I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.
Cheyenne Mountain – P4S-237 – March 2003
The mass of metal scaffolding at the entrance to the mines was rusty with age, with the naquada deposits thought exhausted a century before, and the planet abandoned by Baal, there had been little effort made to keep the infrastructure in a better state of repair and the entire edifice was less than stable making the current predicament of Lord Mot even more precarious than it would have been otherwise.
‘So I hear that last winter when the workers here got sick and couldn’t mine enough naquada to meet your quota you had ten of the villagers executed right in front of their families?’ O’Neill remarked, looking into the Goa’uld upside-down face. ‘I'll bet you're regretting doing stuff like now?’
It was very difficult to try and sound god-like and intimidating when you were being held by your ankles over the edge of a sheer drop but Mot tried to do so nonetheless. ‘My Master Baal will punish you for your treatment of his loyal subject’ he declared.
‘Hailey, let go of one leg’ O’Neill ordered the young lieutenant wearing powered-armour who was kneeling down on the tier above dangling the goa’uld over the scaffolding so that he was at eye-level with O’Neill stood on the platform below her.
‘Yes Sir’ Jennifer Hailey replied and released her grip on Mot’s left ankle so that she was now holding him only by his right.
‘Good’ O’Neill replied as Mot’s inverted expression of defiance wavered a little. ‘Now shake him’ he said.
Hailey shook Mot hard, she was in no danger of dropping him, her suit gave her greatly amplified strength and in fact she had to be more careful not to grip too hard and crush his bones. After a few seconds Mot started to wail which was extremely satisfying, not least to the villagers stood watching below. ‘He is going a strange colour O’Neill’ Teal’c observed.
‘Yeah’ O’Neill agreed then let the shaking continue a while longer. ‘Okay, that’s enough’ he said. ‘Wouldn’t want him losing his lunch over Jonas and the locals down there’ he added as Hailey stopped shaking him.
‘Although if it were just Jonas it might be amusing’ Teal’c suggested, earning a soft punch on the arm from Carter and a muffled laugh from Andianov who was waiting nearby with a hopeful expression and a stun-rod in her hand set to a voltage that would be more than a little painful to endure.
‘Okay Mot’ O’Neill told the queasy Goa’uld. ‘The way we figure it you’ve been stockpiling all the naquada that’s been pulled out of this mine the last hundred years and you’ve been planning to make a move against your supposed boss Baal when the time was right’ he said.
Mot blinked, he had no idea the Tau’ri were so well-informed. ‘I am a loyal...’
‘Give him a couple of thousand volts please Sergeant’ O’Neill ordered, knowing the Lieutenant above was well insulated by her suit. It had been designed to withstand zat-blasts as well as other energy weapons.
Andianov stepped forward. ‘This will hurt you a lot more than it will me but far less than you deserve’ she said and hit him with the stun-rod causing Mot to spasm wildly as the nervous systems of both human host and goa’uld parasite fired uncontrollably.
‘So let’s try again’ O’Neill said as Andianov stopped shocking Mot, giving him a few seconds to recover. ‘A long time ago Baal kicked your butt and made you work for him and ever since then you’ve held a grudge’ he said. ‘When he gave up on this world you stepped in and if anything you were an even bigger asshole than he was’ O’Neill continued. ‘Now you’ve got a nice little stockpile of naquada and a few ships of your own which make you a bigger player than most of the small-fry and you thought you could get revenge and step up to the big time all at once what with all the chaos going on out there, but let’s face it buddy, it ain’t working out now is it?’
This was so humiliating Mot thought to himself, for a couple of years now he had been hearing tales of how other goa’uld had been captured or defeated by the Tau’ri and had mocked them for being so pathetic but now he was in the very same boat as the likes of Nirrti without even her scientific skills to trade for his life. Chances were that the Tau’ri would torture any information from him they could obtain and then hand him over to the Tok’ra who would extract him from the host and happily grind him into a fine paste. ‘What do you want?’ he asked.
‘Oh we’re just doing this for kicks mostly’ O’Neill told him. ‘That Al’kesh you arrived in was a nice bonus though.’
‘It’ll need a few upgrades but once we’ve got it up to our specs I’m sure we can find a use for it’ Carter agreed. ‘You know he might know some useful inside intel on Baal Sir, if we dropped him on his head we might lose the opportunity to get at it even if we dragged his corpse back to the SGC and bought him back to the land of the living in a sarcophagus.’
‘Damn, I wanted to see the expression on his face when the Lieutenant dropped him’ O’Neill responded sadly.
It had all been going so well Mot recalled, Chazen his spy in the villagers ranks had informed him via a long-range communication device that the Tau’ri had come to this world and he was going to capture them and make his name by doing so. Presenting Anubis, or perhaps even Apophis, with the heads of the infamous Jack O’Neill and the rest of the notorious SG-1 would make him a hero of the goa’uld, he even considered keeping one of the two females as a trophy body-slave once they were properly domesticated but now he was the trophy.
Mot could only assume that the rumours that the Tau’ri had devices that enabled them to read minds were true because when he arrived with fifty of the elite of his personal guard the ambush they planned was itself ambushed by twelve or so human soldiers wearing their bulky machine-like armour who took all of about three minutes to shoot his best troops to pieces with their laser weapons while staff-blasts impacted harmlessly on their armour. He was stunned with a zat’nik’tel and when he regain consciousness he found himself bound next to Chazen on the rough wooden floor of a village dwelling with the shol’va Teal’c standing guard over them both. Eventually he was dragged out by one of the armoured soldiers, pelted with rotten fruit by his supposed loyal subjects and hauled to the top of the scaffolding.
‘Lieutenant could you start him swinging from side to side like a pendulum’ O’Neill requested.
Jennifer Hailey wasn’t sure why he ordered her to do it but she did so and began swinging the goa’uld through the air in an arc. As one of the few SGC-based troops with power-armour experience she had come along on this mission after Colonel O’Neill requested heavy back-up and it did make a nice break from the lab-work she would have been doing otherwise.
Major Carter watched the goa’uld swing back and forth for a while. ‘Sir is there an actual purpose to this?’ she asked O’Neill eventually.
‘Carter do you think any of the people here will ever take the goa’uld seriously as gods again after watching us do this to one of them?’ O’Neill queried. ‘These jerks rule by fear, superstition and intimidation, take that away and what do they have? A few Jaffa and crappy dress-sense.’
‘So your master-plan is to make the goa’uld figures of fun to be mocked O’Neill?’ Teal’c reasoned. ‘An intriguing and novel tactic’ he said with some admiration.
‘It just came to me when I realised I needed a more convincing justification for doing stuff like this to them’ O’Neill admitted. ‘I mean we’ve pretty much got free rein to shoot them but for some reason if you play practical jokes on them instead the brass don’t like it’ he complained. ‘They say it’s unprofessional or something but I say why not try enjoy your work?’ he asked rhetorically.
Andianov looked at him. ‘Colonel you are without a doubt the strangest yet somehow still inexplicably effective commanding officer who I have ever served under’ she stated.
‘Why thank you Sergeant’ O’Neill replied with a smile.
‘It was not entirely a complement’ Andianov told him flatly. ‘Our prisoner looks unwell again’ she pointed out.
‘That’s enough Lieutenant, haul him back up’ O’Neill ordered. ‘Don’t bother being too gentle about it’ he instructed her as Hailey complied. ‘So do we gate home or take the ship Mr Moto came in?’ he asked.
‘We’re at least several weeks from Earth Sir’ Carter noted, ‘even at maximum speed for an Al’kesh.’
‘Probably better tell the SGC to send a crew here to pick it up then’ O’Neill decided, ‘it’s not like we get a bonus for bringing them back anyway.’
‘They could at least let us keep one’ Carter joked. ‘Maybe not a Hat’ak or an Al’kesh but we could place a claim the next Tel’tak we snag.’
‘Nah, they’d never go for it Carter’ O’Neill replied. ‘They wouldn’t even let me put a Staff-Weapon over my fireplace’ he told her. ‘And it’s not like there aren’t plenty to spare.’
‘Maybe if you just asked for it to be on your office wall they might say yes’ Carter suggested. ‘The security issues are probably less than having alien weaponry at your own home.’
‘I have an office?’ O’Neill asked in surprise.
‘Yes Sir, it’s where your desk is’ Carter told him.
‘So you weren’t kidding before about my having a desk’ O’Neill queried.
‘No Sir’ Carter replied. ‘I think you might find your office full of boxes of files though, people were talking about how it was unused space’ she said.
O’Neill suddenly adopted a furious expression. ‘They could have at least asked my permission’ he declared.
‘I think you’ll find if you check your messages they did Sir’ Carter told him.
Teal’c turned to Andianov. ‘Inexplicably effective’ he remarked.
‘I call it as I see it’ the Sergeant replied with a shrug.
Nox Capital – P3X-774 – March 2003
It was the turn of the Nox to host the increasingly frequent meetings between the various member worlds and it was hard to dispute that a city hovering a mile above a pristine wooded valley was more than a little impressive as a venue, even if the general decor wasn’t quite what several of the representatives would have chosen. The Aschen Mollem in particular was clearly put-off by the vines that seemed to be growing everywhere and at lunch had eyed the cuisine on offer suspiciously, much of his own homeworld was a sprawling metropolis that couldn’t even support its own population without food imports it was certainly nothing like P3X-774 or Gaia as the locals called it.
The large table they were sat around looked like rough hewn oak, which certainly clashed with the various devices set upon it, while the Nox had perfect recall and required neither recording devices or notes everyone else was more reliant on technology and Elizabeth Weir was tapping away at her laptop as Freyr the Asgard representative presented an update on his people’s rebuilding efforts after the imprisonment of the Replicators. The Tok’ra hadn’t arrived yet but after waiting for some time the others had decided to start without them, any voting would have to wait until they turned up but preliminary discussions or issues not related to them could go ahead.
Freyr moved a stone on the console placed on the table in front of him and a hologram appeared in front of them showing a city under construction. ‘As you can see our engineers have already made considerable progress’ he said, zooming the image in on a gleaming tower. ‘The city we are building on our new capital world of Orilla will soon be ready and this building will house our High Council’ he announced with some pride.
Lya of the Nox smiled, the Asgard design aesthetic favoured steel, polished stone and glass far too much for her tastes but it was good to hear that her people’s oldest friends were recovering so well from their long struggle with the soulless machines. ‘I very much look forward to visiting your new city once it is finished’ she told Freyr.
‘The Nox are always welcome’ Freyr replied with a slight bow. ‘And of course any of our other friends equally so’ he added diplomatically. Of course only the Nox and Tollan had the technical expertise and power-generation required to easily open an intergalactic wormhole, Earth could gate to Ida as well, thanks to some Ancient Technology that was temporarily downloaded into the mind of a certain Jack O’Neill, but it wasn’t quite as easy for them and burned out their power-booster every time.
Omoc representing Tollana leaned forward in his chair. ‘If the Curia and People of Tollana can be of any assistance in your rebuilding efforts we would be only too happy to offer our help’ he said.
‘I will pass on your generous offer to the Asgard High Council’ Freyr replied, it was highly unlikely the Tollan would be taken up on it but they could produce high-enough grade alloys to make the offer not entirely worthless.
‘I know that the Asgard use naquada in both their ships hulls and certain technologies’ Kallan of Orban spoke up, ‘if you require additional quantities in this time of renewal I’m sure our government could increase our production of the refined material from the ore Earth has in abundance’ he said, looking to Elizabeth Weir.
Weir nodded. ‘If the Asgard do in fact require naquada I think I can safely say that ourselves and the Orbanians acting together can indeed supply your needs’ she told Freyr.
‘Our existing stocks are plentiful but again I will pass on the offer to the High Council and offer my personal thanks to both Orban and Earth for making it’ Freyr replied.
‘I wish my own world Pangar was in a position to offer more than merely our good will and best wishes’ Commander Tegar observed, he was the only military officer present and his bearing and body-language would have made him stand out even without his fairly ornate dress uniform. ‘Unfortunately we are not as advanced as the other worlds represented here’ he admitted. Pangar was a relatively recent addition to the growing number of planets that had sought membership of the new Alliance and to be perfectly honest it was seeking to ingratiate itself with everyone it could. So far they had made greatest progress with the Tok’ra, who had been surprisingly forgiving of the Pangarans inadvertent ill-treatment of their queen Egeria, although Tegar suspected this was in part due to the fact that one Pangaran, the archaeologist Zenna Valk, had already become blended with the Tok’ra Kelmaa. He considered it likely that the Tok’ra were hoping that more Pangarans would subsequently volunteer to become hosts, especially if they were thinking longer-term now that Egeria was surely to start increasing the Tok’ra ranks once more.
‘Your good will is welcome in itself’ Freyr replied diplomatically. ‘I will also say that technological advancement is not the best judge of a civilisation in any case’ he continued. ‘The Goa’uld are more advanced in their science than many other societies but they are barbarians nonetheless’ he stated.
If he had been less emotionally controlled Mollem would have sneered at that statement. The Aschen Confederation was great only because it was so scientifically advanced and lesser peoples were simply disposable chaff. His government was already improving upon the Goa’uld weaponry and devices which Earth had supplied and in time would surely master the technologies of the Tollan, Asgard and others. The truly pathetic creatures that were the Nox, and indeed the new race known as the Gadmeer, would be wiped out once the Confederation eventually took its rightful place in the galaxy. This would of course take many years, but the Aschen were nothing if not patient and they knew System Lord’s would have to be defeated first in any case, that being an easier proposition if the likes of the Earth humans and others were around to act as cannon fodder. ‘Unfortunately much of the available economic and industrial resources of the Aschen Confederation are currently planned to be employed in the taming and colonisation of Svoriin so we will also have to offer only our goodwill’ he told the Asgard.
‘Just watch out for the giant bugs’ Weir joked, Svoriin, otherwise known as BP6-3Q1 had once been locked out of the SGC’s dialing computer due to the danger presented by its insect life. Now with its original stargate removed and replaced with a Tollan version, this being locked so that it could only be used to travel to other Confederation planets, the world was being handed over to the Aschen who badly needed living space.
‘The extermination of the hostile indigenous life should not prove a problem’ Mollem replied.
Lya frowned. ‘I hope that you are using a selective insecticide that will not cause excessive environmental damage?’ she asked Mollem.
‘The Aschen have no wish to poison a world we plan to colonise’ Mollem responded. ‘Given that there are intact cities in a decent state of repair already available we hope to establish farms quickly and start to re-house millions of our citizens there within a year’ he said.
‘The Aschen’ Tegar couldn’t help himself saying. ‘Masters of almost every field of scientific endeavour... but yet somehow they never seem to have really got to grips with contraception’ he observed, causing Kallan to guffaw and even the taciturn Omoc had to hold back laughter.
Mollem looked daggers at Tegar who smiled back in response. One of the joys of being in the military he thought was that he could get away with being less diplomatic than the others even if he suspected his Premier Dollen might haul him over the coals for it when he got home.
Elizabeth Wier decided it might be best to change the subject and hopefully diffuse the situation before it escalated. ‘I was wondering if the Asgard and Nox governments in particular have given any consideration to my suggestion that we install a replacement stargate on the world we call Heliopolis and re-establish it as the permanent meeting place for the new Alliance?’ she asked.
Freyr shut down the hologram. ‘The High Council has certainly reacted with interest’ he replied, ‘though the condition of the planet would likely necessitate its environment be repaired first’ he replied.
‘The Nox favour the continuity and symbolism’ Lya told her. ‘Although the Alliance was previously less... fractured’ she noted. ‘If we accept the Asgard designation of humanity as the Fifth Race it should be noted that unlike the other four you are not united’ she said. ‘At this very table we have representatives of Earth, Tollan, Orban, Pangara and the Aschen Confederation and before long we expect them to be joined by Optrica, Hebridan and perhaps a joint representative of the three governments on Langara.’
‘Hebridan is a joint human and Serrakin world’ Weir pointed out.
‘True enough’ Lya conceded. ‘However there is still some concern that a human voting bloc may emerge in time that would tend to dominate proceedings’ she said honestly.
Weir smiled. ‘You may be underestimating the human ability to quarrel amongst ourselves’ she said, earning a chuckle from Tegar. ‘We only tend to set aside our differences when facing a common threat such as the Goa’uld’ she said. ‘As regards voting blocks, with the Gadmeer likely to join too, and the suggestion that the Reol be given a seat as well, the Nox will shortly be gaining persuasive philosophical allies I would think’ she continued. ‘I hope the Tollan would not be offended if I gave them as an example of a human society that would align themselves more comfortably with your outlook too for that matter.’
Lya looked to Omoc who affirmed Weir’s suggestion with a nod. Thanks largely to contact with Earth the Tollan Curia and public in general were not near as isolationist in belief as they had been before, but they still nonetheless considered the alien Nox a more acceptable and natural ally than many of the other worlds populated by their own species. ‘I think it is safe to say that on many or most voting matters the Nox will have the support of Tollana’ he said.
‘The government of Orban equally wishes only peace and friendly relations with all’ Kalan spoke up. ‘Like the Tollan we are not a warlike or expansionist people and only maintain a limited military for self-defence.’
‘Some might say the best defence is a good offence’ Tegar observed.
‘A sound dictum’ Mollem agreed. ‘Have not the Tollan in fact accepted the truth of this themselves with their strategic deterrent of phasing warships armed with planetary destroying bombs?’ he asked.
‘Our fleet would only be deployed in retaliation not aggression’ Omoc stated forcefully.
‘Yet still it is your “retaliatory” offensive capabilities that the Goa’uld fear more than even your formidable planetary defences’ Mollem pointed out. ‘If we had equivalent hyperdrive technology the Aschen Confederation would surely itself build a similar deterrent’ he said.
The door to the chamber opened and a Nox guide let in a woman in Tok’ra uniform. ‘I am Sina’ she began, ‘Queen Egeria and the Tok’ra High Council sends greetings to this assembly’ she said. ‘Unfortunately I am also the bearer of a disquieting change in the war between Apophis and the other System Lords’ she added with an expression on her face that indicated her news was in fact fairly dire.
‘You have the floor’ Lya told the Tok’ra.
Sina took a breath. ‘Several weeks ago Tok’ra agents infiltrated into the court of Lord Yu reported that his behaviour was becoming erratic and unpredictable’ she said. ‘This has now reached a crisis point because earlier today we discovered that Lord Yu has made a peace with Apophis and has declared war on Anubis instead.’
‘What?’ Weir exclaimed.
‘I am afraid to say that this has been confirmed by reports that Yu’s fleet has attacked a system that belongs to Anubis and destroyed it’ Sina told them. ‘In addition those ships which Apophis had fighting Yu have been re-deployed against Morrigan who was already overstretched and may be forced to retreat back to her own domain within days’ she said.
‘This is not good news’ Freyr stated.
‘Lord Yu has long been known to hate Anubis with some intensity’ Sina noted, ‘in fact he was an ally of Apophis and Ra when the System Lords collectively banished Anubis centuries ago’ she continued. ‘Even so we were surprised at his sudden shift in allegiance this time, as it seems was Apophis who thought it a trap or ploy at first it seems.’
‘For Apophis to re-deploy his fleet Yu must have convinced him of his change of heart somehow’ Weir reasoned.
Sina nodded. ‘Lord Yu handed over both Kronos and Terok to Apophis as a peace offering’ she explained. ‘The latter was put to death immediately but Kronos as a long-standing foe of Apophis did not share such a merciful fate, it is likely his torture and suffering will be immense’ she said dispassionately.
‘Is this really such a big deal?’ Tegar queried. ‘I mean one System Lord switches side out of how many?’
Omoc turned to address the Pangaran. ‘The war has been near stalemate for some time’ he said. ‘Apophis inherited a superior industrial base from Sokar which along with his faster ships means he has always been able to recover faster from his losses and shift forces from one front to another more rapidly than his enemies’ he said. ‘Only the superior shields and weaponry of Anubis and his ally Baal, accompanied by the combined fleets of all the other System Lords have kept the balance while they try to match the shipbuilding output of Apophis yards’ Omoc explained. ‘If Lord Yu switches sides, and Morrigan is knocked out of the war too, then Apophis will then be able to pick off the others one by one fighting a more proactive offensive war rather than the largely reactive defensive one that has characterised his tactics since Anubis and Baal joined the fight.’
‘The Ha’tak of Anubis and Baal are individually more formidable in battle than those of Apophis but quantity has a quality all its own’ Sina agreed. ‘It should also be noted that the ships of Apophis are not only faster they are also generally better armed and protected than those of every System Lord except Anubis and Baal.’
‘I thought the other System Lords were getting the upgraded technology too?’ Kallan asked.
‘Baal has given some of the required improved schematics to Bastet, Kali and Amaterasu but as yet they have only fielded small numbers of upgraded ships because none had the spare industrial capacity required to both fully re-tool production lines and replace battlefield losses at the same time’ Sina told him. ‘Baal himself waited until his shipyards were ready, and he already had a number of the latest vessels in service, before joining the war, the other Goa’uld were not so fortunate.’
‘I’ll have to report this development to Earth immediately’ Weir said, getting up and closing her laptop. ‘If Apophis gains clear ascendancy he may decide to divert forces against us.’
‘Unlikely for the foreseeable future but you might certainly want to end any campaigns you are undertaking against his enemies at least’ Sina advised.
Lya was inwardly upset by all this talk of war but knew that other peoples neither shared the pacifism of the Nox nor indeed their ability to hide their entire society from danger if necessary. ‘Do we know more of what caused Lord Yu to make such an unexpected and sudden change in policy?’ she asked.
‘We think he’s going senile’ Sina replied. ‘On the plus side he may conceivably switch sides again tomorrow when he forgets who he’s supposed to be at war with’ she added.
Tagrean Capital – P3X-744 – March 2003
Colonel William Ronson couldn’t help but note the hostility being directed his way by Commander Kalfas, the head of the Tagrean Security Forces as they sat to dinner together with other senior members of the Tagrean government and military at a special function hosted by Chairman Ashwan the Tagrean Head of State. ‘This wine is truly excellent’ Ronson told Ashwan, taking another sip though he had no plans to drink more than one glass. His ship was landed within a few miles of the city surrounded by Tagrean forces but he didn't think they were going to try and attack Prometheus and he knew for certain they weren't advanced enough to overwhelm her defences.
Ashwan smiled. ‘I am glad to hear our local food and drink measures up to the standards of a people who have travelled the stars’ he replied.
‘To be honest most of my time is spent aboard my ship eating whatever the supply officers of the United States Air Force think to be suitable rations’ Ronson admitted. ‘As I said before we were not even sure that this world was even inhabited so the usual senior diplomatic team who handles first-contact situations was not aboard.’
Kalfas ignored his own glass of wine. ‘You still insist that somewhere on our world there is, or was, one of these devices you call a stargate?’ he asked.
‘P3X-744, sorry I mean Tagrea, does appear on a list of planets we have that were once on the stargate network and the fact that you are here pretty much confirms it’ Ronson replied. ‘Because it wasn’t too far out of our way it was decided to take a detour to where we knew a stargate had been and see if anything was there’ he said.
‘And you found us’ Ashwan replied.
‘Another world inhabited by the descendants of people stolen from Earth by the Goa’uld to act as slaves yes’ Ronson said. ‘Our initial studies of available literature and a few remaining artefacts leads us to believe that this was once a world belonging to Heru-Ur and that he abandoned it long ago when the mines he once had here were depleted’ he said. ‘Your people most likely buried the stargate so the son-of-a-bitch, excuse my language, couldn’t come back again.’
‘And you think it is most likely to be found in the Wastelands of Annur?’ another Tagrean official asked.
‘My linguists and research team certainly think so’ Ronson replied. ‘Another vessel from either Earth or one of our friends will likely visit Tagrea again soon so if you can’t find it let the next ship know and we can arrange with the Tollan to provide a replacement.’
‘The Tollan are one of your allies yes?’ Ashwan asked.
‘Yes, nice people, very advanced technologically more so than ourselves’ Ronson told him. ‘As far as we know they were the first human culture that matched and then outstripped the goa’uld scientifically and the System Lord’s have tended to keep away ever since.’
‘So their defence technology is formidable too?’ Kalfas queried.
‘Very’ Ronson confirmed.
Kalfas turned to Ashwan. ‘Chairman I believe that we should maintain a high military alert and keep our missiles ready to resist a potentially hostile invasion.’
‘If you mean by any of the major star-faring civilisations I’m afraid to say your nuclear weapons wouldn’t be effective against the shields of their capital ships, even if they didn’t shoot them down first’ Ronson told him. ‘If the Goa’uld came to Tagrea they could bombard you into submission from orbit and they probably would because they don’t like any human planet to be industrialised, they prefer ignorant peasants that can’t fight back as slaves.’
A ripple of disquiet went around the table. ‘And I suppose now you’ll say that you can protect us from this threat?’ Kalfas said with the definite hint of a sneer on his face.
‘Kalfas you are being rude to our honoured guest’ Ashwan told him.
‘Mr Chairman this is clearly a protection racket’ Kalfas declared, ‘these aliens come to a world more primitive than theirs, speak of dangerous enemies we have never seen and then offer to take us under their wing’ he said. ‘What price do we have to pay?’ he asked Ronson sardonically. ‘Precious jewels? Gold? Uranium?’ he suggested. ‘You talked of our ancestors being slaves before so perhaps you’re going to ask for a few of our sons and daughters as payment?’
Ronson was a very controlled man but he was getting riled now. ‘Neither my own country, the United States of America, the United Nations of Earth or any of our off-world allies practices slavery’ he said coldly. ‘We’re not asking for or demanding a damn thing from you, we’re only here to say hello and hopefully establish peaceful relations, maybe begin a mutually beneficial trading relationship’ he continued. ‘I hope your elected leaders are wise enough to see that’ he added.
Ashwan glared at Kalfas before turning to Colonel Ronson again. ‘You speak of trade?’ he asked.
‘It’s one of the goals of ourselves and our allies to both strengthen our ties and benefit our citizens through trade via the stargate network’ Ronson replied, calming himself. ‘Every world seems to have something to offer’ he said. ‘You might find a profitable market for your fine wines’ he said with a smile. ‘The Tollan initially thought that because they were centuries ahead of us we had nothing they might want but then they tried some of our herbs and spices and a candy called chocolate’ he told them.
‘But would they trade us their technology?’ Ashwan asked.
‘Not the Tollan, they’re pretty up-tight on that’ Ronson replied, ‘but the Orbanians for one are more open to that, we got our naquada reactor technology from them’ he told them.
‘Ah yes this fantastical element that powers your great ship but which is unknown here’ Kalfas commented. ‘Perhaps you will give our scientists a sample to look at?’
‘If you can find the stargate it’s made of the stuff’ Ronson told him. ‘I’ll have my engineers provide a sample of lower-grade material for you though.’
‘Lower grade?’ Ashwan queried.
‘High grade naquada is usually used for weaponry not reactor fuel’ Ronson explained. ‘Even a small quantity of weapons grade naquada could blow this entire city off the face of Tagrea and if the next ship from Earth found a big crater here I could kiss my next promotion goodbye’ he said deadpan.
‘You do not consider our finest scientific minds clever enough to work safely with such a material?’ Kalfas asked.
‘Not until our finest scientific minds explain it to them no’ Ronson replied honestly. ‘After that the chances are my superiors will provide as much as you need for self-defence’ he said. ‘Earth has a surplus and naquada powered weaponry and shields would drastically increase your ability to fight off a Goa’uld attack’ he told them. ‘One of our main strategic goals is to put together a coalition of worlds that collectively can rival the System Lords’ he explained.
Kalfas finally decided to take some of his wine. ‘Why do I now have a vision of Tagrean soldiers as cannon-fodder serving other worlds in a war that is nothing to do with us, nor of our own making?’ he asked rhetorically, taking a mouthful from his glass.
‘Paranoia perhaps?’ Ronson suggested, if this jerk was going to ignore the diplomatic niceties again and again then so was he.
The Tagrean military officer smirked. ‘Is it paranoid that while we’ve been sitting here I ordered the forces surrounding your ship to be tripled?’ he asked.
‘I agreed to no such order being issued’ Ashwan declared.
‘Where the protection of our country is concerned the military holds ultimate responsibility’ Kalfas responded.
Chairman Ashwan stood up. ‘Perhaps you weren’t paying attention in school when they explained how our constitution works’ he said with a passion and determination that surprised everyone at the table, normally a placid man the Chairman was often portrayed as weak. ‘I was elected to my position as head of state, you were merely promoted to the position as head of the armed forces’ he declared. ‘The voice of the people comes through me.’
‘The people need a strong hand, they often make the wrong decision such as when they choose to vote into office a man who would sell them into slavery’ Kalfas retorted, getting up himself. ‘It seems it was wise of me to order several regiments into the capital as well’ he added smugly.
Ronson looked from one to the other. ‘So are military coups common around here because I think I just got caught up in one’ he asked someone else at the table wryly.
‘You ordered the army onto the streets’ Ashwan said aghast.
‘For the good of Tagrea’ Kalfas replied.
Ashwan straightened up and struck a determined pose. ‘Commander Kalfas you are relieved of command’ he told him. ‘I will order your deputy to send the troops back to barracks and have you placed in detention awaiting trial for treason.’
‘Treason?’ Kalfas replied. ‘No Mr Chairman this is patriotism’ he declared.
‘Oh this is going to take so much paperwork to sort out when I get home’ Colonel Ronson complained under his breath, ‘Major Gant are you listening to this?’ he asked more loudly. ‘Incidentally I’m wearing a wire’ he told the room.
‘Yes Sir’ came a reply from a radio in Ronson’s pocket.
‘If the sensors on Prometheus have a solid reading on this location Commander Kalfas is the man to my immediate left’ Colonel Ronson told her. ‘Please teleport him to the brig’ he ordered.
Kalfas looked confused. ‘Teleport?’ he asked then screamed as he started to shimmer for a moment before disappearing completely, all the other Tagreans looking on in shock.
‘He’s unharmed, I just had him placed in a cell on my ship until you could let me know where else you want him put’ Ronson told Ashwan. ‘If you want my advice right in front of a firing squad would be ideal’ he suggested. ‘Could I get a bottle of this to take home?’ he asked hopefully, indicating the wine.
The Tagreans just stared at him as miles away Commander Kalfas, former head of the Tagrean Security Forces pounded on the door of the brig of the USAF Prometheus howling in rage.