I would like to thank all of you who have not only read but commented on my little story. Reading back over it I see what you mean. I was bored!!! I am sorry O'Neil has been so serious but I don't think I am near as witty as he is so I didn't try. I hope this chapter has a little more punch in it. I am glad so many of you are enjoying this. J
P.S. Please let me know if I mess anything up or if I'm not getting better. I would hate to keep boring you!
Chapter 4
Shay was feeling more guilty than she had ever felt in her life. Not only had she been misleading these people, (If not lying to them outright) but she was playing games with them by dropping clues for them to puzzle out. She was hoping that the team would figure the truth out for themselves and that would soften the blow. She kept telling herself 'I have to lie to them, it could be bad if I tell them the truth.' But deep down she hated herself for it. Shay was torn between the thought that they might not be able to handle the truth and the 'What if they can?'
After leaving Sam and the rest of SG1, Shay headed for the room that had been loaned to her. Everything she owned had been grimy and slightly damp when she arrived so after her shower so she had dressed in the sweat pants and tee shirt Sam had given her. When she got to her room her own clothes were on the bed in a neat stack, having just been laundered. Shay decided to wear the sarong style dress she had picked up in her travels and the sandals she had worn to the beach the day she left home. She packed the rest of her belongings into her backpack and left to find the commissary.
Sam was waiting when she finally made it to the commissary. Shay had noticed the appreciative looks some of the men had given her and wondered if she had overdressed. "I hope this is okay," Shay said smoothing her dress. It was a deep red-brown color and had an intricate design of brightly colored flowers around the top and at the hem, all done with tiny hand carved seed beads. "I don't have a lot of clothes and it was this or khaki."
"It's beautiful, and very seasonal. Where did you get it?"
Shay screwed up her face, trying to remember the exact place. "On my forty-seventh planet, I think. I performed CPR on a local girl and the mother was very grateful."
Sam raised her eyebrows; an impressed look on her face.
"She got in water over her head playing in the river. It wasn't a big thing. I just got to her first. This was supposed to go to the daughter when she was old enough but her mother said 'If not for you my daughter would never again wear clothes.' What could I say?"
Shay seemed embarrassed so Sam smiled and let it drop. "Are you ready to go?"
* * *
While the girls were out, Jack Daniel and Teal'c were examining the records Shay had copied. Daniel had volunteered and Teal'c was there to see if he recognized anything that Daniel didn't. Jack was just bored. All three crammed into Daniel's tiny office, which was already crowded with assorted books and artifacts. Daniel sat in front of the computer with Teal'c nearby. Jack, meanwhile, roamed around the room looking at (and touching) the various artifacts, making comments when Daniel read something aloud.
"This reads like a cross between a personal journal and a letter to someone you don't like. She keeps saying how glad she is to finally be taking this 'marvelous vacation' and 'I wish you could be here to enjoy this fabulous view.' Shay is definitely an excellent writer though. Listen to this 'The surroundings sometimes amaze me. There are promenades and paths that criss and cross through tall trees. Every tremendous tree seems to be spotted with tiny jade jewels that glisten and glimmer when the faintly filtered sunlight spots them.' I think she was trying to be funny." Daniel frowned a bit. The scientist in him was annoyed at the levity in a serious report but he was also impressed that she had managed to keep a sense of humor. "She actually sounds a little like you Jack"
"I don't do alliteration, I do sarcasm." Jack defended himself from the corner
"Try this one then. She seems to have been writing it from a very muddy place. 'I have a very great deal to report about this planet. It seems to be a little damp but otherwise it is a wonderful place. I am considering setting up camp here permanently. I would like to thank you for being so considerate and not making me wake up for something so small as being moved to a new planet. I so love to wake up in a strange place with insects and fragrant moss all over me. In the meantime I have explored thoroughly and am loathe to leave with so many fabulous things to look at. Who knew that mud came in so many different scents! I am having the time of my life! Wish YOU were here! J ' I paraphrased that but you get the idea."
"I would never write that in a report."
"You would say it though, complete with the smiley face. You're just smart enough not to put it in writing."
Jack grinned "I'm smart?"
"I said you were 'just smart enough'." Daniel corrected him
Teal'c uncharacteristically interrupted them "There seems to be a discrepancy here Daniel Jackson."
Daniel instantly turned to the computer. "Where… Oh that's interesting."
"What's interesting?" Jack was looking over Daniel's shoulder trying to see what was causing the trouble.
"Well it seems that Shay numbered her entries after about the third or fourth one by titling them "The sixth planet… The nineteenth planet… and so on. She later added a subtitle when she learned the actual name of the planet."
"Kind of like we do?" Jack interrupted.
"Yes but that is not the unusual part. Here it skips from the tenth planet to the twelfth and again here it skips from the twenty-second to the twenty-fifth. Also, There are very few personal entries. There are some, but not very many."
"Not everyone loves to talk like you do. I wouldn't have written very much."
"You would have written 'Lots of trees' that's no comparison. But Shay does like to talk and she is very wordy when she writes."
"Might she not have kept a separate private journal that she did not feel like sharing?" Teal'c asked
"I suppose that is very possible but it doesn't explain the missing entries."
"She got bored with doing the numbers in order?"
"Or she didn't want us to know what was in those reports."
* * *
Shay was even more miserable when she returned to the base. Sam was being just fabulous. She had known exactly what Shay would love to do. They had gone window shopping at the local mall and then they went to see a movie. They had had pizza and ice cream for dinner. All of these had been suggested by Sam. On the way back to the base, Shay asked how Sam had known just what she really wanted to do most.
"I just thought what I would miss if I had to be off planet for three years and suggested some of the things on that list. I can't imagine what you must have gone through." The sudden sympathy in Sam's voice startled Shay
"It wasn't all bad you know." Shay tried to lighten the mood. "I've been some really fabulous places. I got to visit a planet where the sky was always changing colors, like it was sunset all the time and I saw one where everyone lived in tree houses. I got to ride on the back of a bird and I even saw a real unicorn once."
"A real unicorn?" Sam was incredulous.
"It was all white and looked like a cross between a horse and a goat. It had a golden horn and hooves and didn't like men to touch it."
"I would have loved to see that."
"That was a really great planet. The women ruled as queens but they didn't mistreat the men or anything. The rulers were chosen because they were the nicest and most gentle. After being elected each ruler held a parade and rode at the head of it on the back of a unicorn." Shay sighed wistfully, lost in a memory for just a moment. "I saw a lot of supposedly mythical things when I was travelling."
Sam was smiling slightly now and Shay grinned at her success. She was already lying to her new friend and didn't want her to be tied up with pity as well.
