Summary: This is a Romance that started out as a PWP. It's about how three people in love who come
to terms with the love and friendship between them, what they can and are
willing to accept from it, and learn that the relationship has its own set of
joys and advantages. It is Not
slash. There are some things that I hope
you'll find funny and if you do then, they did their job. There are some touching scenes, and if they
touch you then they did their job. All in
all it's just a little romance and it's only real plot is getting the three of
them together in the end. This is a
Romance with some Erotic scenes near the end.
It is a threesome. It is Not
Slash. There is no male/male interaction
in a sexual context. I study the friendship angle of the M/M relationship, not
the sexual angle. I hope you enjoy it.
Rating: M+ or NC-17
whichever you know.
Written February 15,
2006
Chains of Gold
By Pagan Twylight
Chapter One.
Jack O’Neill pitched his knife into the
ground. It stuck for the two hundred and
thirty-eighth time in a row. He shifted,
as he leaned against the column at the bottom of the steps that led up and into
the temple they were here to explore.
Inside, Marty and Daniel were happily chatting away about dead goddesses
and other charming and remarkable, to them anyway, things. Thankfully, having Marty around hadn’t proved
as much of a problem as he had expected it to be. Probably because the Tok’Ra was still asleep
most of the time. Once Lantash woke up
most of the time, all bets were off.
He sighed, thinking over the last
couple of months. He had to admit that
after the “Poison incident”, the
Tok’Ra attitude had changed toward the Tau’ri.
They viewed them differently, which made the Tau’ri view them
differently. It was friendlier. Hell, he was friendlier, as well. He’d come to know them and see them as
individuals. He’d learned that you
couldn’t paint all Goa’ulds with the same brush, anymore than you could paint
all humans with the same brush.
He even really liked the one guy, what
was his name? He was assigned to SG-2,
Malek that was him. He’d taken Malek and
explained hockey to him, which he appeared to understand, if not exactly
appreciate, and introduced him to beer.
Took him to O’Malley’s, too.
Well, he’d taken both of them.
They’d made it a night out for the two SG teams, and it looked to become
a regular thing. Taught them some pool which, it turned out, they caught onto
way too fast. The only one that could
still beat them was Carter. They were in
the process of learning poker, too.
They’d actually heard a couple of jokes
from Malek, given completely straight faced, and in a totally normal tone of
voice. Everything had stopped for a
moment, as they all took in what he had said, before everyone broke up
laughing. Malek had looked at him and
asked if he thought that the Tok’Ra lacked a sense of humor? He realized, he had told them that it
probably often appeared that way, but in reality, when they weren’t being
hunted down by the system lords, or poisoned by their own people, but were out
and comfortable, among friends, as they were now, they often laughed a great
deal.”
“Most of their humor, of course, would
be meaningless to a Tau’ri, being based on things about the Tok’Ra, but in the
same way, many things that the Tau’ri found amusing the Tok’Ra missed for the
same reason. After that, they had begun
to explain why they found certain things funny and before long it was funnier
trying to explain to them why it was funny than the joke had been to begin
with. Some of it they caught onto very
quickly, though. Blond jokes being
one. Since everyone there knew that Sam
was both brilliant and blond, they loved blond jokes. It didn’t take them long to catch on to that
universal type of joke.
He would never have believed that he
would have a great time with two snakes, crap, he had to quit calling them that,
Tok’Ra, in the group, but they were getting along fine. Malek’s host, Devlin, was as easy going and
likable as Malek, and Jack liked him, too.
Two friends for the price of one, hell of a deal, he thought
sardonically.
Carter had introduced them to blue
jeans and informed every female in the SGC how hot they looked in them and a
Tau’ri tee-shirt. Come to think of it,
they’d garnered quite a bit of female attention at O’Malley’s that night, too. Jack frowned thinking about it. It hadn’t seemed to bother them any. In fact, they’d been quite comfortable
flirting with the various women that had checked them out. They’d taken to wearing the jeans and shirts
around the base in the evenings when they were off duty, come to think of
it. They seemed to like them, and there
was no doubt that the females of the SGC liked the way they looked on
them. Jack frowned. What did they have that the SGC guys didn’t
have besides snakes, manners, and charm?
Sam sat at the top of the stairs
leaning back against the temple wall, looking out over the landscape, and
thinking about the last few weeks. It
had been hard at first having Martouf around.
Jolinar’s feelings had kept getting in the way. Finally, they sat down and discussed it. Then they let their emotions loose, and when
they came together, they thought it would be thunder and lightening. It wasn’t.
The kiss was deep and long. But
it didn’t feel like a beginning, or even a continuation. It felt like goodbye. When it ended, they looked at each other, and
she could see it in his eyes as well. It
wasn’t there anymore. Oh, the love was
still there, but it was different somehow, it didn’t feel like a living
breathing entity anymore. It was no more
than a memory of a shadow on the wall, painted in a shade of grey.
But something happened after that. She leaned in, so did he, and they tried that
kiss one more time, but this time it was Martouf and Sam, not Jolinar. The earth moved a little and a few stars
exploded. She’d pulled back, looked at
him, and saw the same question in his eyes that she knew was in hers. What was that? They had become good friends. Did they want to chance ruining that? That was pretty wow, and it would have taken
very little to leave them wanting a whole lot more. Then Martouf’s eyes had glowed, and it was
obvious that Lantash had woken up.
Assuming they were enjoying one
another, he had taken Sam back into his arms and kissed her very, very
thoroughly. It was the closest she’d
ever come to thinking that if it didn’t stop she was, A. going to become
completely boneless, or B. have an orgasm on the spot, and she didn’t care
which, but B was preferable. Forget the
friendship, she’d take this any day of the week.
When Martouf had told them that Lantash
was passionate, he hadn’t been kidding.
Martouf must have been screaming at him to let her go because he stopped
rather abruptly and apologized. She had
looked at him in a rather dazed way and agreed to whatever he said. It wasn’t until later that she realized his
smile had been extremely smug. He had
not been sorry. Lantash had known
exactly how he was affecting her, and he meant to do it again.
Sam’s lips curled into a small
smile. She wished he’d get better, so
that he would remember that he intended to do it again and get around to
it. Martouf had never mentioned the
incident. Neither had she. She had a feeling he had no intention of
stopping Lantash. Yes, she was
definitely looking forward to his getting better, and Martouf deciding that
friends could sometimes be lovers.
Teal’c stood near O’Neal and watched
over him and Major Carter. Both of them
had accepted the Tok’Ra into their midst with little trouble. He was glad.
He was surprised to find how much he liked Martouf and suspected he
would feel the same about Lantash. He
had also warmed up more than he expected to Malek after getting to know him and
his host better, as well. They were both
honorable men, quick to accept blame and quick to offer a hand in apology. Neither held onto ill feelings.
O’Neill seemed preoccupied this
morning, but he was afraid it was simply boredom. Whatever it was, it would explode into
restless energy soon, if they did not find it an outlet. He sighed.
He liked O’Neill, he was a great warrior, but sometimes he felt like he
needed to be constantly distracted.
Perhaps they would check the perimeter one more time shortly. That was always good for twenty or thirty
minutes, if Teal’c walked slowly enough and noticed enough interesting things
along the way.
He was too late; the Colonel was again
asking Daniel the same question that he had just asked him. Teal’c saw Major Carter smile at him, and he
bowed his head in response. They both
knew the following conversation by heart, or at least a variation of it.
“Daniel, how much longer is this going
to take?”
“It’s going to take the same amount of
time that it was going to take ten minutes ago plus five, Jack. Asking more often is not going to speed it
up. It is actually going to make it
longer because I have to stop, look at my watch, tell you the time, and then
explain to you, again, why it is taking longer than it should because you keep
asking if we are done yet. Now, it is
going to take five minutes longer than it was the last time you asked.”
“Well hurry it up, can’t ya? Don’t you want to see if there are some more
fascinating ruins just over the hill?”
“We already know there are, Jack, and
we’re here for at least three days.
We’ll get to them. Didn’t you
remember to bring a book or something? A
gameboy and batteries? Your yo-yo? You
do realize that it is just after daylight here and that the days are extremely
long? Extremely long. Almost as long as a full day for us. I have no intention of doing more than
napping, and neither does Martouf. We
plan to use every bit of daylight that we have looking over these ruins. So, I suggest that you find a place to nap,
or pull out your toys.”
“I brought all three, but I’m
bored. I’m not in the mood to
read.”
“I think you should check the perimeter
again. Maybe there are some other ruins
close by that we missed in our preliminary search. Why don’t you and Teal’c see if you can find something?”
“We’ve already done that, Daniel. There’s no point in doing it again. Are you going to be much longer? If so, I’m gonna go and rest my eyes. Malek and I stayed up and watched hockey last
night. It didn’t matter when he went to
bed. Devlin slept through the game, so
Malek can sleep as long as he wants to today.
I don’t think that’s fair. They
should both have to stay up and suffer just like we do.” Jack groused, disgruntled at the thought that
his friend wasn’t losing sleep over watching the game. “Not only that, but Devlin can watch the game
today, by going through Malek’s memories.
I think we should make some new rules.
In the meantime, I’m gonna go take a nap.”
“That’s an excellent idea, Jack. I think you might want to do that. We’ll be a while yet.” Daniel looked up and winked at Martouf.
Hearing no other response, Daniel
turned back to the wall and Martouf, as he bent over the last section of this
wall. “What do you think Martouf? Does it look different to you?”
“Yes, it does. I cannot explain it, though. There seems to be no reason for it that I can
see. The difference does not continue,
and this appears to have been made to resemble the other writing as closely as
possible. Is it an attempt to hide the
fact that it was another’s hand that wrote it, or to hide that it was added
later? Either reason would be possible
and pointless to speculate about, at this distance in time.”
Daniel shrugged. “I agree.
Either way it is different, and at this point it really doesn’t matter
why. Do you recognize who they are talking
about here? And does it sound like the
story is right?”
Martouf smiled. “That I can answer for you. Actually, the reason you have not heard of
this one is because she was so obscure.
Had Lantash and I not once played the role of System Lord, on a world
where she was once in service to another, the chances are that we might never
have heard of her either. Niet’sesh met
her end in the manner written about in this section we are discussing. I suppose that someone was so overjoyed by it
that they wanted to make sure the truth was known.”
“However, why it is on this obscure
little world, I have no information to impart to you. Perhaps, at one time, she was less obscure
than when we came to hear about her, and this was her world. We would have known little, if we had not
been very bored one afternoon and proceeded to read a version of the world’s
history in the immense library contained within the compound. The version of her demise matches this one. For whatever reason, someone left a record of
her death here, and it seems to be a rather cheerful description of it, so I
would speculate that her enemy, rather than her friend, saw to its inscription
here.”
Daniel nodded his agreement with
Martouf’s statements, and added, “At least we can safely assume that this world
has not seen
Martouf stood and brushed his hands
off, but he was frowning. “I am not so
sure, Daniel, when this world was last inhabited. There is something very familiar about this
area, even this temple, but I cannot pull up the information. One of the things that is a handicap, while I
must wait for Lantash to awaken, is the lack of immediate access to
information. The information is there,
but it takes me longer to retrieve it.
This place just looks very familiar to me, as if I have been here
before, but I cannot place it.”
He sighed. “While it is unfortunate and true, it is
still an aggravation, when I am used to being able to recall things
quickly. I will remember it eventually,
or he may come out of his dormancy, become more aware, and supply the memory I
need. Unfortunately, we do not know how
often, or when, his periods of wakefulness will occur. We know that by leaving him within my body,
he will stabilize more quickly than those that were removed. Those that were removed are much better now,
but they still are not doing as well as the ones that were not removed at
all. It is very worrying, of course, but
it is more disturbing that Lantash is taking so long to recover.”
“We went back in more than we should
have to bring more of our people out.
And still, we did not get them all; it took your people to do that. I am glad he agreed to stop, when I pointed
out that if no one was cognizant enough to explain, when we reached the SGC,
then if they agreed to help, there would be no one to tell them what had
occurred and what we needed. I believe
it was only by pure strength of will and stubbornness that we stayed on our
feet as long as we did that day. I truly
believe he did not give in to the lethargy until all of our people were
accounted for. If he had given in
earlier, perhaps he would not be taking so long to recover.”
“You miss him a lot.” Daniel looked up at him. He was feeling faintly surprised at the
amount of longing in Martouf’s voice as he spoke of Lantash.
“You sound surprised, Daniel. We have often told you that the bond between symbiote
and host becomes very close and intimate.
We care deeply for one another.
It is as if a part of myself is missing.
It is there, but it is not. I
find myself talking to him even though I know he will not answer me. Yes, I miss him a great deal.”
“I believe you. It’s just always so surprising to us, I
guess. The idea of sharing our minds and
never having any privacy is kind of unnerving to us. The Tau’ri, we’re a very private people in
many ways, and we consider our thoughts our own. Sacred ground so to speak. Someone or something having access to our
most inner thoughts is very disturbing to us on a lot of levels, and the more
private we are the more we step back from the idea of blending. That Jacob has adjusted to it so well has
amazed a lot of us.”
“Is that what you think? That we have no privacy, no place for
private thoughts, that anything and everything is shared?” Martouf shook his head. “That is not how it works with the Tok’Ra,
Daniel. We have our own space, our own
thoughts that are not for access by the symbiote. He has the same from us. That is probably why Jacob has had little
problem adjusting.”
“Selmak would have found upon blending
that Jacob was a very private person. He
would have shared all of his knowledge with him, his sorrow for Saroosh, any
memories he did not feel were completely private, but he too, would have held
back his most private thoughts. As he
and Jacob became more aware of each other, he would have taught Jacob how to
mark thoughts as private. He would also
have begun to access Jacob’s memories, and Jacob would have stopped any access
of memories that were private, by his feelings alone. Selmak would have known by then what type of
memories were forbidden and stayed away from anything with that type of
emotional signature on it, until Jacob allowed him access himself,
freely.”
“Really. I wasn’t aware of that.”
“The Goa’uld do not allow any
distinction, Daniel, the Tok’Ra certainly do.”
Daniel nodded, and turned back to the
area they were studying. Returning the
conversation to the cause of Lantash’s illness, he said, quietly, “I’m really
worried about the traitor you have in your midst. This was definitely an inside job that meant
to wipe out the entire base, including the council. Now that we have this exchange program going,
it will be harder for whoever it is to try, or succeed, at something like this
again, but it is still a possibility. I
know it has a lot of people upset, and not just the Tok’Ra. I’m talking in
Daniel frowned, still thinking about
the situation. “You know, Martouf,
you’re all really, really lucky that whoever the traitor is, he wasn’t able to
get to the more potent stuff. All you have
this time is a bunch of really ill symbiotes, and that’s bad enough, but if
whoever it is had been able to access the other stuff, none of you would be
here at all. You’re all lucky that the
human body filters this poison so well, and once the original massive dose was
finally filtered out; there are no lasting ill effects. That we actually have stuff that appears to
speed the process along is another bright spot.
You guys really didn’t look good at all when you stumbled through our
gate. Well, those of you that could walk
at all, that is.”
Daniel brushed off some more dirt on
the wall they had moved to and proceeded to examine it along with Martouf. “It’s weird we haven’t talked about this
before either. It’s probably good that
we are though. All I know is that when I
saw you come through and almost collapse in Sam’s arms, I was stunned. Then the bodies started coming through and it
was chaos, but we had to get the facts.”
He shook his head, remembering, and shuddered slightly.
Martouf nodded. “I am aware of what a shock it must have
been, Daniel, and we cannot thank you enough, for all you and your people have
done for us. The fact that you sent your
own people into the tunnels to retrieve ours and start decontamination, without
knowing for sure, if it was toxic to you, regardless what we told you, hazmat
suits or not, showed great compassion and friendship.”
“The Tok’Ra that you found and
retrieved, owe their very lives to you, for if you had not removed them, they
would have succumbed when the human body could filter no more. You have been nothing but helpful to us in
assisting in any way that you could. I
believe that many on the council, who have often believed the Tau’ri dislike
and scorn the Tok’Ra, became aware that it is individuals, and not the Tau’ri
in general, who are prejudiced.”
“When they saw how diligently and
intensely your people worked to save, not only the hosts, but the symbiotes,
they were impressed. When your people
insisted that the symbiotes be reintroduced to their hosts, in order to save
them, it made an even more favorable impression, since many believed that a
Tau’ri would be only too happy to remove a symbiote from a human under any
circumstances. To have this rumor proven
so very wrong, in front of so many council members and Tok’Ra, to see the way
the symbiotes were handled, not as if they were beneath contempt, but with
gentleness and consideration, these things will prove to be a turning point in
the relationship of our two cultures. At
least, that is my opinion.”
“You were not there when Dr. Fraiser
and Per’sus clashed the first several times.
When your Dr. Fraiser stood up to Per’sus when he, Malek, and the other
council members arrived from the other base, and told him that his people were
dying because they had been removed from their hosts, that our healers, though
ill themselves wanted to remove more, and she absolutely forbid it, he was
quite shocked.”
“When she told him to either uphold her
order, or get the hell out of her way, because she had symbiotes to save,
despite their own people trying to kill them, he was astonished enough to wave
the healers aside. It was just as well,
as one passed out shortly thereafter. It
was amusing to see your SF’s moving him to one side, as well. Janet is such a tiny thing, to be such a
virago. When she insisted that the
symbiotes must be put back, it was startling to see his reaction.
Daniel laughed, “I heard that Janet had
a few more words for the High Councilor.
I think tree moss, banana slugs, and at one point even an amoeba were
brought into one of their, err, discussions.”
He sobered, “She would have had them escorted out at gun point, well,
zat point, you know. When she went so
far as to call in the SF’s, she was extremely angry. She had patients that were about to die, and
that is not acceptable to her, if it can be avoided.” Then he lightened up again, “On the other
hand, we have to be glad that the council was there and healthy.”
“Yes.
We were fortunate that our council was off the base at a last minute
council meeting. Had the traitor known
about it, no doubt he would have postponed his attack. As it was, he missed our most important
people. They, too, saw what happened,
and how well your people handled the symbiotes.
When Samantha cradled them and stroked them, while Dr. Fraiser injected
them with the substance to force them into activity to re-blend, it was a
revelation to them.”
“It was also a revelation when Dr.
Fraiser made the incision in the neck of the hosts for the ones that were
simply too week to blend in our normal way.
To watch them lie outside the host body, while they struggled to
re-attach, was very upsetting for us, and yet Janet and Samantha stayed and
encouraged them, injecting more of the drug, and keeping them moist, until the
symbiote could function enough to fully blend and heal the neck.”
“And they did it for what seemed like
hours to those of us that watched, and not once, but many times, as they worked
to save them. I do not see the disdain
that I was wont to see before when the Tau’ri are mentioned. Many of us that had symbiotes that were not
as ill were not as ill ourselves, and we saw everything that occurred. Our symbiotes will witness it, as it
happened, when they access our memories, and it will make a difference to
them. They will discuss it, both among
themselves and with us. That is not to
say that the Tau’ri and the Tok’Ra will not still have differences, but at
least we have a better understanding of one another.”
Daniel nodded. “Yeah, I was told that Per’sus was heard to
say later that the same compassion that had led us to accept Apophis when he
was being chased by Sokar was the same compassion that had now helped the Tok’Ra. He also went on to say that seen from a
different perspective, it was not such a bad trait to have particularly if it
was tempered with good judgment. And that’s when he took his idea to the big
Whigs in
“I’m actually surprised he even
admitted that the Tok’ra had a problem, but he went on to say that the
compassion of the Tau’ri tempered with the knowledge of the universe from the
Tok’Ra could lead the Tau’ri to learn restraint and to learn to pick their
fights more carefully. The Tok’Ra on the
other hand would learn to temper their decisions with compassion and to take
other things into consideration when making a decision. The worlds were not either black or
white. Some were grey. The Tok’Ra needed to learn the different
shades of grey. The Tau’ri could teach
them that. Personally, I thought it was a rather poetic thing for him to say,
and I was impressed with it. I kind of
liked him before, and that reinforced my opinion.” Daniel smiled, as he thought of the Tok’Ra
High Councilor, before returning to what he was saying.
“Like the man said, it would be a fair
trade. And thus, our present exchange
system was suggested and eagerly accepted by both sides. Of course, it will work better, when the
symbiotes are awake more than an hour or so a day and able to remember more
than five minutes at a time where they are, and why they are here.”
Looking up, Daniel saw the desolate
look on Martouf’s face, and added, “Personally, I think we will see that before
long. Lantash is staying awake longer
every time he wakes up. Eventually, he
will begin to remember more and more of what happened. He is already remembering what happened from
one time to the next, and every time he remembers a little bit more, and
retains it to the next time.”
“Martouf, Lantash will be fine. We are all here waiting for him to wake up
and be himself. True, it might be a
while, but when he does we will all be here to greet him, welcome him into our
lives, and help him catch up on what’s been going on the last couple of
months. And it has only been two
months. You’ve only been with us a few weeks.”
“Well, a few weeks of missions, after
Janet finally said that you were driving her crazy, and to go and get out of
her hair. You did spend a few weeks
going through that filtering they kept doing on all of you, to help rid your
body of the poison faster. That’s
working, too. The ones that refused it
at first didn’t do nearly as well as those that agreed to it. You don’t have to do it anymore, and there
are more and more of you that no longer need it.”
Martouf nodded, saying, “I agree,
Daniel,” before pausing, and then continuing, but changing the subject,
“Daniel, have you noticed that Per’sus has been to the SGC almost every week
since the “poison incident,” and sometimes several times a
week, if he can arrange to be, passing by?
Daniel, how can one be “passing by”
in a galaxy? In fact, I have noticed
that Per’sus has made it a habit to visit the SGC often, and he always manages
to come around the time that Janet has lunch.
He has been seen there with her many times now, and he has also brought
her gifts.”
“When Janet was berating him for
allowing his healers to continue on a course that would kill the symbiotes, he
was--well I am not sure exactly what his emotions were, but they were intense
and—admiring--I think would be the best way to describe them. Is she, do you know if she finds the idea of
a symbiote, distasteful? I would not
like to think that he could get hurt. He
has not been interested in a woman in a very long time. Not since his mate was killed many years
ago. Well, in other than as a,” he waved
his hands, not sure of the word he wanted.
“As an occasional bed warmer?”
Martouf smiled, relieved that Daniel
understood what he meant, even without the words. A truly universal, cross cultural need,
easily understood and accepted as normal.
“Yes, that will suffice. Thank
you. I ask because I noticed that he has
given her a small chain of gold, and to us that is a promise of fidelity. I do not know what you would call it. It is not a promise to bond, nor is there
usually even a mention of it, at this point.
It is more a, a promise to, to sleep with no other female. If she gives one in return, then she will be
telling him that she has considered his request, and she agrees to see him in
the manner of a man who is—is,” “courting
is the word you want, Martouf,” , “thank you,” “courting her, and that she
will sleep with no other man. I do not
know if she knows this, or not, and I do not feel it is my place to tell
her.”
“Sam.”
“Excuse me?”
“Tell Sam and have her tell Janet. Problem solved. Why’d you thank me a little bit ago,
Martouf? I didn’t say any thing,” Daniel
said briefly, once again inspecting the wall.
“Oh, it was not to you, it was to
Lantash,” Martouf said casually, before realizing what he said.
He immediately began to question
him. “Lantash? Lantash are you awake?”
“Of course, I am
awake. What else would I be, but
awake? It is obviously daytime. Why would I not be awake? Although, I must admit, I am finding it hard
to remember why we are on Quilleron with Daniel Jackson and Samantha, and
looking once again at this rather boring temple dedicated to Niet’sesh. It is no more interesting now,
than it was the last time you insisted on looking at it. I made you leave that time, as well. We have seen enough, let us go. In fact, I have seen more than enough of it, for
the second time now. Why must you
continue to drag me back to this excessively boring place that talks only about
an unendingly, unutterably boring Goa’uld? Was it not enough that we spent an
entire afternoon one time reading a tome of history that mentioned her? She did not even have the palliative of being
interesting.”
Martouf sighed, “You
don’t remember anything before waking up here, then.”
“Of course I
remember. I remember being poisoned and
going to the SGC. I remember being
vilely ill. I remember waking up and
being injected with a substance that made me vilely ill again, but which always
made me feel better afterwards. I
remember you lying patiently as they filtered more of the toxin out of your
system on several occasions, and I remember that it is something that you allow
to happen often, not because it helps you at all, but because it hastens the
breakdown, of the poison, in my system.
I also know that it is not a comfortable procedure for you, but you go
through it anyway, as do all the others.”
“I remember wondering how
such a medically primitive society could be the ones to save us all, and how
very glad I was that they were primitive and had the medicines and equipment on
hand to help both of us. And I remember,
I remember…I remember breakfast before we went to see Per’sus and the council
in General Hammond’s office. That is the
last thing I remember before waking up and hearing you telling Dr. Jackson that
Per’sus is courting Dr. Fraiser, while we stand, in a temple, on the world of
Quilleron, discussing the dating habits of the High Councilor, as well as, how
boring a long dead, quite obscure System Lord was. I am curios as to why we are here, and why
you would be surprised that I am awake.
Do I sleep a great deal now?”
“You are obviously
remembering more on your own then, unless you have accessed my memories because
the last time you awoke, you could not remember past the first time we had the
filtering done, after we were released from the infirmary. You have been sleeping a great deal, yes,
probably twenty or so hours a day.”
“I have not yet accessed
your memories.”
“Good, then you are
remembering things on your own, and that is very good news and means you are
finally healing much more quickly.”
“Why are we here,
Martouf?”
“It’s a bit
complicated. I would rather, and Dr.
Fraiser would rather, that you remember as much as you can on your own before
you access it, or I tell you. If I give
you a brief answer, will that suffice, for now?”
“I suppose it will have
to.”
“We are now members of
SG-1 and will remain so, for the foreseeable future. Colonel O’Neill is the military leader; we
are to lend our experience of the worlds we visit. Our experience with cultures and worlds will
hopefully help them not to get thrown into jail, become a tribe’s supper, or
touch something that will kill them, that sort of thing.”
“I see. So, we are
teaching them about the worlds around the universe. And what are we gaining from them that is so
important that the Tok’Ra council sent for us to tell us we were staying here
and joining this team? Not that I
strenuously object, since we have often talked of doing so, but if the council
appointed us to be here to do this, there must be a reason, and I am assuming
that was what our meeting in General Hammond’s office, the one that I slept
through, was about.”
“It was and you did. As for what we are getting in exchange for
our knowledge, it is very simple. We are
learning compassion in decision making.
In the words of Per’sus; The Tok’Ra on the other hand would learn to
temper their decisions with compassion and to take other things into
consideration when making a decision.
The worlds were not, either black, or white. Some were grey. The Tok’Ra needed to learn the different
shades of grey. The Tau’ri could teach them that.”
“I see. Well.
I have a feeling that once I remember everything and have accessed your
memories, I will feel much the same, so for now, I shall stay quiescent and
watch. If you are in difficulties, I
will help you, but otherwise, I do not wish to interfere. How long do I usually stay awake at one
time?”
“You are already well
over the time you are normally awake.
Janet said there was a possibility that when you awoke permanently, it
would happen all at once. I am hopeful
that this is that time. I have missed
you my old and dearest friend, more than I can tell you in words. You must look to my heart for that.”
“I can feel it, Martouf,
and I understand and return it to you.
You too are loved.”
“Martouf? Is Lantash still awake? That’s a long time for him. Maybe he’s finally coming around.”
“Yes, I believe he may be, Daniel. He is still awake, but resting and he
remembers much farther this time.”
Daniel smiled widely at him. “See, I told you he’d be all right. Come on, let’s look at this other wall,
before Jack has a cow.”
“Why would Colonel O’Neill wish to have
a bovine? What would be its
purpose?”
Daniel looked at him and laughed. Now, they had two of them. He’d forgotten how funny Teal’c had been when
he first came to Earth. What is an
Oprah? Cracked him up every time he
remembered that.
“Daniel, we have company. You and Marty need to get out here. Why don’t the UAV’s show us this stuff?”
“What is it, Jack?”
“Looks like the locals, Daniel. It’s your show. Come make nice. You’re on.”
Daniel looked sorrowfully at the wall,
sighed in resignation, and turned to the doorway to “make nice”.
TBC