"So without this transmitter, you cannot get back home safely." Sarouche asked Tami. They were eating in the mess hall.
"Exactly... and, er, we call the transmitter a GDO. I know the code; I just don't have the GDO." Tami explained. Sarouche frowned. "So if one of your teams doesn't have this GDO, they wouldn't be able to get home?"
"Basically." Tami said, putting down her bowl. She had just finished eating.
"Isn't that quite dangerous?" Sarouche asked.
"Yes it is, but most of our teams get home safely. Maybe a bit banged up, but they usually get better. Only once has a team just disappeared. Usually if a team is overdue, General Hammond sends in SG-1, that's my dad's team, to rescue them." Tami said happily.
"Your father; what is he like?" Sarouche asked.
"Oh, he's great. He tries to act tough but he's just faking it. I haven't seen him for a little over 3 months. I miss him."
Sarouche smiled a sad smile, "I bet he misses you as well, Little Tau'ri." Tami glanced up at her.
"Tau'ri? What does that mean?"
"It means human. Malek told me that Apophis said that you were from the first world." Sarouche said, watching her face carefully.
"Yeah, Daniel said told me something like that. He told me that Earth's people are called the Tau'ri on other worlds. I guess I didn't really believe him." Tami said quietly.
"Who is Daniel?" Sarouche asked.
"Oh, Daniel is a scientist, an archeologist. He's the one who figured out how to work the Star—I mean, Chaapa'ai. His wife Sha're is the host of... um, Amaunet." Tami said. Sarouche glanced up at the name 'Amaunet'.
"Maybe one day we can rescue your friend's wife, remove Amaunet, and reunite them." Sarouche said. Tami smiled. "Daniel would like that. He loves her very dearly." Tami said. Sarouche nodded.
"One day we will free all Goa'uld hosts." Sarouche declared. Tami smiled.
"That would be great." Tami said.
"Indeed it would be." Sarouche said, smiling. She suddenly got a glazed look in her eyes. Then she smiled. "By the way, Selmak would like to talk to you. Would you feel comfortable enough to speak with her?"
Tami swallowed hard, and slowly nodded. "I guess."
Sarouche's eyes closed and then she opened them. "Hello, Tami. My name is Selmak." It was strange hearing a symbiote's vocal distortion coming from Sarouche's mouth.
Tami quietly said, "Hello, er, Selmak, nice to meet you."
She is nervous. Selmak declared, watching Tami carefully.
Well, considering what she could've gone through when she was one of Apophis' servants. It is to be expected, she has probably suffered at the hands of Goa'uld. Sarouche said.
I know, but at least she knows how different we are from the Goa'uld, so at least she isn't as terrified as she could be.
Yes, that is quite good.
"So... Tami. Surely you have other friends other than Daniel." Sarouche said, taking back control.
"Yeah, I have tons. There's Samantha Carter, but everyone calls her Sam. She's a scientist and is very nice. There's Cassandra Fraiser, she's known as Cassie. She came from Hanka, the only survivor." She stopped at Sarouche's surprised look.
"What?" Tami asked her.
"There was a survivor? We went there after the attack, there were bodies everywhere." Sarouche said.
"Yeah, Cassandra; she was adopted by our head medical doctor, Dr. Janet Fraiser."
"We are both glad that there was a survivor." Sarouche said slowly. Tami opened her mouth to reply, when suddenly, a voice yelled, "Evacuation! The Goa'uld have detected our presence; evacuation!"
Sarouche jumped up. "Come Tami, we need to help with the evacuation!" Tami quickly jumped up and followed Sarouche. She directed Tami to grab everything in her quarters and put it into a crate, and then set it outside her room. Tami did so and then Sarouche told her to grab whatever a Tok'ra told her to grab.
1 month later...
Tami had become a symbiote-less Tok'ra in a month. Sarouche/Selmak had taught her Goa'uld, Martouf taught her evacuation procedures, Lantash taught her how to fight, Rosha/Jolinar taught her about Goa'uld technology, and Aldwin/Gerim taught her about the actual tunnels. She had become quite comfortable talking to the hosts and their symbiotes, although it took a while to get used to Lantash. She had also gotten used to Malek/Amb, Tami teased them about being bitten by her; they took the teasing well. The only Tok'ra that she didn't like was Cordesh and the feelings were mutual. Tami learned that he was on the council and was the only one who voted against her staying; Hence the dislike on Tami's part.
"Tami? What are you doing?" Lantash asked her. Tami glanced up at him.
"I'm drawing the Chaapa'ai. Well, attempting to draw it anyway." Tami said, looking back down at her datapad. The Tok'ra datapads were designed to be touch screen and Tami took advantage of that fact, she converted one into a touch drawing-pad! Lantash lightly turned Tami's datapad towards him and studied it.
"This is very good." He complimented her. Tami grinned at him and then turned the datapad back towards her. She touched the save button and then exited the drawing section. She then brought up her schedule.
"I have Council Duty and Analysis today. What do you have?" Tami said. Lantash opened his mouth to answer and then closed it, he then frowned.
"Haven't checked yet. One moment, can I take this?" Lantash asked her. Tami nodded; Lantash took the datapad and pulled up his and Martouf's own schedule from the central database.
"Council duty." He said, with a slight trace of annoyance. Tami sighed.
"Oh the joy that is Council Duty. Three hours of standing next to a wall that we can't even lean upon for fear of impaling ourselves on the spikes that the Engineers thought would be a Really Good Idea to place there, listening to the Council argue about minutia until we really do want to impale ourselves." Tami said to Lantash. He smirked.
"Yes, that is an accurate description of Council Duty." He muttered loud enough for Tami to hear. She chuckled.
Martouf was singing. And what was worse, he was doing it internally so Lantash couldn't block it out.
Martouf, if I were to stop your heart, do you think it would be considered murder or suicide?
*still singing*
Martouf... Martouf! MARTOUF!
Yes?
*mental glower*
*mental smile*
*mental sigh*
Lantash blinked. Beside him, Tami looked just as bored. In fact she looked as if she was about ready to drop off to sleep. Lantash lightly poked Tami to wake her up more. She twitched and glanced at him. Lantash raised an eyebrow at her and she smiled a tight smile. Luckily about 10 minutes later the Council meeting ended and the 'guards' were free to leave. Lantash smiled contently as soon as it ended.
"I'm so glad that's over. I don't think I could've stayed awake much longer." Tami said to him.
"I too am glad that it is over." Lantash said, slightly yawning.
"Well, I have 2 hours until I have to report to Analysis. I think I'm going to go take a nap." Tami said as they walked down a long tunnel. "When is Rosha & Jolinar due back from their mission?" She suddenly asked.
"Hmm... they should arrive in..." Lantash couldn't even finish his sentence, because, suddenly, the familiar alarm came on. It had a month since Tami had heard the alarm but she still remembered it.
"Evacuation! The Goa'uld have detected our presence; evacuation!" The voice thundered. Tami now knew that it was the voice of Garshaw of Belote/Yosuuf. Tami and Martouf/Lantash began to run to their assigned areas. They didn't need to stop by their quarters. Another Tok'ra would get their personal items.
The tunnels shook, Tami glanced up at the ceiling. All the other Tok'ra had already retreated through the Chaapa'ai; all that were left was Martouf/Lantash, Amb/Malek, and her. Tami was in a Tok'ra lab, she was supposed to help by wiping the computer's memory (the Tok'ra discovered that she was very good at wiping computers' memories). But a large ceiling chunk had landed on the computer, and they had to make sure nothing was left for the Goa'uld to salvage. Malek was busy trying to lift the huge chunk off of the computer.
"It will not budge!" Malek yelled. The ceiling shook again. Tami stood behind him.
"Martouf, you need to come help Malek! Maybe if you both try together..." Tami said, looking over at him. Martouf was standing just outside the doorway of the lab. Suddenly large chunks of ceiling rained down between Martouf and the other two (or 3, depending on how you look at it). Tami lost consciousness as a large chunk of ceiling hit her on the head.
Tami woke up and groaned. She looked around, and saw Malek/Amb lying face-down on the floor. She crawled over to him; there was a large puddle of blood pooling underneath him.
"Malek? Amb?" Tami quietly whispered. He didn't move. Tami hesitated and then flipped him over onto his back. His eyes weakly opened.
"Tami..." Amb whispered.
"Shhh... I'm here, Amb. Don't worry, I'm here." Tami said, sliding his head onto her lap. Amb looked up at her.
"I'm dying." Amb whispered. Tami's hands lightly tightened on his hair.
"No, you're going to pull through. Malek will heal you then we'll get out of this mess." Tami said.
"No, Malek's trying, but my injuries... are too severe." He suddenly frowned. "Do you... hear that?" Tami listened.
She suddenly heard a very quiet, "Tami! Malek! Amb! Are you okay?" Martouf!, Tami realized.
"Martouf, I'm okay, but Amb & Malek aren't!" She yelled back. The tunnels shook; loud explosions rocked the tunnels.
"I'll get through and help you!" She heard Martouf's voice say. She then heard rocks being moved.
"See, Martouf'll get through, we'll carry you to the Chaapa'ai and take you to the healers. It'll be okay." Tami said.
"Tami, it'll take Martouf about... 20 minutes to get through... those rocks; by then we... will be dead." Amb said, closing his eyes. Tami shook her head.
"Nooo... You can't die, the Tok'ra need you." Tami said.
"No... they need you, Tami O'Neill... of the Tau'ri." Amb said, lightly smiling at her. Tami suddenly got an idea.
"Amb, is Malek dying?" Tami said, wiping her hand across her forehead. It came away bloody.
"No." Amb said, blinking up at her.
"Then maybe I can save one of you." Tami said, looking into his eyes.
20 minutes later...
Martouf heaved another rock out of the way.
"Martouf!" He heard Tami yell, "You're almost through." Martouf heaved another, last rock out of the way. Tami's face and upper body filled the hole that it created. She looked pale; blood streaked across her face. Martouf sensed a symbiote inside of her. Behind her, he could see a body lying on the floor.
Tami answered his unspoken question. "Amb's dead. Malek's inside me." Martouf nodded, and he reached in and pulled her out. She stumbled and almost fell. Martouf caught her and began to carry her in his arms.
"We need to destroy the rest of the tunnels; the computer's memory may not be permanently deleted." Tami said; Martouf nodded. The tunnels shook. He quickly pulled a destroying crystal from a pouch hanging from his waist. Garshaw had given it to him, just in case the Jaffa swarmed the tunnels. He hit it against a nearby wall and the tunnels began to destroy themselves. Martouf rushed to the rings, hoping that he wouldn't be ringing up into an ambush by Jaffa. He activated the rings and in an instant both he and Tami/Malek were on the surface. BOOM! An Al'kesh fired its weapons at him. Martouf quickly raced for the Chaapa'ai, he put Tami down, and began dialing a random address.
Martouf, hurry!
I know Lantash! I am hurrying.
The Al'kesh circled for another round; obviously getting ready to fire.
Tami... what planet is Martouf dialing? Tami jumped at the 'voice' and she glanced around. A loud exasperated sigh vibrated inside her brain. It's just me Tami. Malek... you know... your new symbiote.
Oh, I'm sorry. I just didn't expect... that particular sensation. Weapons from the Al'kesh blasted down from the sky.
That Al'kesh's weapons is either really messed up or the shooter is really, really bad. By the way the sensation takes a while to get used to; well, according to a few of my old hosts. Tami suddenly felt a great sadness.
"Martouf... why do I feel really, really sad?" Tami asked him. He glanced up at her face as he finished dialing.
"You are feeling Malek's sadness of losing Amb." Martouf said, as they both leaped into the Chaapa'ai, and came out into woods. The Chaapa'ai shut down. Martouf raced to the khatiun (dialing device) and inputted another address. They raced through again. They did this for two other worlds and then finally went to the Tok'ra's new base.
2 months later...
"MALEK!" Garshaw yelled. Tami visibly winced.
Okay, what did you do now, Mal?
Nothing! I swear! I'm telling you, that woman just hates me.
Tami sighed and turned to look Garshaw of Belote.
"Garshaw, what is the matter?" Tami asked the irritable councilor.
"Okay, where is it?" She growled. She looked ready to attack someone. Tami blinked.
"Where is what?"
"The report from the Amanna mission!" Garshaw practically yelled.
Oh. Crap. I completely forgot to do that. Malek hissed inside her head.
Okay, you tell her that. I'm not going to suffer her wrath again, Malek. Tami forced her symbiote into control.
"Well, Ummm...Master Garshaw. I, er, well, we kind of forgot to finish it, but it'll be on your desk soon." Malek said through clenched teeth.
"It had better be Malek, or you'll be doing toilet duty for 3 months." Garshaw said. Malek nodded and then she turned and raced back to her quarters.
There... finished.
Malek, you shouldn't leave things to do later. You're such a procrastinator.
*mental sigh* Sorry, Tami, I just forgot. You did too, though.
I know, but writing reports is your job! Last time I wrote a report for Garshaw she completely freaked because it wasn't in the correct format.
That was hilarious... and a little scary. I don't think I saw Garshaw act like that since the time Lantash dared me to match him drink for drink and we both woke up in the healing chamber. She came in and shrieked at us for not acting responsibly.
*mental smirk*
*mental sigh* She assigned us pool cleaning duties for a month. It was horribly boring.
That's why you shouldn't drink, Mal. Bad things happen...
Tell me about it. Never dare Lantash to do anything; Martouf was furious with him for drinking so much. Amb was furious with me, too.
I would've been furious as well.
Does that mean I'm not allowed to drink?
Okay, how does this sound? I forbid you to drink when I'm in the same room as you. *big mental grin*
But... hold on. Tami... *small mental smile and a short chuckle as Malek realizes what Tami just said*
See you thought it was funny! HAH! I made you chuckle. I am funny!
Okay, Tami. Let's go put this on Garshaw's desk before she has a cow... Malek got up from her desk and headed out the door in the direction of Garshaw's office.
Or we lose it... or she comes looking for it...
*mental shiver at thought of Garshaw coming to look for report* don't scare me Tami.
*mental chuckle*
Colonel Jack O'Neill was a mess. Daniel Jackson watched as he just lay on the couch.
"Jack... Tami may still be alive. We don't know." Daniel said.
"Indeed O'Neill. Tami-O'Neill may be alive and well." Teal'c said; he stood beside Daniel. Tami had disappeared on a mission over 6 months ago.
"Jack, we will find her. I promise you. We will, and we will save Sha're as well." Daniel said. He glanced at Samantha Carter; she just stood there. She caught Daniel's glance and nodded.
"Sir, we will rescue her." Sam said, turning her glaze back over to the man lying on the couch.
"I know. I keep telling myself that, but so far there hasn't been any sign of her. I've just about given up." Jack said, sitting up and looking at his team carefully.
"We will, Jack. Don't worry." Daniel said. Jack looked at him with haunted eyes.
"I hope we will." Jack said sadly.