Hi, It's Me Again... Pt Two

Posted on Sun Mar 3rd, 2019 @ 2:11am by Civillian Shae & Major Jacob Asher

Mission: Aftermath
Location: Infirmary/Lethuan
Timeline: Current

Shae definitely wanted to finish her delicious meal, and she even stole a few pieces from Jake’s plate just to try the chicken with this wonderful sauce; she definitely wanted to meet the ‘Mama Edith’ who made all this, because it was amazing! By the time Jake came back, she was finished and cleaned up, and her leg had been checked and rebandaged, and she had dressed as much as she could, except of course her pants. With the new pants and the rest of her furs from her room that Jake brought her, she finished getting dress and layered the furs around her body to keep warm.

“You must report your whereabouts to your superiors, right? Your Wolf General is okay with you going to Lethuan with me?” Shae asked as she secured her boots.

“Already done,” Jake said. “Nate...General Wolf gave me a little bit of leave time. He’s giving everyone a little time to recover before we regroup and start over. So, if you’re ready, we can go.”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” Shae said once she was finished with her boots, then stood up. Her leg nearly gave out from underneath her, but she held onto the bed until she felt secure that her leg wouldn’t do that again. “So, what are we to do once we ‘regroup’?” Shae asked as they walked to the gateroom. “I’m not even sure what my function is among your people.”

Jake waited to make sure Shae could walk, then set off at a easy pace to accommodate her...without making it obvious he was slowing down for her.

“Well,” Jake said. “You and Jessica have been to lots of worlds and have seen things we haven’t and know things about these worlds that we don’t. Jessica has her academic training and you have hands on experience with many cultures out there and I’m guessing Lei Fang isn’t the only contact you have. Think of yourself as our guide in places that you’ve visited before, and where you know the local language, our interpreter. I’ve talked with the general a bit about how he plans to operate from here on out. Namely, he wants to us to explore, get to know as many different worlds as possible and, where possible, where we feel we have a good handle on the situation, maybe strike up some alliances with those fighting the Goa’uld System Lords. You could be a big help to us in all of those endeavors.”

Shae listened and nodded; it sounded like an exemplary goal, one that was worth trying for a while to see if the Tau’ri really were worthy of her trust. “I guess that doesn’t sound too bad,” Shae said with another nod. “I can stick around for that, I suppose. When we come back, may I bring things with me to make my assigned room feel more like home?”

Yes! She’s coming back! Jake thought.

“Sure,” Jake said. “But maybe be careful of bringing any flora, plant life. If it were to get out of the base, it might not interact well with the local ecology.” Then Jake laughed. “Though if it’s winter, I suppose you probably won’t be bringing back any flora. Anyway, sure, bring back stuff to make yourself feel at home. I want you to be comfortable here.”

They arrived at the gateroom and Jake checked to make sure they both had GDOs, then keyed the mike on his radio. “Control Room, dial up Lethuan please.”


The control room acknowledged and the gate began to spin as it found the proper chevrons and they were locked into place. Finally the wormhole opened.

“Well,” Jake said. “Let’s go.” He started walking towards the wormhole.

When they stepped through and made it to the other side, is was snowing with a fierce wind blowing. Shae pulled up her hood to protect her face.

“Are you sure you want to trudge through this with me?” Shae asked, raising her voice over the wind. “If this gets any worse, you won’t be able to return to the gate until morning!”

Jake pulled down his goggles and adjusted his balaclava. “Little Fox,” he shouted back. “I have never been more sure of anything in my life! Lead the way! I can keep up! I did really well in the cold weather part of survival training!”

And Jake was telling the truth. Cold weather training washed out a lot of SERE students, even in the short courses for non-specialists. But Jake got through the night, even though a heavy storm like this one set it, without frostbite and without catching pneumonia.

It was slow going through the snow, it was like walking through a dense fog, they could barely see what was ahead of them, and the snow on the ground nearly reached up to Shae’s waist in a few areas. But she knew this forest well so they made it to her home, albeit much later than planned.

Shae’s home was a mud wall construct with timber framing and a thatched roof. Parts of the little hut were covered in more timber, the sides of the planks facing out still covered in bark to add to the protection against such harsh conditions. Near the sliding door that led in was enough firewood stacked for several harsh winters, and standing near the wood offered enough protection from the wind to try to shake off some of the snow they had collected amongst their clothes along the way. Inside, half of the floor was dirt, and in this area the walls were faced with more wood, something akin to Earth cedar in tone and grain, and more firewood along with bushels of rice and jars of preserved foods were stored here. The other half of the hut had a raised wood floor with straw mats covering it, and the walls were smooth with mud plaster and then white washed. Set right into part of the wood floor was the fire pit, its fire having long since died, but surprisingly the house was not utterly freezing! It was still dreadfully cold, but the mud walls were doing a fair job of keeping the space insulated otherwise.

Shae quickly put some more wood into the fire pit and got a fire going, and very quickly the warmth grew such that they could start shedding their layers and warming up.

“That’s much better,” Shae said with a sigh as she sat on the wood platform and started to untie her boots.

Jake had shed his coat and goggles and pulled his balaclava down to expose his head and let some of the built up heat out. He sat down next to Shae and started removing his boots as well. When he had them off, he put them next to the fire, but not too close, to warm them up. They were virtually completely dry on the inside, but warming them up wouldn’t hurt. He crossed his legs and sat by the fire and sighed in contentment as the heat of the fire spread throughout Shae’s home and warmed it.

“This place is amazing, Shae!” he said. “You’ve done a wonderful job putting all of this together! I’m...well I’m clearly not speechless, because I’m speaking, but I am almost at a loss for words. Just...amazing!”

“Oh, thank you,” Shae said bashfully as she built up the fire a little more. “I didn’t have long to build it, the warm seasons are not very long here, and I had to get creative because nails are so expensive as is planked timber, but when that first snow came and this house kept me warm, I knew it had been worth it,” she continued with a smile. She grabbed a bowl from among some supplies on a shelf and cracked the door just enough to shovel some snow into the bowl and dig something out of a snowdrift, something wrapped in paper. She returned to the fire and set a kettle onto the stand built into the firepit, adding snow to the kettle as it would fit. “This was my first home since… since I was taken from my family… I am quite proud of what I’ve accomplished out here,” she said as she worked.

“Well it’s very impressive,” Jake said. He looked at her a moment. He thought about how to word what he wanted to say next, but not for too long. He’d promised no more equivocation. “If you ever want to talk about what happened to you back then, and since, I’m here and I’ll listen to whatever you want to share with me. I won’t judge or try to make it better. I’ll just listen.”

He didn’t say ‘or not’ or ‘but you don’t have to if you don’t want to’ or ‘I don’t want to pry, but…’. He was already getting the impression that she understood what he said to her perfectly well, at least the intent, if not always the words. He didn’t need to over explain things. He just had to speak his mind...and maybe his heart...and she’d get it. All the other noise was unnecessary and only confused matters.

“I’ve never talked about my past with anyone before,” Shae replied, like what he was suggesting was something completely new and wondrous. “Even Jess and the Tok’ra don’t know everything…” It was a strange concept to her to trust that information with anyone, but Asher seemed so genuine, he really didn’t seem to want anything from her except the pleasure of her company. She stared into the fire for a long while just thinking and adding snow to the kettle until it was finally full, and then she kept staring while she waited for it to boil.

“Whenever you feel you’re ready, I’ll be here,” Jake said and left it at that. He just sat there with Shae, trying to be a warm, comforting presence as she stared into the fire, stealing glances at her, taking in her exotic beauty in the glow of the firelight. Remembering her reaction the first time he mentioned finding her attractive, he didn’t make any comments, though the thoughts and feelings were definitely there. But he wasn’t being hesitant. In fact he was making a firm, conscious, and deliberate decision to let the silence ride for awhile, displaying the confidence that first he didn’t need to hear the sound of his own voice and also that he didn’t need her to say anything, that he could leave her to her thoughts and not be afraid that she’d get bored and throw him out.

Shae was content with the silence; in fact, conversation was nothing she was abundantly experienced with, and though she had been doing passably well of faking it, she felt more comfortable with the silence that fell now. As the water started to heat up in the kettle, Shae rose to get a teapot and some cups, and once the water was done she poured it into the pot and the smell of tea and peaches filled the room. It was a very light tea once she poured it into the cups and offered one to Asher, but she could not handle the darker teas, they made her jittery.

“I don’t even know what world I’m from,” she finally said as she stared into her teacup. The cups didn’t have handles, so just holding it in her cupped hands was already helping to warm her. “I’ve tried to find it, but I don’t even know if our world had a Chappa’ai… I was just a little girl and this thing came roaring from the sky, and the Oni came… They were Jaffa, and I didn’t even know what a Jaffa was back then, I don’t think anyone did. They herded us like we were cattle, chased us into the ship, and then when we were released, it was days later and we were somewhere else, a horrible place; there were others like us, but they were living in squalid conditions, they didn’t even have shelters, just tents that could barely stay up. We had been claimed by Inari because she thought we were beautiful. The Goa’ulds usually like human hosts because they are so easily mendable with their technology, they can be immortal in human bodies, but we are not so affected by their technology; it still works but not as well, so Inari had to change hosts every few hundred years, and she chose me, she was going to raise me to be her next host, but my mother offered herself to spare me…”

As he’d promised, Jake didn’t try to make things better, though his heart ached for Shae and he wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her, he knew that would be the wrong move. She wasn’t ready for that yet. He kept his promise not to try and make things better, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t say anything at all.

“You’re mother sounds like a very brave woman, Shae,” Jake said. At the last second he stopped himself from telling Shae would have liked to meet her mother. Jake knew that Inari had, in fact, taken Shae’s mother up on her offer. Shae’s mother was Inari’s current host and encountering her...he didn’t even want to think of what that would do to Shae, the pain it would cause her. “She must love you very much.”

Jake wasn’t sure if that was going to far. He knew there was some question as to whether or not anything of a Goa’uld host survived, but now wasn’t the time to get into that debate. Not with Shae, not after what she’d been through.

Shae sipped at her tea, then remained silent for another moment before finally looking up at Asher. “Inari didn’t honor the bargain; she took us both, and then when I smelled that thing inside her, I fought back as hard as I could. I hated hurting my own mother, but she wasn’t my mother anymore…”

Jake looked right back at Shae, compassion in his eyes. “No one should have to go through something like that, especially not a child.” Jake still wasn’t trying to make anything better, but he felt it important that someone say that to Shae, that someone let her know that as normal as that sort of thing had become out here, it wasn’t right. It occurred to Jake suddenly just how many Shaes there must be out there. How many children had lost their parents not to death, death would be better, but to monsters who crawled inside their parents bodies and walked around in the skins of their mothers and fathers. How many children had to look at their parents faces and see the eyes of their parents’ murderers staring back at them. That idea angered Jake. It offended his sense of right and wrong and set straight the doubts he’d started having in his own abilities. He silently rededicated himself to stopping the Goa’uld, even if it took him the rest of his life to do it.

“Thank you,” Shae said, wiping some moisture from her eyes; she had never realized until just then how healing and affirming those kinds of words could be, nor had she realized just how much she desperately needed to hear them. After a slight sniffle and then a sigh, she continued. “My father got me out. I don’t know how, all I know is that he released me from my cage and there were people out in the hall fighting. He told me to run and so I did, and I have been running ever since. I’ve tried finding this world again to see if I could find more of my people and maybe free them, but I could never figure out the address, nor did I find the world we came from, or any others of my kind that weren’t already a part of Inari’s thralls.”

Jake nodded. “I know little to nothing of any worlds other than my own, though I’ve seen both the good and a fair amount of the bad my world has to offer. I have almost no experience with gate travel. So my offer of help finding these places you’re looking for and my pledge that I’m going to do whatever I can to fight the Goa’uld probably doesn’t seem like much, but I’m making them anyway. Not to win your favor and not to try and fix your problems for you, because I can’t do that. But what happened to to you and your people bothers me. That it’s still happening out there offends me. It’s wrong, Shae, and I was raised to believe that when you know someone is doing wrong, you do what you can to stop them, and to set things right again.”

“It may not seem like much of an offer to you, but it’s everything to me,” Shae replied. “Jess and the Tok’ra have tried to help, but…” Shae paused, not wanting to sound harsh, but sometimes harsh was what was needed. “I genuinely believe that Jess and Salara and even the other Tok’ra want to help me, but the Tok’ra are what they are; their goal is to fight against the Goa’uld at whatever the cost, and sometimes that cost is too high, because they make sacrifices I don’t agree with. And they say they’re different from the Goa’uld, but they have the same arrogance, the same belief that they know all that they need to know and that their way is the only way. But your people… Your ways are not set in stone; your people asked me questions, like how to pose as merchants to make their explorations better. You people don’t know a damned thing about this universe or how dangerous it can be, but you don’t care, you want to learn it all as you go along; it’s utterly crazy and yet so amazing. I think that’s what really sets your people apart from the Tok’ra and Goa’ulds. That, and your compassion.”

Jake smiled warmly at the praise Shae offered. “Thanks. Coming from you, and considering the total fiasco on Hen Da Ye Huihe,” Jake managed to pronounce the planet’s name reasonably well. “Your words are very reaffirming and re-energizing, as is your faith in us...and in me.”