Chapter 21, part 2.
Cleaned up, wearing Alice's spare green uniform that fit her almost perfectly, fed and with a clean bill of health from Doctor Lam, Dalia scarcely resembled the dirty and tattered girl Alice had first seen laying on the ground, tortured with the Rod of Anguish. She was sitting in the chair, looking around with wide eyes, clearly impressed and a little intimidated with everything that surrounded her.
Alice had just finished telling the story to Carter and was waiting for some reaction, but the general was silent for the moment, watching Dalia carefully.
"I couldn't just leave her there to die," Alice added after a moment, her voice soft.
Carter looked at her, surprised. "Of course you couldn't. Did you think I'd question that decision?" She shook her head. "No, I was just wondering what's her story. Dalia," she addressed the girl directly. "Can you tell us about yourself?"
"What do you wanna know?" Dalia blinked and glanced at Carter mistrustfully.
"Everything. Where are you from, what have you been doing so far, how did you end up on that planet with Rianna?"
Dalia pursed her lips and then looked at Alice. She nodded encouragingly and the girl sighed.
"I'm from Rayah. My parents died when I was very little. I was raised by the village. But, uhm… I had to leave and then I've been wandering around and, you know, surviving."
That probably meant stealing to be able to eat, Alice thought with pity. She didn't interrupt.
"Then one day, on this one world, there was this big boss, you know, from Lucian Alliance. I saw him talking to Rianna. I know Rianna because she sometimes would give me some small jobs to do. You know, find this trinket for her at the market or bring her beer from the tavern. She was nice. I always liked Rianna. And the big boss—he wasn't being very nice to her. So I followed him when he went into—uh, well…" She hesitated and looked at Alice furtively. Alice smiled at her, nodding, so the girl sniffled and continued: "I followed him into a—a public house," she stuttered. "And while he was otherwise occupied, I took all of his clothes and stuff." She shrugged. "It was just supposed to be a little joke—you know, payback for how he treated Rianna. But in his pocket I found this thing… I found the Mifta." She looked at Alice and Carter expectantly, as if it was supposed to mean something to them.
"The Mifta?" Alice repeated, her eyebrows going up.
"You don't know what Mifta is?" Dalia's eyes opened wide, surprise clear on her face.
"No. What is it?" Alice prompted, a little impatiently.
"It's like… uhm, it's like a key, I guess." Dalia looked into the ceiling, as if she couldn't believe she had to explain it. "You need it to access the Alliance's mainframe—like, every computer aboard every one of their ships, if you connect the Mifta to it, allows them to communicate with each other and share all their secrets securely. I don't know how it works, only that it's Ancestor's technology," she admitted. "Only the most important big bosses have a Mifta… like, I dunno, the Leader and the dozen or so Seconds have one."
Alice and Carter exchanged an excited look.
"That's like their own private cloud," Alice said, agitated. "All of their information in one place—and the possibility to access it from any ship anywhere in the Galaxy…"
Carter nodded, no less eagerly. "I bet it's based on subspace communications technology… or perhaps even quantum entanglement?"
"If it's based on Ancient technology—who knows," Alice agreed.
"You know what that means—if we but could gain access to that…" The general added dreamily.
Alice's good humor evaporated instantly. "I bet that's Jareth's next target," she noted bleakly. "Can you imagine if he was able to access their network?" She shook her head in distress and then addressed Dalia, who looked at them a bit condescendingly, still surprised that they hadn't known. "Did you take the big boss's Mifta?"
She licked her lips nervously. "Well, yeah. I mean, I didn't want to… but can you imagine just how much this would cost on the open market?" She sniffled again. "I mean, like, you still need something else, like a password or something, to make it work, but still…"
Alice nodded understandingly. "So what happened then?"
"What do you think happened? I bailed. Unfortunately, he noticed before I managed to get off the planet, so when I got to the Ring, Lucian Alliance was already there in force. So I turned around and sneaked aboard a Tel'tak. Oh, yeah—the Mifta also opens and unlocks all of the Alliance's ships," she added as an afterthought. "They gave chase, I have no idea how they found me after I went into hyperspace. I thought I was clear when I arrived at that planet where you found me, but as soon as I landed, Rianna's people were surrounding me and forcing the door open…"
"Why didn't you just fly away?" Carter asked, one eyebrow up.
"Uh, well—when I said landed… it might have been a small exaggeration," Dalia admitted sheepishly.
"You crashed," Alice guessed. "Or, at least, crash-landed."
"You know the rest," Dalia finished, not admitting to the crash. "Rianna was gonna kill me—you saved my ass." Her face was relieved, grateful, and a little resentful at the same time. Alice understood the sentiment very well—she didn't like owing other people, either.
"Okay." Carter stood up, prompting Alice to jump to her feet, too. Dalia looked at her as if she was crazy and raised her eyebrows. Alice ignored her and waited until the general sat back down with a pot of fresh coffee and two cups to take her own seat again. Carter poured and added two sugars to one cup, sliding the other one to Alice; the younger officer took her coffee black and unsweetened.
"Hey, can't I get a drink, too?" Dalia asked petulantly, looking at Carter with a challenge in her eyes.
"You're a bit young for coffee, but there's bottled water if you'd like," the general replied evenly.
Dalia laughed out loud. "Why would you put water in a bottle?"
Neither of the officers replied, but Alice stood up, walked over to the side table where the coffee maker and water lay, picked up a bottle, twisted off the cap, poured it into an empty cup and deposited it in front of the girl. "Here, now it's no longer in a bottle," she said with a bit of a sarcastic twinge in her voice.
"Gee, thanks." The girl rolled her eyes, but she must have been thirsty because she took a big swig immediately.
"So what are we gonna do with her?" Carter asked, and it sounded as a rhetorical question, but Alice responded anyway.
"We can't just let her loose in the galaxy," she said, dropping onto her chair with a sigh. "By now, Rianna knows she's escaped—that is, unless we've been enormously lucky and the shack where she'd been held had collapsed and burned to an unrecognizable crisp, but I wouldn't want to wager on that. And the Alliance's Second from whom Dalia stole the Mifta is not likely to forget it any time soon. She would be in danger anywhere the Alliance has any sort of influence—which is almost everywhere nowadays. I guess we could try to find out where Rayah is and bring her back home—"
"No!" Dalia cried, suddenly on alert. "No," she replied in a normal voice, but her eyes were huge and startled. "You can't bring me back there. I can't go back, ever."
"Why?" Carter asked, her eyebrows raised.
The glance the teenager shot her was almost hostile. "I just can't, okay?"
Alice exchanged a look with Carter and saw the general shake her head a little.
"It's likely that wherever Rayah is, it's in Lucian Alliance's sphere of influence anyway, so that probably wouldn't be wise anyway," the general opined and then shrugged. "But I'm sure we can find her a place with one of our friendly—"
"No, but you can't make me leave!" Dalia protested hotly again. "I have to stay here, I mean—I have to… I mean, you saved my life!" She said, addressing Alice. "I owe you!"
Alice frowned. "No, you don't. Don't get me wrong, but I'd do that for anyone." Well, at least—for any child, she amended silently, not sure if she'd have risked so much for an adult stranger.
"Yeah, okay, whatever, but you saved me, so I have a life debt to you, don't I?" Dalia persisted, looking at her again as if Alice wasn't understanding the most basic things.
"A life debt?" The major repeated, the crease between her brows deepening.
"Yeah, a life debt. You've never heard of a life debt?"
"Sure, I've watched Star Wars," Alice quipped and got a little chuckle from Carter but, obviously, Dalia just stared at her. "You don't owe me anything, Dalia, really."
"No, but I do. As much as I hate it, my life belongs to you now—until I pay back my debt," the girl pressed. "So I have to save your life now, or else I have to serve you for ten years, that's how it works."
Alice almost choked on a laugh. "Excuse me—serve me?"
"Yeah, do anything you want. You guys are really clueless, aren't you?" Dalia shook her head condescendingly. "The rule says: if you save a life, that life belongs to you—until the debt is paid back in full."
"We don't have that custom here," Carter put in gently. "It's not necessary—"
"Yeah, it is!" The girl looked both angry and a little panicked. "It's not a custom—it's a necessity. If you don't pay back your life debt, your life is worthless—it's forfeit!" Dalia shook her head violently. "It's the most important of Ancestral laws! If I don't pay back my debt, I—I'd be dead!"
"I don't think that would happen," Carter opposed. "I'm pretty sure Ancients wouldn't be killing people for an unpaid debt."
Dalia rolled her eyes again. "Are you being deliberately obtuse?" She asked, hostility again in her face.
"Dalia!" Alice scolded her, her voice sharp.
The girl looked at her sullenly. "What?"
Alice opened her mouth to upbraid her further, but Carter shook her head. "It's okay, Major. Dalia, you must forgive us, but we don't know your customs or culture—just explain to us what you mean, please."
The general's gentle, calm approach did nothing to win her the teenager's favor, it seemed, but Alice's furious stare tempered her heated arrogance.
"Fine," she spat belligerently. "Obviously the Ancestors won't kill me on the spot or nothing—but if I don't pay back my debt, when I die, that's it, I'm dead." She saw them both raise their eyebrows again, so she added impatiently: "I won't be able to go Onward. You know? Join the Ancestors?"
"Oh, you mean ascension!" Carter nodded. "You believe that the Ancestors would help you ascend but only if you pay back your life debts?"
"I have no idea what you mean by ascend," she replied insolently. "All I know that if you live a good life, if you pay your debts back, and you don't bring any unnecessary burdens with you in death, you will join the Ancestors Onward."
Carter looked at Alice pensively. "You think it possible that there's an Ancient on Rayah that helps people ascend like Oma Desala used to?"
"Possible? Sure." Alice shrugged. "Probable? That I cannot tell. It certainly sounds like something an Ancient would say—I mean about not bringing any burdens with you—at least as far as I can tell. I'm sure Doctor Jackson would be able to assess the probability of this actually happening better than I could, ma'am. It could just be a story that got turned into a near-religious belief with time, though—or some sort of spin-off from the myth of Kheb which was well-spread among the Jaffa."
The general nodded thoughtfully, then looked back at Dalia, who seemed annoyed at being excluded from the conversation for a moment.
"Well, I guess we could potentially grant you asylum here, on Earth. It wouldn't be the first time we'd place a child with an Earth-based family—"
"I am not a child!" Dalia protested indignantly, but Carter ignored her.
"—And although certainly it would be more difficult to find someone with the right clearance that would take on a teenager than it had been with a smaller child, I don't think it should be impossible," she finished.
"What? You want to send me away? But I told you already—I can't leave!" The girl looked at Alice and for the first time her eyes were more pleading than angry or insolent. "I have to pay back my debt, I don't want to waste my life!" Then she shifted her gaze to Carter and her face grew contentious again. "If you send me away, I—I will find a way back! I will always find a way back! You can't make me!"
For the first time since the beginning of the conversation the general looked a bit irked, but she took a deep breath, her eyes flashing to Alice, and then she nodded.
"I'll take all that under consideration. Major, why don't you put Dalia up in one of our guest quarters while I discuss this problem with O'Neill?"
"Yes, ma'am," Alice confirmed, getting to her feet and gesturing at Dalia to follow her. The girl either didn't notice or ignored her, though; instead she sat there, staring at Carter viciously. "Dalia, come with me," Alice added, her tone clipped. The teenager cringed a little, but then she rose and followed her sullenly.
Alice didn't say anything until they reached the elevator.
"You can't speak to General Carter like that," she scolded the girl, her temper still up.
"Why not? She was being stupid and she wants to send me away and—"
"Stop it," Alice interrupted her, now getting really angry. "General Carter is my superior and my mentor, she deserves respect, and if she weren't, she's still older than you—"
"Not everyone deserves respect just because they're older," Dalia challenged.
Alice couldn't really argue with that assessment, and it made her even angrier. "Just stop with the attitude!" She snarled. She didn't say anything else, because they just got to level fourteen; she strode out furiously, barely checking if the girl was following. Teenagers!
They stopped at a nondescript door—one of many on this level—and Alice ushered her in. The room was pretty drab and empty—a bed, a wardrobe, a little table with two chairs, and a TV set were all the furniture it contained. There were no decorations and even the bedding was gray and dull.
"You'll stay here tonight," Alice told Dalia. "It ain't the Ritz, but it'll do for one night," she added, a little defensively, seeing the girl's unimpressed look. "The bathrooms are outside, go right and you'll find them—but there will be a guard behind your door so you can just ask them to show you."
"Am I a prisoner?" Dalia asked, and her voice was a bit more subdued now.
"No, but this is a secure facility and we can't have you wandering around unaccompanied," Alice replied, a little mollified. "Someone will bring you something to eat before you go to bed, and tomorrow I'll get some more clothes for you. Something better than a uniform," she added. Dalia was almost her exact size and her spare green ABU fitted her pretty well, so the easiest would be to just grab some of her own civvies from home.
"Sure, thanks," Dalia responded morosely, plopping down on the bed and looking around.
Alice picked up the TV remote. "You can watch TV in the meantime," she said, her voice a little warmer than previously. "It'll pass the time."
"What's TV?"
Alice sighed and explained the concept. She then turned the screen on and showed the girl how to flick through the channels and increase or decrease the volume. Fascinated, Dalia began channel-surfing immediately, and Alice walked out feeling a little better about leaving her alone.
She was staring at a whiteboard thoughtlessly when the sensation of someone putting their hand on her shoulder jerked her out of the trance. Shaking her head as if she was resurfacing from underwater, she looked around and then frowned before she managed to control her face.
"I'm sorry I've startled you, Major, but you weren't reacting to my calls," Doctor Green said levelly, stepping away. "I came by to check up on you. You've missed our scheduled appointment."
"I'm sorry, I've been very busy," Alice replied brusquely, rising to her feet and walking to her desk, wanting to put some physical distance to the psychiatrist. "I'm fine, no need to worry."
"Yeah, but I do worry," Green noted, dropping onto the chair that stood in front of Alice's desk, so that they were now facing each other. "I don't think you're fine."
"Well, I am." Alice tried to meet her eyes, but they were too penetrating and discerning, so instead she stared at the screensaver on her computer.
"Pardon my language, Major, but please don't bullshit me," the therapist said calmly, making Alice's gaze flicker to her face for a moment, but then she looked away again. "I am here to help you, remember."
Alice felt her temper rise. "Yeah, like you helped me by insisting I go to London?"
Green sighed. "I didn't insist, Major, I gave you advice—you didn't have to take it if you didn't want to, but since you did, that tells me that you actually wanted to go and confront your fear."
"Well, it was a mistake." Alice leaned forward, resting her head on her hand.
"I never said it would be easy, Major, just that it would help you move on." Green's voice was full of compassion. "But it won't lead to anything if you don't process it, if you just put it into its compartment and go through the motions…"
Alice didn't reply immediately, and Green didn't interrupt her silent meditation. "So how do I process it?" She asked, her voice small and almost pleading. She hated this—she hated feeling this way, so vulnerable and open for attack, for judgment… But a frail, trembling voice spoke in her memory: You move on because you have to—because to stay behind is to stay in the realm of the dead. And then: You don't get over it, but you learn to live with it.
Basil, my love, I'm so sorry, she thought, her eyes becoming dangerously wet. I love you, and I will always love you, but I can't stay with you in the realm of the dead. I have to move on. God, I want to move on… even if I don't deserve to.
"Tell me what happened," Green encouraged gently.
And, hesitatingly and holding back tears, Alice did.
"Alice?"
Deanna's voice sounded as if it was coming from incredible distance. Alice had to shake her head a couple times to remind herself where she was—on the couch in their living room, where she had sat down hours earlier, too emotionally tired to even try to go to sleep. The light was different, she noted—it was brighter, the sunrays coming from out the window now complementing the lamplight she had turned on when she had come.
"Yeah," she replied, her voice a bit hoarse, and she cleared her throat, but didn't add anything.
"You okay?" Dee came around and looked into her face. "Oh, dear, Alice, what happened?" And she sat down next to her, a little awkwardly, as if she wanted to hug her but restrained herself.
"Nothing. I'm fine," Alice replied automatically. "Go back to bed."
"It's seven in the morning," Deanna said, her voice a little alarmed. "You really don't look too good… is there anything I can do?"
Alice bit her lip. Great. Now she's shown her friend how messed up she was, and made her worry. "No, I'm fine," she reassured her, but she was looking away, afraid Deanna would see the lie in her eyes.
Dee didn't have to see her, though. "No, you're not. Oh, Alice, please tell me how I can help…" And she hesitatingly put her hand on Alice's shoulder.
Treacherous wetness appeared in Alice's eyes again and she lifted her hands to her face. "You can't, Dee, not unless you can turn back time…"
Dee froze for a couple seconds and then, as if deciding to screw it, she threw her arms around Alice and pulled her face to her chest. "I'm sorry, Alice, I'm so, so sorry…" She muttered consolingly, and Alice didn't know if it was the words, the gesture, or the physical closeness—or all in one—that made her dissolve into tears. Part of her was disgusted with this display of weakness—first with Green, and now with Deanna?!—but a larger part could no longer contain all the emotions that needed an outlet.
"I miss him, Dee, I miss him so much," she wailed between sobs, like a hurt animal. "I miss him and I don't have anything… I have nothing… I don't even have a single photo… I miss him and all I have are memories and I just want them to be gone…"
"Shhhh, it's okay, I know, it's alright, everything's gonna be alright," Deanna murmured, rocking her back and forth, the constant stream of reassurances as inconsequential as it was comforting.
It took a long time for Alice to finally calm down enough to stop crying—and start feeling mortified for this breakdown. It was one thing to fall to pieces with her therapist—quite another to do it in front of her friend and roommate, and one with a crush on her to boot. She disentangled herself from Deanna and wiped her face with the heels of her palms, momentarily glad that she wasn't wearing makeup.
"I'm sorry," she croaked, her voice hoarse again. "I'm pathetic. First Aaron, now you… good on me to lay it all on my friends like that…" She shook her head, ashamed.
"Oh, Alice, but that is exactly what friends are for!" Deanna protested, grabbed her hands and squeezed them. "You're not pathetic, darling, you're grieving," she added softly. "This is a good thing. Just wish there was something I could do… I know—why don't we both blow off work today and go do something fun together? We can go hiking, you like hiking, right? Or hop in the car and do the whole Skyline Drive? Or—"
Alice sniffed, shook her head and smiled bleakly. "That's a lovely thought, Dee, but I can't. I have to go to work. Actually, I came here just to grab something…" She shook her head again. "I guess that didn't go too well."
"Can't you call in sick or something? I mean, I know that the military is very strict and all, but—"
"I'm sorry, Dee. It doesn't work like that—I'd have to be seen by a doctor." Not that getting a day off would be that hard—she was pretty sure, with how much Carter's been on her case to rest more and all, she'd give her a pass, no questions asked; and, if not, Green probably would give her a sick leave with no problem, either. SGC was much stricter when it came to protocol than Atlantis had been, but it was still a long ways off from a typical military base. But, as much as Alice appreciated Dee's support, the idea of spending the entire day with her, after she'd just made such a spectacle of herself, was not particularly pleasant.
"Bummer," Dee commented, deflated.
"It is what it is," Alice told her, freed her hands from her grasp and stretched a little. "And on that note, I should be getting back. Thank you—and, sorry again for breaking down like that…"
Deanna shook her head violently. "No—I am glad I could help. If I helped at all…"
"You did," Alice reassured her and added with surprise, because it was true: "I feel better now."
Her roommate smiled sweetly. "That's great. And—you know, I'm here whenever you need."
"I know." Alice nodded. "Thank you." And then she got up, sent Dee one more smile—a little less bleak and warmer this time—and went upstairs to wash her face and grab some clothes for Dalia, which was the reason why she'd come home in the first place.
"Well, we can't do that," Carter said, then noticed Alice standing in the door to the conference room and waved her in. "What does the IOA say?"
"We haven't asked them," O'Neill replied, his face huge on the main screen. "The President claims jurisdiction on this one—we'll treat her like any other asylum seeker, though we might have to fudge around on the documents where her country of origin and other details are concerned." He shrugged. "Nothing we haven't done before, and the President says how we handle immigration is our internal affair, even when it comes to refugees from other planets." He nodded to Alice as she entered and greeted him with a respectful nod of her own. "Did you talk to her, Major?"
"Yes, sir, but she is adamant." Alice dropped onto a chair next to Carter, opposite the screen. "No matter how hard I try to persuade her—she won't budge. She says if we try to place her out in a family somewhere, or even if we take her to a friendly world somewhere in the galaxy, she'll take the first possibility to run and try to find her way here." She shook her head with a pained expression. "I think I might have made a mistake."
"We could always lock her in a dungeon," O'Neill muttered.
Carter ignored him. "Don't second-guess yourself, Major, saving her was the right thing to do, no matter the consequences. And it's not like she's got a ticking time-bomb in her chest or anything."
"At least Cassie's nice," he commented, still low, and then added more loudly: "So what's your recommendation, Sam?"
Carter looked at Alice speculatively.
"Oh, hell, no!" Alice protested, immediately understanding the intention—and because she'd already come to the same conclusion, but her entire being bridled at the idea. "I'm not exactly equipped for child-rearing!"
"She's not a child," Carter noted calmly, squaring her shoulders as if she was bracing for a fight. "You said it yourself, she's probably around sixteen years old, but she's been on her own for a while—I bet she's more mature than your typical American teenager…"
"She certainly behaves like a typical teenager," Alice replied, a little sullenly, and then had to smirk at herself; her own attitude at the moment wasn't exactly far from a rebellious sixteen-year-old.
"She's just escaped death, and now she's in this new environment, with people she doesn't know—and I bet she has some trust issues from living a life of a young outlaw." Carter's voice was gentle. "It's not surprising that she acts out. We can have Rennel or Green work with her to help her readjust into society—the burden doesn't have to be all on you," she reasoned. "We'll all help—I can ask Cassie to come down from Denver and talk to her, I think that might be really beneficial to Dalia. Once she's a bit more familiar with our world and catches up a little on schoolwork, we can send her to school, and in a couple years she might be off your hands."
Alice didn't miss the might; while it was possible for Cassandra, a human eleven-year-old rescued from a world targeted by the Goa'uld fifteen years prior, to assimilate to the Earth's society so perfectly that she was now in her first year of residency at the University of Colorado Hospital, it was unlikely that such a spectacular feat could be accomplished with an almost-adult teenager. Not to mention that the girl had said she'd serve Alice for ten years—that alone might mean she'd be stuck with her for much longer.
"Is there any other solution, other than kicking her off the planet?" O'Neill asked.
Alice sighed deeply, defeated. "No, sir, short of using force—I don't think there is." She half-closed her eyes, telling herself that she really had no other choice—if Dalia wasn't going to cooperate, they could only release her back into the galaxy, where she'd surely be killed, sooner or later; and Alice couldn't have that on her conscience. "We can't persuade her, because what drives her is not a rational decision, but rather a religious belief. We can't prove to her that there is no Ancient on Rayah helping people to ascend if they pay their life debts—especially that, well, there actually might be one." She shrugged. "Allowing her to stay here is the only moral choice that I can see."
"So, you'll do it?" He pressed, his eyebrows raised questioningly.
She took a deep breath and thought screw it. She was in a reckless mood today. Things couldn't really go much worse than they were at the moment, now, could they? "Yes, sir."
"You realize that will mean you'll become her official guardian and will be responsible for her until she turns eighteen?"
"Yes, sir—though I assume the Air Force is gonna lend a hand?" She clarified.
"Certainly." It was Carter who confirmed. "And not just financially. We can go over the details together later."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Alright, good." O'Neill smirked. "I'll inform the President—he'll be pleased. He wanted to bet against me that you'd do it. I didn't take it, though." He nodded to them. "See ya later, Sam!"
The screen flickered and went black as the videoconference ended. Carter turned to Alice.
"You okay with this decision, Major?" She asked, her voice a bit concerned. "Frankly, I expected more of an opposition from you."
Alice shrugged again. How to explain that she felt nothing at the moment? That she had no energy even to be concerned or scared about taking care of and being responsible for a teenager, much less one who wasn't even from Earth? That none of it seemed to matter? "It's not useful nor wise to fight the inevitable," she replied instead. "I can see no other option that wouldn't be morally reprehensible."
"What we do is not always moral," Carter acknowledged. "And I want to make sure that you don't feel pressured into doing this—it's absolutely your choice, and if you say no, for whatever reason—"
"Then what? We'll send her back, for Rianna to find and finish her off?" Alice interrupted. "Or drop her on a friendly world, knowing she'll dial the first address that comes up to her mind to get the hell out of there the minute we leave?"
"We could deposit her on a world with no Gate," Carter noted.
Alice shook her head. "Then we'd only be making her live out her life convinced that she's lost her only chance to ascend. It'd be like forcing a devout Catholic into living in perpetual sin."
The general cocked her head to the side. "I can't argue with that. Still, Alice, this is a great burden you're taking upon yourself—and it's not like you don't have enough things going on in your life."
Alice felt her cheeks go slightly pink at the subtle allusion to her poor mental disposition. "I'll be fine, ma'am," she replied, a little haughtily.
Carter merely sighed at that, and then moved the mouse to wake up her laptop, which sat on the table nearby. "Alright, then—if you're sure, then let's discuss the details of this arrangement."
Her phone buzzed and she looked at it reflexively. A reminder flashed across the screen. Lunch! She sighed, snoozed it for five minutes to finish the thought in the report she was typing up, and then got up and stretched. When the phone buzzed again she was already in the elevator. She dismissed the notification and a moment later she was by the door to the guest room occupied by Dalia.
"She'd been behaving?" She asked the SF who stood right outside.
"Yes, ma'am."
When she had first came by in the morning, the airman on duty informed her that Dalia tried to sneak out in the night to "explore the base", as she had claimed. Alice couldn't really blame her for wanting to get out of the room—it was a little claustrophobic.
She nodded and the SF politely opened the door for her. Dressed in leggings and a crop top, Dalia was laying prostrate on the bed, staring into the ceiling, while a news anchor babbled excitedly about the presidential turkey pardoning that was scheduled for the next day.
"Your world is weird," Dalia complained, without so much as looking at Alice.
"Tell me about it," Alice agreed. "Get up, we'll go to lunch."
"Lunch? What's that?" The girl finally deigned move her head to throw her a bored look.
"It's a middle-of-the-day meal," Alice explained. "We have a commissary here on the base which prepares all our meals. Come on, get up."
Dalia sighed with a martyred expression on her face and picked herself up from the bed.
"You should change first," Alice noted.
"Why?" Dalia looked down at her outfit. "What's wrong with those clothes?"
"Nothing—if you're going to a gym. That's a place where we exercise," Alice added, telling herself to be patient. It was not Dalia's fault that she didn't know these things. "Not every outfit is appropriate for every setting. You could possibly wear the leggings if you had a long tunic shirt on, but a crop-top like that is only good for a workout, a hike or something like that."
Dalia shrugged. "Whatever." She walked to a duffel bag that still sat on the chair where Alice had placed it in the morning and rummaged inside. She brought out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and looked at Alice questioningly.
"Yeah, that's a much better combo," Alice agreed.
"Fine, then." Without an ounce of shame, Dalia pulled off the crop-top and leggings and put on the new outfit. Alice made a mental note to explain about bras at some point, but for now let it go.
"Alright, let's go."
She led the way, nodding to the SF on the way and gesturing at him to stay at his post. She didn't want Dalia to feel like she was locked up—even if, in practical terms, it was quite accurate.
She showed Dalia where to pick up the tray and select what food she wanted (it took a while to describe each dish), and then they took their seats and began their meal. Alice waited until they were almost done to breach the subject.
"So I talked about your situation with Generals Carter and O'Neill," she said, leaning back in her chair with a glass of orange juice in her hand. "They've agreed to let you stay." She decided to phrase it that way to avoid making an impression that she didn't want her to stay, even though it was true.
"Yes!" Dalia exclaimed loudly, attracting some curious looks from other lunch-goers around. "I knew a little bit of blackmail would work!"
Alice rolled her eyes. "You're just crazy enough to go through with your threats," she noted, not without sarcasm.
"Totally," Dalia agreed. "So I can stay with you? I can serve you?"
Alice grimaced. That turn of phrase did not have many good connotations in her head. "Under some conditions."
"I'm listening," the girl replied warily.
"First of all, let's not refer to it as serving, please, and certainly not in front of other people. They might get some weird ideas."
Dalia frowned, visibly confused, but the shrugged. "Okay, whatever."
"Good. Then, secondly. This is not Rayah, it's Earth, so you'll have to conform to our society, not the other way around. Most importantly, you cannot tell anyone outside of this base who you are or where you really come from. The Stargate Program—the existence of humans and aliens on other planets, all of it—is not known publicly, and for now it has to stay that way. You will get a new identity and cover story—you'll have to learn it by heart and you can't ever stumble and blurt out anything that would make people suspicious."
The girl's frown deepened. "I thought it was weird that none of the news or programs on your TV mentioned other planets, or Lucian Alliance, or anything like that—are you telling me no one in your world knows about all this?"
"It's your world now, too," Alice corrected gently. "And, no, they don't. There is a limited number of people who do, mostly in different governments and militaries, including ours. Compared to most worlds you might have visited on your journey across the galaxy, Earth is huge—not in terms of planet size, but population. There's over seven billion people here. A billion is a thousand millions," she added as a way of explanation, though the number was so big, it didn't really land with Dalia—it was very hard to imagine such a huge mass of people if all you've ever known were villages and towns spread across many planets. She made another mental note to try and visualize it for her at some point. "Anyway, the vast majority of people, if you'd tell them about aliens, would probably laugh at you. They don't know about the Ancients—Ancestors to you—either."
"How can they not?!" Dalia's face smoothed but there was shock in her eyes now.
"It's a long story. I'll tell you, but not right now. Coming back to the conditions, though." Alice put down the empty glass and flexed her shoulders, a dull ache in the left one reminding her of the injuries she'd received in that place. "Like I said, you'll be expected to learn your new identity and cover story, as well as everything about our world. You'll also have to catch up on school."
"School?" Dalia repeated with disdain. "What do I have to do with school?"
"You'll go to one," Alice replied coolly. "Not right away, it would be suspicious if a fifteen-year-old appeared to know absolutely zero geography or history or literature or science, or anything, really."
"I'm not dumb, you know," Dalia challenged indignantly.
"No, you're not," Alice agreed. "But we're not talking about being smart but about having knowledge. It is a necessary thing to have in our world."
"Why? I mean, it's not like I'm gonna stay—in ten years, my debt will be paid and I'm outta here."
"Possibly. But you won't have to," Alice contradicted. "You might find yourself actually enjoying Earth, and it's certainly much safer for you here than out there, now or in ten years. You might decide to stay here, and if you do, you'll need to have finished school." That wasn't the only reason, but Alice didn't think Dalia needed to know that. Dalia seemed like she wanted to argue, but Alice cut her off. "This is non-negotiable. You'll get until August next year to catch up on the curriculum—it's not gonna be easy, our kids are in school from the age of five, so there's quite a lot of material to cover."
"I'm supposed to serve—uh, help you," Dalia protested. "How can I do that if I'm supposed to be in school?"
"Trust me, you in school and out of my way will be enormously helpful," Alice replied with a tiny spark of humor. "Just be diligent in your learning and do what I tell you and it'll be alright."
"But that won't pay my debt!" The mounting panic on the girl's face was obvious. "That's almost just as bad as sending me away!"
Alice sighed. "Don't worry, there'll be plenty of opportunities for you to help me. You'll live with me and my roommate—and I'm not above making you clean my room," she joked and saw that it actually allayed some of Dalia's fears.
"Yeah—I can, like, clean and cook or something…"
"Well, Deanna already cooks for me most days, despite my repeated insistence that it's unnecessary," Alice backpedaled a little. "And I was kidding with the cleaning. Perhaps we can find something for you to do around the base or something, but your principal responsibility will be to learn about our world." An inspiration hit her and she added: "And if you're doing well, perhaps you'll get good enough to eventually start helping me in my research, like an assistant." It was very unlikely that the girl could gain enough knowledge to actually be useful on such a position before her ten years were done, but it would perhaps entice her to go to school more docilely.
Dalia seemed to think it over and then she nodded. "That sounds fair. Though I'll serve—uh, help you with whatever I can in the meantime, too."
Alice rolled her eyes. "We'll see about that. Any other questions?"
"Yeah—why did you say I was a fifteen-year-old? I'm not that old… I mean, I know I said I don't know when I was born, but I can't be older than ten!"
Alice was confused for a moment, but then a light bulb came on in her head. "The year on Rayah must be longer than on Earth," she explained. "By our calendar, I'm thirty, but by yours I'd be closer to nineteen. You look like you're around sixteen, but because of your gaps in knowledge it'd be better to tell people you're fifteen, so you can have a little more time in school."
"Oh." Dalia blinked. "Okay, then." Then she shook her head. "So, what's the next step?"
"I'll give you a brief—very brief—history of the Earth and the Program to introduce you to the subject, and then I'll get you some books and you'll start your education." Alice shrugged. "It'll take a few days or perhaps even weeks to set you up with a proper cover story and finalize all the formalities. You'll have to stay in the base in the meantime, I'm afraid," she admitted. "I'll try to get you some more clothes—those are mine—" she waved towards Dalia's outfit "—and I don't particularly want to share all my wardrobe, especially that it's not that big in the first place. I'll give you a tour of the base, you'll be able to wander around, though someone will accompany you at all times for the first few days at least." As much as they wanted to help the girl, the base's security was still paramount. "And you'll talk to Doctor Green."
"Who's that?"
"The resident psychiatrist."
"Who?"
Alice shrugged again. "She'll explain. You'll be talking to her regularly, at least at the beginning. She'll help you transition into this new situation, new society and all."
"I don't need help!" Dalia protested heatedly. "I'm not dumb."
"So you've said. I thought you were supposed to do what I tell you to do?" Alice's voice was sarcastic and she regretted the cutting remark as soon as it came out.
Dalia wasn't offended. She sighed resignedly. "You're right. Damn. This isn't gonna be easy."
For me neither, Alice thought, but she still couldn't produce enough energy in herself to worry—or care much at all. She didn't think mentioning this to Dalia was smart, though, so she rose to her feet, picking up the tray.
"Come, let's go. I'll give you that tour now."