Title: Eros Potion
Author:
Pendaren
E-mail:
Summary: When Sam has a problem can Daniel fix it and does he want to?
Season: Eight
Spoilers: Emancipation, Hathor, Heroes, Between Two Fires, Divide and Conquer, Affinity,
Category: Romance/Angst
Pairing: S/D, S/J, S/P
Rating: PG
Archive: Hopefully
on , The Cartouche, Abydosgate, Heliopolis, my
site... If anyone else wants it go for it, just tell me so I can
visit
Disclaimer: The standard - they don't belong to me, not
even in my wildest dreams so please don't sue me...
Chapter 1
The group of people we encountered were all very interested in Sam. They kept reaching for her hair and her clothes. I could tell she wasn't very happy but she took it without complaint after I told her that they were amazed because she was a grown woman without an anel, the wrist gauntlets that the women wore. They were all either woman or children, no adult or teen males until a shout rang out. Three armed males, one was in his late thirties and two teen boys, approached.
The man looked Teal'c over then turned to give me a similar inspection. His eyes narrowed when they reached Sam but he then proceeded to offer greetings to Teal'c. When I had to translate, his face seemed to relax a bit, but he kept eyeing Carter like she was a piece of meat. As for Sam, she inched between the two of us and it was clear from her expression that she had also observed the man acting like she was property. At that moment I flashed on a memory of her in a blue dress and grabbed her hand to give her a bit of assurance that she was safe even though Jack wasn't here.
She smiled at me and squeezed my hand to reassure me that she was ok, though I could still tell she wasn't too happy at being on another male dominated world.
"I'm Daniel Jackson, this is Teal'c and this is Sam," I barely got to finish as the young teen male interrupted
"She is owned then?" I could hear the disappointment in his voice, "Would you still sell her even though she is named?"
"Sell her? I..." I was so stunned I reverted to English.
"Sell me? Sorry, but I'm not...."
"Sam, please. Don't take this the wrong way but I think we should play along. Those weapons they have look like they could rival ours and I wouldn't want to end up having a fire fight here,"
"Forgive my son, he is a bit impertinent as we have never seen a trader this far to the south," the man said. "My name is Ozorne and these are Ralon, Douglas," he pointed to first the boy who wanted Sam then his other son. "And Garath" The final one was a little boy about seven years old who had been grabbing Sam's pants earlier.
I waited for the rest of the introductions since there were three women and five children but Ozorne didn't say anything else. Instead he beaconed for the oldest girl to approach him.
"She is available. If you were not interested in payment perhaps an exchange would be in order. Your female is after all named and has not yet born you a son. Which of you owns her?" he inquired.
I knew I had to think fast, after all why have to discuss who owns whom. So I blurted out "I do, but she is not for sale. We are just passing through to the village," I nodded politely and grabbed Sam's arm to lead her away from them. She glanced at me like I was crazy and I whispered to her what had transpired. She almost choked when I said I told them I owned her.
"Why did you say that? Couldn't you just explain that we aren't from their world, or follow their culture?"
"Sam, Ralon was chomping at the bit to get you and, if I remember correctly, making male dominated cultures think you aren't owned usually ends up with you being kidnapped or have you forgotten the Shavadai?"
More villagers greeted us as we entered the town and our conversation came to a halt. We went back to our roles of explorers and started to study the people and their society, gathering information on their level of technology. They appeared to have our level of weapons and buildings but had not mastered basic flight or sophisticated medicines. A few hours later, when I began to ask questions like what an anel symbolized, since I saw several women wearing them, the teen named Douglas offered to take us back to his home and explain. He led us to the first house and one of the women who had been outside followed. He gestured for Teal'c and I to take a seat. Instead of sitting down I told Sam to sit in my seat while I stood behind her, my hand on her shoulder.
"I have many questions. Why don't you name all your women at birth? What do the anel's symbolize? Our people don't follow those customs," Sam glanced at his weapon. "And if possible to find items to trade since it appears you have some advanced technology."
"Ah, yes, we are a bit more advance than the other continents. Were you interested in trading for them?" He asked, referring to his weapon, which he handed to me and I passed it down to Sam so she could examine it "I'm sure my father would like to do business with you. He was a bit taken aback when you didn't accept his third born, I guess he didn't expect you to not be interested in female trading since you brought one along with you. Tell me, why is she named if she has never born a son for you? I have never seen a named female that wasn't wearing an anel," Douglas questioned, he glanced at Sam as she started to break down his weapon with skill and his expression was that of amazement.
"So you don't name girls when they are born?" I said to distract him.
"No, that would be absurd to name a female when she can still bear a child and be traded. They are given names when they are presented with an anel. It not only symbolizes they have given birth to a son and are untradable but also prevents them from procreating again. Do you not use similar methods to limit the number of males born where you are from?"
"We don't see a need to limit males, why do you?"
"If we don't limit the male population then there would be too many fights over females. How do your people stop fighting over females? I mean you must have several unmated men with a population that big, or do you consider mates a class distinction and your females cost more? I too am curious about your culture, it sounds intriguing," Douglas began to ramble.
"We don't fight over females much."
"How do you deal with the female shortage then?"
"There are none really, we have roughly ninety-seven men to every hundred women so it works out that more females are unwed than males actually."
"So you only have one mate?" He asked with incredulity. "Wow, I could not imagine a life without the idea of not having at least three wives, when I get older that is. My dream is to have the same as my father, actually he had four but the first died in child birth, but that all depends on if I can afford them all."
I was going to ask some more questions but Ralon entered the house with two of the girls who were dying to get a glimpse of Sam. I could tell he still hadn't given up on the idea of getting his hands on Sam so I gave our leave. Teal'c was the first out the door and I motioned for Sam to go out the door in front of me. She replaced the weapon back on the table and started to get up when Ralon offered his hand to her. She took it thinking he was helping her up but she didn't see the small patch that was on his palm until it was too late. She shut her eyes for a second and Ralon tried to steady her. Instead of opening her eyes and looking at him she instinctively twisted his arm behind his back and shoved him to the ground. I leaned over him and Sam opened her eyes. She looked straight into mine and took a breath.
"Daniel, look at her quick before she looks at someone," Douglas said when he saw the patch on Ralon's hand not seeing that she already had me in her gaze.
"What was that?" Sam exclaimed.
"It is a rare substance that my father's family has created. If you are interested you can purchase some, just mention the Eros petals to my father when you start to negotiate. I will mention my brother's transgression in his attempt at theft of your Sam, it should make him more generous. Please, just don't have him arrested."
"Actually I'm not the negotiator. I'll send some people who are more capable of negotiating in a few days. As it is we have to start heading back to the gate. It took us eight hours to get here and we don't want to be late."
I lead Sam outside and we both went to find Teal'c. "Are you ok? Did that patch do anything to you?"
"Not really, it stung a little but the pain subsided once I opened my eyes. What was it anyways?"
"Apparently it was to steal you from me," I said and grinned.
She flashed a smile back at me and hit me playfully. "You're beginning to sound like General O'Neill more and more, Daniel."
We started on our way back to the gate and enjoyed the fact that because of the planet's rotation we would still have daylight for our entire walk back. The time passed quickly as we made small talk about the people, their technology and how Jack would have loved to be with us once again.