Ch. 45 — The Enemy of my Enemy is . . . Untrustworthy?
As soon that was dealt with, Hermione and Zach started on the orbiting Pyramid ship. They beamed all the sleeping Jaffa to a spot that was thirty miles from the nearest settlement of any kind — naked, of course. Then they started working their way, deck by deck, picking off Jaffa who were in solitary positions, sending them to the same spot as the others.
After taking all the individuals they could find, they hit the communications room and bridge, clearing them in a matter of seconds. After that, it wasn't much work to send the rest to the surface without worry of being found out. A drone beamed over to the ship provided them a picture, then two platoons of Marines were sent aboard to handle the remaining Jaffa. Two hours after starting, they had portkeyed the naquadah fuel, and any other caches they could find, into the Requirement's starboard-side outrigger bay.
Zach, with a guard of a squad of Marines, spent some of that time pulling everything he could find from the ship's navigational systems and its library of Stargate destinations.
While the access points to the Pyramids on the ground from the outside were many, the roads to those points were much more limited. That made it easy for most of the four platoons of Marines to cut off access to the pyramids from the outside. Naturally, they had to watch both the roads leading to the Pyramids and the exit roads from them.
There was one squad from each platoon tasked with securing both the Bridge and the communications room of each pyramid, drones scouting ahead made it simple for the Marines to apparate into the rooms and make quick work of the Jaffa.
Then it was just a matter of clean-up.
It was nearly morning when Colonel O'Neill followed Fro'tak into the Palace and caught him trying to betray SG-1. Five minutes later, the entire team was on the Requirement. Five minutes after that, they were on Earth.
That was when the four platoons lifted off in their drop ships and a portkey removed the Stargate to the Requirement. As soon as the Stargate was secured on the outside of the ship, facing away, Zach lifted the grounded pyramids into space.
It was unfortunate that they hadn't had a chance to locate Apophis. On the other hand, they had left several stealthed portkey drones in his Palace, as well as a stealthed Runabout in orbit with a complete subspace communications system. They had a full crew of werewolves on twenty-four-hour watch.
As soon as they positively identified him, they would drop a portkey drone on him, and then activate it. All the portkey-drones had the top of a hundred-foot-tall stone tower at the bottom of the deepest ocean as their destination. Going from a normal atmospheric pressure to a spot where it was over a thousand times higher would kill him instantly.
The extra portkey drones were for any Goa'uld Lords stupid enough to go into the Palace.
In the meantime, the Jaffa waking with the dawn were going to be mightily confused as to where the pyramid ships and Stargate had gone.
On the other hand, the Requirement returned home early enough on Monday not to miss any classes for those of the Crew who were still students (the Invigoration potion was a big help). The nearly a hundred tons of naquadah and another Stargate were just icing on the cake.
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Harry, Hermione, and Ron were in an empty classroom, with the appropriate privacy spells cast, getting Lee's latest report.
"Apophis is gone. We got him, and he's gone," he said. "We dealt with him yesterday. Good thing we didn't portkey him immediately, too. Turns out there were four other, lower-ranked Goa'uld working with him, according to Bra'tac. We got all of them, and Bra'tac is spreading the word that the Tau'ri killed Apophis and took the pyramid ships and Stargate.
"He's getting a lot of interest from the Jaffa about ditching the prim'tas, permanently. I'm thinking we should place a medical-replicator and subspace communications unit there pretty soon. Having the PiMPS on planet will offset the disadvantages of losing the health benefits of the prim'tas."
"Good thinking," Harry said. "I say go ahead with it. In fact, make a standard unit powered by naquadah, now that we have so much of it. We can carry a couple in each Battlestar that we can distribute whenever the need arises."
Ron nodded. "Why not make an automated refuelling ship just for the Medical Units? Dedicate one of the Fuel Depots to supplying it. Whenever a Medical Unit starts to run low, it signals the Fuel Depot, which sends out an automated Runabout with naquadah and uses a repeating portkey to that Medical Unit to deliver the replacement fuel once it's close enough."
Harry nodded. "That's even better. Let's do that, Lee."
He grinned, "I'll put those on the schedule. The first Medical Unit shouldn't take more than a week to prepare, no need to rush for the rest. We can park one of the present Fuel Depots and a modified Runabout at a nearby Uranus-like giant-planet in each system, or at least, in a system that is close-by. Those two won't take more than a day to modify. We can schedule the Galileo to haul the first units to Chulak, and drop off the PiMPS to Bra'tak."
He looked off to the side for a moment. "Next, we managed to catch another Goa'uld!"
Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise. "How?" he said, echoed by the just as surprised Hermione and Ron.
"Well, remember the first planet Stargate visited? Abydos? The one Daniel came from a year later? Well, when he left, he told them to bury the gate, then unbury it a year later so he could return with his kidnapped wife.
"Evidently it has been an Abydonian year since then.
He sighed
"To make a long story short, Daniel went through to Abydos, where he wanted to tell his wife's father that he had failed in finding her. However, he found Sha're was already with her father. Unfortunately, she had been taken over by a Goa'uld, one called Amonet, the wife of Apophis. In addition, Sha're was, and is, pregnant. Fortunately for Daniel, the Goa'uld was sleeping so that the child, a boy, would not end up stillborn.
"So, he hustled them through the Stargate to Moon Base and used one of the PiMPS to remove Amonet from his wife. She's in good condition, as is the baby. She's in the infirmary and they expect the baby at any moment.
"Amonet, meanwhile, is in one of the Requirement's prim'ta holding-tanks." He chuckled. "This gives us another adult Goa'uld for Snape to use as a test." He frowned. "On that subject, Hathor's host took an injection rather well, no ill effects, physically. The Goa'uld tried to flee, only moments after getting the injection, but died on the floor in a few seconds. Next, Snape tested an oral potion on Edrekh, with much the same result."
He sighed unhappily, shaking his head. "However, both hosts were quite insane. Snape doesn't believe his potions were the problem, saying the possession by the Goa'uld was responsible." He paused. "It'll be at least another month before we finish with interrogating Heru'ur. I'm thinking of asking General Hammond if he could swing getting a volunteer from a prisoner with a life-sentence to agree to taking Amonet and letting us test the potion on him or her, offering commutation of their sentence in exchange."
Harry made an expression of disgust, Hermione echoing him.
"Maybe have them take a Crew Team to one of their prisons and we can use veritaserum to find a candidate who we wouldn't mind releasing from prison?" suggested Hermione.
Lee nodded. "That might work. I'll run it by the General and see what he thinks." He sighed again. "Until we know the potion doesn't cause problems, we can't use it."
Harry shrugged. "In the meantime, we've got the Library protecting us, so we're not totally bolloxed."
"Finally, I think we have a Blockade-runner candidate. Hermione and I decided to use twice as many marble-block anchor stones as the other ships because it will be going deep into enemy areas, without backup support."
He looked back and forth between them. "However, in view of how we seem to be picking up Stargates left and right, I think we should reconsider the design. If we included a Stargate on board the blockade runner, it would simplify things considerably, and make the ship much smaller. So, we would only need room on the way out for the free-Jaffa to identify their relatives. Once we get the relatives aboard, either with portkeys or beaming, depending on the exact Crew we use, we can send the families on to a deserted planet, using it as a way station. If we use a different planet each time there's no way we or they can be traced. The ship would come back with a minimum crew and nearly empty."
Harry looked over at Hermione and Ron. Hermione nodded slowly, thinking. Ron was looking thoughtful. Harry shrugged. "That sounds good to me, but I leave the decision to you two, you know more than I do on this."
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General Hammond, dropped the sit-rep report from Colonel O'Neill on the planet they now knew was called Svoriin back on his desk. He gave the other papers a final glance before straightening them all, putting them in the folder, and closing it. From what SG-1 had recovered from a rather lengthy exploration, the entire civilization — no, every species on the planet — had fallen to an insect that reproduced by injecting its victims with a viral agent that transformed each individual victim into multiple copies of the original insect.
At least, they assumed that was its reproductive cycle. It might have something different, entirely, and its injection was just its way protecting itself from predators — by converting them into allies.
He shuddered to think what might have happened if they hadn't been wearing those new spacesuits! The insects had tried numerous times, fortunately without success, to sting SG-1 while they had been exploring. They had used the invisibility cloaks to escape each time they were swarmed, and the lightsabres had been surprisingly effective at killing the insects. Especially so because the lightsabres didn't cause any damage to the Spacesuits or cloaks, meaning they could swing the beam . . . blade? . . . over a team-member and kill any insects the beam encountered. Much easier than trying to shoot the insects off! Not to mention safer!
He would have to see about convincing the DFS to supply full-featured light-sabres to all the teams. At the moment, SG-1 was the only team so equipped. It had been a bit of a joke, actually, as no one could really imagine a use for the weapons — guns were more useful in a firefight — until this mission.
While it might be nice to see what another civilization as advanced as Earth's might have developed, the risks involved were just too high. No matter how careful they were, it was always possible that someone would make a mistake. If someone infected managed to get outside the base, or, heaven forbid, an insect managed to escape to the outside, the planet would be doomed.
He had already issued orders that all insect samples collected from the planet be destroyed. He didn't want to take the chance that even just a sample was enough to infect the planet.
It was obvious that the insects hadn't evolved on that planet, otherwise the inhabitants of Svoriin would have succumbed to the insects long ago. They must have been brought back to the planet by an exploration team.
Leaving the Stargate intact was just begging for the insects to spread. Someone else might stumble onto Svoriin and accidently bring the insects to their own planet via an infected person.
Or, worse, it turning out that the insects developed a hive mind and managed to figure out how to use the Stargate themselves. And they then started to spread throughout the galaxy
He closed the folder and headed for the office occupied by their liaison with the Defensive Space Force. He would share the contents with that person and strongly recommend the DFS dispatch one of their Battleships to remove the Stargate from the planet.
It was simply too dangerous to leave there.
If the DFS declined, then they would see if a naquadah-enhanced nuclear device could destroy the Stargate.
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It was the week before the ides of March.
The past few weeks had been pretty quiet.
The Su Song had been to Svoriin and successfully retrieved the Stargate. A survey of the planet had shown that, except for the insects, no lifeforms bigger than a mouse were still alive. In the interest of preventing the accidental spread of the bugs, they had bombarded the planet with small asteroids until the entire surface was lava and the oceans reduced to steam. The steam would sterilize the planet of the virus, they hoped.
They used small asteroids to control the splashing of anything into space, and keeping the atmosphere intact. The outgassing from the exposed mantle rapidly transformed the atmosphere into a noxious mix of methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, and ammonia, which were all rapidly degrading the oxygen.
The Su Song had also dropped off one of the Medical Units with its attendant Fuel Depot, modified Cargo Runabout, and PiMPS at Chulak. They had buried it deep underneath one of the oceans so no one would stumble upon it by accident. The Medical Unit had been modified to include the ability to make more PiMPS, as needed.
Bra'tak, naturally, had been notified, and there was quite a queue of Jaffa seeking to be "free". Seeing their "god" so easily disposed-of had been a shock to many. Having the large number of survivors of the assault on Earth returned home to them bearing tales of what they had seen members of the DFS routinely do that dwarfed their god's abilities had been the final nail in that coffin. Their "god" had simply been a trickster alien, nothing more, nothing less.
Not trusting the Goa'uld to leave them alone, a large number of the now free-Jaffa had decided to emigrate to the "safe" world the Tau'ri had supplied.
Seeing their Stargate instantly restored to its place for the immigrants to leave, then removed to prevent any returning Goa'uld, had merely been icing on the cake to the Tauri's and DSF's reputations.
Chulak was firmly in the anti-Goa'uld camp.
The Prison Base only had Heru'ur's Jaffa who refused to admit their god wasn't one — just twenty-three. The rest had chosen to be "free" and were at the Tau'ri's "safe" planet.
Each Battlestar now had a Stargate in a special chamber five floors below the Bridge. The Stargate was at the exterior wall of the ship, pointing into space. When it was needed, that exterior wall was automatically extended outward before the iris was opened. It created a room with nearly the same floorplan as at the original SGC — just big enough to do the job, but not the warehouse-sized rooms at Moon Base.
In an emergency, the entire room and stargate could be ejected from the ship.
The Centaurs, meanwhile, were still debating Harry's offer. They had sent a group of nine to the island on the Mer-world to investigate things. It had been a mixed group of two elders, five warriors, and two females. According to Padma, they were communicating almost daily with their home tribes.
The Greek Merfolk had moved a thousand settlers to Mer-world. Apparently, it was getting very difficult for them to deal with the increasing multitudes of muggles, not to mention the escalating pollution problems. Having a place free of both problems was a bit like heaven for them, even if they did have to deal with new creatures who viewed them as possible snacks.
Their colony was closer to the equator and on the opposite side of the island for the English village.
Meanwhile, the Requirement had removed the thousands of pieces of scrap metal and plastic orbiting around the Earth. They had left only the functioning satellites. The non-functional units had been returned to the originating countries for either refurbishing and reusing, or recycling of the components.
Several satellites had appeared to be "hunter-killer" units. Those had been returned to their home countries with the warning that trying to put up more would end up with them being confiscated. The "spy" satellites had been let intact, but now all the magical communities knew of the danger. As a result, the different magical governments had placed powerful illusions over wizarding locations.
Speaking of recycling, Harry had been startled when Hermione had told him about the continent-sized island of garbage floating in the Pacific. It didn't take long to remove it. With the patterns for common plastics in the Library, finding and removing the billions of pieces of remaining plastic that had been scattered across all the oceans had been a tedious, but worthwhile, endeavour.
It had also generated a lot of good-will with the mer-folk. It didn't solve the noise or oil-pollution problems, but it was still a big help to the ocean creatures.
For the first time since World War II, plastic was not free-floating in the world's oceans. The ship had also cleared out all the sunken ships and other trash that had been lost to the seas and rivers since the beginning of the century.
They had decided to leave the older wreckage on the grounds that it had historical significance. Plus, if it had been there for a hundred years without causing problems, it wasn't a problem.
The more recent wrecks that had turned into tourist attractions were also left intact. In essence, any wreckage too deep to be reached by tourists was removed.
The rivers, starting with the worst polluted rivers in the world, the Mississippi, Nile, Niger, Ganges, Buriganga, Sarno, Marilao, Yangtze, Indus, Yellow, and Citarum, were similarly cleared of toxic wastes, trash, and debris. But only as they emptied into the oceans. If people wanted to poison themselves with irresponsibility, that was their business, but dumping their lack of concern on the rest of the world was not going to be allowed.
Wildlife was already beginning to reappear in areas that had been declared "dead zones" for decades.
Air pollution was a separate problem. The polluters had the means to stop the pollution, they just didn't want to.
The Crew was investigating if they could "trap" the pollutants to the local areas. If the polluters had to live with what they were doing instead of letting it drift off to bother someone else, maybe they would fix the problems.
While the Crew could deploy technology to prevent the problems, they would get no thanks for it. It was better to let the polluters handle the issue, themselves. Or the polluters could ask for their help in fixing the problem and not creating the pollution in the first place.
If not, well, then, the polluters would have to live with air that was so polluted they couldn't see across the street.
The Crew still at Hogwarts had cheated. Not only did they have the notes from the previous years, they had built-up a library of memories from those who had taken the different classes. Being able to take a class in a pensieve the week before the actual class took place gave them time to absorb some of what was being taught. It also let them ask the questions that would normally only occur to them after the official class!
One benefit of that meant the Fifth- and Seventh-years were a lot more relaxed than their non-Crew counterparts — and received better grades, to the pure-bloods displeasure!
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They had just finished dinner and were headed to the common room when Lee's call came in.
Once they were behind a few privacy charms, Lee explained.
"Remember when Jolinar used Captain Carter as a host?" he said. "Well, Captain Carter had a dream last night that was a memory of the Tok'ra evacuating a planet for another, P34-353J. She thinks it's worth trying to see if the Tok'ra are still there."
"Have they sent through a MALPS?" Harry asked.
"They're doing that right now," Lee said, looking away, obviously at a display of some kind. "Another desert planet." He paused. "It'll take about half-an-hour for the drone to reach orbit and give us a positive fix on it."
Harry nodded. He looked at Hermione and Ron. "Do you think we should go there?"
"Considering they will literally be going to what might be the Tok'ras' main headquarters?" Ron said. "I think it would be prudent, if we're close enough to make the trip in a reasonable time."
Hermione was nodding.
Harry turned back to Lee. "Ask the General to delay sending a team through until we can get the Requirement in orbit." He glanced at the other two. "Based on how well we evaded notice at Chulak, we should be able to provide backup if they need it."
Lee nodded. "Aye, aye, sir!" he said with a salute, and his projection ended.
Harry tapped his comm badge. "Attention all Requirement Crew . . .."
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As Lee had promised, they knew within half-an-hour where the planet was in comparison to Earth. It wasn't quite in the exact opposite direction as Chulak, but close enough to not matter. It was farther away, though, at nearly two-thousand three hundred light-years. It would take a day to get there.
General Hammond had agreed to wait until they were approaching the system to open the Stargate. The Requirement's being in movement meant it had no reliable address and the transmitting gate would reject it in favour of the planet's almost stationary position.
The planet was, as expected, mostly desert. Scanning showed that once, millions of years ago, it had been a lush, green planet. However, while once it had been near the middle of the habitable zone for the star, the star had aged and was using a mix of hydrogen and helium fusion. As a result, the star was hotter than it had been, and the planet was approaching the inner limit. In another few million years it would be uninhabitable.
The drones on the Stargate team quickly led them right to the Stargate One team. They maintained their position overhead, and sent a quick notice of their arrival down to them. As they had planned, they quickly swapped out their normal drones for portkey units. Their timing was excellent, as not too many minutes later, the team was surrounded by Goa'uld.
The wizards were ready. At the first sign of hostile action, they would retrieve the team. Fortunately, there wasn't any overtly hostile reactions, and the team soon found themselves in a deep-underground base.
Hermione had to interrupt as Captain Carter was explaining how she had been the host to Jolinar. "Hold a moment, Captain," she said softly, the privacy charms allowing only Sam to hear her.
"And why should we trust you?" said the one called Cordesh.
O'Neill irritably stood up. "You know something?" he said walking over to the two aliens, Grand Council Garshaw of Belote and Cordesh. "I've been asking myself the same damn question. Why should we trust you. You are, after all, Goa'ulds."
Daniel tried to step in, "Jack," he said alarmed at where the conversation was going.
Jack turned slightly and held up a warning finger. "Ah! Don't! We've done nothing but get interrogated here. Now, are we prisoners? And are you Goa'ulds?
Daniel tried again, "J . . .." only to get another raised finger in warning.
"Neh!" Jack said.
"You are not, and I have told you we are not Goa'uld," denied Garshaw.
Harry saw Hermione whispering something to Jack over his comm.
After a moment, Jack rolled his eyes. "Cut with the sophistry. Claiming you are Tok'ra and not Goa'uld is ridiculous. Tok'ra, by your own admission, means 'Against Ra.' Well, Ra is dead, so the label Tok'ra is now meaningless! It's like asking me if I'm a Tau'ri, and me replying, 'No, I'm a Colonel!'"
There was a long silence as the two Tok'ra looked at each other. Finally, Garshaw sighed. "We have the same symbiotic creatures within us, yes."
Jack through his hands up, "Well, then, you are Goa'uld, if that's what you call the symbiotic creature in your head!"
The two Tok'ra stood silent.
"Now, then, you can see how we might think you would be a danger to humans. You take humans as hosts."
"Goa'uld take hosts. Tok'ra do not," Garshaw corrected, "Ours wish to be so."
The conversation went on from there into the whole philosophy of why a human would want to be a host. That lead to the introduction of Saroosh and Selmak, a Tok'ra who was dying. And Martouf's odd suggestion that one of the SG-1 team volunteer to be Selmak's new host.
Hermione had a few words about that, and she shared them with Jack as Sam rushed out of the chamber they were in.
Jack paused a second as Hermione shared her thoughts with him.
"Wait, you mean to say that Selmak is an ancient and wise leader," Jack said, "who you will lose without a new host, and there isn't a single solitary Tok'ra in this entire base willing to sacrifice its life for the good of all the rest?"
He shook his head. "I think you are almost as selfish as the Goa'uld. Among the Tau'ri, if a similar situation arose, there would have to be a lottery to select one from the many who would volunteer. And yet, here, you can't even find one?"
He huffed and shook his head. "And why haven't you prepared a larval tank or small habitat for Selmak so that it has a safe place instead of dying with Saroosh? That seems like an incredibly obvious thing to do."
He turned and followed the others out of the room.
On the ship, Harry turned to Hermione. "Could we use one of the PiMPS to help the woman, Saroosh? It might not save her life, but it could extend it long enough for them to find a host."
"We might have to have the Goa'uld remove itself, first."
"We should make the offer to return Jolinar," Ron suggested, "and help the woman at the same time. We'll return Jolinar, first, as a gesture of good will, so they know we mean no harm. We can get them to verify how long a Goa'uld can survive outside a host. As long as it's at least thirty seconds, we know the PiMPS can do its job in time." He shrugged.
Harry nodded. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." He looked over at Angelina. "We can send a Marine Squad as guards with the tank with Jolinar, and they can cover whomever is on duty in medical using the PiMPS." He grinned. "We should probably go, too," he looked at Hermione. "Ron, I think you should stay up here to give us proper oversight. I'm sure we'll be too close to catch all the nuances."
Back on the planet, Garshaw had just finished saying to Jack. "I do not believe you could be of any service to us, you are neither strong enough, nor advanced enough."
Jack started to say something, but stopped as Hermione once more passed their suggestions on to him. He smiled. "Perhaps we are not, but our allies are. We haven't come right out and said it yet, but we do have Jolinar in stasis and can return it to you any time you desire. That was one reason why we were searching for you, to return Jolinar."
Martouf took a startled step forward. "Jolinar is alive? Who is the host?"
Jack shook his head. "It's not in a host. We have it in a larval tank, in stasis. As far as it's concerned, it left Captain Carter only seconds ago."
Garshaw stared at them. "You have a larval tank? Where did you get it?"
Jack shrugged. "We had a run-in with Hathor and she left it behind when she couldn't take over Stargate Command."
Garshaw took a stunned step back. "Hathor? We thought she died thousands of years ago, when Ra left the Tau'ri planet!"
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Rumours of her prior death appear to have been greatly exaggerated — at least until now. We can confirm that she is dead as of last month."
"But Jolinar is still alive?" Martouf repeated.
Jack tilted is head to the side. "Well, in stasis." He paused. "Look, rather than doing a Suzy-two-step, why don't you talk with our ally about this."
The Tok'ra exchanged glances. "How would we do this, they are not here."
Jack grinned. "They can be here in two seconds."
Now, the Tok'ra looked alarmed.
"They also say that they think they can . . . not cure Saroosh . . . but make her healthy enough to travel to another world to find a host?"
"I will try to convince the Council of Tok'ra to meet with you," Yosuf said hesitantly.
Jack shook his head. "Look, do you want Jolinar back? Do you want to save Saroosh and Selmak's lives? It's that simple."
Martouf nodded eagerly, as the other three looked uncertain.
"Then it's done!" declared Jack. "Everyone move over here," he said, motioning they should leave one half of the chamber they were in empty. Puzzled the Tok'ra complied, as did the rest of the team.
There came a quick series of pops and eight of the DFS crew appeared wearing their spacesuits with helmets deployed. One carried the familiar small briefcase-shape of a PiMPS. He recognized both Potter and Number One from their rank insignia. Five were clearly DFS Marines, with the two to either side of the Admiral and his Second being Commanders. The other three were facing the rest of the room. All eight made a strange motion with their right hands.
Jack stepped forward with one hand held out. "Welcome, Admiral Potter," he said cheerfully, "Number One," he nodded at the one beside Potter. Number One carried what looked like thick suitcase.
The out-numbered Tok'ra guards looked alarmed, but pointed at the strangers with their weapons, nonetheless.
"Admiral," Jack said jovially, pointing as he spoke, "This is Yosuf, Garshaw, Cordesh, and Martouf." He waved an arm dismissively at the guards. "These fine Tok'ra are our guards."
He turned back to the Tok'ra's. "This is Admiral Potter of the Defensive Space Force, beside him is Number One."
Harry, Hermione, and the one who was carrying the PiMPS all nodded at each name. "Before our Healer can begin," Harry said, "How long can a Goa'uld survive outside of a host without harm?"
"Several minutes," Martouf said, "if it is not in a hostile place."
Yosuf and Garshaw frowned at Matouf.
Daniel and Sam both frowned at the Tok'ras.
Number One stepped forward and held out the suitcase. "Inside this is the one who claimed to be Jolinar, and from whom Captain Carter received the coordinates for this system."
Garshaw gingerly took the suitcase.
"Jolinar is currently in stasis, which will be dispelled as soon as the suitcase transits a Stargate, Ring Transport, or Beaming. Please have your medical experts examine the tank inside this suitcase carefully to make sure we properly prepared the larval-tank fluid. If you are unsure, then prepare whatever suitable carrying system you need and transfer Jolinar to it. Again, Jolinar will only awaken after transiting a Stargate, Ring Transport, or Beam."
Which, Jack knew, implied that whatever created the stasis being used was of the same energy that the DFS crew said the Stargates destroyed.
"If you would take our Healer to the patient, he will ascertain just how much we can help Saroosh. For the most optimal results, it would be helpful if you could get Selmak to exit her for the minute or so that this will take."
Martouf eagerly set out from the room, back the way the group had originally come. The doctor and three Marines followed him.
"Wait," called Garshaw, halting the group before they had all left the room. "How do we know we can trust you? That you won't kill her instead?"
Potter shook his head. "If we wanted to kill her, or any of you, we would have thrown an asteroid at the planet and destroyed this entire complex before you even met the Stargate Team."
The Tok'ra all blinked.
"That's a rather bold statement," Garshaw said sceptically.
Potter turned to look at her. "Have you detected our ship currently in orbit over this world? You know from your watchers that we didn't come through the Stargate."
"It was these who destroyed the two Goa'uld motherships sent to destroy the Tau'ri," Teal'c said calmly.
"That was you? We had operatives who died on board those vessels," Garshaw said, glaring at them.
"We did not know you had agents on those ships," Potter said quietly, "But we would not have acted differently even if we did. We value the lives of five and a half billion people more than the handful of agents you lost. That you do not makes me wonder just how different from the Goa'uld you are, really."
Garshaw took a sharp breath.
Martouf turned away and continued on the way to Saroosh's room, the rest again trailing him.
"I will try to convince the Council of Tok'ra to meet with you," Yosuf finally said, turning to leave.
"Ah, excuse me?" Jack said.
Yosuf stopped and looked at him.
"Are we prisoners here?"
"Well, ah," Yosuf said hesitantly, "until we decide what level of information to entrust to you, um, we cannot allow you to roam this facility freely. I'm sorry." She turned and left the room, passing the guards.
Jack made an expression of displeasure.
Potter snorted. "Come on, Jack," he said reproachfully, "You know Stargate Command would do the exact same thing."
Daniel and Sam did poor jobs of hiding their smiles at Harry's reprimand.
"Besides," the Admiral continued, "you know we can leave any time we want."
The two Tok'ra guards looked a bit alarmed at that news.
Still, it wasn't long before their Healer and the guards returned with Martouf. Martouf was shaking his head. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself." He looked at Garshaw and Cordesh. "She looks decades younger, and says she feels, decades younger. The device their doctor used is . . .." he shook his head in shock.
The doctor looked at Potter. "The PiMPS is uncertain, her physiology isn't exactly like the Jafa or Humans, but it estimates that with the toxins removed, and the repairs completed, she should live for another fifty years, easily."
"Toxins?" Garshaw and Cordesh echoed incredulously, exchanging looks.
The doctor turned to them. "Oh, yes, the PiMPS was quite certain. It was no bacteria or virus that caused her illness, despite the resemblance of her symptoms to those pathogens." He shook his head. "The damage to her organs was quite severe, complete failure causing death was estimated at thirty-six hours."
"Unless Saroosh had been off-planet in the last few months, you appear to have a sleeper agent here," Jack said dryly.
While the Tok'ra were considering that alarming news, Yosuf came back in. "The Tok'ra Council has agreed to meet with you. Follow me please." She turned and started out again.
Potter turned to the doctor and nodded. The doctor dropped his right hand to his leg. He began a slight turn to the right, and disappeared with a pop, startling the Tok'ra.
Watching the tunnel grow was fascinating, and soon enough they were in the newly-constructed Council Room. There were more guards waiting for them, making the numbers of the two different groups almost the same.
Garshaw, with a sweep of her arm towards another entrance, said, "People of the Tau'ri, allow me to introduce the Grand Council of the Tok'ra."
The council of six, including Cordesh, studied the group for a moment, A female member looked at Potter, frowned, and asked, "Are you androids?"
Harry shook his head. "No, we are not. Just as Saroosh, the Jaffa, and many others, we are related to the Tau'ri."
"Why do you hide your appearance," demanded one of the males on the Council.
Harry looked at him. "Why do your agents hide in public instead of boldly declaring who they are?"
"If there was a Jaffa or Goa'uld in the vicinity, they would be instantly attacked," was the puzzled response.
"So, you hide your identities to avoid notice among those you do not know who might attack you." He paused. "We do the same."
"But we aren't your enemies!" protested one of the Council.
"Neither are you our friends," he replied.
Jack sighed and stepped forward. "Never mind that, they're too shy to reveal themselves to us, either." He looked at the Council members. "When acting for the Defensive Space Force, they are always in spacesuits. That way, without the suits, they can move and live on Earth . . . among the Tau'ri, I guess you'd say . . . without anyone suspecting they aren't a normal person."
Harry chuckled. "We are the normal ones," he said, humour evident in his voice, "It is you Tau'ri who are unusual." He shook his head. "We simply wish to go about our lives without being pestered by those who feel entitled to our attention."
More than one eyebrow was raised among the Tok'ra at the easy banter.
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A.N. It is canon that the Goa'uld live in the wild from the moment of birth as a prim'ta until they manage to ambush and infiltrate a host. We also see them moving from one host to another, at a leisurely pace with a cooperative host and quickly when ambushing one. As a result, it is doubtful they "lost" the ability to survive outside a host for short periods of time. Plus, it is also canon that the Tok'ra make use of stasis jars and symbiote tanks to hold their kin that are wounded or lack a host.
The Tok'ra in this episode saying that they needed a host to "save" Selmak" was an outright lie — they merely saw an opportunity to grab a convenient host. Other statements they make prove them to be as self-serving as the Goa'uld, such as an alliance only being worthwhile if it involved them getting a host, with the lone saving trait that they don't force themselves on hosts — unless it's an emergency. And then they are resentful that the "forced" host won't volunteer to become a host, again.
They only show interest in an alliance if the other party has more to offer than the Tok'ra have. The Tok'ra are in no place to complain should the other party refuse to ally with them because the Tok'ra are clearly inferior. As the saying goes, what is good for the goose is good for the gander!