Josiah awoke to darkness. Until he wrenched his eyes open, anyway. The floor was cool against his cheek. Jerking to full on wakefulness, he pushed himself up to sitting, the lack of the weight of the pack on his back dropping a stone into his stomach. Crap! Crap, where was everyone else? One minute, he's snooping around some long-dead EO's dusty journals, and the next, he's waking up on a cold stone floor, goodness knew where. He blinked around, pushing his crookedly perched glasses farther up onto his nose.
"Ah... Hello?" he called tentatively.
A cool hand pressed first to the back of his neck as if to steady him, and the other to his forehead. There was the sound of soft "tsk" and then a silken voice responded.
"Goodness, that was quite an entrance..." Her voice was near his ear. "Are you unhurt young man? Let me see..."
Her face came into view. If he were pressed, he would have said she was more a girl than a woman, but something about the hard lines of her chin and the edge of her black eyes bespoke experience beyond her years. Fine black hair fell across her shoulders down to the violet hued floor. She studied him for a moment, and satisfied, she smiled. "No damage done then." Her lips were so red as she chuckled almost innocently, "but it's generally considered bad manners to drop into a lady's boudoir unannounced."
Josiah knitted his brow. "I'm so sorry," he stuttered, blushing at her immodest nightgown and looking away. "I'm not even sure how I got here..." He made a more concerted effort to look around himself. The floor was purple... crystal of some sort. And the two of them were alone. "Was there anyone else with me, before I came to?"
The strange woman smiled at some secret amusement though her voice sounded concerned. "No, no one else. And you appeared about six feet from the floor. It's a miracle you didn't injure your head." Apparently unconcerned about his proximity and her state of undress, she tilted her head back into his line of sight. "My name is Ercinee. Who are you, O Bold Interloper, and where have you come from?"
"Oh! Sorry." He got to his feet, wincing a little at the vestiges of the headache that'd probably put him out. Dropping from six feet up was likely to do that. "I'm Josiah. Ah, Dr. Josiah Rookwood, from Earth." He put out his hand to shake on reflex, then pulled it back a little as he remembered where he was and her state of undress and all of that. "Er... Where exactly am I?"
He glanced around the room as if it alone could answer his question. The furnishings were sparse for a room that seemed too large for a simple boudoir. A vanity and mirror and its accompanying bench appeared to be carved out of jet. These sat next to a large four poster bed of similar construction swathed in pillows and comforters in varying shades of violet. The cold stone floor was echoed in the unadorned walls and cathedral high ceiling, all of which seemed to suffuse an almost dreamlike glow. It was unearthly and, besides the fact that it seemed far too intimate, extremely eerie.
Ercinee stood, sighing as she did so. "My prison," she began, "And, Dr. Rookwood, if you weren't sent here by Them, then I'm afraid you have a problem." She pursed her lips and stared at the floor for a moment before looking up, her black eyes questioning. "You... weren't sent here, I assume?"
Josiah looked at her with new concern. "Not so far as I know," he replied. "I was on the surface of a planet I and my fellow explorers were, ahm, exploring. And then I was here, waking up." He pressed his lips into a grim almost-frown. This didn't look like any kind of prison he'd seen - crystalline floors and ebony carven fineries. "If I may ask, who're 'They'?"
Ercinee's frown deepened. She turned in the direction of the bed and took several steps before she replied, "You said you were from Earth, Dr. Rookwood? If so, then 'they' are creatures you won't want to meet. Are you armed in any way?" Her back to him, Ercinee's face turned in profile and her eyes sought his.
"Ah..." He hugged his P90 to his chest with one arm, for once happy to remember it strapped there, and felt for the sidearm strapped to his hip. "Yeah, yes. I am," he affirmed, meeting her gaze. "Could I ask... I know it's terribly rude. But what crime are you supposed to have committed?"
Ercinee sighed and turned towards Josiah, arching just so against one of the four posters, "I didn't play by the rules. I had 'ideas'. I didn't like the way things were being done," she shook her head, "the needless killing...so much potential, wasted." she smiled bitterly and looked at the bed, "but I still have a few uses while I carry out my 'sentence.'"
Josiah lifted his brows. There was something about what she said. Playing by the rules required killing, so she was... not expressly a good guy, but was against the bad guys... Reminded him of the Tok'ra. Er. But. Wow, see through nightie. And... uses. He wrinkled his brow in concern. "Look, I don't know who They are, but we've got some pretty decent tech, where I come from. And we aren't ok with prisoners being treated like..." He trailed off and glanced at the bed, assuming the worst. "We gotta get you out of here."
Ercinee blinked at him and then smiled wistfully. "Dr. Rookwood... without a second thought, you'd whisk me to safety." Her expression became earnest, and the young woman seemed hopeful with every fiber of her being as she quickly returned to him. Her dark eyes alighted on the weapon and she appeared to calculate. "This weapon won't be able to kill them, but it might buy us some time. They use rings to transfer in and out of here." She looked at him, excitement mounting. "It would be easy to escape since no one would be expecting armed resistance." Her porcelain face positively beamed at him, "You are the answer to my prayers. Are you certain you are not a god yourself?"
Josiah smiled uncomfortably. "Quite certain," he assured her. "I've... never shot someone before. I'm usually a peaceful person. I guess it's a good thing bullets can't kill them, huh," he murmured. "When are you expecting them to come next?" Rings meant Goa'uld, probably. Which meant badness for the 5'7 Taur'i if this particular one hadn't been living under a rock for the past few years.
"Well," Ercinee sighed, suddenly deflated, "that's the tricky part. Every thirteen hours food and water is brought, but other than that, there is no... schedule. That in itself is part of the torture." The young woman's eyes took in the prison, as if mapping it anew in her mind. She shook her head as she came to a conclusion. "The only place that offers any concealment for surprise is the bed. Come on," she took his hand in both of hers and pulled him briskly towards it.
"Uhm," Josiah murmured, surprise nearly tripping him on his own feet. "So, I'll just take up a position on this side of the bed, and the rings show up there?" he confirmed, catching up to his own center of gravity. He tugged back on her hands a little to bring them to a stop.
"Yes, you are right about the rings but..." She looked at him kindly, "Josiah, you don't mean to stand there in wait for eleven hours, do you?" She climbed onto the bed and reached her arms above her head as she began to untie what turned out to be canopy fasteners. "I can close these... I do it all the time. This is perfect," she urged as one side of the canopy fell into place, "come inside."
"Oh." He swallowed. It /was/ fairly perfect cover. And she /was/ reaching over her head to untie stuff. Crap, damnit. What in the world was he thinking about, at a time like this. "Well... All right." Almost gingerly, he climbed onto the bed and sat apprehensively, back straight. "It might not be eleven hours, though. Right?" And why wasn't he just lying in wait on the far side of the bed, sitting on the floor and hidden by curtains?
"It might not be eleven hours, no." She touched his hand gently, as if for the first time sensing his... unease. "It's all right. I have perfect faith in you, in your unexpected arrival here. You have no idea how grateful I am." She turned her back to him, sliding her impossibly silken hair to one side of her neck as she let her robe slip enough to show a fair expanse of bare back. Besides the unexpected show, Josiah was treated to a harsh map of scars, some old and welted, others quite recent. "They don't heal. Whatever it is they use, they just keep destroying me inch by inch. It's becoming unbearable..."
Josiah's heart clenched up in sympathy. "Don't worry," he said with a confidence he didn't really feel. "I'm gonna get you out of here." Unless this doesn't work. Unless they put me in a room by myself and start considering /me/ their prisoner as well, he didn't say. If this didn't work, he was stuck just as much as she was, unless the Them sent him back to the planet. It was small consolation to know that when he failed to turn up, the SGC'd probably send a S&R to a planet he might not even be on any more. Er, hopefully they would. That "leave no one behind" thing. He assumed it extended to civilians. Of course it did.
So he turned to her and relaxed a little, the gun in his hand feeling alien and reassuring all at once. He had to get this right. If only he'd actually taken Austin up on that whole Field Training stuff. His brain'd had a good point though. "When I don't show back up," he murmured softly, smiling kindly, "my people will come looking for me. Do you know about where we are? If we're still on the planet, we may get outside help." He would, anyway. His rescue team might assume she'd captured him at first.
Ercinee covered herself while he was speaking and turned back to him, shaking her head. "No idea, really, but once we ring out I'll have a fairer idea. Hopefully we are close to wherever your people will be arriving. If we can get to a stargate..." The expectation of freedom was clear in her entire demeanor as she squeezed his hand. "Josiah, I already feel like I owe you so much." She brought his hand to her lips and kissed it with a dark innocence bordering disturbing. "Anything... name it."
part two
part three
part four
part five
part six
part seven
---
Ercinee (c) Mary Logan
Post written co-operatively
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