“Receiving IDC, sir. It’s SG-1.”
Hammond frowned. SG-1 wasn’t due for another six hours. “Open the iris.”
Major Carter came through the gate first, leaning heavily on a battered and bloodied Doctor Jackson. A few moments later, Teal’c ran through, holding his staff weapon in his left hand. The Jaffa turned to look at the event horizon, obviously waiting for the final member of their team to emerge. The General’s eyes widened as he saw the arrow shaft sticking out of the Jaffa’s right shoulder. Several long seconds passed before Colonel O’Neill finally staggered through the gate.
“Shut it!” The Colonel yelled. Hammond nodded to Sergeant Harriman, who quickly closed the iris, though not before an arrow came sailing through the event horizon, narrowly missing an SF and clattering off the wall below the control room. Several ‘pings’ could be heard hitting the iris before the wormhole shut down. Hammond paged for a med team and hurried down to the gate room, anxious to hear what had happened.
“Shut it, Jack?” Doctor Jackson was saying as Hammond entered. “Excellent advice. Maybe if you’d just done that when I asked you to we wouldn’t have gotten into that mess.” The young man looked very unhappy.
The Colonel sat down heavily on the ramp, letting his head hang between his knees. “Damn it, Daniel, shut up. My head is killing me. You can’t possibly expect me to pay attention to every little thing that comes out of that mouth of yours. Especially when you use seven syllable words. Between you and Carter, so help me–”
“Excuse me, sir?” Carter didn’t look pleased with her C.O. either. Perhaps the wound in her thigh had something to do with it. “Are you referring to the complex set of instructions he gave you just before you went off to meet the clan chief? How did those go again, Daniel?”
“Don’t touch anything and let me do the talking.”
Major Carter nodded. “Right. I can see how you could have been so confused, sir.” Although her words were relatively respectful, her tone was far from it.
O’Neill raised his head and scowled at the Major before looking at the archaeologist. “Yeah, well why couldn’t you have phrased it that way back on the planet?”
“I did phrase it that way!”
“Did not.”
“Did too!”
“Teal’c, help me out here.”
Teal’c raised an eyebrow, “Daniel Jackson did indeed use that wording for his instructions.”
Colonel O’Neill sighed, “Thanks for the support, Lando.”
“O’Neill, I have requested that you cease speaking in cultural references to which I have no–” The Jaffa stopped abruptly, eyes narrowing at the Colonel. “Are you comparing me to the shol’va Lando Calrissian of Star Wars?”
“Uh, got that one, did you?”
“Indeed. If I was not pleased that I for once understood you, I would kill you where you stand.”
“Get in line, Teal’c,” hissed Doctor Jackson as he helped the Major limp down the rest of the ramp. The med team arrived, and Jackson helped Carter onto a gurney, refusing one for himself. He nodded once to Hammond before stalking out of the gate room, cradling his right arm. One of the medics hurried along behind him.
General Hammond had had enough. “What in the world happened?”
“I’m afraid that will have to wait, sir.” Doctor Fraiser ordered. “They can fill you in once I’ve seen to their injuries.” The petite doctor and her people gathered up the rest of SG-1 and departed, leaving a frustrated two-star general in their wake. Someone had a lot of explaining to do.