"Your Majesties, look!"

Annika had the room's undivided attention as they waited for her updates on what was happening on the ha'tak. Only when she had assured them that they had escaped the self-destructing ship had they allowed themselves to relax a little. They wouldn't fully relax until the team with its precious cargo was back on terra firmer. It was only a few minutes later that one of the King's Guards had glanced out the window to see a small golden triangle flying in the air that was growing bigger by the second.

Everyone rushed out to the balcony for a better view as the ship came into focus. The alkesh hovered above the castle for a moment then began a slow descent into the courtyard.

Gerino cleared his throat. "It is your teammates in that contraption, isn't it?"

Annika gave a nod, leaning on the balcony edge to watch the sight. She had to hand it to the Goa'uld, even an alkesh was a wondrous piece of technology, and she was still new enough to the SGC world that seeing the ship impressed her. She could only imagine what her companions were feeling seeing it for the first time.

In moments the ship had landed gracefully. The door slid open with a soft whoosh and the ramp slowly extended out. Daniel was the first to emerge with the Princess happily bouncing on his back, followed by Abner. The archaeologist whispered something to the little girl then both looked up with bright smiles. Kara'neenya waved excitedly up at her parents who eagerly responded with waves of their own. The archaeologist gave his wife a wink and she blew him a kiss in greeting.

Teal'c appeared at the top of the ramp, and with the help of Abner started to herd the Seekers out to turn over custody to the waiting guards. The Jaffa's eyes immediately scanned the crowded balcony, looking for only one person. The knot that had formed in his stomach, making breathing nearly all but impossible, from the instant Annika had reported on Keelah's actions, started to unravel when he locked onto her smiling face. He gave a slight head nod, unaware that his eyes revealed just how relieved he was to see her.

Sam and Jack brought up the rear, dragging Kinsey between them.

"See that this piece of garbage is locked up nice and tight," Jack said, handing the unconscious senator over to a pair of guards.

The guards looked curiously at the half naked man, glancing up at the balcony for the go ahead from their king.

"Do it," the King ordered, making his voice loud enough so that all in the now crowded courtyard would hear. "These people," he gestured to the members of SG-1, "have the gratitude of the Crown and will be treated as our honored guests for as long as they wish to stay."

Jack flashed a grin at the monarch. "Mighty nice of you, but we have our prize." He thumbed at Kinsey. He called after the guards, "No need to be too gentle with him." The general reckoned the good citizens of this planet had never heard of the Geneva Convention and he wasn't going to enlighten them, not on behalf of Kinsey at any rate.

"You just like to make a grand entrance, don't you, Jack?" Annika smiled down at the team leader, waving her hand at the neatly parked alkesh.

"Hey, blame Carter, she was driving." He was the picture of innocence. "You know me, I'm the King of subtlety."

In short order they had all congregated back in the residence.

While Kara'neenya, who hadn't wanted to relinquish her ride on Daniel's back until the last possible second, was being smothered with hugs and kisses from her parents, Annika wrapped her arms around Daniel hugging him tightly.

"That look suited you," she whispered.

"Being a father."

"One day," he promised. "But I'm enjoying having you all to myself for now."

"Whenever you're ready." She pressed her lips to his in a lingering kiss.

For a few blissful moments Daniel lost himself in the sweet taste of her, until he became aware of a sense of fatigue trickling through their bond. He pulled back with a look of concern. "You're exhausted."

"I wouldn't go quite that far," she protested, though she let him guide her in the direction of the closest empty chair, which happened to be the single seat they'd used earlier.

"I would," Keelah said quietly. "You could hardly stand up at the end there."

Annika shot the woman a disgruntled look, which lost its impact when Daniel sat down and tugged her onto his lap. "First being stubborn and now Mother Hen-ism. You learn too damned quickly."

Keelah smiled knowing there was no malice in the comment. "I had good teachers."

"Which reminds me," Jack interjected from his place on the love seat next to Sam. "So, Queenie, just what do you call that little show you put on for Ugly?" Casper had filled in the highlights during the ride in the alkesh of the former slave waltzing on out, unarmed and announcing herself to Uneg.

It took Keelah a second to realize he was talking to her. "Buying time as you requested."

"It wasn't quite what I had in mind." Jack managed to keep his expression stern for all of a second before his lips twitched. "But besides giving a certain someone, who shall remain nameless," he gave an exaggerated eye roll towards Teal'c, "a heart attack, good job."

"Thank you, Jack." Keelah felt a burst of pleasure. She knew how rare it was to have such a direct compliment come from the general.

"Uneg did not harm you?" Teal'c asked. When he had entered the room, he hadn't known how to act. With their pretend relationship still in effect, it would have been appropriate to kiss her upon their reunion. However, he was uneasy of such a display of affection in the presence of her blood kin. Besides, his mind was still battling with the myriad of emotions he didn't quite know how to deal with, which had started when they had learned of Keelah's birthright and had only been exacerbated by the danger of her delaying tactic. Keelah had seemed equally unsure, yet he had the uncontrollable urge to touch her as physical proof that she truly was alright. His hands had threaded through hers of their own accord. Conscious of the room full of people neither had tried to put their feelings into words, and for the longest moment they had stared into each other's eyes, until Daniel's comment had distracted them.

"No," she assured. "He didn't even touch me."

With the reunions over, they brought the conversation to the situation at hand, starting with what to do with the Seekers.

"I do not know what we will do if they refuse to believe that Uneg is...was," Xa'bella corrected, "not a god."

"We have a prison, but the majority of them haven't actually done anything to warrant being locked up." Corfy was equally troubled. "Being misguided isn't a crime."

"Showing proof of death tends to alter perceptions of godliness," Teal'c said, remembering how they had used the vocume to convince the young Jaffa in training a few years before. The Seekers had not been brainwashed from birth to believe and serve the Goa'uld, and thus would not have so many mental hurdles to overcome.

Snuggled in the warm strength of Daniel's arms, Annika was leading herself through a light meditation to try to reenergize her body, but the flicker of a few images behind her eyelids roused her. "Let the Seekers who were in the room when he died take the body and symbiote carcass to the monastery. Having one of their own explain will make it easier on them to accept." She stifled a yawn. "There will be a few...trouble makers...but not as many as you fear."

The King accepted the advice with a nod then addressed all of the team. "Can you tell us more about this tretonin you spoke of earlier? How high are the risks to my people?"

Sam started by explaining why the tretonin was necessary, skimming over the specifics of how the drug was discovered. "It has a ninety percent success rate."

The indecision was clear on both the King and Queen's faces that they could lose over a thousand of the Seekers. Despite throwing in their lot with Uneg, the Seekers were still a part of the people the monarchs had sworn to take care of, no matter how misguided they were.

Daniel gave them a view of the bigger picture. "The risk to all your people is higher if they are allowed to remain with the prim'tas inside of them. Upon maturity every single one of them will become a Goa'uld like Uneg."

The scientist in Sam reared its head. "Potentially."

"Potentially?" Xa'bella asked.

Sam nodded. "Statistically speaking this planet should be overrun with Goa'uld. It takes a prim'ta approximately eight years to mature. In the seven thousand years the Seekers have been implanting themselves there should be thousands of Goa'uld. The symbiote we studied from Uneg's rescue from Earth was deformed, possibly due to the quorite..."

"Or it could be because of the queen," Annika interrupted. "She's not exactly in the best of health and may be inadvertently spawning mutants."

"Either way," Sam continued on, pushing aside the nagging in her mind that they were missing something, "there may be something different about your Seeker's symbiotes that stops them from finding a host. The tretonin may have to be specifically tailored to this...um...hybrid of symbiote."

"Please do not think I am doubting your word," Corfy began slowly, "but I would feel more comfortable about using this drug if I could see a..." he struggled for the right description, "patient who has used it over an extended period."

"You are looking at one." Teal'c met and held the King's eye.

The King was startled by the revelation. "You?"

Teal'c knew that his heritage had been neatly avoided until now by his teammates in an effort to protect him and to not complicate matters. However, he would no longer deny who he was, even by omission. He didn't know why but it was vital that Keelah's brother know the truth about who he was. "For ninety-three years I bore a prim'ta."

Corfy gave a headshake of bewilderment. "You're a Jaffa."

"Not only am I a true Jaffa, but I was First Prime to the Goa'uld Apophis for seventy years." His chin lifted in defiant pride, not for his role of First Prime but for his Jaffa brethren.

The King's eye unconsciously darted down to Keelah's hand, which was nestled in Teal'c's. Didn't take a psychologist degree to see his wariness of his twin being involved with the former First Prime, regardless of his actions of the morning.

"Teal'c, tell him the rest," Annika said softly when it became apparent Teal'c wasn't going to defend himself. She loved Teal'c to death, but his damned Jaffa honor chose the most inconvenient times to rear its head.

"There is no 'rest'. I am who I am."

"Uh, yeah, there is," Daniel jumped in. "You renounced Apophis, dedicated your life to freeing the galaxy of the Goa'uld."

"Gave up your family, everything you ever knew, for what you believed in," Sam added.

"Saved our butts more times than we can count," Jack tossed in.

"And saved many who were condemned to death by Apophis." Keelah's exasperation at Teal'c's unwillingness to defend himself was as evident as her admiration and devotion to him. Unaware of the latter, she continued, "You're a man who lets honor guide his heart, even if it is to his detriment."

Annika yanked the cushion that was wedged between her back and the chair arm and tossed it at him. "Like now, you big lug."

"But we kind of strayed from the topic," Sam brought the subject back to the King's original question. "Teal'c has been using tretonin for over two years now with no ill effects. And there are a couple thousand other free Jaffa who are using it."

"How would we administer the tretonin?" Xa'bella asked, giving her husband a nudge with her elbow. He and Teal'c hadn't broken eye contact, like two bulls ready to charge each other. Corfy's protective instinct towards his family was one of the things she loved about him, but she could do without the male postulating right now. Her husband pretended to not have felt the nudge. She leant in close to his ear and whispered, "Corfy, lollipop trees."

The comment had the desired effect, the King's face immediately softened, his gaze first darting to his wife then to Keelah. Quietly he began reciting, "A land of sugar clouds and lollipop trees..."

"With rivers of toffee and jelly bees," Keelah finished with a smile. The rest of the childhood poem of a fantasy kingdom was long forgotten, but it was only those two lines that were important.

Kara'neenya, who had been snuggled happily in her father's arms, the events of the day having tired her, drowsily blinked at Keelah. "How do you know our happy poem?"

Corfy placed a tender kiss to his daughter's head. "Kara is the one who wrote it."

Everyone could see the little girl thinking that through in her head, tarrying up what she knew of the poem's origins. Her nose scrunched in a little frown of surprise. "Pa'pap, you didn't introduce her properly when we met."

"My mistake," he accepted the rebuke of protocol with a grin. "Kara'neenya, may I present your Aunt...Keelah."

Keelah felt a warm rush at her brother's use of her preferred name. Despite the warm reunion from him and the others in the castle, for the first time she felt like she would truly be accepted back should she choose to remain. Fighting off the emotions, she focused on her niece, who had clambered off Corfy's lap and trotted over to her with a shy smile.

Kara'neenya hesitated a moment. "We already did the curtsy thing."

"Yes, we did," Keelah agreed then a second after that confirmation, found herself with two little arms wrapped around her neck in a tight hug.

Keelah battled back another rush of emotion as she held her close, then quite happily let the Princess wriggle onto her lap. After a long moment Kara'neenya drew back and this time Keelah was the one who was treated to that cute frown.

"I was told that I was named after you."

Keelah couldn't help but make the observation that her niece was very similar in temperament to herself at her age. She needed a reason for everything. "I use Keelah so that people will not confuse us."

Satisfied with that logic, the Princess snuggled into her aunt's embrace to let the adults finish their discussion.

"You were saying about the tretonin?" Xa'bella brought the conversation back on track.

"Our Chief Medical Officer has the recipe," Jack said. "I'm sure she'd be happy to show you the ropes on how it all works."

"Most of the key ingredients are relatively common," Sam added. "We can check the chemical compounds you already use here. For those that you don't have we can get you some until you can manufacture it yourself." She paused. "It will be an ongoing process. The Seekers will require daily doses, otherwise their immune systems will fail."

"You have done so much for us today already." Corfy dragged his eyes away from the surreal sight of his daughter being hugged by his long lost sister. "You must let us repay you in some way."

"Well, we could call it a trade," Daniel suggested. "We would still like to have access to that language pill."

The King's brow furrowed. "I'm afraid that won't be much use to you, at least not in the long term."

"Oh?"

"The body builds an immunity to them. After three doses, five at the most, it doesn't work anymore. It's one of the reason's we regulate the pills to visitors. We keep record of who it is administered to ensure they do not exceed four doses. And continual usage causes addiction."

Annika frowned. "But you understood us when we were in the cell before we took the pill."

Corfy nodded, not surprised at this point that the redhead had picked up on that. "I should have clarified. That is how it affects a person beyond puberty. In children before they go through the hormonal imbalances it has no addictive side effects. If administered in small doses at a young enough age while the brain is still developing, the learning effects become permanent. That is how I was able to understand you."

"You give this stuff to your kids?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"If you mean to the general population, then as a rule, no." Corfy shook his head. "However, to my daughter, yes, as well as others who know from birth their future lies with Crown affairs. As future monarch it will benefit her to be able to understand what is being said when visitors are unaware she understands their language."

"Guess I should rethink that 'His Royal Crabbiness' remark," Jack grinned unabashed.

"That's how you picked up English so quickly!" Daniel followed that logic and applied it to Keelah.

Keelah was startled by the revelation. This was the first she'd heard of the pill being used on herself. Then she vaguely recalled a weekly dose of 'vitamins' she and her brother had been given when they were a little older than Kara'neenya's age. Corfy's nod confirmed it.

"Perhaps our scientists could modify the pill?" Sam suggested.

"I'll have all the research brought to you and you can have as many samples as you'd like," Corfy offered.

"And you can have the ship," Xa'bella waved her hand at the window to the alkesh outside. "You clearly know how to use it and I think it would be best if we rid the land of any reminder of the Goa'uld."

"Yeah, speaking of the snakeheads," Jack started slowly. "Your planet will never be safe as long as you have that ore."

Teal'c gave a firm nod of agreement. "If another Goa'uld should discover the quorite exists here, it is unlikely they would react in the same manner as Uneg. The likelihood is that they will not try to negotiate." He glanced at Kara'neenya, concerned that he would scare her, but saw that the child was almost asleep in Keelah's arms. Nevertheless he lowered his voice. "They will simply destroy the planet from space."

"It's nothing short of a miracle that no other Goa'uld hasn't stumbled upon it before now." Sam suppressed a shudder at the memory of the almost feral gleam in her father's eyes when Selmak had battled off the genetic instinct.

The two monarchs exchanged worried glances. They had barely enjoyed a few minutes of 'freedom' from the Goa'uld, that they hadn't even begun to comprehend the ramifications of the experience. They couldn't unlearn what they knew of the quorite and it would be a constant worry for them to bear.

"We need to dispose of it," Xa'bella reached the same conclusion as her husband.

"We could take it off your hands," Jack suggested.

"But that would put your people in as much risk," Corfy objected.

"We wouldn't be taking it back to Earth," Sam assured. "After we learned about the risks of having the ore, we started looking for an uninhabited planet where we could set up a research base." While her team had been grilling SG-5 the previous night about the details of their mission, Sam had been sifting through any possible locations. "We have two planets that would be suitable. We'd take the quorite directly there."

"It does not seem like a fair trade," the King frowned. "You have saved our planet from Uneg's slavery and any future attack from a Goa'uld, have offered a means to save the Seekers, not to mention reuniting us with my sister...and the reward you ask is a pill that has no long term use for you and some rock that will put your people in danger."

"Don't forget the alkesh," Jack piped up. "Always happy to have one of those!"

"All we're trading for is the tretonin," Daniel clarified.

Both monarchs wore looks of confusion.

Annika stifled a yawn, fighting back the tiredness that lingered in her limbs. "As much as we get the warm fuzzies doing it, foiling a Goa'uld's plan and sending them to meet their maker is part of our job descriptions. So there's no need to reward us for that."

"And you have the power of stopping future attacks, simply by dumping the quorite," Sam pointed out.

"We'd just like you to dump it on the planet Carter chooses to save us having to haul it a second time," Jack grinned.

"Reuniting family is not something we would consider taking payment for," Teal'c said quietly. "It is simply the correct thing to do."

"Which leaves the tretonin," Daniel summed up.

The King and Queen exchanged bewildered looks but silently agreed between themselves.

"Put like that, then I guess we have a deal," Corfy said.

"Sweet!" Jack clapped his hands together getting to his feet. "To get the ball rolling, we should report back in to Hammond. Get the Doc and her crew rounded up to pay a visit and a couple of teams to help with the digging." A strange look crossed the general's face as an idea hit him, one that had nothing to do with the mission and everything to do with solving a little problem back at the base. "Your Majesty," he linked arms with the monarch, and much to the curiosity of the others, drew him away, keeping his voice low, "how would you feel about adding a small favor or two to that trade agreement?"