Ninja Burrito here,

Is there anyone else left in the world that still loves Stargate or is it just me?

CHAPTER 1

The sun was warm on this planet, the rays intense and unyielding for a normal human. Martouf luckily was not a normal human for inside him lived a powerful being that called itself Lantash and allowed Martouf to survive the intensity of the sun and the high levels of radiation. He scanned the horizon, one hand blocking out the light as he tracked the top of a far off dune.

The Tok'ra had received a distress signal coming from this planet a few weeks ago by long range radio. Since the planet was not part of the Stargate system they had to send someone by Shuttle craft. To keep the Goa'uld from detecting the craft Martouf had been forced to travel without light speed and made the journey extremely boring despite the companionship of Lantash who was a bit sarcastic for a symbiote.

He was beginning to regret volunteering for this mission since it seemed like it had been a massive waste of time. The Sourin had once helped the Tok'ra thousands of years ago to hide from the Goa'uld while getting on their feet, but once the Tok'ra was forced into hiding the two people had lost contact. The deep space distress signal they received had been their first attempt at communication for millennia and Martouf was curious at meeting the people that was Lantash's first host. But why had he been so quick to volunteer for such a long mission?

You know why. Lantash's deep voice answered Martouf's silent question. Because that Samantha woman would be visiting her father and Salmek and you wished to avoid her.

Martouf hissed and started down one side of a dune watching the pinging scanner in his hand trying to pinpoint the origin of the beacon. Coward.

"Don't act like you didn't want to avoid her as well." He shot back, offended by the tone in Lantash's internal voice. Reaching the bottom of the dune he spun around slowly looking for the strongest source of signal before heading towards the setting suns.

I like her, and she carries the memories our most beloveds but she is not Jolinar or Rosha. He stated matter of fact though a tone of deep sadness was apparent.

"I am aware of that." The signal seemed to be getting stronger and excitement seized the man forcing him into a sprint his eyes locked on the scanner.

If you truly understood that, then you wouldn't feel the need to avoid her. Or avoid seeing her and O'Neil together but Lantash was kind enough to leave that last part out. Sam and O'Neil may not be allowed to be together due to the strange rules of Tau'ri hierarchy but it was not lost on anyone how they feel and caused more pain to Martouf then he cared to admit.

The scanner in his hand was going crazy as he decided to ignore his companion and ran not noticing when the white sand of the desert morphed into the hard surface of granite. The sound of rushing water could be heard from up ahead and the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees as he continued haphazardly like a man about to finish a master level puzzle.

Watch out! Lantash seized control from Martouf, forcing him into the background as the older being stopped him from walking off the edge of a cliff and into a deep ravine. He stood on the edge for a moment looking down to the rushing waters below that would have easily ripped them to shreds if the fall hadn't killed them first.

Thank you. For a disembodied voice, Martouf almost sounded breathless and relieved at being saved from a horrible death.

"It would have been my death as well." Lantash stated and marveled at the sound of the deep alien voice from a human mouth. He allowed Martouf to have the reigns most of the time and enjoyed sitting back to enjoy the ride but it was nice to be in control from time to time and hear his voice. He took a few deep breaths of the bone dry air then mentally stepped back, Martouf easily transitioning to take control. He glanced at the scanner in his hand and frowned.

"It says the signal is coming from right here." He turned looking at the ravine that spanned several miles in each direction. "There's nothing here."

Maybe we are standing on it, it may be buried. Lantash suggested.

Martouf walked to the exact spot the signal was coming from which happened to be only a foot from the cliff and squatted down, clipping the scanner to his belt and began to dig around in the surface dirt. He moved slowly around in the dirt, mindful of the cliffs edge as he looked for anything that would give off a signal powerful enough to reach the current world the Tok'ra used but he was finding anything beside a few palm sized rocks.

Without warning a sound like thunder boomed around him causing the earth beneath him to shake as if the whole cliff side had been stuck with an imaginary bolt of electricity. He stilled, holding his breath as the sound faded away just as quickly as I had come. Glancing up at the red and pink sky he saw no clouds or hint of a storm which didn't help explain the thunder. He didn't know much about this planet but he assumed weather patterns would be similar in some way anywhere someone went.

Martouf stood up slowly, cautiously listening to the air and the distant sound of rushing water in the ravine below, all his senses on high alert telling him something was wrong. Lantash was oddly quiet as well allowing Martouf to feel out the tension in the air as if a massive storm was brewing over head.

We should head back to the shuttle for the time being, bring it back and check the rav- Lantash's orders were cut off as Martouf shouted, the whole side of the cliff crumbling in an instant and began to slide into the ravine without warning. Martouf scramble along the landslide of rock that quickly swept him towards the ravine. He grabbed desperately to what looked like unbroken solid ground only to find it crumbling under his body weight as he slipped closer and closer to where the lip of the cliff had originally been only moments before. In one second he was struggling through a land slide and in the next he was in free fall, over the edge with what appeared to be the entire cliff falling around him into the ravine.

"Shit!" The word came out in a strangled scream, choosing to use one of O'Neil's more appropriate idioms since no other seemed to be more suitable for the present situation. Half way down the ravine Martouf struck something solid his head whipping back at the sudden halt before smashing back into the surface of whatever out cropping of rock he had struck, he was vaguely aware of something wrapping around his wrist, something that felt almost like thick vines stopping him from sliding off what even he had landed on.

Martouf blacked out, no longer worried about his impending death.

Something wet slid across Martouf's face, beads of fluid running down his neck and soaking the collar of his tunic. He groaned and rolled to his side, trying to escape the wet thing rubbing all over his face and regretted moving.

"Stop." A soft feminine voice commanded and a hand grasped his shoulder and pushed him on his back again, after a few moments his face was wet again and his brain told him it was water and cloth. He swallowed trying to ease the pain in his dry throat and attempted to open his eyes. He could see the bulkhead of a ship and a window showed the sun had set turning the red and pink sky to a black and purple hue. Martouf continue to scan the inside of the unfamiliar vessel till his eyes met another set of eyes looking down at him. He paused as the face focused and he could finally make out details; light golden skin, brownish-yellow eyes and bone white hair that fell in rivers over her shoulder. "Your finally awake."

He tried to swallow hopping to ease the dry and dusty feeling of his mouth, instead all he managed to do was instigate a coughing fit. The women took a step back from him to give him space and once he recovered she had produced a silver bowel with water in it. He grabbed the bowel and sucked down the water as quickly as possible, not fearing poison or tampering considering she could have killed him if she wanted him dead. He drained the bowel desperately and laid-back waiting for the pain in his chest to subside enough for him to talk. The women stared at him patiently, one snow laden eye brow slightly arch with curiosity and an almost amused glint in her eye.

"Who are you?" Martouf croaked out, his throat burned with the effort. Lantash was quiet, almost sleeping which was normal if he had to exert himself in order to health Martouf, but he was going worried. Martouf could feel that he still had a deadly amount of injuries and if Lantash was already taxed out then he could still die.

She turned her head slightly, an odd gesture as if she were listening to someone talking in her ear, she listening intently to nothing then turned her gaze back to him. "My distress signal was for the Tok'ra. You are not Tok'ra." She had a heavy accent and had trouble forming some of the words and when she spoke it was barely above a whisper as if she did not speak often.

Martouf propped himself up on his elbows and looked about the small barren ship. The ship was all smooth silver with a few lighted panels with flashing indicators or foreign numbers and letter. He was lying in a small padded pod probably meant for sleeping since there was nowhere else for someone to rest outside of a cock pit chair while the foreign women watched and waited for him to respond. "I am Martouf, host to the Tok'ra known as Lantash."

She cocked her head again as of some invisible person was speaking before shaking her head causing a cascade of white hair to loosen from a loose tie. "No, Tok'ra like the Goa'uld eyes glow. You are no Tok'ra." She kept her sentences short and clipped, her words almost completely devoid of emotion though her eyes held several conflicting emotions passing quickly without rest.

Martouf smiled at the simple logic of her words, the Sourin had parted ways with the Tok'ra so long ago that there was no way this woman had ever met one and depending on how well the people kept their records then she probably had limited information. "When my symbiote, Lantash is….in the driver's seat then my eyes may glow, but when I am in control they do not."

She processed the information, chewing on the information as she turned and picked up the silver bowel. She walked to a panel in the wall and filled it again with water. "Then I require to speak with the Tok'ra Lantash." She handed him the water and waited expectantly.

He drank the cooled water in two gulps and handed the bowel back. "I'm sorry but he is too weak at the moment. He must have healed may injuries and now rests to recuperate."

She again filled the bowel for him before sitting on the edge of the pod. "You broke several ribs and had a punctured lung from the fall on my ship. I had wondered how you managed to survive."

Confusion flickered openly on his face. "Can you explain?"

Without warning the women reached out and lightly slid a golden hued finger down Martouf's temple. Her light touch traced a path down his check, along his jaw and down his neck stopping at the collar of his tunic. He didn't move, transfixed by sudden touch of intimacy and the sad distant look in her eyes. "You fell when the cliff crumble, my ship was cloaked and you landed on it." She snatched her hand from his skin as if she had been hit with electricity and moved away, rubbing her hand on her thigh. "The ship woke me up when the event started and I managed to grab you before you slid off."

"The ship woke you up?" He could feel his skin tinging where she had touched him and resisted to urge to scratch.

She looked out the front window and he noticed she had parked her ship next to his, the moon glinting off the gold plate of his shuttle craft. "My world ended a long time ago, there weren't many Sourin left when I was born and even fewer by the time I reached puberty." She ran a hand along one of the silver walls lovingly. "When I was young my father told me of the Tok'ra whom left us to keep us safe. We tried for years to send out a distress signal but the ionized atmosphere caused by the volcanic activity made it impossible. When I went into stasis I set up the beacon and set it to wake me if anyone responded."

"How long were you sleeping?"

She chewed on her lip, her yellow eyes shining. "I used to wake up every couple of months to check the beacon and to see how much the landscape changed so I could move the ship to a safer location. Finally, I set the beacon on the ship, put it in the safest place and went to sleep indefinitely." She continued to look out of the dues and the purple night. "That was seventy-five years ago according to the ship."

She has been alone a long time. Lantash commented from nowhere. Relief surged through Martouf knowing the Tok'ra was going to be ok.

"The ship must have woken me up when you entered the atmosphere. I was trying to get out of the ravine that hadn't been there seventy-five years ago when I felt you hit the hull of my ship. I must admit I was surprised to see another person for the first time since my father died." She walked back to him and bowed. "Even if you are not Tok'ra it's nice to meet you. I am Eelien, last of Sourin."

Martouf's eyes flashed and Eelien looked at up him shocked as the deep voice came from his lips. "You have met Martouf my host. I am Lantash of Tok'ra, it is a pleasure to meet a Sourin again after so long."

She smiled slightly and stood up straight. "Will you allow me to leave this place with you?"

"Why haven't you used this ship to escape?" Lantash questioned as he stood from what he recognized as a stasis pod. His body hurt but now that he was awake again the body was already healing fast. "From what I remember the Sourin were quite and advanced race and should have already achieved space flight."

She shook her head, brushing the white hair behind her slightly pointed ear. "The planet became unstable and swallowed whole cities in the blink of an eye, people and technology destroyed in a moment. Advancement is halted when natural disaster like that occur. This craft was used for geological survey and cannot make it pasted the ionized atmosphere, its pure luck that the signal managed to make it through the 'cloud' long enough for it to reach you."

Lantash moved about the ship stretching his legs and gauging the technology of the craft. It was rudimentary and simple which surprised him, the stasis pod she used to sleep was probably the most advanced thing in the ship. He felt guilty that none of the Tok'ra had ever come back to see how their friends had been fairing, in their defense they didn't want to lead the Goa'uld to them, but he still felt responsible for their decline and eventual destruction.

"So, can I go with you?" He kept his back to her, they hadn't planned to bring anyone back with them, they just expected to help in anyway and leave, no one had been prepared for this development. They couldn't leave her here to die alone on a dead planet either but they wouldn't have the resources for two people to live in his shuttle for the weeks it would take to get back home.

"How well do you understand the technology of that pod?" Lantash asked turning and pointing his chin at the pod. If they could move it to his ship, then she could sleep for the journey and they wouldn't need to worry about running out of food or water or over taxing the CO2 scrubbers.

Eelien looked at the pod and back to him, cocking her head again like it was a nervous tick. "I designed and built it so everything."

That stunned him a little and couldn't keep the surprise from showing on his face at which point she smiled. Martouf's laughter sounded in his mind also seeming to enjoy his shock. "Can you install it in our shuttle?" When she nodded Lantash took a step back and allowed Martouf to take over, he was spent from healing the body and would need a significant amount of time to recuperate.

"We need to be leaving soon, this trip will take a significant amount of time and you will need to sleep to conserve resources." He stopped when she took a step away from him, bringing her arms to her chest in a defensive move. "What's wrong?"

"You want me to sleep?" Right, she had finally met another person and they were asking her to go back in stasis how could she trust him to wake her up?

He walked swiftly to her, the sound of his simple boots clicking on the metal floor and grabbed her hands in his own. She flinched when their skin touched but he ignored it as he pulled her hands away from her body to rest them on his chest over his heart. "I promise once we reach my home world I will wake up. You won't have to be alone again." Eelien flexed her hands under his and closed her eyes as she left his heart beat below her figures and again cocked her head.

"Tekmak suggests I can trust you."

"Who's Tekmak?" He asked quietly, there was no way that she had a symbiote in her, none had been left behind when the Tok'ra left.

"The culmination of all my people's history, technology and writings into one artificially Intelligent computer that was implanted in my mind. I believe my people got the idea from your symbiotes and their genetic memory." She stated automatically with no hesitation as if she had been practicing that line her whole life.

Interesting, very interesting. Lantash commented tiredly. I wonder if her implant can record and store new information or if it only carries old information. When Martouf didn't ask why Lantash wanted to know how her implant worked, Lantash continued. Our alliance with Tau'ri demands technology but the Council doesn't wish to provide weapons. But something like that implant might be of interest to someone like Sam.

Martouf flinched at the name and released Eelien's hands. "Let's get going before this planet decides to finally take its last breath."

Several hours later the stasis pod from Eelien's ship was installed in Martouf's shuttle with almost no resistance from the conflicting technology and he found himself enamored by her quick mind and precise hands as she connected the power source. Once it was done she sat in the pod as he checked the ships system to make sure the power draw wouldn't cripple their egress from the planet. Once all the systems were checked he walked to her pod and flashed a small smile. "Is there anything you need, anything you may not wish to leave behind?"

She shook her head and began to braid her long white hair over her shoulder. "Tekmak is all that I need and she is with me always."

He laughed and helped her lay back in the padded pod. "She?" He asked more of himself than her.

Eelien nodded and folded her hands over her chest. "Yes, Tekmak is a she. She was meant to be Mother of our technology, to bring us into the new world before…. well you know before it all ended." Martouf nodded as if he knew what she meant when really he didn't and moved to pull up the lid of the pod to start the stasis process. "Wait!" He paused and looked into her bright brown-yellow eyes which stared back at him, panicked. "You promise you will awaken me? I may be in stasis but I still dream and sometimes those dreams are not pleasant and I can't wake up." When he didn't speak she grabbed his hand, her grip tight with fear which was etched in her face. "Please, Martouf."

He finally patted her hand, taken off guard by her intense fear of either dreaming or never being able to wake. "I promise Eelien, I will not let you sleep any longer than necessary." The taste of her name on his lips sent a tingle through his stomach, an odd feeling he had lost when Jolinar had died.

He watched as she closed her eyes and released his hand, completely trusting him to keep his word despite the fact that they had only met a few hours ago. He slid the lid closed and manually sealed the pod since they didn't have time to hook in and integrate the entire system into his shuttle. The pod sealed with a cool whoosh of air and the window fogged up leaving only a hint of gold skin and snowy hair beneath it.

Stop staring and get us home. Latash commanded his voice taking on a biting edge, grouchy from all the energy he had expended in healing Martouf.

"Right, it's going to be a long flight and you're in a terrible mood, this will be nice."