Only one Jaffa had died during the attack, although over a dozen had sustained injuries. Jouwat had left the particulars of conquering this planet in their hands; he had his own mission to complete.
He and his bodyguards were busy sifting through debris from one of the collapsed buildings: a far from satisfying task. They'd been at it for almost an hour, and he'd so far seen no signs of progress.
Jouwat had personally interrogated several of the humans, and before he'd died, the most recent one had pinpointed this location as the best place to start looking.
"My lord!" One of the Jaffa called, and he turned to look.
[Finally.] He was there in a few seconds, and reached into the loose debris. He could feel the struggle just beneath the surface, like an animal squirming in a trap. Flexing his muscles, he heaved upwards, and pulled the dusty, filthy little cur out of the ground.
Jouwat lifted him clear off his feet and shook him, as a dog would a rat. Dust billowed from his clothing, and Jouwat turned him to be more downwind.
Upon getting a good look at him, his captive opened his mouth in outrage. [Hattaka! How dare you touch me? You will suffer for this indignity!]
Answering only with a predatory grin, Jouwat pulled a tiny gold-colored circle from his robes and attached it to the lesser Goa'uld's left temple. He could hear a slight hum as it activated.
The Goa'uld winced and cringed as his recent visual memories were forcibly accessed and downloaded by the machine. His frail legs kicked in protest, and his arms convulsed. Jouwat allowed himself a moment of enjoyment at watching this flea twitch in agony. The machine had several lower settings, by which memories could be accessed voluntarily, but this setting worked much faster and didn't need the subject's cooperation. The light at the center of the circle went out, signaling it was done, so he pulled it free and promptly dropped the prisoner.
The Jaffa didn't dare speak, but he could tell at least some of them were enjoying the show.
Ignoring the now prone Goa'uld, he pulled out a communications sphere and activated it. It took a few seconds to receive an answer, and he barely remembered to incline his head as the image appeared in his palm.
[Your progress, Jouwat?] The image of Apophis demanded.
[It was as you predicted, my Lord.] He kept his voice as subservient as possible as he caught sight of some motion out of the corner of his eye. While Jouwat had been waiting for Apophis to respond, the lesser Goa'uld had stumbled to his feet, and now approached him with a murderous look on his face. Casually moving the sphere to his other palm, Jouwat calmly backhanded the Goa'uld, sending him to the ground again. [The tau'ri did indeed come here, and your spy contacted us immediately, of course. However, due to a wise precaution by the native humans, and the incompetence of the spy, they were able to escape before we found the chappa'ai.] He reflected for a moment. This would be the point in the report that a normal Goa'uld would begin to fear for his life.
Interesting.
He attached the memory machine. [I am sending you a visual record of the spy's encounter with the tau'ri now.]
A stream of images began to flow across the sides of the spherical transmission, and Apophis paid close attention.
[My Lord Apophis!] The little rat squeaked in indignation. Finally aware that he didn't stand a chance against Jouwat, at least not without a weapon, he seemed to be resorting to words to get his way. He'd gotten up again and dusted himself off, but he still resembled some kind of carrion eater in Jouwat's eyes.
Pathetic.
[This… agent of yours has treated me with the utmost disrespect! I must insist that he be punished for his insolence!]
[He is Pragon, Telex.] Apophis responded distractedly, his eyes following the images intently.
Jouwat vaguely wondered why Telex hadn't already known that from his facial markings, but dismissed the question from his mind. Like most Goa'uld, he'd probably assumed Pragon were just a myth.
Telex paled, and began stuttering out apologies, all of which Jouwat ignored. After all, the only ones who could truly understand Pragon were other Pragon.
The transmission paused for a moment as Apophis entered commands of his own. A series of images spaced themselves evenly around the sphere, showing each of the tau'ri humans that Telex had seen.
His expression darkened. [Telex, are you certain these are the leaders of the tau'ri?]
[Of course, my lord. They are led by that one, a Colonel Marcus.] He pointed to one of the images, getting uncomfortably close. Jouwat was tempted to hit him again, just to make him go away, but resisted the urge as Apophis was now looking at them both.
There was a long silence, punctuated by occasional explosions in the distance.
[It is not them.]
Apophis looked away from the transmission. With surprise, Jouwat realized that his voice had sounded… depressed, if only for an instant! After a long silence, though, Apophis focused again on Jouwat almost as suddenly as he'd looked away. [Your task has now changed, Jouwat. These tau'ri are not the ones I wanted alive. Find them, wherever they are hiding, and kill them all.]
He bowed, genuinely for once. [With pleasure, my Lord.]
[If… if I may speak?] Telex timidly asked. Shrugging, Jouwat turned the sphere to face the image in his direction. [My Lord may wish to take one of them alive. As you can see,] he ran through the visual memories again, and singled out one image, [this one may prove to be quite useful.]
-.-
Almost a week after the disaster on Bisalis, Hargrove stood in their de facto briefing room, studying the faces of Haley, Suna, Cayo and Prem. Their collective mood could best be described as 'gloomy'. The situation with the Isai seemed to be all anyone could talk about.
Of the five million or so Isai on that particular island, less than three thousand had made it through the 'gate before the Jaffa had found it. If the Regent hadn't sent out runners before his death, that number would have been zero.
Hargrove, despite the Colonel's orders, had stayed long enough to trade shots with the Jaffa at the bunker's entrance. When the Colonel had finally arrived, they'd fled through into the chaotic mass of refugees on the uninhabited planet at the other end.
Immediately after leaving Bisalis, they'd altered the DHD to keep anyone else from dialing in. After a short discussion, they'd begun sending people to some of the worlds peaceful enough to have been excluded from their recruitment drives. Three thousand people couldn't just be dumped on any inhabited world without warning, after all.
The efforts were still ongoing, but so far it seemed like they would be able to find a place for all the evacuees. Even so, people kept asking about Bisalis.
As bitter a pill as it was to swallow, Hargrove continued to remind himself and others that there was nothing they could do for the locals. All anyone could do was hope that Apophis would be too busy chasing after the Survivors to care much about the people left there. That was one of the reasons he'd let the Jaffa get so close, after all. To give them a place to chase after, so they'd have a reason to leave in a hurry.
They'd also lost two of their own in the attack. Page and one of the Talisi, a youth named Pelek, had been killed during the initial bombardment. Hargrove had made sure their bodies were taken to safety; he couldn't risk the Goa'uld bringing them back with a sarcophagus. His own injuries had mostly healed, thanks to the Deuca, but he winced as he shifted his weight onto his still-tender leg. He'd declined painkillers, despite Suna's advice, because he wanted to keep a clear head.
The Colonel spoke up, and everyone quieted. "I know we're all still worried about the Isai. We've gotten word to the Tok'ra, and they've promised to look into it and tell us what they find. They have ships capable of getting there and scouting the area covertly. All the same, we still have a job to do." He took a deep breath, and looked over the notes on their well-used laptop. "After comparing recent intel gained from Seraus' database with Tok'ra surveillance notes, we've found something interesting."
Hargrove surreptitiously eyed the man. Thanks to the Deuca technology, the Colonel's head injury was now only barely visible, and his stance was steady without any sign of dizziness. Still, Hargrove wondered about him. The Colonel had been MIA for almost an hour back on Bisalis. Whatever he was looking for in those ruins, he’d either found it or given up. Either he’d gone back to help the Isai who’d been hurt in the explosion or…
Hargrove grimaced. Or the Colonel had taken the opportunity to make contact with the Jaffa invading the city. It seemed implausible, but he could think of no other possibilities.
The Deuca had run a scan on all of them when they’d returned from Bisalis. They would have detected a symbiote, or any of the known forms of Goa'uld mind control. For now, Hargrove was satisfied by their answers, but he resolved to keep a close eye on the man, at least for the near future.
The Colonel pressed a key, and the makeshift projector displayed a map of some kind of facility Hargrove hadn't seen. It rankled Hargrove that he'd been left out of the loop on this, but he had been pretty busy with the Isai relocation.
"According to their files, this is an underground weapons manufacturing plant, originally built by Ra, on a planet called Tchosal. They confirmed that after his death, the place was stripped of all valuables by his rivals and abandoned, but Seraus' notes suggest that there might be something we could still use down there. Blake?"
Blake stood and cleared his throat. Hargrove had only seen him in passing recently, but he'd been relieved to see that all signs of Blake's old injury were finally gone. He no longer favored his side when no one was looking, and any trace of psychological damage had vanished as well. "Seraus found evidence that Ra had hidden an Ancient weapon of sorts down there: a template for some of the weapons he used to crank out of that place. Of course, even while Ra was top dog, there were still plenty of System Lords who wouldn't hesitate to attack his planets, so Seraus surmised that the weapon was probably hidden from view, in a secret chamber or something. After the place was raided and abandoned, there was no mention that the pillagers had found any Ancient devices, so it's probably still there." He looked up from his notes. "His log says that he tried to talk Nereus into letting him go there to look around, but his boss said no. Turns out Nereus and the other Shu Goa'ulds in that area of space were forbidden from leaving until there was only one of them left alive. Ironically, it was Ra who forbade them. In exchange, he apparently promised that they'd be left alone from the other Goa'ulds until they were done fighting it out. I guess Nereus was still jittery about breaking that rule and leaving Shu territory."
"Back up there, Blake. Who- or what, is 'Shu'?" Hargrove inquired.
"Oh, that's the word the Goa'uld use for Nereus and his dozen-or-so rivals. The only reason they weren't stomped on after Ra's death was that they would all band together if someone tried it. Of course, they'd go back to their infighting once the threat had passed. The word they used for their oh-so-temporary cooperation was 'kana'shek'."
Cayo raised a hand. "Didn't you say that Nereus found the Soma Voco on one of Ra's planets, after it had been brought there from Earth?"
Blake and Haley had finally gotten a few prototypes of the Ancient comm device working a few days earlier, and as a result the Colonel had made the Soma Voco public knowledge. Hargrove had asked him to keep the details of what the device had done to him a secret, but everything else was known to pretty much every Survivor.
Both of them freely admitted that they had no idea how the prototypes did what they did, but so far the tests of the somaradios, as they'd been nicknamed, had been nothing short of astonishing. They'd been able to communicate in realtime between planets, at least in early tests. The Goa'uld sensors in the mountain hadn't picked up any trace of this communication so far, and from what Blake had read, even the Goa'uld’s own subspace comms weren't as effective as these prototypes. Despite his misgivings about the technology, Hargrove had been forced to agree that it was time for a field test of the things.
Strangely enough, unlike Earth radios, all the prototypes had to relay their signals through the SV device in the mountain. Without that device, the somaradios were basically nothing more than complicated paperweights.
Blake answered, bringing Hargrove back to the matter at hand. "You're right, but the raid that brought the SV back here took place only a few days after Ra died. The whole galaxy was in chaos, not surprisingly, just after the Head Cheese got knocked off. Seraus didn't find out about Tchosal until a few months later, and Nereus didn't want to risk it, not with the System Lords back in full control."
"At any rate," the Colonel put in hastily, apparently sensing the general boredom in the room, "the Tok'ra confirmed that Apophis is dispatching a ship to search the area. It should take them at least two days to get there, and apparently he's not sending anyone through the 'gate. I want to beat them there. Cayo, you'll take your team, Haley, Suna and Premin'aha there to look around. Bring one of those… somaradios," he fumbled a little with the new word, "just in case. Blake, you'll stay here to-"
"Make more somaradios." Blake cut him off glumly. "Yeah, I know." It was obvious he'd wanted to go along, and the Colonel gave him an understanding look.
"With your permission, Colonel, I'll go along too." Hargrove added, almost on impulse. He could ask one of the Survivors to keep an eye- hopefully undetected- on the Colonel, while he investigated this Ancient weapon of theirs.
Most of the group gave him curious looks, so he went on. "Look, I know word has spread about my 'ability' to work Ancient machines. I still have no idea how I can do what I can apparently do, but you may need it on this mission. Sir?"
The Colonel hesitated, then nodded.
Ahardt stepped up to the open door, out of sight of most of them, and beckoned to Hargrove.
As he surreptitiously wove his way through the group during the Colonel's continued instructions, Hargrove wondered what could be up. Ahardt was supposed to still be on Aurora, one of the names they'd given their various stopover planets, checking for any contact with the Tollans or Tok'ra. Blake had designed a receiver/recorder unit that they'd hidden there to keep track of any messages either group might send to the Survivors.
For a moment, he wondered how Ahardt had gotten back so quickly; Hovak's 'gate was still locked down until a scheduled departure or return. Then he remembered the somaradios. Ahardt had been part of the team that had tested them, and he'd undoubtedly used one to let the 'gate guards know he wanted to come back early.
Finally, he got to the door. "What is it?" He asked softly, so as not to interrupt the rest of the briefing.
"I just got back from Aurora. We did our usual check-in with the Tollans, but they've kinda thrown us a curveball this time." He looked over at the Colonel. "I think it'd be best if you and the boss both saw this in person."
-.-
On their way to Aurora, Tony had to work hard to conceal his impatience. In addition to Cayo's excursion to this abandoned weapons factory, he had four other missions to think about, further communications with the Tok'ra to deal with, a meeting with Hovak's Conclave to attend, and God only knew what else was lurking around the corner! Whatever this new Tollan situation was, he could only hope it was something that could be dealt with quickly.
As they walked, though, his mind kept wandering back to Bisalis. He found himself wondering if that Jaffa had made it offworld alive, and what he was doing now. The Goa'uld always kept their Jaffa in an iron grip. With Sokar dead, maybe this particular Jaffa had a chance at a better life. With effort, Tony tried to focus on the present. The Jaffa was in God's hands now.
Ahardt had been as nervous as a fox in a kennel about this whole thing, whatever it was. When he'd asked permission to be excused, Tony had granted it without hesitation. He had training to get back to, anyway.
Just after he and Hargrove stepped through Aurora's 'gate, Tony found himself at the top of a large hill, overlooking forests on one side, and a large lake to the other. He'd only been to Aurora once before, to evaluate it as one of the many planets they used as runarounds to throw off any possible pursuit.
It hadn't changed much.
At the bottom of the ramp, a few feet away from Blake's buried receiver unit, two people stood waiting for them. After a second or so, Tony recognized one of them. From his outfit, the other one was a Tollan.
The shorter man stepped forward and saluted. "Colonel Marcus, sir!"
"Lieutenant Pierson." Tony returned the salute. "What brings you all the way out here?"
Pierson lowered his hand. "I've come to join up, sir. Colonel Stokes said you left an open invitation behind, the last time you were on Tollanna. And I've brought a recruit with me."
Tony almost asked where this recruit was, before he realized that Pierson meant his Tollan companion.
Despite his experience with the strange and unusual by this time, he had not expected that. He looked at the Tollan in extreme surprise, and then at Hargrove, who kept his face blank as usual.
"This is Bokal, sir." Pierson continued. "Like me, he wants to be out there, making a difference."
"I see." Tony managed. The idea that a Tollan would do anything like this was… unusual to say the least. "Pierson, could you excuse us for a minute?"
The Lieutenant good-naturedly gave them some space, and Tony looked the Tollan up and down. About five and a half feet tall, Bokal had light brown hair and brown eyes. He looked in relatively good shape, and stood in a stance he'd obviously assumed was military. His eyes shone with excitement.
"Bokal… do you really know what you're asking, here?" Tony asked, almost as much for his own curiosity as to evaluate the man. "I don't know your people very well, but from what I can tell, you're basically agreeing to throw away everything you believe in by joining us."
Bokal's excited smile faded. "That isn't so, Colonel! Yes, by doing this, I will be abandoning the Tollans' peaceful ways, but that is all. I am still Tollan. I want to join the Survivors not to defy my people, but to protect them!"
Tony shook his head. "Help me to understand this, then."
Bokal interlaced his fingers as he nodded and glanced over at the 'gate. "I'm a technical engineer on the new homeworld. My only responsibilities were the maintenance and installation of our technologies in our new cities. I did this gladly, grateful for the chance to help our people rebuild after our original homeworld was abandoned. I had a life, and a future to which I could look forward with hope."
He kept eye contact with Tony, and his emotion was clear to see. "When the Goa'uld moved against Tollanna, they bombarded the capital briefly, before our defenses could destroy their mothership. One of their Deathgliders bombed the academy in which my wife worked. The level collapsed, and she was buried in rubble." He finally looked away for a second, and his voice changed. "Medical services got there in just a few minutes, but by then she was gone."
Tony's mind flashed back to his recent experience, digging through rubble on Bisalis. "I'm sorry, Bokal."
"She was a teacher, Colonel." His voice cracked and he looked down at the dirt. "Her greatest joy came in seeing the children under her care gain understanding and wisdom. The Goa'uld killed her nonetheless; they would have killed us all if they could."
Tony braced himself. "I can't begin to understand your loss, but if you want to join us just to get revenge on the Goa'uld-"
"No, that isn't it." Bokal looked up at him again, a new intensity in his expression. "My people are in danger, Colonel. We've… been at peace for so long that we didn't think anything like that could ever happen! I was on another continent when the Goa’uld struck, but I remember feeling shocked and helpless as we monitored the attack, just like everyone else. None of us knew what to do; we only won because your people- people from Earth, I mean- were there to help us!"
He sighed, and looked over to where Pierson was waiting. "Later, Garrett explained to me exactly what had happened. I hoped that the near-disaster faced by the Tollans would change things, that the Curia would take the Goa'uld threat seriously for once, but they didn't. Everyone just went back to their lives, happily. Willful ignorance, Garrett called it."
Tony was starting to understand his frustration. He'd never thought much about how Tollan society worked before; in his mind it had just been a peaceful, frustratingly isolationist planet. "How do you think joining us will change that?"
Confidence replaced the frustration in Bokal's voice. "Tollan weapons are still superior to those used by the Goa'uld. For now, my planet is safe, but it won't be that way forever. Every Goa'uld in the galaxy has to be aware of us by now, and if what Garrett told me is true, they won't let a society of humans stay free and independent for long. If they can't find a way around our defenses like they did last time, they'll simply attack Tollanna with overwhelming force. They could bring so many ships that we wouldn't be able to shoot them down fast enough! Garrett told me how the System Lords don't care how many die in their service, as long as they achieve their goals."
"And you think you can stop that from happening?"
"I have to try!" Bokal insisted, shrugging helplessly. "No one on my world will listen! A few other people lost friends in the attack, but even they still refuse to see just how close the danger is. All I can do to protect them is to leave, and fight for them." He took a deep breath. "At your side, I hope. Garrett spoke very highly of your Survivors."
Tony looked at Hargrove, letting him know that he was considering it.
Bokal apparently understood that as well. "I have many skills you will find useful, Colonel." He put in eagerly. "I have an intimate understanding of Tollan technology; I helped build a great deal of it, after all. And I am determined. I want to learn how to fight, and I'm willing to fight for as long as it takes. To die, if necessary."
"About your tech." Hargrove spoke up, after a few seconds. "Are you willing to cross that line, too? Are you going to share that with us, and teach us how to build weapons like the ones on your homeworld?"
Bokal shook his head. "No. The Curia withheld technology from Earth for very good reasons. If I were to start spreading it around, I could do incalculable damage to many worlds. If I am allowed to join you, I will use my technology to help, but I will not explain how any of it works, nor will I let anyone else examine it. Sarita will not happen again, I swear it."
Tony thought back to Narim's initial outburst, back before the Survivors had even existed. The planet Sarita had been destroyed because the Tollans gave them technology, from what he'd been told.
"And if the Goa'uld get their hands on you? What's to stop them from torturing you into giving them that information? How do you know you won't end up causing the very disaster you're trying to prevent?" Hargrove's gaze seemed to burrow into him.
Bokal’s expression was pained, but just for a split second. "I've… taken precautions to prevent the Goa'uld from gaining any of my knowledge. For the moment, it's beyond their abilities to circumvent my security measures." He turned back to Tony. "Please, Colonel. Let me defend my people, and help yours in the process. Let me prove that my wife didn't die for no reason!"
-.-
"So what do you think?" The Colonel asked him. They'd sent Bokal back to talk to Garrett for the time being, so that they could discuss his… offer.
Hargrove tried to read into his stance, and inflections. "You and I both know just how valuable he could be. Even if he's not much of a fighter, his skill with technology could be very useful." He glanced at the 'gate. "Despite the pair of geniuses we've got back on Hovak, we still know very little about how Goa'uld tech works. He could give us a huge boost with that, and it wouldn't go against his ethics, because it's not his own peoples' stuff."
"But what about the other Tollans? They will want him back. They can't risk him giving away any of their oh-so-precious secrets."
Hargrove gave a genuine smile. "What can they do? Even if they could find us, they have no right to tell him what to do."
The Colonel still looked troubled, though. "I'm not sure. I wouldn't put it past them to force the issue, and take him back regardless. At the very least, we should tell them what's going on; that he plans to keep his knowledge to himself. It might help smooth relations."
Hargrove opened his mouth to object, but the Colonel was already beckoning to the other two. Hargrove hid a grimace as they approached, hoping that Bokal had more to offer.
"We've discussed your situation," the Colonel said once they'd arrived, "and I'm concerned about the other Tollans. If they insist on taking you back, I have to let them. Bokal, I'm sorry, but I can't risk our relations with the Tollans. If we fail out here, they may be the only people in the galaxy who can keep my people safe, the ones still alive that is."
Strangely, Bokal didn't resist this decision. Instead, he looked at Garrett, who spoke up. "If I may, sir?" At the Colonel's nod, he continued. "The Tollans won't come looking for him, sir. They don't even know he's gone. With some help from me…" He trailed off.
There was a long silence.
"Yes?" The Colonel prompted.
"I faked my own death." Bokal finished for him.
"You what?"
"I arranged an explosion large enough to vaporize any of my remains, and left my health implant behind, inside the blast radius. When the colony officials examine what's left, they'll determine that one of the fusion initiators overloaded, and that I died instantly. Overloads such as that are rare, but they do occur on occasion. With Garrett's help, I was able to anticipate the route the investigation would take, and leave evidence supporting my 'death'." He smiled, a little sadly. "As you can see, I am in earnest, Colonel. I will fight for my people, with or even without the Survivors. I have… how do you say it? Burned my bridges?"
"We even arranged my leaving Tollanna to be well after his 'death' so as to avoid suspicion." Garrett added. "He's been hanging out alone on an uninhabited planet for a couple of weeks now."
Well, that answered that. Hargrove knew the Colonel well enough by now to realize he’d have to keep the Tollan with them now.
Hargrove looked at Garrett sideways, impressed. He'd done a remarkable job on the assignment Hargrove had given him so long ago. Not only had he convinced a Tollan to join up, but he'd even gotten him thinking it was his own idea! If they ever got back to Earth, Hargrove resolved to get Garrett a promotion, or at least a raise, as soon as possible.
He felt slightly guilty about keeping this from the Colonel as well, but if their past argument was any indication, he might well get shot if his part in this was revealed. This situation was different, though. Besides, even if the Colonel suspected, he would have to admit the results could be extremely beneficial to the Survivors.
