58
Many Happy Returns
"Have her rooms been searched as I ordered?" It had been an act of desperation on Ahriman's part, a nearly futile hope that there would be some small clue as to Evree's whereabouts.
"As you commanded, Lord." A precise answer to the question, but no hint as to whether or not the search had been fruitful.
"Did you find anything?" Ahriman enunciated each word with slow precision.
"Just this, Lord." The functionary held out a crystal. "As soon as we ascertained it to be a personal message to you, we deactivated it."
Ahriman snatched the crystal out of the outstretched hand. "Leave me," he growled. If Evree had left him a message, he very much doubted that he wanted to play it in the hearing of anyone else.
&&&&&
"We are nearly prepared." It was the strange Tok'ra, who had been introduced as Marvath. His host was tall, slender, with straight, dark hair. "You should leave your host now."
"A moment," Evree demurred. When Marvath merely stood there, she added, "and privacy."
Jack felt a sickening thrill run through him. Why the last minute desire for a private chat? He devoutly hoped that Evree wasn't going to..,
Before he could even finish the thought, Evree, weakened though she was, sat up, took his face in her hands and kissed him fiercely, if quickly.
Sooner than O'Neill could react or say anything, Evree was sinking back onto her bed. "I am ready," she announced. Her eyes flicked towards Jack. "You may wish to leave, O'Neill. I doubt that you will find the sight.., appealing."
"I know what a Goa'uld looks like," he snapped irritably. "Just get on with it."
"Very well," Evree acquiesced, giving him an unfathomable look as she did so. Then, Draylea's mouth opened, and Evree slithered out.
Marvath immediately took the queen and placed her in the sustaining liquid of the birthing tank.
No sooner did Evree become immersed, than the birthing process began.
&&&&&
"..., it was from such as you that I originally fled." Evree's voice issued from the message crystal. "I sought solitude and peace, for even at such a comparatively young age, I felt eternally wearied by the constant squabbles and power struggles."
Ahriman hadn't moved since initiating the crystal's playback mechanism. And if he had not recognized Evree's voice, he would have sworn that it was not her. Certainly she had, for the most part, acted as any other Goa'uld he had known. Mostly.
"Many races call us parasites, and such we are," the recording played on. "For not only do we require humanoid hosts to house our bodies, but we are parasitical in other ways. The vast array of technology that rests at our borrowed fingertips is largely either stolen or found. We, as a race, create nearly nothing. We seek to prove our dominance over the 'lesser creatures', but it is they who build and create. We only destroy. I wish better than that for my children, Ahriman. And that is why they, and I, will die before I let you have control of them."
The recording ended, and Ahriman spent some time just staring at the crystal with its unwelcome and offensive message. Then, he seized it, threw it to the floor, and crushed it beneath his heel.
&&&&&
"She's stopped," O'Neill observed. "Does that mean that's all there is?" His knowledge of Goa'uld reproduction was of the very slightest. The only one he had seen, a Tok'ra by name, but still the same species, had been drugged so that she was perpetually giving birth.
"No." Selmac answered him, though Marvath had been the primary attendant. "There are less than a dozen. Even given that it is her first time, that is far too few."
"She may have delayed too long," Marvath observed. "I believe that she tires."
Jack pressed his face against the surface of the aquarium-like affair, and he could have sworn that the adult Goa'uld within turned its eyes to him in an unblinking stare similar to the one Evree had given him after she'd kissed him.
"You can do this, Evree," he muttered, feeling a little stupid. After all, she couldn't possibly hear him in there, could she? "This is how you beat Ahriman. If you die, he wins."
The Goa'uld just hung suspended in the birthing chamber for a long moment. Then, she flipped her tail, swam back to the center, and renewed her efforts to give life to her young.
&&&&&&&
"What word from Ahriman?" Anubis demanded.
"None, Lord Anubis," the officer reported. "Indeed, if I were to speculate..," He hesitated, not sure whether or not his speculation would be welcome.
"Speak," Anubis allowed magnanimously.
"It would seem that Ahriman is going to pains to remain silent," the lesser Goa'uld replied. "It would not surprise me if he did not have the queen that he promised you to seal your alliance."
"It will most assuredly be the last miscalculation he makes if that is so," Anubis replied. The loss of his first queen still rankled. And while his created warriors could be numbered in legions, still, he wanted more. And for that, he needed another queen. A young, nubile queen, which Ahriman had assured him that Evree was. He would be extremely displeased if he was not able to take possession of her. And Ahriman would suffer for his displeasure. "Contact Ahriman again. Make sure that he is aware that a reply is required. I would know more of this queen that he is supposed to be able to deliver to me."
"As you will it, Lord Anubis." The other bowed and left the room, reflecting that Ahriman had better be able to deliver what he had promised. Anubis did not take to disappointment well.
&&&&&
"Jesus, how many are there?" O'Neill could barely see Evree amid the swarm of infant Goa'uld in the tank.
"I counted forty-two," Marvath replied. "A respectable number for a first birthing. And the young are rather larger than is normal."
"No doubt from the fact that she carried them so long," Selmac observed.
"As you say," Marvath replied. "Observe her now." He directed their attention to Evree, swimming amongst her young, nuzzling up against one, then another. "Have you ever seen such behavior?"
"What's wrong with that?" Jack demanded. "She's just getting to know her kids."
"It is not our way," Selmac explained. "And certainly not the way of the Goa'uld. We are not nurturing species, Colonel. For a queen to attempt to.., bond with her young is unheard of."
"And yet that appears to be precisely what she is doing," Marvath pointed out. "Will we be taking the queen back with us? It would seem to me that her behavior merits study."
Selmac gave O'Neill a quizzical stare. "Will we be allowed to take Evree with us, O'Neill?"
"Not my decision to make," Jack muttered. And he was mightily glad that he wasn't the one that would have to make that decision. Because for the life of him, he wasn't sure exactly what it would be.
At last, the queen swam to the edge of the tank, flipping her tail imperiously.
"I believe that she wishes to be reunited with her host," Marvath remarked. "Is that decision within your realm of authority?"
"As long as Draylea doesn't have any objections," O'Neill replied. Draylea had slept through the entire procedure, and it had been speculated that Evree had had to draw on her host's reserves of strength as well as her own, merely to survive to birth her young. He gave Draylea's shoulder a gentle nudge. "Can you hear me, Draylea?"
"Mmm-hmm." The host was still more than half asleep, but not completely comatose.
"Evree would like to come back now," Jack explained carefully. "Are you willing to have her back?"
"What kind of silly question is that?" Draylea muttered irritably, one more step closer to actual wakefulness. "Haven't I given you to understand that Evree and I are no longer parasite and host? We are true symbiotes." She glanced at the other two males present. "Like the Tok'ra."
Before the reunification could take place, Dr. Frasier insisted on giving Draylea a quick once-over. She supposed, she admitted to herself, that she could have attended to that task while Evree had been occupied with her own labors. But it had been such a rare and fascinating opportunity that she hadn't been able to resist watching the entire process.
"Well, what's the verdict, Doc?" O'Neill asked, as Janet finished checking out Evree's host. "Is she good to go or not?"
"She's tired and a little weak," Frasier reported. "But so, unless I miss my guess, is Evree. And the two of them are so attuned to each other that they'll probably be better off together than apart."
As soon as the physician had made the pronouncement, Selmac/Jacob went to the tank full of Goa'uld and put his hands down near the queen without trying to grab her. If she truly wanted out, she would swim into his hands. Which is precisely what she did.
But once again safely ensconced in her host, Evree seemed considerably less comfortable than anyone had ever seen her. She gave O'Neill a fleeing, agonized glance, then looked away. "This is most, awkward," she murmured. "I truly thought that I would die."
The Tok'ra and Janet, not understanding what the remark was in reference to, merely exchanged puzzled looks. Only O'Neill seemed to understand. He waved the others away.
"Is that why you kissed me?" he inquired. "Because you thought you were going to die, and that it wouldn't matter?"
"In case it has escaped your attention, O'Neill," Evree mumbled, refusing to meet his eyes. "We are not affectionate creatures. I wanted there to be an act of affection to herald my children's arrival into the world."
"You looked really maternal in there," Jack commented, more than happy to turn the conversation away from that unexpected kiss. "The Tok'ra say that Goa'uld don't do that."
"They don't," she confirmed. "And I cannot for the life of me understand it." She looked over to the tank where her young were swimming around, healthy and well. "That is life that I created in my own body. Why would I not wish to form a bond with them?"
&&&&&&
"Incoming transmission, sir," the communications tech informed General Hammond.
"Source of the transmission?" Hammond demanded.
"PX549," the tech answered.
"Open the channel," Hammond ordered grimly. He already had a pretty good idea what the message was going to be, and he wasn't proven wrong.
"Your time grows short," Ahriman's voice boomed over the speakers. "Have you finally realized the futility of resistance? If you do not deliver my queen to me within the next twenty-four of your hours, I shall annihilate all life on your planet."
It was at this point that General Hammond decided to see what kind of poker player Ahriman was. He tapped the technician's shoulder to indicate that he should switch channels from receive to send. "This is General Hammond. Even if we were willing to do so, your queen is in no physical shape to be moved."
"What have you done to her?" Ahriman demanded harshly, as though he had never tormented and tortured her himself. But of course, that was different, he was Goa'uld, and not Tau'ri.
"She is physically exhausted," Hammond went on. "From giving birth." It was mostly the truth, but he didn't think that Ahriman was in any position to tell what was truth, what was fabrication and what had been omitted. "According to those who attend her, she is clinging to life by a thread."
"Pray to whatever gods you have that she survives," Ahriman warned. "For mark my words, General, I will have my queen back. Alive and well. And all her young with her. If she dies, it will make your ending much slower and more painful."
As the transmission ended, Hammond stood where he was for some moments, mulling the conversation over in his head. "He's afraid of something," he muttered to himself. "Anubis? Whatever it is, Ahriman is getting desperate. Now all we have to do is find a way to make that work to our advantage."
&&&&&&
"I don't expect you to admire them, Daniel," Evree assured him. "I know that we are singularly unlovely creatures. Even to ourselves, for do we not seek out hosts that personify human beauty?" For all that she insisted that Goa'uld were nothing to look at, she was gazing avidly into the tank herself.
"We have a saying here," Daniel informed her. "Handsome is as handsome does. Whether or not there is any beauty in your children will be proven by how they live."
"My children will be builders and creators rather than destroyers," Evree said proudly. "Has it never occurred to any of them that a planet is much lovelier to behold in its natural state than it is after the surface has been razed?"
"Obviously not," Jackson replied. "You love them, don't you?" He indicated the newly born Goa'uld swimming about in the tank.
"I don't know about love," Evree admitted. "It is not an emotion that Goa'uld have ever had occasion to experience. But I know that I enjoy looking at my offspring, and knowing that they will hopefully be somewhat less parasitical than the rest of our benighted race." She tore her gaze away from the tank for a moment to look at Daniel. "Goa'uld believe that love is a weakness. And kindness as well. But you have all been most kind to me, and I perceive that it may not, after all, be a weakness."
"An astute perception," Teal'c remarked, as he entered. "Will your young remain in artificial incubation until they are of an age to take a host?"
"I don't know," Evree said, a little sadly. "I realize that I really have no say in how my children will be treated. But I had my say in that Ahriman cannot touch them now." Her eyes drifted upwards to meet with the Jaffa's. "He can't touch them, can he?"
"Ahriman will not have your children," Teal'c promised. He wasn't sure that he believed all the noble sentiments that he'd heard Evree claim for her children while he had eavesdropped. But he would destroy all her young himself before he allowed them to fall into Ahriman's hands.
"The word of a Jaffa," Evree murmured in satisfaction. "You fool no one, Jaffa. I know that you would kill my children to keep them away from Ahriman. And should that possibility become a real danger, I expect you to do so."
"And you do have my word on it," Teal'c assured her, placing a hand over his heart and bowing. He turned and went back the way he had come.
"I ought to leave too," Daniel remarked ruefully. "You should be resting, Evree."
"I have done naught else since I emerged from the birthing tank," the Goa'uld pointed out.
"But both you and your host are worn out," Daniel replied. "And judging by the way that Janet is looking at me, if I don't make fast tracks out of here I'm going to be in for a lecture."
"But you will come back and visit me after I have rested?" Evree asked eagerly.
"I'll be back," Daniel vowed. He was still torn between what he knew about Goa'uld and the fact that Evree seemed to genuinely want to be his friend. "Please don't let it all be a lie," he quietly begged whoever might be listening that might be in a position to grant his request.