28

Fact Finding

"Come on, dad," Sam wheedled, her voice a mixture of affection and exasperation. "The Tok'ra have a dossier on practically every Goa'uld there is. Are you trying to tell me that out of all of them, Ahriman is the only one they missed?"

Jacob shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, Sam, but if there ever was any information on Ahriman, it's been lost. We really don't know much about him."

"Would you be willing to participate in a joint reconnaissance mission?" Teal'c suggested. "Information would be gathered with both parties having equal access to it."

"I'll have to run it by the others," Jacob replied. "But I doubt if they'll have a problem with it. Since this situation came up, they've gotten curious about Ahriman."

"Ahriman, at least, I understand," Teal'c rumbled reflectively. "The one that puzzles me is Evree."

&&&&&&&

Evree made a show out of sipping at the cup of coffee that Daniel had pressed on her. She had already decided at breakfast that she didn't care for the bitter liquid, and wondered how much she should force down for politeness' sake.

She was starting to raise the cup to her lips again when it was removed from her hands.

"If you don't like it, you don't have to drink it," O'Neill said, taking a swig of it himself. "What you eat and drink here is strictly up to you."

"I didn't wish to.., to..," Evree struggled for the appropriate phrase, It had never been an essential part of her conversation before. "To injure Dr. Jackson's emotions."

"Hurt my feelings," Daniel corrected her gently. "And please, call me Daniel." As Evree looked at him questioningly, he realized there was more information that she desired. "And no, you won't hurt my feelings if you don't drink the coffee." A thought struck him, and he felt compelled to follow it up rather than go on to the type of question that might be potentially productive. "Was there anything at breakfast that you actually liked?" He remembered her methodically tasting, to the best of his memory, a little bit of everything. But he didn't recall her commenting on how things tasted to her one way or the other.

"I liked the round object with the white tracery on top of it," Evree replied. "I believe that you referred to it as a danish? And the orange juice was quite palatable as well, but I really didn't care for the juice that you said came from an animal."

"Milk," Daniel supplied, as much for Jack's benefit as Evree's. "Was that all that you liked out of all the things you tried?"

"The pink fruit with the yellow rind was too sour," Evree answered. "The gray glutinous matter you called oatmeal was too bland. And I simply could not bring myself to eat ova."

"Ova?" Jack knew that he knew what it meant, but at the moment, his brain wasn't making the connection.

"Eggs," Daniel filled in, grinning. Then, he sobered. "Evree, if you're going to keep your host's body healthy, you're going to eat a more balanced diet."

"I attend to the body's well-being," Evree bristled. "I ingested a sufficient amount to keep it functional."

"But a better diet would help it to function at its optimum performance," Daniel argued. He had a feeling that he wasn't going to win this one, but he was determined to make his point anyway.

Surprisingly, at least to Evree, O'Neill seemed to be on her side. On this matter, at least.

"Why don't you just drop it, Daniel?" Jack suggested. "I'm sure that she'll listen to your nutrition lecture when the danish start showing up on her hips."

Evree stared at O'Neill in perplexity. She was certain that they were speaking the same language, and yet there was a distinct lack of communication.

&&&&&

"Do you believe that the Tau'ri will surrender Evree to you, Lord?" the ever-present underling inquired.

"Eventually," Ahriman replied. "They will wait until it is vastly evident that they have no other option. They will try to find a way to defend themselves, or to disarm me. But they shall succeed at neither."

"You were most gracious to give them so much time," the toady said, not missing out on an opportunity to do a little apple-polishing. "If I may make so bold, why did you not demand Evree's immediate return?"

"They are a stubborn people," Ahriman answered musingly. "If I had given them no time, they would have refused to cooperate and forced me into keeping my word. And, if I destroy their pathetic little planet, I will destroy Evree, as well. As I said, it is best to let them arrive at the conclusion that they have no choice on their own. They will wait, but they will inevitably crumble."

"But will Evree?" the other muttered to himself.

&&&&&&

Evree passed a hand over her eyes. Her head throbbed, and she had been bent over books while Daniel pointed things out in them, asking her questions, so long that her neck and shoulders burned as with fire. Indeed, when she tried to straighten up, she found, most painfully, that she couldn't.

Daniel was not currently in the room. From his choice of euphemisms, Evree deducted that he had gone to tend to the body's needs. But she could not straighten her stiff neck. She looked to O'Neill in desperation, even though he was an unlikely source of help. Or was he? Evree was not sure, his moods seemed as changeable as the weather.

"Problem?" Jack asked off-handedly. He was profoundly unenthusiastic about his current assignment, and only the fact that it had been an order kept him where he was.

"I am not used to remaining sedentary for such extended periods of time," Evree replied. "What do your people do when the muscles stiffen into place?"

"The common practice is to get a friend to knead out the kinks for you," Jack explained. He hoped that she didn't expect him to give her a neck rub.

"And I have no friends," Evree murmured sadly. "Do all of you have friends? I mean, not just those who are here, but all on the planet."

"Mostly," O'Neill replied slowly. "The ones that don't often don't want any friends. And, there are a few who just can't seem to get along with anybody."

"You do not get along with anybody," Evree pointed out, proving that she had been observing the whole time she had been observed. "And yet you seem to have friends."

"I get along with people," Jack sputtered defensively. "I..," He cut himself off when he realized that from what Evree had seen, he didn't. There hadn't been anyone, bar the general that he hadn't argued with since meeting her. He watched as she rubbed ineffectually at the back of her own neck and caved in with a sigh. It wasn't, he thought, that he was trying to be her friend. But if she thought he was, it might put her off her guard. He reluctantly stood, went around behind her and started working the knots out of Evree's neck.

"That is.., pleasant," Evree murmured. "For a warrior, you have quite a gentle touch. It is most soothing."

Jack dropped his hands away from her as if she'd suddenly become radioactive. "I hope it feels better," he mumbled insincerely. He glanced towards the door. What in the hell was keeping Daniel?

&&&&&&&

Major Carter turned back from the communications console with a look of satisfaction on her face. "General Hammond gave the recon mission a green light," she reported to Teal'c. "Now all we need is to get the go-ahead from the Tok'ra."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed. He had been wrapped up in his own thoughts. He fully agreed that the information gathering was essential, had he not suggested it himself? But still he wondered how Evree had managed to live in Ahriman's presence for so many decades without learning anything. Except the one thing that would prompt them to act now.

"It's a go," Jacob announced as he entered the room. "If the two of you will come this way..," He motioned them ahead of them. "We'll gate to a Tok'ra base in the sector where Ahriman's planet is. Then we'll requisition a ship to make the rest of the trip, not to mention using its sensors to gather our information."

"Sounds like a plan," Sam agreed. Despite the gravity of the situation, she was in a good mood. After years of animosity towards her father, she now treasured every moment that she spent with him, always aware that if he had not taken a Tok'ra symbiote, there would be no more moments.

"Teal'c?" Jacob turned the Jaffa, who had not yet moved.

Teal'c dragged himself away from his personal speculations on Evree and what she might be up to and joined the Carters.

&&&&&

"Has anything I have said been of any use to you?" Evree asked. She hoped that the answer was yes, but she doubted it. She had been buried in minutiae from the moment they had reached Daniel's room.

"Well, not yet," Daniel admitted, looking a little shame-faced. "But it all does have some value. Sometimes the smallest piece of information when placed in proper perspective can be crucial."

"He means that the whole morning has been a complete waste of time," O'Neill translated. "Why don't you give it a rest for a while, Daniel. We're all getting brain-fried. If we don't do anything but sit here and talk, you'll never think of the right questions to ask. And if by some chance you do, Evree won't remember the answers."

"Well, what would you suggest?" Daniel inquired a little irritably. "I'm dong the best I can, Jack." So far, O'Neill's contributions had been mostly in the form of heckling, and he didn't seem to mind who was the victim of his jibes.

"Calm down," O'Neill advised. "I just think that we could all use a little breather, give us a little perspective. You know, blow out the cobwebs."

"Well, I don't have anything against the idea per se," Daniel responded. "But we'd have to get General Hammond's permission to take Evree out of the complex. That was what you were suggesting, weren't you?"

"Can't expect to keep her cooped up here," Jack pointed out. "Sooner or later, she's going to have to get out and about. And I don't see that Hammond will have a problem with it. After all, we'll both be there to keep an eye on her."

Both Daniel and Evree had the same thought in that they wondered exactly what O'Neill was up to.

&&&&&&

"My Lord?" Again with a functionary creeping timidly into Ahriman's presence. "Are there any sort of preparations that you would desire we make against the possibility that the Tau'ri will prove to be intransigent?"

Ahriman waved a hand dismissively. "None are necessary," he drawled lazily. Uncharacteristically, he decided to explain. Evree's absence notwithstanding, he was in a relatively good mood. "I do not anticipate needing to carry out my threat. But should it prove necessary, all is in readiness."

The man backed out of the room the way he had come, perplexed at Ahriman's laissez-faire attitude, but not daring to question it any further.

Ahriman sat in his jewel-encrusted throne and motioned the attendants away. He wished to be left alone with his thoughts. And what thoughts he had curled his lips into an unpleasant smile. Soon, very soon, he would have Evree back. Then, he would destroy the Earth, not only because they had irritated him, but simply because he could.

&&&&&&

"Are you out of your mind, Jack?" Hammond demanded. "Admittedly, so far, Evree has been a model prisoner, but she's been here, not outside where it would be far more difficult to supervise her."

"I realize that, sir," O'Neill replied. "I just thought we might be able to learn more about her by observing her in more a more natural and less controlled setting. You know, get her to let her guard down. All you have to do right now is watch her and you can tell that she thinks out everything before she says a word."

"If I do this," Hammond answered, wavering. "It will be understood that you, not Dr. Jackson, not anyone else, but you alone will be responsible for Evree's well-being as well as keeping her from escaping or causing trouble of any kind. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal clear, sir," Jack replied, seeing that he had won. "I won't take my eyes off her for a minute."

"See that you don't," Hammond ordered, seeing that O'Neill had taken his capitulation for granted once again. And that it had worked, again. "If something happens while you've got Evree out in public it's your head."

&&&&&&

"What is that?" Evree demanded. That particular question had been on her lips almost continuously since they had left the mountain complex.

"Where?" Daniel asked. Evree hadn't pointed, and he tried to follow the direction that her eyes were looking, but it was an exercise in futility since the Goa'uld's eyes darted back and forth frantically, trying to take in the entire landscape. He didn't see that there was much of anything that even someone as alien as Evree would have difficulty comprehending in the middle of the park they were in.

"I think she means that playground." Jack did point, and Daniel felt chagrined that Jack had not only proven himself more observant, but that he'd picked out the one thing in their line of sight that a Goa'uld might need explained.

"What plays there?" Evree queried. The devices looked quite curious to her, and she could not imagine what they were for.

"Children," Daniel replied. He pointed out the items in turn. "That's a slide, that's a teeter-totter, and those are swings."

Evree looked at him as if he were speaking a foreign language, which indeed he was in this instance.

"There's a better way to explain," Jack said. "Come on, Evree. Time for a second childhood."

&&&&&&

"PX549 coming within sensor range," Sam reported. She glanced in the viewer as well, and wished that she dared to set foot on the planet. Even from the distance that they were orbiting at, she could see that it looked like a pretty little planet. She'd like to be able to visit in person some day. And if that were ever going to happen, they were going to have to get rid of Ahriman, first.

Teal'c was frowning over his own sensor array. "This makes no sense," he mumbled, half to himself. "According to your sensors there are no offensive weapons on the planet larger than a staff."

"Do you think that Ahriman was bluffing when he threatened to destroy the Earth?" Sam queried.

"When a Goa'uld says that they're going to destroy something," Jacob observed. "I generally take the remark at face value."

"And I as well," Teal'c agreed. "Which still does not explain the complete lack of weapons on the planet."

"Could there be some sort of shield over them that the Tok'ra sensors can't penetrate?" Sam suggested. She thought that it looked odd too. And every time a Goa'uld had threatened to blow up a planet that she was aware of, they had the capability to carry out the threat. And were usually all too eager to do so.

"I think I'm going to sneak in a little closer and see what we can see," Jacob announced.

"Be careful, dad," Sam cautioned. "If he does have his weaponry shielded in some way, he may have a few nasty surprises waiting for us."

Jacob grinned suddenly. "It would be one way of telling what kind of weapons he has, wouldn't it?"