Here's the second 400-word ficlet! This one is for
thothmes. You'll find her prompt below the ficlet to avoid spoiling the punchline. :)
Summary: The team is on the alert for danger! Rated G, and just the tiniest bit cracky.
Danger, Will Robinson!
"Stay sharp," Jack ordered as the Gate snapped shut. "Where there's naquadah, there's usually Jaffa."
Teal'c, studying the ground, frowned. "I see no signs of recent activity, O'Neill. A base might be already long established."
"Just our luck if there was," Jack muttered. He glanced over at the DHD. "All right there?"
"Everything's good," Daniel reported.
"Sir, the naquadah reading's pretty strong. Bearing... due east." Sam fiddled with her sensors. "I'd guess half a klick away, maybe a bit more."
"Let's move out, then." Jack glared uneasily at the clear green sky. It was too quiet, too peaceful. The shoe was going to drop any minute, he just knew it.
But it didn't.
The absence of trees on the broad meadow meant an ambush was impossible. They walked easily through the long grasses, seeing nothing bigger than the alien equivalent of a butterfly and, once, something the size of a mouse.
Teal'c's frown deepened as the silence around them grew. Sam gripped her rifle a little more tightly. Even Daniel kept glancing over his shoulder.
The low hill which housed the opening to the mine was the only thing interrupting the sameness of the plain. The others kept back as Daniel carefully examined the shored-up entrance, then ventured a little inside.
"It's okay," he said finally, ducking his head as he came back outdoors.
"You don't sound very convinced," Jack said sharply.
"Oh, I am. It's perfectly solid. I wasn't expecting an abandoned mine to be in such good condition, that's all. Barring earthquakes, it should be stable for decades to come."
As one, they all froze, gazes focused downwards, waiting for the ground to start trembling beneath them. Nothing happened, though, and feeling a little sheepish, they snapped on flashlights and ventured inside....
Hours later, the iris scissored open and SG-1 walked though the event horizon. Even from the control room, Hammond could see their widened, stretched eyes. Teal'c actually looked perturbed.
"What happened?" he called anxiously through the microphone.
"We're fine, sir." Jack replied, his voice slightly dazed. "That mine's just what we need. Carter estimates there's enough naquadah left in there to make half a dozen generators at least."
Hammond frowned. "Then what's the problem, Colonel?"
"Nothing. It all went... fine."
"Fine," echoed Carter and Jackson, blinking.
Hammond leaned towards Harriman. "Tell Fraiser to check them out thoroughly," he instructed quietly. "In isolation, just in case."
*
thothmes prompted, "The all-team freak out (suitably restrained on Teal'c's part) after a mission goes totally right and as originally planned, and without incident."