Happy New Year everyone! Sadly I got much less time to write over the holidays than I thought I would, coupled with a fairly major plumbing disaster (burst pipe in the bathroom at 4 am the day before I was leaving for Christmas at my mom's... yeah, not fun in the slightest) means that I'm still not done writing Act 3. However, I did promise an update, so I figured I'd at least give you part 1 for now. Expect parts 2 and 3 next week. :)
Act III, part i
LOVE
If someone had asked Steve to describe the trip through the wormhole, he wouldn't have had the words. Perhaps he might've managed an impressionist painting to express how one step managed to feel like a single step and simultaneously carry the left-over sensation of having his body torn apart into its component cells and then thrown through space. There was a single, agonizing millisecond of all-encompassing cold that made him gasp and stumble as he exited.
Just ahead, he saw Sam righting himself, his journey through also not having been entirely smooth. If Clint and Natasha had lost their footing, it wasn't obvious as they calmly followed Daniel and his team, who were hurrying on towards a large mushroom-shaped stone dais at the foot of a long set of cracked and overgrown stone stairs.
Steve paused before following them and looked out, eager to get a look at this new world. A whole other planet. Except that it looked a lot like a beach; it was full of smooth, brown sand and a few rocks. Not a single seashell littered the shore, not a single brush of algae floated upon the water.
He looked up, towards the horizon. And gasped.
Really, he didn't know how he hadn't noticed sooner. Just wasn't used to looking up, he guessed. From now on, he was always looking up. When he'd imagined alien planets, he'd imaged odd-coloured plants and odd-looking creatures and maybe an extra moon or sun, but he'd never imagined a sky like this. He would never forget this sky. His fingers already itched and he just knew that no matter where they ended up spending the night, he wouldn't lay down to sleep until he'd sketched the tableau in front of him.
It was daytime, although the sun appeared to be hidden behind streaks of cloud that littered the sky in a myriad of shades from almost-white to dark gray. Two pale moons hung in the gaps between the clouds, round white ghosts in the daylight. And intruding into the rest of the sky... was another planet. It looked terrifyingly close, like it was about to come crashing into them close. He'd seen pictures of Earth from space, but this planet looked nothing like them: there were no bright blue oceans, no indications of any landmasses at all. This planet had streaks of beiges and browns, with white cloud-like streaks whirling amongst them.
The wormhole disengaged with a quiet, mechanical swish and a slight displacement of air. Steve barely registered it as he stared up at the sky. He knew it was impossible, but he felt as though the planet was inching its way closer the more he stared at it.
"I'm really kicking myself now," he heard Sam say from beside him. "Can't believe I didn't think to bring my camera, 'cause that's just..."
"Wow," said Steve. "I don't think there's really a better word than just 'wow'."
"Yeah, wow's good."
"Hey guys, hurry up and get on over here!"
They both looked down to the bottom of the steps, where Colonel Mitchell was motioning them forward. Steve exchanged a glance with Sam and hurried to join them. Clint and Natasha were standing in front of the odd stone dais next to Daniel.
"Daniel, how exactly did you decide to gate here?" Steve heard Vala ask as he approached. "Not that I have any idea where here is, so it wasn't one of our missions."
Daniel shrugged. "This is Oannes, Nem's planet. It was the first address I thought of."
"Woah, Nem?" Mitchell exclaimed. "You mean the fish guy, who kidnapped you and made the rest of the SG1 think you were dead?! And you thought this was a great place to revisit, why exactly?"
"Unless we attack, I'm reasonably sure Nem will leave us alone," said Daniel calmly. "He only took me because I demonstrated a basic knowledge of Mesopotamian and he wanted to find out what happened to his mate."
"Why did he think you would know?" Vala asked.
"Because she had been on Earth fighting against the Goa'uld in Mesopotamia. And he sort of figured if I knew Mesopotamian, I might know the history and therefore her story."
"Oh. And did you?"
"Eventually."
Steve came to stand next to Daniel and blinked in amazement at the dais. Now that he could see it from the front, he realized it had symbols carved into it in a circle surrounding a large glass half-sphere. And then Daniel reached out and pressed down onto one of the symbols and Steve's eyes widened as the symbol depressed and lit up. At the top of the steps, the inner circle of the Stargate began to spin.
"Wow, okay, that's – what are you doing?" Clint asked, his eyes darting from the dais – or, well, controlling device he supposed – and the moving gate.
"Look, I'll explain later," said Daniel. "This gate address is logged in the SGC's computer systems as the last address dialled, which means they can track us here. And I want to be long gone by the time they muster up a team to follow us. Assuming they get the orders to do so."
"Is there a reason they wouldn't?" Natasha asked.
Daniel shrugged. "Because for anyone familiar with gate travel, this is obvious. You can figure out the last dialled address from the DHD crystals, but that takes time and the SGC is still under orders forbidding the use of the Stargate. Jack will know right away that we didn't stay on whatever planet we gated to – especially since it's this one. Official death number two, in case you were wondering."
He pressed down on the half-sphere with his entire hand and a wormhole formed with a side-ways splash of silent water.
"Alright, let's move out," said Mitchell.
"Uh, Daniel?" Clint suddenly asked. Steve stopped at the tone of Clint's voice and turned around to see the archer looking out over the ocean.
"Yes?" Daniel asked.
Clint pointed out into the open sea. "Is that your fishy friend?"
Daniel followed Clint's gaze and smiled slightly. Steve looked as well, almost instantly spotting the dark shape bobbing in the water. From the distance, it was difficult to see any of its features clearly, but he could just barely make out the blue-ish skin and hairless head with what were possibly tentacles growing out like a squiggly beard. When Daniel waved at it, the hand that waved back was definitely webbed.
"Yeah, that's Nem," said Daniel quietly. Then he took a deep breath and turned around, heading back towards the gate.
"So, what happened to his mate?" Steve asked as they walked up the steps.
Daniel's face darkened. "Nothing good."
Steve stumbled again as he stepped through the Stargate, although this time it was due to the blinding wind that swept leaves and rain into his face and pushed him backwards with its force. To his left, he heard Clint shriek in surprise at the sudden onslaught. He was fairly certain none of their uniforms were waterproof enough to withstand this weather.
"Dammit, Jackson, where's that DHD?!" Mitchell yelled somewhere ahead of him.
"I think it's in the middle of that clump of trees!" Daniel yelled back.
"Not helpful! In case you hadn't noticed, we're surrounded by clumps of trees and I can barely see any-ow, shit!"
Steve managed to peer through the deluge of water being poured over them and saw the outline of what was probably Colonel Mitchell hopping on one leg as he leaned against some sort of stone statue (although it was rather tall and straight, so maybe it was a decorative column... it was difficult to tell in the rain) and rubbed his shin. Vala walked up to him.
"You alright?" she asked loudly enough to be heard over the wind.
"Yup, just dandy. Having warm fuzzy feelings towards the MALPs right about now."
She nodded as though in agreement.
"Is everyone clear of the gate?" Daniel yelled.
After they'd all called off one by one that they were clear, the gate began to light up, the sound barely audible over the wind. When the wormhole whooshed into being, the wavy blue light was like a beacon in the storm, beckoning them forward. They gladly answered.
And staggered out on the other side, their waterlogged clothing heavy and clinging to their skin uncomfortably. Their boots squished and squeaked as they stumbled down a set of stone stairs – these much smoother and less weather-worn than those on the beach planet. Smooth tile floor met them at the bottom.
Natasha brushed wet hair out of her eyes and looked around. They were inside a room, probably part of a much bigger complex if the multitude of corridors branching off were any indication. Her eyes darted around, watching for movement and taking note of every corner and hiding place, even as she paused at the bottom of the steps to wring as much water out of her hair as she could. There was no furniture that she could see, no rugs, no paintings, nothing that would indicate anyone had ever been here. What surfaces there were, were covered in a thick layer of dust. The building was at least warm for which she was grateful.
"Uh, sorry everyone," said Daniel after he'd come through. Natasha turned just as the wormhole vanished behind him, wondering how it knew to do that. He grimaced. "I'd forgotten about the wicked monsoon season on that planet. On the plus side, it'll make it that much more difficult for anyone following behind us."
Natasha nodded. Setting up equipment in that storm would not be easy.
"What is this place?" Clint asked, seemingly unbothered by his wet clothes as he leapt onto a ledge and peeked through the ornate grating in the wall.
"An abandoned Goa'uld pleasure palace," said Daniel. He shrugged. "Sorry, these aren't the most exciting planets to visit, but I'm trying to pick ones that wouldn't have attracted the attention of the Ori."
"No, we get that," Sam told him. "Don't exactly want to come across the evil dudes before we're ready for them. Though I would've expected a pleasure palace to look a bit more comfortable and inviting..."
"The Goa'uld wouldn't have left anything valuable behind," Vala scoffed. She was frowning. "This looks like a slightly different design to the ones I've been to. Qetesh enjoyed them enough, although it involved being around the other System Lords, so she didn't generally go often."
Natasha frowned. "Who are the Goa'uld?" she asked. The name didn't sound familiar.
"Parasitic aliens that used to rule over this galaxy by setting themselves up as gods in order to enslave the human populations," Daniel answered. "You'd be amazed at how many Earth gods were actually Goa'uld."
Natasha watched as Daniel went to the stone dais. Once there he paused and bit his lip. "Actually, this is probably a good place for a crash course in gate travel. So you're not stuck in case we ever get divided."
He stood back and waved his arms to encase the dais. "This is a DHD, which is an acronym for Dial Home Device – you can thank Jack O'Neill for that one by the way. It's like the keypad for a phone: enter an address and it'll connect you to the gate you've dialled. Each address has seven chevrons..."
It didn't take him long to go over basic gate operations and he showed them the address to Earth. Then he cursed and dug his hand into his pocket, pulling out several small devices. He threw one to Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell, who caught it and then nodded approvingly before tucking it away into his flack vest. Daniel tucked a second into his own pocket and then looked to them thoughtfully with the third. After a moment he handed it to Steve.
"Here," he said. "I'll let you guys decide who wants to keep this. It's called a GDO. See we installed an iris on the Earth Stargate to prevent any unwanted visitors from coming through. It's basically a metal barrier that covers the event horizon of any in-coming wormhole and prevents anything from materializing on our end of the gate."
"Basically, you go splat... only without the disgusting splatter mark," Mitchell added helpfully.
"Efficient," said Natasha and then nodded towards the device Steve was holding. "I'm assuming this sends a signal ahead to let the base know you're friendly?"
Daniel nodded. "Yeah, but you have to input a code. I'll give you SG1's code, which may or may not be active after today, but I'd like to think they'd let us come back even if only to arrest us."
"If they choose not to, then we'll at least never know," Clint pointed out. Natasha looked up meet his eyes over the top of the DHD. He shrugged at her. "It's not a bad way to go, all things considered."
She let the corner of her lips quirk slightly in amusement. Yes, there were certainly worse ways to die.
"You'll know before you walk through the gate," said Daniel, as he looked between the two of them uncomfortably. "If the iris is down, the little light here will shine red. Once the iris has opened, a signal is sent through the gate and the light will turn green."
"Green for go, sounds simple enough," Sam commented.
Daniel nodded. "Good. I'm thinking one more pit-stop before we stop for the day and dry off."
"Just so long as you don't hit the winter season on the next stop," said Clint. Off to the left, Natasha saw Steve wincing.
Daniel looked apologetic. "Can't promise anything, sorry. I don't really know anything about the seasons on this next planet."
They stood by and watched as he dialled the next planet. Once the wormhole formed, they squelched their way up the steps and walked through.
Sam felt very proud of himself for not stumbling this time as he exited the gate. Even that weird antsy feeling he'd gotten the first time had gone. He knew that sometime later tonight it would hit him that after spending his entire life on the same planet (as people generally did), he'd suddenly travelled to four different planets within the course of less than an hour. And it would be five by the time they were done. Crazy: it was absolutely insane.
And really, really cool. Cooler than Star Trek.
There might not have been any strange plants and animals on these planets, or little green men in flying saucers, but that purple sky he was looking at sort of made up for it.
"Hey, does this white gravel road lead to anywhere interesting?" Clint asked. "I mean it sure looks like civilization to me."
Daniel paused to look into the distance and Sam studied the look on his face. Wherever they were, the archaeologist clearly had mixed feelings about the place. There was pain in his eyes – grief – but there was also wistfulness and a strange sort of serenity. It was a really beautiful place – out of the corner of his eyes he could see Steve's hand twitching in that way it did when he wanted to forget everything and just drag his sketchbook out and draw what was in front of him. The white gravel road they were standing on led into a forest in the distance and behind them, he could hear the gentle lapping of waves against the shore.
"It leads to a temple," Daniel finally answered. "This planet is a rumour, a legend of the Jaffa warriors; a place where they travelled to find their final resting place. It's where I first met an Ancient named Oma Desala."
"Shit," he heard the air force colonel swear under his breath. "What exactly is this, the Daniel Jackson tour of painful memories? Jesus, this is Kheb isn't it?"
"Kheb?!" Vala gasped, clearly startled. She looked around with wide eyes, before glaring at Daniel and hissing between her teeth: "You never said you'd been to Kheb!"
Daniel blinked and looked at her. "It was before your time. Jack, Sam, Teal'c and I came here to find my- to find Sha're's child."
Vala blinked and frowned. "Your wife had a child? I've heard of you having a child."
"I let Oma take him. I... I couldn't care for him."
"Why?" Vala looked genuinely puzzled, and from everything Sam had observed about Daniel, he didn't seem like the type of man to abandon a child or walk away from the hardship of raising one.
Daniel took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "He was a harcesis," he said quietly.
Vala's eyes widened and for a moment, she looked truly stunned. "A harcesis... Apophis and Ammunet had a harcesis. That's..."
"Yeah."
Sam exchanged looks with Steve and the other Avengers. That was the second mention of a wife, but according to all official records, Daniel Jackson had never married. Unless... aw man, he supposed marriage certificates from other planets didn't get registered on Earth, did they? There was a story there, he instinctively knew. And just as instinctively, he knew by the grief in Daniel's eyes it was a tragedy.
Daniel broke the spell of silence that had descended on the group himself with a shake of his head before walking over to the DHD to dial their final destination for the day. He'd spent long hours in his hotel room trying to figure out the best, safest planets to gate to, wracked his brain for the best choices to bunk for the night. Because the their end goal was a planet that was a complete unknown and Daniel wasn't sure that going there directly with a group of people who knew next to nothing about the Milky Way and gate travel was such a great idea. He'd given them a brief explanation on PX8 499, but that barely touched the surface.
Before they moved on, they needed to get their bearings and the rest of his team needed to know the plan. Really, the choice of where to settle down for the night was obvious once he'd thought of it. So he dialled the gate and then ran ahead of the group, making sure to be the first one through.
The other end of the wormhole revealed a forest with a rough dirt path leading away from the gate. The area looked deserted except for chirping, rustling and buzzing of the forest. But Daniel knew better than to be fooled by appearances. He walked forward slowly, taking care not to make any sudden movements. Behind him, he heard the others exit the wormhole one by one. When he reached the centre of the clearing, he made a point of unhooking his zat from his belt and unholstering his handgun. He dropped both to the ground.
"Uh, what's he doing?" he heard someone whisper. He thought it might've been Sam.
Daniel ignored them as he spread his arms wide to show to his invisible observers that he wasn't holding any weapons.
"I'm Daniel," he called out into the trees. "I'm here to see your leader; I'm his friend." He paused. "Te a Zo Chaka ka nay Daniel."
Around him the forest was silent for several agonizing moments. Then several trees rustled and four large, armed unas slid to the ground. Daniel let out the breath he was holding.
Several hours later, they were comfortably seated at a simple yet sturdy wooden table laden with what looked like a small feast and Clint couldn't help his fidgeting as he waited for Daniel to join them. He was willing to let the archaeologist keep his secrets about the first three planets they'd visited, but this one needed a story pronto.
Clint hadn't known there was anyone in the trees, until they'd dropped out of them. His jaw had followed, because these aliens were big and mean-looking and looked like they would lumber along not sneak. The clothes they were wearing looked like they could've come from the American Wild West right down to the shot guns a few of them carried. He couldn't help but wonder if Daniel had known the guards would be there.
"They're Unas," Cam said quietly to the Avengers as they watched the archaeologist stumble through a conversation with one of the aliens. "Daniel's the most fluent in the language of anyone on base. He's usually the one who handles any negotiations with them."
"But if this is somewhere that you guys negotiate with often, then wouldn't this be one of the first places the SGC will look?" Steve asked.
Cam snorted. "Cap, it'd take them months to get through all the places where Daniel handles negotiations. There are people who won't talk to anyone else but Daniel. The guy's pulled off miracles – point in case here actually. The reason we're here, I think, is because their leader is Daniel's friend first, ally of Earth second."
Their leader was an especially large specimen, who was waiting for them at the edge of the village and smiled widely, exclaiming "Dannel!" loudly before darting forward and enveloping Daniel in a bear-hug. When he finally pulled back it was to grab an amused-looking Daniel by the arm and drag him further into the village.
The reactions they'd received walking through the village were... varied. Interestingly enough, the unas seemed curious and even excited to see them – a lot of them seemed to recognize Daniel, or at least the symbol on his uniform. Many of them were shy, hesitant about their interest; they looked up from the corner of their eyes, hunched in on themselves as though attempting to look smaller, to avoid notice. The humans, however, looked at them with expressions ranging from curiosity to contempt. And anger. Hatred.
Hawkeye gripped his bow tighter and looked to Black Widow, catching her eye. She blinked at him in acknowledgement and then casually inched her way towards Daniel.
First they were taken to a small hut, where they were given some dry clothes and a clothesline where they could hang their wet clothes to dry. Then they got the grand tour of what looked like a new construction in the village, which seemed to include a school and a sports field. Loud shots rang through the air, startling the group. It turned out to be nothing more than a group of young men (all human) doing target practise. Which was just too much for Clint to resist. Notching an arrow from where he stood, he carefully aimed and let his arrow fly. It, of course, hit dead centre.
He spent the next hour gathering a small crowd as he showed off. It didn't escape his notice that the crowd started off as all-human and only gradually began to contain some unas. Not that they hadn't been watching, but it had taken them a while to come closer.
Clint could spend hours on the range and likely would've stayed longer had one of his arrows not been interrupted half-way to the target by a round flat spinning object.
"Aw, come on, no fair Cap," he complained loudly before turning to find Steve surrounded by children and grinning mischievously.
His group had small humans as well as small unas. A dozen or so faces watched in amazement as the shield ricocheted off trees and the wall of a house and then sailed smoothly into Cap's waiting hand. A dozen or so voices cheered.
"Who said anything about fair?" Steve called back.
The sky was beginning to fall to twilight when Daniel's unas friend, Chaka, showed them to a small cottage and presented them with the feast. Then he nudged Daniel out the door again, looking endearingly eager to show him something. Like a pitbull puppy: all happy smiles full of strong, sharp teeth.
"Okay, do you guys realize it's actually only about three in the afternoon?" Sam broke the silence, staring at his watch in amazement. "I thought it felt a bit early for dinner."
"Yeah, gate-lag can be a real bitch," said Cam. "It's like jet-lag on steroids. Can't remember how often we leave a planet in the morning on a bright warm sunny day only to arrive back and realize it's the middle of the night and snowing. And that's not even going into how weird it is to get used to a planet with a different cycle, like thirty-hour days."
"How long are your missions usually?" Sam asked.
Cam shrugged. "Depends on whether we find anything useful. SG1's a first contact team, so our missions are shorter ones, anywhere from one day to a week. Our job is to scope out a planet and assess if there's anything worth sending a long-term team in for. Trust me, some missions are really boring."
"Especially when they're for Daniel," Vala added. "There's never anything to do when you're stuck on a planet while he translates rocks. Come to think of it, the science ones aren't much better."
Just then Cam stood and went to the window, nudging the linen drape to the side and peeking out. After a few moments of observation, he let it go and retook his seat.
"Something the matter?" Steve asked.
Cam sighed. "Not really, but I figured I should warn you about working with Daniel."
Clint felt as Natasha and Steve both froze at that. "Warn us?" Natasha asked carefully. There was a deep undercurrent of 'explain now or else' in her voice.
"Now, don't get me wrong, Daniel's awesome and he's been doing this for longer than just about anyone..." Cam trailed off. Then he shrugged. "But you should know a few things about him. First of all, he really is just as smart as everyone says he is. And he's usually right. Secondly, he's more or less the best diplomat in the galaxy, and his instinct about people are generally excellent. But he's got the self-preservation instincts of an alcoholic lemming."
Clint blinked. "Wow, so not even just a regular lemming, but an alcoholic one."
Cam and Vala both nodded solemnly.
"And he's a trouble-magnet," Cam added.
"Oh, so that museum attack was his fault?" Sam asked after a pause. "You couldn't have told us that before we agreed to follow him through a wormhole."
Vala rolled her eyes. "We didn't exactly invite you along."
The door opened and they fell silent. Daniel walked in, looking happy.
"So, what did Chaka want?" Cam asked him.
"Hm?" Daniel looked up at him and blinked. "Oh, he wanted to introduce me to his wife. At least I think that's what the word 'zoka' roughly translates as."
"He got married? Good for him."
"Yeah, whatever, we can get back to that," Clint dismissed. He really didn't care about some alien's love life. "More to the point what's up with this planet?"
"You noticed it too?" Steve asked. "The children didn't seem as bad, but the adults seemed to have a really hard time mixing."
"Okay so it wasn't just me they were staring at?" said Sam. "'Cause I couldn't help but notice how disgustingly white this entire village is, so I was figuring maybe the planet's super segregated."
"It wasn't just you," Daniel assured him. "Up until a few years ago, this village used to practise slavery. It'll take a while for their society to integrate and see each other as equal."
Clint's first instinct was to demand how Daniel could be friends with a former slaver, but then he paused and thought about what he'd seen in the village. How the humans had been angry to see them – resentful.
"The unas were the slaves, weren't they?" he said carefully.
Daniel nodded. "Chaka led the rebellion and caused the unas to rise up against their slavers. And then he brokered peace with the humans."
"But he wasn't a slave," said Natasha. "He's different than the rest."
The corner of Daniel's mouth quirked. "No, I met Chaka on another planet, then the slavers caught him and Jack and I went after him. Turned out he did more rescuing than we did in the end and then decided to stay here instead of going home in order to lead the rebellion."
"Cool," said Sam with a nod. "I like these unas a bit more now. I mean makes sense it's going to take a while for them to get over it."
"It's going to take a while from both sides. The humans were originally brought here from Earth by the Goa'uld and they were the slaves with the unas as their keepers. Then the humans rebelled and the situation reversed, with the unas being kept as slaves. It'll be rough for a while."
"So, did you help Chaka with his rebellion?" Sam asked.
Daniel shook his head, looking amused. "No, we had to get back to Earth. I did give him the my staff weapon though."
"So, how exactly did you and Chaka meet that you became such good friends?" Steve asked, looking curious.
Cam snickered. "Good question," he said. "It's the type of Daniel Jackson story that legends are made of."
Daniel rolled his eyes. "It is not. I was just in the right place – or wrong place, really – at the right time."
"Uh, yeah, no, anyone else in your place would've been bludgeoned with a rock and eaten," said Cam.
"How do you know all this?" Vala asked, amazed. "You've been with SG1 for as long as I have and I've even known Daniel longer, so why don't I know all these things?"
"'Cause I read through all the old mission reports."
"Oh. Why in the world would you want to do that? Reports are boring. And they don't include the time Daniel and I had sex."
Steve choked on the thick green liquid he was drinking.
"Mostly because that never happened," Daniel retorted automatically.
"Aaanyway," Sam interrupted them. "So, we setting out in the morning?"
Daniel nodded. "Yes. I figured after everything, getting an early night and some time to just talk might be a good idea since we have absolutely no idea what we might find at the gate address we're heading to. I showed you the address for Earth, but that's not going to be of any use to you if you happen to get stuck without a GDO. So I'll give you two other address for allies of ours who have GDOs and can get you to Earth. Unfortunately, the Alpha site's been abandoned, which would've been the best option since they could've easily verified who you are."
"I feel like you're trying to tell us that this whole going boldly where no human has been before is actually really terrifying," said Clint, thinking of the monsoon they'd accidentally walked into.
"Well, for all we know it's an Ori stronghold," said Cam.
"Or it could've become a volcano planet," said Vala.
"Or it froze over at some point," Daniel suggested.
"Awesome," said Clint. "You guys ever think of doing a comedy act? You could be the Doom Trio."
Daniel laughed. "You laugh, but those are all things we've actually encountered."
"Really?" said Vala. "I was actually joking with the volcano planet."
"Well, it wasn't actually SG1 that was involved. I was with SG3 helping to evacuate the population out of the area before the volcano erupted. Then the gate malfunctioned, which was just great. We had all the villagers and their livestock ready and standing in front of the gate while getting covered in volcanic ash and the Stargate refused to connect to earth."
"What did you do with the villagers?" Steve asked.
"We relocated them to a planet with a similar atmosphere and rich soil. There was already a settlement there, but they were happy to take in the refugees. Not only were they bringing with them seeds for a new kind of grain that was more resilient to drought-like conditions, but the settlement was small enough that inter-marriage had become a problem so they were happy for the infusion of new blood."
"That's impressive for a military operation," said Natasha.
"It wasn't easy, trust me," said Daniel dryly. "I can't count the number of arguments I've had over the years with various generals, politicians and bureaucrats to keep the program from becoming exclusively about weapons hunting."
"I tried to help too," said Vala.
Daniel scowled at her. "That wasn't called helping."
"But it was true. That politician only wanted to throw his weight around to make up for the small size of his penis."
Clint burst out laughing.
Daniel groaned and cradled his head in his hands. "I am not having this conversation."
"Did you actually say that?" Clint asked Vala.
She blinked at him. "Of course I did."
"Ah man, you are my kind of crazy."
She grinned and raised her glass to him. In fact all of SG1 were the Avenger's sort of crazy. Daniel's plans of an early night fell through the moment Vala discovered that one of the bottles on the table had paint-stripper levels of alcohol. At one point in time, Steve had gone and gotten his sketchbook from his bag and pauses in conversation were punctuated by the steady sound of his charcoal on paper.