Life on Repeat: IC (Nydie and Draco James)

[Nydie]

Taylor fell silent immediately after Mason’s confession. Her heart broke just a little for both Mason and Vakleth, more so for the Tok’ra. She knew that symbiotes were often with their hosts for an extended period of time, sometimes hundreds of years. The loss of such a relationship to the Tok’ra must have been near devastating, and the fact that both Mason and Vakleth had to deal with such pain on top of what they were put through by the IOA made Taylor both sad and angry. She was amazed that both had managed to make it through without any serious incidents occurring. If she had been in their shoes, she probably would have been on the verge of a breakdown.

Forgetting about boundaries, Taylor did the first thing that came into her mind. Dropping down to sit on the bed beside Mason, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “I’m sorry…I know it doesn’t help much, but I am.” Pulling away, Taylor frowned at Mason. “And you both had to go through all those tests…not even allowed to see a friend, on top of that? I can’t even begin to imagine how you managed. And poor Vakleth!” Shaking her head, Taylor sighed softly and rose from where she was seated. “I always knew that the IOA was cruel, but I didn’t believe they were all entirely heartless.”

Taylor could not pull the frown off of her face no matter how hard she tried. She would have been distraught if this had happened to any of her team members, but since it was Mason, she was even more so. Having lost her parents as a teenager, Taylor could put herself in their shoes to an extent; she had been close to her parents, but had not had nearly as much time with them as Vakleth probably had with his host. To face that loss and then be faced with such a drastic change…she wasn’t even sure there was any comfort for that, but she wanted to at least try to offer as much as she could.

“I’m sorry for bringing it up. I didn’t mean to bring back painful memories. I just wanted to be sure you were okay.” Moving across the room to the only empty chair, Taylor sat down, turning to face Mason. Feeling guilty, she bit down on her lower lip, she tried to figure out what else she could say, but came up empty handed. She had already told him if he or Vakleth needed to talk she would be there for them, and she had meant it; she just hoped that they would take her up on the offer. Something of that nature had to be difficult to talk about, especially to her. She did not blame Mason at all for not wanting to admit it, but since he had, she respected all the more because of it.

Allowing silence to fill the room, Taylor kept her eyes on Mason, the frown never fading from her face. As much as she wanted to dive into her folder, her concern was more about the man sitting across from her and the being inside his head. There would be time to learn about their mission later, although knowing what she knew now; she could see why he was so eager to get back to work. Having something to focus on would probably help take both their minds off of their emotions. She wasn’t going to rush either one of them though. If they had opened up about it, there could still be something on their minds that they wanted to talk about, so Taylor decided that she would follow their lead and give them the chance to clear their minds a bit.

[Draco_James]

Mason was definitely surprised when Taylor moved over and sat on the bed, and hugged him. He was entirely still for a few moments before slowly reaching around her with one arm to give her a small hug back before she pulled away. He met her gaze for a few seconds before looking down at the floor between his feet. As much as he really appreciated her sympathy on the matter, he wished he hadn't made her worry so much. Going through what he had was certainly difficult, but still, he didn't want her upset over this on his and Vakleth's behalf.

When she moved across the room and sat, he looked up at her again, and he shook his head a bit, shrugging faintly. "It's okay, you didn't know. And at least Vakleth and I had each other, so it's not like either of us was totally alone," he told her, wanting to put her mind at ease a bit, "Like I said, it wasn't easy, but... we've managed. I mean, it's not something that ever goes away, exactly, but we're honestly both doing okay. Vakleth has been through this all before, and while it never really gets easier, he's come to accept it, in a sense. He says that they had nearly two hundred years together, and he's glad they had that time..."

"Anyway, I just... I didn't want to keep it from you, so..." he finished, letting the thought trail off, silence taking over. He kept his eyes on her, though, as he thought. With that in the open between them now, he wondered if it would change anything, but quickly decided that it didn't have to... at least not if they didn't let it. He wasn't exactly sure what to say next, either. There wasn't much left for him to say on the matter, since he didn't want to delve too deeply into it. Keeping emotions buried wasn't healthy, but he and Vakleth had been admitting those emotions to themselves and working through them. What it came down to now was compartmentalization, because that feeling of loss wasn't just going to go away, and there was work to be done.

Mason looked away from Taylor again suddenly, this time his eyes went to the folder sitting next to him, and he picked up it. "We should get started on this... want to have time to talk to Marshall and Vahn before the briefing tomorrow, right?" he said, looking to her once more. He shifted how he was sitting, swinging his legs onto the bed and moving back until he was up against the wall. Holding the folder's spine in one hand, he flipped it open with the other, and his eyes started to skim over the information within. It didn't take long for his eyes to widen a little in surprise, a little smile forming on his lips.

"Huh, looks like we're moving up in the world, Major... a mission to a planet with an advanced civilization..." he noted as he glanced back over at her. The team's missions were usually to planets that either showed no signs of civilization around the Stargate, or ones where they were behind Earth in terms of technology. That did account for a great deal of the gates in the network, of course, but it seemed there was still at least this one exception to that rule left. "Of course, this means that the usual game plan isn't really going to apply. Good thing you pushed to get us this info early..."

[Nydie]

Taylor was a bit apprehensive about Mason’s brush off of what he had gone through, but it wasn’t her place to push the issue. If he felt he was fine and ready to go back to work, she would have to take him at his word, although she fully intended to keep an eye on the two of them for signs of stress in the upcoming weeks. Their job was stressful enough without any emotional trauma; factor that it and it could prove disastrous for everyone involved, not just her team. Her concern was primarily for Mason, but she still had to consider the others involved as well, however, she wouldn’t betray Mason’s secret, but she would ask the rest of the team to keep an eye out for signs that Mason and Vakleth were stressed.

Her attention was ripped away from her thoughts at the mention of the forgotten mission folder, her eyes automatically darting to the closed manila folder she had abandoned earlier. Walking to scoop it up, she opened it and glanced over the images on the first page. Brows dipping down, she scanned over the images with a thoughtful scowl. The world beyond the gate did in fact look rather advanced, far more advanced than Earth, that much was obvious. The city reminded her a bit of the images she had seen of Atlantis, the key difference being this city was on land, and surrounded by a rather strange bluish tinted dome. The city itself, architecturally far surpassed any designs on Earth, and Taylor took a few moments to admire the buildings before moving on to the bigger picture.

The dome pulled Taylor’s attention, the purpose for it the biggest question that popped into her mind. “What do you think that’s for?” Taylor questioned absently, figuring that Mason would know what she was referring to. “Do you think it’s for security or for another purpose?” Skimming over the rest of the pages, Taylor frowned deeply at the lack of information given about contact with members of the civilization. “They didn’t try to make contact with the MALP, so either they didn’t notice the Stargate activating, or they didn’t care. In either case, it could mean trouble.” Tearing her eyes away from the folder, Taylor glanced up at Mason with a smirk. “In any case, we’ll have to keep Vahn under control. They’ll probably ship us back to Earth if he gets started with his questions.” Vahn, whose main job was to translate whenever he could and offer any input on the similarities between certain civilizations and their own could never contain himself when he came across an advanced civilization. He’d question everyone about everything from their traditions, all the way down to how their clothes were made. It was helpful at times, but not particularly when they were trying to make nice with less than friendly locals.

Continuing to read over her folder, Taylor sighed softly to herself. “Well, I’m not sure we have much to offer them as far as an exchange in technology. We can give it a try, but they look like they’ve got us beat in that area. Maybe some other kind of trade?” Taylor’s shoulders hefted upwards in a shrug. “I just hope that they’ll allow us to explore a bit. I’d love to learn about that dome, and get a better look at the buildings. Even if we can’t find something they’d be interested in, there’s always the chance to learn something from them.” Nipping at her bottom lip, the woman studied the images closer, looking for anything distinguishable that could give her clues about the aliens that they would encounter on the planet. Nothing stood out; not a single trace of the race who inhabited the planet outside of their city.

“We’re going to have to be careful. We can’t go unarmed, but we’re going to have to appear as nonthreatening as possible.” Tapping a finger to her lips, Taylor tried to think of a game plan for the mission. They really couldn’t come up with anything solid until they received their briefing the next morning, but they could cover a few bases while they had the chance. “I’m almost tempted to let Vahn do most of the talking since he’s the least intimidating out of the four of us.” She normally was the spokesperson of the team, since she was the team leader, but there were often times that her gender caused problems; she had a feeling that this might be one of those times. “What do you think?”

[Draco_James]

Mason glanced over toward Taylor as she asked her question, and then looked at the pictures once more. "Hmm... could be security. Could be an environmental thing, maybe the planet's atmosphere is toxic, maybe the Stargate is inside some sort of enclosed ecosystem..." he replied, looking more closely at some of the pictures, "Hard to say without more information. SG teams have seen all of those options at one time or another..." He went back to skimming what little information they had from the images being analyzed, and it wasn't a whole lot. She was definitely right that they'd have to keep a close eye on Vahn for this mission.

"Yeah, he does have a tendency to start asking questions and sometimes forget how diplomatic he should be about it," he agreed, smiling back at her a little, "Especially given the advanced cultures we know are out there... it isn't uncommon for them to dislike the idea of sharing their technology with people less advanced. Questions about their tech could be viewed in a negative light. Of course, for all we know they'd be willing to share everything they know..." He fell silent, just listening to the rest of Taylor's thoughts on the planet and the mission until she asked hi opinion.

"I think you're probably right about letting Vahn talk, at least to start with. I think we should talk to him first, though, remind him to be careful not to let his curiosity get the better of him..." he replied, and then after another glance at the pictures, sighed slightly, "It's not unheard of for a planet's Stargate to be unwatched by the inhabitants even if they know it's purpose, of course, but... it seems strange they wouldn't send someone if it activated. I also don't see a DHD in any of the pictures, and there's no mention of one in the written report. It's possible that they don't know what the gate is for... or maybe it's like the... Aschen - they figured the gate system out but only used it between their nearby planets, right? Because they didn't know about needing to calculate for the universe expanding or whatever? I really wish we actually knew something about the people. We don't even know if they're human, or a race we've encountered before, or something new entirely." He dipped his head for a moment in the customary gesture as he let Vakleth take control.

"I have no way of knowing which of those it would be in this case, however I believe I have something of note to add. I have never seen the sort of technology shown in these images... Of course, without seeing the internal workings of it, it is impossible to guess if it might be based on some earlier form of technology the Goa'uld or Tok'ra are familiar with. I do not recognize any of the symbols visible in the images, either. I believe it is unlikely that neither the Tok'ra, nor the Goa'uld, have ever encountered this society," the Tok'ra offered, "I am unsure if we will even be able to communicate with them, at least at first. If they are not descendents of Tau'ri from Earth, or of any other race which the Goa'uld have encountered, there may be no common language on which to rely."

[Nydie]

“Damn it…” Taylor cursed quietly under her breath, her brow furrowing into a thoughtful scowl. “Thanks Vakleth. You’re right, I hadn’t even thought about that one.” Flipping her folder closed, the woman leaned back in her chair with a sigh, a hand reaching up to scratch at the back of her head as she went over possible solutions. “Vahn might not work out very well either. As far as I know, he’s not very far ahead of you on the language department himself, which means we might be out of luck in the communication area. Imagery might help…but even that seems a bit strange.” Dropping her hand back into her lap, the major found herself at a loss, but then again, this was their first time encountering a race this far advanced that was not somehow connected to another race that they had already come across.

Lips pressed together in a thin line, Taylor jumped to her feet, beginning to pace the room. “We might still have a chance, but we’ll have to wait to form any conclusive plans until I can talk to Vahn. Somehow that man always knows how to get around everything.” Coming to a stop in front of Mason, Taylor grinned brightly down at the man, already appreciating the input that was coming from the Tok’ra inside his head. “Anything else you can think of that we might not have, Vakleth? Does anything in the image look remotely similar to anything you’ve come across?” She didn’t hold out much hope that Vakleth would have any more information than what she and Mason could come up with themselves, but it never hurt to ask.

Blue eyes widening, Taylor’s grin grew brighter. “What about you? There might be a chance they’ve come across a Goa’uld before. Think you’re up for giving it a shot?” Chances were that the inhabitants of the planet had come across some other race, if they weren’t accessing the Stargate, then perhaps they were using ships, and if that was the case, they had no real idea who the new aliens had come across before. Her biggest concern outside of communication was hostility. While most of the aliens that they had encountered over their missions were generally friendly, there was always the odd group that decided that force worked better over diplomacy.

“Okay, how does this sound. We wait to see what happens when the MALP gets sent through before our departure. If someone tries to communicate, we can use that to figure out how to work out communication. If not, we had out, wait by the gate to see if anyone comes to investigate our arrival, and Vakleth you can make the attempt to communicate with them then. If that doesn’t work, we see if Vahn has any ideas. And if all else fails, we smile stupidly and nod our heads, hoping we give them the right answers.” The last part was meant as a joke, but Taylor had a moment to wonder if that wasn’t what would actually happen. Of course the plan wasn’t finalized; they still had to be briefed, and Vahn and Marshall needed to add their input, but they were all pretty much in the same boat. She just hoped that the boat wouldn’t sink somewhere along the mission.

[Draco_James]

Vakleth gave a nod when Taylor thanked him. Mason didn't take control yet, instead just seeing Taylor through his eyes as the Tok'ra controlled them. He wondered what she'd come up with as he chewed over the information a little more himself. He couldn't help but not his agreement to the thought that Vahn might not be the way to go this time after all. If they couldn't communicate, and if he was his usual self, that might prove a very bad mix. He could cause some problems when he talked continually when a new culture could understand him. A situation like this definitely called for an even more careful and calm diplomatic approach than usual. Of course, if they made it clear to Vahn that he had to be handle things a certain way, he was usually able to keep himself in check, and could on occasion work practical miracles.

"There are a few very minor similarities to some known cultures - architecturally, at least - but certainly nothing that could not just as easily be contributed to coincidence. After all, architectural structural elements almost inevitably come down to principals based on the physical laws of the universe. Even without contact between any given races, it's conceivable such similarities would rise," Vakleth replied, wishing that he could give more information or help. The fact of the matter was that even for the Goa'uld and Tok'ra, encountering entirely new civilizations or species was almost unheard of for centuries if not millennia. Even the most unknown worlds were usually offshoots of the Tau'ri, whether because they were lost or because they were abandoned by their Goa'uld captors because it was simpler not to take them along when leaving a planet that was no longer of use.

"I am certainly willing to try, at the very least, to communicate in a number of Goa'uld dialects," he noted, but didn't sound overly optimistic, "However, I feel we should keep in mind that not many races who have encountered the Goa'uld would be likely to welcome coming across them again. Until we know one way or another their feelings toward the Goa'uld or Tok'ra, I believe it would be best for me... not to use this voice in their presence." He dipped his head down as Mason asserted control once again, clearing his throat slightly, and then turned his focus on Taylor once again.

As she gave her layout for the plan, he nodded, not finding any part of it that he could disagree with. He smiled a little as she finished. "The old smile and nod - usually hard to go wrong with that as a last resort," he said lightly in return, but then grew a little more serious, "I think that's about all we can do, really. You can only plan ahead so much when the briefing material is as limited as what we're working with. In the long run, that's a big part of why we're here, though. Because we're good at figuring out what to do when things don't exactly go to plan. Hell, maybe we'll get lucky, and they'll figure out how to talk to us. They are supposed to be more advanced..."

[Nydie]

“I know, Valketh, and I appreciate that you’ll give it a try. Actually though, there was another reason why I asked that you try to communicate with them.” Taylor smiled sheepishly at the Tok’ra now in control over Mason, feeling slightly guilty for what she was about to say. “I was thinking if they were able to comprehend that the team is not made up of just humans, that they might not view us as a threat.” The idea that seeing how accepted an alien race was among the team might make any possible encounters go smoother was a long shot, at best. She hated to put the Tok’ra in that type of position, and if he was insulted by it she would plead for forgiveness, but she thought it might be a good idea.

“I really don’t want to put you in that position, but honestly, I’m kind of grasping at straws right now. Hopefully things will work themselves out, and we might not have to resort to it, but in case we are I am trying to prepare you now.” The woman shifted her weight nervously, more to release a bit of her excitement than actually nerves. Her mind was already going over the questions she planned to ask about the dome, hoping that the aliens that they encountered would at least share a little information about it, even if they were not willing to share the technology itself. Like many things about this mission, it was a long shot, but it was all she had to go on.

Taylor grinned when Mason regained control and began to speak, chuckling softly at his words. “I know. It’s not the best plan of action, and maybe Vahn might be able to add a few ideas that are a bit more helpful, but it might work.” Sighing quietly, she ran a hand through her hair, giving the ponytail at the back of her neck a light tug. “I’m sure it will work out though. They either didn’t detect the MALP, or they weren’t worried about it, so it stands to reason they might not be aggressive, and if they are, we have plenty of time to double back and redial the gate. I am more concerned with us accidentally offending them. I don’t want to rush in like we normally do on most of the underdeveloped planets. I think waiting by the gate to see what type of acknowledgement we receive will be our best bet.”

Retrieving her folder, Taylor turned back to Mason with soft smile. “You’re right though, there’s only so much we can plan for, and I think between the three of us that’s about all we can do for now.” She was hesitant to leave him; he had just gotten back and she wanted to catch up with him a bit more, but she knew he probably needed sometime alone. Still, a part of her half hoped she could find an excuse to stick around, not wanting to return back to her own quarters where she would sit in isolation for the larger part of the day while awaiting the return of their two missing team members. “Anything else you feel we should go over?” She asked lightly, trying keep her eagerness from her voice.