AGFA - Chapter 1: Emptiness
Title: A Gift from Above
Author: Milena D.
Rating: T for now
Genre: Romance/Action/Adventure, etc. Daniel/Vala all the way ;)
SPOILERS: HUGE SPOILERS FOR DOMINION!!!
Summary: Something went wrong and they’ve paid for it.
Author’s Note: Okay, I know most of you will be screaming with outrage at the appearance of a brand-new fic when I have two unfinished and begging for my time. BE assured that I have NOT forgotten them and that it was absolutely necessary to write this up to clear my mind and better focus on BF and PtL.
Author’s Note #2: I want to thank Cat, Stef, Isa and Erin for their immense help and encouragement throughout this chapter. They did an awesome job of keeping me on track.
Disclaimer: I own the plot, unoriginal as it may be ^_~ Don’t own the characters.
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Chapter 1: Emptiness
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Five years ago…
Daniel couldn’t keep his leg from bouncing nervously on the grassy floor. For three days now they’d been camped on the planet of the last possible gate address for the location of the Clava Thessara Infinitas and each one of those days passed by without interruption. It wasn’t right, something had to be wrong. Three days ago they’d left Vala on a planet that Adria was scheduled to visit the next day. They hadn’t had much time to prepare but it was their best shot at a successful ambush and Vala had fought tooth and nail to go through with it…despite his enthusiasm to the contrary.
Three days.
He never should have listened to her. It was a good plan, a brilliant plan really, but she was out following through with that plan alone, without any back-up, and with the mistaken idea that she wasn’t welcome at the SGC…Daniel sighed with displeasure, earning himself a concerned glance from Sam. He shook his head dismissing her worry and returned to his internal frustrations.
Three whole days.
She’d been gone for barely half a week and the team felt lacking somehow. There was a painful void, an emptiness that they all felt and it was only exacerbated with the thought that, despite being in undoubtedly good health, Vala was on some other planet, without them and harboring serious feelings of betrayal towards them. That was the worst part. Daniel knew more than anyone how hard Vala had worked to earn their trust, their friendship, their loyalty and she now believed she’d lost it all. Thinking of what she must be feeling right now was eating him up.
Three agonizing days of waiting.
He should have zatted her and locked her up somewhere after she’d told him her plan. Granted, Cameron had been in the room at the time so pretending that she’d never said anything would have been slightly difficult but he still could have tried. He shouldn’t have berated her bravery and ingenuity with such callous disregard, that had only riled her up and gotten her even more determined to see her plan through. He should have taken her aside at that moment and told her how the very idea of her walking directly into Adria’s path without them terrified him, but he hadn’t. He hadn’t said anything important until after the plan was approved and scheduled. He’d been an idiot.
“Hey,” Cameron called, knowing exactly what thoughts were running through his friend’s head. “They’ll be here.”
The moment those words had been uttered, the stargate activated, the bursting event horizon echoing the explosion of joy and relief in Daniel’s chest at the thought of being reunited with his infuriating former space pirate.
SG’s 1, 3 and 4 all rallied around the stargate, their weapons raised, ready to meet both an enemy and a friend. The event horizon rippled and a solitary form came through, the blue swirls of the vortex dissipating after her exit. Her eyes were wide and her lips pursed as she took in her greeting party.
“Where is she?” Cameron demanded of the raven-haired woman.
“Where is whom?” she asked innocently after her momentary surprise faded.
“Vala.” Daniel returned impatiently “Where is she?”
The beautiful woman extended her hand breezily toward them but faltered with shock when all weapons stayed firmly gripped in the soldiers’ hands. Adria looked at Cameron who was waving an Anti-Prior device at her and seethed, the different pieces of this despicable trick falling into place in her mind.
“You sent my mother to lead me into an ambush.” she accused them, unconcerned by their weaponry and ire.
“Where is she, Adria?” Daniel asked again. He felt his heart churn painfully when she smirked victoriously.
“My mother is being escorted to my flagship as we speak.” she informed them, delighting in their distraught expressions.
“You’ve captured your enemy.” she congratulated them sweetly. “Was it worth losing her?”
Before anyone could answer, dozens of Jaffa were beamed down and surrounded the Tau’ri.
“Lower your weapons!” a Jaffa ordered them.
“Buddy, I think you got the wrong planet.” Cam replied with a hint of warning.
“Lower your weapons, or we will all perish.” the Jaffa replied sincerely “My master, Lord Ba'al, has targeted this location from orbit.”
With immense hesitance and even more irritation, Cam motioned the SG teams to lower their P-90’s. The Jaffa walked up the stairs to Adria and Daniel closed his eyes with bitter disappointment when he understood what he was fastening to her arm.
“What are you doing?” Cameron demanded crossly.
“Carrying out my orders.” the Jaffa said simply before he, his soldiers and Adria disappeared in a show of bright light leaving them empty handed and broken hearted.
After checking in with the SGC, SG-1 immediately gated to the planet on which they’d left Vala. For almost an hour, they held the miniscule hope that Adria had been lying but it had dwindled into dread when those few who had come into contact with their teammate all reported seeing her escorted out of the village by armed guards of the Orici. They returned to Earth a downtrodden and disheartened group having to report the fact that Vala had been taken from them yet again and they didn’t know when they’d ever see her again.
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Present Time…
Daniel sat at the table in his office keeping his ears alert for visitors.
“Hello, gorgeous.” Vala smiled brightly at him and Daniel couldn’t help but reciprocate softly.
“If you’re watching this you’re obviously back at Stargate Command and you’re probably thinking that everyone around you has gone completely, pfft, wonko.” her digitized voice narrated from his desktop. Daniel smiled knowing what was coming. “With the possible exception of Daniel who, let’s face it, was always a little - ”
“Vala!”
Daniel watched her dark eyes sparkle with mischief as his own voice sounded in the background.
This wasn’t the first time he’d watched the recording she’d made before leaving. For months after they’d returned to Earth without her, the tape had been forgotten in turbulence of chaotic Search and Rescue missions. They’d sent out teams for two weeks, scouring the known Ori-converted worlds in the hopes of finding her captors but they’d been unsuccessful and the IOA had pulled the plug on their efforts.
Daniel had seriously considered removing himself from the program for the third time but his friends had convinced him that they had better odds of running into her on missions than he would have alone. He’d stayed, but on days like this he really wished he hadn’t. It had been five long and lonely years. The somber mood that had descended upon their team had never fully dissipated, no matter how hard Cam had tried. They’d gotten so used to Vala’s wide smiles, easy enthusiasm and bouncing energy and her absence, her capture, had taken all of that away from them.
“Hey.”
The soft voice at his doorway startled him and he instinctively reached to turn off the video before realizing who it was.
“Hey Sam.” he said, allowing the video to continue on his laptop. Sam pushed herself off the doorframe and pointed at his screen.
“You watching Vala?” she asked with a small smile.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “You want me to rewind it?”
“Sure.” she said, taking another chair and pulling it to the table. The tape stayed with Daniel always, there’d never been any question about that, but every once in awhile Sam would join him. Sometimes Teal’c would too. Cam never watched the recording with any of them but the tape had mysteriously vanished a few times over the years only to reappear the next day. Daniel, after the first episode of heart-wrenching panic upon discovering the tape missing, had learned to make several copies.
Daniel and Sam watched Vala in silence to the very end, smiling most of the way through.
“It’s funny,” he said afterwards “she doesn’t seem as annoying as I remember.”
Sam watched her friend with a sad smile before nudging his shoulder with hers.
“Well, you know what they say: absence does make the heart grow fonder.”
Daniel gave her a hint of a grin but remained silent. Watching the still of Vala’s glowing face in pause, his grin was washed away and his face took on a dark expression.
“We’re never going to find her.” he said quietly. He wasn’t asking for reassurance, he wasn’t asking Sam to deny the claim. He was informing her.
It had been five years and they hadn’t even heard tell of her name on any Ori worlds. They’d never just missed her, they’d never been a week too late, she’d simply never been seen. Not only that but, to their knowledge, the Ori troops and Priors were all but defeated. Their last show-down with any Ori fleet had been two years ago and, having won by a long shot, the SGC hadn’t heard much from them since.
The Ori-converted planets were safe now and there was talk of one or two of their ships surviving but that was believed to be rumours propagated by Ori-supporters to keep the rest of the galaxy on their toes. She hadn’t been on any of the planets and there were no ships left, short of being in the actual Ori galaxy Vala had disappeared completely. They weren’t going to find her.
Sam said nothing, as he knew she would. She simply leaned over and started the tape anew.
“Hello, gorgeous.”
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“Sir, could I bother you for a minute?” Full-bird-Colonel Cameron Mitchell asked from General Landry’s doorway.
“Come on in, Colonel.” Landry replied, knowing already what the issue would concern.
October was never a good month for them, it was the month they’d lost Vala. They probably wouldn’t have noticed it so much but Hallowe’en had only been three weeks away and Vala had been so excited to participate in the eccentric but amusing Tau’ri custom of getting dressed in bizarre costumes, watching horror movies and pigging out on junk food. She’d already roped most of her team into celebrating it with her, Cameron and Daniel being the only ones to put up any kind of resistance.
So it wasn’t so much the actual month but rather the small pieces of black and orange decorations going up in offices and all around town that reminded them of their loss. Hence, Mitchell’s need to keep his team active and busy.
“Sir,” Cam started tensely, sitting down in front of the General’s desk. “we need to go off-world.”
“What’s the problem, son?”
“No problem, sir,” Cameron said easily “we just haven’t been out in a while.”
“You’re on rotation, Colonel, just like every other SG team.” General Landry reminded him.
“Yes, sir.” Cam said, not completely successful at masking his dejection. Having his answer, like he’d had all week, Cam got up and made his way to the door.
“Actually, Colonel,” General Landry called him back, hiding a grin at the hope on the other man’s face.
“Yes, sir?”
“I’m going to need SG-1 to ship out tomorrow. Think you can assemble your team for a briefing?” he asked innocently.
“You got it, sir!” Cam beamed.
“One hour, Colonel. Dismissed.”
“We’ll be here, sir, thank you.”
Cam left the office at breakneck speed to hunt down his crew.
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An hour later saw the remaining members of SG-1 seated dutifully around the briefing table. General Landry took his seat at the end of the table and wasted no time in commencing the meeting.
“As you know, SG-13 has been stranded on P3Z-464 since last Wednesday,” he said, not waiting for their confirmation to proceed. “The storm that they’d mentioned might keep them from the stargate has obviously lasted for a much longer time than expected.”
“Or they were injured.” Cam added.
“Right.” General Landry agreed. “In any case, we’ve sent the Odyssey to the planet and it should be arriving sometime tomorrow, hopefully they’re just too far from the gate to dial in. The Odyssey will beam them up and bring them back to Earth.”
“Glad to hear it, sir, but how does that involve us?” Cam asked with as much impatience as he dared show in the presence of his superior officer.
“It involves you, Colonel, in the matter of a diplomatic mission SG-13 had scheduled for tomorrow on a planet called Tarkan.” Landry replied.
“SG-13 on a diplomatic mission?” Daniel asked skeptically. Usually, for treaties and first contact, only the most experienced teams were sent out. It was rare for an SG team past number 10 was called for such work.
“Yes, they were requested specifically.” the General said with a strange tone.
“The people of Tarkan have previously met with SG-13?” Teal’c asked.
“No, they haven’t and that concerns me.” Landry replied “They made contact with the Alpha Site and request to meet with SG-13 straight away. They say they want to establish a treaty and trade agreements but I’m more than a little wary of their motives.”
“So you want us to go and check things out?” Cam presumed with a grin.
“That’s right. I want to know what they wanted with SG-13 and what they want with us. You leave tomorrow morning at 0800 hours.” General Landry spoke as he rose from his chair, his two Colonels following him up. “You’re dismissed.”
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The next morning, Daniel was packing his laptop when he remembered that he’d never taken out Vala’s recording from the disc drive. He reached for the “Open” button but his finger paused above it. If everything was on the level, General Landry expected them to stay a few days, even a week on this alien planet. He’d gone much longer periods without watching the tape but this was October. Daniel sighed with irony; there had been a time when he could barely tolerate her presence, now he couldn’t even part with a digital recording of her. With that thought, he left the DVD in his laptop's driver and packed the computer carefully into his bag before turning off the lights and locking his door.
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So there was chapter 1, chapter 2 anyone? Please leave me your thoughts ^_^
>>Chapter 2: Friendship