Martouf POV

"I should tell you what I know, of how I came to be in the cell with Lantash and Kevin Elliot. For some reason I was kept in stasis, probably because Ren'al had not yet had time to perform the examination of my brain she pretended to want to, or because she wanted to wait until she had an opportunity were no one would pay attention. In any case, I woke up in a sarcophagus. Alone. So terribly alone." I take a moment to collect myself, as it still hurts to think about how horrible it was to wake up without Lantash in my head. He gives me a hug, and I feel better. "I was taken to Zipacna, and he bragged about finding me in a stasis chamber in the Tok'ra tunnels, and how he would make me tell him all the secrets of the Tok'ra, now when I had no symbiote to protect me."

"He tortured you?" Samantha looks at me with compassion.

I nod. "Yes, to the death, several times. He would have done so again, but during the last session, he was interrupted by a messenger from an ally of his, who were bringing an important prisoner. The Jaffa were told to put me in a different holding cell, so they had one free for the new prisoner, and they did. I ended up in the same holding cell as Lantash. I was weak and lost unconsciousness at first, but woke up when he spoke to me. When I heard who it was, I immediately volunteered of course. There was nothing, nothing I wanted more than to be his host again!"

"I can understand that. Even after being host to Jolinar for such a short time, I still missed her greatly, and mourned her, when she had died for me. I felt alone, despite having wished to be alone all the time she was in my head." Samantha shakes her head. "I cannot begin to understand how horrible it must be when it is your best friend, whom you have been together with always for many years."

"It was...terrible. More horrible than anything I had ever imagined. I did not want to live. I did not care what happened to me."

"So, you became Lantash's host again?"

"Yes. And I was ecstatically happy to be his host again." I sigh, feeling a little guilty because of Elliot. "He could not heal Kevin Elliot, but there was a good chance he could heal me. So I crawled over to him, and I became his host again."

"What about Lieutenant Elliot?"

"He died, unfortunately. He had been tortured so very badly, and Zipacna did not choose to revive him. At least I do not think so. He was removed from our cell while Lantash and I were healing, and we did not see him again. We tried to determine what had happened, later, when we had gotten out of the cell. I am sorry, Samantha, but I feel quite certain Kevin Elliot is dead. At least he will not suffer at the hands of the Goa'uld anymore."

Samantha nods. "I understand." She gives me a small smile. "While I am sad of his death, I am very grateful the two of you are alive, and well. How did you get out?"

"Lantash managed to heal me, quite quickly. We awoke, alone in the cell. For several days, we were left there, with guards arriving once a day, bringing water and dry bread. Then, eventually, Zipacna apparently decided he had time to interrogate us again, and we were taken to his throne room. He was quite pleased to learn he still had a Tok'ra prisoner, and that Lantash now was in me. After insulting us for a while, and mocking Lantash, he started torturing us, alternating between having Jaffa use a pain stick on us, and using his own hand device. I don't know how long it went on, but at some point I passed out."

I give Lantash control.

"When he had killed us, without getting any information, he apparently decided we were worth reviving for another round. In any case, some time later, we woke up in a sarcophagus."

"Oh, god, Lantash! That's terrible! I mean, not that he revived you, I'm happy about that. But he tortured you to death!" Samantha looks terrified.

"He did. The sarcophagus healed us, and I suppose I should be grateful for that, but I still hate the thing!"

I 'hug' Lantash, telling him he does not need to worry. I know it did not turn him into a Goa'uld, not even a little bit. He knows, but he still worries.

"He didn't throw you back in your cell?"

Lantash shakes our head. "No. I am sure that was the intention, but there were no Jaffa in the room when I woke up. I was surprised, but did not wait there to see when they would turn up. I hurried out of the room, and along a deserted corridor. I could hear noise from nearby, though. Sounds of battle, weapons fire, screams. I did not know what was happening, but Martouf and I decided it was probably safer to use the confusion to get away."

"Oh, you know, it may have been Imhotep, pretending to be a free Jaffa called K'tano, who was attacking. That fits the time. I know he attacked Zipacna then."

Lantash nods. "We were in luck. We could however not find a way out that was not blocked by attackers or by Zipacna's people, so we hid in the room of one of Zipacna's underlings. There we bathed and disguised ourselves as a Goa'uld, even stealing a hand device. We found - by sheer coincidence - a secret passage out, which we used. Outside, we stole a teltac and got away."

"That was lucky!"

"Very, but our luck did not last long. We were not even out of the atmosphere before deathgliders took off after us. We made it to hyperspace, but the teltac was badly damaged, and we soon found ourselves adrift. Unable to go anywhere, we could not escape when an alkesh soon approached, and hailed us. It was a minor Goa'uld, named Kholash. He had been an ally of Apophis's, just like Zipacna, and I pretended to be a minor Goa'uld that had been attacked on the way to offer my services to Zipacna. To my surprise, he believed me, and took me aboard, saying he was on his way to Zipacna, to help in the battle against the attackers there."

"But Zipacna would have recognized you, even in disguise. I'm assuming it was just different clothing you put on?"

"Yes, and I was not happy that I was again travelling back to Zipacna, but saying so would have been extremely suspicious. Before I came up with a plan, Zipacna contacted Kholash and told him he had won the battle against the traitorous free Jaffa that had attacked him, and he did not need the assistance, and Kholash was instead to go to contact Ba'al."

"Ba'al? Ah, yes. Zipacna is now working with Ba'al."

"He is, yes. I didn't know that then, but I didn't ask, of course. Kholash told me he would go directly to Ba'al, and that I could go by chaapa'ai from there to Zipacna, and I said that was fine. When we arrived at Ba'al's planet, I decided to offer my services to Ba'al instead, so I had an excuse not to go to Zipacna. I hoped I would be able to sneak away quickly, but Ba'al accepted my offer, and I was given a position. It soon turned out that I was to work with Kholash and a Goa'uld called Doura, and that we would be in charge of gathering information about the Tau'ri and infiltrating their world."

"What! We need to contact Stargate Command!"

"Wait. I have more to say first."

"Of course." Samantha hesitates. "Let's see, that was what... it must have been... around two months ago, right?"

"Yes. We spent about one month planning, and in that time I learned much. Kholash had worked closely with both Apophis and Zipacna, and had actually been involved with the making of zatarcs, though only peripherally. I learned that several Tok'ra had been compromised, as well as about ten Tau'ri, some of them at Stargate Command, and some in the government of your country. Samantha, you must not reveal my existence to Stargate Command. Not until we can expose all those involved. They would merely kill me, and probably you as well - and no one would learn of the conspiracy in time."

Samantha is looking at us with wide eyes. I can understand why she is shocked. We were shocked as well, when we learned of the size of this conspiracy.

After some time, she nods. "I understand. I won't contact Stargate Command - or anyone else. Unless you can think of anyone we can safely contact?"

I think it over. "Jacob, perhaps, but it must be done covertly. You cannot contact him directly about it, since that may seem suspicious. Next time he visits Earth, talk to him...or maybe only of he is outside of Stargate Command, going to visit his son Mark. That should be safe. He will understand not to tell anyone else."

Samantha nods. "I will wait and see when he comes to visit next time. In any case, we'll solve this, together. Do you have any idea who the ones here on Earth are? How we can expose them? Oh, and how were you able to get away? Could you just walk away?"

"I have the name of one of the contact persons in your government, as well as the name of one of the people he is working with. I have some information that may be used to determine one of their sources at Stargate Command. That is all. Regarding getting away... that was not so simple. About a month ago, one of the compromised Tok'ra arrived to report. He recognized me, and I was captured."

"Oh, god!" Samantha looks shocked, and Lantash takes her hand, squeezing it.

"Do not be concerned, Samantha. We survived and escaped, as you can see."

"You weren't tortured?" She looks at us as if she expects to see marks on us from torture - of course, Lantash would have healed those.

"We were, and we were revived in the sarcophagus... a number of times. However, this was shortly before we were all to go to the world of the Tau'ri, to infiltrate it, and Ba'al felt the mission was too important to postpone. Apparently, Ba'al is very interested in your world, Samantha, and in gaining control of it. It is...unfortunate, but for us it was lucky. In any case, Kholesh was told to just throw me in a holding cell for now, and then he could deliver me to Ba'al when they had placed the infiltrators on this planet."

"Wait - did you travel here in a mothership? Is one of those in orbit?"

"No, Kholash had been given command of a somewhat larger, special alkesh. It was made for stealth and speed, instead of as normal, just for bombing. Since it was meant for long term stealth missions, its interior had been changed to allow for several luxurious personal quarters, a sarcophagus room, a kitchen with a cook, and even a holding cell. Which was were I was put."

"Luxurious quarters and a cook?"

"Goa'uld do not like to be deprived during their missions."

Samantha grins. "Of course." She becomes serious again. "So how did you escape?"

"The alkesh travelled to the Tau'ri - something I didn't learn until later. Then, for more than a week, the alkesh just sat in orbit, presumably while they gathered information, and listened to your world's communication, in the hopes of learning anything useful."

Samantha snorts. "Yeah, I doubt they got much from that!"

"Perhaps not. In any case, suddenly the ship shook, and the light went out. I heard explosions, and sparks came from the installations and the door locking mechanism. The ship took a violent hit, and we were thrown against the wall, and lost consciousness. When we again woke up, we noticed the door had opened, probably since one of the explosions had taken out the locking mechanism. We did not hesitate, and hurried out of the holding cell. We found no one alive on the ship, but several dead, but I believe some must have escaped down to the planet. This planet. Another explosion hit the ship, and we realized we needed to get off the ship, since whomever had attacked, was still doing so. Most likely a rival Goa'uld. It is not an uncommon occurrence, and your world has become of interest to several. The ring transporters were not working, and there were no life-pods left, so we could not escape. The ship was now plunging through the atmosphere, and we had no way to escape. It was only a matter of time before we would be killed, we were sure of that. We decided to see if we could find some food, so we would not die hungry, at least, as it had been weeks since we got any food."

"How... how did you escape then?"

"Before we got to the kitchen, we realized a strong enough force field might protect us. There was a prototype, not yet installed in the cargo bay, and we hurried to find it, and activate it, around us. It was not a moment too soon, as the alkesh crashed into the ocean at that point. The force field held, but we got bumped a bit, and lost consciousness. When we woke up, the force field was still working, which was fortunate, as we were under water. There was little air left inside, so we needed to get out, even if we didn't know how deep we had sunk. We took some deep breaths, turned off the forcefield, and swam towards the big hole in the side of the alkesh. It turned out it had started sinking not too long ago, and it was only maybe 50 feet to the surface, and we made it."

Samantha has been squeezing our hand hard, and she relaxes some now. "I am so very relieved you got away safely!" She shakes her head. "It's horribly all of what happened to you! And on top of all that you crashed in the water? Out in the ocean, or what? Because we don't have any record of a crashed ship."

"I understand you call it the Pacific Ocean. The alkesh crashed... perhaps five miles from the coast. It was night, and very dark. We managed to swim to shore, then collapsed. We woke up when the sun rose, on a beach with sand and gravel. There were no people nearby, so I do not believe we were seen."

"Are there anything we can use to pinpoint the location? Cities, rivers, forests, mountains?"

Lantash and I think it over, both of us doing our best to remember the terrain we arrived in. "It is difficult. We were... confused, injured..." We think for another few moments. "We walked along the coast, in a southern direction...for perhaps five or six miles. The coast was high in many places, with many cliffs. We could see trees along the top of the coast, further in. We thought it was a forest, at least. The coast had...layers. At some point we reached a spit, with some cliffs also...and a cave. No, not a cave, as much as a kind of arch... We continued walking, the coast now turning towards the east. Eventually we reached the mouth of a river, and on the other side we could see a town. As it was day time, and we were dressed in rags and looked... rather worse for wear, as your father would say... we decided it was not a good idea to approach anyone."

"How big was the town?"

"I believe small for this world, at least from what Jacob has told me - and what I have seen. It was much much smaller than Colorado Springs. Less than a thousand, of that I feel sure. In any case, we remained on the opposite side of the river, and walked on. We soon passed under a bridge, with a road at the top. We decided to remain there, relatively concealed, until nightfall. When it had become dark, we entered the city, and stole some clothing. We had bathed in the river, and with the clean clothing, we were able to fit in better. However, we felt it was safest not to approach anyone still. We...ah, stole some food, as well as a knife, and left the town before sunrise. I think it was called Taholah."

"Taholah?" Samantha says. "Wait... let me just get a map, then we can see if we can find it."

She gets up and leaves the room, presumably in search of a map. Lantash and I lean back in the nice, soft couch, and relax. We have food in the stomach, we have bathed, we have dry, clean clothing, and we are in a warm - and for now, reasonably safe place. And we are with Samantha. We have wanted that for so long!