Diplomacy (1b/27)
Title: Diplomacy ( Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Pairings: Gen.
Chapter1a-- 1b Chapter2 Chapter3 Chapter4 Chapter5a-- 5b Chapter6 Chapter7 Chapter8 Chapter9 Chapter10 Chapter11a-- 11b Chapter12 Chapter13a-- 13b Chapter14a-- 14b Chapter15a-- 15b Chapter16 Chapter17a-- 17b Chapter18 Chapter19 Chapter20 Chapter21 Chapter22 Chapter23 Chapter24 Chapter25 Chapter26 Epilogue
11 June 1998; USAF Academy Hospital, Earth; 1030 hrs
"Cassandra," Daniel greeted, stepping into Janet's office at the hospital the next day, where the girl was waiting while Janet checked on her patients. Cassandra looked up as he came in and let the door fall shut behind him, a few of her fingers yellow from what looked like paint.
"Hi, Daniel," she said, smiling politely. "I've never seen you come here before."
"I've never been here before. I was talking to some of the patients. Ja--your mother said I could stay in here with you for a while." Until, or unless, one of the patients needed something that no one else could understand. "I haven't seen you in over a month."
"I haven't seen you, either," she said.
"Oh. That's...true," he said intelligently.
They'd met once more after her arrival on Earth and adoption by Janet, on a day when Sam had taken her to a nearby park to play for the first time. Jack had insisted on going as well, and Daniel and Teal'c had somehow both ended up going with him.
It felt odd, sometimes, talking to Cassandra. He thought they should have a lot in common, being from off-world, orphaned by a Goa'uld and brought to Earth, but the similarities were superficial. Hanka's culture seemed fairly similar to Earth's, compared with that of Abydos, even with a similar climate and government and educational systems; they were just several decades behind in technology. It was partly age, too--Jack had laughed at him once when he'd said that, but what he'd meant was that the few years between almost-twelve and almost-fifteen made a difference, whatever the culture.
Looking down at her now, it struck him that, literally for the first time in months, he was the oldest one in the room and was here in an official SGC capacity; he actually was supposed to be the adult this time. "So...how have you been?" he said, awkwardly trying to make some conversation as they waited. "Have you settled in with Janet?"
She nodded, carefully putting down her paintbrush. "I like it with her."
"And with Sam, yeah?" Daniel said. Sam had confided to him later that she had seriously considered adopting Cassandra herself. The only thing stopping her had been her fears about not doing it right, or not knowing what a young girl would need. There was also the fact that she was at least as busy as Janet--when she was actually on the planet--and not ready to have a child of her own, not when she was in the thick of battles and off-world so much of the time.
As if reading his mind, Cassandra said, "I haven't seen Sam in a while."
Daniel grimaced. "Oh. Well, you know, she talks about you a lot, but she's been really--"
"--busy, I know," she finished for him, sounding like she really did understand, though it didn't mask her disappointment. "Everyone is. Are you waiting for them, too?"
"Um, yeah. There's been...yeah." He really needed to ask someone how much Cassandra knew about the SGC, beyond her own experiences. Conversations could get very awkward very fast otherwise. Faster, anyway. Quickly changing the subject, he asked instead, "What...uh, what else have you been doing?"
"I started going to a school here in America. It's almost the end of the school year for them, so I won't really start until it's autumn. But my teacher says I'm a talented artist," she said, a little proud and a little shy, as she turned the picture so that it faced him.
"It's...it's nice," he said after a while. "Um...what is it?"
"It's a rainbow," she huffed.
"A...rainbow?" he asked blankly.
"From when it rains," she said, as if it should be obvious. Well, how should he have known? On Abydos, it was rare to see more than a minute of rain at a time in Nagada proper, and their rain certainly didn't look like what Cassandra was painting. Most times, Nagadans only knew of a distant rainfall when they traveled for trade, when the river in the Badari province began to rise during the fertile seasons. He himself had seen four rains in the village itself that he could remember, each of them barely lasting long enough to haul vessels outside to catch the water.
Daniel peered more closely at the picture, though, to humor her, then suddenly remembered a picture he had seen in one of Dr. Barr's books. "Oh! It's like Bifrost." When she looked blank in return, he explained, "It's a bridge connecting Midgard--Earth, I mean, to Asgard. The Æsir used it to travel back and forth between their realms." There was even a word for it in his mother tongue--khin'mut pati, the kiss from the sky--so obviously rainbows happened sometimes on Abydos.
"Shush!" Cassandra scolded, whispering, "We're not supposed to talk about traveling to other places besides Earth. And everyone knows Asgard's not real."
"W--no, well, it's just...it's a myth," he said uncomfortably. "And it's a myth here, so people here know it, too. Well, not necessarily everyone here, like right here in the hospital, or even everyone on...uh, in America, but some people..." He trailed off as the rest of her words registered. "Did you just...Asgard? Who says that it's not real?" Did schools on Earth normally teach Norse mythology? Or...
She shrugged. "There were stories on--in Toronto," she said, which was what she'd been told to call her homeland of Hanka. "People who said they were taken by some being from Asgard."
Daniel blinked. "Really? But...wait, if they were taken, how did they tell the stories?"
"They don't actually get taken, Daniel. It's just a story people tell." When he still gaped at her, she rolled her eyes. "A lot of them had had too much drink the night before. Everyone knows it's just an old legend--something people tell as an excuse."
"Are you sure?" he asked, his thoughts whirring and excitement growing. "Because, you know, I've been wondering why certain pla--places have people who speak Germanic languages like English when they shouldn't have had any contact at all." English had developed on Earth, after all, as far as he knew, after the Goa'uld had left. But both Hanka and Cimmeria had English-speakers, although the Asgard presence on Hanka was obviously much less. Still, it was a connection... "What else did they say? Did they describe Asgard? I mean, could we..." He trailed off.
Cassandra had turned away and was smearing a finger idly against her Bifrost now, and Daniel realized with a jolt of horror what he'd almost said. Could we go back to your homeworld and ask your people about their legends?
"I'm sorry." He cleared his throat. "I-it's a nice painting," he offered lamely instead, kicking himself mentally for getting carried away. She turned back and raised an eyebrow at him in a way reminded him of her adoptive mother.
So he was relieved when a knock sounded at the door, and he moved quickly to open it. "Sam!" he said, surprised but pleased to see her. "I've been hoping to talk to you ever since you left for Nasya last Thursday--how are you? And what are you doing here?"
She stared at him blankly for a few seconds before her expression cleared, as if just registering who he was. "Daniel. I'm here to see Cassandra."
"Oh. Uh...sorry," he muttered, backing away, a little confused at her cool expression but berating himself for feeling that way. It had been a busy couple of days, after all, and he saw her all the time, while Cassandra had always had a special relationship with Sam even though they rarely had time to visit each other.
"Sam!" Cassandra cried happily, her own face lighting up prettily in delight.
He pulled the door open wider and frowned as Sam walked by him close enough that her shoulder brushed against his--he thought he could feel something odd, like a prickling of gooseflesh on the back of his neck...
- He shook himself. She just wanted to spend a few minutes with the girl; it certainly didn't mean anything was wrong. Sam was kneeling and acting as warm as usual to Cassandra, anyway. He moved to sit on the couch so they could talk in private, trying not to listen as they exchanged pleasantries.
Then Cassandra gasped.
Daniel glanced up involuntarily and saw her stumble away from Sam's hug. "Cassandra," Sam said, coming to her feet, "what is it?"
Cassandra didn't answer and instead backed away, then turned and ran past a startled Daniel to hide behind the couch where he sat. He looked up questioningly at Sam, who gritted her teeth, lifting her chin a little and beginning to walk toward them, her purposeful stride completely unlike Sam's usual gentle attitude around Cassandra.
Alarmed, Daniel stood as well, his sudden movement causing Sam to pause and turn to him...
Her eyes glowed.
Goa'uld.
"Ay naturu," he breathed. "Na nay--Sam, not you, too..."
He looked around the office, but there was nothing he could use as a weapon, and he wouldn't, anyway, even if he could hope to touch someone as skilled in combat as Sam, because gods it was Sam...
They stared at each other for a second, and then he sprang past her toward the door, seeing her move at the same time. He expected to be intercepted and opened his mouth to call for help, but she hadn't been trying to reach him, and he was stopped by a small squeak behind him and a distorted voice, commanding, "Stop, now!"
Slowly, he turned, and his heart dropped.
Sam had pulled Cassandra from her makeshift hiding place and now stood behind her, one arm easily holding the girl's body immobile and the other hand wrapped loosely around her neck. Cassandra's eyes were wide. "Do not call out," the Goa'uld said.
"Sam, don't," Daniel begged, his words running over each other now. "I know you can still hear me, Sam, that's Cassandra you're holding--you can fight it, please, you have to try to--"
"I have no wish to harm either of you," the Goa'uld said calmly, and she (it?) released Cassandra, as if to prove it. The girl immediately scampered back behind the couch as Sam's body moved toward the door again. Torn between the instinct to put himself between the Goa'uld and Cassandra or stay between the Goa'uld and the door, Daniel found himself frozen. Sam's jaw tensed determinedly. "But if you make a sound, I will not hesitate to kill everyone in this building, starting with the girl."
A whimper came from behind the couch.
"Sam," he said again, still hoping they could get past the snake to his friend. Her eyes bored into him and flashed with unnatural light, and he knew with a sudden, boiling hatred that he wasn't talking to Sam, not now. "Orak, Goa'uld," he snarled helplessly instead, fully expecting the insult to be brushed away with a sneer or a fist but too furious to care.
Instead, Sam's face twisted in anger. "I am not a Goa'uld!" it growled, as if a refusal to speak in its native tongue would prove the words. "It is they who are the abomination, not I."
"You won't win," he said.
"You won't live if you try to stop me."
"Dal shakka mel, ha'taaka!" he said, hoping his terror wasn't leaking through the bravado.
"Will you let little Cassie die free, as well?" it taunted. Daniel reflexively shifted toward the girl.
The Goa'uld was faster and blocked his path, the edge of a knife at his throat. Daniel froze, not daring to swallow or breathe or do anything at all but wonder whether weapons were supposed to be allowed in the hospital, except of course Sam, of all people--or the monster controlling her--could find a way to smuggle one in.
"If you dare to make a sound or stop me from leaving," it whispered, "I will kill her, you, and everyone else in my path. Samantha Carter is not suspected by her people--even without the strength of a symbiote, she could kill many before she was stopped."
Daniel licked his lips and glanced toward the couch, where he could see only a lock of Cassandra's hair from around the side. The blade pressed lightly against his skin, and he nodded very slightly. The knife disappeared at once, and he stepped back reluctantly, clearing the Goa'uld's path to the exit.
A smirk appeared on Sam's lips. "A wise choice. Tell no one I was here."
He glared at it as it walked confidently past him, burying his anguish for his friend and fear for what was happening in the warmth of anger. "Dal, Goa'uld," he hissed as it reached for the door.
A muscle in Sam's jaw twitched. "I am Tok'ra. We are not the same as the Goa'uld who are your enemy."
He narrowed his eyes, suspicious and confused. "You are tok Ra? You're too late. The Tau'ri destroyed Ra over a decade ago."
Sam--it smirked at him again. "The Tau'ri have grown powerful in the time since the Goa'uld reign here," it agreed. "But you still have so much to learn, Daniel."
"What...?"
The door clicked shut behind her. Daniel stared at it for a while, not quite believing it had just left without even hurting them, and not quite believing he had just stood by and watched it leave. Because there was a Goa'uld out there, now, walking free, and Sam was undoubtedly going to the SGC now...
Gods, he had to tell someone. But it had said it would kill Cassandra--
Stupid, he thought. It couldn't possibly know what they were doing once it was gone. He would wait just long enough for it to leave, and then get a message to the SGC.
"Cassandra," he said, hurrying behind the couch. She squeaked again when he appeared over her head, and he stopped, hands held out, unthreatening. "Did she--did the Goa'uld hurt you?"
She rubbed her neck but shook her head. He looked more closely and couldn't see so much as a bruise--the Goa'uld had been almost gentle with her, as hard as it was to believe. His own hand rose involuntarily to his throat to feel skin that had not even been nicked.
"She felt different," Cassandra said. "That's how I knew."
"It's okay," he said meaninglessly, ignoring his curiosity at that statement for the moment. "She's gone now--you can come out." She shook her head. "Uh, okay. That's okay, too. Just...wait there for a second," he said. "I'll go find your mother, and--"
"No!" she protested, finally coming to her feet. "Don't."
He wasn't sure whether she didn't want anyone to know or just didn't want to be left alone, but she was probably right, anyway, that if the Goa'uld was still out there, they shouldn't let it know they were trying to find help. From here, they had no way to know whether or not she'd left the building. "Okay. Okay, then...let me call Jack," he decided, looking warily at the telephone on Janet's desk, thankful that Jack had made him memorize the numbers to dial in an emergency and wishing he had practiced calling people from a telephone before. It didn't look too difficult to use, though, compared to other Tau'ri devices. Surely it wasn't harder than dialing a DHD.
"She'll kill us if we tell," Cassandra said.
"No, she won't. I won't let her," he promised, as if he had a hope of stopping a Goa'uld by himself if it tried to do anything. But he knew a bluff when he heard one. "I'll just tell Jack to...to come here and, uh...he'll protect us, okay? I won't say anything over the telephone."
She bit her lip, then said, "I'll watch the door."
"No!" he said quickly, because shadows were visible through the door's cloudy glass, and maybe it was paranoid, but he really didn't want to test a Goa'uld more than he had to. "Don't. Just. Um. Lock the door, Cassandra, and then stay away." Just in case.
The telephone wasn't difficult to use, as it turned out. Unfortunately, neither Jack nor General Hammond was in his office, and trying to reach them by anything other than a direct line only led to someone on the other end who proved much more difficult to handle than the telephone. Apparently, the secrecy surrounding the program was so tight that there were layers of technicians between him and the SGC, the first of whom didn't seem to have any higher clearance than the employees on the upper levels of Cheyenne Mountain.
"What do you mean, 'which Daniel Jackson?'" he said, looking nervously over his shoulder. Cassandra was watching him from where she now sat against the back wall of the office. "No, I wouldn't be listed in your systems as an employee yet, but... Yes, I work at--I live on the base most of the time. I need to speak with Colonel Jack O'Neill."
"You're calling from within the Academy hospital--is this a medical emergency?"
"No," he said without thinking, then silently cursed himself. "I mean, yes, kind of; it's more a--"
"Sir, Colonel O'Neill is in a meeting with the general right now. I can give him a message if you would like."
"Fine," he said, because that would have to be good enough, racking his brains and unable despite himself to remember which phones were secure and what exactly he was allowed to say if they weren't. "Even if you have to interrupt them. Tell him Cassandra Fraiser and...yes, that Fraiser...Cassandra and Daniel Jackson have to speak to him immediately." Jack would be alerted by their two names alone, Daniel was sure. And if not... "Tell him--or any other officer on the deep-space telemetry project--that we found a snake."
"You...found a...?"
"Those exact words," Daniel snapped, trying to imitate that tone of voice that commanders used to make people listen. "Daniel Jackson and Cassandra Fraiser found a snake. Please. It's urgent."
"I'll have someone tell him."
"Thank you." A shadow paused outside the door, and he stiffened, but he soon realized the build was completely wrong for Sam, and the person continued past.
That done, he checked the door once to make sure it was securely locked. He considered moving something in front of it as a barricade, then decided that, if he was strong enough to move it, a Goa'uld would be strong enough to push it away. Besides, the door was their only way out, too. Daniel let out a breath and slid down the wall to sit next to Cassandra. He tried to think of what Jack usually said in situations like this, then settled on, "Are you okay?"
"She felt different," Cassandra said again, sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest and turning her head to look up at him.
"What do you mean?" he said.
"Like...I don't know. Different. Like I could tell there was something inside her. Like the way I feel near Teal'c, but stronger. Worse."
Daniel first thought was that maybe humans on Hanka were able to sense Goa'ulds, somehow. His second was that maybe something Nirrti had done had left the ability behind as a side effect, which made him realize that of course it was from what Nirrti had done--Teal'c had mentioned being able to sense the naquadah in Goa'uld bodies, and Janet said Cassandra still had naquadah in her blood. In fact, he had felt something odd when Sam walked near him, too, and he still had a tiny bit of naquadah in him--perhaps just not enough to have ever sensed anything from the larval Goa'uld inside Teal'c like Cassandra could.
He wondered if that was a deliberate strategy by the Goa'uld who ruled over naquadah-rich planets: if their slaves always felt subconsciously that there was something physically different or imposing about the Goa'uld's presence, it would be easier to pose as a god, or at least as someone who shouldn't be opposed.
But that was neither here nor there, so he pushed the thought aside and said, "I know what you mean. I felt it, too. But we'll tell Jack, and they'll take care of it."
Except they had no way to take care of it, he knew--not even a Thor's Hammer anymore, or anything like it. Just a Goa'uld inside a friend. Skaara and Sha'uri and now Sam, gods.
"She'll kill us," Cassandra said.
"No, she won't. Sam is still in there, and she won't let it happen. Just wait and see," he lied. "I'm sure everything will be fine."
He wasn't sure whether or not she believed him, but she sighed and leaned back against the wall. "Okay."
From the next chapter (" Duty and Deception, Part II"):
Daniel shrugged. "Those were the only words it said in Goa'uld. Said it was 'tok Ra.'"
Teal'c stopped with his ID card halfway through the reader. "Tok'ra?" he repeated. "Those were the exact words she used?"