Sam

"But he's all right now?" I got out, looking at one very unconscious Colonel curled up under infirmary bedcovers. God, even Jack's hair looked like it hurt.

"I think so." Janet didn't quite slump in her chair, but she looked like she wanted to. "Good instincts, Dr. Enomouto. But next time, call a nurse first."

"Sorry," our new linguist said sheepishly. "But he was crashing, and that was the only thing going, and-"

Janet stopped him with a raised hand. "Call a nurse first, next time." Tired brown eyes switched to the General. "Sir, it looks like the magnetic option is out."

Hammond looked ready to chew through the iris. "What exactly happened, Doctor?"

"His blood pressure crashed, and his heart stopped." Janet shook her head when the General would have said something. "No, I don't know why. But in retrospect, I can make an educated guess. I should have thought of it before..." She visibly collected herself. "Sir, the cellular mimics can apparently shift form as needed, and they obviously consider high magnetic fields to be a hostile environment. And we've been steadily reintroducing a swarm of magnetically charged cells into the Colonel's bloodstream. That's not an external hostile environment, it's an internal hostile environment. The stimuli would have been-" She hesitated. "General... I think they reacted as if the colonel were being eaten."

A graying red brow went up. "Eaten?" Hammond said incredulously. "Doctor, you just said they stopped his heart. Now, I may not be any kind of biologist, but last I knew, it's counter-survival to keel over when a predator's trying to eat you."

And… he looked at me. Why me? Hello? Astrophysicist, not biologist. Chemicals that aren't on our periodic chart? Supernovae? Faster-than-light engines? I'm your scientist. Green stuff, or things that go twitch? No way. I may have lucked out with those alien sound-sensitive plants, but that's not something I want to try twice.

"Not always, according to our exobiologists," Janet picked up the slack. "Not if it's not so much trying to escape being eaten, as being digested."

Hammond gave her a look. "The one generally precedes the other, Doctor."

"Not in spiders."

I stifled an involuntary Meep! But - that was just our magnetic setup, not a hairy… fangy… creepy-crawly….

"Spiders, fungi, certain very disgusting deep-sea creatures - they all digest you first, General," Janet went on. "And to a certain extent, they rely on your own bloodstream transporting the digestive toxins and enzymes to kill you." She glanced toward Jack. "This may well have been a last-ditch survival mechanism, kicking in against... well, against whatever preys on changelings."

The infirmary door rattled, and a white-faced Daniel rushed in. "Oh no. Oh, Jack-"

"What does prey on changelings, Dr. Jackson?" Hammond asked.

"Wha..." He stopped a few feet away from Jack's bed, trading a blink with Dr. Enomouto. "Well... that depends. Most of the folklore on youkai and similar creatures would be what humans saw, so it's not exactly a random sample.… Humans, a lot of the time. Or sorcerers, who might or might not be human. Or other youkai. The arthropod youkai tend to be really, really nasty; centipedes, giant mantises, spiders-"

"They're thinking this might have been a spider-bite reaction," Enomouto put in.

"Oh." Daniel winced. "Oh, ow, Jack..."

"That doesn't explain why they stopped his heart," Hammond said, aggrieved. "I would think that should be as lethal as any predator."

"Maybe not," Janet said thoughtfully. "We've been dealing with blood, but if the creature's entire cellular makeup has the same characteristics-"

"It might be flexible in hazardous environments," I agreed, feeling the pieces fall together. I may not be a biologist, but I've sat through enough of Janet's lectures on biophysical weirdness happening to SG-1 to follow this. "Change skin permeability to allow oxygen transport without blood, or even shift tissue into mini-hearts to circulate blood in unaffected areas..."

Janet frowned. "That'd require massive amounts of energy."

"Youkai have massive amounts of energy," Daniel spoke up. "Legend says they change shape at will. That they have blood, and organs, and a heart just like we do - but they can survive massive loss of blood and organ injury most of the time, because the flesh 'flows' back together." He swallowed dryly. "Is - is Jack going to be okay? He's not youkai, if he lost oxygen..."

"We had his heart moving again less than thirty seconds later," Janet said firmly. "His blood sugar was down again, and we have him on IV for that - but he should be fine. Assuming we don't find any more metabolic landmines." She gave Enomouto a measuring look.

"What?" he asked, nonplussed.

"Usually people get a bit more nervous when we start talking about mythological creatures," Janet observed.

Enomouto blinked. Started ticking off on his fingers. "Ra, Set, Hathor, Cronus, Yu... come on. This whole place is mythology in space. Why not cryptozoology, too?" He looked at his watch, and stifled a yawn. "Look, if nobody needs me... it's been a heck of a day, and I know Dr. Jackson wants me on that translation first thing tomorrow..."

"Good night, Dr. Enomouto," Hammond said firmly.

"Sir?" I asked in an undertone, after the infirmary door had closed behind Enomouto.

"In a minute, Major."

Minutes came and went, and I felt the funny prickle that was Teal'c walk down the corridor, just before he opened the door and came inside. "General Hammond."

"The Tok'ra are settled in the VIP quarters?"

"They are." A hint of humor glinted in Teal'c's impassive gaze. "Although Judith Williams requested Internet access. She claims to have missed national news, and online comics. Sermane seemed most perplexed."

I'll bet he was. Earth cultures are hard enough to understand when you grow up here. Not that I had much sympathy, after the game of you tell me everything while I try to tell you nothing they'd played about P3X-459.

Though I had a feeling we might get more out of them separately than together. Based on a word Judith had dropped one moment when Sermane and my father weren't in earshot: Pegasus.

I didn't know what it meant yet, but I was going to find out.

The general waited a moment more, then nodded. "Do you have anything to add, Colonel?"

"Outside of, can we not do that again soon?" came the familiar grumble from the bed.

"Jack!" Daniel pounced.

"Ow, ow, ow-"

"Sorry, sorry..."

"Now that all those involved are present..." The general swept us with a grim look. "I have to inform you that Colonel O'Neill's course of treatment has become - complicated."

"Sir?" Janet's tone rang with, just who is the doctor in this base?

Hammond let out a slow breath. "Diplomacy, Doctor. I've just been informed that our government's future access to potential Hivemind wreckage within Japanese territorial boundaries is highly dependent on our not doing anything more to jeopardize the cover of one of their government's protected witnesses against organized crime, in the form of the Yakuza and Triad organizations."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding," Jack groaned.

"From what I've been told, the Japanese government considers organized crime at least as much a threat to their society as alien invasion, Colonel, so no, I am not kidding," Hammond said sternly. "Dr. Jackson? Could this possibly be a bluff?"

"Um... knowing Kenshin, probably not," Daniel sighed. "Kenshin helps people, General. The Yakuza like to kick them when they're down. I'd be surprised if he hadn't crossed them."

"They expect us to believe they hid their federal witness in our country?" Jack growled.

"I've been informed it was the last place the Yakuza would look," Hammond said dryly.

"Ties up everything pretty neatly," I said ruefully. "His hiding, the fact that his records look good on the surface but don't match some of the facts we can find..."

"They don't match because he's over a century old, Carter!"

"But we can't prove that. Sir." I glanced at the general. "Unless we can have some more time with the samples-"

"We've been strongly requested to bury them, Major." Hammond looked grim. "No names were named, but it seems the rogue elements of the NID now have an international reputation."

Janet sighed. "Let me see what I have that we'll have to get rid of..." She ducked under one of the infirmary hoods, poked around in her test tube racks.

And came out a minute later, pale. "They're gone."

"You are certain." Teal'c frowned.

Janet's shoulders stiffened. "Let's check exo-bio; I told them they could use some of the samples, but they might have taken more than I thought-"

"Oh no."

Daniel saying 'oh no' is along the lines of an ordinance officer saying 'oops'. "Daniel?" Jack asked dryly.

"Well... I was just down there, before I heard you were in trouble," our archaeologist admitted. "Um... I think someone let them use one of your gadgets by mistake, Sam, they had to haul out a fire extinguisher-"

I was out the door and gone.

---------------

Daniel

After the near-brawl in the exo-bio lab and a short night's sleep, I stared out into the dawn on the top of the Mountain. And shivered.

Not because it was chilly, though there was a near-frost hint to the air. Not because of how sick Jack had been; he'd been in Janet's care, after all, and she gave Death a run for his money every week. No; because of how easy it'd been.

Kenshin's samples were gone. All of them.

Might have been a bit harder without Benkai's help. But probably not. I'm in and out of the infirmary all the time. Janet doesn't notice me unless I'm stealing her coffee. Heck - she'd probably only notice I'd been there if I didn't try to steal her coffee.

But Benkai didn't have enough pull around here yet to wander into exo-bio as just part of the scenery. And given how fast the NID had moved in the past, we'd been short on time. So - he went to Janet, I went to exo-bio. With a relatively harmless gadget from Sam's lab in my pocket.

Samples, poof.

And nobody was even looking twice at me.

Scary.

The data Janet and exo-bio had gathered... well. I wasn't about to mess with their computers. But I suspected it'd go poof as well, very soon. There are distinct disadvantages to being linked in to a main network. Especially one that's been infiltrated by a certain programmed backdoor.

Archangel has some kind of mutual arrangement with Aoshi, after all. And Shinomori and Kenshin are as close as my team... used to be.

Even if they weren't - Aoshi feels like Kenshin. Sort of. And if that feeling means what I think it does, Aoshi can't afford for the NID to have information on Kenshin. Not if he wants to stay alive and free himself.

"I'm in," Benkai said when I asked. "Kenshin's... family."

Which I guess means I have to watch out for Benkai, too. If Janet goes poking around in his blood, the jig really will be up.

"How many youkai are there?"

"Who knows? They're out there. Once in a while we run into another one. Or pick up somebody else who's stuck between. Or end up having to... stop somebody."

Benkai had winced when he said that. I knew that wince. I'd seen it in a mirror.

Dr. Benkai Enomouto might have a harmless record. Enomouto Benkai had killed. Probably in self-defense, probably when he had no other choice - but he'd done it.

Which, guiltily, made me feel better. I didn't want anybody else to end up like Rothman. Yes, the SGC needed more archaeologists and linguists... but I didn't want more innocent faces haunting my nightmares.

Dawn faded into daylight; I sighed, and headed back inside. Time to lay out a theory, and let everybody else shoot it full of holes. And hope that was all that got shot.

I'd bought the SGC time to think. The rest was up to them.

But even with that knotting up my stomach, I couldn't help but feel a thrill of excitement. Because if I was right... if I was right...

Then maybe I could prove Kenshin was human after all.

---------------

Jack

"I think the Tok'ra have been a little less than forthcoming," Daniel said, laying out photocopies on General Hammond's conference table for us to grab.

I trap one black-and-white printout of odd scribbles with a finger, feeling Sam's worried eyes on me as I lean back in my chair. Easy, Carter, I'm not going to break - even if Janet did say do anything stupid and I sedate you. No, really? The Tok'ra, hiding details? Heaven forbid.

"P3X-459 isn't a Goa'uld planet."

"Daniel Jackson?"

And Teal'c beat me to the punch. Okay, maybe I'm not as up to snuff as I feel.

"I think it was an Ancient one."

Whoa.

"The key word," Daniel stated, looking at Sam, "is Pegasus."

"What few Ancients references we've found seem to link to the Pegasus Galaxy," Sam reminded the general. And me, too - not that I'm going to let on about that. "But those were human dwellings, Daniel. And Pegasus isn't mentioned in your translations-"

"But chimera is." There's a vivid light in Daniel's eyes as his finger dances over the flower-scribbles. "This is Luwian, Sam."

"Oh, Luwian," I nodded. "Of course. Daniel..."

An eager smile flickered on his face. "Hang on, Jack. This gets a little complicated... but it fits, I think it fits, and if it does..." He visibly calmed himself down. "Luwian's extinct now, of course, but it's part of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family..." He caught my eyes glazing, and ducked his head a little. "Remember how when you were stuck speaking Ancient, we figured out it was related to Latin? So is this. It's just a lot older than Latin. And it was spoken in Arzawa."

Teal'c frowned. "Where is Arzawa, Daniel Jackson?"

"No one's really sure," our archaeologist shrugged. "Somewhere west of the Hittites, we think, probably in Anatolia... but it's tied to the Atlantis legends, which also seem to be tied to the Ancients. And as far as we archaeologists can tell-" he laughed once, amazed, "-it was taken out from space."

"Dr. Jackson?" Hammond choked.

"That is the best evidence out there now, General," Daniel said matter-of-factly. "Of course, most archaeologists say comet, but knowing what we know about Goa'uld capabilities, and Selmac's account that they exterminated whole nests of ib-seshatai and associated dragon-like creatures with aerial bombardment..."

"Pegasus?" I stick in.

"Comes from the Luwian pihassas, 'lightning', or pihassasas, their weather god or god of lightning, like Zeus or the Roman Jove," Daniel nodded. "Hesiod still has Pegasus carrying thunderbolts for Zeus. And one of the most popular legends we have of Pegasus is of the time Bellerophon, grandson of Sisyphus, rode the winged horse to kill the Chimera, a so-called monster usually depicted with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent for a tail."

"From which we get the term chimera, an animal created from two or more distinct genetic sources," Sam filled in for those of us not biologically inclined. "Once in a very long while they happen in humans, when fraternal twin embryos absorb each other. We can create them artificially; mixing a mouse embryo that was genetically white with one genetically brown, for example, to produce a mouse that's white or brown in patches, which are tissues developed from the original source cells. Some geneticists also use the term to refer to genetically engineered organisms..." Her voice dried up, and she paled.

"Just listen, Sam," Daniel said softly. "Listen. Then tell me if you think I'm wrong."

Teal'c caught my eye, and inclined his head. "We are listening, Daniel Jackson."

"Chimera was the child of Echidna; ekhis, the 'she viper', the Greeks' 'Mother of All Monsters'," Daniel went on. "She was supposed to have the head of a woman, but the body of a serpent or dragon. Her ancestry's unclear, but it's old, even predating the gods. When she and Typhon, her mate, attacked the gods, Zeus supposedly beat them back and sealed Typhon under Mount Etna - thus explaining its nasty tendency to erupt every once in a while. But Echidna and her children were allowed to live and challenge future heroes. Which, given what we now know, could just mean the gods - or the Goa'uld - couldn't catch them...

"Echidna's children included the Nemean Lion, Ladon, Chimera, Sphinx, Hydra, and Cerberus," Daniel ticked off. "All creatures that had recognizable characteristics of animals from Earth, recombined in new ways, with supernatural strength, toughness, and ability to regenerate. Even outside of those myths, we find depictions of hybrid animals - hippogriffs, chimerae, you name it - all over Anatolian art of the Luwian era."

"Which relates to P3X-459 how?" I asked pointedly.

He flipped open the photocopy, pointed to where flower-scribbles were under Ancient symbols. "That's how."

"Holy freaking..." I collected my jaw. I'm no linguist, but I've seen enough of Daniel's work to have half a clue. "Is that a syllabub?"

"Syllabary - yes. I mean, I think so. One symbol to a syllable, like Cherokee, or Japanese hiragana. The Luwian syllables don't exactly match up to the Ancient letters, but the people who lived there were trying to translate it. Trying to understand what happened to them."

"Just what did happen to them, Dr. Jackson?" Hammond asked carefully.

The way Daniel's jaw tightens, I think I already know. "Lab rats, huh?"

"From what they were trying to translate... from the way they slammed the door on the Stargate... Jack, that magnetic distortion isn't natural. They created it. It probably hurts them too, if they go near it, but they had to do it. It's the only way they had to take out advanced technology - Ancient, Goa'uld, they probably don't care. They're hiding. And right now, they're probably scared to death. If they've passed down any stories, they know the UAV could be a probe - and it saw them."

Sam shook her head frantically. "We didn't see anyone, Daniel-"

"Yes, we did." He flipped up the UAV's last image.

Dog. Lizard. Not really either, with four claws like taloned hands tucked underneath as it coiled through the air like a silver-white furry-scaled snake, or some fantastic dragon-creature off one of Cassie's anime movies. Eyes set forward, predatory. Alive. Intelligent.

"General... there weren't just curses around the 'Gate," Daniel said firmly. "There were blessings over every household door. I haven't got them all translated yet, but they make reference to the children of Cerberus." He laid one of the carved river-rocks down on the table. "I've checked over my recordings of the tool-marks, General. Some of the hieroglyphs were chiseled. But others, like this one - I think they were carved by claws."

The general let out a slow breath. "You believe the inhabitants of this planet are some variant of these... youkai changelings."

"Sir, I think the changelings are humans." Daniel's knuckles were white. "Or... were. Before the Ancients started experimenting on them."

Hammond sat there for a frozen second. Glanced at Sam.

"If... youkai and humans can interbreed... yes, sir," she got out. "The odds of two unrelated species being able to do that are astronomical."

"Echidna was supposed to be born of those who came before the gods," Daniel stated. "Before the Goa'uld. And the only aliens we know of who've been to this planet are the Goa'uld, the Asgaard - who came centuries after them - and the Ancients."

"The Ancients were Asgaard allies," I point out. "Remember? The whole Four Races meaning of life stuff?" I like Thor. I can't believe he'd ever mess with people that way. Or ally with people who did.

"The Nox were in that alliance too, Jack. And for some reason, they decided to pull out and go pacifist on their own planet, and leave the rest of us to deal with the Goa'uld, and the Replicators, and everything," Daniel points out right back. "And maybe we don't know anything about the Furlings, but both the Nox and the Asgaard consider us very young."

Sam looked downright grim. "Sir, he's… got a point," she said reluctantly. "From your account of the Hammer, Thor's own hologram in the labyrinth admitted that Cimmeria was established as a - species refuge, for humans. It might not be a big leap from that, to seeing humans as… lesser life forms."

"Lab rats," I muttered.

A kind of wicked glitter lit her eyes. "NIMH rats."

I cranked up a brow. "Major, I think I speak for us all when I say, huh?"

"Fictional intelligent creatures created by human experimentation, O'Neill," Teal'c stated. "Their increased capabilities allowed some of them to outwit their captors, escape, and live independently, creating their own hidden culture. They were successful, but remained in constant danger of discovery." At my blink, he added, "Cassandra Fraiser allowed me to borrow one of her reading assignments."

Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape. If a bunch of SGC personnel were grabbed by some alien with an experimental bent, that's what we'd do. Heck, sometimes that's what we've done.

And if whatever they'd done to us was permanent, and we couldn't fix it-

We'd live with it. Best way we could, without hurting other people.

Like… Himura has. Hell.

"It doesn't mean Thor knew about it, Jack," Daniel said quietly.

I shook my head. "Daniel. They're the Asgaard-"

"And they weren't. Here," Daniel cut me off. "They couldn't catch the NID without our help, Jack. Why should they have had any better luck catching the Ancients if they were up to genetic manipulation?" He fixed me with a sympathetic gaze, then turned to Hammond. "But we can try to find out more about that later. The point now, General, is that if we're right, then the changelings are genetically manipulated humans. Like the Jaffa."

And Teal'c shoots me a look of pure, quiet triumph.

Oh yeah. Hat. Rabbit. Daniel's done it again.

I try not to grin too obviously as I turn to General Hammond. "Think we can make it fly, sir?"

"The official position is that whatever manipulations the Goa'uld may have performed on their DNA in the past, Jaffa are human, if off-world human… it's certainly a plausible argument, Colonel." For the first time in a while, Hammond looked downright intrigued. "You do understand that it may be a difficult argument to make, so long as it might be argued you are under outside influence."

"I was kind of hoping we could leave that out for now," I admitted. "Have Janet ground me, sir. Low blood sugar, some kind of suspected alien allergen… something like that. Just for a few days. Maybe we can work something out." I turned back to my team. "Right now, we've got some allies who want a few answers. So I think we should tell them what we can prove." I ticked the facts off on my fingers. "Doesn't look like there's any tech lying around to be grabbed. Doesn't look like there's any Goa'uld on the planet. Doesn't look like there's any human survivors."

"Jack-"

"Doesn't look like it, Daniel," I said bluntly. "What it does look like, is there might be traces of naquadah to dig up, some funky archaic writing that should be just the ticket for breaking in our new linguist types - and, oh, some really big predatory animals in the area. So we figure we might send another armed team to poke around later, but there's no rush. Right?"

"You want us to lie to them, sir?" Sam said levelly.

"Like a rug, Major." I gave her a wry look. "You heard what Mairin and Selmac said about ib-seshatai - how they went after Goa'uld instinctively? Himura himself pretty much admitted that if he didn't know Teal'c was one of ours, he'd have a hard time not killing him. And if Daniel's right, the people in that place are already freaked out. You want to take the risk of messing up any chance we have to really figure out what happened there by having some Tok'ra investigative team tromp through that 'Gate and get eaten?"

"They'd probably only chew in self-defense," Daniel snickered under his breath.

…He did not just say that. He did not just say that. With a Sean Connery accent, no less. "Snake-dog," I said, with all a colonel's dignity backing it.

"Dragon." Blue crinkled behind glass, almost innocent.

"Cerberus. Three-headed snake-dog."

"Legendary dragons can have all the heads they want," Daniel said piously. "Ladon was a dragon. Hydra was pretty much a dragon. Echidna was maybe half-dragon."

"Snake-dog."

"Maybe, maybe… but the thing about snake-dogs? They probably wouldn't mind being called dragons. On the other hand, dragons - well, legend has them down as very proud. They don't like being mistaken for something else, even when they are something else. Which they are. Sometimes. Dragons shape-shift a lot."

I haven't lived this long without knowing when to make a strategic retreat. "Fine. But we call the planet Cerberus."

"They invoke that name in their blessings," Daniel nodded. Looked at the general.

"Cerberus it is," Hammond decrees.

Daniel relaxed a little. "Now all we need is a good honey-cake recipe."

"Daniel?" I shook my head, wondering if my ears were working.

"Well, we don't know how much of the myths about Cerberus are true," Daniel observed, "But none of us are Hercules. Come on, I'll explain while we talk to the cafeteria. They're probably going to want to hear this too..."

---------------

Daniel

The keyboard tapping slowed as I walked into the VIP quarters, and a curious brunette poked her head around her computer monitor. "Dr. Jackson! I thought you'd be in the meeting with Jacob and Sermane..."

"Hi, Ms. Williams. Mairin." Even feeling that odd prickle of nerves that seemed to mark Tok'ra these days, I had to smile back. Judith looked reasonably happy, and a lot healthier than she had when we'd first met. "Well, it was going to be more about tactics than linguistics, so I'd say Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter have it covered." Teal'c, as a general rule, tended to avoid the Tok'ra whenever possible. He covered it well, but he still remembered Jolinar saying he was only Jaffa. Not an uncommon attitude problem among Egeria's offspring, unfortunately.

Besides which, I was fairly sure Teal'c had something in mind for today. Something he could only do off-base. I just hoped it worked.

Judith dipped her head, and Mairin lifted it. "I am curious, Dr. Jackson." Her voice was easier to listen to than a lot of symbiotes; she kept the reverberation toned down, more waves on the shore than thunder-rumble. "You are one of the few we have met who greets us both. Even Major Carter greets Jacob and Selmac as Jacob..." She let that trail off, into an elegant lift of brow.

"Human nature, I think," I shrugged. "We're used to looking at a person and seeing one individual. But you're not, really. You're more like... Siamese twins. It's rude to act as if you're not there, just because we can only see one of you at a time." I shoved up my glasses shyly. "If you'd rather I didn't-"

"No," Mairin said thoughtfully. "We both find it - comforting. And life among the Tok'ra is strange enough for Judith... and so also for me. I had not anticipated that." She frowned. "I do not think the Council would approve. They do not of Jacob, when he speaks in favor of aiding the SGC more directly." She paused then, and gave me a look.

I've seen that look from Jack. I mimed a zipper across the lips.

Mairin relaxed a little. "I am young, so what views I have that diverge from the will of the Council are - tolerated. Much as you tolerate the idealism of your own... teenagers, is that the correct word? Jacob and Selmac are... not so fortunate."

"You say something, they laugh it off," I translated. "But Selmac's older and wiser, so the Council has to take him seriously. And they don't want to." I gave her a curious look. "Why?"

Mairin ducked her head, and Judith lifted it. "Mairin's not really sure. I think - I could be wrong, but I think - it's because it moves away from what Egeria set up." She tapped a finger on the desk thoughtfully. "It's the classic revolutionary problem. She knew what she was against, but I'm not sure Egeria ever decided what she was for."

"You mean there's no-" I fumble for the kind of terms I've heard from Jack. Darn it, he should be here instead of me. "No exit strategy?"

"Undermine the System Lords. Play them against each other," Judith reported. "That's what Mairin has the genetic memories to do. Anything after that..." she spread her hands.

"But humans don't come with genetic memories," I pointed out. "We have to make it up as we go along." Careful, careful... "And we're allies now. Which means we get to lean on each other when one of us has a problem, and the other might have a solution."

"That would mean the Council would have to admit they don't have all the answers," Judith said dryly.

"Tricky," I agreed. "How did you get them to agree you could come to Earth?"

Judith smiled. "As a wise man once said, sometimes it's easier to get forgiveness than permission."

Oh boy. "Um..."

"Don't worry, I'm sort of covered," Judith shrugged. "Though Selmac is stretching his authority just a little, having me here on his orders instead of the Council's, on a fact-finding mission. In truth, he already knows most of the facts we're going to lay out. And the key fact is that I'm an ethnobotanist, not just a spy."

"Oh?"

"The Council says we can't give the SGC advanced technology, and to some extent I have to agree with that." She held up a hand before I could say anything. "Ion cannons, for example - moral considerations aside, experimenting with that technology could lead to a lot of nasty situations Earth just doesn't have the safety protocols to deal with. Yet. But biology, chemistry... I've seen some of Dr. Fraiser's work with specimens from different planets, looking for new biochemical compounds that might have medical use. And you have the protocols to deal with most of those hazards. I don't see any reason why we can't help there."

"Janet would love that," I said eagerly. "But - if the Council wants you on spying missions-"

"If they can let Freya and Anise hare off for decades at a time looking for those damn Antoniak armbands, they can spare us for ten years or so for this," Judith said wryly. "Later... well, we'll worry about later. But this can help the Tok'ra, too. I can go with your biologists and visit planets the SGC has ruled friendly. Find other places we can retreat to if we have to collapse another base. Possibly even tap whole other information networks the Tok'ra haven't had access to; people who won't talk to a low-level Jaffa or Goa'uld will talk to a wandering healer."

I had to smile. "You've got a plan."

"No, no," Judith shook her head firmly. "Selmac has a plan. I'm just a lowly youngster. And when the oldest and wisest among us says jump, I say 'how high?'"

I snickered.

"Also," she hesitated. "I don't know much about that whole incident with the armbands, or the zatarc, but Jacob and Selmac have both argued that even though the SGC can work past what happened, the Tok'ra would get a lot more willing help out of your various team members if we... gave something back. Like this."

"Which is small, and not important technology, so the Council might actually agree to let it slide," I observed neutrally.

She winced a little. "I wasn't going to put it that way."

"I know." I gave her a wry shrug. "If it helps, you can tell them we really will appreciate it. Getting something useful out of the Stargate program would make things a lot easier for General Hammond. Not to mention, it'd make being a Tok'ra host more attractive to a lot of people, if they knew they'd have the chance to help our planet directly."

"That should get their attention," Judith observed. "But I doubt you came to talk about my - that is, Selmac's - pet project." She raised her eyebrows.

"Well, yes and no. We really did want to know. And now that we do, I can point you toward Janet and her new exo-bio team; maybe they can give you some extra ammo for the Council. Don't let the guys scare you too much," I added. "They haven't blown anything up. Yet."

"They sound like fun already," Judith grinned. "And the no?"

"What's Pegasus?" I gave her a measuring look. "What did you really know about P3X-459?"

She whistled softly. "Now that, is an interesting question."

I waited while she paced the room; from the way her head dipped and lifted slightly as she walked, there was quite a discussion going on.

The brunette head lifted, and I wasn't surprised to hear Mairin's voice. "I am not certain what information the Council may hold, but the information I am aware of is... surprisingly small."

I nodded slightly; go on.

"I believe that address has not been visited by the Goa'uld since before I was spawned; for Egeria herself passed that knowledge to me, along with a warning."

"A warning would have been nice," I said faintly.

"I did not know you had not received it, Dr. Jackson," Mairin said regretfully. "And in justice to Selmac and Sermane, the warning I know of is - vague. Merely a memory that our technology fails us beyond the 'Gate, and that predators roam not far away. Perhaps they believed that Tau'ri technology was too primitive to be affected."

Not an apology, just a statement. I could live with that. "That actually does seem to be true," I admitted. "We thought we might go back there later. Very carefully. Those are really big predators. But Pegasus?"

"Ah. Now that, as Judith would say, is interesting." Sitting down, she leaned her chin on her hand.

I dragged over a spare chair and sat backwards on it, facing her. "How interesting?"

"Selmac may know more, but what I know of the Ancients is, I think, little more than the SGC," Mairin stated matter-of-factly. "From their artifacts, they seem to have been humanoid. From your own discoveries, and some few of Anise's, they seem to have left a mark in the languages of this world. And from the memories Egeria passed to me, they were the true builders of the 'Gates." She let a faint smile touch her lips. "But reading reports to the Council, I know one thing you do not know."

Oooh. Drama. I let her draw it out, blinking wide-eyed to invite her to share the secret.

"Nirrti seeks Ancient devices."

Whoof.

Nirrti. The Destroyer. The Goa'uld System Lady who wiped out an entire settlement near a 'Gate, maybe an entire planet's population, to get us to bring Cassie back with a bomb inside. Who came as part of the Goa'uld negotiating team to take away our Stargates, all the while planning to use her nifty invisibility device to assassinate Cronus and pin the blame on Earth so it'd be destroyed. One nasty lady.

Though in a crazy way, I thought she was one of the more sane System Lords out there. She didn't want to play with us. She didn't want to enslave us. She saw us as a threat, she moved to wipe us out. If Ra had had that much brains, he'd still be ruling Abydos.

"And one of the ways Nirrti does so, is by seeking in Goa'uld records for mentions of Pegasus," Mairin went on. "As there was one of P3X-459, in one of Cronus' databases we, and she, managed to infiltrate. I wonder if that was not part of the reason she attacked him here, to draw attention away from that invasion."

"Cronus has information on the Ancients?" That sort of made sense. The Cronus of myth was one of the Titans, who'd ruled before the Greek gods. Or possibly, other Greek Goa'uld. Echidna - well, her ancestry was a little muddy. Some myths said she was an offspring of Uranus and Gaia, who'd come before the Titans; others said she was the daughter of Ceto, who was pretty much a personification of the dangers of the sea, unknown terrors and bizarre creatures. Given what we'd found so far, I was leaning toward Ceto - and toward Ceto being an Ancient.

"He has some, discovered in a land 'beyond the southern wind'," Mairin nodded.

Beyond the northern wind would be Hyperborea, heading toward the North Pole. So beyond the southern wind would be- "Antarctica? Of course - the other Stargate was there, and Sam found a frozen Jaffa... but why is Pegasus the link?"

"I do not yet know," Mairin sighed. "I only know that it seems mentioned often when the Ancients are mentioned, often enough to be a guidepost to remnants left behind." She spread empty hands. "So I pass this crumb to you, that you might take it for what little warning it may be. We both know the Ancients' technology is not lightly to be tampered with. And if Nirrti were to acquire it..."

"Thank you," I said sincerely. And I meant it; if Nirrti ever did break free of Cronus and Yu, the people of Cerberus deserved a heads-up. "I promise we'll be careful. And if we find anything that looks like higher technology, we will ask for help. But right now, all there seems to be is a lot of plain old ordinary clay tablets."

Her hands overlapped each other, and she gave me a skeptical look. "And if there is technological information in those ordinary clay tablets, Dr. Jackson?"

I gave her a wry smile. "General Hammond has standing orders for Sam not to activate anything that says reactor on it without warning him first."

That just might have been a glimmer of humor in Mairin's gaze. Maybe.

"Besides, we're allies now," I went on seriously. "If we find something, we'll share it. You know Judith; you know we mean what we say."

"I know you mean it, Dr. Jackson," Mairin said seriously. "And I know much of the SGC agrees with you. But as I know Judith, so I do know there are factions on Earth who may disagree. And I do know the Council. They are... cautious about this alliance."

"I guess they would be. You're used to trusting people related to you, and we're not. It's going to take time." I rose. "But I think we can work it out."

Mairin dipped her head, and Judith held out her hand. "I hope so, Dr. Jackson-"

Smiling back, I shook it. "Call me Daniel."

"Daniel," she nodded. "I really hope so. Because just between you, me, and Mairin," she cast a conspiratorial glance around the room, "some days, I've never had so much fun in my life!"

---------------

Teal'c

I strode through the corridors to the infirmary, scattering airmen, officers, and wide-eyed civilian scientists in my wake. Blood spattered my clothing, my hat had been torn in several places, and there were bruises my symbiote had yet to heal.

The day had been most productive.

"Teal'c!" Janet Fraiser moved toward me with narrowed eyes, already picking up fluids to cleanse my wounds.

"Doctor Fraiser," I inclined my head, offering a small sheet of paper. Turned to the man sitting on a table as the medical staff ran yet another series of unproductive tests. "O'Neill. I have obtained a prescription."

"From who?" O'Neill griped. "King Kong?"

I let one brow rise, amused. "He was not nearly so tall."

"Two weeks away from high-intensity magnetic fields, and - a purification ceremony?" Janet read.

"Its purpose is to remove youkai influence from mortal beings," I inform her. "I am told that for one who is born with the influence, the effects are only temporary; but for a human who has been tainted, it should be fully effective."

"Himura?" O'Neill said grimly.

"Concurred that it should be sufficient."

"Whoa, whoa - you didn't tangle with Himura?" O'Neill stood in disbelief. "How many of them were there?"

"Only one." I smiled at the memory of the fight. It had been a very long time since I had sparred with one so close to matching a Jaffa's strength and skill. "Hajime Saitou."

O'Neill gave me a searching look, and motioned me to sit, that Janet might tend my wounds. "Take it from the top."

"As your illness originated with Himura, I believed information on any treatment might be sought there as well."

"Right," Doctor Fraiser agreed. "That's why I sent Warner to talk to Takani. Only she wasn't talking."

"Nor has she," I acknowledged as skillful hands went to work. "Yet Megumi Takani is not the only one of Kenshin Himura's immediate acquaintances with medical experience."

"He said he got through WWII as some kind of quack herbalist," O'Neill stated.

"I do not believe he is a quack, O'Neill."

A skeptical glance. "So you went to the dojo to see Himura, and..."

"He appears to be entertaining visitors."

"Armed visitors?" O'Neill asked wryly.

I inclined my head. "Indeed."

"Don't mind me, I'm just quietly dying of anticipation..."

"I inquired if Kenshin Himura would be willing to assist us in our inquiries. Hajime Saitou challenged my right to make such a request, and in the next breath, my right to exist. Pointedly."

"Pointedly, as in-"

"He is quite skilled with a sword, O'Neill."

"Right. What was I thinking..."

"Although his style involves more ground-based thrusts and aggression than those employed by either Kenshin Himura or Kaoru Kamiya." I fingered a healing wound near my left collarbone, where the first thrust had surprised me. "Fortunately, I was able to grasp Tokio Saitou's naginata-"

"That better not be what it sounds like, Teal'c!"

"It is a Japanese spear, O'Neill."

"Oh. Well. You know, mikta... never mind." O'Neill blinked. "So he had a sword, and you had a spear... please tell me we don't have to worry about homicide charges."

"He appeared conscious when I left," I observed. "And... amused." I frowned. "Though that may have been at the prospect of his wife's revenge. I believe I overheard Sanosuke Sagara observe that Tokio would be 'better at getting payback than anybody'."

"Great. So we got another might-be-youkai guy to look into - whoa. Saitou?" O'Neill regarded me with narrowed interest. "As in, Detective Ryan Saitou O'Connell? The guy who went after the corpse-smoke?"

"There appears," I noted, "to be a resemblance."

"Uncle Kenshin," O'Neill groaned. "I should've known..."

"Are you saying-?" Janet began.

"Yes, Doc. We have a changeling in the local cops." O'Neill covered his eyes with his hands, kneading at the headache his muffled curses indicated was present. "And how the hell we're going to get a good look at his records without an excuse..."

"Some of Hajime Saitou's history will not need investigation, O'Neill."

He parted his fingers to give me a wary look.

"I reviewed your and Major Carter's work on the history of the Bakumatsu," I explained. "A Hajime Saitou was Captain of the Third Unit of the Shinsengumi, who were often tasked with pursuing Battousai. He was well-known for the left-handed thrusting technique called Gatotsu." I almost touched the itching wound. "It is most effective."

"Urk..."

"As in, they were on different sides," Janet stated.

"As once were we, Doctor Fraiser." I raised a brow. "It is possible that once the conflict was ended, the Demon of Kyoto and the Wolf of Mibu discovered their common goals were more congruent than opposing."

"Wolf?" O'Neill asked bluntly.

"So the Shinsengumi were called," I nodded. "Miburou. The Ronin of Mibu, or the Wolves of Mibu." I thought back to the pure ferocity of my opponent, that nonetheless had never clouded his ability to think. "From what I have learned of Tau'ri wolves, the name is appropriate."

O'Neill took the prescription from Janet, read it over. "You're the doc, Doc."

"I don't see how it could hurt," Janet said frankly. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to run this past Dr. Baird - given there's a definite psychological aspect to these ceremonies - and Major Carter."

"Major Carter?" I inquired.

"She's mentioned some work by an East Coast parapsychologist that might be relevant," Janet explained. "I'd feel a lot better about following this course of treatment if I knew what a purification does on a scientific level."

Ah. Quite reasonable. "I hope to see you improved soon, O'Neill."

"Hold up a minute." The colonel regarded me with a look he had once given to intars; cautious, with a shrewd thoughtfulness on how they might change our current tactics. "You didn't have time to look up all this stuff on Miburou before you got here."

"I did not," I acknowledged. "Major Carter brought the Bakumatsu to my attention, and I investigated the information available in English. There is a sizable amount devoted to that group of warriors. Evidently they are honored, despite having been on the losing side."

"Sizable amount," O'Neill echoed. "Tell me you only put it together after you fought the guy, Teal'c..."

"As Himura seems unlikely to spar with us at any level approaching his true abilities, the next best judge of his proficiency would be a battle with one of his frequent opponents," I noted, still faintly tasting blood. "Hajime Saitou was regarded as one of the three strongest swordsmen within the unit. I do not believe he has lost any of his skill."

Janet traded an incredulous glance with O'Neill. Who sighed. "See, now, this," he grumbled under his breath, "is why I tell Daniel not to touch things!"

---------------

Sam

Houston, we have bouncy Daniel, full speed ahead.

Well, not that I can blame him for going at the fastest speed we can and still let Teal'c scout the territory with some measure of caution. We hadn't been here on Cerberus nearly as long as the last time, but the colonel was already looking a little pale around the mouth. I was within grabbing range in case he started to crumple, Dr. Enomouto was on his other side. Not that Ben looked all that together himself. First time through the 'Gate gets everyone, I guess.

Daniel hadn't insisted we bring the new guy. But given Dr. Enomouto apparently had a few scholarly papers on exactly this kind of defensive curse, and that we didn't think the natives would be actively hostile - well, he'd asked. Especially given we might need one more person to haul the colonel back through the 'Gate if they were hostile.

I didn't overhear all of Colonel O'Neill's argument with General Hammond about why he should be deliberately heading into a dangerous off-world environment. I did catch a little about Ancients, possible technological exchange, and needing two weeks straight demagnetized.

Most of which I agreed with. Kind of. I might not be able to verify everything Drs. Stantz and Venkman had published - ghosts, yeah, right - but Dr. Spengler was a fellow physicist. His research on the similarities between electromagnetic and psychokinetic energy was persuasive. Especially his articles on purification ceremonies as a controlled invocation of particular PKE frequencies to filter out alien influences from human biorhythms. All of which argued that the prescription Teal'c had obtained - stay away from outside magnetic influence to strengthen host biorhythms and make the intruding energies more "obvious", then use an opposing frequency to cancel out the alien waveform - was probably the psychokinetic equivalent of chicken soup for a cold: traditional, nonscientific, but symptom-specific and effective.

As in, it should work. But it would work best if we had Jack away from magnetic fields for that straight two weeks. Meaning if we wanted to visit Cerberus, we should do it now.

And if Daniel was right that we'd scared the locals, we had to do it now. How could we justify making them our allies if we left them hanging on tenterhooks, convinced our probe was the first wave of an invasion?

Not to mention a chance to poke into the kind of advanced tech I'd only gotten a taste of on Ernest's planet... the thought made me want to drool.

At least, it should have. But I kept thinking back on what Daniel had put together, that the Ancients might have experimented on humans the way we did lab rats - and drool turned to ashes in my mouth.

Could we learn anything from remnants of a people like that? Should we?

But one thing was sure. Whatever was out there, we couldn't let the Goa'uld have it.

And - Daniel took one more step, and let out a breath of pure relief. "Looks like the UAV was right."

I followed the wave of his hand, looking down at the wildflowers under our feet. Blinked, and looked again. Impossible.

An invisible line had been drawn along the greensward, right behind where Daniel was now standing. On one side of it, little butterfly-types and glistening beetles flew from flower to flower, snaky purple-and-green velvet worms chasing after them for snacks.

On the other side - nothing.

Same flowers. Same sun. Same everything, far as I could tell. But not one animal to be seen.

Okay, I was now officially spooked. "Colonel?"

"Huh." He shrugged. "Can't tell you, Carter. Doesn't feel any different on this side than that one."

"But this is about where the UAV indicated the magnetic distortion would end, right?" Ben's color looked a little better. Maybe he was finally getting used to the whole my-god-I'm-on-another-planet idea.

"It has," I nodded, checking my instruments. "This is about Earth-normal."

"Indeed." Teal'c traded a sober look with the colonel, moved off to scout the perimeter more thoroughly.

"Okay." The colonel looked up at the forested hills in the distance, looked around at the fairly clear line-of-sight we had here, glanced at the little brook running through a rocky incline a bit down-slope from us. And of course, looked up at the sky. "All right... this should do. Daniel?"

Working with Dr. Enomouto, Daniel laid out the supplies they'd scrounged out of the SGC kitchens. Weighted, square-ish foil shapes of Ancient writing. More foil, snipped into the flowery Luwian he'd found in the abandoned settlement. And on top of a rather prosaic picnic blanket, the odd, sweet-sticky confections our archaeologist had charmed the cooks into making.

"Get their attention from the air, I got," the colonel noted. "Say hi in a way they might understand, I got. But cake? Daniel..."

"It's in the legends," Daniel said soberly. "More the Roman legends than the Greek, but given Ancient has common roots with Latin, well... Cerberus, Jack. When Hercules was ordered to fetch Hades' guardian to the surface, some of the legends say all it took was the hero treating him with kindness - the 'first kindness he had ever known'. And when regular humans like Aeneas and Psyche had to get past him, they fed him honey-cakes." He hesitated. "I know Aeneas' were supposed to be drugged, but we're trying to be friendly here, and at least some of the Psyche legends just say she fed him and was kind, no drugs."

"And they're sweet," Ben added. "Who doesn't like sweet?"

"Just remember, your boss over there got married because of a candy bar," the colonel said dryly.

"...Eep?"

The colonel's eyes half-closed, and I could all but hear him thinking, geek. Why me?

"It was a lot more than a candy bar," Daniel reassured the new guy. "Ra, impending mine visit - I'll fill you in later-" He stopped, blinking hard.

"Above," Teal'c's level voice carried across the field.

Oh. My.

Silvery-white with a subtle pattern of pale green, curling in the wind. Its mane blew back as it hung in the air, looking us over from what it obviously felt was a comfortable height of a few hundred feet.

And it was big. Twenty, maybe thirty feet, with more complex scale-patterns and a somewhat more bulky build than the one we'd caught on tape. Oh hell. Don't tell me...

"Carter? You thinking what I'm thinking?"

I winced. "The one that - um, masticated - the UAV was younger, Sir?"

"Teenager," the colonel sighed. "Figures."

"We are being watched," Teal'c murmured, scanning the bushy cover ahead and to the sides.

"Of course," O'Neill said lightly. "Daniel, you're on."

Daniel let out a sigh to calm himself down, then stepped forward and let out a string of odd-sounding syllables that hopefully meant, Hi, I'm Daniel Jackson, we come in peace, would you like to talk?

I don't think I've ever seen a dragon look skeptical before. It drew in a snarling breath-

Blinked. Eeled down through the air, hovering almost eyeball to green-gold eyeball no more than twenty feet from us. Sniffed.

Blinked again, and flicked back up into the air above us, like a hawk riding a thermal to spy out the landscape.

And that's when air rippled, arrows and spears and the grim hands holding them appearing out of spots I would have sworn were empty before. Damn. Nirrti really would love this place.

The colonel cleared his throat. "Talk faster."

---------------

Daniel

Nice thought, Jack, but I don't think so. We had our peace message written out on the ground back there, our goodwill cakes waiting, and a bunch of very nervous, very dangerous armed people here, who were taking the opportunity to get an up-close-and-personal look at the weird strangers who got past their Keep Out signs. I planned to let them look as long as they liked.

I was taking the opportunity to look back, after all; adding up bronze weapons, fine-woven plaids in woodland colors, and snake and other odd creatures embroidered on leather trousers to try and guess what we were dealing with here. Besides people who seemed to range from garden-variety dark-haired, blue and green-eyed Caucasoid human to... not quite.

Claws.

She held her spear so naturally that it was the white hair I'd noticed first. It was different, and most cultures get a bit touchy about different. So I looked her over out of the corner of my eye, taking in an odd sharpness to the young woman's features, the golden gleam of her eyes, the way her fellow warriors had given her just a little more space than most of their comrades, as if they expected her to move the way Jack would when he was ticked...

Which was when I saw the claws. And tried not to let my jaw drop.

A second quick look told me she wasn't the only one. At least two more out of the dozen eyeing us had them as well. One of them, a girl just past her teens, looked almost "normal" otherwise; while the sober older man a few people away from her was somewhere in between, near-blond hair streaked with gray, eyes a bright green I'd never seen on anyone not wearing contacts.

Everyone's armed, and there are no kids, I added up. They were expecting trouble.

No elders, either. Except for the gray-haired woman leaning on her staff as she stepped out of that shimmer, cloaked and scowling, giving me the kind of look I'd once gotten from a village headman as a young archaeologist in Egypt.

As in, you are in so much trouble, kid.

"Why do you bring one here who smells of our enemies?" she snarled.

Literally snarled; some of that body posture and lip-writhing would have fit right in at a tiger cage. Focus, language... not quite Luwian, not Ancient even if it had a little of the flavor; definitely Proto-Indo-European rootstock. Okay. I could deal. And - here we go again. "Teal'c no longer serves the false gods-"

She snorted. "The Titan's creation? Him we can kill, if there is need; and the mind-serpent that lairs within him. Are you blind, cub? Or has the blood of ours that foe has witched into his own veins clouded your spirit-sense to the truth of him?" Wrinkled and angry, her finger jabbed at Jack. "That one!"

...Whoa.

"So you were deceived," the elder observed. Looked back over her shoulder-

"No, no, wait, please!" I flung myself into the most likely spear trajectory, hands spread out, beseeching. "He's not your enemy!"

"Daniel?" Jack snapped.

"Not now," I said quickly. "Oh gods, Jack, I think they think you're an Ancient-"

"Say what?"

"He's human," I insisted in the elder's tongue, talking fast. "The glyphs we used to draw your attention - they are not of our blood! We have only found them, on other worlds; studied them, to try and learn their secrets. We are of Gaia. Of the world your ancestors were stolen from, ages and ages ago..."

Low whispers, from some of the older warriors to the elder; I couldn't quite make them out. She didn't seem to have a problem, stepping forward to look me in the eye. "Only two who stand here are not of Gaia, young cub. As only three are not of Cerberus." A slight jerk of her head grouped Sam, Teal'c, and Jack as one.

Which was something I'd never seen anyone do before. Oh, sure, people had split up SG-1 on basis of warriors versus scientists, or humans versus Jaffa - but people working on the basis of who looked related usually lumped me in with Sam.

Related? Why did I think- Oh, a kind of generative of, I thought fast. Out of, born of, blood of-

"Why is it that you speak to us, and your elder nest-mate does not?"

"Benkai doesn't know your language yet. I don't know it very well either, I hope you will forgive me if I offend..." Wait a second. Elder? "Benkai," I muttered under my breath in Japanese, "why does she think you're older than I am?"

The dark-haired linguist cleared his throat. "Um..."

"Please tell me you're not as old as Kenshin."

He relaxed a little. "Nope."

Which left a lot of leeway, come to think. "Older than Hammond?"

"Er..."

I should have known. Since when is anything in my life normal? "When this is over, you and I have to talk." Something else nibbled at my attention. "And why does she keep calling me cub?"

"Well, I don't know about here, but on Earth, that translation's used as a nonspecific youngster term, hanyou and youkai," Benkai said practically. "Doesn't usually offend, so it's good if you're not sure what type of youkai you're dealing with." Brown eyes stole up to our hovering watcher. "Not to mention, dragons usually use cub. At least for the older young."

"You think-?"

"If they're not ryuu, they're damn close," Benkai said softly, wonder bright in his gaze. "Wow."

"Anybody going to speak English anytime soon?" Jack grumped.

"Terminology," I said in that language. Two not of Gaia, three not of Cerberus... I cast my mind back into the new dialect whispering around us. "Elder. You know Sam is human?" Oh, this was risky. But it just might pay off. "I had feared her scent might carry too much of - of the mind-serpent-"

"It glimmers within her." Was that sympathy in the elder's voice? "But her spirit holds her body, and is not overshadowed. Taken from Gaia she was, of Gaia she is." She thumped her staff on the ground. "I am River, Honored Grandmother of Fang Mountain. You are Daniel, who may be distant kin. Why would a cub of ours travel the star-road, shrouded in the scent of Enemy?"

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. Okay. I can do this. "Many thousands of years ago, the star-road on the soil of Gaia was buried..."

---------------

Translations and info:

Ib-seshatai - "Heart-reader"; empath. Also used by the Goa'uld to refer to humans with other extraordinary capabilities.

Mikta - O'Neill was referred to as a "pain in the mikta" by the System Lords. We may not know what it is, but according to Teal'c, it's not the neck.

Ryuu - dragon.