After the rest, no one spoke much. SG-1 was deep in thought, and it seemed that the rest of the company was as well. Iablaka kept throwing glances at them, sometimes in anger sometimes in something else, maybe pity. Vozem and Kaia took to speaking in hushed voices among themselves, discussing the way the battle had gone: the Chitkina people had lost the battle, the Sailen had indeed buried the Stardoor and had, foolishly, burned or taken whatever gear SG-1 had left behind. Stari listened to the discussion patiently, occasionally jumping in, mostly nodding. The girls, Alma and Koshka, seeme bored, really bored. They rode silently, one in front of the other, their eyes simply looking forward. Malinki rode behind them all, and O´Neill noticed he mostly stared at Iablaka, and looked worried. It was another couple of hours before they stopped again, the mountains now looked considerably closer.

They all got off the horses, let them loose and sat in a circle. Neither Kaia not Vozem spoke much, they were deep in thought, finally, it was Stari who decided to speak to the strangers.

"You are surprised to hear of the events in our history, yes?"

"You could say that." Replied O´Neill.

"Our world is complicated, as I´m sure yours is but.....you do not undersand ours. You also worry about going back to your home, yes?"

"A little."

"It weights heavily on your minds. All of your minds. Do not worry, the Gyffins may be stubborn, sometimes even foolish, but they understand as well as the rest of us the danger of you staying here."

"So these, Gyffins, they´re just gonna let us dial home?"

"Yes. I know Kaia would have you remain for some time, she wishes to learn from you. She would even push so that you would be allowed to return but.....that may not ever be possible. Our world is falling appart, but still, we will help you, if we can."

Silence was the only answer to the old man´s offering because what SG-1 wanted from them, they weren´t too sure if they should even ask for. Stari didn´t look at them, but stared at the sky for a while, he suddenly sighed.

"You wish to learn how we rejected the parasites but you are afraid to ask. Do not be. Depending on the situation of our forces and our relations with the human leader, Kaia may just come with you. She truly believes now that your planet is the "Slave Planet" if that is so, then it was also our home. She trusts you, she knows you would not lead her into harm but....." His voice dropped to just above a whisper, "I know there are dangers on your planet. I have seen them through you. Your world is divided too, and into a lot more pieces than ours. Even among your own men, some are not trustworthy, Kaia believes you would protect her from these men but I must ask you now, would you really?"

O´Neill looked at the rest of the company and his team. He couldn´t explain it, but even though Kaia had meddled inside his head without his permission, he still tursted her. She had told them everything they had asked and she seemed to only want to send them on their way. Had the circumstances been different and he´d been the one to save Kaia, he wasn´t sure he would of trusted her with so much information. He was still trying to answer the old man when the girls returned, looking much happier than before. His train of thought was lost, when did those girls leave anyway?

They had apparently gone in search of food. They had found very little, but they did manage to fill some water bags which they had apparently carried off when no one else had been looking. They spoke hurriedly in a language that no one on SG-1 understood, Kaia smiled at them. With just one word, the girls were off again, they went to fetch the bags they had left with the rest of the equipment, they took out food and drink and it suddenly seemed as if everyone´s brooding mood was gone. O´Neill wasn´t too sure he wanted to cheer up and forget quite so quickly but he couldn´t help it, there was something about these people that just made him.....not worry. In the back of his mind he suspected this wasn´t right, but it was hard to listen to the little voice when he was among these people.

The meal wasn´t much according to the vridga: just some of the cookie- things (a term which Iablaka insisted they stop using), something which looked like water but sure as hell was not, and dried fruit. After eating, both girls went off again, Malinki convinced Iablaka to go with him to fetch the horses, Stari laid back and slept and Kaia and Vozem started telling SG-1 about the battles they´d seen and about the people they fought.

Now, the important thing wasn´t what was said: it was the usual "they are bad, ruthless, evil people" and they were the "good and brave warriors which fought them off" but, the scene that was playing out in front of O´Neills eyes was almost too much for his "must.-keep-some-regulations-from- the-military-mind". Kaia was leaning on Vozem´s shoulder in the most casual way, and Vozem´s arms was around Kaia. All this was going on while they were discussing battles and death and having arguments about the best strategy to lead the vridga.....it was just surreal. They had military minds, they had military costums and they had military rules expect for that whole fraternizing "thing".

After a while the conversation started shifting topics and Daniel suddenly took over the questioning, he asked about their legends, their history, their system of government. Teal´c seemed very interested in their trainig as warriors, he even asked a few questions himself and compared certain techniques with those of the Jaffa. It was in this conversation they learned that there were still some Jaffa left. They were no longer loyal to any Goa´uld, but they kept their own ways and some of them even still carried symbionts. Humans didn´t really trust them, but the Chitkina people had no problem with them, there were even a few that had become Niseos or Padeos and had fought the Sailen. On this point, Teal´c questioned Vozem heavily, and he even got a promise that they may meet some of the Jaffa of this world. He didn´t show it, but inside he was most curious and even, a little excited. He´d never been anywhere else where the Jaffa had been free of their masters and lived in peace before. Daniel continued to question Kaia about her people. She had the patience of a saint, thought O´Neill, she didn´t seem to grow tired of Daniel´s questions and she repeated the answers over and over until they made some sort of sense to the archeologist.

That left Sam and O´Neill. They sat next to each other, in silence. Both of their minds were occupied with the same thought. Their military side couldn´t quite yet come to trust a world that was not ruled by the strictest of rules and yet, a part of them started seeing it their way. It wasn´t fair! Why should feelings be kept in check, under control, always? Feelings were part of being a person, you couldn´t just throw them away! Could you?