Chapter 29
After what seemed like hours of fruitless labor, Daniel Jackson finally threw the Book of Origin aside. Hitting the power button on the stereo, he jumped up on his bunk and rested his head on the cold steel bulkhead. One of his favorite activities, especially after a difficult mission was to go home, open a bottle of wine and take out the collection of vinyl he had inherited from his parents. Mostly sixties-era music, some classical, it brought back the only warm memories he had of his family before fate and a coverstone took them away. Over the years his friends at the SGC had caught wind and began to contribute to his collection.
None more so than Janet Fraiser.
Janet was a collector of albums herself, and had at least a hundred, maybe more at her house. Every once and while she would pop into his office with a new album she had saw and knew immediately that he would like. They had spent countless nights sitting on the floor of his house with a bottle of Merlot and sat quiet just listening to the songs. It was something that belonged unique to them. A ritual that he shared with none of his teammates nor anyone else at the SGC. In the wake of her death, he inherited her collection. He told Cassie he would put them into storage, for the day she wanted them herself. He couldn't bear to own them himself.
Janet's death had hit Daniel hard. She was quite possibly the first person since Sha're that he began to care for. Although he thought it was nearly impossible for him to ever get over the loss of his wife, Janet was the first person he met where he thought it might be possible.
And just like Sha're, she was gone.
It would take months after her death before he could even look at a record player, let alone play an album again. The first time he did, he sat alone, bottle of Merlot opened and listened to Janis Joplin, Janet's favorite artist. Since that day, he did alot of reflecting to his music, the perfect quite time to clear his thoughts. That was, until, Vala came back into his life. Having been couped up at the SGC for so long, literally joined at the hip with Vala and unable to return to the quite comforts of his home, his wine and his music, grated on his last nerves. It probably added to the frustration he had been feeling about the situation.
His salvation came when he was allowed to take Vala off the base, for at least one night, to spend some time in his own home. After watching movies for hours, Vala had finally fell asleep and the opportunity presented itself for him to slip into his den, crack open the wine and put a record on. It was relieving after the weeks of stress and the reality that his very survival was literally tied to the that of someone else, someone he wasn't all that fond of initially, seemed to melt away. For at least one night, his life felt like it used to. So long ago.
After that night and the event revolving around the Ori beachhead, Daniel's life hadn't been the same. He found himself continually guilt ridden and saddened by Vala's possible demise. Guilty, because his continual quest for knowledge never seemed to lead to anything but trouble and always resulted in someone he knew dying. Now, although knowing that Vala was alive gave him some comfort, the guilt raged in him furiously. If the Ori were using Vala as a pawn to bring about their own twisted indoctrination, he was responsible for bringing her into it. For bringing her into the mess in which she currently found herself.
As he sat there, listening to the mix CD Teal'c had made for him last Christmas, he found that comfort and clarity he associated with music grow cold. It just wasn't the same when you were aboard a ship and listening to a digital recording. There was just something about vinyl that added to the atmosphere. Still, he couldn't help but smile. Daydream Believer was his mother's favorite song and could always bring him comfort. He always made sure it was part of his regular rotation. He sat there, listening carefully and allowing the words to bring him the solace they always did. For a single second he had forgotten about all of his troubles, all of the pain and misery, all of the tough times that lay ahead. For a single moment he was at peace.
And then Rodney came busting thru the door.
"I'm not interrupting am I?"
"No," Daniel said trying to hide his irritation. "What's up?"
"The senors just picked up a distress call."
"A distress call? A bit odd considering how far we are from any inhabited worlds."
"It gets even stranger," Rodney said as he walked over and turned the stereo off. "Its a Goa'uld."
"Are you sure?" Daniel asked getting up from his bed.
"Double checked it myself."
"Where's Mitchell?"
"He's already waiting for us on deck."
Daniel walked out of his quarters, with Rodney close behind. Not only was there The Ori and The Wraith to contend with, but now The Goa'uld? It was as if all of the nemesis that he had dealt with in the past were coming out of the woodwork. If they hadn't been destroyed, he half expected The Replicators to show up at any moment. As they made their way to the elevator, Daniel could see what looked like a little girl peek her head out from within his quarters. The same little girl he had seen in his vision. Before he could react, the elevator doors closed behind him.
With a chesire smile the little girl popped her head back into Daniel's quarters.
"Things are going as planned," she said to the tall, thin asian looking boy standing beside her.
"It is wrong to decieve him."
"Sometimes deception is necessary," she replied as she jumped up on Daniel's bed leaving her at eye level with the boy.
"You do not have to hide behind this disguise."
"He would recognize me that way. He cannot remember who I am until we're ready for him to."
"Daniel Jackson is an honest man, he means a great deal to me. I do not like lying to him."
"I understand that," the little girl said as she looked the boy in the face. "I will not let you down. Oma trusted me. Trusted me enough to finish what she started. Trusted me enough to have you come find me in the event anything happened to her."
"That she did."
"Then you must trust me as well. Trust that I will do my best to protect Daniel from The Ori."
The young man looked at the little girl with a pensive but understand glare.
"What do we do now."
"You need to return to Camelot and await further instruction."
"And what will you do, Morgan?"
Morgan only smiled, "What I must."
With that the young boy disappeared in a great flash of white light. As Morgan watched him go, she worried about how he would take it, how they would all take it, in knowing what Oma had told her about Daniel and why The Ori wanted him so badly. To know what they had already done. The awful truth that must never come out: that the baby Vala carried was Daniel's daughter, concieved thru powerful manipulations by The Ori, and that how in his useless attempts to save her from their hands, he would lead himself right into theirs.
