The news was boring and negative, but Sarah forced herself to pay attention; she had heard that the president was going to make a speech and decided to watch it since his decisions so often affected the SGC, and therefore, her life. The reporters repeatedly commented on how no one knew what the president was going to talk about, so it was a good opportunity for him to reveal a national secret or say “thanks for electing me” at a moment’s notice.

Finally, the screen switched to the podium where he would speak. Several people stood back behind it, one of which Vinnet recognized: the Supreme Councilor of the Tok’ra High Council, dressed in his long, green robes.

Sarah allowed her symbiote to take over. Vinnet then called out to the other person in the house.

“But I’m doing my homework; I can’t come right now,” Matt replied.

“You are going to want to see this.”

The teen trotted into the room, glad to have an excuse for procrastination—from Vinnet even!

As Matt sat down on the couch, the president began his speech. “For the past fifty years, there have been millions of reports of UFO sightings as well as plenty of media broadcasts that present any manner of theories about visitors from other planets.” At this point, an impenetrable hush seemed to fall across the whole nation. “Since 1998, some of these might have been true. In that year, we contacted an advanced extraterrestrial organization that has since visited Earth a number of times.

“Myths about extraterrestrials have long since gotten out of hand, and I think it’s about time that the citizens of the United States be told the truth. And why should they not hear it from a Tok’ra himself?”

The president moved away from the podium, allowing the Tok’ra to come forward and speak. In the few moments it took them to exchange places, a flood of questions invaded Vinnet’s mind, not the least of all being a query of why the Tok’ra dared to send a high councilor to Earth. The planet was peaceful compared to some, but it was no less dangerous.

“I am Supreme Councilor Per’sus and I wish to thank the United States for the opportunity to allow me to come and speak to you. Over the past few years, we have had a friendship that has allowed us to acquire many supplies that are in short supply for us.” “I look forward to a continuation of our partnership and friendship.”

The screen switched back to the reporters in the studio, showing two faces that were stunned at the man’s strange voice and manner. After a few seconds, the reporter, Vanessa Angel, recovered. “Remember that Channel 59 Action News brought this to you fir—”

Matt stretched forward to press the mute button. “That was interesting.”

Vinnet finally came out of her own state of shock. “Indeed.”

“Does that mean I can tell my friends about you?”

“No.”

*The next day*

At two o’clock in the afternoon, none of the schools in the area had let out, and Sarah rarely received visitors anyway. Nonetheless, the doorbell rang. She cracked the door open to see who had come calling only to be greeted by the shining face of a reporter.

“Good afternoon, ma’am. I’m Vanessa Angel from Channel 59 Action News. Could I have a moment of your time?”

Sarah raised her eyebrows and pretended like she was innocent of anything they might accuse her of. She put on her best smile and replied, “Why sure; what can I do for you?”

“May we come in?”

“Of course.” She allowed the reporter and cameraman to tread into her house, even though Vinnet was practically screaming at her to get them out.

Once everyone had had a seat on the somewhat comfortable couch and chairs just inside the door, Vanessa began. “Now, Miss Anderson, we have heard that you are one of the aliens that the president talked about last night in his speech.”

The Tok’ra, still smiling but with a slightly confused look, answered delightfully, “No, you must be mistaken; I can’t be one. If you didn’t notice, High Commander what’s-his-name had some weird voice, but I don’t.”

“Supreme Councilor Per’sus,” the reporter corrected automatically. “I thought we had a very reliable source. So tell me what you know of these Tok’ra.”

“Well, the SCI FI Channel had a special on them last night. It said that they were from some planet in the Alpha Centauri system named Pangar.” The mention of the queen Tok’ra’s death world sent shivers through Vinnet, having the same “person walking over your grave” feeling for Sarah. “It said that they have the power to heal most illnesses, but they have to have chlorophyll in their bloodstreams to do it.” Telling so many absurd lies, it was hard for Sarah to keep herself from laughing. Her hope was that the news anchor wouldn’t believe a word she said, but instead, Angel was hanging on every word from her mouth.

“How does the chlorophyll affect their healing abilities?”

“You know, they really didn’t say. Here, if you come back in half an hour, I can see what more I can remember, okay?”

Angel nodded reluctantly before leaving.

As soon as they were gone, she rushed to the phone and dialed the number for the SGC. Soon, she was talking to General Hammond.

“This is Sarah Anderson. I just had some reporters come knocking on my door, asking for information about the Tok’ra.”

She could imagine the general frowning and thinking the situation over. “What did you tell them?”

“I don’t know, some story about chlorophyll making them able to heal people.”

He sighed. “The president decided to release information about the Tok’ra only. And nothing that could put anyone in danger because of the Goa’uld threat. Most of it’s on a need-to-know basis. Nothing about the gate is to be released.”

“But why?”

“The High Council decided that they needed more hosts than you could provide with limits on your descriptions of being a Tok’ra, so they asked us to release information to make your job easier.”

“Oh,” she replied. “So, basically, Vinnet’s allowed to talk now, and she knows what to talk about?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you, sir, from both of us.”

“You’re welcome.”

The two hung up simultaneously and host and symbiote stood ready for the return of the reporter.

**Twenty-two minutes later**

Sarah sat in her same seat as earlier, as did the reporter and cameraman. Angel looked up. “Please tell us more about the chlorophyll as it relates to their healing ability.”

She allowed herself to laugh this time. “Chlorophyll has nothing to do with anything. Not much is actually known about how a Tok’ra heals. A person does have to have na— a certain metal in his or her blood to be able to work a healing device.”

“Can you show us one?”

Sarah shook her head. “There’s only one or two on the planet, and I really don’t need one.”

“I’m confused by your answer earlier. Are you or are you not a Tok’ra?”

Sarah took a breath. It was against any Tok’ra’s nature to reveal themselves to anyone other than another Tok’ra. Her own parents had never heard a word about the aliens from her. “I am.”

The seemingly rock-solid Angel seemed to tense up at this, as did the cameraman. “You…” She cleared her throat. “You mentioned earlier that you didn’t have the strange voice that the Supreme Councilor had. Could you explain this?”

She swallowed. “Yeah, sure… Well, let me start this way: I’m actually human. I was born in the United States and was a perfectly normal kid for most of my childhood.” She paused. It was so much easier to just let one of the other Tok’ra explain! “Here, I’m going to let the actual alien talk to you, okay?”

Angel appeared surprised by this. “I thought you said you were an alien.”

“No, I said that I’m a Tok’ra, not an alien. That doesn’t make sense to you, but there is a difference.” She closed her eyes so that the others would not be alarmed by their Goa’uld-ish flash and allowed Vinnet to finally speak.

“To answer your question, Per’sus neglected to inform you that a Tok’ra symbiote must have a host to survive.” She paused; the reporter’s eyes had widened and she looked surprised. “There is no reason to be alarmed; I will have Sarah as my host for the next one hundred years at least.”

Vanessa finally came out of her stage of complete shock. “Um, what does a symbiote do?”

Vinnet, having been met with mostly fear, let Sarah talk again. She was better suited to answer that question anyway. “Well, a symbiote can heal a lot of ailments as long as they’re not too serious. And… it’s nice for company when you’re lonely. They are sentient beings that think and feel and have emotions.”

The reporter glanced around, still nervous. “How long have you lived on Earth?”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “I’ve lived on Earth my whole life, but my symbiote’s only lived here for about ten years.”

Her eyes widened. “That long? Are there many Tok’ra living on Earth?”

She thought for a moment. “Actually, I think I’m the only one.”

“Why is that?”

Sarah frowned. That was one of the questions Vinnet did not want her to answer in full. If the president wanted to introduce the Goa’uld, he would have done it during his speech the previous evening. “Well, why would you need Americans living on a Tok’ra planet?” Besides that they could be hosts, of course, but I’ve scared these poor people too much already. The US wasn’t quite ready for the news.

“Why do you think the president waited so long before introducing the Tok’ra?”

She shrugged. “Tell me, and be honest, how much of this are you actually believing?”

“Are you trying to suggest this is a national joke?”

“I wish it was. That way, I could just go on living my life and not be bothered by the hoard of reporters that are bound to follow you.”

At that moment, the door opened, and Matt stood in the entranceway, flabbergasted. “Sarah, reporters?”

She nodded, rolled her eyes, and motioned to him to come in. “I called. They said that Vinnet could talk to them. I’ll explain later, but this means that you might be able to visit your mom more often and vice versa.”

He smiled, thinking of the Tok’ra host. “Cool.”

As he walked toward the kitchen, Angel called, “I’d like to have a few words with you, too.”

He reluctantly came back and sat beside Sarah, who leaned over and whispered, “Careful what you say. Try to keep it limited. Remember: they haven’t revealed the Stargate or Goa’uld and we can’t jeopardize Tok’ra security.”

He nodded in time for Vanessa’s first question: “Are you an alien also?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“How long have you known about the Tok’ra?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know; haven’t been paying attention.” Sarah smiled at his short, non-descriptive answers.

“What was your first reaction when you found out about aliens?”

He thought back for a moment to when his mom had left the house one night when she had cancer. Sarah had come over one day and brought him here, where they were zatted and taken away. “I didn’t believe her.”

“What happened since?”

One of his eyebrows floated skyward. “I moved here and then went to school like I always do.”

“What is Miss Anderson’s relationship to you?”

He looked to Sarah, who answered, “Guardian.”

“What happened to his mother?”

Sarah shrugged. “She got cancer and isn’t living here anymore.” Before the reporter could ask anything else, the phone rang. Matt got it and appeared with the phone in his hand, indicating that it wasn’t for him. Sarah quickly showed the reporter to the door then grabbed the phone from him. “Hello?”

“Hi, Sarah,” her dad’s voice replied. “Did you see the news last night?”

“Yeah. Wasn’t that interesting? Here, why don’t you come over?”

**A short time later…**

Sarah sat beside her dad while Matt was off doing homework.

“Is something wrong? You don’t usually ask me to come over,” he asked.

She sighed, knowing that the moment was upon her that she had been waiting for since she blended with Vinnet. “Well, nothing’s really wrong. I just wanted to know what you think about what the president had to say.”

He shrugged. “It’s about time someone admitted that there’s extraterrestrial life, but that high commander guy looks a little too human to be an extraterrestrial.”

She nodded. “Well, who said extraterrestrials couldn’t be human?”

He looked at her with disbelief. “Are you saying that it’s possible that the same exact life form could evolve to be exactly the same on two different planets that have only had contact for a few years?”

“Yes and no.”

“Explain.”

“I would if I could, but I can’t.” She frowned. Vinnet encouraged her to continue; after all, she had talked about revealing her job to her father for a long while, and now was her chance. “So, Dad, what did you think about Supreme Councilor Per’sus?”

He smiled. “He’s got a weird voice, and he was quite short on details of any Tok’ra-Earth partnership.”

She nodded. “There isn’t much to say.”

“You sound like you know exactly what he’s talking about.”

Shrugging, she answered, “They have technology we want, and we have resources that they need.”

One of his eyebrows raised. “Oh, really? Sarah, there’s something you’re not telling me; there is no way you could know that when the president just said ‘hi, meet the aliens.’”

She swallowed and took another deep breath. She looked down at her hands and began fiddling with a ring. “Dad, you remember when I got kidnapped?” She continued at his questioning nod. “You know how I haven’t been able to tell you about my job?” He nodded and set a look of concern on his face, so she launched into her story about being kidnapped by “bad guys,” becoming a Tok’ra, and coming back to Earth. “The Tok’ra need hosts to survive, and they have an incredible ability to heal their hosts. So what I do is,” she explained, speaking slowly, “I find people with terminal illnesses who would die anyway, and help them become Tok’ra.”

They sat in silence for a minute until Matt came in with his Algebra 2 book in hand. “Sorry to break in, but could you help me with my homework?”

Sarah let Vinnet come out since she still had to think about what she just said. “Matt, do you not have any other homework that you can work on until we a finished here?” Her otherworldly voice caught Sarah’s father off guard, but Matt was just slightly surprised that Vinnet was talking while someone else was in the house.

“Uh, sure, I guess I can, but I was hoping to get math done…”

“It can wait until later, correct?”

He nodded and made his way back to work on other stuff.

Sarah’s father looked over at his daughter, but could not understand the voice or anything. “Sarah?”

She shook her head. “No, I am Vinnet.

***
By the way, if you missed all the little jokes, here they are:
Vanessa Angel is the actress who plays one of the Tok’ra who are frequently on the show.
Where I live, there is no Channel 59 Action News; 59 is the SCI FI Channel.

I see additions to this in the future. I hope you enjoyed it.