Chappa'ai
Chappa'ai
by Raven
TITLE: Chappa'ai
AUTHOR: Raven
EMAIL: iona_bookworm@hotmail.com
CATEGORY: Missing Scene/Epilogue, Drama, Romance
PAIRING: Daniel/Sha're
SPOILERS: Children of the gods, what else?
SEASON / SEQUEL: 1
RATING: PG
CONTENT WARNINGS: none
SUMMARY: Daniel and Sha're are driving Skaara crazy... What Children of the Gods might have looked like from a different point of view.
STATUS: Complete
ARCHIVE: Heliopolis
DISCLAIMER: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know that! We're only poor fanfic writers without a penny to our names, you wouldn't sue us, would you...
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Four re-writes after I first had the idea, and I finally wrote this! Thanks to my beta-readers, Emily, Clare, and my mother. Incidentally, to my mother... I miss you... come home!
"I have a few questions for you, Daniel," Jack O'Neill said. Before he actually tried getting Daniel drunk, he wanted to know exactly how much he could get out of him sober. And it appeared that only he, Jack O'Neill, realised what had happened to the young archaeologist-gone-native in the space of just a few hours today. Daniel had had his peaceful life overturned. The arrival of the Earth team, the kidnapping of his wife, the desperate promise he'd made to the Abydonians he'd come to love, and finally, a strange world, full of military personnel, and no-one who had time for a young, grieving archaeologist with sand in his hair and absolutely no idea what was going on.
"How did you know we were coming? How come you've corrupted all the Abydonians with alcohol? And how, for the love of God, did that multi-million dollar probe get turned into a saucepan?" Jack had come to the decision that the only way to make Daniel talk was to keep asking him questions until he gave in.
Daniel closed his eyes. In a second, he was back where he called home, a desert planet named Abydos, and in his mind's eye, he saw everything as it had happened just three days before.
Kasuf wandered across the sands and enjoyed the sight of his people talking, laughing, working, playing, living their lives free from slavery. As the chieftain of the tribe, Kasuf prided himself on being able to identify each and every one of them, but in front of him were two people everyone knew. One of them was his son, a fine young boy, Skaara. As for the other, he was Kasuf's son-in-law. But he was more than that. He had come from a far away place, and just by looking at him, you could tell. For decades, for centuries, for millennia, all the humans on this world were born with dark skin, dark hair, and in time, dark eyes. It was the way of the world.
But one short year ago, the way of the world had changed. After so long in slavery to false gods, Kasuf's people had been freed, by strangers from another world. Although nearly all of the strangers, including Skaara's special friend, Colonel O'Neill, had returned to their own world, one of them still remained. And this one did not have the dark hair and eyes Kasuf was accustomed to seeing in his people. Daniel was one of them now, ever since his marriage, but close as it was, the marriage could not be described as a blood relationship. Daniel's deep blue eyes, fair skin, and long fair hair set him out as one different. And it was not only in looks he was different. He knew things, things none of the others knew, and sometimes, he said things that were frankly incomprehensible to those around him.
Kasuf supposed he ought to feel jealous that his position as wisest of the tribe was slowly being taken by a fair-haired stranger young enough to be his son. But he wasn't. Daniel's gentle ways, his eccentricity, and his obvious love for Sha're had endeared him to them all as a mentor, guide, and friend.
Skaara, sitting cross-legged on a sandy hill, suddenly felt extremely suspicious. "Daniel? Why are you laughing?"
Daniel pushed his hair out of his eyes. After a year spent living on Abydos, he had let it grow, taking his chance to go native. The only things he had to remind himself of the world he was born on was were his glasses, which he was extremely careful with, as if he smashed them, there was really no way for him to get another pair.
"I am not laughing, my brother," he assured Skaara.
Skaara remained unconvinced. His brother-in-law had spent much of the morning sitting on this hill with a large pot full of a transparent liquid, occasionally dipping his finger in it, occasionally adding water to it, and every so often, tipping it out onto the sand and beginning again. Now, he was inviting him to taste it, and Skaara had his doubts. He tried staring directly at his brother to see if he was lying, but Daniel merely stared blandly back out of those distinctive sapphire eyes.
Gingerly, Skaara dipped a finger into the liquid, and even more gingerly, put it into his mouth. For a second, he wondered if he was being poisoned. "It burns!" he cried. "It burns!"
Daniel gave up the struggle and laughed. "It's meant to, Skaara," he said. "On Earth, we call it alcohol."
"What do you do with it?" spluttered Skaara, drinking an entire mug of water to get the taste out of his mouth.
"We drink it," Daniel told him, still laughing. "But we tend to dilute it with other things first."
"Drink it!" Skaara was bewildered. "Why?"
"Good question," Daniel said. He was about to go on, when his view of the world suddenly turned into blackness. Some very silent person had come up behind him and put their hands over his eyes.
"Daniel..." said a voice.
"Sha're," he guessed, and she laughed delightedly, swinging him round to face her. "What have you been doing for so long?" Sha're asked.
"Teaching Skaara," Daniel told his wife innocently. Skaara made a face at this. His elder sister, Sha're, and Daniel had been married for a year now, and were both considered grown up, but they both still acted like children sometimes.
Suddenly, the small hill of sand they had all been sitting on began to give way. Skaara managed to save himself, but Daniel and Sha're didn't, rolling over and over until they reached the bottom, covered in sand and laughing hysterically. At this point, Kasuf joined his son at the top of the hill.
"Greetings, Skaara," he said. "Where are Daniel and Sha're?"
"Down there." Skaara pointed out the couple as they stood up and brushed the sand off each other. Kasuf laughed at the sight of them trying to scramble back up the sand dune, frequently falling on top of each other in the process. Sha're kissed Daniel on the top of his head, making him laugh, kiss her back, lose his balance, and the pair of them rolled back to the bottom of the hill to come to rest in a tangled heap.
"They must be crazy," Skaara declared. "Touched by the sun."
Kasuf glanced at his son, smiling. "You will learn," he said. "You will learn."
A little later, when it was beginning to get dark, Sha're and her friends were cooking the meal, whilst Skaara gathered everyone together and Daniel lit the lamps, frequently spilling hot oil on his fingers. Suddenly, a boy ran into the courtyard, gasping for breath. "Daniel!" he shouted.
Daniel recognised the boy. "Nabeh! What has happened?"
"It was... it was the chappa'ai! It has come to life!" Nabeh announced.
Daniel froze. "Chappa'ai?" he repeated. "It was buried... nothing could come out of it..."
"Come, Daniel!" Nabeh insisted. "Come!"
Daniel nodded. Turning to Skaara, he said: "Tell Sha're I've gone, but I'll be back soon, all right?"
Skaara nodded, and Daniel and Nabeh hurried out into the night
The Abydos Gate room was normally one of Daniel's favourite places to be. But as he entered it this time, he knew it was different. On the floor lay the horizontal Stargate, that until recently had been buried in rocks. But the vortex of the wormhole had destroyed the barricade, and there was now only rubble obscuring the huge stone ring. However, it would seem that the barricade had done its job. There was something there among the rubble that only Daniel, with an archaeologist's eye for detail, had seen. It was something made out of smoking mangled metal. Whatever it was, the barricade had meant it was pretty much destroyed upon re-integration.
Carefully, Daniel approached whatever-it-was, hoping, praying, to God, to Osiris, that that chunk of mangled metal wasn't a bomb. Holding his breath, he reached out for it. It was warm, but not enough to burn his hands, and he could tell that whatever it was, it wasn't a bomb. Instead, it appeared to be some kind of scientific... something. With a flash of intuition, Daniel realised what it was.
"It is... what?" Sha're asked suspiciously, a short while later. When Skaara told her that Daniel had gone to the chappa'ai, she had been worried and confused. But now he was back safe and sound, she was merely confused.
"A probe," Daniel repeated. "It's a kind of... machine. It's used to gather data, and then it transmits it back as radio signals that are interpreted by the computers on the other end..." He stopped. Once again, he was the only person on the planet who knew what he was talking about.
"Do you still have need of it?" Sha're wanted to know.
"No," Daniel said, looking at his wife curiously. She merely smiled infuriatingly at him, and took the mangled metal remains of the probe out of his hands.
Over the course of the next few days, more things joined Daniel and Sha're's collection of artefacts that had emerged from the chappa'ai. A Kleenex box of tissues, for one. On its arrival through the great stone ring, Daniel had taken one brief dumbstruck look at the object, and then laughed hysterically. He'd then gone on to empty the box of the tissues, procure a paintbrush and some paint from somewhere, and paint on the side, "Thanks. Send more," while all the time smiling to himself and occasionally laughing a little more.
Daniel had then despatched the box through the chappa'ai, much to Sha're's mystification, and he had put the boys on armed guard around the chappa'ai thirty-six hours a day. And Daniel and Sha're had been there when at last the portal activated, and a very familiar team of Earth military stepped through, headed by a certain Colonel Jack O'Neill.
"That was it," Daniel said. "When I found the probe in the rubble, I guessed you people were planning a visit, and I had the boys remove all the rubble and pull the chappa'ai vertical again. After that, Sha're decided that as we had no further use for it, she would try banging the probe up with a mallet and...well, she made a saucepan out of it. Then, you sent through the tissues. Do you know how much trouble I went to trying to explain to them what tissues are used for?" After a pause, he added: "Desert planet. People don't catch colds often. Skaara guessed the tissues were from you though. He missed you. And now..." Daniel stopped talking, thinking about where Skaara and Sha're were now. He went on, "I should never have left. If I stayed... just a little longer..."
Jack O'Neill looked at his friend sadly. Daniel had been back on Earth for about one full day now (twenty-four hours of Earth time, but on Daniel's time scale, a day was thirty-six hours) but he still looked lost. "Daniel," he said softly. "You're home now. We'll try and get Sha're back, you know we will. But we can't do it without you. You're the only one who really knows the language."
"I know, Jack, I know," Daniel said sadly. "But you're wrong about one thing."
"What?" the colonel asked. Daniel was a rare human being, one of those who happily told him he was wrong.
"I'm not at home," Daniel said. "Home is... home is Abydos. I don't belong here, Jack. I never did. I never fitted in anywhere, least of all with the military!"
"Daniel," Jack said, "I know you're not military. Everyone knows you're not military. But you're something of a living legend around these parts. Do you know what Carter said when she realised you weren't dead and that she got to meet you in person?"
Daniel smiled, a little sadly, but it was a smile. Jack was encouraged, and went on, "You'll feel better soon, Daniel. Just wait till you've got your bearings."
Daniel didn't say anything. Jack wisely left him to it, letting his words sink into the lost archaeologist's bewildered head. Suddenly, Daniel stood up. He padded across the room, trying to get used to the sensation of walking on a hard floor instead of soft sand, and came to a stop by the big window that overlooked the Gate room. "Tomorrow," he said. "Tomorrow, we go through that."
"Yeah," Jack said. "I'll look after you, Daniel, don't worry. You remember the deal, don't you? I watch our butts, you get us home!"
Daniel smiled at the memory, thinking of when Skaara had shown him the seventh symbol. "Through the chappa'ai," he said.
Jack shook his head. "Chappa'ai? That's not what the US Air Force call it, Jackson."
"Oh, Jack..."
"Say it, Daniel. You're on Earth now."
Daniel looked pained. He hated doing this. The unusual dialect he spoke, English and Abydonian in fairly equal proportions, was his last link with his home. But he knew Jack was right. When on Earth... do as the Earthlings do.
"Chappa'ai," he said once more, letting the soft word hang in the silence, and then he let it go. Daniel looked at Jack O'Neill, and said softly, "Stargate."
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