Sentry Duty (PG)
This is for ivorygates, who won the bet over at the sign-ups for Friendship Alphabet Soup and asked for "seeing it for the first time."
So here are some thoughts from an ordinary soldier, standing guard on not-so-ordinary duty. No real spoilers outside a reference to events in COTG. 747 words, rated PG.
Sentry Duty
Standing sentry is always a challenge: the demand to be alert and aware, hour after mind-numbing hour, interspersed with rare minutes of gut-churning dread when the enemy attacks. I've been assigned to guard and defend many different posts in my life, and while the type of enemy and the degree of danger might change, the formula is always the same.
Even here, where the post I'm guarding is the gateway to the galaxy and the enemy is aliens from outer space, the ratio of tedium to terror hasn't really changed. I take my shift and command my subordinates, keeping an eye on that huge ring and waiting for the moment when it will flash to life. And, just as with any sentry duty, there are scheduled arrivals and departures that are mere routine, but there are also those heart-stopping moments when your weapon is leveled, your teeth are gritted, and you're ready to defend your position, or die trying.
Just because the bad guys from outer space have freaky flamethrower guns doesn't mean the nature of the job is any different. Bullets or staff weapons make little difference: dead is dead, in the end. Even the concept of compromised comrades isn't a strange one, although I've usually been warned more about Stockholm Syndrome, drugs, and brainwashing than alien influence and telepathic mind control. When the general orders us to cover a returning team and relieve them of their weapons, it's not any more unusual than keeping a wary eye on a soldier who has escaped capture under mysterious circumstances. It's all part of my job to keep myself and my team alive and protect the base - which, in this case, also means the planet.
I take my job seriously, as boring and unimportant as it might seem to the teams that tramp regularly through the Stargate and the scientists that get to play with all the cool tech that gets brought back. We guards remember that the first Earth casualties of the war against the Goa'uld were the soldiers who were assigned to watch the Stargate. Those guards never dreamed that the huge thing would start turning, that the bizarre wave of water-like light would come lashing out of the inner circle, and that creatures from another world would step through space to kill most of them and take the last victim away. We know the stakes, and we'll stay right where we are, defending the Earth against danger from the stars.
Like any other soldier consigned to regular guard duty, I have multiple tricks and quirks that allow me to maintain a high level of alertness during the long stretches when it seems like nothing has ever happened and nothing ever will. There are also the small pleasures that I allow myself, the little things that leave me with a secret, inner grin even as I remain absolutely poker-faced. Mental bets as to which team is going out, and what condition they'll be in when they get back. Silently counting the chevrons together with Harriman, even as I suppress a snicker at the ponderous nature of his solemn announcements. The bemusement that sometimes strikes at the insane dichotomy of standing tensely at the verge of planetary destruction, then going home to the wife and kids and kicking back to watch a football game.
My personal favorite, though, is watching the facial expression of any person who watches the Stargate activate for the first time.
There's always the double take, the involuntary step backwards, the gasp that's equal parts fear and wonder. I've seen dozens of people react that way, from the most jaded, tough Marines to the greenest civilians. Politicians, scientists, military commanders - none of them can see the Gate come roaring to life without feeling that visceral jerk of awe, and it always, always shows on their faces.
I like to watch for it, because I know that I myself, like just about everyone else working at the SGC, take the marvel that is the Stargate for granted. All the regulars - they felt like that too, in the beginning, but it's all become routine for them by now. It's nice to watch the newbies and be reminded, just a little, that we've got the most amazing job on Earth, and that we're lucky to be here.
Even if it's just as an ordinary soldier, guarding the planet's back with a machine gun, I'm proud to be part of Stargate Command.
So here are some thoughts from an ordinary soldier, standing guard on not-so-ordinary duty. No real spoilers outside a reference to events in COTG. 747 words, rated PG.
Sentry Duty
Standing sentry is always a challenge: the demand to be alert and aware, hour after mind-numbing hour, interspersed with rare minutes of gut-churning dread when the enemy attacks. I've been assigned to guard and defend many different posts in my life, and while the type of enemy and the degree of danger might change, the formula is always the same.
Even here, where the post I'm guarding is the gateway to the galaxy and the enemy is aliens from outer space, the ratio of tedium to terror hasn't really changed. I take my shift and command my subordinates, keeping an eye on that huge ring and waiting for the moment when it will flash to life. And, just as with any sentry duty, there are scheduled arrivals and departures that are mere routine, but there are also those heart-stopping moments when your weapon is leveled, your teeth are gritted, and you're ready to defend your position, or die trying.
Just because the bad guys from outer space have freaky flamethrower guns doesn't mean the nature of the job is any different. Bullets or staff weapons make little difference: dead is dead, in the end. Even the concept of compromised comrades isn't a strange one, although I've usually been warned more about Stockholm Syndrome, drugs, and brainwashing than alien influence and telepathic mind control. When the general orders us to cover a returning team and relieve them of their weapons, it's not any more unusual than keeping a wary eye on a soldier who has escaped capture under mysterious circumstances. It's all part of my job to keep myself and my team alive and protect the base - which, in this case, also means the planet.
I take my job seriously, as boring and unimportant as it might seem to the teams that tramp regularly through the Stargate and the scientists that get to play with all the cool tech that gets brought back. We guards remember that the first Earth casualties of the war against the Goa'uld were the soldiers who were assigned to watch the Stargate. Those guards never dreamed that the huge thing would start turning, that the bizarre wave of water-like light would come lashing out of the inner circle, and that creatures from another world would step through space to kill most of them and take the last victim away. We know the stakes, and we'll stay right where we are, defending the Earth against danger from the stars.
Like any other soldier consigned to regular guard duty, I have multiple tricks and quirks that allow me to maintain a high level of alertness during the long stretches when it seems like nothing has ever happened and nothing ever will. There are also the small pleasures that I allow myself, the little things that leave me with a secret, inner grin even as I remain absolutely poker-faced. Mental bets as to which team is going out, and what condition they'll be in when they get back. Silently counting the chevrons together with Harriman, even as I suppress a snicker at the ponderous nature of his solemn announcements. The bemusement that sometimes strikes at the insane dichotomy of standing tensely at the verge of planetary destruction, then going home to the wife and kids and kicking back to watch a football game.
My personal favorite, though, is watching the facial expression of any person who watches the Stargate activate for the first time.
There's always the double take, the involuntary step backwards, the gasp that's equal parts fear and wonder. I've seen dozens of people react that way, from the most jaded, tough Marines to the greenest civilians. Politicians, scientists, military commanders - none of them can see the Gate come roaring to life without feeling that visceral jerk of awe, and it always, always shows on their faces.
I like to watch for it, because I know that I myself, like just about everyone else working at the SGC, take the marvel that is the Stargate for granted. All the regulars - they felt like that too, in the beginning, but it's all become routine for them by now. It's nice to watch the newbies and be reminded, just a little, that we've got the most amazing job on Earth, and that we're lucky to be here.
Even if it's just as an ordinary soldier, guarding the planet's back with a machine gun, I'm proud to be part of Stargate Command.