~Tangled Web~

Daniel shifted the bulky artifact cataloge from one arm to another and pushed his glasses further back on his face. Biting down his annoyance at being dragged from the base MRI room where he'd been helping to scan the interior of a sealed clay urn SG-12 had recovered, he quickened his pace towards the SGC briefing room and whatever Jack claimed 'urgently' needed his attention. The summons had been brusque, and while his pre-ascension recollection of what passed for Jack's normal behavior wasn't quite there yet, he clearly recognized frustration in the man's tone.

Voices drifted out from the briefing room as the SF at the entrance moved aside to let him pass.

"Thank you for joining us, Doctor Jackson." General Hammond's measured tone pulled Daniel into the room, a knot of suspicion in his chest as he quickly took in the faces of the people seated around the table. Looking to where Sam and Teal'c usually sat, he frowned at their absence before his gaze settled on a Tok'ra operative seated at the far end.

"Thank you, sir," he offered Hammond as he slid into his seat across the table from a scowling Jack.

"You remember Sina of the Tok'ra?"

"Of course." Daniel could hardly forget her. Only weeks earlier she had been instrumental in providing himself and Jonas Quin with the means to move undetected around Anubis's ship while deciphering its computer codes. The mission to locate the vessel's crystal power core and relay the coordinates back to Jack and Sam had been Daniel's hasty re-orientation back into his life as part of SG-1. Thinking back, it probably wasn't the best idea at the time given his memory issues and the huge risk associated with infiltrating the ship. However, stopping Anubis and destroying the weapon hinged on Daniel's ability to translate the Ancient text. All doubt had to be cast away.

"Good. The Tok'ra have some information they felt you should be made aware of."

"Oh, you're gonna love this," Jack grumbled sarcastically, peering at Daniel through a gap in his fingers. "Really. Pure Tok'ra gold."

Daniel opened his mouth to comment but snapped it shut as Sina's gravely tone filled the air. "We recently came into possession of an individual of some interest to both the SGC and the alliance," she stated quickly, her gaze resting on Jack for a brief moment before sliding across to Daniel.

"Okay." Daniel brows twitched. "When you say possession-"

"The individual in question," Sina interrupted, lacing her hands together on the table top, "is a Tau'ri child of approximately four of your human years in age."

"Tau'ri?" Daniel asked uncertainly. "Okay. Not to sound cruel about the plight of a child here, but the galaxy is populated with the descendants of Earth. I'm not quite sure how the discovery of one human child would be that much of a surprise."

"In itself, the child is of little consequence, but it is the identity of the child and the manner in which he was recovered that has caused us great concern."

"I don't see-"

"Daniel?" Jack dropped his hands to the table and looked at him with his head cocked, jaw twitching, "Why don't you let the lady continue."

Daniel shrugged waved his hand at her to carry on, "Please."

"Approximately six days ago, one of our operatives recovered some information that led to the discovery of carefully concealed laboratory. Upon initial investigation, we believed it to be Goa'uld. However, upon breaching the buildings security protocols, at the cost of several Tok'ra lives, we discovered the lab belonged to a race you are somewhat familiar with. The Azanti."

"Azanti?" Daniel pursed his lips and shook his head. "Nope, never heard of them, though that doesn't mean much at the moment."

"Four years ago," Jack offered quietly, tugging at his left ear, a sign Daniel had come to recognize as a show of frustration, "they attacked the SGC and created a foothold situation. We didn't know their identity at the time."

"Foothold." Daniel rolled the word around in his mind, running over the myriad of briefing reports he'd read in an effort to re-familiarize himself with past missions. "The-the," he stuttered, waggling a finger at his chest, "the mimic device guys?"

"The very ones, Doctor Jackson." Sina pushed away from the briefing table and strode over to gaze down on the Stargate. "The Azanti are a feudal race that roams the galaxy in generational ships. Very little is known of their social structure but they are xenophobic. The attack on your world was out of character."

"Based on what you know of them."

"Yes."

Daniel knew his confused expression betrayed an inner calmness he was trying desperately to hold on to. "You'll have to excuse me," he said hesitantly. "My memory is still…"

"Holey?" Jack offered.

"Thank you, Jack, but I was going to say 'recovering'. If I'm recalling events correctly, we approached the Tok'ra after the foothold situation was over and asked them for any information about the aliens, but you had none."

Sina turned away from the window and fixed her gaze on Daniel, a twitch of a smile on her lips. "You are correct. The xenophobic nature of the Azanti kept them on the fringes of our intelligence gathering efforts, so their attack against Earth came as a surprise. With the information you were able to provide us as part of the Tau'ri/Tok'ra alliance, we assumed we were looking at a new power marking its place in the galaxy. However, there were no further sightings of the Azanti, and other more urgent matter arose that required our attention."

"They were swept under the mat."

"If by swept under the mat, you mean, to have forgotten the matter, then no, we had not, but the Tok'ra suffered much upheaval in the year you were absent, Doctor Jackson-"

"I get it," he murmured, dismissing the comment with a small wave of his hand. He didn't need yet another reminder of what he'd missed in the last year. "So? Now what? You suddenly discover an Azanti outpost and… what?"

Sina clasped her hands behind her back and turned away from the table again, looking out over the gate room. "The Azanti came to our notice several months ago when they attempted to overthrow a mining facility belonging to a minor System Lord called Mot."

"Know him!" Jack smacked the top of the table and grinned broadly, eyes gloated in victory. "Ding dong!"

"You killed him?"

"Love to take the credit, but it was one of the locals. Actually," Jack paused with a finger in the air, "it wasn't that long ago. You, ah, may not have reached that particular mission report yet."

"No," Daniel coolly replied, "obviously not."

"As I was saying," Sina interjected, turning away from the window and taking up her seat at the table. "When the Azanti attempted to overthrow the facility, Mot had his Ha'tak in orbit and was able to repel the invasion."

"And then we killed him."

"Colonel!" Hammond cautioned with a pointed stare at his 2IC.

"Sorry, sir. You know me and snake killing." Jack crossed his fingers and waved them stiffly at the general. "We're like that."

Sina signalled her intent to continue with a soft cough, "An operative placed in Mot's inner circle was able to provide us with the address the Azanti used to escape from the planet. Unfortunately, another more pressing matter required our attention, and once again we had to forestall our attempts at tracking them down."

"I'm sorry." Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose, eyes close in thought. "I seem to have lost the thread of all of this. You get a lead on these Azanti, and then you call it off? For a rather clandestine organization you don't seem to take the whole intelligence gathering objective very seriously."

"Now, see!" Jack smiled broadly and reclining, laced his fingers behind his head. "I've been saying this for years and finally someone sees my point. It's a wonder the Tok'ra ever actually finish a mission with the amount of sidestepping that goes on."

"That's not quite what I-"

"Aht! Daniel!" Jack tutted, eyes wide and brows arched high. "What have I always said?"

"Not a clue."

"When you're right, you're right. Trust me on this."

"The Tok'ra, Colonel, have had more of our missions jeopardized by the reckless actions of the Tau'ri then in the thousands of years we have been fighting the Goa'uld. Had your race not learned to operate the Chappa'ai, we may well have succeeded in eliminating more of the higher echelon System Lords and freeing their slaves."

"Oh," Jack drawled out as he leaned forward in his chair and rested his hands, fingers splayed, on the table. "That's right. Blame the new kids on the block when they succeeded where you didn't, rather then actually admit you couldn't get the job done in the first place."

"I think we've gone a little off track here, people," Hammond suggested, tossing Jack yet another warning stare. "Perhaps we'd be better served getting to the heart of the problem."

Lips curled in a smug smile, Jack shuffled back in his seat. "Yes, the heart of the problem," he said turning to Sina. "This should be interesting."

Not rising to Jack's comment, Sina continued, "Our operatives were able to gain entry into the Azanti laboratory, but there was little of value remaining. We assume they knew their location had been discovered and abandoned the facility, taking most of their equipment with them."

"Except for the kid," Jack added.

"Yes, Colonel. The boy was found in a bio chamber. Had we not removed him, I am unsure as to how long he would have survived. The chamber's power supply was independent to that of the laboratory and was already severely depleted."

"Wait." Daniel held up a finger, furrowing his brow questioningly. "Bio chamber? Is that something like a stasis chamber, and if the power was nearly depleted wouldn't mean that he'd been in there for quite some time?"

"The technology the chamber was created from appears to be a mixture of Goa'uld and Azanti. At first glance we thought the device acted as a stasis chamber but when the identity of the individual was confirmed, we concluded that it was more likely an advanced form of maturation chamber."

"Right," Daniel said, trying to make sense of the situation, suddenly aware that the focus of the room had turned in on him. "I guess this is the part where you tell me that the child in the chamber is a clone of me, right?"

Jack stiffened and sat upright in his chair, brows rising in surprise. "How did you figure that?"

"Oh, I don't know," Daniel waved his hands in the air casually and winced slightly at the first stabbings of a tension headache starting up. "The whole skirting around the subject, the furtive looks you're all giving me and the fact that I remember that crazy stuff like this happens all the time here."

"All the time? I wouldn't say all the time."

"Jack."

"Some of the time would…be…a…" Jack coughed at the pointed stare Hammond gave him. "I'll just let our guest continue, shall I?"

"That would be good, Colonel," Hammond warned with a sternness that betrayed his slightly amused expression.

Sina, a slight smile tugging at her lips, pressed her palms flat on the table top and continued, "You are correct, Doctor Jackson. We were able to revive the child before the chamber's power supply failed. A DNA profile later confirmed his identity."

"Curious. The Tok'ra have my DNA profile on record? I don't recall that ever being part of any agreement we brokered. Of course," Daniel sat forward in his chair and looked at Sina over the top of his glasses, "my memory still has some-"

"Holes."

"Jack!" Daniel snapped angrily.

"Just helping."

"Well, don't. Where was I? Yes, since when did the Tok'ra have my DNA on record?"

Sina sat silently, her face impassive as the focus of the room shifted towards her. "This would be a question that Selmac would be best qualified to answer."

"There ya go!" Jack slapped the top of the table and waved a finger in her face. "Passing the buck," he hissed and thrust his hand in the air. "Come on, hands up who knew the Tok'ra had it in them to fob us off? Show of hands here folks."

"Colonel!" Hammond pushed his chair back and started to rise. "One more outburst and you'll be removed from this briefing."

"Sir," Jack pleaded with a roll of the eyes, "It's a valid question and this wouldn't be the first time we've caught the Tok'ra in a lie."

"I am not lying to you Colonel," Sina interjected. "I am simply unaware of how the Tok'ra gained such information. It is possible we obtained your DNA profiles prior to the formation of our alliance."

"Sure. Damn convenient."

"Err, excuse me," Daniel turned in his chair to face Sina directly. "I hate to make this conversation about me, considering that it already is… in a way… I guess, but if you've already determined that the child is me, regardless of the source of your information, where is he? I mean, you can't have come all this way just to tell me there's another…" Daniel coughed lightly for effect, "… version of me running around the galaxy."

"Smaller version, Daniel… smaller."

"Whatever!" Daniel snapped back. Any reserves of good-nature he had, had been stripped away by Jack's constant snarky remarks and a distinct lack of any real information from the Tok'ra. "Just tell me where the boy is… please."

"He is being cared for in a remote Tok'ra facility. His condition precluded us from taking him to our current base until we could fully determine what threat he posed to our population."

"Okay, hmm," Daniel hummed softly, "I'll bite. How can a clone possibly be a threat? You've already ascertained his identity, so if he's fully human, which he obviously is, then how can he pose a threat to anyone?"

"He is human, Doctor Jackson, but he is also much more." Sina shifted uneasily in her seat. An action which just heightened Daniel's growing sense of uneasiness. Flicking his gaze in Jack's direction, he could tell his friend was similarly alarmed. "Once he was released from the bio chamber we detected the presence of a symbiote."

Daniel stiffened, his breath suddenly catching in throat as his stomach flipped sickeningly. "A-a Goa'uld? You're telling me they implanted him with a Goa'uld?" Across the table, Jack swore, and Daniel could already feel waves of disgust radiating from the General. "Why? Why would they do that?"

"I understand your reaction, Doctor Jackson," Sina offered in a sympathetic tone.

"No. No, I really don't think you do."

"The Tok'ra do not engage in the blending of minors. Just the idea both disgusts and repulses us, but I can not speak for the Goa'uld themselves. In a time of crisis it would not be beneath them-"

"Hold up there, just a moment." Jack raised a hand in the air for silence. "This isn't the Goa'uld we're talking about here. I thought these Anty guy's were the ones holding the kid… err, small Daniel." Jack threw a winced apology at Daniel as the words slipped out.

"The Azanti, yes, Colonel. The DNA study of the child detected several anomalies that our own scientists were unable to explain. Added to this, we noted that he was suffering from cellular degradation, probably a result of a less than perfect cloning technique. We can only assume that if the Azanti were the ones who created this child, they may have believed that introducing a Goa'uld symbiote, even an immature one, would possibly correct the problem."

"And you didn't…" Daniel palmed his eyes as the small measure of clinical detachment he'd tried to build up over his emotions slowly fell away. Reaching up to squeeze the bridge of his nose, he sifted through his memory for an image of himself at the same age, but mental doors seemed to slam all around him with ever effort he made. "You didn't detect the presence of the symbiote while he was in the chamber?"

"No. It wasn't until we powered down the bio chamber and brought the child out of hibernation that we were able to detect the symbiote. A subsequent medical scan and tissue biopsy of the infant Goa'uld has determined that it was most likely stolen from the tanks on Pangara."

"Do we want to know how you conducted this biopsy?" Jack's question threw Daniel off balance for a moment, and studying his friend's expression carefully, he knew that the coldness in his eyes betrayed a simmering anger.

"I don't believe the details are essential to this briefing," Sina replied flatly.

Jack spat a reply, "Oh! No! I just bet you don't."

"Colonel!" Hammond hissed and once again Jack held Sina's stare just long enough to let his words sink in. "Earth isn't in the habit of harassing its allies!"

"You have to admit-" Jack started but dropped the conversation as Hammond flicked his gaze towards the SF positioned at the door and then back at him. Catching the move, Jack pursed his lips and then smoothed them out into a smile, acknowledging the warning. "I think I've made my point."

"Abundantly so, Colonel."

"As I was saying," Sina continued, bewildered at the interchange between the two men, "we have been able to determine that the infant symbiote was taken from the Pangaran breeding tanks."

"Aren't the Pangaran symbiotes born without the genetic memory passed down by the spawning queen?" Daniel shuffled in his chair and twisted it around back towards Sina, blinking rapidly in thought. "Ageria right," he added, tapping a finger in the air absently as he tried to pull the information from his mind. "The report I read said that the Pangarans were using Ageria to spawn symbiotes which they used to produce Tretonin."

"You are correct, Doctor Jackson."

"How can you tell the symbiote came from Pangara? The report SG-1 gave said that anyone infested with one of these symbiotes becomes non-responsive with only enough neural activity to keep the body functioning. Are you telling me that… this child," Daniel's mouth twitched with the smallest of winces, "is basically brain dead?

Considering Daniel's comment briefly, Sina ducked her head and when she looked back up, the hardened expression she'd worn through the briefing was replaced with a sympathetic smile. "I am sorry, Doctor Jackson," she whispered softly in the host voice.

Daniel sat up straight in his chair and regarded her suspiciously. "You are?"

"I am Leyal. I sensed your distress over the boy and wanted to convey my sympathy to you. I apologize for Sina's lack of compassion in this situation but she…" Leyal's gaze dropped briefly as she dragged in a deep breath, letting it out with a sigh, "…she is not in the habit of openly displaying her emotion and the treatment of the boy by the Azanti has disturbed her greatly."

"As it has all of us," Hammond added.

"Yes, General, but the memories of Sina's previous hosts, all of whom were parents, has distracted her somewhat."

Daniel nodded and offered her a wry smile, "and she's been trying to detach herself emotionally."

"That is correct. I realize this must seem most unsympathetic but-"

"Huh!" Jack harrumphed, "Looked like typical Tok'ra attitude to me."

"Jack!' Daniel hissed angrily but Jack waved the comment away with a flick of his wrist as Leyal looked on, a small smile playing on her lips at the interplay between the two men.

"To get back to your question, Doctor Jackson, I can only tell you that the boy is showing the same level of awareness as the sentry on Pangara displayed when he was infiltrated by one of Ageria's symbiotes."

"So, nothing at all."

"It is our hope that if we can remove the symbiote, the boy may be able to be saved, but at this point, the procedure would most likely kill him."

"Christ!" Jack spat, resting his head in his hands. "This just doesn't make sense; how the heck did they get their hands one of those snaky bastards?"

"Are your allies in the habit of keeping you abreast of all their activities, Colonel?"

Whether it was the quick change back from Leyal to Sina, or Sina's pointed question, Jack blinked slowly, the muscles in his jaw sensing. "We're best buddies now," he ground out between clenched teeth. "Didn't we send you a memo? No? Nuts!"

"I think what the Colonel means," Hammond broke into the hotly escalating conversation, "is that given the nature of the Azanti attack on the SGC four years ago, we would have expected the Pangarans to have been overthrown completely."

"Trade?" Daniel offered hopefully even though he knew from what he could recall of the encounter that it probably wasn't likely.

"With the Antsies?" Jack scoffed, his head shooting up signalling his disbelief. "They suicided in the gate room when we blew their operation. They don't trade when they can just take."

"Indeed," Sina agreed with a curt nod. "It is more likely that the symbiote was obtained by more clandestine methods. For now, though, it really isn't a concern as to how the Azanti obtained the symbiote but more as to why they created a clone of Doctor Jackson in the first place."

"So, why? Why did the Azanti go to all this trouble to clone me? And better still, why me?"

"Of that, we are unsure." Sina steepled her hands, head tilted slightly to one side in thought. "We can only assume that they wished to find a better way to infiltrate the SGC in the future. It is our understanding that the Azanti are a very long lived species that rely on the accumulation of vastly superior technologies to enhance their own. They may have seen something of value on your world when they invaded which gave them reason to pursue cloning over their previous methods of disguise."

"Brainwashing? You're implying that they'd brainwash me… him, to just walk into the SGC posing as me?"

"You do not agree?"

"Just seems a little extreme." Daniel paused, chewing on his lip. "It would take them another 30 years or so before the clone would be mature and by then I'd be much older. Unless they've also got the technology to accelerate his growth."

The room fell into an uneasy quiet.

"They don't, do they?"

Breaking the silence after a few beats, Sina conceded, "We are unsure as to their motives, Doctor Jackson. A thorough search of the complex found no tangible information at all, and certainly nothing that related to the existence and purpose of the child. It could well be that the Azanti are involved in breeding examples of the races they come across and your clone is simply the first we've discovered. They may well have left it behind because of its biological flaws."

"It?" Jack asked.

Daniel cringed internally at the thought and moved to push away his emotional connections in favor of dispassion. "If my mini-me, for lack of calling him something else, was made four years ago, that would mean he was created soon after they tried to infiltrate the SGC?"

"Correct. Our hypothesis that the chamber was designed for maturation supports your assumption, Doctor Jackson. We can only assume that during the initial growth period, the Anazti scientists detected the cloning and cellular degradation problems and introduced the symbiote for its healing powers."

"Did it work? Was the symbiote at least able to repair any of the cellular damage?" Daniel asked.

"Unfortunately, no. Already, since separating the child from the chamber, we have noticed a sharp rise in the level of cellular degradation in all of his major organs."

Daniel lowered his head into his hands to hide the show of pain and distress on his face. "So, what now?" he mumbled through his hands. "What will happen to him now?"

"That, Doctor Jackson, is for you to decide."

To be continued…