(Thank you Roeskva, MuseUrania, and Dinopoodle for the reviews.

I was planning on part 11 being about Freya, but while she's the last story, there is a lot more to do with the tunnels. Needed to stretch it a bit more. She'll be in the next part.)

Part 11, Communication Lost

"Good afternoon," was Malek's voice.

Daniel blinked, realizing he overslept. "Afternoon."

"You've been sleeping a lot."

"Nothing else to read, and Freya hasn't told her story yet." They had been trapped below for three months. The tunnels no longer shook, but messages confirmed that the Goa'uld were still above them. They had no way of knowing if the other little groups had been forced to collapse the tunnels or not. Daniel felt he had more control over his dreams than his life, so he slept.

Jack and Teal'c entered the room. Jack looked to Daniel. "Daniel, you're finally awake?"

"Yes."

Jack looked to Malek. "Mal."

Malek kept his eyes from glowing in irritation. For whatever reason, Jack had started calling him "Mal" a few weeks ago. He refused to respond to it.

Imagine how he feels, being trapped with all these Tok'ra, Amb thought. It'd be like if we were trapped with a bunch of Jacks.

That would be the end of my sanity.

"Let's see Sam," Jack suggested. "She's unhappy. Martouf is trying to cheer her up. Maybe we can help." He'd prefer to help her without the Tok'ra, but he knew Martouf wouldn't leave her side.

Daniel nodded and followed. They found Sam in one of the small rooms, watching Iasis, who was swimming in circles. They heard the end of what Martouf was saying. "-swim out her frustration."

"What's going on?" Jack asked.

"Iasis is upset," Sam answered.

"How can you tell?" Jack looked to the larva.

"Look how she's swimming."

Jack frowned, wishing he could see what she was seeing. "She circles all the time."

"These aren't playful loops."

"Iasis has become increasing upset since her last fish died," Martouf explained.

Tears fell as Sam shook her head. "I can't help her, and...I don't want our daughter born here."

"We still have four months."

"We can easily be down here that long. I-" She stopped when Iasis jumped in her lap and squealed. "Iasis, I love you too."

"Is Kel helping?"

"Jack, please, don't nickname my symbiote." Kela'an jolted to the nickname, and Sam didn't want to deal with an irritated jolting symbiote.

Iasis relaxed for a moment before squealing again.

"I'll get her food," Daniel offered as he went to the side of the room.

"You understand squeal now?" Jack asked. He looked to Teal'c, seeing the Jaffa was surprised as well, though few would notice.

"Only a few words."

Martouf grabbed some cloth and put it under Iasis. The symbiote could feed herself, but Sam took comfort in feeding her, and Iasis certainly wasn't going to reject the attention.

"What's it like to absorb food through skin?" Jack asked. "Can you taste it?"

Martouf looked up to him as Daniel gave Sam the food. "Lantash can taste it, but not really a taste. It's more identifying what it is. There is no pleasure in it."

"Another reason you guys take hosts."

Sam opened Iasis's food, finding mush inside. Normally, she's put it in the water with Iasis, but this time she rubbed some of it on the larva.

"Martouf, I was reading something Anise wrote, and I noticed your rank changed," Daniel said as he sat down. "You didn't mention being promoted."

Martouf looked up to him, and his expression seemed hesitant. "I...was not."

Daniel frowned. "Oh."

"What'd you do?" Jack asked, which earned him Teal'c's version of a look of disapproval.

"I'm having a daughter."

Jack frowned. "You got demoted because you wanted to be a father?"

"Yes."

"I remember when he was promoted," Sam said as she closed Iasis's food. The larva was relaxed, absorbing what was on her. "Well...it's Jolinar's memories."

Martouf gave a sad smile. "She and Rosha were very proud of me. That promotion took me fifty-six years. It took Lantash even longer." He saw Jack's frowning. "Lantash and I knew there would be consequences."

"You shouldn't be punished for having children."

"The laws are there for a reason. This is not a safe place to raise children, and we generally cannot have such close connections to those who are not Tok'ra." He paused briefly. "She is worth the demotion."

Feeling that Martouf preferred a change of topic, Daniel asked a question. "What are the Tok'ra going to do without the high council."

"Ren'al and Thoran are still part of the main group. By now, I am sure they have appointed new people to join them," Martouf replied.

"Temporarily," was Garshaw's voice as she entered the room. She didn't intend on being lost. "There are some Tok'ra who were on the high council before, but they had stepped down. I believe they would have been appointed." She looked to Jack, soon showing she heard more than just the last sentence. "It is not your place to question how we deal with the Tok'ra. You would not be pleased if we questioned how you disciplined those under your command."

Jack knew she was right, but he didn't agree with punishing someone on something so personal. He thought of his own son. Losing him was still painful, but he couldn't imagine being told he could never have him to begin with. "It seems so personal."

"With our way of life, the laws must be personal. Their punishment was light."

"Light?"

"They lost only one rank, they will be allowed to raise their child, and they did not have to spend any time in our brig."

Daniel saw that Martouf was uncomfortable with this conversation. "Jack, we can't argue their way with this."

"You agree with them?"

"No, but is this accomplishing anything?"

Jack sighed.

Garshaw passed him and looked to Sam. "Have we received anymore messages?"

"No. The last message was that they all moved again...new base, new outposts."

"How do you guys plan on finding the Tok'ra when we get out?" Jack asked.

"We have our ways."

"Is that vague enough?"

Garshaw eyeglowed as she looked towards him. Without a word, she walked away.

Daniel looked to Martouf afterwards. "How did you convince them to let you raise her?"

Martouf looked up to him. "If not for Iasis, I would have told them I was leaving-" He reached out and pet the larva. "-but I couldn't leave one daughter to raise another. Garshaw and Selmak helped me a great deal. Selmak wanted his granddaughter near, and Garshaw saw that not only would raising her not be anymore dangerous than raising Iasis, but it would be good for Iasis to have a human sister. What better way for her to learn about humans than to be raised with one?"

"What about her memories?" Jack asked.

"We don't know what portion of Egeria's memories Iasis has, perhaps all of them, but she has buried most of what she has. She may access them when she is older, but right now...,"

"Having someone else's memories is confusing enough as an adult," Sam added. She nodded her head, and Kela'an took over. "We love Egeria, but Iasis is not her. These memories are not the same as the ones we are born with. We can feel and learn from the memories of our ancestors, but there is not doubt that those memories are not ours. With Iasis being Egeria's clone, Egeria's memories are much stronger, and they feel like they belong to her. She needs to learn how to be Iasis first."

Jack watched as Kela'an began rubbing the larva. He briefly wondered if asking for Sam back would be rude. He was about to say something when Martouf stood up and left. The look of hurt on Kela'an's expression made him decide against asking. He gave a goodbye before leaving.

-Two Months Later-

Garshaw looked over the group. She had gathered everyone. "While we once received a message from the Tok'ra every few days, we have not picked up one in almost three months. The high council believes they have changed every frequency to avoid detection. The last time we did that was over a thousand years ago, after we believed Egeria had been killed."

"What exactly does that mean?" Jack asked, picking up that she hadn't given the full story.

"It's a good indication they've gone into hiding," Jacob continued. "If we get out of here, even if they pick up our signal, they probably won't trust it."

"Like an old GDO code," Daniel added.

"Exactly."

"Which is also why they are our way of getting home," Jack added, referring to Earth. He knew their codes would be long out of date by now.

"What about the Jaffa rebellion?" Daniel asked, which made everyone look to Teal'c.

"I will contact them when we are on the surface," Teal'c stated, "but they may have moved."

"Teal'c's right," Jacob added. "I hate to admit it, but all it would take is to use the Ancient brain interlink device on one Tok'ra who knew where one free Jaffa was..."

"...who would lead them right to the rebellion," Jack added.

"The Jaffa would not hide," Teal'c added with pride and firmness.

"Maybe not, but they sure as hell won't be easy to find."

"We may be on our own for a while," Jacob added.

"Oh, that's just great," Jack replied, wishing he could be trapped with anyone but a bunch of Tok'ra.

"We could hope the Tok'ra would not be willing to give up on Iasis," Sam added.

"Oh, for crying out loud, they gave up on their own queen!" Jack stopped when he saw the looks of dismay and anger on the Tok'ra. "Look, I'm sorry, but if you guys were too afraid to hope that she's still alive, what reason do we have to think they won't be too afraid to hope that Iasis is still alive?"

Yosuuf took over, finishing Garshaw's speech. "We haven't detected any Goa'uld activity above, but that does not mean they are no longer out there. For now, we will remain in hiding."

"How long is 'for now?'" Jack asked.

"Until we are satisfied that they have given up."

He realized he wasn't going to get a direct answer.

To be continued...