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CHAPTER 9: DISCOVERIES
After placing his celebratory café latte safely to hand, Daniel sat down at
his desk with something near to a bounce. After six weeks of gradually dulling
pain, he was officially back on active duty. No cold applications, no shoulder
abductions, no twinges. He took a deep, ecstatic breath and let it go slowly.
While his computer booted up, he settled back reflectively to sip his coffee and
try to work out just how it was he'd managed to spend an entire day in
bed, lazily alternating between sleeping soundly and rubbing himself all over an
energetically obliging, growling Air Force colonel.
Homosexuality, twenty-four hours or so in, wasn't markedly different from
anything he'd tried with his own right hand. There was a certain athleticism in
the interactivity, for sure - wrestling, rolling, pinning, a little playful
nibbling and mauling – but Daniel's virgo was very much intacto and his Air
Force colonel was a smug sonovabitch who spouted bad Latin with only a little
provocation.
After dutifully logging on to his PC and opening the web browser, Daniel
stalled, drank some more coffee and tried hard to be rational. He was quite
embarrassed it took him an entire Venti latte to drag himself out of the mental
gutter.
As soon as he started thinking about work, of course, his joie de vivre was
pretty much dampened.
He'd exhausted all scholarly references to the ancient Egyptian pantheon,
presenting his findings to General Hammond both verbally and in an illustrated
report. The general had appeared to enjoy his presentation and the report, and
was kind enough to refrain from pointing out it was of no material assistance to
them whatsoever in dating the Stargate or proving that Ra was one of many among
his species. The evidence Daniel presented was circumstantial at best, equally
open to other interpretations.
The only thing he hadn't tried was a search of the suite of databases his
sojourn with the Air Force allowed him access to. It would never have occurred
to Dr. Daniel Jackson, late of the Oriental Institute, that the United States
Air Force would fund a seven-billion dollar project based on translation of a
ten thousand year-old Egyptian cartouche until he walked into the silo's
ante-room and saw it. He was no longer prepared to jump to conclusions. His
government lied its collective ass off. If any research had been carried out
into other cartouches or artefacts, the information would be somewhere in these
databases.
Daniel had access to the archives of the Pentagon, CIA, NID, FBI and a whole
host of other tricky government acronyms. He also knew what he was looking for,
thanks to the care he'd taken reviewing the evidence from the
Littlefield-Langford project.
He would search methodically, as he had through the body of archaeological
evidence, beginning with Ra. Daniel created his Boolean search string,
painstakingly entering each manifestation of the sun god as a variable. Amun-Ra.
Ra-Atum. Atum-Ra. Ra-Harakhte. Horus the Elder.
After reviewing all of the references, he'd then have to search for Osiris.
Then Set.
He also had to review the files that accompanied the last DVD of footage from
the 1940s project.
Buy a car.
Buy Sam a birthday present.
Get his hair trimmed.
Get Jack back into bed in order to fully explore the meaning of 'open'.
Busy, busy.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Daniel, how's it going?" Sam asked brightly.
"I do not know how old the Stargate is," Daniel responded instantly.
There was a silence.
"I resent that," Sam said stiffly. "Furthermore, I insist you buy me an
expensive dinner to make it up to me."
"With dessert?" Daniel asked, leaning back in his chair.
"Possibly."
"Try definitely."
"Janet is here. She's indicating that her feelings are hurt too," Sam informed
him.
"If I buy you both dinner, will you come and help me pick out a car?" Daniel
asked hopefully.
"You want the 'chicks' to help?" Sam hooted. "Daniel, I know you're secure in
your masculinity and all that but, please, you'll never live it down!"
"The alternative is getting Jack to drive me to the dealer."
"Oh," Sam said after a moment. "I take your point."
"I have enough testosterone of my own," Daniel said dryly. "I don't need it fuel
injected."
Sam chuckled delightedly. "What does the colonel drive? An F-150? 250?"
"I don't know," Daniel admitted. "Why don't you ask him?" he suggested slyly.
"He's right here."
"Daniel!"
It was incredible!
Daniel edged forward on his chair, watching in disbelief as the technicians
turned the Stargate manually. Dr. Langford stood at the foot of the gate,
watching intently, poised, calling out orders emphatically. The technicians
froze, the gate stopped. The two men who were operating the electrical equipment
opened the circuit and the first chevron engaged.
The glow as the first symbol locked was unmistakeable.
Ernest Littlefield was alive with energy and anticipation. Daniel couldn't help
but think about the similarities Catherine saw between Ernest and him. Did he
really seem so - so young?
The research team in 1945 had made as much progress with the Stargate as Project
Blue Book had before Daniel had been brought in to complete the translation,
their accomplishment all the more extraordinary because Littlefield and Langford
didn't have access to the supercomputer or the superconductors they did. The men
truly were visionaries.
It was even more inexplicable to Daniel why there was no conclusion to the
files, no summary or recommendations. He couldn't even find a direct reference
to the accident in which Ernest Littlefield died.
Daniel glanced up to see Littlefield being strapped into what looked like a
diving helmet. Then he almost fell off his chair in shock. In the background he
could clearly see the glowing ripple of the wormhole's event horizon.
It made no sense!
If they turned the gate on, why did they abandon their experiments? Why was
there no record of it?
Littlefield turned and walked towards the Stargate, slowly climbing the wooden
steps set before it. Daniel edged forward again, his feet dancing nervously. The
tension was so thick among the men working on the Stargate he could almost taste
it. This was insane. They had no idea what they were dealing with, and still
Ernest was marching bravely out to take it head on.
He walked into the wormhole without hesitating, a man behind him playing out the
air hose that fed oxygen into the dive suit. After a few seconds, the wormhole
de-activated. The hose fell to the floor as if it had been cut, tumbling down
the stairs.
The men rushed to gather it up, then the film blurred and stopped.
Daniel sat back limply.
They must have believed Littlefield was killed. Langford wound up the project -
perhaps because Ernest and Catherine were close. Maybe he lied to President
Roosevelt. Either way, the evidence had been completely suppressed.
Catherine would want to know. Daniel was sure of that at least. Ernest died in
1945 and Catherine still hadn't let go. Having mourned his loss all of her life,
she deserved the truth now.
Barely suppressing his growing excitement, he rewound the DVD footage back frame
by frame. The cameraman had chosen to focus on the men, particularly Littlefield
and Langford as they prepared to test the energy field the Stargate generated.
If he could zoom and digitally enhance the image, there was a possibility he
could isolate the symbols that formed this address.
The likelihood was that the symbols formed the co-ordinates for Ra's planet,
though Daniel had found no references in the catacombs to other strangers
entering through the gate, and it was recent enough to have been in Kasuf's
lifetime. Such an important event would have been celebrated and remembered in
the oral traditions of the people, even if there was no written record.
Daniel opened his graphics package and prepared to screen grab.
"What's this about, Sir?" Sam asked as she took her seat opposite Colonel
O'Neill.
Jack shrugged. "Daniel got excited about something. Like that never happened
before."
"Excited enough the general called us all to an unscheduled briefing, Sir?" Sam
reminded him with admonitory scepticism, looking significantly at Kawalsky,
Ferretti and Brown.
"Colonel, Captain, gentlemen," Hammond greeted them as he marched out of his
office and took his seat. "Dr. Jackson is on his way. He has exciting news for
us."
"Daniel thinks it's exciting when he gets his stationery requisition filled,"
Kawalsky reminded them, grinning. "Man, I'd hate to work in the hallowed halls
of academia if a box of paperclips frosts your cookies."
"They were the coloured ones," Ferretti pointed out in the interests of
fairness.
"You're not going to believe this!" Daniel announced as he burst into the
briefing room, rushing towards the electronic whiteboard Siler had installed for
them.
"Hello!" Jack called in the general direction of Daniel's slipstream. No worries
about telegraphing intense sexual tension, then.
"Oh, God," Ferretti groaned piteously, slumping. "Not PowerPoint!"
"Ssshh!" Sam hissed warningly, smartly kicking him under the cover of the
briefing table. "Go on, Daniel," she called supportively.
"Really! It’s unbelievable!" Daniel called as he logged into his account on the
PC.
"What!" Jack hollered, losing patience.
"Ernest went through the gate, Jack!" Daniel called as he cued the movie clip.
"Ernest who?" Kawalsky asked Daniel, puzzled.
"Littlefield," Daniel answered briskly, trotting around to take the seat next to
Jack's.
"Ernest who?" Kawalsky turned to Jack.
"Just watch!" Daniel ordered them loudly, trying to be heard above the hubbub of
explanations and Ferretti's 'ewwww!' noises as Jack explained about Ernest being
Catherine's main squeeze. He turned impulsively to General Hammond. "Can you
make them shut up and pay attention, please?" he asked politely.
George nodded gravely, highly entertained, then emphatically called the meeting
to order. Dr. Jackson seemed to thoroughly approve the directness of his
methods. "Dr. Jackson? You may proceed," George said graciously.
"The Littlefield-Langford experiments on the Stargate were successful," Daniel
said simply.
Sam sat bolt upright. "I don't see how that's possible," she argued, startled.
"Neither did I, until I saw this." Daniel set the film clip to play. He sat back
in his seat, watching the same astonished incredulity on the faces of his
friends he'd felt as each chevron was engaged and the Stargate activated.
"Holy cow!" Jack breathed as Ernest walked into the wormhole.
"That's amazing! You can actually see the fluctuations in the event horizon,"
Sam breathed reverently.
"What a rush," Ferretti echoed her sentiment.
"Shit!" Kawalsky hissed as the wormhole abruptly disengaged. "Poor guy."
"I was able to isolate the chevrons that were locked in before Ernest went
through," Daniel announced before any or all of them could ask. "Can we dial
these co-ordinates?" he asked Sam, sliding copies of the symbols over the table
to her, then handing the others around the table.
"Sir?" Sam asked as she looked at each of the symbols in turn. Taurus, Serpens
Caput - familiar territory.
"Co-ordinates for Ra's world?" Hammond asked for clarification, looking at the
symbols.
"No, General. It's another planet with similar co-ordinates. And we can go
there!" Daniel urged him. "We have to go there," he insisted.
"Why?" Jack asked straight-forwardly. He was pissed Daniel hadn't bothered to
tell him he'd cracked the Stargate a second time. It was only what they'd been
sitting on their thumbs for the past three months waiting for.
In fact, he was pissed as hell it hadn't so much as crossed Daniel's mind to
take thirty seconds out of his busy schedule and pick up the phone to let his
team leader know what the hell was going on.
And that was before he got to the part – the enjoyable, eventful, protracted
part - where Daniel had spent the last thirty-six hours in bed with him!
And boy, was he going to make him pay for it as soon as he got him cornered
some place alone!
"Because Ernest Littlefield went there," Daniel replied sternly. "A man who had
the vision to make the Stargate work a half-century before any of us. He may
still be alive."
"General," Sam piped up after she'd carefully examined the images of each of the
chevrons. "I believe the planet Ernest Littlefield went to is very close in
space to Ra's planet, sharing many of the same locators. It explains why the
team in forty-five could dial the co-ordinates without compensating for
planetary shift."
She told herself she would have hit this combination sooner or later.
Definitely.
Sam shifted uncomfortably in her chair.
Maybe.
"It's incontrovertible proof that there is a network of Stargates!" Daniel
enthusiastically reminded them. "We really need to go there," he appealed again
to the general.
"I agree!" Sam backed him up.
"Dr. Littlefield seems like a bona fide American hero to me," Jack told Hammond
quietly, nodding at the freeze-frame on screen of the scientist walking into the
wormhole. "If there's a chance he's still alive, we owe it to him to take it."
"I agree," Hammond said calmly. "But I won't risk this facility. Captain Carter,
Dr. Jackson, I want you to program the co-ordinates into the dialling computer.
" They nodded excited acquiescence. "Colonel O'Neill?" The general nodded at
Jack. "Order a defence team to take position in the embarkation room." He issued
a rapid series of orders. "Sergeant Brown? Take Sergeant Siler and prepare a
probe for immediate launch through the wormhole. Kawalsky and Ferretti, mission
prep. Captain Carter and Sergeant Harriman can analyse the telemetry."
Then Hammond turned to Daniel. "Dr. Jackson, we'll rely on you to locate the
seventh symbol, the symbol for this planet, as you did for Ra's planet. Also, we
have no idea what kind of culture we might run into. If we have another alien of
Ra's species to deal with, your expertise in their language will be essential.
Co-ordinate with Colonel O'Neill on preparation of a threat-assessment. Briefing
will be at 1700 hours. Let's show some hustle."
The general paused, smiling at them all. "And thank you. Thank you all. You all
did a helluva job. Dismissed." He rose from his seat and led the way down to the
control room as everyone scattered.
Sam's excitement was mixed with disappointment. She doubted Daniel even realised
if Colonel O'Neill's team went off-world, she wouldn't be part of it. Brown was
an excellent technical sergeant, experienced, more than capable. He'd been
off-world, he'd fought Ra's species. O'Neill wouldn't make him give up his spot
for her. She had no idea what to say to Daniel when he did realise. She hoped it
would disappoint him too. It would help. A little. She had to be professional
about it. No choice there.
But damn, she wanted to go. She'd dreamed her whole life of touching the stars.
Missing out on her spot at NASA hurt, but this, data crunching while the guys
walked on another world - she couldn't even think it.
Daniel stood between Jack and the general, watching Sam as she consulted with
Harriman, then took his seat to feed the new co-ordinates into the dialling
computer. His gut was knotted with tension. He was desperately hoping Ernest
Littlefield was still alive, that they could reach him somehow. His mind was
racing with possibilities, among them that Ernest could have been integrated
into the indigenous culture. He might not even wish to return. Daniel had agreed
to play by Air Force rules, but part of him believed Catherine deserved at least
part of the truth. She had no idea the Stargate had ever worked, that Ernest had
gone through, and she still felt the loss today. Daniel would help her if he
could.
"Do you think we'll find the same kind of culture on this world as on Ra's
world?" Jack asked quietly.
"If the people are ruled by an alien of Ra's species, then it's extremely
likely," Daniel agreed. "If not - there's no way to tell. The indigenous species
could be entirely alien to us. We have to assume there is or was a civilisation
there, otherwise why transport people to the planet?"
"That was a rhetorical question," Jack assured the general.
Daniel checked on Sam, who was entering the first symbol. They watched as the
Stargate flowed smoothly round.
"First chevron engaged," Sam announced, her voice tight with excitement.
"What we're hoping for," Daniel said chattily, "apart from finding Dr.
Littlefield of course, is information about the Stargate."
"Second chevron engaged."
"I still need to determine the age of the gates to enable Sam to compensate
accurately for Doppler Shift."
The control room thrummed with the expected vibrations.
"Even if we get access to only this planet, it's still an amazing achievement,
Dr. Jackson," Hammond chided him.
"Daniel is greedy," Jack retorted. "He wants them all."
"Third chevron is engaged and holding," Sam reported.
"We can have them all," Daniel insisted. "With that data, we can unlock the
whole network of Stargates."
The vibrations increased tremendously as the fourth chevron locked. Daniel
walked forward to stand directly behind Sam, tense fingers clasping the back of
her chair. After a moment, Jack and the general joined him.
"That's a whole network of potential threats to the security not just of this
nation, but of the whole planet," Hammond reminded Daniel.
Daniel pulled an impatient face. "You need to look with better eyes than that."
"No," Jack disagreed. "We don't. We can’t, Daniel. It's people like us who make
it possible for people like you to look with those better eyes." He thought for
a second Daniel was going to argue the point with him, but eventually he just
nodded, glancing quickly, privately, at Jack, his eyes very soft.
"Fifth chevron engaged and holding," Carter called.
The hush was breathless as they all watched the Stargate rotate and the sixth
chevron locked and held.
Sam's hands were trembling as she input the seventh symbol. The vibrations were
intensifying, shaking the whole room. She was going to have to MacGyver some
kind of dampening system if they were going to use the Stargate to - "Holy
Hannah!" she whooped, surging up out of her seat as the event horizon boiled
right out of the Stargate, extending four, maybe five metres in front of it. It
rolled back to pool within the gate.
"We did it!" Daniel breathed shakily.
Sam turned to shoot him a fierce, triumphant grin, warmed right through by the
generous 'we'. They squeezed hands exultantly for a second or two, sharing a
moment of perfect empathy and understanding while the general ordered a defence
team into the gate room.
The heavy metal doors slid back and men spilled through, two racing ahead to
take up positions behind the heavy machine guns. The other men spread out behind
them, weapons trained on the Stargate.
Brown followed them with the MALP probe trundling into the embarkation - the
gate room, Daniel amended. Sam moved across to the other computer terminal,
Harriman sliding into her vacated seat. The control room was buzzing with barely
suppressed tension and avid curiosity.
Daniel admitted to himself it was a good feeling. He watched intently as the
MALP probe rolled up the ramp into the wormhole, trying not to let himself be
distracted by the sheer, raw beauty of all this harnessed power and magical
energy. Sam was monitoring the matter disintegration, her eyes shining, fingers
flying over the keyboard as she recorded everything, but Daniel found himself
watching the slanting shafts of light rippling over the towering concrete walls
of the silo, and then over Jack's rapt face.
"I can start to establish norms on the behaviour of the wormhole with this
data," Sam informed Daniel. "If that - " she hesitated.
"Kerwoosh? Jack suggested, smirking.
Sam was annoyed she couldn't think of a better way to describe it and wished,
not for the first time, she had the luxury of shutting the colonel up. "If this
is the norm, we need to establish an exclusion zone for each time the gate is
dialled. Matter is disintegrated upon entry into the event horizon and
reintegrated before being expelled. Anything in the path of the 'kerwoosh'," she
said stiffly, "would also be disintegrated."
"I'll see to it," Hammond signified his understanding of this warning.
"Receiving MALP transmission," Sam reported, checking again she was recording
everything. Everything.
"Dr. Jackson?"
Daniel leaned in to watch over Sam's shoulder. "Look for the device we saw in
the gateroom on Ra's world," he ordered. "The dial-home device," he clarified
for Jack.
"Big honkin' shiny metal mushroom with an orange blob on top," Jack clarified
for the general. Carter and Daniel straightened up and looked at him. They had
identical scowls. Jack rolled his eyes at Hammond, whose lips quirked in a grin
he instantly suppressed.
"Tell us what you see, Dr. Jackson," Hammond ordered.
Daniel peered at the grainy images. "Can you clean this up, Sam, please?"
"Sure." Sam tapped keys rapidly, the picture scrolled off the screen and
re-appeared much clearer than before.
"It's a large chamber. Symmetrical. Quite unlike the architecture we're familiar
with from Egyptian history or from Ra's planet," Daniel mused. "See here?" He
stroked a careful finger down the screen. "These blue walls are shimmering -
they look metallic to me."
"A mineral, possibly?" Sam suggested.
"There's no way to tell," Daniel muttered vaguely, staring out at an alien
world, a new world, all its inherent possibilities, its potential so great, he
was almost sick with excitement. "Not without going there."
"He's as subtle as a kick in the ass," Jack dryly commented to Hammond.
"I see stairs - a dais," Daniel reported. "It's directly opposite the Stargate.
Scan up, please, Sam."
"Is that the same device as you found on Ra's planet, Daniel?" Sam asked,
tracking it with the camera when Daniel gave quick affirmation. "It's so small!"
She would cheerfully kill to get her hands on it. "The presence of the Dial Home
Device confirms that the mission team will be able to dial home again, Sirs,"
she reported.
Hammond nodded thoughtfully.
Daniel focused on the chamber opening up before them on screen. "There appear to
be two entrances to the chamber, here." He indicated the left side of the
screen. "And here." He tapped the right. "There are clear signs of structural
damage, though I can't at this point speculate as to the cause. I also can't see
any kind of writings or decorated panels," he observed regretfully. "Though that
doesn't mean anything," he added quickly. "Ra had forbidden his slaves reading
and writing but the symbol for that planet was still known among the people."
"Speaking of people." Jack insinuated himself into the very small space next to
Daniel. "I don't see Littlefield or any colourfully dressed native types."
"That in itself is meaningless. We have no idea what forces this civilisation
has been subjected to," Daniel helpfully explained. "The Stargate could be the
focus of a religion - this could be a sacred place. Or the population has
settled elsewhere as a result of industrialisation or other social, political,
economic or environmental factors. The culture could be migratory." Daniel
peered more closely as the MALP completed its circuit of the chamber. "Although,
taken with the signs of structural damage we're seeing, the absence of a guard
or priesthood does suggest to me the chamber is part of a larger, most likely
abandoned structure," he suggested.
"I thought the church was always open," Jack commented casually.
"Religion is also subject to decline, Jack," Daniel said crisply. "Civilisations
can be ended by any number of factors. Natural disasters, disease, unsustainable
population growth depleting resources, predation by other nation states."
"Could Littlefield have survived here?" Jack asked Carter.
"The atmosphere is breathable, Sir, while the gravity is similar to Earth's
own," Sam reported. "Technically, it's possible."
"General?" Jack prompted.
"I can't be sure," Daniel interrupted, frowning. "Looking at this chamber, I see
no points of similarity with the architectural style favoured by Ra's species.
He clung tenaciously to the type of construction and décor we're familiar with
from the Old Kingdom. It's possible a rebellion or some other societal upheaval
put an end to the rule of this world's 'god'. It's equally possible none of Ra's
people were ever here and this is in fact incontrovertible evidence that we're
dealing with two distinct alien races."
It was a thrilling possibility. These new aliens might even have influenced
Earth's culture in ways similar to those of Ra's species!
"Presumably, the other alien race had the technological and military advantage
to enable them to withstand the predations of Ra's species as they searched the
universe for the means to extend their existence," Daniel pointed out dutifully,
belatedly remembering he was supposed to be helping find stuff Jack could shoot
at. Or was that with? He forgot. "The rule of thumb - crude yet annoyingly
effective - is that history is written by the winners. Whatever the cause, I see
no recognisable indicators of what I would, for want of a better description,
term 'human' culture." He glanced away from the screen to find everyone staring
at him. "What? What is it?"
"New aliens who kicked the Ra-aliens' collective asses? It just gets better and
better," Jack sighed.
"Oh." Daniel noted the consternation of the various hard-ass types, including
Sam in this instance. "Did I misunderstand the nature of threat-assessment?" he
enquired cautiously.
"No, Dr. Jackson, you did not," Hammond assured him encouragingly. "Good job."
"Alternatively, the two species never encountered one another," Daniel promptly
offered by way of a palliative for lacerated military sensibilities. "Or I could
be wrong about there being two species."
"Is that likely?" Jack quirked an incredulous eyebrow in Daniel's direction.
"That I'm wrong?" Daniel frowned over this, wondering how best – or at least
tactfully - to answer. "Well," he said edgily, "I am basing my judgement on the
development of two distinct and unique writing systems, which you'll recall..."
"He's not wrong," Jack liberally interpreted for General Hammond's sake.
"You've given us a lot to think about," Hammond told Daniel with masterly
understatement. "I'm disposed to authorise the mission. Colonel O'Neill? I want
your team good to go by 0700. All personnel to remain on alert."
"No, Daniel, we can't go now!" Jack vetoed forcefully before Daniel could
get a word out. "Mission prep means we have stuff to do before we go."
"We'll need to look around," Daniel insisted frigidly, vividly recalling the
fracas with Kawalsky and Ferretti. General Hammond appeared to take this in his
stride.
Sam looked up alertly when the General called on her.
"I want you to prep to accompany the colonel's team."
"Sir!" Sam's fingers clenched convulsively on her thighs, exultation exploding
through her. Yes!
"General!" Jack protested immediately. "I have an outstanding technical sergeant
in Brown. I don't need another damned scientist tagging along."
"Thank you," Daniel retorted ungratefully, glaring at him.
Sam totally agreed with the sentiment. "I've had all the requisite training,
Sir," she assured their C.O. pointedly, mostly for O'Neill's benefit.
"Captain Carter is to accompany your team in order to study the Dial-Home Device
and to assist Dr. Jackson in any way she can," Hammond insisted to O'Neill. "Dr.
Jackson's archaeological and linguistic expertise along with Carter's technical
expertise make them our best chance to study this technology."
"Isn't finding Dr. Littlefield our first priority?" Daniel asked sharply.
"I have to establish a secure perimeter first, Daniel," Jack admitted readily.
"Conduct reconnaissance of the immediate area, determine if we're facing any
kind of alien or other threat."
Hammond agreed with this assessment. "I'll allow forty-eight hours for your
first mission off-world, Colonel. Secure the area surrounding the Stargate.
We'll debrief and determine search strategies at that point."
But securing the technology comes first, Daniel thought, his first
enthusiasm dimming.
"My team will be ready, Sir," Jack acknowledged smartly.
"I have to inform the President of this development," General Hammond told them
proudly. "He authorised the constitution of Stargate Command in the eventuality
of Dr. Jackson opening the Stargate a second time. We had every confidence," he
praised Daniel.
Daniel brightened up. "I voted for him," he whispered to Jack.
As the colonel thawed visibly, leaning in closer to murmur something meant only
for Daniel to hear, Sam shifted in her seat, trying to bite down a tiny twinge
of something she reluctantly identified as jealousy. She had her place on the
mission, but she hadn't missed the qualification General Hammond had made. She
was to accompany the colonel's team. She wasn't a member of it.
Sam was determined she would justify her presence the way Daniel had, take the
opportunity to make herself as much a part of the unit as Daniel was. She would
be part of that team, she would travel through the Stargate.
More than that, Daniel was her friend – and this was a dream of exploration
they shared. Daniel was plainly happy she'd be there with him, smiling
confidingly at her while O'Neill and the general plotted mission logistics.
Sam eagerly returned his smile, glad she had at least one ally in this new
Stargate Command.
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