Title: As the 'Gate Turns: Ishmael
Author: Annerb
Rating: Little bit of profanity, violence
Summary: Daniel scrambles to find answers and the truth will change everything they thought they knew.
Classifications: Series, Drama, Action
Season: Mid-season 8, up through End Game (AU from there)
Disclaimer The characters mentioned in this story are the property of Showtime and Gekko Film Corp. The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa'uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership. This fanfic is not intended as an infringement upon those rights and solely meant for entertainment. All other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property of the author.

Author's Note: Really sorry about the long wait. Thanks to Montage and Triptnx for kicking me out of my fic loss-of-faith. Without them, this might have stayed WIP. Writers are such fragile beings! ;p This story line came out of a bunch of questions I had about the Goa'uld civilization that haven't been addressed on the show. So I came up with my own answers. Hope you find it as interesting as I did. Thanks for all the great FB!

Feedback: Always appreciated!

Part 18: Ishmael

Daniel rolled over for the umpteenth time and finally gave up on any pretense of sleeping with a sigh. After three days with no sleep, Dr. Warner had banned them all from Haley's room, ordering them all to rest. None of them had left quietly, but Dr. Warner was a hard man to argue with when he really set his foot down. And so it was that Daniel had spent the last two hours staring at the ceiling when he wasn't tossing around impatiently.

With a final curse that Daniel thought might have impressed even Jack, he pushed back the covers and began pulling on his clothes. It was hopeless, not to mention ridiculous. Who could possibly sleep at a time like this? Lacing up his shoes, Daniel decided that he would hit the commissary for some coffee and then figure out a way to talk the SFs into letting him into Haley's room. If he was going to have insomnia, he'd rather have it sitting by her side. Laying here in the dark was only going to drive him crazy.

Daniel slipped into the empty, early morning hallways. He didn't run into another soul all the way to the commissary. As he walked, his thoughts inextricably turned to Haley once again. He had been more than a little surprised by her desperate grip and soft confession earlier. When he went off to PS6-976 he hadn't really thought about how it would affect Haley, he had just needed to get away. But she had been left facing her memories on her own, erroneously believing that he thought poorly of her for what she had suffered.

Daniel had wanted to shake her for being silly enough to think that he cared about anything the Goa'uld had done to her. But instead, he had held her while she wept. She had fallen asleep like that and Daniel had never managed to get another moment alone with her.

And now she lay in a coma, unaware of the real reasons Daniel had avoided her: his ludicrous fear of Jack and Sam's reaction, not to mention his own disbelief that Haley could really feel anything for him. It was all so confusing and mixed up. Pouring himself a coffee, Daniel determinedly headed towards Haley's room, needing to see her and explain, even if she wouldn't be able to hear him.

Daniel rounded the corner to see two unconscious SFs slumped on the floor by the open door of Haley's room. Coffee fell from senseless fingers as Daniel dashed into the room to find Jacob gracelessly sprawled on the floor, his arm at an odd angle and his face showing the beginnings of a blooming bruise. As Daniel knelt to check his pulse, his eyes darted to the ominously empty bed with growing unease.

Upon satisfying himself that Jacob was in no immediate danger, Daniel headed back out into the hall and hit the alarm, grabbing the phone next to it to order medical attention for Jacob and the guards. Task completed, Daniel continued down the hall, the flashing red alarm lights eerily illuminating more unconscious bodies littering the floor.

Up further on the left, the door to an armory stood ajar and Daniel's stomach filled with dread. He broke into a run, noting absently that his current path lead straight to the gateroom. Bursting into the room, he found Haley standing at the base of the active gate, adjusting the P-90 that was just one of many weapons strapped to her body. He glanced up at the control room to see bewildered techs scrambling around.

Movement on the ramp brought Daniel's eyes back to Haley. She was moving calmly towards the wormhole, as if alarms weren't blaring all around her.

"Haley!" Daniel called out.

She must have heard him, but she didn't even pause. She stepped purposively through the gate without looking back.

Daniel was about to submit to the sudden need to follow her when the wormhole blinked out and the entire mountain plunged into darkness.

It had taken twenty minutes just to get the lights back on, and judging from the confused looks on Siler and Sam's faces, it would take even longer to get the dialing computer back up. Jack knew that there was no way to follow Haley. By the time they finally got everything running again, she would be long gone, which he could only assume was the whole point of her sabotage. But the whole purpose behind her impromptu flight was still a big mystery. Where had she gone and why?

They all gathered together in the briefing room to try to make sense of what had just happened. Jacob, Sam and Daniel were seated at the large table. Sam was watching her father with concern and Daniel looked completely shell-shocked.

Jack stared at Jacob with his arm in a sling and a nasty bruise on his cheek. He looked like he had been taken through the wringer. He had not said a word to anyone since he had regained consciousness in the infirmary. He sat still as stone staring straight ahead.

Jack shared a glance with Sam but she just shrugged, clearly mystified by his behavior, too.

"Jacob, what the hell happened?" Jack demanded for the fifth time in as many minutes.

"I think I can provide the answer to that, O'Neill," Teal'c said as he walked into the briefing room with two SFs right behind him.

Jack eyed the extra security with curiosity, but decided that Teal'c probably had his reasons when the man made no move to explain them.

Teal'c looked at Jacob for a long moment and the Tok'ra seemed to stiffen slightly under the Jaffa's gaze. Teal'c held up a tape. "The surveillance cameras recorded the event in question."

Jack gestured for Teal'c to pop the tape into the player. As the scene slowly played out, Jack felt his confusion mounting. When the tape showed Jacob pull out a long, wicked looking blade, Sam gasped. They watched the ensuing scuffle in complete silence. After Haley fled the room, Teal'c stopped the tape.

It only took mere moments for Jack to get over his shock. Then he was grabbing Jacob roughly by the collar of his shirt and yelling at him in the face. "Just what the hell did you think you were doing!"

No one moved to pull Jack off Jacob; they were all still too stunned. Why would Jacob try to kill his own granddaughter?

Jacob stared back at Jack for long moments. Then his eyes narrowed. "I did what needed to be done."

But the harsh voice that came out was not Jacob's. It was Selmak's.

"Selmak?" Sam asked with disbelief.

Selmak glanced briefly at Sam before turning back to Jack. "My only regret is that I have failed," she said defiantly, showing not an iota of contrition.

Jack was just about to give into the urge to knock Selmak back to last Tuesday when Daniel's voice broke through his concentration.

"You son of a bitch," Daniel said with quiet intensity, not looking up from the table on which his fists were clenched in fury.

Daniel so rarely used profanity that the whole room turned to stare at him in shock.

Daniel finally looked up and continued in a quiet and controlled voice that Jack imagined meant he was barely holding on to the last threads of his temper. Daniel rarely got really angry and when he did, it was a sight to behold. "You didn't come here to help her at all; you came here to kill her."

Selmak stared back boldly. "I was prepared to do what needed to be done."

"To kill your own grandchild. A defenseless, sick woman."

Selmak leaned back into her chair and looked at Jack. "She is a menace that you could not possibly understand. I can tell you this, though, that thing is not your daughter, if she ever was."

Jack raised an eyebrow at her little dramatic speech, feeling the last of his patience completely draining away. "I think we have had enough with the cryptic riddles for now, thank you very much. Just what the hell is going on?"

Selmak looked around the room again, her eyes lingering on the SFs. Probably deciding that her chance of escape was slim, she sighed heavily and said, "She is harcesis."

The room once again fell into a stunned silence. Jack vaguely wondered how in the hell that explained anything.

"No, she isn't," Daniel finally said. "She is a human child, not the child of two hosts."

Selmak snorted. "Yes, that is probably what Baal told himself, too. Right before his blood began to flow at her hands. He should not have meddled in such things."

"Haley didn't kill Baal, Anat did," Jack defended.

"Keep telling yourself that, if it gives you comfort. But I am telling you that whatever killed Baal is still alive and well and just escaped through your Stargate."

"And whose fault is that?" Jack asked belligerently.

Selmak didn't bother to answer.

"Say we believed you, that Haley really is harcesis. How exactly does that fact demand that you murder her?"

Selmak eyed Jack and pursed her lips. "I refuse to speak of it anymore."

"I want to speak to my father," Sam said quietly, causing everyone to look at her. Her face was pale, Jack noted, but she had that determined Carter look on her face.

Selmak didn't answer. She just stared straight ahead, refusing to look at any of them.

"I always knew the Tok'ra were no better than the Goa'uld," Jack remarked darkly.

Selmak's eyes flashed in anger as she glared at Jack, but then she sighed and dropped her head.

"Oh my god," Jacob moaned when his head came back up. "I couldn't stop her! I just had to watch…"

Suddenly Sam was kneeling next to him, her hand on his uninjured arm. "Dad, do you know what is going on?"

Jacob just shook his head. "She's shutting me out, I can't… It's never been like this before. It's like I had no control over my body. Why would she do this?"

That was a question Jack imagined they would all like to know the answer to. "What can you tell us about this harcesis thing?"

"Nothing more than we already knew before," Jacob said after a moment. "But I can tell you one thing, though. Selmak is absolutely terrified."

"Of what?"

"Haley," Jacob said with wide eyes.

Jack rubbed his hands over his face. This all made absolutely no sense to him.

"Daniel," Jack said, causing the man's head to snap up from the table at which he had been staring blindly. "We need to know everything about this 'harcesis' thing and anything that might tell us what has Selmak so freaked out."

Daniel nodded firmly before pushing away from the table and heading out the room, his fists still clenched at his sides.

"Teal'c, I would appreciate it if you would escort Jacob to a holding cell," Jack continued, the look on his face daring Jacob to object.

Jacob just put up his free hand in defense and said, "I understand. I'll see if I can get Selmak to tell me anything."

As they left, Jack turned to Sam, who still looked beyond shell-shocked. "Carter…"

Her head snapped up and she nodded. "I know, sir. Get the dialing computer back on line."

Jack held her gaze for a long moment before nodding back and heading into his office.

Sam almost made it to the stairs before abruptly turning back around and following Jack.

She found him sitting at his unusually organized desk staring at a single sheet of paper. She recognized it immediately. It was the subject of many long discussions between Sam and Jack during the last few weeks. It was a letter of resignation. It was Jack's retirement from the Air Force.

Sam had been adamantly against it at first, not wanting him to give up a job he loved. It was too much pressure. But Jack had just smiled and said, "Do you know the one reason I took the desk in the first place, Carter?"

"Because you thought you could do anything you wanted?"

"No. Though, I am still a bit disappointed about that whole thing."

Sam couldn't help but smile.

"No," Jack continued, "I knew that my days in the field were numbered. I took this job so I could watch your back, Carter. And because I-"

He had broken off abruptly, as if he had said too much. They still had a hard time saying what they really felt, after spending so much time suppressing and avoiding.

"And because what, Jack?" Sam gently prodded.

Jack let out an annoyed puff of air and shifted slightly in his seat. He really hated this new honesty thing. Sam just patiently waited. "Because I wanted to know that I would still get to see you. Okay?" he said defensively.

Sam fought back the smirk that threatened, not wanting him to know how cute she thought that was. Not quite the right way to reward his honesty. "You didn't think we'd see each other outside work?"

"Carter. When did we ever see each other off-base?"

True, they rarely saw each other and never alone. But that was because of the regulations, right? "You didn't think that maybe we would see a lot more of each other if you did, say, happen to retire?"

"No," Jack said, obviously not wanting to expand.

"Why?"

When it became clear that Sam wasn't going to let it go, he sighed dramatically and bit out one word. "Pete."

"Ah," Sam said. Of course. And then she dissolved into very un-Colonel-ish giggles.

Jack groaned, rolled his eyes and pushed away from the table in protest.

Sam darted a hand out to stop him. "No, Jack, I'm sorry…it's just…" Overwhelmed by giggles once again, she just shook her head.

"What!" Jack snapped.

The grumpy look on his face almost set Sam off again, but she managed to regain some control. She turned what she hoped were now serious eyes on him. "I would have dropped him before you could even finish saying the word retirement, Jack."

Jack nodded, seemingly slightly mollified. "I know that now, but back then…"

Sam felt all amusement rapidly drain away, replaced by guilt. "I'm sorry, Jack."

"Hey," Jack said sternly, "what did we agree about guilt?"

Sam tried to smile, knowing he was right. They had both done countless things to hurt each other. Neither of them really wanted to dwell.

"Anyway, you've just proven my point. I plan on seeing an awful lot of you off the base from now on." It was amazing how Jack could make such an innocently stated sentence sound downright scandalous at the same time. "So," he finished with a flourish, "no reason not to retire!"

"You'll be bored."

"And you don't think I'm bored now? Carter, I'm a good-for-nothing paper pusher!"

Sam glared.

"Okay, okay," Jack said, hands up in surrender. "Maybe not completely useless, but come on. I'm not exactly the prime candidate to liaise between the military and politicians." He added some choice words about politicians as if to reinforce his position.

"All right. Say I bought that, which I don't, what would you do during this hypothetical retirement?"

"You mean besides the obvious?" he quipped with a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

Sam absolutely refused to blush.

Jack began to pace around the room. "I don't know! Get a dog, take up golf. Heck, I could make an entire career out of bugging Haley and interrogating potential boyfriends."

Sam snorted. "I don't think you need to worry about potential boyfriends, Jack."

"Why not?" He looked distinctly disappointed.

Sam bit back a smile and shook her head. "Never mind."

Jack stared at her a moment before shrugging. "Whatever. The point is, I am ready for this." And then he had grabbed her hand and pulled her close. "We've waited long enough, Carter. We deserve this."

Sam couldn't help but agree.

They had decided to give themselves a month to get used to the idea. Which seemed like a terrible idea, even as it was a good one. As the panic at the very thought of what was to come after the infamous retirement began to fade, Sam had to admit that it was a great idea.

As of today, there were five days left of the adjustment month. And here they were, their daughter missing somewhere out in the universe after almost being murdered by her grandfather. The ludicrous situation seemed to be mocking their hopes and carefully laid plans.

Jack was still staring hard at the letter on which hinged so many of their dreams.

"She needs you here," Sam finally said, relieved to hear that her voice was calm and even, no matter how tumultuous her feelings really were.

Jack nodded without looking up.

"Somebody else might not understand."

Again, a silent nod.

"It's the right thing to do," Sam said, listing off all the reasons they both knew, even as she felt her heart squeezing painfully.

Jack nodded.

Sam's eyes never left the pristine sheet of official-looking paper as Jack carefully lifted it almost reverently from the desk. He looked at it one last time before slipping it into the paper shredder.

Sam somewhat wistfully thought that it felt like she had been put through that shredder, too. Thin strips of paper, all that was left of their ravaged hopes.

Sam ruthlessly smashed down such fanciful thoughts. This was their daughter. Nothing was more important. She glanced at Jack to find him still staring at the offending machine, his face hard and unreadable. So…distant. Sam vaguely wondered if this tragedy was the last straw for Jack O'Neill. She really had no idea what this would do to him, losing Haley again.

Sam suddenly felt the need to flee. She nodded stiffly and said, "Sir," as way of farewell.

Her flight was stilled by Jack's hand on her wrist. "Carter."

Sam turned slowly to face him, bracing herself for whatever he may say, waiting to be pushed away again.

"I…" he broke off and shook his head. He looked her in the eye and started again. "We do this together, Carter. No matter what happens."

Jack always said that he wasn't any good with words, but Sam heard him clearly. He wasn't walking away this time. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting relief and hope wash over her before pulling her arm from his grasp. She could see a brief flash of alarm on his face, but it faded quickly as she took his hand in hers.

"Together."

An hour later Sam finally had the dialing computer back online and Jack had called them all back into the briefing room for an update.

"Okay, what do we know, Daniel?" Jack asked, noting that he looked a bit calmer than he had before.

"Well, not much. We know that a harcesis is the child of two hosts and that it is forbidden to create one by the Goa'uld. According to Teal'c, such children are hunted down with impunity and destroyed. Ostensibly because they would have 'all the knowledge of the Goa'uld,' though we are unsure as to what that really means."

"But Apophis managed to create Shifu," Sam noted.

"Yes, but Shifu has since learned to suppress that knowledge," Daniel reminded her.

"And if he hadn't?" Sam asked.

"Well, from what he 'taught' me," Daniel said with a grimace, "he would have succumbed to the evils of his subconscious."

"So if Haley somehow gained access to all of those memories…" Sam said, trailing off at the end.

"Are you trying to tell me that there is a very good chance that my daughter has gone all dark side on us?" Jack asked with disbelief.

Daniel sighed. "I don't know, Jack. But it's a distinct possibility."

"It could explain why Selmak felt the need to kill her," Teal'c offered.

"Maybe…"

"You do not sound convinced, Daniel Jackson."

"Yeah, Teal'c. Something about this whole thing doesn't make sense to me. Like why, exactly, the Goa'uld are so scared of harcesis. Why is that knowledge such a threat? And if it was really such a threat, why would Baal have done this in the first place? And why would Selmak be so terrified that she would suppress her host and try to kill her grandchild? And if Haley is so evil now, then why was she so careful not to kill a single guard? Why didn't she just take over the base and blow us all up? She easily could have, if her sabotage of our systems is any indication."

"What exactly are you getting at, Daniel?" Jack asked when Daniel finally paused to take a breath.

"I have no idea," he said, dropping his head in his hands. "I just feel like we're missing something."

"Well, if Selmak won't help us, where else can we get answers?" asked Sam.

"I guess we could always ask Baal, if he weren't dead," Jack noted insolently.

"I do not believe any Goa'uld would offer assistance, O'Neill. The harcesis is a topic that is forbidden to even speak of. I only knew of it at all as First Prime, as it was my duty to enforce the decrees of the System Lords."

"Plus, the last thing we need is for them to learn about Haley. I imagine they would try to…" Sam said, trailing off at the end.

"Destroy her," Teal'c finished for her.

"Yeah," she said softly.

"I need to go to Kheb," Daniel said suddenly.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"I think it's time I looked up some old friends."

Daniel entered the quiet garden. It showed no marks from the fierce Goa'uld attack years before and the plants were still carefully pruned. He removed his shoes and entered the main sanctuary, sinking down in the soft black sand. A single candle lay burning, as if it had been waiting for him.

"It is too clear and so it is hard to see."

Daniel glanced up from the flame to see Shifu standing calmly on the other side. He appeared to be older than the last time Daniel had seen him, but he knew this was just an illusion as Shifu had no form to age.

Daniel smiled at his wife's son. "It is good to see you, Shifu."

Shifu smiled back, but said, "You have come for answers that I cannot give."

"Why not?"

"To know the end, you must first find the beginning."

Daniel briefly wondered if he had really understood all this stuff when he was ascended. Time to try the direct approach. "Is she harcesis?"

"She is what she is, no more and no less. Names lend fear and illusion, but they do not change the essence that is."

Daniel had to take that as a 'yes.' He sighed and dropped his head to his hands, feeling a headache coming on. "Why is that so bad? Why do so many fear the harcesis?" he asked softly.

For the first time, the smile dropped from Shifu's face and his brow creased. "I have taught you of the evils of my subconscious."

"The only way to win is to deny it battle," Daniel quoted morosely.

"That is my path. We are not the same, she and I."

"And what? Haley's path is to be evil?" Daniel said sharply, beginning to lose his patience. He pushed to his feet and began pacing around the room. He ranted at the ceiling. "Come on, Oma! Shifu was worth saving, but Haley's not? Is that it? If Shifu can learn, why can't she?"

"Her trail is meant for her feet; we cannot interfere," Shifu calmly said.

Daniel stopped pacing at Shifu's words, dread filling his stomach. "Meant for her? Don't try to tell me that this is all destiny!"

"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds," Shifu gently countered.

Daniel almost laughed, despite himself. "Roosevelt?"

Shifu smiled. "He was a wise man."

Daniel sighed and sat back down on the ground. "So, Haley's path is to fight an evil that she can't possibly defeat."

"None of us know what the future holds, no matter how wide our vision."

"If you immediately know that the candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked long ago," Daniel said.

"Yes."

"Well, there's that at least," Daniel said wryly. "I just don't know what to do."

Shifu sat down next to Daniel and placed a hand on his arm. "You are a good man, Stepfather. Open your heart and the path will be clear."

"You've been hanging around Oma too much," Daniel complained affectionately.

Shifu smiled.

"Thanks, Shifu. But I guess it's time for me to find some answers by going back to the beginning…" Daniel trailed off as something clicked in his mind. He turned back to Shifu with wide eyes and smiled. "I thought you weren't supposed to help me?"

But Shifu was gone. Daniel was talking to air.

"Thanks," Daniel said softly to the empty room.

Sam was waiting for Daniel when he stepped back through the gate.

"Did you get the answers you were looking for?"

"We weren't asking the right questions," Daniel said, immediately heading for the cell that currently held Jacob Carter.

Sam shared a baffled glance with Jack through the control room window. He just shook his head at her and gestured for her to follow the wayward archaeologist.

Daniel pushed into the cell with Sam right on his heels. "You expected this," he accused without preamble. "Somehow you knew this would happen. How?"

Jacob looked startled for a moment, but then he was staring at the floor, his gaze blank.

Daniel was about to lay in to the Tok'ra when Sam placed a restraining hand on his arm. "Wait," she said softly. "Let him try to convince her to help."

Almost five minutes had passed when the Tok'ra finally looked up. "I will try to answer your questions," Selmak said, a slight tremor in her voice betraying her trepidation.

"Just tell us how you knew."

"What do you know of Ra's discovery of Earth?" Selmak asked.

Daniel wasn't really sure what that had to do with anything, but he decided to play along. "Well…the writings on Abydos said that Ra was a member of a dying race that possessed the body of a human in which he could maintain a perpetual immortality of sorts."

"Yes. From that time, the Goa'uld used humans as hosts, Jaffa and slaves, spreading them throughout the galaxy."

Daniel nodded impatiently. None of this was new to him.

Selmak leaned back in her chair. "Have you never asked yourself why Ra came here in the first place? What plague haunted him?"

Daniel shook his head. "I never really thought about it."

"The Goa'uld were certainly a dying race, but Ra came to Earth to hide, not to find a new race of hosts. It was only a complete fluke that he discovered the Tau'ri at all."

"Hiding from what?" Daniel asked, his tone betraying his growing unease.

"Not what," Selmak corrected with a shrewd look, "who."

Daniel closed his eyes as the pieces fell into place in his mind. "What's happening to Haley…it's happened before."

"Yes."

"What do you mean?" spoke up Sam.

Selmak turned her ancient eyes to Sam's face, her voice heavy. "More than five millennia ago, a child named Dinah was born. She was the first harcesis."

Sam sunk somewhat bonelessly into a nearby chair.

Selmak eyed her for a moment before continuing. "Her mother was Akkan."

"The Babylonian Goddess of conception, birth and destiny," Daniel supplied.

"Fitting, isn't it?" quipped Selmak humorlessly. "You are familiar with Unas, the First Ones?"

"Yes."

"For almost a thousand years the Goa'uld used Unas as hosts and slaves, pulling themselves out of the primordial waters of their home world. They mastered the Stargates, building their civilization on stolen technology and on the backs of slaves. The Unas were bred on many worlds. They made excellent hosts with their strong bodies and weak minds that could be easily dominated by the more intelligent Goa'uld.

"Akkan was the first to suppress her own consciousness so that she could have a child of her host's body. None before her had even thought to try, so little did they think of their hosts. And so Dinah was born. No one really knows what became of Akkan, but she surely perished because Dinah was left to be raised by her Unas kin.

"She was not like them, though. She had the mastery of speech, writing, mathematics, and science. Though she had no symbiote within, she knew everything the Goa'uld knew. More than that, even, she had the memories of every Goa'uld and host before her, nearly a thousand years of the torture and subjugation of her species.

"All Unas hated and feared the Goa'uld, but she was the first with the power and knowledge to do something about it. She was determined to destroy the gods for their crimes, driven by her memories and a thirst for revenge."

"She slaughtered them," Daniel guessed tonelessly.

"Yes," Selmak confirmed. "One by one the Goa'uld were taken by surprise. There had never been an Unas with even the lowest levels of intelligence before, but she was quicker, stronger and smarter than all of the gods combined. They did not know to fear her. She slipped in, unnoticed, time and time again, leaving nothing but bodies behind her."

"Ahab," Daniel mumbled in the ensuing silence.

"Daniel?" Sam asked uncertainly.

"From Moby Dick," Daniel clarified. He got up and paced around the room as he quoted, "He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it."

Selmak smiled slightly. "Yes, Jacob is familiar with this text. It is an apt comparison."

"So what is a harcesis, really?" Daniel asked in a soft voice, no longer really wanting to know the answer.

"A god-slayer."

Silence reigned for some moments and Daniel began walking the length of the room again in agitation.

"You mean that Haley is out there, right now, killing Goa'uld?" Sam asked.

"It is probable," Selmak responded, never taking her eyes off the pacing form of Daniel.

"Well…isn't that a good thing?" Sam asked uncertainly.

Daniel abruptly turned and met Selmak's eyes with complete understanding at last. "But at what price?"

"It will consume her," Selmak said sadly, holding Daniel's gaze unblinkingly. "She won't be able to stop."

"Stop what?" Sam asked in a hoarse voice.

"Killing."