Six live bodies and three corpses emerged from the open gate. The sight of three dead men was upsetting to all but none more so than to General Hammond. “And who the hell is she and what happened to her face?” He demanded as they stood in the gate room.

“Yeah, about that…” Jack began but Sam interjected.

“We’ll cover it all in the briefing, sir.”

“You had better.” General Hammond warned. “I want you up in the briefing room in five minutes, got that? Five minutes.”

“Yes, sir.” Jack and Sam stated in unison.

“I want Dr. Frazier to take a look at her.” Daniel said to the General. “I’m going to take her down to the infirmary and I’ll be right up to the briefing room after that.”

At this point, the team parted company with Jack, Sam and Teal’c hurrying off to the commissary to get themselves something cold to drink and a quick something to fill their empty stomachs. Daniel ushered Calla out of the gate room, she left small bloody footprints in her wake and made a trail from the gate room to Dr. Frazier’s office. Once inside the infirmary Daniel told Calla that she was to stay with the doctor until he returned. “She’s going to examine you, ok? It won’t hurt.” Calla made no sound and did try to leave when he left her side to talk to the doctor; she only sat upon the gurney with her hands in her lap. Daniel pulled the doctor aside. “Don’t let any of the orderlies touch her.”

“What?”

“I don’t have the time to explain, they’re expecting me upstairs. Just trust me, do not let the men near her. I want you to do a full work-up on her, DNA analysis, and chemical analysis, everything you can think of.”

“OK, now you’ve got my curiosity piqued. What’s going on?” Janet looked over at the rather small and unassuming woman who was poised on the gurney but not looking at them while they chatted in whispers about her. “You want to know if she’s human?”

“Among other things.” He agreed in a low voice. “And I want you to cross reference it against mine.”

“Why for heaven’s sake? Daniel, what the hell is going on?” Janet insisted. “Who is she?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out. Just do it, ok? Everything. Don’t let them touch her.”

“All right.” Janet agreed.

Daniel crossed back to where Calla sat. “I have to go upstairs now, I’ll be back. Stay here with Janet and let her examine you.”

“Ex-am-ine?”

“She’s a doctor, you know what that is?” Calla shrugged and nodded as if to say she thought she understood what it meant. “You just do what she tells you, ok?”

Calla nodded her head.

“Hi, Calla," Dr. Frazier said in a warm voice, she looked her patient up and down and noticed the small blood pools which had begun on the floor beneath her.

“What happened to your feet?” Janet bent and took one foot in her hand and exposed the torn flesh there.

“Calla where are your shoes?” Daniel asked as his mouth dropped open.

“I have none.”

Jesus Christ! Daniel ran his open palm across his jaw line and pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. “Why didn’t you say something to me?”

“It’s all right.” She murmured.

“No, it’s not.” He didn’t have time to deal with this right now. “We’ll talk about this later. You hold on to this" he pulled on the rag doll in her hands, “I’m going to take this. I’ll bring it back." Daniel tried to take the rolled up tapestry from under her arm. Calla did not let it go. “Give it to me.” Her grip eased and it slipped it away from her. “I’ll be back in a little while. Stay here.” To this, there was nothing from her other than a deep and heartfelt sigh. Calla stood where she was told and watched as Daniel walked away from her. She continued to stare in that direction long after he was gone.

“Ok, Calla.” Janet said in an easy voice. “He’ll be back. I want you to come with me now.” Daniel had said that the orderlies should not touch her, Janet hesitated before placing on hand upon Calla’s shoulder to lead her in the proper direction. Bowing her head but saying nothing, Calla began to allow herself to be herded forward into the examination room.

With nothing more than a thin layer of cotton fabric to protect her, Calla laid on something that was more table than bed though it did have something that looked like a pillow near the head. Looking around she noticed that there were not windows here, she had not seen even one since emerging through the gate. Earth had changed in her time away from it. The walls in this place were thick, thicker than in Kanan’s keep. Armed guards walked openly through the hallways. She wondered if they had finally suffered that Nuclear War everyone had always talking about in the days before she left. Had the Mortals that Grandfather loved so much finally managed to destroy themselves? Their technology had advanced rapidly in her absence, of that much she was sure. Machines she remembered from younger days had either been made smaller or been replaced by other new and improved machines. The guns they kept were more powerful some of them even used the technology of Light to power themselves.

Where were the trees? The birds? The sun? Where was the music that she remembered?

Maybe this was not Earth after all, not the one that she had thought of anyway. Maybe this was a different place called Earth.

Maybe it was not called Earth at all. Maybe Master Daniel had lied to her.

“What happened to your cheek?” Janet asked as she inspected the burned area below her jaw line and the bruise on the other side. To her both of them looked like handprints. The bruise was fading but the light purple outline of the fingertips that had struck her was still clear. They looked about the same size as the shape of the two fingers that had been burned into her. Calla did not answer her. In fact, she did not even look up or acknowledge Janet’s presence. She inspected the burn mark a bit further, it had already begun to heal, and she would give her something to put on it so that the skin did not crack and to ease the scar it might leave. “Ok, Calla, I’m going to listen to your heart with this,” Doctor Janet held up a shiny object that she wore around her neck, “it won’t hurt. It’s a little cold but that’s about all. Ok?” Janet moved forward to place the stethoscope against her chest, Calla backed away. “You have to sit still.” She moved toward her patient and again Calla backed away from her. “Come on, Calla. Daniel wouldn’t have told you to stay here if he thought I was going to hurt you, would he?”

“No.”

“Then sit still.” When she moved forward this time, Calla sat still and allowed the doctor to listen to the beating of her heart. A nice strong thump-thumpa-thump echoed inside Calla’s chest. Janet moved the instrument around to listen to her lungs. “Sounds good.” Her tone was light and reassuring as she took hold of Calla’s wrist and began to take her pulse. Again, there was a nice strong rhythm. “Ok, this might feel a little funny,” Janet took the blood pressure cuff from the rack on the wall, “gets a little tight, but it’s all right.” She looped it around Callas’ forearm. 120/80. Most of the people she knew would kill for a blood pressure reading like that. Shining the pen light into her eyes revealed nothing wrong or spectacular.

“Where are we?” Calla asked softly as the light shone into her pupils.

“Earth.” Janet said, guessing at the meaning of the question. The light clicked off and Janet stepped away from her patient. “I have to draw some blood now, Calla. I’m not going to lie to you, this is going to hurt a little bit.” Janet kept her tone just as light as you please; they could have been talking about nothing more important than an uninteresting bit of gossip.

“Ok,” she agreed. “Where are the windows?” Calla looked around at her surroundings once again, it was all so cold here. So like the walls of the keep.

Janet looped the rubber band around the area where she had placed the blood pressure cuff. “Hmmm. That’s a good question.” She reached in her pocket and paused for a moment. “Why don’t you look over that way for a while?” Janet pointed to the other side of the room. When Callas’ head turned, she slipped the butterfly out of her pocket and into the vein in Callas’ arm. The woman jumped a little but did not say anything. “There aren’t any windows because we’re underground.” Janet explained as the first empty vile filled with Calla’s life force. “Maybe Daniel will take you outside soon. “ Janet slipped the first vile off and the second one on. “Where do you come from, Calla?” With the second vile now full, Janet removed the butterfly and placed a bandage on her arm.

“Tiberia. That is where I have lived since I was small.”

Janet moved her hands back and forth along Calla’s neck and found her first oddity. “Open for your mouth for me.” Calla opened and she shone the light inside. “How’d you lose those teeth?” She asked as she saw that four of her molars were missing. The back of her throat was bright red. Janet stuck a thermometer in her mouth. 101.7 Fahrenheit. “I think you have a fever. Do you feel all right?” Daniel had asked her to take a genetic swab and Janet took it from the cart beside her. “This won’t hurt.” She scraped the inside of Callas’ cheek, capped it and placed on the cart with the blood samples she had already drawn. She did not like the look of her throat or her fever, Janet thought it possible she had a case of strep throat. Janet would run a test for it later but would start her on penicillin before that. “Lay down now, I’m going to feel your tummy.” Calla lay with her head on the hard pillow. “You didn’t answer me, do you feel all right?”

“Yes.” It was more question than statement. Calla cringed at the touch of Janet’s hands on her skin and then to squirm as the woman’s touch began to tickle.

“And how did you lose those teeth?” Janet’s hands probed her stomach, Calla flinched and used the rag doll to push Janet’s hands away as they descended near her vagina. Janet sighed, took her hands off her patient for a moment and touched her once more at the area where her thighs began. Skilled hands worked each leg, feeling the bones as she went. Nothing was right here. “Stand up for me.” Calla rose. “Can you touch your toes?” Calla raised her foot to her hand. “Good.” Janet laughed and knew she should have been a bit more specific. “Like this.” She bent over to bring her fingertips to her toes. “Can you do that?” Calla shook her head. “Can you try?”

Knowing it would make her back pop and ache, Calla put her hands out in front of her, bent at the waist and made it only about three-quarters of the way to the ground.

“That hurts, doesn’t it?” Janet asked and watched as Calla nodded and tried to straighten up. “No, stay just like that for a few seconds.” Doctor Janet reached out a hand and traced it along Callas’ spine, it was not straight as it should have been. There was a very slow and gentle curve to the bone there. Glancing down with her physicians eyes, she noticed that Callas’ hips were uneven, one side of her, just above the kidney on the right seemed almost concave. Janet sucked in a harsh breath, as she looked further down Callas’ back and at the scars there. As she looked away from the sight, she bit back the urged to utter ‘Oh my God’. From the area that comprised Callas’ low back to the tops of her thighs, all that which should be soft milky white skin, was a mass of tangled scars. Mostly of the kind which would be made by a leather belt or whip. Some of the scars currently greeting her eyes had been laid there long ago, others were still pink with new flesh covering them. “We’re going to go and take some x-rays now.” She said hurried as she brushed her hair away from her face and helped Calla close the hospital gown.

“They’re like pictures. You have to stay very still but they won’t hurt.” Janet assured her as she led her toward the door that Daniel had walked out of earlier.

“Master Daniel said to stay here.” Calla stopped at the threshold of the door.

“Master Daniel? Did he?” Janet wondered just what was going on with the woman who was currently in her care. At first, she had thought it possible that Calla was mildly impeded in some fashion but that was not what was wrong with her at all. “I’m sure that Master Daniel won’t mind. Come with me.” The woman Doctor Jackson had brought back with him through the gate was pitifully shy and afraid but not impeded in any medical way. Standing there looking at the woman with the rag doll in her hands, Janet might have guessed that she was somewhere around the age of sixteen or seventeen. She would have been wrong.

Calla sat still, moved, sat still, moved, and sat still over and over again. It seemed they would never stop taking their pictures. When they finally did stop with what Janet had called X-rays, she was put through something called a CT Scan where she was forced to lie down while something circular machine went back and forth over her making little weerp-weerp-weerp noises as it went. When that was done, they put her into another contraption and told her to lie as still as she possibly could. This thing was an MRI machine; it was small, tight and uncomfortable. Doctor Janet had been right, none of the tests they performed on her actually hurt and for this reason Calla did not protest, she simply allowed them to lead her to one machine after the other.

All she wanted was to go outside and see the birds and the trees once again. Doctor Janet had said the world outside was fine, so why did they live under the ground in this darkened pit? Why did they desire to live in a place where there was no sunlight? Would her new Master keep her here long?

“It was reckless, Daniel!” Jack shouted from across the table.

“Fine,” Daniel agreed in exasperation, “it was reckless. It’s still done. I can’t undo it.”

“What the hell is going on here? Are you seriously telling me that that woman is somehow….attached…to you, Dr. Jackson?” General Hammond demanded to know.

Daniel thought about it for a few moments. “I don’t know.” He admitted finally. “That’s what Dr. Frazier is working on. I asked her to do a full work-up on Calla.”

“But you admit that you injected her with your own bodily fluids? That she considers you her master? I have to be honest with you, Dr. Jackson, I don‘t like the sounds of that.”

“Yes,” Daniel wanted to toss his hands in the air but instead rested his head on the table like a kindergartener during ‘lights out’. If he was meeting with this much resistance on the smaller aspects of his current situation, how could he possibly tell them that he thought Calla was a Goddess? A real one. Not some freakishly technologically advanced humanoid from another planet. Not some whacked out alien who got her jollies playing with the lives of humans but the real deal.

“With all due respect, sir…sirs,” Samantha began, “maybe we should just wait and see what Dr. Frazier has to say about this whole thing before we go jumping to any conclusions.”

“What did you want me to do? Leave her there, with him?” Daniel already knew the answer to that question was ‘yes’. “You can’t deny what she can do, that she could be of some assistance to us in our battle against the Goa'uld.”

“Oh, great.” Jack stood up from his chair and paced around. “There he goes again. What are ya tryin’ to do, Daniel? Appeal to my warped sense of Justice? ‘Cause if that’s it, I gotta tell ya, it ain’t workin’!” Colonel O’Neill ran a hand through his decidedly graying hair. “If you think that I want to see her locked up with the Lab Rats, you’re out of your freakin’ mind.”

“Hum. I suppose that’s a possibility.” Daniel did not look up to see the look on Jack’s face.

“For whatever it is worth,” Teal’c spoke up, “I believe that Dr. Jackson did the right thing in taking Calla away from Kanan.”

“You do?” Was the question uttered by Jack, Sam and General Hammond in unison.

“Indeed I do. She could not have remained with Kanan much longer, it is my belief that eventually he would have killed her.”

“Yes he would have and thank you, Teal’c. Nice to know someone has some confidence in me.”

“It’s not about confidence, Daniel.” Jack complained. “I know why you did it. I just think that maybe, maybe mind you, there could have been another way to go about it. That’s all I’m sayin’. That’s it.”

“Well, maybe you could tell me what you plan to do with her now that she’s here, Dr. Jackson?” General Hammond inquired.

Jack snorted. “He doesn’t know. Do ya, Danny-boy?” Jack stood behind the seated Daniel. “What did you think you were gonna do? Teach her to type, send her off to business school and help set her up in a place of her own?”

It was true, Daniel had no idea what he was going to do with Calla now that he had brought her back to... “Earth.” He muttered.

“What?” Jack asked as though he were about to bounce off the nearest wall.

“That’s what she said.” Daniel swiveled in the chair to look at Jack who was standing behind him. “She knew that we’re American.” Jack stared at him dumbfounded. “She said Earth was her home.” Daniel reached to the floor beside him, laid the tapestry on the table, and began to explain his theory to those around him. “Hear me out before you say anything. I think Calla is the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite.”

All in the room was quiet as glances were exchanged. Daniel went on to explain about the marks which had been on her body the night before, the ones which had disappeared with morning’s light, the ones that could only been seen when the Gods were called or when They were near. He told of the tapestry lying before them and how it and the rag doll Kanan had given her, had hung in the room where he spent the few hours before the ritual and of Callas’ utter insistence that Ares had sent him for her. “All right, go on.” Daniel said as he sat back in his chair.

“What?” Jack asked.

“Tear it apart. Tell me I’m wrong.” Daniel replied in a mocking voice.

None of them said anything of the kind. In fact, it was a while before any of them said anything at all. Finally, Teal’c spoke up. “There once was a race of what you might have considered Gods living here on Earth. They were a small group known as the Olympa.”

“Olympians.” Sam stated more than asked.

“That is correct, Major Carter. You would know them by the Greek pantheon.” He turned his bald stare to Daniel Jackson. “I had thought them all dead.”

“Well, they might be.” Daniel said as he pondered Teal’cs words. “But so what? Calla is probably thousands of years old. Who knows how long she‘s been on Tiberia.” He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. “These Olympa lived here? You’re sure about that.”

“Positive. When the Asgard and Goa'uld departed, the Olympa stayed on Earth, hidden on their islands and wandering among the mortals that surrounded them. From what I have been told, their numbers were few even then.”

“Look, folks, even if any of this was true, why would Ares take her there? Why would he have his daughter bound to that, that, gorilla?” Jack sat down hard in his seat. “Doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe not.” Sam agreed. “But if there was a reason, something we’re just not seeing, he could be right.” She nodded toward Daniel. “And maybe Ares didn’t take her there, maybe he was supposed to come and get her.”

“Well, I guess there’s just one thing left to do.” Jack grumbled.

“What would that be?” Daniel asked as he folded his hands and leaned over the table in Jack’s direction.

“Ask her.” With that, Jack rose to his feet. “I’m starving. Care to join me, Major Carter?”

“Sure, sir.”

Dr. Frazier cornered Daniel in the hallway as he exited the Briefing Room and dragged him into her office. “OK, it’s time to tell me what’s going on.” Her tone was light but there was an air of impatience beneath it.

“What? She’s not human, is she?”

“Well, the tests aren’t conclusive yet but preliminaries are that yes, despite an abnormal enzyme and some high levels of toxins in her blood, her DNA code is human. Preliminaries also indicate her DNA has mixed with yours somehow. If I did not know better, I would ask you if she was a relative of yours. What happened on the planet? What did you do to her, Daniel?”

“I didn’t do anything to her.” He snapped. Maybe if he said enough times he would come to believe it. Daniel explained about the previous nights events as best as he could. Even without a medical degree, he knew they had drawn hormones and pheromones from the glands in his body. Those hormones were now going to work on her, taking over her own immune, endocrine and nervous systems.

Nin aswanz, gin aswanz. That was what Kanan had said to her as he lay on his deathbed waiting for his Cha'Dech to save his life. I die, you die. Was the same now true of him? Jack had been right, Daniel did not know what he had gotten himself into.

Janet planted her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Well, that’s certainly one of the more fantastic stories I’ve heard lately. “ She patted him on the back. “I’ll know more about all of that tomorrow when I’ve finished running all the tests. For now, I can tell you that your new friend is deficient in every single nutrient you can name. She is about twenty pounds underweight due mostly to malnutrition I would say. Her bones are about as brittle as dry chalk.” Janet sighed. “Don’t let her fall down any stairs.”

“Excuse me?”

Janet flipped on the lights of the x-ray board to show Daniel some of the images she had taken earlier. “I don’t think that her calcium deficiency has much to do with these, but have a look for yourself. “ She invited. “Do you see a bone that hasn’t been broken at some point? ‘Cause I gotta tell ya, I’m havin’ a hard time finding one.” She pursed her lips and made a small sucking sound. “The girl has more fractures than a professional hockey player.” Janet tapped on the film. “Just look at this. Look at that shoulder, it’s been wrenched out of position so many times I’m amazed it works at all, and those wrists, just look at that soft tissue damage.” She pointed to dark gray areas on three of the x-rays. “Her jaw, both sides have been broken.” Daniel turned his eyes to the images of Callas’ skull and saw the long fissure that ran the entire right side of her head from skull to jaw line. On the left side there were three shorter, unconnected fractures. “Her right hip, pelvis, low back, both legs. None of them was set properly. To tell you the truth, Daniel, I honestly do not know how she is able to stand up, never mind walk. I did get her feet bandaged, she keeps telling me it doesn’t hurt but, frankly, I don’t believe her.”

“Could she have been in an accident?” He asked against hope.

“No.” Janet sighed. “All of these breaks and fractures occurred at different points in time. They’re all in different stages of healing. The last one, here,” she pointed a fissure running across Callas’ right wrist, “that was just a month ago or so. You can see the bone hasn’t finished knitting itself together. Some of these could be ten years old, more.” Janet took the films down. “You want to look at her MRI?”

“No.”

“You sure? I can show you the scars from the lacerations on her kidneys and liver. Or how about where one of those broken ribs punctured her lung?” The anger in her voice was quite clear. “Someone really had a grand old time at her expense, over and over again.” She flicked off the light on the X-Ray board. "You know, the most experience I've had with women who were this abused, is signing off on their death certificates."

“Stop.” The anger in Janet’s voice was matched only by the sadness in his. “Please, don’t say anymore. I got it.” Daniel shook his head and drew in a deep breath. He rubbed his forehead where a pounding headache was beginning to make itself right at home. “Can I take her back now?”

“Yeah, she’s waiting for you.” Janet picked up a small paper bag from her desk and fished out three bottles of prescription pills. “Make sure she takes these, got it? Antibiotics three times a day. Percs for pain, no more than four a day, six tops on a bad day. Valium for her nerves. She takes all of them with food, no alcohol. Don’t mix these two,” she shook the valium and percs, “together. Got all of that?”

“Got it.”

“Good, now these....“

“More?“ He remarked.

“These are mostly supplements, iron, calcium and vitamins. I want her to take two of each these a day. I made her take two of the percs already, you can give her more in the morning if she needs them and she probably will. “Janet sighed and dropped the bottles of pills into the paper bag. “Well, Daniel, it looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you.”

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

Daniel began to walk away and Janet called him back. “Listen to me, that shoulder,” she pointed to the x-rays hanging on the lightened board, “isn’t the only place that’s covered in scar tissue. “ Janet looked down at her feet for a moment. “I don’t really know how to say this, as a doctor I’m supposed to do this stuff but as a woman and your friend, I’m just at a total loss. Maybe all of your expertise in other cultures will do some good here. “

“I’m afraid I’m not following you. What are you trying to tell me? “

“Are you familiar with the practice of female castration? “ Janet watched him flinch but he nodded his head and motioned for her to continue. “Well, she’s still got that, well most of it anyway, but, someone, they, umm, “she shook her head again and forced herself to go forward. “They scared her, Daniel, inside. Are you following me? Or do I have to get graphic about this? “

Several Middle Eastern cultures practiced female castration or the removal of the clitoris and others that practiced a different kind of control over their women. In some of those cultures, men of great power were known to have their favorite women altered so that they would never lose that tightness. They would always feel like a virgin. The practice involved making three mid-sized incisions, which then became infected, were cured and then finally healed over. The resulting scar tissue was very thick and deep. Most women who under went this barbaric procedure never enjoyed sexual intercourse again but their Masters all reported being greatly satisfied. “No, I got it.”

With his head hung low, Daniel left the office with the paper bag of pill bottles and was off on his way to go and collect Calla who was sitting on the same gurney where he had left her several hours ago, waiting for him. The old rag doll lay on the floor at her feet, in her hand, she clutched the medallion around her neck. At some point in time between when he had dropped her off here and now, someone had taken the green velvet gown away from her and given her a set of rather ill fitting fatigues and a long sleeved black cotton shirt and a pair of USAF issued boots. Her auburn hair had been messed and played with, probably she had sat here twirling it while she waited for him, now it hung around her face and shoulders in an untamed manner. “Hey,” he said quietly as he walked through the door, “you ok?” Daniel watched as she nodded without looking up at him. “I bet you’d like to get out of here for a while, huh?” Now her eyes did turn to look at him. Lacing one arm gently around her shoulders, from now on he would be ever mindful of all those dark lines which ran through the inside of her and that ’soft tissue damage’. “Come on, come with me. Let’s get out of here."

End Chapter Eleven
Daughter of the Gods: Every New Beginning
By Moon Mistress
Continue to
Chapter Twelve

This story and all stories in the Kingdom of the Gods & Daughter of the Gods series are copyrighted to Lisa Beth Darling these stories may not be transferred outside of this URL in any fashion.