Destiny's Child
Chapter Ten
Captain's Ready Room
U.S.S Resolution
Darien Parker settled into the chair behind his desk and looked curiously at his ships councillor wondering why Dalara had requested to speak to him in such a manner. Dr Simon Tarses was looking equally curious.
"Now then councillor what is this about?" Darien asked.
"It's about Osiris," Dalara responded. "Captain we cannot let her go."
"Explain."
Dalara took a deep calming breath and then began his explanation. He explained about his mental contact with Sarah Gardner the Human host of Osiris, her plea for them to help her escape the pain Osiris had ruthlessly inflicted upon her in response. He also detailed some of the horrific images of slaughter and torture that he had seen in Osiris' mind when he'd been asked to probe her.
"Sir in good conscience we cannot leave Sarah Gardner to endure any more of the torture she is currently enduring," Dalara concluded. "She has no will of her own Osiris has complete and total control of her body and mind. The psychological damage she is suffering alone is serious." Darien leaned back in his chair with a sigh. SG-1 and the Tollan had told him about the fate of Goa'uld hosts - but it was one thing to hear it from them, quiet another to hear it from Councillor Dalara - who was not the excitable kind.
"Doctor would it possible to remove Osiris from Sarah Gardner safely before Osiris can kill the host," Darien asked. "According to SG-1 and the Tollan the Goa'uld will kill a host rather than surrender it."
"I have been looking at the bioreadings we've been gathering on the Goa'uld and their Jaffa courtesy of the brigs bioscanners," Simon Tarses responded. "I believe that it is possible to remove Osiris from her host quickly using the transporters. But she will have to be completely unconscious and immobile."
"Do we have any drugs here that could do that? From what SG-1 and the Tollan were telling me the Goa'uld symbiotes are extremely hardy things."
"Yes sir we do. My analysis of the body chemistry of the immature symbiotes the Jaffa are carrying and of Osiris herself indicates that they are unusually vulnerable to Tricolarine. Once exposed both symbiote and host will be unconscious in seconds."
"Tricolarine is a liquid based sedative is it not?" Darien asked.
"Yes sir it cannot be introduced through the environmental control system. It has to either be ingested or injected directly into the patients blood stream."
"So how are we going to get Osiris to take the drug?" Darien asked.
"Our prisoners are scheduled to have a meal at 1830 hours," Simon pointed out. "I can use my medical security codes to order the replicator to put Tricolarine in Osiris' drinking water."
"Do it. As soon as Osiris is unconscious transport her directly to sickbay. Remove the symbiote and place it in a secure sealed storage container otherwise Osiris will immediately jump into the closest available host," Darien ordered.
"Yes sir."
*****
Briefing Room
Stargate Command
General George Hammond leaned back in his chair at the head of the briefing room table unsure what to think. SG-1 had just finished briefing him, Jacob Carter/Selmac - who'd been sent by the Tok'ra Council to assist in organising the relief shipments to Tollana - and Major Davies on the events that had taken place in orbit of Tollana from the complete destruction of Tanneth's attack fleet to the capture of Osiris. The Resolution sounded to be an utterly amazing ship and where it was said to have come from was even more surprising.
"The Resolution sounds like a very impressive ship," Major Davies said calmly. "And powerful."
"Oh yes she's powerful," Colonel O'Neill said. "Anything that can blow away three Goa'uld motherships with one shot to each ship is definitely incredibly powerful."
"One shot!" Hammond repeated amazed - even when their weapons had been effective even the Tollan had found that it took a minimum of two blasts from an ion cannon to destroy a Goa'uld mothership - one shot was unheard of.
"Yes sir," Major Carter replied. "When Tanneth and his ships attacked them the Resolution responded by firing torpedo-style at the attacking ships. When Thor queried Captain Parker about it he told him that the torpedoes were transphasic in nature and were the highest calibre torpedo that the Resolution is armed with - the implication there is that they have variable yield torpedoes just like we have different kinds of nukes. No doubt all of their torpedo types are capable of doing serious damage to a mothership either by striking it or damaging its shields. These transphasic torpedoes are apparently designed to destroy warships that are a lot bigger and a lot more powerful than any Goa'uld mothership. In the first shots the Resolution destroyed both of Tanneth's supporting motherships within seconds of each other. I think that by taking them out first Captain Parker was probably trying to get a point across to Tanneth - and that point was that Goa'uld ships are no threat to him and he easily has the ability to destroy them."
"Tanneth didn't take the hint," Daniel Jackson finished. "He just kept firing. So the Resolution destroyed his ship as well. Before swinging around to assist the Valkastner in defeating the other two."
"They destroyed them as well?"
"No. The one mothership was destroyed by the Valkastner, the second mothership was starting to lose its shield power when the Resolution fired upon them with somekind of high-energy phased particle beam that partially penetrated the motherships shields and did serious damage which speeded up the shield failure on that mothership which then fell to Asgard fire before the Resolution fired a second shot," Sam replied. "Though there is no doubt that the Resolution could have destroyed that entire squadron on its own and done it very quickly. The Goa'uld are no match for the Federation."
"And the irony of it all is that although she is heavily armed the Resolution is not primarily designed to be a warship," Daniel finished. "On our tour of the ship along with Travell, Narim and a couple of Travell's bodyguards we saw numerous labs of varying types. Not what you would expect to see on a warship."
"Apparently the Resolution is designed as a multirole starship," Sam added in agreement with Daniel. "According to Captain Parker her primary mission - as with most vessels in the Federation Starfleet - is to seek out new worlds, civilisations and to generally explore space. As Daniel said they are very well equipped for that role. Apparently the Federation is far more interested in science and exploration than in military conquest. Though as we saw their vessels can function as powerful warships should conflict arise."
"Though they are not aggressive the Federation peoples have the ability to inflict serious damage upon the Goa'uld," Teal'c said. "It is through them that we now know the name of Tanneth and Osiris master." Jacob - who'd been listening with silent attention to the whole discussion, leaned forward interested.
"Who is it?" he asked - the Tok'ra Council had been as stumped by the identity of this mysterious new Goa'uld as everyone else.
"His name is Anubis," Teal'c replied. Jacob's eyes went wide in shock and surprise.
[That cannot be,] Selmac said. [Anubis is dead.]
"Apparently not," Jack said sarcastically.
"Captain Parker had a telepathic alien scanning Osiris as she spoke," Sam added. "She was telling the truth."
"I take it that you know this Goa'uld," Hammond asked Jacob/Selmac.
[Unfortunately yes. Anubis is a demon - far worse than any of the other System Lords. He committed crimes that are unspeakable - even the Goa'uld were appalled by what he did. A thousand years ago the System Lords met in council for the first time in centuries to deal with him. Anubis was summoned before them and stripped of all rank and power, his slaves and Jaffa were taken away. He was allowed to keep a small number of retainers and one mothership - then he was banished from Goa'uld space never to return on pain of death. To make sure he would never bother the System Lords again Ra, Yu and Cronos sent an Ashrak to kill him. Though the Ashrak did not return it was believed by both the System Lords and ourselves that Anubis had perished.]
For along few minutes the briefing room was silent as everyone digested what Selmac had just said. Anubis would have had to have been a very evil Goa'uld indeed for his crimes to appal even the System Lords - who were themselves responsible for countless atrocities - and force them to actually take action against him.
"Well now Anubis is back," Jack said.
"And from what we've seen so far with more power than ever before," Sam added.
"The question is what does Anubis want," Daniel pointed out. "Why has he suddenly reappeared now after a thousand years of silence."
"Those are good questions," Jacob agreed. "Which we must all endeavour to find the answer to. One thing is for sure the reason cannot be a good one. It is possible that Anubis may want to overthrow the System Lords and establish himself as the new Supreme System Lord - a position only Ra has held in nearly two thousand years."
"Which would be very bad," Jack added. "Who knows what would happen if the Goa'uld got their act together and stopped fighting amid themselves and turned their attention to the rest of the universe."
"A nightmare which we must all devote our resources to stopping. If the galaxy were to fall under the dominion of a single all powerful Goa'uld then all would be lost."
"It could be possible that the Resolution holds the key to stopping Anubis," Teal'c pointed out. "But there may be a problem. Captain Parker's words to Osiris indicate that the Federation has similar rules to the Tollan regarding the transfer of technology to less advanced civilisations. We might have trouble convincing them to assist us in that fashion."
[We will still have to try and convince them to help us against both Anubis and the System Lords,] Selmac said. [And possibly the Replicators as well.]
"All we can do is try," Daniel agreed. "But we shouldn't yet. They're currently stretching their resources to help the Tollan recover from Tanneth's assault. It would be advisable to wait for a few weeks until the Tollan are at least partially back on their feet."
For a couple of minutes there was silence as everyone considered Daniel's words. It did make sense. Tollana was in a hell of a mess at present - and the Resolutions crew had their hands full assisting the Tollan pick up the pieces, they could ask no more of them. Not yet at any rate.
"Agreed," Hammond said after a moment. "Now then SG-1 on to other matters like your participation in the upcoming trials for the next group of potential SGC personnel."
*****
Brig
U.S.S Resolution
Osiris looked up from her contemplation of the deck plates as she heard the sound of her current cell guard clearing his throat. The bald, blue-skinned humanoid guarding her cell was completely unfamiliar to her. The alien was holding a food tray.
"Your evening meal," the guard said pressing a series of buttons on a pad besides the force field. A circular hole - just big enough for the tray to pass through - appeared in the force field. Even the force fields on this amazing ship were unusual, they were radically different to Goa'uld force fields.
Osiris stood up and took the food tray from the guard when he handed it to her. The alien pressed those buttons again and the field was once more complete. Osiris eyed the food she'd been given. It consisted mainly of dark blue berries that she didn't recognise, runner beans with butter and potatoes. A small glass of water sat in a slot on one side. A plastic knife and fork sat on the other side. The meal definitely wasn't the fine stuff she was used to but it would do - after all she was no position to make any demands of the Federation people. They'd already agreed to let her go - when they could easily kill her or remove her from her host - so she wasn't about to push her luck.
Sitting down on the bed, resting the tray on her knees Osiris retrieved the fork and not very sharp knife from their slots. After a moment she cautiously placed one of the berries in her mouth. Almost instantly in burst releasing a mushy fluid into her mouth - a fluid that was sweet and sour, sharp and soft, bitter and sweet. Swallowing the fluid Osiris glanced at the berries again. Whatever these things were they were nice. Osiris ripped into the rest of the meal with a vengeance. Everything was nice, perfect in fact. Osiris guessed that these people had to have a good chef or did they use their technology to somehow make the food. After a moment she took a long drink of the pleasantly cool water to wash the food down.
The guard came back to the edge of the force field and opened that hole again. Osiris gave the tray back and he resealed the hole before disappearing for a moment.
Osiris in the meantime returned to the bunk. As she sat down a strange wave of tiredness washed through her. They've drugged me, she thought abruptly standing up and immediately dropping to her knees as they abruptly refused to take her weight. Darkness was encroaching upon her awareness. The guard returned and Osiris looked up her eyes glowing as she struggled to overcome to drug that the Federation had given her presumably in the drinking water.
[You have drugged me,] Osiris snarled weakly at the guard. [You will suffer for this insol…] Darkness enveloped her before she could finish the sentence.
Ensign Kiras watched their Goa'uld prisoner fall asleep struggling futilely against the effects of Tricolarine. He was surprised by the speed it was acting upon her. Normally Tricolarine induced sleep slowly. He wasn't surprised by the arrogant symbiote last words as it finally surrendered to unconsciousness - these Goa'uld were arrogant beings indeed. Kiras retrieved a tricorder from his console and scanned the woman - both host and symbiote were deeply unconscious. He tapped his combadge.
"Kiras to sickbay. Osiris is unconscious."
"Already," Simon Tarses commented from sickbay. "The Tricolarine must have been more effective than I thought. No matter were ready anyway. Disengage the force field ensign." Kiras did as he was told and as soon as the force field went down Osiris was enveloped in a transporter beam and whisked off to sickbay. Kiras smiled then left this cell room to attend to his other duties.
*****
Sickbay
Dr Simon Tarses watched as Osiris appeared on the main biobed. As soon as the transporter beam disengaged a restraining field activated around the body preventing any movement voluntary or otherwise. Walking up to the unconscious woman Simon stood over her for a few moments. She was beautiful. He could see why Osiris had chosen her to be her host.
"Okay let's get to work people," he said to his medical staff and they hurried to set up the medical transporter and a stasis capsule in which to transport the symbiote since it would die without a host. Putting Osiris in stasis would prevent that - and also render the Goa'uld harmless and prevent it from taking a member of the crew as a host.
"We're ready doctor," one of the orderlies called.
"Initiate transport." Light shimmered and the Goa'uld appeared inside the stasis capsule. Simon gasped as he saw the Goa'uld's natural snake-like form. It was disgusting. After a moment he returned his attention to the sleeping host Sarah Gardner.
Quickly he disengaged the restraining field and brought up the diagnostic console. The scanners confirmed what he'd suspected - the woman was addicted to some kind of substance. Fortunately such physical addictions were easy to cure. It would be up to Councillor Dalara to see to the psychological compulsion and the damage Sarah Gardner had sustained while a host. Simon guessed that Dalara was going to be busy dealing with her problems and he didn't envy Dalara's task. After all it would be like treating a Human or other humanoid after they'd just been freed after assimilation by the Borg - he still remembered what Captain Picard had gone through after he'd been rescued from the Borg after being transformed into Locutus. He'd been a medtech on the Enterprise at the time. No he did not envy Dalara in his task he did not envy Dalara one bit.