Chapter 17

The incident with Tomin had left Vala deep in thought and she had come to the conclusion that no matter how hopeless things seemed she had to fight it. To fight this intruder in her mind and to protect the one most precious thing that she had in the universe. She was determined to protect her Daniel and save him from walking into a trap that would end his life. This was not the first time her body, mind and soul had been invaded by an alien entity intent on using her as an unwilling tool in the destruction of those who mattered to her. As a result of her experience with Qetesh she felt that she was a stronger person and therefore she had faith that she could resist the power of the Orici enough to save Daniel from certain doom.

Knowing that there was a being inside of her, malevolent and cruel, and to which she had no control of brought back unpleasant memories of days gone past. Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away from where she was right now, there was a home, and a man who pledge to love her forever. A place where there was a stepsister, who became her best friend, and greatest confidant. A place where there was a village full of friends and full of life. Then, one day, great ships came to her planet. And on these ships came great gods who forced her people into servitude, one of whom had chosen her to be his queen. And once she was, she brought the rain down on all of those who knew or loved her. She killed the man who once loved her, made him beg for his life before she broke his neck. A brutal deed, yes, and her heart bled for him. Then there was what she did to her sister.

Aja was her stepmother Adria's only child. At first neither she nor Vala had come to like one another very well. It wasn't until they had spent some time alone, and away from the influence of their parents did they get to see themselves for who they really were and were surprised at how much they actually liked each other. She became her family. When Vala was taken over by Qetesh, she tortured Aja. And for days on end she was beaten and deprived of all nourishment to the point that she drank her own blood off the prison floor to sustain her life. Qetesh thought it was miraculous that she managed to survive everything that she had been put thru. Vala remembered how helpless she felt as Qetesh forced Aja to watch Adria being tortured, raped and eventually killed.

As a result of all of this, Aja went insane. Instead of killing her, of putting her out of her misery, Qetesh did the absolute worse possible thing imaginable: she made Aja a Goa'uld. The combination of a genetically predisposed evil entity to an insane mind was not an ideal combination and soon, Aja brought chaos upon everyone and everything around her - - even the System Lords. Vala never found out what exactly happened to her, all she knew was that word from the System Lords had said the problem had been contained and she never looked into the matter then, and all her efforts after being freed from Qetesh hadn't produced any results. She had to eventually accept that Aja was probably dead and was thankful for that small mercy.

Vala did what she could to hold back her tears. Even thinking about what Qetesh had done to what was once a beautiful young girl with a bright future filled her heart with sadness unlike any that she had felt before or since. She couldn't even imagine what the Orici had planned and even though she was certain that she would meet an untimely death once the child was born, she couldn't deny that a lot of bad things could happen in the three weeks she had left until that happened. Vala wiped the tears from her eyes and the thoughts from her mind. Instead of dwelling on the horrors of the past, she focused on the future, on fighting the power of the Orici and doing what she could to aid Daniel. The evil she inflicted in the past what unimaginable and it brought her to her knees. The thought that she could be capable of doing it again, was beyond the pale. She refused to let history repeat itself. She would save Daniel.

No matter what.

Carson Beckett sat in his office, his mind mulling over the conversation that he had just had with John Sheppard.

"Well?"

"I'm still thinking about it."

"Come on Carson, we need a doctor on detail and we can't use anyone at the SGC."

"And after what you just told me, I can see why."

"What exactly are you having issues with?"

"Issues?" Carson got up from his desk and began to pace about the office. "John, any sane person would have issues with this. You're talking about flying two puddle jumpers into a Wraith controlled sector of space and uploading a Goa'uld virus into their Stargate."

"The virus was the creation of Anubis and Ba'al to use against the SGC by keeping a Stargate open longer than the thirty eight minute window. Now the first puddle jumper will be used as a decoy, it will dial into the gate and in doing so upload the virus into the Wraith gate system. With the modifications that Vala gave to Daniel it should prevent the Wraith from figuring out how to disable the gate until its too late as well as pull the force from the blast into the direction of the gate energizing it and opening the portal to the Ori galaxy. The second Jumper, in which we will occupy and be at a safe distance from the blast, will then proceed thru the gate into Ori controlled space."

"That's all well and good but how do we know this is even going to work?"

"Its similar to what the Ori was planning to do to create the original beachhead."

"Yes, but they we're omnipotent beings with Ancient knowledge and great powers. How do we know that this is going to work?"

"Daniel Jackson said it would."

"And where did Daniel Jackson get the information?"

"From Vala."

"That's exactly my point John. I've been studying Daniel's case and I am concerned about these blackouts he's experiencing. We have no way of knowing when they occur and no control over his actions when he does. I'm not sure I can sign him off on the mission. He may be communicating with someone from another galaxy or it may be something completely different. This whole thing just sounds too convenient."

"What are you saying Carson?"

"What I'm saying John is that maybe Daniel Jackson has be compromised. That maybe his actions are being manipulated into leading us into the Ori galaxy and we're walking right into a trap."