The Gods Plague

Feedback: Is a beautiful thing

Rating: PG

Series: Story two of the Gatekeeper's Series

Archive: Ask me if you want it. Anywhere is free to grab it as long as you notify me.

Spoilers: The entire New Series of Tomorrow People

Disclaimer: Stargate belongs to MGM, Glassner, Double Secret Productions, Sci-fi Channel. The Tomorrow People belong to Nickelodeon, Roger Damon Price, ITV, Tetra, Thames. Original character belong to me. Duh.

Summary: Teal'c and Sam become sick after a mission to a strange planet and followed back by a strange woman who only complicates things while Teal'c slowly dies and the Tomorrow People discover there's far more than they ever expected right underneath their noses.

Author's Notes : Anne Olsen gets a great big *giant* *honkin'* THANK YOU! for all of her help. This would *not* have happened without her there for late night chat sessions, bouncing ideas off of, soothing my Mary Sue paranoia, and excellent job beta reading. Also to Sarah for her help with various SG-1 questions and canon issues. And to the folks on the SG1HC list because without them I'd've never gotten questions answered or been inspired to keep working by the quality of the fic I find there. They rock.

Things to Help The Reader : I know this is a crossover and so, there are going to be fans who are confused, so I've put some basic terms to help you understand...

Stargate - A large circular device made of a special stone called naquadah that creates a wormhole through space allowing people and things to travel through space instantaneously and travel to other planets. The Goa'uld call them "chaapa'ai". Stargates are activated by DHD's.

DHD - Dial Home Device - a console like object that is found near Stargates to "dial" the addresses of other Stargates to allow travel. The Goa'uld term for this is unknown.

Goa'uld - A species of intelligent, advanced snake-like aliens that enter and take over the bodies of humans and other species and take complete control of them. They steal knowledge, hosts, and technology whenever they can. They seek to dominate everything. They are the main nemesis of the SG-1 universe. The Goa'uld once came to Earth and took humans away as slaves, and many of the gods/goddesses in Egyptian and other mythology were actually Goa'uld. The god Ra, for instance, was a Goa'uld. The beings the Goa'uld take over are called "hosts". They are served by aliens called "Jaffa" who believe they are gods and carry the larval form of their species inside a special pouch in their bodies. Jaffa, for the most part, look and act like people. Except they do not sleep as we do, they kel'no'reem and having a larval Goa'uld in their bodies means they are in perfect health, as the larva or "symbiote" heals them. If a Jaffa is without a symbiote, then the Jaffa's immune system shuts down and it dies.

Tok'ra - An organization of symbiotes who have broken off from regular Goa'uld and believe in freedom and are currently fighting the Goa'uld. They take willing hosts and share control of the body with the host. They are allies of Earth.

Tau'ri - What aliens call us humans on Earth.

Hok'taur - A slang Goa'uld expression. Hok meaning advanced. Taur coming from Tau'ri, meaning advanced human. A Goa'uld term referring to Tomorrow People.

Symbiotic voice - When a Goa'uld speaks through a host, the voice becomes inhuman and deep, very warped. It's a very distinct sound, unmistakable. Also, the eyes glow a strange amber color sometimes.

Ancients - A race of very advanced humans that have disappeared from our part of the galaxy. They built the network of Stargates, along with very advanced technologies that SG-1 is seeking. They are also the ones who sent the Ship to guide and protect the Tomorrow People (hok'taur)

Spaceship - An intelligent, living ship sent by aliens thousands of years ago to wait for Tomorrow People to evolve on Earth. In this universe, there are many Ships (although there was only *one* in the series) and they were built by the Ancients. Each Ship contains a Stargate.

Mind Trawl - A device in the Spaceship that allows the TP to amplify their powers and go into stasis. Basically it's an overglorified see saw that pivots around in a circle, putting the TP into a sort of sleep/lull.

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Chapter One: Harbinger and Herald

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The coughing would get her caught, that's just how loud it was. Yatiya curled down in on herself and tried to silence the storm within her lungs. It burned to breathe in the sharp, cold air. She felt nauseous, even though she hadn't eaten for the last two days. No doubt that whatever has killing the symbiote with in her, Vayan, was also poisoning her. She thought about going to the slave encampments, perhaps scavenging food, asking for medicine, but anything that might give her away to Ma'at was too risky.

She'd lost her fellow operative Esro two days ago. The slaves here were, relatively, well treated. Beaten, starved, overworked, yes. But given what other false Goa'uld gods were capable of, Ma'at was downright benevolent. And her slaves were eager to keep it that way. They didn't bother asking questions of Esro. They took him to Ma'at's temple, tied up and gagged. From a distance, Yatiya saw Ma'at's ship coming

Yatiya was face down on the ground, breathing in the dust from the ground. The dirt was rough and scraped at her even though she didn't move. It burned. They weren't sick at first, when they came to the planet, it took a few hours before they had headaches and their ears rung. Esro said to turn back then, but Yatiya had told him no. Whatever they had, they might spread to others. They would have to stay and find out why they were sick.

And while they were trapped, they might as well complete their mission.

Yatiya saw the chaapa'ai was within sight, but she couldn't move. Her legs and arms felt too heavy.

There was a loud wail from the sky and light as something burned and descended to the ground. A ship. Perhaps Olokun or Shiva's. They both had discovered Ma'at's secret a few months ago, only a little while after the Tok'ra had.

Yatiya tightened her grip on the stolen crystal.

Ma'at had a planet full of precious, high-grade naquadah. A planet that no Goa'uld before her had ever been able to take hold of. Somehow, she held the one million human inhabitants of that planet in slavery, putting a select few in charge of others.

But not once had Yatiya seen signs of Ma'at's Jaffa army. In fact, Yatiya had not seen any Jaffa, and she had traveled two days from the gate. Past two major slave encampments. The natives called them pits. The Reion pit and the Unrentrai pit. The two largest mining centers on the entire planet and Ma'at had not seen fit to send even one Jaffa to watch over such a precious commodity.

Nothing on this strange, treacherous planet made any sense. Least of all Ma'at's actions. Her fleets were no where near this planet, they were out in space. It was as though she felt no threat from anyone landing on the planet.

In the two-thousand years that Ma'at had held Aslang in her grip, not once had there been any significant invasions. There had been attempts. Ra. Seth. Apophis, even. And all had turned away after only a short encounter, as though writing the planet off as too costly. And Ma'at did not possess a large or particularly strong army. Her fleet was mediocre at best, made up of older ships or ships that she had stolen from other Goa'uld. It could not have been a military victory.

Whatever Ma'at was doing, it was deliberate and ruthlessly effective. Two-thousand years of unchallenged and uninterrupted rule was an accomplishment. She defied typical Goa'uld ambition. She had enough naquadah at her disposal to cause a real upset in the Goa'uld power structure. Yet, she did not put herself into play, making false alliances and swallowing up smaller armies. Ma'at had remained quiet, allowing herself to fade into the shadows and become only a whisper, a rumor among the gods.

Until seven months ago, when one of Ba'al's ships, damaged from battle, had been forced to crash land on the planet. A thousand Jaffa were on that ship. And when the ship was returned to Ba'al, there were no signs of any battle. Not one shot had been fired. Only a thousand dead Jaffa in a giant coffin, and a captured slave, still alive, still shackled in a holding cell. It was as though a shadow had passed through the ship and ripped the breath from the Jaffa where they stood.

This quiet mass murder had not gone unnoticed by the Tok'ra. Such a stealthy, effective means of eliminating the enemy could prove valuable. And a defense against it even more so.

Hence the crystal that Yatiya held. The point of it dug into her collarbone.

She knew now why Ma'at went uncontested. Because everything on this planet was poison. The water, the air, the soil. The true miracle was not how her enemies had been killed, but how she had lived. The wonder was how her slaves survived when it was apparent that the trees, the grass, and the birds could barely eke out a niche in such a hostile environment.

Yatiya rolled over and wheezed, loud and sharp. Another bright streak lit a burning path across the sky. She rolled over once more and despite the fact that she couldn't breathe nearly enough, she got up. Staggering, she reached the stargate and managed to dial before she sunk down onto the ground, staring into the bright, shimmering event horizon.

She reached into her pack and pulled out an extra shirt she'd brought along. She wrapped the crystal in it and tied it with her belt. Yatiya grunted and forced her arms to be strong enough to press the band around her wrist and transmit the code to open the barrier at the other side, on the Tok'ra base.

Yatiya made one desperate toss, and using the last of her breath and her strength, threw the crystal through the stargate. Once she saw the ripples she laid her head down on the ground and coughed as loudly as she needed to. It didn't matter now. She was going to die anyway.

****

"An operative threw it through the 'gate, to our base on Tretos, just before she and her symbiote both died," said Jacob Carter, placing the red crystal in the middle of the briefing room table. "Or so we assume."

"What does it say?" asked Carter, picking it up.

"It's incomplete," said Jacob. "But it's also the most information we've been able to acquire about Ma'at. Until now we weren't sure she even existed."

"Ma'at? The goddess of truth and justice?" Daniel asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Never heard of her," Jack said, casually swiping the crystal from Carter. "So what's on the crystal?"

"As I said, it's incomplete. Most of it seems to be instructions to priests on how to perform rituals. Although there are some texts which are direct sermons from Ma'at. They're instructions to her servants."

"And that takes up a whole crystal?" Jack asked, turning it over in his hand. "Kinda preachy, isn't she?"

"The interesting thing is a sermon in which Ma'at promises to protect those who follow her. I thought you should see it," said Jacob. The lights were dimmed and the crystal placed in a special device that projected it onto the wall.

A beautiful blonde haired woman, wearing white linen and silver jewelry, with a large feather in her headdress, with a feather necklace, appeared before them.

"Oh, my loyal servants!" said Ma'at, raising her arms, "You who have served me and obeyed my laws, I tell you this now. There are many evil gods who would wish to take you from me, who would wish to take my throne and all that is rightfully mine! They will send armies upon you, they will come bringing fire. You will see things terrible to tell, but they will never over take you. For, I, Ma'at, your goddess, will come upon them with an awesome and silent retribution. And they will cry out in their sleep, their children will wither and perish. For I will send ah'maith upon them. You will watch my enemies fall, trembling and spitting blood upon the ground. And if you are truly one of my servants, the plague will never harm you. For I am the bringer of justice and will know who has been loyal."

The recording ended and the lights came back up.

"Well, I wouldn't give her an Oscar for it," Jack said, offhandedly. Teal'c cocked an eyebrow.

"That would be most unfortunate for the Oscar," Teal'c commented and got a squint and a smile from both Major Carter and Colonel O'Neill.

"Ah'maith, that's a Goa'uld term that means the gods' plague, right?" Daniel asked, leaning in.

"I have heard of this, but thought it was only a myth," Teal'c added.

"That's about as much as we know," said Jacob.

Anise took the crystal out of the player and said in her deep symbiotic voice, "We do know that no Jaffa has returned from that planet alive. We have sent mechanical probes, but we have been unable to detect any foreign substance in the air, water, or soil that might account for the deaths of our operatives and the Jaffa aboard Ba'al's ship. We suspect, however, that this ah'maith may be the result of some technology Ma'at possesses. Our best guess is that it is an advanced energy-based weapon that leaves no detectable marks upon the body."

"So you want us to go find it?" Jack asked, giving Anise a glaring look.

"Yes. We would also like for you to take Teal'c with you. I do not believe that there is any such plague, although some on the Tok'ra high council do. If Teal'c does return from the planet unharmed, it will prove my theory that Ma'at is indeed in possession of new technology. Technology that we of course, would be willing to share with the Tau'ri."

Jack answered with a terse, "How nice of you."

"I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with sending SG-1 onto this planet without knowing why it's so important to the Tok'ra," Hammond told Anise. Anise and Jacob exchanged glances at each other, as if to ask the question 'should we tell them?'

"The amount of high-grade naquadah on the planet makes it very valuable, especially to any system lord who can manage to take it from Ma'at. Right now, we know that Ba'al is mounting a serious effort to invade. There are also rumors that Ma'at is in possession of a stable isotope of naquadria," Jacob sat back in his chair, looking at Hammond. General Hammond was silent, his eyes going over both SG-1 and Anise.

"General, I realize you are loathe to send your people into danger, but the amount of naquadah on this planet could give the Tok'ra an enormous advantage in our struggle against the Goa'uld. We would also be willing to share the naquadah with you," Anise said, putting her hands in front of her, neatly folded. She cocked her head not quite humanly.

"The naquadah is secondary," Jacob said as he looked Hammond directly in the eyes. "The method Ma'at is using to kill the Jaffa and our operatives is what's important."

"So, the ah'maith that she has is just a bigger, better gun," Jack retorted. "I don't see how that justifies us going on to a Goa'uld occupied planet, asking for trouble."

Jacob looked up at Anise and nodded. "Show them."

Anise sighed as though she was hoping she wouldn't have to. Jacob handed her a smaller yellow crystal from a pouch on his uniform, and she placed it in the player.

"This is one of Ba'al's ships that was found drifting off-course, about eight-light years from planet Narishk. There were one-thousand and one occupants. A thousand Jaffa and one single human prisoner."

"Okay, and?" Jack asked with a snide shake of his head and expectant frown.

"Every one of the Jaffa were dead. There were no signs the ship had been invaded and there were no shots fired. We found no indication that the Jaffa mounted any resistance to whatever caused their demise. We have been unable to ascertain how the Jaffa were killed, only that their deaths were sudden and unexpected. The human prisoner, however, was alive. He later escaped our custody, but was unable to tell us what killed the Jaffa. He only reported that gradually the ship became quiet and he was no longer being interrogated."

Anise took the crystal from the player and handed it back to Jacob.

"My god," Sam said, staring off into space for a moment. "What could do something like that?"

"We don't know, that's why we're asking you for help," Jacob replied. Again, he looked into Hammond's eyes, as though he were not speaking Tok'ra to Tau'ri, but general to general. Man to man.

Hammond's nod signaled that they had convinced him.

****

Jack tightened the velcro on his fingerless gloves and did a mental check of all the equipment he was carrying.

"You tell me if you feel *anything*," he said to Teal'c, looking at the Jaffa who stood stoically before the Stargate.

"I do not think that there is anything to fear on this planet. The ah'maith is merely a myth. And I no longer carry a symbiote," Teal'c responded. It wasn't a yes, but then again, Jack had never really had a reason to believe Teal'c wouldn't comply with a simple request. He had, after all, complied with some rather difficult ones in the past.

"Killing a thousand Jaffa in one fell swoop isn't *nothing*," Daniel reminded him.

"It might have been a non-persistent gas," Carter said, straightening the strap on her P-90.

"But then why didn't it kill the one prisoner?" Daniel asked her.

"I don't know," Carter answered. "I said *might*."

"A little might goes a long way," Jack reminded her as the gate technician called out the chevrons locking on the gate. "And who goes to a planet with a thousand Jaffa and only takes one prisoner?"

"That, too, is curious," Teal'c admitted.

"That's why we don't bring cats," Jack muttered, walking up the ramp into the shimmering event horizon. "Welcome to PL-Niner-Niner-Eight-One. This is your colonel speaking. It's a balmy..."

O'Neill looked up into the sky and was hit by falling snowflakes.

"It's a little below freezing, sir," said Carter. She was squinting in the dim light.

"How ya feelin' Teal'c," asked O'Neill, looking over at Teal'c, who stood stoically in the snow.

"I feel fine," Teal'c answered with a slow nod.

"All right, Carter, what first?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said, looking around. "Colonel, I don't feel so well."

"Carter?" Jack asked and very slowly made his way over to her.

"My ears are ringing, sir," she said, bending down to brace herself on her knees. "I think I'm -"

She was cut off by a powerful heave that left a mess on Colonel O'Neill's boots.

"Hoah!" O'Neill shouted, looking down with a wince at his boots. "Thanks for warning me before you fired that one off."

Carter would have said something, but she was busy heaving again.

"Daniel, tell General Hammond and Dr. Fraiser what's happened," O'Neill said, looking over his shoulder at Daniel who was standing around wincing sympathetically at the plight of Colonel O'Neill's boots.

****

They were from Earth. They spoke her kind of language. English. It was beautiful to hear, after years of strange sounding language that sometimes she didn't understand at all.

The English was almost enough to make her come out of her hiding place, waving her arms, screaming, "I'm an American!". Still, she didn't trust her own ears. What she did trust, though, were her eyes. These people wore military uniforms and carried guns. Double bonus that she knew from the get-go they were USAF. She even recognized the names of the ranks on them, on two of them at least. A major and a colonel. There was a time when she used to think that colonel was someone's first name. That a lot of people named their children major or captain. These are my kids, Steve, Ryan and Major. Until someone explained it.

"Colonels are these guys. They call them that so everyone knows that they're the boss. And majors have these stars and colonels have birds," a male voice said from her memory. Oh, yes, she remembered, her father. In the kitchen of the new house on a new base, holding her to his side, while she laid her head on his shoulder and smelled his cologne. He was muscular and warm. He was explaining why he had to be extra nice to a man he didn't like. And for a long time, she wondered if perhaps, if she could get some birds or stars like that she could order her daddy to stay home and play. And then she could give them to him and he wouldn't have to be nice to people he didn't like.

Elise was usually much better at paying attention, at staying out of her own mind. Most days, especially lately, she was very good about keeping her hand out of the huge jar of dangerously bittersweet memories in her head. Only, she had been out there for three days, in the cold, eating the sour roots of and sleeping under piles of itchy leaves.

And there were no more sour roots to eat. She would either have to return to Unrentrai to have the tendons above her heels slit for attempting to escape or starve where she was. It wasn't something she was prepared to deal with. If she'd thought about it thoroughly, she wouldn't have left the pit in the first place.

Until the chaapa'ai had lit up and the blonde woman (major, who isn't as good a colonel, but daddy *still* has to be nice to them), got sick. Elise knew then that they'd have to go back to Earth.

This was a move that had been thirteen years in the making. Elise just hoped she could gather her scattered mind together just long enough to make a run for the chaapa'ai. She didn't know how she was going to get home once she followed them, because the military wasn't just going to let her go home without asking some serious questions about how she'd gotten there. Fine, let them. Three hots and cot for her. There's a law about that. If the enemy catches you, they still have to be nice to you. Three hots and a cot. She knew this was a fact, her daddy said it was.

Elise *wanted* to pay attention. She wanted to focus, but there were too many triggers all around her. She was being bombarded with far too much emotion. The most dangerous was hope. Elise had learned long ago that hope was merely what desperation looked like in the dark. Knowing this, she still couldn't turn away.

"Hammond's recalling us, once Sam can move," said the man returning through the chaapa'ai. The shimmering light shut off and the woman continued to heave. "Janet's waiting on the other side for us."

The gray-haired colonel mumbled something. Elise fisted clumps of weeds and kept telling herself 'wait for it, wait for it', in Tivenia's croaky, low voice. Tivenia taught her survive a fight that way, to catch small animals, to escape a mine collapse. Elise never understood what she was supposed to wait for. She only knew that somehow, Tivenia always let go of her shirt the exact same moment that she made a run for it.

The chaapa'ai lit up once more with a fantastic explosion from the center, while Elise watched with fascination how effortlessly one of the military men activated it. As though they understood it. Elise questioned, for a moment, if they really were from Earth. She'd been there, a long time ago, grown up there, and never once had she ever heard of a chaapa'ai. How could anyone keep that a secret? But perhaps in the years since, they'd built one.

She ignored the incessant fear that the Earth she was returning to might be worse than Aslang. It was Earth. That would have to be enough.

Should she think about this? Wait to see if they came back? Approach them?

No. Tivenia's voice in her head was firm. Wait for it. Wait for *it*.

"Daniel Jackson, I-" said the man who was holding a strange stick in one hand. He didn't finish because he was laying on the ground, face down.

Once the man who had activated the Stargate went to check on the fallen man, and the one who had been by the woman joined him, Elise felt like Tivenia had let go of her shirt. This was *it*. She had waited for it, and it was time to go.

Elise ran as though her body were meant only to make this one run. She knocked the blonde woman over completely and leapt blindly into the shining wormhole. The colors, swirls, and light ran past her too fast for her to understand anything except the hard impact on something metal that rattled slightly.

A moment later the light rippled and one of the men came through. Elise rolled over and scrambled down the metal ramp only to hear the sickening clicks of guns being armed. She managed to cover her head before she fell forward and smacked the ramp with her face.

"She just ran through!" someone screamed, a moment before Elise lost consciousness at the foot of the ramp.

*****

"Adam, Adam," Ami's gentle voice stirred Adam out of sleep and he opened his eyes to see her face, illuminated only by the moonlight from the open window. Her dark eyes were sparkling, staring down at him. She was wearing a sleeveless white top and beige linen pajama bottoms. She kept her hand on his arm and crouched by his bed.

"Ami?" he asked and sat up, rubbing his eyes. "What's wrong?"

Ami sat on the bed and for a long time just sat there, her hands folded in her lap. She couldn't really talk about it, not right then. Adam understood this. Sometimes what she saw was too powerful and she's had to catch up to it. So Adam gently coaxed her on to the bed, and puts and arm around her. Another part of being a Tomorrow Person. No need for awkwardness, if there was anything not innocent, they'd both have known it by then. But this was pure, one soul seeking the comfort of another who'd been down the same roads, and knew the toll it could take. Adam rubbed Ami's back saying nothing, just giving her time and reassurance.

"I had the same dream I've been having for three nights," Ami finally told him. Her voice was very far away, like she was narrating.

She opened her shields a little, showed Adam the first flash. Mud, a terrible stench, a scream and people dressed in dirty rags, digging. Then the shields closed again, not because Ami didn't want to share, but for Adam's protection. What Ami saw was vivid, captivating, horrifying, and overwhelming. Adam was strong, and maybe he could have held on if she opened a little more. But he didn't have Ami's resilience, her ability to see and know and keep going anyway. If she opened the floodgates, he'd get swept away.

"Why didn't you tell me then?" he answered, getting a little closer. Ami was shaking and Adam wanted to wrap her up in his arms and tell her he'd fix everything. Ami, however, didn't work like that. She was a problem solver by nature, and nothing Adam did would have helped her in the end. She had to wade through it herself, and she came to him not for an answer, but just so that someone would be there, so she wouldn't have to walk her path alone.

The second flash came. A circle of shimmering water, inside a room of the Ship that Adam had assumed was permanently cut off. The water was alight and spitting out some kind of shining liquid, like an explosion underwater.

"Because I didn't want to worry you, I can't come crawling into your bed every time I have a bad dream," she told him, and there it was. Pride. Ami was a proud woman, determined not to fail herself, her family, or her friends. The same Ami that didn't sleep for almost three days while they tried to untangle the web between Lucy, Colonel Cobb, and the weather machine that could have destroyed everything.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," he answered with mock-sensuality and a soft laugh. He knew she was rolling her eyes even if she was turned away from him. And he knew she was smiling in the darkness. She took a deep breath and warned him that another flash was coming on.

Third flash. A windowless room of concrete, with only a mirror and a hospital bed. A female doctor came in wearing a facemask, writing on a chart. She was asking strange questions. She drew blood through a needle. Time passed and the lights went out and for a long time, Ami's vision was of a person looking into darkness, seeing little points of light behind a two-way mirror.

"I think that it's underground or somewhere deep," Ami noted, her voice still distant, but curious. "In America."

"There's only a few hundred of those in America," Adam said, kind of smiling. "If we start now, General Damon can finish up for us by the time he retires."

Yes, Megabyte would be more than proud.

"General," Ami mumbled, sitting straight up all of the sudden. Adam tried to figure out what he said, or if it was anything he said, that made the lights go on in Ami's head. She turned on his bedside lamp (and he noted absently, that it was a bit scary that she just automatically knew where it was) and stood beside his bed, pacing, holding her head, obviously coping with a flood of answers that was coming to her. "The woman, she knows the military ranks. That's why she isn't that frightened. And it's got something to do with why she went through the big circle hole thing, you know, that had the blue stuff that flushed sideways, like a toilet."

Adam blinks, and really likes that description. It *does* flush sideways.

"Go on," he prompted. "What else did you see?"

"The uniforms!" Ami shouts, waving her arms. "They were wearing green uniforms!"

Adam blinked and looked at Ami, who was very excited and looking at him as if to say, 'don't you think this is great?'.

"Green could be anyone, including an armada of Irish leprechauns and who exactly are we talking about here?" asked Adam and Ami's joy deflated, like a balloon losing air.

"Oh," she answered. All the intuitive power in the world, and she still came up short on practical details.

"Wait," Adam said. "We could do a mind merge."

[Megabyte, Jade, ] Adam telepathed, a strong, clear call like a trumpet sounding for battle. He was glad for once that Megabyte and Jade were in the same place every night. It made things a lot easier, actually.

[It's three in the morning, Adam,] Megabyte reminded him, angrily.

[I know, but Ami's had a dream,] Adam told him.

[Good for her. Let us know how to turns out,] Jade projected, equally as put out with Adam as Megabyte was.

[I know it's late at night, but this is important. Someone needs our help,] Ami begged. [Please, I wouldn't ask this if it wasn't important.]

There was only from Megabyte and Jade, who were probably debating where to hide the bodies of their friends after they throttled them.

[Now I know why TP can't kill,] Megabyte said, clear he'd given in. Adam sensed a deep weariness behind his default humor. It wasn't just being woken up, but perhaps a weariness with Adam, with Ami, with being dragged along all the time.

"He's just grumpy in the mornings," Ami said, reading the look on Adam's face. Adam nodded and stored it away for later.

When they finally all got to the ship, Megabyte looked like hell. He wasn't shaven, his hair was a mess, and he's had puffy circles under his eyes.

They mind merged easily, and Ami's floodgates finally came open. This time there were three of them to stand shoulder to shoulder in it all, to wade through and find what clues they could.

Even in a mind merge, a lot of it got lost, mostly because what Ami received wasn't exactly coherent. Whoever or whatever sent it wasn't all there. There was a pain in Ami's chest that isn't hers, they all felt it recoil through them. They also felt the fear and dogged coolness of the room.

The mind merge broke and Ami sat back, the exhaustion finally catching up with her. Jade curled one arm around Ami and Ami laid her head on Jade's shoulder, like a sister.

"Is she a Tomorrow Person?" asked Megabyte, his face on his palms.

"What else would she be?" Adam answered, and he noticed he was the only one standing. "I know she's a bit older than we were when we broke out, but perhaps there's a reason for that. She's sending us telepathic messages. Jade did that just before she broke out. So did Ami for that matter."

Both girls smiled.

"If I could only get a closer look at those uniforms," Ami said and then yawned.

"My dad can tell us what they are," Megabyte replied and slid off of the perch where he'd been sitting, and added, pointedly, "In the morning. I'm going to bed."

====

Chapter Two: A Time To Gather Stones

=====

Dr. Fraiser's voice buzzed above Teal'c head, much like a fly on a hot day. The dull ache in his side was slowly becoming more persistent. His eyes finally focused and he noticed that Fraiser was wearing a mask over her face. He turned his head slightly and realized that it was not the infirmary, but an isolation room. Carter lay on a bed beside him, while Daniel Jackson and O'Neill sat on beds across an aisle. They looked bored and frustrated.

"Teal'c?" Dr. Fraiser said, looking down at him. "How are you feeling?"

"I do not feel well, Dr. Fraiser," Teal'c answered. "What has happened to me?"

"We aren't entirely sure yet," Fraiser told him, writing something on her chart. "What did you feel before you passed out?"

"I felt well until I became unconscious. Major Carter, however, was quite ill."

"That's putting it lightly," said O'Neill from the bed across the aisle. "Come on, Fraiser, we're just fine!"

"Colonel!" Fraiser said, insistently turning on heel. "Despite your attempts to make yourself the *worst* patient I have ever treated, until I can be sure that you're not contagious, you're staying right here."

"We're not contagious!" said O'Neill. "It's just...some kind of flu."

"I've never heard of a flu that strikes two people down at exactly the same time," Fraiser retorted, snapping the chart shut.

"Then ah'maith is not a myth," Teal'c inquired silently, looking up into Fraiser's eyes for some indication of his fate.

"There is no such thing as a-mat . It could be food poisoning!" O'Neill insisted. "It could be the yogurt. I knew there was a reason I didn't like that stuff.

"I'm not so sure, Jack," said Daniel, putting his pen into a book and closing it. "I had the yogurt and I'm fine. But, I've been doing some reading."

"Oh, here we go," Jack murmured, rubbing the bridge of his nose as though he had a headache.

"Ma'at is depicted in mythology as having been a force for order against chaos. She's also shown as being the one to decide where the souls of the dead were sent. I've also been looking at Tok'ra records and I think that Ma'at may have been a kind of slave trader, when humans were first taken as hosts," Daniel said, throwing his legs over the side and gesturing as though he couldn't quite get the words out that he wanted to. "I also see indications that she may have acted as an arbitrator between the Goa'uld."

"This is *so* fascinating, and I love a good bedtime story as much as the next boneheaded Colonel, but how do we get from there to the naquadah and a matt?" O'Neill asked stretching out on the bed with his hands behind his head.

"Ah'maith," Daniel corrected, quickly. "Those who were judged to be unworthy were sent to be devoured by Am'mat, who was a demon-goddess. I think that this demon- goddess may be the origin of ah'maith. So perhaps it isn't really a plague at all."

"Then what is it?" Jack asked, staring at the ceiling. "It's a bird. It's a demon- goddess. It's a plague. No. It's a *mot*."

Daniel tried not to smile, but did anyway.

"What happened to the woman that followed us through?" he asked as Fraiser was about to leave.

"She's in the next isolation room," Fraiser answered. "She hasn't said anything, and she's been in out of consciousness. So far all I've been able to find is a moderate upper-respiratory infection and she was dehydrated and hypothermic when she came in."

"You think she's this a-mot demon-goddess thingie that's making Carter and Teal'c sick?" Jack asked, looking over at Daniel.

"I don't think so," Fraiser said and smiled at Daniel who made a slightly disappointed face. "And try to get some sleep. It makes the time go faster."

Daniel smiled and Jack rolled over as if he might just comply.

****

It was just like being ten again, laying in bed, crying as quietly as possibly into the blankets. It was shameful, that after everything, she'd cry because they left her alone in a strange room. She hadn't cried like this in years, not since she'd left Earth for the first time. At least then she'd had the excuse of being ten and on a strange planet, unsure of how she got there or if she'd ever get back.

Now she could only blame her own weakness. It was really amazing, how all they had to do was put her in a room by herself and only allow a doctor or nurse to come in every once and a while, and she'd fall to pieces. She'd even do stupid things, like asking the doctor what her rank was. And then even stupider, giving off a proud show of her knowledge of military ranks to the doctor just to make some kind of connection with another human being.

Anything just to talk to someone.

They were probably scouring records, looking for her face in computers and file folders. And Elise was frightened that they might discover who her father was. She knew very well that if they found out who her father was, that they'd court martial him, possibly jail him. They'd have to blame him for what happened to her. They wouldn't believe the truth.

Elise didn't believe the truth. In fact, she'd spent a great many years actively denying what had happened. Her cover story was a knee-jerk reaction to her. My name is Elise and I am from the Neros pit, which is a long way away from here. Tivenia had come up with that explanation for her, when she needed to explain why she talked and acted so differently. Why her name was strange, why she didn't have the right markings on her body. Why she was so physically aloof, never hugging or touching nearly as much as other slaves did.

She could always say "That's what we do in the Neros pit."

Elise wasn't completely sure why she hadn't just told them that. Just said that she was an escaped slave, that she sought refuge on Earth. In fact, Elise wasn't sure why she still wasn't telling them that. Surely she could try to garner some kind of sympathy, from the doctor at least. Only, then the flood of questions would come. What are you escaping from? Where's your family? How did you escape from the pit? Why is your name an Earth name?

Maybe she could lie her way through them all. Only, she didn't think so.

All she wanted was to go home, to tell her parents she was alive. Then it would be okay. She could try to make up for all she'd lost, go back to school (although she had ridiculous thoughts about being twenty-four and in a third-grader's child-sized desk, writing with one of those large, colorful pencils that little children had).

Elise could see it. She'd knock on the door and they'd recognize her. They'd hug and her mother would cry. She'd lean into her father's shoulder and he'd smell like a man with his cologne and sweat. She wondered if her dad would be bald or gray by now, if her mom would be wrinkled and old.

They'd be in their forties by now. That wasn't that old. They were younger than she was when they'd had her. It was somehow ironic, that she was now older than her parents were when they'd become her parents. Strange to think that at one time, they'd been just Charles Kawalsky and Diane Ling.

Elise wondered if they'd gone back to that, since she'd left. If they'd tried to have other kids.

She touched the scar on her arm and took the pillow in fists. It didn't matter now. Soon enough she'd see her parents and whether they were wrinkled, gray, or just the same as she left them, it would be okay. Whatever happened on Aslang could just disappear. Nobody had to know. She could tell them anything, that an evil man had kidnapped her and she'd finally, after all these years, escaped and come home.

If she could just get the military to let her go, it would all be over. It was all so close that she could almost reach out and touch it. She was going to do this, it was going to work.

All she had to do was stop crying like a baby in the darkness and pull herself together.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked the guard outside the door. He had a kind, booming Southern accented voice. Southern accent like her grandmother. Elise debated the merits of telling her that she wanted her mommy. It was, after all, the truth.

"I'm fine," she said in such a faltering voice that she barely understood herself. She sniffled big and wiped her nose with the back of her arm with frustration. It only made her crying jag go on longer until she fell asleep.

****

General Damon was lucky that they called first, because his coffee was scalding hot and he'd probably spill it in his lap if they teleported in. So he put his coffee on his desk and backed away from it. And waited.

Even though he'd been expecting it, it still shocked him when four of them arrived all at once in his office. He grabbed the edge of his desk, and made an angry face. Yes, he was getting too old for any of this. In fact, he passed the 'too-old' mark way back in the mid-90's. Now he was too old and too busy for this.

"What can I do you for?" he asked, calmly reapproaching his coffee. He hadn't spilt it yet, and any day when he managed not to spill coffee and ruin a valuable, classified document was a good day in his book. Especially if it involved teleporters.

"We need to look at uniforms," said Ami, urgently. General Damon looked at them and raised his eyebrows.

"You know, the army only gives those out if you sign up," General Damon replied, still giving them a confused look.

"No, Dad, Ami saw a military uniform in a dream and we need to figure out which one it is," Megabyte explained, testily. "It's important."

"Is it ever not?" General Damon asked and turned to his phone. Megabyte nodded in agreement. "Okay, first, what color was it?"

"Green! So does that mean they're army?" Ami answers, still not getting that General Damon has absolutely no idea. She was too used to him being quick on the uptake.

"Green. That's narrows it down to the entire military," Damon answered, a smile on his face, only half-regretting how much he sounded like Megabyte.

"That's what I said," Adam answered, smiling back. "What we know is that the woman who projected it saw green uniforms and Ami got an impression of slaves, of something very bad happening."

Damon's eyebrows lowered and he looked at all of the Tomorrow People like they'd turned into aliens. "Okay. Slaves. You had me there with the dream and the green uniforms. But slaves? And who exactly are these slaves, where are they, and who *exactly* is holding them in bondage?"

"We don't know yet," said Ami, sitting in front of Damon's desk. "But really, General, we're not making this up."

"No, I don't think you *could* make this up," Damon conceded. "Describe the uniform for me."

"Green, like we said, and they had all these things on their uniforms, that were strapped around their legs and arms. And they had patches on the side, round ones. They had black vests," Adam explained.

"It's a field uniform, which doesn't help that much. But if you could draw these patches, it would make my life a lot easier," Damon told them. He took out a legal pad and a pen and handed them to Adam. Adam thought about it for a few seconds and began to scribble. When he was done, he gave the paper to Damon who stared at it with a very displeased, uncomfortable look on his face. "Is there anything else you can give me."

"The big circle that flushes sideways!" Jade piped in. "Show him the big circle."

Damon already knew at that point that when Adam drew on the other side of the paper, he was going to draw a Stargate. He wanted him to draw anything else, a gun, a tank, a circle of missiles, anything that wasn't a Stargate. He was officially too old, too tired, and too over his head for any of it. He should have retired ten years ago. In fact, as Adam sketched the Stargate in disturbing (and classified) detail, he regretted his entire military career. Right about then he could really have gone for being a dentist, or a doctor, or a lawyer, or a guy working in a factory.

Anyone but the man who would have to march up General Hammond and demand they turn over someone who had obviously breeched *their* security, and give that person into his custody in good (and very blind) faith. Knowing that once they did, they wouldn't see that person again, ever.

He respected that they had a very large, very disturbing secret on their hands, one that was best kept as secret as possible. The government was completely correct to keep it hidden from the public. Nobody *needed* to know about the Stargate.

"You know what it is," said Adam, and General Damon knew that he'd better surrender right then. Because Adam was like a shark who'd smelled blood in the water. There was no stopping him now. Any of them. The only thing left to Damon was to make it all as clean and painless as possible.

"Yes, I do," he confirmed. "But why is this so important to you?"

"These people have got a Tomorrow Person in their custody, a Tomorrow Person who is calling us for help. We have to save her from them!" Jade pleaded, bracing on the side of the desk. "I know this is a lot to ask, but how long will it be until they find out what she is? And coming looking for us, for *you*? You have to get her out of there."

Damon nodded and the word "touché" had been invented for the look on his face.

"It isn't *that* simple, I can't just say 'give her to me'. This will have to go through the Pentagon, through the proper channels. People will ask a lot of questions. This project is too valuable for them to just let her go."

"What kind of a project is it? Something that experiments on Tomorrow People, like what Galt and Masters were doing?" Megabyte asked, and the accusations in his voice cut deep at Damon.

"No," Damon replied, dismissively, as though the barbs in his son's words never existed. "It's likely that if they do have her, they have no idea who or what she is. The only reason that they would have her in custody is if she breeched their security. I know these people, and they don't go looking for trouble."

Ami rolls her eyes and leans on General Damon's desk. "Neither did she. But now it's happened. And if you can't help us, we'll have to do it ourselves."

There was no threat in Ami's tone, but Damon knew that it was his one and only warning.

"There might be a way," Damon told her. "But it will take time. While she's there, she's perfectly safe. In fact, right now, that might be the only safe place for her."

"What do you mean?" asked Adam, squinting at Damon as though he was suddenly very small.

"If she's used her powers, they'll *have* report it to their Pentagon liaison, and the NID has enough moles in that place to dig up the front lawn of the White House," Damon explained, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "And the NID is the current employer of our old friend Colonel Masters. Once he gets wind of this he'll go after her anyway he can. But as long as she stays with the SGC, he can't touch her."

"I don't get it, if the NID can get into the Pentagon, why can't they get into this SGC thing you're talking about?"

"The Stargate Command is one of the most well protected agencies on this planet."

"What does it *do*?" Jade asked.

"The Stargate is a device that was discovered that allows people to travel across the galaxy, to other planets, just like *that*," Damon said, snapping his fingers. "As quickly as you teleport."

"Is that even physically possible?" Megabyte wondered, looking at the others.

"Teleporting is, I don't see why that isn't," Adam replied, with a shrug. "How did you find out about it?"

"A couple of years ago, I had a Captain Astor working with me, who's sister worked in the SGC. Her sister, Lieutenant Astor, died of what they called an accidental self- inflicted gunshot wound when her service pistol discharged in her face. Apparently Lieutenant Astor had left a package to mailed to her sister in case of her death. And after someone killed Captain Astor, my people got to her apartment first and recovered the package," Damon told them, in a grim, thin voice. "In that package was a tape in which Lieutenant Astor explained to her sister what she was doing and why she could never tell anyone about it."

"So what are we going to do?" Ami asked.

"Cross our fingers," Damon said, looking at his phone. "A lot. If she hasn't used her powers yet, we're in luck. Let's just hope she's smart enough not to teleport in front of them."

"It would be easier if we could get a message to her," said Jade. She stood up straight and crossed her arms. "But if she hasn't broken out fully, yet, I don't know if we can."

"We can't, but, maybe," Megabyte said and then stopped. "I don't know if he'd do it."

"He *has* to," Ami insisted. "She needs our help."

"He'll do it," Adam

****

"I don't know if Sam's going to feel well enough to play chess today, honey," said Janet, looking at her daughter who cradled the folded chess set in her arms and stared at the window. "If she's not you can do your homework in my office until I can get someone to take you back."

"What's wrong with her?" Cassie asked, watching the carved out rock go by the window as the car spiraled up the mountain towards the facility.

"We don't really know yet," Janet answered, as honestly as she could. She knew there was no use lying to Cassie, especially when it came to Sam. Cassie knew that Sam took risks with her life, that she did dangerous work, but it never seemed to ease the pain when something happened and Sam showed up with bruises, broken bones, or ended up in the infirmary for a week or two at a time.

"Is she gonna die?" Cassie asked, suddenly tearing up.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Janet replied, reaching across and patting her daughter's knee.

Cassie said nothing else for the rest of the ride and was silent as they checked in and walked to the infirmary. She just held the chess game to her chest, and tried to act strong.

Once Cassie got in the infirmary she took small, slow steps towards Sam, even though she couldn't see her because of the curtain that had been half way pulled between her bed and Teal'c's. Cassie paused when she came to the foot of Teal'c's bed. He looked pale and so drained.

"Cassandra," he said, in a slow rumbly voice like an old car that wouldn't quite start. "It is good to see you well."

"Hey Teal'c," Cassie said, biting her own lip. "How are you feeling?"

"I will recover," he assured her, and closed his eyes again. Cassie looked back at her mom as if to ask if it was still okay and Janet nodded. Shyly she poked her head around the curtain and saw Daniel and Jack sitting on the bed across from hers, and Sam sitting up.

"Sam?" Cassie said, with a smile to see Sam sitting up and talking.

"Cassie, hey," Sam replied greeting her with a smile. Daniel and Jack both greeted her with smiles and a round of "heys".

"I brought the chess set," said Cassie, pulling the rolling table towards Sam. "It's Saturday."

"It's Saturday already?" Daniel asked, looking over at Jack.

"D'oh," Jack deadpanned, "I guess you missed Garfield."

Cassie smiled and set the chess set down.

"I'm not gonna go easy on you just because you're sick, either," Cassie said, smiling.

"I wouldn't want you to," Sam answered, with a smile as Cassie set up the chess set.

"I'll play the winner," Jack said, peering at the chessboard. Cassie made her first move and Sam looked at the board.

"Starting out tough, I see," said Sam, moving a pawn.

"Hey, Sam, we're going to go get something from the commissary, want us to bring you anything?" Daniel said, getting off the bed.

"No thanks," said Sam.

"You want anything, Cassie?" asked Jack.

"I'm fine," Cassie answered with a wave of her hand. Jack and Daniel left the two to play their game.

"So, Cassie," Sam said, "Janet tells me that you and Dominic are pretty serious."

"Yeah," Cassie admitted with a sheepish grin. "He gave me a necklace for Valentine's Day, see?"

Cassie lifted her chin to show off the little gold necklace with a small pink heart made of rose quartz on it that Dominic had given her. Sam touched it approvingly and went back to the chess set.

"Ooh, that's nice," Sam said, with a teasing leer in her voice.

"When are you going to get out of here?" asked Cassie, studying the chess board intently. She didn't notice that Sam hadn't answered until she looked up and saw Sam slumped over. "Sam?"

Cassie reached out and shook her and when she did, Sam started to jerk and convulse.

"Mom!" Cassie called out, running for the door, right into Daniel.

"Woah, Cassie, where's the --," Jack began but saw Sam shaking the bed with her convulsions. Jack darted to the bed, put his drink on the stand and held Sam's head back and tried to steady her. "Daniel, a little help here!"

Daniel tried to hold Sam down while they paged Dr. Fraiser. Cassie took feeble little steps towards Sam's bed, to watch like a compulsive voyeur. She was right behind Daniel, hugging herself while they tried to hold Sam down.

A strong arm reached out and grabbed her.

"Do not watch," said Teal'c, from his bed. He kept his giant, dark hand around her thin arm. Teal'c moved over on his bed to get closer. "Do not watch, Cassandra. Go."

Cassie kept on watching while the frantic tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Go!" Teal'c commanded and Cassie obeyed, dazedly. She ran for her mother's office and slammed the door behind her. She curled up on the couch in her mother's office, chin to her knees, sobbing.

It seemed eternity until Daniel finally came into her mother's office. She looked up at him with expectant, wide, teary eyes.

"Is she?" Cassie asked, her lips quivering while she waited on a knife's edge for Daniel's answer.

"She's stable now," he said in such a low, grave tone that Cassie burst out in tears. Daniel's face melted and he sat next to her on the couch. "She's going to be okay."

Cassie instinctively reached out and hugged tight to him, sobbing loudly into his shoulder, trembling.

"I don't want Sam to die!" she wailed. Daniel put his hand softly on her hair and rocked.

"Hey, calm down, calm down, it's okay," Daniel assured her. "Your mom won't let anything happen to Sam. None of us will. We'll go back, we'll fix this."

Daniel looked up to see Jack's face in the window of Dr. Fraiser's door.

The pain on his face was so evident, the way he looked so sick and lost, that Daniel felt his own throat get tight as he hugged Cassie closer.

====

Chapter Three: Reaching

======

So, they were coming to ask his help. Kevin knew they were coming. In fact, if they hadn't come to the conclusion to ask for his help, he would have gone to them. Knowing they were coming, he had tea on the stove. He could have made instant tea or even served soft drinks, but making tea the old fashioned way was soothing. Plus, it gave him something to do with himself while waiting.

The waiting was the worst, Kevin knew this. Too intimately. Elise knew this, too. Because while he fidgeted with tea, she sat in a strange military facility, frightened and unaware that she had the ability to be a Tomorrow Person. She hadn't been on Earth for a long time, and whatever happened to her off world had prevented her from breaking out.

At least he had the comfort of knowing she'd break out, eventually. She had no reassurances, only the promise that she might well never escape.

Right then, Kevin could imagine she was feeling very helpless and very desperate. He didn't even need to reach out to her mind to sense that. And for the moment, there was nothing that she could do about it.

General Damon would have to try to go through the front door, since the back, for now, was locked to him. Kevin knew he should have gone to them when he knew she came to Earth, because he felt her presence the moment she exploded through the circle (and her mind tells him "chaapa'ai", and even to her it sounds foreign). Kevin made excuses, he told himself that they wouldn't harm her. While they weren't torturing her, the psychological strain would grow. She'd eventually go crazy if they held her too long.

Adam's crackle and pop was the one he heard first. Then Megabyte, Ami, and Jade.

"Tea?" he asked them with a smile.

Even Megabyte didn't know what to make of his complete calm. And Kevin decided to help them out.

"So, you've finally come about Elise?" he said, gesturing to his couch, with a tone in his voice like he was about to spill all. In four seconds flat, the couch was crowded with four Tomorrow People who were staring wide-eyed at Kevin. Kevin just kept smiling.

"General Damon won't be able to help her without your help, Kevin," Adam said, staring up at Kevin. Kevin put a cup of warm tea in Megabyte's hands and went back to get another for Ami. He already knew that Jade and Adam wouldn't feel much like drinking anything, but Megabyte and Ami, would take anything caffeinated when they could get it.

One cup was all Kevin had clean, so he gave up on his own tea and handed the last cup to Ami. He saw Jade's head tilted, wondering why she had gotten left out of Kevin's little tea ceremony. He knew Adam was explaining, in his most private telepathic voice, that Kevin had already known she didn't want tea. Which might have just caused Jade to want some, which Kevin hadn't calculated for. But he couldn't have planned for everything.

Jade's momentary, careful examination of whether she would have asked for tea had Kevin offered amused him. He sat in a chair, across from the couch. Outside the window behind the couch, he saw the rain getting heavier. He noted this and thought that his poor flowers were going to drown. Yes, he was probably about five minutes from launching himself into a full scale emergency, but he'd really done well with that plant. He'd even gotten out on the fire escape and talked to it, which felt silly, but the plant had indeed responded.

"All right, Kevin, tell us what you know," Ami said gently, as though she was telling a toddler that playtime was over. Her dark eyes narrowed and looked him over. He liked how her mind felt, deep and warm, like a heavy, fur coat with satin lining, soft and beautiful and terribly costly. He saw knowledge in her eyes, his kind of knowledge.

"Can I have some more tea?" asked Megabyte, holding out his cup. Kevin was grateful for the reprieve and took it, going back to the kitchen to refill it again.

"Kevin," Ami called his name, that same gentle but prodding tone in her voice.

"Do you know what the military project is about?" asked Kevin, sitting down after he gave Megabyte the tea.

Adam took a big breath as though preparing for some Herculean task, "It's an Air Force operation, so he doesn't have as much pull as he'd like. There's this device called the Stargate that the military has built, and it allows people to travel from planet to planet instantaneously. Apparently the military has had it for sometime and is understandably protective," Adam informed Kevin. Kevin nodded.

"Not quite," Kevin told them, grinning once again. "The technology they're using is alien. There are even aliens among them, from what I gather from Elise's mind."

"I've heard of Roswell, but this is ridiculous," Jade murmured. "They're actually *working* with aliens?"

"Even my dad may not be able to help us, if they're this powerful and deep rooted" Megabyte said, and Kevin nodded again. Good, at least one of them could still think practically and defensively. Adam was smart and sharp, but in the end, it was the ones that didn't gamble that walked away from the table with something left.

"Let's back up here," Adam said. "When did you know about this?"

"Thursday," Kevin answered. "I've known about this since Elise arrived on Earth, through the 'big circle that flushes sideways'."

"Elise, that's her name?" Adam asked. Kevin got up again, went to his kitchen and got out a steno pad that he'd written everything down on. He came back and tossed it on Adam's lap. Adam read, it, quickly, and looked up at him.

"All right, now this is something," Adam said, quietly and happily. Then frowned. "What are we going to do with her after we get her away from these guys? In fact what are *we* going to do after we rescue her. They won't let this go."

"Let's see. I'm thinking, witness protection, changing our names, facial reconstructive surgery. I've always wanted a new nose." Megabyte seemed pleased with himself. Kevin snorted. Megabyte *was* funny.

"Come on, let's be serious, Megabyte," Ami warned him, giving him a slight slap on the arm. Megabyte gave her a slightly annoyed frown that didn't last for very long.

Adam looked at the steno pad and had a thoughtful look on his face. "If General Damon can't get her out of there, what then? If we go in there and grab her, they're bound to see us. I don't want us being identified."

"Nobody has to see us!" Jade answered, and Kevin saw her idea unfold in his own mind. It was a damn good idea. "She'll know where the blind spots are. There's bound to be a place where they aren't watching her. If Kevin can tell us more about what she sees, we can send her a telepathic message to be somewhere they aren't looking, like a washroom or something."

"Dad's going to be accused of stealing someone from Air Force custody," Megabyte warned them. "And that could get him in a lot of trouble. He could lose his job."

"So?" Adam shot back. "Let the Air Force accuse them all they want. There won't be any evidence. What are they going to accuse him of? Teleporting her out of there, just like that?"

Adam snapped his fingers, loud and clear. Kevin remembered why he was the leader. He didn't always come up with the brilliant ideas, but they never seemed to work without him. This one was no exception.

"Megabyte, call your dad," Ami told him. "Tell him we've got a better idea. Why don't we do this ourselves? We don't need to involve General Damon, not this time. We may need him for later anyway."

****

Sitting in a briefing room with Fraiser and Hammond was the last thing that Jack wanted to be doing, especially while two of his people had tubes up their nose and the Tok'ra sat, giving their cardboard condolences.

"It seems that whatever is causing this illness attacked the protein marker left by Jolinar," Anise informed them in her symbiote-voice. Jack stared up at her and didn't try very hard to hold onto whatever her words meant.

Just another way of saying that the Tok'ra had screwed them, again.

"However, the effects are beginning to subside, and yesterday's incident," and Fraiser said the word with such deliberate care that it made Jack pay attention, "may be the worst of it. However, Teal'c condition seems to be getting worse. Right now we're seeing a breakdown in the function of several organs, primarily the kidneys. If it gets any worse, we'll have to put him on dialysis."

Jack looked over at Jacob Carter, who sat looking very pale and for once, old, even to Jack. He wanted to tell Jacob there was no way they could have known that some mysterious poison was going to attack a protein marker that his daughter shouldn't have even had.

"Do we even *know* what's causing this?" Hammond asked, looking at both Anise and Fraiser.

"I've been unable to detect any foreign substances in their blood," Fraiser said.

"Neither have I," said Anise. "This is the first time that someone has returned from the planet alive, and we had previously thought that the substance became undetectable upon death, but now it seems that we were wrong."

"Maybe if we collected samples from the planet," Daniel suggested. "Water, soil, maybe?"

Hammond shook his head. "Right now, I don't feel that sending you back to the planet would be the best thing. What about the woman in isolation, anything from her, Dr. Fraiser?"

Dr. Fraiser stopped short of shrugging. "She hasn't said very much, although I noticed she was very familiar with our military ranks."

Jack and Daniel both raised their eyebrows and said, "What?"

"She asked me my rank when I went into examine her and I told her I was a major. When I was about to explain it, she said that she knew that a major was below a colonel and above a captain," Fraiser answered.

"How would she know that?" Hammond asked.

"Maybe she's learned it since she's gotten here, it has been three days," Daniel answered.

"But how would she know about a captain?" Jack argued. "The only people that she's seen have been the guys in the gate room, General Hammond, SG-1, Dr. Fraiser, and a couple of guards outside the door who are both airmen."

Janet looked thoughtful and said, "Maybe one of the airmen told her. I know that Miller reported to me that she'd been crying at night."

"Crying?" Jack repeated, looking slightly insulted. "What's she got to cry for?"

"Well, she's far from home in a very foreign place," Daniel explained it to him, as though he were a small child.

"Which she *chose* to come to," Jack shot back. "If she wanted to stay at home, all she had to do was leave us alone, but she didn't. I think it's time we started asking some questions. If she's well enough to know a captain from a major, she's well enough to answer questions."

Hammond nodded. "I agree. Dr. Jackson, I'd like for you and Anise to see if she'll give you any answers."

"Permission to join them, sir?" Jack asked.

"Granted," Hammond answered with a small bit of reluctance. "Dr. Fraiser, keep me updated on Teal'c and Major Carter's conditions. Dismissed."

"So, you wanna be the good cop or the bad cop?" Jack asked Daniel as they walked towards the isolation room.

"Jack, she may not be able to tell us anything," Daniel warned him. "From Fraiser's initial report, it looks like she was just a menial laborer. She may not know anything of value at all."

"And where exactly does a menial laborer learn about captains and colonels?" Jack retorted.

"I must agree with Colonel O'Neill that it is most curious that she is familiar with your military structure," Anise said, from behind Daniel.

"See?" Jack replied.

Daniel turned to Anise before they got to the isolation room and said, "Anise, no offense, but maybe if Freya handled it for a little while."

"I understand," Anise said, "I find that people are much more receptive to Freya." Anise closed and opened her eyes and became Freya. They stopped as Jack swiped his ID to get into the isolation room. Immediately the woman sat up straight, uncrossed her legs, and looked very alarmed.

"What happened to Dr. Fraiser?" she asked, looking them over.

"My name is Dr. Daniel Jackson and this is Colonel Jack O'Neill" said Daniel, slowly. "We just need to ask you some questions."

"And I am Freya," said Freya.

"Goa'uld!" the woman screeched, jumping off the other side of the bed and backing away. She made frightened huffs of laughter. "I know exactly what kind of questions you came to ask."

Jack and Daniel both looked at her, puzzled. Freya closed her eyes and let Anise emerge.

"My name is Anise, of the Tok'ra. We are not the same as the Goa'uld," said Anise, in her symbiotic voice. The woman's eyes widened. She shook her head slowly.

"Why are you *here*?" asked the woman. "On this planet."

"The Tok'ra are allies of the Tau'ri. And we mean you no harm. We are not like our Goa'uld enemies. We do not seek domination as they do." Anise paused and took a step forward. "Have you ever been a host to a symbiote?"

"No!" the woman exploded, sliding backwards until she was against the wall.

"Then how did you know that my host Freya carried a symbiote?" asked Anise.

"Call yourself whatever in the hell you want, I know what you are. And you *echo* when you speak, I can always hear it," the woman said, cocking her chin upwards, frightened and fierce. "You sound *just* like Ma'at. And I've heard her speak plenty."

"I assure you I am not a Goa'uld," Anise answered. The woman just kept eyeing Anise warily. "I mean you no harm, we came only to ask questions."

"Then ask already," the woman spat out.

"Our friends are sick, we need to make them better, how do we do that?" Jack asked, stepping past Anise, towards the woman.

"Stay back!" she shouted. "If you're telling the truth, then you just stay right *there*."

"We're not here to hurt you," Daniel said, soothingly, walking not towards her but to the side, away from Jack and Anise so that her focus would be on him. "What's making our friends sick?"

"Tell me why you were on Aslang," she asked him, still wary, but her tone a little less hysterical. "You only brought four people, why?"

"We'll get to that," Daniel assured her, "But right now, how do we help our friends."

"You don't," she answered, grimly. "Why did you send them in the first place? You knew what would happen if you did."

"How were we supposed to know that?" Jack asked, harshly, taking another step closer.

"Because we told you!" the woman fires back, instead of cowering away. "We buried your dead for months. And we gave the Goa'uld woman the crystal, so that you would know what was going on, so that you would leave us alone."

"What did Ma'at use to make our operative sick?" Anise asked her.

"What does it matter?" she answered in a near-scream of frustration. "You sent all of those people to their deaths for nothing! What could you have *possibly* wanted on Aslang that was worth their lives? If you had just stopped, Ma'at would have left you alone."

"I know you think Ma'at is a god," Daniel said, in a quiet, kind voice.

"No she's not, she's a Goa'uld. There's no such thing as gods," the woman said, as though he was hopelessly misinformed.

"Now that we have *that* cleared up," Jack mumbled, sitting on the bed. "What's making our friends sick?"

"Ah'maith," she told them.

"What is ah'maith?" Daniel asked.

"It's the thing that's making them sick. It's in the air, the water, everything. I don't know what else to tell you," the woman told them. "I'm not a healer, I don't understand how it works. I just know that it is."

"Is there anything that can cure it?" Anise asked the woman.

"Nothing can be done," replied the woman. "I'm sorry, your friends will die. You knew what it would do, and you went anyway."

"Is there a cure or isn't there?" Jack roared coming towards woman. She stayed silent and stared at him, taking quicker, faster breaths. "Answer me!"

She stayed silent again, almost as a dare to him.

"Jack," Daniel said, in a warning tone.

"No, Daniel," Jack insisted. "Teal'c is dying and she knows something."

"Maybe she'll talk to Dr. Fraiser," Daniel suggested.

"No, she'll talk to *me*," Jack insisted and made a quick grab for the white uniform that the woman was wearing. He spun her around quickly, pressing her against the wall and had her arm behind her back as though he was going to arrest her. His other hand grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her away from the wall in an unsteady jerk that had her off balance.

"Jack!" Daniel shouted as Jack nodded to one of the orderlies to open the door. Jack was practically running while pushing the woman ahead of him until he got to the infirmary and pushed her down so that she knelt by Teal'c beside, between his bed and Sam's.

The woman averted her eyes, looked to the floor with a tight, furious expression.

"Look!" Jack screamed at her, his hand grabbing underneath her jaw to force her to see Teal'c, with tubes up his nose, drowsy and blinking slowly.

"What is this?" he asked, in a hard voice with a rattling wheeze.

"His name is Teal'c. He has a son named Rya'c. He is my *friend* and one of the most decent human beings in existence. Now you look at him," Jack demanded. The woman tried to turn her head. "Don't you dare look away. You know there's a cure, now you tell me what it is."

The woman made a hard, sharp gasp. "I'm sorry, you shouldn't have sent him."

Jack's grip on her jaw became bruising. "Don't you give me that bullshit. How do we save him?"

"Nothing can be done," the woman told him, staring straight into Teal'c wandering, languid eyes.

"How do we cure him?" asked Jack in a seething hiss that was almost as frightening as his shouts.

"Nothing can be done," she repeated. Jack angrily let go of her jaw and her arm and pushed her over. She scrambled away to the protection of the two airmen who stood on either side of Daniel.

"Get her out of here!" Jack ordered. The two airmen grabbed her arms and escorted her back to the isolation room.

"Jack?" Daniel asked, looking into Jack's face horrified and stunned. "What was that?"

"O'Neill," Teal'c said, from the bed, "I am not afraid to die."

"Well I am!" Once Jack realized who he'd just screamed at, he feebly trailed off with, "Afraid for you to die."

Jack left the infirmary with Daniel following, begging him to let it go, that they'd find another way, that he'd lose his career, his job, everything if he harmed that woman. Anise stood by Teal'c's bedside.

"We will resolve this," she said, offering what little comfort she had to give.

"I am certain you will," Teal'c replied and pulled the blanket over his arms.

****

Kevin sat in the cradle of the mind-trawl with Jade on the counterbalance. The others were sitting, waiting near the Ship's core, just beyond the swing of the mind-trawl. Kevin felt the slow swoop as the Ship started to swing them around, putting them in a strange sort of stasis.

They probably wouldn't need more than Jade and Kevin's combined abilities, but just in case, the others waited, ready to merge and give them both a boost.

Even before she'd broken out, Jade had possessed a talent for projecting her thoughts on others, so that people around her often finished her sentences, without really understanding why. She also had, over the years, learned to create illusions.

She could, when she wanted to, create elaborate illusions that once included making herself and the other Tomorrow People look like members of a famous pop group so that they could get into an ultra-posh New York night club.

Megabyte's idea, of course, but the fact that Jade was able to maintain the illusion, voices, American accents, and all, for most of the night was impressive.

Jade was also the only one among them who could teleport without the signature pop and flash when she chose to.

However, once Kevin managed to locate Elise, he found that Jade's powerful ability to project was more than enough. Jade was more powerful than he'd first estimated.

[Elise,] Kevin called to Elise, in a very controlled projection. Jade might be too powerful, after all, and it might overwhelm Elise.

Kevin heard Elise's verbal response as she whispered into the darkness of the isolation room. "Who's there?" she kept repeating.

[Elise,] Kevin whispered to her again and Elise looked up, wondering how the voice knew her name. A sudden fear, with flashes of a man (her father) being accused, being in chains, both of them in jail rushes through her.

"What do you want?" she whispered.

[Elise, listen to me, carefully,] Kevin said with a firmer voice, trying to command her entire attention. Elise's mind was all over the place and she kept scanning the room to find where Kevin's voice was coming from. As long as her attention was split like that, Kevin had a hard time maintaining his focus on her. [You have to listen to me. Pay attention.]

"What?" she asked, a bit louder. "Where are you?"

Someone knocked on her door. "You okay in there?"

Kevin sensed that Elise recognized the voice as the nice airman who didn't bruise her arm getting her back to the isolation room after Colonel O'Neill forced her on her knees. Elise sat up on the bed.

[Don't panic, I'm here to help you,] Kevin told her. Elise stood up and felt her way to the wall, feeling unsafe on the bed, which was an island in the large isolation room.

"Shut up!" Elise shouted into the air. "Leave me alone!"

Once Elise sensed Kevin in her mind, her heart gave a sickeningly hard thud. She started checking her own body for scars or scratches, anything to indicate a Goa'uld had entered her. The idea, image, word Goa'uld echoed through her mind, and for the first time her attention was totally focused.

[Elise, stop it!] Kevin commanded. [I am not a Goa'uld! I'm not in your body, I'm in your mind!] Elise immediately grabbed her head, which felt like someone had her brains in a vice, and clutched her own hair. Kevin heard her screaming, angry and so frightened that she was, for a moment, totally insane. She hit her own head against the wall and the sharp pain of it reverberated into Kevin and Jade.

Elise clawed at her scalp, screaming and unable to get past the total horror of being invaded, violated like that.

"Get outta my head!" she screamed, grabbing her own hair so hard that hairs started breaking. She heard the rip-rip-rip and didn't care. She scratched frantically at her own face, even over the bruised spots on her jaw. "I won't tell you! Nothing can be done! Nothing can be done! It's the truth!"

[Calm down!] Kevin whispered to her, soothingly. [I can get you out of there, take you home. But you have to listen to me, trust me, do as I tell you.]

"You're lying! Get out of my head!" she was at the top of her lungs, and it still hurt to scream that loud, so it came out hoarse, desperate, almost inhuman. It was still echoing in the silence as the lights were turned on and the guards came in. Elise stood up and they were as wary of her as she was of them. She didn't know whether to trust them or not. She thought, in the last rational part of her brain, that it was very possible that they had done this to her, to get the cure from her. She backed away until she was as far into the corner as humanly possible.

"Hey, be cool," said the guard, the one that had been nice to her, always asked if she was okay. "I don't want to get ugly, okay?"

[If I was going to harm you, I'd have done it already,] Kevin told her, and instead of holding back Jade's power, he let it loose. She felt panic, but was too overwhelmed even to scream. She froze like a mannequin in the corner. Her attention was, finally, totally focused where Kevin needed it. [My name is Kevin. I'm a Tomorrow Person and so are you. You're one of us. We're going to get you out of there, but we need you to help us. When I ask you something, just focus on my voice and think of the answer and I'll get it. Do you understand?]

[Yes,] came the meek, tiny-voiced response.

[Good,] Kevin said, projecting a feeling of mesmerized calm, one that he'd found in her mind from a very old memory of going to an aquarium with her parents. [Do you know where you are?]

It took a moment, but she answered, [Military base. Doctor is a major. Major-captain- lieutenant-second lieutenant.]

[Elise!] Kevin's voice snapped. [Stay with me. Keep your thoughts focused.]

[Yes,] she answered and Kevin waited while she was put in leather restraints that kept her arms near her waist, where she couldn't reach anything. The guards went back to their posts at the door and Elise sank into the corner, closing her eyes determinedly. She heard someone call for a Dr. Fraiser and Kevin got a flash of a petite, beautiful, fierce woman with brown eyes and reddish-blonde hair.

Elise felt both shame and relief. She liked Dr. Fraiser, but she didn't want anyone to see her like this, after she'd come to her senses and realized how completely crazy she'd gone.

[We need you to concentrate, to think,] Kevin commanded her, in a firm voice. [Are you always in that room?]

She thought briefly about the short showers they let her take, in a small shower room with women guards. Then Dr. Fraiser's face appeared.

[Kevin,] Jade telepathed, so that Elise wouldn't hear her, [We should leave her for now. We might frighten her more. We've got what we wanted.]

[No,] Kevin insisted, [I want to watch, it might be important.]

"Hey, look at me," said Dr. Fraiser. Elise opened her eyes and saw Dr. Fraiser's open, wide eyes. "What happened?"

Elise's entire mind froze as she tried to think of what to tell them.

[Tell her that you had a nightmare,] Kevin directed.

"I had a nightmare," Elise repeated, blankly.

"That was more than a nightmare," Dr. Fraiser insisted, almost accusing. "Were you hearing voices?"

[No!] Kevin responded quickly, forgetting for a second to be gentle for Elise's sake.

"No!" she said, her voice echoing his mental tone. "I didn't hear anything."

"Then who were you shouting at?" she inquired. She took something from her pocket and for a moment each of Elise's eyes was blocked by a light.

"Nobody," Elise denied. "I wasn't screaming at anyone."

"You said someone was in your head," Fraiser reminded her. Elise looked away from Fraiser's glare.

"Can you take these off? I promise I'm okay," Elise asked, indicating the leather restraints. Fraiser sighed.

"If you haven't had anymore *nightmares* by lunch tomorrow, then I'll get them off of you," Fraiser promised. "Can you get back to sleep on your own or do you need me to give you something?"

"Is it okay if I just sit here for a while?" Elise asked, not entirely sure her legs were solid enough to get her to the bed.

"Of course," said Fraiser. "Try to get back to sleep."

She stood up and left. The lights were still on and Elise put her forehead on her knees and tried to stop shaking.

[You're going to be okay,] Kevin assured her. [I know you're frightened, but trust me. I'm going to help you. We all are.]

Kevin withdrew from Elise's mind silently and sat back in the cradle. He slowly let go of Jade's mind and waited until the mind-trawl had stopped completely before he opened his eyes.

"We can do it," he said to the other Tomorrow People. "When she's alone, in the showers. But we need to wait."

"For what?" Ami asked, in a sharp, frustrated voice.

"They won't leave her alone now!" Jade retorted, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "When Kevin tried to contact her, she went crazy. They've got her in restraints right now. Until they're sure that she won't do that again, they probably won't leave her alone."

"Then we wait," Adam said, decisively. Kevin lolled his head back. He was a lot more tired than he thought.

=====

Chapter Four: Darkest Before Dawn

=====

Daniel didn't want to be standing at the end of the ramp, watching Bra'tac and Rya'c coming down. But he would have hated himself for being anywhere else. He checked his watch. It was four in the morning and this had to have been the longest day of his life.

"Where is he?" asked Bra'tac, with his cloak draped regally over one arm.

"He's resting right now," said Daniel. "Jack and Sam are with him. We have a VIP room set up for you in case you want to catch some sleep."

"It is almost noon," Rya'c said, and Daniel was surprised to hear how deep his voice had become since the last time he'd encountered the boy. Strange how that slow, imperceptible crawl of puberty had finally caught up to him. Rya'c would be a man, like his father.

Strange how much it dated Teal'c.

"It's about an hour before sunrise here," Daniel said. Bra'tac bowed his head in acknowledgement.

"You did not say in your message what exactly has happened to Teal'c," Bra'tac said. "And why is Hammond of Texas not here to greet us as he usually is."

"General Hammond had to go home," Daniel told him. "He'll be here in a couple of hours. The truth is, we're not exactly sure what's causing Teal'c's sickness. We went to this planet, P3A-445, and apparently there's something there that only affects Jaffa and Goa'uld, because Jack and I didn't get sick at all."

"But Teal'c no longer carries a symbiote," said Bra'tac, staring at Daniel. "What have you failed to tell me."

Daniel explained the situation with Ma'at, the planet, and the strange, undetectable ah'maith that had made both Sam and Teal'c sick.

"Take me to him," said Bra'tac, imperiously. Daniel nodded and they walked in silence to the infirmary. Bra'tac slowed his determined march and took careful steps towards Teal'c's bedside. "Tec'ma'te, Teal'c."

Slowly Teal'c opened his drowsy eyes and with a feverish gaze, looked at both Bra'tac and Rya'c.

"Master Bra'tac," Teal'c said and extended his arm from underneath the blankets. When Bra'tac took his arm, he noticed that Teal'c grip was weak and his skin clammy. "Rya'c."

"Father," Rya'c replied in his newly deepened voice. Teal'c smiled and wetted his lips so he could speak.

"You are becoming a man," Teal'c said with a soft joy in his voice.

"Not for some time yet," Bra'tac assured him. Teal'c nodded weakly. "They say that Ma'at has made you sick old friend."

"I will recover," Teal'c answered, closing his eyes. "If I only rest a little."

"Yes," Bra'tac said, tightening his grip around Teal'c arm before letting it. "We will resolve this, old friend. Stay with him, Rya'c. DanielJackson and I will go talk to this *woman*."

Daniel looked hesitant but only nodded. They walked to the isolation room and found it empty.

"Where is she?" Daniel asked the airman who stood stoically by the door.

"They escorted her to the shower room about five minutes ago, sir," the airman answered.

"While we wait, I must ask. Do you plan to return to the planet?" Bra'tac inquired.

"You'd have to talk to Hammond," Daniel replied. "I'm going to go get some coffee. Do you want anything."

Bra'tac shook his head.

***

It was the first day they'd allowed her to take a shower since the voices had begun talking to her. Elise was allowed to carry her towel and new clothes in her arms and she walked in step with the two huge airmen on either side of her. Elise tried not to let the sheer joy of knowing she was a few minutes away from freedom show on her face. She hadn't been too good at controlling her emotions lately, but for this she could do anything. At least she hoped she could.

[You know what to do?] asked the voice that called himself Adam. Adam liked to remind her of things over and over, which was exactly what her mother used to do. Tivenia, too. It made Elise wonder if she just appeared to be that stupid, and she decided that she must.

She had, after all, run away on a whim, jumped blindly through the chaapa'ai because she recognized the uniforms and they reminded her of her father. Thinking about it, Elise decided that she probably wasn't that smart, especially if her actions in the last few days meant anything.

[I turn the shower on and stay dressed and wait for you to teleport,] Elise repeated. It was easier to answer them, to turn other thoughts off, now that she'd done it for a while.

[She's got it!] Megabyte butted in. Elise couldn't help smiling, and it was enough that she wasn't laughing.

The airmen stopped at the door of the tiny shower room and stood in their usual pose, looking straight on and seeing nothing. Elise shut the door behind her and turned on the water, but turned the nozzle away so that she didn't get sprayed.

[Okay,] Elise thought, wishing she could scream because she was so excited. She closed her eyes and opened them and nothing had happened. She closed them again and waited. She heard a pop over the spray of the showers and beside her were two people.

Adam and Ami.

"You're real!" she gasp.

"Very," Adam said, quickly. "Time to go."

Elise closed her eyes again and held her breath. A tickling sensation ran through her whole body and when she opened her eyes, she looked around and screamed.

They'd taken her to the same place that she'd been in when she first went through the chaapa'ai. They meant to send her back to Aslang.

"No!" she screeched, wrenching her arms from Adam and Ami, dropping her spare clothes and towel. "You set me up! I trusted you!"

Elise quickly put distance between herself and the others.

"Woah!" Megabyte said. "You're freaking out."

"Don't you dare send me back!" Elise shouted, backing up towards the open porthole. "I will not go back!"

She turned and ran through the porthole, down the first corridor she found. Not that she knew where she was going, but there had to be some door that led to the outside.

There was a flash in front of her and Adam blocked her way forward. She immediately turned and behind her was Kevin.

"We didn't set you up, Elise," Kevin said, in a very low voice. "You've been here before haven't you?"

"I won't be sent back," she vowed. "I was here once before, and I was sent to Aslang because of it."

"But that's not what we're going to do," Kevin assured her. "How did you *get* to Aslang?"

"The chaapa'ai that's here. I was here, a long time ago, when I was a little girl. The chaapa'ai opened and I went through, because I didn't know any better," she explained, seeming to calm a little.

"Chaapa'ai?" Adam asked, taking a step closer to her.

"Stargate, Adam," Kevin told him. "There's a stargate on the ship."

"What?" Adam's eyes went wide. "Elise, can you show us where it is?"

Elise shook her head. "I don't remember. I don't *want* to remember."

Kevin nodded. "It's all right for now. You've been here before?"

"Yes, when I was ten," said Elise.

"What happened?" Kevin asked.

"I was coming home from school and when I was at the mailbox, this boy, he was older, like fifteen maybe, he tried to take my backpack when I was getting the mail. And he was on his bike, so when he grabbed me, I pushed him and he fell off. And my backpack slid off and I was going to run inside but then something hit me and knocked me over. Then I was here, and I kept falling asleep. When I finally did wake up, my head was better so I wandered around until I found the chaapa'ai and went through."

"We didn't know about the chaapa'ai," said Adam. "We aren't trying to send you back."

"I know that now," Elise said, visibly calmer. "What's going on? What is this?"

"This is the Ship," said Adam. "It's thousands of years old and it was sent here to help us."

"Why did it open the chaapa'ai for me?" she asked.

"It probably didn't mean to," Adam replied. "The Ship, does, on occasion, make mistakes. Especially when it comes out of a long period of inactivity. You probably woke it up and opening the chaapa'ai, as you call it, was an accident. We've never seen the chaapa'ai, we didn't even know it was here."

"I lied," Elise admitted, hugging herself. "I remember exactly where it is. I could take you to it."

"Okay," Adam agreed. He gently took her arm.

"It's this way," she said, inclining her head towards the direction Adam had come from. Elise walked carefully, but determinedly through the maze of portholes and passageways until she came to a closed door with a single symbol in the middle.

[Ship, open the door,] Adam telepathed, looking up at the ceiling. The Ship gave a low moan and the door slid open.

Inside there was only a giant room with a large stone circle and a thing like a round podium with a red button in the center, surrounded by strange glyphs.

"This is a stargate?" Adam asked, going towards the small podium.

"No!" Elise warned, grabbing Adam's arm. "Don't touch anything, you don't know what it'll do. If you're too close to it when it opens, the water that comes out will swallow you up and kill you. I've seen that happen to people."

"It's not really water," said Megabyte, from the doorway, with Ami and Jade.

"I know," Elise answered, "But it's the only thing I know to call it."

"All this time and we didn't even know it was here," said Ami, staring into the Stargate with awe. "And the military has one, too?"

"Theirs is much bigger, and they know how to use it," Elise told them. "When they came through the stargate on Aslang, they knew how to press the buttons on that thing to go back to Earth."

"Like dialing a telephone or something?" Jade asked, staring at the podium. She put her hand lightly on the red button in the center and suddenly, the room lit up and a screen descended from the ceiling, with foreign markings on it that were the same as on the podium. The Ship gave more moans.

"These are like phone numbers, to other planets," Adam said, looking up at the screen with a bright, fascinated smile on his face. "If we dial these on that thing we could go anywhere."

"But which numbers go to which planets? I don't want to end up on Mars, Adam," Megabyte said from where he leaned against the wall.

"I don't know," Adam replied, looking up to touch the screen.

"And what if we do go to one of these planets, Adam, how would we get home? We don't know our own phone number. In fact, five minutes ago, we didn't even know we *had* one," Jade reminded him.

"I know how to get to Earth," Elise said, quietly. "I don't know if it will work for this Stargate. I don't know that much about them."

"So, when you broke out, the Ship sent you to another planet," said Ami, looking at the screen.

"Aslang," Elise confirmed. "But I didn't break anything when I came here."

"No, no," Adam said, nearly laughing. "When we say 'break out', we mean when you first teleported and got your powers."

"Powers?" Elise eyed him suspiciously.

"We are all Tomorrow People, the next stage in human evolution, and we have special powers. All of us are telepathic, we can teleport, and to some extent, we're telekinetic. And we all have individual powers. For instance, I can heal injuries, Megabyte can work with computers and electronics just by thinking about it. What we can't do is kill. Ever. It's what really separates us from normal human beings. Even if we wanted to, even if we *had* to, we couldn't. It's like an instinct. We're born with it."

"Oh," Elise murmured. "What happens if we do kill?"

"We don't." Megabyte said, firmly and darkly.

"But what if you do?" Elise insisted.

"There have been Tomorrow People since the time of King Tut in Ancient Egypt and before that, even. And not one of us has killed, yet," Ami told her. "It can't ever happen."

Elise nodded and even though the question wasn't resolved in her mind, she decided to let it go.

"If I've already 'broken-out', then why wasn't I able to do any of these things before?" Elise asked.

"Probably because nobody was there to teach you," Adam answered. "But we'll teach you now. And you'll teach us everything you know about the Stargate."

"You don't actually plan on using it, do you?" Elise asked, horrified.

"Eventually, yes," Adam answered. "Once we understand it. If it was put here, we were meant to use it. The military is already using theirs to spread war, we have to use ours to spread peace."

****

"Okay, time's up, save some water for the rest of us!" the airman outside of the door shouted, knocking on the door. There was no answer. "Hello in there!"

Ignoring modesty, Miller opened the locked door and looked in to see the shower running. The woman, however, was gone. Miller felt sick when he hit the alarm and notified everyone that they had an escape situation on their hands.

It took them three hours to put the base on lockdown and search every single level of it. There wasn't a place they didn't search. Miller followed Colonel O'Neill and Ferretti around, searching in the red lights of the alarms for her. It all yielded nothing.

O'Neill had to admit defeat after three hours of running around, finding nothing. He, Ferretti, and Daniel were all crowded into the shower room, trying to figure out how she made her escape.

They tested the walls, tapped on every tile, even put it under a black light. They saw only a vent on the ceiling. Eventually, they even called in Captain Andreas, who was approximately the size of the woman, and lifted her up to see if there was a way that a woman of her size could get through the vent. Andreas couldn't even get her shoulders in, no matter how much she scrunched up.

"Are you *sure* that you couldn't wiggle through there?" Jack asked from below while Andreas was trying to her best from the top of a ladder that he was holding to get through. She raised both her arms and tried to lift up and couldn't get in.

"Whatever she did, she didn't go through this vent, I can tell you that much. It's physically impossible," Andreas told them and climbed down the ladder. "But she must *have*. There isn't any other way out of here, except through that door."

Which makes everyone who was crowded into the shower room look at Miller and Wiesz who were the guards by her door.

"Maybe they were real," Miller said, with true dread in his voice. "I know this is gonna sound nuts, but I think the voices she heard that one night, when she had the fit, were real. Maybe people really were talkin' to her."

"What?" O'Neill looked and shook his head at Miller like he was trying to figure out *how* Miler stole the uniform and disguised himself as a sane human being.

Jack squinted at Miller in a slightly *off* and *evil* way. Miller looked very embarrassed and stared down at the floor. "And exactly what did those voices tell her that could have gotten her out of this room without you or Wiesz knowing about it?"

"What else could she be, sir?" Miller asked. Jack ran a hand over his face and started walking to meet General Hammond and tell him the bad news.

When he got to General Hammond, who had got people running in and out of the room, on all sorts of exhaustive security checks, he was on the red phone looking extremely uncomfortable.

"No, if I knew how she escaped I wouldn't be making this call," said Hammond, testily. "Get Major Davis down here."

There was silence while Hammond listened and just got angrier. Then he hung up the phone.

"Not the time to say that I have no idea what happened," Jack said, sitting down beside Daniel.

"How the hell did this happen!" Hammond shouted, rubbing his face, exhaustedly. "Is it possible she got through the vent?"

Jack shook his head. "Andreas tried every way she could think of, sir. There's no way she got through that vent."

"So the only way she could have gotten out was through the door, past Miller and Weisz?" Hammond asked. Jack could only nod. "I have a hard time believing that they just *let* her walk away from the shower room. Did you find *anything* in there?"

"Her second set of clothes were gone," Jack told him. "Not only did she escape, but she ripped us off."

Hammond gave Jack a face that let him know that he did *not* appreciate any kind of humor.

"I know this is going to sound crazy, but what if we went back to the planet?" Daniel suggested.

"What good would that do?" asked Hammond, sitting down.

"It might answer some questions," Daniel said. "Right now Teal'c is dying and this woman has mysteriously disappeared and the only link between them is that planet. Ma'at has to keep her own Jaffa from getting sick somehow, meaning there must be some kind of an antidote there. This disappearing act may be Ma'at's doing. After all, the Asgard can take a person where they stand in an instant, so why can't Ma'at?"

"How would Ma'at have gotten here, even by ship, so quickly? Tok'ra intelligence says that most of her fleet is too far out," Hammond argued. Daniel nodded.

"But Ma'at obviously has capabilities far beyond those of other Goa'uld. Who knows what kind of technology she possesses, especially if she's spent her resources trying to develop technology instead of making war. It's all we've got right now."

Hammond nodded. "You're right. It's all we have. After I have some more teams make another sweep of the base, I'll authorize a recon mission. Colonel O'Neill, I want you and Dr. Jackson to take SG-2 with you."

"Yes, sir," O'Neill agreed.

****

Elise's eyes would not stay open, no matter what she did. She was wrapped in a large, fluffy towel and the sea swished back and forth, in a primal lullaby of waves against the sand. Elise laid her head down on the sleeping back in Adam's tent and was too tired to worry about getting it wet from her still sopping hair.

With the towel around her like a blanket, Elise drifted off to somewhere between asleep and awake.

And she dreamed, a slow strange dream in which she saw the giant, dark-skinned Jaffa on the edge of a cliff which over looked the Unrentrai pit. Apparently he meant no harm, because she felt no fear of him. She wondered why he wasn't sick and shouted the question to him from a distance. The Jaffa gestured for her to come. She asked no questions, only accepted it. And once she came to him, he opened his hand to take hers.

"Nothing can be done," the Jaffa told her and, wrapping his arms around her, sent them both sailing off the cliff.

Elise jerked hard with her entire body and woke up suddenly.

"Woah, didn't mean to startle you," said Megabyte, standing at the entrance of the tent. "What's a Jaffa?"

"Huh?" Elise asked, confused as to why he'd ask that.

"Jaffa. You were dreaming of something called a Jaffa," said Megabyte, ducking to enter the tent and sit next to her.

"A Jaffa is a servant of the Goa'uld," said Elise.

"Goa'uld?" Megabyte echoed. "Those creepy little snake thingies that you showed us earlier? The ones that take over people's bodies?"

"Yes, the snakes," Elise answered. "The Jaffa's name is Teal'c. He's dying."

"From the snakes?" Megabyte asks with a raised eyebrow.

"No. The ah'maith is kililng him. When I was at the military base, this colonel came to me, and dragged me to see him. Said that his name was Teal'c and that he was his friend. I knew there was a cure, but I didn't tell them what it was. So if he dies, wouldn't it be my fault?"

Megabyte shrugged. "I don't know."

Elise nodded and looked out over the ocean, squinting. "It's not like they would have gotten the cure, even if I'd told them. So it isn't my fault if he dies, right?"

"I don't know," Megabyte said with another shrug. "It's one of those things you have to decide when you become a Tomorrow Person. I know Adam says that we're here to bring peace and change the world, but sometimes I know there are things I can't change, things that aren't my responsibility. We can't just fix the world for them. They have to find the solution on their own, or it'll never work."

"So what do I do about the Jaffa?"

"Could you save him now, with your powers, with us helping you?"

Elise wanted to lie, but Megabyte looked at her and already knew her answer.

"Yes," she confessed. "I don't know that I want to, though. He was the one who came to Aslang, it's his own fault. I didn't make him sick."

"No, you didn't. The world is a big mess, and nobody that's alive today made that mess. But somebody has to clean it up. It's not pretty, it's not fair, but it's how it is. You can save his life. I think you owe it to yourself to do it. If for nothing else than to avoid the guilt."

"It would mean going back through the stargate. Back to Aslang."

"I know you're afraid of it, but you can't let your life be ruled by fear."

"Fear keeps you alive."

"For what? Why bother living just to be alive." Megabyte sat up and wiped the sand off of himself and left the tent. He turned around and looked at Elise through the door. "I'm tired of being smart. I'm hungry. Let's eat. We'll get everyone together tomorrow morning and talk about this."

"I could eat," Elise agreed.

"Good, because I hate having to eat a pregnant burrito all by myself."

"A pregnant burrito?"

"Yeah. There's this place in Texas where the burritoes grow 'this big'," Megabyte said, holding his arms out as if describing a mythically large fish. Elise smiled at him, but her smile quickly faded. "Don't worry. We're with you this time. We'll set things right."

****

It was morning on PL9-981, and a cold rain was heavy on the air. Jack took in a big lungful and wondered why it wasn't making him sick.

"The Tok'ra said there's a slave village about two clicks from here. Feretti, I want you and Nichols with Daniel and me. The rest of you stay here at the gate. We'll keep radio contact," Jack ordered. Ferretti tightened a strap around his coat and followed Daniel and Jack as they marched off into the distance, down a beaten dirt trail, towards the village.

Jack's fingers were kind of numb by the time they came to a stop at edge of the village they were looking for.

None of them saw the pale, skinny man that was watching them from a tree. They heard him when he scrambled down from the tree and screamed, running back towards the village.

"Great," Jack grumbled. "Game faces, people."

They didn't chase the man, but did continue to walk towards the village of tents and poles. When they did get there, they didn't see anyone. Fires burned unattended, things stood still as if everything had been suddenly abandoned.

"They left in a hurry," said Ferretti.

"Yes, they did," Daniel said in a soft, trailing voice heavy with growing suspicion. "A big, big hurry."

Ferretti stepped in closer to Jack and they stood still surveying the empty village. Daniel tried to take another step forward and collided with something that sent him to the ground. Jack reached out his hand and the air waved in red ripples for a moment.

"Shield trap, dammit," he cursed. From one of the tents came a small, gray haired woman wearing furs. Even though she was short, she looked down at them as though she were ten feet tall.

"What are your names?" the woman asked, her eyes keenly evaluating them.

"I'm Daniel Jackson, this is Colonel Jack O'Neill, this is Major Ferretti. We're from a planet called Earth. We came to -"

"Silence!" the woman shouted in a sharp, clear voice. "I am Tivenia. And I do not care what you came here for."

Another figure emerged from the same tent as Tivenia, a smaller, younger woman with white-blonde hair, wearing a blue cloak with white furs.

"Momma," said the woman, "Let them go."

Tivenia turned to her daughter. "No."

"Yeah, momma, let us go," Jack repeated.

"My name is Tivenia!" she reminded him, turning for a moment to him before going back to her daughter.

"Please, let them go. They didn't mean anything. You could just let them go, nobody has to know," said the daughter, hugging herself as she came closer.

"You say the same thing when we catch animals in the traps, but you wear furs and eat meat. Go back in the tent and be silent. I will not tolerate you right now."

Tivenia turned back to Jack, Daniel, and Ferretti.

"If Elise were to plead for you to release them, you would listen to her!" the daughter shouted.

"Nira!" Tivenia roared, marching to her daughter and slapping her fiercely across the cheek. "Go in the tent and do not speak your sister's name."

"She's not my sister!" Nira cried, tears rolling down her cheek. "Let them go, momma! You know this isn't right."

"Do you understand nothing?" Tivenia asked her, grabbing hold of her fur coat. "We have buried their dead and given them kind warnings long enough. They come with weapons. You will cry far more tears when they bring armies to cut us down."

"We have weapons only to defend ourselves with," Daniel called to her. Tivenia turned around to face him.

"Curious that you choose to defend yourselves on *our* lands," she said, raising an eyebrow at them like a stern, condescending school teacher.

"What are you going to do with them, momma? Please don't kill them," Nira pleaded.

"No," Tivenia said, with a bland sigh. "Are there more of you out there?"

"No, just the three of us," Daniel told her.

"I know for a fact you're lying, but that matters little. We will deal with you first," Tivenia said, as though she were merely discussing how to rearrange furniture. She slipped a hand under her heavy black fur coat and came out with a gun-shaped weapon.

"Wait, we just -" Daniel tried to protest, but Tivenia shot him before he could finish. She quickly moved her arm a little and shot Ferretti and O'Neill.

"Momma? Are they dead?" Nira asked, sniffling.

"No," Tivenia answered, with a put-up on sigh. "They're just unconscious. Get Ruvio. Tell him to take them to the temple. The priestesses will know what to do."

Nira ran off, screaming for Ruvio.

"You and your sister," Tivenia grumbled, watching her go. "One of you so strong and so stupid, the other wise and weak."

=====

Chapter Five: Best Laid Plans

=====

"I think what the Ship is saying is that if we dial these symbols that we can get to Aslang," Adam said, pointing at the screen in the room where the Ship's Stargate was.

"What if it isn't Aslang?" asked Kevin, staring up at the screen from where he sat with his chin on his hand.

"Then we come home and try again," Adam assured him. "As long as there's a Stargate, we can get home."

"I'm still unsure about this," Elise spoke up. "We don't have to do this. There's so much we don't know about the Stargate. It could be very, very dangerous."

"We're doing this," Adam said, leveling his eyes at her. "We can save Teal'c's life."

It irritated Elise to hear Adam say it as though he actually knew Teal'c and had a personal investment in his recovery. Elise knew that Teal'c was only a name to Adam, a second hand memory. Elise didn't argue. She wanted to, and part of her thought that she probably should.

It disappointed her to think that she was still just as spineless and surrendering, even after all she'd been through. Perhaps nothing had really changed at all, and she'd still spend the rest of her life doing someone else's will.

[We can't force you to go,] Kevin telepathed to her, without even looking in her direction. [You could stay behind.]

[You wouldn't know what to do when you got there. And it would cause a scene. I don't want to cause anymore trouble,] Elise answered, staring straight into the empty, darkened Stargate.

[Then it is your choice after all,] Kevin told her, giving her only a moment's glance and then turning back to the screen.

Elise chewed on the thought until a light on the stargate came on. All of the Tomorrow People backed away from the stargate, waiting for the brilliant, fatal splash of light to come through. Once it wooshed by Adam looked at all the others.

"Everyone ready?" Adam asked, looking around.

"Let's go. I'm starting to sweat in this coat!" Megabyte answered, zipping his parka. "It better be really cold when we get there."

"It is," Elise assured him. Megabyte shook his head, took Jade's hand, and stepped through. Kevin and Adam followed behind them until it was just Ami and Elise.

"It'll be all right, in the end," Ami said in a soft voice and put her hand on Elise's pack to give her gentle shove forward. Elise closed her eyes and walked forward. She opened them to see the overcast, sparse landscape of Aslang again. She gave a small gasp as the Stargate closed behind them.

"This is it," she said, looking determined and dreadful across the landscape.

"You lived here?" Megabyte asked, looking at what seemed a wasteland, desolate and sparse. "I'd move, too. The view sucks."

"Megabyte!" Ami and Jade both chided, giving him light slaps on either shoulder.

"Geez!" Megabyte said, instinctively going to guard his head. "Way to double team me."

"Let's get serious, guys," Adam said, in such a suddenly deep voice that every one of them stood straight at attention. He held up his hands to signal a mind merge. Elise saw the village in her mind, in the basin of hard, cool earth.

In a spectacular flash of light, they disappeared and reappeared in the Unrentrai pit. Elise opened her eyes and was surprised that it took her so long to remember which side of the pit she was on. Or how to get to Tivenia's tent.

She'd done it everyday for twelve years, and suddenly, it escaped her like an ancient ghost in her memory, as though it had been a century since she'd left.

Elise started walking toward Tivenia's tent and heard the gasps of other slaves who saw the large group of foreigners following her. Any other day Elise would have cowered at the prospect of standing out like this.

Now, it seemed like she had permission to violate all of the rules.

When Elise opened the flap to Tivenia's tent, she saw Nira, curled up on her bed, crying.

"Nira?" Elise called, and Nira sat up.

"Elise?" Nira sniffled as though she didn't believe it. She rose from the bed and launched herself into Elise's arms. "Elise! Sister!"

Nira's wet kisses rained down on Elise's cheeks, and she felt embarrassed by her sister's lack of dignity. Finally, Nira let go and saw the others standing behind her.

"Nira," Elise said slowly. "I don't want you to panic. These are friends. We need to find Tivenia."

"Momma went with Ruvio to the temple," Nira said, backing away from Elise as though she was frightened.

"Why?" Elise asked, trying to judge what could cause the fear on Nira's face.

"Do not be angry, I pleaded with her not to!" Nira cried as though she were suddenly confessing to a murder. "Men with guns came, and momma shot them, took them to Ma'at. I told her not to, but she does not listen to me. She thinks I am stupid."

"Damn it," cursed Elise, turning to Adam. "This isn't good."

"They sent more people through, didn't they?" Adam asked, getting closer to Nira.

"That's their problem. I'll find Tivenia, we'll get the cure and be gone," Elise insisted, knowing that Adam would never agree to it.

"Ma'at will kill them!" Nira pleaded.

"We can't just leave them here," said Ami, "It would be like killing them!"

Elise took a big breath. She wasn't sure which was greater, her irritation or her fear. These new friends of hers were so stupidly altruistic that it boggled her mind. And Elise had no power to resist their maelstrom.

"We can't just teleport in there and get them, Adam," Kevin warned. "Once they know we're teleporters, it's going to be a disaster on Earth. We can't let them know what we are. If we can get them free without them knowing, they can go back to the Stargate and no one will be the wiser."

"Elise," Adam asked, turning to her, "What exactly is going to happen at this temple?"

"The men are going to be tied on the rails, cleaned, and sacrificed to Ma'at," she said, calmly.

"How much time does something like that take?" Megabyte asked.

"It depends. Once the priestesses send out the call for Ma'at, nobody knows when Ma'at answers. Sometimes it takes hours, days, and it's taken a week before. It's all up to Ma'at." Elise stared at the floor, thoughtfully.

"So we could have plenty of time?" Adam asked.

"Or none," Elise countered. "The priestesses won't give them up to anyone but Ma'at. There's no way we can get them out of there without using our powers."

"What if Ma'at did come get them?" Jade asked. "I could pretend to be Ma'at and walk right out the door with them."

"It's not that easy," Elise argued. "Ma'at doesn't walk in the door. She uses these rings that transport her from her ship. You can't just put on a fancy dress and pretend you're Ma'at. You have to actually descend from these rings, and not to mention you have to have the voice. Your voice isn't deep enough. They'd never buy it."

"Try me," Jade challenged. "What's it supposed to look and sound like?"

Elise conjured the image in her mind and telepathed it to Jade. Jade smiled and suddenly she was no longer Jade, wearing a dark red coat with fur trim, but tall, dark- haired Ma'at, wearing the white linen dress and the feathered headdress.

Nira let out a scream and Elise grabbed her arm.

"Be quiet!" Elise shouted, shaking her fiercely. "It's an illusion!"

"This is blasphemy!" Nira wailed. "We will be punished! Go away again, Elise. It was much better when you were gone. We were finally at peace. Ma'at will kill us all because of you! If you take her sacrifices, she will burn our faces out!"

Elise looked at the other Tomorrow People, "She has a point. Even if we get them away, once the real Ma'at comes, she'll be angry that her sacrifices are gone. It's not our place to save them. They came on this planet, they knew the risks."

"What if we stopped Ma'at from ever coming down?" Adam asked, cocking his head. Elise could tell that there was a plan forming in his mind.

"If we destroyed the ring platform, once she tried to come down, she'd be killed." Elise warned them, then put her hand to her face. "I can't believe I just said that."

"Then why don't we just stop her from coming down? She's in a ship, right?" Megabyte said. "I mean, hello. My name is *Megabyte*."

"You realize I have no idea what that means, right?" Elise asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It means that as long as everything on that ship is run by some kind of computer, I can manipulate it."

Adam nodded. "Okay, Jade, Kevin, and I will go to this temple. Elise, you stay here and wait for Tivenia. Ami, Megabyte, you get up to the ship and try to disable her ability to get down."

Megabyte and Ami nodded, then teleported away. Adam took Elise's arm.

"Tell us the minute you've got a cure," said Adam, leaving with Jade and Kevin. Behind Elise, Nira started to take giant, panicked breaths.

"What are you?" Nira asked, stumbling away from her sister, horrified and stricken. Elise only shrugged.

****

The priestesses didn't talk to them at all. After Jack had woken up, stark naked, with his hands tied to a rail that surrounded an altar area (that doubled as a ring platform, he noted dryly) he'd tried to get the attention of one of the priestesses. They ignored and continued on, walking around hurriedly, their velvety, dark green robes wooshing as they passed by.

"Well, I'm not leaving her a tip," said Jack, tugging at the ropes again after he'd tried to get the attention of yet another distracted priestess.

"It seems to be some kind of ritual of sacrifice," said Daniel, who was putting a lot of dedication into not looking at Jack or Ferretti for any reason.

"Thank you, Daniel, I'll mention that in my report," he said, brusquely, twisting at the ropes. "If I get to make one out."

"It's freezing in here," Ferretti complained, sitting back on his heels to get more comfortable. "What did they do with our clothes?"

"They padded the ground," Daniel said, staring at the dark green cushions beneath them.

"I'll make sure to mention that, too," Jack said, snidely. "Right after the part about us being naked and tied up as part of a ritual of sacrifice."

"No," Daniel insisted, ignoring Jack's sarcasm, "They must have expected us to be here for some time, alive. Apparently this ritual takes time."

"Oh, goody," Jack answered, giving up on resisting. It was chafing his wrists anyway. Four of the priestesses entered the door at the back of the temple. Three were carrying huge metal buckets. They stopped when they were behind the three men and started singing, high and haunting, their voices clashing and melding in a way that made goosebumps come over Jack. The singing stopped abruptly and Jack strained to turn around to get a good view, but couldn't.

"Ma'at, we your servants, bowing low, do say that we are weak and unworthy. These men came to the Unrentrai pit, and their fate is uncertain to us. Therefore we give them over to you and your wisdom, that you may divine their just fate and also ours," intoned one of the priestesses, in a loud alto voice. There was shuffling of robes and a slight whisper that Jack couldn't make out.

"We seek no vengeance against them!" shouted another priestess, nervous and loud. "Vengeance belongs only to you, and we beg of you mercy for them, that you may show us mercy and turn your face from our impurities. They meant us no harm."

Again, robes shuffled and there were whispers.

"Now we offer you to them, pure, that you might take pity upon them and pity upon us for these things we must do. We are weak."

Once more, whispers and shuffling of robes as though the priestesses were changing

In a warbling, quiet voice, the final priestess said, "Avenge them also, Ma'at, so that we may also be avenged when the time comes that we are punished for this terrible thing we do. We also meant no harm. Forgive us that we have obeyed."

The priestesses all said a word like an 'amen' and swished past Jack, Daniel and Ferretti. They set the buckets down. For the first time, the priestesses let the hoods of their robes down and pulled back their sleeves as if going to work.

"I get the pretty one!" said one of the priestesses, pouring something into the bucket.

"No, you don't, I already said that I wanted the pretty man," another priestess argued back. "You take that one."

"That one's mine!" a third priestess, in a testy voice. "I said it when they came in. I said to you that he was mine and that nobody else would have him but me. You always get to pick first, Tarria. You take the old one."

Jack coughed to get their attention. "I think you mean *middle-aged*."

The priestesses giggled and Tarria said, "You can have the pretty man, Aleyn."

Each of the priestesses set a bucket and a jar down on the other side of the rail in front of each of them. The priestess in front of Jack took out a big sponge and squeezed it out on top of his head.

"That's cold!" he shouted, spitting water out of his mouth. The priestess giggled at him again.

"Oh, yeah, that's great, just go ahead and pour freezing water over me. Yep. Haven't had hypothermia in a long time, looking forward to it," Daniel said, blinking offendedly as the water dripped down his face and into his eyes.

"We should have warmed the water," said the priestess in front of Jack. She poured a little of the jar's syrupy yellow contents on Jack's head.

"Smells nice, but will it do anything for my dry, split ends?" Jack quipped, looking up at the priestess, who smiled down at him as though she was beginning to like him.

"You are a silly, silly man," said the priestess, scrubbing his head vigorously. "See, Mardrea. Your man says nothing at all. He is not interesting."

"I'm more interesting with my clothes on," Ferretti grumbled. Tarria dribbled the yellow soap on Jack's arms and chest.

"I promise, we're clean," Daniel pleaded. "You really don't need to. Do. That."

Jack looked over and Daniel's face was being scrubbed with a sponge and he kept trying to spit the suds out of his mouth.

"I'll be more gentle with your face," promised Tarria. She used her hands to lather the soap on Jack's face and was gentle as a mother washing her child when she washed the soap off. "You are an old wolf."

"You shouldn't talk too much to them," Mardrea warned. "You'll become infected."

"No," Tarria insisted, smiling at Jack. "This man is a wolf. See his hair? Just like a wolf. I'll bet his teeth are sharp."

"If you like me so much, why don't you let me go home?" Jack asked. Tarria seemed to get a sad look across her face. For a moment, Jack ignored Daniel's ongoing monologue of grumbles.

"I love you, my silly wolf-man," said Tarria, gathering a smile again. "And I will give you up. It is how the world is, to love intensely for a few moments and then to let it all go."

"Aww, Jack, when's the wedding?" Daniel taunted as more water was sloshed down his back.

"I don't like this man anymore," whined Aleyn. "He talks too much. I want your man, Mardrea. He keeps his tongue to himself."

"You said you wanted the pretty one," Mardrea teased.

"He does not cooperate!" Aleyn shouted as Daniel kept moving his head to avoid letting her scrub him. She finally grabbed his head, pressed it to her chest and started to scrub twice as hard.

"That hurts!" Daniel roared. "That's my ear!"

"Aleyn!" Tarria shouted. "Go prepare the cloths. I'll finish the pretty man."

"My name is Daniel!" Daniel shouted. "And I am not pretty."

Mardrea giggled and looked at Daniel, sympathetically.

Tarria walked around behind Jack with the bucket and jar to wash his back. "Please don't try to kick me."

Gently she pressed against his back and reached around to wash his chest and stomach where she couldn't reach because of the railing. Jack could hear her breath in his ear. He stared down at his bound hands.

"What's going to happen to us?" Jack asked, gently. "I'm responsible for these men's lives. I lead them here because this place made our friend sick. We just want to cure them."

"Ma'at will come to judge you," she said in a honest, even voice. "Do not fear."

"She'll kill us," Jack told her. "My friend will die if I don't find something. You can help us. Let us go."

"I would let you go, wolf, but you and your pack would not get very far. I cannot give you comfort, only hope," she said, her hands slowing as they went down his sides. "Ma'at is not a goddess. She can only hurt you in this life. There is a place beyond this, where the gods and goddesses cannot touch you. And even Ma'at cannot keep you from it."

She gave him a kiss on his temple and backed away, pouring the soap down his back and scrubbing in silence.

"That's not where I want to go," said Jack. "I want to go home."

"Who's to say it isn't?"

Tarria finished, leaving Jack shaking from more than the cold and went over to Daniel.

"I'm sorry about Aleyn," Tarria said to Daniel. "She becomes easily frustrated."

"If you're sorry, you could let us go," Daniel said, looking up at her with his finest pouting look. Tarria scrubbed Daniel without saying anything and then the priestesses left, leaving the three men naked, wet, and shivering. There was a long terrifying silence where Jack feared that the priestesses might have left them to Ma'at.

It wasn't until Jack heard footsteps and felt something warm and soft thrown against his back that he felt relieved. Tarria put a hole in the cloak over his head like a shirt and then smoothed out the softly lined fur cloak over him. Jack sighed with relief and buried his face in the fur.

"We heated the robes for you," said Tarria, throwing the black furry cloak over Ferretti's shoulders. "If Ma'at does not come by the night, I will bring you food. Fruit, to make the pretty man sweet, and meat for the old wolf with sharp teeth."

She winked in Jack's direction and after fitting the cloak over Daniel she left.

Once the door to the temple closed, the ring platform lit up.

"Crap," Jack muttered, staying half-buried in the fur cloak.

****

"This place feels so evil," Ami said, hugging herself as she and Megabyte slid against the walls, constantly wary for anyone who might be coming.

"They must use Windows," Megabyte joked, checking around a corner. "I think the main controls are this way. Ever