Disclaimer: The Stargate universe belongs to MGM et al. - this is for fun, no copyright infringement is intended.
Author's notes and warning: Takes place shortly after S5 "The Daedalus Variations," everything SGA or SG1 up to this episode is fair game. Rather dark, you have been warned.
- Somewhere in the Pegasus Galaxy, several months into the future
Teyla had always loved the quiet hours before dawn. When people gathered together in the main tents after the night; to talk about the tasks of the day ahead and prepare for the work to be done. When cooking fires and candles still painted everything in a warm hue and voices were still calm and soft, gestures few, smiles readier than after hours spent laboring on the fields or hunting in the woods. When the world was still fresh and new, untainted by events to come, sorrows to befall them. Or at least as much so as one allowed it to be.
Cradling the still sleep-warm little body of her daughter closer Teyla sighed as she continued to listen to the murmured conversation around the long table, only every now and then responding with a word or gesture to a question directed at her or to a general statement made by one of the others. Yes, she still loved these quiet hours even if her role in them had changed so drastically since Kanaan had died and the burden of leadership had been passed so unexpectedly on to her. Teyla hastily lowered her head to hide the tears welling up in her eyes and rested her cheek on Charin's dark curls.
A natural leader like himself but hampered by caution.
That was what her husband had called her so often with a teasing smile. A smile she would punish by beating it out of him in their next stick fight before kissing his bruises better; then the topic would be forgotten until the next time he brought it up. And no matter how often he insisted she did have those abilities she never fully believed him, could never bring herself to trust her judgment and decisions with the same confidence he trusted his own. She had never known the rest of her people shared Kanaan's believes until they asked her to assume his position. She still wondered sometimes if it had only been because she, too, had the Gift to sense the approach of the Wraith.
"Teyla!"
At Halling's deep unmistakable voice calling her name she turned on the edge of the bench just as he ducked through the entrance, her greeting smile faltering in the face of his serious eyes.
"Teyla, men from away have come through the Ring of the Ancestors. They say they wish to trade."
He stepped away from the tent flap and immediately every gaze was drawn to the three men entering in his wake, bringing a cool morning breeze with them that disturbed the gentle warmth inside.
Teyla's eyebrows lifted slightly. It was not because one of the men - clearly the oldest with a lined face and iron-grey dreadlocks, yet the last to enter - stood tall, almost taller even than Halling who surpassed in height any other Athosian. Or because of the completely unfamiliar garments the other two wore - a black vest with many pockets over baggy trousers of a particular green combined with a matching jacket. There were countless cultures in this galaxy and she was not so arrogant to believe she had seen more than a fraction of them. It was not even because all three were obviously and very openly carrying weapons of a rather advanced design although they were at least polite enough to keep them well sheathed or pointed to the ground with fingers far from the trigger. Rather it was that while the tall man's gaze roamed watchfully over the assembled villagers, the two unfamiliar clad men immediately turned and looked directly at her. Although she wasn't the only woman inside the tent. It almost was as if they knew her and that was ... disturbing.
"Torren." Slowly Teyla stood and put her daughter to the ground without looking. "Please take care of your sister."
"Yes, mother."
Obediently the small boy came over from where he had sat playing Leaping Stones with his friend and led the gargling toddler away. And again, while the tall man didn't spare more than a glace there seemed to be a hidden meaning in the way the two other men turned their heads to watched their progress across the tent. The dark-haired one, who had walked with a slight limp and stood with a studiously easy stance (and also carried the largest weapon of the three strapped across his chest), seemed somewhat bemused as if he was wondering about something. The expression of the other one, burlier, with short brown hair and a slanting mouth, was unreadable. He had the coldest eyes Teyla had ever seen in a human being and her instant dislike of his strange interest in her children drove her a brisk step forward.
"I am Teyla Emmagan, daughter of Tagan."
Her voice, sharper and far more challenging than usual, succeeded immediately in bringing the undivided attention of all three strangers back to her. As had been her intention. Especially that of the burly man with the cold blue eyes who now narrowed them briefly before he gave her a curt nod and a studied smile that did nothing to warm his assessing gaze. His voice was as hard and arrogant in an impersonal way as she had expected it to be.
"Colonel Meredith Rodney McKay." He tilted his head towards the dark-haired man. "Captain John Sheppard -" Sheppard gave her a boyish grin and a jaunty little wave of the hand she ignored. "- and this is Ronon Dex of Sateda."
"Sateda."
Deciding to forgo strange names and titles for the moment Teyla focused her attention first on the warrior with the lined face, for nothing else but a warrior he could be. Still surprisingly powerful despite his age - she would guess him to be well past his fiftieth year in the measurement of the Ancestors - with guarded eyes betraying a wariness that far surpassed that of a simple hunter. She carefully controlled her own expression.
"Sateda was destroyed years ago. Or so we heard."
Dex's gaze flickered with an emotion gone too fast for her to catch but then his face stilled again and he gave a gruff nod.
"Yeah." His voice was harsh, raw, as if he had screamed himself permanently hoarse at one point. "It was."
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and Teyla's eyes were drawn by a bone necklace swinging half out of his sleeveless leather shirt. Very long, almost elegant finger bones carefully strung together ... and from there to the two sets of scars on his chest just visible underneath, one old and faded, the other frighteningly fresh and vivid red. Five half-moon shaped dots arranged over a vertical slit, Wraith feeding marks, and from the little intakes of breath behind her she had not been the only one to notice. Snapping her eyes back up she found Dex watching her steadily and after a moment she offered an almost imperceptible nod of acknowledgment in return. It seemed like there was a tale worth hearing hidden behind the warrior's lined face that might not be so old after all. But that would have to wait.
Turning her head sharply she coolly regarded the man with the slanting mouth once more and again all her senses bristled with dislike and warning, keeping her tone clipped and challenging.
"Halling said you wish to trade. We Athosians do not trade with strangers."
"So we were told." His voice gave her nothing. "But we were also told, from the most reliable source, that the Athosians are good and fair trading partners to those they consider friends."
She honored that with a slight bow but otherwise did not give an inch.
"Friendship has to be earned."
Again that brief smile that did not reach his eyes played around his lips.
"I agree to that."
Hampered by caution. That was what Kanaan had jokingly called her many times. And this caution she had lived by all her life told her now to send these men away because they were strangers, because there was an air of danger around them that set her teeth on edge, because something told her if she allowed them to stay now there would be no turning back from the once chosen path and if it led to disaster. Yet another part of her - a reckless, wild part she so far only ever allowed to surface in the twirling of sticks in her hands, in the attack and counter-attack of battle - told her to take that risk on instinct alone.
"It is a custom of my people," she found herself saying slowly, "to brace for the coming day by sharing a cup of stout tea in the morning. You are welcome to join us."
McKay blink and the man called Sheppard made a sudden choking sound she with surprise and quite a bit of anger recognized as suppressed laughter. An icy glare from narrowed blue eyes sobered him up pretty quickly though. Keeping his hard stare up for a moment longer to drive his point firmly home McKay finally turned back to Teyla and answered as if there had been no interruption, and the infuriating air of arrogance and self-confidence around him was as strong and impenetrable as ever.
"It would be an honor."
Yet for the first time there was also a hint of warmth in his cold eyes that made her suddenly suspect that here, too, might hide a story worth hearing.
- Present time, Pegasus Galaxy, M3X-779
"Living quarters back there," announced Lt. Colonel John Sheppard on coming back through the open doorway closely followed by Ronon, "although completely out of power like the rest of this thing. Anything interesting here?"
"Define interesting," McKay mumbled absent-mindedly from his crouched position in front of the block-shaped device that dominated the first room before pulling his hands out of the access panel with a triumphant "Ha!" when it suddenly hummed to life.
"Not so out of power then," Sheppard stated dryly.
He sauntered over while Ronon chose to joint Teyla near the crack in the rear wall that had allowed them entrance to this hidden facility. The Athosian gave the tall Satedan a quick smile before turning her watchful eyes back to the woods outside. A long ray of sunlight slanted through the jagged opening, dust dancing lazily in its path. The once blank floor under her feet was marked by dried water, and dirt and growing plants had obviously been gaining territory for a long time.
"Very out of power, actually." McKay waved a fluttering hand at the still dead and silent consoles that lined all sides of the room. "But this thing here has some sort of independent built-in generator." He clicked some keys on his laptop then checked the Ancient scanner wired into the panel. "An amazingly powerful built-in generator in fact." He tapped some seemingly random places on the smooth surface on top of the hip-high block.
"Define amazingly powerful."
Stepping warily closer Sheppard studied the lights now glowing and changing underneath the transparent covering. At his approach more of them seemed to come on, causing McKay to huff and start across the room, shouldering past Ronon on his way.
"Teyla, I need those extra wires I stored in your backpack..."
As he moved a new set of lights sprang to life at the far side of the block, drawing Sheppard's attention by first blinking in bright flashes and then burning steady. He lifted a hand and pointed.
"Hey, McKay, there are even more lights coming on now, are you sure that -"
"Yes, yes, yes, coming, just don't touch -"
But it was already too late. A green spike of light followed Sheppard's pointing finger on its way above the device accompanied by a deep powerful hum and the new lights abruptly went out.
"Whoa!" Sheppard jerked his hand back. "I swear I didn't do anything, Rodney."
Silence was his only answer.
"Rodney?"
Still nothing. Small stones ground under Sheppard's boots as he turned slowly with a growing sense of trepidation.
"Teyla?"
His voice echoed faintly in the empty room, dust still dancing silently in the streak of sunlight.
"Ronon!"
But only Rodney's backpack and laptop still sat serenely where the scientist had left them by the big block-shaped device.
"Oh, crap."