The Mariner's ancestors showed up in their new homes on a planet called Earth thousands of years ago. They were a community of only a handful of people, and their excitement of finding a place to live in peace was marred only by the fears and loneliness as they mourned the families and friends they had left behind.
But they had a will to survive, to colonize and to create a home among the people who had brought them to this world. And they lived in peace as they built their lives in a world that didn't have monsters that dwelled in the night. They didn't have to find their shelter in the coves and recesses at the bottom of the ocean in order to avoid those monsters. So they built their homes on dry land along the shores of their new world, creating a haven for those who would follow them from their home world.
They were brought to this world by a people that seemed to be so far advanced then their own. The people called themselves the Ancients. The Ancients arrived at the home world of the colonists by ship, bearing gifts and a device that allowed them to travel among the stars, a device they called the Stargate. The Ancients offered them an escape from the terrors of their world, and the Mariner's ancestors embraced the opportunity.
They had survived in their new homes, only to be abandoned once again when the people who had brought them to this world left them as they moved on to find peace in another. The descendants of the original colonists had survived and they learned to live among the new environment, making their homes in the oceans and on the land, blending in well with their new neighbors.
It wasn't until some of them moved on to other parts of their new world that they discovered evidence of hatred and persecution. They had come to this world to face yet another monster – the one called prejudice.
Daylight was a welcome sight for Daniel the next morning. He was up and about at the crack of dawn, making as much noise as possible in order to wake the divers and get them back out there. Sam joined him when his noise woke her, but she didn't bother trying to be subliminal in her efforts of waking up the others. She went right up to their tents and started yelling at them to get up and get going.
Daniel had to wonder why he hadn't thought of that. He grinned at her when she walked back over to him and picked up a cup to get some coffee. Sam just gave him a sweet smile and they sat and watched as the divers came out of their tents, some of them grumbling and complaining as they went about their morning rituals.
"I would have done that for you," Teal'c said, as he came over to join them. He sat down across from the pair, but his attention was on the fire that was crackling in the pit Sam had built.
"You weren't quick enough," Sam said with a small smile.
Teal'c nodded in agreement, his face reflecting his sorrow. "The Tau'ri are a strange people," he said, his attention still on something burning in the fire. He looked up at them, then added, "You refuse to believe in something that is plainly obvious, yet at the same time you believe in a God no one has ever seen." He stopped and went back to looking into the fire, and Daniel was at a loss as to what to say to this.
"Not everyone believes in God," Daniel said in an attempt to help Teal'c work through this puzzle. "Those that do, have their own reasons for doing so. Some people need to have actual physical proof, while others are content to believe based on their own experiences."
"O'Neill is lost to us, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said, his expression stoic as he looked back up at Daniel and Sam. "Yet, you refuse to believe this. Tell me. What is it that makes you think he is still alive?"
Daniel stared back at his friend, trying to formulate an answer that wouldn't confuse him any more than he already was. "I don't know," he finally said. "I can't explain it. He's out there, Teal'c. We all saw him fighting something. Maybe whatever – or whoever it was took him to their home, just as Nem took me to his home."
"I agree with Daniel," Sam said, with hope shining in her eyes. "I just can't believe he is gone, just like that." She shook her head, as she, too, stared into the fire. "He is not lost to us, Teal'c. Not yet."
"I am reminded of the time you were thought to be lost to us," Teal'c said, as he smiled at Daniel. "That planet looked similar to this one."
"I remember," Daniel responded quietly. His stay in the water palace of the ancient being that lived there was not something he liked to dwell on. The fear and pain he endured to help still lingered in his memory, even after all this time.
"That time was different," Sam said. "We were forced to believe that Daniel was dead. No one has messed with our minds, this time. The Colonel just disappeared."
"Perhaps," Teal'c acknowledged. He got up then, and walked over to the shore, staring out at the waves that were playing with each other and lapping at his feet. Teal'c was already dealing with his loss, Daniel realized, with a heavy heart. He so hoped that Teal'c was wrong this time.
Jack didn't get a chance to learn what Leata meant by her words, as the room he was in was filling up quickly. More and more people were coming in to see for themselves that their visitor was indeed, 'one of the people'. Jack didn't understand a thing that was being said, as Leata was too busy talking with the others to stop and translate for him. He found himself wishing Daniel was there with him right that minute. Daniel would have figured out what they were saying long before now.
His leg was still bleeding, though not as badly, and Jack finally got the bright idea of taking off his belt to use as a tourniquet. The others in the room stopped talking and turned to stare at him expectantly when they noticed what he was doing. This unnerved him to no end, but there wasn't much he could do to get them to stop staring at him like that. Jeez, he now knew what it felt like to be in a freak show.
"Heal yourself," Leata said, and Jack had to squelch the urge to get up and smack some sense into her. If nothing else, it might get her to quit repeating herself.
"I'm trying to," he said, with a sigh. "It would go much better if I had some bandages and water. Hey," he added, when he thought of a perfectly good solution. "Just let me go back to the Stargate and I'll get the Doc to fix my leg. She's a miracle worker when it comes to this stuff," he promised, hoping they would believe him.
"You are of the people," she said, trying to make him understand.
Jack had had enough. He jumped up off the bed and swayed a little, as dizziness took over. "I can't heal myself without the proper supplies. And if you so much as tell me that I am one of the people one more time…" He stopped then, as the room threatened to turn upside down and his stomach started churning right along with it. "Oh God," he moaned, as he collapsed back down on the bed. This was so not good.
He lay back on the bed, willing the nausea to go away, while he closed his eyes and listened to Leata as she ordered everyone out. He still didn't know the language, but he was getting good at figuring out what she was saying – some of the time anyway.
He opened his eyes and looked at her when she came back to sit down on the bed next to him. She smiled at him and began talking to him in that soothing voice. Jack immediately went on alert, waiting for her to try something, like reading his mind again. He was determined to kill her if she tried it again, but she just sat there and talked to him.
He shook his head at her; trying to tell her that he didn't understanding a thing she was telling him. She stopped, then tried again. "You cannot heal yourself?" she asked, and Jack felt like he had just won a major battle.
"Yes!" he exclaimed, glad that she finally understood him. "I don't have the supplies, or the expertise to do that. I think it's going to need some stitches… Whoa!" he said, as he pulled back from her searching fingers. She had been reaching for his head again, and he was not about to let that happen.
"I do not understand your words," she told him, as if that explained everything.
"I need bandages, cloths, to keep the wound from bleeding." She still didn't understand, so Jack tried again. "Cloth," he said, as he pulled at his shirt, then grabbed the fabric of the shirt she was wearing. "Cloth."
She looked at him as if he had lost his mind, but she dutifully began to take off her shirt. "No!" he said, hurriedly. "Not that particular piece of cloth… oh, never mind," he grumbled. "I'll just lie here and bleed to death."
Leata sat there looking at him, and he could see that she was really trying to understand. He sighed, then told her. "I can not heal myself without medicine."
"You are of…"
"Uh uh," he said to stop her from saying it. "What does that mean?"
"I did not learn enough of your words when I was with you," she said, trying to make him understand. "I must have more time."
"When you were with me?" Jack asked, trying to figure out what she was going on about now.
"Yes," she said with a nod, then pointed at his head. "When I was with you," she repeated.
"You were learning my language when you were holding my head?" he said incredulously. Eat your heart out, Daniel Jackson, he thought maliciously.
Leata nodded at him, then reached over to take his head in her hands. Jack was not about to give in so easily though, and he jerked his head away from her grasp.
"No way," he insisted. "There's no telling what else you could learn while you're in there."
"I have not touched other parts of your mind," she told him. "I only need your language."
"Forget it," he said adamantly. "You'll just have to learn it the hard way." He stared at her for a moment, then asked, "Did you do that while I was out of it earlier?"
"Out of it?" she asked, confusion clouding her features once again.
"While I was asleep," he clarified.
"You must be awake," she answered. "The mind is…" she stopped as she searched her mind for the right word, then finished her sentence when she found it. "Cloudy when you are asleep."
"Cloudy," he said, not so sure he believed her.
She nodded, then said, "The people can heal themselves. Why is it you cannot?"
"I need something to put around the wound to keep it from bleeding," he said slowly, hoping she would be able to keep up with him. "I don't how to heal it any other way."
She frowned at him, then went over to the table to pick up the object that had been brought in earlier. The pendulum was still swinging back and forth, and the woman held it up like a trophy, showing him proof of what she was saying.
Jack just shook his head. He was at a total loss as to what he could tell her. He could see frustration in her eyes, and he could so relate to that frustration.
She came over to him and sat back down on the bed next to him, still holding on to the statuette. She stared at it for a second, then made another attempt at getting through to him. "This is a brogon," she said. "I do not know your word for it and you will not let me look for it," she accused.
"You got that right!" Jack couldn't help but say.
She frowned at him again, then continued with her spiel. "Your people left it here many years ago. They said that it would tell us when they were near and that they would bring us news of our brethren. They left it here with us and it has not moved until you came."
"And you think because it's moving while I am sitting here means..."
"That you are of the people," she said.
"Okay, first of all, I am so tired of hearing you say that," he told her angrily, wishing he could get her to stop with those words already. "Secondly, I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what you are talking about. My friends and I came through the Stargate hoping to do a little exploring, but I ended up drowning instead." He stopped then, to look at her cautiously. "Did I or did I not drown?"
She stared at him for a moment, then told him, "I gave you life."
Jack couldn't hide his surprise at that, "You gave me life?"
"Yes," she said, matter-of-factly. "You were not…" she stopped to hunt for the word, then gave up and looked at him while taking deep breaths, obviously trying to tell him without words.
"Breathing," he said, and her whole face lit up when she smiled at him.
"Yes!" she said. "Breathing." She continued to smile at him as she went on with her story. "You were not breathing and I gave you life."
"Life," he said, grinning back at her. Her smile was infectious. "Oh, you mean you gave me air?"
She nodded her head, still smiling at him. Jack wasn't sure he wanted to know how she 'gave him air', so he decided to ask a question that had been hovering in his mind from the very first moment he met her. "How is it you can breathe under water?"
This time she didn't hesitate. Apparently her knack for learning languages was a lot better than Daniel's. She reached up to pull her hair back away from her neck and turned to show him what looked like gills in her neck, just behind her ear. Yep, Jack thought, definitely alien.
"We are born with the ability to breathe both above and under the water," she informed him. "Your people believed this to be a good thing. They came to us when monsters were destroying our world and they became friends with my people. They said they knew of a place where we could live in peace and they took several of my people with them when they left." She looked down at the object she still held onto, then back up at him. "That was many, many years ago. Long before my grandfather was born."
"Your people have been waiting all this time?" Jack couldn't help but ask.
"Yes. We are no longer in danger of the monsters. They cannot breathe under the water like we can, and we were able to hide here until they died off," she said. "Your words are much easier to speak," she told him, her features showing her pride.
"I can tell," Jack responded. She still hadn't told him why he was here; other than they thought he might have news of people taken by someone he didn't know hundreds of years ago. He hoped they weren't the type to kill him if he wasn't able to cooperate. "What is it you want from me?" he asked.
"We had hoped you would tell us what happened to our people," she said.
"I don't know what happened to your people," Jack replied sadly. "From what you're telling me, all this happened long before I was born."
"You are of the people," she insisted, as the hope that was shining in her eyes dimmed. "The people said that you would come." She looked down at the object in her lap, and Jack felt like a heel for disappointing her like that.
"Look, I'm sorry," he said, hoping he could come up with something that would cheer her up somehow, "But I have no idea what you are talking about."
Leata stood up at that point and went over to the table to place the brogon back on it, then turned to face him, as she said, "We have a healer who may be able to help you." Jack could see the defeat in her face, but he didn't know how to chase away her feeling of failure, no matter how much he wanted to.
"A healer," he said, with a smile. "Yes, a doctor." She nodded, then left the room without so much as a good-bye. Jack didn't really care, he was too busy taking advantage of an opportunity to escape and he got up slowly to test the waters. Very little nausea, head and leg throbbing madly, and so far no dizziness – all in all, a good sign. He decided to ignore the pain in his head and stood up, wobbling a little as he put all his weight on his uninjured leg. So far, so good. He limped over to the door, then snarled inwardly as he saw two burly men standing guard. Wonderful, he thought, as he realized that he wasn't going to get too far with an injured leg. Running didn't seem to be such a great option.
"Hey," he said to the guards, while giving them a little wave. "How's the weather out there?" They didn't respond, which Jack attributed to the fact that they probably didn't understand his language, so he kept on going. "I thought I would go out for a little walk. You know, to check out the neighborhood, get to know you all, that sort of thing." He took a step toward the door, which prompted the two men to block his way, as they stood there in front of the door with their arms crossed over their chests. "Not too friendly are you?" Jack asked, still trying to buy some time as he worked on possible scenarios for escaping. "Well, I wasn't exactly expecting a Welcome Wagon representative, but you guys could at least try to be nice to the new kid on the block." The room led out into a hallway, from what Jack could see as he baited the two guards, but he couldn't tell where the hallway led.
His strategic planning session was interrupted, however, when Leata suddenly returned, followed by an old woman who was just as beautiful as his translator. The woman said something to Leata, who nodded her head as she stared at Jack. Jack gave her a look that clearly told her he wanted to know what was being said, but Leata didn't say anything. She came over to take him by the arm in order to lead him back to the bed, but Jack was still a little leery of these people. He jerked his arm away from her, then backed up a few steps when the old woman reached out to him.
"She is a healer," Leata said. "She cannot learn from you as I have done. Only my brother and I can do that." Jack didn't believe her, and it was apparent she understood this, because she went on to explain, "Only a few of us have the ability to learn from others by touching," she said. "We are the only ones allowed to wear this." She reached down to pick up the pendant hanging from her necklace to show him and Jack watched her warily as she reached out to grab his arm again. "She cannot learn from you."
"How do I know she won't try to kill me," Jack said, still watching the old woman warily.
"She is a healer… a doctor," Leata said, resorting to the soft tones that had Jack tensing up even more. She was trying to make him relax, and this was something he couldn't let happen. He knew from experience what could happen when he let his guard down. "A doctor," Leata said again. "You will be safe, I promise."
Jack didn't know what to believe. This woman had done a lot to protect him from the sadistic son of a bitch who had attacked him earlier, and he wasn't tied down, although the two guards at the door still made him a prisoner. From what Leata had been telling him, they didn't want to hurt him, they just wanted to know where their people were. He decided to let the old woman take care of his leg, but still keep his guard up, just in case. He nodded at Leata before heading over to the bed to sit down on it.
Leata smiled at him, then nodded at the old woman, who then came over to do a thorough inspection of Jack's wound. "This is Brenn," Leata told him. "She is a healer."
"Hi," Jack responded, when the healer nodded her greeting. She knelt down in front of him and proceeded to inspect his wound, while Jack watched her carefully. She had gentle hands, he realized as she carefully peeled the torn cloth away from the wound, even where his blood had clotted the material making it stick to the cut on his leg. She said something to Leata, who immediately went to the door to pass on the request to someone else. Jack hated the fact that he couldn't understand a word that was being said, leaving him to put all his trust in the one woman who had shown him nothing but kindness. Leata could still turn on him, he knew, but for some reason, he trusted her completely.
A young boy came in, carrying a bowl of water and a small bag and brought it over to the healer. Jack smiled at the kid who was openly gaping at him. The boy didn't smile back, he just stood there and stared at Jack for a minute or two before turning to Leata and began to tell her something that had Leata looking at Jack with concern. She nodded at the child, who then went back to staring at Jack while answering Leata's questions.
"What's he saying?" Jack finally got the opportunity to ask. Leata stared at him for a moment, while the kid was verbally pushing her to do something. Leata made a sound that clearly told Jack that she was annoyed by the kid's insistent banter, as she gestured for the child to be quiet. Jack had to grin at the indignant look the kid gave her before he turned to stare at Jack expectantly, disgruntlement clearly showing up on his young face.
"Your friends are looking for you," Leata replied, causing the grin on Jack's face to disappear completely. He had forgotten about his team, and now worried about them. They had to be frantic with worry for him and Jack knew that he had to get a message to them somehow, preferably delivering the message himself.
"I have to get back to them," he said, hoping to make his captors understand that he couldn't stay with them. "I don't want them to worry about me."
"It would take several days to go back over land," Leata told him, sadness settling in her voice. "The land is…," she stopped for a moment, as she stared at him, then added, "Rough?" He nodded his understanding of the word she had chosen and she went on to say, "It would be a hard journey."
"I've been gone several days?" he asked her, hardly believing that he'd been out of it for that long. Surely it didn't take several days to rejoin the world of the living. But then again, the last thing he remembered was being dragged under water as he tried to kill the sadistic bastard who held him under. Come to think of it, he wondered, as Leata shook her head, why didn't his friends help him when he had been taken out of the water?
"We brought you here through the ocean," she told him, effectively answering his unspoken question. "It only takes a few hours to come here through the water."
"A few hours?" Jack asked, totally lost as far as figuring out what was going on. "Ow!" he yelped, when Brenn began spreading something on the wound in his leg that was now clean of blood and dirt. "Stop," he demanded, when the stuff started burning the flesh around his wound. He tried to pull his leg away from the woman who must have decided that torture was in store for him, but she grabbed his leg around the ankle, trying to hold it still.
"It will help heal your leg," Leata insisted as she came over to sit next to him, while wrapping her arms around him in an effort to calm him. Jack was not about to sit there and let them kill him though, and he pulled away from Leata, while at the same time trying to kick at the healer. He was successful in landing a kick on the wrist that was holding his ankle, and the healer cried out as she let go and stood up, holding her injured wrist with her other hand and staring at him with tears in her eyes.
"Stop it, Jack!" Leata demanded, as she went over to put her arms around the woman he had hurt. They both stood there staring at him, Leata with accusing eyes and the healer with tears streaming down her face, and Jack felt like an ass. The kid didn't help matters when he snarled something at Jack as he too went over to comfort the old woman.
"Look, I'm sorry," Jack said with feeling. "That stuff just hurt!" The others stared at him, while the boy gave a derisive snort, telling Jack without words what he thought of a grown man who couldn't even take a little pain, making Jack feel like a wimp on top of feeling like an ass. This was so not good. "I'm sorry," he said again to the old woman.
Leata said something to the old woman, who nodded warily as she continued to stare at Jack. "It will help heal your leg," Leata said again as she turned her attention to Jack, the tone of her voice relaying her anger at him.
He just nodded at her, then turned toward the old woman and held out his hand, palm up, to her. "I'm sorry," he repeated, hoping she could forgive him for hurting her. He knew by now that these people weren't really his enemy. Leata and the healer had been nothing but kind to him, and he wished he could take back the hurt he had caused them both.
The old woman glanced at Leata before taking a step toward him, apparently deciding to give him another chance. He smiled encouragingly at her as she came closer, but the wary look on her face told him that she didn't trust him as far as she could throw him. He sat there quietly as she picked up the little jar that held the salve and began to apply it to the wound in his leg. It still burned as it was applied, and Jack ended up gritting his teeth to keep from letting the others know it hurt as bad as it did. He was damned if he was going to give that kid another opportunity to call him a wuss again.
"You need to rest," Leata told him, as she sat down next to him. "You will sleep now and your leg will start to heal."
"What about my friends?" Jack asked, as a fuzzy feeling started to invade his thinking. "I need to get a message to them." That shit was drugged, he realized, as he tried to fight off the hazy feeling that was pulling him toward sleep. "You drugged me," he accused, as he tried to focus on Leata's face. "I trusted you!"
"The medicine will begin to heal your wound as you sleep," she soothed, as she reached over to stroke his cheek. "Let it begin the healing."
"I trusted you," he said again. He couldn't keep his eyes open, and he finally gave up the fight and gave into the darkness that enveloped him along with the soothing words of comfort that seeped in and calmed him.