4: Thundergate
by Chaos_eternus
SG-1 gazed uneasily at Enerina as she strode back into the Ha'taks Bridge, she might have helped them escape but it begged the question, why? She didn't act anything like a Tok'ra and Goa'ulds would never wear themselves out to the point of exhaustion ensuring all their Jaffa were healed. For that matter, neither would the Tok'ra. That meant she was an unknown and no-one likes unknowns.
Enerina dropped into the only chair on the bridge, an ornate affair obviously meant for the unnamed snake in Colonel Pierces head only. She signed, and looked towards O'Neill.
“It seems I have an apology to make to you.”
“Excuse me?”
“I shouldn't have done it really,” leaning back in the overly ornate chair, she stifled a grimace “but I felt the situation demanded it.”
“Demanded what, exactly?”
“Messing around with your mind like that.”
“WHAT!?!”
Enerina looked curiously at O'Neill, it appeared he hadn't noticed or realized. Interesting, but potentially a problem in this situation.
“You didn't wonder about why you were so quick to trust me?”
Daniel looked up warily, “It was a little out of character.”
“My host, Falco Del Ameris, is empathic.”
SG-1 glanced at each other in realisation and surprise, but O'Neill's expression quickly turned to number 35, Elemental force of Anger, he was not happy.
“You messed with my mind!?!”
“I had to! I had no time to explain that I wanted to help you! I needed you to trust me, or I and my people were DEAD!” Enerina jumped up off the chair, and strode towards O'Neill, shouting in his face, all the anger in the room fuelling her ire.
“Do you know what happens when a Goa'uld takes an empath as a host?” She shouted, “You get a psychopath who can now sense others emotions, unless it's their first host! ”
She took a calming breath, “At which point you have a Goa'uld who can sense others emotions and is still sane enough… Is still sane enough for what it truly means to batter its way past their arrogance and greed. When I feel the emotions of the Goa'ulds I sense darkness, evil, and a black oiliness that overwhelms and corrupts everything it touches. I sense the slaves, the animals the knowledge of my ancestors calls them and I sense more light, more purity than I have ever sensed from a Goa'uld, be they Tok'ra or system lord. Occasionally I will find a heart so pure that to just sense it for a moment makes me feel pure, protected, sheltered,” she glanced back up at O'Neill, “everyone of those has looked straight at me as they died and there was no condemnation, no blame, only simple understanding and forgiveness, do you know how humbling that is ?”
Gasping out an inarticulate moan of frustration combined with a thousand other emotions to complex to ever be given justice by mere words, she turned and strode out off the room.
O'Neill's gaze didn't leave her as she left, his expression puzzled, but wondering like some complex puzzle had just presented itself to him that he didn't quite understand but perhaps, was willing to try to understand.
Sharing a quick shrug with Daniel, he sighed, then shouted after the departing Goa'uld, “It's the sarcophagus; repeated use damages the host, releasing chemicals which affect the brains of host and snake, by which time their both already addicted.”
Enerina paused at the door for a moment, considering this then nodded, and with a shudder and a sigh, left the room. The door closed swiftly behind her, leaving SG-1 to their thoughts.
The Ha'tak, now nicknamed the McCaffrey by Reynolds who according to O'Neill needed to get out more, and stop reading the Tower and The Hive books, settled quickly down by the StarGate. Within moments, SG-1, 11 and the remainder of RSG-1 sprinted out of the vessel, and activated the gate, dialling in StarGate command, and stepping through to home. Soon after, Enerina's Jaffa and SG teams 2 & 5 moved out, and began patrolling a perimeter. They intended to be here quite some time.
“Incoming Wormhole!” Master Sergeant Walter Davis shouted out as klaxons and alarms throughout StarGate command sounded.
“Receiving GDO signal, its SG-1 sir.”
“Open the iris” Hammond replied, a hint of relief in his voice, “Inform Doctor Frasier.”
With a metallic squeal, the trinium iris split, and opened allowing the three SG-1 teams to step through, making Hammond frown with worry, he noticed quickly that RSG-1 was short a member and that two complete teams were absent.
“Briefing room now, Sir” O'Neill shouted up to the control room as soon as he had stepped through the gate, making Hammond groan, couldn't SG-1 return from a mission without the shit hitting the fan in some form or other? A tap on his shoulder distracted Hammond just as he was about to leave the control room, and an airman handed him a box of aspirins;
“You might need these, sir” he said, sympathy in his voice.
Hammond thanked the man, and turned back towards the briefing room, thinking it was bad that SG-1 returning from a mission resulted in commiseration gifts from half the base nowadays. Appropriate certainly, he was surprised SG-1 hadn't given him an ulcer already, but still…
“General, we have a serious problem.” O'Neill said as soon as he got to the briefing room, not wasting any time, “there's a new snake on the block and he has Colonel Pierce as a host.”
Hammond looked stunned at Colonel O'Neill, this was his greatest nightmare come true, a Goa'uld with all the knowledge of the SGC and even worse, knowledge of the RSS as well, “Are you…?”
“Absolutely certain? Yes, sir!” O'Neill replied caustically, “I mean, he got his head chopped off but we had no opportunity to make sure of host and Goa'uld so it's likely this Maktenos has already been revived.”
Hammond swore vividly, then reached for the phone, “Davis, this is Hammond, initiate the Delta-5 protocol, this is NOT a drill.”
Hammond slammed the phone down, and turned to O'Neill as Walter Davis voice blared the security alert over the intercom, “Where are SG-2 and 5?”
“PC-679X, with an empathic Goa'uld and her Jaffa, who fought her own father to help us escape.”
Hammond blinked, mentally parsing the Colonels words, the shook his head “This report ought to be a bestseller.”
Davis dropped the phone back into its hook, Delta-5 protocol? What was that? He reached quickly for the thick folder that was permanently chained to the desk, and flipped through, ‘Delta-5, Delta-5, Ahh! Found it!' he glanced quickly through the description and blanched. …assumes SG member taken as a host… …critical security breach… …extreme threat to Earths survival…
He glanced quickly at the instructions; recall all off-world teams, full security sweep of base, reset all GDO frequencies and codes… It was going to be a busy week.
He reached for the intercom, and flicked it on, “Security Alert! Delta-5 Protocol is now in effect! Siler to the gateroom!”