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Goa’uld Outpost – P8C-441 – December 2002
A volley of staff-cannon blasts from a minor fortification dug in up ahead sent SG-21 diving for cover, the heavy-weapons fire cratering the ground where it struck sending the dark heavy soil of the farmland they were advancing through flying. A sergeant from the US Rangers found a nicely placed drainage ditch and crawled to it for shelter only to find it was already in use by a mud-caked soldier of a different unit holding his L2A2 out of the murky water at the bottom of the ditch. ‘What the hell are we doing here?’ the Ranger asked his new found companion as more staff cannon impacts nearby rocked their position. ‘We’re getting shot at to take a fucking village for the love of God’ he complained bitterly. ‘Fucking Senior Officers’ he muttered whilst doing his best to keep his own laser rifle clean.
‘We’re here because the Jaffa are here’ his companion responded in an all too-familiar voice.
The Ranger grimaced, shit, he thought. ‘Having a good day Commander?’ he asked politely.
‘Oh yeah it’s just peachy Sergeant’ Sharp replied as he lay in the mud. ‘Goddamn intelligence reports said a hundred and fifty Jaffa tops, minimal heavy weapons, no air support’ he complained.
‘Closer to a fucking regiment’s worth’ the Sergeant opined.
‘At least, and half our people are still tied down to the East getting strafed every time they try to move up to flank the bastards’ Sharp growled. ‘Didn’t expect this kind of organisation from Kali’s forces either, we haven’t tangled much with the bitch but they’ve got a better tactical doctrine than most of the assholes we fight regularly’ he said, scrambling up to take a quick peek out of the ditch before ducking again. ‘Proper crossfire with each Staff-Cannon positioned to support the others’ he said with grudging respect.
‘I spotted another battery of heavy Staff-Cannon being moved up on gun-carriages to that hill to our West before my team scattered Sir’ the Ranger told him. ‘Looked like something from the Napoleonic Wars, they were using horses to pull them up the slope’ he said in wonderment.
‘Hey you want to hear something funny Sergeant?’ Sharp asked with a chuckle. ‘I flipped a coin when deciding whether to attack one of Kali’s worlds of one of Bastet’s instead’ he told the Ranger. ‘We’re only on Cerador because it came up heads!’
The sergeant laughed despite the situation. ‘Cerador?’ he repeated. ‘Is that what the snake-heads call four-four-one?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, it’s just an outpost on the edge of Kali’s territory’ Sharp replied, ‘we’re a long way from the war with Apophis but we’re not too far away from a couple of the worlds belonging to Anubis so maybe Kali has so many troops here because she doesn’t trust the son-of-a-bitch?’ he theorised, taking another look out of the ditch.
‘So much for them being allies against Apophis’ the Ranger responded.
‘They’re all back-stabbing bastards Sergeant, that normally works to our advantage though’ Sharp said regretfully. If Kali trusted Anubis more there wouldn’t be so much opposition here and they could have raided the planet, blown up a few worthwhile targets and got out fast. ‘There’s no fucking way I’m retreating though’ he declared, ‘I’ve called up support from the Omega Site’ he told him.
‘More troops?’ the Ranger asked.
‘Better’ Sharp responded.
The Jaffa of Kali were starting to unlimber their Staff-Cannon when one of them spotted three strange and unfamiliar machines approaching from the direction of the chappa’ai. Their plan had been to bring fire down upon the Tau’ri invaders and support a flanking movement by a hundred Jaffa stood ready for the task but instead their officer decided that this was a new threat that needed to be countered.
Sending away their horses the Jaffa Heavy Staff-Cannon crews took aim and prepared to fire, they were partially concealed by the terrain and managed to fire off a carefully aimed volley before the Tau’ri fired themselves and then they fired again as fast as the weapons were ready to do so.
The plasma blasts of eight Heavy Staff-Cannon rained down with unusual accuracy among the machines which were larger than the Jaffa had first thought judging by the relative size of the explosions that burst next to them. They also seemed to be floating above the surface rather than grinding over it like the tracked Tau’ri robots the warrior of Kali had heard of before.
A Staff-Cannon bolt finally struck its mark but instead of impacting the machine itself it burst against what must have been a shield surrounding it, the normally invisible protective bubble of energy visible for a second as the explosion lit it up.
‘Hit it again, deplete its shield’ the Jaffa Officer ordered frantically, ‘destroy the Tau’ri machines’ he commanded as the three of them continued to advance. As he watched turreted weapons on all three swung around to point at them and instantly searing laser beams began to play amongst his battery, each one orders of magnitude more powerful than the rifles the Tau’ri soldiers carried. Staff-Cannon exploded as the beams struck them, Jaffa warriors almost seemed to burst into flames and flare into nothingness if they were caught in the line of fire.
The courage of the Jaffa was immense, they stayed and manned their guns to the end but were simply outclassed, the additional hits they scored again bursting with futility against the Tau’ri shields, neither damaging the machines beneath or slowing their advance.
Sharp and the Ranger looked out for see what the commotion was and along with a number of other human soldiers they whooped and hollered as they watched the trio of “Mega-Malp” hovertanks float across the battlefield, their laser-cannon swinging around to engage enemy bunker after enemy bunker as they went. As they neared Sharp could see that someone had stencilled “Harvey” on the front of the closest before a Deathglider came swooping in to strafe them, its own staff-cannons again flashing the hovertank shields into sight.
More deathgliders came howling in and the battlefield was soon graced by the sight of the three tanks now fighting back against the air-threat firing not only their laser-cannon but also their twin rotary staff-weapons into the air, radar-guidance and computer-aiming on the machines starting to score hits although the fast moving goa’uld fighters were difficult targets.
A shoulder-launched Stinger missile arced up from nearby as Sharp watched, one of his soldiers a few hundred yards behind the front-lines joining in the fight. It smashed into a deathglider blowing it apart and raining pieces of debris over the farmland a brief second before another of the fighters was neatly cored by a laser-cannon hit from “Harvey”.
Other Staff-Cannon from the emplacements ahead started to impact the hovertanks quickly starting to run down their shields further until eventually one of the machines lost its outer protection and the next bolt of plasma struck armour instead.
‘No that ain’t gonna do it’ Sharp said with a grin as the thick Dorchester-type laminate armour-plate reinforced by additional layers of both cydonium alloy and trinium shrugged off the impact leaving only a scorch-mark and a very shallow crater in the outer layer. The machine instantly re-classified the weapon that had just struck it as the primary threat and swung its turret back to engage the Staff-Cannon emplacements instead of the deathgliders taking them out one at a time as it moved up towards them.
Other deathgliders fell from the sky but others arrived from the East to replace them and as the shields on the other two hovertanks failed the trio continued to fight, soon covered in battle-damage, one losing one of the rotary staff-weapons it carried on the side of its turret and another apparently having its Laser-Cannon disabled by a lucky hit. Nonetheless the military robots being remotely controlled from soldiers back at the gate fought on relentlessly, eventually knocking out all the Staff-Cannon emplacements and littering half the area with pieces of goa’uld fighter-aircraft.
Commander Sharp switched on his radio-headset as the remaining deathgliders flew away, presumably recalled to tie down the troops to the East again or else perhaps simply to prevent their destruction. ‘This is Commander Sharp’ he began. ‘The way ahead is clear, I want to take the village and then swing around to trap the remaining Jaffa in a pincer movement, watch out for a possible counter-attack’ he warned as he scrambled out of the ditch to be joined by the Army Ranger and several others that rose from where they had been sheltering. He was definitely the dirtiest though Sharp decided with a sigh as he tried to wipe off some of the mud he had been laying in.
‘Is that you Sir?’ a Lieutenant asked.
‘No it’s Al Jolson, and I’m about to start singing Mammy’ Sharp responded wryly as he cleaned his face as best he could.
‘Sir?’ the Lieutenant responded in confusion.
Sharp sighed. ‘Yes it’s me Lieutenant’ he confirmed. ‘Many casualties?’ he asked.
The young officer shook his head. ‘Most of us hit the dirt as soon as it started raining plasma Sir’ he replied. ‘Never seen the Jaffa aim that well before’ he added.
‘Maybe we’ve got them raising their game?’ Sharp suggested. ‘Alright people lets move out and finish this quick so I can get a shower’ he ordered. ‘Why the hell can’t these primitives used proper fertiliser made in a chemical factory instead of manure’ he complained, the run-off from the fields into the ditch was not all that pleasant.
Noting that everyone else was keeping their distance Commander Russell Sharp led a skirmish line forwards, they had gone fifty yards before the hovertanks started to follow to provide fire-support if necessary.
As the external speakers on one of the hovertanks started to play the Panzerlied very loudly in German Russell Sharp decided he would be having a few disparaging words with the Bundeswehr Officer from the 10th Panzer Division remote controlling the thing. If that was allowed to catch on on he’d have Scottish soldiers wanting bagpipes next and you could be certain the guys from the US Seventh Cavalry would demand their hovertanks went into battle playing the garryowen next time he knew.
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – December 2002
General Hammond smiled as Walter handed out the files to SG-1 before leaving the briefing room, there still seemed to be a little tension between Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter but the strain within the team resulting from their disagreement regarding leaving behind the Replicator on Halla had faded over the last couple of weeks to the point where they were more like themselves. Hammond had fully backed O’Neill on the call, not only wasn’t he one to second-guess the commander on the ground but he also fully agreed that letting a nanite-based, sentient, self-replicating machine loose on the universe was just a little too much of a risk to take just on the basis of keeping your word. The Replicator named “Fifth” might have been an interesting subject for study but frankly leaving it to an Asgard scientist to deal with in a few thousand years time sounded far more appealing.
‘Operation Grand Tour’ O’Neill read the title on the front of the file.
Hammond nodded. ‘With Prometheus declared fully operational we have decided it’s time to fly the flag around the galaxy and take the opportunity to re-visit a few worlds on the way’ he told them. ‘With the goa’uld fleets tied down it’s believed the chances of encountering a mothership belonging to the System Lords are slim so it should be a relatively safe mission to undertake at present‘ he continued. ‘At worst we might run into a few patrolling Al’kesh but the X-303 could handle a small fleet of those without too much trouble given how much she punches above her weight’ he stated.
‘And she masses as much as ten Al’kesh to start with’ Major Carter noted, flipping open her own file and raising her eyebrows as she scanned the summary. ‘P2X-416?’ she queried in surprise. ‘The Bedrosians Sir?’ she asked General Hammond.
‘No our contact with them didn’t go so well as I’m sure you remember Major but we were thinking a visit on their rival nation the Optricans might prove productive and beneficial to both societies’ Hammond replied.
Jonas meshed his fingers. ‘The Bedrosians were the technologically advanced society that still worshipped the Goa’uld Nefertum centuries after he left and thought he had created them on P2X-416 right?’ he checked, fairly confident he was remembering Doctor Jackson’s notes correctly.
‘Right, they were in a low-level conflict with the Optricans who rightly believed that Nefertum had enslaved them on another world and bought them to the planet via the stargate’ Carter confirmed. ‘A team of Bedrosian archaeologists accidentally proved the other side right by digging up the gate and we came through shortly afterwards but their government wanted to suppress the truth and we had to escape from there under fire’ she said.
‘With one of the archaeologists, named Nyan’ Teal’c recalled. ‘He now works at Area 51 cataloguing artefacts that are collected via the stargate’ he said.
Hammond flipped a couple of pages in his folder. ‘It’s thanks to Nyan that we know so much about both nations on P2X-416 and their respective cultures’ he said. ‘By best estimation technologically they are roughly at the level Earth would have been in a hundred and fifty years if we hadn’t discovered the Stargate’ he continued, ‘they have strong industrial infrastructure and considerable military resources after a centuries long Cold War that has gone hot on several occasions in the past.’
‘If we give the Optricans Hyperdrive and maybe a Tollan built Stargate so they can get out into the galaxy they could really make a difference’ Carter decided, ‘they’re certainly another good candidate for membership of the United Worlds at least.’
‘And they start out thinking the Goa’uld are evil jerks which is another big plus’ O’Neill said enthusiastically. ‘Sir, request permission to hover Prometheus over the Bedrosian Capital City and taunt them’ he asked Hammond semi-seriously.
‘I was thinking something a little less likely to immediately trigger a major war myself Colonel’ Hammond replied evenly. ‘From what Nyan says their faith in the so-called Book of Nefertum is extreme in many cases, even to the higher echelons of their political and military apparatus’ he continued. ‘We don’t want a Holy War fought with Twenty-Second Century hardware breaking out unchecked.’
‘Bedrosian society might very well collapse if the truth came out’ Carter agreed with a nod, ‘we certainly wouldn’t want a few die-hard types in their military deciding to take the Optricans with them when they go’ she said. ‘We also know from Nyan that both sides have a considerable nuclear arsenal and it only takes one lunatic Nefertum worshipper to turn the whole planet to a mass of craters’ she cautioned.
General Hammond looked extremely grave for a moment. ‘If the Optrican government agrees with that assessment one option being considered is providing the means for them to launch an effective counter-force strike if required’ he told them. ‘It would be a drastic measure but better to take out a few missile silos with precision attacks rather than have cities being flattened and millions of civilians pay the price for the truth coming out’ he said. ‘A demonstration of our capabilities might hopefully be enough to dissuade the Bedrosians from war but if that fails pre-emptive action may be necessary instead’ he said. ‘A peaceful resolution with would of course be the ideal but it’s better to have contingency plans for the worst.’
‘We could beam low-yield nukes right into their missile bases from low-orbit if it comes to it Sir’ Carter suggested. ‘We haven’t got good enough sensors or teleporters to just beam the warheads out before they could launch them all unfortunately but we could total a good percentage of their offensive capabilities in short order’ she said.
‘Good idea’ O’Neill told her.
‘Thank you Colonel’ Carter replied.
Jonas kept reading his file. ‘Euronda?’ he said, seeing another familiar world on the list.
‘Not the Space Nazis?’ O’Neill responded disparagingly.
‘It’s believed that faction will have been utterly defeated by now, they were always at a severe numerical advantage and we know their main and possibly only bunker was being pounded to rubble when you left Colonel’ Hammond replied. ‘The stargate was buried along with the complex but again a Tollan produced replacement provided to the so-called “Breeder” Faction should prove a welcome present given the state of the planet.’
‘Alar and his supposed Master Race poisoned the entire planet’ O’Neill recalled. ‘So are we going to offer them a new world or something?’ he asked.
‘We know the Breeders still had sufficient infrastructure to produce advanced warplanes’ Carter commented, ‘they should be able to pull together the resources needed to re-locate to a more hospitable planet over time’ she surmised. ‘At worse they could establish offworld farms to help support themselves while their own environment recovers if staying at home seems a better alternative’ she continued, ‘with the air poisoned they’re probably living off hydroponically grown yeasts or something similar like the Eurondans we met before were’ she theorised.
‘We know they relied on heavy-water fuelled hydrogen fusion for power generation’ Hammond noted, ‘obtaining that technology could be a boon to Earth and it would cause far fewer questions if the technology was released into the public sphere than our naquada generators would’ he said with a smile.
‘People would simply assume that the military had perfected fusion power in secret after decades of research’ Carter agreed, ‘we could radically change the world and still keep a lid on the Stargate Program’ she said brightly.
‘No more fission reactors or burning coal or oil to make electricity’ Jonas observed.
‘Add in the radically improved capacitor and battery designs we got from the androids on Altair and electric cars become a much more viable prospect too’ Carter added.
‘OPEC is going to go apeshit’ O’Neill responded with a chuckle. ‘Screw ‘em’ he continued with a grin.
‘There’s a lot of planets on this list’ Jonas observed.
‘It includes a number of worlds that we’ve never been able to achieve a wormhole connection to’ Hammond replied. ‘Prometheus will start out by travelling to Tollana to pick up a cargo of stargates and demonstrate our galactic reach to the Curia and take a roundabout route back home with plenty of stops on the way.’
‘Tollana is on the far side of the galaxy, that’s a decent trip even at the speeds the X-303 can achieve Sir’ Carter pointed out.
‘Not quite as far as her last journey to Ida though Major’ Hammond replied.
‘Yes Sir but that was being towed by an Asgard Vessel, this is likely to be an extended mission lasting several months at least’ she said.
‘Between five and seven we think given the route’ Hammond told her.
O’Neill frowned. ‘That’s a long time for SG-1 to be away from Earth General’ he said.
‘You won’t be’ Hammond replied. ‘Prometheus will collect SG-1 and other personnel as required at pre-planned times and locations en-route’ he told them. ‘This will also give the ship the opportunity to re-supply and exchange crew if necessary’ he said. ‘To give one example there is another stargate within less than a day’s journey of P2X-416, Colonel Ronson will collect you there and transport you the rest of the way.’
‘Well at least we get to miss out on a lot of the long boring trips through hyperspace’ Colonel O’Neill said brightly, he also imagined Ronson would prefer SG-1 to not be around all the time as well. ‘So let me get this straight, the X-303 is going on a five-month mission to seek out new life and new civilisations?’ he asked straight-faced.
‘Going where no Tau’ri has gone before’ Teal’c added.
Andianov muttered something in Russian. ‘Geeks’ Jonas translated having been learning a few more languages of late in his free time. The Sergeant glared at him and he realised she probably didn’t want that one converted to English. ‘You know with psionics we could probably diffuse a few situations that would turn nasty otherwise’ he said, breaking eye-contact with Andianov and trying to change the subject.
‘Make the Bedrosian government and military leaders fear us you mean?’ Carter asked.
‘Or steal their military secrets and give them to the Optricans’ O’Neill suggested as an alternative. ‘I’ll bet their politicians have dirty little secrets they wouldn’t want spilled to the general public either’ he said, fairly sure that politicians everywhere were slimy crooks as a rule. ‘When you’ve got them by the balls their hearts and minds soon follow’ he declared.
‘I doubt that either Washington or the UN would approve of excessive interference with the internal affairs of a sovereign nation Colonel’ Hammond told him disapprovingly.
‘It’s their foreign policy I want to keep in check General’ O’Neill responded, as far as he was concerned the Bedrosians were deluded goa’uld-worshipping assholes whereas conversely the Optricans sounded like sane decent enough folks by comparison screwing the former to help the latter was all to the good as far as he was concerned.
Major Carter read on through the file. ‘We’re visiting the Gadmeer on P5S-381 too then?’ she said not particularly surprised by that. ‘At the rate they were terraforming the place they might be starting to rebuild their civilisation by now even after the detour to drop off the Enkaran refugees on their original homeworld’ she said.
‘They have interstellar travel, beaming technology and highly advanced AI’ Hammond replied. ‘They’re certainly worth developing ties with even if their military technology didn’t seem to match their achievements in other areas’ he said.
‘From what we know of them philosophically they may fall closer to the Nox than ourselves’ Jonas concurred. ‘They put a great deal of effort into preserving their art and culture and likely devoted much of their civilisation towards it before they were attacked.’
‘Too many statues and operas and not enough money spent on defences’ O’Neill commented, ‘Hey I’m all for being peace-loving and cultured but there’s too many barbarians at the gate intent on torching your art galleries to let your guard down like they did’ he opined. It was thought likely that the enemy that destroyed the Gadmeer civilisation and caused the survivors to flee with what they could were the Goa’uld, who although likely behind the Gadmeer scientifically in many fields were much more heavily armed and had likely just blasted them from orbit. ‘The guys that sacked Rome probably weren’t capable of building a decent aqueduct either but that didn’t help the city too much’ he observed.
‘Happy is that city which in time of peace thinks of war’ Jonas quoted. ‘It’s an inscription on the Armoury at Venice’ he told them. ‘I’m sure future historians of the galaxy will comment that the reason that the nations of Earth were so able to fight the Goa’uld effectively was because they were so used to fighting each other they had developed warfare to a whole new level’ he said. ‘Not that I can criticise given that my world is much the same’ he admitted. ‘I’d back a company of Kelownan Infantry up against several times that number of Jaffa every time, fighting the Andari or Terranians taught my people how war is supposed to be done the hard way’ he said. ‘I guess we learn more from our enemies than our friends’ he supposed.
‘There are increasing signs that the Goa’uld are starting to use more inventive tactics some of which we probably taught them’ Hammond said regretfully. ‘The successes of the Free Jaffa have also demonstrated pretty clearly to every System Lord paying attention that with marginally better weapons and a less traditionally hidebound military system you can whup a feudal army silly’ he continued, ‘even with basically the same troops on either side.’
‘Probably only a matter of time before some snake-head starts issuing Staff-Rifles to his grunts too’ O’Neill agreed. ‘Then they’ll all do it because being able to aim properly matters when your armies are actual armies fighting a war not just a means to terrorise peasants with pitchforks.’
‘From what I know of Goa’uld history they haven’t fought each other with this intensity or on such a prolonged basis since Ra became Supreme System Lord and laid down a lot of the rules and traditions’ Jonas said. ‘This is a very dynamic and chaotic era, usually the wars were little more than border skirmishes with a handful of worlds changing hands and only a small number of Ha’taks involved not the fleets which are regularly battering each other these days’ he told them. ‘It’s an opportunity for us to expand and explore but when it’s over...’
‘We’ll be facing a leaner, meaner enemy’ O’Neill finished for him.
‘Colonel as soon as it looks like one side is losing badly we’ll attack the other hard to forestall that just like we singled-out Apophis for attention during the time he was in clear ascendance’ Hammond reminded him. ‘The Goa’uld may have been shaken out of their rut but we’re still narrowing the gap between us every day which is why for them horse-drawn artillery and proper cover-fire is a great leap forward and for us it’s building starships when ten years ago going to Mars looked like an epic undertaking’ he said with feeling.
‘Good point Sir and well made’ O’Neill told him.
General Hammond smiled. ‘When you’re wearing a star or two on your shoulders yourself you’ll soon pick up the art of motivational speaking to the troops’ he said.
‘And if nothing else everyone will look at him and think if he can make General then I can’ Major Carter couldn’t resist saying.
‘Sergeant you’re already skating on thin ice for calling me a geek earlier, don’t push it’ O’Neill warned Andianov, feigning more annoyance than he felt as she choked back laughter in response to Carters comment. He narrowed his eyes at Carter who was now looking studiously at the file, well at least if she was relaxed enough with him to yank his chain a little she must be less sore about the damn Replicator he decided optimistically.
As always Major General George Hammond decided to ignore any breaches of military protocol, SG-1 functioned too well as a unit to interfere with their camaraderie and it wasn’t as if they were undermined in effectiveness by a somewhat relaxed attitude within the ranks on occasion. ‘Teal’c is there something on your mind?’ he asked.
The Jaffa nodded and pointed to a planetary designation. ‘One of these worlds on the list is BP6-3Q1 where I was stung by the insect which nearly killed me’ he said. ‘I thought this world was deliberately locked out of the dialling computer as too dangerous?’
‘It was’ General Hammond confirmed. ‘However the Aschen have expressed a desire to deploy an extremely powerful insecticide over the planet which will eliminate them prior to adding the world to their Confederation’ he said. ‘Prometheus will swap the regular stargate there with a Tollan built replacement that is locked to only dial other Aschen planets.’
‘Well I guess nobody else is using it and we know the Aschen are good at the biochemical stuff’ O’Neill remarked. ‘The planet already has ready-made cities, good spot for a colony once you’ve hit it with the super DDT I guess?’ he reasoned.
‘It’s a long way from the other systems already in the Confederation though’ Jonas pointed out. ‘The relatively slow Aschen hyperdrive has kept them isolated in a small section of the galaxy until now’ he noted.
‘It’s as much an act of demonstrating goodwill as anything else’ General Hammond told them. ‘For all the reservations several other societies seem to have about them the Aschen are potentially the strongest ally we have in the Milky Way’ he said. ‘They’re the second most advanced human culture we know of and they’re far more numerous than the Tollan’ he reminded them, ‘their unique combination of beyond state-of-the-art science and sheer manpower could be the key for finally beating the Goa’uld.’
‘And yet never in a million years could they conquer the arena of stand-up comedy’ O’Neill joked. ‘So when is Prometheus setting out Sir?’ he asked Hammond.
‘End of next week once the X-303 has been fully provisioned and her complement of F-302 Fighters have worked up’ Hammond replied. ‘Crews are already preparing to start construction of her sister-ship which should be finished within a year according to estimates’ he told them. ‘Atlas should be half completed by the time Prometheus returns to Earth’ he said.
‘Closing that gap with the Goa’uld even more Sir’ O’Neill remarked.
‘It's only a matter of time Colonel’ Hammond replied.
Free Jaffa Camp – P8X-987 (Hanka) – December 2002
Egeria could not help but note the hostile looks she was receiving as she toured the still growing encampment, it was to be expected of course, to most Jaffa the differences between the Goa’uld and their ideological enemies though biological kin the Tok’ra must seem ephemeral in the extreme. ‘I thank you Master Bra’tac for allowing me to visit the new home of the Free Jaffa’ she told her escort. Another of the Jaffa Leadership M’zel was following a short distance behind along with her now ever-present guardian Malek who was clearly tense at being one of only two Tok’ra in a sea of Jaffa.
‘Any ally against the Goa’uld is always welcome in our camp’ Bra’tac replied diplomatically. ‘Your companion might do well to stop subconsciously reaching for the the pistol holstered at his side ever time we near one of my people carrying a weapon’ he whispered to her. ‘From his own body-language M’zel is clearly becoming annoyed by it’ he noted.
The Tok’ra Queen chuckled. ‘Malek perhaps as a military officer you might be more interested in seeing our Jaffa friends demonstrate more military pursuits?’ she suggested. ‘I’m sure M’zel would be willing to take you to observe a training exercise?’ she checked with Bra’tac who nodded.
‘My Queen I cannot leave you unguarded’ Malek protested.
‘I sincerely doubt that my life is any more in peril here than it would be at a Tok’ra base’ Egeria replied with a smile.
‘Her safety is guaranteed’ Bra’tac told Malek. ‘On my honour as a warrior’ he stated in a manner that left Malek in no doubt that if he did not accept the Jaffa’s word then Bra’tac would be insulted. ‘M’zel I believe there are a group of apprentice warriors including Rya’c taking lessons in Mastaba nearby perhaps that would prove educational for our Tok’ra guest’ he told his fellow Jaffa.
‘This way’ M’zel told Malek who followed with clear reluctance. If anything happened to Egeria then Per’sus and the rest of the Tok’ra High Council would quite justifiably have his head on a plate before the day was out.
Egeria smiled at Bra’tac. ‘Perhaps now we can continue to talk without the threat of impending violence between our respective companions breaking out any second behind us’ she said. ‘A more relaxed atmosphere in which to discuss our mutual interests’ she added as the two of them continued on alone.
‘Your host was originally that of another Tok’ra I have heard’ Bra’tac queried politely, though not one for small-talk he knew that such conversation helped things run more smoothly.
‘Yes’ Egeria confirmed, ‘once the Asgard cloned me a new body and transferred my consciousness to it Kelmaa vacated this host and now resides in another’ she said. ‘A Pangaran named Zenna Valk volunteered to take Kelmaa and they seem to have blended very well both being academics by profession’ she said.
‘Could you not have simply taken this Zenna as a host yourself?’ Bra’tac asked as the walked past a small pre-fabricated building the Tau’ri had provided to be a school.
‘I needed a host with existing detailed knowledge of the Tok’ra’ Egeria explained, ‘I was away for many centuries and it was the quickest way to learn what the current situation was’ she told him. ‘I was very proud to learn that my children had kept up the fight so long and with such determination’ she said with a smile.
Bra’tac nodded accord. ‘To see those you have taught the true path carry on your cause is always a source of pride and satisfaction’ he agreed. ‘My greatest accomplishment is that those I made apprentice like Teal’c oppose the Goa’uld as passionately I do’ he said.
The Tok’ra stopped walking. ‘Over the years my children have dwindled in number, without a Queen to replenish their number and being unwilling to use the Sarcophagus they are now but a fraction of how many there were before I was captured and imprisoned by Ra’ she said.
‘This is well known’ Bra’tac replied.
‘You know of course why I am here?’ Egeria asked.
‘You need Jaffa to carry Tok’ra Prim’ta and rebuild your numbers’ Bra’tac responded flatly.
‘Yes and you also need a new source of symbiotes to sustain yourselves so there we can help each other greatly’ Egeria told him, continuing her stroll once again. ‘We both know that there exists a hostility between our peoples but it is in the interests of both to put that aside’ she said as they walked together side by side.
‘The drug Tretonin may offer an alternative to carrying a prim’ta to the Jaffa’ Bra’tac responded. ‘Either sourced from a Queen captured from the Goa’uld homeworld or else a Tau’ri manufactured synthetic replacement’ he said.
‘Tretonin causes a reaction in a certain percentage of the Pangarans that take it, this would likely mean that even at best not all Jaffa could utilise it as a substitute and besides which although it would keep you alive and healthy it would never be as effective as a symbiote in enhancing your strength or healing’ Egeria replied. ‘Given that I have no intention for becoming a breeding factory for prim’ta again it is probably for the best that most Jaffa will be able to use the drug in fact’ she added, grimacing with the memory.
‘It will take a long time before the next generation of Tok’ra comes to maturity even with Jaffa to carry your young’ Bra’tac noted. ‘Every seven years I have had to be implanted with a new prim’ta as the one before becomes mature and must take a host’ he said. ‘It will be seven years before the first new Tok’ra arrives even if we agree to this proposal’ he reminded her.
Egeria nodded. ‘Certainly the existence of new Tok’ra to fight the Goa’uld will not happen overnight’ she agreed, ‘but merely knowing that they have a future at all has been a tremendous morale boost to my people’ she said. ‘The Asgard have agreed to save the oldest and most frail of my existing children as they saved me which will act as a stopgap to Tok’ra decline in the meantime’ she told him. ‘Selmak will be among the first, they might not have lasted many more years otherwise and that would have been a great loss as Selmak is a valuable link to the Tau’ri via their host Jacob Carter’ she said. ‘Both Selmak and Jacob speak highly of you incidentally’ she added.
‘As I them’ Bra’tac replied.
The Tok’ra Queen halted near a food stall where an enterprising Jaffa was selling cuts of seasoned meat threaded on a stick and held over a fire to cook. ‘That smells very tasty’ she observed. ‘My host originally came from a world that ate similar food’ she said, the hosts memories being triggered to the forefront of her mind by the smell.
‘Would you like one?’ Bra’tac asked.
‘Very much so’ Egeria told him. ‘Unfortunately I’m not carrying any currency’ she admitted.
Bra’tac laughed. ‘I think that I can afford it’ he said purchasing two of the sticks with a coin he took from a pocket inside his clothing, having to insist the stall owner took his money. He passed one to the Tok’ra and they continued on, eating as they went.
Egeria bit a chunk of the meat off the stick, chewed and swallowed. ‘The Goa’uld deliberately kept your people ignorant of their technology’ she said. ‘We will explain it to you though it might be best to start with your children and school them from scratch as even the basic principles of science are something you were denied’ she continued. ‘In time Jaffa technicians and engineers will not only be able to fly and operate Goa’uld spacecraft but be able to repair them and even build new ones’ she told him.
‘That would surely take years?’ Bra’tac replied.
‘And in the interim Tok’ra can do so instead’ Egeria told him. ‘You have numbers, trained soldiers who can take the field against our enemy while we offer knowledge and a deeper understanding of the foe’ she continued. ‘Together we are far greater than the sum of our parts’ she declared.
Bra’tac frowned. ‘My people would fear becoming mere staff-fodder under the command of Tok’ra Officers even if you do not pretend to be their Gods’ he told her.
‘Tok’ra advisors to Jaffa Officers is more likely’ Egeria replied. ‘Though if we managed to do as the Tau’ri have and seize control of Ha’tak Motherships you might be wise to let the Tok’ra deal with the engines because they don’t really run on magic’ she joked.
The Jaffa Master laughed, Egeria was not at all what he had been expecting though he knew from talking to Selmak previously that the Tok’ra did have a sense of humour. ‘I would have to have the agreement of many leaders within the Free Jaffa ranks before we could move ahead with what you propose’ he said.
‘I will also require the assent of the Tok’ra High Council’ Egeria told him, ‘I am not an autocrat by inclination, to dictate to my people would be too much like being a System Lord for my tastes’ she said with distaste at the notion. ‘Though I suspect loyalty to me would sway the majority, regardless of their personal misgivings regarding a true alliance with the Free Jaffa, nonetheless I would not seek to pressure them’ she told him.
‘A true leader seeks those he leads to follow willingly, not under duress, and if they will not then he is no leader at all’ Bra’tac opined.
‘To the Tok’ra the terms Alliance and Blending are often used interchangeably’ Egeria noted. ‘The symbiosis between ourselves and the host is one of equals and I hope that a similar outcome might be reached between our two peoples based on both mutual dependence and joint cause’ she said.
‘Certainly it should be less unequal than our current relationship with the Tau’ri who are often perceived as seeing the Free Jaffa as the junior partner in the fight’ Bra’tac replied. ‘Having both great numbers themselves, and better weapons also, many are heard to complain the Tau’ri do not regard us highly enough’ he complained.
‘If I can be blunt too many Tok’ra have died at the hands of Jaffa over the years for my people not to respect you’ Egeria responded. ‘It is not perhaps the ideal basis on which to build but at least we cannot help but recognise your fighting abilities’ she continued, ‘and in a time of war those are highly prized’. She finished her food and cast the stick into a refuse heap. ‘I have one other suggestion, a request if you will that will bind our peoples together more firmly if that is what they agree to do’ she said.
‘Which is?’ Bra’tac queried.
‘In order for the eventual blending of the mature symbiote with the host to work reliably and compatibility between them be ensured, the code of life of the host species is required by the Queen that produces the larval symbiote’ Egeria told him.
‘The code of life? What I have heard the Tau’ri call DNA?’ Bra’tac queried, taking another bite of his own meal from the stick he still carried having consumed the chunks of meat more slowly than the Tok’ra.
‘Correct’ Egeria confirmed. ‘Despite some genetic tampering with your race Jaffa are still mostly human and thus the DNA of your people would be close enough to ensure the compatibility of my new children with human hosts’ she said. ‘It would be fitting if all new Tok’ra were also in small part Jaffa thus also further binding us together still further in both blood and spirit’ she declared.
Bra’tac swallowed. ‘Fitting indeed’ he agreed wholeheartedly.
‘You seem to be the most well-respected Jaffa and therefore the ideal candidate’ Egeria told him.
The Jaffa Master looked surprised. ‘I believe such a thing would be a great symbolic gesture and it is certainly an honour for myself to be so chosen’ he replied sincerely. ‘And this is accomplished by some device?’ he asked curiously.
‘No, we’d have sex’ Egeria told him. ‘Weren’t you enjoying that?’ she asked in amusement as he dropped his stick.
