Winds of Change

A lot can change in a year.

Having lived on Abydos for such a period of time, Daniel Jackson might be forgiven for not knowing that. True, Shau'ri decided to change the spelling of her name to "Sha're," but apart from that, life has gone on as normal, or at least as normal as life can be without an alien posing as the ancient Egyptian sun god Ra. But it's a good normal. Time has stopped but in joy rather than sorrow, in freedom rather than slavery. And while the world's stargate remains ready for use, no-one has sought to utilize their oppressors' technology. It's what could come from the other side that concerns them.

Then again, a box of tissues isn't what they were expecting...

Daniel is grateful of course. True, the stargate is active (though didn't have the strudel coming from its backside this time for some reason) but if all Earth wants to do is send him a gift for helping save humanity from being annihilated by Ra, then it's a gift he's grateful for. He ran out of anti-histamines long ago so scribbling a thank you note and request for more, Daniel sends the box back.

All things considered, he knows he shouldn't be surprised when Jack O'Neil leads a team back to Abydos. But he is...

O'Neil has changed. For the better in some ways-he's certainly more cheerful at least and doesn't strike Daniel as the sort of person who's come back to finish the job he was sent for a year back. Yet he also looks older...certainly older than one year could account for. True, Shau'ri (sorry, Sha're) has changed radically but even so, the colonel catches the archaeologist off guard. Gray hair, a different facial structure...oh, and his last name now has two Ls, making it O'Neill.

On the other hand, Feretti and Kawalsky are there as well, which is nice to see. Even if they too have changed physically and Feretti is now spelt Ferretti. Must be a new cultural norm on Earth. Or maybe the planet itself has shifted, considering that according to Samantha Carter, Abydos isn't actually in the Kaliem Galaxy but is actually the Milky Way and the closest planet with a stargate to Earth. Go figure.

Then again, Daniel Jackson doesn't have long to "go figure" as some might put it. Because with another god-like being arriving on Abydos, kidnapping Sha're and killing anyone who gets in his way, he knows the time has come for actions, not words. Telling the Abydonians to bury their stargate, he thus returns to Earth. This will keep them protected at least-anything coming through a buried gate will be fossilized in the rock around it.

Or simply splatter according to the iris technology waiting for him on Earth's stargate. Obviously the laws of physics have changed. So has Creek Mountain for that matter. The control room is adjacent to the gate rather than hanging over it for starters and...well, quite a few other things. But then again, this is Cheyenne Mountain, and the stargate has always been here since it was unearthed back in 1928. Obviously the good doctor has spent too much time away from Earth and forgotten the facts of life. Facts such as him claiming that aliens built the pyramids while Daniel seems to recall distinctly stating in his lectures that he didn't know who built them.

General Hammond is hostile to the doctor but at least O'Neill is still friendly (or rather more friendly, all things considered). Shame that the man lost his son Charlie (who, a year ago was actually called Tyler) and his wife Sarah leaving him as a result, along with changing her name to "Sara." Daniel wants to ask why so many people have changed their names but thinks better of it and gets ready to chase after the Ra-wanabee. After all, each planet has its own set of symbols if Abydos is anything to go by and finding the correct code to dial back to Earth nearly killed him.

Well, it did actually, but Ra resurrected him. A one-time occurrence he's sure.

At least chasing after the kidnappers is easy this time. Turns out that every stargate in the Milky Way has common symbols apart from the point of origin and the whole facade of translating the ones on Abydos was nothing but a mass hallucination. A hallucination that Ra's species, the goa'uld, are most decidedly not as events Chulak show. Apparently Ra wasn't the last of his race and despite Daniel's imagination, was not a gray humanoid being but rather a snake-like parasite. A parasite that forms the basis of the jaffa's strength. Odd that Ra didn't have them at his side, come to think of it, but in the battle to escape back to Earth with all those that Apophis abducted, Daniel doesn't have time to think about it.

But he does anyway. And after contemplating all that's changed over the past year when arriving back on Earth, not even suspecting that the real Anubis and Horus are actually System Lords rather than servants of Ra...

...well, suffice to say that Kawalsky isn't the only one with a headache.

A/N

For someone who saw the original Stargate film before SG-1 was developed, the changes I encountered when I first looked up info on it were a bit jarring. Obviously different appearances and actors are perfectly understandable but different spellings is either careless or weird and changes such as converting Ra's species to the goa'uld and changing the locations of Abydos and Creek Mountain...well, it makes for a more open universe, but still, I can't help but keep the original film and novels in my mind.

Still, this was meant as a sattire rather than a protest, so no biggie.