Fic: Minor Characters I: Odd Man Out (7/19)

[gelbes_gilatier]

Title: Minor Characters I: Odd Man Out (7/19)
Fandom: Stargate
Rating: T
Genres: action/adventure
Summary: Everyone knows SG1... but what about the other teams on the roster? Here's one of them. Meet Major Thomas Moore, Captain Laura Greenspan, Lieutenant Maureen Reece and Master Sergeant Simon DeLisle - also known as SG10 - and accompany them on the mission that made them a team.
A/N: 'nother one! \o/ Yes, I'm still catching up with the load on ff.net, and no, I still don't have a life. Don't think it'll change in the near future, so expect more fic stuff. And yes, I might put one or two "30 Days..." entries inbetween, mackenziesmomma. Really. I promise.

(also, again, not betaed, but hopefully still okay)

( Odd Man Out 1/19 )

( Odd Man Out 2/19 )

( Odd Man Out 3/19 )

( Odd Man Out 4/19 )

( Odd Man Out 5/19 )

( Odd Man Out 6/19 )

Chapter Seven

Reece

Oh lucky me. But I had it coming, I guess. The Major didn’t like me speaking up against him, and now he wants to keep me on a short leash.

Really, he could have sent me away with Dee, or even with Laura, wouldn’t have been the first time. But no, it had to be him. And now I’m stuck with Major Grumpy. Or rather Major Brooding in Silence, for that matter. Because, with the Major, there’s silence and Silence – and a hundred other ways to accentuate “silence”, I guess.

It’s the latter he’s now displaying. You know, the kind of silence that says more than a thousands words. He perfected the art of Brooding Silence, and he’s clearly giving me hell through it. It holds contempt and annoyance and… oh, okay, he’s giving me the Silent treatment.

“Reece?” Or maybe not. But still sounding like speaking to me ranked so low that it isn't even on his List Of Least Favorite Things To Do On A Mission anymore.

“Yes, sir?” Oh, that was good. I just sounded like the loser Marine he came to know.

“Be careful where you put your feet. I don’t want to have to clean your sorry bits and pieces out of my uniform later.” Geez, he sounds like I had just made the confession that I blew up the Twin Towers. Really, there are ways a lot more professional to say “Mind the eventual booby traps, Lieutenant Klutz.”

“Yes, sir.” That’s right, be the good little soldier that doesn’t question orders. Maybe then he’ll treat you like a human again. Oh no, wait, been there, done that. Didn’t work out.

Again, Silence. Walking over rubble, rocks, ruins… Oh, now that’s strange.

We just entered what seems to have been a ceremonial chamber or something like that. There are a number of signs or letters lining the walls, appearing remotely like Ancient letters. I try to piece together what I can gather from the three months I had been able to study the language, but it doesn’t make any sense. Well, at first, that is. Then I remember our lessons about World Wars I and II and the Navajo code talkers and reading up on their language to see what made it so special, and it does make sense.

I hear a sound to my right and see that the Major has found something. I walk over to him. “Sir?”

He holds up a simple wooden bowl, about the size of a standard mess dish. “Any clue what that could be, Reece?”

Hm… judging from the design and slightly withered look I’d say it belongs to the ruins rather than their recent inhabitants. The fragments on the wall that I could figure out with my rudimentary knowledge of Navajo come to mind.

“Actually… sir, I wouldn’t touch that…” He raises an eyebrow at me, clearly mocking me. God, if he’d listen to me, just for once. “Sir, really…” Now he's started to have a closer look at the thing. Okay, that’s enough. He doesn’t want to listen, he needs to feel. I grab the bowl, saying: “Would you please…” but before I can finish the sentence everything goes black.

Moore

“… everything stable… Tom, can you hear me? Tom?” Dear me, has Laura’s voice ever been loud enough to make me feel like someone’s driving a nail directly into my head before? “Tom? Oh, he’s coming around.”

I crack my eyes open, aiming at sitting up and telling her to shut the hell up, but the first two take up so much of my obviously not-so-great strength that I get stuck with sitting up and feeling dizzy.

And seeing Laura looming over my groaning body. What the…?

“Captain, Reece has just woken up,” Dee says right beside me and looks at me. Yeah, well, then someone should be checking up on her, right?

Laura looks up, throwing me a worried glance. “You okay, Maureen?” I turn around to check if Reece is somewhere behind me. I mean, why should Laura talk to Reece but look into my direction if she’s not behind me? “Hey, Maureen, can you hear me?” Why the fuck doesn’t Reece answer? And why is Dee shaking my shoulder and asking me if I understand him?

I clear my head, shaking it lightly, and a lock falls into my face. A bright fucking red lock. What the…?

“God, I told him not to touch that stupid thing,” my own voice suddenly says from behind Laura and my own face is looking in dismal at me. I look down at my hands. Which aren’t mine exactly. Definitely. Because they are smaller and look distinctly feminine.

Oh crap.

Oh holy shit.

Oh. My. Fucking. God.

“If it’s any consolation, sir…” I look up again, this time seeing my own face smirking at me, “that’s exactly how I felt.” If I ever was close to fainting, it is right now.

“Well… I guess we have a situation here, folks,” Laura prompts in her usual dry voice. That is the understatement of the century, I’d say.

“You could say that. What exactly happened here? Lieutenant?” AAAAAAARGH! If seeing a red lock in my vision and feminine hands in front of my eyes was bad, then hearing myself speak in a voice that’s definitely not mine is the ultimate fall-out.

“I’d say that when we both touched the bowl, something happened that made us change bodies. I hate to sound redundant, but I did tell you to put it back. Sir.” This is just this side of weird. It’s my own voice I hear, but it has a distinct edge to it that makes it unmistakable… Reece-y. That’s whacko. Sick. Beyond any comprehension. I’m actually running out of words to describe how… weird this is.

“No, you actually…” Whoa. Do I look like I’m ready to throw daggers when I’m annoyed and looking at other people or is that just another Reece-thing? “Yeah, alright, you did. But that’s not gonna solve the problem here. And seeing that we are now practically a democracy… any suggestions?”

“We should head back to the SGC and try to solve the thing with the Geek Squadron as you so much like to call them, sir.” Hey! That remark was meant sarcastically, alright? It was not an invite to take over the team, Reece. Either having to use that voice of hers has made me lose my touch with commanding or using that voice of mine has made her a lot more forward than usually. I really can’t say which is worse.

“Actually, he… she isn't that wrong, Tom. Dr. Jackson’s scientists are most probably the ones best qualified to help us… you.” What the fuck is happening here? Is this planet cursed or casting off some strange radiation or why is my authority going down the drain all of a sudden?

But the worst thing is: Reece is right. Jackson’s geeks are our best chance. I’ve seen Reece and some other guys from that division working their magic before, and they are good at what they do.

“Right. For once I agree with you, Lieutenant. So… back to the SGC, it is.”

~*~

TBC in Chapter Eight.