Chapter 6

The village was now destroyed homes and corpses. Jajul hurried ahead, leaving the four to deal with the sledgehammer of emotion the sight caused them. They passed a porch that a woman lay dead with her dead toddler still in her arms.

"I can't believe they killed children!" Daniel muttered.

'Don't start painting them black, Danny. Humans aren't known for bouts of kindness during war either. Romans, Mongols, Chinese, Vikings, Hitler, they all killed kids too.'

Daniel hated to admit he had a point.

Carter tore her eyes away from the scene, looking at the soldiers. As Isha spoke with her soldiers, they were removing their packs and taking a device out. The Jakisau nodded once and dispersed in different directions. She pulled her sleeve back, revealing a device strapped to her arm. The five stopped around her.

"Orders, sir?" Jajul asked her.

"Bury the dead. Alert me if you find walking wounded."

"Yes, sir."

Jajul shrugged out of his pack and pulled a pen-like device from his pack. It was smooth metal with an opening at one end and three buttons on the side with LEDs next to each. Jajul walked to a nearby corpse and aimed the device at it. A white beam shot from it and the corpse turned to ash. Isha turned, walking away and speaking quietly into her arm device.

"We should..." Daniel started, looking around him. The scene was depressing and he didn't really know what to say.

"Check for survivors." Carter finished.

'Not likely,' Frank told Daniel

She walked a few steps and then turned to the twins. "Come on, boys. Let's see if anyone's alive."

Daniel looked back at them. They were huddled together, staring wide-eyed at the death around them.

"Come on," Carter urged.

The two followed her, staying close behind her. Daniel turned, not realizing he'd turned a complete circle until he was facing the same direction again.

"This is... How can people do this to each other?"

'Oh, and here I thought they were aliens, Danny.'

Daniel frowned at him. That wasn't even a fair comment. Daniel hadn't had any bad thoughts about this race until...

'Now?' Frank asked.

Daniel nodded, looking at the dead man near him.

'It's no different than what's going on in Africa or Saudi Arabia. People die there all the time, just like this.'

"This is different," Daniel whispered.

"What is different?" Isha asked from behind him.

He turned, the two staring at each other.

"Nothing." Daniel turned to walk away.

"I've noticed you're different than the others that have come here with those things in them."

Daniel turned fast, surprised by the comment. She knew he had a goa'uld?

Isha was looking at her wrist device.

"I'm sorry?"

"The others," she looked up at him, "Wanted to make my people worship them. But I guess after they realized most Jakisau are more interested in killing each other than worshipping anything, they left."

"There was a system lord here?"

"There have been several."

"And they didn't enslave your people."

Isha walked up to him, telling him, "How can you enslave a race that's killing itself at the rate of millions a day?"

She walked past him.

'That kid has killed way to many.'

"Yeah," Daniel said.

He sighed, deciding what he should do.

'Do you hear that?' Frank asked.

Daniel held his breath, listening. He did hear it. It sounded like... A baby crying. Daniel followed the noise. He wove between houses and yards until he was standing at the back gate of one, staring at a tool shed set back in the jungle.

'Could be a trap,' Frank warned him.

"Or could be a kid dying," Daniel muttered.

'Jesus! A little optimism here.'

Daniel pushed the gate open. "And telling me it could be a trap was optimistic?"

He felt Frank's frustration with him, but it was mutual right now. Daniel slipped the pistol on his hip from the holster, gripping it with both hands as he came to the door. With a drawn breath, he threw open the door, aiming at any would-be attackers. No one jumped out at him and he was practically on top of the crying now. Daniel slowly entered the dark building. The crying was coming from behind a wheelbarrow at the back. He walked around it and stopped short, his breath catching for a second.

A Jakisau female, maybe eight-years-old, was clutching a baby to her chest. The child had been shot in the abdomen and yellow blood covered her and the baby. She was showing symptoms of hypovolemic shock and her eyes lacked luster; death was moments away. Daniel holstered his gun, slowly crouching down. Her eyes followed him in jerky movements.

"Papa?" the child whispered.

Daniel considered saying no. "Yes?"

"Aina won't stop crying, Papa. I tried to keep her quiet like you said, but she won't listen to me."

The girl looked into Daniel's eyes and he wanted to run out of this shed and demand the Jakisau to stop fighting. He wanted to scream at them how senseless their war was, that shooting a child was the most senseless thing he'd ever heard of. Why did they have to kill like this? Without reason or--

'Danny, focus on the living, not the dying. Is that baby okay or not?'

Daniel reached out, gently pulling Aina away from her sister. He noticed his hands were shaking as he cradled the baby in his arms. He pulled the blanket back from her and when he found the baby herself wasn't hurt, relief washed over him and Frank. He looked up to tell Aina's sister that she was okay, but the child had died in the minute it had taken to check Aina. Daniel looked down, wrestling with his emotions.

'Hey,' Frank quietly said, 'the older kid may be dead, but this one is alive. Let's get her out of here. We're going to need some diapers and bottles and formula.'

Daniel looked up. "Isha won't let us take her with us."

'There's always doing what we do better than anything else.'

Daniel smiled, the two of them saying at the same time, "Disobeying direct orders."

Daniel looked back at he dead child, his smile fading. He didn't have to question if he'd ignore Isha if she demanded the baby be left. He stood, turning his back on her. The baby grabbed his shirt, looking him in the eyes. She returned Daniel's smile, her crying subsiding.

"It's okay," he told her. "Everything's going to be okay, Aina."

'Beautiful name.'

Daniel smiled, nodding. "Beautiful little girl."

Frank agreed with that comment.

Daniel headed back to the village, preparing his battle remarks. He came around the corner of the house and ran into Isha and Dasex coming around the corner. Daniel tightened his grip on the child and she started whimpering.

"Her sister died," Daniel explained. "We should get her somewhere safe."

The two didn't reply.

'Try this...' Frank began.

Daniel repeated the words that Frank told him, "She's just a baby, Isha. I'll take care of her until we get her someplace she'll be safe."

Isha's eyebrow lifted. Dasex's hand slid toward his pistol.

'Not exactly the reaction I was expecting,' Frank said.

"Are you aware that you and that thing in you just talked at the same time?" Isha asked.

Frank grew still. Daniel's mouth dried.

"The baby. I'm not letting you kill her," Daniel said forcefully. He didn't want to give Isha a chance to even suggest killing the child.

"Gartian aren't killers. We clean up after the killers. Do you know how to take care of a baby?"

Daniel answered, "No," at the same time Frank answered, 'Yes.' Daniel added, "But my symbiont does."

"Then it's your responsibility. Get what you need, we're moving out in twenty minutes."

Isha turned and walked away. Daniel looked Dasex in the eye. He stepped forward, slowly pointing to his left.

"Three houses down there's a room that looks like it was for a baby. Hurry up."

Daniel nodded, sidling around him before hurrying off. Dasex walked back into the street, joining Isha. She was making an adjustment on her wrist device.

"Is he safe?" Dasex asked her.

She looked up, watching Daniel go into the house. She shrugged, then added, "But if he turns out not to be, you know your orders."

Dasex nodded, resting his hand on his pistol hilt.