Daniel took off his glasses and hooked them over the neckline of his t-shirt. Despite it not being an overly warm day outside, the temperature inside his tiny cell block was bordering on uncomfortable. He shifted on his hard bunk bed and tried to find some comfort against the wall, not even noticing when Jack entered the room and stood beside the locked and heavily barred cell doors.

"Not quite the Hilton?"

Daniel jumped and fumbled for his glasses. "Room service is a bitch," he said, sliding them over his ears and pushing them up the bridge of his nose. "I tried complaining to the maid, but…"

"Didn't leave her a big enough tip?"

"Something like that. Any luck with Asmun?"

Jack shrugged and rattled the cell door, fixing his gaze on the nearest guard; his intent clear. Reluctantly, and after double-checking that Jack had been totally disarmed, the guard strode forward and unlocked the door.

"A little privacy would be good," Jack quipped as he slid into the cell, shooting the guard a filthy look as the door banged shut.

After a moment's hesitation, the guard exited the room and left them alone.

Daniel settled back against the wall. "I take it you weren't able to secure my release?"

"With that thing stuck in your wrist, I'm not inclined to do anything to piss these people off right now. At least not until we have Fraiser on the ground."

"They let you dial out?"

Jack hooked the only chair in the cell with his foot and dragged it closer to the bunk. "Carter and Teal'c are working on that now. I, on the other hand, had a rather interesting chat with your buddy Asmun."

"Let me guess, he still swears I'm their god and no amount of proof is going to sway him?"

"Funny you should mention the word proof."

"Yeah?"

"Oh, yeah, but you're not going to like it."

Daniel turned his wrist over and exposed the red and swollen incision to Jack, biting back a groan at the amount of pain just the simplest of movements caused him. "Can't get any worse, Jack."

"Infected?"

"I'd say so."

"Damn. Hopefully Fraiser will be here soon."

"Yeah, but no guarantee they'll let her tend to me."

"Why wouldn't they?"

"I'm their deity, right? At least an incarnate of him… if nothing else."

"Well, yeah, so?"

"Off hand, I can't think of a single religion where a god would require any type of healing that he couldn't already do for himself."

Jack let out a long breath and closed his eyes. "Asmun isn't stupid, you know. I doubt he's going to stop us from letting Fraiser look at your wound."

"Ever the optimist? I'd like to think you were right, but we've run up against religious zealots and cultures that can't be easily reasoned with before. The Otakai are no different in that respect."

"Asmun is. At least, I think he is. Let's just say that you being here in a past life might not be so far from the truth."

"Okay," Daniel drawled out purposely, "How so?"

"The condensed version? About a year ago, you dropped from the heavens in a ball of light and stopped the village from being swept away in a flood."

"I did?"

"Yep. The whole resemblance to a very old and hand-drawn image of this god of theirs could have been passed off as a coincidence if you hadn't actually payed them a visit."

"Crap. Positive reinforcement."

"If you want to get clinical, yeah… I guess so. Anyhow, now Asmun is under pressure to either prove or disprove your identity."

"And the language aspect wouldn't be helping."

"I don't know," Jack mused, "I'd say he picked up our lingo pretty quickly, if you ask me. A little freaky."

"Ah. Well that explains how you know so much." Daniel shrugged. "Could be a natural talent."

"Walking encyclopaedia? Have to say, his repertoire of spoken English was better than an average high school graduate. Sue me for having some suspicions here."

"Hello?" Daniel used his good hand to stab a finger to his chest. "Natural talent. Would you be so skeptical if it was me that picked up a new language so quickly?"

"Hell, no! You get paid to be that bright."

Daniel made no effort to hide a smile. "Well, I guess I don't need to wonder why The Others kicked me out on my celestial butt."

"Yeah, seems you couldn't stop sticking your nose in other people's affairs. Nothing new there."

"Now what?"

"Now it all comes down to that proof I was talking about."

"You want me to try and prove to these people that I'm not their god? Seriously? Besides the whole flaw in your plan with me having practically proven my godliness to them in my 'past life'," he used a single air quote to reinforce the comment, leaving his bad arm cradled across his lap, "even if I do pass this test of theirs, that'll just seal my fate completely. The Otakai aren't going to want to just let their god step through the Stargate, never to return."

Jack conceded the point with a wry smile and a half shrug. "Damned if you do and damned if you don't."

"Sums it up adequately. What exactly is this test of theirs anyway?"

"You remember Moses?"

"Yeah," Daniel said slowly. "What about him?"

"Well, instead of parting the waters, you simply have to do what you did last time."

"Which was?"

"Stop the village from being swept away."

To be continued...