Stargate
Infinity Series: Reunited Revamped
By GM Grantham
After the events of 'Flesh and Blood', Daniel and Vala share some alone time and discover some very interesting things about one another. Meanwhile, the battle against the Ori continues.
Spoilers for 'Flesh and Blood' through The Quest, Part II
Nothing of Stargate SG-1 is mine…no matter how I wish it was.
This chapter is rated PG-13.
FIVE
His eyes opened early the next morning and nothing he tried could coax his mind back to sleep. The nightmares had come back; he couldn't understand why, after all of these years of peaceful sleep, they had returned to haunt him.
He sighed, giving up on getting anymore sleep and grabbed his equipment, setting off in the direction of the cave. With every few steps, he left a magnetic marker behind so that he wouldn't lose the trail.
He walked then through the cave until he came to the fork where two tunnels split off and he took the left one.
As he approached the central control panel, he held the light up to the walls for a moment and then set his equipment down before beginning his work on the translations.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Meanwhile back at the SGC, Carolyn Lam sat at her desk, yawning her fatigue. She hadn't slept since Cam had left yesterday. The lack of response from SG-1 had everyone worried.
They'd already missed their report-in time by several hours, leading her to think that things had gone horribly wrong in some way.
She shivered as images of Cam's lifeless body slid into her mind and she had to fight against the tears and the shaking of her body.
Unable to sit still, she made her way to her father's office. She didn't know why it occurred to her to go there, but she didn't know anyone else on base that well and the General seemed like the best choice.
Once outside his office, she knocked lightly on the open door and stood, waiting for him to acknowledge her.
Landry looked up from the mounds of paperwork, surprised to see Carolyn standing in the doorway, looking on the verge of tears.
"Carolyn." He stood and walked toward her, grasping her shoulders and looking into her eyes. "What is it?"
Instinctively, she threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder at last allowing the tears to fall.
This oddly affectionate gesture from his normally emotionless daughter surprised him and he wrapped his arms around her awkwardly, rubbing her back soothingly, rocking her gently back and forth.
After all of her tears had been cried, she pulled back and dabbed her eyes with the corner of her coat sleeve, looking embarrassed.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…" She looked at the wet spot on the shoulder of his uniform, becoming even more embarrassed.
Landry shook his head. "What's wrong, Carolyn?"
"It's Colonel Mitchell. I'm…worried about him."
Landry grinned. "We all are, Carolyn. I'm sure he and the rest of SG-1 are perfectly fine."
"Have you heard anything from them?" Landry shook his head. "Then how can you be sure they're not dead?"
"I can be sure, Carolyn, because their record speaks for itself. Jackson's death certificate has been revised a dozen times over, Colonel Carter has gotten out of some terrible scrapes, Teal'c is one of the most honorable men I've ever met, and Colonel Mitchell is one of the most stubborn men I've ever met."
He paused. "But do you want to know the number one reason I'm sure?" Carolyn stood, waiting. "It's because they're together."
Carolyn sighed and nodded. "I suppose you're right. I'm sure they're out there alive somewhere."
Landry smiled and nodded. "And when Colonel Mitchell returns, the three of us will need to have a little chat about your relationship."
Carolyn's head snapped up and her mouth opened to say something (most likely to deny it), but nothing came out.
Landry chuckled. "I'm your father. I'm supposed to know these things. Now, I want you to go to your quarters and get some rest." He cut off her protest before she could even form it. "General's orders."
Carolyn sighed and nodded. "Yes, sir."
With this, she left his office headed toward her quarters.
Landry watched her leave, chuckling, before he returned to the stack of papers in front of him.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"I thought I might find you here."
Daniel jumped, dropping the pen that he'd been holding just as he was putting the finishing touches on his notes, and turned abruptly in the direction of the voice to find Vala behind him, hugging a thin blanket closely to her.
He glared at her. "You were supposed to stay in the village until daylight."
"So were you. Besides, in case you hadn't noticed, darling, the sun's been up for a couple of hours."
He looked up at the fist-sized hole in the ceiling and was surprised to find she was right. He hadn't realized he'd been working at this that long.
She moved forward and hugged him tightly from behind. "You left when you couldn't get back to sleep. I heard you leave. Did you have a bad dream?"
Daniel grimaced. 'Bad dream' was an understatement. He couldn't even recall how he'd endured the nightmares before.
"Darling, talk to me…please."
He looked directly at her and she swallowed roughly at the hardness she saw in his features. She'd faced armed warriors with no fear, yet his stone expression caused her heart to race and her mind to scatter.
"Daniel…"
He turned away when he felt the tears breaking free. "Just go, Vala…please. Just go."
She didn't move. Yes, she was afraid. But something inside of her told her that he needed her whether he would admit as much or not.
"Stop burying it, Daniel. It doesn't make it go away forever…only for a little while. You need to forgive yourself or you won't ever be able to let it go."
He buried his face in his hands. "I thought I had. I don't understand."
Vala frowned. "This is about when you were ascended, isn't it?"
He nodded. "I needed to forgive myself. If I didn't, I couldn't have ascended. I don't understand."
"Sometimes we never do truly understand. Do you want to know what I think? I think you forgave yourself for a little while…but then something happened when you were returned to your human form. I think the memories of Sha're broke free when the others stopped you from saving those people on Abydos. This has most likely been building for months and something about this mission has finally brought the memories back so strongly that you can't ignore what you're feeling anymore. You need to start again. Forgive yourself again."
She smiled weakly. "You said yourself that she died knowing that you loved her…that you did everything possible to save her. Blaming yourself won't bring her back. I'm sure she would have wanted you to forgive yourself and live your life true to everything you've always believed in."
Daniel looked up at her smiling weakly as the tears slid down his cheeks. "That's just what Sam would've said."
Vala gave him a half-smile. "I like to think that a bit of her humility and good judgment has rubbed off onto me."
He laughed weakly. "You never cease to amaze me, Vala."
Her half-smile became a full-blown grin. "I like to think I can adjust fairly well to new…"
She was cut off by Daniel pressing his lips heatedly against hers. Her hands tangled instinctively into the hair at the nape of his neck. They pulled back, both smiling bemusedly.
"What was that for?"
"That," he began softly. "…is my way of saying 'thank you'."
"Hmm. Then I think I should like you to thank me more often."
"I'll tell you what…when we get back to Earth, I'll make you dinner and then we'll have all night for me to 'thank' you."
Vala laughed. "And I think that I would like that very much."
He smiled, brushing her lips with his.
"Now…let's see if we can't get the stargate working, hmm? I'd like to be back on Earth for that dinner you promised me. Maybe you can even show me some of those artifacts you keep in that cluttered apartment of yours."
"No, Vala. You can't have them to sell."
Vala pretended to look insulted. "I would never sell such priceless artifacts."
"…or replicate or pawn or trade…"
Vala pouted. "Not even one?"
Daniel sighed, trying to keep from laughing. "Not even one, Vala."
"Whyever not?"
This time, he couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his lips. "Because…as you've said, they're priceless. But most of all it's because they were gifts."
Vala sighed. "One of these days you'll wise up and see just how much better off you'd be selling or trading them."
He grinned. "Maybe…maybe not." He stood to walk back towards the tunnels.
"You will or my name's not Vala Maldoran."
He paused on the threshold of the tunnel and his eyebrows shot up. "Really? What is it then? Xena, Warrior Princess?"
With this, he entered the tunnel.
Though she didn't understand the reference, she knew it wasn't a compliment. "Not funny, Daniel," she called after him. When that didn't earn her a response, she sighed and followed him into the tunnel.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
After a very long walk and great deal of complaining from Vala, they at last reached the stargate.
"Have you gotten anywhere with fixing our ride home?" Daniel asked.
Sam looked up, unused to this type of colloquialism coming from Daniel. It was certainly something to be expected of Jack, but she'd have never expected it of Daniel. She grinned, thinking that some of Vala's vivacity might at last be rubbing off on him.
"Well, I can't see anything wrong with the gate or the DHD for that matter. I've examined it inside out."
Daniel reached into the interior of the DHD and removed the power supply examining it closely. "The power supply's been damaged."
Sam frowned. "How?"
He took a closer look at the wiring and frowned. "It's been short-circuited."
Cam frowned. "That's it? The battery's shot?"
Daniel nodded. "It looks like it."
Vala's brow furrowed. "Then all we would need is another power source. That seems almost too easy."
"Not quite." Sam looked again at the inner circuitry, shaking her head. "It would take a massive amount of energy to replace the output of the power source."
"Energy that can't be found here?"
Sam nodded. "Exactly."
Daniel closed his eyes and sighed. "There has to be some way to send the SGC a message."
"An SOS?" Vala suggested. Daniel looked at her, frowning slightly. "I came across it in a file on your computer. It was saying something about SOS being code for help."
Cam paused. "Sam, hasn't this happened to you before? I remember reading a mission report where you used lightning to power the gate."
Sam nodded. "It's a good strategy, but we have no idea when the next storm here is going to be or if they even have storms on this planet. Besides, the atmosphere on that planet was unstable enough to produce very powerful electric storms."
Vala frowned, thinking for a moment. "Perhaps the energy source from one of my…yes, it's possible."
She reached into her pocket, pulling out an unusual looking device and pried away the cover, removing what appeared to be a solar cell.
"Three or so of these cells together, which contain a semiconductor called nitcon ((1)), have a an overall corrosion effectiveness 40,000 megavolts," Vala explained.
Sam stepped forward to take a look at the cell and whistled in amazement. "That's twenty times more effective than any silicon photovoltaic cells we've developed so far on Earth."
Cam's eyebrows shot up. "Photovoltaic?"
"Solar energy."
Daniel nodded. "I see where you're going with this. We could use light energy to power the DHD and dial home."
Sam nodded. "Exactly."
Daniel turned to Vala, slightly stunned that she'd known about the properties of the material.
"Darling, you act as though you're surprised that I know how my own devices work," she said with a smirk. "The person I bought them from knew quite a lot about the mechanics and quoted statistics at me in order to keep my business. Of course, knowing general mathematics, I knew that 2,000 megavolts was quite a bargain; but 40,000...that was far beyond proficient. It would have been a crime to pass up." She reached into her bag and retrieved two more of the cells. "This should do it."
Sam nodded. "All that we have to do is find some way to connect these to the DHD's systems and then replace the cover."
"You'll need some kind of case to hold the cells." With this, Vala produced a clear plastic box with metal knobs on the side, obviously meant for wires to wrap around.
Sam took the box, her grin a mile wide as she worked to connect the box, now stacked to the top with the cells, to the internal circuitry of the DHD, using her knife to strip the wires.
"I never really considered that I would use my devices for something other than escaping cave-ins. I'm rather glad for them."
Cam grinned. "So are we."
"Got it. Now I just need to reconnect these…done." She had allowed the box to remain outside of the actual DHD before replacing the cover so that that cells could collect the sun's energy.
Daniel stepped forward, allowing several minutes for the cells to power up, then pressingthe first symbol. The few seconds that it took for the symbol to light up seemed like an eternity and left him panicking for a moment that their jury-rigging attempt hadn't worked. He let out a sigh of relief when it lit up and then pressed the rest of the symbols, ending with the point of origin.
He'd never in his life been so happy to hear the clicking of the locking mechanism and the gentle kawoosh of the liquidy event horizon surging forward for several moments before falling back into the gate.
"Let's move. We don't know how long the cells will power the DHD."
With this, Sam sent their code through and the five walked forward through the event horizon, their broken-down molecules cascading through the wormholes in space.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Meanwhile back at the SGC in the gateroom, Walter was leaning back in his chair snoring, a cup of coffee in his left hand, which sat on the desk.
The noise of the stargate activating startled him awake, causing him to spill coffee all down his front. He took almost no notice as he got on the comm immediately and sounded the alert.
"Incoming traveler."
He closed the iris immediately and waited for SG-1's signal. At last, it came through and he opened the iris, poised to close it immediately after SG-1 had made it through.
The five walked through calmly as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened and he closed the iris, for a moment wondering how they could be so calm after having missed their report in time by such an extended period. He considered for a moment that something was out of place, quickly shoving it aside when he saw the relief lighting their faces.
General Landry came rushing in and the guards in the gateroom were still on full alert.
"It's SG-1, sir," Walter reported.
Landry nodded. "Stand down."
With this, the guards lowered their weapons and stepped back to allow SG-1 exit.
"SG-1, report for debriefing immediately."
The five exited, heading toward the conference room.
Author's Note: Hope everyone liked this chappie! Loved writing the Daniel/Vala scenes for this one.
First, I'll acknowledge my list of reviewers as of July 31, 2006:
-Andrew Joshua Talon (1)
-Blessington (1)
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-Fiara Fantasy (4)
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38 reviews total!
I'd especially like to thank the following five people for giving the most reviews of this story thus far: starjems88 (5), Fiara Fantasy (4), StargateAngel101 (4), StargateFan (4), and TubaPrincess (4).
Secondly, I'd like to offer you a bit more information on the nitcon solar power cells:
((1)) Nitcon, pronounced 'neat con', is twenty times more effective as a semiconductor than silicon and requires three times less light energy than silicon photovoltaic (solar energy) cells. This name is a combination of the words 'nitrate' and 'silicon'. It has the power of nitroglycerin and the stability and conductivity of silicon. It is used as a high-energy conductor for more efficient photovoltaic (solar energy) cells.
THIS IS A FICTION POWER SOURCE BASED ON FACT!
Next chappie...Cam and Dr. Lam get back together, Daniel and Vala work together to formulate a theory to defeat the Ori based on Daniel's notes, and more!
