DISCLAIMER: Not mine, no money, just some fluffy fun.....
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Inter-galactic Radio Shack
By ncruuk
"DAMN IT!!!!"
It was unusual to hear shouting from Sam's lab, even more unusual for Daniel to hear Sam shouting from her lab. Curious, he stopped in the doorway to survey the scene...and count the number of different alien technologies Sam appeared to be using in her latest experiment. Daniel had absolutely no idea what all the 'toys' that were laid out on Sam's bench actually did, but he liked to think he was reasonably good at spotting cultures.
Next to Sam's coffee mug (an indication she wasn't dealing with anything toxic or explosive at least, which was comforting to the archaeologist) there was her laptop, running, like all the base 'regular' computers, the latest version of the Windows XP operating system, no doubt with some enhancements, not least because, following the cables coming from one of the USB ports, Daniel could identify the 'port' that Sam had built to hold Tok'ra data crystals that needed to be interfaced with Earth computer systems.
Sitting in the 'port', glowing a gentle purple colour Daniel didn't recall ever seeing in a Goa'uld system before, was a crystal Sam had obviously had 'commissioned' for her, since the crystal itself was another form of socket or adapter, with yet another cable running out of it across Sam's bench to a black box which was so nondescript it could only come from one culture - the Tollan. The arrogant and secretive, yet ultimately friendly (at least, friendly to Sam that was thought Daniel, not being able to come up with any Tollan's he might be able to call a 'friend', unlike Sam...) race had finally agreed to make a couple of 'data interface box things' for Sam. Quite what they did, exactly, Daniel had never quite understood, being only able to see a completely character-free and featureless box, which happened to come with lots of useful sockets which Sam could plug different alien technologies into (providing of course, she had the right adapter) and achieve data transfers between various generic types of alien technology. Tilting his head so he could see past a 'doohickey', Daniel decided it looked like the Tollan 'thing' was acting as an interface between the Tok'ra crystal technology and an Asgard stone system, which was also glowing, yellow this time.
Coming out from the Asgard stone system was another 'cable' (it actually looked like one of Thor's fingers, but Daniel had been repeated assured by both Sam and Heimdall that it was in fact, a completely artificial data conduit....an Asgard USB cable basically) which was plugged directly into another box, this time covered in a very recognisable script - the language of the Ancients, the Asgard having built the 'adapter' for that technology transfer some generations earlier.
Scratching his neck in disbelief, Daniel resisted the urge to lose himself in the Ancients' writings on the device itself and instead tried to work out what that was connected to. Finally spotting the slender fibre-optic cable emerging from one corner, Daniel's eyes traced the line of the snaking cable until he came to another Tollan 'thing' before finding the final cable which led to...
"Oh, Daniel!" exclaimed Sam, spotting her friend and colleague in the doorway.
"Big experiment?" asked Daniel, gesturing to the crowded bench.
"Not exactly..." admitted Sam, perching back on her stool and chewing on her lip as she checked a final diagnostic result on the laptop screen.
"What you trying to do?" asked Daniel, taking Sam's non-dismissal as permission to linger and satisfy his curiosity.
"Huh? Oh, nothing really..." dismissed Sam, taping a few keys on the laptop before taking a gulp of her now cold coffee.
"But you've got Tauri, Tok'ra, Tollan, Asgard, Ancient technologies all connected together..." Daniel trailed off as he felt his arm was more eloquent at expressing the amazement he was experiencing at seeing Sam's inter-galactic 'Radio Shack' display on her bench.
"And Apple..." muttered Sam, spotting her error and correcting it with grim satisfaction.
"Huh?" Daniel didn't remember ever meeting a technologically advanced people called 'Apple'.
"Apple...Janet's birthday present..." explained Sam, walking around to the far end of the bench and lifting up the small, sleek, top of the range IPOD which she'd bought as a birthday present for Janet.
"All this for an IPOD?" asked Daniel, taking off his glasses in his confusion.
"I'm trying to get everything uploaded before I wrap it...can you hit F9 for me please?" Sam asked politely, returning the IPOD to the bench, having first made sure she hadn't dislodged the white cable from it - why couldn't Apple have sent a black one to match the IPOD? White was so....not what Sam thought should go with a black IPOD....
"F9? Done..." announced Daniel, pressing the key once and marvelling when all the technologies started humming.
"What's it doing?" he asked, fascinated.
"Uploading all her music, digital photos and some movies..." explained Sam, watching everything like a hawk - she really needed this to work.
"Ah...umm...isn't there software?" he asked, not expecting the surprisingly venomous look that was immediately directed at him by his normally mild mannered friend.
"You ever tried using ITunes?" asked Sam sarcastically, knowing Daniel was familiar with the programme because of his own IPOD.
"This is easier?"
Sam looked at him.
"Right, stupid question..." agreed Daniel, before asking,
"...could you syncronise mine please?"
The End