Chapter 7 - Ethical Medicine, Chulak, Back again?

SGC Infirmary - Late, Tuesday Night, October 14th, 1997

Teal'c felt like fire was racing through his veins. Had he the spare mental capacity to wonder about things he might consider the possibility of betrayal, though he would ultimately dismiss the possibility where Doctor Janet Fraiser was concerned, that wouldn't rule out those that had pushed for the test even as he'd ultimately agreed to them. Unfortunately, his mind was otherwise occupied with the searing pain of his returned symbiote thrashing within his pouch as it worked to neutralize the chemicals the Tau'ri doctor had injected him with. He would've screamed but he was out of breath and his heart felt like it was struggling to beat.

"He's crashing," Janet Fraiser yelled, her staff moving over to surround him immediately. "Move, move, let's get him into the medical pod. Ready on three. One... two... three."

Teal'c felt the hands lift him off the infirmary bed, the tug of the IV tube on the needle in his hand, the searing line of pain as the symbiote writhed with the swinging motion as he was moved, and then sudden instant relief as the advanced systems within the medical pod they'd brought back from Heliopolis started to work on him. With the sudden lack of pain he slipped into unconsciousness and with sleep came the dream.

-| A new line has appeared |-

Fraiser looked on as the isolation field of the medical pod allowed her admittedly less advanced diagnostic equipment to remain attached. After several times looking back and forth between the medical pod's display and her own equipment the medical pod's display flashed. She glared at the pod itself as it automatically sorted the holographic displays until each of her instruments had an equivalent holographic reading floating nearby with the same graphs.

"Now you're just showing off," she muttered, and started flicking through the information on the closest of the holographic displays. "What exactly happened though..."

The display flickered bringing up an image of a group of molecules, and a warning symbol. A second window opened showing the circulatory system and a spread of color from the IV port to the rest of the body, then a brief paragraph of text appeared, describing the effect of each of the compounds and how the combination triggered an inflammatory immune response that escalated as the healing cells of the symbiote worked to combat the combination.

"That is definitely not the immune response I was looking for," Janet said.

Doctor Fraiser examined the new screen that appeared after she finished going over what had gone wrong with their experimental treatment and frowned, the bed was telling her that it had detected precisely what she'd been working on fixing, though it labeled the damage as genetic. It also identified the symbiote, and now it was downloading information from somewhere to create treatment options. The download rate was painfully slow, but she'd need to warn others before hitting the 'dial the gate to get updates faster' function.

Then the screen flashed red, and she scowled.

"Of course. Why should I expect my being the registered senior medical professional should allow me to download updated medical information," Janet said. Appearing to react to her ire, the screen flickered to show that the source of that particular update required a different type of security authorization as it wasn't from a pre-approved source, she frowned at the glyphs thinking those looked like the address for Heliopolis.

Aside from that one hiccup, the other update was coming from the dungeon planet address, this one appeared to be a consolidated file with contributions from other sources with a list of about ten other addresses though some of them looked wrong having too many glyphs, and one of them used symbols not on the stargate. She used the infirmary's documentation camera to snap two instant photos of the list before setting them aside.

Janet sniffed at the delay and waved over one of her staff. "Go get O'Neill down here, I don't know why this infernal machine likes him, but apparently it needs someone that isn't the registered senior medical officer to approve this download."

The man ran off, and a few minutes later the recalcitrant colonel showed up at her door.

"You bellowed?" Jack snarked.

Fraiser wordlessly pointed at the screen with the pending security request.

Jack tapped on the screen. "Weird, that's Heliopolis' address," he commented.

"I thought it looked familiar," Janet said, gesturing to the camera and instant photos on the bedside table. "The dungeon planet had an address list of data sources. I've already alerted the control room that there might be dial out to download additional data."

O'Neill silently clicked through the prompts until the pod's systems seemed to agree that everything was kosher and it finally approved the file. He even cleared having the pod dial out to download everything faster and triggered that process for her.

"There, I think that does it, anything else?" Jack asked.

"You may go, and take the instant photos of the new addresses up to Sam," Janet waved him off, already engrossed in the pages of new information, some of which was going over her head as it referenced medical knowledge outside of her expertise.

After a few minutes the medical pod finished working through all the gathered information and presented her with a recommended course of treatment.

She spent the next thirty minutes interrogating the thing over every item getting clarifications and more in depth explanations of what exactly it was doing. She even struck a few items off the list experimentally to see what effect that would have before restoring them. The one item she left off the list completely though was sealing Teal'c's symbiote pouch closed, he was still going to need Junior while his body recovered and needing to cut him open to remove the symbiote later would be less than ideal, and she had a feeling the Jaffa wouldn't want that.

When she was ready she pressed the confirmation button and watched the medical pod go to work applying the updated treatment plan, including genetic alterations to restore Teal'c's immune system completely, and what the system said was extensive modifications to the sections of the symbiote's genome responsible for the racial genetic memory the bulk of which had come from that restricted packet that O'Neill had to download for her.

-| A new line has appeared |-

Teal'c dreamed of himself as a young man, laying on the altar as the priest approached with the ceremonial athame. The priest chanted archaic words about the gifted curse that the gods were bestowing upon him, the larval goa'uld, a primta that he would need to carry for all his days as the supposed sign of the God's favor, and Teal'c screamed in reflex as the blade pierced the skin of his abdomen opening his pouch to the air for the first time.

The dream shifted and then he was seeing a different boy, younger but far more important in his own way.

-| A new line has appeared |-

SGC Infirmary - Early Wednesday morning, October 15th, 1997

"Ryac!" Teal'c awoke with a cry in the infirmary.

"Easy, easy now, easy," Doctor Janet Fraiser said, tossing a stress ball to the big man that Teal'c caught and squeezed. She felt terribly bad for the problems caused by the medical tests but was glad the gentle giant of a man seemed to be recovering from the ordeal.

Teal'c took deep breaths and forced himself through the first few steps of a kelno-reem meditation. "I believe I am well now, Doctor. What happened?"

"You had a bad reaction to the sixth test compound, we tried to return the symbiote but the combination of compounds caused your body to go into anaphylactic shock and begin to reject the symbiote, I had to move you to the medical pod," Janet said.

"I must speak with General Hammond when he is here."

"You were calling out for someone named Ryac, Teal'c," Fraiser said.

"It was not a call, but I had a realization and I must discuss it with General Hammond," Teal'c said.

"Alright, I'll let you return to your meditation," Fraiser said.

-| A new line has appeared |-

SGC Operations Briefing room, October 15th

"Are we ready to explain why Teal'c was in the medical pod now?" Jack asked.

"Teal'c agreed to test a few immune boosting treatments that showed promise. Unfortunately the combination of the last few compounds caused a systemic allergic reaction. We returned his symbiote to the pouch only for the allergic response to worsen," Janet said. "I'm also going to request that everyone involved with the last three compounds get examinations, the medical pod gave me a laundry list of potential problems for non-jaffa humans exposed to them."

"Issues doctor?" Hammond asked.

"Well for one, an increased likelihood of melanoma, that is skin cancer, the simulation showed the compound binding to the cell in a way that inhibited programmed cell death, which is one of the body's defense mechanisms when a cell becomes damaged. The other compound heightened the histamine and cytokine responses well above sustainable levels. The third seemed to bind the first two together in disturbing ways," Janet replied.

"So, the pod was the only option," Jack finished.

"Exactly, now if what I read from the recommended treatment is correct, the pod was able to edit Teal'c's DNA and restore the portions related to normal human immune response. But his immune system will still be practically non-existent and incredibly weak for at least a year while his body uses the new genes to rebuild his immune system."

"I take it that the boys at Langley will just have to be a little disappointed," Hammond said.

"Additionally, as you all know the pod downloaded a large amount of medical information. The log indicated it was uploaded to the medical systems at Heliopolis after SG1 left. That information was related to the portions of the symbiote responsible for the symbiote's genetic memory. Junior as you so affectionately referred to it should now be missing the vast majority of goa'uld memories that would've influenced any personality it would develop as it grew. Not that I'm willing to have anyone test that supposition. I wasn't all that confident in the proposed course of action to begin with, not after the last encounter we had with a supposed immature symbiote—" Janet trailed off not wanting to bring up what had happened to Kowalski.

"If a primta is needed, we can still obtain one if that is what you need," Teal'c said. "There are many hundreds of Goa'uld larva on Chulak."

"Out of the question," Hammond said.

"It is one of the few worlds in all the galaxy with such an abundance," Teal'c said.

"But, we didn't exactly leave a good impression the last time we were there," Daniel said.

"If what was done for me by the medical pods can be repeated for others," Teal'c started, only to trail off.

"Woah, where is this coming from?" Jack said.

"Is this what you wanted to speak with the General about this morning?" Doctor Fraiser asked.

"Ryac," Teal'c said.

"That was the name you called out early this morning," Doctor Fraiser said.

"Yes, my son," Teal'c said.

"Your son?" Hammond asked.

"Teal'c buddy, you told us you didn't have any ties to Chulak left," Jack said.

"It was the truth to some extent. As a warrior my people understand that family can be used against you. We sever all claim to our pasts when we are captured or leave the service of our lords both to protect them and ourselves."

"That doesn't exactly clear up the trust issues," Hammond interjected.

"I truly did consider myself dead to them."

"Ah, the issues with the tests and your symbiote," Jack said.

"Indeed. Now, I am concerned for the life of my son," Teal'c said.

Captain Carter reached out as if to rest a hand on Teal'c's shoulder before stopping and setting it back in her lap. Daniel leaned forward with his head tilted towards the Jaffa.

"Teal'c, what has you so concerned?" Daniel asked.

"Within days my son will come of age. If permitted, he will be called before the priests of Apophis, where he will undergo the prim'ta rites, and ceremonial implantation. It is the day when a young Jaffa receives their first symbiote and becomes a true jaffa, just as all other jaffa before him," Teal'c explained.

"And, I take it you don't want that to happen?" Hammond asked.

"Indeed, if I might spare my son the trauma of the priest's dagger, as his symbiote pouch is torn open by the blade, and he is forced to carry such evil for the rest of his life, then I must go. My first teacher, the jaffa master Bra'tac; he knew very well that the Goa'uld are false gods. But I cannot, I will not allow my son to become a slave."

"There must be more than this Bra'tac who believe such," Jack said.

"Bra'tac would be the one to know, he has spent many years of his life training Jaffa and knows their minds better than the false gods know them," Teal'c agreed.

"You believe this, Bra'tac, could be the start of a Jaffa rebellion?" George asked.

"Indeed," Teal'c said. "In fact, he may already be working towards that goal without us."

"It's worth a shot, sir," Jack said.

"Are you absolutely certain this mission is necessary?" General George Hammond asked.

Colonel O'Neill caught Teal'c's eye and saw the determination there. "Yes sir," Jack said.

"When is this ceremony going to occur," George asked.

"It could be within the day," Teal'c said.

The general looked around the room and then sighed. "Mission approved, get your gear," the general said.

-| A new line has appeared |-

Chulak

SG1 stepped through the silvery blue puddle of the stargate dressed in the concealing robes of the Jaffa priesthood, with the exception of Teal'c,who was wearing his old serpent guard armor, helmet raised.

The team had barely stepped onto the winding path away from the gate when they were intercepted by a cadre of priests and Jaffa guards.

"Kree!" the lead priest called out. "Halt and state your business, travelers."

"These are scholars from the court of Apophis. I escort them on my lord's business," Teal'c boomed from the audio pickup in his helmet, his voice slightly distorted from a bit of intentionally introduced damage.

The lead priest stepped forward. "And you do not show your face my lord?"

"Kree, hal mek, cha'hai, my helm was damaged in my last battle, priest. Our lord has commanded me to not remove it until he has judged I have suitably learned my lesson. It is our lord's command and my punishment, until he sees fit to assign one of his servants the task of repairing the damage."

"As the lord wills." The priest cringed in sympathy. "Though, were I you, I would be sure to regain favor soon. A damaged helmet does not allow one to partake in the joys of life," the priest bowed obsequiously and the rest followed, clearing the way for Teal'c and SG-1 to bypass the group.

"Indeed, yet our Lord is merciful, for I shall be granted a tube through which I might be sustained. This is just one step along the path in which our lord considers my lesson to be learned," Teal'c replied, before turning to lead his charges on their steady march down the hill.

-| A new line has appeared |-

"Granted a tube through which you might be sustained?" O'Neill asked.

"I thought that part was fairly inspired," Daniel said.

"Who's idea was that again?" Carter asked.

"Hey, it worked didn't it?" Daniel asked.

Teal'c adjusted his stance to make it more obvious that he was shaking his head behind the serpent guard helmet. "The tubes are indeed unpleasant. The liquified gruel in particular is only barely palatable."

The other three paused, and turned to him. O'Neill finally chuckled. "Good one."

"I would not jeopardize this mission by making such a claim unfounded. This punishment is indeed known to me, Colonel O'Neill."

Beneath his priest robes, Daniel grimaced, having just realized that he'd unknowingly come up with something similar to an actual Goa'uld punishment.

"Where to now?" Colonel O'Neill asked.

"We will go directly to Bra'tac. My former home is along the path, and there is a chance it still stands. If it does, the ceremony will be held there, Bra'tac will know otherwise," Teal'c said.

"Lead the way," O'Neill gestures to the path.

-| A new line has appeared |-

"We are far enough from observation that you may adjust your robes and hoods," Teal'c said, triggering the serpent guard helmet to lower.

As the team crested the hill they spotted a burned wreck of a building. Only two of the walls remained standing with the rest having been pulled down and blast marks from staff weapons scarring the structure.

"Teal'c?" Daniel asked.

"Is that...?" Jack trailed off.

"Yes, my former home. A reward from Apophis for many years of service, in more ways than one," Teal'c said. "I had expected this much, but it still hurts to see it."

As the team rounded the side of the ruined structure a symbol was revealed, painted in white against the charred stone of the standing wall. It spanned the height of the building and looked like a sword stabbing down with serpents wrapping around the hilt and a slash through it.

"What does that mark mean? I don't recognize it," Daniel said.

"It marks the dwelling of a Shol'va," Teal'c said.

"Traitor," Daniel translated.

"I expected this, but seeing it," Teal'c said.

"Hurts, doesn't it," the colonel said.

"Indeed," Teal'c said. "Come."

The team continued along the path until the sound of a staff weapon opening behind them brought them to a halt.

"Obi-Tan! Kree, kree, kree," Bra'tac called in a commanding voice. His staff was pointing at Jack's face.

The team slowly turned in their tracks hands out until Teal'c spotted the man.

"Tek ma te, Bra'tac," Teal'c said. Bra'tac slowly moved his weapon away and upright, as he turned towards the Jaffa member of SG1.

"Teal'c," Bra'tac's face broke into a grin.

"It is good to see you," Teal'c said.

"Humph, were I an enemy, you would be dead," Bra'tac replied.

"My wife and son?" Teal'c asked.

"They escaped the burning. I had a feeling you might return in time for your boy's ceremony, Teal'c. Brave, but unwise."

"Others?"

"Do not know you as well as I," Bra'tac replied. "I expected you, not these."

"Friends, Colonel O'Neill. Captain Carter. Daniel Jackson. Warriors of great skill and cunning."

"As you say," Bra'tac said skeptically.

"I'll have you know," Carter started.

"These? Warriors of great skill and cunning? I could snap you like kindling!" Bra'tac said, looking Daniel up and down. "You bring these hasshack with you?"

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Who you calling a hassock?" Jack asked, knowing by the tone that he should be offended. Jack turned to Daniel and asked. "What's a hassock anyway?"

"Ah.. weakling, cannon fodder, fools," Daniel whispered back.

"So you challenge me, hasshack?"

"No?" Jack said.

Bra'tac burst into motion, his staff went from the relaxed upright position to swinging around the aged jaffa warrior and towards Colonel O'Neill stomach.

Colonel O'Neill was ready though and moved with the staff, he caught it and pulled it out of the elder warrior's grip. Bra'tac lost his footing in the loose gravel of the path and fell back, ending up with his staff in O'Neill's hand with the plasma projector in his face.

"You know, if you didn't want to be part of our little mission you could've just said so," Jack said.

Bra'tac just laughed. "You have chosen your friends well. Be glad I am not a hundred years younger. That would have gone much differently."

"A hundred years?" Jack asked incredulously, moving the staff to a position where the Jaffa could use it to pull himself back up.

"A hundred and thirty three." Bra'tac said using Jack's sudden deference to sweep the colonel's legs out from beneath him while reclaiming his staff.

"I can only hope I'm as spry when I get to be your age," Jack replied.

"No one has ever defied the Goa'uld and lived to tell of it. There was much talk in Chulak of the warriors of the Tau'ri." Bra'tac held a hand out and pulled Jack to his feet.

"Ryac?" Teal'c asked.

"Your family is kreshta. Outcasts. The kreshta live in a handful of camps outside the city. It may take some time to locate them as the outcasts are not allowed permanent dwellings."

"If we are discovered, you will be brought before Apophis along with us." Teal'c cautioned.

"Well we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it." O'Neill said.

"No. The bridge is too well guarded." Bra'tac replied.

"That was a figure of speech," O'Neill said.

"We should go now, and we can share what made us return at great risk to ourselves."

"If you don't mind, sir, Daniel and I will go complete the secondary objective and then find a spot to secure an exfiltration path at the stargate," Carter said.

-| A new line has appeared |-

"So, you challenged the caves of Kalach Shaltek," Bra'tac said.

"Indeed," Teal'c replied.

"And what of the risk," Bra'tac asked.

"Kalach Shaltek seems to somehow approve of the Tau'ri and specifically the members of SG-1, it does not permanently kill them or those with them," Teal'c said.

"Hmph, you are not the only one to have been treated such," Bra'tac replied and revealed an empty symbiote pouch. "I was once punished with the removal of my primta and survived. But, I had a secret, that I had made it through to the second stage of the caves and died there only to be treated. My symbiote remained with me but I was never as reliant upon it from that moment onward."

"There's more than just Kalach Shaltek though," O'Neill said.

"Oh?"

"Indeed," Teal'c said.

"Yes. We know of medical equipment that appears to have been built by the same people that built Kalach Shaltek. That's what we used to treat Teal'c," Jack said.

"But are you certain that it will work," Bra'tac said.

"It's worth a try," Jack said. "And it was able to keep Teal'c and Junior alive when some experimental medicines nearly killed both."

"...Junior?" Bra'tac snorted.

"That is how Colonel O'Neill has chosen to refer to my symbiote," Teal'c replied.

-| A new line has appeared |-

Larval Primta Creche, Chulak

"He must have gone through a lot keeping quiet about this," Daniel said.

"Huh?" Carter asked lowering her binoculars to look at the archaeologist.

"Teal'c, I was just saying," Daniel said.

"Yeah," Carter said, her eyes back on the path ahead of them. "But now is probably not the best time, I think."

Daniel only had a moment to look up before Carter had snagged his arm and pulled him behind a convenient hedge bush. From their hiding spot they watched the procession of priests led by the priestess as they escorted an ornate glass container. It was hanging from carrying poles like the goa'uld version of the ark of the covenant, and reinforced with a golden metal. Through the glass from the distance, they could just make out the indistinct serpentine form of an immature Goa'uld larva sloshing and creating turbulence in the fluid.

"The priestess must be escorting a larval Goa'uld," Daniel said.

"Look, there," Carter pointed to the building the priest and Jaffa had come from, it was a sort of shrine jutting out from the side of a steep hill and had a large stained glass window in the shape of Apophis' symbol over the entrance.

"You think?" Daniel asked.

"Only one way to find out," Captain Carter replied, and pulled Daniel behind her as the two moved from cover to cover. Then, not seeing any Jaffa approaching they made a run for the entrance.

The building wasn't very deep and just inside of the opening, there was a tub of bubbling water deep enough for an adult to wade in. Unfortunately the tub was empty of anything except bubbling water.

"Huh, It's empty," Daniel said.

"There's some sort of electrical current and nutrient mix being pumped through it," Carter said.

"There's a sign here," Daniel paused to run a hand over the Goa'uld hieroglyphs.

"What's it say," Carter said, finished with her examinations.

"Something about the primta being moved to the court of Apophis for security reasons. It's not an exact translation and I'm losing a lot of context," Daniel replied, before extracting a camera from his gear and snapping a picture.

"Well we need to get out of here, I think I see another patrol headed this way," Carter said pointing at the staff weapons just visible over the bushes lining the path.

Daniel didn't have any objection and followed Captain Carter away from the empty creche.

-| A new line has appeared |-

Outcast camp, Chulak

The two jaffa were not inconspicuous as they approached the camp. There were expressions of more than a little fear and concern and even an abrupt strangled scream cut off by a fellow outcast clamping a hand over that person's mouth.

"Hmph. Your wife and son should be in that one," Bra'tac pointed to one of the better looking tents.

Teal'c had recognized the tent the instant his eyes landed on it though and was already making strides through the camp to the entrance to that tent.

"Ryac," Teal'c said, spotting his son feebly coughing.

"Father?" the boy's brow furrowed as he looked towards Teal'c's voice, the boy doubled over coughing.

Jack and Bra'tac arrived just as a concealed figure dove into the tent tackling Teal'c to the ground. The two rolled on the ground in front of the boy who was suddenly sitting up and trying to yell for them to stop in between coughs.

The figure's hood fell back revealing a Jaffa woman with a severe expression.

"Drey'auc?"

"Teal'c?" Drey'auc asked.

"Teal'c?" Jack asked.

"My wife," Teal'c said.

"Why have you returned?" Drey'auc asked.

"My son will not be a slave. You do not have to be a slave," Teal'c said.

"A slave? You have condemned your son to death," Drey'auc said. " Your heresy is an abomination, Teal'c. Even by the outcasts I am shunned. The priests decry you and your son as tainted and unworthy of the gift of life."

"The abomination is being cursed to carry a being of evil within your body knowing they care not if you live or die."

"How can you call the gods your enemy?"

"What need have gods for starships and torture," Teal'c said. "The tau'ri have proved their claim to godhood a lie."

"Do you not see where your son lies on his deathbed? Is this supposed to be better than the home Apophis granted you as his first prime?"

"It is not," Teal'c said.

"You have abandoned and betrayed us. Do you know what I have endured to convince the priests we are still loyal? I was but days away from having the mark of shame lifted from our shoulders."

"So you want this more for yourself than for our son?"

Teal'c rocks back from the strike on his face.

"I spoke in anger, forgive me. Our son need not die of this," Teal'c said.

"No, no. I know not what foolish notion has filled your head. What would you have me tell him? That his father left his son for people he does not know? Those not of his blood? You tell him that, husband, witness the dishonor in his eyes."

"Ryac?"

"I knew he was not dead," Ryac coughed, in between glares aimed at both of his parents.

"You are ill, how long have you been," Teal'c turned to Drey'auc, "How long?"

"Since we were driven from our home. His cough grows worse by the day."

"The illness is one of the first signs that the time for the implantation grows near," Bra'tac said. "It is not a matter of preventing once an illness such as this shows. He is the son of two Jaffa who in turn are both descended from Jaffa, if he had even a single human grandparent there might have been a chance."

"You speak nonsense old man. You know that such is forbidden," Drey'auc said.

"It was not always such," Teal'c said. "I had hoped."

"We have medicines for that, you know," Jack interjected. "Plus, there's the medical pod in the SGC infirmary which I'm sure would have no problem treating this."

Drey'auc looked at Jack, shock in her eyes. "You believe you can heal him without a primta?"

"By the end of the year, I will no longer be dependent upon mine to survive," Teal'c confirmed.

"Wait here, there are more young Jaffa in this camp than just your son," Drey'auc said.

"Wait, more? I don't think the one pod at the infirmary will be enough for this," O'Neill muttered.

-| A new line has appeared |-

Stargate rendezvous point, Chulak

"There," Daniel said, pointing in the opposite direction where Teal'c and O'Neill had appeared from the treeline followed by several others carrying children.

"What?" Carter started.

"No time to explain," Jack said as soon as he got in speaking distance. "We ready to go?"

"Yeah, there's a problem with that," Daniel said, motioning to the priests and Jaffa blocking the path to the gate.

"We're about to have company," Captain Carter said.

"I was afraid of that," Jack said.

"Teal'c?" Carter asked.

"These others were nearing their own time of implantation," Teal'c said. "Soon they would have become ill and been forced to accept whatever demands of service the priests placed upon them."

A tall female jaffa with the symbol of apophis inked onto her forehead stepped forward at this point and spoke softly to Carter.

"We are kreshta, outcasts, forbidden access to the primta that would save our children. If you can save their lives, we will pledge ourselves to your cause, I am Ha'kiera," the now-named Ha'kiera said.

"Kree!" shouted a voice, and a horn sounded calling reinforcements from the town, the Jaffa at the gate holding their weapons ready.

"Bra'tac," Jack looked up.

"I believe it is time to burn that bridge, O'Neill," Bra'tac said.

"Carter, you brought the party favors, right?" Jack asked.

Captain Carter smirked and tossed her shock grenade into the assembled group of Jaffa and priests blocking the path to the gate.

There was a flash of light from the stun grenade that cleared the opposition from the path, allowing SG1 and company to finish their approach to the stargate.

"Heliopolis," Jack said as Captain Carter approached the DHD.

"Sir?" Samantha Carter asked.

"There's no way we're putting this group through the one medical pod at the SGC," Jack said.

"Okay," she started to dial, inputting the symbols for Heliopolis and then pressing the red dome only for the DHD to start blinking. "The hell?"

Jack looked up and frowned, "That's new."

"Yeah, never seen a DHD do that before. It's not invalid or blocked or it would just stop, try the remote," Captain Carter said.

Jack pulled out the ancient handheld computer and kino remote and scrolled through now familiar menus until he got to the dialing section but there seemed to be a request to authorize the connection and a timer in addition to the normal dialing interface. With a shrug Jack pressed the collection of symbols he knew was an approval from all the previous uses and the DHD stopped blinking and finished the dial out.

"Interesting," Carter said.

"I'm sure it is, but right now we need to go," Jack said, spotting a second patrol in the distance.

As the last member of the group entered the stargate, the DHD flashed and cleared the address before lighting all the glyphs at random several times and then going dark again.

-| A new line has appeared |-

O'Makes!

7.1 Deleted Scene - bad planning

"What's the plan," Jack asked motioning to their gear and Teal'c. "We are obviously not welcome, and you're considered a traitor and would likely be shot on sight and wake up in a sarcophagus to be tortured by Apophis."

"Indeed," Teal'c said and opened the door to the storage room with the items they'd taken from their first visit to Chulak.

"You will conceal yourselves beneath these," He thrust the bundle of priestly robes at the team. "I will go in my armor and claim my helmet is damaged."

"Workable, but I've got a better thought. Apophis and other Goa'uld aren't unknown to make sometimes seemingly ridiculous commands. Claim that apophis commanded thus after you damaged it as punishment until he could be bothered to repair it," Daniel said.

"Good thinking," Jack said, eyebrows raised in compliment.

7.2 Deleted Scene - larval goa'uld

The building wasn't very deep and just inside of the opening, there was a tub of bubbling water deep enough for an adult to wade in. The surface of the water frothed at their approach. The larval Goa'uld churned within.

"What do you think these things eat?" Daniel said out of morbid curiosity.

"I doubt it's your standard fish food from the local Safeway," Carter said.

"Here," Daniel said, and offered her his thermos.

"Oh god, so gross," Carter said grimacing as she dipped the now empty thermos into the water and then jerked it back up quickly, sealing the cap on top having caught a curious larva.

"We need to get back under cover now, we're about to have company," Daniel said. In the distance he'd spotted the sooty smoke from another torch carried by one of the priests of apophis approaching along the winding path.

"Ugh, I absolutely hate leaving this here like this," Carter said.

"I don't think we have time for you to plant any explosives," Daniel said, as he pulled Carter along.

The two disappeared behind the hedges just in time as the next group of priests rounded the corner to approach the larval creche.

7.2b Alyssonal rider - (From Polydicta)

"We got an even dozen, but I'm not sure what to feed them," Carter said. The team was looking at the larval symbiotes swimming through an aquarium full of fake coral and those cheap aquarium castles and other decorations. Daniel suddenly stood up and ran out of the lab before returning a few minutes later at a run with a golden cardboard canister with garish print and the label "Goldfish Food ... brings out the colour of your pets!" under the safeway generic brand label.

"You're not going to..." Jack said.

"Daniel!" Carter exclaimed as Daniel ignored them and pushed the little plastic spice jar style cover open and started sprinkling the pellets of fish food into the tank.

Daniel closed the feed opening with a smirk and set the food can onto the table next to the tank before turning back to the group with a smirk.

"What, I thought it might be worth a try," Daniel said.

Behind him the twelve symbiotes abandoned their chasing after each other to go after the pile of fish pellets slowly sinking into the tank.

A week later a clumsy airman accidentally left the tank open with his back turned, but the most that happened was one of the symbiotes popping its head above the water to screech at him until he dropped a handful of the golden fish food pellets into the tank.

7.3 Apocryphal Apophis (Thank CmptrWz for this one)

Apophis held his glowing karakesh over the DHD accessing a secret recording computer he'd had installed. The logs made no sense to him, how did they go anywhere without a registered address.

The Goa'uld System Lord refreshed the log file again and located the section related to when the infernal tau'ri team and that Sholva had left the planet. There, that's the address, but no, the log didn't indicate a connection, surely that meant they simply mis-dialed.

Experimentally, the system lord carefully input the symbols himself, only for the address to immediately fail to connect and go dark. Not that he had any idea of the need for the second bit of equipment the Tau'ri had lucked upon that allowed for the DHD to register an authentication device capable of supplying the handshake protocols the destination required for a connection.

The System lord decided that his recorder must have a flaw that allowed the pestilential Tau'ri to leave without logging their real address after they redialed, though it was only a few symbols off from one address he was already aware of connected to the Tau'ri. Trust humans to be so flawed as to misdial Abydos' address.

Butterflies by Bethofdeath

"...Carter? Why did the...whoosh... come out as a huge flock of butterflies?"

"Kaleidoscope," Daniel corrected absently.

O'Neill twisted around. "Huh?"

"Huh? Oh, a group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope."

"Huh. Carter, why did the whoosh come out as a huge collideaskup of butterflies?"

"I don't know sir. I'm sure we'll find out later."