Update - Our Lives As Happenstance - Chapter 5
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: Just a note to everyone, I haven’t died in my writing zeal again, I swear! I’m just in the process of moving across the country. The day has arrived - finally - and I’m boarding the plane tonight. My good friend Nat reminded me that I hadn’t posted the next chapter here and I figured it would be good to do so before I lose my internet so here we are. This was beta’d but I haven’t done 15 passes on it like I usually do so I’m sorry for any typos!
Author’s Note #2: As always, thank you Susan for being such an awesome beta!!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
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Chapter 5: Interview with a Goa’uld
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“Her highness is up.” Cam announced, returning from the cargo area.
“Can we just zat her again?” Sam asked tiredly from the pilot’s seat. They’d been traveling for almost a week in search of any Tok’ra. So far they’d been to three planets that were known Tok’ra bases in their timeline and had come up empty each time.
“Yeah, can we not?” Daniel reproached her with a frown. “We don’t know what so many shots can do to someone and Vala’s gonna need a functioning body after the extraction.”
The others didn’t argue. Daniel was providing them with all the optimism and determination they’d need to sustain them until they found the Tok’ra and they couldn’t afford to diminish that.
“Well you’d better relieve Teal’c before he gets too trigger-happy.” Cam advised him as he sat down in the co-pilot’s chair.
Daniel sighed loudly and made his way into the back of the cargo ship. He paused a moment in front of the doors separating both compartments and took a deep breath before activating the panel on the wall. The door slid into the wall almost noiselessly but it was loud enough to attract the attention of the room’s two occupants.
Teal’c sat stoically on the crate beside his prisoner, zat gun in his hand. They’d taken his staff weapon into the front compartment, just in case. Qetesh sat on the adjacent crate, bound tightly by the chords usually used to secure the cargo to the walls. Cam had tapped into his boy scout and come up with knots that, despite her best efforts, she couldn’t get out of. The gag had been Teal’c’s idea.
“You can take a break, Teal’c.” Daniel offered as he stepped into the room. The former First Prime gave him the same look he gave the others when they offered before, the “I don’t think so” look. Daniel nodded and let it go, Teal’c’s presence didn’t bother him anyway.
He moved further into the room and took a seat on a crate opposite the Jaffa and Goa’uld. Qetesh was glaring at him darkly, an unspoken threat somewhat diffused by the white cloth gag in her mouth. Daniel was about to attempt at small talk with Teal’c again when his stomach growled.
“Are you hungry?” He asked the Jaffa as he pushed himself off his sitting place and opened their box of supplies.
“I am not.” He heard Teal’c reply from behind him as he fished for something that looked like ration bars. He’d always had a feeling that the ones the army gave them were fashioned by their enemies and sure enough, they’d opened this crate to find it full of eerily familiar foil-wrapped bars.
“What about you?” Daniel asked their prisoner, turning to see her reply. Her eyes looked confused and suspicious and Daniel caught on quickly.
“You haven’t fed her?” He accused Teal’c incredulously.
“The Goa’uld can go weeks without sustenance.” The large man informed him confidently. Daniel rolled his eyes and picked two more bars out of the box before closing it.
“Yeah well humans can’t.” He argued. “Vala’s gonna need her strength after the extraction.” He could practically feel Teal’c’s annoyance as he approached them but he ignored it.
“She would sooner bite your hand off.” Teal’c warned him as he untied the knot at the back of her head to remove the gag. Daniel hesitated a moment but her glare at Teal’c moved him to continue. He pulled the damp cloth away and watched as she flexed her jaw before turning again to Teal’c.
“Do not presume to predict me, Jaffa.” She spat at him, her eyes glowing and her voice more metallic than he remembered. Teal’c stood and unfolded his Zat gun menacingly.
“Okay, no.” Daniel said, stepping between them. He turned to Qetesh and grabbed the gag from beside her. “You can either be quiet and full, or you can mouth off and starve.”
Qetesh surveyed them both for a moment before shrugging.
“I’ll cooperate, if only to save this shol’va from soiling himself in the magnificence of my presence.” She goaded Teal’c once more before quieting down when Daniel brought the gag up again.
“Why don’t you just get some air until the gag is back on?” Daniel suggested again to the fuming Jaffa.
Throwing another hateful glance at the raven haired Goa’uld behind Daniel, Teal’c spun on his heels and left the room without a word. With him finally gone, Qetesh’s demeanor went from gloating, egotistical and vengeful to sweet and flirtatious in the blink of an eye. Always, though, there was that spark of maliciousness and manipulation that never left her.
“Alone at last, my sweet.” She cooed at him and he didn’t bother hiding the roll of his eyes.
“Your tricks aren’t going to work on me, Qetesh. As a good friend of mine once said, it’s not my first time around this barbeque.” Daniel told her, his voice purposefully light.
“Was it a trick that I saved your life, your leg?” She returned, faking emotional injury.
“First, you didn’t mean to save my leg. And second, you wanted information from me. It was a compromise for you...except you never got your pay-off.” Daniel smirked. Qetesh looked bored.
“Fine, then let us arrange another compromise.” She suggested with a forced grin. “You undo these bindings, help me take over this vessel and, when we return to my flagship I will make you my First Prime with all it’s honours and...benefits.” Her gaze turned lustful and Daniel repressed his anger at being ogled like meat. Instead he busied himself by unwrapping the first bar.
“So, in essence, you want me to let you go, help you kill my closest friends, willingly go back into the Goa’uld foray and become your guard and sex toy.” Daniel deadpanned, taking a bite out of the bar, not offering her any.
“It’s a better prospect than whatever you’ve got planned, I assure you.” Qetesh bit back, her eyes following the food in his hands involuntarily.
“For you maybe, not for me, not for my friends, not for Vala.” Daniel returned.
“The host is gone, forget her.” Qetesh snapped, she’d heard enough talk of extractions. Daniel raised an eyebrow at her outburst but calmly took another large bite from the ration bar.
“Barbeque, not the first, remember?” He asked between chews. “Vala was free of you in our timeline and she will be in this one.”
“That’s a very noble goal, Daniel.” Qetesh commended him sarcastically. “But you forget that this host has no memory of you.”
“We’ll make new memories.” He retorted, seemingly unconcerned. Qetesh saw through it.
“Have you ever seen a newly freed host?” She asked him pointedly. “Their feeble minds can’t process the changes, can’t make sense of the memories. She’ll have no memories of you, no, but she will have plenty of memories of the hundreds of thousands of people I’ve massacred. She’ll have no shortage of those, I promise.”
He feigned disinterest in her taunts and kept eating.
“You know, I’m the one who pushed to give you this ration bar. You should really be trying to keep me happy or I could just put it back in the box.” He told her levelly but she didn’t stop.
“You know what other memories she’ll have to keep her all warm inside?” She mused aloud, her voice lilting tauntingly as her eyes locked on his. “Ba’al.”
Daniel chewed the next piece just a little harder than before and that was all she needed.
“You know he didn’t let me leave his side for fifty years? Fifty years.” She stressed meaningfully. “Luckily, we had more than our share of ways to relieve all the tension that built between us. And your little host, should she survive the extraction, will have those memories as well. I’ve already made sure of it.” She promised him with a conniving smile. She saw his eyes flit to the gag beside him as if trying to restrain himself from reattaching it and she smirked. “Ba’al liked gags too.” She informed him sweetly, effectively pushing Daniel over the edge.
“Okay, chat time’s over. Open up.” He ordered her, ripping open the other ration bar.
“You know, I don’t think I’m hungry anymore.” Qetesh informed him, leaning back with a victorious smirk. The human had lost his illusion of control.
“Yeah well, you don’t really have an option. You can either eat on your own or Teal’c can help you.” Daniel threatened her.
“Going to such lengths for my well-being, it’s touching really.” She mocked him as her stomach growled. Daniel’s eyebrow lifted smugly.
“Your body betrays you, Qetesh. You need to eat.” He told her firmly.
“Oh I don’t think so. I have no doubt that your plans will fail and you will curse the days you opposed me when they do...but on the infinitesimally small chance that you succeed...well, I’m not about to make it easy for you.” She growled at him, trading in her smile for a glare.
“Fine, starve.” Daniel said, throwing the extra bars back in the box. “We’ll be reaching the Tok’ra anytime now and then your cooperation won’t matter.”
“My Jaffa will come for me!” She yelled at him. Daniel actually stood still in shock, wondering if he’d heard right, before turning to her again.
“You’re not serious, are you?” He asked her incredulously. “You know nobody’s coming after you. The System Lords are probably fighting over who gets to rule over the others at this very moment and your Jaffa will be tossed around like pawns. You’ve already been forgotten.”
Qetesh couldn’t deny his words, she knew that’s what they were doing. That’s what she would have done if Ba’al had just disappeared like she had. Daniel noticed with satisfaction that she had no rebuttal. He moved to the door to the forward compartment and opened it, calling out for Teal’c. Together, they got the gag back on her and Teal’c retook his post beside her without a word. Before leaving, Daniel turned at the doorway.
“I hope you’re thinking of your last words, Qetesh. Your time is running out.” He menaced calmly, ignoring her gagged exclamations before walking out.
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A few hours later, Sam interrupted Daniel and Cam’s naps by announcing that they were coming up on their next target planet.
“Which one is this?” Cam asked, fighting back a yawn.
“This is actually where we first found them in our timeline.” Sam informed him and sure enough, a few minutes later, they were in range to see the vast expanse of sand.
“I can’t see the stargate on this planet.” Daniel remarked. “Weren’t the rings to get into the underground structure right beside it?”
“Yeah, they were.” Sam said, a frown playing on her eyebrows. “The sensors aren’t picking up a stargate either.”
“So this is another bust?” Cam sighed. No sooner than he’d spoken the words, the cargo ship lurched to the side as a blast hit its hull.
“I thought we were cloaked!” Cam yelled, trying to find his footing as the ship was hit a second time.
“I uncloaked us once we were out of range and I was sure we weren’t being followed, it was eating up too much power.” Sam yelled back before she was ejected from her seat by another blast.
“What about our shields?” He asked.
“They hit them before I had time to reactivate them!” She replied. He sent her an incredulous look. “What? They were draining power too and we don’t actually need them in space.”
“This is not good.” Daniel cried.
“No shit!” Cameron returned sarcastically.
“No, look!” Daniel said, pointing at the view window.
“That’s not good.” Cameron agreed. Either the sandy dunes were rising impossibly fast or they were crash-landing. Cam pushed himself away from the seat he’d been gripping and stumbled his way to the door of the cargo compartment, quickly activating the panel.
“Teal’c, get yourself and Qetesh secure, this isn’t going to be pleasant!” He yelled though he saw the other man was way ahead of him. The Jaffa had tied himself to Qetesh and was in the process of getting them onto the highest crate to keep from being crushed if the crate bindings failed.
“Guys,” Cam called, making his way back to the front, “you should get in the back and strap yourse-”
Before he had a chance to finish, their ship crashed into a dune and its occupants were thrown violently to the floor. Sam had done her best to make their descent angle as small as possible but they still impacted the planet at a high velocity and the shock against their bodies pitched them all into a world muted darkness.
When Cam woke up, his watch told him that only a few minutes had passed. He looked around from his place on the ground and saw Sam and Daniel still unconscious on either sides of the room.
“Jackson.” He called out, rolling onto his stomach and rising to his feet. He walked over to the unconscious man and shook his shoulder. Luckily, he woke up right away.
“Mitchell? Wha-”
“We crashed, you hurt?” He asked him, already looking him over for blood.
“No, no, I think I’m fine.” Daniel said, patting himself down.
“Good, go check on the others.” Cam told him, helping him up and towards the back compartment. Once Daniel was through the door, he went back to check on Sam.
“Yo,” he called, shaking her shoulder like he’d done to Daniel, “Carter. Wakey wakey.”
Sam awoke as easily as Daniel had and sat up without his help.
“You okay?” He asked her.
“Yeah, I’m fine, just a little banged up.” She said, checking her body to make sure she wasn’t lying.
“Good,” he replied, getting up and looking out the viewing window, “cuz we need to figure out who the hell was shooting at us.”
Sam immediately got to the console and checked the scans the ship had taken.
“We didn’t pick up any other ships out there, I think the shots came from the ground.” She concluded after consulting the logs. She reactivated the scanners and had some bad news. “And I’m guessing whoever shot at us are the people the scanners are picking up outside the ship.”
Cam threw her a worried glance and they both got their zats out of their makeshift holders. Before they had a chance to move towards the door to the outside, however, it slid open, admitting their “guests.”
“Oh my god.” Sam breathed.
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“You zatted her? Again?” Daniel asked him as he worked at the knots tethering Qetesh to Teal’c.
“She refused to cooperate.” Teal’c defended himself, pulling a knife from his boot and cutting the rope between him and the Goa’uld. Qetesh fell forward and Daniel stumbled to catch her.
“Thanks for the warning.” He told the other man sarcastically. Teal’c jumped off the crate and moved down to the floor for Daniel to pass his charge to him. When they were all back on the ground, they heard Cam and Sam activating their zats through the open door and quietly did the same. As they approached the forward compartment, they heard Sam’s words and quickly jumped in, facing their newest enemies.
“Martouf?” Daniel exclaimed.
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Yay for the Tok’ra!! Or...maybe not? I hope this chapter was good enough to last at least the week until I get my internet again! Have a good week everyone!
Next: Chapter 6