Reflexively, her mind protested the intrusion of energy. With an innate response, her life force warred with his, though the Ka'rosh was never aware of it. The match lasted for a few endless minutes; a life-or-death game of tug-of-war. Finally, Ca'eles felt the hold that Vala had, over her form and power, loosen. Her unconscious mind faltered under the attack and he knew he'd succeeded: the outcome something he had hoped for… even while fearing the implications of such a victory.
In another jerk, Vala's body began to turn intangible – seeming to dissolve in upon itself, until all physical traces of her existence were gone. The only testament to her passage: the still visible indent on the bedding, hinting at a body outline.
The wolf didn't spare the room another glance as he leapt off the bed, landing softly and bolting out the door without so much as a break in stride. Stretching his senses out, pushing their uncanny acuteness to the limits, in order to detect any possible obstacles before they had a chance to become a problem. When possible, her preferred to avoid danger rather than court it as Vala sometimes appeared to.
As it was, he was aware of the soldier long before he was forced to deal with her, giving him plenty of time to plot out a simple strategy for getting past.
Run. Dodge. Run.
Yeah, like he needed time to come up with that one. But overly simplistic or not, it would suffice. Evading detection, by this point, was irrelevant. If they hadn't noticed Vala's absence yet, they soon would. Speed was the important factor now.
That thought foremost in his mind, he bounded toward the guard near the elevator. Never did hesitation register in his muscles; not even when the alarmed soldier raised her weapon in startled defense.
So much for dodge, he thought absently.
Oh, bullets wouldn't kill him - they were only metal; not energy. But he didn't care for the idea that the guard might hurt herself or another of the humans around. Only metal or not, a bullet would easily kill one of this species, and Ca'eles knew that the little metal projectiles could travel through some solid matter – like walls.
He didn't sense anyone else nearby, relatively speaking, but that was guaranteed to change; and soon.
Cannot take the risk, came the unbidden thought. For a moment he wasn't sure if the thought was his or not. It was mildly unsettling.
I wonder if this is how Vala feels because of us? The idea was promptly discarded as he eyed the solider warily. Vala's species was meant for such mental intrusions, something they had considered a uniting factor rather than a burden. And maybe it was, for them, a blessing to exist in one another's mind without effort. From what he knew, the Ka'rosh had lived in harmony with one another for thousands of years.
Yes, for them it had been a blessing – something that had turned into a curse for his friend, as the last of her kind.
What must it be like to go from the closeness and security that the combined mental consciousness of an entire species provides; from hearing the voices and feeling their presences – to having that connection severed, left alone in the silence?
He wondered, but didn't truly know. Vala rarely spoke of her people; of the centuries before she'd met him and Lasha. He could only imagine how it felt to someone, used to the soothing murmur of voices, to only hear their own echo.
Odd. He'd never thought of it like that before.
Meeting the shocked green gaze of the woman, directly, the crimson eyes were distant as some corner of his mind, contemplating history, attempted to wrestle for his present attention. With effort, he ignored it, moving forward, though around the soldier. He gave the human as wide of a berth as he could, motions precise and unthreatening.
As he made the last few steps toward his goal, a voice down the hall shouted in warning. The soldier, momentarily distracted, turned back in time to see the wolf vanish through the wall.
-------
"A wall?" The tone of the question mirrored the irritation on the general's face.
"Yes, s-sir," Kingston stammered. She knew she'd messed up; she couldn't help it. Trained for so many possible things that the air force had conceived of, she'd frozen when faced with the wolf.
They never trained me for that!
And what was she supposed to have done when a wolf, the size of a small pony, came sprinting toward her? Leash it? And when it had moved through the wall – it wasn't as though she could go after it.
Although that would be cool..
"Kingston!" The annoyance in his voice informed her that he'd noticed her slipped focus.
Dammit.
"Sorry, sir."
"Organize your unit, get them on the surface looking. That animal can't be allowed off of this base."
When she'd stood there an extra moment, he practically yelled. "Dismissed!"
There wasn't much she could have done, you know." Daniel commented once the door closed, blocking the retreating form of Kingston from view.
"Would you like to explain that to the president, Doctor Jackson? Not to mention how we allowed an alien wolf to escape the base and pose a potential threat to the citizens of this country?"
Jack snorted softly.
"I don't think Ca'eles will do anything." The archaeologist shrugged, noncommittally.
"Can you guarantee that?"
"No," Daniel admitted.
When another snort of amusement escaped, Hammond turned to his second-in-command with a glare.
"Is something amusing, Colonel?"
"Alien. Wolf." He snickered, expression turning sheepish when the General didn't laugh.
"Sorry, sir," he echoed Kingston's earlier words – noticing, as he did so, that Carter was holding back a laugh while Daniel had an almost pained expression lingering on his face.
He never got the chance to comment on it, though, for at that moment a disbelieving Janet Fraiser entered the office - without bothering to knock on the door before opening it.
Hammond was about to bite out a sarcastic remark about the wonderful manners instilled in his people today, but remained silent as he noticed the doctor's confusion.
"She's gone, sir."
Daniel shot to his feet, a look of utter shock and sadness crossing his face – unable to settle on one expression over the other. "She's dead?"
Puzzled, Janet arched a brow. In less than a second, realization dawned. "Oh, no. At least, I don't think so. I can't be sure of that right now."
"Explain, please, doctor." Patience was thin already, for Hammond. What was left was quickly being stretched to a breaking point.
"She's gone. We can't find her anywhere."
"You lost a patient, doc?" Jack was bordering on a playful jab, but the seriousness of the situation wasn't lost on him.
"We were trying to figure out how to best approach re-instilling her lost energy. One minute she was there, the next…" Fraiser shrugged, not liking the helpless feeling she still had, growing in the pit of her stomach, any more than she enjoyed having 'misplaced' a patient. One who couldn't have gotten up and walked out under her own steam.
"Is it possible she left of her own volition?" the General's timing of the question was ironic, but Janet couldn't even smile.
"There is no way that she would have been able to have gotten out of the bed, let alone left the infirmary without notice. She was in critical condition."
"But you, yourself, stated your lack of understanding of her species. Is it possible that, for her, this is natural?"
"General, it is my opinion that she couldn't have woken up if she'd tried, let alone actually rise."
"The wolf."
Jack's abrupt words caused everyone to look at him as though he'd grown another head.
"What?" A tinge of defensiveness entered his tone as he looked back at them all.
"The wolf?" Daniel questioned. "Are you suggesting that Ca'eles moved her? Kingston was just in here and didn't mention anything about having seen Vala."
"What if there was some other way to move her? She is mostly energy, isn't she?" The colonel blinked, clearly expecting someone to take his thought and run with it. Unfortunately, he was disappointed for the moment.
"Colonel, it's a wolf."
"Alien wolf."
"Jack has a point."
Yes, finally! It had taken Daniel a few seconds longer than usual to get what he was saying, but better late than never, Jack reasoned.
"Doctor Jackson?"
"We only know what Vala has told us, since Thor wouldn't say anything before returning to his ship. What little she did mention was about her abilities. We don't have a clue as to what either Lasha or Ca'eles are capable of. You mentioned the possibility of normalcy, sir. What if this is normal for them? Some kind of defense mechanism. Maybe they're trying to save her."
"Are you suggesting that they removed her from the infirmary, where her best chance at being helped lay, because they're trying to save her? It seems to me, Doctor, that they're only hastening her death."
"Maybe they don't think so."
Hammond's reply was cut off as one of Kingston's unit entered the office, sweating and clearly surprised about something.
"Sir! We located the wolf on the surface, the alien woman is with it. The animal won't let us near her." There was a noticeable pause. "She seems to be…"
"Yes?"
A look of discomfort passed over the man.
"She seems to be glowing, sir."
-----
"Yeah, she's glowing alright." Jack offered unnecessarily.
Daniel no more then quirked a brow at his friend's firm grasp of the obvious. Silently, he gazed at the still form of the Ka'rosh; though it was hard to make out her form due to the light her body was projecting. Squinting, he noticed that the, seemingly all encompassing light, was actually made up of small areas of flesh that were shimmering.
Each time a new raindrop landed, the spot of skin underneath would glow softly – adding to the overall illuminated effect. Moreover, the open wounds, that had viciously marred Vala's body, were fading. Most had vanished altogether; only the major wounds remaining, though substantially smaller than before.
Apparently, he wasn't the only one who noticed.
"It's the rain," Sam whispered. "It's healing her."
"Vanir," Daniel muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
Jack looked over, waiting for the linguist to continue. When Daniel failed to take notice of those awaiting further explanation, O'Neill cleared his throat loudly.
"Care to enlighten us, Daniel?"
"Oh, sorry. I was just remembering something the Goa'uld said."
"How did you hear the snake?"
"It wasn't hard to read her lips from that close. At the time, it didn't seem relevant, though. Or, rather, as it seems, I failed to comprehend the significance."
Jack blinked again. "Let's pretend I didn't understand where the explanation was in that, and try again."
Daniel opened his mouth to say something, when his friend cut in.
"And please keep in mind we're all standing out in the rain, getting drenched, while you're telling us about it.
"Vanir; that's what the Goa'uld called Vala. I didn't make the connection until now. The Vanir were gods in Norse mythology."
"I thought that was the Asgard?" O'Neill looked perplexed, although he wasn't the only one.
"The Norse had two separate, very distinct, races of god. There were the Asgard, who were said to rule over the air, and there were the Vanir who were said to be the gods of the earth and water."
Hammond looked at the Ka'rosh. The brilliant light had dimmed down to a faint glimmer; the new raindrops failing to produce much more than brief contact flickers. By all appearances, the wounds were healed. Superficially speaking. Without having her checked out once more, lingering internal damage remained a possibility. And getting her checked out was going to prove difficult if they couldn't get near her.
Ca'eles barred his teeth to anyone who so much as looked like they were thinking about trying.
"Doctor Jackson?"
"Sir?"
"Do you think that that wolf will let you approach again." Clearly it was not lost upon Hammond that Daniel had been the one person Ca'eles had let near Vala after the fight.
The archaeologist shrugged. "I can try."
Without waiting for a reply, he moved forward slowly.
The wolf sat down, watching him and giving no indication of the fury that had kept the others at bay.
Daniel swore that Ca'eles wanted him to move her. At least now. The archaeologist wasn't foolish enough to believe that the wolf would have allowed him to get near Vala until whatever was supposed to be happening, happened. Apparently it had.
Trying to move her as little as possible, in case anything was still injured, he picked the light form up and proceeded to head back inside; Ca'eles right on his heels.
------
Once Vala was safely back in Janet's care, the rest of the group assembled in the briefing room, clearly intent on learning more about their new friend.
"So, gods huh? Teal'c, have you heard of them?"
"I have not."
"How do we know they're not evil then?"
"Remember Jack, the Asgard have been believed as gods by the same cultures. And mythology speaks favorably about them."
"What do you know about the Vanir?" Sam asked, thoughtful blue eyes locking on him.
"Honestly, not a lot is ever said about them. They were peaceful deities associated
with fertility and prosperity. Supposedly they lived in a separate one of the nine worlds, called Vanaheim. They also have the interesting distinction of being called the gods of light."
"So how does this explain what she is, and why she bolted when Thor arrived."
"Yeah, that actually makes sense now." Daniel admitted. He'd been as confused as anyone when that had occurred.
"It does?"
"It's said that the Vanir sent one of their own, Gullveig, to the Asgard or Aesir as they were called. Because of her apparent love for gold, and endless chatter about it, the Asgard grew annoyed and they tortured and killed her. When the Vanir demanded compensation for their loss, the Asgard declared war on them."
"What did they ask for?"
"To be recognized as equals."
Several of the gathered couldn't hide their surprise.
"If they're enemies, why did Thor come looking for her?" Jack didn't mention the torture part, he was having trouble believing the little grey aliens could do such a thing; not to mention to wage a war for a reason like that! Even if human history showed occurrences of the very same situation, he expected better of them somehow.
"I don't know." Daniel took his glasses off, rubbing a hand wearily over his face.
"So, who won?" Sam was curious, couldn't help it.
"That's interesting. It seems that in spite of their peaceful natures, the Vanir were actually winning over the more war-like Aesir, who were forced to deal with one loss after another. Eventually, the Aesir chose to stop the war and agree to the Vanir's demand."
"What did they do?"
"They exchanged hostages." A faint, wry smile formed on Daniel's lips.
"It was meant to tie the races together; to ensure peace. While the Vanir sent their smartest and best, the Aesir sent Vili and Mimir. Though Mimir was truly intelligent, Vili was not. At first the Vanir believed him to be, due to Mimir's constant advice giving, but it turned out that the Asgard had tricked them. In retaliation, they sent the head of Mimir back to the Aesir."
"Ouch."
Daniel looked troubled suddenly, and it was clear that a new thought had struck him.
"What is it, Danny?"
"Gullveig. I just remembered reading somewhere about her death. The Aesir supposedly tied her up in the Hall of Odin and perforated her with spears. When they set her on fire, she came back to life. They tried burning her three times, in a magic fire, but every time she was 'reborn'."
"Wait a minute; are you saying she was a Goa'uld?"