Daniel's Dichotomy
Part 16 of ?
Synopsis: The bracelets are off, but Vala and 'her' Daniel are still
connected. Poor Daniel! Missing scene "The Ties That Bind".
Minor references to "Deadman Switch", "Summit", "Last Stand", "Sentinel",
"Reckoning", and "Avalon". Tiny bit of foreshadowing for "Memento Mori"
(you'll understand once you get there). Finally, this is the first of this
series to feature a character from the previous series "The Thief", though you
don't have to have read that to understand who she is. (And if you have
gotten this far in this series and haven't gone back to read those others, yet...
you should!)
Daniel's Dichotomy
"And yet a little tumult, now and then, is an
agreeable quickener of sensation;
such as a revolution, a battle, or an adventure of any lively description."
-- George Gordon Noel Byron, Byron’s Letters and Journals
Once upon a time, excursions through the 'Gate were simple: step into the cold, exhilarating roller coaster ride of the wormhole, emerge on the other side to an alien vista, greet the natives, then go home a day or two later with a freshly inked trade agreement.
Keep dreaming, Danny Boy, he snorted, drawing a curious expression from Cameron "call me Cam" Mitchell. Maybe it was petty of him, but Daniel was going to keep using the younger man's last name for as long as he insisted on calling him--
"Jackson. Care to share?" the colonel asked, clearly amused by the sudden indelicate outburst.
"I've been around Jack O'Neill too long," he grinned, earning himself another puzzled look.
"You were teammates for... what? Seven years?"
"Uh, six actually, once you take out the year I was, uh..." He gestured skyward.
"Ah. That."
"Yeah. Just thinking how nice it would've been to have had a 'simple' mission through the 'Gate. You know, where nobody gets shot, killed, kidnapped, tortured, that sort of thing."
"Stick around with me for a while and I'll see if I can get General Landry to assign us some boring missions," Mitchell grinned.
Gotta give him points for persistence, anyway, Daniel sighed inwardly, wondering if Mitchell would ever give up trying to get the archaeologist to rejoin SG-1.
"While nothing's really happened on this one just yet," he continued, side-stepping the topic altogether, "I can't help but feel that Vala's gonna sneak a nasty suprise or two on us before this is all said and done."
"You mean other than slappin' that bracelet on ya, nearly getting you both killed in that cave in England, and deliberately withholding information that could lead us to a necklace which may or may not be of some use in getting the two of you disconnected from one another?"
Daniel grimaced. "I meant since we left Earth for Adora."
"Oh. Well, that little story Lover Boy told us counts as a nasty surprise in my book."
"Good point," he remarked, though he had his doubts about the authenticity of Arlos' account after seeing the way he and Vala interacted with one another. But that wasn't the point he was trying to make, so... "Nobody's died yet. With my track-record on SG-1..."
"So you're saying you're back on the team?" Mitchell asked hopefully.
Daniel frowned. "Your powers of misinterpretation are truly astounding."
"Well, thank you, Jackson, I do my worst."
"Obviously."
He was spared Mitchell's reply by a sudden commotion behind him. Twisting around, he scowled at the whistles and catcalls greeting Vala Mal Doran and the attractive brunette following her through the crowded tavern.
"Hello, boys," Vala smiled. "Miss me?"
"No," Daniel replied, repressing a triumphant grin upon hearing Mitchell's voice in concert with his own and made all-the-more difficult to resist upon seeing the subsequent flash of annoyance on Vala's face.
"Two-for-one deal, love?" the brown-haired woman asked, her accent eerily similar to Earth's Slavic regions.
Vala grinned impishly. "Not a bad bargain at all, wouldn't you say? Yvondra Amicass, I'd like you to meet Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, and I believe you've already met Doctor Daniel Jackson."
"You have?" Mitchell asked.
"I thought we agreed no names," Daniel sighed, inwardly puzzling over where in the hundreds of planets he'd been that he could have met the newcomer.
"I already knew your name, Doctor Jackson," Yvondra replied. "We were never formally introduced, but I was told then that your name was 'Gerron'."
The combination of location, face, and accent clicked. "You were Svarog's lo'taur."
She smiled, clearly delighted he remembered her. "You have an excellent memory, Doctor Jackson."
"Call me Daniel, please," he replied, pasting a 'pleased to meet you' smile on his face. "Given the number of times my memory's been tampered with, though, it's surprising I can remember my own name." Of course, there'd been a time or two when he didn't... most recently the two months he'd lived as "Arrom".
Yvondra laughed lightly, lifting a long leg over the bench and seating herself beside him. Not to be outdone, Vala walked around the table and claimed the corner on the other side, opposite Yvondra and next to Cameron.
After a beat of silence, during which Yvondra and Vala shared an un-interpretable look, Daniel cleared his throat. "So... what've you been doing since Svarog was killed?"
"Actually, I left his service immediately after the summit," she answered. "Word got around that Lord Yu's personal servant was less-than-loyal and the System Lords decided to take a closer look at the allegiance of their own slaves."
He winced. "I guess I asked a few too many questions at the station, then."
"It wouldn't have been a problem had the person you asked not been the pompous little twit serving Lord Ba'al. But not to worry, love, he got himself executed before his master left the summit."
He could feel his eyebrows rising toward his hairline. "Really? How many other lo'taur were put to death because of me?"
"Only two others, love, Morrigan's brainless pet and Bastet's spineless boot-licker." Yvondra rested her elbows on the tabletop. "The rest of us were far too clever for that. We either successfully professed our loyalty or successfully made our escapes. I chose the latter, but Svarog never got to hunt me down for stealing his personal tel'tac, as he, himself, disappeared shortly afterward."
"The Latonan Sentinel!" Mitchell exclaimed. "Musical combination lock on the device, child-like planetary ruler, and two dead ex-NID operatives." At the twin expressions of confusion leveled his way by the women, he added, "Great file, lots of detail."
"You were there?" Yvondra asked, dismissing the majority of the colonel's outburst.
"Uh, actually Jackson was. I just read all the mission reports."
"My team and I were there," Daniel corrected.
"Then if you are responsible for killing Svarog, you have my gratitude," she smiled, sidling a little closer.
He shifted backward just a little. "Uh, really it wasn't me. I was just there. That's all." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mitchell start to open his mouth, but the glare Daniel leveled his direction apparently made him reconsider putting his two cents into the conversation.
"Oh, well that's disappointing, love," Yvondra pouted.
"Uh, but is that gratitude enough to get me... him the answer to the question I asked you?" Vala interrupted.
The statuesque brunette shrugged. "He says he was 'just there'."
"Ow!" Daniel exclaimed, reaching down to rub his wounded shin where Vala kicked him. "What was that for?"
"We have to pay for the information we want, and that means supplying information in return!"
"Oh, you mean you're not going to steal it this time?"
Vala huffed. "I don't steal everything I want, you know."
Mitchell mumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, "No, you try to kidnap the rest." It earned him a thump on the arm. "Ow!" he complained half-heartedly.
"My dear, I've heard stories about your legendary domination techniques," Yvondra began dryly, "but never would I have guessed I'd be so fortunate as to witness it first-hand."
"Yep, I'm feeling terrified of her already," the colonel chimed in cheerfully.
"You'd be astonished what I can do with a bed, wrist restraints, and pastries," the former host warned.
Pastries? Daniel marveled, deciding quickly not to ask. He didn't want to end up being the recipient of a practical demonstration, after all. Like I need to give her another excuse to try to get her hands on me...
"Y-von-dra!" Vala whined, sticking her lower lip out sulkily. Somehow he'd managed to miss whatever prompted the outburst, as well as the arrival of drinks for the two women.
"No free information, you know that," was the haughty reply. "Unless, of course, your companions can answer this: during the Battle of Dakara, how were the Replicators stopped?"
"Oh, that's easy!" Mitchell exclaimed. "Jacob and Sam Carter fired up the big ol' weapon at Dakara and--"
Yvondra held up her hand. "I did not ask how they were destroyed, but rather how they were stopped."
Daniel felt his blood drain from his face even as Mitchell professed ignorance of the difference between 'defeated' and 'stopped'.
"One of my sources told me that the Replicators inexplicably stopped their attack for several long moments, affording the weapon's defenders time to regroup. How were they stopped?"
"It wasn't in the report," the colonel explained. "I mean, sure, the whole stopping-in-the-middle-of-the-fight thing was mentioned, but no one knew for sure why it happened or how. Trust me, I've read all of their reports."
"The infamous SG-1 was involved," Yvondra pressed. "And here before me sits one of the original of that team."
"'Infamous'?" Daniel asked, suppressing a wince as Mitchell exclaimed the same. It was bad enough people thought they looked alike--for some reason he had yet to fathom--but now they were starting to talk alike...
"In some circles," the former lo'taur continued, imperturbable. "What did your report say, Doc--Daniel?"
He gave an inward grin, pleased she'd phrased the question the way she had. "I never made it to Dakara."
"Truly?"
"Truly. No, before the Free Jaffa even attacked, I'd been captured by the Replicators and, well, tortured for information."
"Then surely you must have done something to sabotage the machines in your escape."
"Nope," he answered, battling the almost-overwhelming urge to grin in triumph. "I didn't."
"Sabotage?" Vala asked, confused.
"Escape."
Yvondra frowned. "Oh, you were rescued."
"Nope." In truth, it wasn't a pleasant memory--the source of several intense nightmares, actually--but he was gaining a bit of perverse satisfaction from watching the two women and Mitchell squirm, trying to figure out what really happened. The truth, of course, had been disclosed to Sam, Jack, and Teal'c only after he'd had a rather spectacular nightmare during their fishing trip the week after his return from the Diner of the Cosmos. Even then, it'd taken enough bourbon to start a Kentucky Derby party before he could manage any details.
"I get it!" Vala exclaimed, squirming with childish delight. "You don't consider it escaping since the Replicators were all destroyed and you could just walk off Scotch-free."
"Actually, the term is 'scot-free', which is believed to have originated as an alternative to 'on the house' or 'free of charge' The term originates in Middle English, where the word--"
"Thanks for the language lesson, Jackson, but you still didn't answer the question," Mitchell pointed out, drawn into the conversation every bit as much as the two women. "How'd you get away from the bugs?"
Sometimes, the younger man's hero-worship was almost as irritating as Vala's frequent and persistent attempts to get in Daniel's pants.
Well, not quite. And the leather trousers she'd picked out for him were tight enough to make it difficult for him to get into his pants in the first place.
"As Vala pointed out, all the 'bugs' were destroyed when the weapon at Dakara was fired. Unfortunately for me, I was being held aboard a ship--out in space, I might add--which was constructed entirely of Replicator blocks."
Yvondra shook her head. "No one can survive the vacuum of space for more than a few seconds without protective equipment."
"I didn't have to," Daniel replied, "I was already dead... and since I can't tell you why I'm not still dead, I have to leave it to you to figure out... but I'm pretty sure that once you figure that out, you'll be able to determine how and why the Replicators stopped." That should keep her busy for a while. And from the looks of things, Vala was pretty well dumb-founded. Mitchell's mouth kept twitching like he was trying not to grin.
"Can't or won't?" the former lo'taur asked after a quiet moment.
"Both," Daniel answered.
She sighed dramatically. "Well, I'll have to settle for that, then. Rest assured, Daniel, if you need anything further, I will require more detail."
"Goody!" Vala grinned, clasping her hands together. "Well?"
The other woman laughed. "Sorry, love, but I told you you should have gone to see Sarillis first... she wouldn't have made you pay anything to tell you Inago's set up only a few streets from her shop."
None of the names meant anything to Daniel, but Vala's expression suddenly fell into a shocked pout. "Why didn't you tell me that an hour ago?"
Yvondra stood and stretched. "I did. I specifically stated, 'you really should go see Sarillis as quickly as possible'. Now, if neither you nor the handsome gentlemen need anything further, I have an appointment to keep." Smiling sweetly, the brown-haired woman left the bar.
"I can't believe I just gave away highly-classified information just to find out you should have gone to see somebody else!" Daniel groaned, covering the top of his head with his hands. Peering up between his arms, he attempted his best glare. Sadly, it didn't faze Vala one bit.
"Highly classified? You hardly said anything."
"It's not so much what I said, as it's what I didn't say," he growled. Specifically, the fact that he gave no reason for his capture by the Replicators nor ever denied having anything to do with stopping the Replicators... A smart woman like Yvondra Amicass was sure to realize what shape the missing pieces of the puzzle should take and fill in the blanks a little on her own, especially if she had access to Tok'ra intell, as he suspected she did.
As the dark-haired thief reached across the table for the cup of bitter spirits in front of Daniel, he slapped her wrist, even though he didn't particularly care for the beverage. She affected a wounded glare, rubbing the affected appendage.
It's the principle of the matter, he inwardly smirked. Rising, he walked around to her end of the table. "Are we going or not?" he asked, hands on his hips.
Vala didn't immediately answer, turning to Mitchell, instead. The colonel deliberately slid his own stein a mere inch away from her.
The ensuing pout belonged on a bratty ten year-old, not on a grown woman of... however old she was. Who could tell with a former host?
With no sympathy coming from either man, Vala sighed heavily. "Fine, the two of you can go distract Inago while I'm gone. Go a few streets back toward the 'Gate and look for a portly Jaffa trying to swindle passers-by. I’ll let him know you’ll be stopping in to chat."
"And just where are you going?" Mitchell exclaimed as Vala stood.
"To go see Sarillis."
"And she is...?"
"A former bounty hunter and current mechanic, shopkeeper, and occasional landlady."
Daniel felt his eyebrows leap to his hairline. "Bounty hunter?"
"Oh, not to worry, Daniel... I'm not turning you in for the tidy sum that's still on your head," she teased.
"What, a day's rations?" he smirked, certain neither of us companions would understand the reference.
"Not exactly, but I'm told it doubled the first time the Tok'ra reported your untimely demise. I must say, you look quite fetching for a twice-dead man." Winking, Vala managed to slap his leather-clad rear as she passed by, eliciting an involuntary gasp and leap forward that jostled the table when his hip collided rather painfully with the edge.
"More than twice," he retorted to her back, just knowing his face was red.
"Ever count 'em all?" Mitchell grinned, trying not to look too amused as Daniel soothed his wounded backside.
Vala was so going to pay for that.
"Six."
"That's it?"
Daniel felt his eyebrows lift. "If you're counting only the times I was actually dead and not just declared dead, yeah."
"Wow... I've been led to believe it was a few more than that."
"Don't believe everything you hear," he warned. Especially if it comes from Jack, Reynolds, or Dixon. And if an off-world injury hadn't retired Ferretti, Daniel was certain the self-professed Italian would have been regaling the younger colonel with every Jackson Urban Legend ever conceived... and a few made up on the spot.
"Look, we need to go see if we can find this 'Iago' guy."
"'Inago'," Mitchell corrected. "Iago's a parrot."
"Whatever," Daniel replied. Oh, yeah. I've definitely been around Jack too long. "Let's go already. Vala and I are on a time limit, you know."
"Right! Time's a-wastin'!"
The streets outside the dingy pub reminded Daniel a little of the souk on Abydos, and for a brief moment, he felt homesick. He'd been thinking of his adopted homeworld a lot, lately--especially since he'd made the decision to leave the SGC for Atlantis. He remembered how overwhelmed they had been to hear of the hundreds of worlds Daniel had visited and thousands more he hadn't, and wondered what the simple would have thought of his going off to another galaxy.
He wondered also what they would have thought of Vala.
Whoa! You can stop that thought right there, Doctor Jackson! There was no way in the known universe he would have subjected the unsuspecting Abydonians to Vala's flirtatiously extravagant ways.
Not to mention her revealing clothing, sticky fingers, wandering hands, bold-faced lies, deliberate misdirects, cunning deceits--
"Whoa, there's our boy," Mitchell announced, interrupting Daniel's internal tirade. Thankfully, the colonel had been paying attention to where they'd been wandering for the last... fifteen minutes.
Huh. Who'd have guessed?
"So...business not so good, huh?" Mitchell asked casually.
The heavy-set weapons dealer looked somewhat disgusted. "Well, with no planets to conquer and no cities to loot... how's a Jaffa expected to put food on the table?"
Daniel had wondered that some, himself. Was the galactic economy ready to handle millions of Jaffa no longer employed by their gods in ceaseless warfare? "Listen, uh, a mutual friend of ours was supposed to send word that we were coming."
"What mutual friend?"
"Vala," he answered, starting in surprise when the Jaffa primed a zat and pointed it at him. Knowing his eyebrows were making a bid for his hairline again, he raised his hands in the air, noting out of the corner of his eye that Mitchell was doing the same.
Yeah, it’s always nice to have a mission without any surprises...
Author's Notes:
I really, truly, honestly did not mean to go this long without updating
this story. Unfortunately, I hit a big honkin' Borg cube-like Writers'
Block that started to go away at the end of August... then came right back after
the idiots at the SciFi Channel made their little announcement. Then I had
another musical to perform in, got side-tracked by the new MGM website,
side-tracked again by yet another Seuss mutilation...
Yeah, so here it is! Hopefully, the next part won't be nearly as hard to
write as this one was. Oh, and this one has spawned a plot bunny for my
own version of the now-classic "the rest of the team finds out what happened to
Daniel after Replicarter got a hold of him" 'fic. Sometime. Maybe...
Plot bunny put to bed: read "Renewing Trust" to find out what happened!