Daniel had hoped that he’d be able to talk with the Gaians alone, but Jack had followed him from the meeting room and made it very clear to the guards that Daniel had no authority on that matter. Sighing – since he couldn’t work up a proper temper when he knew Jack was only worried about his safety – he entered the room.
He hadn’t expected both their guests to be standing, facing the door. It looked like they’d knew he was coming, but how could they? In his disappointment over being saddled with a guard, he had neglected to knock. Strife’s cool gaze hadn’t even acknowledged Daniel as it slid past him to the airman who took up post by the door.
“Already decided what to do with us?” Yuffie asked.
“Not exactly,” Daniel replied honestly, hesitating to step further into the room, “but I’ve had my say, so they don’t need me there. I wanted to talk about the Ancients, if that’s alright?”
It was surprisingly easy to meet Strife’s eyes when they focused on him. There was none of the wariness or hostility they’d shown before, only a tired resignation that Daniel knew too well. He pulled out a chair and sat at the table, nodding at Daniel to do the same. Yuffie plunked down next to Strife, smiling at Daniel.
“I’m sorry we can’t be proper hosts and offer you tea, but you’ve caught us quite unprepared for company,” she said.
Daniel smiled back a little uncertainly as he sat down. “That’s alright,” he assured, daring to joke back, “I’m more of a coffee person anyway.”
Yuffie grinned, and while Strife’s expression remained impassive, his eyes lost some of their chill. He folded his hands on the table; the movement very deliberate, as if to show he was unarmed. Despite himself, Daniel wondered what the two pairs of green and blue orbs in his bracer were.
“I see we made a bad impression on your general,” Strife said.
“What?”
“The guard,” Yuffie clarified, not even glancing to see if Strife intended to answer. “We’ve surrendered our weapons to you, we’re locked in a room where I’m sure you can kill or at least knock us out without stepping inside. Trying to hurt someone who is obviously well respected if not high ranked would be more or less suicidal. Obviously, your superiors believe we are idiots.”
Daniel wasn’t sure what his expression looked like, but it made Yuffie laugh. It was a soft sound, not at all mocking, and it set him at ease. He was certain the Gaians wanted to help, and if they understood and weren’t offended by SGC’s security measures the alliance had every chance of working.
“We didn’t mean any offense, it’s more that Jack doesn’t trust me to stay out of trouble,” he admitted sheepishly.
Strife nodded, and Daniel thought he saw a bit of tension seep away.
“We’ll answer what we can about the Ancients,” the younger man said, “but I’m not sure how useful the information will be to you. From what your planet showed me, there is a large difference between the Cetra who lived here and the ones who lived on Gaia.”
Daniel leaned forward. “How so?”
“From the memories I saw, your Cetra were interested in technology rather than the planet in their care. I suppose that’s why the Goa’uld were able to claim it – there were no Cetra to fight them, and the planet had no reason to care who covered her anymore.” Strife’s eyes glowed brighter. “They neglected her, didn’t appreciate the gift they’d been given. They didn’t care about her… ” He trailed off.
Daniel frowned, worried by the vacant expression. “Mr. Strife?”
“Sorry.” Strife shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. “Her memories are a little overwhelming, much stronger than human or Cetra fragments.” He smiled reassuringly, though it didn’t touch his eyes. “It’s nothing you need to worry about, Dr. Jackson.”
Daniel nodded, letting the evasion slide. “Daniel will do fine,” he said instead.
“Call me Cloud, then.” Real humor flickered in those eerie eyes. “I have no need for titles.”
Yuffie snickered. “Just from your adoring fans –”
“Yuffie!” Cloud hissed, glaring at her. “Can you ignore your fascination for my embarrassment for ten minutes?”
She grinned at him, scooting her chair a little to the side. “Where’s the fun in that?”
Cloud rolled his eyes, and Daniel failed to stifle a smile. The younger blonde sighed.
“Ignore her,” he suggested. “I do, whenever possible.”
Deciding that there was no appropriate response to that, Daniel tried to steer the conversation to something more serious. “Earlier, you mentioned that Gaia had given you the ability to understand her. How is that different from the Cetra’s connection?”
“I don’t feel or hear anything she doesn’t intend me to. The Cetra were caretakers, always open to the planet and the Lifestream. They were healers rather than warriors, companions rather than servants. I was…” Cloud hesitated and exchanged a quick glance with Yuffie. “I was changed with less peaceful purposes in mind. Gaia was threatened, and she did what she had to.”
“There was a war of sorts,” Yuffie continued, “and if we’d lost Gaia would have died. We’re here to make sure your Goa’uld don’t take it that far.”
Daniel nodded slowly. That sounded reassuring, but after what Jack had said… “About that; can you tell me how the Goa’uld are hurting the planets? We’ve taken some samples of their technology and not all of it is analyzed yet. We don’t want to activate some kind of weapon by accident.”
Yuffie snorted. “It won’t look like a weapon to you, but it would take weeks for you to actually harm the planet. And I doubt you have the space needed down here.”
“They don’t want you to know,” Cloud said, eyes sliding out of focus again. The spheres in his wristbands were glowing faintly. “If you know, you will be tempted by the power. Sooner or later there will be a new Shinra and a new war for survival. They won’t risk it for your curiosity, won’t ever let you do that to any of them again.”
Daniel stared. That was blunt. And threatening. He glanced back at Mallory, noting the suspicion on his face. Think, Daniel, think. You’ve got to defuse this before someone says or does something to bring this truce crashing down.
“We don’t want to hurt any of the planets,” he assured, “but we need to know what to avoid. This technology, you said it’s something big? Not something we could carry with us?”
Yuffie gave a sharp nod, her eyes cold. “You’d have to build it yourselves.”
“Then it’s just the Goa’uld who have access to it.” Daniel smiled tentatively. “I don’t have any authority over the base, but I know we aren’t building anything alien. I won’t ask about it, alright? We can leave that be.”
Yuffie relaxed slightly, but she didn’t smile back.
“We are descendants of the Cetra,” Cloud said slowly, as if he hadn’t heard either of the others speak. “We are the children of the ones who turned their backs on their gifts and the planets. The children of traitors. But we are all that’s left of the Cetra and we helped when Gaia needed us to, and she let us live. Holy and the Lifestream rid her of evil, and she decided we weren’t part of it.” He blinked, eyes focusing on Daniel. “I can’t tell you how your planet will see you. She will protect herself, first and foremost. She will watch you through me as she wakes, and she will decide if you are friends or not. I can tell you that she won’t destroy you unless you choose to be a threat to her.”
Daniel swallowed. “That’s… that’s good.”
“You don’t want us here, we understand that. If it’s any comfort, I don’t think we’ll be needed here for long,” Cloud said, smile small but sincere. “A year should be enough to –” He cut himself off. When he spoke again it was obviously not aimed at anyone in the room. “Why are you…? I didn’t mean…”
“Cloud?” Yuffie was frowning now, her voice worried.
The man didn’t answer, just winced slightly as he rubbed at his temples.
“Cloud!” Yuffie shook his shoulder, looking surprised when he swayed with the movement. “Snap out of it!”
“Too loud,” Cloud mumbled. “Too angry. Breaking apart again.”
Feeling more and more confused, Daniel could only watch.
“What can I do?” Yuffie asked. “What do you need?”
Cloud got to his feet suddenly. He staggered but Yuffie caught him, kept him upright.
“Need her. Have to apologize. She has to take it back.”
Yuffie nodded grimly, her eyes on Daniel. “I have to take him outside, or at least somewhere he can touch earth. I’ll swear on any god you want not to try to escape or hurt you, but he needs earth now.”
Daniel shook his head. “I can’t take you outside, and there’s no bare ground inside the base. I can get you to the infirmary, and Janet will –”
“No, you won’t.” Yuffie let Cloud choose a direction, and eased him down to sit against the wall. “This is a good one?” she asked in a softer tone than she’d used since stepping through the gate. Cloud nodded and she reached into the pouch at her belt to remove a green sphere and fit it into her bracelet next to another of the same color.
Mallory had his gun aimed at her before Daniel could say a word. “Put your hands where I can see them, ma’am.”
Yuffie turned her head to glare at him, teeth bared in something that wasn’t quite a smile. She raised her hands, giving a slight wave with one of them. A green orb – not the recently placed one – flared as she said “Frog.”
Light enveloped Mallory, and when it faded a large frog stood in his place, blinking confusedly. Daniel gaped in horror, only turning back toward the Gaians when he heard Yuffie speak again. The second green sphere glowed, darkness spread from the hand she’d pressed against the wall and the concrete shattered. Yuffie quickly pushed chunks of the wall away to show the rock beyond.
“It’s the best I can do for now,” she told Cloud as she helped him settle against the rock. “Can you reach her?”
Cloud nodded slightly before letting his head fall back, eyes closed and brow knit in pain or concentration, Daniel couldn’t tell. Either way, seeing tendrils of the same green light that had appeared in the gate room spread from the rock to cover Cloud was fascinating.
An angry croak brought his attention back to Mallory, who had leaped over to his side, and reminded him that it might not be hallucinations.
“He… and you… How?” he stammered, gesturing at the airman-turned-frog.
Yuffie looked up and blinked at the sight of Mallory hopping in place, obviously trying to express his anger. “Oh, him. Sorry.” She cast the same spell again, and Mallory was returned to human.
The airman – understandably upset – raised his gun, but Daniel pushed it aside. “Go get General Hammond and my team,” he ordered, relieved to see Mallory obey. The transformation had obviously shaken any resolve to follow Jack’s orders and stay with Daniel. When he looked back at Yuffie again, her expression was a little less cold.
“Thank you for getting him out,” she said quietly. “It’ll be best for Cloud if we don’t disturb them.”
“What’s going on?” Daniel demanded. “What did you do to Mallory?”
The corners of her mouth twitched. “The latter is rather obvious, isn’t it? I cast Frog on him. I couldn’t let him shoot us, but I didn’t have access to any other spells that could disable him without doing any damage.” She sobered. “The talk about the Cetra upset the planet, and that affects the Lifestream. Cloud had only just gotten the different currents to start flowing together when hers went crazy.”
“And that means…?”
Yuffie sighed. “He needs to calm her down so she can stop killing him.” She looked at Cloud, voice lowering to a murmur. “I don’t know why they always have to hurt him. I don’t know why he keeps believing they’re worth it.”
After dropping Daniel off, Jack headed back to the meeting room only to be redirected to the General’s office. That was never good news. The tension inside was worse. Jack looked warily from Hammond to Janet, taking in their grim expressions, noting Sam’s worry and Teal’c’s tension as his gaze slid past them. No one seemed inclined to break the silence, and he already knew he would not like what Janet’s results had shown.
But when had dislike ever stopped him?
“What’s going on?” he asked. “Are our guests Goa’uld after all?”
Janet glanced at Hammond, speaking when he nodded. “Not Goa’uld, but beyond that I really don’t know. The woman – Yuffie, was it? – seems perfectly healthy, though there are some inconsistencies between her blood and ours. Nothing to worry about, as far as I can tell, and certainly not a larger difference than any of the humans we’ve met off-world. The man, on the other hand…”
More certain than ever that he should just say to hell with it and retire, Jack prompted, “What’s wrong with him? Except the eyes?”
“He’s… I’m not sure what he is.” Janet was visibly discomforted by that. “I haven’t had time for a full DNA analysis, though I’ve started it, but from what I can see in the blood sample it’s entirely possible he isn’t human.” She paused, possibly searching for layman’s terms. “A Goa’uld changes its host, leaving protein markers and naquadah behind even if it’s removed. I’d need a tissue sample to say for certain, but the blood indicates differences far more radical.”
“Is he dangerous?” Jack demanded, worry for Daniel making his voice harsh.
“If you mean capable of violence, I won’t speculate; you’ve spoken more to him than I have. If you mean medically, I don’t believe so. Any diseases targeted to humans would have infected Yuffie as well, and from what I’ve seen that isn’t the case.” Janet looked at him apologetically. “I’m sorry, Colonel, but I just don’t know what to make of this.”
“That’s okay,” Jack assured her, his attention already shifting to Hammond. “Sir, I’d like to get Daniel out of there. Before he gets himself in trouble like he usually does.”
Hammond nodded. “Take Teal’c and Major Carter with you, just in case.”
“Thank you,” Jack managed as he turned on his heel and stalked out the door, teammates close behind.
They didn’t get far. Jack was just reaching to press the elevator button when the doors slid open, a frazzled airman squeezing through sideways, too impatient to wait. A very familiar airman, Jack realized as dread settled a little heavier.
“Mallory? What are you doing down here?”
The airman blinked, disoriented. Shame and relief flitted across his face before he snapped into a salute, the failsafe of all military personnel when faced with a displeased superior officer.
“Dr. Jackson wants you, Major Carter, Teal’c and General Hammond up in the guests’ quarters right away, sir!”
Jack bit back the urge to shove Mallory out of the way and hurry to Daniel’s aid. Much as he hated it, he needed information. If Daniel was in danger, charging in blindly would not help him. So he added a sharp “What happened?” to Teal’c’s impassive stare. The airman quaked under the pressure.
“He said to – It wasn’t my fault!” he stammered. “And that girl, she… I… Frog!”
The three others exchanged glances, all communicating some version of ‘Crazy’. Even so, Jack took some comfort in the fact that Mallory was blaming Yuffie. After all, she was the normal one so the situation hadn’t gone out of control yet… He looked at Mallory again, reconsidering. Maybe it’s a bad sign that a teenage girl could traumatize him that thoroughly?
Shifting uncomfortably, Jack tried to push the thought aside. Daniel was an optimist, but he wasn’t stupid. If he had sent a guard to fetch them instead of setting off the base alarm, then Jack refused to panic. He’d trust Daniel’s judgement until he had all the facts.
“Go inform the General,” he ordered, “and tell him we’ve gone ahead.”
“Yes, sir!”
SG-1 moved aside and let Mallory step out of the elevator doorway. He bolted down the hall and they entered the elevator before the doors closed. Sam, being the last person in, hit the button for their floor and they rode up in tense silence.