As Long As It's You (1/8)
As Long As It's You
Teens
Genre: Het (Daniel/Vala), Action/Adventure, Drama, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Synopsis: A "simple" fact-finding mission turns dangerous when Daniel and Vala are abducted by the Lucian Alliance.
Notes: Original idea for this story came from one of my recipient's prompts for the 2009 Holiday Fruitcake Exchange. Contains what is quite likely my only-ever reference to SGU. Includes minor references to SGA's "Lost Tribe", a few of my favorite fics ("Hand in Hand" by JB and Jmas and "Training Mission" by devra), and at least one of my own stories (" Truth in Fiction").
As Long As It's You
Daniel woke up with a groan, aching all over and feeling like he had a Fourth of July celebration going off in his head. Between the sparks flying across his retinas and the persistent throb in his temples, he was certain he didn't want to try opening his eyes just yet. Best to just leave them closed, try to figure out where he was without looking, then see about medicating his migraine.
"You're awake!" a voice roared in his ear, startling a grunt of pain from him and making his headache start up an homage to the final movement of the 1812 Overture, cannons and all.
"What happened?" he rasped, trying to bring his hands up to massage his temples and discovering he couldn't move his arms.
"We've been kidnapped, and we're in a cargo ship," the too-loud voice informed him. "Not sure who grabbed us, though, since I was zatted from behind."
A flash of memory came to him of a dark-haired woman-his teammate, friend, and occasional thorn-in-his-side, Vala Mal Doran-walking ahead of him before being enveloped in blue lightning. An instant later, a similar charge wrapped around him, but he managed to fight against it and remain conscious. As he drew his own zat, a hideous gold-eyed face appeared in his vision, then a tremendous blow came down on his head.
"Oranians," he muttered in disgust.
"You saw them?" Vala gasped.
"Yeah, right before they gifted me with this incredible concussion." He couldn't reached to verify, but he was pretty certain he had an egg-sized lump behind and a little above his left ear.
"Headache?"
"Yes!"
"Sorry," she whispered. "Okay, so every Oranian I've ever met was a Lucian, which means we were definitely on the right track."
"What track?" Daniel mumbled, cautiously cracking his eyes open. Before she could answer, he felt his gorge rise, and it took considerable effort to avoid vomiting on himself.
"Ew!" Vala exclaimed softly. "You know, when I asked before we left if you'd had breakfast, I certainly didn't want to see your breakfast!"
Daniel just moaned, trying to push himself away from the half-digested pancakes now adorning the glossy black floor. With his hands bound behind his back, his ankles tied together, and the dizziness caused by his concussion making him see double, it was no easy task, but he eventually managed to slide a few inches backward and turn over to face Vala.
"Where's the rest of the team?" he asked, pressing his cheek against the cool metal of a transport crate.
"The rest of the team?" Vala repeated. "Daniel, it was just the two of us this time, remember?"
"Uh... no. Why?"
"What?"
"Why was it just us?"
"Cameron and Muscles were following a lead on Gardul while you and I spoke with some of my contacts on Laetia. Samantha's still in command of the Hammond until Colonel Gant gets off maternity leave." Vala frowned, eyeing him with a look of concern. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"Getting clubbed over the head."
She rolled her eyes. "Before that."
Ow. Trying to think was making his head hurt. "Uh... Briefing room... Jack said something about... Icarus Base?"
"Right! And since there was the possibility the Lucians found Icarus Base through a spy, he asked SG-1-well, except for Samantha-to go look for the mouse."
"Mole." Okay, pieces were starting to fall into place again, which eased his headache a little.
"Actually, I think he said 'dirty rat'," Vala shrugged. "The point is, we must have been on the right track."
Daniel's eyebrows rose. "Because we got kidnapped?"
"By Lucians. You know, on the bright side, we may finally find out who their new leader is... since Netan got what was coming to him, of course." She shimmied a little in place, pressing her back to the cargo container she was leaning against and screwing up her face in concentration.
Her movements were making him dizzy again, so he closed his eyes. "I don't see how that's a bright side."
"Lucian leadership is based on strength and control. Generally, whoever kills the leader gets control of the Alliance."
"So wouldn't it be that bounty hunter, um..."
"Ventrell? No, he wouldn't be interested in... Ah ha!"
Daniel cracked his eyes open again, and saw that Vala had somehow managed to free her left hand from her manacles. "How'd you do that?" he asked, brow furrowing in confusion.
"Picked the lock with a hair clip," she replied, going to work on the remaining cuff. It popped open in seconds, and she quickly went to work on the knots binding her sock-covered feet together. "Oranians don't have hair, so they never remember to check for these things."
For the first time, Daniel noticed his own boots were missing, and he wondered what had happened to them. Also, he usually wore a duster when wearing the clothing he'd once coined "undercover rawhide" and that, too, was nowhere to be seen. Unsurprisingly, his zat and the MP5 he usually carried with the outfit were both gone, as was the knife normally hidden in his right boot. However, if the bruise on his hipbone was any indication, then he still had the bear claw knife he kept in a specially-made sheath on the inside of his wide belt.
"Your turn!" Vala grinned, kicking the last of the ropes free of her ankles. Daniel rolled further to the side to give her better access to his cuffs, but the movement set the room to spinning again. Swallowing back his nausea, he closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on breathing regularly.
"Daniel?"
"What?" he rasped.
Vala puffed out her cheeks and exhaled heavily. "You fell asleep again. You probably shouldn't do that."
"No, no I shouldn't." He groaned and brought his now-free hands up to scrub at his eyes. "Is the door locked?"
She shrugged and stood. "I haven't checked it yet... I was more worried about you."
"I'm fine... just need a few minutes..." Getting his feet under him, Daniel attempted to stand, but swayed and would have fallen if Vala hadn't steadied him and helped him to sit on the crate.
"I can see that," she joked, stroking her fingers down his jawline. "How about you stay here, and I go check the door?"
"Uh, okay," he mumbled. As she turned away, he traced the same route her fingers had just traveled, feeling only stubble. What was that about?
"Door's locked!" Vala called out a moment later. "Now, I could easily override the lock, but there's no telling how many Oranians will be waiting for us on the other side, and without weapons..."
"I have a knife," he offered, checking between his belt and his right hip to make sure the blade was still there.
"You do? Where?"
"Hidden sheath in my belt."
Vala pursed her lips. "I have a hara'shan in my bra," she offered casually.
Daniel coughed. "How'd you manage that one?"
"Oranians don't wear bras, either."
Despite the pain it caused, Daniel couldn't help but chuckle. "Good point, and that'd probably be more useful than my knife... the, uh, ring-thing, that is, not your, um... bra."
"Want to help me get it out?" Vala grinned, gesturing toward her chest.
As Daniel opened his mouth to decline, the ship shuddered violently, pitching him sideways off his perch and similarly sending Vala to the floor. Through the fog of agony the sudden movement had invoked, Daniel felt the ship heaving several more times, smelled smoke, and then the lights went out.
* * *
When the blood-red emergency lights came up, Vala figured now would be a very good time to find out what was going on, preferably before it killed her. Shoving her hand down the neck of her shirt, she pulled the hara'shan out of its cushy hiding place and slipped it onto her finger. The compact Goa'uld weapon was a little slow to fire, but it was better than nothing.
She glanced over her shoulder to gauge if Daniel was going to be able to help, and discovered that he was sprawled in an ungainly heap on the floor, apparently unconscious again. The ship lurched another time, and Vala leapt for the controls next to the door. Yanking the cover off the panel, she pulled out two crystals, stuck one of them in her teeth and another between her breasts for safe-keeping, and swapped two more crystals into the newly-emptied sockets. A third crystal went into one of the sockets the second pair of crystals vacated, then Vala tugged a fiber cable free and wedged it into a socket using the crystal she held in her mouth. The final crystal went into the last remaining socket, and she settled the panel back into place. Taking a deep breath and making sure her weapon was at the ready, she mashed her thumb down on the door control.
Icy wind began to howl past her, and she quickly realized the hull had been breached in the pel'tak. The air was rushing into the ship instead of out, however, and a quick glance at the cracked forward screen showed heavy clouds streaking by at a breathtaking speed. From the blackened, shattered console and the burns covering the two obviously-dead Oranians, there seemed to be little chance of regaining control of the crashing ship, though she noted with some relief that the angle of descent was relatively shallow.
That left her with an option, at least.
Slamming her thumb down on the control to close the door, Vala shoved the small weapon into a pocket and raced across the cargo hold. Colliding a little with the back wall, she righted herself and immediately went to work on the engine compartment's door, and with her newfound sense of urgency, she had it opened faster than it had taken her to re-wire the pel'tak door. Slapping Daniel's cheeks to rouse him, she helped the semi-conscious man upright, shoved him into one of the escape pods inside the engine compartment and activated its life support system before slamming the hatch shut. Scrambling across the bucking deck, she then claimed another pod for herself.
All she could do now was wait and pray. It was entirely possible the planet was a gas giant, in which case the ship could be crushed, torn apart, melted into slag, or all of the above. If there was a toxic atmosphere, she and Daniel could die quickly or suffer prolonged, painful deaths. If it was volcanic, they could crash into a lava pool, or if oceanic, into a vast sea. Too hot and they'd boil, too cold and they'd freeze. Too dense of a crust and they'd be pancaked inside their pods, too porous and they'd be buried deep underground. Maybe she was only delaying the inevitable, but maybe they'd get lucky.
Even with the pod's inertial compensators engaged, the impact of the crashing tel'tak jarred her bones, slammed her cheek into the inside of the pod, and left her feeling bruised all over. The collision rattled the small craft violently for what felt like a very long time before everything went suddenly still. Shaken, it took a few moments before Vala could find the internal release latch for the escape pod, and once she had it open, she nearly fell out on the tilted deck.
Deciding to leave Daniel in the relative safety of his pod while she scouted, Vala reopened the engine compartment door and carefully stepped into the cargo hold. She intended to take a few more cautious steps toward the pel'tak door, but her left foot came down on the mess her concussed companion had made earlier, and she slipped. She slammed into the opposite wall hard, and came away tasting blood. Spitting and letting out a blistering curse, she hauled herself across the gold-adorned surface until she was back at the pel'tak door.
"Fingers crossed," she muttered, hoping the silly Tau'ri sentiment would bring her the luck attributed to it. Taking a deep breath, she thumbed the door control.
The pel'tak had been shredded, the forward screen having been ripped away violently and the navigation console torn in half. The bodies of both Oranians were gone, having likely been sucked out when the screen tore away, and the deck plating was buckled from the impact. Dirt and stone were falling into the pel'tak through the now-open canopy, but Vala could see a glimmer of light at the very top.
Coughing at the acrid smoke still hovering inside the mangled pel'tak, Vala stumbled over to the exterior door and tried to get it to open, but it was apparently too warped. Grabbing a scrap of metal from the floor, she raised it over her head and began to dig at the soil spilling into the pel'tak. The air coming through the gaps smelled clean and fresh, and since she hadn't yet begun to feel a temperature extreme one way or the other, she was fairly confident the planet they'd crashed on was habitable.
Whether or not it was hospitable remained to be seen.
She scraped her hands on the edges of her improvised digging tool, but it wasn't long before she had enough dirt cleared away that she could stand on the remnants of the navigation console and climb out the newly-made window. To her delight, she found blue skies, fluffy white clouds, and tall leafy trees around the crashed tel'tak.
They had breathable air, comfortable temperatures, and evidence of water and possible food sources. Vala wasn't sure if it was her strange luck, Daniel's, or some combination of both, but of all the planets in the galaxy, at least they'd crashed on one they could safely live on until rescue. And maybe, if they were really lucky, there'd be a Stargate nearby and they could just waltz on through on their own. Well, waltzing might not be on Daniel's dance card at the moment-Tau'ri idioms were so colorful-but once he was back in the expert care of Carolyn Lam, Vala was confident he'd be back to his usual recalcitrant self in no time.
Nodding to herself in satisfaction, Vala turned to climb back into the tel'tak, but a dark mark on the ship's battered hull caught her eye. Turning to look at it more fully, she realized it was scoring from weapons fire, possibly Goa'uld. The general sorry state of the wreck was such that she couldn't say for certain if the damage was recent-for example, if it had been part of a barrage that led to the small vessel's ignoble end-but she wasn't willing to take any chances.
If the Oranians had been attacked, then it stood to reason that the attacker might be interested in making sure the ship's crew, captives, and/or cargo were wiped out completely. Should that other party make a return trip to finish the job, Vala and Daniel needed to get away from the wreckage as quickly as possible, preferably without leaving obvious signs they'd been there at all.
Scrambling back down into the ship, Vala yanked her filthy socks off and stuffed them into her pockets, needing the traction of her bare feet to make it back up the slippery sloped decking. Cursing the loss of her boots, jacket, favorite rail pistol, and her duffel bag full of luxuries, she carefully but quickly returned to the engine room. Bracing herself against the far wall as best as she could, she rapped the door release for Daniel's escape pod, and caught him as he nearly fell through the hatch.
"What?" he mumbled groggily, trying to stand on his own.
"No time to explain," Vala said quickly. "We have to get out of here right now."
"Okay," Daniel agreed, looking adorably befuddled in the hazy red light. "Where are my boots?"
"I don't know, but watch your step in those socks... the floor's slick." As were certain things left on the floor, but it wouldn't do to remind him of that now: she really didn't want him adding to it.
With her assistance, Daniel was able to scramble up the earthen mound spilling into the pel'tak, but he leaned heavily on her as they carefully picked their way across the grassy hill toward the hoped-for safety of the trees. The thick groundcover was welcome padding beneath their unprotected feet, and they were soon safely beneath the leafy canopy.
Helping Daniel sit down with his back against a tree trunk, Vala groaned and slid down beside him. "That's the most fun I've had all day!"
Daniel closed his eyes. "Sorry."
"Not your fault, Daniel. There's a whole list of people we can blame this on before we can get anywhere close to blaming you. Every last one of the Lucian warlords, for starters, the Oranians who grabbed us, whoever or whatever it was that caused the ship to crash... Believe me, if there's one thing I know how to do, it's assign blame."
"Not your fault either," Daniel smiled, reaching out and taking her hand with his. Leaning his head back against the tree, he promptly fell asleep.
Staring incredulously at the entwined fingers resting on her thigh, Vala heaved a martyred sigh. "You sure do pick your moments, Doctor Jackson." Settling into a more-comfortable position, Vala rested her head against his shoulder and gave in to her exhaustion.
* * *
"Vala!"
Heart pounding and body drenched in sweat, Daniel woke up trying to reach out to his teammate and friend. His right arm wouldn't cooperate, though, and as his head jerked around to find out why not, he was met with the oddly comforting sight of his and Vala's hands firmly clasped together. Her tousled dark head jerked away from its resting place on his chest, and the bleary-eyed former thief glared up at him.
"If you're going to shout my name in your sleep," she began, voice huskier than normal from exhaustion, "then it had better be a damn good dream."
Raising his free hand, Daniel rubbed at the jabbing pain above his left eyebrow. "What?"
"What do you mean, 'what'?" Vala echoed.
Shaking his head and wincing when his nagging headache told him what a bad idea that was, Daniel decided to concentrate on his surroundings. "Uh, where are we?"
"I haven't the faintest idea," she sighed, settling herself into his side in a manner he could think of only as "snuggling". "We were kidnapped by some Oranians, somebody shot down their ship, and here we are. Oh, and somewhere in there, I managed to save both our lives by stuffing us into escape pods and letting the pods' life support systems protect us from getting splattered in the crash."
"Oh." He blinked. "Good thinking."
"Hmm, you're welcome."
Thankful his contact lenses were still in place, Daniel cast about further and spotted a ridge of fresh dirt which disappeared behind a small hillock. "That the ship over there?"
"Um-hmm. Like I said, I think we were shot down, so I thought I'd move us out of the proverbial line of fire in case whomever did it decided to come back and finish the job." Swiveling her head without breaking contact with her Daniel-shaped pillow, Vala looked toward the crash site. "I don't see any smoke; either they've checked already and decided everyone aboard is dead, or they decided no one could have survived that crash and didn't bother to check."
"But we have no way of knowing for sure."
She gave an exaggerated shrug. "I think it's been a few hours since we took our little group nap. That sunny little clump of flowers over there was completely in the shade when we first staggered over here."
"Oh. Well, we should probably head back to the ship and see if anything can be repaired or salvaged."
"The ship's toast, but the communications array might be salvageable, and there could be something we can use in those crates from the cargo hold." Straightening up and stretching her shoulders and back, Vala glanced down at her lap. "Charming as this is, it would be a lot easier to stand if I could use both hands."
"What? Oh!" Disentangling his fingers from hers, Daniel wondered what had possessed Vala to hold hands with him like a pair of lovesick teenagers.
"Don't look at me like that," Vala began, standing and stretching in a very cat-like manner. "You're the one who grabbed my hand."
"I did?"
She gave him one of her "yes, I'm very serious" looks. The only problem was, Vala had at least two such looks: one which meant she really was serious, and the other which meant she was serious only until the person she was trying to fool caught on to her ploy. Unfortunately, Daniel had trouble telling which was which at times. Hoping to save himself from further antagonizing his headache, he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and go for the former interpretation. Of course, the fact that he had, in his concussed state, chosen to hold hands with Vala spoke volumes about the severity of his injury.
Strange... he'd held hands with Sam before and never thought twice about it. Of course, they'd fallen into a pit, been pretty badly banged up, and were surrounded by a dozen ravenous lions at the time, but he hadn't agonized over the "meaning" behind it even once. Sam was there, she needed him, he needed her, and holding hands had been their way of expressing the depth of their friendship without needing words. There'd been other times, too, not only with Sam, but also with Jack and Teal'c.
Had he somehow been equating his and Vala's brush with death with some of the other times he'd had close calls? Did it mean he was beginning to accept Vala's friendship on the same level as he did the ones he shared with Sam, Teal'c, and Jack?
"Honestly, Daniel, they're just hands," Vala exclaimed, arms flopping outward as she let out a huff of exasperation. "I can't imagine how you'd react if you'd woken up with both of us naked."
No, he decided, his friendship with Vala was entirely unique. "Concussion," he lied, rubbing at his eyes. "Head hurts too much to think."
Vala eyed him suspiciously for a moment. "Right. Well, it's a long walk back to the cargo ship, and I'd much rather spend the night in its dubious protection than out here in the open."
Nodding, Daniel put his hands behind him and carefully levered himself upright. It would have been easier if Vala had helped him stand, but he'd either pissed her off with the "hands" issue or she had her own thoughts to work through while he struggled. Finally, he was standing on his own two feet, and so long as he didn't try to move too quickly, he could even manage to walk without support. Fortunately, Vala set an easy pace across the meadow, which he only belatedly realized was likely due to their lack of shoes than any consideration for his head injury.
"If we can find a few pieces of sturdy fabric, I might be able to make us some shoes," he began. "They wouldn't be designer by any means, but they might at least protect our feet."
"At this point, I'd be happy with thongs." She cast an impish grin over her shoulder. "That's thongs as in 'sandals', mind you, not thongs as in-"
"Got it," Daniel sighed. Well, that was typical of Vala, anyway.
Though he would rather have been assessing their surroundings, his headache and lack of shoes meant watching the ground in front of him was more important than checking out the scenery. He did notice when they began to walk up-hill, though, and paused for a moment to look around. The first thing he saw was the half-mile-long trench gouged into the earth by the cargo ship as it crashed, and he let out a whistle of amazement.
Vala stepped close to his side. "If you think that's incredible, wait 'til you see what a mess the ship is."
"Actually, I was thinking how nice it was that the ship dug a big ol' latrine for us," he joked, drawing a chuckle from her.
"Hmm, it must've known how much I hate digging those." She slapped his arm playfully. "Daylight's wasting."
Nodding carefully, Daniel returned his concentration to the ground in front of his feet. Minutes later, he nearly ran into Vala as she abruptly stopped in front of him. Looking up again, he finally bore witness to the fate which had befallen their captors' cargo ship.
"Holy buckets," he managed at last. Most of the front of the ship was buried in the side of the hill, but shards of metal curled back from the shredded "nose". The aft hadn't fared much better, though the visible warping of the hull was considerably less than the fore section. Still, the general sorry state of the ship left Daniel convinced that the only reason he and Vala had survived the crash at all-let alone were able to walk away from it-was Vala's quick thinking.
"Even with the escape pods, I'm amazed we survived this," he marveled, turning to give her a small smile and a nod of his head before returning his gaze to the crash site.
"Me too," Vala agreed. "If I thought there were any real gods out there, I'd be tempted to offer up my first-born child in thanks." Daniel's head whipped around again and his mouth fell open in surprise. Taking in his astonishment, Vala grimaced and amended, "Okay, so maybe my second-born. My first one thought she was a god."
"There's that." He rubbed at his temple, but it did nothing to dispel his resurging headache. Dropping his hand, he waved it toward the wreckage. "Ladies first."
"Such a gentleman," Vala teased. "Take your socks off when you get inside so you can walk around without falling." With that, she lowered herself into the hole in the canopy and vanished. Hoping they'd be able to find an aspirin or two at the very least, Daniel carefully followed.
As he finished jamming his grimy socks into a pants pocket, Vala's voice fluttered out from the cargo hold. "Do you still have that knife?"
It took him a moment to figure out what she meant. "Uh, yeah. You find something?"
"Maybe... those lovely cargo containers we were leaning against earlier, but they're locked. I may be able to short the locks, but I'll need a decent blade for some prying and cutting."
Daniel nodded his agreement, and handed her the small tool.
It wasn't as useful as a larger knife would have been, but it was better than nothing. Leaning against the wall, Daniel crossed his arms and breathed deeply several times to try to clear some of the fog from his head. Between archaeological digs and Jack O'Neill, he had a lot of information crammed into his brain about how to get by in the wilderness. Unfortunately, most of that knowledge called for more starting supplies than just a short-bladed knife.
Looking to his left to watch Vala work, he was suddenly struck by the realization he could see.
"Power's still on."
She paused, looked up, and realization dawned. "Emergency lights, right... might not be much power, but it's better than stumbling around in the dark."
"No flickering, either, so it's fairly steady... I'm going to go check it out. If I can make sure most of the systems we don't need are off, we might be able to make the power last a while."
"Lights and maybe heating and cooling... much as I'd love to make sure the sanitation chamber is powered, it's-" she heaved a dramatic sigh "-not quite as necessary." She turned back to work on the sealed box, leaving Daniel to make his careful way up the sloped floor to the engine room.
Fifteen minutes and an accidental power outage later, he was fairly certain he'd disabled everything he could, then brought the lighting up to normal brightness. Power levels were close to normal parameters, so unless something drastic happened, they could have light for a few centuries. With any luck, that would be much longer than they'd actually need before finding a Stargate or being rescued. Satisfied with his work, Daniel returned to the cargo hold.
Stepping through the door, he found Vala reclining on one of the crates, swinging her booted feet and nibbling on a power bar. "Look what I found," she grinned, stuffing the last of the bar in her mouth and wiping her hands off on her pants. "Our 'friends' apparently raided our room at the inn when they grabbed us, 'cause all our gear is here."
"All of it?" Daniel asked, already diving for the heavy black duffle bag he knew had once held a first aid kit. Sure enough, the medical supplies were safely stored where he'd left them, and he quickly dug out the Tylenol.
"Hol' off on 'at," Vala mumbled around her mouthful of food. Reaching into the pack at her feet, she pulled out her Goa'uld healing device and waggled it at him. "You took a few good knocks to the head."
"Uh, what's the power supply like on those things?"
"Naquadah-based, so probably would last almost as long as a staff weapon. Maybe a few hundred uses?"
"Shouldn't we save it, then?"
Vala shrugged. "For what? You can't operate this thing on your own, and I sincerely hope you're not planning on breaking a bone every day we're stuck here."
Daniel frowned and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "We don't know how long we'll be here."
"And I'll ask again: you planning on breaking a bone every day we're stuck here?" She fisted her free hand on her hip and cocked her head to the side. "A concussion is no small injury, Daniel, or hasn't Doctor Lam given you that lecture?"
"You mean the lecture she gave you after you knocked yourself out roller skating through the SGC?" She gave him an impatient look. "Um, I probably got something similar to that a dozen times from Doctor Fraiser."
"Uh-huh. So, if you're finished arguing, will you hold still so I can heal you?"
* * *
Patting her full belly, Vala had never been happier to eat the unfortunately-named "Meals Ready to Eat" the SGC foisted upon their adventurers. Thanks to her supply of antibacterial wipes, she'd been able to wash her nasty feet off before donning a clean pair of socks, and her boots had never felt more comfortable. Fed, wearing her favorite leather jacket again, and her friend no longer looking like he'd pass out at any moment, Vala found she was actually looking forward to exploring their new planet.
As a former host, she still had some of Qetesh's ability to sense the presence of naquadah. On the planets which had little or none of the mineral, she could sometimes use that to locate Stargates or caches of Goa'uld technology, or at least get a sense if there even was one within a few miles. This planet, unfortunately, had just enough of the element present beneath the soil that she couldn't tell if it even had a 'Gate, let alone where it might be.
"So," she began after Daniel wolfed down the last of his "alleged" meal. "We have our supplies, shelter, lights, and a huge latrine... what next?"
"Water, food, and shelter," Daniel answered, counting his points off on his fingers.
"We have our supplies and a wrecked ship to sleep in... what more do we need?" Vala protested.
"Our supplies won't last forever, Vala. We have enough food for two weeks-three, if we stretch it out-but our water will run out in three days. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't have the faintest idea where to begin looking for a Stargate-if this planet even has one." He glanced at his watch, newly-recovered from their supplies. "By now, General Landry's already tried contacting us and determined we're not where we're supposed to be, but unless our Oranian friends filed a flight plan when they left Laetia, the SGC won't know where to look for us."
Vala rolled over on her crate perch, resting her chin on her arms and swinging her feet as she looked down at him. "So we might be here a while."
He grimaced. "Vala, we might be here forever. Now, I'm not saying we should give up hope, but we're going to have to either try to strike out in some direction and hope we find something to lead us to the Stargate, or we're going to have to try to make a home for ourselves close to the ship, where we stand the greatest chance of being found by a rescue party."
"Stumbling around blindly seems like a bad idea to me."
"Same here, which means we're going to have to find food and water, and start building a shelter. We can cannibalize the ship for parts, but we shouldn't try to stay in it for long for the same reason you sent us scurrying across that hill earlier today."
"The wrong sort of people might find the ship," Vala answered, frowning. "Okay, so we have shelter for now, but we'll need to move out eventually. I guess the first step is to look for water?"
Daniel nodded, rose, and brushed off his pants. "More than likely, we'll find food where we find water, thereby killing two birds with one stone."
Vala quirked a grin. "I've never actually killed one bird with a stone, let alone two birds. Is that something they teach you at archaeologists' school?"
"No, they... what?" He gaped at her for a moment, mouth falling open and brow furrowing adorably as he processed her reply. After a moment, he closed his eyes and thumped the heel of his palm against his forehead. "You learned that one from Teal'c, didn't you? I swear, each of you is more savvy to American pop culture than Sam and I combined."
Grinning fiendishly, Vala spun around and hopped off the crate. "While you and Sam bury yourselves in your respective offices and tinker around with moldy statues and microscopic particles, Teal'c and I are doing our best to have a life. Mitchell has an impressive DVD collection, you know, and Teal'c has Netflix. Then there's my magazines, Teal'c's magazines, and those disturbingly intriguing reality shows always playing in the rec room."
"I didn't realize you and Teal'c had gotten so close," Daniel replied, crossing his arms and staring at the floor. "But that's not really relevant right now. Let's grab our packs and see if we can't find some water, okay?"
"Sure," Vala agreed, eyeing him suspiciously for a moment. Shrugging her shoulders, she followed Daniel's example for packing supplies into her backpack. Several minutes later, they were both kitted out, armed with zats, and ready to go. Daniel made a detour into the engine room to dim the lights back to emergency levels, then they climbed out of their half-buried ship and hiked to the top of the hillock for a better view.
"Well?" she prompted after Daniel had looked all around at least three times already.
"Well, I don't see any obvious game trails, so I can't be sure which direction to start. The sun's beginning to go down, too, so we shouldn't go very far anyway."
"I say we just follow the big ditch and see where it leads," Vala suggested.
"Couldn't hurt... we'd at least have an easy way of finding our way back to the ship afterward."
Course decided, the pair set off back down the hill, walking side-by-side and watching for any signs of water, edible-looking plants, or animals. Ten minutes later, the woods closed in around them, and much of their concentration had to turn toward climbing over and around trees shattered by the passage of their crashing ship. Here and there, a scrap of metal showed, having obviously been torn from the hull, and the gouge in the soil grew progressively narrower and shallower.
Daniel had deliberately maneuvered her to walk next to the trench, which Vala found rather sweet of him since it meant he was protecting her from anything that might come at them from the woods. It made for practical sense, too, beyond just chivalry, as she was the only one capable of using the Goa'uld healing device, and therefore the one who would have to patch him up if something nasty decided to use him for a scratching post.
Smiling at Daniel briefly, Vala was pretty certain practicality had nothing to do with it. Chivalry might not be Daniel's middle name-actually, she wasn't sure what his middle name was-but he definitely had some "knight in shining armor" tendencies. Beyond the impatient, occasionally gruff, and irritatingly self-assured behaviors he often exhibited, Daniel could also manage to be endearingly thoughtful, fiercely protective, and stubbornly loyal.
A strange honking noise filled the air, and Vala looked up to see a small group of large birds winging overhead, calling to one another as they flew. It was the first overt sign of wildlife they had encountered, and thankfully a non-threatening one. To Vala, the looming woods didn't seem quite so menacing now that she'd seen some of what lived in it.
"Hold up," Daniel requested, sliding his pack off his shoulders. He rummaged inside for a moment, then came up with a coil of rope. "Did those birds look like they were taking flight or coming in for a landing?" he asked as he tied one end of the rope to the sturdy-looking limb of a fallen tree.
"Landing, I guess," she shrugged. "Thinking of roasting a goose for supper?"
"No, thinking that geese and ducks tend to sleep near lakes and ponds." Standing up, he gave the rope a firm tug to test the knot, then began to walk in the direction the fowl had gone, unwinding his rope as he walked deeper into the woods. "It's getting dark," he explained at Vala's questioning look, "and I'd rather not stumble into the trench trying to find our way back to it."
"You must be a genius," she joked. And really, of all the things she expected Daniel to know, wilderness survival was not one of them. Nevertheless, she was grateful: her extent of woodsmanship had either been taught to her during her time with SG-1, or was a remnant of the one camping trip she had taken when she was fifteen. However, she and her companions had known exactly where they were and how to get home again, and the trip itself had been more about making out than making camp.
She grinned at the memory, then shoved it back into its tiny box for protection. Amusing as it would be to share that anecdote with Daniel, she valued his friendship far too much to push the proverbial envelope right now. Besides, he needed to use his big ol' brain for survival stuff, not infinitely looping over the mental image of a horny teenage Vala entangled with a faceless but equally-horny teenage boy.
Or maybe, she smirked to herself, he'd be picturing his own teenaged face on the boy.
"And we have water," Daniel announced, breaking the lovely train of thoughts Vala had been entertaining.
The woods opened out before them to reveal a broad, placid lake, with several of the native geese milling about in the water near the shore. The terrain on the far side of the lake rose sharply, and a small waterfall trickled off the cliff into the pool below.
"You think it's safe to drink?" Vala asked, eyeing the distant waterfall and weighing its potential as a shower. It would probably be cold, she decided, but it might be worth it anyway.
Daniel shook his head. "Maybe, but we should try to purify it first, anyway. We should have enough purifier tablets in our gear to last us a week or two, but we can boil it after that if we're here that long."
"Hmmm, then maybe we should start boiling it as soon as we can, and save the tablets for when we can't have a fire."
"Good idea." Daniel cast about for a moment, located a low-hanging branch nearly the same diameter as Vala's wrist, and looped the remainder of the rope in his hand around it, then tied it off. "We have water, we have at least three potential sources of food, and the crash made sure we had plenty of firewood. Let's head back to the ship for the night, then we can explore some more tomorrow."
"What about your rope?"
He patted the trunk of the tree to which the rope was tied. "We'll use it to find our way back to the lake tomorrow."
"Oh! You're good at this."
Daniel smiled and gave a self-deprecating shrug. "I had excellent teachers."
"General Jack and Muscles?"
"More Jack than Teal'c, but yeah. I also learned some things from my studies-stuff like tool-making and well-digging-but we'll see if any of that comes in handy later."
Vala spread her hands wide. "My survival skills tend more toward getting by in populated areas. You lead, I follow."
"No pressure, huh?"
Part 2