AGFA Chapter 2
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: Hi everyone! I’ve had this chapter written for awhile but it needed MAJOR tweaking before I could post. I want to thank Cat and Susan so so much for their beta’ing help, this was a tough chapter to write and it wouldn’t have seen the light of day without them!
Author’s Note #2: I also want to let everyone know that I haven’t dropped Being Found or Perchance To Live. I haven’t dropped writing at all, I’ve just been going through my own personal hell and I haven’t had the liberty to write to my heart’s content. Be assured though that the stories will continue, they’ve already been plotted out and I just need to find a break in the storms, so to speak, to get to writing them.
Disclaimer: I own the plot, unoriginal as it may be Don’t own the characters.
Now on with the show?
Chapter 1: Emptiness
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Chapter 2: Friendship
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The members of SG-1 had promptly arrived on Tarkan at 0800. They made their way down the well beaten path to the nearest village and were met by excited villagers who led them straight to their Chief’s house, or mansion rather. The chief was a large man, fit for labour and probably better respected by his people because of it. Chief Elom Paitar’s dark brows lifted over his clear blue eyes in surprise as he saw four aliens standing in his doorway but a wide smile overtook his features and he wasted no time ushering them in and calling for his wife. After sitting them at the long kitchen table, the burly chief fixed them drinks himself and sat down to go through introductions.
Apparently the people of Tarkan were in dire need of protection from the rising Goa’uld presence. They’d been protected during the Ori war due to their location at the other end of the galaxy but now that they were gone, the Goa’uld who used to terrorize them were slowly regaining their advantage.
“Oh, this must be SG-13.” A short, plump woman with ink black hair and deep blue exclaimed as she entered the kitchen. “You’ve come a day early! Your eagerness to make new friends is quite impressive, especially given that we are a small planet with technology far inferior to your own.”
“Well, Ma’am,” Cam smiled back genially, “we know there’s more to friendship than sharing toys.”
“Actually dear,” Chief Paitar interjected, “these people are from the Tau’ri but they are the primary team, SG-1, not SG-13. This is my wife, Simeri.”
They all nodded in greeting, no one noticing the newly forced quality of Simeri’s round-cheeked smile.
“You’re not SG-13.” she repeated pleasantly.
“Ah, no, they couldn’t make it, they’re trapped in a storm on another planet. They send their apologies though and hope to meet you once the treaty has been agreed upon.” Daniel explained quickly, shooting a glance to the others. Simeri nodded before readopting her wide, warming smile.
“And you’ve come all this way in their stead. That's very kind of you.” she praised them.
“It’s our pleasure.” Sam replied politely.
“Well,” Simeri said, bringing her hands together, “I’ll just get out of your way, I’m sure you’ve much to discuss and I have the children to look after. Until tonight.” Seremi bid them all with a motherly smile.
“Until tonight, dear, and say hello to the children.” Chief Paitar returned, watching his wife leave the kitchen. The high-pitched giggling of small girls came from out of sight and Elom’s eyes looked for the source with moderate trepidation.
“Have you many children, Chief Paitar?” Teal’c asked. Elom looked surprised but understood the subtext.
“Oh no, I have but three.” He grinned “My wife looks after the children of others nearby and some in particular have caused me more than a few white hairs. My own children are angels…in my presence in any case, my wife tells a different story.” he chuckled. “And please, call me Elom, we are to become friends, aren’t we? I have never found a need for strict formalities.”
“Thank you, Elom.” Daniel said, “Um, you said there was a-a council of sorts that we would be speaking with? When will we be meeting with them?”
The older man nodded a few times.
“Yes, well, although your early arrival is very well-met, the council is only prepared to meet tomorrow. The council is comprised of the chiefs of each of the fourteen villages surrounding the chappa’ai…your stargate I believe you called it…it is a half-day’s journey for some of them. They will not arrive before noon tomorrow.” Elom explained and the members of SG-1 gave each other disappointed glances.
“But as I said earlier, in my opinion it is a formidable show of character to be so eager to become allies with such a people so technologically inferior, I must insist that you stay and tour the village. We have much room in this house for guests and many of the local families are excited to meet the people who will ease their fears of the Goa’uld.” Elom asked of them.
“We’d love to.” Cam answered with as much enthusiasm as he could muster at the prospect of being paraded around a strange village as messiahs.
“Excellent, excellent!” Elom said brightly before calming down “I apologize if I seem too exuberant but you must understand that we have never held a hope of being free of the Goa’uld. They left some years ago and we thought they’d been vanquished but after we got word of a stronger power being destroyed, the false gods have returned and I know our planet will not be free much longer.”
“We understand, and we’ll help you in any way we can. We’ve always been opposed to the tyranny of the Goa’uld…and the Ori…and the Replicators…pretty much anyone trying to wipe out mankind.” Daniel finished with a small frown.
Elom’s eyebrows had slowly drifted upwards as Daniel spoke but they returned to their normal level as he nodded confidently.
“That is exactly what we have heard. Your reputation far precedes you.” he praised none too subtly.
“Yeah,” Sam said slowly, leaning forward in her chair “we’ve been meaning to ask you about that. Not that it really matters I guess but who is it that led you to us?”
The others looked to the Chief for his answer but his face had become carefully blank, his smile never faltering.
“We heard of you through a traveler passing our village some weeks ago. When they heard of our hardships, they recommended we seek out the Tau’ri. They said they’d seen your SG-13 arranging defensive technology on another world and that they…or you I suppose…might be willing to do the same for us.” Elom spoke with less flair than he’d displayed so far.
“That’s pretty fortunate.” Cam remarked, keeping his tone light.
“Oh yes, quite so.” Elom returned, joyfully slipping back into the warm man they’d met “But I was taught not to question good tidings.”
There was an awkward silence after that but Elom didn’t let it last long. He clapped his hands and pushed himself up from the table.
“Well, would you like to leave your bags here? We have just enough time for a walk through the village before the evening meal.” he suggested.
“Sure, why not?” Cam agreed.
They walked up the old wooden staircase and came upon a long narrow hallway stretching out on both sides and each wing boasting four doors. At the end of the left corridor, they could see another staircase leading down, presumably to the back of the house. Just as Elom was about to escort them to their individual rooms, a loud shriek pierced through the walls of one of the closed doors. The startling sound was followed immediately by a little girl running out of the room, her eyes wide as saucers and obviously terrified.
Oblivious to her misery, Daniel’s heart lurched in his chest as he took in the girl’s black hair, pale skin and deep blue-grey eyes. He knew those eyes, they haunted him every night in his dreams…and in his nightmares. He’d been looking for those eyes for five years and here they were, on a little girl in a strange village.
The girl ran blindly until she bumped into Elom’s legs, finally looking up with teary eyes and a trembling lip.
“Papa, it’s going to eat me!” she cried as her father picked her up and held her comfortingly. This drew Daniel out of his stupefaction and he realized - feeling like an idiot for his erratic heartbeat - that those eyes belonged to Siremi, the child’s mother, and no one else.
A laugh came from the open door and another girl came out with a few strands of black material hanging from her fingers. She had a mischievous smile on her face as she approached them.
“Jeneil, it’s gonna get you!” she warned, throwing the black cloth around, eliciting another shriek from the girl.
“Talika, stop scaring your sister immediately.” Elom chided the older girl. Talika stopped as soon as she heard his voice; the nine year old had been more focused on frightening her sister than her environment.
“Papa, we were just playing.” she complained. Elom put Jeneil down and gave his daughters a hard look.
“Your sister is two years your junior, stop harassing her. And what were you doing in the guest quarters? You know it’s forbidden to you.” he demanded and both girls immediately looked to the floor in shame.
“Nejaya said there were cookies upstairs.” Jeneil said, wiping away the tears from her reddened cheeks. Elom gave a heavy sigh.
“Nejaya is three years your junior, Jeneil! Why is it she can still trick you both?” he asked his younger daughter. Both stayed silent during the interrogation and Elom sighed again, remembering his prestigious guests and turning to them in apology.
“I’m very sorry you had to be witness to their misconduct.” Elom apologized with slight embarrassment. “I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you for a moment to return these girls to their mother. You may choose any room you like, they are all empty and were cleaned this morning.”
“That’s fine, Elom, we’ll be okay on our own.” Sam told him understandingly. The Chief looked relieved at her answer, or perhaps at her demeanor, the last thing he wanted was to annoy his alien guests.
“Thank you.” he replied with a slight bow, taking the girls by their shoulders and turning them around “If I’m not back before you’ve arranged your belongings in your rooms, please feel free to return to the kitchen and take something to eat and drink. I’ll return as soon as I’ve found my wife.”
“See you then.” Cameron said, giving a small wave to the girls as they were shepherded out of the corridor and down the stairs at the end.
Turning back to his team, Cam grinned wide.
“Cute kids.” he remarked.
“Yeah.” Sam smiled, merriment alight in her eyes “Is it just me or did they kind of remind you of…” she cut herself off too late to keep them all from wincing.
“Vala.” Daniel said with a wistful smile. “They looked a lot like Vala.”
“That was my first thought anyway.” Cam agreed cautiously and they stood in silence for a moment.
“Should we not pick our rooms?” Teal’c suggested and they all broke up to do just that. They dumped their backpacks keeping only their weapons, water and radios with them before moving back down the stairs and taking seats at the kitchen table to wait on their host. They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before the sound of light footsteps reached their ears. Someone was coming but it was unlikely to be Elom.
They were right; after a hesitant peek around the corner, a small girl of about four years old bounced into the kitchen with a smile stretching from ear to ear. This one also had ebony hair and pale skin but her eyes, though blue, were not deep but rather a sparkling, clear blue shining mischievously. She was undoubtedly Elom’s third daughter.
“Hey there.” Cam greeted with a grin.
“Hey there.” she mimicked him with a smile. Her blue eyes flicked between the strangers and the counter before she skipped up to the table and pulled a chair over to her destination. With great effort, and with Daniel, being nearest to her, poised to jump and catch her should she fall, the girl heaved herself up and started exploring the countertop. There wasn’t a jar left unopened nor a drawer left undrawn but she was very careful to return things to the condition in which she found them.
“Should you really be pokin’ in there?” Cameron asked cautiously as she got up on her knees to open the cabinets. He never liked parenting strangers’ kids but he wasn’t about to let her hurt herself either.
“Yes,” she replied matter-of-factly, never ceasing her search “I need to find the cookies.”
The teammates grinned at each other and Daniel got up from his chair to stand beside her as a precaution when she rose unsteadily to stand on the counter.
“I’m guessing your name is Nejaya?” Sam asked. The girl turned her head for a moment but nodded.
“You sent the other girls to search for the cookies in the guest bedrooms.” Teal’c stated. Nejaya turned her head again but slowly this time and with gleeful eyes.
“If they came with me, I’d have to share.” she answered him as if it were the simplest thing in the world. Nejaya maneuvered herself around the sink but the hem of her gray dress caught on the handle of one of the cupboard and she was jerked backwards and lost her footing. Every adult in the room felt their heart seize in panic but before Daniel could lunge to catch her, Nejaya had thrown out a hand and caught hold of the edge of a cupboard. She regained her balance and smiled impishly at her audience.
“Listen, I somehow doubt that you’re supposed to be in here, especially looking for junk food, so how about you come down and we won’t tell your parents?” Daniel tried to negotiate before she killed herself.
Nejaya paused her renewed search at his words and turned to face him with a frown.
“You don’t want to be a tattle-tale.” she countered but Daniel just shrugged.
“I can live with it. Those are my terms, take it or leave it.” he offered again. She kept her ice blue eyes on him and he returned the stare, refusing to back down.
“Okay.” she sighed with resignation before holding her arms out for him to take her off the countertop. He gave his own sigh and picked her up under the arms, setting her carefully on the floor.
Daniel sat back down in his chair around the table and they all watched as Nejaya carefully smoothed out the skirt of her dress and ran her fingers through her loose black hair before pulling her chair back to its place at the table and sitting down on it, her chin barely reached the table. She sat up straighter but could only hold the pose for so long. Nejaya sighed in annoyance and got up once more, climbed onto the table and sat cross-legged there.
“Hi.” Nejaya said, somewhat shy now that she wasn’t busy looking for her prize.
“Hi.” Sam replied with a smile. “My name is Sam, this is Cam, Teal’c and Daniel you’ve met.” she grinned though it faltered a bit when Nejaya crawled across the table to sit in front of Sam, her legs dangling onto the woman’s lap.
“Your hair is yellow,” Nejaya noted, all traces of shyness gone as she touched Sam’s short locks “we don’t have many yellow heads on Tarkan. Where are you from?”
“Uh, we’re from Earth…you’ve probably never heard of it before.” she added, when Nejaya pulled her hand away.
“You’re the Tau’ri?” she asked, her wide eyes curious.
“Or maybe she has heard of us.” Cam droned, earning Nejaya’s gaze. “We’re like the Second Coming, the Chief has probably been advertising all week.”
Nejaya wore a pensive look before nodding strongly and crawling over to Teal’c.
“He has, he speaks of the Tau’ri aaaallll the time, even in his sleep.” she told Cameron with great authority before pointing at Teal’c’s gold emblem.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“It is a symbol of my past obedience and servitude to Apophis of the Goa’uld.” he said deeply. His voice and stern countenance frightened most children but Nejaya was too fascinated by the symbol to notice.
“The false gods.” she noted wisely before tapping the gold twice with her index. “But they’ve fallen, why don’t you take it off? I’ll take it if you don’t want it.” she suggested brightly.
“I would do so if I could, Nejaya, but the gold is branded to me. To take it off would be extremely painful.” Teal’c replied honestly. Nejaya seemed unconcerned.
“My mother is a healer, she could fix you up if you gave the gold to her.” she pointed out and Teal’c’s lips quirked up ever so slightly.
“I will keep the emblem, Nejaya.” he said finally and watched in amusement as the girl pouted and shuffled over to Daniel.
“What about these? Are they worth anything?” she asked, tapping on the lenses of his glasses before swiping them off his nose.
“No. Can I have them back please? I need them.” Daniel asked Elom’s daughter with his trademark furrowed brow.
“Why? What do they do?” she asked inquisitively, spinning the frames and holding them up to the light.
“They help me to see better.” Daniel said, his tone amused. He held his hand out for the glasses to be returned but the little girl had no such intentions.
“Really?” she asked skeptically. Nejaya put the glasses on her nose like Daniel had but she couldn’t see better at all.
“You’re lying. I see worse now.” She accused him. “And they hurt my eyes!”
Daniel stole back his glasses with a grin while she rubbed her eyes through her closed lids.
“It hurts because you can see well, you aren’t supposed to wear glasses. My eyes don’t see well so they help me.” he explained patiently.
When she opened her eyes again they bore through him suspiciously but she let the matter go and refocused her attention on his uniform. She opened his vest pocket and closed it again rapidly before moving on to the next trinket on his jacket. Daniel tried to grab her hands but she was extremely fast and he didn’t want to hurt her. Meanwhile, the other three at the table weren’t even hiding their grins at his unease.
“Nejaya, would you…please stop.” he asked her and surprisingly, she complied. When he looked down, he saw her hand hovering near his right shoulder. She fingered the edge of the round team patch with awed eyes before wrapping her hand around it and tearing the patch off of its Velcro base.
“That’s my team’s badge.” Daniel told her. He wasn’t used to children or childish behaviour anymore and that, coupled with Nejaya’s reverent blue eyes, was making him feel much more indulgent than he was used to.
She was quiet as she fingered the lettering and the design.
“It’s missing the ‘3’.” she said finally.
“What?” Daniel asked.
“Look,” she pointed, showing him the space after the ‘1’, “it’s missing a ‘3’. Can I keep it?”
“No,” Daniel replied with a smirk, grabbing the patch back “you may not.”
“But it’s no good if it’s broken!” she tried to convince him, shooting her hand out to steal it again. Daniel pushed her hand away lightly and they went back and forth like that, Nejaya giggling harder the more Daniel resisted.
“It’s not broken, Nejaya.” Daniel informed her with a grin. “My team is called SG-1, not SG-13.”
At that, Nejaya stopped reaching for the patch and leaned back on the table.
“You’re SG-1?” Nejaya asked quietly “Truly?”
“Yes.” Daniel replied just as quietly but much more curiously. “Why?”
She looked back up at Daniel, her eyes full of wonder but more apprehension.
“You shouldn’t have come.” she said gravely, her blue eyes solemn.
“What?” he asked, frowning and shooting the rest of his team a questioning glance. “Why not?”
“Nejaya!” Siremi exclaimed firmly from the doorway, startling them all. Her stormy blue eyes shifted nervously from the girl on the table to the people seated around it until she marched forward and scooped her up.
“I’m very sorry, she…she knows she isn’t allowed to-to speak to people she does not know.” Siremi said quickly, turning back to the door with Nejaya in her arms “I will see you at the evening meal.”
Nejaya didn’t protest as she was carried out but her sparkling blue eyes were worried.
“What the hell was that all about?” Cam asked. Before anyone could make an attempt at an answer, Elom reappeared with a bright smile.
“I’m so sorry to have kept you waiting.” he apologized “I hope I haven’t wasted too much of your time.”
“Not at all.” Sam said politely before grinning “Your daughter was keeping us entertained.”
“Oh!” he grinned “You’ve met Lelia! Fantastic, that will save us the trouble of introductions later on.”
“Um…no, another one I guess, Nejaya?” Daniel posed.
“Oh,” Elom replied, suddenly concerned, “she wasn’t bothering you, was she?”
“No, no, not really.” Daniel replied truthfully.
“Oh good.” Elom said with evident relief “She’s not one of mine, that one. She’s the daughter of my wife’s friend. Sweet girl but always causing mischief.”
“Oh, we just assumed…” Cam started and Elom nodded intuitively.
“Yes, she does look remarkably like my daughters, doesn’t she? They’re always mistaken for siblings.” He remarked before clapping his hands. “Well, shall we go? The town is waiting!”
“Lead the way.” Cameron said and the man joyfully complied, sauntering past them and beckoning them outside. He’d already waved down two neighbours before they’d left the house.
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I hope you liked it! Please let me know!! Our favourite space pirate will be making her way into the story soon, like...next chapter soon!
Next - Chapter 3