Chapter Thirteen
"Seriously?"
Vala put her hands on her hips, nearly pitching her body forward with the change in her centre of gravity. It did nothing to ease the small pain in her lower back. Maybe Cameron's answer would make her feel better. "Well, why not?"
Teal'c stared at Cameron from one side and Vala from the other. He gestured in the air aimlessly. He wasn't sure why he was reacting this way. He was surprised, that was for sure. More than that, he was actually honoured. "How do you even know what a godparent is?"
A beat.
"Takes on a whole new meaning when you were a god I suppose," he added.
Vala rubbed her stomach in the way pregnant women were prone to do, especially marching into the final stages of pregnancy. "I watch a lot of Earth television, Cameron."
"Many other worlds have similar customs, Colonel Mitchell," Teal'c supplied. "The Tau'ri are not the only race to come up with such a concept."
Vala pointed at Teal'c. "Muscles is right. In fact, as Qetesh, I was the godmother to several…"
Cam really didn't want to hear the rest of the story. He would pretend that it was because of the walls of the creepy Tok'ra pyramid were closing in that hurried his response, but really, he was a damn softy.
"I'll do it," he said quickly, adjusting his hat.
Vala's face lit up and she squealed with joy. Teal'c's face changed ever so slightly, as was the cornerstone of his entire personality. He looked pleased.
"I can promise you that Grapefruit will be entirely pleased with your decision. Will you take him to visit your hometown? Maybe you could attempt to teach him some of your strange Tau'ri sports. Daniel isn't…"
The sentence hung in the air, Daniel's absence making itself known yet again. Cameron leaned down and picked up Vala's bag from the dusty ground of her room. Daniel wasn't very sporty at all. If the kid was staying on Earth, Jackson or not, the princess was gonna need some help somewhere down the line. "No diapers," he said by way of agreement. "Let's get this show on the road." He opened the door and motioned for the two members of his team to leave. The Stargate and a decent shower on base were waiting.
Vala paused for another moment, looking around at her quarters. She was not sorry to be leaving the Tok'ra homeworld. She had been here far longer than she would have ever wanted. Somewhere in the pyramid, Adria and Intef were preparing to leave here and pick up the pieces of their old lives and forge them anew. In a million years, Vala would have never thought she was voluntarily return anywhere. She had become an expert at moving forward, no matter the cost. It had served her well thus far, but now it was time to move forward in a different way.
Home was waiting.
The boys gave her a few minutes before Cameron's impatience manifested in an awkward cough and shuffling of his boots. She plastered a smile on her face and looped her arm around Teal'c. "I hope Daniel likes the nursery. Did you get a picture?"
"It is the colour you selected," Teal'c replied. "As for Daniel Jackson, he would be unwise to say anything except 'thank you' to both yourself and those of us involved in the very detailed transformation of his spare room."
Vala clapped her hands together. "Splendid! Then it will all be ready for-"
Everyone felt it before they heard it. A ferocious bang cut through Vala as the walls shook, rippling with their own fear and anger. The force momentarily shifted her, Teal's steady grip on her arm the only thing keeping her from toppling over.
"What the hell?" demanded Cameron as he dropped Vala's bag and reached for his zat. Another loud bang shook the walls, this time crumbling it, shaking loose a millennia of stone. Teal'c dropped Vala's arm and moved her closer.
He spun around. "Princess, you know anything about this?"
More bangs punctuated his words and all three members of SG-1 winced as they heard an alarm sound in the distance, both incongruous and familiar. The baby sensed the disruption, kicking wildly under Vala's hand, accompanied by another sharp stab at the base of her spine.
"The base is under attack," Teal'c confirmed, seeing a number of Tok'ra storm off down the convoluted hallway of the pyramid. "It appears from the outside."
"Damn it all to hell," Cameron grumbled, grabbing his radio. He pressed it a few times, receiving no sign of a connection. "Rogue Goa'uld?"
Teal'c frowned as the walls shook again. "Unlikely. It would have been an undercover operative and they would have infiltrated through the Stargate, not made an attack on the external structures."
The Tok'ra weren't stupid and had enough protections on their homeworld. Hell, they only let the Hammond come because it was Colonel Samantha Carter. "We have to get to their command centre," Cameron said, slipping into being Colonel Mitchell. "Maybe we can get a message to Sam. They're defenceless."
"If they are attacking from the outside, we should coordinate an evacuation, although many will want to stay."
There was a break in the commotion outside and the walls remained blissfully silent for a few moments.
"It's the Alliance," Vala breathed, filling in the small moment of silence. Both men looked at her. She shrugged. "Who else?"
"Someone's gotta get Princess here to the gate," Cameron said by way of agreement. "If there still is one."
Vala was not usually one to hide from danger but nonetheless, she agreed with him, panic for the life inside of her rearing. It was then she realised that Adria was still on base. It nearly sent her straight out into the fray but the sound of a wall out there actually caving in stopped her. "Muscles, Adria is still out there," she said, the panic seeping into her voice.
"You have taught her well, Vala Mal Doran. I believe she and Intef would have immediately sought safety when the attack commenced."
Teal'c had not spent the past six months with a woman following in her mother's footsteps and an ex-god with something to prove. She herself was about to throw herself into the arms of chaos, and would have, had her superior officer not grabbed her arm and gently guided her back into the confines of her room.
"The gate room isn't far from here. We need to clear a path and then one of us will come back for you when we know it's clear."
She looked at them incredulously. She had been burned alive, for goodness sake! More than one of her children were depending on her and she needed to go. "And leave me here alone? Cameron, have you hit your head? It will be quicker if I come with you," she decided and went to grab her previously abandoned bag.
Cameron kicked the bag from her. "You will be safer here. If it's the Alliance, they're obviously here for something. Could be you for all you know."
Or Adria, she thought but remained silent, horrified at the thought. The Lucien Alliance would have a mighty need for a former Orici. Her pain returned and she pushed the thought away to concentrate on the matter at hand.
"We don't have time for this," Vala announced, kicking her bag even further into the corridor. The alarm had increased its volume and the pyramid seemed to vibrate with nerves and panic. The Tok'ra were spies-very few were versed in the explicit art of war.
"I agree wholeheartedly," Cameron said, tension and a touch of anger tingeing his voice. "Which is why you will stay here."
Vala was about to open her mouth when Teal'c unceremoniously shoved her out of the way, stepping into the corridor. "The gate room is only a short distance. I will check that the route is clear and return."
He was gone before either party could protest. Cameron fought the urge to berate Vala and then tried to remember that his teammate was extremely pregnant and extremely worried. He was the one in charge so he needed to keep a cool head.
"Damn mission," he muttered, peering out into the hallway. It was then that a clap of thunder struck the very walls around them.
Both Cameron and Vala stared in horror as the wall above them growled and groaned and it was only due to his quick reflexes that, as an avalanche of stone and dust descended upon them, he pulled them both back into the room. The shock sent Vala into one corner of her room and Cameron into the other, both throwing up their arms as their last line of defence.
Dust rose and finally, the cacophony succeeded into the distant rumbling of attacks elsewhere. Cameron sprung up, doing a quick check of himself and his surroundings. It took him less than a second to see that there had been a cave-in and the place they had just been standing was blocked off. Half a second later and all three of them would have been crushed.
He swore and remembered Vala.
"Vala?" He rushed over to her, her form bent in the corner. "Are you hurt?"
She groaned in response. "Cameron…"
It was then he saw it. "Shit."
Vala cradled her stomach, the hallmark of a woman whose body had been through this routine before. "My-"
The sound of the pyramid being fired upon and the distant calls of their allies provided the background for his stark realisation. Vala's water had broken.