Read STARGATE SG-1: Do No Harm for Free Online

deployed.”
    And that was true enough, dammit. “But even so, sir — ”
    “Jack, people were spooked. Hell,
I
was spooked. It was a damn close thing and you know it. This whole business of an oversight committee — it was only ever going to be a matter of time. To be honest with you I’m surprised it’s taken Washington this long.” With a grunt Hammond pushed out of the armchair to restlessly roam the carpeted space between steps and curtained French doors. “The Stargate program has snowballed. Before our eyes it’s turned into something huge and complex with political ramifications that frankly scare me to death. I can’t control them. I don’t think I even understand them all. What I
do
understand is we have to perform at peak proficiency. We no longer have the luxury of taking six weeks off while we lick our wounds. Our profile’s grown too big. Week in and week out, regular as clockwork, we have to provide tangible results to our political masters… or we will be in serious trouble.”
    O’Neill sighed. Hammond was right, but it made him sick. “Maybe we should just save the planet from annihilation a couple more times, sir,” he said, picking at a torn spot in the knee of his Levis. “I’m free this weekend, the team and I could — ”
    “Jack,” said Hammond, and rested his fists on his hips. “That’s not helping.”
    He subsided. “Sorry.”
    “Anyway,” Hammond added, and returned to his chair, “in light of this and our current personnel crisis, I have to do whatever’s necessary to protect the viability of the SGC. Which brings us back to the question of the strike team and Colonel Dixon.”
    “Let me guess,” he said. “You want to bring them in to plug the holes in our roster?”
    Hammond nodded. “Exactly. As it happens I was already in discussions to do something like this before our people started dropping like flies.”
    He was? He’d never mentioned it. “The Pentagon wants to send the strike team on field trips? How very… enterprising of them. Sir.”
Because hey, we’ve got nothing bette r to do than take amateurs sight-seeing
.
    “Nobody knows better than you, Jack, that reading about the SGC and living it are two very different things,” said Hammond, frowning. “I wasn’t happy that Frank Cromwell could come in and take over in an emergency having never set foot on the base, let alone through the Stargate. As I recall you weren’t too happy about it either.”
    No. He wasn’t. But since the black hole incident he’d been able to shove the fact of the strike team’s existence to one side and pretty much forget about them. Forget about Frank. Nostalgia was way over-rated.
    “There’s more,” said Hammond, watching him carefully. “Even though Dixon and his men are up-to-date with what’s been happening in the SGC, and even though they are top-notch Special Forces operatives with all the necessary security clearances, I’m not going to turn them loose the moment they get here. They’ll be going out as observers with established teams first, one mission each, on their own, so I can assess them and their value to the SGC.”
    Okay. I should’ve seen that one coming
. “And you want me babysitting Dixon.”
    Hammond’s eyebrows lifted. “Of course. Assuming he makes the grade — and I imagine he will, his record’s impressive — your assessment will help determine which SGC team to give him.”
    “That still only gets us one team back in rotation, General.”
    “I know. But Dixon’s second in command, Major Logan, is another possibility as a temporary team leader. If he agrees to the secondment, that is. We’ll have to play it by ear, Jack. Who knows? Fraiser could be wrong, our own people could be back on deck faster than she anticipates.”
    Not likely. They could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times Janet Fraiser had been wrong, and the general knew it.
    “Jack…” Now Hammond’s voice was gentle. “We never really