Title: Wherever You Go, There You Are
Spoilers: None this time, I think.
Rating: Um, PG just to be safe. Minor language.
Disclaimer: Stargate SG1 and Farscape are owned by lovely, wonderful people. I am not among them.
Wherever You Go, There You Are: I Love Being Here with You
"Hey, Pilot!" John called out in response to Moya's hail. "We got some VIPs on board, so break out the marching band and ticker tape, will ya?"
"If you would like to arrange a greeting party, I'm sure Rygel and Chiana would be happy to meet you in the landing bay."
"No, we wouldn't," came another voice. "Unless you've brought food, Crichton, I suggest you return to the surface."
Jack tilted his head from one side to the other, grimacing. "Don't any of these people speak the same language?"
"Rygel, my little bundle of joy, I brought you delicacies beyond your imagination. In fact, I had to leave Aeryn on the planet to work off the cost."
"Good, that's more for me."
Pilot said, "Officer Sun is not with you?"
"Not to worry, Pilot. She and Zhaan stayed on the surface to help out our new friends."
"Did these new friends bring food?"
"Rygel, stop talking so I can land."
Rygel made a noise of derision. "It's time you recognized your lack of piloting abilities."
John reached over and switched the radio off. Over his shoulder he said, "One day, Sammie, you and I have to swap annoying alien stories. Ten bucks says I've got you beat hands down."
"I think they're just annoying cause you can understand them," Sam said.
"Oh, I don't know, Carter. I don't understand the Tollan and they're pretty annoying," Jack commented.
Sam leaned forward to peer over John's shoulder. "Then again," she said under her breath, looking at the transport's controls, "They don't have to be alien to be annoying."
"Heard that, Major." Jack was going to follow up with another smart remark, but was distracted by the ship looming in front of them. "That's where we're headed?"
"Moya. She's a beauty, isn't she?"
"Yeah," Sam breathed. "She's amazing."
"Hang on, we're going in."
Teal'c sat off from the fire a bit, engaged in Kelnoreem. With the others gone, it was a perfect opportunity. However, he had not counted on the presence of Aeryn Sun. Teal'c recognized a fellow warrior in her, but at the moment, she was simply…annoying. Pacing around the perimeter of the camp, occasionally sticking her head in the temple to check on Zhaan, poking at the fire. She walked into the temple again and, after a moment, Teal'c heard Zhaan escort her outside the ruin, admonishing her. Even though he didn't understand the words, the tone of voice was unmistakable. It was similar to the tone Daniel Jackson took with O'Neill when the colonel attempted to rush him through a translation.
As Officer Sun settled once again by the fire, Teal'c concluded that he would not be allowed to complete his meditation. Not unusual, that, considering his teammates. Sighing silently, Teal'c judged the situation. While he was patient, something to occupy the time would be most welcome.
"Officer Sun," he said. She looked at him, questioning. "I believe our companions may be gone for some time." She nodded. "And as Daniel Jackson and Zhaan do not require our assistance, I shall use this time to train. Perhaps you would care to join me?" He stood, hefting his staff weapon.
She deliberated a moment, then stood as well, saying, "Sounds like fun." When he raised an eyebrow, she added, throwing up a hand, "Right. You can't understand me, but I can understand you. So let's just fight, shall we?"
A tiny smile appeared on Teal'c face, which Aeryn took as either a good sign or a very, very bad one. "What is that thing anyway?" she asked, pointing at the weapon and walking to him.
Teal'c raised it level to the ground. "The staff weapon releases a burst of energy from this end, although it has other uses." Surveying the site, he found a long tree branch. After testing its weight and balance, he handed the staff weapon to Aeryn with a slight bow. Raising the wooden branch in salute, he said, "We will test your skills in combat."
Her expression indicated offense at his assumption that she needed to be tested, changing into confidence that she could hold her own. She twirled the staff a few times to get the feel of it, then charged the Jaffa. He easily parried the blow, then blocked her next move as well. Aeryn stepped back, circled and let him make the next move.
He attacked with a series of overhand strikes, then rapidly followed with an underhand move. She caught it at the last second and brought her staff low to catch it and push back. As she did so, she slipped her right arm up the staff and brought the weapon around in a sweeping arc over her head and under Teal'c's left leg. He fell, absorbing the impact with his elbow and rolling. Coming up into a crouch, he raised the staff over his head blocking her blow. Standing, he pushed her back, throwing her off balance. He caught the lower end of her staff with his, swinging up. The weapon flew from her hands.
Barely pausing, Aeryn lashed out with a side kick as Teal'c's staff completed its motion. Connecting her foot squarely with the middle of the wood, she straightened her knee with a force that snapped the branch with a loud crack. Teal'c raised an eyebrow as she stepped back with a satisfied look on her face.
Tossing the pieces away, he nodded once. "You fight well, but you allow yourself to be led. You must learn to anticipate your opponent's strategy."
Aeryn considered his words. A small, chill smile appeared on her face. She raised her fists in front of her face, a universal sign. He inclined his head in acquiescence. This, as O'Neill might say, could be fun.
She circled. "I need to anticipate? Funny, I'm not the one who carries around a big stick for protection." She knew he didn't understand her words, but his amused expression indicated that he caught her meaning. Actually, his amused expression wasn't really any different from any other expression Aeryn had seen in the short time since they met, but the current look on his face was similar to D'Argo's when he was enjoying a good fight.
She jumped in with a lightening fast one-two combo. He easily dodged, and then commented, "You also need to learn patience." He let her complete another half-circle, and when she threw the next punch, he grabbed her forearm as it flew past his face. He pulled her in his direction and stepped past her as she spun around. Blocking her next punch, he dropped under her guard.
Aeryn stepped back, switching weight to her back foot and forcing Teal'c to reach forward. She ducked under his first punch and blocked the second by swinging a slightly bent arm in an up-and-out arc. Using that momentum, she threw a punch with her other fist.
He caught it with one hand. Throwing her fist to one side, he spun with the movement, sweeping a leg behind her. As she fell, she kicked out enough to entangle him. He went down as she rolled in the opposite direction.
On his feet again, Teal'c aimed a series of blows at her midsection, but she blocked them all, stepping back each time. Finally, instead of blocking his fist, she grabbed his forearm with her right arm knocking the punch off course, then swung her left arm against the upper part of his outstretched arm, using that leverage to bring him down.
Teal'c moved his other arm under her hold, breaking it. As she stood, Teal'c swept one leg against the back of her knee. She kept her balance, but in that time, Teal'c regained his feet.
"Hold, Aeryn Sun." She stopped, keeping her guard up. Teal'c straightened, then bowed. "Much time has passed since I had the opportunity to spar with someone as proficient in hand-to-hand combat as you."
Surprised, she dropped her hands. "Yeah." She bent over, placing her hands on her knees, to catch her breath. "Which is why you barely broke a sweat."
Teal'c walked back to the supplies and pulled out a canteen. He tossed it to Aeryn. Catching it with one hand, she opened it and took a long drink. "Thank you," she said and offered it back to him. Teal'c accepted, and after drinking, set the canteen down and retrieved his staff weapon. They both settled back by the fire, Aeryn noticeably calmer.
After a few moments of silence, Aeryn turned to Teal'c and asked, "Where did you learn to fight?" Then remembering, she held up one fist and jabbed it a few times in the air, then pointed to him and then, after thinking a moment, tapped first the corner of her eye, then the side of her head.
"You ask about my fighting."
Aeryn nodded. Thinking again, she put a hand on the ground, then waved a hand pointing first to herself then Teal'c. She patted the ground again and waited a moment. She pointed to Teal'c and then to the sky.
"Where have I fought?"
Aeryn shrugged; close enough.
"I was the First Prime of Apophis, a Goa'uld. I carried out his orders, fighting against the Jaffa that served other Goa'uld lords." Aeryn could hear the loathing in his voice as he continued. "The Goa'uld enslave worlds, forcing the people to worship them as gods. I, too, believed for a long time that I served a god. I was trained by a Jaffa named Bra'tac, who served as First Prime before me. He taught me to believe what I saw, that the Goa'uld could not be gods. I joined the Tau'ri in their fight against the Goa'uld in the hopes of showing all Jaffa the truth about their masters. I am considered an outcast and a traitor."
Teal'c considered a moment, then said, "If I may make an assumption, Aeryn Sun." She nodded and leaned forward.
"You have formal military training. You carry yourself as one born to a warrior's life. And you have been exiled. By choice or by force I cannot tell."
"Both, actually, not that it's important." She leaned back and threw a small piece of wood into the fire.
Teal'c nodded as if he understood. "I, too, have been exiled from my home. It was an exile of choice, but also of necessity."
"I get that. So, now that we've bonded, what do we do?"
Teal'c stood and picked up the staff weapon again. Aeryn shook her head. Teal'c activated the weapon and Aeryn saw the glow of energy crackle around the larger end.
She smiled. "We can shoot things. Excellent idea."
"Um, what was that?" Daniel asked, hearing what sounded a little too much like weapon's fire for his comfort. He grabbed his radio. "Uh, Teal'c, everything okay out there?"
The reply came back, "Indeed, Daniel Jackson. We are well."
"Oookay. Just checking. Thought I heard something." To Zhaan's questioning glance, he said, "Sometimes I've learned it's better not to ask."
Smiling, she nodded comprehension. Pointing to a section of wall, she waved him over.
Daniel peered at the indicated writing. "Hmmm, what do we have here?" He gently ran his fingers over the markings, translating to himself as he went. "It looks like an account of their departure from the planet."
"I agree," Zhaan said, then nodded to reinforce her meaning. She pointed at a particular sign.
"Hive?" Daniel guessed, which Zhaan confirmed with a spoken, "Yes." The two had managed to build a basic vocabulary with which to communicate: yes, no, planet, ship, here, there, Stargate, temple, writing, why, time, name, first, last. Still, Zhaan was confined mostly to visual communication. Daniel really wanted to continue learning her language, but the translation of the temple writing was the first priority. "Well, that means that these are probably the same aliens that John met. It looks like there was only one hive. So, we can assume this planet was just a stop, part of their search for a home. But how long ago were they here?"
He sat back on his heels. "Okay. Let me run this past you." Pointing at various parts of the text as he spoke, he outlined his theory. "Sometime – way, way, way in the past – this group of Ancients came to this part of the galaxy. I don't think they started as a hive. See, here they refer to a council. Or, at least that's what I think it is. Anyway – somehow they were cut off from the rest of the gate network, or the home world anyway. Definitely during the event I told you about, even though they didn't have to endure the Groundhog Day effect. But they mention using the gate after that."
"However, there are no indications that anyone came back through the Stargate," Zhaan said. She pointed towards the sign they had agreed indicated an individual Ancient and then traced a line backward from the Stargate sign.
"Right. No one came back through. So, either they didn't make it through in the first place, or once on the other side they couldn't get back." She nodded. "Which means that is most likely when they lost contact with their home, which if it wasn't P4X-639, then whatever happened there affected more than one world. Past the looping thing, I mean." He paused to consider. "Actually, when you stop to think about it, there had to be some larger effect. I mean, we were only caught up in the loop for a few months, but who knows how long the original loop was. If it were years, then the Gate system could have been thrown out of alignment. The DHD is supposed to correct any problems with drift, but what if being cut off from part of the network causes that part to drift out of…correctable alignment? The Ancients here could get to certain places, but not the ones cut off by the loop. Like Earth, for example. Which is another interesting thought, considering that we don't know what was happening on Earth at that time. No Goa'uld records mention it, so it probably happened before they came to Earth, which means that the Ancients were here at least 10,000 years ago."
He started when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Zhaan stood over him, smiling gently. "Sorry," Daniel said. "Usually, Jack yells at me before I stop and think about things too much."
"If this gate was cut off from the Earth gate, then how did you get here?"
He thought for a moment. "How did we get here? Excellent question. Well, maybe the drift could be corrected from the system that was cut off. I'd have to check with Sam, but since we can override certain parts of the dialing program, I'm guessing that maybe the elapsed time could be taken into consideration and the DHD reprogrammed to compensate. But maybe that only works from one end." She nodded, gesturing for him to go on.
"The Ancients here wouldn't have known about the looping and wouldn't have known to compensate for the time. So, anybody going through the gate would end up in the wrong place." He shuddered at the image created by that idea. "We got this gate address from a planet of the Ancients, so it could have been a corrected one."
He stood and walked around the room. "And as for why they left…maybe they were just trying to get home. And when they failed, they started looking for any home."
Zhaan nodded, and not finding anything else to say, simply nodded again.
"Welcome to Moya," John said, spreading his arms out and turning. Jack sauntered out into the landing bay, while Sam slowly took everything in. D'Argo followed carrying some of the supplies.
Sam remembered something. "Hey, John?" she asked.
He bowed low, folding one hand over his chest and sweeping the other toward the other end of the bay. "Right this way, m'lady."
She walked past him and around another smaller ship. Seeing her goal, she turned back with a big grin on her face. Jack thought, yep, kid in a candy store.
Knocking gently on the Farscape I hull, she said, "She looks a little beat up."
"You try getting knocked across the galaxy and see how you look."
"She still flies?"
John waved his hand in a so-so motion. "More or less."
"I could give you a hand. Fix any major problems," she said eagerly.
"Sammie, sweetheart, I don't think we can take her with us."
"It wouldn't be the first time we've flown something through the gate."
"We'll build another, I promise." He grabbed her hand. "C'mon. I'll give you the grand tour."
Jack pointed to the corridor walls as they walked through the ship. "This is…alive?" When John nodded, he added under his breath, "Why do I feel like Jonah?"
As they walked, John pointed out various things, all of which pretty much went over Jack's head. Mostly because he wasn't paying attention, but that was beside the point. It was a ship. Granted it was alive, but it was still a ship, with ship…things. He noticed that, as usual, Carter was enthralled by what Crichton was saying. Give her five minutes and she'd be able to find her way anywhere on the ship. Give her ten, and she'd know exactly how everything worked. They rounded a corner, Crichton saying something about ventilation, and…
"Whoa." Jack couldn't help himself. As much as he'd seen, you'd think nothing could surprise him, but this….
"Crichton, what is the meaning of this? Who are these people and what are they doing here?"
"They're friends, Rygel. Play nice." John tossed him a small sack. Rygel immediately opened it and grunted minor satisfaction over its contents.
"Can we hope that they came to take you away?"
"Face it, Rygel. You know you'll miss me." John started walking again with a wave to the others to follow, which they did with Jack and Sam on either side, Rygel floating behind them.
"So…what's with Yoda back there?"
John laughed. "Rygel is the deposed ruler of his people. He's a pain in the ass, but mostly harmless, although he'd sell his mother if he thought he could get something out of it."
Something small zipped by their feet. "Again with the whoa," Jack said.
John laughed. "DRD. They're part of the ship's systems, small enough to get into tight spots."
Sam commented, "You know, they kind of look like…"
"The little square robot on wheels from Star Wars?"
"Except with antennas."
"I know. Crazy, ain't it."
"What, exactly, do they do?" Jack asked.
"Fix things, mostly. Occasionally we find more creative uses for them."
"What do you think, Carter? Might be kind of fun to have a few of these around the base. We could use 'em to play jokes on everybody."
"I think, sir, that the General might not appreciate your idea of a joke."
Jack narrowed his eyes. "Ah, you're probably right." He looked at John. "So, what's next on the tour?"
John nodded in the direction of the young woman who had just appeared in front of them and then looked at Jack for his reaction.
O'Neill looked at the woman, shrugged, and said, "I've seen stranger."
