“Blossom In The Dust” (SG1/ST:TNG)
“Blossom In The Dust”
(Stargate S-G1/Star Trek:The Next Generation)
By Lokei
Rating: PG
Prompt: Ascended!Daniel Jackson meets Q
Author’s Note: The title is from a James Shirley quote: “Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust.”
Word count: approx. 2050
= = = = =
The nebula was beautiful, complex and compelling enough to be described as ‘breathtaking’ even though he no longer had a set of lungs to speak of. The energy which was the core of the being once known as Daniel Jackson vibrated in tune to the slow dance of a birthing star. He felt the tug of its growing gravity, the hum of it whistling through the shifting clouds of gases, dust, and light. Enthralled, he let himself dissipate among the swirls surrounding the new star, letting himself feel through the motions of atom and photon what it might be like to live at the heart of something so bright.
He was just amusing himself with a speculation on what Oma would have to say about the experience-no doubt invoking the petals of a flower or crickets in the desert-when he became aware that he was not alone.
In fact, he was being watched.
Expecting a visit from one of the Others, he pulled his consciousness together and looked for some sign of their approach. What he found would have sent his eyebrows, if he still had them, straight off his forehead.
In the middle of space, a reasonable viewing distance from the nebula, there was a floating living room set.
Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate. There was a floating floor, complete with wall-to-nonexistent-wall light blue carpeting, a brown leather sofa and matching recliner, a coffee table, and a man with a supercilious smirk on his face ensconced smack dab in the middle of the entire bizarre assemblage, waiting with his arms crossed.
Daniel moved closer, as invisibly as possible, though that seemed to be unnecessary, as the being was clearly aware of his presence. In fact, once Daniel was within what would be considered normal human shouting distance, the other raised a hand and beckoned, somewhat imperiously.
Daniel reached the edge of the platform and thought hard for a minute to pour himself into the shape which was Doctor Daniel Jackson of SG-1. He could have picked some other visualization, but the idea frankly disturbed him on a metaphysical level he wasn’t interested in analyzing yet. If you immediately know the bright light is an archaeologist…he snickered.
“If you’re quite done amusing yourself, I’d appreciate a chance to introduce myself,” the other being declared, sounding horridly like Colonel Simmons. He looked a bit like him too-even if Daniel was now basically immortal and more or less omnipotent, this was not calculated to inspire his trust and immediate affection.
Daniel stepped cautiously onto the platform and crossed his arms. “And you are?”
“I am Q,” the other said with a grand gesture and a wide smirk.
Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Q?”
“Yes. I am a member of the Q Continuum, but I’m the only one here at the moment, so you can call me Q as well.”
Daniel’s other eyebrow went up to join the first. “And what or who are the Q Continuum? I don’t recognize that name among the list Oma has told me of those who are Ascended.”
The being-Q-gave a snort which rivaled the most sarcastic of Jack O’Neill’s noises. “You think the Others are the only ones hanging out on more than one plane of existence? Please. I occupy at least five at all times, and that’s just to keep me from getting bored.” He gestured again towards the nebula. “I will grant you that you’ve provided some extra entertainment for me here that I wasn’t expecting. I haven’t seen you before. What do you call yourself?”
Daniel was perfectly aware that Q hadn’t exactly answered his question, but decided to let it slide in favor of gleaning any information the other would drop accidentally. It was a tactic that had worked remarkably well when he was in charge of preventing major misunderstandings in first contact situations before, and he hadn’t anything better in what Jack would have termed his ‘playbook’ for the moment anyway. He stretched out his hand.
“I’m Daniel Jackson. Originally from a planet we call Earth.”
“Ah. A human.” Q paused. “Or at least you used to be, I’m assuming. New to the all-seeing, all-knowing population of the galaxy, I suppose? I have to admit I’m rather surprised that the Others let anyone new into their exclusive little club. Rather boring, the lot of them, though very entertaining to provoke. And I don’t see too many of them dancing through nebulae before breakfast.”
Daniel wasn’t sure what to do with this peculiar combination of statements. He dropped the hand which Q hadn’t shaken anyway and replied, “I’m human, yes. If you aren’t one of the Others and you don’t like them very much, why are you here?”
Q rolled his eyes. “I haven’t seen you before. It was as good a reason as any. I find humans, limited as they are, fascinating. Much the way they seem to feel about animals in their zoos, I suppose. Seeing as you were so recently one of them, I thought I could get a few of my questions answered.”
“Zoos?” Daniel frowned. “I don’t think that’s really an appropriate analogy-“
He broke off as Q waved his hand and there was a flash of light. Four walls had appeared around their floating floor, and the one facing the couch was covered in the most massive television Daniel had ever seen.
“For instance,” Q said, not caring a jot that he’d interrupted Daniel’s protest, “I’d love to hear how you explain this.” The television screen came to life and Daniel found himself watching a replay of his passionate defense of Teal’c during the Cor-Ai, when the Jaffa had been put on trial for the crimes he had committed as First Prime of Apophis.
“You want me to explain the trial?” Daniel frowned. “Or my role in it?”
Q settled himself on the sofa and smirked. “I knew the Others must have ascended you for a reason. Most humans are unutterably slow, but you seem to have some promise. I want to know how you could defend a man who condemned your wife to slavery in her own body. Didn’t just looking at his face gall you?”
Daniel drifted closer to the screen, drawn to the pain on Teal’c’s face and the equally painful honesty on his younger reflection. “No,” he murmured. “He lost everything to help us, and even when he got his family back, he stayed to help us. To help Sha’re. I couldn’t hate him any more than I could hate myself for trying and failing to save her. We did all that we could, all of us.”
Q pursed his lips and waved his hand again. The scene on the screen changed and Daniel smiled to see Sam’s face filling the space. She was shaking her head, leaning over his shoulder, and as the view pulled back enough, he could see she was looking at the papers on the table in front of them, unconvinced by whatever point he was trying to make.
“I’m sorry, Daniel, I just don’t see how that’s possible,” Sam’s voice was so familiar, the words just as much, and the picture froze on past-Daniel’s exasperated expression.
“Annoying to hear that over and over again, isn’t it? I don’t blame you at all for leaving that kind of small mindedness behind,” Q purred. Daniel frowned.
“That’s not it at all,” he said, waving his hands much the way he had in that argument they had just witnessed. “Sam’s not small minded, she’s a scientist. Crazy ideas are my department, and then she figures out whether they’re doable or not, based on the laws of physics as we know it. She takes a lot of convincing, but she trusts me, and I trust her. There’s no one I’d rather have at my side in a bind.”
“No one?” Q’s voice turned to velvet and Daniel shot him a glance. Q merely shrugged and waved at the screen once more. Daniel knew without turning who was going to be there.
The drawl was no real surprise. “See you around, Doctor Jackson.”
Daniel closed his eyes. Q laughed. “So much for never leaving anyone behind. Not all that hard to go when you don’t have anywhere to go back to, is it?”
Daniel’s eyes flew open and he just knew the anger he felt was showing all over his face. “What is this really about, Q? You’re not interested in finding out about my friendship with my teammates, you’re just goading me. You want me to detail all of the ways in which Jack saved my life, never left me behind? I could, and I would if I didn’t think you’d just sit there with a supercilious smile. What is it you really want out of this conversation?”
Q spread his hands peaceably. “Nothing. You claim to be friends with these people, I believe you.”
Daniel glared. “Good.”
“Except,” Q added, “that you chose to leave them. Which doesn’t sound like any definition of friendship I’ve come across in my vast and varied experience.”
Daniel crossed his arms again. “I thought I could do more good out here. Help them from here.”
Q tipped his head to one side and regarded Daniel like something under a microscope. Daniel refused to fidget. “Really,” Q drawled. “And dancing with the atoms of a star that won’t support life or be significant in any way for billions of years is important by your definition?”
Daniel met Q’s eyes. “I’ve been back to see them.”
“Recently?”
Daniel looked away. “I’m still getting used to this idea of not reckoning time by human days. I’ve been trying to learn to experience time beyond marking the way it passes.” He bit his lip and added, “Plus, they need to get along without me. They’re perfectly capable of getting along without me, perfectly happily.”
“Really?”
Daniel was getting to hate that word. “Yes.”
“Then where is your precious Colonel Jack O’Neill now, Doctor Jackson?”
That was a more troubling question than anything which had come before it, given what it implied. Daniel spun to look at the screen, and it was an empty gray. He spun back again, voice heavy with anxiety and anger.
“Show me.”
“Are you sure?” Q leaned back in a parody of casual unconcern. “It’s not as if you’ll be able to do anything about it.”
“Show me.”
“If you insist,” the other shrugged and the screen came to life with a sickening groan and a glow that was eerily and horribly familiar. Jack was in a Goa’uld sarcophagus. If Daniel had still had a physical heart, it would have stopped as the cover ground open and a pair of Jaffa hauled the barely conscious colonel out under a System Lord’s watchful eye.
“No,” Daniel whispered.
“His name is Ba’al,” Q informed him, “and he’s going to make a lot of trouble for your friends. He’s already powerful, and getting more so. And he’s convinced your Jack O’Neill is concealing important information. He’s already killed him and revived him more than once. Barbaric, I’ll grant you, but you really do have to admire his dedication.”
“Jack,” Daniel mourned. “I have to help him.”
“You’re not allowed.”
Daniel’s fingers brushed the surface of the television. “I know. But how can anyone expect me to be able to just sit here and watch?”
Without Daniel’s noticing, Q had moved to stand right at his shoulder. “You did agree to abide by the rules when you joined the ranks of the ascended,” he reminded. “Or the Others wouldn’t let you play in their paddling pool.”
Daniel was still looking at Jack’s drawn face. “I have to do something.” He was speaking almost to himself.
“One thing I have noticed in my study of humans,” Q leaned in conspiratorially, “is that however much they claim to like rules, they’re never very good at following them.”
Daniel blinked, startled, and turned to look at the being whose face was so close to his own. “So you’re saying…” He felt himself begin to glow and dissipate in anticipation of his next move, motion with a purpose, with a destination in mind.
“For a human, even an ascended one, you do show promise, Doctor Jackson,” Q smiled. “And if you get caught, just say you were consoling a friend.”
(Stargate S-G1/Star Trek:The Next Generation)
By Lokei
Rating: PG
Prompt: Ascended!Daniel Jackson meets Q
Author’s Note: The title is from a James Shirley quote: “Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust.”
Word count: approx. 2050
= = = = =
The nebula was beautiful, complex and compelling enough to be described as ‘breathtaking’ even though he no longer had a set of lungs to speak of. The energy which was the core of the being once known as Daniel Jackson vibrated in tune to the slow dance of a birthing star. He felt the tug of its growing gravity, the hum of it whistling through the shifting clouds of gases, dust, and light. Enthralled, he let himself dissipate among the swirls surrounding the new star, letting himself feel through the motions of atom and photon what it might be like to live at the heart of something so bright.
He was just amusing himself with a speculation on what Oma would have to say about the experience-no doubt invoking the petals of a flower or crickets in the desert-when he became aware that he was not alone.
In fact, he was being watched.
Expecting a visit from one of the Others, he pulled his consciousness together and looked for some sign of their approach. What he found would have sent his eyebrows, if he still had them, straight off his forehead.
In the middle of space, a reasonable viewing distance from the nebula, there was a floating living room set.
Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate. There was a floating floor, complete with wall-to-nonexistent-wall light blue carpeting, a brown leather sofa and matching recliner, a coffee table, and a man with a supercilious smirk on his face ensconced smack dab in the middle of the entire bizarre assemblage, waiting with his arms crossed.
Daniel moved closer, as invisibly as possible, though that seemed to be unnecessary, as the being was clearly aware of his presence. In fact, once Daniel was within what would be considered normal human shouting distance, the other raised a hand and beckoned, somewhat imperiously.
Daniel reached the edge of the platform and thought hard for a minute to pour himself into the shape which was Doctor Daniel Jackson of SG-1. He could have picked some other visualization, but the idea frankly disturbed him on a metaphysical level he wasn’t interested in analyzing yet. If you immediately know the bright light is an archaeologist…he snickered.
“If you’re quite done amusing yourself, I’d appreciate a chance to introduce myself,” the other being declared, sounding horridly like Colonel Simmons. He looked a bit like him too-even if Daniel was now basically immortal and more or less omnipotent, this was not calculated to inspire his trust and immediate affection.
Daniel stepped cautiously onto the platform and crossed his arms. “And you are?”
“I am Q,” the other said with a grand gesture and a wide smirk.
Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Q?”
“Yes. I am a member of the Q Continuum, but I’m the only one here at the moment, so you can call me Q as well.”
Daniel’s other eyebrow went up to join the first. “And what or who are the Q Continuum? I don’t recognize that name among the list Oma has told me of those who are Ascended.”
The being-Q-gave a snort which rivaled the most sarcastic of Jack O’Neill’s noises. “You think the Others are the only ones hanging out on more than one plane of existence? Please. I occupy at least five at all times, and that’s just to keep me from getting bored.” He gestured again towards the nebula. “I will grant you that you’ve provided some extra entertainment for me here that I wasn’t expecting. I haven’t seen you before. What do you call yourself?”
Daniel was perfectly aware that Q hadn’t exactly answered his question, but decided to let it slide in favor of gleaning any information the other would drop accidentally. It was a tactic that had worked remarkably well when he was in charge of preventing major misunderstandings in first contact situations before, and he hadn’t anything better in what Jack would have termed his ‘playbook’ for the moment anyway. He stretched out his hand.
“I’m Daniel Jackson. Originally from a planet we call Earth.”
“Ah. A human.” Q paused. “Or at least you used to be, I’m assuming. New to the all-seeing, all-knowing population of the galaxy, I suppose? I have to admit I’m rather surprised that the Others let anyone new into their exclusive little club. Rather boring, the lot of them, though very entertaining to provoke. And I don’t see too many of them dancing through nebulae before breakfast.”
Daniel wasn’t sure what to do with this peculiar combination of statements. He dropped the hand which Q hadn’t shaken anyway and replied, “I’m human, yes. If you aren’t one of the Others and you don’t like them very much, why are you here?”
Q rolled his eyes. “I haven’t seen you before. It was as good a reason as any. I find humans, limited as they are, fascinating. Much the way they seem to feel about animals in their zoos, I suppose. Seeing as you were so recently one of them, I thought I could get a few of my questions answered.”
“Zoos?” Daniel frowned. “I don’t think that’s really an appropriate analogy-“
He broke off as Q waved his hand and there was a flash of light. Four walls had appeared around their floating floor, and the one facing the couch was covered in the most massive television Daniel had ever seen.
“For instance,” Q said, not caring a jot that he’d interrupted Daniel’s protest, “I’d love to hear how you explain this.” The television screen came to life and Daniel found himself watching a replay of his passionate defense of Teal’c during the Cor-Ai, when the Jaffa had been put on trial for the crimes he had committed as First Prime of Apophis.
“You want me to explain the trial?” Daniel frowned. “Or my role in it?”
Q settled himself on the sofa and smirked. “I knew the Others must have ascended you for a reason. Most humans are unutterably slow, but you seem to have some promise. I want to know how you could defend a man who condemned your wife to slavery in her own body. Didn’t just looking at his face gall you?”
Daniel drifted closer to the screen, drawn to the pain on Teal’c’s face and the equally painful honesty on his younger reflection. “No,” he murmured. “He lost everything to help us, and even when he got his family back, he stayed to help us. To help Sha’re. I couldn’t hate him any more than I could hate myself for trying and failing to save her. We did all that we could, all of us.”
Q pursed his lips and waved his hand again. The scene on the screen changed and Daniel smiled to see Sam’s face filling the space. She was shaking her head, leaning over his shoulder, and as the view pulled back enough, he could see she was looking at the papers on the table in front of them, unconvinced by whatever point he was trying to make.
“I’m sorry, Daniel, I just don’t see how that’s possible,” Sam’s voice was so familiar, the words just as much, and the picture froze on past-Daniel’s exasperated expression.
“Annoying to hear that over and over again, isn’t it? I don’t blame you at all for leaving that kind of small mindedness behind,” Q purred. Daniel frowned.
“That’s not it at all,” he said, waving his hands much the way he had in that argument they had just witnessed. “Sam’s not small minded, she’s a scientist. Crazy ideas are my department, and then she figures out whether they’re doable or not, based on the laws of physics as we know it. She takes a lot of convincing, but she trusts me, and I trust her. There’s no one I’d rather have at my side in a bind.”
“No one?” Q’s voice turned to velvet and Daniel shot him a glance. Q merely shrugged and waved at the screen once more. Daniel knew without turning who was going to be there.
The drawl was no real surprise. “See you around, Doctor Jackson.”
Daniel closed his eyes. Q laughed. “So much for never leaving anyone behind. Not all that hard to go when you don’t have anywhere to go back to, is it?”
Daniel’s eyes flew open and he just knew the anger he felt was showing all over his face. “What is this really about, Q? You’re not interested in finding out about my friendship with my teammates, you’re just goading me. You want me to detail all of the ways in which Jack saved my life, never left me behind? I could, and I would if I didn’t think you’d just sit there with a supercilious smile. What is it you really want out of this conversation?”
Q spread his hands peaceably. “Nothing. You claim to be friends with these people, I believe you.”
Daniel glared. “Good.”
“Except,” Q added, “that you chose to leave them. Which doesn’t sound like any definition of friendship I’ve come across in my vast and varied experience.”
Daniel crossed his arms again. “I thought I could do more good out here. Help them from here.”
Q tipped his head to one side and regarded Daniel like something under a microscope. Daniel refused to fidget. “Really,” Q drawled. “And dancing with the atoms of a star that won’t support life or be significant in any way for billions of years is important by your definition?”
Daniel met Q’s eyes. “I’ve been back to see them.”
“Recently?”
Daniel looked away. “I’m still getting used to this idea of not reckoning time by human days. I’ve been trying to learn to experience time beyond marking the way it passes.” He bit his lip and added, “Plus, they need to get along without me. They’re perfectly capable of getting along without me, perfectly happily.”
“Really?”
Daniel was getting to hate that word. “Yes.”
“Then where is your precious Colonel Jack O’Neill now, Doctor Jackson?”
That was a more troubling question than anything which had come before it, given what it implied. Daniel spun to look at the screen, and it was an empty gray. He spun back again, voice heavy with anxiety and anger.
“Show me.”
“Are you sure?” Q leaned back in a parody of casual unconcern. “It’s not as if you’ll be able to do anything about it.”
“Show me.”
“If you insist,” the other shrugged and the screen came to life with a sickening groan and a glow that was eerily and horribly familiar. Jack was in a Goa’uld sarcophagus. If Daniel had still had a physical heart, it would have stopped as the cover ground open and a pair of Jaffa hauled the barely conscious colonel out under a System Lord’s watchful eye.
“No,” Daniel whispered.
“His name is Ba’al,” Q informed him, “and he’s going to make a lot of trouble for your friends. He’s already powerful, and getting more so. And he’s convinced your Jack O’Neill is concealing important information. He’s already killed him and revived him more than once. Barbaric, I’ll grant you, but you really do have to admire his dedication.”
“Jack,” Daniel mourned. “I have to help him.”
“You’re not allowed.”
Daniel’s fingers brushed the surface of the television. “I know. But how can anyone expect me to be able to just sit here and watch?”
Without Daniel’s noticing, Q had moved to stand right at his shoulder. “You did agree to abide by the rules when you joined the ranks of the ascended,” he reminded. “Or the Others wouldn’t let you play in their paddling pool.”
Daniel was still looking at Jack’s drawn face. “I have to do something.” He was speaking almost to himself.
“One thing I have noticed in my study of humans,” Q leaned in conspiratorially, “is that however much they claim to like rules, they’re never very good at following them.”
Daniel blinked, startled, and turned to look at the being whose face was so close to his own. “So you’re saying…” He felt himself begin to glow and dissipate in anticipation of his next move, motion with a purpose, with a destination in mind.
“For a human, even an ascended one, you do show promise, Doctor Jackson,” Q smiled. “And if you get caught, just say you were consoling a friend.”