As Daniel
sneezed again, Jack rolled his eyes. "Bless," he called over his shoulder. He
needed to concentrate on getting up the sand dune to the gate. His foot sunk
into the soft sand with his next step and he closed his eyes tightly as a small
wind blew sand in his face. He heard Daniel winding up for another sneeze and
knew it wasn't coincidence that it followed the breeze. As Jack made it up onto
the plateau, he turned around to see Daniel bend practically in half with
another sneeze. Jack tipped his sunglasses up towards his forehead. Then he rubbed
both eyes simultaneously with his thumb and forefinger, ending with a rub and
pinch at the bridge of his nose. "Carter?" he called out blindly, eyes closed. "Do
you still have your notebook out?"
She didn't,
but pulled it out as soon as Teal'c had given her a hand up for the last step
of the climb. "Right here," she said, clicking the ballpoint.
"Good." He
opened his eyes, glancing around at his team for a moment, then seeing beyond
them. Apart from the gate and DHD here at the top of the plateau, there was
nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. "Then make a note to say I'm sick
and tired of all these desert explorations. Someone's got to adapt a MALP to
get through deep sand because this..." He gestured to the vast wasteland around
him just as Daniel sneezed again. Jack sighed. "Bless," he said kindly. Then to
Sam, "You get the point."
"I get it,"
Sam said, grinning. She flashed him the pad where, in large block letters, she
had written: SAND=ANNOYED JACK. Teal'c dialed home and Sam pulled out the remote.
Daniel sniffled and gave Jack a smile, then whipped out his handkerchief again
and sneezed into it yet again. Teal'c led the way back to Earth, Sam followed,
and Jack put his arm around Daniel, guiding him to go through before stepping
through himself.
"-elcome home, SG-1." Jack heard
General Hammond's voice echo through the gateroom,
though it sounded a bit edgier than normal.
Jack pulled
off his sunglasses and slid them over the collar of his shirt. "Thank you,
Sir." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Ah, how is home holding up?"
"Minor
problem with a survey sample that got out of hand..." Jack saw Teal'c raise one
eyebrow skeptically. "But it's nothing that would require your expertise. SG-1,
you four are officially off duty and on vacation as soon as you complete post-mission
procedures. And, ah, avoid the upper floors if you can." Daniel
gave another sneeze and they all headed out of the gateroom,
noticing that the halls seemed much colder than usual and the only lights
shining were the backup ones.
Jack
shivered and blinked at the florescent orange lights, almost wishing to be back
a PQX-899 with its blaring hot sun. However, what he had planned certainly topped
a deserted desert. It had taken far too long to get the other members of SG-1
to agree to go on fishing trip with him. But he had the cabin rented and he had
the truck packed. He had their words that this time they would come with and
try to enjoy themselves and, this time around, he had also gotten those
promises in writing. They were taped to the inside of his tackle box. It wasn't
as though he was forcing them to go on a proper vacation with him, goodness knew they saw enough of each other without having
to spend their off time together as well. It was simply that he wanted to share
the joys of waking up at dawn to sit on a riverbed and roasting marshmallows
over a camp stove with his friends. And they certainly deserved a break as
well.
Jack scribbled
report notes as he sat on a bed in the infirmary, waiting to be examined. Thanks
to an extra half dose of medication, Daniel's sneezes seemed to be in check now
but the room was hardly silent.
There was
some problem and concern hung in the air as doctors and assistants in their
white lab coats walked briskly from one side of the room to the other, not
paying the members of SG-1 much attention at all. "Be right with you!" one said
off-handedly to them as she hurried past with her arms full of test tubes and
Petri dishes. Jack glanced over at Teal'c who raised an eyebrow.
It was
another five minutes before one of the doctors came over for their post-mission
check-up's. Jack went last, as usual, but as each left
he reminded his teammates that they were hitting the road at 14-hundred and he
would accept no excuses.
"I'm going
to go see what this is all about," Sam said, as she stood up to leave after her
exam showed she checked out fine. They both eyed a doctor who sped past them
with a large, steaming cooler.
"You do
that," Jack said, nodding. "But you still need to be ready to ship out this
afternoon."
"Yes, Sir,"
she said, with a nod and a smile that meant she was still willing to go so long
as nothing more important came up on base.
Jack sat
back on the bed, folding his hands behind his head, arms bent at the elbows. He
had to wait another twenty minutes before one of the doctors finally came by to
check him out and the examination took less than five minutes. "You've got a
slight temperature," the doctor said, dropping the disposable cover on the
thermometer into the trash beside the bed. "But you say you feel fine?"
Jack
nodded, buttoning up his shirt. "Probably just all that time
out in the sun."
The doctor
scribbled something on his clipboard then unclipped it and stuck it in a
folder. "That's certainly a possibility. Just stop by if you feel any worse.
Don't want to take any chances." He chuckled and gently hit the folder against
Jack's arm. "You're free to go."
Jack had
not heard sweeter words in a long time. He headed down the hall to the lockers
to change. There was enough time for a nice, relaxing shower and to get some
food before they left. Not that he doubted they would catch enough fish for
meals, of course, but just because he had some time to kill.
The shower
was, as expected, very nice. He almost hated to leave it behind in search of
food. But he had a nice discussion with one of the SG teams in charge of
stellar cartography about the equation Sam had put together a few months before
regarding the probability of various systems and planets to contain gates. The
conversation went longer than his sandwich and chips lasted, and his attention
span was not nearly long enough. His attention wandered.
"Bless
you."
Jack looked
up from his empty plate, looking confused.
One of the
men was smirking. "For the last five minutes you've been looking like you were
going to sneeze. Thought I'd head it off before it started."
"How thoughtful. I'll have to remember that one next time
I'm around Daniel." He sniffed and let the breath out slowly. "But there's no
need. I wasn't going to sneeze."
"Really?"
Jack nodded
and seized his tray. "Really. But I'd better be
going." He wished them luck with their projects and said he'd see them around. They
said the same and he headed out, dumping his trash along the way. The hallway
was still dark, and he thought about going to find Sam to ask about the
situation on base.
But first
he checked to make sure the coast was clear, then buried
his nose in the crook of his arm. "HEHShoo! AhhKShooo!" He sniffed hard and rubbed his nose against his
sleeve before carrying on.
His shoe
slid as he took a step. And he steadied himself with a hand against the wall. It
felt slimy and cold to the touch and he pulled his hand back at once, startled.
He stared at the wall, finding it was covered with a layer of green something.
It felt warm on his hand and knew that could not be a good sign.
"Sir?" Coincidentally, Sam was walking down the hallway, a file
in one hand and a small machine cradled in her arms.
"Did you
see this?" Jack asked, gesturing at the walls.
"Sure," she
said, looking down at the papers in her arms. "It's--"
"It's kind
of sticky and warm," he finished.
Her head snapped
up. "Wait- you didn't touch it did you?"
"Yes, but
just for a second..."
Jack
watched as Sam raced over to the emergency alarm and slammed her hand down on
the button to turn it on. As the siren wailed and the lights flashed, Jack
rolled his eyes. "What is this stuff,
Carter?"
"It's a
mold SG-8 picked up on PFX-323. Relatively innocuous expect for its quick rate
of growth. They've developed a spray that slows it down and stops its growth,
at least for a while. But they haven't been able to get rid of it completely
yet."
Wearing a
black tank top and carrying his staff, Teal'c came jogging down the hallway. "What
is the emergency?" he asked. He looked about, then his
gaze rested upon Jack. "You did not touch it, did you, O'Neill?"
Jack
sighed. "No one warned me."
Teal'c's eyebrow rose again. "By now you should know not to
touch strange substances."
Before Jack
could reply with something inappropriate, Sam spoke again. "We're sorry, Sir.
We didn't realize it had spread to this part of the base already." She looked
up. "It must be coming down through the ducts."
Feeling
quite overwhelmed, Jack wasn't surprised when a medical team descended upon him
several seconds later. They scrubbed his hand then swept him off to the infirmary.
Finding himself sitting once again on one of the nice white beds, Jack sighed.
Daniel
passed by, almost too absorbed by a stack of papers he was reading that he
nearly missed Jack. Daniel groaned when he saw him. "Let me guess: you touched
the mold?"
"How does
everyone know about this except for me?" Jack asked, feeling somewhat
overwhelmed and lost. It felt like they'd only just returned from PQX-899 and
already the rest of his team seemed absorbed with this situation.
"Don't
worry," Dr. Janet Fraser told him as she approached with a tray of instruments.
She slipped a plaster cover on a thermometer and eased it into Jack's mouth and
under his tongue at once. "You'll have plenty of opportunity to get caught up
as you're on base quarantine."
"Quarantine!" Jack exclaimed.
"A number
of personnel who have come in contact with the mold have had severe reactions
to it. We haven't lost anyone yet, thankfully, but I'm afraid you'll need to
stay on base for regular observation."
Thoughts of
the planned vacation sped through Jack's head. He had never wanted to get away
more than he did at the moment. He wanted to be in a remote lake-side cabin
upstate, far away from cell phones and emergencies and mold... not stuck on base
during his vacation time, being observed by a bunch of doctors for-- "How long
do I need to be here?"
"Two hours, to be safe, assuming the best. Most people who
had reactions did so in the first twenty minutes. But it's taken a few up to
two hours to show symptoms. So better safe than sorry."
"Just two
hours," Jack repeated, doing the calculations in his head. "That would leave me
about a half an hour from our departure time," he said with a smile. "I can
still make the trip."
"Assuming that you don't show any signs of a reaction." She
clicked her pen-sized flashlight on.
The second
the light hit his eyes, Jack felt the intense urge to sneeze. He tried to hold
it back until Dr. Fraser had finished with him, but only made it as far as the
pause between her checking his eyes and his mouth. "hah-hah-Choo! HuhShoo!" He muttered an
apology and, even though the other three members of SG-1 were right there, no
one said anything about the sneezes if they noticed them. Dr. Fraser made no
mention of it, either, but she did note his slightly elevated temperature. She
also handed him a tissue.
"A reaction?"
"Mmm," she nodded. "Paralysis."
"Oh," Jack
said, nodding back. "Is that all?" She smiled and finished up without incident.
"Two hours,
huh?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck as he stood up after passing the
examination with flying colors. "If anyone needs me, I'll be napping in
preparation for our long drive."
Jack gave
them all a smile as he headed to bed. The room he kept on base was relatively
sparse. Apart from clothes and a few possessions, it was pretty much filled
with books he'd consulted once or twice and papers he'd been meaning to get
around to reading. There was also a single bed up against one wall. He was
asleep the second he his head hit the pillow.
He woke
exactly two hours later to knocks on the door. Jack opened his eyes and blinked
at his wristwatch. He sat up and did a quick self-evaluation. He did not feel remotely
paralyzed. He did, however, feel cold and tired and somewhat stuffed-up. He
held a fist up to his face. "hahh... ahh-AHHChoo! HahhShooo!
Hahhh..." The knocking continued. He looked up at
the door for a moment, then snapped forward. "hahhShuhhh!"
Jack rubbed
at his nose, sniffed hard. Deciding that it was not possible for him to be sick
now of all times, Jack pulled the door open. The rest of SG-1
stood there, out of uniform and looking curious. "How is your hand,
O'Neill?" asked Teal'c.
Jack raised
it and wiggled his fingers. "Stick shift? No problem."
He grinned. And then he yawned.
"You know,
if you want to postpone this trip for a day or two, they probably wouldn't say
no to a few extra hands around base, Sir," Sam said.
"Uh-uh,"
Jack said, with a shake of his head. If he gave them a day or two, knowing the
way SG-1 worked, they would take a week easily. And they were all in need of
vacation, whether they knew it or not. "We're going. And we're going to have a
good time. Don't make me order you." They all smiled or chuckled, not knowing
how close to an honest threat that was. "Now, is everybody ready?" Whether they were or not, they'd agreed to this vacation and Jack
wasn't about to let them out of it for anything now. Following Jack's
lead, they headed to the elevator.
*
"Jack?"
Jack took
his eyes off the road briefly to glance back over his shoulder at Daniel. "Yeah?"
"Ah, do you
maybe want a Kleenex?"
Jack
resisted the sudden urge to sniff and rub at his nose. "No," he replied rather
curly. "I'm fine. But th-thanks.
Huhhh-hahh-AHShuhh!" The sneeze was
quick, and he had stayed in control of the vehicle.
In the
rearview mirror, he saw Daniel and Teal'c exchange a look, and Jack groaned to
himself. Now he couldn't help but sniffle and rub his nose with the side of his
hand. If this continued much longer, he suspected they might gang up on him and
make him turn the car back around. His hopes rose as they passed a sign for the
lake. Just another fifteen minutes and they'd be there.
Fifteen
turned to thirty as there was a small accident blocking one lane of the road
and cars were forced to take turns going in one direction then the other. As
they passed by, it looked like someone had run into a deer. They windshield was
smashed, the front was dented, and the airbag had deployed.
Despite
taking his hand off the wheel to rub his nose frequently, Jack drove more cautiously
after that. Dusk had turned into darkness but chances were that deer were still
around.
Though it
was dark when they reached the rental cabin, Jack had no trouble locating it. Everyone
filed out of the SUV and grabbed as much of their luggage and provisions as
could be carried. Teal'c took Jack's bag momentarily as they waited for Jack to
unlock the door. Then they all filed inside. "Sniff! There are two bedrooms and a couch out here that I'm happy
to crash on. Sniff! Sniff! I figured
Sam should get a room to herself. Sniff!"
"Sounds
good," Daniel said, clearly not referring to how Jack sounded. He peered into
the bedrooms to see a queen-sized bed in one and two singles in the other. "But
I really don't mind the couch. Sure you don't want a bed, Jack?"
"I told you
I'm fine," he insisted, tossing his duffle onto the couch. "Though
I could use a beer." He grabbed one out of the six-pack they'd brought
with them. Then he squatted down in front of the fireplace and began stacking wood
in it for a fire.
The cabin
was quaint but certainly large enough for the four of them. Apart from the two
bedrooms, large enough to hold beds and dressers, there was a separate bathroom
and a kitchen with modern appliances and a walk-in pantry. But the main living
room was the largest part of the cabin by far. There were wall-to-wall
bookcases and across from that was a giant fireplace. Two couches and several
armchairs sat in the middle, surrounding the fireplace with a beautiful albeit
generic picture of the lake hanging over the mantle.
"hahh-AHHshooo!"
"I suggest
we unpack and then go to bed," Teal'c said.
Sam was
already unpacking the groceries they'd brought and stocking the refrigerator. Daniel,
momentarily distracted by the sea of books that had come along with the place, sorted
their bags into the proper rooms and set their equipment off to the side, up
against a wall. Teal'c helped Jack with the fire. "Wish you'd brought your
staff weapon," Jack remarked as he stared at the small flame that was devouring
the balled-up newspaper and kindling but avoiding the larger logs. "A blast or
two and we'd have had this thing in the bag."
"I am not
allowed to take it off the base, O'Neill," Teal'c replied reasonably.
Jack
nodded, not bothering to explain it was a joke. Luckily, the flames rose. He
sat back rubbing his hands together, enjoying the warmth. Teal'c nodded
approvingly. "I believe I will retire now," he said, standing. "Goodnight."
"Night," he
said with a wave. He wished the others the same as they headed off to bed as
well. Then he found a few blankets along with the towels beneath the sink in
the bathroom and he made up the couch for himself. He fell onto it with a
relieved sigh, sinking into the soft, squishy cushions and the thick blankets.
"huhhh-hahhh-Chshhhhh! hahhhChushhhh!
Sniff!" Jack pulled himself up again. He headed back to the bathroom and
rummaged around beneath the sink until he found a small tissue box. He ripped
it open and pulled a tissue out from the top. Another sprung up in place
afterwards, and he took that one as well to blow his nose into. It was a little
louder than he'd wanted, to he quickly shut the door before bunching up the
tissues and blowing again.
When he
headed back to the couch, he took the box with him and dropped it on the floor
beside the couch for when he needed it again. He wasn't about to admit he was
sick. If he did, they'd all do that logic thing they do so well and there would
be no more vacation. He wasn't going to get this far into the vacation only to
head back home now. So he wasn't sick. But if he were, he was certain rest
would do him some good. Jack wrapped up tightly in the blankets and did his
very best to fall asleep before he could sneeze again.
*
"O'Neill, did
you not just finish telling us that we needed to be quiet in order to catch
fish?"
After the
sneezes, Jack rubbed his running nose on his cuff and nodded. He looked over at
Teal'c who raised an eyebrow. "Oh, don't give me the eyebrow," Jack said. He
checked the bait at the end of his line, then cast out
again. It fell with a plop into the lake, sending small, concentric circles of
ripples out towards the other lines. They were spaced about three feet apart
from each other as all four members of SG-1 sat on the bank and waited for the
fish to start biting.
They had
intended to start fishing very early in the morning, but it had taken longer
than expected to explain the intricacies to everyone, and Daniel's line
continually got tangled. After a bit of trial and error, and instruction
interspersed with sneezes, they'd moved on from lesson to practice.
Apart from them, the spot was deserted. The
lake, surrounded by a forest, was full of bends and there was not even another
cabin in sight, let alone other people. The morning sunlight streamed down upon
them through the branches of the trees. Though it felt warm upon his face, Jack
still felt colder than he thought he should, reasonably.
"hahh-HAHShooo!" He sneezed into the side of his hand,
then scrubbed his finger against his nose. He glanced
around at everyone, obviously staring at him. "I'm fine," he insisted. Then he
turned his attention back towards the lake and gave a deep, hearty sigh. "How's
everyone else doing? Relaxing, isn't this?" A few nods answered. Out of the
four of them, Jack probably felt the least relaxed. He was chilled and his nose
kept tickling. It was all he could do to rub most of the tickles away before
they could strike.
"I don't
know about the rest of you," said Daniel, skeptically looking at Jack. "But I'm
getting hungry."
"Hungry?"
said Jack, checking his watch to be sure he had not blacked out the morning.
"We had breakfast less than an hour ago! I can still taste the fruit loops."
"Actually,"
said Sam, catching on. "I'm a little hungry, too. Maybe we should take a
break."
All eyes
were on Teal'c. He hesitated for a moment, his face like stone. Then, "I am
indeed hungry," he said. "Famished."
Having been
outvoted, Jack sighed. "Let's stay out at least until one of us gets a tug on
the line." They were shaking their heads. He sniffed. "A
bite?" They were silent. "A nibble?" More shaking. "All right
all ready," he caved. "We'll go inside and have something to eat."
Jack sat
down on the couch, amidst the mess of blankets he hadn't bothered folding that
morning. Sam took the other couch, Teal'c took the chair, and Daniel headed
into the kitchen. He rooted around in the fridge and cupboards for a few
moments, then he poked his head out. "We forgot to buy
bread."
Jack groaned
to himself. From the way they had all kept their coats on, he'd been expecting
something like this. Of course, he hadn't taken his off, either, but that was
because he was still cold.
"And jam.
It's hard to have trout and jam without the jam part of it."
Jack
covered his face with his palm. "And why would we eat that anyway?"
But no one
was listening to Jack as Daniel grabbed the keys off the table and asked who
wanted to accompany him on the drive down to the general store they'd passed on
their way up. Naturally, Sam leapt at the chance and Teal'c needed a firm look
in order to understand. Then he pulled his hat on and over the symbol on his
forehead.
Jack waited
a good minute after they were gone before retrieving the box of tissues he'd
stashed under the couch. He thought about making another fire, but decided it
was too much trouble. So, instead, he wrapped up in the blankets.
"hahh!" He pulled a few tissues out of the
box. He paused. He sniffled. And he pitched forward. "hahhHAHSHOO! HuhhhhChoo! hahhhShooo!" Glad to be alone,
he blew his nose without bothering to duck into the bathroom. Then he rested
his head against the back of the couch. All signs pointed towards the fact that
he was sick. If others looked or sounded or felt
the way he did, he'd have sworn they were sick. But this was vacation. Jack
didn't get sick on vacation. That wasn't allowed. Naps, on the other hand,
were.
Jack woke a
little short of lunch as he heard the sound of the SUV's engine cutting off and
doors slamming closed. He shrugged off the blankets and hid the tissues
beneath, but not before giving his nose a good blow. "Hey," he said around
clearing his throat when they entered. "Got everything you needed?" What he
needed, apparently, was to cough, but he held it back.
"We did,"
Daniel said with a nod. He stood beside the couch, on its far end, and set the
grocery bags down on the arm. Then he dug through it. "Bread... jam..." He took the items out one at a time and handed them to
Sam. "Potato chips... salsa..."
Jack pressed
a fist to his lips and tried to cough subtly. But one cough turned into twenty.
And he was bent over at the waist, shaking with coughs before he knew what was
happening. When he opened his eyes, he found a small bottle of orange Gatorade
dangling in front of his face, courtesy of Daniel. "What's this?" he asked,
taking it.
"I have
been informed that these colored beverages are almost as good as colored
gelatin."
"Which..."
Daniel reached into the bag again, "We picked up, as well." He pulled out a
package of six cups of bright lime green. "Just in case."
"We also
got some... other items," Sam said, taking the more innocuous items to the
kitchen.
Daniel
silently took out a box of Kleenex and some cold medicine. Jack rolled his
eyes. "Why--"
"You are
most obviously ill, O'Neill," Teal'c told him.
"I'm not,"
Jack said, raising a finger and shaking it slightly.
Daniel
flipped the box over and scanned the back. Murmuring, "Take
one pill every six-to-eight hours as needed to relieve symptoms."
"What symp... hahh..." He rubbed
his nose. "hahhh-Shuhhh!
Sniff! What symptoms?"
Teal'c
stared at Jack, cocked his head, and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm on
vacation!" Jack exclaimed. "I'm not sick! Sniff!"
He rubbed the side of his hand under his nose.
"Okay,
okay," Daniel said, motioning for Jack to calm down. "Let's work with a
hypothetical then. If, in theory, one of us were to have a cold... then that
person could take some cold medicine like, oh, say, this stuff right here, and
then would not have to cut his or her vacation short in order to return home."
Jack's hand
slowed in its rubbings. "Six-to-eight hours you say?" He lunged forward and
reached over with his other hand to grab the package. He poked a pill out from
the foil pack and washed it down with a gulp of Gatorade. "Well, then, I'll be
good until dinnertime. So if you'll all excuse me..." He stood, stretched, then went for his fishing rod.
"I will
accompany you." Teal'c made the call on his own, but
Jack had no problem with it. The walk to the edge of the lake took a minute,
maybe two. But it took Jack nearly five to get settled. He selected a nice spot
on the slope on which to sit and then he had to get his rod ready and hook
baited. This was made more difficult by the fact that he continued to sneeze.
"hahhhh-Shuhhh! ahhhChuhhh!"
He rubbed miserably at his nose. Fishing around in his pocket, he found a
tissue that wasn't completely useless and blew his nose.
"Did you
not take the pill, O'Neill?" Jack looked over at Teal'c and nodded. "Then you
will start feeling better very soon."
Teal'c, and
his logic, were probably right this time, and it was
rather comforting to hear. "Thanks," Jack said, giving him a smile. Teal'c
nodded back then they both cast out into the lake. Jack watched the water in a
calm, meditative sort of way. He occasionally sneezed, but he fell asleep
before very long, ready to wake if and when he felt a tug on the line.
*
"O'Neill...
we need your help. Please wake up."
Sleepy and
wanting to go right back to sleep, Jack lifted a hand and waved dismissively.
He thought he recognized the voice. "Go 'way, Daniel," he said groggily. "Sleeping."
"I am not
Daniel."
Confused,
and failing to fall asleep again, Jack opened his eyes. An Asgard
stood beside him, and Teal'c was just behind him. Both were looking at him. Jack
rubbed his face and coughed, waking himself up. "Of course you're not," Jack
said, blinking. What's wrong, Thor?"
"I require
your assistance in a most urgent matter."
Jack
sighed. "Of course you do." He shivered and pointed towards the cabin with his
thumb. "Let's head inside."
It was a
slow but short walk, and Jack cleared his throat before calling Sam and Daniel
over. "Guys, we've got company." He grabbed the tissues off the couch and coughed
into a handful of them until everyone was assembled in the main room. Jack took
his seat on the couch again.
Thor stood
in the center. "There is a planet in a nearby quadrant of the galaxy under Asgard protection," he explained. "Our resources are almost
entirely devoted to stopping the replicators, but we
detected Goa'uld activity on the planet. I managed to
eliminate the threat, however I could not respond as quickly as I would have
liked. The people are in a state of disarray after the incident."
"Well why
can't you..." Jack's eyes closed and his breath caught. He fought against it for
a moment, looking desperately over towards Sam and Daniel. Then he pressed
tissues to his nose. "HAHChoo! HuhhhhChoo!" He bent in
half, shoulders rising with coughs. "hahhhShooo!" And more sneezes.
Sam took
over for him. "I think what he's trying to ask is why you aren't able to help
them."
Thor's head
gave a small nod. "Their civilization was sent into chaos thanks to the Goa'uld occupation. Beliefs were challenged, systems of
government fell. It is important that they repair it themselves, and I greatly
fear the presence of an outsider such as myself would do
much more harm than good."
"Okay..." Daniel
cocked his head. "So how would we be able to help? We would be outsiders, too."
"They are
humanoid," Thor explained. "Many feel the Goa'uld was
a false God but they are suffering a crisis of faith as well. And as your
planet suffered similarly under a Goa'uld, you will
be able to explain it to them as I could not."
"So you
deed us to go," Jack said. He grumbled, tapping his fingers against his thigh,
and blew his nose. With a deep breath, "You need us to go to the planet and
talk to these people."
"Yes."
Jack
sighed. "Right. Should have guessed.
This vacation was pretty much doomed from the start." He massaged his temples
with thumb and forefinger.
"Sir? Whether you'll admit it or not, you're not well..."
Jack
nodded. "It's just a head cold, Carter. I've worked under worse conditions. Sniff! At least I've got a choice about
it this time." He leaned forward with his hands on his thighs and pushed
himself up out of his seat. "All right. Let's saddle
up and ship out and see if we can't get this straightened out. Everyone on board?" Agreeing, the others rose to their feet
as well. "Good. The sooner we finish there, the sooner we can get back here.
Wouldn't want all that jam to go to waste, would we? Besides..." All five were
absorbed in a white light and, an instant later, found themselves standing in
the control room back on base. The technicians all jumped and stared at them.
Jack smiled. "I left my car in the woods," he said with a shrug.