Home
I knew what they were as soon as I broke into that lock up down on level twenty three.
Lying there, partly covered with some old tarpaulin – discarded because the Tau'ri didn't know how to make them work. They hadn't discovered how to lock them together so that they would form rings. They didn't realize that once the platform was connected together then the active rings would de-materialize the ground beneath. I laughed out loud as I looked at the segments that were stacked neatly against the wall. Fools.
Kicking the tarp away I pulled at a couple of the metal objects lying alongside, trying to see if there was a control panel somewhere among the artifacts.
There it was. Kneeling, I picked up the box of copper-like metal which should hold the crystals to power the transport rings. Empty – not even any wiring. I tutted and swore in Gou'ald before tossing it aside.
Also under the covering was the front panel for the controls – one power button was missing but otherwise it looked salvageable.
Pulling the tarpaulin back over the salvage I began to mull over a plan in my mind.
The stupid Tau'ri – treating me like a criminal! I mean, the fact that I am one isn't relevant. Well, it's not here, anyway. I've never stolen or ripped off or double crossed anyone on this planet.
Actually – cancel that. I did steal the Prometheus. But I gave that back. Albeit unwillingly. Oh yes – and that coin from the pot inside Glastonbury Tor – well, that went back too.
Wretched Daniel and his noble honour.
I suppose that's what attracted me to him in the first place. That – and his obvious good looks. And when I first looked into those blue, blue eyes – I swear that man touched my soul. I felt strange – old, unlooked for emotions began crawling their way to the surface again.
Damn the man and his caring nature.
I've never been the same since. I suppose that's why it's making me feel so angry now – that none of them want to help me. Help me get rich so I can ditch this pathetic backwater planet and head back out to be on my own again, plundering the galaxy of it's more expensive and shiny wares.
Back to my plan. I'll pick up a couple of spare crystals that are lying around the SGC. There are dozens in Daniel's office – he doesn't even know what half of them are for. And that other Colonel who's not here at the moment – what do they call her? Stan? No, Sam. Her office is like a treasure store for those things. I'll grab some tonight maybe. I'm sick of this place now.
But…
I can get this Kor-mak bracelet off of my wrist at any time, if I want to. But I don't want to – not yet. Gives me bargaining power. And keeps Daniel close. Sometimes I like to know that he's close. Not that I care much. I mean it's me – space pirate, con artist and thief supreme. And he shows me no consideration or support. He shows me nothing.
Mitchell told me that Daniel's wife was taken by the Gou'ald and died a few years later. Mitchell says that Daniel's never got over it.
What a waste. Why should I care? I don't, not really.
I don't care whether Daniel likes me or not.
Tonight. I'll take those crystals tonight, and then I'll start to make the ring platform.
The Tau'ri have no idea how many cloaked ships there are in orbit around their Earth! Morons.
I'll make that platform, then I'm gone.
o – o – o – o – o – o –
I didn't make the control panel that night.
That night, I ended up far away in another galaxy, trapped inside somebody else's body. Trapped with Daniel, inside Harrid and Sallis.
I don't want to talk about it.
I burned to death there – I died, and that Prior he…well, I'm still here, aren't I?
The first thing I remember seeing when I came to was Daniel's face – he looked amazed, shocked – and relieved.
I cried. Real tears. And Daniel held me and stroked my face. It was a long time since I'd felt such strong emotion that wasn't hatred or anger.
Anyway. We're back now. The bracelets are off, but we still seem to be connected.
Daniel's annoyed.
Mitchell's annoyed.
Even I'm annoyed! I hate this hanging around, stuck here. Nothing to do, nowhere to go. They don't let me out of this complex, can you believe that? I'm held like a prisoner – like I've done something wrong! Cheek of it.
Sometimes though, I see Daniel looking at me differently now. Not always - I mean, not when I'm making him cross or deliberately fiddling with his stuff and getting in the way.
But sometimes it's like he see's something inside me other than the little thief I've become. I think that those blue eyes can see all the hurt and the sadness that swirl around inside me – he looks at me which such empathy sometimes that I could almost cry.
If I was the kind of woman who cried. Or who cared what he thought.
I've found three or four crystals that I think will do for the control box, and they're set in side of it now, waiting for me to form up the rings.
I'll ... Wait a moment. There's someone at the door.
It's Daniel. He's asking if I want to eat in the commissary with himself and Mitchell. I won't be long.
I'll be back in an hour, and then I'll start on the ring platform.
o – o – o – o – o – o –
It's made.
Well, if by made you mean put together and hidden under the tarpaulin. Three of the rings are in one place and I've stacked the other two in the opposite corner. The control box is inside my room, packed in one of my bags. Don't want these Tau'ri getting wind of my plan or realising that the rings actually work now. They'll stop me using them, I know it.
I slaved all night down in that store room. Couldn't sleep.
We'd come back from another planet - my planet. The planet where some of my people lived. I mean, obviously, Qetesh's people.
But I'd looked after them too. Long after she was gone, I'd checked in every now and then. When I needed supplies, or to hide, or just get away from my god awful life for a while.
Being a lone space pirate - what is it Mitchell says? Oh yes - it "sucks" sometimes. Space is vast, and black and very, very lonely. Sometimes I just needed to be on that retarded planet with those technologically challenged people. And I never hurt any of them. Vala didn't, the real me.
Granted, I may have pilfered some of their more precious items – actually, come to think of it, I didn't even do that. Daniel made me leave them behind.
As I was saying – I couldn't sleep.
That plague – the plague the Prior had brought. Everyone had become sick – even Mitchell. That was the first time I felt really afraid for another person. I like Mitchell – I mean, he's Tau'ri and therefore part idiot, but he's a decent fellow. And I couldn't heal them – I couldn't heal any of them.
The Ori.
They're going to cause trouble for this galaxy, I tell you.
My Daniel's worried, I see it in his face. But then, perhaps he's just mirroring what he must see in my own.
I'm afraid, afriad of the Ori.
But I'm more afraid of the Tau'ri - of how much I'm coming to depend on them.
I don't want to depend on any of them. I must get away from this planet.
I'm afraid.
o – o – o – o – o – o –
I've been gone a long time.
Months – how many months? Almost a year I think.
I've been to another galaxy, been married, had a child.
The spawn of the Ori as it turns out – not really my daughter at all.
Adria.
My heart hurts when I think of her. Sometimes I'm sad, mostly I'm angry. The Ori used me.
I went down to the store room last night. The rings are still there. I don't think they've even been touched all of the time that I've been away. My duffel bags are still here too, Daniel got them out of the staff lock up for me earlier.
I can't carry anything heavy yet, because my side still hurts from where my husband shot me. Go on – laugh. I would, if it wasn't all so horribly ridiculous.
Daniel saved me. Again. He's always saving me. Body and soul.
My knight in shining armor.
I haven't told him how I feel. I'll never tell him.
He doesn't feel the same. He still loves Sha're. I'm not like her, not at all.
Sometimes though, when he catches my eye, there's something in there – a look, an expression. As if he's waiting for me to say something, do something.
Almost like he's scared.
Like he's waiting for me to say something first.
I won't.
o – o – o – o – o –o –
The rings are all together. All stacked and perfectly aligned.
I locked the door when I was in the store room tonight. I took the control box from my room, and I activated the crystals.
They worked. The rings de-molecularized the floor and sent the chocolate muffin that I'd placed in the center up into which ever one of those cloaked, orbiting ships was nearest to Cheyenne mountain.
I wanted to follow that muffin.
Today has been horrible. General Landry said that I could stay. Stay on Earth if I wanted, stay at the SGC.
And you know what? I do want to. They're the first people who've shown true friendship and compassion and forgiveness to me after so many, many years. They trust me. Somebody trusts me again.
It makes me want to be trustworthy. Not completely, obviously – hence the reason I'm here, at 3 am, putting this platform back together.
I'm undecided. I did want to stay.
Then a man called Woolsey came and tried to bribe me. And others interviewed me too – they spoke to me as if I was an idiot or a harlot. They made me feel small and stupid and - and sad.
I hate it here. I'm not staying.
General Landry is going to tell me the results of this obnoxious psychiatric evaluatation tomorrow, but I know already. I've failed. Failed at something else.
I always fail.
The klaxon's going off – they're bringing SG-1 back from their mission – I think that there's a problem...
o – o – o – o – o – o –
They were all sick! Some weird bug that made them all fall asleep.
Mtichell snored so loudly in the infirmary that Carolyn had to give two of the other patients ear plugs. But they're all okay now.
And I passed the pyshiatric evaluation test. Really. They think that I'll be an asset to the SGC.
Daniel looked at me so proudly afterwards.
I can't really say anything else.
I'm a little emotional. I have my own room and everything.
I just need a moment to myself.
Just a little moment.
o – o – o – o – o – o –
I'm back.
I've been gone for three weeks. Athena kidnapped me, then I ran away because I didn't know who I was.
That woman Athena – we had dealings in the past. I mean, Qetesh did, obviously.
And we were on a date too! Daniel and I obviously - not Athena and me. Well, I called it a date.
I do like to tease him though. I know that he doesn't feel the same about me.
Sha're. Always there.
Anyway – I'm back. SG-1 rescued me, and I didn't shoot Daniel. Which ws lucky, because I remembered how much I lo...like him.
And he held me close, and whispered things to me, just silly comforting things. And there was real relief on his face, I know that he was glad he'd found me. I wasn't sure who everyone else was, not until we came home and Carolyn put the memory device on me and all of my memories came flooding back into my mind.
All of the first night that I was in the infirmary Daniel stayed with me, and held my hand. When I was falling asleep I felt him kiss my forehead before he gently stroked back my hair.
He didn't know that I was awake for that part.
I don't know what to do.
The rings are still in the lock up, working and ready to go – I might need them one day for a quick exit.
I'll think about it.
It's easy to take them apart again, and I can just put the crystals back in Sam's office.
Not yet though.
o –o – o – o – o – o –
I haven't been down here for a long time. Must be – ooh, five, six years. I'd almost forgotten that the rings were here.
Sam is commander of the George Hammond now. I never thought that I would be so close to another woman. She's my dearest friend. I miss her a lot when she's away.
Mitchell is still head of SG-1. He's loves going out on missions but he's second in command of the SGC these days, below General Landry. Mind you - the slightest excuse and he's off running through Stargate's again.
Muscles is based mainly on Dakara, but he comes sneaking back at least once a month or so. He says it's as an ambassador, but we all know it's because he misses us. It wouldn't be the same if he ever left completely.
Daniel isn't here. Did I tell you that?
He left SG-1 about five years ago.
He doesn't come into the mountain nearly as much and works mainly from home. He put his apartment up for sale and moved further out towards a quieter neighbourhood. He owns a lovely, proper brick home now. It has bedrooms and en suite bathrooms and a den and all sorts of lovely things in it.
He stays at home mostly, because I come here to work at the SGC and he minds the children.
Did I tell you that Daniel and I have children?
One boy, two girls. We were married not long after Ba'al's extraction. I came back and there was a big photo of me on his desk right next to Sha're.
He told me that I completed him. In a different way to Sha're.
He loves me.
I love him. Always did, but I think that you knew that.
I don't need the ring transporter any more. I gave Landry the control box earlier today, and told him what was in one of his storage rooms.
He did that thing with his eyebrows, but I don't' think he was too cross - he's got a ring platform out of it after all.
Daniel laughed when I told him. He said we should install it in our en suite.
Don't tempt me, I told him.
Mitchell's coming down the hallway, I can hear him talking to Siler. They're looking for me.
I pull open the door.
Daniel's with them. "Home," he tells me.
I nod.
And we go home.
THE END