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

Instead of tacking on the rest of the scene, I've rewritten part 6, including the next part of Jack/Daniel's conversation. If you read the earlier part, you can skim.


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, sometimes really annoying family, 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. Or bugged you with penetrating questions that were none of their god damned business.

Jack studied Daniel's slack face, and determined that, yes, the dark spot on his sleeping bag was drool. And that he definitely needed something better to do.

Moments later Jack stretched, paced the campsite and announced to the air, "Good morning! It is a balmy… twenty-three degrees Fahrenheit… winds are 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."

He was sure he saw Teal'c smile at that.

"Actually, sir, I'd like to borrow Teal'c and see if we can find that lava flow, take some surface readings as a point of comparison," 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."

Daniel lumbered out of the tent, ran his hands through his hair and generally looked like shit. He poured Jack a cup of coffee, holding it out as obvious bait. Jack accepted it warily. Daniel had that patient 'psychiatrist' look on his face, and looked dangerously like he was about to say something. Sam had vanished safely around a pile of rocks, so Jack beat him to the punch.

"It's not lonely." Daniel needed to get that straight, right off the bat.

But he only raised his eyebrows and Jack took a long sip, waiting for a response.

When Daniel didn't say anything, he squatted down and added in an undertone, "There's no difference between my life and lives of anyone else at the SGC."

Daniel choked on his coffee. "I beg to differ. I mean, other than the fact that you have to hide, and I'd call that a pretty big difference. Generally."

"Oh, come off it. We don't have anything to hide. None of us do. Everything in our lives is top secret, we can't give that out. 'What do you do?' 'Oh, I work in radar telemetry.' What do I know about that? Squat."

"Okay, granted, but at least most of us have the illusion that maybe at some point we'll… find someone. For you it's more of a permanent situation."

"I don't think I'd want to introduce General Hammond to a 'special someone.'"

Daniel swept his hand out as if that made a point. "And it's wrong that you have to feel that way."

"I don't have to feel that way, I do feel that way!" Jack glared down at the ground, controlling his voice. Black dirt, and gritty. In his peripheral vision he spotted a blond head jogging down the trail. "Anyways, it's all academic -- hey! Carter!" he barked.

"Sir, I think --"

"Carter," he cut her off, "what'd'you do this past weekend?"

"Sir?"

"Oh yeah that's right, we don't get weekends. Your last leave then. What was it? Naquadah reactor?"

"I'm afraid I don't remember. Sir, I think you ought to --"

"Oooh, that sounds exciting. Memorable even. How 'bout you, Teal'c? Three days of Kel-no-reem?"

"I watched the national table tennis championships on television, O'Neill." Teal'c nodded to him.

"Ping-Pong! A thrill a minute," Jack said.

"It is a most fast-paced competition. However, the judging leaves much to be desired."

"Bad calls are part of any game, Teal'c. Okay, now let's hear about Daniel's smokin' social life. What did you do? Curl up with a nice pottery shard?"

"Um," Daniel winced. "I had a date, actually."

"Really?" Carter laughed. Teal'c raised his eyebrows at Daniel.

"Oh? A date? Well then," Jack stood, "Let's get this show on the road. Gotta get Daniel back to his hot sex life. In fact, let's finish this mission as soon as possible, so we can all go home."

He flung the rest of his coffee into the bushes and stalked off.

Sam bit her lip and stared after him, cringing. "This is your fault, isn't it Daniel?"

"Um. I think I might have hit a nerve."

"Well," she said reasonably, "He has to wind down sooner or later."

Daniel scratched his head and scuffed the ground. "I wouldn't count on it."

Sam set her jaw and followed Jack, who had collapsed both of the tents already and kicked out the remainder of their fire. "Sir?"

"I'm in a shitty mood, Carter. What is it?"

"Sir, I think you should have a look at something," she said. "We found that lava flow."



Part VII.

FICLET: The Walls of Jericho, Jack/Daniel. Partlet - 7

The Walls of Jericho - 7 (from part 1 here)
by Icarus




They stared up at the glowing arch where it crested about six feet above their back trail. It was black directly underneath, about a foot and a half wide, with little crawling glimmers of orange embers. The upper surface glowed with a shifting red-yellow-orange light as the lava flowed up, and then over, their trail.

"Whoa," Daniel said.

"What the hell?" Jack said, stepping closer to peer under it. Nothing was holding it up, though the area around the arch was certainly toasty. "Okay. Even I know lava's not supposed to do that."

"I guess the natives were serious when they said the trail would stay clear," Daniel said, gazing over the length of it, nonplused. It was broader at the base where the lava flowed freely again.

"Teal'c and I checked for forcefields, or anything within our realm of science or Goa'uld technology that could explain it. I've no idea why this is happening," Carter said, managing to sound at once frustrated and awed.

"Well, the why of it is pretty obvious." Everyone turned to stare at Daniel. "I mean, I don't know how they do it, but it seems pretty straightforward. This trail leads to the stargate, and anyone using the stargate would need to keep the path open." Daniel blinked at them. "If the Ancients manipulated time and space when they built the stargate system, I'd think repelling a lava flow would be small change compared to that."

"Carter?"

Sam shrugged. "It seems plausible, sir. Anyway, I can't find any sort of mechanism here. Maybe the natives know of some sort of… abandoned control room we could study."

"The natives were clearly familiar with the properties of this particular path," Daniel added, bobbing his head in agreement.

"Okay. So one more item on the to-do list: king-sized lava lamp number two. The answers are still that way. Let's head out," Jack gestured back towards the campsite.

It was good to know that they were probably safe all last night. Though he didn't like to rely too much on alien technology; it tended to go squirrelly on you when you least expected.

Later on the hike, Daniel stepped up to walk alongside him. "Jack?"

Jack didn't look over, keeping his eyes fixed on the disappearing twilight trail. It twisted ahead through the mountains.

He made of point of not slowing down or matching Daniel's stride, and answered in a taut voice, "You don't ever learn, do you Daniel?"

"What?" Daniel paused, his mouth open. Understanding dawned. "Oh. No no, it's not about that -- I have a theory."

"A theory." Jack risked a glance in his direction. Daniel had one of those wide-open 'starry-eyed' looks on his face. Uh-oh.

"Yes," he nodded. Jack really knew better than to encourage the man in his flights of fancy. "Since the Ancients were allied with Asgard I imagine they probably had a similar value system. They may have protected primitive sentient life, just like the Asgard protect humans now."

"From the Goa'uld?" Jack said, squinting doubtfully. "I thought those guys weren't around back then."

"Well, from whatever. Maybe from the lava flows here. This world must have been pretty rough place." Daniel peered down the trail. "Up until now I haven't had any proof. But this trail - and anything else like it - might be it. These people could owe their very survival to the Ancients."

Jack failed to see the relevance, but couldn't resist the lure of argument. He shook his head. "Or… the Ancients could have been long gone, and the locals simply took advantage of their handy-dandy little road."

Which squared more with how Jack had seen things work. Much as he liked the Asgard, they were the exception that proved the rule. But in Daniel's happy little universe all aliens were good guys until proven otherwise.

"Yes, yes I know, I need something else, some record or other protection…"

"Daniel…." Jack said warningly and stopped, catching on. "We're here for mining. That's it. This is not an archeological field trip."

"But, Jack…."

"No pet theories. No side ventures." Jack strode resolutely in the direction of the alien village. There was no point in reminding Daniel about 'mission objectives' and 'orders.' It always fell on deaf ears.

He vaguely recalled that this was what had started their fight in the first place.


Part VIII here. More coming soon!