Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

Most of the time they found the Stargate out in the open. 

Daniel Jackson had too many memories of stepping into fields; into clearings; into deserts; into open space of every and any kind not to remember that they usually found the ‘gate out in the open.   From the picture from the MALP their next mission would mean stepping out of the Stargate and into an enclosed space.

“It looks like Egyptian hieroglyphs on the walls,” Daniel said out loud as he peered at the photo from the MALP they’d sent on to scout their next planned planet.

“So, does that make it safe or unsafe?” asked Jack O’Neill brusquely from across the conference room table.

Daniel lifted his eyebrows and looked back at the SG1 team leader with an even gaze.  “It usually means a Goa’uld.”

“Right,” Jack pointed a pen at him, “I knew that.”

Beside Daniel, Sam Carter coughed to cover the laugh which had bubbled up.  Daniel exchanged a look across the table with Teal’c.  The Jaffa simply raised an eyebrow.

“There’s no sign of habitation,” Daniel continued, “no artefacts close to or by the ‘gate.  No recent footprints in the sand.  It looks abandoned.”

“So, safe-ish,” concluded Jack, gesturing with the pen again.

General Hammond cleared his throat at the top of the table.  “Proceed with caution, SG1.  You have a go for the mission.  You’ll leave on schedule at oh-ten-hundred.”

They moved out seamlessly.  Daniel swept the photos into a blue folder stamped with the insignia of the Air Force.  He followed at a slower pace than the others but caught them up at the elevator.  They all entered together.

Sam held her folder open in front of her, frowning at a MALP reading.

“Problem, Carter?” asked Jack.

Sam shook her head.  “No, sir,” she closed the folder, “the temperature and sand suggest a desert climate so I would recommend we take additional water rations, sir.”

“Extra water,” Jack agreed.

Daniel shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“You’re frowning,” Jack pointed at him.  “Why are you frowning?”

“I’m not frowning,” Daniel said, defensively, clutching his folder slightly closer to his chest. 

“You are indeed frowning, Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c said.

Daniel looked at Sam beseechingly.  Her blue eyes twinkled back at him with amusement.  He sighed.  “It just…this place…it reminds me of Abydos.”

They all sobered abruptly and he grimaced.

“Sorry,” he said, “I just…” his hand went up beside his head and gestured vaguely, “memories still slotting into place.”

Jack patted his shoulder as the elevator dinged to a halt and the doors slid open.  “At least you know how to work the Stargate now.”

Daniel blinked as Jack moved past him and out of the elevator.  Sam offered a sympathetic smile as she walked out.  Teal’c remained behind for a moment before he bowed his head and exited.  Daniel sighed and headed to the locker room.

o-O-o

Ostensibly Jack was watching the perimeter as Daniel took photos and scribbled notes in his journal.  Which he was.  But they had already cleared the pyramid with the Stargate and established that they were pretty much surrounded by desert. 

Carter and Teal’c had gone outside to direct the drone the SGC had sent in an aerial loop around the other pyramids which neighboured them. 

Daniel had been quiet all mission.  Too quiet.  Even for newly-returned-from-Ascension-and-getting-his-memories-back Daniel.

Jack understood.  The pyramids, the desert…it reminded Jack of Abydos too.  And with the memory of Abydos came the fresh surge of grief that always accompanied it.  They’d lost Abydos to Anubis.  Maybe Skaara and the others lived on in some glowy world that Oma Desala had created for them, but they were gone.   

He knew Daniel was struggling with that truth.  Moreover, Daniel was blaming himself.  Jack knew that.  They’d even talked about it.  Well, talked about it as much as they talked about these things.  But Jack knew Daniel.  He knew the younger man was beating himself up for promising to protect them and not coming through.  Jack figured given what they knew of the Ancients, Daniel had tried and been punished for trying by being cast-out of the glowy club.

Daniel sighed heavily and pushed his glasses up his nose.  “Well, we can relax about the Goa’uld who owns this place turning up.”

“Yeah,” Jack looked over at Daniel inquisitively, “why’s that?”

“It’s Ra,” Daniel waved at the wall, “was Ra.”

Jack lifted one scarred eyebrow at that.  “I thought we were way out of Ra territory.”  His finger remained on his weapon as he walked over to join the other man in front of a detailed set of drawings.

“Ra ruled this entire expanse of space at one time,” Daniel lectured, “he obviously ceded territory to some of the others as part of his alliances, lost some to enemies, but…” he shrugged.  “It’s not too surprising there’s still evidence of his rule in remote places.”

“Anything useful other than Ra?” asked Jack, motioning towards the wall.

“Not really,” Daniel sighed again, “it looks like Ra abandoned this place and took the slaves with him.”

“No locals?” Jack checked.

“No locals,” Daniel confirmed.

They were both silent at that. 

“I miss them,” Daniel said quietly.

Jack swallowed hard on a lump of emotion.  He remembered Skaara that first mission; just a boy, filled with curiosity and adventure.  And Sha’re.  Beautiful and brave.  Daniel’s wife had been a pistol.  All the Abydonians had been rallied behind her in truth when they’d fought Ra.

“Do you…do you ever think we should never have gone?  That it would have been better for them if we’d never turned up?” asked Daniel suddenly.

Jack’s gaze snapped to Daniel, but Daniel’s gaze was fixed firmly on the wall in front of them.  He wondered what to say, what he could say.  He sighed.  “All the time,” he admitted. 

Daniel was surprised into looking at him.

Jack lifted a hand from his P90 and waved at him.  “We take a risk every time we walk through the ‘gate, Daniel.  We impact the lives of the people we meet, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.”

Daniel nodded slowly.

“But,” Jack continued, “I know one thing; if we hadn’t gone to Abydos, hadn’t opened the ‘gate, Ra would still be alive and the Abydonians would be his slaves.  And maybe, maybe,” he held Daniel’s gaze, “that’s a good enough reason right there for us walking through that ‘gate that first time.”

He paused as he watched Daniel struggle for a moment, tears glinting behind his glasses.

“Maybe we didn’t save them the last time we walked through it, Daniel,” Jack admitted, “even though we all tried, including you.” He tapped Daniel’s chest.  “But we saved them that first time.”

Daniel looked back at him for a long moment, tears shining in his eyes, but he nodded and turned back to the wall.

Jack hesitated, wondering if he needed to say something else, if he could offer any further comfort to his friend.  “You need more time?”

Daniel shook his head.  “We can go.”

Jack nodded.  He checked in with Carter and Teal’c, ordered them back. 

They brought the drone back and within minutes they were all packed up.  Carter went through with the MALP which they loaded up with the drone, Teal’c following after her.

Daniel stopped just in front of the event horizon and looked back.

Jack stopped beside him and followed his gaze, taking in the empty antechamber, the story of Ra fading on the walls; the sand and the heat of the desert.  “You OK, Chicken Man?”

Daniel’s lips twisted at the remembered joke.  He met Jack’s eyes.  “No,” he admitted honestly, “but I will be.”

Jack patted his shoulder.  “Come on, let’s go home.”

Daniel smiled at him crookedly.  “I remember the way.”

fin.