CHAPTER ONE I'M A BAD, BAD PERSON
It was a woman's voice, powerful and commanding. We must have words!
Daniel turned to look, and was greeted by the sight of an Amazon, beautiful and, for some reason, elfin-looking. Maybe it was the long, pointed ears.
How dare you, mortal! Klorel snarled, whirling to face her. Who are you?!
My name is Kali, she answered. Remember it well, Kloroform, for it is the name of your doom.
I will destroy you for your insolence! he bellowed, raising his palm toward her.
Silence, Kloramine! Kali barked, and he obeyed her, seeming shocked. She took a deep breath and produced a strip of paper from somewhere, then concentrated on the Goa'uld standing before her.
Why, that's an ofuda! Marie observed, surprised. Sailomars uses those to—
Kali closed her eyes and began chanting. She opened her eyes and glared at Klorel. Akuryou Taisan!! she intoned, flinging the card.
It stuck to Klorel's forehead as if magnetised. His eyes widened in shock for an instant, then twisted shut as he screamed in agony. He staggered backward and fell on the sand, still voicing his pain. Tendrils of light shot from his body. Then he lay still.
The strange woman walked over to the body and knelt by it. Daniel saw the young man's eyelids open and knew immediately that it was Skaara once again. Kali leaned over him, as if expecting something, then was roughly grabbed by the boy and kissed soundly. After a few moments, Kali broke away and helped him sit up.
Beautiful goddess Skaara whispered in his native tongue. You must be a goddess! A real one! II would do anything for you
How about being my love slave? she asked, smiling.
His face straightened. Love slave? I don't know what that means.
She patted him on the shoulder. You'll learn. The two of them rose and walked away.
——————
Daniel awoke with a shock. Agh! What—what was that!? He shook himself briefly. A—a dream, he muttered. His heart was racing. A damn realistic dream, too. God, that was weird!
There was a pounding on his door, followed by the shouting of an irate-sounding Colonel O'Neill. Daniel, get your ass out of bed! We get briefed for our mission in half an hour!
Half an—!! Dr. Jackson looked at the clock on the nightstand. The red LED display read 10:03. Then he caught his breath, surprised. I couldn't swear before. How come—
O'Neill bellowed.
Right, I'm coming! Sorry about that! He hastily pulled on fatigues over his boxers, grabbed his glasses from the nightstand, and opened the door. Colonel O'Neill looked ready to explode.
God, Jack, I'm really sorry, Daniel said as they hustled through the halls. I must have overslept. I—I was having this really vivid dream, and—
Save it for later. General Hammond's adding a new member to SG-1.
Daniel asked, stopping in his tracks.
You heard me. Come on! The archaeologist was grabbed by the elbow and hurried on.
——————
Daniel scarfed down the last of his toast as he stepped into the briefing room. Captain Carter was already there, along with Teal'c and General Hammond, as well as an unfamiliar woman. Her face was Asian in appearance, and she had dark red hair that was neatly tied back in a utilitarian ponytail. He stared at her for a moment; he was sure he had seen her somewhere before. Maybe in a dream.
O'Neill entered the room after Dr. Jackson and strode quickly to his seat. Daniel did likewise, forcing himself to look away from the new woman, lest he seem creepy and over-curious.
Nice of you to join us this morning, Dr. Jackson, General Hammond said with approximately one-eighth of a smile. I've brought you all here to announce that a fifth person will be joining the SG-1 team. This is Marie Onosaka. He gestured to the woman as she stood up to shake hands with those around the table.
But—why do we need another member? Daniel asked before he could stop himself. Weren't the four of us doing a good enough job?
The General took a deep breath as he considered the archaeologist. So far, the work SG-1 has done has been highly admirable. You have, in fact, received commendation from the President himself. It is not because of any inadequacy that a new member is being added to SG-1. Rather, Ms. Onosaka is joining for reasons that will be revealed to you all in due course.
Captain Carter frowned slightly. In due course? You're not going to tell us now? That hardly seems normal.
Marie turned to the General. Uncle Ge—oh, um, I mean, Gen—
Captain Carter repeated. With all due respect, sir, you can't put her on SG-1 just because she's your niece!
General Hammond sighed. That is not why she's joining SG-1. I told you before, you will be informed when the need arises. You are assigned to visit the world P4X-718 at fourteen-hundred hours today. Dismissed. He stood up and left the room.
Colonel O'Neill, Captain Carter, and Dr. Jackson exchanged three and a half glances around the table. Teal'c, looking away, was not receptive to the glance sent in his direction, and it bounced off the side of his head and fell to the floor with a slight clatter.
Daniel said, attempting to initiate conversation. what do you do?
She flashed him three-quarters of a smile. With a slight toss of her head, she said dramatically, am a librarian.
he said. Part of him thought she was absolutely gorgeous; another part chastised him for daring to look at a woman other than Sha'uri. But Sha'uri was dead now. She was gone. She would never know. But still—
Marie studied Daniel, appearing to read the expression on his face. Her face grew solemn, and she looked away from him, seeming apologetic.
Colonel O'Neill said, clasping his hands in front of him, let's find out something about the planet we're going to today. Captain Carter, you have the probe data?
Yes, here, she said, producing a folder. There's some stuff on the computer we should look at, too.
——————
Carter scanned the screen before her. Well, it says a breathable atmosphere. Kind of hot and dry, but not inhospitable to humans.
So we can go there? O'Neill asked.
The captain sent him a look. Then she turned to Daniel. I think you should see the video the probe sent back, she said, nudging him. She hit a few keys on her keyboard and brought up a movie file. It showed sand stretching in all directions, and as the camera crested a dune, they were greeted by a view of a dusty valley, full of toppled and semi-toppled pillars, with a large statue half-buried in the sand. There was a dark pyramid in the distance with four obelisks around it.
Daniel felt his heart skip a beat. My God, it looks just like Abydos!
It's not Abydos, Captain Carter told him. We're sure of that.
We know that the Goa'uld took ancient humans to many different planets, Teal'c observed. It is possible that people of similar cultural background may have colonised more than one planet.
Yeah, it looks like that's the case, Daniel said, only half-listening to his Jaffa friend. He was straining his eyes, trying to identify the dark stone statue from the fuzzy image the probe's camera had sent back. Are there any better images of that statue?
Captain Carter said. Let's see. She fast-forwarded partway through the video feed, then let it play. The probe had gone closer to the statue, but unfortunately, the camera was not aiming up, so the top of the statue was cut off by the screen.
Daniel muttered. Back it up a little.
Carter obligingly did so, reversing the video to the point before the probe had approached the statue so closely. The head was visible.
Stop it there! Daniel said. As the video paused, he took a good look at the statue. It was definitely carved from some black stone, and looked very old and weathered. Though the bottom third was buried in the sand, he could tell it was intended to be a man with a jackal head. he cried.
Captain Carter looked up at him. An Egyptian god, right?
The Ancient Egyptian god of death, mummification, and judgment, Marie said before Daniel could answer. I have to admit, I have a very bad feeling about this.
Don't we all, O'Neill said.
Teal'c spoke up. Perhaps a Goa'uld who called himself Anubis visited this planet, and the natives erected this statue in honour of him. There could still be Goa'uld there. We will have to be cautious.
well, it's not exactly like that Marie demurred. It's a different sort of bad feeling.
What sort of bad feeling? Carter asked.
Marie shrugged. I—I can't really describe it. I guess we'll just have to be really careful, like Teal'c said.
Captain Carter smiled slightly. Woman's intuition, perhaps she murmured.
——————
The members of SG-1 were geared up and ready to go five minutes before 1400, so they stood in the embarcation room and chatted with Marie. Daniel found her very interesting for some reason he couldn't put his finger on. The two of them did share some common interests, such as linguistics and ancient cultures. Marie explained to him that she had studied a little archaeology, but was not very deeply immersed in it; she had dabbled in many different fields rather than specialising in just one.
I took a whole bunch of social science and natural science courses in college, and I read a lot and watch movies. I have a lot of bits of knowledge on many different subjects, but not a great deal of knowledge on any one thing. Okay, maybe that's not the case for everything. But my point is, I like to think of myself as a sort of jill-of-all-trades.
What other languages do you speak? Captain Carter asked.
Besides English, I speak fluent Japanese, German, and Spanish. I have a decent knowledge of Korean and Mandarin Chinese, and I recently started studying Arabic and Hindi.
Colonel O'Neill whistled. That's a lot. He glanced at Daniel. So does she overlap your area of expertise at all?
Not really, Daniel replied. I'm more focused on ancient languages. I do speak Greek, though.
Are you fluent in any ancient languages? Marie queried, her dark eyes bright with interest.
Uh—yeah. I speak Latin and Ancient Egyptian, and I can read cuneiform; I know enough bits of various Mesopotamian languages to make sense of it.
She smiled brilliantly. That's really cool.
Gee, uh, thanks he muttered, feeling stupidly pleased. What was it about her?
General Hammond's voice came over the speaker system. All right, SG-1. You've got a green light. As he finished, the iris on the Stargate opened and the great wheel began turning.
Marie watched in silence as the wormhole formed, and Daniel noticed how pale she looked in the eerie blue light. A-are you going to be all right? he asked.
She looked over at him, eyes wide. Y-yeah. I'll be fine.
You sure?
She took a deep breath and watched Colonel O'Neill, Captain Carter, and Teal'c step through the Stargate. Yeah. I mean, I've really wanted to do this, but now that I'm actually about to go through, I'm so nervous. I mean, does it hurt or anything?
He shook his head. It doesn't hurt, per se, but it is kind ofuncomfortable. If—if you want, I could hold your hand and we could go through together.
She smiled wanly. Thanks, Daniel.
A slight tingle went through him as he clasped her delicate hand in his. Her skin was cool, and ever-so-soft. They walked up to the Stargate, and Marie glanced at him.
On three, he said.
They stepped through the Stargate.