Author's Note: I don't own Stargate or any characters but my OC's.

Chapter Twenty-Six

The Fifth Race

"So how much longer does he have to stay here?" Janet and I stood in the observation suite overlooking an isolation room. I'd been there since the early morning, leaving only when it was time for Cassie to get her breakfast.

Below in the isolation room Skaara was sitting on a white sterile bed as several doctors took his vitals in preparation for yet another scan of his brain.

Janet looked up from her computer console. "I don't know." She bit her lip for a moment before coming to sit beside me. "We've never has a medical case like this. Who knows the kind of trauma a symbiote can cause, both physically and mentally."

I flashbacked to the horrible moments when Klorel described to me how he tortured Skaara and how he screamed inside his head. Skaara always had a fire that drove him, it seemed unstoppable. No one here besides Jack and Daniel knew Skaara before he was taken as a host, and so none of them could see how much dimmer that light was in his eyes.

Skaara glanced up at that moment and met my gaze, he smiled and waved as he jumped off the cot and was lead from the room to where the CAT scan was going to take place. God, even his smile had changed.

A horrible thought hit me. I'd spent the last two years with one thought, get Skaara back. It was the only thing that kept me going until Cassie, and even then it was one of my main goals. My mind was so focused on getting him back that I'd never given any thought to what came after. I'd thought that the bond the two of us had was strong, but everything was different now. I had Cassie, which meant putting her needs before my own desires no matter how much it hurt me. And the Lord only knows what Skaara has gone through. I can't imagine what he's been forced to witness and to do, and from the looks he's given me I knew he would prefer it if I didn't try to. What if there been too much damage? What if I was too late?

"Has he…?" Janet began.

"No." I answered. My fists clenched and brought them up to my forehead against them. "He doesn't talk to me, about any of it. It's like he's trying to pretend the last two years never happened."

"That isn't exactly healthy." Janet commented. "I've seen people after extreme trauma going on with their lives like normal until it becomes too much and they snap."

"I just don't know what to do he's…"

"Mom!" A young girl's voice interrupted effectively ending our conversation, these were not things children should have to deal with.

"Hey baby." I rose and turned just in time for Cassie to wrap her arms around my waist. "I thought you were having pie with Teal'c."

After breakfast Teal'c had decided that he and Cassie, as two off-worlders, should explore the deserts that many earthlings enjoyed.

"We were but then he had had to go to a mission briefing." Cassie was almost pouting.

"I'm sure he would have preferred to spend the day with you." I kissed her the top if her head and led her down the stairs into the hallway with Janet trailing after us. Then it hit me. I was supposed to be at that mission briefing to. "Oh shi…" then realizing I was in the presence of a child who shouldn't hear such profanity, "um oh crow."

"What?" She looked up at me with curious eyes.

"I'm supposed to be at that mission briefing to." I tugged at Cassie's hand to pick up our pace.

"I'm sure the General would understand it if you sit this mission out." Janet offered.

"He's already let me sit out that last couple missions, as much as I may not want to right now, as much as I want to stay with Skaara. I have a job that I have to do. Besides, it's a simple exploratory mission what could possibly happen?"

Janet quirked her eyebrow and turned her face away, trying to hide her smile.

What I just said finally registered in my mind and I groaned. "I just jinxed the mission didn't I?"

"Has SG-1 ever had a simple mission?" Janet asked.

"No."

"Skaara? Is he the man you've talked so much about?" Cassie asked.

She wasn't watching where she was going just as a group of scientists moving a big piece of equipment were coming down the hall. Cassie would have knocked into the very expensive looking equipment had I not scooped her up and placed her between me and Janet.

Janet laughed and lovingly patted her head. "You've had too much sugar young lady."

"Yes you have. And to answer your question yes he is."

"When can I meet him?" Cassie jumped eagerly.

Kneeling down so I was at eye level tempered her excitement and signaled to her how serious what I was about to saw was. I knew she appreciated how I talked to her like she was an adult, unlike many of the others on the base who treated her as if she was a child she couldn't understand anything. I wasn't about to start treating her differently now. "Sweetie. Skaara has gone through some really horrible things and we're trying to reintroduce him back into the world a little bit at a time so he doesn't get overwhelmed. It will take some time but soon."

"If you're set on going on this mission I'd suggest you get going." Janet reminded me.

Looking down at Cassie I was tempted to just call off my participation and stay here, but like I said before, I had a job that needed to be done.

"I'll see you when I get back." I Cassie's forehead. "I love you Cassandra."

"I love you to." Her little voice answered me back.

"Okay, bye Janet." I said my farewells and started down the hall towards the control room.

"Come back in one piece!" Janet's shout echoed in the concrete corridor.

I swung back around to face her and Cassie and pinned them with a slightly mischievous smile. "I always do."

"Tell that to your medical file." Janet flung back before taking Cassie hand and leading in the opposite direction.

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When I appeared in the doorway to the briefing room I felt all eyes zero in on me. It'd been a while since my face had been seen in these parts.

"Hi everyone." I sheepishly greeted while attempting to slip into the chair beside Teal'c. Of course I only succeeded in stumbling, my but missing the seat entirely. The only thing that kept me from falling to the ground was Teal'c's quick reflexes that allowed his to grab my arm and right me. He reached over and pulled the chair over for me and I sat down. My face burned and I wished I could just disappear.

"How's Skaara?" Jack asked once I safety seated.

"As well as can be expected." I locked gazes with him and Daniel who was standing where he'd been giving his presentation before I came in. They nodded solemnly, both knowing how much he was suffering.

"Miss Clark," Hammond leaned over the table towards me and spoke softly, "If you need a few more days off I'm more than willing to allow it."

"Thank you sir, but Janet cleared me for duty. The concussion I got in the Tok'ra tunnels has cleared up. I'm ready." I addressed him.

"I wasn't referring to your physical condition." Hammond said pointedly.

Of course I knew exactly what he was referring to. "I know, sir. And I'm fine." I could hear the lie in my voice, but luckily none of them could hear it, except maybe Dani. But one glare his way kept him quite. He knew better than to get on his sister's bad side.

"Well if you think you're ready then welcome back. Dr. Jackson was just about to make a point." Hammond relented while at the same time delivering a look to Dani that clearly was meant to urge Dani to get to the point real quick.

It took Daniel a moment to realize he was on the spot again. "Well if you look closely, you'll see that the symbols match one of the inscriptions from the meeting place on Ernest's planet."

I got what he was trying to get at in his presentation right off the bat. If the languages were in fact the same then we could have found the home planet of one of that advanced races that were in alliance with the Asgard. Perhaps this mission wouldn't be as boring as I first thought. It would be a welcome distraction.

Daniel turned around, his excitement was written all over his face. My excitement must have been written all over my face to. We should have been used to the awkward silences by now. But never the less, this silence was still awkward. Everyone was looking back and forth between Daniel and I, clueless.

"You realize what this means?" I asked.

"You know what the circle of symbols says." Hammond guessed. He didn't sound very excited, of course as an air force General the notion of ancient relics wasn't exactly up his alley.

"No, I don't-I don't even know what it sounds like, but based on the Norse rune at the bottom of this inscription…" He indicated the rune at the bottom of the picture that was at the upper left of the screen. "…I'm positive that one of the four races in the alliance is Thor's race, the Asgard. Obviously, that would make the aliens that belong to this language their allies."

Now they got it.

"I do believe this world is worth exploring Daniel Jackson." Teal'c approved smiling slightly.

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We emerged on the other side of the gate in a cube shaped room. There were no doors, no windows, nothing indicating what was outside or what kind of planet we were on. The walls and floor were all made of a greenish stone. The only thing that had any writing or any other indication of culture was the circle of letters on the floor that we'd seen in the briefing.

"Very strange." Sam observed. She held a scanner in her hand that measured the components of the atmosphere. "Breathable air, moderate temperature, but where's the life support coming from?"

Jack walked over to one of the walls and slammed his fist on it, probably thinking that it could be a hologram. We'd seen holograms that looked to be solid objects before, take the hologram of Thor on the planet we'd found Thor's hammer on for instance. Unfortunately the walls were as solid as they looked. Jack winced the second his hand collided with the wall. "Oww! Walls are solid."

"Then don't hit it." I laughed and patted him on the back.

"I can hit it if I want." Jack grumbled.

I didn't know how much I missed this, the snarky banter that made up our missions. It was nice to be back.

Teal'c stood in the center of the room over the circle of letters and stared up at the ceiling where the main light illuminating was coming from. "As the probe indicated, there appears to be no exit."

"Anyone else getting a little claustrophobic?" I jokingly asked, though the idea of being stuck in a room with no exits did put me on edge.

"Well, this was an intergalactic waste of time." Two minutes on a new planet and Jack was already bored, typical.

"Well, wait a minute, Sir. Where's the power for the lights coming from? What's the point of this place?" Sam said.

"Hello!" Daniel broke the relative quiet of the room by suddenly yelling up at the light. "Hello! I'm Daniel Jackson, we're peaceful explorers from the planet Earth." When that got no immediate response he lowered his gaze, slightly embarrassed. Jack gave him a questioning look.

"It was worth a try." I defended Daniel.

"Daniel, Erin, how long you figure we oughta hang out here and scratch our cosmic heads?" Jack was starting to get annoyed.

"Well, we can't just give up." I insisted.

"Why not?" Jack asked deadpanned. When he got no answered he headed over to the DHD. "Let's go home."

Maybe it was curiosity or just a need to find a reason to stay but I crouched down and touched the carving on the floor. Possibly I was hoping that by touching the symbols I would magically learn what they meant.

The second my fingertips touched the circle they flared a glowing white.

"What did you do?" Jack materialized by my side.

"Oh!" I felt proud of myself that I didn't jump when he scared me. "Nothing I just touched it."

"What have I told you kids about touching things?"

I didn't get to answer because Jack's attention had moved on to a black, viney device that had materialized on the far wall.

"Okay, that's something." Jack admitted.

Teal'c warily approached the device and peered into the viewing hole.

"Watch yourself there, Teal'c." Jack warned.

"Do you see anything?" I asked while standing and brushing myself off.

Teal'c blinked and squinted into the viewing port. "Blackness, filled with coloured lights."

"Erin, come take a look, see what you can make of it." Jack ordered.

Jack patted Teal'c's shoulder and he moved aside to let me look inside. I had to stand on my tiptoes to see into the port. There were dozens of swirling lights inside. What could be its purpose, was it purely for entertainment or… The device changed shape and jumped towards my face, even adjusting to my height. I gasped and flew backwards. Just when I thought I was out of its reach it jutted out and wrapped around my head. My hat got knocked off and I heard it fall to the floor.

There was a buzzing sound that was getting louder and louder that made me think of a charge being built up. My hands felt around the device wrapped around my face. Up until this point I hadn't panicked, but now I started to hyperventilate when I found no latch or hinge to let me out.

My head was locked into this thing and my eyes were forcibly kept open to the lights in the viewing port. The lights I'd thought to have been beautiful became painful to even look at.

I heard screaming. The startled voices of the others and the hands that were frantically prying at the device alerted me to the fact that I was the one screaming.

The lights reached a blindingly bright white and flew into my eyes like a lance through my brain. "Stop it! Stop it!" I begged.

Then the lights cut out and my vision faded to black.