107
See How the Mighty Have Fallen
Once again, room after unused room, and Evree was fighting the boredom. She was going to have to find a way to get Konaseus to take her through some of the more functional areas of his citadel. "May one inquire why your dwelling is so large when there is only you to inhabit it?" Tones curious, but not unduly so, eyes wide and innocent.
"Preparations for my future greatness, my queen," Konaseus replied. "It will be filled with life soon enough." He gazed down on her. "As soon as we begin breeding our own race, my queen."
Evree fought back the gag reflex. "Surely there is more to it than just empty rooms upon empty rooms. I wish to see what you do, what occupies your time when have no visitors." A deliberate, deep inhale, followed by a simpering smile. "I wish to know you, Konaseus." It was no lie, certainly, but while she wished to know what made him tick so that she could work around it, she was also sure that Konaseus would put an entirely different construction on the words, which, nauseating though it was, would work to her advantage.
The lecherous grin with which he favored her confirmed her suspicions.
&&&&&
The very heart of the citadel. Konaseus had deigned to show Evree his holy of holies. Evree continued to make appreciative noises, and encouraged him to explain things to her. She had never paid much attention to technological devices before, preferring to leave their operation to others. Now, however, she felt she needed to know.
"And what does this do?" she inquired politely, standing in front of yet another array of mysterious buttons and dials.
"Ah, that is for the chaapa'ai," Konaseus replied grandly. "I can monitor its use through the signal and even operate it from here."
"Very impressive," Evree murmured. It was, too. Most Goa'uld did not even attempt to tinker with the Ancient's technology, but merely used it. But this and his internal security system insured that they would not be able to merely slip away quietly. "Why would you wish to operate the chaapa'ai from here, though?" She thought she had an idea, and hoped she was wrong.
Konaseus shrugged. "Many reasons, my inquisitive, little queen," he answered. "The transport of volatile materials for one. Or travel to a dangerous place, when I would send a servitor rather than myself. I can even prevent the chaapa'ai from activating, should I so desire."
That was what Evree had been afraid of. And she knew for a certainty now that Konaseus could not be functional when they were ready to make their escape. With the touch of a button, he would be able to prevent their return to Earth. She had also noticed, but not mentioned, seeing an untidy pile in the corner that was comprised of SG-1's weapons. If she had any doubts before, she had none now. She was going to be their only hope for getting back.
Never had she felt quite so alone.
&&&&&
Finally, Evree had gotten rid of Konaseus. He could no longer contain his impatience to check on the progress of the young symbiotes. Evree had politely demurred, claiming fatigue, and had said that she thought she would take a nap.
He had insisted on escorting her to her room. But once he was gone, Evree left as well. She did not believe he could monitor her unless he was in his control room, and it was there that she headed.
Evree did not attempt to use any of the devices. Despite Konaseus' explanations, she had no notion of how to use them without the possibility of creating a problem that would certainly attract the big man's attention. But she had to figure out a way to keep him from using his controller for the gate. Before she did that, she cautiously tucked the hand weapons that Konaseus had confiscated from her friends in her pockets. The larger ones had to stay. They were too conspicuous, and she simply could not carry them all at once anyway. She finally gave up on it with a sigh. That was not her main purpose.
Evree yanked at the bottom panel of the gate control and it came off in her hands so easily that her momentum sent her back to sit down with a thump. Now, she was faced with an array of crystals in every hue imaginable. She had known what colors signified which operations, once upon a time, but had not held onto the memory as it did not interest her.
It interested her mightily now.
Finally, she just started pulling crystals out at random. As many as she could as quickly as she could. Suddenly, everything on the machine went dark, save the screen, which lit up. With a count down.
"Oh no, Draylea," Evree murmured, biting her lip. "What have I done?"
&&&&&
They watched as SG-3 and 8 prepared to leave. Only half an hour to the deadline.
General Hammond had refused to let her go along, so Janet had to settle for briefing the medics before they made their departure.
"I don't know if you'll have any wounded to deal with, Lt. Husted," she said. "But I know that if they're still alive, you'll have an addict going into acute withdrawal. Depending on how far progressed her withdrawal is, you may need an anti-convulsive and restraints."
As it was not widely known that Evree had accompanied SG-1 on their mission, the lieutenant could only think of one 'her' in the group. "Somehow I can't imagine Major Carter becoming addicted to anything," he remarked.
"It's not Major Carter," Dr. Frasier informed him. "Your patient is a Goa'uld."
&&&&&&
Evree knew she had to think fast now. She had no doubt that there was some sort of alarm system to alert Konaseus to her meddling. She slipped on her bracelet, and for good measure, picked up Teal'c's staff. No point in trying to be stealthy anymore.
As her last act before she left the control room, Evree ripped the necklace off and flung it back inside.
&&&&&&
Daniel just happened to look Sam's way in time to see her give a deep shudder. "What was that all about?" he inquired solicitously.
"I just had a gruesome thought," she confessed. She would have let it go at that, but Daniel's questioning look said he wanted to know the details. "What if Konaseus tests out whether the symbiotes are defective or not by implanting one in one of us?"
"Let's not borrow trouble, Carter." Jack had caught the last remark and joined them. "We're in enough trouble as it is."
"Yes, sir." Sam looked a little shame-faced, as if she had been caught doing something wrong. But just sitting in this cell with nothing to do, no way to facilitate their release, the mind just naturally seemed to gravitate to the grim and dire. And no one more than she hoped that her nightmare notion was nothing more than that.
But seeing the looks on the faces of her companions, Sam could see that she had infected them with her nightmares now.
&&&&&
As Evree left the control room, she saw one of the ever-present servitors, and she was not sure whether or not that was a good sign. It might just mean business as usual, and the alarm had not yet been raised. Hopefully. She made to step around it, she really did not need its guidance, she knew the way she was going, but it moved to block her path.
"Take me to the cell where my friends are," she demanded. Perhaps it had been programmed to dog her steps and give aid where none was needed.
The mechanoid remained immobile. She tried to go around it again and again, it blocked her way. Evree felt a cold chill. The alarm must have gone out then, and she was to be detained.
She looked at the staff she held, but it was really for targets further away than this. She had the small arms on her though, so she pulled out the zat and used it.
There was no apparent effect, but this time when Evree tried to go around the annoying, little machine, it did not move.
Evree made her way through the corridors at a fast walk. What she really wanted to do was run as fast as her feet would carry her, but prudence said such action would be the height of folly. She could run headlong into Konaseus himself and be well and truly caught, with no way to save her friends.
She just hoped she could get them out and they could make their way to the gate before Konaseus could repair the damage and halt their escape.
&&&&&&
"I see Evree," Teal'c, the one currently watching out the grate remarked. "And she is carrying a staff."
"Heads up, boys and girls," Jack said, springing to his feet. "I think it's time to blow this joint."
"How is she going to get us out of here?" Daniel asked. "I really doubt that..," He broke off abruptly as Teal'c flattened himself against one of the side walls and motioned for them to do the same.
What was left of the door swung drunkenly on its hinges after the staff blast, and SG-1 lost no time in taking advantage of it.
"Evree, how did you..?" Sam began, but Evree cut her off.
"There is no time," she said urgently, passing out the side arms. "We must make all speed. I will try to tell you when it is safe."
They all took off at a fast trot, but as they rounded the first corner, they met their first obstacle.
Konaseus' pet was out again, and sat blocking their path, nonchalantly cleaning its face.
"Move aside," Evree ordered in Goa'uld voice.
The cat blinked at her, then got up off its haunches and began to advance on them.
"It does not appear to that the beast will respond to your orders any more," Teal'c observed. He raised his staff and shot the creature, right between the eyes.
The big feline's lifeless form crumpled almost gracefully to the floor, crowned by the smoldering remains of its head.
They took off again.
They were almost about to make their exit from the building when Konaseus' voice boomed from behind them. "Halt!"
They all skidded to a stop and reluctantly turned around to see the citadel's master standing with a staff aimed right at O'Neill.
"Drop your weapons," he commanded. SG-1 complied, but Evree kept the hand with the bracelet tucked in the folds of her garments. She did not believe that he had seen it.
"Your betrayal both wounds and puzzles me, my queen," Konaseus commented in disappointment. "But as I have not one, but five symbiotes, I believe that your services can now be dispensed with. Once I have claimed my rightful place, I shall find a queen who is more tractable." He took more careful aim with the staff.
"Get down!" Evree shouted, and raised the hand with the bracelet.
The predominant expression on Konaseus' face initially, was one of utter shock. Even after all that had happened, he simply could not believe that Evree would harm him. Or perhaps it was that he truly believed tht he could not die. Surprise soon gave way to pain, though, as Evree kept her weapon on him, until at last, the big man toppled over, like a mighty tree being felled.
Evree stopped, and staggered back a pace.
"Are you all right, hon?" O'Neill asked, knowing it was a stupid question, but also a reflexive one.
"I'll be all right," Evree lied. She forced a smile at him. "But we still need to make haste."
&&&&
"I'm sorry, sir," the gate tech said. "But I can't open an outgoing wormhole to PR-862."
Hammond looked at the control board. He didn't fully understand the mechanics, but he knew enough that the fact nothing was lit up in red meant there was no detectable malfunction on their end of things. "See if you can establish contact elsewhere," he suggested.
The technician obliged, and so did the gate, producing its usual effects.
"Cancel that," Hammond ordered. "Try PR-862 one more time."
The tech gave it another try, and still, no results. "It looks like we've been locked out, sir," he reported miserably.
"I can see that," General Hammond replied, forcing himself to keep his tones even. "Let's just hope that SG-1 isn't locked in."
&&&&&
In between gasps for breath, Evree filled them in on what she had done as they sped down the forest path. Only adrenalin and the death-grip she had on O'Neill's belt enabled her to keep up at all.
O'Neill halted abruptly as the slight pull on his belt suddenly became a heavy drag, as Evree sank to the ground, her slender body going into convulsions.
"Evree!" O'Neill immediately sank to her side.
&&&&&
It did not take long for the myriad of servitors to find the lifeless bodies of both Konaseus and his pet. As information for nearly every contingency was pre-programmed into them, they immediately went into action. Putting the bodies on wheeled stretchers, then moving those stretchers to a pre-designated place.
A room containing a sarcophagus.
It actually took them very little time. The robots deposited their creator in the sarcophagus, and sat silently by as the lid closed on it.
&&&&&
After the briefest of discussions, they were on their way again, pelting through the woods as fast as they could. O'Neill now had Teal'c's staff, since the Jaffa, easily being the strongest of them was carrying the shuddering, twitching form of Evree.
Once they reached the gate, by tacit agreement, Teal'c and O'Neill switched their burdens. Jack seemed to barely notice Daniel frantically pushing buttons on the D.H.D.
"Hang in there, kid," he murmured to Evree. "Just a little bit longer." He hoped it wasn't a lie, that the gate wasn't shut down. It would work, it had to work.
As though reading his thoughts and granting his wishes, the wormhole obligingly opened, and they practically flew through it.
&&&&&
Konaseus pulled himself stiffly out of the sarcophagus. He stood there for a moment, just getting his bearings. Dying had a way of rattling a person's brain. As the events leading up to the present moment became clearer in his mind, the more his features became suffused with rage. A rage that grew when he saw his beloved pet lying near, so still. He gently lifted the creature up, and with no small difficulty, placed the beast within. It took some arranging, since the device was designed for humanoids, but he managed. Then, he strode out of the room without a backward glance, heading for the control room.
If Konaseus had been furious before, now, his blood ran cold with fear. He looked at the array of crystals scattered on the floor, some of them cracked, as Evree had had no reason to take care. He had taken steps to insure that his citadel would not be used by anyone in the unlikely possibility of his death. And now, he realized, the whole thing was going to blow up in his face.
Literally.
In the sarcophagus room, the lid slid back, and a large feline form emerged, mewing as pathetically as a hungry kitten.
And then, the citadel exploded.
&&&&
O'Neill was both relieved and annoyed to see SG-8 waiting in the gate room. "Why didn't you meet us on the other side?" he demanded, laying a still convulsing Evree on a waiting gurney. "You had to know we had a medical emergency."
"We were going to, sir," Lt. Husted replied. "But we couldn't open an outgoing wormhole there." He finished strapping Evree to the gurney, and it was whisked off to the infirmary, and the medics followed it, seeing as everyone else was hale and hearty.
"Do you suppose Konaseus did that with his machine?" Sam wondered. "To keep us from getting reinforcements?"
"It is just as likely that it was a result of Evree's tampering," Teal'c pointed out. But the mere mention of Evree turned their thoughts to her.
"I hope she's gong to be all right," Daniel muttered. He had been the first to befriend the Goa'uld queen, and besides genuinely liking her, he felt a certain responsibility to her as well.
"She'll be just fine," Jack stated firmly. But there was a haunted look in his eyes that said he too, had his doubts.
&&&&&
They had raced through the post-mission debriefing as quickly as General Hammond would allow, and now SG-1 was assembled outside medical, waiting for word of Evree. The only reason they weren't inside, watching the battle for her life was that Dr. Frasier had flatly refused them admittance.
Now, Janet appeared in the doorway, looking somewhat worse for the wear. As one, the whole team took a step forward.
Frasier held up a hand. "Just Colonel O'Neill, for now," she ordered softly.
The rest of the group fell back while Jack accompanied the physician on in.
O'Neill was finding the whole situation disconcerting as hell. "She made it, didn't she?" he demanded nervously.
Dr. Frasier nodded tiredly. "Evree is still alive," she informed him. "Although it's still probably going to be a while before she completely shakes the effects of that drug."
Something still didn't feel right to O'Neill. "Okay, what aren't you telling me?"
"Draylea didn't make it," Frasier replied. "I'm not sure she would have even if you could have gotten them here sooner. The withdrawal caused congestive heart failure, and we couldn't revive her."
Jack felt like someone had just delivered a roundhouse to his gut. "Where's Evree?"
"There." Janet pointed. There was a second tank next to the one that housed Evree's young. "We thought it best to keep her isolated from her children until we were sure there were no residual traces of the drug left in her system."
O'Neill crossed the room to the tank the queen Goa'uld occupied. Even in her natural form, she seemed to be twitching from the effects of withdrawal. He pressed his hands and face against the side of the tank, frustrated that this was the closest contact he could make.
Despite the seizures, the symbiote swam over the where Jack stared in at her. Unblinking, alien eyes regarded him, and O'Neill thought that if he had one shred of sanity, he should see the thing in the tank as totally repulsive. Instead, he ran the back of his hand down the side of the container, as though giving her a caress. "I love you," he said softly enough so that no one else could hear. For all he knew, she couldn't either. But he'd already put it off too long. Way too long.
&&&&&
There was a small, very subdued memorial service in Draylea's honor. Most of those assembled found it depressing that the one to whom the service would mean the most was unable to be present.
&&&&&&
Okay, okay, I'm through being evil now. Things will definitely pick up from here. After all, I did promise you a happy ending, didn't I?