Hmm. I get the same feeling off of this that I did while writing Kingdom Come (the bank robbery fic). It's one of those stories that I'm sure will just make everyone go, "WTF?"... but then I find myself surprised. We'll see...

Oddly, I started writing it as very het... and it ended up very slashy. Now, it's a mix and isn't OT3-pure, but it's on that path.


HALF-LIFE

By Jennghis Kahn

**

Disclaimer- Don’t own nor profit from Stargate SG-1. I think they profit from us though. Yes.
Rating- Mature
Warnings- Slash, het and short graphic sexual descriptions. Cussing.
Pairings- Sam/Daniel, Jack/Daniel, Sam/Jack UST
Category- Angst, apocafic, AU
A/N- I wrote this just before Battlestar Galactica started airing last season. It’s based completely on the commercials, and kind of… kind of… drops SG-1 into a BSG AU. Mostly it just steals the premise of BSG and uses SG-1 characters.



Thanks to Courser for beta work and letting me bounce things off of her all afternoon. ;)

Summary- They’re just blood in the water…

**



He misses the sun the most. That surprises him actually. He just figured he'd miss his books or his lab or even something simple yet still man-made, like coffee or donuts. Instead, he misses the sun. The heat on his face. The brightness. Especially the brightness.

It's dark in space. All the time. There's no day or night. Time isn't measured in revolutions of the Earth nor by seasons. Time is man-made. The universe doesn't care.

He can stand at the shielded windows and watch the pinprick lights of distant stars as their ship founders on, but it's not the same. It's not the same as standing on Earth in Jack O'Neill's backyard while the man himself points out Polaris and takes a swig of beer. It's not the same as having the autumn breeze blowing cool across your skin while Sam Carter leans back against you and her hair tickles your lips. It's not the same as having the whole sky above you and seeing the look in Teal'c's eyes as he looks toward Chulak. In all the times they'd slept under the stars of one world or another, so many light years from Earth, none of those planets felt like Earth.

And this, trapped in a ship in the darkest regions of space, well, this just feels like hell.

Daniel has always been a man of the Earth. He spent his life with his hands in the dirt. He coaxed it into giving up long-hidden mysteries of forgotten tribes. He can't think about how much of it has been destroyed by the Goa'uld.

In space, he feels disconnected. He's floating away and no one seems able to stop him.

****

He doesn't often think about their last peaceful day on Earth. He doesn't think about the quiet morning before they knew. It's the last time he felt completely safe and warm and sure of himself. He remembers feeling lazy and drowsy from the night before. He remembers the sweet taste of hot coffee with too much sugar in it. He remembers the wet-sand smell of his lab. He remembers Jack's eyes without that hard edge that will soon take over; Sam’s easy smile directed solely at him as they share an unspoken thought; Teal’c’s low, gentle voice, questioning him with curiosity and not filled with the harsh, hoarse cry of a man defeated.

He doesn’t think of it often because it's become sacred to him, and he doesn't want to expose it to the harsh reality their life has become now. He's not sure it could hold up and is afraid it might be destroyed, like Earth and his life and… hope.

He doesn't think about how the Goa'uld finally destroyed Earth and the Asgard.

Sometimes, he thinks about how they all got here, beamed aboard an Asgard carrier like a human Noah's Ark; the Asgard, in a last dying gasp, waving bony, green fingers and sending the carrier into deep space, away from the Goa'uld. So far away, that they aren’t sure, even now, exactly where they are.

He thinks a lot about how they struggle with technology that's lifetimes ahead of them and about the archives of Asgard DNA hidden away in one of the labs.

He misses Teal'c.

****

The Asgard are not among them. It's possible there are no Asgard left in the universe at all. Their reasons for saving the Tau’ri are unclear. It's possible they simply wanted humans to go on. It's possible they wanted guardians for their DNA and felt their best chance to live again was with man.

They either didn't have the time or they didn't feel the need to pick the best of Earth's people to survive. A catalog of survivors shows they simply took every person they could get a lock on within a five-mile radius of General Jack O'Neill. It includes soldiers and scientists, convenience store clerks and janitors. Whole families taken from their homes and isolated humans driving by in cars.

Daniel is reassured that most of the remaining staff of the SGC was taken since Jack was in the gateroom when the Asgard retrieved them. They have doctors and mechanics, cooks and industrial engineers.

The confusion was debilitating.

They are still finding the bodies of the suicides. They are tucked away in dark corners of the ship like animals crawling away to die alone. The whole world has been lost. For some, life has become negligible.

Daniel has lost his world as well, but he’s been through this before. He’s lost his world many times and gone on. When his parents died, when he was blacklisted, when Sha’re was taken. This time, he’s lost his world but not the people he loves. He’s starting to wonder though… how long until he finds Jack or Sam tucked away in a corner.

**

On the day the earth ended, Teal’c was with them. The four of them braved the confusion while Jack talked to the Asgard and assumed control of the ship. They waited just a little too long and a Goa’uld fleet cut them off. The Asgard were dying, but the Goa’uld didn’t realize and therefore, the killing blow never came. The Goa’uld were still wary of the Asgard… just in case.

The Goa’uld made a demand. The Asgard made a deal. One life for many was the logical thing to do. Jack turned to the rest of SG-1, but he avoided Daniel’s gaze. He and Teal’c stared at each other and talked without words. It took a few moments for Sam and Daniel to realize what was happening. Sam cried out and lunged for Teal’c, but he was gone in a blinding flash.

He didn’t return. The Asgard carrier with the last of the Tau’ri was allowed to leave, but the Goa’uld would follow when it suited them. It was the best deal the Asgard could broker.

When Sam turned accusing eyes on Jack, he told her she would never understand. If hating him helped her, she was welcome to her crutch.

He told Daniel that he and Teal’c had an understanding and neither Sam nor Daniel had any right to that. Daniel didn’t agree. He still doesn’t.

The good-nature is gone from Jack’s dark eyes now. He took control of the ship and the survivors of Earth with an ease that Daniel knew he didn’t feel.

Now, he is on endless duty. They will not see the Jack who cracks jokes in times of stress, anytime soon. He buries himself in the forward cabin and, for a long time, they only know he’s still alive when they hear his voice echoing through the ship’s intercom system.

Sam lives in the engine room. They struggle to understand the technology, and some days are better than others. She and Siler work and study until they fall asleep where they stand. The Goa’uld will come for them soon, and they understand their own ships. They will come with speed and intent and weapons aimed to kill.

With the exception of life support, the other systems take a back seat to the engines. People seem to understand this. When Daniel goes to visit Sam, he finds extra rations and candy bars sitting outside the engine room doors. Offerings and sacrifices to the scientists who hold their fate in brains working on overdrive and hands with grease under the fingernails.

Daniel doesn’t have a job. For a while, he’s the liaison between the civilians and the military. As the human numbers dwindle and become more resigned to their fate, this becomes less important. Less necessary.

Soon, he simply wanders the ship and looks for ways to make himself useful. Jack eventually lets him in. Sam never barred him from her to begin with. He becomes their connection to themselves and to each other.

He thinks that this is what really happens when you’re the last of your race. You become a shell of your former self. Your whole being becomes centered on escaping predators. You wait for the glint of teeth or flash of claw to finally bring an end to you. You feel your own desperation, and you know they can smell it.

The Tau’ri are now just blood in the water.

**

When Siler breaks his glasses working on a venting problem, one of the men who wears a similar prescription gives his up for the mechanical engineer. The doctors struggle with medical technology that isn’t made for human physiology. They can cure spinal paralysis but not myopia. There’s no way to make glasses yet.

Daniel wonders if there’ll come a time when he’ll have to give his own glasses up to someone who needs them more. He’s oddly reminded of that episode of the Twilight Zone where the man who loves books builds a bomb-shelter and fills it with tomes. When the end of the world comes, he refuses entrance to his neighbors, happy to finally be alone with his books and have the time to read them. Sadly, he breaks his glasses and is so blind without them he can’t read a word.

Irony. There was a time when Daniel found some beauty in that word.

**

He is aware that Sam and Jack used to have something more than what they have now. How funny that when the regs meant something, they pined away for each other, taking comfort in one another when they could. Now, when the regs are nothing more than meaningless words in books long gone, they refuse to give in or acknowledge the possibility that they need each other. He thinks maybe it’s the last remaining life jacket they wear in an effort to keep their heads above water. They bleed and reek of hunger and need, but they insist on floating instead of swimming. Maybe that life jacket will keep them from drowning. Maybe if they don’t see the circling sharks, they don’t exist.

Daniel’s much more pragmatic these days. Maybe he always has been.

Still… he’s surprised when he tests Jack’s need one night and finds it razor sharp and stretched thin. Jack spins him up against the wall of his quarters and buries his face in Daniel’s nape. Daniel breathes hard against the Asgard bulkhead, his muscles aching in an attempt to keep himself from being pushed into the wall as Jack presses against him. Jack doesn’t fuck him, and Daniel’s grateful for that in Jack’s current state of mind. Jack slides his hard cock against the base of Daniel’s spine, his voice thick and hoarse against Daniel’s neck.

“I never asked for this,” he groans.

At first, Daniel thinks he’s talking about this… this sliding of skin and grinding of hips. But then he realizes that Jack is struggling under the weight of a dead world. He’s still chained to it through responsibility. The legend of the Tau’ri rests on his head now.

“I know,” Daniel replies softly, a catch in his voice as Jack slides one arm around his chest. “You don’t have to do it alone, Jack.”

Jack gasps but says nothing. He buries his nose in Daniel’s hair and presses hard lips against Daniel’s ear, hips sliding faster.

Daniel squeezes his eyes shut against the fear and presses back against him and feels Jack come against his lower back. Jack sounds like he’s full of pain rather than pleasure, but Daniel understands that.

When he spends the night with Jack, he’s always drained and tired the next morning. The weight that Jack carries is overwhelming. Helping to support it is exhausting. The stronger Jack becomes, the more Daniel shoulders. He keeps his own quarters because he needs to breathe once in a while. He doesn’t have a life jacket.

**

Sam is different. He drowns with Sam too, but it isn’t as desperate.

Sometimes he stays awake, no matter how tired he is, and waits for her shift to end. Then he crawls quietly into the bay and curls up beside her, his hands finding warm, smooth skin in the darkness. She only wakes long enough to smile and shift the blanket so he can have some. Usually her and Siler sleep different shifts, one of them always awake to watch the ever-working machines. Sometimes, after a really bad day, Siler is pressed against her back when Daniel comes in. It annoys him, and it annoys him that it annoys him, but he doesn't care. He just curls up next to her anyway. Sam always turns and fits herself against him.

In the hierarchy of her pack, Daniel has high status. More than Siler. More than anyone. Except maybe Jack. But Jack doesn't ever sleep here. Jack only comes here when he absolutely has to and that's not often.

They can't sleep longer than a few hours or the dreams start, so they always wake and whisper softly to each other. Sometimes Sam breaks out the chocolate, one of the tributes of the people to their mechanical goddess. They share it with near orgasmic moans of bliss then lick each other's fingers clean. He loves those moments, even though it brings Earth too close to them. He loves the feel of her sleek, soft tongue on his fingers. It sends a thrill straight to his groin and makes his cock twitch.

He tells her about the sun one night. Or was it day?

"I miss the sun the most," he whispers to her sadly.

She runs her thumb through the hair on his temple and kisses him chastely. More chastely than he'd like. "I'll find you another one,” she promises. She isn't joking, and he buries his face in her neck, letting her rub circles on his nape while he cries without tears.

***

When he tells Jack about the sun, he gets a typical Jack response. Something about skin cancer and sunglasses. Daniel feels a little pissed off, but Jack is peeling Daniel’s shirt off and tugging at his belt. Daniel is already half hard. He decides to try a demand of his own.

"I want Sam back."

"I know." Jack runs a roughened cheek over Daniel’s lips.

"Jack."

"I know." His hands tremble a bit as they shove Daniel’s trousers down.

His hands are sliding down Daniel's thighs then, digging into the curved muscle, sending heat right to Daniel’s balls. Jack whispers a promise that he'll talk to her tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

Always tomorrow. Whatever gets Daniel on his belly the fastest. And Daniel thinks about resisting, but soon enough finds himself moaning into his pillow, fingers grasping handfuls of blanket as he pushes back against Jack.

When Jack's finished, he sleeps like the dead, exhausted. And in the morning, his promises are forgotten. He stays in the forward cabin, leading the blind. Sam stays in the engine room, giving him the power to do so.

Daniel wanders the ship like the ghost he's become.

**

When Daniel brings Sam up again, Jack gets mad. His eyes are trying to blink away the pain, and Daniel sees that mentioning Sam is like pouring salt into an open wound.

“I can’t take her away from the engines, Daniel.”

“She can sleep here with us. Or we can sleep there with her. She needs us.”

Jack wavers. For a moment there is an overwhelming display of emotion in his gaze. Longing, guilt, despair and resignation. Daniel wonders if there was more going on between them than he ever imagined. He wonders if Jack believes in karma, and finds that utterly arrogant in conjunction with the end of the world. Then Jack is stone again, and Daniel feels that heavy, electric stillness that hangs heavy in the air before a storm.

“What are you complaining about? I chose you, didn’t I?” Jack finally lashes out.

For the first time ever, Daniel throws a punch at Jack. It glances off Jack’s jaw and barely staggers the man, but it sends a numb pain through Daniel’s arm. Jack stares at him in surprise and then amusement, which doesn’t quite cover the haunted look. Daniel doesn’t bother with name-calling. He just walks away.

He spends the next three nights sleeping with Sam. The first night she knows something is wrong but doesn’t press him. The second, she drags their blankets away from Siler and pulls Daniel to her in the darkness. He kisses her hard and she takes his anger. She lets him bury himself deep inside her and finish without making her come. She moves his hand away when he tries to correct that situation. They sleep lightly and he doesn’t tell her what happened with Jack.

The third night she lets him bring her to a shuddering and silent orgasm and he feels that at least half of his new life is all right. They talk quietly in the aftermath, but he still doesn’t tell her about Jack. She knows anyway. In the morning, she tells him he has to go back to Jack.

“Why?”

“Because he needs you, Daniel.”

“I don’t really care.”

“Bullshit. He doesn’t have something concrete to focus on like I do. I have my engines and my crystals. He has to focus on worry. He needs you.”

“He needs you too.”

She doesn’t answer, but ducks her head away from him. He realizes how much she still loves Jack then. How much she loves them both. He used to be the one who understood human behavior, not Sam. But Jack’s military psyche has always eluded him, and that’s always annoyed him.

He kisses Sam and leaves. He knows he will spend more nights beside her. He used to think he could live without her. That as long as he had Jack on some level, it wouldn't matter. He'd thought he and Sam could be The Science Twins forever and never be anything other than friends who could give each other up if it came to that.

But that was before their hearts were broken by the Goa'uld. It was before they realized that SG-1 had infected them like a virus, making all of them incapable of having any sort of working relationship with someone outside of the team.

Before he’d been inside her...


**

"Gonna make you see the sun."

Daniel gives a sharp, bitter laugh at Jack’s arrogance. Even as his dick practically leaps into Jack's hand and the gasps escape his throat. "God,” he gasps. "You can be so fucking arrogant now."

Jack doesn't answer. His mouth is sucking at Daniel's nape. He has one hand wrapped around Daniel's cock and the other pushing two fingers into Daniel’s ass. Daniel braces himself against the atmosphere-shield, staring out at the stars. He has a brief, unreasonable fear that the shield will give way and they'll plunge into space, gasping for air until their bodies explode in a rain of carbon-based goo.

The fear goes away when Jack pushes his cock inside of him. Jack wouldn't allow the universe to fuck him over like that again. Not now.

Daniel hates him at that moment. Just a little bit. He hates that Jack feels weak and powerless. He hates the arrogance that hides it. He hates that Jack let Teal'c give himself away. He hates that Jack allows Sam to stay away from them. He hates that they're all blood in the water...

But as his body stiffens and the pleasure burns him alive, he groans and squeezes his eyes shut.

The sun explodes behind his eyelids.

He decides to love Jack instead.

-end- (maybe…)



Er, I think I wrote Bastard!Jack again. Really, I tried to fix that a bit, but apparently I love him so...