A Private Hope

"You told them, right? No fried pet or reptile?" Jack asked again.

"They're vegetarians," Daniel repeated behind him.

All afternoon, Jack had been trying to think up a reason why they needed to go home straight away, but none had materialised. He had even considered contacting Hammond to give the General a chance to recall the team. Cooked hamster was a last resort, and even that seemed to be denied to him.

The team walked down the path to Airtor's dwelling. The elder's hut was situated in the outer circle of the village houses, and like the other dwellings it was grown out of a single modified tree stem. Instead of shooting skywards, the plant had been adapted to extend in a giant bulbous growth parallel to the ground and upwards. The dwelling was small, but contained several levels of rooms. Carter had lectured them on the plants superior insulation properties on the way through the village, and Jack was trying hard to forget the more technical details.

Airtor greeted them at the entrance and led them up a narrow step ladder to the dining area. The table, as well as all plates and utensils, were carved out of the same dark wood as the dwelling itself. Candles lit the room, and Jack saw that Yeroon and her predatory friend Lestarta were already seated. Airtor took her place at the head of the table, next to the girls, and gestured for them to sit down.

Moments later, Medran entered, with Ellen and another Escuvaran trailing behind him. Ilthen was introduced as another bio-engineering expert, and immediately fell into conversation with Carter about the finer points of DNA-resequencing.

"Have you found what you were looking for, Daniel Jackson?" Airtor asked mildly.

Her grey hair was braided in long plaits, and her daughter had imitated the style with very flattering results.

"No, nothing yet. We were hoping to hear a little more about your people and village here on Escuvar," Daniel said.

Airtor seemed pleased by the request and passed it on to the girls, who were only too eager to fill Daniel in.

"We are the free people of Escuvar." Yeroon said.

"Our creed is to live as one with the forest, and to bring bounty and peace wherever we go." Lestarta informed him, her eyes glittering.

"That's nice," Jack murmured. That girl was trouble. He took a sip of the herbal tea Airtor had placed before him. It tasted like pond water, and he grimaced.

"But have you always been here? I mean have you always lived this way? I'm just puzzled because the temple doesn't seem like the kind of thing your people would need…"

Daniel noticed Lestarta's confused expression and tailed off. The girl averted her eyes from the archaeologist, her previous boldness forgotten. There was a brief silence.

"Then you have found nothing inside the temple to explain why it was built?" Ellen asked from the other end of the table.

Daniel choked on his drink.

"I haven't -…" He coughed, eyes watering behind his glasses. "I haven't actually managed to get inside the temple yet."

Ellen seemed startled, but caught herself.

"I'm sorry. I was mistaken."

Ilthen paused in his chat with Carter. The five Escuvarans looked at Daniel, silent and grave. Jack saw Ellen exchange a look with Lestarta. Ellen gave a minute shake of the head and the girl looked back at the table, listlessly stabbing at her food.

Jack stopped chewing and swallowed, squishy vegetable slowly sliding down his throat. Parties with telepaths were definitely no fun. The Escuvarans seemed to come to a decision and as one resumed their dinner. O'Neill glared at Daniel, but the archaeologist pointedly ignored him.

"Major Carter, how did you like your tour of our growing centre?" Medran asked unnecessarily loudly.

"Very much, thank you. I was telling Colonel O'Neill how advanced your technologies are."

"I was likewise much impressed with your mastery of the powers of the mind, Medran," Teal'c said.

The envoy smiled. "It is gift, not a skill to our people. One cannot take pride in what is given freely."

The conversation lurched on, but O'Neill could tell from Daniel's guilty expression that something was going on. He waited until they had been despatched to their own hut for the night, a hastily abandoned two-storey structure where Carter would take the luxury of the upper chamber with the other three sharing the lower room.

Jack held Daniel back at the entrance and let the others go inside.

"I want to know what's going on. And don't even try to lie to me. I saw the way the Escuvarans looked at you when you said you hadn't been in the temple."

"It doesn't matter." Daniel tried to walk around him and Jack grabbed his shirt sleeve.

"You bet it matters. The only way these guys can know you were in that thing is if Ellen knows. And fancy that, she does know! I just wonder how?"

Daniel carefully extracted his shirt from O'Neill's grip.

"It's not what you think."

"Oh please, enlighten me." Jack hissed.

"Lestarta and Yeroon saw coming out of the temple. I thought they hadn't, but…"

Jack's shoulders slumped in relief.

"That's it? The girls saw you coming out? None of that connection shit with Ellen? Because if it's that stuff going on, we're out of here-"

"It's not, OK? It's not that."

Daniel took a deep breath. He had to sound calm, or Jack would make good on his word and haul him back to Earth before he even got a chance to look at the lab in the temple properly.

"It's Karttikeya's temple. I tried the same combination to get in as before, and it worked. Inside is just a lab. I think he was experimenting with the local fauna, and the Escuvarans picked up on his knowledge."

Jack smiled to himself.

"And that's why they're so advanced? Isn't that something…"

A thought made full circle in Jack's brain and materialised as a frown.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?"

Bright moonlight fell through the branches above. The village lay tranquil and asleep, but Daniel didn't feel the stillness around him. Had he been wrong to lie to Jack? Part of him looked at it as a simple business transaction. He had needed to get into the temple. Jack would have made that difficult, if not impossible. The other part, the part that was no longer only Daniel, instinctively knew that to be wrong, and the difference grated on his mind.

He wanted the comfort of his own convictions, the safety of his own demons. His life had been reshuffled like an old deck of cards, without care or consideration, and he was tired, tired of it all.

All he had wanted was to get into the temple and find some hint, some explanation of what had happened to him. He wasn't looking for some cosmic statement of universal purpose anymore. All he wanted was for it to end.

Jack was still waiting for him to explain. And with all the languages that he had studied and spoken, Daniel knew he didn't have the words to make his friend understand.

"I was looking for an answer," he said simply, and walked into the dwelling.