68
Issues
There was an awkward silence as everyone racked their brain for a plausible excuse. One that would satisfy not only Konaseus, but Evree as well, given her uncertain mental state.
"Home base wants a technical report," Jack lied calmly. "That's Carter's baby. I just didn't remember it until a little while ago."
Evree seemed to accept it as gospel since O'Neill had said it. Konaseus looked a bit suspicious, he couldn't imagine a professional military man forgetting 'little' details like the necessity of reporting to one's superiors. But if Evree believed it, then, for the time being, he would play along. Besides, there were more pressing matters commanding his attention.
"I see," he murmured thoughtfully. "But who screamed? And why? I had not thought there was anything particularly frightening here."
"O'Neill said that I had a bad dream," Evree replied. She was mildly surprised, but not at all displeased to find that he was still holding her.
"It must have been dreadful indeed to cause such a reaction," Konaseus observed sympathetically. "Is there anything I can do?"
"No, thank you," Evree answered, resting her head on O'Neill's chest. "I'm all right now."
"Very well." Konaseus tried to swallow the building rage. He had suspected that Evree and O'Neill were intimate, but this was the first time they had truly flaunted it in front of him. She was his queen. And once he had claimed her, he would crush O'Neill like an insect. "I will leave you to your business then. Major Carter, do you believe that you will be back in time to dine with us this evening?"
"I hope to be," Sam responded, all the while thinking that the longer he delayed her, the less likely it would be.
Konaseus gave them all a long, considering look before he turned and left. Not surprisingly, Evree had been the one he had scrutinized the longest.
Daniel counted to twenty, then stuck his head out the door. "All clear as far as I can see," he reported.
Sam double-checked to make sure she was all geared up to go, the picked up the silk-wrapped bundle. "I'm glad Konaseus didn't ask about this," she remarked. "That might have been a little awkward to explain."
"Most awkward," Teal'c agreed. He turned to look at O'Neill. "Do you wish me to accompany Major Carter?"
Jack considered. On one hand, Carter was well able to take care of herself. On the other, he didn't like the thought of any of them being left alone so far from help. "Probably a good idea," he conceded. "Carter, make sure they know that the paper isn't going anywhere, but the.., other thing is a rush job, top priority."
"Will do, sir," Sam replied. She looked at the figure still nestled against O'Neill. "Sir? Do you think..?"
"I think you'd better get your butts in gear," O'Neill said, cutting her off.
Teal'c relieved her of her bundle. "We shall make all speed, O'Neill," he assured Jack. He left the room precipitately enough that Carter didn't dare linger if she didn't want to have to run to catch up.
Jack let out a relieved sigh. Whether or not Konaseus had bought the lame-assed lie was irrelevant as long as he let Carter and Teal'c leave. Of course, it might have been different if he had known what they were taking with them. Now that particular worry was out of the way, his attention shifted to things nearer to hand.
"Are you sure that you're all right?" he asked Evree. "It usually doesn't take you this long to get over nightmares anymore. And besides, you said you couldn't remember it."
"I don't." Evree's voice was a little muffled, her face still being in his chest. "I've just missed being close to you like this."
"That's nice to hear." O'Neill gave her a squeeze and started gently prying her off him. "But this is a business trip."
"I know." Maybe he was being hypersensitive, knowing she was being drugged, but Evree seemed awfully pale to him. And she hadn't yet gotten over the shakes, no matter what she said about being all right.
"Are you absolutely sure you're all right?" Jack was half ready to tell Daniel to grab his stuff and run to catch up to the others. "You don't look so good."
"What a terribly gallant observation," Evree scolded gently. The sarcasm fell sort of flat, since she couldn't manage to get the bite into her words. Despite, or perhaps because of, her nap, she sounded tired. "And I do wish you would stop asking the same question over and over when I've already answered it."
"It's just because he worries about you," Daniel offered. "And he worries because he cares." Daniel was looking a bit worried himself. He didn't think Evree looked all that great either.
Evree beamed at both of them, a little weakly. "I appreciate the concern, and the motives that prompted it, gentlemen." She took a few careful steps. "See? Perfectly fine." She took a few more steps, and found herself near the flower that she had floating in a bowl of water. She put her face down to inhale deeply of its scent.
O'Neill and Daniel exchanged glances. They didn't like the idea of her smelling that flower until they knew what, if anything it was doing to her. But they didn't see how they could object without saying something that might, if Evree chose to tell Konaseus, tip their erstwhile host off. They'd just have to hold their peace and hope that all the damage that had been done was all that there was.
The instant that Evree raised her face from the flower, they knew that there was a worse. Pale, washed-out Evree was gone. Alert, bright-eyed Evree had taken her place with just one little sniff.
"Jack..," Daniel began unhappily.
"I know." O'Neill said tersely. He'd been around long enough to know the signs of addiction. Especially when those signs disappeared when the addiction was fed. And there was no way to give Carter the additional information to pass along. It would have to wait until his morning report. And tomorrow, he wouldn't be able to take Evree along, either.
Things had just gotten worse.
&&&&&
"We had to take off before I got a real chance to observe Evree's behavior," Sam remarked as she and Teal'c slogged through the woods. "Can you give me some specifics? It might help the lab people know what to look for if they know what the symptoms are."
Teal'c was silent for a few moments as he tried to recall events in their proper order. "Almost immediately after she was exposed, she seemed somewhat disoriented. Even more so when she was required to make a decision."
"So far, I'm not liking this," Sam broke in with a sigh. "Jack told us how she fell asleep almost instantaneously. That and the fact that she was defending Konaseus. Was there anything else?"
"That is all that I can remember," the big Jaffa replied. "But there may be more symptoms we have not had the opportunity to observe."
"True," Sam admitted ruefully. "But we really do need to get the lab started analyzing the flower. If it's not the source of whatever had gotten into Evree..,"
"Then we will find what has," Teal'c finished confidently.
"I just hope it's not toxic," Carter said worriedly. "Without a sarcophagus available, it could do more damage than she could handle. If it's really poisonous, then Draylea, and perhaps Evree as well could die."
"We are not going to let them die," Teal'c stated firmly. "No matter what it is, we will find a way to save Evree and her host."
&&&&&
"Shall I go back to the library, Jack?" Daniel queried nervously. He liked Evree, but there was something about the way she had been acting that was creeping him out. "There's still a lot of information to go through."
"And we'll try to get you back to it," O'Neill replied. "But right now, I don't know which way Evree is going to jump. I think I'd like to have some back up. Just in case."
"Yeah, I can understand that," Daniel murmured. "But she seems to be all right now."
"Until she needs her next fix," Jack said sourly. "Did you see how fast she perked up?"
"Which probably means that it's going to be that much quicker when she comes down again," Daniel reflected. Right now, Evree looked about as normal as it could get, sitting and brushing her disheveled hair. "If the addiction progresses that fast, this could be really bad."
"You're a master of understatement," Jack observed. "And now, we can't even cut and run. We can't take Evree away from the source of her addiction until we know how bad the withdrawal is going to be."
"Jack, why don't we just tell her that she's addicted?" Daniel inquired. "She's obviously unaware of the fact. But if she knew, she could fight it."
"Do you think that she'd believe us now that she's all sweetness and light about Konaseus?" O'Neill shot back. "'He's been kind to us'. 'We've done him a disservice, distrusting him'. 'He has nice eyes'." He went down the entire list.
Daniel faked a cough to hid a reflexive but inappropriate laugh. Jack's reaction to things might be a little bit funny, but the situation they were in was dead serious. "Maybe it's not just Konaseus," he suggested.
"Come again?" Daniel had lost him on this one.
"Well, I don't think there's any kind of drug that could endear just one particular person to the user," Daniel explained slowly. "And since I don't believe in such things as love spells, I'd say that if the drug makes her friendly towards Konaseus...,"
"Then it will make her friendly towards everybody," O'Neill finished. "We just didn't pick up on it right away because Konaseus is the only person here that she wasn't already friendly with to one degree or another."
"It sounds like a good, working hypothesis," Daniel conceded. "But we really don't have any way to test it."
"I'm not too worried about testing it as long as we can keep an eye on her," O'Neill muttered. "But if she's going to be this.., docile, it wouldn't be hard for Konaseus to persuade her to go off alone with him."
"And all we have as to why he wants her is theories," Daniel commented. "We don't have any solid facts."
"We have one," Jack said grimly. "We know it's nothing good, because if it were, he wouldn't have deliberately addicted her to that drug."
They looked over at Evree, who was once more bending her head down to sniff her flower.
&&&&&
"I wish I could analyze that flower myself," Sam sighed as she and Teal'c made their way back to Konaseus' citadel.
"We are doing all that we can," Teal'c responded. "You cannot do it all alone."
"I know," Sam replied. "But still..,"
"It is difficult not to be at the center of the activity when a friend is in danger," he finished. "But your place is here."
"I know," Sam repeated in resignation. "I suppose the big question now is, what does Konaseus want from Evree so badly that he'll drug it out of her?"
"I do not know," the Jaffa admitted. "But he must suspect that it is something that she will not give him willingly, or he would not find it necessary to drug her."
"I really hope that drug has no lingering aftereffects," Sam murmured worriedly.
"So do we all," Teal'c agreed.
&&&&&
General Hammond sat at his desk feeling utterly useless. He wouldn't go to the lab, not wanting to get in the way of people who had important work to do that only they could do. He had given a moment's consideration to scrapping the whole mission, but only for a moment. He'd known Jack O'Neill for years, and trusted his judgment. He'd like to believe that the situation wasn't all that serious, but when Samantha Carter only gave the briefest summary of technological advances because she was more concerned for someone's safety, then it was very serious. And he was worried for Evree for her own sake as much as for what she represented. He hadn't had the opportunity to get to know her as well as SG-1, but he had a great deal of admiration for the queen Goa'uld and all that she had gone through to break the pattern she'd been bred for.
But he wished he could do more than he was already doing.
&&&&&
While O'Neill was having his hushed conversation with Daniel, Evree had finished brushing her hair. She unnecessarily adjusted a few pieces of jewelry, then was at a loss for what to do next. O'Neill and Daniel seemed to be so serious at the moment. She wasn't feeling serious. But she didn't feel like just sitting around either. Konaseus might have some amusement to while away her time. Without further thought, she headed for the door.
O'Neill looked up just as Evree's hand was reaching for the door. "Where do you think you're going?" he demanded. Just seeing her about to wander off on her own like that nearly made his blood run cold.
"I'm bored." She pouted prettily at him. "And you and Daniel were so busy, that I was sure that you must be discussing military business. I didn't want to disturb you."
"Did you just conveniently forget the part about you not going off by yourself?" Jack asked in exasperation. He was trying not to be mad, he really was. He knew that it was probably the drug making her act this way. But she could also piss him off almost as easily as she could turn him on.
The pout hadn't left, but Evree did come over to where the two men were standing. "Surely that doesn't apply now, does it, O'Neill?" She looked up at him and batted her eyelashes. "I mean that was just for when we didn't realize that Konaseus was our friend."
"It still applies," he answered. "In case it escaped your attention, you're one of a kind, and we do like to keep an eye on you. Besides, we haven't been all over the place yet." A not so subtle reminder that she had interrupted their tour, even though he knew the reason behind it now. "There could be places that are still booby-trapped. Ones that wouldn't recognize the fact that you're special and vaporize you."
Evree flung her arms around him in an equal mixture of affection and contrition. "I am sorry, O'Neill," she apologized. "I don't believe that I am thinking straight right now. What is wrong with me?"
Daniel gave Jack a look. He still thought it would be a good idea to tell Evree about her addiction, but O'Neill was standing firmly against it, and he wasn't about to go against his wishes now. Besides, they still needed to talk to Sam and Teal'c. Maybe one of them could convince Jack that telling Evree about her condition would be the more prudent course of action.
O'Neill had other things than Daniel's disapproval on his mind at the moment. "You're probably just feeling a little out of it being in unfamiliar surroundings," he soothed. "I'm sure it will all be better when we get back home."
"Do you really think so?" Evree was burrowing into his chest again, which he generally didn't have a problem with, but he didn't feel right about it when they were on a mission. Oh well, it was only going to be this once.
"Have I ever lied to you?" Well, not until today, but he felt like a heel. Just not enough of one to tell her a truth he didn't think she could accept.
"Not that I am aware of." She wasn't drugged completely stupid, it seemed. "But if you ever did, I am sure you would have a good reason for it. I know you would never deliberately hurt me, O'Neill."
Jack just stood there, holding her, stroking her hair, and feeling like utter slime.
&&&&&
As Konaseus gazed upon this scene, he was neither pleased nor displeased at seeing Evree in her consort's arms. Her reactions at the moment were merely observable data. Most particularly he noted how often she felt compelled to go inhale his blossom's heady fragrance, and it was with satisfaction that he did so. He could afford to play along with the Tau'ri a little while longer, now that Evree was well and truly his. He had the only source of what she needed, and he was sure that she would not willingly leave it.
He gave O'Neill a long, critical look. He was certain that Evree already had his genetic pattern encoded, and the human genome was compatible with his. On further consideration, he decided that he would accept O'Neill as his symbiotes' 'father'. Once he took his rightful place as a god, though, Evree would be his alone, to breed for him.
A new race of Goa'uld for the new age. His to sire, and his to command.