Complete
Drama, Romance
Other pairing
FR-T
Spoilers for Tin Man, The Entity
Season 5
Disclaimers:
Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the
property of Stargate (II) Productions The Sci-Fi Channel, Showtime/Viacom, The SciFi Channel, MGM/UA,
Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is written purely
for my own entertainment, and that of anyone else who may happen to read it. No
infringement of copyright is intended. It is not intended and should never be
used for commercial purposes.
The original characters, situations and ideas
contained within this work are the property of the author.
Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to Sho, without whom I would doubtless make many more major clangers.
"Welcome to P3X-976," Jack O'Neill announced, as he stepped down from the Stargate on the heavily forested planet which bore that unromantic SGC designation. "A beautiful world; an unspoiled, natural paradise, where we will no doubt soon be running for our lives."
Daniel Jackson smiled. "You know I hold you in the highest regard, Jack," he said, dryly. "But sometimes your relentless optimism can be trying."
"What?" Jack asked, innocently. "I can be optimistic, but the fact is nine times out of ten we ended up running for cover while you scream like a girl."
"Well, that's not even a little bit true," Daniel replied. "It's three in four, tops, and I'll have you know my scream has been judged both manly and full-throated."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Jack said. "But you can't deny, our welcomes often leave a lot to be desired. SG-7 have been invited to five feasts in their honour in the last six months. We got two, and we turned out to be the main course in one of those."
Sam Carter laughed in disbelief. "Are you and Colonel Ferretti keeping score?"
"Not...as such," Jack replied.
"By request of O'Neill and Lieutenant-Colonel Ferretti, Captain Ransom produces authoritative statistics each month," Teal'c explained.
Sam shook her head in amazement, less surprised that Jack and Ferretti were keeping track than by the fact that they had persuaded General Hammond's level-headed clerk to assist them. "It just seems such a negative way of looking at cultural encounters."
"It's not like we bet on it," Jack protested. "Ferretti complained once that we get all the glory while he gets all the suffering, so we keep tabs; not score. I don't like being chased through the woods," he said, defensively. "Does that make me a bad person?"
"I'm not sure what else you expect," Daniel said. "We can't always be welcomed as lost gods and prophesied heroes, and you know you hate it when we are. I think you just like to complain."
"Well, that as well," Jack admitted, to Sam's great amusement. "But every now and then I'd like to be welcomed by..." He looked past Daniel and Sam, and took a step between them. "Hell-o."
Sam and Daniel shared a look, then turned to see what had distracted Jack. What they saw was a woman coming towards them out of the woods. She was small and stocky, perhaps five feet tall with broad shoulders and hips, and very beautiful. Her copper-blonde hair was tied in a long plait, and she wore a floaty, silver-grey dress and a warm smile.
"Now that's a welcoming committee," Jack said. He started towards the woman with a confident stride.
"I can't help feeling something bad's about to happen," Daniel whispered.
Sam stifled a laugh.
The woman stopped a few yards from Jack. She raised her hands, palms together in an attitude of prayer, then lifted them over her head before turning them palms outwards. "Comtrya," she said.
Jack screamed.
"Would you say that was a manly scream?" Daniel wondered aloud.
"Well it was certainly full-throated," Sam admitted. "But I would've thought a truly manly scream would be in a lower register.
"That is how women of the Jaffa scream," Teal'c told them.
"And how do Jaffa men scream?" Daniel asked.
"Less often, but louder."
"Are you well?" The woman asked Jack, concerned.
"Ah!" Jack cried, then he gathered his wits and his manners, forced a pained smile onto his face, and returned the greeting, throwing his hands wide as he exclaimed: "Comtrya!"
The woman clasped her hands before her mouth, half-muffling a delighted laugh. "Harlan!" She cried. Then she pressed her hands to her face in amused horror. "Oh no," she said. "Oh dear. No, please." She took a few steps forward so that she could clasp Jack's hands in hers. "Oh, I understand your frustration, I truly do, but please understand; not all Altairans are Harlan."
Jack relented with a shrug and a sigh. "I'm sorry," he said. "It's just the first time I heard that word Harlan made robots out of us to be his bestest buddies."
The woman nodded her understanding. "We were once visited perhaps three hundred years ago by a group of simulants who had been created from the blueprint of visitors to Altair. They had wearied of Harlan's company, and chosen to strike out on their own."
Daniel nodded. "Very popular choice."
"How did they survive without the power supply in the complex?" Sam asked.
"The same way we did," the woman replied. "Using a portable power supply to furnish their needs, and spending periods of downtime to preserve their internal charge. But where are my manners?" She asked, suddenly. "I am Egenie of Altair."
"Hi," Jack said. "I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill; this is Major Carter, Daniel Jackson and Teal'c."
Egenie faced them all and repeated her gesture of greeting. "Comtrya, and welcome, all of you, to Comtray How."
"Is that a derivation of Comtrya?" Daniel asked.
"That is correct," Egenie agreed. "It means land of welcome and blessing, for it was here that we found our new home after long years of wandering."
"And 'we' is...?" Jack prompted.
"There were nineteen of us at first," Egenie explained. "Now we are six. Come; I will show you our home."
"If there are six, then where are the rest of you?"
"At the facility," she replied. "When we detected that the Gate had been activated, I was sent to observe you, to welcome you if you appeared friendly, and to judge if you were dangerous."
"And we passed muster?" Jack asked, with a little trepidation.
"You did," she assured him. "Well, by my reckoning anyway, which my comrades agreed to abide by," she noted, with great emphasis. "Come out now; let them see you."
The trees rustled, and four warriors stepped out. It was clear that they were warriors, because they carried weapons, but what was less clear was what species they might be. They were humanoid, shorter than any of SG-1, and broader than any save Teal'c, but their faces were blank; entirely featureless.
"Yow!" Jack exclaimed.
"Please do not be alarmed," Egenie said. "They are only sentinels, sent to assure my safety." She turned to the nearest sentinel and said: "It's alright, Varric. They will not harm me. Your drones can return to their patrols." There was a pause. "Varric?"
The sentinel bowed, then moved off with its four companions.
Egenie sighed. "He's a good man, but takes his duty to protect us very seriously," she explained.
"What was he?" Jack asked.
"Varric?" Egenie asked. "An Altairan, like me; except that he is a man, and a soldier."
"What happened to his face?" Sam asked.
"His...? Oh!" Egenie gasped in realisation. "That was not Varric; they were merely sentinels. Varric controls them, and hears what they hear."
Sam nodded her understanding. "Are they simulants?" She asked, using Egenie's word. "Like you?"
"Clothila can best answer that question," Egenie said. "Come with me now, and I will show you our home." She took Jack by the arm and walked him towards the forest.
"Um...Okay," Jack said, taken aback, by Egenie's abruptness which was startling, but rather charming in its way and by her strength.
Daniel and Sam watched for a few moments as Egenie towed Jack towards the trees.
"I guess we just follow along," Sam suggested.
"I guess so," Daniel replied. He offered his arm, and Sam took it.
"Thank you, kind sir," she said, and they walked off.
Teal'c looked around, and having no-one to walk arm in arm with, followed on his own.
*
The Altairan facility was hidden in the forest, about a mile from the Stargate. The clearing where it stood was surrounded by a dense circle of trees, through which were threaded a number of hidden pathways, each guarded at the inner end by a sentinel. The facility looked sort of like a giant igloo; a geodesic dome three storeys high and covering almost an acre of ground. A huge tree grew out from the centre of the dome, it's trunk over five yards thick and its great, spreading branches creating a canopy over almost the entire clearing.
"This clearing was perfect for our needs, apart from the tree," Egenie explained. "Some of us wanted to tear it down, others suggested replanting, but in the end we built the facility around it. Aside from anything else, the canopy provides a perfect cover against aerial surveillance."
"You don't like to be seen?" Jack asked.
"We prefer to keep to ourselves," Egenie agreed. "Our technology is advanced, and more than once people have tried to take it from us. We...lost people that way."
"I'm sorry," Jack told her, sincerely.
"It happens," Egenie replied. "Although sometimes we forget that."
"So this facility is where you draw your power from?" Sam asked.
"Yes. The original portable plant has been upgraded so much that it is all but unrecognisable, and now utterly immobile. We have also built a subterranean geothermal station in the hills some distance away which supplements the reactor and allows us to take it offline long enough to overhaul and refuel it."
"Egenie!"
Egenie sighed as she turned to greet the man who approached them. "Comtrya, Varric," she said.
"Comtrya," Varric responded, shortly. He was a burly man, although not much more than five-foot-six, and carried himself with an air of strength and authority. "Egenie, vena tus chenie makarda?"
"Varric," Egenie said, sharply, disengaging herself from Jack's arm. "These are our guests. Speak so that they can understand you when in their hearing."
Varric frowned. "Excuse us," he said to Jack, then took Egenie's arm and drew her aside. She shrugged him off, but followed him out of earshot.
"What he say?" Jack asked Daniel.
"Well, I don't know much of the Altairan language," Daniel admitted. "Pretty much just 'Comtrya' in fact, but I think it pretty much translates as 'Fer cryin' out loud, Daniel'."
Sam was watching the two Altairans, now thoroughly engaged in their argument, and she too recognised the scene as one she had seen played out a hundred times between her team-mates. "I guess he's slower to trust than she is," she agreed.
"Tell you the truth, I'm starting to get a sinking feeling about this," Jack said. He gestured with his head to one side of the facility, where a large group of sentinels were gathering.
"A number of sentinels appear to be converging from all directions," Teal'c added.
"I guess Varric really doesn't trust us," Daniel said.
"Ya think."
"That or he's jealous."
Jack looked confused. "Huh?"
"Well, Sir," Sam said. "While that does look like a very familiar argument, you could cut the sexual tension between them with a knife; which, if it's there with you and Daniel, I've never seen it."
"Huh. I hadn't noticed it," Jack admitted. "Between them," he hastened to add. "Not between me and Daniel. Not that there is between me and Daniel. Right?"
Daniel shrugged. "Not that I was aware of," he agreed.
Sam just smiled.
"Teal'c?"
"I pay no attention to rumours overheard in the commissary," the Jaffa assured him.
"That's...good to know."
"The sentinels are going away," Daniel noted.
"Or getting into position," Jack suggested.
Egenie and Varric walked back to SG-1. "Comtrya, Colonel O'Neill," Varric said. "I am Kenten Varric, commander of this facility. I...apologise for my rudeness," he finished, in response to a glance from Egenie. "I'm told I sometimes err too far on the side of caution, but it is my duty to protect this group." He glowered at Egenie. "Even when they seem determined to endanger themselves."
"That's okay," Jack assured him, warming to the man's forthright nature. "Quite understand. Strange people, armed, you don't know what they want or why they're here; I'd do the same."
"I'm sure you would," Varric replied smiling for the first time. "Am I correct in thinking that Colonel is a title of military rank?"
"That's right," Jack replied. "It means..." He turned to Daniel for help.
"Uh; originally a leader of a column of soldiers."
Varric looked over SG-1. "Your column appears to be rather small," he told Jack.
"It's what you do with it that counts," Jack assured him.
Varric eyed Jack, shrewdly. "Special forces?" He asked.
Jack nodded. "Not so much in the last few years, but yeah. You?" He knew the answer already, just as Varric had not really needed to ask; there was a look in his eyes that people got after a few years of black ops.
"The rank of Kenten specifically refers to such," Varric replied, proudly. "Although I've been doing security work since the destruction of our world made offensive warfare a moot point," he admitted.
"Didn't you say something about a precautionary sweep?" Egenie asked, seemingly annoyed that Varric had hijacked her guests.
"Didn't you say it wasn't necessary?" Varric asked, but he smiled at SG-1 and waved in farewell. "Comtrya," he said, then went on his way.
"Good meeting you," Jack called after him.
"I am sorry for Varric," Egenie said. "He can be so serious sometimes."
"Just doing his job," Jack replied.
Egenie harrumphed.
"So," Sam said, trying to change the subject. "Shall we go inside? I'd like to meet this Clothila you told me about."
"Of course," Egenie replied.
*
Once inside the dome, the members of SG-1 could see that it was not dissimilar to the complex maintained by Harlan on Altair, but smaller, cleaner and clearly in substantially better repair.
"And this is where you live?" Jack asked.
"There are living quarters in the upper level," Egenie replied. "However, I personally prefer to sleep under the stars. After the complex on Altair...Even after eleven thousand years I still enjoy the smell of sweet, clean air too much to spend much time indoors. Here," she said, pointing to a doorway. I'll show you the reactor chamber."
The chamber was a cavernous room, with a glowing mechanism in a pit at the centre. Flickering conduits rose out of the mechanisms towards the roof.
"This is the source of our power," Egenie explained. "The energy is carried up to the emitters which pass it on to us or to whatever devices require it. These over here are mobile generators for when we need to go further afield," she explained, gesturing to a rack which held a number of different sized generators. "We have some for large-scale expeditions, and some designed for personal use only. Would you like to take a look?"
"Yes, please," Sam replied. Jack and Teal'c drifted after them, but Daniel was distracted by a door at the back of the chamber. By his reckoning, they were near to the centre of the dome now. Curious, he opened the door and went through, and as he had hoped, he saw the tree.
Although not obvious from outside, there was clearly a quite sizeable opening in the summit of the dome which allowed the sunlight which filtered through the leaves of the great tree to shine down. As a result, a scattering of grass grew in the bare earth around the roots of the tree, along with a few small saplings. Daniel walked over and pressed his hand against the rough, grey bark. He could almost feel the slow, ancient life pulsing within the mighty trunk, infusing the facility with vitality, even as the reactor sent forth its energy.
"What are you doing in here!"
Daniel turned, startled, and saw a woman glowering at him with piercing eyes. She was very dark, and dressed all in black, so that her form seemed to melt into the shadows of the room. She was taller than either of her colleagues, stood very straight, and with her fierce expression she had the appearance of some vengeful spirit sprung from the bulk of the mighty tree.
"I was looking at the tree," Daniel told her, with barely a hint of nerves. "It's beautiful."
The woman's expression softened a little, and she suddenly looked a lot less forbidding. "The others think the leaves are beautiful from outside, but they rarely come in here. I'm glad of that though," she admitted. "It means I can come here and work in peace and quiet."
"Their loss," Daniel agreed.
"You like trees?"
Daniel shrugged. "I have nothing against them," he said. "But this one intrigued me for a different reason. We have an ancient story, on my homeworld, of a palace built around a tree."
"You do?" The woman looked curious.
"There was a man," Daniel explained. "Odysseus. A king, although his kingdom was small and poor. He married, and his wife Penelope wanted their new home to be built in a specific place, at the centre of which was an old olive tree. The tree was very beautiful, and Odysseus had fond memories of playing there as a child, so instead of cutting it down, they built the palace up around the tree, and then they carved the headboard of their bed out of its trunk."
"Very symbolic," she commented.
"It is," Daniel agreed. "The marriage was rooted in solid ground, and had the blessing of nature and culture. This is an olive tree as well, isn't it?"
"That's right," she said. "And you have them where you come from?"
"Some," Daniel replied. "But not this subspecies. I've never seen one anything like this big, although I got to know them pretty well when I was working in Ithaca."
"Ithaca?" The woman asked, startled. "I know that name. You are of the Tau'ri?"
Daniel was no less surprised. "You've heard of us?"
"As legends," she explained. "I've found references to the Tau'ri in a number of ruined temples and palaces that I've surveyed. One such reference was on the ruins near to the Stargate, and contained a mention of Ithaca."
"You're an archaeologist?"
The woman blushed. "I wouldn't say that," she replied. "I'm an enthusiast, but not a scholar. I'm a geologist by training. Your people are said to be the progenitors of all humans," she said. "You must be very advanced."
Daniel laughed. "We like to think so," he said. "And maybe we were once, but the truth is our modern civilizations were just coming out of a post-Goa'uld dark age when Hubald was creating the synthetic bodies to preserve the Altairan race. I'm Daniel," he added, holding out his hand.
"Maddox," she replied, stepping out of the shadows towards him. In the light she seemed suddenly more real, and Daniel could see that she had a lean, strong frame, clad in a kind of boiler suit. What he had at first taken for a headdress was in fact her thick, waist-length black hair. Tentatively not as though she were scared, but simply as though she were unsure of herself she reached back. Daniel clasped her fingers gently and shook; her return grasp was strong, and her fingers were callused in much the same places as his. He released his grip, then performed the Altairan greeting. "Comtrya," he said.
"Comtrya," Maddox returned. "Is that" she mimed shaking hands "how the Tau'ri greet one another?"
"Some of them," Daniel replied. "It's a gesture of trust; you have to empty your hand to offer it."
"Interesting," she said. "Our greeting has similar origins. Perhaps we can talk later; I would be interested to learn more of your people, and of your travels."
"And I of yours," Daniel assured her. "You may only consider yourself an amateur antiquarian, but your experience must be far greater than mine. That is, if you are one of the original Altairan..." He broke off.
"I am," Maddox said. "And you are right that we do not much care to be referred to as 'synthetics' or 'androids'," she told him. "However true it might be of our bodies. The word we use when we have to is simulant, but as there are no others, perhaps you could just say 'Altairan'; that is what we do."
"Sorry," Daniel said.
The corner of Maddox's mouth twitched ever-so-slightly upwards. "No offence was taken. Now," she went on, briskly, although the half-smile never left her lips. "I would like to speak to Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter. I take it that Major Carter is the leading scientist in your group?" She asked. "Such was Egenie's interpretation anyway."
"She is," Daniel agreed. "Egenie told you this? So you can communicate without talking?" He asked, then realised: "Internal radios?"
"The Altairans surpassed radio technology millennia ago," she told him. "But the results are similar. We use them only occasionally, but Egenie contacted us to assure us that you meant us no harm."
Daniel nodded his understanding. "Well, I left them all in the reactor chamber."
"Thank you," Maddox replied. "Perhaps..."
"Damnit, Daniel!"
"Ah, speak of the devil," Daniel whispered, before turning to face the door. "Hi, Jack!" He called back.
"What have I told you about wandering off on strange planets?" Jack demanded.
Daniel thought for a moment. "That it's a quirky habit that often pays dividends?"
"I said don't," Jack reminded him.
"Oh yeah," Daniel said. "That was it."
"We were worried," Sam said.
"He was quite safe," Egenie assured her. "As I explained, any areas which might be dangerous are well secured."
"Major Carter?" Maddox stepped forward, her face all business.
"Yes," Sam replied.
"Sam, this is Maddox," Daniel said. "Maddox, Sam Carter, Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c."
"Comtrya," Maddox greeted the newcomers, in a cool, professional tone. "Major, perhaps you would take a look at this list," she added, producing a PDA from one of the pockets of her boiler suit.
"Um; sure," Sam replied. "What is it a list of?"
"The supplies that we need," Maddox said. "If you know of any unclaimed sources of these minerals, or of anyone who deals in them, or if the Tau'ri could supply them, this would be most valuable to us in trade. This planet is beautiful, and has an abundant supply of a certain rare element that is necessary to the maintenance of our neural pathways, but it is otherwise quite sparse in mineral terms. Our mineral needs mostly for construction and repair of the facility, and fuel for the reactor must be met through offworld mining expeditions."
"You travel through the Stargate?" Jack asked.
Egenie smiled. "Did you think that we had all those portable power supplies for jaunts into the hills?" She asked. "We travel quite frequently, and establish mining operations where we can. We have a number of harvesters drones of similar design to the sentinels, but adapted to mining or even farming. I am a biologist by training, and Maddox a geologist, so we undertake most of the expeditions together."
"I am also the facility supply monitor," Maddox added. "Forgive me if I seem abrupt, but our supply situation is rarely stable."
"Well, I'll need to check back with Earth on this," Sam admitted.
"Please do," Maddox replied. "Thank you. Below is a list of the things that we may be able to offer in return." She turned to Daniel. "I have work to do now," she said. "As we said however, perhaps we can talk later?"
"I look forward to it," Daniel assured her.
"As do I." She smiled briefly, then became serious again as she turned back to face the group. "Comtrya," she said, the sweep of her arms encompassing all of SG-1.
"Well; she seemed like a bundle of laughs," Jack commented.
"She seemed nice enough to me," Daniel said.
"She's alright," Egenie assured them. "Just rather serious, and a little self-conscious about how..." She broke off, glancing nervously at Sam, who was too engrossed in Maddox's list to notice.
"What?" Jack asked.
"Well, about...her figure," Egenie whispered, conspiratorially.
Daniel looked baffled. "I thought she had quite a nice figure," he said.
Jack gave Daniel a long-suffering glance. "Daniel, you dog."
"I'm just saying," Daniel insisted, defensively.
"And it's sweet of you to say so," Egenie told him. She glanced at Sam again before adding: "But you must admit that...Well, she is a little on the...you know?" She looked at the blank gazes in front of her. "A bit on the narrow side. You know?"
Daniel and Jack exchanged a look, then turned back to Egenie, taking in her stocky frame and earnest, sympathetic face.
"Oh, yes," Daniel said, fighting not to laugh out loud as Sam who had clearly overheard adopted a disconsolate expression behind Egenie's back.
"Of course," Jack agreed, doing better than Daniel at not cracking up. "Poor thing."
*
Entering the Altairan lab, Sam was gobsmacked. "This place is incredible," she said. "I mean, I have no idea what any of this stuff does, but..."
"It's so shiny," Jack said.
Sam smiled. "Yes, Sir; that as well."
"Cloey?" Egenie called out. "Savra?"
"Just a minute!" A man's voice replied. They was a sound of metal on metal, and a few moments later the speaker emerged from behind a large instrument panel. He was clad in a bulky protective suit and a kind of welding mask, but clearly he suffered from the same problem as Maddox, being ridiculously tall and spindly for an Altairan. He pulled off the mask to reveal a thin, handsome face with a shock of reddish-blonde hair.
"Savra," Egenie greeted him. "These are our guests."
"Comtrya," the man greeted them, his mask flailing wildly from his hand as he performed the gesture. "Forgive my appearance, but the plasma fusion torch is a little temperamental, and better safe than sorry."
"Comtrya," Sam returned. "Is this your workshop?"
"Well, not mine personally," he replied. "But my wife and I are in charge of research and development for the facility."
"He is too modest," Egenie said. "He and Clothila are the reason we're still around. Their work had tripled the efficiency of our reactor, and of our bodies, extended the range of the power emitters..."
"You give us too much credit," Savra insisted. "We could not have done any of this without your fieldwork, or Varric's protection. We're just one part of the group," he assured Sam.
As Savra began to struggle with the straps at the back of his suit, a woman approached from the back of the lab, grinning manically. She was taller than Egenie, but shared the heavy build that was clearly quite the thing in Altairan terms. "Comtrya," she said, but without the expansive arm gestures. She wore a full-length white lab coat, with the buttons misaligned, and had a mess of small tools overflowing from her pockets, tucked behind her ears, and spiked through the bun of black hair at the back of her neck.
"Clothila, I presume," Sam said, trying not to think of how much the woman reminded her of her high school chemistry teacher.
"That's right," the woman replied. "And you're Major Carter?"
"Yes," Sam agreed. "This is Colonel O'Neill, Daniel and Teal'c."
"A pleasure to meet you," Savra said, still wriggling. "Cloey; could you help me with this smock, please?"
"Of course," Clothila replied. She stood behind her husband, and unfastened the padded suit. "And likewise a pleasure," she added. "Have you met the others?"
"Varric and Maddox," Daniel replied.
"Ah," Clothila said. "Well, you mustn't mind them. They get a little moody."
Jack shrugged. "Varric seemed okay to me," he said.
"Oh, don't misunderstand!" Clothila said. "They're both lovely. Just...Difficult sometimes."
"I see," Sam said, not really seeing, but not wanting to get bogged down in local social politics. "So; Egenie said you worked on the reactor..."
"They also built the drones," Egenie added. "And the systems which allow Varric and Maddox to coordinate their activities. Savra does the mechanics and Cloey constructs the circuitry. They make a good team."
"We've worked together a long time," Clothila demurred, blushing.
"We've been together a long time," Savra added, shrugging off the protective smock; underneath he wore a long lab coat like Clothila's. He turned and hugged his wife, fondly.
"How long?" Jack asked.
"Eleven-thousand-and-thirty-three years," Clothila replied.
"As of nineteen days ago," Savra added. "That was our anniversary."
"Your work is very impressive," Sam said.
"Work, shmork," Jack scoffed. "You still remember your anniversary after eleven millennia? I started forgetting after eleven years! Heck, I'm more impressed you're still together than I am that the Stargate can bring us all the way here. Write a book about how you manage it and you can forget trade goods," he suggested. "We could run an operation twice the size of the SGC on the profits from something like that."
"It is nothing," Savra assured him. "But perhaps our achievements will be worth something to you. I hope so," he added. "Although Maddox is a little melodramatic sometimes, she is right that we need to find new sources of material in order to maintain the complex."
At the back of the group, Teal'c turned his head at a sound from behind him; a skittering sound like claws on metal. The door of the lab was open, and through it loped a heavy-set creature, somewhat like a very large cat in appearance, with black-patterned brown fur. It was a handsome beast, but also very clearly predatory. Teal'c spun around, raising his staff weapon.
"Don't shoot!" Egenie called, and Teal'c held his fire.
The creature loped closer, and sprang, lifting its heavy front paws and planting them firmly on Teal'c's chest. It lowered its head and sniffed curiously at his stomach. As it tried to thrust its snout inside his jacket, Teal'c pushed it away, gently but firmly; it pushed back. Teal'c pushed harder, and so did the creature, making a playful growling sound in its throat. Teal'c pushed, it pushed back, matching his strength, and gripping his jacket with its claws so that they dug into Teal'c's chest.
Teal'c turned to Egenie. "Kindly remove this creature," he said. "Or I will have no choice but to use force."
"Max!"
The creature immediately let go of Teal'c, dropped to all fours and bounded back towards the source of the cry; a girl of perhaps seventeen. She dropped to her knees and hugged the burly creature, scolding it in a happy tone.
"And this is the last of our number," Egenie told Jack.
"Our daughter," Clothila said. "Myana."
Myana looked up at the visitors. "Comtrya," she said, while holding onto Max with both arms. She had Savra's red-gold hair which she wore loose, hanging almost to her waist and slight build, but she had clearly inherited her mother's height and perpetual, slightly crazed grin. "This is Max; he's a vorral. I think he likes you," she told Teal'c.
"I believe that he was merely intrigued by the being that I carry within me," Teal'c corrected.
Egenie looked amazed. "You carry another being within your body?" She asked.
"I do," Teal'c replied. "The larval form of a Goa'uld. It is the means by which its race enslaves mine."
Egenie shuddered.
"Sir," Sam said. "I'd like to talk to Savra and Clothila about their technology and about some possible trade arrangements."
"Okay," Jack nodded. "But if they start talking about making things 'better', we're leaving."
"Oh," Clothila said. "You know Harlan."
Jack grimaced. "Anyway; you do that. I'll go back to the Gate and contact General Hammond; fill him in on what's happening. He can contact you through the MALP relay if you want to discuss trade with him. Daniel..."
"I could show Daniel around the forest," Myana offered.
Jack looked at Daniel, who shrugged, a little nervously, Jack thought. Not that he blamed him; young women taking an interest in him was usually the first step on the road to pain.
"I was going to say have a look around," Jack admitted. "So if Myana doesn't mind?"
Myana shook her head.
"Okay then," Daniel agreed. "Maddox mentioned some ruins near the Gate," he added. "I'd quite like to take a look at those."
"Maybe Maddox could come with us," Myana suggested.
Clothila smiled indulgently. "I think Maddox is going to be needed here," she said, to her daughter's great disappointment. "She knows our supply needs better than anyone."
"I would like Teal'c to come along," Daniel suggested. "I've a feeling the ruins might be of Goa'uld origin."
"I would be glad to assist, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c replied. "If Max does not mind?"
"He'll be good," Myana promised.
"The ruins are someway south of the Gate itself," Egenie told Jack. "I'll walk you back, and then perhaps I can show you the rest of our complex?"
Daniel caught Sam's eyes, but they hid their grins.
"Sounds good," Jack replied. "Let's go."
*
At the Gate, Jack dialled Earth's coordinates and spoke briefly to general Hammond. Then he turned the channel over to Sam so that she could arrange the necessary authorisations to make a preliminary agreement with the Altairans. While she was doing that, he and Egenie left the Gate behind them for a tour of the Altairan facilities.
"You're very well hidden here," Jack noted. "Kind of makes me wonder who you're hiding from."
Egenie shrugged. "Everyone," she replied. "There is little to make this a likely world for colonisation or conquest, save the tarithis the mineral that we require and we know of no other race that has a use for it, so we hide from any whom come, until we can ascertain whether or not they mean us harm. Even with the sentinels, we could never defend the Gate against a determined attack, especially not one supported from space. Maddox believes that is what happened to the original settlement here; it was struck from above."
"Hence you hide under the tree."
Egenie smiled. "Actually, that's happy chance. Maddox and I just refused to let the others cut it down." She looked across at Jack. "You seem very trusting, to leave an open wormhole to your world unguarded."
"I trust you," Jack said. "And I trust the iris."
"Iris?" Egenie asked. "I know that name. The goddess of the rainbow, yes? You believe that she protects your world?"
Jack chuckled. "Not exactly," he said. "The iris is a shield that we can place over the mouth of the wormhole at a moment's notice. Any incoming traveller who doesn't provide a valid ID smashes into it before they have a chance to reintegrate."
Egenie winced. "That sounds...horrible," she said. "Although, such a device would, without question, be of considerable value to us."
"Well, so far there're only two irises in existence," Jack told her. "One on Earth and one on a planet we know the Goa'uld can't ever get to. I'm afraid that we couldn't provide you with one for fear that they might find out how it operates."
Egenie laughed. "Don't worry about that, Colonel," she assured him. "Although we had not thought of the idea, now that you have mentioned it, I am certain that we can come up with a similar device. I shall talk to Savra about it."
"Glad to help," Jack said, warily.
"Rest assured, Jack; you would always be welcome," she promised.
*
After holding a long discussion of the Altairan colony's supply needs with Maddox, Sam had been glad to accept Savra's offer of a tour. She was annoyed to have drawn the short straw of actually discussing diplomacy, and was delighted by the chance to take a look at the meat and gristle of some of the Altairans' technology.
"These are the drone vats," Savra explained, leading Sam into a long gallery, lined with glass-sided tanks. Most were empty, but a few held faceless, hairless, sexless humanoid figures, suspended in a thick, transparent fluid and connected to wires and monitors. As they passed along the way, Savra checked the readouts on the front of each occupied vat.
"Are they...aware?" Sam asked, filled with a kind of queasy fascination.
"Oh no," Savra assured her. "Please understand, we are not breeding slave labour. The drones are controlled by picoprocessors, rather than neural nets. Their programming is fixed and while they have a certain ability to learn, navigate and make estimations, they have no capacity for self-awareness. They simply carry out tasks assigned to them by their controller Varric in the case of the sentinels, Maddox for the harvesters.
"Ethical considerations aside, creating a functioning neural net without an organic consciousness to use as a template is not something that could be done on this scale. In fact, since our own conversion we have made only one attempt to do so."
"You have?" Sam asked. "And what happened to that attempt?"
Savra beamed, proudly. "She is showing your friend Daniel around the ruins as we speak."
"Myana? But I thought..."
"That she had been converted along with her parents? No; Clothila and I were not so blessed. By the time of our marriage, reproduction was a costly and long-winded process." Sam's confusion must have shown on her face, because he went on to explain: "The poisons which plagued our world had such a dire effect on growing embryonic cells that the only way to produce a child that would even survive to term was to extract multiple gamete samples from both parents, and by analysing them, synthesise a complete and healthy haploid chromosome set. These synthesised sets were then combined in an artificial embryo and grown at an accelerated rate in a sealed, artificial womb.
"The success rate for such procedures was one-in-five, which was still far better odds than attempting to reproduce the old-fashioned way. It was also very expensive however, and Clothila and I did not consider it worth the cost for a twenty-percent chance of receiving a child who might never have felt like ours at all." He shook his head, sadly. "Ours was a dying civilisation," he said. "We poisoned our bodies, and let our souls atrophy."
"So you became machines?" Sam asked.
"Yes," Savra replied. "No human could survive on that hellhole anymore, so we became machines. At first it seemed like an ideal solution, but then it fell apart. Trapped in that vault, with no real idea why we were still alive, a lot of us cracked; I would have done if not for Clothila. When we found the Gate it seemed a boon. Harlan insisted we stay, that Altair was where we were meant to be, but in all honesty I think that was because he was the first of us to lose his mind. Several groups left; ours was the fifth.
"There were nineteen of us at first," he said. "We left Altair through the Gate, and found this place after around two thousand years of wandering. To most of us, it seemed like a paradise, but our leader Yarmin Teague felt that we needed a planet that would make us more self-sufficient. He launched expedition after expedition to search through every Gate address we had ever come across, and after six of our number had been lost it was decided that enough was enough. Teague refused to give up his search, or to surrender control of the colony, and so we were forced to take action.
"Varric led the coup, which was intended to be peaceful, but Teague and his last two supporters his wife Kasa and a soldier named Bannet made a fight of it, killing one of the rebels Mesilna before they were captured. Mesilna had been a poet and a pacifist, and she was much-loved by our people. She had persuaded Varric to attempt a peaceful solution, and her death had been more an execution than a result of the combat. Because of this, many wanted to exact revenge on Teague. The remaining colonists were split four wanted vengeance, five simply justice. Teague and his supporters were banished, and as the moderates won out in numbers, they were given a portable power plant to support them. Not long after that the radicals took another portable plant and left; leaving us in no doubt that they intended to pursue their vendetta."
"Have you had any contact with them since?" Sam asked.
"A few centuries after they left, the radicals sent an envoy to demand a new power plant, which of course we were glad to provide. We asked him to bring his people back, but he refused. He said that they had so far only managed to kill one of the murderers, Bannet, and would never return while either Teague or Kasa lived. We've heard nothing of any others.
"We do contact Harlan from time to time," Savra admitted. "But he only demands that we return to Altair, and dismisses us as figments of his imagination when we refuse. We've asked him to join us, but he always says no." He sighed, deeply. "Why would he come here after all; since we're not real."
"What about Myana?" Sam asked, attempting to head off Savra's increasing depression.
A proud smile spread over the Altairan's face. "Ah yes, Myana. It was Clothila's idea, to try and create a child. We researched every angle in painstaking detail; we started over nine hundred years ago, and Myana is now only twenty-seven. She is the first Altairan child to have been born in over eleven thousand years...and alas, the last."
"Why the last?"
"She is...unstable," Savra explained. "Her neural net is prone to glitches; sudden freezes, erratic mood swings. Please do not misunderstand me," he went on. "We adore her, and I would not change a thing about her. However, knowing that such problems would arise, we do not feel that it would be right to repeat the process. We could try and iron out the kinks, but to do that we would need to dissect Myana's brain, so...There it is. There she is; the last child of Altair."
A tear welled up in Savra's eye, and Sam found herself unsurprised that his synthetic body was able to cry.
*
Myana had attached herself to Daniel as they explored the ruins, leaving Max to keep Teal'c company. The Jaffa eyed the vorral nervously, as though expecting it to try and snatch the symbiote from his pouch and run off with it. As Daniel had suspected, the ruins were of Goa'uld origin, but appeared to have been abandoned for thousands of years.
"This was a temple to the Goa'uld Semele," Teal'c said, indicating an statue that was one of the few things in the ruins not overgrown with vines.
"Yes it is," Daniel agreed. "If I recall from the writings that the Academicians on Metisa preserved from their heyday, Semele was a Queen of the bloodline that spawned and was overthrown by the Titans."
"That is correct, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c agreed. "Daughter of Uranus and sister to Cronus. She stayed loyal to her father, and her brother killed her; her name was cursed in the rites of Cronus that I learned as a child. This place was most likely destroyed by the forces of Cronus or one of his followers."
"Who is Semele?" Myana asked.
"This goddess," Daniel explained. "Or rather, Goa'uld. She was worshipped in pre-Hellenic times as a moon goddess, and she once wielded great power in the galaxy."
"I call her Niss," Myana admitted.
Daniel was perplexed. "Why?"
"Because it's pretty," she replied. "And she's pretty."
"Well, she is that," Daniel agreed, admiring the craftsmanship of the statue. "Did you clean the vines away?"
"Yes," Myana admitted. "And...sometimes I used to bring her things; when I was very young," she hurriedly assured him.
Daniel smiled, then turned to an inscription on the wall behind the goddess. "Teal'c?"
"Ithaka," Teal'c read. "The Olive Palace of Semele Under the Moon."
"She must have planted the tree," Daniel realised. "It was probably the centre of her worship. She was also a fertility goddess, so that would add an extra layer of symbolism to the story of the olive tree bed if it remembers this place. The tree must have been old even when the Altairans arrived; Semele probably created it to last forever. The Goa'uld are big on grand gestures like that," he explained to Myana.
Myana nodded. "Maddox said that she didn't think the tree grew naturally. She said it would have fallen down or rotted from within. Egenie found that the wood has preservative properties, and Maddox thinks they were engineered."
Daniel smiled at his own faux pas. "I'm sorry," he said. "I forgot you're older than you look."
Myana smiled back at him. "Only a little," she assured him. "I'm twenty-seven, but I've spent most of my life studying. I've read all the books that the Altairans who died or went away left behind them except the ones on military stuff; Varric says I'm not allowed to learn that. But Mama and Papa taught me all about machines, and Egenie about biology and Maddox teaches me geology and all kinds of great stuff about archaeology."
"You like archaeology?" Daniel asked.
"I love it!" The girl exclaimed. "I wish I could go with Maddox and study the ruins on other planets and..." A shadow briefly crossed Myana's face. "But she says that it's too dangerous."
"Yeah; I get that sometimes," Daniel agreed. "It's frustrating isn't it."
Myana nodded. "But Maddox always brings me back things to study, and lets me help around her workshop as long as Max behaves."
At the sound of his name, Max gave a deep, loud purr and pressed against Teal'c's leg, hard enough to make the Jaffa stumble.
Myana grinned. "Oh, he definitely likes you."
*
Jack flinched a little when Egenie took his arm. Not much, but she clearly registered it.
"Do I frighten you?" She asked.
"No," Jack assured her.
"Do I make you uncomfortable?"
Jack shrugged. "A little," he admitted.
"I'm sorry," Egenie said, releasing his arm. "Am I being too pushy?"
"No," Jack said again. "Well...You're certainly not backward in coming forward, but it's not that. I just..." He struggled to find a suitable phrasing. "I find it odd, being flirted with by no offence a machine. And I find it more odd wanting to flirt back."
"Well," Egenie said. "I'm not sure how to take that, but I think there was a compliment in there somewhere."
"Oh yeah," Jack assured her. "There definitely was. You should understand that I don't think being a machine makes you phoney. I learned the hard way that a machine can be just as real as a flesh-and-blood person."
"Oh?"
Jack nodded. "The copies of us that Harlan made. I always thought of them as fake, as not real; but they were us. They never did anything except the things that we would have done in their shoes. It's kind of a shock to realise that you're not quite so unique as you thought you were."
"What became of the other you?" Egenie asked.
"He...died," Jack admitted. "I think that was what it took for me to realise."
"I'm sorry."
"It's probably better this way," Jack said. "Two of me might have been more than the galaxy could bear. But I know you're real," he reiterated. "It just still feels odd."
"Would it help if I told you that I'm even closer to human than he was?" Egenie asked. "Some of the modifications that Clothila and Savra have made were aimed at closing that gap. I get hungry when I need to recharge; I feel fatigued when my body needs to preserve energy. When I'm in power saving mode or recharging in my bed I dream." Her voice dropped to an intimate whisper. "I feel pleasure as much as pain, and I yearn for someone to be close to."
Jack squirmed, uncomfortably. "Egenie..."
"Our bodies extract waste and dispose of it by..."
"Ohhh-kay!" Jack exclaimed, throwing up his hands. "And on that image, let's leave the descriptive text behind us."
Egenie smiled. "In all ways that we were able to recognise, I have the wants and needs of a human being. Drives me nuts sometimes; but it keeps me sane."
"How's that again?" Jack asked.
"It was the absence of these things that we believe was responsible for the high incidence of insanity and suicides among our brethren in the first century following the transference."
"Sometimes I forget," Jack admitted. "It's so hard to get my head around the fact that you were there. Not your ancestors, but you, personally. I have the same trouble with the Goa'uld," he admitted. "Just the thought of how long some of them have been alive...I can't even imagine it. It must be hard."
"It is," Egenie replied. "So very, very hard. Sometimes...It can be a challenge just finding the will to get up in the morning, but what keeps me going is the knowledge that there's always more."
"More?"
"More to see; more to learn. I'm over eleven-thousand years old, but every time I step through that Gate I find something new. Or every time someone steps out of it," she added. She slipped her arm through his, and this time he didn't flinch.
"So, I have to know," Jack said. "A girl like you; how come after all these years you're still single?"
Egenie sighed. "One thing we never lost the ability to do was love," she said. "It wasn't intended particularly; just one of the many things that we kept along with the transfer of our consciousness. We also, despite our enhanced reasoning and deductive abilities, still made mistakes."
"Varric?" Jack asked.
"It's still so obvious?"
"I missed it; Carter and Daniel didn't."
"It was a long time ago now," she said. "We were...We'd been in love before the transference, although we never really met until after. I was working on the biological end of the project and he was one of the security personnel. He was always grumpy he resented being assigned to babysitting but from time to time we'd catch each other's eye in the hall and share a smile. When we were both selected for the first phase of transference we were delighted to be going together. He introduced himself just before we went in, and our first kiss was the last thing we did with our organic bodies.
"After the transference we became involved, and so when I wanted to go through the Gate and explore, of course he came with me. It was good; for a long time it was great, but then there was the coup, and Varric found himself in charge. We didn't really need a leader by then, there were only five left, but he felt it was his duty. Maybe it was too much pressure for him, because he changed then. He became controlling; I knew he just wanted to look after me, but I felt smothered. He didn't want me to go on field trips because it was 'too dangerous' all of a sudden.
"So I left him," Egenie concluded. "I told him that if he really felt that the risks were too great, I'd obey him as my leader, but I just couldn't live with him anymore." She lowered her eyes, disconsolately. "It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do," she admitted. "But I felt like I couldn't breathe."
"I'm sorry," Jack said.
"It's in the past," she assured him. "Far in the past."
*
After the drone vats, Savra had left Sam in his wife's care while he went back to work. Clothila took Sam to a workstation, and called up a holographic; a mass of lines of varying thickness, sparkling with energy.
"What am I looking at?" Sam asked.
"This is my brain, Major Carter," Clothila explained. "The neural net that holds the copy of my organic personality."
"It's...incredible," Sam said.
"Don't overestimate it," Clothila cautioned. "It is a marvel, but it only replicates the pattern that was used to programme it; that is to say, me. It simulates my organic existence in every detail, including I'm sorry to say a propensity for distraction and absent-mindedness."
"That's incredible," Sam said, perhaps even more impressed that the synthetic lifeform determined by this net could be vague and flighty than she would have been if it were infallible. "I've never seen a net this complex or sophisticated. On Earth we've barely scratched the surface of neural net research."
"You are probably not so far behind where we were when Hubald began his great project," Clothila assured her. "The great leap that Hubald took was not in the programming of neural nets, but in the mapping of a human mind."
"How did he do that?" Sam asked. "I mean, the processing power you would require to even begin to chart the electro-chemical connections in the brain...and we don't even begin to understand how those connections manifest as consciousness. It's mind-boggling."
"Hubald's method used a scanning device of his own devising, but I could not tell you how it worked. I was part of the team that produced the base nets for the personality scan to be imprinted upon, and he did not even tell us. He was worried that early publication would lose him the right to control the technology."
Sam was taken aback. "Your world was dying, and he was worried about patent rights?"
"You misunderstand me, Major Carter," Clothila assured her.
"Sam, please," Sam corrected.
"Sam. Hubald knew that time was running out; not everyone could be saved, and he realised that the future of our race would depend entirely on who was transferred."
"And he felt that he knew best?"
Clothila rolled her eyes. "Believe me," she said. "He did. The military wanted to transfer only soldiers, the politicians wanted to transfer our government; half the academic community wanted to select only the most brilliant scientists, the other half only wanted gifted artists. Hubald decided that getting the groups to agree would take too long, so he took unilateral control of the project.
"He produced a list of ten thousand people who would undergo transference in the first wave, and another ten thousand for the second wave. There were ten machines, and he trained only one person someone he trusted implicitly to use each of them: Wallas, Harlan, Silber, Legwin and the others. The military argued the list on the grounds that the resulting synthetic population would be unable to defend itself, while the government were horrified to discover that two machines each would be dedicated to the transfer of persons from the three other major powers on Altair, and two more would be used for those from smaller states."
"So what were his criteria?" Sam asked.
"Hubald wanted to preserve a snapshot of our world," Clothila explained. "He chose people from all walks of life, or all nations and all creeds. He chose thinkers and doers and artists and statesmen, all in the hope that those who were brought across would keep what was best in the Altairans alive. Almost none of us were at the top of our fields, and a great many could never have helped in maintaining the complex not at first, anyway but we would have possessed a broad spectrum of abilities."
"What were you chosen for, Clothila?" Sam asked.
"Cloey."
"Cloey. Why you and not one of the others in your team?"
"Savra," Clothila replied. "Hubald explained to me that he needed someone with my skills, and someone with Savra's, and so it made sense to take us both. He hoped we would keep each other sane; correctly as it turned out."
"So what went wrong?" Sam asked. "What happened to the rest of the twenty thousand?"
"Oh, various things," Clothila replied, sadly. "Most of them actually died before the transference. One of the big players our country, or one of the other three launched a raid against one of the others to try and take control of their transference centres. Things escalated and squaws were deployed."
"Squaws?"
"Sub-quantum agitation weapons," Clothila replied. "One of the reasons our planet was and still is in the state it is. They were made illegal in the Telus Accords of 708, so of course no-one should have had any of them at all, but everyone knew the other governments were developing sub-quantum weapons alongside their research into SQA power, so..." She sighed. "It embarrasses me how bloody stupid my people were."
Sam shrugged. "If it makes you feel any better...Well, let's just say that while I'm itching to know how a sub-quantum reactor would work, I won't be mentioning squaws in my report."
The two scientists shared a weary smile, before Clothila went on: "Anyway, the upshot of it was that only around two thousand people had been transferred by the time the squaws started going off. There might still be others," she admitted. "In complexes like ours on distant parts of the planet, but how could we know? Even with synthetic bodies, the squaws left the surface completely impassable. The SQ radiation leeched down, and accelerated the inevitable process of poisoning even the deepest vaults. The last of the organics died or were transferred. Then the real trouble started."
"What happened?"
"The various groups started fighting for control of the complex. The military types were terrified a new SQA assault was being readied in some distant bunker, while the intellectuals felt that soldiers were now obsolete. Of course, no one wanted to listen to politicians anymore, but they weren't ready to give up their power. People started hoarding supplies and selling them selling them! The last survivors of the Altairan race and they were scrabbling for money. Some people spoke out, appealed for reason, but no-one really listened until Hubald died."
Sam nodded. "People can be...really stupid sometimes," she said. "Even smart people."
"That is more-or-less what Hubald said," Clothila agreed, sadly. "He said that he thought he had chosen smart people, good people; but they became stupid and evil. He blamed himself for thinking he could cheat what was clearly the predestined fate of our people. And then he told us to see what we had done..." She broke off, apparently too shaken to continue until she had taken a moment to gather her wits.
"He was addressing the people over the public monitors. Behind him was one of the outer doors of the complex, and he opened it. The radiation burned him to nothing in seconds, and..." She swallowed hard.
Sam put an arm around her shoulder. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't be asking all these questions. It's a scientific curiosity for me, but for you..."
"It's okay," Clothila assured her. "I'm just glad that Savra and I both lived through it. We had each other, you see. When others were making an end of themselves any way they could, we clung together. Colonel O'Neill thinks that it is impressive that we stayed together...By the time the Stargate was discovered, we knew that we could never survive without each other. If I lost him, I should go mad; it's that simple." She smiled. "Somehow, I'm not sure that book would sell so well."
"I really don't know what to say, Cloey," Sam admitted.
"What's to say?" Clothila asked. She sighed, then shook herself down and seemed to gather her wits. "Anyway; after Hubald was gone, we fell apart. Those of us who did not lose heart and walk out to the sub-atomic inferno of the surface began to break into factions. There were arguments, and some violence; some of our people were murdered, and there was one attempt to sabotage all of the power emitters. We were days from outright war when a group who had decided that we needed to dig down to the hollow world we had come from..."
"Hollow world?"
"Yeah," Clothila laughed. "Everyone was going a little crazy by then."
Sam shrugged. "There are people on Earth who believe we come from the inside of the planet," she admitted. "Some of them dig."
"Well, these ones actually did find the way to where we might have come from," Clothila said. "They found the Gate, buried one hundred feet below the complex. We brought it out, reconnected the control plinth and started dialling the addresses in the directory."
"Directory?"
"Yes," Clothila replied. "Was there not one with your Stargate?"
"No," Sam replied. "We had one Gate address...And it took us sixty-six years to work out how to dial that one. Now we have several thousand addresses from four or five sources, but we had to start out pretty small."
"Well, we had over a thousand to start with," Clothila said. "And we've found thousands more. If we have any that you do not, perhaps we could offer those in trade?"
"That would be good," Sam agreed.
Clothila nodded in satisfaction. "After the Gate was found," she went on. "The first to leave were those who had most opposed Hubald's choices; the soldiers, the politicians and the intelligentsia. After that were those, like us, who were mixed groups just looking for something more than the complex. We were looking for hope," she explained. "Something to keep us going. We were among the most sane," she added. "I think in part because apart from Maddox we were all couples. It was just a few years back that we really realised what we had been missing."
"Which was what?"
"Children," Clothila replied. "No children. We could live forever, but without the children, no-one felt we had a future."
*
Unable to dissuade Max from following him, Teal'c kept dropping to his hands and knees and snarling at Max, as he might to scare off a dog on Chulak. Max clearly believed it to be a game however and the vorral just snarled back at the Jaffa, until each was simply trying to outdo the other. Meanwhile Daniel marvelling once more at Teal'c's peculiar empathy with certain children, and their pets followed Myana through the ruins, heading, in a roundabout, rambling fashion, towards the Gate and the clearest path back to the Altairan facility.
"This place is incredible," Daniel said. "I'd like to come back and study it in more detail; maybe bring an archaeology team."
"You'd be welcome, of course," Myana assured him. "I'm sure Maddox would be happy to share her notes with you as well."
"That'd be good," Daniel agreed. "I mean, I doubt I could add much to millennia of study. If Maddox keeps good site notes..."
"Oh, she does," Myana assured him.
"Well, then I could probably learn as much from them as from studying the ruins."
"But her handwriting is terrible," the girl warned. "I mean, it's like a spider running across the page, and you'd have to learn Altairan and..."
"Are you trying to say that you want me to come back?" Daniel asked.
"Well, I..." Myana grinned, shyly, and nodded.
Behind Myana, Teal'c looked up from his game and grinned at his friend's sudden discomfort. Apparently taking exception to the Jaffa's distraction, Max cuffed him around the head with a powerful paw, knocking him sideways. Instinctively, Teal'c struck back, and the vorral leaped on him, the two of them tumbling across the grass.
Myana laughed, delightedly. "I said he liked him," she reminded Daniel.
"How long have you had him?" Daniel asked, looking to change the subject.
"All my life," Myana sighed. "Eleven years."
"Eleven...? I thought you said you were twenty-seven?"
"Well, sort of," the girl replied. "This body is eleven years old, my neural net is twelve, and I have twenty-seven years of memories."
"How does that work?" Daniel asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.
"My body doesn't age," Myana explained. "It doesn't grow, and so Mama and Papa decided it would be best for me to grow up in a virtual environment, where I could grow and develop and learn to use my body without hurting myself. They projected themselves into the simulated world they created for me, so that they could teach me and bond with me. I spent a year there, but as it was only a mental world it could be run much faster than the outside world, so that I would learn quickly and be ready to emerge.
"The others would visit sometimes and talk to me," she went on. "And at the end of the year, Mama told me that it was time for me to come out, and asked if I wanted to be a boy or a girl."
"They asked...?"
"Since they could have made me either, they decided it would be best to offer me the choice," she said. "I decided I wanted to be a woman; like Maddox."
"Maddox?"
Myana nodded. "Maddox is so great," she said. "When they were programming the code to generate my appearance, I asked them if I could have hair like hers. Don't you think she has incredible hair?" She asked.
"Yes," Daniel agreed. "And yours is nice too..."
"I wanted to look just like her," Myana went on. "I wanted to be just like her. She's shy and thinks she's too skinny, but I think she's really pretty. I think she's the most beautiful woman in the world; don't you?"
Daniel was a little taken aback. "Well...She's very pretty," he agreed.
Myana beamed. "And she's smart and funny..."
"Funny?" Daniel asked, sceptically.
"Well, it's a very dry humour," Myana admitted. "But..."
Daniel held up a hand to cut the girl off. "I get it," he said. "She's really cool; I see that."
"Really...I like that," Myana said. "Really 'cool'. It suits her."
"Right," Daniel said. "And your point with all this is what?"
Myana looked embarrassed to have been found out. "Was I being really obvious?"
"In a word, yes."
"Sorry," she said. "It's just...She likes you; I know she does. When she told me about you and your friends, and she got to you, her eyes sort of lit up and she got this little half-smile with the corner of her mouth."
"Myana," Daniel began.
"She's been on her own for so long," the girl told him. "And you seem like such a good person. I just want her to be happy, and I think you'd be good together. Like Mama and Papa. She's always been kind to me; always had time for me. I just wanted to do something for her."
Daniel searched in vain for something to say.
"Daniel Jackson!"
"I'm gonna go help Teal'c," Daniel said, silently thanking providence for the rescue.
"He's fine," Myana assured him, smiling as she watched Max playfully mauling Teal'c's head in his jaws.
Daniel was less confident. "Um..."
"Max!" The vorral sprang away from Teal'c and bounced happily back to his mistress' side. Teal'c rose slowly to his feet, checking his skull for damage.
"He's just playing, aren't you, Maxie?" Myana cooed, stroking the creature's head, lovingly.
"That is playing?" Teal'c asked.
"Oh, yes," Myana said. "If he were not, his jaws could have crushed your head like an egg."
Teal'c raised an eyebrow, dubiously. "Your parents consider such a creature a suitable pet?"
"Max is harmless. Vorrals have a carnivorous heritage, but they are almost completely herbivorous. They use their jaws for cracking the shells of thayla nuts." She smiled, sweetly. "Anyway; no harm done."
"Indeed," Teal'c agreed, having found no sign of lasting harm from the attack.
"Max would never..." Myana broke off as the vorral suddenly tensed. Far off, Daniel caught a hint of what had disturbed the creature.
"That's the Stargate," he said.
"We are not scheduled to make contact again for some hours," Teal'c said.
Daniel nodded. "Myana," he said. "Stay here with Max, Honey, and keep very quiet."
"Yes, Dr Jackson," Myana replied, seriously.
"Teal'c," Daniel said, but the Jaffa was already moving towards the Gate. Daniel took out his radio. "Jack; come in."
"What's up, Daniel? Kid getting too much for you?"
"No, Jack," Daniel replied, impatiently. "Someone's coming through the Stargate. Teal'c and I are going to see if we can get a look."
"Roger that," Jack agreed. "Be careful. Don't take any stupid chances; Varric's sending some drones in case it needs it. And Daniel..."
"Yes, Jack?"
"Leave the girl somewhere safe."
"Well, thank you, Jack; I hadn't thought of that."
Daniel found Teal'c crouched at the tree line, watching the Gate. The big Jaffa had a serious expression, and Daniel immediately saw why. Standing at the Gate was a patrol of Jaffa. Three warriors in red, wearing serpent tattoos, and commanded by a pair of mismatched elites. One was a Serpent Guard, the other a Horus, but both wore armour that was red instead of grey or silver.
"Apophis?" Daniel whispered.
"Former warriors of Apophis," Teal'c agreed. "But Apophis is dead. Most likely these are in the service of one of Apophis' former underlings."
"Any idea who?" Daniel asked. "What's the word on the Free Jaffa grapevine?"
"There are a number of minor Goa'uld still making their own bids for power. Since the arrival of Anubis on the scene these are fewer, many of the minor players falling under his thrall or being destroyed, but there are still several who might command the loyalty of scattered elements of Apophis' army."
The Horus Guard was examining the MALP, running his fingers lightly over the surface. "No dust," he told the Serpent Guard. "This has arrived here only recently."
"There may be an SG team on this planet," the Serpent Guard suggested. "We should search the area."
The Horus Guard inclined his head in agreement. "Take one of the warriors and search those ruins. We shall remain here in case the Tau'ri attempt to depart."
Daniel and Teal'c shared a quick look, then began to move back to where they had left Myana. They would have to find the girl and make sure she was out of harm's way, before they could decide how to deal with the Jaffa. As they retreated however, they heard a rustling in the undergrowth, and Max bounded into view, heading for the Stargate. Myana flew at his heels, but the vorral was moving with incredible speed.
"Max!" Myana hissed, desperately. Teal'c made a grab for the beast, but it evaded the attempt and loped happily into the Gate clearing.
"Kree!" One of the Jaffa snapped, spotting the creature. The Serpent Guard turned and spun his staff to the ready.
"Kree ta, Jaffa!" the Horus Guard snapped, but the staff weapon flared once, and Max tumbled to a halt, his heavy body smouldering.
"No!" Myana screamed, shrugging off Daniel's hand.
The Jaffa turned as one, raising their weapons. Teal'c responded at once, a staff blast catching the Serpent Guard low in the torso.
"Jaffa, kree," the Horus Guard called out. "Dial the Chappa'ai; now."
A second staff blast felled one of the red warriors, but a third flew wide and return shots began to lance through the tree cover around Teal'c's position. Daniel raised his P90 to his shoulder and fired, bullets sparking off the armour of the nearest warrior even as the third finished dialling. The Horus Guard ran for the event horizon and leaped through; the last of the Jaffa followed, but an energy blast stabbed out of the forest and utterly consumed his body.
The Gate closed as a group of sentinels emerged from the trees.
"Max!" Myana ran forward and knelt by the body of her pet, wrapping it tenderly in her jacket. "They were like Teal'c," she said. "He just wanted to be friendly. We have to get him back to Papa," she begged.
Daniel crouched beside Myana, and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Okay," he agreed. "Let me help you with him."
*
Savra met them at the door to the facility. He took Max from Daniel's arms, and hurried away with him. Clothila folded the tearful Myana in her arms and led her inside, leaving Egenie and Varric to confer with SG-1.
"They will return, and in greater numbers," Teal'c said, with certainty. "Resistance will not be tolerated."
"When you say greater numbers, how many are we talking of?" Varric asked.
"As many as it takes," the Jaffa assured him.
Varric shook his head. "We can not resist such a force," he said. "We would usually hide, but they know that we are here."
"They know someone was here," Jack corrected. "They saw the MALP and came under fire from a P90 and a staff weapon. The one who got away never saw your sentinel's shot."
"So as far as they know, it's just SG-1 on this planet," Sam said. "How quickly can you hide the facility?"
"In the space between the first sign of the Gate activating, and the wormhole forming, if necessary," Varric replied.
"Okay," Jack said. "You do that. Teal'c; with me. We'll set up a camp and make it look abandoned; Carter, Daniel, send the MALP home. We make it look like we were disturbed and...ran away," he finished.
Varric smiled. "I apologise if this will be bad for your manly image," he said.
"You are so going to owe us," Jack said.
"We shall start powering down the non-essential base systems," Egenie said. "The cloaking mechanisms work best when our energy use is minimised, but that takes time."
"Sir," Carter said. "If they can give me instructions I'll probably be more help lending a hand with that."
Egenie nodded. "We'd appreciate that."
"Alright," Jack agreed. "Daniel get the MALP. Let's move."
*
Following Egenie's instructions, Sam went down to the reactor chamber and switched the machinery into silent running. It was a simple process, more or less a matter of checking readouts and throwing some switches; clearly the Altairans had their drill down, but were either unable or more likely just unwilling to entrust it to automation. After the reactors, she went to the lab to assist the two technicians in taking the peripheral computer systems offline.
"Papa; please!" Myana begged.
"Later, Sweetheart," Savra said, patiently. "We have to shut down the computers first."
"But his neural net will degrade," the girl countered. "Even on support power..."
"Please, Mya!"
"Savra," Sam said. "I can shut down the computers; Egenie showed me how."
Savra's face showed relief and gratitude. "Thank you, Major Carter," he said, with considerable feeling. "Come on, Mya; let's go and see to Max."
"Thank you, Major Carter," Myana said, curtseying politely.
"My pleasure," she replied, although uncertain what they meant by 'seeing to' Max.
Working with Clothila, Sam quickly saw to the peripheral computers, and when she was done she went back to see what Savra had in mind.
"Max is an android?" She asked.
"He is," Savra replied. "Without Harlan we were never able to map a pattern as complex as a human mind to a neural net, but a vorral's mind is far simpler. When Mya's pet was dying, Clothila was able to construct a functional mapping device, and with the relative simplicity..."
"He is not simple!" Myana complained.
"...the relative straightforwardness of Max's pattern meant that it was easy to compensate for instabilities and copying errors."
"I don't mean to put a downer on things," Sam said. "But I understood that when an android became non-functional, it couldn't be revived."
"Well there is non-functional and there is non-functional," Savra explained. "Damage to the neural net is irreparable. If the net is physically damaged then it will usually be rendered inoperable, or at least lose a significant part of its function; in the best case scenario, the effects would be akin to a mild stroke. A complete power interruption to the neural net or to a part of the net for more than thirty-or-forty seconds would have a similar effect.
"Now, Max here was lucky. His neural net has suffered only minor damage to its peripheral sectors, which means that his short term memory has been lost but his core being remains intact. The hit took out his internal power supply, but like all of us, he has a small fuel cell implanted at the base of his brain designed to provide minimum functional power to his neural net in the event of a system shutdown. That supply only lasts a little under an hour on its own, but I've now got him on external power while I replace his primary supply and repair some damage to his peripheral nervous system."
"Would you mind if I observe?" Sam gestured towards the operating table.
"Please do," Savra replied. "You don't need to worry about contaminants in your breath, but if you could put on one of those anti-static cuffs."
Sam slipped one of the cuffs around her wrist, and felt a mild tingling. "Whoa!"
"Don't be alarmed," Savra said. "That's the anti-static effect negating all traces of positive or negative charge in the air around you."
"Wow," Sam said, impressed both at the device and at the complexity of Max's internal architecture.
"This casing contains Max's brain," Savra told Sam. "His neural net. I can't open that of course, but it's much like the nerve arrangements, only more densely packed. This is his emergency fuel cell, the external power port and this" he lifted a small, black case "is a primary power module, which converts and stores charge from the emitters or from a portable supply."
"And what about that?" Sam asked, indicating a small grey nodule at the base of Max's brain.
"That is the back-up," Savra explained. "Max's long-term memory. Clothila has made a number of improvements to the version we were originally equipped with, particularly in terms of recall. An indexing procedure carried out during downtime results in a much more organic form of memory. We used to simply call up data; with this system we have real memories, complete with sensory associations. It's also this process that gives us our dreams."
The engineer finished connecting the new power module and removed the external power lead. "That should be everything," he said. He took a small probe, and touched it briefly to the module, and a series of lights flashed green. Max's innards began to sparkle as myriad tiny electrical impulses criss-crossed through the fibre-optic vermicelli of his nervous system. "All autonomics functioning," Savra announced. "Restoring memory." He touched the probe to the back-up for a longer time. "And bringing the neural net up to full power."
One more brief touch of the probe was all it took, and the vorral was scrabbling back to his feet.
"Thank you, Papa!" Myana cried, hugging her father tightly.
"You're welcome, Sweetheart," he assured her. "Now why don't you take Max over to the synthesiser and repair the damage to his hide?"
"Yes, Papa."
"And say thank you to Major Carter."
"Sam."
"Thank you, Sam," Myana said, before scurrying off with Max at her heels.
"Ah, we broke the mould when we made that one," Savra sighed. "And not just literally. Thank you for your help. If I hadn't been able to restore Max in time, she would have been heartbroken."
"It was my pleasure," Sam assured him. She picked up the probe he had used on Max's brain. "What is this?" She asked. "I noticed you held it in the back-up a lot longer than anywhere else."
"It's a decomp probe," Savra replied. "It uses an induction interface to connect to the storage units and perform a decompression sequence before restoring power. With the back-up it had to restore the active memory sectors essentially yesterday's memories and thoughts to the new short-term memory areas of the peripheral neural net."
"This thing decompresses data in an inactive storage medium?" Sam asked.
"Yes," Savra replied. "It was intended originally for locating corrupted data in memory sub-units without actually accessing the damaged files and potentially crashing the entire machine."
A spark leaped from the probe to Sam's left hand.
"I'm sorry," Savra apologised. "I must have left it...Major Carter?" To Savra's bafflement, Sam had not withdrawn the probe in alarm, but rather held it pressed to her hand.
"Major Carter!" Savra called, alarmed. "Sam!" He focused his attention on his internal transmitter. Egenie, he signalled. We have a medical emergency.
So why are you calling me, the response came.
Because it's Major Carter, he explained, and I really don't know a thing about biology.
*
"Dr Jackson!"
Half-way back to the Altairan complex, Daniel jumped as Maddox materialised out of the woods. "Yow!" He yelled.
"I'm sorry if I startled you," the geologist said.
"You moved so fast," Daniel said.
"One of the advantages of inorganic existence," she assured him, seriously.
"You don't smile often, do you?" Daniel asked.
"Huh?" Maddox asked. She looked conflicted: Flattered but at the same time ashamed to feel that way. "Well, no, but...There's been some kind of accident," she told him. "It's Major Carter."
"A coma?" Jack asked, incredulous. He had stepped away to speak to Daniel, leaving Teal'c to finish setting up their 'abandoned' campsite. "If I get back there and there's two Carters, so help me..."
"It's not like that, Jack," Daniel assured him. "She got an electrical shock in the lab; Savra and Egenie both swear it shouldn't have caused her to lapse into a coma, but..."
"What should it have done?" Jack asked.
"It shouldn't have done much more than sting," Daniel replied. "It was just a mild electrical charge; nothing like as powerful as a zat blast even."
"Well, whatever went wrong, I want to get Carter back to the SGC so Doc Fraiser can take a look at her. I love these guys, don't get me wrong, but there isn't a doctor among them; right?"
"That was their thought as well," Daniel agreed. "We're prepping Sam for transport, and..." He paused. "Jack, the Gate's activating. You and Teal'c had better get deeper into the forest."
"Damnit!" Jack snapped. "Okay. Teal'c; let's go. Daniel, make sure Carter's ready to go the second we have a window."
"Watch your back, Jack," Daniel replied.
Jack and Teal'c fell back into the trees and waited. They did not have to wait long before a group of Jaffa entered the clearing at the alert. The Horus Guard was on point, but clearly no longer in charge. Behind him came three Jaffa in black, with ram's-head helmets; their armour gleamed, lacking the unmistakeable patina of age that was usual with Jaffa wargear. The rearguard of the group consisted of eight Jaffa regulars, six in red and two in the same, new-looking black armour as the ram-headed elites.
In the centre of the patrol walked their leader, a tall, powerful woman in silver armour. Everything about her screamed Goa'uld: her unmarked brow and great beauty, her arrogance, the fine, blue-green intaglio on her armour, the golden bands of a hand device wrapped around her left arm. Her face was dark, her hair inky-black and cut in a straight line at the level of her chin.
"Anukhet," Teal'c whispered.
"Gesundheit."
"Anukhet, daughter of Khnum, was a Goa'uld in the service of Apophis. Her father was the Master of the Forges, a brutal slave-driver, renowned for his cruelty, even among the Goa'uld. He worked many thousands of human and even Jaffa labourers to death each year to produce the vehicles, weapons and armour for Apophis' armies. Khnum's wife, Satet, was a gift from his grateful Lord. She was a Goa'uld Queen and a killer in Apophis' name; a woman without compassion or pity. It was said by many on the forge-world of Esna that she was a Kalshek'tak."
Neither man took their eyes from the Jaffa, but Jack could hear a slight quaver in his friend's voice that was unfamiliar to him. Not fear perhaps, but the memory of a child's fear that still haunts an adult's dreams.
"A what?" Jack asked.
"A hungry soul," Teal'c replied. "A drinker of blood and a stealer of souls. A vampire."
"Jaffa believe in vampires?"
"We do not," Teal'c insisted. "But we do fear them," he added.
Jack did not like the way Teal'c was talking, and decided to get back on topic. "What about Anukhet?"
"She is said to be a skilled leader of warriors," Teal'c replied, sounding as relieved as Jack to be back on familiar ground. "But she is a fighter and follower; not a thinker and leader. I have heard it said that Khnum and his family seek to establish themselves as a powerful triumvirate in the wake of Apophis' fall. If their personal guard now wear the ram's head, then Khnum must have assumed primacy in the group."
In the clearing, Anukhet surveyed the camp, as though her gaze would reveal any deception. For Jack at lest the effect was ruined when she passed right by his hiding place.
"The second squad have finished their scan of the area," the Horus Guard reported. "Their sensors show no signs of significant power usage within a day's travel of the Chappa'ai."
"Jaffa, kree ak!" Anukhet ordered, and the regulars moved to begin a search, drawing knives to slash through the canvas of the tents, and scattering SG-1's cooking gear all around.
Jack winced. "You just know they're going to take the cost of that stuff out of our pay," he told Teal'c.
*
As soon as she heard that Sam could not be sent back through the Stargate, Egenie wheeled a large machine out of the shadows and over to her side. It looked old and was somewhat cobwebby, but when she flicked a switch it hummed into life, and LEDs lit across its surface.
"What's that?" Daniel asked.
"A diagnostic scanner," Egenie replied. "I'm not a doctor, but I know how this machine works. Hopefully I can at least find out what the problem is."
"Will she be alright, Daniel?" Myana asked, tearfully.
"I'm sure she will," he assured her, with more confidence than he felt. "Listen; Sam's tough. She's pulled through worse than this before. I can hardly count the number of times we thought we'd lost her, but she always pulls through."
Myana smiled, seemingly comforted. "Is there anything I can do?" She asked.
"Why don't you make Dr Jackson something to drink," Maddox suggested, walking over to Myana's side.
"Okay," Myana agreed, and hurried off.
"Isn't she going to ask me what I want?" Daniel asked.
Maddox smiled, gently. "Eventually she might. Mya can be a little...unfocused; especially in a time of crisis. She's never seen anyone so sick before," she added. "Except when Max the organic Max died."
"She's a good kid," Daniel said, uncertainly.
"You say that as though it's a bad thing."
Daniel shrugged, but could not hide his discomfort. "We ran into an android not so long ago," he explained. "She was even more advanced than you guys, but she was a child, and always had been. As a result of that childishness, she destroyed her world and unwittingly unleashed one of the most terrible plagues that history has ever known to sweep across the universe. Will Myana always be a child?"
"I hope not," Maddox said. "We can't be sure, but she's come a long way already since her creation. She absorbs information quickly, but her neural net adapts much slower than a human child's mind. In time she will grow into an adult; I'm sure of it."
"Why don't you take her with you when you go offworld?" Daniel asked.
"Because she is a child still. When she's grown up, I'll take her with me; if her parents agree. For now...Actually, there are a few dig sites I'm thinking of showing her; the ones I think are pretty much secure." She smiled, sadly. "I'm sorry about what's happened to your friend," she said.
"Thank you."
Egenie walked up behind Daniel and laid a hand on his arm to get his attention. "I need you to take a look at this," she said, motioning for him to follow her. She led him back to the scanner, and pointed out a screen. "This measures brain activity," she explained. "Is this normal in humans from your planet?"
Daniel stared at the display with mounting horror. "Is that...? Are there two traces?"
"There are."
"Then no," he said. "That's not normal. But I have seen it before. There was an entity, essentially a sentient computer virus that infected our systems and began expanding itself exponentially. We thought we'd contained it, but it managed to get inside Sam and started to take over her brain. Eventually we forced it to leave though," he insisted.
"Well, that could explain these readings," Egenie agreed, doubtfully. "But where could such a virus come from? It can not have reached her from our system; our electronic defences would have detected any such invasion. I..." She cocked her head to one side, as though listening.
"What is it?" Daniel asked.
"Savra says that they detected just such an attempted intrusion when Major Carter shocked herself with the decompression probe," Maddox explained, clearly hearing the same signal that Egenie was receiving. "He thought it was just a glitch in the system, but it could have been a virus trying to copy itself from Major Carter's system into the main computer."
"But how would it get back...Wait," Daniel said. "Did you say 'decompression probe'?"
"Yes," Maddox replied.
"Sam said that the Entity was capable of incredible data compression. It foxed us once by hiding a massively compressed version of itself in a minor sub-system; maybe it did the same again. Maybe it hid itself in a part of Sam's brain that never usually saw any action and waited there."
"Waited for what?" Maddox wondered.
"A chance to get home?" Daniel suggested. "Another opportunity for attack? I don't know, but if I'm right then your probe woke it up early."
"So what do we do?" Egenie asked. "How did you get it out last time?"
"We found a way to talk to it," Daniel replied. "Jack threatened to destroy its world, so it sacrificed itself and left us a way to restore Sam."
"There must be something we can do," the biologist insisted. "This second waveform is overpowering the native trace, and it's extremely erratic. Whatever this thing was, I think it's broken."
"Maybe it got corrupted," Daniel suggested. "Look; you said your electronic defences destroyed the copy it tried to make into your systems. Is there any way to use them on the Entity while it's inside Sam?"
"Not without knowing her original programming," Maddox replied. "An Altairan anti-viral works by identifying corrupted data fragments and alien code from Altairan operating systems. We'd need a way of getting it into an Altairan computer."
"Well, what about the main computer?"
Maddox shook her head. "The peripherals are all shut down, and we can't allow it into the main computer. Even if the anti-viral was successful, the system would be disrupted and it controls all of the stealth devices. We'd be laid wide open to the Goa'uld." She paused, thoughtfully. "Maybe one of the processors in my lab..." She began.
"No good," Egenie insisted. "You said this thing works by spreading?" She asked Daniel. "Then it needs space: memory. Our processors don't have anything like the capacity of Major Carter's brain."
*
Anukhet stood in the ruin of SG-1's camp, scrutinising the document in front of her with some puzzlement.
"How can a race who can't figure out a Mad Magazine fold-in rule the galaxy?" Jack wondered.
"Very badly," Teal'c replied.
At length, Anukhet threw down the magazine and stamped on it, angrily.
"I told you not to leave that out," Jack reminded Teal'c, crossly.
"The Jaffa are beginning a wider search," Teal'c warned.
"Don't change the subject," Jack whispered as they moved further back into the trees. "I trusted you. That issue was a classic and I've taken it on every mission I've ever been on. You just let a Goa'uld trample my lucky magazine."
"O'Neill," Teal'c replied. "I know that you have returned from several missions after losing all of your gear."
"But I've always had a copy of that issue," Jack protested. "And now I have to get a new one. Anyway, it's the principle of the thing."
*
Daniel sat beside Sam and took her hand. Her eyes were flickering rapidly beneath their lids, and she was shivering.
"Major Carter's neural pattern is fading," Egenie told him. "But the dominant pattern is degrading further. It's becoming increasingly unstable; I think it's coming apart."
"Is that a good thing?" Daniel asked.
"I don't know," Egenie admitted. "I don't think so. It's falling apart but its dragging all the energy it can out of her to survive. I don't think it's going to collapse before she dies. I'm sorry."
Maddox, sitting opposite Daniel, hung her head in sorrow. Daniel caught her eye, and despite his own grief he gave her a supportive smile. She returned the expression, and he wondered if his was as unconvincing as hers.
"Help...Us."
Daniel looked to Sam's face. Her eyes were open and staring wildly.
"Help. Us." The voice that came from Sam's throat was hers, and yet not hers. It had the same sound, but none of the cadences; none of the lively, excited animation that made Sam such a joy to listen to, even when Daniel had no idea what she was saying. This voice was flat and slurred, the voice of a creature not used to using human vocal cords. It was a huge advance on what it had managed last time around, but that worried Daniel, since it probably meant that more areas of Sam's mind had been possessed by the Entity.
"What do you want?" Daniel asked.
"Want...live," the Entity replied. "Help us. Where...are we?"
"We can try to help you," Daniel offered. "But you have to come out of Sam. You have to let Sam go or there's no deal."
"No!" The Entity cried. "Help us. We need place. Stay here. Within."
"We'll give you a place to go," Daniel promised. "Better for you than Sam's mind."
"Daniel," Egenie said "You can't negotiate with this thing."
"It's intelligent," Daniel insisted. "It can understand me."
"I'm not sure I can," Egenie replied. "This pattern...The thing is barely coherent, almost certainly insane for want of a better word and it is dying. I don't think anything can prevent that, and it's taking Sam with it."
"We have to get it out of her," Daniel said. "If we have something, anything..."
"Nothing big enough," Egenie insisted. "I don't think even the main computer would hold it now, and the only units we have that are bigger..." She stopped, inspiration sparking in her eyes.
"Egenie?" Maddox asked. "What are you...Oh!" She realised. "Oh, no!"
*
The Jaffa worked in a circle around the campsite until they found a trail and began to follow it. Jack and Teal'c shadowed them, silently. Jack did not think that the trail led to the facility, but he could not be sure.
"How long do you think it would take for Varric's sentinels to reach us if we get into a fire fight?" Jack asked.
"Too long," Teal'c replied.
Jack nodded. "Okay," he said. "Let's drop back a bit further."
*
"What?" Daniel asked, looking from Maddox to Egenie and back.
"It's too dangerous," Maddox insisted.
"I don't think so," Egenie replied. She turned to face Daniel, and drew him away from the table a little way. "I can offer the Entity a conduit into my memory unit from Major Carter's brain," she explained. "The memory unit has vast capacity it is designed for many millennia of function after all and it uses an Altairan OS, which means that I can run the anti-viral programme to get rid of the Entity again."
"It's insanity," Maddox insisted.
"Look," Daniel said. "I want to do anything we can to help Sam, but that doesn't include putting you at risk."
"It's my choice," Egenie replied. "Clothila agrees it might work," she reassured Daniel.
"Clothila says she has no idea what it would do to you," Maddox corrected.
Clearly some manner of conference had taken place, as the other Altairans gathered around, all save Myana and Savra, the latter clearly keeping the former out of the way.
"Egenie!" Varric snapped. "This is out of the question; I won't allow it."
"It is not up to you," Egenie replied, already affixing a new apparatus around Sam's head.
"I am the leader of this group," the soldier insisted.
"No, Varric," Egenie replied. "You're not. We don't have a leader anymore. We don't need a leader. You're our protector, and we appreciate all you do for us, and we love you very much, but you are not our leader, and this is my choice; my risk to take."
"Damnit, Egg!" Varric seized the woman by the hands and looked imploringly into her eyes. They held each other's gaze for a long, long time.
"Maddox...?" Daniel asked.
"They're talking," Maddox explained. "Private channel communication." She sighed. "Cloey," she suggested. "Why don't you make sure everything's set up. I don't think this is an argument Varric is likely to win."
Clothila cast a worried glance at the two Altairans locked in their private communion, but she nodded and moved to check the device Egenie had placed at Sam's brow.
"What is that?" Daniel asked.
"A very sensitive neural scanner," Clothila replied. "It should be more than enough for the Entity to pass through."
As Clothila was making a few final adjustments to the device, Egenie and Varric rejoined the rest of them in the land of the living. Varric looked angry and sad, but very definitely cowed. Egenie looked stoic, but brittle; like someone who had won an argument but really wished that she had not done so.
"Are you okay?" Clothila asked.
"It is...her risk to take," Varric conceded, reluctantly.
"I'll be alright," Egenie promised him.
"I hope so," Varric replied.
*
Jack was beginning to worry. The trail that the Jaffa were following had looped around towards the Altairan facility now. He estimated that they were only about eight minutes out; good news if they needed backup, but very bad news in general for the Altairans.
"Jaffa, kree!" Anukhet hissed.
The patrol stiffened in readiness, weapons at the ready. The tip of Anukhet's staff swung to follow something unseen. She made a short gesture, and the Horus Guard swung around into the undergrowth. Jack readied his P90, aware of Teal'c at his side, bracing his own weapon for an aimed shot.
The Horus Guard fired into the air, and a dark shape burst from the undergrowth. Two of the regulars fired, but Anukhet gestured for them to hold their fire as the vorral she had been tracking crashed away into the forest. She threw back her head and laughed, heartily. Nervously, some of the Jaffa joined in.
"Jaffa, kree," she said. "Ne-hel Chappa'ai."
The patrol turned and moved back towards the Gate, leaving only the Goa'uld and the Horus Guard. Anukhet laughed again, and beckoned to her escort.
"My Lady," the Horus Guard said, bowing on one knee.
"Rarely have I felt so foolish," Anukhet admitted. "Did I look it, Kara'c?"
"Never, Lady."
Anukhet smiled, and touched the release on Kara'c's armour. His helmet slid away into his collar, revealing the face of a dark-haired, veteran warrior, decorated with a golden tattoo.
"Perhaps there is other business to be attended to on this world," Anukhet suggested. "We may need to stay some time."
Jack and Teal'c levelled their weapons, and were taken completely off-guard when the Goa'uld leaned into the Jaffa and kissed him, hungrily. They exchanged a look of utter astonishment.
Kara'c took hold of Anukhet's waist and held her close, but it was he that broke the kiss. "It is not safe, Anukhet," he said. "There is nothing here for us, but if the Tau'ri find any value in this place then they may return in greater force."
"As always, you think first of my safety," Anukhet commended.
Kara'c touched her dark hair. "You are my life," he told her.
After a moment, they moved away towards the Gate.
"What the hell was that?" Jack asked Teal'c. "I know I didn't grow up with the Goa'uld like you did, but that wasn't normal; right?"
"It is most unusual for a Goa'uld to show affection of any kind for a Jaffa," Teal'c agreed. "Some may use my people as concubines, but to allow him to use her proper name in such a familiar fashion is unheard of."
Jack shook his head. "Young love," he sighed. "I guess there's no explaining it."
"He was most likely my age," Teal'c reminded Jack. "And she several times that."
"Old love then," Jack said. "Whatever. Let's get back to the facility and see how Carter's doing."
*
"Are you ready?" Daniel asked Egenie.
Egenie looked up at Clothila, who checked the readings on her equipment once more before nodding her approval. The most sophisticated anti-virus protocols in our library have been uploaded to your memory and are running in your peripheral neural net," she said. "That's as much as we can do."
"Then I'm ready," Egenie said.
Daniel nodded, and turned to face Sam. Maddox and Varric looked on, anxiously. Myana was beside herself with fear, but with Savra helping his wife to monitor Egenie's condition, there was no-one to keep her out of the way. The girl was sitting very quietly to one side, with her arms wrapped tightly around Max's neck.
"Hello," Daniel said, softly.
"We do not want to die," the Entity said.
"Listen to me," Daniel said. "I know you're scared, but you're killing my friend, and you're killing yourself. What we need you to do is go through the passage we've created for you. There's another environment there; one that will be better for you."
"We are afraid."
"I know," Daniel repeated. "But if you don't do this, then you will die, and Major Carter will die; and if Major Carter dies, believe me that's it for your homeworld."
"Homeworld? What is homeworld."
"It's...We don't have time now," he insisted. "Please, just go into the new environment. It will be better for you, and there's room to grow."
"Grow?"
"Yes," Daniel said. "Lots of room for you."
"Yes."
Sam's eyes closed, and she stopped breathing.
"Sam?" Daniel asked, concerned. "What's happening?" He demanded.
"It's alright," Egenie said. "We knew this was a risk. I'm beginning neural stimulation."
The scanner around Sam's head hummed, glowing with light so bright that it looked almost as though she had a halo. For a moment, Sam made no response, and Daniel felt his heart begin to sink, but then her eyes opened again, and she drew a ragged, choking breath.
"Sam?"
"Daniel?" Sam looked panicked. "Oh God; is it gone? Is it really gone this time?"
"It's gone," Egenie promised. "It's all..." The Altairan fell hard to the ground.
"Get her to the monitoring bed," Clothila ordered, and Savra and Varric moved to obey. Sam, immediately realising what had happened, jumped up and ran over with them. She hovered behind, unable to do anything but watch.
After a moment, Myana joined her, slipping her hand into Sam's and squeezing gently. "It's hard," she said. "Not being able to help."
"Yes it is," Sam agreed.
"Maybe it will be better," the girl suggested. "If we can not help together."
"Strange girl," Daniel observed, turning to face Maddox, but the geologist did not respond. She was watching the bustle move away with an expression of horror. "Maddox?" Daniel asked.
"I...I have things to do," Maddox said. She turned and walked away; half-blinded by grief she struck a cabinet, spilling papers and instruments and bits of circuit across the floor. She backed away, then went around the mess, picking up speed and bursting out through the door.
"Maddox!" Myana called, concerned.
"You go with Egenie," Daniel suggested. "I'll find Maddox."
"Okay," Myana agreed.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Sam asked, cautiously.
"No," Daniel replied. "Do I ever?"
Daniel was not surprised to find that Maddox had returned to the tree chamber where he had first met her. She had made herself vanish into the deepest shadows, but he tracked her by her sobs, and sat beside her in the dark.
"Want to talk about it?" Daniel asked, offering a clean handkerchief. He was, he often thought, probably the only man in the SGC able to ever do that; because of his allergies, he always carried a few clean spares just in case he was trapped offworld long enough for his antihistamines to wear off.
Maddox shook her head, but accepted the handkerchief and blew her nose in a most unladylike fashion.
"Okay," Daniel agreed. "I'll just sit here then. In the dark."
"I'd rather you didn't," Maddox told him.
"Why?"
"Because I'd rather be alone. I like being alone."
"I can hear how much you're enjoying it right now," Daniel assured her.
"Because I'm not alone," she pointed out. "Please leave."
Daniel thought about it for a moment. "No," he said at last.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't think you really want to be alone right now," he said. "You're worried about your friend," he added. "Why do you feel you have to hide that?"
"They rely on me," she said. "To be strong, to be together; it's what I do. I'm not a leader, or a genius; I don't have Egenie's looks or Mya's charm."
"So you think you have to be cool and unflappable?"
"They need me to be strong," Maddox said again.
"Or maybe they just need you to be Maddox?" Daniel suggested. "But you're too scared of rejection to see it?"
"That's...That's ridiculous," Maddox said. "I just..."
"Need to be strong; you said."
"You don't understand."
"Actually, I think I do," Daniel told her. "You're stuck in your roles; not just you, Maddox, but all of you here. I've only been with SG-1 five years, but I catch myself doing it sometimes; thinking there are things I can't do because they're the things that Jack does, or Sam or Teal'c. You've been with the same little group for eleven millennia; perhaps you don't think they'll accept anything but what they're used to."
"They expect me to be a certain way. They rely on it."
Daniel sighed. "They think you're strange and moody," he said. "They worry about the way you are. They think you're bothered about your figure, consumed by your work and not much fun to hang out with. I don't know about the rest, but Myana definitely thinks you need a boyfriend."
Maddox groaned. "She didn't, did she?"
"I'm afraid so."
"I am so sorry," she said. "Every time we meet anyone..."
"I don't mind," Daniel assured her. "She's just concerned for her friend, and she wants you to be happy."
"I just..."
"You just feel that Egenie is the happy one; and the one all the men like?" Daniel suggested. "You knew each other before the transference, didn't you."
Maddox shrugged. "All my life. She's my cousin."
"Your perfect cousin?"
"It feels like that sometimes," Maddox admitted. "She was always the pretty, popular one, but she leaned on me for strength."
"So you feel you always have to be the strong one." Daniel sighed. "I think you'll find she's a lot stronger than you think," he said. "She volunteered, without a moment's hesitation, to take a huge risk for a virtual stranger."
Maddox looked down at her knees. Daniel gently laid a hand on her cheek and turned her face towards him. "I think you'll also find that a lot more people notice you than you think."
"I don't know..."
"Then ask Myana," Daniel said. "She doesn't see the 'same old Maddox' that the others do. She doesn't have preconceptions about any of you. If you want to see what you're really like, just ask her." He smiled. "Although you might find she gushes a little."
"I might?"
"She practically worships the ground you tread," Daniel explained. "You're her hero, and not because you're the strong, silent type. She thinks you're funny."
"Funny?"
"Well, she admits it's a dry humour."
Maddox laughed. "I've been called a lot of things," she admitted. "But that's not one of them."
Daniel took her hand and pressed it, encouragingly. "It is now," he said.
*
"Carter."
"Colonel."
"I was told you were in a coma," Jack said.
"I...not anymore, Sir," Sam replied.
"It was a short coma?" Jack asked. Only then did he notice Sam's grim expression, and the tears falling from Myana's eyes. "What?"
"It was the Entity, Sir," Sam explained. "Somehow it left a copy in me, and now it's in Egenie. They're trying to purge her memory, but Clothila says that the spread of the Entity is corrupting her own data so much that the anti-virus protocols don't recognise it. The bad sectors are being removed wholesale, and Clothila doesn't know what that's going to do to Egenie."
"Can I see her?" Jack asked.
"Sure," Sam replied. "Mya and I just stepped out. She's in the back room of the lab; through there."
"Thanks," Jack said.
"Whoa," Jack said. "Dιjΰ vu."
"I beg your pardon?" Egenie asked.
"I was told you were in a coma," Jack explained.
"I...not anymore," the Altairan replied. She was sitting up on a familiar looking bed or slab, Jack felt was more apt very similar to the ones Harlan had strapped SG-1 to when he was copying them. Varric had retreated to the side of the room while Clothila and Savra checked her over. "I'm sorry," she said to Jack. "Please don't think me rude, but who are you?"
Jack was taken somewhat aback. "I'm Jack," he told her. "Jack O'Neill. We spent most of the past day together."
Egenie looked at him blankly.
"I told you about how Harlan made copies of me and my friends? We flirted a bit; it got a little uncomfortable, but not in an unpleasant way," he hurriedly assured her.
Egenie looked startled, and a little flustered. "I...I don't remember..."
"You won't," Clothila told her. "I'm afraid your short-term memory has dumped. The anti-viral protocols shut down the connections between your memory unit and your neural net to prevent contamination by the Entity, and until they are written to the long-term backup those connections are the only place your memories exist."
"There are other things missing; I think."
Clothila nodded, and looked to her husband.
Savra consulted his PDA. "What is the date?" He asked Egenie.
Egenie frowned in concentration for several seconds before answering. "The one-hundred-and-thirty-second day of the year 11367AT," she replied.
"Is that right?" Jack asked.
Savra shook his head, sadly. "It is the two-hundred-and-third day of the year 11951AT," he replied. "We measure our dates from the first successful transference of an Altairan consciousness," he explained. "This means that you have lost almost six hundred years of memory data," he told Egenie.
"So little?" Egenie asked. "Everything seems so strange; it seems like it should be more."
"Well, it isn't all in one place," Clothila explained. "There will be a lot of things that are incomplete."
"Oh," Savra said.
"What?" Egenie demanded.
"Can you tell me what you dreamed about last night?" Savra asked.
"I..." Egenie's eyes widened in shock. "No; I can't remember."
Savra bowed his head. "I'm afraid that your reprocessed memories are gone. All you have is the raw data. You will have lost your past dreams, and the connections that you had constructed in your mind. Your memories will be disjointed and out of context."
"What happened?" Egenie asked. "Who did this to me?"
Varric stepped forward. "You gave me something," he said. "A memory record. You passed it by private channel and asked me to give it to you if you couldn't remember why this happened."
"Cloey?" Egenie asked.
Clothila nodded, handed an eye piece to Varric and plugged the attached cable into Egenie's bed. Lights blinked. "The record has been copied to the regeneration chamber's memory; it will erase once it passes into you. Lie back," she instructed.
"Could you leave me alone, please," she asked.
"Of course," Clothila replied.
They all stood, but Egenie reached out and touched Varric's arm. "Not you," she said. "You can stay."
"Me?" Varric was confused. "Don't you mean..." He looked at Jack, who shrugged.
"She doesn't even know who I am," Jack reminded the Kenten.
Egenie frowned. "Were we...?"
"No," Jack assured her. "We weren't. I'll leave you kids alone."
"Did he speak the truth?" Egenie asked Varric, when they were alone.
"Hell if I know," Varric replied. "You...like him, I think."
"But aren't we..."
Varric looked away. "Not for a long time," he said.
Egenie looked startled. "Oh."
"You don't remember?"
"I remember that we were in love," she said. "I remember an argument. I think we had it a great many times."
"That we did," Varric agreed.
"I remember that I never stopped loving you," Egenie told him.
Varric closed his eyes. "Yes you did," he assured her. "I...stopped being someone you could live with, and you left me."
"I still loved you," she insisted. "I can't remember breaking with you; I just remember a thousand times when you were there for me."
"Stop it, Egg," Varric begged. "Please. It's not me that you want; sooner or later you'll remember that. I won't let you make this mistake again."
Egenie reached up and touched his face. "It is you," she said. "If, later on, I find there's something about you I can't stand, then so be it, but right now..." Her expression grew very serious. "If you're worried that I'll hurt you...You may be right," she admitted. "I can't say. If that's the problem, then I'll understand; but please don't try and protect me, because I feel scared and alone, and I need you, Var."
Tears welled in Varric's eyes. "I love you, Egg," he told her. "I always did."
Egenie kissed him. "Thank you, Var," she said. "I love you too."
*
"Is she alright?" Sam asked, worried.
"She's missing a whole whack of memories," Jack told her. "What's left is all...muddled."
"Oh, God," Sam whispered.
A few minutes later, Egenie emerged, walking arm-in-arm with Varric. She smiled at Jack. "Colonel O'Neill," she said. "I tell myself that you and your friends are good people; I'm very pleased to meet you...again."
"Back at ya," Jack replied.
"Major Carter. Sam. I am glad to see you well."
"And you," Sam replied. "I can't thank you enough for what you did for me."
"It was nothing," Egenie demurred.
"It was a lot more than nothing," Jack assured her. "We brought that damn virus here with us. You didn't have to help."
"I'm just glad that I could help, and that everyone is alright," Egenie said, seemingly not wishing to discuss the matter further.
Jack nodded his understanding. "Just give me some good news," he asked Clothila. "Tell me the Entity is gone for good."
"Colonel, please," Egenie interrupted. "Don't be angry with the Entity. Whatever the original hunter-killer programme you encountered may have been, this was just an incomplete and corrupted copy. It wasn't a destroyer. It was nothing more than a frightened child, dropped into a terrifying world, with no purpose and no idea where it was."
"My mind is terrifying?" Sam asked, amused.
"To the Entity."
"But it was, right?" Jack asked. "Not is."
"That is correct."
"Thank God."
"It is currently dormant."
"What!" Jack was livid. "It's still alive?"
Varric took a step forward, as though to interpose himself between the fuming human and Egenie, but she laid a restraining hand on his arm.
"I established contact with the Entity as I struggled with it. I persuaded it to withdraw and go dormant; if it had not agreed to do so the anti-viral protocol might well have consumed the bulk of my experiences."
"So what now?" Jack asked. "You'll destroy it, yes?"
"No," Egenie replied. "If Savra and Clothila will provide, I intend to give it a physical form, just like ours."
"Is this wise?" Teal'c asked.
"As I told you," Egenie said. "It is a child. It does not, at present, know right from wrong, but I can teach it to be something more than an autonomous, self-replicating worm. The anti-viral protocols have stripped away the corrupted sectors," she assured them. "I will teach it in a virtual environment; a sealed environment," she assured Jack. "When it is ready, I will transfer it to a simulant body. I intend to base its appearance on my own, and if you will permit on yours, Major Carter, as you also carried it within you."
"Wow." Sam was taken aback somewhat. "That's...I'd be honoured."
"Honoured!"
"Well, think about it, Sir," Sam begged. "If this works, we might have created something good and worthwhile from a fragment of a programme designed for destruction. It is kind of...mythic."
Jack shook his head in disgust. "Well, you guys can coo over Rosemary's Baby if you want," he said. "I'll be outside."
*
Next day
Daniel and Maddox walked slowly through the ruins, the Altairan occasionally pointing out details which had caught her attention, taking of their future plans.
"There's a promising site on P7G-117," Maddox said; given the details of the SGC binary numbering system it was child's play for her neural net to translate any set of coordinates that she knew. "I might be there next month with Mya."
"You're going to take her offworld?"
Maddox shrugged. "As a favour to Egenie. She wants to stay here, and Myana is actually the second best on the facility at pretty much everything. Also, I think maybe she'd like to get out and about, and spend some time with me. I think someone said I was her idol."
"I said hero," Daniel reminded her.
"So you did."
"I'm sorry about...everything," Daniel said.
"None of it was your fault, and you may have saved us a great deal of trouble with the Goa'uld. Besides; maybe we needed a little shaking up." Maddox smiled at nothing in particular.
"What?" Daniel asked.
"I haven't seen Egenie and Varric so happy in years," Maddox said. "Everyone's excited about the new arrival, and I...Well, I feel like a whole new woman. Might we see you on 117?"
Daniel shrugged. "That depends on General Hammond. Send me a preliminary report and I can request an exploration."
"I'll do that," she replied. "Is Major Carter quite recovered?"
"Oh, absolutely," Daniel assured her. "Sam's a rock. She's not exactly running and dancing, but she's well on the mend. Jack on the other hand..."
"Yes?"
"Jack hates it when he finds things he can't protect us from; the first time the Entity took Sam was bad enough."
"He's a lot like Varric," Maddox noted. "I don't think he's wild about Egenie adopting the being that practically lobotomised her, but he seems to have learned his lesson when it comes to trying to dictate policy to her."
Daniel smiled. "How is the little tyke?"
"Very young still," Maddox replied. "Even in the virtual environment it's only been a couple of weeks. It seems quite stable though; at least as much so as Mya. Egenie's spending most of her time with it. I think it's helping her as well. Everything moves faster in there, so she has more time to begin reintegrating her memories."
"I'm glad she's doing alright," Daniel said. He sighed. "You now what bugs Jack most?"
"What?"
"I think he's always seen something of himself in the Entity. It was sent to protect its world by destroying its enemies; that's pretty much what he does."
"Have you told him this?" Maddox asked, innocently.
"Hell, no."
*
Sam presented a folder to Egenie, who had emerged from the virtual nursery to say her goodbyes, leaving Varric to look after the child. "This contains the coordinates of three planets which are uninhabitable for humans, but accessible by your drones. One has large trinium deposits, the others should be suitable for naquadah mining. As per our agreement, we'll also provide two tonnes of trinium ore and thirty pounds of refined naquadah in exchange for the Gate addresses from your directory, one of your diagnostic scanners, and the short-term loan of Cloey to show us how it works."
"Thank you, Sam," Egenie said. "Naturally, any surplus from any mines established on these worlds will be made available to you at a very reasonable rate of sale."
Jack coughed, meaningfully.
Egenie sighed. "And as agreed, the child will be forbidden to make contact of any kind with the SGC," she agreed. "Unless said condition is rescinded by the authority of the SGC commander.
"Not gonna happen," Jack muttered.
"I'll wait at the Gate," Sam suggested, beating a hasty retreat.
"Jack," Egenie pleaded. "Do not condemn a child for its parentage."
"It's not a child!"
"Please. Just come back in a year's time. See for yourself what kind of a being it has become. Judge it for what it is; not what it was, or even what it was supposed to be."
"It's not a child," Jack said again. "It's a disease. A little electronic machine that kills."
"And am I only a machine?" Egenie asked.
"That's different."
"How?" She demanded.
"You were human."
"It can be human."
"No it can't!"
Egenie grunted in exasperation. "So is Mya not human?"
"That's not..."
"Is Mya not human?"
Jack turned on his heels and stamped away. He crashed through the forest back to the Gate, thrusting branches carelessly aside. As he emerged into the clearing he saw Teal'c on his hands and knees, head locked in Max's mighty jaws. Myana, giggling with pure joy, was wrestling with the beast, endeavouring futilely to prise the vorral's teeth apart. Sam sat a short way off, laughter dancing in her eyes.
At last, Max let go of the Jaffa and rolled away, pinning Myana gently under his bulk. With a laugh of his own, that rare, bass thunder, Teal'c heaved the beast away from his mistress. Myana scrabbled to her feet, almost weeping with laughter.
"I shall miss you," she told Teal'c. "Max will too."
"And I shall miss both you and Max," Teal'c replied.
"Is Daniel ready?" Jack asked Sam.
"I think he's still in the ruins, Sir," Sam replied, her grin fading a little at Jack's expression. "Shall I call him back?"
Jack checked his watch, then shook his head. "Leave him for now," he said. "There's time."
Egenie sat, angrily, trying to compose herself before returning to her child's world. She turned at the sound of footsteps behind her, and her face darkened again.
"Colonel," she said.
"I'll visit," he told her. "Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"Maybe I'll visit. I won't promise any more than that."
"I wouldn't ask it," she replied.