The Nebula

Out of the darkness, there was light. Diamond sparks of stars erupted out of the eternal night, illuminating clouds of pink and purple gases swirling across the horizon in the ever-changing formations of a new dawn. The vista was framed by grey solid ribs running along the edges of the hull window, and up into the ceiling to fuse into a curved spine along the centre of the cell.
Below, the ground was covered in large scales, dulled by hundreds of feet that had walked upon them. Light fell into the cell and Daniel turned towards it. A man appeared at the doorway, hesitating before he strode into the room. And before Daniel could reach out, before he could warn the woman crouching on the floor or make himself known, the connection ended in a glaring flash of pain. Daniel shuddered and took a gasping breath.
He opened his eyes, slowly focussing on the blurred light of the candle in front of him.
"Did you manage to make contact, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked.
Daniel rose from his cross-legged position, fishing for his glasses in his shirt pocket.
"Uh, yes and no. Just images of some kind of nebula, pink gases... nothing specific."
"What kind of nebula?" Carter asked.
"A pink one?"
She snorted in disgust.
"That's not really helping, is it?" O'Neill muttered with a frown.
"I don't know, Sir. I can check the outlying regions of Escuvar, but without any parameter of the ship's speed and capacity, that doesn't really narrow it down much."
The Colonel got up and shook out his legs. "Get on it. Daniel, get some sleep. You look like crap."
Their footfalls were silent on the solid wood despite their army boots. At the door, Medran turned back, his eyes alight in the glow of the Escuvaran moon.
"Thank you for trying."
He ducked out of the opening in the tree dwelling and disappeared down the narrow walkway. Daniel lit another candle and emptied his back pack onto the low table in the centre of the room. Data discs and lab reports, all filled with Karttikeya's meticulous handwriting, spilled over the dark wood. The answer had to be in the Gou'ald's notes. They had tried everything else, and a this point, any hint would do. He went through the crystals, discarding any that dealt with Karttikeya's experiments on the local fauna. It was humans they were interested in, not animals. The paper notes were almost exclusively about Karttikeya's attempts to increase the Escuvaran's telepathic abilities, and their usefulness as his servants. The records stopped abruptly several generations ago, and there was no mention of any raids or neighbouring aliens of any kind. He let the papers sink. There was no answer in the notes, nothing that could help them.
The archaeologist took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose, suddenly tired. In one of the neighbouring dwellings, a child woke and was soothed back to sleep. The only sounds were the calls of the native night birds. He closed his eyes and the universe slowed. There was a silence and a stillness, the deep calm of water before the pebble breaks the surface and turns it to motion.
There was a dull ache and he automatically moved his jaw, testing for mobility. Only the pain wasn't his own. He stepped out of the sensation and his vision cleared into two different realities, separate and distinct. Before him, candle flames flickered and were reflected in the polished grain of the table, but the homely scene was overlaid by ribbed hull wall with large round window leading out into the brilliancy of the nebula. He turned to see Ellen sitting on the scaly floor, her back wedged between a pair of wall ribs. There was a deepening bruise on her left cheek.
"I didn't think you'd be back," she said calmly.
"I know. I'm sorry."
She shrugged off his apology as if they were talking about the weather. "It was never meant to be."
Daniel wanted to tell her that things were different now, that he finally understood, but this wasn't the time.
"Do you know where we are?" he asked instead.
She shook her head and he looked out of the window again, where the nebula circulated and heaved against the black sky in majestic indifference. The cell door opened and two Ousters entered. They were dressed in a kind of flexible body armour. The surface of their gear looked soft and organic and at the same time rock solid. One of the men pulled off his face mask. It made a strange sucking noise and Daniel realised the suits were their life support system.
The Ouster's black hair was braided in tight corn rows against his skull, and under his eye brows, his pale blue eyes were almost fluorescent in the dim light of the room. He stood silently for a moment, exchanged a glance with his companion, and crouched before Ellen. He spoke a single word, his voice reverberating around the room. Ellen stared at him, defiant. He spoke again, his tone more impatient. Ellen shook her head, and slowly said the Escuvaran word for No.
A startled expression crossed the man's face and he got to his feet. He left the room with a muttered command to his companion. The other stepped forward, gave Ellen a cursory slap and slammed the cell door shut behind him.
"That wasn't too bad," Ellen mumbled, on hand on her chin.
Daniel knelt beside her. "I will find you." He touched his hand to the bruise on her face. "I promise."
He opened his eyes and the solidity of the room rushed back with almost painful clarity. Daniel jumped to his feet and nearly fell when his leg, asleep from awkward position he had been sitting in, refused to carry his weight. He ignored the tingling and limped out onto the walkway. He had to find the others and tell them. Medran was surprised, but quickly agreed to summon the rest of the team. Daniel hopped back into the dwelling, pacing excitedly until the others filed in.
"I know how to find them," he burst out.
"You know where they are? How?" Sam asked.
"How doesn't really matter," Daniel said with a sideways glance at O'Neill. "And I don't exactly know where they are, but I know how to find them." He paused, four faces turned towards him expectantly. "They're Escuvarans."
"None of our people would do such a thing," Medran spluttered indignantly.
"That's it? They're Escuvarans?" Jack asked in disbelief. Daniel waved him off impatiently. "It's their eyes. Sam, Teal'c, you saw the raiding party. Did you see their eyes?"
Medran nodded slowly, understanding dawning on his face.
"They were blue. Like the Escuvarans," Teal'c said.
"I think that's why they took Ellen and left Sam behind. Her eyes had changed, and they thought she was one of them."
Jack looked from one to the other. "So they took her because her eyes had changed to that creepy colour?"
Medran gave him a piqued look and O'Neill tailed off to a mumble. "Anyway, so how does that help us?"
"Sir, if the Ousters display the same eye colouring, then they must be exposed to the same form of radiation." "Then you can find them?" The hope in the Escuvaran's face was almost pathetic. Sam smiled at him.
"We have a good chance."
"Uh, Carter?"
"Sir?"
"About that radiation thing. How long does it take before it makes your eyes change?"
She suppressed a smile. "I would worry about it, Sir."
TBC…