Five

/ P3X-796 /

"Plague!? Koraes, why the hell didn't you mention that sooner?" He was on his feet now, his expression somewhere between incredulity, fear, and annoyance . . . or was it anger? She was not familiar enough with his expressions yet to differentiate between them.

Koraes knew she should have spoken sooner, but she had not thought it made any difference. The Plague she spoke of had been designed specifically for the Kryll and had only taken the Builders on the Post after trying to adapt to her physiology. Since she had no Human in her, it would not affect him, right?

"I . . . I am sorry, O'Neill." She whispered from her place in the Command Chair. "I had not meant to deceive you; it is simply that it was not designed to affect Humans. Therefore I did not see any need to inform you of its existence as you would not be affected."

As she watched him, his expression shifted between a few other emotions before settling on one that she guessed was a combination of fatigue and worry. "Designed? You mean someone killed the folks here by using a bio-weapon?" He asked, sinking back down into the chair he had risen from.

Koraes nodded. "Yes. During the Great War. Our Enemy sought to destroy the half of our Alliance which had constructed the only weapon which could turn the tide of the War."

O'Neill had to restrain the shiver which ran up his spine at the mention of biological warfare. True, he was Special Forces, which meant that he had been trained to understand it and recognize the applications of it. But that did not mean that the prospect of actually seeing it used was any less disturbing. It just meant that he had a clearer understanding of how disturbing it was.

"Is there a way we can be sure I'm not affected?" He asked, his tone somewhat subdued now.

"Ssendrriya can scan you." Koraes offered, her own tone as subdued as his.

"Do it."

Ssendrriya acknowledged and began the scan. Koraes decided that maybe if he had more information, it might help.

"The Bio-Weapon as you called it was designed only to kill Kryll." She reiterated her statement of earlier.

His brown eyes fixed on her, and she felt as though he were looking straight through her to her soul. "Your people didn't abandon this station, did they, Koraes?" He asked in that same subdued tone.

Koraes swallowed and turned her eyes away from his piercing gaze. "The Sekarra did, yes. They were afraid that the Plague would mutate and take them. They took the ships." She clasped her hands in her lap. "The rest did not leave, no."

O'Neill knew by that itch in the back of his mind that he was going to regret asking the next question. Something about her demeanor told him he already likely knew the answer. Yet, his military mind, needing as much information as possible, needed to ask the question. "What happened to them?"

Koraes did not raise her eyes from her hands. She could not look into those strong but gentle brown eyes as she answered . . . an answer she knew he would react badly to. "They were taken by the Plague."

He had expected it; yet, he found himself trying to digest it. "Wait, you said the Plague was only designed for Kryll. Right?"

"Yes."

"Then how could it . . ." His blood ran cold, and his heart skipped several beats. The answer was so simple, even without the medical expertise of Dr. Frasier, he could figure it out. It also explained the guilt he had seen in her eyes before. "You? How?"

Koraes tried to shrink into the chair, wished for it to swallow her whole. "I became ill. As it attempted to adapt to my physiology, it only half succeeded. It adapted to my Builder half and swept through that part of our population even faster than it had the Kryll." She swallowed, fighting back the tears of remembered loss, pain, and guilt. The guilt was heavy in her heart now.

"Faster?" That made no sense. Not even by the small bit of medical knowledge he had. It should have been slower. "Why faster, Koraes?" He really did hate to continue to pour salt in an open wound, but he needed all the information possible if he was to make a proper threat assessment.

She felt hot tears burn a path down her cheeks; and her head came forward, raven hair streaked with blue fell in front of her face, hiding her expression from him. "I was engineered to be the perfect melding of Sekarra and Builder genetic matrices. The best of both species." Two species which could not merge naturally. "Because of this, it had a perfect sampling of both sets of DNA to adapt to."

"Which is why the Sekarra were afraid." O'Neill finished for her. "They left you here because they were afraid you'd carry it to their empire, and the Kryll/Builder Alliance doesn't know you're here to retrieve." He continued the logic.

"And I have not told them." She finished it for him. "Because I may yet carry the Plague to them." Her head was still down, her hands clenched tightly together in her lap.

Now it was all coming together. She was in a form of self-imposed exile to avoid killing others. And that decision took a courage and strength that even O'Neill could admire. Especially in one so obviously young and inexperienced.

"You're a very brave young lady, Koraes." He told her genuinely.

Koraes looked up finally. Her metallic azurite eyes shimmered with unshed tears, and her voice shook. "Not so brave, O'Neill." She whispered brokenly. "I endangered you to assuage my loneliness. I . . ." Her voice broke on the apology, and she buried her face in her hands. Her slender frame shook with the sobs which escaped her best attempt to hold them in. "I'm sorry . . ." She finally managed in a broken whisper.