Disclaimer Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.

Sam threaded the last ring through the fabric and stepped back, admiring her handiwork. A large piece of cloth hung from a small square frame, itself suspended on a scaffold. Above it was a large black box with a pipe descending down to the ground level and into another holding tank. A sluice ran from the tank and into the trees, ending at the stream.

Eager to try her invention now that it was totally done, Sam pulled the rope that opened the sluice by the stream. Clear water ran down the sluice and filled the holding tank. She closed the gate and grabbed a handle, powering the pump system that lifted the water from the ground level holding tank to the one perched atop the scaffold. After a few minutes she stopped moving water and pushed aside the cloth, revealing a showerhead and a dangling rope. She pulled the rope, smiling as water cascaded down from the showerhead. "Goodbye bathing with the guppies," she said, letting go of the rope.

The shower was far from perfect. The whole system depended on gravity to move water. The suspended tank would only hold about fifty gallons and the only heating they had was courtesy of solar radiation - thus the reason for the black paint.

Their drain was a simple sloped trough and the shower curtain was little more than a token attempt at privacy. But it was a shower. And it would provide at least the illusion of cleanliness and civilization.

She glanced at her watch, wondering if she'd have time for a quick shower before the guys returned. Deciding to risk it, she set herself to manning the pump, filling the top tank to the rim.

Just as she reached for her top, a small device she wore at her waist chirped and she looked up, instinctively turning her head towards the gate. It chirped again, this time in a recognizable pattern and she smiled slightly, relaxing when she recognized the colonel's code. "You're back early, boys," she muttered, abandoning the idea of a shower and gathering her tools.

"The water'd be too cold anyway," she said, making her way back to the cabin. As she walked, she took a few minutes to admire the scenery. Summer was coming to an end on their planet, which the colonel had finally christened Springfield, much to Sam and Daniels' dismay. Most of the fruit and nut trees were reaching their harvest point. The grasses were starting to dry up and seed down for next spring and some of the trees were already losing leaves.

She knew that fall was normally seen as an ending, but she didn't feel that way. Instead, she felt anticipation. Like something important was lurking just on the horizon.

She climbed the short flight of steps onto the porch of the cabin, breathing in deep as she caught a whiff of Daniel's cooking. "That smells good," she complimented as she walked in. She set down her tools beside the door and made her way over to the sink, washing her hands.

Several loaves of bread were cooling on the table and Daniel was just taking a large pan out of the oven. "Let's hope it's edible," he said, setting the pan on the table.

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"Last night's stew. I had some left over dough so I made a sort of pie," he said. "Although I guess it's more like a cobbler."

Sam studied his creation. It was more like a cobbler. Irregular blobs of golden brown bread floated on top of the bubbling stew. "It looks fantastic," she said, well aware that even if it looked horrible she wouldn't say so. Food was food and Daniel had had the best luck with one of their scavenged acquisitions.

It was an oven like device, powered by staff weapon power cells. It wasn't quite what any of them were used to and didn't seem capable of attaining a temperature above four hundred degrees, but it was infinitely better than their alternative, which was to do their cooking over an open fire. Not only was cooking over the open flames a very difficult to attain skill, they knew their needs would soon outstrip the natural resources and that havesting wood would become a full time job.

"How'd your day go?" he asked, moving the four loaves of bread off the table and onto the counter.

"We have a shower," she bragged, getting up to retrieve the plates and glasses from the cupboard. She knew that the colonel and Teal'c would both be hungry and she as too.

"That's great," he said.

Sam shrugged. "No hot water but better than nothing. I figure we'll get to use it for a month or so before it gets too cold and we have to drain the tank."

Daniel grabbed the silverware and helped her finish setting the table. "Maybe we can find another oven and see if we can rig it to heat the water," he suggested.

"That's a good idea," she said. "We'd have to build a second tank and maybe rig some insulation to keep it warm. We'd also need some sort of thermostat, keep us from accidentally cooking ourselves. I was also thinking of looking into a cistern. I remember watching a show about people using sand to filter the water. Wouldn't it be great if we could have water right outside the front door?" Daniel didn't respond and Sam looked over at him. "What?"

He shook his head. "Nothing."

"That look was something," she insisted.

"Jack," Daniel said loudly, ignoring her to turn his attention as the colonel and Teal'c
walked into the cabin.

Sam turned, raising her eyebrows as her two friends entered the room, their arms full of stuff. "It looks like you two had a good day," she said, standing back as they brushed the plates aside, laying their bootie out on the table.

"You could say that," the colonel said, smiling broadly.

"A few days ago I remembered the location of a planet Apophis used to secret away much of his plunder," Teal'c said.

"I though goa'uld liked to keep their gold close?" Sam asked, exploring some of the stuff on the table. She recognized food and weapons along with some more power sources for the oven and some bundles of clothing.

"As the Tau'ri say, it is not good to keep all of one's eggs in one basket," Teal'c said. "It is actually quite common for goa'uld to have several places to secret away their prized possessions."

"Like Al Capone's vault?" Daniel asked, picking up a large jar of what Sam guessed to be honey.

"Yeah, but we had better luck than Geraldo," the colonel said. "Gold, silver, jewels, weapons, you name it. We grabbed what we could carry then hit the market on the way back."

"Umm." Sam picked up a bag and opened it, sniffing to confirm that it was dried fruit. "Sir, won't they notice eventually?"

"That is a risk," Teal'c said. "However when I served with Apophis, he visited this planet very infrequently, perhaps once or twice a year. It is quite possible that our incursion will go unnoticed for many months."

"And possible that he'll show up tomorrow," she persisted.

"Yes, Carter, he might show up tomorrow," Jack said, the pleased expression falling from his face. "It's an acceptable risk. We need funds and Pops has the goods to get us what we need." He looked over at Teal'c. "It's about two days away by teltac. T and I are going to go back, make one large haul and then we'll leave it alone."

Sam fell silent, sighing to herself. She couldn't fault his logic. From all the luxuries they'd brought back, it looked like the colonel and Teal'c had hit the mother lode and, potentially, solved all their problems. But they were also raiding a system lord's larder.

"It just seems kinda reckless," Daniel said, setting down the jar of honey.

"Daniel, we've been trying for over a month to find a nice uninhabited planet to raid. We haven't had any luck," O'Neill said. "If we want our shield generator anytime in the next year, we need to be reckless."

"I agree with O'Neill," Teal'c said. "We have gained more in one day's recklessness than we have in a month of caution."

"I just don't want you guys taking unnecessary risks," Sam said.

"Unnecessary is a relative term," O'Neill said. "We wouldn't have done it if we thought it was too big of a risk," he said, his anger fading.

Sam heard a tiny sound and looked at her friends. "What was that?"

The colonel shrugged and looked to Teal'c. "Your turn," he said.

Teal'c reached into his pocked and carefully drew something out. He set it down on the table. "I believe this acquisition was your idea, O'Neill."

Sam stared, watching as the small bundle of fur clumsily found its feet, mewing indignantly. "A cat?"

"I believe it is more accurately described as a kitten," Teal'c corrected.

"It's so cute," Daniel said, making a move to pick it up. The kitten hissed, its grey fur bristling as it arched its little back. "Ok, maybe not so cute."

"We do not need a pet," Sam said, watching as the tiny creature began to explore the table, sniffing the various items.

"It's not a pet," the colonel said. "It's pest control."

"Pest control?" Sam asked skeptically.

"For the mice."

"We don't have mice."

"We did last winter."

"After you spoiled that bag of beans all over the porch and didn't get it all cleaned up," she reminded.

O'Neill shook his head. "After that."

"There were no mice after that."

"There was one in my room. Chewed a hole in my favorite pair of socks."

"That was probably your toe nails," she said, cringing at the memory of the last time she'd seen him barefoot. Like many men, while he kept his fingernails short, he had a bad habit of letting his toenails grow, usually until they started to irritate his feet within the confines of his boots. Then he'd decide to trim them.

After dinner.

In the common room.

Beside the fire.

Without softening them up first.

Little white missiles would fly across the room.

Missiles that he'd forget to clean up.

Missiles that she'd stepped on more than once.

He glared at her and she glared back, almost hoping that he'd deny it. "We had mice last winter," he said, refusing to rise to the bait. "Winter's coming and we'll likely have mice again. Besides, it's a stray. It was just gonna starve if we'd left it."

"And you expect this to deal with the mice…that we don't have?" she asked, picking up the kitten. Surprisingly, it didn't hiss at her although it did squawk in protest. It was small and she knew that it had to be barely weaned. It fit easily in her hand and its paws were about the size of her fingertips. "I think the mice are bigger."

"It'll grow," he dismissed her protests.

"Teal'c?" She turned to her friend.

"O'Neill's assertions are correct," Teal'c said. "The kitten will indeed grow."

Sam glared at him and he looked back, unfazed by her mood. "It's just a kitten," Daniel said, reaching out. Again the cat hissed, this time backing away and forcing Sam to quickly readjust her hold to avoid dropping it. "A killer kitten maybe, but still a kitten."

"Then you won't mind taking care of it," she said, setting the kitten down on the floor. "It's especially fun until you get them trained to a litter box, not to mention cleaning out the litter box regularly. Which you probably better do quite often or we'll have bugs and lord only know what the colonel will drag home to take care of those." She looked around at her three friends. "I'm gonna go try out our brand new shower."

Not really caring that she was being a bit of a bitch, she left the common room and retreated back into her bedroom, quickly gathering a change of clothes and her toiletries. "We'll save you some dinner," Daniel said as she walked past and went back outside. Once she stepped off the porch, she slowed down, well aware that none of them would violate her privacy and follow her. They'd leave her alone, and that was just what she wanted at the moment, to be alone.

/\/\/\/\/\

"That was a stellar success," Daniel said, waiting until Sam was out of earshot before speaking up.

Jack shrugged. "She didn't throw it against the wall." He bent over and picked up the kitten before sitting down and setting it in his lap.

"Do not judge Major Carter too harshly. She will warm to the creature," Teal'c said, helping Daniel move their purchases off the table so that they could eat.

It took them only a few minutes to clear off the table and serve up the stew, which Jack and Teal'c dug into hungrily. "What all else did you guys get?" Daniel asked, putting a few tablespoons of gravy and meat onto a saucer and setting it down on the floor. Jack put the kitten down.

"Spices and some salt," Jack said as the kitten started to eat. "Another set of sheets apiece and some heavier clothes. We also found some socks, blankets and some soap and shampoo," Jack listed.

"We bartered for some dried fruit and vegetables," Teal'c said. "Also some rice and other grains."

"And we still have more money to spend," Jack said. "We just grabbed the gold and jewels we could carry. If we go back with the teltac we'll have enough to get the shield generator with money left over."

"What if Sam has a point?" Daniel asked, feeling the need to be the devil's advocate.
"What if it's a trap?"

"Wouldn't they have sprung it already?" Jack asked. He took another bite of the stew then set down his spoon down. "Daniel, where do you think we got the proximity alert at the gate from?" Jack asked, referring to the sensors they'd installed at the Stargate. The sensors would send a signal every time the gate opened and operated much like pagers. Each of them had their own code to enter, announcing their presence. If the gate opened and they received no code, then they knew that the visitor was likely not friendly.

It was similar to the SGC's IDC system, but they simply lacked the iris. Which was what they hoped to recreate with a shield generator. "I thought you found the proximity detector?" Daniel asked.

"We did," Jack said.

"We found it on one of Apophis' abandoned worlds," Teal'c said, cleaning his plate.

Daniel sighed. "Jack, I thought we were keeping a low profile?"

"Apophis is dead. He won't care," Jack said.

"What about that bounty on us?" Daniel asked. He looked to Teal'c. "You said the bounty hunter said that Apophis wanted us captured," he reminded.

"And when that bounty hunter got Teal'c and Carter, he met up with Jacob. For all we know, Jacob put it out in Apophis' name," Jack said.. "And since we can't exactly ring up Chulak and ask, I'm gonna operate under the presumption that Apophis is dead."

"Ok," Daniel said. "Fine, Apophis is dead. But when a goa'uld dies, their holdings don't just go away, they're absorbed by other Goa'ulds. Someone is gonna notice that that stuff is gone."

"It will do them little good to notice," Teal'c said. "As long as we take care that they do not know where the items vanished to."

Daniel shrugged, acknowledging that there was likely little he could do to change their minds. "The real reason you got the cat?" he asked.

"Mice," Jack said. Daniel stared at him, seeing through the thin cover story. Jack shrugged. "She had one back on Earth."

"I believe she called it Schrödinger," Teal'c said.

"Right. Anyway, I thought maybe she'd like something to keep her company or something," he said, his voice deliberately casual.

Daniel suspected the true motive behind Jack and Teal'c's gesture. Sam's mood had been distinctly depressed and down for the past month. Not that he blamed her in the slightest. He knew that saying that Jacob's death had hit her hard was an understatement. A death that was made all the more difficult by the means of his passing and the fact that - for reasons still unknown - Jacob had gone nuts and nearly killed Sam before Daniel himself had shot the man.

"And you think a cat is going to cheer her up?" Daniel asked.

"I think I don't want any more mice eating my socks," Jack said, getting to his feet. "I'm gonna go check out the teltac. See what we need to do. I plan to leave at first light."

"What about Sam?" Daniel asked.

"What about her?"

"Jack, she hasn't left this planet in a month."

"Her shower's done," Jack said. "That excuse doesn't work any more."

"She's already coming up with others. Now she wants to build a cistern."

"Regardless, I do not believe that it is wise for Major Carter to remain here alone," Teal'c said.

"Which is why I haven't been joining you guys on your little treasure hunts," Daniel reminded them. "But if there's as much stuff as you say there is, more hands might help."

"She's welcome to come," Jack said. "I don't think she should be here alone. I don't think any of us should be here alone."

"She will come with us," Teal'c declared. Daniel and Jack both looked at him. "I will impress upon her the importance of her presence."

"He's got guts," Daniel said.

"More than me," Jack agreed. He bent over and picked up the kitten, holding it out to Teal'c. "What woman can resist a one armed, one eyed guy carrying a cute fuzzy kitten?"

"And if she does, he's got Junior to help him out," Daniel said helpfully.

/\/\/\/\/\

Jack opened his eyes, muttering a few choice words about the bird singing cheerfully outside his window. "When I said first thing in the morning, I was kinda thinking after breakfast." He sat on the edge of the bed, yawning widely as he stretched.

Giving into the demands of his avian alarm clock - and his full bladder - he stood up and quickly gathered his shaving kit. Maybe he'd go give Carter's shower a try.

He slipped through the cabin, not surprised to find his friends still asleep. "Or maybe not," he said, finding the front door unbarred.

He opened the door and found Carter sitting on the stoop, one of their newly acquired blankets around her shoulders. "You're up early," he said.

"Wasn't my idea." She motioned off the porch and Jack caught sight of the kitten playing in the grass.

"Sorry." Jack sat beside her. "You know that Teal'c and I are going to take the teltac for a spin."

"That's what he said."

"How do you feel about grabbing the cat and-"

"Gizmo," she interrupted.

"What?"

"Her name," Sam clarified.

"Gizmo?"

"I thought about Doohickey but it seemed kinda cruel to saddle her with a name that's bigger than she is," she explained.

"Her?" Jack asked.

Sam looked at him. "We had a lot of time to get acquainted last night."

"I thought she was with Teal'c," he said, vividly remembering the sight of Teal'c returning to the cabin, his metaphorical tail between his legs and a kitten in his hand.

"She was. Until he snuck into my room and put her in my bed in the middle of the night."
Jack nodded, knowing better than to say anything. Once again he was in awe of the Jaffa's fortitude - or fearlessness. "I tried to make her a bed in the corner but she just crawled right out of it and wandered around the room, meowing and meowing until I picked her back up and tucked her under the blanket," she continued. "Of course, she can't just curl up and go to sleep. She has to explore and sniff and taste everything." She looked at Jack. "Her claws are like needles," she said, holding up her arm, adorned with a short line of red scratches. "And she's not afraid to use them."

"It'll get better," Jack promised. "If she keeps you awake too much, you can bring her into me," he offered.

"You're not going to be here for two days," she said, reminding him of his plan.

"Come with us," he invited. "Then all four of us can take care of her."

"I don't know," she said. "There's a lot of stuff to do."

"Like what?" he pressed. At first, he'd been all for letting her stay home. And he knew that, while she was a lot better than she'd been a month ago, she still wasn't one hundred percent. Even though Thor had repaired her injuries, he hadn't been able to do anything about all the blood she'd lost. Her body would repair itself, given time and the appropriate nutrition. Which is what they'd been trying to do, giving her the time and space to recover without making her feel like they were smothering her.

For most of the past month, he and Teal'c had done all the searching and scavenging on their own, leaving Daniel behind to keep an eye on Sam. But Jack was starting to wonder if she was getting a little too attached to staying home.

"Well, since staff weapon power cells can run the oven, then they can probably be adapted to other uses. Like maybe some lights," she said, touching upon one big adjustment they'd all had to make. The total lack of electricity and the ease of lighting that electricity brought.

Jack nodded. "You know, that place is fully powered," he said. "I'm sure Teal'c can find the main power source. While we're loading up the teltac, maybe you can do a little research. Maybe find a way to strip some of the fixtures and wiring so that they can be adapted for here," he enticed. They hadn't really planned to strip the place bare, in fact they'd been hoping that their little shopping trip might even go unnoticed. Unless of course someone had a detailed manifest. But if it enticed her to coming with them, he was all for it.

"I'm not sure if-"

The front door banged open, interrupting her. Jack shot to his feet. "Damnit, Daniel,
where's the fire?"

Daniel paused, breathing heavily. Jack could see that he'd just gotten out of bed. His chest and feet were bare and his hair stood up in odd places. Teal'c appeared right behind him, his weapon in his hand. "The proximity alert went off," Daniel explained, holding out the small device.

"Damn," Jack said as Sam got to her feet. The two of them hurried inside, quickly retrieving their weapons and throwing on some clothes.

"Teal'c already went ahead to scout," Daniel said as soon as they returned..

Jack nodded. "Defensive positions in the trees. If I give the signal, we're gonna bug out to the teltac," he ordered.

Sam and Daniel nodded, the pair of them melting into the bushes that surrounded the cabin. Jack did the same, cursing his idea to trim the foliage back several yards as he dashed across the exposed space. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, to keep the bushes and trees around the cabin controlled, but he realized that it did make the cabin all the more visible and vulnerable.

Knowing that it would take his visitors several more minutes to hike from the gate to the cabin, Jack stepped behind a tree and relieved himself before stepping back into position. He looked up the path, cocking his head to see if he could hear anything. If it was an invasion, it was a quiet one. In his experience, Jaffa didn't tend to do stealth, they aimed more towards the march in and terrify.

"O'Neill!" Teal'c's voice carried across the clearing and Jack looked up, catching sight of his friend walking towards him. "There is no need for alarm. Our visitors are friendly."

Jack stepped forward a bit, waiting until he caught sight of the two people Teal'c was escorting before leaving his position totally. Even then, he kept his hand on his weapon.

One of them he recognized, but the other was a stranger. A tall and beautiful stranger, but a stranger nonetheless. "Bra'tac!" Jack called out, glancing around to see Sam and Daniel emerging from their hiding places. "Nice to see you. Who's your friend?"

"She is Sho'nac of the Red Hills," Teal'c said, speaking up before the woman could.

She glared at Teal'c for a second. "I am the temple priestess on Chulak," she said. "And I come with Bra'tac bearing information that you will find of great interest."

"Define great," Jack said as Sam and Daniel joined him. Sho'nac was a very striking woman, tall and full figured. Her hair was long and dark and done up in a series of thin braids and held back by a thick band that matched her dress.

"It is a very long story, O'Neill," Bra'tac said. "And perhaps one better suited for more comfortable surroundings."

"We were just getting ready for breakfast, why don't you join us?" Sam invited. The two visitors acquiesced and the six of them made their way into the cabin, Jack lingering back to bring up the rear.

Catching sight of Gizmo determinedly attacking a twig, Jack bent over and snagged the kitten, holding her close to his chest. "You're part of this mad house too," he said as he joined the others inside the cabin.

/\/\/\/\/\

"Your visit to Apophis' keep did not go unnoticed," Bra'tac said, watching as O'Neill joined them, an immature feline in his hand.

"We saw no one," Teal'c said.

"The keep is not guarded, rather the chappai," Bra'tac explained. "Soon after Teal'c betrayed him, Apophis realized just how much knowledge he possessed. He feared further betrayal, thus he began to watch those around him with a much more suspicious eye." Bra'tac looked around the table. "He feared informing another of the location of his treasure, so he bade me to place upon the chappai a device which would notify him if it was used."

"A booby trap we set off," O'Neill said.

"Yes," Bra'tac confirmed, divining the meaning of the human's strange term.

"That still doesn't explain how you found us," Daniel Jackson asked.

"The device also captured the glyphs entered into the chappai."

"That's an unpleasant surprise," O'Neill said, nudging the animal with the toe of his boot.

"I was not aware that such technology existed," Teal'c said.

"It's no different than our dialing computer," Carter said.

"Who else knows where we are?" O'Neill asked.

"I have shared this knowledge with no one," Bra'tac promised.

"If Apophis is really that paranoid, what are the chances that he's watching you?" Carter asked.

"He is not watching us," Sho'nac said.

"Even now, Apophis languishes in the prisons of Sokar," Bra'tac explained.

"Sokar?" Jackson asked, shying away as the young cat explored towards his feet.

"Yes," Bra'tac nodded. "A fate you yourself arranged for him."

"Wait a minute," O'Neill said. "We didn't arrange anything."

"He died on Earth," Carter said. "The Tok'ra suggested that we hand him over to Sokar to stop Sokar's attack. They didn't tell us that Sokar had a sarcophagus."

Bra'tac nodded. "That explains a lot. When I heard of what you had done, I did not believe that it was the Tau'ri, yet the results spoke otherwise."

"If Apophis is dead, then who put the bounty out on us?" Jackson asked.

"Amaunet," Sho'nac said.

A silence fell over the group and Bra'tac sighed, regretting that he had not taken time to inform Sho'nac of the relationship between Doctor Jackson and Amaunet's host. "The bounty hunter said that his employer was Apophis," Teal'c said.

"Amaunet has done many things in Apophis' name," Sho'nac said. "The bounty is only one of them."

"That makes sense," Carter said, tearing her concerned gaze from her friend. "Edith Wilson ran the Presidency for months while her husband recovered from a stroke." She looked around the table. "Amaunet wouldn't be the first woman in a patriarchal world to rule using a man's name and authority."

"Yeah, but everyone - except for us - seems to know that Apophis is locked up," O'Neill said.

"They will care little," Bra'tac said. "Especially since doubt can be cast upon whether or not it was the real Apophis that was given to Sokar."

"A marionette," Jackson said. "Find another goa'uld, let him SAY that he's Apophis, the illusion is intact but it's Amaunet that's pulling the strings."

"Indeed," Teal'c said. "A most ingenious ruse."

Carter shook her head. "That still doesn't make any sense. If Amaunet is letting people believe that we didn't turn over the real Apophis to Sokar, then why would she be mad enough at us to put out a bounty?" she asked, as she bent over and picked up the animal, setting it on her lap.

Sho'nac shook her head. "She does not seek revenge, rather information."

"What do we know that she needs to know?" O'Neill asked.

"She sought the location of her child," Sho'nac said.

/\/\/\/\/\

Sho'nac's words dropped like a cement block into a mud puddle. "Her child?" Jack asked slowly. Daniel couldn't respond, not yet.

"Why would Amaunet seek such knowledge from us?" Teal'c asked.

"She is aware of your subterfuge," Sho'nac answered.

"For many months, I was bade to seek out Heru'ur and bring him to Apophis," Bra'tac said. "An edict Amaunet continued after his capture. I led a battle in which Heru'ur was killed but his First Prime survived."

"It is from him that Amaunet learned that Heru'ur did not possess her son."

"And then figured out the rest from Shau'ri's memories," Daniel said, flashing back to that desperate day and the elaborate game of cat and mouse he and Teal'c had played.

"Yes," Sho'nac answered.

"I won't tell her where he is," Daniel pledged.

"She does not need to know where the child is," Sho'nac said. "She returned to Abydos and retrieved him just days ago."

Daniel stared, struggling to comprehend the woman's words. "I'm confused," Jack said. "She put out a bounty to catch us and find out from us something she's already figured out on her own?"

"The bounty was placed many moons ago," Bra'tac said. "I sought to warn you however I was told by Landry of Oklahoma that you had perished."

"They exaggerated a little," Jack said.

"Bra'tac, we left our world without permission," Sam explained. "We're criminals."

"The leaders of the Tau'ri prefer to perpetrate the falsehood of our demise rather than to confess that we live," Teal'c said.

"It's a pride thing," Sam said. "Although, to be fair, until a month or so ago, they didn't know if we were alive or dead."

"What happened to Kasuf?" Daniel asked, worried about his father in law.

"Amaunet captured him as well. He is a prisoner in the palace."

Daniel's heart fell and his stomach churned at the thought of the older man locked up in one of Apophis' dungeons. Kasuf was - as Jack would say -a tough old bird. But he was also an old man. And dungeons were no place for old men.

"He is being treated well," Bra'tac said.

"He is not being kept in the dungeon," Sho'nac reassured him. "Rather a small chamber near the harem."

"Harem?" Sam asked.

"It is the most secure area of the palace," Teal'c said.

"She can't keep him," Daniel said, looking at the group.

"Kasuf is locked up down the hall from the harem," Jack said. "I don't get the idea that he's suffering too much."

Daniel shook his head. "Not Kasuf, the child."

"Daniel Jackson is correct," Bra'tac said. "The child is why I sought you out after learning that you yet lived."

"Do you think she'll harm the baby?" Sam asked.

"Amaunet's child is no ordinary babe in arms," Bra'tac said. "It is the child of two hosts."

"That is but a legend," Teal'c dismissed.

"What legend?" Jack asked.

"All legends have basis in fact," Bra'tac argued.

"What legends?" Jack repeated.

"For many generations, the Tau'ri were little more than legends," Sho'nac said.

"WHAT LEGENDS!" Jack yelled.

The group fell silent for a few seconds. "Once a goa'uld takes a host, that host will never have a child," Teal'c said.

Jack shook his head. "Children they technically weren't but Hathor was popping them out like crazy."

"Hathor was a queen," Sho'nac said. "She used her host's body to generate goa'uld kelma."

"Kelma?" Sam asked.

"Children," Teal'c answered. "Goa'uld queens use their human hosts' bodies to facilitate the reproduction of the goa'uld race. However they are forbidden to reproduce a HUMAN child."

"Why?" Jack asked.

"It is said that the child of two hosts is a harcesis and will possess the sum of knowledge from both its maternal and paternal bloodline," Bra'tac said.

"Carter?" Jack asked, turning to look at Sam.

"I don't know, sir. The goa'uld do have a genetic memory but…"

"They pass it onto the child," Daniel said.

"What?" Jack asked.

"Think about it, Jack," he said. "A goa'uld is normally born with the genetic memory of its mother. But if that child is human, it'll have the genetic memory of both parents."

"The ultimate evil," Sam said softly. Daniel looked over at her. Her eyes were distant and unfocused.

"Sam?"

She shook her head slightly, clearing the cobwebs. "Something Jolinar knew. Thanks to their genetic memory, all goa'uld are essentially born evil. The Tok'ra were an exception to this. Now if you take several thousand years of 'evil'," she said, making quotes with her fingers. "And double that, you'd have a HUMAM possessing thousands of years of goa'uld knowledge. But they wouldn't be a goa'uld, they'd be human."

"And they would have a human's loyalty to its own race," Bra'tac said.

"That doesn't exactly sound like a bad thing," Jack said.

"Sir, imagine…Hitler with 20,000 years of experience and knowledge," Sam said.

"With a side order of megalomania and arrogance," Daniel said.

"Ok," Jack said with a shrug. "So this is a bad thing. What are we gonna do about it?"

"You must retrieve the child," Sho'nac said.

"It's a baby!" Jack said. "Don't you think we should, I dunno, wait for its head to start spinning or something?"

"Apophis originally wished for the child to be a future host," Sho'nac said. "One for him to use once his present host's body wore out. He created and sought the child in the hopes that the child's augmented knowledge would grant him an advantage over all other goa'uld."

"But he's locked up in Sokar's dungeons," Sam said.

"Amaunet now longs for that knowledge," Teal'c said.

"She does?" Sam asked.

"Yes," Sho'nac confirmed. "I have heard her speak. As soon as the boy is of an appropriate age, she wishes to abandon her current host and possess the boy."

"Can queens do that?" Sam asked.

Sho'nac nodded. "Many queens choose female hosts simply because it facilitates the collection of the code of life that will make her children compatible with their future hosts."

"Ewwe," Jack said, crinkling his face in disgust. Daniel felt his face color and he cringed, remembering all too well just how the goa'uld gathered the 'code'. And yeah, the female form was definitely 'optimized for collection'.

"So, queens choose females for convenience," Sam said.

"Yes," Sho'nac said. "Amaunet will not be mature enough to spawn for quite some time. She can inhabit a male host with no adverse side effects for many years."

"Or just long enough to conquer the universe," Jack said.

"Amaunet must not retain possession of the harcesis," Teal'c said.

"This is why I sought your assistance," Bra'tac said. "I know of no others that could attempt such a feat."

"Bra'tac, we can't exactly raid Chulak and kidnap some hairy…kid," Jack said.

"The child is not on Chulak," Sho'nac said. "Amaunet has secreted him away. She fears the other System Lords discovering her plans and gaining custody of the child."

"Even harder," Jack said. "We don't have the resources to search for the kid."

"He is on Kheb," Bra'tac said.

"Kheb is a myth," Teal'c said.

Bra'tac turned to look at his protégée. "Kheb is real," he declared.

"What's Kheb?" Sam asked.

"Heaven," Daniel said.

"Heaven?"

"It's the Jaffa equivalent of heaven," Daniel explained.

"The Goa'uld fear and despise Kheb. They forbade anyone of speaking of it long ago. It is something my father once spoke of to me. An old tale, about a place discovered long ago by a few Jaffa, and kept secret from the Goa'uld. When they could no longer carry a Primta, they would make their journey to Kheb. There the Ko'lak would learn the path through the darkness, into the next life."

"Ko'lak?" Sam asked.

"Spirit," Daniel translated.

"So it is Jaffa heaven," Jack said.

"One day, when I can no longer accept a primta, I hope to journey to Kheb," Bra'tac said.

"So you know where Kheb is?" Sam asked.

"I do not," Bra'tac said.

Daniel glanced at his friends. "Umm, doesn't that make it kinda hard for us to go get him?"

"Not with this," Sho'nac said, reaching into her dress to pull out a small scroll. "Very few worlds are forbidden for goa'uld to visit. The high priestess knew of two of them." She handed it to Teal'c. "It is very likely that one of these is Kheb."

"And the other one?" Jack asked, taking the scroll from Teal'c and glancing at it before handing it over to Sam.

"I do not know," Bra'tac said. "It is a world I have never visited."

"So, we have a 50/50 chance of finding Kheb and retrieving the kid?" Jack asked.

"And a 50/50 chance of being wrong," Sam said. Jack glared at her, which she ignored.

"We have to try," Daniel said.

"I agree with Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said.

"Couple hours?" Jack asked.

"We're going today?" Daniel asked, surprised not only that Jack had capitulated so easily but that he was considering leaving so soon.

"Unless you have something better to do," Jack said. He got to his feet and nodded towards the scroll that Teal'c was holding. "If that kid's what you say he is, the sooner we get him the better." He turned to Sam. "I don't want to gate into this place blindly. Think you two can plot a course?"

Sam reached out and took the scroll from Teal'c, holding it so that Daniel could read it. "We should be able to use the ship's navigation system," she said.

Jack nodded. "Ok. I'm gonna go clean up. We'll have some breakfast then head out."

/\/\/\/\/\

Teal'c assisted O'Neill, setting the bundle of supplies down in the cargo hold of the teltac. "If Carter's calculations are right, this is just gonna be a day trip," O'Neill said.

"Indeed," he agreed. Teal'c glanced up at the peltac area and caught sight of Major Carter sitting in the pilot's chair. She was bent over the controls and he was sure that she was sill computing their exact course.

"It might be a bit crowded," O'Neill said. "What with six of us in here and all."

"I wished to speak to you of that," Teal'c said. "I would like to remain behind with Sho'nac."

"Ok," he replied slowly. "Tell me about her."

"What do you wish to know?"

"Who is she?"

"She is a temple priestess and has become Amaunet's confidante."

"Yeah, I got that part."

Teal'c sighed softly, aware that he needed to inform O'Neill. Yet he did not want to. It was difficult to explain a relationship that he himself did not fully understand. "After my mother and I sought refuge on Chulak, we lived in the city. Sho'nac's parents resided a short distance away. I spent much of my youth in her company."

O'Neill nodded. "Childhood sweethearts?"

"I believe that is the correct Earth terminology."

"Why didn't you marry her?"

"She had been promised to the priesthood. My fate lay in becoming a warrior. Once we received our first primta's, she lived in the temple and learned the ways of the religion. I trained with Bra'tac. Our positions enabled us to occasionally see each other, yet that is all we were allowed."

"Drey'auc?" he asked. Teal'c knew that he should bristle at O'Neill's inquiry, yet he felt no invasion of his privacy. This was information that O'Neill would need to know to fully understand.

"My marriage to Drey'auc was arranged by Apophis. A reward for a successful campaign." He looked O'Neill in the eyes. "She is the mother of my son, and always shall be."

The man sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I understand. So, you want to see if you can rekindle the old flame?"

Teal'c raised his eyebrows, his familiarity with the human's odd turn of phrase allowing him to translate the words. "I wish to speak to her in private," he said, his words more than a request.

O'Neill shrugged. "I don't see why not. Best case scenario, we go, grab this kid and come back."

"If Amaunet indeed holds this child as dearly as Tekmate Bra'tac believes, your task may be a most difficult one," Teal'c warned.

"When are they not?" O'Neill replied. "If it's too hot, we'll just do a little recon. See if the kid is there first and get the lay of the land."

"A wise decision," Teal'c said.

O'Neill nodded and turned his attention towards the front of the ship. "Carter?"

"All done," she said, joining them. "We can leave any time."

O'Neill nodded. "Why don't you start pre-flight. I'll go get Daniel and Bra'tac."

"Yes, sir."

He and Teal'c left the ship, making their way across the short distance to the cabin. It took just a few minutes to round up Daniel and Bra'tac. "You have about five hours," O'Neill said softly while the other two men gathered their belongings.

"Thank you, O'Neill."

/\/\/\/\/\

Sam plotted the course and sat back, sighing softly as the ship jumped into hyperspace. "We have a couple of hours," she reported.

Jack nodded and glanced back at the cargo area as Daniel and Bra'tac joined them. "Supplies are stowed," Daniel said.

"Tell me about Sho'nac," Jack requested. Sam was surprised that he'd put off asking about the woman for this long. Of course, she was more than a little curious herself.

"She is a priestess in the temple and confidante of Amaunet," Bra'tac answered.

"We knew that," Jack said "But I get the feeling that he left something out."

Bra'tac paused and took a breath. "He left out only what he did not know," he said. "Sho'nac and Teal'c were children together."

"Childhood sweethearts," Jack interjected.

"Really?" Daniel asked.

"Yep," Jack replied, grinning.

"They were separated when they received their first primta. Sho'nac left for her life in the palace and Teal'c began his training."

"Drey'auc?" Sam asked.

"Arranged marriage," Jack said.

"As is often the way of our kind," Bra'tac said, frowning at Jack. "When one is a warrior, one has little time to woo a woman."

"So, now that him and Drey'auc are separated…"

"No," Bra'tac answered Sam. "Sho'nac is dying."

"What?"

"She looks fine," Daniel said.

"Her primta is nearly mature. Now that Apophis is gone, new primta are difficult to obtain. When Sho'nac's matures, there is not one to replace it."

"I thought Amaunet was a queen?" Sam said.

"Amaunet is very young. She will not be capable of spawning young for many years. And she lacks the resources to acquire primta of another goa'uld."

"How long does Sho'nac have?" Daniel asked.

"Days, perhaps weeks," Bra'tac answered.

"Does Teal'c know?" Sam asked.

"She will tell him today. That is why she wished for them to be alone."

Sam shrugged. "They'll have most of the day."

An awkward silence fell over the group and Sam looked down, suddenly wishing that the trip was either a lot longer or a lot shorter. If it was longer, they'd likely go and nap and if it was shorter, well there'd be no need to find a way to kill time.

"That they will," the colonel said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a battered deck of cards. "Why don't you put that thing on autopilot. Bra'tac, have you ever heard of the Earth game poker?"

/\/\/\/\/\

Sho'nac walked beside Teal'c, her hand clasped in his. "You have chosen a beautiful home," she said.

"This is indeed a pleasant planet," he agreed.

"It is the end of the hot season?" she asked, sliding her hand from his to step off the path. She trailed her hand along the ripe grasses.

"Yes. The Tau'ri call it summer. Autumn will soon be upon us, then winter."

She turned and smiled at him. "Those are beautiful names. I have always loved the…autumn season. Everything is so full and ripe."

"Major Carter has expressed her enjoyment of the colors of the trees as they prepare for winter."

"You used to like that too," she said, turning back to look at him. "I remember when we were young, we would play amongst the fallen leaves."

Teal'c smiled, his mind going back to happier days so many years ago. He closed his eye and could hear again the soft crunch of the leaves under their feet, see the soft rain of color when the wind blew, sending the leaves floating down from the trees. He remembered the two of them spinning and running, playing in the Champa Grove. "I remember," he said, opening his eye to look upon her face.

She was smiling at him, her long dark hair spilling over her shoulders. She walked towards him, a late blooming flower clasped loosely in her fingers. She reached out her free hand and touched his face, her fingers gently tracing over his skin and the scars that marked it. "Bra'tac did not tell me that you had been injured," she said softly.

"He did not know," he replied, for once not feeling insecure or ashamed of the marks marring his flesh.

"How did it happen?" She continued to caress his skin and he looked into her eyes, seeing not pity but concern and caring.

"Earth was attacked. I was injured," he said, refusing to go into details. She did not need to know of the paralyzing pain that had washed over him. Of his fear as he lay there, barely conscious enough to be aware of his life's blood as it drained from him. Of his horror as he looked down and saw the mangled mess that was his hand. As his fingers explored the sticky wetness that was what was left of his face.

She did not need to know of the weakness that plagued him, the humiliation at not being able to care for himself. At needing assistance to bathe and even feed himself.

He did not speak of how it felt to be the object of pity. How much he loathed the quickly averted glances and the awkward attempts to lend him assistance.

He did not tell her that one of the reasons he was grateful to be with his friends was because they were of the few that treated him with honor instead of an object of pity and sadness.

"And you fought bravely," she said, drawing him from his memories and back into the present. "Or you would not be alive."

"I am alive only because Major Carter would not permit me to die," he confessed.

"Of what do you speak?" she asked, frowning.

"My primta was dead and I was dying," he said, his eyes dropping in shame. Sho'nac's fingers grabbed his chin and lifted his head, forcing him to look at her. "Major Carter removed the primta from another Jaffa and gave it to me."

"Then I owe her a debt of gratitude," she said. "For she returned you to me." He remained silent, not wishing to argue with her. She narrowed her eyes and studied his face. "You do not agree."

"I have resigned myself to my fate."

"You have resigned yourself to being alive?"

"I have resigned myself to being kek," he corrected.

She shook her head. "You are not kek." Her hand left his face and traced his arms. "If anything, you are stronger than I have ever seen you."

"You call this strength?" he demanded, lifting his stump in front of her face. "Is this strong?" He tore off the leather cup he wore to protect his skin, revealing the remains of his arm. The skin was pale and the scars from the stitches stood out in stark relief. "Or this?" he took off the patch and revealed to her the empty socket that once held his eye.

She stared at him for a second, seemingly taken aback by his outburst. "That is nothing but the outer shell. Something that our kol'mak uses for a period of time before it moves on to Kheb. It is a shell that we discard quite easily when the spirit leaves it." She lowered her hand and settled it over his chest. "This is your true strength. This is what matters. For if the heart is weak, the body matters not."

He pulled back. "Those are easy words for a woman to say."

Her eyes narrowed. "Do not dismiss me because I am not a male. Do not fool yourself that I do not know a warrior's heart. If your heart was weak, even the strongest primta would not have kept you from death." She stared at him for a few seconds then pushed herself away. "Bah," she exclaimed in disgust. "I was a fool. I should have listened to Bra'tac and not come."

She stalked away and Teal'c watched her, then followed, his curiosity driving him. "Why did you come?" he asked.

"It does not matter. Your friends will return soon," she called over her shoulder.

He sped up and caught her, grabbing her arm to make her turn to face him. "They will not return for several hours. You could have simply let Bra'tac relay your information."

She glared then dropped her eyes and sighed. "Is it so difficult to believe that I was happy to hear that you yet lived and that I wished to see you?"

"Perhaps I would believe that if I did not already know that you are not a sentimental woman," Teal'c said.

She looked at him and something glittered in her gaze. Something Teal'c couldn't quite place. Or could he?

Teal'c watched as the two slaves dragged the body of the woman from the chamber, only the odd adornment around her neck separating her from the ones that had come before, and the ones that would follow.

"He was not pleased?" Bra'tac asked, moving close so that they could speak privately.

"No," Teal'c said. "Apophis' new queen has most specific tastes."

"One of those that you have acquired will please her…eventually," Bra'tac reassured him.

"I wish for it to happen soon, Tek'mate. Before more die needlessly."

"I know." Bra'tac placed his hand on Teal'c's shoulder. "At least you can take comfort in the fact that Sho'nac does not carry the queen. She will not be subject to the whims of another for several more cycles."

Teal'c blinked his eyes, banishing the memory of several years ago. Sho'nac, despite her position as a priestess had not been chosen to carry Amaunet because she was already carrying a half-mature primta. Yameta had been given that honor instead. And had nearly died because of it.

"Your primta is mature," he said, voicing his feeling.

"Yes," she confirmed. She laid her hand upon her belly. "It could take a host right now."

"You should not be here. You should be in the temple, readying yourself for the ceremony," he admonished.

She shook her head. "There will be no ceremony. Teal'c, with Apophis imprisoned, there are very few new primta. And those that do exist are reserved for those that protect Amaunet."

"Surely your position-"

"Gains me noting," she interrupted. "Amaunet's resources are limited. This is why I wished to come and see you. Why I…I wanted to see the warrior that my friend has become. She smiled and reached out, her hand again caressing his face.

"There must be another way," he said, reaching up to grasp her wrist.

"Always the warrior. Tek'mate Bra'tac admires that in you."

"Sho'nac-"

"This is my fate. I have made my peace with it," she interrupted. "And I ask that you do the same."

"And if I am not prepared to accept it?"

"Then, just like those that dread the dawn, you will be disappointed when the universe does not alter itself to your liking."

Unable to counter her words, he drew her close, struggling to control the rage that bubbled in his chest. Rage at being granted his ultimate wish, only to have it snatched away.

/\/\/\/\/\

"Hey, look, there's trees," Jack said, peering over Carter's shoulder as the teltac swept low over the planet.

Bra'tac glanced over at her and Sam shook her head, refusing to say anything. "There's life forms too," Daniel said, reaching around Bra'tac to point to the fuzzy red dots on the scanner.

"Quite a few of them," Sam said, manipulating the controls to bring up a clearer picture.

"These are not all human," Bra'tac said.

"They're human?"

"Some are," Bra'tac answered Jack. He pointed to the screen. "There appear to be two separate groups. These, near some structures that read as caves, and others, out in the open, near a water source."

"How close can you get?" Jack asked.

"Very," Sam answered. "But even if we engage the cloak, they'll hear the ship and feel the wind it disturbs."

Jack sighed. "So we'll have to do this the hard way." He looked to Bra'tac. "Can you tell if they're human or Jaffa?"

"Not at this distance. It is also possible that Amaunet did not send the child with Jaffa."

"Wouldn't it be safer that way?"

"Not necessarily. Jaffa will attract attention, while a group of humans are unremarkable."

"The only way we can know for sure is to eyeball them," Sam said.

Jack nodded, agreeing with her. "Set us down out of earshot. We'll hike in and take a look."

"Yes, sir."

Bra'tac wrapped his fingers around the yoke, maneuvering the ship away from the life signs and toward a small clearing a couple of miles away. He set the ship down and powered down the engines. It took the four of them just a few minutes to gear up and leave the ship.

"Everyone-"

"Remember where we parked," Sam and Daniel chorused, interrupting Jack.

He glared at them and the four of them set off towards the life signs. They fell into a single file line, Bra'tac in the lead, Sam and Daniel in the middle and Jack bringing up the rear.

There was nothing remarkable about the planet, Daniel thought as he walked. In fact, it reminded him of countless others, temperate and rich with life. Birds flitted amongst the trees and various small creatures skittered through the underbrush.

It would be a perfect place to hide the child. A planet with nothing that anyone would want, thus nothing to make it remarkable or notable.

The sound of voices penetrated the natural noises of the planet and the group of them stopped, spreading out and peering through the bushes. Daniel stared at a group of people in recognizable SGC uniforms standing beside a large body of water. "What are they doing?" he whispered to Jack who was right beside him.

Jack shook his head and Daniel turned his attention back to the group. As he watched, they pulled something out of the water and Daniel recognized the fishing nets. "Why are they fishing?" he whispered.

Jack shook his head again and glared, trying to hush Daniel with a look. Daniel heard a way too familiar squeeing sound and looked back at the group. He stared in horror as they pulled a net full of squirming creatures from the water. Even from this distance, he could recognize the form of a goa'uld symbiote.

The men maneuvered the net, neatly dumping the struggling symbiotes into containers. They were sealed away and the men tossed the nets again, two of them even stepping out into the water. They watched until the group pulled in two more catches before Jack gave the signal and the four of them slipped back into the bush, gaining some distance from the stream so that they could talk. "Did I just see what I thought I saw?" Sam asked.

"Why would the Tau'ri be harvesting symbiotes?" Bra'tac asked.

"I don't know," Jack said. "It doesn't make any sense."

"What are symbiotes doing swimming in a stream?" Sam asked.

"More importantly than that, why aren't they afraid of them?" Daniel asked.

"Daniel?"

"Stepping into a lake full of goa'uld is tantamount to wading across a river full of piranha," he said. "Except in this case you don't get eaten alive."

"That's debatable," Jack muttered.

A loud roar cut through the silence and the four of them tensed, reaching for their weapons. Another roar was punctuated by the sharp crack of gunfire and the four of them returned to their vantage point, watching in horror as three large creatures attacked the fishermen. "Hold fire," Jack ordered.

"Jack!"

"That's an order."

The fight by the stream was short and over in just seconds. Two of the creatures lay dead while the third one retreated noisily into the under brush.

"Sanchez is dead," one of the men reported, kneeling over a fallen human.

"Loeder's hurt bad," another one called out, kneeling beside the second injured man.

"Bring him. Leave that carrion," the commander ordered. He bent over and picked up the container, seeming to have no issue with its large size and bulk.

Within minutes, the humans were gone and Daniel could only guess that they were retreating back to the gate. Jack held them in place for a few minutes, then cautiously stepped out of hiding, making his way over to the bank of the stream.

Bra'tac stretched out a warning hand. "Symbiotes can jump an impressive distance," he warned.

Sam knelt down, examining the corpse that the SGC had left behind. "Sir." Jack made his way back over to her. "I think I know why they weren't afraid." She had rolled the body to its stomach and pulled down his collar.

Daniel bent over and could clearly see the tell-tale bulge under his skin. "He's a goa'uld."

She nodded. "I have a really bad feeling I know what they're doing with those symbiotes."

/\/\/\/\/\

Jack stared at Sam, doing his best to ignore the nausea roiling in his gut. A host. He was looking at an honest to god Tau'ri human host. Sam suddenly cried out, lurching back away from the body. As Jack watched, Sanchez's body jerked slightly and his head slowly moved to one side.

A blood smeared grey shape slipped sluggishly from the man's slack lips. Jack raised his weapon and saw that Sam did the same as she tried to get away from the escaping symbiote.

Jack waited, wanting the snake to be clear of the corpse before he fired. A heavy grey boot slammed into his vision, heartlessly crushing the symbiote into a lumpy smear in the dirt. "If only all goa'uld were handled so easily," Bra'tac said.

"Yeah," Jack said, shaking his head slightly. Now that it was safe, Sam moved back towards the corpse, frowning as she stared at the gore on Bra'tac's boot. "Carter?"

"I can't sense it," she said, looking up at him.

"Can't sense what?"

"The naqahdah. I can't sense it."

"Not when it's smeared in the dirt like that."

"No, sir. It doesn't matter if it's dead or alive or…road kill. The naqahdah is in the blood.
You should be able to sense it too."

Jack frowned. "I don't do much of that sensing stuff."

"Maybe you're just tired," Daniel suggested.

Sam shook her head. "Daniel, I can sense Bra'tac's symbiote. I can feel the colonel, but I get nothing from this." She motioned towards the lake. "And if the goa'uld they were hauling out of the water is any indication, I should be getting the heebie-jeebies like crazy. But I'm not."

"So?" Daniel asked. "What?"

"All I can guess is that they don't have naqahdah in their blood."

"All goa'uld have naqahdah in them," Daniel insisted.

"I don't think so," she said. "Something's different about these."

"You mean other than living next door to Unases?" Jack asked.

"Uni," Daniel corrected.

"What?"

"Wouldn't the plural of Unas be Uni?"

"Wouldn't the plural of Unases be two too many?" he shot back.

"The Unas are nothing but a legend," Bra'tac said.

"So's the baby you guys want us to find," Jack said.

"Unas are real," Sam said. "We've run into them before."

"The life forms in the hills," Daniel said. "The ones that you said weren't human."

"This is the Unas home world?" Jack asked, his hand reflexively tightening on his weapon.

"It makes sense," Sam said. "Think about it, sir. The Unas are called the first hosts and we know that symbiotes can survive in a watery environment. What if the Unas and the goa'uld evolved on the same planet. Maybe the goa'uld were nothing more than parasites in the water until they evolved enough to be sentient."

"And they used the Unas as a way to overcome their dependence on water," Daniel said.
"Transportation." Sam nodded. "And over the millennia they evolved to not just be passive passengers but active participants."

"Yeah, fascinating," Jack said. "So while you guys are having fun playing wild kingdom, has it occurred to any of you that, if you're right, there's a whole planet full of Unases that just might be a bit pissed at us if they think we swiss cheesed their friends over there?" he asked, pointing towards the two Unas corpses, their primitive leather and fur clothing garishly painted with brilliant bright green blood.

"O'Neill is correct," Bra'tac said. "If this is indeed the Unas home world, Amaunet would not risk sending the boy here."

"Let's get the hell out of dodge," Jack said.

"What about him?" Sam asked, motioning towards the dead human.

"We can't risk it, and we don't have time. Bra'tac, take point. Everyone stay alert. Anything vaguely reptilian and ugly, call out. Then shoot it."

The quartet of them made their way back towards the ship, every bush and tree now hiding a particularly horrifying menace.

/\/\/\/\/\

"You are certain of what you saw?" Teal'c asked.

"Oh yeah," Jack said, his voice slightly singsong as he sat down at the table.

"We scanned the planet before we left," Sam said, joining them. "There were several hundred Unases in the area but several thousand across the planet."

"There was a vast quantity of goa'uld as well," Bra'tac said, wrapping his cape around his arm before he sat.

"Sam just had to tweak the sensors to see them," Daniel chimed in.

The six of them were sitting around their common room having just returned from the planet. "I cannot believe such a place exists," Sho'nac said, absently petting Gizmo as the kitten sat in her lap.

"Nor would I if I had not seen it with my own eyes," Bra'tac said.

"It explains why that planet is forbidden," Sam said.

"Yeah," Jack agreed. "Big ugly aliens make for bad tourism."

"I was actually thinking of how it'd ruin the goa'uld's claim of being gods if everyone could see that they're noting more than really smart fish," she said.

"That crawl into your head and take you over." Sam merely shrugged, conceding Jack's point.

"This information actually bodes well for our search," Bra'tac said.

"By proving that myths are real?" Jack asked.

"Yes, but also, we now know which planet the boy is on."

"We know which planet the boy MIGHT be on," Jack corrected.

"He is there," Sho'nac insisted.

"Then we need to go," Daniel said, looking like he was ready to drop everything and leave at precisely that moment.

"I think we're ignoring the bigger issue," Sam said.

"What issue?" Daniel asked.

"The fact that Earth has been invaded by the goa'uld," she said, not quite believing that she was having to explain it to him.

"No. Some of the SGC has been compromised," he corrected.

"Daniel, we watched them harvest about fifty of those things and take them back to Earth."

"We saw people wearing the SGC's uniform harvesting goa'uld and taking them somewhere," he said. "For all we know they're not even going to Earth. They could be rogues just like us."

"So what? Just because they might not be going to Earth we should just ignore what we saw?"

"We should worry about the more pressing issue of recovering the child," Daniel said.

"Carter?" Jack said. "What do you expect us to do?"

"We need to at least warn them," she said.

"If it is true that Stargate Command is compromised, I believe that it will be of little benefit to inform them of your discovery," Teal'c said.

"If they're doing what I think they're doing, most of the SGC has probably already been blended."

"Which means that you don't know who you can trust," Jack said.

"We'll need to go outside the chain of command. Find someone that has nothing to do with the SGC and use them to get inside," she planned.

"And you're going to do this from the jail cell they'll toss you into. Presuming that they open the iris in the first place and you don't end up smeared all over it," Jack said.

"I'll take the teltac," she said, letting her ire show. She couldn't believe that she was facing such negativity, especially from the other two humans in the room.

"We might need that to find the boy," Daniel protested.

"You have a gate address."

"We had an address to the last planet."

"So what? Just because you're obsessed with finding this kid we're supposed to just ignore that Earth has been invaded?" she shot back.

"We don't know that Earth's been invaded!"

"And we don't know that the boy is even on that planet!"

Both of them were on their feet, squaring off across the table. "That's enough," Jack said. His loud words startled Gizmo and the kitten jumped off Sho'nac's lap, scurrying to the far corner of the room.

"Colonel?"

"There's not much we can do about Earth right now. Maybe we should just concentrate on the manageable problem."

"Sam-"

She ignored Daniel and pushed away from the table. Giving into her frustration she stomped out of the room and hurried off the porch. "Stupid, narrow minded…"

"Carter."

"Self-righteous, overbearing…"

"Carter!"

She ignored Jack and kept walking. She didn't need to hear what he was going to say. She already knew. To hell with Earth. They'd made their bed, they could lie in it. Earth wasn't their priority right now.

"For crying out loud, Carter, stop!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Let me go!" she growled through gritted teeth.

"What the hell is going on with you?"

"ME?" she demanded. "I'm not the one that's so obsessed with tracking down some baby that I'm ignoring the more pressing issue."

"Do you have any idea what you're talking about? The scale of what's involved?"

"Yes. Colonel, what the hell do you think is going to happen to all those goa'uld they fished out of that river? I sincerely doubt they're destined for a local pet shop."

"I know exactly what's going to happen with them. But I want to know just how you think you can stop it," he demanded.

"I'll bury the damn gate if I have to," she pledged.

"Sam-"

"NO!" she interrupted. "You may not give a damn about Earth, but I still do."

"I never said-"

"You didn't have to. It's obvious how you feel," she accused.

"How do I feel?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"That Earth can go to hell. That they deserve whatever happens to them. That maybe, if they're distracted by their own issues they just might leave us alone." She paused and looked in his eyes. "And there's probably a few people that deserve to get a snake in the head."

Instead of protesting he sighed softly and his eyes darted to the side, signaling to her that she was at least partially right. "I take it you feel differently," he said.

"I think I would rather die than find out that Cassie or Mark or his wife or my niece or nephew spent even one minute being a slave to some goa'uld," she said, voicing the fear that had eaten as her since they'd discovered Sanchez's body.

"What do you really think you can accomplish?" he asked seriously.

"Colonel?"

"If they're honestly taking these goa'uld back to Earth, then the whole SGC has been compromised. And probably Area 51, the Pentagon, hell even the White House. How are you going to stop that?"

She stared at him, the enormity of the issue setting in. He was right. The odds that those fifty goa'uld they'd harvested were the only fifty was slim. Chances are there were now hundreds of goa'uld on Earth. And if even if they had even a fraction of the lust for power of their naqahdah-enhanced cousins, it was a foregone conclusion that Earth's leadership had to be compromised. How could she free a planet when the people she as trying to free it from had all the power?

"I don't know," she replied honestly. "But I have to try."

They stared at each other, the silence growing deep and awkward. "O'Neill," Teal'c's voice broke the stalemate.

"Yeah," Jack said, still looking at Sam.

"Daniel Jackson wishes to depart with all due haste," he said, raising his voice as he kept his distance.

"Just let me take the teltac," Sam said. "Surely Bra'tac can get another one."

Jack looked at her for another few seconds then broke eye contact. "We need to inventory the weapons," he said, turning towards Teal'c.

Sam closed her eyes, willing her face to remain passive. At least he hadn't refused her the ship. There was that much. Just as long as he didn't try to forbid her to go. She didn't want that to happen. It would only provoke a confrontation worse than the one they'd just had. She was going back to Earth, and he wasn't going to stop her. "Carter and I will need some of it."

Her eyes flew open, his words catching her by surprise. She looked at him. "And we're going to need enough food for…" He motioned at her. "How far away is Earth?"

"Umm, three days," she stammered.

"Right, three days flight." Teal'c looked at him, raising his eyebrow. "Surely two First Primes, a High Priestess and mister triple PHD can round up one squalling kid."

"Surely," Teal'c agreed dryly. "I shall inform the others." He turned and made his way back into the cabin.

"Colonel?"

"One condition," Jack said, turning back to her. "Before we go and try to convince everyone Earth has been invaded we're getting a pizza. And you're buying." He poked her gently in the arm, then turned and reentered the cabin, leaving her alone.

No, alone wasn't quite the right word. If fact, it wasn't even close.

/\/\/\/\/\

The teltac lifted off and Daniel watched it shrink into the sky, jumping slightly when it broke the sound barrier and a sonic boom echoed through the trees. "I hope they know what they're doing," he said as Teal'c joined him.

"It was an action that they both feel strongly about," Teal'c answered.

"They'll be lucky if they're not shot on sight."

"Do you regret the decision to divide our forces?"

Daniel glanced over to his friend. "I wish they were coming with us," he said honestly. "Teal'c do you have any idea the enormity of what they're doing? Since they can't sense these goa'uld, there's no way to know who is or is not blended short of an MRI. And, chances are, the people that know what to look for are the very same people that have already been blended."

"Their task will indeed be a most difficult one," Teal'c agreed.

"You think we should have gone with them?" Daniel asked.

"I did not say that," Teal'c said. "Both courses of action share an immediacy."

"But which is most important?"

Teal'c smiled slightly. "Important, as Major Carter would say, is a relative term."

Daniel stared at his friend and rolled his eyes slightly. "You're not helping," he accused.

Teal'c raised his eyebrow, nonplussed by Daniel's outburst. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we can ascertain Sho'nac's information," he said pointedly.

Daniel nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

It took the four of them just moments to gather their gear and hike the short distance to the Stargate. Bra'tac dialed the address and the gate opened, its shimmering blue light dispelling the gathering gloom of twilight. "If we're lucky," Daniel said, following the others to the gate. "We'll be back in time for breakfast."

/\/\/\/\/\

Jack checked the readings on the autopilot, the name of one of the systems they were passing by standing out from the rest. Praxis. Or that was the human translation of the goa'uld symbols. Jack was sure if he asked Carter, she could work out the standard letter/number combination.

But, no matter what it was called, it was still the same planet. Praxis.

Which, a year ago, was also known as Ba'al's home base.

If he closed his eyes, he could still see the palace. Hear his boot steps on the slate floors. Smell the sweet aroma of beeswax candles. Feel the soft caress of luxurious sheets and fine clothes. Taste the rich red wine Ba'al had favored.

Jack's stomach churned at the memory. He hated wine. Even before Ba'al, he HATED wine. It was like drinking battery acid. He'd gladly drink the worst rotgut beer before he'd even consider the highest quality wine.

The booze was just one of the many things he found disgusting about his time with Ba'al. Actually, it was the least of his bad memories. Memories he'd done his best to forget during the past year. Memories that he knew would haunt him until his dying day.

He remembered a lot of his time with Ba'al. More than he really liked to admit. The goa'uld would spend his days puttering and playing. Working on project after project. A lot of the details had slipped through Jack's brain, words and phrases that he had a hard time translating into English. All he knew for sure was that, instead of managing mines and enslaving the populace, Ba'al had spent his days working on things. Technical things. With wires and crystals and the goa'uld equivalent of circuit boards and transistors.
Things that Carter was a lot better suited to understanding.

Jack sat up in the chair, an odd thought clawing at the back of his brain. Stuff. Praxis was full of stuff. Technical stuff. Things with bells and whistles and blinky lights.

Pushing himself up from the chair, Jack made his way back to the cargo compartment. "Carter?"

She was sitting on the floor, dangling a shoelace in front of Gizmo. The kitten was lying on her back and batting at it playfully. "We can't be there yet," she said, not even looking up.

"What? No." Jack shook his head. "Why the hell did you bring that thing?" he asked, joining her on the floor.

"I wasn't going to leave her behind to starve," she said. "Who knows how long Daniel and the others will be gone?"

"Right. Look, umm how do you feel about a little side trip?"

"Side trip where?"

"I think I know where we can pick up some goodies."

"Goodies?"

Jack sighed and pushed his fingers through his hair. "Not…not every goa'uld is obsessed with naqahdah mines," he said. He looked her in the eyes. "Ba'al was working on some really technical stuff. He was obsessed with shield generators and force fields and gravity."

"Ba'al?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah."

"Colonel, I-"

"Carter," he interrupted. "I think we need to stop by Praxis."

She shook her head. "Praxis?"

"The place where you aah, where um, I was…where he." He took a deep breath. "Ba'al had a lot of very cool crap. Crap that I think we can use."

"We can't go invading a goa'uld palace," she protested.

"Why the hell not? It's my goddamn palace. I can do whatever I want with it."

"It's Ba'al's palace."

Jack's eyes narrowed. "It WAS Ba'al's palace. Now it's abandoned. And abandoned places are ripe for the picking."

"If this place was so ripe, why haven't you suggested it before?" she asked.

"Oh gee, I don't know. Why wouldn't I invite y'all over for dinner and a little exploration?" he asked sarcastically.

"Sorry," she said, chastised by the tone of his voice.

She'd stopped playing with Gizmo and the kitten moved over to Jack, one paw exploring his pants leg. Jack reached out and picked it up, settling the small creature on his lap. "Don't be," he said. "This isn't my favorite place in the universe either, but I think we can benefit from some of the stuff there."

"What stuff?"

"The personal cloak you left behind for one," he said. "Gravity and shield generators, hell failing that we can find some zats. Something more than what we have right now."

"You're sure you want to do this?" she asked. "I mean, the cloak would certainly come in handy but…"

"I'm sure."

"Ok," she agreed. "We could use some help," she said.

He nodded, taking Gizmo off his lap and handing the kitten to her. "I'll go plot the course. Planet's only about three hours away."

/\/\/\/\/\

"This is indeed a place of magic," Bra'tac said, following Teal'c as his former student led them through the dense forest.

Above their heads, birds flitted from branch to branch. A light breeze wafted between the trees and bits of sunlight danced on the ground. Daniel Jackson did not respond and Bra'tac looked over to the young human. Although he walked at their side, Bra'tac couldn't help but wonder if the man's heart was elsewhere.

"You do not agree?" Bra'tac asked.

"What?"

"Do you not agree that this place is magical?" Bra'tac pressed.

"It's a very nice planet," he replied. "Look, Bra'tac, this may be heaven to you, but to me, it's just a planet."

Bra'tac frowned. "You do not seek heaven?"

He smiled. "Heaven is…more of a concept to us than reality," he answered. Bra'tac frowned and he saw Teal'c glance back. The four of them stopped walking. Jackson sighed. "Ok, for humans…we're a pretty terrestrial society. There's only a very tiny percentage of our population that even knows that there's life on other planets. So, unlike you, we can't go looking for heaven. There's no mystical planet or…heaven is just this mystical concept. You die and you go to 'heaven'," he said, making odd gestures with his hands. "And that's it."

"That is a most odd philosophy," Sho'nac said.

"Yet it is a very common belief among humans," Teal'c said. "Earth has a wide variety of religions, however most share a belief in a magical location that is a reward for a life well lived."

"You said your father told you stories about Kheb," Jackson said.

"He did," Bra'tac confirmed.

"What did he say?"

"He spoke of an untouched planet with great mountains. A temple is in a valley some distance from the chappai," Bra'tac remembered.

Jackson looked around. "Well, presuming that 'untouched' means uninhabited, we have two of the three criteria."

"This is Kheb," Sho'nac said. "I can feel it." She broke off and closed her eyes, one arm clutching at her middle.

"Sho'nac? Are you ok?" Jackson asked as Teal'c moved to support her.

"I will be fine," she said, forcing a smile on her face.

"You don't look fine."

"It is her primta," Bra'tac said.

"That thing is ready to take a host?"

"My primta could take a host, yes," Sho'nac said, straightening up. "But it will not."

"And you have its word on that," he said. "Look, I'm not trying to be difficult here, but last I knew, a goa'uld can't take a Jaffa as a host as long as that Jaffa has a…incubated, primta, thing. And we're on an uninhabited planet so if that symbiote goes looking for a new home, I'm the only candidate."

"It will not take you as host," she repeated.

"Perhaps, Daniel Jackson, if you are concerned, it would be best if we complete our task as swiftly as possible," Teal'c said. Bra'tac noted how his student stood near Sho'nac, one arm protectively close to hers.

"Yeah, maybe it would be best," Jackson agreed. Bra'tac noted the human's tone of voice and determined that he too had noticed the telling gesture.

"That way," Bra'tac decided, using his staff weapon to indicate a direction.

Teal'c nodded and stepped to the fore. The quartet fell into step and Bra'tac brought up the rear, indulging himself in one last look. This planet was magic, he could feel it in his bones.

/\/\/\/\/\

Sam sat in the pilot's seat and directed the teltac through the thick layer of clouds. "This is gonna be a little bumpy," she warned.

"Afternoon thunderstorm time," Jack said. "That's the reason Ba'al liked the place."

"He was a weather junkie?" she asked, looking over at him. He'd been doing that a bit more often lately, mentioning Ba'al and imparting little bits and memories of his six months spent as a host to the goa'uld. In one way it was unnerving to hear him speak so freely about it, but in another it was a little reassuring. It was nice not to have the forbidden topic lingering between them.

"Lightening. He kept thinking he could find a way to harness it and use the power," Jack said.

"Really? Did he have any luck?"

Jack shook his head. "No. Just kept blowing stuff up." The teltac broke through the clouds and Sam took a moment to orient herself before steering the ship towards the clearing they'd used on their last visit. "Where are you going?"

"We used that clearing last time," she explained.

"Land on the roof," he instructed. "There's no need to waste a few hours slogging through the bush."

"Colonel-"

"Trust me, the landlord won't mind," he said ironically.

"Guess not," Sam replied, following his instructions and landing on the roof. She really wasn't sorry that they weren't using the clearing. Night was falling on the planet and she was really in no mood for a long hike in the dark. Nor was she fond of being stuck in the ship and waiting until morning. A sense of urgency drove her on, pushing her to get to Earth as quickly as they could. "I'm not reading any life signs," she said, manipulating the sensors. "At least nothing large enough to be a Jaffa."

Jack shrugged. "Not much reason to stay," he said. "All clichés aside, most Jaffa aren't big on independent thinking. If there's no one here to tell them what to do, they'll go looking for someone else to lead them."

"I guess when you're programmed your whole life to obey and follow, when you lose one leader, you just find another," she said. "I always forget that Teal'c is more the exception than the rule."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Why do you think they brand Jaffa?" he asked, standing up. "It's to make it harder for them to switch sides."

Sam powered down and secured the ship before also getting to her feet. She followed Jack into the cargo area where they both geared up. Despite the sensor readings that the palace was empty, they both were fully armed.

As they checked their weapons, Gizmo played at their feet, doing her best to engage Jack's shoelaces in mortal combat. "You're not dragging that thing along, are you?" he asked, picking the kitten up and setting her on Sam's bedroll.

"I thought about it," Sam said. "But someone needs to watch the ship."

"Oh yeah, I feel so much better with her watching my six."

Sam glared, taking a moment to pour some water in a bowl and set it on the deck. "You're the one that dragged her home," she reminded, joining him at the hatch.

"Teal'c brought her home," he clarified.

"To save your socks," she shot back.

The door opened and they stepped outside, using a remote to lock the door and secure the ship before continuing across the roof. Jack took up the lead, guiding her to a stairwell. It was pitch black and they both reached for their flashlights. Jack directed her down two levels and out into a hall.

It was just as dark as the stairwell, the inner halls of the palace totally lacking in windows. Not that there was much light to spill in from the outside anyway. Praxis had no moon.

"Someone hasn't been paying the light bill," Sam said.

"There's no electricity," Jack said. "Ba'al was big on the whole torches thing. We could probably light a few." Sam shined her light up high and revealed a line of empty sconces.
"Or not," he said.

Their footsteps echoed eerily off the walls and even though the darkness and thick layer of dust indicated that the palace had been deserted for quite some time, she still couldn't escape the feeling that they were being watched.

Cobwebs danced in the corners and bits of trash and debris littered the floor. "It looks like the maid hasn't been doing her job," Sam said, feeling the need to say something.

"Remind me to ask for a refund."

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Armory," Jack answered. He turned to the right and led her down a narrow corridor. "This should have everything we need." He opened the door, revealing an empty chamber.

"It certainly had everything someone needed," she replied. What had once been neat shelves and containers was now little more than scattered and abandoned trash, the room having been thoroughly scavenged.

"Damn vultures," Jack complained, stepping into the room. He kicked aside some of the debris.

"It has been over a year," she reminded.

"I know." Jack sighed. "I'd just kinda hoped since no one had moved in, they'd left the place alone."

"The goa'uld are a race of scavengers. Picking the bones clean is part of their genetic makeup," she reminded. "Anyway, it's possible that some of the Jaffa used scavenged stuff to buy favor with a new master."

"Yeah, well the goa'uld are also big on secrets. Come on." He left the room and she followed.

"Now what?"

"Ba'al kept most of his stuff here, but he didn't even trust his Jaffa." He glanced back at her. "He kept a cache in his room."

Sam stopped. "His room?"

"Yeah." Jack confirmed, turning back to look her in the eyes. He held the flashlight up, sending the beam towards the ceiling. "You can wait out in the hall," he offered. "It'll just take me a minute to see if it's untouched or not."

Sam stared at him for a moment, the thought of revisiting that room making her distinctly queasy. He'd done all of his 'interrogation' in that room. Spending what she later found out was hours using the ribbon weapon on her, doing everything he could to cause her pain. More than once, she'd thought she'd die in that room. And, a couple of times, she'd even wish that she would die. Just to make it all go away.

That room was what she saw in her nightmares. And it was one place in the universe she'd never wanted to return to.

Of course, she hadn't been the only one Ba'al had tortured in that room. "It's just a room," she said quickly, taking a deep breath. "And we shouldn't split up."

"Look, Sam-"

"We're only here because you're helping me," she interrupted. "If you can come back here, I can sure as hell go into a room." She stared at him for a second. "Let's go," she said. "We don't want to leave Gizmo alone for long, do we?"

"Oh, definitely not," he agreed, surrendering to her bravado.

He led her back to the stairs and up a level to a hall that Sam recognized. This area too showed signs of being scavenged. Debris was scattered on the floor and the walls were scuffed and scratched.

She didn't need Jack to lead her to Ba'al's chambers. The ornate double doors that had guarded his inner sanctum hung open now, both showing signs of having been forced open. "I guess nothing's sacred," she said, trying to dispel the nervous feeling in her stomach.

Jack pushed the door aside and she followed him into the room. She shined her light around, oddly reassured that it had been trashed and ransacked just like the rest of the palace. It no longer resembled the room where she'd spent so many torturous hours. The hearth was cold and dark and she couldn't even smell the faintest trace of smoke.

The table, rug and chairs that had once stood in front of the fireplace were gone, as were the other furnishings in the room. Even the tapestries had been stripped off the walls.

Only the remnants of Ba'al's giant bed stood in the room, and even that had been plundered. The linens were gone, as was the mattress and drapes. The wooden frame lay awkwardly on the floor, broken into a dozen pieces.

"Damn," Jack cursed softly.

"I guess we need to get back to the ship," Sam said, interpreting his words to mean that the cache was gone.

"I liked that bed." Jack walked towards the ruined piece of furniture. "If it'd been intact, I was going to see if it would fit in the teltac."

"You were going to drag back a bed?" Sam asked, slightly puzzled by the frivolity of his idea.

"This wasn't just a bed," he said, glancing up at her as he moved aside the shattered frame. "Twelve solid inches of down. It was like sleeping on air." Sam remained silent, content to simply watch as he continued to move the bed aside. He held up a sideboard. The thick plank had a line of holes drilled through it. "He'd make the slaves tighten these ropes once a week." He tossed the board away and it clattered across the tile, the sound echoing off the bare walls. "And the sheets…they'd wash them with some herb. I never could place the smell."

She sighed and glared, wondering if he'd lost his mind. She never should have agreed to this. They shouldn't have come back here. Maybe he'd finally had too much and…

"You wanna know the best part?" he asked, smiling. "NONE of them had any idea what they were dealing with."

He splayed his hand across the wall and Sam heard a metallic click. As she watched, a section of floor that used to be under the bed moved, sliding aside to reveal an open space. Intrigued, she moved forward, her eyes going wide as she shined her light into the hole.

A treasure trove was laid out before them. Some of it she recognized, zats, TERs and shock grenades, along with bars that could only be naqahdah. "Here you go." He tossed something at her and she instinctively caught it. The lost cloaking device fit neatly into the palm of her hand. She barely remembered when he'd taken the device from her, sneering haughtily as he mocked her efforts. "When did you---"

"One of the times you were unconscious," he interrupted. "He couldn't afford to have Yu or Cronos find out that he had it." He started to pull items out of the chamber and lay them on the floor. "We may need to make a few trips."

She shoved the cloak into her pocket and knelt down beside him, helping him pull things out of the hidden chamber. It was about three feet deep and Jack finally had to lie on his stomach to pull out the last few bits and pieces.

As Sam sorted the stuff into piles, Jack picked up a small box. "I wish they'd have at least left the sheets," she said. "We could have used them to bundle this stuff up." She surveyed the bounty. They had six zats and three ribbon weapons along with an even dozen shock grenades. There were also twenty large gold ingots as well as six heavy bars of naqahdah. Sam opened up a small pouch and stared in amazement as dozens of diamonds sparkled back, brilliant even in the dim light.

"We just have to drag it out to the rings," he said, getting to his feet. "Hold still." He moved behind her.

"What? Is it a bug?" she asked, obeying his orders.

"I think Elton has one of these." Sam felt him slide something onto her head. "Calls it his tantrum tiara." She moved to stand in front of her, cocking his head. "Not bad, although I never considered you the tiara type."

Sam reached up and pulled it off her head, muttering a couple of curses when it caught in her shoulder length hair. It really was a tiara. What she guessed to be diamonds and rubies were arranged in a pretty - if ostentatious - design. She shook her head and set the tiara down. "That might come in handy the next time Daniel loses his gun," she said, doing her best to tamp down on her frustration. "Anything else valuable in there?" He stared at her for a few seconds, the playful grin slowly replaced by a frown. "What?" she asked.

"Nothing." He turned his back to her. "No." He turned back. "Do you have to do that?"

"Do what?"

"That." He gestured towards the tiara. She stared at him, confused as to what he was talking about. "Would it kill you to lighten up a bit and have some fun?"

"Fun?" she asked, confused.

"Yes, fun. You know, enjoying something, taking a moment to appreciate life, smelling the roses and all that," he ranted waving his hands.

"There aren't any roses here," she said, also getting to her feet.

He stared for a few seconds then shook his head and sighed. "Let's just go." He picked up the tiara and put it in its box before starting to gather up some of the other stuff.

She watched him for a second. "How is this supposed to be fun?" she asked, unable to resist.

"Carter?"

"Tell me. If I'm supposed to be having fun, what exactly in this room is supposed to be fun?" she demanded, letting her anger grow. "What part of the past two years was fun? Was it scavenging for food? Was it almost freezing to death last winter? Maybe it was when you got sick from that tainted meat and we thought you were going to die. Or was it learning that we're hunted by the SGC as well as a good chunk of the galaxy. Or maybe it was learning that all this was for nothing and that we became wanted criminals just because we were too goddamn impatient and too caught up in our own sense of importance."

"Ok, so maybe going rogue wasn't the smartest idea I've ever had," he said. "But unless you've gotten really good at predicting solar flares all we can do is live in the present. And that's a hell of a lot easier to do when you're not obsessing about the past."

"I don't obsess," she protested.

"You don't?" he challenged. "This is the first time you've left home since Jacob died. You don't have your lab to hide in, so you spend your entire day puttering around the cabin. And don't deny it. I've noticed, Teal'c's noticed, hell even Daniel's noticed. Why else do you think he's developed this sudden fixation with learning to cook? It gives him something to do while he hangs around all day keeping an eye on you." He stopped and stared at her for a second while she remained silent, slightly shocked by his words. "I'm gonna start taking this stuff to the rings."

He held the box out to her. "Take it. It's yours," he said when she did as he bade. "Wear it, sell it. I don't care. You can even leave it here to be a housewarming gift for the next tenants." He gathered up an armful of stuff and carried it out of the room, leaving Sam alone. She looked down at the box in her hands, his words washing over her.

'Would it kill you to lighten up a bit and have some fun?'

She tried to remember the last time she'd done something just for the hell of it. She didn't have her bike, not that they'd have gas for it anyway. And she certainly didn't have her lab. Her DVD collection and TV were behind on Earth, as was her stash of trashy novels. And there was always so much to do around the cabin. Things to fix or make. She'd never realized how much of an infrastructure they'd taken for granted until it was gone. How inconvenient and distasteful she found their outhouse and what a pain in the ass it was to have to dispose of their own trash.

When exactly was she supposed to have time to have fun? And how could she justify wasting any of their limited resources on something so trivial?

"I thought you were in a hurry," he said, returning, his arms empty. "This'll go a whole lost faster if we both do it." He scooped up more of the cache and left the room.

Sam sighed and shook her head, clearing her thoughts. Carefully tucking the box under her arm, she turned her attention to the stash. Shucking her jacket, she filled it with the zats and stun grenades, then followed in Jack's footsteps, carrying her burden towards the rings.

He was right, they were on a mission and the mission was more important than her feelings.

/\/\/\/\/\

Daniel slowly walked under the archway and stared at his surroundings. The temple was huge, far larger than he'd imagined, and in immaculate condition. "I am reminded of Lord Yu's holdings," Bra'tac said.

"You have seen them?" Sho'nac asked.

"Once," Bra'tac replied. "Many years ago. Apophis attempted to capture one of his palaces."

"Makes sense," Daniel said. "Especially given Yu's preference towards the Chinese culture." He stepped forward and gently touched the branches of one of the small trees growing in the courtyard. "This place doesn't feel very goa'uldish though."

"It does not," Teal'c agreed. "In fact, it feels like no place that I have ever been."

"This is holy ground," Daniel muttered, walking slowly across the courtyard.

"It is indeed," Bra'tac agreed. "It is Kheb."

"I believe that you are correct," Teal'c said.

"Then the child must be here," Sho'nac said.

"Yes, he is."

Daniel spun, not believing that he was hearing what he thought he was hearing. "Shau'ri," he whispered, barely noticing the two Jaffa that stood at her side.

Daniel felt Teal'c and Bra'tac tense, the two of them closing ranks and stepping between Sho'nac and Amaunet. "I am Amaunet," she said, staring at Daniel. "That name belongs to the shell that is my host."

Daniel shook his head. "Something of the host survives," he said. "We've seen it. Shau'ri, I know you're in there and I know you can hear me-"

"Silence!" Amaunet yelled as she raised her left hand, the ribbon weapon glinting dully in the sun. Her two guards raised and armed their weapons.

"SHAU'RI!" Daniel stepped forward, ignoring the two staff weapons that were pointed at him. "I know you're in there. I spoke to you just a year ago, right before the baby was born."

"I played you for a fool. You spoke to me," Amaunet insisted, her eyes glowing angrily.

Daniel shook his head. "No. I spoke to my wife."

"I witnessed this conversation and Daniel Jackson spoke to no goa'uld," Teal'c said.

"You are a fool, Jaffa," she snarled. "As is the one who came before you." She glared at Bra'tac.

"You are the fool if you believe that you can harm someone here," a calm voice said.

Not recognizing the voice, Daniel spun, staring in amazement at a man standing in the threshold of the temple. He looked to be of Asian descent and was dressed in gold and crimson robes that reminded Daniel of a monk's attire.

He barely blinked an eye as the two Jaffa accompanying Shau'ri turned their attention to him. "Your weapons will not function," he said. "And your violent ways are not welcome."

"Umm, we didn't come to be violent," Daniel said.

"We came seeking a child," Sho'nac said.

"They seek my son," Amaunet said.

"No," Daniel said. "Not HER son. The biological child of her host."

The monk studied the group, slowly looking each of them in the eye. "Do you all seek the
child?"

"Yes," Bra'tac said. "Some for better reasons than others." He looked pointedly towards Amaunet.

"Why do YOU seek the child?" the monk asked Daniel.

"Umm…" He paused, trying to find a reason that sounded good. Listening to his instinct, he spoke the truth. "If the child is what we think he is, he's too dangerous for them to have."

"And you believe that you are better to care for him?" he asked.

"Better than them." The monk stared at him.

"She wishes to possess the child," Sho'nac said. "She will use him and his knowledge to further her own ambitions."

"He is my son!" Amaunet said loudly.

The monk turned his attention to her. "He is a being that only your host could create. And you are aware of what he is…of what he can be."

"She is," Sho'nac said. She stepped forward, placing herself between Amaunet and the monk. "She told me herself."

"Hataka!" Amaunet roared, raising her left hand again, this time the center stone flared into life.

"NO!" Daniel screamed, hearing Teal'c do the same. Daniel threw himself at Shau'ri even as he barely understood why. Searing pain washed over him as he fell on top of her, both of them falling to the ground.

He heard an agonizing scream and realized - just before he passed out - that it was coming from him.

/\/\/\/\/\

Jack checked the readings and dropped the ship out of hyperspace, indulging himself in taking a moment to appreciate the majesty of Saturn's rings as they flew by.

He activated the cloak and checked the autopilot, insuring that they were on a course to Earth before he got up, going back to the cargo area.

Sam was asleep in one of the sleeping bags. His sleeping bag. Hers was in a pile in the corner, bits of down peeking out from the torn and ruined nylon.

Jack had given her first watch, sleeping for a little bit before relieving her about six hours ago. As near as Jack could tell, she'd been asleep ever since. She was curled up on her side, Gizmo nestled next to her belly. Jack reached out to shake Sam awake, quickly pulling his hand back when the kitten opened her eyes, hissing angrily.

"Scratch me and we'll find out if you really have nine lives," he threatened softly. "Carter," he said louder, keeping his hand clear.

Sam blinked, her eyes slowly opening. "Colonel?"

"We're just passing Saturn," he told her, getting to his feet.

She sat up and stretched before following him to the peltac. "We're cloaked?"

"Yep. As soon as we dropped out of hyperspace." She nodded and sat down, pressing some buttons to call up the sensors. "I never got around to asking, but you do have a plan?"

"Mmhm," she replied, not taking her eyes off the display. Through the view screen he watched as they flew past the giant crimson shape of Mars and continued towards the tiny blue and green orb that was Earth.

"A plan," he said. "Hopefully something a bit more in depth than just dropping this baby at the SGC's front gate."

"Yes, I have a plan," she said, taking the yoke and turning off the autopilot.

"Care to share?"

"We still don't know how widespread the invasion is. It could be a few dozen or it could be a few hundred."

"I'm betting on the latter."

"And," she continued, ignoring his interruption. "If that team really was taking goa'uld back to Earth, then it's logical to assume that most - if not all - of the SGC has been compromised."

"Spock would be proud."

"So it's also logical to assume that at least some of the Joint Chiefs, the White House and Area 51 have also been possessed."

"Which happens to be the very same folks we'd be asking for help," he said, unable to resist poking a hole in her story.

"I don't think it's very likely that the general public has been exposed though," she continued, still not looking at him. "There's no way they'd be able to cover that up." She maneuvered the ship around the moon and Jack craned his neck, dismissing the thought of asking her to detour a little. It'd be kinda cool to see if Armstrong's footprints were still there.

"Your plan," he pressed, losing patience with the back-story.

"If we go after the general personnel, we'll be stopped and probably killed or implanted within a day." She turned to look at him. "So we start at the top. Presume that anyone of any rank has been compromised and free them first. We then use them - and their authority - to help us with the others."

He nodded. "And you realize that the people you're going after are probably the most guarded on the planet? Even more so if they're snakeheads."

"I know."

"So you're just going to ask them to lay down in the MRI so that we can confirm that they're hosting some illegal aliens."

She smiled. "No. We're going to stop by Area 51 and grab all of Machello's PTD's. Then we're going to go goa'uld hunting. I'm thinking to start with the Joint Chiefs first simply because they are the most likely to know how far the invasion goes."

Jack sighed, cringing inwardly at the mention of Machello's little goa'uld killers. Whatever they were, they were certainly effective. And he had the first hand knowledge to prove it. But they weren't perfect. "What if they're not blended?" he asked. "We can't have them going bug nuts like Daniel did."

"You and I both have the cure in our blood - Jolinar and Ba'al's protein markers. If the psychosis proceeds at the same pace as Daniel's, we'll have a few days to treat any collateral damage," she said calmly.

Jack nodded, not quite sure how he felt about her calling people going insane 'collateral damage.' "I'm presuming that we're going to use the teltac to get from Nevada to DC?"

Sam nodded. "And the rings and the cloaks. We're going to fly to Nellis, ring down somewhere close by, or maybe land in the desert. We then use the cloaks to get into Area 51, grab all the PTD's they have and leave."

She turned her attention back to flying and Jack stared out the window, enjoying the novelty of entering the atmosphere. "I can't say that I really like your plan." He sensed her tensing, her fingers tightening on the yoke. "But it's better than the one I have," he said. "What time is it?"

She shook her head. "I'm not sure. Nighttime," she said as they got close enough to see lights.

Using the brilliant lights of the Strip to guide them, Sam steered the craft towards the north end of Vegas. "Watch out for aircraft," he warned.

"I'm using the sensors," she replied. "But there's not much around."

"Maybe it's later than we think it is."

"Could be," she agreed. She slowly flew around the bases, finally landing the ship inside the fence but as far from the buildings as possible. "The personal cloaks will work the same way as the ship's. They bend light around us and make us invisible to the naked eye. But we can still be seen by infrared. We still have mass and can cast a shadow if the light hits it right."

"Right," he said, getting to his feet. He remembered all too well the limitations of the cloak. He'd exploited them when Sam and Teal'c had invaded Ba'al's palace seeking to rescue him from the system lord. "You do know where they keep this stuff?" he asked as they collected their gear from the cargo area.

"I know where it was two years ago," she said, fastening her vest. "Remember, I spent a week escorting the stuff from the SGC and consulting on the lab here?"

"Right," he said, remembering what she was talking about.

"I doubt they've moved it. They're big on stability around here. And as long as something's behind closed doors, no one knows it's there."

Jack picked up two zats and handed her one. This was one aspect of the mission that they'd both agreed on, their reluctance to spill innocent blood. Sam took the zat and slid it into her holster before bending down to pick up Gizmo. As he watched, she placed the kitten in a large vest pocket. "You're bringing the cat?"

"She may not stop at the sleeping bag next time," Sam said. Much to Jack's surprise the kitten settled down and didn't try to escape. She merely peeked her head out of the pocket, her green eyes watching Jack intently.

"How many PTD's are there?" he asked.

"We brought back forty," she answered. "We used one to free you and another to figure out what was wrong with Daniel. Presuming that they haven't gone gaga experimenting on them, there should be over thirty-five. If we're really lucky, all thirty-eight will be untouched."

"So we can free up to three hundred and eighty."

"In a perfect world. Chances are we'll have to waste a few on our first targets." He nodded. "The most important thing is not to touch them. They can be activated in two ways, either by moving them over the data slate or by physical contact, which is how I activated the one on the ship. We don't want them going off too early."

"Premature activation is usually a bad thing," he said, hiding a grin when she rolled her eyes.

Their preparations complete, they moved towards the door. Jack stopped her just before the threshold. "If something happens, the mission comes first."

"Colonel?"

"Our objective is to free Earth, and that objective is bigger than either one of us," he said seriously.

"Agreed."

"Ok. Let's go grab some FTD's." She glared at him. "It's better than STD's," he quipped, opening the door as he activated his cloak

"Yeah, but one sometimes leads right to the other," she said, following his disembodied voice as he sealed the door.

Jack, paused for a second, resisting the urge to bend down and actually touch the planet of his birth. Two years. It'd been two years since he'd last breathed this air and looked into this sky. "Sir?" he heard her ask, her voice seeming to come from nowhere.

"Where are we going?" he asked, dismissing his sentimentality.

"Building C," she instructed.

He reached out, fumbling to grab her hand. "Let's not get lost," he requested.

Hand in hand, they made their way towards building C, finally separating when they reached the exterior door. "How do we get in?" he asked, his voice barely above a
whisper.

"Even if we had keycards, I'm sure they've long since been deactivated."

"More than likely," he agreed.

"And you can't really pick an electronic lock."

"Carter…"

"But a base's security is only as good as its least diligent person." She grabbed his sleeve and dragged him around the corner. "There," she said. Jack looked down and saw a small open window. It was tiny, just a couple of feet wide and was just inches from the dirt.

"How the hell did you know this was here?"

"The last time we were here I heard a couple of the guards complaining about one of the scientists; really brilliant but also loud and arrogant. He'd insist on having his fresh air. The base commander tried to control him but finally had to admit that as long as the base was secure, the window was secure."

"Logical if stupid."

"Their stupidity will get us in the building," she said. "A hell of a lot faster than waiting for someone to open the door."

He heard a rustling sound and saw the sparse grass move slightly as he guessed that she laid down, positioning herself to shimmy in the window. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the window open.

Although Groom Lake was in the middle of the desert, there were some attempts to grow grass in and around the buildings, not only for aesthetic purposes but practical as well. Grass wasn't dusty. And less dust meant less potential damage to any sensitive electronic equipment inside.

Hearing her drop down inside, Jack followed, grunting slightly as he slid through the narrow window. He landed on top of a desk, his feet slipping a bit on some papers that were lying there. More clumsily than he would have liked, he climbed off the desk, scanning the room for Sam. "Carter?"

"Here," he heard from just behind him. He watched the drawers of the desk open and close, things in it moving of their own accord.

"What are you looking for?"

"Something faster than picking the lock," she said. "Here we go." She held up a pass card. "Keycards for the crypt can never leave the base."

"The crypt?" he asked.

"Geek humor. Third door down on the right."

"Lead the way," he invited, stepping back to -hopefully - stay out of her way. That was another weakness of the cloaks. The same technology that kept them invisible from the rest of the world also kept them invisible from each other.

He heard her footsteps move towards the door and then it opened and Jack followed her out into the hall. They made their way towards the crypt and Jack was grateful for the late hour. As near as he could determine, the building was empty, a fact that made their mission a bit easier. Especially since the keycard wasn't affected by the cloak and seemed to float in mid air. He made a note to experiment with that. Maybe if she tucked it into her pocket it'd be invisible.

She stopped outside an armored door. "The crypt?" he asked needlessly.

"The crypt," she answered. The card floated up and swept through the reader. Jack held his breath until he heard the confirming beep and saw the LED light switch from red to green.

The door opened and he followed Sam inside. The crypt wasn't as large as he'd expected, perhaps twenty feet square and the walls were lined with shelves. He slowly walked around the room, actually recognizing some of it items as things he and his team had recovered. "We brought back a lot of crap, didn't we?" he asked.

"Yep, and it looks like they've been making up for lost time too. This is twice what I remember."

"Where are the PTD's?" he asked.

"Here." A drawer marked with a large biohazard warning sign slid open and Jack moved to her side. "This is going to be easier than I thought," she said, picking up a sealed plastic box. Jack could see a PTD suspended inside, little plastic pegs securing the item and keeping it from moving around. "We should be able to transport these safely."

Jack pulled his pack off his back and started taking the devices from her, cramming them into the bag. It took them only a few minutes to gather all of Machello's devices. "They haven't experimented," she said. "We have thirty-eight."

"Makes sense," he said. "If the people calling the shots are blended the last thing they want is us figuring out how to unblend them."

"Is there anything else in here that-" She broke off as a loud alarm began to blare.
"Crap."

"We gotta go, now," Jack said, snapping the pack shut. The two of them moved towards the door and hurried down the hall, not even trying to disguise their passage. They passed the office and Jack heard Sam stop. "To hell with the window," he said.

"Sir?"

"The door, now."

They hurried down the hall, making their way towards the main exit door. "It's probably locked."

"Even the military has to submit to fire regs," he said. He pushed the door open, wincing as another alarm added to the first one. If they didn't know where they were before, they knew now.

They dashed across the open space, Jack forgoing any attempt to stay together. They didn't have time for that. They needed to get to the ship and the relative safety it provided. Jack heard several loud cries and the sharp retort of gunfire.

Jack glanced over his shoulder, cursing loudly at the sight of a half dozen guards running towards them. "Damnit. Move it!" Jack yelled, trying to run faster. The heavy pack slowed him down and he longed to shed its weight, but didn't dare. They needed every one of the PTD's and he couldn't afford for any of their targets to get suspicious. He could see Carter running ahead of him, the only visible cue small tufts of dirt and grass stirred up by her boots. The teltac was less than a hundred yards away.

He heard more men join the first and more gunfire echoed over their heads. Some of it hit the ground at his feet and he zigged to the left. He heard bullets zing off the teltac's hull and he instinctively ducked, the heavy bag throwing him off balance. He fell to the ground, landing heavily and awkwardly. His knee twisted and he groaned, immediately trying to get back to his feet. He looked towards the ship and saw the door open, the interior of the teltac seeming to float above the ground. "Colonel!" he heard Sam yell.
Jack looked behind him, then back at the teltac. The guards could see the teltac, he watched them slow and take aim at it, and by extension, her.

"GO!" Jack yelled, not caring that he was giving away his position.

"COLONEL!"

"Damnit Carter, get the hell out of here. NOW!"

He saw some of the guards move towards him, clearly hearing his voice. Behind them another guard appeared, a missile launcher on his shoulder. Reacting in a fraction of a second, Jack ripped off his cloak, revealing himself to the guards. "Complete the mission, that's an order," he yelled, struggling to his feet, his hands in the air.

He held himself steady, really hoping that the men had a 'capture first, kill second' order. Jack glanced over his shoulder at the ship, sighing with relief when he saw the door shimmer into invisibility. In just seconds, the engines roared into life and Jack staggered against the air blast as the teltac lifted off, hopefully making a clean get away.

"FREEZE!" the guards yelled, aiming their rifles at him.

"I'm frozen," he said. "I'm frozen." Jack took a breath, struggling to calm his racing heart. "So, any of you guys know the name of a good pizza place?"

/\/\/\/\/\

Part Two

Feedback:sky_diver119@yahoo.com

HOME