By the Pricking of My Thumb
"Rada, I really appreciate you coming along with us on this mission," said Daniel to his assistant Rada Suliz. "Your meticulous attention to detail was greatly needed for this excavation. I don't know how I would get all this cataloging done if you weren't available to help. Thanks for helping out, really, I mean it."
Rada acknowledged the compliment with a bow. Daniel reciprocated with an easy smile. Daniel failed to see the sneer form on Rada's lips and a look of disgust that followed him as he turned and walked away.
Doctor Daniel Jackson had been stealing his glory for years and Rada despised him.
Rada smiled when he heard Daniel had been orphaned at eight after his parents were crushed under a cover stone. His only regret was that Daniel hadn't been standing with them at the time. His hatred running so deep he wanted the man erased from existence. To Rada, Jackson was danger prone, conniving in his persuasive abilities, and a piss-poor scientist.
It ate at him to think of all the times Daniel had been one step ahead of him by following a hunch, rather than using scientific methodology to come to a theoretical conclusion. He was the one who discovered the orb that SG-1 had brought back from P5C-353 had been trying to communicate with them, but did he jump to that conclusion? No.
Doctor Jackson had assigned him to help decipher the text on the outside of the orb. He'd studied the patterns of the code and the intermittent flashes of different images on the video screen. He'd been informed that the Colonel was trapped in the gate room but that was no reason to forgo proper procedure. The repercussions if he erred in the translation would be dire; the information had to be accurate. After hours of comprehensive study and by process of elimination he'd justifiably come to the conclusion that the orb entity was intelligent and it was trying to communicate with them.
Study completed, he headed to where Doctor Jackson and Captain Carter were working, only to find them missing. He'd had a tremendous breakthrough and important information to deliver, but there was no one to tell. So it was like a blow to the face when he asked a lab technician to convey his findings to Doctor Jackson, only to discover that the man he detested had already figured it out, and was in the gate room communicating with it.
The memory outraged Rada. "Doctor Jackson had already figured it out," he said mockingly. "All that time I spent researching and Jackson just followed another hunch. And they call him a scientist, a genius even! The man has no regard for protocols!"
He kicked the ground in anger as he recalled another event that had happened just the day before. It had been his assigned area to excavate, and out of everyone Doctor Jackson had assigned to assist him, he'd been the only one to follow the correct techniques for the recovery of artifacts and removal of soil embedded in the wall inscriptions. Everything was going smoothly until Doctor "Golden Boy" Jackson showed up and ruined it.
Given more time, Rada knew he would have figured out that the inscriptions on the wall didn't read right to left but instead continued around the edge of the wall. He would have found the lower lines of inscription in the second buried wall below the one they were excavating. The very one Daniel determined indicated the location of a trove of artifacts they'd been looking for... if only they had just let him do things the proper way. Instead, the reckless Doctor had swooped in and essentially pushed him out of the way, told him to go catalogue stuff, and dug up the area regardless of "proper" protocols... just happening to stumble across the find. A fluke, that's all it was.
But did I get any credit for it? Thought Rada, snidely. No.
A cold blackness filled him with the thought of their next encounter. Rada knew the whole "gratitude" speech Daniel had just given him was merely a stunt to keep him in his place. How stupid did the guy think he was? Why couldn't one of those accidents the infamous Doctor kept stumbling upon, result in his permanent elimination? It was iniquitous that he was being held back because of the man and he was fed up.
He spit on the ground in utter contempt at the situation and was about to head back to his tent, and his tedious cataloging, when a women's cry sang out.
"Naraya, no! Stay away from that."
Rada looked towards the commotion and saw a woman pulling a small child away from something. From this distance, he couldn't tell what it was, but curiosity urged him forward.
"This is the Arougpa, Naraya. Very dangerous! Its needle's have a poison that will make you sleep for a 1,000 days." At her words, the girl, a child of no more than three, began to cry. "It blooms early this year," the mother continued on, hugging her daughter tightly, "we must warn the village that the Arougpa Days have begun."
Bloom and thorns, okay, so it was some kind of plant, Rada deduced. He watched the woman pick up her daughter and head for the village before walking over to check out the deadly plant.
Nothing but a green plant with long, blood-red, sharp thorns at the ends—
"Wait! I've seen this before. Yes! Growing in the shaded section Daniel wants to excavate tomorrow. Better warn the team." Turning to leave, a curious thought dawned on him.
Sleep for 1,000 days.
Rada smiled malevolently and whispered, "This might be just the thing I need to get rid of a nasty thorn in my side."
With renewed enthusiasm, he strolled back toward his tent. He had cataloguing to do and Daniel wanted an early start in the morning and he didn't want to miss it.
The End
