Damn that chapter took some time to write. Well, that and I have some exams incoming fast. Competitive exams. So don't expect any new chapter before the beginning of July. I will not have forgotten the story or anything, but my future is in my hands and well, I plan to grasp it tightly and not let it go.

As for this chapter, for those who have read the original story, it's all new!

Yup, an original arc. With the Tok'ra. Saying no more, I won't spoil my own story. *grins*

So now, thanks a lot everyone for your enthusiasm and your reviews!

I will try to answer your questions :

iitrnr : Yeah, there may have been some confusion there and I'm sorry. No, they know the truth of Lilith not being a God but Maya still being there is still an absolute secret. Nobody knows it.

grayiron : Sorry, but what? I just didn't understand what you wanted to ask.

Guest : Sorry, but nothing I can do about the difference between mines and (land)mines. And don't worry about my writing myself into a corner. I don't allow my muse to do anything that goes too far from the original plot. Slaying Marduk didn't have that many bad consequences.

OMAC001 : Indeed, one is far from enough. Her breaking away from Bastet isn't for a while.

SuperiorShortness : There may (or may not) be an alliance in the future between those two yes, but no, the parting of ways won't happen that way.

DarkFireAngel463 : I haven't planned any pairing for the moment. At all. And it won't be the focus point on this story. So no, however interesting a Bastet/Lilith pairing would be to write, it probably won't happen.

jabbarulez : Yeah, except Ne'tu don't try to actively kill the people on it. On Tarvis, there is the only species of carnivorous trees of the galaxy and numerous other dangerous predators. And that's even canon... I couldn't not use it.

Redhand : Thanks a lot (even if I thanked you in PM already :P) for the extensive and constructive criticism. I say that for the sake of those who read it, but some of Redhand's points have been taken into account and will be implemented in the future. Or started to be in this chapter.

Narf The Mouse : I thought it was coherent with typical Goa'uld behavior. The only mistake he made was to not ensure Lilith was dead, and this mistake cost him everything. If you tickle a Goa'uld's pride, he reacts really fast and really violently.

That's it for the reviews.

As usual, I own nothing, I only do this for my enjoyment and yours.

So, enjoy!

2983 BC, Eratna, Lilith's domain.

It had been eight years since I was granted control over the planet and since I got out of Marduk's shadow to become one of Bastet's direct subordinates. I was not a lieutenant yet, of course, but I knew I was somewhat trusted, or at least as much as one Goa'uld could trust another. After a year to let the inhabitants of the planet rest and to have my Jaffa build some infrastructure to make the process of mining easier, the villagers were once again sent to the mines to work.

They were extremely reluctant to go back to work, but I assured them that it would not be a job nearly as hard as the former mining process and that no one should die except for some freak accident. It took the whole of three weeks for the angry rumors to quiet down and for all my subjects to understand that I meant what I did say.

To incite them to go work in the mine without protest, I ensured that their families would be well fed, showing them various technics to take care of the soil and insure that the harvest would feed every one of the villagers and my troops. I also had Erena travel to each village every month to cure the villagers that could not be healed by their primitive medicine.

I had thought to start educating the masses, but it was still too dangerous. Bastet was only a gate away and there were some things even her would not forgive. I had seen that with the not-so-tragic fate of my previous Lord, and I had no intention to become the next visitor to Bastet's playground.

The relationship I had with Maya grew too, and I knew that she was the only one I could fully trust with my life. It changed things in our behavior toward each other. We talked more, and I even started to give control back to her at times when I was in my laboratory. I hadn't known that the host was deprived of a lot of sensations when we Goa'uld took control forcefully, and it was with a great surprise and consternation that I found out that despite me saying I would give her full access to my senses, I unknowingly failed to do so. She tasted nothing of what I ate and felt nothing of what I touched in all the years that I controlled this body. On the other hand, I had the extreme amusement of seeing her fascinated by the feeling and taste of a single plate of food for at least an hour. It was cold by the time she was fully used to the sensations again, but it didn't matter to her, and I couldn't help but feel for all the hosts that were completely blocked by the other Goa'uld. I couldn't even imagine what it was to be in complete sensory deprivation for centuries or even millennia. Even constant torture would be better than that. I immediately tried and managed to grant her access to all of my senses as soon as I could, and I could feel her gratitude. It felt… nice.

As for matters of technology, I had made a few improvements, but not a lot. There was no technologic breakthrough for the moment but I had decided to go further in my pursuit of a precise weapon for long-ranged selective strikes and developed what was called by the Jaffa a sniper rifle. It was definitely different from the rest of the Goa'uld technology for a good reason. It was not. I had tried to create a plasma based sniper rifle but I faced a single problem each and every time. The plasma bolt was not very fast, he was bright so an alert target could see it coming and move, and above everything else had a limited range. After a certain distance, it cooled down slightly in contact with the air and lost coherency, resulting in the impossibility of a precise shot past a kilometer.

I thus had to use… primitive weapons. With projectiles. It was nearly laughable and I was about to dismiss the idea as soon as it went through my mind if it were not for Maya who reminded me that I was not one to let my silly pride get in the way of efficiency. So I tried. The precision necessitated a long weapon, the impact to pierce the naqahdah armor of Jaffa guards necessitated more than a simple explosive powder ammunition. I already had scopes powerful enough to do the job, and I just needed a stabilization system to facilitate the aim and the weapon would have been ready.

In the end, I decided to branch into magnetic technology. It was not something that was considered as worthy research by Goa'uld scientists, but the potential was there. I did not go very far with it, but with several electromagnets powered by a couple naqahdah cells, a single ten grams spherical grain of naqahdah could be fired at speeds bordering two hundred kilometers per second. Once again, naqahdah was instrumental in reaching such incredible high speeds. The fact that the material was a supraconductor helped greatly in creating monstrous magnetic fields to accelerate the bullet. I had to add a crystal computer in the cross of the new weapon to calculate the rapid fluctuations necessary to launch the supraconducting bullet out of the rifle, but the extremely rapid response time and natural properties of the material helped with the creation of the end product.

Unsurprisingly, nearly all the scouts fell in love with the finished weapon and asked for them to have access to it. It didn't have that much success otherwise, and I didn't expect it to. It was necessary though, and I watched with trepidation as the first tests were very conclusive at middle range but not so much at very long range. It still lacked a stabilizing system to lock the rifle in position.

I searched again and again for a technical solution, but it happened naturally. The scouts learned to stay absolutely still, they learned to control their respiration. They learned to shoot, and that problem didn't happen anymore. The maximum range increased daily, starting at the kilometer, then reaching the three kilometers range in a couple of years and finally stopping at an incredible thirteen kilometers. At that range, it was not the weapons' specifications that prevented any improvement but the human imperfections. Theoretically, the weapon could reach easily the hundred kilometers range, but at that point it would have to be controlled by machines and I absolutely refused to go there, not that I could. As much as I believed trusting Jaffa was risky, trusting machines was even worse.

I had a problem with simply giving this technology to Bastet this time though. The ability to kill someone from ten kilometers away was simply devastating and I couldn't risk it leaving my hands. I thus added a self-destruction mechanism with both a manual trigger and a fail-deadly dead-man switch calibrated for the user of each rifle. I wouldn't take any risk with this kind of technology. If a Goa'uld got this technology, it would be devastating. If the Tok'ra got it, the casualties they would be able to inflict on us would explode. This could not happen.

I had been asked by a messenger to go to Bubastis and present myself in front of Bastet as soon as I could. He was a male, but I knew that sometimes Bastet used the husbands and sons of her Guards to run some menial tasks and message delivery was one of these. I nodded my acknowledgement and left to prepare myself for the meeting.

A couple minutes afterwards, I left, telling Kyra that I would be gone for an hour at most. Lady Bastet's meetings were more often than not very short so I would be able to be back soon. The travel to the gate was pretty short and soon enough, I found myself on Bubastis, heading toward the palace. I was frowning when I entered though. The guards seemed pretty surprised that I was there, and usually Bastet warned them of her guests. A couple minutes later and I was in Bastet's throne room, where she was talking with some of her lieutenants.

She looked toward me and, seeing the expression of surprise on her face, I couldn't help but feel some dread.

"Lilith, what are you doing here?"

This pretty much summed up my thoughts at the moment, there was something really wrong with the situation.

"I… do not understand my Lady, one of your messenger Jaffa gave me a message to come here at once for a meeting." I told her the exact content of the message and the description of the messenger and she frowned.

"It's one of my messengers indeed, and that was the message that was sent to my lieutenants for today's meeting, but you were not on the recipient list."

Okay, something was very wrong, it was not like Bastet to make mistakes like that and I could see she was as confused as I was.

"Should I try to find him? I fear it's no simple mistake."

She shook her head.

"No need, he's a couple of rooms away in the palace." She turned toward her lieutenants. "We'll continue this later."

I hastily followed her as she strode from one room to the other until the moment she found the man. He hastily kneeled in front of Bastet.

"Harak, Lilith told me you invited her to this meeting. Is this true?"

He nodded.

"Yes Goddess, but I do not understand, her name was on the list."

She was extremely surprised at that.

"Show me."

He showed her a small datapad, containing a list of names and gate addresses.

"Indeed it is… and your name is the only one that's out of place Lilith. And that's no mistake, someone put it there deliberately. So, any idea who could have done that and why?"

I shook my head, confused.

"Of course not my Lady, I do not even know who has access to this kind of information, and let's be honest, the only kind of people who would be able to do that would be an enemy System Lord or the Tok'ra. I have made no enemies in the System Lords and I have nothing the… Tok'ra… wants…"

I actually paused there. That was wrong. All those new weapons I developed would probably interest the Tok'ra, and they would probably try something like that to get a hand on them. Except, Bastet and Marduk had access to those weapons so I would not be the only target and they could make some disappear relatively easily. The only thing they didn't have was my new sniper rifle.

I paled at that, dread threatening to make me gasp. Oh this was not good. This was not good at all. If they went with making me leave the planet, then they had a plan.

"Oh no, no, no, no, nonononononononono. I have to leave, I have to leave right now!"

Not even waiting for her approval, I ran outside, completely panicked. The fact that I wasn't stopped by her guards should have told me something was wrong but at that very moment I couldn't think. The Tok'ra with my new weapon was a nightmare waiting to happen, and I had to stop it if I could.

Soon enough, I was at the gate and was dialing it as fast as I could to reach Eratna. As soon as it dialed and the vortex settled, I rushed inside and found myself on my planet, scrambling to take a communicator to talk to Kyra.

"Kyra, answer now!"

I was far harsher that I used to be with her but I couldn't even think about being anything else right now.

"My Lady, is there a problem?"

I growled into the communicator.

"Has anyone accessed the unbound sniper weapon? The one I left for my future use."

She sounded very confused.

"Apart from you my Lady, nobody."

I paled even more at that.

"What do you mean apart from me? I was on Bubastis until now."

I could hear her hesitation and fear.

"But… you came back immediately, saying that Lady Bastet was aware of your weapon and asked for you to present it to her."

I actually swore at that piece of information and stayed silent for a few dozen seconds.

"My Lady?"

"Has the impostor left Kyra?"

She stayed silent for a couple of seconds before speaking again.

"Yes, she left through the gate."

I cut the communication, no sense letting Kyra hear what I would be doing. I just had barely enough senses left to do so. Once I had verified if was off, I let out a primitive bellow of rage that would probably have torn my host's vocal cords if I wasn't possessing her body. She was eerily silent in my mind as I worked toward destroying everything in front of me with kara'kesh kinetic blasts, ravaging the ground and uprooting trees.

I was stopped soon enough though, by a hand touching my shoulder, the golden claws adorning its fingers revealing the presence of a kara'kesh.

"Why, Lilith, I didn't know you to be able of such feats of rage. You seem so prim and proper every time you're in my company."

I turned, oh so slowly to find the presence of my Lady behind me. And she didn't look pleased.

"L-Lady Bastet."

Her mouth opened to growl a single word.

"Explain."

I closed my eyes and sighed, before nodding deciding to lie just enough to save my life.

"A few years ago, I reviewed the weapons at the disposition of my Jaffa and concluded that I had no long range weapon. I thus decided to create one. It took me a couple of years to understand that a precise infantry long ranged plasma weapon was impossible to create, so I settled for the next best thing. It's a somewhat primitive weapon, using projectiles. Except the projectiles are fired at speeds close to two hundred kilometers per second. And can pierce Jaffa armor easily. The weapon is still in its testing phase, that's why I didn't tell you about it, but after a couple years of training my best Jaffa are capable of performing a head-shot to a target thirteen kilometers away. It's a kinetic weapon so the bullet is blocked by our shields, but we can't have our shields up when we do not know we are in danger. For the Tok'ra to get a hold of this weapon is catastrophic."

Bastet was growling in anger right now, before backhanding me with such strength that I was sent to the ground.

"You fool, you create such weapons and let them accessible to the first Tok'ra that deceive you? We may suffer unacceptable losses to that scum thanks to you!"

I growled myself.

"I only had one weapon that was not protected by a complex security system designed to destroy a stolen weapon and the thief. I built it a couple of days ago and was about to bind it to myself today. How could they even know I had created it anyways!?"

Bastet snorted derisively.

"The Tok'ra scum planned their theft well. And you have some cleaning to do in your troops and this planet's population. So do I…" She growled at that. "I will ask of a meeting of the System Lords. I want you to bring one of your weapons and the designs. As much as I don't want to, they can't be left in the dark about this threat."

I very much feared for my life right now.

"Do… do I have to tell them it's one of my weapons my Lady? Can't we just say a Tok'ra attacked one of your underling and killed him with it before you captured the assassin?" She looked at me and I knew she could see my fear. "I don't want to be killed or become the Lord's pet weapon maker. And they will ask for the same improvements that I gave you."

She chuckled for a couple of seconds before viciously grabbing my chin with her clawed hand, cutting my skin and making my blood drip on her fingers.

"You're cute with your pleading Lilith, and I don't deal with being manipulated very well." She let me go quickly afterwards though. "But… you do have a point. I would prefer keeping the advantage for a while. My scientists were impressed by your designs, and it wouldn't do to lose you for the moment. Consider that your first and last mistake."

I nodded frantically.

"Of course my Lady, thank you for your mercy."

She chuckled and patted my cheek before moving toward the dialing device.

"You are a valuable subordinate Lilith. Be careful that your mistakes do not overweight your use to me."

I bowed until she left the planet and turned toward a section of the forest. I could feel them there, my Jaffa, so Bastet probably also knew that they were present. The first to approach me was Kyra and she was pretty hesitant. I could understand her though. I was bleeding and had been thoroughly humiliated in front of my own troops by Lady Bastet. Worse even, I deserved it. I made a mistake that would cost our side dearly.

I sighed and turned toward Kyra. I probably looked as exhausted as I felt at the moment.

"Kyra, talk to the scouts please, I want to know where the Tok'ra went. I doubt it'll be conclusive, but I have no other option. Fortunately, they have to configure the locking system before being able to use the weapon, but it must be in one of their labs being studied by their scientists."

She hesitated a little before nodding. I never said please before. I thanked her and anyone else I ordered to do something, but I never said please. And she knew that. All of them did. I suffered a huge blow today and I needed to rest. After all, Bastet dressed me down in front of my troops… I had to meditate and talk with Maya. Some said that with pride came the fall. Well, I had been arrogant and I reaped what I sowed.

I was meditating once again when I heard Maya's voice.

'Well, looks like we fucked up.'

I sighed internally.

'I fucked up yeah, I don't know why you would include yourself in this though. It was my security measures that didn't work… I still wonder how they managed to copy me though.'

I could sense her disagreement.

'No, you have done everything you could. The weapon should be locked and you couldn't avoid being called to Bubastis. You need to understand how they copied you if you want to avoid it in the future though. You think it's a holographic system?'

I was thoughtful about that.

'I don't think it's something so simple. Kyra wouldn't have been fooled by a simple holographic device. It had to be the image, the voice and my way of talking. That's a lot of information on me to gather and only my guard know me enough to know those details.'

Maya replied immediately.

'But your guard was chosen randomly, nearly all ten of them. Plus, they are Jaffa. Tok'ra have done a lot of infiltration, but according to the reports they never ever used Jaffa elements to do so. You can never guess if a Jaffa's loyalty is genuine or if he or she is loyal to their former master.'

I acknowledged that point.

'True, but in this case, what the Tok'ra did was impossible. How could she have fooled Kyra if she didn't have all those pieces of information? I mean, she didn't imagine it since the weapon disappeared right?'

Maya was silent at that, before answering me very slowly.

'Well, maybe she did. Or that is to say, someone else made her imagine it…'

My eyes widened at that.

'Drugs you think? A volatile compound to cloud the senses of the target?'

I could sense her affirmation.

'Yeah, the Goa'uld have drugs like that. If the Tok'ra wanted it to work on the short term, it wouldn't be that hard to have it synthesized. It would be totally different for long term infiltrations I guess, to completely change the memories of the victim would require to profoundly alter their brains and not give them a well-chosen hallucinogenic.'

I sent all my appreciation toward Maya.

'As always, you were extremely valuable Maya, thank you. I have to leave and see if I can isolate the compound in Kyra's bloodstream.'

She stayed silent but I could feel her approval and warmth. I never regretted to have let her free and happy. She really was my best subordinate, and dare I say my best and only friend.

I fortunately had all the equipment to make the analysis of Kyra's bloodstream and managed just in time to isolate the hallucinogenic composite responsible of fooling her. Unsurprisingly enough, Kyra had been extremely relieved to know that there was nothing she could have done to discover the treachery. Her own mind was supplying the disguise of the impostor, making it foolproof.

I also learned from the scouts I had watching the gate that the impostor disguised herself to look like me but that they didn't manage to see her face. They managed to get the gate address she fled to though, and I knew that I had to use this information. From the coordinates, it was pretty easy to calculate the position of the planet in the galaxy and I was unsurprised to see that it was nearly at the opposite from Eratna, in one of the outer arms of the galaxy.

This confused me though. If it was simply a transition world to make us lose her track and gate to their true base, why would she use a gate so far away from us? It could have been to try and fool us into sending an attack force there, but I just couldn't see the point. It was even more foolish to think that it was their real base. Or was it? I didn't want to just travel there through the gate to be immediately ambushed, captured and used as an information source before I'm killed if I was lucky.

I had several things to do, one of those being to warn Lady Bastet about this chemical. But at the same time, I had to try and do something to avoid being contaminated in the future. I knew that they had agents on this planet, and thus they would be warned that I tried to leave off-world through the gate. They wouldn't know what, but I also knew that to use the weapon they would need either I or a good engineer of their own. I knew they had scientists, this chemical all but proved it.

Due to its complexity, it probably couldn't be absorbed by the skin and thus had to be injected into the victim or breathed beforehand. I could nearly forget the injection theory immediately as it was simply a hallucinogenic and not a memory eraser. The victims would remember being injected with something and thus wouldn't trust the impostor. No, the compound was probably put into the air as soon as I left and then she strolled in, took my weapon and left.

Then I had to create a rebreather and there would be no problem. It was a relatively short task for me to design and create it to be conspicuous to wear. After a simple day I had three prototypes ready that would be theoretically able to filter the chemical and leave me in full control of my mind. I also made a new rifle that I locked onto my personal vitals. I would be able to deactivate the locking system once Bastet ask me to get the rifle even if I knew it would take some time.

My last words were to Kyra, after I gave her one of the rebreathers, my voice slightly distorted by the mask.

"Kyra, I will go to update Lady Bastet on the situation. When I come back, to prove I am myself, you will ask me for a password. I will not obey and walk toward you and then lightly punch your shoulder. With some luck, any wannabe infiltrator will open their mouth first and expose themselves. Shoot to capture if you think it's possible. If it isn't, shoot to kill."

She nodded and placed the mask I gave her on her face. I nodded back and left for Bubastis. I had the sniper rifle on my back, in all of its one and a half meter of glory, a zat'nik'tel at my waist and my customary two silver kara'kesh.

Ironically enough, since I had prepared for war there was no attack whatsoever and I soon found myself in front of Bastet who was pretty much surprised by all the weapons I was carrying.

"You know Lilith, when I asked you to come here with your new weapon, I didn't ask you to come here ready to start a war. It's a wonder that my guards let you go through. And what's with the ridiculous mask? You've never worn that before."

I chuckled mirthlessly at that and nodded.

"The weapons and the mask are for the very same reason. I found how the Tok'ra bypassed our security. It's a hallucinogenic chemical that confuse both human and Goa'uld minds enough to give any impostor their own alibi. Some semi convincing disguise and acting is enough to have a near indiscernible disguise. I still haven't found the Tok'ra agent in the local population though."

She was left pensive after that.

"I see, that's… ingenuous, and alarming. Do you think you can do something to counter it?"

I was a little embarrassed at that. With everything going on and my rebreather completed, I didn't even think of doing that.

"Hmm, I'm not sure. I don't have the necessary equipment and I never did this kind of research before but I guess that with some time I could do it."

She nodded at that.

"I guess you have the data on the chemical? I'll leave you to hunt the thief and reclaim your weapon while I'm letting my own scientists go at it. If they fail, I'll provide you the equipment to do the research yourself."

I nodded. That was more than reasonable.

"Understood my Lady."

A smirk appeared on her face.

"You have two weeks to bring me the agent on your planet and the stolen weapon. After that, unsavory things may happen to your population. If you do not know how to root out treason, I'll gladly show you."

I forced myself to show nothing outwardly but I knew this severely restricted my options, and I had to do distasteful things in order to get the traitor or traitors. I didn't even know if they were alone or numerous. I was more leaning toward a low number of operatives though, since if they were numerous they would have organized a direct attack instead of simply infiltrating my palace. It was their modus operandi.

"Acknowledged my Lady, I will start to work on it immediately."

Bastet stared at me with a cold smile on her face.

"Don't hesitate to do so. I'm eager to see how well you work under pressure. And I'm just as eager to get my hands on those traitors… Keep at least one for me, I'll do a similar purge in my palace so I'll probably get a traitor of my own and I want to compare notes."

Heh, if there was one thing I didn't want after me, that was Bastet angry at me. She could make a devastating opponent and her apparent kindness did nothing to hide her vicious ruthlessness when it came to her enemies.

"Then I should probably hope there are several traitors on my planet. I want a shot at them too."

She chuckled softly and looked at the weapon on my back.

"So, that's this sniper of yours hmm? Show it to me."

I nodded and took the weapon from my back. It was pretty long so I had to be careful but soon it was in my hands in front of Bastet.

"Here it is my Lady. I call it a sniper rifle. It's a peace of augmented primitive technology, using magnetic acceleration to fire bullets at tremendous speeds. The length of the weapon helps with its stability. It's an extremely loud weapon, since the bullets break the sound barrier, but the target is usually dead long before the sound reach it. The sound can only warn it if the shooter misses. As you can see, there are numerous systems integrated into the butt of the weapon, which are instrumental in its proper functioning. One of which is a security system acting as a dead-man fail deadly. If the user dies, the weapon is immediately destroyed. It can also be destroyed if it is sent too far from the user or if it is opened for retro-engineering."

She frowned at that last part.

"It's impressive, but I would have access to such weapons, and having to rely on only you building it would be unwise of me. You plan to leave some day after all."

I sighed at that.

"And you think I would not continue to honor any engagement we have once I'm sure you won't come after me anymore? Lady Bastet, I don't plan to betray the Goa'uld altogether you know..."

She actually snorted at that, surprising me greatly.

"You're not that dumb Lilith, despite your thirst for independence."

I grinned at that.

"Exactly. The problem is, even I who designed the weapon and all of its security systems was fooled by the Tok'ra, and I don't even have Goa'ulds in my entourage. I don't want to think of all the things that could happen in such a big palace. Not that I distrust you, but these scumbags are extremely competent at infiltration."

She snarled at that information.

"I know, I managed to find one spy, but I'm pretty sure there are others that are hidden in plain sight..." She sighed. "So be it, I'll trust you with that. I don't think it's necessary to tell you what to expect in case you don't honor my demands?"

I nodded, knowing perfectly I would visit Tarvis were that the case.

"Of course my Lady. I will simply charge production costs plus one kilogram of naqahdah for the weapons. It... takes some time to create one after all."

She tilted her head to the side before nodding.

"So be it. Weapons like that can be presented publicly as a tribute, and good control crystals are quite costly so your offer is reasonable. I'm sure though that there won't be a lot of my Jaffa that will opt to use the weapon. They prefer close combat to ranged assassination."

I chuckled a little at that.

"Of course they do, mines were like that at first too. I managed to convince some of my Jaffa to act as scouts though and after Eratna every one of my soldiers saw their uses. They were particularly thrilled to use this new weapon."

She nodded and let a small smile appear on her lips before grabbing the weapon and swiftly placing her thumb on the security pad, securing the weapon for herself. I was a bit surprise at the ease she had using some unknown technology, but rationalized this fact quickly as I realized that it was similar enough to conventional Goa'uld technology so as to deduct the correct utilization of the weapon.

"I thank you for the gift Lilith, but I have a meeting with my lieutenants soon. I wish you a good hunting."

I nodded and thanked her before leaving. I had some spies to hunt after all.

After a four days of brainstorming with Maya in my palace, I finally found a solution. We knew that the traitor had to have a naqahdah communicator to receive and relay information from and to his comrades. Now, a simple naqahdah scan would have been useless since it was a mining planet. It was literally covered in naqahdah and it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

No, what we would do was installing a couple receivers near each village, and announce to them Bastet decision. There would be some panic that was sure, but it was sure to rouse the spy into action, communicating with his or her comrades. Then, the receivers would be able to detect and locate the signal. Since there were three villages, I would station a fourth of my troops to each of them and the last fourth would guard the gate, both directly and from a distance thanks to the scouts and their sniper rifles.

Of course, to have the plan implemented, I had to have several scouts watch the outskirts of the villages to watch for anyone leaving. I also created three devices, which places strategically would detect any movement underground. The naqahdah mines had been closed and everyone was wondering what was happening.

I would implement it tonight, nearly a week to the hour after Bastet demanded results from me.

Things went far better that I could have hoped. Of course there was a panic and the suspicion was so high that had I not intervened the villagers would have started to kill each other right in front of me. But I had received very soon after countless bits of information, people leaving the villages fairly often without a good reason and so. Nearly everyone had something against them, but out of all of them, three had received an overwhelming number of accusations.

Now, I wasn't about to rush things and capture them all. Of course I would snatch them, but I wanted to discover the infrastructure of their network, so I had them watched discreetly. With the overabundance of Jaffa in the villages, it wasn't that hard to organize.

In the end, my troops caught the first one, a woman, red handed in her home with a communicator she was using to update her comrades off-world on the situation on Eratna. The Jaffa waited for her to finish and then acted to capture her. She tried to activate it to send a message to her comrades but was stunned by a dexterous scout with a zat'nik'tel. I had resolved to have her take a leave to see her family as a reward.

It took two days for the next one to be caught. This one, a man used some sort of gallery network to hide and reach several places, amongst which the mines and a hill not far from the test field where I first used the sniper. He was detected leaving the village underground by one of my device, followed thanks to the vibrations, and then caught as he was about to leave in direction of the gate.

That was pretty stupid of him, he would have had no chance to get past the guards, but who was I to refuse such a boon. After searching him, my guards found a canister off gas, which happened to be the hallucinogenic compound used in the theft. I could nearly understand him then. He would still have been stopped of course, but that would have been by a sniper round to the leg. Or legs. My scouts were not very subtle sometimes.

The last one definitely made me laugh. It was a young woman, around seventeen, quite pretty, and who was devilishly good at escaping the guards I had tailing her. Frustrated by the lack of success, I ended following her myself and it was only by some kind of miracle that I managed to not lose her.

In the end, when I saw her with a young man approximately of her age, a pretty handsome lumberjack, I couldn't help laughing incredulously, startling them. They were understandably confused, and I settled with explaining to them the suspicions that I had about the young woman thanks to her behavior.

She went pale at that, very pale, understanding that her little affair with the son of a rival family may have ended in a disaster for her. She promised to not be so foolish in the future and I let her be. My amusement was pretty much shared by my Guard when I told them about this anecdote.

Still, I had two Tok'ra spies, or rather sympathizers. I had checked and they were humans. Perfect spies, easily integrated in a local human population and avoiding any detection from the naqahdah in their blood.

All the device I had installed in the villages were hidden but not removed, as Maya and I agreed that it would be more beneficiary to keep vigilant in the case there were spies that weren't caught yet. But as things were, it was the end of that operation. I had caught two traitors, one I would keep, the woman, and the second I would give to Bastet, the man. It would probably be enough to calm Bastet and avoid the purge of the local population.

I ordered the woman searched thoroughly before she was sent into a secure cell guarded 24/7. It was a novel experience for the Guards and they did not enjoy it all that much but it didn't matter. I had to make sure there were no devices on her that would help her warn her comrades or anything.

There was another problem though, and that was to keep her alive. It was certain that if I was to interrogate her, accidents may happen and I would need to have a sarcophagus to keep her alive. I had checked her teeth, cut her fingernails and removed anything from her cell with which she could kill herself, but there was always a risk. It would cost me a lot of naqahdah but I had hopefully enough in my coffers to buy it. It would also give me a basis to experiment and try to remove the harmful effect of the sarcophagus.

I was thus in Bastet's throne room with the Tok'ra prisoner the very day her ultimatum ended. She looked at the prisoner and then toward me before laughing softly.

"Oh Lilith, you always deliver… or do you? I see a prisoner, a Tok'ra spy, but I see no stolen weapon. What do you say for yourself?"

I knew this was coming but I had no excuse for that.

"I am sorry my Lady, I managed to catch this spy and another, both simply humans, but I couldn't get the hand on the weapon. It was brought off-world. I have a gate address it may potentially be on but I do not have the numbers needed to conduct such an operation. If the weapon is somewhere, it would be guarded by numerous Tok'ra and sending the few troops I have there would be wasting resources."

She snarled but nodded at that.

"True, and you're not one to waste resources uselessly. Give me the address of the planet, I will send a couple ships there."

I shook my head at that.

"It would be useless, the planet is nearly at the other side of the galaxy. Our ships would take nearly two years to get there. The gate is the only reasonable way to get there."

She shook her head and looked toward the prisoner.

"Let's not talk about it anymore. Even if he will die here in this palace, giving a prisoner more information than necessary is stupid." She gave the silent prisoner a predatory grin. "I'm pretty sure I will… enjoy his company. He may not enjoy mine all that much though."

I grinned, but that grin fell shortly when he started to talk.

"You will try but I will tell you nothing." He then grinned and looked at me. "Well, nearly nothing. You hate us right? The Tok'ra and us who work for them?"

I frowned and so did Bastet, but we let him talk. Surely there was a point to what he was saying…

"I see you do… Well, I was sent to watch Kuro at first but when you took control of that planet, we were given some interesting information about you. One of those was pretty much surprising."

He probably knew something about myself that I hid to Bastet. It wasn't good but wasn't all that bad too. There wasn't a lot that I didn't tell her and nothing she would kill me for. Nobody but me knew about Maya so it couldn't be that.

"Lilith is a Tok'ra experiment."

I chocked on thin air at that, completely stunned by the announcement and knowing from his smug grin that it was probably true. Bastet had the same reaction as I did and it ended with us both answering in the same way at the same time.

"WHAT!?"

So, there it is, my first cliffhanger. Surprise!

As usual, please review and criticise freely as long as it is constructive.

Ttfn!