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Curia Building - Tollana – August 2001
Ambassador Joseph Faxon smiled at High Chancellor Travell, it was only his second meeting with the head of the Tollan Curia since he arrived to take over the position which had been temporarily held by Elizabeth Weir and he was still amazed by the fact he was on an alien world, treating with an extra-terrestrial human government. ‘It’s a pity perhaps I agree’ he said, ‘but you must realise that the days when you could rely for your defence on nothing but your Ion Cannons may be numbered’ he told her. ‘You can bet your bottom dollar...’ he began then paused, ‘that’s a unit of currency’ he explained, ‘that if Apophis defeats the other System Lords he will come after you shortly afterwards.’
The High Chancellor smiled back. ‘Although not a warrior people the sophistication of our defence technology far exceeds that of the Goa’uld and you perhaps underestimate how formidable a weapon our Ion Cannon’s are’ she replied, earning nods from the other members of the Curia sat to her left and right along their side of the conference table.
Faxon half turned towards Elizabeth Weir who gave him a knowing smile of her own. The Tollan often seemed more than a touch condescending to their Tau’ri guests, using a tone of voice as if you would to children and she had warned him about it before they left the Embassy for this meeting. He was formulating a well worded diplomatic reply when Colonel O’Neill laughed, immediately gaining everyone’s attention.
‘Does something amuse you Colonel?’ High Chancellor Travell asked.
O’Neill looked her in the eye. ‘I was just remembering what happened to those formidable Ion Cannon’s the last time the Goa’uld attacked’ he said. ‘If it wasn’t for us getting Lya to hide one you’d all being getting whipped in a naquadah mine right now’ he told her.
‘Colonel’ Weir responded sharply in rebuke, for his part Daniel who was sat between them grimaced. It might have been better to pick a more diplomatic military representative but as the leader of the flagship SG Team the job had fallen to O’Neill. The rest of SG-1 were either back at the Embassy or in Sam’s case she had been invited to lunch by Narim who still seemed to hold a torch for her. Sergeant Andianov had however observed that Sam herself seemed to be more interested in Joseph Faxon despite only a few brief conversations between them. When Daniel had replied that he hadn’t noticed that himself and wondered if she was imagining it Andianov pointed out that he was a man and therefore utterly clueless regarding that sort of thing. For his part Teal’c mentioned that his wife had frequently correctly predicted developing bond-pairings which he had been oblivious to and that he sometimes suspected females to possess mild telepathic abilities. Andianov told him it was just that men were dense and he admitted his wife had also offered a similar explanation.
High Chancellor Travell raised her hand to indicate it was okay. ‘We remember the debt of gratitude we owe to your people for that’ she said, ‘but rest assured it won’t happen again’ she continued, ‘the Goa’uld would not be allowed free-rein to... what was the word?’ she said trying to remember the term the Tau’ri used, ‘paint... our Cannon for destruction in a pre-emptive attack again’ she told them confidently.
‘That’s all well and good High Chancellor’ Faxon commented, ‘but how would you cope with the sudden arrival of dozens of Goa’uld Hat’ak ships appearing in orbit above you simultaneously.’
‘We would destroy them’ another Curia member stated.
‘All of them?’ Faxon asked seriously. ‘Before any could launch a volley of fire from their main guns which our own military experts tell me could lay waste to much of this region at a stroke?’ he continued. ‘Are you absolutely certain of that?’
‘The Goa’uld don’t care about Jaffa losses, and if he’s defeated the other System Lord’s Apophis won’t care about losing a fair percentage of his fleet to wipe out an advanced human civilisation like yours’ Daniel opined. ‘You care about your people, he doesn’t’ he said flatly, ‘he’ll accept a few dozen destroyed Hat’aks to win, how many hundred thousand Tollan deaths would you be willing to have on your conscience?’ he asked rhetorically, ‘they’ll grind you down by weight of numbers until you surrender and then all hope is lost’ he told the Curia members, looking along the line.
Omoc sat at the very end of the line of Curia members leaned forward. ‘And I suppose this is when you say we need to give you advanced weapons to fight the Goa’uld so you can protect us?’ he asked knowingly.
‘No because even to a newcomer like me it’s clear that’s not going to happen’ Faxon replied. ‘The only alternative is that we do our best to equip you to defend yourselves’ he added with a wry smile. ‘If not with technology so much as ideas on how best to use the technology you have in a manner you may not have considered’ he explained.
‘You’re on Colonel, this is your field of expertise not mine’ Weir told O’Neill.
‘Thank you’ O’Neill responded, meshing his fingers on the table in front of him. ‘What you guys need is deterrence’ he told the Tollan, ‘you need something that will make the Goa’uld too damn scared to attack you and that doesn’t mean defence, that means retaliation’ he stated.
‘Retaliation?’ Omoc queried.
‘Right’ O’Neill confirmed, ‘you need Apophis and all the other System Lords to know that even if they did conquer Tollana they’d be risking their own sorry asses in the process’ he said. ‘They might be willing to lose a few Hat’aks but they’ll think twice if they were risking whole worlds’ he opined, standing up so to give his delivery more force.
‘On Earth we call it MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction’ Daniel observed, ‘Or sometimes the Balance of Terror’ he added.
‘And MAD is a lot saner than it sounds’ O’Neill noted. ‘Okay here’s how it works back home’ he began. ‘The major military powers each keep an arsenal of nuclear weapons to deter each other from attacking’ he explained. ‘It’s pretty simple, you nuke us and we’ll nuke you back, back to the stone-age if things ever got too nasty’ he continued. ‘Now one problem is that someone might launch a sneak attack, like the Goa’uld did to you before, trying to knock out your weapons on the ground before launch’ he said, ‘so how we do it is that we hide submarines in the ocean with nukes aboard as a guarantee against that, even a sneak attack doesn’t mean you don’t get blown all to hell in retaliation.’
‘We know from the story of Serita that you have the technology to create inordinately powerful weapons that can cause planetary-level destruction’ Daniel said.
‘That technology was misused by the Seritans’ Travell responded. ‘It was that misuse which not only destroyed Serita but meant that the original Tollan homeworld had to be abandoned.’
‘Yeah but it still went boom and you must know how to do it yourselves’ O’Neill replied. ‘We can’t build anything that powerful, and we haven’t seen the Goa’uld demonstrate that kind of firepower either’ he said. ‘So there’s your deterrent’ he noted, ‘tell them if they attack Tollana you’ll blow the crap out of them’ he explained. ‘Point them towards what’s left of Serita so they can check it out for themselves you’re not bluffing when you say you can do it and then sit back and find out how much balls they really have’ he said with a grin. ‘It ain’t much’ he declared confidently.
‘We’ve given you our designs for a Hyperdrive that is as fast as contemporary Goa’uld vessels’ Faxon noted. ‘That gives you ability to get to their worlds’ he said.
‘And you use your phase-shifting technology on those ships to hide them’ O’Neill added. ‘We hide our ultimate deterrent on submarines, you put yours on ships that can’t be seen’ he suggested. ‘We’ve seen you guys walk through walls so I guess you could even put some of your ships inside planets where the Goa’uld could never get to them’ he queried. ‘Make sure the Goa’uld know all about it’ he advised, ‘demonstrate that you’ve got ships as fast as them, tell them they carry those Ion Cannons of yours too and tell them very loudly that they carry planet-busting bombs and that if they come calling uninvited of you then you’ll come calling on them and you won’t be in a good mood.’
‘You expect us to slaughter millions?’ High Chancellor Travell asked in horror.
‘No’ O’Neill replied, ‘you won’t have to’ he stated with certainty.
‘One of the defining traits of the Goa’uld is that they are not only self-serving but they’re also obsessed with self-preservation’ Daniel noted. ‘The System Lords won’t attack you if they think there’s a reasonable possibility of the kind of response you’re technologically capable of.’
Omoc frowned. ‘We wouldn’t have thought in these terms’ he said.
‘We know’ Elizabeth Weir replied, ‘you’re really not a warlike people’ she said, ‘and personally I find your non-expansionist neutrality refreshing, but from what I’ve learned about the rest of the galaxy the near utopian society you’ve created here is endangered by forces beyond your control.’
‘I’ll admit it, technologically we are primitive compared to you’ O’Neill told the members of the Curia, ‘but in other ways you’re damn naive’ he said, ‘it’s a big bad galaxy and you’re too advanced to be so damn optimistic’ he continued, ‘frankly from our perspective Tollan Foreign and Defence Policy amounts to cross your fingers and hope for the best.’
‘Cross your fingers?’ Travell queried in confusion.
Daniel demonstrated. ‘People on Earth do this for good luck’ he explained. ‘It’s only a superstition of course’ he said, ‘more reasoned people make their own luck through their actions’ he added meaningfully.
‘We would have to discuss this in great depth in the Curia, and likely put any such decision to the entire population in a referendum’ the High Chancellor said. ‘I can see your argument but it is a radical shift from a policy that has served the Tollan people well for many centuries’ she said.
‘Rest assured that Earth stands ready to offer our Tollan friends any advice or counsel you might require’ Faxon replied.
‘We might be unevolved but we’re good at war’ O’Neill remarked. ‘Or maybe because of it’ he theorised.
Weir couldn’t help but sadly agree, the thing that bothered her most was that it was likely the only thing that gave the Tau’ri any hope of survival. What they currently lacked in technology or resources the humans of Earth made up for in the fact that thousands of years of continual warfare had bought them to a level of sheer proficiency in military matters nobody else seemed to match.
In the long-term the real question perhaps was what the galaxy would be like when Earth had broad technological parity with its rivals as well.
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – August 2001
Doctor Fraser showed the results of her investigations to General Hammond before dropping the clipboard onto her desk. They were alone in the infirmary which was good because she wasn’t sure how certain people might react to the news, she had wanted to talk it over with the General before confronting Commander Sharp who should arrive in five minutes or so. The Commander had only just returned from the latest wave of attacks on the logistical supply lines of Apophis Fleet and had been about to head into Colorado Springs to find a bar when Fraser had sent him a note asking him to come see her.
‘Drugs?’ Hammond said incredulously. ‘They’re all on drugs?’ he asked in astonishment.
Janet Fraser nodded. ‘Various kinds’ she confirmed. ‘None of them showed up on any routine screening though a few were clearly developments of compounds I’m partially familiar with’ she said. ‘If I had to guess they’re probably taking a combination of experimental performance enhancing drugs and have been for some time’ she told him. ‘I was doing some random testing of blood samples checking for traces of off-world viruses or bacteria and I noticed something odd about all the samples from X-COM personnel’ she said. ‘I had their samples put through a mass spectrometer and found all sorts of things that shouldn’t have been in there’ Fraser told him.
‘You mean like steroids?’ Hammond asked.
‘Yes there’s at least one anabolic steroid in there’ Doctor Fraser confirmed, ‘but there are also Erythropoietin-like hormones which increase both the number of red blood cells and the individual ability of those cells to carry oxygen’ she said. Additional chemicals appear to have a neurological effect on how the fight-or-flight reflex is triggered, and possibly increase aggression, and amongst other physical performance enhancing drugs there are several types of Nootroopics.’
Hammon frowned. ‘Nootropic?’ he queried.
‘Cognitive Enhancers’ Doctor Fraser explained. ‘They improve brain function’ she continued, ‘improved memory, faster reaction times, increased awareness, focus and alertness’ she listed then paused. ‘Haven’t you ever noticed how some of the X-COM people sometimes seem to have this “ready to pounce” look about them?’ she asked rhetorically.
General Hammond shrugged. ‘I put it down to them all being unhinged because of the PTSD’ he replied honestly.
‘That’s probably a factor too but at least to some extent it’s the chemicals floating around their systems’ Fraser told him. ‘The effects seem to be cumulative over time although they would eventually plateau because you can’t push the human body or mind too far’ she said. ‘Those X-COM personnel who survive the first few missions get better fast because they’ve been enhanced with various pharmaceuticals’ she told him. ‘They have greater awareness which added to improved recall means they learn at an accelerated rate’ she continued. ‘Better oxygen transfer in the blood means greater endurance and the steroids mean they get stronger too.’
‘I’m guessing there’s a major downside’ Hammond asked.
Fraser nodded. ‘They cannot possibly know what the long-term side-effects will be’ she replied. ‘Or for that matter what the medium-term effects will be on their psyches’ she added. ‘You’d never get approval to dose anyone up with this cocktail’ she stated with certainty. ‘Looking at the Nootropic’s alone I found a Piracetam derivative, Aniracetam, Nicergoline and Sulbutiamine’ she said. ‘It’s almost a witches brew’ she said with distaste.
‘The short-term effects of not taking them was the extreme likelihood of being killed by plasma fire so we decided it was worth it’ Commander Russell Sharp interrupted. ‘We were wondering when you’d find out, took longer than I thought it would but I guess our geeks were right about the stuff not being easy to detect’ he said, walking into the infirmary and closing the door behind him. ‘Sorry for arriving early and listening at the door but my chemically boosted paranoia kicked in’ he told them wryly.
‘You’ve been experimenting on your own men’ Fraser said, finger pointing in accusation. ‘Do they know they’re guinea-pigs?’ she asked angrily.
‘Yes and they’re all volunteers, myself included of course’ Sharp replied. ‘You didn’t honestly think we were naturally so much better than regular Special Forces did you?’ he asked with amusement. ‘We only give the pills and injections to the ones that have survived a few missions first so they get over any reluctance they might have for obtaining an edge by any means necessary’ he told them. ‘I wouldn’t have taken the stuff until I saw first-hand what we were up against myself either’ he said. ‘After my Road to Damascus moment I’d have let them inject me with anything they wanted’ he said honestly.
‘I cannot believe that X-COM got UN approval for something like this’ Hammond declared.
‘We didn’t, this was just something our own R&D guys cooked up’ Sharp replied, ‘the bleeding heart liberals would never have signed off on a plan to pump us grunts full of mostly untested pharmaceuticals’ he continued, ‘it was all done on our own initiative’ he told them. ‘And we would have got away with it too if it wasn’t for you meddling kids’ he deadpanned.
‘You think this is funny?’ Doctor Fraser asked irately. ‘This is verging on Doctor Frankenstein territory’ she declared. ‘This is the sort of thing I’d expect from Loki or Nirti’ she declared.
Sharp chuckled. ‘Sometimes I forget how soft you are’ he replied. ‘X-COM Troops expect to die in combat’ he told them, ‘even with our fancy high-tech medkits, and that sarcophagus we’ve got these days it’s only a matter of time before we meet the plasma bolt with our name on it’ he said. ‘The drugs help push that time back and also mean we get an opportunity to take a few more aliens with us to Valhalla’ he said. ‘Victory at any costs, self-sacrifice is our watchword remember’ he continued. ‘Now don’t be too scathing, the USAF gives its pilots amphetamine-based “go-pills” we just take the notion of better soldiering through chemistry a few stages further.’
‘This stuff might kill you’ Fraser pointed out forcefully.
‘I know’ sharp replied evenly, ‘it hasn’t turned my brain into a bucket’s worth of mush yet’ he told her, ‘but my guess is an eventual nice quick cerebral aneurysm being as how I’m an optimist, some of the guys think we’ll all get cancer instead though’ he added.
‘What about the possible mood altering effects, have you considered if you’re fit to command?’ Doctor Fraser asked seriously.
‘I’ll give you authorisation to look at my X-COM psych evaluations’ Sharp replied, ‘according to our shrinks I’m just crazy enough to do my job properly without having a mental breakdown’ he told them. ‘I’ve got that scheduled for after the war’ he said, ‘no time to waste going insane when there’s still extra-terrestrials to fight’ he joked.
‘I’ll have to report this all to my superiors’ Hammond told Sharp.
‘Of course George’ Sharp responded, ‘it’s your duty’ he told him. ‘They’ll make some noise and so will the Security Council but in the end they’ll accept it’s a fait accompli’ he said confidently. ‘The Sectoids and the Goa’uld are too much of a clear and present danger to worry about trivial crap like this’ he told them. ‘We all signed waivers and knew the possible consequences before we swallowed the pills and had the needles stuck in our arms’ he continued. ‘The only difference is going to be we won’t have to be so secretive about it from now on.’
‘You don’t honestly think they’ll sweep this under the carpet do you’ Fraser asked.
‘Of course I do, we’ve been covering up alien invasions from the public, they’re not going to do anything about a few scientists ignoring FDA rules on human-testing or whatever’ Sharp replied with conviction. ‘More than half our scientists and engineers are taking the stuff too’ he revealed. ‘That’s part of the reason we’re so damn good, we take the very best in every field and make them better’ he continued. ‘We don’t give any more of a crap about health and safety rules than we do about patent law, we get stuff done fast because our lab geeks can work longer and harder and they don’t mind cutting corners on safety to speed things up’ he said. ‘Nobody ever asks how we do it because the people at the top don’t care about the methods they only care about the results.’
Hammond shook his head sadly. ‘Nobody might have ever known’ he realised.
‘None of us grunts would have ratted out the guys who came up with the idea and the politicians wouldn’t have investigated’ Sharp replied. ‘It would have been X-COM’s little secret’ he said.
‘Do you really all care so little for your own lives?’ Fraser asked quietly. ‘You do know that the EPO hormone they give you can cause cardiovascular problems as well as being linked to an increased likelihood of tumours?’ she asked.
‘Yeah but you should see how much faster I can run the ten-thousand metres now’ Sharp replied. ‘The cognitive enhancers might do something nasty to my brain too but I’ll take that risk for the better memory and quicker reactions’ he continued. ‘Hey you’d be surprised at how many points higher my IQ tests out as now’ he said brightly.
‘Pity the drugs clearly haven’t improved your common-sense too Commander’ Fraser snapped back. She was a doctor and a humanitarian so to her human life was far too precious to be treated in such a cavalier fashion.
‘I can direct you to a large number of both former commanding officers and girlfriends that would assure you that there’s not a pharmaceutical made that’s capable of that feat Doctor’ Sharp replied. ‘I might take stimulants other than spinach but like Popeye said “I am what I am”.’
The Commander later wished he had chosen other words because once the news spread along with Doctor Frasers detailing of the conversation he could have done without the less than fearsome nom-de-guerre of “Sharpy the X-COM Man”.
High Orbit - Kawawn – August 2001
‘According to the information our spy in Bastet’s ranks told us we should expect the enemy fleet to arrive very soon My Lord’ the Jaffa stood before him reported to Zipacna.
‘Is the entire fleet concealed?’ the Goa’uld asked, leaning back in his throne-like chair on the Hat’aks bridge.
‘Yes My Lord’ the Jaffa replied. ‘They will not know they have walked into a trap until we open fire’ he declared. ‘Their losses will surely cripple their ongoing counter-offensive as you predicted.’
Zipacna nodded. ‘Lord Apophis will be pleased by our victory’ he said then smirked ‘Execute any prisoners we recover from the wreckage of their ships’ he ordered.
‘It will be done My Lord’ the Jaffa responded, turning to head back to his duty station.
The sheer size of Apophis fleet and the scale of the war meant that he couldn’t possibly run the entire enterprise himself and had delegated some control to associates of proven loyalty, or at least known sycophancy such as Zipacna who could always be relied upon to faithfully serve any System Lord who was in the ascendant. Given command of a medium-sized fleet of Hat’ak vessels for the past three months Zipacna had been fighting with some moderate success against the combined forces of Bastet, Amaterasu and Kali whilst Apophis himself spearheaded the fight against Lord Yu and the rest of the coalition of System Lords arraigned against him. Initially the coalition had proved more effective than Apophis had expected stopping his advance and then pushing him back several systems but soon he had rallied his forces and the fighting was now one of attrition with Apophis seeking to wear his opponents down, relying on his superior numbers and the greater industrial base he had inherited from Sokar to win the day.
In some ways being on the defensive had also helped Apophis, his Hat’ak’s possessed cloaking devices that the other System Lords only had fitted to a limited number of far smaller craft such as Tel’taks and this offered the possibly of ambush which had become a favourite tactic of Zipacna in particular. As soon as news arrived of a coalition attack being planned against Kawawn, one of Apophis principle mining planets, Zipacna had arranged this warm reception for them, a simultaneous decloaking and point-blank volley from the main guns on his Hat’aks would cause both heavy damage and disorder in the fleets of the three female System Lords before the fleets clashed in earnest.
After another victory Apophis was bound to offer Zipacna his own small empire, carved from those of the vanquished, the Goa’uld thought happily to himself. He harboured no ambition to be an independent System Lord in his own right, remaining a vassal with a few worlds to rule and a few million slaves to lord it over was all he wanted which is why he was going to survive and prosper while others fell by the wayside. Zipacna had known which way the wind was blowing as soon as Apophis took command of Sokar’s legions and had quickly returned to the service of his former master, noting that he had also loyalty served Clorel his heir.
‘Vessels emerging from hyperspace My Lord’ a Jaffa reported. ‘They appear to be those we expected’ he continued.
‘Number?’ Zipacna asked.
‘Twelve Hat’ak’s’ the Jaffa answered, ‘four each from the fleets of Ametsaru, Kali and Bastet’ he noted.
‘Excellent’ Zipacna responded. ‘We outnumber them as well as enjoying the element of surprise’ he noted with satisfaction. ‘This should be an easy victory’ he said.
‘They are closing on the planet’ the Jaffa announced. ‘Approaching optimum firing range’ he continued then checked his console. ‘Five more vessels emerging from hyperspace’ he said.
Zipacna sighed, if they were going to be more evenly matched in numbers he was likely to lose some ships even if victory itself was still guaranteed. ‘Who’s ships are they?’ he asked, not that it matter which of the bitches had sent them.
The Jaffa turned. ‘The other Hat’aks belong to Lord Baal’ he reported.
‘Baal?’ Zipacna repeated with a frown. ‘You are certain?’ he checked.
‘Yes My Lord’ the Jaffa confirmed. ‘The vessels are forming up with the others.’
‘Our Master Apophis said he expected Baal to enter the fray in time’ Zipacna said thoughtfully. ‘We will make him regret siding with our enemies’ he added. ‘Prepare to decloak and open fire’ he commanded. ‘Make sure that at least one of the vessels destroyed in the first salvo is from Baal’s fleet’ he ordered.
‘The enemy ships are firing upon us!’ the Jaffa exclaimed in shock as the five vessels belonging to Baal opened up, somehow targeting them despite the cloak.
With cloaks engaged the Hat’aks were unable to fully power their shields and seconds later two of Zipacna’s ships exploded as they were ripped apart by a storm of incoming plasma fire. The rest including his own immediately decloaked and powered up their shields as the ships of the three female System Lords joined in the fight.
Things continued to degenerate for Apophis’s forces from that point, the ships belonging to Baal not only seemed to possess technology that could see cloaked vessels but their weapons were notably more powerful than a standard Hat’ak and their shields must have been upgraded too because even concentrated fire from several of Zipacna’s own ships failed to overwhelm them.
Zipacna watched as two more of his Hat’aks exploded joining the remains of others which were starting to litter the area, pieces would be falling to Kawawn and burning up in the atmosphere for years to come. One of Bastet’s ships and two of Kali’s had been destroyed as well and other enemy vessels had been damaged enough to retreat but Baal’s forces continued to fight on unscathed and relentlessly engaged and destroyed on Hat’ak after another.
‘Prepare to withdraw’ Zipacna ordered, ‘have those ships which are already damaged stay and cover our retreat’ he commanded. ‘Lord Apophis must be told of this and we cannot risk losing any more ships’ he declared, hoping that it would prove a good enough excuse for Apophis not to have him executed for running away.
Sat on the bridge of one of his own Hat’aks Baal watched in satisfaction as Zipacna fled into hyperspace. ‘A successful test of our improved ships wouldn’t you say Nerus?’ he asked the unusually fat and unattractive Goa’uld stood to his right.
‘My integration of the upgraded sensor, shield and weapon designs provided by Anubis into our fleet has gone very well Sire’ Nerus replied, before taking another swig from the crystal goblet in his right hand. ‘It seems likely that the ships Anubis is building himself will be even more powerful however’ he warned. ‘Perhaps even a match for the Asgard in sufficient numbers.’
Baal nodded, Anubis would almost certainly kept the very best technology back for his own use giving his temporary ally only enough of an advantage to help mitigate the continuing numerical superiority of Apophis over the entire coalition. ‘When we land troops to take over the mines inspect the machinery for signs of sabotage and determine if we can increase production’ he told Nerus. ‘I want as much ore as possible transferred back to our shipyards’ he ordered then looked him over in distaste. ‘And we’re at war which means skip lunch and no fooling around with slavegirls when you should be working’ he added.
Known for his “many appetites” Nerus sighed dejectedly. Unfortunately Baal himself was known for his many inventive punishments when crossed so he decided to do as he was told.
‘Your plan worked excellently too’ Baal told the woman stood to his left. ‘Turning an ambush back on itself was a masterstroke’ he said. ‘I thought you’d like to witness it yourself’ he continued, ‘you can return home now and give my thanks to the rest of the Tok’ra for providing such first-rate intelligence on the deployments of Apophis forces.’
‘You’re welcome’ Zarin replied offering a somewhat ironic bow to her supposed master before turning to leave. A Tel’tak would transport her back to the worlds she continued to rule in his name despite being now known as an agent of the Tok’ra. As long as Apophis remained a greater threat to both of them than they were to each other Baal and the usually despised Tok’ra were allies of convenience.
Baal watched the Tok’ra leave, he could never take the likes of her as a Queen of course but she would make a nice living trophy once things were back to a semblance of normality. She talked back and he liked the verbal sparring and the mutual dislike of each others near-identical races provided a nice spark.
‘I wonder if the Tok’ra have informed the Tau’ri of our more recently amiable contact with them?’ Nerus asked curiously.
‘Doubtful’ Baal replied, ‘they’re naturally duplicitous and secretive’ he opined. ‘We can use that to divide them when the time comes.’
‘Planning for the next war already?’ Nerus asked.
‘Next but one’ Baal replied, ‘after Apophis we’ll have to deal with Anubis’ he said. ‘The Tok’ra and the Tau’ri are third-rate threats by comparison.’
Nerus nodded, what could a dwindling number of traitors and some primitive humans do to the System Lords other than provide an irritant to be scratched out one day?