No. 37

Prompt: Stargate: SG1, any, walking on stars
http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/708553.html?thread=93665737#t93665737

Carolyn knew Janet Fraiser had gone off-world more than once, usually to assist a planet's natives with her expertise, or to provide medical assistance in support of a treaty. The last time Janet Fraiser had gone off world had been, well, her last. So the first time her father authorized SG-11 to take her through the Stargate or a simple walkabout mission - glad-hand the natives, hand out antihistamines and boxes of tissue - she was nervous. Irrationally nervous, she was sure, because it was a simple mission. But Janet Fraiser had been a soldier as well as a doctor, and she was better equipped to handle what could happen on the other side of the gate. Anything could happen on the other side of the gate. Dr. Balinsky, sulking in one of the far cots and temporarily a woman, was proof of that.

She listened very carefully as the Quartermaster explained everything that was in her tac vest, and she listened even more carefully as Sergeant Edwards, the member of SG-11 assigned to her personal security, explained the basic hand signals for silent communication and tactical advances on a space. Carolyn knew how to handle a firearm well enough, but she'd never been good at using one under pressure.

"Don't worry," Edwards said, smiling. She was a round-cheeked, blue-eyed, pretty woman with a kind smile and glasses. "I've got your back. And hey, this planet is all human."

"All human?" Carolyn echoed.

"We were on an Unas planet overseeing a mine operation for forever," Edwards said, rolling her eyes. "The marines taught the Unas how to play football. Got tackled a few times. It's only thanks to your medical team's expertise that I'm still here." She nodded to the door. "Let's go."

Carolyn assembled with the rest of SG-11 at the bottom of the ramp in the gate room, and her heart pounded in her ears.

She heard he father give the go-ahead, and then it took all she had to force her feet to move, to keep pace with Edwards, who was striding up the gate like it was perfectly normal to get disassembled and shot across the galaxy.

At Stargate Command, it was.

They emerged on the other side in the middle of the night, with four shining moons overhead. It was perfectly, utterly quiet, no city sounds, no cars, no sirens, no music, no televisions. Just the wind rustling through the trees, and somewhere distant the sound of running water.

And the stars. Carolyn tipped her head back and stared. She was a city girl at heart, had followed her father from base to base all her life, had never had the chance to be somewhere without light pollution. Without air pollution. It was like there was no barrier between the planet and the sky.

Just...stars.

It was like she was walking among the stars. And in a sense, she was. Somewhere up in that sky was the Sun, the one that warmed Earth. She was standing on a planet that traveled around one of the stars she'd looked up at from Earth.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Edwards asked. She reached into her pocket, drew out one of those cheap little disposable cameras that still used film, aimed it at the sky, and took a shot.

Carolyn blinked at her.

Edwards shrugged. "I take a picture of the night sky on any new planet if I get the chance. Now come on - let's help some natives with their hay fever."

And on they walked.