AN: Here is the next chapter. I hope you like it.
Thanks to dpdp for always writing a review and thanks to Susann for reading and following the English version even though you know the German one! And of course thanks to everyone else who is reading and following this story and for putting it on your favorites list.
After a few seconds they stepped out of the gate. And what did they see? A desert, of course. How could it have been different? It's always a desert. Jack rolled his eyes.
"The Tok'ra really could chose a planet that looks nicer, couldn't they? What's so wrong about trees and a little bit more of…nature?" Nobody answered to this comment, but Jack hadn't expected anyone to do.
They were walking around when someone came in sight. It was Jacob Carter. He was smiling and walked directly to Sam. „Hey sweetie", Jacob said and gave her a tender hug. "Hey Dad" answered Sam. Then Jacob greeted Jack and welcomed the rest of the team and Dr Fraiser.
„So, Jake, what can we do for you this time?", Jack asked the Tok'ra.
"You will see in a few minutes", Jacob only said and lead them to the ring transporter instead which would transport them to the subsurface.
Arriving below Jacob took over the leadership and the others followed him to a lab where Anise was already waiting for them. When Jack saw her he sighed and murmered a quiet "not her again". He really was not in the mood to work with her again. But it seemed she hadn't heard his words, because she said "I am really pleased to see you again, Colonel O'Neill… And you, too" she added after a short break and looked at the other members of SG-1 and Dr Fraiser.
Jack felt a little bit uncomfortable with Anise around him. At least it was her who did the zatarc test on him and Sam. And therefore she knew about the feelings they had for each other. He looked at Sam for just a second and then back to Anise.
„What can we do for you?", Sam directly asked and her voice sounded kind of irritated which caused Jack to look at her again. But he shouldn't have because their gazes met and that was not good. That's why he turned away just the next second.
Anise had realized this short scene between them and also Jacobs gaze was irritated, but none of them said something about it. Instead of that Anise decided to answer Sam's question and explained that the Tok'ra had developed a new device that allowed them to generate the knowledge of a symbiote without the necessity that the host had to die before. Until now the knowledge could be secured only after a host had died and in case the symbiote had taken a new host. But because of the fact that it wasn't always guaranteed that a symbiote would find a new host the knowledge often got lost.
"And how can we help you though?", Daniel asked again, hoping to get an answer to the question all of them had.
"We want to test the device before using it on a Tok'ra", Anise explained.
„And how exactly will that work?", Janet asked. She didn't feel comfortable with the plan. And after the last experiences they had while working with Anise she would better ask twice before agreeing to another experiment.
"We will recall your memories and temporary store these in our computer. Then we will see whether the information can be transferred into another format like pictures or complex description and text", Anise explained further. "Moreover we will see whether this information will remain in your memory after the transfer or whether it gets lost."
All of them stared aghast. "The latter would of course be not desirable" she added yet.
„Yeah, I would say so…", Daniel said.
"Indeed" agreed Teal'c who now joined the conversation as well. The others were still speechless.
"Just out of curiosity… what kind of memories will you look at?", Jack asked careful and with a short side glance at Sam. By now he had big concerns against this plan.
"It can be a lot of different memories. Happy memories, sad memories and also memories you just have in mind at the moment", Jacob said.
Jack looked at Sam again and she responded his gaze. Then Jack said furious "Forget it! I won't do that!" And with these words he turned around and left the room. Teal'c followed him. "O'Neill…Wait…", Teal'c called after him and Jack stopped the next second. The jaffa obviously hadn't expected this. Jack turned around and looked at his friend repeating what he had already said. He would not do that. Teal'c gave him a short nod and offered him to go to the surface and talk in peace. Jack accepted this offer even he had no idea what it was supposed to help. But breathing some fresh air couldn't hurt.
The others were still standing in the lab staring after Jack. Janet and Sam exchanged a knowing gaze which the rest of them didn't notice. Anise just made up her own thoughts, too, even she didn't understand what kind of problem the Colonel had. It wasn't that bad showing your memories and emotions to other people.
"What's wrong with him?", Jacob wanted to know. He was a bit confused about Jack's emotional outburst and also Daniel was wondering but could just shrug his shoulders.
In the meantime Jacob had showed the quarters to the rest of SG-1 and Janet which they would use for the duration of their stay and which had been created especially for them. Different from what they had expected the mission would last longer than only one or two days. Normally the Tok'ra quarters didn't have any doors but as the Tau'ri were used to lockable rooms for private use the Tok'ra had created these.
When everyone had checked in to their quarters Jacob visited Sam. He hadn't talked to her for a long time and wanted to know how she was and how she dealt with Martouf's death. So he had knocked on her door and entered the room.
„Hi Sam, may I enter?"
"Sure Dad. What's up?"
„I just wanted to know how you are. You know with the zaztarc test, Martouf's death and so on."
Sam couldn't hide a scared look which made Jacob frown. He wondered what was wrong but didn't ask. Maybe he would get an answer to this unspoken question in a little while.
"So, how are you dealing with the fact that you were wrongly accused to be a zatarc?"
Oh that's what he meant…, Sam realized with a feeling of relief and started to relax immediately. Jacob had noticed this change in Sam's behavior as well. What was going on?
„Well… I'm happy to keep hold of my brain as it was" she said in an ironic tone. "I'm sorry for Martouf. I really liked him a lot" she added sad.
"Sam? Are you all right?", Jacob asked worried. That was not Sam as he knew her.
"Yeah, for sure Dad. It's just… I also carry the memories of Jolinar inside and everything is just a little bit… confusing. You know…" she said. This was half the truth at all and her father seemed to believe her.
"Okay, sweetie. Then I will leave you alone now. We'll see tomorrow morning."
„Sure, Dad. Bye." Seeing her dad leaving the room she was alone again.
At the same time up on the surface Jack had talked intensely to Teal'c. Which meant that Jack had been talking and Teal'c only had listened. Actual it wasn't his way to talk about his feelings to another person but Teal'c had done really good in listening and didn't talk this much. Moreover Teal'c was the only person that Jack could have talked to about this whole damn zatarc test thing. He couldn't have talked to Doc Fraiser and he never ever would have talked to Anise. And Sam… Well Sam in fact was the cause of his problem… He could have talked to her, maybe he should have talked to her but he absolutely had no idea how to do it.
After having described his dilemma to Teal'c Jack felt a bit better. It felt good to get rid of everything. And he hadn't expected that at all because he was not this „I-go-to-the-therapy-and-talk-to-strangers-about-my-problems"-type of person.
The fact that Teal'c hadn't said anything at all, and also not after a few minutes, Jack asked whether there was something he wanted to add. And Teal'c did. Actual Jack was quite surprised how much the jaffa had to say and also about the directness Teal'c had talked to him. He hadn't known him this way. Teal'c told Jack what he would do if he was in his place. And now it was Jack who listened intently.
Back in the Tok'ra tunnel Jack pushed along. His aim straight before his eyes. And there he was. At Carter's quarters. Following Teal'cs advice.