Summary – Vala has her issues, but she is adapting well into the SGC, or so Daniels thinks. Till some unexpected trouble occurs and the teams trust towards her is put to test. What´s more, in the most inappropriate moment, a mission goes totally wrong.
Pairing – Daniel and Vala, but a lot of the rest of the team as well
Spoilers – Season 10 spoilers
Disclaimer – Well, obviously not owning the SG world, because if so, I would not post this story here, but publish a book itself and make loads of money. Or, if nobody was interested into reading it, well, to hell with them, I could afford to publish the book anyway! ;)
Dawn – Thanx so much for the wonderfull review and the criticism, you may well be more harsh next time.:) About the funny sentence structures…well, am not a native speaker and some constructions sometimes…well,overwhelm me I guess. lol. But will try do be carefull next time.
Sandra – I still can't believe you did it. You owe me!
ALL others – Thank you all who were so kind to post a review, you made my day! As a reward, here is the next chapter. And don't forget the RER: read – enjoy - review. :) As always, constructive criticism is welcomed.
Where the truth lies
by- liz parker
Chapter 1 –Corridors and Loos
3 days earlier:
„Aw, just look at him…" Whispered Mitchell to Vala, pointing his look at Daniel, who was sitting right across the round table they were sitting at.
„Yeah. A kid in the candy store."
Mitchell gave her an affirmative grin, which was quickly wiped of his face by a glare Daniel instantly gave him.
„Ya think he heard us?" Asked Vala, but her tone was rather amused than misgiven.
„Nah. He is too much into his conversation with the mayor." Replied Cam, still keeping his voice low.
„I was too, you know. About three hours ago!"
„Well, you can't blame him really, this place is his Dannyland."
„You mean Dinseyland?"
„I believe you mean Disneyland, Vala Mal Doran."A deep voice from Vala's side was heard.
„Yep, T is right. It's called DiSNeyland, and Dannyland is an expression for a dream place for all the nerds like Daniel, and I mean it in the best of ways."
„Right. Aw just look at him. Don't you two also think he looks kinda cute when he is so passionate about something?" Asked Vala, a mischief sparkle apearing in her eye.
„Ehh...I never really though about it that way..." Said Mitchell.
„Nor did I." Said T'ealc in his usual stoic manner, like he was talking the weather.
„But now that you mention it..." continued Mitchell, his head bending slightly as he was assesing what the just said, „...if I was a chic..."
„Guys, be quiet or they'll kick us out!" hissed a quiet voice that belonged to Sam, sitting next to Cam.
„Well, that would be more of a reward than punishment."Grimaced Vala.
„My bottom is so stiff it feels dead to me by now. These so-called chairs are uncomfortable as hell." She added. She's been shiffting her weight and fidgeting on her chair for the past one and half hours.
„Yeah, they are, but whispering while having an off-world discussion with potential allies isn't very polite." Sam pointed out.
„Yeah sure, like they can hear us. Look around you. They're all as ancient as the galaxy itself. So polite or not..." But what was or wasn't polite Mitchell and Sam never found out, since one of the town's councillors intervened their conversation.
"Do our revered guests have a question they may not dare to speak out loud?"
All four of them shut up at once. Sam's cheeks turned slightly pink, while Mitchell pretended to study the decorative engravings of the table, as if trying to find some secret code in them. T'ealc posed untouched by the situation as always, yet he did slightly look ashamed. The only one that was able to look directly at the councillor was Vala. She gave him her most sweet and innocent smile, not daring to look at Daniel. While was everybody at the large table staring at them, obviously waiting for the question that didn't exist, Vala was trying desperately to figure something out.
"We…we were just discussing, where…the toilets were."
She felt Cam stiffen and heard Sam gasp. Well, if they didn't like it, they should have come with a better question themselves…
The mayor and the whole council were speechless for a moment. The expression on Daniel's face was pretty legible, and at that point, Vala was really glad that the table was as wide as it was, because she was pretty sure that if he could, Daniel would reach across it and grab her by the collar.
Finally, the mayor himself said: "Well, of course. We are so sorry, it's been a while since we started to counsel. Tabuti!" he called a handsome young man who was serving their bevarages earlier.
"Tabuti, would you be so kind and escort our guests to the necesitty quarters? Doctor Jackson, do you also need to leave to refresh yourself?"
Daniel looked as if the only thing that could really refresh him now was to strangle Vala.
"No, thank you mayor for your kind offer, but if you allow, we may proceed in our conversation."
He shot a deadly glare towards the others and a special one I-can't-believe-you-too to T'ealc. Then he returned to his conversation, trying to be as polite and calm as he was capable of.
Once outside the chamber, they set off down the large marble corridor. As soon as possible, Vala started speaking again.
„That went well."
„Well?!" Sam's incredulous voice was heard. "Daniel's gonna kill us!"
"Nah…He likes us." Said Vala confidently, but then added with less certainty: "He does, doesn't he?"
"Well, would you bet your ass on that right now?" Asked Mitchell. Vala though for a second, then sighed heavily.
"Nope, you're right, probably not."
Tabuti was walking a few steps in front of them, never looking back, simply assuming the four would just follow him. Mitchell cought up on him and started a polite conversation with the young man.
"So…Tabuti, is that right?"For how long have you been serving the council?"
Sam shot him a questioning look and Cam threw her an ok-stupid-question-but-good-enough-for-small-talk shrug back.
"I am serving the council for a couple of years now. My grandfather is one of the councillors."
"Really? That sounds interesting…" Said Cam, able to catch with the corner of his eye, that Vala rolled her eyes.
"So your grandfather is one of the really big guys round here, isn't he?"
"If you mean that he is high in the rank, then yes."
"What about your father? What is he doing?"
"He is working in the higher administrative, hoping to become a councillor himself one day."
"Your father? How old is he?"
"He is 63 years old."
"Aw…what about you? Want to join the tradition?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Our laws allow us to become councilllors only at the age of 70 or older. I wouldn't want to wait so long. I want to open a small business one day. Of course, I still have many years of study ahead of me to be alowed to do so." Vala raised both her eyebrows and before anyone could stop her, she blurted out.
"Study years to become a simple seller?"
They all assumed the boy would get offended and finish the conversation, but got pretty surprised as he smiled and started to explain his point to them.
"Our laws are sacred. They require only the well educated ones to become politicians, public representatives, traders, explorers, teachers, lawers or doctors, all kinds of careers really. Even an ordinary…"seller" if you like, is obliged to be well educated to be able to acomplish maximum effectivity and progress for our society."
"What happens to people who can't afford to study?" Asked Sam.
"Oh. There is no one like that here. Everybody is given the chance to study, no matter from what family he comes."
"Well, what about those who simply aren't, you know, into swotting?" Asked Vala.
"There is not much of those who would willingly refuse the offer to educate themselves." Vala gave him an unconviced look.
"But well, it happens on ocassions. According to our laws, the individual is responsible for his own destiny, so by choosing not to educate himself, he is not welcomed to live among us anymore."
"You mean that these individuals are forced to leave?" Stepped in T'ealc.
"Well, they have proven to be unworthy of the kindness and generosity of our system. They had an oportunity they refused to use, the consequence is to leave our community and live somewhere else."
"Like where?" Asked Mitchell.
"In the unknown territories. They lie beyond the borders of our country. From what I have heard, there is a community of a few hundred who live there, yet in really primitive conditions."
"So you literally expel people for not obeying rules?"
"Don't you do so on your homeworld as well?" Asked Tabuti surprised.
"Well we do. But only when they harm others." Replied Mitchell.
"Then we agree on the same. By not acceping the offered privileges, these people disobey our very rules of existence and are forced to leave."
The boy stopped his pace and looked around. Seeing no one was in reach, he said quietly: "I won't pretend that I completely agree with all those laws of our community, but the councillors decided so and it can't be changed."
"What about your grandfather? Wouldn't he like to change some rules?"
"My grandfather? Oh no, he couldn't. He swore the holly oath to the sacred mace when he became a councillor."
"Well, what about your father then? Does he like the idea of becoming a councillor at the age of 70?"
The boy loitered a bit. "Well, as a son of a respected member of the community, he has not much choice but to wait for his time to serve as a councillor. It has always been his dream and with the years passing, he sometimes grows a bit impatient. But he has only seven years left." Tabuti gave them a genuine smile.
"But I am sure that all this is boring and won't interest you. We just arrived to our destination anyway."
They stopped at the end of the long corridor. It seemed it took them hours to get there. The though that crossed Sam's mind at once was, how could all those old councillors make it to the loos on time.
Tabuti pointed at a small door and waited outside patiently, till they all did what mother nature required. The moment they set off to get back again, Vala had to ask the question that has been on her mind for the last few minutes.
"So what is it with this sacred mace? Some nice, shiny…'artefact'?"
Sam had to smile. Vala learned quickly, but often happened to interprete things in her own way. Like now, for instance. The word artefact she got from Daniel, yes. Yet there was a slight difference between the deffinition Daniel would use, and the one Vala had on her mind.
"Yes. It is our most holly object. It's belonged to our forefather, Valor, blessed is his name. Do you wish to see it?" Vala's eyes shined in joy.
"Can we??" She asked excitedly. Cam looked at Sam and quietly whispered under his breath.
"Now we are in Valaland…"
Tabuti lead them through a couple of more corridors, till they came to a halt in front of very high and very wide door, that lead to a vast round chamber, that was full of various objects of clearly high value. The walls were covered with ancient writings, illuminated by soft, warm light that came from tall torches that were circling the whole room in small distances. Yet, there was something else that cought their eyes first.
Exactly in the middle of the room, there was a pedestal with a soft cushion on it, upon which resided a small golden object. However, exept the fact that it was made of gold, nothing really indicated it was a mace. It was small, round plano-convex in which's centre was a small interesting transparent stone of no colour. It looked like glass, yet when looking at it more closely, everybody got the impression it was far more than that.
"Well, it's rather…small, isn't it? No offense, but I was awaiting something…well…bigger…" Stated Vala plainly.
"What she means," stepped in Sam, "is that it doesn't resemble a clasical mace at all."
"Well, it's called a mace because it characterizes our descent. We came all from one, the almighty Valor, to whom the sacred mace belonged and who is now looking over us. He is everywhere around us, and this mace shall always remember us, that we are seen and judged by him. He is the all-powerfull lord."
"And you don't need guards to protect such valuable object?" Asked T'ealc.
Tabuti smiled. "No. We have no criminality in our community. And of course, Valor is looking over us, as well as the mace itself. Nobody would ever dare to do anything to it, not to mention steal it."
"So you are saying this little treasure of yours has absolutely no security measures?" Asked Vala interestedly.
"No, it has not." Said Tabuti in calm voice. The others looked shocked, so Tabuti continued.
"This mace has been here for 263 years and nobody ever tried to harm it. Our laws require to lay our faith in Valors hands."
After that, the young man bowed, closed his eyes and started to speak some prayer. While he wasn'twatching, Vala decided to use the situation and held out her hand to touch the little object.
"Ah-ah! Don't you even think about it!!!"
Came a familiar voice from behind. She jumped and her hand shot immediately back to her side. She turned quickly and there was Daniel with the mayor and a couple of the councillors, coming in through the large door.
"Daniel! I didn't see you coming." She gave him the most innocent smile she could master, but he didn't seem convinced at all.
"I see you have already seen our sacred mace. Do you like it, my lady?" Asked the mayor.
"Well…it is surely impressive. I bet it is quite …valuable." Said Vala, not paying attention to Daniel's warning looks.
"Yes. It's priceless. Without it, our very existence would be endangered."
"I see. Does it have any…well, lets say, ' special abilities'?" Asked Vala, but before she could drive the conversation any further, Daniel stepped in, trying to turn the topic to the ancient writings on the walls.
After another excrutiating hours of culture-babble, as Vala was calling it, the locals have invited them to a feast meal before their departure. The whole community was present and so the feast took place outside the big town hall on a small plaza, decorated with flowers, ribbons and loads of food and beverages. Right in the middle of the place was the stargate. Sam's first though that it wasn't very safe to place the gate right in the middle of a town, but she didn't dare to comment on it to the councillors.
They spent some nice time talking to the locals, Daniel finally meeting Tabuti, whom he got introduced by Tabuti's grandfather, while the rest of them were in conversations with the mayor and the other councillors. They all seemed quite intrested in the idea of a research team from earth to come and co-work with their own scientific groups on some of the ancient scripts and artefacts they couldn't decipher themselves for centuries. It was an hour later Daniel noticed, that while the rest of the team were all having conversations with the locals, Vala was nowhere to be seen. So he crossed the small place and took Mitchell by the arm, asking his debate collegue to excuse them.
"What is it Daniel?"
"Have you seen Vala?"
"Yeah, she was right here a couple of minutes ago, why?"
"Well, she is not anymore."
"Are you sure?" Cam looked around as if expecting Vala to stand right beside, Daniel only not noticing.
"Yes, I am quite sure."
Cam furrowed his brow. "Maybe I should go look for her, we are supposed to leave in half an hour."
Daniel sighed. "No, leave it to me, I'll find her. She can't be far."
"Ok, but don't be long, the SGC is awaiting us in 30 mins. Try to ask Sam, maybe she knows. She's been talking to her the last time I saw her."
"Thanks."
Daniel crossed the place again and came to Sam, who was talking passionately to the mayor about the possibilities to use solar energy on their planet.
" Mayor, I am sorry to interrupt, but could I speak to Col. Carter for a second?"
"Od course Dr. Jackson. I will go help your big companion over there…" he pointed at T'ealc, who was standing at the food table "…to find something he might like. He looks a bit overwhelmed with the offer." He gave them a smile and left.
"Hey Sam, do you know where Vala is?"
"Sure Daniel. She said the loud music was giving her a headache and that she would take a walk through the town hall instead. You can't blame her really,…" she lowered her voice "…I mean, listen to the music. They play dreadful! Besides…" she continued with her normal voice again, "…she said she wanted to look at the ancient writings in the treasure room, she said they looked familiar to her."
"The writings, huh?" Replied Daniel sceptically.
Sam gave a little laugh. "Aw c'mon Daniel. Even she may be interested in history from now and then." He raised an eyebrow. "Besides, she really looked bothered, probably the headache." Daniel gave her a concerned look.
"Daniel…" she sighed. "Nothing can happen, she is right round the corner and she said she would return soon, so don't worry."
"Sam, it's Vala we are talking here about. I am always worried." Said Daniel with a smile. "That woman can get into trouble anywhere and anytime." Sam just gave him a smile.
"Ok, if you so worried that something, though I don't know what something is supposed to mean, could happen, go find her."
"I'll be back as soon as possible. We are supposed to leave in 30 minutes anyway."
"Sure. I'll tell Cam."
Daniel walked the corridors for some time now. The bloody hallways looked all the same, and since they were all empty, because everybody was outside celebrating, he couldn't even ask for directions. At last, he stopped at the entrance of the treasure chamber. He could hear some soft cursing from inside. He peaked inside only to see Vala's back turned towards him, crawling on her knees near the pedestal of the sacred mace, looking at the ground and cursing all way along. A horrific though occurred to Daniel.
"Please tell me you didn't smash anything!"
She jumped at once at the sound of his voice. Unfortunatelly, at the same moment, a soft thud was heard as her head hit the stone pedestal, followed by a muffled scream of pain.
"Dammit Daniel! What the hell you think you are doing?" She was again on her knees, holding her forehead in both hands.
He rushed to her, kneeling beside her. "Oh my goodness, I am so sorry. I didn't want to startle you like that. Are you alright?"
"And how exactly did you want to startle me?" She asked angrily.
"C'mon, let me take a look…" He took both her hands off her face to have a better look. The skin was a bit red in the area she bumped, but otherwise, she looked fine. She was scowling like a little child. This part of her annoyed him most of the time, but in the rest one percent of the cases, he found it could be really cute. He lightly patted with his fingertips over her forehead to demonstrate she was fine, then gave her a smile.
"See? No harm done." They looked at each other for a few seconds, then she pulled back abruptly and quickly stood up. Her reaction surprised him. Usually in this kind of situation, she would pass some provocative remark that would make him blush, but not this time. He found himself a bit dissappointed, then inwardly smirked at his own though. He pulled himself as well, getting on her eye level again.
"And no, I didn't ' smash' anything. What are you doing here anyway?" She asked in a wondering tone.
"Was looking for you. We are leaving in 30 minutes."
"I know, I am watching the time. How did you know I was here?"
"Sam told me you wanted some time out."
"Aw, I see."
You shouldn't be wandering on your own like that we are off-world, remember?"
"Please Daniel, stop lecturing me, I am really not in the mood right now." Although her tone was calm, he could see something was bothering her. She was nervous and looked impatient, though he didn't understand why.
"Hey. Are you alright?" He asked her kindly.
"Yeah, I am fine." seeing he still wasn't convinced she added. "It's just the headache. It's killing me."
He was sure it wasn't just that, but he didn't want to push the subject further.
"Well, we'll be home in half an hour, you can take some aspirin then. What were you looking at?" Asked Daniel, changing the topic on purpose.
She looked at him for a few seconds, as if hesitating what to tell him, then simply stated.
"Just looking at the ancient writings."
"Really?" Said Daniel with a grin.
"What? Can't I have a look at them? I can read goauld you know and some of these writings are indeed goauld." She said in an innocent voice.
"And what did the goauld write on the floor?" He replied as innocently. To his surprise, her expression got sheepish.
"Well, I had a loose shoelace. You wouldn't want me to fall down and smash my gorgeous face, would you?" She showed him her whole set of teeth again, winking with her lashes. She was definitely up to something, but he didn'twant to know more details really, so he just gave in.
"Of course not, what a waste it would be for the galaxy."
"Not to mention the gene-pool." She gave him one of her brightest mischievous smiles and he had to grin wide despite himself at the memory of of Vala's first encounter with Mitchell.
"Ok, ready to return to the others now?"
She gave him a nod, yet there seemed something about her that didn't want to leave. Finally, Vala joined Daniel at the door, at which she hesitated for a moment, then swtiched to a quick pace forcing Daniel to jog in order to catch up on her. On the way back Vala remained silent and thoughfull, almost disappointed about something, but Daniel had any idea about what. On the other hand, he just may things up. She might only suffer from the headache after all. They were approximately In the middle of their way out when Vala stopped abruplty, causing Daniel to bump into her back.
"Vala, what on earth are you…"
"This is the corridor that leads to the toilets, isn't it?" She said thoughfully, more for herself than to Daniel.
"I don't know, I wasn't there. But even if it was the corridor, so what?"
"I need to use the ladies room. Don't wait for me, I will catch up on you guys at the gate." She was already running along the dark corridor, never leaving Daniel a chance to respond.
"But Vala..!" He tried to call after her, but the only visible that was left of her was a running silhoutte.
"I won't be long!" Was the last he could hear.
Daniel just sighed and started his walk to get out of that bloody town-hall. To him, sthis place was somehow creepy. When he finally arrived at the exit door and stepped out into the sunlight, he had to squeeze his eyes because of the bright sun. The first one to come towards him was Cam with a puzzling look.
"So what? You found the princess but the dragon kicked your ass? Where's Vala?"
"Very funny. She needed to use the ladies room. She will be here in a minute."
"I hope so. Ok, time to say goodbye."
They all made their goodbyes with the mayor and the councillors, agreeing to see each other again in two days time, so the members of the new exploration team could be introduced to the mayor, the council and locals. The partnership treaty would be sighned then between the mayor and Daniel as the represenative of earth.
While T'ealc was dialing the gate, Daniel looked around to say goodbye to Tabuti, but he didn't see the joung man anywhere near around.
"Councillor, may I ask where is your grandson?"
"Tabuti? I sent him to look after you a couple of minutes ago, since your teammates were wondering what took you so long. He must be still somewhere in the town hall, it's easy to get lost there." Answered the old man kindly.
"Aw, I see. Sorry to have caused you the trouble."
The old councillor laughed warmly. "Ow, no way. No trouble at all."
The gate was already opened but Vala was nowhere to be seen. Just as Daniel was thinking to go after her again, they all heard running footsteps and in a few seconds Vala's figure appeared in the entrance door. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath, resting her clenched fists on her knees. Finally, she went over to the rest of them.
"Sorry it took a while, I got lost in all those funny corridors." She was beaming, an enourmous grin spread all over her face. The bad mood from earlier disappeared without a trace.
"We can go."
She stepped to the mayor and the members of the council, quickly shaking their hands. Daniel didnt't like the sight of her, shaking hands with the mayor while having her left hand in her trouser pocket. He remembered how he already for so many times tried to give her a lecture on the rules of appropriate attitude, yet she always somehow managed to change the subject or slip away. Well, she definitely won't the next time.
Just before they stepped through the event horizon, Vala said to the others.
"Guys, I am really glad we are going home. I am starving."
"Starving?" Said Daniel incredulously. "You were at a feast meal that lasted several hours!"
"Well Daniel, I am sure you know that almost every alien food tastes like chicken. And you know very well too how I feel about chicken. I hate it!" She said shaking sligthly at the very thought.
Before Daniel could reply anything to her, Vala disappeared in the wormhole.
TBC
A/N – Ok, so maybe some of you were surprised that I didn't follow up on the previous Prologue, but don't worry, we actually get to that point. :) Till then, you gotta be patient and read what happened "before" our little ice-break incident. Yet, I hope you like this as well.
Again, don't know when I will post the next chapter. Right now am pretty exhausted from this one, I had to rewrite a lot untill I finally liked it, so I hope you guys will like it too. Read and review.