Ficlet request: No Place Like Home (G)
I restarted this ficlet eight times. Fluffy, angsty, funny - they all flopped. I tried it from Daniel's POV and Selmac's and nothing worked. Finally I gave up and let Sam take over - and it still ended up going in a completely unexpected direction! I can only hope you like this, Redbyrd. uniquinum's might have to wait a little longer.
redbyrd_sgfic asked for Jacob/Selmac and Daniel, on the teltak during the mission to try and rescue Jack and Teal'c before they freeze to death in the hybrid glider. Spoilers, obviously, for Tangent. Rated G. Word count: ~770
No Place Like Home
Sam carefully closed the last panel of crystals, heaving a sigh that was part relief and part worry. After the nearly disastrous breakdown and the hasty jury-rigging of the engine just to get out of what her father called "the worst possible neighborhood" in space, she'd ducked back into the engine room to double-check that the crystals wouldn't fail again.
Everything seemed all right for now, but she couldn't stop the clock that was ticking down in her head, measuring the last breaths of oxygen that Teal'c and the colonel still had. The thought of not quite getting to them in time had her close to panic. They couldn't lose half the team to the petty, spiteful revenge of Apophis!
Dad will get us there in time, she told herself firmly. Or Selmac will. Between the two of them, we'll get there.
She rose to her feet and hurried back down the tiny corridor to join the others. The sound of their voices made her stop and listen.
"...and powerful Oz?"
It was Selmac talking with her father's voice.
"Jacob can't explain it?" Daniel sounded uncomfortable.
"He refuses to do so," Selmac answered calmly. "If anything, I would say he is somewhat - embarrassed."
Sam clapped a hand over her mouth to stop the snickers from escaping, and peeked around the edge of the door.
Her father - with Selmac currently running the show - sat at ease in the pilot's chair, looking up at a clearly flustered Daniel. Apparently, her teammate had never quite imagined that part of his duties as a member of SG-1 would be trying to explain Dorothy, Toto, and the Wicked Witch of the West to an alien symbiote living inside the head of a former Air Force general.
Daniel started to explain, his hands sketching patterns in the air. It was the first time since they'd boarded that he'd actually turned fully away from the viewport, and Sam suddenly found herself admiring the sneaky tag-team of Jacob and Selmac, who were doing a splendid job of distracting Daniel from his worry over the colonel and Teal'c.
"There are two versions, really," Daniel was saying. "L. Frank Baum wrote a series of fourteen or fifteen children's books about eighty years ago. The first book in the series was made into a classic children's movie. Most of the quotes and references that you'll hear - especially those from Jack - are actually from the movie, not the books."
"I never read them," Sam's father admitted, talking in his own voice now. "My wife -" He stopped, then added more slowly, "My wife read them to Sam and Mark when they were little, I think. I don't know if she read them the whole series, though."
"As a movie, The Wizard of Oz is a metaphor for finding happiness and contentment with one's own talents and surroundings," Daniel continued after a tactful pause. "The books were intended to be escapist fantasy - innocence and goodness triumphing over evil."
"Who is Oz, then?" Selmac asked as Jacob ceded the driver's seat again.
Daniel hesitated, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully. "In both the movie and the book," he said at last, "the Wizard of Oz is a man who is no more powerful than any other human being. He knows illusion, though, and he gives the appearance of having power."
"That sounds quite familiar," Selmac said dryly. "Jacob has said that your more modern literature is not steeped in the mythology generated by the Goa'uld, but your description of Oz suggests otherwise."
"Oh, I don't know," Daniel said with forced lightness, and Sam, still standing by the doorway, winced at the raw pain that she could see reflected in his eyes. "In the Oz books, at least, everyone gets to go home."
A sudden silence fell over the teltak at the leaden message in Daniel's words. Too many people, in their battle against the Goa'uld, never made it home.
And in less than three hours, they would find out if two more would need to be added to that bleak list.
"Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c are coming home, Daniel." Sam said firmly, her voice shattering the heavy atmosphere. "We're going to bring them home."
Daniel closed his eyes for a long moment, then opened them again. "Right," he answered finally, and somehow dredged up a smile. "Even if we have to click our heels three times to do it."
redbyrd_sgfic asked for Jacob/Selmac and Daniel, on the teltak during the mission to try and rescue Jack and Teal'c before they freeze to death in the hybrid glider. Spoilers, obviously, for Tangent. Rated G. Word count: ~770
No Place Like Home
Sam carefully closed the last panel of crystals, heaving a sigh that was part relief and part worry. After the nearly disastrous breakdown and the hasty jury-rigging of the engine just to get out of what her father called "the worst possible neighborhood" in space, she'd ducked back into the engine room to double-check that the crystals wouldn't fail again.
Everything seemed all right for now, but she couldn't stop the clock that was ticking down in her head, measuring the last breaths of oxygen that Teal'c and the colonel still had. The thought of not quite getting to them in time had her close to panic. They couldn't lose half the team to the petty, spiteful revenge of Apophis!
Dad will get us there in time, she told herself firmly. Or Selmac will. Between the two of them, we'll get there.
She rose to her feet and hurried back down the tiny corridor to join the others. The sound of their voices made her stop and listen.
"...and powerful Oz?"
It was Selmac talking with her father's voice.
"Jacob can't explain it?" Daniel sounded uncomfortable.
"He refuses to do so," Selmac answered calmly. "If anything, I would say he is somewhat - embarrassed."
Sam clapped a hand over her mouth to stop the snickers from escaping, and peeked around the edge of the door.
Her father - with Selmac currently running the show - sat at ease in the pilot's chair, looking up at a clearly flustered Daniel. Apparently, her teammate had never quite imagined that part of his duties as a member of SG-1 would be trying to explain Dorothy, Toto, and the Wicked Witch of the West to an alien symbiote living inside the head of a former Air Force general.
Daniel started to explain, his hands sketching patterns in the air. It was the first time since they'd boarded that he'd actually turned fully away from the viewport, and Sam suddenly found herself admiring the sneaky tag-team of Jacob and Selmac, who were doing a splendid job of distracting Daniel from his worry over the colonel and Teal'c.
"There are two versions, really," Daniel was saying. "L. Frank Baum wrote a series of fourteen or fifteen children's books about eighty years ago. The first book in the series was made into a classic children's movie. Most of the quotes and references that you'll hear - especially those from Jack - are actually from the movie, not the books."
"I never read them," Sam's father admitted, talking in his own voice now. "My wife -" He stopped, then added more slowly, "My wife read them to Sam and Mark when they were little, I think. I don't know if she read them the whole series, though."
"As a movie, The Wizard of Oz is a metaphor for finding happiness and contentment with one's own talents and surroundings," Daniel continued after a tactful pause. "The books were intended to be escapist fantasy - innocence and goodness triumphing over evil."
"Who is Oz, then?" Selmac asked as Jacob ceded the driver's seat again.
Daniel hesitated, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully. "In both the movie and the book," he said at last, "the Wizard of Oz is a man who is no more powerful than any other human being. He knows illusion, though, and he gives the appearance of having power."
"That sounds quite familiar," Selmac said dryly. "Jacob has said that your more modern literature is not steeped in the mythology generated by the Goa'uld, but your description of Oz suggests otherwise."
"Oh, I don't know," Daniel said with forced lightness, and Sam, still standing by the doorway, winced at the raw pain that she could see reflected in his eyes. "In the Oz books, at least, everyone gets to go home."
A sudden silence fell over the teltak at the leaden message in Daniel's words. Too many people, in their battle against the Goa'uld, never made it home.
And in less than three hours, they would find out if two more would need to be added to that bleak list.
"Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c are coming home, Daniel." Sam said firmly, her voice shattering the heavy atmosphere. "We're going to bring them home."
Daniel closed his eyes for a long moment, then opened them again. "Right," he answered finally, and somehow dredged up a smile. "Even if we have to click our heels three times to do it."