Chapter 5: The Third Fleet
Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)
He was getting old, Jack O'Neill thought as he got out of the still too soft bed. His back ached in a familiar way, just in different spots. A few stretches, though, and it was gone. "Rise and shine, sleepyheads!" he said.
Daniel grumbled something from where he was half-buried into his pillow, but Carter got out of bed. Jack carefully didn't watch her as she stretched in her tank top and shorts. She was his subordinate; nothing could come of anything he wasn't thinking of, anyway.
Teal'c rose from his meditation - his kelno'reem. Not that Jack saw any difference to normal meditation.
"You have the bathroom, Carter," he said. She wouldn't take as long as Daniel, and the three men could share. That it would also mean Carter wouldn't wait in her sleepwear was just a bonus.
She nodded and went into the way too luxurious bath. Whatever their hosts were, they were rich. Well, this was a royal palace. Jack had been in dirt-poor countries where most people lived in huts while their leaders lived in palaces with fleets of luxury limousines. At least the people in the streets hadn't looked like they were starving.
Daniel yawned and groped for his glasses with one hand. Jack was tempted to pull the glasses away before his friend found them, but such pranks were something you did at home base, not in the field.
"I wish I had such a bed back at Stargate Command," Daniel said as he put the glasses on his nose and got up.
"I believe similar beds are readily available for you," Teal'c told him, "according to the advertising I saw."
"I didn't mean at my home, Teal'c. I meant at my lab."
"Daniel, if we gave you a comfortable bed, you'd never leave the base," Jack told him with a grin.
"Well…" Daniel grinned. "It would be worth it. It's not as if I have much of a social life, anyway." And there vanished the grin. He was thinking of his wife again. Sha're. Who had been snaked.
Jack clenched his teeth, then forced himself to relax. No point in dwelling on that. They were still in the field. Stranded on an alien planet with potential allies. This wasn't the time or place to deal with those issues. "Well, I'll ask the general once we're back. But a bed of this size will mean you won't have much space left for your artefacts."
Daniel actually took his joke seriously for a second - he frowned before he pouted. "Very funny, Jack."
Jack chuckled. "Anyway, I'm not sure the United States Air Force will pay for a palace. We don't have the budget for it."
Daniel laughed at that and got up, rolling his shoulders. "Well, I'll just have to enjoy our stay here, then."
"Yeah, with our friendly royalty," Jack muttered before he could help himself.
And Daniel frowned at him. Damn. "Jack. This planet has a completely different culture and history. We can't judge them according to our own standards."
"Sure we can. We do the same to the Goa'uld."
"That's different," Daniel shook his head. "These people don't keep slaves. And they're willing to help us, even though they've just fought a war. You can't compare them to the Goa'uld!"
"It is not a fair comparison," Teal'c added.
Damn. "I didn't mean that they are like the Goa'uld. But I've heard 'It's another culture' before, and it generally meant that we were meant to look away when our 'allies' did something that would get them jailed in the US."
"Just as they were told to tolerate things from you that would get them jailed in their country, right?"
That was normal - the US didn't let other countries judge their soldiers. "Don't tell me that you'd prefer living under an absolute monarch instead of in a democracy," Jack said.
"I don't!" Daniel protested. "But we can't expect democracy to evolve on a planet where magic is real, and royalty has magic powers. The social dynamics are completely different."
"Just because it's logical doesn't make it right," Jack countered. "Might doesn't make right." He pressed his lips together - he knew better than most that in many places, you had no rights without might or support from the mighty. But this was more fundamental. "We don't let just soldiers vote. Or the rich."
"Not any more. But we used to. In Athens and other Greek democracies, only men could vote."
"That still doesn't mean that it's right."
"It doesn't, but we can't expect them to follow our customs," Daniel said.
"And what if they expect us to follow theirs?" Their hosts were young, after all, and convinced they knew best. "They're planning to turn Earth into a magical realm."
"Even if they manage that, that doesn't mean they'll manage to change your society. We're too advanced to revert to feudalism."
Jack hoped that his friend was right. But before he could make another point, Carter stepped into the room again. In uniform, but…
"What did you do to your hair?" Daniel asked.
Jack nodded - it looked different. Still regulation-length, but… more like a style worn by a fashion model than a soldier. Not like Carter's usual style.
Carter frowned. "I just washed it with the shampoo that was in the bathroom. That was all. When I was done, it looked like this."
"Magic hair shampoo. Now I've seen everything." Jack shook his head. He wouldn't use the shampoo. "Tell me if your hair starts moving on its own, Carter."
"Sir!"
*****
Jack O'Neill hadn't seen everything. Not by far. Standing on the perfect green grass in the palace courtyard, he was forced to admit that.
"Did someone say Swift Wind?"
Swift Wind wasn't an animal activist. He was a horse. A talking, flying horse. With a horn on his head.
"Swift Wind, these are our guests: Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson - they're not related. Samantha Carter and Teal'c," Adora said. "Everyone, this is my friend Swift Wind!"
"Your friend and loyal steed, united by a bond no one else shares!" The horse raised one hoof into the air and looked at the sky.
A talking, boasting and posing horse. They really weren't in Kansas any more. Or Jack had gone crazy and no one had told him.
"It's like the Pegasus!" Daniel whispered. Ok, Jack hadn't gone crazy.
"Actually, it's an alicorn," Carter corrected him.
"What?" Jack turned to her.
"It's from a cartoon show I had to watch when I was babysitting as a teenager. A winged unicorn is an alicorn," Carter explained, blushing slightly.
"You've seen horses like Swift Wind before?" Adora leaned in towards them.
The horse, too, perked up. "Oh, I thought I was the only one - created by She-Ra's magic, but if there are others of my kind…"
Carter shook her head. "No, no, it was just… fiction. Tales of imaginary creatures."
"Well, I'm anything but imaginary, I'll have you know." The horse threw his head back and flared his wings.
And he had been created by She-Ra's magic? Jack shook his head. "If you can do this on Earth, you'll be revered as a goddess by every teenage girl in the US."
He saw Adora grimace at that.
*****
"I don't want to be revered!" Adora blurted out. "I'm no goddess!" The clones turning to her were bad enough! She didn't want more such people following her!
"We know," Catra said. "You snore too much for that!"
Adora shot her a glare. "This isn't the time to joke! I really don't want any more followers!"
"Ah… I was joking," O'Neill said, looking puzzled. "You wouldn't really be revered as a goddess on Earth. Not literally, at least."
Adora smiled at him. That was such a relief!
Then Daniel cleared his throat. "Uh… I don't want to pry, but… did this happen before? You seemed to take this seriously."
Adora winced. "Well, the Horde clones - the clones of Horde Prime. Some of them consider me a goddess."
"'Some'." Catra snorted.
Adora glared at her again. Hadn't they agreed that they wouldn't spill more 'sensitive information' to their guests until they knew more about them and their goals? That was the reason she was always She-Ra when meeting them!
"Why would they revere you as a goddess?" Daniel asked. He tilted his head in apparent confusion.
"Well…" Adora smiled at him, though she knew it wouldn't look convincing. "They think that I killed Horde Prime, and he was the centre of their lives. So, they replaced him with me." And she couldn't tell them to get lost - who knew what they would do then?
Daniel still looked puzzled. "Well, it's not unheard of in mythology that someone took the place of a god by killing them, but… why wouldn't they take your word that you aren't a goddess?"
"Religious zealots wouldn't even listen to their god if he told them they were wrong," O'Neill said. "They'd tell him he was wrong. Or convince themselves that they heard wrong."
Daniel frowned at him. "Jack! This is obviously a serious problem! And since the Goa'uld are posing as gods, knowing more about this might give us some insight into how we can convince more of their slaves that they aren't gods."
"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.
"Especially since you didn't even kill Horde Prime. Who spread that narrative?" Daniel asked.
"Ah…" Adora bit her lower lip. How could she explain the whole situation without revealing more than she should? She had killed Horde Prime, kind of, after all. But not by herself.
"Oh, She-Ra broke his power and turned his flagship into a space plant!" Swift Wind said, throwing his head back. "And then she turned the stinky barren Fright Zone into a lush country covered with fields and forests! Perfect for grazing! It was glorious!"
Right. Adora winced again while Catra pressed a hand to her face, and Glimmer glared at Swift Wind. They hadn't briefed her friend about the need for more discretion.
"You turned his flagship into a plant?" Carter sounded… well, as if she didn't believe them. And slightly shocked.
"Well… I was channelling the magic of the Heart of Etheria, and, well, it had to go somewhere…" Adora spread her hands.
"A space plant," O'Neill repeated in a flat voice.
He didn't believe her, either, Adora realised. She frowned. It was embarrassing, but she was telling them the truth!
"Yeah," Catra spoke up. "If you watch the sky, you can catch a glimpse - it's still orbiting Etheria. And we call it a space plant since, apparently, it's still looking healthy despite months in orbit."
"But… the radiation, the vacuum, the temperature differences in space…" Carter shook her head. "That's…"
"Yeah, that's She-Ra for you," Catra said. "She doesn't do things by half."
"The magic did it!" Adora protested. She'd only had vague intentions to render the ships harmless. She hadn't planned to turn them into a giant plants!
"It does sound a little…" Daniel trailed off, grimacing.
"Well, we can show you," Adora said before she could help herself. "Darla should be able to make orbit in no time. Entrapta probably would like to give it a test ride - she's been tinkering with her."
"That's not necessary. We were merely surprised - plants don't survive in space where we are from." Daniel smiled at her.
"No, no, I insist," Adora told him.
"And don't worry, Darla hasn't crashed since her original crash, even when she had all those problems with the systems," Swift Wind added.
"Her original crash?" Carter asked.
"We recovered her wreck and restored it," Catra told the woman. "She lasted a thousand years buried in sand, so she won't break down on the next flight."
Their guests nodded at that.
"I'll call Entrapta," Bow said. "We can go over to where Darla's parked."
"Turning barren land into fertile meadows and turning weapons into plants… that certainly would be grounds for deification in our myths," Daniel said as they started walking towards the back of the palace, where Darla was parked in an enclosed courtyard.
"Swords to ploughshares, space edition." O'Neill snorted.
He didn't believe her. Even Adora could see that.
Well, he'd see.
They entered the courtyard. Darla was there, and Entrapta was working on the left engine - Adora saw her legs dangling out of the opening.
"That's certainly not a Goa'uld inspired craft," Daniel said. "And it's a thousand years old, you said?"
"At least," Adora told him. This had been Mara's spaceship.
"But it's holding up nicely - the First Ones technology is very durable," Entrapta cut in as she jumped down, her hair catching her fall. "And I've fixed the fluctuations in the engine thrust! She's all ready and eager for a trip to space!"
*****
Daniel was right, Samantha Carter knew. This ship wasn't a Goa'uld design. She couldn't see any parallels. Other than the ramp at the stern, but that was just good design. And the size of the engines… She craned her head to take a closer look at them.
"She's old but tough. And I've been upgrading her!" Entrapta said next to her. "She's now faster than a Horde frigate!"
Sam had no idea how fast a Horde frigate was. But she nodded anyway.
"And I strengthened her shields. They're not as strong as a frigate's, of course, but Darla's far smaller and more manoeuvrable, so she can avoid fire."
"Up to a point," Bow commented, looking at the engine as well. "Did you add the booster?"
"No. It, uh, kinda had some tiny problems at sustained use," Entrapta told him. "But we'll get around to fixing that as soon as the lab's fixed. Incidentally, did you know that boosters can explode like a bomb?"
Sam winced at that. As did Bow.
Entrapta went on: "I mean, it's kinda obvious, if you think about it, since they enhance the energy output of a device…" She blinked. "Oh! We need to test that with Naquadah! Once we have some."
"Uh…" Bow looked at her, Sam realised. "That metal amplifies explosions, right?"
"Yes." Sam nodded.
"So it should amplify an engine as well - it's just energy, after all!" Entrapta nodded.
"But if anything explodes with it nearby…" Bow trailed off.
Entrapta blinked again. "Oh, right. We have to be extra careful with that. Once we get more of it. Though I guess a few samples should be possible…"
"I don't think you should try to take a sample from the Stargate," Sam told her. "That could affect its function." And, depending on the method used - it wasn't easy to get a sample of Naquadah from a Stargate - could cause more trouble.
"Oh, right. Well, once I've finished building a global scanner for it, we can search for deposits from space!"
"Is this ship armed?" the Colonel asked.
"Yes," Entrapta replied.
"Not really," Catra said. "Just two blaster cannons."
"Technically, that's armed. We took them from tanks!"
"So, this is a civilian vessel?" Daniel asked.
"Uh…" Entrapta cocked her head. "She's She-Ra's vessel."
"She's not a warship," Catra said. "But she's fought in the war."
That seemed to be good enough for Daniel.
"She belonged to my predecessor," Adora told them. "Mara."
"Did she crash her?" the Colonel asked.
Hadn't the ship been buried for a thousand years in sand? Did that mean the last She-Ra had been a thousand years ago? Or… Sam almost bit her lip at the thought. How long did Adora or Mara live? The group here looked young and acted as you'd expect a bunch of people their apparent age would act after fighting a war - Sam was familiar with soldiers of their apparent age - but if they were actually far older… She would have to ask Daniel about that. He was their expert on alien cultures. Sam focused on technology.
And the ship was a marvel of technology, Sam had to admit as they entered. Very spacious - not at all like the ships she was familiar with.
"Darla's not quite up to greeting us," Entrapta explained. "I'm still working on a holographic display for her."
"She's intelligent?" Daniel asked.
"She's smart," Entrapta replied. "But she's not… she's different. Different smart. But she's nice. Very nice. And she likes us."
"Good to know." Daniel smiled.
Sam felt a little uneasy. An artificial intelligence in charge of a ship? Or so it seemed. And one that seemed to be a little off, if she understood Entrapta correctly?
"Quite a cosy ship," the Colonel commented with fake casualness. "And no golden hieroglyphs plastered all over the place. I approve."
"'Golden hieroglyphs'?" Bow asked.
"The Goa'uld are fond of covering walls with boasts and praises to themselves," the Colonel said.
"A not uncommon practise of absolute rulers," Daniel added. "At least in Earth's past. Although there are still a few countries where the leaders foster a cult of personality."
"Don't give the clones ideas," Catra commented with a grin.
Adora grimaced. Right, she didn't like followers.
They reached the bridge.
"Oh, very spacious," the Colonel said. "Lots of room for expansion. And a big Captain's chair. Roddenberry would approve."
As would several other science fiction authors, Sam knew. Not that she would mention that.
"You wouldn't want to travel in cramped space for months, would you?" Glimmer asked. Anyway, we're just going into orbit so Adora can show you the plant that's left of Horde Prime's flagship."
"Right!" Adora sat down in the Captain's seat.
Sam looked around. There was a row of other seats that looked as if they were intended for passengers. They also seemed to be new - and done in a different style.
"Just take a seat!" Entrapta said. "Or keep standing - this won't take long."
Before Sam could reply, the lights on the bridge flared, and holographic displays lit up. Engine data, navigational data, three-dimensional display of their surroundings… Sam tried to track everything. Ancient script, too.
"Darla, lift off!" Adora said.
And the displays shifted - as did the view through the windows.
"Smooth ride," the Colonel said as they shot up through the atmosphere, allowing Sam to catch a glimpse of the continent below them.
"Yes. It was a little bumpy before I fixed the gravitational generators," Entrapta said.
Which reminded Sam that they were flying in a ship restored after a crash. She couldn't help being wary of that. All the structural stress this would have caused, metal fatigue, warping… This wasn't an airplane, she reminded herself, nor was it built by humans. She couldn't judge it by those standards. She…
The Colonel whistled. Sam just stared.
There was a plant floating in orbit. A huge plant. In space. This was…
Was this a decoy? A station made to look like a plant? But why would anyone do that?
She shook her head. A plant in space.
"The bioengineering possibilities..." she whispered. Could they grow spaceships? At least the hulls? But how had they done this?
*****
In Orbit above Etheria, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)
"How did you do this? Did you grow it in space?" Carter asked.
Catra smirked. The woman looked… well, not unlike Entrapta when she found a new piece of First Ones tech.
"Well, kind of - if you consider transforming as growing," Entrapta replied. "As we said: This was Horde Prime's flagship. Until Adora transformed it."
Carter turned her head to stare at Adora. "You transformed a spaceship into… this?"
"Yes." Her lover was slightly annoyed, Catra could tell. Well, no one liked being thought a liar. Except for Double Trouble. "I used the magic of Etheria to transform the ship onto a plant."
"Why?" Daniel asked.
"We were fighting him. With the ship, he could've bombarded the planet at leisure," Catra explained.
"No, no - I mean, why turn it into a plant?" Daniel cocked his head and adjusted his glasses.
"Oh." Adora blinked. "It was… instinct, as I said. I had all this power and had to use it. And plants don't drop bombs or shoot cannons at you."
In other words, she hadn't had any idea what she was doing. But that wasn't something you told the guests you were trying to impress. So Catra nodded in agreement.
"Magic is tied to life, sort of. Castaspella is the expert - the leading expert - on magic - but the basics are that magic needs life to grow. There's possibly also a reciprocating effect, but that hasn't been verified yet, though some data indicates it," Entrapta explained. Or tried to explain. "So, from a conceptual point of view, plant growth is a natural effect of magic. Or the base of magic."
"It's tied to life?" Carter asked.
"Barren planets don't have magic," Entrapta told her. "Well, they lack the potential to have magic would be more precise, seeing as most planets don't have magic at the moment."
"But we're working on that!" Adora told the others with a smile.
"Are you saying that magic was taken from the galaxy?" Carter asked.
"We don't exactly know," Adora said. "But we know the First Ones, who were not native to Etheria, used magic - but that none of the planets we discovered once Etheria was returned to this sector had magic."
'Returned to the sector'? Something else Sam had to ask about, later.
"Yes! It could be a local effect - I was theorising that the First Ones siphoned all available magic in the sector - or their Empire - to fight Horde Prime," Entrapta said, nodding excitedly, "but if your planet doesn't have any magic, either, and isn't in the local sector according to your astronomical data, then this might have been a wide-spread effect."
"How would you remove magic from the galaxy?" O'Neill asked with a grimace. "It's a rather big place."
Entrapta ignored his sarcasm and beamed at him. "That's exactly what I asked myself! It didn't make any sense - and the time involved…" She nodded. "But now that we know that there's a Stargate network linking so many planets… We need more data!"
"You mean they used the Stargates to… syphon off magic from all the worlds?" Carter didn't sound as if she believed that.
Hell, Catra didn't really believe it. She was no expert on magic, but she knew - roughly - how big the galaxy was. And if this network was as big as their guests claimed, then even if all those planets had only had a trickle of magic each, it should've been more than the Heart of Etheria could gather. The First Ones should have defeated Horde Prime with such power. Unless it was really inefficient or something. Or, she thought, it was used to construct the Heart of Etheria.
Well, Catra was neither a sorceress nor a princess. She could let others sort this out. "So, now that you've seen the remains of Horde Prime's flagship, are you convinced?" she asked.
"Convinced of what?" O'Neill asked. He was back in control, or so it seemed.
"That I told you the truth," Adora said.
"Well… it's a big plant, yes. And a space plant."
"But to transform metal and plastic into plant matter…" Carter trailed off. "The amount of computing power you'd need for that, on this scale… Unless it's a self-propagating process, spreading from a point of origin, like nanomachines replicating and transforming as they grow..."
"It was transforming magic," Entrapta said. "Totally different process, same effect. But what you just mentioned sounds interesting! How do you make such nanomachines?"
"Ah… that was only theorised. Although I have a few ideas about that…"
"Ideas that we're not going to experiment with, Carter," O'Neill said. "We don't want a grey goo scenario, do we?"
"Grey goo?" Entrapta tilted her head to the side.
"I wasn't aware that you were familiar with the concept, sir," Carter said.
"I read more than just the briefings," O'Neill replied.
"You read the briefings? Daniel blinked in apparent surprise.
O'Neill glared at him but didn't comment.
"What is grey goo?" Catra repeated Entrapta's question.
"Ah, sorry!" Carter smiled at them. "It's a hypothetical doomsday scenario in which nanomachines self-replicate by converting everything - plants, animals, people and even solid matter in some scenarios - into more nanomachines. Effectively turning a whole planet into a mass of nanomachines."
Catra shivered. That sounded…
"That's horrible!" Adora exclaimed, echoing Catra's thoughts.
"And you have ideas about that?" Bow shook his head.
"Theories. No practical work has been done - we don't have the capability to create nanomachines on that scale," Carter said.
That was a relief. But it was another clue that their guests were far more dangerous than they appeared. They couldn't underestimate them. No matter how surprised they were by magic.
Nor could they underestimate the Goa'uld.
*****
This spaceship was far too spacious, in Jack O'Neill's opinion. The bridge had enough room for an army. An army of giants. Yet the doors were normal-sized - well, sized so the seven-foot amazon could walk through it. What kind of people built spaceships like this? Not even the Goa'uld wasted space like that.
At least it looked like their hosts had started to use the space for something, what with the shiny looking seats they had installed. Still… you didn't carry your passengers on your bridge. That was just asking for trouble in a fight.
"So, you don't have nanomachines? But you've been thinking about them?" Entrapta asked. Far too eagerly, for Jack's peace of mind. He had almost died to those hellish things, after all.
"We've encountered the technology before, and we're working on exploring it, and considering several scenarios, to counter such threats," Carter replied. Good. No need to make them think that Stargate Command was planning to turn planets into grey goo. Or make every one die from old age in a few days.
"And to use it yourself," Catra added.
Well, that was a logical deduction - you tended to use the weapons you had, after all. Especially when fighting an enemy that had you outnumbered and out-teched like the Goa'uld. But in this case, they were wrong.
"We wouldn't destroy a planet!" Daniel protested.
"Not even to win a war?" Catra tilted her head. "Not even to save your planet and everyone else?"
Something was off here. Everyone else was watching intently, Jack realised. This wasn't just an idle question.
And Daniel was faltering. "Well…"
"We wouldn't kill the entire population of a planet to defeat the Goa'uld," Jack said. "Our laws forbid attacking civilians." Of course, there were exceptions. If the Goa'uld used their slaves as human shields… But uncontrolled nanomachines? No.
But the others seemed to have accepted his statement. Catra nodded, and Adora looked relieved. Bow smiled.
Then Carter added: "Besides, the risk of unlimited nano-warfare is too great. Like biological warfare."
"Biological warfare?" Glimmer asked. She glanced at the space plant floating in front of the ship, Jack noticed. Were they thinking of that? Battling plants?
"Weaponised germs," Carter explained. "Diseases engineered to infect enemy soldiers and disable or kill them. We don't use them, but we had to research them and develop countermeasures since our enemies used them."
That seemed to shock everyone. "Diseases?" Adora blurted out. "The Goa'uld use diseases as weapons?"
"They have no qualms about using such dishonourable weapons," Teal'c stated with a slow nod.
"Monsters!" Glimmer whispered.
Even Catra looked grim as she nodded in apparent agreement. "We have to consider how to defend against that, then."
"I can heal a disease," Adora said.
"An entire planet's worth?" Catra asked, turning to look at the woman.
"There are protocols to isolate and stop such an attack from spreading," Carter said.
"And there's the threat of retaliation," Jack said. "We found that that worked well with chemical weapons." Not even Hitler had used poison gas on the battlefield.
"Chemical weapons? Poison?" Catra asked.
"Yes."
Their hosts were looking at the catwoman.
"Poison that kills people or plants?" Adora asked.
"People," Jack replied. He wasn't about to go into Agent Orange. Filthy stuff - if he had run into it…
"Ah." That seemed to relieve Catra. Had she proposed such an attack herself? Or used poison as a defoliant? A question for another day.
Jack cleared his throat. "So, this was your enemy's flagship. What's it doing now?" He nodded at the space plant outside.
"Uh…" Adora bit her lower lip.
"We don't actually know," Entrapta said. "Perfuma checked it and said it's a harmless plant and that it should survive in space, but that's about it. We don't know what it does, other than that it absorbs sunlight."
That was… On Earth, there would be half an army of scientists in orbit, studying the thing. And they had sent one expert and then let it be? That made no sense. Unless… Unless all their experts were busy on the ground, dealing with the damage of the war. Or if they didn't have enough experts to handle this. "Perfuma?"Jack asked.
"The Princess of Plumeria," Entrapta replied. "She can control plants - make them grow and move."
Ah. So, another magical princess. Jack would have to check with Daniel about this planet's society. Did they have many scientists? Entrapta was one, of course, but she also was a princess.
"Is she your leading expert on botany? Daniel asked.
"Pretty much, yes," Catra said.
"She's helping Scorpia with the agriculture of her kingdom," Entrapta said. "They have a lot of former Horde soldiers settling there, so they need a lot of produce. And Adora's magic turned the place fertile, but her plants aren't really suitable for eating."
"Sorry," Adora mumbled.
"It wasn't your fault, dummy!" Catra told her. "Besides, without you, nothing would grow there. You know how the Fright Zone was."
"Yes." Adora nodded.
An interesting interaction. Catra seemed familiar with the Fright Zone as well. Of course she would be if her troops had operated there. Still… Jack knew he was missing pieces of the puzzle. "So… this is your personal ship?" he asked.
"Well, it was Mara's, and she was She-Ra before Adora," Entrapta said. "But they let me tinker with it!"
"As long as you don't blow it up," Catra added.
"I won't!"
Jack was about to ask a few more questions about the ship's capabilities when a noise - an alert - sounded on the bridge.
"Oh! A frigate is moving toward us!" Entrapta said.
So, this was one of the frigates they had mentioned. The ship that appeared on the screen looked far different from 'Darla'. Bright colours - white mainly - and less angular curves. A completely different style, Jack noted.
This should be interesting.
*****
"Which frigate?" Adora asked. She didn't add 'Please, not the Third Fleet. Please, not the Third Fleet' under her breath, mainly because Catra would hear her, but she was thinking it.
"Three-One," Bow replied from where he was looking at the screens.
First of the Third. The flagship of the Third Fleet. Adora hung her head.
"Incoming call," Bow added, looking over his shoulder at Adora.
She sighed. "Yes."
He pushed a button, and a smiling clone appeared on the large screen in front of them. A clone with a silver diadem of a very familiar design. 'Priest'. "Your Divine Highness!" he beamed at her, then bowed deeply. So deeply, Adora only saw his back when he proclaimed: "Your slightest wish is our holy command! How may your fleet serve you?"
"Wow. I thought you weren't really formal, but that… That takes the cake," O'Neill commented, followed by a hissed 'Jack!' from Daniel.
"Ah. We're just showing our guests the space plant," Adora explained. "No need for an escort. Or an orbital strike. Or an invasion," she added hastily.
"Guests?" Priest straightened and cocked his head as if he hadn't noticed their visitors before. He probably hadn't, actually, since he added. "And good day, Holy Consort and Companions of the Divine She-Ra!", with a deep nod towards Catra and the others.
Adora suppressed a shudder. Priest sounded far too much like Horde Prime when he spoke like that.
"Holy Consort?" O'Neill cocked his head towards them.
Before Adora could explain, Priest spoke up: "Catra, the Holy Consort of the Divine She-Ra, first to be saved by her love, before we all saw the light."
Adora heard the groan from Catra at that, but Priest either didn't or ignored it. Not that he'd change, anyway.
"Ah, nice." O'Neill nodded. "I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill, from Earth. This is my team - Captain Carter, Daniel Jackson and Teal'c."
Priest nodded. "Well met, and be welcome…" his smile faltered as he looked at Teal'c. "Jaffa?" he spat with a growl.
Uh-oh! Adora winced.
"I do not serve the false gods," Teal'c declared before Adora could say anything. "I fight the Goa'uld."
And Priest beamed at the guy. "Another soul saved by the Divine She-Ra! Praised be her name, blessed be her followers!"
"Did he just bless himself?" O'Neill added in a low voice.
Adora cleared her throat. "They were stranded on Etheria, and we're looking into helping them return to their home."
Priest frowned again. "They aren't from Etheria? I wasn't aware that any ship slipped through our perimeter. When did this happen? Did the heretics fail their most basic duties?"
"Wrong Hordak did nothing wrong!" Entrapta protested. "They arrived through a Stargate."
"A Stargate?"
"A device from the First Ones which allows instant travel from one gate to another, across the stars," Entrapta explained. "Kinda like a transporter, but it needs another gate to lock on, although it can cover much, much greater distances. There's an entire network spanning the galaxy!"
"Oh." Priest blinked. "And such a gate is on Etheria? And there are others? A network? Your Divine Highness, we must guard this gate! Please allow us to deploy the Holy Legion to safeguard Etheria!"
Yeah, right. Glimmer would kill Adora if she told Priest to deploy a few thousand clones and even more bots on Etheria. "I have secured the gate personally," Adora told the clone. "Rest assured that should we require your help, you will be called at once."
And the clone was beaming at her again. "Of course! Blessed is the planet under your protection and guidance, Your Divine Highness!" Another deep bow.
"So, ah… just resume your duties," Adora added. "We just wanted to show the remains of Horde Prime's flagship to our guests."
"Of course! Everyone should visit the place where the scourge of the galaxy was purged at least once in their lives to bask in the sight of the silent witness of your divine glory!"
"Oh, boy," O'Neill muttered.
"Ah… right." Adora forced herself to smile. That wasn't why they had taken their guests up here. She raised her arm and waved. "So… return to your duties, Priest."
"At your command, and with your blessings, Your Divine Highness!"
The screen blinked out, and Adora sighed.
"I've known a number of Goa'uld who'd be very jealous of such devotion," O'Neill said.
"Indeed."
"It's not as if Adora wanted this," Glimmer said, scowling. "They latched onto her and won't take no for an answer."
"I tried telling them that I'm not a goddess or their goddess," Adora explained. "They aren't listening."
"Well, you did kill Horde Prime and turned his flagship into a space plant," Catra said with a shrug. She, of course, found the clones' devotion funny. Most of the time. "And it's better that they follow you rather than anyone else."
Oh, yes. Blindly fanatical clones with a fleet, following someone selfish, cruel or greedy...
"Are they all like that?" O'Neill asked.
"Only the Third Fleet," Bow said. "Second Fleet is led by Wrong Hordak. They don't think She-Ra is a goddess but are still grateful for being freed from Horde Prime's control."
"And those who do consider them heretics?" Daniel asked.
"Yes," Adora admitted. "But I forbid any attempts to, ah, convert them."
"Is there a First Fleet?" Carter asked.
"There was," Catra said. "But their ships were mostly destroyed with the flagship. Not many are left - a dozen or so."
"Hordak has been talking to the remnants," Entrapta added. "They are kinda lost, what with having lost so many in the war."
Lost at her hands, Adora knew. And the clones hadn't known any better. They had just followed their creator's orders, as they had been raised to. Like Shadow Weaver had tried to raise her.
She clenched her teeth. She wouldn't think about Shadow Weaver and what the woman had done to her and Catra. Not now.
*****
Adora was still tense, Samantha Carter noticed. The whole situation must be stressing her. Which, as cynical as it sounded, was a good thing - if she embraced such worship… Sam knew that this was what the Goa'uld wanted. Utterly loyal followers who worshipped them as gods. Who could resist such power?
"It's still fascinating," Daniel said. "I didn't expect this to be so… direct. Although in hindsight, it makes sense. Converts are often the most fanatical of any religion's followers."
Sam winced - Daniel had let his scientific curiosity get the better of his tact, again.
"Sorry," Adora said, looking dejected. "I'm working on this, but… you've seen how they are."
"It's a work in progress." The Colonel nodded. "Don't worry. Deprogramming a cult takes time."
"Indeed." Teal'c nodded. "I know the trials it takes to make my people accept the truth."
"Thanks." Adora's smile was weak but seemed honest.
"But at the least, the fanatics are fighting for you," the Colonel went on. "Are there any other fleets left?" Fishing for more information, Sam realised. A little underhanded, but they needed to know more about this world.
"There should be," Entrapta replied. "But we're not quite sure how many. Horde Prime was conquering the sector, yet there were rebellions all over the place by the time Adora defeated him, so his Horde was split up."
"So, there are more of those… clones… around? With fleets?" Daniel asked.
"Yes." Adora nodded. "We are trying to track them down, but… We lost the way to contact them with Horde Prime's flagship."
"And reconstructing the deployment orders from the surviving data hasn't worked out," Entrapta explained. "Horde Prime controlled them personally, so all that knowledge died with him."
"We've been sending out ships to explore the sector, but it's going slow," Bow added.
"And we don't really want to send out the Third Fleet," Queen Glimmer said.
"Imagine them meeting a fleet and considering them heretics!" Catra snorted. Sam didn't think it was funny. Then again, the Colonel made similar jokes.
But… Religious fanatics on a crusade in space - and former soldiers of a megalomaniac dictator who razed planets for resisting him, at that? She could imagine the horrors such a conflict would unleash. Although… "You lack a complete overview of Horde Prime's former empire?" Hadn't Horde Prime kept his data properly backed up?
"Yes. We think we have the gist of it," Entrapta told her, "but not the details. Though we're working on it. It just takes time."
"They recognised me," Teal'c pointed out.
"Yes." The Colonel nodded. "They must have met Jaffa before."
Sam nodded. That made sense. "And since they couldn't see your stomach or sense the larva inside you…"
"Junior!" the Colonel cut in.
Sam ignored him. "...they must have recognised the symbol on your head or the staff weapon," she finished.
"Or both," Daniel said. "Yes, they must have had contact with the Goa'uld." He smiled. "That means they might have navigational data about the Goa'uld holdings.
"Right!" Entrapta beamed at them. "Let's talk to Wrong Hordak!"
"Not Hordak?" Sam asked. Entrapta had mentioned that he was her partner, after all.
"Uh, no. He's been out of touch with Horde Prime for a few decades." Entrapta winced and shook her head, her hair staying still somehow. "And the First Fleet's remnants are still a little, uh, shaken up. Wrong Hordak, though, is leading the Second Fleet, which is mostly intact. They are bound to be our best source about the Goa'uld. Though if they know nothing, then odds are, it's just the Third Fleet who knew about Goa'uld. Which would, by itself, be useful data, of course!"
"Let's hope we don't have to talk to the Third Fleet," Adora muttered.
"Right," The Colonel agreed. "My quota for bombastic religious sermons is already full. For this year."
That sent a few of their hosts snickering. Not Adora, though, Sam noticed.
"Sorry," Adora said. "I try to tell them to tone it down, but…" She shrugged.
Though, Sam couldn't help thinking, given the fanaticism she had observed, it might be dangerous to tell those clones to stop following Adora at all. They might take offence and lash out. Or, possibly worse, they might listen.
"So, you have three distinct groups amongst the former Horde?" Daniel asked.
"Four if you count the former Horde on Etheria," Bow corrected him. "Though they have split as well."
"Most of them are staying in Scorpia's kingdom. Some of them have turned into bandits and pirates," Queen Glimmer explained. "At least the clones haven't done that."
"As far as we know," Catra pointed out. "Some of them could be conquering planets out there."
"So far, we haven't heard anything about that," Queen Glimmer replied with a frown.
Sam watched both. It felt like an argument they had had before. Two leaders, clashing over the best course of action? But Catra was, as far as they knew, not a princess. And all leaders so far seemed to be princesses. Or clones. Sam would have to ask Daniel about the possible ramifications of that.
"Well, isn't that a wonderful thought," the Colonel commented.
"It's quite common for soldiers to turn into bandits or mercenaries after a war if the social structures that supported them before broke down, which might be the case here," Daniel said. "We have numerous examples in Earth's history," he added.
"Oh?" Catra tilted her head.
"We've had many wars," Daniel told her, "and there are several civil wars currently being fought on Earth, or having been fought until a short time ago."
"
Several civil wars?"
Their hosts seemed shocked again.
And the Colonel wasn't amused.
*****