What Part of Non Interference Don't You Understand?
Spacegypsy1
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Another of those pesky Ascended Alterans is about interfere. And it doesn't bode well for Daniel and Vala – or does it?
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ESMERALDA
One might think that keeping a memory through a million or so years would be difficult. Not really. I remember quite well how things had gone before. Before ascension. Timid...that would be the modern word for my - Esmeralda's - previous corporeal self. Scholarly. Even brilliant, some had said.
After all, I was the first to help Amelius with his Stargate design. Those nice colorful triangles that light up... my idea. And Merdin's, or Merlin's if you prefer, Device... I perfected the Sangral. Oma? Well, that is when things became quite interesting.
Throughout all the 'rebel's' escapades, I had watched, and made suggestions...all within the confines of non-interference, of course.
Now, inspired by those circumstances witnessed - Merdin, Ganas Lal, Oma Desala, to mention a few, I felt the need to test the interference perimeters. One should note that the previously aforementioned had been banished on several occasions until ultimately, they had chosen eternal conflict or human death.
Orlin had been my sibling long ago, before ascension. Esmeralda and Orlin – that is who we were. And after what happened to him for trying to save humans – as well as the Alterans – I almost changed my mind.
But something stuck with me...minutely minor in the scheme of things, so infinitesimal to seem unimportant, however, significant enough to keep my attention. Nothing universally altering-lifesaving-technologically advancing. Just something that had been left undone. Alright, so this is a bad idea.
Time means nothing. But I do understand that for what could be described as a blink of my once bodily eye, a human's life would have advanced millions of years, or thousands or days, depending on the blink.
Time - to humans - did mean something. And someone's - or more correctly, two someones' - time was running out. If I am very careful, perhaps I will not get caught. Oma did not for, well, time immeasurable. Poor Orlin, though...
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VALA
Daniel does it on purpose, you know. How do I know that? Well, why would he bring the blue bandana when he's wearing desert camo? See. Told you.
Gods! Could it make his blue eyes any brighter! They look like crystal about to shatter every time he looks my way. And that's quite often.
He just looks and smiles and asks a question...then turns back to digging in his little hole of ancient memorabilia. I've watched enough of those television doctor shows to know I'm like the nurse in the operating room, he's the surgeon.
I hand him things and nod at his incomprehensible explanations. I've learned a lot about this Ancient stuff...seeing as I've been a Goa'uld and we dug up quite a bit ourselves. But Daniel tends to find the totally uninteresting bits and pieces and then he gets all wound up about it.
I can't concentrate when he wears that damned blue bandana! It makes me want to rip his clothes off!
"What?" He says, sunburned face grinning at me. Those eyes piercing me through the heart.
Shrugging, I look down and draw stick figures in various...ah, intimate positions. One has long stick hair and one has a stick bandana. I'm an awful artist, so no one has a clue.
"Vala!" My head jerked up, worried there for a moment he'd figured out what I was doodling. "Why were you scowling at me?" He asks as those blue eyes darken with concern.
"Don't you feel like someones's watching us?" I blurted out. I really had that creepy feeling, but it's silly since we can all see for a zillion miles in any direction – nothing but sand and a few crumbled knee-high structures.
Of course Muscles is instantly alert, Mitchell just rolls his eyes, and my Daniel goes back to digging.
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DANIEL
Now I'm concerned. I thought that odd feeling like someone's watching me was because someone was...Vala!
I can't think straight when she sits so damned close, and has those mysterious grey eyes on me like a laser beam. And what the hell is she doodling that's so interesting?
Sometimes I wish she'd go back to her conniving, innuendo, teasing ways. THAT I can understand. But lately, it's nuts having her around. I...I...I have the urge to kiss her. Every day! I was close to asking her out to dinner last night, knowing we'd be on this mission for a few days. I'm losing it!
We're a team! Me and Vala. I'm able to do twice the work I did years ago with her helping. I don't want to lose that. I can't...be...with Vala and work with Vala. My head shakes, seemingly of its own accord. "I got that feeling, too. Like someone is watching us." I mumbled.
Mitchell hunkered down in front of me. "Alright, Jackson. Me and the big guy will take a turn around the park." Mitchell stood, staring down at Vala. "Watch wonder-boy, princess. Keep sharp and quit drawin' yoga poses in the sand."
When he was gone, I kept my eyes on the place where I was digging wondering why Vala was drawing yoga poses in the sand. I don't think that's what she's doodling. It looked more like adolescent Cuneiform and not well done. But then again, I was seeing it upside down. Every time I tried to get a better peek, she'd run her hand over the sand, erasing it. So – she was up to something and she didn't want me to see it.
I'd found a tiny shard of pottery, millions of years old. It was Alteran, for sure. I kept digging, brushing, searching. Trying to take my mind off of her.
I surprised myself when I griped at her. "What the hell are you drawing?"
"Nothing." She said with a sassy lift of her brow. Ha! Nothing my left foot!
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ESMERALDA
So - as modern humans say it - there you go. I met this particular once ascended being... alright , more than once ascended being, on several plains of existence. And I was curious enough – and might I add – bright enough – to follow him. This Daniel Jackson. Knowing humans as I do, several things have gotten me to this point of interference.
The seemingly random meeting with the once Goa'uld host, Vala Mal Doran. I have a particular curiosity...human male/female interaction. I ascended before I got to that part. This male had an instant attraction to this female. And this female an unprecedented attraction to this male.
They both fought it like the plague that killed many of my people. Why?
I know their histories and I could tell you why...but I know it on such a different level it is hard to iterate. Wounded is somewhat close. But then that is much too simple.
When he thought he had lost her the time of the burning - the time his soul nearly died - gave rise to knowledge that he cared. Had she not come back to him through the interference of the Ori he would not be the man he is today. That was a major turning point...in the wrong direction. Daniel Jackson shut down his heart and followed another path.
Losing her in the effort to stop the Ori invasion brought him closer to acknowledging just how much he did care. And again upon finding her he turned aside his feelings. Her kidnapping whisked her away and suddenly his connection to her surfaced once more. Found again...her memory having been taken from her...he rejoiced only to back slide into that abyss of denial, but with a spark he could not extinguish. Daniel Jackson knew he was in love.
She on the other hand, had to make difficult choices. Survival instincts long honed, and with the spawn of the Ori growing in her, Vala Mal Doran chose another. Never forgetting the man she truly loved. Once returning to him, the multi ascended Daniel Jackson, she found him even less open to her unpracticed attempts to show him how she cared. Vala Mal Doran had known she loved this man. But she was incapable of defining it. So she played the vamp, drudging up all her skills to keep him - and the hurt he could cause her - at bay.
Their time together in the void of time finally brought them to that place where they both belonged. Then, it was ripped from them...along with the memory of how they shared their love for one another.
The time for action is at hand. They are still dancing just outside the circle, both completely maimed and unable to connect. This is my purpose – my need to interfere. A simple task to practice my limits, and hopefully my skills, in interference. No ascending humans. No stopping time. No changing something that isn't to something that is. Just a nudge. A chance.
I heard a story once about a man and a woman. Alone in an eden.
~TBC