all too real.
Barbara was torn. One side of her wanted to kick the military man’s ass for leaving her more unsatisfied than any male ever had. The other side was willing to kiss that same fundament if she could keep playing with the StarGate. They reached the end of a hewn-stone passageway, and Barbara could see light at the end of the tunnel. But the next stage of her trip took her through a golden-walled hall at least a block long. No, it wasn’t gold, Barbara realized; it was that same glassy golden-opalescent material that made up the StarGate. She could see corridors branching off from the one she was following. Barriers had been arranged across them, and young men in brownish outfits obviously stood guard. Equally obviously, they were not like the Marines at the StarGate. When they saw Barbara, they muttered among themselves in a language that sounded vaguely like Arabic but wasn’t.
Barbara stumbled out of step with her guide as the realization struck her like a blow. They hadn’t just found a planet out here. They’d found people! Then they were outside, and the heat of the two suns overhead settled over her like a dry but very heavy blanket. Barbara was wearing a sky blue jump-suit.
She liked the functionality of the garment. Be-sides, with a little tailoring it emphasized the lilt of her butt when she walked. But they had hardly gone a few steps before she was aware of sweat staining her armpits and back. “This is worse than a summer in the Panhandle,” she groused. “You could have given a gal some warn-ing about what the weather was like. Half of my wardrobe is going to be useless.”
“Oh, wait till you see the nights,” the young lieu-tenant told her. “Then it just about hits freezing.”
They made their way through the organized bedlam of a military camp. Barbara noticed that the uniformed personnel seemed to be digging themselves out of the results of a sandstorm. At last they came to a larger than usual tent. The lieutenant gestured her in.
Colonel Jack O’Neil sat behind a simple camp table. He gestured to the only other empty seat in the tent- a folding chair. “It’s very nice to see you again, Doctor.”
“Hell,” Barbara drawled, determined not to give an inch. “Here I thought I was the first woman through the StarGate. But it looks as though you brought your secretary ahead of me.”
O’Neil didn’t rise to the provocation. He simply introduced the two women. “Dr. Barbara Shore, meet Sha’uri, who is, of course, not my secretary. Sha’uri lives here on Abydos, and will be serving as the chief interpreter for your team.” He paused for a second, the only time Barbara had ever seen the man hesitate. “She was appointed to that post by her husband- Dr. Daniel Jackson.” “Really, now?” Barbara said, shaking hands. “You know, I had my eye on that little blond-haired honey once. But he seemed to have more of a thing for hiero-glyphics than women.”
Careful, now, Barbara warned herself. You’re taking out your bad attitude on this woman when you should be saving it for O’Neil. “So, Colonel,” she said, turning back to her main target, “I’m heading a team, am I? And what are we supposed to be doing? West’s people weren’t exactly forthcoming when they contacted me.”
“I’m told you didn’t seem to be involved in any other research,” O’Neil replied. “Funny how hard it is to get a job during funding cuts and the last place you worked was a hush-hush government project,”
Barbara said. “And it’s so much easier when you’re not allowed to talk about anything you did while you were under wraps. Not that I would. I could just imagine the reaction if I told an in-terviewer that the last thing I saw on my previous job was a glorified version of one of those robot mail carts disappearing in one hell of a light show. The only position that would qualify me for was a spot in the rubber ward.”
“This will be a somewhat more responsible
Barbara was torn. One side of her wanted to kick the military man’s ass for leaving her more unsatisfied than any male ever had. The other side was willing to kiss that same fundament if she could keep playing with the StarGate. They reached the end of a hewn-stone passageway, and Barbara could see light at the end of the tunnel. But the next stage of her trip took her through a golden-walled hall at least a block long. No, it wasn’t gold, Barbara realized; it was that same glassy golden-opalescent material that made up the StarGate. She could see corridors branching off from the one she was following. Barriers had been arranged across them, and young men in brownish outfits obviously stood guard. Equally obviously, they were not like the Marines at the StarGate. When they saw Barbara, they muttered among themselves in a language that sounded vaguely like Arabic but wasn’t.
Barbara stumbled out of step with her guide as the realization struck her like a blow. They hadn’t just found a planet out here. They’d found people! Then they were outside, and the heat of the two suns overhead settled over her like a dry but very heavy blanket. Barbara was wearing a sky blue jump-suit.
She liked the functionality of the garment. Be-sides, with a little tailoring it emphasized the lilt of her butt when she walked. But they had hardly gone a few steps before she was aware of sweat staining her armpits and back. “This is worse than a summer in the Panhandle,” she groused. “You could have given a gal some warn-ing about what the weather was like. Half of my wardrobe is going to be useless.”
“Oh, wait till you see the nights,” the young lieu-tenant told her. “Then it just about hits freezing.”
They made their way through the organized bedlam of a military camp. Barbara noticed that the uniformed personnel seemed to be digging themselves out of the results of a sandstorm. At last they came to a larger than usual tent. The lieutenant gestured her in.
Colonel Jack O’Neil sat behind a simple camp table. He gestured to the only other empty seat in the tent- a folding chair. “It’s very nice to see you again, Doctor.”
“Hell,” Barbara drawled, determined not to give an inch. “Here I thought I was the first woman through the StarGate. But it looks as though you brought your secretary ahead of me.”
O’Neil didn’t rise to the provocation. He simply introduced the two women. “Dr. Barbara Shore, meet Sha’uri, who is, of course, not my secretary. Sha’uri lives here on Abydos, and will be serving as the chief interpreter for your team.” He paused for a second, the only time Barbara had ever seen the man hesitate. “She was appointed to that post by her husband- Dr. Daniel Jackson.” “Really, now?” Barbara said, shaking hands. “You know, I had my eye on that little blond-haired honey once. But he seemed to have more of a thing for hiero-glyphics than women.”
Careful, now, Barbara warned herself. You’re taking out your bad attitude on this woman when you should be saving it for O’Neil. “So, Colonel,” she said, turning back to her main target, “I’m heading a team, am I? And what are we supposed to be doing? West’s people weren’t exactly forthcoming when they contacted me.”
“I’m told you didn’t seem to be involved in any other research,” O’Neil replied. “Funny how hard it is to get a job during funding cuts and the last place you worked was a hush-hush government project,”
Barbara said. “And it’s so much easier when you’re not allowed to talk about anything you did while you were under wraps. Not that I would. I could just imagine the reaction if I told an in-terviewer that the last thing I saw on my previous job was a glorified version of one of those robot mail carts disappearing in one hell of a light show. The only position that would qualify me for was a spot in the rubber ward.”
“This will be a somewhat more responsible
Similar Books
