Chapter 18
Hak'tyl, Molekh System
Pachon, Shemu
Teal'c stepped onto Hak'tyl's chappa'ai platform and exchanged greetings with the female warriors on duty. A quick inquiry about their leader had him directed to Ishta's location at the training grounds.
Knowing what he now knew, that most of the women of Hak'tyl were on the drug, as he walked through the settlement Teal'c sought with his senses but could not distinguish any difference in the naquadah of those around him from when he knew they had carried prim'tas. Here O'Neill's resistance had succeeded in not only freeing Jaffa from their biological slavery to the goa'ulds but concealed it successfully.
As Teal'c grew closer to the training ground, the sound of the settlement gave way to the click of bashaak against bashaak and the occasional raised voice of an instructor. He drew to a halt at the tree line and scanned among the training women and girls for the blonde head of Ishta.
Ishta however spotted him before he saw her and handing her bashaak over to Neith called out, "Chel hol Mer Teal'c."
"Chel hol Mer Ishta," Teal'c returned the greeting.
Ishta smiled and after exchanging a quick few quiet words with Neith made her way to Teal'c's side. "What brings you to Hak'tyl so soon after your last visit?"
"Cannot I desire simply to see you again?" Teal'c queried.
Ishta laughed lightly as she turned towards the quiet sanction of the forest and began to walk into its depth with Teal'c falling into step beside her. They walked for some distance enjoying the company of the other before Teal'c began to speak.
"In truth I have come because of the renewal of old alliances."
"Ah," Ishta said lowly with a wealth of understanding invested in the sound before saying cryptically. "Do you wish to renew those alliances and forge new ones or are content with the alliances that stand?"
"We were never content with the alliance that stands," Teal'c rumbled darkly.
"But they have brought you much and taught us much," Ishta pressed as they continued to walk deeper into the forest.
"It is true that the actions of the alliance has brought us together, freed all Jaffa of service to the false gods, and allows me to lead my people in that freedom but the price is too great," Teal'c replied.
"Do not things of worth cost a great deal?" Ishta asked, looking up at Teal'c as he held a branch aside for her to pass by.
"Often they do, but when the price is paid by those who were not supposed to pay then the price is too great."
"Your words or Master Bra'tacs?"
"Ours," Teal'c answer succinctly.
"Ah," Ishta murmured beneath her breath and then took an abrupt turn east and shortly they emerged from the tower trees into a small glen where a natural spring bubbled in a carefully shaped and attended pool. Teal'c recognised the glen although this was only the second time that Ishta had guided him to it since they had become lovers.
Gracefully Ishta sank into a cross-legged position on the forest floor and Teal'c mimicked her position as he sat across from her.
"Tell me Teal'c, if you truly wish to renew old alliances why do you still carry a prim'ta?"
Teal'c was surprised by the question having assumed that he simply sensed a naquadah medallion upon his lover like Maz'rai wore. "My prim'ta has still time to sustain me and Master Bra'tac's is old and his prim'ta had grown too mature."
"Of course, I should have considered that," Ishta said with a self-criticising smile as she studied Teal'c's face and saw his surprise and curiosity. Everyone knew that Bra'tac's advanced age meant that the prim'ta he carried would most likely be his last, as even prim'tas would begin to refuse to sustain him. "And now you wonder how I knew you still carried a prim'ta although the file on the drug clearly states that those on it can no longer sense goa'ulds? I myself still carry a prim'ta."
Ishta's smile grew slightly as she saw that her answer had merely aroused more questions in Teal'c. "Why do I still carry a prim'ta and yet Maz'rai does not—has not for so long that his prim'ta pouch sealed itself? Simple, we Hak'tyl are not as isolated as Apepi and there are other circumstances that led us to consider it prudent for myself and other high ranked Hak'tyls to continue carrying prim'tas."
Teal'c included his head in understanding and suspected that he himself, or more precisely Ishta's relationship with him, was one of the reasons she still had a prim'ta. A sealed prim'ta pouch and easily misplaced medallion would have had him questioning Ishta about things she, and O'Neill's resistance, did not want asked because he had not yet been invited to join.
"You have more questions to ask?"
Teal'c inclined his head. "How is it that the Hak'tyl joined O'Neill's resistance?"
Ishta gave her lover a wry smile. "That is a bit of an embarrassment on our part. Not that we are not happy to aid and serve the resistance in any way possible but our recruitment was not usual."
He could believe that, especially considering the unique nature of the Hak'tyl.
"One of our girls had reached Age of Prata and we organised a raid," Ishta began her story, her face a touch sorrowful as she spoke of a reality that was slowly fracturing the Jaffa even more than they already were. Raiding other worlds and in particular worlds that contained imprisoned queens for symbiotes to sustain their own population.
Chulak was fortunate to have one of Apophis' lesser queens that had been used during the Goa'uld Empire's reign to spawn symbiotes for Jaffa foot soldiers to sustain their population. It also made them a target though for less fortunate Jaffa planets.
"During our retreat, traveling to various other planets to lose any pursuers, our raiding party 'gated to one planet that was believed to be uninhabited and found ourselves in the midst of a resistance summit. Of course in regular circumstances we would have just held the chappa'ai and traveled to our next destination but to secure the planet the resistance had moved the chappa'ai into the wall of a featureless box-like room, ten feet up from the floor, and of course without a control console," Ishta finished pragmatically.
One of Teal'c's eyebrows rose upwards. It was a very effective method to secure suspected hostile travelers through the chappa'ai and he wondered if the idea had been O'Neill, Samantha, or someone else's.
"We were as you suspected extremely displeased and slightly more battered from the fall and I am certain that our discussions—as they had noted we carried prim'tas in stasis—would have gone much more roughly if some of the other resistance's Jaffa had not been able to convince us of the truth of the situation and the wisdom of joining with them."
"And the girl that you had sought a prim'ta for? Were you able to return in time to her?"
Ishta's smiled brilliantly as she said with great contentment, "Nesa became the first one of us to truly live free."