Daniel and Adrienne #11: Omens

Daniel arrived back from his meeting, Adrienne nowhere to be found.  Her meeting must have gone longer, her daily update to Sam and Robert Woolsey as to the progress made on the database in his absence this week, and he could only imagine the future swearing she would be doing. The image made him laugh, noting to himself that he needed to pull up that website with the Cajun swears to try to keep up.  When he walked over to his desk, glad to be out of yet another stupid strategy meeting and back where he needed to be, researching, he noticed a red box sitting here, one of those pre-made gift boxes, minus the cheesy bow. Confused, he made a face as he opened it, wondering where it had come from and hoping it was nothing that would literally blow up in his face, which considering his history at the SGC, wouldn’t be that unusual. Instead, as he slowly pulled the lid off of the box, he discovered that it was stuffed with tissue paper a small piece of thick white paper neatly folded on top.  Grabbing the note, a small part of him still worried that the box might explode, he opened the creases carefully, peering down at the message inside. 

Missed you last week; lab’s too quiet when you’re off-world. 

Saw these and thought of you.... hee hee

-Ad

Ad? What an odd way to sign a note, he thought, recalling that he had never heard her or anyone else refer to herself as Ad, always Addy or Adrienne. Wonder why that is? he thought, pausing for a moment to imagine what madness was inside the box, nice box with this a very nice box and this strange note? What in the world would make her think of him? Yet it was a nice gesture and he had to admit that he had missed her too last week, he had grown used to her bad jokes, constant movie references and general silliness besides the relief of having someone there who spoke to him on his level. It made some of the more boring aspects of the job bearable.  He was just starting to pull back the tissue paper when the phone rang, and making a face and left the box, walking over to the phone. 

“Jackson,” he answered.  

“Daniel, need you up here, as soon as you can” it was Sam, her voice short, and concerning.  

“Anything wrong?” he asked, one eye still staring at the box, curiosity eating away at him. 

“Just time to pack up and go again.  Strep throat in SG-2,” she replied. 

“Fantastic,” he answered sarcastically, still gazing at his gift, “but I’m missing my trusty side kick.” He surprised himself with that comment; he hadn’t really joked like that with Sam before, yes, she knew that he and Adrienne were getting along now, but not to the extent that they were.  

Sam giggled, “No, I grabbed her out of her meeting already and she’s quite pleased to have beaten you somewhere for once.”  Daniel smiled. Adrienne couldn’t be anywhere on time if her life depended on it, so he could only imagine her face and her mini celebration as she was finally able to make it to any kind of meeting before him.  

“I’ll be right there,”  he replied and hung up the phone, walking over to the mysterious box on his desk.  

“And you I’ll have to save for later,” he spoke, addressing the brightly decorated inanimate object in front of himself, placing the note back inside, stuffing the paper down and replacing the lid, reluctantly heading for the briefing room.

He was the last to arrive and as he turned the corner he saw Adrienne, who was sitting between Cameron and Teal’c mouthing to him “You are late,”  a huge smile plastered across her face. He rolled his eyes and went to the head of the table where Sam had placed a folder at an empty seat, a seat beside which was Vala a look similar to the one on Adrienne’s face and Daniel cut a look over at Adrienne, knowing this was her doing as well.  It seemed the better friends they were, the worse she harassed him and greater she relished in it.  He made a note to himself to get her back later.  

“Ok, thankfully you are all familiar with P5L-3251, so I hope to be brief,” Sam began handing out the file folders to the rest of the table as Daniel took his seat. Glancing at the file already placed in front of him,  Daniel opened it to try to remember which planet they were talking about, his brain still back in finance meetings, strategy meetings and senate meetings on Langara.  He had prepared the entire work-up on this planet and had every intention of going until he was called away and the mission was handed over to SG-2. Now it looked as though plans had changed, again, something he should be used to.   

“This is a standard follow up to the MALP information.  Society, Daniel has determined, is much like the Yoruba of 13th century Africa. Daniel would you like to elaborate?” Sam began, glancing in his direction to turn the meeting over to him. 

Daniel stood and looked over at Adrienne, who was already opening up her iPad, thankfully having saved their pre-lims from a few week back. Tapping around on the shiny screen, longer than he expected and for a moment making him worry that she had deleted the final, yet much to his relief, peeked up at him and gave him the thumb’s up. He was glad she had kept a copy of the presentation, that she seemed to keep a copy of everything. Looking back at the Smartboard and hoping Adrienne would control the slides, Daniel faced his team and began to speak.  

“The Yoruba people of Earth Africa are the largest tribal ethnic group, living mainly in the country known as Nigeria. In their early history they functioned as a monarchial society that is made up of various city-states who were ruled by governors related to the royal family. Religiously they are polytheistic monotheists, similar to the later Romans, where there is one supreme God, Olodumare, who is in charge of the other gods who are regarded more like angels in Christianity.  That is why it was so easy here on Earth to convert the Yoruba to Christianity and Islam; they were practicing a religion similar to it already.  They live in grass huts, mostly due to the heat, and tend to remain in one area until the resources are exhausted,” Daniel was pleased that the group seemed to be listening, even Vala, who was remaining quiet her eyes locked on the slides. Reading the pause,  Adrienne changed the slide behind him, from a picture if their home world to a picture of the people they were to meet.   

“These people refer to themselves as the Parakoyi, which in our Yoruba language is the word for traders.  If that proves to be the case, these people could be powerful allies considering the MALP has sent us a long list of resources, including Naquada, that they are not using and could be encouraged to trade for,”  Daniel continued as Adrienne flipped to the slide showing two men in tribal attire.  That was something else he had missed in Langara, he noted to himself, competent help in his tasks. Knowing his assistant had the visuals covered, he pointed back at the image and kept going. 

“Politeness is of the utmost importance,” he stressed that word utmost, not even trying to hide his glare at Vala, “Men are going bow to older men or nod their head to men of a similar age, women are going to kneel on one knee typically.  You must smile at all times and greet everyone you pass.  Don’t think that these are unfriendly people; they are not. In fact, if they are like the Yoruba of Earth, they will be one of the nicest and most accepting peoples we will ever encounter,”  Daniel concluded, taking his seat to relinquish attention to Sam once more, who stood and moved over to the projector.  

“Pretty cut and dry people.  Standard go in and meet and greet.  I’m setting our departure for 1400, so you’ve got most of the morning to get ready. That’s all I have for you. Cam, can you hang back a sec,” Sam said and began collecting her extra folders, flipping the switch on the projector killing the power. Cameron looked over at Teal’c and Adrienne and shrugged, not seeming to know what was going on any more than they did, getting up from his chair and following Sam to her office. Working on a deadline now,  the rest of the group, along with Adrienne, who wasn’t going to protest for one moment that she was being allowed to accompany Daniel on yet another mission, got up and left to get ready. 

Adrienne deliberately slowed her step so Daniel would catch up, as usual nose deep in the information, his mind already on the planet ahead of them. 

“How’s Jonas?” she asked as he read through the planet file again.  

“Good, same old mess.  I’m not sure if they’ll ever trust us fully again, but all we can do is try,”  Daniel replied, not looking up.  

“Well, how was your week? What’s the night life like on Langara? Meet any hot chicks?” Adrienne smiled, trying to be funny.  Catching on to her joke, Daniel glanced up from the folder, finally acknowledging her visually.  She might be kidding, but she was sincere in her first question; in getting to know Adrienne he had discovered that she really did care about her friends well being, him included.

“Boring, absolutely boring, and that’s true even if I was able to get out. Plus I had to wear a suit the entire time,” he complained, closing the folder to talk to her. 

“You look handsome in a suit,” Adrienne smiled.  

“Thanks,” he replied as Cameron came dashing down the hall, interrupting their conversation, excited and giddy like a small child.  Adrienne looked over at him, a part of her face Daniel thought appearing annoyed by the intrusion, silently pleasing Daniel.  

“Did you get in trouble with the boss lady?” she asked, a forced playfulness in her tone.  I guess she did miss me, Daniel considered, flattered beyond words. 

“Nah, just not going on this one.  I get to go play with the Daedalus while you guys get to play in the sand,” Cameron smiled.  

“Nice, what are you going to do?” Adrienne inquired, the tone now changing to curiosity. Oh well, so much for that, Daniel thought, maybe she didn’t miss me so much. 

“Test out some moves on the ole girl, evasive maneuvers.  See if the thing can get moving when it needs to,” Cameron answered.  

“So, is Sam replacing you on the mission?” Daniel asked, not trying to be rude but more concerned about geeks outnumbering grunts and also wanting in on this conversation. Not that he and Adrienne couldn’t take care of themselves, and he must certainly knew that Adrienne could take care of herself from very painful first hand experience, but he would just rather not have to worry about that.  

“Yeah, you guys get Ronan looks like, geeks and aliens on this one,”  Cameron smiled and bid them farewell, almost skipping toward the transport bay to be beamed up to the shit. Shaking her head, Adrienne looked back at her boss, slowing walking backward toward the elevators. 

“Ok Indy, I’m gonna go pack and swing by the commissary for some bottled waters, you want anything?” Adrienne offered, stopping to tap the button heading up to the mess and the living quarters. 

“No thanks, I think I just need to get my bag from the lab and I’ll be ready to go,” Daniel responded.  

“Alright, catch you later,” she turned to go, the elevators doors starting to open, her curvy brunette figure slipping inside. 

“Ad!” Daniel shouted out, using the nickname she had written on the note without realizing it. The doors were closing when a hand reached between them activating the emergency stop, opening quickly to her deep cocoa eyes and devilish grin.

“Yes.....” she said, a wily look in her eyes like she knew what he was going to say.  Of course she did; he had called her Ad and that must be part of the test. 

“What’s in the box?” he asked, the smile disappearing quickly, replaced by a frown from inside the elevator.   

“You have to open it. Did you open it?” she asked, putting a hand on her hip while the other held down the open door button. 

“No, I got interrupted by Sam’s call,” Daniel explained. Shaking her head, but smiling again, Adrienne released the button, the doors again bouncing back to life. 

“Well, you’ll just have to go and open it,” she replied, laughing as the doors closed in front of her face, encasing her in her escape. So, we are at the point of gifts in our little friendship, he thought to himself, planning to return to the box as soon as he got back, his inquisitive nature getting the best of him. However, when he arrived, the phone was already ringing, someone in another department needing a file and then Vala came down about five times to ask what gear exactly would keep sand from getting underneath her clothes like it had during her last mission to a desert planet, all the while Daniel kept looking over at the box and wondering what Adrienne had put inside. It was driving him crazy. Before long he looked up at the clock over the door and realized it was time to go and he accepted the fact grudgingly that he would not get to open the present until they returned, tossing his bag over his shoulder and heading for the gate room.  He was the first to arrive as usual, so he patiently waited for the remainder of the team to arrive as well, rereading the file and trying to shut out the image of the red cube of mystery that had invaded his desk.   

Ronan and Teal’c entered together, discussing some crazy competition the two of them had come up with, as was becoming their normal being stationed together. Daniel knew it would be something wild, it always was, and it was always something that John Sheppard could run odds on. Sam only tolerated it because Jack enjoyed actively participating in betting in such contests.  Vala came sauntering in shortly after, a purple scarf wrapped around her face tightly and she looked absolutely ridiculous, so much so that Daniel could not refrain from comment. 

“It’s not windy there; I’ve seen the video footage. I think you’re overdoing it,”  Daniel informed her as she walked over to him.  

“We’ll see who is choking on what when we arrive,” she responded from underneath the fabric and Daniel just shook his head, giving up on arguing with her.  Seeing most of the team arrive, Walter had begun to dial the gate, the wormhole forming and blasting a surge of cool energy charged air into the room.  Worried, Daniel looked back at the door.  No Adrienne.  It was genuinely physically impossible for the woman to be on time and he was back to wondering how New Orleans even functioned with an entire population of Adrienne Rowans. Suddenly, he had an evil thought and walked over to the intercom system, hitting the button for an all call.  

“Paging Dr. Rowan to the gate room.  If she does not get here in 10 seconds she will be left,” he said as calmly as he could, trying not to laugh into the mic and hanging the intercom back up into it’s hanger on the wall.  Daniel thad urned to follow Teal’c and company through the gate, since it seemed they were not waiting for Adrienne either, when he heard shouting from behind him.  

“You’re a turd!!!” Adrienne was yelling, running toward him, staff weapon in hand, “I had to go get this from my room,” she showed him the long Jaffa stick.  

“You had to bring that?!” he asked, raising his eyebrows, a million sarcastic comments popping into his head.

“Yes, you know I don’t like bullets.  And Teal’c says I am good with it,” she defended, and turned his shoulder, pushing onto his back moving him through the gate before he could torment her any longer.  The wind was whipping wildly when they reached the other side, throwing sand and debris all around them, catching both archaeologists off guard as the event horizon closed behind them.  Not having any other option for protecting herself from the onslaught of nature, Adrienne buried her face into Daniel’s back and heard Vala shouting from the bottom of the platform. 

“Ha!” Vala exclaimed, “I was right!! And I’m not eating sand!!” she shouted back at Daniel and turned on her feet to walk toward the village.  Ronan and Teal’c reached into their vests to pull out small pieces of fabric that looked like handkerchiefs to put over their mouths, moving onward behind her while Daniel just moved his hat to cover his face and glanced down at Adrienne, who was digging, holding her breath to keep the sand out of her throat, but had nothing in her pack nor tack vest. 

“You want this?” he offered his hat, uncovering his face for just a moment, trying not to choke on the few grains of sand that managed to make an entrance past his lips.

“Nah, it’s ok, I’ll just walk behind you,” she answered, frustrated. 

“Are you sure?” he asked again, choking on the blowing sand, one eye gazing in the direction of his friends who were a good fifty yards ahead already. He made a face at Adrienne, covering his mouth again with the old green hat. 

“Yes,” she grabbed his arm, turning him and burying her face into it.  Carefully, Daniel led the pair down the platform and toward the group, stopping only to wonder if They walked down the platform carefully.  Fortunately the wind died down rather quickly, but Vala was going to relish in her little victory the entire way there, a celebration that Daniel was not looking forward. 

The village was about a 45 minute walk from the gate, through tall grasses and a terrain that like the slides was very similar to the country of Nigeria back home. The time passed quickly, the team laughing and chatting as they walked and Vala making fun of Daniel for not being prepared, and before they knew the the first tinges of civilization were only yards ahead. Daniel, from his position at the front of the group, could see the outline of a rather complex grass hut village peeking over the horizon and could hear shouting as they approached a large crowd of people tending to their daily chores on the outskirts of the village.  

“Jaffa! Jaffa!” they were crying and he saw people scurrying away from them rather than towards. 

“No, no!!” he yelled out and ran further ahead of the group, opening the folder, trying to figure out how to say friend in Yoruba, a language he is not know. A few men rushed their group, spears pointed, while other villagers cowered in fear and one older man, the one from the MALP video Daniel thought, that seemed to be in charge approached them and he bowed low, tucking the folder at his side and signaling the rest of the group did the same.  Remembering the prep information, Adrienne dropped to one knee, pulling Vala to join her. 

“Ow Addy! What are you doing?” Vala hissed at her.  

“One knee Vala, weren’t you listening this morning?” Adrienne asked.  Vala rolled her eyes at the assumption that she hadn’t been listening; she had, was just a little taken about by men charging her armed with spears. From her squat on the ground beside a lightly grumbling Vala, Adrienne thought she heard the man say something in a language that she did not speak, end his sentence with a hiss of the word Jaffa, an undertone of anger in the voice.  Peeking up, she saw him pointing to Teal’c and to her, glancing back over at his shoulder, the men behind him tightening their grasp. It was the staff weapons, she concluded, they must have been afraid of the staff weapons. Standing quickly, Adrienne lifted her shirt, showing her bare and worm free stomach.  

“No Jaffa” she said and Daniel rose turning to look at her, having come to the same conclusion as she. He nodded, finding what he was looking for in the folder and looked at Teal’c. 

“Oremi,” Daniel said, pointing to Teal’c, shaking his head in the affirmative.  The man in the heavily beaded robes made a confused face at Daniel, signaling his men to drop their weapons and returning to his scan of the people assembled before him.   

“Do you speak the language of the Jaffa as well?” he asked and Adrienne breathed out.  Thank god for English, she thought, since they never seemed to be going anywhere that actual spoke any of her Biblical tongues.   

“Yes,” Daniel answered, “we are explorers.  I am Dr. Daniel Jackson and these are my friends Teal’c, Ronan Dex, Vala Mal Doran and Dr. Adrienne Rowan. We came through the chapa’ai.” Daniel pointed behind him.  

“We will give no more women to the gods.  Our village has suffered enough,” the man stood strong to face Daniel, who was already putting up his hands to indicate that their team was there to do no such thing. 

“No, you misunderstand.  We are here to meet you and form a friendship.  We do not need anything from you.  The gods, the Go’ould are gone,” Daniel tread lightly, knowing that some cultures still did not fare well with this news.  His facial expression quickly changing, the man began to laugh loudly, nodding his head and not being the reaction he expected, Daniel looked at his friends worried and confused.  

“Hahaha!” the man laughed louder, “the gods are gone! Some gods Some all powerful gods!” At the sound of the man’s celebration, sarcasm, it was hard to be sure which, Teal’c slowly began to rise to his feet, as did Ronan and Vala, looking at one another confused.  

“Yes,” Daniel continued, “they were false gods and were using you and your people.” 

The man slowed laughing and scanned the group carefully once more.  He was dressed as the men on Adrienne’s slides and from the MALP video, wearing a long flaxen robe over an equally drab tunic, however, both garments were decorated with hand made beads in deep reds and ocean blues, and he seemed to have many more ornaments than the men surrounding him.  His feet were bare and tough, as they should be for a man who spent so much time wandering the desert, but his eyes were what caught Adrienne’s attention, his wise eyes. This man knew what the Go’ould were, he understood that they were false gods and this news wasn’t shocking to him in the least, simply an affirmation of what he already knew. Smiling gently at his visitors, the man took a step forward, addressing Daniel directly. 

“By whose hand are they gone?” he asked, a question Daniel seemed to be anticipating.  He opened his mouth to speak, intent on explaining the situation exactly as he coached SG-2 into explaining it when Vala spoke up from beside Adrienne.  

“We did, we blasted the bastards out of the galaxy,” she replied, gun in hand, tapping it lightly in her open palm. Great first impression, Daniel thought, and I accuse Adrienne of trying to be macho.  Seemingly unimpressed as well, Adrienne looked over at her friend, rolling her eyes.  

“Then friends you are!” the man exclaimed, Daniel trying to hold the outward expression of relief that he was feeling inside since thankfully the man seemed to appreciate Vala’s outburst, but Daniel still shot Vala an angry glance warning her with his eyes to not speak again. Catching the wave of ice shot in her direction, she leaned over to Adrienne .

“Can’t you go calm him down or something?” she whispered, cutting her own brown eyes down at her shorter friend.

“I’m his assistant, not his keeper,” Adrienne replied, shrugging, her gaze back at Daniel who was already speaking with the man, folder open, pointing to charts and various things that he and Adrienne had researched via the MALP weeks ago.   

“No, but he likes you best,” Vala winked and Adrienne just walked along trying to catch up with Daniel and the village leader, ignoring her. She had been acting just a tad jealous now that Daniel and Adrienne were friends and Adrienne had tried to blow it off, she wasn’t interested in Daniel any more than he was interested in her, they were just friends and it was nice to have someone to talk to that thought like her, something Adrienne had not had in a very long time. Romantically though, that was the last thing Adrienne was thinking about, the last thing she ever thought about, no desire to become any man’s brood mare, so in that department, Vala was welcome to him. 

Oluko, or teacher, was the man’s name and Adrienne in particular liked that, as one of the few members of the staff that had classroom experience and could appreciate anyone who acted as a teacher in any capacity.  On the way to the settlement, Oluko told them about their village, how they earned their livelihood and the various resources they would be willing to trade.  It seemed that the villagers earned their way through life in one of three ways, farming, the raising of animals or acting as a merchant.  He also listed an abundance of resources, a kind of wheat crop that was resistant to most weather conditions and pests, a variety of precious metals including sterling silver and of course Naquada, in fact, rather than be cautious of his new visitors, the man seemed to be overjoyed to have visitors at all and the possibility of a new trading partner.  Apparently Daniel was right, this was a clear win for the SGC. Adrienne would have to pick on him later.  She both loved and hated it when he was right, but either way she could always find a way to pick on him, tormenting Daniel had become her new pastime. 

Adrienne was pleased by the thoroughness of their research, being that the villages itself looked just like the pictures from the slide show, grass huts, set up in no particular pattern, instead set up in streets of sorts, a miniature town, bustling with activity.  Where yards would have been, there were animal pens, housing small creatures that looked like pigs, save for their green horns perched prominently on their noses and trickling down their spines. When at last they reached what appeared to be the center of the village where some villagers were gathered around a central fountain, retrieving water and talking to one another as they went about their day, Oluko left them with a few women who were chatting there, women who Adrienne assumed were his wives given his open affection towards them and excused himself claiming to have other business to attend to, promising to see them later tonight at dinner.  Taking in the sights and sounds of this primitive metropolis, Adrienne was startled when Daniel grabbed her arm, turning to face him, her fist cocked by her cheek. A few months ago he would have flinched, but now he just laughed at her reaction.  

“Hey, do you want to come with me?” Daniel asked, reaching out gently for her fist to return it to her side. 

“Where?” Adrienne replied, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.  

“To explore to marketplace that Oluko was suggesting we visit. Come on Ad, weren’t you listening?” he teased, imitating the condescending voice Adrienne liked to give Vala when she knew that Vala hadn’t been listening during a briefing. Smiling, the redness leaving her face, Adrienne gazed around the village in complete wonder.  Of course she wanted to explore; she could go through the gate a thousand times and never tire of seeing all of these new worlds and new civilizations. 

“Sorry, just get caught up in it sometimes, you know?” she answered, pulling her backpack from her shoulders to take out her digital camera.  

“Trust me, I know,” he smiled at her and while he waited for her to get her things in order, Daniel took note of the location of his fellow team members for this quest, Ronan and Teal’c in a defensive mode, walking to the outskirts of the sitting, most likely checking for any potential threats, while Vala seemed to be taking a rest at the fountain. Adrienne was just putting her pack back on her shoulders when they heard a shout behind them, a shout Daniel was hoping to avoid. 

“Hey, wait up!” Daniel turned around seeing Vala running toward them, waving her hands for them to stop and hang back for them to catch up.  Rolling his eyes, he looked over at Adrienne, realizing their academic jaunt was about to take a turn in another direction entirely. 

“We have company,” Daniel muttered under his breath. 

“Play nice Indy,” Adrienne ordered, hoping he would heed her request and bite his tongue. Vala had also kicked up her flirtations and over the top behavior since Daniel and Adrienne had started spending so much time together, more impromptu coffee runs to the lab, more lap sitting in the cafeteria and, according to Daniel one weary morning last week, a visit to his quarters wearing nothing but a red chinese silk robe and a smile.  That story in particular had Adrienne in stitches for hours, laughing so hard she cried, but Adrienne knew it was driving Daniel insane and he was quite close to snapping completely. 

“Then you get to watch her,” Daniel responded curtly and turned to walk through the village marketplace, leaving his assistant behind, who turned onto her heels as well, determined to not miss one single thing.  Whining as she did so, Vala caught up to the dup, babbling on about something that neither Adrienne nor Daniel we listening to, so Daniel glared back at her, informing her that she needed to stay out of trouble, since he would not be getting her out of any trouble.  Shooting a warning of her own with those penetrating dark eyes, Adrienne promptly shut him up and placed her hand onto Vala’s arm, guiding her gently in the direction of the urban activity. 

The marketplace was wonderful  and nothing like any Yoruba trading post on Earth.  Based on Adrienne’s research, it seemed as if these people were traders in every sense of the word as the marketplace was filled with foods, clothing, jewelry, cups, pottery and anything else one could imagine.  Speeding up her pace in front of her friend, Adrienne spotted a beautiful necklace on a small brown table littered with other baubles and trinkets, a necklace that she would actually wear despite her normal aversion to jewelry.  It was simple, a hemp-like cord that came to a tight knot surround a black gemstone that shimmered in rainbow colors when she held it up into the sunlight. She was turning it in her fingers carefully, testing the varity of colors trying to count how many different hes were visable in the amazing gemstone, while Vala, not as impressed, as Vala stood beside her digging through a basket of rings listlessly. Feeling someone looking at her., Adrienne placed the necklace down in front of her on the table, turning to discover that Daniel was peeking over her shoulder.  

“Shame they don’t take Visa?” Adrienne quipped, stepping away from the table to follow him once ore.  

“Come on, really, you don’t know how to do this?  Ad, you disappoint me.” Daniel smiled and reached into the front left  pocket of his tac vest, pulling out a Powerbar and a pen.  Holding the energy bar up, he shook the packaged nourishment, “Ounje” Adrienne thought she heard him call it and then showed the pen, repeating the procedure, except this time using the word “Koosile.”  The man behind the table nodded and looked down at the goods in Daniel’s hands, repeating the words and receiving an affirmation from Daniel that he was correct. Reaching for the necklace on the table, Daniel held it up, creating a human scale in his hands, making it quite clear to Adrienne what he was doing, negotiating. He was negotiating to buy her a necklace. The man shook his head, so nodding, Daniel reached in his pocket and pulled out yet another Powerbar, the man smiling in agreement, bowling his head slightly and pushing the necklace towards Daniel’s body.  

“There,” he said, reaching for her hand by her side and opening her palm, slipping the knotted cord into it. Adrienne looked at him with a look of disbelief, not that bargaining had worked, but that he had essentially bought her a gift. Granted she had given him one as well, in that box that she was fairly certain that he had yet to open, save for the card, but still, this was, well, unexpected. 

“Daniel, thank you, I - “ she started, but he began to walk away, waving his hand over his head. 

“Now you can do it yourself,” he said over his shoulder, “And you owe me a pen and two Powerbars!!!” Adrienne shook her head at him, but smiled quietly, knowing he would never ask her to repay him. She quietly tucked the necklace into her tac vest and looked over at Vala, who was putting the rings down and muttering to herself, intending to usher her along.  

“What’s wrong?” Adrienne asked, pulling Vala away from the table in order to catch up with Daniel, unable to hear what her friend was saying. 

“You guys make me sick,” she answered, that tone of jealously creeping back into her voice. 

“No, you have an active imagination,” Adrienne replied, letting go of her arm and following behind Daniel, a part of her privately thrilled at this little turn of events.   

They made their way through the marketplace, stopping at vendors here and there and while Adrienne found quickly that her stash on pens could be quite useful, but she didn’t purchase anything else other than a few apples for herself, Daniel and Vala to nibble along the way. There was just a part of her that felt nothing else she could get today could quite top that necklace, making her reach inside her pocket every time she thought of it, hoping each time that he would not see, lest she feel the wrath of harassment later. 

Time clicked by, the sun moving lower in the sky, Vala, who was still steaming over Daniel’s little display of affection toward Adrienne, noticed at the corner of one side market street was a beautiful woman sitting in a lone chair but with no wares surrounding her just sitting completely still and staring straight ahead. It was creepy, and in all of her experience, Vala hadn't seen anything quite like it in her life, so she reached out, forgetting the necklace and tapping Adrienne on the shoulder.  

“Look, I’ve been around the galaxy, but that’s a funny way to advertise your body,” Vala muttered.  Completely lost as to what Vala was talking about, Adrienne glanced behind her in the direction Vala was pointing, seeing this supposed prostitute that Vala was claiming to have encountered however, the woman didn’t appear to be selling herself; she actually appeared to be in a deep trance.  

“Vala, I think she’s a fortune teller,” Adrienne replied.  

“Really? Even better, give me a pen,” Vala held out her hand requesting their failsafe bargaining chip. Adrienne made a face at her and looked out to see Daniel trudging on, unaware that the two women had stopped.   

“We’re being left,” Adrienne pointed out, hoping Vala would end this nonsense and follow. Not that Adrienne had a problem with giving her a pen for a fortune, fortunetelling was just something stupid and harmless and would amuse Vala for all of five minutes before she was forget everything the woman said, but she didn’t want to get lost and separated from Daniel in this bustling marketplace.  

“What else is new, now give me a pen,” Vala held out her hand more forcefully. Relenting, while still keeping an eye on Daniel, Adrienne reached into her pocket and grabbed a ball point pen, passing it over and Vala took it, approaching the woman slowly. 

“Do you speak the Jaffa tongue?” Vala asked, offering the pen in front of her but the woman continued to stare ahead.  

“I think that’s a no,” Adrienne replied, hoping Vala would just give up at that, especially since the woman was giving Adrienne the creeps, yet she didn’t, just switched to some other strange clicking language she could speak.  For at stupid as she acted at times, Adrienne often forgot that Vala was a pretty intelligent woman, who could speak almost as many languages as Adrienne herself could, although just not any extra Earth languages. However, must to Vala chagrin, language number two didn’t seem to work either, so Adrienne took a small step forward, clasping her arm lightly and pulling her back toward the main pathway. 

“Come on,” Adrienne goaded, gently increasing the pressure on Vala’s thin arm, “it looks like she is not wanting our business.” Shrugging off the firm grasp of her companion, Vala made final attempt, in a third language, earning her the same response as before, still, staring silence. Deciding to end this charade herself,  Adrienne shoved the pen into her pocket and started to walk away, hoping Vala would take the hint and follow. 

“Be careful,” a voice behind them said.  Adrienne, thinking it was Vala messing with her turned around, today understanding why Daniel got to damn mad at her; the woman was relentless.   

“Be careful. Or someone will die,” the woman from the chair said, Adrienne’s curious eyes darting quickly form Vala and back over in the direction of the woman in red, on red, whose head had turned and was starting back at them. Confused, and partially wondering what Vala had done to provoke such a response, Adrienne looked over at Vala and then back at the woman, evaluating the situation. 

“Excuse me?” she clarified, staring at the woman, the very strange looking woman she noted, something muted and fuzzy about features that seemed to beautiful before to now not be as certain. Vala too seemed bewildered, stepping forward toward the woman, peering closely.  The woman looked at Vala, making a slow and intense eye contact, and then deliberately diverted her gaze to Adrienne. Without warning, there was a pop and the woman leapt from the chair, throwing herself in front of the archaeologist's feet and grabbing Adrienne’s arm nearly yanking her onto the dust road.  

“Listen to me!! Someone will die! You must leave for someone will die!” The woman looked deep into Adrienne’s eyes, eyes as black a night, sending shivers of cold down Adrienne’s spine. Pulled her arm away quickly, Adrienne broke the stare and without a word turned to catch up to Daniel, her combat boot covered feet for once not minding the lack of running shoes. Vala stood for a second longer, staring at this woman, on her knees in the dirt, her head bowed low and her body language not as confident as before  and then dashed in the direction of Daniel as well.  

“Did you hear that woman?” Vala hissed as Adrienne and Daniel walked on.  Adrienne was whispering to Daniel, most likely explaining what had happened because judging by the look on his face, Daniel did not seem pleased.  

‘Vala, I only let you come with us because you promised to stay out of trouble.  This is not staying out of trouble,” Daniel said over his shoulder as he continued to walk through the marketplace, at a brisker pace than before she thought, but he could let his panties get into a twist all he wanted, she had a witness this time, a witness that seemed to be his latest pet, a witness he just might listen to. 

“But she said someone was going to die.  Addy, you heard her too and she grabbed your arm when she said it?” Vala insisted, hoping that little tidbit of information would jog Daniel into caring.  That’s right Daniel, the creepy lady touched your little girlfriend, what are you going to do about that, she thought. 

“Vala, I don’t believe in that stuff and you shouldn’t either,” Adrienne declared, throwing a wrench into that idea. Sometimes it really grated Vala how tough her new friend could be. Annoyed, especially since she was being ignored as normal,  Vala backed up in a huff, shoving her hands into the air.  

“You don’t believe in anything. Don’t you find that a bit depressing?”  Vala asked, trying to elicit any type of reaction out of Adrienne, even if it was anger of her bringing up last month’s lunch conversation on religion.  

“Not really,” Adrienne shrugged and walked faster to catch up with Daniel grabbing his arm.  He slowed to walk with her and Adrienne stood on her toes to whisper in his ear. 

“Ugh... the only thing worse than religion is prophecy,” she said. Daniel looked back at Vala, who was whipping her head in every direction in search of this potential threat and  leaned his head back in toward Adrienne.   

“I know, and leave it to Vala to believe a bit in both,” Daniel replied and kept walking.  Vala seemed to drop the incident after and they made their way around the rest of village marketplace without incident, meeting back with the others at the village fountain.  

“I’d like to stay,” Daniel stated to the group, a possibility they all knew and prepared for. 

  

“Fine by me,” Adrienne replied, agreeing that there was no reason to head home until more of these outside resources had been explored. Teal’c and Ronan, who were sitting on the ground by the fountain, nodded in agreement as well and Daniel looked over at Vala to gauge her response, a simple shrug if her shoulders, accepting the fact that neither Daniel nor Adrienne were going to heed her warning. 

“Settled. Then I’ll go back to Oluko and see if we can make arrangements. I think there’s a lot to be gained by an alliance with these people,”  he explained. Adrienne smiled at his need to explain trying not to laugh to herself.  She knew him now, pretty well and any reason to not to go home was good enough for him. She wanted to tease, but refrained, knowing that as acting leader of this mission he was nervous enough as it was without her adding to his anxiety.  She could just add to it later.  He might pick on her for always being on the go, but she was starting to think the man would be content living out of a backpack for the rest of his life. Instead of saying what was really on her mind,  she spoke up, volunteering to help. 

“I’ll run back,” she declared, “and let Sam know.” 

“Fine, but I don’t want you to go alone,” Daniel answered as Adrienne began to make a face at him, “anything could happen Ad, don’t look at me like that. Ronan, you go with her.”  The Sataedan nodded and took off his pack to lighten his load, handing it over to Vala and strapped his gun tighter to his leg.  Adrienne did the same, passing her things over to Daniel as she gave him a dirty look, using her eyes to her advantage. She hated when he treated her like she couldn’t handle herself, but he just glared back at her with bright blue spears of his own, daring her to question as he took her backpack and tossed it over his shoulder.  She paused for a moment, Daniel noted, not to argue but to look at her staff weapon and at Teal’c and back at the weapon.  

“AdrienneRowan, I shall watch your staff weapon. Take my Zat instead,” Teal’c reached for it and traded her defensive items.  Strapping the Zat to her leg, she stood and straightened her clothes, looking up at Daniel.  

“Be back in about 90,” she stated, looking over at Ronan who was waiting to follow her lead.

“Let’s go,” and the two of them dashed off toward the gate.  Adrienne got a run in after all, Daniel thought to himself, actually he was quite surprised she that didn’t have running shoes stashed away somewhere in her pack.  He watched the two of them jog off into the distance, a tiny part of him worried that something might happen to his little partner in crime, but pushed the thought away and led his two other companions back to the village.  

Adrienne and Ronan were about halfway back to the gate when Ronan yelled up to her.  

“Addy! Can we walk? Some of us don’t run like this every freakin’ day!” Ronan complained. For as excellent of shape as he was in, he was more of a sprinter, yet another reason why Adrienne was glad he had never taken her up on her little one lap challenge around the gym, because unlike her match with Daniel, he would cream the mess out of her in a short distance. Adrienne, who was quite the opposite, slowed to a walk, allowing Ronan to jog up lightly to catch her. 

“We’re gonna have to run again soon though,” Adrienne said as they both slowed to a walk, “I told Daniel 90 minutes.” 

“No, that’s fine, just let my legs rest a sec.  Either way, I think it is going to take a lot less than 90 minutes to get there and back. Dialing General O’Neill won’t take that long,”  Ronan answered and Adrienne nodded; he was right, they had plenty of time, Adrienne just liked to out do what ever timeline she had originally give Daniel, whether it be for a slide show, a translation, or some smaller errand like this. He teased her, told her that she wanted to be Superwoman, and while she denied it to his face, there was a part of his accusation that was correct, but she’d never admit it aloud. Taking a deep breath as she slowed her stride, Adrienne hung back to chat with Ronan, her eyes staring off into the vastness of the savannah. 

“Not sure why Jackson wants to stay in this place,” Ronan continued, “there’s just a lot of sand, grass and beaded jewelry.” Adrienne smiled, having noticed the same herself, although with the intircay of some of the beadwork. a few wall hangings in particular, she wasn’t too torn up over it. She just hoped DAniel had stashed enough Powerbars for her to shop with later. 

“It’s more about seeing people in their element and how they react to their environment and others,” she explained, “and besides, there’s a chance that they have some natural resources we can take advantage of.”  

“Always something the big boys want, huh?” Ronan asked, Adrienne giggling, that for as stupid as others might take him to be, he could call a spade a spade. The sun was blaring on them, Adrienne keeping silent, not wanting to have the same type of conversation with her very handsome running companion that she had with her neurotic boss now turned friend about government, politics and other generally boring topics, but between the heat of the UV rays on her skin and the monotony of walking step by step deeper into the grasslands, Adrienne was growing impatient and wanted to hurry up, make it to Sam and get back to where the real activity was. Pausing, she glanced over her shoulder at the exact moment that Ronan was rubbing a bead of sweat from his brow.  

“I’m gonna run ahead.  Just keep walking, it’s no big deal. I just want to phone home and get back,” she said. 

“Fine, I can tell you’re antsy. I’ll catch up in a few,” Ronan answered, Adrienne giggling at his use of Earth slang. 

“Alright, just don’t tell Daniel I ran ahead. He’ll flip out!” Adrienne shouted as she began to do just that, run ahead.  

“And don’t go thinking that this means you can out sprint me Rowan!!!” she heard him shouting behind her.  She laughed, knowing Ronan crushed her in short distances, miserably and picked up her pace to run ahead when a sound interrupted her short stride, a sounds like a low rumbling thunder. Halting and ducking, fearing a Lucian attack or worse, Adrienne laced her fingers behind her head, scanning her leg to judge distance and speed to her Zat, vowing to not go down without a fight, unless of course they were bombing the savannah, in which case she hoped her crouched stance would protect her.  But nothing came, no lights, sounds or shots, and most importantly, no ships yet the sound continued, growing louder in fact, with fewer breaks between the rumbles.  She looked behind her and saw what looked like smoke rolling in the distance toward them from the left, well her left, Ronan’s right, a wave of gray and tan dust rolling into the shore of the grassland. A wave of dust headed straight for Ronan.  Scrambling to her feet, shrieking his name, Adrienne sprinted like she never had before, back to the frozen Sateadan. 

The herd of large antelope-like creatures was in full stampede and Ronan had indeed seen them, but was frozen by the sight.  Sateada was a civilized planet and he had seen creatures like this before, happily contained in zoos for their viewing pleasure and never in full stampede, but Adrienne was screaming like a crazy woman, running full tilt towards him, breaking him from his trance. Suddenly, much less overwhelmed and more concerned, Ronan started to sprint toward Adrienne waving his arm in the direction of the gate shouting for her to turn back and continue running in the straight ahead, that the animals seemed to be migrating and not in pursuit.  Understanding, Adrienne turned around and dashed back, looking behind her repeatedly to see if Ronan had been overtaken. He was sprinting ahead and close, but not close enough, glancing to her left she could see that both she and Ronan were still in the path of the animals and ran faster, hoping with each step that Ronan was right behind her.  The ache in her side was nearly unbearable, worse than any other’s runner’s stitch she had experienced and she looked again, seeing that she had cleared the group while Ronan was still just feet away from the herd.  Screaming, she reached out, feeling his hand touch hers lightly and tightening her grasp,Adrienne pulled the much larger man as hard as she could to her, Ronan Dex crashing down on top of her smaller frame.   Her back now hurting as bad as her side from the impact, Adrienne glanced up to insure that they had made it, her heart stopping as a large, deer like animal jumped over Ronan’s legs and kept running.  

“Dex, are you ok?” Adrienne asked, pushing him painfully from her chest. 

“Scared the shit out of me, but I’m fine.  Are you hurt? Where did they come from?” Ronan asked, scanning her as he pushed himself up onto his hands and off of her body. Adrienne waved her hand as she shook her head, one finger toying at her scarred lip out of concern.

“Did I bust your lip open again?” Ronan questioned, moving her finger gently from her mouth as he crawled to the side, carefully examining her face.

“No,” she answered, shaking her head but allowing him to examine, “only Daniel manages to do that.” Knowing that to be sadly true, Ronan chuckled, peering back once more at his legs realizing how close he was to having them crushed. Hiding the chill from Adrienne that was rocketing through him, he brushed the dirt and sand from his BDU pants and sat back onto his heels.   

“Let’s just go and get back.  I’d hate to think of what else could come running through here,” Adrienne stood herself up, casting off her fear the best she could and reaching to help Ronan up.  He took her hand and stood, looking off once more into the distance at the vanishing animals, a parting memory of noise and flesh. This time, they decided to jog the rest of the way, together, not stopping until the task was complete.  

Oluko, as Daniel had expected, agreed that they could stay, offering them one large hut to share situated on the outskirts of the city. It was a one room domicile, an arrangement of grass mats on the floor, some for sleeping and some for sitting it seemed, but that didn’t seem to really bother any of the group, all of whom had slept on much worse. Friendly exterior or not, Daniel was pleased they would be able to all stay together because in his experience, there had been too many close calls when the group was separated and this Oluko character seemed to be a very intelligent man who might try something just like that if they were not careful. Fortunately enough, the Parakoyi did not seem to mind that there were women in the group who were not claimed by the men, although Daniel was fairly certain that if need be Vala would gladly volunteer to play his wife, yet again.  That would be a real treat, he thought to himself, making a mental note that if such conversation were to come up during dinner to claim Adrienne before she could protest or leave him to Vala’s clutches out of spite. In fact, he was considering claiming Adrienne as his wife anyway, since this particular tribe of people put a great importance on the female counterpart, or counterparts, of the relationship, thereby insuring her equal access to all gleaned information. In fact, it was one of Oluko’s wives, Oda, not Oluko that had led them to the hut and left them to themselves to get situated, waiting inside, not timidly either, to see if they needed anything else before excusing herself to help prepare dinner. Satisfied by their accommodations,  Daniel, Teal’c and Vala ducked inside to lay claims on the mats, Daniel peeping over to see where the door was, selecting the mat farthest from, placing Adrienne’s pack on top of it and without thinking, tossed his stuff beside it.  He was just sitting down to relax for a moment before diving into the resource scans in his file, when he saw Vala plop down on the mat to his other side. Reactively, he rolled his eyes wondering if maybe Adrienne could fake a nightmare or something to ensure that his night was uneventful but just in case, and trying not to make a scene, Daniel carefully scooted his mat over closer to his assistant’s.

He was just turning his back to unclasp his tac vert when he heard a scream behind him, darting around in the direction of the shriek to see a large cobra-like snake facing Vala, it’s hood open and teeth blaring.  Not wanting the snake to bite her or him for that matter, he froze, trying to scan the room with his eyes, looking for a weapon, a zat, P-(0 anything, when a blast came from the other side of the hut, the snake falling into a pile in front of Vala, smoking, guts strewn about her boots. Daniel glancing back toward the doorway of the hut, the source of the blast was clear, Teal’c standing in the entryway, staff weapon in hand, head opened and pointed at what was left of the beast.  Vala breathed out deeply, taking her hand to her heart, leaving her boots motionless in the serpent's viscera.

“Where did that come from?” Daniel asked, snapped really, thinking it was something she might have acquired in the market or worse, brought in the hut as a joke.

“I don’t know,” Vala responded, her voice shaking and serious,” I put down my pack and it was just there, staring at me,”  Snapping the head to his staff weapon closed, Teal’c set it against the rigid woven wall, walking over to examine the decimated serpent.   

“It is indeed a real snake, no magic, no machine.  It must have slipped into the hut, possibly seeking the warmth of the fire” Teal’c stated, turning to indicate the fire Oda had started in the hut shortly before their arrival. Nodding in a agreement, yet still pretty freaked out by the entire encounter, Daniel resumed his reading as Teal’c stood to take the serpent out of their sleeping area, scooping the guts and pieces into his hands unaffected. Trying to hide his aversion to the gore, Daniel heard another shout from right outside just as Teal’c was ducking to make his way through the door, forcing him to take one more glance at the pile of snake in his friend’s hands. 

“Gross, what did you do to that thing?!” it was Adrienne’s voice. Daniel was instantly relieved that they were back, forgetting a moment that she had even left in the excitement of their unwanted visitor.  Peeking her head into the hut, her nose pinched firmly between her fingers, Adrienne shook her head in playful scolding.   

“Playing with snakes are we?” she joked, walking over to her pack and sitting down beside Daniel.  

“Damn thing attacked me!” Vala stated, obviously still shaken by the cold blooded intruder, “I have no idea how it got in here.” 

Daniel spoke quickly, hoping, wishing that she wouldn’t turn this into another attention grabbing ploy like she had tried to do with the fortune teller, “You heard Teal’c; it probably just crawled through a hole to investigate.”  Able to read the annoyance on his face, Adrienne chuckled, pulling her backpack into her lap as Teal’c and Ronan entered, Ronan already telling Teal’c of their own close encounter with nature.  

“Sumtin’ bout the critters here,” Adrienne started, Daniel stifling a laugh at both her word choice and pronunciation, “Ronan and I almost got taken out by a herd of antelope or sumtin’ closely related. It was like a scene out of a bad movie,” Adrienne crossed her legs, opening her pack taking out a bottle of vitamin water, Daniel staring at her in disbelief.  Forget the cajun, Adrienne and Ronan were almost stampeded??

“Antelope?” Daniel asked, looking at Adrienne like she was crazy.  

“Yeah, antelope,” Adrienne repeated, “thank God Dex is a good sprinter,” she replied casually, taking a swig from the bottle.  There was a brief silence as Daniel tried to scan her over with his eyes, seeing if she was alright or just playing it tough, when Vala whipped her head around to glare at the both of them and then down at the blast hole in front of her, still littered with snake guts.  

“Oh my gods!” she exclaimed, her eyes widening, her chest heaving with breath.  

“What is wrong ValaMalDoran?” Teal’c asked, moving to remove the remainder of snake guts from the hole thinking that might have caused her obviously nervous outburst.  Vala still seemed very upset, but didn’t look any better as Teal’c tossed aside a few organs and some skin, ignoring him to continue to stare over at Daniel and Adrienne.  

“She said someone was going to die!” Vala said, eyes like saucers, “you heard her Addy.  Someone is going to die and you almost got trampled and I almost became the Queen of Sheba!!”   Cleopatra, Adrienne thought, you almost became Cleopatra, well sort of, but she held her tongue taking another swig of her water, shaking her head and trying to to laugh at her incorrect historical reference and absurd notions. 

“Vala, this is the great wide open. It’s not prophecy; it’s nature,” Adrienne replied as Daniel was leaning forward to whisper an explanation to Teal’c and Ronan, not a very nice one Adrienne could hear as she tried to calm her friend. Sitting back smirking, Daniel let the two warriors take it all in, Ronan, in particular erupting into laughter, talking about something like wraith phantoms or some nonsense tat Adrienne didn’t understand.  He began to cough and choke on his words, Adrienne reached her bottle over, offering him some water, which he took gratefully, halting his harassment of Vala as he poured the warm liquid down his throat.   

“There is no such a thing as real fortune tellers ValaMalDoran.  They are charlatans that prey on the weak,” Teal’c stated, trying to be supportive. 

“Besides Vala,” Ronan added, beating his chest with his fist as he did, “people die everyday.  That’s a pretty general statement: Someone is going to die.  Yeah, someone will probably die.  Did you check your pockets? She might have been trying to distract you to rob you. I saw it happen all of the time back on Sateda.” Ronan took a long drink from the water bottle this time, his laughter settled and handed it back to Adrienne, thanking her with a nod and directing his attention over to Daniel.  

“Well, if we’re gonna have the risk of any more supposed wild animal attacks, I think we should be more vigilant.  I really don’t want to get run over again,”  Ronan requested. 

“I agree with RonanDex,” Teal’c concurred, his deep dark gaze back at the hole from his staff weapon, “We must be careful as we are not familiar with the animals of this world.” Daniel, who was not used to being in charge, simply nodded.  

“Alright,” he said at last, “we’re going to be summoned to dinner soon and when we get back we can discuss a watch rotation.  But let’s keep it quiet; we don’t want to appear so easily spooked by some wildlife.” Vala continued to mutter something about not being listened, Daniel ignoring her protests, while Adrienne dug around in her pack producing a bottle and a small towel, standing and looking back down at Daniel. 

“Hey, I’m gonna go wash my face and arms before we eat,” she said and headed out of the hut. Sitting confused on his sleeping mat, Daniel paused, not registering what she had said and when it finally clicked, he shut the folder quickly, leaping to his feet and chasing her through the curtained entrance.

“Wash up where?” Daniel asked, not remembering Oda pointing out a place to wash and noting the need to ask her for one.  Dramatically halting her stride, Adrienne pointed in the direction in which she and Ronan had run, almost two hours before, tapping her feet impatiently while he worried. 

“There was a stream back there,” she said quickly and turned again, heading in that direction.  He would follow, she knew he would, but there was no way that she could represent her planet covered in sweat, dust and god knows what other things she managed to get onto herself in her tumble to avoid being squished to death. He could babysit if he felt the need, she wasn’t going to stop him. 

“Must you? I was going to ask about facilities after dinner” he replied, earning himself a dirty look as she paused again, glaring back at him.  Someone really needs to market her glare as a weapon, he thought, shivering at the coldness in her eyes. 

“You didn’t just run five miles, you’re lucky I only want to wash my face,” she answered over her shoulder, hoping he saw her smile, continuing toward her destination.  Accepting that this was a battle he just needed to resign, Daniel jogged to catch up with her, grabbing her shoulder to slow her pace.

“Fine, but you know the rules.  Out of sight, go in pairs.  You just seem to think that you’re above that,” he raised his eyebrows and she did not comment, just continued to make her way to the stream.  

Pushing his way behind her through a small patch of underbrush, he finally saw the body of water that she had been talking about, but how she had seen it from her running path was still a mystery. It was a small and beautiful brook that didn’t look like it belonged this far out in the grasslands, weaving it’s way in and out of the denser forest on the outskirts of the plain, lightly flowing water trickling along softly over tan and black tumbled stones.  Adrienne breathed a sigh a relief at the sight, a symbol of the cleanliness that was to come and walked to the edge, kneeling down and splashing her face with water, letting out a loud sigh as the moisture hit her face.  

“Much better,” she said aloud, sitting back onto her heels letting the water stream down her cheeks.  

“Ad, can you hurry up?  I wanted to go take a look at a few things before dinner,”  Daniel said to her, whining really in her opinion, standing there hands shoved into his pockets, a frown on his face.

“Yes Mr. Patience, I just wanted to feel a bit less disgusting, hold your horses,” she replied, giving him a frown of her own.  Reaching in once more to splash her face, Adrienne reached to her left, eyes closed, for the face wash she had set on the edge of the bank. She couldn’t seem to find it, so she reached further, feeling around very carefully, until frustrated, she shoved her hand backward, thinking she might have knocked it away when she felt a large furry body under her hand.  Frozen in fear, she didn’t move, didn’t flinch, holding perfectly still when she felt large hairy legs touch her forearm, inching their way up her skin.  That did it, that prompted her, and Adrienne screamed out loud, leaping to her feet, desperately trying to get the water out of her eyes so she could defend herself against the creature, how big was that thing, when she heard the zap of a Zat gun, the shock of that too causing her to trip and fall backward into the water, still screaming.  Shaking, but hiding in the protection of the water, if such a beast would be deterred by wet, she opened her eyes and saw Daniel standing over her, Zat gun pointed safely downward.  She traced his gaze to the ground and right over beside her bottle of face wash was the biggest spider she had ever seen, easily the size of a guinea pig or small cat, it’s long black hairy legs splayed about it, knocked unconscious by the stun of Daniel’s weapon.  Looking at it gave her chills down her spine, which were further exasperated by sitting in the cold stream, making her shiver violently, when a hand entered her field of vision and she looked up to see Daniel reaching down to help her up.  Gratefully, she took his arm and pulled herself to her feet, her entire body still shaking with fear. 

“Are you alright?” he asked, holding her hand in his and looking it over, lifting her arm and examining the rest of her carefully.  

“Yeah, I landed on my backside pretty hard, but I’ll live,”  she answered, putting on a brave front, vowing not to fall to pieces in front of him.  Is wasn’t that she was scared of spiders, but creatures, possibly poisonous creatures from another planet were a different story.  Not making one argument about women’s independence or her not needing a man, Adrienne turned around slowly, letting him make sure there was nothing else on or around her.  Satisfied she was alright, Daniel let her arm go.  

“Sorry I let it get that close; it was so fast.  It jumped right out of the trees and went straight for you.  I’ve never seen a spider move like that, or at least one so large.  Are you sure he didn’t bite you?” Daniel asked, still looking over Adrienne, but also looking back at the spider in case it were to reawaken.  

“Positive, the only thing that hurts is my rear. And my pride a bit,” she added and shrugged, trying to play it off, but she was still trembling.  Reading the discomfort in her face, her eyes not making their usual confident contact, Daniel reached over for her again, placing his hand gently on her back, rubbing it lightly. 

“Come on, I’ll buy you more face wash. Leave that. Let’s get going before it wakes up” he whispered, guiding her carefully with the hand still at her back and she let him, turning her gaze away from the arachnid heading back for the others.  

Oda had come by to remind them of dinner and was kind enough to run to her own home to bring Adrienne a dress so she was able to change before dinner and hang her pants out to dry.  When Daniel recounted what had happened at the stream to the group as Oda fetched Adrienne clean clothes, no one seemed to have any real explanation at all as to what might be going on. Everyone except Vala, that is, who immediately delved into her argument of fortune telling and prophecy and again, no one paid her any mind.  Once Adrienne was dressed, wearing a thin cotton-like gown that barely went to her knees, a garment that Daniel knew was making her feel highly uncomfortable and exposed, they made their way to the fountain at the village center. 

The dinner was spectacular, a large open meal held in honor of a great hunt that successfully completed a few days earlier.  It was everything Daniel had learned to expect of celebration feasts from his numerous visits across the galaxy, seats of honor, platter after platter of food, live entertainment and when Oluko introduced them to the other elders of the village, everyone greeted them kindly and respectfully.  Daniel did notice, however, a few of the seats were empty, seats of importance at the lead table, but Oluko was talking so much that he did not get a chance to ask who exactly was missing and why, so he just ate and answered their trade questions, putting on his best diplomatic show for the team while he awaited to opportunity to ask his own questions, an opportunity that never came. Daniel did manage to get from him some information on resources and where those operations were located, but as soon as he thought he had a chance to talk about the people themselves and how the trade union could affect them, dinner ended, Daniel and the team returning to the hut, with many things unanswered.  Rather than rekindle the fire, a small part of him thinking that might attract their next unwanted animal visitor, Daniel set up a lantern in the center of the mats to assign watch duties.  

“Ok, I’ll take first watch, with Adrienne, because we have some things we need to go over before tomorrow,” he began.  Adrienne started to make a face at him, certain that she was being coddled, but since they did have some maps to go over she really couldn’t argue.  

“Second watch is Vala, then Teal’c and then Ronan will take us into sunrise. If there are any issues just wake me up,” Daniel concluded, his bright blue eyes scanning the crowd for any objections, but there were none.  Vala, who had begun to read Adrienne’s vampire novels, yet another victim to his assistant’s incessant love of pop culture, had decided to stay up while Daniel and Adrienne sat outside, working and standing guard.  Their watch was uneventful, allowing them to look over the maps of the area so they could begin exploring the resources to take some pictures and complete other preliminary scouting duties.  Bored and tired at the end of their shift, Daniel and Adrienne switched off with Vala, who just took the novel outside with her, reading away by the light of a lantern, not one intruder, animal or otherwise to interrupt her story.  Two hours later, Vala was tapping on Teal’c’s shoulder, who rose without complaint and headed outside, Vala flopping down on her mat to rest, scooting close to Daniel.  

Teal’c was an hour into his shift when decided that he had slept enough and would stay up with Ronan through until sunrise, even considering trying to read the book that Adrienne had offered him, but remembering that he had left it inside the hut, did not want to disturb any of his friends to enter and retrieve it so he sat there, lightly meditated, his blank dark gaze staring out into the darkness. As he was running through his head preparations for the birthing ceremony for his grandchild, a point upon which he was meditating often now,  he heard a low rustle in the soft underbrush just feet from where he sat.  Quickly Teal’c stood, pointing his staff weapon in the direction of the sound, tapping the activate with his finger to open the head of the weapon. There was silence, complete silence, so much so that Teal’c thought he had imagined the entire thing when the rustle happened again, but this time it seemed closer. Much closer. Peering into the darkness, the rustle became a low growl and without any other warning a large cat came bounding out of the woods straight for him, forcing the large Jaffa to his feet to defend himself. Teal’c shot his staff weapon, intentionally missing, not wanting to kill the large creature but simply wanting to scare it away, the blast making contact right at the back foot of the beast, yet the animal did not falter, but paced around him, Teal’c matching its steps, not taking his eye from the predator.  Hearing the commotion, Daniel and Ronan came dashing out of the hut, Ronan pointing his large gun at the beast as Daniel drew his Zat, their eyes wide with surprise at the massive creature walking before them.  

“Shoot it DanielJackson,” Teal’c shouted, seeing that Daniel was the only one with a stun weapon, and catching on that Teal’c did not desire to kill the animal and did as he asked, a laser like strand webbing from the firearm and the animal crumbing into the dust, knocked out cold. Still dressed in her borrowed gown, Adrienne rushed out of the hut, followed by Vala, armed and prepared to fight, but dropping their hands as the cat hit the ground. 

“Is it dead?” Adrienne asked, her finger still on the trigger to the head of her staff weapon, yet concerned for the animal as well. 

“Nah,” Ronan answered, “Jackson stunned it.” Stepping over to assist Teal’c in the removal of the animal, Ronan didn’t offer any further comment, but it wasn’t Ronan Daniel was really paying attenetion too, it was Vala, standing beside their temporary quarters, shaking her head, her arms crossed across her chest. 

“Did you see something Vala? What are you looking at?” he asked as he walked over to the women. 

“At you idiots, that’s what I am looking at!” Vala shouted out into the darkness, “Ronan almost gets run over by some deer, I get a face to face meeting with a huge damn snake, Addy gets attacked by a mutant spider and Teal’c get a surprise from a mountain lion.   Daniel is something going to have to literally bite you in the ass before you realize that I am right?!?!” she screamed, shoving her hands to her hips.  

“Vala, some crazy fortune telling woman has nothing to do with our obvious lack of preparedness in terms of the local wildlife.  Hell, we got thrown into this mission and Daniel and I only did the pre-lims for SG-2.  If anything they are at fault for not throughly researching the damn place like they are supposed to!” Adrienne argued, remaining unconvinced that this had any mystical qualities about it, but as she gazed over to Daniel’s face, Adrienne could tell that he wasn’t as convinced, at least not as convinced as he was this morning.  Handing Ronan his zat gun, Daniel walked toward Vala grabbing her arm forcefully and pulling her toward the village.  

“Dammit Daniel! What are you doing?”  Vala said as she jerked her arm away, pulling back to smack him if she needed.  She hated it when he treated her like an idiot and after Adrienne had clocked him on more than one occasion for that very gesture, she was about to start doing the same. Letting go of her bicep, Daniel stopped, glaring at her viciously.

“Listening to you, that’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?” he spat, pointing in the direction of the marketplace.  She smiled, her mood changing instantly, satisfied to finally being taken seriously and pranced ahead, Daniel following. 

Still shaking her head in disbelief at the scene unfolding in front of her, Adrienne walked over to Teal’c and Ronan, who were trying to drag the cat over to the side of the hut and tie it up so it would be unable to do any harm once it had awakened, seeing if they needed any help. 

“Someone should go with them AdrienneRowan,” Teal’c said, looking at her, in his own way telling her that as Daniel’s assistant she should be at his side as he tried to solve this dilemma.  Adrienne sighed, the last thing she wanted to do was walk around in the darkness with her two friends, both of which we already about at one another’s throats, but he was right, someone should go with them but she wasn’t about to go without a fight. 

“Rock, paper, scissors?” she asked them, hoping that someone else would have to endure the bickering between Daniel and Vala. Shrugging, the two men set down the great cat’s legs, balling up their fists and shook. Teal’c paper, Ronan scissors and Adrienne rock.  

“Dammit, why is it always me!!” Adrienne whined aloud, grabbed her staff weapon from the side of the hut and chasing after them. As she expected, once she caught up to them they were still arguing, and cursed Teal’c and Ronan under her breath.

“I told you, but you didn’t listen to me.  You NEVER listen to me,” Vala was still chastising Daniel for ignoring her.  

“Because listening to you gets me into trouble,” he answered and looked over his shoulder to see Adrienne joining them.  She was holding her staff weapon and did not looked like she was thrilled to be following, so he assumed that she been involuntarily elected to follow with said weapon.  

“Indy, shug, I hate to point this out, but it’s the middle of the night, do you really think this woman is going to be sitting there?” Adrienne noted.  Realizing that she was right, Daniel glanced at his watch, but kept walking. It was 2 hours to sunrise, technically time for Ronan’s shift to begin, of course in a perfect world where mother nature wasn’t trying to kill them. Refusing to stop now, he just looked back at his assistant, shrugging.   

“Then we’ll just have to wait,”  he replied, reaching to pull Vala along, receiving a harsh shove in the arm in the process. Seeing that there was no way out of this, Adrienne tucked her weapon under her arm and together the three of them entered the city,  weaving through the marketplace, in search of a lone mysterious woman in a chair, setting up for the day. Adrienne remembered that they had wandered the market for quite some time before finding the woman, so waiting wasn’t the issue, the real issue was going to be wandering to the correct spot. As the sun started to peek over the horizon, villagers began to set up their wares on blankets and tables. Adrienne was enthralled, seeing these people in their element, working away to prepare for their day; their lives were so simple, they just set up their items, sold and went home for the day.  Part of Adrienne longed for a life so simple, she had never led a nice simple life, yet she would never want to give up this life of adventure that she was living right now.  However, her fantasies of being a simple merchant woman were short lived as she heard Daniel and Vala arguing ahead of her, bringing her back to the reality of the situation. Looking up to see they had gotten too far ahead Adrienne ran again to catch them just as they were rounded one corner and Vala started pointing like mad over to a blanket where a man was setting up some copper looking pots.  

“That’s where she was!” Vala claimed.  Unconvinced, Daniel glanced back at Adrienne, looking for some sort of confirmation to Vala’s claims.  

“I have no idea.  I mean, it was a corner, like this, but they all look alike to me. Sorry, I really wasn’t paying attention,” Adrienne apologized but Vala was insistent.  

“She was right here!! Of course Addy doesn’t remember; she was all woozy over that damn necklace you bought her!! She sat right here and you had walked that way,” Vala pointed up a slight hill. Daniel made a face at Vala as if he couldn’t really believe that he had listened to her, in fact, Adrienne really couldn’t believe he had listened to her. Crossing his arms across his chest, he looked around the now blustering marketplace, searching for this imaginary woman that he had allowed Vala into tricking him into thinking existed. Adrienne put her staff weapon to the ground, resting on it and looking around herself, knowing she had indeed seen this woman, even if she didn’t think there was chance in hell that this woman was a fortune teller.  Ignoring the reactions of both of her friends, Vala marched herself up to the man who had, according to Vala, taken the fortune teller’s place.  

“Excuse me, do you know what happened to the woman who was here yesterday? Sitting in a chair.  Wearing a red dress?”  Vala asked. 

“No woman,” the man replied, “My spot.” 

“Not yesterday it wasn’t,”  Vala retorted.  

“No woman, I sell here,” the man answered, annoyed by her tone and continued to lay out his assortment of copper pots.  Vala knelt before him continuing to argue. 

“This is getting us nowhere Indy,” Adrienne said, cocking her head at the angry Lucian woman, who was at this point nose to nose with the vendor, swearing profusely.

“Do you have a better idea?” he peered over his glasses at her and she rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her staff weapon. She didn’t so she kept quiet.  Finally the man stood, nose to nose with Vala shouting back at her as intensely as she was shouting at him. Daniel reached for Vala to intervene, pulling her away, and holding up his hand to halt the argument. 

“Are you happy? I listened to you. I’m sure that you saw that woman, maybe even right here, but I think you’re taking something simple and blowing it entirely out of proportion,” Daniel looked at her exasperated.

“I swear, Addy come on, I know you’ve got to remember something!” Vala pleaded with Adrienne once more.  Adrienne was just starting to apologize again, really unable to remember much of yesterday, when she felt a light tugging at her leg and looking behind herself to see the culprit was a small child of about six years old.  

“You seek Araya,” the child spoke. Vala knelt down while Adrienne and Daniel looked at him in confusion.  

“Is she the fortune teller?” Vala asked gently, changing her tone to sickly sweet.  

“No, she’s crazy. But she sits here sometimes when Ekaro leaves early to tend his flock,”  the child answered honestly.  Vala looked back at her friends and made a face as if to say, see, I was right.  

“Where can we find her?” Vala pushed the child. 

“I will take you,” the child offered, “if I can have one of those writing tools your brother used to buy his wife a necklace,” the child pointed at Daniel.  Vala flashed a look at Adrienne. 

“See, even this kid thinks you’re his wife,” Vala was quick to mention as Adrienne knelt down, rolling her eyes and handing over a pen.  Vala gave it to the child, who smiled and grabbed her hand beginning to pull her back through the parts of the marketplace from which they had come, Daniel and Adrienne in a rapid pursuit.  The roads quickly became less crowded as the child led them deep into the outskirts of town, far from the nicer huts, far from the market areas that they had explored yesterday, in fact, this did not look like a place Okulo would want them to see.  These people looked sick, impoverished and dirty, while the rest of the village, primitive as it was, was nice and clean.  Amongst a clutch of smaller huts, broken and unattended, the child finally stopped in front of a narrow passageway, shrouded by a tattered red cloth and turned to look back at Vala.  

“Can I have another one,” he showed Vala the pen, “for my friend?” Vala motioned for Adrienne to start digging in her vest. Adrienne sighed, handing over what she hoped wasn’t her last writing utensil since that pocket was now empty, the delighted child snatching it from her hand and darting off without another word. Feeling vindicated, Vala looked back at Daniel, but hesitated at the door of the hut.  

“This is your big idea; be my guest,” he indicated with a sweep of his hand, Vala grumbling to herself as she ducked in to enter.  

It was the smell that hit Daniel first.  He instinctively looked back at Adrienne who he knew was sensitive to things like smell, and as he expected, her hand was across her mouth as she fought the urge to gag.  Reached out to help her should she vomit, Daniel placed his palm gently on her forearm, but she shooed him away, wanting more than anything to get this over with.  Vala, on the other hand, just kept trudging forward, dropping to her knees to crawl through the dimness. 

“Araya?” she asking into the darkness, “I’m the woman from the market yesterday.  You told my friend someone is going to die.  How did you know that?” 

There was silence.  Hoping they were not chasing yet another loos end, Daniel turned on his flashlight and there was Araya, hiding in the corner, or at least who he assumed was Araya, a small frail old women in a tattered red dress, her knees pulled up tightly to her chest. Puzzled, Adrienne grabbed his shoulder, pulling him close to her, whispering in his ear.  

“Daniel that is not the same woman.  The women yesterday was, well, beautiful.  That woman’s a hag,” Adrienne informed him. Daniel looked ahead and the woman was wearing that red dress just like Vala said she would be, but it was torn and stained, shining the flashlight confirmed his initial observations, in fact, the women herself must have been at least seventy years old judging by the lines across her face, the looseness of her skin and was missing most of her teeth. 

“Vala, are you sure?” Daniel asked, leaving Adrienne, her hand clamped firmly over her mouth once more, to kneel beside a nodding Vala, who seemed to be completely ignoring him. 

“Araya, do you remember me?”  Vala crawled closer, “You talked to my friend and I yesterday.  You said someone was going to die and we have had a very interesting time here since.” 

“Someone is going to die,” she stated again, emphasizing the word is very carefully.  

“Who?” Vala asked. 

“Oh I don’t know.  Koda just said talk to the animals Araya and make them go crazy like you do. But then I saw you and I thought, what nice people, I have to warn them.  I had already made the animals go crazy though, sorry,” the old woman explained.  His eyes widening, Daniel got down on the ground this time, moving Vala out of the way to talk to the woman.  

“Who is Koda and why would she want to kill us?” Daniel asked.  

“She is Oda’s sister.  Okulo did not want to marry her.  She is from the poor district.  But so is Oda.  Okulo is a liar,” the woman was babbling, no longer looking at them, rather looking around the tent like a mad woman.  The child was exactly right, she was crazy, proving it further as she began to rock back and forth and sing softly, a lullaby to no one in particular.    

“Yes, but Araya, what does that have to do with my friends and I?” Daniel questioned her further, hoping to being her back to focus. 

“Your friends come to trade. Koda does not want friends.  Okulo will lie to them.  Make rich richer and poor poorer,” the woman answer swiftly, then picked up the refrain of the song from right where she left off.  

“We are not here to make anyone poor,” Vala explained.  

“Traders always come through the chapa’ai; they come make Okulo rich, more people mov to poor district.  Traders leave, never come back,”  Arya continued.  

“Araya,” Daniel said her name to clarify, “the Go’ould were not traders,” he tried to explain.  

“No, the Gods have been gone.  Many traders come. Many traders leave.  Poor town grows,” she explained, “Koda says that you richest traders we see so far.  She told me to make the animals crazy.  If one of you died and it looked like accident, then you be scared and go away.  But you seemed so nice, I had to warn you.”  

“What do you mean, make the animals go crazy?” Vala asked.  

“I put idea in air.  Idea that you do not belong.  The animals drive you away,” Araya explained.  

“Can you stop it?” Daniel asked.  

“No, cannot stop it once it starts.  Not until you leave,” Araya answered.  Terrified, and also a little satisfied, Vala glared back at Daniel, cutting her eyes, but he kept his gaze on the old woman.  

“Thank you Araya. Thank you for trying to warn us and telling us about Koda.”  Daniel stood,paying no attention to Vala, who was already starting to stammer something about being right and walked over to Adrienne, pulling her aside. 

“I take it we’re getting out of here,” Adrienne stated, “because I’m at a loss as to how to combat anything like this.” 

“No, we’re not. We are going to find this Koda and see what is really going on around here,”  Daniel stated, heading out of the hut.  

“Daniel you heard that woman! She said she can’t stop the attacks!” Adrienne stormed behind him, not believe what she was hearing, especially considering he was always scolding her about walking into dangerous situations.  

“Now you sound like Vala,” he said, keeping his brisk stride, headed for the village center.  Adrienne breathed out and followed, thankful at the very least to be escaping the smell, Vala bringing up the rear, smiling brightly at the discovery that she was correct.   

Okulo was not happy to see them, a clear indicator to Daniel that his hunch was right. 

“Dr. Jackson, I assumed you would be exploring the resource maps that we had given you,” he greeted Daniel as soon as they arrived at his hut, bowing his head slowly, not breaking eye contact for a second. Unfazed, Daniel shook his head, walking straight up to face the man. 

“Okulo, it has been brought to my attention that we may not be entirely welcome here,” Daniel started, Adrienne and Vala standing close behind. 

“Dr. Jackson, who has led you to believe such nonsense?” Okulo inquired curiously.  For the first time since meeting him, Adrienne did not trust that the look on his face, a look that said there was much more to this than it seemed. 

“The sister of your wife,” he replied curtly. Okulo was speechless but Daniel kept his eyes on the man and continued. 

“We were led to another part of the village.  A part that looks much different from what you showed us yesterday. Apparently, your sister believes that not all of the village or the kingdom benefits from your trade agreements.  In fact, she claims that we are not the first to come through the chapa’ai and trade with you,” Daniel said.  Okulo now seemed enraged.  

“I can assure you that Koda does not represent this kingdom! She is a bitter woman who is bent on bringing down our entire way of life! ” Okulo shouted.  

“Well, until I get a chance to have a conversation with this bitter woman, my friends and I will be unable to discuss any trade agreement,” Daniel turned to leave, Okulo racing ahead of him, placing his hands in front of him.  

“Please, please, do not leave, I will have her summoned,” Okulo looked over at another of his wives, a younger one, and she scurried away.  Daniel glanced over at his companions and indicated that they take a seat, the women sitting reluctantly.  

About ten minutes later the young woman returned, bringing with her a woman the exact image of Oda.  Adrienne assumed this must be Koda and reached over to Daniel’s hand, subtly mouthing ‘Koda.’  and he nodded in affirmation.  

“Sister,” Okulo greeted his sister in law dramatically with a warm embrace, but she didn’t seem pleased to see him, pulling away quickly.  

“What do you want Okulo?” she crossed her arms, cutting dark black eyes sharply at him. 

“Our guests here seem to think that you are causing some problems, that you want them to leave,” Okulo his voice casting a grave warning. 

“Why would I do that? You do what you do without any thought of the rest of us. As long as it fills your hut with gold and treasure, you do not seem to care,” she hissed at him.  Angered, he approached her and for a moment Daniel thought he might strike her, and he moved over to stop his advance, but he did not, instead baring his teeth and hissing through them.   

“Our guests are here to trade and bring prosperity to all of our people.  You want that  don’t you....” he was more insistent this time. Before she could answer, Daniel heard a commotion outside of the hut, turning to see the green curtained door moved away, Ronan and Teal’c entered, Teal’c dragging a young boy while Ronan held a large and violently shaking burlap bag to his side.  

“DanielJackson,” Teal’c began, “we found this young man hiding in the bushes near our quarters.” 

“And he had this pissed off bag of rodents,” Ronan added, fighting to control the battle in the sack. 

Koda looked at them shocked, her mouth gaping and her attitude changing, Okulo reaching to grab her arms forcefully. 

“What is the meaning of this?!?!” he shouted at her. Daniel stepped to intervene this time but Adrienne held him back, wanting to see what would happen before their presence would cause any more damage. She had listened to him and quietly reminded him with her gaze. 

“You needed to learn.  We are tired of only your family benefitting from the traders that come.  You lie to each set of traders and they bring you great fortune at our expense and then you sever ties and move onto the next group, keeping the wealth for yourself! It needed to stop!” she pushed him back and walked over to the young boy looking up to glare at Teal’c.  

“Unhand my son.  He is a child. He did as I asked,” she pulled the boy’s arm, but Teal’c reached out, bracing the boy with both arms, and away from the woman’s touch. 

“Your son tried to kill us,” he retorted, his voice cool and calm. 

“We did not intend to kill you, just scare you away,”  Koda insisted, pulling her son, who Teal’c slowly released from his grasp.  

“Wait,” Vala stepped in, “You told that Araya woman to unleash some animal insanity to kill us, she told us.” 

“That crazy fool.  No, she thinks she can do magic, but she is just talk.  She had a little talent with illusions, but that is all, she makes herself look younger, desirable, makes you believe her words. I planted an idea in her head, knowing she would tell you or at least tell someone, so between that and the incidents you would think you were cursed and leave,”  Koda explained.  

“There’s no omen.  No curse?” Vala clarified. 

Koda spit onto the ground, “The only curse on this village is Okulo.” 

Daniel refrained from chastising Vala as they packed up to leave, but Adrienne could tell that something was on his mind, more than just Vala jumping to conclusions, even though she had been partially correct. Concerned, Adrienne walked over and put her hand gently on his back.  

“You ok?” she asked.  Daniel didn’t look up, just kept packing, and not talking. Definitely not like Daniel, normally he would be just chatting away, analyzing what had happened, talking about the next mission, but nothing.  Worried, Adrienne knelt beside him, sitting back on her knees.  

“Yeah,” he answered finally, “I had just hoped this would work out a bit better, but we can’t start trading with a world that has this many internal issues.” He shrugged, placing the last of his gear into the pack.  Shaking her head, knowing it was more than that, Adrienne rubbed his back lightly, patting it gently and pulled her hand away. 

“Daniel, Sam did say we’ll send a team in a month or so to see if they’ve made any changes now that the village council knows what he was doing.We might still get that trade agreement,”  Adrienne offered, but he still looked upset.  Reaching over Adrienne squeezed his hand, peering over to look into his face. Something else was wrong, she knew there as she was starting to learn how to read his face.  

“What’s really bothering you?” she pushed him to talk. After all, wasn’t this was she was hired for, to problem solve, trouble shoot and help him?  Plus, they were friends now and friends talked to one another, he had made it clear not too long ago that he did feel like she might be someone he can talk to. Relenting, Daniel let out a sigh and looked around to make sure the other team members had cleared out and satisfied that they had he glanced back at Adrienne.  

“Every time I step through that gate I hope to find a people that just treat one another they way they are supposed to, but almost every planet is the same,” he admitted, visibly upset.  Was Daniel searching for a Utopia or did he just want to find decent people?  People that didn’t take advantage of one another, people that cared about one another, like he did.  Peeking over her shoulder to see if they were alone, esepcially Vala, who was still throughly enjoying her partial correctness, Adrienne put down her pack and staff weapon and without warning wrapped her arms around him hugging him tightly. 

“Sometimes good people have a hard time realizing that not everyone else is. Truly good people get their heartbroken because they do,” she whispered quietly and let go, reaching back over for her things and standing to leave.  Smiling slightly, she offered him her hand, which he took gratefully, rising to stand beside her 

“Thanks Ad,” he said quietly, but her face changed, and she giggled.  

“You called me Ad,” she quipped, winking.  Confused, he permanent state with her it seemed. 

“That’s your name last I checked....” he trailed, frowning, but she was beginning to laugh.  

“Just finish opening it when you get back....” she replied, raising her eyebrows as she pushed the brown curtain away to exit the tent. Daniel paused for a moment, and then it clicked, so he tore off behind her chasing him down.  

“Wait, wait, that was a test!?!? You wanted to see if I opened it!! Adrienne! Addy! Ad! Dammit, wait up!”  

*******

It was late Earth time, but Daniel just didn’t feel like going to bed; he was still too worked up over the mission and the lengthy briefing that followed. Clicking on the light to the lab, Daniel decided to work for a little while longer and then just crash in his on base quarters.  He had told Adrienne she could have the night off and after assuring her that he was going to be just fine, despite her obvious concern and constant protest, but finally just gave up on him, grabbing a few things from her desk and heading to her own on base quarters, still fussing on her way out of the door. 

Cracking his neck as he walked over to his desk, Daniel saw the box, remembering his mysterious gift, a warmer feeling taking over his mission failure melancholy. He lifted the lid and read the note again, the note signed ‘Ad’, apparently for no other reason that to see if he had paid attention to her.  Of course, why would he ever think anything else?  Setting it aside, he started to pull the remaining tissue away, piece by never ending piece, only to discover another note and more tissue.  He was puzzled, this gift had been wrapped entirely too well, what in the world has she hidden on this depth of wrapping and mess.   Opening the small folded piece of paper, Daniel scanned Adrienne’s messy script.  

Technically I am supposed to carry these....

Baffled he set that note aside as well and pulled away the remainder of the tissue.  What in the world could she be talking about? Peering down into the box, he saw that inside were two halves of coconut, hollowed out and dried.  It took him only a moment to register the reference and when he did he pulled them quickly out of the box, clacking them together and erupting into laughter. There was a shine from the bottom of the container, so he set the coconut halves aside to discover that underneath of them had been placed a small silver shot glass with another slip of paper tucked carefully inside. He pulled that paper out as well, unfolding it.  

You heard them this time, right?

Drink

Not bothering with his computer, or any work at all, having completely forgetting what he had come down here to do to take his mind off of everything in the first place, Daniel just grabbed the coconut halves and shot glass, heading back out into the hall, pulling the lab door closed behind him.  He hoped she was still up.