A Mini-Midlife Crisis

[hi_there_aliens]

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.

Comments

[hi_there_aliens]

"Actually, I haven't." Yet. Damn you Doctor. He'd been thinking some potentials over. The nice thing about Menkaure was that the otter seemed like a Doctor trip alarm system. It gave Daniel plenty of time to prepare for the oncoming storm and move all the most fragile artifacts out of the path of destruction that was the Doctor.

The otter slid off somewhere. Daniel didn't know where it went half the time, only that it always came back. Usually for food, it knew a good deal when it- he? saw one, but sometimes he would curl around Daniel's ankles as he worked.

Daniel set the brush down, reaching over to adjust a light so he could see better.

"Besides, it seems disrespectful calling it a corpse all the time. Or Remains BX-19 or something like that. There's more dignity to a name."

[makeherblue]

Ah, consider him surprised then! After all, from his experience archaeologists are always in a hurry to go naming things, usually wrong (and worst, boring) names, and he admitted he thought Daniel would be in a hurry to do just that. Daniel's explanation was startling, but he thought he rather liked it. Power in a name. True sometimes. Probably not here, but sometimes true. And maybe Daniel was being humanly sentimental, too, because in other cases, a corpse was just a corpse. "Recycling", he'd told Rose Tyler once, lifetimes ago.

"I'm not sure this alien would agree. But it's not like s/he's in a state to argue, so!" The Doctor clapped his hands together, glancing down at those armor plates on Daniel's mummy, the beakish face. Not a species he recognized. "I thought you would need help with the artifacts. Identifying, labeling, plaques (plaques are wonderful, aren't they?). Possibly making sure nothing has any...exploding tendencies."

Safety first! The Doctor trusted Daniel to be obsessive enough to be here who knows how long. He might be also here to make sure the human took care of himself, make sure he ate and drank and did all those human biological things.

[hi_there_aliens]

Maybe not, but the dead were dead. He couldn't ask him or her or it or all of the above what the alien preferred to be called. Daniel would jump if he had the chance to ask.

"Just like you helped on the dig?" Daniel asked. There wasn't any annoyance or sarcasm (maybe a little sarcasm) but curiosity. The Doctor had been like trying to direct a hyperactive five year old to work, or a bored cat, and alongside dealing with John, both had been trouble in their own ways. Daniel was convinced that the only reason the Doctor got any work was because of Captain Eneesh.

done He couldn't imagine the Doctor getting anything out of the "boring" parts of archaeology, which consisted of everything except the possibility of traps or explosions. That in itself was probably the reason the Doctor was actually here, rather than a sudden interest in his field.

[makeherblue]

The Doctor frowned at Daniel. "Oh, I helped. In a manner of speaking. More or less. Something to that effect."

Of course Daniel Jackson had gotten along incredibly well with Captain Eneesh. They'd been insufferable together and if there was ever a way Daniel could have found an anti-Doctor shield, it was that bug. So - so very efficient it made the Doctor's teeth set on edge! The Doctor circled around the table as he explored the lab and so far, it looked like Daniel's precautions were working. He picked up what looked like the illegitimate child of a sniper rifle and a toaster, running his long fingers over the paneling and then tilting his head, birdlike, to poke at the tag dangling from the nozzle. EXHIBIT T-A1, it said, DATE UNKNOWN. Glancing at Daniel, the Doctor pressed his ear to what he assumed was the power cell chamber. There was a very faint hum. Probably had a bit of a charge to it, whatever "it" was.

"Where's River? I would think she'd be helping you with this. I know you lot and labeling. Can't resist labels and plaques and things! Like moths. Or lemmings off cliffs. Although that saying's rubbish, it's not even true. Not entirely." The Doctor finally put down EXHIBIT T-A1. "That's probably a pulse emitter, you know."

[hi_there_aliens]

Good question. Where was River? He certainly could use an extra hand, especially one that was an actual archaeologist, but there wasn't a sign of her or the mass of curls ever since the dig. Either he could hunt her down or he could get started working.

"We must have different definitions of help," Daniel said peevishly. It felt like he or Eneesh had spent more time than necessary trying to cajole he Doctor into actually being productive. Howard, someone who didn't have nearly the same experience in space, other planets, or digs, had been far more useful than the Doctor. He kind of wished Eneesh had stayed a little longer.Maybe she could have stopped him from picking his way through his lab like he was casually going through a used bookstore.

Daniel's eyes followed the Doctor as he drifted through the room, even picked up an artifact, the one with the still active power cell. He started to get to his feet. If the Doctor didn't shoot himself with whatever that was, he was going to take out the lab. Or take an eye out.

"Doctor. Could you at least put some safety goggles on?" Daniel asked. "And how do you know? We've never seen this civilization before."

[makeherblue]

"Educated guess. You ought to try them." The Doctor was utterly shameless as always. He picked up the goggles Daniel kept trying to force on him, holding them up by the straps with a measure of disdain.

It seemed like it was a small miracle when the Doctor shrugged and started to put them on. Granted they weren't much good against radiation and in his opinion, they were just about good for cosmetic reasons and not much else. Humans and their lacking safety procedures. The goggles made the Doctor look even more like a mad professor than before, the Time Lord swiveling around on his heel and spinning as he adjusted them on his face and then peered about the room, frowning, and adjusting them once more as if they would make a difference. Next time he'd just wear his own. Daniel Jackson and proper goggles obviously didn't mix.

He wandered over to Daniel's side, hovering a little too close without realizing it.

"And what happens after you've...cataloged all this? I do hope you at least brought some proper plaques," the Doctor sniffed.