Chapter Two: Sneaks and Creeps
Page Three3, July 1999 Saturday There was no writing anywhere on it except for a single engraved squiggle.
He was hoping there would be something on the
planet to help him discover how relevant that was.
The adrenaline rush was starting to die down, now, with nothing else to do but wait.
He checked his watch…still an hour and a half to go.
He wished they'd gotten more footage from the MALP, but it had only surveyed the immediate vicinity of the Gate so the images of the buildings were too undefined to be of any real help.
The general style looked familiar, though.
He clicked his mouse, backing up all the work he'd finished before checking Stargate addresses based on the glyphs Sam had given him to choose from.
Everyone was being much more careful right now when it came to their work because of the sabotage.
Extra backups, extra copies, extra, extra, and more extras…
The Gate itself was given
a thorough diagnostic before each activation to ensure nothing was going to happen to the outgoing travelers.
It was draining energy from a lot of people to constantly double-check and then
check again to make sure something hadn't happened in the moments they weren't looking.
Almost as if the SGC had a mischievous ghost.
Daniel glared at the monitor as it beeped away, letting
him know the backup was complete.
Knowing his luck today, something would happen just as they were about to go.
Aborted sleep and then just when a mission popped up that looked promising,
sabotage…
He shook his head, trying to clear the dark thoughts.
He was just tired…he always got snappy inside his head when he tried to sleep and wasn't allowed to.
He reached for his coffee, vowing not to make that mistake again.
When on base, one did not sleep.
Only on missions when big, dark Jaffa and scruffy, military man with big gun were there to
make bad aliens go away in the night did Daniel sleep easily.
It was kind of strange, actually, he supposed, that he could sleep better off-world than on.
Pushing the plastic bag around
with his toes, he recalled the look on the guard's face when he'd inspected the items Jack had brought in.
Why couldn't Jack have just left the slippers in the car and valiantly fought that
inner streak that often led to what Daniel termed to be "friendly torture?"
It wasn't fair. 11:45 AM Sam came into his office, shaking her head at the papers in her hand, while
Daniel took the wand from her, curious. "What's wrong?" "When exposed to ultraviolet light, the wand starts vibrating, but there's no radiation, no energy, nothing. Our instruments may just not be able to
detect it, but according to all our results, other than surface movement, it's a dud. It does nothing."
Daniel's spirits began to lift.
An unusual, alien object that responds only to ultraviolet light.
He didn't have a clue what relevance that would have, but considering that any new
information was good at this point, he was going to be happy and assume that it had incredible possibilities.
Anything else would be boring and he refused to continue in that vein.
"So maybe it's reacting to the light itself? An allergic reaction, maybe?" Sam frowned. "You're talking about it as if it's alive." "No…just thinking out loud. Of all the spectrum of light, why ultraviolet?" "Well, I checked the MALP sensor readings, but there's nothing to indicate there's any unusual abundance or lack thereof in P4X-75H2's ozone layer.
If it's reacting to something else, I haven't been able to identify it."
A knock on the door brought their heads up.
Capt. Frome brought another report to Sam, looking down at the object. "Any amazing leaps of intuitive thinking going on in here?"
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