Possession

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Stargate…but I don't…so there…

Daniel scowled at the goa'uld handheld device in front of him. Jacek had more than kept up with his word on giving Daniel updated contacts and jobs, but he had become greedy as of late, demanding a 45% cut on every job. Though, Daniel had to admit, his refined naqueda store had actually grown by leaps and bounds over the past few months of his space search.

But it appeared that all the higher end contacts Jacek had provided him with were dwindling on potential Vala leads. This caused much frustration on both Daniel's and Jacek's end. Though Jacek's idea of being compensated for this was to become a greedy little bastard exactly like he had been on Earth. Daniel was now no more than another of his contacts. A ship to fly around and do his dirty business for him. Thankfully though, most of the jobs and purchases and sales that Daniel had made in Jacek's name had never once dealt with kasa or the slave trade.

The man had very few scruples, but in his defense he did keep his nose out of the dirtier part of the galaxy's trade profits. It's probably what let him keep better contacts.

Most of Daniel's jobs pertained to stealing and smuggling goa'uld and the odd Ancient artifact. It pained him to watch the Ancient artifacts slip through his fingers, but he definitely studied them to the best of his ability before he had to fork it over to whoever the buyer was. His database on his ship had a huge chunk of its empty memory banks now devoted to his exhaustive notes and a few sketches he had managed to upload.

Not to say that all of Daniel's dealings had gone over smoothly. He'd been in more than his fare share of firefights (even had to hospitalize himself on his own ship about 3 times. He now had naqueda in his blood permanently because it wasn't worth wasting time with the miniscule doses needed to make the goa'uld tech work for a short amount of time.). His ship was no longer pristine on the outside, but he now knew very well how to repair his own ship and what its limits were.

He'd been out in the great large galaxy for over six months, without hide nor hair nor whisper of Vala yet. But he wasn't growing scared. Deep down he knew that Vala was still alive and probably driving whoever had her in captivity absolutely insane. Maybe all he had to wait for was word of some big wig finally going loony toons to find her.

Hans Olo was now a very respected art and artifact dealer in this chunk of the galaxy. Also a smuggler and pirate when the occasion called for it, though no one was ever able to catch him red handed. But most knew him as unusually honorable when it came to doing business. Which actually earned him a lot more business, but also got him shot at a lot by less than pleased peers who wanted his business to take a nose dive.

But what Daniel was now scowling at was the current job Jacek had him lined up for and the push from the now regular 45% cut to a 48% cut. Jacek knew that the higher end contacts were not turning up what they needed. Vala had been taken by slavers. And that was not a high end market job. No, Jacek was now sending Hans on a supply run to one of the biggest slave centers in this quarter of the galaxy: Serak. It was also eerily close to the Lucian Alliance center, but to his surprise was also near the single planet of Bastet. Maybe if he found the time, he would land on her planet and get a look around. He had found that most goa'uld were willing to leave traders and smugglers alone purely for economical and supply reasons.

Daniel had also been keeping semi-regular contact with Earth through Jacek who spoke with the occasional Tok'ra spy lurking about. SG-1 had continued its regular mission with a stand in archeologist, though from what words he got, Cam hated the woman. She apparently kept trying to sneak into his tent at night, which did not please him at all.

Sighing, Daniel read over his manifest instructions one more time from Jacek. He was to pick up a shipment of new goa'uld healing devices from a nearby planet then deliver them to the slaver outpost. Once there, he was to wait for a contact who would provide him with a new job and the possibility to scout for word of Vala in a slave trade post. Talking to active slavers would be his best bet. Then to the auctioneers would be his second best bet.

A find like Vala, who was now considered a Tau'ri female, would no doubt fetch a high price and a lot of attention from an auctioneer. Not to mention that the slaver who caught her would brag about his catch and the credits he received.

He had finished a shower when he had received his new manifest from Jacek, and was again wearing nothing but the loose buckskin pants, a towel tossed over his shoulder. He had taken up a workout routine while on his ship, as he no longer had a team to practice and work out with. He had managed to keep up his usual muscular form, which made him happy. He had been afraid that he would lose it, but he found the best way to pass time in space was to work out heavily or study whatever artifact was waiting to be delivered.

He padded over the bridge and input the coordinates for the pick-up into his navigation computer, then padded back to his room where he grabbed a loose long sleeved white shirt and pulled it over his head. He had also added and subtracted to his wardrobe, along with some of the décor in his ship. While doing jobs he had managed to afford a few pieces that he wanted to keep for himself. Which he was pleased of. He almost considered, after having retrieved Vala from whatever diabolical clutches she had fallen into, that he would continue this nice little job he had going. Except he'd find a way to either get Jacek to drop his cut down a little more, or cut him out completely if he didn't drop. Daniel was developing his own set of contacts, and felt that he may not need Jacek if not for needing to find Vala.

Yawning, he placed the goa'uld tablet on the low table next to his bed. He had done a rather rigorous work out before his shower and he wouldn't be hitting his pick up planet for another six hours. Perfect time to nap then get up to read up on his contact.

Vala was beside herself with anger. If she had been a viper, she'd be spitting right now. Charon hadn't laid a finger on her in the months she had been here, but he had made damn sure that she was embarrassed in every way humanly possible. Forced to parade around in the nude like some sort of sick show pony in front of his whole guard. Granted she had no major issues with how her body looked and usually wasn't afraid to show off what she had, but this man had given explicit instructions to have his guards toss rotten fruits at her whenever they happened to be in her vicinity.

All because she had pretty much kicked his ugly ass the one time he tried to lay hands on her. She had almost escaped too. Multiple times in fact. And once she had evaded capture for about 3 days before withdrawal symptoms had rendered her incapable of going any further. For now she understood why Charon had his entire harem addicted to kasa. It was so, if they tried to escape, they wouldn't make it very far. Oh and she had done her best to stop ingesting the stuff. She'd drunk soapy bath water for the longest time before one of the other women in harem had tattled on her to one of the more ugly guards. This had earned her a private room with her own two guards and no baths for over two weeks. In this time, they only allowed kasa laced drink into her room with a single square meal every day. They had forced her addiction.

She couldn't very well let herself die of dehydration now could she? And Charon and his goons had made it very clear they didn't care if she did. It was up to her to decide if life addicted to kasa was better than being dead or not. And Vala knew her Daniel was out looking for her, so the option was very clear to her. No, she didn't like it. The stuff did provide a kind of high, but she was not one to enjoy being out of her faculties in an environment she wasn't comfortable in.

After her multiple escape attempts, Vala was now allowed only dirty rags to wear and was chained down while in her solitary cell. However, she was allowed books. But that was it. Anything that she might be capable of disassembling and turning into a potential weapon was not allowed anywhere near her.

Charon, unlike most other goa'ulds, did not always let his pride blind him. This was why his territory was always so much smaller than other more power hungry system lords, and also why he sat back and let his brethren squabble amongst themselves. He was biding his time until they had wiped one another out. As long as he presented no threat to any of them, they left him alone. And that was how he liked it.

However, Charon's new punishment had her seething. At minimum, once a day she was chained out front of the guard's barrack's (her own guard in tow to make sure nothing happened to her and that she didn't escape) with no clothes and no food, though she could have all the kasa drink she wanted. But during these times, buckets of rotten fruits and vegetables from the kitchens were sat out of her reach but within throwing distance of her. She had been pelted by so many tomato-like fruits in the past months, she hoped to never see a tomato again. And she wasn't always allowed to bathe afterwards. And when she was allowed a bath, it was a sponge bath provided by one of the harem girls and Vala was always chained tightly to the wall so she wouldn't try anything.

She wanted so badly to get out of here. If she ever saw Daniel again, she'd apologize profusely for ever running off and would promise to never do so again. Instead, if her Daniel pissed her off, she'd hit him instead. Maybe not the best of things, but then again, he tended to get interesting when you got his anger funneled into physical activity…

Oh and there goes her mind again, wandering down her increasingly more perverted thought processes. She didn't always have a lot to do nowadays what with solitary confinement that she had taken to inventing fantasies to keep herself busy. Some were pretty outrageous even for her…

There was one thing she had been noticing though…there was a guard, a single guard, who never threw fruit at her, never handled her roughly when it was his turn to guard her. She sensed something a little friendlier about his persona than with his peers. Maybe, with a little luck and time, she could get to know him, and maybe enlist in his help. He usually looked disgusted at the way she treated, though it was very well hidden.

The door rattled signifying that it was that time of day again, and her kind guard wasn't present today. No…today was Ugly and Uglier. They walked in to untie her and she made sure to spit in Uglier's face. Fat bastard…

His pick-up had gone without a hitch and he was now almost to his destination of Serak. Recently his pick-ups had been going smoother mainly because he had started recognizing how trouble started. Those annoying little blips on radar that one would think was space trash, often ended up not being just space trash…no, they normally ended up being a ship with a greedy and angry member of the competition. It was getting old to be perfectly honest.

He sighed as he felt the transition from hyperspace to normal speed. He knew he was on the outskirt of the solar system, Serak being the 3rd out from the yellow star at its center. It was an uncomfortably warm planet, all desert minus a few handfuls of oasis. At sub-light speed he'd be at the planet in about 3 hours.

He wanted to be sitting at the nearest window at about 2 hours though, because he'd pass right by Bastet's planet, which was lush and green and teeming with life. And boy, he was unusually excited at the idea of getting a glimpse of her world.

Now it would be fair to mention that he had encountered a goa'uld system lord named Bastet before, when he pretended to be Lord Yu's slave. But he knew that Bastet was not the one that lived on the planet he was going to pass by. Because the old Bastet had taken to seclusion, a newer system lord had deemed it appropriate to take the mantle of the name under a more war-like role and connotation. But the Tok'ra knew of an older, to their knowledge, more powerful Bastet. This goa'uld was one of the oldest…thousands and thousands of years old. Meaning she was most likely the most bad tempered of the bunch due to sarcophagus regeneration and its mind warping.

Oh he wanted so badly to study the history that must be on her planet.

Daniel was squirming in his seat. He felt like a little kid, what with getting to glimpse this planet as he passed by. It was just drawing into view now, with its three vast oceans and four continents. All of the land was forest, without a single desert, though one of the continents lurked near the northern pole and was tundra with steep mountain ranges.

He was so excited, that it took him a couple seconds to realize that his ship was shaking from being fired upon. Warning klaxons immediately struck up their annoying screaming, letting Daniel know what he figured out from the flashes flying by his windshield.

"Really? Already? I'm not even near Serak yet! Goddamned slavers and pirates! To hell with the lot of you!" He shook a middle finger angrily at the rear of his ship even though he knew his aggressors wouldn't see it or even understand what it meant if they could. "When I can have Asgard tech again I'm coming after you all with a vengeance!"

He couldn't pop into hyperdrive due to the presence of all the gravity wells and larger debris that littered the solar system, and from what he was reading, he couldn't really turn and fight his attackers either. There were four ships firing on him that had been cloaked. He looked out on the planet that was near him and knew he was going to have to bank on Bastet's fearsome reputation if he was going to live. New klaxons kept coming on as his shields began to wilt under the onslaught of incoming fire. It was land and hope he could repair his ship in time before Bastet got to him or get blown to smithereens by cowardly pirates.

The choice was simple really. He angled his ship down towards the planet going full speed into the atmosphere, even with his shields failing. The faster he got out of range and ditched the pirates, the more shields he'd still have anyways.

The effect was immediate when he nosed towards the planet. The ships firing upon him pulled away and halted fire. Daniel sighed in relief before immediately scanning the terrain of the nearest continent for a good place to touch down and begin repairs.

Scans were revealing plenty of life on the planet, with very small spots of technology. Nothing pervasive, but small pockets did exist. He found a relatively isolated area on the west end of the continent that had a few fields that were cleared of trees. As he drew closer, he could see that there was agriculture aplenty, giant squares of land that had neat rows of crops. And he also saw where they were rotating the plots of land between growing and recuperating. A sign of a civilization, along with the lines of what he assumed were roads. Dirt or cobblestone or any other manner of pavement, he couldn't tell.

His cloak was on the fritz, so he knew that whoever was outside was going to see him landing. He just had to hope that Bastet herself was nowhere near him on this planet. The last thing he wanted was to get caught trespassing on her planet. He gave a last sweep as he landed in the clearing he had picked out and picked up no life signs bigger than a housecat. Sighing in relief he shut down as much of his ship as he could afford to, and immediately ran into engine room where all the essential, running the ship gadgets were located.

He pulled out multiple panels to find many crystals fried from the effort of keeping the shields up. He had done some cross rigging that even the Tok'ra hadn't that would allow crystals from non-flight essential systems to burn out before essential ones did. So interior lighting would often short out first before the engines or shields. Even life support would go down before the other two. It was a personal risk, but keeping the two up would mean he could often touch down for repairs before he had to worry about the lack of life support.

Noting what new crystals he was going to have to pull out of his storage room, he wanted to go check the exterior hull for any potential breeches. He trusted his shields, but it was always better to be safe than sorry.

He stopped in the cockpit and scanned his surroundings for life forms one last time before stepping out of the exit hatch nearby. Immediately he was bombarded with the smell of healthy vegetation and cool clean air. He closed his eyes and took a deep appreciative breath before opening his eyes.

"Oh hell…this just really isn't my day is it?" he muttered out loud. Arrayed in a semi-circle around him were humans in matching simple, clean cotton robes. All of them had staff weapons pointed at his head.

A woman with long red hair stepped out from the semi-circle toward him, keeping her weapon directed at him. "You land in a goa'uld ship without sending greetings. Are you goa'uld? If you lie, we will know. She does not approve of goa'uld presences on our planet."

Daniel looked on at the woman in interest. "I am not goa'uld. I have naqueda in my veins though due to needing to use their technology."

He watched as the woman stared sternly at him for a moment, then closed her eyes and appeared to be listening intently. They opened and glared back at Daniel.

"The man from Earth does not lie. Weapons down." The group around the ship all lowered their weapons. Daniel was surprised when none of them looked suspicious anymore. He returned his attention to the red headed woman.

"''She' wouldn't happen to be Bastet? And what do you mean Earth?"

The anger that erupted on the woman's face at the mention of the old goa'uld's name scared Daniel into taking a step back. "She is no longer known by that name! She has moved on from her shameful past to lead us into a new life and path! Call her whatever you wish but never refer to her as Bastet! It is an insult of the gravest kind!"

Daniel held his hands up in surrender to the woman's angry onslaught of words. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I do now. So uh…am I in any sort of major trouble for landing here? Because all I needed was to repair my ship then I'll be on my way."

The red head took a second to calm herself down before responding. "No, you're not in trouble. But She is greatly curious about you and wishes to speak in person. Let me impress upon you that her desire to see any offworlder is rare indeed. Most she will allow sanctuary by proxy only, and even then it's only for how long it takes for their ship to be repaired so they may leave. Only a goa'uld who stupidly seeks shelter from her gets taken into custody immediately or any slavers."

Daniel sat silent for a few seconds, not wanting to say anything prematurely to piss the woman off more. "Is there anything else I should be aware of, so that I might not offend anyone else or whoever She is?"

The red head grimaced. "No. The only real sacrilege is calling her by her prior name. She doesn't care, but we do. She has done so much for us as a people that we respect her too much to refer to her by a goa'uld name."

Daniel nodded his understanding. "That is reasonable. How far away is She?"

At this to woman gave a wry smile. "She's on the other side of the planet currently. But I suppose you think that would be a very long walk without your ship operational." Walking up, the woman pulled what looked like a sticker out a pouch that was strapped to her side. She placed the sticker on his skin then stood back. "The first trip will severely disorient you, but you get used to it. I hope your meeting goes well Earthling."

Daniel was about to ask what she was talking about when suddenly the world seemed to whirl in around him, everything going black and cold, with total sensory deprivation. It lasted about 3 seconds before the world spun back out around him, where he collapsed onto his knees gasping for air. It felt like someone had used him like a wash cloth and wrung him out. Everything seemed unusually loud and bright, and even smells were amplified.

He was staring at a beautiful black marble floor that had veins of gold and some sort of red stone twisting through it. Distantly he registered that a voice was speaking very softly to him.

"We're so sorry about that Daniel. Amala doesn't always take too kindly to off-worlders who are actually harmless. But sometimes her judge of character is a little better than ours." He could immediately register why the voice was speaking in the plural. It was laced with the metallic tones of a goa'uld. And yet the voice also lacked it at the same time. It was as if two voices were speaking in perfect tone, pitch, and rhythm from the same voice box.

The voices chuckled a bit. "For those used to the goa'uld having full control over a body or the body only being able to display one personality at a time, it does come off as a bit odd. Just wait until you see what we look like." A shadow appeared off to his side and he felt a hand grasp his shoulder gently in order to help him stand up. It was a rather large hand too. He turned to look at it as he went to stand up and immediately gasped. It was covered in fur! His head immediately snapped up and looked up into what was a very feline face.

The being was tall, almost seven feet tall, covered in a light down of grey fur. White hair almost like human hair except with more fullness and texture was pulled up into a ponytail. The ears were even like a cats, swiveling to catch sounds. The eyes that looked at him in amusement were violet however.

"Congratulations Doctor Daniel Jackson of Earth. You are the first from your planet to meet a Furling."

Daniel couldn't find anything really appropriate to say at the moment, so he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "You're so not like an Ewok…"

The being's face gave a look of what seemed like confusion to Daniel. He felt a light pressure in his head like he was about to have a headache before the being sudden smiled amicably. The pressure abruptly disappeared.

"No. We are nothing like Ewoks. We are Furling and goa'uld. You may refer to us as Buer.

Daniel grasped onto that name in the midst of his confusion. "Buer. A fallen angel. Teacher of philosophy, logic, and ethics. Banned from Heaven for loving mankind."

Buer smiled at Daniel. "We are fallen from both races. Goa'uld shun Bastet for not following their bloody ethics. Pinam'e is the last of her race. There are no more Furlings except her."

Daniel was finally starting to take in a bit more information about his situation, now that the shock of seeing a veritable cat person was wearing off. "The Furlings were one of the four races. We know that the Asgard suffered from their inability to master cloning genetics, that the Nox are secluded by choice, and that all Alterans either evolved into current humans or Ascended. We never found out what happened to you though."

Buer continued to smile patiently. "The Furlings indeed did suffer such as the Asgard. As far as races go, the only one that will continue in proper fashion is the Nox. The Asgard gave up the ability to ascend in exchange for their own version of immortal life through cloned bodies. They learned much, but gave up too much in their desire to learn fast and quickly. Their damage was irreversible. Alteraan non-intervention doomed almost half of their race. Their continued non-intervention caused some trouble from what we can tell also. You Earthlings are to thank for saving us all from certain destruction. As for the Furlings…our own way of evolving over time is what doomed us."

Daniel watched as Buer gave a long sigh at this. She swept a couple of bangs out of her face and gestured for him to follow her across the room where large pillows were scattered around a low table. He could see a pot and a couple of cups sitting on it.

"We would have seen what was headed our way if we had allowed the Asgard or the Alteraans to look into our genetic structure. But we Furlings protected our greatest asset and our greatest curse from falling into overeager hands. The Nox would have been the only ones we could have trusted with our secret but they had no desire to help or find out."

Buer seated herself down on a large purple pillow and poured fragrant smelling tea into both cups. She placed one in Daniel's hands, then took a long draught from her own.

"What do you mean greatest asset and greatest curse?"

Buer gave a bitter smile at Daniel. "The Asgard had their version of everlasting life yes? Move their consciousness into a new cloned body. The Furlings possessed true everlasting life. We could still be killed, get sick and die, but never from old age."

Daniel's jaw actually dropped. True everlasting life. It wasn't immortality, but hell…knowing you could live forever if you took good care of yourself… The question left his mouth before he even really questioned its appropriateness. "How old are you?"

"Pinam'e is well over three million years old in your Earth time standards. Bastet is a mere fifteen thousand."

"So…how was it your race's greatest curse? How did you all die out and how did you survive?" Daniel sipped his tea that Buer had poured and marveled at its sweet, mild flavor.

Buer chuckled at his eagerness, but a sad look crossed her face at the same time. "As a type of 'side-effect' of our very, very long lives, we do not bear children often. This is our way of regulating our population. Children were precious in our race. Only a handful were born each century. This low birth rate was our curse. Maybe if more younglings had been alive, maybe more than just I would have survived. Sometime about 2000 years after Bastet was born, my race seemed to hit a genetic self-destruct button. Something hidden deep in our genetic code seemed to come loose and release a virus of some sort that almost instantaneously killed every member of our race."

Pausing to take a calming breath, Buer wiped a couple tears from her violet eyes. "We must apologize Daniel. Furlings were like your ants or bees. We were a hive mind. We have been terribly lonely for many years. There is an emptiness and a pervasive quiet that is most unnatural. If not for Bastet, Pinam'e would have been long gone due to loneliness." Buer bowed her head, and when it came back up the familiar and eerie glow of goa'uld eyes met Daniel's. When she spoke, it was pure goa'uld voice, with no trace of the Furling's.

"I had to spend many years in control of Pinam'e while she grieved. I was very weak the whole time, having to take total control of all her bodily functions. It was fortunate that we had already had many years together without the need for a sarcophagus. Otherwise I might have never allowed her control of her body back. But Pinam'e taught me much about the vices of my race. It took much to build up the trust. Our first years together were spent vying for control. As a goa'uld, getting a Furling body was considered the pinnacle of existence. A body that would live forever without dependence on a sarcophagus.

"Her pain is great even now. Spending almost 3 million years with over ten thousand minds sharing your own only to end up with a single voice is jarring. It was overwhelming when I first attempted to control Pinam'e. Controlling a Furling mind is impossible. I was the first and only of my kind to find that out. They are telepathic and possess a hive mind. Such things prove too powerful and strong in a host for a goa'uld to take over. However, beyond being Pinam'e's only light in the darkness, I saved her life. The virus her genetic code is continually producing can only be filtered out by me. This is a constant job for me and causes me severe weakness. Her withdrawal into her mind was a very difficult time for me. I am surprised we managed to live."

Daniel was absolutely enthralled with the being in front of him. To finally see a Furling…to meet the true Bastet… "How did you all manage to avoid the hostile Goa'uld for so long? Even now many give wide berth to your green and bountiful planet…"

Bastet blinked at Daniel, thinking over her answer. "As I sense you know, the Furlings were one of the Four Races that met for conferences. These were technologically advanced races though two unfortunately hadn't matured enough as a society to understand the implications that technology would have upon them. The Ancients, as you call them in your mind, and the Asgard. The Asgard squandered their technology on prolonging their own lives in order to artificially push their knowledge. As you know, this ended in disaster. The Alterans however, let their own rules destroy them. They had found the secret to ascending to a higher plane of existence, but their rules had little give to even allow for saving their own souls. Pacifism is self-enforced genocide. Even the Nox were known to run interference from time to time when things got out of control.

"But I'm wandering off topic here. The Furlings had plenty of advanced technology. You got to experience their own version of teleportation technology. No bulky machines necessary, just that small patch that identifies your molecular structure and has a set of coordinates programmed in. A small scan and the patch memorizes your entire body, breaks it down into energy, transports it, reassembles it, and for lack of a better term, restarts your body. As eerie as it sounds, you technically die every time you are disassembled. Although this same transportation tech can be modified for genetic altering and also cleansing any bacteria and viruses that are attacking your system. I believe you may find Pinam'e did a small tweak to yours."

Daniel gave a start and started running his hands frantically over his body, wondering what on earth the Furling might have done to his body. He hope it wasn't like a third eye or something…or tentacles…he hated tentacles…

'Silly Daniel…I just altered your brain chemistry a bit to allow a hive mindset…you have no idea how much I have longed for another voice in the darkness…no offense meant to Bastet of course…"

Daniel glanced back up to Buer to find that her violet eyes were in control again, only this time swimming with tears of both sadness and joy.

A/N: End of Chapter. I offer no excuses for my tardiness. I just write this at my own leisure. Until next chapter!