On the Outside, Looking In (Season Eight)
The eighth in the On the Outside, Looking In series: episode-related drabbles from the perspective of an outsider or a minor character. There's one here for every episode from Season Eight. Rated PG.
Author's note: This quite literally fills the outsider POV square for my bingo card! Also, I apologize to Aelf in advance for one particular drabble. She'll know when she sees it. :)
New Order, part 1
Many Asgard thought it unnecessary for Thor to monitor the process of Halla's sun. As Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, however, Thor insisted that it was dangerous to ignore the risk that the Replicators might escape the doomed planet before the black hole's event horizon destroyed it.
The task was almost mindless, but like all Asgard, the millennia had taught Thor patience. He remained on his ship at a safe distance from the collapsing sun, waiting.
Then the damaged ship appeared on his sensors. Wondering why his Tau'ri friends had risked their lives, Thor moved swiftly to rescue them.
New Order, part 2
Fifth was confident that his decision was logical. Samantha Carter had first befriended, then betrayed him on their first meeting. Her capture was initially satisfying, but the failure to bend her properly to his will had frustrated his ultimate intentions.
He should have chosen this from the beginning, Fifth concluded. After all, wasn't he himself a product of the development of an advanced life form? It had been foolish to try to be satisfied with the organic version when the option to create an improved being was available.
"Don't be afraid," he advised the new human form Replicator, and smiled.
Lockdown
Lieutenant Karen Evans glanced ruefully at her tray. Once again, she would be eating in the infirmary. With the emergency tests that General O'Neill ordered, there was no time for a meal in the relatively civilized atmosphere of the commissary. She gave a mental shrug, knowing that the unexpected was par for the course in the SGC.
Half-turning, she shouldered her way out of the commissary, eyes on her brimming coffee cup. Then she looked up and saw three SFs, weapons aimed at her.
Training shook Karen out of paralysis. Dropping the tray, she raised her hands in surrender.
Zero Hour
Ba'al thoughtfully stroked his goatee as he listened to the audio transmissions that his Jaffa had salvaged.
"I've been unable to make radio contact with SG-1, going on nineteen minutes. Requesting backup and permission to begin searching."
A garbled mutter, then, more clearly: "Backup on the way."
"So," Ba'al purred, and the smile that slowly grew was one that the human would remember all too well. "Are you in charge of the Tau'ri now, O'Neill? It shall be interesting to see if your response to... stimuli has changed."
He straightened on his throne. One needn't possess hostages to utilize them.
Icon
There was a time, Soren thought vaguely, that he had been more interested in power and prestige than the holy cause. Those days were long past, and his utter conviction in his role as the redeemer pulsed through him, hot and strong.
He sneered at the weak-minded non-believers who hesitated to fight against the interlopers, raging against their feeble wills.
"You question your faith?" he shouted to their blank, shamed faces. "I will show you faith!"
Snatching a weapon from the slack hands of one of his followers, Soren stalked forward to confront the enemy, head held high.
Avatar
Dr. Carmichael anxiously monitored Teal'c's vitals, his worry increasing with every jolt of electricity the chair delivered to his patient.
They couldn't shut down the chair without the risk of neural damage, but if Teal'c's adrenaline continued to spike, heart failure was inevitable. Which would be worse?
He paid little attention to the others as they discussed how to end the game; his entire focus was on Teal'c, the IV, and the erratic medical readouts. The cumulative effect was going to kill him if this couldn't be stopped!
His request for a crash cart denied, Carmichael readied an emergency syringe.
Affinity
Krista felt a spike of pure terror as their captors ordered her and Teal'c's friend to stand by the wall.
"Daniel?" she quavered, unsure what he could say or do, but desperate for any kind of comfort.
His expression, as he looked at her, seemed an odd mix of annoyance and reassurance. "It's going to be okay," he promised once again, his mouth quirking into a bleak smile.
The sudden smell of ozone and a sharp crackling came only a fraction of an instant before blinding, agonizing pain proved him a liar and sent Krista into a spiral of unconsciousness.
Covenant
Julia knew how to smile and grit her teeth through a report that she knew was nonsense. She'd made an agreement two years ago, and no matter how much she hated the gag order, she would honor her word.
So, plastic grin in place, she nattered for the cameras, knowing that Colson was closer to the truth than anyone might imagine. She kept up a silent mantra: Pulitzer Prize. They promised they'd call me first.
When her sources spotted SGC members outside of Colson Industries, though, Julia's patience snapped. Scrabbling through her private phonebook, she called Carter to demand answers.
Sacrifices
Bra'tac remembered how Teal'c had celebrated two weddings with Drey'auc: the first when Apophis formally gifted her to Teal'c as a reward, and the second when the two had indulged in the guilty pleasure of following Jaffa tradition rather than Goa'uld whim. The first wedding had been blessed by Apophis himself, and was thus tainted; the second, conducted in secret, had been a true joining of spirit and body, but was marred by the need for concealment.
This wedding was different: public, proud, joyous.
"May you love and fight like warriors - just not with each other," he declared, and laughed.
Endgame
Zarin reined in her irritation as the rebel Jaffa postured and threatened. Aware of the sometimes painful history between their peoples, she exercised patience even when one of them tried to choke her.
She stoutly denied their accusations of poisoning. The symbiote poison had been a desperate ploy that had proved dangerously impractical. None would risk it again! And surely, even if such methods were being considered, she would be informed!
Then came the sound of rocket fire, and the air suddenly choked in her lungs. Dying, Zarin realized that the Tok'ra might be innocent, but the killing was real.
Gemini
She stood impassively, apparently docile, but her mind raced click click click.
Carter was easy to handle; she need only look at herself, in the cold light of Replicator sensibilities, and choose the right weakness. Teal'c was more risky, for he could be ruthless when needed; but there, too, she could reach into her memories of Samantha and say just enough to make the Jaffa hesitate before shooting.
But now, the weapon that could annihilate her was in the hands of a female sergeant she did not know and thus could not manipulate. Would her plans fail with her destruction?
Prometheus Unbound
George tilted his head to one side, a smile curling his mouth. He could hear O'Neill and Jackson bickering with each other from halfway down the hall.
He felt a little guilty usurping O'Neill's authority like this, but not much. He knew he was fulfilling an important duty at Homeworld Security, but at times, it seemed that the dangers and monsters lying in wait through the Stargate were peanuts compared to the sharks that circled in Washington.
This was a rare chance for him to stretch his legs - metaphorically, anyway - and George Hammond planned to make the most of it.
It's Good to be King
When Trelak recognized the rebels, his eyes gleamed with feral joy. Teal'c, the most infamous of shol'va, at his mercy! He savored the pleasure this capture would give Lord Ares, knowing that he would be rewarded as well.
Ignoring the insignificant Tau'ri who accompanied the shol'va, Trelak took great pleasure in taunting Teal'c, both in word and in deed. He dismissed Teal'c's idle, toothless threats of revenge. What could the shol'va do now, helpless and weak?
When Teal'c fought him strength for strength and drove a blade into his belly, it was too late for Trelak to learn the answer.
Full Alert
After years of open hostility between them, it was strange to regard O'Neill as an ally. But Hammond was gone now, promoted to Washington, and the star on O'Neill's shoulder seemed to have mellowed him.
Of course, Chekov thought grimly, their alliance was not based on friendship, but the desperate need to avert disaster. Russia. The United States. Kinsey. Kiselov. Did human or Goa'uld hold a finger on the button to ignite nuclear war?
The call to Mikailhov wasn't enough. Chekov, unashamed to beg, pleaded with O'Neill to wait.
O'Neill respected him enough to pause... and the planet was saved.
Citizen Joe
Charlene's eyes widened at the sight of the stiff officer in full dress uniform. They stretched even further when Joe introduced him by name.
General Jack O'Neill? It couldn't be!
The man removed his hat to reveal graying hair. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am," he said gravely.
She shook his hand mechanically, his mind reeling. If Jack O'Neill actually existed - if all of Joe's visions had been true -
She sat down on the bench, feeling numb. As O'Neill began to speak and explain, she wondered vaguely if there was any way she and Joe could ask for reparations.
Reckoning, part 1
Click.
The biological beings had intruded and interfered and thus required elimination.
Knowledge, carried by billions of individual bits working seamlessly as one, carried the Replicators forward. These entities possessed weapons that were capable of damaging individual segments. This mattered little, so long that the whole achieved its goals.
But even as the Replicators advanced, their programming signaled a warning: while biological beings were ordinarily identical and equally dispensable, one of these carried a specific signature, unique and in demand.
Click. Click. Identification verified and sent.
Click. Click. Query?
Click. Click. Instructions.
The Replicator transporter beam carried Daniel Jackson away.
Reckoning, part 2
The struggle to keep Selmac's consciousness from fading away completely sapped every bit of Jacob's self control. He had a temper at the best of times, he knew, but now...
"Selmac can't work like this," he gritted at Sam, turning his back on Ba'al's smirking countenance. "And neither can I!"
Yes, you can, Selmac murmured in his mind. The sense of the voice was weak, but it still carried that edge of sardonic humor that Jacob had known since first meeting Saroosh, so many years ago. We both can.
We have to, Jacob acknowledged wearily, and got back to work.
Threads
Anubis, in the persona of Jim, was enjoying himself. The Ancients and their stodgy policy of non-interference always bored him, but this admittedly petty payback was immensely satisfying, especially when Jackson and Oma were both helpless to oppose him.
As always, Oma's refusal to take action gave him all the leeway he needed. Even if that lower plane of existence was small and insignificant, having an entire dimension to mold in his own image more than made up for it.
Jackson tried to lunge at him; Anubis laughed in his face. Then Oma suddenly straightened, and Anubis remembered fear.
Moebius, part 1
Major Davis didn't understand why Jackson and Carter were so important, but he obediently followed orders.
Get Daniel Jackson, they'd said.
Find Samantha Carter, they'd said.
He knew their names and a few possibilities regarding rank, doctorates, and skills. No one suggested Daniel Jackson might be working in a dinky adult education center teaching ESL or that Samantha Carter, far from being in the military, would hold a very minor position in aerospace research.
If anyone had asked his opinion, Davis would've said that they were both pathetic losers who couldn't possibly be worth anyone's time. But no one asked.
Moebius, part 2
When Katep saw the three ghosts walk across the sands, he had to fight the impulse to flee. Daniel had said that strangers might appear who seemed to mirror himself and the fallen, but Katep had not imagined they would look so like, yet unlike the friends he had known and mourned.
Yet there they were: O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c. Their gait was changed, their expressions unfamliar, but their faces remained the same.
No second Daniel was with them. Perhaps a spirit could not appear in the guise of one who still lived?
Mastering his fears, Katep hurried to greet them.
Author's note: This quite literally fills the outsider POV square for my bingo card! Also, I apologize to Aelf in advance for one particular drabble. She'll know when she sees it. :)
New Order, part 1
Many Asgard thought it unnecessary for Thor to monitor the process of Halla's sun. As Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, however, Thor insisted that it was dangerous to ignore the risk that the Replicators might escape the doomed planet before the black hole's event horizon destroyed it.
The task was almost mindless, but like all Asgard, the millennia had taught Thor patience. He remained on his ship at a safe distance from the collapsing sun, waiting.
Then the damaged ship appeared on his sensors. Wondering why his Tau'ri friends had risked their lives, Thor moved swiftly to rescue them.
New Order, part 2
Fifth was confident that his decision was logical. Samantha Carter had first befriended, then betrayed him on their first meeting. Her capture was initially satisfying, but the failure to bend her properly to his will had frustrated his ultimate intentions.
He should have chosen this from the beginning, Fifth concluded. After all, wasn't he himself a product of the development of an advanced life form? It had been foolish to try to be satisfied with the organic version when the option to create an improved being was available.
"Don't be afraid," he advised the new human form Replicator, and smiled.
Lockdown
Lieutenant Karen Evans glanced ruefully at her tray. Once again, she would be eating in the infirmary. With the emergency tests that General O'Neill ordered, there was no time for a meal in the relatively civilized atmosphere of the commissary. She gave a mental shrug, knowing that the unexpected was par for the course in the SGC.
Half-turning, she shouldered her way out of the commissary, eyes on her brimming coffee cup. Then she looked up and saw three SFs, weapons aimed at her.
Training shook Karen out of paralysis. Dropping the tray, she raised her hands in surrender.
Zero Hour
Ba'al thoughtfully stroked his goatee as he listened to the audio transmissions that his Jaffa had salvaged.
"I've been unable to make radio contact with SG-1, going on nineteen minutes. Requesting backup and permission to begin searching."
A garbled mutter, then, more clearly: "Backup on the way."
"So," Ba'al purred, and the smile that slowly grew was one that the human would remember all too well. "Are you in charge of the Tau'ri now, O'Neill? It shall be interesting to see if your response to... stimuli has changed."
He straightened on his throne. One needn't possess hostages to utilize them.
Icon
There was a time, Soren thought vaguely, that he had been more interested in power and prestige than the holy cause. Those days were long past, and his utter conviction in his role as the redeemer pulsed through him, hot and strong.
He sneered at the weak-minded non-believers who hesitated to fight against the interlopers, raging against their feeble wills.
"You question your faith?" he shouted to their blank, shamed faces. "I will show you faith!"
Snatching a weapon from the slack hands of one of his followers, Soren stalked forward to confront the enemy, head held high.
Avatar
Dr. Carmichael anxiously monitored Teal'c's vitals, his worry increasing with every jolt of electricity the chair delivered to his patient.
They couldn't shut down the chair without the risk of neural damage, but if Teal'c's adrenaline continued to spike, heart failure was inevitable. Which would be worse?
He paid little attention to the others as they discussed how to end the game; his entire focus was on Teal'c, the IV, and the erratic medical readouts. The cumulative effect was going to kill him if this couldn't be stopped!
His request for a crash cart denied, Carmichael readied an emergency syringe.
Affinity
Krista felt a spike of pure terror as their captors ordered her and Teal'c's friend to stand by the wall.
"Daniel?" she quavered, unsure what he could say or do, but desperate for any kind of comfort.
His expression, as he looked at her, seemed an odd mix of annoyance and reassurance. "It's going to be okay," he promised once again, his mouth quirking into a bleak smile.
The sudden smell of ozone and a sharp crackling came only a fraction of an instant before blinding, agonizing pain proved him a liar and sent Krista into a spiral of unconsciousness.
Covenant
Julia knew how to smile and grit her teeth through a report that she knew was nonsense. She'd made an agreement two years ago, and no matter how much she hated the gag order, she would honor her word.
So, plastic grin in place, she nattered for the cameras, knowing that Colson was closer to the truth than anyone might imagine. She kept up a silent mantra: Pulitzer Prize. They promised they'd call me first.
When her sources spotted SGC members outside of Colson Industries, though, Julia's patience snapped. Scrabbling through her private phonebook, she called Carter to demand answers.
Sacrifices
Bra'tac remembered how Teal'c had celebrated two weddings with Drey'auc: the first when Apophis formally gifted her to Teal'c as a reward, and the second when the two had indulged in the guilty pleasure of following Jaffa tradition rather than Goa'uld whim. The first wedding had been blessed by Apophis himself, and was thus tainted; the second, conducted in secret, had been a true joining of spirit and body, but was marred by the need for concealment.
This wedding was different: public, proud, joyous.
"May you love and fight like warriors - just not with each other," he declared, and laughed.
Endgame
Zarin reined in her irritation as the rebel Jaffa postured and threatened. Aware of the sometimes painful history between their peoples, she exercised patience even when one of them tried to choke her.
She stoutly denied their accusations of poisoning. The symbiote poison had been a desperate ploy that had proved dangerously impractical. None would risk it again! And surely, even if such methods were being considered, she would be informed!
Then came the sound of rocket fire, and the air suddenly choked in her lungs. Dying, Zarin realized that the Tok'ra might be innocent, but the killing was real.
Gemini
She stood impassively, apparently docile, but her mind raced click click click.
Carter was easy to handle; she need only look at herself, in the cold light of Replicator sensibilities, and choose the right weakness. Teal'c was more risky, for he could be ruthless when needed; but there, too, she could reach into her memories of Samantha and say just enough to make the Jaffa hesitate before shooting.
But now, the weapon that could annihilate her was in the hands of a female sergeant she did not know and thus could not manipulate. Would her plans fail with her destruction?
Prometheus Unbound
George tilted his head to one side, a smile curling his mouth. He could hear O'Neill and Jackson bickering with each other from halfway down the hall.
He felt a little guilty usurping O'Neill's authority like this, but not much. He knew he was fulfilling an important duty at Homeworld Security, but at times, it seemed that the dangers and monsters lying in wait through the Stargate were peanuts compared to the sharks that circled in Washington.
This was a rare chance for him to stretch his legs - metaphorically, anyway - and George Hammond planned to make the most of it.
It's Good to be King
When Trelak recognized the rebels, his eyes gleamed with feral joy. Teal'c, the most infamous of shol'va, at his mercy! He savored the pleasure this capture would give Lord Ares, knowing that he would be rewarded as well.
Ignoring the insignificant Tau'ri who accompanied the shol'va, Trelak took great pleasure in taunting Teal'c, both in word and in deed. He dismissed Teal'c's idle, toothless threats of revenge. What could the shol'va do now, helpless and weak?
When Teal'c fought him strength for strength and drove a blade into his belly, it was too late for Trelak to learn the answer.
Full Alert
After years of open hostility between them, it was strange to regard O'Neill as an ally. But Hammond was gone now, promoted to Washington, and the star on O'Neill's shoulder seemed to have mellowed him.
Of course, Chekov thought grimly, their alliance was not based on friendship, but the desperate need to avert disaster. Russia. The United States. Kinsey. Kiselov. Did human or Goa'uld hold a finger on the button to ignite nuclear war?
The call to Mikailhov wasn't enough. Chekov, unashamed to beg, pleaded with O'Neill to wait.
O'Neill respected him enough to pause... and the planet was saved.
Citizen Joe
Charlene's eyes widened at the sight of the stiff officer in full dress uniform. They stretched even further when Joe introduced him by name.
General Jack O'Neill? It couldn't be!
The man removed his hat to reveal graying hair. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am," he said gravely.
She shook his hand mechanically, his mind reeling. If Jack O'Neill actually existed - if all of Joe's visions had been true -
She sat down on the bench, feeling numb. As O'Neill began to speak and explain, she wondered vaguely if there was any way she and Joe could ask for reparations.
Reckoning, part 1
Click.
The biological beings had intruded and interfered and thus required elimination.
Knowledge, carried by billions of individual bits working seamlessly as one, carried the Replicators forward. These entities possessed weapons that were capable of damaging individual segments. This mattered little, so long that the whole achieved its goals.
But even as the Replicators advanced, their programming signaled a warning: while biological beings were ordinarily identical and equally dispensable, one of these carried a specific signature, unique and in demand.
Click. Click. Identification verified and sent.
Click. Click. Query?
Click. Click. Instructions.
The Replicator transporter beam carried Daniel Jackson away.
Reckoning, part 2
The struggle to keep Selmac's consciousness from fading away completely sapped every bit of Jacob's self control. He had a temper at the best of times, he knew, but now...
"Selmac can't work like this," he gritted at Sam, turning his back on Ba'al's smirking countenance. "And neither can I!"
Yes, you can, Selmac murmured in his mind. The sense of the voice was weak, but it still carried that edge of sardonic humor that Jacob had known since first meeting Saroosh, so many years ago. We both can.
We have to, Jacob acknowledged wearily, and got back to work.
Threads
Anubis, in the persona of Jim, was enjoying himself. The Ancients and their stodgy policy of non-interference always bored him, but this admittedly petty payback was immensely satisfying, especially when Jackson and Oma were both helpless to oppose him.
As always, Oma's refusal to take action gave him all the leeway he needed. Even if that lower plane of existence was small and insignificant, having an entire dimension to mold in his own image more than made up for it.
Jackson tried to lunge at him; Anubis laughed in his face. Then Oma suddenly straightened, and Anubis remembered fear.
Moebius, part 1
Major Davis didn't understand why Jackson and Carter were so important, but he obediently followed orders.
Get Daniel Jackson, they'd said.
Find Samantha Carter, they'd said.
He knew their names and a few possibilities regarding rank, doctorates, and skills. No one suggested Daniel Jackson might be working in a dinky adult education center teaching ESL or that Samantha Carter, far from being in the military, would hold a very minor position in aerospace research.
If anyone had asked his opinion, Davis would've said that they were both pathetic losers who couldn't possibly be worth anyone's time. But no one asked.
Moebius, part 2
When Katep saw the three ghosts walk across the sands, he had to fight the impulse to flee. Daniel had said that strangers might appear who seemed to mirror himself and the fallen, but Katep had not imagined they would look so like, yet unlike the friends he had known and mourned.
Yet there they were: O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c. Their gait was changed, their expressions unfamliar, but their faces remained the same.
No second Daniel was with them. Perhaps a spirit could not appear in the guise of one who still lived?
Mastering his fears, Katep hurried to greet them.