Yesterday Is A Mystery, Tomorrow Is History
Title: Yesterday Is A Mystery, Tomorrow Is History
Author: kirsty841
Rating: PG
Warning/Spoilers: It's Good To Be King, vague one for Moebius
Prompt(s): 100 Years from now
Summary: Jack and Sam take the puddle jumper for a test flight.
Jack winced as Sam placed the Tok’ra memory recall device on his temple and he scowled at her. She dialled it down to its lowest setting.
“Are you sure you’re ok with this, sir?” she asked tentatively. Their experiences with these things had been less than pleasant in the past and it had taken a little convincing to get him to agree to this.
He nodded. “No one else sees it, ok? Except the parts they absolutely need to.” They also knew these devices had a nasty habit of digging up their most repressed memories, and having his mind exposed to all the scientists at the SGC and Area 51 was not a prospect he relished.
“They’ll just get the edited version, sir,” she said with a smile as she fastened the final electrodes of the EEG machine to his forehead. “All done. Ready?”
“Yep,” he answered, settling in his seat and spreading his hands out on the controls of the puddle jumper, drumming his fingers. Her laptop screen sprang to life with the readings of his spiking brainwaves and the image projected by his mind of finding this ship on Maybourne’s planet. “You know, it’s kind of unnerving that you can see into my head.”
“I know,” she offered what she hoped was a reassuring smile, “Try not to think about it? It really is the best way we have of trying to figure out how this thing works.”
He sighed and closed his eyes, his fingers stilling on the controls as he concentrated on firing up the ship. On the screen she saw what was unmistakably the cockpit of an F-16, overlapped with a jumble of equations and diagrams she recognised from her days at the academy; the essentials of flight. The EEG reading spiked and the ship hummed to life. He guided it smoothly off the ground and she was fascinated by the information feeding back to her laptop. She wished she had someone else there to help her decipher the readings, make some sense of what she was seeing and figure out if they even had a hope in hell of developing their own version of the technology; but he’d insisted that she be the only other person on their test flight and that whatever the Tok’ra device dragged out of his head was vetted by him before she showed it to anyone else. That, she could understand.
“Anything in particular you want me to do?” he asked.
“Not yet, just keep flying around for a while sir.” She tapped away at her keyboard as he guided them over the Nevada desert. At first those same images were present on her screen; him running a constant check on their altitude, velocity, trajectory, but soon his mind began to wander a little and she almost laughed out loud when the most recent hockey scores flashed up on her screen. His patience was wearing thin and she could take a hint.
“Try activating the shield,” she said with a smile, and the EEG reading spiked again, but she didn’t see or feel anything different in the ship. “Did it work?” she asked her eyes scanning the control panels for any indication that it had.
“I think so,” he nodded. The display on her screen shifted and clearly showed the cloak working as well as their power reserves, the status of their weapons, air quality, everything they could possibly want to know about their flight.
“Sir, are you getting this feedback from the ship? In your head?” she asked, eyebrows shooting upwards with incredulity. He nodded and smiled. “How?” she asked, frantically searching her laptop screen for any clues.
He shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know, you tell me,” he gestured towards his head, “Isn’t that what all this is about?”
Her head buzzed with excitement as she considered all the possibilities perfecting this kind of technology could open up for them. They were a long way from it yet, but then a little less than a decade ago, she hadn’t thought humans from Earth would make it past Mars in her lifetime. Her attention focussed completely on the screen, she blocked out everything else as she tapped away at her keys, frantically typing down rough theories and ideas as they popped into her head. That was, until she felt a distinct change in the ship; the inertial dampeners obviously prevented the exertion of any kind of force within the ship, but she could’ve sworn the ship had just lurched.
Her eyes flew to her commanding officer when she heard a whispered curse from him.
“What happened?” she asked, her eyes widening at the guilty look he threw her way. “Sir?” she coaxed.
“Don’t worry, I can fix it,” he said hurriedly. The panicked look on his face wasn’t exactly reassuring.
“Fix what?” she asked again, but he didn’t answer; just focussed on the controls in front of him. When she looked at the display on her laptop, she could clearly see the image of the time device in his head. “Sir! Please tell me you didn’t activate that and send us back in time,” she groaned.
“Ok, I didn’t send us back in time.” He frowned, tapping at the controls in front of him; something obviously wasn’t working the way he wanted it to.
“Sir,” she demanded, her tone verging on disrespect and he winced.
“I might have...accidentally...sent us forward...a little bit,” he said sheepishly.
She narrowed her eyes, “How much is a little bit?”
“Oh you know,” he blew out a breath, “A hundred years or so.”
“Sir!” she exclaimed.
“I didn’t do it on purpose!” he protested and then turned away, muttering under his breath so she couldn’t quite make out the words.
She inhaled deeply and when her eyes found the laptop screen again she was surprised at what she found running through his head. Wasn’t he supposed to be fixing this? And instead he was thinking about...then it hit her.
“Oh my god, you were trying to go back!” she accused.
“Come on Carter, what could it hurt? The ship will be cloaked, no one will even know we’re there and I’ll get us back at exactly when we left so nobody is any the wiser.”
“No sir. We’ve already had this discussion,” she said firmly. They had; several times. “We can’t risk the repercussions of time travel just so you can watch a baseball game!”
“Not a baseball game Carter, this is the baseball game. The World Series!” he wheedled.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked and she couldn’t help but smile at his puzzled look. She tapped the display on her screen, “You sent us a hundred years in the wrong direction.”
“Oh...yeah,” his hangdog expression was almost comical. He sighed, then frowned and concentrated on the controls in front of him. “I suppose I ought to get us back?”
“Yes sir,” she nodded and he gave her a small smile. She felt the same shift in the ship again, the readings from his brain spiking and her radio sprung to life a few seconds later.
“General O’Neill? Colonel Carter? Do you read?”
“This is Colonel Carter.”
“Everything OK Colonel? We lost you for a minute there.”
“Yes everything’s fine. We just had a little...technical hitch,” Jack raised his eyebrows at her and smiled, a silent thank you for not ratting him out. “We’ll be landing in a few minutes. Carter out.” She dropped the radio back into its place. “You know, I think they need someone to test out the newest version of the 302s.” She grinned across the ship and his face lit up.
“Cool,” he answered, smile firmly plastered on his face as he landed the ship.
Author: kirsty841
Rating: PG
Warning/Spoilers: It's Good To Be King, vague one for Moebius
Prompt(s): 100 Years from now
Summary: Jack and Sam take the puddle jumper for a test flight.
Jack winced as Sam placed the Tok’ra memory recall device on his temple and he scowled at her. She dialled it down to its lowest setting.
“Are you sure you’re ok with this, sir?” she asked tentatively. Their experiences with these things had been less than pleasant in the past and it had taken a little convincing to get him to agree to this.
He nodded. “No one else sees it, ok? Except the parts they absolutely need to.” They also knew these devices had a nasty habit of digging up their most repressed memories, and having his mind exposed to all the scientists at the SGC and Area 51 was not a prospect he relished.
“They’ll just get the edited version, sir,” she said with a smile as she fastened the final electrodes of the EEG machine to his forehead. “All done. Ready?”
“Yep,” he answered, settling in his seat and spreading his hands out on the controls of the puddle jumper, drumming his fingers. Her laptop screen sprang to life with the readings of his spiking brainwaves and the image projected by his mind of finding this ship on Maybourne’s planet. “You know, it’s kind of unnerving that you can see into my head.”
“I know,” she offered what she hoped was a reassuring smile, “Try not to think about it? It really is the best way we have of trying to figure out how this thing works.”
He sighed and closed his eyes, his fingers stilling on the controls as he concentrated on firing up the ship. On the screen she saw what was unmistakably the cockpit of an F-16, overlapped with a jumble of equations and diagrams she recognised from her days at the academy; the essentials of flight. The EEG reading spiked and the ship hummed to life. He guided it smoothly off the ground and she was fascinated by the information feeding back to her laptop. She wished she had someone else there to help her decipher the readings, make some sense of what she was seeing and figure out if they even had a hope in hell of developing their own version of the technology; but he’d insisted that she be the only other person on their test flight and that whatever the Tok’ra device dragged out of his head was vetted by him before she showed it to anyone else. That, she could understand.
“Anything in particular you want me to do?” he asked.
“Not yet, just keep flying around for a while sir.” She tapped away at her keyboard as he guided them over the Nevada desert. At first those same images were present on her screen; him running a constant check on their altitude, velocity, trajectory, but soon his mind began to wander a little and she almost laughed out loud when the most recent hockey scores flashed up on her screen. His patience was wearing thin and she could take a hint.
“Try activating the shield,” she said with a smile, and the EEG reading spiked again, but she didn’t see or feel anything different in the ship. “Did it work?” she asked her eyes scanning the control panels for any indication that it had.
“I think so,” he nodded. The display on her screen shifted and clearly showed the cloak working as well as their power reserves, the status of their weapons, air quality, everything they could possibly want to know about their flight.
“Sir, are you getting this feedback from the ship? In your head?” she asked, eyebrows shooting upwards with incredulity. He nodded and smiled. “How?” she asked, frantically searching her laptop screen for any clues.
He shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know, you tell me,” he gestured towards his head, “Isn’t that what all this is about?”
Her head buzzed with excitement as she considered all the possibilities perfecting this kind of technology could open up for them. They were a long way from it yet, but then a little less than a decade ago, she hadn’t thought humans from Earth would make it past Mars in her lifetime. Her attention focussed completely on the screen, she blocked out everything else as she tapped away at her keys, frantically typing down rough theories and ideas as they popped into her head. That was, until she felt a distinct change in the ship; the inertial dampeners obviously prevented the exertion of any kind of force within the ship, but she could’ve sworn the ship had just lurched.
Her eyes flew to her commanding officer when she heard a whispered curse from him.
“What happened?” she asked, her eyes widening at the guilty look he threw her way. “Sir?” she coaxed.
“Don’t worry, I can fix it,” he said hurriedly. The panicked look on his face wasn’t exactly reassuring.
“Fix what?” she asked again, but he didn’t answer; just focussed on the controls in front of him. When she looked at the display on her laptop, she could clearly see the image of the time device in his head. “Sir! Please tell me you didn’t activate that and send us back in time,” she groaned.
“Ok, I didn’t send us back in time.” He frowned, tapping at the controls in front of him; something obviously wasn’t working the way he wanted it to.
“Sir,” she demanded, her tone verging on disrespect and he winced.
“I might have...accidentally...sent us forward...a little bit,” he said sheepishly.
She narrowed her eyes, “How much is a little bit?”
“Oh you know,” he blew out a breath, “A hundred years or so.”
“Sir!” she exclaimed.
“I didn’t do it on purpose!” he protested and then turned away, muttering under his breath so she couldn’t quite make out the words.
She inhaled deeply and when her eyes found the laptop screen again she was surprised at what she found running through his head. Wasn’t he supposed to be fixing this? And instead he was thinking about...then it hit her.
“Oh my god, you were trying to go back!” she accused.
“Come on Carter, what could it hurt? The ship will be cloaked, no one will even know we’re there and I’ll get us back at exactly when we left so nobody is any the wiser.”
“No sir. We’ve already had this discussion,” she said firmly. They had; several times. “We can’t risk the repercussions of time travel just so you can watch a baseball game!”
“Not a baseball game Carter, this is the baseball game. The World Series!” he wheedled.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked and she couldn’t help but smile at his puzzled look. She tapped the display on her screen, “You sent us a hundred years in the wrong direction.”
“Oh...yeah,” his hangdog expression was almost comical. He sighed, then frowned and concentrated on the controls in front of him. “I suppose I ought to get us back?”
“Yes sir,” she nodded and he gave her a small smile. She felt the same shift in the ship again, the readings from his brain spiking and her radio sprung to life a few seconds later.
“General O’Neill? Colonel Carter? Do you read?”
“This is Colonel Carter.”
“Everything OK Colonel? We lost you for a minute there.”
“Yes everything’s fine. We just had a little...technical hitch,” Jack raised his eyebrows at her and smiled, a silent thank you for not ratting him out. “We’ll be landing in a few minutes. Carter out.” She dropped the radio back into its place. “You know, I think they need someone to test out the newest version of the 302s.” She grinned across the ship and his face lit up.
“Cool,” he answered, smile firmly plastered on his face as he landed the ship.