The brazier was lit more for light and comfort than against the night’s mild chill. The evening meal was long finished, though a platter of dates still sat beside Jack, and the beer jar was still half full. Tamit had taken Ellie to bed a while ago, and the back of the house was dark and silent. A feather’s touch of a breeze caught the flame of the nearest oil lamp, sending a ripple of shadow across the room. Sam saw Aset shiver and move just an inch closer to Teal’c. The Jaffa put out his hand, caressed her wrist, but said nothing.
“Well, kids,” Jack said. “I guess we have to talk about it sometime.”
“I do not see that there is anything to be gained by further discussion,” Teal’c said.
“There has to be something we can do,” Danyel began, and Sam sat up straighter against the cushions.
“It’s possible there isn’t an answer,” she said. She owed Teal’c that much, to acknowledge that the danger was real and desperate and might not be overcome. “But I can’t — we have to try.”
Aset’s fingers moved, circling Teal’c’s wrist, and the Jaffa bowed his head.
“I would be glad to be proven wrong,” he said. “But the protection of — others — must take precedence.”
“Yeah,” Jack said. Out of the corner of her eye, Sam saw him meet Teal’c’s gaze firmly. “But unless and until —”
“We have to think of something,” Danyel said again.
He’d been through this once already, Sam thought, lost his own team, his own versions of her and Jack and Teal’c. Of course he was determined not to let it happen a second time.
“OK,” Jack said. “Let’s think.” He reached for his beer, and Danyel gave him a look.
“Like that’s going to help.”
“Couldn’t hurt,” Jack said, and took a long drink.
“Let’s look at our options,” Sam said firmly. She could tell that Teal’c was about to say something like ‘we have none’ or ‘you could kill me now,’ so she hurried on. “If I understand this properly, the normal course of events would be for the — symbiote — to take a host, and you would get a new, younger one, to carry until it matures in turn. Is that correct?”
Teal’c nodded. “It is. But — ”
Sam ignored him. “Are there any other options? Anything else that anybody’s heard of, no matter how weird?”
Danyel gave a frustrated sigh. “There’s Tretonin, of course. It’s a drug that we managed to synthesize, back in my time, that eliminated the Jaffa’s need for symbiotes entirely. It was the key to the success of the Jaffa rebellion.” He shook his head. “But we don’t have the equipment or, more important, the ingredients. And I don’t really know the formula anyway.”
“Gee, that’s helpful,” Jack said. “Got anything else?”
“Not really,” Danyel said, and reached for his own cup.
“I think we need to do this the old-fashioned way,” Jack said. “Teal’c needs a new symbiote. OK, we get him one.”
“I do not think,” Teal’c began, and Aset spoke over him.
“There are no more left. We — Pharaoh’s men and you killed all that were found. Would we had left just one alive!”
“We could not,” Teal’c said. “The risk was too great.”
“I said it before,” Jack said. “There are — what? — dozens of worlds out there that have plenty of symbiotes to choose from.”
“Hundreds,” Danyel said. “But — putting aside the danger to Earth if we dig up the Stargate again — Jack, the Goa’uld out there are at the height of their powers. They’re not going to let us just walk up to them and help ourselves to a handful of larvae.”
“Daniel Jackson is correct,” Teal’c said. “The prim’tah are kept safe within the palace of their sires, except when a prim’tah ceremony is planned.”
“Prim’tah?” Jack asked.
“That is the Goa’uld word for the immature symbiote,” Teal’c answered. “And also the ceremony at which a Jaffa receives his — or her — first symbiote. It is an occasion of great import —”
“Prim’tah,” Danyel said. He had an odd, arrested look on his face. “I should have — Ra’s Jaffa’s prim’tah —” He shoved himself to his feet, nearly tripping over a cushion, and grabbed the nearest oil lamp.
“Danyel?” Aset said.
“Don’t wake the kid,” Jack said, in the same moment, but Danyel was gone. Sam looked at Jack, who shrugged.
Sam shook her head silently. She couldn’t like the idea of launching at attack on the Goa’uld — because, let’s face it, that was exactly what this would be, an attack that was likely to draw attention back to Earth. They’d beaten Ra once, but she was under no illusions about how easily it could have gone the other way. If Ra had managed to take the Stargate, as he’d planned… She shook her head again. She’d seen the world that resulted, and she hadn’t liked it much. Her own Daniel, who had been so sure they were meant for better things than English as a Second Language, or proofing other people’s papers, so determined to make them a part of this second chance — he and half a dozen of Jack’s friends had died just to get them here, and so many more had died to make the rebellion happen. To risk that, to risk the timeline, was unthinkable.
But Teal’c would die if they didn’t find him a new, young symbiote, and that was just as unthinkable. She knew what logic said, could do the cold math that said one death to save millions was a fair price. But that was not what heroes did, or so the books she’d read when she was ten had promised her, before she’d learned to compromise. Her father’s wingman had spotted the wreck, made sure there was a body to bury, because the Air Force didn’t leave their men behind. Jack followed the same creed. She would do no less. They couldn’t risk Earth for the life of one man, that was true. Not unless they were sure they could minimize the risk, and be certain of their success.
And they probably could minimize the risk enough, she thought. If they dialed out to some other world, or worlds, first — Danyel would know safe ones — surely that would muddy the trail, and keep Ra from thinking of Earth? With luck, he’d blame the theft on rival Goa’uld, or rogue Jaffa instead.
“If we find a source,” she said. “We can’t dial directly from Earth. Or, more precisely, we don’t want to dial Earth directly from whichever of Ra’s worlds we end up going to. Are there any worlds we could go through, ones that aren’t well watched, where we could dial Earth without getting caught?”
“Cut-outs,” Jack said, approvingly. “Nice thought, Sam.”
“Most Stargates are at least watched,” Teal’c said. “But, indeed, watched is not guarded, and there are worlds where even that precaution is neglected. I believe this would be a valid plan.”
Light blossomed in the doorway that led to the hall, Danyel’s lamp and Danyel behind it, a bundle of papyri under his other arm.
“I’ve got it,” he said. “I knew I’d seen something.”
Aset rose to take the lamp, looking worried, and Danyel dropped back onto the cushions, scattering scrolls around him. He searched for a moment, came up with one that looked as though mice had chewed it, and unrolled it to reveal not hieroglyphics but Goa’uld symbols.
Teal’c tilted his head to one side. “That is a calendar,” he said. “Ra’s?”
“Yes.” Danyel scooted forward so that Teal’c could see as he unrolled the tattered papyrus. “It’s a list of the worlds where the prim’tah ceremony was scheduled to be held — it looks as though Ra was rotating the ceremony among the various homeworlds of his Jaffa. Someone, I’m guessing one of the junior officers, was in charge of getting Jaffa home for the ceremony, and this was his list.”
Teal’c took the scroll, studied it calmly. “I believe you are correct.”
“So?” Jack looked from one to the other.
“So now we know a bunch of places where people are going to have a whole lot of immature symbiotes,” Danyel said. “Very immature symbiotes. Can you think of a better place to get a replacement for Teal’c’s?”
“The prim’tah will be well guarded,” Teal’c said, but he sounded more thoughtful than disapproving.
“I was at a prim’tah ceremony once,” Danyel said. “Well, sort of. On Chulak. They had all of the symbiotes in a tank at the temple, gave them out one or two at a time. I’m guessing Ra’s Jaffa would do the same.”
“Very likely,” Teal’c said.
“Yeah, but,” Jack said. “Look, this has promise, but we don’t know anything about any of these planets.” He paused. “Do we?”
“We do,” Danyel said, with a grin that made him look surprisingly young. “In fact, we have just gotten the most outrageous stroke of luck since — well, since I can remember. The next planet on the list is Abydos.”
“Abydos,” Jack said.
“It’s the first world we ever visited,” Danyel said. “Me and the other you, that is. In my time line.” A shadow crossed his face. “I lived there for a while — but that’s not important right now.”
Before his wife was kidnapped, Sam thought. Before he joined the Stargate program to search for her, before he found her a Goa’uld host. He had told them the story once, her and Jack and Teal’c, mentioned it occasionally, but always with that faint look of pain.
“But that was what, several thousand years from now,” she said.
“The Goa’uld are conservative,” Danyel said. “The temples on Abydos — well, OK, I’m really not sure about the proper tense here, but — OK, the newest one was built probably a few hundred years ago, a hundred years before our now. I know where the symbiotes will be kept, and I know how to get us there secretly.”
Teal’c nodded slowly. “That much I believe is possible. But —”
“Great,” Jack interrupted. “So we’ve got a plan, kids. Now all we have to do —”
“Hor-Aha will not allow us to restore the Stargate,” Teal’c said. “It is too great a risk to save the life of one man.”
“But for such a man,” Aset flared. “The man who put Pharaoh’s father on his throne, who kept Pharaoh himself alive to inherit! To give him a chance at life is only justice.”
Teal’c gave her a faint, almost embarrassed smile. Sam said, ”I think we can figure out a way to open the Stargate safely.”
“There is one factor as yet unconsidered,” Teal’c said. “When is this prim’tah ceremony to be?”
Danyel consulted the papyrus. “Chintar masr — OK, that’s, I make it three weeks from today.”
Teal’c shook his head. “That is too long. My symbiote will have matured by then.”
“Crap,” Jack said.
Sam bit back a curse of her own. They had been so close. “What happens if you keep it longer?”
“I cannot,” Teal’c said. “When it is mature, it will take a host. I cannot stop it.”
“All right,” Jack said. “We go sooner.”
“Too soon, and the symbiotes won’t be there,” Danyel said. “The earliest they’re likely to be there is a few days before the ceremony.”
“And we need time to get the Stargate working again,” Sam said.
“Damn it!” Jack reached for his beer.
“Wait,” Danyel said. “There’s — well, it’s a possibility, anyway.”
Teal’c lifted an eyebrow.
Jack was more direct. “Danyel, what are you talking about?”
“It was tried once,” Danyel said. “Our Teal’c tried it, when he still had his symbiote. He was able to contact it by going deep into kelnorim.”
“That is impossible,” Teal’c said, but his tone was less certain than his words.
“Maybe not,” Danyel said. “Look, there was a Jaffa priestess, Shau’nac, who managed to contact her symbiote.” He hesitated, and Sam wondered just what he wasn’t telling. “She was able to persuade it not to take a host even though it was well past maturity. It didn’t take a host until it got a volunteer.”
“We are taught that contact with the prim’tah is not only impossible, but that the very attempt is dangerous,” Teal’c said thoughtfully. “To descend too deeply into kelnorim is to risk losing one’s ability to leave the trance state.”
“Of course you’re told that,” Jack said. “The last thing the Goa’uld want is for you to talk to their offspring.”
“Shau’nac made it work,” Danyel said. “And so did our Teal’c. It wasn’t pleasant, the symbiote didn’t like him much, but he was able to communicate.”
“I have no desire to die,” Teal’c said. He scrupulously refrained from looking at Aset. “Not if there is an alternative. I think this is worth the risk.”
“And that gives us time to open the Stargate,” Sam said.
“And to talk to Hor-Aha,” Jack said. He lifted his beer cup in a toast. “Sounds like a plan, kids.”
Sam leaned forward to join the toast, clicking her clay cup against the others. There were a lot of variables involved, too many — but it was the best they had.