CHAPTER I
The day had started like any other. He'd gone about his work in the lab without any problems, consumed with the ancient translations like always. It wasn't until he was summoned to the debrief room that Daniel's otherwise ordinary day fell to pieces. The moment he walked through the door, he was met by Vala's teasing grin. She spun around in her chair next to Cam, obviously getting restless already. Daniel's face faltered for a second before he walked over to the empty seat next to Sam, doing his best to avoid direct eye contact with Vala.
"Dr. Jackson, how nice of you to join us," General Landry said and Daniel mustered up a polite smile in return. "I know it's been a lot of work lately and you were all looking forward to some time off. Well, I'm afraid that's gonna have to wait. I just received reports there's been a Prior sighting on PRL-321 which demands our fullest attention seeing as how the people there doesn't stand a chance. So I'm sending you over there to investigate whether it's cause for concern or just a false alarm."
"Sir, are we talking about Priors, as in more than one? Cause if so, I'd say we need some backup," Cam said and all eyes turned to General Landry.
"So far it only seems to be a Prior and hopefully there won't be any more. If the situation calls for it, I'll have two teams on stand-by. I wouldn't send you in if I didn't think you couldn't handle it," General Landry said with confidence and Cam nodded.
"Yes, Sir. So when do we leave?" he asked.
"In less than an hour. I expect to hear from you the minute you get there, whatever you may discover. Dismissed."
The General got out of his chair and headed into his office, the look on his face not boding well. Cam turned to face the others, all of them exchanging concerned glances.
"So what does this mean? That the Priors have started acting on their own behalf? You'd think they'd discovered by now that their precious Ori gods are long gone. Or at least the Orici."
Vala's face hardened at the mentioning of Adria and Sam loudly cleared her throat, giving Cam a meaningful glance.
"Whatever the reason, I'm sure these people are in need of our help if the Priors have started taking over more planets," she said and Cam glanced over at Vala, who stared off into space in silence.
"You okay?" Cam blurted out and Vala abruptly snapped out of her daze, giving him a brave smile.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just remembered I have some packing to do before we leave," she said and got out of the chair, heading towards the doorway. "See you in a bit!"
As she disappeared out of sight, Cam turned to face the remaining members of his team.
"She's not okay," he stated and Sam shook her head.
"Doesn't look like it."
"We knew this would come. It was only a matter of time before the Priors and millions of Ori followers started forcing their religion on the rest of the galaxy," Cam said, sighing. "I'd just hoped we'd have more time to prepare."
"Well it's not over yet," Sam said and Daniel, who'd been lost in thought, suddenly started paying attention to what his friends were talking about.
"Sam's right. We took away their gods and the Orici, which should count for something after all we've been through. I'm aware that their armada is gonna do everything in their power to hinder us, but we'll just have to show them that we won't back down. Remember when nobody thought it was even remotely possible to defeat the Goa'uld? Aside from Ba'al, I'd say we pretty much succeeded," Daniel said and Cam leaned back in his chair, giving Daniel a crocked smile.
"And how do we go about defeating these guys?" he asked and Daniel frowned.
"I haven't figured out that part yet," he sighed.
"And no one expects you to, Daniel. We'll take it one step at a time… together. Starting with today's mission," Sam said. "If we're lucky, it'll turn out to be a false alarm which will hopefully buy us some more time."
"Good point," Cam said. "It's probably just a false alarm."
Daniel wanted to believe that but when he saw his friends' face, he knew it didn't really matter if it was a false alarm or not. In the end, they'd have to deal with the very real threat of the Ori followers plan to enforce their religion on Earth. Which was harder to handle for some people than others.
Vala had just finished wit her packing, which had taken a lot longer than she'd expected, when someone knocked on the door. She quickly pulled her raven black hair into a messy ponytail before opening the door not all that surprised to find Daniel standing in the hallway. A smirk spread across her face before she could stop it, and she leaned against the doorframe waiting for Daniel to announce the reason behind his surprise visit.
"Vala, listen –"
Before he could get any further, Vala bluntly interrupted him.
"I'd love to stay and chat, darling, but as it so happens I'm running late. Well, actually, we're running late. Wouldn't want to upset Cam so early in the morning," she said chirpily and grabbed her backpack off the floor and brushed past Daniel on her way out the door.
"All of the sudden we're worried about punctuality," Daniel muttered to himself as he saw Vala speeding down the hallway. He on the other took his time getting to Gate room, his head consumed with thoughts regarding their kiss a few nights back.
The night had started out pretty okay despite the fancy party, which was the part Daniel didn't like. But Vala had really surprised him; in more ways than one. After she'd ambushed him with that kiss he'd spent the remaining part of the night pacing his room, analyzing every bit that led up to the kiss. In the beginning, Daniel convinced himself that Vala had only kissed him because she was drunk. The next reason was that she just wanted to mess with him, which was even more believable considering that was typical Vala behavior. But as morning slowly came around Daniel had found himself wide awake, still just as confused and with the taste of Vala on his lips. Days had now passed since then and he felt it was time to finally confront the matter, although Vala certainly wasn't going to make it easy for him.
Daniel snapped out of his daze as he nearly collided with a wall while just barely making a left turn to the Gate room. The rest of the team were making idle chit chat, Vala in particular. She seemed busy annoying Cam about something the very moment as Daniel dragged his feet over to them.
"For the hundredth time, Vala, no!" Cam growled and Vala rolled her eyes, that familiar look of reluctance that Daniel had grown so accustomed to after all their quarrels.
"Honestly, Cam, I don't see what the big deal is! We're most likely facing a Prior and those guys can be… actually, I shouldn't have to explain it to you by now! Just let me get one hand grenade and we're good to go!" Vala exclaimed with dramatic hand gestures, putting on an innocent grin for show. Cam continued to glare at her, clearly being beyond annoyed with her for the persistent nagging.
"Right now I'm more concerned of the thought of you with a hand grenade than some religious weirdo with a glowing stick, so let's just drop this whole thing now and get on with the mission," he said with clenched teeth and quickly held out a dismissive hand at Vala as she opened her mouth to protest. "Forget it, Princess! You're lucky I even let you bring an extra zat!"
Vala put her hands on her hips in a defensive posture, glaring at Cam and Daniel could tell evil thoughts was swirling around inside her head in that moment. He quickly pulled himself back to reality before his mind drifted off again and turned his focus to the others instead. Whatever happened he decided he was going to keep his mind on the mission and nothing else, least of all Vala.
"And here I thought the last planet gave me the creeps," Cam muttered as the team noticed the deserted village. Nothing seemed damaged or sabotaged, but more like abandoned as if the people had just dropped everything and left.
"Uhm, guys, I don't think a Prior could've caused all of this alone," Daniel said with they were hesitantly entering the village. It looked to be slightly more developed than most villages and the interesting part was the statue positioned in the town square, surrounded by some kind of altar.
"I don't know, Jackson. Priors might've learned a few new tricks since last time. Wiping out entire planets is just the thing they do," Cam said, eyes fixated on the statue in front of them. Vala glanced around the empty village, getting shivers down her spine.
"It's too quiet," she mumbled and edged closer to Sam.
"Exactly. I don't think it's just the village that's deserted. The entire planet appears to be… empty," Daniel said and Cam abruptly turned his attention away from the statue.
"Empty? How's that possible? We just made contact with them a few hours ago."
"Well the 'how' I don't know, but I'm pretty sure about the 'who.' If there was a Prior here he could very well have something to do with the disappearance of all life forms."
"You think the Prior killed everything in order to prove a point?" Vala asked and Daniel shrugged.
"Not necessarily killed. There might be an alternative motive, seeing as how the planet and all the possessions are still here," he said, looking up at the statue. "Oh, and that."
"Yeah, exactly what is that?" Sam asked and stepped closer to the statue.
"Something incredibly ugly, that's for sure. Sam, be careful. Who knows if it's even a real statue," Cam said, stepping up alongside Sam before she touched anything.
"Looks like some kind of wooden creature," Vala thought aloud and slowly walked in a circle around the statue, observing it from every possible angle.
"I'm sure that's not the case," Daniel sighed and Vala suddenly came to a complete stop in front of Sam and Cam, narrowing her eyes at something on the statue.
"Daniel, I think you better take a look at this," she said, bending down to get a closer look. Daniel walked over to her with hesitant steps.
"What is it?" he asked and Vala looked up at him with a nonchalant shrug.
"Something boring," she said and stepped aside, pointing down at an inscription, oblivious to Daniel's deadly glare as usual.
"That suppose to tell me something?" he muttered.
"Only that you might find this gibberish interesting," Vala sighed. Daniel rolled his eyes at her and bent down, reading the inscription which didn't make much sense at all. But it got Daniel curious and interested, just as Vala had predicted.
"So, what'd it say?"
Daniel looked to his side, shrugging back as he noticed Vala bending down next to him. Their faces were inches apart as they locked eyes with each other.
"Jackson!" Cam interrupted and Daniel quickly turned his attention over to the others.
"Basically, it's telling us to look beyond the obvious and only then will we be able to hide in plain sight from unwanted forces," he explained in one swift breath. Cam glanced Sam and Teal'c in silence, confusion written all over his face.
"It's a riddle?" he finally asked hesitantly and Daniel shrugged.
"I guess. These things usually aren't very straight forward."
"You think you might be able to figure out its meaning?" Sam asked and walked over to Vala, whom was studying the inscription with unusual curiosity.
"I honestly don't know. I'm not even sure I got the general gist of it," Daniel sighed. "I mean, what kind of 'unwanted forces' would these people want to hide from? And more importantly, where are they hiding?"
Just as Daniel finished uttering those words, Vala looked up from the statue inscription and froze almost immediately at the sight of what she'd feared they come across. A few hundred feet behind Daniel and the others stood a Prior, watching them with such
intensity it gave Vala the chills. Daniel, Cam, Sam and Teal'c all turned around to see what had caught Vala's attention. Cam and Teal'c raised their weapons even though they knew it wouldn't do them much good.
"Hey buddy, you here all by yourself?" Cam called out to the Prior, only getting a blank stare in response. "Figures he's not the talkative type."
"I highly doubt he's here alone, which means these weapons are pretty much useless," Daniel said, very well knowing that wasn't reason enough for either Cam or Teal'c to lower their weapons.
"I say we get out of here before he contacts any of his Prior friends," Vala said and turned in the opposite direction of the Prior, only to stop dead in her tracks when noticing two more Priors staring at her from a distance.
"How fast do these guys work?" Sam asked, glancing in both directions. Vala slowly turned back around, not able to hide her unease. All of the sudden, the Priors raised their staffs in mid air. They remained frozen in that position for a while, as if giving the team a head start of some kind.
"Jackson, how about you figure out where that hiding place? Something tells me we're going to need real soon!" Cam muttered and Daniel quickly moved over to the statue again. He frantically read the inscription over and over, well aware that they were running out of time.
"Anything?" Sam pressed on, her weapon now aimed at the two other Priors. Vala forgot all about the Priors for a moment and looked down at Daniel, her eyes filled with what seemed to be hope. It had never failed her before when it came to Daniel and she refused to give up now.
"Jackson!" Cam snapped, causing both Daniel and Vala to look up. Their faces froze as they noticed the familiar figure in front of them. They certainly hadn't hoped to ever see her again.
"Adria…?" she whispered, getting goose bumps as Adria's eyes locked with hers.
"You really didn't expect to get rid of me so easily, did you?" Adria said, sounding disturbingly calm. The smirk on her face and the spark in her eyes was an ominous sign.
"But how… how you'd know we'd be here?" Vala asked, slowly stepping away from the statue, her hand resting on her P-90.
"That's of no importance. I've got you right where I want and there's really no use of fighting it, although it certainly would be far more entertaining that way," Adria said and looked directly at Cam and Teal'c.
"Sorry to disappoint you, darling, but we already made plans and they don't include you," Vala said sarcastically, earning herself a deadly glare from Adria as all three Priors aimed their staffs at the team.
"Nice going, Princess," Cam muttered, glancing back at Vala over his shoulder. "See what happens when you piss people off!"
Vala started biting her lower lip, turning to Daniel with a nervous grin.
"Any chance you got the location of that hiding place yet?"
Daniel looked from Vala to Adria, not liking the odds. He then looked down at the inscription, suddenly noticing what appeared to be some kind of symbol below the text. It'd nearly faded away but Daniel decided he didn't have enough time to properly interpret it. He closed his eyes and pushed down on the ragged surface, feeling the surroundings momentarily spinning around as a bright light came and went. Once everything seemed to have settled back Daniel carefully opened his eyes, relieved to see the faces of his team mates.
"What just happened?" Cam asked with a baffled expression while looking around the dark space. "Where did Adria go?"
Daniel got up on his feet, catching Vala's eye as he hesitantly made his way over to Cam.
"I don't think she went anywhere. I think we did," he said and everyone stared at him.
"How? Or more importantly, where? What is this place?" Sam asked, shedding some light with the help of her flashlight.
"Could we be on another planet?" Vala asked and Daniel shrugged.
"I don't know but it looks like we're free from Adria… for now anyways."
"You know, that would be so much more comforting if this place didn't possibly hold an even greater threat!" Cam snapped.
"Only one way to find out," Sam said and pointed towards an opening further down.
"Or we could always stay here and radio for help," Vala blurted out, receiving an incredulous stare from both Daniel and Cam. "We'll just call that Plan B, I guess."
TO BE CONTINUED...