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Ha’tak Ship – Adara System – June 2002
Strapped to a table looking up at the ceiling of his cell Thor found that his own language didn’t quite have a suitable phrase for the circumstances so he resorted to English. ‘Well I’m a sorry son-of-a-bitch’ he said dejectedly, looking around as best he could.
The Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, or perhaps the former Supreme Commander would be more accurate he decided, given that his career would shortly end along with his life, couldn’t help but think it all would have seemed a great deal more worthwhile if he’d actually been captured doing something a little more meaningful than defending a Research Station which had already been vacated for months. Automated sensors left in the largely stripped-out underground facility had signalled the arrival of Goa’uld vessels in orbit via subspace and since the Adara System was included in the Protected Planets Treaty Thor had taken the only available ship, an old Beliskner Class Cruiser which was waiting to be taken out of service, and had flown straight there to tell whichever System Lord it was to get lost or else.
Even though superseded by the O’Neill Class the venerable Beliskner was still thought by the Asgard to be more than a match for anything short of a large fleet of Goa’uld motherships. Although eventually pulverised and crash-landing as a result a single Beliskner had once defeated ten Ha’tak’s in a battle over the planet Stennos which was the sort of loss ratio that any single one of the System Lord’s with their limited industrial base simply weren’t willing to accept. You might be able to overwhelm a Beliskner but you’d lose a fair percentage of your fleet doing it which meant that even if the Asgard didn’t come gunning for you some other System Lord would take advantage of your losses and invade your domain. The best way to deal with the Asgard was to accept that the twenty-seven worlds listed in the Protected Planet’s Treaty were theirs and be happy with the rest of the Galaxy.
Thor remembered his confidence when he emerged from hyperspace to find himself facing a mere two Ha’tak vessels and he ordered them to leave the Adara System as they were in violation of the treaty by being there. The Goa’uld in command of the vessels had been Athena, a middle-ranking though ambitious character known to have allied herself with every up and coming System Lord that arose over the past few centuries, and now thought by the Tok’ra to be in league with Anubis, and Thor had been surprised by her dismissive reaction to the gravity of his threat. Wondering if Athena had been spending too much time in the sarcophagus of late, and had therefore lost her grip on her faculties, Thor powered weapons and engaged the lead Ha’tak.
It had not gone according to plan, or at least it had not gone according to Thor’s plan, the one Athena seemed to be working to had gone pretty well because to the consternation of the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet his weaponry had been absorbed by the enemy shields and the two Ha’tak’s had then opened up with their own main guns which were considerably more powerful than any he had witnessed the Goa’uld using before.
‘Too much reliance on high technology and not enough brute force’ Thor muttered to himself bitterly in his own language. Although the Beliskner had vast power-requirements met by its four neutrino-ion generators, it was not designed to feed more than a fraction of that energy into its weaponry, the generators were there to power the inter-galactic hyperdrive. The ships armament was an advanced system designed to penetrate shields and did not require the bludgeon effect of the oversized staff-cannon the Goa’uld used, it used finesse not force to destroy enemy ships, and had never failed until now. Unfortunately the upgraded shields on these new Goa’uld motherships produced by Anubis seemed to counter the shield-piercing effect and unable to transfer enough energy into his guns to batter them into submission instead Thor had found himself defeated by ships that between them only had a fraction of the power-output that the Beliskner did.
The Ion Cannon used by the Tollan would likely have failed too, Thor realised. They used a similar system to the Asgard in that their anti-ship weaponry was highly effective at cutting through the old-style Goa’uld shields and did not therefore bother with an excessive amount of raw firepower. Either of the two advanced societies could construct weapons with yields that would dwarf the amount of energy even these new Ha’taks could manage but they were both too over-confident in the superiority of the weaponry they already had to have done so.
The Goa’uld walked in looking justifiably smug, for centuries, millennia, they had been forced to kowtow to the pathetic little grey creatures and now those days were over. ‘You have committed an act of war against the Asgard’ Thor stated. ‘The response will be swift and decisive’ he declared with considerably more bluster than he would have liked.
Athena smirked. ‘As swift and decisive as your attempt to defend this planet?’ she asked sarcastically.
‘We underestimated your strength’ Thor replied. ‘That mistake will not be made again’ he told her. ‘You are also underestimating ours’ he continued. ‘The Goa’uld may have somehow developed more advanced defence technology but the vessel you defeated is of a type we are currently replacing with a far more powerful vessel which unlike the one I was commanding is built solely for war’ he said. ‘You would do well not to provoke my people’ he advised.
‘You may have better than that pathetic ship I vanquished’ Athena conceded, though she doubted it given that the Asgard had been using that type since the Goa’uld had first encountered them, ‘but we will soon have all the secrets of your technology’ she said.
‘My ship’s generators self-destructed after I ejected in the escape pod you retrieved’ Thor replied, ‘you will be unable to obtain much useful information from the debris’ he told her. ‘The battle damage you previously inflicted yourself had already destroyed many of the systems’ he added.
The Goa’uld smiled. ‘I meant we would obtain knowledge of Asgard technology from you yourself’ she explained with an expression that Thor would have found unsettling if he’d been better at reading those of humans or human hosts.
‘I will never surrender my knowledge to you’ Thor stated with determination, although seemingly fragile the Asgard were not a race that would break easily under torture, they were a wilfully determined people who would sooner die than betray their principles or their species. Self-sacrifice was something they regarded as one of the greatest virtues an individual could have, that was one of the many reasons despised the self-serving Goa’uld.
‘Not to me, no. Anubis himself has taken an interest in this matter. He's on his way here as we speak’ Athena told him. ‘After he has stripped you of your knowledge...’
‘Or failed to do, so he will kill me’ Thor interrupted. ‘You may as well do so now because I will neither cooperate nor succumb to torture’ he said.
Athena looked smug once again. ‘Anubis has a device that will be implanted in your brain and simply download your knowledge into this ships computer’ she told him.
‘The Goa’uld have no such technology’ Thor stated with certainty. Improved shields and weapons were one thing, but that kind of device required a degree of technical sophistication which only one of the Four Great Races could have managed, Thor doubted that even the Tollan could do it which meant the Goa’uld had no chance at all.
‘Things have changed Supreme Commander’ Athena told him, ‘more than you know’ she said. ‘In any case I wouldn’t worry about your death just yet’ she continued, ‘Anubis has a better use for you alive than he does dead’ she told him. ‘The Asgard High Council would not be willing to negotiate anything for your release but the Tau’ri will surely accept the trade we have in mind.’
‘What could they have that any Goa’uld would want?’ Thor queried in confusion. ‘Especially one that is clearly the most advanced?’ he asked.
‘Anubis has learned that the Tau’ri recovered the Eye of Tiamat before he was able to do so’ Athena explained. ‘We are certain that they will swap it for your life’ she continued, ‘they are a weak and sentimental people.’
Thor looked back at the ceiling. ‘It seems that everyone is underestimating everyone else today’ he observed.
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – June 2002
‘And since when have the Tok’ra been the messenger-boys for the Goa’uld?’ O’Neill asked sardonically as the Tok’ra Aldwin had the decency to at least look awkward about it and had appeared fairly embarrassed over the situation ever since he arrived.
‘Colonel we are merely part of a conduit between the two parties involved’ Anise said in her fellow Tok’ra’s defence. She had ringed down from the Enterprise as soon as she heard another Tok’ra was on Earth but might have stayed up there if she’d known the purpose of the visit, the notion of treating with the Goa’uld made her skin crawl.
Aldwin nodded. ‘Anubis relayed the communication to Ba’al who requested our operative Zarin to forward the message to the Tau’ri via Tok’ra channels’ he said, looking around the briefing room and noting the less than enthused expressions on their faces. ‘Anubis wishes to exchange his captive the Asgard Thor for the crystal known as the Eye of Tiamat which he believes you obtained from the Ziggurat of Marduk.’
‘Tell him to go fuck himself’ Commander Sharp responded, checking his watch. It was nearly lunchtime and today’s special sounded almost appetising.
Unfamiliar with the Tau’ri military officer Aldwin looked at him in surprise, for her part Anise was however rather less taken aback by the reply having dealt with the man for quite some time now as she continued to help the Tau’ri scientists and engineers master Goa’uld technology. ‘Shall we assume that is not your final stance in any negotiation?’ she asked with some amusement.
‘The Commander likes to take a firm opening position’ General Hammond responded, noting the half smile on her face and trying not to laugh.
‘Sir if we could get Thor back it would likely help cement our relations with the Asgard still further and he’d owe us one’ Carter pointed out.
‘Exactly how many are the Asgard going to have to owe us before we start seeing something concrete in return Major?’ Sharpe asked flatly. ‘If the Asgard had more balls, the lack of which is not just because they’re asexual clones, they’d launch an escalating series of strikes against Anubis until he let Thor go’ he said. ‘They haven’t even taken out a few Ha’taks in retaliation for the cruiser they lost’ he continued, rolling his eyes, ‘if they aren’t going to any lengths to get their man back why the hell should we?’ he asked rhetorically.
‘We know from the subspace message Freyr sent to Heimdall at Area 51 that the Asgard Fleet is still tied up with the Replicators’ Carter responded. ‘They’re in no position to jump into another war especially given that the new ships Anubis is using are apparently too advanced to risk deploying anything except their best vessels against’ she said, that in itself had come as a shock when the news arrived about Thor. It had been known that the new model Ha’taks were better than the previous versions in Goa’uld service but the idea that their shields could withstand Asgard weaponry was pretty horrifying given that it critically endangered the Protected Planets Treaty.
‘They need more O’Neills’ the eponymous Colonel declared.
‘We’ve got one I could be persuaded to part with’ General Hammond quipped.
‘I’ll write up the outstanding mission evaluation reports today Sir I swear’ O’Neill responded. Not so long ago he would have pleaded with Daniel to help out with the paperwork when it had built up into a backlog where the General wasn’t going to let it go, now he had to do it himself, one more reason to miss him, not that he didn’t have more than enough of those already.
‘I am surprised that Anubis would think the Eye more valuable than Thor’ Teal’c observed. ‘As either a source of information or as a symbol of his power the Supreme Commander of the Asgard would be a captive of incalculable worth to any System Lord’ he said.
‘What do we know about the thing Major?’ General Hammond asked.
Carter pursed her lips. ‘Initial testing demonstrates it can be used to focus energy, but beyond that we’re not certain what its purpose was’ she replied.
‘There were originally six eyes including that of Anubis himself plus those of Ra, Apophis, Tiamat, Osiris, Ba’al and Balor’ Anise spoke up, ancient technology was her academic specialty. ‘The leading System Lords in the era they were first discovered’ she said. ‘They are believed not of Goa’uld design but are examples of the technology of the gate builders and were considered symbols of the high status of those that owned one’ she explained. ‘Their power however was more than symbolic as they could be used to amplify the power of a ships weaponry if required’ she said.
‘So Anubis already has one of the Eyes?’ O’Neill queried.
‘Our information is that he already has those of Balor, which was in the possession of Morrigan, and that of Ba’al as well’ Aldwin responded. ‘Apophis still has his own, you have the Eye of Tiamat and those of Osiris and Ra have not been heard from for thousands of years’ he said.
‘We might have the Eye of Osiris too, or at least we know someone that might know where it is and be persuaded to tell if asked the right way’ Sharp noted wryly. He would have her mind-raped again if the less than idle threat to do so wasn't enough to gain her cooperation.
‘Why would he want the one we’ve got if he’s already got three?’ General Hammond asked curiously.
‘Hey people collect those Pokémon things’ O’Neill replied. ‘Maybe he’s just gotta have them all?’ he suggested.
‘Colonel’ Sharp began, glaring at him. ‘I’m armed’ he pointed out meaningfully. ‘Now if he wants them I don’t want him to have them, that’s the big picture’ he said, getting back on track. ‘Now I know the idea of leaving no man, or little grey alien, behind might sound noble, but the way I see it this is no different than negotiating with some kidnapper asking for a ransom’ he opined. ‘You don’t pay them off, you track them down and kick their ass.’
‘We’re in even less of a position to do that than the Asgard themselves Sir’ Carter told him.
‘Okay but couldn’t we just screw the rat-bastard over?’ O’Neill suggested. ‘End up with Thor, the Eye, and a really pissed-off Goa’uld?’ he asked.
Aldwin frowned. ‘Anubis is neither stupid or easily fooled’ he said. ‘You should not expect to easily deceive or swindle him’ he warned.
‘Anything in mind Colonel?’ Hammond inquired with interest. Sharp looked intrigued too.
‘I could give it some thought Sir but what we really need is a sneaky, underhanded, amoral, tricky son-of-a-bitch to plan something for us’ O’Neill replied. ‘I think we know just the man we need for this kind of thing’ he said sagely. ‘So do we know where in the galaxy Harry Maybourne is right now and how easily and quickly we can get him back?’ he asked Commander Sharp.
Hammond raised his eyebrows. ‘You know we had our moments’ he said, ‘but we never used to be this despicable in the old days’ he observed sadly to Aldwin and Anise who were more than slightly confused.
Forest Clearing – P6J-452 – June 2002
‘I’m still not certain that giving the Tok’ra access to the transporter technology on the Redemption was a fair deal for this thing’ Samantha Carter opined to Teal’c as she took a closer look at the controls of their newly acquired Tel’tak transport. ‘I think we got sold a clunker’ she said, slightly lifting a loose panel.
Teal’c nodded. ‘The cloaking device the Tok’ra fitted is likely the only work done to this vessel in five centuries or more’ he agreed. ‘I would not be surprised if a pilot of Master Bra’tac’s great-grandfathers generation had requested this vessel be retired.’
‘I might recommend we scrap this thing and put the cloak and the shield on our Al’kesh instead’ Carter said thoughtfully.
‘A wise course of action’ Teal’c concurred, rocking the pilot’s seat side to side. It had rattled every time they pushed the engine to more than three-quarters of its rated maximum and after a few hours it had driven the usually stoic Jaffa to distraction.
‘And next time we trade for a ship we send an engineer to look over it before we shake hands on the deal’ Carter added. Doctor Weir was a great diplomat and had negotiated far more out of both the Tok’ra and Tollan than people would have thought possible a couple of years ago, but she clearly wasn’t the ideal person to broker a deal on a used spaceship which had enjoyed more than a few careless owners.
‘Colonel O’Neill and Sergeant Andianov should be making their rendezvous with Maybourne shortly’ Teal’c noted. He and Carter had remained with the ship in case a quick getaway, or perhaps repair, was needed.
Carter looked out at the forest. ‘I tried to talk to the Colonel about Daniel again’ she said quietly.
Teal’c looked at her. ‘He was not receptive to the conversation I would assume?’ he asked.
‘It’s like he’s pretending it didn’t happen’ she said. ‘Or that it doesn’t bother him’ she added.
‘You continue to mourn his loss’ Teal’c stated.
‘Of course, don’t you?’ Carter snapped back. ‘I’m not going to get more “way of the warrior” crap from you am I?’ she asked rhetorically. ‘I’ve had about all I can take of that from Andianov and the Colonel’ she said.
‘Daniel Jackson has ascended to a higher plane of existence’ Teal’c replied. ‘Many Jaffa over the years have dedicated their lives to finding Kheb as a means achieving such a goal’ he noted.
‘So I'm supposed to celebrate?’ Carter asked sardonically.
‘It is a great accomplishment’ Teal’c replied.
‘We were a team, Teal'c, friends’ Carter declared. ‘No one can even begin to understand what we went through together, what we mean to each other’ she continued. ‘So maybe Daniel has achieved something of great cosmic significance, I don't know. And to be honest with you, right now, I don't really care’ she told him. ‘I'd rather have him back’ she said.
Teal’c looked out at the forest. ‘As would I’ he admitted wistfully.
Carter smiled and put her hand on his shoulder. ‘Good to know’ she said.
‘You might be interested to hear Major Carter that the Sergeant has also expressed her sorrow to me about losing Doctor Jackson’ Teal’c told her.
‘You’re kidding?’ Carter responded in surprise.
‘No’ Teal’c denied. ‘I was invited to join several of the non-commissioned officers to a bar and while there the Sergeant drank too much and became maudlin’ he told her. ‘She is somewhat confused however as to what bothers her more’ he continued., ‘the fact that she mourns the loss or that she has become soft during her time with the SGC’ he said.
‘What?’ Carter queried in confusion.
‘In her previous unit losing team members was a regular, perhaps frequent occurrence’ Teal’c explained. ‘The X-COM soldiers became hardened to it as a result as did not dwell on the loss of a comrade’ he told her.
‘She’s been on the team over a year and a half and we haven’t lost anyone until now’ Carter realised. ‘So what you’re saying is she’s not only depressed because Daniel’s gone she’s also depressed because she’s depressed about it’ she said.
‘Indeed’ Teal’c confirmed. ‘As I said, she believes she has become weak.’
‘What she got is some of her humanity back’ Carter stated forcefully.
‘It is my belief that she conflates the two’ Teal’c opined.
Carter sighed. ‘You’re probably right’ she replied. ‘I’m surprised she talked to you’ she told him. ‘I’m not unapproachable am I?’ she asked, hoping she wasn’t.
‘You are an officer and in any case she would likely have not been as open with me if I was not the only thing keeping her upright’ Teal’c responded. ‘The drinking competition with the new sergeant on SG-3 was not conducive to her balance’ he recalled.
‘Who won?’ Carter asked curiously.
‘The Marines may never forgive him’ Teal’c replied.
Three miles to the east Colonel O’Neill was grateful that unlike his second-in-command Sergeant Andianov did not seem interested in discussing their feelings as they hiked through the forest towards the agricultural land that covered much of this part of the planet. Lacking mines or industry it was apparently the farms on P6J-452 which were the basis of the local economy and they generated enough trade to warrant the local Goa’uld System Lord to keep a close watch on the Stargate which was why they were extracting Maybourne by cloaked ship after contacting him by radio.
‘Stay alert Sergeant’ O’Neill advised. ‘The Jaffa Garrison could be out looking for our guy’ he said. They would certainly have been alerted by the signal sent through the gate from Earth, normally operatives working secretly off-world only communicated at set times from pre-arranged worlds known to be Goa’uld free.
‘Sir when have you ever known me to not be alert?’ Andianov responded, continually looking around, rifle ready for action.
‘Point conceded’ O’Neill replied. ‘Sometimes I just have to do the officer thing you understand’ he added.
Andianov nodded, it was usually best to accept their occasional compulsive need to give orders, even when completely unnecessary, with quiet acceptance if not good humour. Spotting movement in the trees she suddenly stopped dead and dropped to one knee, the Colonel doing likewise without asking questions, he wasn’t by any means the stupidest commanding officer she had ever had.
Seconds later when it became apparent who it was, and after checking they didn’t have any obvious Jaffa in the vicinity O’Neill frowned and Andianov took up a position to give covering fire if necessary as the Colonel went to meet the man they were there to collect.
‘Maybourne, for crying out loud who the hell is that?’ Colonel O’Neill asked the former NID man who was dressed in the same disguise of traders clothes he had been the last time they met but was now accompanied by a fearful looking young woman wearing considerably less ornate garments.
‘Jack! Nice to see you again, always a pleasure’ Maybourne replied with what sounded like sincerity but of course that didn’t mean a hell of a lot. ‘Didn’t expect them to send you as the taxi service’ he said.
‘I wouldn’t trust anyone else to treat you with the suspicion you deserve’ O’Neill replied. ‘And you didn’t answer my question’ he added.
‘Don’t worry about Aikaterina here’ Maybourne told him. ‘She’s harmless’ he said indicating the girl who was in her late teens or maybe early twenties.
‘She’s also uninvited’ O’Neill replied, ‘who is she and why have you dragged her along?’ he asked.
‘Well I couldn’t leave her alone’ Maybourne replied, ‘she’s a hard worker but totally incapable of looking after herself without direction’ he said, the girl looking at O’Neill and his strange clothes fearfully. ‘Don’t worry she’ll be no bother and after I’ve done whatever it is the brass wants me to do you can drop us off again somewhere’ he said, stepping closer to O’Neill away from the girl ‘She’s part of my cover’ he whispered.
‘Harry, who the hell is the girl?’ O’Neill asked flatly.
‘Officially she’s my slave but...’ Maybourne began.
O’Neill glared at him. ‘Did you buy this woman?’ he interrupted.
‘I did a trade with a guy in the Lucian Cartel that bought a batch off a minor Goa’uld that was down on his luck because of the war’ Maybourne replied. ‘They’re like a criminal syndicate of smugglers and other unsavoury characters that operate under the radar of the System Lords in this part of the galaxy’ he explained. ‘I really wanted someone with more muscles to haul a cart for me but I didn’t like the way some of the people bidding for her looked, they had dishonorable intentions I could tell’ he said.
‘Recognise the look from the mirror did you?’ O’Neill asked sarcastically. ‘You’re free’ he told the girl. ‘Go have a nice life’ he added.
The girl looked back at him blankly as Maybourne shook his head. ‘She’s been a slave all her life’ he said. ‘You can’t just let her go and expect her to be okay’ he said.
O’Neill pursed his lips and then grabbed Maybourne by the collar pulling him close. ‘Harry you can’t bring your slave-girl along’ he told him sternly. ‘You’ll just have to jerk off like the rest of us’ he added more quietly.
‘I haven’t laid a finger on her’ Maybourne declared defensively. ‘I mean I might have’ he admitted, ‘but the guilt stopped me first’ he said. ‘Honest she’s just part of my cover, she carries my bags, cooks and does my laundry and that’s it’ he told O’Neill.
‘Please don’t hurt the master’ the girl begged, voice trembling.
O’Neill released his grip. ‘God damn it Maybourne’ he said angrily. ‘If she comes with us to Earth I’m handing her over to someone I trust her with more than I do you’ he said.
‘That’s fine by me’ Maybourne replied with a grin. ‘Come on Aikaterina’ he said brightly. ‘I’m going to take you home’ he told her.
‘Do you wish me to rub your feet again before we set out on our journey?’ the girl asked compliantly.
‘You’re a bad, bad man Harry’ O’Neill told him with a disapproving shake of the head.
‘Isn’t that why I’m in demand?’ Maybourne replied smugly. ‘And for the record didn’t Doctor Jackson screw the girl he was given on Abydos?’ he asked. ‘Sha’re wasn’t it?’
‘He married her’ O’Neill spat back with a great deal more passion than Maybourne was expecting. ‘Get your ass in gear, we need to get back quickly and our ship is a pile of crap’ he growled.
‘You’re in a bad mood today, get up on the wrong side of bed this morning?’ Maybourne asked.
‘Jackson’s gone’ O’Neill told him coldly.
Maybourne blinked, he hadn't known, you tended to be badly out of the loop if you'd been out in the boonies a while. ‘And by gone I guess you don’t mean he’s back digging up pieces of pottery in Egypt’ he asked rhetorically.
‘No I don’t mean that’ O’Neill replied curtly.
‘I’m sorry’ Maybourne told him, ‘really I am, he was a decent man’ he said.
‘Better than either of us Maybourne’ O’Neill agreed. ‘Now come on we need that twisted mind of yours to do its thing’ he said.
‘So is this a good time to renegotiate my pay if I’m in demand?’ Maybourne queried.
‘You know if you were a few pounds lighter I’d zat you but I don’t want to haul your fat ass back to the ship’ O’Neill replied, narrowing his eyes.
‘I’ll take that as a no’ Maybourne decided. ‘So on another matter do you think I can claim what I spent on Aikaterina back on expenses?’ he asked hopefully. ‘I had to pay a premium because she’s got all her teeth’ he announced.