A/N: I am settled in my new country and have started my new PhD program. Given the business inherent in being a PhD student, I am afraid that my posting schedule will remain lengthened/somewhat erratic for now.


Egeria was alive.

Egeria was actually alive.

Long thought dead by her people, long disappeared into the annals of history, the Queen of the Tok'ra had actually survived her betrayal of Ra, had survived her treatment at the hands of the Pangarans.

And now? Now the Tok'ra were no longer a dying race.

The mission to Pangar back in November (by earth measurements) had staggering consequences (largely good) and major ripple effects for the Tok'ra, the Furlings, and possibly the Jaffa, as well. Once Egeria had given the key information about the genetic defect to Malek and Kelmaa and had taught them how to make the antidote that would slowly wean the Pangarans off of Tretonin, she had been taken to the joint Tok'ra-Furling base on Vestra, where the healers originally on the Valhalla had been sent ahead. Her return caused quite a stir among the Tok'ra, who were overjoyed to have their Queen returned to them beyond all hope. Egeria was quite weak, but with proper care and rest, the healers were hopeful that she would eventually recover.

The incident bound the Tok'ra and the Furlings even closer together. The Tok'ra were extremely grateful for the Furlings' quick and steadfast assistance in freeing Egeria, especially in finding a host for her so quickly. For the Tok'ra, willing hosts had always been hard to find in a galaxy long oppressed by the Goa'uld and even harder to find on short notice … unless an already blended pair were ready to take the risk of separating. The relationship and alliance between the two races had been highly prized ever since its inception over two years before, but now the bond between them was even tighter.

Though the Tok'ra were appalled by how the drug was made and how their queen had been treated—now that they knew the Queen was actually Egeria and not some nameless Goa'uld … how'd Sujanha put it? 'Situationally dependent ethics'? Or something. She wasn't pleased!—the Tok'ra … as well as the Furlings … recognized the potential in Tretonin. The drug replaced a human's immune system just like a symbiote replaced a Jaffa's immune system after the first implantation of a primta.

Was there a way to remove the Jaffa's dependence upon primta?

Could Tretonin be synthesized without necessitating mass murder?

That would be a major research question for the Tok'ra and the Furlings in the coming months.

The campaign against Morrigan had begun toward the beginning of the Third Month of the year (by Furling measurements). She was one of the smartest, cagiest, and most powerful of the remaining System Lords, in Sujanha's opinion. And she'd know! Since the Furlings had begun to wage war against the Goa'uld, Morrigan had kept her head down, stayed in the shadows, and stayed alive, eliminating her rivals behind the scenes and actually managing to increase her power and territory even while her fellow System Lords began to topple before the advancing Furling Empire. The campaign against her forces had begun well, but neither Sujanha nor Anarr expected it to be quick or bloodless by any means.

(No one knew that an ancient foe was rising.)

(No one knew that Anubis had seen an opportunity in the ongoing disarray among the System Lords and was beginning to move, earlier than he might have done if circumstances had been different … a story for a different world.)

(No one knew.)

(Yet.)


Duumm, 6547 A.S.
(January 2001)
Uslisgas, Asteria Galaxy

There were few things in life that Sujanha disliked more than High Council meetings. Aside from politics in general. Paperwork was probably one of those things, or if not, it ranked close behind those council meetings. Losing men was on the top of the list of things that she disliked about her position as Supreme Commander. If there were a way for her to solely lead the Fleet in battle and leave someone else to deal with the politics at home, Sujanha would have been quite happy to do so. Overjoyed. At least, Janth's fall from favor had silenced her most vocal and ridiculous opposition on the High Council, and that made those meetings less … infuriating … and stressful and somewhat more productive without the arguing back and forth with him.

Sujanha tried to force her mind away from dwelling on her dislike of High Council meetings and to focus on the speech currently being made. Her leg had been aching and cramping fiercely all day with the cold, rainy spring weather, and Malek had been in control since breakfast to blunt the pain. (The one who was in control felt the worst of it.) With Malek in control, they at least looked like they were paying attention! All the military reports had already been made by both Sujanha and her brother. Chief Ambassador Amilcar had given his briefing on several updated treaties within Asteria and on the effects that the Furlings' efforts to slowly re-extend their influence throughout the lands that they had lost during the Great War and not yet regained could have on several other treaties. Chief Scholar Ingar, who was speaking at the moment, was a fascinating woman with a breadth of knowledge few could hope to rival. However, each and every speech that she seemed to make at High Council Meetings veered toward the overly wordy and complex with the disbursement of more than a few Furling words that Sujanha barely remembered existed and sometimes almost needed a dictionary for. Whatever she was discussing this time, Sujanha had long ago given up hope of following, though she was trying … somewhat.

*Simple and direct,* she mused to Malek, who had been trying to follow the speech but was finding it rather hopeless as well. *Simple and direct and concise! That would make these meetings so much more straightforward … and quicker, as well.*

Her symbiote snorted mentally and agreed.

Furling peripheral vision was much clearer than Zukish or near-Zukish, and Anarr barely seemed to be paying attention, either, his attention fixed on his tablet. And it wasn't a note-taking program open, either! Were those requisition forms?

I wouldn't blame him if they are!

A low stir among the Iprysh guards in the chamber drew Sujanha and Malek's attention away from her fellow High Councilors. Even as Inga kept speaking, two of the guards paced forward, slipping up behind the chairs of the two Supreme Commander. A metal hand settled lightly on her shoulder, and then there was a soft, flat voice in her ear. "You are needed at Headquarters, Commander. It's urgent."

From the way Anarr had startled upright into watchful alertness, he had just been given the same message. Whatever had happened that was urgent enough to have them summoned out of a High Council Meeting, it could not be good. Not good at all. Sujanha had to remind herself that it would do no good to speculate on what could have gone wrong. Given the current campaign against Morrigan, she could probably make an annotated list of what could go wrong in order by likely probability. They would know soon enough.

(Sujanha could not even remember at that moment the last time that she had been summoned out of a High Council meeting. Have Ragnar or Ruarc waiting outside with ill news once it concluded, yes. A summons during the meeting … it had been quite some time, thankfully, since the last time that had been necessary.)

Sujanha pushed her chair back—the harsh scrape of the chair legs against the floor made a terrible sound that set her teeth on edge and stopped Inga in mid-sentence—and rose stiffly, retaking control from Malek. She bowed toward High Chancellor Ibûn's chair and then to Inga, as well. "Forgive the interruption. Supreme Commander Anarr and I have been summoned back to Headquarters on urgent military business."

That was one way to get out of a High Council Meeting.

And not a good one.

Ragnar met them in the hallway outside the great High Council chamber doors. He had been pacing back and forth but stopped abruptly and whirled towards them as they appeared. No one but High Councilors and the Iprysh guards were allowed inside the chamber, except on very rare occasions, and the summons had either been sent ahead from Headquarters, and Ragnar had followed to brief them on the way back, or he had brought the message itself and given it to the Iprysh guards outside to transmit to those inside.

"What happened?" Sujanha asked.

"Tanith escaped from Nistra overnight, killed a guard. The Tok'ra did not realize it until a shift-change an hour ago," Ragnar replied. (The complexities of rotation differences between planets! It was early afternoon on Uslisgas, but morning on Nistra.) "He had to have been planning his escape well in advance, given the precautions they have been taking. The Tok'ra are assuming that he has already found his way back to the Goa'uld and are asking for help evacuating Nistra."

Well, that was somehow both better and worse than the news Sujanha had been expecting.

Sujanha had never been overly fond of the Tok'ra's plan of keeping Tanith alive and cultivating the very possible but perilous fruits of having a known spy within their ranks through whom they could feed disinformation back to the remaining System Lords. There was a saying on Midgard—"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." There was truth to those words and potential benefit to such a strategy, but it had the potential to go very, very wrong, very quickly. Tanith had been … somewhat … useful under tight control, but to keep him from knowing that they knew that he was a spy, there was only so much that the Tok'ra could limit him from learning. Now he could spill everything, and the Tok'ra could not know for sure what that "everything" was, despite their care in controlling his access to databases and meetings.

Sujanha cringed internally. Her mind was already spinning through the fallout of that message and what needed to be done next. She turned to her brother. "We'll need to coordinate our response for the evacuation and what follows. This could put Vestra at high risk as well." As far as the Tok'ra knew, Tanith did not know the address for Vestra (the joint Furling-Tok'ra base aside from the Tok'ra current homeworld, Nistra) but did know it existed.

"As far as they know" being the key words.

We cannot know for sure.

The two commanders beamed back to Headquarters. Given the coordinated response that would need to follow, they did not return to their separate offices on separate floors but found an open conference room on Sujanha's floor, and their aides and bodyguards joined them there. Long-Claw, Anarr's massive Vos-Mell bodyguard, flopped himself down near the main entrance, sprawled almost casually, though his slitted pupils were fixed on his charge's back. Daniel and Jaax gathered next to Sujanha as soon as they arrived, and she sent Asik off to help Orik, a young Boii, who was Anarr's currently only aide. (What had happened to the other one or two, she did not know.) A handful of senior commanders from both the Fleet and the Army, who were currently on-world, joined them, as well as Aldwin, who had brought the message from Nistra.

"The knowledge of the location of our main base is too much of a bargaining chip with the System Lords for Tanith not to exploit," said Aldwin, once he had finished recapping the events on Nistra in more detail than Ragnar's brief summary. "Sooner or later, when he sells that information to the highest bidder, Nistra's location will be compromised. Better to evacuate now, but the High Council is concerned there is a risk that our fallback world could be compromised as well."

I would go on the assumption that it is. There is too much risk in operating otherwise.

*Better to be overly cautious than not cautious enough,* Malek agreed, a tinge of sadness to her mental voice. She had known the guard that Tanith had killed, though not well. There was grief in losing a fellow Tok'ra but no longer the heavy burden of knowing that every single death brought the Tok'ra that much closer to extinction as a race. The discovery of Egeria meant not only survival, but also hope.

*True, but how far do you take that?*

Tanith knew that the Tok'ra were allies with the Furlings, knew the Furlings were the ones laying the Goa'uld Empire low, would have met some of the Furling hosts on Nistra. Vestra was a joint Furling-Tok'ra base. Tanith, at the very least, knew it existed. Could he actually know the address? Did Vestra need to be evacuated?

Could Tanith know the addresses of any other Furling bases, which were common knowledge among the Tok'ra?

How great a response was appropriate to this threat, the exact size of which was unknown?

How many resources need to be diverted from the ongoing offenses to make sure that the Furling bases, with their supply depots and shipyards, were fully protected?

I hate dealing with spies. They're useful … until the plan backfires, and then they're a disaster in the making.

There were so many ways that such spy craft could go wrong.

It wouldn't be all the bases though … only six or seven, including Vestra, of course, are known to the Tok'ra.

That will be more doable, if necessary. Unpleasant, but doable, though it would come at a cost for the ongoing campaigns.

"Get me a line to Algar," Sujanha ordered Jaax. Daniel was half-way around the table, mid-conversation with Asik. There were too many voices in too many languages for her to follow what Daniel was discussing, and reading lips was not one skill that she had ever had.

Does Tanith know that Nistra's address is not from the Goa'uld's cache of addresses?

Algar's hologram appeared within ten minutes. He was a Kushik, a Furling-Dovahkiin hybrid. His red-gold scales and massive wings gave him a very striking and imposing appearance, even when the hologram washed out his features into various gradations of blue. Sharp eyes swept across the room, picking up the unusual location and the collection of people, before settling on Sujanha. "Trouble?" He asked. As a hybrid, he could speak Furling, which meant everyone could understand him without the need for a translator.

That could be more risky … if the Goa'uld learn we're pulling addresses from another source.

That would give them intel to mine for, when any of our men are captured. Maker Forbid.

"Nistra has been compromised," Sujanha replied, her eyes flicking back down to her tablet for a moment. "The Tok'ra's spy escaped last night. If he has not already, he will find his way to a Goa'uld court. Vestra and our other worlds known to the Tok'ra must be classified as at high risk. Some may be compromised. There is no way to know for sure."

We might want … or they might want us to … move Egeria out of an abundance of caution.

Algar gave a long, slow blink and absorbed those words without any other visible reaction. "I see," he said after a moment. "Unfortunate." An understatement. He was silent for several minutes, seemingly thinking. "Orders?"

"Nistra needs to be evacuated. Quickly. The Tok'ra consider their fallback world to be potentially compromised, as well. It will be faster to evacuate by ship than Stargate. Move them to any of our bases not known to them. With their numbers split between Nistra and Vestra, I think one base should be able to absorb them all. Other than that, increase our contingents over Vestra and the other worlds. Move ships as you deem fit, given the ongoing status of any battles against Morrigan's force. Use the Valhalla, as necessary. I can find where it is once I return."

In most cases, like here, Sujanha found it much more successful to tell her subordinates the end result with, occasionally, a few intermediate steps in-between and leave them to run the operation as they saw fit given the conditions where they were. Many decisions were hard to make from a galaxy or even a solar system away.

"Understood, Commander." Algar nodded sharply. "I'll coordinate with Odin and his forces to increase security for our bases."

"Very good. Maker be with you."

"And with you, my lady." Algar bowed, and then his hologram winked out.

*Your brother is talking to his lieutenants about doubling the guards on your at-risk bases,* Malek put in at that point. Having two consciousnesses in one body with good hearing meant that she had been paying attention to what else was going on in the room while Sujanha had been focused on her discussion with her High Commander.

*Might it not be wise to move Egeria off of Vestra in case Tanith knows more than we suspect?* Malek continued.

*Perhaps,* Sujanha replied. *But she is your people's leader. If she wishes to move bases or the Tok'ra High Council wish for her to move to a safer location, then they need to speak to the Furling base commander. There'll be ships over Vestra soon, if there are not any there already. She can at least be beamed up to a ship for now.*

S'Rituk, Egeria's Boii host, had resigned her position with the Army and renounced her allegiance to the Boii Council of Elders and the High King. Sujanha wanted to see her and Egeria both safe from this potential threat, but yet S'Rituk's safety was not their concern in the same way it once had been.

*Let me have control?*

Sujanha pulled back, and Malek took control and beckoned Aldwin over. The two began to speak quietly about Egeria and the Tok'ra High Council, but Sujanha tuned them out, a skill that she had been improving more lately—it was very strange tuning out a conversation her own body was having—and focused on the instructions, commentary, and planning being batted back and forth between Anarr, Odin, Frár, and several of his lower-ranking commanders whom Sujanha did not recognize as well as all the respective base commanders.

Double the watch over the Stargate.

Increased security during shift changes.

Double the army contingent on each base.

No non-essential personnel out of the tunnels.

No non-military, essential personnel on the surface without armed guards.

Increased scans of the planet and the system. Even a cloaked Goa'uld ship shouldn't be able to get past our scanners, but now is not the time to take risks.

The conversation between the two Tok'ra ended, and Sujanha's attention was drawn away as Malek gave her back control.

"Now what?" Daniel asked, getting up from his chair several seats over and coming to stand beside her.

Sujanha looked up at him. "Now we wait," she replied. "My commanders have their orders. Elder Brother is giving his people their orders, and they will carry them out. When there are new developments, then we will see."

Daniel nodded.

Sujanha rubbed her aching leg, concealed by the table, and then, planting one paw heavily on the table, levered herself to her feet with a suppressed groan. "Jaax, do you have the campaign reports from yesterday yet?"

Her aide paused, glanced across at her with a slightly worried look, flipped through several screens on his tablet, and then nodded, all in the space of seconds. "Yes, commander. I'll send them across to your tablet in one moment."

"Thank you." Sujanha stepped back from the round table and pulled up a galactic star-map of Avalon to check the placement of her ships and the evolving redistribution of ships to combat the rising threat. She would need to stay aware of those changes to keep her larger awareness of the campaign up-to-date.

Now we wait.

Waiting was the worst part of any campaign.

Once we know more, the High Council and the High King may need to be updated.

But someone else can be dispatched to do that.


Any soldier, any commander knew that waiting was the worst part of any campaign, especially after a situation like Tanith's escape from Tok'ra custody, which had the potential to expose who-knew-how-many Tok'ra and Furling secrets to the highest bidder among the remaining System Lords. The Tok'ra were all evacuated from Nistra without incident and moved to another of the Furling's bases in Midgard, while Vestra remained under heavy guard.

And yet … nothing happened.

No attacks materialized. No unusual Goa'uld troop or ship movements were uncovered by the wide-ranging scouts of the Furlings or the daring operatives of the Tok'ra or the brave members of the Jaffa Fifth Column.

Nothing happened.

For a month, nothing happened, making the Furling High Command start to question how much Tanith might actually know, why he had not appeared at a System Lord's court yet. With nothing happening, how long was it prudent to keep Vestra and other worlds under heavy guard, which kept resources siphoned away from the ongoing campaign against Morrigan? It was a difficult question with no clear answer.

Nothing happened … until one night, it did.

All was quiet … until one night, it wasn't.


Vekix, 6547 A.S.
(February 2001)
Valhalla, Avalon

Blaring alarms woke Daniel out of a sound sleep in the wee hours of what would be night on Uslisgas and what was the dark cycle/night shift onboard the Valhalla and all the other ships of the Furling Fleet. He jolted awake and looked blearily around his quarters for a moment, his mind caught in the fog of fading sleep and interrupted dreams. Then the noise registered with him: those alarms, which would be sounding across the ship … it was a distress call from some ship or planet. Stars! Daniel jerked upright, now instantly awake. It took him less than two minutes to change clothes, gather his glasses and tablet, and then bolt from his room toward the lifts that would take him to the bridge. Better to leave for the transporters for the crew. He could run.

Sujanha was just taking her seat on the bridge as Daniel scrambled into the room. I broke land-speed … ship-speed records. She would have beamed straight here, but … was she even in bed? Those were thoughts for another time, and he took his usual, if not extremely comfortable, seat on the step next to her chair as Sujanha asked for a status report.

"Distress call from Tollana." Mekoxe appeared on Sujanha's other side. There were dark circles under his eyes and the dark shadow of stubble across his chin. He looked like he had just rolled out of bed like the rest of them. There were other bridge crews for the other shifts, but in emergencies, Sujanha liked the crew with which she was most familiar and had worked the longest. "The transmissions are garbled, but they are under Goa'uld attack and are overwhelmed by both ground forces and ships. The Stargate has been buried in rubble." He paused for a moment. "'There is no escape. Our ships are being shot down. There is no escape unless you help us.'"

For a split-second, Sujanha looked blindsided, not that Daniel could blame her. He felt the same way. The Tollan were one of the most technologically advanced races in the Milky-Way. Tollana, Daniel knew from hearing her talk, had excellent air-defenses. Good, even by Furling standards. While the Tollan ion-cannons were not as powerful as Furling weaponry, they should have been able to hold the Goa'uld ships off and keep smaller ships from even landing to disgorge troops.

What the h**l happened?

"Divert the nearest battle group apart from ours, not involved in a current conflict, to Tollana, along with the closest mercy ship. Tell them to exercise extreme caution. Have the mercy ship stay well back from the conflict. Something seems … wrong here," Sujanha ordered. "Tell our battle group to follow us at all speed. Warn them to be ready for anything when we emerge in the Tollan's star system. Also, send word to Supreme Commander Anarr. We may need his men. I won't know until I see more of the situation on the ground."

Hard to put together a battle-plan with that little data.

What Goa'uld left has the power and the gumption to attack Tollana, of all places?

How do they even know about the Tollan? They're allies with us and the Tok'ra, but on the galactic level, they keep to themselves.

Why the Tollan?

Within minutes, the glow of hyperspace replaced the pin-pricked darkness of the void between star systems as the Valhalla hurtled across the galaxy toward Tollana. Six motherships, four cruisers, three destroyers, and three corvettes, along with the fighters the motherships and cruisers carried, made up the rest of the Valhalla's battle group currently. 17 Furling warships in total would be more than enough to take on any Goa'uld fleet, and the smaller vessels could be diverted to deal with Jaffa on the ground until troops arrived, if necessary. How long the journey to Tollana would be, Daniel did not know. Probably not that many minutes, since Furling ships could cross from one tip of the Milky-Way to the farthest edge in a little over half-an-hour.

The Tok'ra. Daniel's mind returned to its earlier train of thought.

The Tok'ra!

Daniel's eyes went wide. Could this be Tanith's doing?! Could the repercussions of Tanith's escape from the Tok'ra finally be rearing their ugly heads?! The Tok'ra traded with the Tollan for some food and technology. Tanith would have known this. It wasn't any kind of secret among the Tok'ra. Daniel himself had been to Nistra several times and had seen Tollan there more than once on his visits. The Tollan are a threat to the Goa'uld. With them out of the way … one less ally for us. One less risk to the Goa'uld … especially with Tollan tech. In a pinch, some of their more mundane technology—like their phase shifters—could have devastating military application.

Destroy the Tollan and … oh, bloody h**l, take their tech for themselves! Goa'uld with Tollan tech, that was a recipe for disaster and much bloodier conflict. It would not level the playing field by any stretch, but it would make the Furlings' job much, much harder.

"Tanith, do you think?" Daniel whispered, glancing up and back at Sujanha.

Her black eyes were shadowed. She was silent for a moment and then made a motion that was half-shrug, half-nod. "It seems a likely possibility," she replied. "It is highly suspicious that he has not appeared before now, and the timing for this attack is suspicious. We will know shortly."

"One minute!" Rusa shouted, pitching her voice to be heard above all the other threads of conversation being batted back and forth across the bridge.

Sujanha's paw went tight momentarily on the arm of her chair and then slowly relaxed. "Mekoxe, warn the healers. Transmit my voice to the other ships."

Seconds later, small, separate windows appeared on the edge of the holographic view screen, showing the bridges of the other ships in miniature. As soon as the connection to those other ships was live, Sujanha began issuing orders. "Form up on me. We will broadcast the call to surrender. If that is ineffective, the priority will be forcing any Goa'uld vessels away from the planet. Once that is done, break off," and here she rattled off several names, probably the commanders of the destroyers and corvettes. "Deal with the situation on the ground. Call for reinforcements, as needed, including from the Army. Adapt as the situation demands. Coordinate between yourselves as needed. Understood?"

There was a chorus of affirmatives, and then those windows disappeared as Rusa began the final countdown before the strike fleet dropped from hyperspace. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."

So many Goa'uld ships.

That was Daniel's first thought as they dropped out of hyperspace. There were at least … maybe six or seven motherships just on this side of the planet alone, along with more smaller ships and troop transports than he could count, many currently dropping down into the atmosphere.

Reinforcements for those already on the ground! We're going to have a fight on their hands.

How long can the Tollan hold?

"Reinforcements in 40 seconds, Commander," called Mekoxe from the back of the bridge, with Risa adding seconds later, "We've got dozens of ships around the planet and in atmosphere, most of them troop transports."

"Stars in Heaven," breathed Sujanha. "we're going to have to clear the entire planet. Mekoxe! Send urgent word to my brother. I need all the troops he can send me as soon as they can get here."

Unsurprisingly, the Goa'uld did not accept the call to surrender. When hailed, it was Tanith who appeared on the lead vessel's bridge in answer. Smart-mouthed and smirking, he argued with Sujanha back and forth for a minute, referencing an unnamed master whom he now served, before she shut him down, cutting the feed between their ships, and ordered her ships forward.

He's not saying whom he serves … unlike most every other Underlord we've dealt with.

Unusual. Why? There was no time to dwell on that, however, as the battle had now begun.

Furling ion guns were extremely powerful, capable of cutting through a Goa'uld mothership's shields in one shot on full power like a hot knife through butter. Since the aim generally was to disable, not destroy, any Goa'uld vessels in order to save the crew and capture the Goa'uld, Furling gunners had it almost down to an art form how much power they needed to use on the guns to disable, not destroy, to bring down a Hat'tak's shields in one shot. And as blue weapons' fire streaked across the vastness of space as the two sides started firing upon each other, Daniel expected the same strategies to work.

But here … they did not.

The Hat'taks shuddered heavily under the first barrage of fire from the Furling warships, but somehow, they withstood the first attack of fire, which should have disabled their shields. Or, at least, the weapons' fire should have done severe damage to their shields, enough that they would fall under a second barrage.

But here that did not happen, either.

And then when the Goa'uld returned fire, the Valhalla, on secondary shields, actually shuddered … somewhat … under the force of those blows.

Sujanha looked … thunderstruck. Utterly flabbergasted.

The deck shuddered slightly again. Daniel put a hand on the floor to steady himself. His perch on the stairs was not the most secure.

"Sat'a, report!" Sujanha snapped the command at the weapon's officer beside her, her voice sounding just slightly rattled.

What just happened?! It was somewhat of a stupid question. Daniel knew what had just happened. Somehow, someway, something about this fleet of ships, something about whomever's forces Tanith was commanding was different. How?! That was the more important question. Where did he get the upgrades? We haven't heard any warnings, no hint of anything from anybody. How the h**l?

"Marked increase in Goa'uld shield strength from norm, Commander. Finding the balance for disabling shots only may be difficult. There is a notable increase in weapon strength, as well, though they're still using plasma cannons. The effect on our shields is still minor, though."

He probably would have said "negligible" before.

"Broadcast a warning to all our ships and to my brother. The troop transports and the mercy ships need to exercise extreme caution and remain behind our warships when at all possible. We do not know what other advancements Tanith's master may have yet to reveal." After that brief moment a minute before, Sujanha now seemed imperturbably calm. "Tell the other ships to do what they have to do to stop the threat, disabling shots or not. If possible, one ship needs to be captured for study. I want to know whom Tanith's master is and where he got these upgrades."


With two strike-fleets and a Furling flagship at hand, the Goa'uld resistance in orbit around Tollana was quickly dealt with, even with the unexpected upgrades in shields and weaponry that the Hat'taks had unveiled, though not as quickly or as easily as before. Two Furling fighters were lost, and several of the smaller vessels were also damaged, but otherwise the Furling fleet over Tollana emerged from the battle physically unscathed, though with many questions.

Where had whichever Goa'uld Tanith was now serving gotten these upgrades for his vessels?

How many more vessels might be spread across the galaxies with those upgrades, depending on the breadth of this nameless Master's domain? All the Hat'taks had been destroyed during the fighting, and Tanith was believed to have been killed when his flagship exploded, meaning at least that he could spread no more secrets, if he had not spilled his guts to his Master already.

One small mercy, Malek believed, was that these upgraded weapons and shields would be restricted to only this one Goa'uld's fleet, since the Goa'uld were not one for sharing their technology with each other. That still leaves the problem of identifying Tanith's master. This upgraded fleet was destroyed. Somewhere, there could be another. Or more than one!

The fighting on the ground continued for over a fortnight. Tanith's master had been intent on capturing Tollana's technology and then razing it completely, given the transport ships full of portable goods found around the capital, which had fallen first. There were tens of thousands of Jaffa spread across the planet. Capturing them all as well as simultaneously rendering aid to the Tollan, who were suffering from the loss of their planetary infrastructure, as regions were recaptured, took time. A lot of time.

Many had died in the initial assault, as the Goa'uld had reigned fire down from orbit, and many more had died attempting to escape in personal crafts. Even so, a large portion of Tollana's population had survived, Omoc and Narim among them. The Tollan's nearest off-world colony, a planet known as Pellor, was too small to accept all the survivors from their homeworld, so the Furlings evacuated them to a safe world within Furling-controlled space to rebuild. Much of their cultural, historical, and technological knowledge had survived the destruction of their homeworld, because of the Tollan personal data units, and the Furlings also helped them transport any surviving technology that could be moved either through the Stargate, which was recovered from where it had been buried in debris, or by ship. Anything that could not be transported or transported safely was destroyed so that it could not fall into the wrong hands of those who might stumble across Tollana in the future.

The Furlings know the consequences of that all too well.

And then, like P3X-7763, where Daniel had first met the Tollan those years ago, Tollana was abandoned to become a rubble-strewn ghost planet, one more victim of the Goa'uld who would tolerate no rivals.

The question still remained in the minds of Sujanha and the High Command: who was Tanith's master? And where had he gotten his more advanced technology?

(It would be months before they realized an ancient evil—evil even by Goa'uld standards … an utterly terrifying thought—had returned to the galactic stage.)