Moving forward

The Goa'uld had been paying attention it seems. New batch of villagers only had 10 Jaffa with them. There was no Goa'uld present. Hinata was curious about the new tactics, but it become apparent near the harvest time. A ship flew over the Lake City, sending the citizens into panic. For the first time, Hinata ordered her people to arm themselves.

Moments later, she was relieved by one of her Jaffa, who informed her that this was a transport ship. It didn't have any weapons of its own. True to his word, the ship did a few flybys of their settlement, then landed in the sand dunes beyond. Hinata watched in amusement, as 200 Jaffa exited the ship, with the presumably missing Goa'uld.

"If it doesn't work, throw more men at the problem" sighed Hinata, crossing the dune's ridge to meet the new arrivals.

The Elemental Nations didn't have any spaceships, and Hinata was quite interested in getting one. Granted, only if the Goa'uld prove hostile, she wasn't some bloodthirsty bandit after all. Meeting a friendly group with a spaceship, was nearly as good, as having a spaceship of their own.

"Welcome, welcome to the Lake City" she greeted them as soon as she was in shouting distance. Completely ignoring number of staff weapons pointed at her.

"I am God Zeferus. You will take me to your God" commanded Goa'uld.

"Ah, we don't have any Gods here, I am afraid. My name is Hinata, I am in charge here. Pleased to meet you Zeferus. What can I do for you?" she asked him pleasantly.

"Take care how you speak to a God, peasant!" one of the Jaffa, probably his First Prime shouted at her.

"I was very respectful actually. Introduced myself, welcomed you to my lands, even though we were not expecting any visitors" responded Hinata.

"This planet belongs to me shol'va. There are no lands you control. Do not presume we are on the same level human" delivered Zeferus, with the characteristically glowing eyes.

"Ah, misunderstanding it is then. I am afraid you came to the wrong planet. This planet, and in fact the whole star system belongs to me" she told him pleasantly.

"Your pitiful games will not work shol'va. We have already met with my people near the Chappa'ai" he told her with dismissal.

"Ah, I see. You are the newest invading Goa'uld. This changes the situation. I was hoping you were not associated with those slavers" she told him sadly.

"You see, slavery is banned in my lands, and you are breaking the laws. It is also forbidden for Goa'uld to take on an intelligent host. I must insist, that you release him now" she ordered.

"I will enjoy breaking you shol'va" he told her with malice. "Take her, and pacify the population" he ordered his Jaffa.

Closing her eyes, Hinata released a small wave of killing intent. Making the Jaffa and Goa'uld freeze in place.

"Have you ever met a predator so powerful, that it made you freeze in fright. Just looking at the predator, you could see your life flash before your eyes, the thousand ways it could kill you. My people weaponised that feeling, calling it Killing Intend. It is what you are experiencing right now" she commented casually, walking to the closest Jaffa. Poking him lightly with Juken, she watched him drop to the ground.

Walking to another Jaffa, she repeated the process, making her way to the ship's ramp. She wanted to ensure that it would not go anywhere and would not be damaged. It looked like a valuable asset to have, even if she was not sure of all that it was capable of doing. Inside, she found 2 more Jaffa, who were disabled, and dragged outside.

By the time she finished disabling the last of invaders, many of her own people made their way over the sand. Standing some distance away, waiting for their orders.

"Can any of you fly this thing?" she asked her people.

Seeing 3 hands raised, she pointed to them. "Take it to the opposite side of the city, deeper into the desert. Wouldn't want any of our new 'guests' running away with it" she ordered. "Rest of you collect the weapons, and take them to the armoury."

Hinata was not too worried about her own people leaving with the ship. In addition to them being somewhat trustworthy, she left a hidden Water Clone in the ship just in case, she was a kunoichi after all. Turning to the prone Goa'uld on the ground, she crouched next to him.

"What it is going to be Goa'uld Zeferus, are you going to release your host willingly, or should I separate you myself?" she asked him.

"You will not get away with this, Lord Amaterasu will descent at you with all of her divine might, and turn everyone who turned away from her to dust" he retorted with anger.

"Will she now?" asked Hinata sceptically. "As far as I understand, this planet is of no importance to your people. It has no minerals you value, and no population to speak off, to draw the slaves from. Is that not so?" she asked him.

"It doesn't matter, my Lord will not allow this insult go" he retorted.

"You see, I don't believe you. If she is smart, she will write off this world as a loss and forget about it. Alternatively, she will see it as an opportunity to get rid of some thorns at her side, and sent them to continue these pitiful attempts to get Lucene back" summarized Hinata.

"Even if she brings all of her armies here, at least, these people will get a taste of freedom, and will have the opportunity to fight for it. Either way, it is better than the life they had before. Now stop stalling, that paralysis will not wear off for a few more hours, so make your choice" she ordered.

Seeing the man starting to foam, she quickly knocked him and the symbiote out, then went about separating them and healing the damage. Once it was done, she turned to the bucket containing panicking Goa'uld.

"Goa'uld Zeferus, for attempted murder of this man, I sentence you to 50 years of imprisonment" she judged.

"Please take the Goa'uld to his prison cell, and the host to an empty house" she told her people. Walking to one of the 'Jaffa' laying nearby, she kneeled.

"Now, who do we have here? Smart to pretend to be a Jaffa, but I am afraid it is not enough to fool me" she addressed the woman lying on the floor.

"We are not Goa'uld" she quickly said in fear.

"Aren't you? You sure look like one" asked Hinata, with clearly visible scepticism.

Suddenly, the woman's voice deepened "my name is Lilith of the Tok'ra" she introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you Lilith. Cannot say that I heard of Tok'ra before. What makes you different to the Goa'uld, if you don't mind me asking" asked Hinata.

"Tok'ra had been fighting the rule of System Lords of Goa'uld for hundreds of years. We are opposed to their mistreatment of their subjects, and taking over the unwilling hosts. Tok'ra only ever take on willing hosts, and their consciousness is not suppressed" she quickly added.

"Ah, I see. You share the biology, but have different ideological views. I am afraid, it does not change the situation. Taking on intelligent host is not permitted in my domain, so I must ask you to release her" said Hinata with pleasant smile.

"What? But Jadeth choose to become my host, and she is free to do what she wants as much as I am" she tried to argue. Then her demeanour shifted.

"Hi I am Jadeth. Lilith and I are friends, please don't take her away" she said in a fearful voice from before.

"Hello Jadeth, nice to meet you. Tell me, when Zeferus ordered to pacify the Lake City, were you going follow that order? Perhaps, even kill my people if they fought back?" Hinata asked them. Seeing the answer in their eyes, she continued.

"Being a spy forces you to do some morally questionable things, doesn't it? You know what else makes a good spy? Being a good liar."

"We are not lying" they protested.

"How about this willing host situation? Maybe 20% of people who currently live in the Lake City would have become a willing host to a Goa'uld, at one or another point in their life. I bet, some of them will do it even now. Lifetime of brainwashing will not disappear overnight" she explained.

"Then, of course, we need to consider the unique biology of the Goa'uld symbiote. Mind you, I haven't studied it in details yet. From what I could see, you Lilith, is quite capable of modifying the memories and rewriting your host's brain. Perhaps, even turning unwilling host into willing one."

"Then, you are capable of producing various biological agents on command. This will quite easily allow you to control your host, even without the active manipulation of the mind. For example, if you wish to get information from a particular man, you can make Jadeth attracted to him, and simply wait for the nature to take its course" explained Hinata.

"She wouldn't" exclaimed Jadeth, with look of horror on her face.

"Why don't you ask Lilith yourself? The truth on the matter is, even if Lilith was not actively trying to manipulate you, she still would be doing some of it on subconscious level. That is the reason, why Goa'uld is not allowed to use an intelligent host within my lands. Now Lilith, are you going to leave Jadeth willingly, or should I separate you forcefully?" asked Hinata.

"What would happen to Lilith?" asked resigned Jadeth.

"She can take on any wild animal host, or any animal that she owns. I am afraid, we only have rabbits on the Lucene at this moment. Only intelligent hosts are forbidden. Alternatively, she could live within the lake and waterways in her natural form" suggested Hinata.

"I would be unable to communicate with Jadeth in either my natural form, or through an animal host" complained Lilith.

"Really? There are many people who have various disabilities, yet they have found a way to communicate. Perhaps, it can be a project for the two of you to work on. Now. You. Bucket" pointed Hinata humorously.

(*H*)

The newest group proven to the be the most troublesome so far. Group of 10 Jaffa actually tried to kill Jadeth, as Lilith was well hidden within the lake waters. Apparently, hate of Tok'ra was deeply ingrained in them. Hinata was forced to interfere, and had locked up First Prime of Zeferus for 50 years, as leader. All of the others, got 10 years each.

This forced Hinata to procure a permanent guard and cook positions for the prison. However, staff was rotated monthly, as there were many more volunteers, than actual paying jobs in the Lake City.

There were also attempts to free Zeferus from the prison, and even to give control of the Lake City to him. The more violent attempts, netted the participating people a year in prison. The others, were given between 3 and 90 days, depending on their actions and amount of violence and damages caused. Overall, 17 of the 200 invading Jaffa had been imprisoned for significant amount of time, with many more getting shorter terms.

It was clear to Hinata, that this batch had been significantly more devout to their Gau'uld. Perhaps, due to his more violent character, from what she observed. They may be afraid of the consequences, if he got free, and they didn't participate in granting him said freedom.

After first few violent days, the situation calmed down some, so Hinata took their new ship for a spin. They scouted the rest of their planet from space, and as Hinata had feared, there were no other oases or significant bodies of water.

The ship also had rudimental sensors, capable of locating the surface deposits of valuable minerals. Unfortunately, they were not powerful enough to penetrate the deep sands of Lucene. Hinata had her people survey the territories around their city anyway. In part, to give people practice, as well as to learn to fly the ship herself. In part, due to number of small meteorites fragments they found.

None of those were of any significant size. The biggest was made of iron and only weighted 15 kilograms. However, they also found couple of Naquadah meteorite fragments, with combined weight of around 500 grams. It was not great amount, by any stretch of imagination, but it would keep their cooking devices running for decades, and their ship for a year or more.

Much like with any other useful skill that she wanted to spread, she paid extra grains for anyone who could pilot the ship. However, with just one ship, it was a very slow learning process.

(*H*)

Around two weeks after the defeat of Zeferus, the newest harvest had been collected, and so it was time to bring in more villagers to the Lake City. This time, Hinata took their ship and around 20 volunteers with her. There was no point in wasting chakra, if there was an alternative.

With lots of helping hands, the process went much quicker. Other than few of her people looking longingly at the Chappa'ai, there were no accidents. Many people, especially Jaffa, had some family members somewhere else in the Goa'uld controlled space. However, it was better for everyone involved, if the Goa'uld thought them all dead. Interrogations, torture, family used as leverage, was not in anyone's interests.

With the newest additions, their city was now nearly 1200 people strong, which was pretty much the maximum they could handle, with the amount of water that Hinata could produce. With this in mind, as well as having a bit more experienced pilots, Hinata sent them to explore the rest of their system.

Meanwhile, the tax collectors came to find empty village once more. Hinata considered 'persuading' them to stay in the Lake City, but thought better off it. The tax collector knew all of the addresses to all of the Goa'uld Lord planets, and was trusted to collect taxes from them. If he went missing, it would draw too much attention to Lucene, something they couldn't afford.

The saplings at her oasis, were still only chest high at most, and provided no firewood. Even wood necessary to make spoons and forks for the villagers to eat, required venture to the original oasis. They only had 3 cooking devices, as Zeferus didn't have any with him, and didn't install any in the village either. Hinata was forced to expand the furnaces setup, which put additional daily demand on her chakra.

Now, that they were starting to get access to various metals, Hinata wanted so start some sort of blacksmithing going. Metal tools and items would open lots of new possibilities for her people. The only viable option she saw, was to repurpose one of their cooking devices to melt the metals. There was no way Hinata could dedicate any of her chakra for the job. Feeding her people was already taking all chakra she could generate.

They had a few people, who were tech savvy enough, to disassemble and more importantly reassemble the device. However, none of them were knowledgeable enough, to upgrade it, and even if they could, none of her people knew a first thing about blacksmithing.

The only person who would have any idea, was Tok'ra Lilith, who was not yet able to communicate beyond simple yes/no answers. Then, even if she were able to communicate, there was huge question if she will ever help them in the first place. Therefore, for the time being, Hinata assembled a task force of 10 interested people, and had them very carefully study and try to figure out more about the cooking devices and how they worked.

They were also given couple of staff weapons to disassemble and play with, as well as one of four kara'kesh they have, and one of two zat'ni katel. Their transport ship, and single healing device were deemed too important to play with, and potentially break. At least, until they got much better understanding of the Goa'uld technology.

(*H*)

True to her prediction, the System Lord seem to have written off the Lucene, as a loss. It has been few weeks since Hinata liberated the newest batch of villagers, and the new villagers were yet to come.

The situation in the Lake City was also calming down, and Hinata felt like she could relax a bit. Most of the recent hostilities were limited to words exchanges and, in few cases, pushes or single punches. The people seem to have caught up to the notion, that the more severe was the altercation, the harsher was the punishment. Even if Hinata didn't explicitly said, or wrote down any of those rules.

The ship had finished initial survey of their system, and identified 14 planets. With 5 of them being gas giants, and 9 terrestrials. Only Lucene was suitable for life, so there was no opportunity to move elsewhere. There were also 43 decently sized moons, mostly around the giants.

Of the big stelar bodies, 7 had atmosphere bad enough, that their transport couldn't even land there, without sever risk of damage or loss of the vehicle. The geological survey sensors on their transport were bad enough, that it required for the ship to fly couple of hundred meters above the ground, at most. This also meant, that it would take many months, if not years, to fully survey any of those bodies.

They only surveyed the most interesting geological features on all bodies that could be accessed, accounting for less than 1% of their overall surface. Even then, they found a few small deposits of Naquadah, and a decently sized deposit of Trinium. Ship had also flagged some other minerals as interesting for Goa'uld.

According to some older Jaffa, it was very rare for Goa'uld to mine the non-liveable planets. Even for the planets that supported life, most mines were near the Chappa'ai. To access any of the more difficult areas, would require to provide their slaves with better technology for mining and transportation of goods. Something that System Lords were highly opposed to.

Hinata thought that her clones may be able to work those planets, as they didn't really need to breath. However, that was last resort, if they were running out of Naquadah, or needed some other minerals for repairs, and couldn't find them anywhere else. For now, Hinata had been sending the ship to conduct survey of nearby asteroids.

Her tech research group were making small, but steady gains. After successfully disassembling all of the tech she provided, they discovered, that cooking device was the only one that used solid Naquadah, close to its mineable form. The weapons used some sort of liquid version of it, and none in the Lake City knew how to produce it.

This caused them a bit of an issue. Not only was cooking device using different power source, it was also much bigger than the rest, and therefore using very different parts. Hinata was really hopping, that they would be able to use parts from the staff weapons to create more of the make shift versions of the cooking devices. Now, it didn't look like that would be possible, definitely not with their current understanding of the technology.

Civilian sector was also steadily improving. Amount of people who could do basic reading and writing in Gua'uld language was approaching 50, and growing fast. Another year, and they may have 10% of their population literate. Sadly, there were no texts for her people to do any additional self-study.

Even the computer of the Tel'tak was very primitive and contained very little of useful information. The Goa'uld were really paranoid about their people gaining any sort of useful knowledge. Even so, her people laid different parts of their disassembled devices in front of transport's sensors, to determine what they were made of. It required a great deal of trial and error, but they figured out how far and where exactly to place small objects, for the sensors to pick them up. It was lots of work, but provided a great deal of useful knowledge.

Even without being bound to Lilith, Jadeth demonstrated a great deal of knowledge. While she was somewhat upset with Hinata, and very tight lipped about anything Tok'ra related, she clearly retained some knowledge of the Goa'uld. This was very interesting for Hinata as medic, but she refrained from bothering the woman whatever possible.

Hinata was using very hands-off approach to governing. There was no one second in command, there was no grand building for her to reside in, there were no grand speeches or gatherings. There were only few mandatory tasks, like planting, caring for, and harvesting crops, as well as practice with staff weapons. Other than that, as long as they didn't cause any troubles, people were free to do whatever they wanted.

(*H*)

"Excellent. Thank you all for coming" she greeted the 20 odd people, who were asked to meet her near the Tel'tak.

"I am sure most of you are aware, over the last 2 months, the Tel'tak had been doing survey of nearby asteroids in our system" getting nods in agreements, she moved on. "There were number of interesting asteroids they found. I am currently interested in this one" she put it on holographic display of the ship.

"What is interesting about it, is that it is roughly 20 meters to a side, and is 93% made of water ice. I would like for this group to figure out, how we can use the Tel'tak to bring it down here to Lucene" she explained.

"Excuse me, Leader Hinata, but what is the point of that? Cannot you just create more water?" asked her one of the present Jaffa. Leader Hinata was a way most citizens referred to her these days.

"Fair question Adam. There are three main reasons. Firstly, despite what many think, I am not all powerful, and can only create so much water. In fact, if our population grows to be any bigger than it is now, I am afraid, that we wouldn't have enough water for the crops to feed everyone" she explained to the surprise of many.

"Secondly, essentially all of the water you can see at Lake City was created by me. So, if anything happens to me, the city will use up all of that water within a year or two and die. I would prefer, for this place to thrive, even if I am not present. For that, it needs alternative access to water" she dropped another bomb shell on her people.

"And thirdly, while I am using my power to create water, I cannot use it for anything else. As things stand, this asteroid alone contains as much water, as I can produce in two months" she finished.

"Cannot you bring it here with your powers, Leader Hinata?" asked one of her R&D team members, after few minutes of silence. She decided to include few people from that team, in case the knowledge they already gained could be used for the endeavour.

"I can, Xeroz. However, it will cause same issues as my second and third point. If at all possible, I would prefer for the solution to require no use of my powers" she responded.

The following discussion took hours, but they came up with a few viable options to explore. Hinata authorized the hiring of additional 50 people to work on exploring those options, as well as use of necessary materials from their warehouse.

It was going to be the biggest project her people undertook so far and stretch their thin resources to their limit. However, if successful, it would provide significant increase to their security, self-sustainability, growth and even trade. If they could land asteroid made of ice, they could land an asteroid made of Naquadah.

(*H*)

It took 6 months, but they did it. Hinata watched proudly as the ship gently descended, with an ice asteroid suspended in a thick cotton net below. Sadly, it was not the one that Hinata wanted, as it proven to be too big for their ship engines to land. This one only contained about 1000 cubic meters of water, but it was still 10 days' worth of water for their city.

It took 3 weeks to tow it to their planet, but they were going to get better at it with time. With the first 'big one', they took their time, to ensure that everything worked as expected. Even in those 3 weeks of towing, there were already proposed number of promising ideas how to make the towing and landing safer and faster.

Nearly all citizens came to watch, and cheered as the asteroid touched down in the designated area. The original lake had no room for growth, and would start to spill into forests and farmland if too much more water was added.

They were now in a new area, couple of kilometres away from the current city. The deep valley already had small amounts of the water, sipping through the ground from the original lake. Once filled, the new lake would contain thousands of times more water than the original one.

Nearby flatlands would provide plenty of space for farms. It would take some work to level the sand dunes, and keep them levelled until the plants cover the area, but it would provide plenty of room for the city to grow. However, they would need to construct some irrigation systems, and bring the water from the bottom of the valley for the foreseeable future. It would take a very long time to fill the valley with water.

During the early stages of testing, they had also landed a number of much smaller asteroids, to test various approaches and procedures. Most of those consisted of various valuable metals. They now had millennia worth of Naquadah for their cooking devices and the ship. It was striking, how little of it was needed to produce energy. It took much more to build the devices in the first place.

From what the R&D figured out so far, each staff weapon required nearly 1 kilogram of Naquadah to produce. This was just for the staff components. They still had no idea how to make the liquid variety of Naquadah. Cooking device would set them back by 5 kilograms, and the Tel'tak required an estimated 20 metric tons of it, which was nearly all of Naquadah, that they currently owned. They had similar amounts of all other major metals and minerals, however, no way to actually use them for anything productive.

The smeltery project was still ongoing, with limited success. They could melt some easier to melt metals in small quantities, but had difficulties with forcing the liquid into the desired shape. This is even without accounting for harder to melt metals, or alloys, which they knew nothing about. Sufficient to say, this was going to be decades long project, unless they acquired the necessary information and equipment.

Goa'uld Nanus served his yearlong imprisonment for not releasing his host and got released into the lake. While hostile with Tok'ra Lilith, he refrained from attacking her on his own, without support of his people. There were still few people who supported their original Goa'uld overlords, even fewer, who deferred to the Goa'uld race as a whole.

Meanwhile, Lilith and Jadeth made significant progress in the communication department, learning to form a mental link via only skin contact. It was not as robust as the mending they did before, but they could have mental conversations, and Lilith could also speak via Jadeth, if permitted. With this sort of link, human was in charge of the connection.

The link could also be formed even with other humans and Jaffa, but it took more efforts for Lilith to connect with unfamiliar partners. To maintain the link for more than a few seconds at a time, the partner also had to learn to accept the foreign mental presence, without subconsciously breaking the connection.

As far as Hinata knew, Lilith didn't share the knowhows of the outer connections with the fellow Goa'uld. None of the villagers were working on figuring it out with Nanus either. Pity, there was lots of information, that the Goa'uld could have traded, to make his life better.

(*H*)

"Hello Jadeth and Lilith" she greeted the pair in their house. While Lilith originally lived in the lake, ever since they figured out how to form the outer connection, she could be often found in the Jadeth house, in a stone bath.

"Leader Hinata, what brings you here?" asked Jadeth.

"I would like to speak with the two of you" requested Hinata.

"Take a sit" indicated Jadeth warily. Siting near the bath herself, putting her hand in, to connect with Lilith.

"The two of you had been with us for over a year now" began Hinata. "In this time, you had conducted yourself well, and didn't cause any troubles. I had been keeping my eyes on you, and I think that the two of you do not wish harm to the Lake City" she said.

"Thanks?" responded Jadeth uncertainly.

"Now that we have a steady stream of asteroids being brought in, I think that Lake City is ready for next stage of growth and change. For that, we need to venture beyond our system. The only viable option I see, is to use the Chappa'ai" explained Hinata.

"And you want us to provide the viable addresses?" asked Lilith warily.

"Not quite. In the past, you have refused to share your knowledge, and I have no wish to force it out of you, or even other Goa'uld in our 'care'. I am pretty sure, that number of Jaffa in the city know addresses to some of the Goa'uld words" she explained.

"Then what do you want?" asked Lilith in confusion.

"I wish to establish a trading relationship with your people – Tok'ra. The best way to do so, would be to let you go" said Hinata, after studying the woman for a few moments.

"What?" exclaimed Jadeth. After a minute of stunned silence, they finally composed themselves. "You will let us go? Just like that?" asked Lilith with some scepticism and suspiciousness.

"Yes. If you still wish to reunite with your people, I will allow you two to leave. You can even take those people, that were persuaded to join your cause" confirmed Hinata with a knowing smile. "However, there are a few conditions" she added.

"Like what?" asked Lilith with hope and wariness.

"I don't know your people, so I will leave it up to you two to decide what you are going to tell them about myself or the Lake City. However, be warned. If your people attack us directly, or let some information 'slip' to the Goa'uld, or other hostile entities, I will find out. Then, I will track down everyone involved, and I am going to be much less pleasant, than I am now. Is that understood?" asked Hinata, releasing a small amount of killing intent.

"Y-Yes" answered sweating Jadeth, reminded of their first encounter.

"Good. Now to the trade. Right now, our future is solemnly bound to the single Tel'tak we own. If it were to break down, or be destroyed, it would mean death to the Lake City. Therefore, the highest priority for me, is to purchase the knowhows of building a Tel'tak of our own. Alternatively, we would like to purchase a second ship, or at the very least some spare parts for the one we own" she explained.

"I will ask my people, but I cannot make any promises," cautioned Lilith.

"That is understandable. Failing that, we would still like to trade for pretty much anything: new species of plants or animals; Chappa'ai addresses, either hostile or neutral; any technology, in particular, we would like to get at least 100 more cooking devices; wide range of knowledge, whatever it is current news about the galaxy, technological knowledge like smelting and alloys, or even fictional books for population to enjoy; and anything else that your people may think will interest us" summarized Hinata.

"And what would you trade us in return?" asked Lilith.

"We do not wish to get involved in your war with System Lords. It would take a single armed ship from some minor Goa'uld to destroy the Lake City. However, if any of your own people, your allies, or civilians caught in the fighting wish for a sanctuary, they will be welcome on Lucene. Note, they must obey our laws, which includes releasing any intelligent host for Goa'uld or Tok'ra. I don't care if it is the two of you who come back merged, or even your top leaders within the Tok'ra" she pointed out. Getting nod in understanding, Hinata continued.

"We would do all of that free of charge, as long as they don't have enemies hot at their heels. As for trade, we don't have much, due to our small size and recent independence. However, we could trade some basic goods, like food and clothes, as well as various minerals that Tel'tak sensors identify as valuable. I believe Naquadah in particular is often used as trade currency. Additionally, as you may know, I am a good medic, I would be happy to heal your people. Note, the price for that will be high, so don't waste my time with bruised knees" she finished.

"We will pass along your offers" promised Jadeth. "When can we leave?" she asked in anticipation.

"Well, we have harvest coming up, and it would be shame to lose so much free manpower. I also know, how much everyone enjoys this opportunity for building the spirit of community. You can leave after the harvest" smirked Hinata, hearing Jadeth groan. Standing up, she left the duo to digest the conversation.

The water from asteroids was coming in nicely, the city could now be sustained from it. Instead of dragging the asteroid all the way from the asteroid belt one by one, they were sent hurling in general direction of the Lucene in groups. Once close enough, the ship would capture the asteroids and lower them down to the surface.

This was an interesting exercise in learning orbital mechanics on the fly, but they were getting better at it. At least the asteroids were small enough, that there was no risk of them causing damage on the surface, if they were not re-captured in time.

Each asteroid would be spaced out to arrive approximately half a day apart. Then the ship will relocate and catch and lower them one at a time. There were some hours of rest time in between each capture. It gave them time to resolve issues and an opportunity to swap pilots.

It was not a smooth sailing yet, and ship had a few dents to show for it. However, the close calls mostly came from new pilots training in the manoeuvres. To reduce the risk, they had couple of small asteroids mixed in the batch, for the new pilots to practice on.

Rest of the population were also very busy. They already started working on flattening the dunes and digging the channels for the water to irrigate the new farmlands. For now, Hinata had to direct the water to the channels, at least it required much less chakra, than creating water from scratch. She also created a new R&D group, to figure out how to get the water from the bottom of the valley to the top.

The new farmlands were mostly designated for cotton plantations. Nearly all of their stockpile was used for the asteroid capture nets, and even then, those required more cotton for constant repairs. The material was not ideal for harshness of space, and to handle hundreds of tons of weight at a time, but they had nothing better at this time.

(*H*)

"Is this everyone? All ready to go?" asked Hinata, walking into the Tel'tak.

"Yes, Leader Hinata" confirmed Jadeth.

"Excellent. Before we go, a few things. Firstly, a small present for you two" said Hinata with smile, handling Jadeth a rabbit.

"Thanks?" she responded with uncertainty.

"In case the water container breaks, the rabbit will do as an emergency host for Lilith. And if everything goes well, it will make an excellent stew, I know how much you like it" nodded Hinata with a knowing smile.

"Secondly, it has been over a year, since you had contact with your people last. In that time, much may have changed. Therefore, I will escort you to your first gate address" continued Hinata.

"You don't have to. We would be fine" protested Jadeth.

"Nonsense. I don't mind, plus I am kind of curious to try this Chappa'ai travel" admitted Hinata.

"Wait! You never used the Chappa'ai before?" asked surprised ex-host.

"Nope" answered Hinata.

"Then how did you end up on Lucene?" she asked with curiosity.

"As best as I can guess, I accidentally poked a hole in the dimensional fabric, and got sucked into this dimension. Woke up 1500 kilometres in that direction, came upon the Goa'uld village near the Chappa'ai, and the rest, as they say, is history" she shrugged at her stunned audience.

Then she stood up, and walked to one of the cabinets in the Tel'tak, opened it, and started to hand out the staff weapons, 10 in total. "As we may be walking into a trap, and since it may take you some time to find Tok'ra, I thought it is best if you can at least defend yourselves. Note, we don't have enough staff weapons to just give them away, so I am expecting those back, once you reach your people" she told Jadeth.

"Yes, of course, and thank you Leader Hinata" bowed Jadeth.

Nodding in acceptance, Hinata turned to the pilots. "Please, take us to the Chappa'ai" she ordered.

"What should we expect on the other side?" she asked Jadeth, once their small group of some 20 people assembled near the dealing device.

"It is one of not populated planets, so there should be nothing but nature on it. We use them to ensure we are not followed to our bases" explained Jadeth.

"How come no one settled it?" asked confused Hinata.

"This planet is too far from the core Goa'uld space. It would be very expensive to protect it from rival Goa'uld, or local spacefaring civilisations" shrugged Jadeth.

"We are not expecting anyone to greet us on the other side?" clarified Hinata.

"No" confirmed Jadeth.

"Very well, let's go then" said Hinata.

As Hinata stepped through the gate to another planet, she was amazed, that the journey didn't feel like much. It was just like taking another step, even to her enhanced senses.

"There is a small group of Jaffa hidden in the forest to our right, 150 meters" Hinata notified her companions. "No need to worry, I had already put them to sleep" she reassured the others. "Looks like this location had been compromised, or maybe it is a greeting committee for you" she told Jadeth and Lilith.

"This is mark of Moloc, one of the System Lords of Goa'uld" informed her worried Jadeth, when they reached the sleeping Jaffa.

"Hmm. There is small settlement of Jaffa around an hour from here. Interestingly, they are all females, and there are lots of kids. It doesn't look like a military operation, more like a refugee camp. Let's wake them up and find out more" said Hinata, after checking the area with her Byakugan.

"Hello, sorry for knocking you out, but I was told that this planet was uninhabited, and I was afraid we may have walked into a trap. My name is Hinata" she greeted them, when they woke up and looked around in alarm.

"My name is Everly. Who are you people?" one of the Jaffa asked, clearly the leader of the small group. Looking at all of the present people uncertainly.

"This is Jadeth of Tok'ra, they had been using this planet to shake off any people following them. I am leader of desert planet Lucene. Rest of the people here, are some of my people, who decided to join with Tok'ra in their fight against Goa'uld" she explained.

"You are Tok'ra?" Everly asked Jadeth, with wonder and hope.

"I am" confirmed Jadeth.

"Is it fair to say, that your people are no longer serving Goa'uld Moloc?" Hinata brought the attention of the women back to herself.

"Why do you ask?" asked Everly with suspicion.

"And I take it, Everly, you are not the leader of your people, and therefore are unable to make decisions on their behalf?" pressed Hinata.

"My people?" she asked in alarm, while trying to appear calm.

"Yes, I assume you guys are lookout from that girl only Jaffa village an hour from here?" she asked.

"How did you?!" asked Everly, now in near panic.

"Please, calm down, we mean your people no harm. When we noticed you spying on the Chappa'ai, I had to check if there were any other people nearby, that may attack us. Here, now that we know that you are not with Goa'uld, and don't appear hostile to us, you can have your weapons back" she said, handling the staff weapons back to the scared Jaffa.

"Anyway, the reason I am asking, is because we, at Lucene, are looking for trading partners. And I would like to discuss the possibility of trade between our people. However, clearly it needs to be discussed with your leaders, or people authorised by them to do the talks" explained Hinata.

"I see, and no, I cannot make decisions for our people" agreed Everly, still suspicious.

Picking up a piece of firewood nearby, Hinata started to carve into it with a kunai, under curious gaze of everyone present. "Here" she handed the piece of wood to the Jaffa. "This is the Chappa'ai address to Lucene. Please pass it to your leaders along with my offer for trade relations. If they agree, have someone deliver a message to my planet with time and place, where they would like to meet to discuss the details."

Turning, she addressed Jadeth. "I am not sure how your people deal with the situations like this. Clearly this planet is now settled, so continuing to use it, like you had been, would only bring danger to this people" she pointed out.

Turning back to the women, she asked the question that no one addressed so far. "Say, what is this planet, or your people are called?"

"We call ourselves Hak'tyl Resistance" admitted reluctant Everly, after thinking about it for a few moments.

"Excellent, I would be waiting on the word from your leaders then. It is time for me to leave, before my people start another revolution" she half-joked, after stopping like 5 of them over her short reign. "It was nice meeting you Everly, and silent friends" she waived at the other Jaffa women. Saying her goodbyes to the rest of her people, she went back to Lucene via Chappa'ai.

(*H*)

They had established contact not just with Tok'ra, but also with Hak'tyl Resistance. Therefore, when Hinata returned to the Lake City, she set up rotation of guards near the Chappa'ai. Unfortunately, they had no communication devices, so Hinata left very specific instructions with her people.

They were to stay away from the Chappa'ai, and observe the arriving people from a hiding spot. Then, they would write a message with all possible information about the arrivals in predetermined hidden spot. Only then, if the arrivals looked friendly, they would greed them. Even then, only 1 person would greed them. While the other two would observe hidden, and write down anything new learned in another 2 hidden locations.

Twice a day, when the Tel'tak landed at the Lake City to change the pilots, Hinata would check on the guards with her Byakugan, and read any messages left. If nothing happened, then the Chappa'ai guards would be rotated every 2 days. If there was a contact, or something else came up, then Hinata could take the Tel'tak to the Chappa'ai and be there within 20 minutes.

It was not nearly as good as instant communication, but in worst case, they could react within 14 hours of any contact. Be it friendly, or not. In case of hostile contact, her people were instructed to stay hidden, and if noticed, to delay them for as long as possible, so she could arrive and resolve the situation.

It was 5 days later, when Jadeth came back with their staff weapons, as well as invitation to discuss trade with her superiors. This is where Hinata was going now.

"After you Jadeth" she indicated the woman to walk through the activated Chappa'ai. As far as Hinata understood, the talks would be happening at another empty planet.

When they stepped through to the other side, it become clear, that this planet was very different. As far as eye could see, there were only rocks, and no sign of life. At a distance, she could see snowy mountains, so at least it had some water. It took 30 minutes to walk to a cave, where the meeting was going to take place. Even from such short walk, Hinata could understand the appeal of such place. There were so many caves, and the landscape was so alien, that it would be very easy to escape and hide from any pursuit here.

"Leader Hinata, allow me to introduce to you Saroosh, and her companion Selmak, members of Tok'ra High Council. This here is Martouf, and his companion Lantash, as well as Rosha and her companion Jolinar, the fellow Tok'ra. High councillor, fellow members of rebellion, allow me introduce to you Leader Hinata, the ruler of Lucene" introduced them Jadeth.

"It is pleasure to meet you all" greeted them Hinata.

"It is our pleasure as well. I must confess, from the stories I heard from Jadeth and Lilith, I expected you to be at least 3 meters tall" greeted back the council woman with a smile.

"Haha, perhaps you can retell me those stories some time. I do enjoy seeing how the stories evolve, after being passed around for a while" admitted Hinata with smile of her own.

"Stories do tend to take on the life of their own" agreed Selmak with a smile.

"They do!" agreed Hinata with happiness. "However, as much as I enjoy this banter, I must return to Lucene sooner rather than later. I am pretty confident, that Goa'uld Nanus was planning to escape via Chappa'ai, next time I left Lucene" she admitted.

"You didn't ensure that he couldn't leave beforehand?" asked Martouf.

"Well, he already served his prison term, so he is free Goa'uld on Lucene. He has yet to break any laws since, so there was no reason to punish him for stuff he didn't do yet. I am also kind of curious, how far will he get, and what my people will do to assist or prevent his leaving" she answered.

"It is very dangerous to have Goa'uld roam freely in your city, or giving him a chance to escape with the knowledge of your people" frowned Lantash.

"That is true enough. However, you must realise, that none of the current citizens of Lucene choose to become one. Every single one of them, other than myself, had been forced to join. There are also hundreds of Jaffa loyal to 4 different Goa'uld, and hundreds of humans, who had been conditioned their whole life to obey Jaffa and Goa'uld. As you can imagine, the situation in Lake City is always dangerous. Only my presence keeps things calm, and it is why I try to keep my disappearances short, for the time being" explained Hinata.

"Then, what makes you different from System Lords? Why should we help you? We fight Goa'uld to free people from their oppression. From your own admission, your people are just as oppressed" asked Lantash passionately.

"My people may be forced to live in Lake City, but otherwise, they are quite free. There are only a few activities that are mandatory for everyone, mostly around growing foods, to prevent starvation. All other activities are for volunteers only, and they are compensated for it. I am quite sure, that many people in Lake City will choose to stay, if given a choice to return to their old lives" responded Hinata sternly.

"Also, you seem to be under wrong impression, that we seek help from Tok'ra. We do not need your help. We want to trade with your people, which by definition is beneficial to both parties. You give us something that is hard for us to get, we give you something that is hard for you to get. Or is there some other definition of trade that I am not familiar with?" asked Hinata.

"Please forgive Lantash, he sometimes gets passionate about these things" apologized Martouf.

"That is fine, no offence taken. It is admirable, that he wants what is the best for my people. It is something I want too. Hence, why we are even having this discussion in the first place" accepted the apology Hinata.

"I am sorry for asking, but what possibly could your people trade us, that we need? From what I understand, the Lucene is quite primitive, with no natural resources to speak of?" asked Jolinar.

"This is what I assumed these talks were going to be about. I was not expecting member of your High Council to meet with me. I was thinking among the lines of meeting with some low-level trade official, given our size and level of development. Admittedly, I know next to nothing about your people, the size of your territory, population, technological level, or what resources you may have shortages of. Jadeth and Lilith had been very tight lipped about Tok'ra" she mock glared at the woman, making her duck her head with a blush.

"It seems, that we may have gotten off on the wrong foot here. What do your people want to buy, and what do you offer in return?" asked Selmak.

"Our buy list is very extensive, as there is very little we own or have access to, so most of what you are willing to offer to us, we will probably want to buy. However, the top item we wish to purchase, is instruction to building the Tel'tak ships" summarized Hinata.

"Surely, your people are not able to even build them? Why seeking those instructions above anything else?" asked Selmak curiously.

"Lucene is a desert world, with very little water available. In fact, it is not nearly enough to support our current population. The only way we were able to survive, is by bringing water from elsewhere in the system, using our single Tel'tak. We may not be able to build full Tel'tak, but with those instructions, we may be able to figure out what is broken, and repair the ship, when it breaks" answered Hinata.

"I see. I am afraid it doesn't work like that. If something breaks on your ship, even if you were able to find it, you will be unable to produce the replacement part, with your current level of technology" said Selmak.

"Hmm, in that case, would it be possible to purchase a second Tel'tak, or at the very least some spare parts to the one we own, as well as the instructions how to replace them?" asked Hinata, after a minute of thinking.

"Tel'tak is a small ship, but it will be too expensive for your people to buy. As for spare parts, I think we can come to an agreement on those" responded Selmak. "Anything else hight on your list to get?" she asked.

"Yes, we currently have shortage of Goa'uld cooking devices, we are open to purchasing as many as you can spare, up to one thousand. We could also use some communication devices to keep in contact with our ship and Chappa'ai guards" responded Hinata.

"That is a lot of cooking devices. They may look simple, but they are quite expensive" warned Selmak. "We can also sell you some communication devices. What can you provide us as payment?" she asked.

"We can pay in food, such as: grains, beans, or rabbits. Then, we could pay in pure cotton, cotton threads, cotton fabric, rabbit furs, or finished clothes. The other option, is to pay in minerals, that Tel'tak sensors recognise as valuable. We have a general idea, what cooking devices are made of, and can provide any of those raw materials in necessary quantity. Lastly, I am a good healer, and can provide my healing services, for the patients you are unable to heal" answered Hinata.

"Didn't you admit a minute ago, that your planet doesn't have any of the valuable minerals?" asked Rosha with interest.

"Yes, as far as we know, there is nothing of value on Lucene, at least nothing that Tel'tak sensors could pick up. However, we identified small deposits of the minerals elsewhere in the system, and were able to bring some back to Lucene for study and trade. If need be, I am sure we can get more, given time" explained Hinata.

"With your level of technology, it is a bit arrogant to think that you can provide better healing to our people, that we can. Don't you think?" asked Lantash.

"Lantash!" protested Jadeth.

"It is fine Jadeth. Admittedly, I know next to nothing about your medical capabilities. We have a sample of Goa'uld healing device. It provides remarkable healing capabilities, especially considering that it doesn't require prior medical knowledge, to use it effectively" she admitted.

"However, I am a well-trained healer, with lots of experience under my belt. My personal healing capabilities are significantly better, than what healing device provides. If patient is alive, or very recently deceased, and doesn't have too much damage to the brain, there is high chance that I will be able to save them" she explained.

"That description sounds remarkably like sarcophagus" said Lantash with suspicion.

"It is that another type of healing device of Goa'uld? I don't think we have those on Lucene, what does it look like?" asked Hinata with curiosity.

"It is big rectangular box, where you put patient inside. Prolonged use of the device causes addiction, and insanity. This is why Tok'ra do not use them" cautioned Selmak.

"Good to know, but I do not believe we have any of those at Lucene. I can assure you, that none of my patients were driven insane by my healing. Well, more insane that they already were, prior to the treatment" she joked, remembering some colourful people she had to heal.

"We will consider your offer" said Selmak with a smile. "For now, let us agree on the payments for the other things we discussed. Are your people able to pay in Naquadah? It is the mineral that our people will be most interested in" she asked.

"Yes, we can pay you in Naquadah. Though, we only have it in the raw ore form, that Tel'tak says is 37% pure. By the way, we would be interested in buying necessary technology or devices, to refine or process it further" requested Hinata.

"We can discuss it in the future meetings, if everything goes well. For now, the raw ore will work for us. I am thinking 100 kilograms of Naquadah for spare parts for your Tel'tak, with instructions how to replace them. Is that agreeable? Can your people pay that?" asked Selmak.

"Just to clarify, you mean 100 kilograms of Naquadah, not 100 kilograms of ore?" asked Hinata. Getting a nod in agreement, she continued. "So that is nearly 300 kilograms of Naquadah ore, which is within our means. How much do you want for the communication and cooking devices?" she asked.

"We will sell you 5 communication devices, that should reach anywhere within your system. I am thinking 10 kilograms of Naquadah per device. For the cooking devices, we can sell you 5 per week, at 15 kilograms of Naquadah each?" she suggested.

"It seems a bit expensive, but we don't know what goes into building any of those things. Therefore, I agree to your terms. Would your people deliver the items and pick up payments from Lucene, or should we do the exchange somewhere else?" asked Hinata.

"We can deliver it to your world. Will 2 days be enough for you to prepare the payments?" she asked.

"Yes, we will have it ready by then. Out of curiosity, how much would you charge for a Tel'tak? We would need another one sooner or later, and we can as well start saving for it now" said Hinata.

"It is agreed then. As for the ship, the base model will probably cost you at least 100 tons of Naquadah. Note, even if you have the necessary amount, it doesn't necessarily mean we will sell you one. There are many difficulties in delivering it to Lucene, through the System Lords controlled space. Additionally, we do not want to sell dangerous technologies to people, who do not have sufficient understanding of it, and are not our allies in the fight against System Lords" explained Selmak.

"Fair enough. Hopefully, we will get to know each other better, and as our mutual trust grows, we can reconvene to do more trades. As to your fight, we do not wish to get involved. We are weak and vulnerable, plus I have very little understanding of the state of affairs in the Galaxy. Until we have better understanding of our standing, we would prefer to avoid getting involved, and stay in the shadows" responded Hinata.

"However, if your own people, your allies, or Goa'uld people caught in the crossfire wish for a peaceful sanctuary, they will be welcome at Lucene. Note, if they come to my domain, they will obey my rules. Which includes helping with farming, releasing their intelligent hosts for any symbiotes, and inability to leave the planet on a whim" she cautioned.