[u][center]===Langford’s Medical Wing===[/center][/u]

[b]Joseph and Ariadne/Idalia, before time skip[/b]

This mission was turning out to be quite hectic. Ariadne had been barely half way through donning one of Tau’ri flight suits when the call had come through saying she would not be boarding via F-302 anymore. With that being the case, she opted for a different approach, quickly stripping off the flight suit and putting her Tok’ra uniform back on, but grabbing one of the Tau’ri combat vests to wear over it. While the soft fabrics and leathers of the normal Tok’ra working garb were comfortable and suited to almost any environment, they provided no protection whatsoever once staff blasts were flying. The Tau’ri had developed armour that would stop a staff blast from dealing damage beyond the physical force of impact, and their armour was also designed to stop their own projectile weapons. While she was far more likely to survive being hit than a mere human or even a Jaffa, that did not mean she wanted to take the chance. Once she was sure the vest was secure, she belted the pouch in which she kept her healing device over the top for easy access. Her Zat’nik’tel was holstered on her forearm rather than at her waist, a habit from when she still wore ostentatious and flashy outfits into battle - all in the name of appearing to be a god.

Of course things had not stopped with that change in plans. Ariadne had been listening in to the command channel while she was dressing and moving about the ship, and only minutes after the first team had beamed down word had come in of a most unexpected discovery. Apparently the team had discovered a Goa’uld down on the planet, disabled him and decided to beam him up. It all seemed a little too convenient to Ariadne, but if it truly was a Goa’uld, she could gain favour with the Tok’ra high council by sending him to them for extraction. She immediately began making her way to the infirmary, reaching up to activate her communicator - what the Tau’ri called a ‘radio’ while she did so. “[i]The council did not inform me of any Tok’ra agents on this world. Even if it were though, a Tok’ra would not be so foolish and brash in their means of contact.[/i]”

It did not take her long to reach the Infirmary, and as soon as she caught sight of the man, she immediately focused on trying to sense the presence of other symbiotes. The Naquadah was there. He was not bluffing. At Idalia’s insistence, Ariadne relinquished control.

Idalia stormed towards the Goa’uld, hand on her holstered Zat, ready to deliver the justice he deserved. Though she was right next to him and could not possibly be stopped, her hand would not pull the weapon from its holster. She railed at Ariadne’s evident control, but there was nothing she could do. She had to settle for cursing him in his native language. “Kel’mak’tak, Goa’uld!” She spat at the injured man on the bed, stepping back and crossing her arms in frustration.

It was a foolish and thoughtless thing to do of course, but in the heat of the moment she could only think of the countless years spent in servitude to the Goa’uld, the years of fear and hatred. Things were different now though.

Joseph had naturally arrived a few moments later. His shoes squeaked across the floor while his hand held the clipboard to his eyes, his other one upon his reading glasses to go over the papers. Currently he was scanning the information about the Goa’uld’s anatomy or least what had been gathered at such short notice when his head raised. He finally noted the young woman standing near the man, much to his surprise because he hadn’t been expecting anyone. The frustration was impossible to miss for him, his eyes ran up her figure at the key signs. It trailed from crossed arms up to her glare, even the distance between them. Joseph sighed at situation, his mind already made up about how much fun this little moment was going to be. 

He stepped towards the woman and spoke, his voice firm and business like. “Can I help you Ms….”

Idalia glanced at the person suddenly speaking to her, frustration evident as she did so. “Idalia.” She returned to glaring at Aeryn. “What you can do for me, is get the Symbiote out of him so I can kill it.” Attacking the host may be a poor thing to do, but killing the symbiote was definitely something almost everyone here would agree with.

“Well, Ms. Idalia, if I could snap my fingers to accomplish that, I would.” Joseph’s sarcasm peered through from the earlier scene within the lab. His hand reached from his glasses to the paper and flipped it over, his vision scanned over the information a few more times. “The bad part is with the number of wounds, ranging from a variety burn degrees to a broken arm and wrist, surgery at this point will kill both the host and the symbiote. Something I rather not risk.” 

His hand reached for the fluid bag at the man’s bedside, his eyes upon the liquid which seamlessly flowed into the least damaged one. His eyes took in the damaged from the blast, namely centered upon the wrist and hand. Most of the flesh was blackened and peeled away several layers to reveal slightly pink, cooked muscle underneath which meant nerve endings were likely beyond repair. His fingers were nothing but charred tendon, little remained, and broken pieces. He jerked his head from viewing anymore. 

“The odd part was that according to this information, Goa’uld have healing abilities which means his wounds should be mending themselves. However, there appears to be little change that I can detect. We barely managed to get him stable to this point and currently its a waiting game.” 

“Fine” Idalia said. “If he is too hurt for you to remove the Symbiote, I will heal him. Then you can remove it without worry.” Idalia stepped forward again, pulling the hand device from its pouch and slipping it on. She raised her crossed hands over the Goa’ulds body, shut her eyes and focused on the use of the device. First she had to scan him, determine what exactly his injuries were, and how much she could help. The healing device was powerful, but it was no sarcophagus and some things were simply beyond its capacity to repair. Starting at his hand, she quickly determined that she could not totally fix it. It did not particularly bother her, and she moved on to examine the rest of his body. Sometimes damage was not so evident on the surface, and it always payed to check.

The hand was definitely the worst damage the man had suffered, but when Idalia passed the hand device over his neck and head, she found herself surprised. She passed the device over him again, just to be sure of what she saw.

There was no symbiote.

She opened her eyes, a look of disappointment evident on her face. “This man is not a Goa’uld. He has no symbiote.” She slipped the healing device off her hand and replaced it in its pouch, having only scanned him and not repaired any of the damage at all. She had been robbed of her prize, and though it was for different reasons, Ariadne felt the same way. She stepped back from him again, this time looking at the Tau’ri doctor. “Treat him as you will. I do not care about his fate.”

When Idalia spoke about healing the man, Joseph’s eyebrow raised in doubt. In his opinion they already were going to try their best to mend the damage but some wounds were beyond conventional means for healing. However, the way she spoke made it seem like she thought it was a simple matter. His eyes brushed over his patient once more, unable to see anything she could do in the situation or how she was going to miraculously heal the man. She clearly wasn’t with the medical department and certainly not a miracle worker so he failed to see her words as anything more than wishful thinking. Joseph sighed to himself and once more looked at the man’s chart. There was so much to do for them to get started that he had difficulty where to begin. 

That’s when he noticed the device. A small, circular device was fixed firmly within the woman’s hand which emitted a glowing, pale yellow light. She slowly ran it the length of the patient’s injuries and seemed to be performing some sort of scan in his guess. Merely because there was little to no visible change in the man’s condition, though the sight did little not to surprise the doctor. His eyes widened from the sight she made and stood rigidly in place to stare until she finished. Once she completed it, the light stopped when her demeanor changed into something of disappointment. She pulled away to face him, eyes still curious about what had happened, and then gave him an alright to take care of his patient. 

Those words seemed to snap him out of his surprise causing his face to frown. “And how, Ms. Idalia, would you know that? All I’ve seen is a fancy light show which while amazingly beautiful, I don’t think it would be effective enough to show what proper tests or blood work would.” 

Idalia looked at the man like he was questioning the colour of the sky. She couldn’t decide if his total skepticism for the technology was more or less annoying than the idea of people worshipping her for it. She of course had never experienced that for herself, but it was there in Ariadne’s memories. Even a simple thing like scanning with the healing device would look like divine power to many in the galaxy. At Ariadne’s insistence, she took a deep breath to calm herself and keep from snapping at the old man. “This is a Goa’uld healing device.” She began, speaking as though to a child needing instruction. “It scans and heals people. It is far more effective than needles, or any other tool you have. It can see far more than the machines you have. Only someone with Naquadah canin their blood can activate it, so no, you cannot use it.” Idalia did not really see much more reason to be here, or to continue speaking to the man, but she stayed for the moment in case he needed more explanation.

Joseph’s frown just deepened, her tone had clearly mistaken his ignorance as stupidity. A fact he found rather annoying and insulting as he waited for her to finish without interruption. All the time he bit his tongue to keep his comments at bay, only the slight tightening knuckles upon the clipboard were the giveaway to his emotions. It was clear she didn’t want to be here or continue this conversation, something he found he desired as well because her very presence prevented him from doing his job. Unlike her, who cared nothing about the man’s fate, Joseph did. It was both out of professional pride and devotion to his patients, even if he lacked proper bedside manner.

“Ms. Idalia, please don’t mistake my ignorance on certain topics as the need to treat me as a child when explaining them. To assume I’ve seen one or would know it on sight when none exist on earth doesn’t make you superior in the end, only more knowledgeable on the subject. After all, I don’t expect you to know everything about Earth medicine, nor do I treat you as a child because of it.” Joseph said bluntly, trying to keep the coldness out of his tone and instead only managed a mono one. His hand brought the clipboard to his side while he continued. “Now that’s over, I’m sure you rather leave now as you’ve got things to attend to. And I have a patient to treat because I do care about his fate, even if you’re disappointed he’s not a Goa’uld.”

It would be clear he was hinting back to Idalia’s comment about not caring about the man’s fate, his feet moved around Idalia and to the bedridden man’s side. He proceeded to prep the man for surgery and trusted the woman’s device had done the needed scans, though his professionalism nagged at him for it. 

Idalia wordlessly stalked out of the infirmary, heading back to the Pel’tak to find out the status of the missions. Since she was now going to be beamed to her target when the time came, there was no need to wait anywhere in particular. As she went, Ariadne scolded her for how she acted. The old man may have been annoying, but she had acted like a petulant girl, not a Tok’ra. She made a mental note to find the doctor later and apologise to him. After the mission perhaps.

*Show no mercy for the Goa’uld