All Sam's friends were gathered in the main foyer of the cargo ship. Sam however, was in the crystal room. She was programming the crystals to accept the new coordinates for the Memes solar system. "Dad, I'm done." She called over the radio.

"Alright, now get your sorry ass back here now." He said playfully.

Sam rolled her eyes as did Jack and Daniel. Martouf and Teal'c only cocked their heads to the side. Then they heard static followed by "yes dad" come over the radio.

Sam appeared by the entrance of the room, "the coordinates have been uploaded into the cargo ship's mainframe but I estimate that it will take about an hour maybe even more to get there."

"Good. Then perhaps we can talk?" Lantash's deep voice rung throughout the interior of the ship. All eyes turned to his sudden outburst. "Please, Major." He pleaded.

Sam looked at her CO, awaiting orders. He sat himself on the ground and glared up at Martouf. "I want her back by 8." He sounded like a scolding father whose daughter was just about to leave for her first date. It confused everyone in the room when Sam's reprimanding father was already present. Jacob only rolled his eyes. 'That's my job, colonel,' he thought.

Sam nodded her head and followed Lantash to the cargo bay. He closed the doors behind him and they began talking.

THE WHOLE STORY
"Martouf would want to talk about this to you but I am afraid that his emotions are getting the better of him at the moment."

"Oh. Is he okay?" She asked, worried.

"He is. But I am afraid that Martouf is much younger then my other hosts and the blade of emotion cuts him deep." He said almost nonchalantly. "I'm afraid that there are some pains that even a 2000 year old Tok'ra symbiote such as myself cannot heal."

"Oh. So what's wrong?" She asked concerned.

Lantash dropped his head. His hand rose to his mouth and he began to pace around the room. He was trying to find the words to explain something, but the words weren't forming.

"For as long as we have known each other, I have not spoken a word of how I met Jolinar's last host. I intend to tell you now. If you will let me explain." Lantash's deep voice echoed throughout the room. It was slightly menacing.

"Yes," she said weakly, "you can tell me anything. But why the privacy?"

"I fear Colonel O'Neill would not like what I am about to say." He said simply.

Sam sat down on the floor, intently looking at Lantash. After a moments hesitancy, Lantash scooted himself beside her. She felt a calming wave envelope her, and a jolt of something akin to electricity surge through her veins. It felt good.

"When I met Aurisa I thought she was a very beautiful women, but she was dying of what her people called Niteris. Your people would call it Cancer."

Sam's eyes widened. She felt an overwhelming rush of sympathy for her symbiote's former host. But still she allowed Lantash to continue.

"Her peoples world was under the tyrannical rule of Sobek. But they were very faithful to him. They begged him to save her life, and to reward their faithfulness, he gave them a mature goa'uld symbiote."

Sam's mouth dropped to the floor and looked at Martouf tugging on the hem of his clothes, not believing her ears. "They were going to turn her into a goa'uld host?"

Lantash gravely nodded his head, "yes. But not just any goa'uld, Sorden, Sobek's mate."

"What?" She asked a little bit infuriated.

"For her people, it was considered the highest honor. In those days, the Tok'ra were in great numbers and could afford to travel through the stargate much how your people do now, only in units of about 2 or 3. Selmak and I were dispatched to Memes to examine. I established myself as a Lord under Sobek, planning on killing him, while Selmak hid out among the local people.

"But Aurisa was dying quickly. Selmak stopped the ceremony of implantation before it happened and brought the symbiote to me and I was the one to kill her. Selmak convinced the people of Memes that the goa'uld were not gods and then they rose up against him, but Selmak was captured and tortured for his crimes."

"Oh, no." She looked at him in wide-eyed fear.

"When Selmak didn't yield to torture she had a device planted in her that made her reveal the name and location of the Tok'ra base. Which as you know, Sobek ordered me to destroy."

"but you couldn't."

"No, the Tok'ra are my people and I could not do it. He threatened to go down to the planet and kill Jolinar who was in need of a host at the time and in a very fragile state because the host that she was in prior to that time had died. But I could not do it."

At this point, Lantash grew conscious and shivered as if remembering a pained memory. "Back on Memes, Aurisa was very near death and her parents cursed me for killing the symbiote."

"So you let her become host to Jolinar." She said deep in thought.

"Yes," his voice broke, "But not right away." He paused. "Aurisa had followed me onto Sobek's mothership without my knowing about it and found Sobek before I did. I blew up the systems engines and as I made my way back to the teleporter rings, I found her dying on the floor of the ship. I took her back with me. She had a Zat'nikital with her which she used to save my life many times that day, so when we got off the ship, I decided to return the favour. From then on, we assumed that Sobek was dead because damaging the engines caused a chain reaction, that evidently ended in the ships explosion. But he must have escaped."

Lantash was breathing very deeply and trying to calm his nerves, but it wasn't working well. He successfully held back tears, but there was a sad demeanor that had befallen him like no other Sam had ever seen before. It was like Martouf was so shaken with emotion that even his symbiote couldn't control him completely.

"Lantash?"

"I am sorry, Major Carter." She was now talking to Martouf, "But looking at you, is like looking at her." Martouf began to cry. "Your hair is like the sand and eyes like the ocean. She was fearless and sometimes rash," Sam feigned a hurt look, "But I loved her all the same."

Sam felt a sudden change in the atmosphere of the room when he said those words. Sam's arm wrapped around Martouf and they swallowed in each other's embrace. They took firm grips of each others' arms and hoisted themselves up. But Martouf lifted his head to look into her eyes and leaned in. "Sam?"

She didn't get to respond before his lips met her's. It was soft at first but then Sam felt a soft tug at the small of her back pulling her closer to him. They were only soft kisses. They weren't passionate but to Sam and Martouf they were all they needed. They only broke away occasionally to breathe, but their eyes never opened. Her hands stayed by her side and his stayed at his side. They were slow. But neither felt the need to rush.

"Hey, Carter?" O'Neill called out but no one responded. Sam didn't even hear him. She was too focused on Martouf. "Carter." He said again, but still no response. He pulled out of an alcove and saw her and Martouf kissing.

Suddenly his stomach hit the floor. He left quietly and let the two do whatever it was they were doing.

"Colonel?" Asked Jacob, "Did you get them?"

The Colonel took off his sunglasses and walked towards the control panel. "They're busy." He said slightly irritated.

Everyone lifted their eyebrows and turned their heads to the side to get a better look at him, but no one said anything. All of them thinking that it was better to take him at his word instead of question him further. No one wanted to get in the way of an irritated Colonel O'Neill. People have often found that out the hard way.

"We're here." Came the low voice of Selmak.