Captured in Time

by Milui Elenath

Disclaimer: This is posted on fanfiction, if I owned the rights to Stargate SG-1 I'd be making season 11 or at least a Daniel and Vala spin off. I do however own the rights to this story concept and in light of that please don't copy scenes or plagiarise my work.

Authors note: This is my first SG-1 fanfiction (not my first fanfiction however) I hope it is enjoyable and reasonably in character. Constructive criticism is welcome – pace, plot, characterisation etc. Most of all thanks for taking the time to read. Oh and by the way I am using Australian spelling.

Chapter One

"What exactly is so important about this PX37-uht-ner-foo anyway?" Vala garbled the planets designation numbers in a jumble of sounds as she waited alongside her team for the gate to dial.

"PX37-five-six-two" Daniel corrected, enunciating each numeral in annoyance and finishing with a sigh of exasperation and a glare that matched.

Seemingly oblivious to his reprove Vala smiled at him "Isn't that what I said darling?"

"No that's not what you said," Daniel bent to tie his shoe, removing eye contact in a deliberate show of his irritation, "what you said was a jumble of sounds to cover up the fact that you don't know the designation number alongside admitting that you don't know the reason for us going."

"I knew the designation," Vala protested lightly, "I just wanted to be sure you were listening." She gave him a mischievous smile that remained unnoticed while Daniel fussed unhurriedly with his pant leg.

Vala felt herself sag a little at his reaction. It really was true; she did know the exact designation of the star gate address. In fact she remembered the briefing very clearly. The projected climate was temperate, the immediate terrain surrounding the star gate, mountainous and the purpose of their mission was to interpret, examine and possibly obtain the artefact that the UAV had photographed less than two clicks away that appeared to have ancient writing upon it. She had even mused to herself that the writing though indecipherable from the image looked oddly familiar.

As for her pretence that she didn't know where they were going or why, she couldn't decide why she maintained it. Originally it was born out of belief that it was always better to be underestimated but she had come to understand that it was no longer an entirely effective ploy. The SG1 team, her team, knew her too well. Vala glanced at Sam and found her failure confirmed by the return of Sam's sympathetic and conspiratorial smile.

Colonel Samantha Carter's smile continued to play on her lips; she found Vala's attempts at underplay endearing, even bemusing at times. She was well aware that Vala most likely knew not only the exact SGC designation number but also the common name given to the planet by other star systems, probably its location on star charts if they existed and more definitely the likelihood of it containing minerals, technology and anything else of significant value. Why Daniel seemed to be unaware of Vala's deliberate misdirection Sam had not yet calculated. She had tried to point it out to him on a few occasions but the topic of Vala evoked hostile reactions and so she wisely decided to let Vala fend for herself.

Teal'c shifted slightly beside Sam, checking his weapons were placed within easy reach as the chevrons began to lock. Even after all this time he did not understand the T'auri's compulsion to designate numbers to each planet. To him the address would always be in chevrons rather than a randomly assigned combination of letters and numbers. He briefly pondered whether Vala's mispronunciation of the designation was an irreverent disregard of the T'auri system or whether she did it for the inevitable reaction Daniel Jackson would make or some combination of the two. Teal'c made no further conclusion turning his mind to more serious matters of preparation.

Colonel Cameron Mitchell grinned and surveyed the team feeling comforted by the interplay. He was a man who liked routine and predictability in his team, the interchange between Vala and Jackson meant everything was as it should be. He thought he completely understood Vala's reasons for her continual deception. He himself underplayed his knowledge on occasion, it threw the enemy off balance and it had the added benefit of covering for all the other times when he didn't actually know what he was doing but could pretend he was joking when caught out.

Only Daniel Jackson seemed oblivious to Vala's pretence and it was only Dr. Jackson who was irritated by it.

"You know Vala," Dr. Jackson added with a final yank on his shoelace, "if you don't pay attention in the briefings you could endanger us all."

Vala kept her expression careless, determined not to show her hurt, how did he not know her like the others? Why was he always so determined to find fault with her actions? She did not think it was her imagination that Daniel's tone had become more acerbic than usual. In recent weeks she had noticed a steady increase in his irritation with her. Certainly she hadn't done anything to warrant it . . . well not lately. As a matter of fact she'd even made several attempts at lightening things up between them and had been confusingly met with more hostility. She found her own patience wearing thin and instead of retorting, determined with increasing ire that she would enter the stargate on Sam's side.

Vala tried to ignore the superstitious thought that missions never went well unless she went on the left of Daniel. After all plenty of missions had gone badly even when she had gone through the stargate on his left side. But, she argued with herself, the right side missions hadn't just gone badly they had been disastrous. She'd almost talked herself into staying near Daniel when he gave her a pointed look.

"I mean why even turn up at all if you aren't aware of why we're going or where? You don't have to be here. Nobody makes you tag along."

Tag along? He made it sound like she neither contributed to the mission nor was wanted. Her lip trembled for a microsecond before she narrowed her eyes and moved pointedly to the other side of Sam who herself looked taken aback by Daniels outburst.

Daniel was equally surprised at himself but he was not regretful. He couldn't seem to help snapping at Vala lately, perhaps if she could just be serious about something; the missions, their work, the interplanetary crisis's they faced! Recently she had seemed more frivolous than ever and he'd wondered unhappily if she was able to truly care about anything. Everything with her was a game, a joke, a light-hearted moment and recently it had begun to bother him more than it ever had before.

The whirring of the final chevron slowed and the stargate splash back leapt at them before stabilising. Colonel Mitchell fumbled for something he never found and muttered unhappily to himself before resolutely stepping through the event horizon. The team followed.

x x x

The team blinked as their eyes adjusted to the decrease in light.

"Sam, where the hell are we?" said Cameron Mitchell. "If this is PX37562 then it has undergone some serious climate change . . . and the MALP has disappeared." Cam shone his torch from side to side confirming this.

A dimly lit ice cavern and temperatures barely above freezing greeted them while the mountainous scape and temperate weather was nowhere to be found.

Sam slipped a laptop from her backpack and plugged it into the DHD. "Give me a second, I'm getting some strange readings." Sam pressed buttons rapidly.

"This isn't PX37562." Vala announced blandly. "We're on PX38956."

"Funny." Daniel said flatly believing her remark was another retort toward his earlier rebuke about not knowing the planets designation.

"Actually Daniel," said Sam slowly, "Vala is right, it is PX38956."

"She is?" Daniel gave Vala a look that revealed that he was both impressed and surprised.

Ordinarily Vala would have felt pleased, there were few things she liked better than to shock or impress Daniel but she was preoccupied with their location and in particular getting away from it without giving away that she wanted to get away from it.

"It looks like we were diverted from PX37562." Sam studied the laptop before looking up. "How did you know where we are Vala?"

Vala felt all eyes on her. Cameron and Sam were openly curious, Teal'c was unreadable but Daniel's look was clearly accusing.

"I had nothing to do with us being diverted." She snapped at Daniel guessing his thoughts. "I certainly wouldn't have brought us . . . here." Vala stopped herself abruptly and after an obvious pause she tried to disguise the stiffness in her own voice. "I recognise this planet, that's all. I've been here before." She shrugged diffidently and directed her gaze away from the others.

"Oh right," a small grimace briefly touched Sam's expression before she returned to her calculations. She knew that much of Vala's past was unpleasant and judging from her reaction it seemed this planet fitted into that category. "Well I'll have to do a check on the DHD at this end before I dial earth."

"Earth?" said Cameron. "Why not just redial PX37562?"

"There has to be a reason we were diverted from there," Sam explained. "And it could happen again. It could be anything from a black hole, to a diversion program, a force field, an obelisk, some sort of gate safety override -."

"Okay, okay, I get it," said Cam, "so how long is this going to take?"

Sam shook her head. "It depends, if everything checks out it'll be about ten minutes. If not, then it could be a while."

"Well hurry it up! It's freezing." Colonel Cameron Mitchell used his authoritative tone and Colonel Samantha Carter raised her eyebrows in amusement since they were of equal rank.

"Well it is," he defended stamping his feet in the cold.

"In the event that Colonel Carter is delayed perhaps we should look for something combustible," added Teal'c.

"Fire. Good idea," said Cameron.

Sam gave Teal'c a sideways glance of thanks. She could work much faster without Cameron hovering about.

Vala stood silent hugging herself. She hated the cold, particularly on this planet – she stridently broke the thought. She did not want to remember.

"Want to talk about it?" Daniel came quietly along side her.

Vala shook her head slowly. Her eyes were distant momentarily before they met his. "Not here. Maybe later." She gave him a thin smile that drifted away.

Daniel thought it unlikely that she would talk about it later. She was like that, he thought, always in the moment, though not entirely in this instant he suspected, catching sight of her faraway expression. It had been a long time since he'd seen Vala this disturbed, distracted . . . distant? His linguistic training forced him to consider the exact word. He felt an unexpected and overpowering urge to squeeze her hand and with appalling haste stepped away from temptation. "I'll see if I can't help Sam speed it up."

Vala stared after him. "Now, he takes me at my word," she muttered to herself but her eyes were shifting around the room and were inevitably drawn beyond the stargate where Teal'c and Cameron had headed.

"Nothing wrong on this end." Sam said thoughtfully. "I'll need to check the SGC computers, maybe they'll show what went wrong." Sam replaced the panel of the DHD. "Cam! Teal'c! Forget the firewood!"

Sam moved towards the dialling device.

Vala felt a sense of relief. The sooner they were all away from here the better.

"Colonel Carter," Teal'c spoke solemnly as he appeared with Cameron in tow, "I believe it would be unwise to dial earth right now."

"Why's that?" Sam said, her hand retracting promptly away from the chevrons instinctively trusting her teammate.

"I think you guys better see for yourself," Cameron said already hurrying back the way he had come.

"Indeed." Teal'c had a steady gaze that swept the group and fell lastly on Vala.

Vala had always thought that Teal'c had some unique ability to see straight through to the heart, to the character of a person and assess them. Were they telling the truth? Did they have the courage to accomplish the task? She had been on the receiving end before, sometimes finding approval, sometimes not but never had she met his gaze and found him uncertain to the answer, as he seemed now.

Teal'c's indecisive expression filled Vala with an unexpected sense of impending doom.

Sam and Daniel began to follow Cameron and even as Teal'c still held her gaze Vala started after them, as if by her motion she could escape her fears but she knew that rather than escaping them, her very steps headed her towards them and though they were perhaps only memories, ahead was a more permanent reminder of all that had happened here, a reminder that she had hoped never to look upon again.

The cavern ended and the rest of the team had halted beside a long block of ice, the shape of a tube, or a coffin. The outer surface was frosted with snow and cold but Cameron had evidently cleared a portion of it so that now a window had been made to it's interior.

Daniel looked first and shot a look back at Vala then seemed to change his mind and turned back to the window just as abruptly.

Sam approached and looked stunned. "Is that . . .?" She looked at the others then Vala.

Vala gazed with horror upon the vessel ahead and forced herself to take another step towards it as she fought the terror it evoked. The others had parted and were staring at her strangely. It was almost as if they knew what had happened here, but that was ridiculous! It was impossible for them to understand why this device unnerved her, impossible for them to know what had happened here all those years ago.

Suddenly it occurred to Vala that their behaviour might be a reaction to what they had seen inside the tube. Was it possible the device had been used again?

Disgust and horror overcame fear and with a final step Vala reached the window and peered in. She had hoped to see nothing. She had prepared herself to see a face staring from the ice but she had not prepared herself to see this face, the face that stared at her now.

She turned back to the others with the intention of making a glib comment, something about how gorgeous she looked entombed in ice but her lips had suddenly become numb and she found herself assailed by an onslaught of memories that she had tried long and hard to repress.

x x x