Note: I have changed the order of episodes just slightly: Enigma takes place after Thor's Chariot.

Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate SG1. If you recognize a character it belongs to the Franchise. All that belongs to me is this specific plot, a number of original characters, and the characterization of the Furlings.


Chapter 1: Daniel Tells His Story

August 4, 1998 (Earth reckoning)
P3X-774 – Nox Homeworld
Milky-Way Galaxy

For a long moment nothing happened. The wormhole was open, but no one came through. Then the event horizon rippled, and three figures stepped out, two a half-step in front of the third.

It was all Daniel could do to keep his mouth from dropping open in shock. These people were the Furlings, and they were nothing like he could have ever imagined, even after traveling the galaxy for over a year and watching sci-fi movies with his former teammates. Almost all of the races that the SGC had run across so far were human, not counting the Goa'uld. The Nox were not exactly human, but they certainly looked human. The Asgard were surprising in appearance, to say the least, but considering the stories on earth about the Roswell Greys, he had gotten used to them rather quickly.

The Furlings, on the other hand, if these three were good examples of how their whole race looked, were another matter altogether. To Daniel they looked like beings more appropriate coming out of the X-Men or perhaps Norse or Egyptian mythology.

All three figures were humanoid with two arms, two legs, two ears, two eyes, and a nose, but that was about as far as the resemblance to humans went. The two Furlings in front looked extremely similar to wolves, if one could compare aliens to animals from earth. They walked on two feet and had paws instead of hands. Their faces looked like someone had placed a wolf's head on a human body, and they were covered in thick fur from the tops of their ears down to their feet. The one on the left had grayish fur that grew darker around his forehead and ears. The one on the right had black fur except for a handful of lighter hairs scattered across his face and down his neck.

"At least they're wearing clothes," was one of Daniel's first thoughts. He still had trouble getting used to the Asgard's lack of clothes, no matter how many civilizations he had been in during his time as an archaeologist and then with the Stargate Program. All three of the Furlings were clothed in what appeared to be, from a short distance away, tunics and trousers of the same material in a uniform, dark color. There was no adornment on any of their clothes except for silver colored arm-guards that each of the three wore.

The two wolves, for lack of a better term as he did not know their names, advanced several steps forward as they scanned the area, ostensibly for threats. Daniel believed they were acting as bodyguards for the third person who had stopped in the grass just one pace out from the Stargate.

This person, the one in the back, was the most striking of them all, bearing a similar appearance, in Daniel's mind, to some representations of Bastet, the ancient Egyptian cat goddess. This person was similar in the most basic ways to the other figures; the only point of real difference was that they resembled wolves while this one resembled best of all a black panther with coal black fur and golden eyes.

When the two wolves had finished scanning the area, they stepped two paces to either side, allowing the panther to step forward. The panther approached Ohper who had also stepped forward. The two spoke to each other for a few moments in a language, harsh and rough, which Daniel guessed was Furling, as it did not sound like the language the Nox spoke. Ohper gestured to Daniel as he spoke, and Daniel almost shivered as the panther turned calculating, farseeing golden eyes upon him. It felt like those eyes could see right through him.

After finishing speaking with Ohper, the panther turned to the wolf with black fur and spoke in the same tongue for a moment. The wolf nodded and gave a half-bow with one fisted paw across his chest.

As the panther turned his or her attention back to Ohper, Daniel, and Nafrayu, Ohper began to speak, "Daniel, this is Lady Sujanha of the Furlings," gesturing to the panther, "and her bodyguards, Ragnar," gesturing to the wolf with grey fur, "and Ruarc," motioning to the wolf with black fur.

Ohper then turned to Sujanha and spoke in her tongue, obviously introducing Daniel to her. She inclined her head gracefully in greeting and spoke a string of rough and harsh sounding words to Ohper who translated her words for Daniel's benefit, "She says that she is pleased to meet you, though she wishes that it were under better circumstances."

Once introductions between the grownups were complete, the source of Nafrayu's earlier excitement became clear. He had waited patiently through the long introductions and polite greetings but now dashed forward to throw his arms around Sujanha's waist, whilst chattering quickly to her in Nox.

The part in Daniel that had been somewhat intimidated by the fearsome appearances of the three Furlings thawed at Nafrayu's obvious delight at seeing them and the lady's kind response. She smoothed one hand (paw?) through his grassy hair and replied to him in the same language with as close to a kindly smile as she could possibly get when said smile exposed teeth that could tear through flesh like a knife through butter. When she had finished speaking, Sujanha lifted the boy with a barely a hint of effort so that he could scramble onto a perch on her back.

Ohper then motioned for them all to follow, and they started to make their way back toward the village. Only Ruarc remained behind. When Daniel looked back, Ruarc was about to step back through the Stargate, likely to his homeworld, and was holding in one paw one of the same strangely glowing stones like that which Ohper had used to activate the Stargate to send their original message to the Furlings.

Ohper and Sujanha walked at the head of the party as they made their way through the woods. They spoke between themselves in Furling. Daniel could only guess at what they were speaking about as he walked a few paces behind them, keeping a wary eye on Ragnar, Sujanha's sole remaining, hulking bodyguard who paced at the rear of the group.

In another fifteen minutes or so, the group reached the Nox camp. Lya and Anteaus came out to greet them as they returned. From their greetings, it was fast becoming obvious to Daniel that Lady Sujanha, at least, was well-known among the Nox. Lya showed the group to the seats where SG1 had first spoken to the Nox on their first trip to Gaia some time previously. When they had all taken their seats and had been served bowls of hot, fragrant, spiced tea, Sujanha with Nafrayu curled up beside her began to speak. When she had finished speaking, Ohper began to translate her words into English.

"Before you tell her your story, Lady Sujanha would like to know some of the background of your planet's use of the Stargate."

Daniel was thrown off by this for a moment, but it made sense after he thought about it, so he just shrugged his surprise off and replied, "Of course."

Sujanha must have guessed at what he had said, for she immediately spoke another sentence in Furling which Ohper translated, "How long has your planet been using the Stargate?"

This question threw him off too. Did she want to know how long they had been using the Stargate on a regular basis, or how long since they had used the Stargate after it was first rediscovered? "We rediscovered the Stargate about 70 years ago. It was used once 53 years ago, but we have only used the Stargate on a regular basis for a little over a year."

The lady's face seemed to grow puzzled at this. She spoke back and forth with Ohper for a minute, before Ohper turned to Daniel, "The gate was lost?"

"Yes," Daniel replied, "The Stargate on earth was buried for a long time after an uprising against the Goa'uld."

"How long is a year? Sujanha knows time is measured differently among different peoples, and she would find it helpful to understand how your people measure time."

Explaining time estimates on one planet to an alien from another world when they were not even on the first planet, this sounded difficult to do on the surface, but thankfully in this case, it was rather simple to explain. "On earth we measure time by how long it takes for our planet to rotate on its axis, one day, and around the sun, one year." Daniel stopped here to let Ohper translate.

Sujanha immediately nodded in recognition. "The Furlings do the same," she said through Ohper.

Daniel continued, "A year is made up of 365 or 366 days. A day is made up of 24 hours. Half-an-hour is about the time from when Ohper sent the message stone through the Stargate to when you and your guards arrived."

As Ohper translated this slowly into Furling, Sujanha's face showed little change in expression, but Daniel was usually good at reading people and thought she understood.

"Thank you. How did you become acquainted with the Stargate?"

"I had lost my previous job, and the Air Force brought me in to translate the hieroglyphs on the coverstone which lead to us being able to reopen the Stargate." He almost stopped here but realized that he needed to clarify a few things. "Hieroglyphs are an ancient form of writing that most people don't know how to read. The coverstone was a huge circular block of stone used to block up the gate and keep it from activating."

Sujanha pondered this for a minute before she gave her reply to Ohper. "By Air Force, do you mean part of your world's military?"

"Part of my country's military?" Daniel clarified.

Sujanha definitely looked confused as this statement was translated for her. "Countries? You have multiple on your world?"

"There are about 200 different countries on earth right now."

In a very human gesture of exasperation or disbelief, Sujanha passed a paw across her eyes. Her lips moved in soundless speech, but Ohper translated nothing of what she was saying. After a moment, she waved the same paw that was not curled around Nafrayu's small shoulders in an obvious gesture of dismissal.

"So you said you helped your people reopen the Stargate?"

Daniel nodded.

"Have you been involved since then?"

Daniel nodded again.

"Did you stay on your own world, or did you travel off-world?"

"Both," Daniel replied, "we, my team and I, traveled off-world to specific world for specific missions, but we continued to live on Earth."

"And who was involved in the running of the Stargate?"

"Most were, uh are, military personal."

"And what was the purpose of your exploration?"

"To procure knowledge and advanced technologies that could benefit the protection of Earth and its inhabitants."[1]

"And it was during your explorations that you ran into the trouble that led to your exile?"

"Yes," Daniel replied.

"Then tell me about it in as much details as you can." Ohper said for the lady.

"My team and I had traveled to a planet called P3X-7763 by us and Tollan by its people. When we stepped through the gate, we found the planet on the brink of total destruction because of volcanic activity. The planet's temperature was heating up. The atmosphere was full of ash and thick smoke. There were lava runs opening up on the surface. It was clear that the planet was soon going to be totally uninhabitable. As we were about to dial home, we found a number of survivors from the local population almost suffocated by exposure and the volcanic ash in the air. We called in reinforcements from Earth and evacuated the survivors back to our world. We treated them at our base the best we could but quickly found out that they were from a much more advanced culture. The Tollan, that was also the name of these people, were mostly a very arrogant people as a result of their advanced culture and technology. This made it difficult for us when we tried to find them a new home until they could travel to their new home – these survivors we rescued had stayed behind to close the gate." Daniel paused here to get a drink of tea and let Ohper translate.

As Ohper did this, Daniel's eye caught upon Ragnar, the hulking wolf-like bodyguard of the Furling lady. Daniel had noticed that he had not sat down with the rest but, after getting caught up in the discussion which had been going on for a while now, had lost track of what the other Furling was doing. Ragnar was pacing around the Nox encampment in a rather meandering route, sometimes straying farther out to go around their wooden homes, other times pacing close to the group. This simple action told Daniel a lot about the kind of world the Furlings came from and the problems that they had had up until recently. Daniel had seen Jack and Teal'c doing much the same thing on previous missions, scouting the area and watching for danger while the others examined ruins, talked with the locals, or did other things. Ragnar seemed uneasy, almost tense even on Gaia, a friendly planet. His eyes moved from point to point in the woods scouting them for any sign of dangers, and then just as quickly his eyes returned to Sujanha, keeping a careful eye on what she was doing and what those around her were doing.

Daniel was torn from these musings as Ohper finished translating the first part of his story and Sujanha motioned for Daniel to continue. "We settled the Tollan as best we could in our base while we tried to find a world among our allies where they could settle temporarily. Unfortunately, the Tollan were displeased with our allies because they were deemed to be too primitive. In the meantime, word about the Tollan's advanced technology spread outside the SGC, our base. The President of the United States, the country in which the Stargate is located, sent Colonel Maybourne from the National Intelligence Department, also known as the NID, to get information from the Tollan about their technology. Colonel Maybourne also brought orders from the President that released the Tollan to the custody of his Department which would make them prisoners of our government in all but name. The NID was willing to hold the Tollan by force and make them cooperate by force if necessary, even though the Tollan had clearly stated repeatedly that they did not want to stay and were not willing to share their technology."

Daniel paused here again to let Ohper translate which also gave him time to ponder his next words. In a few minutes he was able to continue. "General Hammond, the commander of the SGC, tried to stop Colonel Maybourne from relocating the Tollan but failed. In the meantime, my teammates and I came up with a plan to help the Tollan escape. The hands of the military personnel on base were tied for fear of court-martial if they disobeyed the orders of the President, but I was not in the military so I thought I was safe. I told the Tollan leader Omoc about the Nox and their world, and with their technology the Tollan were able to get a message to the Nox who were willing to receive them. I led the Tollan back to the gateroom to see them off. Maybourne tried to stop the Tollan from leaving; he even authorized the guards to shoot the Tollan if need be to stop them from leaving. He threatened me first with a court-martial, but, when he had learned that I was not in the military, he promised to have me charged with treason for disobeying a presidential order. With the influence Maybourne and the NID had over the president, I knew I was in trouble. When Lya motioned me to come with her, I took a chance, and here I am."

Daniel finished his story quickly in a rush of words. The anger and bitterness but more the sadness welled up as he picked at the scab as he retold the story of his exile. He missed his friends; he missed his books; he missed his home. But he knew if he had stayed, he would have likely been imprisoned, at worst, or at least thrown out of the Stargate program, and he needed to find his wife. This was the only good choice he had had that would let him continue his search.

The glade was quiet for nearly ten minutes after Daniel finished his narrative while Sujanha appeared to mull over his story. Finally, she spoke.

"Why did you seek us out? Surely, there must be other worlds you could go to?" Ohper said for her.

"Ohper suggested that I seek you out, since I don't have any good options of other places to go. Earth has several allies on other worlds, but I don't really want to go to them for fear of being captured or putting them in a difficult position. Also …" Daniel paused for a moment and then continued, "my wife is a host to a Goa'uld, her brother too. I am hoping that you might be able to help them someday: I was told that you are planning the downfall of the Goa'uld."

This time Daniel could see anger flit across Sujanha's usually expressionless face for a moment. "You have my deepest sympathies for your loss. Please know that the Furlings are planning to do all that we can to save the tormented hosts of the Goa'uld. Our healers will do what they can for your wife and her brother when they are found."

Daniel was only able to incline his head in wordless thanks. The new sense of hope that Sujanha's words had given him filled his eyes with tear and choked him up so that he did not think he would able to get the words out for a few moments.

Sujanha's words, when she next spoke, were almost slightly hesitant, though this tone made sense when Ohper translated her words. "I am sorry to have to ask this, but is there anyone who can confirm your story? I do not call your honor or the truthfulness of your narrative into question, but it is customary except in very extreme circumstances that one who seeks asylum have witnesses that can confirm his story."

"Omoc of the Tollan could tell what happened with the NID before our escape, and Lya could tell you what happened after she came through the gate." Daniel replied.

Sujanha processed this and then spoke again. Daniel guessed that she was asking where Omoc was, since Ohper did not translate her words. Anteaus rose after a moment and walked into the woods in the direction of the nearby Tollan encampment.

At a word from Sujanha, Nafrayu leapt up from her side and, coming over to Daniel, grabbed his hand and pulled him gently away from the group. "They want to speak alone," the boy said, "it is the custom."

Daniel and Nafrayu wandered together through the woods while Sujanha spoke with Lya and Omoc. Daniel had to restrain himself from turning around to look at the clearing. His future was being discussed, and he felt just a little nervous. It was nearly half-an-hour by his watch before Nafrayu turned back toward the clearing. Daniel and Nafrayu returned to their seats, and Omoc greeted Daniel politely—Omoc appreciated the sacrifice Daniel had made for the Tollan even if he still was not fond of less advanced cultures.

Once everyone was settled, Sujanha began to speak. Daniel was surprised when she spoke, not through Ohper and not in Furling, but in English. But then Daniel remembered how quickly the Nox had learned English and decided he really should not have been surprised that this Furling lady could learn English quickly also.

She learned forward as she spoke, resting her forearms on her knees. "I have heard all parts of your story that are able to be given, and you have my deepest sympathies, Daniel Jackson, for all you have gone though and all you have lost." She spoke slowly and in a slighted stilted manner. Her intonation and pronunciation was slightly off, also, but what she was saying was still understandable. "Any government that imprisons beings unjustly and without cause should be cleansed. The orders that your president gave simply could not be obeyed. My words might mean nothing to you, but I say you did the right thing, even though your actions came at a great cost to you."

"Thank you," Daniel replied, even as the linguist side of him started to analyze her speech, the words she choose, and the formality of her speaking style.

"Unless you wish to change your request for asylum," she paused here, and Daniel shook his head, "then you must come to Furliona on the next day. When I return there, I will submit your case to the High Council for review, and tomorrow we will examine your case in detail and will either grant or deny your request for asylum. Lya and Omoc must accompany you to witness on your behalf, and, if possible, Ohper should also accompany you as translator."

Daniel mentally noted the we when Sujanha spoke of the Furling High Council and decided to ask Ohper privately about it later. Outloud, he spoke, "I don't know how to thank you enough."

"Your thanks is appreciated but unneeded. I would do no less for others with a story such as yours." Sujanha replied. Her tone was solemn, and her golden eyes seemed to hold a depth of understanding that Daniel could not yet comprehend.

At a break in the conversation and after Omoc had left to return to his own people, Lya spoke, in English for Daniel's benefit, "Would you stay and eat with us, Lady, before you return to Furliona? The hour grows late."

Only now did Daniel notice how the light was starting to fade and the shadows in the forest were starting to lengthen.

"I thank you, Lya, for your kind offer, but I have business to attend to at home before the day ends, so I fear I must refuse."

Lya accepted the refusal with kind grace and a kind smile, "Of course, I understand."

Sujanha here turned her attention to her bodyguard who was still continuing his meandering walk around the edge of the clearing as tense and watchful as he had been hours earlier. She spoke a couple quick sentences in Furling to her bodyguard and then gave Nafrayu, again curled up at her side, a little nudge.

The boy popped up like a jack-in-the-box and trotted over to Ragnar who had stopped his pacing when his lady had spoken. The other Furling stuck one massive paw into a pocket in what was actually a jacket, not just a shirt as Daniel had previously thought. Pulling out the carved stone Nafrayu had tossed through the gate to summon the Furlings that morning, Ragnar handed the stone to the boy after patting him gently on the head, an action which looked to Daniel almost comical given how imposing and scary Ragnar looked. Nafrayu took the stone carefully and, trotting back across the clearing, carefully handed it over to Ohper.

As the meeting was now clearly over, the participants started to disperse. Anteaus and Lya spoke quietly to Sujanha for a moment and then to their son and then left. Sujanha remained sitting on the ground where she had been sitting for hours nearly unmoving; Nafrayu was chattering quietly to her, and she had not stopped him yet. Daniel and Ohper both rose and walked to the edge of the clearing.

"You do not need to remain, Daniel," Ohper said, "I will accompany the lady back to the Stargate."

Daniel nodded but remained, thinking that he should at least say goodbye or thanks again or something to Sujanha considering all she was doing to help him. So Daniel waited, unsure quite what to say but not wanting to leave without saying something. He glanced back to see if Sujanha and Nafrayu had finished speaking yet. They apparently just had, for Nafrayu had popped up again and was trotting off into the woods. When the boy had left, Ragnar left his wanderings and made his way into the clearing. Daniel could hear his rumbling speech but could not make out specific words. Stopping by Sujanha, he reached out a large arm and just as large paw. When Sujanha had reached up and wrapped her own paw around his forearm, he pulled her easily to her feet. She stood silently for a few seconds still holding onto Ragnar's steadying arm before releasing him and started to make her way toward Daniel and Ohper. Daniel, who felt that he had just observed something he should not have seen, looked away just in time. Neither Furling noticed he had been watching.

Stopping by Ohper, Sujanha patted him on the shoulder and said something in the Nox tongue that made Ohper smile.

Then looking over at Daniel she said, "I will see you tomorrow, Daniel Jackson."

"Thank you again, lady, for all your help," Daniel replied.

Sujanha gave a small nod in acknowledgment. Then, with Ohper leading the way, she disappeared into the woods with Ragnar, the ever watchful bodyguard, pacing close by.


[1] Borrowed from : wiki/Stargate_Program. It was a good summary.