Growing pains

True to her expectations, Goa'uld Nanus tried to make run for it, while she was absent. Ever since Lilith left, he had worked with one of his still loyal Jaffa, to learn to communicate. It was more intrusive way, requiring to pierce the skin to reach the nerve cluster, but it was not technically breaking the law, so Hinata let them be.

With the help of few other loyal humans and Jaffa, they made their way through the desert to the Chappa'ai. Tel'tak was away on the asteroid run, and too well protected for them to try to seize. Unlike Goa'uld Termak attempt, they prepared more supplies and knew the right direction to follow. Unfortunately for them, they underestimated the distance, and by the time Hinata returned, they barely covered 10% of the distance. She let them be, and greeted them at the Chappa'ai few days later.

Nanus tried to avoid taking on a new host, knowing the punishment for it. However, after first two days in the desert, he gave up, and took over one of the humans in their group. This earned him 5 years in prison and all of his accomplices 30 days. Hinata had personally placed him in his cell, and made sure to loudly lecture him about him being stupid and not using the opportunities Lake City provided to his advantage.

As a weak, minor Goa'uld, he was more or less stuck in his position, vulnerable to whims of his more powerful overlords, with little chance to move up in standing. In the Lake City, he was unbound by the rules of his people, and with his undoubtedly vast amount of knowledge, could rise very far and very fast. Additionally, he didn't even try to use that knowledge as a bargain for something he wanted.

Two days after the meeting with Tok'ra, the trade went according to plan. The Lucene City was now poorer of just over 600 kilograms of Naquadah ore, but they got more examples of Goa'uld technology in exchange. Out of the 5 communication devices, one was left in hidden location near the Chappa'ai for guards to use, one placed on the Tel'tak, another one stationed near the cooking device setup, one more with Hinata, and last one was given to smeltery R&D team for study.

Likewise, some spare parts for Tel'tak, that were in more than a few examples, were given away for study. Of the 5 cooking devices, 3 were placed for the population to use, while another 2 were given to the smeltery team. The team has been also increased to 25 people now, and were already able to produce small metal objects, mostly cutlery and other household items. Those were available for people to buy to improve their lives. Hopefully, with more devices and people, the progress on that front would accelerate.

While they could only work with soft metals for now, they were at least able to make a crude versions of farming tools. The original tools provided by Goa'uld were of much better quality, but every harvest some of them were damaged or broken, which was making farming more difficult that it should be.

Ever since the original oasis was abandoned by Goa'uld, Hinata had her people make occasional trips to it to collect fallen branches, and cut down some trees for lumber. The trees at the Lake City were still many years away from producing wood in any volume. They were only good to collect occasional fallen sticks, and to cut saplings to extend the future forest. The collected branches and trees had been sold to population, and spurred a small woodworking industry.

Now, with better access to the metal tools, Hinata decided it was time to start some masonry working as well. Few kilometres from the city, there was a small rocks outcropping, piercing the sands. Hinata had told her people, that anyone interested, could collect the rocks and stone from the place for personal use. They only had to pay a small price for a full day access to the quarry.

(*H*)

It was few days later, that they got a word from Hak'tyl Resistance. Once more Hinata was leaving the Lucene, but for the first time, she didn't expect any troubles in her absence. There were many groups of people who were not loyal to Lake City, but their numbers were going down. Most of the humans were content with their current living, and around half of the Jaffa were at least neutral to the situation. Of those remaining, none had anything major planned for her absence, to best of her knowledge.

Stepping through the Chappa'ai, she spotted the familiar Jaffa, and a few new ones, hidden in a new spot. Waving at them, she smiled at the annoyed Jaffa that emerged from behind the trees. "Hello Everly, it is nice seeing you again" she greeted her.

"Hello, are you alone?" she asked in return.

"Yes, just me. How have you been? I hope we didn't cause you too many problems with our uninvited intrusion" she made a small talk with the Jaffa on the way to their village.

"Ishta, this is Hinata, leader of the planet Lucene" introduced them Everly.

"It is nice to meet you Ishta" greeted Hinata.

"Likewise, Hinata. I am afraid I never heard of Lucene before" she admitted.

"I would be surprised if you did. It is a desert planet with no valuable resources, that used to belong to a minor Goa'uld under System Lord Amaterasu" confessed Hinata.

"Did your people revolt against the Goa'uld and got free?" Ishta asked interested.

"Not quite. I just happened to end up on Lucene by accident, and didn't like the way the people were treated there by the Goa'uld. Therefore, I decided to interweave. Wasn't that hard really, he only had like 20 Jaffa to his name" she admitted.

"Wow, if he only had 20 Jaffa under his command, he truly must have been low in the chain of command" she agreed.

"What is the story of your people? How come you only have females in your village?" asked Hinata in return.

"Around 30 years ago, System Lord Moloc decided, that female Jaffa were not going to bringing him victories in battles. Therefore, to avoid spending resources on raising and training them, he declared that all young female Jaffa were to be sacrificed in Ceremony of Fire" she admitted sadly.

"That is terrible! So those here are the ones that were able to escape the ceremony?" asked Hinata.

"Yes, myself and couple of my Jaffa sisters had been saving those we could, and moving them here to Hak'tyl" agreed Ishta.

"That's admirable of you. Is this treatment of people common among Goa'uld? I am afraid, I don't know that much about them, other than what I seen on Lucene" admitted Hinata.

"I believe that Moloc is crueller to his subjects, than normal for System Lords. However, I have heard many horrible stories about others as well" she confessed. "Would you ally with us to bring the end of rule of Moloc?" she asked.

"I am sorry, but my people are in no position to take on even a minor Goa'uld, much less a System Lord. Therefore, we wish to avoid getting involved in any conflicts, or bringing attention to ourselves" apologized Hinata.

"None of our people are strong enough to fight Moloc on our own, but together, we will bring end to his madness" countered Ishta passionately.

"That is nice notion, but it is not always true. My understanding is that Tok'ra had been fighting System Lords for centuries, and they don't have much success, or the conflict would be over long time ago. From what little I know of your people, you are also been in this fight for many years, perhaps even decades" summarized Hinata.

"Lucene is not nearly as nice as this planet, and not nearly as advanced as Tok'ra. It would be stupid of me to look for troubles outside of our borders, when we are barely keeping ahead of our local survival issues. This being said, while we refuse to join your fight in active role, we would be happy to establish mutually beneficial trading relationships. Additionally, we are able to accept up to 500 of refugees, if there are those among your numbers, who do not wish or unable to fight" she compromised.

"While your people sit on the side-lines, trading rocks, countless children are being burned alive" countered Ishta in anger.

"Look around you Ishta, what do you see?" asked Hinata calmly.

"People, who had been saved from horrible fate" she said with pride.

"Is this all? Cannot you see, that your people are hungry?" she asked with interest.

"I know that we are short on food, my people are already working on stealing more" she responded defensively.

"And this is precisely your problem. I had same issues with Jaffa on my own world, they only think in military ways. The moment you took these children under your care, your ceased to be simply a military leader. You live in a lush forest, on a very nice planet, yet, you are unable to even feed yourselves? Why there are no farms? Surely, your people could at least go hunting? You risk your people lives to steal food, and even worse, you risk bringing troubles here, to these children" admonished Hinata.

"My people have no time to play in dirt, when there are lives to be saved" Ishta dismissed her concerns.

"And this is why, it would be suicidal for my people to join in your fight" concluded Hinata.

"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Ishta in anger.

"Tell you what, Ishta. I will personally go and killed this Goa'uld Moloc right now, if you can give me satisfactory answers to couple of questions" proposed Hinata.

"What questions?" asked Ishta warily, put off guard by the ridiculous proposal.

"Firstly, would the other System Lords retaliate, against my people, or others, who they think are responsible for death of Moloc?" she asked.

"Yes" reluctantly responded Ishta.

"Okay, another question. Would your own people, or your allies, be able to hold and defend any of the Moloc's planets from other System Lords, or minor Goa'uld?" asked Hinata.

"No" confessed Ishta.

"Could you at least evacuate good amount of people to your own territories, to save them from the cruelty of the next Goa'uld?" pushed on Hinata.

"Maybe some people, but not many" agreed Ishta, starting to see where Hinata was going with it.

"What about Moloc's planets? If he were to die, would his planets be bloodlessly transferred to another Goa'uld?" she asked next.

"No. All of the minor Goa'uld under Moloc and nearby, are going to fight for the pieces. System Lords will also try to extend their territory" confessed Ishta sadly.

"And this is why I will not ally with your people at this point. Destroying Moloc, will achieve little. It will lead to many thousands of people being killed in battles, while changing nothing. Until you have good answers to those questions, it is in everyone's best interests if you avoid stirring things too much. By all means, save those you can, but also focus on strengthening your own people. When you think your people are strong enough to handle the inevitable fallout of System Lord's death, let me know, and I will take care of Moloc for you" promised Hinata.

"You seem awfully confident that you can kill Moloc" stated Ishta with narrowed eyes.

"Let's say I have a special set of skills" answered Hinata, seeing the sceptical look, she continued. "A demonstration perhaps?" she asked, taking out one of her kunai, swirling it expertly in her hand. "Say, do your people eat meat?" she asked.

"Yes" answered Ishta with suspicion, looking at the weird knife swirling in Hinata's hand.

Twitching her arm imperceivably fast, Hinata sent the kunai flying into the forest faster than eye could follow, not even looking in the direction of the throw.

"Everly, would you mind retrieving my kunai for me? Perhaps take a few others with you. It should be around 300 meters in that direction" she addressed the Jaffa escort, pointing her hand in the direction, she let the kunai fly.

When she took out the knife, the guards nearby tensed up, and some actually stood up in alarm, when she let the knife fly. After her request, Everly looked at Ishta for permission, who gave it after a moment of tense silence.

It took 10 minutes of awkward small talks, before Everly and 3 other Jaffa came back from the forest. Caring a dead elk between them, with difficulty. "How did you do it?" she asked, as soon as she was in the hearing range, panting from the efforts.

"I have trained as kunoichi since I was 3 years old. My senses are much sharper, that your average human or Jaffa" she shrugged, accepting her kunai back.

"I am sorry, but what is kunoichi? I am not familiar with the term" asked Ishta, still staring at the dead animal.

"You can think of it as mercenary, or assassin. Admittedly, my speciality is close combat and healing" confessed Hinata, making others look at her with wide eyes. "Can your people at least skin and cook?" asked Hinata, trying to change the subject.

"Y-Yes, I will handle it" said one of the other Jaffa, who was listening to their talks from the side-lines.

"Great. Can we return to the trade talks? As nice as Hak'tyl is, there is still much work to be done on Lucene. I would need to return to it sooner rather than later" requested Hinata.

"Yes, of course. What did you have in mind?" asked Ishta.

"I don't know that much about your people, and what you would like to sell or buy. From what I have seen so far, the Hak'tyl has much more diverse biosphere. We would be interested in purchasing samples of most plants that grow at Hak'tyl, as well as couple of breeding pairs of each type of animal. Additionally, it seems like you have much knowledge of at least Moloc domain. We would like to get as much of that knowledge, as you are willing to share. Any technology or knowhows of its manufacturing will also be something we would like to buy" answered Hinata. "What would your people like to purchase from us?" she asked in return.

"Ah, I didn't exactly think about trade, I was more interested in the alliance. I guess we would like to get some food, until we can grow enough of our own?" she asked, then looked at one of the kids and an idea seem to come to her mind. "Say, do you have any Prim'ta for sale?" she asked with interest, making many others look at Hinata with interest as well.

"Hmm, I am afraid I don't know that word. What is Prim'ta?" she asked curiously. From the reaction of many Jaffa, it was something important.

"It is infant, larvae Goa'uld. When a Jaffa reaches puberty, their immune system fails, and without Prim'ta to implant, they would die within 3 days" explained Ishta with sadness.

"Do you have any children like that? I would like to examine them. Failed immune system is bad, but people can live without it for many years, even their whole life, if they are careful. There is likely something else going on" she explained.

"No, we don't have anyone at the Age of Prata at the moment. Gwen is next I believe, in 4 months' time" she responded.

"Hmm. We have only adult Jaffa, with a couple of young children, born in the last few years. However, I am a healer, so will look into this issue, and let you know what I found out at some later date" she promised. "Now, to the food trade. We are willing to sell you 100 kilograms of grain and beans, or 50 kilograms of rabbit meat, for 100 samples of each plant, that we don't have on Lucene. We would also do the same deal for each animal, up to 50 breading pairs of each type" she suggested.

"Um, okay?" awkwardly agreed Ishta, clearly out of her element.

"Excellent. If your people can dig up 100 samples of each of these 2 plants, as well as bring 100 fresh cuttings from this type of trees. Then my people will deliver 250 kilograms of grains and 50 kilograms of beans at same time tomorrow for trade. Clearly you have enough meat for the moment. Then we can meet again in say 2 weeks, and discuss additional trades, when you have more time to think about trading?" proposed Hinata.

"Yes, yes, that would be great. Thanks, Hinata" agreed Ishta.

(*H*)

"Jadeth! Thanks Kami you are here, please tell me you are here to take me to the emergency meeting" pleaded Hinata.

"Leader Hinata, what happened, were you attacked by the System Lords? We got your message and I came as soon as I could" responded Jadeth, looking at normally composed Hinata, who looked exhausted.

"Your people happened! They are trying to turn Lucene into massive graveyard! This has to stop!" she commanded.

"My people? Tok'ra? What are you talking about?" asked confused Jadeth.

"In the last 10 days, your people dumped over 6 thousand refugees on my head! Without so much as by your leave! How are we supposed to feed them all?" she asked agitated.

"Oh..." cringed Jadeth. "I will take you to the meeting" she promised, dialling the Chappa'ai.

"Please, stop sending refugees to Lucene" said Hinata, instead of greeting.

"Are you under attack?" asked Selmak in concern.

"In a manner of speaking. You are dumping more refugees on Lucene, that we can handle" answered Hinata.

"Didn't you say that you will accept them?" asked Lantash in confusion.

"I did, but I meant a few hundred, five hundred tops. You have dumped over 6 thousand people on my head in the last 10 days!" she complained.

"We apologize if it is a bit more, that you were expecting. I don't think you ever mentioned a specific amount" apologized Jolinar.

"A little more? Let me paint a picture for you" said Hinata in frustration, tiredly rubbing her eyes. "The Lucene has enough natural water, to support 250 people. Note, 250 people, NOT 250 thousand people. Using our Tel'tak ship, we are managing to bring enough water to sustain our population of 1200 people. Now you increased our population 6 folds, in a matter of days. How exactly you propose we feed them all? I am not even mentioning any other issues that come with such insane inflow of new people, who were all moved there by force, may I mention?" she explained with anger.

"I can see, how that can be an issue" nodded Selmak in understanding. "What can we do to help?" she asked.

"You have to take back 5 thousand people, at a minimum" responded Hinata.

Looking at her two companions for a few moments, Selmak responded. "I am sorry, but that is not possible. There is nowhere else for them to go. What else can we do?" she asked.

Hinata stared at them for a few moments, then closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. "We would need enough food to feed 5 thousand people for a year, until we can expand our farming areas. We would also need minimum of 1 more Tel'tak ship, to get enough water for the new farms. We would need more than that, if you plan to dump more people on our head in the future" she suggested alternative.

"We could send you some food, enough to feed one hundred people, for couple of months. However, we could not give you any of the ships. I am sorry" apologized Selmak.

"You got to be kidding me" Hinata rubbed her forehead in frustration. "Fine, we will pay you 100 tons of Naquadah for the ship" she countered.

"I am sorry, but that is not possible."

"200 tons, and I will personally pick it up from anywhere. You don't even have to deliver it" pleaded Hinata.

"I am sorry, but all of our ships are currently in use. Even if we had any to spare, the Council will not want to sell them to your people" explained Selmak with apology.

Hinata just sat there defeated, eyes closed, seemingly falling asleep. Internally, she was fighting the fatigue, headache, and compulsion to scream at Tok'ra for messing up her world, and refusing to help her fix it.

"Is there at least another planet, that my people can relocate to, that has better conditions to support our 'new' population" she asked after a few minutes of awkward silence. Getting a shake of the head in answer, she pursed her lips in anger.

"Are there any farming technology, or perhaps a way to convert sand into food, that your people can trade us?" she asked with sarcasm, getting another shake in return.

"Are you willing at least to share any Chappa'ai addresses, that my people can use to trade with the locals to save ourselves from inevitable starvation?" asked Hinata in frustration.

"There is one address, but I am not sure how much help the locals will be to you. They are quite primitive, and their world is often invaded by Goa'uld to pick new hosts. It is called Byrsa, and this is the address" answered Selmak after a moment of internal debate. Clearly not very comfortable with current situation.

"Thanks. Anything else you can do to help to resolve this situation?" asked Hinata, taking the address. After a minute of silence, she stood up. "Right. If you excuse me, I have to figure out a way, to save my planet from mass starvation" she said, leaving the room not even waiting for the others to respond.

"Well, that went well" commented Saroosh, when Hinata left, making Jadeth snort.

"You think?" she asked sceptically.

(*H*)

"Hinata, you look awful. What happened?" asked Ishta, when she came back to do the promised trade talks.

"Hello Ishta, cannot say the same about you, you look great" she greeted with tired smile. "Remember how I said we could accept up to 500 refugees?" getting a nod in agreement, she continued. "Well, since that conversation, Tok'ra dumped over 10 thousand refugees on my head. Nearly half of them after I told them to stop, because they couldn't get the message out fast enough" she ranted.

"So yeah..., we have two weeks of food left, people are sleeping in the sands, and Tok'ra are refusing to provide any meaningful help. From what I understood, they just stormed some Goa'uld mining worlds, defeated the guards, and then forced all of the survivors to the Lucene. Took all of the spoils from the planets, collapsed the mines, and dumped all of the problems on my head. Didn't even let the people pick up their personal possessions. Lucene didn't even get the primitive mining tools of the slaves, or ex-guards staff weapons, just tons of injured and angry people, with inevitable mass starvation problem on top" she raved.

"All they gave me is 1 day worth of food, and like 6 additional cooking devices, for 10 thousand extra people!" she complained, then took a few calming breaths. "Sorry, it is not your fault, I just didn't get much sleep recently, and had been stretched thin trying to keep Lucene from collapsing into a bloodbath" she apologised.

"I am sorry to hear that, is there anything we can do to help?" asked Ishta with concern.

"Thank you. I don't want to dump our problems on your head. It is not like your people can take away any meaningful number of refugees off my hands, or have significant excess of food. We would also be unable to sell you food for a year at the minimum, likely longer" she explained.

"However, while neither of us have enough food, the Hak'tyl forests do. I was hoping we can come to an agreement, that would allow me to hunt here, until our food problem is resolved" requested Hinata. Out of all options she could think off, this one was the safest for her people.

"Yes, of course. Speaking of hunting, while you are doing it, could you also look for two of our people. They had left to hunt 3 days ago, and are yet to return" she requested with worry.

"Yes, one second. Byakugan" she intoned, making a few hand seals. It took her less than 10 seconds to locate the missing hunters. "They are alright, only slightly dehydrated, probably got lost. They are 55 kilometres in that direction. Do you have a ship to pick them up?" she asked, pointing in the direction of the missing pair of Jaffa women.

"N-No. What did you do?" asked startled Ishta.

"My eyes are special, a trait that runs in my family" she explained, walking to the water stream nearby, she made a few more hand seals. A moment later, a pair of her Suiton Clones formed. "Go get the hunters, and bring couple of elks with you" she ordered the clones, giving each of them a scroll, who took off into the forest.

"W-What?" asked dumbfounded Ishta.

"Kunoichi's could do a lot more, than just throw kunai accurately" she winked at the Jaffa. "Did you think about what would your people want to buy from us?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Um, yes. We need food, but I guess you cannot give it to us anymore. Maybe you can hunt for us too, until my people learn?" she suggested, getting a nod in agreement, she continued. "Yeah, we also don't have any farming tools, do you have extra?" she asked.

"Yes, we are producing our own now, but they are not nearly as good as the ones provided by Goa'uld. They are functional, but the metal we know how to use is too soft. You will need to sharpen those often and they will break much sooner" answered Hinata.

"I guess we will take those, until we can get better ones elsewhere" agreed Ishta. "We would also like if some of your people taught us how to farm. None of my people actually done it before, even if we saw humans do it" requested Ishta.

"It can be done, through there are multiple stages of farming, so we will need to move people a few times. It may be better to have some people move to Hak'tyl long term. All of my people know how to farm, and some would like to leave Lucene. It is just a question whatever you want to accept any outsiders, and who do you want to take?" asked Hinata.

"Yes, I think we can take in maybe 5 people, to teach us how to farm. I guess Jaffa woman would be best, to fit in with my people?" she asked.

"I think it may be better to bring Jaffa men. They will be much more willing to come, knowing they will be surrounded by so many females and have no competition. Additionally, you need to start thinking about growing your population naturally, and it would be hard to do with only women around. We also have many more Jaffa men than women at Lucene" explained Hinata.

"Okay" reluctantly agreed Ishta. "You also mentioned that you were a healer? Would you be able to help my people when needed? The symbiote takes care of most injuries and sickness, but children don't have them yet, and we had some bad incidents before, that were a close call" she asked.

"Yes, as a matter of fact we have a few healers at Lucene, and a Goa'uld healing device. They should be able to handle most of your injuries, and if they cannot, I will see to them myself" agreed Hinata.

"Your people can use the healing device?" asked surprised Ishta.

"Yes, ex-hosts can use them naturally, and two of them at Lucene wanted to be healers. You can also fool the device sensors by having slight dusting of Naquadah on your hands. It just takes a bit more practice for those people to use the device, as it is not quite as intuitive to them" explained Hinata.

"That is good to hear. We would also like more staff weapons and maybe some ships if you can sell them to us?" asked Ishta.

"No, I am afraid that those are also something my people have deficit of, and are looking to purchase" apologised Hinata.

"Yeah, I thought as much. I guess it is all we would want at this moment, unless you can think of something?" asked Ishta.

"I think it would be enough for now. Let's discuss prices, and the conditions to the debt owned by my people. We would need lots of food, probably in an order of 2000 tons, to get through our refugees' crisis. There is no way, the stuff we will be selling you at this time, can cover that amount" pointed Hinata.

(*H*)

"Hello Everly, I would like you to meet Delek. I believe he was the very first Jaffa to join the Lake City" greeted Hinata, getting a nod of agreement from the Jaffa.

It had been 2 months since her last meeting with Ishta. She had come to Hak'tyl often, to do the hunting and knew all of those who guarded the Chappa'ai. However, she usually hunted in opposite direction to the Hak'tyl Resistance village, to avoid depleting their local populations of animals. She also avoided making uninvited visits, to give them some privacy and avoid intruding on their territory too much.

The refugees' situation was by no means over, but at least she was able to sleep now, without some groups causing troubles. All of her people now have roof over their heads, but only 25% have houses of their own. Majority of the refugees were still living and sleeping in the barracks, that she had to construct in a hurry.

Food situation was dire, but maintainable with the help from Hak'tyl. After their next harvest, it would become better. They were still frantically expanding the fields and irrigation system. The Tel'tak barely touched the ground these days, working all out to bring more water to Lucene. By her calculations, the Lucene would be able to sustain itself with the one ship, but they would have very little room for expansion or to resolve problems with the ship.

The smelting team had been working frantically on providing enough cutlery and farming tools for their grown population. Even with 10 converted cooking devices and 50 people assigned to the team, it was a struggle. At least the technological and metalworking knowledge were spreading among her people.

The literacy percentage got a massive dip with the new arrivals, nearly all of which were illiterate. They had many teachers now, and many wanted to learn, but it was going to take time. The other skills like math, history, geography, literature, science, physics and others were not taught at all yet. This was something that Hinata wanted to address soon, but it had been pushed aside by more pressing issues.

The woodworking and masonry were moving slowly, pushed aside by the farming needs. It sucked up all of the time from her people, and all of the metallurgical, wood and stone resources. Hopefully, it was a temporary setback, and they would bounce back once the crisis passed.

"Nice to meet you" greeted back Everly. Leading them to the meeting with Ishta.

"Hello Hinata, it is good to see you. You look much better today, is integration progressing well?" asked Ishta, when they arrived to the village.

"Hello Ishta. Thank you, we are far from the stability we enjoyed earlier, but the situation calmed down some. Hopefully it will continue to improve, with no more surprises" responded Hinata with a smile. "I would like you to meet Delek, one of my Jaffa" she introduced them.

"Nice to meet you. Are you also here to teach farming to my people? The ones who came earlier are doing a great job, and enjoying their stay here a lot, from what I have seen" she said with a wink.

"Not quite, I believe I have solved your Prim'ta problem. Show them" answered Hinata instead, gaining a lot of attention from everyone in the hearing range. Delek slowly stood up, and removed his shirt, showing his smooth stomach.

"H-How?" asked Ishta, after a few moments of speechlessness.

"You were correct. The immune system of Jaffa is weakened at puberty, but your bodies are also producing a slow acting poison. The poison is what kills you, the weak immune system just accelerates the process. From what I could tell, the Goa'uld added some of their own genes to Jaffa. It allows you to produce the poison in the first place, in much the same process as Goa'uld could for many different chemicals" explained Hinata.

"These little beauties here is your replacement for Prim'ta" she put a small box onto the table, opening it to show around 20 balls, the size of ping pong ball. "Those will disable the genes that causes production of poison, as well as turn your immune system back on" said Hinata with pride.

"Is it safe?" Ishta asked in wonder.

"It must be taken after the puberty starts, and I have not tested it on those, who never had Prim'ta implanted in them. It should work the same, but it would be safer, if you brought next couple of kids to reach Age of Prata to Lucene. We can observe them and ensure there are no surprises. For adults, we have already tested it on 20 of my own people, so should be safe enough to use. Just remove the Prim'ta first, and be prepared to care for them for a week, as they will be sick, thirsty and hungry, while their body is changing" she cautioned.

"How much do you want for those, and how do we use them?" asked exited Ishta. The lack of access to Prim'ta had seriously impacted her ability to recruit new Jaffa to her cause.

"These 20 are free of charge, as token of appreciation for your help in our time of need" smiled Hinata. "For any additional ones, we will probably charge equivalent of 100 kilograms of food. It is expensive, but probably cheaper than getting an actual Prim'ta. They are also pain to make at the moment, so we can only supply a small amount" she apologised.

"To use them, just eat one of the balls like any food. It should last the Jaffa for a lifetime, but there is a small chance of relapse, so they may need to take another one later in life. I would expect less than 1 in 100 needing to use the medicine for the second time. There is also even smaller chance, that the treatment changes will be passed down to the kids. They, and any of their descendants will not need the treatment at all. Though, I would be surprised if it happens in more than 1 in 1,000,000 cases" explained Hinata.

"That sounds wonderful, we are more than willing to pay the price. What about other stuff that Prim'ta provides, like longevity, healing, resistance to sickness and poisons?" asked Ishta.

"This medicine is only to ensure that Jaffa teens don't die, it doesn't provide any additional benefits to what is natural for your kind. However, like any healer, I want to ensure that my people have long and healthy life. Therefore, I will be looking into the mechanisms that symbiotes use, and working on medicines with similar effects" she promised.

"It is not ideal, but it is more than what we hoped for. We will buy as many of these cures, as you can make" requested Ishta.

"I want for all of my Jaffa to receive the treatment, as I don't like having two intelligent beings in one body. Therefore, we will only sell you half of what we can make at this moment, which should be around 10 cures per week. Note, they can be stored at room temperature for only 2 years, but much longer in colder conditions" advised Hinata.

The Prim'ta were technically not intelligent yet. They had all of the instincts and memories of their kind, but were not yet able to use them intelligently, only on the level of instinct. To the point, that they would try to eat each other when hungry. Hinata had constructed a kindergarten, of sorts, for the Prim'ta.

Each of them was separated into their own enclosure, with couple of rooms and enough space to swim. It was similar to a prison, but when the symbiote passed a few intelligence tests, they were released into the Lake. The tests mostly consisted of the ability to read the instructions on the walls, and ability to follow the steps required to unlock more and more of their habitat, until their full release. Part of those instructions were few laws of the Lake City, that could land them into a prison when broken.

"Thank you Hinata, you have no idea how much this means for Hak'tyl Resistance" thanked Ishta.

"I have some idea. It will also paint a huge target on our backs from System Lords. Try to keep the Jaffa Cure under wraps for the time being. I cannot mass produce it, but Tok'ra can, so I am going to sell the recipe to them. They are in much better position to spread it and weather the wrath of System Lords, than either of us can" requested Hinata, getting nod in agreement from Ishta.

(*H*)

"Hello Jadeth, and who is this beauty with you? Is that you Lilith?" asked Hinata. Seeing the familiar ex-host in presence of a waist high cat like creature, with thick scales instead of fur.

"It is me Leader Hinata" responded Lilith through Jadeth, who had her hand on the head of the creature. "It is Kra'kto from the Poort'ta planet. They are not very intelligent, but are fast, strong and can take a few staff weapon hits without much trouble" she bragged about her new host.

"I am glad you stayed true to the lessons you learned on Lucene. It is impressive that you can still talk via Jadeth, even while in another host" prized Hinata.

"Yes, it is quite hard to connect this way. I am currently working on a device that will allow me to communicate without need for assistance" confessed Lilith.

"I would like to buy some of those, when you finish them. Our population of Goa'uld had been growing of late, and none of them had been quite as successful in figuring out the way to communicate externally. Through Cyrus did manage to make a bastardised version of your connection, that requires to pierce the skin to reach the nerves" admitted Hinata.

"You have a Goa'uld Queen?" asked startled Jadeth.

"No, not quite. I had been separating the Prim'ta from my Jaffa. They may not be fully self-aware yet, but they will be in time, and so letting them stay together is against my principles" explained Hinata.

"How do you keep the Jaffa alive without Prim'ta?" asked Lilith with interest.

"I have developed a medicine for that. I think your people will love to buy it" answered Hinata with a wink.

"You are going to charge us through the nose, after what Tok'ra did to Lucene, aren't you?" asked Jadeth with a dread.

"Haha. Normally, I would. However, this medicine is too dangerous to keep to ourselves. It is better to spread the System Lord's attention between many targets, rather than have them focus explicitly on my people" confessed Hinata.

"It is payback!" accused Jadeth, making Hinata laugh.

"Hello everyone, thank you for meeting with me" greeted Hinata.

"Hello to you as well, you look better today. Is everything alright at Lucene?" asked Saroosh cautiously.

"We are far from our old stability, but we are managing" answered Hinata.

"You have found the food you needed?" asked Martouf cautiously.

"Yes. You wouldn't believe how much meat you can get from 10,000 people" she answered. After a moment of deadly silence, Hinata broke down in laughter. "The looks on your faces! Hahahaha. I am joking" she reassured them, wiping away the tears of laughter.

"Not funny" complained Martouf, green around the grills.

"Please, never joke like that again" pleaded Rosha, only Jolinar's assistance keeping her from throwing up.

"I assume there is another reason to calling this meeting, other than punish us for the past actions?" asked Saroosh with a smile. As fellow joker, she could appreciate a dark joke, every now and then. Even if this one hit too close to home. Considering it was them, who put Hinata into position, where that very scenario may have happened.

"Yes, I have developed something, that your people may want to buy" said Hinata, opening a small box with a single Jaffa Cure in it, and pushing it to the Tok'ra.

"What is this? Some sort of food?" asked Saroosh, after examining it, before handling it to her colleagues.

"Medicine" clarified Hinata. "We call it Jaffa Cure. It is, in essence, a replacement for Prim'ta" she explained, making the Tok'ra sit up straight and look at the ball with renewed interest.

"Does it work?" asked Jolinar with suspicious.

"It does, we have 25 Jaffa without symbiotes at Lucene now" answered Hinata.

"What are the side effects?" enquired Selmak.

"It makes Jaffa sick for a week after taking the cure, they will be fine after that. It also does not grant any of the benefits of the symbiote, like extended lifespan or the advanced healing" she warned.

"How many of those they need to take, and how often?" asked Lantash.

"Just one, and they will be set for life. However, there is small chance that there will be a relapse, so they may need to take the second dose. It should be quite rare. I estimate less than 1 in 100. I am also yet to test it on children entering their Age of Prata. However, I am confident it should work for them as well" explained Hinata.

"And what would you like in exchange for this medicine of yours?" asked Selmak with suspicious.

"I have two prices, that will benefit my people in either short or long term. I will leave it up to you to decide which you are willing to pay" answered Hinata, getting a nod in understanding, she continued.

"The long-term price is as we discussed in the past, the detailed instructions to building our own Tel'tak ships. We may be unable to build them now, but we will know which direction to move in, and which technologies to look for when trading."

"Short-term price, is instructions to building our own cooking devices, which includes the knowledge of how to produce every piece of the device. Those 50 devices you sold us so far, are not cutting it for the population of over 10,000 people. In addition to that, we would also want to get two Goa'uld Healing devices, and two Tel'tak ships" she requested.

"It is a steep price for a small ball" noted Selmak.

"I am offering a recipe for the medicine here, and we all know, that it is actually very low price for it. I would get 100 times more from System Lords if I promise to destroy it, and never mention it again. As it is, they will learn about it sooner or later. I am unable to produce it in any significant numbers, but I assume you can. It is in my interests to make it spread as widely as possible, to avoid focusing System Lord's attention on Lucene" she admitted.

"You are correct in assuming, that this medicine will bring a lot of attention from System Lords. It will also greatly destabilise the current state of affairs in the galaxy. It is not something that Tok'ra will want to happen, as it will lead to many unnecessary deaths" cautioned Selmak.

"As I said, the System Lords will learn of it sooner or later. It may be today it may be in 100 years. The question you should ask yourself is, whatever you want to know the secrets of its production? Would you like to control its spread and distribution? Or would you leave that up to my people and our trade partners?" asked Hinata.

"You had been selling the cure to the others?" asked Lantash with accusation.

"Of course. Our trade partners had been great help in saving Lucene from mass starvation. It is only fair, that I help them when I can in return. Getting Prim'ta is not something that is easy or safe for them either, they understand the risks" replied Hinata, making the Hok'ra lower their heads, reminded of their blunder once again.

"It is dangerous game you are playing" warned Jolinar.

"I understand that, but I am a healer at heart. If I refused to cure a sickness, because it may upset some people, I would have never cured anything. Just because System Lords are more powerful group than my usual detractors, doesn't change anything. I just need to ensure, that the knowledge of cure will survive, even if I or my people don't. Hence why we are having this meeting. Your people had been fighting them for hundreds of years, so are my best bet in ensuring that the knowledge survives" explained Hinata with a shrug.

"Why not give the knowledge away for free then?" asked Martouf.

"I am still a leader of my people, and I need to do what is best for them above anything else" she explained. "If we are attacked by the System Lords, and I could see that we will not win, I would ensure that the knowledge is delivered to every single Chappa'ai address I know. Including many Goa'uld controlled worlds. The knowledge of the cure will not be lost" she promised.

"This is something that I and my fellow council members will need to deliberate carefully" warned Selmak.

"I can understand that. However, now it is my turn to caution you. I trust everyone here, but I don't know the rest of your people. Before you spread the knowledge of the cure among your people, you will need to ensure that you are actually able to produce it. I can describe the process and provide samples for each step, but I do not know if your technology is able to do what I can. Until you know that you can actually produce the cure, you should probably keep the knowledge about it to as small group of people, as you can" warned Hinata in turn.

"We will be buying the medicine, that we don't even know if we can produce?" asked Saroosh with narrowed eyes.

"Pretty much" agreed Hinata with a smile. "You can, of course, keep the sample I provided. Just make sure you remove the Prim'ta before giving it to Jaffa. They just need to eat it like normal food. Also make sure they get lots of rest, water and food for the following week" instructed Hinata.

"Very well. We will be in contact, once the decision is reached" promised Selmak.

(*H*)

It took council 3 weeks, before Hinata heard from them. Lilith and Jadeth came to escort her once more. They became the Tok'ra's liaisons, of sorts, to the Lucene. She didn't see or even heard the names of any other Tok'ra. It was clear that the resistance was compartmenting their forces. Even among Jaffa and Humans, who came to deliver goods, and pick up payments, they usually sent the same people.

"Hello everyone, you reached the decision?" she asked the group.

"Yes, we have" agreed Saroosh. "We will grant you the two ships you wanted, the healing devices and instructions to building your own cooking devices. However, there are some conditions to that trade" she warned.

"Interesting, I was almost certain you will go with the first option" she rubbed her chin. "What are the conditions?" she asked.

"It was a narrow vote" admitted Saroosh. "The first condition, is that we have removed all of the secret Tok'ra technology from the ships" she said.

"As long as the ships have all of the technologies our Tel'tak has, and can perform all of the same tasks, I am fine with that" agreed Hinata.

"They should be as good, or even better than your current ship" promised Saroosh. "The second condition, is that your people will be responsible for getting the ships back to Lucene. If they are damaged or destroyed in transit, it is on you. We will not provide you with replacements" she explained.

"This is acceptable. Just take me to the ships, and I will handle the rest" she agreed.

"And there is the third and last condition. Due to the risks involved with the ships transit, we would like for the payments to be finalised before you take off" requested Saroosh.

"Oh, you, of so little faith" said Hinata with a smile, without any heat. "Anyway, I am fine with that. I have the instructions on me" she admitted. "Is there anything else, or should we go and see my new ships?" she asked with enthusiasm.

"Yes, lets" agreed Saroosh with a smile. "You seem excited" she pointed out.

"Our current Tel'tak has been working 3 shifts a day to maintain our water supply. It used to perform many other roles in Lake City, that had to be suspended. With the new ships, we would be able to come back to those tasks now. I am not even mentioning the relief of having redundancy, and being able to farm excess food to fill our storage for rainy day. If our current ship broke for more than a few days, we would have been in real trouble" confessed Hinata.

"What would you have done, if we decided not to trade you the ships?" asked Martouf.

"As I said, we are able to maintain our water supply with the one we have. It is not good position to be in, but it is sustainable, until we figured out how to build our own ships. In worst case scenario, where the ship is damaged or destroyed, we would have found a place to relocate, or stole another ship from the Goa'uld" she shrugged. "There are many solutions to each problem, the trick is not to get so focused on a single solution, that you miss all of the others" she explained.

"Well said" agreed Selmak. "We are here. Your ships are just behind those trees" she said, as they exited from a Chappa'ai on another, presumably, empty planet.

It took them around 20 minutes of walking to pass the treeline, and sure enough, there were two Tel'taks waiting for them. There were also close to 20 people milling around, probably guarding them. When they reached the guards, Selmak introduced them.

"Your healing devices and information on the cooking devices are in this ship" she said, leading their small group into it. "There they are" she pointed to the two devices sitting on the bench, as well as at a crystal.

"How do we access the information?" asked Hinata, not familiar with the technology.

"You can use the Tel'tak computer to extract the information" answerer Rosha.

"Can you show me how, please? I am not familiar with this technology" she admitted.

"Certainly, this way" she said, leading her to another part of the ship. The impromptu lesson took only a few minutes, as the procedure was relatively simple.

"Now, I believe we have upheld our part of the deal. It is now your turn" prompted Selmak.

"Yes, everything seems to be in order" she agreed. "It is a bit crowded here. Would you like to do it outside?" she asked. After leaving the ship, she took out a storage scroll, unfolded it, and put some chakra into one of the seals. Causing a good-sized stone chest appear on the ground in a puff of smoke, that made the people nearby take a step back.

"How did you do it?" asked startled Jolinar.

"Hmm? Ah, this is a storage scroll, something my people used" explained Hinata, opening the chest. "There you go, all of the 73 steps to produce the medicine. The steps are to be followed from the left to right, from hinge to the lock, and from top to bottom. I have also included the samples and seeds for all of the plants used to make the medicine" she explained.

The chest was divided into five rows and five columns per layer, with 3 layers in total. Each cell contained a sample of all of the ingredients, the result, as well as the instructions of what exactly she was doing and trying to achieve.

"You carved the instructions in a stone?" asked surprised Saroosh, picking up a slim stone plate with writings, from one of the cells.

"We don't have access to any other writing mediums. If your people can sell us technology to produce paper and ink, or just the finished products, it would be most welcome" requested Hinata.

"I don't think we have that information. Paper was not used in Goa'uld space for thousands of years" apologized Selmak.

"You are using these crystals and computers?" asked Hinata, getting a nod in agreement. "Any chance for us to buy couple of those?" she asked, getting a shake in return. "Oh well. Are we done here? Can I take my ships?" she asked at last. Getting a nod in return, she walked to each ship, pressed the storage scroll to them, and in puff of smoke, the ships were gone.

"W-What? Where did the ships go?" asked startled Selmak.

"Into the scroll of course" pointed out Hinata, tossing the scroll up and down, with a mischievous smile. "Told you it wouldn't be a problem, to get the ships to Lucene" she told them with a self-satisfied smile.

"I never even heard of technology like that. How is it even possible?" asked wide eyed Lantash.

"It is not really my area of expertise, but the ships are basically in a pocket dimension right now. Which is linked to this scroll" she explained.

After answering a few more questions from the Tok'ra, she returned to Lucene in high spirit. After returning to the city, she unsealed the ships and told her people to start modifying them for the asteroid delivery duty. There was nowhere to attach the net to the ship's hull. With a little bit of trial and error, her people had improvised a system of hooks and poles, interconnected via network of cotton ropes, to distribute the weight of asteroids across the hard points of the Tel'tak's hull, without causing damage to it.

The health clinic had been slowly expanding, but with just one healing device, they couldn't provide training for everyone who wanted to learn. Due to how outspoken Hinata was about being a healer, as well as due to additional pay the healing proficiency provided, there were many more volunteers, than the town's capacity for training. The two new healing devices were going to speed up training immensely.

While her people worked on modifying the ships, Hinata spend her time transcribing the knowledge about making the cooking devices to stone tablets. There was no way she was going to keep one ship on the ground, just so they could access the information on the crystal. She was also concerned about having the knowledge in a single example. Additionally, the Lake City was not stable enough yet, to temp some groups of people with a ship just sitting on the ground.

Once the stone tablets were done, they were taken to the smelting team. Part of the team were to start working towards producing their own cooking devices, while the rest kept supplying metal tools to her people. Of the 10 modified cooking devices they had, 3 were allocated to the new project. Of the 50 people in the team, half were also allocated to the new project.

Even with the ready instructions, it was going to take some time, before her people would start producing their own cooking devices. They simply didn't have the expertise and the tools that Tok'ra had. However, locally produced cooking devices were not the only benefit of that particular trade. Most of the materials the cooking device was made of, were better than anything her people knew how to produce. Once they learned how to produce them, her people would get upgrade to their farming, wood and stone working tools, as well as to wide range of new and upgraded items.

Some of those materials were also shared across multiple Goa'uld devices, which would allow them to produce spare parts for them. Once this crisis was over, she was also planning to carefully disassemble one of their ships, to see what it was made off, and which parts they could now manufacture, and which technologies she should look for next.

The R&D team working on moving water from the bottom of the valley, to the irrigation system at the top was making slow progress. Most of their work was focused on building small scale wooden models for the envisioned systems. They didn't have the working prototype yet, much less the solution that would work at the scale they needed. But they were improving their knowledge of woodworking, mechanics and hydrodynamics.

The much-expanded population was also causing problems in other areas. With so many people, it was very hard to keep track of those who were already given their share of grains that day, as some people tried to get it multiple times. It was also hard to keep track of those who earned additional grains through the multitude of available options. Further, the situation was exasperated by the deficit of grains, as most of their current food was in meat, which was not as easy to quantify as grains.

Still, overall, the situation in Lucene City was looking up again, and she couldn't wait for the crisis to be over. Her current days resolved around need to hunt for 20 fully grown elks per day, more if she was hunting for smaller pray, to vary the diet. Then, she had to fire the significantly expanded oven array multiple times a day. Following it by directing the newly melted water from the asteroids to the irrigation system.

To top that off, she had to keep her eyes on her people, to prevent them from causing troubles, while also directing them to tend to the existing farms, and to expand their irrigation system and farming area. Lastly, she had to do all of the trading talks, coordinate multiple R&D teams, while also planning and thinking about different ways to improve their situation.