Chapter 9: Explanations

SG-1 gazed uneasily at Enerina as she strode back into the Ha'taks Bridge, she might have helped them escape but it begged the question, why? She didn't act anything like a Tok'ra and Goa'ulds would never wear themselves out to the point of exhaustion ensuring all their Jaffa were healed. That meant she was an unknown and no-one likes unknowns.

Enerina dropped into the only chair on the bridge, an ornate affair obviously meant for the unnamed snake in Colonel Pierces head only. She signed, and looked towards O'Neill.

"It seems I have an apology to make to you"

"Excuse me?"

"I shouldn't have done it really, but I felt the situation demanded it"

"Demanded what, exactly?"

"Messing around with your mind like that"

"WHAT!?!"

Enerina looked curiously at O'Neill, it appeared he hadn't noticed or realized. Interesting.

"You didn't wonder about why you were so quick to trust me?"

Daniel looked up warily, "It was a little out of character"

"My host, Falco Del Ameris, is empathic"

SG-1 glanced at each other in realisation and surprise, but O'Neill's expression quickly turned to number 35, Elemental force of Anger, he was not happy.

"You messed with my mind!?!"

"I had to! I had no time to explain that I wanted to help you! I needed you to trust me, or I and my people were DEAD!" Enerina jumped up off the chair, and strode towards O'Neill, shouting in his face, all the anger in the room fuelling her ire.

"Do you know what happens when a Goa'uld takes an empath as a host?" She shouted, "You get a psychopath who can now sense others emotions, unless it's their first host!"

She took a calming breath, "At which point you have a Goa'uld who can sense others emotions and is still sane enough… Is still sane enough to know what it truly means. When I feel the emotions of the Goa'ulds I sense darkness, evil, a black oiliness that overwhelms and corrupts everything it touches. I sense the slaves, the animals the knowledge of my ancestors calls them and I sense more light, more purity than I have ever sensed from a Goa'uld, be they Tok'ra or system lord. Occasionally I will find a heart so pure that to just sense it for a moment makes me feel pure, protected, sheltered," she glanced back up at O'Neill, "everyone of those has looked straight at me as they died and there was no condemnation, no blame, only simple understanding, do you know how humbling that is?"

Enerina turned and strode out off the room, pausing only at the entrance as O'Neill called to her, "It's the sarcophagus; repeated use damages the host, releasing chemicals which affect the brains of host and snake, by which time their both already addicted"

Enerina nodded, and left the room, the door swiftly closing behind her, leaving SG-1 to their thoughts.