Sorry some of you had trouble reading chapter 8. was going a little wonky there for a while. But last time I checked it was fine again, so you should be able to read this and whatever of chapter 8 you didn't get to. So I hope you enjoy it and please review to let me know what you think! Thanks!
Chapter 9
Slowly Daniel sat up, but Vala kept her hand at his back. She didn't remove it until she was sure he was stable, supporting himself with once hand braced against the floor. He glanced back at her to tell her he would be all right…eventually, but had to forfeit and turn away again when he grimaced.
Vala saw it anyway.
"Daniel?" she asked, her arm going around his shoulders.
"I'm okay…I got it…" he protested, but his breath was coming up short when he moved.
"Just take it easy, Daniel," Sam suggested.
He snorted. "Take it easy? How much longer do we have?"
"Uh…about sixteen and a half hours," Jack provided, glancing at his watch.
"Exactly. I don't-" His breath caught, and he moaned again, but quickly recovered and looked up at his friends. "We don't have time to 'take it easy'. We have a galaxy to save…now could somebody help me up…?"
Vala sighed and stood, and together she and O'Neill carefully pulled Daniel to his feet. When Jack let go of him Vala pulled him into a gently embrace.
"I thought we'd lost you again," she gulped.
"It's okay. I'm here," he said quietly.
"What are we going to do?"
Mitchell crossed his arms over his chest. "This just got a whole lot more complicated."
Vala let go of Daniel and he wavered; she put a hand on his arm to steady him and left it there. He winced and reached for his neck again.
"Ya think?" he rasped.
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"GAH!" Vala yelled, bouncing off the force-field yet again. She lunged back up to it and pounded on it with her fists a few more times. "Let us out!" she shouted to no one in particular.
Sam looked up from where she still fiddled with the control on the other door, frowning, and Jack sighed from beside her. Teal'c, standing near O'Neill, raised an eyebrow. Mitchell was pacing, and flinched at the noise, but didn't miss a step. He'd heard the shouting enough over past few hours to let it hinder his nervous movement.
Daniel leaned against the wall next to the doorway Vala was in front of, his vest on the floor at his feet because wearing the relatively tight piece of equipment/clothing hurt too much with the damaged rib.
"I think that's enough," Daniel said tiredly as she threw her body against the field again. "No matter how many times you hit it, it's not going to change the effect."
"Do I have any other choice, Daniel?" Thump "I don't know how to manipulate technology like Sam can." Thump "I can't make negotiations well like you can." Thump "What am I even doing here?" Thump
"Vala, you can do plenty. You know we established a long time ago that you're just as useful as any of the rest of us-"
"Oh really? What am I supposed to do to help fix this? What else-" Thump "-can I do? We have to get out of here. We have to stop ship." Thump "We can't let it reach earth, or it's all over-" Thump "-Us, Earth, this entire galaxy…Janet-"
Her voice caught there and she paused, but then only began to beat on the force field even harder.
"Vala, just stop it-"
"No! Besides," Thump "This is-" Thump "-my fault!"
She started to hurl herself at the field yet again, but a firm, yet gentle hand on her shoulder and a soft utterance of her name stopped. Gulping, she finally turned to look at her husband.
"Vala, just because it's Tomin doesn't make any of this your fault."
She blinked, suddenly feeling tears in her eyes again as she looked at him. The blue glow of the force-field was bright, and only illuminated the dark bruises around Daniel's neck more.
"Y-yes it does," she stammered. "Just…just look at you-what he did to you because of me, Daniel. It's my fault. I'm sorry…"
Daniel grimaced and pushed away from the wall. "Stop it. I don't blame you. For cryin' out loud, sometimes you're just like-" When he realized what he'd been about to say he stopped and looked away, thoughts in turmoil.
"Like who?" Vala asked after a moment.
A brief smile flickered across his lips. "Like Sha're," he said quietly. He looked up at her again. "After Amaunet took her…it wasn't the last time I saw the real Sha're. And when I did, when the Gould didn't have control, she always kept trying to apologize, like she felt guilty for what Amaunet did, for whatever Amaunet or Apophis ever did to me. I can only hope I succeeded in convincing her that it wasn't her fault before she died--but I can't be sure." Now there was sadness in his eyes. "Don't keep doing this, get yourself killed and leave me in the same predicament again, Vala…please."
Vala swallowed hard at the pleading look in his eyes, the old pain reflected there…and stepped away from the force field covered doorway. She sighed and nodded weakly.
"You're right…going insane isn't going to help keep Janet and the rest of our galaxy safe, is it? I'm sorry."
Daniel nodded and smiled at her. "It's okay. With this job I guess we all have to do it sometimes."
Despite herself, Vala laughed at that, and let him pull her into a hug. She returned it gently, careful not to hurt him. When he pulled back he nodded toward the other side of the room. "Come on; let's go see how Sam's doing."
Vala nodded in agreement, and Daniel took a step away from her toward the rest of their team. He didn't get far, how ever, before he faltered, and she had to reach out a hand to his arm to steady him again. Thankfully though, the room wasn't big, and he leaned gratefully against the opposite wall once he got there. Though the stubborn archaeologist still refused to sit down for any longer than a few minutes at a time.
"So, how's it coming, Sam?" he asked.
The colonel glanced at him and shrugged. "I don't know," she sighed. "This isn't working. It should be, but it's not." She frowned in frustration. Something sparked and she jerked backwards, yelping. "Darn it!" she cried, pounding the wall beside the panel.
Jack put a hand on her shoulder. "Easy, Sam. Getting mad at it won't change anything."
"Wish it could," she muttered. She glanced at her watch, a habit all of them had developed over the past several hours. "We've got just over eight hours left."
"Which means we've been in here at least that long," Daniel concluded. Without thinking he tried to sigh and ended up doubled over in pain.
"Whoa, Daniel," Jack said in warning, helping Vala catch him and straighten him again once he'd caught his breath.
"Th-thanks guys," he gulped, leaning on the wall again. He managed an amused smile. "I guess I should stop doing that."
"Yeah, I would say so," Cameron said, having come over to the group along with Daniel and Vala.
"Are you sure you are all right, Daniel Jackson?"
"Yeah, Teal'c, I'm…"
Now, though, Vala was frowning deeply. "Vala?" Daniel asked. "It's okay. I'm fine…"
But she shook her head and stepped back from the group, raised her head and looked up at the ceiling.
"Tomin!" she shouted. "Listen to me! Don't try to pretend you can't hear me, because I know you can. You're the only other person on this ship; you have to be monitoring your prisoners. I just want to talk to you, Tomin, please! Let me see you!"
She stopped and listened, and the others listened with her. At first there was nothing.
"Vala…" Daniel began.
"Tomin!" she called again, ignoring him.
Again there was silence, but finally a voice came to them over what must have been the ship inter-communication system.
"All right," the prior sighed. "I'll talk to you Vala, but not for long. We are coming closer to earth. There are preparations I must make…"
"Fine! Just let me you for a few minutes. Come down here, or-"
"You may come to the main control room," he said, interrupting her. On cue, the force field on the door next to them snapped off.
"Okay…" Vala said, glancing at each of her friends in turn before stepping out into the corridor. O'Neill instinctively tried to get out as well, but it snapped back on in his face, sending the retired general toppling backwards. Teal'c and Mitchell caught him before he could hit the floor.
"Hey-!" Jack yelped.
Vala flinched. "Sorry…"
"Not your fault," he huffed.
"Don't try anything," Tomin's disembodied voice said firmly. "You won't be able to free them while you're out of that room, Vala. I'll be able to stop you from doing it easily."
"Right," she nodded, shrugging an apology at the others on the other side of the field.
"Vala…be careful," Daniel warned. "He's different now; he's prior. Just remember that, and please don't do anything stupid."
"Where you worried that I would, Daniel?"
His head tilted to one side for a moment. "Well...yeah."
She patted the force-field where his hand pressed against it. "Well, don't worry. I'll be fine." But he could see the trepidation in her eyes as she moved off down the corridor.
Daniel watched until she was out of side.
"She'll be okay," Mitchell said, trying to reassure his friend.
"Yeah…I just hope she can do something about all this."
"No kidding," Sam sighed. "We were supposed to be done and on our way home by now."
"Probably aren't too many happy campers at the SGC right now," Cameron speculated.
Jack grinned. "Oh yeah, I bet the DHD's back home having a field day."
"The what?" Sam, Daniel, and Cameron asked at once, while Teal'c only raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, DHD doesn't just stand for 'Dial Home Device', ya know. DHD, Department of Homeworld Defense--ya know, the department I used to be the head of…I mean, really, the DOD doesn't even know the stargate exists."
"DHD…huh, I never thought about it being the same acronym," Sam mumbled.
Jack rolled his eyes. "Really, people, what am I going to do with you?"
"Okay, fine, nice acronym. Now what do we do?" Mitchell asked.
"We wait," Daniel said. "And hope Vala can get us out of here somehow."