Once arriving on the planet, it didn't take long for Xander to be able to access this new facility. The group made their way thru it to an area with a computer system. Willow went to work to crack it while Daniel waited for the opportunity to translate whatever was in the system.

Leaving Jesse to guard them, the Pack and Faith set out to explore the facility. They expected to find holding tanks like the ones in the Pegasus facilities. What they found was holding tanks that may have held liquid at one time, but currently were empty. And a stasis tube, also empty. They also found a dead human. Ancient by the looks of the robes and whithered into extreme old age.

"That sounds like the other Elizabeth Weir, the one that accidentally traveled to the past when the Ancients were still in Atlantis. She stayed behind to rotate the ZPM's to extend the shield and save the expedition. I wonder who he was. Maybe the information is in the database. The attempt to close the Hellmouth must have shut the stasis tube down." Daniel said, when they reported it to him.

The Pack and Faith continued to search the facility while Willow finally succeeded in getting into the database and Daniel began translating.

"It looks like they were studying the Goa'uld. The symbiotes, I mean. Their natural ability to heal from almost anything was something the Ancients were hoping to replicate. They don't seem to have been aware that the Goa'uld could take hosts. Or maybe the Goa'uld learned how later. Fascinating." Daniel said.

The Pack and Faith pretty much just rolled their eyes and kept exploring. For a place that came to be thought of as a prison for demons, possibly, it didn't seem to be anything more that a research facility. They found more computer systems. More tanks that may have held liquid and if they really had been studying the Goa'uld then that made sense. But nothing else.

"They switched the focus of their research. The plague started. They were brought several animated corpses to study. They didn't know what had caused it. I guess they hadn't figured it out yet, that it was because of things from the other dimension. They figured something was animating it, but they couldn't find anything. Their scans and autopsies of the bodies found nothing. Then using Magic, they found something nearly microscopic, just out of normal perception range. They couldn't identify it."

That was interesting. That there really was something tangible that animated a vampire. Not just Magic.

"Whatever it was, they found that when exposed to air, it died immediately. It only seemed to be able to sustain itself inside another organism. They also found, it needed blood to survive. They never figured out what it got from the blood, though, that sustained it. They speculated it might be minerals in the blood or hemoglobin, but were never certain."

The Pack and Faith continued searching, one ear tuned to Daniel as he kept up a steady stream of information on his findings. At least someone was finding something, but the Pack and Faith were coming up with nothing.

"Then they decided to introduce one of the symbiotes to one of the corpses, see if its natural healing ability would have any effect. I guess they did know it could take a host. But it didn't seem to be able to do anything. The corpse didn't improve, so they removed the symbiote."

"Well, I guess that explains the sarcophagus." Xander said. "If they couldn't heal a dead body and wanted to extend their lives, then they'd need an external source. It seems to have been something they developed, after all, since we've found no evidence that the Ancients had any."

"True." Daniel answered. "Then something unexpected happened. The symbiote took a host on its own. Then several researchers were killed. Tortured to death, like the team we sent to close down the Hellmouth. They captured the host, then they realized, the symbiote was a queen and had spawned. They put the host in a stasis tube until they could figure out what had happened to him. They decided to release the newly spawned offspring because they didn't need any more for their research. The plague spiraled out of control long before they ever figured anything out." Then Daniel made one of his brilliant intuitive leaps. "Oh gods, they made the Goa'uld. The symbiote they introduced to the vampire imprinted, it was a Queen and it passed on what it had learned to its offspring. They eventually came to dominate over the other symbiotes, then learned to take the Unas as hosts. Then figured out how to use the Stargate. Then they were out in the galaxy with a taste for torture and disdain for humans. That body you found, it must have been the host. But did the Queen die with it?"

"No, pretty sure it didn't, Daniel." Xander said. "On account of, we've just found your missing team member." He looked at the blood stained woman standing before him, a gory knife in her hand. "Also, pretty sure, the symbiote still wants to torture and kill." As she attacked him, he cut off her head, severing her spine and the symbiote with it. "It must have jumped hosts when it realized the one it was in, was too old to function. After a million years, it really wouldn't be. This place became a prison for a different type of demon. The mother of the Goa'uld that ruled this galaxy and enslaved humans for five thousand years."