Stargate Etheria (Stargate SG-1/She-Ra crossover)

[Dur'id the Druid]

That's interesting since the She-Ra characters are, accounting for plot-induced changes, the same as here.

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Not really. Not in a way that makes sense anyway. Very little thought was put into the Seacat story, other than putting the charcter into scenes the author wants to write. It's just the scenes of the week that seem to matter, not consequences of previous history. Biggest example; How long was the story obsessed with getting Seacats memories back through the power of friendship? Even after it only made Seacat justified angry? No body even tried other things, consider if they were doing the right thing, or seemed to take Seacat's own desires into account, only Adora's feeling matters! That is the reasoning and plot of a brainwashing kids show, do the right thing -> this is the right thing-> don't need to think about why.

That is where your story differs, your characters are smart paladins. Good people doing right in a complicated situation tempered by wisdom and history. Even your version of Hordak is showing wisdom, even as he bluntly points out what his history tells him is a good choice. The fact he listens to others and even backs with supporting their implementation shows he has grown as an individual; he is learning to be more than an angry clone of a 'perfect' individual.

Why do you want to talk so much about Seacat anyway? This is a forum for Stargate Etheria!

 

[Starfox5]

Not really. Not in a way that makes sense anyway. Very little thought was put into the Seacat story, other than putting the charcter into scenes the author wants to write. It's just the scenes of the week that seem to matter, not consequences of previous history. Biggest example; How long was the story obsessed with getting Seacats memories back through the power of friendship? Even after it only made Seacat justified angry? No body even tried other things, consider if they were doing the right thing, or seemed to take Seacat's own desires into account, only Adora's feeling matters! That is the reasoning and plot of a brainwashing kids show, do the right thing -> this is the right thing-> don't need to think about why.

That is where your story differs, your characters are smart paladins. Good people doing right in a complicated situation tempered by wisdom and history. Even your version of Hordak is showing wisdom, even as he bluntly points out what his history tells him is a good choice. The fact he listens to others and let's them try their plans shows he has grown as an individual; he is learning.

Why do you want to talk so much about Seacat anyway? This is a forum for Stargate Etheria!

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Well, as the author of both stories, I am interested in the reason you see the characters as different - I wrote Seacat as I wrote this story: By deciding the characters goals and means, and then letting them do what I think they would do. A lot of the scenes in Seacat, for example, developed because of what the characters would do and react to. From Hordak and Shadow Weaver to Seacat and friends. New tactics and new gear caused the other side to react, which prompted a reaction in turn - and an arm's race at the end.

With regards to getting Seacat's memories back: Adora was very much pushing Seacat about her past. But not because I think this was the right thing, or that it should be done, but because I think that's what Adora would have done faced with the situation - she is the kind of person that tries to go at things like that. She is the kind of person who tries to do what she thinks is the right thing without thinking overly much about it. And in the story, it didn't work - it alienated Seacat and made her dig her heels in, even though she had dreams about her past. And, well - ultimately, it didn't work. Seacat got her memories back when Shadow Weaver tortured her. So, I don't really get why you think the message there was "do the right thing".

 

[Dur'id the Druid]

.... You did a better job on this story. And I stopped reading before Seacat was tortured. Nor was that the only point, just the biggest example. Adora, Gissele, and Bow were of the same mind. Seacat herself didn't justifly toss them off the ship for their actions. And am I right that all that was all but forgotten later by everyone? The entire story is full of that. No depth beyond the surface.

Dammit, I thought that I was seeing that "Because of X your reasoning is completely invalid, te he he silly!" reasoning/mindset behind your words. I should trust my own instincts more. Seriously, learn to take criticism without trying to win the 'debate'. Your not even 1/50th as bad as xxxbodlyristsxxx, but your on the same path.

 

[Tiktog]

I wonder why you think Seacat is a care bears episode - Seacat has guts spilling on the deck and limbs going flying in almost every battle of the entire war.

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Depth of charcter and plot. All of the characters and plots have the emotional depth, reasoning, and intelligence of a care bear or teletubby. Adding some gore and adult action doesn't change that.

Click to shrink...

I actually quite like seacat and need to get back to it.

 

[I_S]

Having read and enjoyed both works, I have to say I see no difference between this Catra, and Seacat.

I think the biggest difference between this work and Seacat is that there are more moving pieces since we have the entire geopolitical body of 90s Earth + Stargate shenanigan's.

Even if the writing is the same, its easy for readers to draw more meaning out of the work.

That said, Starfox5, your writing skills have notably improved over time. There is a higher density of scenes that have an impact in this work than in SeaCat. There was a lot of fluff in the earlier parts of that story, up and until the war kicked into high gear as a result of the mass deployment of engine weapons.

In this work we are getting action scenes directly interspersed with character development in almost every other scene. It can be hard to see from inside the bubble of ones own writing efforts, but the techniques you are using are being put into better use over time.

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 23: The Naquadah Crisis Part 3

Above the Mediterranean, August 19th, 1998 (Earth Time)

As Darla approached Egypt after picking up SG-1 in Colorado, everyone gathered on the bridge. Catra looked around - Adora was looking grim, but that was normal. Glimmer was scowling, which was also normal. O'Neill looked tense, which was… not normal.

"This was recorded by one of the ships in orbit," Entrapta, who had recovered from her collapse after her 'concentrated tea' ran out, explained as she pointed at the large screen showing a patch of desert. A patch of desert with a camp of Earth troops in it, surrounding some ruins on the ground. "It shows the location of the explosion - before it exploded, of course." She pushed a button with her hair, and the image zoomed in.

"Better resolution than our own satellites," Catra heard O'Neill mutter. Well, did he expect anything else?

Catra had seen the record before, but she still studied it. Earth tanks - four of them - were lined up at the edge of the camp. Smaller vehicles drove around them, and a lot of people walked all over the place. "Aren't those American tanks?" she asked, knowing the answer.

"It's the export variant of the M1-Abrams Main Battle Tank," Carter replied.

"The monkey model," O'Neill added.

"That means it's a more primitive version of the American model," Daniel said.

Adora cleared her throat, and Entrapta continued. "Four hours ago, the whole area exploded."

Behind her, the desert, camp and ruins on the screen vanished in a cloud of smoke and fire. The picture zoomed back to show the size of the cloud. It was huge.

"Entrapta and I have independently come to the conclusion that the power of the explosion is beyond what could have been achieved with conventional explosives based on Earth technology," Carter said. "Not to mention that the sheer mass of explosives needed for such an explosion would have strained the logistics of the Egyptian Army. On the other hand, the scanners do not show any radioactive fallout, though, which should be present if this was a nuclear explosion. In any case, the immediate shockwave barely missed the outskirts of Cairo. But part of the 6th of October City was devastated. Civilian casualties are still being tallied up but expected to be in the thousands."

And that was why everyone looked so grim. If the bomb had gone off a little closer… Cairo had, what, millions of people? Hell, the panic from the bomb probably killed as many as the bomb itself - they had seen pictures showing desperate people trying to flee the city…

The Security Council had declared this an international emergency and possible alien attack and assumed authority over the whole affair. Egypt hadn't protested, as far as Catra had heard - Darla had already been on the way to Colorado by then.

"Do we have more information about the cause of this?" Daniel asked.

"Well, we've narrowed the origin down to this structure," Entrapta told him. A building buried in the sand replaced the crater on the screen.

"That's the Desert Tempel of Osiris," Daniel said at once. "But it was empty when it was discovered fifty years ago - plundered by grave robbers." Everyone looked at him, and he shrugged as if he were embarrassed. Well, he might actually be. "It's just one of many such buildings that were left looted. It showed up on our scan with the field of tombs nearby, but I tagged it as a low priority since they were known."

"Well, apparently, it wasn't as empty as people thought," O'Neill said. "And it seems the Egyptians sent soldiers to every ruin in the country that showed up on your scan. Someone must have tipped them off."

"We shared the data with the Security Council, Sir," Carter pointed out.

"I know." O'Neill frowned. "We shouldn't have done that. The United Nations leak like a sieve."

"But we had a leak as well - that's why the NID went to Setesh's base," Daniel retorted. O'Neill glared at him, but he shrugged in return. "Just saying, Jack."

Adora cleared her throat again. "So… do we know what triggered the explosion? We didn't get any data before we left to fetch you."

"We don't have any information yet either," Carter replied. "It could've been an automated defence mechanism left by the Goa'uld."

"You can call it a trap, Carter," O'Neill cut in.

She glanced at him. "That is the most likely explanation. It is theoretically possible that someone brought a nuclear bomb in there, but to generate an explosion of this power, it would have been too large to conceal from any guard - or it would have been a Naquadah-enhanced nuclear device."

Which on Earth, only the Americans were supposed to have, Catra knew.

"We've ruled out a missile, artillery barrage or airstrike," Hordak took over. "Although that is based on the assumption that no force on Earth can defeat our sensors."

And that, in turn, was based on the information SG-1 gave them. Catra looked at the Americans.

"To our knowledge, no country has such a capability," O'Neill said.

"Some of the media in the region blame Israel," Glimmer pointed out.

O'Neill groaned. "Of course they would."

"Israel and Egypt are at peace," Daniel said.

"Not everyone is happy about that," O'Neill retorted. "A lot of people would be happy if Egypt and Israel went at it again. And while I think we can dismiss an Israeli airstrike, I don't doubt that Israel's government would be happier if the Egyptians don't have advanced technology."

Ah. Catra hadn't studied that conflict in detail, but she had learned enough from an overview that she understood him.

"Other media claim that this was our work," Entrapta said. "A lot of them in the region, actually. They claim that we destroyed the technology before it could be secured by the Egyptians."

"But we said that this was up to the United Nations to decide." Adora shook her head.

"They don't trust us. Or they want us to look bad," Glimmer said.

"And then there are the media who claim that this was the work of a god, removing 'satan's temptation' before it corrupts the faithful," Bow added.

Catra shook her head. Earth people were weird. Very weird.

*****​

West of Cairo, Egypt, August 19th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"That's one big crater." Jack O'Neill shook his head. "Well, if everything else fails, they can fill it with water and turn the area into a resort."

No one laughed. Daniel made that interrupted gasping noise, Carter would be frowning at him for a moment, and Teal'c was more silent than usual.

Well, it hadn't been a good joke. And it wasn't a pretty sight - they were standing at the edge of a huge crater. A bit away from the wrecked suburb of Cairo.

"Radiation is at safe levels," Carter reported without looking up from her devices.

"Good to know," Jack replied. Though they had known that already - they wouldn't have landed so close to the crater if it were still radioactive.

"Oh, no!" "This looks bad."

Adora and the others had arrived.

"The devastation is impressive. The damage to foundations by the shockwave travelling through the ground will probably need some special sensor to detect," Entrapta commented as she leaned forward to look at the crater's edge.

Jack looked back and saw a bunch of Egyptian soldiers approaching them. "Ah… you locked the spaceship, right?"

"Of course," Catra replied. "We don't want more of those idiots getting killed by trying to break into a spaceship."

"We don't know if that was the cause of the explosion," Glimmer told her. "It could've been a Goa'uld facing capture and deciding to suicide."

"Or trying to fake his suicide," Jack pointed out. Snakes were cunning, and any snake hiding in Egypt would have some sources in the local government that would warn them about the scanners. Not that the scanner was a big secret any more - not after the Security Council had been informed. Jack expected the press to run some articles about it any day now. Probably wondering if that violated some privacy laws.

The Egyptian Humvee pulled up to a stop next to them, and a tall man - a colonel - got out, followed by another officer and two guards. "You! Are you in charge?" he snapped, staring at Jack.

"That depends on who you ask," Jack replied. "Colonel Jack O'Neill. Stargate Command."

The man's eyes widened. Who did he expect that the United States would send on this mission, anyway? The Navy?

"And I'm Queen Glimmer of Bright Moon," Glimmer spoke up. "Are you the officer in charge of the rescue operations?"

"What? No, I'm in charge of the security of the site!"

Jack pressed his lips together so he wouldn't crack a joke about the dire need a crater in the ground had for security. Hammond had been clear about the need to treat the locals with the utmost politeness - the Security Council had been anything but polite.

"You guard a hole in the ground? Someone in charge must hate you."

Obviously, Hammond hadn't told Catra that. The catwoman grinned at the Egyptian.

"You're the alien," the colonel - he still hadn't introduced himself, which was beginning to look less rude and more suspicious - replied.

"We're all aliens," Entrapta replied with a huge smile. "Although it depends on your definition - biologically, I think all of us except for Melog and Hordak could have fertile offspring with you without using genetic engineering. That means we're basically the same species. But all of us were born on another planet, which means we're extraterrestrials!"

Jack briefly wondered if she had watched E.T. - few people used that word any more.

The Egyptian colonel, in any case, looked confused. "What?"

Entrapta repeated her explanation, which didn't seem to help at all. Especially not when she used her hair to handle another device - the soldiers really didn't like that.

Adora cleared her throat and stepped closer. "And I'm She-Ra, Princess of Power. We're here to help you. Do you have wounded in need of healing?"

All of the Egyptians stared at her. They probably hadn't expected her to be so freaking tall - Jack knew how imposing She-Ra looked when she was standing in front of you, and he was used to Teal'c towering over everyone.

But the Colonel shook his head. "Our doctors are handling the wounded," he said through clenched teeth. "We don't need your… magic."

"I wasn't aware that Earth medical science was as advanced as Etherian magic," Hordak commented.

"It isn't," Daniel told him.

"Then it seems ill-advised to refuse She-Ra's help. I can assure you that it's safe." Hordak smiled at the colonel. Or tried to - Jack had seen better smiles from greeters at Walmart shortly before closing time.

"I'm sure they have their reasons," Jack said. Like pride. Or they didn't want magic to be used on their countrymen.

"And what are your reasons?" Adora asked with a deep frown. "I can heal your wounded in an instant. Why would you want them to take longer to heal up?"

"We can handle our problems ourselves," the man spat.

"Yeah, we can see that," Catra retorted, pointedly looking at the crater.

"The cause of the explosion hasn't been determined yet," Carter said.

One of the Egyptian soldiers muttered something - Jack thought it might have been 'sabotage'.

"Well, that's why we're here," Glimmer said. "To find out what happened and how to prevent similar accidents." She looked at the crater as well. "This can't be allowed to happen again."

The Egyptian Colonel snorted. "I'd like to see that."

"Well," the queen replied. "We'll be glad to show you. Are you our liaison, Mr…?"

"Colonel. Colonel Salah."

"Colonel Salah. We're here to secure the remaining potential artefacts left by the Goa'uld. For the United Nations," Glimmer said, smiling widely. "We were also here to help your rescue and recovery operations, but if you don't want our help with that, we can proceed to take control of the Naquadah."

The Colonel scowled in return. It was clear that he wanted them gone from the country.

Tough luck - the Security Council wasn't screwing around any more. Not after someone nuked part of Egypt - no one sane wanted this to happen to another country. Or that power in the hands of someone else.

*****​

Those people were… Adora shook her head and pressed her lips together so she wouldn't blurt her thoughts out as they walked towards the centre of the crater. She knew that they couldn't alienate them. Not more than they already had, at least. Though the sheer stupidity grated on her. They had had a huge crater blown into their country, almost destroying their capital, and they still insisted they could handle it? They were worse than Catra had been at her worst.

She blinked and buried that thought. Catra wasn't like that any more. Not at all. And the local people would learn better as well. Hopefully without going through the same experiences as her lover.

And yet… people were suffering here for no other reason than pride. The pride of someone who wasn't hurt themselves, to boot. At least, that was Adora's assumption.

Entrapta waved her device around. "Radiation levels are normal for the area, I think. Nothing that would indicate that a fission-based bomb had gone off here," she announced. "Although it could've been a fusion bomb, of course - you have that technology."

"Even a fusion bomb would have needed a fission bomb to trigger," Sam added. "I think we can safely exclude the possibility of an Israeli strike with a nuclear weapon."

"I thought we already did that thanks to our surveillance from orbit?" Daniel asked.

"We did, but it's good to have confirmation, "Jack said.

"We need to tell the world so they stop blaming Israel for this," Glimmer said.

Adora nodded in agreement as she climbed over a broken rock the size of a cart. The protests she had seen on the television, aimed at both Israel and the Alliance…

"Yes, we should. And we will. But that won't stop the claims," Jack said.

"What?" Adora turned to look at him. He was standing on the rock she had just climbed over, then clenched his teeth and jumped down - and seemed surprised afterwards for some reason.

"Let me guess: It's easier to blame foreign saboteurs than your own people, right?" Catra said, glancing over her shoulder at the Egyptians following them.

Adora did the same. Colonel Salah had fallen a bit back - he seemed to be struggling with the rocks in their way. The rest of his men didn't seem to have such a problem but didn't pass him. Which was fortunate since they might have heard Catra's remark otherwise.

"Yeah," Jack agreed. "Of course, we can't exclude a Mossad operation with conventional explosives triggering a Goa'uld bomb - the last thing Israel wants is an Arab country with advanced technology."

"But they are at peace with Egypt," Adora pointed out, recalling the briefing. "They have been at peace for almost twenty years." Almost as long as she had been alive.

"And the Egyptian leader at the time was murdered for making peace," Jack said. "Not to mention that leaders change, and currently, everything's changing."

Once more, Adora pressed her lips together so she wouldn't blurt out what she thought of that.

"I think there's the epicentre," Entrapta pointed out a little later. "It matches the geographic location, and the concentration of Naquadah in the environment shows a pattern that would support this."

"Yes, the Naquadah that was all blown up and spread through the area," Jack said, looking grim.

"Oh, don't worry!" Entrapta smiled. "We can calibrate our scanners to ignore trace elements of Naquadah."

"I was more concerned about the trace elements getting into people's bodies. People such as us."

Ew. Adora grimaced. She didn't think that she had to worry, but Catra and the others?

"Oh, that shouldn't reach any critical level. And we can purge it, I think - I would have to work out the details for a procedure, but it shouldn't be too hard."

They were at the lowest point of the crater now. And the ground…

"Glassed," Daniel said.

"Yes. The heat must have been…" Sam mumbled something Adora didn't catch. "If this wasn't a nuclear bomb, then this had to have been a Naquadah-enhanced explosive, Sir."

"Great. So, another suicide device by a snake?"

"In theory, you could create such an effect accidentally by using a conventional explosive near the right amount and isotope of Naquadah," Sam explained. "Processed Naquadah is safe - the Goa'uld wouldn't want to risk such explosions in combat - but there are certain isotopes that would be unstable enough to react to explosions."

"An accidental nuke. Now we've seen everything." Jack shook his head.

"We don't know if that has happened here, Sir."

"We'll need more data to find out!" Entrapta announced. "But we should find traces of conventional explosives if those were used." She cocked her head sideways. "Of course, if the soldiers here had explosives with them, we would find traces anyway, even if they didn't use them."

"So, in other words, we can't find out if this was a Goa'uld trying to hide their tracks, or an accident, or sabotage?" Catra asked. She had lowered her voice, Adoara noticed - she must not want the Egyptians, who were arriving now, to hear this.

"That depends on the data we gather. There should be differences between explosives used to trigger Naquadah and explosives triggered by Naquadah. I think." Entrapta was still smiling. "We might have to do some tests."

"Right. Tests with Naquadah bombs." Jack looked like he had bitten into something disgusting. "Let's not do that right now. People get antsy if you want to blow up their country."

"What?" Colonel Salah asked. He was huffing a little and red in the face.

"We were talking about tests to find out who blew up the area," Entrapta told him. "We'll have to find another location, then."

"And we need to secure the other Naquadah artefacts in the country," Catra reminded them.

Yes. Adora nodded again. That was what they were here for.

*****​

Inside what she had come to think of their mobile lab in Darla's hold, Samantha Carter peered at the readouts of their latest scan. "I think that's as good as we can get," she said.

"Yes. That should be all the Naquadah left that isn't dust," Entrapta agreed as she fiddled with the controls of the scanner.

"I concur," Hordak added. He bent over the microphone and said: "No, to your left. The last artefact is to your left."

"How do you know which way I am facing?" Adora's voice came over the radio.

"We have the most advanced scanner on the planet," Hordak replied. "I can tell which way your hair is blowing."

"Big deal! That's where the wind blows!" another voice - Catra - cut in.

"Not if you take local conditions and windbreaks into account," Entrapta objected.

Sam stopped herself before becoming engaged in the discussion of windswept hair. The Colonel would never let her forget it. "Please focus on the recovery," she said instead.

"Why does it feel as if all I do is dig holes these days?" Adora complained.

"Because you're the best we have at that," Catra commented.

Neither the Colonel nor Daniel had spoken up, Sam realised. And this had been the perfect opening for a comment about archaeologists. "Sir?" she asked.

"Yes, Carter?"

He sounded as usual. Good. "What's the status of the Egyptians?" she asked. It was a logical question - Colonel Salah had been obviously unhappy to support them or their presence. And it was a good excuse as well.

"They're grumpy," the Colonel replied. "But that's all so far. They haven't tried to take any Naquadah and squirrel it away, have they?"

"Not according to our scanner," Sam replied.

"Good. Anything about the explosives?"

Sam pressed her lips together. "We're still analysing the samples." After a moment, she added: "I think that Entrapta is correct, and we need more testing to have a baseline. It wasn't as if they had a lot of data about conventional explosives enhanced with Naquadah. "But we've identified the standard plastic explosive used by the Egyptian army," she added.

"Good."

It wasn't really helpful - a competent saboteur would have been able to use the same explosives, probably stolen or purchased from a corrupt officer - but it was another clue.

Although Sam had her doubts whether they would be able to find out for certain what, and who, caused the explosion. She glanced at the screen to the side, where several television programs were running. She was still leaning towards a breaching charge accidentally setting off Naquadah, but with several prominent religious leaders announcing that this was 'a sign of God's displeasure with the aliens and their blasphemous demands', it wasn't hard to imagine that this might have been a deliberate action by a fanatic amongst the soldiers. And she couldn't discount the saboteur hypothesis either. Or the failsafe.

"We got it! It's a… crushed zat," Bow announced over the radio.

"Great! That's the last piece then!" Entrapta replied. "We can move to the next site!"

"Finally!" Daniel's voice told Sam that he was pouting.

Well, it was understandable - the next 'site' was the Valley of the Kings. He was sure that the Naquadah artefacts their scan had shown would be in graves that hadn't been discovered so far. She chuckled - with the Stargate exposed, he could finally publish his findings, and this would be another feather in his cap, so to speak. And…

"Uh-oh!"

Entrapta sounded concerned. And that was, Sam had learned quickly after meeting the princess, a very bad sign. "What happened?" she asked.

"Darla said that there's a large number of people moving towards us from the city." Entrapta's hair pointed at a screen showing a text, then started typing on the console next to it. "I think I can get a feed… there!"

The picture on the screen changed, showing a protest. No - a mob. She could see crude depictions of aliens hanging from gallows carried along. They must be blaming the Etherians for the explosion. "Colonel!" she snapped. "We've got a mob heading towards the ship and the crater. I suggest you evacuate the site."

"We're coming back! Everyone, pack up!" the Colonel snapped.

But they wouldn't make it back in time. Sam pressed her lips together. "We need to pick them up."

"I concur," Hordak agreed. "Unless the screening forces use lethal force, I doubt they can stop this attack. Even with lethal force, I have my doubts."

"Darla! Lift off!" Entrapta yelled as she headed out of the hold.

By the time Sam reached the bridge, the ship was hovering above the landing site. She couldn't see any sign of the riot - or mob - headed their way, but the soldiers around them were restless. That could just be a reaction to the ship's sudden movement, of course.

"We're coming to you!" Entrapta said as Darla started flying westwards.

"You've heard her, folks! Get ready for the pick-up!" the Colonel ordered over the radio.

They reached the centre of the crater, now sporting more holes courtesy of Adora, in less than a minute, and Sam went to lower the ramp.

"Great to see you! Things were just getting boring," the Colonel greeted her. "Everyone on board!"

"Colonel O'Neill! What are you doing?"

Colonel Salah had arrived, huffing - he must have hurried. His aide and the two soldiers with them were obviously in better shape.

"We're moving to the next site," the Colonel told the man.

"Before the mob gets here. Want a ride?" Glimmer added.

"Mob? What mob?" Salah blinked.

His aide checked the radio and paled, then said something in Arabic.

After a moment of gaping and looking over his shoulder and some quick back and forth in Arabic, Salah seemed to steel himself. "We will accompany you to the Valley of the Kings."

*****​

Catra snorted at the officer's attitude as they boarded Darla. Salah made it sound as if this was some daring mission instead of him just coming along with them. Which, unless she was sorely mistaken, and she didn't think she was, would be what his orders said anyway.

Though, given the mob bearing down on them, maybe the colonel was worried about being attacked for siding with them? Either way, she'd keep an eye on him and his people - the possibility of saboteurs in the ranks of the Egyptian military was not negligible, after all.

And speaking of sabotage… She walked over to Entrapta, taking care to strut with her hands folded behind her head to appear bored, then whispered: "Did you scan Salah and his men for explosives?"

Entrapta blinked and looked at her, then at the two Egyptian soldiers, which were still sticking together near the ramp after Salah and his aide had followed the others to the bridge. "You think… You think they might want to hurt Darla?"

"And us," Catra added. "It's a possibility. We still don't know who caused the explosion here."

"They aren't carrying explosives," Hordak cut in. "Not unless you count the propellant in their weapons, although even if they pooled all their ammunition, they wouldn't be able to create a bomb that would be able to significantly damage a crucial component of Darla."

That was a lot of qualifiers - too many for Catra's taste - but Entrapta seemed satisfied. "I'll still have Emily keep an eye on them!"

"Good." Catra grinned as she passed the Egyptians on her way to the bridge. Emily bearing down on them should spook them enough to keep them from doing anything they shouldn't do. The bot was a walking tank, especially after Entrapta and Hordak's enhancements.

Her good mood vanished as soon as she entered the bridge, though, and saw Adora staring at the side screen with a grim expression. And with good reason - it showed the protesters attacking the soldiers. And the soldiers shooting them.

Catra didn't whistle at the sight - Adora wouldn't take any levity, even gallows humour, very well right now.

"Why are they doing this?" Adora asked. "Do they really blame us for the explosion?" She pressed her lips together.

"In a word: Yes." O'Neill shrugged. "At least that's what their signs say, though my Arabic is a little rusty." He apparently couldn't read Adora.

"It does say this on the signs, yes," Daniel added.

And the various depictions of Catra and her friends hanging from gallows or being burned were a big clue as well, in Catra's opinion.

"They have been misled by traitors," Salah said. "But this wouldn't have happened if not for the… alien artefacts exploding."

"Or being blown up," O'Neill said. "So, let's avoid blowing up more artefacts and parts of Egypt, alright?"

Salah glared at him. "There won't be any saboteurs at this site."

"So you claim." O'Neill shrugged. "As long as you stop trying to find the artefacts yourself, you should be fine with proper security."

Adora shook her head. "Feuding amongst us won't help anyone. We need to secure the Naquadah before another catastrophe happens." She glanced at the television screen again even though they were reaching another military camp. "And this needs to be stopped. We aren't here to hurt anyone - we aren't hurting anyone. We just want to help you."

"Whether you wanted it or not, your arrival did result in a lot of my people getting hurt!" Salah spat.

Adora flinched, and Catra clenched her teeth. How dare this idiot do this to Adora! "Your people got hurt because of your own damn fault!" she spat. "If you hadn't tried to secure the Naquadah for yourself, none of this would have happened!"

"There were riots before all this!" Salah retorted. "People got hurt then - lots of them!"

"That's not on us either!" Catra snarled. "It's not our fault that you people freak out at meeting aliens!" It wasn't as if they were very different from Etherians, anyway.

"Or cannot stand people who love the same sex," Glimmer added with a scowl.

Salah opened his mouth with a gasp but closed it again without saying anything - even though it looked as if it was killing him to keep his mouth shut.

Catra bared her teeth in a sneer in return.

"So… we've landed," Bow said into the sudden silence. "Let's go and…" He looked at the main screen, which showed a group of soldiers walking towards them. "...meet the locals?"

Salah nodded, still clenching his teeth - Catra thought she could hear the noise they made - and then turned to leave the bridge, followed by the grimacing aide.

They stepped down the ramp just as the dozen soldiers led by another colonel arrived. Salah and the other colonel exchanged salutes, then talked to each other in their own language.

Catra glanced at Daniel and O'Neill. Both didn't seem to be concerned, so the two Egyptians probably weren't saying anything worrisome.

"This is Colonel Khaled," Salah finally introduced the man. "His men have secured the valley but haven't started excavating any site yet."

"We don't have their precise locations," Khaled admitted with a grin. "And I didn't want to have my men dig holes at random." Then he grew serious. "Given the events at the other site…"

Glimmer nodded. "This won't happen here. We won't let it happen."

And they had the exact locations thanks to Entrapta and Carter's scanner, Catra knew. This should be a breeze.

*****​

Valley of the Kings, Egypt, August 19th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill jumped off the short ledge, landing on the sandy ground below without the slightest hint of pain. He really needed to talk to Adora about this - as much as he liked his body working as if he were twenty again, it was the result of magic. Magic he knew nothing about. If there were side-effects, or if this would suddenly revert back, he needed to know that.

He shook his head - he had to focus on the task at hand. Namely, the Goa'uld artefacts hidden under the sand and rock here.

"You're impatient, Jack," Daniel commented as he caught up - the others had taken a small path leading down the slope.

Jack glanced at his team. Daniel seemed honestly curious, but Carter's lips were doing that twisty thing they usually did when she was pondering something, and Teal'c… it seemed his right eyebrow had twitched about a tenth of an inch. "Just taking the direct way down," Jack said.

"We don't want to stay here forever, after all."

"Right!"

He looked up at the interruption and saw that Catra was already jumping down from the top of the slope - that was almost twenty feet. His eyes widened for a moment as the catwoman landed on all fours, then straightened as if that was just a particularly tall step. But he nodded as if he had expected that. "See?" He looked at Daniel. "That's impatient!"

Catra laughed. "I'm practical."

"You're a show-off!" Adora yelled.

The rest of the Etherians arrived in a less showy manner - though Jack had no doubt that Adora at least could've just jumped down as well. Hell, the woman could probably drop from orbit without feeling it! He blinked, then suppressed the urge to ask Carter whether that would actually be possible - she would probably try to work it out. He cleared his throat. "Anyway, now that everyone's here…"

"The Egyptians are still on the way," Catra interrupted him.

He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, now that that everyone who actually matters is here, where's the Naquadah thingie?"

Entrapta pointed to the side with a tendril of her hair. "About… twenty metres that way!"

"Right!" Jack saw that Salah and Khaled and about a dozen soldiers were just joining them. "There you are. We're about to begin the excavation."

"Ah." Khaled nodded, then looked around. "Are you planning to use explosives?"

The man looked rather queasy at the thought, not that Jack could blame him.

"No, we're going to use a shovel," Catra said, grinning widely. "And by 'we', I mean 'Adora." Adora frowned at her friend, which didn't impress Catra at all, from what Jack could tell. "Atta, girl!"

With a sigh, Adora walked over to the spot Entrapta had indicated - and which Carter had confirmed, Jack checked with a glance - and raised her hand. A moment later, the by now familiar giant shovel appeared.

The soldiers started muttering at the sight, but Khaled seemed to take it in stride. Salah, of course, had seen it before and puffed his chest out a little.

Well, whatever let the guy save some face - the orders had been to play nice with the locals.

Grunting, Adora started digging, and Jack wandered over to check the perimeter. They were supposed to be far away from any mob, but he didn't exactly trust the soldiers guarding the site - it only took one fanatic to sabotage everything if they got the opportunity.

Well, between Jack, Teal'c and Catra - he hadn't missed how she tended to lounge just where she had a good view of most of the soldiers - any saboteur would find their mission quite difficult.

*****​

It didn't take Adora long to reach worked stone - the roof of a tomb, according to Daniel. Jack refrained from making a Tomb Raider joke. Mostly so he wouldn't have to explain why he knew the game - he had a reputation to defend, after all.

A few minutes later, they were staring at the sealed door. And Daniel was almost salivating. "This is… an untouched tomb!"

"Yes," Jack said, nodding. "Unless thieves got in and were polite enough to close the door behind them."

"Jack!" Daniel pouted. "Don't joke about this! Besides, the fact that there's Naquadah behind this door is a very strong clue that it is untouched - grave robbers wouldn't have left any item made of Naquadah behind!"

"In other words, we get to rob the grave!" Catra said, grinning widely.

Daniel turned his frown on her. "We're here to secure the Naquadah artefacts, not to rob a grave! We need to be extra careful so we don't destroy priceless historical artefacts!"

"No acting like Indiana Jones, got it," Jack said. "But we need to get through the door."

"That would be a lot easier if we had already activated Earth's magic," Glimmer said. "I could just teleport into the tomb."

"Or into a trap," Entrapta said. "Like in my castle, remember?"

"Don't trigger any trap!" Salah blurted out.

"We won't," Entrapta told him. "We're going to drill a hole and then check carefully for any traps." Just as the man - and Khaled next to him - started to relax, she added: "The odds of drilling into a trap are very, very low."

"And we're not going to drill through without checking ahead with our scanner," Carter quickly added.

That didn't seem to do much to calm the two officers down.

Jack snorted. Well, that was Entrapta for you.

He quickly grew serious, though - he hadn't missed that Glimmer was talking as if activating Earth's magic was just a foregone conclusion. He could only hope the Egyptians had missed that.

*****​

"Alright… penetrating the chamber now!" Entrapta announced.

Adora nodded. Finally! This had taken them long enough. She knew that they had to be cautious, but… Adora had trouble waiting and doing nothing while others worked hard. Unlike Catra, she added in her head while she looked at her lover sprawled over a larger rock, apparently enjoying the sun.

Though in this case, Catra wasn't as calm and bored as she appeared - Adora could see her friend's tail twitch.

"So, now we'll find out if there's a spoilsport device," Jack commented. "Anyone taking bets?"

"Jack!"

"You are? Great. Five bucks on 'we're not going to get blown up'!"

Adora couldn't help but giggle at Daniel's expression, and she wasn't the only one. But the Egyptians didn't seem to think this was funny. Perhaps it was something cultural.

"And we're through!" Entrapta beamed at them. "Without blowing up! Now, let's see what's hidden here!"

And Jack was serious again, waking over to Sam and Entrapta, who had been joined by Daniel. "What do you see?"

"It looks like the expected interior of an Egyptian tomb of this era," Daniel said. "The sarcophagus, the different vessels for the organs extracted during the mummification process and the burial objects."

"The treasure, you mean." Jack chuckled.

"Scanners show no active power sources, Sir," Carter said.

"Batteries died?" Jack asked.

"No. But there's no power being consumed right now."

"Ah, good. We wouldn't want to recover expensive paperweights." He chuckled.

"So, this is safe?" Khaled asked.

"Define safe?" Entrapta turned to look at the man. "I mean, we didn't detect a bomb - and my analyser shows no chemical explosive compound, either - but we haven't checked for biological agents yet. With regards to chemical weapons, it should be safe since we didn't detect anything particularly complex, so…"

"Biological weapons?" Colonel Salah's voice sounded higher than before.

"One of the theories about the 'curses' placed on some tombs was that the Egyptians hid some toxic mushrooms or similar organisms in the tomb so any grave robbers would get sick and die," Daniel explained. "It hasn't been verified so far, though."

Which was a very good thing, even though Adora was pretty sure she could heal such a poison. To do all that, just to protect a grave… She shook her head. "So, once it is safe, want me to break down the door?"

Daniel gasped. "But that would destroy it!"

"I think we can use a bot to open it - we need to repair the mechanism that sealed it, then you should be able to open it," Entrapta replied.

"Or we can cut the door out and have it taken away whole," Sam suggested.

"I guess that would be faster," Entrapta admitted. "But it would destroy this fascinating mechanism."

"Let's go with 'faster' - we're kind of on the clock here. A doomsday clock," Jack said.

Most seemed to agree, and Entrapta pouted a little but then started on the cutting process with Sam.

Adora walked over to Catra. "Relax," she whispered as she reached her friend. "It should be safe now."

"I'm not concerned about the tomb," Catra replied. "I'm keeping an eye on the soldiers."

"Oh." Adora blinked.

"It would only take one traitor amongst them to wreck this mission," Catra went on.

Adora bit her lower lip to avoid mentioning Double-Trouble. That was still a sore spot for her lover - and probably the reason why she was so suspicious of everyone except for Adora and her friends. Well, that and Horde Prime's mind-control chips. "Ah," she said instead, looking up at the people guarding the site.

Fortunately, Entrapta called for her before the silence became awkward.

"I'll keep an eye out. Go use your muscles!" Catra grinned at her.

Adora smiled back, then bent down, placing a quick kiss on Catra's lips. "Thanks."

"Someone has to keep you guys alive," Catra mumbled when Adora withdrew - but she was blushing.

And then Adora was grunting as she pulled the stone door away. It wasn't particularly heavy, but getting a grip was difficult. She would've liked to cut some handholds into the stone, but that would probably upset Daniel.

She almost dropped the thing - and wouldn't that have been embarrassing! - but finally managed to lean it against the wall next to the door. Whew!

Daniel was already trying to move past her, but Jack held him back. "Let's check for booby traps first."

"We already did, Jack!"

"I mean, let someone else enter," Jack explained. "Just in case."

And that meant Adora. She stepped into the grave, wrinkling her nose at the stale and dusty air, and looked around. It seemed safe. "Looks safe," she said. "At least this room."

"'This room'?" Daniel asked. "Jack!"

"I said wait, Daniel!"

"Well, there's a door to another room, I think," Adora replied, walking past the stone casket. It looked like a door, at least.

"Scanners do show a second room, now that the seal has been breached," Sam reported.

"Oh! Let's open the door!" Entrapta suggested.

"Let's drill through it first," Jack told her. "Nice and slow."

Adora smiled when she heard Entrapta sigh. Her friend was still very impatient when she was intrigued.

And here came Daniel. "That's a fake door, carved into the wall after building it. But if there is a room behind it…" He looked at the symbols on the door. "'Chariot of the Sky'?" He gasped. "This must be a ship!"

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

.... You did a better job on this story. And I stopped reading before Seacat was tortured. Nor was that the only point, just the biggest example. Adora, Gissele, and Bow were of the same mind. Seacat herself didn't justifly toss them off the ship for their actions. And am I right that all that was all but forgotten later by everyone? The entire story is full of that. No depth beyond the surface.

Dammit, I thought that I was seeing that "Because of X your reasoning is completely invalid, te he he silly!" reasoning/mindset behind your words. I should trust my own instincts more. Seriously, learn to take criticism without trying to win the 'debate'. Your not even 1/50th as bad as xxxbodlyristsxxx, but your on the same path.

Click to shrink...

You should learn how to actually deliver useful criticism. If the single one example you bring up for your criticism followed by "and I didn't read further to see if my assumption is actually correct", and you also reveal that you haven't even read 20% of the story yet claim that "the entire story is full of that", then I really don't think your criticism is worth anything.

I actually quite like seacat and need to get back to it.

Click to shrink...

Having read and enjoyed both works, I have to say I see no difference between this Catra, and Seacat.

I think the biggest difference between this work and Seacat is that there are more moving pieces since we have the entire geopolitical body of 90s Earth + Stargate shenanigan's.

Even if the writing is the same, its easy for readers to draw more meaning out of the work.

That said, Starfox5, your writing skills have notably improved over time. There is a higher density of scenes that have an impact in this work than in SeaCat. There was a lot of fluff in the earlier parts of that story, up and until the war kicked into high gear as a result of the mass deployment of engine weapons.

In this work we are getting action scenes directly interspersed with character development in almost every other scene. It can be hard to see from inside the bubble of ones own writing efforts, but the techniques you are using are being put into better use over time.

Click to shrink...

Thanks!

 

[Dur'id the Druid]

You should learn how to actually deliver useful criticism. If the single one example you bring up for your criticism followed by "and I didn't read further to see if my assumption is actually correct", and you also reveal that you haven't even read 20% of the story yet claim that "the entire story is full of that", then I really don't think your criticism is worth anything.

Click to shrink...

*snort* You do realize how many times you've taken one minor bit of what I said and use that to reject everything else I say? You do realize what your do, right? You can't be this unaware. S.O.P. for you seems to be this passive-aggressive rejection and conclude that you don't understand the critique at all.

I stopped reading Seacat for 2 reasons;
1. I didn't think the story was developed enough for me to get invested in it.
2. You were more interested in disproving and rejecting criticism than trying to improve.

Grow up, you don't want to become like Amy and Sammy, do you? -

Click to shrink...

Spoiler: Be self-aware, this might be a helpful video for you StarFox5.

That didn't happen.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad.
And if it was, that's not a big deal.
And if it is, it is not my fault.
And if it was, I didn't mean it.
And if I did. You deserved it.

 

[Starfox5]

*snort* You do realize how many times you've taken one minor bit of what I said and use that to reject everything else I say? You do realize what your do, right? You can't be this unaware. S.O.P. for you seems to be this passive-aggressive rejection and conclude that you don't understand the critique at all.

I stopped reading Seacat for 2 reasons;
1. I didn't think the story was developed enough for me to get invested in it.
2. You were more interested in disproving and rejecting criticism than trying to improve.

Grow up, you don't want to become like Amy and Sammy, do you? -
[/spoiler]

Click to shrink...

You mentioned one example, and failed to provide any other example that would support your criticism. So, I took that example and checked it. And I came to the conclusion that it was a not exactly convincing example, since you basically said didn't like how Adora tried to get her friend back (and failed), and then made some far off assumptions about this thing. You failed to provide anything more substantial, revealed you hadn't even read more than a few chapters, and yet felt you could offer valid criticism.

Sorry, that's not how things work.

 

[Dur'id the Druid]

You failed to provide

I came to the conclusion that it was not convincing

made some far off assumptions

yet felt you could offer valid criticism

that's not how things work

Click to shrink...

You do realize how many times you've taken one minor bit of what I said and use that to reject everything else I say? You do realize what your do, right? You can't be this unaware.

Actually try to understand what I say or ignore me, I don't care. But don't give me this narcissistic passive-aggressive BS. You are just embarrassing us both.

 

[Starfox5]

You do realize how many times you've taken one minor bit of what I said and use that to reject everything else I say? You do realize what your do, right? You can't be this unaware.

Actually try to understand what I say or ignore me, I don't care. But don't give me this narcissistic passive-aggressive BS. You are just embarrassing us both.

Click to shrink...

Let's take a look at what you posted:

Not really. Not in a way that makes sense anyway. Very little thought was put into the Seacat story, other than putting the charcter into scenes the author wants to write. It's just the scenes of the week that seem to matter, not consequences of previous history. Biggest example; How long was the story obsessed with getting Seacats memories back through the power of friendship? Even after it only made Seacat justified angry? No body even tried other things, consider if they were doing the right thing, or seemed to take Seacat's own desires into account, only Adora's feeling matters! That is the reasoning and plot of a brainwashing kids show, do the right thing -> this is the right thing-> don't need to think about why.

That is where your story differs, your characters are smart paladins. Good people doing right in a complicated situation tempered by wisdom and history. Even your version of Hordak is showing wisdom, even as he bluntly points out what his history tells him is a good choice. The fact he listens to others and even backs with supporting their implementation shows he has grown as an individual; he is learning to be more than an angry clone of a 'perfect' individual.

Why do you want to talk so much about Seacat anyway? This is a forum for Stargate Etheria!

Click to shrink...

You basically didn't like that Adora, at the time fresh out of Horde training, acted like the teenager she was instead of a mature adult who understood amnesia and respected Seacat's feelings. You took offence that the character acted like she did in the show - straightforward, stubborn, impulsive, with more heart than brains, sure she was doing the right thing. You also don't like that no one else tried anything else, again forgetting how damned young and inexperienced the characters were at the time. And then you compare them to the characters in this story, who have about three to five years more experience on them and an entire war.

Basically, you complain that eighteen-year-olds don't act like twenty-somethings - hell, you even mention this when you say that the act "tempered by wisdom and history" in this story. And then you declare Adora's actions as the intent of the story - but, since you didn't read more than a few chapters, you don't know that the approach you think the story was obsessed with actually didn't work. Which pretty much renders your entire argument moot - the story wasn't obsessed with getting Seacat's memories back through the power of friendship; Adora was. And her plan didn't work. You complain about a lack of history and consequences, yet fail to bring up any example of such. (The story is actually a series of actions and consequences; the new technology the Horde uses at sea leads to counter-measures, which then prompt further changes in strategy and tactics. Characters have to deal with the war, with relationships, and with their issues.)

You ignore that and think you can judge a story after reading a few chapters. And yet you somehow expect me to heed your criticism. Look, you don't like "Seacat". You don't like teenagers acting like teenagers. You prefer more mature, more experienced, wiser characters. That's a perfectly valid opinion. But that doesn't mean that a story featuring less experienced characters should change those characters at the start of the story. (And if you read the story and complained that there was no character growth, and had examples for that, I would certainly give that more consideration.)

But complaining that characters at the start of the show don't show the growth and wisdom they have at the end of the show? That's not exactly a convincing argument.

And if you only have one actual example for your criticism, I will certainly address that. Should you have more examples, I will address them as well. But complaining that I only address the single example you actually made? That's not how things work.

 

[Dur'id the Druid]

Let's take a look at what you posted:

You basically didn't like that Adora

You took offence

You also don't like

Basically, you complain

you don't know

Which pretty much renders your entire argument moot

yet fail to bring up any example

You ignore that and think you can judge a story

you somehow expect me to heed your criticism.

you don't like "Seacat".

if you read the story and complained

and had examples

not a convincing argument.

if you only have one actual example for your criticism

Should you have more examples

complaining that I only address the single example

That's not how things work.

Click to shrink...

You do realize how many times you've taken one minor bit of what I said and use that to reject everything else I say? You do realize what your do, right? You can't be this unaware.

And to be blunt I have better things to do than argue with a narcissist who NEEDS to dismiss, demean, and attack any critique. Stop expecting me to like you and your story if you just shame and attack me and mine enough. You need more help than what can be found here, I seriously suggest you get it. Here's a good YouTube channel to start.

 

[Starfox5]

You do realize how many times you've taken one minor bit of what I said and use that to reject everything else I say? You do realize what your do, right? You can't be this unaware.

And to be blunt I have better things to do than argue with a narcissist who NEEDS to dismiss, demean, and attack any critique. Stop expecting me to like you and your story if you just shame and attack me and mine enough. You need more help than what can be found here, I seriously suggest you get it. Here's a good YouTube channel to start.

Click to shrink...

I don't think I'm the one who has trouble taking criticism here.

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 24: The Naquadah Crisis Part 4

Valley of the Kings, Egypt, August 19th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Chariot of the sky - this has to be a ship!" Daniel repeated himself.

Samantha Carter frowned. "The room can't be large enough for an Al'kesh. Maybe a Death Glider," she added when she saw her friend frown.

"Why would anyone bury a spaceship?" Adora asked.

"Many ancient cultures believed that the dead would be able to use the items that were buried with them in the afterlife," Daniel explained. "Warriors were often buried with weapons. Sometimes, this extended to their horses and dogs. Even people - usually slaves - were sometimes killed and buried with high-ranking persons, to serve them even after death."

"That's sick!" Glimmer blurted out.

"Well, it wasn't common," Daniel retorted.

"But… perfectly fine tools, weapons and jewellery?" Catra shook her head. "What a waste!"

Sam had to agree with that. Even though such finds were very helpful for archaeologists.

"That's why substitutes were also common - clay soldiers, non-functional chariots…" Daniel blinked. "This could be the case here as well."

"A mock-up of a spaceship?" The Colonel raised his eyebrows.

"It would certainly fit Egyptian culture. Although…" Daniel bent down to check the sarcophagus. "'Favoured of Ra'..."

"So, what? Is there a Jaffa in that tomb?" The Colonel asked.

"The Goa'uld believed in clay soldiers as grave gifts?" Glimmer asked.

"They wouldn't - but their soldiers and slaves did. At least, they did so on Abydos." Daniel frowned, as usual, when talking about the planet of his wife. "Although this could be a tomb dating to the time after Ra was driven off Earth. The inscriptions only talk about mighty victories, without naming anything we could use to determine the time period or location."

"But would they mention a 'sky chariot' as a grave gift?" Sam asked. That seemed a bit… Odd.

"If the man buried here was a great warrior, he could have passed into myth, and so the grave inscriptions would reflect that. Especially if the grave was built several years after his death."

"Or her death," Adora said.

"Ah… The iconography used here, and the culture of Ancient Egypt, makes it very unlikely that this would be a woman's grave," Daniel said. "Ancient Egypt was a patriarchal culture. Women wouldn't have been praised as great warriors."

Sam pressed her lips together. On Etheria, this kind of sexism didn't exist. She wasn't about to immigrate, but it was nice to know that not every world had copied Earth's cultures.

"Wasn't their culture installed by the Goa'uld?" Bow asked with a frown.

"We don't actually know if the Goa'uld decided to take over an existing culture by impersonating their gods, or if they installed the culture posing as gods," Daniel explained.

"Well, how about we check?" the Colonel suggested. "I mean the ship. We can rob the grave afterwards."

"Colonel O'Neill!" Salah gasped.

"I was joking," the Colonel told him. "But we will have to check the sarcophagus as well for any Naquadah items." He grinned. "So, technically, we will be grave robbers."

Catra snorted, but the others weren't amused, Sam could tell. Shaking her head, she turned back to examining the wall with Entrapta.

Her research partner - she wouldn't call them 'science buddies', especially not since that was Entrapta's term for Hordak - hadn't paid much attention to the discussion about Egyptian beliefs. She was waving her multi-purpose tool around and noting down numbers.

"Are you scanning the wall's width?" Sam asked.

"Yes. But it's uniform. There's no door that was bricked up or a weaker portion - the wall was built in one piece." Entrapta frowned. "No interesting mechanism to open it."

"Sometimes, that simplifies things," Sam said.

"Simple is boring."

But boring was often quite nice. You couldn't really do proper research if you constantly had to fight for your life. "If we don't want to risk explosives, we could dig through the wall with a jackhammer," Sam suggested.

"A jackhammer?" Entrapta turned to look at the Colonel.

"It's the name for a powered tool that combines a hammer with a chisel," Sam explained with a smile. "It has nothing to do with the Colonel."

"Ah." Entrapta nodded. "But that would take time. We could have Adora slice through the wall."

"Yeah, that would be best," Catra cut in - the woman had literally ears like a cat, Sam reminded herself. "Quick and dirty."

"Hey!"

Sam shook her head with a wry smile. But the Etherians were correct - Adora's sword would make short work of the wall. "We should drill through first to check for traps," she cautioned.

"Yes!"

Carefully drilling through solid stone took some time, but they were now quite used to it. After a few minutes, they were through - and had avoided triggering an explosion. She sighed softly with relief. They had scanned for any trigger or suspicious device and hadn't found anything, but Sam knew that there was always the possibility that they had missed something - no one and no technology was perfect, and Sam was pretty sure that magic wasn't perfect either.

"We're through!" Entrapta announced as Sam picked up a camera to push through the hole.

It took a bit of finagling, but Sam was an old hand at that. The thin cone of the lamp attached to the camera cut through the darkness on the other side of the wall, and Sam drew a sharp breath. That form…

"It's a Death Glider!" Daniel whispered. "And it's not a wooden or clay copy!"

It wasn't - but, as Sam realised quickly as she let the flashlight pane over the craft, it wasn't a working Death Glider. There were obvious signs of damage. And of wear and tear far beyond the usual.

"They took a wreck and buried it with him!" Daniel exclaimed.

"What a waste," the Colonel commented.

Sam glanced at Daniel and shook her head before her friend could try to correct the Colonel.

"A spaceship?" Colonel Salah asked. Sam saw his eyes widen.

"A wreck," the Colonel corrected him. "Which we will be taking with us."

The Egyptian stared at him.

"That's what the United Nations Security Council decided," Daniel reminded Salah. "All alien technology found on Earth is to be recovered and put under the control of the United Nations."

"Egypt is a member of the United Nations," Salah objected. "We can keep it safe for the Security Council's final decision."

"Yeah… I don't think so," the Colonel said, shaking his head. "You don't have a good record when it comes to keeping alien technology safe, sorry."

Sam suppressed a sigh at the Colonel's very much not apologetic grin. The Colonel was a great officer - brave, smart, caring - but he wasn't a diplomat. Hordak nodding in obvious agreement wasn't helping any, either.

*****​

"You seriously think we'll leave the ship here? After your capital almost blew up?" Catra shook her head. She'd seen less ridiculous proposals by Kyle during cadet training.

Khaled cringed at the reminder, but Salah frowned. "That was sabotage."

"Sabotage you should've prevented," Catra retorted. "I would say that disproves your claim that you can keep the ship safe."

"Yes," Glimmer agreed. "We can't risk another such explosion."

"We don't know what or who caused the explosion," Bow added. "And so it seems best to move the ship to a safer place."

Like, anywhere but Egypt, Catra thought.

"Moving it may set off a bomb," Khaled pointed out.

"Carter is the best expert for alien technology on Earth," O'Neill said.

Catra was tempted to argue that Entrapta was technically on Earth as well but held her tongue. The faster they got this settled, the faster they could leave this place. Hordak must share her thoughts since he didn't comment either.

"So, yeah, we'll be taking the ship with us," O'Neill repeated himself. "Before someone blows it up for whatever reason."

"And how will you move it?" Salah asked with a sneer. "You need our cranes and heavy machinery for that!"

"Nope!" O'Neill grinned again. "We've got all the heavy lifting we need here." He pointed at Adora, who nodded, then blinked.

"Hey!"

Catra giggled at her lover's expression. And at the blinking, shocked faces of the Egyptians.

They really had no idea about Adora's power.

"So, let's cut our way in," O'Neill said.

"Wait! Let's take a few more pictures. Just for safety's sake!" Daniel stepped forward and started taking pictures of the wall with his camera.

"Actually, Sir, if we have to move the craft anyway, we might as well go in through the roof," Carter suggested.

"After we checked for boobytraps there," O'Neill replied. "And we best do that from the inside."

"So, let's cut the door open!" Entrapta hefted a large, vaguely weapon-like tool. One of her cutting lasers, Catra realised. "We'll make a real door out of the fake door! In fact, if we had heavy-duty hinges, we could make a door we can open and close."

"Let's focus on securing the ship," Carter said. Before Entrapta started turning the tomb into a working hangar.

Cutting along the lines of the fake door would take a while, Catra knew. "I'm going to get some fresh air," she announced, wrinkling her nose."And I don't want to get dust on my fur."

Glimmer snorted in return, and Adora nodded after a moment, but the Egyptians and Daniel were probably fooled.

Outside, she spotted a dozen guards - she couldn't tell if they were the same who had been with Khaled when Darla had landed - surrounding the site. No heavy weapons, though. No tanks, no APCs. And about half of the soldiers were staring at her instead of keeping an eye out for threats.

Then again, she thought, I am one of the bigger threats here, so I guess I can't blame them for that.

She stretched, just to make it believable, then started a light jog up the slope, towards Darla. A soldier on top of the slope moved as if he wanted to block her way, but another held him back. Grinning, she waved at them and then sped up, racing towards Darla. She didn't go on all four, though - it was always better to keep some ace up your sleeve, as Daniel had explained the saying.

Which was another reason for her quick trip back to Darla. She entered the ship - Darla extended the ramp as she approached - and went to the weapons locker. It contained both Shock rods and staves, some of them Horde issue and some that were probably spares in case Glimmer broke her own staff over the head of someone who annoyed her too much.

Chuckling at the idea, she grabbed a Horde-style staff and left the ship again.

"Ah, you remembered that you should never enter a dungeon without your trusty ten-foot pole?" O'Neill asked when Catra rejoined them. Judging by his grin, that was a joke she wasn't supposed to get.

"Jack!" Daniel shook his head. "He's referring to Dungeons and Dragons where the players can use poles to check for traps."

"Your miniature game!" Bow beamed. "We really should play a game together!"

Catra frowned, and Adora and Glimmer groaned. Bow was a little too enthusiastic about this. But she wouldn't shoot him down - she'd leave that to Glimmer.

So she grinned and twirled her staff in her hand. "I just wanted a few more options if we're facing something that I don't want to get too close to."

Fortunately, Entrapta announced that they were through the door, and people got serious again. Catra really didn't want to talk about miniatures.

*****​

Jack O'Neill was really glad for Carter and Entrapta's timing. The last thing he wanted to do in the middle of an ancient tomb was talk about Dungeons and Dragons. Especially with an enthusiastic fan - Jack really should have known better than to crack a D&D joke. Sometimes, he played himself.

But now he got to watch Adora show off again as she grabbed the cut-out 'door' and pulled, slowly dragging the massive slab of stone out of the wall. It wasn't the first time he saw it - she had done the same to the door into this chamber - but it was still a sight to see. Like a comic book hero come alive.

He blinked and then shook his head to push the picture of Adora in a Supergirl outfit away. Besides, the woman couldn't fly, and he preferred Batman, anyway. You didn't need superpowers to defeat an enemy; just skill and smarts and some luck. Like… No, not going there.

He felt a slight draft of air as the door was pushed to the side - without breaking apart, as he had half-expected - and they could enter the second chamber, then held back Daniel; Carter was too sensible to rush in. "Let the magical girl enter first, Daniel," he told his friend. "She can take a hit from a tank gun - you can't."

That made Catra snort and the two Egyptians goggle at them. Probably revising their estimates of the aliens? That would be a good thing. The sooner the rest of Earth realised just how powerful the Etherians were - and how dangerous the Goa'uld were - the better. Jack was heartily sick of all the posturing and denial.

Why couldn't the politicians not simply trust them? Just because they had kept the Stargate a secret for so long? He snorted and pushed the thought away; he was here for a mission, not to think about politics.

Adora was already entering the room with the wrecked Death Glider, so Jack followed her, ignoring the way Carter frowned at him. He led from the front, damn it, and he was responsible for his team!

The room wasn't much larger than the ship - probably literally built around it before the sand buried it or something. No sign of any traps, but that didn't mean anything.

"I don't detect any Naquadah outside the ship," Entrapta said behind him - he could see the tips of her hair tendrils move just inside his field of vision.

"No sign of any power in use," Carter added. "Not in the wreck or the walls."

Well, that made things look a little safer.

Jack took a step to the side as the two women passed him and started to examine the ship, followed by Bow and Daniel. Hordak, though, stayed back, watching the Egyptians. And the entrance to the tomb. Well, Jack couldn't blame him for that.

"This looks like battle damage. Staff weapons, probably," Entrapta said.

"Yes. There aren't any signs of any attempt to repair it. Maybe it was damaged and abandoned during the rebellion?" Carter speculated.

"They recovered it to entomb it here, though," Daniel objected. "So, either this happened after the rebellion - and why would the victorious rebels honour a follower of Ra like this? - or Ra's forces recovered the ship during the rebellion but then spent the time to entomb it. Which also seems unlikely. No, based on the information so far, I think this tomb predates the rebellion!"

"But would the head snake really sacrifice a ship like that?" Jack asked. Ra hadn't struck him as a guy who cared about honouring his followers like that.

"If it was irreparable, he might have felt the gesture worth it - such an honour would likely have helped tie his guards to him," Daniel said. "Oh! If this happened during Ra's reign on Earth, then this might be a Jaffa's grave! On Earth!"

Jack glanced at Teal'c, who was looking at the ship, then back at the sarcophagus. His friend was hard to read normally, and right now, Jack couldn't tell what he was thinking at all. Teal'c's expression looked like stone.

He cleared his throat. "So, is it repairable?"

"Anything is technically repairable as long as you are willing to spend the resources," Entrapta said. "So, even if the engine and electronics are gone, we could replace them, I think."

"But it would probably not be cost-effective," Carter objected. "If we are basically rebuilding a ship, we might as well build a model more suited to our purposes."

Jack nodded and suppressed the urge to make a Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica joke. Even though flying an X-Wing or a Viper would be a dream come true. But Daniel would never let him hear the end of it. And Carter would be worse - she might even design such a ship… "So, how damaged is it?" he asked.

"Well…" Entrapta cocked her head to the side, visor sliding down over her face.

"The engine is damaged, but the damage doesn't seem too extensive," Carter said.

"Yes. But the control system… all the crystals have been removed. Or destroyed. The ship is basically braindead," Entrapta added. "Can you lift it a little, Adora?"

"Sure!"

"I don't think the ship had much of a brain." Bow pointed at a wrecked part. "That doesn't seem to be able to house a crystal big enough to grant a personality."

"Right. Poor thing." Entrapta sighed. "We'll do better when we rebuild it! And we need to name it!" She tilted her head to the other side. "I'm thinking… Clarice!"

"Clarice?" Bow asked.

"She looks like a Clarice. And sad."

Jack wasn't going to ask about that. Not at all. But he would have to impress upon Hammond that Entrapta wasn't allowed to name any ship Earth might be building with her help. Serving on a battleship named 'Hannah' or 'Sophie' would be simply embarrassing. Ah, well, time to…

"Oops."

He froze. That wasn't something he wanted to hear from anyone, least of all Entrapta.

*****​

"'Oops'?" Adora froze in the middle of lifting the left wing of the ship. If Entrapta said 'Oops', that often meant 'Run!'.

"Moving the ship just started something that moves - it's not magic or electricity-based, or we would have detected it," Entrapta explained. "Don't move while we analyse it!"

"Ok…" Adora clenched her teeth. The ship - a Death Glider - wasn't particularly heavy - not nearly as heavy as a tank, and she could throw those - but she didn't have the best leverage, and the metal felt a little… not quite slippery, but fragile. If she gripped it too hard, it might bend. Or break.

And then Entrapta crawled under the ship, her hair fanning out. "Oh… it's a purely mechanical mechanism! Fascinating!"

"Yeah, fascinating. And what does it do?" Jack asked.

"We don't know yet, Sir," Sam replied - she was crouching down to take a look at the underside of the ship as well. "But it's a clockwork mechanism."

"And it is still working after all those years?" Daniel, like Entrapta, sounded more intrigued than afraid. "That's… actually a point against my theory that this tomb dates back to the time of Ra's reign on Earth."

"Don't sound so disappointed," Jack told him. "Maybe you catch a break, and we all get blown up before anyone can reveal your mistake."

"Jack!"

Adora heard Catra snort.

"It looks like the mechanism is connected to a small container made out of Naquadah," Sam said.

"And the mechanism is made out of Naquadah," Entrapta added.

"And what's in the container?" Catra asked.

"We can't tell yet," Sam replied. "The container is shielding the contents."

"We should be able to calibrate the scanner to get around that," Entrapta said. "I guess we don't want to open it before we know what's in it."

"Yeah, I don't think we want to risk releasing whatever the Goa'uld might have put into a Pandora's Box."

"What's a Pandora's Box?" Adora asked.

"It's a myth - a container that held all the evils of the world, which were released because the holder, Pandora, got curious," Daniel explained. "This could be a trap to deal with grave robbers."

"But it's not open yet?" Glimmer asked.

"Not as far as we can tell," Bow replied from under the wing - Adora could only see his legs.

"If it's a trap, why didn't it trigger already?" Glimmer knelt down next to Bow.

"It must have some leeway or delay - a security margin - so it's not triggered by an Earthquake," Daniel speculated.

"Yes. The clockwork mechanism might be a way to introduce a delay," Sam agreed. "But it's still working, if slowly."

"So we've got a time bomb," Jack said. "Can you defuse it?"

"We should be able to, Sir. But you might want to retreat to a safe distance," Sam told him.

"If it's a nuclear or Naquadah-enhanced bomb, there might be no safe distance," Daniel pointed out.

And someone had to hold up the ship so they could work, Adora knew.

"Though if there's a delay, then there's also a safety," Entrapta said.

"Yes," Sam agreed. "If removing the weight of the ship triggers the mechanism, replacing it should stop it - so an Earthquake shaking the ship would not trigger it after the ship comes to a rest again."

"Yes. So… let's see which of the studs sticking up would do that." Entrapta wriggled fully under the ship.

"Or I could just put the ship down," Adora suggested.

"But then we couldn't get at the mechanism or get the ship out!" Entrapta retorted from below. "Don't worry - it's a simple mechanism once you see it."

"And it's still running?" Catra asked.

"Yes."

That wasn't reassuring. Not to Adora. But Sam, Bow and Entrapta were all underneath the ship now. Even Hordak had stopped standing guard and was using a scanner to analyse the ship.

"This looks good," Entrapta said.

"But it's not connected to the mechanism according to the scanner," Bow objected.

"Right. It might be a decoy then. Too good to be true."

"How about this?" Sam asked.

"Oh, yes. That… see the strut there? And the lever?"

"Yes."

"Now, how do we depress it enough to trigger the failsafe?"

Adora drew a sharp breath. The failsafe? Like back in the Heart of Etheria? No. This wasn't a magical superweapon about to destroy the world and the local sector. This was just a bomb or something.

But it would kill all her friends anyway if it went off.

"I'm pushing it down… Or not," Bow said. "It seems stuck."

"No, I think the mechanism just needs more power to trigger."

More power? But Adora had to keep holding the ship.

"We need leverage. Catra! Your staff!"

And now Catra crawled under the wing as well!

"Put it here… yes… now we can… Teal'C? If you could help push the staff down?"

"I shall try." He started to push the end of the staff down, bracing himself against the wing Adora was holding.

"Something went click," Catra said.

"That's the failsafe. Now we need to weld or solder the clockworks together to keep it stuck," Sam said.

"Aw. That'll ruin it. And after thousands of years of working perfectly."

Adora gritted her teeth. It wasn't Entrapta's fault that she was like that. But sometimes, it was really annoying.

At least they had defused whatever trap this was.

*****​

"Do we really have to destroy the mechanism?" Entrapta asked.

Samantha Carter suppressed a sigh. While she could understand Entrapta's stance towards destroying such an old piece of technology - she wasn't fond of that herself - she would rather not take any risk when it came to traps laid by - possibly - Goa'uld. Not after seeing the crater near Cairo.

"We could block it." Bow, obviously, was a bit more prone to taking risks.

"That would likely damage it as well, at least if we wanted to ensure that the mechanism doesn't work any more," Sam pointed out.

"Well… what would be easier to repair?" Bow asked.

"Using something to block the clockworks," Entrapta said. "The clockworks can't exert too much force, but we should probably use Naquadah alloys to be sure it won't just be crushed and spat out."

"Yes!" Bow nodded, almost hitting his head on the wing above him.

"Or we can destroy the shaft that links the mechanism to the container," Hordak suggested. "We only have to go through the stone here." He pointed at a slab of stone in the ground.

"Technically, that would destroy the mechanism as well, since that's part of it," Bow pointed out.

"Are you arguing whether or not you should damage a trap that might kill us all if it triggered?" the Colonel sounded incredulous.

Sam felt herself blush and was glad she was currently hidden from sight by the craft above her.

"Jack! This is a historical artefact that might give us crucial clues about the origin of this tomb!" Daniel, predictably, protested.

"I vote for 'destroy it to be sure'," Catra cut in.

"Can we move the ship now?" Adora asked.

"Oh, sorry - I forgot about that," Entrapta replied. "Yes, you can move it to the side."

Adora grunted, and then the entire ship tilted forward, sliding a little over the floor before the nose was stopped by the wall. Then the woman turned it to the side and put it down. "I need some better grip to carry it out."

"We can get some cables to make a harness," Catra suggested.

"Can we stop the bomb or whatever it is, first?" the Colonel asked. "Like, priorities, people!"

"Alright… let's uncover the mechanism first," Bow said.

That didn't take them long.

"Oh! It's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship!"

"It reminds me a little of the Antikythera mechanism," Daniel commented. "Although that is thousands of years younger."

"And the underlying mechanics would demand a similar construction," Sam pointed out. "This does not have to mean anything."

"But it would explain how such a mechanism appeared almost out of the blue," Daniel insisted.

The Colonel coughed behind them.

"Well, let's cut the shaft - that's easier to repair than the clockworks," Bow repeated his idea.

Cutting Naquadah alloys was always a bit of an effort, complicated by having to reach down alongside the clockworks, but Adora transformed her sword into something like a slim sabre, and not even Naquadah could offer much resistance to a magical blade. Or a blade made of magic - Sam made a mental note to ask the princess if she could analyse it.

"Yes!" Entrapta's hair wriggled into the opening and lifted the mechanism out.

"Now we need to secure the container with the payload," Sam reminded the others.

"And find out what would have happened if we hadn't stopped the mechanism, yes." Entrapta nodded in agreement.

With a bit more help from Adora, who got teased by Catra about being a nice tool, and by the Colonel for having a 'magical swiss army sword', the container was exposed. It was made from Naquadah as well, and…

"This is sealed very tightly," Sam commented. "Airtight according to the scan." And, in her experience, people didn't do that unless they needed such a seal.

"Yes. Whatever is inside must not have been allowed to get out."

"How reassuring," the Colonel commented.

"Probably a biological or chemical weapon, based upon your comment earlier," Hordak said, nodding at Daniel.

Who paled a little. "The curse… if this contains poison…"

"...then we might not be dealing with some poisonous spores, but an actual Goa'uld bioweapon," Sam finished the thought for her friend.

"A bioweapon?" Salah blurted out - Sam had almost forgotten that the Egyptians were there. Sloppy, she berated herself.

"That would be the worst case," she told the officer. "It could also be a chemical weapon. Or merely a poisonous substance or a pathogen available to ancient Egypt."

"But since that container was made out of Naquadah alloy, we shouldn't assume it's something harmless," Daniel added.

"Well, let's calibrate the scanner and see if we can find out what it is without opening it!" Entrapta said.

That took a few minutes, and the scan itself took a bit of time as well, but the results…

"There's definitely something in there," Bow said.

"And it's under slight pressure. If the lid opens, it would quickly escape into the air," Samanta said. Ideal for a trap using poison gas. Or a biological weapon.

"But you can't tell what it is?" The Colonel asked,

"No, sorry - we need to take a sample for that," Entrapta told him.

"No! The risk is too great!" Salah protested.

"Not here," Entrapta told him. "We'll probably do it in orbit in a safe lab."

Sam suppressed the slight jealousy she felt at hearing that. An orbital lab would allow so many research projects…

*****​

"Careful, Emily - don't break the seals!"

"Yeah, be very careful," Catra muttered under her breath as Entrapta pep talked the bot carrying the container. "Or at least if you do, don't break your hull." The sealed hull of the bot should contain any poison or pathogen.

"Catra! Align the doors!" Adora yelled from below.

Right. Catra sighed and squinted down the ramp. "A little to the left, Bow," she spoke into the commlink. "The other left," she added when the ship drifted to the right. "OK, a bit more… stop!" She checked again, then yelled. "It's alright, you can lift!"

Down below in the tomb - now with the roof removed - Adora pulled on the makeshift pulley, braced against the floor, and the Death Glider - and wasn't that an ominous name for a ship? - started to rise. A minute later, it was hanging in front of the lowered ramp of Darla, and Catra quickly attached a few more ropes to pull it inside. Well, far enough so it would rest on the ramp - Adora could do the rest once she climbed out of the tomb.

"Well, I can't fault the efficiency of using brute force." O'Neill thought he was funny.

Catra snorted. "It's not exactly brute force - Adora's not simply carrying the thing inside." That would have been Plan B.

"It's pure muscle power. Brute force," the man insisted.

"Whatever," Catra said, stretching. "It works."

"Can't argue with that," he agreed. "And it impressed the local yokels."

"Aren't you supposed to be diplomatic?" She raised her eyebrows at him.

"What? They can't hear me - they're both still in the tomb, arguing with Daniel about the sarcophagus." O'Neill chuckled. "They don't know how stubborn Daniel can be, for all his niceness. Although if you could have claimed that there was some Naquadah in the sarcophagus, we wouldn't have to argue about taking the thing with us," he added with a nod at Entrapta.

"I won't lie about data!" Entrapta retorted with a frown. "How can we expect people to trust us if we lie to them?"

Well, as long as they didn't realise that they were lied to, their trust wasn't affected. But any lie tended to be revealed sooner or later.

"It would have been a white lie," O'Neill insisted. "And we don't know if the sarcophagus doesn't contain something dangerous, so it wouldn't have been a real lie."

"But we didn't detect anything dangerous!" she protested.

"Your scanner couldn't identify the contents of this little surprise, could they?"

"I said so."

"Let it go," Catra told him, baring her teeth at him for a moment. Entrapta wasn't one of his subordinates. And she didn't deserve to be berated for being herself, instead of some… someone like that traitor Double-Trouble.

He met her eyes for a moment, then sighed. "Sorry. I'm just sick of all the talking when the end result is clear."

She snorted again - she could understand the feeling.

"I thought the real problem started when you stop talking," Entrapta commented.

Catra grimaced. That was… not wrong.

"Not always," O'Neill said. "Sometimes, too much talking and not enough doing is the problem."

"Sounds like that's mostly an Earth problem," Catra couldn't resist saying.

He frowned at her. "I'm sure you had your pointless meetings as well."

"Not too many when I was in charge of running things," she retorted.

"Well, we did have a lot of talks in the Alliance," Entrapta said. "But I wouldn't call them pointless."

"What are you doing?"

Catra turned. Adora was standing on the ramp, looking at them with narrowed eyes. She was a little dusty. Or was that sandy?

"We're discussing whether too much talking or too little taking is the bigger problem," Entrapta told her with a smile. "What do you think?"

"I think not enough thinking is the problem," Adora shot back. "Now help me pull the ship fully into Darla."

Well, if she asked like that… Catra grinned and went forward to help her lover.

It took them five minutes and two almost broken ropes, but they managed to help Adora move the Death Glider into the hold of the ship and secure it there with the magnetic clamps. Adora sighed. "Finally!" She wiped the back of her hand over her forehead as if she had sweated.

"And now we can go and pick up the sarcophagus. And by 'we', I mean 'you'," Catra told her.

Adora groaned again. "Why is it that I'm always doing the heavy lifting?"

"Because you're the logical choice for that," Entrapta told her with a smile. "None of us can lift as much as you can."

"I know that," Adora said.

"Oh. Why did you ask then?"

"It was a rhetorical question," Adora told her. "Let's go and grab the coffin."

Catra followed her down the ramp into the tomb. Her ears twitched as she heard Daniel's voice before she saw him: "...and I assure you, you will get the sarcophagus back should we determine that it's not of alien origin."

"That is not good enough. This belongs to Egypt - it's our history!" Salah argued.

"Not if it's of alien origin."

They entered the grave chamber. "He's still arguing," O'Neill muttered, and Catra couldn't tell if he meant Daniel or Salah.

Not that it mattered. Adora harrumphed and picked up the sarcophagus without a word, then turned and carried it out.

Catra flashed her fangs at the Egyptian. "Thank you for your cooperation!" she quoted one of the movies she had watched.

*****​

Above the East Mediterranean Sea, August 19th, 1998 (Earth Time)

...dozens, maybe hundreds, dead or wounded in the so-called 'crater riot' - it's hard to tell, with thousands being injured or killed in the blast that almost destroyed Cairo. The Egyptian authorities didn't answer questions at the press conference and merely released a statement that the threat to the country had been handled.

Jack O'Neill didn't wince when he watched the news on the bridge of Darla. He had expected that once he had seen the size of the riot - and that the people were attacking a line of soldiers, not cops prepared for riot control.

But the Etherians hadn't expected that. Well, they had seen the start, before the trapped tomb kind of took priority, but they seemed still shocked. Those on the bridge, at least - Entrapta and Bow were with Carter in the hold, analysing the Death Glider. And, hopefully, keeping Entrapta from tinkering with the Naquadah container before they were in a secure lab in orbit.

"This is…" Glimmer shook her head. "Why did they keep attacking? Why didn't they break after the warning shots?"

"Or after the first volleys from the soldiers?" Catra asked.

"They showed a much stronger morale than expected," Hordak commented. "I will have to revise my estimate of the quality of troops from Earth."

Well, some probably were just surprised. Just as Jack was surprised that Hordak wasn't with Entrapta in the hold.

"Hordak!" Glimmer snapped. "Those weren't soldiers - those were civilians!"

"Exactly." The alien nodded. "That means a trained soldier should be even fiercer." He cocked his head to the side. "Perhaps the sheer number of people on the planet shaped a culture that considered lives expendable in war?"

Jack clenched his teeth. This was…

"Well, in the past, similar sentiments were quite common in certain cultures, but as history proved, societies where soldiers were considered expendable tended to be less stable than those who cared for all their members," Daniel said. "And these days, most countries try to avoid taking casualties."

"Human wave attacks went out of style fifty years ago," Jack quipped.

Hordak turned to face him. "That seems to contradict some of the movies we saw about the last protracted conflict your country was involved in."

Jack sighed. "Those are movies, fiction, not historical documents."

"Ah. Still, wouldn't the existence of such fiction indicate a lingering tendency for such tactics?"

Jack looked at Daniel. Cultural clashes were his friend's field. Jack was the expert for the other kind of clashes.

Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose and nodded. "It would generally indicate an attempt to portray the enemy as unsophisticated, uncaring and cruel towards their own people."

"Ah. Propaganda." Hordak nodded.

Daniel opened his mouth, blinked, then nodded as well. "Effectively, yes. It reinforces cultural stereotypes."

Jack snorted - softly; the pictures of the carnage in Egypt still played on the screen. "That's quite the condemnation of Hollywood."

"The movie industry as a whole does tend to cater to the target audience's cultural values," Daniel replied.

"You must be a very violent society, then," Glimmer commented. "Judging by your entertainment."

Jack bit down on a flippant remark about not doing blood sports any more since the Romans Empire fell. "We also have lots of wholesome family entertainment," he said instead. "And we have the Simpsons."

"Which often feature violence in an exaggerated form used for comedic effect," Daniel cut in. Jack glared at him, but his friend shrugged. "It's true."

"Well, we saw some of those shows as well," Glimmer said. "They seemed rather… formulaic was the word, I believe."

"Yes. And they were also very 'conservative'," Catra added. Though she used the word as if it were an insult. Well, if they had seen some of the favourite TV shows of the conservatives, it probably was an insult for her.

"Oh, yes. Such shows tend to be rather conservative," Daniel agreed. "There are exceptions, but most reinforce current values, often by portraying an idealised family. Some scientists suggested using the portrayal of alternative lifestyles in daytime TV as an indicator to gauge how progressive a society is. This kind of approach does seem to be…"

Jack sighed with relief when Daniel's explanation was interrupted by an incoming call from Stargate Command. It was Hammond. "Colonel O'Neill. Queen Glimmer. Princess Adora. Dr Jackson. We've received your preliminary report."

"We haven't had the time to work on a more comprehensive report," Daniel said as if Hammond would expect a dissertation in a day.

"I'm aware of that. Good work." Hammond nodded.

Jack shrugged, "We just went in and got the stuff."

Hammond snorted. "I'm aware of the situation on the ground. Egypt already filed a protest with the Security Council, demanding access to the 'cultural relics taken from Egypt'."

"Well, some of the best experts on ancient Egypt are Egyptian historians and archaeologists," Daniel said. "They could help with analysing the recent find. Just cross-checking assumptions would facilitate the translations."

"I'm sure that will be taken into account, Dr Jackson," Hammond replied. "Though recent events also have raised some security concerns."

Daniel blinked, so Jack added: "They need to be vetted."

"Oh."

"But I am not calling because of that," Hammond went on. "As of half an hour ago, Honduras formally requested assistance with recovering an alien artefact in their country."

Jack blinked, then pressed his lips together. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this, Sir?"

"Because we've been monitoring their communications, and they lost contact with the soldiers sent to 'secure' the artefacts. After incoherent screaming about the 'dead walking again' according to our interpreters."

Jack groaned. "Don't tell me we're dealing with zombies, Sir." Couldn't they catch a break for once?

*****​

 

[Dur'id the Druid]

I don't think I'm the one who has trouble taking criticism here.

Click to shrink...

And that's just how it goes. Your right, others are wrong or irrelevant, you can go on very publicly about why. That is how the mind and world of Starfox5 works.

 

[Tiktog]

And that's just how it goes. Your right, others are wrong or irrelevant, you can go on very publicly about why. That is how the mind and world of Starfox5 works.

Click to shrink...

Seems to be the same for you.

 

[An_absolute_disaster]

A part of this story i find really cool and eye-opening is, essentially, the collision between the social progress of the 2020s and 1990s. It does point out how far the mainstream has, after all, shifted. Things are better now, and that's good.
It's also frustrating and satisfying in equal measure to see the Etherians trying (and mostly succeeding) to do what is right despite the gridlock.
Thanks for the chapter!

 

[Dur'id the Druid]

Seems to be the same for you.

Click to shrink...

I just have very little tolerance for this passive-aggressive narcissist BS. NEVER accept a narcissist's worldview/reasoning or belive the lies they tell to justify themselves.

Also this particular one has called me out across two websites two diffrent stories. Endlessly lectures on why critique of their stories and themselves should not even exsist, but acting truly confused and upset when it does anyway.

 

[Tiktog]

I just have very little tolerance for this passive-aggressive narcissist BS. NEVER accept a narcissist's worldview/reasoning or belive the lies they tell to justify themselves.

Also this particular one has called me out across two websites two diffrent stories. Endlessly lectures on why critique of their stories and themselves should not even exsist, but acting truly confused and upset when it does anyway.

Click to shrink...

Ignore him then? Because I can only see what you're doing and it seems more the other way around. You came into this one and used it as a soapbox about how shitty Seacat is. You had some good stuff to say about this one but comparing the two in the thread for one was not necessary.

 

[Starfox5]

Ignore him then? Because I can only see what you're doing and it seems more the other way around. You came into this one and used it as a soapbox about how shitty Seacat is. You had some good stuff to say about this one but comparing the two in the thread for one was not necessary.

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Comparing the two stories was what I asked for since the criticism made no sense to me. The whole line about how I supposedly write this story differently was weird since I don't write this story differently - I started writing this story the day I finished Seacat, and I didn't change my writing style. So, I wanted to know what the criticism was based on. Sadly, what was brought up in support for the criticism didn't really point out anything that was worth heeding since teenagers acting differently than experienced adults is kind of what I am going for here. Then again, I don't think reading a few chapters and then making assumptions about future plotlines and then treating those assumptions as fact is a valid form of criticism. (Nor are insults a good way to make people heed your criticism - quite the contrary, actually.)

 

[Dur'id the Druid]

the criticism made no sense to me.

supposedly write this story differently was weird

the criticism didn't really point out anything that was worth heeding

I don't think ___ a valid form of criticism.

Nor are insults a good way to make people heed your criticism

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You do realize how many times you've taken one minor bit of what I said and use that to reject everything else I say? You do realize what your do, right? You can't be this unaware.

You just can't seem to respond to negative critique without denying, demeaning, and belittling it, can you? While also willfully ignoring the point I'm trying to communicate. I assumed you don't do this on purpose, but the more I see you do this passive-aggressive narcissist crap the less I belive that.



That didn't happen.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad.
And if it was, that's not a big deal.
And if it is, it is not my fault.
And if it was, I didn't mean it.
And if I did. You deserved it.

 

[Starfox5]

I answered your "biggest example" (so, it's not a "minor bit"). I asked for more examples to support your claims. You didn't deliver any. What are those points of yours I ignored?

 

[An_absolute_disaster]

On another note, I'm curious about the Earth-ian perspective/investigation into Etherian agriculture and economy and stuff. I realize that it might be a case of "careful what you wish for" but I feel like it was kind of cut short by them having to leave ASAP.
IDK, on the one hand I'm curious about the take you'll go for, and how trade between the planets might impact the different economies. On the other, it might end up being really boring. And the return of magic to Earth (if and when) will probably bork everything anyway.
Well as long as you keep writing, we'll see.

 

[Dur'id the Druid]

I answered your "biggest example" (so, it's not a "minor bit"). I asked for more examples to support your claims. You didn't deliver any. What are those points of yours I ignored?

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So you can do this narcissistic deny, belittle, and dismiss routine again? Lets not, m'kay? Just stop embarrassing both of us.

Seriously, get help. The world does not need another afore mentioned Amy and Sammy or XXXbloodyrists666XXX. You are not yet as bad as they are - YET.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

So you can do this narcissistic deny, belittle, and dismiss routine again? Lets not, m'kay? Just stop embarrassing both of us.

Seriously, get help. The world does not need another afore mentioned Amy and Sammy or XXXbloodyrists666XXX. You are not yet as bad as they are - YET.

Click to shrink...

Have you considered that you're bad at offering criticism in a way that's constructive? The way things are said can have as much of an effect as what is said.

Telling people their work is the same as Care Bears or that they're embarrassing themselves and need mental help is not going to get anyone to take you seriously, it's going to make them write you off as a crank and dismiss any criticisms, even valid ones.

 

[Dur'id the Druid]

Have you considered that you're bad at offering criticism in a way that's constructive? The way things are said can have as much of an effect as what is said.

Telling people their work is the same as Care Bears or that they're embarrassing themselves and need mental help is not going to get anyone to take you seriously, it's going to make them write you off as a crank and dismiss any criticisms, even valid ones.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, must be phrased positively and politically correct.

No not really. That's not how things work. And people that become this mental and manipulative, especially after asking for honesty don't get my respect. Nor am I expecting respect from those who are more concerned about tone, optics, and 'positive' feedback over actual substance and reality.

 

[Starfox5]

Yeah, must be phrased positively and politically correct.

No not really. That's not how things work. And people that become this mental and manipulative, especially after asking for honesty don't get my respect. Nor am I expecting respect from those who are more concerned about tone, optics, and 'positive' feedback over actual substance and reality.

Click to shrink...

I asked you to provide examples to support your criticism. You evaded and posted insults instead.

That's not how criticism works.

 

[Lightxdarkwing]

For pity's sake. If you don't like the story go and write one that you like better. Personally I liked Seacat, but prefer this one. I like some stories by this author but not others, I don't insist they change the ones I don't like, I just don't read them!

 

[An_absolute_disaster]

Ok, that's it. I don't need this negativity in my life. Fully half of my alerts are just this argument right now. I'm unwatching the thread for the moment. I'll check back in a month or so.

Dur'id, please, stop arguing and leave the thread. None of your critique, constructive or no, is going to land. Whether that's on you or not is irrelevant, the bridge is burned no matter who set it on fire. (And I can't really ask the author to leave their own thread, now can I?)

 

[Starfox5]

Ok, that's it. I don't need this negativity in my life. Fully half of my alerts are just this argument right now. I'm unwatching the thread for the moment. I'll check back in a month or so.

Dur'id, please, stop arguing and leave the thread. None of your critique, constructive or no, is going to land. Whether that's on you or not is irrelevant, the bridge is burned no matter who set it on fire. (And I can't really ask the author to leave their own thread, now can I?)

Click to shrink...

Constructive criticism is going to land. But insults and unsupported claims aren't constructive. I've rewritten scenes based on feedback in this and other stories. And I've stuck to my guns with other scenes.