Fic: Strangers In A Strange Land (Stargate SG1/Avatar Xover)

[avocado_love]

Title: Strangers in a Strange Land
Word Count: 2045
Notes: Sequel to Rampage. Written for kind and wonderful ArrayePL as a late birthday present and as a thank you for the DA sub. :D I know you wanted a drabble, but this ended up being more like another chapter. Whoops?

******

The gateroom was abuzz with activity. At least a half dozen scientists in crisp white lab-coats were swarming all over a rugged wheeled machine, taking final readings and checks to make sure all the video and audio feed were ready to go.

Behind them a large garage-sized disk was busy swiveling back and forth, looking much like an automated combination lock. Every other rotation or so one of the lit triangles would settle on an alien-like glyph. The machine would stutter to a halt and a voice on overhead speakers would call out, “Chevron three encoded!” and the circle would rotate in the other direction, seeking the next key in the combination.

The control room upstairs was just as busy, with tech’s barking commands back and forth. General George Hammond stood silent in the chaos, hands clasped behind his back and studying the Stargate with narrow-eyed intensity. He was a powerful man, but there was no doubt that he looked a little… fatigued today. It had been a hard twenty-four hours. “Sergeant Davis, I want the MALP to move out as soon as we have a lock.”

“Yes sir,” Davis replied, and bent forward over his control panel to key in the order. “Chevron five is encoded.”

Major Carter manned a control panel to Davis’ right. “Sir,” she asked, swiveling around in her chair. “It might be a good idea to bring Zuko and Toph here to watch this. Perhaps if they know we’re working to send them home, they will be more inclined to be cooperative.”

“No Major,” he replied, “I would rather keep those two as far away from sensitive electronic equipment as possible.”

Considering the sheer amount of damage the little girl and the scarred boy had done in their escape attempt, this wasn’t such a far-fetched plan.

“They’ll be fine, Carter,” Jack O’Neill said, from his slightly reclined position in an out of the way corner. “They’re with Daniel. He likes kids.”

Carter still looked doubtful, but in the next moment Davis called out, “Chevron seven is locked!” and at once all eyes fell to the Stargate.

The wormhole exploded outward like a twisting liquid tunnel in the center of the gate. Upon reaching its maximum length, it sucked back in again to create the illusion of a shimmering flat plane of water.

The techs on ground level continued their work without blinking an eye. This was all just another day on the job.

Hammond nodded to Davis. The Sergeant toggled his speaker and gave orders to clear the ramp and within moments the MALP rolled forward up the ramp and unhesitantly to the blue event-horizon. The moment it disappeared, a series of new displays lit up in the control room – screens showing the different feeds from the MALP.

And no sooner did Davis say, “MALP has arrived” did each and every one of the screens turn to white static.

Silence fell over the control room. Everyone knew what this meant.

 

                                                                        ******

  

For the tenth time that hour, Daniel Jackson wondered if he had been so impossible at thirteen years old. No, he decided, with an inward sigh. He was sure he hadn’t.

The cause of his aggravation was sitting on the corner of his desk, kicking bare feet back and forth and staring at him with two filmy green eyes. Doctor Frasier had said that the little girl was blind, although it was obvious she could get around just as well as a sighted person – another mystery that couldn’t be solved until he had broken the language barrier.

Toph repeated her phrasing, stretching out the syllables this time so that Daniel catch the nuances. When he repeated the unfamiliar language back to her she grinned with such a shark-like smile he immediately suspected he had just been taught to say something either silly or obscene… or both.

At least the little girl was willing to work with him. The other, the boy, didn’t bother. He spoke quickly, seeming to demand answers that Daniel didn’t have the possibility of answering. And although he hadn’t left Daniel’s cramped office, he had mentally checked out of the stumbling translation process an hour ago – preferring to glare around the room filled with artifacts and knickknacks from dozens of planets.

Daniel glanced away from the girl in time to see the boy, Zuko, reaching for the remains of a naquada generator which was balanced on three books upon a nearby desk. Daniel leapt up. “Ah, excuse me…No, please don’t touch that.” He snatched the generator away and put it out of the boy’s immediate reach, shaking his head with exaggerated slowness. “No.”

The boy’s good eye narrowed until it almost matched the other, his left which was slitted by a thick scar. He didn’t reach for the object again, but crossed his arms and spoke, his voice sharp and demanding. One of the words, Daniel was almost sure, was a variation of ‘imprison’. Although he couldn’t tell where it fit in the context. His specialty wasn’t in Asian languages.

“Imprison,” he repeated, in the boy’s tongue. Then he shook his head again, trying to put a reassuring smile on his face, and making sure to keep his body language open and friendly. SG1 had rescued these two from what looked like a war-zone and brought them back through the Stargate. They weren’t prisoners by any stretch of the word.

But the teenage boy could hardly look less impressed. He glared at Daniel for another moment, then turned away, evidently unwilling to continue the conversation. It was a shame, because Daniel was sure he wasn’t getting anywhere useful with Toph.

“Look,” Daniel said, trying to catch Zuko’s attention again. “I know this isn’t easy for you, but we need a starting point. Here.” He reached behind himself to another heavily laden desk and picked up a simple globe of the Earth and set it between them. He could start with generalities – simple nouns would work, until he built up some vocabulary, and some trust. Daniel turned the tilted globe and put his finger square in the Pacific. “Ocean,” he said, and repeated it again when Zuko only stared at him. “Come on, work with me a little, Zuko. What do you call it? Osh-shon.”

The boy muttered something under his breath… then stopped. The next moment he had snatched globe out of Daniel’s hands and he was twisting it around, staring at the features of ocean and landmasses with his one remaining brow knit forward. He reached out a finger, tracing the boarders of the South Pole and then upward slowly to the North. Daniel held his breath. He could almost see the connections being made behind Zuko’s startlingly yellow eyes.

                                                                                                ******

 

“What’s wrong, Sparky?”

Zuko didn’t answer Toph, not at first. He had thought the annoying man was showing him a children’s ball, but this… this thing looked to be a map of some sort. He could see the North and South poles clearly, but the coastline was all wrong. Where was the Southern Bay that led to Sokka and Katara’s village? 

His fingers trailed upward and he turned the thing, eyes darting back and forth. All he could see was Earth Kingdom, or maybe Earth Kingdom lands if drawn by a drunken four year old. Where were the major islands? Where…

“Where is the Fire Nation?” he demanded. His voice unnaturally high. Something, some sort of strange dread had settled in his chest and he kept turning the globe around and around in his hands. He couldn’t have missed it his own country… “Where is it?”

The annoying man said something and reached for the globe, but Zuko had enough. “NO!” He slammed it on the desk hard enough to send a few books tumbling off the edge. “I’m sick of this! Where are we? What is this place?” He was shaking, and he didn’t know why. “I want see a real map. I—I demand to know where you have taken me!”

A small hand, strong as iron, wrapped around his elbow. Zuko looked down to see Toph glaring up at him.

“Get a grip, Sparky!”

Daniel was speaking again, low and measured. He cautiously reached for the globe, eyes never taken off of Zuko’s. Picking it up, Daniel twisted the thing around and pointed to an oddly shaped continent – it was wrong, all wrong – with brightly colored territories sectioned off inside. His fingers fell on one square, somewhere towards the middle left. “Colorado.” The man tapped it again, and then raised his hand up, gesturing around him, the smile firmly fixed. “Colorado.”

Zuko stared at him for a long moment, then he held out his hand and Daniel passed the globe to him once more. This place, this map showed at least four different Earth Kingdoms, a few separated only by small strips of land. There were a small smattering of archipelagos here and there, but nothing he could recognize as familiar.

Suddenly Daniel’s strange mannerisms, the language, his odd blue eyes that weren’t Water Tribe took on a whole new light.

This wasn’t his world.

“Sparky?” Toph’s grip tightened on his elbow. She would probably leave finger-sized bruises on him at this point. “Your heart-rate is all over the place. What’s going on?”

“I think… he’s saying we’re on another… planet.” Zuko could hardly wrap his own mind around concept. Another land, like his… only not. With another Agni up in the sky. Another Avatar governing, other Earth Kingdoms… Water Tribes… Who was the Fire Lord in this place?

Toph blinked. “What do you mean?”

So Zuko took the girl’s hand and put her fingers to the slightly raised outlines of the continents. He knew it was impossible for a blind person to read, but surely her parents had at least tutored her in geography.

It seemed like they had. Toph’s eyebrows drew down as she touched the ridges and valleys of the globe, the smooth parts of the ocean. Soon the globe was in her hands and she was following the outline of the ‘Colorado’. Was that their word for Earth Kingdom?

Her reaction at the end of it was much more pragmatic. “Sweet.”

 

                                                            *****

 

Daniel watched with caution as the boy and the girl fell into what looked and sounded very much to be a squabble. He was all ears, but the words were quick, too quick to follow, although he thought he caught a few sharp nouns that he’d heard repeated before.

A sharp knock sounded at the door. Reluctantly, Daniel peeled himself away from the argument and opened the door. Jack O’Neill stood on the other side, a bemused look on his face. The Colonel made a point of leaning in to glance about the room. “Nothing on fire, I see.”

Daniel glanced back over his own shoulder. Toph had taken the globe back between her hands and Zuko’s arms were once again clamped tightly across his chest. They were both speaking in low tones and didn’t seem to notice Jack’s presence at all.

“So far,” he said. “What did the MALP say?”

Jack sobered. “Not much. It was destroyed on entry. Carter thinks that the other Stargate might have been buried.”

“It would make sense,” Daniel admitted, after a moment of thought. “It was a war-zone, and they seem to have a lot of people who are… capable of a lot of damage.” He winced and looked at the Colonel. “So, what now?”

A loud noise sounded back behind them as if in answer. The low conversation between the two teenagers had grown louder, more heated. The tiny girl stomped one bare foot hard, as if to emphasize a point. The ground shook under her and rippled out from her like a stone thrown in the middle of a pond. And each and every one of the shelves and shelves of books, loose notes, and archeological samples from hundreds of worlds came crashing down.

Both teens cringed, but in a moment their argument continued, now taking place in what could charitably be called a disaster zone.

“They can’t stay here,” Daniel groaned.

Jack grinned and clapped the stunned archeologist on the shoulder. “Look on the bright side, Danny boy. At least we know this won’t be boring.”

                                                                                                       ******

And... that's all I got. (Seriously, don't write yourself in a corner, kids. It's bad for your sanity.) I think I might take a page out of suzukiblu 's book and do a meme to write out the rest. Hmm... anyway, I'll sleep on it tonight and decide tomorrow.