Earring Tales: Sunbeam

Hmm. Was trying for sunlight out of the sky. Thoughts?

Track of the Apocalypse Ch2 Ficbit – Pop Culture

If they’ve got some kind of weird alien power source running a dead body – hitting that with a zat blast might be a very bad idea.

Then again, if whatever it was was running a dead body… Jack sighted on a glowing eye, and shot.

Track of the Apocalypse Ch2 Ficbit – Salvage and….

Ah hell, what do we do, we’re a half-hour from the ‘Gate as the crow flies and none of us have wings–

Track of the Apocalypse Ch2 Ficbit – Contact

Huh. There was a rustle that was not just Teal’c twitching. Jack craned his head slowly from side to side, trying to pinpoint the source. Sounded like… inside the maybe-lab. Right. Daniel had said people might be camping out in there even if they weren’t anywhere else. Maybe somebody’d worked up enough nerve for a look.

Track of the Apocalypse Ch2 Ficbit – Check-in

“Okay, people. Let’s find the front door. We should at least look polite.”

“Anywhere this solidly built might still be used as shelter,” Daniel agreed. “And I think it has been. See the wear on the path?”

Huh. Point. Nothing that looked really fresh, though given they had no clue what the weather was usually like around here that was up for grabs. “Teal’c?”

The Jaffa crouched to more closely examine the faint not-exactly-a-trail they were following, just off the street outside the complex wall. “Many feet have passed here.”

Jack nodded. “Any idea when?”

A slow headshake. And a frown. “I do not think it was within the week. But there were many.”

…Right. Major temple around the ‘Gate just a few hills over, a solid place to take shelter for the night could get a lot of travelers even if the main city was doing a good impression of playing dead. Definitely needed to lean toward the polite end of the spectrum-

A little ahead, Sam waved. “I think we found the door, sir.”

This time it was red and white paint flaking off concrete, in the same sort of pagoda-kind of shape as the gate leading out of the mountain temple. Only this entryway was taller, with a sharper-edged roof, and iron-slatted gates sitting rusty and askew under yet another faded house-circle banner.

“I really want to know what that symbol means,” Daniel said, half to himself.

Jack checked the angle of sunlight compared to the morning they’d walked into, then checked his watch. Yep. “And I’m sure the general will want to hear all about it. Let’s fill him in before we poke the possible mad scientist lab with a stick.”

Another minute clicked over, and the reassuring crackle of the radio broadcast from the MALP came over their gear. “SG-1, do you read?”

“Loud and clear, General.” And oh what a relief it was, knowing the SGC hadn’t been bodysnatched or bombed or infected by who-knew-what in the two hours since they’d left. Some days it just wasn’t worth breaking out of the infirmary.

Brief Tell No Tales Update – Page 82 and onward!

Edited through page 82 of 149 in this edit run of Tell No Tales so far.

Track of the Apocalypse Ch2 Ficbit – Scenarios

Daniel circled a finger to encompass the city as a whole. “Where does this place feel like? Besides not Earth. Culturally. The architecture. How people build is important.”

Track of the Apocalypse Ch2 Ficbit – Spur

“Be great if we could spot something that tells us which hill to-”

Sam blinked, and lifted a hand, pointing. More-or-less behind him, which if his mental map was right would be back toward the railyard, and heading anywhere near Doomtrain was not what he had in mind….

Track of the Apocalypse Ch 2 Ficbit – Locating Factors

The archaeologist peered down one of the snaking avenues. “And the edge streets here are twisty, but toward the center it starts looking more like a grid.

A Thought on Tax Reform (That’d Never Happen)

Been stuck listening to someone else argh over tax returns. You know, wouldn’t it be great if, instead of legalese boilerplate you need a magnifying glass to piece together, the IRS actually wrote in plain English?

I envision a letter something like this: