trans_9 | A Mini-Midlife Crisis

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A Mini-Midlife Crisis

Where to start? He had to resist the urge to pick at the little square bandage on his forehead or the stitches. Daniel put his hands on his hips, where they couldn't get anywhere near his head, and surveyed what was going to temporarily be his domain. Until he got kicked out, at least, but until then, he was determined to squat here. As makeshift archaeology labs went, he'd worked with less. It was a lot to take in; there were an impressive amount of artifacts from the dig. They probably didn't even scratch the surface of Taleen, but they'd brought back a lot anyway. The room was crowded. Practically overflowing. An archaeologist's wet dream. Maybe not Meaning of Life Stuff, but this could keep a person occupied for months. Maybe years, depending on how thoroughly you wanted to go into it.

Daniel didn't make any motion to begin on any of them. He sat down and looked at the tables.

What the hell was he even doing here? Once the excitement and rush wore off, Daniel realized how inappropriate this was. Talk about a lack of priorities. The fact that he was still thrilled about the prospect of spending a day studying them angered him at the same time as it excited him. Sha're was out there, still a host. Or maybe not, if his universe really had been destroyed. Daniel had a hard time wrapping his head around the concept. Part of him still didn't believe it was true. He wanted proof. Something besides Stacy and the Daligig's word. At the same time, having actual proof only meant that what felt like a terrible possibility became cold, hard fact. Maybe he didn't want to know. It was easier on his sanity if he could wonder if SG-1 was out there still.

And here he was, about to get arm deep in relics and a dead civilization. Like it had any bearing on what was supposed to be the most important thing. He should be trying to get back home or - or do something to help everything and everyone he ever cared about.

Sure thing, as soon as he found some good options. So far, Daniel didn't see anything better than staying on this ship. Even if he found a Stargate, it wasn't like he could abandon ship. It wasn't a matter of attachment but practicality. Where would he go? No point of origin, or maybe they were different, and even if he went back to this Earth, nothing was quite the same. It wasn't his universe. He was better off sticking with Stacy, Daniel had to admit to himself. Everything seemed to converge on her. If anything was going to come up that would help, it would more likely happen around her. That left him doing missions while he was on board, working. Maybe they'd find something on one planet, something that could helped his universe. Even with the destruction of Thor's Hammer, he had a chance to find something to help Sha're.

Daniel took a breath. He stood up. He could make himself useful until the next mission. He had a few things he wanted to study first. The mummy they brought back lay on the table. He was dying to start on it. Or there were the Goa'uld devices.

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Karis occasionally swept through the science department to pilfer small items that she might find useful and to just poke around and see what other 'engineers' and scientists did. See if she could use any of it. Today happened to be one of those days. She poked her head through the door and then sidled in, eyes locked on the strange mummy on the table.

"Welp, that's a pretty dead corpse you've got there. Whatcha gonna do with it?"

Sure, it was old and musty, but it was still meat.

Daniel looked up. He paused. He took his glasses off, rubbed at his eyes with his forearm, and put them back on, as if he wasn't sure if he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.

If he hadn't dozed off in the middle of the lab, Daniel was looking at a dead person. Who was talking to him. He discreetly pinched himself. Nope, not asleep. There really was a walking corpse across the table. His first instinct wasn't to run. It was to look down at the table, to make sure that the body was actually still there and not up and running around. And had apparently changed species.

Daniel had to admit it. Stacy finally stumped him. He'd been prepared to see everything in the universe but the undead. Now he did actually have a living dead in front of him. The linguist in him cringed. There had to be a better way to refer to them. She wasn't eating him or making any aggressive moves, and right then was where Daniel decided he'd watched one too many zombie films. He'd only seen two. That was already two too many.

"Being dead is generally the idea behind a corpse," Daniel said. He was proud that he came off as professional sounding and not puzzled or shaken. "I'm going to study it. "

He held out a gloved hand. "Daniel Jackson."

Karis let Daniel collect his wits. For the few moments it took him, she smirked. She liked seeing people freak out when they saw her for the first time. Or, at least she thought she did. The fact that her mother had been aboard and reacted so poorly was another thing to think about, but something she was trying to bury. Harassing people seemed like a good way to start.

She leaned forward on the table and cocked her head to peer down at the mummy, the little yellow lights that served her as eyes running over the dried-out corpse. Bodies had stopped bothering her a long time ago - she'd seen quite a few of them. Hell, she might as well be one at this point. After a moment, she finally glanced up with a wide grin that revealed far too many sharp, pointy teeth. She reached out to shake with her own clawed, bony hand. At least he was polite!

"Karis Needleteeth. I'd have t'argue the whole idea of being dead being the purpose behind being a corpse, but I think I might be a little biased, yeah?"

She snickered. It wasn't a particularly nice sound, "Anyway, what're you gonna do with this thing after you study it? You're not gonna need it, are you?"

"Nice to meet you." Three guesses to where she got her name and Daniel didn't think anyone would need more than one. Were they filed? Naturally like that? The glowing eyes were interesting. It was almost like two tiny lanterns.

Now that he was getting used to the idea of an actual walking undead, he could let his curiosity move to the forefront. Maybe he hadn't gotten used to the idea, not really, but if he could just think of her as yet another culture from another planet, and maybe they weren't actually dead just looked it, Daniel thought he could make it through the conversation without offending her.

"Yeah, maybe," Daniel kept a straight face when she laughed, even if it was like stubby nails on an especially dusty, dry chalkboard. He'd heard worse from Jara, but this wasn't any fun either. Daniel looked down at the mummy. It was in slightly worse shape than Karis was. "I don't know yet. Why are you asking?"

Karis took another sniff and then leaned back, tongue clicking against her teeth as she considered. This Jackson guy didn't seem too put out (well, maybe). Then again, she liked making people sweat. Made her feel like the whole "living monster" thing was worth it. She finally shrugged.

"Eh, it's just hard to get my hands on any meat, even stuff this old. Slop works, but it's not the same, you know?"

Yes, that was her implying cannibalism.

Daniel seemed to twitch, an all over reaction, and not all of it completely to the fact she just insinuated that wanted to eat this body as if it were so much beef jerky, but that she'd even think of devouring the only remaining body of an alien species that was long dead. A priceless artifact! A string of revulsion shot through him, something that despite his attempts to remain impartial as an anthropologist, was hard to get rid of. Several cultures he'd studied practiced the occasional cannibalism, and so did the animal kingdom, making it a social taboo, but that didn't stop the kneejerk reaction.

Daniel's face looked strained.

"I can see that, but I'm afraid you can't have this when I'm done," Daniel said sternly. "We'll either find a way to properly store or display the body, or we'll give it last rites if we find them."

"Last rites, last rites..." Karis snorted. She obviously didn't think that highly of funeral rites. Or at least not the funeral rites of people she didn't know. Truth be told, after ten years of being very dead, she didn't quite understand the fascination the living had with making sure dead bodies were respected. Of course, she was also a zombie, so she was probably biased. She clicked her tongue and then went on sardonically.

"I really don't get why you breathers get so upset about bodies. You never wanna do anything useful with them and you all pitch a fit whenever somebody suggests that hey, we actually do something with a waste of space," Her face split into a grin. The fact that she was getting under Daniel's skin was a plus, as far as she was concerned, "But no! It's always, 'Bury it' or 'burn it'. Besides... nobody gave me any last rites and I turned out just fine, didn't I?"

Sure, just fine if you overlooked the cannibalism. Although it probably didn't actually count as cannibalism since they were different species. But still, once he got over the initial shock, the outrage that followed was surprisingly stronger. You didn't just offer to take the last remaining body of an extinct species off an archaeologist's hands just for a quick meal!

Dead or um, undead, which Daniel thought was a terrible way to refer what Karis apparently was, especially since "living dead" negated each other, Daniel had his limits. This was one of them.

"I'd really prefer if you don't call me a breather. I have a name." And he was doing something useful, he was studying it. Not everything had to come down to fulfilling basic biological needs, like food. Daniel took a look down at the mummy and was no more hungry than he was five minutes ago. Or ever, if this was his choice of meals. Daniel set his foot down. "Look, differences between how we live and how you do aside, you can't have this mummy. And I found it. You didn't."

Completely mature, but Karis had forced him to resort to falling back on it.

Edited 2011-10-07 00:13 (UTC)

"A lot of people have names," Karis pointed out helpfully as she continued to examine the body. It looked interesting, anyway. No way to tell how it would taste unless she actually sunk her teeth into it and Daniel didn't seem very inclined to allow her to do such a thing. She finally raised her hands in a defensive, warding gesture.

"Right, right. Apologies, Doc. I'm not a thief, even if I am a zombie. You're not tryin' to say anything about zombies, are you?"

When in doubt, change the subject, put the other guy on the defensive.

She really called herself a zombie. He hoped she was joking. If that's what she really called herself, he had to say it. He didn't know if he could say it seriously yet. Daniel was still on the part where he was talking to a walking corpse. Did she decay or had she been preserved at the time of death? She was either human, and it happened through some outside influence, or she was something close to human and this was a natural part of their life cycle.

"I don't," Daniel said smoothly. "I just have a problem with people wanting to destroy a priceless artifact."

Nice try but he knew what she was trying to do.

"A body is a body," Karis replied smoothly, "Once someone is dead - and I mean dead-dead, not walking around dead - they don't care what happens to 'em. There's nothing. So why waste time pretending that it matters?"

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A Mini-Midlife Crisis

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