Daniel laughed. "We're probably not in trouble."
He stood. Jack hissed, "Get down."
Instead, Daniel moved away from the concealment of the boulder. "Who comes to treat with Strider?" he called loudly.
A sturdy young man with long blonde hair stepped free of the trees and returned the hail, "It is I, Enrico."
Daniel trotted down the slope and met his friend in the open. They threw their arms around each other and hugged. Immediately, another dozen came out of the woods. Daniel recognized several more old friends and there were loud greetings, back slapping, and hugging. Daniel heard some of his traveling companions descending the slope behind him, but he didn't turn or acknowledge them. He told Enrico, "There are many of the Margave's men hunting us."
"We know," Enrico said.
Lanky Fredi, standing next to Enrico, spoke up, "Three of us laid false trails for them." He added eagerly, "What great blow for freedom did you strike that they hunt you and your friends?"
"Perhaps you can help me answer why they hunt me in such force and with such determination. I did no more than carry a minor message between two towns."
Enrico looked discomforted. "You see us Strider. We are young. The older men with reputations have much to lose. It is mostly a movement of the young. If we want to succeed, we must attract a wider following. Since the months when you stayed with us, there are those that like to claim you whether you will or not."
"I understand your problem," Daniel said. He had steadfastly turned down repeated pleas from Enrico and others to join them and lend his prestige to their efforts. He felt too used up to join anyone's cause. He was beginning to have a sinking feeling that some of the revolutionaries had allowed others to think he was a full participant without his consent.
There was an attention getting shuffle behind him. Jack didn't appreciate being ignored. Daniel shot a quick glance behind him to confirm who was there. Apparently two sentries had been left at the top of the hill and the rest were directly behind him. "Enrico, these are my friends from long ago." He gestured to the soldiers at the top of the knoll, then to the soldiers who had accompanied Jack, naming each one. Then he named Teal'c and Mitchell. Finally, following local custom to introduce the most important last, he said, "This is the highest ranked of our company, Jack of Minnesota." He reached out and took Sam's hand and drew her forward. "This is Samantha of Colorado. She is my woman. We have vows of friendship between us," he said, indicating Enrico and his comrades. "I beg you to extend them to Samantha as if she were me."
This request was met with a bow. Enrico then said, "And I will introduce our company to your friends and your lady." He worked his way through the group and ended with a slight, blond boy in his early teens who hung silently at the back. "This is my younger brother, Dovio." Dovio seemed to shrink back in fear at being noticed and his eyes darted from side to side.
Daniel walked slowly to Dovio's side and said so softly to him that not even his own fellows could hear, "I did not get a chance to greet you just now. It is good to see you, my friend."
Dovio gave Daniel a very quick look and the shadow of a smile and just as quickly averted his eyes. Daniel clapped Dovio lightly and briefly on the shoulder and returned to Enrico. He was gratified that Dovio was slightly better and that he remembered him. It had taken him the entire four months he had lived with Enrico's band after Carlos died to reach this point with Dovio. Maybe there was hope for the boy.
"What is your plan, Strider?" Enrico asked.
"We go to Soplo through the forest," Daniel said. "I thought if we could safely go to ground for a pair of days, they would be ranging farther away to search for us." He had far more in mind than he stated. These men and the few hundred more that fought with them were of great heart and no military knowledge or training. He wanted to give them the benefit of Jack, Cam, and Teal'c's strategic and tactical insights. He had become an excellent street fighter, but Daniel himself had no training or knowledge in how to organize the bigger picture.
"You will come to our secret camp then," Enrico said.
"Do you think that the Margave's men have truly lost our trail and we can go with you safely?"
"I'm not schooled in winning battles, Strider, but I do know the woods. Get your gear and come."
Daniel walked with Sam. Dovio walked just a few paces behind them. If they slowed down to let him catch up, he slowed down too, keeping exactly the same distance between them. Finally Daniel took Sam's hand and went quickly to within a few feet of the boy. He spoke in trade so Sam could understand, "Dovio, this is Sam. She is new to our world and knows little of the forest. I worry about her safety. Could you walk with us and help her to know the dangers and learn the woods?"
Dovio hesitated. He gave Sam a quick furtive look. He bobbed his head in agreement and, from then on, he walked next to Sam. He spoke hesitantly at first, but her quiet acceptance and appreciation gradually relaxed him and he began to talk almost excitedly of the plants and the little animals they saw.
Enrico led them at least 10 miles at a brisk pace to a concealed cave mouth. They equipped themselves from a stash of torches and threaded through narrow passageways, being careful to keep their footing where the floor was slick from the moisture that ran down the walls. Their route came out in a large cavern, bedecked with stalagmites and stalactites. Fredi showed them another hidden passageway off the cavern that took them through more dank, slimy twists until they emerged into sunlight in a small valley with no other way in or out. Half of the floor of the valley was a village of tents. They were greeted enthusiastically as they entered the camp. The rebels spilling out to greet them were mostly teens and young men but there were a handful of women and a few older men sprinkled among them. They even saw a few children.
Enrico showed them a place for them to make their camp and invited Daniel and Sam and any others Daniel cared to bring with him to come to the fire of Jessa of Idio, the nominal leader of all the smaller bands like Enrico's, for supper at sundown.
Jack, Cam, Sam, and Teal'c sat with Daniel while he gave them a dump of everything he knew about the current political situation and the rebel bands. Jack asked, "The boy, Dovio, what's his story?"
Daniel said, "The Margave's men came after their family. Their father was a blowhard who shot his mouth off criticizing the Margave in front of the wrong people. Enrico and his older brother were away from home when they came. They raped and killed his mother and his sister in front of Dovio and they were starting to abuse him when Enrico surprised them. He and his older brother drove them off, but the older brother was killed. Enrico and Dovio are all that is left of their family."
Sam asked quietly. "How old is Dovio?"
Daniel said, "Thirteen. Twelve when it happened." He pointed to a young man, sitting in front of a nearby tent, sharpening a knife. He was barely out of boyhood and had a patch over one eye. "They put his eye out because he looked at a Margave's bully boy's girl friend or she said he did. I counted once and, at that time, fully a third of Enrico's force had been mutilated in some way. Almost a half have had a family member murdered or disappeared and believed to be dead or held by the Margave.
Jack said, "And all they have is a handful of boys willing to fight this man?"
Daniel said, "People are mostly spread out over the countryside and in small villages and towns. As long as they keep their heads down, there's a good chance it hasn't affected them. It's the ones that have been hurt who are motivated to rebel. Over the past two years, the injustices have escalated and I think we're rapidly reaching a point where a substantial portion of the population will be connected to some form of abuse through someone they care about, if not directly."
He looked at career warriors in front of him. "The problem is that they have had no successes so far. They know how to handle weapons, but they don't know how to fight together or mount a campaign. I've given them some advice, but military history was always the least interesting part of the subject to me."
Cam said, "This little detour had as much to do with your desire for us to help them as it did with eluding our pursuers, right?"
Daniel laughed. "I'm pretty transparent, huh?"
"You look hard and cynical," Jack said.
Daniel interrupted to say, "Thank you."
"But underneath is still our save the universe, one planet at a time, Dr. Daniel Jackson."
Daniel studied the ground. At last he said, "Here's the thing. I'm not at all sure Daniel Jackson is still in there. I've done things he would never have done. You saw it back there in Inova. I don't know that I can turn Strider off when we get back to earth, live in a house, walk around without a concealed weapon on me."
"Do you want to?" Sam asked. Daniel knew the question was bigger for her than it sounded.
"In a lot of ways. I'd like to be able to sleep at night again and there are people, like you Sam, like all of you, that are important to me. Some things are better here though. It's nice getting respect, being taken seriously." Daniel looked over at Cam. "I always appreciated that about you, Mitchell. With most of the SGC, I got treated like some sort of a wooly headed academic no matter how many times I was proven right or how much combat experience I had."
"You're including me in that 'most' aren't you?" Jack asked.
Daniel simply said, "Don't you think it's a fair assessment?"
Sam made a sound but didn't say anything. Daniel said, "You too Sam." He gouged viciously at the dirt for a moment with a small stick. "Look you all came here looking for Daniel Jackson. You found someone who used to be Daniel Jackson. Maybe the parts worth saving are either here in Lodi or are salvageable from somewhere deep inside. You're not getting Daniel Jackson back again though, not ever."
Dovio came to lead them to Jessa's fire. He appeared so quietly that they didn't notice him for a moment. Daniel was able to coax a smile from him and he nodded shyly at Sam, but he avoided looking at the others. As they followed him between the tents that were scattered more at random than in neat rows, they heard a commotion in the direction of the cave entrance to the valley.
Dovio said, "Someone comes." His voice was nervous.
Daniel put a hand lightly on his shoulder. "Let us go see which of our friends we can be happy to greet."
They saw a small party of men approaching the camp. Two were half supporting a third man who was much older. He was out of place for Daniel and it took a moment to realize that this was Tomas. A Tomas unaccompanied by Jem. He closed his eyes and gathered his strength for a moment, knowing that in all likelihood a blow was about to fall. They were just a few feet away when Tomas looked up and saw Daniel. His face crumbled and tears began to run flow. Daniel went to him swiftly and embraced him as Tomas sobbed against him. "Jem is dead, Lodi. My beautiful, gentle, sweet Jem who never hurt anyone is dead."
"How Tomas?" Daniel asked, fearing the answer, fearing any more guilt than he already bore.
"A friend hailed us as we were walking toward the harbor. He needed help with unloading a wagon. Jem insisted that we had time. We didn't. The Margave's men got to our boat just as we did. They took us both, asking questions about the rebellion. They took him off and went to work on him first. They brought him back to where they were holding me, bloodied and battered and sobbing, after what seemed like an eternity of listening to him scream and cry out. They underestimated me and one of them got too close. I got his knife and held it at his throat and forced them to let us go. We got away and went along the river to find a hiding place. He wouldn't talk to me, or let me examine him, but I thought I had calmed him. We fell asleep at last and, in the night, he got up, made a noose from his pants and hung himself on the tree that sheltered us."
Tears coursed down Daniel's face then. "There will be payment, Tomas."
"Only if we kill all of them," he said. "I do not know their names or how to find them nor did I probably see the faces of all who hurt him."
Others had gathered around and a kind-faced woman, Fredi's mother he later learned, brought a cup of something. "Have you slept since your friend died?" she asked gently.
Tomas shook his head. She looked up and Daniel and said, "Let us take him to a place to sleep and give him the sleeping draught. Let him have forgetfulness for awhile."
Daniel helped Tomas to follow her lead to a place that was probably the woman's own bed. She settled him and made him drink the tea with the drug. "Go and meet with Jessa," she said to Daniel. "I will stay here with him. There are things you men need to discuss."
Daniel's companions had trailed behind them. Jack said, "Daniel, I know you want to go back there this minute and kill. Think of what of Tomas said. Vengeance is going to take more than a raid. There are thousands dying here perhaps, and they have faces for you, but there are millions who are dying out there and each day we stay here their number rises. We need to get the Ancients moving."
Daniel glared at Jack and then dropped his eyes. "My head hears you, but it's hard to care about the millions when you see pain in front of you on the faces of those you love."
Cam said, "Let's go talk to this fellow, Jessa. General, at this point, could we not take a day to talk with them about strategy, to teach them a few things?"
It was so arranged and the next day, Teal'c, Cam, and Jack each found a way to consult and the male soldiers with them were also given teaching assignments. Sam's knowledge and that of the female SG team member who had accompanied Jack was more problematic since the culture wouldn't allow these men to listen to advice about fighting from a woman. Lieutenant Perez had medic training and she exchanged information with the women about treating wounds. Sam chose to sit with Dovio and draw him out. Daniel spent the day, drinking with Tomas, and remembering Jem.
When they met at their campfire in the evening, the military men were discouraged. "We just scratched the surface," Captain Milligan said. "They told me about a recent ambush where they lost as many as the Margave did. Not the basic principle of an ambush, you know."
"It's as if this is completely alien to the way their minds work or something," Cam said. "They are clearly not stupid, but Teal'c and I didn't feel like they were getting it, did we?"
Teal'c said gravely, "I did not. They are most militarily challenged."
Daniel said, "This is a strange place to find political correctness T. Let's face it. They are clueless and most of them aren't going to live much longer."
Jack said, "Today was like giving an aspirin to a man with cancer."
They all sat in glum silence. Daniel said, "Not to change the subject, but I've been wondering since you showed up, Jack, how a general at your stratospheric heights got cleared to lead a combat mission like this."
"At my advanced age," Jack added.
"I didn't say that," Daniel quickly responded.
"The thing is," Jack said ruefully, "I've become quite inconvenient. When the administration changed, I was out of the post in the civilian agency. I keep bringing up questions no one wants to answer and they've been pressuring me to retire. I think there is a real hope I won't come back from this."
On that note, Daniel went off to try to sleep. He and Sam were maintaining correct behavior for a deployment and she was across the fire in a tent with Lt. Perez. He wasn't sleeping and was immediately alert as the flap of the tent Enrico insisted he use suddenly fluttered. He immediately knew it was Sam. No one else smelled like that. "I know I'm not supposed to be here and I'm going to do my best to be gone in the morning before anyone sees me, but I had to find you. Every minute you are not right in front of me, I feel like I've lost you again."
He threw back the blanket and she stretched out next to him. After he had tucked the blanket in around them, she said, "You never told me when I asked before, if you still loved me. Is that part of the missing Daniel we have to find again or is it still there?"