Young Writers Society

"You're right," Maahes said. He didn't want to go into too much detail, just in case this planet had been visited by the Goa'uld under the guise of gods in the past. "It doesn't. My ship looks more like a pyramid than anything else, if you have those here. It's name is The Lotus."

"Oh! Pyramids are just three dimensional triangles? Like, they have three sides that are a triangle and the bottom is a square... ha. That's a cool shape for a ship to be. How's that even work? There are no sails?"

He couldn't help but laugh at the comment. He had never once been under the belief that an interstellar ship had sails, and to think of his beloved ship having a pair of sails sticking out of its top only made him laugh harder. He must have been having a really tough day if he was laughing over something as stupid as this.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, "but that's the first time I've heard that guess in awhile. My ship in particular is fueled by special crystals, but some ships just use plain old rocket fuel."

"No, no! It's great that you laughed. Laugh all you want," Bo smiled. "I don't think I know what rocket fuel is. I'm vaguely familiar with coal and fire and stuff as fuel. But it sounds like you guys are way more advanced than we are. Which is really crazy! But cool!"

He had to admit he didn't know too much about it himself. The interstellar craft that Earth had prior to their discovery of Abydos and the stargate had never been able to get all that far, so he had never put much faith in that form of space-traveling technology. But he still knew more about it than Bo did, which he supposed was just a bit satisfying.

He thought for a moment. "Have you ever seen an odd circular object?" he abruptly questioned, thinking of the other highly advanced technology he knew of. "It looks like it's made of stone, and should have strange symbols running up the side of it. It would be at least twice my height."

"What, like... a giant frisbee?"

He shook his head. "No, it's hollowed out-"

He turned to look at Bo, the words finally registering.

"You know what a frisbee is but you don't know what rocket fuel is?"

Bo flushed, though he wasn't sure why he was embarrassed.

"I... I mean. Yeah. It's just a toy."

"I guess," Maahes admitted, though he was still astonished by the way that Bo's world had developed. There had been discus back in the earlier civilizations of Earth, but the creation of the frisbee - as far as he knew - had been far more recent. "But have you seen something like what I described before?"

"No, I don't think I have," he said as he dodged another tree branch, ducking.

Maahes, who had been lingering behind Bo, had been too distracted by their conversation to notice the oncoming tree branch. As Bo continued to walk ahead, Maahes walked right into the branch. He gave a startled cry as it brushed against his face.

Bo spun around. "Oh, shoot! Are you okay, dude?"

"I think so," he said, covering his nose in pain as he pushed the branch to the side. If he had been human, a hit like that would have let a few scratches or even a bruise later on. But seeing that he wasn't, he would have to hope that Bo was oblivious to the more specific reactions of the body.

"Did you get a scratch or something? I'm sure Mel could help with that. She's got healing magic. Real cool stuff."

Shoot. Bo apparently was able to tell something like that. Well, a little improvisation never hurt, right? "I'm good," he said, keeping his hand on his nose to cover it. "It just hurts, but I've felt worse before." He was trying to come up with some sort of plan, but none of them seemed to work. It was impossible to tell if Bo would forget about the incident or not, so he couldn't just pretend it had never happened.

But making a small scratch mark in the place where the branch had hit him was also risky. He had no idea how this healing magic worked, and if this "Mel" would be able to tell that he was the one making the wound disappear when she used it on him.

Then again, what other choice did he have?

He focused for a bit, adding a small scratch on this guise's face, and removed his hand in what he hoped was a natural way.