Fic Update: Our Lives As Happenstance - Chapter 4
Title: Our Lives As Happenstance
Author: Milena D.
Rating: T (PG-13) for now
Genre: Action/Angst/Romance
Pairings: Daniel/Vala, some Cam/Sam can be seen as shippy
SPOILERS: HUGE SPOILERS FOR CONTINUUM.
Summary: A divergence in the lives of our team from one of the last scenes of the movie causes their future to change radically and permanently. Daniel/Vala and HUGE spoilers for CONTINUUM.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Stargate Continuum, the Stargate Series, any of the characters, I don’t even own the premise which is the plot from the movie. Basically I own nothing and am making no money so please don’t sue.
Author’s Note #1: As always, thank you Susan for being such an awesome beta!!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
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Chapter 4: Into Battle
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“She should have come back by now.” Daniel said, breaking the silence that had befallen them.
“Which one?” Cam asked after a bit. Daniel turned his head against the stone wall to look at his companion in the other cell with annoyance.
“Sam.” Their friend hadn’t been returned to them yesterday nor this morning and he was starting to get worried. He and Cam hadn’t spoken other than to relay what had conclusions had been reached with her while he was in the sarcophagus. Otherwise, they’d spent the hours silently mulling their predicament. Well, Daniel was. Cam was trapped in the pep talk he’d given Sam when they were first caught. He told her they hadn’t failed anyone when he didn’t fully believe that himself. And now, with his friends, his team dying around him, he was fighting the very strong temptation to wallow in his failure as a team leader.
“So...” Daniel started, expelling the air from his lungs, “we still planning to do a run-tackle? Tackle-and-run?”
Cam looked over at him and couldn’t stop the wry grin from shaping his lips.
“You should never be allowed to touch anything sports related.” He declared. “But yeah, they come, we tackle, we run. Basic idea.”
“In my experience, that almost never works.” Daniel pointed out, not really opposing the plan.
“Yeah, didn’t think so.” Cam agreed. “You could always fake sick, I call out to the guards and then...well, again, the tackling and the running.”
“Except they’d probably just point, laugh, let me die and revive me later.” Daniel predicted.
“Who wouldn’t?” Cam teased him, earning himself a glare. Daniel wanted to retort that Sam wouldn’t but he didn’t feel right using her for banter just yet.
“Well you could hide in your cell, make it look like you disappeared. Then when the guards come and open your cell to find you...you tackle them and we run.” Daniel offered. Hey, if they were going for bullshit plans...
“Stealthy I may be, Neo I am not.” Cam scoffed, looking up at the ceiling, the only place suitable to hide.
“Neo?” The dusty tome-loving archeologist asked in confusion.
“You’re a lost hope, Jackson.” His team leader informed him with a small, amiable smile. Their amusement was short-lived though as the heavy footsteps of a Jaffa reached their ears.
“Here we go.” Cam announced as they rose to their feet in anticipation. What turned around the corner was not what they were expecting though.
“Sam!” Daniel cried, relief pouring into every cell of his body.
“And Teal’c.” Cam greeted the hulking man behind their teammate with much less enthusiasm.
“Hey guys.” Sam smiled brilliantly at them. “Don’t worry, he’s with us.”
“Step away from the bars.” Teal’c ordered them gravelly. Daniel and Cam hesitated but quickly jumped back when the First Prime lifted his staff weapon and aimed at them. One by one, he shot off their locks and the bars slid into the walls. Daniel wasted no time in running out and enveloping his revived friend in a hug.
“I’m so sorry, Sam.” He whispered, holding her tight. Sam couldn’t help but smile at how guilt-ridden the poor man sounded.
“Daniel, it’s okay. She was going to do it no matter what anyone said.” She assured him, stepping out of his arms. “And she did have the courtesy to put me back together again so no harm done.”
“Glad to see you back in one piece.” Cam said, also pulling her into a hug. Sam tightened her hold on him momentarily as she remembered what he’d done for her before she died.
“Thank you.” She murmured softly.
“Yeah, well,” Cam started, releasing her, “don’t let me make it a habit.”
“Of course not.” Sam replied, her eyes twinkling.
“I though Qetesh would have turned you into her First Prime.” Daniel remarked to Teal’c while his friends reunited.
“She attempted to do so and believes she has succeeded.” The Jaffa replied solemnly. “However, my former Lord Ba’al made me undergo extensive training to prevent such a thing from occurring.”
“Gotta hand it to the guy, he didn’t forget anything.” Cam noted thoughtfully. “Do we have a plan?”
“One that doesn’t involve tackling or running?” Daniel piped up hopefully.
“Well, we’ve got a rough draft of our goals.” Sam offered, not wanting to get their hopes up. When they nodded for her to continue, she did. “Well we’re going to capture Qetesh, stun her with the Zat, find the Tok’ra, and extract her so that Teal’c can finally carry out his final mission.”
“And we get Vala back.” Daniel realized joyfully.
“I like this plan.” Cam approved, accepting a Zat gun from Sam. “But how are we supposed to get to her? And how do we know there are still Tok’ra out there?”
“The Tok’ra still survive despite Ba’al’s best efforts. They are spread out throughout the galaxy in small factions, hiding for the moment.” Teal’c informed them. “We do not, however, possess information on any of their whereabouts.”
“Well we know their favourite hotspots, I’m sure they’ll turn up.” Cam said confidently.
“So now we go for Qetesh?” Daniel asked, testing the Zat he’d been given.
“Indeed.”
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It didn’t take long to find Qetesh since Teal’c was supposed to be attached at her hip. They’d encountered a few Jaffa but they’d been zatted and hidden effectively. Now all that was left was to penetrate the throne room, zat the servants, guards and the queen herself before they got shot. No problem.
“What if one of them sounds an alarm and the rest of them come pouring in?” Daniel whispered as they hid the two guard who’d been standing outside of the throne room.
“I have already disabled the alarm system. Or did you imagine one could simply blast open a prison door without triggering an alarm?” Teal’c admonished him with a raised eyebrow. Daniel coloured slightly.
“Right. Good. Thanks.” He whispered back. In his defense, he’d been kind of distracted by his living, breathing friend.
“I will enter the room alone and get into close proximity with Qetesh. When you enter and begin firing upon the others, I will be ready to apprehend her.” The First Prime said, closing his zat and taking up his staff weapon again.
“Apprehend gently, right? No killing her yet.” Cameron warned him.
“As was agreed.” Teal’c bowed his head. “Wait here a count of twenty, then enter, I will be ready.”
“Gotcha. Twenty starting now.” Cam counted as Teal’c straightened and entered the room as a true First Prime...about to be laid off.
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Qetesh smiled as she sat down in her new throne. She hadn’t wanted Ba’al’s and her’s reminded her of fifty years’ worth of subservience. It had taken time to craft a new one but she loved it. The blood staining the marble floor had also been removed and the old decorations replaced with tokens to her. All in all she was happy with the new developments, especially how the galaxy was at her command, at her every whim. Except for those who opposed her of course but they were in for bloodshed soon enough. She was thinking it was time to pay Nirrti a visit when her First Prime stepped into the room.
“Ah, Teal’c.” She greeted him warmly, she loved how he was living reminder of she’d taken everything Ba’al had owned. “I trust you returned the human female to the holding cells?”
“As you commanded, my queen.” He bowed respectfully. Qetesh nodded her approval.
“Rumours have reached me that the planet Earth, the one Ba’al wanted to make peaceful contact with,” she said, spitting the words out like insults, “could have been the planet of the Tau’ri. Have you heard this?”
“I have not.” He replied truthfully. That was a very interesting piece of information.
“Wouldn’t it be just splendid? I destroyed one of the last threats to my rule, and the Tau’ri in one fell swoop. All without knowing it.” Qetesh crowed, her eyes positively shining with mirth. “I think we will have to return to that planet.”
“Did Cronos not assure my Queen that he had destroyed it entirely?” Teal’c asked, staying respectful in his confusion.
“He did.” Qetesh replied thoughtfully. “And I believe him to be trustworthy...for the moment. But I was thinking that the fallen ‘Earth’, the land of the Tau’ri, would be the perfect place to build my empire. Don’t you think?”
“Of course, my Queen.” Teal’c replied, impressed and disgusted by her disrespect for her enemies. “Shall I instruct the ship to return immediately?”
“You instruct nothing until I say so, Jaffa.” Qetesh reminded him bitingly.
“Forgive me, my Queen.”
Before she had a chance to reply, the door burst open and her Tau’ri prisoners ran in, zat’ni’ktels blasting. Teal’c sprang out of his bow and struck her across the temple with his staff weapon, knocking her unconscious immediately. He threw down his staff weapon and exchanged it for his zat’ni’ktel to take care of the remaining slaves and Jaffa. Then he turned the weapon on Qetesh’s form and shot.
“Hey! Woah!” Daniel yelled at him, rushing across the room. “Two blasts of that kills you know!”
Teal’c give the panicked man a look of unadulterated contempt but didn’t chew him out for his assumption that the former First Prime didn’t know how to use his own weapons. Obviously the man had little field experience.
“I shot once only. To be sure she was unconscious.” He assured him.
“Well, I think I can safely say you’re fired.” Cam said, clapping his hand on Teal’c’s back as they both looked down at the crumpled form of the goddess.
“Indeed.” He replied lowly. He didn’t regret betraying this Goa’uld and he still had a mission to complete.
“We should probably find a cargo ship and get out of here.” Daniel said, gently slipping off Qetesh’s hand devices and checking her for hidden weapons. Sam bent down and took the sword that had killed her the day before.
“War memento?” Cam asked with amusement, knowing how cathartic it could be to possess what hurt you.
“Hm?” She replied distractedly, tearing her eyes off the blade. “Oh, no. I was just wondering what this is made of. I could barely feel it, it went through me so easily, like there was nothing resisting it.” Cam scoffed incredulously. Of course she was fascinated by how it works.
“Actually it is pretty cool, I saw her cut solid gold in half without any effort.” Daniel chimed in.
“It is the blade she used to kill Ba’al. She cut him in half as well.” Teal’c informed them.
“Half like...?” Cam trailed off, making a horizontal motion with his hands.
“No.” He said simply, letting them understand the other possibility.
“Oh, ew.” Daniel lamented as he moved to pick Qetesh up. Teal’c’s firm hand on his shoulder stopped him.
“She is my prisoner.” He warned the archeologist. “I will bring her.”
Daniel conceded and backed off.
“Pity we don’t have the Kor Mak bracelets, then you could keep a leash on her in true Jaffa fashion.” He muttered and was ignored.
“We good to go?” Cam asked the makeshift gang. “We can’t exactly hide all these people. We’ll have to make it to the hangar bay real quick.”
“We are ready.” Teal’c said, adjusting Qetesh over his shoulder. Sam slipped the belt and scabbard of the sword onto her waist and met the others’ asking gaze.
“What?” She asked innocently. “It can cut through bone and solid gold, this could be handy down the line.”
“Sure it’s not just ‘cause it looks cool?” Cam teased her.
“Absolutely not.” She replied cheekily, laying one hand on the hilt of the sword and arming the other with her Zat gun.
“Okay, Xena and I are on point. Teal’c, you and the princess stay close since you know the way around here. Jackson, you take the back, zat her highness if she starts waking up.” Cam ordered. “Got it?”
They all agreed and moved into formation. Teal’c was reluctant to take orders from this stranger but could find no fault with the plan.
Before the other former System Lords even knew it, a clocked cargo ship left the flagship of the formation and sped into hyperspace.
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Sorry for the short chapter, lots of confrontation in the next! Mainly that juicy stuff you’ve been waiting for, you know the one!
Next: Chapter 5