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"That tastes great, thank you."

Ophrenet dismissed Marian back to the kitchen—the slave spent a lot of time there since her mistress had been named Goddess of the Harvest. Marian was now official kitchen director, which thankfully she seemed to be doing an acceptable job at.

As for Netty, she felt fairly wrapped up in her work. She hadn't figured out a way to fulfill Ashtoreth's demands on educating the symbiotes, which was her own goal as well, but she had everything at her disposal to work on the problem. She'd been down in the lab the last several days trying to develop a smaller form of the Goa'uld memory recall device, in the hopes that it could be used on a larvae to some purpose.

Netty? I don't know if you've noticed, but time is passing. We only have nine days left. And besides that, you have to allow four days travel to make it back to the stargate. That means whatever you're planning, you have to do it in the next five days.

I'm waiting for the right moment.

And what moment is that?

Here's the plan. Ashtoreth is planning another feast, exactly thirty days after the last one.

That's too long!

But we don't have to be there for it. We just have to wait until we have the opportunity to travel back to Aram for more offerings. The night before the journey, I will steal the symbiotes and the equipment. It's in our best interests to get as far away as possible without being suspected, especially since Ashtoreth will probably notice that I've taken the autonomic control panel, which I need in order to reverse engineer her system.

But we'll have a whole day to travel down to Aram, and then another day to go further south to Dorth and toward the stargate before they even notice we are late. We'll be halfway there before we are even missed.

Great! When can we go?

It would be safest to wait until as close to the feast as possible. We will leave on the eve of the last day; five days from now.

You're cutting it awful close.

Well, more time to use Ashtoreth's lab won't hurt.

But as the days went on Kianna began to suspect it wasn't just the lab Netty wanted more time with.

In the ground-level terraces, Ophrenet convinced her to linger daily until Kianna finally voiced her concerns.

You're thinking about the sarcophagus, aren't you.

That doesn't mean I'm going to do it.

You want to be close to it.

Netty didn't answer.

If you're this tempted, shouldn't you be getting as far away from it as possible?

Maybe.

It was the final evening before Netty had scheduled their trip over the pass. They had gone down to Ashtoreth's lab to work that afternoon, and the Queen was there as well, doing her own work. First she induced Kelnoreem for the symbiotes with the last of her remaining supply of blood from the previous human sacrifice. After that, all was silent for some time, and both Kianna and Netty concentrated on their work, making comments to each other only when necessary. It was helpful to have Kianna's eye on her work, making sure that she did not make any mistakes, and things seemed to go faster this way.

There was a small click as Ophrenet pieced together the tiny device under the magnifying sheet.

There. I think that's small enough. With the two-way interface, I should be able to project my thoughts into the symbiotes' minds.

Let's test it on one, then.

Netty pulled one of the cylinders from the wall, carefully tugging out a length of extra piping, and set it on the table. Ashtoreth watched her from across the room with a slightly raised eyebrow, but said nothing. Today the goddess was wearing a lab coat and that only, which was somehow even worse.

Unscrewing the top of the small tank, Ophrenet reached in with a bare hand. The jaws of the symbiote scraped probingly at her flesh but did not bite—detecting the naquadah markers in her blood that showed her host was presently occupied.

Netty gently placed the tiny device, no larger than a pinhead, upon the skin of the infant goa'uld. It screeched loudly in pain, she could hear it from even under the water, and she flinched.

Netty replaced the top of the canister quickly and settled down to try and take her readings. There were brain waves all right, but they were much more subdued than should be present for a normal Goa'uld with the genetic memories.

It's so… calm.

In fact, as the pain of the memory device attachment faded, the larvae calmed even further.

Do you think it feels at peace? I don't think I've ever been that calm in my life.

I… I wouldn't know, Netty.

This is so different. I'm not sure that if these larvae were kept in the same tank, that they would even fight each other.

Why don't you try communicating with it?

Yes, you're right. Might as well try.

Steeling her will, Netty placed the second memory device on her own temple. She flinched involuntarily and curled her fingers as the small wire probe burrowed into her skin and found the nerve. However, a moment later, the pain dissipated.

I don't feel anything. I don't know, I'm not getting anything.

Let me try.

Kianna sat still and concentrated, not sure what she was looking for. A third mind to join theirs? No, that wasn't it, exactly. She tried projecting a thought onto the Goa'uld. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.

The symbiote's brain activity didn't increase.

I'm not sure what's going on, but I don't think it's working.

I can't sense anything either. And of course we don't have any way of knowing if it can sense us.

Maybe they're just still too young?

No, that can't be it. Possibly some kind of interference.

But she just performed Kelnoreem. Shouldn't the symbiotes be in their most aware state right now?

Apparently not aware enough.

Well, listen, Netty, we don't have time to work out the bugs here. We've made a good start, but you know we have to take this with us and finish it at home.

Just then Ashtoreth looked up again. "I am retiring for the night," she remarked.

"Go ahead," said Ophrenet, her heart beating faster. This was the moment she'd been waiting for. "My research is going very well. I think I'll stay down here and keep working."

"Of course," said Ashtoreth, stepping into the rings. "Just be sure to leave everything in order."

The rings lit up and ferried the Queen out of the lab to the ground level above.

Now Netty and Kianna were alone.

Perfect. Netty pulled out a large bag, one of the burlap sacks in which the grain was usually transported. Now to pack up all of this stuff and take it with us.

Hold on and wait just a moment, thought Kianna. Just wait until we are sure she's not coming back. You have to give her time to leave, too, we can't ring up while she might still be in the area. She might see your giant grain sack and be suspicious.

Netty listened, and took her time with her work. However, there didn't seem to be any sign of Ashtoreth returning. She slowly detached the wires and piping from the canister, instead attaching a portable low-drain battery for the electric supply. It would just have to go without pond water for a few days, but it would survive.

It was really a shame they didn't have space to take more than one. A single canister was all she could carry without suspicion.

All of these other symbiotes are going to become Ashtoreth's soldiers. We are here. If only we could do more.

We can't. I know, I wish we could too, but one has to be enough.

It's not good enough. I want to save all of them.

Netty you don't even know if you're going to be able to save the one you have.

Ophrenet hesitated a long moment, looking over the wall of symbiotes. Finally she nodded. She placed the canister into the bag, which was by far the largest item, then threw in the rest of her equipment from the experiment, and pried the memory reader off her own temple with a wince. Finally, she walked over to Ashtoreth's lectern and grabbed the autonomic control module and slipped that into the bag as well.

It's time to go.

She dialed up the rings on the wall panel and quickly took her place in the center. They stacked up around her, and the world dissolved in a blaze of white light.

When the rings vanished, everything was as it should be. She was next to the shallow pond, overlooking water plants and a thin layer of green scum. Next to her was the small statue plinth, and the road which curved through the trees. It was empty. Nobody was around, Ashtoreth had already gone up to her palace.

She stepped off the rings. The moonlight filtered down through the leaves above in the empty spaces, and a breeze rustled through the far-off branches. It was late, and they would have little sleep before leaving early in the morning. However, the less time for Ashtoreth to discover her deception, the better.

See? I told you we'd get away with it.

I won't feel safe until—

Netty whirled around at the sound behind her. The rings were activating.

The RINGS were activating.

She ran.

She didn't know where she was going, what she was doing. Someone was coming up out of the lab, and no one had been there with her. That meant someone had been standing on those rings, waiting for her to come up, and traded places with her below, to check out the lab after she left it.

Ashtoreth was already standing there, poised.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

Netty turned her back on the Queen and didn't stop running.

She didn't see the zat blast until the blue energy was already arcing across her skin.