STARGATE SG-1: Do No Harm by Karen Miller Read Free Book Online

secrets were just about Earth. He could only imagine how hard it was for the Jakes of the base, who had to hide truths the size of galaxies.
    Marriage and the Stargate: not a match made in heaven.
    After Lee he visited with the other people stuck in the windowless concrete limbo that was the SGC infirmary: Mike Powell, Ed Mason, Sharon Roskovitch, Mick Coburn, Felicity Samson. They were all ridiculously pleased to see him, eager to know what was happening out there while they were stuck in here. He told them what he could, played the optimistic cheerleader, threatened them with dire repercussions if they didn’t get off their butts and back to work.
    They made fun of his trick knee, and he let them.
    “Thanks for stopping in,” said Janet, waylaying him as he took his leave of the infirmary. “It means a lot to them, that you take the time.”
    She was always professional, always immaculate, even in the midst of a crisis. But he knew her well, now, as well as she knew him… and beneath the consummate professional was a sensitive woman in pain.
    “You doing okay?” he asked.
    “I’ll tell the truth if you will,” she countered. “Has something happened?”
    She was such a hard-ass. “I’m fine,” he said again.
    The glint in her eyes said she heard the lie, but she didn’t challenge it. “Okay. Well, I’ve got work to do. I’ll catch you later.”
    That was another thing about Janet Fraiser; she almost always knew when to push and when to back off. “You didn’t answer my question,” he said, pushing a little himself for a change.
    “I’m sad,” she said, after a moment. “And I’m angry. And I know we did our best. And I know our best isn’t always good enough. Sometimes you lose. And I hate that.” She sighed. “I’m fine.”
    He let her see his doubt. “Yeah?”
    “I’m as fine as
you
are,” she said sharply.
    Ouch. “Then we’re both hunky dory,” he replied, and kept on walking.
    Break your ankle, Dixon. Crash your car. Get heatstroke. Anything. Just… don’t come.

Chapter Three
     
    “So, Dixon,” said General Scott McCreary. “That’s the mission, in a nutshell.”
    David Dixon, Colonel, Air Force Special Forces, Pentagon strike team leader, nodded slowly and hoped his face was suitably blank. “Yes, sir. I understand, sir.”
    He was being seconded to the SGC? Handed over like a piece of spare equipment? Surrendered to the tender mercies of one Colonel Jack O’Neill? Still…
    I’m going through the Stargate? Okay. Breathe, Dave. Breathe
.
    “It’s not mandatory,” McCreary added. “You can turn this one down if you want to.”
    That made him blink. “Ah — I can?”
    His boss nodded. “I know the military’s not a democracy, and if this was a normal, ordinary kind of mission I’d put your butt on a transport and not lose a moment’s sleep. But this is different. I’m not going to order you — or your men, for that matter — to turn intergalactic traveler.” He snorted. “You know, just saying that makes me feel ridiculous.”
    Dixon swallowed a smile. He had a lot of time for Scott McCreary. “Yes, sir.”
    “It doesn’t make
you
feel ridiculous, Dixon?” McCreary’s ice-gray eyes squinted. “You don’t feel like an idiot, thinking of yourself as an intergalactic traveler?”
    “Well… the thing is, sir, I
don’t
think of myself like that. I doubt I’ll think of myself like that if I
do
take the assignment.”
    “You’re turning it down?”
    “I didn’t say that, sir.”
    “George Hammond needs you, Dave,” said McCreary, spatulate fingers drumming his Pentagon desktop. “You and your team. His people have taken one hell of a beating the last few weeks. They’re still standing but they’re rocky. Hammond’s a good man. One of the best. I want us to help him out if we can.”
    Dixon knew as well as McCreary did the kind of beating the SGC had been taking lately. They both read the classified mission reports. It was… odd… experiencing