Chapter 9

There was something of a crowd waiting for us. We were on a very popular mission apparently. There were enough people that Smith had to shout at people to back off. He made the announcement about Yin and Yang, and invited people to stop by at reasonable hours over the next couple of weeks. The even better news was that my belongings had arrived from Elina. They had of course been checked out first, but I had been told they would be. Various men and women grabbed a bundle of either my stuff or the new supplies and convoyed to our rooms. On arrival I thanked everyone, as did Jamison. I was feeling rather tired from healing the animals and the shelter, so I wanted to nap or at least rest for a bit, so we figured out where we were putting all of the cat stuff, and put it away. Jamison stacked my stuff in my room, I would unpack it later, put the carrier on the floor and opened the door. Yin and Yang could come out when they wanted to. They did immediately. I lay on the couch watching, amused. I put one arm down to tempt them. Yang came over quickly and climbed my sleeve. Yin followed. As soon as they were both up, they curled up in a little ball on my back and began to purr. There were a few chuckles at this whole production as Smith, Jamison, White, and a lady named Beecher had stuck around. I was quickly falling asleep like the little fur balls.

Jamison quietly said, "Take a nap. I need to report in about our little errand and the healing. If you wouldn't mind writing up a report of your own later, it would be much appreciated and I'll help you with the format and such."

He got a sleepy "Sure. Thanks."

To which chuckled and replied "go to sleep" and grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch and draped it over me.

General O'Neill sat in his office with a bit of a smirk at the antics of the personnel regarding the new critters. He couldn't be more proud of the relatively easy acceptance of Alianora either. Jamison's clear approval helped tremendously, of course. He was a fine soldier with a stellar reputation, and a particular talent for reading people well. His musings were interrupted by a beep from his intercom. "Sergeant Jamison to see you sir"

"Speak of the devil" he muttered. He keyed the device, "send him in."

"Sir!" Jamison offered a picture perfect salute, which O'Neill returned with a grumbled

"Ah sit down. And...?"

"Mission cute and cuddly is a phenomenal success. They are currently curled up on the couch napping together."

"Is she still drained from the 'hike' the day before yesterday?"

"No actually. You will have my formal report shortly, but she apparently healed two animals in dire straits." Jamison made a placating gesture as he saw O'Neill look worried. "She was quite discreet. We passed it off as a power surge and flipped breakers. She said after the fact that she didn't and couldn't heal them completely. Both because there would be too many questions and because the power source wasn't of an ideal configuration. I have no proof of the healing, but the lights and then later the other circuits went out as she described they would."

"That report goes directly into my hands. I can't risk the NID getting a hold of her before she is better established here. That might mean there shouldn't be any more town trips for a while. We will make sure to bring a few treats to her if she can't leave to get them herself."

"I can't be sure, and I don't like it, but I think she understood that somehow. She bought enough supplies for the new little rascals to last for quite a bit, and I have no problems running errands for resupply. She is remarkably intuitive. She is at the same time so incredibly strong and remarkably fragile. I think it was literally killing her slowly to stay. She mentioned that the healing she was getting by healing others was slowing down. Could it possibly have been because she had started to not want to bother getting better? I know it's just a possibility, sir, but the conversation we had this morning makes it seem so likely." He went on to describe in detail the morning conversation about cages, freedom, responsibility. He was gratified to see the expression on the General's face.

"My God, what that woman has gone through..." he trailed off. After a minute of contemplative silence he said, "I would do anything I could to save someone from what she went through, but I would also give my right arm for more senior officers with that kind of character and bone deep understanding of duty and responsibility." More silence. "Alright. We need to assess her healing capabilities, but as discretely as possible. As I said, I want to get her firmly entrenched before NID or anyone else tries to get their hands on her or worse, take her out of our hands. Any suggestions?"

"Honestly, give her some time, and possibly the opportunity to volunteer herself to medical. It will take quite a bit for her to get used to being in that setting without all the special care we took to make it as un-medical as possible. Based on a couple of comments she made, it might be worth having her scan the personnel here at her leisure. She seems to think she might be able to help some of us with old injuries." Here he took a risk and grinned at his boss "She might be able to help your knees Sir"

"Aagh! Gr!" O'Neill pointed his finger at Jamison with the 'I'm watching you' scowl on his face. "Cheek notwithstanding, that sounds like a fairly good idea. I'll start laying the groundwork to have a room setup to be medical enough to be useful, but different enough to not trigger her negative associations. We might get Teal'c involved and do the initial setup as a meditation room. That way it is useful to more than just her, so we aren't making a spectacle of her. I wonder if she would take to his Kel No Reem meditation, or if they would be interested in discussing techniques. Maybe they could help train others."

"Sounds like a pretty good plan, Sir."

"I thought so, sir. Moreover, it has nothing to do with her powers, but would still be helpful or valuable to us. I think that among other things, she was starting to feel she mattered only for her gifts."

"Probably, and a good suggestion."

"I think that while she is here, we should also give her the opportunity and encourage her to learn as much as she can. I want to see her with options. On the other hand, I think we need to be careful about just leaving her with the various geeks," Jamison used the term with an affectionate grin as the 'geeks' saved everyone on a regular basis. "I am worried about them getting carried away in their zeal. I would trust her with Daniel, for the most part, but I don't know why she mentioned Language learning audio tracks when she was listing triggers. It is a bit of an odd one. My guess they were playing in the background while she was a prisoner or while she was being hurt. That, combined with the lack of speaking aloud, may mean that Daniel isn't the right person for her to work with primarily. I don't know if she was poisoned against language learning period, or if it is just that presentation that is the problem. If it is true that she is being 'called' to Atlantis, it would be good for her to learn Ancient, at least the writing system. On the other hand, I think it would be most useful to her to learn medicine and biology. If Janet was still alive, I would have no qualms at all. Though he has handled things very well so far, I just don't know enough about our new CMO to know whether we can trust him not to let his zeal and enthusiasm run away with him. There is of course her perfectly reasonable aversion to all things traditionally medical, and this is a military base. We are usually very traditional in that way.

"Very true. All of it. I think I will encourage both the good doctor and Daniel, after I talk with them in detail and small words, to casually offer Alianora assistance if she wants it. They can loan her books. I think Teal'c would like to spend time with her too. He is very impressed with her."

"He is hard to impress"

"Also very true, but she is very impressive, and I don't just mean her powers."

"Indeed" Jamison added sounding rather like Teal'c.

They sat musing in silence for a moment.

Jamison continued on with, "I think that we should find out what type of power setup is most helpful to Alianora, and put a few stations in key areas, like medical and near the gate room. I think the first time we get a pile of injured coming in through the gate, she will probably want to jump right in and help. I think she's like that. Very much against watching or letting others suffer when she can help it, no matter the personal cost. Also I think we should let her, but not let people make a spectacle of her. Thank her, but not revere her. I think she is terrified of devotion and awe. For very good reasons. She needs some peace, desperately. But she is still herself, and once she relaxes a bit, I think that need to help others that I think is an enormous part of who she is will come back with a vengeance. I think that the SGC as a group might be just jaded enough that we can handle it without letting gratitude go overboard. She is undoubtedly impressive if she can do all that it seems like she can, but we see many impressive things here on a nearly daily basis."

Grinning O'neill said, "Yeah, we have rather recalibrated the odd-o-meter rather high.

There was a little more shop talk, then Jamison said, "Ideas aside, and I think we have come up with some good ones, I think we need to include Alianora in these discussions. I think she needs to regain the sense of empowerment over her own life. I think coming up with options is ok, but I think that if we begin to make too many decisions for her, we risk alienating her."

"I agree completely. When do you think we should do that?"

"I think that a casual meetup in the dining hall or the like would be good, help get her more comfortable here, though I think that will happen rather quickly anyway."

"Sounds like a plan. I will head down to dinner after you send me a heads up you are headed there. I will give you some time to eat as well."

"Excellent. Oh! before I forget, do we have any kind of eta on the accessible shower? Also do I have a go-to person or people of the female persuasion to help out as needed? I think it would be better to have a few consistent people, maybe a way to connect her slightly to the medical section? I know we have a very high ratio of male to female personnel, and most of the females are either medical or scientist. I realize why you had limited choices in assigning her two males as entourage, but we might want to have a female connected to the group as well."

"Why don't we ask for Alianora's input on that." O'neill replied, "It would be an easy way to give her some choices she has clear cut control over, and it is also a very personal thing, especially as this person would be helping with highly personal bodily processes. As for the shower itself, I am working on it. The room you are in already has a large bathroom, as it is officer/ambassadorial quarters. I am having some plans drawn up for either an accessible shower stall or some manner of tub. I would like her input. Shower would be easier, especially in the space, and we could probably get some sort of rehab tub put in elsewhere to help more than just her. I know after a particularly intense spar with Teal'c a good hot soak would be delightful. If we can use her 'needs' to get the base in general a few luxuries, like loveable little critters, I won't hesitate for a moment. I think she will even conspire to help us." He finished with a grin.

"Somehow I think you are correct in that assessment."