Chapter 32 – Dreams and Determination

Daniel awoke to find the Major curled up beside him, their two blankets combined.

"Major?" Daniel asked, his voice raspy.

"I'm sorry, Daniel, but the temperature has dropped considerably…we wouldn't make it through the night if we don't combine our body heat."

"No, that's okay. It's just that it gets even harder to breathe if your arm's pushing down on my broken ribs…"

"Oh, my God! I'm sorry!" Alex moved her arm from where it had crossed his chest down farther so that it rested on his stomach.

"That's better," he said, and his stomach rumbled.

"Daniel?" He could hear the smile in Alex's voice.

"It was my Joltgun, I swear," he replied and, laughing, they fell back asleep.

Daniel felt cold as he woke up again from a half-sleep. He also felt pain from his leg and ribs, but it was mostly the cold that was bothering him. Aware again of the Major's arm around his stomach, he heard her sigh slightly and shift in her sleep, pulling herself a bit closer to him as she pulled the blanket farther upward. Looking down at her, Daniel once again experienced the weird feeling in his stomach and he hoped her arm would stay where it was. Wondering why he felt the way he did from Alexandra's arm around him, Daniel drifted back into a troubled sleep.

It was night outside, but he was inside a golden-lit room with a huge ceiling and sweeping columns that gave one a feeling of worthlessness and smallness. Looking around, he saw at the back of the room a huge lotus flower like the ones they had back in Egypt—the flowers that, according to Egyptian mythology, were to have grown from the new land and spawned the sun god Ra.

Walking up to it, he inspected it and saw a most peculiar sight. Even as he saw all the proper Egyptian decorations for the lotus, he also began to see different decorations that were from the Greek civilization, or so that was how Daniel had learned in school.

How strange, Daniel thought, running his hand over an Egyptian hieroglyph. Greek and Egyptian art has never been seen before together like this. I wonder if it's a mistake. Looking at a set of hieroglyphics more closely, he quickly translated it.

"'Made for the use and prosperity of Khem, the Ushebti,'" Daniel muttered. "Khem was what the Ancient Egyptians on Earth called their land, Egypt. Ushebti translates to 'answerer' and was a carved wooden figurine that would be in the pharaoh's burial chamber to do the work for him in the afterlife."

Trying to make sense if it all, Daniel translated the crude Greek carved into the lotus next to the Egyptian. "Conquered and taken for use by the…hmm. Dunno what that symbol is. Must be…ah, that is what I thought. Conquered and taken for use by the Androidians. Of course…why didn't I think of that in the first place?"

Starting to explore some more, he let down his guard a little. Suddenly, just as he touched another cartouche, this one in the center of the two outer petals, the lotus began to glow slightly. Stepping away from it, Daniel watched in amazement as the petals began to unfold one by one, revealing a cavity that was big enough to hold two people inside it.

"Whoa," Daniel muttered, looking inside of it. It was gold, just like the room, but there were also holes spaced around in it where very dark glass had been inlayed. Straining to look in the glass, Daniel could see nothing.

Stepping into the lotus for a better view, Daniel found a scarab button in the inside panel of the lotus. Wondering what it could be, he pushed it, and the lotus began to seal it petals, locking him inside.

"Get me out of here!" he yelled while sitting up, only to fall back down again, grimacing at the pain in his ribs.

"Daniel, are you all right? What is it?" Alex asked in alarm from beside him, raising her head to lean on his shoulder, pulling her arm tighter around him. "Was it a nightmare?"

"I think it was a vision," Daniel gasped while trying to recall every slight detail, "only it was different than how I saw you and Zeus. It was of a giant flower...an Egyptian lotus blossom."

Alex gasped. "What exactly did you see?" she asked.

"A lotus flower that was a foot taller than I am was before me, with both Egyptian and Greek inscriptions on it. I was exploring it and I touched a cartouche on it. The petals of the flower then unfolded and I stepped into it. It closed when I pushed a scarab button on the inside. I was trapped, and that's the last thing I remember." Daniel was shaken as he retold of what he had saw. Alex could sense that, and held onto his arm in a reassuring manner. It worked for him.

"What you saw Daniel, is an Androidian device, called the Lotus…it is similar to the old Goa'uld sarcophagus. Even if you are close to death, it can revive you within a certain time period if used properly—death, however, it cannot repair unless you are a high-ranking Androidian; then, within a period of two days can you be revived from death. The Androidians use it to keep renewing their bodies and symbiotes—that's how they're able to have lived for over a thousand or so years.

"It works as an energy charge that stimulates the body's ability to heal itself at an even more rapid rate, giving the user virtual immortality. But, after a long while of using it, the user eventually goes insane, as we have found—which explains the Androidian gods and goddesses. It's best if you don't use it unless the need is very dire."

"Whoa," Daniel muttered as he looked down at her. "That's pretty intense stuff."

"Yes it is. Try to get more rest. Your body needs a lot if you're not going to let me heal you."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, and drifted off in a semi-slumber once again.

The Spacegate shut off as the probe once again rolled down the ramp. Dude, who had been controlling it, slammed the controller down on the table in frustration.

"Dudes, I'm not liking this!" he yelled as he crossed yet another planet off of the long lists of potential planets where Daniel and Alex could be. "We have only three more planets!"

"Damn," John said as he snatched the list from the Captain. "Let's hope they're on one of the three."

"Yes, sir, totally. But what if they're on one of the other planets?"

"Then let us all hope that they are not," Dagón said, pulling his long hair back into a ponytail.

"Yeah," the other two men agreed and started dialing out to another planet again, hoping that that would be the one where Daniel and Alex would be.

Daniel awoke again to the sound of chipping ice and the absence of a certain Major next to him. Carefully easing himself into a sitting position, the linguist looked over to where the Major was supposed to be and couldn't see her. Putting his hand up to his comm, he turned the volume up again and pushed the button.

"Alex?" he asked in a raspy voice.

There came no reply, but only a yelp of surprise from where she was. There was a moment or two of silence and Alex showed up next to Daniel, a worried expression on her face.

"What is it, Daniel?"

Daniel tried to hide a smile. "I was just wondering where you were and wanted to know if you wanted pancakes or waffles this morning."

Alex smiled. "Pancakes? Waffles? Right. I think I'm so hungry, however, that whatever you cook'll be wonderful."

"Ah. Okay. You doubt my skills as a gourmet chef? Oh, all right…so do I. I'll just get started." Daniel began to rifle through the backpack they had filled with all their food rations.

"I'll go back to chopping ice with my trusty knife, if you'll allow me. I'm almost to the dialing face." Alex seemed impatient, but Daniel could see that she'd stay with him if he wanted her to. Smiling, he gestured in the direction where the DOC was.

"Go ahead. I'll call you when your gourmet meal's done."

"Oh, yes…that'd be very nice," she said with a laugh and went back to what she had been doing.

The chipping noise resumed as Daniel started the flame to cook their food with. He knew there were some biscuits in the food supply with sausages and some dried fruit. The linguist also knew that they had some Whoosh with them, as well, which would be a good thing to keep them going until they had the DOC free of its ice prison.

Twenty minutes later, the aroma of cooking food brought Alex back to Daniel without being called.

"Oh, that smells good!" she exclaimed as Daniel looked up at her, a shiver running down his body.

"I'm so cold," he said, his teeth beginning to chatter as he began to dish out the food. "I have two thermal blankets on, but it's still so cold…"

"Daniel, you have major interior damage. The blood loss from that is draining your life. You're dying, Daniel, and I won't live with myself if you do because there's something I can do that can stop it now."

"I know, I know…but I don't want you to. Now let's eat. I'll help you dig out the DOC when we're done."

Not bothering to argue, Alex sat next to Daniel and they ate their breakfast in a contemplative silence.

"Almost there," Alex grunted as she helped Daniel walk towards the DOC, his leg giving out on him while he dragged all of their supplies behind them; they wanted to stay closer to the Dial-Out Computer.

"Here we go," Daniel said and sank to the ground, his torso leaning against the DOC, his knife poised to chop. "Thanks," he said while looking up at Alex and they began to chip away the ice little by little.

Their task was almost done. The DOC was almost excavated, and Daniel could feel his energy draining even faster now. But, as stubborn as he was, he kept going, trying to help Alex in any way he could. Looking down at his chest, he thought he saw a hint of blood, but wasn't sure in the dim light. Trying to look even closer, Alex let out an elated yell.

"We did it! We did it, Daniel! It's uncovered! All we have to do is dial home!"

"That's great. Start dialing," the linguist said and started coughing raggedly, blood spraying from his lips. Trying to hide the blood before she saw it, Daniel covered his mouth and turned away, coughing even more. Looking at him with a worried expression, she nodded and began to put in the symbols for the Karma.

"Five…where's that symbol? Ah, there it is. Okay, six…"

Daniel, his coughing fit over, lay on his stomach and looked around the corner to where he could faintly see the Spacegate. The side he saw, he could see the symbols reluctantly light up on the middle spinning ring as the other 'room' lit up briefly, signifying that the Spacegate was scanning the symbols.

"Here it goes," he heard Alex say and heard her press the middle Orb with their home symbol in it. In the other room, he heard the Spacegate begin to vibrate violently, and he heard huge crashing noises come from there. Huge chunks of ice had fallen and blocked their way

Alex, not caring what happened to herself, rushed to a place where she could see what was happening and cried out.

"Damn it!" she screamed, pounding the ice wall with her fist. "Damn it! Why does this have to happen?"

"I don't know," Daniel said, and began coughing again. "I guess we're stuck here for a while." The puddle of blood beneath his head and hands grew larger every time he coughed. Alex crouched down before him and made him look into her eyes.

"Daniel, I don't care about what you're going to say to me. We're stuck here and there's nothing we can do about it. You're also dying; I know that as a fact. And as you keep getting worse and worse, my ability to heal you gets fainter and fainter. I'm healing you now, Daniel, before I lose you."

"But—" Daniel tried to say, but Alex cut him off.

"Daniel, we both have a greater chance of surviving here if we're together—and don't give me that crap that if you die, then I'll have more supplies. I'm healing you, and that's that!"

Daniel looked deeper into her eyes and knew she meant it and that nothing was going to stop her. Nodding, Daniel flopped backwards onto his back and sighed, defeated. "Go ahead," he said, feeling even more drained by those two words alone.

Looking down at him, Alex placed a hand lightly on his chest and another one on his broken leg and sat there, closing her eyes and regulating her breathing.

At first, Daniel felt nothing; but, then there was a warm tingling feeling rushing all over from where her hands touched him. His entire body became hot, almost burning, as if a fever had infected him suddenly. Then, as quickly as it started, it stopped, and Daniel opened his eyes.

Above him, Alex was smiling with her eyes partially open. "It's done," she said, and fell into his arms, physically and mentally drained beyond the breaking point—asleep before he caught her. Daniel, feeling as if nothing had happened to him in the first place, sat up with ease for the first time and gathered the Major into his arms, trying to keep her warm and safe. Pulling a thermal blanket around and under them, Daniel just sat there, holding Alex, thankful that she was with him and was able to heal him. Now, he knew, he needed to return the favor.