CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Daniel let out a long sigh at the sound of a knock on his door. He had really been hoping that he'd be left alone today. Maybe it was just some salesman that he could shoo away.
Opening the door, Daniel saw that, unfortunately, it wasn't a salesman; it was his team.
"Hey," he said, trying to inject at least a grain of welcome in his tone.
Jack grinned. "Hey, Daniel. There's someone here who wants to say hi."
He, Sam and Teal'c all moved aside to reveal a black-haired woman standing behind them. Daniel's heart leapt in his chest upon seeing her. Then he mentally shook his head. The face might be the same, but this was not the person he really wanted her to be.
"Hi, Ria. How are you fe—"
That was as far as he got before the woman threw herself into his arms. Stunned, Daniel just stood there.
Sam was now grinning, too. "It isn't Ria, Daniel."
Just then, the woman pulled back a little. She cupped his cheek and said, "My Daniel."
Daniel gasped sharply. "Egeria? B-b-but I don't understand. What happened? Did something go wrong?"
"No, nothing is wrong," she replied with a smile of joy. "Everything is wonderfully right."
Utterly bewildered, Daniel looked to his teammates for answers.
"Come on," Jack said. "Let's go inside."
Once they were all settled in the living room, Daniel was told everything. He spent most of the time staring at Egeria in shock. She had chosen life as a human over the thousands of years that she'd have had as a Tok'ra symbiote. And she had done it so that she could be with him. She did not say that aloud, but he knew that was the reason.
Besides shock, the other emotion filing his heart was joy. He and Egeria weren't going to have to say goodbye. She was going to be staying right here. They could actually have a life together.
"According to Dad, Ria didn't hesitate to give her permission to be cloned," Sam said. "She's back on Ardena now."
Jack was smirking. "You should have seen the look that was on everyone's face when not one but two Rias came waltzing through the gate. We all thought we were seeing double."
"So, who's going to pick the new queen?" Daniel asked.
Sam was the one who answered. "It'll be Egeria's choice, which is the way it should be. Dad figures that there will probably be plenty of volunteers to choose from."
Jack looked at the green-eyed woman sitting next to Daniel. "Just don't pick someone with that holier-than-thou attitude that's made me want to punch more than one Tok'ra in the nose."
Egeria smiled. "I promise that I will choose someone with a pleasing personality."
Jack snorted. "Good luck on that."
"Jack," Daniel said in a chastising tone.
"What? Daniel, you can't deny that, with the exception of Selmak, most of the Tok'ra are ass—"
"Jack!"
"All right, I'll shut up. Just stating my opinion."
Egeria smiled ever so slightly. She then grew serious. "I must admit that I am also not pleased with the attitude displayed by some of my children. I taught all my children to be respectful, to never look upon themselves as superior to other lifeforms. Many of those who lived with me on Estrania learned the lesson, but I am afraid that arrogance was a Goa'uld trait that I could not completely banish from all my offspring." She smiled again. "But then, I have been guilty of it myself, so I am in no position to judge them."
"Hey," Jack said. "We all forgot to show Daniel the other surprise."
The archeologist looked at him, then the others. "Other surprise?"
Jack picked up a magazine from Daniel's coffee table and handed it to Egeria. With a little smile on her face, she opened it up – and began to read it.
His mouth hanging open, Daniel stared at her. He finally managed to ask how it was possible.
"Thor did it," Sam replied. "He downloaded into Egeria's mind the knowledge of both spoken and written English."
"He can do that?"
"Yes, he can do that," Jack answered. "And don't start thinking that you can ask him to download a gazillion languages into your brain. These were special circumstances."
"Yeah, but—"
"Aht! No language downloads, not unless it's quite literally a matter of life and death."
Daniel sighed, giving up on his extremely brief dream of being able to add another dozen or so languages to the list of the ones he knew.
Jack began to smile. "You know what I'm thinking? I think that this calls for a celebration." He looked at Egeria. "How would you like to experience your very first barbeque?"
"Barbeque?"
"Yep, you'll love it. We'll have to go to my house, though. That cretin sitting beside you doesn't have a grill."
"There is a very good reason for that, Jack," the "cretin" responded. "I didn't want you coming over here and cooking beer-soaked steaks on it."
"Hey. I do not soak my steaks in beer. I just . . . pour a little on top."
The five of them headed over to Jack's house. Never unprepared for a good barbeque, all Jack needed to get were a few more steaks. While he and Teal'c were at the store, Daniel, Sam and Egeria enjoyed the nice weather outside.
Egeria was using the bathroom when Sam sat down in a lawn chair beside Daniel's.
"You look happy," she observed with a smile.
"Yeah. I could not have hoped for this. A part of me still can't believe it."
"You know, in a way, this will work out a whole lot better for the Tok'ra."
Daniel nodded, suspecting that he knew what she was thinking. He'd been thinking the same thing. "Another Tok'ra inside Egeria's body won't have all the Goa'uld knowledge, which means that she won't have to lower her brainwave pattern every time she spawns and then spend years teaching them what they need to know."
"Right. Every larva she gives birth to will get all the Tok'ra knowledge. They will actually be Tok'ra right from birth."
Daniel thought of something else. "And, because she won't have to keep her brainwave pattern low, she'll be able to produce queens, so the Tok'ra will never again have to worry about going extinct."
"This galaxy will see many generations of Tok'ra in the millennia ahead," said a voice behind them. They turned to see Egeria come up to them. She took a seat in the chair on the other side of Daniel. "I know that some among the Tok'ra will never understand why I have made this decision, but they will come to see that it is a good thing. Their new queen will be able to give them something I never could."
"When are you going to go to the Tok'ra base and choose your replacement?" Daniel asked.
"Tomorrow. It is best that it be done as soon as possible." Egeria smiled at him. "I would very much like for you to be there. I respect your advice and would like to hear your opinions."
Daniel shook his head. "I can go with you to the base, Egeria, but you need to decide on this yourself. These are your people and your children."
It turned out that Jack was right. Egeria did love the barbeque, partly because the colonel's teammates managed to keep him from putting beer on any of the steaks except his own.
The celebration continued well into the evening. Lying on the cool grass, Daniel looked up at the stars, Egeria beside him. She was sharing with him stories of how some of the constellations got their names.
"I always wondered about Ursa Major and Minor," he said, "even when I was a little kid. When my mom told me that they were supposed to be bears, I quite logically pointed out that bears don't have long tails."
Egeria laughed softly. "How old were you?"
"Um, around four, I think."
"You must have been such a darling child."
"Oh, I don't know about that. I got into a lot of trouble because I was so curious about everything. I think I gave both Mom and Dad grey hairs . . . which would not surprise Jack at all since he blames me for all his grey hair. It was brown when we met."
They both fell silent, Egeria resting her head on Daniel's shoulder. After a while, he heard her breathing change pitch. He looked at her and saw that she was asleep. Smiling softly, he brushed his fingers through her hair, sweeping back a tendril that had fallen over her forehead.
Teal'c watched from where he stood on the deck, recognizing the expression on his teammate's face.
"Daniel Jackson has found love again," he murmured quietly to the man beside him.
"Yeah," Jack agreed. "Who'd have ever guessed that, when he did, it would be for a former Goa'uld queen?"
"Do you not approve?"
"Actually, I do approve. Okay, so, in the beginning, I did have a problem with what she was, but I'm a big enough man to admit when I'm wrong about someone. She's a great lady, and, now that everything's been worked out so that she can stay, I think that she'll make Daniel happy."
"Indeed."
Shortly after Egeria's return to the SGC, she was called to the infirmary.
"I'm glad you got back early enough for me to talk with you," Janet said. "I'm going to assume that everything went fine with cloning that body and transferring your consciousness into it."
"Yes, there were no problems."
"And you're feeling all right?"
"I am quite well."
"Though I know that it hasn't been discussed yet, I'm guessing that you will be working here in a permanent position now."
"That is what I wish."
"Then I have no doubt that will happen. Though I'm sure that you are perfectly healthy, sooner or later, we are going to have to give you a complete physical examination. Even if it wasn't regulations for all new military and civilian personnel to be given one, it would still be wise."
"Then please feel free to do the examination."
"Well, we wouldn't have to do it now. It can wait a day or two."
"I will be leaving for the Tok'ra base tomorrow and will likely be gone for several days, perhaps even several weeks. Would it not be wise to do your examination before I leave?"
Janet nodded. "Yes, it would. In that case, let's get started."
Though it would take a while to get the results back on the blood tests, from what Janet could see, Egeria was in excellent health for a woman her age. Ria was thirty years old at the time she was cloned, so that was the age to which Thor would have advanced the clone. Considering that, for all intents and purposes, Egeria's body was brand new, it was no great surprise that she was healthy, though there was always the chance that some family genetic issue existed. Or would Thor have fixed any genetic anomalies when he did the cloning?
Janet was now putting together what she liked to think of as the Woman's Survival Kit, which contained some feminine hygiene items as well as other things, including, most important of all, birth control pills. She'd have to talk to Egeria sometime about the other options available to her. It was pretty unlikely that she knew anything about ordinary methods of birth control.
The doctor had a sneaking suspicion that the birth control might be needed in the future. She had not failed to see the way that Egeria looked at Daniel, and she also knew that he had spent a great deal of time with the woman since she arrived.
Nurse Sally Cole came up to the physician. "Sergeant Bates was just brought in, second degree burns on his right arm."
"All right. I'll be there in a moment." She handed the box to the nurse. "Could you take this to Egeria and explain everything to her? She's not going to have a clue about most of these things, so make sure that she understands how to use them."
Sally saw the birth control pills sitting on top. "I was talking to Annette Reed a few days ago. She was in the commissary and saw Daniel and Egeria having breakfast. Jacob Carter was there, too. I guess it was on the day that Egeria first arrived. She said that the way Egeria was staring at Daniel it was like she wanted to just eat him up."
Janet smiled slightly, thinking that was exactly the kind of thing that Lieutenant Reed would say.
"So, do you think that they'll start dating?" Sally asked.
"That I can't say. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."
The next morning, Egeria left for the Tok'ra base. An urgent translation job had come up, preventing Daniel from coming with her, so she went alone. She was met on the other side by Selmak.
"Have my children come to accept my decision?" she asked as they walked to the tunnel entrance.
"Some of them are still not happy, but, after I pointed out a few things, they all admitted that this would have many advantages."
Egeria learned that the things he pointed out to them were the same things that Daniel and Sam talked about yesterday.
"You need to be aware that most of them want you to stay with us even if you are not a Tok'ra," he said. "I think it would be best if you talk to them about that and everything else."
"Yes, you are right. So, how many of my children have volunteered to become your new queen?"
"Around thirty, by my last count."
"Then I have quite a task ahead of me in making my selection."
A little smile curved Selmak's lips. "Perhaps."
Jacob and Egeria went to the meeting room. All of the other council members were there, except for Aranae and Bres En. Though Ka'resh and Celdeth greeted Egeria warmly, Fennol's and Delek's greetings were a bit reserved.
"I know that most of you do not understand why I have chosen to take the steps that I have," Egeria said after taking a seat. "Please believe me that it is not because of you. I could not be prouder of you and what all of you have achieved. My decision was not an act of rejection."
"Then what was it?" Fennol asked, frowning.
"The act of a woman who is in love."
The simple statement made everyone except Selmak exchange glances. As for Selmak, he gave Egeria a small smile and a nod, approving of her complete honesty.
"You speak of Daniel Jackson," Celdeth said.
"Yes," Egeria confirmed. "I have loved him for over two thousand years. Even after I was certain he was dead from old age, I loved him still. Being reunited with him has made that love grow even stronger. When I believed that there was no other option but to become a symbiote again and give up any hope of a life with Daniel, I was prepared to make that sacrifice for the sake of my children. But when I realized that there was another way, that the Tok'ra could have a queen without the sacrifice of what I wanted so dearly, I had to take it. I hope that all of you can understand this and accept my decision."
There was a long moment of silence. Ka'resh was the one who spoke first.
"One of the things that separates us from the Goa'uld is our capacity to truly feel love, the kind of love that will drive one to sacrifice their life for the one they love. So I cannot condemn you for your decision. You have sacrificed a great deal in your fight against the Goa'uld. It is time for you to be given something back." She looked at her fellow council members. "Do you not agree?"
The others nodded their heads, although Fennol still didn't look particularly happy. That didn't surprise Selmak. Out of all of the council members, he was the one with the lowest opinion of the Tau'ri. He probably thought that Egeria was lowering herself by choosing a life with a human instead of with the Tok'ra.
"Please let my other children know what I have told you," Egeria said. "I want them all to understand my decision."
Delek nodded. "We will do so. Now, if you will excuse us, we will leave you to speak with those who have volunteered to take your place."
He and the others left the room, all except for Selmak, who had a funny little smile on his face.
Egeria stared at him piercingly. "There is something you have not told me."
Saying nothing, he got up and went to the doorway. He motioned to someone, and the person came in.
"Aranae?" queried Egeria.
The council member came forward. "I am the first volunteer."
Egeria's eyes widened. "You would wish to be the Tok'ras' queen?"
The woman sat down. "If you believe that I am worthy."
Egeria glanced up and saw that Selmak was gone, having left them alone to talk. She turned her attention back to Aranae.
"But you will no longer be able to go on missions. I recall how eager you always were to go out and creep around behind the backs of the Goa'uld to discover their secrets."
"That was a long time ago, when I was young and headstrong." Aranae smiled. "I am an old and wise Tok'ra now, though Selmak still insists that he is the eldest. Like being born a few seconds sooner makes a bit of difference."
Egeria smiled as well, recalling how the two used to tease each other. They and Per'sus were always her favorites. Thinking about Per'sus sent a tinge of sadness through her that he had not lived to see this day.
Pushing aside her sorrow, Egeria asked, "And what of Fiala?"
Aranae's head bowed for a brief moment. When it lifted, her host was in control.
"I am prepared to still be Aranae's host," the young woman said, her pretty face reflecting her sincerity.
"She has explained to you the physical changes that must be made to your body, that it will be impossible afterwards for you to have children of your own even if, someday, you were no longer a host?"
"Yes. When I chose to become a Tok'ra host, I knew it meant that I could never marry and have children of my own, so nothing would change in that regard. But it would mean that Aranae and I could have children together."
Another smile came to Egeria's lips. Arria had looked upon the Tok'ra born with Daniel's DNA as her children, too. She was pleased that Fiala felt the same way.
Egeria took the hands of the woman sitting before her. "Aranae, Fiala, I need look no further. You will be the new queen and mother of the Tok'ra."
The blonde head bowed again for a moment.
"But what of the other volunteers?" Aranae asked. "You might find that one of them is better suited to the task."
"I will speak with them. It is only fair and right that I do so. But I do not think that any of them will surpass you in the kind of person I want to take my place."
Egeria gazed down at the unconscious form of Fiala. Ta'seem had assured them that she was doing well, but the process of having one symbiote leave her body, then, just a couple of hours later, another one enter it had been physically taxing on her. But she was strong, just as Aranae was.
The former queen of the Tok'ra smiled as she thought of what the upcoming days would bring, the discoveries Aranae would make in her new symbiote body. Egeria would remain here to teach her, to point out all the differences and guide her into learning how to control the power that only a symbiote queen possesses.
Selmak came up to her and looked down at the woman on the bed. "She is going to be absolutely insufferable now," he complained.
Egeria looked at him. "Admit that you are going to miss her."
"Yes, I'll miss her. Who will I tease now? She was the only one who could serve it back to me as good as she got."
"I am sure you will be able to visit her every now and then, and she will be able to come here for visits. She will have no need to remain near her children in order to teach them as I would have had to do. She will have a level of freedom that I never could have had, especially after she has produced a queen, and her daughter is old enough to spawn children of her own."
"I understand that it was agreed by everyone that the Jaffa who carry the larvae will not have to remain at the base after all since it won't be necessary to teach the larvae."
Egeria nodded. "This means that both male and female Jaffa can carry them, although I would always be afraid for the safety of the ones who were inside male Jaffa. I should imagine that many rebel Jaffa are killed."
"Yes, it is a danger. We will probably still try to use mostly females."
Leaving Aranae and Fiala to rest, Egeria and Selmak walked out of the room.
"After you have finished teaching Aranae what she needs to know, you will be returning to Earth," Selmak said. "So, then what?"
"Then I will resume passing on my knowledge to Daniel's people."
"And?"
"I do not know what will come after that. My wish is to be a part of their Stargate Program, to work there at the SGC. I believe that I would have a great deal to contribute. Though I am no longer the queen of the Tok'ra, I have every intention of continuing to do what I can to bring about an end to the Goa'uld."
"I am sure that they will be happy to have you, but that was not what I was asking. I was asking about you and Daniel."
"Ah. That I also do not know. You know what it is that I want, but that will only happen if Daniel comes to love me as I love him."
Selmak was very tempted to tell Egeria that he and Jacob were pretty sure that Daniel already did love her like that, but he decided that it was not his place to do so. Those words needed to come from Daniel himself.
"You are doing well," Egeria praised, smiling at Aranae. They were in the fourth day of training, and, so far, the new Tok'ra queen was readily adapting and learning about her new body. Egeria was confident that it would take no more than a few more days to complete the training.
The next step would be to teach Aranae how to pass on her knowledge to her offspring. For a symbiote who was born a queen, it was an instinctual thing, but for Aranae, it would have to be taught. In time, it would become second nature to her.
Slowly and patiently, Egeria guided Aranae to the mental state in which she needed to be in order to pass on the knowledge.
"If there were children within you, you would now begin to feel the connection to them," Egeria said. "Once that connection felt complete, you would then open your mind and let all the knowledge within it flow into the minds of your offspring. It would take only moments for it to be completed. When it is—"
A gasp interrupted Egeria. Aranae's eyes flew open, filled with surprise.
"What is wrong?" the former Tok'ra queen asked.
Aranae looked at her. "I remember. It is all there in my mind."
"Of what do you speak?"
Aranae gazed at her. "The memories of you and Daniel."
Now, it was Egeria who gasped. "You consciously remember them?"
"Yes! They were just suddenly there."
"They must have been released from your subconscious."
Aranae fell silent, her eyes closing as she searched through the memories that were not her own. She saw the conversations that Daniel and Egeria had, the times they spent together as their friendship was forged. Into her mind came the words Daniel spoke as he guided Egeria toward becoming a Tok'ra. She saw his reaction to being asked to give the code of life and heard his heartbreaking confession about Hathor. Her stomach tightened as she saw his lifeless body lying in a pool of blood, then came the joyful sight of him alive once again. The memories stopped shortly after that, not including the moment that he gave his seed to Egeria. Aranae did not wonder about that. Such a thing would have been too intimate to share even in a way that Egeria had believed would never be consciously remembered.
But it did not matter that the memories were incomplete, for what was there was more than enough for Aranae to see why Daniel Jackson had become so precious to Egeria, why she thought so very highly of him. And it was enough to show how utterly Egeria loved him.
Opening her eyes, Aranae looked at her mother. "I truly understand now."
Egeria smiled. "Yes."
"It is no mystery why you fell in love with him."
Egeria laughed very softly. "No mystery at all."
"I will pass these memories onto my children so that they'll all learn from them."
"Oh, poor Daniel would be quite horrified."
Aranae chuckled. "Well, perhaps I will edit out the most private things. You will be able to teach me how to do that, won't you?"
"Yes."
"Good. I want my children to have the memories of how their race came to be and of the ones who are to thank for their existence."
Egeria smiled as she gazed into the tank that held the first symbiotes to truly be born Tok'ra. She had guided Aranae through the entire process from beginning to end and had watched joyfully as the tiny larvae emerged from the body of their mother.
The former Tok'ra queen's gaze went to the woman beside her. Aranae was staring at the larvae almost as if she couldn't believe they were real.
"My children," the new queen murmured.
"Yes. Though your body may be a clone of mine, they are your children. They will come to call you Mother."
Aranae laughed. "I did not think that I would feel so happy at this moment." She looked at Egeria. "Is this how you felt when you gave birth to the first Tok'ra?"
"In a way." She sighed. "But that day was also one of great sorrow for me. It was the day I said goodbye to Daniel."
Aranae grasped her hand, truly understanding now how great Egeria's pain must have been.
"But enough about that," Egeria said with a smile. "Tell me about this Tok'ra you chose to give you the code. You did not tell me before that there was someone you cared for in that way."
Aranae blushed slightly. "We have not been involved in that way for long, only a couple of years, though I have been attracted to him for much longer . . . ever since Fiala became my host."
"Ah hah! So the truth is revealed. Your new host takes one look at Nefer and his very handsome host, Threnn, and topples straight into love. And, of course, you go falling right along with her."
"Well . . . I did notice his handsomeness before then, Mother. I am old, not dead."
Egeria laughed in delight. "And will Nefer's host be the one to give you the code for all your children for as long as he is physically able?"
"I would very much like him to be. I will insists that he be added to the Tok'ra who will live on the base with me. I have already talked to him about it. Threnn was very pleased and proud that his genetic code would be used for the new Tok'ra larvae. And they were both . . . quite eager to perform the steps needed to give it to me."
Egeria laughed again. "Yes, I do believe that I saw him strutting around like a peacock earlier."
"Oh, you did not. He does not strut."
"Well, perhaps it was just a little strutting. Threnn was most likely the one in control at the time."
Aranae grew serious. "And what of you and Daniel? When you return to Earth, will he become your mate?"
"I truly hope so."
There was a big smile on Daniel's face as Egeria appeared through the event horizon. He had missed her like crazy during the ten days that she was gone. Not an hour went by that he didn't think of her.
"Welcome back, Egeria," General Hammond greeted. "I trust that everything went well."
"Yes, it went quite well."
"Good. I'd like to be filled in on everything, if you don't mind."
"I will be happy to do so, General."
Hammond nodded. "I will see you in the briefing room in an hour, if that will work for you."
"That will be good."
Daniel and Egeria walked out of the gate room.
"So, who did you pick?" the archeologist asked.
"Aranae."
"Really? Good. I like her . . . even if she did have fun calling me you-know-what."
"Well, it would be even less accurate for her to call you that now since her new body does not possess your genetic code."
"Yes, but how much do you want to bet that she will anyway?"
Egeria thought about it. "I do believe that I would be willing to bet quite a sizable sum that she will."
One hour later, Egeria was in the briefing room with Hammond. Also there were all the members of SG-1. Egeria gave everyone a rundown of the events of the past ten days.
"She's already spawned?" Sam asked in surprise.
"Yes, but only a few larvae since we have not yet found Jaffa to carry them."
"I will talk to Master Bra'tac so that he can find Jaffa in the rebellion who would be willing to do so," Teal'c said.
"We would prefer them to be females," Egeria told him. "The larvae will be safer, less likely to be killed in a battle."
"Good idea," Daniel said.
A few minutes later, the debriefing ended. SG-1 and Egeria went to Daniel's office.
"Are the Tok'ra happy now with the arrangement?" Sam asked the former Tok'ra.
"I believe that they are. With Aranae as their queen, everything will be simpler, and she will be able to produce more offspring since training them will not be an issue."
"So, Daniel," Jack said with a little smirk. "Does this mean that you're a grandfather now?"
The archeologist stared narrowly at Jack for several seconds, then he turned to the dark-haired woman beside him.
"Egeria, let me tell you a funny story about Jack, some alien beer, and a cute little one-hundred-and-ten-year-old great-great-grandmother named—"
"All right!" Jack shouted. "I get the message. No more Tok'ra daddy wisecracks."
Daniel nodded sharply. "I am holding you to that, Jack, so if I hear one more remark about it, or the stories about me, or the statues, or anything else connected to my trip back in time, I will be posting the whole story about you and Great-Great-Grandma Meeka on the base bulletin board. Oh, and one more thing. I will be keeping the video in reserve."
A look of horror spread across Jack's face. "You took a video?!"
"Oh, you bet I did. There was no way I was going to pass up that golden opportunity."
Jack glared at the archeologist, knowing that he had well and truly been beaten.
Squashing her smile with an effort, Sam turned to Egeria. "So, I'm assuming that you haven't talked to General Hammond yet about your position here."
"No, there has not been an opportunity yet."
"Well, you don't have to," Daniel said. "I already have. He wholeheartedly agrees that you would be a valuable asset as a full-time employee of Stargate Command. You're an expert on the Goa'uld and can read and write all of the dialects of their language. You'll be able to give us insights that can help us plan missions, and you can help with translations."
Egeria smiled brightly. "This is wonderful news."
"Yeah, and you'll get paid for it, too," Jack added.
"There is one thing, though," Daniel told her. "For the present time, you'll have to live on base. I'm sure that will change in time, but, right now, some people are nervous about letting you live off-base."
"I do not mind, Daniel. What is important is that I will be here."
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