Lifeblood

by Ellen Caldera

Author's Note: This is an existing story previously titled "A Meeting of Minds".
Thanks to Scribe and Dee Tervo for their input and encouragement. You guys are the best!

"Whoa!" The exclamation burst out of Daniel's mouth only seconds after the first image from the MALP on P453T9 came through. That was as long as it took for his brain to translate what he was seeing and send repeated signals to his mouth until his mouth finally managed to produce a sound.

Just about anything might turn up on any given planet, and he always got a little thrill of expectation just before that first image came through. This time, though, the thrill was accompanied by a shiver knitting its way across his shoulders. The MALP had emerged from the wormhole to find itself butted right up against some kind of stone slab. A single glyph, illuminated by what seemed to be natural daylight, filled the lens of the forward camera. Daniel swallowed the knot of unease that was bunching up in the back of his throat and turned to look at Jack.

Jack was staring at the screen with an intensity that could only mean he didn't much care for what he was seeing either. He waved his hand towards the monitor and said, "Now, maybe I'm just being a little bit paranoid, but does anyone else think that looks like it was written in blood?"

Daniel turned back towards the glyph and swallowed again before answering. "Hard to say for sure, but given what the glyph means… It's Goa'uld - the symbol for death."

"Whoa," Sam piped in.

"I think Daniel already said that," Jack said very quietly, the expected twist of sarcasm noticeably absent from his voice.

Sam didn't respond to Jack's remark, instead turning her attention to the technician seated at the MALP controls. "Switch to the rear camera and see if you can pan around so we can have a look at the rest of that rock."

The video image flipped over to a screenful of rippling blue 'Gate surface. As the camera began to slowly swivel in response to the tech's prodding at the controls, Daniel could see that the MALP had barely managed to clear the event horizon. The edge of the 'Gate slid across the screen at a sharp angle, and now there was a view across an open field, visible through the space of several feet between the 'Gate and the stone slab. On the other side of the field was a jumble of jagged rocks perhaps ten or fifteen feet tall, partially obscured by vines and creepers.

"Wait. Stop there," he said, pointing at the rocks, a twinge of recognition stirring at the back of his brain. "Zoom in on that." The image enlarged, blurry at first, then coming back into focus. Yes. He was right. Not just rocks. Artifacts. "Ruins. Abandoned for quite some time judging from the growth of the vegetation. OK, keep panning. Stop." The first of the glyphs on the upper lefthand edge of the stone slab came into view, but due to the tight angle and the large size of the writing, only a few glyphs at a time were captured on the monitor. "Yep, definitely Goa'uld." Didn't matter how many times he'd said that name - it still made him want to spit or cross himself or something, some sign of warding. He wasn't superstitious, though, not really. Okay, maybe a little. He looked down at the tech. "You'll need to pan down the rows so I can read it. Not across." "I know," the tech mumbled, intent on his manipulation of the camera angle.

Oh. Right. Sometimes it was easy for Daniel to forget the SGC had been dealing with the Goa'uld for a long enough time now that practically everyone associated with the project had picked up at least a smattering of facts about Goa'uld culture. Usually the points that got the most attention were those related to technology, weaponry and military tactics, but there were more than a few, apart from the other linguists assigned to the project, who had picked up a bit of the language, certainly enough to know it was read top to bottom instead of left to right.

He briefly considered an apology, but was distracted by the contents of the video monitor. He automatically began identifying the glyphs and translating them into possible English equivalents. As he tried to string them together into phrases and sentences, though, he found to his surprise it was just a muddle of seemingly unrelated words. "Wait. Stop. This isn't making any sense. Go back to the top again." His eyes skimmed over the three vertical glyphs that were visible in the frame. He was trying very hard not to think about Jack's comment about blood. Not that he was particularly squeamish where blood was concerned, but it occurred to him that if these glyphs had been here since the adjacent town had been abandoned, they must've been renewed repeatedly to keep them looking so fresh.

He refocused his attention on the glyphs themselves. No, he hadn't mistaken them. The translations were correct. The words just didn't fit together. Encoded maybe? He adjusted his glasses and leaned a little closer. Wait a minute. The translation didn't make any sense if you read the symbols top to bottom, but right to left looked a little more promising, judging from the handful of glyphs running across and off the right edge of the screen. "Pan over to the right." The tech looked up at him briefly in confusion, then shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the controls.

Yes. Okay, this was making more sense. He leaned over the tech in search of something to write with and was mildly surprised to find Teal'c at his side, holding out a pencil and a pad of paper. He mumbled a distracted thanks and returned his attention to the translation. It was a bit difficult to write standing up with the video screen somewhere around waist level, so he looked up again in search of something to sit on. This time Sam was standing there, a neutral expression on her face and her hands on the back of a wheeled chair that she pushed towards him without comment. He raised an eyebrow at her as he took the chair and settled himself onto it, but she still didn't say anything. She was just looking at him, a hint of amusement bleeding through her carefully composed expression. And Jack… wasn't there. "Where did Jack go?"

Sam folded her arms across her chest. She looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh. "Went to get some coffee."

"Oh." That made sense. Jack rarely had the patience to hang around when intent staring and equally intense thinking was the order of business for the other people in the room.

"Don't worry," Sam added, and she finally did crack a smile. "He said he'd bring you a cup."

"Oh. Okay. Good. That's very… thoughtful… of him." He stared at her for a few seconds longer, until she made a little spinning gesture with one finger and pointed towards the video screen, then seated herself in front of an adjacent console. She turned away from him and began bringing up data from the probe's other instruments. He shook his head and returned to the translation, a stray thought flittering across the edge of his mind that it took an entirely different set of skills to interpret human interaction than it did to decipher the most complex of foreign or alien languages.

Damn. He was late for the briefing. Again. And all the coffeepots in the mess hall had been empty when he swung by there on the way to the conference room. He muttered an apology in Hammond's general direction as he tossed a pile of notes onto the table and kept right on going over to the coffeepots on the side table. Thank God. A fresh pot of regular. He sloshed the steamy liquid into his mug and made the mistake of taking a gulp before it even occurred to him to allow it to cool. Great. Now he'd have to talk around a burned tongue. He took his seat and set the mug carefully out of range so he wouldn't accidentally take another drink before the temperature of the coffee dropped somewhere below scorching.

"So." He looked around the table, at Jack, Teal'c, Sam, Hammond - all looking back at him. "What'd I miss?"

Jack raised an eyebrow at him. "Your cue?" He gestured at the pile of papers in front of Daniel.

"Oh. Right. Well, it's not as bad as we thought. It may actually even be a good thing." He paused, glancing down at his notes.

"So are you going to explain how it is that 'death' - written in Goa'uld, no less - is a good thing?" Jack was tapping his pencil on the table as he spoke. Definitely would be a wise move to get right to the point.

"It's a good thing because the inscription wasn't written by a Goa'uld. The left to right orientation of the symbols instead of the usual top to bottom was a clue to that, but the content of the message proves even more definitively that someone else wrote it. It's a warning to the Goa'uld not to return to the planet, the 'death' part being a threat for the Goa'uld."

"Oh, I like it." The tap-tap of the pencil paused momentarily. "Anyone who makes death threats against the Goa'uld is a friend of mine. Nice touch with the blood, too."

"Um, we can't be sure the message really is written in blood until we get a sample to analyze. It could be some sort of ink or dye, possibly juice from a local berry or other plant source."

Jack shrugged. "If you say so."

Daniel looked at Jack for a moment, not sure how to respond, but then shook his head slightly and moved ahead to his next point. "In any event, the inscription very clearly states the inhabitants of the planet rebelled against the Goa'uld who had enslaved them, but they didn't bury their 'Gate like the Ancient Egyptians did on Earth. In fact, part of the message offers safe passage and unrestricted use of the Stargate to peaceful travelers who do nothing to - uh, let me get the exact translation - 'to disturb the harmony of the life we have chosen, the ways we have won at such a high price, the past we commemorate in blood.'" He paused and looked up at Jack, whose expression was decidedly smug. "Okay, so maybe it is blood, but it's probably symbolic, maybe from an animal sacrifice of some sort."

Jack now had the pencil between his index and middle finger and was jiggling it back and forth. He lifted one shoulder and tilted his head to the side. "Okay, granted." He tossed the pencil down onto the table and leaned forward, lacing his fingers together in front of him. "But the bottom line is, these guys kicked the Goa'uld off their planet. Sounds like a prime candidate for a potential ally to me."

Hammond nodded. "I agree. Teal'c, have you ever heard anything about this planet?"

Teal'c paused, considering the question. "I recall no references to this planet, but it is likely that if the Goa'uld are indeed intimidated by the inhabitants, they would not speak of it to anyone outside of their own ranks. Perhaps not even among themselves."

"This is sounding better and better all the time," Jack commented.

Hammond turned to Sam. "Major Carter, have you analyzed the conditions on the planet?"

"Yes, Sir. Local conditions are all well within acceptable parameters for human tolerance. No special survival gear needed."

"All right then. SG-1, you have a go to attempt to contact the inhabitants of this planet and determine if they would be interested in a possible alliance against the Goa'uld. If you're successful, SG-5 will take over to initiate diplomatic negotiations. Good luck. Dismissed."

Jack's insistence that the team wear helmets for this mission had Daniel a bit puzzled and slightly annoyed. He hated the damn things. His was always managing to slide askew on his head, no matter how tightly he strapped it on. He couldn't even get a hat to stay put on his head for the most part. Jack hadn't offered an explanation, just said to trust him on this one. Daniel had been tempted to raise an objection. They hardly ever wore helmets since they didn't make a bit of difference against the kind of energy weapons they were likely to encounter. Just one more piece of klunky equipment to tote around. Jack had silenced him with a raised finger. There was a time when Daniel would've ignored that finger, but now he knew that unless he was ready to get into a shouting match, it was better just to shut up and do what Jack said. He'd learned the wisdom of picking his fights.

As soon as the 'Gate spewed him out on the other end, the need for helmets became painfully clear. He smacked right into the stone slab, his head hitting the surface with only slightly less force than his shoulder. Some mathematical tinkering on a level he hadn't the patience to comprehend had mostly compensated for the 'Gate's nasty habit of tossing travellers out the other side, but they still did get the occasional rough ride - sort of like the old girl was cranky after being woken up after a long sleep and still liked to kick them around a bit for it.

"Ow." Daniel readjusted his glasses, which had been knocked awry on his face by the impact. He was only slightly mollified by the thump of two more bodies hitting the rock beside him. Jack had gone through first and had either already peeled himself off the wall or hadn't been thrown as hard as the rest of them. Probably the former. Daniel had never known the 'Gate to be particular about who it tossed and who it didn't.

Teal'c bounced right back off the wall and landed lightly on his feet, looking every bit like he'd casually strolled through the 'Gate. Sam seemed to be just as plastered to the wall as Daniel was, but Jack stepped forward and offered one hand to each of them. A moment of rubbing at sore spots, helmets exchanged for hats or bare heads, a final readjustment to their gear, and they moved out.

Daniel was beginning to get more than a little frustrated. In three hours of tramping across rolling grasslands lightly wooded with the ubiquitous clumps of mixed pine and hardwood trees, they'd found absolutely no sign of anything that could even remotely be called civilization apart from the burned-out husk of the Goa'uld city near the 'Gate. No buildings, no roads, no paths other than what Teal'c had deemed to be nothing more than animal tracks. Just the buzz of insects in air warmed to summer temperatures by a pair of suns, the rustle of a light wind through grasses and leaves, and the chirping of birds in the patches of woodland.

If there were still people here, they could be hiding. Maybe they were even more isolationist than the inscription at the 'Gate indicated. It was obvious they wouldn't stand for Goa'uld tramping around their planet, but the part about safe passage had suggested SG-1 might be welcomed in some fashion. Maybe the message really boiled down to "don't bother us, and we won't bother you."

The suns were drawing closer to the horizon, and Daniel was sure Jack would call the mission off any moment now. Under other circumstances, Jack might've done so before now, but he seemed so convinced the people here would be valuable allies. He might be right, but that didn't count for very much if they couldn't find anyone to actually negotiate with.

Up yet another hillock, grasses slapping against his knees. He bowed his head and yanked the brim of his hat down a little further, hoping to block out the rays of the lowering suns. He almost walked smack into Sam's back and didn't even have a chance to apologize before she yanked him down to the ground.

They'd found what they were looking for.

He stared slack-jawed for what must've been a full minute before he was able to gather his wits enough to dig his binoculars out of his pocket to get a better look.

They were… beautiful. There was no other word he could think of, in any language he knew either fluently or superficially, that described them more perfectly than that one word. Beautiful. And all of the related meanings and textures and layers - exquisite, compelling, awe-inspiring, elegant. Harmonious even in their silence, graceful even in their stillness.

They were tall, sleek and muscular, with long, three-jointed arms. Their legs, although they had a single joint midway down like human legs, seemed to be able to bend either forwards or backwards. Ranged along the slopes of the valley below, they were posed in various postures, most of which would've been impossible for a human to duplicate.

Their skin was mottled brown and green, and were it not for the film of iridescence that flowed over every part of their bodies, they might've blended perfectly into the tall grasses that swirled down the valley. Their glistening faces were raised in near perfect unison towards the setting of double suns, the scattering of clouds above the horizon reflecting every color of flame imaginable.

Their heads were crowned with fascinating patterns of bony ridges and swirls of earthy pigment, a fractal landscape of asymmetric perfection laid out in living flesh and bone. Yes, beautiful - exotic, hypnotic, yet somehow terrifying simply because of their extreme strangeness.

Some of them were standing or sitting alone, while others were grouped in pairs or larger clusters, sometimes merely in close proximity to one another, sometimes touching, sometimes twined together like the contorted beauty of Rodin sculptures. There was a ponderous sense of quiet meditation about them, disturbed only by the occasional shifting of a grouping, the adjustment of the position of a limb, a drawing together or pulling apart from another one of their kind. The movements were infrequent and slight, almost as if they were simply stirring in their sleep, flickers of light gliding along oddly muscled appendages.

"Well, this is certainly… different." Leave it to Jack to turn understatement into an artform. Then again, maybe he was just being precise in his own way. "Okay, campers, any suggestions?"

Daniel lowered his binoculars and glanced over to Teal'c and Sam where they were hunkered down near the ground on his left. Teal'c raised an eyebrow and Sam just shrugged her shoulders, so Daniel turned back to Jack and said, "Maybe we should try to move in a little closer, see if we can make contact." It was a simple suggestion, nothing fancy, but somehow it was very unappealing to him. He couldn't figure out if he was actually afraid of these creatures or simply unwilling to disturb the poised beauty of their silence.

Jack pushed his hat back on his head and squinted up at the sky. "Not much daylight left." He paused, then looked back over at his team members. "Is it just me, or is anyone else getting the creeps?"

Daniel looked over at Teal'c and Sam again. Teal'c was frowning, and Sam nodded very slightly. Really, the thing that was giving Daniel the creeps was the fact that Jack had suddenly gone from gung-ho about tracking down new allies to ready to call a retreat just as they'd found their potential new friends.

Daniel wouldn't have necessarily picked the phrase "getting the creeps" to describe his reaction to the aliens, but he was certainly… disturbed. Fascinated in an uncomfortable sort of way. Okay, close enough for government work. He turned back towards Jack and raised his hand, waggling his fingers to add his vote in the affirmative.

"I guess it's unanimous, then." Jack jerked his hat firmly back down onto his head and adjusted his grip on his rifle. "Let's head back to the 'Gate. We can regroup and reevaluate, maybe bring a UAV through to launch from this side to gather a little more intel on these guys. Then we can think about coming back."

Daniel pushed himself up onto his knees and looked down to stash his binoculars in a pocket. He was just about to rebutton the pocket when he suddenly got the distinct feeling he was being watched by something that wasn't human. He looked up very slowly and saw the blinking flash of hundreds of pairs of upwards slanting, silvery eyes, the dark slash of vertical pupils gazing cat-like toward him and the rest of SG-1. "Uh, Jack," he said, reaching over to tug on the other man's sleeve. "I think they've seen us."

Jack's answer was the click of the safety being flicked off on his rifle. Sam followed suit a bare second later, and Daniel heard the almost subliminal whine of Teal'c's staff weapon powering up. He thought it might be a good idea to draw his gun too, but he couldn't bring himself to do anything other than stare back into that sea of alien awareness.

It took a moment for him to realize they were moving - swiftly, with fluid grace and easy, loping strides that barely disturbed the tall grasses. Like upright serpents slithering across a field. It was astonishing how quickly they moved, too quickly for Daniel to react beyond registering stunned amazement. He heard Jack calling for his team to fall back, but he couldn't move. His knees may as well have been fused to the ground. He couldn't recall ever having seen anything so completely awe-inspiring and utterly terrifying as that rolling mass of alien flesh, threatening to overwhelm them.

Retreat turned out to be impossible in any event. The aliens were too quick, too well coordinated. They pulled up just short of SG-1, leaving a perfect circle of waving grasses vacant around the team. Daniel craned his head around, observing that Jack, Sam and Teal'c had assumed defensive postures, their backs turned to one another, weapons facing outwards, slow steps bringing them closer to him until they were all in a tight little knot at the center of gently stirring greenness ringed by staring silver.

"All right, Daniel," Jack said very quietly, "you got your wish for a closer look. Now how about making nice-nice with the natives?"

"Oookay." He swallowed hard and very slowly pried his knees up off the ground, keeping his hands in front of him, palms upward to show he wasn't holding anything. Empty hands were as close to a universal sign of peace as he could think of. Under other circumstances, he might've added a smile, but the aliens didn't have anything he could see that approximated a mouth - just the two eyes on either side of a ridge running vertically down their faces. The ridge was perforated with a series of small holes - some sort of respiratory organ? He guessed the long, slanting folds down both sides of their heads might be auditory organs, or maybe he was being too anthropomorphic in his deductions.

He swallowed, took a slow, deep breath. "Hello. We're explorers from the planet Earth. I'm Daniel," he pointed to himself, "and this is Jack, Teal'c and Sam." He made a generic wave back over his shoulder, figuring they could straighten out who was who later - if they managed to communicate with the aliens somehow. The lack of mouths made him doubt very much they would be speaking English. Or speaking, period.

Still no response of any kind, unless blinking could be taken as an answer.

There was one alien standing slightly forward of the others, almost directly in front of him. It might be the clan leader or it might be the local untouchable, but he had to start somewhere. Taking a deep breath, he held one hand out toward it, not sure what to expect.

The gesture definitely produced a result. The aliens pulled back a good ten yards in almost perfect unison - all but the one his hand was held out towards. That one did just the opposite of its fellows and took a few tentative steps forward before pausing and tilting its head.

"It's okay. We mean you no harm." A stupid thing to say when the rest of the team was still pointing their weapons, but he'd learned to accept the necessity of using guns defensively, and sometimes even offensively. He just hoped this wasn't a case where either would be needed.

He held his hand out a little further and was rewarded by the alien very quickly closing the remaining distance. It was roughly the same height as he was and stared directly into his eyes for several moments, enough to notch his unease up a couple of degrees. Then it dipped its head and nudged its forehead up against Daniel's hand, making him think of the way a cat butts up against a person when it wants to be petted. He almost laughed in relief, but stopped himself, not wanting to startle the alien.

Okay, this was really weird, but hey, if head rubbing was the accepted form of greeting on this planet, who was he to criticize? At least having to face just one of them at a time instead of the entire group was helping to keep his jitters under control.

He awkwardly patted the top of the alien's head, noting that the skin covering the profusion of cranial ridges was smooth and cool, somewhat like a snake's skin, but not segmented by scales. Cold blooded? He withdrew his hand and nodded at the alien as it raised its head and peered at him with what he would characterize as a quizzical expression, if the expression were on a human face. He nodded again and smiled, then squelched the smile as it occurred to him that making a gesture the alien wasn't physically capable of returning might be interpreted as an insult.

"Way to go, Daniel," Jack muttered close behind him. "I think you may've just picked up a new pet."

Daniel briefly considered making a retort along the lines that maybe it was a pet with an appetite for smartass colonels, but he set the thought aside and concentrated on doing his job. Communication wasn't entirely limited to speech, after all, and he seemed to be making some kind of progress with gestures. The alien was holding its hand - thin-boned, four-fingered and thumbless - out towards him.

Okay. When on P453T9, do as the, uh, shiny green and brown aliens do. He bowed his head and pressed it up against the alien's outstretched palm. It didn't move its hand at all, and he was about to pull his head back when its long fingers stirred and slipped gently through his hair and over to the side of his head. Its touch was cool against his scalp, soothing in a way. His eyes closed, and he found himself leaning into the touch, feeling it joined by another set of fingers on the other side of his head. So maybe there was something to be said about this form of greeting after all. It was certainly very pleasant.

He frowned as it occurred to him that the contact could also be interpreted as intimate. The thought startled him, and he began to pull away, only to feel the alien's grip tighten on his head. He carefully tried to tug himself away, hoping not to cause any offense, but now the alien's fingers were digging into his scalp. He didn't recall seeing anything like fingernails, but that's exactly what this new sensation felt like - sharp fingernails pressing into flesh.

"Uh, okay, you can let go now. I think I've had enough." The pressure didn't let up, though. If anything, it increased. In fact, it was getting downright painful. Very painful. He felt something warm beginning to drip down the sides of his head. Panic bubbled up into the back of his throat, and he barely managed to keep his voice from cracking as he said very quietly, not wanting to agitate the alien and possibly cause himself further harm, "Jack? Uh, do you think you could help me out here? I seem to be stuck."

"What do you mean, you're stuck?" On the surface, Jack's tone was pure annoyance, but Daniel knew him well enough to sense the hint of apprehension underneath.

"It won't let me go. It's digging its fingers into my scalp. I- I think I'm bleeding." He had to fight to remain calm. If he lost it now, the entire situation could very easily degrade into something very… messy.

The sound of Jack's rifle being cocked was accompanied by a firm command for the alien to back off. It didn't seem to be reacting to Jack, though, either to the sound of his voice or to the pointing of his rifle. If anything, the pressure on Daniel's head was increasing even more. It felt like the alien's fingers were somehow working themselves into bone. Horrible pressure, with the sickening anticipation of an impending crack.

Daniel had thought it was only a simple greeting ritual. His mind raced around theories, trying to decide if the alien meant to harm him, didn't realize it was causing pain or had simply gone berserk. The other aliens certainly weren't making any move to stop it. From what he could see with peripheral vision, they were still standing in their encircling mass, although now their heads were bowed, eyes turned to the ground.

"This is your last warning." Jack's voice seemed somehow muffled to Daniel. Must be because of the buzzing in his ears. It felt like his head was being slowly crushed in a vice. Any second now, his skull was going to crack, and there was nothing he could do about it. His vision was beginning to blur. Maybe he'd get lucky and pass out.

Abruptly, the pressure let up and the pain vanished. "No, don't shoot. It's okay now." The voice was his, but the impulse to speak definitely wasn't. There wasn't anything even remotely okay right now, apart from the fact that the pain had stopped, and he wasn't even too sure if that was necessarily a good thing.

He didn't have the chance to wonder any further about what was going on, though, as an explosion of bright stars and darkness shorted out all five of his senses.

//Eyes. Open. Open eyes.//

//Different. Strange. Oddling. Did not understand. Open eyes. Now.//

Daniel opened his eyes. For a moment saw himself, lying on the ground next to a small campfire, a blanket tucked around his body, and then his field of vision tilted and flipped over. He felt the rough prickle of the blanket against his hands and smelled the smoky scent of the fire before he realized he was staring up at the stars. So many stars, brilliant, glimmering, so clear like the stars over the mountains in Colorado, like the stars over the desert on Abydos.

//Lines of fire, connecting the stars, tracing unfamiliar patterns, sinuous and jagged. Lines of fire ripping down from the sky, from a dark shape skimming over the stars. Lines of fire volleying back from the ground until the dark shape became a flaming negative image of itself.//

"Daniel Jackson?"

He shifted his head and blinked away afterimages of the flames - real or imagined? Imagined. Nothing there but the stars. And nearer to the ground, on the ground, next to him - Teal'c.

"Daniel Jackson? Are you well?"

Daniel Jackson? Yes, that was him. Daniel Jackson. Daniel.

Was he well? As in, okay? All right? In one piece? He felt like he was drifting in a haze, his body numb and distant. The image of himself from outside of his own body came again, accompanied by the echo of Teal'c's voice saying his name. Or was it an echo? The voice was not quite as deep, in a different timbre. No, that was Jack, next to Teal'c now.

He closed his eyes again, trying to reconnect himself to his surroundings, his senses, his own body.

"C'mon, Daniel. Open your eyes." The second voice again. Jack. Yes. Jack.

//Yes. Open eyes.//

//Sorrow. Regret.//

Who was that? He snaked his hand out from under the blanket, finding it difficult to get his arm to move. He had to concentrate on a task that should've been mostly automatic, force the tendons and muscles to flex. It felt wrong somehow, like he'd never moved his arm like that before. The hand - his hand - reached his chin, and fingers fumbled up the side of his face and into his hairline. Something soft there, in among the matted hair. A bandage.

//The top of a bowed head - his head - and long fingers embracing it. Warmth, strength, the wet of blood against fingers - not his fingers. A surge of exhilaration, fear, pain, confusion - a quagmire, sinking deep and fast, and the suns burning into the clouds.//

"Daniel, c'mon. Stay with me here."

Stay with who? "What happened?" Oh. So that's how talking worked. He managed to wrench his eyelids open and blinked several times, his eyes sliding around trying to find something to fix on - something besides those goddamned stars. Okay, a face. That was good. "Jack?"

"Yeah, it's me. Geez, you had me scared there. I was beginning to think that thing really did suck your brains out."

"No. No. I'm okay. I just… have a headache." A bit more than that, really - disconnected, outside and inside of himself at the same time, a feeling of being two different places at once. Jack would think he'd gone nuts. Again. No. Jack hadn't really and truly believed he'd been crazy that time. So how would Jack deal with this? Humor. Worth a try. "Maybe I should've kept my helmet on, huh?"

Jack stared at him for a moment. And there was Teal'c again, standing up now, just behind Jack, gripping his staff weapon in the manner of a staff instead of a weapon, his head cocked to one side. And Sam beside him, her eyes soft and her smile even softer.

"Hmm, yeah," Jack finally said. "I guess they're good for more than playing ping-pong with your head against a big rock."

//The blood. The wall. The message, renewed. Birth by death. Sacrifice and honor.//

"For crying out loud, Daniel, open your eyes!"

He didn't even realize he'd closed his eyes again. The images were so sharp and clear he could've sworn the outside world had metamorphosed right in front of him. That was ridiculous. He was just remembering the inscription back at the 'Gate. But it was somehow brighter, sharper, clearer than he recalled, the symbols fresh and glistening red instead of dull, dried brown.

There was a faint slap against his cheek. There was very little feeling there, like he'd been out in the cold too long without a scarf. But it was warm here. In fact, it was very warm under this blanket, so close to the fire. Somehow that realization imparted just enough momentum to sluggish senses to prod them back into their proper alignment.

Suddenly, inexplicably, he was angry. Way too hot and pissed as hell. And having no idea why he was angry only ticked him off even more. He sat up, kicked and shoved the blanket off, stood up and almost stumbled into the fire.

"Whoa, Daniel, take it easy!"

He was sweating underneath that damn bandage, and his scalp was itching like crazy. He yanked the wad of gauze off his head in one quick motion, wincing as tape and dried blood pulled away from skin and hair.

//No! Do not! Be calm! All is well.// The voice again, soft and gentle, insidious and omnipresent, like humidity slowly soaking into clothing, condensing and rolling in trickling rivulets down overheated skin.

"Would you please shut up and let me think straight for just a minute!" The presence receded, abruptly, water gushing down an open drain. But there was still a hint of it there, a subliminal hum.

"Okay, Daniel. Make you a deal. You sit down and let Carter bandage you back up again, and I'll shut up."

He felt exhausted all of a sudden. Sitting down seemed like a very good idea. He sank down right where he was, far enough from the fire that he could now tell the night air had actually taken on a chill. He shivered as the sweat beading his face and the back of his neck cooled and evaporated, to be replaced by Sam's hands, brushing through his hair. He nudged her gently aside. "No, it's okay. There's no more bleeding. And you don't have to shut up, Jack. I wasn't talking to you."

"Oh. Okay. Then who were you talking to?" A hint of the O'Neill wariness was definitely present both in his tone of voice and in his expression, eyebrows lifted, lips pressed slightly together, the firelight throwing shadows across his eyes.

Daniel didn't answer immediately, fixing his gaze on the fire, rubbing absently at the side of his head and feeling tender skin, but no blood - just knobby little bumps, like scars. "I was talking to the alien - I think. Maybe some kind of telepathic communication. I keep seeing images, hearing a voice in my head…" He trailed off and looked up hesitantly, afraid of what he might see in Jack's face. At least this time, there was some blatantly obvious evidence that something was wrong, and it wasn't just in his head.

Jack was frowning at him, but there was none of that "walking on eggshells" brittleness that had been there during the all-too-recent visit to the loony bin. There was caution, but it didn't seem to be tainted by disbelief. "Okay. So unless you suddenly evolved to a higher plane and left the rest of us behind, I assume this has something to do with what that alien… did to you?"

"I think so. God, I hope so, or you're going to be marching me back to that padded cell." He barely managed to suppress a slightly hysterical laugh, turned it into a cough and a grimace.

Even though it was very soft, Sam's voice startled him. He'd almost forgotten she was sitting next to him. "We're not letting that happen again, Daniel. We're going to figure it out this time." She reached out to touch his arm, and even though he saw the motion before she made contact, he couldn't keep himself from flinching. He felt raw, edgy… violated. He shivered and scooted a bit closer to the fire as she dropped her hand. There was a moment of silence, then she asked, "Have you tried talking back to it?"

"No. No, I haven't. I suppose I could try." He was reluctant to do so, though, and more than a little disturbed by the fact that he was unwilling to do what he normally did so well. But then, communication had never before involved having his head skewered with eight very sharp and pointy fingers. Being a linguist wasn't supposed to hurt. At least Nem had warned him before he agreed to have his brain turned inside out.

Jack squatted down on the opposite side of the fire. "Okay. How about you give it a whirl. Try telling them that we're leaving, and we'd appreciate it if they didn't try to stop us this time." There was a definite edge of annoyance to his voice, maybe even worry.

"You mean you tried already and they stopped you?" Well, of course the team would've tried to get back to the Stargate, to get him back to medical attention. There had to be a reason why they were still here.

"Yup." Jack nodded. "They did that Ghandi passive resistance thing on us. Surrounded us and refused to budge. And don't think we didn't try to push them out of the way. They're strong suckers. Okay, so it took two of them to block Teal'c, but still - they outnumber us."

"Your vital signs were stable," Sam put in. "Apart from being unconscious, you didn't seem to be in any immediate danger." Her tone was apologetic, but he just waved a hand at her.

"Right. I understand. It's okay." He took a deep breath and massaged his temples, studiously avoiding the area where the alien had touched him. It wasn't particularly painful any more, but feeling those bumps had given him a thorough case of the willies. "All right. Let's see if I can get through to them."

So how did one go about transmitting a telepathic message anyway? Not exactly something he'd had very much experience with. Like, exactly none. His colleagues in the academic world may've branded him as a crackpot, but even he had limits as to what he'd give credence to. That was a long time ago, though, and this… was a whole other world. Literally.

He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind. The images and words he'd sensed earlier flashed back into his mind, but he had the distinct feeling it was more like instant replay than a new communication. The flames and the sorrow faded from his mind, and he opened his eyes to a much smaller fire, warm, flickering and softly crackling. The whisper of a presence dusted lightly across his awareness.

//We are here.//

It felt like a feather was tickling the surface of his brain. A chill ran through his entire body at the sensation, but he resolutely composed himself and tried to send back a question. Will you allow us to leave now? The only response he got was a muddle that was mostly made up of confusion.

He took a deep breath tried again. Still confusion.

//Silver eyes, blinking steadily. A hand reaching out, two fingers very lightly pressing against his lips. The sound of a voice - Goa'uld - yelling at someone to get up or die in the mud. The sharp contact of a booted foot against already bruised muscle and bone. A scarred and weather-beaten face branded with a golden tattoo, the skin smoothing and turning darker, melting into the familiar features of Teal'c's face. Uncertainty. Fear? His own face, his own voice, saying his name as he pointed at himself. And the silence of the silver eyes.//

"Daniel?" Sam was very gently shaking his shoulder.

He blinked, and the images skittered away. "I'm okay." She wasn't looking at him, though. Neither were Jack or Teal'c. They were all looking away from him, in different directions. At the edge of the circle of light cast by the fire was another circle of shifting reflections - the gleam of skin over restless muscle and the flash of silver eyes.

They were back.

He realized they'd never left. They'd been there the whole time, on the other side of the ridge, back among the trees. Watching. Waiting. He was the focal point.

No. He was one of a pair of focal points. Jack had risen to his feet and was prowling slowly around the campfire, in defensive mode, but there, across the fire, in the exact position where he had been squatting just a moment earlier was the alien. The other focal point. All of the looming presence of consciousness out there in the shadows was focussed through it, held back by it, contained and restricted so that Daniel was only able to pick up faint impressions, like movement seen out of the corners of the eyes in a darkened room.

"I thought you were going to tell them we were leaving, not summon a congressional convention." Jack's voice was as tense as the controlled glide of his footsteps as he approached Daniel and came to a halt.

"I tried, but I don't think they understand words." He glanced at Jack, then turned back toward the lone alien by the fire. One of its legs was bent upwards, like a human leg would be when its owner was kneeling, but the other leg was bent in the opposite direction, like the hind leg of a cat. Its hands were splayed on the ground to either side, the fingers tense, the body poised, as if it were ready to spring.

"I thought you said you were talking to them before."

"Yes, and I thought I heard words, but I think that might've been my mind's way of translating what it was receiving into a form I could understand. I tried sending words back to it, but all I got was confusion." He paused. All the alien was doing at the moment was blinking at him, its head dipping first to one side and then to the other. "They probably understand spoken Goa'uld and must have at least a rudimentary knowledge of written Goa'uld given the message by the 'Gate, but obviously they don't speak."

"So tell them in Goa'uld that we're leaving."

"Uh, that probably wouldn't be a real good idea. I think Teal'c's already giving them the jitters, but they seem to be willing to give us the benefit of the doubt for the moment."

"Okay. Right. So now what?"

Daniel thought about it for a moment, looked intently back at the alien's blinking eyes, blinked several times himself. He wasn't getting anything at the moment, though - no pictures, no emotions, no words or thoughts that suggested words. "Well, I've mostly been getting images and feelings. Let me try that instead."

He took a took a deep breath and tried to push everything he possibly could out of conscious thought, most especially the unspoken words that comprised a fair portion of those thoughts. He formed in his mind a picture of the 'Gate, himself dialing the DHD, the rest of the team waiting behind him, then all four of them crossing the event horizon.

//Tau'ri. The symbol for Earth. The 'Gate turning to lock in the final chevron and the outpouring of light.//

Yes. How to say "yes" without words. A feeling of rightness. Of home.

//Wind in the grass, sunlight warm on skin, rain soft on upturned faces. The presence of others nearby, touching, contact of skin reflected in the mingling of thoughts. Yes. Home.//

"Daniel?" He blinked. Jack was waving a hand in front of his face. "3T niner to Daniel."

"Yes. I'm here." He still felt halfway to somewhere else, but the chill stirring of the breeze in his hair and the warmth of the fire on his face helped to ground him. "We can go home now."

"So I gathered. They're gone."

But they weren't really gone. They may have physically withdrawn, but they were still present in his mind.

//Sadness at departure, but joy at homecoming. Music, singing, a thousand swelling raptures of sound. Dancing, union, quicksilver movements illuminated by the moons. And underneath it all, the impending presence of death. And life. Renewal.//

He listened in his mind as Sam gathered up the gear, as Teal'c extinguished the fire, as Jack led the way back to the 'Gate. Home. That was important too.

Jack really didn't like the feeling of being watched when he couldn't detect the slightest sign of what was watching him. It bothered him even more that he'd already seen what he knew was watching him and still had very little idea of what it actually was. But what was really bugging him was the fact that Daniel was up and walking around - and not talking. Forget about walking and chewing bubblegum at the same time. Daniel could walk, chew bubblegum and give a verbal dissertation at the same time.

He motioned for Carter to take the lead, then nodded at Teal'c to continue bringing up the rear as he fell in step with Daniel. "Hey." Daniel nodded in acknowledgment, but didn't reply. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Fine." Soft, distracted, then silence again.

"Feel okay?"

"Yes. I feel fine."

Gee. Two whole sentences at once. Well, a word and a sentence. In a slightly annoyed tone. Even by the pale light of the moons, Jack could see plain as day that Daniel's thoughts were going a million miles a second. "Hey. Daniel. How about trying to stay focussed here in case they try to stop us again?"

"They won't." Not even a beat to think about it. Just like that. Took him more time to decide he was fine.

"Oh? And how can you be so sure about that?"

"Free choice."

Now why did he have to be so damn cryptic? It wasn't like they'd all been given membership in the mindreaders' club. Jack couldn't keep the exasperation from edging into his voice as he asked, "And what does that mean?"

"Choices were something they didn't have under the Goa'uld. After they drove the Goa'uld away, they took it to the other extreme. They didn't want you to take me back through the 'Gate without my choosing to go."

"Well, that's just dandy, but what about messing with other people's heads without asking them first?"

"They couldn't very well ask until they had a means to do so. And I did make the offer, even if I didn't completely understand what I was doing. It's okay."

Jack wanted to tell him it damn well wasn't okay, but he reigned in his anger and asked quietly, "You can still hear them, can't you?" Daniel didn't respond, just kept walking steadily ahead, his eyes obviously only half-seeing what was in front of him. This was definitely not good. "Daniel?"

"Hmm? Yes? Oh, uh…" He finally turned his head and looked at Jack with something approaching partial attention. "Yes, I can still hear them. Or rather, I can still hear her. The one I made contact with."

Whoa. "Her? How do you figure it's a her?"

"Oh, I don't know. Just a feeling. Some seem masculine, some feminine. Could just be my impressions, though."

"Oh." Jack tried to digest this new piece of information. As long as Daniel didn't start spewing some alien language and forget how to speak English, they could figure this thing out. Although given what Daniel had said about the aliens not having a spoken language, he'd be more likely to clam up altogether. Jack definitely didn't want to be witness to that. Yeah, there were times when he sincerely wished Daniel would shut the hell up, but to stop talking altogether? That would be entirely too weird.

"Jack, this is incredible. More than incredible. It's- It's- Fantastic. Amazing. But that doesn't even scratch the surface." Okay, this was more like it. Running off at the mouth. And he was waving his hands in front of him, using gestures to punctuate his words. Good sign. "There just aren't any words to describe it. Ha. Well, of course there aren't any words. They don't have words. Jack, we really need to come back here after… Why is it we're going back to Earth anyway?"

"We just want to let Doc Fraiser have a look at you, okay? Make sure everything's still where it's supposed to be."

"Oh. All right. But then we need to come back. This is like nothing I've ever seen or experienced before. It's an entire mental culture. We didn't find any signs of civilization because it's all in their minds - music, history, philosophy, even something like - like - architecture, I think. Like some kind of fantastic virtual reality. I don't know for sure. It's all in bits and pieces. I'm only directly connected to one of them, but they're, oh… 'networked' I guess is the word. There's patterns, chains and clusters - maybe their equivalent of a kinship structure, clans, tribes, that sort of thing. They must not be born linked together, or else why have that ability to do that… thing… with their hands? What she did to me. Or maybe they're born linked to their parents, and then they go on to form other bonds throughout life - friendships, matings, communal ties."

"Hold on. Wait a sec. Back up." Daniel had been talking so fast it was taking a concerted effort for Jack to keep everything straight, but one word in particular stuck out for him. "Did you say 'matings'?"

"Yes. I- I-" He paused for a moment, then said very firmly, "No. That's not what happened. It wasn't like that at all."

Jack had the burning urge to make any of a dozen assorted rude and inappropriate remarks, but he bit his tongue. Not the right time for an O'Neill slam-dunk. He opted for reassurance instead. "No. No. I'm sure you're right. Nothing like that." Christ. Maybe those hands weren't hands after all.

Thank God they were almost to the 'Gate. The sooner he could pass off this situation into the hands of someone much better suited to handle it, the better.

Continue on to part two

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