| Dept. for Good Reading |
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| RUMOURS OF WAR Part II of the "Wars" series by Alyx J. Shaw |
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| RUMOURS OF WAR - by Alyx J. Shaw The rain had stopped, which, on Sferkkaa, meant it was only drizzling. Jack sat on a rock, soaking wet but content. It was odd how fast a person could get used to the rain on Sferkkaa. It would be depressing if there wasn't so much colour. Vibrant, glorious colour, from everything. The birds, the plants, the animals, even the air, a wondrous tapestry of scents from an endless shimmering curtain of blossoms. A person could sit for a thousand years and just breath. He heard someone coming up behind him; the long slow steps told him it was Stratavarus before he even saw him. The general walked over to Jack, trailed as always by Soarin. "Colonel," he purred in his low voice, "I've been looking forr you." "How are things progressing?" asked Jack. "Nicely, verry nicely. Everry-thing is going well. Which of courrse means only one thing." "And that is?" "Well, rrrank is not with-out it's little benefits. In otherr worrds, since the kids arre busy, let's go fishing." "General, I like the way your brain works." ******** The water was deep and silver, moving slowly through its earth bed. Jack had to stand on a large stone, but Stratavarus, with his long legs, had no trouble with the river's depth. The two men stood in the cool water, casting in contented silence, while Soarin lounged on the bank. Jack had noticed something about the general's leggy companion. He didn't have the easy, giraffe-like grace the other tall Sferkkaans did. In fact, at times he seemed very stiff and slow. At the moment, he looked nearly crippled. Stratavarus caught the glance. "He's in pain," the general said quietly. "He's been in pain for yearrs, and it sickens me. Per-haps as rrrecently as twenty yearrs ago there would have been some-one with skill e-nough to help him, but not now. I do what I can for him, but it is not e-nough." Jack watched Soarin as the tall man shifted his position, trying to ease his more insistent aches. "Maybe we can. We have some pretty competent medical people back at the Base. At least we can try." "I hope so," said Stratavarus softly. "He's my dearrest frriend." ******** Janet was a little daunted to say the least when presented with Soarin. Seven feet, nine inches and four hundred and fifteen pounds of nervous Sferkkaan was a big task, but she had never backed down from a job before. Soarin however had been in combat a very long time, and was extremely nervous with his new surroundings. Not even the presence of his companion was enough to calm him. Then a small glass jar fell from a shelf and shattered. Soarin responded to the perceived threat by levitating his impressive frame and kicking a hole in the wall large enough to use as a window, then fleeing the room. "He's a little nerrvous;" Stratavarus said apologetically to Janet. She sighed. "Well, let's go get him." Jack watched Janet head after her patient. "Remember, they kick," he called unhelpfully after her. She gave him a look that could have peeled paint, and resumed following Soarin. He grinned and left the infirmary. He made his way to the cafeteria in search of coffee, and stopped as he noticed a lone figure sitting at a table, gently playing with an enormous spider. Jack walked over to the table and sat next to Daniel. "Thhrrp," said Kita. "You say that to me one more time and I'll introduce you to Mr. Newspaper." She turned around and showed him her rump. Jack wasn't sure the gesture was unintentional, but he let it slide. He'd be damned if he was going to get caught arguing with a bug in the lunchroom. Instead he turned his attention to Daniel. He wasn't actually in tears, but the look on his face showed he wasn't far off. The younger man had taken his friend's death quite hard, and a mere two weeks wasn't enough to dull the image of finding him dead. Jack put an arm around him. "You'll be okay," he said quietly. It was a stupid thing to say, Jack knew, but all the things a person tried to say to another who was grieving were stupid. There were no phrases to make it better, just empty words to try and show support. Daniel sniffed. "He just looked so little..." Jack almost opened his mouth and said; 'That's because he was little,' but fortunately some muse stopped him. He was terrible at this sort of thing and he knew it. But he loved Daniel, and it hurt to see him so despondent. Then an idea came to him. He took Daniel's arm and stood him up. "Come on, let's go. I'm taking you out of here. Scoop up your bug." "Huh? Where are we going?" "Out. Somewhere. Dinner. I don't know. You've hardly eaten. If you get much skinnier you'll be reassigned as a lamp. So wherever you want to go. I'm buying. Even if all you do is stop at a chocolate shop and eat until you turn brown." "Jack...." "Ah! Never argue with a Colonel." "Jaa-ck!" "What?" "We just got off Sferkkaa, I'm soaked." "Oh. Well, we can stop at your place." "I don't suppose it would occur to you I may not want to go out." "Sorry, didn't hear you." Daniel sighed heavily and let Jack drag him out of the lunch room. Food was the last thing he wanted, but he knew he could use a distraction. And Jack was great at driving people to distraction. "Any place I want to go?" "Any at all." "Sushi." Daniel felt Jack pause ever so slightly. "Fine. You eat yours, and I'll stuff mine into my bait box." "Oh come on, you should try it." "Nope. My time in the Iraqi jail cured me of the urge to eat weird raw things." Daniel thought about that. "Yuck." "Ever eaten a rat?" Jack asked. "Jack..." "Raw rat, after you pulled the feet and skin off...." "JACK O'NIELL DON'T YOU DARE CONTINUE THIS CONVERSATION!!" "Tastes like chicken, actually." "You just had to say that, didn't you?" By now they had left the base. Jack dragged Daniel over to his vehicle and opened the door for him. "Come on, pregos first." "I'm not pregnant." "You have seven hundred and fifty thousand Sferkkaans housed in your guts. The only thing on this earth more pregnant than you is some variety of insect, or possibly a coral polyp." "I'm NOT pregnant." "All those training films we showed you, and you have to go sleep with an alien." Daniel ground his teeth audibly. He sat in the vehicle and closed the door. The entire way to the restaurant he stared straight ahead, teeth gritted, while Jack regaled him with an out of tune version of 'Havin' My Baby.' ******** They didn't bother to stop and get changed. They walked into the restaurant in their damp fatigues, Kita huddled in one of Daniel's pockets. They were shown to a less traditional section of the establishment with tables, where neither of them had to risk removing their combat boots in a public place. Daniel picked up a menu, and Kita crawled out of his pocket to inspect the clean white linen and shiny dishes. "So when are the Sferkkaans planning on taking their future generations back?" "They have a lab set up," said Daniel, "they just want to run some tests before they take the embryos back. They want to make sure everything is working perfectly. So, three or four days from now, I suppose." A beautiful young Japanese woman came to their table. "Good evening. What can I get you gentlemen?" Then she saw Kita, and her smile vanished. "Tell me that's not real." "Ah, no, it's a toy," said Daniel. "See?" He touched Kita's back. "Geep." said the spider. The woman didn't look impressed. "That is one butt-ugly toy." "Thhrrp." Daniel asked for an extensive array of different types of sushi. Jack stared at his menu until he found something cooked, then ordered some sake to go with it. The woman left briefly, then quickly returned with a wooden platter of sushi and the sake. "She would be an ugly toy," said Jack. Kita once more showed him her rump. Daniel lightly touched her back. "She's a great little buddy. She helps me turn the pages on my books." "Tarantulas taste like shrimp, y'know." "Just keep your rat-rippin' mitts off my arachnid. Are you coming to the Sferkkaan ruins tomorrow?" "Yeah, sure. The General is going to show me a stream where you can get these really big fish..." "Oh I see. Soarin is sick in the hospital, so you move in on his boyfriend." "I am NOT moving in on his boyfriend." "And I'm not pregnant." "Prego." "Home wrecker." "Slut." "Bitch." Jack grinned at him. "Eat your bait." ******** The ruins were sunk deep into the mud, barely visible. It was located only a half mile from Stratavarus' base, but may as well have been worlds away. It was surrounded by swamps and heavy jungle, the few bits of it that were above ground were alive with vines and vibrant blue flowers. Three of the Sferkkaan men decorated Carter with chains of the fragrant blooms. With her gun and fatigues, she looked like the Hawaiian dancer of doom. Teal'c had to learn to endure the tiny jade-green birds that seemed to have an endless fascination with his gleaming dark skin. He had a hard time preserving his cool demeanor while being used as a perch for little birds and the occasional butterfly. Daniel moved about the ruin, trying to determine its size, Kita splayed contentedly on his head like a mashed party hat. Twice he had driven a stake into what he had taken for mud, only to find nothing more than badly rotten wood. Jack was not far off, holding his weapon close and staying alert for anything that may be lurking near by. The Kriphisians were defeated, but there may still have been a few around. Daniel knelt and searched through the mud, once more finding rotting beams. The structure beneath them was immense, and he had no urge to see the inside by falling through the roof. He motioned to Jack to move further away, then froze as he felt the wood beneath him give slightly. "Oh crap," he said quietly. "Daniel?" "I'm fine, let's just back away slowly." He stepped back, and felt the roof beneath him give a little more. He continued backing up, slowly, carefully. With any luck they would be fine. He glanced up to see if anyone was nearby, but there was only Jack and himself. Jack took a step back, and felt the wood disintegrate beneath him. He clawed at the rotten beams in an attempt to stop himself from falling, but only ended up clutching sodden wood. He plunged down into darkness, hearing Daniel scream his name. Then there was nothing. Daniel saw Jack fall. He rushed to the hole without thinking, and suddenly found himself going through the roof also. Instinctively he clutched the nearest item he saw; a heavy flowered vine. He continued falling some distance, then abruptly jerked to a halt. He dangled in the air, trying to see the floor beneath him. "Jack?" Silence. "Jack!" His eyes began adjusting to the dim light. Gradually he could make out the tiled floor beneath him, and the still figure lying on it. Daniel climbed down the rest of the way to the floor, then walked over to Jack, sick at the thought of what he might find. He crouched beside the still figure, cautiously reaching out to touch his shoulder. Jack didn't move as Daniel looked him over. He was bleeding, and a careful examination revealed a broken shoulder, collar bone, and femur. "Oh god, Jack," he said softly. He tried to smooth down the silvery hair, only to find his hand wet with blood. He felt his eyes well with tears. "Jack.." "Daniel for god's sake quit crying. I swear sometimes your tear ducts are attached to your bladder." "Jack I thought you were dead!" "I am. Get lost." "I have to get you out of here. Don't move." "That's the stupidest thing you've said in twenty minutes." Daniel ignored the comment. He stripped off his jacket and carefully placed it over Jack, then stood up and looked around. The only obvious way out was the way they came in. Daniel grabbed the vine and began trying to climb it, but when he was only eight feet off the ground it snapped, dumping him onto the hard stone floor once again. Daniel stood up painfully, dusting himself off. Obviously going for help was not an option at this point; he would have to tend Jack himself. He looked around the immense chamber, then once more up at the crumbling roof. "I'm going to have to move you, I can't leave you there. The rest of that roof could come down on us." "'Kay," Jack said quietly. 'Oh jeez he's fading out,' thought Daniel. 'Jack don't die on me...' He searched the room, finding a fireplace large enough to park a van in. It was made of huge blocks of stone, braced on either side on the backs of carved stone beasts. He got down on his knees and began scraping out the rotted goo in the bottom, cleaning a space as well as he was able. Then as he sat back to survey his work, he noticed the mushrooms. Daniel had seen them before; the Sferkkaans kept them for medical purposes. They were an unhealthy green-grey, conical, and covered in needle-sharp thorns. There was no mistaking them for anything else. Making certain he didn't stab himself, he picked several and put them in his cap. Then he realized Kita was missing. "Kita?" "Thhrrp." Daniel sighed in relief. She was perched on a wall, probably having leapt there while he was falling. "Kita, go get Carter and Teal'c." "Thhrrp." Daniel watched as Kita began preening herself. He sighed. Well what could he expect, she was a tarantula for crying out loud. At least it had been worth a try. He hurried over to Jack. "Are you still with me?" "Yeah sure y'betcha." "I found some mushrooms." Daniel sat beside Jack and began carefully tearing off the thorns. They came away easily, ripping like old paper. Once the thorns were removed, he crushed the mushrooms in his hands and carefully applied the pulp to Jack's injuries. The bleeding slowed considerably on the larger injuries, and on the small ones stopped completely. Then Daniel picked up one of the thorns. He gently snapped the tip off, revealing a tiny amount of silver-clear liquid inside. "Here, drink this, it'll help with the pain." Jack allowed Daniel to pour the three drips of liquid into his mouth. "Tastes like crap," he muttered. "You're welcome. Now we need a splint. Damn, where is MacGyver when you need him..." Daniel froze as he saw the man appear before him, moving silently out of the gloom. His grey-green uniform was torn and filthy, and his hair was hacked short. He was wearing the razors of a Sferkkaan Whip on both hands, but the insignia on his uniform told Daniel that they weren't his. The Kriphisian soldier smiled coldly at him and raised his weapon so it was pointing straight at Daniel's face. Daniel swallowed nervously. "The war is over," he said in Sferkkaan. "The war is never over," said the soldier. "No while one of you filthy long-hairs lives, and not while we haven't found those fetuses." "Well we don't have them! We're not even Sferkkaan!" "It matters not. I will kill you anyway. First however I will carve the both of you open to make certain you do not have them. Dead slaves are of no use. Then I will kill you." Daniel stood up slowly, the muzzle of the gun following him. "You're not killing anyone." The soldier fired, the shot nearly silent. Daniel fell to the ground, clutching his broken and bleeding leg. "I decide who dies," said the soldier. "We know that the fetuses are hidden somewhere. Your white dog died trying to convince us he had them. Rumors have reached us saying otherwise. If I have to cut up each and every one of you, I will. Run for help if you like. I will start on your wretched mate." "Leave him alone you son of a bitch!" The soldier fired at him again, ripping another piece out of his leg. "I am a marksman, animal, I can shoot you twenty more times before you die. Shut up before I do." Daniel watched as the man moved over to Jack's unconscious form. Daniel was unarmed; he had come to dig for history, not to fight. Then he remembered Jack had been armed when he fell through the roof. He glanced around, then saw the weapon lying in the muck, barely visible. He began crawling towards it. The Kriphisian ignored him. Daniel grabbed the weapon, then swung around to point it at the soldier. "I said leave him alone!" The soldier raised his weapon, and Daniel fired. The noise echoed in the chamber like a bomb blast, and the soldier fell over, dead. Daniel collapsed into the muck, panting. He lay for a brief time, then realized he had to stop his own bleeding before he died as well. He managed to drag himself over to the remaining mushrooms and mash their pulp into the gaping wounds. Then he passed out. ******** Daniel felt something tickling his nose. He reached up to scratch, and touched a familiar little furry body. Kita was flat on his face. He moved her, then blinked myopically at the room he found himself in. It was the Base Hospital. He found his glasses and put them on. The room was full of brightly coloured Sferkkaan flowers, ribbons, and dozens of floating balloons up near the ceiling. Half said 'It's a Boy!', the other half read 'It's a Girl!' "Let me guess," said Daniel. "Jack lived." Janet appeared by his side. "You're both going to be just fine." "How's Soarin?" "Well after I pulled three and a half kilos of shrapnel, old bullets, and a chip of rock out of his carcass, he began to feel much better. I'll say one thing for those Sferkkaans; they look delicate, but it would probably take a tank to kill one." Daniel raised one hand and looked at it. "I'm covered in tarantula silk." "Blame your girlfriend with the hairy legs." She looked up. "You have visitors." Carter walked in, followed by Teal'c and Stratavarus. The general held an enormous, brightly-coloured cloth bag, closed at the top with a blue silk ribbon. Something inside was wiggling. "Boy you sure can get into trouble in the course of an hour," said Carter. "How are you feeling?" "Fine. A little sore. I'd like to see Jack if I could." "We'll take you to see him in a moment," she said. "First the general has a present for you." Stratavarus set the bag on the end of Daniel's bed. It wiggled once more, then hissed. "I'm so glad to see you arre doing well, child. Many have paid with theirr lives defeating the enemy. And therre is no gift grrand e-nough to give you forr prrotec-t-ing ourr child-ren. This, I hope, at least brrings you some joy." Stratavarus pulled the ribbon, and the bag fell open. Sitting there, hair mussed, in his best uniform, was Khandid. Daniel sat bolt upright, and regretted it as his leg screamed in pain. "Khandid! I thought you were dead!" "So did we all," said Stratavarus. "It was only by luck and the keen eye of a field medic that he was not burried. We would have told you soonerr , but he was so ill we werre not cerr-tain he would live.We did not want you to lose his frriend-ship twice." "I really missed you," Daniel said. Khandid smiled back at him. "Missed you too." |
| CATEGORY: AU, gen, drama with a happy ending, h/c. SPOILERS: None. SEASON: Daniel is in it. RATING: PG-13 WARNINGS: some language, and if you're arachnophobic, this thing is not for you ... :-) SERIES: Yes, Part 2 of ? FEEDBACK: YES PLEASE! Directly to the author: ALYX J. SHAW ILLUSTRATION: Alyx J. Shaw ARCHIVE: no archivation, this is story is a Pink Khaki exclusive. NOTE: You don't have to know Part 1 to follow the story, but it would be recommended you read it, anyway. CLICK HERE TO READ "WARS - PAST AND PRESENT DISCLAIMER: The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author. (thanks to Jmas for helping us out with the rating and the disclaimers). |