A Mother's Message

By: B'Danya

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate SG-1. If I did, it wouldn't be cancelled! I make no money off of this, I'm just playing with the characters.

"Vala, what are you doing?" Daniel asked as he walked into his office. Vala was sitting in his chair talking to a video camera.

Vala's eyes flicked from the camera to Daniel and back again. "Well, I've got to go now. Umm… happy birthday!" she added with a wavering smile, then reached to turn off the camera. "Daniel, hasn't anyone told you that it's horribly rude to barge in on someone?" she admonished with a grin.

Daniel shook his head and sighed. "Yes. It's about as rude as taking over someone's office without asking," he replied. "So, you going to tell me whose birthday it is?" he asked lightly.

Vala busied herself with removing the recorded DVD from the camera. "Nope! A girl is entitled to a few secrets, Daniel. You should know that," she replied, putting the DVD in a case.

The wheels in Daniel's head began to turn, trying to figure out why Vala wouldn't divulge the name. A year ago this time Vala was… "You recorded a DVD for Adria?" he asked incredulously. "You realize that she doesn't own a DVD player, right?"

Vala sighed. "Yes, I know that. I thought that maybe if she turned from the Ori at some point I could give it to her," she answered. She was usually a good liar, but was failing miserably today. Daniel lifted an eyebrow and Vala sighed. "Fine! I was going to send it through the Gate to an Ori-controlled world in a portable DVD player. You can't tell anyone, Daniel, please!" she begged.

Daniel sighed. There was no way that she could get anything through the Stargate without being noticed. "How important is this to you?" he probed cautiously.

"It's very important, Daniel. No one is going to celebrate her birthday, and that's just not right! I mean, she might be a little misguided, but I'm her mother! Aren't first birthdays supposed to be special?" she asked, looking at him hopefully.

He thought about it and grabbed a sheet of paper from his desk. Picking up a pen, he wrote 'To the Orici, from her Mother' in large letters in an alien alphabet. "All Priors know how to read this language," he told her. "Hopefully your gift will make it to her." He adjusted his glasses and sighed again. "You aren't going to be able to pull this off on your own. We'll do it on the night shift when there's only one guard in the gate room; I'll create a distraction, you get that through when you won't be seen," he told her calmly.

Vala smiled happily. "Thank you Daniel!" she cried, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him on the lips. When she released him, she gathered the paper and the DVD and skipped off to her room.

Later that night…

Daniel stumbled into the control room, sobbing. "She's dead!" he wailed drunkenly. The tech on duty looked up at him, startled. "What do I do? Sha're is dead!" he cried, burying his face in the man's shoulder.

"Dr. Jackson, I should probably get you to the infirmary to sleep this off," he commented, barely needing to inhale to smell the rum on Daniel's clothes and breath. Daniel's inability to hold his liquor was common knowledge in the SGC, thanks to Jack's constant jokes about it. He put his arm under Daniel's arms and began hauling him to the infirmary.

Vala, who had been waiting, entered the control room and began dialling the Gate. As it dialled, she ran down the stairs to the Gate Room. Klaxons had began going off as soon as the Gate started dialling, and she knew that she had precious little time to complete her little 'covert operation' as she had begun to think of it. The wormhole opened and Vala ran up the ramp and put the box she was carrying through the wormhole. "Happy Birthday," she said as the wormhole closed. She had known there was no way to do this without being discovered and turned around with a sigh.

Standing behind her were five soldiers on security duty, pointing their rifles at her. General Landry was in the control room, glaring down at her. Vala simply put her hands out in front of her and said, "Okay, cuff me. I know that I'm going to the brig," she told them sombrely.

She was in the brig for less than five minutes before General Landry came in. "What the hell did you think you were doing? You dialled an Ori-controlled planet! Are you out of your mind?" he asked furiously. "There are rules for a reason, Vala! Do you understand that?"

"Yes, I understand that. I don't see what difference it makes if they see our Gate address anyway, they've already sent a Prior here; they know where to find us," she reasoned. "Not that that makes it right, of course, but it certainly doesn't make what I did very dangerous."

Landry sighed. "What exactly did you send through the Gate? And why did Jackson think it important enough to cover for you?" he asked, hoping that there wouldn't have to be a formal reprimand filed. When Daniel had been taken to the infirmary it was discovered that he had no alcohol in his blood: he had gargled and doused himself with rum as some sort of ruse. Vala was silent for a moment, debating whether or not to tell him. "Well?" he asked after the pause had grown too long.

She sighed, unsure of what his reaction would be. "It was a birthday present. It's Adria's birthday tomorrow," she told him. "There's a message for her from me, a cupcake, one candle, a party hat, a noisemaker, and a family heirloom. Nothing that's a security breach, obviously," she added.

General Landry's jaw dropped. "You breached security to send a birthday gift?" he asked incredulously. When Vala nodded, he shook his head. "Well, consider this a severe warning: if anything like this happens again without clearing it with me, you will be locked up in Area 51 faster than you can say 'cake'. Got it?" he asked.

Vala was shocked. "That's it? Only a reprimand? I was expecting to be down here for at least a week! Please don't punish Daniel for this, it was my fault," she added.

"I know, he already told me that it was your idea," Landry replied, unlocking the cuffs around her wrists. "I would probably do the same thing if it were my daughter. Next time ask me, and I'll clear it," he told her, leaving the room.

Vala sat there for a moment, alone with her thoughts. 'I got off easier than I thought I would, but I have no way of knowing if it got where it should. Adria, wherever you are, I hope you got my package,' she mused.

Onboard an Ori Mothership…

The knock on Adria's door startled her out of her meditations. As she rose and moved towards the door she narrowed her eyes angrily. "I told you that I was not to be disturbed," she reminded the Prior who stood in her doorway angrily.

The Prior lowered his head. "My deepest apologies, Orici, but there was a package left for you on one of our planets," he told her, holding up a box wrapped in brightly coloured paper. The note on the top said 'To the Orici, from her Mother' in large letters.

Her angry expression turned into one of confusion. "Have you opened it?" she asked, curious as to what her mother would send her through the Stargate. The Prior shook his head, indicating a negative. "Leave me," she ordered, taking the box and re-entering her quarters.

She sat on the end of her bed, pondering the box. She was unsure if it was a trick, but was confident that if it was she would be able to deal with it. Gingerly she peeled the colourful paper from the box. When she had removed the paper and opened the box, she saw a variety of items inside. There was a rectangle on a stick, a cone with an elastic attached, a small pink candle, a brown confection, a black velvet box, and a red rectangular device. The red device said 'Flip open' with an arrow pointing to what seemed to be a lid. Adria flipped the lid open, seeing a screen. There was a button next to a circular flap with a note that said 'Press this button', which she immediately did.

There was a whirring from the machine and the screen lit up. Vala's smiling face appeared on the screen. "Hello, Adria! I'm sure you recognize me; I'm you're mother. I'm sure you're wondering why I've sent you this package. You have no idea how much trouble I'm going to get into for this, but I thought it was an important occasion: it's your first birthday. Forgive me if this is a little late, or a little early, but it's so hard to properly time surprise packages!" Vala's recorded image told her. Adria smiled slightly at her mother's exuberance at such a trivial thing. Birthdays were not celebrated in Origin.

"I figured that since the Ori aren't big on birthdays I would have to take matters into my own hands and celebrate with you! It's a human tradition that we celebrate our birthdays. We wear party hats, use noisemakers, have a birthday cake with as many candles as we have years, and receive gifts," the image continued, holding up each item in turn. Wagging her finger at the camera, Vala continued, "And young lady, I may not be able to see you through the screen, but I know you well enough to know what you're doing. I expect you to put on that hat and twirl that noisemaker!"

Adria glared at the screen. 'There is no way that I am going to use those ridiculous things,' Adria thought to herself, glaring at the screen.

There was a brief pause and Vala's image commented, "I know you're glaring at me Adria, and you do it so well! But, you haven't put on that hat yet, have you? Come on, just for a minute!" the image pleaded. As Adria sighed and gave in Vala's image continued "See? That wasn't so bad, was it? Well, enough with the light-hearted stuff for the moment. There are some things I have to tell you that have been on my chest for a while."

The image sighed. "I know that we haven't always seen eye to eye, and that we've pissed each other off and disappointed each other constantly, but I hope we can eventually get past that. I mean, you doing the whole 'I'm going to dominate the galaxy' thing, and me doing the whole 'I'm going to have to kill you' thing, it's not really good for the mother-daughter bond. I wanted to be a better mother to you than I got to be: I wanted to hold you after you were born, to soothe you and sing to you when you were upset. I wanted to watch you grow up and dress you up; listen to your stories; see you experience your first crush, your first date, your first kiss. I wanted the chance to be a better parent to you than mine were to me," she explained.

A tear rolled down her check. "My parents gave me up to be a host to the Goa'uld Quetesh. I'm afraid every day that I have done basically the same thing: abandoned my child to serve a 'false God', as Teal'c would put it. I know, I, know, you wanted this. You're the Orici and you were created to lead the followers of Origin and you want me to convert and save my immortal soul, yada, yada, but it feels wrong!" Vala exclaimed. "Not the whole Origin thing… well, that too I suppose… but I meant the whole not having a choice. You never had a choice in what you were, and neither did I when I was a host. It's something we have in common, but I wish we didn't have to. I really want you to sit and think about this, Adria: if you had had the choice, if you weren't born into the job, would you do it all over? If you had been raised in a secular home with many cultures and religions around, would you choose to be the Orici?" Vala questioned intensely.

'Mother is being very serious about this, and that is most unlike her,' Adria pondered as she watched the DVD. 'Why would she feel such guilt over something she had no control over?' Adria sighed, trying to understand her mother's reasoning behind this message. Was it a trick to get her to turn her back on the Ori, or was her mother actually been concerned?

Vala's image sighed. "Well, that's a huge weight off my chest. I just needed to tell you those things. So, time for the next birthday tradition: cake and singing! I sent you a cupcake instead of a whole cake since it was easier to fit in the box. What you do is you put the little candle in the cake and light it. You can make fire with your mind, so I didn't send you a lighter," Vala said quickly. Humouring her mother's image, Adria put in the candle and lit it. "I hope you have that candle in, because now I'm going to sing: Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you!" Vala sang, finishing off by twirling the noisemaker that she had sent in the package. "Now you blow out the candle and make a wish!" After a slight pause Vala said, "And please don't wish for me to convert, because that's not likely to be happening." Adria was shocked: it was what she was going to wish for. 'How did Mother know?' she wondered. 'She must know me better than I thought,' she mused. She closed her eyes, blew out the candle, and made a wish.

"Supposedly, if you tell anyone what you wished for it won't come true, so just keep it a secret. It works better that way!" Vala said with a smile. "Don't forget to eat the cake, but take the candle out first: it's not edible. I've been told that they taste pretty awful," she warned. In the background of the video, a door could be heard opening. "Vala, what are you doing?" Daniel Jackson's voice could be heard, although he didn't appear on the screen. Vala's eyes flicked from the screen to Daniel and back again. "Well, I've got to go now. Umm… happy birthday!" Abruptly, the screen went dark.

Adria sat in front of the darkened screen for several minutes, thinking about what her mother had said to her. From the beginning of her life Adria had thought that her mother simply despised the Ori—now, she thought she had gained an insight into why her mother refused to convert. It gave her a lot to think about: who would have thought that a one year old girl would have such important things on her mind?