Life as You Know It 2/4
Posting a whole lot of stories all at once now. If you don't read SG-1, sorry for the spam.
Title: Life As You Know It
Author: Sorrel
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Pairing: Jack/Daniel
Rating: R
Word Count: 6,242
Summary: "Hello, Jack. It's been a while." SG-1 finds their long-lost fourth stranded on an alien planet, only as it turns out, he's not stranded, nor particularly lost, and has no reason- or desire- to return to Earth. What's a Colonel to do, except stick around to change his mind?
The story lives in my memories here.
~Part Two~
“He though I was a deserter,” Daniel muttered as he stepped out of the shower and roughly dried himself off. Even the thought of Jack’s words got him boiling with rage, and made his guts ache with hurt, that Jack, of all people, would think that of him. Would believe it. “He thought I just… up and left them, wandered away so I could rule another planet. Asshole.”
Xyn stared at him unblinking from her perch on the bathroom counter. “He is a fool, Daniel.”
Daniel sighed and pulled on a pair of loose cotton pants. “No, he’s not,” he said. “I wish he was. It’d make it easier to forget about him. But one thing he’s not is a fool.” Jack was a hell of a lot of other things, though, things that Daniel didn’t want to think about. Seeing him, gray-haired and irreverent as ever, had made Daniel’s heart almost stop in his chest from sheer, incandescent joy. Right up until the moment that Jack called him a deserter and power-mongering bastard, right to his face.
Daniel had had his share of heartbreak, a lot of it since he’d joined the SGC. He didn’t need any more, and he didn’t need it from Jack.
At least Xyn was here, thank God. He didn’t know how he’d have made it all the way through dinner if she hadn’t been here, bolstering him with every touch, every press of her smaller, lithely dangerous body against his. She’d marked him as her own every time she’d reached out and taken a bite off his plate, daintily nibbled on his food, the food that she didn’t eat. She’d stared straight at Jack as she’d done it, too, though she hadn’t thought he’d noticed; Daniel didn’t have any illusions that she knew how he felt about Jack, and how much her territorial behavior would bug him, and how much she’d enjoyed it. Jack had hurt him; she wanted to hurt him back as much as possible. No half-hearted scoldings on his part were going to halt her, so he just let her do her thing, and tried not to enjoy the irritated look on Jack’s face too much.
He gave his short hair one last rub with the towel, swiped half-heartedly at the week-old stubble on his face before giving it up for lost. He’d been thinking about growing a beard again, anyway. Lyta cooed over him every time he did it, teasing him about how handsome it made him- and God knew it was easier to impress some of the headmen in Sinope, to whom a beard was the mark of a powerful man. He could always shave it back off if it started to bother him.
Evening ablutions finished, he held out a hand to Xyn. She hopped down from the counter and took his hand, the soft cotton fabric of her long shirt sliding up her thighs. She’d seen the image of Sarah wearing one of his t-shirts to bed and so loved the idea that she’d slept like this ever since. It was just as beautiful on her as her equally skin-baring ship suit. Then again, everything was beautiful on Xyn.
He let her pull him close and she pressed up against his side, purring low in her throat. She sounded just like an overgrown cat, and acted so much like one sometimes that he forgot she wasn’t actually a mammal at all. “Don’t be sad, Daniel,” she said. “Forget them, if they upset you. There are those here who care for you.”
“I know, Xyn,” he said. “But I can’t just… forget them. You, of all people, should know that.”
“I know,” she said sadly. She did know- she always did, when it was him. “I wish it were not so.”
“Me, too,” he said quietly, and she pressed harder against him, trying to comfort him. She rubbed her cheek against his; she loved the feel of his stubble scratching harmlessly against her durable skin, and he loved the extremely tactile affirmation of her affection. It felt good for both of them, and he appreciated her even more, that she did this for him now.
“I love you,” he said spontaneously, hugging her tight. “I’ve never had a better day than the day I found you.”
“I as well, Daniel,” she said, and twisted around in his arms to press her lips to his.
It was always the same, every time she kissed him. All of her thoughts, memories, and emotions- they rushed right into him, a torrential waterfall of razor-sharp intelligence and insatiable curiosity and boundless affection. He’d asked her once, how he Tasted when she did this, but she hadn’t been able to articulate it, beyond a rush of words describing his respect for the past, his endless need to know more, his morality, his caring, his honor, his pain for all the people he’d lost. She’d left him blushing, and he’d never asked again, but it was comforting, knowing that there was at least one person in the entire galaxy who knew him all the way down to his soul, and loved him anyway.
She broke away from the kiss and just hugged him tightly to her smaller body, holding him with superior strength. He wrapped his arms around her as well, and they stood there for a long moment, pressed together, exchanging affection and comfort in the best way they knew how.
Eventually they broke apart, and Daniel led the way into his bedroom. It was ridiculously opulent, of course, even after he’d removed the worst of the decorations Lyta had insisted on, but it was comfortable, with the same huge windows and well-cushioned window seats that were in his council room, and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on every wall that Sarth and Skaara had conspired together to build for his first birthday on Pontus. Also, the bed was ridiculously large, which would be great for sex if he was getting any, but it was also pretty nice to see his favorite person in the entire universe getting under the covers on the other side of it, and then rolling all the way across the wide expanse of the mattress to curl up against his back as he reached up to turn off the lamp.
“I love you, Daniel,” she said, her breath mint-sweet and cool against the back of his neck, and he whispered back, “I love you too,” in the dark.
~*~
“Alright, SG-1,” General Hammond said, leaning back in his chair. “Impress me.”
“Well, sir, what we have here looks like just about the perfect alliance,” Jack said. If he was careful, he’d managed to hide just how unhappy he was about the whole thing, but the General was extremely perceptive. He’d probably pick up on it sooner or later. “They’re offering technology from at least six different planets, including weapons and ships, and a fairly impressive supply of trinium, as well as a share of their offworld naquadah mining.”
“And what would we have to give them to get all this?” the General asked.
“Military support, sir, and the minds of some of our best engineers. They’ve done a great job integrating all the different races into one society, but they’ve had more trouble with the technology. No one there has quite the brain of some of our SGC experts, not for that sort of thing anyway.”
“And the military support?”
“They’re anti-Goa’uld in the extreme. They have raiding teams that move in and cripple mother ships that are threatening them or any planet that they’re evacuating, and they have the military support to finish the job. They’d like to know that they have another strong military ally offworld, however, and there was even talk of setting up a secondary SGC base on the island.”
“Sounds just about perfect,” the General said. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch, sir,” Jack said. “Yet.”
“Ain’t it always the way,” the General said, shaking his head, and then turned to Carter. “Major Carter, what’s your assessment?”
“Well, sir, I think this is just about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. These people would be extremely effective allies, and that’s not even counting the technology and mineral supplies that they could supply.”
“And all they want is a little engineering work and some military backup,” Hammond said. “This is the kind of deal I like to make. Alright, tell me about this place. You said that there’s two separate governments?”
“Sort of,” Carter said, before Jack could answer. “The island is called Pontus- it’s about four hundred miles across, with a jungle-like forest down in the lowlands where the Stargate rests, a remote plain along the cliffs to the north, and a river bisecting the entire island.”
Whoa. Jack had had no idea she’d even been paying attention to Daniel and Hippolyta’s descriptions over dinner- Jack had mostly been focused on his food, and ignoring the way Xyn had scooted her chair around until she was leaning against Daniel’s side and stayed there the entire meal, and how she kept stealing bits of food off his plate. He knew Daniel was taken, thanks. No need to be bitchy about it.
“The people that were transplanted there by the Goa’uld are a tribe of female warriors, called the Antianeiran- the Amazons of Greek legend. Their city is Paphos, located at the mouth of the Thermodon River along the one true beach on the island. Antianeiran farms stretch all the way up along the river, since the area surrounding the river’s banks holds some pretty fertile farmland.
“The river flows from Lake Maeotis, which is near the foot of the cliffs bisecting the highland plains from the rest of the island. Between Lake Maeotis and the cliffs is the alien city they’ve named Themiscyra, which is the capitol city for the entire island and made of pure, refined trinium.
“There’s a shield that covers the entire island and protects the occupants from detection, which makes it the ideal place for a refugee camp. The camp evolved into a city that they call Sinope, placed in the highland plain, with modified ring transporters that take them to their farms on the mainland. The hangar in Themiscyra has several Goa’uld ships, which they use to collect the harvest in the fall.”
“Sinope is governed by the Council of Ten, with one representative from each of the ten most populous races in the city,” Jack said. This part, he had been paying attention to. “They report the Minister, who is in charge of the oh-so-charmingly named Freedom Coalition, which is the combination of the civilian enterprises in Sinope, and the civilian army housed in Themiscyra. The army is the domain of Commander Sarth Attyn, who technically reports to the Minister, though if you ask me there’s not much actual reporting going on there. It’s a very loose chain of command, sir, but it seems to work.”
“The Antianeirans are under the rule of Queen Hippolyta,” Carter said. Jack generously let her have this one, since she seemed to admire the Amazons so much. Ball-busting feminist that she was. “She controls both the military and the civilians very directly, with a small ruling council of her choosing in Paphos, and her younger sister Commander Antiope in charge of the military.”
“All that means, sir,” Jack put in, “is that yes, there are technically two governments, but Themiscyra is the capitol city for both, and they work very closely together. All decisions that affect all of Pontus, such as anti-Goa’uld operations, are made jointly by the Queen and the Minister.”
“Fascinating,” General Hammond said. “And this system works? There’s no strife between the two groups?”
“Some minor squabbles, according to the Minister, and there was some real trouble at first, but the separation of cities and farmland has eliminated most of the problems, and everyone hates the Goa’uld, sir.”
“The universal language,” the General said, almost to himself. Then he shook himself out of it, turned, and pinned Teal’c with his most penetrating stare.
“Teal’c,” he said. “Would you care to explain to me what Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter are leaving out of their report?”
Jack winced. Oh yeah, General Hammond was a perceptive one, alright.
“I would,” Teal’c said serenely. He was enjoying this, inscrutable Jaffa bastard. No one else would have noticed, but Jack could see past the stony look and into the smirk that lurked just beneath the surface. “We have located Daniel Jackson, General Hammond.”
The General sat straight upright in his chair. “What?” he said. “He’s on this planet?”
“Indeed. He is, in fact, the Minister.”
The General sat back, his face falling into heavy, thoughtful lines. “This could be a problem,” he said slowly. “The Pentagon isn’t going to like the idea of negotiating with one of our own runaway personnel.”
“It’s not quite like we’d thought, sir,” Jack said. He’d screwed this one up with Daniel; no way was he going to hesitate to defend him when he wasn’t here to defend himself. Not this time. “He was taken from the planet where he disappeared, by a race of aliens that study human minds to discover what’s going on in the galaxy around them. Daniel managed to convince the alien he was taken to, not only to rescue himself, but also two other prisoners, and once escaped, the alien, named Xyn, remains an ally to their people and to Daniel in particular, supply valuable technology and even more valuable information about the movements of the System Lords and location of Goa’uld strongholds.”
“And of course, she won’t be anywhere near as willing to deal with anyone but Dr. Jackson,” the General said. Jack nodded- it was the truth, as far as it went. He had no idea if Xyn would be willing to deal with Earth directly, but he didn’t have to ask her to know that she would take it very personally if the SGC took it upon themselves to take Daniel back to Earth. He didn’t even know if they could take Daniel back to Earth, if she had anything to say about it. And she would. “The other prisoners, the ones that Daniel helped to rescue- who were they? Anyone important?”
“Commander Sarth Attyn, sir,” Jack said. “And Queen Hippolyta.”
“Of course they were,” Hammond said heavily. “Well, our boy has himself one hell of a bargaining position, I’ll say that for him.” He sighed. “I doubt even the gentlemen at the Pentagon will want to risk an alliance as potentially lucrative as this one to recover one of our wayward citizens.” He nodded at them all. “I’ll contact the President to get authorization, but unless I get a negative, which I very much doubt will happen, you all should consider yourselves authorized to negotiate with the governments of Pontus for technology, naquadah, and trinium.”
“Thank you, sir,” Jack said, and beat a hasty retreat before Hammond could ask him how he was doing. He wasn’t doing fine at all, thankyouverymuch, but that didn’t mean he needed to talk about it, and certainly not with his superior officer.
Teal’c managed to corner him in the locker room, though, thus negating any vague hope for a peaceful- and silent- escape. Carter was long gone, thank God, though she didn’t exactly press him into talking about his feelings anymore. They’d done enough of that a year ago, and Jack saw no reason to revisit the entire painful experience just because they’d found Daniel again. Maybe especially now that they’d found Daniel again- all things considered.
Teal’c, however, had negotiated too many inter-team squabbles over the last year to hesitate where angels fear to tread in the Jack O’Neill psyche. Jack was most definitely not relieved- but he was, maybe, a little less unhappy about it as his less-than-welcoming glare would indicate.
“O’Neill,” Teal’c said gravely. “Are you not happy to have found Daniel Jackson?”
Not quite the question he’d been expected. “Oh, I’m happy,” he said, realizing as he said it just how unhappy he sounded. Teal’c waited patiently, and Jack, just like he always did, caved like sugar in the rain. “It’s just that it’s gonna be complicated, you know? Like the general said, the Pentagon isn’t going to be happy about Daniel being in charge over there.” Jack thought about the extremely capable Queen Hippolyta. “Partially in charge.”
“Would your leaders not be happy at the rise in status of one of their own?” Teal’c asked. “Would they not be grateful for the alliance being offered, where none would otherwise exist?”
“You’d think so, huh?” Jack said. “But no. It’s like the whole mess with Hanson, five years or so ago. We don’t have any right to take control of other worlds.”
“The two situations are not the same,” Teal’c pointed out. “Hanson was exploiting the natives of that world through the same methods of the Goa’uld, for his own personal gain. Daniel Jackson has created a peaceful refuge for the victims of the Goa’uld, and is fighting them to great effect.”
“Yeah, but the guys upstairs are gonna see it the same,” Jack said. “And they’re not going to be happy.”
“But Daniel Jackson said that he refused to contact us for fear that your leaders would take control of his world,” Teal’c said.
“Yep.”
“And you yourself agreed with his motives, O’Neill.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Jack protested. When Teal’c just regarded him patiently, Jack sighed and said, “Yeah, I did kinda. It was a legitimate fear.”
“Then why would your leaders see this as a problem?” Teal’c said reasonably.
“Because they’re a government,” Jack said. “They’re hypocritical. It’s their nature.”
Teal’c nodded wisely, as if this explained everything. Then again, he had been the First Prime to the whacko king for years. He probably knew all about hypocrisy.
“General Hammond said that it would not be enough to prevent negotiations from occurring,” Teal’c said. “Do you think this is correct?”
Jack thought about it for a minute. “Yeah, probably,” he said. “They’re offering us a lot of things that we really need. Daniel sure knew which buttons to push there.”
“Indeed, his time at the SGC gives him an ample advantage on a bargaining table,” Teal’c said.
“And that’s the real reason the higher-ups have a problem with it,” Jack said. “He knows the way we operate, so he can predict almost every move we make. Plus he’s made sure to offer all the stuff we really want, while keeping his requirements light- so we need them way more than they need us. He’s holding all the cards, and that’s gonna piss a lot of people off. It’s a bad way to bargain, for us.”
“I do not think that Daniel Jackson will take advantage of us, O’Neill,” Teal’c said, a hint of censure in his tone.
“Me either, but they don’t know that. So they’re gonna hesitate a hell of a lot about the alliance.”
“But you believe that they will eventually accede to the greater need,” Teal’c said.
“Yeah, I do. They don’t really have a choice. And Daniel knows it.”
Teal’c looked at him, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Daniel Jackson is wise indeed,” he said. “I am looking forward to seeing him once again.”
“As long as we get the go-ahead,” Jack reminded him, but he couldn’t really doubt that it would happen. Daniel had made sure of it.
“Indeed,” Teal’c said.
There was a long moment of silence. “I’m looking forward to it, too,” Jack confessed. “I’ve missed him.”
“I as well,” Teal’c said. “He was a very close friend.”
“He’s got new friends now,” Jack said, trying to clamp down on the bitterness. He wasn’t entirely sure he succeeded.
“I believe that Daniel Jackson still values our friendship a very great deal,” Teal’c said. “He was very pleased to see us today.”
“Yeah, well,” Jack said. “If we get the go-ahead tomorrow, he might end up regretting inviting us.”
“I do not believe that will happen,” Teal’c said. “He missed us as well. He will be happy to see us, for as long as we can stay.” He stood up, and dipped his head in that weird greeting/farewell/acknowledgement thing he did. “And now I must retire to my room for kelnorim, to save my strength for tomorrow.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Jack warned. Teal’c arched an eyebrow at him.
“You yourself said that you believe your leaders will accede to the need for alliance,” Teal’c said. “I trust you, and so choose to believe no less.” And then he left.
It wasn’t a simple as Teal’c made it sound, though. The Pentagon might not give the authorization. It wouldn’t be the first time the guys in charge would cut off their own nose just to spite their face.
He hoped it worked out, though. Not just because they needed this alliance- needed the mineral supplies and tech that Daniel and his ragtag world could supply. He hoped it worked out because if it didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to see Daniel again, and the thought was just… intolerable.
He knew that he wasn’t going to sleep well tonight. And when he did sleep, he’d be dreaming of Daniel.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
~*~
Daniel woke up to the smell of coffee and an empty bed.
He wasn’t quite the layabout he’d been pre-kidnapping, but all the responsibilities in the world weren’t going to convince him to voluntarily rise with the sun. Xyn, though, like all of the Tsh’nra, was utterly incapable of remaining inside and asleep when the sun was up, so she was always gone when he woke up. Fine by him- she always brought in a steaming cup of coffee right before his alarm was due to go off, which was a pretty acceptable substitute.
He turned off his alarm and then sat in bed for another ten minutes, sipping his coffee and enjoying the one peaceful part of his entire day. Then he drained the dregs, got up, and went to take a shower.
He decided against shaving again, gave up on his slightly-too-long hair as a lost cause of neatness, and got dressed in his usual black uniform, sliding the controllers up onto his biceps after he pulled on his tough yet comfortable Antianeiran-style tall boots. He saved his rank medallion for last, relaxing as soon as it had slipped around his neck. Jack probably would have understood the feeling, if Daniel had ever had the chance to describe it to him- he felt the same way when he was wearing his dog tags.
He headed down to the kitchen first, and snagged a second cup of coffee and a breakfast pastry-thing that was part bagel, part croissant and covered in honey and nuts from the cook, the widowed Mrs. Maple. She’d saved Skaara’s life on Elysia when she’d brained one of the invading Jaffa with a frying pan before he could shoot the Captain in the back, and out of gratitude she’d been given a place in their household here in Themiscyra. It didn’t hurt that she was a fantastic cook.
He was just finishing his last bite when he made it up to his council room and found Naoya patiently waiting for him, standing with his hip cocked out a little to the left, the same way he always stood. His planet had become the battleground between Izanami and Izanagi, a wedded pair of Goa’uld who had been fighting each other for as long as anyone could remember. He’d gotten caught on the battlefield and lost his right leg below the knee to a staff weapon blast. Daniel had been on the cleanup crew after the Jaffa troops had departed, and he’d been the one to cauterize the wound to prevent him from bleeding out and help him limp back to base camp, and for that Naoya had sworn himself into Daniel’s service. Their engineers had done their best to design a false leg for him, but even they could only do so much, and Naoya didn’t seem to have faith in its steadiness, even now after almost a year and a half, so he always trusted the majority of weight to his real, unharmed leg.
“Naoya,” Daniel said. “Sorry I’m late.” It was an apology for form’s sake, since he was always late, and Naoya knew it perfectly well.
“It’s not a problem, sir,” Naoya said. “Shall we begin?”
Daniel slumped down into his seat with a disconsolate sigh. God, he hated paperwork. “Alright, hit me.”
“You wish me to strike you, sir? Are you not awake yet?” He asked it with a straight face, too.
Daniel shot him an unhappy glare. “Oh, that’s very funny, Naoya. For that, get me another cup of coffee.”
“Of course, sir,” he said, but Daniel held up a hand before he could actually turn it away.
“Give me the work, then get me the coffee; it works better than way,” and Naoya sketched a short bow before setting the p’lth down on the table in front of Daniel and activating it.
Naoya faded out of the room in search of coffee while Daniel studied the display. Tsh’nra technology was something completely unique in this galaxy, as far as Daniel had been able to determine- a fascinating combination of mechanical engineering and vegetation. They literally grew their technology, setting the mechanical sections into a precisely designed hydroponics garden and planting seeds in a careful configuration around them. The plant sections were genetically engineered to grow in the correct design, and were implanted with part of the Tsh’nra’s own DNA, which allowed the plant to carry electrical signals just as a Tsh’nra nervous system would, thus allowing the mechanical sections to operate in harmony with the vegetative. It was a remarkably efficient system, and one they used for everything from the operation systems of their ships to the fist-sized p’lth, which functioned as a sort of pocket computer.
Sam was going to love this, Daniel though absently, and then smiled as soon as he thought of it. For the first time in two years, she would actually be able to love it, to appreciate the wonders he’d discovered. She was here, or would be later today when SG-1 returned- they all would be. Sam, Teal’c, and, God, Jack- all of his lost friends, finally here with him. He could finally show them all that he’d accomplished; show how he’d built this forgotten little backwater of a planet into a power center for the fight against the Goa’uld. More than a dozen different races lived here, from over thirty different planets. And it was his job to make sure that everyone was cared for, that everyone worked together in harmony, between themselves in Sinope and with the Antianeirans here in Themiscyra.
He supposed he wanted them to be proud of what he’d done here. He wanted them to look around and be stunned, impressed- awed, even. And hell, since it was his daydream, why didn’t he just go all the way and have Jack sweeping him off his feet?
Amused at himself, he shook himself out of his thoughts and went back to studying the readout, touching the hologram every time he navigated to a different page. There were several reports he had to read, including the weekly notes from the Council of Ten and the complaints, forwarded by Rashid, the Council secretary, from citizens who hadn’t been satisfied with the ruling of the Council. He skimmed through them quickly, noted the ones that actually deserved redress for further attention later, and then composed his usual blanket reply to the ones who were clearly just whining.
Next was the lengthy report from Xyn’s shipboard computers, on the things she’d seen in her wanderings over the last month. Using his glimpses of her recent memories as a guide, he skimmed that too, and sorted it into two categories. The information relevant to the Goa’uld was moved into a separate folder and sent to Sarth’s p’lth, and everything else he flagged for later examination and left for a day when he had a little more patience.
Finished with his paperwork, so to speak, he took a treasured five minutes to finish the coffee a soft-footed Naoya had brought while he was working. Then he got up and went in search of Xyn.
He found her napping on the roof, just like he’d thought. She had shed the thin, form-fitting dress she wore when planetside and was lying stretched-out and naked, the three vein networks pulsing hard against the confines of her skin from the touch of the sun. Her dress was a tiny mound near her left foot, the black fabric almost unnoticeable against the hot black metal of the roof.
Tsh’nra on the whole tended to wear clothes with extremely flamboyant colors, in order to counteract the unrelenting sameness of their own bodies. Once the Freedom Coalition had been established, however, Sarth had suggested that all official FC personnel wear black, to set themselves apart from the white uniform of the Antianeiran ruling house. The day that Daniel started wearing black, Xyn did the same, and nothing he’d said had been able to sway her.
“You wear black to show that these men and women, they are of your house, yes?”
“Something like that,” he’d said. “They’re under my command. It’s just a symbol, Xyn, it doesn’t really mean anything.”
“Symbols always mean something; that’s what they’re for,” she’d said, and since she’d been right, he hadn’t been able to argue with her. So when she’d said, “And I am of your house, so I should wear your color as well,” he hadn’t been able to argue with that either, so black it had been for her ever since. Only her sleep shirts showed her natural inclination towards color, and that was only because he didn’t wear his uniform to bed- and he’d made sure that none of his sleep clothes, when he wore them, were black, dark blue, or even gray, just so that she wouldn’t feel obligated.
“You’re supposed to be working,” she said, without opening her eyes. She didn’t need to look to know he was there. She recognized the touch of his mind just as well as the rhythm of his footsteps, even as quiet as they were in the soft-soled ka-hide boots. Ka beasts were stupid beyond any measure Daniel had, but they were easy to herd, and they made good eating as well as providing the easily died, strangely durable hide for boots and clothing. They’d pulled the plows decades ago, before Antianeiran engineers had figured out how to use leftover alien technology in Themiscyra to cobble together a template for farming machines.
“I finished all the paperwork already,” he said.
“No, you didn’t.”
“Alright, I finished most of it,” he admitted, remembering the way he’d just marked some of the work and left it for later. “Anyway, I don’t have much of anything left to do today except wait for Jack and Sam and Teal’c to show up and open negotiations.”
“You’ve prepped everyone, on the Tau’ri?” she said.
It never stopped being a surprise, listening to her talk. Sometimes, she spoke as formally as any off-worlder he’d ever met, and then she’d shock him by dropping slang into a conversation. He knew she’d picked it all up from him, but that didn’t make it any less odd to hear a word like “prepped” casually thrown into a phrase spoken in her slightly stilted, off-center cadence.
“Of course I have,” Daniel said. “I prepped them months ago, when we first started talking about the possibility of extending the invitation at all. I think Earth could be a valuable ally to us in the fight against the Goa’uld, but I don’t want them moving in and taking over. America has a habit of doing that.”
“I trust you,” Xyn said. She opened her eyes, the black almost completely swallowed by the white of her pupils as she absorbed the sunlight. “I know that Lyta and Sarth trust you, too.”
“More than I trust me,” he muttered to himself, but he sat down next to her anyway. “Do you know that there are people from over thirty planets, here on Pontus?” he asked her. “I negotiated for their entrance myself, every single one of them. And yet I’m nervous about working with a team that I actually know. How crazy is that?”
“Because they are people you care about,” Xyn told him. “You have been apart for two years, and you love them. Of course you are nervous.”
“Right,” Daniel said, shaking his head. “Of course I am. Silly me.”
“You are not silly, Daniel,” she said, laying one hand over his. Her pale skin was hot to the touch, far hotter than a human physiology would ever allow. “Neither are matters of the heart.”
“This isn’t a matter of the heart, it’s a matter of state!” Daniel said. “It’s wonderful to see them all again, of course, but I can’t forget what’s at stake. The Pentagon is going to be pressuring them for all the leverage it can get with us, and there’s way too much riding on this to let it get too personal.”
“It is already personal,” she said. “For you, and I think for them as well. O’Neill became so wonderfully jealous last night, Daniel, you had to have noticed it. He cares for you more than a mere friend.”
“We were best friends before,” Daniel pointed out. “And he never did trust any of the aliens we worked with.” He stopped to think. “Except Thor. He really liked Thor.”
“Now you are being silly,” she told him. He didn’t say anything, and she sighed and shook her head at him. “Fine. Be that way. But you’re going to see that I am right, you know. I always am.”
“Almost always,” he corrected. “And we’ll see.” His communicator beeped at him. “But later, because right now I have things to attend to.” He tapped the band. “Jackson.”
“Kor Asek is here, sir,” Naoya said.
Fantastic. This was not shaping up to be one of Daniel’s Best Days Ever. “At the Stargate, here, or in my office, here?”
“The Stargate, sir. You’re the only one who knows his language.”
Ah, of course. Daniel Jackson, the great communicator. “Alright,” he said. “Send Myrine and her team to bring him up- she does the pickups, so she can say at least a hello, and he’ll recognize her. I’ll be down there as soon as possible. Jackson out.”
He tapped off the communicator and looked down at Xyn, who was waiting patiently. “Duty calls,” he said. “Are you going to stay here all day, or will you be down for the banquet later?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Daniel,” she said, and squeezed his hand affectionately for a moment before letting it go and closing her startlingly white eyes again. He stayed where he was for a moment, stealing just a few seconds more to bask in her presence, and then forced himself to get to his feet and go back downstairs to his responsibilities.
Naoya was waiting for him, right outside of his council room. “He’s inside, sir,” he said. “Myrine brought him up and left again.” The reproof was clear in Naoya’s quiet voice.
“Don’t blame her, Lor’nac started the final round of testing yesterday,” Daniel told him. “You know she mentored some of those women into the piloting program. She wants to cheer them on.”
Naoya’s nod was entirely neutral- it was hard to tell if he agreed with Daniel or not. Then again, Naoya only rarely thought well of Myrine. She could be a bit… abrasive even at the best of times.
“Tell Skaara to keep an eye on the Gate,” Daniel told him. “As soon as SG-1 arrives, he’s to go down and bring them back up here. Hopefully I’ll be done by then.”
“Understood,” Naoya said, and Daniel went into his council room and closed the door behind him.
“Kor Asek,” he said, bowing his head in respect. Kor Asek inclined his head in return.
“Dan’el,” he said, and stepped aside so that Daniel could walk past him and sit down in his chair, his position of power. Daniel was the clan leader here, and it never hurt to remind Kor Asek of it. Though Kor Asek, for all of his ferocity, was a canny leader, and fully capable of negotiating a mining treaty that Daniel himself would never have thought up. Kor Asek wasn’t as susceptible to traditional cues of domination and submission as most of his people.
“So,” he said, and dredged up every bit of his limited Unas vocabulary. “Myrine ker jin?”
“Mrn ko,” Kor Asek rumbled. It was the closest approximation of her name he could manage, but Daniel had gotten used it- and more importantly, Myrine seemed to find it funny, so they’d never been in for one of her famous rages over the issue. Hell of a soldier, that women, but not the easiest to work with. “Dan’el med pek?”
“Na,” Daniel said, and, pleasantries exchanged, settled down for a more serious talk.
This was why he got the fancy corner office, after all. Time to get to work.
Continued here.
Title: Life As You Know It
Author: Sorrel
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Pairing: Jack/Daniel
Rating: R
Word Count: 6,242
Summary: "Hello, Jack. It's been a while." SG-1 finds their long-lost fourth stranded on an alien planet, only as it turns out, he's not stranded, nor particularly lost, and has no reason- or desire- to return to Earth. What's a Colonel to do, except stick around to change his mind?
The story lives in my memories here.
~Part Two~
“He though I was a deserter,” Daniel muttered as he stepped out of the shower and roughly dried himself off. Even the thought of Jack’s words got him boiling with rage, and made his guts ache with hurt, that Jack, of all people, would think that of him. Would believe it. “He thought I just… up and left them, wandered away so I could rule another planet. Asshole.”
Xyn stared at him unblinking from her perch on the bathroom counter. “He is a fool, Daniel.”
Daniel sighed and pulled on a pair of loose cotton pants. “No, he’s not,” he said. “I wish he was. It’d make it easier to forget about him. But one thing he’s not is a fool.” Jack was a hell of a lot of other things, though, things that Daniel didn’t want to think about. Seeing him, gray-haired and irreverent as ever, had made Daniel’s heart almost stop in his chest from sheer, incandescent joy. Right up until the moment that Jack called him a deserter and power-mongering bastard, right to his face.
Daniel had had his share of heartbreak, a lot of it since he’d joined the SGC. He didn’t need any more, and he didn’t need it from Jack.
At least Xyn was here, thank God. He didn’t know how he’d have made it all the way through dinner if she hadn’t been here, bolstering him with every touch, every press of her smaller, lithely dangerous body against his. She’d marked him as her own every time she’d reached out and taken a bite off his plate, daintily nibbled on his food, the food that she didn’t eat. She’d stared straight at Jack as she’d done it, too, though she hadn’t thought he’d noticed; Daniel didn’t have any illusions that she knew how he felt about Jack, and how much her territorial behavior would bug him, and how much she’d enjoyed it. Jack had hurt him; she wanted to hurt him back as much as possible. No half-hearted scoldings on his part were going to halt her, so he just let her do her thing, and tried not to enjoy the irritated look on Jack’s face too much.
He gave his short hair one last rub with the towel, swiped half-heartedly at the week-old stubble on his face before giving it up for lost. He’d been thinking about growing a beard again, anyway. Lyta cooed over him every time he did it, teasing him about how handsome it made him- and God knew it was easier to impress some of the headmen in Sinope, to whom a beard was the mark of a powerful man. He could always shave it back off if it started to bother him.
Evening ablutions finished, he held out a hand to Xyn. She hopped down from the counter and took his hand, the soft cotton fabric of her long shirt sliding up her thighs. She’d seen the image of Sarah wearing one of his t-shirts to bed and so loved the idea that she’d slept like this ever since. It was just as beautiful on her as her equally skin-baring ship suit. Then again, everything was beautiful on Xyn.
He let her pull him close and she pressed up against his side, purring low in her throat. She sounded just like an overgrown cat, and acted so much like one sometimes that he forgot she wasn’t actually a mammal at all. “Don’t be sad, Daniel,” she said. “Forget them, if they upset you. There are those here who care for you.”
“I know, Xyn,” he said. “But I can’t just… forget them. You, of all people, should know that.”
“I know,” she said sadly. She did know- she always did, when it was him. “I wish it were not so.”
“Me, too,” he said quietly, and she pressed harder against him, trying to comfort him. She rubbed her cheek against his; she loved the feel of his stubble scratching harmlessly against her durable skin, and he loved the extremely tactile affirmation of her affection. It felt good for both of them, and he appreciated her even more, that she did this for him now.
“I love you,” he said spontaneously, hugging her tight. “I’ve never had a better day than the day I found you.”
“I as well, Daniel,” she said, and twisted around in his arms to press her lips to his.
It was always the same, every time she kissed him. All of her thoughts, memories, and emotions- they rushed right into him, a torrential waterfall of razor-sharp intelligence and insatiable curiosity and boundless affection. He’d asked her once, how he Tasted when she did this, but she hadn’t been able to articulate it, beyond a rush of words describing his respect for the past, his endless need to know more, his morality, his caring, his honor, his pain for all the people he’d lost. She’d left him blushing, and he’d never asked again, but it was comforting, knowing that there was at least one person in the entire galaxy who knew him all the way down to his soul, and loved him anyway.
She broke away from the kiss and just hugged him tightly to her smaller body, holding him with superior strength. He wrapped his arms around her as well, and they stood there for a long moment, pressed together, exchanging affection and comfort in the best way they knew how.
Eventually they broke apart, and Daniel led the way into his bedroom. It was ridiculously opulent, of course, even after he’d removed the worst of the decorations Lyta had insisted on, but it was comfortable, with the same huge windows and well-cushioned window seats that were in his council room, and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on every wall that Sarth and Skaara had conspired together to build for his first birthday on Pontus. Also, the bed was ridiculously large, which would be great for sex if he was getting any, but it was also pretty nice to see his favorite person in the entire universe getting under the covers on the other side of it, and then rolling all the way across the wide expanse of the mattress to curl up against his back as he reached up to turn off the lamp.
“I love you, Daniel,” she said, her breath mint-sweet and cool against the back of his neck, and he whispered back, “I love you too,” in the dark.
~*~
“Alright, SG-1,” General Hammond said, leaning back in his chair. “Impress me.”
“Well, sir, what we have here looks like just about the perfect alliance,” Jack said. If he was careful, he’d managed to hide just how unhappy he was about the whole thing, but the General was extremely perceptive. He’d probably pick up on it sooner or later. “They’re offering technology from at least six different planets, including weapons and ships, and a fairly impressive supply of trinium, as well as a share of their offworld naquadah mining.”
“And what would we have to give them to get all this?” the General asked.
“Military support, sir, and the minds of some of our best engineers. They’ve done a great job integrating all the different races into one society, but they’ve had more trouble with the technology. No one there has quite the brain of some of our SGC experts, not for that sort of thing anyway.”
“And the military support?”
“They’re anti-Goa’uld in the extreme. They have raiding teams that move in and cripple mother ships that are threatening them or any planet that they’re evacuating, and they have the military support to finish the job. They’d like to know that they have another strong military ally offworld, however, and there was even talk of setting up a secondary SGC base on the island.”
“Sounds just about perfect,” the General said. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch, sir,” Jack said. “Yet.”
“Ain’t it always the way,” the General said, shaking his head, and then turned to Carter. “Major Carter, what’s your assessment?”
“Well, sir, I think this is just about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. These people would be extremely effective allies, and that’s not even counting the technology and mineral supplies that they could supply.”
“And all they want is a little engineering work and some military backup,” Hammond said. “This is the kind of deal I like to make. Alright, tell me about this place. You said that there’s two separate governments?”
“Sort of,” Carter said, before Jack could answer. “The island is called Pontus- it’s about four hundred miles across, with a jungle-like forest down in the lowlands where the Stargate rests, a remote plain along the cliffs to the north, and a river bisecting the entire island.”
Whoa. Jack had had no idea she’d even been paying attention to Daniel and Hippolyta’s descriptions over dinner- Jack had mostly been focused on his food, and ignoring the way Xyn had scooted her chair around until she was leaning against Daniel’s side and stayed there the entire meal, and how she kept stealing bits of food off his plate. He knew Daniel was taken, thanks. No need to be bitchy about it.
“The people that were transplanted there by the Goa’uld are a tribe of female warriors, called the Antianeiran- the Amazons of Greek legend. Their city is Paphos, located at the mouth of the Thermodon River along the one true beach on the island. Antianeiran farms stretch all the way up along the river, since the area surrounding the river’s banks holds some pretty fertile farmland.
“The river flows from Lake Maeotis, which is near the foot of the cliffs bisecting the highland plains from the rest of the island. Between Lake Maeotis and the cliffs is the alien city they’ve named Themiscyra, which is the capitol city for the entire island and made of pure, refined trinium.
“There’s a shield that covers the entire island and protects the occupants from detection, which makes it the ideal place for a refugee camp. The camp evolved into a city that they call Sinope, placed in the highland plain, with modified ring transporters that take them to their farms on the mainland. The hangar in Themiscyra has several Goa’uld ships, which they use to collect the harvest in the fall.”
“Sinope is governed by the Council of Ten, with one representative from each of the ten most populous races in the city,” Jack said. This part, he had been paying attention to. “They report the Minister, who is in charge of the oh-so-charmingly named Freedom Coalition, which is the combination of the civilian enterprises in Sinope, and the civilian army housed in Themiscyra. The army is the domain of Commander Sarth Attyn, who technically reports to the Minister, though if you ask me there’s not much actual reporting going on there. It’s a very loose chain of command, sir, but it seems to work.”
“The Antianeirans are under the rule of Queen Hippolyta,” Carter said. Jack generously let her have this one, since she seemed to admire the Amazons so much. Ball-busting feminist that she was. “She controls both the military and the civilians very directly, with a small ruling council of her choosing in Paphos, and her younger sister Commander Antiope in charge of the military.”
“All that means, sir,” Jack put in, “is that yes, there are technically two governments, but Themiscyra is the capitol city for both, and they work very closely together. All decisions that affect all of Pontus, such as anti-Goa’uld operations, are made jointly by the Queen and the Minister.”
“Fascinating,” General Hammond said. “And this system works? There’s no strife between the two groups?”
“Some minor squabbles, according to the Minister, and there was some real trouble at first, but the separation of cities and farmland has eliminated most of the problems, and everyone hates the Goa’uld, sir.”
“The universal language,” the General said, almost to himself. Then he shook himself out of it, turned, and pinned Teal’c with his most penetrating stare.
“Teal’c,” he said. “Would you care to explain to me what Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter are leaving out of their report?”
Jack winced. Oh yeah, General Hammond was a perceptive one, alright.
“I would,” Teal’c said serenely. He was enjoying this, inscrutable Jaffa bastard. No one else would have noticed, but Jack could see past the stony look and into the smirk that lurked just beneath the surface. “We have located Daniel Jackson, General Hammond.”
The General sat straight upright in his chair. “What?” he said. “He’s on this planet?”
“Indeed. He is, in fact, the Minister.”
The General sat back, his face falling into heavy, thoughtful lines. “This could be a problem,” he said slowly. “The Pentagon isn’t going to like the idea of negotiating with one of our own runaway personnel.”
“It’s not quite like we’d thought, sir,” Jack said. He’d screwed this one up with Daniel; no way was he going to hesitate to defend him when he wasn’t here to defend himself. Not this time. “He was taken from the planet where he disappeared, by a race of aliens that study human minds to discover what’s going on in the galaxy around them. Daniel managed to convince the alien he was taken to, not only to rescue himself, but also two other prisoners, and once escaped, the alien, named Xyn, remains an ally to their people and to Daniel in particular, supply valuable technology and even more valuable information about the movements of the System Lords and location of Goa’uld strongholds.”
“And of course, she won’t be anywhere near as willing to deal with anyone but Dr. Jackson,” the General said. Jack nodded- it was the truth, as far as it went. He had no idea if Xyn would be willing to deal with Earth directly, but he didn’t have to ask her to know that she would take it very personally if the SGC took it upon themselves to take Daniel back to Earth. He didn’t even know if they could take Daniel back to Earth, if she had anything to say about it. And she would. “The other prisoners, the ones that Daniel helped to rescue- who were they? Anyone important?”
“Commander Sarth Attyn, sir,” Jack said. “And Queen Hippolyta.”
“Of course they were,” Hammond said heavily. “Well, our boy has himself one hell of a bargaining position, I’ll say that for him.” He sighed. “I doubt even the gentlemen at the Pentagon will want to risk an alliance as potentially lucrative as this one to recover one of our wayward citizens.” He nodded at them all. “I’ll contact the President to get authorization, but unless I get a negative, which I very much doubt will happen, you all should consider yourselves authorized to negotiate with the governments of Pontus for technology, naquadah, and trinium.”
“Thank you, sir,” Jack said, and beat a hasty retreat before Hammond could ask him how he was doing. He wasn’t doing fine at all, thankyouverymuch, but that didn’t mean he needed to talk about it, and certainly not with his superior officer.
Teal’c managed to corner him in the locker room, though, thus negating any vague hope for a peaceful- and silent- escape. Carter was long gone, thank God, though she didn’t exactly press him into talking about his feelings anymore. They’d done enough of that a year ago, and Jack saw no reason to revisit the entire painful experience just because they’d found Daniel again. Maybe especially now that they’d found Daniel again- all things considered.
Teal’c, however, had negotiated too many inter-team squabbles over the last year to hesitate where angels fear to tread in the Jack O’Neill psyche. Jack was most definitely not relieved- but he was, maybe, a little less unhappy about it as his less-than-welcoming glare would indicate.
“O’Neill,” Teal’c said gravely. “Are you not happy to have found Daniel Jackson?”
Not quite the question he’d been expected. “Oh, I’m happy,” he said, realizing as he said it just how unhappy he sounded. Teal’c waited patiently, and Jack, just like he always did, caved like sugar in the rain. “It’s just that it’s gonna be complicated, you know? Like the general said, the Pentagon isn’t going to be happy about Daniel being in charge over there.” Jack thought about the extremely capable Queen Hippolyta. “Partially in charge.”
“Would your leaders not be happy at the rise in status of one of their own?” Teal’c asked. “Would they not be grateful for the alliance being offered, where none would otherwise exist?”
“You’d think so, huh?” Jack said. “But no. It’s like the whole mess with Hanson, five years or so ago. We don’t have any right to take control of other worlds.”
“The two situations are not the same,” Teal’c pointed out. “Hanson was exploiting the natives of that world through the same methods of the Goa’uld, for his own personal gain. Daniel Jackson has created a peaceful refuge for the victims of the Goa’uld, and is fighting them to great effect.”
“Yeah, but the guys upstairs are gonna see it the same,” Jack said. “And they’re not going to be happy.”
“But Daniel Jackson said that he refused to contact us for fear that your leaders would take control of his world,” Teal’c said.
“Yep.”
“And you yourself agreed with his motives, O’Neill.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Jack protested. When Teal’c just regarded him patiently, Jack sighed and said, “Yeah, I did kinda. It was a legitimate fear.”
“Then why would your leaders see this as a problem?” Teal’c said reasonably.
“Because they’re a government,” Jack said. “They’re hypocritical. It’s their nature.”
Teal’c nodded wisely, as if this explained everything. Then again, he had been the First Prime to the whacko king for years. He probably knew all about hypocrisy.
“General Hammond said that it would not be enough to prevent negotiations from occurring,” Teal’c said. “Do you think this is correct?”
Jack thought about it for a minute. “Yeah, probably,” he said. “They’re offering us a lot of things that we really need. Daniel sure knew which buttons to push there.”
“Indeed, his time at the SGC gives him an ample advantage on a bargaining table,” Teal’c said.
“And that’s the real reason the higher-ups have a problem with it,” Jack said. “He knows the way we operate, so he can predict almost every move we make. Plus he’s made sure to offer all the stuff we really want, while keeping his requirements light- so we need them way more than they need us. He’s holding all the cards, and that’s gonna piss a lot of people off. It’s a bad way to bargain, for us.”
“I do not think that Daniel Jackson will take advantage of us, O’Neill,” Teal’c said, a hint of censure in his tone.
“Me either, but they don’t know that. So they’re gonna hesitate a hell of a lot about the alliance.”
“But you believe that they will eventually accede to the greater need,” Teal’c said.
“Yeah, I do. They don’t really have a choice. And Daniel knows it.”
Teal’c looked at him, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Daniel Jackson is wise indeed,” he said. “I am looking forward to seeing him once again.”
“As long as we get the go-ahead,” Jack reminded him, but he couldn’t really doubt that it would happen. Daniel had made sure of it.
“Indeed,” Teal’c said.
There was a long moment of silence. “I’m looking forward to it, too,” Jack confessed. “I’ve missed him.”
“I as well,” Teal’c said. “He was a very close friend.”
“He’s got new friends now,” Jack said, trying to clamp down on the bitterness. He wasn’t entirely sure he succeeded.
“I believe that Daniel Jackson still values our friendship a very great deal,” Teal’c said. “He was very pleased to see us today.”
“Yeah, well,” Jack said. “If we get the go-ahead tomorrow, he might end up regretting inviting us.”
“I do not believe that will happen,” Teal’c said. “He missed us as well. He will be happy to see us, for as long as we can stay.” He stood up, and dipped his head in that weird greeting/farewell/acknowledgement thing he did. “And now I must retire to my room for kelnorim, to save my strength for tomorrow.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Jack warned. Teal’c arched an eyebrow at him.
“You yourself said that you believe your leaders will accede to the need for alliance,” Teal’c said. “I trust you, and so choose to believe no less.” And then he left.
It wasn’t a simple as Teal’c made it sound, though. The Pentagon might not give the authorization. It wouldn’t be the first time the guys in charge would cut off their own nose just to spite their face.
He hoped it worked out, though. Not just because they needed this alliance- needed the mineral supplies and tech that Daniel and his ragtag world could supply. He hoped it worked out because if it didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to see Daniel again, and the thought was just… intolerable.
He knew that he wasn’t going to sleep well tonight. And when he did sleep, he’d be dreaming of Daniel.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
~*~
Daniel woke up to the smell of coffee and an empty bed.
He wasn’t quite the layabout he’d been pre-kidnapping, but all the responsibilities in the world weren’t going to convince him to voluntarily rise with the sun. Xyn, though, like all of the Tsh’nra, was utterly incapable of remaining inside and asleep when the sun was up, so she was always gone when he woke up. Fine by him- she always brought in a steaming cup of coffee right before his alarm was due to go off, which was a pretty acceptable substitute.
He turned off his alarm and then sat in bed for another ten minutes, sipping his coffee and enjoying the one peaceful part of his entire day. Then he drained the dregs, got up, and went to take a shower.
He decided against shaving again, gave up on his slightly-too-long hair as a lost cause of neatness, and got dressed in his usual black uniform, sliding the controllers up onto his biceps after he pulled on his tough yet comfortable Antianeiran-style tall boots. He saved his rank medallion for last, relaxing as soon as it had slipped around his neck. Jack probably would have understood the feeling, if Daniel had ever had the chance to describe it to him- he felt the same way when he was wearing his dog tags.
He headed down to the kitchen first, and snagged a second cup of coffee and a breakfast pastry-thing that was part bagel, part croissant and covered in honey and nuts from the cook, the widowed Mrs. Maple. She’d saved Skaara’s life on Elysia when she’d brained one of the invading Jaffa with a frying pan before he could shoot the Captain in the back, and out of gratitude she’d been given a place in their household here in Themiscyra. It didn’t hurt that she was a fantastic cook.
He was just finishing his last bite when he made it up to his council room and found Naoya patiently waiting for him, standing with his hip cocked out a little to the left, the same way he always stood. His planet had become the battleground between Izanami and Izanagi, a wedded pair of Goa’uld who had been fighting each other for as long as anyone could remember. He’d gotten caught on the battlefield and lost his right leg below the knee to a staff weapon blast. Daniel had been on the cleanup crew after the Jaffa troops had departed, and he’d been the one to cauterize the wound to prevent him from bleeding out and help him limp back to base camp, and for that Naoya had sworn himself into Daniel’s service. Their engineers had done their best to design a false leg for him, but even they could only do so much, and Naoya didn’t seem to have faith in its steadiness, even now after almost a year and a half, so he always trusted the majority of weight to his real, unharmed leg.
“Naoya,” Daniel said. “Sorry I’m late.” It was an apology for form’s sake, since he was always late, and Naoya knew it perfectly well.
“It’s not a problem, sir,” Naoya said. “Shall we begin?”
Daniel slumped down into his seat with a disconsolate sigh. God, he hated paperwork. “Alright, hit me.”
“You wish me to strike you, sir? Are you not awake yet?” He asked it with a straight face, too.
Daniel shot him an unhappy glare. “Oh, that’s very funny, Naoya. For that, get me another cup of coffee.”
“Of course, sir,” he said, but Daniel held up a hand before he could actually turn it away.
“Give me the work, then get me the coffee; it works better than way,” and Naoya sketched a short bow before setting the p’lth down on the table in front of Daniel and activating it.
Naoya faded out of the room in search of coffee while Daniel studied the display. Tsh’nra technology was something completely unique in this galaxy, as far as Daniel had been able to determine- a fascinating combination of mechanical engineering and vegetation. They literally grew their technology, setting the mechanical sections into a precisely designed hydroponics garden and planting seeds in a careful configuration around them. The plant sections were genetically engineered to grow in the correct design, and were implanted with part of the Tsh’nra’s own DNA, which allowed the plant to carry electrical signals just as a Tsh’nra nervous system would, thus allowing the mechanical sections to operate in harmony with the vegetative. It was a remarkably efficient system, and one they used for everything from the operation systems of their ships to the fist-sized p’lth, which functioned as a sort of pocket computer.
Sam was going to love this, Daniel though absently, and then smiled as soon as he thought of it. For the first time in two years, she would actually be able to love it, to appreciate the wonders he’d discovered. She was here, or would be later today when SG-1 returned- they all would be. Sam, Teal’c, and, God, Jack- all of his lost friends, finally here with him. He could finally show them all that he’d accomplished; show how he’d built this forgotten little backwater of a planet into a power center for the fight against the Goa’uld. More than a dozen different races lived here, from over thirty different planets. And it was his job to make sure that everyone was cared for, that everyone worked together in harmony, between themselves in Sinope and with the Antianeirans here in Themiscyra.
He supposed he wanted them to be proud of what he’d done here. He wanted them to look around and be stunned, impressed- awed, even. And hell, since it was his daydream, why didn’t he just go all the way and have Jack sweeping him off his feet?
Amused at himself, he shook himself out of his thoughts and went back to studying the readout, touching the hologram every time he navigated to a different page. There were several reports he had to read, including the weekly notes from the Council of Ten and the complaints, forwarded by Rashid, the Council secretary, from citizens who hadn’t been satisfied with the ruling of the Council. He skimmed through them quickly, noted the ones that actually deserved redress for further attention later, and then composed his usual blanket reply to the ones who were clearly just whining.
Next was the lengthy report from Xyn’s shipboard computers, on the things she’d seen in her wanderings over the last month. Using his glimpses of her recent memories as a guide, he skimmed that too, and sorted it into two categories. The information relevant to the Goa’uld was moved into a separate folder and sent to Sarth’s p’lth, and everything else he flagged for later examination and left for a day when he had a little more patience.
Finished with his paperwork, so to speak, he took a treasured five minutes to finish the coffee a soft-footed Naoya had brought while he was working. Then he got up and went in search of Xyn.
He found her napping on the roof, just like he’d thought. She had shed the thin, form-fitting dress she wore when planetside and was lying stretched-out and naked, the three vein networks pulsing hard against the confines of her skin from the touch of the sun. Her dress was a tiny mound near her left foot, the black fabric almost unnoticeable against the hot black metal of the roof.
Tsh’nra on the whole tended to wear clothes with extremely flamboyant colors, in order to counteract the unrelenting sameness of their own bodies. Once the Freedom Coalition had been established, however, Sarth had suggested that all official FC personnel wear black, to set themselves apart from the white uniform of the Antianeiran ruling house. The day that Daniel started wearing black, Xyn did the same, and nothing he’d said had been able to sway her.
“You wear black to show that these men and women, they are of your house, yes?”
“Something like that,” he’d said. “They’re under my command. It’s just a symbol, Xyn, it doesn’t really mean anything.”
“Symbols always mean something; that’s what they’re for,” she’d said, and since she’d been right, he hadn’t been able to argue with her. So when she’d said, “And I am of your house, so I should wear your color as well,” he hadn’t been able to argue with that either, so black it had been for her ever since. Only her sleep shirts showed her natural inclination towards color, and that was only because he didn’t wear his uniform to bed- and he’d made sure that none of his sleep clothes, when he wore them, were black, dark blue, or even gray, just so that she wouldn’t feel obligated.
“You’re supposed to be working,” she said, without opening her eyes. She didn’t need to look to know he was there. She recognized the touch of his mind just as well as the rhythm of his footsteps, even as quiet as they were in the soft-soled ka-hide boots. Ka beasts were stupid beyond any measure Daniel had, but they were easy to herd, and they made good eating as well as providing the easily died, strangely durable hide for boots and clothing. They’d pulled the plows decades ago, before Antianeiran engineers had figured out how to use leftover alien technology in Themiscyra to cobble together a template for farming machines.
“I finished all the paperwork already,” he said.
“No, you didn’t.”
“Alright, I finished most of it,” he admitted, remembering the way he’d just marked some of the work and left it for later. “Anyway, I don’t have much of anything left to do today except wait for Jack and Sam and Teal’c to show up and open negotiations.”
“You’ve prepped everyone, on the Tau’ri?” she said.
It never stopped being a surprise, listening to her talk. Sometimes, she spoke as formally as any off-worlder he’d ever met, and then she’d shock him by dropping slang into a conversation. He knew she’d picked it all up from him, but that didn’t make it any less odd to hear a word like “prepped” casually thrown into a phrase spoken in her slightly stilted, off-center cadence.
“Of course I have,” Daniel said. “I prepped them months ago, when we first started talking about the possibility of extending the invitation at all. I think Earth could be a valuable ally to us in the fight against the Goa’uld, but I don’t want them moving in and taking over. America has a habit of doing that.”
“I trust you,” Xyn said. She opened her eyes, the black almost completely swallowed by the white of her pupils as she absorbed the sunlight. “I know that Lyta and Sarth trust you, too.”
“More than I trust me,” he muttered to himself, but he sat down next to her anyway. “Do you know that there are people from over thirty planets, here on Pontus?” he asked her. “I negotiated for their entrance myself, every single one of them. And yet I’m nervous about working with a team that I actually know. How crazy is that?”
“Because they are people you care about,” Xyn told him. “You have been apart for two years, and you love them. Of course you are nervous.”
“Right,” Daniel said, shaking his head. “Of course I am. Silly me.”
“You are not silly, Daniel,” she said, laying one hand over his. Her pale skin was hot to the touch, far hotter than a human physiology would ever allow. “Neither are matters of the heart.”
“This isn’t a matter of the heart, it’s a matter of state!” Daniel said. “It’s wonderful to see them all again, of course, but I can’t forget what’s at stake. The Pentagon is going to be pressuring them for all the leverage it can get with us, and there’s way too much riding on this to let it get too personal.”
“It is already personal,” she said. “For you, and I think for them as well. O’Neill became so wonderfully jealous last night, Daniel, you had to have noticed it. He cares for you more than a mere friend.”
“We were best friends before,” Daniel pointed out. “And he never did trust any of the aliens we worked with.” He stopped to think. “Except Thor. He really liked Thor.”
“Now you are being silly,” she told him. He didn’t say anything, and she sighed and shook her head at him. “Fine. Be that way. But you’re going to see that I am right, you know. I always am.”
“Almost always,” he corrected. “And we’ll see.” His communicator beeped at him. “But later, because right now I have things to attend to.” He tapped the band. “Jackson.”
“Kor Asek is here, sir,” Naoya said.
Fantastic. This was not shaping up to be one of Daniel’s Best Days Ever. “At the Stargate, here, or in my office, here?”
“The Stargate, sir. You’re the only one who knows his language.”
Ah, of course. Daniel Jackson, the great communicator. “Alright,” he said. “Send Myrine and her team to bring him up- she does the pickups, so she can say at least a hello, and he’ll recognize her. I’ll be down there as soon as possible. Jackson out.”
He tapped off the communicator and looked down at Xyn, who was waiting patiently. “Duty calls,” he said. “Are you going to stay here all day, or will you be down for the banquet later?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Daniel,” she said, and squeezed his hand affectionately for a moment before letting it go and closing her startlingly white eyes again. He stayed where he was for a moment, stealing just a few seconds more to bask in her presence, and then forced himself to get to his feet and go back downstairs to his responsibilities.
Naoya was waiting for him, right outside of his council room. “He’s inside, sir,” he said. “Myrine brought him up and left again.” The reproof was clear in Naoya’s quiet voice.
“Don’t blame her, Lor’nac started the final round of testing yesterday,” Daniel told him. “You know she mentored some of those women into the piloting program. She wants to cheer them on.”
Naoya’s nod was entirely neutral- it was hard to tell if he agreed with Daniel or not. Then again, Naoya only rarely thought well of Myrine. She could be a bit… abrasive even at the best of times.
“Tell Skaara to keep an eye on the Gate,” Daniel told him. “As soon as SG-1 arrives, he’s to go down and bring them back up here. Hopefully I’ll be done by then.”
“Understood,” Naoya said, and Daniel went into his council room and closed the door behind him.
“Kor Asek,” he said, bowing his head in respect. Kor Asek inclined his head in return.
“Dan’el,” he said, and stepped aside so that Daniel could walk past him and sit down in his chair, his position of power. Daniel was the clan leader here, and it never hurt to remind Kor Asek of it. Though Kor Asek, for all of his ferocity, was a canny leader, and fully capable of negotiating a mining treaty that Daniel himself would never have thought up. Kor Asek wasn’t as susceptible to traditional cues of domination and submission as most of his people.
“So,” he said, and dredged up every bit of his limited Unas vocabulary. “Myrine ker jin?”
“Mrn ko,” Kor Asek rumbled. It was the closest approximation of her name he could manage, but Daniel had gotten used it- and more importantly, Myrine seemed to find it funny, so they’d never been in for one of her famous rages over the issue. Hell of a soldier, that women, but not the easiest to work with. “Dan’el med pek?”
“Na,” Daniel said, and, pleasantries exchanged, settled down for a more serious talk.
This was why he got the fancy corner office, after all. Time to get to work.
Continued here.