Section 20: Galley Philosophy
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The kitchen was a wreck when Daniel, Sam, and Aeryn found it. It took them until the ship was almost right to get everything cleaned up, so they went ahead and fixed dinner for everyone. Daniel was surprised that there was so little food left from the first aborted attempt at a meal, but Aeryn explained that Rygel had probably eaten some if it in the stress of the attack.
The first thing Aeryn asked them was if they could cook. Sam, with an unapologetic smile had politely begged off leaving Daniel in charge of feeding ten people.
"You know, in almost every culture, cooking is a part of the woman's domain," Daniel told them as he picked out steaks from the fridge. "Even among modern egalitarian societies, originally cooking was the woman's job."
"Well in our modern egalitarian society, I order out," Sam replied.
"Yeah, we noticed," Daniel smiled at her. Both he and Jack had a more extensive culinary repertoire than Sam did, and while spaghetti was good, it was still spaghetti. Sidestepping Sam's swat at his arm before it could do any damage, Daniel turned to Aeryn. "So I guess you guys rotate through kitchen duty?"
Aeryn shrugged where her back was visible from the pantry. "When we eat together." She turned with a bag of mixed vegetables. "Lately, we've mostly been feeding just ourselves."
"Too much trouble?" said Sam.
Aeryn half smiled. "No one wanted to eat with Scorpius or Sikozu. Or Rygel. Or Norianti sometimes. And some of us were avoiding each other."
"Who were you avoiding?" asked Sam curiously.
Aeryn looked at her a moment before saying, "I wasn't. He was."
"John?" Sam guessed with sympathy.
Aeryn nodded and added, "It was more complicated than just our problems. Though they were pretty substantial."
"But you're in the same place with the same people all the time and you need a break from it," Sam finished, nodding. "I know what you mean."
"Hey," said Daniel, pretending to be hurt. "Are you saying we're bad company?"
"I'm saying you're my only company," Sam shot back playfully. "You know I have almost no friends outside of work?"
Daniel thought about it for a moment before nodding and acknowledging that all his friends were work related too, and all his close ones he practically lived with on a daily basis.
"How long have you been working together?" asked Aeryn.
"Six years?" Sam hazarded a guess. "Then there was the year you were gone." Daniel nodded. A lot had happened since he had opened the stargate. Sha'uri, Apophis, murder, mayhem, and new planets. They'd saved the planet countless times, and lost a lot of good people to the fight against the Goa'uld.
"Why did you leave?" Aeryn asked, drawing him back to the present.
"I was, uh, ascended to a higher state of existence," said Daniel. He looked over his shoulder for her reaction and was rewarded with a look of surprise.
"You? You're human." She said it like it was an impossibility.
Daniel shrugged with a smile and flipped over the steaks. "At the time it was something I needed to do."
"Where did you go?"
"Oh I was still around. I don't remember much of that time. I was . . . energy with a conscious I guess you could say."
Aeryn nodded. "You should talk to Stark. He's energy."
"Stark?" asked Sam as surprised as Daniel was by this pronouncement. Daniel had barely seen the masked man; he was jittery around them, wary of getting too close.
"His physical form is real, and he's attached to it, but he can exist without it," Aeryn explained. "His mask covers the opening where his energy comes out."
"Why does he keep it covered?" asked Sam.
"To keep the rest of us safe from it. He can drive someone mad or calm the down."
"I guess we'd fit right in here," Daniel observed. Both Aeryn and Sam looked over at him. "Driving people mad I mean. Well, that and me and Stark being energy. And you two being soldiers. And you and John knowing physics." Daniel frowned and stopped, a half dozen more similarities jumping into his head. It was uncanny. At the table the two women just smiled knowingly at each other in that way of women that was completely universal. They were talking about him without talking, and they barely knew each other. "Anyway," he tried diverting attention away from himself. "Have you decided what you're going to do with the wedding?"
"Wedding?" Sam leapt on the change in subject. "I thought you were already married."
"No, not yet," Aeryn smiled.
"But," Sam paused and glanced from Aeryn to Daniel and back again.
"But what?" asked Aeryn with a confused smile.
"But, the way you act together. I just assumed . . ." Sam answered with a shrug. But Daniel caught the split second hesitation when his teammate changed what she was going to say. Whatever it was, he would have to ask about it later. "So when's the big day?"
"Soon," said Aeryn. "Probably after we figure out how to get you home to your reality and when Chiana is well enough."
"Yeah, I bet she'll really want to be there."
"So what kind of customs do your people have?" asked Daniel. Earlier he and Jack had been kept busy answering questions about Earth traditions. The colonel had for once been the talker, expounding on what he knew and ignoring the questions Daniel had about Aeryn's own people.
"My species?" Aeryn asked.
Daniel nodded yes, "Or your specific culture. Are there many of them?"
"Daniel, let her answer the first question," Sam admonished him gently.
"I don't know," said Aeryn. "I was born a Peacekeeper and they don't have weddings or marriages, or even prolonged relationships. I know the colonies have marriages and families, but I don't know anything about them."
"And the Peacekeepers is your . . . military society?" asked Daniel and Aeryn nodded. Not really surprised, he immediately thought of the Spartans in Ancient Greece and the story where a boy stoically let a baby fox he had found eat out his insides so that the teachers wouldn't discover that he had broken the rules. "That must have been rough growing up in that kind of environment."
"I didn't know anything else," Aeryn shrugged. "It wasn't until I'd left that I knew what had been stolen from me. Like wedding plans." She forced a smile. Taking the hint, Daniel decided not to press. Curious as he was, nothing hinged on painful memories she wasn't willing to discuss. "I think we'll simply make our promises in the Den with the crew. We certainly can't go buy those fancy white dresses you were talking about."
"Hey! I smell food!" Around the corner strode Jack with the rest of Moya's denizens. D'argo and Stark were helping Chiana along, who looked a little better than the last time Daniel had seen her. Rygel followed behind them, and Teal'c, he noticed, kept a wary eye on Norianti from the opposite side of the corridor.
"What's this I hear about dresses? You want one?" asked John as he and Rygel swooped in to check on the food. Daniel frowned at both of them, slightly offended that they didn't trust his cooking abilities, and waved them over to the table.
"No, I don't like dresses," Aeryn replied as John sat down beside her.
"You look damn sexy in them," he shot back. She just gave him a look that could melt iron. "I know, I know," John waved a hand, "can't kick, can't punch, and can't hide a knife worth grabbing. What if we made special pockets?"
"No."
"We could pretend we were Betazoid and go naked."
"No."
"I could just bang you over the head." Again, Aeryn simply glared, though Daniel was sure he saw the glimmer of a grin. "I know," John said with an exaggerated sigh. "You can kick my ass from here into next week before I even know what hit me."
"You're lucky I'm marrying you at all."
The way he looked at her then left no doubt that he was head over heels for her. "I know."
"Oh please!" Rygel broke the moment impatiently. "Let's eat before I lose my appetite to all this disgusting mush."
"Like you would ever lose your appetite," said D'argo sarcastically.
"I'll have you know - "
"Yeah, yeah," "Shut up," at least three people said before the diminutive alien could get going. From his vantagepoint as cook at the stove, Daniel took a moment to just watch everyone as conversation started up. Rygel was still arguing with John about his appetite while the human split his attention between him and Aeryn and Chiana who had asked about the wedding and the baby. Baby? Daniel pulled up short in surprise before chuckling to himself.
On the other side of the table, Jack was trying to explain hockey to D'argo while Sam made unhelpful comments. Beside them, Teal'c, Stark, and Norianti were having a conversation about death that wasn't helped by Noranti's translations or the non-sequitors that seemed to pop out of nowhere.
It was amazing how well they got along considering the very short time they had known each other. Well, maybe not so amazing in light of one rescue, two battles, and nearly exploding - all in less than two days. But Daniel felt it was more than that. He thought back over the similarities he had spouted off earlier to Sam and Aeryn. They were both diverse groups with colorful people who were often at odds with each other, but at the same time as close as family. It was a different dynamic than that of an all military team, and perhaps that was what they recognized in each other.
This motley crew was different than what they normally ran into offworld, that was for certain. And when John spoke up to Pilot, Daniel smiled at the reminder that the ship and her navigator were included in this tightly knit group. He knew then that this was one of the missions that would stay with him and keep him going through the stargate when the wonder wore away to banality. As he dished up the steaks and joined the rest at the table, Daniel thought of the opener from the Star Trek he had watched with Teal'c: "to seek out new life and new civilizations." Well, Moya and her people certainly didn't make up a civilization, far from it, but life . . .more than that. They were truly alive.
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The kitchen was a wreck when Daniel, Sam, and Aeryn found it. It took them until the ship was almost right to get everything cleaned up, so they went ahead and fixed dinner for everyone. Daniel was surprised that there was so little food left from the first aborted attempt at a meal, but Aeryn explained that Rygel had probably eaten some if it in the stress of the attack.
The first thing Aeryn asked them was if they could cook. Sam, with an unapologetic smile had politely begged off leaving Daniel in charge of feeding ten people.
"You know, in almost every culture, cooking is a part of the woman's domain," Daniel told them as he picked out steaks from the fridge. "Even among modern egalitarian societies, originally cooking was the woman's job."
"Well in our modern egalitarian society, I order out," Sam replied.
"Yeah, we noticed," Daniel smiled at her. Both he and Jack had a more extensive culinary repertoire than Sam did, and while spaghetti was good, it was still spaghetti. Sidestepping Sam's swat at his arm before it could do any damage, Daniel turned to Aeryn. "So I guess you guys rotate through kitchen duty?"
Aeryn shrugged where her back was visible from the pantry. "When we eat together." She turned with a bag of mixed vegetables. "Lately, we've mostly been feeding just ourselves."
"Too much trouble?" said Sam.
Aeryn half smiled. "No one wanted to eat with Scorpius or Sikozu. Or Rygel. Or Norianti sometimes. And some of us were avoiding each other."
"Who were you avoiding?" asked Sam curiously.
Aeryn looked at her a moment before saying, "I wasn't. He was."
"John?" Sam guessed with sympathy.
Aeryn nodded and added, "It was more complicated than just our problems. Though they were pretty substantial."
"But you're in the same place with the same people all the time and you need a break from it," Sam finished, nodding. "I know what you mean."
"Hey," said Daniel, pretending to be hurt. "Are you saying we're bad company?"
"I'm saying you're my only company," Sam shot back playfully. "You know I have almost no friends outside of work?"
Daniel thought about it for a moment before nodding and acknowledging that all his friends were work related too, and all his close ones he practically lived with on a daily basis.
"How long have you been working together?" asked Aeryn.
"Six years?" Sam hazarded a guess. "Then there was the year you were gone." Daniel nodded. A lot had happened since he had opened the stargate. Sha'uri, Apophis, murder, mayhem, and new planets. They'd saved the planet countless times, and lost a lot of good people to the fight against the Goa'uld.
"Why did you leave?" Aeryn asked, drawing him back to the present.
"I was, uh, ascended to a higher state of existence," said Daniel. He looked over his shoulder for her reaction and was rewarded with a look of surprise.
"You? You're human." She said it like it was an impossibility.
Daniel shrugged with a smile and flipped over the steaks. "At the time it was something I needed to do."
"Where did you go?"
"Oh I was still around. I don't remember much of that time. I was . . . energy with a conscious I guess you could say."
Aeryn nodded. "You should talk to Stark. He's energy."
"Stark?" asked Sam as surprised as Daniel was by this pronouncement. Daniel had barely seen the masked man; he was jittery around them, wary of getting too close.
"His physical form is real, and he's attached to it, but he can exist without it," Aeryn explained. "His mask covers the opening where his energy comes out."
"Why does he keep it covered?" asked Sam.
"To keep the rest of us safe from it. He can drive someone mad or calm the down."
"I guess we'd fit right in here," Daniel observed. Both Aeryn and Sam looked over at him. "Driving people mad I mean. Well, that and me and Stark being energy. And you two being soldiers. And you and John knowing physics." Daniel frowned and stopped, a half dozen more similarities jumping into his head. It was uncanny. At the table the two women just smiled knowingly at each other in that way of women that was completely universal. They were talking about him without talking, and they barely knew each other. "Anyway," he tried diverting attention away from himself. "Have you decided what you're going to do with the wedding?"
"Wedding?" Sam leapt on the change in subject. "I thought you were already married."
"No, not yet," Aeryn smiled.
"But," Sam paused and glanced from Aeryn to Daniel and back again.
"But what?" asked Aeryn with a confused smile.
"But, the way you act together. I just assumed . . ." Sam answered with a shrug. But Daniel caught the split second hesitation when his teammate changed what she was going to say. Whatever it was, he would have to ask about it later. "So when's the big day?"
"Soon," said Aeryn. "Probably after we figure out how to get you home to your reality and when Chiana is well enough."
"Yeah, I bet she'll really want to be there."
"So what kind of customs do your people have?" asked Daniel. Earlier he and Jack had been kept busy answering questions about Earth traditions. The colonel had for once been the talker, expounding on what he knew and ignoring the questions Daniel had about Aeryn's own people.
"My species?" Aeryn asked.
Daniel nodded yes, "Or your specific culture. Are there many of them?"
"Daniel, let her answer the first question," Sam admonished him gently.
"I don't know," said Aeryn. "I was born a Peacekeeper and they don't have weddings or marriages, or even prolonged relationships. I know the colonies have marriages and families, but I don't know anything about them."
"And the Peacekeepers is your . . . military society?" asked Daniel and Aeryn nodded. Not really surprised, he immediately thought of the Spartans in Ancient Greece and the story where a boy stoically let a baby fox he had found eat out his insides so that the teachers wouldn't discover that he had broken the rules. "That must have been rough growing up in that kind of environment."
"I didn't know anything else," Aeryn shrugged. "It wasn't until I'd left that I knew what had been stolen from me. Like wedding plans." She forced a smile. Taking the hint, Daniel decided not to press. Curious as he was, nothing hinged on painful memories she wasn't willing to discuss. "I think we'll simply make our promises in the Den with the crew. We certainly can't go buy those fancy white dresses you were talking about."
"Hey! I smell food!" Around the corner strode Jack with the rest of Moya's denizens. D'argo and Stark were helping Chiana along, who looked a little better than the last time Daniel had seen her. Rygel followed behind them, and Teal'c, he noticed, kept a wary eye on Norianti from the opposite side of the corridor.
"What's this I hear about dresses? You want one?" asked John as he and Rygel swooped in to check on the food. Daniel frowned at both of them, slightly offended that they didn't trust his cooking abilities, and waved them over to the table.
"No, I don't like dresses," Aeryn replied as John sat down beside her.
"You look damn sexy in them," he shot back. She just gave him a look that could melt iron. "I know, I know," John waved a hand, "can't kick, can't punch, and can't hide a knife worth grabbing. What if we made special pockets?"
"No."
"We could pretend we were Betazoid and go naked."
"No."
"I could just bang you over the head." Again, Aeryn simply glared, though Daniel was sure he saw the glimmer of a grin. "I know," John said with an exaggerated sigh. "You can kick my ass from here into next week before I even know what hit me."
"You're lucky I'm marrying you at all."
The way he looked at her then left no doubt that he was head over heels for her. "I know."
"Oh please!" Rygel broke the moment impatiently. "Let's eat before I lose my appetite to all this disgusting mush."
"Like you would ever lose your appetite," said D'argo sarcastically.
"I'll have you know - "
"Yeah, yeah," "Shut up," at least three people said before the diminutive alien could get going. From his vantagepoint as cook at the stove, Daniel took a moment to just watch everyone as conversation started up. Rygel was still arguing with John about his appetite while the human split his attention between him and Aeryn and Chiana who had asked about the wedding and the baby. Baby? Daniel pulled up short in surprise before chuckling to himself.
On the other side of the table, Jack was trying to explain hockey to D'argo while Sam made unhelpful comments. Beside them, Teal'c, Stark, and Norianti were having a conversation about death that wasn't helped by Noranti's translations or the non-sequitors that seemed to pop out of nowhere.
It was amazing how well they got along considering the very short time they had known each other. Well, maybe not so amazing in light of one rescue, two battles, and nearly exploding - all in less than two days. But Daniel felt it was more than that. He thought back over the similarities he had spouted off earlier to Sam and Aeryn. They were both diverse groups with colorful people who were often at odds with each other, but at the same time as close as family. It was a different dynamic than that of an all military team, and perhaps that was what they recognized in each other.
This motley crew was different than what they normally ran into offworld, that was for certain. And when John spoke up to Pilot, Daniel smiled at the reminder that the ship and her navigator were included in this tightly knit group. He knew then that this was one of the missions that would stay with him and keep him going through the stargate when the wonder wore away to banality. As he dished up the steaks and joined the rest at the table, Daniel thought of the opener from the Star Trek he had watched with Teal'c: "to seek out new life and new civilizations." Well, Moya and her people certainly didn't make up a civilization, far from it, but life . . .more than that. They were truly alive.
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