Diplomacy (24/27)
Title: Diplomacy ( Table of Contents)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I gain nothing of material value from this.
Pairings: Gen.
Chapter1a-- 1b Chapter2 Chapter3 Chapter4 Chapter5a-- 5b Chapter6 Chapter7 Chapter8 Chapter9 Chapter10 Chapter11a-- 11b Chapter12 Chapter13a-- 13b Chapter14a-- 14b Chapter15a-- 15b Chapter16 Chapter17a-- 17b Chapter18 Chapter19 Chapter20 Chapter21 Chapter22 Chapter23 Chapter24 Chapter25 Chapter26 Epilogue
Note: For the purposes of this chapter, to reduce italic use, please assume that "speaking" is in Abydonian and "speaking" is in English.
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Diplomacy
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10 April 1999; Nagada, Abydos; 1700 hrs
It was hot. Well, of course it was--it was late afternoon in the heart of the Abydonian desert, after all--but it felt odd for Daniel to notice the heat specifically.
They were under a tent--Daniel, SG-8, Janet, and her medical staff--and they weren't even being that physically active, and it still felt uncomfortable. It had been nice, at first, the dry heat like a 'welcome home,' but after a few hours, his nose was twitching with the mingled scent of Abydonian oils, Tau'ri sunscreen, and evaporating sweat, and it was making him lethargic already. He had caught himself thinking about nightfall and how it would be cooler then.
Tobay, Kasuf, and Sainu--Nagada's best physician--had been there almost the entire time when they weren't explaining the medical proceedings to others and asking for their help, and they were unruffled under their robes, unlike the SG personnel. Daniel could see Tobay notice as he wiped his brow on his sleeve and tried not to show his discomfort in the full uniform they all continued to wear. It would have been nice just to strip off a few layers, but probably not proper procedure.
A part of him missed the days when the SGC had felt perpetually cold, because that was how it should feel to someone used to sweltering days broken by short cold spells at night. It was a stupid thought, of course, but it was there.
"Daniel," Janet called from the next tent over, "do you see that box--no, the other one--"
"This one?" he called back.
"That's it. Bring it over, if you don't mind."
He trotted over to give her the insulated container and took the one she'd just filled, loading it onto what looked to him like nothing more than a miniature FRED that they were using to send samples back to the SGC for storage.
Daniel had been afraid Kasuf would be hesitant about this, not because of fear of the procedures but rather because Abydos had a less than positive history with technologically advanced societies. It was nice to tell tales of a heroic nation that came and saved them and left within a week, but if Daniel hadn't known that their intentions were good, he would have been suspicious himself once a team of people came and asked for their blood.
"What if we refuse?" Kasuf had said, but his tone said that he wasn't refusing so much as he was trying to find out what the Tau'ri would do if they did refuse.
"Then no one will force you," Daniel had promised after Janet had demonstrated on him that the only unfamiliar procedure was blood-drawing, and that it was quick and almost painless. "There will be no consequences. But I advise you to let them do this, Elder, at least those who are willing. If any medical learning is gained, it will be shared with our physicians for our own people to use." He ducked his head in respect to Sainu, standing next to Kasuf.
Tobay had stepped forward first, along with Sainu, and they were continuing to help by gathering more who were willing to volunteer for the medical study.
Sainu had been their physician for many years, and while he could not write, some of his younger students could and did, recording instructions and learning gleaned from experience and from Tau'ri exchanges. He was an old man, even older than Kasuf. Old for an Abydon, anyway.
Robert was the one who had told him distractedly over some translation that the people of comparable but less advanced societies might have a lower life expectancy than the average United States Tau'ri. It was just another fact in a long list of things Daniel had learned. But it was a fact he could help change if they could establish some kind of effective exchange.
"Nabeh," Daniel greeted, offering an automatic smile to the next patient and gesturing to sit inside the shade of the tent. "This is...Nikha?"
"Yes," Nabeh answered for both himself and the young girl at his side, looking around curiously. Nabeh was another from Skaara's age set--friendly, but not someone Daniel knew well--while Nikha had been born only a few years before Apophis's attack.
"He's number twenty-one, and she's twenty-two," he said to the nurse. The man nodded and wrote the numbers on the respective tubes as Daniel recorded Nabeh and Nikha's names and their numbers in his own notebook, then copied the names onto the top of two empty charts. Blinded studies, as it turned out, were more complicated than he'd realized when he tried to keep track of everyone.
"What do we need to do, Dan'yel?" Nabeh asked.
"First, some information. You are twenty-four years of age, yes?" he started, the words feeling like a scripted recital now after enough repetitions.
"Yes. Nikha--"
"Eight," Nikha piped up for herself.
Daniel nodded and wrote the numbers onto the charts, to be converted to Earth years later.
"--with Dan'yel, now--"
At the sound of his name, Daniel looked up, but no one seemed to be talking to him, and he couldn't tell who had been speaking. Janet was intent on her work in the next tent, with the help of one more nurse, so it wasn't them. He shook his head; anyone who needed to talk to him would say something again.
"Uh..." he said, refocusing his attention. "I need to make a list of illnesses you have had in the past. The illnesses you remember," he added when Nabeh's eyebrows rose.
Recording medical history was difficult simply because the words were different. By comparing notes with Sainu, Janet thought she had an idea of which words corresponded to certain Earth diseases, but without more time and evidence, it was difficult to tell. Besides, the point of this trip was that similar symptoms might stem from different pathogens, so the best Daniel could do for now was to make a list of symptoms describing any current or past diseases for each person. Some of the same symptoms arose over and over for diseases that he knew were very different--fever, weakness, pain--and he marveled that doctors could ever tell one sickness from another.
Once he'd recorded what he could of their medical history, he handed them each a chart and told them, "Your blood will be drawn here. Then give these to Janet, the physician in the other tent, when she is available. She will say the word 'finished' when she is done with her measurements. Call for me if you need help."
"Daniel, a minute, please?" Janet called, gesturing.
Daniel nodded to Nabeh, leaving them with the nurse, then crossed to the other tent. "What's wrong?"
"I think I'm missing something," she said, smiling at the young woman--Bekaa--who sat nervously in front of her. "She's worried, but I'm not sure what about."
It took another round of back-and-forth between them before Daniel could tell Janet that Bekaa thought she might be with child and was worried about whether anything would harm the baby. This led to a few assurances, more questions, scribbled notes to ask around about what normal practices were for expectant women, and some advice for Bekaa.
"Do you still need me here?" Daniel said to Janet when it looked like the next person was ready in the other tent. "I've told her that--"
"--gone back to his own people--"
Daniel looked up in time to see a cluster of three people look quickly away.
"Something wrong?" Janet said.
"Um, no, uh...sorry, nothing," he said.
"That's it, Daniel, thank you."
Daniel moved quickly back to the other tent. It was like a cycle: mark numbers, give instructions, take a medical history, and stand by to help Janet while blood was being drawn. Then return for the next couple of people and take more numbers and give more instructions while Janet was examining her patients behind a closed tent flap.
Over and over and--
"--would never know he was an Abydon."
Daniel froze as he crouched to pick up more blank charts, listening more closely, but didn't look up.
"His blood is not Abydonian."
"Hush! He is from Nagada, like you or I."
A hand on his shoulder made him jump and look up into Tobay's eyes. "Do not listen to such chatter," his brother said.
Daniel picked up the charts and stood. "Has everyone been saying--"
"No," Tobay said. "Almost none of us."
Swallowing, he murmured, "But some. Brother..."
"You have work to do," Tobay said firmly. "Seinah is here; she says she will help you when your physicians have finished with her. Come now, do your job."
"Yes. Good. Thank you," Daniel said, too confused to argue.
Seinah, Skaara's betrothed, gave him a smile that was somewhat reserved, but he was pretty sure that was simply the way she always was. Her words to him were easy, though, some in Abydonian and others in English, and he relaxed a little.
But he also saw the hesitation in Tobay that wasn't wariness but also wasn't the teasing they had once shared easily. It was partly because Daniel was no longer sinu'ket, the child brother, and there was no Skaara to answer to if someone bullied him. But it was more than that--it was in the way Tobay said 'your world' of Earth, and 'your physicians' of Janet and the nurses. Daniel knew it was because he was working with the SGC at the moment, but he couldn't help wondering whether everyone thought he was Tau'ri more than Abydon, even if few said it aloud.
"I've been recording names in our hieroglyphs and--" he started to Seinah.
"And in the phonetic script," Seinah finished, and it wasn't until Daniel heard her accent that he realized how easily he'd slipped into English. "I can read it also, Dan'yel. I will help here. Go to the other tent--I will ask if we have need of aid."
"Right. Thank you," he said, then added, in their native language, "Dewa'ta."
"You have nothing to prove to me," Seinah said, her chin lifting. "We are Abydon. It does not matter what tongue we speak. Go."
Daniel obediently went to assist Janet.
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10 April 1999; Nagada, Abydos; 2200 hrs
"Yes, General," Daniel said, wishing that the MALP had a screen as well as a camera, because it felt odd to know the general could see him while the reverse wasn't true; he was rarely the one reporting from off-world. "I have the last group of samples that Dr. Fraiser would like to send back, along with local medicine and soil samples." He pointed to the boxes he'd loaded.
"Send it through," General Hammond's voice said from the MALP. "Any problems to report?"
Daniel carefully maneuvered the remote-controlled vehicle through the wormhole. "No, sir. It's been slow, because the people would suffer from sun sickness if we asked them all to line up and wait, so we've had to split up between working with patients and fetching others from their homes to our tents."
"I understand. Do you have an estimate for how much time you'll need?"
"Dr. Fraiser is still in the village. She estimates perhaps five hours, depending on how many people are willing to work with us. However, it will be dark in less than an hour, and we've been invited to stay and spend the night before returning."
"That's fine," the general confirmed. "We can extend your stay. However, given our history on Abydos, I'll want a report in the morning."
"Sunrise here won't be until...about 1200 your time," Daniel said, checking his watch. "We can contact you earlier than that, but it would be polite not to resume activities in the middle of the night. So it might be some time before we actually get back to Earth."
"All right. Do you need any more supplies?"
"No, sir. They have all the equipment they need. Did you receive the samples I just sent?"
"We have them right here, Mr. Jackson. Tell Dr. Fraiser I'm expecting a report by 1200 tomorrow."
Daniel shut off the MALP transmitter and watched the wormhole close before standing to face SG-8's Captain Bole and Tobay. He wondered if they'd both insisted on following him here for his safety or because...well. Worlds were at war, people had been betrayed, friends had been lost...it was just procedure. He understood that.
"We should return," he said, waiting for both to nod before following them through the darkening desert to Nagada, where Janet and the rest of SG-8 awaited them.
The sun was beginning to duck below the horizon now, and Daniel knew that the moons would crawl up into the sky next, n'Djehuti Iraet and Khonsu and Onuris. At least one would probably be full, or near enough, and he realized with a sudden ache that he had no idea where in the moons' cycles they were.
When he noticed Tobay watching him again, he said, "We will stop working when the sun goes down. We brought artificial lights, but our physicians would rather be able to see well so they can be careful."
"You are accustomed to their ways now?" Tobay asked.
Daniel had to laugh a little. "In medicine? No. But I am not alone. Few people on Earth know as much as Janet. Everyone fears her a little." When Tobay's eyebrows rose, he added, "It is not so different with Nagada's physicians, is it?"
"That is true," Tobay agreed with a laugh, because medical examinations seemed to be equally disliked everywhere. "Dan'yel--"
"Yes?"
"You truly believe that these...that what the Tau'ri from Earth are doing here will help our people?"
"I do," Daniel said, unable to help stiffening at the implication he heard. "I would never allow anyone to take advantage of Abydos."
"I did not say you would," Tobay said, a little impatiently. "But I have a duty to my people."
"I also have a duty to our people," Daniel replied tightly.
"Yes. But you have a duty to the people of Earth now, also."
Folding his arms, Daniel shook his head. "Our interests do not conflict."
There was a hesitation, and Daniel saw Tobay fingering the his Guard's band. Daniel touched his own wrist, where he wore a strip of leather for brotherhood to an Abydon and another for friendship to a Jaffa, and felt the metal identification tags lying against his chest that marked him as Tau'ri.
"I know you," Tobay said finally. "I trust you. We all trust your word. You heard only a handful of thoughtless people, among thousands."
"It is truly not everyone?" he asked. He was certain Kasuf had no doubts in his word, and no one so far had been anything but friendly or at least polite to him and the Tau'ri. Still--
Tobay rolled his eyes. "Some do not understand your reasons, but they do not speak against your actions. Those of us who agree with you do not make so much noise, so you do not hear us."
Daniel took a deep breath, grateful to hear Tobay include himself among those who agreed. "I have not left our people, brother, not forever. I would never betray them."
"I never believed you would." Tobay grinned at him. "There are also others who say Dan'yel, son of Mel of Earth and his wife Claire, can do no wrong. Perhaps they would not believe that if I told them stories of when you were a child, little brother."
Daniel forced himself to smile back and backhand Tobay's arm playfully in acknowledgement of the joke. He was relieved to know he had not completely fallen out of his place here but rattled by the belated realization that he could not reasonably expect all of two or three thousand people to be completely accepting of every change that took place. It was good, though. It was good that there was someone on Earth to think of Abydos's interests, but good that there were people on Abydos, as well, who would protect her and her people.
"Problems?" Captain Bole said once they'd lapsed back into silence that felt strangely awkward.
"No, sir," Daniel said. "It's fine."
Once they reached the tent where Janet was thanking the last patient of the day, Daniel broke away to say, "Janet, General Hammond says we can stay the night, but we have a scheduled report by 1200 tomorrow."
She glanced once at her watch, then nodded. "Good. That gives us plenty of time. We should be done by the end of the day tomorrow. Daniel, if you would, help SG-8 start putting our equipment away."
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10 April 1999; Nagada, Abydos; 0600 hrs
Daniel almost used a fire-burning torch to light his way into the mines, out of habit, but then he remembered that naquadah was explosive. He knew that it took a lot of energy to make unrefined naquadah explode, and he used to walk around here with lamps or torches without setting anything off, but now that he'd witnessed naquadah's power, he wasn't about to test it. He had a Maglite, after all, which was brighter and made less smoke.
Not everyone had understood why he used to wander around the naquadah mines. Some of the other children did it, too, sneaking in at night without a lamp to show they weren't scared of the dark, scary cave. That was all it was to them, Daniel's generation and the younger ones: a dark hole in their ground and in their history where the older people never went.
Every child eventually learned how their ancestors had worked there, and it stopped most of them from playing. Daniel had liked to bring a book, sit just inside, and read, until his father found him and warned that he was going to ruin his eyes, reading in the dark. He'd brought a lamp with him after that. His mother had told him he'd get mineral soaked into his skin if he sat there all the time. Daniel didn't know if it worked like that, but at the time, he'd shrugged and said he liked the idea of having his people's history in his bones, which had made her laugh.
SG-6 had set up a lighting system, though the lack of central electricity systems meant that it wasn't particularly powerful or efficient. Daniel left their generators alone and switched on his flashlight as he ducked inside.
A shiver ran through him every time he took the first few steps into the mine. He'd always thought it was a matter of subconscious respect for the history it represented, something that had to do with how many years Abydonian slaves had spent in these spaces and how many Abydons must have died working for the Goa'uld. Now, realistically, he knew it was probably a physical reaction to the presence of naquadah.
Sam or Teal'c would know immediately if they were in a mine like this. Even Daniel, whose blood level of naquadah was slowly decreasing as he continued living on a naquadah-poor planet--likely because of the lack of the Goa'uld protein markers that bound it in the blood, Janet said--could feel the naquadah in the air around him, a tiny awareness that he used to think of as veneration for the past and now only reminded him of the Goa'uld.
There was a lot of naquadah in here, just in this one Nagadan mine, and there were newly-unearthed depths that had been undisturbed even after millennia of mining.
A shuffle of footsteps made him whirl around, and he felt his heart begin to race before he could realize that it was Kasuf.
Gods, he had become paranoid, and in his hometown, no less.
"What are you doing here, Dan'yel?" Kasuf asked, blocking the beam of his flashlight with a hand.
"I could not sleep, Elder," he said, quickly lowering the light out of the older man's eyes. "I am no longer used to nights this long. I wished to see what this mine looked like now; it has been years since I last came here."
"The Tau'ri men say it is unsafe," Kasuf said. "You should come out before a rock falls on you."
Reflexively, Daniel looked up, only to turn back and see Kasuf's smile and a raised eyebrow. Shaking his head at himself, he followed the elder out of the mine.
"Did I disturb you?" Daniel asked as they walked together toward the walls of the village. The Eye of Djehuty was not visible, he noticed, looking into the sky, but the other two moons were bright, so he switched the flashlight off.
"There is so much happening," Kasuf said. "It is too much to fall asleep. It is like this all time on Earth, yes?"
"Sometimes, yes." Kasuf tilted narrowed his eyes, a strange expression coming over his face. "What is it?"
In answer, he pointed to Daniel's face, then indicated his own eyes. "Mel used to wear those."
Pulling off his glasses, Daniel realized he hadn't worn them the last time he'd come here. "I had forgotten about them. Janet gave them to me soon after I first went to Earth."
"You like it there?"
"I like it here," he said. "This is my home."
"That is no answer to my question," Kasuf pointed out, a gentle rebuke.
Daniel bit his lip, then admitted, "It can be wonderful, on Earth. There are good people. I am learning so much, Kasuf, it is unimaginable. Even my parents could never have imagined all that I have seen. But we are only just beginning."
"Yes," Kasuf said. "The people of Earth have not brought evil. They do not act as if they are our betters. I have spoken to them when they are not working. We have feasted together. They are learning our tongue; we are learning theirs."
"Many people of the SGC are trying to learn at least a little of our language," Daniel explained. "It makes communication easier on some worlds."
"They are different from the tyrants of our past," he declared. "They give us aid and ask for our mineral in return. It is a trade. They do not force their words on us like invaders, but they do not forbid us from speaking it like the false gods."
"They are very different," Daniel agreed.
"You are accomplishing great things, on Earth?"
He hesitated, then nodded firmly. "We are. Sometimes it is easy to forget that, but we are accomplishing many things, all the time." When Kasuf only nodded, he added, "Of the false gods, Ra is not the only one that the Tau'ri have defeated."
"There are many others, then?" Kasuf said. "We suspected, but we have seen few."
"Earth was attacked by Hathor. But we stopped her," he added. "Apophis, who attacked us, and Horus the Elder, who stole Sha'uri and her son from here...both have been heavily weakened." Apophis is being tortured to death now, he didn't add. "We have not won yet, but I think we are becoming more ready. I believe we truly have a chance to win."
Kasuf nodded, ushered him inside the walls of the village proper, then said, "Do you know any more of Skaara and Sha'uri?"
Daniel winced. "Not yet." Kasuf did not answer, and he added, "I promise you we are doing what we can. But the Tau'ri are still learning. They have other goals, also. I look for signs of them in every journey the SGC makes. But there is little we can do without knowing more."
"I know, Dan'yel," he said tiredly. "I know this. If they promise to help you in your goals, you must also help them in theirs, yes?"
But that wasn't quite right, either. That made it sound like a cold business agreement and nothing more, and it was true that Daniel helped the SGC in hopes that the SGC could help Abydos, but he couldn't deny that their goals had become his own, too. And--"My brothers on Earth have promised to look for Skaara and Sha'uri as if they were their own kin. I am not the only one who looks for them."
This seemed to satisfy Kasuf, who said, "Good. If you believe there is hope, then I will, also."
A distant movement caught Daniel's eye, and he looked around. "I see a Guard watching us," he observed in bemusement, squinting to bring Dabeh's watchful form into focus.
Kasuf pointed off into the distance, then toward the building where the Jacksons used to live and where SGC personnel now stayed. "Others, also. One of the Tau'ri does the same."
Daniel scowled. "I do not understand why they cannot just trust each other."
"It is not for trust. The Guards always keep a watch through the night," the elder pointed out.
"Yes," he agreed absently, still looking around and taking note of the vigilant figures he hadn't seen before. "SG members always stand watch, also, but I do not remember seeing so many Guards on watch at one time before."
Kasuf nodded. "It was their decision, not mine. Things have changed. Nagada has been hurt too many times, and so Nagada has changed, also."
Daniel folded his arms against the chill of night. "Everyone seems so serious now. I was not here to see it happen."
"Abydos has been changing since the Rebellion," Kasuf countered. "You did not see it because you never knew what it was like before, when Ra was still our god."
"Life was very different then?" he asked, because he'd heard stories, of course, but hearing stories rather than experiencing it oneself always meant that there was a bias, and it was good to hear from as many sources as possible. Some people were unwilling to talk about what life was like before, and those who were willing were also often given to embellishment.
There was a silence as Kasuf thought. "I remember most," he said, "how ordered life was. We rose at the same time every morning, we went to the fields or to the mine at the same time, my wife ground the same flour every day. I served as lo'taur to Ra and did as he commanded every day--"
"Lo'taur?" Daniel asked, already parsing the unfamiliar Goa'uld word into its roots--lo for readiness of some sort, taur for human. Kasuf didn't speak often of the details of his role under Ra's rule--not to the children, at least--but Daniel knew he had held some status, whatever that meant for a slave.
"I was the most trusted of his human servants," Kasuf said with a smile that betrayed a hint of bitterness. "Perhaps that was fortunate. Our people may have believed that I knew more of Ra than they, and when I began to believe Claire and Mel, the others followed me. We would not have won any other way. But freedom means more than losing our chains. You have known freedom all your life, Dan'yel. Even on Earth, I wish that you remain free."
"I am," Daniel assured him. "They are not using me against my will."
Kasuf looked at him sideways, though, and said, "Are you in danger with them?"
Daniel frowned. "My friends would never hurt me."
"But you are in danger because you help them."
"No. Perhaps, yes," he amended, watching the elder carefully. "But they are all in danger. They protect me. It is my choice, that I should be able to help them sometimes in return, even if it is not as safe. Even now, they do not let me go into danger."
"It is your choice?"
"Yes."
"You have changed," Kasuf said abruptly.
"Of course," Daniel said defensively. "You cannot expect that--"
"We do not expect you to remain unchanging," Kasuf told him sternly. "But you also cannot expect it of us."
"I know that."
"But you did not understand until now. There was a time," Kasuf said, in the tone of someone telling a story or a lesson, "after the Rebellion. We celebrated many days. When the celebration was over, many had forgotten how to live our strict lives, but we had never known anything else. You were a baby then, in those days when we had to learn again how to live. Everything we knew was destroyed with Ra. We have been changing for twenty years now. In the two years past, perhaps we have changed more, but so have you."
Daniel grimaced. "I hoped that Abydos would stay the same," he admitted, "even if everything else changed."
"It is good--we are the same people. We have grown careful but not untrusting, and we have also gained much knowledge. We were strong before, and we have grown stronger now. Is it not the same for you?"
Perhaps that was true. 'Just in case' felt like a habit now, not just an irritating mantra. 'Careful' and 'cautious' could be good, he knew. "We have all changed," Daniel acknowledged.
Kasuf inclined his head. "Only do not change so much that you forget who you are."
"No," he agreed. "Thank you. I wish I could stay longer."
"Why do you not?" Kasuf asked, but it wasn't in accusation so much as in curiosity.
Because if he stayed here at home too long, he might forget his other duties on Earth. And if he stayed away from home too long, he might forget that it was a duty to Abydos as well as to Earth and not just a chance to learn and explore. If he sank too far into either side, he might forget the other. "There is a lot of work to be done," Daniel said as an explanation. "But someday, when we have more time, perhaps more of us--more of the Tau'ri can come here with me to visit, to spend some time."
"You have not seen a celebration since you left," Kasuf reminded him. "If you doubt that we remember how to make fun, tell that to Tobay. He will show you he has not forgotten how."
Daniel snorted. "Do you remember the time, Elder, he and Skaara replaced my drink with hanqoti water--"
Kasuf laughed. Daniel blushed. "Your parents and I, we were very angry," Kasuf said, still smiling, anger and embarrassment both blunted by the fog of reminiscence.
"Yes," Daniel agreed, smiling at the memory, too. While the equivalent of daily beer on Abydos was weaker than that on Earth, according to what his parents had said, Skaara's hanqoti had been particularly dangerous, sweet on the tongue but fire in the throat.
"Now that you are no longer a helpless child," Kasuf said, more quietly, "I am certain you can repay both of them for the trick."
When Skaara was back, he meant. "I will," Daniel said, nodding decisively.
Kasuf looked up into the sky. "There is still time before the sun rises. Go, rest, Dan'yel."
"Thank you, Elder. The Tau'ri and I appreciate your help."
"When will you leave?" Kasuf asked, stopping in front of his own house, and Daniel realized how empty it must seem now, with his wife long passed and both his children taken away.
"Tomorrow," Daniel said. "We will stay for some hours after sunrise, but we have to leave tomorrow."
"Then good night," Kasuf said. "We miss your laughter, Dan'yel. You must return more often."
Daniel smiled gratefully, nodded, and sat on the ground just outside the SGC's lodging to watch the sun rise over his home.
The next chapter (" Unity, Part I")