Ficlet request: No Place Like Home (G)

[fignewton]

I restarted this ficlet eight times. Fluffy, angsty, funny - they all flopped. I tried it from Daniel's POV and Selmac's and nothing worked. Finally I gave up and let Sam take over - and it still ended up going in a completely unexpected direction! I can only hope you like this, Redbyrd. uniquinum's might have to wait a little longer.

redbyrd_sgfic asked for Jacob/Selmac and Daniel, on the teltak during the mission to try and rescue Jack and Teal'c before they freeze to death in the hybrid glider. Spoilers, obviously, for Tangent. Rated G. Word count: ~770


No Place Like Home

Sam carefully closed the last panel of crystals, heaving a sigh that was part relief and part worry. After the nearly disastrous breakdown and the hasty jury-rigging of the engine just to get out of what her father called "the worst possible neighborhood" in space, she'd ducked back into the engine room to double-check that the crystals wouldn't fail again.

 

Everything seemed all right for now, but she couldn't stop the clock that was ticking down in her head, measuring the last breaths of oxygen that Teal'c and the colonel still had. The thought of not quite getting to them in time had her close to panic. They couldn't lose half the team to the petty, spiteful revenge of Apophis!

 

Dad will get us there in time, she told herself firmly. Or Selmac will. Between the two of them, we'll get there.

 

She rose to her feet and hurried back down the tiny corridor to join the others. The sound of their voices made her stop and listen.

 

"...and powerful Oz?"

 

It was Selmac talking with her father's voice.

 

"Jacob can't explain it?" Daniel sounded uncomfortable.

 

"He refuses to do so," Selmac answered calmly. "If anything, I would say he is somewhat – embarrassed."

 

Sam clapped a hand over her mouth to stop the snickers from escaping, and peeked around the edge of the door.

 

Her father – with Selmac currently running the show – sat at ease in the pilot's chair, looking up at a clearly flustered Daniel. Apparently, her teammate had never quite imagined that part of his duties as a member of SG-1 would be trying to explain Dorothy, Toto, and the Wicked Witch of the West to an alien symbiote living inside the head of a former Air Force general.

 

Daniel started to explain, his hands sketching patterns in the air. It was the first time since they'd boarded that he'd actually turned fully away from the viewport, and Sam suddenly found herself admiring the sneaky tag-team of Jacob and Selmac, who were doing a splendid job of distracting Daniel from his worry over the colonel and Teal'c.

 

"There are two versions, really," Daniel was saying. "L. Frank Baum wrote a series of fourteen or fifteen children's books about eighty years ago. The first book in the series was made into a classic children's movie. Most of the quotes and references that you'll hear – especially those from Jack – are actually from the movie, not the books."

 

"I never read them," Sam's father admitted, talking in his own voice now. "My wife –" He stopped, then added more slowly, "My wife read them to Sam and Mark when they were little, I think. I don't know if she read them the whole series, though."

 

"As a movie, The Wizard of Oz is a metaphor for finding happiness and contentment with one's own talents and surroundings," Daniel continued after a tactful pause. "The books were intended to be escapist fantasy – innocence and goodness triumphing over evil."

 

"Who is Oz, then?" Selmac asked as Jacob ceded the driver's seat again.

 

Daniel hesitated, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully. "In both the movie and the book," he said at last, "the Wizard of Oz is a man who is no more powerful than any other human being. He knows illusion, though, and he gives the appearance of having power."

 

"That sounds quite familiar," Selmac said dryly. "Jacob has said that your more modern literature is not steeped in the mythology generated by the Goa'uld, but your description of Oz suggests otherwise."

 

"Oh, I don't know," Daniel said with forced lightness, and Sam, still standing by the doorway, winced at the raw pain that she could see reflected in his eyes. "In the Oz books, at least, everyone gets to go home."

 

A sudden silence fell over the teltak at the leaden message in Daniel's words. Too many people, in their battle against the Goa'uld, never made it home.

 

And in less than three hours, they would find out if two more would need to be added to that bleak list.

 

"Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c are coming home, Daniel." Sam said firmly, her voice shattering the heavy atmosphere. "We're going to bring them home."

 

Daniel closed his eyes for a long moment, then opened them again. "Right," he answered finally, and somehow dredged up a smile. "Even if we have to click our heels three times to do it."

Comments

[uniquinum.livejournal.com]

"Even if we have to click our heels three times to do it."

Fantastic closing line. It sum's up so many of their escapes.

We don't get to see enough Daniel/Jacob/Selmac interaction. The whole thing is fantastic.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And yes, Daniel and Jacob/Selmac make a great team in terms of banter and characterization, and I would have very much liked to have more.

[dknightshade.livejournal.com]

Awww. That is a nice mix of sweet and sad and cute and hopeful. And the clicking heels is definitely a perfect way to end it. Very nice!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It ended up a little mix of everything, but thankfully it didn't all clash. :)

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

Aww! I love the Oz referrences sprinkled through the series, and I especially loved Daniel's use of Oz's name in that ep. This is such a nice balance of funny and serious. Bravo!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! The icon fits the fic perfectly!

I'm glad you liked it. :)

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

Aw! This is lovely, thank you so much! I would never have thought of Daniel explaining Oz to Selmak. (Sorry the prompt gave you such trouble.)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

The prompt was marvelous. It gave me trouble because there were so many ways to approach it! Selmac tried to argue that Glinda the Good was a potential ally and Daniel wanted to discuss the underlying darkness of the Oz books and Jacob was trying to talk Selmac out of getting a portable DVD player (not even sure those existed, back in 2001!) and and and... and I just gave up and let Sam tell it from her POV, and then it finally worked. :)

I'm very glad you liked it, in the end!

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Aw, sweet. I loved Daniel's line about being the great and powerful Oz, but I'd never before realised quite how appropriate it was. And yay for Sam and Daniel being determined to rescue their teammates, and not to add them to the list of the fallen.

Apparently, her teammate had never quite imagined that part of his duties as a member of SG-1 would be trying to explain Dorothy, Toto, and the Wicked Witch of the West to an alien symbiote living inside the head of a former Air Force general.

*snerk* Really, Daniel should have seen that coming. Something like it had to happen someday.

(Heh, are you warming up to your Oz crackfic? *g*)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize how appropriate the metaphor was until I wrote this, either - with Daniel using the voice modulator and all. Fic can be scarily meta about yourself, sometimes!

And yes, Daniel should know to expect anything by now!

(Heh, are you warming up to your Oz crackfic? *g*)

Oh, yes. :)

[trindajae.livejournal.com]

You know... I opened this story expecting something light and fluffy to pass maybe 10 minutes with... and I found something I think I will actually be contemplating for awhile. Fic as meta, indeed. I entirely skipped over the Oz reference as just another in a long line of continuing jokes, but now I can't help but devote thought to the relevance of the reference. Heck, you've even got me thinking about the unexpected relevance between The Wizard of Oz and my profession (emergency services), and how sometimes the appearance of omniscience and omnipotence can be a power in and of itself.

I hope when we get to Tangent at redial_the_gate that you will voluteer to post a meta on this topic. :) If not, I'll have to, but I already know what *I* think about the topic.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's a huge compliment. Thank you! :)

I do think that the writers intended it just as a joke, and it surely works on that level. But a lot of SG-1 tends to come out that way - unexpected character arcs and meta and amazing trends, that were partially accidental and partially an almost organic growth from the richness of the characters.

We are part of a most excellent fandom! :)

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Aw, how sweet. I love how Jacob's just letting Daniel swing on this explanation to Selmak. Of course Daniel would anthropoligically explain the books. LOL

Liked Sam catching the distraction too. Aw.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I do love how Selmac seems to have mellowed Jacob out a LOT. And I suspect that Selmac's humor can be as vile as Jack's on occasion, and that Selmac possibly knew all about Oz and was just stringing Daniel along. (As I said, I started a lot of versions of this!)

And yeah, Sam knows her dad pretty well. :)

Glad you liked it!

[night-spear1287.livejournal.com]

(here via Redial fanworks)

Heh--this reminds me of the voice of my US history teacher making us read about the politics of the Wizard of Oz...but aside from evoking that somewhat traumatizing memory, this ficlet's wonderful. As people have mentioned above, there's just not enough Jacob/Selmac/Daniel fic out there, and not enough Jacob/Selmac in general. And that implication of loss and of love is terribly true for them, isn't it? I never really thought about Daniel's "Oz" line beyond the humor of the statement and perhaps Jack's influence, but it's so true that the "great and powerful wizard" fits the Goa'uld, too, as well as a US president :)

Lovely work!

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for commenting! And it's nice to know that people actually check out the fanworks links. :)

I chose not to go into it in the story itself, but Oz is pretty creepy in a lot of ways (the books, I mean, not the movie). So yeah, the Goa'uld would probably be right at home with a country where only person and her loyal minions are allowed to do magic.

Glad you liked it, either way. :)