Author's Note #1: Sorry for another long delay. I only finished finals last week, and a long illness has also slowed my work.
Author's Note #2: The next chapter is in the works and already partially written. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish it within the next couple weeks.
Author's Note #3 (the last one, I promise): If you have any questions you want to see answered, any plot/story ideas that would like to see, please let me know. I can't guarantee that any and all story ideas would become reality here, but I would do my best to work in any ideas that fit in with my general plot for this story, and ideas that didn't exactly fit might be able to be worked into a drabble or short story.
Harry Maybourne would never ever have won popularity awards at the SGC, not before the incident with the Tollan and especially not afterwards. It was the general opinion of most everyone that Maybourne was a slimy, good for nothing, sorry excuse for an Air Force Officer and a disgrace to the entire United States Military. True, most of the Tollan had acted like stuck-up jerks, but no one, not even the Tollan deserved to become lab rats for the rest of their lives.
SG1, on the other hand, was extremely well-liked and greatly respected by the men and women of SGC across the ranks. Though a geek, Dr. Jackson had deciphered the mysteries of the Stargate, helping to make the program an actual reality, and had acquitted himself on many missions. Captain Carter had played a critical role in developing the dialing computer, was the expert on the Stargate, and was one of the members of the second team sent through the Stargate to Abydos. Colonel O'Neill had been the leader of the first team sent through the Stargate, had helped bring down Ra, among a multitude of other awesome and death-defying deeds. Teal'c, the former first prime of Apophis, had betrayed his master and left the only life he had ever down to join the Tau'ri to bring down the System Lords. Altogether, SG1 had saved the whole earth from the Goa'uld. Their work could not be rivaled, and none of them could be replaced.
Considering these views, it was unsurprising that the events surrounding the arrival of the Tollen, their rescue by the Nox, and Daniel's flight from earth caused great controversy on base and nearly caused at least one riot in support of Doctor Jackson. The sympathies of the entire base were with General Hammond and SG1, but with Hammond unable to help Doctor Jackson because of the current political climate, tempers had nearly reached boiling points on multiple occasions. Multiple Marines had also made it clear, in quiet talks in the locker rooms and in the mess, what exactly they would like to do to Maybourne for all the chaos he caused. Several SG team leaders had also expressed a desire to boot Maybourne through the gate onto a hostile world and make the lousy git someone else's problem.
By the time a week-and-a-half had passed since Daniel's flight into exile, tensions, ebbing and flowing, were again near a boiling point. SG1 was on stand down until a temporary replacement for Daniel could be found, a search that was not going well. Sam had buried herself in her lab with her various and sundry projects. Teal'c was spending a lot of his time in the sparring rink or in kelno'reem, and Jack was rampaging around base with all the grace and subtly of a bull in a china shop.
Early on the afternoon of the tenth day, the alarm tones went off, warning of an unscheduled off-world activation. The remaining members of SG1 dropped what they were doing and ran for the gateroom. By the time Sam reached the gateroom, the Colonel and Teal'c were already there with General Hammond, and the wormhole had already disengaged.
"Good of you to join us, captain," Jack said, his words slightly more curt than he meant them. Everyone was on edge those days.
"Sorry, sir," she replied, "Who dialed in?"
"The Land of Light," it was General Hammond who now replied, "Colonel O'Neill, I want your team to be ready to leave within the hour. It's unusual for Tuplo to just dial in without warning. Make sure there is nothing amiss."
"Yes, sir," O'Neill said, before turning to his team with forced cheer, "Let's move it, campers. Places to be."
Forty-six minutes later, SG1 stepped through the gate onto P3X-797, better known as the Land of Light. Traveling there was always somewhat strange. Due to the planet's synchronous rotation around its sun, one side of the planet was always covered in sunlight, and the other half of the world was covered in eternal darkness, and the Stargate was located in the darkened forest where the Touched had once roamed.
Without the presence of the Touched, who were now cured, it was a quiet and short walk to the edge of the tree line that marked the boundary between the two lands. To their surprise, Tuplo was not there waiting for them, but Lya was, standing serenely with her hands folded across her stomach and a small smile on her face.
"Greetings, friends," she said.
"Lya!" said Sam in surprise.
"How fares Daniel Jackson?" It was Teal'c, always blunt and to the point, who first spoke the question that was on all their minds.
"He is well, though he misses you greatly," replied Lya kindly.
"Tell Daniel to avoid earth and the SG teams for now. We have orders to take him into custody," said O'Neill, his scathing words clearly showing what he really thought of those 'orders' and the ones who had given them.
"Do not worry for him. He is safe and among friends, far from the reach of those who would seek to do him harm."
"He isn't with you then?" asked Sam.
Lya shook her head, a motion that sent her hair gently swaying like leaves in a morning breeze, "Daniel did not wish to sit idly by while his wife was still in danger. We sent him far away to friends of our people, long absent and long forgotten in these lands."
"Anybody we know?" Asked O'Neill, a spark of interest in his eyes at the mention of these nameless allies.
"Once they were mighty in these lands, but they have long been absent, and their name has been forgotten by the mighty," said Lya, in a grave tone, "The Forgotten will soon return, and they have declared that there will be a reckoning with the Goa'uld. When they return, then you will see your friend again."
