Title: Kur

Author: JayBee-Bug

Chapter 26 - Answers in the Stars

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Back up in Celesal's room, Jack learned that Teal'c had taught his audience to play Go Fish, Speed, Blackjack, and several other games. Daniel was looking much better by now-- awake and active again, pretty much back to his normal self. The group hung out for a while, chatting quietly about idle things. Jack sat in the corner of the room in the chair next to the bed, back bent, deep in thought as he gazed at the shadows on the wall. Every once in a while, when they thought he wasn't looking, somebody would glance over at him. But Jack could feel their gazes and knew they were waiting for him. The night was growing late, and SG-1 needed to make its move soon.

Jack wasn't sure how long he was lost in thought there. Quite frankly, he was afraid to look at his watch. At some point when he looked back over to his friends, he saw Teal'c entertaining them by building a house of cards. The peasants seemed especially amused by this. They asked questions as the Jaffa expertly, delicately placed each card.

"But what is the purpose of this game?" Jack heard Celesal ask.

Teal'c answered in his ever-so-serious way, as if departing some mystifying, crucial knowledge.

"The structure is intricate but highly vulnerable. The purpose is in the challenge itself."

"Aaaaah. I see." Celesal hummed, fascinated.

Jack straightened up in his chair as Teal'c put the final card into place. The group cheered his accomplishment.

"That's really good, Teal'c," Sam said, grinning at the cards balanced on the table.

"Daniel."

The man glanced up to see Jack standing over him.

"I'm going out to get some fresh air and think for a minute. Wanna tag along?"

"Um." Daniel glanced to the faces around the table a moment.

"Sure."

It was a relief to climb out of the kraipa and above ground. The Colonel gave Daniel a hand as he climbed out of the flower-shaped manhole after him. They just stood on the tiny peak of the hut, breathing the quiet night air. The village was so hauntingly beautiful at the moment. The two men surveyed the area in the darkness, soaking in the utter stillness of the place. The perfect silence seemed so profound here, and saying anything to break it seemed almost sacrilegious. It was mesmerizing.

Daniel sucked in a quick, surprised breath when the man standing next to him suddenly turned and grabbed him in a death-grip hug. He was too taken by surprise to react except to try and breathe. Jack pulled back and looked Daniel in the eyes, still gripping his arms. Big, blue, startled, but lively eyes. Then Jack leaned in and kissed him, with such deliberate tenderness. Daniel was still a little dazed but he responded after a moment. When Jack pulled away, they gazed at each other, heavy breath coming out as puffs in the cool air.

"When you collapsed like that in the dirt. In the middle of the desert."

Jack let out a slow exhale, the puff wreathing his face.

"I couldn't think. I couldn't--"

He paused, painfully, as if each word were difficult to get out.

"Jack--"

"I was terrified," Jack said. His words hung in the air as he was quiet, gazing at Daniel. Suddenly the words stumbled out of Jack quickly,

"For years one of my deepest concerns as a commanding officer has always been getting too attached to my team. I always thought--I always feared that if I got too close to people, relied upon them too heavily, then when the moment came for me to make a choice . . . and the moment always comes. It's inevitable for a commanding officer in dangerous situations for it to arrive . . . when the moment came, I'd freeze."

He paused.

"I did freeze. But . . . then I reacted. I reacted like I'd been trained for years to do, to make a snap choice that might be right, might be wrong. But the one that seemed best at the time. And I found out . . . I figured something out."

"What?" Daniel asked quietly. Jack's arm slid up to the man's shoulder and squeezed it. A smile slowly infiltrated his face.

"It didn't make much of a difference. Because the truth was, I got too attached to my team years ago. It didn't keep me from doing my job. The only real difference is that, now . . ."

Jack leaned in again, slowly. Daniel met him this time and sighed, melting into the embrace. Jack tasted sweet, like the herbs in the tea they just had.

The Colonel moved off too soon again for Daniel's liking. He looked serious and said,

"Now I can do that. Which is, quite frankly, an improvement."

The blond blinked in the night and smiled a little.

"What happened to the no-fooling-around-offworld-rule . . . ?"

Jack shrugged a little, "Eh. We can make an exception every now and then."

Daniel's smile increased.

"So is that what you brought me up here for?"

Jack laughed softly.

"No, no. That was only one of the reasons. I really did come up here to think, too."

"Mm."

Jack sighed and patted his shoulder.

"It's good to see you feelin' better."

"Yeah. It's good to feel better. That was a pretty weird experience."

Jack looked out across the village. The two men leaned against each other in the chilly night.

"We found out the medicine crap she gave you, it's the key to making this jerra stuff work."

Daniel blinked.

"No kidding?"

Jack shook his head.

"Scout's honor. She showed us how it's done. Apparently there's a whole colony of those rats that live underground in that plant-stuff. They're toxic cos they eat the jerra."

"Huh!"

"Yeah. That's what I said."

Jack could just make out the sounds of some nighttime insects chirping slowly in the distance.

"So we pretty much know how things work now, don't we?"

"Yep."

Churrrdirp . . . . . . . . churrrdirp . . . . . . . . . . churrrdirp.

Daniel pondered the insect-song and realized he recognized it from his last visit to this world.

"Somehow it doesn't feel like a victory," he noted softly.

"No. It really doesn't."

Jack tilted his head up to look at the sky above them. The black dome swarmed with thousands of points of light and the impressive swirly stripe of the milky-way cut straight across the middle of the sky.

"Is it worth it, Daniel?"

Daniel looked up at the sky as well.

"Is what worth it?"

"You know. Following orders. Playing nice with the bug-eyed boss ladies."

He paused and added on in a softer tone.

"Letting all this get destroyed. How are we supposed to put a value on something like this? Choosing which culture deserves to live and which culture deserves to die. Who am I to say which one's better than the other-- if any?"

Daniel didn't offer an immediate answer for him.

"You obviously can't. Nobody can really make a choice like that."

Jack grunted to agree.

"Oo."

"What?"

Daniel pointed to somewhere in the sky.

"One of my planets is up."

Jack smiled a little.

"Which one?"

"I think it's lapis lazuli."

Jack searched out and found the bright bluish light he meant. He smiled at it.

"The natives here probably have their own names for all of them, I suppose," Daniel mused.

"I dunno," Jack said. "The peasants seem almost afraid of them. And the elites . . ."

He pondered.

"For all I know they just see another place to conquer. Like here."

The Colonel sighed deeply.

"We might be able to teach the elites to respect them," Daniel pointed out.

"Yeah," Jack answered.

"But we also may just as easily teach the peasants not to fear them."

"True."

Jack looked to the younger man.

"There's no easy answer here. What do you think I should do?"

Daniel looked reluctant to offer an opinion.

"Not to sound bratty, but why are you asking me?"

"Because. I can be stupid sometimes. You usually keep me from screwing things up too badly when I am."

Daniel smiled impishly at him.

"In your own way that's really sweet, Jack."

The man pushed his shoulder.

"Funny. Come on, you're avoiding the question."

"Okay, okay."

Daniel looked back to the sky and concentrated, as if he would find divine inspiration among the stars. After a minute Jack looked up too in case he was right.

"My instincts tell me . . . they tell me . . . . ."

"What?"

"That Teal'c would probably make a lot of money in Las Vegas."

Jack looked at him.

"Sorry. My instincts are usually accurate, but they aren't always relevant."

Jack rolled his eyes. They watched the stars in silence for a little while. Eventually, Jack spotted something and poked Daniel.

"What."

"Hey. Isn't that constellation Space-Monkey? It's sort of sideways. Over there?"

Daniel examined the patch of stars for a little while before agreeing,

"Yeah, with the tail sticking out there and the wings like that?"

"Right. Yeah, I thought it was."

Daniel grinned.

"Okay, I see what you mean now. With my glasses, it does look more like a monkey. A little bit more."

Jack smirked. The insects filled the quiet for a while, until a human voice filled the air once more.

"I want to help them, Daniel. The peasants. It just seems so . . . wrong for them to be denied this. The K'laul made them afraid of this."

He gestured to the sky.

"Afraid of what was beyond their own home. That's a horrible thing to do."

He added on after a moment.

"That's what I want to do. I don't know if it has anything with what I should do, though."

There was a shuffling noise that caused them both to suddenly turn from their star-gazing. Celesal was behind them, difficult to make out in only the starlight.

"Sorry, sir. Didn't mean to disturb the two of you. I came up to check on Sojourn."

Off Jack's puzzled look, she added,

"My Chaperone, the one that rode us here."

"Oh. Of course. Of course . . ."

She walked off into the night and they watched her go.

"Chaperone?" Daniel echoed.

"Her horse. I dunno why she calls it that. But, yeah, she brought a horse with her. It was a lucky thing. I guess you probably don't remember any of that. You were out pretty good."

Daniel looked intrigued. "So we got here on a horse?"

Jack nodded. "Part of the way, yeah. The other part was in this weird little hover-craft."

"Oh."

After a little bit, Celesal reappeared nearby among the kraipas. The large, dark figure walking beside her was barely discernable from the night, but the snatches of white in his fur were visible.

"Daniel, this is Sojourn. I wanted to make sure you two met."

"Oh . . ."

"{It's a pleasure to meet you, sir,}" Sojourn said, bowing his head.

"Hi . . ." Daniel said with uncertainty. He reached out to pet its muzzle.

"Guess I owe you a big thanks for bringing me here," Dan said, smiling nervously.

"{Think nothing of it, my friend.}"

"So is he okay?" Jack asked, remembering earlier how the horse had run so fast he thought it might pass out.

Sojourn smiled.

"{I am, Thatcher, thank you for your concern. While it was certainly a new experience to carry two people and someone unconscious and I hope not to repeat the adventure any time soon, I've come through unscathed.}"

Jack looked at Celesal, waiting for a response. When she didn't answer he asked again.

"Uh, Celesal. He's okay, right? Not too tired and stuff."

Celesal looked puzzled and looked to Sojourn. Sojourn looked to Jack.

"{I'm sorry, sir, did you not hear me? I said that I was quite all right, thank-you for asking.}"

Jack frowned a little in confusion. Celesal still wasn't answering and the horse standing unnervingly near to him was making all sorts of odd sounds and little motions. He wondered if it had gotten a bit delirious from the run.

"He, uh, does seem to be making some strange noises. Is that normal?" Daniel asked politely. Sojourn blinked and looked, bewilderedly, to his friend.

"Um. Daniel, sir. Soj just answered Jack's question. Did you not hear?"

Sojourn watched the two humans carefully. Jack's brows had leapt into the air and he made no attempt to hide his expression of realization and shock. Daniel was more subtle but also looked surprised.

"Ooh. Ah-heh. Heh. Right. Of course, of course," Jack said slowly.

"I, uh . . . I'm sorry about that. I did hear him, yes, just, had a bit trouble with the understanding. Yeah. Um . . ."

Sojourn tilted his head to the side curiously.

{Celesal, my dear, I think you brought home a couple of illiterates. For goodness sake, I've only heard about them in stories. They genuinely don't appear to understand me.}"

Celesal gazed at them in wonder.

"So you two don't understand a word he's saying, do you?" she asked, pointing to Sojourn.

"Eer . . . . uh . . . ."

"No, not really," Jack admitted outright.

"Wow. I didn't think there was anyone around who couldn't comprehend horse speak."

"Um." Jack didn't know how to reply to that.

"Celesal. Don't take this the wrong way, but--"

"Jack . . ."

"--but I just-- it's just my personal opinion that-- that--"

"Jack."

"What is it?"

The Colonel ignored Daniel's warnings.

"It's just, the only horse I've heard of talking was Mr. Ed."

"{Mr. Ed?}" "Mr. Ed?"

"Other than that, nah. No horses have talked to me."

"I see." Celesal said quietly. Daniel looked nervous.

Sojourn looked a little chagrined.

"{Maybe I should leave. Apparently I won't be very involved in this conversation.}"

"Soj, no, come on. Don't do that."

Jack and Daniel looked at Celesal like she was insane. The young woman got a suspicious look.

"Sojourn, my mother was telling me earlier about when the Thatchers came to this village the first time around."

The horse looked to her. "{Yes?}"

"One of the things she mentioned was that the horses they traveled with even acted a bit strange. Do you know what she meant by that?"

Sojourn nodded.

"{Indeed. I tried speaking with them myself. It was most disturbing. They refused to speak to me, quite rude. But it also seemed like more than that.}"

"Like, what then?"

"{Well. }" He glanced at the two men.

"{It almost seemed like they weren't simply ignoring me. They acted very odd. They . . . it's difficult to describe. Their eyes seemed so vacant. They had very odd nonverbals. They made some very random noises, babbling sounds. It was almost as if they were somehow mentally disturbed. Not quite fully there, if you follow me.}"

Celesal nodded. "Mm-hm. I do."

"{To be perfectly honest most of us steered clear of them during their visit. They sort of creeped us out. The Thatchers didn't seem to pay much attention to them either. Very cold and distant, you know. Left a very bad taste in my mouth.}"

Daniel gasped suddenly. Jack looked at him.

"What?"

He looked amazed. He gestured to the horse.

"Jack, this is . . . it's. Incredible. Haven't you been watching? They. They--"

"She's nuts," Jack whispered in Daniel's ear.

"No! She isn't. Okay, maybe so. But-- look!"

Daniel took one cautious step forward. He waved a little at the horse, smiling nervously,

"Hi, hello. Um. My name's Daniel Jackson. I'm sorry if Jack and I have offended you somehow."

Jack rolled his eyes dramatically and sighed, sitting down on the peak of the kraipa.

"Great," he muttered, "Just great. Now he's finally lost it."

"{It's all right, sir. I'm just a little taken aback to meet an illiterate.}"

Daniel smiled a little. "Uh, yeah. Um. I wanted to thank you."

He stepped forward a bit more. Celesal watched in fascination, Jack with skepticism. The horse was simply patient. Daniel gestured in an exaggerated manner to himself.

"Me. . . I want to thank you. . ." He gestured a little to the horse.

"For . . . for carrying me here." He gestured to the ground with a whirl of his hand. He waved to the distance. "From all the way over there all the way here," he said, bringing his hands to gesture back to the ground. Sojourn blinked at him and then responded.

"{You're, uh, welcome, sir. It was my pleasure to, uh . . . }"

He glanced to Celesal who gave him an encouraging look.

"{To bring you from over . . . over there, }" he murmured, giving a little gesture with his head to the distance,

"{To, uh, here. }"

He nodded at the ground.

Daniel looked thrilled and looked dramatically to Jack.

"Did you see that?"

Jack frowned. "See what."

"That! Jack, I think he really understands."

"Pfft. Come on, Daniel. It's just--"

"No, no! Jack, all those little noises and clicky sounds and gestures he's making. I swear, it looks like a language."

"You two are both nuts, okay? No offense or anything."

Daniel waved excitedly.

"Jack, shut up! I'm a linguist, okay? I'm trained to recognize languages of all kinds when I see them, and the noises aren't random, there's a pattern!"

Jack was quiet a moment and persisted stubbornly,

"It's only mimicking you."

Daniel looked at Celesal.

"You're really communicating with him, aren't you?"

She nodded silently. He looked back to Sojourn.

"{What kind of rock did you live under where they told you that horses cannot communicate?}" Sojourn asked. He paused and looked at Celesal.

"{Perhaps the only Chaperones they had were mentally disturbed or something.}"

"Jack, don't you understand the implications of this? If he's . . . a sentient being."

"Um. I do. But you can help me along a little anyway," Jack said, looking confused.

Daniel waved dramatically.

"It means there could be a whole other race here we haven't even considered yet!"

Sojourn backed off a few paces.

"{He thinks my race isn't even sentient,}" he hissed, appalled.

"{What have the K'laul done to their minds?!}"

"Uh, Danny. . ." Jack looked, with fear, towards Celesal.

Daniel calmed down and looked over to her and seemed to realize what he'd done. Oh, damn.

"Celesal, I can explain . . ."

"Yes, yes, he can. Um. Let him explain," Jack agreed.

"Sojourn. It's okay. Don't leave," Celesal said calmly.

"{I'm sorry, my dear, but I will not stand by and subject myself to this sort of racism! I already have enough to deal with when it comes to the K'laul!}"

"No! Soj, wait! Give them a chance. I don't think it's racism."

"Oh. Oh. No, no, no. It's not like that, Celesal . . ."

Daniel looked quickly to the horse and added,

"Please, um, sir, I'm begging you. Don't leave. I didn't mean it like that. I really didn't."

"{I don't know how else to interpret it.}" Sojourn said tersely.

"You're not from around here, are you?" Celesal asked. Daniel glanced at her.

"No, we're not. I thought we've been over that all ready," Jack commented.

"What I mean is . . . you're not from Thatcher, either . . . are you?"

Jack and Daniel fell silent. After a beat, Daniel said,

"Um. What makes you say that."

"Oh. Little things." She came forward to see them better.

"Not so much the clothes you wear, the technology you carry, how tall you are, the color of your hair. Not so much your obliviousness to certain obvious things, like how to close the door on the kraipa. Or common myths such as the Rixi. Not even the willingness of the K'laul to trust you in negotiations. It's more just about the way you speak."

The two men kept quiet.

"So . . . where do you come from?"

Sojourn watched in quiet fascination, not certain as to what Celesal was getting at.

"It's kind of hard to explain," Jack said quietly.

"Did the Sun send you? Are you . . ."

She stepped forward a little more and looked the two over in a new way.

"Are you some sort of angels or something? I know you came through the Gateway."

"Ah. No. I'm not an angel, that's for sure," Jack denied quickly.

"We, uh, we're just people, Celesal, like you and-- and, uh, Sojourn."

"Just people?" She echoed. Jack nodded. Celesal looked up to the sky.

"From up there?"

Jack looked up.

"Well, yeah. Somewhere up there. I'm not sure if you can see our planet right now, but it's up there."

Celesal's gaze didn't leave the sky.

"So it's true," she said in a hushed voice.

"There are other worlds in the Blackness. Like the K'laul thought."

Daniel spoke,

"We, we're peaceful explorers, Celesal. We didn't build the Gateway. We just know how to use it . . ."

"The Daemons built the Gateway." she said.

"No. Uh. Goa'uld." Jack said. Celesal looked at him.

"The demons. They're a race of people from another world. Called the Goa'uld. They didn't build the Gateway either. They probably installed one on this world, but they stole the technology. They're not a nice race. They're our enemies."

"The daemons are just people too?" she wondered, looking up.

"Yeah. I don't blame you for calling them demons. They're very powerful, scary, cruel people. But, uh . . ."

Jack waved his hand across the sky.

"There are thousands of worlds among the stars. Literally. And most of them have their own people, their own races. There are some really good people. And others aren't so friendly. Some are real powerful and some, they stick to themselves. Some have technology and others have more simple lives."

Sojourn came up closer.

"{And you people are among them? You come from the stars?}"

"And you come from one of those worlds?" Celesal echoed Soj's question for him.

"Yeah. Some of it looks a lot like your planet. It has forests, and meadows, and rivers. Even deserts. Although, obviously there are some differences," Daniel explained.

"Wow."

The four of them looked at the sky for some time. Eventually, Celesal asked,

"How are you going to get home?"

Jack sighed.

"I'm not sure. I was planning on walking. The Stargate's pretty far out in the desert, but we don't have much of a choice . . ."

He stopped and a brilliant, excited look crossed his face. He looked to Daniel.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

The blond looked nervous. "I seriously doubt it. What are you thinking?"

He looked to Celesal. Then a broad grin crossed his face.

"Honey, how would you and your, Chaperone-guy, feel about taking a little trip?"

Everyone gave him various confused expressions and he gestured for them to come closer and huddle in.

"Okay, hi. I'm sorry, I forgot your name, Mr. Ed., I'm horrible with names. I hope we didn't get off on the wrong foot-- er-- hoof?"

"{Well . . . }"

"We good? Can we shake on it? Um, do horses even shake? Help me out here."

Sojourn rolled his eyes.

"{Considering the ludicrousy of the situation I will forgive you. I make no promises for the future, however.}"

"He says he forgives you," Celesal translated quickly.

"{Celesal, if you're going to be my translator, you're going to have to work on your skills.}"

"Soj, come on."

Sojourn sighed dramatically. He lifted a hoof, to Jack's surprise, and offered it.

"{All right, genius. You figure out what to do with it.}"

Jack hesitated, and decided the best way would be to grab the animal's wrist and politely shake its foot.

"Oookay. Never thought I'd be doing that."

The horse set its hoof down.

"{For future reference, could you please brief this schmuck on traditional equine greetings, Celesal?}"

"Sojourn!" Celesal scolded.

"What? What he say?" Jack gave the animal a suspicious look.

"Um. He just said it's a pleasure to meet you."

Jack wasn't buying it. Sojourn grinned at him.

"Okay. Moving along. My team needs to leave real soon if we're gonna get back with any semblance of timeliness. When we ship out, how about you two join us? You could be a, diplomatic representative for your people, Celesal. And, uh, you too, Mr. Ed."

"Uh, do you think Celesal's family would be okay with that, Jack?" Daniel wondered quietly.

"{Please tell that man that my name is Sojourn.}"

"There's no way my family would be okay with it, but I sure as heck am," Celesal whispered excitedly.

"Okay. So does Ed have any of his friends around? I'm thinking if we're going to make any real time, we're gonna have to burn rubber. We might need help."

"Yeah, yeah. Soj? Do you think you can convince the other Chaperones to help?"

Sojourn looked at her with an irritated expression.

"{Are you kidding me? They wouldn't believe a blasted thing I'd tell them about this.}"

"How do you know until you try?"

"What he say?"

Celesal whispered, "He doesn't think his friends would believe him if he tried to explain."

Jack looked uncertain.

"Um. Maybe if I came along. You think I could help convince them?" he asked the horse directly. Sojourn laughed. Jack watched him suspiciously.

"Is he . . . . laughing at me?"

"Um . . . well . . ."

"You're a funny guy to every species," Daniel quipped.

"Hey. You. Suju."

"Sojourn."

"Okay, whatever. Believe me, big fellah, if you can convince me that you're talking than I'm sure you can convince your buddies to jump through a wormhole."

The horse looked him over thoughtfully, and turned to Celesal.

"{You might want to say something to your mother before we leave.}"

"And tell her what? Hi, mom, I'm gonna go stay over at Jack's house for a while, I'll be back a little later."

"{I was thinking of something along those lines, yes.}"

"We'll help explain, Celesal," Jack said encouragingly.

"It's already very late. If we're going to do this we'll need to do it now," Daniel observed.

"{I suppose I'll be dropping by the stables then. Seems I have some people to persuade.}"

"Are you going to need any help, Suju?"

The horse turned to leave.

"{No worries, strange one. The Chaperones are loyal, brave creatures. They do whatever is necessary to keep the bond between our races strong. This falls under their duties.}"

"Thank you, Sojourn." Celesal looked to Jack.

"He will be able to convince them. He is well known and respected and the Chaperones at Keeval are sympathetic to Extremists."

"Good. Good. Let's hope your mother is sympathetic to them as well."

The three humans slipped back into the kraipa and Sojourn crept off into the night towards the stables.