Title: Fragments
Author: Moonshayde
Season: Four
Category: Main plot: Drama. Subplot: Dan/Jan ship
Spoilers: Minor ones for episodes up until and including Season 4
Pairing/Character: Team. Dan/Jan
Summary: SG-1 hits disaster on a standard recon mission. When the mission leaves Daniel Jackson in pieces, can Doctor Fraiser and SG-1 take his fragments and make him whole again?
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Stargate, Stargate SG-1 and all of its characters, titles, names, and back-story are the property of MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, Gekko Productions, SciFi Channel, and Showtime/Viacom. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author. This story cannot be printed anywhere without the sole permission of the author. Realize this is for entertainment purposes only; no financial gain or profit has been gained from this fiction. This story is not meant to be an infringement on the rights of the above-mentioned establishments
Jack looked down at his foot, grumbling to himself as he raised his boot from the muck below. Unceremoniously, he kicked his leg outward, only stopping when he noticed Daniel's eyes on him.
Daniel arched his eyebrows, his gaze moving from Jack's boots to his face.
"What?" Jack asked. "Same old, same old."
"No trees," Daniel offered.
"What 'no trees?'" Jack returned his focus forward. Oh, there were trees. Plenty of damn trees. Every place they went seemed to have them. "I see lots of them. Here and there."
Daniel easily followed Jack's motion to the right and to the left. "Bushes," he said finally.
Bushes my ass, he thought.
"Well, whatever they are, don't matter. This place…" Jack inhaled slowly. "Stinks."
Standard recon was for the birds, in Jack's opinion. Nine out of ten times they found nothing of value, and ended up spending a perfectly good week bored out of their skull. At least, some of them…
"Sir, I'd like to check out the terrain just east of here." Jack turned to Carter, watching as his second-in-command adjusted her surveillance gear. She handed a box over to Daniel before she moved forward to meet Jack. "I'd like to do a sweep to make sure the MALP and the UAV didn't miss anything."
He sighed. He doubted Carter would find what she was looking for, but the sooner they did this, the sooner they would be able to leave.
"Alright. Take Daniel with you. Get some soil samples." Jack shook his foot again before catching sight of Teal'c who was walking the perimeter. "Teal'c and I'll…hang out."
Carter grinned, motioning to Daniel with the nudge of her chin. "Yes, Sir. We won't be long."
Now that was certainly interesting.
Daniel looked over his shoulder to see if Sam was in earshot, but he couldn't catch sight of her from his vantage point. He did manage to catch a lovely view of some overgrown bushes, and some dying undergrowth, but that was neither here nor there.
What he'd found down the slope was far more interesting.
Daniel found himself gazing down at a pool of…something. What it was, he wasn't sure. The substance was liquid, and then again it wasn't. In fact, he wasn't even really sure what kind of classification you could give it.
Calling it slime or ooze just didn't give it justice.
"I wonder if it will do it again," he said aloud.
Easing himself down onto a mossy boulder, Daniel watched the ripples in the brown colored goo, mesmerized at the fluidity it seemed to possess. He snatched a rock from the ground, and, while still focused on the pool, he whipped it into the waves.
With a slurp, the slimy substance swallowed the rock.
One, two, three…
The rock came flying out of the pool at lightning speed, ricocheting off a nearby rock, nearly striking Daniel in the head. He gasped, ducking just in time, watching as the rock slowed to a halt and tumbled through the dirt far behind him.
"Amazing."
Without further hesitation, Daniel began to fumble through his pack, quickly finding his camcorder. He was no chemist or biologist, but he was fairly certain that primordial ooze back home didn't have the tendency to spit rocks at weary travelers.
Sam would love to see this. And as far as he was concerned, this warranted more research than the two of them taking soil samples.
It's not like either one of them were geologists or anything.
Daniel sighed. The US government and their "budget" issues.
"Sam?" Daniel called out her name nonchalantly as he readied his camcorder. "Can you come over here for a second?"
Satisfied that the camera was loaded and ready, Daniel peered through the lens, capturing as much of the nearby terrain as possible. He noticed the lack of any bodies of water near the pond of slime, or even any off-shots where the substance could have pooled separately. It appeared that whatever this stuff was, it remained independent from anything else.
He moved the camera left to right and then down, zooming in for a better look.
Daniel jerked.
How had he gotten it on his boot?
Frowning, Daniel shook his foot, realizing he was having a difficult time moving it. Inhaling sharply, he realized it just wasn't stuck on his boot, it was pulling at his boot.
Even that was a little too weird for him.
Quickly, Daniel dropped the camera to his side and feverishly started to untie his laces. The pressure continued to increase on his boot, tugging him more urgently. Daniel even began to feel himself sliding, slipping off the boulder as he came closer and closer to the ooze.
Finally, he thought with relief, freeing his foot from the slime covered boot. He watched, almost in a daze, as the goop effortlessly consumed his footwear.
This time, it didn't spit it back.
Well, that certainly wasn't very good.
Without another thought, Daniel grabbed his camera and made a move for the top of the slope. When he was a safe enough distance away, he would grab his pack and be done with it. The camera should have picked up enough information without them having to get…close.
Daniel jerked, feeling his weight being pulled back.
Blinking, Daniel took a moment to pull himself out shock, and comprehend what was happening.
The pressure was still there, crushing his ankle, squeezing his leg…
"Sam!" Daniel yelled her name as loudly as he could. He was slipping, his muddy fingers barely catching the sprigs of wet moss on the boulder. "Sam!"
The more desperate his calls became, the stronger the hold on his leg. He shuddered to think of what would happen to him if his skin came in contact with the ooze, or worse what would happen if he were devoured by it completely.
"Sam! Help!"
His radio. He still had his radio.
Daniel tugged at his jacket, grabbing at his radio. He had nearly balanced himself in order to use it properly when he felt himself slip again, his body tumbling over the boulder.
The slime lapped near his face.
Struggling, Daniel attempted to crawl away, pulling against the force of the substance that was yanking him in the opposite direction. If he kept this up, he would surely dislocate his knee.
Pushing aside his panic, he knew he had only last option. Biting his lip, he quickly began to untie the belt around his waist…