Chapter 11

"Where is he?" Teal'c growled, pacing back and forth in front of the gate. Bra'tac wanted to calm down his friend, but he was feeling the same sense of anxiety. One must calm oneself before attempting to calm others.

It had been a good hour's time since the human had disappeared through the stargate. Some of the Jaffa had wandered off, but only short distances. All seemed intrigued by the strange turn of events.

Bra'tac rubbed his hands over his face. At least the human kept things interesting. Bra'tac lifted his hand and was about to lay it on Teal'c shoulder as Teal'c pacing brought him within range again, when the stargate began to come to life.

"Quickly, hide!" Bra'tac yelled, and everyone raced for the caves. Teal'c merely concealed himself behind a nearby structure, and Bra'tac joined him. They both hoped it was O'Neill, but if is wasn't, they wanted to be prepared for anything. The event horizon was formed, and there was a breathless moment where nothing happened.

Then, O'Neill stepped out. Bra'tac felt the big Jaffa next to him relax, and then they both got to their feet to greet their friend. Before they could do so, however, something else stepped out with him. They watched cautiously as O'Neill said something to the small grey creature that was with him, and then the creature responded, and O'Neill laughed. It was obvious to both in that instant that O'Neill was back to himself and this creature wasn't a threat. They decided to emerge.

"...this is indeed a beautiful planet, O'Neill," the creature said as Teal'c and Bra'tac approached.

"Hey, guys!" Jack said, waving. Bra'tac quickly assessed the condition of his friend and was satisfied to see that, though he still looked a bit worn and exhausted, he seemed to be back to normal.

"Who is this, O'Neil?" Teal'c asked, gesturing toward the small, frail-looking creature.

Jack smiled, "This is Munin. He saved my life, or at least my sanity. He's agreed to help us protect ourselves. Teal'c, do you remember Thor's hammer? Well, this guy is one of Thor's race."

The large-eyed alien nodded. "O'Neill has explained your situation to me. We are impressed with your efforts and want to help protect you. We would like to construct a weapon similar to Thor's hammer here on your planet, so that only accepted Jaffa are able to enter your home. We would teach you how to program new rebel Jaffa into the hammer and how to remove any that may prove traitorous. Though we wish that we could be fighting this battle with you, we are dealing with our own threat, and so can only provide you with limited aid. Luckily, you just happened to land on one of our protected planets. Providing protection for this planet is well within our rights according to the treaty that we have with the Goa'uld. There is a species of indigenous life on the planet that is very important to us. We ask that you don't harm them as you settle this planet."

"What kind of creature is it?" Jack asked.

"Not a creature," Munin said. "It is a plant. I will show you which one. Meanwhile, a ship will be arriving in a few days time so that we may scan your planet for a proper location for the hammer to place its prisoners."

"Munin," Jack said, "I have a friend here, he has a Goa'uld in his brain. Would this hammer be able to remove the Goa'uld as well?"

"Yes," Munin said, "Once the hammer is built, simply place him within the sensors, and he will be placed in the prison until he wishes to leave. We will make it a smaller prison than the one on Thor's planet so that the prisoners will have few options and will hopefully decide to leave it sooner."

"Thank you," Jack said, looking satisfied. "You're a great person, do you know that?"

Munin blinked his large eyes, and looked startled. Then he said, "Good luck, O'Neill. I will return."

The gate lit up, and Munin walked back through it.

Teal'c and Bra'tac looked at Jack.

"Boy," said Jack, "do I have a lot to tell you two!"

General Hammond was concerned. Captain Carter was missing. And only a few minutes after he had discovered that, Dr. Frasier had come to him with the disturbing news that Cassandra claimed Sam had a Goa'uld within her.

Since then, a few hours had passed, and he still wasn't sure what to do. Captain Carter had left a note saying that she would contact them directly at 0500, and that she would explain everything. It was now 0455. In a few moments, General Hammond would know if one of Earth's brightest was gone forever.

"Incoming Wormhole!" the automated voice rang out, and General Hammond jumped. He checked his watch again. It was now 0459. He'd been spacing out. Moving quickly, he crossed down and came up beside Walter.

"What is it?" he asked.

"We're receiving a communication, audio and video," Walter reported, and General Hammond nodded. Daniel, who had been pacing below, came running up the stairs.

"Is it Sam?" he asked.

General Hammond didn't bother replying as the Captain's face appeared on their screen.

"Hey, Daniel," she said, seeing him first. "General Hammond."

"Captain Carter," General Hammond said, "we need you to come home immediately. We have a situation here. What on earth were you thinking, running off like that?" The General was moving carefully. If she was compromised, he was sure that she'd reveal it sooner or later. For the moment she sounded normal, despite the fact that she'd gone AWOL.

"General," Sam said, "I can't return just yet, there is something at the SGC that is looking for me, or rather for something inside of me, and if I return, I will put you all in danger."

"What do you mean, something inside of you?" Hammond asked, his inside's going cold.

"Sam," Daniel interrupted, "Cassandra says you are a Goa'uld!" Hammond started, and then glared at the young scientist. Couldn't the man ever learn to keep his mouth shut? Sometimes Hammond didn't know how the Colonel and Jackson had ever managed to not kill each other on missions. At the thought of Jack another pang shot through him, and then Hammond concentrated as Captain Carter began to answer.

"I'm not, Daniel," Sam said, comfortingly, "but I do have something similar with me. They are an enemy of the Goa'uld. They are called the Tok'ra. They want to meet with you and form an alliance. However, that isn't possible until the problem on your end is taken care of."

"How do we know it's actually Captain Carter talking to us and not a Goa'uld?" General Hammond growled. "The Captain Carter I know would never allow a Goa'uld or anything like it inside of her. If you truly are an ally of earth, you will immediately release my officer and allow her to return."

"General," Sam said, "I know this is hard for you to believe. It may even be impossible. I know I'm having a hard time believing it, but I've seen their base. It's incredible. They've been fighting the Goa'uld for thousands of years. The reason I can't come back yet isn't because the Tok'ra inside of me won't release me, it's because there is a Goa'uld assassin at the SGC. It's called an Ashrak. If we return, it won't hesitate to kill us both."

"We will look around for this Ashrak," General Hammond said. "If you're telling the truth, there is bound to be some sign of it. If you are telling the truth, maybe we'll be able to talk."

"Thank you, General," Sam said, smiling broadly, "I'll contact you at 0700 for more details. Hopefully you've caught the Ashrak by then."

Sam's face disappeared, and an instant later the wormhole whooshed out of existence.

"What do you think?" General Hammond asked Doctor Jackson.

"Well, she certainly didn't behave like a regular Goa'uld. She didn't ask us to surrender or worship her, and it seemed like we were talking to Samantha Carter the whole time." Daniel wanted to believe it, but he had seen Goa'uld pull this trick before. "However, if I understand correctly, Tok means against, which would make the name mean against Ra."

"What about this Ashrak character?" General Hammond asked.

"I haven't heard anything about an..."

"Red alert! Security team to the holding cells!" a voice rang out, causing Hammond and Daniel to jump.

They raced down to the holding cells, Hammond summoning other airmen to follow them. As they came down, they were met by Colonel Makepiece.

"Sir, we caught this man trying to enter the holding cells. He acted suspiciously and when we tried to apprehend him, he whipped out a weapon I'd never seen before and damaged five of my men before Sergeant Tremen was able to knock him out with a blow to his head. We placed him within the cell and removed his weapon, sir." The Colonel held out a weird device that he proceeded to demonstrate how the man used it by putting it over his fingers like a reversed set of brass knuckles.

"Good work, Colonel," Hammond said, and then they led the way into the holding cell.

The man who was inside was tall, and older. He had thick brown hair, and a touch of grey to the sides. He was wearing typical BDU's, and Hammond couldn't help but wonder who this man had attacked in order to obtain that outfit. He was pacing, and Hammond knew instantly that the man was very dangerous.

"Who are you?" he asked the man inside of the cell.

"My name is of no importance to you!" the man snarled, and as the deep tones of a Goa'uld echoed through the cell everyone uneasily moved back a little.

"Tell me," the Goa'uld snarled, "where you have hidden Jolinar of Malkshur? My Hara'kesh has been unable to detect her presence, but I know she is here."

"Are you an Ashrak?" Hammond asked, uneasily sensing that maybe Carter hadn't been lying when she had contacted them.

"I will tell you nothing!" The Goa'uld snarled. "However, you will tell me what I wish to know!"

"If you want information, you need to cooperate with us," Hammond growled. "You are a prisoner here, and we expect that you will willingly volunteer what we want to know."

The Goa'uld became silent and resumed his pacing. Hammond shook his head. "Watch him carefully," he told the guards, "don't let him out of your sight."

He and Daniel left the Goa'uld and went back to control room. "Is it possible that Carter was telling the truth?" Hammond asked, once they were alone.

"I guess it's possible," Daniel said, "I mean, we've always been under the assumption that the Goa'uld were an entirely evil race, but I guess there could be good Goa'ulds as well."

"At times like this," Hammond sighed, "I wish Teal'c were here."

"He would probably know if there was such a thing," Daniel nodded.

At 0700 exactly, Carter contacted them again. At least, they hoped it was her.

"Do you believe me, General?" she asked.

"We have a Goa'uld contained below in a holding cell. He won't tell us anything, but it is possible that you have been telling the truth."

"Sir!" Carter's eyes widened, "it's far too dangerous to keep him alive! An Ashrak is a deadly Goa'uld assassin."

"What else are we to do with him, Captain?" Hammond questioned, "He is our prisoner, we can't kill him in cold blood."

Carter thought for a moment, "I suppose we could help," she finally said. "I can bring a team of Tok'ra and they can extract the Goa'uld from the host. That would put a permanent end to the threat."

"You can do that?" Daniel asked, way too eagerly. The General sighed. Obviously, Daniel's hope for his wife was clouding his judgement again.

"Yes, Daniel," Carter answered with a familiar smile, "they can do that and more."

"Hang on a moment," General Hammond interrupted, "let me talk to your Goa'uld."

Sam's head bowed, and then as her head lifted and her eyes flashed, Daniel jumped beside him.

"General Hammond," the eerie tones of a Goa'uld echoed from Sam's mouth, "we prefer to not be called Goa'ulds. It is a grave insult to our people."

"My apologies," General Hammond said, deciding to play diplomat for a moment, "I needed to see if you would be able to contain the Goa'uld persona when talking as a Goa'uld."

"We are NOT Goa'ulds," Sam repeated, her eyes flashing.

"If I allow you onto my base for any reason," Hammond said, not apologizing again, "I need to know that I can trust you. How can I be sure of that?"

"I don't know that you can be, General Hammond," the creature within Sam Carter replied. "I only can tell you that I will bring two other Tok'ra with me, and we will be weaponless. At the first sign of a weapon, you have Samantha Carter's and my permission to shoot us down."

Hammond sighed. He would hate to get this wrong, but his gut was telling him to trust in Sam, and though it was risky, he decided to go for it.

"Okay," he said, "tell me when and who will be coming with you, and we'll see if we can't become allies."

Jolinar smiled.

The little grey aliens had delivered as promised. Within a couple days, they were beginning to set up the large object that would become their planet's 'hammer.' O'Neill met Thor, and apologized for breaking his weapon on the other planet, but Thor quickly reassured him that the problem had been fixed.

When Thor met Teal'c, they hit it off immediately. "We have long pitied the Jaffa who were help captive by the Goa'uld," Thor told Teal'c as he bowed his head to the Jaffa, "if we have any available means to help you in your quest for freedom, it will be our pleasure."

"We appreciate the sentiment," Teal'c said, "we are few now, but I feel that our ranks will quickly grow."

Thor nodded, and looked over where the Jaffa were building their hammer while a team of Asgard instructed them. They watched for a moment as Jack and the Jaffa pulled and pushed the metal into place. The Asgard had explained to the Jaffa that even though they had the capabilities to instantly place their hammer on the surface, they preferred for the species to help in the construction so that they felt that it was their tool and not the tool of the Asgard. The Asgard preferred to interfere as little as possible. So, the human and Jaffa would set up the shell for the 'hammer,' and then the Asgard would place the technology inside.

"He is a remarkable human," Thor said as he watched O'Neill work.

"Indeed," Teal'c echoed, "though he is often lonely for his own kind."

Thor blinked his large eyes at the other. "Do you think that he wishes to return home?"

Teal'c lifted an eyebrow. "This I know not. He seems to be happy here, and we now have the means to wage war upon the Goa'uld thanks to the technology that O'Neill has created for us. The time is ripe to begin our campaign. I think O'Neill is excited for the journey ahead."

"But?" the grey alien prompted.

"But he, and I as well, miss our former companions. If things were different, we would still be among the Tau'ri. However, they are not, and we have moved on. It is too late to go back."

"Perhaps," Thor mused, and then, after a moment's pause, he moved forward to help with the construction.

The Asgards had selected a cave with only one exit as the place where the prisoners would be deposited when the hammer scanned them. It was within the caves, and even if somehow one of the prisoners escaped intact, without a knowledge of the cave system, they would be lost. To be safe, and to help the Jaffa identify the cave so they didn't actually go in there themselves, they had also build a door on the front to keep people from coming in and out.

Things were looking better than ever. It seemed as though they were on the top of the world. What could possibly go wrong?

The gate whooshed shut, and Jolinar looked into the dark barrels of many Tau'ri weapons. Smiling gently and moving slowly, she raised her arms to show that she was weaponless. She signaled for Lantash and Garshaw to do the same. She had explained the customs of this primitive society to them before they had arrived, and so all three knew what to expect.

"Hey!" Samantha protested inside of their shared mind, "easy with the primitive, Jolinar."

"My apologies, Samantha," Jolinar said, sending a kind touch toward the other, "the thought was not intended to offend."

"Better watch that kind of language though, Jolinar," Samantha thought back, "or they're not going to be too open to trusting you."

Jolinar agreed silently, and allowed the armed guard to search her for hidden weapons. They completed the same search on the other two Tok'ra, and then stepped back, satisfied that the three were defenseless.

"And what is this?" General Hammond asked, gesturing to the equipment that they had brought with them.

"This is the equipment for the extraction process, General," Sam said through their shared voice. They had decided before hand to let her do most of the talking, unless the General requested otherwise, "it is easier to do at the Tok'ra homeplanet, but they felt that you would trust them more if they did it where you could see it."

General Hammond nodded, and said, "The Ashrak is waiting below. Let's see if you if you can really do what you say you can."

Jolinar nodded, and the airmen helped them take their equipment.

The Ashrak lifted his head and a smile crossed his lips. His ruse had worked. His prey was on it's way, and soon he would be out of this accursed place. And Jolinar of Malkshur would be dead.