#4 in the Life's Little Problems Series
Color Outside the Lines
A Little!Danny fic by: Maj. Cliffhanger
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Part 13
Jason looked up from the book Danny had given him to read. It was a grown up book with lots of big words he didn't know, but it also had a lot of cool pictures of Egypt and stuff. He'd just started the first grade this year and they were learning about all kinds of other countries right now. A lot of the kids in his class could barely read at all but his mom had been teaching him since he was little. He was in a special advanced reading group at school but they didn't read books like this. He'd sat and watched Danny out of the corner of his eye and knew the other boy was really reading, not just faking it. "Are you smart?" he asked abruptly.
Danny glanced up from his own book in surprise. He kinda frowned, like he was embarrassed or something, and shrugged. Jason didn't like it when the other kids in his class noticed he was smarter than they were either. "Yeah," he admitted and frowned back down at the book again.
"Me too," Jason declared. "Mom says that's why I keep getting in trouble for talking in class and everything, 'cause I'm bored."
Danny looked up again. "Why don't they test you for a harder class?"
Jason shrugged. "Mom wants them to but some of the teachers don't think it's a good idea. They don't like testing kids too young or something." He shrugged again. "Are you in school yet?"
Danny went back to his book as he answered. "Mom was home-schooling me," he answered.
Oh.
Jason's dad had explained that Danny's mother was killed in a car accident not too long ago. "Sorry," he said simply, apologizing for making him remember.
Danny shrugged. "I've been through the testing before," he admitted quietly, not looking up from his book. "It's not bad. It's actually kind of fun."
"Yeah?" Jason asked - and then frowned as his stomach offered a definite gurgle. "I'm getting hungry. Are they going to feed us?"
Both boys froze and looked up as the soft sounds from the engine room rose momentarily and then died.
"We've stopped," Danny decided.
Jason frowned. "How can you tell?" It hadn't even felt like they were moving.
Danny shrugged. "I've been on ships like this before."
"How's that possible?" he asked, frowning as he remembered Mr. - no, not 'Mr. Ball,' just 'Baal' he remembered; two a's and one ell - saying something about that earlier. "Are you an alien too?" he asked, suddenly wondering if maybe he shouldn't be afraid of Danny too!
"No," Danny sighed. "I'm definitely from Earth."
The door to the control area hissed open without warning, interrupting them, and 'Baal' and a couple of his weirdly dressed goons came in.
"It is time for me to keep my promise," the man announced with a bit of a smirk.
The guy was creepy, Jason decided. He'd seemed kinda nice at first - in a scary kinda way - but now, knowing what he was.... Yeah, he thought again: definitely creepy!
"You're going to return us safe and sound to my front yard?" Danny asked with a suspicious frown.
Baal offered that a pensive grin before shaking his head. "...Not exactly," he answered.
Danny sighed and folded his arms. "'Didn't think so."
Boy, Danny really didn't like this guy but he sure was brave. Jason would have never talked back to a grown up like that - let alone an alien!
"Not to fear, young Daniel," the guy assured him with that really-not-nice-smile of his. "You will get home again - safe and sound as you say - eventually. Unfortunately, I can't simply return you to Earth. I'm quite sure your radar and scanners, primitive as they are, are busy keeping a sharp eye on the space around your world. And while, yes, I have obviously eluded them before, I really don't want to test their capabilities when they are obviously on such high alert following your abduction. No," he decided, "far safer to set you down on a planet with a Stargate and let you make your own way home. I assume you still remember how to operate a DHD? I know your little..." he glanced at Jason as though censoring himself, "...incident rather messed with your mind. If we had the time I'd love to explore exactly how further but, alas! Your uncle will never forgive me if I hold you much longer. Of course, if you'd like to give me the address for the Alpha Site, I'd be glad to dial it for you?" he offered.
Danny awarded him a definite glare for the suggestion. "I remember how to use it," he declared.
"I rather thought so," Baal answered with a disappointed shrug. "You also remember not to dial Earth, right? I don't have a GDO to give you and would truly hate to see you end up as a gelatinous smear on the back of your iris. It would be a little difficult for me to negotiate with your uncle for what I want if you were dead."
"I remember," Danny claimed unhappily.
"Good. Good..." Baal answered and waved the two of them to the center of the room. "Right then; off you go. I'll be in contact once I confirm my suspicions."
Danny was still not looking very happy as he told Jason to get his coat and then retrieved his own and his backpack, stuffing the two books they'd taken out earlier back inside. Then Danny lead him to the center of the room where there was a big circle painted on the floor. "This is kinda like what they did when they beamed us up," he explained. "Don't let it scare you."
"Are we really going down to another planet?" Jason asked, half-fearful and half-excited.
"Indeed you are, Jason," Baal answered for Danny who was busy putting on the backpack. "Just think of the wonderful adventure you'll be able to relate to all your friends when you get home!" he suggested brightly.
Danny tossed the man another angry glare and Jason just frowned. There was absolutely no way that anyone was going to believe any of this!
And then there was suddenly something coming up out of the circle on the floor, surrounding them as a bright light shone down from above and...
...and then it was like before. Like Danny said. There was a big flash of light and then the round cage-like things were disappearing again, back up into the weird space ship that was hovering right over them!
And it had to be a real space ship. Jason had never seen anything like that before at the air shows his father took them to occasionally.
And ... that wasn't the moon!
At least it wasn't a regular moon. It looked like Jupiter or something, only it was blue instead of orange and it was huge! "Whoa...."
And then the space ship was suddenly flying away!
"Hey, wait!" he yelled, suddenly scared to be left all alone except for Danny. It was one thing to be told you were on a space ship and being kidnapped by aliens from outer space; it was another thing all together to suddenly find yourself on another planet who knew how far away from home with no idea how to get back! He felt himself start to tremble as the ship sped quickly away.
"It's okay, Jason," Danny reassured him, hitching his backpack a little more securely onto his shoulders. He lifted an arm to point off to the side. "That's the Stargate."
Jason followed Danny's finger to find himself looking at a really old and big statue of some kind. It was a big stone ring with carvings and things on it and stairs leading up to it. On the ground in front of it was a tilted mushroom like thingie that had more carvings on it and a big red ball thing in the middle. Danny headed straight for it and Jason had to follow.
Around them on all sides, Jason noted, was a very Earth-like forest. If it weren't for that moon or planet or whatever it was, he.... He stared at it again as he walked behind Danny. It couldn't be faked in someway could it, he wondered? How would you fake something like that? A hologram maybe? He didn't know how those worked but this thing was so huge!
He walked right into the back of Danny when the younger boy stopped and they both nearly fell. Danny caught himself against the tilted mushroom thingie and pressed one of the large carvings on it. Jason jumped back as it issued a weird musical-like noise and lit up. "Oh, crap!" he exclaimed, hoping they hadn't just done something wrong to make it blow up or sound some sort of alarm to make other aliens come see what was wrong.
"It's okay!" Danny quickly told him. "It'll turn off in a few seconds if I don't press any others. You have to press seven of them in a certain sequence before the gate will open."
Jason glanced between the squat device that was bigger than he was and over to the gate. Sure enough, the weird music started to fade and then the light went out.
And then his stomach growled again.
He grimaced and rubbed it. "Is this the DD thing the alien guy was talking about?"
"DHD." Danny nodded and frowned up at it.
"So we can go home now, right?" Jason asked hopefully. "You said you knew how to use it."