515 Summit and 516 Last Stand

The Tok'ra Ren'al came to the SGC with a proposal and they needed a volunteer. Of course only one person fit the bill. Daniel was the perfect person to engage in a complicated, dangerous and ethically challenged Tok'ra plot. Lucky him.

Daniel Jackson felt pressure to do it, not only from the Tok'ra and his fellow members of the SGC but also personally from within. He felt the desire to defeat, to obliterate the race that stole and destroyed his wife and also had enslaved her people.

If that wasn't bad enough Daniel was faced with commiting mass murder and perhaps the beginning of a genocide. Okay they were killing parasites but the parasites' hosts were doomed as well. And the means for this extermination was chemical warfare. It seemed respect for the Geneva Conventions did not extend to the void of space. Didn't the ethics of the men of Earth extend that far? Conversely was it ethical to allow the Goa'uld to continue to exist?

O'Neill and Carter had qualms over the use of chemical warfare and moreover for Daniel to be the person chosen for the execution of the plot. Jack was sure it would haunt Daniel's ethically sensitive soul. But for Teal'c it was more complicated. This would not only kill the Goa'uld but would kill Jaffa as well. Teal'c thought Daniel should take the chance and exterminate the System Lords. But he knew that if the poison were to fall into the wrong hands It would be the end of his race and especially his boy Rya'c.

Equipped with the Reole chemical, Daniel was sent off to trick Lord Yu that he was Yu's trusted servant Jarren. Then accompany Lord Yu to a meeting of the System Lords. Talk about stumbling into a nest of vipers.

To his great distress Daniel found a large ornate vessel swimming with mature Goa'uld symbiotes.

Were they other powerful gods brought down by the System Lords and their minions?

Were the symbiotes ripe for implantation whom the System Lords would not allow to become their rivals?

Was this the reward for the present slaves faithful service?

Was this Daniel's fate if he failed to decimate the System Lords?

The night he saw the gods tear into the symbiotes with their bare teeth he had his answer. By this act of cannibalism they sealed their alliance every night during the conference.

Daniel was then faced with a further complication. A new or rather a very old powerful Goa'uld, gone for a thousand years, had raised his head. The other Lords had sent him into exile for an affront even they could not excuse. There this dark lord amassed knowledge and power and underlings. He sent his emissary, the once lovely Sarah Gardner, now the Goa'uld Osiris.

Osiris had spent the last year, after his escape from stasis on Earth, gathering ships and Jaffa. Although not yet very powerful he initially rejected an alliance with Zipacna. When he found out the alliance was with the formidable Anubis he swore allegiance.

With an air of smugness Osiris presented himself to the System Lords as an equal and as the representative of Anubis. He promised to destroy their current annoyance, the Tauri. Presently Zipacna was attacking their radical offshoot and perennial enemy, the Tok'ra on their home base of Revanna. Whether they agreed with his goals or in fear of what he had become, the System Lords welcomed Anubis to their company. All except Lord Yu.

When Daniel learned of this new development he couldn't continue with the Tok'ra plot. He had to get this information out. Osiris recognized him and his life was in jeopardy, as was Lord Yu for opposing Anubis. Daniel took a flying coffin, luckily met up with Jacob in a Tel'tak. And they sped off to Revanna to warn of the attack.

Meanwhile SG-1, sans Daniel, and SG-17 were on Revanna. SG-17 was there for orientation of Tok'ra techniques. Jack and company were waiting around for word for Daniel and Jacob.

Major Carter came across a stasis chamber containing the symbiote Lantash. Over a year ago Martouf, compromised as a Za'tarc, was killed and his bullet ridden body was returned to Revanna. The Tok'ra deemed it impossible to save both host and symbiote and chose the symbiote. They claimed they tried to restore him but failed to heal his body. They did manage to keep his symbiote Lantash alive in a stasis chamber, struggling to heal itself. Sam had problems with the ethical choices of the Tok'ra and wondered if it were their desire to study Martouf's brain that weighed their decision. And of course if that is what they did they certainly did not share their findings with the SGC.

They were all caught unaware when the armada of Hataks and Al'keshes led by Lord Zipacna launched a full scale invasion. The Stargate was engaged thus preventing the Tok'ra from escaping.

The planet was bombarded and many of the Tok'ra tunnels began to cave in. Caught in the web, Major Carter was injured and all of SG-17 were killed except for the newest member of the team Lt. Elliot, who was severely hurt. Lantash's stasis chamber was broken and he sought a host and found Elliot. Both man and symbiote were weak and near death.

With the help of Tok'ra tunneling crystals, O'Neill and Teal'c were able to find Carter and the dying Elliot and assess the invasion force. They evaded the Jaffa seeking them in the tunnels and finally escaped the underground base. The massive invasion of ground troops was seeking not only the remaining Tok'ra but also the symbiote poison or it's formula.

A Tok'ra signal warning returning operatives to stay away had to be turned off if there was any hope of rescue. Unfortunately Jacob and Daniel crash land their tel'tak. They too are stranded on Revanna with an army of Jaffa hunting them.

Daniel filled them in on his mission and Jack who was pleased that Daniel survived the trip into the heart of darkness said "You did good."

"They're barbaric."

"Yeah...so?" Jack had no illusions about the Goa'uld.

"No, I mean, I don't know if we will ever make a dent. One is always worse than the others and there is no end to them."

"Yeah." Jack replied. He supposed this made the use of the poison easier but it didn't.

They came to the conclusion that only the poison, once meant to take out the System Lords, must now be used to wipe out the invasion party of thousands of Jaffa. O'Neill offered to take the poison to the gate, clearing a way for them to escape.

For Sam either proposition was painful, either way she would lose someone she loved or someone who loved her. And the rest of them would be in their debt and burdened with guilt. Teal'c would see thousands of his brothers dead without the chance to choose freedom.

It was chemical warfare and genocide, and it bothered O'Neill and it didn't. He hated the Goa'uld and would gladly kill all of them himself. But what of the collateal damage - the army of Jaffa held in virtual slavery by the Goa'uld gods? What of any captured Tok'ra? Was it worth it to unleash a weapon you had no control over?

Then the dying Elliot offered. His life could not be sustained by Lantash much longer but he could survive to do the most damage. He knew what he was offering and knew the consequences. His life would be short but meaningful, he was buying their chance at escape with his life.

O'Neill abandoned Elliot to his fate, to his ultimate sacrifice. It was impossible for him to reconcile 'no man left behind' and leaving Elliot, now a chemical weapon, for the Jaffa to find. Would he have done it himself if he were in Elliot's position? Maybe...probably. It ate at his soul. He trained this young man and he left him alone to die.

"Do we find the cost of freedom

Buried in the ground?

Mother Earth will swallow you

Lay your body down."

Daylight Again by Stephen Stills CSN