trans_9 | Time has no meaning on Stacy! Bendytimed like woah!

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Time has no meaning on Stacy! Bendytimed like woah!

For the archeological team that went to Kalimba on Stacy's mission, they've been gone for six months give or take. Six months of being held prisoner and tortured. None of them have any idea that they've only been gone a few days as far as the rest of Stacy are concerned, something they'll discover sooner rather than later presumably.

When they do arrive back Vala's on the brink of collapse, barely able to stand up or stay conscious. She'd been injected with poison and used as a booby trap for the Goa'uld Sobek that had used Daniel as a host for six months and she still has the dead Goa'uld inside her. Whether it's that or the poison that's in her system or the signs of malnutrition or a combination of all of the above is unclear but in a nutshell, she's not looking good even if the naquadah in her bloodstream is helping her a little.

Right now she's laid out on a bed in medbay, still dressed in the skimpy ceremonial Goa'uld robes and hoping someone knows how to get this 'thing' that's wound itself around her spinal chord out of her. When she can stay lucid enough to think about it that is.

[OOC: Open to those who were on the Kalimba mission and Medical Staff]

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A scruffy looking young girl seems to appear from nowhere, trying to very subtly read the information chart at the foot of Vala's bed curiously. She's not dressed very professionally. She looks more like a homeless kid who's wandered in.

The room doesn't seem to real to Vala, when she opens her eyes and looks around taking in the girl everything seems to shift in a dizzying haze making her feel nauseous. Her stomach wrenches and she looks like she's about to vomit as her head instinctively rises with the spasm her stomach induces. She flops back onto the bed weakly however, her body's trying to rid itself of the poison but failing.

"I see I'm in safe hands," she manages to say, even her sarcasm doesn't quite come across in her weakened state.

Sandy rose an eyebrow and smirked before moving around the side of the bed and drawing out a basin.

"I'll have you know while I look like a kid, I'm actually 300 years old and I've studied more medical books then you've had socks." She shot back as cool as she could turning to what passed for a sink and filling the basin up with cool water.

Vala didn't have the energy to quip back, it was taking everything she had just to follow the conversation with the poison affecting her perception or grip on reality even. That sentence about socks had seemed awfully long.

She strains, trying to see what she's doing. A bowl of water was hardly going to fix anything or get the reptilian symbiote out of her. "I just want it out, not take it for a swim."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

she took a wash cloth and dipped it into the water, "Actually I'm just a trainee. So I'm not much help yet. But I figure this might make you feel a little better till the professionals figure out what to do with you."

Wringing out the cloth she folded it neatly and lay the cool moist fabric over her forehead hoping to sooth her a little.

It helps. The coolness of the cloth sinking into her forehead and making her think more clearly somehow. As soon as Sandy lays the fabric over her head, she'll be able to feel how hot her patient is. It'll only take a minute or so and the heat will permeate through to her hand.

"There's a snake-like creature inside me. What's there to figure out?" Impatience is one of Vala's many flaws, she's giving no mind to the fact she has an largely unknown toxin in her system that will need to be flushed first.

Sandy seems startled by the heat, impressed even and as such moves back over to where she got the water to add some ice to the bowl.

"It's probably more complicated then that. These things usually are." She joked weakly coming back with the ice water to refresh the damp cloth with a much cooler one.

"Can you feel where it is?" Sandy was doing her best to be professional but it was all so gross and exciting and weird and worrisome. She couldn't decide which emotion was strongest.

"I wish I couldn't," she says flatly. The sensation an all too familiar memory that lasted far too long. Seven years she'd had one of these inside her, and even though Sobek was dead it was a sickening reminder. Thoughts that she usually kept suppressed came flooding back in a moment at the question, but the presence of the goa'uld intertwined in her spinal chord was frighteningly reminiscent, as if Qetesh had left a space for him.

"How long are they going to take?" Vala blurted out impatiently to snap herself out of her depressing thought train.

"I can't say for sure." Sandy confessed honestly, "But this ship has such a mismatched collection of medical geniuses and magical powers it shouldn't be too long. Not too long ago we picked up a whole bunch of shiny new medical machines so I'm sure we've got something for the job. It's just a matter of making sure we know what we're doing before we put you in one of the machines." She smiled ruefully as if that was encouragement.

Carson had been called in nearly immediately once the group had returned, and he sped up when he found out who it was.

Dr. Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran. The only two people from the SGC on Stacy. He had heard the preliminary reports, but he needed to run some tests himself. He does know that Vala will likely need more attention, however, so goes immediately to her once he enters the Medbay.

"Vala? Can you hear me?" He says, clearly, when he gets to her bedside. "I'm Dr. Beckett. I'm from Atlantis." He's already pulling out his Medical Scanner. Ideally, he'd like to get her under the big one, but he doesn't want to move her without some idea of what's going on...

The effects of the poison in her system are too much for her body and her nervous system to cope with. The Doctor had said he had no idea of how long her body would tolerate the toxin and their escape had been heftily delayed by having to take Daniel to the sarcophagus. It felt like a burning cold liquid metal spreading through her body, rendering her weaker by the minute.

The past couple of hours aren't clear to her at all, moments of lucidity that don't quite seem to piece themselves together in the right order. There were explosions and staff weapon blasts, torrential rain followed by a brilliant hot sun that felt like it was burning through her skin. The only thing she was acutely aware of was Daniel by her side the entire time. Close enough to smell, yet he had smelt foreign. More like Sobek.

"Uh huh," she nods slightly in response to the voice, the word Atlantis not quite making sense to her. Were they in Atlantis? No, they were heading for Stacy, they couldn't possibly be in Atlantis.

Edited 2012-04-15 08:42 (UTC)

Carson checks the IV drip that's been hooked up, before moving to top up the antibiotic drip that was working on getting rid of the poison. It was based on an Ancient design that worked on most poisons found in the Milky Way, and he was hoping it would be enough...

"You're going to be okay. Once we get you stabilised, and this poison out, we'll remove the Goa'uld from you."

"Just tell me it's definitely dead," the one prevailing thought throughout this has been that Sobek might just be laying dormant waiting for his moment to strike back and she has the added concern that she's brought it to Atlantis now. Her mind still not having properly pieced together even where she is.

She swats at the entry site of one of the drips, feeling for that damned thing that's irritating her and scratching at her skin like a beetle trying to burrow itself inside.

"If I've brought it into Atlantis..." her thought process trails off then as she weakly pulls at the tube in her arm, barely aware she's doing it. "Daniel? The others? They made it?"

And Carson's instantly got his hands on her shoulders. "Careful, careful...." He mumbles, soothingly. "Just relax."

He sighs slightly. "If only you were on Atlantis. No. You're back on Stacy, and Dr. Jackson is fine. They're all fine. I'm more worried about you. And, yes, it's dead."

"You need to get it out of me," there's a sudden urgency and panic to her tone, despite his hands on her shoulders calming her. There's little resistance though, not even the power in her shoulders to shrug him off or sit up.

Vala doesn't want to wait any longer than is necessary. She has a dead Goa'uld inside of her and if she's going to die then she wants to do it without that snake rotting inside her.

Edited 2012-04-15 14:38 (UTC)

"Hold your horses..." Carson says, still soothingly, but firmly. "We're going to get rid of this poison first."

The antibiotic was fast-acting, and he was monitoring her vitals via the medical scanners, but it was too early to tell just yet...

Patience and taking the slow route to anything isn't Vala's forté, even in this state she wants things to happen yesterday.

There's an irritated sigh escapes her lips, her head back slumping back against the bed in defeat. With hindsight that wasn't the greatest of ideas. The room started to swim again, Carson's image seemed to be looming over her, his features coming into focus and then morphing into something else entirely.

Her pupils dilated and contracted as she struggled to focus on him. "I'm fine, I feel better already." The obvious lie slurred its way from her lips as if she were drunk.

"I'm sure you do feel better, but unfortunately, it's my opinion that counts, and my opinion is that you aren't fine." Carson says, firmly. His voice is quiet, but firm.

"The antibiotic is an Ancient recipe. Fast-acting. We'll know soon, and prep for surgery as soon as possible."

"Are you always so frustrating? Or do you just whip out the stubborn attitude on special occasions?" Vala looked at the ceiling, even managing a small eyeroll. Doctors, not her favourite species. They always seem to know better in that irritating calm tone that you just can't argue with.

"You do know it's wound itself around my central nervous system don't you?" She knows it's not as simple as he just made it sound, her comment is as much for ensuring he doesn't try to condescend her and spare her the details or the risks as it's meant to check his credentials.

"Yes, I'm fully aware of that, thank you." Was that a hint of impatience?

"Would you like to know the full, gruesome and gory detail of exactly how I'm going to remove the symbiote from your spinal column? I can provide a full itinery."

She's been retching constantly, and the next time her stomach kicks it's timed purely coincidentally with when Carson threatens to tell her all the gory unnecessary detail. She's had enough of gore and blood over the last six months to last her a lifetime. Images that will probably never go away.

Vala chokes uncomfortably on her own bile, slumping back down as every movement wracked through her body leaving her drained.

"That won't be necessary." She finally manages when the spasm dissipates.

As soon as that attack starts, Carson grabs his medical scanner and starts running the device over Vala. He scribbles his notes down in Ancient as he does so.

"The retching is a side-effect of the poison. Good news, the antibiotics seem to be working, I can see the poison being neutralised as we speak. Another few hours, and we should be ready to extract the symbiote."

He moves to put the Scanner and Life-Signs detector down. "Try to rest. I'll be back to check in on you in a wee while.

"You think?" Even potentially on her death bed, Vala finds herself riling at being condescended and the fact he's stating the obvious to her. The sarcasm comes pouring out. "I thought it might have been the shrimp I had for lunch. So I'm glad we got that one cleared up, and you're qualified."

By the time the fact she had to wait a 'few hours' actually sank in, Carson was already walking away. She couldn't do much more than just lie there, banging her head backwards in frustration. She'd go crazy just lying here and waiting, she was sure of it.

Daniel hadn't said a word the entire time. There didn't seem like much of a point. What was he supposed to add? Sorry, should have left me behind? Thanks anyway? Besides, he could barely focus on keeping up with the group, not getting crushed or shot, and more importantly, not dropping Vala. By the time they had gotten to Eneesh's ship, Daniel only watched the planet slowly devouring itself from one of the viewports, pieces of it slipping one by one into some strange space where time had no meaning. Everyone that fled was going to die anyway.

Now he was settled in the med bay. It felt unreal. All of it. The air was wrong, not the right humidity after Kalimba's jungles. It smelled wrong too. He had looked like death warmed over after coming out of the sarcophagus too early, but he was still in better shape than Vala by the time they rejoined Stacy.

The archaeologist was stretched out on one of the beds, eyes closed as he listened to machinery and the irregular beat of his heart. The extravagant train and jewelry that hung from his waist contrasted sharply with the med bay, looking far too colorful and rich as some of it spilled over the edge of the beds to touch the floor.

The moment he had a space to himself, Daniel slipped from his bed and wandered over until he found Vala. He still couldn't understand why she did it for him, apparently volunteered to poison herself and worse, to take his place as a host. He couldn't understand that last part most of all. He didn't even think Jack would do that for him, and frankly, he didn't want him to. He didn't want anyone to submit themselves to it for him.

He certainly didn't deserve it. Daniel hesitantly touched her shoulder.

"Vala?"

Edited 2012-04-15 02:49 (UTC)

It feels like she's dying, hot molten liquid seeping through her veins rendering every subtle movement a trial. There's an antibiotic drip feed and another one labelled saline pumping into the back of her hand and the crook of her elbow, a constant irritation that if she had the strength to she'd be scratching and pulling at. As it is she feebly uses her free hand to limply feel for it at Daniel's touch, not sure what it even is that's scratching at her skin when his voice prompts her to focus and bring herself back from wherever her morphine drugged like state was taking her.

"Hey," she answers with an attempt at a smile, her voice cracking and failing her momentarily. "Is everyone okay?"

She looked terrible. There wasn't any better way to describe it. This wasn't the Vala he was used to, filled with a lot of boundless energy and a lot of 'pain in the ass' to go with it. It didn't fail to remind him that the reasons he looked like this was partially because of him. She did it for the others too, but somehow he got the impression she hadn't been thinking that clearly or that far ahead when she'd first made the offer in the throne room.

Daniel intercepted her hand before it could mess with the feed, and before he knew it, his fingers curled around hers. She needed someone there, any human touch.

"The doctor says 'they'll live'," Daniel answered. He asked, knowing the answer. "How're you feeling?"

"Never better." A wry smile curled at the corners of her lips, quietly appreciative of his reassuring touch. "You can thank me later." The comment was as kneejerk as her decision to take the poison had been.

There wasn't much pain, the poison was acting as a sedative numbing her senses. A fact that she'd have been grateful for were it not having the effect of distancing herself from all of this. It only added to the feeling that she was drifting away and wasn't in control. She'd shrugged off the Doctor's warning about not knowing how long her body would tolerate the toxin, it wouldn't come to that. Much like everything that happened on Kalimba, Vala never stopped to weigh up consequences, she acted on impulse and barged ahead with bucketloads of optimism.

"I pulled you out too early..." She trailed off at that, another spasm of her stomach cutting her off as it tried and failed to rid itself of the poison that had spread that far.

She looked better than she did earlier, but that wasn't saying much. Daniel didn't smile back at her attempt to lighten the mood. He'd been inside her head before. He knew a little more about how she worked then she probably wanted him to.

Daniel had had a feeling that was what happened. That, combined with the sarcophagus acting the way it did, it was a surprise he was even walking around. Sobek hadn't even wanted to get in it himself unless it couldn't be avoided. She had nearly cost herself and the rest of the crew wasting time on him, not only getting him to the sarcophagus but waiting on it to revive him.

"You shouldn't have bothered." Daniel began to say.

She had cut off, jerking. Daniel held onto her hand tightly. What did he do? Should he get a doctor? If she started throwing up blood, he wasn't going to be of any help to her.

The spasm cut through her painfully, producing nothing. She'd almost wanted it to, that feeling when you know if you could just vomit it all up everything would be alright. But it wasn't just a case of being drunk or even food poisoning. Chuck up a few times and you rid yourself of everything and then just sleep it off. Vala tightened her grip on Daniel's hand, the only sign that Vala Mal Doran was actually scared by all this.

"We never leave a man behind." It was easy to repeat the mantra she'd heard so many times from Cameron, easier than admitting how her own life wouldn't seem worth living if she'd left Daniel behind. How that thought had never even crossed her mind, how she would have rather died back on the planet than returned without him. "Besides, if I had, Jack would probably come out of the pod caverns just to make my life hell."

Even like this, frightened for her chances she manages to twist it to be about her own neck, saving her own skin.

Vala jerked through what was obviously a painful spasm, fingers almost crushing his. Daniel took the painful squeeze in stride. He sent her a return squeeze in response: she wasn't going to face this alone. Preferably she wouldn't have had to be in this position in the first place but it was too late. They just had to get her through this.

Hearing that phrase come out of her mouth was unexpected. Where had she heard that even? It sounded like what the rest of the SGC loved to claim, not something Vala would live by. She wasn't as invulnerable and solitary as she wanted everyone to believe, but Daniel didn't believe she was a team player, much less a charitable kind of person either. At least not most of the time.

A strange look went over Daniel's face at Jack's name. Jack. As if he could say anything after this. He'd grown to trust the Colonel at some point. As much of a frustrating, pain in the ass and a dick the man could be at times, Daniel had always known he would be there. So where was Jack, the one time Daniel needed him, really needed him most?

"He'd have the least reason to bitch if he did show up. I don't want to talk about him. But you should have focused on saving yourself and the others. You might've gotten back before the poison got so bad."

"Well I didn't know it would do this to me!" She'd had a clue though, the Doctor had warned her he didn't know what long term exposure would do. But that's tantamount to there just being a chance it might be harmful, not a foregone conclusion. She was an impulsive gambler, nothing will ever change that.

"Besides we're all here so clearly I made the right decision." She gave what passed as a shrug, an attempt at looking superior which in her current state came across as more depressed resignation.

Edited 2012-04-19 07:59 (UTC)

"No, I guess you didn't have much of a choice," Daniel had to concede. Sobek would have left them all to rot or as sport for the faithful that remained behind, even if he hadn't taken to Vala as a possible host. They had to do something. Sobek had been distracted in the last stages of his plan, so that had been the best time to act. The only chance they got, really. Vala had chosen to risk everything on that slim chance.

"Maybe in acting as a carrier. But you could have cost everyone else and your own life because you wasted time on me."

"I was hardly going to leave you after I'd gone through all that. You know a bit of adoration and eternal gratitude wouldn't go a miss."

The Ancient tech that was nullifying the poison in her system was clearly starting to show signs of working already. There was colour returning to her gaunt cheeks, and Vala's inimitable ego was definitely returning. She shot him a look that suggested his martyr act was tiring her.

It wasn't up for debate, Vala had chosen to do what she'd chosen to do. "The others would have left without us, I don't think they would have been stupid enough to wait much longer." She wasn't taking any responsibility for their lives. Risking her own was one thing, but accusing her of risking theirs... that stung.

"Sorry." Daniel said after a moment, tight-lipped. "Thank you for taking the risk."

Whatever he thought of bringing him back to life, it wasn't right to go dropping it on her, especially at this time. Too bad that realization was just hitting him now. Nothing better than being nice and late to the party. People were harder than deciphering an ancient language. Vala even more difficult. What was done was done. He couldn't go back and change it. He could live with the fact that Vala wasn't going to succumb to the poison in the next few hours.

Vala looked like she was regaining some color, so at least that much was going right. The doctor did know what he was doing.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I would have said I didn't think they all could leave us, but this experience taught me a few things. Even the Doctor."

Dr. Beckett, forever a believer of making sure everyone is alright, is walking over to Daniel's bed.

Frowning, he takes the medical scanner, the Life-Signs detector it's hooked up to beeping away as it takes readings. He looks like he's asleep, and Carson isn't one to want to wake him.

The scanners might pick that for the most part, he seemed like he was in one piece overall, although his pulse was uneven, the heart beats irregular.

Daniel had opened his eyes when the man stepped close and turned his attention on the medical equipment. His hearing was still sensitive, just as it had been back when the Crocodile God had him. It was fading, thank God, but Daniel could still hear the blood going through the other guy's body, and his heart going from here, something the archaeologist really didn't like being able to hear. Maybe it would go away soon. His vision certainly had. Sobek had been able to see perfectly, but now that he was gone, Daniel felt the world going blurry again.

For several minutes, he just watched the doctor bustle around. Did he even know what happened? Probably not, missions on Stacy went sour all the time. They were just another influx.

"How is everyone else, Doctor?"

Carson looks up and smiles comfortingly at Daniel before glancing down at his scanner again. "They'll live, Dr. Jackson."

He glances over at Vala's bed. "I'm going to have to take Vala into surgery as soon as I'm certain she's stable. We need to remove that Goa'uld symbiote as soon as possible..." He pauses. "I'm not sure how that's going to turn out."

The last time he was faced with a Goa'uld, they had to use the Asgard transporters on the Daedelus to get rid of it from the host. Luckily, this should be a simple case of removing the dead symbiote.

Daniel felt the slight, answering smile come onto his face too slowly, as if he had to remember how to move it himself again. The smile itself was very slight. He wasn't feeling up to it or pleasantries, and only did it out of habit, instead of being polite. There hadn't been need for decency back on Kalimba.

They'd live. Right. The answer didn't satisfy him. Living was a fact, like saying in this case that they'd survival, but would they come out the other end? Or would they turn out like Eva? Daniel was glad he was alone in his head once more. At least when he thought things like that, he could keep it to himself once again.

Daniel's eyes had wandered back over to Vala. They didn't even know if she was going to be stable? "We never tried to remove a dead one before. Never got the chance. The last time we tried to remove a live one..." Kawalasky had come to mind. Poor guy. Poor Jack. Jack had tried to maintain the stony look after, but you only had to look into his eyes to see the man was a wreck. "You ever removed one successfully before?"

"Yes... But not surgically." Carson says, frowning. "The Tok'ra have a better method, but if that method found it's way to Stacy, we haven't found it."

Of course, it doesn't cross his mind that he's from way in the future to Daniel. That he may not know what the Tok'ra are.

"We used an Asgard transporter to remove the symbiote. But, with it dead, it should just be a simple case of surgically removing it. We don't have an issue with it trying to kill the host on removal."

Daniel was starting to look a little lost right around now. He was six months out of touch with Stacy and he didn't have a clue what was going on anymore. The Tok'ra? The Asgard? The last seemed like something that might have to do with Thor's Hammer back on Cimmeria, but they hadn't actually met Thor face to face. And who was this guy? The only person who knew what a Goa'uld was, was lying over there across the room.

"So it can be safely done. Right?"

"I'm fairly sure, yes."

There was still the situation of unwinding the symbiote from Vala's spinal column, but that was a lot easier now that it was dead.

"With the symbiote dead, it won't have a chance to kill the host when it senses being removed."

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Time has no meaning on Stacy! Bendytimed like woah!

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