Precognition, by Artaxastra (G)
Rec Category: Gen
Pairing: none
Categories: gen, General Hammond, episode related, pre-series, character study
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: artaxastra
Author's Website: Outlaws, Aliens, and Mutants
Link: Precognition
Why This Must Be Read: Here is a marvelous sketch of George Hammond in the days before Apophis came waltzing through the Stargate: a little wearied, a little distant, a little old-fashioned. Artaxastra does a superb job of portraying the young lieutenant who met four strangers in 1969 and then spent a lifetime in wary expectation, until a photo in a file folder finally connected the past with the future.
This is dignified, classy, and almost sedate - in short, everything a George Hammond character study ought to be.
George flipped the first folder open and froze.
Twenty five years and more had passed since he'd seen that face, but he had not forgotten it. The same wide blue eyes and pointed chin, the same cropped hair that should have been unattractive but wasn't, the same determined look straight at the camera without the slightest hint of a smile. Captain Samantha Carter.
Captain Samantha Carter in the back of a van, handcuffs on her wrists, explaining that they were from the future. "General Hammond," she'd said. "You have to trust me."
And he had. He'd trusted her and a note from himself, a note in his own handwriting sent from the future. George -- help them.
And he had. He'd let them escape somewhere on a lonely stretch of blacktop through the mountains, and never heard of them again. They may as well have simply disappeared.
He'd waited. He'd thought. They'd get caught, surely, in those first days, those first months. But they didn't. He'd expected something to happen, but it never did.
Two years later, floating alone after bailing out, he hadn't wondered if he would die. He wouldn't, George told himself. He had a date with the future. He wasn't General Hammond, and he hadn't sent a note. So clearly he couldn't die alone on the gray water, listening for a plane that never came. It couldn't come out that way. He had a date with the future. Three days later, dehydrated and near death, he'd seen the rotors churning above him, the basket coming down. History ran straight and true, just like he knew it would.
And so he waited.
Pairing: none
Categories: gen, General Hammond, episode related, pre-series, character study
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: artaxastra
Author's Website: Outlaws, Aliens, and Mutants
Link: Precognition
Why This Must Be Read: Here is a marvelous sketch of George Hammond in the days before Apophis came waltzing through the Stargate: a little wearied, a little distant, a little old-fashioned. Artaxastra does a superb job of portraying the young lieutenant who met four strangers in 1969 and then spent a lifetime in wary expectation, until a photo in a file folder finally connected the past with the future.
This is dignified, classy, and almost sedate - in short, everything a George Hammond character study ought to be.
George flipped the first folder open and froze.
Twenty five years and more had passed since he'd seen that face, but he had not forgotten it. The same wide blue eyes and pointed chin, the same cropped hair that should have been unattractive but wasn't, the same determined look straight at the camera without the slightest hint of a smile. Captain Samantha Carter.
Captain Samantha Carter in the back of a van, handcuffs on her wrists, explaining that they were from the future. "General Hammond," she'd said. "You have to trust me."
And he had. He'd trusted her and a note from himself, a note in his own handwriting sent from the future. George -- help them.
And he had. He'd let them escape somewhere on a lonely stretch of blacktop through the mountains, and never heard of them again. They may as well have simply disappeared.
He'd waited. He'd thought. They'd get caught, surely, in those first days, those first months. But they didn't. He'd expected something to happen, but it never did.
Two years later, floating alone after bailing out, he hadn't wondered if he would die. He wouldn't, George told himself. He had a date with the future. He wasn't General Hammond, and he hadn't sent a note. So clearly he couldn't die alone on the gray water, listening for a plane that never came. It couldn't come out that way. He had a date with the future. Three days later, dehydrated and near death, he'd seen the rotors churning above him, the basket coming down. History ran straight and true, just like he knew it would.
And so he waited.