Now he was back on this planet again and almost as clueless as when he had left. SG-50 spread out, securing the area but Daniel sat down on one of the lower stones in the pile to the left of the gate. He leaned back against a massive block resting half on his seat and half on a neighboring stone, hoping for inspiration. The stone was cool against him on what seemed like a spring day. In reality, it could be any time of year with no more than Daniel remembered of the planet.
As a civilian, he obviously wasn't in command -- that was the role of SG-50's Colonel Harris -- but he was still expected to provide leadership, to point them in the right direction to look for Danny's mother and try to discover what had happened to Daniel himself on this planet. He had been so convinced that all he had to do was get back here and things would start to fall in place but nothing had come to him yet. To complicate matters, his problems at home crept crowding in, particularly his son's pregnant girl friend and Sam's unwillingness to agree that she and Daniel would take the baby and raise it
Daniel closed his eyes and let the dream about his past on this planet play here in daylight when he was awake and could scrutinize it instead of being its captive. The girl in the dream was in her late teens with sadness and panic in her eyes. At times, it seemed like she was Sha're. In the dream, he felt both overwhelming disgust for himself and red-hot desire for her at the same time. They were in some sort of a cell. She ran from him and he caught her and then he did what he did even though she was crying and even though bile rose in his throat and he fought to stop himself the entire time. When it was over, there was laughter. That was the part he got stuck on. Was there any way he could have been so taken over, so far from himself that he could have laughed or was someone watching them and laughing?
His reverie was interrupted when the stargate sprang to life and the figure of a lone Jaffa emerged. Daniel's memory told him it had been a matter of a few months since he had last seen Teal'c but there was a dusting of grey in the Jaffa's hair and he was fit but definitely lighter weight, less substantial somehow. Teal'c's face creased in a wide smile and he walked quickly toward Daniel. Daniel jumped up to meet him and they hugged hard. "They told me that you had not aged DanielJackson but I did not believe it until now," Teal'c said, stepping back and looking his friend up and down.
"I feel like I've aged a hundred years inside, Teal'c," Daniel answered, his smile vanishing.
Teal'c didn't question what Daniel meant. That was one of the things Daniel liked about him. He gave you space and waited until you were ready to share. Instead, Teal'c reported to Colonel Harris and was introduced to the rest of the team. Then he asked, directing the question at both the Colonel and Daniel, "Would you like me to show you where I found Daniel's son?"
The village was a half a day's hike away from the gate. The Colonel kept his men vigilant as they marched through savannah, dotted here and there with stands of trees along slow moving streams. The relatively open terrain made it unlikely that they would be surprised but the intelligence gathered in the follow up investigation after Daniel's return had revealed that the Tauri were not the only high tech off world visitors who came to this sparsely settled continent of farmers and herders. The off-world slavers maintained a steady rate of depredation that took roughly 10 of all adults, one of whom, it was believed had been Daniel. They might appear suddenly from out of the sky and the Colonel was concerned about his options should that happen. He wasn't discounting either unfriendly locals who couldn't be blamed if they were immediately hostile to any off-worlder they came upon.
When they reached the village of about 25 cottages, they discovered that it had one broad street down its middle, paved with stones that might have at one time betoken prosperity. Now they were a dispirited testimony to decline. Many were broken or forced up at an angle, making walking down the street more of an adventure than a stroll. It would appear that the inhabitants had been warned of their approach. No children played in the street and no women were drawing water at the well in the middle of the village.
"In case we would ever want to return, I sketched a map when I found Danny," Teal'c said, "and indicated which house held your son, DanielJackson," drawing the map he described from inside his tunic and pointing to the dwelling in question.
Daniel handed it to the Colonel and he and Teal'c crossed the street to stand in front of its heavy wooden door while the rest of the contingent spread out to keep watch. Teal'c rapped on the door but the silence from within was not broken that Daniel could determine. Teal'c cocked his head, hearing something that Daniel couldn't. "There is someone within, DanielJackson," Teal'c announced. "What do you wish?"
Daniel focused, gathering from the corners of his mind what he remembered of the local Latin-based dialect. He nodded at Teal'c and called out, "We come in peace, seeking only information. We have trade goods. Our mission is of great urgency and we will not leave until we have spoken with you."
Now the amount of scrabbling and whispering inside had reached a volume Daniel could pick up as well but there was still no response. Suddenly the Colonel, about 20 feet away from the two at the door, put a hand to his ear. One of his team was telling him something and, based on the expression on his face, it wasn't good. He ran toward them, "Incoming. We have less than 30 seconds. No time to get out of the village."
Teal'c nodded and ran at the door. It opened just as he reached it and he staggered inside, nothing stopping his forward momentum. Daniel and Harris heard him crash against something as they followed him into the darkened interior. They found themselves in one room, poorly lit by small, high windows. The ceiling was more than 10 feet high and there was a loft. Daniel had just time to notice the existence of the loft, Teal'c yelled "Look out." Daniel instinctively dodged to one side as a heavy iron pot crashed to the ground from the loft, denting the dirt floor where he had been standing. He turned and saw that Teal'c was struggling with three young children who were hanging off his arms and one leg. He had several cuts from the knives he was in the process of wresting from their hands. Harris was waging his own war with a determined but elderly woman who appeared to be extremely strong for her age. Like Teal'c, Harris was handicapped by a desire not to hurt his assailant.
Taking his attention off the loft was a bad idea because suddenly someone landed on his back, knocking him down. The demon continued sitting on his back and punching him and, with the wind knocked out of him, Daniel was having a hard time doing anything about it. Harris said, in his courteous Southern gentleman's accent, "I'm so sorry, Ma'am," and gave the old woman a roundhouse punch, knocking her out cold. He then ripped Daniel's assailant from his back and put her in a choke hold. Teal'c had flung the children off and the two smallest were huddled together crying while the older child stood bravely and protectively in front of them, defiant and scared to death.
"We have a common enemy," Daniel told what he could now tell was a young woman whose long dark hair was tumbled in her eyes as she struggled futilely against Harris. "They are coming down from the sky right now. Help us defend you." He spoke very quietly for they could all hear sounds above them. To underscore his point, strafing fire exploded down the middle of the village street, a calling card to introduce the men who would be arriving shortly and warn the villagers not to pick today to stand on their hind legs.
The girl stopped fighting Harris and he reciprocated by letting up on the choke hold. "Daniel?" she asked, her voice hoarse. "Could it be?"
"I'm Daniel but anything else must wait until we deal with the present threat," he said to her gently but firmly. It seemed impossible that he could have found Danny's mother so easily although it would make sense that if this was where her child had been left years before, she would have a connection to the place as well. It was too dimly lit, too hard to see her face to be sure of anything not that he had more than his dream memory of her face in any case.
Harris pulled a bench away from the low hearth and dragged it under the windows on one side of the door. He and Teal'c hopped on it, peering cautiously out the high windows, their weapons trained on the street. Daniel lifted the other scarred, age-darkened bench and positioned it under the opposing set of windows and took up his own post. Harris was speaking very quietly with the rest of his team on his comlink. Daniel saw him whisper in Teal'c ear and then Harris dropped lightly off the bench and came to Daniel to talk with him quietly about the response he directed to the threat.
Outside, a band of half a dozen slavers came strolling into the village. From their casual air and relaxed posture, they were apparently unconcerned about running into any real problems. Over two centuries of steady raiding had produced a cowed people who were afraid to put up a fight because of the certain reprisals that would follow. Daniel thought if the girl behind him was Danny's mother, she might be responsible for the unusual spirit in this one house. The men were joking and making deprecating remarks about what Daniel thought was probably the word for "cattle," apparently their term for the people in the village in something clearly evolved from a Romance language. Daniel was confidant that he would be able to communicate.
Daniel devoutly hoped that Harris' people had been able to surprise any sentries that had been left watching the slavers' ship. He did not want to see more slavers come up behind his party just as they were about to encircle and surprise the men on the street.
Two of the burly slavers went to the cottage across the street and dragged the inhabitants out. One continued to hold an attractive thirtiesh woman by an arm while the others made her four children and an older man lie down on their stomachs on the street. There was a discussion about her merits as merchandise and she was consigned, because of her age, to a "if we can't do any better" category and parked against a house a short distance away under guard.
Two other men now started across the street toward Daniel and his companions. Harris spoke urgently and quietly into his comlink. The slavers pushed in, without knocking, their attention caught by the young woman and the children directly in front of the door, wide eyed and clinging together. Teal'c, who was pressed against the wall behind the door, pushed the door to start it swinging closed and immediately launched himself on the back of the man nearest him while Daniel jumped the other. Daniel had the bigger challenge as the man had glimpsed Daniel out the corner of his eye coming through the door. He was already wheeling in Daniel's direction, preparing to fight.
As the hand to hand combat in the hut began, shots rang out in the street. Three of the squad under Harris' command had established themselves in concealed positions around the enemy while the two others had gone to secure the ship. The initial shots were warning shots, fired high. One of the SG team yelled the word "Surrender" in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French as supplied by Daniel to Harris earlier. In response the slavers started toward the villagers in the street to use them as shields. SG-50 started to fire to keep them at bay and away from the prostrate villagers.
Three of the enemy fell immediately, two crumbling as if they had been killed and a third screaming in agony from a mortal wound. The others cowered in place. The word for surrender was repeated again. Suddenly one of the remaining three stood and started shooting wildly, hitting the children and then the man. SG-50 immediately took him and the other two slavers out but it was too late for the man and one of the children. The woman ran forward, heedless of any remaining danger, to fling herself down next to her children, screaming and wailing their names.
Daniel, Teal'c, and Harris erupted from their shelter. Harris went to make sure all the enemy were dealt with and Daniel ran toward the woman and the children while Teal'c restrained the mother. SG-50 remained in place, making sure there was no further threat coming. The mother struck at Teal'c as he pulled her away so that Daniel could assess the children and continued to claw, kick, and bite at him. "We are the ones who fought for you. Be still and let us help your children," Daniel said as he hunkered down with Harris but the woman was too far gone in her rage and grief to listen.
Daniel closed the eyes of the lifeless child and Harris confirmed that the man was also dead. One of the three remaining children, partially under the dead child's body, seemed unhurt. One had been shot in the leg, the other in the arm. Daniel spoke softly to them as the SG-50 team member with medic training began to treat the wounds.
People came pouring out of the cottages, including the children and the old woman, now conscious and moving groggily, they had fought a short time ago. Daniel noticed that the young woman did not emerge with them. Teal'c released the distraught mother, who could now see they were trying to help her children, so that she could come to them. Teal'c and the other SG-50 personnel took up positions with their backs against stone cottage walls and their weapons at ready to protect their contingent if the villagers decided to turn on them. The villagers seemed well aware of the power of the off world weapons and stood staring at the strangers, talking little among themselves.
Sergeant Kennedy appeared with a gun in the back of a slaver whose hands were tied behind him. The captive had an air of authority about him and despite his precarious situation, was looking around with contempt. "He appears to be their leader, sir," Kennedy reported shoving the man forward so that he fell to his knees. An ominous, low sound, more like a collective growl than anything else, swelled from the crowd. Some picked up rocks as if to throw at him but the armed men motioned them back.
An older man, likely the village leader, separated himself from the crowd and motioned to two other men. They went into the cottage where Daniel had found the young woman and manhandled her out to the street. There was a ground swell of cursing from the crowd and people spat in her direction. Daniel leapt to his feet and went swiftly to free her from the two villagers' none too gentle grip. He put her behind him and addressed the headman, "What is your quarrel with this woman? She did not attack you. These men did."
The headman said with a voice dripping with hatred. "She is bad luck. She has come back from the dead and brought death with her. We allowed her mother to keep her in her home as long as she never came out and we never had to look upon her but we should have killed her instead. Look what has come to our village." His voice broke slightly on the last few words and he fell silent to gesture at the dead and wounded children, the sobbing woman, and the fallen man.
"She is ours. Give her to us and let us deal with her. Give us this monster as well for our justice and leave our village," the headman demanded imperiously, as if operating from a position of power, although the slight quaver in his voice told Daniel he was afraid.
Daniel looked at Harris and said in English. "Colonel, do you agree that we cannot leave this blameless woman here for their abuse?" Harris nodded. "And," Daniel continued, "We cannot let them murder him," he indicated the captive, "in cold blood either." Harris assented again. Daniel then said to the headman, "We regret very much your loss. We will take the woman and the slaver with us so that they will cause no more problems for you."
There were mummers of disapproval from the crowd but the headman chose not to argue, sensing that it would be futile. Daniel turned to look at the girl and spoke to her softly, "Do you not agree it would be best for you to come with us?" She nodded mutely. "Then if there is anything you do not want to leave behind, you best get it quickly."
She said, bitterly, "I have nothing left. I will come now."
They withdrew from the village and went to the slaver ship, which one of the SG-50 team was readily able to figure out how to fly adequately enough to get them back to the gate. Daniel spoke with the girl who had been watching him in silent awe the entire time.
"You seem to know me," he said to her. "Can you tell me your name and how we know each other?"
A single tear coursed down her cheek. "Ah, Daniel, they have made you forget everything. I am Debri and we were together in captivity. I was with you when you saved Bella," she saw his puzzlement, "one of the leaders of the slavers, and that was why we were captured. They came looking for her.
"I am so sorry I don't remember you. Believe me, I want to very much. There is one thing I must know. We were lovers? We had a child?"
"We clung together for comfort but we never thought we were in love. I had a young man who died during the years that I was frozen and you talked of Sha're. I did give birth to your child." Her answers were slow and troubled and she watched his face anxiously. "Please, tell me of my baby. Do you know what happened to it?"
Daniel smiled at her then and her face lit up as hope filled her eyes. "He's fine," Daniel said. "His name is Danny and he is with me in my land. You would be very proud of him."
Her voice trembled as she said, "I did not even know the baby was a boy." She took Daniel's hands then and pleaded, "Can I see him?"
"We must talk of that. First," Daniel hesitated for it was a difficult thing to ask, "did, did I force you to.."
"No, Daniel," she denied. "If that is what you think you remember, it's because the evil man who led the slavers programmed you to think that for his own amusement." Her anxiety level increased as she asked, "You're not going to leave me here, are you?"
"The slavers may come back to retaliate and I would not do that to you." She nodded vigorously affirming the likelihood. Daniel continued, "It appears that your people's beliefs or superstitious will not allow them to accept you now and you have nowhere else to go?"
She shook her head sadly. "My mother tried to protect me but it was nothing but heart ache for me to be there with her, my brother, and his children."
"If you come with us," he warned her, "you will never see anything familiar again. Not even the animals, the plants, the sky itself are the same. You won't know the language. The people are different but they will be kind. There are very strict rules about people coming from places like this and I don't know what I can promise about where you will live or who you will be with but you will be free and well treated. You should understand that Danny has a mother and I have a wife. We will make you part of our family if it is permitted but your role will be defined by the relationships that already exist." Daniel hoped that he was not promising something that would be beyond Sam's capacity to provide but he could not leave this innocent young woman adrift in a strange universe. "Do you want to come?"
Tears were rolling freely down her face now. She said in a very small voice. "I am frightened but I do not see any other way."
Daniel then went to talk with their arrogant captive, who lounged at the back of the passenger space. Despite his bonds, he almost managed to carry off the impression that he was still in charge through sheer force of will. Daniel found that he could communicate with him well enough to exchange some basic information.
He summarized it for Harris after they reached the gate. "It's amazing. His attitude is that these people are some sort of lower form of human that are suited for service. The slavers have some technique to implant a happy false image in the slave's heads, rather like what I first believed when I returned to Earth. The slaves, to his mind, have happy simple lives of service with their superior masters handling all the hard problems for them."
Harris snorted. "He really believes that crap?"
Daniel grimaced and nodded. "Oh yeah. He knew me. Evidently, I am a cause celebre. They have very strict rules that allow them to continue to feel morally justified. Rules that hedge in how slaves may be treated. He spoke of a dark time in the past when slaves had been abused and appears to feel that they have progressed into some sort of liberal nirvana in which slaves cannot be used for sexual purposes and may only be disciplined in certain proscribed ways."
Harris asked, "How are you a cause celebre? I don't get it."
Daniel elaborated, "There was some guy in charge locally, Herchan, who went rogue. He was abusing his position and had powerful enough connections that he got away with it for decades. By their rules, I should have been released immediately when it became apparent I was not one of these people under their "protection" but Herchan had it in for me for some reason and apparently, at least messed with my mind. I'm hoping Debri, Danny's mother, can tell me more because I still remember nothing. I was captured in the first place because, assisted by Debri, I had just rescued Herchan's second in command, Bella, by pulling her from her small flyer, after it crashed and just before it caught on fire. Bella felt a strong debt to us for saving her life and tried to protect Debri and me. Bella couldn't get us released so she put me in suspended animation and shuffled the paperwork to make me hard to find. Suspended animation is their inventory control system. They take likely slaves whenever they see them and then stash them in suspended animation until they match with an order," he explained in an aside. "Anyway, rather than aborting the baby, their standard procedure, she protected Debri through her pregnancy. The slavers have no interest in dealing with slave babies and children. Too much effort and it distracts the slaves from their duties. Nobody cared when Bella gave Danny back to the Debri's people. She put Debri in suspended animation and stashed her with me. Recently, the whole scandal finally came to light. Debri and I were both released as part of the clean up. They all feel very moral about the whole thing. Justice was done. The guilty were punished. Blah blah blah."
Harris said, "I take it you expect to take Debri back through the gate?"
Daniel confirmed, "Talking to her, there is no way for her to stay here. She may end up being held in Cheyenne Mountain just until they can relocate her on some other world but I hope they will let me take care of her on Earth." He thought to himself, "And the they to include my wife who is not going to be crazy about this."
"We knew going into the mission that if you found the woman, she might need help and I have permission to bring her back with us. The slaver is a different problem. My plan is to thoroughly disable the ship and leave him here to fend for himself." Harris jerked his head toward two of his men who were working over the control panel as they spoke.
An half an hour later, they exited the ship, leaving the slaver with very loose bonds from which he should be able to extricate himself in a matter of minutes. As Harris dialed Earth, Daniel drew Debri aside. "Look around one last time," he said to her quietly, his arm around her shoulders. "Say good bye."
She laughed. "I have nothing left to say good bye to." She looked at Daniel with a brave smile. "Don't worry about me. I'll be all right."
Daniel hugged her briefly and as he was walking her to the gate, he thought, "Danny's a great kid. This woman is got to be good stuff to have been his mother. She WILL be okay and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that happens.