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phantismaFandom: Stargate SG1
Title: something in the water, part one
Characters/Pairings: Daniel Jackson/Sam Carter, Jack O'Neill, General Hammond, Janet Fradier, Teal'c
Word Count: 15741
Rating: NC-17 (though only for the very end, the bulk of this is gen)
Summary: SG-1 is negotiating a treaty with a race called the Qeanu when something about Daniel begins to change.
A/Ns & Warnings: WINGFIC. And yes, it's allbadfalcon's fault.
Fatigue pulled her down, wings fluttering in the heat of a sun much closer than her own. The infant in her arms cried as the pressure changed and she quieted him with a touch. It wouldn’t take long for her pursuers to pick up her trail. She needed to find a place to hide the child and leave, draw them away.
The desert below her glowed in the late afternoon light. She cast about for a caring soul, someone who would give the child a good home, feeling for compassion and intelligence. Near a camp of several tents, she felt a maternal tug, a woman.
She touched down, favoring her injured leg, limping toward the woman and the man who was now beside them. Her wings ruffled in the breeze and she knew how she must look to them. They didn’t speak as she held out her arms, the baby already starting to cry, sensing perhaps that she was going to leave him.
The woman’s hands were hesitant, reaching for the child. “His name is Danai. He is yours now.” She dared not linger longer. Relinquishing her only son into the hands of strangers, she launched herself into the sky, back to the ship that had brought her, ready now to end the war the only way left to her.
The boy would be safe, his true nature hidden from him unless he somehow found his way home. But a planet with no Stargate had little danger of bringing him to the world she barely remembered. He would be safe, and she would lead the enemy far away before she died, ending her race and with it, the war that hand raged for centuries.
***
“Daniel!” Jack bellowed from the door of the gateroom.
“I’m coming.” Daniel responded, pushing his glasses up before he buckled his vest over his jacket. “I had to get batteries for the camera.”
“We don’t want to be late.” Colonel Johnson said from beside Jack. “Chancellor Lucind was very adamant about protocol.”
Daniel nodded and gestured for them to get going. “I read the file, Colonel.” He tucked the video camera into its pocket and followed Jack up the ramp. Sam and Teal’c were waiting on the other side as they emerged. So was a delegation of about fifteen natives, dressed in suits not entirely different than a similar delegation on earth might where.
The language native to the world seemed to be a unique mix of ancient Hebrew and Sumerian, though the culture was very different. Technology wise they seemed to be slightly ahead of their own planet and had apparently only recently uncovered the Stargate after nearly a hundred years. The report from SG13 hadn’t indicated why it had been buried, only that the current government had unburied it in hopes of establishing trade off world as their own resources began to dwindle.
“Welcome, travelers.” The apparent leader of the group stepped forward with a slight bow of his head. Colonel Johnson had mentioned the horns, but Daniel found his eyes caught anyway. They were small, in fact if they hadn’t been highlighted with what looked like gold paint, he might not have noticed them. Slightly further apart than the man’s eyes and about the same diameter as a nickel, Chancellor Lucind’s horns couldn’t have been more than a quarter inch tall and covered by flesh. “I am Chacellor Maricel Lucind. Welcome to Shamuim.”
“Chancellor, if I may present, Colonel Jack O’Neill, who has been authorized by our highest authority to negotiate with you.” Colonel Johnson said.
“Colonel O’Neill, you honor us with your presence. May we present this token.” He gestured and a young woman stepped forward, a tablet of sorts in her hand. Jack glanced at Daniel and nodded. Daniel smiled and took the tablet. “It is a brief history of our people, and an overview of our markets, to help you prepare for our negotiations.”
“Thank you Chancellor. My superiors also offer a token in return.” He nodded to Sam, who stepped forward with a box containing their standard opening round of samples of items they were willing to discuss trading, based on SG13s assessment of their needs.
“Come, we have arranged rooms for you and your people.” He gestured to the vehicles waiting nearby.
Jack nodded and gestured with his head for SG13 to report back. Daniel waited for Jack to take the lead. According to the protocol Jack had to be the lead in everything, or they would offend their hosts.
Jack climbed in behind the driver of their vehicle, while Sam and Teal’c took the next car, leaving Daniel to slide in beside Jack. The area around the Stargate was fairly open, much like it was on many other planets, but as they pulled away it became clear that the area was very well guarded.
Armed men guarded a checkpoint on the road, and they were stopped at a gate for a few minutes before they were allowed to proceed. In a few minutes the pastoral land gave way to what he could only call suburbs, which led them to an industrial area, then into streets lined with beautiful, gleaming buildings around a central square of green grass and flowing waters in fountains and streams that ran through stone beds between the fountains.
The cars came to a stop outside a building that might have been a temple of some sort at one time or another. They were escorted inside and up to a suite of rooms that circled a large sitting area filled with comfortable looking couches and thick rugs.
“Take your rest here. Please…” The Chancellor gestured at a curtained doorway that two servants opened onto a spacious courtyard dominated by a steaming pool. “We have provided for all of your needs while you prepare. The water comes from deep within the mountain and is said to have restorative powers. In the morning we will begin.”
The Chancellor and his entourage withdrew, closing the doors behind them. “Well, that was special.” Jack said once he was sure they were gone.
“Nice rooms.” Sam observed, moving to the door of one of the bedrooms. “There are clothes and everything.”
“Ah, yeah, that was in the file.” Daniel said. “They require us to wear specific clothes when we negotiate.” He walked to the door into the courtyard, looking around the walls that surrounded it, then at the pool. “But we have about eighteen hours to kill before then.”
“I suggest you get reading then.” Jack said.
Daniel shed his pack beside one of the couches and settled in with the tablet, turning his attention to absorbing as much of the history as he could so that he could relay the necessary information to Jack before the negotiation started.
“How’s the water?” Daniel asked as Sam came in from the courtyard, drying herself.
“Amazing. The mineral content is perfect for softening the skin and the temperature is great for soaking, you really should try it.”
He smirked and stretched. “Oh, I plan to. Just as soon as I finish this.”
“Learning anything important?” Jack asked as he sat on the opposite couch with a piece of fruit from the extravagant dinner their hosts had provided.
“Well, at one time the people of this planet traveled through the Stargate fairly regularly. Then there was a period in which it was inaccessible due to political instability, which I think is code for civil war, judging by their phrasing. The Kanpau were run off, leaving the planet to the Qeanu. That was at least a hundred years ago.”
“Run off?” Sam asked, frowning.
“That’s what it says. Through the Stargate, I assume. There isn’t a lot in here about the Kanpau. The gate was then shut down while the Qeanu solidified their government and rebuilt infrastructure.” He shrugged, setting the tablet down. “It seems they are just about equal to us in a lot of areas, ahead of us in engineering. They used to have spaceships, but shifted focus closer to home, using that tech knowledge to improve planet wide transportation and production.”
“So what could they possibly need to trade with us for?” Jack asked.
“Well, they seem to have a few childhood ailments that they can’t seem to cure, and they don’t have enough of some metals that they use in building.” He passed a piece of paper over to Jack. “That’s just about everything I think we can safely negotiate with.”
Jack glanced at the list, then handed it up to Sam. She nodded. “Most of this is relatively easy. I’m sure we have a number of scientists that are up to the challenge.”
They sky outside the glass doors had grown dark. Daniel set the tablet aside and stood. “Now, I think I’m going to change and go try out that pool.”
He headed into the only unclaimed room, unsurprised to find a closet with several choices of clothing for the negotiating, and on the bed a stack of towels and a modest pair of shorts to wear in the pool. He shed his clothes and pulled the shorts on, grabbing a towel on his way out of the room.
Teal’c was standing beside the pool as Daniel came out. “Not getting in?”
“My symbiote does not seem to like the water.” Teal’c responded.
“That’s too bad.” Sam said, suddenly beside Daniel. “I decided I’d join you.” She smiled, dropping her towel on a small table. The bathing suit that had been left for her was modest, like his, dark blue with a high neck and a short-like bottom that came almost to her knees. But wet, the material had formed to her body, almost like a wetsuit.
Daniel sat on the side of the pool, letting his feet dip in. The water was perfectly hot. The pool itself was stone, with benches carved into the sides. It was big enough to fit six or seven people. He stood on the bench, then sank down into the water. It came to just about his shoulders as he sat and to his surprise he was less buoyant than he’d expected, the water seeming to keep him in position.
Sam slipped in beside him. “See? Amazing, right?”
“Yeah.” Daniel closed his eyes and leaned his head back. It seemed like it had been a long time since he’d relaxed like this. It felt nice to let go, to let his mind go blank and let the water sooth away the stress. Sam was talking and he made noises like he was listening, but he almost couldn’t even make out her words.
“Daniel?”
Sam was shaking him. Daniel opened his eyes frowning at her. “What?”
“What the hell? I was talking to you, and you just...I don’t know it was like you spaced out and I’ve been trying to get you to answer me for at least ten minutes.”
“What?” He sat up, then stood. “We only just got in.”
“No, we’ve been in the water for at least 20 minutes.”
“Closer to 30.” Jack said.
Daniel frowned harder. He didn’t even remember Jack joining them. “I’m...sorry, I guess. I must have dozed off.”
“Maybe you should head in to bed then.” Jack said, standing himself now. “Wouldn’t want you dozing off tomorrow.”
Daniel frowned at him, but agreed in principle. He climbed out of the water and went to pick up his towel, though by the time he reached the door, his skin was largely dry, as if the water had been absorbed into his skin.
By the time he was back in his room, the only thing wet was the swimsuit, which he shed quickly and hung to dry in the small attached bathroom. His head was fuzzy and he could feel a headache brewing. He pulled on clean underwear and an undershirt and crawled into bed, asleep almost immediately.
Daniel stopped beside a beautiful fountain, his eyes sliding over the carved flowers. It had been a long day, but progress had been made. He was tired, but as he stood there, he felt warm and pleased...like a smile that started in his stomach and built until he was grinning broadly.
“How’d it go?” Sam asked as she and Teal’c stopped near the fountain. Daniel looked up, still smiling. Sam seemed...radiant. Her cheeks were a little flushed and her eyes sparkled when they met his.
“Good. It was a good start.” Daniel replied.
“Where’s Colonel O’Neill?”
“He was headed back to our room. Avila offered to show me around some of the area. This was once a sacred retreat. He said there are even some caves that lead down to a private spring.” He couldn’t help but smile at her smiling at him. “What?”
“Nothing, you just seem...happy.”
Daniel thought about it for a second, then nodded. “I guess I am.”
“I am ready, Dr. Jackson.”
Daniel turned to find Avila, one of the Chancellor’s many aides approaching. His red hair was worn long and caught at the nape of his neck with a leather cuff. His horns were nearly hidden in his hair and his pale skin was lightly flushed.
“Would you mind if I joined you?” Sam asked.
“As you wish.”
“I shall return to our room.” Teal’c said, inclining his head tightly before departing.
“Okay, Avila, lead on.” Sam fell in beside him as Aivla led them out of the building and into the late afternoon sun. There was something that felt so...right. Sam’s shoulder bumped his and she laughed. Daniel laughed too though it wasn’t exactly humor...it was happiness. Sam’s laughter increased, her hand grabbing his arm as they stopped. “I love your laugh.” Daniel said suddenly, bringing both of their laughter down a bit. Sam’s eyes glittered and his heart raced and Avila cleared his throat, breaking the moment and freeing them to continue walking.
“I’m interested in these caves you were telling me about.” Daniel said as Avila pointed to what looked like the remains of an old wall behind the modern building that housed apartments for the government’s upper level representatives.
“I was wrong to speak of them.” Avila said. “We do not have permission to access them. They are dangerous.”
“We don’t have to go inside.” Daniel said, uncertain of what had dampened the aide’s enthusiasm. When they had spoken earlier, Avila had been excited, telling Daniel about the paintings on the walls. Avila seemed to consider it.
“I will show you the entrance.” Avila agreed, “But we must not go inside.” He pointed and started walking. They circled around a low wall and turned left to a small path leading into the trees. A few minutes later they were nearly completely engulfed in vegetation and starting uphill.
The trees thinned some, then suddenly they were face to face with rock. There was an opening nearly ten foot tall and a good four feet wide. Sam stepped closer to the opening, producing a flashlight from her vest. Daniel watched her play the light around inside. Beside him Avila fidgeted and Daniel found himself nervous.
“Anything exciting?” Daniel asked.
Sam shrugged a little. “Can’t see too far in. There’s some writing…”
Daniel crossed to her side, squinting into the beam of her flashlight to see. “Can you read it?”
He parsed through what he could read, his head running the words around, trying to pick apart the language with what he knew of Sumerian and Hebrew. “Ah...something about a refuge, the Kanpau elders made a place for the...mmm...aging? No...more like...growth?” The anxiousness in his stomach grew.
Avila grabbed his arm. “We must go. Now.”
“Okay, okay. Calm down.” Daniel inclined his head away and Sam nodded. As they moved back through the trees the anxious feeling crested, but beside it was curiosity and caution. Sam caught his arm and pulled him back a little.
“What’s his problem?”
Daniel shrugged. “We can circle back once he’s gone.”
She nodded and they followed him all the way back to the door of their rooms. “Thanks.” Daniel said, waving as he walked away. The anxious feeling in his stomach faded. “Let me grab a few things...and change.”
Jack and Teal’c looked up from their game of chess as he and Sam came in. Daniel said nothing, just headed into his room to change into his own clothes. He made sure he had his flashlight and the camera, though he left the video camera on the bed.
“Field trip, boys and girls?” Jack asked as Daniel joined Sam.
“Just a little sight seeing.” Daniel said.
“Daniel?” Jack turned to them.
“It’s okay, sir.” Sam said. “I want to get a look too. I think maybe our hosts haven’t been entirely open with us.”
“Would we be?” Jack asked.
“No, but Jack, I think they’re hiding something.” Daniel said. “It’s something about their history, and you know me and history.”
“So help me Daniel, if you get us into trouble here…”
Daniel held up both hands. “No, no trouble. We’re going to go poke around a cave. That’s all.”
Daniel smiled and gestured for the door. Sam grinned and opened it before Jack could tell them not to go. They headed out quietly, covering the distance quickly.
“When we first talked about the caves, Avila was excited about showing them to me. He said that the caves served some ritual purpose back when the temple was still a temple. An initiation of sorts maybe, considering what the writing said.”
Sam nodded. “That doesn’t explain his nervousness.”
“You noticed that too?” Daniel asked, shining his light over the words at the entrance to the cave. “Clearly someone told him not to bring me here.” He let his eyes move over the words, easier now that he wasn’t feeling pressed to leave. “Okay, yeah, I think initiation is a better word. It says that the Kanpau elders built in these caves a place of sanctity, where the...I’m guessing this word means something like youth...or ...hmmm...maybe it means something like puberty?” He shook his head. “For them to find solace as their heritage was made manifest.” He rubbed a hand over his face.
Sam shined her light into the cave, then smirked at him. “Solace sounds nice, don’t you think?”
Daniel couldn’t help but smirk back. “Sounds heavenly.”
Together they moved into the cave, going slowly. It was circular, the stone walls smooth. There was more writing, and images that were faded, but showed signs of having been brilliant at one time. He made his way around the room slowly, picking up a vague story that he would love to delve into if they had more time.
He snapped pictures as they moved, trying to capture all of the images. The paintings had been vandalized, it looked like the people had at one time had wings, but most of them had been scraped off, leaving just the blank rock in the shape of wings. “Basically, it tells the story of these people, the Kanpau.” He touched an image near the door where two people with the wings scraped off were touching the head of a kneeling younger person who didn’t seem to have wings. “These are the rebe, the teachers. This boy is the gahtee, presenting himself at the beginning of puberty to be blessed.”
The next set of paintings showed the boy being bathed in a ceremonial bath, then there was a series of the boy going through trials, and as they came to the opening that led deeper into the mountain, the boy was now older and coming up out of another ceremonial bath with wings coming from his back.
“Zahker...Memory….” Daniel’s fingers traced over the letters, but some of them were damaged where they sat too close to the scraped away wings. “Something about memory, learning…” He shook his head, then shined the light down the passageway. “Ready to see what’s next?”
Sam nodded, lifting her flashlight before stepping into the tunnel. “It seems passable.” She led the way with Daniel behind her. It wasn’t long before they emerged into another cave. The floor here was covered in white marble. Shelves were carved into the walls, but they had been empty a long time. “What was this place?” Sam asked.
There was no writing on the walls but somehow Daniel knew they shelves had been a place for clothes, that the gahtee would pause here in this chamber to shed the clothes he had worn and be given something to wear for the journey deeper. He shook his head. He couldn’t know that. It was his brain extrapolating what it knew of initiations from various cultures.
“I think maybe this was where the gahtee would prepare for what was to come. Judging by the paintings out there, this was the final step of the initiation. They came here for the ceremonial bath and ritual that would mark them as an adult.” He gestured at the archway of the next tunnel and headed in, Sam following him. This passage was a little narrower, the walls brushing his shoulders, the ceiling low enough to make him duck his head.
The emerged into another room, bigger than the last two. His heart raced as his eyes scanned over the walls and the floor. The design of the floor made it clear that seven people waited in this chamber for the gahtee, though what exactly their jobs were was unclear. In the center of the room was a stone square, lifted up five inches or so from the ground.
He stepped up onto it, turning to see the entire room. Words bubbled into his head, words that were a mix of Sumerian and Hebrew and something else he wasn’t placing right then. He was too busy trying to figure out what the words were and why they were in his head.
He turned, looking at Sam who was examining the walls. “This is weird.” She turned to look at him, her blue eyes finding his.
“What is?”
He shook his head again, trying to push away the images that were starting to accompany the words. “I must have read something at some point...I just...it all feels really familiar.”
She came closer, he light shining on his face. “You okay?”
“Why, do I not look okay?” Daniel asked, stepping off the stone.
“You look a little...spooked.”
“It’s just a bit of deja vu, I’m sure.” He looked around them again. He wasn’t sure how, but he knew that this was where the gahtee had to recite history and pronounce some sort of oath before he was allowed to move on.
Sam was starting to get a little nervous, though he wasn’t sure how he knew that considering it was pitch black but for their flashlights and she was behind him as they moved into the next tunnel. The next room was smaller, round, it’s center filled with a ceremonial pool.
“The gahtee would remove their clothes and bathe in the water. It gave them time to consider the final test.” Daniel felt an urge to do exactly that, to strip down and climb into the water. The heat radiating up from the pool was inviting. “I wonder if this is the same spring water that fills the pool at the…”
“Daniel?”
He was kneeling by the pool, the hand not carrying the flashlight in all the way to his elbow. He pulled it out, but the urge was stronger now. His clothes felt restricting and his skin was dry, craving the touch of the mineral heavy water. “Okay. I’m okay.” Daniel said, though he wasn’t sure he was.
Sam’s anxiety ratcheted up, he could feel her fear. He shook his head, but it wasn’t clearing. If anything it was filling up with more images, more words...almost like memories, but they couldn’t be.
“Maybe we should head back.”
He didn’t argue as she pulled him up and they left the caves, emerging out into a quiet night. Very few people were around as they made their way back to their rooms. Jack and Teal’c were eating from the buffet of food that had been brought up.
Jack seemed annoyed, though he hadn’t said anything. Daniel gestured to his room and left Sam to explain their excursion, stumbling in and closing the door behind him. He craved the dark. Memories that weren’t his continued to spill out in his head, even as he crawled into the bed and pulled the blankets up over his head.
Memories of battles where winged men and women fought men and women with horns, of winged men enslaved, used as messengers, of coming home to a planet where the horned men had taken control. There were other memories too, more intimate moments, the birth of a baby, a joining ceremony, stolen moments under the stars. It was a whirlwind of images and sounds, thoughts and ideas, and it dragged him under into sleep.
Daniel came awake with a yell, his big toe on his right foot pounding with pain. In the main room, he could hear Jack yelling and he stumbled to the door, opening it to find Jack sitting down hard on one of the couches, holding his foot. “Jack?”
“Stubbed my damn toe.” Jack said, looking up.
Daniel frowned, looking down at his own toe. The pain had subsided now.
“You feeling all right?” Jack asked, rubbing at his toe. He was already dressed for the day’s negotiations, all but his shoes.
Daniel nodded. “I think so, why?”
“You’re looking a little pale. And you slept pretty hard last night. Carter tried to wake you to eat.”
“Did she?” Daniel didn’t remember Sam coming in. “I had the strangest dreams.” He stepped away from the doorway and toward the table with fruits and odd looking little cakes on it. “Where is Sam?”
“She and Teal’c headed back to the gate for our check in. They’ll be back in a bit.”
“Give me ten minutes to change, and I’ll be ready.”
He picked up a cake and headed back to the bedroom, but before he got there his back felt odd and there was a cracking sound. His knees buckled and pain shot through his shoulders leaving him gasping.
“Daniel?” Jack was at his side instantly, but the pain was already subsiding.
“I’m okay.” Jack’s hand was on his face and Daniel could feel his confusion and concern.
“No, you’re not. You’re burning up.”
“Am I?”
Jack helped him up and into the bedroom. “Okay, let’s start by getting these clothes off you.” Jack’s hands pulled at the layers of clothes Daniel had fallen asleep in, getting him down to his boxers and undershirt before pressing him to sit on the bed. He disappeared into the main room and came back a few minutes later with the small first aid kit, fishing the digital thermometer out and sticking it in Daniel’s mouth. It beeped a minute later and Jack pulled it out frowning. “Hundred and two point 3. You’re not going anywhere.”
“I’m fine. I can help--”
“You’re staying right here.” Jack cut him off and turned to pull some Tylenol out of the kit. “Take these. I’ll wrap up these negotiations and we’ll be headed home in a few hours.”
Daniel wanted to argue but Jack was resolute, no arguing would change his mind, and if he was honest, all he wanted to do right then was close his eyes again. “Okay. But if you need me…” Daniel rolled onto his side, letting Jack pull the blankets up. His body was hot, but the blankets were comforting.
His back ached and he turned to press it against the mattress, seeking relief. Instead, it intensified the pain on two points just inside his shoulder blades, almost as if something was pressing out from under his skin. He climbed out of bed and stumbled to the mirror in the corner, lifting his shirt and trying to see his back.
The skin was red and raised. Almost as he watched, it seemed to grow, a point poking up near the top and a line down. He frowned and tried to reach it, his arm not quite long enough. He dropped the undershirt and exhaled. The Tylenol wasn’t enough, it wasn’t going to help.
He needed water. Which really shouldn’t make sense,, but Daniel wasn’t sure that mattered. He made his way out to the courtyard and into the pool, closing his eyes as the heated water soothed the aching pain in his back. He sank down, letting it cover him completely until his breath started to strain, then he rose up, kneeling on the bench, pillowing his head in his hands on the side of the pool.
His head buzzed with memory and words, with history he couldn’t know and faces of people he somehow thought he should. He felt her coming, warm affection and happiness that turned quickly to concern and fear. “Daniel?”
He lifted his head, blinking in the light of the sun. The memories faded and there was just him and Sam. “Hold still.” She was kneeling by the pool, her hands gliding over his skin. They found the raised ridges that were much more prominent know. “Holy Hannah, Daniel...this is...what…”
He touched her knee, smiling. “It’s okay.” She frowned at him, but seemed to calm a little.
“No, I don’t think it is. I think you should get out, let me have a look.”
He nodded. “Okay, just give me a second.”
“I’ll get you a towel.” She disappeared inside and Daniel stepped back off of the ledge, dunking himself into the water again and holding himself under until he needed air. Sam was there as he emerged, holding out the towel and averting her eyes as he waterlogged boxers fell from his hips. He wrapped the towel around himself, but like before had little need to dry himself. It was like his skin just absorbed the water.
Sam took his hand and guided him back into the main room. “Colonel O’Neill said you weren’t feeling well this morning.”
Daniel nodded, letting her guide him to one of the chairs. “Had a fever, achy all over. He stubbed his toe.”
She was behind him, her fingers probing over his back. “He what?”
Daniel turned to look at her, suddenly remembering how he’d felt it. “I was asleep. He stubbed his toe and I felt it.” He frowned as he thought about it. “That isn’t normal.”
“Neither is this.” The bone-like growths were a good two inches tall now and still growing. “If I didn’t know better….Oh!” She jumped back, her surprise reverberating around the room. Daniel felt the change, the sudden growth, pain echoing out as he doubled forward. He stood, lurching for the door, all but falling into the pool. He submerged and came up only for air before he submerged again, the water the only thing that seemed to keep the pain at bay.
When he could breathe again, he came up to find Sam squatting beside the pool. He wiped his eyes and nodded. “Its better.”
She licked her lip and shook her head. “Not really. Turn around, let me see.”
Daniel obliged, but he already knew what she would see. The wings were nearly complete now, he could move them, but they were still stiff and it hurt some to do it. He climbed out of the pool, reclaiming the towel he’d dropped on his way in. Somehow he knew that the next hours would see the feathers fill in and by nightfall, he’d be able to actually use them.
“Daniel?” Sam followed him into the room, one hand reaching to touch the soft surface of the wings. “You’re glowing.”
“Am I?” Daniel looked down at his skin which did seem to be giving off a soft glow. “I think it’s part of the process.”
“What process exactly?” Sam asked, turning him to face her. “What the hell is going on?”
“I’m not sure how to explain it.” Daniel said, though he was starting to understand as the memory and the physical transformation came together. “I think...the Kanpau weren’t born with wings. They came as part of the maturing process. The trials and the ceremonies, they were to give the body the mineral content needed to make the wings happen, and to open up the genetic memory to understand how to use them, and the other gifts.”
“Other gifts? Daniel, what are you talking about?”
He licked his lips, turning to pace as it all fell into place in his head. “Empathy, healing, telepathy, different gifts...you could go your whole life and never get wings, if you never gave your body what it needed. The water, it...it interacts with this physiology.”
“Daniel, what physiology?” Sam asked, her fear reverberating around him.
He looked her in the eye. “Sam, I think I’m Kanpau.”
“How is that even possible?” Sam asked, frowning.
He shrugged, a feeling that was altogether different now. “All those cultures on earth with angel and demon lore, winged messengers, horned men...they had to come from somewhere. Maybe...I don’t know...maybe some of them stayed behind on Earth. Maybe they hid in plain sight, never getting their wings.”
“You know this is crazy, right?” Sam asked.
“I know that I have wings, Sam. And I can feel….everything. And my head is filled with memories I can’t know.” He shook his head. “I can’t access it all. I think...I think maybe the trials were meant to unlock those things….give me control over them.” Trials that had been lost in time.
“Okay, I’m getting Colonel O’Neill. We need to get you back to Janet.”
She was out the door before he could object, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to object. He had a vague notion that he wouldn’t be welcome among the Qeanu now. Their feud ran deep, their anger over their history with the Kanpau was still hot, even a hundred years after running the last of them off the planet.
He went into the bedroom to dress, though once he got into his pants he had to pause. He didn’t have anything he could possibly wear around the wings, not without some serious alteration. He could see the feathers now, soft and white, filling in on wings that when spread would just about reach the walls of the room.
There would be no hiding them. He put his pack together. That was another issue. He couldn’t carry it on his back now. It was too wide to fit between the wings.
He moved his shoulders, watching the wings in the mirror. They were nearly finished now, powerful, strong, covered in downy white feathers that he somehow knew would grow out, possibly gain some color. He stretched them out, then pulled them back, exploring the movement in the corresponding muscles in his back. He curled them forward, and they nearly hid him completely if he bowed his head.
He felt Sam and Jack coming long before the reached the door and he met them in the main room, his pack by the door. “Daniel--” Jack stopped, staring as Daniel moved the wings enough that he lifted off the floor. “Okay, that isn’t normal.”
“That’s what I was saying, sir.” Sam said, her eyes big.
“Okay, that’s it. We’re going home.”
“Wait.” Daniel said, setting down on the floor. “Where’s Teal’c?”
“Back on Earth. Master Bratac needed him.” Sam said.
“Oh, the Chancellor is not happy you walked out of the negotiations.” Daniel said. The anger filled the hallway as the Chancellor and his entourage stormed toward them. The door burst open and they spilled into the room, but the anger stopped cold as they saw Daniel.
“Hi guys.” Daniel said with a small wave. He was in trouble, he knew that without fully knowing what or why.
The Chancellor smiled, though there was no warmth in it. “We hoped that opening the Stargate would bring you home.”
“Excuse me?” Jack said, stepping between Daniel and the Chancellor.
“We have known for a long time that there was one Kanpau left, out there hiding like a coward among the humans.” His face was a snarl, his contempt palpable. “They fled through the Stargate, the last of their kind, the elders and their charges, all of them barely of an age. We hunted them, brought them back to stand trial. All but one. She was heavy with child when she escaped the last of our hunters and when we found her again, she flew her ship into a star rather than be brought to justice. We knew she would never willingly kill her child.”
“Okay, slow down just a little bit.” Jack said, looking at Daniel. “He’s not...Kan...whatever. He’s just Daniel. I don’t know what’s going on here, but we plan to find out once we get him home.”
“He is home,” the Chancellor said. “The pull to the spring was too strong to resist, was it not? It is so for us too, though our blood has weakened over the centuries since the massacre and our horns do not grow as magnificently as they did once.”
Daniel nodded, his eyes meeting the Chancellor’s. “Your ancestors mated with humans for centuries.” He knew that with a certainty. “And you blamed the Kanpau for it.”
Fury exploded around him, all of the Qeanu alive with it, all of it directed at him. “How dare you?” The Chancellor shoved Jack out of the way. “Your people destroyed mine. You will pay for their crimes.”
He gestured and two of the guards that had come with him came toward Daniel. Jack jumped in, pushing Daniel away from them and back a few steps. “Just hold it right there. Daniel hasn’t done anything wrong. How about we just go home and call this whole thing a wash.”
“You and Major Carter are free to leave, Colonel. The Kanpau, shandu, will be tried, convicted and executed.”
Daniel was grabbed by two of the guards, two more of them pulling Jack away, and he was forced out of the room, down the hall and out into the bright afternoon light. All around him he could feel people staring. The guards pushed and pulled him, not that he was actually resisting. Something told him resisting would only lead to more pain than he was ready to experience.
They stopped on the steps leading up to the government offices, where they pulled his hands behind him and heavy chains were wrapped around his wrists and locked there. The chain extended down to his feet, secured so that he had just enough room to walk. Then an iron collar was secured around his neck with a weight hanging from the lock. It was heavy enough it pulled his head forward, made him stoop forward.
“Now you can not fly away, shandu,” one of the guards growled at him.
“I’m not sure I could anyway.” Daniel muttered. The position was irritating to his new wings, making them tense and uncomfortable.
“Just you wait one freaking minute.” Jack yelled behind them. “Where are you taking him?”
“He is going to the an shol where he will wait until we can assemble the Beis Dayan.” The Chancellor said, keeping Jack away.
“Daniel!” Sam yelled, but Daniel was being pulled away, stumbling up the stairs and into the building. There were more stairs and a long corridor, then more stairs and more stairs until they reached what had to be the top of the building.
He was shoved into a cell then and the door slammed shut, leaving him chained and weighted down and alone. After a brief moment of panic, he forced himself to calm down and assess his situation. Jack wasn’t going to let this stand. He’d do everything he could to get Daniel out, even if he was completely freaked out by the wings.
Daniel turned away from the bars that made up the door.. Aside from the wall with the door, which was brick like the building, his prison was bars and glass, showing him a clear view of the city around him and the open sky. There wasn’t enough room to stretch his wings, not even enough to properly lay down. There was a bench to one side.
He shuffled over to it and sat, taking some of the weight off his neck and back.
It was a perfect prison, he had to admit, for someone who could fly. Weighted down and caged with the open sky just taunting him. It might be worse if he actually knew he could do more than just get a foot or two off the floor.
He exhaled and figured he had some time before anyone came for him. He closed his eyes and turned his thoughts inward, sorting through memories that were all jumbled together with no sense of order. There were images of war, and times of relative peace. He was certain that if he’d grown into himself here, with elders to guide him, it would all make sense.
Genetic memory wasn’t unheard of, after all it was part of how the Goa’uld maintained power, holding onto their status as gods by appearing to know everything. But, he didn’t have any elders to guide him. He would have to make sense of it on his own.
He let the images come then, holding on to one and examining it, sorting them into categories. A sort of narrative began to develop, albeit with large holes in it. There had been a time when the two races lived in peace, but it had been millenia since then.
They had attempted to live apart for a long time, but something happened that took away the Qeanu’s access to the springs that allowed them to transform. The Kanpau wouldn’t allow them access to their sacred site. War broke out. A peace was brokered. The Stargate was on neutral territory and both races traveled through it.
The Qeanu mixed and mingled with the human populations on several worlds, including Earth. The Kanpau however had refrained for the most part, though there were isolated incidents. When the Goa’uld grew in power, the Kanpau retreated back to their home. The Qeanu continued to come and go, growing their population.
Then came the massacre...he couldn’t see it clearly, but the ground was red with blood, bodies covering the rocks. Most of them were Qeanu, but there were broken wings too. Things jumbled after that, small skirmishes, music...then a face filled his mind.
“Danai, my son…” The man was bleeding, his face bruised, his eyes tired and drifting closed. The image shifted then, a woman’s face, sweaty and exhausted, her blue eyes filled with love.. Suddenly Daniel was aware this wasn’t genetic memory, but his own earliest memories. This was his mother, moments after giving birth as his father lay dying.
“It is a good name,” she said to him. “You will be strong. You will have to be. You are the last of us, Danai.”
Flashes followed, her face, his own fear, the feeling of flying in her arms, the faces of the people he would come to know as his mother and father...tears burned in the corners of his eyes, a haunting ache filling him as his mother flew away and left him, knowing she was going to her death.
Tears burned at the corner of his eyes and he wondered where she’d gone when she’d left him...only days old, in the arms of strangers on a planet with no working Stargate, a planet where he would be safe.
At least until someone found the gate and he’d been brought in to help make it work. His heritage was a jumbled mess in his head, but what he’d sorted out at least made some aspects of his life make sense. His gift with languages, particularly ancient and dead languages, was likely due to the genetic memory. It may have been dormant, but now that it was active, those languages rang in his head in voices from across thousands of years. His hunger for the past was likely his unconscious craving for home, to find his way to the one place where he could become….this.
Whatever this was exactly.
“Daniel.”
He looked up to find Jack and Sam on the other side of the barred door.
“You okay?”
Daniel stood slowly, the weight keeping him stooped slightly. “As okay as I can be, considering.”
“Do you understand any of what’s going on here?” Jack asked.
Daniel tried to shift the weight of the chain dragging on his hands, but no position was going to be comfortable. “Genocide.” Daniel said softly. “I’m the last of my race, apparently. They want to make sure my race ceases to exist.”
“Oh, I got that part.” Jack responded, his hand gestured at Daniel, at the wings. “I kind of meant….that part.”
Daniel licked his lips. “Okay, yeah. Well, from what I’ve managed to understand, my mother was among the Kanpau that fled through the gate. She was very young at the time, just got her wings and all. By the time I was born there was just me, my mother and father, who died minutes after I was born. She wanted to protect me, so she...gave me to ...my parents.”
“How do you know all of that?”
Daniel tried to shrug, but gave up quickly. “Genetic memory...which, apparently also makes my own memory...stronger, I guess?” He shook his head. “Look, I know this is...hell, I can’t imagine what it looks like to you.”
“Wings, Daniel.” Jack said. “It looks like wings.”
Daniel actually chuckled. “Yeah, okay.”
“One thing at a time.” Jack glanced over his shoulder. “We’ll get you out of here. We’ll figure out how to fix you once we get home.”
Daniel frowned. “Fix me?”
“Yeah, you know...make you….you again?” Jack said.
“Jack, I am me. Probably more me than I ever have been.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, Jack. I don’t.”
Jack sighed explosively. “The wings, Daniel.”
Understanding slowly came. Jack thought he could somehow go back to not having them, to being human. “I don’t think it works that way, sir.” Sam said beside him. “I think it’s likely that Daniel is going stay this way.”
“I don’t want to hear that.” Daniel’s stomach twisted as Jack turned away, an overwhelming mix of emotions rolling off of Jack. He was angry, which Daniel understood, and worried...but there was huge ball of guilt and fear...fear of what was happening to Daniel.
Daniel closed his eyes, letting the emotion flow over him. “Holy shit, Jack.”
Jack rubbed a hand over his face, but didn’t ask what Daniel meant. “You talk to him,” he said to Sam before he turned and headed down the stairs.
“He means well.” Sam offered as Daniel turned to look at her.
“He’s freaking out.” Daniel countered, though now that Jack was gone he could feel Sam too. “And so are you.”
“Well, it’s a lot to take in, Daniel.” Sam said, moving closer to the bars. “It’s all happened so fast.”
He nodded. Aside from the internal flailing over the obvious, Sam seemed a lot steadier than Jack, her eyes meeting his. “Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours.”
“Everything.” Daniel responded with a sigh. “It’s kind of a mess.”
She smiled gently, reaching a hand through the bars to touch his shoulder. “So, genetic memory?”
“Only explanation I’ve got.” He leaned forward, his shoulder against the bars to take some of the weight off his shoulders.
“And the empathy thing?”
“That’s...very strange.” He licked his lips. “I can feel…” He closed his eyes. “I’m okay, Sam.” She didn’t believe him, but she was willing to give him the moment.
“Well, you won’t be for long if we can’t talk them out of this execution they’re planning.”
“You won’t. They’ve carried this hate for...a very long time.” Daniel was pretty sure that getting out of this and getting home was going to require more of a military solution than a diplomatic one. “I’m not one to suggest we skip diplomacy, but…”
Her fingers squeezed his shoulder. “I think Colonel O’Neill is already on it. In the meantime, can I do anything?”
Thoughts flashed through his head. “Actually...remember in the cave, I said that there was a final test? I think there’s another room that none of the Qeanu ever found. There could be valuable information in there.”
She nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“I’ll...just wait here.” Daniel smiled, already backing up to the bench so he could relieve the pain building between his wings.
Title: something in the water, part one
Characters/Pairings: Daniel Jackson/Sam Carter, Jack O'Neill, General Hammond, Janet Fradier, Teal'c
Word Count: 15741
Rating: NC-17 (though only for the very end, the bulk of this is gen)
Summary: SG-1 is negotiating a treaty with a race called the Qeanu when something about Daniel begins to change.
A/Ns & Warnings: WINGFIC. And yes, it's all
badfalcon's fault. Fatigue pulled her down, wings fluttering in the heat of a sun much closer than her own. The infant in her arms cried as the pressure changed and she quieted him with a touch. It wouldn’t take long for her pursuers to pick up her trail. She needed to find a place to hide the child and leave, draw them away.
The desert below her glowed in the late afternoon light. She cast about for a caring soul, someone who would give the child a good home, feeling for compassion and intelligence. Near a camp of several tents, she felt a maternal tug, a woman.
She touched down, favoring her injured leg, limping toward the woman and the man who was now beside them. Her wings ruffled in the breeze and she knew how she must look to them. They didn’t speak as she held out her arms, the baby already starting to cry, sensing perhaps that she was going to leave him.
The woman’s hands were hesitant, reaching for the child. “His name is Danai. He is yours now.” She dared not linger longer. Relinquishing her only son into the hands of strangers, she launched herself into the sky, back to the ship that had brought her, ready now to end the war the only way left to her.
The boy would be safe, his true nature hidden from him unless he somehow found his way home. But a planet with no Stargate had little danger of bringing him to the world she barely remembered. He would be safe, and she would lead the enemy far away before she died, ending her race and with it, the war that hand raged for centuries.
***
“Daniel!” Jack bellowed from the door of the gateroom.
“I’m coming.” Daniel responded, pushing his glasses up before he buckled his vest over his jacket. “I had to get batteries for the camera.”
“We don’t want to be late.” Colonel Johnson said from beside Jack. “Chancellor Lucind was very adamant about protocol.”
Daniel nodded and gestured for them to get going. “I read the file, Colonel.” He tucked the video camera into its pocket and followed Jack up the ramp. Sam and Teal’c were waiting on the other side as they emerged. So was a delegation of about fifteen natives, dressed in suits not entirely different than a similar delegation on earth might where.
The language native to the world seemed to be a unique mix of ancient Hebrew and Sumerian, though the culture was very different. Technology wise they seemed to be slightly ahead of their own planet and had apparently only recently uncovered the Stargate after nearly a hundred years. The report from SG13 hadn’t indicated why it had been buried, only that the current government had unburied it in hopes of establishing trade off world as their own resources began to dwindle.
“Welcome, travelers.” The apparent leader of the group stepped forward with a slight bow of his head. Colonel Johnson had mentioned the horns, but Daniel found his eyes caught anyway. They were small, in fact if they hadn’t been highlighted with what looked like gold paint, he might not have noticed them. Slightly further apart than the man’s eyes and about the same diameter as a nickel, Chancellor Lucind’s horns couldn’t have been more than a quarter inch tall and covered by flesh. “I am Chacellor Maricel Lucind. Welcome to Shamuim.”
“Chancellor, if I may present, Colonel Jack O’Neill, who has been authorized by our highest authority to negotiate with you.” Colonel Johnson said.
“Colonel O’Neill, you honor us with your presence. May we present this token.” He gestured and a young woman stepped forward, a tablet of sorts in her hand. Jack glanced at Daniel and nodded. Daniel smiled and took the tablet. “It is a brief history of our people, and an overview of our markets, to help you prepare for our negotiations.”
“Thank you Chancellor. My superiors also offer a token in return.” He nodded to Sam, who stepped forward with a box containing their standard opening round of samples of items they were willing to discuss trading, based on SG13s assessment of their needs.
“Come, we have arranged rooms for you and your people.” He gestured to the vehicles waiting nearby.
Jack nodded and gestured with his head for SG13 to report back. Daniel waited for Jack to take the lead. According to the protocol Jack had to be the lead in everything, or they would offend their hosts.
Jack climbed in behind the driver of their vehicle, while Sam and Teal’c took the next car, leaving Daniel to slide in beside Jack. The area around the Stargate was fairly open, much like it was on many other planets, but as they pulled away it became clear that the area was very well guarded.
Armed men guarded a checkpoint on the road, and they were stopped at a gate for a few minutes before they were allowed to proceed. In a few minutes the pastoral land gave way to what he could only call suburbs, which led them to an industrial area, then into streets lined with beautiful, gleaming buildings around a central square of green grass and flowing waters in fountains and streams that ran through stone beds between the fountains.
The cars came to a stop outside a building that might have been a temple of some sort at one time or another. They were escorted inside and up to a suite of rooms that circled a large sitting area filled with comfortable looking couches and thick rugs.
“Take your rest here. Please…” The Chancellor gestured at a curtained doorway that two servants opened onto a spacious courtyard dominated by a steaming pool. “We have provided for all of your needs while you prepare. The water comes from deep within the mountain and is said to have restorative powers. In the morning we will begin.”
The Chancellor and his entourage withdrew, closing the doors behind them. “Well, that was special.” Jack said once he was sure they were gone.
“Nice rooms.” Sam observed, moving to the door of one of the bedrooms. “There are clothes and everything.”
“Ah, yeah, that was in the file.” Daniel said. “They require us to wear specific clothes when we negotiate.” He walked to the door into the courtyard, looking around the walls that surrounded it, then at the pool. “But we have about eighteen hours to kill before then.”
“I suggest you get reading then.” Jack said.
Daniel shed his pack beside one of the couches and settled in with the tablet, turning his attention to absorbing as much of the history as he could so that he could relay the necessary information to Jack before the negotiation started.
“How’s the water?” Daniel asked as Sam came in from the courtyard, drying herself.
“Amazing. The mineral content is perfect for softening the skin and the temperature is great for soaking, you really should try it.”
He smirked and stretched. “Oh, I plan to. Just as soon as I finish this.”
“Learning anything important?” Jack asked as he sat on the opposite couch with a piece of fruit from the extravagant dinner their hosts had provided.
“Well, at one time the people of this planet traveled through the Stargate fairly regularly. Then there was a period in which it was inaccessible due to political instability, which I think is code for civil war, judging by their phrasing. The Kanpau were run off, leaving the planet to the Qeanu. That was at least a hundred years ago.”
“Run off?” Sam asked, frowning.
“That’s what it says. Through the Stargate, I assume. There isn’t a lot in here about the Kanpau. The gate was then shut down while the Qeanu solidified their government and rebuilt infrastructure.” He shrugged, setting the tablet down. “It seems they are just about equal to us in a lot of areas, ahead of us in engineering. They used to have spaceships, but shifted focus closer to home, using that tech knowledge to improve planet wide transportation and production.”
“So what could they possibly need to trade with us for?” Jack asked.
“Well, they seem to have a few childhood ailments that they can’t seem to cure, and they don’t have enough of some metals that they use in building.” He passed a piece of paper over to Jack. “That’s just about everything I think we can safely negotiate with.”
Jack glanced at the list, then handed it up to Sam. She nodded. “Most of this is relatively easy. I’m sure we have a number of scientists that are up to the challenge.”
They sky outside the glass doors had grown dark. Daniel set the tablet aside and stood. “Now, I think I’m going to change and go try out that pool.”
He headed into the only unclaimed room, unsurprised to find a closet with several choices of clothing for the negotiating, and on the bed a stack of towels and a modest pair of shorts to wear in the pool. He shed his clothes and pulled the shorts on, grabbing a towel on his way out of the room.
Teal’c was standing beside the pool as Daniel came out. “Not getting in?”
“My symbiote does not seem to like the water.” Teal’c responded.
“That’s too bad.” Sam said, suddenly beside Daniel. “I decided I’d join you.” She smiled, dropping her towel on a small table. The bathing suit that had been left for her was modest, like his, dark blue with a high neck and a short-like bottom that came almost to her knees. But wet, the material had formed to her body, almost like a wetsuit.
Daniel sat on the side of the pool, letting his feet dip in. The water was perfectly hot. The pool itself was stone, with benches carved into the sides. It was big enough to fit six or seven people. He stood on the bench, then sank down into the water. It came to just about his shoulders as he sat and to his surprise he was less buoyant than he’d expected, the water seeming to keep him in position.
Sam slipped in beside him. “See? Amazing, right?”
“Yeah.” Daniel closed his eyes and leaned his head back. It seemed like it had been a long time since he’d relaxed like this. It felt nice to let go, to let his mind go blank and let the water sooth away the stress. Sam was talking and he made noises like he was listening, but he almost couldn’t even make out her words.
“Daniel?”
Sam was shaking him. Daniel opened his eyes frowning at her. “What?”
“What the hell? I was talking to you, and you just...I don’t know it was like you spaced out and I’ve been trying to get you to answer me for at least ten minutes.”
“What?” He sat up, then stood. “We only just got in.”
“No, we’ve been in the water for at least 20 minutes.”
“Closer to 30.” Jack said.
Daniel frowned harder. He didn’t even remember Jack joining them. “I’m...sorry, I guess. I must have dozed off.”
“Maybe you should head in to bed then.” Jack said, standing himself now. “Wouldn’t want you dozing off tomorrow.”
Daniel frowned at him, but agreed in principle. He climbed out of the water and went to pick up his towel, though by the time he reached the door, his skin was largely dry, as if the water had been absorbed into his skin.
By the time he was back in his room, the only thing wet was the swimsuit, which he shed quickly and hung to dry in the small attached bathroom. His head was fuzzy and he could feel a headache brewing. He pulled on clean underwear and an undershirt and crawled into bed, asleep almost immediately.
Daniel stopped beside a beautiful fountain, his eyes sliding over the carved flowers. It had been a long day, but progress had been made. He was tired, but as he stood there, he felt warm and pleased...like a smile that started in his stomach and built until he was grinning broadly.
“How’d it go?” Sam asked as she and Teal’c stopped near the fountain. Daniel looked up, still smiling. Sam seemed...radiant. Her cheeks were a little flushed and her eyes sparkled when they met his.
“Good. It was a good start.” Daniel replied.
“Where’s Colonel O’Neill?”
“He was headed back to our room. Avila offered to show me around some of the area. This was once a sacred retreat. He said there are even some caves that lead down to a private spring.” He couldn’t help but smile at her smiling at him. “What?”
“Nothing, you just seem...happy.”
Daniel thought about it for a second, then nodded. “I guess I am.”
“I am ready, Dr. Jackson.”
Daniel turned to find Avila, one of the Chancellor’s many aides approaching. His red hair was worn long and caught at the nape of his neck with a leather cuff. His horns were nearly hidden in his hair and his pale skin was lightly flushed.
“Would you mind if I joined you?” Sam asked.
“As you wish.”
“I shall return to our room.” Teal’c said, inclining his head tightly before departing.
“Okay, Avila, lead on.” Sam fell in beside him as Aivla led them out of the building and into the late afternoon sun. There was something that felt so...right. Sam’s shoulder bumped his and she laughed. Daniel laughed too though it wasn’t exactly humor...it was happiness. Sam’s laughter increased, her hand grabbing his arm as they stopped. “I love your laugh.” Daniel said suddenly, bringing both of their laughter down a bit. Sam’s eyes glittered and his heart raced and Avila cleared his throat, breaking the moment and freeing them to continue walking.
“I’m interested in these caves you were telling me about.” Daniel said as Avila pointed to what looked like the remains of an old wall behind the modern building that housed apartments for the government’s upper level representatives.
“I was wrong to speak of them.” Avila said. “We do not have permission to access them. They are dangerous.”
“We don’t have to go inside.” Daniel said, uncertain of what had dampened the aide’s enthusiasm. When they had spoken earlier, Avila had been excited, telling Daniel about the paintings on the walls. Avila seemed to consider it.
“I will show you the entrance.” Avila agreed, “But we must not go inside.” He pointed and started walking. They circled around a low wall and turned left to a small path leading into the trees. A few minutes later they were nearly completely engulfed in vegetation and starting uphill.
The trees thinned some, then suddenly they were face to face with rock. There was an opening nearly ten foot tall and a good four feet wide. Sam stepped closer to the opening, producing a flashlight from her vest. Daniel watched her play the light around inside. Beside him Avila fidgeted and Daniel found himself nervous.
“Anything exciting?” Daniel asked.
Sam shrugged a little. “Can’t see too far in. There’s some writing…”
Daniel crossed to her side, squinting into the beam of her flashlight to see. “Can you read it?”
He parsed through what he could read, his head running the words around, trying to pick apart the language with what he knew of Sumerian and Hebrew. “Ah...something about a refuge, the Kanpau elders made a place for the...mmm...aging? No...more like...growth?” The anxiousness in his stomach grew.
Avila grabbed his arm. “We must go. Now.”
“Okay, okay. Calm down.” Daniel inclined his head away and Sam nodded. As they moved back through the trees the anxious feeling crested, but beside it was curiosity and caution. Sam caught his arm and pulled him back a little.
“What’s his problem?”
Daniel shrugged. “We can circle back once he’s gone.”
She nodded and they followed him all the way back to the door of their rooms. “Thanks.” Daniel said, waving as he walked away. The anxious feeling in his stomach faded. “Let me grab a few things...and change.”
Jack and Teal’c looked up from their game of chess as he and Sam came in. Daniel said nothing, just headed into his room to change into his own clothes. He made sure he had his flashlight and the camera, though he left the video camera on the bed.
“Field trip, boys and girls?” Jack asked as Daniel joined Sam.
“Just a little sight seeing.” Daniel said.
“Daniel?” Jack turned to them.
“It’s okay, sir.” Sam said. “I want to get a look too. I think maybe our hosts haven’t been entirely open with us.”
“Would we be?” Jack asked.
“No, but Jack, I think they’re hiding something.” Daniel said. “It’s something about their history, and you know me and history.”
“So help me Daniel, if you get us into trouble here…”
Daniel held up both hands. “No, no trouble. We’re going to go poke around a cave. That’s all.”
Daniel smiled and gestured for the door. Sam grinned and opened it before Jack could tell them not to go. They headed out quietly, covering the distance quickly.
“When we first talked about the caves, Avila was excited about showing them to me. He said that the caves served some ritual purpose back when the temple was still a temple. An initiation of sorts maybe, considering what the writing said.”
Sam nodded. “That doesn’t explain his nervousness.”
“You noticed that too?” Daniel asked, shining his light over the words at the entrance to the cave. “Clearly someone told him not to bring me here.” He let his eyes move over the words, easier now that he wasn’t feeling pressed to leave. “Okay, yeah, I think initiation is a better word. It says that the Kanpau elders built in these caves a place of sanctity, where the...I’m guessing this word means something like youth...or ...hmmm...maybe it means something like puberty?” He shook his head. “For them to find solace as their heritage was made manifest.” He rubbed a hand over his face.
Sam shined her light into the cave, then smirked at him. “Solace sounds nice, don’t you think?”
Daniel couldn’t help but smirk back. “Sounds heavenly.”
Together they moved into the cave, going slowly. It was circular, the stone walls smooth. There was more writing, and images that were faded, but showed signs of having been brilliant at one time. He made his way around the room slowly, picking up a vague story that he would love to delve into if they had more time.
He snapped pictures as they moved, trying to capture all of the images. The paintings had been vandalized, it looked like the people had at one time had wings, but most of them had been scraped off, leaving just the blank rock in the shape of wings. “Basically, it tells the story of these people, the Kanpau.” He touched an image near the door where two people with the wings scraped off were touching the head of a kneeling younger person who didn’t seem to have wings. “These are the rebe, the teachers. This boy is the gahtee, presenting himself at the beginning of puberty to be blessed.”
The next set of paintings showed the boy being bathed in a ceremonial bath, then there was a series of the boy going through trials, and as they came to the opening that led deeper into the mountain, the boy was now older and coming up out of another ceremonial bath with wings coming from his back.
“Zahker...Memory….” Daniel’s fingers traced over the letters, but some of them were damaged where they sat too close to the scraped away wings. “Something about memory, learning…” He shook his head, then shined the light down the passageway. “Ready to see what’s next?”
Sam nodded, lifting her flashlight before stepping into the tunnel. “It seems passable.” She led the way with Daniel behind her. It wasn’t long before they emerged into another cave. The floor here was covered in white marble. Shelves were carved into the walls, but they had been empty a long time. “What was this place?” Sam asked.
There was no writing on the walls but somehow Daniel knew they shelves had been a place for clothes, that the gahtee would pause here in this chamber to shed the clothes he had worn and be given something to wear for the journey deeper. He shook his head. He couldn’t know that. It was his brain extrapolating what it knew of initiations from various cultures.
“I think maybe this was where the gahtee would prepare for what was to come. Judging by the paintings out there, this was the final step of the initiation. They came here for the ceremonial bath and ritual that would mark them as an adult.” He gestured at the archway of the next tunnel and headed in, Sam following him. This passage was a little narrower, the walls brushing his shoulders, the ceiling low enough to make him duck his head.
The emerged into another room, bigger than the last two. His heart raced as his eyes scanned over the walls and the floor. The design of the floor made it clear that seven people waited in this chamber for the gahtee, though what exactly their jobs were was unclear. In the center of the room was a stone square, lifted up five inches or so from the ground.
He stepped up onto it, turning to see the entire room. Words bubbled into his head, words that were a mix of Sumerian and Hebrew and something else he wasn’t placing right then. He was too busy trying to figure out what the words were and why they were in his head.
He turned, looking at Sam who was examining the walls. “This is weird.” She turned to look at him, her blue eyes finding his.
“What is?”
He shook his head again, trying to push away the images that were starting to accompany the words. “I must have read something at some point...I just...it all feels really familiar.”
She came closer, he light shining on his face. “You okay?”
“Why, do I not look okay?” Daniel asked, stepping off the stone.
“You look a little...spooked.”
“It’s just a bit of deja vu, I’m sure.” He looked around them again. He wasn’t sure how, but he knew that this was where the gahtee had to recite history and pronounce some sort of oath before he was allowed to move on.
Sam was starting to get a little nervous, though he wasn’t sure how he knew that considering it was pitch black but for their flashlights and she was behind him as they moved into the next tunnel. The next room was smaller, round, it’s center filled with a ceremonial pool.
“The gahtee would remove their clothes and bathe in the water. It gave them time to consider the final test.” Daniel felt an urge to do exactly that, to strip down and climb into the water. The heat radiating up from the pool was inviting. “I wonder if this is the same spring water that fills the pool at the…”
“Daniel?”
He was kneeling by the pool, the hand not carrying the flashlight in all the way to his elbow. He pulled it out, but the urge was stronger now. His clothes felt restricting and his skin was dry, craving the touch of the mineral heavy water. “Okay. I’m okay.” Daniel said, though he wasn’t sure he was.
Sam’s anxiety ratcheted up, he could feel her fear. He shook his head, but it wasn’t clearing. If anything it was filling up with more images, more words...almost like memories, but they couldn’t be.
“Maybe we should head back.”
He didn’t argue as she pulled him up and they left the caves, emerging out into a quiet night. Very few people were around as they made their way back to their rooms. Jack and Teal’c were eating from the buffet of food that had been brought up.
Jack seemed annoyed, though he hadn’t said anything. Daniel gestured to his room and left Sam to explain their excursion, stumbling in and closing the door behind him. He craved the dark. Memories that weren’t his continued to spill out in his head, even as he crawled into the bed and pulled the blankets up over his head.
Memories of battles where winged men and women fought men and women with horns, of winged men enslaved, used as messengers, of coming home to a planet where the horned men had taken control. There were other memories too, more intimate moments, the birth of a baby, a joining ceremony, stolen moments under the stars. It was a whirlwind of images and sounds, thoughts and ideas, and it dragged him under into sleep.
Daniel came awake with a yell, his big toe on his right foot pounding with pain. In the main room, he could hear Jack yelling and he stumbled to the door, opening it to find Jack sitting down hard on one of the couches, holding his foot. “Jack?”
“Stubbed my damn toe.” Jack said, looking up.
Daniel frowned, looking down at his own toe. The pain had subsided now.
“You feeling all right?” Jack asked, rubbing at his toe. He was already dressed for the day’s negotiations, all but his shoes.
Daniel nodded. “I think so, why?”
“You’re looking a little pale. And you slept pretty hard last night. Carter tried to wake you to eat.”
“Did she?” Daniel didn’t remember Sam coming in. “I had the strangest dreams.” He stepped away from the doorway and toward the table with fruits and odd looking little cakes on it. “Where is Sam?”
“She and Teal’c headed back to the gate for our check in. They’ll be back in a bit.”
“Give me ten minutes to change, and I’ll be ready.”
He picked up a cake and headed back to the bedroom, but before he got there his back felt odd and there was a cracking sound. His knees buckled and pain shot through his shoulders leaving him gasping.
“Daniel?” Jack was at his side instantly, but the pain was already subsiding.
“I’m okay.” Jack’s hand was on his face and Daniel could feel his confusion and concern.
“No, you’re not. You’re burning up.”
“Am I?”
Jack helped him up and into the bedroom. “Okay, let’s start by getting these clothes off you.” Jack’s hands pulled at the layers of clothes Daniel had fallen asleep in, getting him down to his boxers and undershirt before pressing him to sit on the bed. He disappeared into the main room and came back a few minutes later with the small first aid kit, fishing the digital thermometer out and sticking it in Daniel’s mouth. It beeped a minute later and Jack pulled it out frowning. “Hundred and two point 3. You’re not going anywhere.”
“I’m fine. I can help--”
“You’re staying right here.” Jack cut him off and turned to pull some Tylenol out of the kit. “Take these. I’ll wrap up these negotiations and we’ll be headed home in a few hours.”
Daniel wanted to argue but Jack was resolute, no arguing would change his mind, and if he was honest, all he wanted to do right then was close his eyes again. “Okay. But if you need me…” Daniel rolled onto his side, letting Jack pull the blankets up. His body was hot, but the blankets were comforting.
His back ached and he turned to press it against the mattress, seeking relief. Instead, it intensified the pain on two points just inside his shoulder blades, almost as if something was pressing out from under his skin. He climbed out of bed and stumbled to the mirror in the corner, lifting his shirt and trying to see his back.
The skin was red and raised. Almost as he watched, it seemed to grow, a point poking up near the top and a line down. He frowned and tried to reach it, his arm not quite long enough. He dropped the undershirt and exhaled. The Tylenol wasn’t enough, it wasn’t going to help.
He needed water. Which really shouldn’t make sense,, but Daniel wasn’t sure that mattered. He made his way out to the courtyard and into the pool, closing his eyes as the heated water soothed the aching pain in his back. He sank down, letting it cover him completely until his breath started to strain, then he rose up, kneeling on the bench, pillowing his head in his hands on the side of the pool.
His head buzzed with memory and words, with history he couldn’t know and faces of people he somehow thought he should. He felt her coming, warm affection and happiness that turned quickly to concern and fear. “Daniel?”
He lifted his head, blinking in the light of the sun. The memories faded and there was just him and Sam. “Hold still.” She was kneeling by the pool, her hands gliding over his skin. They found the raised ridges that were much more prominent know. “Holy Hannah, Daniel...this is...what…”
He touched her knee, smiling. “It’s okay.” She frowned at him, but seemed to calm a little.
“No, I don’t think it is. I think you should get out, let me have a look.”
He nodded. “Okay, just give me a second.”
“I’ll get you a towel.” She disappeared inside and Daniel stepped back off of the ledge, dunking himself into the water again and holding himself under until he needed air. Sam was there as he emerged, holding out the towel and averting her eyes as he waterlogged boxers fell from his hips. He wrapped the towel around himself, but like before had little need to dry himself. It was like his skin just absorbed the water.
Sam took his hand and guided him back into the main room. “Colonel O’Neill said you weren’t feeling well this morning.”
Daniel nodded, letting her guide him to one of the chairs. “Had a fever, achy all over. He stubbed his toe.”
She was behind him, her fingers probing over his back. “He what?”
Daniel turned to look at her, suddenly remembering how he’d felt it. “I was asleep. He stubbed his toe and I felt it.” He frowned as he thought about it. “That isn’t normal.”
“Neither is this.” The bone-like growths were a good two inches tall now and still growing. “If I didn’t know better….Oh!” She jumped back, her surprise reverberating around the room. Daniel felt the change, the sudden growth, pain echoing out as he doubled forward. He stood, lurching for the door, all but falling into the pool. He submerged and came up only for air before he submerged again, the water the only thing that seemed to keep the pain at bay.
When he could breathe again, he came up to find Sam squatting beside the pool. He wiped his eyes and nodded. “Its better.”
She licked her lip and shook her head. “Not really. Turn around, let me see.”
Daniel obliged, but he already knew what she would see. The wings were nearly complete now, he could move them, but they were still stiff and it hurt some to do it. He climbed out of the pool, reclaiming the towel he’d dropped on his way in. Somehow he knew that the next hours would see the feathers fill in and by nightfall, he’d be able to actually use them.
“Daniel?” Sam followed him into the room, one hand reaching to touch the soft surface of the wings. “You’re glowing.”
“Am I?” Daniel looked down at his skin which did seem to be giving off a soft glow. “I think it’s part of the process.”
“What process exactly?” Sam asked, turning him to face her. “What the hell is going on?”
“I’m not sure how to explain it.” Daniel said, though he was starting to understand as the memory and the physical transformation came together. “I think...the Kanpau weren’t born with wings. They came as part of the maturing process. The trials and the ceremonies, they were to give the body the mineral content needed to make the wings happen, and to open up the genetic memory to understand how to use them, and the other gifts.”
“Other gifts? Daniel, what are you talking about?”
He licked his lips, turning to pace as it all fell into place in his head. “Empathy, healing, telepathy, different gifts...you could go your whole life and never get wings, if you never gave your body what it needed. The water, it...it interacts with this physiology.”
“Daniel, what physiology?” Sam asked, her fear reverberating around him.
He looked her in the eye. “Sam, I think I’m Kanpau.”
“How is that even possible?” Sam asked, frowning.
He shrugged, a feeling that was altogether different now. “All those cultures on earth with angel and demon lore, winged messengers, horned men...they had to come from somewhere. Maybe...I don’t know...maybe some of them stayed behind on Earth. Maybe they hid in plain sight, never getting their wings.”
“You know this is crazy, right?” Sam asked.
“I know that I have wings, Sam. And I can feel….everything. And my head is filled with memories I can’t know.” He shook his head. “I can’t access it all. I think...I think maybe the trials were meant to unlock those things….give me control over them.” Trials that had been lost in time.
“Okay, I’m getting Colonel O’Neill. We need to get you back to Janet.”
She was out the door before he could object, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to object. He had a vague notion that he wouldn’t be welcome among the Qeanu now. Their feud ran deep, their anger over their history with the Kanpau was still hot, even a hundred years after running the last of them off the planet.
He went into the bedroom to dress, though once he got into his pants he had to pause. He didn’t have anything he could possibly wear around the wings, not without some serious alteration. He could see the feathers now, soft and white, filling in on wings that when spread would just about reach the walls of the room.
There would be no hiding them. He put his pack together. That was another issue. He couldn’t carry it on his back now. It was too wide to fit between the wings.
He moved his shoulders, watching the wings in the mirror. They were nearly finished now, powerful, strong, covered in downy white feathers that he somehow knew would grow out, possibly gain some color. He stretched them out, then pulled them back, exploring the movement in the corresponding muscles in his back. He curled them forward, and they nearly hid him completely if he bowed his head.
He felt Sam and Jack coming long before the reached the door and he met them in the main room, his pack by the door. “Daniel--” Jack stopped, staring as Daniel moved the wings enough that he lifted off the floor. “Okay, that isn’t normal.”
“That’s what I was saying, sir.” Sam said, her eyes big.
“Okay, that’s it. We’re going home.”
“Wait.” Daniel said, setting down on the floor. “Where’s Teal’c?”
“Back on Earth. Master Bratac needed him.” Sam said.
“Oh, the Chancellor is not happy you walked out of the negotiations.” Daniel said. The anger filled the hallway as the Chancellor and his entourage stormed toward them. The door burst open and they spilled into the room, but the anger stopped cold as they saw Daniel.
“Hi guys.” Daniel said with a small wave. He was in trouble, he knew that without fully knowing what or why.
The Chancellor smiled, though there was no warmth in it. “We hoped that opening the Stargate would bring you home.”
“Excuse me?” Jack said, stepping between Daniel and the Chancellor.
“We have known for a long time that there was one Kanpau left, out there hiding like a coward among the humans.” His face was a snarl, his contempt palpable. “They fled through the Stargate, the last of their kind, the elders and their charges, all of them barely of an age. We hunted them, brought them back to stand trial. All but one. She was heavy with child when she escaped the last of our hunters and when we found her again, she flew her ship into a star rather than be brought to justice. We knew she would never willingly kill her child.”
“Okay, slow down just a little bit.” Jack said, looking at Daniel. “He’s not...Kan...whatever. He’s just Daniel. I don’t know what’s going on here, but we plan to find out once we get him home.”
“He is home,” the Chancellor said. “The pull to the spring was too strong to resist, was it not? It is so for us too, though our blood has weakened over the centuries since the massacre and our horns do not grow as magnificently as they did once.”
Daniel nodded, his eyes meeting the Chancellor’s. “Your ancestors mated with humans for centuries.” He knew that with a certainty. “And you blamed the Kanpau for it.”
Fury exploded around him, all of the Qeanu alive with it, all of it directed at him. “How dare you?” The Chancellor shoved Jack out of the way. “Your people destroyed mine. You will pay for their crimes.”
He gestured and two of the guards that had come with him came toward Daniel. Jack jumped in, pushing Daniel away from them and back a few steps. “Just hold it right there. Daniel hasn’t done anything wrong. How about we just go home and call this whole thing a wash.”
“You and Major Carter are free to leave, Colonel. The Kanpau, shandu, will be tried, convicted and executed.”
Daniel was grabbed by two of the guards, two more of them pulling Jack away, and he was forced out of the room, down the hall and out into the bright afternoon light. All around him he could feel people staring. The guards pushed and pulled him, not that he was actually resisting. Something told him resisting would only lead to more pain than he was ready to experience.
They stopped on the steps leading up to the government offices, where they pulled his hands behind him and heavy chains were wrapped around his wrists and locked there. The chain extended down to his feet, secured so that he had just enough room to walk. Then an iron collar was secured around his neck with a weight hanging from the lock. It was heavy enough it pulled his head forward, made him stoop forward.
“Now you can not fly away, shandu,” one of the guards growled at him.
“I’m not sure I could anyway.” Daniel muttered. The position was irritating to his new wings, making them tense and uncomfortable.
“Just you wait one freaking minute.” Jack yelled behind them. “Where are you taking him?”
“He is going to the an shol where he will wait until we can assemble the Beis Dayan.” The Chancellor said, keeping Jack away.
“Daniel!” Sam yelled, but Daniel was being pulled away, stumbling up the stairs and into the building. There were more stairs and a long corridor, then more stairs and more stairs until they reached what had to be the top of the building.
He was shoved into a cell then and the door slammed shut, leaving him chained and weighted down and alone. After a brief moment of panic, he forced himself to calm down and assess his situation. Jack wasn’t going to let this stand. He’d do everything he could to get Daniel out, even if he was completely freaked out by the wings.
Daniel turned away from the bars that made up the door.. Aside from the wall with the door, which was brick like the building, his prison was bars and glass, showing him a clear view of the city around him and the open sky. There wasn’t enough room to stretch his wings, not even enough to properly lay down. There was a bench to one side.
He shuffled over to it and sat, taking some of the weight off his neck and back.
It was a perfect prison, he had to admit, for someone who could fly. Weighted down and caged with the open sky just taunting him. It might be worse if he actually knew he could do more than just get a foot or two off the floor.
He exhaled and figured he had some time before anyone came for him. He closed his eyes and turned his thoughts inward, sorting through memories that were all jumbled together with no sense of order. There were images of war, and times of relative peace. He was certain that if he’d grown into himself here, with elders to guide him, it would all make sense.
Genetic memory wasn’t unheard of, after all it was part of how the Goa’uld maintained power, holding onto their status as gods by appearing to know everything. But, he didn’t have any elders to guide him. He would have to make sense of it on his own.
He let the images come then, holding on to one and examining it, sorting them into categories. A sort of narrative began to develop, albeit with large holes in it. There had been a time when the two races lived in peace, but it had been millenia since then.
They had attempted to live apart for a long time, but something happened that took away the Qeanu’s access to the springs that allowed them to transform. The Kanpau wouldn’t allow them access to their sacred site. War broke out. A peace was brokered. The Stargate was on neutral territory and both races traveled through it.
The Qeanu mixed and mingled with the human populations on several worlds, including Earth. The Kanpau however had refrained for the most part, though there were isolated incidents. When the Goa’uld grew in power, the Kanpau retreated back to their home. The Qeanu continued to come and go, growing their population.
Then came the massacre...he couldn’t see it clearly, but the ground was red with blood, bodies covering the rocks. Most of them were Qeanu, but there were broken wings too. Things jumbled after that, small skirmishes, music...then a face filled his mind.
“Danai, my son…” The man was bleeding, his face bruised, his eyes tired and drifting closed. The image shifted then, a woman’s face, sweaty and exhausted, her blue eyes filled with love.. Suddenly Daniel was aware this wasn’t genetic memory, but his own earliest memories. This was his mother, moments after giving birth as his father lay dying.
“It is a good name,” she said to him. “You will be strong. You will have to be. You are the last of us, Danai.”
Flashes followed, her face, his own fear, the feeling of flying in her arms, the faces of the people he would come to know as his mother and father...tears burned in the corners of his eyes, a haunting ache filling him as his mother flew away and left him, knowing she was going to her death.
Tears burned at the corner of his eyes and he wondered where she’d gone when she’d left him...only days old, in the arms of strangers on a planet with no working Stargate, a planet where he would be safe.
At least until someone found the gate and he’d been brought in to help make it work. His heritage was a jumbled mess in his head, but what he’d sorted out at least made some aspects of his life make sense. His gift with languages, particularly ancient and dead languages, was likely due to the genetic memory. It may have been dormant, but now that it was active, those languages rang in his head in voices from across thousands of years. His hunger for the past was likely his unconscious craving for home, to find his way to the one place where he could become….this.
Whatever this was exactly.
“Daniel.”
He looked up to find Jack and Sam on the other side of the barred door.
“You okay?”
Daniel stood slowly, the weight keeping him stooped slightly. “As okay as I can be, considering.”
“Do you understand any of what’s going on here?” Jack asked.
Daniel tried to shift the weight of the chain dragging on his hands, but no position was going to be comfortable. “Genocide.” Daniel said softly. “I’m the last of my race, apparently. They want to make sure my race ceases to exist.”
“Oh, I got that part.” Jack responded, his hand gestured at Daniel, at the wings. “I kind of meant….that part.”
Daniel licked his lips. “Okay, yeah. Well, from what I’ve managed to understand, my mother was among the Kanpau that fled through the gate. She was very young at the time, just got her wings and all. By the time I was born there was just me, my mother and father, who died minutes after I was born. She wanted to protect me, so she...gave me to ...my parents.”
“How do you know all of that?”
Daniel tried to shrug, but gave up quickly. “Genetic memory...which, apparently also makes my own memory...stronger, I guess?” He shook his head. “Look, I know this is...hell, I can’t imagine what it looks like to you.”
“Wings, Daniel.” Jack said. “It looks like wings.”
Daniel actually chuckled. “Yeah, okay.”
“One thing at a time.” Jack glanced over his shoulder. “We’ll get you out of here. We’ll figure out how to fix you once we get home.”
Daniel frowned. “Fix me?”
“Yeah, you know...make you….you again?” Jack said.
“Jack, I am me. Probably more me than I ever have been.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, Jack. I don’t.”
Jack sighed explosively. “The wings, Daniel.”
Understanding slowly came. Jack thought he could somehow go back to not having them, to being human. “I don’t think it works that way, sir.” Sam said beside him. “I think it’s likely that Daniel is going stay this way.”
“I don’t want to hear that.” Daniel’s stomach twisted as Jack turned away, an overwhelming mix of emotions rolling off of Jack. He was angry, which Daniel understood, and worried...but there was huge ball of guilt and fear...fear of what was happening to Daniel.
Daniel closed his eyes, letting the emotion flow over him. “Holy shit, Jack.”
Jack rubbed a hand over his face, but didn’t ask what Daniel meant. “You talk to him,” he said to Sam before he turned and headed down the stairs.
“He means well.” Sam offered as Daniel turned to look at her.
“He’s freaking out.” Daniel countered, though now that Jack was gone he could feel Sam too. “And so are you.”
“Well, it’s a lot to take in, Daniel.” Sam said, moving closer to the bars. “It’s all happened so fast.”
He nodded. Aside from the internal flailing over the obvious, Sam seemed a lot steadier than Jack, her eyes meeting his. “Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours.”
“Everything.” Daniel responded with a sigh. “It’s kind of a mess.”
She smiled gently, reaching a hand through the bars to touch his shoulder. “So, genetic memory?”
“Only explanation I’ve got.” He leaned forward, his shoulder against the bars to take some of the weight off his shoulders.
“And the empathy thing?”
“That’s...very strange.” He licked his lips. “I can feel…” He closed his eyes. “I’m okay, Sam.” She didn’t believe him, but she was willing to give him the moment.
“Well, you won’t be for long if we can’t talk them out of this execution they’re planning.”
“You won’t. They’ve carried this hate for...a very long time.” Daniel was pretty sure that getting out of this and getting home was going to require more of a military solution than a diplomatic one. “I’m not one to suggest we skip diplomacy, but…”
Her fingers squeezed his shoulder. “I think Colonel O’Neill is already on it. In the meantime, can I do anything?”
Thoughts flashed through his head. “Actually...remember in the cave, I said that there was a final test? I think there’s another room that none of the Qeanu ever found. There could be valuable information in there.”
She nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“I’ll...just wait here.” Daniel smiled, already backing up to the bench so he could relieve the pain building between his wings.
