Chapter 9
"Uh—Vala?"
"What," she growled, clearly in an unfriendly mood.
Mitchell was undaunted. "Since our guest's gonna be with us for a while, I was thinking you might wanna offer him a more comfortable room." She glared at him. "Then again, maybe not. I'm sure that cramped, damp cell is cozy enough."
With a roll of her eyes, Vala sat up from the pilot's seat, silently handing him command. She strode off in the direction of the holding cell.
Daniel was sitting cross-legged in a corner, head resting against the metal bulkhead. He looked up when the door slid open and Vala appeared in the doorway.
"Decided to let me go at last?" he asked. She snorted derisively.
"I don't think so," she replied with a humorless smile. "However, since you're on my ship, wasting our already scarce resources, I've decided you're going to have to earn your keep."
"'Earn my keep'? I'm your prisoner—I don't want to be on your ship, 'wasting your resources'," he pointed out with annoyance, "so if you'll just drop me off to the nearest stargate, I'm sure I can find my way from—"
"You can start by cleaning the waste tubes," Vala interrupted. "Fuel residue and space dirt clog them all the time. You'll find a pair of recyclable gloves somewhere in the—"
"What?!" Daniel stood up, looking indignant. "I'm not your house keeper! I'm not cleaning your tubes!"
"Fine—then you can starve," Vala growled, hands on her hips. "Either way, you won't be using up space and oxygen for nothing!"
"Can you believe the sheer nerve of the man?" Vala was pacing the small command deck of her Alkesh, her entire demeanor betraying irritation. "I try to be nice, and this is what I get! It's not enough that he and his criminal of a mother break onto my ship! I'm even kind enough to release her, he cheats me out of the Chapa'ai codes and now this! Well he can just rot in that cell for all I'm concerned!"
Her two companions exchanged a silent glance. Vala was more steamed than usual.
"We did kidnap him—" Cam pointed out. Teal'c gave him a pitying look, as if to say, 'you-should-know-better'.
"Kidnap him? He trespassed by his own accord," she huffed. "And I should have shot him on sight! Now I'm stuck with him, the utterly useless, whining, arrogant Tau'ri who thinks my ship is not good enough for him to clean!"
"Look, you two obviously got off on the wrong start," Mitchell said placatingly. "I'm sure if you just went in there and explained how a small boat like ours can't keep runnin' with too many passengers and not enough maintenance…and maybe try not to threaten to kill him until you're done explainin'," he added as an afterthought, "I'm sure he'd come around."
"Let him starve," Vala snarled, and, turning her back on them, stalked off to the far end of the ship, disappearing behind the thin curtain that separated her quarters from the rest of the Alkesh.
He finally figured out the madwoman meant what she had said, when no one brought even the measly protein bars they gave him a few times a day.
"I'd agree to the terms, pal."
Daniel looked up, startled to notice the door to the holding cell had slid open, and now Cameron Mitchell (he had found out their names over the past two days) stood a few feet from him.
"It's not so bad, once you get used to it," the man was saying. "Beats being stuck with a dead-end job on a surface-bound planet like Earth."
"You're from Earth," Daniel said boldly. The curiosity had been eating at him ever since he had heard the man's name. There could not have been many planets out there to come up with 'Cameron Mitchell'. "How come you're…you know—with her?" He nodded toward the door, lowering his voice as he referred to Vala with a wary expression on his face.
"Long story," replied Mitchell, obviously not in the mood to go into it. He took a step back toward the door. "Better start doin' what she says," he repeated to Daniel. "Make yourself useful…your life on this ship will be a lot easier, trust me."
"I don't want an easier life on this ship!" the archaeologist shot back. "I don't want any life on this ship! I want to go home!"
After digging in his pocket for a second, Mitchell threw him a round, soft fruit vaguely resembling a peach. "Until you get to do that, play nice," he advised. "Be our guest. Who knows, maybe you'll learn a thing or two about space-business and decide Earth's too damn boring to go back to."
"Is that what you decided?" Daniel asked sulkily.
Cameron laughed. "Me? No. I knew exactly how boring it was when I left."
Daniel capitulated a few hours later. He banged on the cell door, hoping someone would come and hear his decision. He was kind of hoping it would be Mitchell, but, as luck would have it, it was the silent, perpetually-frowning Teal'c. The space bandit opened the door with a warning visage.
"Eh…hi," Daniel swallowed a little uneasily. "Is that housekeeper job still open?"
Teal'c arched an eyebrow.
Stepping out onto the main section of the ship for the first time, Daniel was surprised to find it deserted. After checking around just to make sure he wasn't missing some hidden room somewhere, he turned to Teal'c.
"Uh—where is everyone?"
"We have stopped for supplies, and further repairs," Teal'c informed him. "You, however, do not need to wait to begin your duties. The recyclable gloves are behind—"
"What are you?" Daniel found himself asking out of the blue. He looked a little ashamed. "I mean…you're not human, right?" He pointed to the golden emblem on Teal'c's forehead. "What's that?"
"This is a sign of my servitude to the Goa'uld System Lord Apophis," Teal'c replied matter-of-factly.
Daniel looked confused. "I thought you worked for Vala."
"I do. I have betrayed my former master and attempted to expose him as a false god." His eyebrows drew lower in an even deeper frown than usual. "Unfortunately, most of my people still believe in the Goa'uld. The Jaffa are not a free race."
"Oh…" Daniel was unsure of what to say, so he just donned a sympathetic expression. The conversation was cut short when Vala entered the ship, a black, heavy-looking satchel in her arms. Her expression soured when she spotted the archaeologist.
"He has acquiesced to contribute his share of duties on the duration of his stay," Teal'c provided, before she could say anything.
Vala huffed, marching past Daniel without so much as a second glance. When he remained rooted on the spot, a little confused as to what he was supposed to do, she shouted over her shoulder:
"Move it, we don't have all day! Incompetent Tau'ri…" she muttered under her breath, but loud enough for him to hear, anyway. "That's the engine section," she pointed toward a small room on the right, "cargo room," a closed door further down on the left, "and command deck's behind you, I assume you saw the navigational consoles for yourself…that's off limits," she snapped when he curiously headed for a small alcove, shielded by a light curtain. "Stay out of my things, or I'll unclog the waste tubes myself and blow you out of one of them."
She led him to the back section of the ship, where he saw a few uncomfortable-looking bunks. Vala stood on tiptoes to retrieve a pair of dark-brown, odd looking gloves from the top of a built-in closet. She threw them on top of the nearest bunk.
"That's yours," she declared. "Now get to work. Oh, and—"she dumped the heavy satchel in his arms, "—since you prided yourself on your cooking skills…make that into something edible. I'm tired of protein bars."
"Great…welcome aboard…" Daniel murmured to himself once she had headed back for the command section. He peered inside the satchel, spotting a few dubious-looking dry vegetables. He chose not to tell her that, as a doctoral student, he had subsisted the past five years on coffee and leftovers.
