Flashback by Ellen Caldera (PG-13)
Apr. 16th, 2007 11:06 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
abyssinia4077.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
stargateficrecRec Category: Sam Carter
Pairing: none
Category: Sam Carter, Daniel Jackson, Janet Fraiser, episode related, time travel, team, Machello
Warning: Whumping, not-quite character death
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author's Website: The Tablet
Link: Flashback
Why This Must Be Read:
In a lot of ways this story is Daniel's, but it is also Sam's and SG-1's and when I read it, it was Sam who really jumped off the screen at me. Daniel is seriously injured by a strange device on an alien planet which sends him (and most of the inanimate objects in SGC) jumping through time. What follows is a brilliant time travel story, much more complicated and believable than any time travel we see on the show, and the reader follows along with the characters as they slowly try to puzzle out exactly how to get out of the mess they've stuck themselves in without losing one of their own. In the end we are given a novel, brilliant insight into a possible backstory for Machello.
Sam's determination to find her missing teammate, her emotion when it appears they've found him too late to save him, and her final, brilliant solution to the problem are all very real and very Sam within a larger story that involves all of Stargate Command. With a mixture of humor, drama, alien languages and technology, all within an involved plot about SG-1's devotion to their own, this fic could easily have been an episode on the show.
He knew instantly what thought had just crossed her mind. It had already crossed his. "Except that would be using knowledge of the future to alter the future, and we have no idea what the consequences might be. Butterflies in Hong Kong."
For an instant, he couldn't tell whether she was going to cry or scream. She looked like she could do either one, but she went another direction entirely. Somewhere in the middle, there was a fierceness that spread across her face, bringing to his mind images of Shiva, the goddess of destruction dancing between the Creator and the Preserver. "No. Screw the butterflies. I will *not* stand by and watch this happen, not if it's the last thing I do, both as your friend *and* as an officer."
The implications of one last gesture for a friend were too stinging, so he focussed instead on the "officer" half of her statement. "Sam, I can't let you jeopardize your career for me."
She was silent for a moment, but instead of the protest he was expecting, she asked a question. "Did I ever tell you why I joined the military?"
"Well, no," he replied, somewhat taken aback by the change of subject. "I assumed it had something to do with your father, carrying on family traditions, that sort of thing."
"Nope. That wasn't it at all. In fact, to be perfectly honest, there have been times when I've been tempted to resign just to spite my father. I joined the military to get a shot at the space program. It was a means to an end. And here I am. I got what I wanted, although not in quite the way I expected when I enlisted. But you know what? I've discovered along the way that there are some things much more important than goals and success and achievement, things that are much more valuable - friends, family, individual human lives. Life is such a precious gift, Daniel. A miracle. Science can't explain it, not really. It's worth more than the bars on my shoulder or a crate full of commendations. You're worth it, Daniel."
Pairing: none
Category: Sam Carter, Daniel Jackson, Janet Fraiser, episode related, time travel, team, Machello
Warning: Whumping, not-quite character death
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author's Website: The Tablet
Link: Flashback
Why This Must Be Read:
In a lot of ways this story is Daniel's, but it is also Sam's and SG-1's and when I read it, it was Sam who really jumped off the screen at me. Daniel is seriously injured by a strange device on an alien planet which sends him (and most of the inanimate objects in SGC) jumping through time. What follows is a brilliant time travel story, much more complicated and believable than any time travel we see on the show, and the reader follows along with the characters as they slowly try to puzzle out exactly how to get out of the mess they've stuck themselves in without losing one of their own. In the end we are given a novel, brilliant insight into a possible backstory for Machello.
Sam's determination to find her missing teammate, her emotion when it appears they've found him too late to save him, and her final, brilliant solution to the problem are all very real and very Sam within a larger story that involves all of Stargate Command. With a mixture of humor, drama, alien languages and technology, all within an involved plot about SG-1's devotion to their own, this fic could easily have been an episode on the show.
He knew instantly what thought had just crossed her mind. It had already crossed his. "Except that would be using knowledge of the future to alter the future, and we have no idea what the consequences might be. Butterflies in Hong Kong."
For an instant, he couldn't tell whether she was going to cry or scream. She looked like she could do either one, but she went another direction entirely. Somewhere in the middle, there was a fierceness that spread across her face, bringing to his mind images of Shiva, the goddess of destruction dancing between the Creator and the Preserver. "No. Screw the butterflies. I will *not* stand by and watch this happen, not if it's the last thing I do, both as your friend *and* as an officer."
The implications of one last gesture for a friend were too stinging, so he focussed instead on the "officer" half of her statement. "Sam, I can't let you jeopardize your career for me."
She was silent for a moment, but instead of the protest he was expecting, she asked a question. "Did I ever tell you why I joined the military?"
"Well, no," he replied, somewhat taken aback by the change of subject. "I assumed it had something to do with your father, carrying on family traditions, that sort of thing."
"Nope. That wasn't it at all. In fact, to be perfectly honest, there have been times when I've been tempted to resign just to spite my father. I joined the military to get a shot at the space program. It was a means to an end. And here I am. I got what I wanted, although not in quite the way I expected when I enlisted. But you know what? I've discovered along the way that there are some things much more important than goals and success and achievement, things that are much more valuable - friends, family, individual human lives. Life is such a precious gift, Daniel. A miracle. Science can't explain it, not really. It's worth more than the bars on my shoulder or a crate full of commendations. You're worth it, Daniel."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-04-16 06:35 pm (UTC)This fic is beautifully and powerfully written; but that twist you mentioned, that you liked? It hurts me too much to believe that character would ever reach the point of acting as Machello did in Holiday. :(
no subject
Date: 2007-04-16 06:39 pm (UTC)that twist you mentioned, that you liked? It hurts me too much to believe that character would ever reach the point of acting as Machello did in Holiday.
Really? It hit me like a ton of bricks as being scarily perfect. As in, my personal canon in my head now considers it true. Though, I agree it's creepy as hell but, I can see, if things work right, it happening like that.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 01:01 pm (UTC)I'll try to keep it vague so I don't spoil it for anyone... The concept behind the twist is amazingly superb, and dovetails nicely into the actor that played the character. All that is true. And for that character, after he suffered, to get as bitter as he was shown in Holiday... as I said, it hurts terribly. But I can sort of accept it. It's the actions that took place in Holiday, seen through the lens of the twist, that hurt too much.
"He had his life all along, now it's my turn"?
The character in Holiday was utterly ruthless. And the essential abandonment of Sha're to me is unforgiveable. If Ellen had chosen Sha're to represent the wife mentioned in the episode, I might have been able to accept it a bit more, but as it is...
I still agree it's a wonderful fic. Anyone who can write and give me such a visceral response - even if it's not a happy one - is clearly doing something right. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 01:12 pm (UTC)It is, isn't it? I mean, if anything this is a solid team story with Daniel's story as the central one and while everyone has a moment to shine, it really was Sam who completely stood out for me.
As for everything else you said, I can definitely understand thinking of it that way. I guess, I see it as very possible - but not an idea that would make me happy, if that makes sense...
no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 12:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 02:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-17 02:47 am (UTC)