Daniel stared down at the man – the Tok'ra – on the rock. Long hair and a beard, but not as unkempt as he would have expected; apparently the condemned god warranted a haircut and a beard trim every now and again. "How long has he been here?" he wondered out loud.
The Tok'ra rolled his head to squint at Daniel. "Depends," he said. "What planet are you from?" He spoke in the creepy double tones of the goa'uld and the Tok'ra.
Surprised at the lucidity of the question, Daniel said, "Earth."
"That's us," said Jack, scowling at Daniel for being so open. "The originals."
"Earth... Then, as you reckon things, I've been here for just over a thousand years."
Jack, as usual, could be counted on to point out the obvious. "That's a long time."
"Could we speak to your host?" Daniel asked politely.
"He doesn't speak English."
"I might be able to understand anyway."
Prometheus sighed, looked away, and looked back, his eyes normal. The host smiled timidly and said something that sounded like a clucking chicken. The team blinked at him.
"Daniel?"
"I have no idea."
A blink, and Prometheus was back. "He was just greeting you."
"Can I bring you anything, my lord?" Adonis asked, meekly.
"No."
"No?" Jack blinked. "You've been stuck here a thousand years and you don't want, say, a hacksaw?"
"Sir?" Sam looked up. "He can't possibly have been here that long and still be sane."
"And that kind of lifespan would require a sarcophagus," Daniel added. "We all know how well those work."
"Could you not talk about me as if I'm not here?" Prometheus sounded irritated. "I don't need a sarcophagus. This rock here fixes me right up every morning, much better than any sarcophagus" – his voice dripped with contempt as he spat the word – "and my native friends keep me well supplied with food, water and conversation. They even have a yearly pilgrimage up here and have a big party. It's fun. And as for the sanity part, well, I might be a little strange by anyone's standards but although I get bored once in a while, there are usually people around, so I have someone other than my host to talk to. The only thing I have to worry about is the backache."
"If you are indeed being punished in the manner of Prometheus in the legends," said Teal'c, "would you not have to be killed every night only to be reconstituted in the morning?"
Daniel exchanged a look with Sam, then blinked at Jack, who was smiling smugly. Obviously, he hadn't done the reading on his own.
"Yes," Prometheus was saying. "Fortunately, the killing thing only happens twice a week, and it's not so bad once you get used to it."
"Dying isn't so bad?" Perhaps Sam had been right about the Tok'ra going crazy, Daniel thought, although it seemed a fairly subtle form of insanity.
"Yes, it is," said Jack, with conviction. "It sucks every time."
"You're right," admitted Prometheus. "I like most of the people on this planet, but the high priest – the one that does the killing – wow, if I ever get my hands on him..."
"Perhaps we should free the Tok'ra," Teal'c suggested.
"Yeah, we can't just leave him here, Jack."
"No!" Adonis was shocked. "You cannot free him! The gods will be angry!"
"Yeah, well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Major, you got anything that will get him loose?"
"I'll take a look, sir."
"Excuse me." The team, and a distraught Adonis, turned to Prometheus, who was looking very put out. "Did anyone think to ask my opinion on this freedom thing? I cannot go."
Adonis sagged with relief. "Absolutely. My lord speaks truth."
Daniel was glad that for once he was not on the receiving end of the level three irritable look Jack threw at Adonis. "Why not?"
"I'm here for a reason. I smuggled goa'uld weapons onto this planet, to help start a rebellion. The goa'uld lords found out I was a Tok'ra, and guessed what I had been doing. When I wouldn't tell them where I'd hidden the weapons, they hauled out this rock – one of a kind, I tell you, not their technology – chained me to it, and rigged it so that very bad things will happen if I get loose. Not only that, but there's an alarm so that they will be alerted, and will descend on this planet and wipe out every single human being. You see, it's a matter of conscience. Is it hard to stay sane year after year? Absolutely, but it helps to know I'm saving a people. And, of course, a sense of humour is an aid. My host supplies me with that."
"This does indeed create a problem," Teal'c decided.
"Oh, come on. The goa'ulds are busy with more important things than remembering a thousand-year-old squabble. Alarm or no alarm, they won't come."
"Not just an alarm." Prometheus scowled mightily. "Other things. I don't know what, but the impression I got was that the only reason they would be coming would be to make sure that their little booby trap did its job, wiping out the village."
Jack nodded sagely. "That changes things."
Daniel frowned. "We have to find a way to work around it. We can't leave him here, Jack. The Tok'ra need every man they can get, and plus, it would just be... mean."
"There will be no working around anything," Prometheus insisted. "Anyway, I'm supposed to die again tomorrow night. I can't miss that."
"Yeah," Jack said. "We're just going to head back down to the Stargate, and then we're going to come back with a plan to get you out of here."
"I'm staying!"
"So you can die."
"Yes!"
"I have a suggestion. Provided we can come up with a way to free you safely, with no risk to the people on this planet, why don't you try... not dying?"
"It could be a nice change," Daniel added helpfully.
Prometheus regarded them suspiciously. Probably, Daniel thought, he was imagining an elaborate scheme to trick him into indirectly killing the planet's inhabitants. He was surprised, therefore, when Prometheus nodded as much as his chains would allow. "If you conceive a plan which meets with my approval, I would be willing."
"Great. Do you know, by any chance, how long we would have from the time we got you loose, if we did happen to trip the alarm?"
"A thousand years lies between you and that information. But, from what I can remember... Not very long at all."