Stargate -- Kriegsspiel -- Merrels -- Four
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Four
Daniel had been past SG-2’s shared office, up to the gym, back down to the commissary, and finally found himself in the control room, where the techs pretended they weren’t playing video games until they realized it was him and not someone less permissive.
“Walter, do you know where Major Griff is? Or anyone else from SG-2,” he added. “I’m working on something from a mission they went on, and I’ve got some questions.”
“Oh, didn’t you hear?” Walter said. “SG-2 was shipped out.”
“What? Where? When did this happen?”
“A few days ago,” one of the other techs-Jones, the name badge said-said. “I think they were sent to Iraq. With all their S&R experience, someone thought it would be a good idea to send them overseas to train the troops.”
Daniel turned to Walter. “Do you know who ordered this?”
“General Landry was told to choose a team to send,” he replied. “The order came from the IOA, to put the purely military teams to use other places. They shouldn’t be gone more than a few weeks.”
“If they don’t get killed over there,” Daniel said darkly. “Thanks, guys.” Walter and Jones nodded and went back to their games. Daniel walked up the stairs to the briefing room and knocked on the door to General Landry’s office.
Daniel opened the door at the request to ‘come in’. Looking up, Landry put down his pen, and offered a weak smile. “Dr. Jackson, what can I do for you?” Landry said, folding his hands.
Daniel stepped inside and closed the door, ignoring Landry’s indication that he should sit. “I’ve heard SG-2 has been transferred overseas,” he said without preamble.
“Yes, along with SG-5 and SG-8.”
“I thought the ‘gate shutdown was temporary,” Daniel said, leaning, straight-armed, on the back of the nearest chair. “Why are people being transferred?”
“Only the military personnel,” Landry said. Daniel didn’t find that the slightest bit reassuring. “The scientific personnel have plenty of work with the shutdown, but the purely military personnel have been twiddling their thumbs. The IOA suggested that they could be loaned to other operations, and the Joint Chiefs jumped on the idea. They see our teams as specialized, highly trained personnel who can be used to train the troops in our military operations in the Middle East, both in combat techniques and cultural understanding. I’ve been told that when the Program is reactivated, all of our personnel will be returned.”
“But they’re assuming it’s going to be more like months until we reopen, rather than weeks,” Daniel said. “That’s not the impression we were given when the announcement was first made.”
“I know you and General O’Neill are good friends, I’m sure he’s told you that the negotiations are going rather poorly,” Landry said. Daniel looked at him sharply, but the words seemed to be straightforward.
“Why don’t we send some of our negotiators,” Daniel said. “SG-9 has arranged peace treaties that ended interplanetary wars. I’m sure they’d be able to help.”
“I’m not sure it would,” Landry said with a sigh. “Think of how it would look, Dr. Jackson. We’d come across as self-serving, and it would reflect badly on the President’s efforts. For right now, the best thing for us to do is to keep a low profile and try to make ourselves look harmless and useful.”
Daniel snorted in disbelief. “Thank you for your time, sir,” he said. He left the office, just barely managing to resist the urge to slam the door on his way out.
*
“Talk to me about something. Anything but people being transferred.”
“Daniel.” Jack sighed, tucking the phone tighter between his chin and shoulder and crossing his hands behind his head. He stared up at the bedroom ceiling, absently noticing the way passing cars changed the pattern of strips of light on his ceiling.
“I mean it, Jack,” Daniel said, and Jack heard a slamming sound that was probably Daniel emphatically closing a book. “I’m just so furious all the time I can barely see straight.”
“Apparently, the First Lady has this amazing new personal trainer.”
Daniel snorted. “Should have known you’d take it down to celebrity gossip, the lowest common denominator,” he said, but Jack could tell he was smiling a little.
“Hey, I could be talking about reality television.”
“True. But I’ve given up watching the news. Too depressing. And I’ve been working, anyway.”
“I distinctly remember someone saying ‘fuck the backlog’ when all this started,” Jack said, and then winced. Wrong thing to say. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s alright,” Daniel said, and Jack could picture him: taking off his glasses with his free hand and rubbing the bridge of his nose, his frown throwing the creases in his forehead into stark relief. The years had been kinder to him than they had to Jack, but when he was tired or upset Daniel almost looked his age. “It’s hard to get away from.”
“Well, there’s some good news,” Jack said cautiously. “The committee’s decided it might be okay to reopen the Program, but they’re debating moving the base to a more neutral location. They can’t decide where to put it, though.”
Daniel huffed a breath. “There’s nowhere on Earth that’s neutral,” he said. “Not even either of the poles. And I’m not commuting back and forth to the Moon every day.”
Jack couldn’t help but laugh at that one, and he could hear Daniel’s soft chuckle in response. “I’ll be sure to suggest that to the President. The IOA’s sent a representative, I’m not sure if you’ve heard. It’s helped a little-she got us to this point-but it’s slow-going.”
“And every day I come to work more people are gone. They’re getting rid of the most recent batch of scientific contractors, offering them compensation for cutting their contracts short or sending them to other positions. Landry says the military wants to get its money’s worth out of them,” he added dismissively.
“There’s a certain rationale to that…” Jack suggested, but even he knew it was weak. If the Program was functioning, they would have plenty of work to do; it was why they’d been hired in the first place. “Daniel, what do you want me to do?”
“Nothing,” Daniel said, and he sounded about a hundred years old. It made Jack’s heart hurt. “There’s nothing more you can do. You’re there, you’re a voice for our interests, it’ll have to be enough.”
“I wish I could do more. You know that, right?”
“Of course I do.”
“I thought…at first, I thought this was the right thing to do, I did,” he said softly. He could hear Daniel’s breath over the phone. He sounded a little stuffy, but the soft puffs were as comforting as a warm blanket. “But now I’m not sure. We’re not accomplishing anything here, and you guys could be doing so much more out there.”
“Too late now. It’s been months. Sometimes it feels like we’ll never reopen.”
“You will,” Jack said firmly, gripping his fingers into his hair. He’d thought that the opportunity for Daniel to say ‘I told you so’ would cheer him up, but clearly it wasn’t. “You’ll be out there again. I promise. Now go take an antihistamine and go to bed. It’s past your bedtime, Dr. Jackson.”
“Then it’s definitely past yours, General,” Daniel said, but he sounded a little calmer than he had when Jack had picked up the phone. “Goodnight, Jack.”
“Night, Danny.”
*
Daniel was sitting in the commissary with Sam and Mitchell when Dr. Lam stomped in, heading toward the coffee pot like a heat-seeking missile. Daniel looked at Mitchell and raised his eyebrows, and the other man shrugged.
“Carolyn.” Mitchell coughed awkwardly, but it got the doctor’s attention as she stomped back towards the door. “You alright?”
“They’re taking my staff,” she said, viciously pulling over a chair and sitting down. Daniel was glad he didn’t have a physical scheduled with the woman anytime soon.
“I thought they were only transferring the ‘gate teams,” Sam said, but Dr. Lam shook her head.
“Someone decided that I didn’t need as many nurses and doctors while everyone here is grounded,” Lam replied. “I only just found out. They’re transferring about half of my nursing staff and all of the doctors who aren’t civilians. It’s just going to be me and Dr. Warner by the end of the week.”
“What happens when they reopen the ‘gate?” Daniel asked.
“Does that look like it’s going to be happening anytime soon?” Lam said. Daniel knew the woman had a problem with the military; he wondered why she chose to work for them. “I’ve been told I’ll get them all back ‘when the program resumes normal function’, but no one’s saying when that’ll be.”
Daniel looked across at Mitchell again. As Landry’s second-in-command, he was most likely to have some idea of what was going on. He shrugged, grimacing. “We’re still fightin’ it, and I know the General’s a thorn in everyone’s side out in Washington, but no one’s budging. That special committee the UN put together is too busy goin’ around their elbow to get their thumb. No decisions there. And sometimes it seems like the IOA isn’t even bothering to go to bat for us. You’d almost think they didn’t want us to reopen.”
“What about Atlantis?” Daniel asked, leaning forward. He still regretted the fact that he’d never been able to spend more than a few days there, but now he had more important things to worry about.
“We’re still checking in, but we’re not sending anymore supplies or personnel,” Mitchell said. “No one really wants to talk about them, in case the diplomats and politicians decide to recall them, too. We all know how well that went.” Everyone around the table nodded. “Atlantis is pretty self-sufficient by now. Colonel Sheppard is speeding up the switch to Wraith stunners, but beyond ammo there’s not much more they need from us.”
“They need personnel,” Daniel said. “The turnover in Atlantis is even higher than it usually is around here.”
Mitchell nodded. “The General’s negotiating with the IOA to start sending the Daedalus back and forth again, but that’s going about as well as you’d expect.”
“Figures,” Daniel said, and he could see Sam nodding in his peripheral vision.
Lam stood, coffee cup in hand. “Well, I have to break the news to my staff. Wish me luck.” She continued out of the commissary, a little calmer, but Daniel still thought there was murder in the set of her shoulders.
“What’s happening with Teal’c and the other alien liaisons?” Sam asked. “It’s been months since he’s been able to go to the Free Jaffa council.”
“They still won’t let us open the ‘gate from our side,” Mitchell said. “I think Teal’c’s about a month away from hijacking a ship, and I don’t blame him. This is getting ridiculous.”
“It started out ridiculous,” Daniel said. “There’s got to be something more we can do.”
continued in Five
back to Master Post
Four
Daniel had been past SG-2’s shared office, up to the gym, back down to the commissary, and finally found himself in the control room, where the techs pretended they weren’t playing video games until they realized it was him and not someone less permissive.
“Walter, do you know where Major Griff is? Or anyone else from SG-2,” he added. “I’m working on something from a mission they went on, and I’ve got some questions.”
“Oh, didn’t you hear?” Walter said. “SG-2 was shipped out.”
“What? Where? When did this happen?”
“A few days ago,” one of the other techs-Jones, the name badge said-said. “I think they were sent to Iraq. With all their S&R experience, someone thought it would be a good idea to send them overseas to train the troops.”
Daniel turned to Walter. “Do you know who ordered this?”
“General Landry was told to choose a team to send,” he replied. “The order came from the IOA, to put the purely military teams to use other places. They shouldn’t be gone more than a few weeks.”
“If they don’t get killed over there,” Daniel said darkly. “Thanks, guys.” Walter and Jones nodded and went back to their games. Daniel walked up the stairs to the briefing room and knocked on the door to General Landry’s office.
Daniel opened the door at the request to ‘come in’. Looking up, Landry put down his pen, and offered a weak smile. “Dr. Jackson, what can I do for you?” Landry said, folding his hands.
Daniel stepped inside and closed the door, ignoring Landry’s indication that he should sit. “I’ve heard SG-2 has been transferred overseas,” he said without preamble.
“Yes, along with SG-5 and SG-8.”
“I thought the ‘gate shutdown was temporary,” Daniel said, leaning, straight-armed, on the back of the nearest chair. “Why are people being transferred?”
“Only the military personnel,” Landry said. Daniel didn’t find that the slightest bit reassuring. “The scientific personnel have plenty of work with the shutdown, but the purely military personnel have been twiddling their thumbs. The IOA suggested that they could be loaned to other operations, and the Joint Chiefs jumped on the idea. They see our teams as specialized, highly trained personnel who can be used to train the troops in our military operations in the Middle East, both in combat techniques and cultural understanding. I’ve been told that when the Program is reactivated, all of our personnel will be returned.”
“But they’re assuming it’s going to be more like months until we reopen, rather than weeks,” Daniel said. “That’s not the impression we were given when the announcement was first made.”
“I know you and General O’Neill are good friends, I’m sure he’s told you that the negotiations are going rather poorly,” Landry said. Daniel looked at him sharply, but the words seemed to be straightforward.
“Why don’t we send some of our negotiators,” Daniel said. “SG-9 has arranged peace treaties that ended interplanetary wars. I’m sure they’d be able to help.”
“I’m not sure it would,” Landry said with a sigh. “Think of how it would look, Dr. Jackson. We’d come across as self-serving, and it would reflect badly on the President’s efforts. For right now, the best thing for us to do is to keep a low profile and try to make ourselves look harmless and useful.”
Daniel snorted in disbelief. “Thank you for your time, sir,” he said. He left the office, just barely managing to resist the urge to slam the door on his way out.
*
“Talk to me about something. Anything but people being transferred.”
“Daniel.” Jack sighed, tucking the phone tighter between his chin and shoulder and crossing his hands behind his head. He stared up at the bedroom ceiling, absently noticing the way passing cars changed the pattern of strips of light on his ceiling.
“I mean it, Jack,” Daniel said, and Jack heard a slamming sound that was probably Daniel emphatically closing a book. “I’m just so furious all the time I can barely see straight.”
“Apparently, the First Lady has this amazing new personal trainer.”
Daniel snorted. “Should have known you’d take it down to celebrity gossip, the lowest common denominator,” he said, but Jack could tell he was smiling a little.
“Hey, I could be talking about reality television.”
“True. But I’ve given up watching the news. Too depressing. And I’ve been working, anyway.”
“I distinctly remember someone saying ‘fuck the backlog’ when all this started,” Jack said, and then winced. Wrong thing to say. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s alright,” Daniel said, and Jack could picture him: taking off his glasses with his free hand and rubbing the bridge of his nose, his frown throwing the creases in his forehead into stark relief. The years had been kinder to him than they had to Jack, but when he was tired or upset Daniel almost looked his age. “It’s hard to get away from.”
“Well, there’s some good news,” Jack said cautiously. “The committee’s decided it might be okay to reopen the Program, but they’re debating moving the base to a more neutral location. They can’t decide where to put it, though.”
Daniel huffed a breath. “There’s nowhere on Earth that’s neutral,” he said. “Not even either of the poles. And I’m not commuting back and forth to the Moon every day.”
Jack couldn’t help but laugh at that one, and he could hear Daniel’s soft chuckle in response. “I’ll be sure to suggest that to the President. The IOA’s sent a representative, I’m not sure if you’ve heard. It’s helped a little-she got us to this point-but it’s slow-going.”
“And every day I come to work more people are gone. They’re getting rid of the most recent batch of scientific contractors, offering them compensation for cutting their contracts short or sending them to other positions. Landry says the military wants to get its money’s worth out of them,” he added dismissively.
“There’s a certain rationale to that…” Jack suggested, but even he knew it was weak. If the Program was functioning, they would have plenty of work to do; it was why they’d been hired in the first place. “Daniel, what do you want me to do?”
“Nothing,” Daniel said, and he sounded about a hundred years old. It made Jack’s heart hurt. “There’s nothing more you can do. You’re there, you’re a voice for our interests, it’ll have to be enough.”
“I wish I could do more. You know that, right?”
“Of course I do.”
“I thought…at first, I thought this was the right thing to do, I did,” he said softly. He could hear Daniel’s breath over the phone. He sounded a little stuffy, but the soft puffs were as comforting as a warm blanket. “But now I’m not sure. We’re not accomplishing anything here, and you guys could be doing so much more out there.”
“Too late now. It’s been months. Sometimes it feels like we’ll never reopen.”
“You will,” Jack said firmly, gripping his fingers into his hair. He’d thought that the opportunity for Daniel to say ‘I told you so’ would cheer him up, but clearly it wasn’t. “You’ll be out there again. I promise. Now go take an antihistamine and go to bed. It’s past your bedtime, Dr. Jackson.”
“Then it’s definitely past yours, General,” Daniel said, but he sounded a little calmer than he had when Jack had picked up the phone. “Goodnight, Jack.”
“Night, Danny.”
*
Daniel was sitting in the commissary with Sam and Mitchell when Dr. Lam stomped in, heading toward the coffee pot like a heat-seeking missile. Daniel looked at Mitchell and raised his eyebrows, and the other man shrugged.
“Carolyn.” Mitchell coughed awkwardly, but it got the doctor’s attention as she stomped back towards the door. “You alright?”
“They’re taking my staff,” she said, viciously pulling over a chair and sitting down. Daniel was glad he didn’t have a physical scheduled with the woman anytime soon.
“I thought they were only transferring the ‘gate teams,” Sam said, but Dr. Lam shook her head.
“Someone decided that I didn’t need as many nurses and doctors while everyone here is grounded,” Lam replied. “I only just found out. They’re transferring about half of my nursing staff and all of the doctors who aren’t civilians. It’s just going to be me and Dr. Warner by the end of the week.”
“What happens when they reopen the ‘gate?” Daniel asked.
“Does that look like it’s going to be happening anytime soon?” Lam said. Daniel knew the woman had a problem with the military; he wondered why she chose to work for them. “I’ve been told I’ll get them all back ‘when the program resumes normal function’, but no one’s saying when that’ll be.”
Daniel looked across at Mitchell again. As Landry’s second-in-command, he was most likely to have some idea of what was going on. He shrugged, grimacing. “We’re still fightin’ it, and I know the General’s a thorn in everyone’s side out in Washington, but no one’s budging. That special committee the UN put together is too busy goin’ around their elbow to get their thumb. No decisions there. And sometimes it seems like the IOA isn’t even bothering to go to bat for us. You’d almost think they didn’t want us to reopen.”
“What about Atlantis?” Daniel asked, leaning forward. He still regretted the fact that he’d never been able to spend more than a few days there, but now he had more important things to worry about.
“We’re still checking in, but we’re not sending anymore supplies or personnel,” Mitchell said. “No one really wants to talk about them, in case the diplomats and politicians decide to recall them, too. We all know how well that went.” Everyone around the table nodded. “Atlantis is pretty self-sufficient by now. Colonel Sheppard is speeding up the switch to Wraith stunners, but beyond ammo there’s not much more they need from us.”
“They need personnel,” Daniel said. “The turnover in Atlantis is even higher than it usually is around here.”
Mitchell nodded. “The General’s negotiating with the IOA to start sending the Daedalus back and forth again, but that’s going about as well as you’d expect.”
“Figures,” Daniel said, and he could see Sam nodding in his peripheral vision.
Lam stood, coffee cup in hand. “Well, I have to break the news to my staff. Wish me luck.” She continued out of the commissary, a little calmer, but Daniel still thought there was murder in the set of her shoulders.
“What’s happening with Teal’c and the other alien liaisons?” Sam asked. “It’s been months since he’s been able to go to the Free Jaffa council.”
“They still won’t let us open the ‘gate from our side,” Mitchell said. “I think Teal’c’s about a month away from hijacking a ship, and I don’t blame him. This is getting ridiculous.”
“It started out ridiculous,” Daniel said. “There’s got to be something more we can do.”
continued in Five
back to Master Post