Egypt and no one was any the wiser. I didn't have to make sure I was using the correct color of ink on the correct forms that need to be reproduced enough times to kill a whole forest!"

"Testy are we?" Jack asked, looking up at his friend as he fooled around with something that looked like a misshapen paper weight, tossing it from hand to hand. He briefly wondered if he could find two other similar objects and start juggling them.

Daniel looked up at his friend, noticing what he was doing. "Jack?"

"Yes Daniel?"

"Could you please put down my fossilized dinosaur poop?"

"Gah!" Jack yelled, dropping the object, much to Daniel's annoyance. "Why in the hell would you have something like that?" he asked, frantically scrubbing his hands on his green over-shirt.

The Immortal sighed. "It's a rock at this point Jack. It's not like I went out and scooped up a fresh pile this morning and stuck it on my desk for you to fiddle with."

Jack would have retorted with something devastatingly witty, but was interrupted by the base's intercom system requesting the presence of SG-1 in the briefing room.

"Duty calls," Jack said and grabbed Daniel's arm and hauled him out of his office.

SG1SG1SG1SG1SG1

Together they wound their way through the labyrinth-like hallways of the base as they made their way to the briefing room.

They took the elevator up to level 26 and made their way to the briefing room, where Carter, Teal'c, and the General were waiting patiently for them.

"Good morning sir," Jack said. "What's up?"

"Take a seat please," Hammond ordered as Carter passed two familiar folders to the late comers.

"Sir," Jack queried, as he sat down at the table across from his second in command and next to Teal'c.

Daniel took the seat next to Sam.

"Yes Colonel?" Hammond replied, an amused smile on his face.

"We aren't due to go off world until later this week. Why are we having a briefing now?"

Hammond sighed. "As you know, SG-15's leader, Lt. Colonel Mike Newton, broke his leg and Staff Sergeant Amy Pierce recently found out that she's pregnant. Since they are out of commission until Newton's leg heals and finds a temporary replacement for Sergeant Pierce, your team will take their place on the mission to PX1-214."

Jack flipped the folder open and quickly scanned the contents. "Why send us? This looks pretty run of the mill. The people are blue, the sky is red, and the dirt is orange. While as fascinating as those three things might be to those that are more scientifically inclined," he said, purposefully ignoring the glares emanating from Carter and Daniel, "why are you having a front line team go there?"

Hammond glared at his second-in-command. "I am sending you there because currently your team is the only one available to handle this particular situation. We've already made first contact with the people. At first the world possessed little that would be of any benefit to Earth, but we discovered that the planet has a source of naquadah. SG-12, along with Dr. Pierson, is already on the planet and they are having no luck in convincing the natives to let us mine for the mineral. The locals have no use for it themselves and we are trying to get them to let us have access to the land where the mine is located. The difficulty is that the mine is in an area that the natives consider sacred. According to Dr. Pierson, the location has some significant ruins that look to be of Ancient origin. The natives think of the Ancients as their ancestors and are protective of the site. You team's job is to convince them to let us check it out."

Jack cleared his throat and tried his best to look contrite and apologetic. He wasn't doing a very good job at it. "You're sending us to handle a diplomatic situation? I mean sure, developing interstellar relations and building bridges between cultures is a hobby of mine, but I don't think we're the best to send. Don't we have another SG team that deals with diplomatic stuff full time?"

Hammond gave another deep sigh and internally wondered if his blood pressure would reach record heights that day. "SG-9 is currently off-world. They are on PX1-026 to negotiate with the ruling house of Xa'rr for the right to mine the naquahdah on their lands. Their reports say the negotiations have slowed down due to the natives' insistence that they are to follow their religious customs to the letter. They can't leave until they are finished there, so your team will have to go instead."

"But still, isn't there someone else?" Jack pressed, not wanting to go to PX-whatever and play nice with people that were the color of the Smurfs.

"Actually, I want Dr. Jackson to lead the negotiations, no offense Jack," General George Hammond said, doing his best to not smirk at the Colonel. "As much as I respect your ability to negotiate with aliens," he said with a straight face, "I feel that your talents can be best used in another capacity on this mission."

Jack gave the general a resigned nod, knowing that there was nothing he could say that would get them out of the assignment. He then noticed the enthusiastic smile on the archeologist's face.

While it wasn't the first time the man had been off-world (he had been a part of the team that helped to destroy Anubis' super-weapon), it would be the first time the formerly ascended expert in alien-human relations would lead a mission. While he (Jack) would be in command of the team and still be responsible for everyone's safety, the archeologist would lead the negotiations.

They went over the basic information about the planet and the people and within an hour they were geared up and in front of the Stargate, waiting for Sergeant Harriman to dial up PX1-026.

Slowly, then faster and faster the gate began to spin, stopping to lock on to certain coordinates. Scorpio, Lynx, Virgo, Aries, Taurus, and Equleus all lit up as the gate program locked onto each coordinate. Finally the point of origin for the Tau'ri lit up and a blue kawoosh erupted from the twenty-two foot tall device, announcing that a wormhole had been established between the two worlds.

"Ready kids?" Jack asked and checked each member of his team to determine their individual levels of readiness.

Carter looked calm and mildly bored; it wasn't as if this was the first time she had steeped through the big blue puddle.

Teal'c looked alert and vigilant for any danger that they find once they crossed the blue horizon.

Daniel, however, looked like a kid that had just been told that that he could have free reign at a candy store. He was literally bouncing on his toes, his enthusiasm for meeting with and interacting with an alien culture was causing him to regress to the wide-eyed Spacemonkey that he had been when the Gate was first opened eight years prior.

"Alright then, let's move out people," Jack said as he jammed his ball cap on to his head and lead SG-1 up the metal ramp and through the ring that led to another world on the far side of the galaxy.

A/N: Well, what do you think? Crap or not? Hit the shiny review button and let me know.

Thank once again to those of you that have put me and/or my story on a list of some sort. It is much appreciated. Also, thank you to those of you that have dropped me a review and let me know what you think. Finally, thank you for just reading my stuff. I appreciate you taking the time to do so.

Final note: The names of the Stargate symbols came from Wikipedia I believe.