STARGATE SG-1: Do No Harm by Karen Miller

suggest it, channelling Jack O’Neill.
    “Oh, stop trying to be Jack!” Doctor Jackson, of the same opinion. “It was
one ravine
. I’m telling you, Sam, that rock formation wasn’t natural. Someone
carved
it and — ”
    “And if you’d bothered to look up, Daniel, you’d have seen that weather system sitting on top of the valley!” Sam retorted, squelching ahead of him down the gate ramp, barely hampered by the bulky sample-cases she was carrying. “Do the words ‘flash flood’ mean anything to you?”
    “
Flash flood
,” said Doctor Jackson, scornful. “It’d barely started raining. I had plenty of time.”
    With an amused glance at Jack, who was rolling his eyes, Hammond leant into the microphone. “Welcome home, SG-1.”
    Sam almost hid a wince. “Oh. General,” she said, nodding. “Er — thank you.”
    “General Hammond, we have to go back!” called out Doctor Jackson. “It’s really important. Tell him, Teal’c! You saw what I saw.”
    Teal’c, at the foot of the ramp, looked bored beyond description. Raindrops glistened on his scalp. “No.”
    The good doctor stared as though he’d been stabbed in the back. “
What
? Oh, come
on
!”
    “Welcome to my world, sir,” Jack muttered under his breath.
    “Let’s make it a short stay,” he suggested, then said to the team, “Dry yourselves off then come up to the briefing room, SG-1. Your post-mission physical can wait.”
    “Sir?” said Jack, as SG-1 dripped their way out of the gate room. “Is something wrong?”
    “Wrong? No. We’ve just got a few things to discuss.”
    Jack stared at him for a moment, then comprehension lit his eyes. Behind it was a great deal of wariness. “Dixon’s a go?”
    He nodded. “He’ll be here Thursday, by 1030. Possibly the rest of his team by 1300 Friday. Which means you and I need to look at the mission roster today, because Fraiser wants you on stand-down tomorrow.”
    For a long moment Jack said nothing, just stared at the floor, hands shoved deep in his pockets, seemingly oblivious to everyone and everything. Then he looked up, his face and his eyes utterly unreadable.
    “Yes, sir.”
    The fact he didn’t argue about the day off was telling. Unnerving, even, given the colonel’s impatience for anything that smacked of mollycoddling. Hammond felt the smallest frisson of nerves.
    He’ll never admit it, but Cromwell’s a pandora’s box. I just hope I’m doing the right thing.
    When the rest of SG-1 joined them in the briefing room he broke the news. As usual it was as good as impossible to gauge what Teal’c was thinking. Doctor Jackson stared at the table, leaning on his folded arms, eyebrows low in a frown. Sam flicked a single glance at Jack then pokered up just like he remembered Jacob doing in the past. She was her father’s daughter, all right.
    “Well, sir, whatever assistance you need in reworking our current mission slate from a scientific viewpoint, I’m available,” she said.
    “I was counting on that, Major. It means you won’t get quite as much post-mission downtime as Doctor Fraiser might like, but…” He shrugged. “Needs must.”
    “Of course, sir. And I’m fine. Even with the extra gravity quotient PX8-050 was hardly strenuous.”
    “No?” said Jack, speaking for the first time. “You mean you’re not worn out from all that flower picking? Carter, I’m shocked.”
    She gave him a look. “Not flowers, sir. Botanical specimens.”
    Hammond cleared his throat, forestalling any lively discus sion. “Is there anything I need to know about the mission before I read your reports?”
    “Apart from the
really really
amazing rock carvings, sir?” muttered Doctor Jackson. “Which I wasn’t allowed to examine? No. Nothing.”
    He swallowed a smile. “In that case, we’re done here. See Doctor Fraiser for your post-mission medical. Provided you’re cleared, Doctor Jackson, you and Teal’c are on stand-down until 0900 Thursday. Major Carter, once Doctor