Better Left | SG-1 Fiction | Home | Contact | Guestbook
Better Left - Prologue
Watching from behind the glass, Samantha’s heart beat faster as the singularity exploded outward from the Stargate.
“Well Dr. Carter?” the General asked from behind her.
“I’ll travel through this gate to other worlds?” she asked.
“Yes” he replied, “along with Colonel O’Neill, Major Barali, and Dr. Jackson.”
She turned back to look at the gate and the light it emitted playing against the walls.
“Alright Sergeant, shut it down. If you’ll come with me Dr. Carter, I’ll introduce you to the rest of the team.” Sam sighed softly as the gate closed and turned to follow General Hammond. Inside the meeting room sat three men and a woman. They all stood as the two entered and as they shock hands, the General introduced them. There were no surprises as the introductions were made. The three men were easily identifiable and Sam had no trouble guessing their identities before the General spoke their names.
“Colonel Jack O’Neill.” A firm handshake.
“Welcome to the team, Doctor.” A friendly voice that made you think of a puppy dog. She knew his reputation though and quickly amended her thought. A puppy dog that you wouldn’t want to mess with. She was glad she was going to be on his side.
“Thank you sir, it’s an honour.”
General Hammond moved to the next man, also in military garb. “Major Barali” was the introduction. Sam stepped over to shake hands with the tall man, about her own age.
“Dr. Carter, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” His voice was soft, and she thought she could detect a slight accent. she thought to herself, . She smiled up at him, but before she could say anything the third man introduced himself.
“I’m Daniel,” he said before the General had a chance to introduce him. “I’m so glad you’ve decided to join us. I’ve been wanting to ask you some questions about your quantum wave flux theory.”
“You’ve read my paper!?” Sam was astonished.
“Well actually, no” he replied with a rueful smile, “but Rashid once dragged me to your lecture -- well not dragged exactly -- took -- and the section about intergalactic travel interested me.”
“Rashid?” she asked.
“That would be me,” Barali said.
“Ah” she replied, smiling at him.
“Alright people, save the chit-chat for down time,” the General started. “And this is Dr. Janet Fraiser, our chief medical officer.”
“It’s very nice to meet you Dr. Carter” she said nodding her head and smiling warmly. “Maybe now the post-mission checkups will be slightly less, shall we say, colourful,” she said, looking pointedly at the men and laughing softly. Major Barali and Daniel looked slightly embarrassed but Colonel O’Neill just grinned. “Well at least I can hope,” she muttered. “You’ll have to excuse me, there are some things I need to take care of.”
“Of course Doctor,” Hammond replied, “I was just going to brief SG-1 on their next mission.”
“Thank you, Sir. Again, it was nice to meet you Dr. Carter. Please stop by the infirmary any time.”
“Thank you, I will.”
Dr. Fraiser stopped just before she walked out of the door and turned. “That reminds me, Dr. Jackson. Will you please stop by my office when you’re done, there are some things I’d like to go over with you.”
“Of course, I’ll be there as soon as we’re done here.” She smiled slightly, inclined her head and left.
“Alright,” Hammond began, “lets get started.”
“Lets,” agreed Colonel O’Neill briskly. Sam turned to look at O’Neill and he calmly returned her gaze for a long moment before slowly winking. She smiled to herself and, turning her attention back to General Hammond, decided that she was going to like it here.
“Now Dr. Carter, your primary purpose within the SG-1 team will be to catalogue and investigate any alien technology that you come across on your missions. In addition, on those populated worlds, you will be working with the scientists of those worlds, focusing on sharing and learning about their scientific and technological knowledge. I’ll let Colonel O’Neill and Major Barali fill you in on the rest, if that’s alright with you?”
“Yes sir.”
“Excellent. You depart for P3X-714 at 0700 hours tomorrow. I’ll see you all then.” They all stood as the General left, and then turned to look at each other.
“Well I don’t know about you guys,” Colonel O’Neill began, “but I’m hungry.” He turned to Barali and Daniel, “What do you fine gentleman say about showing our newest team member the delights of military base cafeteria food?” Barali laughed at O’Neill’s remark but Daniel just shock his head and turned to Sam.
“Don’t worry, its not worse than university cafeteria food.”
“Oh good,” she laughed, “I was going to miss the taste of mass production.” Everyone laughed and with that, O’Neill clapped her on the shoulder, “We’re all going to get along just fine.”
***
Walking down the hallway towards the cafeteria, Barali was pointing down the intersecting halls. “The armoury is just down there on the left, and this one coming up leads to all the medical labs and facilities.”
“Yes, speaking of which,” Daniel said, “I should probably head down there, Dr. Fraiser wanted to see me.”
“I’m sure she does,” replied O’Neill with a mischievous glint in his eye. At that, Daniel blushed a shade that could only be called tomato.
“Ummm…well…I should…”
“Yes, you probably should.” The Colonel’s voice sounded slightly too unconcerned.
“Well…yes, I really…ummm…”
“Just go Daniel,” ordered O’Neill with a perfectly straight face.
“Well…yes,” he mumbled, “I’ll meet you all later.” And with that, he turned down the hall trying not to hurry. Once he was around the corner, O’Neill burst into laughter.
“Every time,” he gasped between breaths, “gets me every time.”
Barali smiled gently and turned to Sam, “It’s not against regulation, since he’s not military but they like to keep it quiet, we’re the only ones who know.”
Sam nodded, “I understand perfectly, my lips are sealed.”
They continued to walk down the hall once again in a silence broken only by the Colonel’s now quieter chuckles. “Now, here is someplace you should know,” said O’Neill as he finally calmed down. “This is the auxiliary command room.” He gestured at a pair of double doors. “In case, for one reason or another, we can’t use the one above the 'gate room. In there, we have a backup for every system that we have.”
“Essentially,” Barali added with a nod, “It’s our own personal battle bridge.” Sam nodded back and they kept walking but as he held the cafeteria door for her, she turned to him and smiled. He dipped his head while returning the gesture.
“Come on you two,” shouted O’Neill from the serving line, “hurry up or all the good mush will be gone. No offence,” he added quickly as the man behind the counter eyed him coldly.
Later, as they sat eating, Sam turned to Barali with a smile, “So you dragged Dr. Jackson to one of my lectures?”
“Yes” he replied, “we attended the first of your quantum wave flux theory series. The one dealing with intergalactic travel.”
“And what did you think?” She asked with interest.
Just then the P.A. crackled to life, ‘Colonel O’Neill, please report to the infirmary, Colonel O’Neill.’
“Well,” he said standing, “that's my cue. Besides, I think you two’ll have a better time discussing quantum wave flips without me. I’ll see you at the pre-mission check at 0630 hours tomorrow. See ya.”
Barali and Sam watched him leave, and turned their attention back to each other.
“I have to admit that I found your theories fascinating, but I don’t quite understand how the quantum flux works.”
“Well the thing is, I don’t know if it works,” Sam said with a sigh. “But if it did…OK, imagine that you’re a sand castle on a beach and a wave comes along and picks up every single grain of sand that you’re made from, disassembles you, carries your sand grains up the beach, and then reassembles you exactly as you were before, but now meters from your original position. A quantum flux wave would do exactly that with a person or any other object. Taking them apart into their component atoms, then putting them back together hundreds or thousands of light-years away.”
Barali said nothing, and just sat looking at her. “What?” she asked getting flustered.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I’m just impressed.”
“Oh. I wasn’t embarrassed,” was her lie. “And the only problem is that I can’t make it work.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t have a flux inverter to start the quantum cascade.” Barali smiled. “The thing is,” she continued, encouraged by his smile, “we don’t have that kind of technology yet. its way beyond what we’ve got.”
“So why don’t you build one?” The question was out of his mouth before he could even think about what he had said. She gave him a strange look. Then, something he couldn’t quite read, something almost akin to gratitude.
“I’ve been trying, but every time I think I’ve gotten anywhere, it blows up in my face. Not really!” she assured him quickly.
His answer was calm. “I know.”
“Oh, right. Yeah, sorry. It comes from spending too much time with scientists. You start to think that every time someone says that, it really did blow up.”
Barali opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get it out, the P.A. came to life again. ‘Major Barali and Dr. Carter please report to the infirmary, Major Barali and Dr. Carter to the infirmary.’
“Looks like we’re up.” Barali sighed as they stood to leave. Sam gave him a questioning look. “The ‘vampires,’ as Colonel O’Neill likes to call them. Dr. Fraiser’s people are going to take blood samples so they can compare them with the ones they’ll take when we get back from P3X-714. That’s what we really do here you know. The exploring is just a sideline, our real mission is to give blood samples.” Sam laughed at that and Barali couldn’t help but laugh along with her.
***
When they got to the infirmary, O’Neill and Daniel were sitting on a bed talking.
“Here they are,” Daniel said as they walked in. “Janet -- Dr. Fraiser just wants to take some blood samples.”
“Vampires,” muttered O’Neill. Samantha and Barali exchanged a quick glance.
“Major, Doctor,” Dr. Fraiser said by way of greeting as she walked up to them. “If you’ll just come with me Dr. Carter, we’ll start with you.”
While they were gone, another of Dr. Fraiser’s ‘vampires’ took a vial of Barali’s blood. When Dr. Fraiser and Dr. Carter returned, both women were laughing.
“Alright everyone” Fraiser said, “I’ve got all the samples I need, have a good trip. And Sam, be sure to drop by if you need anything.”
“I will Janet, thank you.”
Briefly O’Neill wondered what had been said between the two women in that short amount of time that now had them on a first name basis.
“OK people, we’ve got an early start tomorrow so why don’t we all put in for some shut eye.” Barali nodded his head in agreement. “Dr. Carter?” he asked.
“Sounds like a good idea to me: she agreed, “and please, all of you, call me Sam.”
“Well…” O’Neill began, “though I am loath to let the formality slip away…Hell who am I kidding, call me Jack.”
“And me Daniel.”
“Well everyone calls me Barali, so…”
“Then that’s what I’ll call you too,” Sam said smiling.
They turned to walk out of the infirmary and for the second time that day Sam looked around and thought that everything was going to be just fine.
Better Left | SG-1 Fiction | Home | Contact | Guestbook