FICLET: The Walls of Jericho, Jack/Daniel. Partlet - 3

The Walls of Jericho - 3 (from part 1 here)
by Icarus



"So the aliens are friendly?" Jack asked, settling his P-90 comfortably in his arms. It was stripped, cleaned, and his team was saddled up and ready to go. He was looking forward to this mission. He slammed the magazine back into the gun.

The gate came to life behind them, with a sound that reminded Jack of the toilets in Germany. A really big toilet. Jack smiled around at his team, tight-lipped, and wondered if he should save that joke for another time. You had to be economical with your wisecracks, in case you ran out.

"Oh, they're friendly enough I think. So far," Daniel said, tying his boot laces and holding everyone up as usual. Carter and Teal'c waited patiently at the base of the ramp. Jack stepped towards him as Daniel bounced up. "Of course, we wouldn't really know. They could despise us, but their culture requires that they be polite anyway."

He patted Daniel on the back as he pressed him in the direction of the gate. Daniel paused briefly, but didn't flinch away.

Good. One homophobia test passed.

"So it doesn't matter," Jack responded, eyeing Daniel, "just so long as Carter gets to run her great big… lava lamp."

Daniel and Sam rolled their eyes and Jack pretended not to grin. Yep. All was well. He decided to save the toilet joke.

"Planetary core tests, yes sir," Sam said, gamely repeating herself from the briefing as they climbed the ramp. She knew Daniel did translations in his head, while Teal'c focused only what was relevant for security, and Jack, well, Jack filtered out the gibberish, reading everyone else's reactions instead. When General Hammond sat up it was time to listen. "The planet's molten core is unusually close to the surface, the only way someplace so far from its sun could still support human life. It should have cooled a long time ago, or else be a blazing inferno, but it hasn't. It would be an ideal location to refine both naquada and trinium -- in fact, I suspect that's exactly what the Ancient's used it for."

"Groovy," Jack said as he took point and stepped through the gate, with Daniel close behind.




Part IV here.

FICLET: The Walls of Jericho, Jack/Daniel. Partlet - 4

The Walls of Jericho - 4 (from part 1 here)
by Icarus



The sky on the other side of the gate was a brilliant twilight blue, even though technically it was eleven o'clock in the morning, at least according to Jack's watch. The sun was up, as it was constantly in this polar region, a distant dime-sized white-haloed circle that washed the color out of everything like moonlight. A circle of jagged black mountains surrounded them, with no trace of snow.

It was the first sign that you were on an alien world, the light. A million different shades and colors of light, no two exactly like earth.

Jack breathed out a silvered mist as the watery glow of the stargate shut off, his team stepping around rocks beside him. There were no 'greeters' or 'tour guides' for this mission. The aliens lived in elaborately carved caves over a day's hike from the gate - a testament that there were no bad guys coming through on a regular basis. But they'd have to hoof it, and camp on the way.

Not for the first time Jack wished they could just drive a Humvee through the gate for off-world travel. Why not? They already cross-pollinated cultures just by meeting them.

A Humvee with heat, maybe a radio, a TV. And heat. Jack stamped his feet to keep warm.

"Jack," Daniel tapped him and pointed over his shoulder. "Look over there." Four brilliant stars hovered like a necklace on the horizon, outlined against the rich blue. Daniel was smiling, his lips and face carved out of silver-blue shadows. His blue eyes just blended into this light. "The natives call them the 'day stars,'" he said reverently. "They can navigate by the stars even when the sun's out for the warm season."

"Hunh." Jack gazed at the unfamiliar constellation which reminded him of Orion, and wondered what the names of the individual stars were. Or if he could pronounce them.

"I thought you'd like that." Daniel grinned.

Jack peered up at the sky, and the crystal clear canopy of much fainter stars. "You're sure this is the warm season?"

"It is indeed chilly, O'Neill," Teal'c affirmed.

Carter grinned at them. "It's a lot warmer in the caves. Almost tropical. Magma will do that."


Part V here

FICLET: The Walls of Jericho, Jack/Daniel. Partlet - 5

The Walls of Jericho - 5 (from part 1 here)
by Icarus


They camped on a ridgeline under the cover of some alien bluish scrub, the 'sun' still high in the sky. There was a waft of warm air from somewhere nearby, and a sound like a big witch's cauldron. But Carter reassured them the natives had insisted the trail would be safe. Though she hedged that volcanoes were unpredictable in the extreme, and rattled on about that bad news, while Daniel and Teal'c glanced around at the mountains nervously.

Jack didn't feel any better about walking on the geophysical equivalent of a time bomb, but there wasn't much they could do about it. So he set 'volcano watches' and shut Carter up when she casually started in with that "unlikelihood of surviving a volcanic eruption" stuff. Sheesh.

Jack opted to team up in Daniel's tent, just to stamp out any lingering weirdness between them, get things back to normal. That turned out to be a tactical error.

On his return from second watch (Carter got third watch as reward for their upcoming lack of sleep), he found Daniel half-awake. He startled, sitting up a bit as Jack closed the tent flap.

"Feel any tremors?" Jack joked. He pulled off his boots then stretched out in his bag with a satisfied sigh. No dangers except for a possible explosion, and that was out of his hands.

"No, not yet," Daniel chuckled. "Though it's only a matter of time with a planet this seismically active," he imitated Carter, and Jack coughed miserably.

Daniel leaned up on an elbow and looked at Jack. Intently. With that long pause he always had before he argued, or said something he knew Jack wouldn't like, or defied orders or.... "So. What do you do?"

"What?" But Jack suddenly knew. Daniel couldn't leave well enough alone.

"I mean... what do you do?"

Oh man… Jack had dealt with this before - the bi-curious type. He glanced over at Daniel and hoped he didn't have fantasies of the big, bad colonel popping his cherry for him. No thanks, a smart man doesn't shit where he eats. He'd transferred one soldier out of his command who'd gotten that idea. He decided to embarrass Daniel. "I'll tell you what. When we get back, I'll settle you in for some nice gay porn, so you can figure out the mechanics for yourself."

"Um. Nooo. That won't be necessary."

Daniel was staring up at the roof the tent, lost in thought. Jack hoped this was the end of it.

"I meant... I mean, do you take people home?"

"Wha- are you nuts? The NID wackos have bugged my house before, do you think I'd give them that kind of ammo?"

"So hotels and that sort of thing." Daniel nodded, as if that was what he'd expected.

Yeah. Sometimes. "This is getting a little personal, Daniel. No, wait - it's getting a lot personal," Jack said in a warning tone of voice.

Daniel stirred, rustling the taffeta of the down sleeping bag. "No wonder you're so paranoid."

"Whoa there! I'm no more paranoid than the military makes anyone. You threat assess, you learn that." Daniel was silent. "And I'm still in the military because I'm careful. I'm good at it."

Jack sat up, glaring at Daniel's silence, knowing exactly what was on his mind. He'd been through this spiel before. He decided to cut it off at the pass; Daniel would say it eventually.

"You're supposed to be asking about my ex-wife Sarah now, what really happened. That's the cliche, right?" He couldn't keep the bitter sarcasm out of his voice, and didn't even try.

Daniel rolled and looked over at him finally, bright blue eyes blinking and genuinely surprised. "Why? You obviously loved her."

Jack's chin lifted and he didn't have anything to say to that. Yeah.

Daniel was back to staring at the canopy, a frown carving his forehead. "Hotels. It sounds so... lonely."

"What is this? What'd'you want some?" Jack snapped. "What do you want from me, Daniel?"

"I just want to understand."

"Well, unless you're sucking cock on the weekends you're not going to." Which was, okay, a little more graphic than Jack intended, but Daniel was pissing him off. He was being so -- Daniel about it, and not following any of the scripts.

Jack harshly turned his back and settled in to sleep.

Daniel cleared his throat behind him, and said in a hesitant voice, "Um. Good night?"


Part VI is here

FICLET: The Walls of Jericho, Jack/Daniel. Partlet - 6

The Walls of Jericho - 6 (from part 1 here)
by Icarus



One of the fastest ways to screw up a command was to get a crush on someone you worked with. Long ago Jack learned that you avoided that by not looking at those under… or over, or across… your command. They were family, and annoying family at that; the kind you didn't look forward to seeing at Christmas. Who kept you up all night with talk about seismic events when it sounded like a lava flow was inches from your pillow, and bugged you with annoying, penetrating questions. That were none of their god damned business.

Jack stretched, paced the campsite, and announced, "Good morning! It is a balmy… twenty-three degrees Fahrenheit… winds at about three knots out of the west, at a cruising altitude of, oh," he peered over the ridge, "six hundred feet. We should be arriving in six hours march if we get our asses in gear. That's a big if. And it's still dark out. Any volcanoes go off last night, Carter?"

"I think you would have noticed, sir," Sam flushed, crouching over the coffeepot.

"Good! Glad to hear it," Jack said. He kicked the side of Daniel's tent and was rewarded with bleary, grumpy face squinting irritably through the doorway. "Wake up, Daniel! You've got third watch tonight for keeping me up late, talking."

Daniel put his glasses on but didn't look like he could see any better. "Abusing your authority, Jack?"

"That's what it's for."

"Actually, sir, I'd like to borrow Teal'c and see if we can find that lava flow, to take some surface readings," Sam said, wiping her palms on her pants as she stood.

Jack waved absently, already contemplating coffee. "You do that." As an afterthought he added over his shoulder, "but be back in an hour! By this time tomorrow I want to be waking up in a nice soft alien bed."



(working on the rest)

Ick. Movie.

We're watching Legends of the Fall.

I truly loathe this movie. It's utterly overblown, manipulative emotional crap. I hate the music, the way the strings wind up at just the "right" moments. I really hate the cliched plot and thin emotions.

It's only worth watching because the cinematography is beautiful, and so are the actors.

Wow. This movie sucks. And I'm watching with someone who loves it.

I remember now. The last time I watched it, I walked out.

*whimpers*



ETA: Maybe someone will die dramatically and the movie will end soon. Please.

ETA2: Ugh. And the boys are commenting over it, like this is a good movie. Kill me now.

ETA3: Oh, the movie keeps getting worse and worse. This is lame. Please, somebody die of consumption.

ETA4: My god. What did they do? Write a list of cliches and just hit them one by one? *gah! Sporks eyes out.*

ETA5: Aha! Not consumption! A stroke! Damn it, he's not dead. Oh right, the movie ends when the woman dies of consumption. Well, maybe I can hurry things along. (Takes aim....)

Legends of the Fall - it won't end!

Jesus, when will this movie end... I'm going to hurt myself rolling my eyes this much.

Let me share the joy....

"Your shipments are growing a little fat. And my patience is growing thin."

Is it an ff.net story?

No. This is Legends of the Fall.

Oh dear, his wife just died. Everyone is sobbing uncontrollably. Now his dead wife is being buried next to his brother's tombstone.

Oh... the pain... the pain.

Legends of the Fall - yay someone important died!

I knew it!

The old man is going to sacrifice himself for his youngest son. Ah! The melodrama.

Ooops. I'm mistaken, the brother who had joined the corrupt forces saves the day.

I'm in tears. This is so bad, it's almost funny.

There go the violins again....