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Strange Interlude By ELG |
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A Stargate
SG-1 Alternate Universe Jack/Daniel slash novel.
Daniel discovers that in other universes not only the uniforms are different … Jack is bad tempered and his and Daniel’s friendship is starting to suffer. But when Daniel is kidnapped by an AU Teal’c very different from our own, Jack gets a timely reminder of how important Daniel is to him. An AU Jack, however, complicates the situation considerably.
Approximately
230,000+ words. Color cover. 277 pages of reduced print in 11 pt columnar
format.
Price:
$32.00 including shipping and handling via Priority mail within the USA. $35.00
Global Priority to Mexico/Canada. $37.00 Global Priority to the UK/Australia/
Germany. Other countries, please email for rates. Domestic US orders may add
insurance at the rate of $1.35 per $50.00 of coverage. Insurance is not
available for international orders.
Cover art by The Cat’s Meow Creative Arts. Interior artwork by Amy and Corinna.
All Ashton Press fanzines and
Bizarro zines are available directly from the publishers. To order fanzines,
please contact Ann Wortham at ashton7@aol.com.
Here are some short excerpts
from the novel:
It was like a garment
fraying down the seam, another stitch pulling loose every day, the rent a
little larger, then a little larger still. Soon there was going to be nothing
but an ugly tear, too jagged to ever mend …
“Off-world activation …”
The warning alarm rang
throughout the SGC to resound through the office cluttered with archaeological
artifacts and piles of books. It sounded urgent and serious; an interruption to
peaceful research, but Daniel exhaled in relief. “Saved by the bell,” he
murmured.
Having been interrupted
mid-lecture, Jack darted him a suspicious glance. “What?”
Daniel looked up at him
innocently. “What?”
“Did you take in what I
just said to you?”
“Yes.”
“About following orders, not
touching things when you don’t know what they do, shutting up when I tell you
to shut up, and generally doing as I damn well tell you?”
Daniel moistened his lips.
“Jack, you are getting seriously cranky in your old age.”
“And you came this
close to being killed!”
“We made a difference. We
got through to Ephazion. The people of that world will now …”
Jack grabbed Daniel by the
front of the jacket and hauled him to his feet. “Daniel, I swear to God I am so
close to hitting you right now.”
Looking into those
familiar brown eyes in disbelief, Daniel realized Jack wasn’t exaggerating. The
man clearly was very close to taking a swing at him. He was as shocked
by it as he was confused. He didn’t know where all this rage was coming from or
even if it was truly aimed at him, only that it was starting to eat into their
friendship like acid. “But, Jack, it all worked out fine for—”
The grip on Daniel’s
jacket tightened in unmistakable warning. “There are only so many times you can
go and tap dance your way along a tightrope over a swimming pool of man-eating
sharks and make me watch it. Sooner or later I am going to stop caring or I am
going to kill you myself. You told me it was death to argue with the—king of
that place. You told me that about ten seconds after we got through the gate.”
Jack was like a wall at
the moment. A blank façade with nothing behind it. It wasn’t like talking to
anyone he knew, more like a stranger, yet one who had inexplicably built up
four years worth of hostility towards him. Daniel shifted uncomfortably. “Don’t
you want to know who’s visiting?”
The man’s
chocolate-colored gaze didn’t so much as flicker. “You told me that because—and
I quote—you didn’t want me ‘mouthing off to a tyrant’ and getting myself
killed.”
“I heard General Hammond say
‘open the iris’ but there aren’t any teams off-world at the moment so it must
be the Tollan or the Tok’ra …” Daniel offered. He was starting to see how his
behavior on P74-659 might possibly have been perceived as “reckless” by Jack
even though he didn’t actually agree with him. Jack had been getting very
strict about what he called “reckless” behavior recently. Actually Jack had
been getting strict about everything recently, and he seemed to have had a
sense of humor bypass along the way. Daniel was trying not to get into yet
another fight with the man because he was exhausted with fighting with him, but
when Jack was in this mood it was difficult not to snap back at him. He’d
worked hard for his current position in this friendship as an equal and he wasn’t
prepared to give it up without a struggle.
Jack, however, seemed
determined not to give him an inch. All he was showing to the world was the
military guy he used to be; the human being had vanished somewhere and Daniel
missed him, and in missing him seriously resented this stranger with his face
who was blocking his access to his good-humored, kind-hearted friend. Stranger
Jack was still talking and his face was an unreadable mask:
Daniel shrugged. “I think
what you do in your own dimension is your own business, Colonel, and has
absolutely nothing to do with me.”
The man’s hand shot out so
fast, Daniel was taken completely by surprise; fingers closed on the front of
his vest and yanked him forward so they were barely an inch apart. The other
Jack gazed into Daniel’s eyes, breathing huskily, “You know if you came back to
my dimension with me, I’m sure you could teach me to be a better man, Doctor
Jackson. And seeing as how your Jack O’Neill is so damned perfect he doesn’t
even put the moves on you, I’d say my need was definitely greater than his.”
Daniel felt the man’s
breath against his mouth, smelled the familiar comforting scent of Jack’s sweat
and aftershave, felt the warmth of those strong fingers tracing an encouraging
tattoo against his arms, and realized why people experimented sometimes. He
realized too that he had been given the scenario here he had rather envied Jack
over that time loop business: no consequences. He could do anything he wanted
with this Jack O’Neill. He could even do things he didn’t think he wanted but
might like, and it would have no impact whatsoever on his relationship with the
Jack O’Neill back home.
Except it would, of
course. Even leaving aside the fact they were pretty much in the middle of a
suicide mission here and this was definitely neither the time nor the place, he
couldn’t let a man who was to all intents and purposes his best friend take
what Daniel was inclined to think of as a fairly major liberty with him, then
go back and act exactly the same with a Jack O’Neill who had no idea aforesaid
liberty had ever been taken. If Daniel didn’t like what this Jack was clearly
very eager to do to him, it was going to be weird being around Jack, and if he
did like it, it was going to be even weirder.
He dropped his gaze,
trying not to look at the man’s mouth or eyes, or to inhale the scent of him
any more than he could help. “I can’t.” After a pause he added, “Not while
there’s a chance I might be able to go home.”
O’Neill slowly released
him. “But …?”
Daniel shrugged and raked
up a smile from somewhere. “Well, let’s just say that if we both wind up in the
same different dimension, I give you permission to buy me dinner.”
There was a pause before O’Neill
gave him a slow-burning smile, which Daniel had to admit, did leave him feeling
a little breathless. “I’ll hold you to that.”
Daniel collected himself.
“We need explosives.”
“Right.” O’Neill continued
to gaze at him.
“We have to destroy the
mirror, Colonel, or Apophis is going to take over the whole damned universe.”
“Right.” O’Neill was still
looking at him like he was hypnotized.
Daniel could feel a
strange warmth creeping through him as those brown eyes seemed to gaze straight
into his soul. He had never been so aware of the sound of another human being’s
heartbeat, the warmth of another man’s body heat only a breath away from his
own.
“We have to do it now.”
That seemed to get through
and O’Neill put a hand up to his head. “Right. Do you know what C4 looks like?”
Daniel bristled in
indignation. “Yes.”
“Okay, then you look down
there and I’ll look up here and we’ll just have to hope that some of these poor
bastards were on their way to blow up something when they got caught.”
Daniel
giggled. There was no other word for it. Looking so sweet and so young and so
endearingly silly that O’Neill found himself looking at him with a
kind of wonder, smiling because he looked so happy, but with a kind of catch in
his heart, too. He said gently, “I do love you, you know.”
Daniel’s mouth gave an
embarrassed little twitch that was almost but not quite a smile. He’d looked like
that when O’Neill
told him that he believed in him; after Sha’re’s death when Daniel had been so wounded and
difficult and in need of affirmation; then when the affirmation had come he’d looked as if
he thought there must be a catch somewhere and, as he realized there wasn’t, had been so
extraordinarily touched by it. “I know.”
O’Neill studied
him for a moment. “Do
you?”
“Yes.” Daniel looked
up at him quickly, trying to appear positive. But he was discomfited by the
change of mood, happier wading in the shallows of their erogenous zones.
O’Neill bent and
brushed his lips gently with his. “You really truly deeply madly know I love
you?”
“Yes.”
“For now and
always and ever and ever?”
“Jack …” Daniel flashed
him a quick look of protest.
“What, I’m not allowed to
get mushy now?”
Daniel
looked up at him from under his eyelashes. “You’ll just wish you hadn’t said it later.”
“Because I’m such an
unevolved troglodyte?”
“No. Just because
you’re …
you.”
O’Neill kissed him
again. “You’re a very
strange man, Doctor Jackson. You’ll let me do all kinds of illicit and
possibly illegal things to your naked body but if I start trying to tell you
how I feel about you, you get all hot and bothered and embarrassed.”
“You’re the one who
said life isn’t
a chick flick.”
“I was having an unevolved
moment.” O’Neill gazed into
Daniel’s
eyes. “Do
you love me?”
“Yes!” It came out
exasperated and almost resentful. Then as O’Neill continued to gaze at him, the
irritation vanished from Daniel’s eyes to leave only the helpless longing. “Yes.” That one was
soft and wistful. “You
know I do. When have you ever not known?”
Too
many times to count when Daniel was pissed with him or yelling at him or going
off with strange women or other men with his face. But he didn’t say any of
that now. Not least because none of that mattered now. O’Neill thought of
all the times they’d
fought and all the times they’d felt their hearts turn over as they
thought the other one was hurt or lost or dead. All the times they’d been there for
one another. “You
know for a smart guy you’re pretty dumb sometimes,” he observed
conversationally. “How
could you ever not have known I love you? Look at all the crap I’ve taken from
you over the years. Look at all the really idiotic things you’ve dragged me
into because I couldn’t say ‘no’ to you. Look at all the times you gave me
gray hairs—”
“Try not to bleed
on anything you don’t
want eaten.”
Daniel shoved Jack behind him purposefully and tightened his grip on the oar.
Of course, if their last intact oar was eaten by sharks, they were just going
to drift aimlessly across the open sea, but he still felt that was preferable
to them being eaten and their bloody remains being left to drift across the
open sea. As the next shark came up at them, he hit it hard and purposefully on
the nose. It slid back into the sea, but as the next one came up it had its
mouth open wide so there was no chance of hitting it on anything except the
teeth. As the raft tipped and did its best to spill them into the waiting jaws,
Daniel tried to hold onto Jack, the mast, and the oar, only to find that Jack
was hanging onto him and the mast. “Damn it, Jack,” he breathed. “You only have one good hand.”
“I only have one
good archaeologist, too,” the man retorted.
Daniel
tried to swing the oar but the shark was faster than he was, twisting with
incredible grace and power, to snap down on the wooden spar. He hit out at it
with the piece of oar he had left and it twisted again, snapping at him
venomously. Kicking out, he hit it on the nose more by luck than judgment and
it slipped back into the water. Exchanging a look with Jack, he realized that
the sun was coming up, the man more than a ghostly glimmer now; the sea had a
red and golden haze to what they thought of as the east. It occurred to him
that it might not rise in the east on this world; they had just decided that it
did to make themselves feel less homesick. He also realized he was so tired he
was worrying about compass points because that was easier than getting to grips
with the reality of sharks closing in to eat them who were not going to just
get bored and go away.
The
raft was rocking from the force of the sea. A thump underneath it lifted it out
of the water before it fell down again with another awkward splash. He moved
close to Jack as they watched the fins circling them again, the dark bodies of
the sharks now clearly visible in the water. He could see Jack’s face—the furring
of his jaw from the new stubble: coarse silvery hair he wanted to rub his cheek
against. Another jolt from underneath the raft; another sickening pause as
their craft was lifted out of the water then allowed to drop. Another wave
washing over the timbers. Then the largest of the sharks reared out of the
water, twisting its glistening muscular body up onto the raft, jaws open, eyes
black pools of nothingness. Daniel yelled and banged the broken oar down on the
raft but it didn’t
blink; perhaps they couldn’t blink or perhaps it just didn’t care. It was
using its tail to push itself further onto the raft, tilting them dramatically.
Even clinging on tight to the mast, they couldn’t stop gravity pulling their feet nearer to
that advancing mouth. Daniel tried to get some purchase on the slippery deck
but the waves were washing over them, the other sharks gathering where their
fellow was advancing, also trying to get purchase to wriggle their way up the
slippery timbers. They snapped at one another as they tried to push themselves
up higher, the swell helping them as the waves seemed to urge them on their
way, each one that washed over the raft lifting the sharks a little higher.
Daniel saw the red trickle of Jack’s blood in the water from the gash on his
hand, the smell no doubt maddening to hungry sharks bewildered by the
disappearance of their usual food source. He yanked his foot just out of the
way of a snapping pair of jaws and saw Jack whisk his boot away from a
threshing shark just in time. Daniel hit out with the spar, but the shark
opened its jaws wide, protecting its nose and giving him only a yawning gullet
and those terrifying teeth to strike at. When the jaws snapped close on air he
swore he felt every hair on his body stand on end. Looking to Jack, he saw the
same desperation in the man’s eyes that he felt himself.
The
raft was tilting at a more and more acute angle now, more like a ski slope than
a means to float on the surface of the sea. They were both clinging to the rope
around the mast, but Daniel could see the blood running down Jack’s arm where the
man was stubbornly persisting in holding on with his injured hand and clinging
to Daniel with his undamaged left hand.
“Hold on
properly!”
Daniel demanded.
Jack
gave him his most stubborn look and Daniel had opened his mouth to tell him
what he thought of him when another wave helped the threshing sharks another
foot up the tilting raft. The vessel gave another awkward lurch and Daniel
barely whipped his foot out of the way of a pair of hungry jaws. As the other
shark lunged at him he swiped at it desperately with the broken oar and it bit
down hard on the snapped end then jerked its head to the side so savagely he
was pulled with the oar. For a sickening second he thought he was about to be
hurled into the sea and then he was yanked back by Jack’s fingers in his
t-shirt and slammed into the man, groping blindly for something to hang onto as
the next wave washed over them. He grabbed for the rope around the mast just as
the next shark lunged at them and now they had nothing with which to fend it
off except their feet. Daniel kicked out hard and connected with something
softer than teeth, but the shark only slithered back a foot at the most. “Thank you,” he breathed
quickly to Jack, horribly aware that it might be the last thing he ever got the
chance to say to him. He dug his fingers into the man’s t-shirt, all
twisted up with his need to keep a grip on both mast and man. His heart was
beating too fast and when he looked across at Jack he saw the man was also
breathing quickly. Out of the corner of his eye, Daniel saw a shark swim
purposefully past. Two advancing. One circling. Wonderful.
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