Sam and Teal'c made their way to the Lake of Harmony and just started on their trek to the Forest of Enlightenment. They stared into the woods and you could feel the energy pouring from there.
"It is as alive as any being we've encountered Major Carter," Teal'c said.
"Yeah, I have to admit that it does have a real charm to it, but it also creeps me out a bit too." Carter started to shake her head. She felt like there was something not right about the Can'al but couldn't put her finger on it. They were hospitable, and even quite friendly with all they did, but it looked to be a mask more than genuine.
"You are bothered by the Can'al?"
"Is it that obvious?"
"I too felt less than comforted by their offers of help."
"As well you should," A voice came from the trees. As it resonated Tal'nia walked out into the light and stared at Major Carter and Teal'c. "For the Can'al are not as they once were. The scientists gave way to other ambitions. And those ambitions gave way to evil. And now they look for things of power so they can conquest a new world, so that they may have raw materials to work from."
Teal'c pointed his Staff Weapon at Tal'nia. "And why is it that we should trust you?"
"You have no reason to trust me, but I come to you in faith. There is much of the Can'al you do not know. Come with me. I shall take you to the cave, but be prepared to defend yourselves. Morana and Tor'ena plan to attack you as you go in. They will soon send their assassins."
They started to move at a heavy pace through the forest, zig zagging around so as to not make an easy target. Carter and Teal'c kept to each other's backs pretty heavily and both kept a watchful eye on Tal'nia.
"So why are you helping us?" Carter asked her.
"Tor'ena. My father built the Time Dialer, it was meant to use so that the scientists would understand what it is they did to the planet and to gain histories long since gone to the people. In theory it was sound, but not for the unscrupulous ones. Tor'ena saw power, and the ability to change things. My father warned against it, as it might destroy our ancestors and eventually destroy us with it."
"Your father seemed to have thought about time travel an awful lot. But how is it that they discovered time travel in the first place? I mean it's fine that they built the device for it, but what started it?"
"Our people were studying the Chaappa'ai when we discovered some sort of coordinate to another world. At that point we witnessed a great solar flare from the sun as our traveler went through. Then a mere moment later it reactivated and stepped through was the traveler. He had aged a bit, but wiser and with knowledge of such matters. He came across the future and saw the technological wonders and after much study he found the cause of his arrival there in the future. He started construction of the Time Dialer there apparently which sent him home and then modified the design and built it here when he got back."
"So your father traveled through time before the device. But he changed the future because of this. If they didn't have the device before hand that means that they didn't know what they were doing with time travel. Just knew the basics like we did and he purposefully built something there to send himself back. So what was to happen with your people was irrevocably changed the first time, I can just imagine what the unscrupulous do with it."
"I am ashamed to admit it, but I agree. The device has potential, but it was foolish to assume that by having it we weren't going to open a gate to our own demise."
"Your people could conceivably still cause death and destruction. There are many Goa'uld out there that would want such a device. And if they ever used it they could not only use the power as a weapon to destroy worlds, but also travel back in time to them and proclaim their Godhood before anyone could dispute it."
Tal'nia just bowed her head. All of this had occurred to her before, but it was the magnitude of being told by strangers that hit. The untold possibilities of evil were endless. She knew that her people needed to be stopped more than ever. It was just a matter of find a way to do that. Soon they arrived at the cave and they went in. The magnificence of the diamonds was showing through the cave like the magnificent geode that it was. Teal'c looked around with some interest, and Carter started doing analysis as to what crystal would be best. Tal'nia on the other hand knew what she was looking for. She took out something the size of a pen and a small light beam cut one of the diamonds off. She walked up to Major Carter.
"This one will be sufficient."
"Yeah, and enough to make Elizabeth Taylor jealous."
"Elizabeth Taylor?"
"Don't ask, I just think my unit commander's sense of humor has rubbed off a bit."
Teal' c looked behind him a bit and he looked towards Tal'nia and Sam. "It is time for us to start concealing ourselves."
"They're here already?"
"It would appear so."
They ran to the recedes of the cave and crouched. It didn't let them have too much cover, but it did give them enough to fire upon their quarry. Teal'c leveled the Staff Weapon and two men walked in. In their hands were knives. They flipped a switch and a hum started. One touched the blade to a crystal and it shattered. Carter looked to Tal'nia. Teal'c remained at his post, unshaken by what he witnessed. But he could almost feel the pulse of the blade as it touched another crystal.
The assassins walked toward them. Ever closer they got they touched their blades to the walls and allowed several rocks and more crystals to shatter. Before long Carter couldn't allow it to happen again and fired with her P-90. In moments the two tried to scramble. Teal'c raised his staff weapon.
"TEAL'C NO!!!" Carter shouted then started to fire at the two. The both escaped but wounded severely. When they were again alone Teal'c walked to Sam and Tal'nia with a questioning look upon his face.
"Why did you stop me from firing Major Carter?"
"Diamond dust. If you'd fired the energy might've toasted all of us. We had to go with the P-90, but don't worry Teal'c. You'll probably get your chance to take care of more of them soon."
They got out of the cave and started into the forest. Teal'c eyes remained focused on the landscape. He was looking for any sign that they might reappear. Carter did the same and Tal'nia merely guided them through the woods.
"What were those weapons they were using Tal'nia?" Carter asked?
"Vibe-blades. A nasty way to die. They were designed to rend wild creatures with thick hides so that we might have food and necessary materials for medicines. When the blade hits them the vibrations start to shake it apart."
"That's grizzly."
Tal'nia merely nodded. "Especially on the use of a human being."
Carter just shook her head and kept moving. Before too long Teal'c stopped. He looked around the forest and he dropped and fired a Staff blast into the trees. From a short distance they could hear the crack of a tree and it falling toward them. Several individuals started to run from the woods screaming. All of them brandished the same knives that the two before had. Carter opened fire and they just stopped. Teal'c pointed his Staff Weapon.
Teal'c stared hard into the eyes of one of their ranks. He seemed to be leading the attack. He saw the eyes of contempt. "You wish to speak words of disdain, you should do it now. You stand as if you were a warrior, present your declaration of defiance."
"You stranger will give us what we want, and then we will release you of your bonds."
"We have no bonds to you, and I doubt you could do such an act. You are of high science, and though it apparently has not killed you of some primal instinct, you are no warrior. Ask yourself if you are truly prepared to die, for I have no qualm of delivering you to the hands of your Gods if you so want. Are you prepared to send me to mine?"
The leader looked Teal'c through and through. He stared into the eyes of the Jaffa warrior. Teal'c remained as stone, never once blinking, or moving. The man's eyes widened. He realized just how serious Teal'c was, and it scared him. "You truly would kill me wouldn't you? Are you so barbaric?"
"Should you ask that question? What right do you have? You stand there with a weapon such as that. Something so horrific as to rip asunder not only flesh but to have it explode under disruption? Who truly is the barbarian now?"
The man's eyes flared. "I AM A CAN'AL! SCIENCE IS MY GOD AND TEACHER, YOU ARE MERELY A JAFFA!!!"
"And yet somehow I have shaken the foundations of your thinking to make you irrational. You have given up the logic of your science for animal hatred."
The leader charged him and Teal'c merely side stepped. Hitting him in the back with his staff. The man fell face first into the leaves and dirt and got up. Teal'c stood posed with his staff in hand. When the leader got up he turned back towards Teal'c with his Vibe- blade raised to come down across his opponents chest. Teal'c used the other end of his staff weapon to hit this brash man's jaw. There was a crack, and blood poured from his cheek.
He got back up and got into a crouched position and looked to hit him again with the knife. Teal'c waited. The knife was swung and Teal'c grabbed his arm and a bone-chilling snap was heard throughout the ranks. The man screamed in agony.
Teal'c grabbed the vibrating weapon and pointed the tip at his enemy's throat. "Do you yield? Or do you wish death? If you yield, you are truly without honor, and must fight to regain it. Death is the only option to keep your honor before entering the halls of your Science God. What do you choose?"
The man's tears of pain thickened with fear. He stared at Teal'c and just became increasingly terrified. "Don't kill me, please! I don't wish to die!"
"Yet you are willing to kill another? And your brethren stand by watching their one fighter fall to a barbarian. Do you have a right to live under such hypocrisy? You have chosen the path of the dishonored. Let me hear your name so that I might tell of your disgraceful fall at my hands. The hands of the barbarian."
"Relna. My name is Relna. Please, don't kill me!!! I beg of you!!!"
Teal'c lowered the blade and turned it off, sheathing it in his own pocket and he tossed Relna to his comrades. He stared at them all with confidence and with power over their weakened bravery. "Hear me now Can'al! Your people have done you a great disservice. Your leaders have allowed you to fight to conquer others when the path you should choose is of knowledge, understanding, and peace. They would have you strip us of knowledge and then kill us. You too would die eventually at their hands, for if knowledge is power then why should they wish to share it with the likes of you. You are assassins. The first rule of assassination is to kill the assassin. You wish to fight, so I will lead you into a battle that will give you the chance to see what it is that a warrior does. When it is over, you will be changed, and when you have been changed you will wish to go back to your normal lives. You cannot turn back now, for your decisions were made to kill, the question is whom will you battle to the death? Will it be we who have bested you? Or will it be those who have tricked you? Make your decision now, for the time to strike is now!"
They all looked at one another. They were confused, but they listened to what the considered the lower words of this man, and in those words they found a great wisdom and all dropped to one knee. Tal'nia watched in amazement how this man turned the tide of their executioners into a small force. She knew that most couldn't fight back, but the corrupted leaders would try.
Carter took Teal'c aside. "That's some speech you gave to them."
"It was necessary to our task. We will not make it to our time without the aid of the people. Their people however have been corrupted. It is time that they fought for their own good, someone had to ignite the flame of rebellion for them to do it though."
"Well, it wasn't what I had in mind, but if it'll help to stop them from trying to take over time, I'm all for it."
They gathered their motley group of around 16 people. And they started to march towards the Can'al village. Teal'c stood in front with Major Carter. Sam's thoughts drifted a bit, she wondered how Daniel and Jack were doing. She truly hoped that wherever they ended up, they at least were having an easier time than she and Teal'c were. She looked at Teal'c whose eyes were staring straight ahead and then turned back to the view in front of her. Her face started to become more determined when she thought of the Can'al's objectives. Take over planets and their resources, they truly were worse than the Goa'uld. She marched forward, and in her mind the mantra ran: The Can'al must be stopped.
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