Her dad walked into the room and stopped right by her side. He must've guessed what she was thinking, because he said, "Just give them some time. It won't be easy to explain this to the dinosaurs, and then the elders will need a moment to think this over."
Sam shook her head. "But we don't have time. Barney doesn't. And they know that. I'm starting to wonder if something's happened to them."
He put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure they're all right."
They just stayed there in silence for a while. It felt wonderful to have her dad around again, though she hated it that his presence almost always meant something else was going wrong. She was happy that he had such an important job out there, but she missed him.
"Dad, tell me, honestly. What do you think about this? Not Selmak, but you, as someone who's been in a situation a lot like Barney. Should we go on with the blending?"
"I'm really biased when it comes to this, Sam. Becoming a Tok'ra was the best thing that could've happened to me, and I'll always be thankful that you offered me the option. For Barney, it would be different. As a dinosaur, he would never be able to become a normal Tok'ra operative. He'd just serve as a liaison on his own world, and maybe sometimes as a spy, in some more unusual circumstances. So, he might not feel like he's a part of the Tok'ra community. On the other hand, there's no way we can guess what the dinos would think about him if he had a symbiote. Not to mention that it wouldn't be easy to the symbiote, either. Ranys is a pensive type who enjoys reading and studying. I don't know how he'll adapt to a host who's basically a predator."
Sam nodded thoughtfully. There would be lots of downsides in this arrangement, and then there were the risks Selmak had already mentioned several times. That things could go wrong and both Barney and Ranys might die. But to her, it seemed that was a risk they'd have to take.
"So, it's not going to be simple or easy. But since it's is the only way we might be able to save Barney, they'll just have to manage," she said to her dad.
Teal'c had spent all morning sitting by the injured dinosaur's side, most of the time in meditation. Denver had stood on the other side of the bed all that time, almost as still as Teal'c, except when he bent closer to Barney, to touch him, as if to let him know he was there.
Barney had not regained consciousness, at least not for long enough that Teal'c could have explained anything to him. A few times, he had opened his eyes, tried to lift his head, and growled pitifully. Teal'c wished there was something they could do to ease the dinosaur's pain, but Doctor Fraiser was uncertain of the correct amount of medication. Apparently, she had already given him more than she would have thought safe, considering the dinosaur's weight, and was afraid to give more.
Time seemed to have little meaning in this sterile, silent room. Captain Carter and her father visited them several times, and Doctor Fraiser and the nurses kept checking on the dinosaur, but nothing changed. Until sometime after midday, when Barney opened his eyes once again, and stared right at Teal'c. It seemed he was conscious, and recognized Teal'c.
Teal'c leaned closer to the dinosaur. He would need to explain things to Barney as clearly possible, so that he might understand despite Teal'c's limited competence in the Dinosaurian-Goa'uld dialect. "You are dying," Teal'c began bluntly. "We can save you, but then, your life will be changed completely. You will have to share your body with another being. You will never again be truly alone. You will be different. The choice is yours. Will you accept our help?"
Barney blinked slowly, and then, at least it seemed to Teal'c, inclined his head in a nod. Then he closed his eyes again, and stayed still, probably unconscious. Had that been the answer? Teal'c could not be certain. He had never seen the dinosaurs nod to say yes, but then again, Barney had spent time with SG-1 and had seen the gesture often enough. He might well know what it meant.
Teal'c was pondering whether he should ran to fetch the Tok'ra right away, when he realized that something had changed about the way Barney was breathing, and it was clearly not a change to the better. It sounded as if the dinosaur could not breathe at all. Teal'c called out for a medic.
Doctor Fraiser ran to the room, and was immediately on top of the situation. "We need to intubate," she began shouting orders to her staff, and then stepped closer to the dinosaur, eyeing him with a slightly uncertain expression. "All right, I'm going to need someone to hold his mouth open for me."
"I can do this," Teal'c volunteered. After all, he was stronger than anyone else in the room, and was familiar with the dinosaur. He moved in to pry the dinosaur's jaws apart, revealing the rows of sharp teeth. Doctor Fraiser guided him to turn and tilt Barney's head into the required position. Barney did not resist at all--he was completely out of it. He stayed just as lifeless as Fraiser struggled to force a tube down his long throat. Teal'c kept his place all through the procedure, which took Doctor Fraiser quite a while. Finally, it was all done, the tube taped in place and connected to a respirator.
"I'm afraid this is the beginning of the end," Fraiser commented darkly, as she stepped away from the dinosaur. "If we're going to go on with the Tok'ra blending, we need to do it soon, or it might be too late. He might be too weak already, or too sick for the symbiote to heal."
In his current state, no longer breathing on his own, Barney would not be able to speak even if he did regain consciousness, which seemed unlikely to happen again. And they had still heard nothing from Colonel O'Neill and Daniel Jackson. The answer Teal'c had received from the dinosaur had left him uncertain of whether Barney had really understood the offer, and whether he had really said yes. But Teal'c truly believed that Barney would want this. He believed Barney would want to live. So, although it made him feel like he was lying, he spoke up.
"Barney was conscious earlier, and he accepted our offer. We must act now."
"He said yes? You sure about this, Teal'c?"
"I am certain, Doctor Fraiser."
Fraiser ran to the telephone. General Hammond, Captain Carter and her father arrived in mere minutes, Jacob Carter carrying the stasis container where the symbiote was. The Tok'ra went straight to the dinosaur's side.
"So, George? I'm free to proceed?" Jacob Carter gazed at General Hammond.
"Go ahead," General Hammond answered without a moment's hesitation.
The Tok'ra looked down, and when he spoke up again, he did so in Selmak's dual voice. "I'm not going to waste any time here. Stand aside. Once I open the container, the symbiote will instinctively jump into the nearest living being it can find. This must be Barney."
Although it was the usual practice of the Tok'ra symbiotes to enter their hosts through the mouth, it was not possible here. So, Jacob Carter unsealed the container right next to the back of Barney's neck. The symbiote crawled out--it looked just like one of the Goa'uld Teal'c despised so much. It was impossible to tell the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld aside by appearance.
The symbiote found the dinosaur's neck, and burrowed into it. Though he was heavily sedated, Barney bucked against his restraints, his back and neck arcing spasmodically. Fraiser kept a close eye on the displays around the bed, and clearly did not like what she saw. An alarm went off, and she immediately shouted at the nearest nurse to "Get the crash cart!"
But it was over almost as quickly as it had begun, the alarm sound stopped, and Barney was completely still and silent again. "No, wait... He's stabilizing," Doctor Fraiser commented, still gazing at the monitor readings. "Looks like they made it through the worst part."
"You could call that the worst, in a way, but he's still not out of the woods. Far from it. Now, it's all up to Ranys, who's faced with a task more challenging than what he's ever known before. He needs to blend with a neural system that's probably very different from what he's familiar with, and then heal injuries that, if I've got it right, would've already killed a human."
"So, now we wait," Captain Carter commented.
Only now Teal'c noticed the solitary dark green form standing in one corner of the room. Denver had retreated there not to be on the way, probably terrified of what was happening, even though it was all for the good of his friend. Teal'c walked to the dinosaur, and addressed him softly, much like he would speak to his son.
"The worst is over. Now we wait," he repeated to Denver in Dinosaurian-Goa'uld.