[Jade] The Morning Dew
Who: Jade Weston
When: Wednesday, May 15th, about 8AM
Where: Jade's tent, around the settlement
Invited: Anybody
Status: Incomplete ( Read more... )
When: Wednesday, May 15th, about 8AM
Where: Jade's tent, around the settlement
Invited: Anybody
Status: Incomplete ( Read more... )
Teleporting past them would be likely to cause a general panic, though. Probably best if she didn't do that.
"Good morning, gentlemen," she said, stopping a comfortable distance away from the marines so they didn't feel threatened by her cup of coffee. Past them, nearer the gate, she could see a familiar-looking figure. There was nothing wrong with Jade's eyesight, and General O'Neill was quite a distinctive man in a crowd in any case.
She turned her attention back to the marines.
"My name is Dr. Jade Weston. I'm a physicist attached to Stargate Command. I came through from Tau last night, and I need to see General O'Neill about the team who went through the gate earlier."
She couldn't state it much clearer than that.
Reply
"Morning, m'am," one of the soldiers responded.
They stood at a relaxed attention, and listened to her with a respectful manner, another breaking off to speak to the General to let him know there was someone looking for him. Since coming to the Gamma Site, the military man has been a great deal more... accessible; certainly a function of the more casual nature of their surroundings?
The one that went to check with the General stopped close by the small gathering, came to attention, saluted, which received a somewhat less snappy one in return. As the younger man spoke, the General's head raised to look in the direction where Jade stood with the guards. It was only a minute more when his head nodded in acknowledgment and permission, complete with a small wave through.
"Doctor Weston," he offered in greeting as the woman was passed through. "What can I do for you? Sleep well?" Jack twisted around, briefly searching for something before he returned his attention forward, "You got your coffee, I see.. and we're fresh out of donuts."
Reply
"I must say that a bit of caffeine this morning has been a necessity. Sleep wasn't exactly restful, although I slept more last night than any night since the attack. Here, there's a sense of safety like we used to have on Tau." She grinned. "Even if the beds aren't as comfortable.
"As to why I'm here... I heard that a team went through the gate to Tau this morning. I wondered if you had included anybody familiar with the area in their number."
Reply
When she neared the gate area, a quick word with an SF told her where the man was -- not that his height and the characteristic cant of his head and tilt of his cap wasn't indication enough for her. She thanked the corporal and set off in a half-jog to join him.
As she neared, she noted the woman that stood with him, her grubby clothes at odds with her freshly cleaned appearance. Not a woman she readily recognized. She made the logical leap that the visitor might be a refugee. An easy, professional smile touched her lips and her jog turned into a crisp walk before she reached them.
"...familiar with the area in their number." She heard the tail end of the woman's sentence. Sam's head canted some. She glanced to Jack and came to stand quietly at his shoulder, so as not to immediately interrupt the conversation.
Her news, while pressing, didn't preclude courtesy.
Reply
At the comment regarding the beds, he at least looked apologetic. "No time to pluck the geese, sorry. Give us a little more warning, and there'll be candles on every nightstand."
Movement beyond the guards garnered the General's attention, and as the colonel could pick Jack out of a crowd, so could he discern the stride, the posture of the astrophysicist immediately. His gaze shifted slowly back to the refugee, his lips pressing tightly together as the conversation shifted, his shoulders pulling back ever so slightly. "Did we send anyone through who lived there? No, I did not. Gulf Tango One and Two went through.. and we're expecting radio contact in..." He made a show of checking his watch, pulling it up, lifting the face-flap, and then dropped his arm once more, "... ten minutes."
"Ah.. Carter.. and the news is..."
Jack returned his attention to Jade, however, and continued, "We didn't need to be familiar with the layout. We're looking for clues, and the team commanders are uniquely qualified to identify things not associated with the colony." If Jade was looking for hints under the surface, on the level of thought, there was nothing to 'see' or to read. The General was.. remarkably silent in that regard; while not immune, he was telepathically... resistant. He was patient, cordial, and was giving information that he didn't necessarily have to give, but it was a matter of assurances.
"Carter.. this is Dr. Jade Weston.. Dr. Weston, Lieutenant Colonel Sam Carter. She's from PXQ-TY65."
Reply
Like Jack, Sam's was a hard mind to read. The naquadah in her blood made her more resistant to mental scans -- telepathic or technological. It didn't much matter. All in all, it was a handy trait to have in your senior military people.
"News is good, sir," she told Jack, then. "We're good to go whenever you are."
Reply
Not that SG-1 were exactly ordinary, after everything they'd seen and done. Jade barely knew a fraction of it. She turned her attention back to General O'Neill.
"Sir, I know your teams are trained to observe and find useful information. I just thought they might save a lot of time..." she trailed off, looking at General O'Neill's stoney eyes.
"Not convinced, are you?"
Reply
"Great. We'll grab Daniel on the way. Getting out'll do him good. Little air.. little sunshine.. little space.. he'll be a new man."
He turned back to Jade then before he pressed his lips together and exhaled in a sigh. He'd been doing 'this' for years... decades. This wasn't a search and rescue, though it'd be nice if there were survivors. Just, by all accounts, what the Gamma site got was... what was left. What they needed were clues as to where the others had gone so Jack could go in and kick some ass and-- well, so they could kick some ass and bring those people home. And having a Tok'ra and a guy from the future in the leads? Personally, Jack thought he was being nice and treating Harkness well, in comparison to all those times when he wasn't ever believed...
"Doctor..." The general paused in his words before he shook his head. "No. Sorry." He studied the young woman before him and shifted his weight again, though it wasn't out of nervousness, obviously. There were times when he had to be 'scary', and other times... not so much. He started again, but pulled his sunglasses off in order to dig at his eyes, then replaced them. His tones softened, "Look. We're looking for clues. The sergeant gave us intel, and we're looking into it. We'll find the others, and if there are any clues, there are people on the ground that'll be able to find it." Jack had to have the confidence in his teams. "They're due to check in, so... if you'll excuse me, I'll be right back."
He nodded at his friend and teammate before taking a step back, and then turning to give his back to the women. It was to the minute that the large stargate began to shake, and the sigils began to light, one by one. ""Scheduled off-world activation!" was called out by one of the other men, his tones containing his excitement. It was an auspicious occasion.
As the event horizon formed with the whoosh, the radio message came. By then, Jack was by the radio operator, leaning over. "General O'Neill, Captain Harkness of GT1 reporting home. The 'gate is clear and secure." Jack nodded his acknowledgment, though Harkness couldn't see it. It was followed up with, "We read you, Captain. Good luck, and next communication is in eight hours, 16:00 hours." He paused a moment, his head canted, and he continued, "Oh... and I hope you all brought a change of socks. O'Neill out."
Reply
She couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for the physicist as the other woman's voice trailed off. She gave Jade a warm smile, then, to take the sting out of Jack's initial rejection. The smile grew only slightly as the General decided to be nice, and give the other woman at least a bit of an explanation.
As he retreated to make the initial check-in with Harkness, Sam canted her head some. "Teleportation specialist, huh?" She couldn't help but think of Ami. "We'll have to talk." She looked around briefly at the now-orderly operation that had been made of the night's confusion. "Take a couple of days to settle in and get your feet," she suggested. "Then, come see me. There's always work in the labs."
Reply
"Teleportation specialist, huh?" Carter said, bringing Jade's attention back to her. "We'll have to talk. Take a couple of days to settle in and get your feet, then come see me. There's always work in the labs."
Jade brightened considerably at the thought, and a grin appeared on her face.
"I'd like that," she said. "There's nothing worse than being stuck in a strange place and having nothing to do."
Reply
Indeed, it was a trait SG-1 shared, that restlessness that came with being put into situations beyond their control. To combat it, each of them tinkered in their own inimitable fashion... though it was usually Sam that was the one tinkering with the system controls. While Jack hovered and Daniel paced.
"Have you had breakfast?" she suggested. "The messhall should've had that underway about an hour ago. Just," here she flashed another grin, "avoid the cream-filled donuts. They haven't quite got the whole cream filling down just right, yet."
It wasn't said unkindly and it wasn't dismissal, per se. But there really wasn't a whole lot more the refugee could do here, and it would only frustrate both her and everyone else -- particularly Jack -- if she inadvertently got underfoot.
"Or, if you're really looking for something to do, that grey prefab with the corrugated roof is requisitions. Someone there should be beginning to organize a distribution of clean clothes and necessities to you and the others from Tau. You could wander over, offer to help. Tell them I sent you."
It was no guarantee they'd let her help, but it was a damn sight more likely with an SG-1 endorsement than without. It was up to Jade to sell it, though.
Reply
"Carter?" The two-syllabled name slowly rose in Minnesota-accented tones in askance. "We're good."
Jade was still there, and for a fleeting moment, he looked almost surprised, but it did pass. "Nothing? Um... teleportation, huh? I'm sure the Colonel, here, could probably put you to work." He was listening. "Did you have any of your stuff off-world? Shopping list? They're due for a check-in at sixteen-hundred, and if it's anything they could carry--" The chances were good the teams were going to hit the settlement. He glanced at Sam, his look lingering for a moment before he returned to the newly arrived. "Asgard... Ancient stuff? We'd pretty much take anything."
Reply
She paused, gathering up the threads of what she'd been talking about before launching into the next bit of information.
"So there's no interesting technology on Tau that I know of. Some fairly normal Earth stuff might have survived, and I guess to a certain point anything would be useful, but we had no alien artefacts that I knew about. My research notes were in my house - I didn't have a lab on Tau, we had no need for advanced theoretical physics when compared to simple farming and engineering problems, so I was helping with those instead. The house was on fire last time I saw it, but it was a steel file case, so... well. It's possible my notebooks have some useful data in them." She tapped the side of her head. "Most of it's in here of course, but I don't generally remember the precise figures involved in experiments."
She could remember the precise figures if she tried hard enough of course - especially with Ami, Adam and Lisa all available to help. Assuming Adam and Lisa would consent to help; that was something else she was going to have to attend to. Telling these people about her... it had made a rift between Ami and Adam, but Jade couldn't find it in her to think that it was the wrong thing to do. Especially having met them.
But not yet.
Reply
"That's... okay. Really. All I need to know is a 'yes' or 'no'. 'Yes', it's in my house, 'no', it probably won't be in any condition. Anything beyond that, and Colonel Carter will tell you, is a waste of time."
He looked at his watch again before he glanced up at the sun's progress in the morning sky, blinking behind his sunglasses. He dropped his gaze again to first Jade, "If you'll excuse me, I've got a mound of paperwork that I have to scribble someone else's name on to... It was a pleasure meeting you, ah.... Doctor... Weston. Hope you settle in quickly enough. Lots to do around here." Now, Jack turned his attention back to the blonde astrophysicist. "I'd like to be in the air by noon. If you see Daniel before I do..."
Reply
She watched as Jack's eyes glazed over and raised a hand slightly, in an effort to slide into the conversation. "I'll tell him," she assured Jack as to Daniel. "He shouldn't be that hard to find." Heck, he was probably with the refugees. "I'll catch up with you later."
As Jack beat a hasty retreat, Sam watched him go. She chuckled fondly. "Don't mind him," she suggested. "He always does that." At that point, she shrugged and gave Jade a smile. "We do have a few small pieces of Asgard technology that survived the meteor storm we had a few months back," Sam told the woman now. "But, most of what was at Nelys or the SGC was assigned to Alpha and Beta." What wasn't fitted onto the several ships, of course. All of which, land or space, were completely unavailable to them, now. "Regardless, the knowledge is still useful. And, who knows what we'll discover here on this world? There's some indication that the Goa'uld might have been here in the past." She didn't completely want to reveal the ruins to the general populace. But, if the woman had been researching Asgard technology, then she wasn't exactly out-of-the-loop. It wouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone with any sort of working relationship with the Stargate program that any of the colony sites had some sort of connection to the Goa'uld in the past. "If we do find anything, we're going to need people to help figure it out." And every extra, reliable pair of hands would help.
Reply
"Well," she said, "I'd better leave you to your business. Thank you for your time, General O'Neill, Colonel Carter." She turned to leave, then turned back, suddenly regretting not being entirely honest. Ami had trusted SG-1 and Dr Weir with her secret, after all. Jade glanced around, and saw that nobody was paying any attention to the small group. Obviously nobody wanted to be seen spying on the General.
"General O'Neill? There is one other thing." She took a deep breath. "Ami Jackson and I met years ago, back on Earth. She tells me she told you some things about her particular abilities." She waited long enough to see the confirmation in their eyes and faces and body language. They knew what she was talking about. "Well... you can draw your own conclusions."
She smiled. She'd always liked to be a little dramatic, if she could.
She closed her eyes, concentrated on her tent, and teleported herself away.
The only thing that was a real shame was that she wasn't going to get to see the looks on their faces. Perhaps it was childish - no, it was childish - but certain childish impulses demanded to be satisfied.
Reply
Leave a comment