"Get in position!" Martouf shouted, as he hurried to the wall piece with the lock that controlled the ring transporter. He began working on unlocking it.
Worried, the others all placed themselves in the ring target area. Daniel was supporting O'Neill, since his leg still hurt badly from when he was shot earlier. Sam was helping Jacob walk.
Everywhere around them, they could hear smaller or larger explosions, as the planet began to break up. Suddenly, a crack appeared in the floor, running a few feet and then disappearing under some kind of strange machine standing in the corner of the room. A shower of sparkles came from the device, and it turned on with a humming sound.
"What in the devil's name is that?" O'Neill exclaimed.
"Ah..." Sam frowned, getting a memory from Jolinar. "I think it's some kind of healing device. I... believe Bynarr used it when he, ah, got a little too enthusiastic in torturing someone who wasn't supposed to die."
"Cute," O'Neill said, an unhappy expression on his face. .
"It's not Goa'uld technology." Daniel observed.
"No, I get the impression it was something Sokar had found... something left over by the previous owners," Sam said.
"How's that lock coming?" O'Neill called.
"Just a moment..." Martouf answered.
"Almost there, Teal'c," Daniel said, speaking into the Tok'ra communicator.
Martouf continued working with the ring transporter controls, and several more explosions was heard, nearby. More cracks appeared, and the floor started to crumble.
"Marty?" O'Neill said, his voice tense.
Another shower of sparkles flew from the alien healing device, followed by a bright flash. Just as Martouf finished fiddling with the ring control lock and ran to join the others, something resembling a lightning bolt shot straight out from the healing machine, and hit Sam in the neck-area, then seemingly held her in place.
Sam gasped loudly. The beam let go of her a short time later, and she collapsed immediately, meaning Jacob almost fell as well.
"Samantha!" Martouf exclaimed, then remembered the ring transporter. "They're activating now!" He pulled Sam to a standing position, then held her up. He looked worriedly at Jacob who leaned against Daniel, who was still supporting O'Neill. If any of them should fall outside the ring transporter area...
"We're ready, Teal'c!" Daniel called into the communicator.
The ring transporter activated.
The rings arrived on the teltac, depositing Sam, Martouf/Lantash, Daniel, O'Neill, and Jacob, who fell to the floor as soon as he was aboard.
"They're here! Go! Go! Go!" Aldwin shouted, before running to help Jacob and the others.
Teal'c piloted the ship away from the disintegrating moon Netu, and Sokar's mothership that was firing at them. However, moments later Netu exploded, and Sokar's ha'tak was destroyed with it, while the teltac made it away safely.
"What's happened to Carter?" O'Neill asked, worried, from where Daniel had helped him to sit on the floor.
"I do not know." Martouf said, frowning. He handed Aldwin the vial containing the strengthening medicine he had given Jacob earlier, then carried the still unconscious Sam to one of the makeshift beds, and put her down. "Some sort of lightning beam let go of her just as I joined you."
"It came from the strange alien device," Daniel told them.
"How is she?" Jacob attempted to stand, and Aldwin quickly stopped him. Teal'c handed him a waterskin, which he helped Jacob drink from.
"You need to relax and recover. I am sure Martouf will tend to Major Carter," Aldwin said, then helped Jacob drink some of the medicine from the vial.
Unhappy, but too weak to argue, Jacob just nodded and sank back down on the floor. He looked towards where Martouf was checking on his daughter.
"She is alive." Martouf held his hand over Sam's forehead, like the Tok'ra often did when checking on another Tok'ra. He frowned. "Her energy signature is different."
"Energy signature? Isn't that something only symbiotes have?" Daniel asked.
Martouf shook his head. "No, Samantha has one as well. It has always been more... diffuse than for a Tok'ra, since all the naquadah from Jolinar is spread out in Samantha's blood. However, right now it is... as if it is more concentrated. More like it would be if she had a symbiote, albeit the signal is weaker." He frowned again. "It is getting stronger, though."
"What could explain that? They couldn't have stuck a snake in her down there, could they?" O'Neill wanted to know.
"No, if Apophis or anyone else had implanted her with a symbiote, I would have sensed it, but I did not notice anything down on Netu. No, this must be an effect of the alien device. Maybe it somehow caused the naquadah in her body to concentrate?"
"The beam hit her neck and back of the head," Daniel said, remembering.
Martouf nodded. "Yes... perhaps that is why." He gave Sam another worried look, before going to fetch a healing device. "Aldwin? Did you bring a healing device as well?"
"Yes, of course." Aldwin got up quickly. "I do not know why I did not think to use it on Jacob and Selmak."
"Could you also tend to O'Neill's leg wound, while I see if I can help Samantha?"
Aldwin nodded and left to find the healing device.
Martouf turned Sam on her side, then activated the healing device, and ran it over her, before focusing on her neck. Frowning, he focused the beam, then gasped and allowed the device to turn off.
"What is it?" O'Neill asked, having followed closely what happened.
"Samantha... is a host." He stared at her in disbelief.
"What? Didn't you just say that was impossible?"
"It should be. Unless..." He shook his head. "No, that... that cannot be..."
"The alien healing machine... could it have, uh, brought back Jolinar?" Daniel asked.
Martouf shook his head, then nodded. "No, it is impossible. Yes... I don't know," he admitted. "It shouldn't be possible. Not from just..."
"Just what? Please tell me what it is you've been hiding this time!" O'Neill demanded, too worried to phrase himself more diplomatic.
Martouf's eyes flashed when Lantash came fore, clearly agitated. "We haven't been hiding anything! The only thing that remained of Jolinar was the tendrils she had sent into Samantha's brain. They will always remain. However, it would be like regrowing a human from a finger... less, even! The device can't have..."
"It's alien. We don't know what capabilities it has," Daniel reminded him.
"True enough." Lantash nodded, looking tense.
"Ah, come on! You're not saying the thingie down there resurrected Jolinar?" O'Neill exclaimed, trying to stand up. He gave a cry as he put weight on his wounded leg.
"Please sit still until I can heal that." Aldwin said, running the beam from the healing device over Jacob again. The other Tok'ra had fallen asleep from the exhaustion, but mumbled something now and sat up.
"What?" Jacob remembered what had happened. "Sam!"
"Relax, Jacob. She will be well," Lantash reassured him.
O'Neill snorted. "I'm sure you're pleased! You'll have your wife again, and she'll force Sam to care for you!"
"How dare you make such insinuations!" Lantash's eyes flared. "Jolinar would never stay in an unwilling host, so if Samantha does not wish to remain her host, then Jolinar will leave her!"
"What are you talking about?" Jacob looked strangely at first Lantash, then O'Neill. "Jolinar?"
"Ah, apparently some piece of alien machinery down on Netu resurrected Jolinar. We think," Daniel explained.
"How could it do that? It's been years since she died." Jacob got a distant look on his face for a few moments. "Selmak points out that there would be tendrils from Jolinar in Sam's brain, and that she could theoretically be resurrected from those." He got a dark look on his face. "Lantash... Selmak also reminds you that those tendrils are the only part of a symbiote which contain only the genetic memory the symbiote was born with. It's not... updated during the symbiotes life, like in the rest of the body."
Lantash got a pained expression on his face. "Selmak is correct."
"What did all that gobbledygook mean?" O'Neill demanded.
"That Jolinar may well be alive again, but that she may not be herself. Not my Jolinar. She may be... a Goa'uld," Lantash said, a look of anguish on his face. "As she was... before she turned Tok'ra."