Going into Corinth

Trini looked around the room at her teammates. They had settled into their new ship and were currently in the briefing room that was in the lower sections with their shared quarters and research labs. Everyone was seated around a virtual map that displayed the galaxy complete with all the political lines.

"We are to take the fight to the Zangyack Empire. Up to know we have been trying to repel them from areas that they have already gotten to. Now we will jump ahead of them and keep trying to push them back."

Kim shook her head, "If no one stops them or we fail they could be at Earth within the year."

Zach nodded, "The Zangyack has proved again and again that they are a very strong force. They might even be stronger than Dark Specter's forces."

Billy looked at some readings, "As we fight we should avoid using the Jungle Force powers as they have just gone active on Earth."

Trini tilted her head, "Why do you think we should avoid using those powers."

Billy changed the readings, "I think you remember how weak our powers used to get if for some reason we were doubled up. Well I have reason to believe that where those powers are technically duplicates of the powers we know hold that we will severely weaken the active ranger's powers."

"So we don't use any powers that we know are active but we also have to learn techniques from those rangers?" Trini asked curiously, "Why don't we go and find out exactly what will happen? We could go to KO-35 and use the Astro rangers as guinea pigs."

Kim laughed, "You want to use Andros' team as guinea pigs?"

Trini shrugged, "They did offer their services if we needed to actually figure out our powers. We could also try to learn their technique while we are there."

Jason nodded, "They have offered but I also think we should go soon as Ashley has been reassigned to the role of messenger."

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Jon sat in the gym with a woman who had been introduced as Nova. She announced that she had trained Omega and that she would be now overseeing Jon's training.

"No one has actually told me what I am training for." Jon asked as he raised his hand trying to be polite.

Nova shook her head, "I don't agree with it however the higher powers of the GSA has asked us to train you to be a specialist."

"A specialist?" Jon asked shaking his head.

"A specialist is a specialized ranger. The other five specialists were some of the first Earth rangers because it was decided that they were among the strongest. Many of them have been in training for over ten years and I believe you have met some of them before you became as you are." Nova explained, "I will oversee your physical training while various members of other ranger teams will train you in the history of rangers as well as giving you secrets to team styles. It will be a fast training and you will be working hard for the next year. I will not lie to you; you are going to have to find some way to help you remember all the information. You might actually wish you had stayed in high school because there at least you were just relearning what you already knew."

Jon groaned and rolled his eyes, "Oh fun, I guess there goes the freedom I discovered while I was settling in."

"I will make sure you have some free time. The council does not want you to lose the free spirit that you have. But keep in mind I trained Sam since he was a young boy, but I will be training you in only a year in nearly fifty fighting styles." Nova said as she gestured to the training mats.

Jon got up and joined her but was surprised to find that what she started with was the standard military combat skills that he knew from his time as Jack. Something told him that he would quickly hate her training style as he noticed that she was slowly mixing in other styles and some he didn't completely know.

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Sam looked up at a tall building that Summer had brought her to. Teal'c and Daniel had joined her at her request.

Daniel looked around before announcing, "This building feels more like a hotel than an apartment building."

Summer nodded, "Space here in Corinth is at a premium and seeing as this is our only city there isn't much need for a working hotel so as people come in from the wastelands we are filling up our hotels. You are assigned space based on how big your family group is. Money has very little to do with living arrangements although some of the people who had money before Venjix or lived here before hand may have larger homes just because it was easier to let them be then to create a public crisis. Although as the city fills up we have been asking people with more space to take in people if they have room."

Daniel laughed, "I bet that is going over well."

"You nailed it over the head. Many of them don't like being told that they have to share their homes. And if they don't listen the General is playing around with the idea of canceling our current currency which will tip all of their boats especially if they only have liquid assets." Summer said with a smile and Sam took it that she was happy she had turned her back on wealth.

Daniel leaned over to Sam, "She seems a little too happy about something like that."

Sam whispered back, "Before the virus she was one of those wealthier people however during the escape to Corinth she was taken advantage of by all of the people she considered friends. She has since learned the value of true friendship and would rather give of herself than money."

Teal'c looked around as they walked to the elevator, "Do you believe that she will still be at her assigned residence? She is Tok'Ra."

Sam shook her head, "I doubt it; she has probably headed underground after realizing that I could sense her. But coming here might tell us something about what she has been doing here."

Summer asked looking at Sam, "You seem to know quite a bit about the Tok'Ra."

Sam nodded, "It is a long story but second to an actual Tok'Ra I am usually the one people go to."

Summer led them to the fifth floor where Scott met them, "I don't know why you needed me to unlock someone's personal room but they weren't home."

Summer nodded to Sam, "The current occupant of that room is a Tok'Ra; they evidently came through the gate before Venjix knew it was there."

Scott opened the door that he had already unlocked and Sam walked into the room. There wasn't much in the room. But also didn't seem to be any evidence that the woman registered as Calli had cleaned out in an attempt to hide.

Daniel nodded, "Well as it seems, she isn't very materialistic and was ready to move fast like all Tok'Ra."

Sam looked towards the windows before grabbing a pad of paper and writing something and taping it to the window.

Daniel nodded, "She has probably been following us since we came into this building and she is probably in eyesight right now."

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"Callisthene how long are you going to watch them for?" Calli asked as they walked across the roof of a neighboring building.

"Callie I will watch them for as long as needed. I do know they aren't Corinthium and that they came through the Chappa'aii."

"What is that on the window of our apartment?" Callie asked as they went closer to the edge of the building.

I know Jolinar

"Callie, we will be going closer." Callisthene announced as she went back to the fire escape.

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Scott looked at the paper and the foreign script, "What did you write on the window?"

Daniel explained, "She announced that they have a common friend. Sam can you explain?"

Sam nodded, "I am not completely positive on this but strong memories surged when I saw her name as Calli S. Thene and I believe your Tok'Ra and my former symbiote were friends. I have many memories of a Callisthene."

Summer looked around, "Do you think she will come here?"

Sam shook her head, "She will be waiting for us outside probably somewhere where she has access to tunnels and many hiding places."

Scott nodded, "The courtyard right outside this building has many access point to the under parts of the ship. While many of them are sealed there are another good many that are still passable."

As they walked down the stairs Sam asked, "Does Tenaya have any idea on how long ago Callisthene could have come through the gate?"

Scott was already on his comm channel, before the question was even finished, talking to Tenaya. When he was done talking he turned to the rest, "The data was in an older file which is why she had a harder time finding it. Ledge city was also in one of the first regions to fall so before Corinth was fully sealed off Ledge city was already demolished. We had been at peace for a year before we first made contact and then we had two full years sealed in the dome plus the virus escalating for three years prior. Ledge city fell sometime in the first two years dates aren't exact as we were in mass chaos."

Teal'c nodded, "She has been here on Corinth for at least six years. It is possible that she was already trapped here before we began our alliance with the Tok'Ra."

Once they got outside Callisthene made her presence known from behind a support pillar and behind her stretched maintenance tunnels that curved every which way. "You are Jolinar? Why do you have a Jaffa?"

Sam looked at Callisthene, "No I am not Jolinar and Teal'c is a friend, he is a free Jaffa. The galaxy has changed greatly out beyond this world."

Callisthene backed into the darkness and circled to her left, "How do you know Jolinar?"

Sam tracked her movements trying to predict which way Callisthene was going to move. "I want to know am I talking to the host or Callisthene right now."

Callisthene's eyes flashed and her voice became disjointed, "I am Callisthene, my host Callie does not talk much. Now tell me how you know Jolinar?"

Sam nodded, "I was with Jolinar in her last days; she gave her life to save me. She spoke highly of you and I had hoped that one day I would get to meet you."

"I want to talk with another Tok'Ra. I will not believe what you say unless I have proof that you are not lying." Callisthene disappeared into the shadows without a sound.

Scott had his hand on his communication cuff calling for other members of Eagle squadron but Daniel was shaking his head, "You won't find her. She most likely knows the undersides of this ship better than you do. All your squad would do is mess up any trace of her and allow her to hide more."

Summer looked into the depths, "Fewer numbers then?"

Sam nodded, "Fewer numbers."

"Scott We can do this, Get Gem and Gemma and I will get Flynn, Dillon and Ziggy and meet you back at the garage."

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Jack was in recess with his meeting with General Truman when Sam came into the council hall. "Colonel your expression isn't giving me good thoughts right now."

"We found her sir however it is not going to be easy to get her to talk with us." Sam shook her head.

"Well why not, all the Tok'Ra love you." Jack asked confused about the report.

"She has been here for at least six years and most likely was trapped here before Jolinar saved me and before the Tok'Ra Tau'ri alliance. For all she knows I could be working for a Goa'uld." Sam explained, "I would like to send Teal'c and Daniel to look for another Tok'Ra. I am going to go with Scott and his friends down into the bowels of the ship to see if we can find her however who knows how long she has been exploring down there." Sam presented her plan, "I know it is a long shot but if we can get another Tok'Ra here she may be more willing to listen."

Jack nodded, "We don't really need Teal'c sniffing around if she doesn't know about the alliance. Go ahead and send them to seek the Tok'Ra out. I will remain here to continue negotiations."

Sam saluted before leaving the room, "Thank you sir."

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Daniel and Teal'c walked across their fifth planet. They had expected that it would be hard to find the Tok'Ra but right now they were thinking that every single Tok'Ra researcher had just vanished.

"Teal'c I am thinking that this might be a miss as well." Daniel shook his head knowing that the Tok'Ra usually didn't go too far from the gate for securities sake.

"I Agree Daniel." Teal'c inclined his head as he started to turn around only to find a female wearing desert camouflage behind him.

Daniel turned to find out what had Teal'c so still when he recognized the person, "Anise?"

"I am." Anise answered confirming Daniel's hunch.

Daniel sighed, "Sorry to come and find you. I know our alliance is sort of on hold but we have a situation that we could really use the Tok'Ra's help on."

Anise shook her head, "I don't know what help we can give you. We are stretched very thin right now."

Teal'c nodded, "For once it doesn't concern the Goa'uld."

Anise nodded, "Are you sure you weren't followed?"

Daniel nodded back, "We haven't been near any people since we left Earth two days ago."

Anise sighed and activated her transport rings after leading them a short distance closer to the star gate.

When they materialized in a crystal cave one male Tok'Ra approached the three of them with a staff weapon aimed on them.

Anise held out her hand, "Malek, It is Daniel Jackson and Teal'c of the SGC."

Malek dropped his staff and powered it down. "Welcome Dr. Jackson, I am sorry for the unwelcome greeting but I was just checking in on Anise who has been alone in the research center when you arrived. I didn't know if I had been followed here."

Daniel laughed, "No worries and we wouldn't have tried to come and find you if it wasn't for what we are dealing with on another planet."

"I thought you said that this had nothing to do with the Goa'uld?" Anise asked warily.

Daniel looked around, "It is sort of a long story; do you have anywhere we can sit down?"

Malek nodded and lead them to a small dining area off of Anise's research lab.

Teal'c reached into his vest where he pulled out a folded piece of paper and held it out to either of the two Tok'Ra.

Anise took the paper and unfolded it before handing it to Malek.

Daniel nodded, "We believe her to be the Tok'Ra Callisthene. We were alerted by some allies of ours who don't really use their gate that they thought they had someone living on their world that had come through their gate. After trying to find the person themselves they asked us to come. Colonel Carter was able to identify this young woman as having a symbiote and upon learning her alias was Calli S. Thene figured she had to be Callisthene.

Malek nodded, "I do recognize the host however Callisthene has been missing for almost eight years now."

Daniel looked at Teal'c, "Does that fit in with the estimate that Scott gave us?"

Teal'c nodded, "It would be saying that she must have arrived soon after Ledge city was destroyed according to their history and that Ledge City was one of the first places destroyed by Venjix."

Daniel looked back at the two Tok'Ra, "What can you tell us about them?"

Anise bowed her head allowing Freya to take over, "Callisthene's host was found nine years ago by a scout team looking for another planet that could hide us. She was severely injured and when our medics got to tending her they weren't sure she would survive."

"She survived," Teal'c stated.

Malek nodded, "She did however for a good part of the first year she was nothing but an empty shell, she had little to no personality and limited cognitive abilities; she was what you call a vegetable."

Freya gave control back to Anise, "Myself and a few other scientists developed some methods which put some life back in her however nothing we did could revive her memories. She regained enough skill that she was educated in what the Tok'Ra are."

Malek nodded, "Through conversations with her she learned that through blending a symbiote would be able to see all that was in her mind. She begged the council to allow her to become a host. Many were against the idea because they thought her plea was an abuse of a blending."

Anise continued, "However, Callisthene who was in a host who was failing her stood up and said that she would attempt to blend with our blank guest. Blending with a girl with no memories was better than waiting to die; if the blending failed she would know she died for a cause."

"The blending succeeded however Callisthene found that there were no memories anywhere in the girls mind. At this point the girl started calling herself Callie and it was noted that Callisthene for all intents and purposes was the only dominate personality. Callie had an extremely hard time surfacing above her symbiote." Malek explained as he handed Daniel back the picture of Callie.

Anise nodded, "For that reason it was decided that the next host to come along would be given to Callisthene because no one wanted either of them to live like that. However Callisthene insisted that she be allowed to explore Callie's mind because while there weren't any memories that could be accessed there were idea's if you will."

Malek nodded, "I last saw Callisthene about a day before she vanished in the core chamber looking at star charts. Apparently Callie had an idea about stars that might have looked familiar to her."

Daniel shook his head, "Evidently they must have found a gate combination and tried it out."

Malek nodded, "That is what the council thought as well however when they failed to return they were mourned."

Teal'c shook his head, "That couldn't have been a coincidence."

Daniel shook his head, "Of course not. Any earlier and according to the report you were told upon your first visit that prior to Ledge City's destruction the gate was buried underneath the city."

Anise looked at Daniel, "What are you going on about?"

Daniel took a deep breath, "The world they ended up on is known as Corinthum and roughly eight years ago a virus that had been created to protect the planet from possible invaders turned on the planet and destroyed much of the planet. Only one city remains standing and that is their original city Corinth and that is where Callisthene is right now."

Malek looked at a star chart before announcing that he wasn't familiar with the world Corinthum.

Teal'c inclined his head, "The world is deep inside what we now know as GSA space."

Malek shut the star chart and shook his head, "I was at the SGC the day you were invaded by a lone operative. I also believe we advised you not to go into depth investigating the GSA because they are considered dangerous."

Daniel nodded his head, "I was informed of that incident however while we haven't stopped looking into them we have only been able to make contact with this one planet as they are the only ones to have a stargate. As far as GSA members go they are only as technological as we are on Earth and don't seem to carry too much wait in the GSA."

Malek sighed, "I am sorry but if Callisthene is inside GSA space you are just going to have to convince her yourself. Neither of us are going to risk our lives going into such territory."

Daniel stood up, "Thank you for at least telling us about the host and symbiote."

Anise nodded to Daniel that had him worried that she would try to get him to stay the night in her quarters if they didn't leave soon. However Anise did nothing but show them to the ring chamber.

Daniel and Teal'c were approaching the gate when they heard hurried footsteps behind them. Turning they found Malek following them.

Malek introduced himself with a human voice and as Devlin and handed Daniel a rough piece of paper, "Malek wanted to apologize for not being able to help however he wanted me to give you this. I was not Malek's host eight years ago and while he is hurt deeply over Callisthene's disappearance he was in love with Callisthene. While he is right on the fact that we cannot go with you, he can at least send you with this note."

Devlin bowed his head and Malek asked softly, "Due to security Anise is preparing to move her lab. If you get Callisthene to trust you please keep her safe at the SGC until someone can make contact. She has been out of the loop for eight years; I wouldn't want her wandering this universe as it is now."

Daniel placed a hand on the Tok'Ra's shoulder and nodded before following Teal'c to the gate. Looking over his shoulder he saw that Malek had already vanished into the sands where he would keep watch.

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Daniel and Teal'c returned straight to Corinthum and were immediately scanned by an on duty SPD officer. They were cleared to approach the city gate and were scanned for the virus as was protocol. The city was dark and it was late at night. Daniel had to wonder if Sam was still below ground searching for Callisthene or if she was in the guest quarters at their impromptu put together embassy. At the very least Jack should be there as he couldn't see the two generals meeting at this hour.

Getting to the embassy they found Jack sitting at a table talking to Tenaya.

Jack stood up when he saw them enter, "Did you find the Tok'Ra?"

Daniel held out the note, "We did however Malek and Anise refused to come here."

Jack sighed in relief when he heard Anise's name. He was glad that Anise hadn't come because things always got awkward between him and Daniel when she was around. He then announced, "Sam is still down below, she has been staying down there trying to channel her inner Tok'Ra. Tenaya here was giving me an update on what she knows to be going on down there."

Daniel grabbed a flashlight and some food from the table, "Is there anyone who can take me down there?"

Tenaya stood and nodded her head, "I can and don't you look at me as if I am blind. I can track with my ears better then someone with their eyes."

Daniel nodded, "Teal'c you should stay here with Jack. I think you might make Callisthene uncomfortable."

Teal'c nodded his head and sat next to Jack while Jack pulled out a deck of cards and started to convince Teal'c that he wanted to play a game.

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Daniel found Sam with the help of Tenaya. Sam jumped at first when the two of them approached out of the darkness, "Did you find anyone Daniel?"

Daniel nodded, "I found Malek and while he wouldn't come he gave me a letter that he wanted to give to Callisthene."

Sam nodded and reached out to take the note so that she could see it with her own eyes.

Suddenly there was a thump and Callisthene appeared in the light of Sam's small camp, "It is true then you are allies of the Tok'Ra?"