STARGATE: EXPLORER

by Lady Grey
Alpha/Beta by Jude

March 6

Aboard the Gaia

Colonel MacFarland stepped off the transporter pad with barely a glance at Daniel, who was standing off to one side, actually wringing his hands, his whole body quivering with anticipation. He'd wanted to go with the away team so badly, but he was still medically grounded, endlessly tested every day to try to discover why some of his Ascended abilities had returned.

She stepped around him as she opened her helmet. "We got nothin', Dan'l. Sorry."

Rose tried to hurry past him, anxious to get out of that clingy uniform and confining headgear, but Daniel pursued her, his long stride easily keeping up. He was close, right at her elbow, and his excitement was obvious, talking so fast his words ran together a little, making his questions hard to understand.  "So was there any Furling writing? Did you talk to anyone? Were the Jaffa--"

She lifted her head, intending to order him to just chill out, but one of the built-in circuits in her s'resh fried, just from being too close to him in that energized state. The insulation protected her from being burned, but it made an audible pop and sizzle, and she flinched instinctively.

"Oh, crap, was that me?" Daniel backed off a little, putting a few paces between them.  "Sorry, Rose.”  When she kept walking, he pursued her doggedly -- from a distance. “Sorry, sorry! But what’d you find out? I need details!"

Frustration and weariness hitting their peak, she whirled on him, hands on hips, chin jutting out as she glared. "Dammit, Daniel, can't you give it a rest for five minutes? Give a gal a chance to make a pit stop and catch her breath, wouldja? We've been down there for two days, feelin' out the locals and diggin' in the dirt, and I'd just like to freshen up a bit before we debrief, for cryin' out loud!"

She turned away, muttering so low she was pretty sure he couldn't hear her. "Swear t'God, just like a kid at Christmas, all big eyes and dimples. Any time we go anywhere without him, he’s every five minutes on the comm link. Dancing a freakin' jig at the transporter pad when we get back. Can't wait to hear every detail and look at all the data." She huffed to herself, hands waving in the air, then swinging at her sides in loose fists. "Might as well be going with us, the way he carries on."

"I heard that," he called from somewhere behind her. "Could you talk to Jack about that for me? Pleeeeease?"

With a sigh of resignation, she realized there really wasn't any point in keeping him confined to the ship; his abilities were more useful in the field, as long as he made an effort to keep himself in check. Going out on missions would probably help his emotions stay on a more even keel, as long as they stuck to exploring and stayed away from interaction with Jaffa cultures under Zeus's control.

"Give it a rest!” she threw over her shoulder.  “And yes, I'll talk to him, Daniel. Just let me… wind down a little, will ya?"

"Yes, ma'am," he sing-songed back to her, his voice fading as the distance between them increased.

She grinned in spite of her pique, knowing he couldn't see her face as she continued to stride away from him. The varmint was just too damn cute for his own good -- or for hers, apparently. "Gotta let 'im run around outdoors and tire himself out," she muttered under her breath. "Keep 'im busy, and keep him outta trouble, just like a five-year-old." 

It wouldn't take more than a day or so to send her recommendation to Alpha and get a response.

"God, I'm so easy," she said, shaking her head at herself. Only a few people could have manipulated her so thoroughly. Her late son had been one of them; Daniel Jackson was another.

She headed to her quarters to peel out of her s'resh, have a hot shower and grab a quick snack. After that, she'd make her report to Daniel and then send her request to General O'Neill to rescind Daniel's desk duty and let him get back to the field.

Rose suspected Jack would just sigh, shake his head and agree to it, just because he understood the pervasive influence of Doctor Jackson all too well himself.

And because they needed him out there.  No one would understand that better than the General.

March 8

The Planet Helicon

At first glance, the landscape appeared devoid of any artificial structures, but Daniel had grown accustomed to the genius of Furling architecture. Time and the elements had worn away much of the once-great city perched on the isolated mountainside, but there was enough of it left to trigger his admiration. Huge pinnacles of stone reached heavenward, decorated with faint whorls and the remnants of elegant scrollwork. Behind them, a range of snowy peaks cut into the horizon, and all about them a cold wind howled a lonely, haunted song.

Far away, well down the slope in the verdant valley below, trails of smoke smudged the blue sky, feathery gray plumes from open cooking hearths and the fireplaces of small stone huts. Both Ting-sha and Jaffa loyal to Zeus lived there, and Daniel and his away team had given the village a wide berth. The residents didn't come up to the ruins, according to the Artisan spy network, but Scout hadn't wanted to take any chances, so ten of the super-sized Mountain Clan Furlings had come with them and were now patrolling the perimeter, keeping watch on the surrounding territory.

Daniel was pleased to see how well the giants fit in with the scale of the ruins; he surmised that this must have been one of their colonies. The grandeur of the scenery seemed to be a place where Mountain Clan would feel at home.

With a final appreciative scan of the landscape, Daniel turned back to tackling the rocky slope. Scout was twenty feet ahead of him, scattering pebbles with every step, despite the careful placement of his boots. Denali prowled off to Daniel's left, with Rose in the middle between them.

"Holy crap!" she cried suddenly, dropping into a slight crouch and raising her right fist, built-in weaponry aimed and ready to fire.

Daniel turned to catch the briefest glimpse of something just in front of her -- and then it was gone.

"What the hell?" she breathed into the comm link. "Did anybody else catch that but me?"

"What did you see?" asked Denali, taking huge strides toward her. 

"No wonder the locals think this place is spooky," Rose growled, straightening up and lowering her arm. "I don't know what that was. Didn't see it for long enough, but it was big." She eyed the giant. "Bigger’n you."

"I think it was a holograph," Daniel told her. "See if you can activate it again. Do whatever it was that you were just doing."

She backed up a bit and tried to repeat her movements, but the image didn't reappear.

Scout's voice called through the link, and more pebbles scattered in his wake as he hurried over the crest of the slope. "This way. I've found the portal to the city."

Daniel, Rose, and Denali raced toward him, but just as they reached the ridge, everyone skidded to a halt beside the elder. The slope flattened slightly, and in the middle of the level spot, a circular marble platform had been carved into the mountain, its weathered surface incised with barely-visible Furling characters. It closely resembled the bejeweled transporter pad Scout had used to take Daniel to Shahr on Furdani. On either side of the disk stood a tall stone pillar; one still erect and intact, the other toppled over on the grass beside the round platform.

What caught their attention, however, was a pair of legs extending from underneath the pillar.

The limbs looked human, and as the team drew closer, Daniel thought the clothes looked disturbingly familiar.

Scout was fastest, with Daniel hot on his heels. The elder called for assistance from the nearest of the Mountain Clan, and with some effort, they managed to lift enough of the rock off the body to pull it clear. The man was face down, but Daniel thought he recognized that head of dark hair. He reached to turn him over, but Scout stopped him.

"Let me scan him first. He may need to be taken to the infirmary without being otherwise moved." Scout ran the sensor in his s'resh over the victim, checking for damage, and then shot a meaningful glance at his companions. "He's unconscious. Badly injured, but still alive."

Daniel accessed the bio-scan data through his link and felt his stomach clench. The man was almost cut in half, his midsection squashed flat. Even with the amazing advances of Furling medicine, Daniel was sure these wounds would be too severe for him to survive. All they'd be able to do would be to make him comfortable.

The transport operator on Gaia beamed the team directly to the infirmary with the rescued man, and as soon as the body was turned so he could see the face, Daniel felt himself grow cold inside. 

It was Ba'al -- or one of his clones.

Rose nudged Daniel with her elbow as they stood nearby, watching the medical teamwork on their patient. "Isn't that…"

"Yeah," he answered, flicking his helmet open. “It sure looks like the System Lord, Ba’al.”

"Doctor Lam,” Rose called out. “There's a Goa'uld symbiote inside him. Be careful."

Carolyn didn't look up, her hands busy, attention focused on her patient. "It's not going anywhere, Colonel," she shot back flatly. "Trust me on that."

"Correct, Doctor," gasped Ba'al, his voice unnaturally husky with alien influence. He swallowed visibly and flashed a weak, resigned, totally mirthless smile. "I am dying. We are dying. Nothing. Can stop that. Now." He coughed slightly, his face contorting with the pain it caused him, and a few flecks of blood spotted his lips. 

Daniel stepped closer, leaning slightly over the bed to put his face into Ba'al's view. "What were you doing on that world?" he demanded.

Ba'al's dark eyes focused on him.  "Ah. Doctor. Jackson." The Goa’uld’s feverish gaze moved around his bed, taking in the sight of tiny Sky Clan messengers flying overhead, the diminutive Grass Clan healer, Jarvik, guiding the human doctor, the tall Forest Clan elder standing at Daniel's side, and the giant Mountain Clan male standing at the foot of the bed. He forced another smile, this one tinged with irony, his eyes rolling slowly back to look into Daniel's face. 

His words were halting, difficult, obviously spoken with great pain by the symbiote as his host struggled for breath. "These must be. The exiles."

Chatter in the infirmary ceased, and all eyes turned to the man on the treatment platform. Only Doctor Lam kept moving, placing a thick pain relief patch along the base of the Goa'uld's throat, as Jarvik directed her. She started cutting away the black tunic her patient wore, zapping every wound she could find with a small laser tool that immediately closed them up.

Finally, she sighed and straightened up, eyes only for the man in the bed. "That's the best I can do," she said quietly. "The patch should numb the pain in another few seconds. I wish I could do more for you."

"Thank you. Doctor," Ba'al wheezed. His head turned slightly as he met Daniel's curious gaze again. "You have. Interesting. Friends, Doctor Jackson." 

"You brought the Hub to the SGC and forced Sam to download our database into it. Zeus stole it from you and tried to make me unlock it. I want to know where you found it." Daniel reached behind him, fumbling to pull the PDHD from its carrying pouch at the small of his back. He held it up for Ba'al to see. "Where did you find this? What were you doing in those ruins?” 

When an answer wasn’t immediately forthcoming, he leaned a bit closer and rasped out, “Tell me!"

"Looking for. Technology. Weapons."

"Where--"

"Daniel, leave him alone," Lam snapped, giving him a little push. "Let him rest."

Scout gave an order in his native dialect, and Jarvik hurried to carry it out. The little female's hands activated a panel near Ba'al's head, and a memory-recording unit curved upward over the top of his skull.

"Look for. The Burning Gate," said Ba'al wetly, more blood spotting his lips. "For their. Origin." His gaze softened, turning almost wistful as it shifted to Scout's face. "I would have liked. To have known them."

He closed his eyes and relaxed just as the memory recorder lit up, finally ready to do its job, but an instant too late.

Daniel had seen enough death in the last ten years to know without being told that Ba'al had just died, and whatever information the Goa'uld knew about Furling history had expired with him.

Daniel leaned on the edge of the treatment platform, his head hanging in defeat as Doctor Lam made it official. He frowned, angry and frustrated that they hadn't arrived sooner; if they had, there might have been more they could have done. And there was still so much left to do. There was a whole Furling city down there, waiting to be rediscovered.

"I'm going back to the ruins," he announced to no one in particular as he pivoted on his heel and stormed out of the infirmary, heading for the transport deck, his stride purposeful.

"We all go," Scout agreed. Denali, Rose, and the elder followed him back to the transporter room.

Minutes later, the away team stood on the stone platform on the mountainside, searching for a way inside the cavern beneath the ruins that they all knew were there. This city was shielded, and they hadn't been able to beam directly into the subterranean structure. It hadn't even shown up on their scan of the planet, which indicated some of the Furling technology might have survived. Maybe some of the Furlings had, too.

This time, they stood six feet apart, walking abreast as they advanced up the slope, carefully searching in a well-defined grid, going over every inch of ground together, each determined to make the planet give up its secrets. It was hours later before they again arrived beside the worn stone transport platform.

Daniel's stomach rumbled. He was tired and leaning toward impatience when he spoke. "Anybody got any ideas? I don't want to leave this site empty-handed, but I'm beginning to think there may be no way down there."

"There’s always a way," el-Mikha mused, crossing his arms over his chest. "We simply have to be patient enough to find it."

Denali wandered back down slope, heading to the place where Rose had seen the flash. Just as he crossed the spot, an image appeared in front of him. Instead of disappearing, it held its position, standing just a few feet off to his left. Denali gave a surprised little whuff, raising his hands as if to defend himself.

Daniel whirled around at the sound and froze as he saw his Furling friend and the hologram that stood so close to the giant. "Whoa," Daniel exclaimed under his breath, eyes riveted to the image.

It, too, was a Furling, but unlike any he'd ever seen. For one thing, it was a good six inches taller than Denali, just as Rose had mentioned in the brief glimpse she'd seen of it. For another, it was obviously female. Daniel knew there hadn't been any females among Mountain Clan for millennia.

She looked different, too. Her body proportions were much more like a human's, except for her size -- smaller eyes, a more prominent nose, and platinum blonde hair. Her irises and pupils were vastly distinctive, though -- the pale blue iris took up most of the visible eyeball, and the pupils were slitted in the bright sunshine, like a cat's.

When she spoke, her voice seemed to come from everywhere around them. The language was a Mountain dialect, but archaic in form, so some of the words Daniel didn't recognize at all. He had to read the translation on his visor to follow the conversation. 

"You are of the People?" asked the hologram.

"I am," Denali answered. His exultant excitement at the appearance of this apparition was obvious, his face lit up with joy. "We would speak with you directly, rather than to your image. By el, we had not thought any of our kind survived on other worlds!"

She cocked her head slightly, her expression sad. "We have not," she returned quietly. "This image is generated automatically in response to the scan of your body. I am programmed to interact only to a small degree."

"We wish to enter the city," Denali stated.

"I cannot grant access. The system is secured, set to welcome the return of our People; however, there is now no one left to allow you entry."

"Then how can we get inside?"

She smiled slightly, a trace of irony in her pale eyes. "The only way to enter the city is to destroy it."

"No!" Denali choked. “We cannot!” He shook his great head, lifting his hands in supplication to the avatar. "What happened here? Are there no survivors? We have so many questions."

The apparition's eyes stared into the far horizon, her expression wistful. "No one has survived. At the time this message is being prepared, our colonies are being destroyed everywhere. Few of us have survived here, and we shall not last much longer, cut off from the surface as we are." 

"Is that what happened?" asked Scout, his voice thick with grief. "You sealed yourselves up in the city, and it became your tomb?"

The avatar nodded. "There is nothing else we can do. The Nox have killed the Ancients, and now the Ancients are killing us." 

"What?!" blurted Daniel, hurrying over to the image, trying not to get too close, for fear of accidentally shutting it off. "The Nox killed the Ancients? How?"

Frowning, the giantess turned to look at Daniel. She leaned closer, eyes narrowing as she studied him. Her gaze shifted to Rose, and both humans heard a faint, brief hum that accompanied her scrutiny as they were scanned by the machinery guarding the subterranean ruins.

Then the image of the ancient Furling female straightened, looking genuinely surprised as she began to laugh.

"I didn't know computers had a sense of humor," Rose stated dryly, hands on hips. "What's that about? Do we look funny or somethin'?"

The hologram's attention turned back to Denali. "We have apparently succeeded, brother," she told him enthusiastically. "This is a cause for celebration. Perhaps we did not die in vain, after all."

"Explain," Denali demanded, his dark brow wrinkling in confusion. "We do not understand."

"You must act quickly," said the giantess, her humor slowly fading. "Soon the planet will begin to shake. The city will fall in upon itself, and you will lose what chance you may have of finding your answers. I repeat; if you would see your past, you must destroy that which protects it and keeps it hidden. Come, brother, while there is still time! You do not have long. The failsafe has been activated by a recent intruder, and what has been set in motion cannot be stopped by my memory."

The apparition abruptly vanished, and the away team exchanged shocked glances.

"The Nox killed the Ancients?" Daniel asked, repeating what the system message had told them. "How did the Furlings succeed? Why was she laughing?"

"We must get to the city before--" Scout's directive was cut off by a strong tremor that ran through the ground beneath them. He turned, glancing toward the village down the slope. "Those people. They may be in danger."

His hand touched the control link on the comm system, and he called the ship. "Captain, scan this area for potential damage by seismic activity. Is the village threatened?"

A moment later, the answer came clearly through the comm link. "Damage will be minor, but there may be casualties."

Scout's attention turned immediately to other matters. He started off down slope at a jog, calling through the link, "Begin sending the People to the village to help evacuate. Target the energy source for the underground city's security generator and destroy it."

"Scans do not penetrate," Captain reminded him. "We do not know if the protective machinery will be in the same place as in our other cities."

"Then guess!" Scout ordered. "Do your best. Destroy it all if you must, but shut it down!"

Then he was running, with the rest of the away team right behind him.

First, they would save lives. Then they would recover their past, if there were anything left of the dead city.

Daniel felt ill, all too aware of the potential for loss here. Instinctive panic set in when the tremors increased. As they neared the settlement populated by Jaffa and Ting-sha, he could hear the percussive strikes of Gaia's weapons hitting the mountainside with laser precision, cutting deep into the planet, searching for the source of the underground city's protective shields.

The earth split along fault lines, and the ground ruptured open all around them. Mud and stone huts toppled into the cavern and newly-created chasms as the bedrock cracked and split. At the same time, plinths of granite pushed upward, cutting into the sky. Everyone was screaming, looking for sanctuary, but there was no such haven during a planetary quake.

Daniel watched groups of people disappear all around him as the Furling crew beamed them aboard the great ship. At times, he couldn't think, too terrified to do anything but run. Then reason would take hold, and he'd look around for someone to help. His hands went out to everyone who needed it -- even to the wolfish Ting-sha -- dragging them out of rubble, carrying them to huddled clusters to be transported away.

By the time the tremors finally ceased, there were few survivors left in the village, and the sound of screaming had receded to eerie silence. All along the northern edge of the settlement, nothing had been spared. Houses and buildings had been flattened, shaken apart by the quake, or swallowed whole. Wide cracks had opened in the solid rock, but most of the damage to the village had been the result of the ground giving way, falling into the cavern below the surface, where the ancient Furling city had been hidden for eons.

Daniel stood near the edge of the biggest chasm, holding onto a Ting-sha child, who clung to him with an iron grip. He peered down into the abyss, taking note of the silent ruins now visible in neatly terraced layers, disappearing into darkness far below him.  Much of the city had been destroyed -- that he could see from where he was standing -- rubble and dust filling doorways and spilling over the edges of balconies, but he hoped there would be something left to study. 

He had a new clue, a tantalizing hint that the Furlings' history was even more complicated than he had imagined, and that the Nox had played a much bigger part in the near-genocide than they had admitted. Daniel had to know the truth.

The little one wailing against his helmet was getting heavy, so he turned away from the chasm to carry it toward the handful of villagers, hoping someone there would look after it until it could be reunited with its relatives.

After depositing the pup with the other survivors, Daniel went in search of his teammates. He found Scout kneeling beside Rose, applying pressure to a wound in her left chest. She'd fallen into some rubble and been speared with a large piece of broken glass, which was still sticking out of her upper body.

He was arguing with her, his gloved hands on the wide edge of the shard.  "Let me--"

"No, God damn it!" she grunted. She batted his hand away with her right arm, then flopped back against the ground, panting in agony. "You pull that thing out, and I'll bleed to death before you can get me back to the ship!" 

"Oh, God, Rose!" Daniel cried, hurrying to her side. He dropped to his knees, guts twisting at the sight of his wounded comrade.

Scout's fingertips tightened on the glass. "I have to get this out of you, friend," he pleaded. "Please, let me help you."

"Get me. The hell. Back. To. The. Ship!" she ground out through clenched teeth.

Even though Daniel couldn't see her face behind the visor, he could hear from the way she said the words that she was both pissed off and fighting tremendous pain. 

The elder finally acquiesced and turned loose of the shard. He glanced about and spied Denali approaching them with long strides. "Help me get her back to Gaia!" he shouted to the giant. "Carry her to that group waiting for transport." He nodded his head toward the nearest survivors, then bent to help Rose to her feet.

Daniel slipped his arms beneath her on the other side and together, he and Scout lifted her. She grunted with pain but didn't cry out. There were little flecks of white foam mixed with the blood around her wound, and Daniel realized her left lung had probably been pierced.

"We have to go now," he told Scout, adjusting his comm link to call the ship. "We can't wait for Denali."

It was only a matter of moments before they’d been beamed up and had Rose in the infirmary. A busy medical staff shooed them off, and Daniel walked with Scout into the corridor, where they could watch through the big observation windows without being in the way. It was only then that Daniel noticed several deep slashes across the elder's chest; something had cut him deeply, all the way through the tough fabric of his s'resh. The front of his uniform was stained with blood, and Daniel was sure now that much of it was Scout's, as well as Rose's.

"You should have someone look at that," Daniel suggested, pointing.

"What?" Scout's gaze dropped to his chest. "Oh. I will heal." He turned his attention back to Rose's bed and the group working on her, without the slightest hint of concern for himself.

"Look, I know that taimin tea is great stuff," Daniel returned, "but those are pretty deep cuts. You need stitches, Scout. Come on. I'm sure we can find someone to--" He'd put his hand under one of the elder's elbows, trying to turn and guide him back into the infirmary.

"Leave it!" Scout snapped, pulling his arm away and shooting him a brief glare before returning to his watch over Rose. "I'll be unmarked in a day. This is merely an inconvenience."

Chastened, Daniel didn't argue, even though he'd spent enough time with the Furlings to know a little something about their physiology; none of them healed that fast. Though Scout had exhibited more robust health than all the others around him -- he'd never been ill or injured in the entire time Daniel had known him -- he was still subject to the rules of the flesh. If he didn't want to be bothered now, Daniel would bide his time until Rose had been stabilized before bringing the subject up again.

They waited and watched together.

Eventually, Denali joined them, after tending to his duties in helping to resettle the villagers aboard the ship. His expression was filled with concern as he came to stand beside Scout. "Any word?" he asked quietly.

Daniel was familiar with the rhythm of a trauma team, and he could see from the way they worked that the crisis had passed. Rose lifted her hand, and Daniel heard Scout sigh in relief. "I think she's gonna be okay." He turned to eye the elder. "Can we get someone to look at your cuts now?"

Scout smiled and shook his head. "Thank you for your concern, but it's really nothing. Come, let’s check on the Colonel, and then I'll show you." After they'd received a report confirming Rose's eventual recovery, the elder led the way to his quarters, with Denali strolling along behind them, acting as escort.

"The Captain has suggested that our friend here," the giant glanced meaningfully at a small group of Ting-sha being herded down the corridor, carefully avoiding mention of Daniel's name, "be sequestered in the elder's quarters until the refugees have all been cleared from the ship."

Daniel's head came up. His helmet still covered his face, but if he wanted to eat and drink with his identity secure, he'd need to make absolutely sure none of the Jaffa or Ting-sha could see him. He hadn't given that idea a thought until now.

"I could just stay in my rooms or my office," he suggested, not liking the idea of what amounted to house arrest.

"You have no retainers to stand between you and any unintended visitors, and we have no doors to shut them out," Scout reminded him. "Posting guards outside your quarters would be advertising that there's something or someone inside we don't want anyone to see. If you're in my household, newcomers will be screened before they enter, as would be appropriate for my station in our society." 

"I walk right into your place all the time," Daniel countered. "Nobody even notices."

The giant chuckled, his deep voice a soothing rumble behind them. "And you are never unexpected or unobserved. While there are strangers on board, the elder's rooms will be guarded, his staff visible, and there you may remain undisturbed until you are once again free to go wherever you choose without risk of recognition."

As they arrived at the entrance to Scout’s apartments, Daniel saw that guards had already been posted; two Mountain giants, clad in gleaming red and silver armor, were stationed on either side of the door, and they gave Scout a slight bow as he stepped between them.

Having finished his escort duties, Denali continued on his way without coming inside, handing off his charges to the household staff.

Still certain that el-Mikha needed medical attention, Daniel followed him into the suite, all the way through to the elder's private bathing area in the back.

His friend grimaced as he tried to peel off the tight-fitting s'resh, then shot Daniel a frustrated glare. "Would you mind helping me out of this?"

Daniel was already up and pulling on the garment's collar, tugging close-fitting upper portion of the one-piece suit off over Scout's broad shoulders. It was hard enough to put on or remove those things when there weren't injuries, Daniel knew; rather like putting on a wetsuit for deep-sea diving.  "I still think…"

"I'll be fine." The elder grunted as his friend helped extract his other arm. "I can do the rest myself. If you'd like to clean up, you know where the guest quarters are. Make yourself at home."

"Thanks, Scout." As el-Mikha resumed undressing, Daniel turned away and went to the closest of the plush guestrooms, where he cleaned up quickly and rummaged in the closet for something to wear.  He dressed in a loose-fitting white tunic and red pants, tied at the waist with a drawstring. These were one-size-fits-most extras, kept for guests who might not have brought their own clothing, and they'd do till he could get to his own duds.

He hadn't worn any color besides black in such a long time, it felt odd to be dressed in anything else.

As soon as he was finished, he padded barefoot back to Scout's door-less bathroom and barged right in, just like all the Furlings did. The elder had already stepped into a pair of black pants, but was still shirtless. Daniel stared in amazement at the mere scratches that remained on Scout's chest. 

"You see?” Scout murmured.  “Better already." He gingerly touched the reddened skin around the wounds, gently prodding at them to test for soreness. "Ouch!”  Grinning, he looked up at Daniel.  “Is that the proper English word?"

"Yes. It's more of a sound than a word, but…" Daniel turned wide eyes up to his friend's face. "How is this possible?"

"Elders are of great value to our people," Scout told him enigmatically, buffing his skin dry with a towel, blotting it carefully over the wounds to keep from reopening them. "I've lived far longer than you can imagine." Suddenly, the alien looked weary to the core. "It can be both a blessing and a curse, to live as long as I have,” he confided quietly. “As long as I will."

Daniel frowned. "What do you mean?" He'd never actually asked Scout his age, just assuming by his general appearance compared to other Furlings that he was nearing mid-life. "I don't understand. How old are you?"

Scout shrugged and turned away to fetch a clean shirt. "I lost count some time ago. The way I keep track now is by the generations of my family." He gestured with one hand toward the more public rooms of his apartment. "Those of my household aren't my servants, you know, despite how it may appear. They're my descendents, by many generations."

"I had no idea," Daniel whispered. "You sure don't look… um. Why -- how -- uh." His mind was so blown, he couldn't separate all the questions he wanted to ask into a single coherent thought.

"I'll grow old and die, at some point," Scout assured his friend, "only very slowly. Until that time, I live in service to my people. Being an elder of the Forest Clan isn't a position of leadership, as our Ting-sha guests assume, but of servitude. That's the true price of power, el-Dani. Those who rule wisely, do so from the most humble of positions. Remember that."

Daniel nodded, tumbling the concept around in his head. What made the distinction Scout was talking about was an attitude of the heart. By becoming a true servant to his people, the elder rested at the pinnacle of their esteem. The paradox was intriguing. 

He began to wonder what other Furling secrets he had yet to discover. He wanted to know how they kept Scout so youthful and healthy, to learn all the history he'd seen during his extended lifetime, to really explore his background. Daniel had so much he still didn’t know, and only a mere mortal lifespan to research it all. In a way, he envied Scout his longevity, but he also sympathized with his emotional fatigue.

The elder had probably lost everyone he'd ever loved, one by one, over and over again with each passing generation. Daniel understood loss, but not to that degree. To live that kind of lifespan would wear on a person after a while, and possibly make him less prone to get attached to others. 

And yet, as they'd stood outside the infirmary after they’d returned to the ship, it was obvious that Scout cared a great deal about Colonel MacFarland -- not in a romantic way, but as a teammate. That sense of empathy and the respect he had for others made Daniel’s admiration for Scout grow even deeper. It was also obvious to Daniel that Scout was attempting to share a deeply personal insight with him.  

This could be a great opportunity to make a first step toward becoming real friends. Daniel liked him, enjoyed his company. They'd spent so much time together in the last six months, yet Daniel really didn't know him at all. He felt he knew the elder, but not el-Mikha. 

"You don't talk about this much, do you?" asked Daniel intuitively.

Scout shook his head. "Few can understand," he admitted slowly. "Even inside the council, we don't discuss our feelings or share our burdens.” Shrugging, he turned away to pull on a tan velvet tunic, embellished with gold thread in the shape of flames rising around the hem, at the cuffs, and across the chest. “Maybe I shouldn't have…" he murmured as he fastened a well-used leather belt around his waist.

"I might not be able to understand," Daniel offered as he watched Scout push his feet into a pair of knee-high black suede boots, "but I know how it feels to be alone in a crowd, to live on the outside of everyone else's lives. And I think you’d find I’m a good listener, if you ever want to talk. Sometimes that helps, just to say what you're feeling."

Scout finger-combed his damp hair, tossing his long evergreen mane back over his shoulder when he was done with the cursory grooming. "I would like that, my friend. Perhaps we'll talk after dinner. Since you're restricted to my quarters until our guests have been resettled, my family and I will be pleased to have you join us." He flashed a smile and led the way to his household dining room with Daniel at his side. 

End Chapter 31

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