AUTHOR: DebiC

EMAIL: dcole6@satx.rr.com

DATE: 31 July 2001

STATUS: Finished

CATAGORY: Word of the Month Challange

SPOILERS: None really, maybe references to MSgt Siler in The Curse and Entity.

SEASON/SEQUEL INFO: Fifth season.

RATING: PG, Jack has such a mouth and Daniels been around him too long!

PAIRING: None

SUMMARY: What can happen when you mix two geniuses, an Alien Gizmo, and Mr. Fixit.

DISCLAIMER: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

NOTES: Thanks to Crash Kelly and Madeline for the Betaing.

SPARKS

Colonel Jack O'Neill was strolling down the hallway on level 27, the 'lab' level. This was where all the alien equipment (or 'stuff' as he insistently referred to it) that they discovered on different planets came initially to be examined, tested, and basically figured out by the scientist-types before they were shipped to Area 51 for storage and/or 'backwards engineering' to see how they worked.

Jack was here in sci-fi land looking for his own two scientists, Major Samantha Carter and Dr. Daniel Jackson. His team had returned yesterday from a planet where they had discovered some gizmo that Carter was absolutely positive was an energy generator. So they had loaded the thing on the equipment sled and merrily trundled it back through the Stargate to SGC headquarters. Immediately after the debriefing, the two errant geniuses had disappeared into sci-fi land and not been heard from again.

Now, here he was, wandering around looking for them. When Jack checked into the Mountain this morning he had inquired and been advised that neither of his lab rats had left the base last night--which meant that Carter and Daniel had probably A: Not left the lab, B: Not slept, and C: Not eaten since they had returned from the mission. He was determined to save them from themselves. His mission, and he had chosen to accept it, was to free said scientists from the evils of curiosity and overwork so that they could do pizza and beer at his house this evening. They would attend, even if it came down to Teal'c and him dragging them kicking and screaming from the lab. He figured he could get Carter and the Jaffa could manhandle Daniel if necessary.

As he wandered down the hall peeking in doorways, he heard two familiar voices. "Ouch, dammit. Stop it!"

"Daniel, I'm not doing anything. Just stand still and stop moving."

"If you're not 'doing' anything, then how come it's still happening?"

"I don't know, and unless you stand still, I won't be able to find out." Silence, then another outcry.

"Sam! Ooahch."

Then her voice. "Shit, that hurts."

"I know! I know it hurts. It's been hurting. Make it stop!" Daniel whined, sounding remarkably like a miserable four-year-old.

"Daniel, I'm sorry. I don't know how." Regret colored Carter's response.

"Peachy, just peachy!"

O'Neill approached the doorway and peered in. "What's up, kids?"

Two pair of blue eyes widened as the sound of his voice. In unison two voices cried. "Nothing!"

As he stepped into the room, he took in the scene. The gizmo was sitting on a lab table partially disassembled. A panel had been removed, and some crystals were extended out from it. Several tools lay discarded around the table. Daniel's glasses and watch lay next to them. The two scientists were several feet away from the worktable; Sam perched on a stool next to her fellow team member. She had several wires in her hand and Daniel had several electrodes hanging from him; one on his hand, one on his exposed chest just below his collarbone and another attached to his right temple. Jack frowned in their direction.

"Carter, what are you doing to Daniel?" Jack asked suspiciously.

"Well....I was trying to, umm...I mean, we had a little....

Daniel interrupted her. "What Sam is trying to explain is...."

Jack watched them squirm and stumble over their words for a second or two, before he cut them both short. "Carter," he queried as he indicated the young man. "What are the wires for?"

His two 'kids' looked at each other for a split second, then finally back at him. "Well," she started. "Daniel was helping me with the generator..."

O'Neill looked askance at them. "Daniel doesn't know anything about generators."

"I've used them at digs before." The younger man protested. "I know how to turn them on and service them. You know I'm not completely helpless."

Jack just glared at him. Sam glared at Jack while she continued. "Daniel was helping me, and when I turned it on..."

"You turned it on?" O'Neill changed glare targets. "Didn't you think you should have told someone? After all, we're not even sure it's a generator. It could be a weapon; it could be a flaming bomb, for crying out loud!"

"As I was saying, Colonel, when I turned on the generator, it arced. Daniel was standing with his hand on the metal table and it shocked him."

"You turned on an unknown alien device and it electrocuted Daniel!" O'Neill asked incredulously. "Without permission?" .

"It's a generator and I had to turn it on to see what it did." Sam was turning all red in the face. "That's what I'm supposed to do. That's my job isn't it?!"

"It didn't electrocute me." Daniel protested. "It shocked me, and now...well, now..."

Jack looked him over carefully, circling around his friend as he stood in the center of a small open area between worktables. "Now, what? You glow in the dark?"

Jackson looked beyond O'Neill at Carter. "I don't know. We didn't try that." Sam nodded and headed for the light switch by the door. Her curiosity overriding everything else.

"HALT! DON'T GO THERE! NOT ANY FARTHER!" O'Neill shouted at her. " Get back over here Carter." Chastened, Carter came back to the two men. Jack turned back to Daniel. "Now finish your sentence, Daniel. What do you do?"

Daniel reached out with his right hand; index finger extended and jabbed the Colonel. . "Ouch! Shit, Daniel, that hurts!" O'Neill jumped back as an electrical spark jumped between the two men.

The younger man nodded, a pained expression on his face. "I know Jack. It hurts me too. That's what happened, I've been electrified and everything I touch, I shock." He grimaced "and it doesn't seem to be getting any better either."

"How long have you been like this?" Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Daniel glanced at Sam. "About eighteen or nineteen hours now."

O'Neill shook his head. "Nineteen hours? Danny, this is gonna seriously affect your social life." He shook his head. "Have you told Doc?"

Sam looked at him blankly. "Janet? Well, er, no. We didn't think of it."

Jack looked at them in frustration then stepped over to the telephone and dialed a number. "Doctor Fraiser." He glanced over at the two. "Hi Doc, O'Neill. Could you come up to 27, lab C? Well, you see Daniel and Carter were playing around with an alien do-hickey...Yea, he can walk. Okay...be down is a few, thanks Doc." He hung up the phone. "C'mon, she says we should come to her...all her instruments aren't mobile."

"Jack, I'm not sure...What if someone bumps into me?" Daniel said doubtfully.

"We'll run interference for you. I'll take point. Carter watch his uh, six."

Sam sighed and nodded. Daniel looked mournful. Jack took the lead.

After a quick trip through the hallways and the elevator, the trio got to the Infirmary without any physical contact with anyone else, though Daniel did manage to 'get' Jack once more when the Colonel stopped short to avoid another scientist pushing a large wheeled table down the hallway. And while on the elevator, Carter pushed the buttons, not wanting to have the car shorted out by her high powered partner in crime.

Once in the Infirmary though, their troubles were not over.

Jackson was sitting shirtless on an examination table, Doctor Fraiser had just started her once over of him. "Now Daniel, tell me exactly what happened." Janet asked with raised eyebrow. She then tried to put a blood pressure cuff on Jackson's arm. "Ouch!" She looked at him startled. "You shocked me!"

Jack, sitting on a vacant gurney swinging his feet, commented wryly. "That's what happened."

Janet frowned in the Colonel's direction, then turned back to her patient. "OOkay, how did it happen?"

Sam looked guilty. "Daniel was helping me with a new alien energy generator;" she made a face at O'Neill "that we recovered on P12B963. I turned it on and it arced into Daniel. He's been zapping everything he touches since."

"What do you mean everything?"

Daniel replied. "Well, just that. Everything I touch. And I get the reverse charge and it's getting kind of old,"

"I can imagine." Fraiser put down the cuff and tried an electronic thermometer. When she tried to put it into Daniel's mouth; he jumped, it sparked and set off an electronic howl for a few seconds and then died. She tried a fingertip pulse monitor, the same thing happened, the machine shorted out. Janet found an old-fashioned mercury thermometer. When it touched the archeologist, it sparked and shocked the doctor who dropped the glass instrument and it shattered on the concrete floor.

Carefully, she applied an electrode to his chest but when she attached it to the monitor, it snapped and blew the back off of the machine terminating its useful life. She looked at him in dismay. "Daniel, I don't know what to do now. Everything I have is either electronic or conductive to electricity. I'd try an X-ray but I don't know what it could show and I really can't afford to lose one of those."

Daniel shook his head. "I don't know, Janet. This is not something I have any experience with." They both glanced over at Carter.

"Hey, don't look at me!" She protested. "I don't know either! I tried everything I could think of in the lab." Carter looked very upset. "After he fried the hard drive in the computer, I was afraid to try anything else."

O'Neill was frowning by now. "Do you think it might just wear off?" He asked the Doctor.

Fraiser just shook her head. "I don't know, and I hesitate to guess." She looked over at her patient. "I just hate to keep shocking Daniel, not to mention blowing up all my equipment."

"It doesn't seem to be getting any weaker, either." Daniel stated woefully. "I mean I'm getting tired but the effect doesn't seem to be lessening any."

O'Neill just looked at Fraiser, who looked back and shrugged. "I'm afraid that everything I could try seems to be reacting to his 'problem'.

"Well," Jack thought a moment. "Maybe we need someone who is familiar with electricity. With all the science types around here, there must be someone who would have an idea." He looked over at Carter. "Who would you call to repair one of your electronic do-hickeys if it went on the fritz?"

Carter glanced at Daniel, then over at the blown monitor. "Well, when I have a problem with something, I usually call Sergeant Siler." She looked over at Janet. "He's the number one Mr. Fixit in SGC."

Fraiser nodded. "That's true. I've yet to see him at a loss over any kind of repairs. In fact, I'll probably ask him to look at this equipment."

"Okay, let's give him a call." O'Neill agreed, stepping over to the telephone.

Several minutes later the tall, gray-haired, bespectacled NCO appeared in the doorway. "Colonel, Doctor, I was told you were looking for me."

Janet greeted him. "Come on in Sergeant. We have a problem and we would like your opinion." She gestured to where Daniel was standing. "Doctor Jackson, well, he's..."

Daniel looked hopefully over at the older man. "I'm electrified."

Siler walked over and looked carefully at Jackson his curiosity peaked by the situation. "Doctor, how do you mean exactly?"

Daniel reached out and touched him. A spark arced out between the two men. To his credit, the sergeant didn't jump back. He then reached out and grasped Daniel's hand. An audible crackle resulted. Siler released him. "Humm, yes you certainly are. How did this happen?"

O'Neill came over, keeping a safe distance between himself and his friend. "Carter and the energizer-archeologist here were experimenting with an alien gizmo. She turned it on and it zapped him. He's been this way now for...how long?" He looked at Jackson then at Carter.

Sam managed to still look slightly indignant and guilty at the same time. "It's been about twenty hours now."

Fraiser looked at her in surprise. "Twenty hours?"

"It happened yesterday evening." The young woman admitted sheepishly.

"Well," The sergeant commented. "You seem to be maintaining a pretty good charge, Doctor Jackson. Can you touch anything, or does it only work with conductive materials?"

"Everything I seem to touch sparks on contact." Daniel replied mournfully. "But metals and electronic equipment are the worst...or at least they hurt the most."

Siler frowned and looked concerned. "Have you eaten anything in that time? Drank anything?"

"No, I can't. It sparks."

Fraiser was looking unhappier by the minute. "So you've been without food and water for almost a whole day?"

Jack shook his head. "No, I'd say it's been more like two days... a day and a half at least since we didn't eat lunch after the mission." He looked at Jackson and Carter. "Did you?"

She shook her head, the toes of her boots suddenly becoming very interesting. "No, we went straight to the lab."

O'Neill threw his hands up in the air in disgust. "I swear you kids..."

"Colonel, would you mind doing something?" Siler was looking Jackson over, walking around him in a small circle.

"Sure. Why not?" O'Neill replied frustratedly. "What do you need?"

"Not me sir, Doctor Jackson. In my locker are some small plastic containers. The label says GU." He glanced over at the Colonel. "They're a concentrated carbohydrate snack food. I use them when I pull all nighters here. I think he'll be able to eat them without shocking himself. I'd ask the Major but they're in the men's locker room."

"Sure, it'll give me something to do while you figure out how to drain Daniel's battery."

As he left the room, Sgt. Siler looked after him with a quizzical expression, an idea beginning to form. "Drain his battery..."

By the time O'Neill returned with the two plastic squeeze tubes marked GU, Siler had left the room. He looked over at Carter. "Did I miss something?"

Sam shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "Siler mentioned something about batteries then left."

"Well here's the stuff." Jack cautiously approached Daniel.

"Siler said to toss it to me and maybe I won't get shocked." Daniel looked hopefully at him. O'Neill gently pitched it underhand and his friend caught it without problem or electricity. Dr. Fraiser retrieved a plastic water bottle and did the same. Again, no spark. Daniel got lunch.

Siler returned within thirty minutes. He had with him a six-foot long steel rod, two smaller metal rods, a role of copper wire and a 12-volt car battery on a dolly. He smiled over at Daniel. "Feel better Doctor Jackson?"

Daniel grinned back. "Yea, thanks. Lunch was great!"

"Yea, I like the strawberry best." The sergeant then set about connecting the two smaller rods to the pole with a length of the copper wire. Once this was accomplished he bent the rods so that they were separated at the ends about ten inches.

General Hammond had been walking down the hallway and noticed the group of people gathered in the infirmary. He came in and looked curiously at his Senior Officer and NCO. "All right, I'll bite. What's going on in here or do I even want to know?"

"We're trying to 'fix' Daniel, the electric linguist." O'Neill replied from his reacquired perch on the gurney. Daniel rolled his eyes and shook his head. Jack grinned at him. "What?!"

Siler looked up at the General. "Doctor Jackson has been electrically charged by an alien generator. I'm trying to 'drain his battery' using the principal of the old lightening rod. The Colonel her gave me the idea." The sergeant leaned the pole up against the wall. Next, he pulled the dolly out closer to his 'patient'. He popped the battery's caps and checked the fluid level. He looked over to Daniel.

"Dr. Jackson, you're going to hold the pole and I'm going to lower it until these two smaller rods come in contact with the terminals. Hopefully, the current will be drawn from you and it will be absorbed into this dead battery."

Daniel nodded and took a deep breath. "It'll probably hurt, right?"

"Judging from what's going on now, I'd say so." The sergeant replied regretfully.

"Why is the pole so long, Siler?" O'Neill asked curiously.

The NCO looked from Jack to Daniel. "Well Sir, that's in case the battery explodes Dr. Jackson should be far enough away so he won't get hurt."

"Oh." O'Neill definitely didn't like that answer. "Can I do anything to help?"

"You could stand over by Doctor Jackson in case he needs assistance." Siler replied. "I don't really know what's going to happen." When O'Neill had taken a position behind his friend, he continued. "Don't touch him until he lets go of the pole. Hopefully by then it'll all be over."

Jack nodded looking a bit dubious. "You folks might want to clear the immediate area." He suggested to the General and the two women. They moved behind the large wooden 'island' worktable in the center of the room and prepared to duck if necessary.

Daniel turned to look nervously at Jack who was standing a foot or so behind him. Jack tried to smile back encouragingly. "It'll be okay." O'Neill said softly to him. Danny nodded then turned back to Siler.

The Sergeant picked up the pole and placed one of the rods on the negative post, holding the other side slightly off the positive side. He looked at Jackson. "Okay, Doctor Jackson, Colonel. When I give you the pole, I'll lower the other rod onto the positive side. It may shock you, I don't know, but it should drain the electrical charge from you into the battery. Then hopefully, you'll be back to normal. Okay?"

Jackson nodded nervously, chewing on his lower lip. "Sergeant, what if the battery explodes, won't you'll be too close."

"That's why Doctor Fraiser gets paid the big bucks, sir." Siler smiled encouragingly at him. "Ready?"

At Daniel's nod, Siler handed him the pole and let the rod drop onto the positive terminal. There was a loud pop and the electricity visibly arced onto the terminals. Jackson held on tightly, his expression one of grim determination, the smell of burning flesh emanating throughout the room. After about 30 seconds, the current stopped, Daniel dropped the pole and then collapsed back into Jack's arms. O'Neill lowered the younger man onto the floor, still supporting his head and shoulders.

Fraiser ran to his side and felt for a pulse. "He's alive, but..." She turned his hands over, they were a seared red color. "Looks like he's got a serious burn here." She glanced up at Jack "The good news is he's not sparking anymore."

O'Neill nodded and looked down at his friend worriedly. Daniel groaned and blinked up at him. "Jack?"

"It's okay, Danny. It worked." He smiled at him in relief. "You're not electrified anymore."

Carter had gone over to where Siler was standing. "Are you okay, Sergeant?" She asked worriedly.

He was examining his hands but looked up and smiled at her. "Yes, ma'am. Just took a little jolt before I got Doctor Jackson hooked up to the battery. No problem."

General Hammond had at first gone with Fraiser to where Jack and Daniel were but then had followed Carter over to his NCO. "Sergeant Siler, are you sure you're all right?"

"I think so." He looked up at his boss. "Nothing to be concerned about sir."

"Well, let the doctor check you over before you go. No sense in taking chances." He glanced over to where O'Neill was helping Daniel to stand up. "How do you feel, Dr. Jackson?"

"A little shaky, but good sir. I'm not sparking anymore." The young man seemed a bit dazed but was standing with some support from Jack.

"I see that, son." Hammond noticed that O'Neill was still holding onto his archeologist, trying not to be obvious about it. "Dr. Fraiser, I'll leave them in your more than capable hands. Now that all the excitement is over, I've got to go back to work." He nodded. "Good work, Sergeant, again." With that Hammond left the room.

"Thank you Sir." He called after the General and then smiled at Carter. "And now I have to get back, too."

Doctor Fraiser spoke. "Oh, no you don't. You're coming with me to get checked out like General Hammond said." She smiled over at him. "After all, that's why I get paid the 'big bucks'. Remember, Sergeant?"

Carter slipped her hand under Siler's elbow and linked arms with him. "You'd better just give in." She said in a stage whisper. "It's easier that way. Just ask the Colonel and Daniel."

O'Neill still had a firm hold on Daniel's upper arm, supporting and guiding the younger man towards the exam area. He looked over at Carter and the Master Sergeant and nodded. "The Doctor is all ways right, just ask her."

Fraiser chuckled and shooed all of them in front of her towards the examination rooms. She'd have to have a talk with Sam and Daniel about their working (and eating) habits but all in all it was a happy ending even if it had been a little electrifying.

fins