Thank you Lucy for all the help that you have given me through writing this story. And all the folks at SpaceMonkeys!!! I could never of done this without u guys!!!!!!
*~*A Stranded Pathway*~*
On a pitch-black night, on his way back to the SGC, General Hammond scuffed his black, polished shoes on the walking path from the colossal "New Years" party. He was humming to himself the melody of Moby's new song that had been playing at the party, when a ghostly spirit emerged in front of him, sparkling with a red aura.
"Please, don't be afraid. Stargate, open, it is I," the reddish spirit hastily spoke in riddles to General Hammond and then disappeared as fast as she had appeared. General Hammond looked left. No one there. Right. No-one there either! He gasped for a clearer breath. "What was that?" General Hammond thought, and said audibly.
"Hello?"
He decided he must be imagining things and queasily continued to walk back to the SGC, looking at the beautiful stars and constellations that lay above.
*~*Daniel's Room*~*
Daniel tossed and turned in his plain calico sheets as he dreamed about a female adolescent. She knelt down on a grass floor; eyes open, but continuously blinking. Murky green trees surrounded her. Her tears were streamed out of her dark, chocolate coloured eyes, making them sting. Her matching dark brown hair was blowing around her distressing face. Her facial expressions were pleading help from him and Images of the Tok'ra and Goa'uld surrounded the female. Daniel could sense and feel everything that the girl felt; he felt her pain, her sorrow, her loneliness and, her fear. Daniel tried to open his eyes, not wanting to see how this dream would conclude; he squinted his eyes trying to release them, But the dream wouldn't give way. He witnessed more. Behind the girl, he saw a tall young man, obviously a Goa'uld looking similar to the woman below him. He bound his hand above the female's head, trying to eradicate her with his hand ribbon device. Daniel still could feel her pain, which was ever growing with the new pain of the hand ribbon device. Daniel eyes were finally released as he gasped for breath. He peered into his mirror that was opposite from his bed and checked to see if he was still his normal self. Without looking behind himself, Daniel reached for his glasses and settled them onto his eyes. He stood up to changed into clothes that were more suitable for breakfast.
Once changed out of his night-clothes, he walked towards the Mess Hall where Jack, Samantha and Teal'c were waiting there for him. He gently lowered himself down into the chair next to Teal'c and Jack greeted Daniel.
"Afternoon."
"Huh? Oh. Yeah, whatever." Daniel responded.
"Are you ok?" Sam enquired, concerned.
"Yeah, I'm just tired."
"Yes, your job is just so tiring, Daniel," Jack stated sarcastically.
Daniel expressed an innocent, but tired face at Jack. "Do you believe that the Tok'ra would defend a certain race to protect them from the Goa'uld?" Daniel asked, trying to steer away from Jack's statement.
"Maybe. If that certain race meant a lot to them, why?" Sam answered and looked at Daniel expectantly.
"Umm... No reason," Daniel said trying to hide his little secret.
Samantha softly smiled. She stood up and put away her breakfast materials. She shouted over to the three men still at the Mess Hall's table, "I have some thing to check out in the lab."
"Okay, see ya later," Jack yelled his reply and the other men nodded their acknowledgement,
When Sam progressively walked out of the Mess Hall's doorway, Jack froze, dropped his spoon and gazed between Teal'c and Daniel. Daniel and Teal'c looked up from their breakfast and faced their friend, "Hey D-D-Daniel, that a friend of yours?" Jack asked with a trembling voice.
Teal'c and Daniel swiftly looked behind them but saw an empty space, not a soul was there. They turned their heads back to Jack, "Are you feeling quite well O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.
Jack didn't say anything but stood up and left his cereal and spoon on the table. He unsteadily stepped towards his dormitory not saying anything to the other men, but thinking to himself I'm sure I saw a red, girl... Thing... I'M POSITIVE!
"What is wrong with O'Neill?" Teal'c asked and Daniel shrugged his shoulders and continued to finish his breakfast.
*~* Samantha's Dormitory*~*
Sam was writing an essay on the composure of electronic elements in her peaceful little room. She continuously looked up and down, and fiddled with the electronic device that sat on her desk. Halfway through the essay, she heard a gentle whisper, "Help. Please help me."
She looked up from her document and saw the same gossamering reddish spirit that Jack, General Hammond and Daniel had seen. Her face bore tears that fell down past her cheeks and onto the carpeted floor of Sam's room. Sam stepped up confronted the transparent red ghost, wondering if it was a mirage.
"Err.... Are you...?" Sam asked the being, but was cut off by an alarm of the Stargate. The spirit disappeared into a reddish filament and fell to a minuscule ball. Sam crouched down to the spider web and poked it. Sam jerked her hand away from the ductile as it disappeared as water drops down to a barren desert. Sam still startled by the ghost, took note of the alarm and thought to herself, 'I better go to the Gate' and she hastily ran towards the stone cute iris.
*~*At the Stargate Command*~*
As Sam rushed over to the SGC, she could see that Teal'c and Daniel were already there, idly watching the gate through the bulletproof glass window.
"Where's the colonel?" Sam asked Daniel
"I dunno," he replied, not really concerned.
"Open, the Stargate!" General Hammond interrupted the two friends by ordering the technician. The technician looked at General Hammond weakly, "Sir? MALP is showing that it isn't a SG team." General Hammond looked at him strangely for not obeying orders. I just hope that the mirage was true and not just a figment of my imagination! he thought cautiously.
"It's ok. Open the gates!" he finally ordered.
The Stargate's iris peeled open, as a snake, sheds its skin. The blue water substance glimmered and started to ripple, revealing to everyone that what ever was on the other side was about to enter Earth. A female body came scuttling out of the Stargate, facing her back to General Hammond, Sam, Teal 'c, and Daniel. She clasped her MP-5 rifle shotgun defensively, and curiously blinked, trying to get her brown hair out of her face. The young lady swiftly turned around in circles inspecting her surroundings. Two other people ran out, consecutively from the Stargate, firmly grasping their Socom and rifle guns. The taller one, the female, faced back at the iris, checking for any people that would run out of it. The male ran over to see if the first girl was safe and sound. He rested a kind hand on her shoulder and she looked kind-heartedly at him. General Hammond, Daniel and Sam all noticed that the first girl was of the exact image of the spirit they had seen previously. The mysterious girl continued to look around and eventually faced towards the towering Gateway to the Stars.
"Dai! Toyaki hara mashta nomanstori!!!" She exclaimed. A charming grin swiped across her face. Her face was drawn to the bulletproof glass where General Hammond, Daniel, Sam and Teal'c stood, idly watching what was in progress. Whilst having her back turned, bullets fired straight at her olive skinned body. The male, seeing that she was in danger, flimsily jumped in front of her, trying to shield her, as a bee would protect his/her Queen.
The bullet seemed to move in slow motion, taking forever to choose if it should take the unsuspecting girl or the ever-courageous male. The male pushed the first female on to the floor and the bullet had no choice but to grab the male. Another bullet flew out of the watery iris and swindled its movements towards the first female's arm. The male fell on the first female's lap, fading away. The first female winced at the bullet in her arm but comforted the fallen body that lay on her lap. She soothingly and tenderly stroked the male's bloodstained face, shivering. Four Jaffa members and two Serpent Guards swiftly stepped out of the Stargate. One of the Jaffa held a human rifle, the other three Jaffa held their staff weapons and the Serpent Guards had their weapons. A Jaffa loosed the trigger at the second female. The iron bullet dodged towards the second, very light skinned, lady. She collapsed onto the steel ramp, Socom gun, sprawled away from her. The Jaffa and Serpent Guards didn't care; it wasn't her that they were after. The three Jaffa members who possessed staff weapons fired at the girl who cradled her friend, and missed her.
"Horu shika toyami luput!" she yelled, looking at her friend's bodies, then to the army personnel that guarded the Stargate.
She sped around and noticed that no one understood her. She coincidentally was able to speak English. "Shut that circle thingy!" she shrieked.
The technician looked at General Hammond for reassurement and the general signalled his approval to the young man. "Shut the iris!" General Hammond ordered over the loud speaker microphone, "Help that girl!"
The army personnel that guarded the Stargate started to fire at the Jaffa and Serpent Guards.
The young woman stood up, gently lowering her friend's dying body to the floor. She shot the two of the Serpent Guards with her rifle and aimed the rifle towards the other four Jaffa. The Jaffa that carried the human rifle aimed towards the female, but she blasted him with bullets just before he pulled the trigger. One of the three Jaffa thrust a dagger at her and she speedily ducked, but it knocked her rifle out of her hands and halfway across the room. The three creatures that were left simultaneously growled at the female. The mysterious girl ran up to the dagger throwing Jaffa, and rapidly flipped and kicked him in the head, stomach and legs. He collapsed to the earthen floor. The army personnel shot at the remaining Jaffa, the bullets managed to shift it's way towards them, and the servants of the Goa'uld fell to the floor. The enigmatic female bent down and fastened herself to the male.
"Mocha reishu manka doru aspic foresteki Ephinny gerunshu esparin," he hoarsely informed the girl, coughed and rested his head on her knees. She shut his eyes with one stroke of her hand across his face. Tears trickled down her face, and she quickly wiped them off so no one could tell she was weeping. She quietly stood up and faced the Stargate. 'Now, how do you work this thing?' she wondered, as she lifted her head and inspected the large obstructing circle.
Sam and Daniel jerked as Jack noisily stepped towards the group and rested his hands on their shoulders. He looked out of the glass window and saw the girl, inquisitively gazing at the Stargate.
"A visitor? I'll see if she is all right," he suggested. He waltzed down the Gateroom's stairs until he got to the Stargate. He wandered over to the probing adolescent and laid his hands on the girl's shoulder. She spun around nervously.
"Hi, I'm..." Jack was interrupted by her holding a pistol to his head.
"What? What, What do you want?" She enquired with a trembling tone.
"Oh. Nothing. Never mind," he riposted, voice retreating.
"Where am I, How do you use that thing? How do I get back to Krullin? Who are you?" she repeatedly asked a flow of questions and pointed to the circle.
"Is Krullin the planet that you live on?" Daniel inquisitively asked over the microphone.
"Huh?" The girl asked, turning around to face the bulletproof glass but still had her gun aimed at Jack.
*Click*Click*Click*
Sounds of rifles aiming right at her sounded.
Oh my. she thought. She deeply growled trying to hide from the earthlings that she was petrified.
The Army personel sternly held their rifles aimed at the girl.
"What is this? Let that girl go!" General Hammond ordered them as her charged down towards the Stargate. The girl lowered her shotgun from Jack. He sympathetically looked at the disarrayed and confused female. "Doctor Frasier; let's get her to sick bay to fix up her arm. And a stretcher to carry the bodies away to the morgue," he requested.
Dr Frasier and several sub-doctors ran out from the infirmary wheeling three stretchers in. The girl looked at the stretchers puzzled, her dark coffee brown pupils unmistakably worried. She had not seen these things before in her world; her planet; her home. The two sub-doctors reached behind the girl to lift the dead bodies. The adolescent reached out for her rifle and aimed it to the sub-doctors.
"Put him down!" She sternly conversed, glaring at them like a hawk.
"Listen.... Umm...," Daniel said, expecting the girl to finish his sentence.
"Ephinny," she said not looking at Daniel, but at the doctors.
"Ephinny, we not trying to hurt you. Didn't you try to send some sort of message to me?" he continued.
"This is Earth?!?!?" Ephinny's face shined with delight. "You got my message?!?!?! Will you help us, earthlings?"
"First, we need to fix up that arm," Dr Frasier stated, and Ephinny looked at her upper arm. She stroked her arm upwards, with her forefinger to clean up the red blood. Dr Frasier led the Ephinny towards the SGC's hospital's stretcher.
"I, I, I, think I'll walk," the female commented, stuttering.
"All right," the doctor said and the sub-doctors continued to carry the bodies away.
*~*Ephinny's Hospital Quarters*~*
Ephinny sat on the unadorned white sheets, and thought to herself We've gotten ourselves into big trouble this time, let's just hope these humans can help me patch it up. Dr Frasier walked in and pulled the curtains around Ephinny's temporary room.
"Hi Ephinny, just wait here ok, we'll just get some sterile needles," Dr Frasier said friendly.
"Needles?" Ephinny said nervously. I wonder what that is, it better not hurt what ever it is.
*~*Meanwhile, at a Conference between SG-1 and General Hammond*~*
"So. Are we gonna' help her?" Jack started off the meeting with a simple statement, "We could, err.. we could get real high technology weapons, maybe a certain Ionic Blaster?"
"Pushing it again Colonel?"
"Would Colonel Jack O'Neill please come to the Sick Bay, immediately!" the overhead speaker yelled out to collect Jack O'Neill. Jack carefully stood up and pushed his chair under the table. Jack stood and waited. General Hammond nodded to tell Jack that he was permitted to leave. He headed down towards the Sick Bay were he observed Dr Frasier with a hefty sterile needle, and, Ephinny, on the opposite side of the room holding a pillow above her face.
"Colonel O'Neill, can you please help me to get this into her system ? She needs to get that bullet out," Dr Frasier requested Jack's assistance.
Jack looked at Ephinny and gently smiled, "You not afraid of a bullet wound but you are afraid of a needle?"
"Well... yeah, so what?" Ephinny said, trying to sound brave. "I'll will have it if you do," Ephinny said but mumbled to herself, "I betcha you won't."
Jack held out his arm to Dr Frasier and said politely, "Here."
Dr Frasier raised an eyebrow similar to what Teal'c usually did. Jack nodded to her and she reached for another sterile needle from the tray. "Are you sure?" Dr Frasier asked, extremely concerned.
"Yup, if it's the only way to convince her," he replied and Ephinny nodded.
"This is only a vitamin substance and not an anaesthetic." She injected Jack with an orange substance.
Ephinny gingerly spoke, "Fine. Be that way," and she hazily put out her own arm, wincing even before the doctor had the needle ready.
"It's not going to hurt you, it's just to numb your arm so I can get the bullet out," Dr Frasier said, trying to convince her, but it was useless. She still firmly held her winced face.
"Ow ow ow owww!!" Ephinny squealed.
"It's not even in yet!" Jack yelled puzzled.
Dr Frasier reached out to hold Ephinny's arm still and injected the needle just below the wound. "There we go," the doctor said, and then she flicked the same area that was injected with the needle with her finger, "Can you feel that?" she asked.
"What? Feel what?" Ephinny replied, a little dazed. Dr Frasier grabbed tweezers and a rubber gloves. Jack walked around the bed to face Ephinny who was eyeing her abrasion.
"Look o'er here," Jack said to divert her attention from the wound. She looked at him blankly and Dr Frasier cut deep inside her arm to search for the bullet. "So, ah, why do you need our help?" Jack asked, still trying to keep her prying eyes out of the way.
"Elara said that humans would help me get Argo back," Ephinny responded.
"Wait a sec. Elara ? Argo ?" Jack pondered, shaking his head and keeping Ephinny occupied.
"My human friend and my older brother."
"So, that girl who...ah...passed on, was Elara?"
"No! That was Corinne."
"Coryne?"
"No, Corinne." Ephinny reached over to Jack's mouth and pulled it open and shut quickly, helping him get the pronunciation correct. Both Doctor Frasier and Jack smiled tensely.
"Corinne," Jack said accurately.
"Finally!" Ephinny sighed, satisfied. Ephinny swung her head towards the wound and winced. Jack leant over the bed and tapped her other arm.
"Hey, pay attention here." She promptly faced Jack, eyebrows risen. "You want us to get Argo back, right?" Jack continued as Ephinny was starting to watch Dr Frasier again.
"Right!" Ephinny looked at Dr Frasier while she put a clean bandage on her arm. "Why can't I feel my arm?" Jack and Dr Frasier quietly laughed.
"That's because an anaesthetic has been inserted in your arm" The doctor explained.
"Anna.... Wha?" Ephinny said confused.
"It makes your arm go numb," Jack simply explained.
"Oh," Ephinny said, a little embarrassed.
"See, Janet, you have to use simple English with unintelligent people" Jack said smirking at her. Ephinny pouted at him but on spite of everything, he kept on grinning. "I'll take you to a room." He gently held her elbow and guided her to the spare room. He cautiously opened the door and steered her into the room. The dark haired girl scratched her head, mystified. She looked at the four walls surrounding the bed, wardrobe and other accessories in the room.
"It's a bit dull," she finally said and Jack chuckled and followed her into the room.
"This is a bed. For sleeping on," Jack explained and pointed to everything that he discussed, "This is a wardrobe. For all your clothes, well, ignore that at the moment. And this is a study table, for reading and stuff."
Ephinny stepped further into the bare room. She walked up to the bed and started to rip off the sheets. When she had a full grasp of them, she held them up to Jack, "And what are these for?"
Jack deeply sighed to himself. "Never mind. Are you hungry? Do you eat food? I'll get you something," he said and left the room.
*~*Back at the conference Room*~*
Jack ran past the kitchen and yelled out to the chefs, "Would you send something, simple down to our friend, Ephinny please."
"Something that she might recognise," Daniel added as he popped his head around the corner and waltzed next to his friend. Jack gave, 'good idea' look at Daniel.
A chef popped his head around the door and nodded. "Yes Sir!"
The two men walked to the briefing room where General Hammond awaited them.
"So, what have you found out from our little visitor?" General Hammond asked Jack as he walked and sat in his usual seat.
He responded, "Well, all she really wants is to get her brother back, and to get rid of the Goa'uld." Jack stopped to take a deeper and clearer breath "Are we gonna help her?"
"What if there were traces of the Goa'uld?" Teal'c questioned. "I had a telepathic message, in my dream, about, Ephinny, and that she was bordered by Tok'ra and Goa'uld. And....."
Daniel was interrupted by Sam, "She asked for help from you as well."
"Don't forget me!" Jack yelled out, trying to obtain attention.
"It would seem that this Ephinny, is in search of humans, otherwise she would have sent for me also," Teal'c informed the rest of the SG-1 team and General Hammond.
"Or, she probably didn't think, of contacting a Jaffa when trying to get rid of the Goa'uld," Jack stated the obvious sarcastically.
"Why don't we ask her what she really wants herself?" Sam suggested.
"I'll go and get her," Daniel offered, and stood up tucked his chair under the conference table and walked off towards Ephinny's room.
*~*Ephinny's Temporary Room*~*
*Knock*Knock*
Ephinny jumped up, startled.
"What's that?" Carefully, Daniel opened the door and looked around for Ephinny. He noticed that she was leaning against the northern wall. He smiled encouragingly and noticed that the room had changed. He glanced above her head and noticed that the cream paint had been scratched off. His mouth dropped.
"Sorry, um, the room was a bit boring, and, and, and," Ephinny apologised, her voice wavering.
"It's ok," Daniel said. "Bored?"
"Uh, yeah."
"What are those ?" Ephinny asked and lifted the spectacles off his head. He laughed and replied to her inquisitive question "They are spectacles and..."
"Specta... what?"
"Spectacles."
"Spectacles?"
"Spectacles."
"Oh..." Ephinny giggled and rested them on his nose again. Daniel walked over to the food tray on a stand close to the bed. "What's that?" She asked, pointing to the tray. Daniel chuckled at her.
"That's what you eat. Come here," Daniel explained and sat on the bed. He looked at her expecting Ephinny to follow.
She slowly walked to where Daniel sat and slumped beside him. "This is meat, have you heard of it?" Daniel asked but Ephinny stayed silent "It comes from animals," Daniel tried again.
"Oh, yes! meat!" Ephinny voiced. "Err, what are those?" Ephinny enquired and pointed to the knife and fork.
"Well, it's called a knife," he pointed to the knife "And a fork," and he did the same to the fork.
"Hmmm... What are they for?" Ephinny questioned further and Daniel explained everything about human's food and the way they eat it, and, of course, in Ephinny's confusion, she asked questions and Daniel, naturally responded them.
Onto The Rest
