Interplanetary Travel 101: This Is Not Kansas

[savedthatjaffa]

She checked the seals on her Hazmat suit a few more times and then made sure the hoses were working properly, which they were. Lam was fairly confident the suit was sound -- she did this every time -- and stepped up to the shimmering ripple of the gate, her hands full of equipment to deal with just about anything save major surgery. SG-12 was still

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[theunascended]

Daniel was working on Jack's furniture. He was, like he usually was when he was working on carpentry at New Atlantis, shirtless. He looked up when he saw someone come in and stopped sharply when he saw a very familiar face. "Dr. Lam? Carolyn?" He put the hammer and nails down and moved in her direction.

"That is you, right? People have a tendency...not to always be who they look like."

[savedthatjaffa]

"Last I checked, I was," Lam said, pausing mid-stride to eye none other than Daniel Jackson. Mitchell did say they weren't the only familiar faces and she'd taken that to mean there were more SG-1 people around. In fact, he might have actually mentioned Jackson at some point. She'd been too grateful for the coffee and things had started to blur just a bit.

Jackson seemed to be fine, but that was just the clinical side of her brain working overtime. Force of habit, she thought wryly. Dressed in jeans and a black tee, she'd managed to ditch the reddish orange Hazmat suit for something a bit less of an eye sore. She rocked back on her heels a bit and frowned slightly.

"Ran into Mitchell when I arrived," she said matter-of-factly. (Arrived, appeared, materialized, got plucked from the stream--) It's still not exactly the best thing in the world, but...here I stand. "We had coffee, he explained the situation. I suppose I'm still processing." She eyed the furniture. "Hobby?"

[theunascended]

"Payment for a friend. He's making Vala something for her birthday. I'm not too good with jewelry. And I'm on the building crew. It gives me something to keep me occupied. I've...I've been here quite a while." Four months and he'd have been here two years. It was a little boggling to think about, so he usually tried not to.

"It's good to see you. Even if you might not exactly be thrilled about being here."

He wasn't entirely sure what Mitchell had said about the island, yet, so he'd take his cues from her.

[savedthatjaffa]

"Ah," she said, frowning so very lightly it was mostly in her eyes. "Well," Lam rubbed at her eyes a bit. "It's better now that I managed a few hours of sleep in that...crash room. I can't imagine that anyone is pleased about being yanked from their own Universes and getting stuck here."

She looked determined.

"We'll just have to figure out a way off so we can get back to what we're supposed to be doing." Lam said it like Mitchell had, with that same 'don't you say a damn thing against it' tone of voice. She'd already met up with someone who tried to convince her to throw in her chips and she wasn't going to do that.

[theunascended]

"We'll get back. Eventually." Daniel just wasn't going to say when that eventually was. Because like he'd told Vala and Mitchell, it was all up to the whims of the island and they hadn't liked that. One bit. He was a little wiser, now, and if she wanted to believe that a rescue was coming for them, well, he wouldn't say anything. Yet.

"Why'd you sleep in the crash room? Didn't whoever found you bring you over here?"

Maybe she hadn't identified herself as part of the Stargate program. Or maybe they hadn't known about New Atlantis, god forbid.

[savedthatjaffa]

"I crashed," Lam said with a twitch of a smile. "I can't sleep much before I walk through the Gate and I spent most of the night before going over the mission reports. Usually I just let the adrenaline carry be through until we find a place for the night and then I'm good to go. Only this time, I had no go and nothing to solve...so I was out pretty much before I hit the bed. Mitchell was left holding the bags quite literally. The few hours I got were good, though."

[theunascended]

Daniel laughed. "Right. Well, first thing we have to do is get you sorted with a hut. That's easy enough, since I'm one of the ones who'll probably end up building it." He gestured around. "Although many more and we're going to have to expand the place. I'm not sure whoever started New Atlantis ever really expected to get this many people."

Not to mention the people who weren't from their reality. Daniel didn't think, anyway.

[savedthatjaffa]

"I may crash in Mitchell's until that can be arranged," Lam said thoughtfully. "He mentioned he had an extra room and someone in that crash room seriously makes me wish I had earplugs. I'm tempted to do an exam and prescribe something but sadly," she shook her head, "there will be no prescribing. I hear Beckett is here and that I need to check in with him if I want to keep busy with some sort of clinic duty."

[theunascended]

Right. Because he wouldn't have Morgan there anymore. Not that Mitchell had actually told him that, yet. No, he'd had to hear that from Morgan herself. "Well, I'm fairly sure that Mitchell doesn't snore."

He gave her an encouraging smile. "You're SGC. I'm sure you won't have any problem in getting into the clinic. And..." Daniel let out a soft breath and his smile disappeared. "They have an opening. One of their doctors went home about a month ago. I don't know that they've gotten anyone to replace him, yet." Not that he really kept up with the clinic.

[savedthatjaffa]

"I'll ask around," she said with a nod. "Or get myself adjusted first and then ask around." She caught the way his expression shifted, but chose to not mention it. "Finding my way around seems to be the priority for the moment. From what I noticed, there seems to be no real lack of medical staff. I only got the vaguest of glances at the facility, but it looks decent."

And isn't too primitive. She couldn't do surgery in there (or she could, but there was a high risk of infection involved) but it was clean, relatively sterile, and had an adequate amount of beds in case there was some sort of disaster. Lam hmmned softly.

"I'm sure I can work something out."

[theunascended]

"If you want a tour of anything other than the north part of the island," Daniel offered, "just let me know. I've been pretty much everywhere by now. Including quite a few places on the second island. Did you know that they have the boat from Jaws over there? The first one?" Daniel wasn't really sure what it meant, but it was notable, at least.

"But for the most part, things are pretty much centered around the Compound. Anything further out than that are usually people's homes."

[savedthatjaffa]

"Soon, I think," she said thoughtfully. "I'll have to stretch my legs eventually. Go for a run, go exploring." She stopped for a second, backtracking. "Jaws?" she said slowly, eyebrows raised. "Yeah. This place is..."

She waved a hand trying to think of something that wasn't the usual standby.

"Fantastic...in the proper sense of the word."

[theunascended]

"Jaws. Dinosaurs." Daniel paused a beat for the inevitable next part, though his expression wasn't as entirely thrilled as it should have been. "Even Han Solo. Teal'c would be thrilled."

He just tried too hard not to think of Han Solo in relation to Vala. And really, it wasn't that hard. Not hard at all. Except it was.

[savedthatjaffa]

She silently mouthed Han Solo? and shook her head as if that was going to help with the utter freakish nature oozing from the very fabric of this reality. Han. Solo. And Jaws and dinosaurs. She winced, rubbing at her eyes for a moment.

"He would. I'm sure you'll be the first to tell him if he ever arrives." That was a hell of a thought. "Jackson..." Her voice went low as she thought. "What the hell happens if the entire team ends up here, stranded? Doesn't any of this break the space-time..." There was a word for it, but she couldn't think and finally just found a place to sit before she fell on her ass.

"No. You know what? Forget it. Han Solo, Jaws, Sentient islands, screwed up logic, and--" She had a headache already, but that was probably due to still not getting enough sleep. Maybe it was the arrival. Maybe it was nothing. "This is pretty screwed up and it's not going to chance. There. I've accepted that. And we're going to get out of here soon."

[theunascended]

"Carolyn..." Daniel took a breath and softened his tone. "No one remembers me leaving. Not Mitchell and not Vala and they're from after I got stuck here. I've been on the island a year and a half and to them, it was like I was never gone. Which means that we're all either from different realities or I end up going back, but lose my memories of the island. I'm not sure which."

He kind of hoped it was the latter.

"So I kind of think of this as an extended vacation." Except when the island decided to do something truly horrible to him.

[savedthatjaffa]

"Maybe you do lose your memories," Lam said almost defensively, shifting her weight and then tucking her knees to her chest. "It makes more sense than most things. Maybe you aren't gone more than a second, a minute, a day. Why something would do that to you, us, any of us, is beyond me, but maybe it...they...ithaven't any need for a motive. Maybe it's..."

The frown was back.

"I'm not that sort of scientist and if you've been here that long, I'm sure you've already thought it." I don't want to die here, cropped up a moment later and she stabbed that thought down. They'd get rescued. That was the way it worked. "The only problem I have with that vacation thing is the fact that I don't do vacations."

She glanced elsewhere, mostly at a bent palm tree.

"I don't even know how to begin...vacationing." Okay, she'd said that like someone who hadn't ever used the word in her entire life. Way to be a complete geek. Nice.