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

[Starfox5]

Stargate Etheria

Summary: Entering a gate leading to an unknown planet while dodging fire wasn't too uncommon for SG-1. Meeting strange new people wasn't unusual either for the Best Friends Squad. But figuring out how to deal with each other, the remnants of the Horde Clones and the Goa'uld threat without a D.H.D. for the Stargate on Etheria? That was new for both.

Disclaimer: I do not own She-Ra and the Princesses of Power or any of the characters in the series. I do not own Stargate: SG-1 or any of the characters in the series.

Author's Notes: This story is set in an Alternate Universe. While the canon events in She-Ra and SG-1 up to this point happened, there will be changes to either series' background to fit them into the same universe.

Cover:

Chapter 1: The Encounter

Trias, July 10th, 1998

"Take cover!" Jack O'Neill yelled as he jumped behind a large rock, two blasts from Jaffa staff weapons narrowly missing him and blowing up a tree behind him. Another exploration mission gone awry. Sometimes, he wondered if they were cursed with how often they ended up on a planet full of enemies.

He ignored the wooden splinters raining down on him and glanced around. The rest of his team had taken cover - he could see Daniel just crawling behind the remnants of a wall while Carter and Teal'C were already returning fire from behind two rocks further back.

Good. He speed-crawled along the rock, then peered around the other end. Another shot from a staff weapon hit the rock, showering the area with stone splinters while he pulled back.

No way to flank the enemy on this side - the staff weapons were notoriously unprecise, but with the blast radius from a hit… He took a deep breath, bent around the corner, leading with his M4 carbine and fired two bursts before pulling back again.

Three more blasts hit the rock, throwing up dirt at its edge. There had to be at least two dozen Jaffas out there, to focus on him with three while the others were still pinned down. He checked on the rest. Carter, as expected, was returning fire while changing positions with textbook perfection. Teal'C had shifted behind a larger rock and kept their left flank clear. And Daniel… was pointing his zat'nik'tel vaguely into the direction of the enemy and squeezing off shots.

"Daniel!" Jack yelled. "Fall back and dial us out! Carter, Teal'C - cover him!"

To his credit, Daniel didn't argue and started crawling back towards the Stargate behind them. He was even using the rocks on the way as cover.

Jack took a deep breath, then stood, leaning against the rock as he fired a long burst into the treeline from which the Jaffa were shooting at them. This time, the top of the rock disintegrated under the fire from half a dozen staff weapons an instant after he dropped to the ground.

"Must have hit someone," he muttered, baring his teeth as he crawled away. Smoke from all the explosions was covering the area but that wouldn't last forever. Just long enough.

Jack jumped up and sprinted back and to the right, sliding behind a smaller rock and into a firing position. The smoke was still clearing when he spotted two Jaffa charging their position - they were using the smoke to hide from Carter and Teal'C.

He dropped the first with two bursts from his carbine, but the second threw himself to the ground and rolled into a ditch before Jack could shoot him as well.

Those were skilled Jaffa. Not Apophis's, according to Teal'C. Well, they could sort out who they had fought once they were back at Stargate Command. Jack glanced behind him. Daniel had almost reached the D.H.D. Good.

He popped up from cover to fire another burst at the Jaffa in the treeline and tried to keep an eye on the Jaffa in the ditch. If that guy made it into their position…

More blasts forced him to reposition again, behind an even smaller rock. "We're running out of rocks!" he yelled. "Hurry, Daniel!"

"I am, Jack!" Daniel yelled back. He had almost reached the D.H.D.

Jack grinned and emptied his magazine into the treeline to keep the Jaffa's heads down. Daniel would need a few seconds to…

Movement near his old position caught his attention as he pulled back to reload. The hiding Jaffa! He had a clear line of fire to Daniel! And Jack was out of ammo!

"Daniel! Watch out!" he screamed as he swapped magazines and jumped up again, lining up his shot, firing as he aimed, anything to make the bastard flinch and miss…

His bullets caught the Jaffa a moment too late - Jack saw the staff fire. Heard Daniel scream. "Daniel! Carter!" She was closest!

"I'm… I'm OK! But he hit the D.H.D.!" Daniel yelled back.

What? With it, they couldn't dial the Stargate. Couldn't return to Earth. Would be captured here - there had to be more Jaffa approaching. Gliders on the way. He fired into the treeline again. Perhaps he should save a bullet for himself...

"Sir! It's dialling!" Carter yelled. "Outgoing!"

"What?"

"The Stargate is dialling!"

"But I didn't enter the coordinates! And the D.H.D. is damaged!" Daniel complained.

Jack slid back into cover to swap magazines again. Three left. And about two dozen Jaffa. No choice. "Get through the gate!" he yelled. "Hurry!"

"But Jack!"

"Into the gate, Daniel!" Carter yelled, already sprinting towards the archaeologist and the gate - she knew what the alternative was. Better dead than snaked.

"Teal'C! I'll cover you!"

The big guy didn't argue either - just fell back, firing on the move, then stopped behind a rock to cover Jack just as Carter pushed Daniel through the gate.

Jack started to run, bent over to reduce his profile. Staff bursts went past him left and right, blowing up rock and dirt. Splinters tugged at his cap and pinged against his vest.

"Go on!" Teal'C snapped as Jack passed him.

"Like hell!" Jack muttered, crouching down next to the gate and aiming his carbine at the enemy. "Fall back!"

Teal'C obeyed, running faster than a man his size had any right to, and jumped through the gate.

Jack emptied his magazine as he moved backwards up the ramp, more blasts missing him, then one blast that was a little too close all but blew him through the gate.

He came out rolling over his shoulder, down a ramp, his carbine flying away. It was a steeper ramp than expected, he realised as the gate went out behind him. He came to a stop on his back - and found himself staring up in the face of a huge cat. A huge alien cat.

*****​

Whispering Woods, Etheria, Same Day.

"I think there's a passage here," Adora said, leaning forward to study the wall in front of her. The light from her lamp wasn't the best.

"You thought that before. And we spent half an hour digging through stone and rock to discover… more rock," Catra said behind her.

Adora glanced over her shoulder. Her girlfriend - even after months, she still had to suppress a silly grin every time she thought that - was leaning against the wall, hands behind her head and rolling her eyes. She could see perfectly well here, of course. At her feet, Melog was acting as if it was cleaning its mane. "I don't remember you doing much digging," Adora told Catra.

"Someone had to keep an eye out for dangers," Catra replied. "This is a lost outpost of the First Ones, in the middle of the Whispering Woods. So, we have to expect both some monsters the First Ones created and forgot to dispose of and the general garden variety of monsters from those cursed woods who took up residence here. And I've got the best eyes and ears of us all, which makes me the natural choice for lookout."

"And you don't like digging," Adora added.

"And I don't like digging." Catra flashed her a toothy grin that made Adora think of... other things.

"Or working," Glimmer muttered as she walked up to them. "Entrapta finished examining the remains of the console in the main room. The memory crystals were smashed, she said."

Adora knew Catra had heard the dig against her, but her girlfriend didn't react other than looking away and clenching her teeth - Adora could see her jaw muscles move. She wanted to sigh. If Catra didn't give as good as she got against Glimmer, it usually meant she was feeling down. Perhaps Adora shouldn't have asked her to come with them on this expedition. No. They were a couple, and she wanted Catra and the others to not only get along but be comfortable with each other. And Glimmer didn't mean to be mean. She was just a little cranky now.

"Yes, Entrapta's trying to recover some data, but I don't think she'll find anything intact enough for a partial retrieval." Bow joined them, ducking under a root that had managed to burrow through the ceiling. "Another dead end?"

"No!" Adora said. "I'm sure there's a tunnel behind this wall. And yes, I'm really sure this time." She pointed at the symbol on the wall. "This means 'Gate'. And this is a wall, not bedrock. So, this is a gate."

"Or some First One flunky made a mistake," Catra pointed out. "Or this was planned to be a gate, but they never got around to dig it out." She crossed her arms over her chest. "If you want to spend another half an hour digging through rock, be my guest, though."

Glimmer bared her teeth in return. "I've got a better plan: We just dig a small hole, so we can check if there's anything behind this wall."

"We would need a drill for that," Bow objected.

"No, we just need She-Ra!" Glimmer beamed at her, Adora realised.

"Me?"

"You can drive your sword through the wall. Wriggle a little to widen it, lather rinse repeat, and we have a hole!" Glimmer said.

"Or you could alter your sword and turn it into a drill," Bow suggested.

That sounded… well, either way, Adora would be digging a hole.

Catra snickered. "Poor She-Ra. From Champion of Etheria to convenient excavation tool."

Adora stuck her tongue out at her in return. She wasn't mad - it was good to see Catra smile. Then she raised her hand and closed her eyes. "For the Honour of Grayskull!"

As always, power filled her as she changed. Grew. Became far more than she was. Power that made her feel as if she could do anything. She barely noticed her clothes and hairstyle change as she became She-Ra. Princess of Power.

"Nice light show. Now, get to it, slacker," Catra commented. Adora frowned at her - she wasn't pouting - and her girlfriend's grin grew wider. "Should've done that the first time."

Adora snorted and turned towards the wall. Perhaps she should've. Yet… They might be joking about this, but it did feel weird to use She-Ra's power for something you could do without it. Even without magic. Like cheating.

Not that she would say that, or Catra would lecture her about not being stupid. Her girlfriend had strict views on fair fights and working more than you had to. Mainly, that both was stupid.

And they had been down here for a few hours already. Adora raised her hand and summoned - or conjured, according to Castaspella - her sword, then changed it into a drill. She looked at it, cocking her head. It seemed to be functional.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed the tip against the wall and started to drill. The tip went into and through the wall like a hot knife went through butter, as Glimmer liked to say. Rock dust and a few splinters flew, but she didn't mind it - her clothes would be cleaned next time she transformed. She-Ra's magic was convenient that way.

Also in other ways - she stumbled slightly when she suddenly felt a lack of resistance, but caught herself instantly. "I'm through!" she announced.

"I knew it!" Glimmer gloated.

"I knew it," Adora corrected her.

"Yes, yes. You were right. For once." Catra rolled her eyes again. "So, open up the tunnel."

That took a little longer. Halfway to clearing the entire wall, Catra suddenly held up her hand. "Stop! I heard something!"

"What?" Adora asked, freezing in the middle of carving through another stone.

"A… whooshing sound, or something." Catra's ears were twitching, and her tail was swishing back and forth.

"A 'wooshing sound'?" Glimmer snorted. "Is that a word?"

Catra narrowed her eyes. "It sounded like that. Something is behind that wall."

"Well, we better…" Adora started to say when Melog suddenly jumped up and sped past her, into the tunnel.

"Melog! Wait!" Catra yelled.

But the cat had already disappeared down the tunnel.

And Catra was about to climb after it.

*****​

Samantha Carter kept her M4 trained on the alien looming over the Colonel, silently cursing herself. It must have arrived while she had been distracted by waiting for the Colonel to arrive. Waiting and worrying… She buried the thought, clenching her teeth. She could lambast herself for her unprofessional mistakes later. Now she had to focus on dealing with the situation at hand.

They were facing an alien. It had roughly the shape of a big cat, but in purple, no markings or stripes, and a mane and tail that looked transparent - almost like holograms. Glowing eyes that matched the mane.

And it was growling fiercely.

"Carter!" the Colonel hissed through clenched teeth. He was staring straight up at the creature, and his carbine was about a foot away from his hand - if he grabbed it, he might provoke the creature. "Mind doing something about this? Like, making it go away?"

"I'm not sure if it's corporeal," she told him. If she shot it and the bullets went through its body… the ricochets would endanger everyone. Especially the Colonel.

"Well, yeah, but I'm sure it's dangerous," he snapped back as he started to slowly try and slide away from it.

"It might be intelligent," Daniel interjected. "Have you ever seen one like it, Teal'C?"

A stupid question, Sam knew - if Teal'C had recognised the alien, he would have told them so already.

"No," Teal'C replied anyway. His staff was pointed at the animal, but as close as it was to the Colonel… the plasma blast would injure him whether or not it hit the body of the alien. Perhaps Daniel's zat'nik'tel… that would be safe. Unless there was some interaction between the creature's aura and the blast. And Daniel wasn't the best shot.

The alien growled again. At Teal'C, she realised. Had it recognised him? Had it met Jaffa before? Could it tell Jaffa from humans? The differences were hard to tell without exposing their midriffs, but who knew what senses this creature had…

Her eyes widened when she heard footsteps. She shifted her carbine, aiming at the tunnel behind the alien, trusting Teal'C to keep the cat covered.

"Someone's coming!" Daniel announced.

"Melog!" A figure appeared in the tunnel, then froze when they spotted SG-1. "Who're you?"

Sam stared for a moment. The figure was humanoid but had cat-like features. Fur, twitching, cat-like ears, a tail. And she was female - the tight clothes she was wearing didn't hide that. And she was unarmed. Or not, Sam corrected herself when the woman unsheathed claws on her fingers and feet. She didn't attack, though - she must have realised they had her covered.

"We're Tau'ri," Daniel spoke up. "We're travellers who ended up here by mistake. Who are you?"

"Travellers?" The woman's ears twitched as the alien growled again. Her eyes widened. "Goa'uld?"

"No! We aren't Goa'uld," Daniel blurted out.

Sam hoped that they weren't talking to a loyal servant of the local Goa'uld.

"What are Goa'uld?" the woman asked.

Daniel blinked. "They're a species that…" he started to explain, but the alien cat cut him off with another growl.

"Parasitic snakes?" the cat-woman hissed, eyes darting to the cat for a moment.

She could understand the alien cat, Sam realised. Who was obviously intelligent. And didn't like the Goa'uld.

"Yes, exactly," Daniel went on, blissfully ignorant of this. "We've…"

More footsteps. "Catra! Melog!"

And Sam stared again as a huge blonde woman - easily seven foot tall - arrived, brandishing a giant sword. She drew to a stop next to the cat-woman - Catra? - and pointed her sword at them. "Who are you?"

"We're Tau'ri, from Earth," Daniel repeated. "We come in peace."

"They're servants of parasitic snakes," the cat-woman cut in.

"Parasitic snakes?"

Two more figures arrived. They looked like humans. A man with a… bow and arrows? And a woman with a staff. Sword, bow and staff - if they didn't end up dead, the Colonel would make a D&D joke, Sam was sure. As sure as she was that she wouldn't reveal that she understood the joke.

"No! We aren't servants of the Goa'uld!" Daniel exclaimed.

Another growl.

"He is!" the cat-woman said, pointing at Teal'C.

"I do not serve them. Not any more," Teal'C replied. He didn't show any emotion, but Sam could see that he was tense. Ready to take them all down.

"Yes. We've been kinda fighting them for some time," the Colonel chimed in.

"He carries a snake in his body!"

"A larvae - the Goa'uld use his people as hosts," Daniel explained. "We cannot extract it without endangering his life. Please - we do not mean you any harm."

"And yet you're pointing your weapons at us," the blonde woman replied.

"So are you," the Colonel shot back. The cat growled at him, and he winced.

"You started it! And Melog doesn't like you!" the cat-woman retorted.

"It's a misunderstanding." Daniel took a step towards the four. Sam gritted her teeth and shifted her position so he wouldn't block her line of fire. The Colonel was still too close to the alien cat to get his carbine. "We oppose the Goa'uld - we have killed one of their leaders. In fact, we ended up here fleeing from one of their planets."

"You fled to Etheria?" the blonde asked. "Like the Star Siblings?"

Star siblings? Sam didn't remember any term like that.

"We travelled between the stars, yes," Daniel said.

"Where's your ship? And how did you get past the frigates in orbit?" the other woman asked.

"And what are you doing here?" the man added.

Frigates in orbit? Sam's eyes widened. Despite the primitive weapons, these people must be a spacefaring civilisation. Or at least on a level to achieve orbit.

She glanced at the Colonel. He had realised it as well, she knew.

"We didn't arrive by ship," Daniel went on. "We arrived through the Stargate." He pointed at the ring behind them, which had gone inert.

And which, Sam realised with a gasp, didn't have a D.H.D. anywhere near it.

*****​

Catra hissed. They were facing a group of armed strangers - armed strangers with parasitic snakes in them. Well, at least in one, possibly two of them, according to Melog. And Adora and the others were talking with them! Even though the tactical situation favoured them. They outnumbered the others. Melog had one of them - the oldest - locked down. Adora was close enough to get the big guy with the staff before he could do anything, and she would bet on Bow against the woman with the gun. Especially since the blonde seemed to be distracted by the ring thing behind them. The Stargate, according to them.

Well, that would explain the 'Gate' sign Adora had mentioned.

Anyway, Catra could take the guy with the glasses - he didn't seem to be much of a fighter - and Glimmer could teleport behind whoever made trouble. There was no need to talk like this.

"There's no D.H.D.!" the glasses guy exclaimed.

What was a D.H.D.?

"What? Carter!" the old man turned his head away from Melog.

"I… I don't see any, Sir."

"How could you miss that?"

"We were distracted by being under fire and waiting for you," the glasses guy said.

"And it wasn't relevant," the big guy added - without taking his eyes off Adora, Catra noted. Points for identifying the biggest threat to them. But it wouldn't help him anyway. No one could beat She-Ra.

"What is a D.H.D.?" Adora asked.

"It's what is used to control the Stargate," the glasses guy explained. "Without it, you can't use it."

"So, you're stuck here unless we find one?" Adora cocked her head.

Trapped, Melog growled.

Catra blinked. Did Melog hide it with an illusion? It must have used illusions to sneak up on them, so hiding this other thing would not be too much of a stretch. "You know this gate, don't you?"

No. Only know of.

Well, that was something. Catra hated missing intel. Or giving information to the enemy. "So, did you see one?" she asked Melog.

No.

He wasn't hiding one, then.

"So, we're trapped here," the old man said. "And apparently, their cat is their gate expert."

Cat? Catra narrowed her eyes. Ah. He was talking about Melog.

"You know the Stargate?" Glasses guy was looking at Melog. "Uh… can they understand us? Or do you need to translate?"

Catra snorted. "Melog can understand you just fine."

"Ah." The man nodded. "So…"

"We still don't know who you are and why we should trust you," Catra told him.

"We come in peace. And by accident," the man replied. "We do not mean you any harm."

"You could be lying," Catra shot back. "You're carrying snake parasites that Melog really doesn't like." And she trusted Melog. Almost as much as she trusted Adora.

"I am not controlled by the Goa'uld," the huge guy said. "And I will die before I let the larvae mature and take over anyone."

Well, anyone could say that. But the guy did sound like he meant it. Not like Adora 'I can't lie to save myself' honest, but… determined.

He still could be lying.

"Look… let's lower the weapons," the glasses guy said, holstering his own tiny thing. "Let's deescalate. None of us wants to fight. I hope so, at least," he added, looking at Melog.

Melog growled again. Don't trust snakes.

"Can the snakes hurt us?" Catra asked. "Like… control us?"

Burrow into you.

She shuddered. "The snakes bury into you," she told the others.

"Ew!" Glimmer grimaced.

"That's why they're parasites!" Bow exclaimed. "And you have one inside you!"

"Not like that," the glasses guy said. "The Goa'uld use Jaffa to, ah, grow their young, but they do not control them as they control the Tau'ri. But please, let's lower our weapons. Guys?" He was talking to his friends. "We're stranded here. We need help. And it's clear that they won't trust us easily."

The woman looked at the old guy. That must be their leader. "Sir?"

"Well, I don't have a gun to lower… but we're in close quarters, and I'm pretty sure this cat can shred me before anyone can shoot it." He sighed. "Let's talk."

The glasses guy smiled as the woman lowered her gun and the big guy put the staff up. "So… I'm Daniel Jackson. These are Colonel Jack O'Neill, Captain Samantha Carter and Teal'C."

Catra narrowed her eyes. It was a gesture of trust… or it could be a trap. But either way, they had an even greater advantage. If these people tried anything…

Then Adora lowered her sword - and put it on her back. "Alright."

And Bow lowered his bow. Catra clenched her teeth. So much for having an advantage!

Glimmer took a step forward. "I am Glimmer, Queen of Bright Moon. This is She-Ra, Princess of Power. Bow and Catra. And Melog."

"Glimmer? Bow? Princess of Power?" The old guy - O'Neill - blinked.

"Sir!" the woman - Carter - hissed.

Even Jackson sent a glance at the old man before smiling again. "Thank you. We are honoured to meet you and apologise for entering your realm without permission. Ah… how do we address you?"

*****​

"Your Glowing Highness?" Jack O'Neill clenched his teeth a little too late to keep his comment from slipping out.

"Jack!" Daniel looked aghast.

"Colonel!" Carter too.

But he couldn't help it - he had been lying far too close to an alien cat creature for far too long. And those names… Even if they were a translation quirk, how could anyone resist?

And the cat-woman - named Catra? What the hell? - giggled. "'Your Glowing Highness'! That's almost as good as Sparkles!"

"Catra!" the big blonde hissed.

And the alien cat chuffed or something. It had changed colours too, for a moment, Jack noticed. Perhaps if it was distracted, he could reach his carbine… No. They were talking now. And this group seemed to loathe the Goa'uld, which made them OK in Jack's book. And they were all so young… barely twenty, by his guess. Unless that was old for a cat-woman.

"Just call me Glimmer," the supposed queen said. "We aren't at Court." She was frowning at Jack, though.

He smiled back - he had seen worse glares. Like the one Carter was sending at him. "Glimmer it is. Call me Jack."

She nodded. "You're the leader of your group."

Had it been obvious? Daniel had told them their ranks, but would they have understood that? Jack told himself not to underestimate the kids. "I'm the leader of SG-1, yes. Do you mind if I get up? Talking to you while I'm on my back feels a little weird." He managed not to add the very off-colour joke about being on his back that came to mind. See, Carter, I can control myself!

"As long as you don't try to attack us," the blonde amazon said. Adora She-Ra, or something. Daniel was probably analysing the meanings of their names.

"Thank you." Jack kept the sarcasm down as he slowly backed off a little more from the cat - no quick movements - and got up. After a moment's hesitation, he picked up his carbine and slung it over his shoulder. He always felt better conducting negotiations when he was armed.

The kids seemed to relax, he noticed.

"So, Glimmer, once again, our apologies for entering your realm," Daniel repeated himself as he gave them his usual charming smile. One of those days, he'd send the wrong signals to people, Jack knew.

"It's not exactly my realm," Glimmer replied. "This is the Whispering Woods. Bright Moon and Plumeria share the responsibility for the area. Bright Moon is my kingdom."

"Ah." Daniel nodded.

So, they were in disputed territory. And there were more kingdoms. Jack grinned - good to know. And good to know that this kid wasn't the ruler of the planet.

"So, you arrived here by the Stargate," the boy - Bow - said. "And you are stuck here since you can't activate it from this side."

Right. Daniel needed the 'don't blurt out information' talk again, Jack reminded himself.

"Yes," Carter said. "We need a D.H.D. A…"

Jack grinned. "A Dial Home Device, as we call it. It's round, looks a little like a weird sundial, and has the symbols you see on the Stargate. Found it lying around by chance?"

"No." "Nope." "Don't think so." "Didn't pay attention."

"It might be around," the blonde said. "We're still exploring these ruins."

"Looks like we're stuck until we find it," Jack said. Carter might be able to create a replacement device, but it had taken Stargate Command fifteen years to build the supercomputer to run the Stargate, and it still didn't work perfectly. Stranded on an alien planet, she'd need… He pushed the thought away. Focus on the task at hand, he reminded himself.

"Uh… you said you fled from enemies. Will they follow you through the gate?" Adora asked.

"That's…" Daniel trailed off. "The D.H.D. was hit when I was dialling. It's possible that it got stuck, but…"

"They would have reopened the gate and followed us if they could," Carter said.

"Yes," Jack agreed. "Jaffa don't give up easily." Not when their lives, and the lives of their families, might depend on it.

"If their orders were to capture us," Teal'C added. "If their orders were to drive us off, they might not have followed us even if they could.

"The gate went out as soon as you came through, Sir," Carter said. "And the D.H.D. was damaged. I doubt that it's functional, but we cannot dismiss the danger, either."

"Great." The cat-woman sighed. "We've got a portal straight to another alien invasion force."

"Well… It's a small portal?" the blonde smiled weakly. "Can we brick it up?"

"The opening of the wormhole destroys almost anything in the way," Carter told her. "You would need a special material or bury the entire gate to block it."

"Or you just seal the chamber," Jack suggested.

"That would still allow anyone to arrive. And they would be stuck here," Glimmer said. "We'll ask Entrapta if she can block the gate."

"Entrapta?" Jack tilted his head. What was it with those names?

"Princess of Dryl," Glimmer told him. "She and Bow are experts on First Ones technology."

"She's better," the boy said with a smile.

"But you're not a slouch either!" Adora added.

"So, where's Entrapta?" Jack asked. They had to stay focused.

"Trying to fix the main console," Adora told him.

"I'll fetch her," Bow said. "She'll love this."

Jack suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

*****​

Adora kept an eye on the new arrivals while Bow went to fetch Entrapta. They didn't look like they'd attack her or her friends, but better safe than sorry - they still hadn't verified their story, after all. Not that she knew how to verify if they were stranded here. But she knew they were dangerous. Well, most of them - the guy with the glasses didn't seem dangerous. Or he was a better actor than Double Trouble.

"Sir, if we don't find the D.H.D…." the woman, Carter, told the older man in a low voice.

"We'll cross that bridge if we get to it, Carter," he replied. "For now, let's be optimistic."

"Optimistic? You, Jack?"

"Hey! I'm always optimistic, Daniel."

"You always assume the worst."

"Not always. And I'm just being realistic."

"So, you mean you're not always realistic since you claim you don't always assume the worst?"

"Daniel! Not in front of our new friends!"

Catra snickered. "Oh, do continue."

"See?"

"Honesty is a good policy, Jack."

So, Carter called the man 'sir', while Daniel called him Jack. Which must mean he wasn't a soldier. Adora nodded at her conclusion. But that left the tall black guy who hadn't said much so far. Was he a soldier?

But their visitors had fallen silent now.

"So, you're from Earth, you said?" Catra spoke up. She sounded casual, just making conversation while they waited, but Adora knew her too well to fall for it. Catra was being sneaky.

"Yes, we're from Earth," Daniel replied.

"And you travel through Stargates to fight evil parasitic snakes." Catra didn't try to hide the hint of scepticism in her tone.

"The Goa'uld, yes," the man confirmed. "Although most of our missions are simple exploration missions."

"We just keep stumbling into Goa'uld, and suddenly the mission gets all complicated," O'Neill added. "Or simpler, since it becomes all about shooting the enemy before he shoots you." He grinned at them. "Or blowing them up."

Catra snorted in response. "Ah, that kind of simple."

Adora rolled her eyes. "And you accidentally ended up here, unable to go back."

"And we could have an invasion arrive at any moment." Glimmer shook her head. "Another one."

"Oh, yes, Your Glowiness," Catra told her. "But never fear, She-Ra's here."

Adora cleared her throat and pointedly looked at their visitors when Catra and Glimmer turned towards her. Glimmer blushed a little, but Catra scoffed.

"Ah… Forgive me if this is prying," Daniel said, "but you don't seem overly concerned with an invasion."

"She-Ra here can handle it," Catra replied before Adora or Glimmer could say anything. "And as you explained, we can replace her with a few tons of rock." She smirked at Adora.

Adora snorted - she knew what Catra was hinting at.

"Ah… you shouldn't underestimate the Goa'uld," Daniel said. "They are very old and experienced and often use quite brutal or underhanded means to pursue their goals."

Catra chuckled. "We've got experience with that."

"Mainly thanks to you," Glimmer retorted. "And we don't know anything about those Goa'uld."

Catra glared at her in return.

Adora sighed. She knew Catra was trying to impress their visitors to keep them honest, but… "I can handle it," she told them. "But we do need to find a more permanent solution."

"Can the gate be moved?" Catra asked.

"Yes. Although it's not easy," Carter replied.

"She-Ra can carry it." Catra waved her hand. "Problem solved."

Adora snorted. She probably could - she could throw a tank, after all - but she wasn't some beast of burden.

"Except for the fact that we're still stuck here," O'Neill said. "Our… friends at home must be worrying."

"You mean your army," Catra told him. "Or they wrote you off. Your missions seem to be rather dangerous."

"We don't write our people off!" the older man protested. He seemed genuinely angry at the assumption, Adora realised.

"Neither do we," Glimmer took a step forward. "But some of our enemies considered everyone but themselves disposable."

Catra pressed her lips together and didn't say anything. Adora wanted to sigh again. Catra had changed. Her girlfriend just needed to accept that. For good. She smiled at her, but Catra didn't seem to notice.

"Will they send a team after you?" Glimmer asked.

The others looked at each other. "I don't think they know where we are," Daniel explained. "We arrived here by accident, travelling from another planet. Our… friends… wouldn't have any way to find out where we are."

"Well, theoretically, if the Stargate on Trias has remained stuck with this gate address, then a team could find us should they be able to secure the Stargate there," Carter explained. "However, the odds of that happening…" She winced.

"So, you're stuck here until you find a way home," Adora summed up.

"As they already said," Catra commented.

"We just need a D.H.D.," Daniel said. "If you just discovered this facility, then it could be in storage somewhere, and you just haven't found it yet."

Adora nodded. That sounded plausible.

Catra was about to say something, but she cocked her head instead, ears twitching in that cute manner that made Adora want to caress them. "Bow and Entrapta are coming," her girlfriend said.

"A Stargate! A Portal! New Technology! Oh, I can't wait to examine it!" Entrapta's voice could be heard.

A few seconds later, she appeared in the door, walking on her hair tendrils while holding her recorder. "Hello, everyone! This is so exciting! Oh, there it is!"

Their visitors stared.

*****​

A teenager? was Samantha Carter's first thought. Then she saw the woman's face. No, twenty to thirty - just short. Shorter than Queen Glimmer. And she was… walking with her hair. No, that couldn't be hair. It was moving, carrying the woman. And yet it looked like hair. Some sort of nanostrands? Microstructures that allowed it to move like muscles?

"Hi!"

"Hello," the Colonel nodded.

"Hello." Daniel looked speechless for a change.

"I'm Entrapta! You're the travellers from another planet? And you arrived through a portal! Fascinating? Do you mind if I scan you? Just to check if you have some weird radiation or anything else we could use to determine your home planet."

Belatedly, Sam greeted the woman as well. "Hello."

"Hi! You're the scientist of your group?" Entrapta beamed at her, which looked a little creepy as she was still hanging down from her hair.

So, they had noticed that Sam was a scientist. That meant they knew what a scientist was - well, they already knew that, what with the remarks about frigates in orbit. Still, why would they use bows and swords? A cultural relic from a Goa'uld occupation?

Metallic steps drew her attention back to the tunnel, and she froze. A huge, round robot entered the chamber. It was the size of a small car and walking on articulated legs.

"What the…?"

"That's Emily!" the woman announced. "She's my assistant - and bodyguard, I guess."

The robot beeped, and the woman nodded. "Exactly!"

She turned and pointed a device at them. "So, let's scan you!"

"Whoa! Wait a minute!" the Colonel protested. "What exactly are you planning to do?"

"Gathering data about you, of course! You're an alien species - at least one of you is an alien for sure, but the others could be as well."

"It's considered rude to scan people without their consent," Daniel said.

"Why?" The woman cocked her head - somehow without unbalancing her hair. "It's just gathering data."

"It, ah, is a potential violation of our privacy," Daniel replied. "Medical data is considered confidential in our home culture."

"Really? Well, I need to scan you. What if you carry some alien viruses or bacteria? Or are suffering from an allergy to anything here?" The woman held up the device and started pushing buttons.

And the tall blonde - Adora - who had raised her hand, lowered it again.

"She's right," the cat-woman muttered.

"Yes, but…"

"No, you're right," Sam said. "This is a medical necessity."

"Carter!" the Colonel protested.

"She is correct, Sir." It was only sensible to check them for diseases.

"Yes, but you could've said it a little more diplomatically." He was almost pouting. Not that Sam would ever tell him that.

"O-K! Now let's analyse this!" The woman - Entrapta announced. Pushing a few more buttons. "And while we wait, let's do science!" Her mask, which had rested on top of her head, slid down and covered her face as she approached the Stargate. "Oh, First Ones style!"

"First Ones?" Daniel asked at once.

"What we call the people who built this temple," the young man told them. The group was predominantly made up of women, Sam suddenly realised. There was only one man, and he was clearly not a leader. She'd have to point this out to Daniel.

"Oh! This is a fascinating material!"

"It's Naquadah," Sam told her. "A rare, super-dense mineral."

"Oh, yes. Yes. Really fascinating. I need to take a sample to analyse it."

"Please don't damage our only way home," the Colonel said.

"Oh, right. Though a little sample won't hurt - it's already scratched." One hair tendril separated and grabbed a tool.

"How are you doing this?" Sam blurted out, both to make the woman reconsider damaging the Stargate and to satisfy her curiosity.

"Doing what?"

"Your… hair. How do you move the strands?"

"Oh." The woman turned around to face and smile at Sam. "It's my magic talent. It's more useful than you might think!"

"Magic talent?" Daniel asked.

"Yes. Inborn magic. Some princesses can control plants, some can control the sea, I can control my hair. And it's very useful for doing fine work."

Magic. Sam was tempted to lower her estimate of this planet's technical level. On the other hand, there was a lot of technology that, if not quite understood, would appear to be magic. And some species had talents that matched some definitions of magic. She'd have to ask Daniel to look into this. The last thing they needed was some cultural misunderstanding. Or some blind spots due to preconceptions. Something, fortunately, Daniel lacked.

"Magic hair. Now I've seen everything," the Colonel commented. "Can you pull a rabbit out of your hat as well?"

Unfortunately, the Colonel easily made up for that. Sam winced.

The woman, Entrapta, didn't seem to mind, though. "No, I can't. I don't have a hat or a rabbit."

But the rest of the group was glaring at the Colonel. Even the robot seemed, somehow, to show some annoyance.

"Sorry, Daniel said, smiling again. "We don't have magic on our planet, so we're not quite used to it."

"Oh, we know," the blonde woman said, smiling. "We've been working hard to return magic to all the worlds without it, but it's going slowly. But we'll get around to your home planet, don't worry!"

Sam blinked.

What?

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 2: The Gate

Whispering Woods, Etheria, July 10th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"What?" The blonde woman was gaping as if Adora had been stuttering.

Catra frowned. "We're bringing magic back," she told her. "It's just going to take a while." No need to let them get high expectations.

"Magic?" The guy with glasses stared at them. "What exactly do you mean by magic?"

Catra sighed. Were those guys slow or what? "Magic. You know, the power that lets you teleport, control plants - or hair - and turn spaceships into plants?"

"What?" the blonde repeated herself.

"Magic." Entrapta beamed at them - Catra could tell even with her mask up. "It's a way of manipulating a form of energy that is commonly called 'magic' as well, which is, kinda confusing, I guess. But that's fine - you haven't had access to magic in this sector for a thousand years or more, so you can't be expected to understand everything at once.

"A form of energy?" The blonde would make a good recorder, Catra thought with a smirk, the way she kept repeating stuff.

"Yes." Entrapta nodded as if that explained everything.

The old guy who had been making fun of Entrapta shook his head. "There is no such a thing as magic."

"Really?" Glimmer narrowed her eyes at him.

Catra grinned. That should be good. Entrapta was their friend. And they wouldn't let someone mock her for her… quirks.

"Yes, really," the old guy told her.

"Colonel!" the blonde hissed.

"Jack! This is obviously a cultural difference."

"No, it's just ignorance," Glimmer spat - and teleported next to them.

All of them were shocked. Or at least surprised - even the tall, dark guy twitched.

"What do you call this?" Glimmer challenged them.

"We've seen transporters before," the old guy replied - he was still looking wary, though.

"But nothing like this, Jack!" Glasses gushed. "This is like… teleportation! Instant transportation! And we didn't see any rings!"

"Yes, this is Glimmer's innate magical talent. She can teleport using magic," Entrapta said, nodding at the others. "Just like I can control my hair."

"Perhaps they have trace elements of Naquadah or something similar in their blood, and it allows them to wield devices like the Hara'Kesh," the blonde mumbled.

"But Sam!" Glasses objected. "Why would they try to convince us that there is magic if it's actually technology?"

"Oh, actually, magic is part of technology, at least according to some definitions." Entrapta smiled. "If you have the talent, you can learn to cast spells, and they follow the laws of magic. It's science!"

This was getting out of hand, Catra realised. They were discussing magic and technology with a bunch of intruders as if they were on Mystacore and not in the middle of an ancient installation of the First Ones they had barely begun to explore. "How about we discuss that stuff once we've hashed out the more important bits? Like whether or not there's one of those 'D.H.D.s' around?" And once they had confirmed that this installation didn't have some homicidal bots waiting in secret rooms to go after all intruders. Catra didn't want a repat of that particular excursion.

Melog growled in agreement.

"Good idea." Adora smiled at her, and Catra smiled back with a warm feeling in her chest before she caught herself. They could flirt when they weren't standing in melee range of a group of still suspicious strangers.

"So, first: Are they safe, or are they controlled by alien parasitic snakes?" Catra asked. Melog certainly wasn't warming up to them.

"Well, my scan should… ah! It finished while we talked. Yes!" Entrapta slipped her mask up on her head and peered at her recorder. "Ah. None of you carries dangerous or unknown diseases as far as my scanner can tell - and it can tell a lot. And none of you has a parasitic or other organism connected to your central nervous system. So, you probably aren't controlled by those 'Goa'uld'."

"Probably?" Adora asked.

Catra looked at Melog. Her friend was still tense.

"Well, they could be controlled by other means, right?" Entrapta cocked her head sideways. "We shouldn't assume that there's only one way to achieve the same result; that's what leads to failed research!"

"Blackmail, hostages, bribes," Catra explained with a shrug. "Whatever works."

"I would rather die than obey the False Gods!" the huge guy growled. "And so would my family."

Catra narrowed her eyes. That sounded… well, she'd keep an eye on the guy. Anyone who'd sacrifice their family like that was dangerous. And probably not quite stable - she knew all about being fanatically devoted to one thing. And how dangerous that made you to everyone - including your friends. Knew it far too well.

"We are fighting the snakes. We don't obey them," the old guy said.

"But you had one inside you," Entrapta went on, pointing at the blonde with one hair tendril. "I can see where it accessed your spine - it's not quite healed yet. Fascinating! And your blood! It's full of this new metal. Relatively, of course - you're not in any danger of succumbing to heavy metal poisoning. I think - I'm not a Healer."

The blonde obviously didn't think that this was fascinating, nor was she particularly relieved that she wouldn't be dying to poison. "Yes," she spat through clenched teeth.

"It was a very recent and very traumatic experience," Glasses said.

"Oh? How so?" Entrapta blinked.

But before she could ask for more details, Adora took a step forward. "Yes, we understand. We know about traumatic experiences."

Catra, meanwhile, glanced at Entrapta and grimaced.

Her friend blinked, and then her eyes widened. "Oh! That kinda experience. Right! No asking for details!" She nodded firmly. "Anyway, they aren't currently controlled by parasites."

That didn't mean that they were trustworthy, of course. Catra knew that better than most as well. "What about the snake inside him?" she asked.

"As I said, the snake embryo in Teal'c's stomach is only connected to his bloodstream so it can receive nourishment and oxygen, but has no connection to his brain or spine."

Adora blinked. "Wait. It's not just… you're really pregnant with a snake?"

*****​

"We're calling him Junior," Jack O'Neill said. Teal'c raised an eyebrow at him, but that was to be expected. A little humour should diffuse the situation.

"It's not exactly a pregnancy," Daniel tried to explain. "It's more like… like an incubator."

"That's not much of a difference," the Queen - who could barely be twenty - said.

"It's not my child." Teal'c was getting annoyed. Jack could tell. Fortunately, the others didn't know Teal'c like Jack did. "And if I could, I would get rid of it."

The other group exchanged some glances. Except for the princess with the magical hair - she was studying her scanner again. "It's kind of a symbiont, actually - it provides him with an immune system. Otherwise, he would die."

"The Jaffa were genetically engineered to lack an immune system without an implanted Goa'uld embryo," Carter explained. "It's a way to control them."

That got a reaction - even the slightly off science princess looked shocked.

"They did what?" The amazon gasped. "That's… that's horrible!"

"They're forced to serve or die…" Queenie suddenly looked a few years older. And angrier.

And the big cat growled.

The boy, though, frowned. "But… if you have an embryo per, ah, Jaffa, wouldn't that mean that you have more Goa'uld than Jaffa?"

"Sounds more than a little top-heavy as a command structure," the catwoman added.

"The Goa'uld don't really care much for their offspring," Daniel told them.

"They eat them," Teal'c said.

Once more, the kids looked shocked. "They eat their own?" Blondie blurted out.

"Cannibalistic tendencies have been observed in many animal species, especially if they spawn a lot of offspring, but to see it in a sapient species is rare," their scientist commented. She didn't look shocked, Jack noticed.

"No wonder Melog hates them," the catwoman mumbled.

"They're evil," Teal'c said.

"But… even the babies?" The amazon - Adora, Jack reminded himself - looked at Teal'c's stomach.

"They have genetic memory - each of them knows what their progenitor knows," Daniel explained.

"That's handy for getting intel."

"Catra!"

"What? I'm just saying - if all you need is one of the snakes to find out what they know, then that's a huge weakness."

"They're still children!" Adora shook her head.

"Still better than being eaten," Catra retorted.

The blonde stared at her, then closed her mouth. "That's…"

"In order to interrogate a Goa'uld larva, you'd have to present it with a host," Carter interrupted their spat. She pressed her lips together, no doubt remembering her own possession.

"And that would be morally unacceptable since the host would be effectively dead," Daniel went on.

To their credit, most of the others nodded at that. Though the catwoman - named Catra, really! - struck Jack as a little too pragmatic to be fully convinced. She reminded him of a few spooks he had known in his youth.

"So, you're saying they're born evil?" Adora asked.

"Everyone can change," Entrapta protested. "No matter the circumstances of your birth!"

Adora nodded, as did the others, though Catra looked away. Interesting.

But they really should focus on searching the area now. The kids seemed friendly, but that might change if more locals were brought in. If they found a D.H.D., then Jack's team could be back at SGC before anyone back home started worrying, and then they could prepare a proper diplomatic mission to this planet. He cleared his throat. "So, how about we look for our missing device? We wouldn't want to impose on you, after all." He gave them his best smile.

"That sounds good." Catra nodded.

"But we still need to guard the gate," Adora pointed out.

"You can do that," Catra told her. "We'll look for their device. But let's stick together for safety."

"Never split the party," Jack agreed. As expected, Daniel the nerd frowned at him, but Carter didn't react to his joke. Neither did Teal'c, but again, that was par for the course.

"So… Adora stays here," Queenie said.

"But I'm the one who can read First Ones writing."

"You're also the best way to seal the gate here. If we find anything we need translated, we can call you."

"But…"

"She's right," Catra agreed. "Someone has to watch the gate."

"You've got the best eyes, as you claimed before!"

"And that's why I'm going to look for their device. You can watch the gate - you don't need my eyes to spot an invasion force trying to come through." The catwoman smiled and briefly hugged the amazon. "We'll be back soon."

"Daniel, stay here as well," Jack said.

"But, Jack!"

"You two can talk about translating." And he could keep an eye on the blonde amazon while staying out of the way of any traps or ambushes. And if the group turned on them, Daniel wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.

"Oh, right!"

Besides, if things went as they usually did, Daniel would be charming the socks off the woman. "Just don't get married by accident."

"Jack!" Daniel looked annoyed. And Carter frowned at him. Right. No joking about wives.

"Sorry," Jack mumbled. "Now, let's get this show on the road! We've got a D.H.D. to find!"

"If it's made from the same material as the gate, then I can scan for it!"

"You can, Entrpata?" Adora asked.

"It's simple data gathering."

"Do it," Queen Glimmer ordered.

Well, that should speed things up.

*****​

And there went the others. Adora sighed as she watched the group leave, Emily bringing up the rear. She still didn't like staying behind and guarding the portal. Of course, as She-Ra, she could repel an invasion through such an obvious choke point - even a young cadet would be able to plan such a battle, except for Kyle - but she was also the best choice to deal with lingering guard bots, traps or monsters that had ventured into the ruins. And she really didn't like letting her friends face such dangers without her.

"So… you can read Ancient script?" The man who had stayed with her asked. Daniel.

"Ancient?" She cocked her head to the side.

"This one." He pointed at a text on the wall. "It's the language of the Ancients. That's our name for the civilization which built the Stargates."

"Oh." So, the First Ones had built the gates? That figured. "We call them the First Ones," she told him.

"Ah." He nodded. "I've been studying their language for years."

"Ah, yes. It takes a long time of studying and such to learn it, right?" Adora smiled at him. There was no way she was telling him that she was born with the ability to read First Ones script. Not after all the talk about genetic memory. "I kind of studied history," she went on.

"Oh? You did?" His face lit up. "That's great! What do you know about the impact the Ancients - the First Ones - had on your world?"

They had tried to blow it up to defeat Horde Prime. And, if not for Mara and Adora, would have succeeded. But she couldn't tell him that, either. "Well, they left those ruins," she said instead. "And their technology. Though few can understand it. Other than that…" She shrugged. "Not many can understand their language." Not even dedicated historians like Bow's dads.

"A topic for academicians, then?"

"Historians, mostly," she replied. Perhaps she should've played dumb.

"Like yourself."

"Oh…" She grimaced. "I had to cut my studies short because of the war." It was true. Kinda. A little. She had missed Force Captain orientation.

"The war?" He looked surprised.

"Against the Horde. Invaders," she told him. "They tried to conquer Etheria for decades. We finally defeated them a year ago."

His eyes widened. "That's… very recent."

"Etheria was hidden from them for a thousand years," she explained.

"And then they found you?"

"Something like that, yes. It was a bit more complicated." And not something she liked to talk about. "Anyway, you studied the Ancients?"

"As much as I've managed," he told her with a sigh. "There aren't many artefacts left from their time. It's a miracle that there's anything left." He looked at the gate. "I still am awed that this is over five million years old and is working as well as it was on the first day. Or so we assume."

"Five million years old?" She stared at him. "But…" Adora wasn't a historian, but she knew that the First Ones had arrived a thousand years ago. Not five million years ago. "Are you sure?"

"Over five million years ago, actually. That's when the last Stargates were built," he told her. "All our research confirmed it so far."

"Then we need to have Entrapta date this gate. If this is five million years old…" Adora didn't know what it meant, but it was important.

"How old did you think it was?"

Oh. She pressed her lips together for a moment. Should she lie? They might see through it. "The ruins are about a thousand years old," she said. "That's when the First Ones arrived."

"Ancients, a thousand years ago? But… they all vanished from the galaxy five million years ago. Approximately."

That was weird. "Are you sure?" The galaxy was big, after all.

"We were. If we have to rewrite history…" He beamed at her. "This could be a historic discovery! Perhaps a colony of the Ancients survived?" Then he frowned. "Or another species could have been using their language and script. Or just their script. Like the Goa'uld."

"Ah." Adora didn't know what to say. She wasn't a historian. She was just a First One… Oh. "How did the Ancients look?"

"Ah… as far as we know, like us."

"Oh."

"Yes. they could probably pass for humans."

"Or Tau'ri, right?"

"We call ourselves humans, but others call us Tau'ri."

Adora blinked. "I see. And you're aliens."

"Well… the Goa'uld took humans in the past, kidnapped them from our planet and spread them across the galaxy through the gate network. That's why so many planets are populated by humans."

"And you think we're humans as well." Well, Glimmer, Bow and the others. Adora was a First One. And Catra was… Catra."

He looked a little embarrassed. "Well, yes… the odds of a species independently evolving to look like us… I assume a gene test should tell us if we're the same species."

She nodded. "Entrapta will probably do that anyway."

"Ah. She seems very enthusiastic."

So enthusiastic, she had eagerly worked for the Horde. But that was not her fault. Not entirely, at least. Entrapta had been manipulated by Catra as well. Adora nodded. "Yes."

"Like Sam, I guess." He smiled.

*****​

The tunnel ahead looked empty, but Samantha Carter knew that looks couldn't be trusted. Not in a facility such as this one. Exploring Ancient ruins was a dangerous task.

"I don't like this," Catra mumbled. "This is too easy. We should've encountered a monster or a bot at least by now."

"Don't be so pessimistic," the man told her. "We're bound to have some luck with ancient ruins, one of these days."

"That's both correct and incorrect," Entrapta said. "While it's improbable that every place we visit has traps and guardian creatures or bots, that doesn't mean any particular installation, such as this one, is any more likely to be unguarded than the one before. The odds of a particular outcome are roughly the same each time you encounter it, after all. That's simple maths."

"Well," Catra said, "this tunnel before us is likely to be a trap. It just smells like it."

"Do we have a thief with us?"

And there was the Dungeons and Dragons joke. Sam suppressed a sigh. "Sir?" she asked.

"Just a joke," the Colonel replied. "About a game I used to play," he added, nodding to the others with them, "when I was much younger. Thieves could detect traps."

"A game?" The man - Bow, and carrying a bow and arrows; Daniel would have a field day trying to puzzle but the cultural significance of the name - asked. "What kind of game?"

He didn't expect them to discuss games in the middle of an Ancient installation, did he?

"It's like a board game. You play adventurers and explorers in a sort of maze," the Colonel replied.

Sam wasn't even sure if this culture had board games.

"Oh! Do you use miniatures?" Apparently, they not only had board games, but Bow was a fan of them.

"Yes?" The Colonel obviously hadn't expected that response.

"Great!"

"Bow! We're not about to 'wargame' this." And Queen Glimmer wasn't a fan.

"You do wargames?" The Colonel cocked his head.

"Yes!"

"Once. We did that once," the queen corrected Bow. "And it was awful."

Sam cleared her throat. "Can your scanner detect anything in the tunnel?" She asked Entrapta.

"Hm? Oh, yes. No Naquadah in the tunnel," the woman replied without looking up from her device. "That's a fascinating metal. I can't wait to experiment with it."

Oh. Sam refrained from cursing. "You have to be very cautious with it. It can enhance the power of explosions to a level your research facility might not be able to handle."

"Really?" Entrapta was beaming at her. "I have to test that!"

"Err…" Bow looked a little pale. "But under strict safety protocols, right?"

"And not near Bright Moon," Queen Glimmer added.

"And do it by remote." Catra was still looking down the tunnel. Her eyes were like a cat's, but Sam didn't know if the woman could actually see in the dark as well as that indicated. Or whether or not her heterochromia affected her senses in any way.

"Oh. Something is moving ahead of us!" Entrapta piped up. "I knew my motion detector would end up working!"

"Can you detect what kind of creature is moving?" Catra asked, just as the cat, Melog, started to growl. "Watch out! Monster incoming!"

Sam aimed her M4 down the tunnel and moved to the wall, crouching down. The Colonel did the same on the other side with his M4A1. "What's coming?"

"It's moving like a snake," Entrapta announced.

"Snakes? Why did it have to be snakes?" the Colonel commented.

"Well, they're native to the area…" Entrapta started to explain

"Not now!" Glimmer snapped. "It's coming!"

And there it was. It was a snake - or a worm - and it was huge. The head was the size of a human torso, but it had multiple, brightly glowing eyes. And fangs the size of Sam's lower arm. For a moment, she hesitated. Could they shoot the snake? Or would that be…

Next to her, Bow released his arrow. It struck the snake in the open mouth, and it reeled, knocking its head against the ceiling, hard enough to shake loose dirt from it.

The Colonel fired, Sam joining him a moment later. Short bursts into the thing's wide-open mouth, where no scales could protect it.

The snake roared and charged them, mouth wide open. Sam fought the urge to turn and flee and kept firing. Twenty yards. Fifteen. This would get ugly.

Another arrow hit the ground in front of the snake, releasing a green mass - and the snake got stuck. And a laser bolt struck the side of the thing, leaving a long scorch mark.

"Aim for the mouth!" the Colonel snapped.

Teal'c shot as well, sending a blast down the creature's maw. Sam kept firing until she had emptied her whole magazine - two left, she automatically reminded herself - into the creature.

Which finally collapsed, green blood oozing out of its mouth.

Sam sighed with relief.

And Catra cursed them, holding her ears. "Warn me next time!"

"Oh! You're using a chemical propellant to fire metal bullets at the target! Fascinating! What advantages does it offer over energy-based weapons? I assume you don't have to deal with losing focus at longer ranges, but the drop-off in kinetic energy would probably be a problem, right?"

"Wow. Carter, she sounds like you when you discover a new thing."

Sam glared at the Colonel. She wasn't like that. Not at all.

*****​

Those weapons were more effective than Catra had expected. At least at this range. Much higher rate of fire than a bow, and they did take down the monster. If only they weren't so damn loud - her ears were still ringing.

She knelt down next to the monster - a Creeping Worm, at least according to the simulations she had done as a cadet - and looked at the wounds in its maw. Small holes, from what she could see. And the bullets hadn't gone through the skull of the worm. But it had been enough to kill it. And people weren't as tough as such a worm. "How good are they at going through armour?" she asked.

"Depends on the armour," the old guy said.

"We can't really say, not without a sample of the armour in question," the blonde woman added.

One non-answer and an attempt to gather more information about them. These people weren't bad at the game. But Catra hadn't really been asking them.

"I would assume, based upon the penetration of the worm's skull, and the lack of exit wounds, that they would go through standard Horde field uniforms," Entrapta said. "A Bright Moon Breast Guard's breastplate might stop it, as long as it's not too close."

That wasn't too bad at all. Quite nasty, actually - for the size of these weapons. Bow whistled, obviously impressed as well. Glimmer didn't look like she was happy about hearing that her soldiers would be vulnerable to those weapons. Well, she shouldn't be.

"Slightly better than a Horde light laser rifle, then," Catra summed up. They had seen Prime's bots use those against them often enough to compare. Far too often.

Entrapta blinked, then nodded. "Somewhat. It depends on the circumstances. I could make armour that would repel those bullets, of course. And it's definitely weaker than Emily's main blaster, I think."

Much lighter than either, however. And the rate of fire… "But it needs ammunition, I guess," Catra asked. And a lot of it, from the way it looked. That would strain supply lines and make it harder to operate behind enemy lines for any length of time. And the loud noise would alert everyone in the vicinity.

She still would like one. If it wasn't so damn loud.

"Oh, yes! Do you have a way to make more ammo?" Entrapta asked the others. "If you don't but have the formula and schematics for the bullets, I could make some for you."

And she'd also find out how to make the weapons herself. Catra smiled.

"Ah…" The woman looked to the older man.

"We're still good," he said. "But if we're stuck here, we might want to talk to you about that."

"Great! It's like a completely new technology! There have been forays into kinetic weapons like this, based upon crossbows and bows, but crystal-based lasers and blasters were deemed more effective."

"Probably because of the lessened strain on supply lines," Catra suggested. And the lower chance of some idiot cadet blowing themselves and everyone else up by mistake.

"Yeah, lugging around ammunition can be a bother," the old guy said with a shrug. "But we manage."

"Crystal based lasers?" the woman - Carter - asked.

"Oh, yes. You use focus crystals to shoot laser beams. Not quite as effective as blasters, but if you have a power source, you can fire forever - or until it overheats and breaks down," Entrapta explained. "Old technology. Blasters are more interesting."

"I bet." The old man chuckled. "But with the monster dead, and no loot I can see, how about we look for our way home?"

"Oh, yes! I already scanned the area here," Entrapta told him. "No Naquadah, sorry!"

"Then let's move on to the next area," Glimmer said.

"Shouldn't be too much left," Bow said. "Unless there's another level that we didn't find yet."

"I could run a seismic scan," Entrapta offered. "Now that the worm is gone, I doubt that the sonic vibrations would attract another - they're territorial, after all."

"Do it," Glimmer said. She sounded impatient. She probably wanted to get their visitors back to their planet or out of this facility.

Catra could understand the feeling. The group acted friendly, but they were dangerous. Their weapons might not be enough to hurt She-Ra, but everyone else wasn't nearly as tough. And those were just the weapons they had shown - who knew what else they had? You always kept something in reserve if you were a good officer, and the old guy didn't strike her as a bad officer.

No, he was like a tough, old Force Captain. If they came to blows, she'd take him out first. A decapitation strike. Perhaps literally - her claws would go through his uniform and throat, she was sure of that.

"Alright," Bow said, seemingly oblivious. "The next area is behind this junction ahead."

They went on, with Emily bringing up the rear. Catra wasn't too comfortable with the bot being their backup, but at least Emily wouldn't be easy to disable in case of an ambush - or treachery.

Though she had a feeling that the old guy already had plans for that. Several, probably.

To be fair, she was planning how to take them out as well. Just in case things turned sour, of course. And she was sure that Glimmer was also ready for a fight. Just in case.

*****​

They were underground in a maze-like area fighting monsters looking for the key to getting home. It really felt like a roleplaying session. At least an old school one - Jack O'Neill wasn't quite sure if the hobby had changed in the twenty years since he had last played. Probably got too commercialised, like everything from the seventies.

He shook his head - he had to focus on the task at hand. He couldn't let himself get distracted by the absurdity of the whole thing - he had seen weirder, after all, since he started at SG-1. Though, given the talk about magic and space ships, Jack had a feeling that things might get even weirder if they couldn't get the gate working and return to Earth.

Which, according to the science princess with the weird hair and weird name - Entrapta? Who named their kid that? - was looking quite unlikely.

"So, no Naquadah here either. Sorry!"

She sounded as if she was pleased about it. Then again, she was not quite normal. A little off, at least - even compared to her friends. Which included the catwoman who felt like a spook. The way Catra talked about gathering intel, and the way she kept an eye on Jack's team, always staying in the back if she could manage… If they came to blows, Jack would take her out first. She wasn't carrying a weapon, not openly, but that only meant that she had one hidden or didn't need one. With those claws of hers, Jack was betting on the latter.

"And I think that was the last part of the ruins we hadn't checked yet," Bow said. Did they name every kid after something obvious? Or did they earn their names once they came of age? Daniel would probably know that by now. But the kid looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, but I think this device you need isn't here. It might have been carried off since the installation was built."

"We might be able to build another one, though," Entrapta offered.

And find out how to operate the Stargates. Clever, Jack thought.

"It's a very complicated venture," Carter told her. "The Stargates need enormous amounts of power to work, and we need advanced computers that can interface with the gate. Most importantly, though, we need the gate addresses and astronomical data so the gate can correct for astronomical drift and safely connect to other gates."

"Oh, a nonstandard operating system!" Entrapta beamed. "Fascinating! I wonder if it's similar to Horde Prime's computers - those were hard to fool!"

"Horde Prime?" Jack asked.

"The leader of the Horde that tried to conquer Etheria," Catra told him. "We defeated him a while ago."

That was valuable intel. "Sounds like a tough customer. Is he still around?" Jack asked, trying to sound only politely interested. It also sounded like a Goa'uld.

"No," Catra told him.

"He was dealt with," Glimmer added. No details, Jack noted. "But if you can't return through the gate, we need to secure it and then return to Bright Moon."

Her country. Or her something. With, presumably, more guards. "We can camp out here. We don't want to be a bother," Jack said. If Daniel were here, he would protest, of course, something about refusing hospitality, but Jack needed to know where they stood with the locals before trusting them.

"It's the Whispering Woods - it's full of monsters," Glimmer told him.

"Like the worm?" Jack asked.

"Worse. How much ammunition do you carry for your weapons?" Catra asked.

Jack shrugged with deliberate nonchalance. "Enough to handle trouble."

"Sir, it might be safer to accept their offer."

Jack knew that as well. But now he knew that the kids hadn't tried to order them to come back to their home. They had tried to persuade them. They might still order them, of course, if they kept refusing. "Alright, I guess sleeping in a real bed wouldn't hurt," he said.

Catra snorted, but the others smiled.

"But we need to secure the gate," Glimmer said. "We can't leave it open for an invasion."

"If we can move the gate, we can lay it down on the ground, facing up - anyone trying to exit would fall back down into the gate. Which, unfortunately, is fatal. The gates are one-way only," Carter suggested.

Rather ruthless, but the odds of anyone from Earth following them and finding this gate were zero.

The kids, though, looked taken aback. Except for Catra.

"Can't we… seal it so it doesn't activate?" Bow asked, wincing.

"We would have to bury it for that," Carter replied. "It would need to be completely buried to keep it from activating - otherwise, it would blast an opening in whatever is covering it, unless you use a special metal."

"Then let's do that!" Glimmer announced. "We don't want to kill innocent travellers."

"It's going to be a very deep hole. Unless you have explosives, that will take some time," Jack explained.

Everyone smiled. "We don't need explosives. We have She-Ra!" Glimmer announced.

"Although I could whip up some digging charges, I think," Entrapta offered. "Though limiting their blasts so they create a hole instead of a crater would require some planning."

"Let's file that as Plan B," Bow said, "and just ask Adora first."

"Alright!" Entrapta nodded, apparently not fazed in the slightest.

They seemed to trust She-Ra - or Adora; She-Ra seemed to be her title - to be able to handle this. Jack was curious to find out if the woman could deliver. It wasn't exactly easy to move a gate - you couldn't just pick it up and carry it with you.

*****​

"Where do you want it?" Adora asked, teeth clenched, as she turned with the Stargate in her hands. It wasn't actually that heavy, but it was unwieldy - she had to hug the ring to herself, and she had to watch it so she didn't swing it around too much and brain some of her friends or visitors with it. Or broke it by accident. And knowing that, should it activate right now, she might lose her arms… No, she wasn't going to think about that!

"Just drop it on the ground to the side for now," Entrapta told her, "Uh… this side - the right side up. No, the other right side, the left from your point of view - up."

Adora suppressed the urge to curse and forced herself to smile as she flipped the gate over. "Like this?"

"Perfect!" Entrapta beamed at her. "Now, if the gate activates, it will blast a hole in the earth. Right?" She turned to face the blonde woman, Carter.

"Ah, yes," Carter replied. She seemed still surprised that Adora had been able to carry the gate around. They must not have Minotaurs on Earth. Or Scorpionfolk. Compared to throwing a tank, the gate wasn't exactly heavy. Then again, a tank could be replaced, but if Adora broke the gate…

"You must be popular when your friends are moving." The old man, O'Neill, chuckled.

Adora blinked. "Moving? We've got a skiff for that." Two actually - one for them, one for Entrapta and the camping gear. And Emily still had to walk.

"It's a custom in our culture that when you change homes, your friends help you carry your furniture and other belongings to your new home," Daniel explained.

"Ah." Adora nodded. That made more sense.

"You don't have porters?" Glimmer asked, cocking her head.

"We do, actually." Daniel smiled at her. "But not everyone can afford them. Or trusts strangers to handle their most valuable belongings."

"Ah."

"Not everyone's a princess," Catra commented. "Some of us have to work for a living."

Gimmer rolled her eyes. "You don't work."

"I do work. I keep you from killing yourself by being stupid, and I keep an eye on Adora, so you don't make her do everything for you," Catra shot back, showing her fangs.

Adora smiled - Catra was looking out for her, in her own way at least. But… "I'm currently doing all the work," she pointed out.

"That's because there aren't any alternatives. We don't have a troop of Glimmer's guards here to carry the gate around," Catra replied. "So, it's you or nothing."

"I would have brought some porters if I had known we would have to move anything," Glimmer said.

"You expected us to find nothing in the ruins worth keeping?" Catra faked surprise.

"That's not what I meant!"

Adora cleared her throat. They weren't in private - they had visitors. Who were watching them attentively. "So, now we dig a hole? Or, I dig a hole?"

"Like in training," Catra said. "Just faster and deeper."

"Training?" Daniel asked. "For… excavations?"

"Digging holes and trenches," Adora corrected him. "Basic infantry training."

"Oh."

"They mentioned a war, Daniel."

"Yes, Jack, but many societies do not have boot camp style training. At least not for their leaders. And while earthworks are a staple of warfare in history, they might not wage war in the same style here since the technology is wildly different. For example, a war fought on the sea would not see any need for sailors being able to throw up earthen fortifications - at least not so they would be trained for it."

Catra rolled her eyes, Adora saw, as Daniel talked to his friends. The man had a tendency to go on for some time - but he had a nice voice and a friendly smile. Which probably was another reason for Catra's attitude, Adora realised.

Well, that could be helped. Smiling, she walked over to her girlfriend and hugged her. Catra squirmed in her arms but didn't actually try to slip out. "Love you," Adora whispered - and her girlfriend froze for a moment.

"Not in front of the strangers," Catra whispered back. But she didn't really mean it. Adora could tell.

"So… hole?" Jack asked, cutting off his friend's explanation. "I don't want to rush anyone, but you mentioned monsters around here."

"Right!" Adora released Catra and drew her sword.

"Are you going to dig with…" Jack trailed off when Adora changed the Sword of Protection into an oversized - for She-Ra - spade. "Now that's handy."

"A morphing weapon? A multi-purpose tool?" Carter shook her head. "Molecular reconstruction? It has to be to change like that, but as fast as it was..."

"Magic," Entrapta told her. "We don't actually know how it works - Castaspella said it wasn't a spell, and she doesn't know what it is, either, and she should know. It's probably an innate talent of She-Ra. Like my hair is mine."

Adora didn't know how exactly it worked, either. But she knew how to make it work, which was all that was needed. She rammed the spade into the ground and started digging.

For all of Jack's comments, he was correct - they shouldn't linger here.

About fifteen minutes later, the hole was deep enough, according to Carter. And Jack had stopped making comments about excavators.

Then it was just a matter of lowering the gate down without breaking it - Carter said it wouldn't break if dropped, but Adora wasn't risking that - and filling the hole up again.

And then hiding the fact that they had dug a hole so no one would find the gate until they returned.

And then they were off to Bright Moon. Their visitors would love it there, Adora was sure.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 3: The Palace

Whispering Woods, Etheria, July 10th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Trying to disassemble the 'skiff' would be very rude, Samantha Carter told herself as she stared at the floating vehicle. It looked… like a cross between a sailing yacht and a… actually, it looked like a floating sailing yacht.

"We'll have to check if George Lucas is an alien once we return to Earth," the Colonel joked. "This looks almost like Jabba's skiff."

"Indeed," Teal'c said. "Although the skiff there doesn't have the sail."

"You've got skiffs as well?" Entrapta jumped down from her robot - Emily - and let her hair tendrils catch her fall. "How do they work? You said you don't use magic, so you can't be using a levitation spell stabilised in a crystal matrix like the skiff here does. Do you use gravity generators? The Horde tanks and frigates use them, but they're a bit bulky and finicky. Lots of maintenance is needed to keep them going at peak efficiency. Darla got a more robust system, but it's not as optimised."

"Darla?" Daniel asked before Sam could ask about the gravity generators - which had to be the same technology the Goa'uld used for their space ships' artificial gravity.

"That's our spaceship's name. I named her!" The princess nodded. "She's old but reliable, and I've been updating her systems for months!"

"Ah."

"But if you have a better way to create artificial gravity, I might use that. What do you use?"

"We were talking about a fictional vehicle," Daniel said. "We don't use anti-gravity vehicles on Earth."

"Oh. Is flying taboo in your world? If it is, we have a long walk before us." Bow looked concerned. Judging by the way he winced, walking through the forest wouldn't be a good idea.

"This is Etheria, not Earth. They're guests here, not the other way around," Catra snapped. "I'm not going to walk through the forest because someone thinks flying is evil."

"No, we don't have a taboo against flying," the Colonel spoke up. "In fact, both Captain Carter and I are pilots."

"Oh! Neat!" Entrapta gushed. "But you don't use gravity generators or magic…" Her eyes widened. "Do you use pure powered flight using aerodynamic principles, like birds?"

"More or less," Sam replied. "We have different ways to achieve lift."

"And we can talk about all that once we're underway," Catra cut in. "I don't want to be in the forest at dusk when all the worst monsters come out to hunt."

"We were planning to camp here for a few days," Glimmer said.

The catwoman glared at her. "That doesn't mean we have to, now that we've explored the ruins. And that was just the five of us - I can't protect everyone else when they're stumbling around in the darkness."

"Let's just board the skiffs," Adora said. "It'll be a little tight, I think, but we'll manage."

"Can the skiff carry all of us?" Glimmer asked.

"No. At least two will have to ride with our supplies," Catra said.

"Perhaps we should have taken a Hauler," Adora said.

"A Horde Hauler wouldn't have made it through the swamp," Glimmer retorted.

"Emily made it." Adora nodded at the robot.

"You carried her."

"I could carry a Hauler," Adora said.

Sam wondered what a Hauler was. The way they talked, it sounded like a truck - an all-terrain truck. But the woman claimed to be able to carry it. Then again, they had anti-gravity technology. And magic.

"Let's just board the skiffs and get going," Catra said again.

"We'd like to stay together," the Colonel said.

Sam nodded in agreement. It was best to keep an eye on both Daniel and the Colonel.

"So… one of us needs to pilot the skiff, with four of you on board, it should work. The other skiff can carry three people, including the pilot, with our supplies" Entrapta said with a slight frown. "That means we're one short. I can ride Emily!"

"Please don't inconvenience yourself on our behalf," Daniel said.

"It's not an inconvenience. Emily's my friend!"

"So, that's settled. Let's go already!"

"Catra! Don't be rude!"

"I'm not being rude! I didn't even call anyone names."

"But they're our guests!"

"They are also in the middle of the Whispering Woods."

"It's actually not in the middle," Entrapta said. "We're more to the east."

"It's a figure of speech." Catra jumped up on the empty skiff in an impressive display of agility and strength. "I'm going to pilot this skiff," she said. "Everyone aboard!"

They climbed up the short ladder hanging down from the vehicle. There were no seats, Sam noticed. It really was like the vehicle from Star Wars. Not the most ergonomic design, she couldn't help thinking. But it flew.

"How high can this skiff fly?" the Colonel asked.

"Not very high," Catra replied as she looked at the other skiff. "The spell's only good for a few yards. Otherwise, we'd just break through the canopy and hightail it out of here."

Which was obvious in hindsight. Then again, nothing was obvious on a foreign planet.

"So… you're a pilot as well?" Daniel asked. As expected.

"Anyone can drive a skiff," Catra replied.

"Well, I can't." Daniel flashed her a smile. "But I take it skiffs are common, then. In our world, most people - at least in our country - stick to cars - but in another country, private planes are a common way to travel."

He was stretching the truth a little, there, Sam knew - not even in the outback in Australia were planes as common as cars. But it probably wouldn't hurt to make Earth appear a little less… earth-bound. They were dealing with what seemed to be a space-faring civilisation, after all.

And as much as she would deny it, should the Colonel ask, Sam was very curious how their settlements would look, with access to gravity generators and space ships.

*****​

"So, do you do most of your trade with skiffs? Or are they just used for exploration and scouting?"

Didn't the guy - Daniel - ever get tired of asking questions? "Both," Catra told him.

"Ah." He nodded, not looking confused or frustrated in the slightest.

"We were slower when traversing the swamp. Was that deliberately, or is this a limitation of the skiff?"

"The spell lifting us doesn't work well over water," Catra told the nosy woman.

"Like a hoverboard." The old guy chuckled.

"A hoverboard?" Catra asked. The others looked confused, she noticed. Except for the tall, dark guy, Teal'c, but he never showed any emotion anyway.

"From Back to the Future," O'Neill explained.

"Ah!" Daniel nodded with a smile.

Carter sighed while taking notes, so it was probably a joke.

Daniel cleared his throat. "It's a, ah, fictive story in our world. Quite famous, actually, as far as such things go, and there's a scene where the main character tries to use a hoverboard - a floating skateboard - to fly over a pond, and it stops moving."

"Ah." Catra nodded. "That's the same here - the spell stops working, and the skiff goes into the water." And then you better prayed that the hull had no holes in it.

She steered the skiff around a patch of forest, checking that Adora's skiff and Emily could keep pace. Perhaps she shouldn't have told their guests that - they might use that information if they stole one of the skiffs. On the other hand, it wasn't really a secret. Unless they locked the group up, they could easily find out how things worked. As they would easily find out about the war against the Horde.

And Catra had a feeling that Glimmer wouldn't have their guests locked up. Not on mere suspicion, at least.

"So, you use ships as well?" Daniel asked. "I mean, ships for the ocean, not space ships."

"Yes." Just because they could find out things didn't mean Catra had to spell out everything for them, though.

"Like Earth. Bulk trade is still most efficiently handled by ships," Daniel told her. "Do you have canals as well?"

"Some." No matter how curt she was, the guy didn't stop.

"So, do you have both an ocean port and a spaceport, or do the spaceships land in the water as well?" O'Neill asked.

"They can land in the water, but it's a little bothersome." There! Try to make sense of that!

"Do the spaceships use spells as well?" Carter had finished taking notes.

"Some do. Some don't."

That got a reaction - Carter exchanged a glance with O'Neill. Of course, they had no experience with magic, so they probably would feel safer in a Horde frigate.

Or they would feel safer stealing a Horde frigate. Catra pressed her lips together. If the Stargate wasn't working, a ship was their best bet to return to their home - Earth. She'd have to talk to Glimmer to ensure that their guests couldn't talk to the remaining Horde clones in Bright Moon. Not privately, at least. Most of the clones were still trying to adjust to a life not spent in blind obedience to Horde Prime. They weren't the brightest, either - Before they had vanished, Double Trouble had said trying to con them was so easy, it was beneath the spy. Which was a good thing, or they would have probably gathered a following of their own by now.

"Did you ever talk to someone about what you did in the war?"

Catra's eyes widened at O'Neill's question. Why would he suddenly ask her that? What was his game? "Sometimes, all we did was talk about the war," she replied with a forced chuckle. "We had plenty of time in space." Not quite a lie. Not that she wanted to remember that time, on Darla, after Glimmer's rescue. After Adora had come for her, despite everything Catra had done.

"Ah." The old guy didn't pry. But he was looking at her in that weird way.

Catra almost sighed with relief when she finally spotted Bright Moon in the distance. "Look ahead!" She called out. "Bright Moon!"

They had caught it at the perfect moment. The sun was setting, but several moons were up already, and the town was shining compared to the darkening sky. The royal palace looming over the town was glinting, the golden wings catching the last rays of the sun.

"Wow!"

"Is that… an artificial waterfall? From the top of the mountain?"

"That, or their plumber messed up."

Catra snorted. Sometimes, the old guy was actually funny. "Don't let Glimmer hear that. It's her kingdom's pride and joy."

"What is that floating… crystal?"

Ah, damn. "That's the Runestone, the symbol of her rule," Catra said. "That's also her pride and joy."

"So, Jack, don't joke about it. There might be religious aspects as well to consider."

"Daniel, you know me - I'm the perfect diplomat."

Catra snorted again. But she actually didn't doubt the claim. She was sure O'Neill was the sneakiest of the whole group. The kind of guy who would sneak some bombs into a diplomatic meeting just in case.

Like herself.

*****​

Bright Moon, Etheria, July 10th, 1998 (Earth Time)

So, that was Bright Moon. Shiny was an understatement, Jack O'Neill had to admit. The town was built around and into a steep mountain, domed houses circling the mountain's base and wrapping around its flanks as they snaked up to a huge palace. Compared to the settlements SG-1 had seen so far, it looked impressive. Very impressive. The artificial waterfalls - because there was no way a spring happened to be on the very top of a mountain, magic or no magic - would be the envy of a number of landscapers and architects on Earth. Mostly in Vegas, he thought with a chuckle. And the palace itself… well, the Goa'uld would like the golden statue on top of it. And the floating crystal. Very 'divine right'.

On the other hand, no Goa'uld would be caught traipsing through the jungle without an entourage large enough to serve every whim of theirs and build a road first. Or would ride with the luggage so their unwanted guests could take their seats on their floating barge. Jack had to give the locals props for that.

Then again, while their pilot had been quite curt and cagey when answering Carter and Daniel's questions, she had let slip enough - also by evading certain questions - to paint a pretty grim picture.

The kid had been fighting in that war they had mentioned for years. And, catwoman or not, if Catra or the other kids, with the exception of the hair princess, were a hair over twenty, Jack would eat his cap. Someone had sent those kids into war. And it had left scars. The way Catra didn't mention anything personal about the war, the way she got evasive whenever Carter or Daniel asked for details about this or that part related to the war… She didn't want to talk about it. Didn't want to think about it. Jack knew the signs. Saw them often enough in the mirror. And he had seen the signs on other kids, after the Gulf War. During his own mandatory therapy. It wasn't as if the US Army only sent adults into battle. But for the grunts, the ground part of the Gulf War had only lasted a couple of days.

Those kids here? They had fought for years. And Jack bet that they hadn't had an easy time of it. Which contrasted a lot with the shiny town they were approaching.

"That's… the architecture doesn't match any historical style," Daniel commented. "It must have evolved on its own. Another hint that this isn't a forgotten Goa'uld slave colony started with kidnapped people from Earth."

The fact that their pilot had cat ears, a tail, claws and cat eyes as well as fangs was a bigger clue, in Jack's opinion.

"Better keep that slavery stuff to yourself," Catra said. "Some people might take offence."

Such as the kid, Jack knew. The way she tensed… Had she gone through something similar as Jack had when he had been captured by the Iraqis? Or was he projecting? He couldn't check with the others right now. Not that he wanted to in the first place. He was their leader. They depended on him keeping things together.

"Of course. We meant no offence," Daniel said with an easy smile. "It's just that this is so fascinating!"

Catra snorted. "It came through the war quite well. Unlike other kingdoms, the Horde never took it. Came close a few times, though," she added with a toothy grin. "The shield almost fell."

She talked as if she were glad of that - did she resent the people here for staying safe while she was on the frontlines?

"The shield?" Carter asked.

"The magic shield protecting the town," Catra replied with a scowl.

Another slip, then, Jack noted. The locals had force shields. Shields large enough to cover an entire town - including a mountain. SGC would want one of those. Or more.

They reached what probably passed for the gates for the city. It was a simple checkpoint. Jack could see two guards in ornate armour snapping to attention, spears raised. He tilted his head, but they were travelling a little too fast for him to make out whether or not the spears hid some blaster cannons. They probably did, though - the archer kid had trick arrows straight out of comic books, the sword of She-Ra could change into a spade, and the princess had magic hair. They couldn't assume that any weapon they saw was what it looked like at first glance.

Hell, he thought with a snort, we better be careful with the cutlery, so we don't accidentally blow up dinner.

They drove up a winding road towards the palace. A number of the people - both humans and aliens - on the street waved to the queen, but it was a far cry from the cheering section a Goa'uld fake god would have demanded. And some even glared at them. Trouble in paradise? Or some oppressed minority?

Jack couldn't tell. But he trusted Daniel to have noticed it as well. And his friend would probably know what was up with that.

Then they reached the gates - massively oversized gates - of the palace. More guards snapped to attention, all in shiny armour with capes. And Glimmer took charge. "General Juliet! We require quarters for four guests. And an escort for them."

"Well, it's not off to the dungeons with us," Jack joked as he climbed down to the ground.

Catra snickered in return.

Jack had a feeling that he had missed something.

*****​

Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 10th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Adora shook her head. Catra was being rude. Well, ruder than she usually was. She could just be tired and cranky or there could be more to this. But this wasn't the time to sort that out. "Don't mind her," she told their guests. "She just thinks it's funny that the palace has no dungeons."

"No dungeons?" Jack sounded almost disappointed.

"That's not exactly abnormal," Daniel said. "The White House doesn't have any dungeons, either. There are prisons to hold, ah, prisoners. I suppose that things are the same here." He looked at Catra, who snickered again.

"Not quite," Adora's lover said.

Glimmer sighed and rolled her eyes. "Bright Moon's prisons aren't rated for princesses and similar prisoners. So, when we had such prisoners, they were housed in specially reinforced rooms in the palace." And where princesses were close to deal with any trouble, Adora knew.

"Which also were the guest quarters." Catra grinned. "In other words, you're going to the palace dungeons."

"They're not dungeons," Glimmer spat.

"Could've fooled me."

"You are welcome to find out the differences."

Adora cleared her throat. "Anyway," she said. "They're really nice guest quarters."

"Who can be turned into prison cells," Jack said.

"Any room can be turned into a prison cell," Entrapta pointed out. "A force field on the doors and windows is all you need. You can cover the walls as well if you think they could be breached."

"And you did that with guest rooms for your prisoners?" Jack asked. "Not a storage room somewhere damp and cold?"

"We're not the Horde!" Glimmer protested.

Catra scoffed. "Horde cells weren't damp and cold."

"But not as nice as our rooms."

"Are you really arguing about who had the better dungeons?" Bow asked.

"No, they aren't" Adora said, glaring at both of her friends. "So, let's go?" She gestured at the open gates. "It's getting a little late, and you probably want to freshen up before dinner."

"Yes, thank you," Daniel said with a smile. "That's very generous."

"It's the least we can do," Adora told him.

"Yes, yes, let's go. I want to freshen up as well," Catra said. "And you also need a shower."

Adora frowned. She hadn't really exerted herself, which was hard anyway as She-Ra, and she could simply change back and would be fine, but… Oh! "Yes, I do," she said.

Glimmer rolled her eyes, but Bow elbowed her before she could say anything.

"Oh! You want to be intimate!" Entrapta beamed at them.

Adora forced herself to smile back while Catra snickered. "We want to rest a little."

"Ah!" Entrapta nodded and took out her recorder. "I see."

She would be recording another 'euphemism for sex'. But they got going. Juliet had a squad of guards show the others the guest quarters while Adora and her friends walked towards their own quarters.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Glimmer sighed. "Finally! What did you find out, Catra?"

"Not much," Catra replied. "They're good at hiding things. The old guy is the leader, but we knew that already."

Adora nodded. Their ranks had been obvious.

"But he's… laid back. Lets the others talk, Daniel and Carter," Catra went on. "They had a lot of questions," she added with a wry expression. "Anyway, he tries to play dumb but he's sharp."

"Well, he wouldn't be their leader if he were dumb," Adora said.

"Anyway," Catra said, "He's got training in interrogation, I think. The way he looked at me when he thought I wouldn't notice, and how he commented on some of the questions…" She hissed under her breath. "I think he's the most dangerous. Most experienced. He's not a scientist like Carter or Daniel is, but..." She shrugged. "Just a feeling I got off him, and Melog agrees."

Adora nodded. That fit her own impression. "What about Teal'c?"

"Didn't say more than a few words." Catra cocked her head. "Melog says he's intense. Whatever that means."

"And Carter is a great scientist!" Entrapta blurted out. "I'm looking forward to sharing data with her! The things we could research together!"

"Ah…" Adora licked her lips.

"Perhaps we should wait a bit before we share data?" Bow suggested. "We don't know them yet."

"The best way to get to know someone is data."

"That doesn't mean we need to give them data," Catra said. "They're already gathering intel."

"Daniel had got a lot of questions," Adora agreed.

"About what?" Glimmer asked.

"Everything," Adora told her. "From clothes to families to religion."

"Oh, yes. The guy never stops talking." Catra sighed. "I was tempted to crash the skiff just to shut him up."

Adora hoped she was joking.

Glimmer frowned. "Do you think they're spies?"

"No," Adora said.

"Yes," Catra said.

"What?" She stared at her lover.

Catra shrugged. "I don't know if they are here to spy on us. But they're spies. Scouts. Whatever. So, don't transform around them. Not until we know more about them, and whether we can trust them."

"Great." Glimmer slumped a little. "Another problem to deal with."

"It's not a problem - it's an opportunity! A network of Stargates!" Entrapta gushed. "Imagine how many worlds we can visit!"

"Or how many worlds can be invaded," Glimmer retorted, tilting her head. "You heard about those Goa'uld. And what they do."

Adora suppressed a shudder. Snakes that wrapped around your spine and took over your body? They were worse than Horde Prime. She glanced at Catra. Her lover had her arms crossed, claws denting her own skin - she must be remembering being chipped.

Adora wrapped her in a hug, feeling her tense for a second before huffing and relaxing. And then she started squirming since they were still in public, sort of, and Adora let her go.

"We need a way to detect those snakes. Other than Melog," Glimmer said while Catra huffed and ran a hand through her hair.

"I bet Carter and the others know one!" Entrapta was still smiling. "Another reason to share data."

Glimmer didn't look like she agreed. Adora wasn't sure herself. Daniel was nice. And the others seemed, well, not bad either. And yet… They had to talk about this.

*****​

The quarters they were shown were very much unlike cells. Samantha Carter didn't remember ever staying in more luxurious surroundings - they might put the best hotels on Earth to shame.

"A waterfall inside the room? Those interior decorators would make a killing in Vegas," the Colonel commented as he walked around. "Although their beds need some work," he added, pressing a hand down on the mattress. "That's more like an oversized pillow than a mattress. You could drown in this."

Teal'c nodded. "Indeed. I will sleep on the floor."

The Colonel looked at her. "Any bugs, Carter?"

She shook her head. "None that I can detect." That didn't mean much, of course. The locals could be using entirely different technology to do their surveillance. Or just have a person with their ear pressed to the wall. But they had to discuss their situation - they couldn't wait much longer.

"Well, maybe there is a kernel of truth in the tale of the Princess and the Pea," Daniel said, chuckling. "But I'm sure we can ask for harder mattresses. Our hosts seem very accommodating."

"Yeah, 'seem'," the Colonel told him with a frown. "Don't let the glitz and pastel fool you. Those people have been through a war. At least the ones in charge. A bloody war."

Teal'c nodded in agreement. "They are veteran warriors, not untried children."

Sam nodded as well. They were correct. The way the group reacted to threats… They were acting like soldiers, not archaeologists. Certainly not like young adults on an 'adventure'. And the little details that Entrapta let slip about her technology… "Yes, sir. And they grew up during the war."

"That will have shaped their lives and outlook, yes," Daniel said. "But many aristocratic societies hold guest rights in high regard. I doubt that they plan to turn on us."

The Colonel snorted. "It's an alien society with magic princesses and animal people, Daniel. Who knows how they think?"

"They aren't animal people!" Daniel protested. "They are humanoids with some animal traits."

And clearly human or ancient ancestry in the mix. Sam wished she had a way to test the DNA.

The Colonel mumbled something that probably involved potatoes. Sam ignored it. "And they are technologically advanced. Entrapta knows more about robotics than anyone on Earth, sir."

"So, you believe their claim that they have spaceships, Carter?"

"Yes, sir." She nodded firmly.

"Why would they make this up?" Daniel asked. "They didn't know us. Or about us."

"Or they want us to think that," the Colonel pointed out.

"I doubt that. I talked at length with Adora. And we talked with Catra. Their stories match up. And how could they have expected us? They would have had to improvise a deception that holds up under scrutiny without being able to coordinate their answers." Daniel shook his head.

"They could be talking in their minds," the Colonel retorted. "Or like the cat. The four-legged cat."

Sam couldn't discard that possibility, but she didn't think that was likely. "I believe they were genuine."

"Maybe they were, but that was out in the woods. Now we're in a palace. A royal Palace."

"We haven't met many democratic societies, Jack," Daniel said. "And with obvious magic talents present in some locals, apparently hereditary, an aristocracy is a logical result."

"An aristocracy that just finished a war involving spaceships. And with huge guns." The Colonel shook his head. "And ground soldiers that can carry Stargates around as if they were bags of groceries. We aren't in Kansas any more for sure."

Sam smiled at the reference. "And we don't have any red shoes."

The Colonel chuckled. "So… were guests of magic princesses. And we need to find a way to activate the Stargate to return to Earth. Ideas?"

"We need to find the D.H.D.," Sam replied at once. "It's the fastest way to restore the gate's functionality. Entrapta can scan for Naquadah, so if she's able to build a scanner with enough range, we should have good odds of finding the missing D.H.D."

"If it's still around, you mean."

Sam pressed her lips together. If the D.H.D. wasn't around any more… She nodded. "If we cannot find it, we might be able to build a computer and power source for the ring. Entrapta's work with robots and artificial intelligence clearly shows that this civilisation has the resources to build both supercomputers able to handle the load as well as the power sources to supply the gate." As long as Entrapta's claims were true. But the princess hadn't seemed to be lying. And Sam doubted that the others would have gone on an expedition with a delusional person - they had trusted Entrapta and treated her as an expert on technology.

"How long would that take?"

"That's hard to say, sir," Sam ventured. "But months at least. It depends on the architecture. I will have to program the software as well. And the navigational data."

The Colonel didn't like that, judging by his frown. But it couldn't be changed. "So we will have to live in Barbie's Disney Palace for a while."

Daniel nodded with a smile. "Their civilisation is fascinating. We've barely scratched the surface. Different species! Multiple sapient species! Spaceships and magic! And a society shaped by both, possibly founded by the Ancients!

Well, at least one of them was happy about their situation. Though if Sam was honest with herself, then she had to admit that she was looking forward to studying the local technology as well. Including the magic parts.

*****​

"We should have made Entrapta build a device to eavesdrop on our guests without them knowing," Catra said, looking at the ceiling above their bed.

"Hm?"

Catra felt Adora shift next to her. The arm she was resting her head on pulled a little to the side. She resisted the urge to grab it and let her claws prick the skin to keep it in place. This wasn't the time for games. They'd already had their fun, anyway. "I'm sure they're planning something. We should listen in."

"That would be rude."

"So?" Catra turned her head. Adora was frowning at her in that pouty way that made her so… She smiled against her will, and Adora smiled back.

But then she grew serious. "You don't eavesdrop on your guests."

How naive. Catra wanted to shake her head. "You eavesdrop on potential enemies." That was the smart thing to do.

"They aren't our enemies. And they're just four people."

"Four people can do a lot," Catra pointed out. Like the 'Best Friends Squad', as Bow insisted on calling their group. Even though it now included her. And she was many things, but not a good friend, much less the best.

"They're not princesses," Adora retorted. "They don't have any magic. Their weapons aren't anything special, either."

"Entrapta would disagree." As would Catra. The rate of fire she had seen put laser rifles to shame.

"That's because the weapons are different. But they aren't really better than Horde small arms." Adora shook her head. "I'd rather have a stun baton. It's more versatile."

Indeed. The 'Tau'ri' must not take many prisoners with their weapons. "The baton has a shitty range, though." The stun setting only worked in close quarters, and the blast setting wasn't much better. 'Just far enough so the blast won't hurt you', they had called it in the Horde.

"Well, that's what laser rifles are for. And those don't need ammunition."

"But they run out of power." Catra smiled. Talking about weapons… that took her back to when both of them had been little, just starting weapons training as… cadets. She stopped smiling.

"Eventually." Adora blinked, then bit her lower lip. She had noticed Catra's mood. Somehow, she always seemed to notice. Or almost always. It was both annoying and, well… endearing. "It's OK," Adora said in a softer voice.

Catra rolled her eyes and huffed. They didn't have to talk about that. "We shouldn't underestimate them. Carter's like their Entrapta." And they both knew how dangerous Entrapta was if she put her mind to it. Or when she didn't really think about what she was doing.

"Do you really think they are here to hurt us?" Adora shifted to her side. She let her arm keep serving as a headrest for Catra, though.

Catra scoffed. She didn't really think that. But... "We can't exclude the possibility. Even if they arrived here by accident, they are a potential threat. If their enemies follow them and think we're allied with them..."

"Well, they are our guests. And those Goa'uld sound horrible. Almost as terrible as Horde Prime," Adora pointed out.

"We only have their word for that," Catra retorted. She wasn't going to think about being brainwashed and controlled, a prisoner in her own body.

"And Melog doesn't like the Goa'uld," Adora said.

Melog confirmed that with a slight growl from their bed.

"That doesn't mean our guests are nice, though." She held up a hand to stop Adora's response. "They seem nice - but Double Trouble also seemed nice." Before they stabbed her in the back.

"Double Trouble is…" Adora trailed off before she could embarrass herself by calling the spy 'nice'. "...special," she finished with a frown.

Catra snorted. "Speaking of them, we really should track them down."

"Why?"

"I don't trust them." Catra scowled. "And not just because of what they did to me. Do you trust them, with so many lost Horde Clones around with no idea what they should do now?"

"Do you really think they'll try to take over a group of clones?" Adora shook her head. "They'd grow bored of it in a heartbeat."

That was true, and Catra believed their claims about that. "I'm more concerned with them causing trouble."

"We can deal with that if it happens."

"When it happens," Catra corrected her.

Adora smiled wryly. "When then."

She should take this more seriously, in Catra's opinion. Horde Prime's flagship and many of its escorts around Etheria had been dealt with, but there were a lot of Horde ships left, both over Etheria and in the rest of the former Horde realm. "Well, when Double Trouble takes your appearance and starts another She-Ra cult amongst the clones, you can deal with it." Catra showed her teeth at her lover.

Adora grimaced. "Ugh. The first was bad enough, and they started that on their own." She blinked. "Unless… Do you think that was Double Trouble?"

"No." The spy would have told them. Double Trouble was sly, but they craved attention. And they bragged all the time so people would know how 'smart and creative' they were.

Adora sighed. "Anyway, I don't think our guests are a threat to us."

"I'm still going to keep an eye on them," Catra said.

"That's OK. Trust but verify, right?"

Catra scoffed. "Someone has to keep the lot of you from falling for every scam. Might as well be me."

"Yes." Adora smiled at her, then leaned over and kissed her.

If they had a little more time… But dinner would start in half an hour. Just enough to get another shower and get ready.

Catra sighed as she returned the kiss.

*****​

For a royal dinner with the Queen of the realm - and her father, the king - this was a rather casual, private affair, Jack O'Neill thought as he looked around. Less than a dozen people, all in all, sitting at a round table that would have had him make a King Arthur joke if anyone other than his own team would have understood it. Two guards at the door, and Jack hadn't seen more than three different waiters so far.

He had been at working dinners at the Pentagon that had been more formal and more grand affairs. Of course, that probably said more about the Pentagon than about their hosts here. Still, he was positively surprised by the lack of pomp and circuses. And relieved - you could always count on Goa'uld to go all-out with the boasting and posturing. Though the furniture and the cutlery were all of the finest quality, as far as he could tell - he was no expert.

"Do you like the meal, Colonel?"

That was the king. Though, as far as Jack had understood Daniel's explanation, he was actually the former queen's consort. Glimmer was the actual ruler of this realm. "It's excellent," he replied. "Your highness," he added. It was actually very good. And not too exotic, either - a tasty steak, just as he liked it, with some vegetables that looked like broccoli but tasted not unlike carrots.

"I'll tell the cook," the king said, smiling. Really down to earth, Jack couldn't help thinking. Much more polite than most brass he had met back home. Also a far cry from most politicians he had met.

"It's excellent, your highness," Daniel chimed in. "May I ask what it is called?"

"Uh, steak with greens," the king replied. "Beef, in this case."

Daniel actually looked surprised and a little disappointed. Jack smirked - his friend probably had hoped for some exotic dish steeped in myth and history.

"You can also use horse meat for it, but that has fallen out of favour since the war," Entrapta said, looking up for a moment from where she was talking to Carter in a low but excited voice. Voices, actually - Jack had the feeling that he should be concerned about that.

"Oh?" Daniel turned towards her.

Jack tilted his head slightly. Had they had a shortage of beef during the war and had to turn to horses? Jack knew that many countries in Europe had to order rationing during the Great War and World War II and had to make do with alternatives for traditional dishes. Horse meat would have been an obvious choice to replace beef.

"Yes," Adora said. "Swift Wind put an end to butchering horses." She looked up for a moment, then down again, and Catra, sitting next to her, snickered while the blonde woman flushed.

They had animal activists here? That was a surprise. Daniel would probably say this was another sign of an advanced civilisation.

Glimmer cleared her throat with a slight frown. "He did. I trust the guest quarters are to your satisfaction, Colonel?"

"They are," Jack replied. "Although the beds are a little too soft."

"Jack!" Daniel hissed. "You can't just complain about…"

But both Adora and Catra laughed. "Oh, did you get the standard beds? Yes, far too soft," Catra said.

"I almost drowned in them the first time I slept in the palace," Adora added.

Queen Glimmer pressed her lips together for a moment. "I'll tell the staff to replace the beds with the Horde model," she said.

"It's not actually a Horde bed or cot," Bow said, leaning forward. "It's what we call the beds that visitors from the former Horde are more comfortable in."

That was interesting. So, they had visitors from their enemies? Former enemies?

"We'd never have guests sleep on horde cots or bunks," Adora said, shaking her head. "Unless they insisted, of course. But the Horde models are much more comfortable without being too soft."

And that was interesting as well. It almost sounded as if she was very familiar with the difference.

"You said former Horde," Daniel spoke up. "What happened to the Horde?"

"Scorpia changed the name after the war," Adora said.

"She restored the Scorpion Kingdom," Glimmer said.

'Scorpia' and 'Scorpion Kingdom'? A former princess who managed to reconquer her country?

"Well, she's working on that - most of the land is still wilderness thanks to Adora, but they are making progress in turning it into fields," Entrapta said with a slight pout. "I offered to construct bots to clear the plants, but Perfuma said she could handle it." Then she perked up. "But once they rebuild their industry, I'll get to design the new factories so they won't pollute the environment! I've got so many ideas, and Hordak knows what went wrong the first time, so this will be so much fun!"

Adora was looking down at her plate again. What had she done to the land? Jack wondered. Some weapon of mass destruction? Or a bombing campaign? It had to be something horrible for her to feel so bad about it. But Glimmer was scowling, he noted. As was the king. Jack was missing something here.

"Hordak?" Daniel asked.

"Hordak! My partner!" Entrapta beamed at him.

"Yes." Glimmer definitely didn't like that, Jack noted. "But enough of that," she went on. "Could you tell us of your home, Colonel?"

They were constantly deferring to him, Jack noted, when addressing SG-1. And calling him by his rank. So, a certain formality persisted. Or were they just treating him like a royal? If Daniel made a 'Princess Jack' joke… He shrugged. "There's not much to tell. We're from Earth. It's quite the normal planet - we work, we farm - I like to fish in my spare time. It's very relaxing even if you don't catch any. Of course, that's because where I like to fish, we don't have such monsters as we met in the Whispering Forest." He smiled his best 'harmless retiree' smile at them.

"And you have a Stargate to travel to other worlds," Glimmer went on. "Which you use extensively, despite the obvious dangers."

Of course they wouldn't just accept his deflection. He kept smiling. "We discovered the Stargate a while ago. When we opened it, we encountered the Goa'uld. They want to conquer us, but we've held them at bay ever since, but that means we have to be active."

"If they need gates to attack, that shouldn't be too hard," Catra remarked. "Unless they have spaceships."

Jack kept his polite smile on even though she had just named SCG's worst fear - an invasion with a fleet of big honking spaceships. "We keep them busy in their own realm. Saving slaves, striking at their armies, the works."

"And exploring new worlds," Daniel added. "We're always looking for allies against the Goa'uld."

Jack suppressed a wince. Daniel was showing their hand far too soon. He was usually much more diplomatic.

"And you hope to have found some here," Glimmer said in a very neutral voice.

"Well, your cat knows about them and how bad they are," Jack pointed out, nodding at their big alien cat, which was lounging on the floor near Catra. Perhaps he could salvage this.

"Melog does, yes," Catra said. "But they're not eager to start another war. They're the last of their species - they were all killed in the last war."

Daniel winced. And Jack wanted to sigh - they had stepped into it there.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 4: The Dinner Conversation

Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 10th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"The last of their species?"

Their guests sounded horrified, Adora noticed. As they should be, she thought a moment later, feeling guilty at her grief surprise. Wiping out entire planets was one of the most horrible things you could imagine. Unless you were Horde Prime.

"Yes, Horde Prime razed their planet when they resisted his attack," Glimmer said.

Adora kept her expression neutral while she nodded. "And it wasn't the only planet that suffered that fate."

"Sounds like he took lessons from the Goa'uld," O'Neill commented. "They're big on making examples out of any resistance as well."

"Yes," Daniel agreed. "They would eradicate a planet's population, then resettle it with slaves if they deemed that necessary to crush a rebellion. Sometimes, they even rendered the planet barren, unable to sustain human life. They mark such planets with a totem to warn off Jaffa and others."

That sounded terrible as well. But then, they were fighting the Goa'uld, and it was obvious that they wanted help. Yet, fighting another war...

Melog growled.

Catra nodded. "Horde Prime did the same - he wiped out the planet."

"Yes. There actually wasn't much left that could sustain any life on Melog's home planet," Entrapta said. "The ecosystem was completely destroyed. I don't think it could've been restored without magic - or technology on a scale we don't have access to."

"It's an example to discourage the others," O'Neill said. "Tyrants generally think nothing of sacrificing one world to control the rest."

"It wasn't the only world," Adora told them. "The Star Siblings were the only survivors of their people as well. Horde Prime did that to many, many worlds."

"Oh." Even O'Neill looked taken aback.

They still didn't understand. "He didn't want to rule the population. Just as long as they were useful. Ultimately, he wanted to replace them with his clones," she said. "Clones who were utterly loyal to him. His perfect empire."

"He had a collection of art and food from the various planets he had destroyed," Glimmer said. "He liked to show it off."

Adora glanced at Catra. Her friend was tense, sitting utterly still, but her tail was rapidly swishing back and forth. She placed her hand on Catra's thigh and gently squeezed.

"Well, I think no one will be missing the guy," O'Neill said.

"Except for his clones," Entrapta corrected him. "They're very lost without him. Left adrift. Some even died because they didn't bother eating."

Adora clenched her teeth. She hadn't had any choice - she had to destroy Horde Prime before he destroyed Etheria and everything else in the sector. But the clones, brainwashed to blindly obey, were suffering because of it. And there wasn't much she could do about it - they didn't even know where most of them were, what with Horde Prime's flagship gone. Turned into plants. All they could do was helping those on Etheria and nearby to rebuild their lives.

"Well, enough of that," Micah said. "You were telling us about your world, Colonel."

"Ah, right." O'Neill's smile was fake; even Adora could tell. But he nodded. "Well, as I said, it's a rather average world. We've got a lot of water - about two-thirds of the planet's covered in it. Lots of people, too, but there are still plenty of places where you can be by yourself and relax."

And they still called the world 'Earth' even though it was more water than earth? Well, different planet, different customs. "That sounds peaceful," Adora commented. Far more peaceful than she would expect of a world fighting such monsters as the Goa'uld.

"Well, I won't say we don't have any conflicts," O'Neill said. "But most people are just living their lives. And they won't have to face war if we've got anything to say about it."

"Until the Goa'uld reach your world with their spaceships, you mean," Catra said. "Pretty hard to live your life once the orbital bombardment starts and the infantry and tanks drop into your towns."

"They probably would get stuck in traffic," O'Neill said with a short snort.

"Sir," Carter hissed.

"Sorry, that was a bad joke about traffic jams in big cities." The man's smile looked a little rueful.

"Trying to move anything through a bottleneck is frustrating," Catra said. "One stuck transport and an entire column might be forced to divert - or wait for supplies."

"Yes. That can be averted with proper planning, though, and a smart traffic control system," Entrapta cut in. "Not that it's needed any more, what with the Horde dissolved. But it would have worked if I could've implemented it."

Adora liked Entrapta very much, but sometimes, she wished her friend would not sound quite so disappointed about all the missed opportunities to make the Horde even more dangerous.

"So, tell me about your leader," Glimmer said. "Who rules your world - or your country, if you aren't a united world. You don't seem to have monarchs, do you?"

Adora leaned forward. This was interesting.

"Ah, no, most countries elect their leaders," O'Neill said. "Everyone gets to vote for who calls the shots."

Adora blinked. That was… "How does that work?" she asked. "You just… gather and say who you want to lead you?" That might work for a village, but for a town like Bright Moon? "And how do you pick whoever you want? Do you see their test results?"

"Test results?" Now O'Neill looked confused.

"How else do you know if your pick for leader is a good leader?" Adora explained. "Do you look at how they fared in leadership training?" That was how Force Captains had been selected, at least as far as she knew.

"Most people chosen as leaders have some experience with leadership on a smaller scale," Daniel said.

"Ah. So, like promotions," Catra said. "You look at who's doing well leading a squad, then promote them to lead a platoon, and if they don't get everyone killed, they take over the company once a slot opens. Sensible." She nodded.

Daniel cleared his throat. "Ah, it's not quite like that."

"I sure hope it isn't," Glimmer muttered. "Just because you can lead troops doesn't mean you can rule a country."

"Well, you would know best," Catra told her with a smile.

Adora winced.

*****​

Samantha Carter saw the queen glare at Catra for that flippant comment. And the smile looked quite toothy. Did that mean that the queen had started commanding troops and wasn't very adept at ruling the country? Well, she was very young, so she obviously couldn't have a lot of experience. Although her father would be helping her with advice and, possibly, handling some matters himself.

Daniel cleared his throat again. "There are no restrictions for running for, ah, leadership positions, although there is usually a minimum age requirement. In our country, for example, you have to be thirty-five years old to become president - which is the highest office, the leader of our country."

"Wow, Frosta would hate that!" Entrapta said next to Sam. The princess turned towards her. "She was always sensitive about her young age," she whispered.

Sam blinked. Young age? Glimmer, Queen Glimmer, looked as if she were barely in her twenties. "How young was she when she took her throne?" Sam whispered while Daniel went into a brief or not so brief explanation of various age requirements."

"I think she was eight years old when she took over the throne of the Kingdom of Snows."

"Eight years old?" Sam blurted out, a little too loudly, as it turned out since everyone looked at her.

"Talking about Frosta?" Catra asked.

"Yes." Entrapta nodded.

"You had an eight-year-old ruler?" The Colonel shook his head.

"I'm sure she had advisers," Daniel was quick to say.

"I think she had," Entrapta replied with a nod. "It's not as if you can run a kingdom, even one as small as Dryl, on your own. Although I probably could if I used my bots, though they are kind of like advisors. Or guards. Or servants. But I don't call them that, or my actual servants might feel hurt."

"Our monarchies - many of them, at least - had a regent when the heir to the throne wasn't of age yet. The regent ruled until the monarch reached adultness." Daniel smiled at their hosts.

"But you replaced them with your elections, didn't you?" Catra asked.

"Well, yes," Daniel admitted. "Though in some countries, the monarchs remained as heads of state, though with very limited power."

"So… you have countries with a queen or king and an elected leader," Glimmer summed up. "What if they don't agree on something?"

Sam winced. That was a tricky question, and…

...Daniel answered it honestly: "The elected government takes precedence."

Sam was very relieved that the Colonel didn't make a guillotine joke.

Catra snorted. "Well, that only works if your princes and princesses don't have any magic powers."

"I think that is the crucial difference between our two worlds, yes," Daniel agreed. "Without, ah, royalty defined by magic powers, a king or queen's right to rule was more easily questioned. In the past, they claimed divine right to rule, but there came a time when that, too, was questioned - as was religion itself. So, gradually or abruptly, most monarchies were replaced by democracies. Democracy means 'the rule of the people'."

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people," the Colonel quoted Lincoln.

It was quite clear, at least to Sam, that their hosts didn't like that. Well, except for Entrapta, who seemed intrigued. Then again, the princess seemed to be curious about everything from Earth.

"Fascinating!" she gushed. "So, you elect your leader, who then acts like a princess without magic."

"And you hope you didn't pick an idiot as your leader," Catra added. "If you did, how do you get rid of them? Kill them off?" She actually sounded serious, Sam noticed.

"There are regular elections," Daniel explained. "Usually every four to seven years. But in most democracies, there's generally a non-violent way to remove a particularly inept leader. A peaceful change of power is the hallmark of a working democracy."

"And if that doesn't work?" Glimmer asked.

"Then you tend to have a violent change of power," the Colonel said.

"But that's rare in democracies," Daniel quickly added. "The most stable countries in our world are democracies."

"Fascinating!" Entrapta beamed. "So, you use a system of calculated instability - the change in government based on elections - to create long-term stability. A very creative concept with a number of promising applications."

That was a rather creative view, but not wrong. Though Sam had a feeling that Entrapta was thinking about something not related to government.

"That's about it," Daniel said, nodding.

"And how can you make long-term plans if you will be replaced in a few years?" Glimmer asked.

"Well, in most countries, you can get reelected. Some countries have term limits, but they vary." Daniel nodded. "But there are some issues with short-sighted policies."

"I bet," Catra said. "That's like letting the troopers run the army."

"Oh, I've met some troopers who would be great at that," the Colonel said. "And some generals who were bad at running anything."

"Must be a bad system then," Catra retorted. "If you end up with bad leaders at the top."

"And you would know all about that, wouldn't you?" Glimmer asked with a toothy smile.

Sam frowned. She was missing something here.

*****​

Catra glared at Glimmer then forced herself to smile. Good hit, Sparkles - though she had still copied Catra. And she wasn't entirely wrong. Catra had messed up. A lot. Of course, she had also won a lot. Conquered Plumeria and Salineas. Almost taken Bright Moon. All without some sparkly magic power or sparkly magic friends. All without Adora…

A hand - Adora's - squeezed her knee. "No system is perfect," her lover said, frowning at Glimmer.

"No one's perfect," Catra whispered under her breath. Adora sometimes still thought she had to be perfect.

"Yes!" Entrapta, with perfect timing, piped up. "It's how a system deals with the inevitable errors that crop up that determines if it's a good, working system or a problem. Also, blowing up is generally not a good result." She nodded.

Catra snorted, even though she was pretty sure that Entrapta was talking literally about blowing up. But it fit anyway. Or either way, given what Glimmer and she had done in the past.

Adora nodded, but before she could say something, the old guy spoke up. "And those officers were removed, retired, or moved to a post where they couldn't do much harm. Eventually."

Oh, that was a pretty soft system then. Inept leaders would've been disposed of in the Horde. Or sent on a suicide mission to the Crimson Waste, she reminded herself. "So, your troopers got promoted to replace them?" she asked.

"Some," O'Neill replied. "They would have to want to get promoted - and they would have to go to officer's school."

"Officer school? Is that like the cadet command course?" Adora asked. "Where you learn how to lead?"

"Pretty much, yes," O'Neill told her. "Though you don't really learn to lead - that you only learn in the field through experience."

Which was true. And sometimes, you didn't learn how to really lead, even if it seemed to be working. But that wasn't the subject Catra wanted to hear about. "So, you either replaced your princesses, or you turned them into servants?"

"Ah, not servants. That wouldn't be correct," Daniel spoke up. "They serve the state, but as Head of state, performing ceremonial and representative duties. And while they generally don't have any, ah, official power, they still have a lot of soft power - influence amongst the people and the politicians, that is, the elected officials in the government and parliament."

Still sounded like a raw deal for any princess, in Catra's opinion. Not that some of them didn't deserve to be replaced or serve someone, at least for a while. Teach them how everyone else lived. As Adora showed, you didn't need to rule a country to be a princess, anyway. Some would probably be happier if they didn't have to deal with a country.

Glimmer, though, wouldn't. She was keeping up a polite front, but Catra could tell that she didn't like what she was hearing. "But how were your original monarchs chosen if you didn't have any magic?"

"Mostly by their ancestors killing everyone who disagreed with the opinion that they should lead," O'Neill replied.

"Jack!" Daniel glared at him. "That's an oversimplification. While probably true in some cases, not every leader was selected through force of arms. As experiments and records show, often, leaders were chosen for their qualities in handling a crisis."

"So… you first elected your leaders, then they stopped being elected, and now you're back to electing them?" Micah asked.

Daniel laughed. "You could put it that way, I suppose, though, as usual, the truth is more complicated."

It always was, Catra knew. Nothing was ever simple. If it looked simple, it was a trap. And their guests did look a little too simple for her taste. A team of soldiers, here by accident, fighting enemies that fought Melog's people in the past and were a threat to Etheria. Very simple, very convenient.

"So, who's your leader?" Glimmer asked.

"Ah, do you mean our country's leader or our commanding officer?" Daniel asked,

"Both."

Catra leaned forward. This would be interesting.

"Stargate Command is under the, ah, command of General Hammond," Daniel said. "He's an experienced officer who has seen us through a lot of situations. And he cares for the troops under his command."

"He's a fine, honourable leader," the tall, dark and silent guy, Teal'c, spoke up.

"Yes." Daniel nodded.

So, basically, 'good officer'. Not much to go on.

"And your country's leader?"

"That would be the President. He's in his second term," Daniel said. "He's done a lot for the economy; the country's prospering."

"Impressive," Glimmer commented. "A country generally suffers in a war."

"Unless you're winning and conquering enemy territory and resources." Catra looked at their guests. Fortunately, Glimmer didn't take this as a dig but as the warning that it was meant to be.

"Ah, we don't conquer territory. We're looking for allies, actually," Daniel said. "But since we mainly fight the war through the Stargates with limited means, we didn't have to turn the economy into a war economy. Most people don't even know about the war."

Catra blinked. That sounded… "You're fighting body-snatching snakes out to destroy your planet, and you haven't geared up for war?" That couldn't be true!

But from the way the others, especially O'Neill, frowned at Daniel, it probably was true.

What were those people thinking? That wasn't how you won a war!

*****​

Just great. Daniel kept spilling intel. And in the worst way possible. Jack O'Neill knew that being honest with potential allies was the best policy - keeping secrets tended to come back and bite you at the worst possible moment - but there was a time and place to explain how SGC operated and the first dinner date with royalty wasn't it.

But it would have to be. He had to fix this before their hosts got the wrong impression. He shook his head. "We're doing what we can. Since we fight this war through the Stargates, we don't exactly need huge armies, and tanks and planes wouldn't fit through it." Theoretically, a tank would fit, but that would require ramps that could handle its weight - and you'd have to get the tank to the gate in the first place. Not to mention that Death Gliders would turn most tanks into scrap in short order.

"Planes?" Adora asked.

"Vehicles that rely on aerodynamics to generate lift to fly, not spells or gravity generators," Entrapta explained.

"Yeah, that," Jack said. "Anyway, vehicles are generally too big to send through the gate - at least military ones - and we aren't invading any planet anyway, so we're using small, mobile teams to explore, recon and strike."

"Like your team?" Catra asked.

"Yes." That should be obvious, in Jack's opinion.

"Great. You're fighting princess-style without princesses." Catra snorted. "And you're doing it using natural choke points."

"We're not walking through the gate without sending in a drone first," Carter said.

"Unless we have to leave in a hurry," Jack added. They were already aware of that, after all.

"It's still…" Catra shook her head. "How can you fight a war without even telling your people?"

Jack shrugged. "We manage." It wasn't the best idea, in his opinion, and he absolutely hated lying to the families of the soldiers killed in action about accidents instead of telling them the truth, but orders were orders, and those came from the President himself. And Jack had done enough black ops to know that the military refusing to obey the government was a bad idea. Generally, at least - sometimes, you had to do what you had to, orders or not orders. But he certainly wouldn't bitch to strangers about that. "It also keeps us under the radar. If the Goa'uld saw us sending armies through the gate, they might stop fighting each other and unite against us." And Earth would be conquered. Hell, just one System Lord with a single spaceship could crush all their defences unless SGC managed to pull off another miracle.

"But how can you prepare to repel an invasion without telling your people what's happening?" Glimmer asked.

That was a question Jack had asked himself. "We're doing what we can - recruiting the best and brightest, gathering information, looking for weaknesses…"

The others didn't look as if they were buying that. Well, from what they had said and let slip, they had been through a more conventional war. As conventional a war could be when they were using magic, of course. And spaceships.

"That only works until the other side changes the rules," Catra said. "If you rely on the gate protecting you, you might end up like Salineas."

"Salineas?" Jack asked. He saw that Catra flinched a little, and the blonde, Adora, pat her hand.

"A kingdom in the sea, protected by the Sea Gate," Adora explained. "The Horde found a way around it and attacked with massed forces. It fell quickly."

"Ah." The catwoman had probably fought there. He nodded at her. Losing a battle was always hard.

"But why are you looking for allies if you don't even use your own people?" Glimmer asked. "That sounds as if you want others to fight your war." She narrowed her eyes at them. "And why should we trust you if you don't even trust your own people to tell them the truth?"

Damn. Well, time to do what Daniel would do. "To be honest," Jack said, "Earth isn't as advanced as the Goa'uld. We can match them on the ground - we're a bit better, actually, since our weapons are more effective - but we don't have spaceships or the technology to produce them." He ignored Carter's slight gasp. "Not yet. So, even if we went all war economy, we would only produce more targets on the ground which would be bombed from orbit. We stopped one such invasion, but if they launch another, we're pretty much done for." He pressed his lips together. He didn't like admitting how weak Earth was, but they weren't dealing with a planet full of slaves or former slaves, kept at a primitive tech level for millennia. These people had spaceships.

And they looked surprised. Jack could tell as they exchanged glances and looks.

"And if we told everyone, there would be a mass panic," Daniel spoke up. "People would riot, wars might get started - we're not ready for such a revelation. We would have to prepare for that very carefully, or we might destroy ourselves before the Goa'uld make another attempt to take Earth." He smiled ruefully. "We only started using the Stargate a few years ago."

"In other words, you're desperate," Catra said.

"We'll help you!" Adora blurted out. "We won't let another planet be destroyed."

Jack blinked. He hadn't expected that. Judging by the groans of Glimmer and Catra, they hadn't expected that, either.

*****​

Catra was giving her that look - the one where she thought Adora was being stupid - again. And Glimmer looked annoyed with her. If both of them agreed on something.. Well, they were still wrong this time! Adora sat straighter. "We've seen what happens when people like Horde Prime aren't stopped. He destroyed a lot of planets just for not bowing to him. If the Goa'uld are the same, then we have to stop them."

Melog growled. It sounded like they approved.

Catra sighed. "Melog agrees," she confirmed.

Adora smiled at both of them.

Catra still glared at her. Same as Glimmer.

"Thank you!" Daniel beamed at her.

"Yes, thank you," O'Neill added. "So what would that help entail, exactly?"

Oops. Adora had spoken as if she spoke for everyone. No wonder Glimmer was annoyed. "Well, I'm She-Ra. I'm good at destroying spaceships." She smiled at the Tau'ri.

"Well, that's straightforward." O'Neill sounded as if he was sarcastic, though.

"Just point her at a spaceship you don't like and let her at it," Catra said. "But we're not going to let her go off alone."

"Of course not," Glimmer said with a last glance-glare at Adora before looking at O'Neill. "But we're not going to rush out without a plan, either."

Adora hadn't been planning to do that! She was about to point that out when Catra's hand on her thigh - the claws pricking her skin - stopped her.

"If we are to become allies, we need a lot more information about your world," Glimmer went on. "What kind of help you need, what kind of help you can provide."

"Data!" Entrapta said, nodding. "The more data, the better. We can't make plans without sufficient data. First, we need to determine where Earth is in relation to us. Then we can work out how long it'll take for a fleet to arrive here."

"A fleet?" O'Neill tilted his head a little.

"I think we'll need a fleet. But without more data, I can't say how big it has to be," Entrapta said.

"We'll also have to ensure that Etheria is safe from any attack by the Goa'uld," Catra pointed out. "That means enough ships to stall an invasion force and a secure Stargate so we can return at once if Adora's needed."

Glimmer nodded after a glance at Catra. "You have the means to secure a Stargate and still allow easy access through it," she told their guests. "We need that."

"That requires quite the resources," Carter said.

"Which we'll gladly share," O'Neill cut in. "No sweat." He looked at Carter and mouthed something Adora didn't catch.

"Yes!" Entrapta beamed. "We need metallurgy data and examples of the mechanism you use."

"And we need to talk to your leaders," Glimmer said. "So we can come to an agreement. We're not going to jump into a war without a formal alliance."

Right. Politics. Adora wasn't good at those. She wasn't a real princess, after all - she was the protector of Etheria, not a ruler. She nodded anyway.

"That can be arranged," O'Neill said.

"With all your leaders, though. Not just your country's," Glimmer told him. "We aren't going to create another Horde."

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked.

"When Hordak arrived on Etheria," Glimmer explained, "He was alone. He created the Horde by using his knowledge to take over the Scorpion Kingdom, which he then turned into the core of his army - an army dangerous enough to almost conquer Etheria."

"Wait!" Daniel said, frowning, "You mentioned Hordak before." He looked at Entrapta.

"Oh, yes. He's my science buddy." Entrapta smiled, then blinked. "Ah, yes, he doesn't want to conquer Etheria any more, don't worry!"

Adora didn't need to hear Glimmer's words to know that her friend was muttering 'he better not' or something like it under her breath.

But their guests looked surprised. "Hordak was the leader of the Horde?" Daniel asked.

"Until he turned against Horde Prime," Entrapta confirmed. "And he only led the Horde he had built on Etheria, not Horde Prime's Horde."

"He turned against his cruel leader," Teal'c spoke up with a slow nod. "An honourable action."

"Yeah, yeah." Glimmer's mouth twisted into a slight grimace. "It was pretty much everyone against Horde Prime."

"We have a saying on Earth: The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Daniel said.

"Something like that," Glimmer said.

Adora half-expected Bow to mention the Best Friends Squad, but he stayed quiet.

"Yes," Entrapta nodded with a scowl. "Horde Prime wiped his memories - or tried to. Hordak was stronger than he thought, tough."

"Not all of us are best friends," Bow spoke up, "but we aren't enemies any more." There he was!

Adora nodded in agreement. "Yes. We all worked together to defeat Horde Prime. And we'll have to work together to defeat those Goa'uld."

"Well, we have sort of experience with that," O'Neill said, looking at Teal'c. "Working against your former overlord and such."

"Indeed. It's our hope that many more Jaffa will turn against the false gods."

Right. Teal'c had changed sides as well. Adora remembered his comments.

"So, with that settled, we have to determine where Earth is, so we can get there. We probably can find a world with a Stargate to travel there, but that won't work for spaceships." Entrapta nodded. "Do you have any astronomical data?" she asked, beaming at Carter.

*****​

"So… that went…" The Colonel trailed off after closing the door to their quarters.

"I think it went well," Daniel said with a smile. "We made new allies."

Samantha Carter suppressed a wince. They might have made new allies, allies with advanced technology - very interesting technology, as she had gathered from her talk with Entrapta - but...

"Care to tell me why you kept spilling information about Earth to people we just met?" the Colonel asked, narrowing his eyes.

Daniel, unlike what Sam had expected, wasn't flustered. "It was necessary to earn their trust, Jack," he replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "Lying to them would have caused trouble as soon as the truth came out."

"You didn't have to lie," the Colonel told him with a frown. "But you didn't have to tell them everything."

"Lying by omission is still lying," Daniel countered. He was frowning - digging in his heels, Sam realised. "We're dealing with an advanced civilisation here, Jack! Not with former slaves hiding from their 'gods'. They just finished a decades-long war, too. Do you think they wouldn't have noticed if I answered evasively? They did actually, but were too polite to point it out."

Some of their hosts had noticed when Daniel had been evasive, Sam agreed. But Entrapta probably had missed it. The woman was brilliant, but she seemed to have some issues with social interaction.

"They were so polite, they called us desperate and started to list conditions for their help."

"Aren't we desperate?" Daniel retorted. "We barely managed to defeat Apophis when he arrived with two motherships. If he returns with an actual fleet…"

The Colonel clenched his teeth. "I'm aware of our military situation, Daniel. But everything has its price. The more they know about us, the more they can demand."

Daniel shook his head. "They won't do that, Jack. They're good people."

The Colonel snorted. Sam was forced to agree with him - Daniel was naive. Their hosts might be good people - they certainly have that impression - but they were also rulers of a country. And that meant they had to act in the interest of their country.

Their friend looked at them and frowned. "I've talked to Adora while you were hunting monster worms. She's not going to extort us. And she won't let others extort us either." He sounded convinced of that.

The Colonel scoffed. "She also wants to bring magic to Earth."

"And she probably could," Daniel retorted. "At least something she considers magic."

"A form of energy you can manipulate, according to Entrapta," Sam said, "if you have the talent for it. Probably a genetic condition or trigger."

"That's not the point." The Colonel shook his head. "I didn't get the impression that she would be asking nicely if she could turn Earth into a land of magic and rainbows."

Sam was, once again, forced to agree with this assessment.

"She won't. Just as she won't let us get exploited." Daniel shook his head as well. "Jack, this is the chance we've been hoping for! Allies who have the technology and means to fight the Goa'uld on even terms! And they have magic!"

"So they claim."

Sam cleared her throat. "So far, their claims seem to be plausible, sir. I've talked with Entrapta, and she has demonstrated a quite extensive knowledge of Ancients technology."

"Don't let the spears and swords fool you," Daniel added. "They have shown us their technology."

"We didn't see their ships," the Colonel objected.

"Why would they lie about that? What would they gain?"

"Entrapta knows how to navigate in space," Sam pointed out. The woman had asked for astronomical data, and Sam didn't doubt that, if she had enough data, she could locate Earth.

"And she wants to know where Earth is." The Colonel clenched his teeth. "We can block the gate. We can't block space."

"Do you expect them to invade us?"

"We've only met half a dozen people here," the Colonel pointed out. "What about the rest of the world? And they're working with their former enemies!"

"That fits with their society, Jack." Daniel smiled. "In an aristocratic society, people often felt closer to fellow aristocrats than to their subjects, even if they had fought each other in the past. Especially if they hadn't lost close family in the war. They might not have the concept of nationalism as we know it."

"They fought a war against the Horde - and it was a total war; you saw their reaction when they found out that the USA doesn't run a war economy." The Colonel shook his head once more. "And they let the enemy leader off."

"That wasn't uncommon on Earth, either. Especially for aristocracies. And he switched sides according to them. You can't judge them according to our values, Jack. And they aren't like the Goa'uld."

"We hope so."

"We have seen their reaction to the Goa'uld practices and policies," Sam said.

"They do not seem as if they would tolerate the false gods," Teal'c commented.

"And it's not as if the USA is only allied with perfect democracies," Daniel pointed out - a little snidely, Sam thought. "At the very least, they do not seem to discriminate based on gender or sexual orientation."

"There were a lot of women in charge and few men," Jack objected.

Sam refrained from rolling her eyes. "They accepted you as our leader at once, sir," she said. "If they were biased against men, they wouldn't have done that. They would have kept looking to me instead. Trust me, sir, I would know." She had experienced enough discrimination and sexism in her career to spot that kind of bullshit everywhere.

The Colonel looked a little abashed but wasn't giving in. "So they aren't a matriarchy," he said. "But they aren't a democracy, either. And we don't know how they will react if and when they visit Earth."

Sam had to agree again. They could only hope for the best now.

*****​

Catra shook her head as she leaned against the planning table in Glimmer's operation room - which wasn't called that, of course, but something like 'planning room'. Or 'Royal Planning Room', all capitals. "So… we're going to help those guys just based on their word alone?"

"Melog confirmed their claims about the Goa'uld," Bow pointed out.

"Yes, yes." Catra waved her hand. "But just because their enemies are as bad as they say doesn't mean our guests are as good as they say."

"Do you think Daniel lied?" Adora asked. She wasn't fidgeting, but she sounded a little insecure. Damn.

"I don't think so," Catra admitted. "But he wasn't telling us everything."

"And the others didn't like him telling us as much as he did," Glimmer added. "We did hear enough, though."

"We did? We still don't have astronomical data to locate their home planet. Or the location of another Stargate," Entrapta said.

Glimmer narrowed her eyes for a moment. "We know enough to make a few deductions."

"As Mermista would say," Adora cut in with a grin.

"And me too! It's science!"

Glimmer's eyes narrowed further. Sparkles didn't like it when she was interrupted, Catra knew that. "First, they are not representing their world, but a single kingdom."

"But they don't call it a kingdom," Bow cut in.

"I was coming to that." Glimmer glared at him. "Second, they don't have kingdoms. They have no princesses in charge."

"Some of their countries might be ruled by royalty," Catra pointed out. Daniel had been a little evasive.

"But none that matter," Glimmer said.

Bow cleared his throat. "Since they don't have magic, it's understandable that they don't have royal lines."

"Third," Glimmer continued a little more loudly, "they don't like our plan to return magic to their world."

"Sam likes it, I think," Entrapta said. "She was very interested in my data on magic."

"O'Neill doesn't like it." Glimmer objected. "And he's their commander."

"Yeah," Catra agreed. "But he doesn't like many things, I think." He reminded her of some older Force Captains she knew. Had known.

"That doesn't change that we have to help them." Adora took a step forward. "We can't let their planet get destroyed. Or any planet."

"Yes." Glimmer smiled. "And we will help them. But we can't just blindly stumble into this. We don't want to cause another Horde situation."

"Do you really think they'll use our help to conquer their world?" Adora asked.

"They aren't their kingdom's leader - they answer to them," Catra pointed out.

"But we wouldn't let them use us to conquer anything." Her lover shook her head. "We're not the Horde."

"If they learn magic here, then they will be ready when we return magic to their world. That would give them a huge advantage," Glimmer said.

"If their world works like ours." Bow looked at them. "We don't know that."

"Magic is an advantage," Catra told him. "Without it, the Horde would have crushed you."

"But as the Horde proved, you don't need magic to win a war against a kingdom with magic," Entrapta spoke up. "Although since the Horde ultimately lost, that might be incorrect."

"In any case, we need to know more before we can commit to an alliance." Glimmer put both hands on the table.

"I won't let their planet get destroyed!" Adora insisted.

"And we won't," Glimmer agreed. "But that's not the same as forming an alliance."

"Right." Catra nodded. "Since they need protection we can station a fleet in their system. That would give the clones here something to do."

"Some people are nervous about the presence of the clones," Bow said. "But should we send them out to fight a war on someone else's behalf?"

Catra grinned. "If She-Ra is going, half of them are going anyway."

Adora frowned at her in return. "I don't want them to! I am no goddess!"

Catra shrugged. "You killed their god, you took his place."

"Hordak killed Horde Prime!"

"Hordak wasn't the one to turn Prime's flagship into a plant. A space plant," Catra shot back. "They pray to you, not to him."

"Well, some do," Entrapta said. "But not all. Some do want Hordak to lead them."

"What?" Glimmer all but jumped.

"He refused - it's tedious, he said. And he's right. But just as we have a responsibility towards our kingdom - you taught me that, remember? - he has a responsibility for them." Entrapta beamed at Glimmer.

Catra kept a smile on her face, but she was a little worried. Hordak working with Entrapta was one thing. Hordak working with clones? Clones with space ships only they and a handful of people on Etheria, most of them in this room, could fly? That was another thing.

"Why didn't we hear of that?" Glimmer asked.

"Well, nothing happened. There was nothing to tell," Entrapta said. "You don't want to hear about our failed experiments, do you? If you do, I can fetch my log!"

Glimmer grimaced. "No, that'll be OK."

"I do," Bow said.

"Oh, I'll get it to you later. Look it over? You might spot things we missed."

"Sure."

"Thank you!"

"Can we get back to the whole new war thing?" Glimmer asked. "We need to decide what to do."

"We need more data. About everything," Entrapta said. "I think we need to finish upgrading Darla and then go looking for Earth or a planet with a Stargate. Although we need to fly to Earth anyway if we want to protect it."

"And we need to find out what we are facing - how many ships the Goa'uld have. Where they are. And how we can beat them," Catra added. "How many ships we need to protect Etheria. And how to use the Stargate network."

"Oh! If we get access to the entire network, that will make it easy to return magic to everyone!" Entrapta smiled. "Just walk through the gate, do your magic, then go to the next planet!"

Adora perked up. "Right!"

Catra was both relieved and annoyed. It was nice to know there was a more efficient alternative to flying through space from planet to planet. But Adora was still set on returning magic to all the planets without it - no matter how long it took. As if it was her fault what the First Ones had done.

Well, at least she wasn't planning to sacrifice her own life and happiness for it. That Catra wouldn't let her do. And as long as she was with Adora, it would be alright.

"So… we need to talk to them some more," she said. "Sound them out. And find out where Earth is."

Which was still a stupid name for a planet. Might as well call it 'dirt'.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

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.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 6: The Moon of Enchantment

In Orbit above Etheria, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Those people had multiple civil wars? All currently going on on their planet? Catra couldn't help but stare at them. That was…

"That's like the Age of War," Glimmer said, shaking her head.

"The Age of War?" Adora asked, to the relief of Catra - so she wasn't the only one who didn't know what that was.

"A time of great upheaval in Etheria," Bow started lecturing, "when every kingdom was pitted against every other kingdom. This was about eight hundred years ago - the exact date is contested amongst historians. Some say it started when the precursor kingdom of Plumeria attacked Bright Moon's first settlement. Others claim the Age of War began when that conflict spread to involve the Kingdom of the Forest and the Serpent Empire."

Right, Bow was the son of two historians, Catra remembered. Or amateur historians - neither Bow nor Adora had been completely clear about that, and Glimmer had only chuckled at both when the topic had come up.

"I've never heard of those two kingdoms," Adora said. "And I've studied all kingdoms when we prepared for the Princess Prom."

Catra snorted. Adora hadn't changed at all - she still overprepared for everything.

"They didn't survive the Age of War," Bow said. "The Kingdom of the Forest occupied parts of the Whispering Woods. When they faced defeat at the hands of Bright Moon and their allies, they tried to use the Whispering Woods' monsters against them. But the monsters turned against them, and so the kingdom was abandoned and taken over by the woods. Parts of it were absorbed by Plumeria two centuries afterwards, following their conflict with Salineas, but they never managed to recover the whole area."

"Yes, Mom told me about that time. Bright Moon was one of the most advanced kingdoms, and everyone wanted a piece of it - or wanted to destroy it," Glimmer explained. "But Mom had already bonded to the Runestone, so the enemy armies couldn't break through the shield."

Queen Angella had been around that time? Catra had known that the former Queen of Bright Moon had been around for a while, but to have lived for centuries?

"Ah… how long is a year on Etheria?" Daniel asked.

"Three hundred and sixty days, why?" Bow replied.

"How long is a year on Earth?" Entrapta asked, recorder out.

"Three hundred and sixty-five days," Daniel replied. "And a quarter day, more or less."

"How does that work?" Entrapta cocked her head. "Do you have quarter days or how?"

"Wait, wait - are you saying that your mother, the former queen, was alive eight hundred years ago?" O'Neill asked.

"Yes." Glimmer nodded, apparently confused about the question.

Catra wanted to sigh at her naivety. "She was an exception. No one else is that long-lived," she explained.

"You forgot Madame Razz!" Adora objected. "She was around when Mara arrived a thousand years ago."

Catra hadn't forgotten the witch - though she had tried to forget her. The old woman's ramblings made her skin crawl.

"Right. A thousand years old." O'Neill sounded sceptical.

"It's not really unbelievable," Daniel said. "We're talking about an alien species."

And someone who was trapped between dimensions because of Catra's fuck-up. She cleared her throat. "And what about the Serpent Empire?"

"I know! They were located where the Crimson Waste is situated now," Entrapta said.

"Yes," Bow went on. "Back in the Age of War, the area was, well, not a waste. Still arid, but they could grow crops. But they were expansionist and pushed out against the neighbouring kingdoms. They had various alliances but tended to betray their allies whenever they felt they could gain an advantage. They did well in the Age of War, but the desertification of their lands doomed the kingdom. Some scholars claim that this was caused by their attempts to construct a runestone to control the earth. Others think that the Princess of Salineas used her runestone to drain most of the area's water into the ocean."

Catra blinked. "Mermista could do that?" she asked before she could control herself.

"Err… not to my knowledge," Bow told her. "That's why it's not a popular theory. Its proponents claim that Mermista's ancestor used dangerous rituals to enhance the power of the runestone."

"Ah." Not a safe topic, then.

"Anyway, the Age of War ended with the Treaty of Bright Moon, seven hundred and five years ago," Bow said. "But during that time, there was not a year when no kingdom was at war."

"And afterwards, peace reigned until the Horde arrived?" Daniel asked, cocking his head.

"Ah, no," Bow replied. "But the wars were generally smaller and more limited. The treaty started the regular gatherings that would become the Princess Prom to settle conflicts diplomatically."

"Generally, as long as the Elemental Princesses were in agreement, they could enforce their decision on anyone," Glimmer added. "So, most wars were either between smaller kingdoms or short-lived affairs between Elemental princesses, like the Orange War four hundred years ago. Few wanted to risk war after the horrors of the Age of War, so such conflicts were very rare."

"The Orange War?" Adora asked.

"A sailor from Salineas stole - allegedly stole according to Mermista - an orange from Plumeria. A prized orange the then-princess had cultivated herself. She demanded restitution, the Salinean princess offered the price of a normal orange, the Plumerians insulted them, and war broke out. A failed invasion at sea and a failed landing on the shores of Plumeria later, the war was over," Glimmer said.

So, the Plumerians weren't always such pushovers. Good to know.

"You went to war over some royal orange?" O'Neill sounded surprised.

"The USA and the United Kingdom had a war over a pig," Daniel said.

"Yes, yes," Catra cut in. No need to dwell on that. "But let's get back to the point: You have multiple civil wars going on in your world?"

Daniel grimaced. "Right. That's true."

*****​

Jack O'Neill suppressed a grimace - he knew Daniel could be more subtle - and took a step forward. "Yes. We have several civil wars going on on our planet. However, the vast majority of our people is living in peace."

"How many wars are going on?" Adora asked.

"Ah…" O'Neill frowned. Angola, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, Yugoslavia, Algeria… he was sure that he was forgetting a couple in Africa. Burundi, for one. But there were bound to be more. "I think about a dozen," he said.

"A dozen?" Adora gasped.

"How many kingdoms - countries do you have?" Bow asked.

"Almost two hundred," Jack replied. "We've got almost six billion people on Earth."

"Six billion people!"

"That's…"

"How do you feed so many?"

"Rations. Must be rations. They don't have magic to speed up growth."

Jack cleared his throat. "We've got very advanced agriculture." He glanced at Daniel, but, for one, his friend wasn't about to mention the environmental impact of industrialised agriculture. "We don't generally eat rations outside the military. And even in the military, rations are generally limited to the field."

"Hunger is a fact of life for many, though," Daniel piped up. "But there is enough food for everyone - or would be, if it were distributed evenly."

"No shit. Logistics must be hell with so many wars," Catra muttered.

"And why don't you intervene and stop those wars?" Glimmer asked.

Jack suppressed a sigh. "We do try that. But it tends to be bloody." He had operated in such countries - he knew the score. "No one really likes foreign powers trying to control your country. If you invade, soon, many hate you more than their enemy. ."

"But if those are local wars, can't you just smash their armies with superior forces?" Adora asked. "You have to outnumber them, right?"

Oh, damn. The kids thought those civil wars were fought like their wars apparently were fought. "Most civil wars aren't fought with armies," Jack told them. "They're asymmetrical conflicts. Guerrilla wars. One side is generally outnumbered and hiding, striking at their enemies before fading away. They can fight for years with just small arms - they don't need or have heavy weapons."

Catra got it first. "Damn. And they hide amongst the civilians, right?" Jack nodded, and she winced.

"Oh." Adora looked abashed.

"How can you tell the soldiers from the civilians in such a war?" Entrapta asked, looking puzzled.

"You can't," Catra told her.

"Oh."

Jack nodded. "Yes. But as I said - the vast majority of Earth's population lives in peace."

"In ignorance," Glimmer said. "You said they don't even know they're at war with the Goa'uld."

Jack looked at her. They had gone over that already.

Adora cleared her throat. "So… now that you've seen the space plant, do you want to see anything else in orbit before we return to Bright Moon? There isn't much to see, though. Just the First, Second and Third Fleet, basically."

"And the moons!" Entrapta added. "Though they aren't inhabited. But it's neat to visit them - although you'd need spacesuits. I think I can adapt a few we have for you!"

To walk on a foreign moon? Jack was tempted. That had been his dream as a kid. How could anyone have seen Apollo 11 land on the moon and not wish to become an astronaut? But… "Don't go to any trouble just for us," he said.

"Oh, it wouldn't be any trouble!" Entrapta beamed at them. "I'd like to explore the moons some more, too - there might be valuable materials on them that we lack on Etheria."

So, they hadn't yet explored the moons. That was interesting. They had spaceships, but old ones. And foreign ones. And no orbital infrastructure.

It didn't look like Etheria had been to space for long. They might not even have the infrastructure to produce spaceships. Although the clones or whatever they were would have such facilities, they were likely not in this system. Or they had been on that huge space station and were now turning sunlight into plant mass.

"I think we have a lot of other things to do first, though," Glimmer said.

"Like a potential war with parasitic snakes," Catra added. "And a bunch of stranded soldiers we need to get home."

Jack smiled, showing his teeth. "Right, exactly that!"

Catra frowned at him in return.

"So, no moon expedition?" Entrapta asked.

"Maybe later," Bow told her. "Although… is your scanner ready?"

"Right! My scanner!" The princess perked up. "I just need to add some finishing touches, and we can scan for Naquadah on the entire planet from here!"

Jack smiled. That was good news! Once they found the DHD, they could dial home. And let the professional diplomats handle negotiations. The general would be mad enough about what they - mostly Daniel - had let slip already about Earth.

"Do you want to help me?" Entrapta asked.

Carter - of course - as well as Bow agreed, and all three left the bridge.

"So…" Daniel beamed at the others. "How many people live on Etheria?"

"Well… We've got about fifty million people," Glimmer said. "Kingdoms rarely take a census at the same time, so it's all just guesswork, and with the war, most numbers are out of date anyway."

That was… both more and less than Jack had expected. For a planet seeded by the Goa'uld, it was a lot. But for a native civilisation left in peace? That was very little.

"How long back go your records?" Daniel asked.

"Records? About a thousand years," Glimmer said. "The time of the First Ones. Anything before them isn't very well known."

"And you have almost six billion people?" Adora shook her head.

*****​

Six billion people. That was… Adora couldn't even imagine so many people. Most planets they had visited - which, admittedly, hadn't been more than a handful in the months since Horde Prime's defeat - had populations more in the range of Etheria's. Or, rather, had had such populations before Horde Prime had conquered them.

But six billion people! That was like… over a hundred times Etheria's number! The population of a hundred planets, all living on one planet? How did they fit everyone onto one world?

"You must have gigantic armies," Catra said. Of course she would think of the military first.

"I wouldn't say gigantic, but we do have a few million under arms," O'Neill replied.

"Only a few million?" Catra sounded almost disappointed.

"They're normal people, not an army with a planet," Glimmer snapped.

Catra frowned at her. "They're also fighting a war."

"You heard them - it's not that kind of war," Glimmer retorted. "They can't send an army through a Stargate."

"But once we have a fleet there, they can move it with spaceships," Catra said. "The Second or Third Fleet can transport a lot of people. They can't supply as many, but the First Fleet's fleet train should be intact, and they don't need as many transport ships any more, so that should compensate."

Daniel blinked. "Are you already planning to launch invasions from Earth?"

Adora frowned. Why did he sound surprised? Preparing for all eventualities was what a good commander did. And Catra was a good commander, even though she might not think so. She had almost beaten the Alliance, after all, when she had been leading the Horde.

"Of course!" Glimmer cut in. "If you have so many soldiers but no ships to transport them, and we can provide you with ships, then it only makes sense to use both our strengths."

"Yeah," O'Neill agreed. "Though preparing an actual invasion on a planetary scale will take a long time. You don't just send an army off without sufficient training and exercises."

"And the political implications…" Daniel shook his head. "Not to mention the problems with coordinating all the different militaries."

Right. Adora nodded - she knew all about that. The scattered nature of the Alliance forces had almost driven her to despair a few times. She didn't miss the Horde, of course, but she did miss their organisation, at times at least. And their discipline.

"Well, the heavy lifting will be done by the fleet. Orbital bombardment will deal with most defences. We can sort out the details when we reach Earth," Catra said. "But your planet needs to be protected at all costs - it'll be a prime target for the Goa'uld once it turns into a staging area."

Adora nodded again. That meant a full fleet - Second or Third. Second was more, well, reasonable. They wouldn't cause much trouble with the Tau'ri. The Third were fanatics. But if they left for Earth and the Third stayed guarding Etheria and the rest of the sector, would the clones behave without Adora being present? Would they even stay? She clenched her teeth. As much as she disliked it, they would have to take the Third with them to Earth.

"Yes, we are - the Goa'uld really don't like us. And we have six billion civilians to protect," O'Neill added. "Poor helpless civilians."

Glimmer frowned at him. "Yes."

O'Neill smiled, and it looked… Well, not quite like Catra's smile when she thought she had pulled one over Adora and her friends, but she was sure it wasn't an innocent smile. "We will protect your planet anyway," she said. "Just as we will protect everyone else."

Catra and Glimmer were frowning at her, but Adora ignored that. This was the right thing to do. As she had said before.

"Thank you!" Daniel beamed at her. "And we will do our best to help you."

"Speaking for SG-1," O'Neill added. "We cannot speak for our country, much less the Earth."

Which was really inconvenient, Adora found. On the other hand, without princesses and magic, it made sense that the Tau'ri wouldn't send their leaders to the front. It probably made governing easier as well, especially with the frontlines being on another planet or in space.

"Yes, yes, we know that," Catra replied with a snort. "You're just good soldiers doing your duty." Why was she being so… sarcastic?

O'Neill smirked in return. "Well, we've been known to act independently in the field, as any good soldier would."

Ah. Adora sighed.

"But we really cannot speak for Earth," Daniel said.

"I am sure once the leaders of the Tau'ri are aware of the situation, they will do the right thing," Teal'c said. "Their history shows that they haven't shied away from going to war."

"Not forever, at least," O'Neill said.

"It's not a bad thing to hesitate to start a war," Daniel added.

"But you're already in a war," Catra objected. "I doubt that the Goa'uld will just stop if you don't want to go to war." She frowned. "Well, Plumeria did, but even they got the message after their kingdom almost fell."

Right. That hadn't been Adora's finest hour. Trying to figure out how to heal the forest… She felt embarrassed just remembering it. But that was in the past. They had a new war to fight now. A war on a scale that was even bigger than she had thought. And with much higher stakes.

She almost missed the time fighting the Horde on Etheria… No, Adora firmly thought as she glanced at Catra standing next to her, reaching out to grab her hand, I don't miss that at all.

Catra looked surprised when Adora gently squeezed her hand but didn't pull away. Instead, she smiled at her with that happy expression Adora loved to see on her face.

*****​

"Can you hand me the calibrated crystal, Bow?"

"Sure! Here it is."

"Thanks! What do the readings say?"

"Everything nominal."

"Good!"

Samantha Carter felt a little out of her depth, and she didn't like it. She was used to not understanding alien technology - at least at first - but she wasn't used to being the odd one out when working on said technology. Both Entrapta and Bow were familiar with this, but while Sam could easily identify parts of the scanner they were building - and help with assembling those - she was at a loss when it came to magic crystals. "How do you calibrate the crystals?"

"You tune them to the right frequency."

That sounded logical. And not very helpful. "And how do you do that?"

"I'll show you," Bow told her, stepping over to the table on the side of the workshop. "You have to align the crystals with each other and the master crystal, then run a pulse through them. Ah, a pulse from this crystal."

"Are you using magic?"

"Yes. Crystals generally use magic. You could use electricity, but it's not nearly as efficient - the Horde did that for some of their gear," Bow explained.

"And who creates the crystals?"

"Most are mined and then refined," Bow replied. "Or tuned." He shrugged. "It's not exactly complicated, but it can take a while."

"But that only gets you blanks. You have to program them with the right matrix to do anything, and that's where the fun starts!" Entrapta cut in.

"Like… ROMs?" Samatha asked.

"ROMs?"

Sam explained the process.

"Oh! Yes, something like that! We generally use crystals for that. I have to try out your method!" Entrapta beamed at her, and Sam couldn't help but smile back. The woman's enthusiasm was contagious.

"I think the crystals are ready now," Bow pointed out.

"They are? Good! Now let's connect them to the power source and run some tests."

That, too, made sense. Sam could easily track how those two components worked together. And the sensor itself was not much of a secret, either. She didn't recognise a few components, but she had a rough idea about how to replace them with more familiar technology. Maybe a few bits from Goa'uld gear… She cocked her head. If you could substitute electricity for magic and she understood the program that the circuits used, she could duplicate this. Probably. It would certainly be fun to try - a planetary scale Naquadah detector would be very useful. Though… "How much less efficient is electricity compared to magic?"

"Oh, it depends. If you just want to shoot lasers or lightning, it's decent. But if you want to use some of the more flexible parts of magic, like we are doing here, it's generally a few orders of magnitudes less efficient. And you need a way to duplicate the principle of similarity."

"The principle of similarity?" Sam asked.

"Yes. Like attracts like," Entrapta said. "We will be using a sample of Naquadah as the primer to look for more. Magic is quite useful for such feats."

That sounded as if the scanner wouldn't just look for certain characteristics of Naquadah using data from prior scans, but that the presence of actual Naquadah affected and enhanced the process. That was… quite fascinating.

Sam smiled and looked at the scanner, then frowned. "And where is the sample?"

"Oh, we still need to get it. You've got it in your blood."

Sam froze. "You want my blood?"

"Only a small sample - this is a scanner, after all," Entrapta told her. "It's powerful enough to only need traces of the element."

"About this much," Bow explained with a rueful smile, holding up a small transparent vial.

Well, she could spare that much blood. And the Colonel wasn't here to object - or, worse, make fun of her. And she really wanted to see how this worked. So Sam nodded and rolled up her sleeve. "Alright."

They extracted the blood using an old fashioned syringe. Not quite a bloodletting, but Janet had better instruments in the med bay back home.

"Done!" Entrapta smiled widely. "Now, let's put it in the scanner and see what we get!"

"Yes!" Sam smiled back.

Entrapta put the trace - stored in a crystal vial, or so it seemed - into the scanner, then took a step back. "Ready!"

"You're running it here?" Sam asked.

"Yes. Being inside Darla shouldn't affect it. We might get more range if we placed it on the hull, but it already covers the planet."

That was impressive. And a little worrying. "The scanner won't affect us?"

"Oh, no - it's perfectly harmless. Even for people with Naquadah in their blood."

That was reassuring - and concerning. What if something else could affect her blood? Something to keep in mind.

"Booting up! Running diagnostics! Oh, it's working beautifully! No tendency to explode at all!"

Sam hoped that the princess was joking. But Bow grimaced as well. Damn.

"Ok! Here we go!" Entrapta announced, her hair pushing several buttons at once.

And Sam heard a humming noise that quickly grew louder and louder. Just as she was about to plug her ears, the humming stopped.

And Entrpata frowned. "Oh. There's no concentrated Naquadah on the planet other than the Stargate."

Sam pressed her lips together. This wasn't good. Not at all. They were now completely reliant on their hosts to get back to Earth. And on technology that she didn't understand. Not yet.

*****​

"We need to check the moons," Entrapta said. "There's no second Naquadah concentration on Etheria, which means there is no D.H.D. there, but they could've moved it to a moon for, ah, safety reasons."

"To keep people from using the Stargate?" Catra asked. As O'Neill and his group had shown, people could still arrive on the planet, but it would keep them from leaving. Not exactly a good way to stop an invasion.

"Or because they wanted to analyse the device without risking parts of Etheria," Entrapta replied, mimicking an explosion with her hands.

That was… Catra hissed at the idea.

"Naquadah isn't actually that dangerous," Carter cut in. "Unless you deliberately wanted to prepare a Naquadah-enhanced bomb, you won't get it to explode with sufficient force to be a threat to a planet."

That didn't sound as reassuring as the woman likely meant it to be, Catra knew.

"So… you just lose a building, not the kingdom?" Adora asked.

"Captain Carter hasn't lost any buildings due to Naquadah. So far," O'Neill said. "I can't speak for her labs, though."

"Sir!" The woman looked embarrassed, and O'Neill was laughing.

Catra snorted as well and ignored the looks from Glimmer and Bow. "Well, we can just quickly scan the moons for the thing."

"And tell Third Fleet to not come too close to avoid interfering with the scanning," Adora added.

"Actually, more ships shouldn't affect the process at all," Entrapta pointed out.

"But there's no need to risk it, right?" Glimmer asked.

"Well… if there is interference, that would be valuable data, and we would need to test it anyway to see if we can deploy the scanner in a fleet - say, to detect other ships," Entrapta explained.

That was a good point. Better find out now if that would work than in the middle of a battle. But if they had to listen to Priest again...

"Uh…" Daniel raised his hand.

"Yes?" Entrapta turned to him.

"There are no other concentrations of Naquadah on the planet?" Daniel asked.

"Not any which would be big enough to be the device you want," she told him.

"But… didn't the First Ones use this technology?" he asked.

"Apparently not." Entrapta shrugged. "Most of them used magic as a base for their technology. It would've been nifty to find all their ruins, though."

"Carter?"

"It seems that this culture didn't rely on Naquadah, except for the Stargates, Sir," Carter told O'Neill. "I'm sorry for not mentioning it sooner. They might have developed a new technology base."

"A magical civilisation? Huh." The man shook his head.

"Or they limited Naquadah to military uses," Daniel said. "If there was a shortage of the metal, that would be a logical measure."

And you didn't risk civilians blowing you up by accident.

Carter nodded in agreement. "That is a possibility as well."

"Or they moved it to a moon!" Entrapta blurted out. "We should explore them!"

"Right. Let's go scan the moons," Adora said. "If there are some First Ones bases on them, it's better to find out now."

"Before some doomsday device gets activated," Catra added.

The way their guests nodded in agreement wasn't very reassuring, in Catra's opinion.

"Alright! Darla, fly us closer to... the closest moon!" Entrapta used her hair to carry their scanner and sat down in her favourite seat - the 'science seat', as she called it. "It's time to discover what the moons are hiding from us!"

"She's as eager as she was about space," Glimmer muttered as Darla turned and started to fly towards the closest moon.

Catra shrugged in return. Entrapta was a little quirky, but there were not many other people Catra would trust with her life. And most were in this ship.

They quickly reached orbit around the moon, and Entrapta, Bow and Carter got busy with the scanner. Catra clenched her teeth as the infernal humming noise started up again. "First improvement will be to get rid of the noise," she muttered. She wasn't going to suffer every time they scanned something.

Adora didn't say anything. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Catra and pulled close to place a quick kiss on the top of Catra's head.

"Dummy," Catra whispered. That didn't help with the noise at all. But it helped with her mood. She ran her hands over Adora's back. She could still feel, or thought so, where she had scratched her once. She tensed a little at the memory, but Adora held her firm - she knew Catra, after all.

Daniel cleared his throat next to them. "So, uh…"

Before Catra had to snap at the man, the scanner's noise ended, and Entrapta spoke up: "There's a large amount of Naquadah on the moon!"

"Carter?" O'Neill asked as Catra pulled away from Adora.

"Several concentrations, Sir. A few are large enough to possibly be a D.H.D. All in close proximity to each other."

O'Neill smiled at that. "Great. Let's go take a look."

Catra bit her lower lip - this was a logical suggestion, not an attempt to order them around. At least it should be.

"Yes!" Entrapta cheered. "Let's suit up.! Oh, I didn't make you customised spacesuits yet! You'll have to make do with standardised ones, sorry!"

"That's OK," O'Neill said. "We're not picky."

"Alright! Follow me, then!"! Entrapta led them to the locker room. Catra trailed behind them - she wasn't needed on the bridge to land Darla, and someone had to keep an eye on Entrapta with those people.

Catra knew better than most how trusting her friend was.

*****​

The First Moon of Enchantment, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"So, you come here often?" Jack O'Neill asked as they entered what looked like a locker room. A space locker room. "To the moon, I mean," he added after a moment and a glare from Carter and Daniel.

"Oh, not really," Entrapta replied. "There was so much to do, we haven't had time to explore any of the moons. We just checked if there were clones stranded here or crashed ships. Or any ruins - but we didn't do any deep scans or exploration. Which is why we must have missed this base; it's underground."

They hadn't even explored the moons? Another clue that these people hadn't had spaceships for long. And now they had entire fleets at their beck and call. Fleets manned by the brainwashed former soldiers of a genocidal conqueror. Great.

"And, of course, there's the fact that, from a certain point of view, the moons belong to Glimmer," Entrapta went on.

"They belong to her?" Daniel asked.

"Well, she's the Queen of Bright Moon - and the Moonstone, her runestone, is connected to the moons," Entrapta explained. "If they are in alignment, certain magic processes are strengthened or rendered more efficient."

Jack clenched his teeth and suppressed the urge to sigh. Magic influenced by moons? Astrologians would have a field day back on Earth if they heard this. And some idiot congressman would likely want horoscopes to be used by the government.

"How does that work?" Carter asked. "Is it tied to radiation?"

"Kinda," Entrapta replied. "They influence the magic field, of sorts."

"Yes. Attacking Bright Moon when all three Moons of Enchantment were in the sky would've been suicide for the Horde," Catra added.

"In myth, our moon was often said to have magical properties as well, such as influencing werewolves," Daniel pointed out. "And many people believe that it influences humans - Tau'Ri."

Superstitious folks did. The only thing the moon influenced was visibility at night and the tides. But that was without magic. If their hosts 'brought back' magic to Earth, would that change? Would they have trouble with actual werewolves?

"So… Here are our spare suits!" Entrapta pushed a button, and a panel slid back, revealing a rack of suits in various sizes. None of them looked as bulky as the suits Jack had seen at NASA. "They're not customised, as I told you before, but I can easily adapt them to your body type. Though yours might still be a little large," she added with a smile to Teal'c. "You're too big for a standard size and too small for a Scorpia size."

Teal'c nodded back. "I shall manage."

"Good!" Entrapta pulled the suits out and handed them over. "Now… just put them on as you would put on normal clothes. They'll seal automatically!"

That sounded very advanced. Jack wasn't an astronaut, but he knew that suiting up was a complicated process. But the suit he was holding did look pretty simple.

Carter looked impressed, too, as she studied her suit. "Do they use magic?"

"What? No. I didn't want them to have to rely on magic."

"You made them?" Carter asked.

"Yes! I used the pattern stored in Darla but adapted it to my own technology!" Entrapta beamed at them. "Do you like them?"

"They're very advanced," Carter told her. "I wish we had such suits at NASA."

"I can get you the pattern," Entrapta said. "It's really easy to construct."

Jack had his doubts, but he was sure the scientists at Stargate Command could construct such suits. Good work, Carter, he silently praised her.

The ship suddenly shook a little - they must have landed.

"Oh, you've missed the landing! I'm sorry - I got carried away a little," Entrapta said.

"No worry," Jack told her with a smile. "Once you've seen one landing, you've seen them all," he lied.

"Well, they're actually very different - but now, let's get you suited up!"

Suiting up was actually as easy as the princess had claimed.

"We do need such suits," Carter exclaimed. "If they can handle the environment on the moon's surface..."

"Why wouldn't they?" Entrapta replied. "That's what they are made for - that and space!"

"They work," Catra told them - her suit had a tail and cat ears on the helmet, Jack noted. They took their customisation seriously here. "We've tested them on various planets."

That was reassuring. Jack wasn't an expert, but he knew that constructing suits that could handle Earth's moon had been a challenge. He closed up his own suit and moved around a little. The suit barely hindered his movements.

"Are you ready? Oh!" Glimmer entered, followed by the others. Not Adora, though, Jack noted. Was she staying back?

"I got carried away with explaining things," Entratpa said. "Sorry!"

"No worry," Bow told her. "We've got time."

They grabbed their own suits - which were quite distinctly customised, down to different boots and patterns. Entrapta's suit had openings for her hair in her helmet - god only knew how that was sealed. Probably magic. Even though she'd said that she didn't use magic in the suits, the hair was supposedly magical. And Bow's suit had a… not a boob window, an abs window? Jack stared.

"Excuse me… Is there a reason for this?" Daniel asked. "Is showing your stomach of cultural significance?"

"What?" Bow blinked and put his helmet down again. "No. I just like it."

Catra snorted. "You should have seen his suit for the Princess Prom."

"And Catra's!" Entrapta added. Catra smirked in return. Was that related to being Adora's consort, as the clone leader had called her?

A question for another time - now they were about to explore a moon base. On a magical moon. Jack wasn't looking forward to writing a report about this.

*****​

Adora had second thoughts about keeping her transformation a secret from their guests. Sure, not revealing to them right away that She-Ra wasn't her normal form was just being cautious. Until they knew if they could trust the Tau'ri, it was better not to let them know that they could attack Adora instead of She-Ra if they planned an ambush. But their guests didn't seem to be evil people. They hadn't shown any sign of planning to betray or attack them. O'Neill was snarky and grumpy, but in a kind of nice way. And he reminded her of Catra, in some way. Carter was fascinated by technology like Entrapta. And Daniel… Well, he gave the impression of an older Bow. Earnest, well-meaning and a little naive. She couldn't imagine him planning to betray her. Nor Teal'c, though she couldn't say much about the tall Jaffa - he didn't say much, after all.

And, she added in her mind as she approached the airlock at the back of Darla, if keeping her secret was still necessary, as Glimmer had argued, then what about the fact that She-Ra could survive in the emptiness of space without a suit? Hiding your capabilities from potential enemies was smart, wasn't it? Unless you wanted to scare them into leaving you alone, but judging by their guests' reactions, not a lot scared them if they were ready to fight the Goa'uld.

She sighed, and Melog turned their head towards her, growling a question.

"Just thinking," she told them. She wasn't as good as Catra at understanding their friend, but she could guess some meanings.

"How do you seal the hair?"

That was Carter's voice.

"The helmet has adjustable seals," Entrapta replied.

"But how do they work? The pressure difference would be so significant..."

"It's a sort of semi-permeable force shield," Entrapta replied. "Only keyed to hair."

"Keyed to hair?"

"Yes? It's for my hair, after all."

They turned the corner and found the others already inside the airlock.

"You're not coming with us?" O'Neill asked.

"Yes, I am," Adora told him, stepping inside the lock as well.

"But where's your… Let me guess, magic?" O'Neill shook his head with a snort.

"Magic," Catra told him as she moved to Adora's side. "Same for Melog."

"Well, Melog being a half-energy life form means they can survive in the vacuum of space even without magic," Entrapta explained as the door closed. Adora's using magic to form a sort of magic space suit around her body.

As the air started to be sucked out of the lock, Adora took a deep breath - she knew she didn't have to, but she couldn't help it. Then she started to glow as her magic reacted.

"That's going to be hard for a stealth mission," O'Neill commented.

"She-Ra and stealth don't mix well," Catra said with a snort.

Adora pouted at her lover. She could be sneaky! She had proven that in the war. A few times, at least.

But before she could remind Catra of that - and of the fact that they had foiled a lot of her plans - the outer door opened, and they were facing the moon's surface.

"Whee!" Entrapta was the first out of the door, jumping off the ramp as it extended and throwing up a small cloud of dust as she landed on both feet.

"Don't get your hair all dusty!" Glimmer told her. "I'm not going to clean out the shower again!"

"You clean the shower?" Daniel asked.

"Not this time!" Glimmer replied. "Not when it's all her fault."

"Well, that's going to shock the Queen of England," O'Neill commented. "Royalty, cleaning up after herself…"

"Actually, Queen Elizabeth served in the British Army - the Women's Auxiliary Territory Service - as a mechanic during World War II," Daniel said. "She did menial tasks as far as we know."

"Don't destroy my hard-earned American preconceptions, Daniel," O'Neill replied.

"Jack! Those would be prejudices!"

"Really?"

"Yes, as I pointed out…" Daniel trailed off to glare at his friend, and Adora heard O'Neill laugh as they walked down the ramp. She smiled as well - that sounded familiar to them.

"So, Queen Elizabeth is one of your princesses?" Glimmer asked.

"And she's a mechanic?" Entrapta added, looking up from her recorder.

"She's the Queen of England, a nation allied with ours," Daniel replied. "But I do not think she has worked as a mechanic since she took the throne. And since she was crowned as queen, she isn't a princess any more - at least not by our definition."

That sounded weird to Adora. Glimmer was a queen as well, but still a princess.

"Well, your definition is weird," Catra echoed Adora's thoughts. "Though without magic, your princesses probably don't have any powers."

"Exactly," Daniel replied. "It's a title, nothing more."

Adora looked around while Daniel explained about nobility on Earth. She couldn't see any threat around them, but it never hurt to be cautious.

Catra snorted next to her. "Nothing on the surface. The fun starts once we enter the base."

Right. Entering a First Ones base was always dangerous; Adora's ancestors hadn't been very careful with their weapons and other tools. They probably hadn't cared about a world they were sacrificing anyway, she thought.

She shook her head. This wasn't the time to dwell on that. Unless this base was related to the Heart of Etheria. The Moons of Enchantment did influence magic, after all.

"OK! The base is this way! Darla's seismic sensors indicate that there's a hollow space close to the surface right in this crater!" Entrapta announced.

"Let's go!" O'Neill said. "Before something goes wrong with the magic and you try to breathe vacuum."

"Sir!"

"Jack!"

"It's perfectly safe," Entrapta said.

Adora nodded. She-Ra had faced worse than the vacuum of space. Much worse.

"Yes, yes. Just let's go!"

"OK!" And Entrapta was off.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 7: The Moon Base

The First Moon of Enchantment, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"The entrance should be here. Somewhere here, at least," Entrapta said as she turned in place, pointing her multipurpose tool around. Something else that Samantha Carter would love to get her hands on to copy it. The device served as a computer and communication device with integrated holographic projection capability, but Sam was primarily interested in its capacity as a scanner. The tool was smaller than a walkie-talkie yet must be covering multiple frequencies. And - presumably - without magic.

So Sam was pretty confident she could duplicate it, given enough resources and time to study it. Of course, standing on the surface of one of the planet's bigger moons, she couldn't exactly spare the time for that. But maybe later…

"But my scanner isn't showing any entrance," Entrapta went on.

"Probably buried under all the dust," Catra remarked. "It's been a thousand years since the base was last used."

"That shouldn't have been long enough to actually bury any entrance. Not without wind to move the dust. Perhaps a meteor struck nearby, or tectonic activity…" Entrapta speculated.

"Or this is a dead-end, and the entrance is somewhere else," Glimmer said.

"Can you map out the base?" Bow asked.

"It's more difficult than I anticipated. The material used to construct the base is blocking most of my scans, and the results of those that aren't completely blocked are… not delivering as much data as they should."

"That would suit a base using the technology left by the Ancients," Sam pointed out. It was petty, but she was almost glad that the others were not able to easily scan the base. The Ancients had been incredibly advanced, much more than any other race that Stargate Command had encountered so far. If the people of Etheria - Etherians? She had to ask Daniel if they used that name for themselves - were able to match the technology of the species that had built the Stargates, then that would likely make them the most advanced species known to either Earth or the Goa'uld.

Entrapta pouted, and her hair waved around for a moment. "But I didn't have such troubles with First Ones technology so far."

"If we don't see an obvious entrance, we can dig a tunnel and just break through a wall," Adora suggested.

"You mean, you can dig a tunnel," Catra added.

"I already buried the Stargate!"

"Perfect! That means you've got experience!"

The Colonel chuckled at that, and Sam had to hide a smile - the exchange could've come straight from the Airforce Academy; it was the kind of comment the instructors were fond of. Another sign that their hosts had had formal training as soldiers. Though Daniel would likely caution against drawing parallels to Earth based on such flimsy evidence. In any case, they were here to explore a base, not to study cultural differences. She cleared her throat. "Can you scan for the most likely area that might have been buried following a meteor strike or tectonic activity? Without an atmosphere, any traces such an event has left should be still easily detectable."

"Oh, good idea!" Entrapta raised her tool and started looking at it - or through it. "I was focusing on artificial structures, but… There! The crater there has some fresh - relatively fresh - traces of a landslide. Or dust slide, I'd say." Her hair formed a cartoonish-looking hand and pointed to a ridge a few miles away.

"Well, then let's see if we can find an entrance buried there," the Colonel said. "You have your magical shovel ready to be conjured, right?"

"Yes," Adora replied.

"Handy."

It was. If Earth had that technology - or magic - then that would allow them to carry many more tools of all kinds with them. Or much larger tents.

They started walking. Once more, Sam felt a little envious - the spacesuits were far more comfortable and much lighter than those she had worn when she had been working for NASA. It was still noticeably heavier than her uniform, but the lower gravity more than made up for it, and she could move almost as well as without it. If her fellow astronauts could see her now, walking on an alien moon… Well, Entrapta had said she'd give them the pattern.

Of course, Adora didn't have to wear a spacesuit at all, but she seemed to be a special case even for their hosts.

"So, why don't you have a spacesuit?" Daniel asked. "Would it hinder your magic, or do you just like wearing your usual clothes?"

"Ah… You could say that," Adora replied. "Like, ah, Bow, I prefer this."

Sam exchanged a glance with the Colonel. That was a bad lie, in her impression. Of course, it was so bad, it could be an attempt to deceive them - but Adora hadn't struck her as that devious or adept at lying.

Unlike, say, Catra.

"Ah." Daniel nodded. "I see. So…"

"Oh, there it is!" Entrapta exclaimed, interrupting Daniel's next question. "The entrance is buried here, about…" She cocked her head to the side as she moved her tool sideways. "...five yards down!"

"Great. Get digging, Adora!" Catra said, sitting down on a rock nearby.

Adora huffed but did produce her magic shovel. Her first load of moon dust did manage to barely miss Catra.

"Hey!"

"Sorry!"

"No, you're not!"

Well, they were in good spirits, Sam thought. And with Adora digging, they would reach the base entrance in no time.

*****​

Catra felt a little bad at having Adora do all the digging. Just a little, though - Adora was the strongest of their group. By far. Even if Catra helped, it wouldn't do much compared to She-Ra using that oversized magic shovel of hers. Cartloads of dust and moon-ground - she'd have to ask Entrapta what it was called - pretty much flew out of the growing hole in no time. And it wasn't as if anyone else had volunteered to help, anyway.

She studied the others - SG-1 - as Adora unearthed what would hopefully be the entrance to the First Ones base. Carter was huddled with Entrapta over the princess's scanner. Teal'c and O'Neill were standing guard - O'Neill was trying to fake being bored, juggling a single moon rock, but Catra caught his eyes scanning their surroundings. And Daniel… was talking to Bow about Etheria's history. Catra cocked her head and listened to their talk.

"...so, you have a detailed documented history of the last thousand years, but barely anything before that?"

"Yes," Bow said. "There just aren't many records or artefacts left from the time before the First Ones."

"That is weird." Daniel made a humming noise. "Few civilisations went from no records to detailed histories. It's generally a much more gradual process."

"Well, some scholars think that the First Ones introduced writing to Etheria. But my Dads disagree - that would have meant that all of Etheria would be using a script derived from their script. And that's not the case. In fact, few can read First Ones script or understand their language," Bow explained. "So, we think the proto-civilisations before their arrival had developed their own script already."

"But why wouldn't there be any records left, then?" Daniel asked. "Did the First Ones destroy them?"

That was an interesting question. Catra certainly wouldn't have put it past the First Ones to wipe out another civilisation - they had planned to sacrifice Etheria to defeat Horde Prime, after all. But why would they wipe out writing? That didn't gain them anything. It would be a waste of effort. Unless they wanted to hide something…

"They might have attempted to colonise the planet," Bow said. "And they might have wanted to, ah, spread their own culture over Etheria. Their influence is certainly visible in almost every kingdom, although after a thousand years, the divergences have become so pronounced, in many cases, it's hard to spot whether something is based on the First Ones or was originally developed by natives."

"Well, such policies certainly have historical precedents on Earth," Daniel admitted. "But to be able to shape an entire planet to that level…"

"They were far more advanced, both with regards to technology and magic, than the native cultures," Bow said. "And they probably had significant numbers as well."

"So… what happened to them? Why did they vanish?" Daniel asked. "Do the records cover that?"

"No. We only know that most of them 'left'. But after the revelations of the last war, the consensus amongst scholars is that the First Ones were called back to their home planet to fight Horde Prime - or evacuated in anticipation of the destruction of Etheria." Bow shrugged. "The remainders were probably absorbed by the emerging kingdoms."

Catra nodded. That made sense. Though she didn't think it mattered much. It had been a thousand years ago, after all. A metallic noise interrupted her thoughts.

"I'm through!" Adora yelled.

"Yay!" Entrapta was at the edge of the hole in no time. "Is it an entrance?"

"Wait a moment!" more dust flew out of the hole. "There's a button labelled 'open'."

"It is an entrance!" Entrapta jumped down the hole, and Catra heard Adora make a surprised sound. "Hey!"

She peered over the edge. Yes, Adora had caught Entrapta. "We should install a ladder before we all get stuck down there," she said.

"I'll get one," Glimmer said - and disappeared in a shower of sparkles. So, her magic worked this close to Etheria. Good to know.

"Now that's handy," O'Neill commented. "If she ever gets tired of being Queen, she has a great future as a delivery service."

Catra snorted at the joke - Glimmer as a courier? - and even Bow smiled.

Then Glimmer returned with a rope ladder, and a minute later, Bow had set it up.

"Don't come down yet!" Adora said. "I'm opening the door first! Entrapta, head back up. Just in case we have a monster hiding here."

"It's quite unlikely that a monster would have survived so long," Entrapta replied. "Unless there's a closed biohabitat here, which I think should have shown up on my scans. Although automated defence bots could be active. Or perhaps cryostasis pods, though they would likely need some time to thaw any specimen stored inside."

"Come up, then," Catra told her.

Entrapta quickly pulled herself up with her hair. "Clear!"

"Alright. Opening it now…" Adora announced. Catra heard her mumble 'If this doesn't work, it'll be embarrassing," under her breath as she reached out to touch the button.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the door slid open, revealing a dark corridor leading downwards.

Catra jumped down the hole, landing in a crouch next to Adora. "Good work."

"Careful!" Adora said as the rest climbed down. "We don't know what's in here."

"That's why we're here!" Entrapta announced. "To explore!"

"Yes, well… let me go first," Adora said. She entered before anyone could object.

And nothing happened - other than the hallway getting lit up by glowing crystals.

Catra followed her love. It was a short hallway - no, it was a large airlock.

"Let's all go in so we can open the door without venting the air from the base!" Entrapta said. "That would be bad."

Catra suppressed a sarcastic comment. To her slight surprise, so did O'Neill.

As soon as everyone was inside, the door behind them closed, and air started to fill the room with a hissing sound.

Then the other door opened, revealing a figure standing in the entrance. Catra gasped, then saw that it wasn't a figure - it was a hologram. Like Light Hope.

"Greetings, visitors," the projection said in that creepy voice of theirs. "Please identify yourself."

"I am Adora - She-Ra," Adora spoke up.

"Catra," Catra snapped.

"Queen Glimmer of Bright Moon."

"Bow."

"Entrapta! Hi!"

"Colonel O'Neill."

"Captain Carter."

"Daniel Jackson."

"Teal'c."

"Greetings, Adora, Colonel O'Neill. Research Station Alpha is at your disposal. Please keep your test subjects from entering restricted areas."

Catra blinked. Test subjects? And why was the bot talking to Adora and O'Neill?

*****​

Research Station Alpha, The First Moon of Enchantment, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

What? Jack O'Neill stared at the computer hologram or whatever it was. Why was it singling out him and Adora? Hell, why was it treating him as if he were a seven-foot-tall amazon with magic powers?

"Test subjects?" Adora asked.

"The other life forms present have been identified as test subjects."

"I'm not a test subject!" Catra spat.

"Sir," Carter whispered next to him. "Why is it treating you as a... First One?"

"I don't know, Carter!" he hissed back. He was a human, not some… alien. He couldn't glow and step into vacuum as if it was a spring day in Colorado.

"What is the purpose of this station?" Daniel asked, taking a step forward. "What is it that you research here?"

"That information is restricted," the computer - as far as Jack knew - replied.

"What do you research here?" Adora asked. "And who are you?"

"Research Station Alpha is the main research station for the experiments in genetic engineering conducted on Etheria. I am the primary computer system of the station, designation: Alpha."

"She sounds like Light Hope," Catra muttered. "Creepy."

"It must be a common pattern for First Ones computer interfaces," Entrapta said.

"They conducted genetic engineering experiments on Etheria?" Bow asked.

"What are those? And where did they do it?" Glimmer shook her head.

"Genetic engineering is the direct manipulation of an organism's genes," Entrapta explained. "Say, when you cross two plants so you can get an edible flower. Plumeria's famous plum roses are said to be the result of early genetic engineering by their princesses."

"Ah."

"They talked about us being test subjects," Catra said. "They weren't experimenting with plants - they were experimenting with us!"

"They probably were experimenting with plants as well," Etrapta pointed out. "Although, yes, I think you are… Oh." She blinked with her mouth open.

"Yeah," Catra said. "It looks like they used Etheria for more than just magic superweapon construction."

Magic superweapons? Jack really didn't like the sound of that. Though he didn't like aliens experimenting with humans even less. In truth, he loathed it.

"Sir! If the Ancients - or the First Ones - experimented with human genetics, then that would explain the hybrid life forms we saw in Bright Moon," Carter said. "If they were advanced enough to combine human and animal genes, that would entirely be possible!"

Jack suppressed a wince. Carter was a genius, but sometimes, she forgot about the social niceties.

"You think the First Ones… made us?" Glimmer glanced at Catra, then at SG-1. And she didn't sound amused.

"It's a hypothesis," Daniel replied with his diplomatic expression. "We don't know if it's true."

"But it fits what we know," Entrapta said, cocking her head. "And we can ask the system here. Well, Adora and Colonel O'Neill can ask her!"

Everyone was looking at Jack and Adora, he realised. Expecting them to ask? Or to spare them the knowledge? Well, Entrapta was beaming at them, so she would want to know.

And Jack wanted to know why he was treated as an alien. But how to ask without possibly telling the computer that it made a mistake? If it was a mistake in the first place…

"Alpha, show us an overview of the experiments performed on Etheria by people on this station," Adora said.

"It would be best to show that information in the main control room," the computer replied.

"Show us the way. Also, everyone here is authorised to enter the control room."

"Acknowledged."

Glowing arrows appeared on the ground and in the ceiling, showing them the way. Not that there were many junctions, anyway - after two minutes, they entered a big, round room where half the walls were covered with screens and the centre taken up by a huge hologram.

"Genetic engineering research started soon after the discovery of Etheria since the planet's uncommonly high magic level facilitated research with advanced organisms, greatly reducing the rate of unviable results. Splicing various organisms with lesser First Ones stock resulted in various hybrid lines, many of which proved to be stable enough to reproduce without further manipulation necessary," the computer droned on while the scenes and the main hologram showed various humanoid species. Jack saw a Minotaur, lizard people, bug people - and cat people, amongst others.

"They made us. They made our people," Glimmer mumbled. Bow put a hand on her shoulder.

Jack clenched his teeth. This must be a shock for them. They would have origin myths, and to find out they were the result of experiments…

"Fascinating!" Entrapta beamed. "This answers so many questions! No wonder we can interbreed if we were engineered to be compatible and from a common ancestor!"

Apparently, not everyone was shocked.

"Entrapta!" Glimmer snapped.

"What? Did you never wonder why different species can have fertile offspring?"

"I thought that was done by magic," Bow said.

"Well, yes, usually, but it should be much harder than it is," Entrapta replied. "This explains so much!"

It probably did. But there were a few questions left. Crucial questions. Jack cleared his throat. "Alpha. What is my genetic status?" There, safe wording.

"Scans show your genes are free from mutations. There should be no problems with reproduction, should you so desire."

"I meant my ancestry," Jack clarified, clenching his teeth.

"We lack the data to identify your exact ancestry, but you are a descendant from a First Ones colonial family."

What? That couldn't be true. He was a human. Not an alien. He was born on Earth. Not on an alien colony.

Jack shook his head, Then he noticed that everyone was looking at him, even Adora.

"You're a First One? Like me?" Adora asked.

*****​

Adora… didn't know what to feel. She had finally found someone of her, not quite family, but people. She wasn't the only one left after Horde Prime had destroyed the First Ones. And yet...

"I'm not a First One, Ancient, or whatever!" O'Neill retorted with a glare. "I get checked out by our Napoleonic doctor and her big needles every week - I'm human."

"Jack…" Daniel trailed off when O'Neill glared at him.

"Sir!" Carter stood straight. "Nothing indicates that the First Ones weren't human." She nodded at Adora.

"Do you see me walking around in space without a spacesuit, Carter?"

"That's my magic," Adora blurted out. "That's not normal for me, either." She couldn't walk in space without being She-Ra, after all. And she had a spacesuit for when she was Adora.

"I can't do magic, either," O'Neill snapped.

"You have an aptitude for magic, Colonel O'Neill," Alpha spoke up. "Like every First One. Although the power displayed by Adora indicates the first successful bonding with a Runestone for a First One. Did our experiments with the local test subjects finally bear fruit?"

"What?" What did Alpha mean? Adora looked around. The others seemed as confused as she was.

"Mom…" Glimmer mumbled. "What do you know about Mom?"

"Queen Angella?" Adora turned back to Alpha.

"No person or test subject of that name is in my data banks."

"She wasn't a test subject! She was the Queen of Bright Moon for centuries!" Glimmer yelled.

"Bonded to the Moonstone," Entrapta added. "If that helps."

"An extended lifetime?" Alpha tilted her head. "There were a few experiments to prolong the life of the test subjects. Although none of them was merged with those who were to bond with a Runestone."

A number of people appeared as holograms. Adora stared. A mermaid, a huge figure that looked like Scorpia, just with more armour, a lizardwoman, and…

"Mom!"

Yes, there was Angella. "Who's she?" Adora asked, pointing at the figure.

"Test Subject A-Gamma. Most successful bond to a Runestone to date. Hybrid with DNA material from an avian species from another magic-heavy planet."

"Mom!" Glimmer shook her head. "No!"

Bow put his hand on her arm, but she shrugged him off. "Mom wasn't a test subject! She was the Queen!"

"She probably became Queen after Mara sealed Etheria in Despondos," Entrapta speculated. "And it looks like all the royal lines were based on experiments. I wonder what my ancestors looked like! Oh, we can find out about our families!"

Their families! That was right - Adora could finally find out where she was from. Where her family lived. And might still live. "Alpha! Where am I from?"

"You're from a colonial line as well."

"Which planet?" Where was her family?

"I would need more data for such an analysis."

So, no luck here either. Adora still didn't know where she was from - and if her family still lived.

"What, you don't know where the planet of the seven-oot-tall amazons is located?" O'Neill snapped.

"There is no such planet in my databanks. And her family line is not exclusive to any one planet in the Empire."

"And mine?" O'Neill glared at Alpha.

"Your line wasn't exclusive to any one planet, either."

"Great. Useless robot." O'Neill scoffed.

"Enough!" Glimmer shook her head. "This… this… This is huge. We need to get a grip on this."

Adora nodded.

"The origin of our species!" Entrapta beamed. "This is the biggest discovery on Etheria since magic!"

"Entrapta!" Glimmer shook her head. "People will be shocked that we are descendants of 'test subjects' of the First Ones."

"And of the First Ones themselves," Bow pointed out.

Right, Adora's people had experimented with themselves - 'lesser stock', Alpha had called it. Adora pressed her lips together. That sounded… Well, what did she expect from people who were willing to destroy Etheria to win a war? They probably saw the entire planet as some experiment.

She stifled a gasp. What if they were right?

Catra's loud scoff interrupted her thoughts. "So we're descendants of some people used for experiments? So what? That doesn't change anything about us. It's ancient history!"

"'So what'?" Glimmer turned to frown at her. "The First Ones made Mom!"

"So?" Catra met Glimmer's eyes. "What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that we were made as an experiment!" Glimmer all but yelled at Adora's lover.

"We aren't an experiment any more. We haven't been one for a thousand years!" Catra retorted. "We're free!" She grinned, flashing her fangs. "And I bet we were never just an experiment. She-Ra was around before the First Ones arrived, remember?"

That was right! The First Ones hadn't created She-Ra! That meant… "Alpha. Was there a native population before the First Ones arrived?"

"Yes. Distantly related to the First Ones. A small population." More figures appeared on the display. They looked like Adora, walking through a village.

"Daniel? Can you identify their culture?" O'Neill asked.

"It's hard to say. The garments would fit a number of cultures in the Mediterranean. Possibly Minoans or Mycenaeans - the style could've developed from either culture." Daniel pushes his glasses up with one finger. "Although we'd need a linguist to examine their language for more clues. Or genetic samples."

"I'd prefer not to muck around with genes right now," O'Neill said.

Adora nodded - she wasn't too keen on more such revelations herself.

*****​

The revelations about the origin of their species had shocked their hosts. Almost as much, it seemed, as the revelation that he was descended from the 'First Ones' had shocked the Colonel. Samantha Carter could tell. The Colonel was better at hiding his reaction than their hosts, who were openly discussing the ramifications of their descent from 'test subjects' of an alien race, but Sam knew him too well to be fooled by his attitude.

And SG-1 couldn't afford their leader having a breakdown. Not in the middle of this mission.

So she took a few steps towards him, ending up at his side, and whispered: "All of the data we have gathered so far points at the First Ones being human. Probably people taken from Earth to another planet and developing their own culture."

He turned to look at her with narrowed eyes. He wasn't fooled, either, she realised. But she stood her ground, raising her chin.

He snorted. "You heard the computer. The First Ones considered humans 'lesser stock'," he said in a low voice.

"That doesn't mean that they were genetically different enough to be considered an alien species," she pointed out. "Sir." Lots of humans considered other humans to be their lessers.

"It's enough to make the computer single me out. And apparently, I can do magic." He shook his head. "Magic!"

"That might merely be a talent that many humans have, which hasn't expressed itself so far since Earth lacks magic." If the talent was genetic - and royal families inheriting the same talent supported this hypothesis - then it was likely that humans from Earth had such talents - provided that Earth once had had magic.

"My alien heritage," the Colonel replied in a flat voice.

"Sir, according to what we know, those people must have arrived on Earth so long ago, the majority of humanity could be related to them," Sam said. Though that didn't mean all of them had the same genes that apparently qualified them as First Ones. She and Daniel didn't, after all.

"So, why didn't you or Daniel register?" the Colonel asked. Of course, he wouldn't have missed that.

"The human genome has a large variance. And yet we are all humans," she said, staring at him.

He snorted again but slowly nodded. "Maybe you're right. But I'll still tell the doc that she missed an alien in SG-1 once we're back on Earth." He flashed her a grin.

She smiled in return. It wasn't a particularly good joke, but if the Colonel was joking about it, things were improving. They would get through this.

"So!" he spoke up, raising his voice, "how does this magic work? Do I wave my hand and think electric thoughts, and lightning strikes whatever I point at?"

The others turned to look at him, interrupting their talk about how best to tell the rest of their alliance about this discovery. "It doesn't work like that," Glimmer told him. "You need training. Lots of training. My dad and my aunt studied magic for years before they could cast spells."

"Unless you have a magical talent like a princess. That's different from spellcasting and generally expresses itself as a single magical ability," Entrapta added. "You'll have to train to use it most effectively, but figuring out how to use it should be easy. At least it was for me."

"Yes," Glimmer said with a nod. "If you are a princess, you'll figure out things easily enough."

"Great. I might be a pretty princess." The Colonel shook his head.

"A prince, in your case," Glimmer told him.

"We're just calling them princesses because the majority are female," Catra said.

"Great. That makes it all better." The Colonel snorted again.

"Men are included in the female term," Daniel said. "Is this only the case for princesses or a general rule? Or do you pick the term according to what gender is the majority in any particular group?"

The others looked confused.

"On Earth, we generally use the male term for a mixed group, no matter whether or not the majority are female," Sam explained.

"Ah." Glimmer nodded. "It varies, but we generally go with the majority."

"That should make a few feminists back home happy," the Colonel said.

Sam didn't comment.

"Well, a society with predominantly female leaders will be of quite the interest for a lot of people back home," Daniel said earnestly. "Many models and theories can be validated."

And a lot of people would have some issues with female leaders; Sam knew that better than most.

"Feminists?" Adora asked.

Sam saw the Colonel wince when he realised that Daniel wasn't the only one who could make a gaffe. "Feminists are people on Earth, mostly women, who work to remove gender-based inequalities," she explained. "Some of them have more extreme goals." Not nearly as many as some of the chauvinists Sam had encountered during her career claimed, though.

"Wait…" Bow frowned. "Do you mean you treat people differently based on their gender? I mean, why else would you have people trying to change that?"

"What?"

"Really?"

Sam suppressed a sigh. "Women and men are considered equals in most countries, but there are lingering prejudices and biases, which affect their actual treatment." Boy, were there lingering biases. Especially in the Armed Forces.

"We're working on it," Daniel chimed in, "but it's, ah, a work in progress."

"That makes no sense," Glimmer protested. "You don't even have magic!"

Right. Since princesses were predominantly female, they would assume magic might make them biased towards women.

"Without magic, society was dominated by men for a long stretch of our history," Daniel replied. "But things have changed. And are still changing. For the better."

Their hosts didn't look like they were happy with the explanation. Sam couldn't really blame them - she wasn't happy with it, either. Yes, things were changing for the better, but they had a long way to go.

*****​

This Earth didn't sound like a nice place, Catra thought. She knew about prejudice from the top from her time as a Horde cadet. Knew it all too well. She wasn't going to let anyone look down on her for being a woman. There were enough reasons to look down on her, anyway.

She gritted her teeth and pushed the thought away. She was changing for the better. Like Earth? She snorted at her own foolishness. This wasn't the time to dwell on that. Not when Adora looked like she was blaming herself for the First Ones crimes. Again.

Catra stepped closer to her lover. Close enough so no one could hear her whisper: "It's not your fault. Not at all. You're not responsible for your ancestors."

"But…" Adora started to object.

Catra reached up and placed her finger on Adora's lips. "No buts. This happened a thousand years ago. Long before you were born."

"We don't know that," Adora retorted, holding her hand so Catra couldn't shut her up. "The portal that brought me to Etheria might have reached back in time."

Catra rolled her eyes. Entrapta's idle speculation really wasn't helping sometimes. "Even then, you were a baby. Innocent." And then Shadow Weaver had gotten her claws into her. Into them all. The woman had a lot to answer for, but what she had done to Adora was the worst of her crimes.

"Yes, but… I can't help feeling responsible for this." Adora said, a little more loudly.

"For what?" Catra shook her head. "What's the big deal?"

"But…"

"We - the Etherians - are the result of genetic experiments by the First Ones," Glimmer cut in. "That's a big deal." Catra opened her mouth to tell her it wasn't, but she lifted a finger and went on: "And yes, it's been a thousand years, and we aren't defined by our origins anyway, but… it still matters. People care about their families. Their origins."

Catra clenched her jaws. She knew that Adora cared a lot about the fact that she didn't know her real family - that she was taken from them by a portal thanks to Light Hope.

"My Dads will be… I don't actually know how they'll react," Bow said. "They've studied the First Ones for so long, and now to find out about those experiments?"

"They didn't experiment on your ancestors," Catra told him. He didn't look like the people they had seen in the hologram, after all.

"We don't know that. And if we were not experimented on, we still were involved," Bow replied.

"As a control group, probably. You can't run such experiments properly without a control group." Entrapta nodded.

Well, at least she didn't have any issues with this revelation.

"We need to decide how we tell the others about this," Glimmer said, shaking her head. "And I thought telling them about a new war would be bad."

"Why would it be bad?" Entrapta asked. "I still don't get it."

"People might not like being descendants of, ah, 'test subjects'," O'Neill said.

Catra snorted. What did it matter? Besides, what did he know? He had trouble with the fact that he wasn't the descendant of test subjects,but of a First One! "They'll get over it," she said. "Most of them, at least."

"It's not that," Glimmer said, biting her lower lip. "But this revelation could shake the kingdoms. If our magic powers as princesses are just the result of experimentation, what does that mean for us?"

Oh. That. Catra suppressed another snort. "So? You still have the magic powers."

"Power alone isn't… enough," Glimmer retorted.

"You worry about your legitimacy," Daniel spoke up, nodding.

"No more divine right," O'Neill muttered under his breath in such a low tone, Catra was sure she was the only one of her friends to overhear him. "What a pity."

"Sir!" Carter hissed.

He was right, though. This would shake up some kingdoms. At least the weaker ones. And those ruled by stupid princesses. Probably.

"But… Etheria had magic before the First Ones arrived. She-Ra predates them, for one," Entrapta pointed out. "It would only be logical that other people had magic powers as well."

"Great. So we usurped the first princesses?" Glimmer shook her head again.

"Well…" Bow shifted a little. "That was quite common in the Age of War. At least amongst the kingdoms without a Runestone. It took time to establish a dynasty, according to my Dads."

Catra rolled her eyes. "So, you have to admit that your ancestors took power thanks to their magic? So what? You're not responsible for them." And it was kind of funny that for all the Alliance opposing and condemning the Horde, their kingdoms had been founded in a similar way.

"Mom was already alive at the time," Glimmer pointed out. "And she never told me anything..."

Oh. That expression… Catra was familiar with that feeling as well. "She probably had a reason for that. Or she forgot."

"Mom never forgot anything! She could recite everything I did wrong," Glimmer shot back.

"Parent of the year," O'Neill mumbled.

"But things a thousand years ago? Things she might have wanted to forget?" Daniel asked.

Glimmer hesitated. "I have to ask Dad about this. And we need to tell the others of the Alliance."

"But we need to find out more about this, first!" Entrapta chimed in. "We need more data - what kind of experiments, which test subjects, what happened to them… We need to know the truth before we can tell it!" She turned to Adora and O'Neill. "And we need you for that!"

Neither Adora nor O'Neill looked happy at that.

*****​

"So… now we have a baseline to analyse. Too bad we couldn't get the raw data, but the records in the main databanks should suffice for now," Entrapta said. "Why would anyone not share their research data with other scientists?"

The princess sounded as if she genuinely didn't understand, Jack O'Neill thought.

"You didn't exactly share your research with us when you were in the Horde, did you?" Glimmer asked her.

"You didn't ask for it to be shared," Entrapta replied. "And it was supposed to be a secret. But this is basic research, and this is a research station, and we have two First Ones here. Why would they keep their data from others in the same project?"

Jack's eyes widened. Wait - she had been in the Horde? Entrapta was amongst the most open and easy-going princesses they had met so far, and she was a former Hode scientist?

"You were in the Horde?" Daniel asked.

"With Hordak, yes," Entrapta replied. "Well, I was in the Alliance, first, but then I was accidentally left behind during a mission and thought they had abandoned me, and Catra was offering me a laboratory and all those First Ones technology to study, so I joined them. That's how I met Hordak!" She beamed at them. "And then, later, I left the Horde - well, I was kinda banished to Beast Island, where I met Micah and the others, so…" She shrugged. "It all worked out and now we're all friends!"

Jack blinked. Catra had offered her a lab? In the Horde? That meant she had been in the Horde as well - and apparently in a rather high position. He glanced at the others. Carter was surprised as well. And Teal'c… wasn't showing any emotion.

"Ah." Daniel, though, didn't seem to be fazed at all. "So, you switched allegiances several times during the war. Was that common?"

"Kinda," Entrapta said. "At the end, it was everyone against Horde Prime. Scorpia, too."

"Yes," Glimmer said. "And we beat him."

Catra was silent, Jack noticed. And Adora was holding her shoulders. Things were more complicated than he had thought.

"I, too, left the services of a false god once I had the opportunity," Teal'c spoke up. He nodded at their hosts. "I understand."

Catra snorted in response, but it sounded more… well, she didn't really smile. Entrapta, however, beamed again. "Yes! Maybe we can get some Goa'uld to change sides as well!"

"Ah…" Jack grimaced. Trying to turn the snakes? He'd rather juggle hand grenades.

"There are Goa'uld who oppose the system lords. The Tok'Ra," Daniel said. "We met one of them, but he died before we could contact them."

Jack glanced at Carter. She was standing still, ramrod straight, lips pressed together. No doubt remembering her recent possession by Jolinar. He suppressed the urge to put his hand on her shoulder and glared at Daniel; that wasn't how you talked about things like that.

"Oh? So they can change!" Entrapta nodded. And her friends smiled.

Great. Now they had the completely wrong impression. "We have met one individual who claimed to be a Goa'uld rebel," Jack corrected them. "We don't really know if he was telling the truth."

"Oh. But the possibility remains," Adora said, nodding firmly. "If one can turn against them, others can do so as well."

"In theory," Jack said.

"I trusted Jolinar," Carter said in a clipped, tight voice. "But he didn't tell me how to contact the others - we don't really know anything about them. They have to operate in strict secrecy, which makes it very hard to reach them."

"Oh. Well, once we're starting offensive operations, they'll probably make contact with us," Adora said.

"Even if only so they aren't mistaken for our enemies," Catra added. She, too, was still tense.

"Anyway, we have data to analyse. With these records, we can track the lineage of many princesses," Entrapta said. "And we might discover more of our past! I wonder what kind of creature had prehensile hair." She tugged at her own hair. "Perhaps it's a creature from another planet? Wouldn't that be neat?"

Judging by their expressions, the others didn't really share Entrapta's opinion. Jack couldn't blame them. He wasn't happy about being part alien himself. He was an officer in the Air Force. A human. Not some… alien. Part-alien. And what would the brass think about him? Hell, some would want him removed from SG-1 for security's sake.

And he couldn't blame them - he'd probably ask for the same if someone else were revealed to be part alien. Especially if they arrived with other, related aliens as potential allies. Aliens with very firm views of what was acceptable amongst allies and what was not. On the other hand, if they had taken in former Horde personnel as it seemed...

Things had become really complicated. But that didn't change the fact they had to find a way home. "So!" He clapped his hands. "Now that we've got the genetic data for you to analyse, how about we look for a DHD to get us home to Earth?" He noted that most others looked slightly guilty at being reminded of their original reason for entering this station in the first place.

"Right!" Entrapta said. "The concentrations of Naquadah!" She held her multitool or whatever it was up and pushed a few buttons. "It's this way!"

"Alpha, can you show us a map of the station?" O'Neill asked.

"Yes, Colonel O'Neill." A moment later, a 3D map of the place appeared floating above the holoprojector.

"Oh! Neat!" Entrapta cocked her head and peered at it, then at her recorder. "The concentrations are all here!" She pointed at a large room in the eastern part of the station.

The largest room in the station, actually. Jack had a feeling what they would find there.

Five minutes later, he found out he was right. The room was a hangar. And none of the concentrations of Naquadah was a Stargate. They were transport planes. Or shuttles, actually, since it was certain they could travel through space. Unfortunately, they were also all in various states of disrepair.

Not that that would deter Carter and Entrapta. Quite the contrary - both were all over the things the moment they had laid eyes on them.

"We'll never get them away from this place in time for dinner," he commented.

They'd be here for a while. Well, at least they wouldn't get shot at. And they might find out a little more about Etheria's past - both ancient and recent. Though Jack would have to keep an eye on Daniel - his friend was a little too enthusiastic about new cultures. They really didn't need any more slips and leaks. Their reputation amongst the Etherians was probably already not the best.

Then again, as they had just found out, the Etherians had some skeletons in the closet as well. Though whether that was a good or bad thing remained to be seen.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 8: The Meetings

Research base Alpha, First Moon of Enchantment, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Adora sighed. The ships - or shuttles, as Entrapta called them - looked a little like Darla. Just a little. Same grey colour, all angled as well - but where Darla had two pods on her sides, this shuttle had none. And it was much smaller, of course; its bridge had only room for five people or so, and Adora would probably hit her head if she wasn't careful as She-Ra.

And they were all broken. At least they looked broken to Adora. One was basically just a frame, two more had their hind parts - their aft sections - dismantled, one looked like it had been shot at by a tank platoon, and the last one, the one Entrapta and Carter were checking out, looked as if it had been patched together; the colour of some parts was off a little.

"We'll never get Entrapta out of here," Catra mumbled next to her.

"Yeah," O'Neill agreed. Well, he had just said the same.

"To be fair," Daniel added, "more spaceships is a good thing, right?"

"Those are shuttles," O'Neill told him. "No hyperdrive."

"Oh."

"Do they have weapons?" Catra asked.

"Looks like they have smaller versions of Darla's guns," Bow told them as he passed them on his way to Entrapta and Carter, carrying a piece of crystal from one of the other shuttles with Glimmer. "Hidden in the bow section."

"Pointless then," Catra said. "Those won't be able to scratch a frigate's hull."

"Really?" Daniel sounded surprised.

"Those are a thousand years old. At least a thousand years old," Catra explained.

"You could upgrade them," Daniel said. "You did upgrade Darla, didn't you?"

"Yes," Catra said. "But that was mostly Entrapta's project."

And Hordak's, Adora knew.

"Well, it seems this might be her new project," O'Neill said.

Catra scoffed. "Waste of time. We don't need shuttles. We've got frigates for space and orbital bombardment, and we have flyers on the ground. And tanks."

"I wouldn't dismiss a fast transport as useless," O'Neill objected. "There are situations where you might need one."

To Adora's surprise, Catra nodded. "Right. But most of them we can probably handle with Darla."

"Darla can't be in two locations at once, though."

Adora frowned. O'Neill was right again, but… that would mean letting others risk their lives in the sort of commando operation that was perfect for her and her friends. At least she couldn't imagine any other use for shuttles that a frigate with their transporters could do as well. Of course, she could handle a war by herself, but… She-Ra was Etheria's protector. If anyone had to go on such missions, it was her. On the other hand, if they had such shuttles, she could go on a mission without dragging Darla and her friends with her. "Good point," she said with a faint smile. Which she lost immediately when she saw that Catra was frowning at her. "What?"

"You're thinking stupid thoughts."

"I'm not!" Adora protested.

"Yes, you are." Catra took a step closer and stood in front of her, staring at her eyes. "You're thinking of taking such a shuttle for a stupid mission, aren't you?"

Adora blinked. How did Catra know? And how could she deny that without making it obvious that she had been thinking that?

"I know you." Catra shook her head, then stood on the tip of her toes and grabbed Adora's face. "And I won't let you risk your life without me. Never again. You hear me?" She tilted her head to the side, just a little bit.

Adora opened her mouth to protest, and Catra pushed up, kissing her before she could say anything.

Oh. Adora closed her eyes and hugged her lover.

When they broke the kiss and Adora let Catra down on the floor again - she had taken her up sometime during the kiss - both of them were smiling. "But I'm She-Ra," Adora said. "I'm supposed to protect everyone."

"And I'm supposed to protect you from yourself, dummy." Catra smiled, but kept staring into Adora's eyes. She was just so… so...

O'Neill cleared his throat.

Adora jerked, but Catra just turned her head and looked at the man. "What?"

"Nothing."

"So," Daniel spoke up. "You were called She-Ra's consort. Is that a formal position?"

Catra snorted. "No, that's just Third Fleet being stupid."

Adora nodded. "But we're planning to marry soon." Once things stopped coming up that they had to deal with. Such as unexpected visitors from a faraway planet with six billion people.

"We could've married already if you stopped listening to Glimmer," Catra pointed out with a smirk.

Adora pouted. She wanted to get married, but she was She-Ra, Princess of Power. Glimmer had told her several times that marrying without a big ceremony and dinner would be a snub to every princess and prince who wasn't invited.

"Listening to Glimmer?" Daniel asked.

"She wants a big wedding for us," Catra said. "It's political. Probably gonna be as big as the Princess Prom."

"Ah! A state affair." Daniel nodded. "Are there many different wedding customs on Etheria?"

Adora smiled - she had researched that ever since Catra had accepted her proposal. "Oh, yes! Every kingdom has a different way to officiate a marriage. For example, in Bright Moon, it's an official act - you need a representative of the Queen." Or the Queen herself, in their case. "In Plumeria, you just marry and inform others afterwards. It's a very private ceremony. And in Salineas, you have to have a ship's captain marry you. On the ship. And in the Kingdom of Snow, you construct a temple out of ice, before you..."

*****​

"This is fascinating. It's using a miniature version of Darla's original engines! Like a tiny Darla!"

Samantha Carter resisted the urge to shake her head. Entrapta was very enthusiastic about their discovery. Sam could understand the feeling, of course, but Entrapta was… well, in a class of her own.

"Why is that fascinating? Both are First Ones designs," Glimmer asked. The queen was leaning against the wall in the shuttle's engine room, watching them work. Or watching Bow, as far as Sam could tell.

"Because you usually construct different engines for different ships," Bow explained. "Just scaling down an engine generally isn't optimal."

"Yes!" Entrapta, held up by her hair, turned. "You lose effectiveness if you simply scale engines up and down. And sometimes, you have an explosion because the material needs a certain thickness to withstand the temperatures an engine generates. So, we can conclude that the First Ones either were bad engineers - and we know they weren't - or they had other reasons to do this. It can't be logistics; the parts are not interchangeable, after all. So, why did they do this?"

"Perhaps they didn't want to spend the money for a new design," Sam speculated. She had been stymied by short-sighted cuts to her budget before, although not often any more since she joined Stargate Command.

"Oh." Entrapta frowned, then nodded. "Right. But that would mean that they didn't value science very much."

"What?" Bow asked.

"In the Horde, we didn't have to worry about money for science," she explained. "If I wanted something, I just asked Hordak, and I got it. Unless it was First Ones tech; those were sometimes scarce."

Oh. Sam had wondered what had made Entrapta join the Horde. An effectively unlimited research budget might have been the reason - it would tempt anyone for a moment at least. And Entrapta did seem to be a little… off when it came to morals. At least that was Sam's impression.

"Ah. Well, it's not the same in the Alliance," Bow said. "We've got a tight budget."

"I know! Hordak complains about it all the time," Entrapta said.

"Well, he's not the Horde leader any more. He doesn't get to rob everyone else for his projects," Glimmer said.

"Technically, those were spoils of war," Entrapta replied. "Or Horde production. I think. We didn't really need much of what the Alliance produced, and First Ones tech was finder's keeper." She perked up. "Though if the First Fleet agrees to supply us, we'll have a much higher budget again!"

"The First Fleet?" Glimmer looked concerned. "Supplying you?"

"Yes! They've got their full supply train, but they don't have many frigates left to be supplied. So, Hordak asked if they would mind sending supplies to us. It would really speed up our research if we had better access to Horde Prime's technology. But they are still debating." Entrapta frowned. "They really need a leader to speed up decisions."

"I think it's fine if they debate and make their own decisions," Bow said.

Sam agreed with that. She didn't know what exactly happened on Etheria, but a former conqueror gaining more followers? Followers with a space fleet? Who were used to blindly obey their leader?

Judging by Glimmer's expression, she wasn't in favour of this either. "And when were you planning to tell us about this?" the queen asked.

Entrapta looked puzzled. "Should I have?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Entrapta shrugged. "It's just for science. You know we're doing research now that we don't have to worry about the war anymore. Although I guess that might have changed now, with the Goa'uld. Do you think we should focus on weapon technology again? I've got a few ideas, and Hordak has had a number of projects that he never had the parts to pursue until now."

"Ah…" Bow looked at Glimmer.

"I think we should discuss that with the Alliance," Glimmer said.

"Right." Entrapta nodded. "Back to tiny engines! I think I could upgrade them like I upgraded Darla's. That would make them faster."

"We'll need a lot of spare parts, though," Sam pointed out. The First Ones had been cannibalising four shuttles to repair the fifth - their supply situation must have been terrible for that to happen.

"Yes. But we can make do with Horde parts. I'm sure that Third Fleet would part with some of theirs if Adora asks them."

"That might be a good idea," Glimmer said. Bow looked confused for a moment, then nodded as well. Sam agreed as well - depriving those apparent fanatics of supplies was likely a good thing.

"Good! We might even be able to install a hyperspace engine on a shuttle if we sacrifice some space and manage to miniaturise them. Not a modern one, but Darla's old one wouldn't be too hard to shrink. We could make a tiny starship!"

"I think we should focus on our discovery here, first," Bow said. "And then on getting our new friends home."

"Right." Entrapta nodded, apparently unfazed. "That means finishing Darla's upgrades. And plot a course to Earth."

"Or to a planet with a Stargate," Sam reminded the princess.

"Yes. But we don't know where those planets are. Perhaps we'll meet some on the way. Although that might also delay us." Entrapta pouted. "We'll have to decide if we should just go full-speed to Earth or look for another Stargate."

And before SG-1's gate validation codes expired. They could contact Stargate Command through the gate using their radios, but the longer they took to open a gate, the more suspicious Stargate Command would be that they had been compromised.

*****​

Planning Room, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"I hope you have a good reason to call for an emergency meeting of the Alliance," Mermista complained as she entered the planning room. "I had to sacrifice my first day off after a week filled with budget meetings with the Admiralty."

Catra suppressed a snort. For a ruling princess, Mermista was complaining a lot. Perhaps she should learn to delegate. And to scare her underlings into not annoying her. No one had bothered Catra when she had been in command. Well, Scorpia had, but that was different.

"I'm sure they had a good reason, my love!" Sea Hawk told the princess. "And we got to enjoy a trip together on the Dragon's Daughter VIII!"

"That's another reason they better have a good explanation," Mermista replied - but she was smiling as she said it. So, she wasn't really mad. Or not too mad - the princess was always grumpy. And she carried grudges. Conquer her kingdom and take her runestone one time… Catra clenched her teeth. That hadn't been her finest hour. Even if it had been a finely planned and executed offensive.

"And good evening to you, Mermista, Sea Hawk." Glimmer was smiling, but her tone was full of sarcasm.

"Hello!" Adora said with an honest smile. Catra nodded, as did Bow.

"Yeah, yeah, good evening. What's this about?" Mermista took her usual seat.

"Hello, everyone!"

"Hi!"

Perfuma and Scorpia had arrived. Catra nodded at them.

"Wildcat!" Scorpia made a beeline towards her.

Catra grimaced. "Wait…"

But the other woman picked her up and swung her around. "Haven't seen you in a while! You never visit!"

Yes, because she wasn't keen on revisiting the Fright Zone. Too many bad memories. Catra pushed against Scorpia's shoulders, but the princess's grip was too strong. Without actually fighting, she couldn't escape.

Fortunately, the woman started hugging everyone else before she broke Catra's ribs. "She-Ra! Bow!"

"Ack!"

"Good evening." Netossa and Spinnerella just took their seats. They looked serious - well, they were the most experienced members of the Alliance; they would expect an actual emergency.

And there was Frosta, glaring at Catra as expected. Catra smiled at the kid. Sure, she had wrecked Princess Prom, but that had mostly hurt the little princess's ego. It wasn't as if she had conquered her realm or something. She didn't need to feel too bad about that - most princesses could do with some humble pie.

As everyone sat down, Catra leaned against the wall behind Adora, ignoring her lover's frown. She wasn't a princess. She was just with Adora. Sea Hawk and Bow might sit down with the princesses and King Micah, but Catra was fine standing.

"Where's Entrapta?" Netossa asked.

Glimmer sighed. "She's coming. We made a recent discovery that has her… fascinated. A discovery that has repercussions for everyone on Etheria. Actually, two discoveries."

Catra noticed that Netossa relaxed a little upon hearing that. Had she expected that Entrapta would be the reason for the emergency meeting?

"I'm not going to like either, am I?" Mermista asked.

"Probably not," Glimmer admitted. "Alright. First, remember the First Ones ruins we discovered in the Whispering Woods?"

"Yes!" Perfuma nodded. "You told me about them since it bordered my kingdom. You went and explored them?"

"Don't tell me you found another superweapon!" Mermista blurted out.

"Not quite. We found a Stargate," Glimmer told her. "A gate that connects to other gates on other planets."

"What?"

"Like the portal Hordak was building?" Scorpia asked.

"No." Glimmer looked at Bow.

"It's part of a network spanning the galaxy," he explained. "Built millions of years ago. You can connect from one gate to any other gate in the network if you know the gate address, and then you can travel to the other planet in an instant."

"Millions of years ago?" Frosta asked.

"Yes."

"And I guess while Etheria was in Despondos, it wasn't working," Netossa said. "But now whoever is on the other side of such a gate has realised we're back?"

Well, she had always been the sharpest amongst the princesses. Catra nodded.

"Yes," Glimmer said. "And there is a war being fought out there."

Mermista groaned. "Another war?"

"How do you know that?" Frosta asked.

"We met a group of soldiers who were travelling through the gate," Adora told her. "They arrived here by accident."

"And they told you about the war?" Mermista scoffed.

"Melog confirmed part of their story," Catra said. "They've been fighting the Goa'uld."

Mermista scoffed again. Catra narrowed her eyes. Melog hadn't done anything to her.

"Anyway," Glimmer spoke up again. "The Goa'uld are an Empire of body-snatching snakes. Small parasites that burrow into your body and take control of it. They have enslaved lots of people and rule many planets."

"An empire of body-snatchers?" Mermista stared at them.

"Do you have proof for that?" Netossa asked. She had wrapped an arm around her wife.

Right. Spinerella would remember being controlled by Horde Prime. Catra pressed her lips together and pushed her own memories away. It was in the past. Horde Prime was dead.

"Melog confirmed that," Adora replied. "And, well… we saw one of the snakes. Well, a larva of a snake."

"We've secured the gate, so no travel is possible, so we aren't in immediate danger," Glimmer explained. "But the Goa'uld also have ships. And they want to conquer the galaxy."

"Like Horde Prime," Bow added.

"And like Horde Prime, they destroy planets that resist them," Adora said. "We can't let that happen! We have to fight them!"

Catra agreed. The Goa'uld would find Etheria sooner or later if Melog was right, and Catra would prefer to fight them on their own turf.

"We just finished a war that lasted for years!" Mermista protested. "It almost destroyed Etheria!"

"Technically, by defeating Horde Prime, Adora finished a war that had lasted a thousand years," Bow said, then cringed when everyone stared at him.

"That's not the point. The point is that…"

The door opening interrupted Mermista, and Entrapta entered. "Hi, everyone! Sorry for being late! I was showing Hordak the tech we recovered, and we kinda lost track of the time!"

Hordak? Catra tensed.

Behind Entrapta, Hordak entered the room, nodding at the princesses.

"What is he doing here?" Mermista blurted out.

"Providing advice, of course," Entrapta replied as she took her own seat, her hair pulling out a chair for Hordak. "So, where were we?"

*****​

Guest Quarters, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"So, team!" Jack O'Neill clapped his hands as he stepped into the centre of their room. "What did we learn today?" Carter hadn't found any listening devices, and they really needed to discuss things.

"That Etheria was once a test site for genetic experiments?" Daniel asked, looking up from his notes.

"That magic likely has a genetic component that can be manipulated by genetic engineering?" Carter added.

"That our hosts are more like us than we thought." Teal'c nodded.

Right. Joining the good guys after working for the bad guys would resonate with Teal'c. Jack shook his head. "Close but no cigar!"

"Then what did you learn?" Daniel asked, a little peeved.

"We learned that our hosts have a big fleet of spaceships but limited production capabilities," Jack said. "And a limited pool of personnel."

"Yes?" Daniel looked irritated.

"It means that Earth has something to offer," Jack explained. "We might not have magic, we might not have shiny spaceships, but we have people and industry." They wouldn't have to be the sidekick in an alliance.

"We don't know about the supply capabilities of the former Horde fleets, Sir," Carter pointed out.

"Yep, we don't," Jack admitted. "But we also know that the princesses don't really trust them. And we know that they don't know everything Horde Prime knew."

"Entrapta mentioned bots - robots," Daniel said. "If they can mass-produce them…"

Jack waved his hand. "Yes, yes. But robots aren't people; they can't adapt or innovate." At least he had never met some who did. "And we have six billion people on Earth."

"That number really shocked them," Daniel said. "They have had contact with other planets but were still surprised."

"So, we have something to offer beyond our knowledge of the Stargates." And that was important.

"And the Ancient technology," Carter said. "First Ones technology is advanced but not as advanced as Ancient technology."

That was a temporary advantage at most, though. Once you shared technology, it was lost. Entrapta would quickly catch up, in Jack's opinion. But it was something to offer as well. "So, that's the good news. Earth isn't as far behind as we thought - except for magic. We don't have flying, talking unicorns." Who probably pissed rainbows.

"Or a floating magical city," Daniel added.

"Town. Or village," Carter corrected him. "It sounded like a university with an adjacent settlement."

Either way, the important part was the 'floating'. People back home wouldn't believe this. "So, now the bad news we learned today," Jack went on.

"Bad news?" Daniel asked. "Oh. The cultural differences between Etheria and Earth are more significant than we assumed."

"Yes." Jack nodded. "And that's saying something since Etheria is ruled by magic princesses."

"I do not think the differences are too significant," Teal'c said. "Both Earth and Etheria are determined to fight the Goa'uld. Both have shown honour and welcomed former enemies into their ranks. I do not see any significant problems for forming an alliance."

Jack suppressed a grimace. "Well, that's true. But there are a few things that kinda complicate matters. Like politics."

"Like the leading figures of Etheria being young women," Carter added.

Jack glanced at her. That was actually the least of their problems, in his opinion. The US had dealt with Thatcher just fine. Granted, the Iron lady hadn't been young by any means, but he didn't think the gender of She-Ra or Glimmer would be an issue once the state department got talking to them.

"They were appalled by the concept of sexism, yes," Daniel said. "But that's not the only thing." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "She-Ra and Catra are a couple. And no one acted as if this was unusual - the clones called Catra her consort. And Bow mentioned having 'Dads'. Same-sex relationships might not carry any stigma here."

Jack nodded. Unlike back home.

"I doubt that our hosts would take kindly to our practice of releasing known homosexuals from service," Daniel went on.

"Yes. That'll be a tricky thing," Jack said.

"To say the least," Carter said.

"Why would it be a problem?" Teal'c asked. "A warrior's gender or taste in mates does not affect their effectiveness in battle."

"Yeah…" Jack sighed. "That's not exactly how some of the people back home think." Certain conservative politicians would be frothing at the mouth when they heard about the 'customs' on Etheria.

"Then they are fools and should be ignored," Teal'c stated.

"If only it were so easy," Jack commented. He didn't have anything against gays, as long as no one expected him to be gay or something. Though the idea that someone might be ogling him in the locker rooms… Well, he could handle it. Still…

"And there's the reaction to magic," Daniel went on.

Right. Another hot topic. The fire and brimstone types would go ballistic. "At least there won't be any witch hunts," Jack joked.

"Actually," Daniel said, "witch hunts are still a concern in some countries. And some states have the death penalty for magic. I think the Saudi Arabians executed someone for sorcery a few years ago, though I am not sure."

Great. That was a worse problem than Jack had thought. It was the gulf war all over again - just this time, he wasn't sure if he was part of the prickly natives with archaic laws and customs or the modern allies.

*****​

Planning Room, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Another war, where we have to rely on your clones to fight! Clones that tried once already to conquer us." Mermista leaned back and crossed her arms. "Ugh."

"Well, it will mean the clones will have something to do, other than guard Etheria," Bow pointed out.

Adora nodded. She knew that Mermista wasn't happy about having a fleet in orbit that could level her kingdom.

"Fine!" Mermista shook her head. "It's better to fight those Goa'uld far away from here, I guess."

Adora half-expected Sea Hawk to yell about an adventure amongst the stars or something, but he instead leaned closer to Mermista and whispered something into her ear that made her half-smile.

"The Kingdom of Snows cannot and will not provide many soldiers for this, though," Frosta announced. "Our soldiers aren't trained for this kind of war."

"That goes for all of us," Mermista said. "My soldiers are used to fighting on the sea, not in space."

"Not quite," Hordak spoke up. "The training the former Horde soldiers in the Fright Zone received should allow them to easily adapt to this conflict."

That was because he had formed them after Horde Prime's Horde, Adora knew. Deliver a planet and an army to his god.

"But they aren't soldiers any more," Perfuma objected. "You can't just assume that they'll go off to fight another war!"

"We can ask them, though," Entrapta said. "That doesn't hurt."

"Why would they want to go fight a war?" Perfuma shook her head.

Scorpia grimaced. "Well, some of the former Horde soldiers aren't too happy," she said, rubbing the back of her head. "They don't like working the fields or building homes."

Perfuma stared at her with her mouth half-open. "What?"

"I've heard some complaints," Scorpia said. "Nothing serious, but…" She sighed. "I think a number of them will probably join the war."

"The older ones," Catra said, nodding. "They're used to it."

And the ones who liked fighting, Adora mentally added. And those who liked hurting others.

"You should've told me!" Perfuma said.

"I, uh, was about to. But I didn't find the right moment."

"I thought everything was going well! We made such progress with the fields and orchards! And the villages! And they aren't happy?" Perfuma shook her head.

"Most are happy. Very happy!" Scorpia said. "It's just a few who grumble. And soldiers always grumble."

"They aren't supposed to be soldiers any more!"

Glimmer cleared her throat. "Anyway, we can recruit volunteers for our forces. But we'll rely on the fleets, clones and bots for the bulk of our fighting. And probably Earth forces, once we reach them and can form an alliance."

"Sounds good," Netosssa said, nodding. "But who amongst us will go fight the war? It's easy for us two" - she gestured at Spinnerella and herself - "since we don't have kingdoms to rule, but what about you?"

"I'll go!" Entrapta said. "Dryl pretty much rules itself, anyway. And the trip to Earth will be fascinating! So much new technology!" She beamed at Hordak. "You'll love it!"

He nodded at her. "I am looking forward to the challenge."

Adora winced at that. "And speaking of Earth… We need to decide who gets to travel there and negotiate an alliance."

"Glimmer has to go," Netossa said. "She is the commander of our Alliance and Queen of Bright Moon. And you have to go as well - She-Ra is the symbol of Etheria."

Both true.

"She-Ra also is the protector of Etheria," Mermista objected. "We can't send her away if we're at war."

"But She-Ra has the authority to speak for the rest of Etheria, not just the Alliance," Bow pointed out.

"But can I speak for them? I can't really drag them into a war," Adora said.

"We're already in a war according to what you found out," Netossa retorted. "And you have a following. Not just amongst the clones."

That didn't mean she could or should rule them. But she could and should represent their interest. Adora slowly nodded.

Behind her, Catra sighed. But she would come with her, Adora knew. Just as Bow would not let Glimmer travel alone.

"So, the Best Friends squad for diplomacy," Bow said.

"And us!" Entrapta said. "I need to study their technology! And Hordak is my science buddy!"

Adora could see the others exchange glances.

"Bet they're wondering if they feel safer with Hordak and Entrapta staying here or going far away," Catra whispered into her ear.

It wasn't really funny, but Adora snorted anyway.

"Fine," Mermista said. "So, Netossa will be in command of the forces here?"

"With Wrong Hordak, I suppose," Netossa agreed.

"Yes. We'll take Third Fleet with us," Glimmer said.

That made everyone perk up, Adora noticed.

"Good. Anything else?"

Glimmer sighed. "Yes. We visited the First Moon of Enchantment, looking for a First Ones base. And we discovered something that might have unsettling consequences."

"Ugh." Mermista groaned again. "Another enemy? Another superweapon threatening to destroy the planet?"

"No." Glimmer sighed. "It's about the origin of us - our families."

She had everyone's attention now.

"We found out that the base was a research base. And their research was done on Etheria…"

*****​

Guest Quarters, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and while witch hunts were often aimed at outsiders, or used as a tool to hurt rivals or enemies, many people sincerely believed that witches were real," Daniel explained. "Tales of magic are found in almost every culture's myths on Earth. And if our hosts are correct, then magic - powers that could achieve the deeds mentioned in the legends and myths - was once real on Earth, and not too long ago - only a few millennia, at most. We thought those tales were, if not completely fabricated, related to advanced technology used by the Goa'uld or other aliens, but this might not be the case."

Samantha Carter, sitting on the bed next to him, nodded. "They could be related to the sort of magic powers the Etherians use." Powers that had a genetic component, if the information they had gained today was correct.

"Yeah," the Colonel said, "and that's the problem. Most people don't have issues with technology."

"Actually," Daniel spoke up, "there's a not insignificant number of people who do have issues with technology, and it's not just minorities like the Amish. Many people feel that technology advances too quickly, leaving them unable to keep up, and..."

"Yes, yes," the Colonel interrupted him. "Computer bad, parchment good. Television bad, books good. But those people aren't going to demand that engineers are burnt at the stake. They won't be a problem when we arrive on Earth with magical princesses in tow." He paced in front of them.

When, not if. The Colonel didn't voice any doubt that they would return to Earth. Of course, that didn't mean that he actually was that certain. Sam suspected he had concerns. But as their leader, he couldn't show them. Even though everyone here knew that nothing was certain when travelling through Stargates. As their accidental arrival on Etheria proved.

"But magic - actual, honest to God, 'turn you into a newt' magic? That's going to ruffle more than a few feathers." He shook his head. "If the Etherians ever watch a televangelist, we will be fortunate if they only leave and don't decide to level his home from orbit."

Daniel laughed at that, but Sam didn't. It might not be hyperbole. "They are our best chance to win this war," she said. "We cannot afford to insult or attack them."

"Indeed," Teal'c added from where he was leaning against the wall. "It would be foolish to let superstition alienate such allies."

"That never stopped a televangelist," the Colonel said. He sighed. "And it's not even the worst thing."

Daniel looked puzzled. "What do you mean, Jack?"

"The Etherians have indicated that they do not intend to keep their presence and existence secret," Sam explained. "And if Earth is to mobilise for war, we have to reveal the Stargates." And everything that entailed.

"Yep." The Colonel nodded. "And while many will love the fact that the Egyptian gods were aliens out to enslave us, how many will now wonder if their own gods were the same?"

"A crisis of faith," Daniel said. "The Biblical wonders certainly would be easily duplicated with Goa'uld technology. Now that we know actual magic exists…"

"And we know there's a magical princess who can turn a giant spaceship into a space plant," the Colonel added. "Who is worshipped as a goddess by a bunch of fanatical clones bred for war."

"She-Ra clearly stated that she is no goddess," Teal'c said.

"But she displayed powers - at least to our current knowledge - that would be considered divine in many religious scriptures," Daniel retorted.

"If all that is revealed at once, the backlash will be terrible," the Colonel said, standing up and pacing again. "Religious nutcases will be screaming their heads off, people will be calling each other's god a Goa'uld, half the world will be either starting a witch hunt or trying to recruit witches, there'll be panic about being bombed from orbit by alien invaders, and people will claim their neighbours are snakes."

"And everyone will be blaming the US for it," Sam added.

The Colonel pressed his lips together and nodded.

"Yet the consequences of this revelation that you describe do prove the need to keep it a secret," Teal'c said.

"Yep. But no one will care," the Colonel told him. "They'll all claim the US should've told everyone from the start about the Stargate."

Sam pressed her lips together. That would have avoided a lot of the problems that they were now facing. It might have led to a disaster, of course - people were not always acting rationally - but only having to deal with Etherians and magic would be far easier.

"Come on, team! We need a strategy to handle this before we arrive on Earth!"

"Jack! We're not in charge of Earth," Daniel protested. "We can't implement any policy."

"But we can make suggestions," the Colonel pointed out. "And we'll be the best experts on the Etherians. The general will listen to us."

But would the president listen to him?

"Honesty seems the best policy," Teal'c said. "The longer a secret is being kept, the more dangerous it becomes to reveal it."

"Unless you can keep it a secret for so long, everyone involved is dead from old age by the time it gets revealed," the Colonel said. "But yes - we cannot count on the Ethrians agreeing to keep this a secret. And we cannot mobilise Earth without revealing that we're in a war with aliens."

And they would have to mobilise Earth if they wanted to win this war. And be prepared for the next - Horde Prime had been stopped by the Etherians, but who knew what other conquerors were active in the galaxy?

They needed a way to handle this. And Sam couldn't think of one right now.

*****​

Planning Room, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"We're test subjects?" Perfuma blurted out.

"Descendants of test subjects," Bow corrected her. "Well, most of the people present."

Most of them glanced at Hordak, of course, Catra noticed.

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded with a smile. "As far as we can tell based on the data we gathered, pretty much every current royal line was the result of First Ones experiments. Originally. There's bound to be some genetic drift over the centuries, perhaps a few new mutations, and some of the original princesses will have intermarried with the new lines, but we can track every princess in this room to an experiment!"

As Catra had expected, not everyone shared Entrapta's enthusiasm about this discovery. She shook her head as Frosta jumped up. "That can't be true! My family was chosen by magic to rule the kingdom!"

"That's probably a myth that was formed - or created - to add legitimacy," Entrapta told the kid.

"No!" Frosta glared at Entrapta. "That's a lie!"

Catra rolled her eyes. If the princess threw a tantrum...

"Frosta," Micah spoke up, "Entrapta isn't lying - she's just telling us what they found on the moon. This isn't her fault."

"Data doesn't lie," Entrapta said with a frown.

Frosta stared at Micah with wide eyes. The king smiled at her, and she sat down with a deep scowl, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I fail to see why you are getting so worked up about this," Hordak spoke up. "Your power has not been changed in any way because of this. If anyone challenges your rule, you can easily deal with them."

Catra winced as half the table glared at Hordak. In a way, Hordak and Entrapta were perfect for each other - both obsessed with science and research. But neither was good at reading a room or understanding others.

"Not everyone rules by force!" Mermista spat. "We're not going to fight our own people!"

Hordak frowned at that. "Why would they attack you? You are the princesses; you are bonded to the Runestones."

"It's not about power," Glimmer spoke up. "It's about legitimacy. If we are the descendants of test subjects and only became princesses thanks to the powers we received in the experiments, then some people might contest our right to rule."

"But unless they can bond to a Runestone, they'll fail," Hordak pointed out.

"Not everyone is bonded to a Runestone," Netossa told him. "Most princesses aren't. Like Spinny and I."

"You aren't ruling a kingdom anyway," Frosta snapped. "You don't have to deal with such challenges."

Right. The kid had probably advisors telling her what to do. Must have had them for years. No wonder she was so worked up about this.

"This could shake the entire society of Etheria," Glimmer said. "Unlike She-Ra, we weren't chosen by Magic - or Etheria."

"I was chosen by a sword manipulated by the First Ones," Adora pointed out with a weak smile.

Catra scoffed. "You were chosen by Etheria or magic, whatever it was, when the sword broke and you could still transform into She-Ra." Adora, of all the princesses, had nothing to worry about her legitimacy.

"But…"

"No buts." Catra shook her head and stepped over to the round table, placing her hands on it. "This changes nothing about what kind of people you are," she told the others. "Your ancestors don't define you. Did you follow your father's example?" she asked Mermista. Without giving the princess time to reply, she nodded at Perfuma. "Do you judge people for their parents' actions?"

Perfuma shook her head. "Of course not! But can we keep ruling a kingdom that was founded on or by naked power?

"Yes?" Hordak looked more confused than ever. "You've been doing this for centuries, haven't you?"

Literally, in the case of Queen Angella.

"Well," Bow spoke up with a sheepish expression. "The ruling lines do go back centuries - to the Age of War - for most kingdoms. One could argue that the sheer time that has passed is legitimacy enough to continue your rule."

"And our Ancestors also ended the Age of War," Glimmer added. "They didn't just keep fighting wars."

"Still…" Perfuma looked torn.

"Ugh! No one will bother you!" Mermista snapped. "Your people love you!"

"As do your people, my love," Sea Hawk was quick to say.

"My father abandoned the realm in the middle of a war!"

"As did most of your people," he reminded her. "Yet you stayed. And triumphed." He smiled. "No one will challenge you. And if they do, I shall smite them down for their presumption and cowardice!"

That seemed to mollify the princess. So much for not fighting her own people.

"Well, I'm mostly ruling the Fright Zone since I'm a former Force Captain and a princess," Scorpia said. "I don't think there'll be trouble - those who disagreed left already - but we're kinda an exception."

And those former Horde soldiers who left could return, Catra knew. That was a potential problem.

"Say, Glimmer," Netossa spoke up. "Did Queen Angella ever say anything about this? She was already around back when it happened, wasn't she?"

Glimmer shook her head. "She never mentioned that. She rarely spoke of her past at all. I thought she was sad about all the people she had seen die, but…" She shrugged.

"Angella rarely talked about her past," Micah said. "But that was because she didn't remember too much. Yes, she lived for centuries, but she didn't have a perfect memory." He smiled at Glimmer. "Your personal impression notwithstanding. She once told me that she had forgotten most about the past centuries and had to rely on notes and archives - just like most of us."

"The archives!" Glimmer spoke up. "Her personal notes!"

Bow and Entrapta perked up at that, Catra noted with a wry smile.

"Yes. We can search them," Micah said. "Now, I think we should talk to our guests."

"Yes." Adora nodded. "You need to meet them." She coughed, "And there are a few things you need to know about them…"

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 9: The Princess Alliance

Guest Quarters, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...so Teal'c is opting for full disclosure," Jack O'Neill summed up his friend's opinion.

"Honesty is the honourable option when treating with friends." Teal'c inclined his head.

"Yeah. But there's also need to know, classified, and white lies," Jack pointed out.

"Hiding that the majority of Earth has issues with magic and same-sex relationships isn't a white lie, Jack," Daniel objected.

"I didn't say it was," Jack retorted. "But we can think of a way to present the truth in a more… manageable fashion."

"'As long as you hide your sexuality, you're fine'?"

Jack narrowed his eyes. Daniel's sarcasm wasn't very helpful. "I thought more about pointing out the progress we've made in that area."

"'In a few decades, gay people will be as accepted as women with regards to equal rights'?" Daniel looked at him over the rims of his glasses.

Jack glanced at Carter. She was carefully staring at the wall and not showing any expression. Which meant she was trying not to laugh; he knew her. He sighed. "I know it's not perfect, but we cannot alienate the nice aliens here. And just telling them everything that's… not perfect on Earth might do it."

"Earth might not be perfect, but it has many good sides," Teal'c said. "I am certain that our new allies will see that."

"Right until some religious nutcase calls for burning them at the stake for witchcraft," Daniel cut in.

"I'm sure that they have their share of nutcases as well," Jack said. "They should understand that we're not all perfect angels. We stress that we're making progress, that we've made a lot of progress…"

"Cut down on trying to turn them into democracies?" Daniel asked.

Jack glared at him. "The United States are quite pragmatic when it comes to allies." No one had tried to change Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or any of the other Gulf States into democracies, after all.

"We could tell them how we toppled democracies and replaced elected presidents with dictators," Daniel suggested.

"Daniel." Carter shook her head.

"What's wrong with you?" Jack asked with a frown. This wasn't normal.

Daniel met his stare for a moment, then sighed. "It's just… I don't want to lie to them. They are nice people. Good people. They have offered their help freely and as soon as they met us." He shook his head. "They just… they're all so idealistic."

Jack knew that. And their hosts were all so damned young. Not quite as young as Charlie would be now, but far too young for what they had gone through. And yet… "Yeah, but two of them served in the Evil Horde."

"And switched sides," Daniel retorted.

As did, apparently, the leader of the first Evil Horde. "I'm just saying that they aren't perfect, either," Jack said.

"Then they should understand that we are not perfect," Teal'c said.

Jack sighed. This was above his paygrade. He was an officer, not a politician. But Teal'c was right. Lying wouldn't help them. "So…"

A knock at the door interrupted him. "Yes?"

The door opened, and Catra entered. "Hey." She nodded at them. "The Alliance wants to talk to you. Unless you're busy," she added with a grin.

Too busy to meet what was probably this planet's Security Council? Or NATO command? While being their guests and depending on their goodwill to get home? Jack suppressed a snort. "Let's not make them wait, then."

"So, we're meeting the leaders of the Alliance?" Daniel asked as they left the room.

"Yeah," Catra replied. "All the princesses of the Alliance are present."

"Oh. Is the Alliance limited to princesses, or does it encompass others as well?"

Catra shrugged. "The majority are princesses, but there are others."

"Can they vote?"

Catra snorted. "It's not really a 'democracy'," she said. Then she frowned. "Well, I guess they do kinda vote, but it's… not formal. More like you debate and say what you think, and then there's a decision. And if you really don't like it, you can leave the Alliance, I guess."

Great. Jack frowned. That sounded like a mess just waiting to happen.

"That sounds… How did that work in a war?"

Catra chuckled. "It didn't work very well. Not until She-Ra showed up."

"What did she do?" Daniel asked.

But they had reached a big door, guarded by two soldiers in armour, and Catra grinned again as she opened the door. "Won the war," she said as they stepped inside.

"Welcome, Colonel O'Neill. Captain Carter. Daniel. Teal'c." Glimmer nodded at them. "Please have a seat." She gestured to four seats at the round table. Which did look like a conference table that could've been found in any bigger organisation on Earth.

"Thank you," Jack said. As they walked over to sit down, Glimmer introduced the new faces at the table.

"Princess Mermista, ruler of Salineas. And Sea Hawk."

The woman - in her twenties, a little older than the rest, Jack guessed - nodded at them with a frown.

"Well met, brave soldiers!" The man stood and raised his fist to his chest. He flashed them a wide smile. For a moment, it looked as if his teeth gleamed. Mermista groaned. "Sit down, Sea Hawk," she snapped.

"Of course, my love!"

Jack blinked for a moment.

"Different customs," Daniel whispered.

"And these are Princess Scorpia, of the Scorpion Kingdom, and Princess Perfuma, of Plumeria."

"Hello!"

"Be welcome!"

Whoa. That woman looked like she could wrestle Grizzlies and win. Without breaking a sweat. Or just stab them to death with her stinger. And the other looked like a hippie. There were flowers in her hair. Both were sitting closer to each other than the others. Both looked to be in their twenties.

"Princess Netossa and Spinerella."

"Hi there."

"Hello.

Another pair of adults. Neither of them was close to thirty, though, in Jack's estimation.

"Princess Frosta of the Kingdom of Snows."

Another silent nod. And she was a damn kid. If the girl was fifteen yet, Jack would eat his service cap. And she didn't have anyone sitting with her. Did they really let teenagers make decisions about war and alliances?

"And this is Hordak."

So, that was the former leader of the Evil Horde. Jack looked him over as he sat down. The alien looked like the clones they had seen before. Although he was wearing full armour. Nasty looking armour, too. Not decorative, like the Goa'uld. And he was sitting close to Entrapta.

"We have called you to discuss the situation with Earth and the Goa'uld," Glimmer said. "Our members have a few questions."

Great. Jack smiled. "We'll be happy to answer them," he lied.

*****​

Planning Room, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...so you have six billion people?" Netossa didn't sound as if she believed it, Adora thought.

O'Neill, though, nodded with the same polite expression he had worn for the last fifteen minutes. "Yes. Though Earth isn't united - the population is split amongst about two hundred countries."

"Unevenly split," Daniel added. "The majority of the population is found in a handful of countries."

"That should facilitate negotiations." Netossa nodded.

"And you represent the most powerful kingdom on Earth?" Mermista leaned forward, her elbows on the table and her hands folded beneath her chin.

"Arguably, yes," O'Neill replied. "The United States of America are the most technologically advanced, richest and have the most powerful military."

"And you've kept the Stargate a secret." Mermista nodded.

"We've already covered that," Glimmer said.

"It's the crucial point," Mermista retorted, "How can we trust them to be open and honest with us if they don't even trust the other kingdoms on their planet? If they don't even trust their own people with the truth?"

"We didn't tell everyone everything either during the war," Adora told her.

"But our people knew at least that we were at war." Mermista didn't quite sneer, but it came close.

"Yes," Frosta spoke up. "And you don't have princesses. Not as rulers. How can we trust that you'll keep an agreement if your leader might get replaced at any time?"

"While our leaders may be replaced after an election, our countries do keep treaties regardless," O'Neill replied. "If you can't trust a country to keep a treaty, no one would deal with them."

"That's exactly the problem!" Frosta blurted out.

O'Neill smiled, but it looked a little forced. "We have a history of treaties being kept."

Daniel coughed a few times, earning himself a glare from O'Neill and Carter. That was unfair. "Do you need a cup of herbal tea? Or a glass of water?" Adora asked. "Or are you sick? I can heal you!" she offered.

"No, no, I'm fine."

Catra snorted, shaking her head.

"The Tau'ri have acted towards me with honour. I trust their word," Teal'c said.

"Yeah, but you were working for the Goa'uld," Mermista replied. "That makes your testimony a little suspect."

Catra winced for a moment, and Adora glared at Mermista. That was uncalled for!

"Why?" Hordak asked. "Your people deserted you once as well. Do you distrust them?"

"That's not the same!" Mermista snapped at him.

"Well…" Entrapta drawled. "It's actually quite similar. From a logical point of view."

"Whatever," Glimmer spoke up. "We are in agreement that we'll fight the Goa'uld and that we'll protect Earth."

"Yes!" Perfuma nodded emphatically. "We cannot let so many people be attacked and conquered - or worse!"

"Yes, but we haven't agreed on how we protect Earth," Mermista protested.

"We can't fight a war by ignoring potential allies," Adora said. "And while we have a fleet, we don't have nearly as many people as Earth has."

"If that's true," Frosta cut in with a frown. "No planet we know of has so many people. They claim to have over a hundred times more people than Etheria!"

"Why would they be lying? We would find out the truth as soon as we reach Earth," Bow pointed out.

"Exactly," Adora told him with a smile.

"I still have reservations. We can't form an alliance unless we know that we can trust them." Mermista looked a little mulish.

"We'll know that once we talk to their leaders," Glimmer said. "That's why we're sending a delegation."

"And because SG-1 can't agree to an alliance anyway," Catra added.

"We won't make an alliance until we're sure that we can trust the Tau'ri. You can trust us on that," Adora said, looking at everyone.

"Really, why are you being so difficult?" Perfuma asked, looking at Mermista and Frosta. "These people need our help!"

"Because if they betray us, they'll outnumber us a hundred to one," Netossa said. "That's kind of a worry."

"They don't have a fleet, though," Scorpia said.

"So they claim," Frosta repeated herself.

"We don't have a fleet. Believe me, we wish we had one," O'Neill said. "We don't like being so vulnerable."

"But you have advanced technology," Hordak pointed out. "If you mobilise your entire population, you should be able to rapidly produce ships and train crews. In fact, since you haven't done this despite it being obvious, did you check if your leaders have been compromised?"

Adora blinked - that was a good question. She looked at their guests.

O'Neill winced. "Revealing that we are at war with aliens was deemed to be too dangerous. The people would riot, panic, countries would distrust us…" He shrugged. "So far, we've done well enough by ourselves."

"And do you share this view?" Catra asked. "You said you were looking for allies."

"In our country, the military is under the command of the civilian leadership," O'Neill replied, rather stiffly in Adora's opinion. "It is not my place to question their decisions.

Catra smirked. "So you do think it's stupid!"

O'Neill didn't answer. But Carter didn't show any expression, and Daniel hid a grin behind his hand, Catra was probably correct. Adora at least thought so.

"Great. We're gonna have to deal with stupid rulers," Mermista groaned.

"But at least they can be easily replaced by better leaders?" Perfuma smiled hopefully.

Judging by the way the entire SG-1 - with the obvious exception of Teal'c - winced at that. Adora was sure that this wasn't going to work as Perfuma thought it would work.

At least it seemed Mermista had stopped being difficult.

*****​

Samantha Carter pressed her lips together and forced herself to return to a carefully neutral expression. "That is not as easy as you think," she said. "We have regular elections and set terms for our rulers. They cannot be removed easily." Not democratically, at least, but she didn't think that the princess was talking about coups and assassinations.

"I thought that you could easily replace a bad leader was part of why you have such a system," Glimmer said.

"Some democracies can quickly change their leadership if a majority of the members of parliament agree," Daniel said. "Not in our country, though."

"Would be a bloody mess if that worked," the Colonel added.

"It works for the United Kingdom," Daniel retorted. "And for Germany, to name two examples."

"But not for your most powerful kingdom - country," Adora said, shaking her head. "Well, at least some bad rulers might be replaced then. That should help." She sounded as if she was trying to convince herself, in Sam's opinion.

"But forming an alliance is only logical," Entrapta spoke up. "Why would anyone be against that? Especially with most of your planet defenceless against the Goa'uld?"

Sam grimaced. As did the Colonel.

"If they don't trust us, for example," Mermista said. "They might think we're as bad or worse than the Goa'uld. Or that the Goa'uld don't exist, and it's a ploy to force them into a treaty."

"If the Third Fleet is in orbit above your homeworld, then the lack of orbital bombardment should be proof that they do not intend to conquer you," the former Horde leader said. "With such an overwhelming advantage, what would be gained by deceit?"

"Yeah… No. Things aren't that simple," the Colonel replied. "Overwhelming force isn't always the best way to achieve your goals. And I am saying that as an Air Force colonel, mind you."

Sam chuckled at the joke, Daniel sighed, but the others either looked confused or didn't react at all in Teal'c's case.

"You make it sound as if half your planet is crazy," Frosta blurted out. That the Etherians let a child - she was barely fifteen, in Sam's estimation - sit at the table and treated her as a sovereign ruler equal to the others said a lot about the planet's culture. They were all so young. Sam could imagine how that would look to most politicians on Earth. Young people, especially young women… She knew how they were seen and treated.

"Well, we can sometimes give that impression," the Colonel joked. "But no, it's just… Very few people actually believe that aliens are real. Or magic. They will have a hard time accepting that we're at war with snakes and allied with magical princesses."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Adora said with a firm expression. "We can demonstrate that both are real."

"And surely your word will help as well?" Perfuma asked. "Your country's ruler is aware of the truth, isn't he?"

"Yes."

"And as the ruler of Earth's most powerful country, people will listen to him, right?"

"Some will, yes," the Colonel replied.

But they wouldn't be happy about having been kept in the dark about the Stargate program. Especially the United Kingdom, since the Stargate was found in Egypt at the time when it was under British control.

"That's a start." Perfuma smiled. "We just have to convince the rest, then."

Sam suppressed a wince. The princess sounded so earnest - and so naive, for someone who lived through and, presumably, fought in a war for years. Not naive, she corrected herself - ignorant. They didn't know anything about Earth. They lacked the experience and cultural awareness to understand the problems their arrival on Earth would cause.

They had to rectify this, or this would end in a disaster. She glanced at the Colonel; he was in command. "Sir!" she spoke up.

"Yes, Carter?" He cocked his head.

"I think we should brief our hosts extensively about the political and cultural situation on Earth."

"Yes, Jack!" Daniel chimed in, as she had known he would.

The Colonel narrowed his eyes at them both, and Sam had to suppress another wince. Telling him in public… that wasn't done. But they were in an extraordinary situation. So she met his eyes, and, after a moment, he sighed. "Well, we probably should at least explain in detail how the United States' political system works."

Daniel perked up. "I can do that, Jack!"

"An objective, neutral briefing, Daniel," the Colonel stressed.

Sam knew what he meant: A positive portrayal.

Daniel looked mulish. "I am objective."

"Remember that our hosts aren't familiar with democracy," Sam reminded him. "They don't know that it works."

"Right." Daniel sighed. "I almost forgot about the cultural preconceptions."

They were talking in low voices, but Catra was grinning at them - she probably could hear them, Sam knew. Well, this might serve to build some trust - in a convoluted way.

"So." Daniel stood. "Democracy. It's a very old concept on Earth, over two thousand five hundred years old, but its form has changed a lot over the years. In Ancient Greece, it meant that every citizen of a town or country had one vote to determine the course of the polity, so..."

Sam refrained from sighing. Of course Daniel would start at the very beginning!

*****​

"...and that's roughly how checks and balances work."

Catra rolled her eyes with a loud sigh. Daniel really didn't know how to stop talking. She wasn't sure if he was worse when he was asking questions or when he was lecturing.

"Catra!" Adora hissed under her breath.

"What?" Catra whispered back. "This is worse than cadet instructions."

"Which were very useful!" Adora objected. Ever the model cadet. Even when she was very little, she had been so damn serious.

Catra grinned at the memory of Adora as a young cadet, then sighed. "Yes, yes. Eventually."

"Eventually? This is an in-depth briefing of the government of Earth's most powerful kingdom!"

"It's also very long," Catra retorted.

"Uh… do you have any questions?" Daniel asked, looking at them with an almost shy smile. "Was something not clear? I might have rambled a little, I think."

A little? But Catra shook her head. "So, your government is based upon different factions struggling for power while keeping each other in check."

"Ah, well, you could say that, yes." Daniel nodded. "Although it's really not…"

"Like the Horde then, but the leader can't just have those who make too much trouble executed," Catra went on. She pressed her lips together for a moment, remembering her banishing Entrapta. Not her finest hour.

"Catra!" Adora blurted out.

"What? It's like putting the Force Captains against each other so they won't unite and topple the leader," Catra explained. "Only, there's no overall commander who is above everyone else."

"That wasn't covered in Force Captain Orientation!" Scorpia protested. "I've never heard of that!"

Everyone looked at her. Catra sighed and put the palm of her hand on her face. Sometimes, she wondered how Scorpia had survived to make Force Captain in the Horde before Catra had taken over.

"Uh… It was called the Evil Horde for a reason, dear," Perfuma said.

"We never called us that!"

"Everyone else did," Glimmer cut in while Hordak and Entrapta were whispering about 'official policy'. "Anyway, you have to balance different factions, one of which gets replaced every four or eight years, the other two lasting until death or retirement?"

"It's not quite like that but, essentially, yes."

"It's really better than it sounds," O'Neill added. "It has worked for hundreds of years for us."

"A bit more than two hundred years at most, Jack."

"That's what I said."

"But…"

"Two hundred years isn't very impressive," Frosta said. "My family has ruled the Kingdom of Snows for four times longer."

And Queen Angella had ruled for almost a thousand years. But Catra wouldn't mention that.

"Few monarchies on Earth were as stable," Carter said. "And most of those are actually democracies."

"Yes. With a figurehead." Frosta pouted at her.

"Anyway," Catra spoke up, "you have rules and traditions against anyone simply taking over, so that's not an option."

"Not for the United States," Daniel said. "A number of other countries have suffered changes of power by force. Often repeatedly."

"It didn't serve them well," Jack added. "So, that's the United States of America. Warts and all. It's not perfect, but it works well enough, and we're always trying to become better."

"I still fail to see why supporting your president to take control of the other factions and uniting the country is not an option," Hordak said. "That's how I started the Horde."

"Which we beat," Mermista snapped.

"Horde Prime arrived," Hordak shot back.

Catra bit her lower lip. The Horde hadn't really been beaten, despite her own… problems. They had actually been doing quite well.

"If they say it's not an option, then we have to respect that," Perfuma said. "We cannot force our own views on others."

"Right." O'Neill nodded. "No couping and no forcing regime changes. Good." He looked… not as happy as Catra would have expected. Had he planned on taking over his own country with the help of Etheria? She frowned, then shook her head. No, that didn't seem like him. It had to be something else.

"But can we actually deal with such a kingdom?" Spinnerella asked. "We would have to deal with every faction."

"Actually, foreign policies fall under the President's power. Though treaties need to be ratified by Congress," Daniel explained.

"So, we deal with the President, and then the rest of your government checks if the deal is good enough?" Mermista asked.

"Pretty much, yes."

"Great. How many countries does your planet have again?"

"Almost two hundred," Daniel told her.

"But most of them are too small to be very important," O'Neill pointed out.

"And there's the United Nations," Daniel went on. "Almost every country is a member of that organisation."

"You have a united government for your planet?" Adora asked. "Why didn't you mention that before?"

"It's not quite a government," O'Neill said.

"It was supposed to be a sort of global not-quite-government," Daniel explained. "But the way it was formed, well… It has its share of problems."

"More checks and balances?" Glimmer asked with a sigh.

"And bureaucracies," O'Neill added.

"Great." Glimmer shook her head.

"Are you really sure that having your leader take over isn't an option?" Entrapta asked. "One single leader would clearly make things more efficient."

Every one of their guests except Teal'c winced at that, Catra noted. They really had some deep issues with princesses. Or Horde leaders.

*****​

Guest Quarters, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Well, this is a nice mess!" Jack O'Neill sighed as he sat down on the still too soft bed in their quarters. "Did you have to give our monarchist hosts ideas about couping and conquering Earth?" He looked at Daniel.

"I'm sure that Entrapta didn't mean it. The conquering Earth part," his friend replied.

"They were quite clear earlier that they didn't want to support a hypothetical conquest of Earth by your army, O'Neill," Teal'c said.

"The others were. I'm not sure Miss Mad Scientist got the message," Jack retorted. "She's buddy-buddy with the Evil Leader who tried to conquer Etheria. And she was part of his Horde." And he was sure that Hordak hadn't learned his lesson, whatever it was supposed to be.

"Adora is in a relationship with a former Horde leader as well. And another former Horde leader is a member of the Alliance," Daniel pointed out.

"And all of them wished that the president weren't held in check by Congress and the Supreme Court," Jack told him.

"To be fair, I think every American has wished the same at least once in their lives," Daniel said. "But more importantly, I am sure she didn't intend a coup. She thought about democratic changes in our government structures. Probably."

"Probably." Jack snorted. At least Daniel was honest. Sometimes too honest. On the other hand, their hosts seemed to trust him a lot, so that evened out. He glanced at Carter. She was uncharacteristically silent. Well, her little 'suggestion' had been a surprise. It had worked out somewhat, but Jack didn't like how she had done it. And she knew he didn't like it. "Carter. Your assessment." It had been her plan, so she had to at least comment on it.

"Sir." She briefly winced, then nodded. "I think we've built trust with our hosts. They are aware of the problems their arrival will cause and of the difficulties we are facing when building an alliance. If we hadn't informed them of this in advance, it would have damaged our prospects in the long run."

"No one trusts a liar," Daniel added. "And they need to be warned of... well, of how Earth is."

"You don't need to try and scare them off Earth, though," Jack told him.

"I didn't. I was fair and balanced in presenting our good and bad sides. And I didn't even mention the bigotry and racism yet," Daniel said with a frown.

Right. The other elephant in the room. Invisible elephant for now.

"Something else we can't put off until we reach Earth, Sir," Carter said.

"And something that is anathema to Etheria, as far as I can tell," Daniel added. "In my talks with them, it never came up. They might not even have a concept of hating someone just for being different."

Jack snorted. "That's human nature. You've seen how hostile some of them were. The kid and the Sea Princess are carrying grudges."

"But those are related to the war. I never heard of any view that would be the equal to racism on Earth."

"You didn't notice how they view former Horde soldiers?" Jack asked. "They don't trust either the clones or the other former Horde members."

"But that's not the same as hating someone just because they're gay. Or black," Daniel said.

"Or looking down on women." Carter didn't frown, but she would have if they were civilians. Jack was sure of that.

He sighed. "I know. But we can't just tell them all the bad stuff about us. That would give the wrong impression."

"I am sure that they will understand that Tau'ri society is not perfect but striving to improve," Teal'c said. "They do value redemption."

Of course Teal'c would catch that.

"They want to save the Goa'uld. Or change them," Daniel pointed out. "That's…"

"...terribly naive," Jack said.

Daniel frowned at him. "I would call it idealistic, Jack."

"Idealists are the worst," Jack muttered.

"They seem to be genuine," Teal'c said. "And their ideals are honourable."

Had they gotten to Teal'c already? He hadn't been raised in a democracy. He might not realise how dangerous and prone to corruption monarchies were no matter who started them. "Yeah, yeah. And how will they react when they find out how not-idealistic politics are on Earth?"

"That's why we briefed them, Sir. So they can mentally prepare."

Which would also prepare them better for the negotiations. The State Department wouldn't be happy if they ever realised that. "Well, they still want to take us home. And they still want to protect Earth and form an alliance," he said. "So, it worked out. For now."

Daniel smiled. And Teal'c nodded slowly. At least Carter didn't smile.

Jack narrowed his eyes and stared at Daniel and Carter. "But no more such stunts. We'll carefully plan how to tell them about the other problems they'll face on Earth. Understood?" He wouldn't tolerate more such surprises.

"Yes, Sir."

"Yes, Jack."

Teal'c nodded silently.

"Then let's get ready for the banquet." Jack nodded. "Carter, you have the bathroom first."

"Sir."

"And no sneaking off to raid the royal archives, Daniel. Behave."

"Jack!"

"Don't tell me that you haven't thought about it." Jack grinned.

"I would never break their trust like that!"

Unless Daniel thought it was necessary. Jack's friend was an academic and a civilian, but he could be very pragmatic. Like everyone on Jack's team.

*****​

Royal Hall, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 11th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Compared to other feasts, this one was not much to write home about. The food was great - Adora took another serving from the roast beef - but everyone was acting subdued or annoyed.

"...and then we compensated for the stellar drift, and the remaining star systems in the data banks we copied from Alpha were quickly sorted out thanks to a spectral analysis of your sun. As we expected, Earth was amongst them! Isn't that fascinating? That our planets were linked so long ago, we don't have records of it? But now we do!"

Well, almost everyone was acting subdued. Entrapta was enthusiastically explaining to the others how they had found Earth's coordinates, with Carter and Bow nodding along.

"Indeed." Hordak sounded… not bored, but not as enthusiastic either. "How long will it take Third Fleet to reach the planet?"

"About a month at cruise speed," Entrapta replied. "We could do it faster at flank speed, but that would put a lot of strain on the engines, and while Darla could handle it - with some additional maintenance - the Horde frigates would need yard time afterwards. If they even make it that far."

Adora winced. 'Some additional maintenance' probably meant Entrapta and Bow working frantically to fix the ship and keep it from falling apart. Just like when they had set out to save Glimmer from Horde Prime. And Catra.

"Well, it would be faster if we just headed to a planet with a Stargate and took the quick route back," O'Neill said.

"If we find a Stargate that's not guarded," Catra retorted. "If the Goa'uld find out about us, that will cost us the strategic surprise."

Adora nodded. "The longer they don't know about us, the better."

"You cannot count on the Goa'uld being ignorant of your existence," Teal'c spoke up. "They knew about the Horde, or at least about the threat it formed - this sector was prohibited for the System Lords under Ra for a reason."

"Because they feared Horde Prime," Glimmer agreed.

"Or they merely didn't want to risk a prolonged war against a peer-level opponent," Daniel suggested.

"The snakes don't do live and let live," O'Neill retorted. "That's not their style. They want to rule the galaxy."

"Or at least the Tau'ri," Teal'c added.

"Yeah."

"Well, we won't let them," Adora told them. Letting such monsters who enslaved entire planets be? Not if she had something to say about it! And she did.

"Still, giving Earth some advance warning would be a good idea," O'Neill went on. "So they can prepare for the fleet's arrival. If we take one of the shuttles with us, we could head down to a planet and use the Stargate without alerting the Goa'uld."

"Unless they spot you," Catra told him. "The shuttles are a thousand years old. They aren't exactly stealthy."

"The Goa'uld technology is mostly stolen from other species and hasn't progressed very much in the last millennia," Carter pointed out.

"It's still a risk," Glimmer said.

"We could use the frigate's transporters!" Entrapta suggested. "If we can make orbit without being detected. Which might be kinda hard if the Goa'uld have a decent patrol system."

"Many System Lords will be expecting attacks by their rivals," Teal'c agreed, "and be prepared accordingly."

"We've beaten worse odds," O'Neill said.

"And you've ended up stranded here," Catra countered.

"The odds of that happening again aren't very high," O'Neill said. "It would be worth the risk."

"We can check a few planets on the way," Glimmer said. "But only after careful planning. We have to remain undetected."

"Fair enough." O'Neill shrugged.

"And if you find an unguarded Stargate, who would travel to Earth?" Mermista asked. "All of you? Anyone from us?"

Adora opened her mouth to say that she would be heading through, but Catra grabbed her thigh and pricked her skin with her claws. "Ow!" she complained, glaring at her lover.

"Third Fleet," Catra hissed.

Oh. Right. Priest and the others wouldn't take kindly to that. They probably would insist on sending a guard with them. Half an army.

"Whoever you want to send along," O'Neill said. "That's your decision."

"Or none," Glimmer shook her head. "We wouldn't want to split our party."

For some reason, O'Neill seemed amused at that.

"And it reduces the temptation for some of Earth's leaders to take our people hostage," Netossa added. "If they hear about a fleet coming, some might panic."

"We wouldn't let that happen," Daniel protested. "And it would go against every treaty regarding diplomatic immunity."

"Still, it would be best to arrive as a unified party," Glimmer said.

"Or not find a Stargate at all," Catra whispered under her breath low enough so only Adora could hear her.

Well, that was out of their hands, wasn't it? Oh. Catra meant lying about not finding a Stargate. "I doubt we can fool them," Adora whispered.

"Well, not if you try to lie to them." Catra snickered.

Adora pouted at her lover. But, speaking of lies. She cleared her throat. "Also, in the interest of fostering trust, I have to reveal something we've been keeping from you until now." She stood.

The whole group immediately stared at her. And O'Neill tensed up - she could see him stop slouching in his seat. Glimmer was frowning at her, but this had to be done.

"This is my form when I am She-Ra," she went on. Taking a deep breath, she changed back. "And this is what I really look like."

SG-1 seemed shocked for a moment.

"A magical transformation!" O'Neill shook his head. "Now, you just need a theme song."

What?

*****​

Samantha Carter stared. Such a transformation! Adora had lost more than a foot in height and much more in mass. And her long mane of golden hair had been changed to a more normal dirty blonde ponytail. How was that possible? Magic, of course. With the power Adora had demonstrated, changing the body wouldn't be too much of a feat. Still…

"Theme song?" Adora blinked. "What do you mean?"

Oh! Carter narrowed her eyes at the Colonel. He had to go there.

"Oh, just a thing that's popular in some TV shows. A theme song," he said with a grin.

"That's a popular media on Earth. Moving pictures that tell a story," Daniel cut in. "Some of them portray magical princesses who transform to fight monsters. Not unlike yourself."

Right. Sailor Moon. Cassie loved those cartoons. Sam had had to watch them often enough when visiting the girl. Apparently, so had the Colonel.

"Although they usually do not grow in size as much as you do," Teal'c added. "Though the transformation of their clothes seems similar."

And obviously, so had Teal'c. Sam suppressed a giggle - the thought of the Colonel and Teal'c having to watch a show aimed at young girls…

"Your magical companion seems to be larger than the norm as well," Teal'c went on, nodding at Melog.

The Etherians still looked confused. Sam looked at Daniel. This was his task. If Sam had to explain Sailor Moon to aliens, the Colonel would never let her forget it.

"So, there are cartoons - animated pictures. Drawings," Daniel began. "They are quite popular with children. And some adults," he added with a glance at the Colonel.

"Hey! The Simpsons are quality entertainment for adults!"

"The Simpsons?" Catra asked with a grin.

"Jack's favourite cartoon," Daniel told her. "Anyway, amongst those cartoons, there's a genre that has magical princesses, and they are usually depicted…"

*****​

"...which is why you reminded us of that show," Daniel finished his second lecture in a day.

"Fascinating! You use holograms for entertainment!"

"Ah… no," he said.

"It's a different technology," Samantha Carter told Entrapta. "It's not a hologram, but it uses a screen."

"Ah. Still a great idea!" Entrapta nodded eagerly.

"Oh!" Princess Mermista's consort, Seahawk, beamed at them. "Imagine a show depicting my many adventures!"

Judging by the expressions on everyone's faces, even Mermista's, they didn't like imagining that.

"Yeah, no," Glimmer said.

"We can check out those 'TV shows' on Earth!" Entrapta smiled. "And we can work out how to adapt them to our planet!"

"There are also movies. Cinema," the Colonel said with a smile. "You'll love them."

"You need to watch Star Wars," Teal'c said. "I have watched it thirteen times, and it remains as impressive and moving as it was the first time."

"Star Wars?" Adora asked, at the same time that Daniel blurted out: "Thirteen times?"

Which started another round of explanations.

*****​

"So, this Darth Vader was the right hand of the evil Emperor. And he was hurt, so he had to wear a suit of armour that kept him alive. And in the end, he threw the Emperor down a reactor shaft." Entrapta nodded as she summed up Teal'c's explanation. "He's like Hordak!"

What? Samantha Carter stared at the clone.

"I am no longer dependent on my armour for survival," Hordak objected.

"But you were! And you threw Horde Prime down a shaft!"

"And you led an evil Horde," Mermista remarked, shaking her head.

"We must watch Star Wars when we reach Earth! And in a theatre, so we can have the proper experience, as you explained!" the princess declared.

The Colonel had the grace to blush when Sam looked at him. This was all his fault. At least hiring a movie theatre for a screening of the trilogy would be an easy feat for the State Department. Sam hoped she would be able to watch when the Colonel had to explain the request.

But that was a thing for the future. They had more important things to worry about. She cleared her head. "So, we know the route to Earth."

"Yeah," the Colonel cut in, as she had known she would. "So, when are you planning to leave?"

"In a few days, once we have the fleet provisioned and ready to move," Glimmer replied. "That will leave us enough time to look through our archives as well."

"And enough time to modify the First Ones shuttles!" Entrapta added.

A few more days on Etheria. And then a month in space to reach Earth. Probably.

Sam really hoped they would find a Stargate on the way. Stargate Command needed advance warning of their arrival, or things would turn a little problematic. The General wouldn't be pleased in any case. Well, he certainly would be happy to know they survived, but dropping a fleet led by magical princesses in his lap?

His reaction to that wouldn't be pretty. Sam felt a little guilty that she was glad the Colonel would have to shoulder most of the blame for that. Just a little, though.

And the reaction of the government… She had half a mind to ask Entrapta if she needed another 'science buddy'. On the other hand, part of her couldn't wait to see how all the sexist politicians and generals she had met would react to the Etherians.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 10: The Farm

Royal Gardens, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 12th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Perched on a ledge on the palace wall, Catra spotted her prey almost at once. He was working out - stretching right now. But even from this spot, she could see that he had been running - his top was drenched with sweat. She looked around some more but couldn't see anyone else. There shouldn't be - Teal'c was in the guest quarters, 'meditating', Carter was with Entrapta and Hordak doing tech-stuff, and Daniel was with Glimmer in the Royal Archives. Or the private family archives. Whatever.

Perfect. She grinned as she stood, then jumped off, landing on a windowsill a bit to the side and below her. Another jump took her to a small ledge for a lantern, and then it was a safe drop to the ground.

She landed on all fours on the grass below. As she rose, O'Neill turned to face her from then yards away. "I thought the garden was off-limits to others," he said, raising his eyebrows.

She shrugged. He was correct, actually - Glimmer had ordered that to give their guests some privacy - but it wasn't as if Catra cared. Instead of answering, she looked him over. His rifle was next to him, leaning against the tree he had been using for his stretches. Close enough to grab it quickly. "Never cared much for every little rule."

He snorted at that. "Just for the important ones?"

"I focused on results." Overly so, but that was neither here nor there.

He cocked his head to the side. "In the Horde?"

"Yes."

"What I heard of the Horde didn't make me think it was a very flexible organisation," he said as he started some squats.

She flashed him her fangs. "It was very flexible when I was in charge."

"Ah." He stopped and faced her again. "You were in charge of the Horde?"

"Effectively, yes. Highest ranking Force Captain." And she had earned it. "Directly below Hordak. And he was too busy with his research to meddle with command."

"Must have been a cushy job. Why did you quit?"

Because everything had been rotten from the start. She forced herself to shrug and grin. "I had a disagreement with Horde Prime about general policies."

His eyebrows rose for a moment, and she was sure he didn't really believe her. But he nodded. "That tends to happen with megalomaniacal dictators. Sooner or later, they go off the rails."

Oh, she knew that from first-hand experience.

"So, why did you come here? I suppose you have a gym of your own to work out."

She shrugged. She could use the training hall for the guards. But she only did that when Adora trained. "I wanted to check on you. You've gone through a lot in two days."

This time, he did snort. "You're worried for us or about us?"

She grinned. No need to mince words or with him. "About you. You look like you can take care of yourself well enough."

"About us? We're just four soldiers who got lost." He picked up one of the fluffy towels the Bright Mooners loved so much and wiped some sweat from his face and neck.

"You've blown up a palace before, according to your friend." She leaned against the tree, crossing her arms. "But I'm more worried about the rest of you."

"Little old Earth? We don't even have a single spaceship. You've got three fleets."

So they claimed. Catra wasn't quite sure if that was true. They would have been able to recover technology. And they knew about First Ones technology - Carter certainly did. "You've got six billion people. And you're afraid of their reaction to us." And that worried her.

"Yep. It would really make things easier if you wouldn't reveal yourself to the whole planet." He sounded flippant, but he was serious, or so Catra thought.

"Easier for you," she replied. "But only in the short run. The longer you lie to someone, the worse it'll get." Especially if you were lying to yourself.

"The longer it lasts, the more time you have to prepare for dealing with it."

"You mean the higher the chance that someone else will have to deal with it."

"Hey! Delegation and procrastination are the base of good leadership."

She snorted at that. "I was never any good at either." She tilted her head as he jumped up and grabbed a low-hanging branch to do some pull-ups.

"So, what are you worried about specifically?" he asked between pull-ups. "You hold all the cards."

"Until you start building your own spaceships."

"Well, by then, we'll have kicked some Goa'uld butt together and will be friends. No need to worry."

Catra snorted again. "Six billion people. And no princess to lead them. That's like the biggest army ever, without a commander in chief."

"We do have leaders."

"Leaders elected by the people. How good would an army be if they elected their officers?" She knew the answer to that - soldiers would vote for the worst officers who let them be lazy. Or run wild. "You don't elect your officers, do you?" She certainly hoped they weren't that crazy.

"People aren't an army." He dropped down, grabbed the towel again and turned to face her. "But we had long discussions about that. So why are you here by yourself?"

That was a good question. Because Adora was busy and Catra was bored wouldn't be a good answer. And not true either. "I'm not a princess. And I wasn't raised with princesses, either. I was a Horde cadet since I can remember."

He frowned for a moment, then shrugged. "And?"

"So, I'm not like my friends." Not like Adora. She flashed her fangs at him again. "I overheard your discussion. I know that there's more to your story and your planet."

"Ah. And you want the truth."

She scoffed. "Not particularly. I just want you to know that if Adora gets hurt because of you or your people, I'll take it out on you." She nodded at him, then jumped up, landing on the next higher branch. A few more jumps and she was on the palace wall again.

Mission accomplished.

*****​

Royal Archives, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 12th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and then just down the hallway until you reach the entrance to the archives."

"Thank you." Jack O'Neill nodded at the helpful guard - a woman, like about half the guards in the palace, part of him registered - and started walking down the corridor. Seeing guards in chainmail and carrying spears on a world with spaceships in orbit still threw him off a little - it was too much like a Goa'uld palace. At least the spaceships weren't pyramids, and the hallways in the palace, while wide enough to fit two cars next to each other, weren't covered in gold and murals praising a snake. In fact, there was a distinct lack of decorations - no statues or pictures, actually.

He'd been to palaces on Earth - well, one, during a stay in England that he couldn't talk about until everyone involved had died from old age - and they tended to be a little cluttered with such stuff. Another cultural difference, as Daniel would say. Plenty of those going around.

Passing a window, he glanced outside. Two people were unloading a horse cart next to a skiff. This must have been how the country had felt back when people were still using horses to get around while planes were already carrying passengers and the mail. It would be interesting to find out how the people outside the palace lived. Perhaps he could arrange a little excursion before they left for Earth?

Two more guards, a woman and a man, stood in front of the door. "Howdy!" he greeted them with a wide smile and his best fake Texan accent.

Unfortunately, they didn't react at all. "Are you here for the archives or are you looking for someone?" the woman asked.

"Both!" He grinned at her, but she didn't react this time either.

"Your friend is inside."

The other guard opened the door for him.

As he entered, Jack was tempted to ask them if they didn't have to tell him not to touch anything and be on his best behaviour. He didn't, though. Those people were just too nice and trusting for that. Or appeared to be.

Inside, he had to whistle - shelves upon shelves formed rows in a huge room, and each of them was full of scrolls, stacks of sheets, and… "Crystals?"

He cocked his head and walked forward, looking at a line of purple crystals sitting on the shelf.

"It's a form of data storage. Obsolete, though, since a century, or so I've been told."

"Hi, Daniel." Jack nodded at him. "They told you that?"

"I asked." Daniel smiled. "This is incredible - the records go back to the founding of the kingdom! To the day the First Ones arrived - officially arrived, I mean."

"Well, enjoy it while you can," Jack told him. "We're still set to leave in a few days."

Daniel's face fell. For a moment, Jack worried that his friend might choose to stay. But he wouldn't. He had never before, after all. Then Daniel smiled again. "Yes, I know. I hope we'll be done with our search by then."

"Good." They needed Daniel for this. The people back home were good - the government wouldn't have campaign donors represent them in the negotiations with Etheria - but Daniel was the one who had the best insight into their future allies. And, speaking of insight… "By the way, isn't this anachronistic?" He nodded at the crystals. "Magical data storage, but horse-drawn carts? And spears?"

"Not at all!" Daniel beamed. "You can't expect technology to advance just as it did on Earth. Certain technologies depend on others, but not everything is interconnected in that way. And magic, as well as different species, will completely change how a civilisation develops. Etheria had electronic - well, magical, but with similar results - communication a hundred years ago!"

"And how widespread is that?" Jack asked.

"Ah…" Daniel blushed. "I haven't actually asked. I should."

"Do that." Knowing how the average commoner lived in Etheria would be very valuable to know. You couldn't judge a country according to the palace of its king, after all. Some of the poorest countries had leaders who lived in luxury while their people starved. Jack didn't think this was the case here, but neither did he think everyone lived in such a palace.

"Oh, by the way," he went on. "I got a shovel talk at my age. Should I be flattered or afraid?"

"A shovel talk?" Daniel gasped.

"Yes," Jack went on, hiding his grin. "That's when you are threatened with death should you hurt your date."

"I know what a shovel talk is, Jack!" Daniel bristled. "But why did you get one? What did you do?"

Jack snorted. "Nothing like that. Catra just warned me that if Adora gets hurt because of something on Earth, she'll take it out on me."

"What?" Daniel stared at him.

"What? What did she do?"

Oh damn… Queen Glimmer had been on the other side of the shelves. Time for damage control. "She was joking," Jack quickly said.

"Was she? Even if she were, that's not how you treat a guest!" Glimmer scoffed through clenched teeth. "I'll talk to her. And I'm sorry about this!"

"It's nothing. She's just looking out for her girlfriend," Jack said.

"It isn't nothing!" Glimmer insisted. "And she should've known better." She sighed. "I'll handle this."

Oh, damn. Jack felt like a tattletale. "Really, it's nothing," he repeated himself. "I understand where she's coming from."

And now Glimmer was looking at him with narrowed eyes. "You do?"

"Don't you feel protective of your friends?"

"Of course I do!" she replied. "But that doesn't mean I threaten guests without any reason!"

Well, whether or not Catra had a reason was debatable. Jack clenched his teeth for a moment. How to handle this? Hadn't Catra talked to Glimmer about what she heard? "It's not all sunshine and rainbows on Earth," he said. "She's got a reason to be concerned - we have a lot of differences, after all." More than they knew.

"We know that," Glimmer said.

"But also many things that we share," Daniel cut in.

Jack refrained from asking what exactly, other than a desire to kick snake butt and help their victims.

"Well, of course we do," Glimmer said. "Even if you have a weird system for governing your kingdoms - your countries. And you don't have stage plays, but those 'movies'."

"We do have stage plays," Daniel said. "And concerts. Both are quite popular."

"You do?" Glimmer smiled. "That's a relief. We thought that all that you did for entertainment was staring at a screen."

"Don't knock it until you've tried it!" Jack protested - but with a grin. Situation defused? "Anyway, we've got six billion people, which means our fair share of idiots is much bigger than yours."

"In total numbers," Daniel explained.

Jack frowned at him. Judging by the way Glimmer pursed her lips, she didn't like being talked down to, even by accident. Well, few people did. And she was royalty. "Anyway, don't, ah, scold her, OK? It's really no big deal. I probably would do the same thing in her place if I was worried for my team."

Glimmer snorted. "There's always a reason to scold her." But she was smiling. "So, what brings you here?"

"Oh, I wanted to check up on Daniel. Maybe drag him out to see the sun for an hour or two. Take a trip through the countryside before we get stuck in a spaceship for a month?"

"Oh!" Glimmer blinked. "That's right - we've been here for hours!"

"That's not a problem!" Daniel reassured her. "I love this!"

"Yes, you do," Jack agreed. "But it's not healthy to stay inside all day."

Daniel stared at him, then frowned. Jack kept smiling at his friend. Yes, I need you outside, he thought. Come on, pick up the hint!

"I guess a break wouldn't go amiss," Daniel said with obvious reluctance. "And you might be needed for, well, ruling?" he asked the queen.

Glimmer rolled her eyes. "Dad should be able to handle it. He will have to when we leave for Earth. But I guess a break sounds fine." She looked at the crystal in her hand and shook her head.

Possibly troublesome information? Jack wondered. Not that he'd ask the queen right now.

Glimmer sighed, then smiled. "I'll ask Adora to be your guide. She must be all worked up about planning and logistics by now."

"Thank you," Jack said. He would have preferred to walk around without a 'guide', but he couldn't fault their hosts for being cautious. And, he added to himself, with all the magical creatures around, maybe there were monsters to be wary of outside the city.

Getting ripped apart by an alien Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog because Jack didn't recognise the threat until it was too late would be an embarrassing way to die.

*****​

Outside the Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 12th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"So, where do you want to go?" Adora asked with the best smile she could manage as they stepped through the gate. She didn't need to take a break no matter what Glimmer had said. Not when they still had so much to plan for their expedition. They would be gone for months, and that required extensive planning to cover all eventualities! She had barely gone through everything that was needed in case they all lost their engines at the same time.

Catra, walking and stretching at the same time, snorted.

Adora frowned at her. Her lover, of course, had agreed with Glimmer - but only so she could take a break as well.

"Well, I was always fond of the countryside," O'Neill told them. "You know, farmlands and such. Makes me feel nostalgic."

"You want to compare farms," Catra said with another snort.

"Well… I'm curious, yes," he admitted. "We don't have magic at home, so I wonder how that changes things."

Daniel nodded after a moment. That was a little weird - he was usually much quicker.

But Adora could show them farmland easily. "Most farms are near Bright Moon," she explained as they walked over to a skiff. "The Whispering Woods aren't good for farming - too many monsters venture out of them - though Plumeria manages well enough in their part."

"That's because Perfuma controls the plants," Catra said.

Adora sent her another frown. She had been about to explain that! "Anyway, the farms surround Bright Moon." She had already said that, damn. "Most produce, uh, vegetables. And they have cows."

"Ah. Where do you get your grain?" Daniel asked.

"Mostly through trade, I think," Adora said.

"Trade from the plains before they turn into the Crimson Waste," Catra added. At Adora's surprised glance, she grinned. "I was planning to cut you off from that supply once. Decided against it since Perfuma could have made up the difference easily."

Adora blinked, then frowned at her lover. Did she have to bring her Horde past up?

"Ah. That would facilitate logistics," O'Neill said.

"But if they could replace your grain source, why don't they do it?" Daniel asked. "They could make a profit, right?"

They could, but… "Perfuma's busy helping Scorpia," Adora explained. "And she wouldn't want to hurt the farmers in the plains."

"Ah."

"That's good to know," O'Neill said. "So, where is the next farm?"

"Get on, I'll drive us there," Adora told him, pointing at the skiff. She knew a few farms - well, she had seen them while travelling to and from Bright Moon. It wouldn't be hard to find one.

"Do you know the farmer?" O'Neill asked as they climbed into the skiff. Well, Catra showed off and entered with two jumps. At least she hadn't scratched the hull this time.

"No," Adora told him as she took her position at the controls. Catra joined her, as expected.

"We don't have to visit the closest farm if there's a farmer you know a bit further away," O'Neill said. He was standing near the bow.

"Ah, sorry, I don't know any farmer," Adora replied. She might have met some at one of the festivals, but she wouldn't be able to tell if they were farmers, of course. Bow had a brother who was a farmer, but Adora had never met him, and his farm wasn't near Bright Moon anyway. At least as far as she knew. "But it shouldn't be a problem; everyone I met was very friendly. They won't mind showing you their farm." At least they shouldn't.

"Ah." O'Neill looked at Daniel, who seemed to be frowning.

"Is something wrong?" Adora asked while she guided the skiff next to the road - you didn't drive on the road with a skiff, after all.

"Nothing." O'Neill smiled. "Daniel's grumpy because he wanted to spend more time in the dark cellars of the palace, staring at mouldy books."

"It is a bright, well-illuminated archive, and there's no speck of mould in sight!" Daniel protested.

"Ah." Adora smiled. The two were friends and joking around with each other. Just like Catra and Adora had, back when they had been cadets.

But Catra was narrowing her eyes at the two, Adora noticed. So, something was wrong.

"We're not exactly involved with farming," Catra said, leaning against the railing. "We were raised as cadets in the Horde."

"So I gathered," O'Neill replied.

"Do you know any farmers back on Earth?" Catra asked.

"Neighbours of my parents," he told them.

"Ah." Catra grinned again. O'Neill smiled back, showing his teeth.

"As I said, I don't think they'll mind showing you around," Adora repeated herself. "Whether we know them or not."

"Unless you wear a Horde uniform," Catra added.

"Well, we don't," O'Neill said.

"Is the symbol still in use?" Daniel asked.

"Not officially, but a lot of people are wearing their old uniforms. Even Adora does it," Catra said.

Adora frowned at her for a moment before paying attention to the road again. She had removed the Horde symbol, but the uniform was just too comfortable. And practical. Bright Moon's clothes felt a little off. "It's a very good uniform," she defended herself. "And you're wearing your old one too!"

"I'm wearing it since it annoys Glimmer," Catra replied with a grin.

"You two don't get along?" Daniel asked.

"They do," Adora said at once. "They just like annoying each other."

Catra snorted again. "We have an understanding."

"Ah."

"There's the farm!" Adora pointed out. She could see the fields on both sides of the road and the farmhouse a bit away.

"It looks new," Daniel said.

It did. "The old one was probably damaged or destroyed during the war," Adora said.

"Probably. I think I sent a tank platoon through this area," Catra added.

Adora frowned. Did she have to remind everyone of her past in the Horde every day? And act as if she were proud of it at times? Adora remembered that battle. And not too fondly, even though the Alliance had come together as one here.

"That would have torn up the fields," O'Neill said, looking down.

"Hovertanks," Catra told him. "They don't touch the ground."

"Ah." O'Neill nodded. "That's easier on the countryside."

"But they might have flattened the house anyway," Catra went on. Adora pressed her lips together. There she went again.

"Bad drivers or standing orders?"

"Both. Anyone could hide with a grenade in the house."

"Well, either way, it was rebuilt," Adora said as they came to a stop near the main house. "Hello!" she yelled as she jumped down from the skiff.

A young man came out of the house, wiping his hands on an apron. "Who is… She-Ra!" He gaped at her.

She smiled at him in return. "Hi! Our guests here said they were interested in seeing a farm, so I wanted to ask if they could take a look at yours."

"We're not planning to take up farming," O'Neill added. "We're just curious how it compares to our own country."

"Of course!" the man blurted out. "Jesa is working in the fields, but I can give you a tour here. What do you want to see? Ah, I'm Ketro."

"Just show us around," O'Neill said. "No need to make a production out of it."

"Ah. Well, here's the barn, and there's the stable. It's empty right now since Jesa is using the plough and the cows are on the field. And there is our well. Over there…"

Adora smiled. This was going well. And Ketro didn't seem to mind Catra, either, which had been a worry for her.

*****​

Laboratory No 2, Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 12th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and if we replace this part here with a smaller, more efficient one, we gain the space to add a second booster unit here! Do you see?" Entrapta asked with a smile.

Hordak nodded. "Yes, I see. Very good. But we need to compensate for the reduced redundancy in case there is a power fluctuation."

"Oh, yes. But we can handle that with a better power supply that can store the excess power as well. We just need a dual-way regulator here." Entrapta's hair strand twisted and pointed at the main crystal array.

Or at least what had been the main crystal array - Sam Carter wasn't sure any more whether the secondary array hadn't eclipsed the main array's capacity after all the modifications they had done. And speaking of modifications… "But can it handle fluctuations quickly enough?" she asked.

Hordak frowned at her, but Entrapta nodded. "Good question! We have to reinforce all power lines to compensate for the possible delay."

"Unless we use the improved regulator," Hordak said.

"But that model isn't ready…" Entrapta's eyes widened. "Did you finish it?"

Hordak's pale, alien face twisted into a smile. "I did."

"How did you manage to solve the synchronisation issues?" Entrapta cocked her head sideways.

"I replaced the control crystal with a more advanced one that could anticipate more requests So…"

"...it's always ready to reverse the flow even as it feeds the engine! That's perfect, Hordak!" Entrapta's hair lifted her up, letting her hug Hordak.

The alien's smile grew a little more… a little softer? Sam couldn't really tell. "I would say adequate. Perfection is… overrated," he said.

Entrapta's smile grew softer as well as she nodded. "Yes."

Sam was sure she was missing something. But asking for an explanation right now? Interrupting the two felt rude. The Colonel would do it anyway, of course, but Sam wasn't him.

She still cleared her throat after a short while. "So, with those changes to the engine, do we need to adjust the controls as well?"

Entrapta blinked and released Hordak before turning to look at Sam. "Oh, yes! We need to update the controls, or the automated security programs will not allow the shuttle to use the improved engines. Silly limiters!"

Limiters generally had a reason, in Sam's experience. If the shuttles had been meant for civilian use, it made sense to regulate the engine's output so it wouldn't go past safe levels. For a combat craft, though? A military pilot was expected to handle such a challenge easily - and would be needing the full power at one point at least, no matter the risk or strain.

"And we need to make a note in the manual," Hordak went on.

"Right! Someone other than us will be flying this shuttle!" Entrapta nodded. "So, let's do it! Come on, lab buddy!" She dragged Hordak along with her hair.

Or, Sam amended her thought, Hordak let himself be dragged along. He was strong enough, according to Sam's estimates based on seeing him work on the shuttle, to resist Entrapta.

But he wouldn't. Sam was sure - the former Horde leader hadn't quite ignored Sam, but his attention had always been on Entrapta. Was that how Entrapta had been convinced to join the Horde? She had said it had been Catra who had offered her a lab, Sam remembered. And neither Hordak nor Entrapta struck her as the type to seduce an enemy into joining them. Still…

She shook her head. She was here to work on the First Ones shuttle, not to speculate about a workplace romance between a magical princess and an alien warlord. And she certainly wasn't here to wonder whether or not this had happened while Entrapta had been Hordak's subordinate and scientist. She wouldn't touch that thought in a hazmat suit!

No, she would do what she did best: Focus on the technology and learn as much as she could while she had the opportunity. Personal relationships could wait. A long time.

*****​

Guest Quarters, Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 12th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and the farmers, even though they are living right next to the capital, use animals to pull the plough and other large farming tools," Daniel said. "Obviously, they haven't mechanised agriculture so far. Though with magic, they probably don't need to."

"The fields are too big to be handled by a single draft animal," the Colonel added. Samantha Carter raised her eyebrows at him, and he grinned. "I grew up with farmers as neighbours."

She filed that bit of information away as she nodded.

"Yes, Jack. But they manage to tend to those fields. So that means either their draft animals are much more efficient than Earth's, or they use magic to compensate. Somehow." Daniel shook his head. "Though I don't see how that would work."

The Colonel grinned. "See? Isn't that more interesting than mouldy old records?"

"They aren't mouldy!" Daniel snapped. Then he sighed. "But yes, we did find out more about Etheria's society - well, Bright Moon's. They don't have mass media as we do. Ketro and Jesa have a communication tablet, but it's mostly used as a telephone with video. The palace apparently can use the network to give out warnings and other information, but they don't use it for entertainment."

"So, the state controls the news - what passes for news here," the Colonel said.

"For now," Daniel replied. "Glimmer is interested in our media, so this might change. She was talking about adapting our entertainment media."

"Then let's hope that daytime TV won't kill Etherian agriculture," the Colonel joked. He grew serious quickly, though. "Other than the video phone thing, the farm wasn't very advanced. Could've been taken straight out of the 1930s on Earth."

Sam nodded. "Such technological discrepancies aren't uncommon on Earth either," she pointed out.

"They aren't, no. But not in developed countries," Daniel said. "If Bright Moon is their most advanced country, then contact with Earth will be more disruptive than we thought."

The Colonel nodded. Sam agreed as well.

This could be a problem.

*****​

Planning Room, Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 12th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and logistics look good. Third Fleet should have stocked up on provisions by tomorrow," Bow said. "They are eager to escort us."

Catra snorted as she saw Adora wince at the comment. Her lover had left talking to Priest and his clones to Bow and the others and felt guilty about it. Typical! As if her friends didn't know how uncomfortable talking to those clones made her feel!

"Sorry…" Adora said. "I was busy."

Bow smiled at her. "We know - you showed our guests around."

"Kept an eye on them as they scouted your farms," Catra corrected him.

"Catra! They were just curious!" Adora said with a pout.

"Very curious," Catra agreed with a snort.

"Besides, what is to scout there? It's not as if we're hiding the fields. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't. Nor the barns.

"Actually, between Perfuma and Entrapta, I'm pretty sure we could create underground farms," Catra told her. "But that wasn't what I was thinking about. They were curious about the farmers." At least O'Neill had been.

"So? That's a good thing, meeting more people," Adora said.

"They are a little odd about princesses," Glimmer added with a nod.

"Odd? How so? I didn't notice anything odd," Entrapta said with a frown. "Sam is a great scientist!"

Hordak tilted his head slightly. "She's skilled. But she doesn't have much experience with our technology."

Are you jealous? Catra wondered privately. Or just concerned? As if he had to worry about Entrapta falling for someone else; Catra's friend was head over heels for Hordak. But that was a topic for another day. "You know how they are about their 'democracy'; they wanted to find out how you treat farmers," she explained. "Whether we treat them like the Horde or not."

"Oh!"

Glimmer scowled. "Who do they think we are?"

"They have certain preconceptions about princesses," Bow said. "Based on their own planet and the Goa'uld."

"Well, they better lose them if this Alliance is going to work out," Glimmer retorted. "So, did their visit go well?"

"Yes," Adora said, nodding firmly. "Ketro and Jesa liked them, too."

"Good. They're good people, too. Anyway, we're ready to leave as soon as Darla is ready," Glimmer said. "Dad'll handle Bright Moon in my absence."

King Micah nodded. "We've informed the staff."

"We still need some time to get the shuttles modified - well, one of them," Entrapta said. "We might need her if we want to visit a Goa'uld planet. I am thinking of calling her Delia. Hordak told me that 'Tiny Darla' would be misleading."

Right. Catra pressed her lips together. She wouldn't mind skipping all those planets and not giving Earth a lot of time to prepare for their arrival. Less chance of them hiding something important. On the other hand, if their people really would be shocked by the existence of other planets, maybe a little warning would be good. Enough to avoid the worst, but not enough to fool Adora and the rest.

"Can you do it in a day?" Glimmer asked.

"Uh… It wouldn't be as good as it could be," Entrapta said. "We've got some ideas about a stealth system upgrade."

"You can tinker with it on the trip to Earth, can't you?" Glimmer looked at her.

"Well, yes. Though we would have to take more parts with us."

"Please do it." Glimmer nodded. "I want to leave tomorrow."

And if Entrapta was busy working on the shuttle, she was less likely to modify Darla literally on the fly.

"Why the rush?" Bow asked. "Is this about the archives?"

Glimmer pressed her lips together in return. So, it was about Queen Angella's diaries. Catra suppressed the guilt she felt - the former Queen was lost because of Catra's plan to win the war. A rather foolish plan, all things told, that had almost doomed them all and had led to Entrapta almost dying on Beast Island…

A hand on her thigh interrupted her thoughts. Adora. Catra snorted softly and nodded at her lover. She was fine.

Adora frowned slightly but nodded back.

"I've read through several entries," Glimmer said, "and Mom didn't mention any experiments. She also didn't mention any war to take over Bright Moon's land."

"She founded Bright Moon," King Micah said. "That is known."

"Yes. But was it a wilderness? Or another, earlier kingdom?" Glimmer shook her head. "I can't tell either way. Mom didn't say anything about it."

"There might be other entries," Bow suggested. "You only looked for half a day."

"Which was O'Neill's fault," Glimmer grumbled. "But going through the entire archive will take weeks. Weeks we don't have to spare. Not with a war looming."

"The Goa'uld don't know that we're about to fight them," Adora said.

"We can't count on that," Catra pointed out. "Not only might they strike at Earth at any moment, but they might regularly probe our sector or have spies planted on some planets." She certainly wouldn't have ignored a threat like Horde Prime - she would have had her troops keep an eye on him.

"Could they have spies on Etheria?" Entrapta asked.

"No. We were in Despondos for a thousand years," Glimmer said. "Any spies would be long dead."

"They could've hidden amongst us and survived so long by taking over other people," Bow said.

"For a thousand years? Never trying to take over a kingdom?" Glimmer shook her head.

"Maybe they have, and we never noticed," Entrapta speculated.

"Great. More things we need to search in the archives!" Glimmer cursed under her breath. Angella's records must be something disturbing, then.

"Well, even if they had spies on Etheria in Mara's time, they might not be loyal to the Goa'uld any more," Catra said. "They might have gone native - or deserted." Like Double Trouble. Oh. "We should probably keep an eye on Double Trouble, though," she said.

"Double Trouble? Do you really think they could be a spy for the Goa'uld?" Bow asked.

Sometimes he was just too naive.

"They would betray us in a heartbeat, as long as they think it would be fun," Glimmer said. "Remember how they vanished the first time?"

Catra nodded. She was biased, but she knew that you couldn't trust that spy.

"But finding them will be hard," Glimmer went on.

"We will do our best," King Micah cut on. "Don't worry about it."

Catra was sure Glimmer would worry, of course. The princess had some issues with delegation.

Not that it mattered - since they were leaving for Earth in a day, she would have to leave that to others.

*****​

Courtyard, Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 13th, 1998 (Earth Time)

The Etherians were no slouches, Jack O'Neill had to admit. When he had seen the amount of supplies they had readied for Darla, he had worried they'd be loading for days - they didn't have containers, or so it seemed, and he hadn't seen any cranes - but the big hulking half-scorpion-woman, Scorpia, and Adora in her magical amazon form, were making short work of that. The sun was still up, and the ship was, supposedly, almost ready to lift off.

He looked at his team. Teal'c was standing straight and not showing any emotion. Jack hadn't expected anything else. Carter was helping with last-minute adjustments of the shuttle, off to the side. And Daniel was… sulking. Jack snorted. "Cheer up, Daniel! You'll get more chances to visit!"

"But when? I doubt we'll be sent back to Etheria to search their archives, what with the war and all."

"The information will keep. Patience, young grasshopper," Jack told him. "Or: Priorities!" he added with a grin.

Daniel's glare deepened. "This information could give us crucial insight and information about the First Ones and their technology!"

"Then you can bet that General Hammond will send you back as soon as possible."

"Indeed. The General is very pragmatic."

"'As soon as possible'!" Daniel spat. "I've heard that before."

Right. He had heard something similar about saving his wife. Jack suppressed a grimace. "Come on, cheer up!" he repeated himself. "Wouldn't want our guests to worry that they might have accidentally offended you."

"I think they'll understand my frustration," Daniel retorted.

They probably would, Jack agreed. The princesses did seem to place a lot of importance on friendship. Which was a recipe for nepotism, of course, but it meant Daniel would have an easier time earning their trust. He shrugged. "And they want to win this war as well, so they'll prioritise accordingly." At least Jack hoped they would - he wasn't quite sure about some of them. And Hordak… Jack carefully didn't clench his teeth as he watched the alien walk up the ramp of the spaceship.

Cheers from the shuttle to the side drew his attention. Was that Carter in the cockpit? It was!

The shuttle slowly started to float, about a yard above the ground, then turned towards the loading ramp of Darla. Jack held his breath for a moment - he trusted his team with his life. And with his car, if they needed it. But piloting a ship that size up a ramp and into a spaceship? Carter was a pilot, but she had never piloted this kind of ship! But she was Carter. A genius.

So he watched as the shuttle vanished into the spaceship without the tell-tale sounds of metal hitting metal. She was the smartest woman he had ever met. One of the most beautiful ones, too. And the bravest by far.

And she was his subordinate, and he wouldn't even think of anything beyond that. They were both professionals. And they knew the rules. So, nothing could happen. And nothing would happen.

He sighed.

"Don't tell me that you suddenly want to stay!" Daniel blurted out. A little hopefully, too.

Jack snorted. "Just feeling a little nostalgic," he lied. "Let's go over to the others."

Now that the ramp was clear again, Adora was just lifting up another crate of supplies while Scorpia had already one on her shoulders.

"I guess if the shuttle hadn't been able to fly, you could've just carried it up the ramp, huh?" Jack joked as he approached the princesses.

Adora wrinkled her nose. "I actually don't know how much the shuttle weighs."

"More than a tank?" Scorpia asked. "I guess so. We'd probably have to carry it together then!"

Adora nodded. Probably yes.

Jack blinked. "Are you serious?" They couldn't be serious, could they? They had been carrying heavy crates without effort, but a shuttle? Or a tank?

"Well, when I was mind-controlled by Horde Prime, I threw a tank at Adora," Scorpia said.

"Yeah." Adora frowned. "And I wasn't allowed to throw one back."

Both laughed. But Jack had the distinct feeling that they weren't joking. He glanced at his friends. Daniel was staring as well, his mouth slightly open. Teal'c was unflappable, of course. "Well, you could try to lift the shuttle in the hangar inside," Jack said with a grin. "Wouldn't want to find out in the field that you can't carry it."

"Good idea!" Adora smiled. "Let's check it!" She lifted her crate on her shoulder and hurried up the ramp, followed by Scorpia.

"You were joking, Jack, weren't you?" Daniel asked.

"Let's just go and watch what happens," Jack told him, stepping on the ramp.

"Jack."

"Daniel."

"We have not seen the tanks they threw around," Teal'c pointed out as they entered the ship. "There is a significant difference between a light tank and a main battle tank."

"Yeah," Jack said. But even throwing a bloody M-3 Stuart around would be a huge feat.

Then he saw Adora lifting one side of the shuttle. She was grunting and straining, but she was lifting it.

Damn. "DC will sue for copyright infringement," he muttered. "Supergirl is trademarked."

"Jack!" Daniel hissed.

"What?" Jack stared at him. "It has to be Supergirl. Power Girl got short hair." And a bigger bust.

"That's not the point!"

Of course it wasn't. But Jack didn't want to think about what he had just seen here.

At least Carter seemed to be shocked as well.

Jack had never thought that their trip home would be boring. But he wouldn't mind a few surprises less. Not at all.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 11: The Departure

Courtyard, Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, July 13th, 1998 (Earth Time)

The shuttle was heavy - too heavy to easily lift. And Adora didn't have the leverage to lift it, anyway. But she should be able to drag it, in a pinch, if they could rig some sledge or something. And it was good to know that.

She smiled at O'Neill. Then she noticed that he was staring at her. Had he expected her to lift the shuttle? Well, she couldn't beat physics! "Alright, now let's secure it!" she said. "We want to lift off on schedule!"

"Alright-y!" Entrapta's hair started to push buttons, and the shuttle seemed to freeze to the floor. "Magnetic clamps!"

Ah. Adora nodded. "Let's get the rest of the supplies."

"OK!" Scorpia followed her out of the ship. The four crates left took them two trips - you had to be careful with the parts Entrapta and Hordak were bringing.

"Alright! Everyone, to the bridge!" Entrapta said. Then she blinked. "Or to the ramp to say goodbye, I guess."

Glimmer's dad was waiting there, with the rest of the Alliance. Even Frosta was there, though she was scowling. Which made her look adorable, not that Adora would ever tell her that.

"Dad." Glimmer hugged Micah, closing her eyes.

"Be safe, Glimmer."

"Be brave!" Sea Hawk raised his fist to the sky. "You're going on the greatest adventure ye..oh!"

"Don't scream," Mermista told him after elbowing his gut. "And you! Don't get killed!"

"We won't, "Adora said. She would make sure of that.

"Not if we can help it," Catra added with a snort.

Perfuma, one arm wrapped around Scorpia's waist - as far as she could manage, at least - smiled at them as well. "And tell me about new plants and animals you meet."

Right. That was a good idea. Earth would have many exotic plants and animals. "We'll bring you back some seeds!" Adora told her.

"Ah…" Bow scratched his head. "That might not be a good idea…"

"I can keep them safe," Perfuma told him.

"Good." He nodded.

"Safe?" Adora wondered.

"Foreign plants - or animals - unbalance nature," Perfuma explained. "It happened before, on a smaller scale, on Etheria, when new plants were introduced to an area."

"Oh." Adora hadn't thought about that.

"They didn't cover that in Force Captain Orientation," Scorpia said.

"That's because we tended to log the trees and crush the rest," Catra said.

"Which we don't do any more." Perfuma smiled. "Anyway, safe travels."

"Thank you." Adora hugged all her friends. "Be safe."

"Right. And Come'ere, Wildcat!" Scorpia grabbed Catra, pulling her into a hug despite the latter's protests. Adora grinned at the sight.

"We'll keep things going," Netossa told them. "You forge the alliance with Earth."

"Bye!" Entrapta waved at everyone as she walked up the ramp, where Hordak and SG-1 were waiting. Adora and the others followed her.

"That was a touching sendoff," O'Neill told them at the top of the ramp. "I expected more speeches."

"Speeches?" Adora blinked.

"You know, state affair, big speeches about the importance of this trip, a cheering crowd…" The man shrugged.

"It's just a trip," Catra remarked.

"It's also a diplomatic expedition," Daniel said.

"And the Alliance was here to see us off," Catra pointed out.

"Right." O'Neill nodded. "Everyone important, at least."

They had reached the bridge, and Adora took her seat in the centre.

"Everyone, strap in!" Entrapta announced. "We're ready for lift-off!"

As the holographic projections appeared, showing the state of the ship, the others sat down.

"All's green!"

"System's are good."

Adora nodded. "Darla, take us up!"

The ship shook a little, then they rose, quickly clearing the palace walls. Then the view changed as Darla tilted, pointing her bow at the sky.

And then they were shooting towards space. Towards Earth.

"Your Divine Highness!"

And towards Third Fleet, which had been assembled in a close formation in orbit. Adora suppressed a sigh and smiled at the display showing their leader.

"Your Faithful stand ready to escort you on your holy mission!"

"Thank you, Priest," she replied. "We're happy to have you all with us. This is a very important mission."

"We are ready to lay down our lives for you, Your Divine Highness!"

She winced. "Let's hope it won't come to that. We're on a diplomatic mission."

"Yes, Your Divine Highness!"

Catra snickered softly behind Adora. And O'Neill was mumbling something that Adora didn't catch but which had both Daniel and Carter whisper to him. Or at him.

"Thank you," she repeated herself. "Let's proceed then."

"Standard formation! Vanguard, cruise speed ahead!" Priest exclaimed. "Main force, form up around the Holy Vessel!"

Apparently, Darla had been upgraded in status. Adora really wanted to sigh. This was so embarrassing. And Catra found it incredibly amusing.

But they were moving now and would soon engage the hyperdrive.

"Now, let's see if our calculations are correct!" Entrapta said. "We should be noticeably faster than before!"

"'Should'?" O'Neill asked. "Haven't you tested this?"

"Not on such a long trip, not yet," Entrapta told him with a wide smile. "This will produce very useful data!"

It was clear that he didn't share her enthusiasm, Adora noticed.

"Don't worry," she told him. "We are good at repairs in space."

"Great."

*****​

Etheria System, July 13th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Samantha Carter watched the screens on the oversized bridge of Darla. According to the sensors, they were surrounded by Horde frigates. And since she could see some of the sleek ships just by looking out the windows on the bridge, she was inclined to believe the sensors.

"If the Navy ever sees the size of our escort, they'll go green with envy," the Colonel commented.

"The Navy?" Catra asked.

Sam hadn't noticed her walking over to them. The woman could be very quiet, apparently. The claws on her feet must be retractable, so any sound they had made before on the floor had been by choice. Perhaps to make people underestimate her.

"You don't have warships on Etheria?" The Colonel raised his eyebrows.

Catra snorted in return. "Of course we do - and you know it; you've met Mermista. So, there's some rivalry between you and the Navy?"

"We're Air Force," the Colonel told her. "The Navy doesn't like us."

"I think it's not quite so one-sided, Jack," Daniel cut in. "At least according to, oh, everyone I met at the base. Except for the Marines."

The Colonel grinned. "But the Navy started it. Anyway, they would be green with envy because you've got more ships as an escort than they have in total."

Catra, unexpectedly, frowned. "That'll make recruiting trained crew harder."

"They're trained on ships, not spaceships."

"But the principles are similar," Catra retorted.

"That is correct - in as much as Horde sailors are concerned. I set the training so they would require minimal training to crew spaceships as soon as we made contact with Horde Prime," Hordak said.

"Really?" The Colonel frowned in return. "That sounds a bit inefficient."

"The only major sea power amongst the Alliance is Salineas, and they became isolationist after the first Alliance fell apart. I considered the additional training worth the effort."

"And you lost the war," the Colonel said.

"Not because of my Navy."

"Well, we're Air Force. We're used to flying and crewing airplanes, so you'll find us more suited for crewing spaceships," the Colonel said.

"And Air Force pilots were the first astronauts," Sam pointed out.

"That, too. I guess we can recruit from NASA as well. That's our space agency."

"You've got space forces?" Catra asked.

"Not officially, no," the Colonel admitted. "Nasa is a civilian agency."

"And they don't know about the Goa'uld, right?" Catra shook her head.

"That seems rather inefficient," Hordak commented. Sam glanced at the alien - he wasn't showing any expression. But Sam was used to Teal'c and was sure he enjoyed turning the Colonel's words back at him.

The Colonels shrugged. "It worked well so far. We haven't had much trouble with other services, no mass panic, not too many senators and other bigwigs meddling with operations, no international pressure…"

"And all built on a lie," Catra replied.

"Technically, it's an omission. A secret. You know, need to know and all that stuff." The Colonel smiled, though it was a little forced. Sam could tell.

She cleared her throat. "So, I checked the route. We'll be taking quite short trips through hyperspace." According to what she had seen, Darla should be able to make much longer trips.

"Oh, that's because we haven't fully mapped out the route - our data isn't as precise as it could be," Entrapta said. "So we'll be making frequent stops to check our data. Later, we'll be able to shorten travel times. Also, this way, we can check that everyone kept up. If a frigate suffers a malfunction and drops out of hyperspace, she'll be easier to find if we don't have to backtrack all the way to Etheria."

"Yeah." The Colonel nodded. "Losing a spaceship is much more embarrassing than losing a plane."

"Exactly!" Entrapta beamed at him. She turned to Hordak. "See?"

"Certain frigates wouldn't be a loss at all," Hordak said.

Catra scowled at him for that but didn't comment, Sam noticed.

"Everyone, strap in! We're engaging the hyperdrive in a minute," Adora announced.

"It's just for the very, very unlikely case that we've made a mistake modifying the hyperdrive," Entrapta said. "The data checks out, and, as I said, we've done shorter trips without issues, but sometimes, longer trips reveal a mistake in the setup."

Right. They were on a shakedown cruise. Sam pressed her lips together. It wasn't as if she'd never done anything like that. But, usually, it had been under pressure, with no time to carefully test anything. This wasn't the case here. Well, they were effectively at war, and the longer they waited, the higher the chance that Stargate Command would write them off, but…

"Three. Two. One. Hyperspace Window formed! Entering!"

And they were in hyperspace.

"Bubble's holding stable."

"No anomalies detected from the escorts."

Adora sighed audibly. "So, we're in hyperspace." She got up and stretched.

"And my scanners don't detect any signs of imminent system failures," Entrapta added.

Sam sighed herself. With relief. And a little apprehension.

They were on the way to Earth.

"Alea iacta est," Daniel mumbled, mirroring her thoughts. For good or ill, they were now committed. But then, they probably had been committed ever since they had met Adora and the others.

*****​

Hyperspace Near Etheria, July 13th, 1998 (Earth Time)

So, they were on their way to Earth. Catra sighed. It would take them about a month if Entrapta was correct - and the princess knew her business. About a month on the same ship as O'Neill and the others.

She looked around the bridge. It had changed since her first trip with it. For the better, in Catra's opinion. Originally, it had been She-Ra's ship. One single seat for her, no consideration for anyone else. Just She-Ra and the ship. That wasn't a good way to travel, in her opinion.

"Something wrong?" Adora asked in a low voice.

Catra snorted. "Just wondering about our passengers," she lied.

"Ah." Adora nodded with a slight frown. "You still don't trust them."

Well, duh, of course not. She shrugged.

"You threatened O'Neill."

"I warned him," Catra corrected her. "That's not the same."

"They're our guests," Adora said.

Catra shrugged again. If they hurt Adora, they could be their sworn allies for all she cared; she would make them pay.

"So far, everything looks good!" Entrapta announced.

"The ship's performing within expected parameters," Hordak added.

"And are those parameters good?" O'Neill asked. "Just checking!" he added with a grin.

"Why would we alter the ship's systems to decrease performance?" Hordak asked.

"That would only make sense if you're trying to sabotage a ship," Entrapta added. "And Darla is our ship."

Adora's actually, though Darla might have second thoughts about it, if she could talk, in Catra's opinion - Entrapta had spent far longer with the ship.

"The ship's speed exceeds the speed of known Goa'uld ships, Sir," Carter said.

O'Neill nodded. "That's good then. If you're faster, you control the engagement."

"Unless you're on the defensive," Catra pointed out. You couldn't run if you had to hold the line. Or fortress.

"Yeah, yeah. But we're in a spaceship. Even if we have to hold a planet, speed will help a lot. Right?" He looked at Teal'c.

"That is correct," the big man replied. "Although by using the mass of your ships against important targets, you can force even faster enemies to engage you at a point and time of your choosing."

This was starting to sound like a tactical course for cadets. Catra snorted and stretched, groaning softly as she bent and straightened her spine. "So, we're in hyperspace and won't drop out for a few hours at least."

"Twelve, to be exact," Etrapta cut in.

Catra nodded. "Twelve hours. So, what's for dinner?"

"Rations," Glimmer said.

Catra scoffed. "Yeah, right." As if anyone would choose to eat rations, least of all a princess.

Glimmer chuckled. "I had the palace kitchen pack us a meal. We just need to reheat it."

Catra perked up. That was better than what she had expected. "Don't tell Priest, or he'll try to have his cooks do the same for us."

Glimmer and Adora shuddered.

"I take it that clones aren't known for their cooking skills?" Daniel asked.

"In the Horde, efficiency was more important than frivolous comforts," Hordak said. "Rations provided everyone with what they needed."

O'Neill grimaced. "That doesn't sound like taste was a priority."

"It wasn't."

"Horde Prime had some great cooks," Catra said. She suppressed a shudder at the memories of her time with Horde Prime. Glimmer tensed, too, Catra noticed. "But they didn't survive the war." She frowned. Or had that been Horde Prime himself, taking over their bodies to cook his own meals? It seemed absurd, but Catra also could imagine Horde Prime declaring that only his cooking was good enough for him.

"Let's go then! I'm a little hungry after loading all our supplies," Adora announced, changing back into her normal form.

"Did they make tiny food, too?" Entrapta asked as they walked to the door. Or bulwark, since they were on a ship.

"I think they prepared tiny desserts," Glimmer said.

"Oh, good!"

"Ah… who's standing watch on the bridge?" O'Neill asked.

"Darla," Entrapta replied.

"The ship herself?" Daniel cocked his head and looked around.

"She knows best," Entrapta told him. "And she can call us if we're needed."

O'Neill nodded, though he looked a little uncomfortable, Catra noted. Was that another Earth thing? Did he mistrust Darla? Or was he concerned about the fact that Darla had cameras all over the ship?

She kept an eye on the soldiers as they walked towards the mess, her ears twitching as she listened to their conversation. Ah. Something about Artificial Intelligences and computers. O'Neill didn't trust bots.

Not a stupid attitude, of course - bots, no matter what Entrapta might say, weren't people. Not even Light Hope. But Darla could be trusted - she hadn't been messed with by the First Ones.

And not having to stand watch, at least not in hyperspace, made travelling easier. Catra wasn't really looking forward to spending a night on the bridge instead of with Adora. Unless, of course, they could spend the night together on the bridge. Use the oversized She-Ra seat for something fun, for once.

But Adora wouldn't want to risk anyone walking in on them, even though that only made it more fun. So, this would probably remain a fantasy.

Well, you couldn't have everything you wanted. Catra had learned that the hard way.

*****​

Hyperspace, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"All systems running as expected!"

Entrapta sounded so happy and excited, Jack O'Neill refrained from making a sarcastic comment. They were heading home to Earth. On a spaceship. With a fleet.

And waiting to finish the first leg of their trip - a 'standard navigational stop', as Entrapta put it. And yet...

"I didn't think that we'd travel to Earth on Love Boat," he muttered.

"Jack!" Daniel gasped next to him.

"What?" Jack nodded towards the others. Everyone was on the bridge, though Jack was sure that any Navy officer would have a fit if he saw them. Catra had placed herself in Adora's lap with one of the smuggest expressions Jack had seen lately. Glimmer and Bow were standing next to each other, talking in low voices, and looking at their expressions, Jack was sure that they weren't discussing politics or space travel. Unless they were literally in love with either. At least Hordak was checking the screens more than Entrapta. "Just look at them," he whispered.

"But…" Daniel shook his head. "That's obviously normal for them."

"Public displays of affection?" Jack grinned at his friend. "On duty?"

"Well, are they technically on duty?" Daniel asked.

"We finished breakfast twenty minutes ago," Jack pointed out.

"Yes, but…"

"We're ready to drop out of hyperspace," Entrapta announced.

Glimmer turned and walked towards Adora while Bow went to check the scenes on his side of the bridge.

And Catra slid out of Adora's lap.

"Now they're on duty," Daniel said. "See?"

Yeah, even General Hammond, for all that he was a rather laid-back Texan, would raise his eyebrows at that. Which would be amusing, at least. Still, working alongside three couples? For a month? That was a little much. Jack very much didn't look at Carter.

"Dropping out in three...two...one!"

And they were back in 'normal space'.

Entrapta's hair tendrils flew over the consoles next to her. "Everything and everyone is where they should be. Deviations are within safety margins and tolerances."

The big screen lit up, and the clone commander appeared. "Your Divine Highness, we have arrived. All ships are accounted for! Command us!"

"Thank you, Priest." Adora nodded. "Start preparing for the next leg. As soon as we've finished our system check, we'll depart again."

Priest hit his chest and bowed. "As you command, Your Divine Highness. We shall prepare at once!"

The screen went blank again. Jack snorted. "I can see how that would grow old quickly."

Adora pouted at him.

He grinned. "You could tell him to use a title that's less of a mouthful."

"I tried," she said.

"Priest's 'unfailing devotion' fails when it clashes with his ideas on how to talk to a goddess," Catra said.

Which was rather worrying, though not unexpected, if Jack was honest. "So, he claims that he knows his dogma better than his goddess does? Wouldn't that qualify as heresy?"

"I'm not a goddess!" Adora snapped.

"I don't think it would be considered heresy since Priest is the de facto head of their church," Daniel said. "Although it's hard to say since we don't have gods that actually talk back when prayed to and might comment."

"Except for the Goa'uld," Jack said.

"False gods," Teal'c stated.

"Well, in the past, something that went against established doctrine and custom of a religion often was called heresy, though since this faith is rather new, there probably is no established consensus about this yet." Daniel pushed his glasses up. "Or Priest is defining it as we speak."

"Don't give him ideas!" Glimmer said.

"Even without writing scripture, his ideas will likely form the dogma of the faith," Daniel pointed out. "As long as he is the uncontested leader of his, ah, flock."

And if there was a schism, they would have to deal with two competing sects of religious fanatics with their own spaceships. A recipe for disaster if Jack had ever seen one. "Yeah, let's hope that they don't start splintering," he said.

Adora sighed. "I just wish they'd stop treating me as a goddess."

Catra snickered. "Just them, though, right?"

Adora blushed - Jack wasn't going there - and Glimmer rolled her eyes.

"All systems check out!" Entrapta interrupted them. "Calculating the next course! Well, recalculating and adjusting for minor stellar drift. So far, we're doing better than expected! The star charts we have are matching up well."

"They should. We're talking stars. They shouldn't move erratically," Bow said.

"Well, Etheria was in another dimension for a thousand years," Entrapta retorted. "Its absence should have affected the other stars nearby. Not to any great extent, but enough to affect navigation."

Another dimension. Jack didn't want to even think about that. Scientists back home would have fits one that came out.

"Easily compensated for," Hordak commented.

"But we still need to verify the data through actual observation," Entrapta told him.

"Which we just did."

"Yes. And which we will keep doing!" Entrapta smiled. "This is exciting! We're making history - of sorts. It's not our first trip, after all, but we're much better prepared now."

"And we're not about to charge at Horde Prime's fleet," Catra said. "That's already an improvement."

Jack nodded. A nice, peaceful trip back to Earth would be perfect. No, it would be perfect if they found a Stargate on the way, so they could warn Earth.

*****​

Hyperspace, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

The second trip through hyperspace went as well as the first. At least as far as Adora could tell. Entrapta and Hordak were tinkering with Darla or the shuttle or doing something else together that involved First Ones technology. Adora didn't know what exactly they were doing, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. They were a lot closer than she had expected. Not that she would admit that to Catra - her lover would be insufferably smug for having pointed it out before.

Her lover… Adora sighed as she twisted so she was lying on her side and looked at Catra. She had been curled up against Adora and now was groping for her body in her sleep. "You just want my body heat," Adora whispered with a smile as she wrapped her arms around her.

"I just want your body," Catra mumbled without opening her eyes as she snuggled into Adora's embrace.

"You're awake."

"Of course I am. You think I wouldn't notice you leaving just because I was asleep?" Catra whispered into Adora's chest.

Adora chuckled - Catra's breath was tickling her skin. And her tail wrapped itself around her leg. "Of course not."

"Good. 'Cause I'm not gonna let you leave."

"You will have to - well soon arrive at the next stop," Adora pointed out.

"We can sleep through it." Catra wrapped her arms around Adora and held on more tightly. "The others can watch Entrapta do her thing and then enter hyperspace again."

"And talk to Priest?"

"Bah! They can tell them you're doing your Divine Duty with me."

Adora snorted. "My Divine Duty?"

"Getting much-needed rest. R&R is crucial for a soldier, remember?"

"Ah. We haven't done too much resting today," Adora pointed out.

"That's the recreation part," Catra replied. "The best part of R&R."

"Right." The instructor in cadet school had told them so with a rare grin. Not that the Horde had been big on R&R in practice, though. Adora suppressed the urge to sigh. That was the past. They weren't cadets any more. They weren't Horde any more. Even if they might still be wearing their old uniforms. Or not wearing them right now. "But I can't stay in bed. We've spent the whole trip in bed." Well, much of it.

"I bet you we can."

"I need to be on the bridge." She had to. What if something happened? She was She-Ra. It was her duty.

Catra sighed this time. And not the happy, contented sigh she used after, well, recreation. "You're a dummy."

"But I'm your dummy," Adora replied.

"And don't you forget it." Catra's arms tightened around Adora, squeezing her for a moment before releasing her. "Let's go be useless on the bridge then." She rolled to the side, staring at the ceiling. "After dinner."

"Right." And after a shower.

*****​

O'Neill looked a little grumpy, Adora noticed as they entered the mess. "Is something wrong with the food?" Adora asked. This meal hadn't been prepared by the palace staff, after all, but by Bow.

"What? No, no. It's peachy."

"Peachy?" Adora asked.

"It's fine. The food is good." O'Neill speared a piece of meat with his fork and put it into his mouth.

"It's excellent," Daniel added with a smile.

"Much better than rations," Catra commented as she filled her plate from the big pots.

"Indeed."

"Where's Sam?" Adora asked.

"In the engine room with Entrapta and Hordak," O'Neill replied. "She took a sandwich." He was frowning again.

Ah. Adora nodded. That was it. "Don't worry. We'll make them eat proper meals in the future." Entrapta had been doing better until now. Hordak must be a bad influence on her. Or she was too excited about their trip, Adora added with a slightly guilty feeling. Hordak hadn't done anything so far to make them suspect him. At least in her opinion.

And the food was good. She smiled at Bow. "It's great!"

"Thank you!" He beamed at her.

Glimmer snorted. "I bet you would even find rations good, as famished as you must be."

"Jealous?" Catra grinned between bites.

"Hardly!" Glimmer sniffed, then grinned. "It's like a vacation, isn't it? No court to bother us. All the free time we want while we travel. All the privacy we want" She smiled at Bow, who blushed a little.

Adora nodded. Her friend was right - this was nice. Nice so far. Darla wasn't the palace, but they had their own rooms. And there were no guards or staff following them around and asking questions.

"Enjoy it while it lasts," O'Neill said. He looked even grumpier now. "We're still at war."

"We know," Catra told him. "It's still nice. Nicer than our last war."

Adora nodded. Definitely. She wasn't fighting Catra this time. Etheria wasn't about to be destroyed by some ancient superweapon. Her friends weren't mind-controlled. It was much nicer than their last war.

So far.

"It's a little new for us," Daniel said. "We aren't used to so much, ah, free time on a mission."

"Right. You travel through gates," Glimmer nodded. "No travel times."

"Yes. We're generally home for dinner," O'Neill said.

Oh. Adora was so stupid - they were missing their home! "We'll get you home soon," she told him with a smile. "Promise!"

That didn't seem to cheer him up as much as she had hoped. Not very much at all, actually.

*****​

"And the hyperspace bubble is perfectly stable even with the changes to the generators here," Entrapta explained.

Samantha Carter could see that. But she could also see something else. "It could be more efficient, though, if you tweaked the converter there."

"That would remove redundancy," Hordak objected. "Not something you want to do when it concerns hyperspace travel."

"It wouldn't remove redundancy - both this and the other converter there rely on the same systems," Samantha pointed out. "The lessened strain would strengthen the whole system."

"Oh, I see!" Entrapta piped up. "Yes, that would work. Probably. We need to test it."

"Yes." Hordak nodded in one of the most grudging ways that Sam had ever seen. She was sure that if Entrapta hadn't agreed, he wouldn't have agreed either. "We'll have to make adjustments at the next stop."

"Which is in… oh, five minutes! Time flies when you're having fun!" Entrapta announced. "Let's go to the bridge!" She turned and started for the door.

Sam followed her after a last glance at the machines in the room. Whatever else this trip might result in, she had learned a lot about advanced hyperspace drives. She might not yet be able to craft one herself, but she was close. And she should be able to duplicate a standard Goa'uld drive with the right parts.

But that could wait. First, they had to find a way back to Earth. Which meant a series of navigational stops to update their charts - because they had been out of touch and out of sync with the rest of the universe for a thousand years.

Sam still had trouble with the idea that an entire star system had been shifted to another dimension - a pocket dimension, even - for a thousand years. But the way everyone talked about it as something that had happened, the way people mentioned seeing stars for the first time in the sky… It had to be true. Something else to give nightmares to the people back on Earth who would be worried about magic.

Though Sam was also sure that more than a few people would be speculating about using something similar to save Earth in extremis. She hoped they wouldn't find support - what she had heard about the Heart of Etheria from Entrapta gave her nightmares.

They reached the bridge, and Sam felt a brief pang of guilt and embarrassment when she noticed that everyone else was already present. Arriving last was never a good thing for a subordinate.

"The drives are running fine!" Entrapta announced. "No trouble at all!"

"Good." Adora nodded at them.

"Carter! Did you enjoy your sandwich?" The Colonel raised his eyebrows at her.

Sam suppressed the urge to frown - she knew what he really meant. "Yes, Sir," she replied. "We tweaked the drives a bit." She carefully didn't smile at his slight twitch upon hearing that.

"Well, next time, take the time to eat with us like civilised people," he told her. "Unless it's an emergency, of course."

"Yes," Glimmer agreed, looking at Entrapta. "You need decent meals, not just snacks. Or tiny snacks."

"We had rations," Hordak said. "They covered our nutritional needs perfectly."

Catra made a gagging noise, and everyone else from Etheria winced as well.

"They weren't bad," Sam said. "No as good as MREs, but edible." She had tried some, after all.

"'Not as good as MREs'? That's practically poison, Carter!" the Colonel blurted out, shaking his head.

"Jack! People have different tastes and culinary traditions! You can't just insult their meals like this!" Daniel protested.

"Of course he can - Horde rations are horrible," Catra said. "I've eaten enough of them to know."

Adora nodded. "Yes. There's no comparison to actual food. And…"

"Exiting Hyperspace in one minute," the voice of the ship's computer interrupted her.

"Oh!" Entrapta turned to the screens and consoles. "Good girl, Darla!"

Sam watched the screens showing the power fluctuations in the hyperdrives. That was a critical phase of the trip - entering and leaving hyperspace. The phase that was most prone to failure, Hordak had claimed, which made sense.

But they made the transition without apparent trouble. All readings were within expected parameters.

"And the fleet made it out as well… getting a count… still complete!" Bow announced.

"The frigates were kept in top condition - anything that might fail was replaced," Hordak said. "And anyone," he added with a deep frown.

Priest appeared on screen a moment later, telling them what they already knew - Third Fleet had arrived safely - but taking longer with all the "Divine Highnesses" thrown in. He would be trouble; Sam was sure of that as well, even though she understood the reason they had taken him and his fleet along. Another reason that they needed to find a Stargate. If Priest got into a debate about religion with some of the more… fanatical faithful on Earth, the consequences could be catastrophic.

"Scanners running! Navigational update… We're at the projected coordinates, with a slight but expected deviation," Entrapta announced. "So, let's take the time to tweak the engines before we start the next leg of our trip!"

Sam nodded. "Yes."

"Tweaking our hyperdrives, Carter?" the Colonel asked.

"Minor adjustments to improve efficiency," she told him.

"Not so minor!" Entratpa beamed. "If this works, it'll make Darla even faster!"

"Ah. That's a good thing."

"Yes, Sir, it is," Sam replied before she could help it. She knew what she was doing.

"Scanning finished… Oh," Bow interrupted the Colonel's reply. "There's Naquadah on the planet in the nearby system. Processed Naquadah. According to our data, the system should be uninhabited."

Everyone looked at the screen. Naquadah on a planet? That usually meant advanced technology. And a Stargate.

*****​

Outside System PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Anything in the system? Ships?"

"No," Catra replied. She didn't see any hostile contacts on the screen.

"We're outside their scanning range, right?" Adora asked.

"We're outside the range of the Goa'uld sensors that we know of," Bow told her.

That wasn't as reassuring as Catra liked. SG-1 might have claimed that the Goa'uld didn't advance their technology, but that was the sort of assumption that got your plans foiled at the worst moment, in Catra's experience. Granted, she had been fighting Adora and the princesses, not some age-old megalomaniac parasites, and SG-1 had a lot of experience with them, but still… She couldn't help worrying.

"And we didn't pick up any active scans," Entrapta said.

"Could they have picked up our scans?"

"They shouldn't have. But…" Entrapta bit her lower lip. Not a good sign. "Third Fleet is big enough to show up on optical sensors - if they have some."

Optical sensors? Oh, telescopes. The frigates' colour scheme wouldn't help, either.

"They would have to be looking at this exact location," Hordak replied. "And we're too far out for our arrival to be easily detected with hyperspace sensors, either."

"That means travelling to the planet in the shuttle will take some time as well, though," Catra said. And 'not easily detected' didn't mean 'undetectable', either.

"If we want to travel to the planet in the first place," Glimmer said.

Catra snorted at that. As if they wouldn't check out the planet. O'Neill would probably walk there if he had to. And they had to know if there was a Goa'uld base so close to Etheria.

Glimmer smiled wryly. "It had to be said." But she had that glint in her eyes - she was craving some action. The queen was rather bloodthirsty for a princess.

But that raised another question. "So, who's going?" Catra asked.

"Me!"

"Us!"

"I want to see the new technology!"

"You need me on the ground - I can teleport us."

"I can carry a Stargate if we need to."

"We need to go and see if there's a Stargate."

"We've got the most experience with Goa'uld."

"So, basically everyone wants to go," Catra summed it up. But someone had to stay back and watch the ship. And Third Fleet.

Everyone looked at each other. Catra sighed. This would be ugly.

*****​

"...and we'll stay in contact. If there's any trouble, you can come and relieve us," Adora said.

Glimmer rolled her eyes. "We - and the entire Third Fleet."

"Don't pout, Sparkles," Catra told her. "Someone has to stay back, and you're the Queen. You're in command."

"Yet no one is listening to me!" Glimmer looked like she was about to stomp her foot.

"Glimmer." Bow put his hand on her shoulder.

She gripped it, sighing. "I know."

Catra stretched. It sucked to be Queen. Not that she cared as long as she was with Adora.

"I still fail to see why I need to stay back," Hordak complained.

"So in the case that we get discovered, people will not connect us to the Horde," Entrapta replied. "Though we could disguise you, I guess…"

"We don't have the time for that," Catra lied.

"Be careful," Glimmer said.

"Of course!" Adora nodded with a serious expression.

Catra suppressed a snicker. Adora and cautious? Yeah, right. Catra would have her hands full trying to keep her lover from risking her life. "So, stay safe and don't get bored," she said.

"Right! Let's go!" Entrapta hugged Hordak, then entered the shuttle. "Let's see if our stealth system works!"

"Uh… it does work, right?" Daniel asked. "We're about to fly towards a Goa'uld-controlled planet."

"We've tested the system, and it should work," Carter told him. "But this is the first time it's used on an actual mission."

"Nothing like field testing new gear on a recon mission," O'Neill said with a snort.

"It's very efficient!" Entrapta said, sticking her head out of the shuttle.

"As long as it works…" O'Neill muttered.

"It should, Sir. The calculations work out."

"Sometimes, math doesn't work in the field, Carter."

"That's not how it works, Jack," Daniel said.

"You know what I mean."

"Well, yes, but…"

"Let's go!" Adora said. "The sooner we go, the sooner we're back. For the Honour of Grayskull!"

Watching her lover grow into a huge princess never got old, in Catra's opinion. But it was over quickly, and then Adora stepped into the shuttle. Catra waved at Glimmer, Bow and Hordak before following her. O'Neill might be worried, but Catra wasn't. If Entrapta, Carter and Hordak were sure that the stealth system would work, then that was good enough for her. Entrapta might be a little too confident, and Carter was hard to read, but Hordak wouldn't let Entrapta go if he didn't trust their technology. And if it didn't work, well… They had She-Ra with them. And the shuttle was fast.

They were ready for whatever awaited them on the planet.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 12: The Ship

System PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill looked at the screen showing their destination. A round globe floating in space. Not as blue as Earth, but not a desert or jungle world. Just another nameless planet to explore. But this time, they weren't going through a Stargate - they were approaching it from space. In a stealth shuttle - at least if the stealth system, whatever it was, worked as planned. Carter at least seemed to think it would work, which was why Jack wasn't making much of a fuss about this. Entrapta was a bit too enthusiastic about taking untested equipment on dangerous missions, and Hordak… Jack refrained from scoffing. As if he'd trust a 'former' warlord. He had met enough warlords on Earth to know better.

Some of them he had met after flying into Indian country in a small craft and hoping that the enemy wouldn't spot you, far from any backup. Just like now. He snorted.

"Sir?"

"Just some memories, Carter," he said. "This is a much nicer ride than a Blackhawk."

"Ah." She nodded - she knew what he was talking about, of course. Not from personal experience. Well, not inside the Blackhawk. But she might have been ready to provide air support when called in.

"Blackhawk?" Daniel looked confused. "Ah!"

"Blackhawk?" Catra looked intrigued.

"A helicopter - an aircraft held aloft by a large propeller instead of wings or anti-gravity generators," Carter explained. "Or magic."

"Ah." The catwoman nodded. "Military transport?"

"Yes," Jack said.

"And this reminds you of it? How big are they?" She gestured around the bridge.

"Not nearly as big," Jack replied. "It's just the feeling of trying to sneak into a place where you aren't supposed to be and hoping no one spots you and starts shooting."

"Ah!" She grinned. "Yes, that's exciting."

"And terrifying," Daniel added.

"We've got She-Ra with us," Catra said.

"That won't help if the Goa'uld send a couple Death Gliders or Al'Kesh after us," Jack retorted.

"A couple? She can handle those by herself - she once killed three frigates." Catra glanced at Adora, who frowned at her.

"That probably was an attempt to gauge my power, not a serious attack," Adora told her.

Catra rolled her eyes. "They tried to shoot us down."

"But he only sent three frigates after us. He had many more of them, and the Horde never husbanded their forces like that. At least Hordak didn't do that," Adora retorted.

Right. Hordak was the kind of warlord who probably sent tank regiments to scout for the enemy. Then again, the US Army had done the same - or would have, if the Cold War had gone hot. But they were the Army. "That's very interesting, but I'm more concerned about our situation, not what happened in the past," Jack said. "So, is the stealth system working?" They were now inside the system.

"We haven't been scanned - not with any scanner I would detect, at least," Entrapta said. "Of course, passive detection remains a possibility, but we've got camouflage against optical sensors, and our power systems and engines are shielded. And we haven't been shot at - not yet - so I think it's safe to say our systems are working." She blinked. "Or they aren't working, but no one's looking for us. Which is also good. I think. Though we wouldn't know if the system's working, in that case."

"Or we're flying into a trap," Jack pointed out.

"Then we turn the trap on the enemy," Catra said. "They won't expect us. If they are waiting for us, they'll expect First Ones."

"Who had better technology than we have," Jack said.

"Not quite!" Entrapta shook her head, her animated hair not moving from the console. It looked very weird, as if someone had glued the tips of her hair to the keys and switches. "We've upgraded the systems to be on par or better than Horde technology - Horde Prime's tech, I mean. And his technology is at least as good as the First Ones was."

Right. "I'd still prefer not to enter a trap," Jack said. Overconfidence killed.

"If things go wrong, we just have to hold out long enough for Third Fleet to arrive," Catra said. "We should be able to manage that."

Adora nodded.

"Magic should give us an advantage," Carter added.

Magic. "I know," Jack said. He wasn't happy about it, though. He didn't know what exactly magic could do. That made planning, and, more importantly, adapting plans under fire, difficult. "Let's hope the people on the planet are friendly."

"The presence of Naquadah usually indicates Goa'uld," Teal'c said. "They do not leave their slaves with such technology."

"I know," Jack said. "Unless it's a Stargate." He hoped it was a Stargate.

"We'll know soon enough!" Entrapta's hair moved over the consoles as she typed. "A little bit longer, and we're in range for a deep scan." She tilted her head. "We'll be using magic, so they shouldn't detect that."

Magic again. But there was no helping it. "Good," Jack said.

A few minutes later, Entrapta announced: "OK, stop! We're close enough! Scanning now!"

That meant they were sitting still in space. Jack clenched his teeth. He hated being unable to affect the situation. At least on the ground, he could do something if they were attacked.

"Oh! I found the concentration of Naquadah. It's all in one place!" Entrapta announced. "It's… on the screen!"

Jack stared. He knew that thing.

"An Al'Kesh," Teal'c said.

"It looks like it crashed," Carter added.

"Right." Jack nodded. Not a Stargate, then. But not a Goa'uld base, either. "Any signs of life around it?"

"Yes, but… it's kinda hard to sort out animals and people," Entrapta said.

"Structures?" Daniel asked.

"Some, but they seem kinda damaged."

The screen changed, showing ruins.

"Goa'uld style," Daniel stated the obvious.

*****​

"Goa'uld style?" Adora asked.

"Well Egyptian style, to be precise," Daniel went on. "But outside Earth, only the Goa'uld beholden to Ra used this style.

So, that was how the enemy houses looked. It wasn't very impressive. Drab stone houses, flat roofs, single floor…

"Looks pathetic," Catra said out loud what Adora wasn't quite thinking.

"Well, those are obviously quarters for their slaves," Daniel explained. "No Goa'uld would be living in such, ah, squalor."

"They would be so shamed, they could never show their face at the courts of their betters again, should anyone know of this," Teal'c added.

"Yeah. But if given a choice between death and this?" O'Neill shook his head. "They'll live like this. And they'll jump you when you least expect it."

"Well, we've got Melog. They'll sniff them out," Catra said, patting their friend on the flank. "No surprises there."

"And I think if there were Goa'uld on the planet, they would have had their slaves construct a palace," Daniel added.

"They might not have had the means," Entrapta said.

"If there's enough stone and clay to construct slave quarters, there's enough stone and clay to construct a palace," O'Neill said. "That's how they think. They would sacrifice hundreds of slaves to get a palace."

"But… That makes no sense!" Entrapta protested, shaking her head. "That's… they would hurt themselves like that! Everyone suffers if you do that! Palaces don't get you anything you can use to improve your position!"

"That's the Goa'uld for you," O'Neill told her. "Long-term planning isn't their strength."

"That's not true," Daniel protested. "They do make long-term plans - and the loss of slaves is often a welcome side-effect for them. If their slaves would grow too experienced, too skilled or too numerous, they might become a threat."

"Even in the case of being shipwrecked?" Catra pointed at the screen.

"Yes," Teal'c said. "Without a way off the planet, they would be unable to retreat or call reinforcements. Keeping their slaves cowed and from becoming a threat would be their priority."

They sounded horrible but also short-sighted to Adora. "And why did the ship crash?"

Entrapta pushed a few buttons, and the screen's image zoomed in on the shipwreck. "The scan's results are not completely clear, but this here…" One of the strands of her hair pointed at a scorch mark on the hull. "...looks like weapon damage."

"Unrepaired weapon damage," Sam added.

"Well, the whole ship's kind of unrepaired," O'Neill commented.

"It means that the damage was likely taken shortly before the ship crashed or was the cause of the crash," she explained. "Otherwise, they might have repaired part of the damage at least."

"I knew that," O'Neill claimed. "So, any active power plants or anything down there?"

"Just the Naquadah in the ship," Entrapta replied. "Nothing active. They could have shielded their installations, of course - the planet's crust contains several heavy elements that are hard to scan through."

"If they are lying in ambush, they probably are waiting until we get to the ship," O'Neill pointed out.

"That's obvious," Catra replied. "But how long would they have waited to ambush a ship?"

That was a good point. Too much caution was as bad as too little, as Shadow Weaver used to… Adora clenched her teeth. She wasn't going there. "Let's go down," she said.

"Alright! Shields are up, and scanners are running!" Entrapta announced. "Stealth system is still running. We're on final approach to the planet now!"

Adora took a deep breath. For better or worse, they were now committed. If there was an ambush ahead, it would be her fault. No one else's. And she would…

An elbow in her rib interrupted her thoughts. "Don't brood," Catra hissed.

"I'm not brooding!" Adora whispered back.

"You were," her lover insisted. "I know you."

Being aware of your responsibilities wasn't brooding!

"We're approaching the orbit of the planet's moon," Entrapta said. "Still no sign of any active scan."

That was good. "Plot a course so we are descending on the opposite side of the planet," Adora told her friend. "We can fly to the shipwreck through the atmosphere." That should keep them at least a little safer.

"Good idea," Catra agreed.

O'Neill nodded as well.

Adora took a deep breath as the planet grew larger on their screens - now she could see it through the bridge's windows. It didn't seem really different from Etheria. A little less water on the surface, according to Entrapta's data. "Any sign of villages?" she asked. "Fields?"

"Nothing," Entrapta replied. "If they have gone into hiding, they have done a very thorough job."

Which would mean that any ambush would be very dangerous. Adora bit her lower lip and ignored Catra's sigh. She couldn't help worrying. Not when her friends were in danger. Possible danger.

But they reached the planet's orbit without getting attacked and quickly entered the planet's atmosphere. Adora stared at the sight of air glowing brightly outside, on the shuttle's shield.

"That's not going to be hidden easily," O'Neill commented.

"We're still working on that," Entrapta said.

"A shielding system that compensates for this is complicated," Sam said.

"I'm not criticising you, Carter," O'Neill told her.

"We've put the planet between us and the ship, but if they have sensors spread over the surface, they might notice us," Entrapta explained. "Though they might mistake us for a meteor."

"If we're lucky," O'Neill said.

"Yes."

But they were now flying over forests and meadows or what you called the places with grass and bushes without trees.

Towards the wrecked Goa'uld ship.

"If there's an ambush, they need to spring it now," Catra said. "Or they want to catch us on the ground." Adora glared at her, and she grinned in return. "Just saying."

*****​

PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

An ambush on the ground was a possibility - the shuttle and the group would be most vulnerable while disembarking. Samantha Carter knew that. On the other hand, Catra was correct: The odds of that happening were low. People didn't go into hiding and waited for years, possibly decades or centuries - the ruins looked old - for someone to arrive.

Unless there was another reason why they wanted to hide. If they were hiding from an enemy… "They might have gone into hiding to avoid catching Horde Prime's attention," Sam said.

Catra and Adora turned to stare at her. "Right," Adora said. "That would be a reason to hide every sign of inhabitation."

"But if they are hiding from the Horde," Catra objected, "then they won't attack us and risk discovery."

"We don't look like the Horde," the Colonel said.

"We've got a Horde fleet waiting outside the system," Catra retorted.

"Which is hidden from their scanners." The Colonel shook his head. "But we're here already. Leaving would be suspicious. Might as well find out what happened here," he added with a grin.

Catra frowned at him but nodded. "Let's go."

"Put us down… behind that hill there. It should shield us in case they got the weapons of the ship working," Adora said.

"Even if the staff cannons were working," Sam pointed out, "they are mounted in ventral turrets - they couldn't fire at us from that angle."

"They can't fire up?" Catra asked, blinking.

"They are bombers," Teal'c said. "Death Gliders are supposed to cover them during attack runs."

"'Supposed to'." Catra shook her head. "Didn't seem to have worked for this one."

"It doesn't seem to be a very effective design," Entrapta commented.

"Oh, they're effective enough at bombing planets," the Colonel told them.

"But still!" Entrapta protested. "A more versatile design shouldn't be too hard."

"It's also a matter of cost," Sam told her. "An Al'Kesh has one purpose: delivering bombs and fire support for attacks against ground targets - or against capital ships. They aren't built to dogfight."

"But…"

"We can discuss spaceship designs and tactics later. Let's go and take a look at the wreck. And find out if anyone is waiting to ambush us," Catra said.

"Don't forget the ruins," Daniel said. "We can learn a lot from the remains of such settlements!"

"Ship first, then ruins," the Colonel told him. "Stone huts generally aren't as dangerous as spaceships."

"But Jack…"

"Ship first. It's the obvious trap. The metal and Naquadah would help hide an ambusher."

"Right." Daniel looked mulish but nodded.

Good.

"Let's land then," Adora said.

"Alright!" Entrapta smiled, and the ship started descending, quickly setting down behind the hill.

Adora was already moving to the rear, followed by Catra - who stopped to grab a short club-like device from the shuttle's weapons locker. A shock-rod - Sam had examined them before. "In case we want to take prisoners," Catra said.

"Catra!" Adora snapped.

"What? If we get attacked, we need prisoners to find out who they are. If you knock everyone out, we have to wait until they wake up." Catra grinned.

Adora frowned at her. "Fine!"

Sam exchanged a glance with the Colonel. He shared her expression - their allies did seem to be more than a little overconfident.

Then again, they had seen how strong Adora was. Perhaps the Etherians had every reason to be so confident.

The air outside was fresh and mild. Temperate climate - warm but not hot.

"No signs of agriculture," Entrapta commented. "No fields."

"They could be hunter-gatherers," Daniel said. "Although this would've been a regression even for slaves of a Goa'uld lord. They couldn't maintain a higher population density with such methods. You need organised agriculture for that."

"Come on," Catra said, already halfway up the hill.

"Catra!"

"I'm just going to take a look!"

Sam followed them up the slope. At the crest, she found Catra and Adora both prone in the grass, looking at the ship and the ruins below them through binoculars.

"Is that a Horde design?" she asked.

"The binocs? Yes. I like them better than the telescopes that Bright Moon and Salineas use," Catra said. "More compact."

"I'm used to them," Adora added.

"Ah." Sam pulled out her own binoculars and took a look at the ship. Definitely an Al'Kesh. And it didn't look modified. Standard engine housing. The cockpit looked destroyed - that would have caused the crash.

"No markings," the Colonel commented.

"Whoever piloted it did not want to be recognised," Teal'c said.

"That would fit a recon mission in potentially hostile territory," the Colonel agreed. "If they were afraid of pissing off Horde Prime…"

"Or the First Ones," Catra added. "The ship looks old - it's half-buried in the ground. Could be old enough so the First Ones were still around when it crashed. Can you detect anyone, Entrapta?"

"No life signs inside the ship. Or in the ruins. Well, no human-sized ones. Plenty of smaller ones."

"Goa'uld larvae?" Adora asked.

"Not in the ruins - no Naquadah there. I can't exclude the possibility of them being in the ship, though."

"If you see a weird pot, don't smash it," the Colonel said. "It could contain a Goa'uld."

"Melog?" Adora looked down at the alien.

Melog growled something.

Catra nodded. "Melog doesn't sense any Goa'uld, either. But there could be some in the ship."

"Let's find out," the Colonel said. "But carefully."

*****​

Crashed Al-Kesh, PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

As she approached the crashed ship, Catra couldn't see any trap or people waiting in ambush - and she had experience with both; the Alliance usually had had to resort to ambushes and traps to face the Horde troops. She didn't have experience with Goa'uld, though. None of them except for SG-1 had any experience. And Melog. Even Horde Prime's data - what they had managed to recover - barely covered the essentials about the parasites. Some data about their ships. Some basic tactics. Nothing more.

But they knew Goa'uld didn't have magic, and that severely limited their options.

"I'll go in first," Adora said as they reached the hole in the back of the ship.

"I've got the better eyes and ears," Catra retorted. Melog growled in agreement.

"But I'm tougher." Adora took a step forward.

"Did anyone forget to tell me that this is a competition?" O'Neill commented from behind them.

Catra frowned at the man. This wasn't about him. This was about Adora trying to protect everyone at the cost of her own life.

Melog growled again. Enter.

"Melog says to enter," Catra told the others.

"And who put the cat in command?" O'Neill asked.

Catra bared her fangs at him in a wide grin.

"The other cat."

But Adora used the distraction to step forward and climb into the ship. Catra cursed and rushed after her, jumping through the hole in the hull.

She landed on all fours behind Adora in a dark corridor. Keeping her balance on the tilted floor was easy for her - her claws could dig into the metal floor. She tested her claws on the walls as well - it was always good to know if you could cut your way through the wall or ceiling. Which she could. "I expected more gold," she whispered.

"That would have given an enemy clues about the ship's origin." Teal'c was climbing in behind them. And Melog pushed past him, landing on the floor and sniffing.

"Which way to the bridge?" Adora asked.

"This way." Teal'c pointed with his staff.

The interior didn't look like someone had been using it for a long time - there was a lot of dirt and debris on the floor near the hole, and Catra could see - and smell - signs of animals having used the ship as a lair. Ew. "Looks abandoned," she whispered as they walked past a room full of broken crystals.

"Oh! That must have been a power station!" Entrapta exclaimed. "Look at the fittings here!"

"Later!" Catra told her as she grabbed Entrapta's collar before the princess could climb into the room. "We need to check the bridge. No wandering off."

"But!"

"Don't make me have Adora carry you."

Entrapta pouted but didn't try to check out the next broken console they passed.

"There are no bodies," Adora commented.

"They would have been taken out and buried by the survivors," Teal'c said.

"We didn't see any graves in the ruins," O'Neill retorted.

"They might have buried the dead at a different place," Daniel explained. "Many cultures separate the dead from the living."

"Like a city of the dead?" O'Neill asked.

"Yes."

"Well, that - or the animals in here ate them," Catra said.

"We'd still find bones and inedible remains," Carter replied. "And the ruins outside indicate that people explored the ship after crashing."

"Unless the ruins predate the ship's crash," Daniel said. "I mean, if the village was in ruins before the ship arrived here."

"The doors to the bridge are closed," Teal'c reported. "Sealed."

"Let me at it!" Adora summoned her sword and pushed it through the door with a soft grunt under her breath. Then she twisted the sword and leveraged the door open.

Catra half-expected to find bodies behind the door, but the bridge was empty as well. And damaged. She pushed past Adora and moved to the chair closest to the door. It had a big hole inside the backrest. And the chair was discoloured slightly.

She bent over and sniffed.

"Can you smell blood after all this time?" Adora asked.

"No," Catra told her with a grin. Her friend really should know her better than that. "But if it's not so old, I would have."

"Ah."

"They suffered damage before crashing," Teal'c said. "And someone removed the corpses and then sealed the door."

"Communications are shot," Carter added.

"What about the computers?" O'Neill asked.

"I'm trying to access them," she replied. "If we can restore power and get the log or at least the navigational data…"

"It's an intriguing system!" Entrapta added, beaming at them.

"Keep at it," O'Neill said before looking around. "So, I'd say never split the party, but we should search the whole ship as well."

"Oh, if you do, check out the Naquadah concentration on the other side," Entrapta said.

"The Naquadah concentration?" O'Neill asked.

"The one we detected with my scanner," Enptrata told him. "It should be…" She scrunched her nose. "About... this way!" her hair pointed at the back of the ship.

"The cargo hold," Teal'c said after cocking his head to the side.

That sounded interesting. Catra grinned. "Let's go, then!"

"Carefully," O'Neill said.

Catra rolled her eyes. She hadn't heard anything in the ship except for their own footsteps. And Melog hadn't sensed anything either.

Teal'c took the lead again, and they made their way to the cargo hold - through a section that had been torn up by weapon fire: the hull breach was small, but both the corridor and the crew quarters behind it had been torn up, so they had to climb through the wreckage.

But they reached the cargo hold, Adora got to show off She-Ra's strength again, forcing the doors open, and they found…

"A Stargate?"

*****​

"A Stargate!" Jack O'Neill grinned. That was the best find they could've hoped for - they could go back to Earth now.

"The ship must have been moving a Stargate," Teal'c stated the obvious.

"And where's the dialer?" Catra asked.

"Good question." Jack looked around. They wouldn't ship just the ring. Not the Goa'uld. So… He stared at the broken crates in the corner. Next to another hull breach. "No."

"D.H.D.s are quite tough," Daniel said. "It shouldn't easily break…"

That was true. Those things were built to last millennia. In order to break one, you practically had to shoot… He blinked as he approached the crates. The crates looked as if they had absorbed whatever blast had broken through the hull. "Damn!"

Jack quickly climbed the last few yards over broken ground and torn plates to the crates.

Not as quickly as Catra, though, who easily passed him with a few leaps, leaving gouges in the metal where she held on with her claws. Jack really didn't want to know what those claws would do to a human body - they would go straight through the heaviest body armour Stargate Command had. Hell, they would probably go through an APC's armour!

Catra reached the top of the crates and leaned over like a gymnast, peering inside upside-down, her tail twitching above her. "Oh."

"What?" Jack snapped as he pulled up next to her, carefully looking for footholds.

"You're not gonna like it."

"What?" he repeated himself as he peered over the edge and into the crate himself. Oh. "For crying out loud!"

The D.H.D. had absorbed the brunt of the blast - all that was left was the pedestal. The rest was a twisted mess of molten and blasted metal and crystal.

"They broke it!"

*****​

"...and so, according to the partial data we recovered from the computer systems - quite interesting encryption, actually, very interesting ideas but they were implemented a little haphazardly, I think, since we were able to bypass half the protections by directly accessing the memory crystals - the ship was part of an effort to remove Stargates from planets in the sector. No data about who gave the orders, though."

Jack O'Neill forced himself not to scowl. It wasn't Entrapta's fault that the Goa'uld and whoever had been fighting them had managed to wreck SG-1's ticket home. They had a Stargate, after all, which was a prize itself. Once they could get a computer hooked up to it and a powerplant. A Stargate that wasn't central to a planet's survival and could be taken home without dooming people.

Provided Earth could get it - Etheria might want it as well. But they could sort this out later.

"They were removing Stargates from the sector?" Adora asked.

"Presumably to deny them to others," Carter replied. "The dates line up with what we know as the height of the war between the First Ones and Horde Prime."

"Ah."

"They didn't want Horde Prime to get access to the Stargate," Catra said. "I bet the First Ones evacuated or destroyed Stargates as well."

"Probably, but we lack any data to tell for sure," Entrapta said.

"Scorched earth," Jack said. That would fit a force willing to sacrifice an entire planet to win a war.

"They attacked Earth?" Entrapta asked with wide eyes.

"No, scorched earth is a tactic used in wars on Earth. It consisted of removing or destroying everything the enemy could use while withdrawing in front of their advance. The goal was to deprive the enemy of resources and strain or collapse their supply system. It was quite effective against enemies who had been planning to live off the land," Daniel explained.

"Ah." Catra nodded. "That wouldn't have worked well on Etheria. We - the Horde - never used much of the resources of the Alliance lands for the troops themselves, not officially at least. And the Horde lands were pretty safe for most of the war."

"Whatever," Jack said. "So, the snakes were taking Stargates and moving them… where, exactly?" If they could find the planet they had been moving the Stargates to, they could find a D.H.D.

Carter winced, and Jack knew he wouldn't like her answer before she opened her mouth. "We only have coordinates in space - they were apparently meant to deliver the Stargates to a mothership."

Probably a Ha'tak. Of course the snakes wouldn't make it easy for them.

"They must have done this to avoid being identified, should they be caught," Teal'c said. "No markings, no navigational data betraying their origins - that is not standard procedure for Goa'uld forces."

"And probably carried suicide pills," Jack muttered. "So, it could have been on the orders of anyone, even Ra since he was still alive back then."

"It was probably not Ra," Teal'c said. "As the ruler of the System Lords, he would likely have been held accountable for their actions anyway."

"Unless he wanted to be able to blame someone else as a sacrifice," Catra pointed out.

"He could have done so anyway," Teal'c retorted.

"But Horde Prime - or the First Ones - might not have cared anyway," Adora pointed out.

"Or it might have been the Tok'ra," Daniel added. "We don't know how they operate."

"Right. I still think it's more likely that this was done by a System Lord trying something underhanded," Jack said. And the snake who had done this was probably still alive. And had a few spare Stargates. You could do a lot with that. And they didn't know how many the Goa'uld behind this had collected. "Let's hope we find more information in the ruins."

"And the graveyard that should be around," Daniel added.

"Yes, Daniel. We will be looking for tombs as well. I'll even get you a whip," Jack told him.

"A whip?" Catra asked, raising her eyebrows.

"He's referring to a movie trilogy from Earth, Indiana Jones," Daniel explained with a pout. "The main character is an archaeologist who occasionally uses a whip to fight his enemies."

Jack grinned. "And he crawls around in tombs." And dealt with magic shit. Perhaps the comparison is a little too on the nose, he thought.

*****​

Ruins near crashed Al-Kesh, PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

The buildings really weren't much to look at, Adora had to agree with Catra. They were basically stone huts - or had been stone huts before turning into, well, ruins. Small ones, with flat roofs, many of them collapsed, and few windows next to gaping doors. About half a dozen, in total.

"Even for a village, that's not much," she said.

"Mhh." Catra made an agreeing noise as she looked around. "Kinda creepy, though."

"Yes." Like that ghost village of the First Ones Adora had found on Etheria. Well, they hadn't been real ghosts, but it still had been creepy.

"Daniel?" O'Neill asked.

Adora turned to look at Daniel, who was kneeling in the doorway of one hut.

"No remains of the curtain that served as a door, except for the holes holding it in place," Daniel replied. "This village has been deserted for a long time."

"What's a long time in years?"

"Without a carbon analysis, I can't be more precise," Daniel replied with a slight pout. "I don't know the local climate to even try to date anything according to the erosion and build-up of sand. Or what kind of animals or microorganisms might attack the fabric."

"Well, wood survived," O'Neill commented. "And there are two beds in here - or their remains. Wouldn't want to try and sleep on this."

Catra snorted and peered inside. "I've slept on worse during training."

"Well, me too, but that doesn't mean I want to sleep on that."

"Better than no sleep at all or on the bare ground," Catra replied.

"True." O'Neill nodded. "And it even got a roof. Half of one."

"Better than nothing." Catra snorted. "Could house a platoon in this village easily. No place to hide transports, though. Much less tanks."

Adora frowned. As much as she liked Catra warming up to their guests and allies, she didn't like it when Catra talked about her time in the Horde like that. She wasn't in the Horde any more. The Horde wasn't any more. They were no longer enemies.

She saw Daniel use a knife to scratch the wall next to the door and walked over to him. "What did you find?"

The man cocked his head, taking a closer look. "It's a really primitive construction. Basically, mud bricks. Not fired, just dried." He rose. "I think this was built by survivors of the crash. If a System Lord had ordered a village built here, it would have used better materials."

"They could've been runaways," O'Neill pointed out.

"Runaways from what? There's no other settlement on the planet," Daniel retorted. "No, I think this was built by survivors from the crash."

Teal'c stepped inside the hut and picked up what looked like the remains of a chair. He blew at it, revealing a pattern on the wood. "A traditional Jaffa carving," he explained.

"Jaffa? That would fit the crew of the Al'Kesh," O'Neill said, nodding. "And the whole spartan interior. Humans would probably have looted the ship for better furniture."

"Why wouldn't Jaffa have done that?" Adora asked.

"If they had removed parts of the ship's furniture, it would have meant that repairs would have taken longer, should relief forces have arrived," Teal'c said. "That would have gone against the standing orders of most System Lords. Few Jaffa would have disobeyed such an order. Certainly not those trusted with what seems to have been a secret mission. "

Adora blinked. "You mean they lived…" She looked around. "They could've lived more comfortably if they had disobeyed orders? Taking chairs back would have cost, what, half an hour?"

Teal'c nodded.

"Now that reminds me of the Horde," Catra said. "Just that we did disobey such stupid orders whenever we could get away with it." She looked at the shipwreck. "We probably would've stripped the thing bare and blamed the Alliance if anyone asked."

"Personal comfort is not a priority for a Jaffa," Teal'c said.

"And, apparently, neither is thinking for yourself," Catra mumbled.

Adora winced as she nodded in agreement.

"Well, let's check the other buildings," Catra said. "Let's see what we find."

The next houses contained mostly the same - broken wood, sand and dust. "Where are the tools?" Adora asked. "How did they eat?"

"Their personal mess kits, probably," Teal'c replied.

"And where are those?" Adora asked.

"And the weapons," O'Neill added. "There are bound to be some staff weapons and zat'nik'tels around. There were none inside the ship."

So, the Jaffa took their weapons outside. Well, that made sense.

"They might've built an armoury," Catra speculated.

"Unlikely," Teal'c said. "A Jaffa is expected to carry and care for their weapons on such missions."

"Well, they certainly aren't expected to get drunk, then," Catra mumbled.

Adora was about to laugh as she ducked inside the next hut. But the sight of a corpse - well, a skeleton - stopped her short. "I found one of the crew," she said.

Catra was at the window in a second. "Oh… died in bed?" She cocked her head.

"It looks like they died…" Adora trailed off as she took a few steps closer and examined the ribcage. Which had several ribs missing. "Violently."

Catra slid through the window and joined her. She placed her hand at the ribcage's remains, then unsheathed her claws and moved the hand alongside the broken, missing ribs, matching the likely path that had cut deep into the man's side. "Whatever it was, it was bigger than my hand."

"And he was armed," Adora added, pointing at a small 'zat gun' which had fallen through the bed frame. There was what looked like a plate and a fork in a coner, too.

"Right."

*****​

"So, what happened?" the Colonel asked. "Chestbuster accident?"

Samantha Carter rolled her eyes before standing up and turning to face him. She knew he wasn't serious, but sometimes, his jokes were… not really appropriate. Or funny. "No, Sir," she replied, standing straighter - that was a good way to rebuke him without words, she had found - "the wounds were, as far as I can tell, and Catra agrees, caused by either a multi-bladed weapon or a set of claws."

"He was attacked in bed?" The Colonel raised his eyebrows.

"The wound wouldn't have been immediately fatal," Teal'c said. "A Jaffa wouldn't have lain there and died without taking their attacker with them. So, I concur that he was attacked somewhere else, killed whoever attacked him, and then returned to base before dying from his wounds."

"Or her," Adora pointed out.

"Most Jaffa on such missions are male," Teal'c replied, "but there is a possibility that this warrior was female, yes." He inclined his head.

"So…" The Colonel shook his head. "What are the odds that whatever or whoever took out a heavily armed Jaffa is still around?" The way he said it made it clear that he thought the question was rhetorical.

"Uh…" Adora frowned. "I guess that depends on how long ago this happened. And how old whoever did this can grow."

Well, the Etherians hadn't known the Colonel as long as Sam had.

"Could it have been another survivor?" Catra asked.

"Jaffa generally live for up to a hundred and fifty years - until we cannot take another symbiote and die," Teal'c said. "Since the survivor of the Al'Kesh's crew had no means to receive another symbiote, they could not have lived for longer than a few years."

Adora gasped, and Catra winced. "They… they knew they would die like this?" Adora asked.

"Yes." Teal'c nodded again.

"So… no Jaffa would have lived so long," Catra said.

"And we don't know any other species who would have lived for close to a thousand years," Daniel added. "With the exception of the Goa'uld, and they are a special case."

"We don't know how long the Nox live," Sam reminded the others.

The Colonel scoffed. "I doubt they would have attacked a Jaffa." He pressed his lips together. "But we know that every Jaffa had a symbiote. So, there were at least a dozen baby Goa'uld on this planet at one time."

Sam drew a short breath as she clenched her teeth. "And Goa'uld can take animals as hosts."

"And we detected life signs in the area when we scanned it from orbit," Entrapta piped up with a smile.

"Right. We could be surrounded by tigers possessed by snakes," the Colonel commented. "Don't let Hollywood hear about this."

"Hollywood?" Adora asked.

"The people who make their movies," Catra told her.

"Ah."

Daniel opened his mouth, no doubt about to correct them, but the Colonel clapped his hands together. "Right, people! We might be facing possessed animals with claws that make a Kodiak jealous. Stay sharp! No one is going off alone anywhere."

Sam nodded. If those were just animals, she wouldn't be very worried. But Goa'uld-possessed animals? They wouldn't kill the group - they would want hosts. She closed her eyes for a moment, shuddering at the sudden memories of her brief period of being a host. She'd rather be eaten alive by a bear than suffer that again.

"Does that mean that we won't look for their graveyard?" Daniel asked.

"No. We need to know what happened here," the Colonel said. Adora nodded in agreement.

Both Adora and Catra didn't look too concerned, Sam noticed. Entrapta didn't look concerned at all, but, well… the princess had different views of what was concerning.

"So… where could the city of the dead be?" the Colonel asked, standing at the window of the hut and peering outside.

Teal'c was already covering the door.

"Well, traditionally, it would be at quite a distance. But since they were stranded here and had limited resources, I don't think it would be too far away. If they were concerned about grave robbers, perhaps the people who shot them down, they would have been looking for sites that hid the graves," Daniel explained. "Although Jaffa burial rites might be different from Egyptian ones."

"For Jaffa following the Goa'uld, they usually follow the dictates of their false gods," Teal'c said.

"Then they would likely follow Egyptian traditions. Which, of course, varied over time."

"We didn't detect other weapons," Entrapta said. "So, they were either completely depleted or placed in locations where they would be shielded from scans. Or both." She pushed a button on her tool. "So… the closest such location would be the hill to the north. Well, the direction set as north here - we picked the pole kind of arbitrarily. But as long as everyone agrees that it's north, it's OK, I think."

"Yeah. How far is that?"

"About five of your miles!"

Not a short trip, but not a long hike, either. But walking, with potentially a dozen intelligent predators in the area? Through unknown terrain? And carrying whatever they might find back? "Sir, I suggest that we take the shuttle there," Sam said.

"Right. We're Air Force, not Army," the Colonel said. "We can…" he trailed off, and Sam saw him tense. "Did you see it as well, Teal'c?"

"Yes."

"What did you see?" Adora asked.

"A large creature hiding behind a hut," the Colonel replied.

"More than one," Entrapta said. "My scanner detects about a dozen surrounding us." She looked up. "And they are all about as large as Adora."

Melog growled.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 13: The Ruins

Ruins near crashed Al-Kesh, PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

A dozen creatures? As large as Adora? In her She-Ra form? Catra refrained from scoffing. She couldn't be overconfident. That way lay defeat. And death. But, still… "Creatures?" she asked.

"Looked like… some bear," O'Neill replied. "Just sleeker."

"Like a big cat, though without a tail," Teal'c added.

Had O'Neill hesitated to call it a cat because of her and Melog? Catra snorted. As if she'd take offence to that. "So, they've got us surrounded," she said. "Smart of them."

"That's typical pack predator behaviour," Daniel pointed out. "It's mostly instinct."

Melog growled. Goa'uld. One.

Catra tensed. "Melog's sensing a Goa'uld," she hissed.

"A Goa'uld? But we haven't…" Daniel trailed off. "So they did take an animal as host!" he blurted out.

That was obvious, of course.

"And they are the leader of a pack of man-sized predators. Amazon-sized, actually," O'Neill said, nodding at Adora.

Catra snorted at the mention of those mythical warrior-women from Earth. So much to tease Adora about.

Adora frowned. "What are they doing?"

"They're coming closer - they're using the ruins as cover," Entrapta said.

"Tell us before they get on the roof," O'Neill said. "They might attempt to draw our attention to the front, where we can see them, and sneak up on us from behind."

That would be a good tactic - there were no windows at the back. Catra looked up at the roof. It had several holes in it.

"Don't!" Adora hissed.

Catra rolled her eyes at her lover. "I can handle a creature or two." Especially with her shock-rod.

"Leave them to me. You go after the Goa'uld with Melog."

Catra blinked. That was actually a better plan than ambushing some creatures on the roof. But… "You're going to play distraction, right?"

Adora grinned at her. "Of course."

Catra gritted her teeth. It made sense, but she loathed it. Adora was risking herself again - or sacrificing herself.

"No one's rushing out without a plan!" O'Neill snapped.

"Just hurry up with the plan," Entrapta said. "They're almost here." Her hair pointed at the wall in the back.

"Oh for…" O'Neill clenched his teeth. "Adora, take them on the roof. We'll keep the front clear."

"And we're going to sneak out in the confusion and grab the leader," Catra said, patting Melog on the head.

Yes, they growled.

"Let's do it!" Adora jumped before she finished talking, straight through a hole in the roof, her shoulders knocking dirt and stone fragments loose as they pushed against the edges of the hole.

A moment later, a dozen creatures roared, and Entrapta yelled: "They're coming!"

Catra heard a dull noise followed by a screech - Adora had swatted or kicked one creature off the roof. Shaking her head, she looked at the hole herself, then jumped.

She had no problem fitting through the hole and easily landed on all fours on the roof, drawing her shock-rod at once. But Adora had the situation in hand - and one of the creatures, holding it at the neck while it tried to twist enough to reach her with its claws. Another jumped on the roof, claws the size of Catra's fingers digging into the stone as it turned to attack her.

Catra dashed forward, her own claws keeping her from slipping, and hit it with the shock-rod. The creature howled, froze for a moment, then collapsed.

"Catra!" Adora snapped, kicking another creature off the roof.

"I had to check if it worked," Catra defended herself.

Hunt.

Melog jumped off the roof.

Catra sighed and followed them. Behind her, shots rang out and the sounds of staff-weapon fire. And more howling. Well, she had a task to do. A snake to hunt down.

Melog was ahead, turning around the corner of the next hut, and Catra ran faster to catch up. Cover worked both ways, but Melog could sense the Goa'uld.

They weaved through the village, the sounds of fighting not lessening. The howling didn't stop either. That was how the Goa'uld led the others, Catra realised. That meant they were watching the fight.

She spotted the creature on the roof of the building at the edge of the village when they were about twenty yards away still. If they were fixated on the fighting, they could take them from behind by surprise.

Danger! Melog hissed.

Catra whirled. One of the creatures was pouncing on her, already in the air, claws out. Catra threw herself to the side, lashing out with her shock-rod but missing the creature as it flew past, crashing into the ground a yard away.

It quickly turned around, howling, but Catra was already moving towards it. Its claws dug into the earth, muscles twitching - Catra dropped to the ground, sliding the last yard as the creature jumped overhead. She rammed the rod straight up. This time, she didn't miss, and the creature collapsed in a heap behind her.

But the Goa'uld had watched - and was turning away. Trying to run. Melog was already racing toward it.

Catra cursed and gave chase.

*****​

Jack O'Neill fired a burst at the creature charging at the hut, catching it in mid-leap. The cat-thing roared and hit the dirt, rolling around with flailing limbs. Teal'c put a shot with his staff into it, and it fell silent. That was the third they had taken down so far.

The rest of the creatures withdrew back behind the huts around them. Smart. Too smart for Jack's taste. "Are we sure that those aren't Goa'uld?" he asked as he switched his magazine.

"I do not sense anything, Sir," Carter replied from the other side of the room.

That would have to do with the cat-detector away. "OK, we're currently holding the hut, but not doing any better…" he started to say.

"They're leaving!" Entrapta blurted out.

"What?" Jack turned to look down the street. He caught a shadow moving behind the huts. "Running north?"

"Yes!"

Damn. "They're after Catra!" Jack snapped. "We need to…"

Once more, he was interrupted.

"Catra!" Adora yelled. Then the hut shook a little, and dirt fell down from the roof - the amazon must have jumped off.

A moment later, he saw Adora land in the middle of the 'street' and running towards Catra's last known position.

Great.

"Should we move after them?" Teal'c asked.

"This might be a trap," Jack pointed out. "If we get caught in the open by those monsters…"

Daniel winced as Carter nodded in agreement.

"On the other hand, we just lost our roof cover," Jack went on. "If the creatures return, we can't keep them out." He looked at Teal'c. "You take point. Daniel, Entrapta, Carter - after him. I will bring up the rear."

Teal'c was already out and moving, not nearly as fast as he could run. Jack shooed Daniel and Entrata out, then nodded at Carter.

The dust thrown up by Adora was just settling when Jack left the hut, scanning left and right with his M4 at the ready. "The creatures are still headed north," Entrapta said.

"Good. Move it!"

Teal'c sped up a little, and they quickly passed the next huts. Jack caught a glimpse of Adora at the last hut - she was…

…throwing one of the creatures away. High enough so Jack didn't think the monster would survive the experience. "I bet she could out-mortar a mortar," he commented as they closed in on the last hut. He wasn't sure if he was joking.

"Catra!" Adora yelled again. Two creatures were on the ground next to her, Jack saw.

"We need to catch the Goa'uld!" That was Catra. But he couldn't see her from this spot.

Jack clenched his teeth.

Adora jumped over the hut, presumably after Catra, and more howling and growling followed.

Teal'c cleared the corner and raised his staff, firing before Jack reached him. A howling noise told him that Teal'c had hit one of the creatures.

"Carter, keep them safe!" Jack snapped before he turned the corner, keeping low.

Something moved in the bush to his right, and Jack almost put a burst into it. But he didn't know where the two cats on his side were.

The creature crashing through the bush was neither Catra nor Melog, and Jack fired another burst at it as he dived to the side.

The monster overshot, sliding a few yards from sheer momentum, and as it whirled, Carter put several rounds into it. It collapsed in a growing pool of blood.

Another ran out from the back of the hut, claws digging into the soil, but Jack stopped it with a burst to the head before it could close with them. A third tried to run, but Teal'c got it before it reached the next bush.

Jack stood as Teal'c passed him. "How many of them are left?"

"Uh… three! Not including the one Catra and Adora are chasing!" Entrapta replied.

Three? They could take three.

"One on the roof!" Entrapta yelled.

Jack whirled, raising his gun, as the monster jumped off the roof, straight at him. Jack's rounds went wide as he dived into a combat roll forward, barely avoiding the claws of the thing.

He came up with his M4 swinging around, but the monster was too fast. Instead of shooting it, Jack slammed the muzzle of his gun into the side of its head.

And that didn't stop it from crashing into him.

Jack tried to roll with the punch and pulled his legs in, kicking out as he hit the ground, and the creature flew past him - directly in the blast of Teal'c's staff.

That was… Jack hissed in pain, checking his chest. The claws had sliced through his vest and webbing and into his shoulder. It bled, but it wasn't very deep - it only hurt a little...

"Colonel!"

"Jack!"

"There are two left!" Jack snapped.

"One," Entrapta corrected him. "And it's running north."

Then Carter was opening his vest and pushing it away, revealing his wound. She winced.

"It's not bad," Jack told her. It didn't really hurt much.

Carter shook her head.

"Jack!" Daniel hissed. "I can see the bone!"

"What?" That made no sense. That would hurt a lot more.

Jack blinked. It didn't hurt at all, now. "Oh. My side's going numb."

"The claws must have some poison!" Carter spat through clenched teeth.

"Antidote!" Daniel snapped, patting his webbing down.

"I doubt it's a nerve gas," Jack told him. And if it wasn't, then the antidote would only make things worse.

"Adora!" Entrapta yelled. "Jack's hurt badly!"

A moment later, her voice, much, much louder, repeated her words.

Jack blinked again, then grinned. "That's a real handy thing…" He snorted, then coughed. Breathing got kind of harder…

*****​

"Adora! Jack's hurt badly!"

Adora clenched her teeth as she heard Entrapta's shout. The fleeing Goa'uld and his last creature were barely ahead of her - she could see them. She had almost caught up. But Entrapta wouldn't yell like this if Jack didn't need help right now.

"Go! We can handle them!" Catra passed her, Melog at her side.

Adora cursed under her breath. They were right. She loathed it - Catra was risking herself fighting two of those creatures, one of them a Goa'uld - but they were right.

"Don't get killed!" she yelled and turned around, running all-out back to the ruins.

The area was littered with the corpses of the creatures, many of them smoking - SG-1 had taken out a lot of them. But… there! Jack was on the ground, Carter kneeling with him and… kissing him? No, breathing into his mouth.

"He's been poisoned," Entrapta told her. "The claws of the creatures are coated with venom."

They were? Adora hadn't noticed. Then again, she hadn't let them scratch her. Her eyes widened, and she looked back over her shoulder. Catra didn't know about that!

"His body is shutting down," Carter gasped before breathing into Jack's mouth again.

"We've got an antidote, but we don't know if it'll help or make it worse," Daniel said.

"My scans are inconclusive - I've never encountered this kind of venom before," Entrapta added, biting her lower lip. "So…"

Adora nodded and pointed her sword at Jack. Then she closed her eyes and focused on her magic. Her power. Jack needed to be healed.

She opened her eyes again, and a wave of magic shot out from the tip of her sword and into Jack.

He tensed, gasping and choking, his eyes shooting open, while her magic worked on him. After a few seconds, she lowered her sword.

Jack gulped down air, panting and coughing. "That… that was…"

"Sir! Don't move!" Carter snapped. "You're hurt and poisoned."

"I don't feel hurt any more," Jack replied, blinking. He glanced at the bandage on his chest. "And I don't feel numb any more either."

"Sir!"

"Jack!"

But Jack pulled the bandage away, revealing smooth skin underneath it. "So that's magical healing. Wow."

Adora nodded. "I can heal people." And plants. And animals, probably.

"Thanks. I thought I was a goner." He smiled, then looked at Carter. "Kept me alive, huh?"

"I rendered first aid, but…" Carter tilted her head. "We were about to hit you with an antidote."

"Ah." Jack nodded.

Adora looked at Entrapta. "Any trace of the poison left?"

"Uh… not that I can tell. But I didn't notice the venom on their claws before."

Adra nodded. "I'll be back." She dashed away. Catra was still out there, alone with just Melog, fighting creatures with poisoned claws. If anything happened to her…

She ran through scraggly bushes, up a dune - there were tracks in the sand! Pawprints and Catra's footprints. From the crest of the dune, she could see a forest in the distance - and Catra fighting a creature. Damn!

Adora ran as fast as she could, down the slope, cursing at the sand slowing her down. Catra needed her help!

She panted as she reached the bottom of the dune, briefly losing sight of Catra, then sped up, sand getting thrown up with every step she took. She reached the next crest, and there was Catra, facing a creature trying to circle around her. Her shock-rod crackled, but the creature jumped back.

Adora snarled and charged with her sword. The creature saw her coming and whirled, trying to flee, but Adora threw her sword. The blade caught it in mid-jump, spearing its side, and the creature collapsed in the sand.

"Melog's gone after the Goa'uld!" Catra snapped.

Careful! They have poison on their claws!" Adora told her as she summoned her sword again.

"Really?" Catra scoffed. "This way."

"Jack almost died," Adora told her as they raced up the next dune, following Melog's tracks.

"I heard Entrapta yelling."

That wasn't the point! "Let me fight it!" Adora snapped.

"I've got the shock-rod! We need the Goa'uld alive!"

"I can take them alive!" Adora could!

"And what if you get poisoned? Who's going to heal you?" Catra snarled.

"I won't get poisoned."

"Neither will I!" Catra shot back.

They reached the crest of the next dune and stopped. The Goa'uld wasn't moving any more - it was standing in the sand, looking at… nothing?

"Oh!" Catra whispered. "Melog got it caught in an illusion."

Right. Melog could do that.

Catra grinned. "See? Easy!" She sauntered - sauntered! - down the slope, walking casually up to the Goa'uld, twirling her shock-rod.

Adora followed her, scowling. This was too easy.

Catra smirked at her. Then she stuck the creature in the side. Crackling electricity warped over the creature, and it howled.

But it didn't go down - it whirled, lashing out with its claws.

Catra jumped back, snarling, and dodged the swipe. "Want another one? Here!" She lunged, giving the creature another shock. "Tough bastard!"

This time, the creature went down, twitching and groaning. They had… It opened its mouth, and a small thing flew out of it - and at Catra.

Before Adora could react, Catra swatted at it with her free hand - and sliced it in half with her claws. "Damn," she spat, grimacing at the sight of a bisected snake in the sand.

"So much for catching them alive," Adora said.

"It was a reflex!" Catra defended herself. "I didn't expect the idiot to charge me like that!"

"Right!"

*****​

The Colonel was safe. Healed. Samantha Carter couldn't help staring at his chest. Instead of a gaping wound that exposed the bones beneath, there was only smooth skin covering muscles. She raised her hand, then lowered it. She wouldn't poke the skin like some… whatever.

"Amazing," Daniel whispered. "I mean, they told us about magical healing, but to see it like this…"

"We've seen Goa'uld healing devices before," the Colonel said. He was poking his chest, of course, and Sam couldn't help thinking that he looked a little shaken. "Remember Kendra?"

"But she required a Goa'uld Healing Device," Daniel replied. "This was just magic. Unless the sword is a healing device."

"You know of devices that can heal?" Entrapta stepped in front of Daniel and the Colonel, eyes shining. "Without magic?"

"Yessss?" The Colonel looked like he was facing down another dangerous creature.

"Fascinating! Where can we get them? It would revolutionise healthcare if we didn't need sorceresses any more for healing!"

"Well, from the Goa'uld, but I believe they are quite rare," Daniel told her. "And you need a high concentration of Naquadah in your blood to use them, or so we believe."

That was the common theory, Sam knew. If it was true, then she might be able to use such a device herself, after her possession. She wasn't quite sure if that was a good or bad thing - she was a scientist, not a doctor.

"Really?"

"The only one we saw using one was a former Goa'uld host," the Colonel said as he tried to close his shirt. Which Sam had cut off in her haste to save him.

"Oh. I wonder how that works. In any case, that shouldn't be a problem - we can insert Naquadah into people's bodies, can't we? In safe doses." Entrapta leaned forward with a smile.

"Well…" The Colonel grimaced and looked at Sam.

"We don't know if that is possible without a Goa'uld being present in the body, nor do we know what would be a safe dose," she explained.

"Then we'll have to find out!" Entrapta beamed at her. "This will be great!"

"We would have to find a Goa'uld with such a device, first," the Colonel said. "I doubt that anyone on this planet has such a device."

"Indeed." Teal'c nodded. "Absent a Goa'uld, such a mission would not have included such a device."

"Yeah, right. So, has anyone seen our resident magical girl?" The Colonel looked around as he pulled on his webbing. Or tried to. Sam had cut through that as well.

"Oh, let me fix that!" Entrapta's hair reached out and pulled the damaged webbing to her - and with it the Colonel.

"Hey!"

"It won't take long!" And the princess was wielding pliers and… was that a welding kit?

Sam took a step closer and watched while she reattached the torn webbing.

"There!"

"Uh, thanks." The Colonel looked bemused. "But honestly, where are Adora and Catra?"

"Oh!" Entrapta pulled out her main tool - Sam really had to copy that - and fiddled with it. "They're… coming back to us."

And there they were. Adora and Catra, and Melog. They looked unhurt, but Catra looked angry, and Adora looked… amused?

"Did the snake get away?" the Colonel asked.

"Not exactly," Adora replied, glancing at Catra.

Catra rolled her eyes. "They surprised me, and…" She held up her hand. A Goa'uld dangled from it. No, two halves of a Goa'uld dangled from her fingers.

"Ah." The Colonel nodded. "Better safe than sorry, trust me - you don't want a snake burrowing into you.

Sam shuddered at the memories that brought up.

"Would've still been great to capture one for interrogation," Catra said.

"They would've needed a host to communicate," Sam pointed out.

"We could've stuck them in an animal and made them write out answers," Catra replied. "Well, there should be other snakes on the planet, right? One per dead Jaffa?"

"Unless they fought amongst each other," Daniel told her. With a grimace, he added: "This one might have consumed the others."

"Ew." Catra and Adora made faces. Catra frowned at the corpse.

"Well, we can still find out information from a corpse!" Entrapta said.

Sam hoped she meant an autopsy. But with magic - and with Entrapta - it was hard to tell.

"Go wild," Catra said, handing the two parts over.

"Yes!" Entrapta's head bopped as she nodded.

"But maybe do that after we searched the tombs?" Daniel asked. "Searched for them, I mean."

"The dead won't move," Catra told him.

"But if there are more Goa'uld survivors on the planet, then they will now know of our presence here," Daniel retorted. "We should find the graveyard quickly. Before more of those creatures arrive."

That was a good argument.

"I'll have to preserve the corpse, though," Entrapta said. "Let's go back to the shuttle and put it in the freezer!"

"The freezer?" The Colonel asked with a grin. "Not some fancy magical stasis field?"

"Oh, no. Those require a sorcerer or sorceress to set up," Entrapta replied. "That's kinda bothersome if you don't have one with you."

"Ah, of course." The Colonel forced a smile on his face.

Sam couldn't help but grin at this - he should know better than to assume anything about the Etherians by now.

*****​

Crashed Al-Kesh, PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Standing on the ramp of the shuttle, Catra fiddled with the sanitiser. Blood on her claws was the worst. If she forgot about it and retracted her claws, it would get all icky. And if she didn't, it dried, and she had to scrape it off her claws. Which was a pain with both claws out.

"Let me help." Adora reached out to her.

Catra turned away with a scowl. "I can clean myself up, thank you very much." She didn't need any help - this should be natural. She'd done it before, even once when she had hurt Adora, and… Not going there.

"Please!"

Perhaps she should start licking the claws clean. That would show Adora that she wasn't helpless.

"Let me do this for you." Adora grabbed her shoulder and gently turned her around.

Catra found herself staring at Adora's smiling face. So close to her own, and so… so… "Fine!" she spat, feeling herself blush a little as she thrust both claws and bottle into her lover's face.

Adora beamed at her and quickly started cleaning her claws.

Catra tried not to fidget too much. This reminded her of the time she had gotten her hand hurt in training, and Adora had sneaked a bottle of disinfectant to treat it.

She wasn't quite sure how to feel about that.

"There!"

Catra flexed her claws, cocking her head to inspect them, then retracted them and unsheathed them several times in a row. "Looks fine." She bared her fangs. "I can slice the next snake now."

"Catra!"

"I'm joking!" she said and nodded at the interior of the shuttle. "Did they store the corpse?"

"I think so." Adora frowned. "Didn't you hear them?"

She had been distracted. Catra shrugged. "I was focusing on watching you."

"Oh."

Now Adora was blushing as well.

"Alright! Now that the snake's on ice, let's go check the graveyard, so Daniel stops fidgeting."

"Jack!"

"What? You were fidgeting."

"We only have an approximative location," Catra heard Daniel complain as the others approached them. "We don't know if the tombs are there - or if there are tombs. Some cultures leave their dead for the carrion eaters."

Ew. That sounded gross.

"What's wrong, Catra?"

Catra turned to look at Adora. "Daniel just explained that some people leave their dead for the carrion eaters to dispose of."

"Ew!"

"It's actually a fascinating religious practice," Daniel explained as he stepped on the ramp. "And not any grosser than, say, mummification."

"Mummification?" Adora asked.

Daniel explained.

Ew. Those Earth people were weird.

"Anyway, we're going to fly to the location," Daniel said. "So…"

"Yeah, let's go," Catra said.

The flight didn't take long - a minute including take-off and landing - and soon they were looking at a hill.

"Well, there are empty spaces inside the hill, according to my scanner. So, either natural caves or tombs," Entrapta said.

"And they hid the entrance?" Adora asked.

"Probably to deter grave robbers, although that seems not quite effective if scanners still show the graves. And, of course, if the graves were meant to be found by their system lord, hiding the entrance without some hint or clue might be counter-productive," Daniel explained. "The closeness to the wreck would make it easy to find."

"Yeah, yeah. The question is: Can we find the entrance?" O'Neill asked.

"It should be here," Entrapta said, pointing ahead. "There's a tunnel behind the rock there."

Catra turned to Adora. "Well, get moving and lifting."

Adora pouted at her but started walking towards the rock. Catra followed her, together with the others.

The rock was double the size of her and didn't seem to have any convenient handholds - probably rolled in place with the help of a lever. Adora didn't bother with either - she reached around it, grabbed it somehow, and heaved.

She turned, took a step and dropped the rock on the ground, where it rolled a little to the side.

Catra was already looking at the tunnel opening she had revealed. It was rough - almost like a natural cave. But the walls and the ceiling were…

"They must have burned their way in. This wasn't drilled or built," Daniel said.

"Yeah. I didn't expect stonework after the mud huts," O'Neill commented. "But this must have cost a lot of power."

"Several staff weapons' worth," Teal'c confirmed.

"So…" O'Neill looked at them. "It was important."

"Yes." Daniel nodded.

"Not important enough to make nice walls with big hieroglyphs praising their lord, though," O'Neill went on.

Daniel blinked. "That might just be the entrance, trying to look natural."

"With a big rock in front of it. And people would still explore a natural cave. It's what we do." O'Neill shook his head.

Catra agreed with him. Who wouldn't explore a cave like this, natural or not? "So, it's trapped."

O'Neill grinned. "I think so. And I doubt it's a big round rock that Daniel can outrun."

"Jack!"

"You'd need a hat and a whip, anyway."

"Jack!"

Ah. Again a reference to the 'movie' they mentioned. "So… do we spring the trap, or do we try to find it and dismantle it?" Catra asked.

"I would suggest we do it the way that won't get us hurt," O'Neill replied with a toothy smile.

Of course, Adora just had to speak up. "Oh, I think I can take it."

*****​

Tombs, PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Playing Indiana Jones. It wasn't the first time, it probably wouldn't be the last, but it wasn't funny and would never be. Jack O'Neill knew that. The snakes - the Jaffa, in this case - would have left some nasty surprises to deal with anyone entering whatever they had been hiding here who wasn't their master. And now Adora was talking tough.

"You might be wrong," Jack told her. "The Jaffa probably rigged this to defend against the Goa'uld you killed."

"Yes?" Adora looked as if she didn't get what that meant.

"It means that whatever measures they took, they planned to defend against a supernaturally tough creature that could keep coming at them as long as they survived to possess a new body," Carter explained.

"Resetting traps?" Daniel, of course, looked surprised. "How would they manage that? Without us detecting that, I mean."

Which was a good question. Jack looked at Carter.

"They could have found a way to shield the traps' power supplies. Or they might have used an Ancient Device. That is less likely, of course. And I doubt they would have anticipated magical sensors. But the most obvious solution is that they would have rigged a charge to destroy the entire facility in case of an unauthorised breach," Carter said.

That, at last, gave Adora pause. And made Catra scowl. "See?" the catwoman said. "Don't blindly charge in."

"I wasn't planning to!" Adora retorted. "But if anything goes wrong, I'm the one most likely to survive it."

"You're also the one most likely to heal people if something goes wrong," Catra shot back.

"Right. So how about we don't risk people at all?" Jack asked, looking at Entrapta.

"Oh! I can rig up a remote-controlled bot! That way, we don't risk anyone getting hurt!" The Princess beamed. "Though my scanners don't show any bomb big in the hill. No Naquadah. No reactor."

"Did you check for chemical charges?" Jack asked.

"Oh…" Entrapta pulled out her scanner thingie again. "Oh! There's some large space filled with a compound that would combust very easily."

"They've rigged the tomb to blow," Jack said.

"But what are they hiding in there if it doesn't have Naquadah?" Daniel shook his head. "Ancient Tech is based on that metal, isn't it?"

"Normally, yes," Carter told him. "But there's no indication that they had to use it for everything. Although if they didn't, the odds of anything surviving so long are… not very high."

"You can say 'zero', Carter," Jack said.

"There's always a chance, Sir."

He didn't sigh, but he smiled. "Yes. And we've found that out the hard way before. So… we need to find a way to defuse that bomb. Preferably without standing in front of the tunnel opening, which will channel the blast." He turned to Entrapta. "Show me the data, please."

To her credit, she didn't argue and showed him the setup with a portable holographic display. The geeks at Stargate Command would faint if offered such a device. Focus, Jack, he reminded himself. He wasn't a scientist, and he had no clue about Ancient Tech, but he knew a lot about explosives. And if Entrapta's magic scanner didn't pick up Naquadah or anything nuclear, then the Jaffa must have used chemical explosives to trap the tomb. Maybe even homebrewed from stuff available in the ship.

And Jack was quite familiar with those kinds of explosives. Had brewed up some of his own on some missions. He studied the plans, walking around the display. There was a thin wall between the explosives and the rest of the installation. The explosion would completely wreck the area. Might crack the hill too - Jack had seen what happened to underground armouries if something blew up. "We need to get a lot further away to be safe," he said. "Unless we want to risk getting crushed by flying debris the size of tanks."

"I can protect us against that," Adora said.

Catra elbowed her. "You don't have to because we'll be safe in the shuttle."

"And how do you disarm it?" Entrapta asked. "It looks like the trigger here is… oh… connected to the trigger there, and…"

"Interconnected triggers," Jack said. "Rigged to blow if anyone single one gets tampered with. But they're old. Might not work as planned any more."

"And the chemicals might have degraded," Carter added.

"Becoming inert - or unstable," Jack said. They would have to be very, very careful there. "You don't have a way to magically turn explosives into plants or so?"

"Uh…" Adora bit her lower lip. "I don't think so."

Pity. That would've been great.

"Then we need to take out all triggers simultaneously," Jack said.

"Oh! Multiple remote-controlled bots!" Entrapta beamed. "That should be a challenge. Although I suppose if I program them correctly, they can all execute a predetermined sequence of actions at the same time. Each would need their own code, of course, and the signal lag…"

"Since signal lag will be a factor, but the orders won't be time-critical," Carter cut in, "what about having synchronised clocks in each bot, so they can execute orders at the same time?"

"Obviously, yes! Though we might have to repurpose some scanners to synchronise the clocks. Perhaps if we use a crystal as the…"

Jack purposely tuned the technobabble out. It wasn't as if he would be able to follow it once the two women started discussing the nuts and bolts of the task. "Alright, folks - let's move to the shuttle for safety's sake," he said, clapping his hands.

As safe as you could be, at least, when Carter and Entrapta started building experimental tech.

*****​

"They're still at it."

Sitting on the shuttle's ramp, looking at the hill, Adora turned her head and looked at Catra as her lover joined her, handing over a cup of tea. "Thanks."

She took the cup in both hands and sipped. Almost too hot. Adora blew on the liquid.

Catra snorted and swallowed half her own cup.

"Cats are supposed to be more sensitive to heat."

Catra snorted as Daniel joined them, another cup of tea in his hand. "Cat's aren't supposed to do what they are supposed to do," she said.

"Touché," Daniel replied.

"'Touché'?" Adora tilted her head at him.

"It's an expression from fencing; it means you scored a point - touched your opponent," Daniel explained. "Fencing as, ah, a competitive sport, not the actual fighting."

Ah. Adora nodded. That made more sense than what she had thought the first time.

"So, what do you think the Jaffa hid in the tomb? If it's even a tomb."

"Well, there's no Naquadah - unless they found a way to shield it," Daniel said. "So, I doubt that there's a stasis pod containing another Goa'uld."

"And no Naquadah-based technology," Adora said.

"We shouldn't assume that they couldn't shield Naquadah," Catra said.

"The Goa'uld don't know about magic," Daniel objected. "How can you shield something against something that you don't even know exists, much less how it works?"

"By accident," Catra said. "Drove the instructors crazy if you did something that wrecked their plans while trying something else."

Adora snorted. "You mean: 'while appearing to try something else'," she corrected her lover.

Catra flashed her a toothy grin.

"Ah." Daniel nodded. "I had the impression that Horde training methods were rather rigid."

"The Horde's whole damn doctrine was rigid," Catra muttered. "We did a lot better when I started to mix things up."

"Yes." Adora pressed her lips together. She didn't want to talk about the Horde. "But if it's not Naquadah, what could it be? They were sent to recover Stargates, weren't they?"

"According to what we know, yes," Daniel said.

"They were recovering Stargates so that Horde Prime or the First Ones couldn't get them," Catra said. "Did anyone analyse what weapons shot the ship?"

"Sam - Captain Carter - said that the spectral analysis didn't match any known weapon systems," Daniel said.

"So they weren't shot at by other Goa'uld since we know their weapons thanks to you. And you guys got the data on Horde Prime weapons and Darla's weapons, meaning First Ones," Catra said. "That leaves…?"

"...unknown weapons," Adora replied.

"Or First Ones that we don't know yet," Catra added. "But yes, probably unknown weapons."

"A new species or culture, perhaps?" Daniel beamed.

Adora sighed and looked at Catra, who was not quite snarling.

"Did I miss something?" Daniel asked.

"You know what Horde Prime did to planets whose population resisted?" Catra asked.

And likely to planets that didn't resist.

Daniel blinked. "Oh. And since they were shooting at a Goa'uld ship, they would likely have resisted Horde Prime as well."

"Yes." Adora nodded. "If they took anything with the Stargate, it might be the last remnants of a destroyed planet. And they obviously didn't think that the Stargate was more important since they didn't hide it."

"They might not have been able to hide it. If they could hide a Stargate, then they can hide Naquadah from sensors, and all bets are off," Catra pointed out.

"Right." Adora nodded. "We'll find out once the others have the bots ready."

"It's actually more of a drone since they cannot make any decisions autonomously," Daniel said.

Adora snorted and shook her head. As if that difference mattered.

*****​

"Alright! We've got the bots all ready. Well, they are technically not bots since their programming isn't complex enough, so it's more like…"

"They are remote-controlled drones," Sam said.

Entrapta pouted for a moment, then nodded. "And we're going to send them inside to find and disable all bombs and other traps in the tomb!"

"Carefully," Jack said. "Very carefully."

"Yes," Daniel agreed. "We don't want to destroy whatever is hidden in this hill."

"We won't! We've found the traps already, thanks to our scanner!" Entrapta said. "Jack just has to defuse them all!"

"No pressure," Jack mumbled as he sat down at the screen that Sam and Entrapta had rigged up to control the bots. "The worst that can happen is that everything blows up."

"Including the planet," Teal'c commented, which earned him a nasty glare from Jack.

Adora didn't think it was funny either. You didn't joke about blowing up planets.

She blinked. Teal'c didn't joke as a rule, did he?

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 14: The Hill

Tombs, PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Was that a joke about blowing a planet?" Samantha Carter heard Adora ask.

She shook her head. "With enough Naquadah to enhance an explosion, it's possible. Not likely since there are much easier and cheaper ways to scorch a planet, but possible." Sam had done the calculations herself, once. Just in case. Earth didn't have enough Naquadah to blow up a planet, but it wouldn't take a second Manhattan Project to achieve the necessary amount. Just a focus on gathering the metal.

"Ra had a planet blown up at least once, to make an example out of a rebellious subordinate," Teal'c added.

"We'll have to take that into account when we plan Earth's protection," Adora said. "And Etheria's."

"Depending on how big such a bomb is, we'll need a way to intercept bombers such as this Al'Kesh," Catra added.

"You need interceptors," the Colonel said with a grin. "I've been saying that for a long time. Those Death Gliders just don't cut it."

"They serve the System Lords well enough," Teal'c said.

"And they are proven design," Sam added.

"Yeah, but they are ugly, and they don't exactly fit our doctrine," the Colonel retorted. "I'm sure you can come up with a better design. Multi-role aircraft. Aerospace craft."

"Spacecraft design isn't amongst my primary duties or experience," Sam told him and straightened.

"Oh! But it sounds like fun! I'm sure we can come up with some nice designs!" Entrapta piped up. "Multi-role, you said? It would probably be hard to design one that could replace a frigate, but it should be able to replace the Al'Kesh and Death Glider. Bomber and interceptor? Oh, I've got some ideas…"

"Make sure it looks good," the Colonel said, and the princess nodded eagerly. "Like an F-15."

Sam couldn't tell if he was joking.

"I hate to interrupt this design committee, but could we get on with defusing the massive bomb in the hill across of us?" Daniel said.

"Right, right." The Colonel took a deep breath and sat down in front of the screen that showed the drones' camera feeds. "Let's do it." He briefly flexed his fingers and took control of the first drone.

He hadn't piloted such a drone before, but there was no sense of uncertainty or hesitation that Sam could spot - the drone flew straight towards the open cave, smoothly entered it and then slowed down as it travelled further inside. "Alright," he said. "Now, how do those manipulators work?"

"Oh, let me show you." Entrapta almost climbed into his lap as she took the controls and demonstrated.

Sam pressed her lips together and shook her head; the Colonel even blushed. But he quickly started using the manipulator arms - Sam had taken notes of the design; the vehicles at Stargate Command could use those as well - and started approaching what seemed to be the first trap.

"Alright. I need some x-ray vision here."

"There!" A strand of hair darted forward, and the stone wall on the screen turned transparent. As impressive as it looked, Sam had a few ideas about how she could make that more efficient once she had access to her lab in Cheyenne Mountain. The Etherians were a little behind Earth in displaying sensor readings. Though they had HUDs, in as much as Entrapta's visor could copy the functionality, they were not widespread.

The Colonel studied the screen, then pointed at one line. "Can you check where this one leads?"

Sam leaned forward. The line led straight back to the main chemical storage and to what looked like a detonator. Although it was also connected to other lines. "I think that's the line to cut, Sir," she said.

"I think so as well - one of them, at least. Alright, let's drill. Carefully."

Sam glanced at Daniel while the Colonel used the laser drill Sam and Entrapta had rigged up. Her friend was biting his lower lip so hard, she expected him to hurt himself any moment.

"Daniel, relax, we're safe here," Adora told him with a smile and in a low voice that the Colonel wouldn't hear. "Even if the entire hill blows up, the shields will protect us."

Sam hid a smile of her own at Daniel's surprised reaction and denials. "I'm not worried about our safety."

Catra loudly snorted.

Daniel pouted. "I am worried about what we may lose should the hill be destroyed."

Catra shrugged. "If it gets destroyed, we'll never know what it was, so why worry?"

Daniel gaped at her. He took a deep breath, no doubt to lecture her, when the Colonel snapped: "Could you keep it down a little? Defusing bombs is a delicate business."

Daniel's mouth snapped shut so quickly, Sam had to hide another grin.

The Colonel wasn't even paying attention any more - he was already piloting the next drone to the next trigger. "I could really get used to this," he commented. "Flying drones and see-through-walls sensors? Intel would kill for this."

"They don't have to," Entrapta said. "We can show them how to build them! It's easy!"

For Entrapta. Although Sam was sure she could duplicate the drones as well, except for the magical sensor. That she would have to procure from Entrapta.

Unless the Colonel could be convinced to learn how to build them. She almost snickered at the thought of his reaction if she made such a proposal. And then she imagined what would happen if the brass did this, and her amusement vanished. Depending on how rare such a talent was amongst humans on Earth, this could very well happen.

*****​

Catra narrowed her eyes as she watched O'Neill work. It was impressive to see him pilot the bots like that, but it was also quite informative. He was a good fighter on the ground and a good pilot. Which was a good thing since a single mistake would end up with the hill blowing up. Of course they didn't know what the Jaffa had hidden inside the complex, so she shouldn't really be bothered or care overly much about it. But still…

She glanced at Adora, who was biting her lower lip as she watched. "Relax," she whispered, repeating Adora's own words. "We're safe here."

That made Adora glare at her - but she wasn't trying to pierce her lips any more. "I'm aware of that."

"Good."

Catra smiled and patted Adora's back before returning to watch O'Neill - just in time to see him lean back and sigh.

"Alright, I think that's it. Now, all we have to do is to cut all the lines at the same time."

"Yes!" Entrapta grinned widely - and slightly derangedly. "Now, we can find out if my program works!"

"'Now'?" O'Neill asked.

"We've tested it. Sir," Carter told him.

"Ah."

"But this is the first live test!" Entrapta's hair twitched. "Ready?"

"Go ahead."

"Yes!" She reached out and pushed a button. The screen split into half a dozen cameras, one of them showing the outside of the hill. Then she pushed another button, and lasers hit five lines.

Catra held her breath, but the hill didn't blow up. She released it silently.

Daniel's relieved sigh was much louder, of course.

"OK, they worked!" Entrapta nodded. "So… let's go inside!"

"Let's keep the drones working," O'Neill corrected her. "There's still enough explosives in that hill to vaporise it - to use a scientific term."

"I do not think the explosives are powerful enough to turn the stone and rock into vapour," Teal'c told him.

"It's a figure of speech, Teal'c."

"I see."

Catra narrowed her eyes a little - was the big guy joking? It was very hard to tell. But O'Neill had the right idea - better to risk a bot than a person. Although he might've just wanted to keep piloting the bots.

The screen changed again, only showing one perspective now - the one of the bot O'Neill piloted. He manoeuvred it down the tunnel until it met a door.

"It's a wooden door," Entrapta said. "I don't see any traps on it."

"Not a lock, either, though - they just put a metal block in and welded it closed," O'Neill said.

"Probably with a staff weapon," Carter said.

"But was it to keep people out - or to keep whatever is inside from getting out? Let's find out." O'Neill moved the manipulator arm up, and a laser hit the hinges. "If you want to keep someone out, you put the hinges on the other side…"

"Jaffa are generally not the best architects - at least the ones trusted with such missions," Teal'c said.

Catra didn't comment. As the hinges were cut, the door fell to the ground.

"And… another tunnel!" O'Neill said. "I knew that we should've picked door number tree!"

"There was only one door," Entrapta said. "And another coming up."

"Sorry, Jack's making references to another TV show," Daniel said.

"Oh."

"Just trying to lighten the mood before Indiana Daniel grinds his teeth down with worry," O'Neill claimed. "And… another door!"

"I just told you that," Entrapta said.

"Yes, you did. Same setup as before?"

"Yes."

More hinges were cut. But this time, they had to cut the welded parts of the 'lock' as well.

The tunnel behind it opened into a large room. A room with walls filled with holes. And in the holes…

"That's the graveyard. There must be… two dozen graves," Daniel whispered.

"And full of Jaffa," O'Neill said. "But one is different." He moved the bot forward to an empty hole.

"That must have been meant for the Jaffa whose body we found in the ruins," Daniel said. "But… where's the staff weapon they used to seal this grave?"

"And what's in the third grave from the right?" Entrapta asked. "It's denser than a corpse."

"Looks like a corpse," O'Neill said.

"It's behind the body."

Catra didn't wince when O'Neill dragged the dead Jaffa out of the niche and dumped the body on the floor. The sight of a skeleton covered with leathery skin falling apart as it hit the stone was rather gruesome, but it was just a thousand-year-old corpse - she'd seen far worse in the war.

"It looks like… A cube," O'Neill said. "A fancy one."

Catra narrowed her eyes. The cube looked familiar - half the size of a head. "Where have I seen this before?" She muttered. Then she remembered. "I saw one in Horde Prime's flagship."

"Oh." Carter leaned forward. "It doesn't look like the other examples of his technology that we've seen."

Catra shook her head. "It wasn't. It was a trophy."

It looked like Adora's theory that this belonged to an unknown species destroyed by Horde Prime was correct.

Yeah, losing that could have been bad.

*****​

"So… what are we looking at?" Jack O'Neill asked as Carter and Entrapta bent over the cube now resting on a table. They had barely waited for the drone he piloted to put it down in the shuttle before grabbing it.

"We don't know yet, Sir," Carter replied. "But it's not a battery."

"It has connectors for power lines - not a standard format, though - but no power source or storage inside," Entrapta added, staring at her scanner. "And the crystal formations inside do look somewhat familiar."

"Our current theory is that it is a data storage device," Carter said.

Data was good. "Great." Jack smiled. "So, what's on it?"

Both of the women looked at him with frowns on their faces.

"We don't know yet, sir." Carter didn't roll her eyes, but he could tell she wanted to. "This is an alien device, with a different computer technology, architecture and programming language. We haven't encountered this technology before. Just building an adapter so we can power it up will take a while. Then we have to find a way to read the data and may have to decrypt it."

"So… tomorrow at the latest?" Jack joked with a grin.

Carter gave him that 'You know better than that, Sir' look of hers, but Entrapta seemed to take him seriously.

"We can't say yet. It depends on how different the technology is. The basic principles for crystal-based data storage are the same, or should be, but the data format and encryption…" The princess shrugged. "It's hard to say how long this will take. If the encryption is sufficiently advanced, we might not be able to crack it at all!" she added with a smile. "Wouldn't that be interesting?"

"Can't you check with the fleet for information?" Daniel asked. He was staring at the cube like… Well, like an archaeologist at a new site. This was a data cube from a - probably - lost civilisation. Pretty much a holy grail for him.

"We can and did, but they have no data about this. Horde Prime didn't share whatever he knew about this cube," Entrapta said.

"If he even knew anything about it, except for which species had built it," Catra said with a scowl. "He wanted trophies, not data."

"That would've been a waste!" Entrapta protested.

Jack refrained from pointing out that a warlord who rendered entire species extinct wouldn't care about waste. Instead, he nodded at the two women and joined the others in the back. Clapping his hands, he asked: "So, while Carter and Entrapta are busy, who's up for another excursion?"

"Oh?" Adora perked up.

"There are potentially two dozen Goa'uld on this planet," Jack said. None of the corpses in the tomb had the remains of larvae in them. "We need to scan the perimeter so we can be sure that they aren't trying to sneak on board of the wreck - or on the shuttle."

Melog the cat growled, and Catra shook her head. "There's no Goa'uld nearby."

"So the cat said," Jack replied, nodding. "But that still leaves a whole planet where they could be hiding."

"We can scan the Goa'uld corpse," Entrapta cut in - when had she joined them? - "and check the concentration of Naquadah in its blood. If it's higher than it should be, the Goa'uld probably ate his kin."

Adora grimaced.

Jack didn't. That was how the Goa'uld were. And it was a clever way to find out if there should be more of them. "Let's do that."

"Good! I need new scans of Teal'c's larva first, to check if the concentration decays over time," Entrapta said.

"It should not," Teal'c said.

"We'll see!" Entrapta was already waving her scanner at him. "Then we need to find out how efficient the digestive system of a Goa'uld is when it comes to absorbing Naquadah from ingested larvae - oh, I need to scan the animal they had taken over, too! Too bad they don't show up on global scans since the concentration needed for that would probably be toxic, but short-range, we should be able to detect them with the right calibration - once we know the parameters we need."

Right. Jack nodded with a firm expression. This seemed to become a little more involved than he had thought. But as long as it worked… It would delay decrypting the data cube, but the thing wasn't time-critical; it had been buried under a hill for a thousand years, after all.

While Entrapta and Carer did their scanning thing, Jack stretched. "So, who wants to grab something to eat? Just don't eat the dead snake; we still need to scan it."

Adora and Daniel frowned at him for the joke, but Catra snorted. Teal'c, of course, didn't react at all. In other words: just as expected.

They went to the kitchen of the shuttle, and Jack grabbed a few pre-packed meals. "Roasted probably beef OK?" The Etherians had cows, but Jack didn't know if they had used beef for this meal.

"Of course," Adora said.

Jack looked at the others. Adora would eat rations without complaints.

"Yeah," Catra said. Teal'c nodded. Daniel blinked. "Uh… what else is available?"

Jack handed him the meals. Then, while Daniel looked them over, he sat down at the table.

"Thank you again for saving my life," he told Adora.

She fidgeted. "Oh, it was… I mean, I can heal, so I did. I would have done it for anyone."

"Just say 'you're welcome', dummy!" Catra shook her head.

Adora pouted at her.

Jack suppressed a sigh. While it was refreshing to meet someone as powerful as Adora - a real magical princess - without any arrogance, she was overdoing the humble bit. And Jack had the feeling that she wasn't faking it at all.

Which wasn't a good thing. Not at all.

*****​

Adora frowned at her girlfriend. She hadn't saved Jack's life to be thanked - she had saved him because that's what you did when a friend was in danger. Or anyone else was in danger. She was She-Ra; she had a duty to help people.

Catra stuck out her tongue at Adora in return before starting on her meal - which was a grilled fish, of course. Her lover really loved fish in all forms. As did Melog. It was probably a cat thing.

"So, what do we do about the Goa'uld?" Adora asked to get things back on more familiar tracks. "Once we know if there are more around, that is."

Jack shrugged. "Try to capture them if possible. Kill them if not."

That sounded… "We don't know if they are hostile," Adora said. "We know the one Catra killed was because he attacked us. But no one else attacked us."

"So far," Catra said as she refilled her glass.

"They're snakes," Jack said.

"But they can't hurt anyone on this planet," Adora pointed out.

"Except for the animals," Daniel said.

Adora frowned at him. "That's not a reason to hunt them down."

"PETA would disagree," Jack said, chuckling.

"PETA?" Adora cocked her head.

"An animal rights activist organisation," Daniel explained. "They are considered to be a little extremist."

"Animal rights?" Catra asked.

"In many countries on Earth, it's illegal to treat animals cruelly," Daniel replied. "And such organisations lobby for stricter laws when it comes to keeping animals."

Adora hated to parrot Daniel, but… "Stricter laws?"

"Ah." He smiled at her and pushed his glasses up his nose. "There are laws regulating how you have to treat your animals - a minimal standard, both for pets and livestock, although with different rules. Such as minimal care, space in the pen, and so on."

"Ah." That made sense.

"Such organisations also take care of stray animals and work to protect the wildlife." Daniel nodded. "They organise boycotts of firms who destroy the habits of wildlife or treat their livestock cruelly."

Adora nodded. That sounded nice. Although…

"You need such laws and activism?" Catra asked. "How do you treat animals?"

The way Daniel winced wasn't a good sign, Adora thought.

*****​

"So, many of the animals you eat are kept in stables and never let outside." Adora slowly nodded as she grabbed her empty plate and put it into the dishwasher or whatever Entrapta had built. It cleaned dishes. Or destroyed them and made new ones - Adora wasn't quite sure.

"Many, yes. Not all." Daniel followed her example as she sat down again.

"So?" Catra shook her head. "If you're going to eat them anyway…" She shrugged and pushed her own plate away.

Adora sighed and grabbed it as well, handing it over to Daniel.

"Animal rights activists think that animals should live as happily as possible and as close to nature as possible," he said as he grabbed Jack's plate.

"Nature's brutal," Jack said. "And most farm animals couldn't survive in the wild."

"But they could survive outside a stable," Daniel replied, sitting down again. "As we've also seen on Etheria."

Adora didn't want to be dragged into that discussion. She didn't know enough about animals to have a definite opinion. "And you spoil your pets!" she said to change the subject.

"Oh, yes." Jack chuckled. "Many pets are treated better than humans."

"Well, that's not really impressive," Catra commented.

Adora nodded. "You already told us that in some places, humans are treated really badly."

"Ah." Jack looked at a loss for words for a moment.

Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose with one finger. "Technically correct. But Jack was thinking about pets that are treated better than humans in the same place - roughly speaking."

Now that was… how could you treat an animal better than a person? Outside of war, of course, where you had to fight the person and not the animal. Or when it came to criminals. But Adora was sure that Daniel wasn't talking about those cases.

"Whatever," Catra spoke up after finishing her drink. "Animals are animals. Some of them are monsters. I don't really care for any animal that tries to attack me. The question is: Can we spend the time hunting down Goa'uld stuck on this planet? And can we afford to let them on the planet?"

"Well, they have had a thousand years and didn't develop the resources to get off the planet, much less be a threat to a space-based civilisation," Daniel replied. "If they are still alive, that is. So, I don't really think we need to hunt them down."

"Yes," Adora agreed.

"Unless we find them nearby. A bunch of prisoners would be useful," Catra added as she leaned back on her seat until she was all but slipping off it.

Adora rolled her eyes and reached over to poke her belly.

Catra eeped and snapped back into a sitting position. "Hey!"

"You were being rude," Adora told her.

"I wasn't!"

"Sure you were. Next thing, you're napping in their bed."

"I wouldn't do that! I only nap in our bed. Or on the couch. Or the bench in the garden."

"And the planning table," Adora reminded her.

"That was such a boring briefing that even Glimmer nodded off!"

Adora chuckled at the memory. "Yes, she did."

Catra suddenly grinned, then slid off her seat and into Adora's lap before she could react, snuggling up to her. "I'm going to take a nap right here," she whispered into Adora's ear.

"Ah…" Adora trailed off. How should she react to that? She wanted to kiss - or tickle - her, but that would be rude as well, wouldn't it?

Fortunately, Entrapta picked that moment to return from the hold. "We've analysed the remains!"

Adora straightened, prompting a noise of protest from Catra. "Yes?"

"Come to the hold; we'll show you!"

*****​

"Here!"

Samantha Carter looked up as Entrapta led the others into their makeshift laboratory. The princess was smiling as she pointed at the tank where the dissected Goa'uld was floating.

"If we had had such a tank back in school," the Colonel commented at once, "biology would have been much more interesting."

Sam chuckled at the joke. Once. "We've finished the autopsy and analysis," she told him. "The concentration of Naquadah in the corpse was high enough to indicate that the Goa'uld had consumed at least a dozen larvae. That is under the assumption that their base levels were the same for regular Goa'uld larvae at the start."

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded. "So, we're missing about a dozen Goa'uld."

"Or one Goa'uld who consumed them," Catra said. "Or they died in the wilderness and were eaten by animals."

Entrapta nodded again. "Exactly! Or another combination, like one who consumed half a dozen or so and the others were eaten by predators."

"Great." The Colonel didn't like it. "And none of them are near."

"Many Goa'uld would, faced with a potentially lethal battle, spread out to avoid conflict," Teal'c said.

"And they have an entire planet and all its animals to do so." The Colonel shook his head.

"Searching an entire planet with, well, short-range sensors and…" Daniel looked embarrassed. "...and people who can sense them sounds a little…" He trailed off.

"Yes," the Colonel agreed. "I think that would take a lot of time."

"Well, covering the entire surface of the planet - and assuming no Goa'uld took a marine animal or cave dwellers as a host - would take us…" Entrapta started pushing buttons on her main tool. "We'd be here for weeks with an optimal search grid and breaks and some redundancy. That depends on how sensitive you are to their presence at higher travel speeds. We might have to adjust that, should we have to fly more slowly."

And they didn't have weeks.

"So, let's call in the fleet to pack up the Al'Kesh and leave." The Colonel looked around. "Unless you disagree?"

Catra looked like she wanted to disagree out of principle, but Adora nodded. "Yes, I think that's a good idea."

"Let's do it then. And Carter and Entrapta can go back to cracking the data cube."

"Oh, no!!" Entrapta replied. "We're saving that as a last resort. We're trying less destructive methods first."

"Ah, good." The Colonel nodded, but Sam saw him wince for a moment - he still hadn't adjusted to Entrapta's… to Entrapta. Well, unlike Sam, he hadn't had much interaction with some of the more eccentric scientists in her field. Or Daniel's.

Catra was smirking again. "So… we're done then. I'm going to take a nap." She stretched her arms over her head and yawned.

"Catra!"

"What? I'm no good at cracking encryption."

"Still! We're on a mission."

"We're on a part of the mission where we have to wait and do nothing until the fleet arrives. Might as well rest. Or what else do you suggest we should do?"

Adora opened her mouth, then closed it again, blushing slightly, before she shook her head. "We need to be ready if anything happens."

"Oh, I'll be ready for anything," Catra said as she sauntered out of the hold.

"Really!" Adora smiled at them - Sam could tell it was forced - and followed her girlfriend.

"Oh for…" The Colonel shook his head.

"Jack?" Daniel looked confused. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing," the Colonel replied. He was still looking at the door, though, not at Daniel - or Sam. And when he turned back to face them, Sam looked away.

"So, let's continue not-cracking the cube!" Entrapta said.

As Sam turned back to the cube - they still had to build an interface that would connect to the alien port - the others filed out of the hold as well.

*****​

Samantha Carter rubbed her neck and temples when she left the hold. They had managed to connect the data cube to a computer, but that had been all they had managed to achieve - the data contained inside it remained inaccessible. They were still trying to find a way to actually access the memory crystals - they couldn't even tell if the data was encrypted or if the alien file transfer protocols and system architecture were just incompatible.

Entrapta hadn't lost any of her enthusiasm, though - she seemed to thrive when faced with such a challenge. Well, Sam had to admit that she wasn't really getting frustrated either. It just felt bad to let the others down. The Colonel had been joking about them being finished in a day, but she knew he had expected more results from her.

On the way to the bridge, she grabbed a sandwich from the fridge - she was getting a little bit hungry, and it would prevent more remarks about taking care of herself. She could do that perfectly fine, after all, and sometimes, you had to skip meals to push on.

"Ah, Carter!" The Colonel turned to face her. "You're just in time to watch our zealous fleet pick up an Al'Kesh."

Sam turned her head towards the windows on the right of the ship. Indeed, there was a frigate hovering above the Goa'uld bomber.

"They emptied their hangar of fighters and cut out the decks inside," the Colonel explained as the bomber slowly was drawn into the frigate by a tractor beam.

"Adora just had to ask," Catra commented, sitting in one of the seats.

Adora sighed. "I didn't see a better way to salvage the ship. There's enough space in other frigates for the fighters. And we can repair the hangar once we can dump the al-Kesh somewhere."

Like Earth. Having an Al'Kesh to study and possibly copy would be great. Not as impressive as a mothership with big honking space guns, as the Colonel would say, but with a working faster-than-light craft, Stargate Command would gain a lot more options for missions.

On the other hand, compared to the fleet of frigates she was currently observing, it didn't look very impressive.

"How standards shift," she whispered to herself.

*****​

In Orbit above PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"No, we're not going to bombard the planet to kill off any hypothetical Goa'uld hiding amongst the local animals!"

Catra fought the urge to laugh as she listened to Adora talk to Priest - or at Priest - on Darla's bridge. The situation was funny, but she knew not many would agree with her.

"But Your Divine Highness! We cannot leave an enemy behind!" Priest protested. "And you stated that we cannot take the time to search the entire planet since we don't have enough scanners to detect Naquadah. So, the obvious solution is a thorough orbital bombardment of the entire planetary surface. Without potential hosts, the Goa'uld will die."

"So will the planet," Adora said.

"Yes, Your Divine Highness." Priest nodded. He looked confused.

Adora's forehead sported a twitching vein now. "We don't destroy planets any more," Adora said through clenched teeth.

"But I thought we wouldn't destroy inhabited planets any more. There is no intelligent life on this planet except for your enemies, Your Divine Highness."

"It's a planet!" Adora blurted out. "We're not going to destroy a planet just to kill a few Goa'uld stuck on it without any way to get off!"

"We don't know for certain that they don't have the means. Should an enemy ship arrive, they could easily be rescued, Your Divine Highness," Priest retorted.

"They've been marooned on the planet for a thousand years!" Adora told him.

"But that is no assurance that the current state of affairs will continue, Your Divine Highness," Priest said. "In fact, if we create a supply route through this sector and engage in warfare against the System Lords, they are bound to send in ships to scout and raid our lines, which means that this system could end up becoming a staging ground. Imagine the threat that such spies would pose to us then!"

"Their intel is a thousand years out of date," Adora replied. "We're not going to destroy a planet like this, and that is final!"

"As you command, Your Divine Highness." Priest bowed, and the transmission ended.

Adora sagged and closed her eyes. Catra stepped up and rubbed her back.

"I'm just… What's wrong with them? Destroying a planet to kill a few Goa'uld? Who might not even be alive?" Adora shook her head.

"They're not used to caring about… well, anyone except…" Catra trailed off. She knew the feeling. Knew it too well.

"Anyone except me. Their replacement Prime," Adora said.

Catra hissed in response, then slugged Adora's upper arm. "Don't talk like that! This is completely different! You are completely different!"

"But they see me as their new leader!" Adora protested.

"So?" Catra forced herself to shrug. "So does most of Etheria. They see you as the new Angella." She bit her lower lip at the guilt that filled her, remembering why the Queen had been lost. All her fault…

"I'm not a queen!"

"No, and neither are you a new Horde Prime. You're She-Ra. And a dummy." Catra told her. Her smile was a little lopsided and toothy.

But Adora didn't seem to notice or mind. She started to smile as well, then sighed. "I guess. But it's… tiring. Dealing with Priest and… I'm not a goddess!"

"No, you aren't." How often had she told that Adora so far? Well, Catra would keep telling it until Adora stopped being bothered by Priest.

"But… Priest and his followers need to learn that… that they can't just act as if I were Horde Prime. We won't destroy entire planets!" Adora raised her chin slightly.

Catra nodded, though she was not as convinced. Some targets might be worth destroying a planet for. Not that she would say that out loud. Not after the Heart of Etheria almost broke Adora. "You've got a few more weeks to teach that to Priest," she said. "Before we reach Earth."

Adora sagged again and sighed. "Don't remind me. What will the Earth people think of us once they meet Priest? What will they think of me, being worshipped as a goddess when they are fighting the Goa'uld who do the same?"

Oh for…! Catra growled. "They'll do the same as SG-1 does: Nothing. They know the difference. They know you don't want to be worshipped." With a grin, Catra added: "Well, not like Priest does."

Adora blushed heavily. "Catra!"

Catra grinned in response and leaned forward to lick Adora's cheek. "Hm?" She ran a hand over Adora's hair - which really would look much better without the poof - and down her back.

Adora took a deep breath but didn't protest or pull away. "Catra…"

"Hm?" Catra lightly bit her ear.

"We're on the bridge," Adora hissed.

"And we're alone." Everyone else was on the frigate in front of them, checking out the Al-Kesh and showing the clones what not to touch. Even Melog had gone, in case they had a stowaway snake.

"But… anyone can look through the windows!" Adora said, pointing at the frigate.

"So? I'm just doing my duty as your consort," Catra replied, then licked Adora's cheek again.

Further protests from her dummy lover she stifled with a kiss.

It was high time that they finally used the captain's chair for something more entertaining than piloting the ship.

*****​

Jack O'Neill wasn't jealous. Or envious. Not at all. He didn't have a crush on either Adora or Catra. Adora was a very attractive woman, but she was half his age, tops. And a magical girl. And Catra was a catwoman, and not the leather catsuit kind, but the kind with real fur. And also half his age.

Nor was he planning to have sex in his free time during this mission. Or any mission. He wouldn't want a repeat of his close brush with dying of old age due to Goa'uld experiments, and he had no partner in mind anyway. Not any who would be available.

So, his annoyance at the fact that Adora and Catra had done the naughty on their ship's bridge while everyone else was checking out the Al'Kesh had nothing to do with either jealousy or envy. It was merely his sense of professionalism that was hurt. That, and that he hadn't gotten to sit in the captain's chair before it was used as a loveseat.

"So," Catra asked, brushing a stray lock of wet hair out of her face - both had showered, at least - "What's the final verdict on the bomber?"

Jack looked at his SIC. "Carter?"

"We haven't completed our assessment yet," Carter replied at once. "But, so far, we have found no damage that wouldn't be able to be fixed with sufficient effort at Stargate Command."

"Or in one of Third Fleet's mobile shipyards," Catra said, "in the fleet train."

"Yes." Carter nodded. She hid her reaction well, but Jack knew her - she would prefer to go over the ship herself. If the clones repaired it, Stargate Command wouldn't get any experience in maintaining and repairing spaceships. And they needed that if they ever wanted to stop depending on their allies for ships.

"Yeah," he said, "let's see what we can do with it, first, before we hand it over to the fleet. It's not as if we have a pressing need for an additional ship." They had an entire fleet with them, after all.

"It would be faster, though," Adora said - her hair was also wet, but her poof was, somehow, unaffected. "Wouldn't you want a fully functional ship?"

Was that a veiled hint that Stargate Command would get the Al'Kesh? No, Adora wasn't the type to be so subtle. It probably meant that she had never planned to lay claim to the ship herself.

"If we repair it, we can also add electronics and communication gear that will allow us to operate it in close cooperation with other forces of Earth," Carter said.

"Ah." Adora nodded. "That makes sense."

"You can tinker with the wreck to your heart's content, then," Catra added with a smirk.

"We will," Jack replied. The geeks back home would be overjoyed. Hell, Carter would love it. And if they weren't about to arrive with a fleet in tow, the brass would be ecstatic about the opportunity to get a spaceship. As things were, the whole fleet of zealots thing would overshadow everything else.

"And I'll help!" Entrapta said. "This is so interesting - it's a completely different design philosophy compared to either the Horde or the First Ones!"

A pretty useless design philosophy, in Jack's opinion. When they started restoring the Al'Kesh, he'd make some suggestions. Some quite strong suggestions. Gun turrets that covered all sides, at the very least - Stargate Command didn't have fighters to escort the Al'Kesh. Which would need a name of her own, too. He snorted at the realisation that the geeks would push for 'Enterprise'. Although it was pretty much the best name for Earth's first spaceship, even if it was the name of a Navy ship.

"I am looking forward to helping as well," Bow added with a smile. "I've got some experience with repairing a thousand-year-old ship."

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded. "This will be fun!"

"Yes," Glimmer said, and she sounded like one of Jack's old superior officers when faced with one of his more colourful reports. "So, we're ready to continue our trip. But we need to decide what we do about the potential Goa'uld holdouts."

"Blow up the ruins and tombs from orbit," Catra said at once.

"Catra!" Adora protested.

"What? It's just a small area. Leave a crater, and people won't be stumbling around in ruins and getting caught by Goa'uld." Catra grinned. "Or, better write a warning into the crater with the cannons!"

Jack blinked. That would… He chuckled. "That would actually work."

"It would also reveal our presence," Carter pointed out. "Anyone who examines the remains will be able to tie them to Horde weapons."

"But there are a lot of Horde ships around," Catra retorted. "Or we can build a bomb ourselves and use the Al'Kesh's weapons to write the warning."

That would be very ironic. Jack nodded in approval. "Let's do that!"

"Yes! Let's build a bomb!"

Entrapta's enthusiastic agreement made Jack have second thoughts about this idea.

But it was too late - everyone else was agreeing as well.

Damn.

Well, at least they'd get to see a big explosion and foil whatever plans the Goa'uld on the ground, if there were any, might have. And that was a victory in Jack's book.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 15: The Inconvenient Truth

Hyperspace, On the Way to Earth, July 16th, 1998 (Earth Time)

4th: No orbital bombardments without clearance by the commander in chief.

Sitting at the table in the mess, Adora nodded at the screen of her pad. That was a very important rule. Perhaps she should place it at a more prominent spot? But 'protect innocent sentient life forms' was also very important. As was 'collateral damage should be avoided whenever possible'. Hm…

"That should be 'without clearance by Adora or whoever she promoted to commander in chief'," someone whispered into her ear - her breath tickled Adora's skin.

Adora gasped. "Catra!" She hadn't noticed her lover sneaking up on her.

"Hm?" Catra chuckled as she withdrew. "I'm just helping. I did write a lot of orders, you know."

"Yes. But this is a special case," Adora said. "I need a list of rules that will keep Third Fleet from blowing up planets to kill a single Goa'uld."

"Then you want the orders to be very clear," Catra said.

"No Auftragstaktik," Jack added as he entered and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.

"Auftragstaktik?" Adora frowned. What did that mean?

"That's where you tell your men what you need to be done, but not how they should do it," he explained.

"Oh."

Catra nodded. "Yes, you really don't want to do that with Priest."

Adora frowned at her. She knew that very well, thank you very much.

"Oh, yes. If you asked him to get some milk from the supermarket, he probably would conquer the country in the name of you," Jack added with a grin.

Adora frowned at him as well. "I am aware of that. That's why I am going to give him precise orders."

Catra shrugged. "Just be ready to add more orders - you'll never cover everything that can go wrong."

"Yes." Daniel peered inside the mess, then stepped inside. Had Adora missed a meeting notice or something? "Like the list of things Jack isn't allowed to do any more."

"There's no such list, and if there were any, it would cover the entire team," Jack protested.

"Your team, your responsibility," Daniel shot back. "Oh, pudding!"

"Oh? Tell us more!" Catra leaned across the table and beamed at Daniel.

"That's classified," Jack said.

"You playing on your Game Boy during briefings is classified?" Daniel grinned.

"I never got caught! and I only did it during the boring parts!"

"What's a 'Game Boy'?" Catra asked.

"Oh. That's a portable gaming console," Daniel explained. Which didn't explain anything.

"You play video games on it," Jack added. Adora looked at him, and he went on: "Video games are… games you play on a computer."

Daniel shook his head. "Allow me. Video games are electronic games that you play…"

*****​

"...and that's why they are called video games. They come in a very wide range of genres and are very popular amongst children, teenagers and some adults," Daniel finished.

"Ah." Adora looked at Catra. She wasn't entirely sure, but while Catra nodded as if the explanation had actually explained everything, Adora thought her lover was just faking.

"Video games are quite popular amongst adults as well," Jack said with a slight pout.

"You would say that, Jack."

"Daniel…"

Ador cleared her throat. "Anyway, I was working on my list." It would be rude to send them out, but she needed some peace and quiet to work on that. And her and Catra's cabin definitely wouldn't be suitable, what with Catra in a playful mood.

"Right, your list!" Jack nodded.

"Yes," Daniel nodded as well. "Your commandments. I am looking forward to seeing how Priest and his church will interpret them. It should be a fascinating study of how holy scripture came to be."

"What?" Adora stared at him.

"Daniel wants to see how your orders will be turned in holy commandments," Jack said. "Word of God - or, in this case, word of the Goddess."

Adora closed her mouth. That wasn't what she wanted! Not at all! "But…"

"I bet Priest will have the orders burned into a golden plate and fixed on the bridge of every ship," Catra interrupted her. "Do you think we can make them rhyme so they can sing the lines?"

Her lover was joking - she had to be! - but Adora could see Priest doing that. She shook her head until her ponytail hit her face. Her orders, enshrined like that? Her friends would never let her forget it. "Anything but that!"

"The alternative would be no lasting restrictions," Daniel pointed out. "Religious commandments were often a restraining influence in Earth's past."

"The point is, Daniel, that Adora doesn't want to found a religion," Jack told him.

"I think it's clear that the religion already exists, Jack. So, the best solution would be to use the opportunity, rather than struggling futilely to turn back time," Daniel retorted.

Adora was about to tell them not to talk about her as if she wasn't present when Catra spoke up in that fake innocent tone of hers: "Well, it'll be amusing to see Priest trying to convert Earth to the worship of Adora."

The wide-eyed glance Jack and Daniel exchanged in return wasn't helping Adora's mood in the slightest.

*****​

Warhead separation complete. Five seconds to impact. Four. Three. Two. One.

On the screen, the ruins and the hill vanished in a fireball each. Samantha Carter watched as the multiple angles blanked out in rapid succession until only the orbital view remained, showing two converging mushroom clouds.

"It's a beautiful sight, isn't it?" Entrapta commented. "The bombs performed as calculated!"

Sam slowly nodded. She wasn't quite as enthusiastic about the bombs they had built as Entrapta was, but a part of her was proud that they had managed to rig a warhead that struck both sites at the same time with Naqadah-enhanced bombs in such a short time. But that was just the technical aspect. With this as proof of concept, the genie was out of the bottle - now such bombs would be on the table for other situations as well. Situations where the targets weren't just ruins devoid of intelligent life.

On the screen, the cloud started to dissipate - faster than in real life; Entrapta had sped up the recording - and revealed two huge craters.

"Now comes my favourite part!" Entrapta said as a Horde frigate descended above the craters. "Yes!" she all but squealed when two lances of red light appeared under the frigate, stabbing down into the crater. The screen split again, showing the lasers burning into the glassed surface below. Writing.

Potential Goa'uld on the planet. Beware.

In Goa'uld - as much as Daniel hated it, it was the lingua franca of a big part of the galaxy. Most people in the sector would be able to read it. It would also tell Goa'uld that someone hostile had destroyed the ruins, but that couldn't be avoided. And the paranoid System Lords might well suspect one of their own trying to throw off suspicion - that was why they had used Goa'uld weapons, after all.

Not that the odds that it would matter were great anyway - sooner or later, Sam's money was on sooner, the Alliance would engage in open warfare with the Goa'uld. With help from Earth, unless something went very wrong when they reached home.

In any case, at that point, the Goa'uld would know who they were facing, and any intel potential Goa'uld left on the planet might provide would be even more outdated than it already was.

"You must really love this," Entrapta said. "You've been watching it five times so far."

Sam blinked and realised that the recording had ended. "I was looking for more data," she lied. Well, it wasn't a complete lie - there was a chance that she had missed something the four other times she had watched the recording.

"Oh! Did you discover something?"

"No." Sam shook her head. She hadn't found anything new. And, maybe, it was time to stop watching what she had wrought and get back to working on the alien data cube. They had still a few weeks until they reached Earth, and if they encountered a Stargate on the way, Sam wouldn't be able to work on the cube until the fleet reached Earth. Not even then, she knew - she would likely be too busy with other work, mainly the Al'kesh repairs. And briefing various generals and politicians.

She wasn't looking forward to that. She wouldn't go as far as to call it a waste of time, as the Colonel did, but she could do much more important work than telling people who were as likely to ignore her as to heed her words things they could read up in her reports. Which she had to update with the latest data, actually.

But that could wait until the evening. "Let's tackle the data cube again," she said. "I think we haven't tried base-13 yet, did we?" They hadn't; Sam had checked.

"Oh, yes. I mean, no, we haven't!" Entrapta skipped over to the table where the cube was waiting for them. "Let's try this out!"

"Yes." Sam smiled - it was great to work with an enthusiastic partner.

"I'll call Hordak, too! He's had a few interesting ideas as well!"

Sam kept smiling with a bit of effort. She wasn't nearly as fond of Hordak as she was of Entrapta. The man - the alien - was a genius, no doubt about it. But he was also a former warlord with alien morals, and Sam wasn't entirely sure that he had changed enough not to slide back into old habits, should he deem it necessary. And while she had been told that Entrapta's influence had changed him, she knew that Hordak's influence would have changed Entrapta as well. And would continue to do so.

Well, Sam could exert some influence as well. If Hordak wanted to get a pet scientist to unleash monstrous weapons on defenceless civilians, he wouldn't get his way if Sam had anything to say about it.

"You've finished the documentation, then."

"Yes!" Entrapta said, nodding as she went to Hordak, who stood in the door. "And we're ready to continue with the data cube!"

Had he been listening until this moment? Or was this just coincidence? Sam nodded at him. Politely. "Yes."

"Enhancing explosives with Naquadah will facilitate further offensive operations," Hordak said. "Defending assets against attacks with such bombs will be more difficult, though."

That was obvious, of course. On Earth, it had led to a somewhat stable peace between nuclear powers thanks to the threat of mutually assured destruction. She doubted that they could or should achieve the same with the Goa'uld.

But the way the former warlord talked about assets and operations… Sam didn't like that.

*****​

Hyperspace, On the Way to Earth, July 18th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Catra yawned as she leaned back in her seat on the bridge of Darla. Standing watch was as boring as ever. As expected - she had spent time in space before, after all, and unless you were trying to fool Horde Prime, running for your life, or exploring some ancient ruins, it was generally very dull. Especially without Adora or anyone else to talk to because it was the night shift. Night watch.

Everyone else was asleep. Unless Entrapta or Carter had sneaked into the hold to tinker with the cube again. She checked the display on her right - no, the hold was empty of life signatures. Unless someone had fiddled with the ship's internal sensors, of course. Which… wasn't too implausible, actually.

Well, she hadn't anything better to do, so she might as well check personally. And grab a drink from the kitchen. Or kitchenette, as O'Neill called it.

She got up and walked out of the bridge, then frowned - the light was on in the kitchen area. And - her ears twitched - someone was heating tea. If Entrapta had actually sneaked out… "Hey!"

It wasn't Entrapta. She saw Daniel, gasping, standing next to the pot of boiling water. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Making tea?" He pointed at the kettle.

She rolled her eyes. "I meant, why aren't you sleeping?"

To his credit, he didn't make a stupid joke about her having to ask what she meant in the first place but shrugged. "I got caught translating some of the books."

They had a library on board? That was news to her. Not that she'd admit it. "What book are you reading?"

"It's actually one of Bow's history books," he told her.

Ah. So, he was talking about Bow's books. Well, history books were pretty harmless. If it had been Entrapta's diary or notes of bot construction… She shrugged. "Sounds pretty boring."

"It's actually fascinating how Etheria's culture evolved over a thousand years," he said. "The way magic powers shaped history on your planet…"

"Yeah, yeah, magic princesses rule," she cut him off and grabbed a cup of her own.

"That's a very simplified view," he said with a slight pout.

"But a correct one. In the Horde, we were taught that the princesses were evil, you know?" she said as she dropped some leaves in a streamer. "That they were fighting us because we didn't have princesses."

"Well, on Earth, when France overthrew their monarchy, the other monarchies banded together to fight the new government. They didn't declare war merely because of the revolution, there were many other reasons, but it was a contributing factor," Daniel told her. "Executing the king and queen did help escalate the situation as well, of course."

"They didn't fight us because we had overthrown our princess," Catra retorted. Well, in as much as Scorpia was their princess. "They fought us because we invaded them and tried to conquer them." They had actually conquered quite a bit of Etheria under her leadership.

"Of course." He nodded. "I'm just pointing out possible parallels to the history of Earth."

"And potential trouble," she added.

He winced, then took a sip from his steaming cup and winced even more. "Yes, that too."

Catra jumped slightly to sit on the counter, blowing on her cup. "So, how bad will it be?" Daniel was the most honest of SG-1, she knew that. And without his friends around, he should be likely to let slip something.

He looked puzzled for a moment. "When we arrive on Earth?"

"Yes. Magic, princesses, fanatical clones with a space fleet…" She took a sip from her own cup. A little too hot, but tolerable.

"Well…" He grimaced. "It will be a shock to find out that aliens are real."

"That's obvious." They had gone over that already. "But afterwards, when the shock's faded, and we're talking alliance."

"Ah." He pursed his lips. "It's hard to say. Historically, people tend to be pragmatic when they are faced with a common enemy. Even ideological enemies."

That sounded good. "So, you're going to play one happy, united front and ignore all the differences?"

"That would be best for the war, wouldn't it?" He blew on his cup again, then took a swallow, sighing with his eyes closed. The man liked the tea, even though he claimed that he preferred coffee - but they had run out of the bitter brew.

"Probably." She shrugged again. "In my experience, ignoring differences isn't a good idea. It can lead to losing a war." She knew that from personal experience.

"Oh." He took another swallow.

"So, what's the worst problem we'll face? Magic? Or Monarchies? Our gender?"

"That's hard to say. Earth isn't very homogenous, and even in our country, there are distinct groups with very different views and interests." He smiled rather weakly.

"So, all of the above?" she asked with a wry grin.

He nodded, making a noncommittal noise, and hid his mouth behind his cup again.

"I see." She nodded as well.

Great. She would have to talk with the rest about this. Once they were awake, of course.

*****​

Hyperspace, On the Way to Earth, July 20th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Another day, another empty system," Jack O'Neill commented as he stepped on the bridge of the Darla.

"We don't know if the system is actually empty, Sir," Carter told him, as he had expected.

Good to know that she hadn't been entirely lost to the alien data cube. Perhaps Jack shouldn't have joked about expecting her to crack the thing in one day - she seemed to have taken it as a challenge. Though, to be fair, there wasn't much else to do on the ship during this trip. Except for checking the Al'kesh, but since that was transported on a Horde frigate, she would have to leave the Darla for that - and Jack wasn't about to split up his team.

"Well, we'll soon know!" Entrapta piped up. "Dropping out of hyperspace in five… four… three… two… one!"

"Nothing in close range," Bow reported. "Long-range scanners… Contacts!"

Jack didn't jerk, but he leaned forward on his seat. "Have they seen us?"

"Not unless they have improved sensors," Bow replied.

Jack glanced at the side screen. The holographic display zoomed in on the system, past the outer planets, and came to a stop at the second planet - a habitable world, it seemed. He counted a dozen ships in orbit, and they were… firing onto each other.

"It's a war zone," Daniel stated the obvious as one of the ships - blew up.

"Three Ha'taks, eight Al'kesh. Multiple Death Gliders," Bow reported.

"It's an invasion," Jack said. The three Ha'taks were working together, flying in formation with the Al'keshs. But the Death Gliders were dogfighting - and some were attacking the Al'kesh.

"And unless the defenders have reinforcements waiting for them, they have lost the battle," Teal'c stated.

"Yeah. A bunch of Death Gliders reenacting the Battle of Britain won't beat three Ha'taks," Jack said.

"Are they buying time for the ground forces to evacuate or disperse for guerilla campaign?" Catra asked.

"I can't tell from here," Entrapta said. "We need to get closer to find out."

"It depends on the System Lord who rules the planet," Teal'c said. "Some expect their Jaffa to fight to the death even when retreating would be advisable."

"What?" Adora frowned. "Why would they throw away their people?

"To keep the news of defeat from spreading amongst their troops," Daniel explained. "That might damage their claims of divinity."

"That's…" Adora shook her head.

"Monstrous," Glimmer spat. "And stupid. It means their enemy can undermine the trust of their people by spreading the news themselves. That'll do more damage to the defender's reputation in the long run."

The princess was the commander of the Alliance, Jack reminded himself.

"And the soldiers will stop trusting any information from their superiors," Catra added.

"That's the Goa'uld for you - they're not very big on rational plans," Jack said.

"We can't underestimate them, Sir," Carter objected.

"I'm not saying their fools, just that they might not have the same view of what is rational and effective as we do," Jack replied.

"Hey, crazy plans can work very well - just ask Glimmer," Catra said with a smirk.

"What do you mean?" Glimmer asked with narrowed eyes just as Adora hissed: "Catra!"

"You know what I mean," Catra replied.

"My plan worked." Glimmer clenched her teeth. "It defeated the Horde."

"You were lucky. Very lucky." Catra bared her teeth.

"And it was all for nought since Horde Prime arrived in the moment of your triumph," Hordak added.

"Catra! Glimmer!" Adora snapped. "This is not the time!" She turned her head to glare at Hordak, who remained impassive.

Catra ducked her head with a pout, but Glimmer grew serious and nodded. "Yes. Sorry."

"Anyway!" Entrapta spoke up. "There's a significant amount of Naquadah on the planet, but I can't tell from here if there's a Stargate."

"There could be mining operations," Carter speculated. "Although those should have better protection."

"Unless the main defenders were lured away - or they trusted secrecy," Jack said.

"So, who's invading whom here?" Adora asked.

"All those Goa'uld ships look the same," Jack said with a grin.

"They have an IFF transponder system," Carter added, "but they might not use distinctive codes for every mission."

"Well, if they are true to form, we just have to wait until the invaders win and broadcast the new rulers of the planet. It's a thing for them," Jack said. "Unless this is a black op, and they're only here to lay waste to the planet. Or a false flag operation."

"So, do we take our stealth ship in close? Try to find a gate while they are still busy shooting each other?" Daniel asked.

It was tempting. There would be chaos on the ground. A ship might slip through, and they might make their way to a stargate. Yet, they didn't know if there was a gate on the planet.

"We could blow all the Goa'uld ships up," Catra said. "The Third Fleet wouldn't have any trouble with them."

"Can they do that and prevent someone from sending out word about the attack?" Jack asked. He didn't want to lose operational surprise before they had a formal alliance with Etheria.

"Doubtful. We haven't found a way to reliably prevent FTL communications," Carter replied.

"Then we better not try to meddle," Jack said. If the Goa'uld killed each other, so much the better. "Unless they plan to massacre civilians." On the screen, another Al'kesh blew up, but then the rest of them started to enter the atmosphere, and the Ha'taks spread out as well.

"There's a message broadcast in the clear," Bow said. A moment later, a Goa'uld voice filled the room.

"Your Death Gliders have been destroyed. Surrender to the divine Raiden!"

*****​

"Raiden?" Adora asked. She hadn't heard about any Goa'uld with that name yet. Not that she'd remember, anyway.

"Raiden, also known as Raijin, is a Shinto god of lightning, thunder and storms," Daniel said. "And, obviously, a Goa'uld who has claimed the name. Or who has started the religion - since we lack records for most of the civilisations dating back to the time of the Goa'uld, it is often hard to determine whether the Goa'uld coopted existing mythological figures or created them." After a moment, he added: "Shinto is a religion centred on the Japanese Islands."

"Ah." That didn't actually tell Adora much, but it would be rude not to acknowledge Daniel's efforts.

"Raiden is a false god with a minor domain, in perpetual conflict with the vastly more powerful Yu," Teal'c said. "According to the star charts, however, we should not be in either of their territories."

"Well, for a vastly more powerful Goa'uld, those were pitiful defences," Catra commented with a frown. "Not really a big invasion fleet, either."

Adora agreed with her lover. The Third Fleet could wipe out all those ships easily. Of course, the Third Fleet wasn't stretched out protecting multiple worlds yet.

"Yu might be involved in another conflict with a stronger force and could have withdrawn his ships from this planet to protect more important systems," Jack repeated his earlier speculation. "Or this world didn't belong to Yu, but to another, weaker Goa'uld."

Either possibility could be true. "What are they doing?" Adora asked.

"There's been no answer from the people on the ground," Bow said.

"That means bombing will start soon," Jack said. "Goa'uld are testy about being ignored or refused."

As he had predicted, the screen flared, and Bow reported the Al'kesh making bombing runs.

Catra stepped closer to the screen. "How precise are they? Can we tell from here?"

Bow grimaced. "I can't tell what they're aiming at - the scanner doesn't show the planetary surface in detail."

Adora made a mental note that they needed either better scanners or a way to get closer to a planet without being detected. It wouldn't do to attack a planet without good intel or lose surprise by a recon mission being detected. The stealth system Entrapta and Sam had built for the shuttle might be the answer, but it hadn't been tested against actual Goa'uld ships yet.

"The bombs they use have a rather high yield," Entrapta said, frowning at the console next to her. "They do not seem to be very precise."

Adora gripped the armrests of her chair. "Are they targeting civilians?" If they were…

"We can't tell. We have to fly closer for that," Bow said.

"If they detect us, operational surprise is lost," Jack cautioned.

"But we might secure a working Stargate," Sam pointed out.

"Let's take the shuttle and fly closer. If they detect the shuttle, we'll move the fleet in," Adora said. "We can't let them bomb civilians."

"Alright," Glimmer said. "But you're staying here." Adora was about to protest, but her friend went on: "Third Fleet won't take well to you flying close to an enemy fleet in a simple shuttle."

"They accepted our trip to the planet with the crashed Al-Kesh," Adora said.

"PK-327," Entrapta cut in.

"Yes, that." Adora nodded.

"The system didn't have a fleet in it," Catra said.

Adora sighed. "Alright. But you're staying here as well, Glimmer."

Glimmer pouted at her, but Adora shrugged it off. If it was too dangerous for her, it was too dangerous for the Queen of Bright Moon.

"Let's go, Bow," Catra said - but she was looking at Adora.

After a moment, Adora nodded. Catra smiled and headed to the back, followed by Bow, Entrapta and SG-1.

And Adora closed her eyes and sighed. She hated staying back while her friends braved danger.

Glimmer didn't say anything as she went and took over Bow position at the console.

"I hate this," Adora muttered as she watched the shuttle leave on the side screen.

"Welcome to my life," Glimmer replied. "The burden of command, Mom called it."

Adora bit her lower lip for a moment. Even now, Queen Angella was a sore subject. "We're princesses," she said. "We're supposed to lead from the front."

"Technically, I'm a queen."

The queen, actually, as far as Etheria was concerned. Adora kept her eyes on the screen. The shuttle was quickly reducing the distance to the planet. And to the enemy fleet. No reaction by the Goa'uld so far. But they could be trying to lure them closer, to spring an ambush - send the Death Gliders at them before they could reverse course and flee. "Yes. But I'm no queen," she said.

"Priest would disagree."

Adora scoffed. Who cared what Priest thought? His fleet, she answered her own question. She sighed instead of replying.

On the screen, the shuttle suddenly turned around and started flying back. Still no reaction from the Goa'uld fleet. Or flotilla - three Ha'tak and a few more Al'kesh weren't much of a fleet, not compared to Third Fleet.

"The bombings stopped," Glimmer commented. "So, no civilians are in danger any more."

Adora pressed her lips together. They weren't in any danger any more because they were either safe - or dead.

Then Catra's smiling face appeared on the screen. "Hey, Adora!"

Adora smiled against her will. That comment brought up so many memories…

"The bombings targetted Jaffa ground forces. They left the mines down there alone, where all the civilians are," Catra went on. "No sign of a Stargate, though."

Adora sighed with relief. They could return at a later date, once they had hashed out their alliance with Earth, and save the slaves.

*****​

Hyperspace, On the Way to Earth, July 31st, 1998 (Earth Time)

"And… nothing! No connection - the signal remains incompatible."

Even Entrapta sounded a little dejected at the result of their latest attempt to crack the alien data cube, Samantha Carter noted. Unlike their work on the Al'kesh, which had been very satisfactory, they hadn't had much success with the cube so far - it had defied every single one of their attempts to access its core.

"Welllll…. That means we can try the next theory!"

Not for long, of course - the princess still seemed to have limitless enthusiasm. Sam nodded, though her heart wasn't in it. "Yes, let's attempt to reverse the polarity on the connectors there and see if we get a reading then," she said.

"Exactly!" Entratpa nodded, her hair twitching, then looked at Hordak. "What do you say, Science Buddy?"

"The methodical approach is sound," the former warlord said - he hadn't shown any frustration at their lack of results at all. "Absent other examples of this technology, or individuals of the species that created it whom we could interrogate, we can only work through the various possibilities."

Sam pressed her lips together. She wasn't sure what kind of interrogation Hordak meant. Even after two weeks working with him, Sam couldn't claim she knew him. Sometimes, he acted like the sort of scientist, usually men, who were a little too focused on their work. She was familiar with them, though that also meant she had to be wary of letting her expectations frame her impressions. Other times, the former warlord came to the fore, sometimes just by uttering a suggestion that was unethical, sometimes by mentioning details of his past that drove home the fact that he had waged a war of conquest in the name of an interstellar dictator. The former usually took Entrapta a bit more time to catch and correct than the latter, which was worrying Sam a little.

But the alien was a very good scientist, Sam had to admit. And as much as it made her question her own morals, she was starting to understand how NASA scientists had been able to work with former Nazis like Werner von Braun. Earth needed to adapt its technology to the level of the various space-faring species, and that meant she and her colleagues needed to understand the alien technology they had access to. And if they had to work with an ex-warlord who might not have reformed as completely as some claimed, then… well, it was better than working with a Goa'uld.

At least Hordak was trying to do better, from what Sam could tell. And, another point in his favour, he didn't show any sort of sexism. He treated both Entrapta and Sam as his equals.

"Alright! Let's prepare the next test!" Entrapta announced and went over to the table where the crystals she had 'attuned' were held.

Hordak nodded and went to the console to adjust the parameters.

And Sam wondered while she changed the adapters on the data cube how she could break it to the Etherians that Earth was a rather sexist society. They were more than halfway to Earth now, and it wouldn't do at all to let their allies - and friends - discover after reaching it that humanity, by and large, wasn't quite as progressive when it came to equal rights for women. Or for people who had non-heterosexual orientations.

The Colonel should have brought it up, but, so far, he hadn't even touched the issue. Daniel had, for a change, apparently avoided the topic in his long talks with the Etherians about their culture. Teal'c… was Teal'c.

Which left her, the only woman in the team, to bring it up. Even if that was against the Colonel's wishes. Not that he had given an actual order about that. But this wasn't the kind of thing you kept secret.

She sighed.

"Don't worry! Sooner or later, we'll crack the cube!" Entrapta told her with a smile. "Sometimes, science takes a while to get results!"

Sam knew that, of course. "Oh, it's not about that," she said. "I was thinking about home."

"Oh. Don't worry, we should reach Earth in about ten days!"

"Unless we meet another situation that requires intervention or exploration," Hordak added.

Meaning: found a planet with a Stargate on it. They hadn't so far. Which was a good thing, seeing as the route between Etheria and Earth seemed to be outside the Goa'uld sphere of influence, but also meant that SG-1 hadn't been able to inform Stargate Command about their upcoming arrival with an allied fleet. And magical princesses. Not an ideal state.

"Alright! Attempt to connect to the data cube Number three hundred and twenty-six!" Entrapta announced.

Sam nodded and focused on her work.

*****​

"Any luck cracking the data cube?" the Colonel asked when they sat down for dinner.

Samantha Carter looked at him with narrowed eyes. He should, by now, know the answer to that without having to ask.

The Colonel flinched a little, which was a small victory. A petty one as well, she had to admit - but the long time spent in a small ship, with limited company, and the mounting pressure on her was taking its toll. Perfectly reasonable. At least, that was what she told herself.

"We're making progress - we've eliminated several possible architectures today!" Entrapta said between eating her tiny meat pies.

"Well, at least we've cracked the Al'kesh," the Colonel went on. "We'll probably be able to build a copy from scratch at home."

"If we get several key pieces of technology or manage to manufacture them," Sam corrected him. "The crystal-based controls will have to be built from scratch."

"That's what I said," the Colonel said with a grin.

She shook her head and filled her plate.

Catra joined them at the table, stretching her arms over her head, then leaning over to kiss Adora on the cheek. "Hey, Adora!"

"Hey!" Adora smiled at the catwoman, and Sam clenched her teeth. No, this couldn't go on.

She cleared her throat after swallowing a piece of her own, larger meat pie. "There's something we need to talk about…"

*****​

"...and while the general attitude has been changing for the better, people who do not conform to the majority view of what is an acceptable sexuality, meaning heterosexuality, are still facing discrimination - legal discrimination, at that."

Catra narrowed her eyes, her tail swishing back and forth behind her, as she alternated between staring at Carter and glancing at Adora. "You mean… your people hate…" she blinked. What was the term she had used? "You mean your people hate people like Adora and me? Or Scorpia and Perfuma? Or Netossa and Spinnerella?"

"Or my dads?" Bow asked. He sounded shocked.

Well, everyone looked shocked. They had known that Earth had some stupid issues with men being considered more powerful than women, which kind of was understandable since Earth didn't have magical princesses, or scorpion people, or minotaurs, who could toss others around regardless of magic or gender. Understandable, but stupid, of course. But hating people based upon their choice of partners?

"We don't hate you!" Carter protested. She even sounded as if she meant it. "Nor does everyone on Earth hate you. There's a significant part of the population that distrusts or dislikes people who do not conform to the heterosexual norm, but few actually hate you."

That was mincing words, in Catra's opinion. She didn't say so, but whether you disliked someone or hated someone didn't really matter that much, in her opinion.

"And people are changing - society is changing. We're working on that," Daniel said. He looked ashamed, at least. "But while we made a lot of progress, we haven't left all the bigotry behind us. Not yet. But it's much better than it was in the past. At least in countries like the USA."

Catra stared at him. Daniel was, as far as she could tell, not one to lie to them.

"That means it was worse? Like with your gender discrimination?" Bow shook his head. "But…why? Why do you hate my family?"

"Why do you hate people like us?" Adora asked in a low voice.

Catra glanced at her and winced - her lover was looking down at the table, and her fingers were digging into her thighs. She reached out to grab one of Adora's hands, but Adora suddenly looked up, glaring at SG-1.

"Why do you hate us? Why do you want to keep us from… from loving each other?" Adora spat. "Why do you hate love?"

Uh-oh. Catra grabbed her hand and squeezed, hard. When Adora, gasping softly, looked at her, she smiled, leaned over and rested her head on Adora's shoulder. "I'm here," she whispered.

"We don't hate you," Carter repeated herself. Daniel nodded, as did - although a moment later, Catra noted, O'Neill. "As I said, it's not a small minority, but neither is it an overwhelming majority."

"So, what is it? Who on Earth hates us?" Adora asked.

"Ah…" Daniel cleared his throat. "It's a complicated issue, rooted in our - our country's - past - and our religion. For a long time, homosexuality, both by women and men, was seen as morally wrong. Usually, religious reasons were given for that, even though the actual scripture of the predominant religion in our country did not condemn homosexuality, as far as most modern scholars agree. It was actually a rather selective interpretation of older passages in scripture, often distorted by translations from the original source, that was seen as a condemnation of the practice."

Catra blinked. "What?"

"Bullshit," Glimmer spat. "You want to claim that your god hates us?"

"No, no!" Daniel shook his head. "Sorry, I was… I digressed. No, what I am trying to explain is that while religious passages were cited to justify such a hatred of homosexuality, it was actually based on the culture dominating our country, and much of the world, which, in turn, shaped the religion of our culture."

Catra blinked again. "You mean… you made your god's words into what you wanted them to be?" Wasn't that… going against your god?

"Well, it's a rather succinct way to word it, but… essentially yes." Daniel nodded with a short-lived smile. "Even leaving aside the question of whether or not the god that most of us - most of the USA - revere is actually real, most scholars agree that the scripture was written, and, more importantly, edited and translated later, by people. People who usually had quite specific and sometimes quite personal interests that were reflected in the scripture that resulted from their efforts. Further, they often used expressions that we, lacking the context of their culture and time, cannot interpret with any certainty."

"Get to the point," Glimmer told him, tapping her fingers on the table.

Entrapta was watching with a weird expression, both fascinated and shocked, it seemed, or so Catra thought. And Hordak looked bored. SG-1, on the other hand, mostly looked ashamed. And also angry, in O'Neill's case. Except for Teal'c, who looked like he usually did.

"Sorry. Anyway, according to several scholars - I didn't actually research the matter, unfortunately, since it had no bearing on my work, but I did read a few papers on it - hatred against homosexuals is rooted in a patriarchic culture that values certain traits that are seen as masculine - usually, power, pride, logic and aggressiveness - and considers other traits which are seen as feminine, like nurturing and empathy, as less valuable."

Catra couldn't help but scoff at that. What fool would think those were exclusively male or female traits? These people were so stupid, it hurt.

Daniel cleared his throat again. "This shapes the common view of what is an acceptable way to express your sexuality as well. Men are seen as the active part in a relationship. They are expected to seek out sexual relationships - with women, sometimes multiple women - while women are expected to be the passive partner, serving their lone male partner's desires. Women who express an active interest in sexual relationships are generally disdained by society, while men are generally praised for it. Homosexuals of both genders challenge this view simply by existing, and many men and women who conform to their society's expectations see them as a threat that undermines society as a whole."

Catra could barely follow the man's rambling thoughts. Even what she understood just didn't make any sense. This was just so… so fucked up! She wanted to rip the guts out of… of someone! She looked at the others, trying to see if they got what their… guests were saying.

Glimmer was frowning worse than she had when they had met during the war. "So, what you are saying is that your society is built on the idea that if you aren't like everyone else, you are a threat, and so you persecute people who don't fit and make up reasons for it?"

Daniel nodded. "Yes. It's a bit more complicated, but essentially, that's correct. Was correct - as I said, we are changing."

"Yes, we are changing," Carter spoke up. "It's taking a while, but we are changing our society for the better. Many people already do not share these views and treat everyone equally. Many speak out against discrimination, and we are working to make others see how bad it is. But making society as a whole change and adapt is a huge undertaking - I faced a lot of sexism as a woman in traditionally male fields, such as the military and the sciences, so I know how hard it is to make people change. A significant part of our people can't just instantly shed centuries of… of tradition."

Daniel nodded. "Change, even unequivocally for the better, frightens many conservative people. New ideas often get dismissed out of hand by them no matter how valid they are. But, over time, change for the better happens."

Glimmer scoffed. "Well, you better be ready to change some more since we won't tolerate anyone trying to tell us whom we can love!"

"Yes," Adora hissed, and, for a moment, Catra thought her eyes were blazing.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 16: The Headstart

Hyperspace, On the Way to Earth, July 31st, 1998 (Earth Time)

Leaning against the wall in his cabin, where he had called an urgent team meeting, Jack O'Neill felt… well, torn. He wasn't happy with his team - except for Teal'c. Not at all. He wasn't happy with the whole situation that Carter's talk, and then Daniel's lecture, had caused either.

On the other hand, if the Etherians had found out about Earth's attitude towards gays after arriving on Earth… He suppressed the urge to wince. That would've been a diplomatic disaster of an unprecedented scale. And he had been aware of that ever since he had first noticed that Adora and Catra weren't just very good friends. And - and that was why he was also feeling guilty - he had known that they had to talk about this before they reached Earth, yet hadn't done so for two weeks. He clenched his teeth. All that didn't change his duties as SG-1's commanding officer.

He cleared his throat and looked at his team. Carter met his eyes without flinching. Daniel looked away. Teal'c didn't show any emotion. "So, what did we learn today?" he asked.

"That the Etherians' reaction to bigotry on Earth was even worse than we feared, and that we should have addressed this long ago?"

Jack wanted to sigh. Daniel was being confrontative. And protective - he knew as well as Jack did that as a civilian consultant, he had a lot more leeway than Carter. But the worst was that Daniel was correct - they should have addressed this before. Still, certain forms had to be followed. "I don't remember anyone asking me if we should bring it up today. I know I'm getting old, but I think I would remember if I had been removed from command of this team." And he did remember telling his team that he didn't want any more such surprises.

"No, Sir." Carter was looking at the wall next to him. "It was a spontaneous decision, Sir."

"Really. And you couldn't clear it with me beforehand?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Sir, I felt my chosen course of action would cause less disruption to the chain of command, Sir."

A lot of 'Sirs' in this statement. "Are you claiming that you wanted to protect me, Carter?" That wasn't how things worked. The officer in command was always responsible for the actions of his subordinates.

"No, Sir."

This time, Jack sighed.

"Would you have let us address this if we had asked?" Daniel raised his chin. "You have been ignoring this for weeks."

So, now it was 'we'. Well, Daniel knew what he was doing. "I was waiting for the right moment to address it," Jack said. It wasn't quite a lie. It wasn't quite the truth, either. And both Carter and Daniel knew it. Carter wouldn't say anything. Daniel…

"And when would that 'right moment' have been? Five minutes before we reach Earth?"

"Presumably after a valiant battle which strengthened our ties to each other," Teal'c said. He ignored Daniel's pout, of course.

"Yeah, something like that." Jack sighed again. "But yes, I might have been a little too optimistic here."

Daniel snorted.

Jack ignored it. "As we found out, explaining how Earth sees same-sex relationships isn't easy."

"Explaining how Earth sees homosexuals is easy," Daniel retorted. "Excusing it is the problem." He shook his head. "Jack, these people literally couldn't imagine why the people on Earth would hate them for their choice of sexual partners! It's something out of their imagination. Was something out of their imagination, I should say."

"Yeah. They are aliens, Daniel. Something we shouldn't forget," Jack pointed out. Even though he wanted to forget the bit about his own ancestry. "Jaffa have different views and values as well."

"We do share the same core values, though, especially when it comes to matters of honour and honesty," Teal'c said.

Jack suppressed a grimace. "Yes, honour and honesty…" He shook his head. "Telling them that half the country thinks they're horrible sinners might have been honest, but not exactly diplomatic."

"Honesty is, in my expert opinion, the best course of action with the Etherians," Daniel said. "Attempts to hide Earth's… faults… from them would only cause more problems."

"Yeah, yeah, But there's a time and place for this, and a way to present the not so nice facts about Earth. Blurting them out over dinner generally isn't either," Jack retorted.

"Jack."

"Daniel."

"Do you really think that this was a mistake? Or are you angry that the truth came out, and that they look at us as if we were worse than the Goa'uld?" Daniel asked.

That was… Jack clenched his teeth together,

"I do not believe that they consider us worse than the Goa'uld. They were shocked by the foolish superstitions about sexualities common on Earth, but I believe that this was such a heavy blow because they held us in high esteem." Teal'c nodded slowly at them.

"Yeah, something like that," Jack said. The kids had looked like they had caught SG-1 kicking puppies - or kitties. "But they need to know that we aren't fanatics who want to burn them at the stake for being gay."

"Most of us aren't," Daniel said with a scoff. "I can think of a few people who would happily bring back autos-da-fé."

"Yes, but these people are a tiny, tiny minority," Jack replied. "Most people don't hate gay people - they're just… uncomfortable."

"Like they were uncomfortable with black people settling in the neighbourhood?" Daniel said with narrowed eyes. He really was involved in this.

"Yeah, something like that," Jack said. Before he could think too much about that comparison, he forced himself to go on: "But things changed and are changing."

"And we told them that." Daniel tilted his head and pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Yes, you did."

"You didn't say much, though," Daniel went on.

"You had things in hand," Jack told him.

Daniel stared at him for a moment, then pressed his lips together and looked away.

Jack sighed again. What could he have said? The same that Daniel and Carter had said. But coming from him…

*****​

Hyperspace, On the Way to Earth, August 1st, 1998 (Earth Time)

Adora sighed as she stared at the ceiling of their cabin. It was… she still had trouble understanding it. "I don't get it," she whispered.

A soft growl sounded next to her. Then she felt Catra's head on her chest move, lift. A moment later, a hand appeared in front of her face, and a finger flicked her nose.

"Hey!" she protested.

"You've been sighing for hours!" Catra complained.

"That's not true!"

"Almost hours," Catra retorted. Then she sighed herself, and Adora felt her shift some more - until she was lying on top of Adora's chest, her arms crossed over Adora's chest, and looking at her. "What's your problem?"

"That Earth hates us!" Adora blurted out. Why wasn't Catra bothered by this?

Catra rolled her eyes in return. "Earth doesn't hate us. Some Tau'ri hate us."

"A lot of them hate us," Adora retorted. SG-1 had been clear about that.

"So? A lot of people hate me, too." Catra shrugged.

Adora pressed her lips together. Catra shouldn't talk like this. Even if it was true. Catra had changed for the better. She wasn't like… like she had been before. But even so… She clenched her teeth. Pointing out that hating Catra for what she had done when leading the Horde, and hating them for loving each other, was very different would be...

Catra flicked her nose again. "Hey! I know it's not the same."

And Catra could read her like a book. Adora sighed again.

"Look, SG-1 might not have been completely honest with us - I understand something about that - but they aren't bad people," Catra said, twirling one finger around a strand of Adora's hair - she could feel the tugging.

"Yes, but… How can we work with the others, knowing that they hate us?" Adora started to shake her head, pulling Catra's fingers back and forth.

Catra rolled her eyes again. "We don't have to work with all of them. There are six billion people on Earth. We can pick and choose."

"After interrogating them to find out if they hate us?" Adora asked. Then she blinked - Catra seemed to seriously consider this. "I was joking," she quickly added.

Catra tilted her head. "I'm sure we can think of something to weed out the bad people." She flashed her fangs in a wide grin.

Adora sighed again. She knew she wouldn't like this. Then she sighed another time. "It's not even that, actually." She shook her head. "It's… It makes no sense. Why would anyone hate us for loving each other? If they were jealous, it would make some sense…" She trailed off, biting her lower lip.

Catra snorted. "I know that. But…" She shrugged again. "You heard Daniel - they were taught that we - people like us - are bad people. Like we were taught that princesses were evil."

"I know," Adora replied. "But we were taught that princesses were bad, so we'd fight them. Why would you want to fight people like… like Bow's dads? And don't tell me that George was a soldier once!"

Catra snorted. "I won't." Then she grew serious. "Well, teaching people that someone's bad and you should fight them also makes them, well… close ranks and follow orders."

"Oh." Adora blinked. "Daniel said something about that."

"Yes. Like unit cohesion."

"Unit cohesion? For families? And villages? Kingdoms?" Adora shook her head. She remembered those lessons from officer training, but… "It's still evil. It's even more evil." They weren't at war. They were targeting their own people.

"Yeah. But you heard them - they're getting better."

"So what?" Adora scoffed. "We treat them like the Horde after the war?"

Catra nodded. "That's a good idea. As long as you don't seduce one of them." She grinned again. Teasing her.

Adora scoffed. "I didn't seduce you - you seduced me!"

"You seduced me without noticing," Catra shot back. Then she pushed herself up on her arms, moved her head forward and kissed Adora. "Now, sleep."

"Now, get off my chest."

"Naw."

Adora sighed again. But she did feel better. Maybe they could handle this without a fight or something. It wasn't as if they could just leave and let the Goa'uld destroy the planet, anyway. Six billion people. Hundreds of millions of children.

*****​

Hyperspace, On the Way to Earth, August 2nd, 1998 (Earth Time)

"You want to fly ahead with the shuttle?" Glimmer frowned. As did Catra. Adora as well, Samantha Carter noticed.

"Yes," the Colonel said. "I hoped we'd find a Stargate, but… We really need to give Earth at least a few days of advance warning. If the fleet just shows up, there'll be worldwide panic. Even if no one starts a war by accident, people will die anyway in the chaos. Many people."

Sam nodded in agreement. "If you drop out of hyperspace outside the Sol system, we can take the shuttle and reach Stargate Command without being noticed." The stealth system was good enough - Sam knew that.

Yet, the Etherians were still frowning. Catra narrowed her eyes. "That would also allow you to put your own spin on the news."

Of course it would, but the alternative was mass panic and disruption. Sam pressed her lips together - this had to be handled carefully.

"But why?" Entrapta asked. "We're not your enemies."

"But Earth doesn't know aliens are real," Daniel pointed out. "And people fear the unknown. Also… a whole fleet instead of a single ship? That will be seen as an invasion, not a peaceful contact."

That made Glimmer and Adora nod, at least.

"Yes. People on Earth aren't used to whole fleets showing up to help them out of the goodness of their hearts," the Colonel added. "They'll suspect the worst."

"That's no surprise," Catra commented, baring her teeth.

"No, it isn't," the Colonel replied with a mild expression.

Catra snorted in return.

"Please." Daniel leaned forward a little in his seat. "Many people will die if there's a panic."

And that convinced them. Sam could tell as the Etherians started to look at each other and grimace.

"How long do you need?" Adora asked.

*****​

"So, we're getting a headstart of a few days," the Colonel said, once again pacing in his room with the entire SG-1 present. Samantha Carter was sitting on his bunk, actually, next to Daniel. "Congratulations! It looks like we've avoided an Independence Day scenario."

Of course he would make a movie reference.

"I think there'll be parties on rooftops anyway." And, equally expected, Daniel would take it and run with it.

"There'll be parties on rooftops in Los Angeles no matter what," the Colonel said. "But we'll have to convince our government to treat this seriously. We can't waste this chance."

Would the government actually dismiss their warning? Sam didn't think so. Stargate Command had built up enough of a reputation over the last year, namely by repelling Apophis's invasion. On the other hand, SG-1 also had built up a certain reputation…

"So, while it'd be nice to have General Hammond call the president and set everything up just fine, we'll have to plan for the worst," the Colonel went on.

Sam leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. What exactly did he mean?

"So, in case Hammond or we get stalled for any reason - for example, to check our credentials, or because something happened to Stargate Command in our absence that led to a change of command - we need alternatives," the Colonel explained.

Ah. Sam nodded. The alternatives the Colonel meant - bypassing the chain of command - would likely end her career, but this was too important. Too many people would die even in the best case, should the Third Fleet arrive in orbit without warning.

Daniel blinked. "What kind of alternatives do you mean?" he asked.

"Contacting the president directly. Calling your contacts to circumvent any roadblocks. Hacking the emergency broadcast system?" The Colonel shrugged. "Probably not the latter, since that would just cause what we want to avoid."

Sam suppressed a snort. It wasn't funny. Too many people would die if they failed. She could call her father, of course - they were estranged, but this was too important. But would he believe her?

"I don't exactly know anyone I could tell about this," Daniel said, frowning. "Nobody outside Stargate Command who would believe me. Everyone knows me as the guy who was laughed out of his last presentation for mentioning aliens."

Sam winced. Daniel hadn't actually claimed that the pyramids had been built by aliens - he had merely mentioned an unknown, advanced civilisation as a theory to explain discrepancies that had crept up when dating the pyramids - but when someone had mentioned the aliens, he hadn't dismissed the idea either. And the media, as well as his colleagues, had run with it and discredited him in his field. He was known as the kooky alien conspiracy theorist now.

"Well, they'll sing a different tune once the Etherians arrive," the Colonel said. "Provided we can keep World War III from breaking out in the meantime."

Which was a real possibility, if, fortunately, not the most likely. Still… "If our credentials were to be questioned," Sam said, "then we will be unlikely to have access to communications."

"Exactly." The Colonel grinned. "I'd ask Queen Glimmer to come with us so she can teleport us around if I thought they would let her go on the shuttle with us."

Sam winced again at that. Taking Glimmer with them - well, technically, the shuttle belonged to the Etherians, so it was more the other way around - would be a headache. Some idiot would, 'just to explore all options', ask about taking her hostage, and if the NID got wind of it, or some of the brass got paranoid… It was very unlikely that there would be such a blunder, but not impossible.

"Glimmer or Adora can't go with us," Daniel said. "They don't trust us enough for that."

Sam nodded. Not after their revelations.

"And I don't think they'll let Entrapta come," the Colonel said. "Which - no offence, Carter - is a good thing, or you two would probably build a doomsday device to pass the time while we wait."

Sam dutifully snorted at the weak joke. But she couldn't see the Etherians sending Entrapta with them, either. Not without someone to keep her from being taken advantage of. The thought of some of the more… ambitious officers trying to influence Entrapta made her clench her teeth. Hordak was bad enough.

"So, no help on that front. We'll probably have Bow with us," the Colonel said. "Of course, that means advanced communications. But we'll have to arrange a way to prove that there's a fleet about to arrive without letting everyone else discover them."

"We lack FTL sensors at Stargate Command, Sir," Sam reminded him. There had been work into it, but it had been far from completion - Sam doubted that her colleagues had managed a breakthrough in the time she'd been away.

"I know." The Colonel leaned against the wall. "So, I need more ideas to save Earth if we're locked up."

"We'll have to prepare measures in advance, Sir," Sam said. "And we need to decide where we can land the shuttle without revealing it to the world at large." Cheyenne Mountain wasn't the best choice, being the most important base for the defence of North America. Not many officers serving in NORAD were read in on what actually happened down in Stargate Command.

The Colonel grinned. "Oh, that's easy. There's really only one site where we can land an alien shuttle without everyone freaking out."

Sam blinked. Then she groaned.

Daniel looked confused. "What do you mean, Jack?"

"Why, Area-51, of course." The Colonel flashed his teeth. "It's nicely isolated, and anyone who hears about it will think it's a hoax."

Sam sighed.

"I believe that is called hiding in plain sight," Teal'c added.

Sam still couldn't tell if he was serious or not.

*****​

Outside the Solar System, August 12th, 1998 (Earth Time)

SG-1 were nervous, Catra could tell. Not from looking at Teal'c, of course; the big man was both built like a rock and could hide his emotions like one. But while O'Neill acted as if he didn't have a care, his jokes weren't quite on point, and he was talking a little too much. Especially compared to the last two weeks, when he had been somewhat restrained. And Carter was fidgeting with her gear as if it might have been broken in the five minutes since she had last checked it. Daniel, at least, wasn't even trying to hide his nervousness as he sat down, then stood and then sat down again on the ramp of the shuttle.

"So… we're about six hours out from Earth in the shuttle. We could fly closer, of course, since you said you don't have FTL sensors." Entrapta cocked her head.

"We were working on them before we left for our mission," Carter said. "But while it's unlikely that my colleagues managed to complete the project in my absence, it's not impossible."

"Oh, come on, Carter!" O'Neill butted in. "The nerds wouldn't be able to turn on their computers without you!"

"It's not like that, Sir." Yeah, Carter's pained half-smile was a generous reaction to that comment. "We have the most qualified research staff at Stargate Command."

"We have you. And your assistants."

"There's also the potential of being observed by telescopes," Carter went on. "It's a very faint possibility, but not one to be neglected. We're talking about an entire fleet, after all."

Catra snorted. "And you want us to be as far out of your system as possible." She saw Glimmer tense up, and Bow shot her a glare. But she wasn't sorry - someone had to point this out.

"A little delay can often avoid hasty responses," Teal'c commented.

"Yeah. And the further you're out, the less chance that someone spots you and Earth panics," O'Neill added.

"I just said that, Sir."

Yeah, definitely nervous. Catra wasn't actually sure if that was a good or bad thing. SG-1 were, by and large, decent people. They couldn't hold a candle to Adora, of course, and Catra honestly doubted whether any of them would have accepted her in their ranks after all she had done - she was quite sure that they wouldn't have given her a second chance if she had spent a few years fighting them like she had the Alliance.

But SG-1 also were competent and experienced. They hadn't looked nearly as nervous when they had been facing potential Goa'uld traps and ambushes. So, was the situation on Earth really so bad? She glanced at Bow, who hugged Glimmer and whispered something about everything being fine. Well, it better would be fine. If something happened to Bow, things would get ugly. Glimmer would blow up. Maybe literally.

On the other hand, SG-1 would have said something if their idea was putting Bow at risk. They weren't stupid, after all. So, they were probably nervous about how they would be received back on their home planet. Well, that was their problem. Catra didn't really give much of a damn about that.

Adora, of course, would care, so even in the worst case, SG-1 should be fine.

"So… I'll contact you in a few days, when Earth's ready," Bow said with a half-smile, rubbing the back of his head.

Glimmer nodded, then hugged him again. "Be safe."

"And don't wait too long," Catra said. Advance warning was fine to avoid a disaster, but they wanted to talk to Earth's leaders. Not to the USA alone. And the longer they waited, the more time the USA had to influence the rest of the world. Well, that was Glimmer's problem.

O'Neill didn't quite clear his throat when Glimmer and Bow started kissing, but Catra could see he wanted to. She hadn't quite figured out what his problem was with kissing or sex, but maybe once they could study Earth's society, that mystery would be solved as well.

Glimmer and Bow finally separated, and Bow entered the shuttle to prep it for takeoff, followed by Carter and the rest of the SG-1.

Glimmer joined Adora, Catra and Entrapta at the door to the hangar. "If anything happens to Bow…" she whispered through clenched teeth. "I should be going with him."

Catra rolled her eyes. They had gone over this before. Glimmer was Queen and the Commander of the Alliance (as long as Adora didn't contest that, of course). She couldn't go. Adora couldn't go either for similar reasons. And because no one wanted Priest to be left alone at this point in time. If something happened to the shuttle's comm, the clone would probably think it was an attack. Catra would have gone with Bow, but then Adora would worry far too much as well.

So she held her tongue - Glimmer was probably just venting - and watched as the doors closed, and the hangar was depressurised. Then shuttle lifted off and slowly flew out of the ship before speeding up and quickly vanishing in the distance.

"They're on the way. We'll know soon how it goes," Entrapta said. "It's so exciting! A whole new planet! With six billion people!"

Well, at least someone was looking forward to this.

*****​

Solar System, Approaching Orbit Above Earth, August 12th, 1998 (Earth Time)

This was it. Jack O'Neill did his best to appear nonchalant when Earth grew visible through the cockpit windows. "Well, I guess we better call in, so they know to prepare the red carpet."

"Yes," Bow agreed.

Good. Not that Jack had expected the kid to disagree - Bow was one of the nicest people he'd met in this business. A little like Daniel, just with a bow and no glasses. And a bare midriff.

"The radio is tuned to the gate frequency, and I have checked the encryption, Sir," Carter reported from where she had been fiddling with the communication suite Entrapta and she had cooked up.

"Thank you." The codes would be outdated, but it would prevent any radio enthusiast on Earth from picking up the transmission. Or a foreign country. Well, they would pick u the transmission but would, hopefully, think it came from a military satellite. He cleared his throat. "Open a channel."

"Yes, Sir."

"SG-1 to Stargate Command, please come in! SG-1 to Stargate Command, please come in!"

He didn't expect an answer right away. Not a month late and using old codes, and from Earth's orbit. But they would be scrambling down below. Checking the radar, trying to locate their position. Hammond would be barking orders.

"SG-1 to Stargate Command, please come in!" Jack repeated himself. "General Hammond? I know we're late, but we kind of got lost. But we found some nice people who hate snakes and gave us a ride home, so I hope you won't be too mad with us."

"Sir!" Carter hissed.

He grinned at her - she really should know him better than this by now.

Daniel sighed as if he had anything to complain about.

Bow remained unfazed, but then, Etherian radio discipline was very… flexible, from what Jack had observed.

"Stargate Command to SG-1. State your position." That was Hammond!

"Hi, General!" Jack said, as upbeat as he could. "We're currently in orbit, about…" He glanced at Carter. "Carter?"

Carter immediately relayed their position.

"We're in a stealth shuttle to avoid causing worldwide panic and all that stuff," Jack added. "Quite considerate from our new friends."

Then came the expected questions and exchange of signs and counter-signs to prove their identity. Fortunately, Jack was an old hand at that. Hearing Hammond sigh told him he had convinced his commanding officer that they were the genuine article.

Of course, the fact that they were in a stealth shuttle helped with that - Hammond would be aware that they could easily bomb any place on Earth if they wanted without anyone able to stop them. They wouldn't need subterfuge to take Earth.

"Good to have you back, Colonel," Hammond said. "Now, what's this about new friends."

"Well…" Jack trailed off for a moment. Hammon would tense up right now, he knew. "That's a story best told on the ground. Can you call Area-51 and tell them we have a stealth shuttle to land, no questions asked? And get us an inconspicuous flight to Peterson Air Force Base?"

Hammond chuckled, but Jack could tell his commander wasn't really amused. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, Sir," he replied. After a deep breath, he added. "We didn't fly all the way here in this shuttle. Our new friends took us here - one is flying this shuttle. And we've got a fleet of them waiting outside the system."

"Could you repeat that, Colonel?"

Jack winced at the tone. "A fleet of spaceships, sir. Big spaceships with big guns - and they outnumber our Navy. Fortunately, they are friendlies looking for an alliance against the snakes."

"I sense a 'but' there, Colonel."

Well, Hammond knew Jack. "Yes, Sir. They want to talk to Earth, not to the USA. And they won't wait forever. We've got a few days to prepare for First Contact, Sir."

Another moment passed. "I see. I'll call Area-51. And the president. This better not be a joke, Colonel."

"Dead serious, Sir."

"Stargate Command out."

Jack sighed as he leaned back in his seat. "That went about as I expected."

"That's a good thing, right?" Bow asked with a smile.

Jack shot him a tired glance. The kid was just too naive.

*****​

Area 51, United States of America, Earth, August 12th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Well, someone has a sense of humour," Jack commented as they glided in towards the designated landing field - it was marked with a big Roswell-Alien-style logo. "Or someone is about to get canned." Bow looked puzzled, so Jack had to explain the joke. "There's an urban legend about aliens looking like that. Supposedly they landed on Earth forty years ago and are kept here."

"Ah." Bow nodded. "So, anyone watching us will think this is a joke."

"There shouldn't be anyone watching us, but if they are, yes." Jack nodded.

Then they touched the ground, and he saw a platoon of soldiers rush out to surround the shuttle. "Alright, let's face the music, team! Be all nice and friendly - Hammond must have lit a fire under the base commander to get us landing clearance so quickly, but they'll be suspicious. Bow, just… stay on board, OK?"

"OK!" Bow nodded. "And if anyone tries to enter, I'll just lift off."

"Yes." Hopefully, nobody would be as stupid as that, but you never knew.

"The shuttle should withstand most attempts to enter," Carter remarked.

"Unless they start with trying to blow the doors open," Jack replied. "So, let's go, team! See you soon, Bow."

"Bye!" The kid waved at Jack.

Jack shook his head as the ramp was lowered.

*****​

Outside the Solar System, August 12th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Incoming call."

Adora turned, pulling her hair out of Catra's hands, as she heard the announcement. "Accept it!"

"Hello, everyone!" Bow appeared on the screen on Darla's bridge.

"Bow!" Glimmer beamed at him. It was the first time she had smiled in hours, and Adora felt a little guilty about it - Catra hadn't gone with SG-1, after all.

And Bow smiled back. "Glimmer! How are you holding up?"

"Oh, it's fine. A little bored but fine."

Catra coughed behind Adora's back, but Adora ignored it and Glimmer's lie. "How are you doing?"

"We've safely put the shuttle down on Earth," Bow told them. "Some sort of secret base - but it's in the desert, in the open. They had to put some tent over the shuttle."

"What?" Catra frowned. "A tent?"

"A mobile tent of sorts, yes." Bow shrugged.

"Big enough to cover the shuttle?"

"Oh, yes. Jack said it's to cover prototypes."

"How does that work when flying?" Entrapta asked.

"It's not meant for flying, apparently."

Adora shook her head. That didn't make much sense.

"Anyway, SG-1 left - they took off with an aeroplane and should arrive at their base in an hour or two," Bow said. "No one bothered me here, no one tried to get into the shuttle - Jack ordered them to leave me alone." He frowned. "I'm not sure if they even know that I'm on board."

"Used to keeping secrets," Catra commented.

"Of course they are!" Glimmer blurted out. "They kept the Stargate secret. And their war with the Goa'uld."

"Well, as long as you can blast through the tent if you need to…" Catra grinned.

"That shouldn't be a problem," Bow replied.

"So," Entrapta cut in with a wide smile, "did you test my receiver already?"

"Ah." Bow smiled. "I've tested it, yes - it can receive the transmissions from Earth."

"And the television broadcasts too?" Entrapta leaned forward. "Does my adapter work? The autotuning?"

Bow nodded. "I had to adjust a few settings, but yes - it's basically the same principle as SG-1s radios."

"So…?" Entrapta fidgeted. "Can we watch Earth entertainment now?"

Bow nodded. "Yes, we can, but…" He grimaced.

"What's wrong?" Adora asked.

"It's a little… Well, you have to see it to believe it," Bow said. "I'm relaying the signal now."

Adora watched as another screen lit up on the bridge. Then she frowned. "What's a 'Jerry Springer Show'?"

*****​

Stargate Command, Colorado, August 12th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and then we landed at Area-51," the Colonel finished. "From there, we returned to base."

Samantha Carter sat straight in her chair and looked at a point to the left of General Hammond's shoulder without showing any expression on her face. Even though she wanted to wince a little - the Colonel had summed up their experiences in a slightly flippant manner. Well, they had been thoroughly examined in the infirmary, and the Colonel always was a little annoyed after that.

"I see," the General said with a frown. "You've made contact with an advanced civilisation willing to help us against the Goa'uld."

"And they followed us home," the Colonel joked. "And we can't get rid of them."

"And we really need to call the government," Daniel spoke up. "General. If the Etherians lose patience, then they'll cause a mass panic on Earth." He leaned forward, as Sam saw with a glance. "We don't have much time to prepare Earth for their arrival."

"And there is no chance that these 'Etherians' can be persuaded to abandon their plans of revealing their presence to the entire world?" the General asked.

This time, Sam winced.

"No, Sir," the Colonel replied, shaking his head. "They've left absolutely no doubt that they want to contact Earth and not just the United States. They do not recognise us as representatives for Earth."

"The president will not be happy about this," the General said, leaning back. He was still frowning. "An alien space fleet about to make contact with Earth. The Stargate program revealed. The Goa'uld threat exposed." he shook his head. "This goes against every standing order."

"It's not as if we had any choice in the matter, Sir," the Colonel told him. "The only way to avoid this would have been to refuse their offer to fly us back to Earth. And while some members of our government would be very happy if we had decided on that, I think making an alliance with a power strong enough to give the Goa'uld pause is more important than secrecy."

Secrecy that was very unlikely to survive the next attack by the Goa'uld - it was a miracle that Apophis's attack hadn't exposed the Stargate program.

"The Etherians have proven their mettle," Teal'c said. "They will be mighty allies of the Tau'ri."

"Unless the government screws this up," Daniel added. "They aren't happy with several of the country's policies."

The General turned to look at Sam. "What's your opinion, Captain?"

"Sir, we need this alliance," Sam replied at once. "The Etherians' technology is more advanced than the Goa'uld's. They have hundreds of ships, their military has experience fighting a war in space, and they are willing to protect Earth."

"They'll protect us whether we like it or not," the Colonel cut in. "They're kind of like that. And they have the power to get their way."

"The President won't like that either," the General said.

"That won't change the facts." Daniel shook his head. "We need to inform the world about this so people can prepare for their arrival."

The General slowly nodded with a deep sigh. "I think so as well - but many will disagree. And some will doubt your report."

Sam knew what and who the General meant.

"We can call Bow and ask him to tell the fleet to shoot their guns. Telescopes will pick the flares up," the Colonel said.

"Let's hope it won't come to that." The General got up. "I'll call the president."

Sam sighed - silently - with relief. But she hadn't expected General Hammond to doubt them in the first place. The real problem would be persuading the government that they were telling the truth about the Etherians.

*****​

Stargate Command, Colorado, August 13th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and did you see those ships with your own eyes, Captain?" Senator Wooley, his broad face and bald head visible on the screen in the room, asked. How this man had gotten on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Samantha Carter couldn't understand.

She had to make an effort not to glare at him - they had covered that question already. "It's a space fleet, sir," she replied. "The distances involved are too big to be able to see the whole fleet with your naked eye. But I saw and rebuilt the sensors used to detect them, and I saw enough of the ships close by to be confident that the numbers we cited are true. The electronic data is also supporting this."

The man frowned at her from the screen across the table. "So, you could have been deceived about their actual power."

Not for the first time, Sam wished that the President wouldn't have decided to treat the whole event as a bipartisan affair and involve the Senate at this point. It could cause critical delays. "I consider that very unlikely, Sir," she replied with all the composure she could muster.

"Well, you wouldn't know if you were deceived, would you?" Wooley sniffed.

Sam clenched her teeth. Wooley hadn't made any openly disparaging remarks, but she was familiar with his attitude towards women in the military from his interviews, and it grated on her nerves that a man who had never served himself was looking down on her. But he was a Senator. "Leaving aside the facts that I just told you, Sir, there's also the question of what the Etherians could gain by such a deception."

Another sniff. "You told us about their agenda."

"Their stated objectives focus on an alliance with Earth against the Goa'uld, Sir. If they were weaker than they claimed, we would find out quickly in the field."

"But then they would have already achieved their objective."

"Which objective do you mean, Sir?" Sam didn't raise her eyebrows.

He didn't take the bait. "That remains to be found out, Captain. That's obviously not part of your expertise but ours."

She couldn't help herself - she frowned in return.

Fortunately, Senator Smith, the chairman of the committee, stepped in at this point and appeared on the screen, replacing Wooley. "Captain Carter comes highly recommended, James. Her service record speaks for itself."

"This is a matter of policy, though, Jim. And that's our purview."

The President's actually, but Sam wouldn't point that out.

"And we're here to gather the information we need to make a decision," Smith said. "Captain Carter, you stated in your report - well, Colonel O'Neill did, but you signed it as well - that you don't think that the Etherians will be reasonable and limit their contact with Earth."

"Yes, Sir. They've made that absolutely clear." Sam nodded sharply.

Wooley cut in again. "We haven't talked to them - all we have is the testimony of Captain Carter, Colonel O'Neill, an archaeologist and, apparently, an alien infected by the same kind of parasite we're supposed to be at war with."

"You've read the files, James," Smith replied, a little more sharply.

"I've tried to - this was all sprung on us a few hours ago. There wasn't enough time to actually study everything in detail. It's already a scandal that we are at war with an alien power, and Congress wasn't informed!"

Which, technically, was true, though there were good reasons for that.

"That's another matter which will have to be discussed at a later date. We have more pressing problems to settle," Smith commented. "But selected members of Congress were informed."

"Which will also be discussed, mark my words!"

Sam didn't sigh.

Smith cleared his throat. "Back to the business at hand. Captain, I think you've detailed the military situation quite clearly. But you've also observed and interacted with the leaders of this 'Princess Alliance' for close to a month. This committee would like to hear your impressions, especially of their political views."

"Yes, Sir." Sam took a deep breath. "The Princesses Alliance is made up of the most powerful kingdoms of Etheria. It was formed in a war against the Horde - a war that was only recently concluded. They're mostly absolute monarchies led by a hereditary ruler."

"With magic powers. Magic princesses," Wooley didn't appear on the screen, but Sam knew he was sneering.

"The rulers of Etheria have powers that would be best described as 'magical'," she went on. "Those powers have been observed by my team and myself. Dr Jackson is of the opinion that those powers were crucial for the development of Etheria's current political structure, and I agree."

"Yes, we've read that." Smith slowly nodded. "Leaving the exact nature of their powers aside, do you think they plan to colonise Earth?"

Sam had expected that question. "No, Sir."

"And what do you base this opinion on?"

"My personal impression of the leaders of Etheria," she replied. "They are, in my opinion, honourable and decent people, not conquerors."

"Nothing else?"

"No, Sir."

"That's not much."

She didn't reply to that.

"And what if you're wrong?" Wooley butted in again. "They are the absolute rulers of monarchies. What if they want to conquer us? What do we do in that case?"

"If they want to conquer us, Sir, then asymmetrical warfare would be our best and only means to resist. The technological gap is just too big for organised warfare."

"Even with the technology you've recovered and studied?" Smith asked.

"Yes, Sir. We haven't mass-produced any of the weapons we found." They hadn't produced any advanced weapons, period, but that was a detail. And they had gone over this before.

"I see. So, back to the Etherians' capacity for warfare…"

Sam suppressed a sigh. They were wasting time here. Time they couldn't afford to lose. The Etherians wouldn't wait forever - who knew what they were doing right now?

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 17: The Reveal

Outside the Solar System, August 13th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"OK… Earth entertainment isn't all bad."

Catra, still giggling, frowned at her lover. "What? That had been hilarious!" she protested. The way those people kept stumbling into traps… Not at all like the Jerry Springer Show. Why would anyone want to watch friends - family - tear into each other? The whole show had reminded Catra of a time she really didn't want to remember.

"It was OK," Adora said, shrugging. "Pretty entertaining."

"Bah!" Catra scoffed. "Let's watch another cartoon! But not the one where the cat always loses!" That one was biased and bad.

Adora snorted at that - of course she would! Catra frowned at her, but she smiled even more. "That one was funny, though."

"It was… OK," Catra replied in a flat tone and narrowed her eyes at her lover.

Then Adora laughed in that carefree way of hers that reminded Catra of their time as cadets before things got bad, and Catra couldn't help joining in.

"I'm still not sure that the Jerry Springer Show was actually entertainment," Glimmer commented after a moment. She was frowning - probably jealous that Bow was stuck on Earth.

"It was called a show. Shows are entertainment," Entrapta replied. "The news and documentaries are educational." She smiled. "We've recorded a number of those while we watched other shows."

"Yes!" Adora nodded. "We need to learn more about Earth!"

Catra groaned. Not everything should serve the mission.

"What about this? It's a documentary about Earth food?" Entrapta pointed at an item on the screen.

"Like the cooking show that we watched earlier?" Catra leaned forward. That had been entertaining and interesting. So much food and so many new swear words.

Adora nodded. "Yes, let's watch that."

"It's mostly about meat, I think," Entrapta said.

"Meat is good," Catra commented with a smirk. Adora missed her meaning, though.

Then the documentary started. And Catra started to wonder if that had been a good idea. "People eat that on Earth?" All the birds looked like they were sick!

"I'm not going to eat any meat on Earth," Adora mumbled.

"I'm not going to eat anything on Earth," Glimmer added.

"It's a very efficient way to produce meat without cloning tanks," Hordak commented. "I might have to adjust my opinion of Earth's culture."

Entrapta whapped him on the head with one of her hair strands without taking her eyes off the screen.

And Catra swallowed what she had been about to say. In hindsight, trying to make a joke about dead animals wasn't nice.

*****​

Washington D.C., United States of America, August 13th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill knew jetlag would get him sooner or later. But he'd manage a few more days. He had to - everyone was going crazy about the arrival of the Etherians. It helped that he had been able to sleep during the flight to Washington and that the day/night cycle in Third Fleet had been off compared to Earth. Still, he was running on coffee and jello. And a sandwich some poor aide must have grabbed from the mess hall.

He resisted the urge to shake his head - he had to be professional. The perfect soldier. These people had to believe him, or things would turn into a catastrophe.

"I'm still not convinced that we should let these aliens dictate how they contact Earth," Senator Brown-something - the civilians lacked name tags - said with a scoff. "This is our planet, and we need to draw a line in the sand from the start. History proves that."

Jack wondered what history the man meant. Columbus? Or Perry?

"Eugene, while the exact number of space ships on their way to Earth might have to be readjusted once we can independently verify it, I can tell you that even a handful of space ships represents a force that our forces cannot resist," Kinsey said. For once, the man was actually helping.

"Robert! You knew all about this!" Brown-Something glared at his supposed colleague. "Of course you'd say that!"

Jack had to struggle to keep from sniggering. Yes, as the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which controlled the Stargate Program's budget, Kinsey belonged to the small group of politicians who had been read in about Stargate Command and the Goa'uld. If it came out that his decisions had almost led to Earth being conquered by Apophis, Kinsey would be done for.

Unfortunately, revealing that would probably also bring the government down - things had been very dicey, after all. So, Jack couldn't hint at a few of the angry Senators who had just a day before heard that aliens were real and Earth was at war that they should look into that particular incident.

"I'm saying that because I know it's true. The United States cannot stand against even a small fleet," Kinsey insisted. "And the President shares my view on this."

More snorting from the politicians at the table. But even some of the brass seemed sceptical, Jack noticed.

"We've been updating our capability to intercept space-born threats," General Naird said. "But it's a slow process, and we've been handicapped by the need to keep our advanced technology secret."

"Alien technology," Kinsey corrected him.

Jack almost nodded in agreement. As head of the Air Force Space Command, Naird had been read in about Stargate Command as well. The general should know better than to act as if he wasn't involved in the whole coverup.

"Yes, yes." Naird shook his head. "But even if we don't need to keep the technology secret any more, we would still look at several years to upgrade our space defences to what we would consider operational."

"And we only have a few more days before the black ships arrive and force our airports open," Brown-Whatever commented with a glare at Jack. "Because you failed to impress upon those aliens how things are done on Earth. Princesses! Absolute Monarchies! And those people are about to dictate terms to us!"

"They won't," Jack said with more confidence than he felt. "They fought a war against an invading Horde for decades; they won't invade another planet in turn. We know them."

"So you say, Colonel O'Neill." The politician sneered at him.

"Eugene, if the aliens want to invade, why would they announce their arrival in advance? That doesn't make any sense. If they were planning to conquer Earth, they would have struck without warning." Kinsey shook his head. "They certainly wouldn't have sent SG-1 ahead to inform us about them."

Jack refrained from nodding in agreement. It was still Kinsey.

"They could be planning to divide us!" Brown - Brown-Smalls, Jack finally remembered the name - spat. "They force us to inform the rest of the world to undermine our leadership of the free world!"

"They said that they want to talk to the whole planet, not just to the USA," Senator Willsbury, an older woman, pointed out. "They're not exactly being subtle there."

"They wanted to arrive without warning, but we managed to persuade them that we needed some time to prepare the world," Jack added.

"And you couldn't persuade them to negotiate with the United States instead?"

"I'm sure the Colonel and his team did their best," Kinsey, smiling, cut in before Jack could answer.

"Well, their best obviously wasn't good enough!" Brown-Smalls scoffed.

This time, Jack glared at him. "I can assure you, Senator, that if you had been in our place, they wouldn't even dream of talking to the United States at all."

"That's enough, Colonel," General Naird spoke up. "We're here to determine what realistic military options we have should this First Contact turn hostile."

"We already did that, sir," Jack reminded him. "We do not have any realistic option to withstand the Etherian fleet with either conventional or nuclear means. We could resort to asymmetrical warfare as long as the Princess Alliance remains in command since they do not want to hurt civilians. Unlike the Goa'uld."

Naird frowned as if it was Jack's fault that he didn't have a few brave space fighters to attack a mother ship. Which the Etherians didn't have anyway. Because Adora had turned it into a giant space plant. With magic.

But if Jack mentioned that, everyone present would think that he had gone crazy.

*****​

Washington D.C., United States of America, August 13th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Ah, Colonel O'Neill. Captain Carter." The President looked as if he had aged years since Jack O'Neill had seen him last. "Glad you could join us."

"Mr President." Jack and Carter saluted. Daniel almost followed suit but nodded instead.

"Sit down somewhere. There should be food in a bit - we've ordered dinner." The man gestured at the long table in the situation room. "Ladies and Gentlemen - the Pentagon finally released SG-1 to us."

SG-1 without Teal'c. Jack was still grumpy about that. 'Security considerations' his ass - Teal'c had proven his loyalty many times over! Apparently, the Goa'uld larva in his stomach pouch suddenly represented a risk for the President and his cabinet.

The assembled men and women nodded at them.

"We've already reviewed our military options," the President went on. "And since those boil down to 'surrender or become guerillas', we're here to discuss our political options."

"They should have been doing that from the start," Daniel whispered.

"I'm sure they have," Carter whispered back.

Jack cleared his throat.

"Your input will be invaluable for this - you know the alien leaders and how they think."

"Thank you, Mr President," Jack said.

The rest of the Cabinet nodded as well, but Jack could see some sceptical expressions amongst them.

"So, we'll tell the world tomorrow. Our allies will be informed beforehand, of course - they'll be mad enough about this secret being kept from them. Especially the Brits." The President laughed, and so did everyone else. "But we haven't yet decided how to handle the aliens themselves. That means we have this night to come up with a plan of action. I need ideas, people!"

"Well…" the Secretary of Defense spoke up, "we've read the briefs about the Etherians. They want allies for their war with the Goa'uld. The United States are the most advanced nation on Earth - technologically, militarily and industrially. We've been fighting the Goa'uld for years, so we're the natural allies of the Etherians. They need our manpower and industrial capacity."

Many at the table were nodding in agreement, Jack saw.

"If not for some of our policies," the President said, tilting his head. "Such as 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' and our general problem with bigotry and racism."

"Racism wasn't in the brief," the Secretary of Commerce protested.

"Did you miss that the queen's consort is black?" the Secretary of Education told him. "Not that it matters - the intel we received was clear: Our current stance towards gay rights is the biggest obstacle to forming an alliance with the Etherians."

"If we can be allied to Saudi Arabia despite their policies on pretty much everything except for Iran and making money, I doubt that a few internal matters will be a problem for the Etherians. They're fighting the same enemy as we are fighting - an Empire of body-snatching snakes," the Secretary of Defense retorted. "Winning the war takes precedence. Etheria only has fifty million people and is not nearly as industrialised as we are, according to our information. They need us as much as we need them. Who else would they ally with? The Russians? China? India?" He scoffed.

"Etheria isn't a democracy," the Secretary of State pointed out. "And they are aliens - they have a different view of what is a good system for government."

"But everyone's track record with regards to gay rights is worse than ours. Do you really think that aliens concerned about bigotry will ally with countries that violate human rights every day?"

"Several states in Europe have a better track record, to use your words." The Secretary of State shook his head. "France will jump at the chance to get out of our shadow - and they won't have much of a problem with adjusting their internal policies. Germany too," he added.

"They'll certainly have far less trouble changing anything than we'll have," the Secretary of Education said. "The conservatives will fight this tooth and nail."

"We can use Executive Orders," the Secretary of Defense retorted. "If we actually have to do a thing. I'm still not convinced that the leaders of an alien planet would be overly concerned about gay marriage on Earth."

"Would you care to answer that, Dr Jackson?" The President turned to face them.

Daniel took a deep breath. "Yes, Mr President. The first thing you need to understand is that Etheria's kingdoms are ruled by monarchs," he said. "Monarchs with special powers who govern as mostly absolute rulers."

"I thought they were absolute rulers?" the Secretary of Defense asked.

"Even absolute rulers depend on a bureaucracy, advisors and regional sub-rulers," Daniel explained. "And depending on the situation of the realm, they have to consider all those people when making decisions."

"Ah."

"Although in this case, the current rulers of the dominant kingdoms of Etheria seem to be rather secure in their power - they have recently defeated an invasion by an alien power, the Horde. One could actually make a case for there having been two invasions…" Daniel coughed. "Anyway, the important point is that the personal prestige of the princesses in the Alliance is currently at its peak. Combine that with unparalleled personal power and it is very likely that their people are firmly behind every decision they make."

Jack could see some grim expressions there.

"To illustrate that, as our report stated, an entire fleet of clones worship Adora, also known under her title of She-Ra, Princess of Power, as a goddess," Daniel went on.

"Your report also states that this She-Ra doesn't like it yet cannot stop them. This seems to be a limit of her power," the Secretary of Education said.

"This is correct in that she can't stop the worship or hasn't managed so far. But they will obey her other commands almost blindly," Daniel replied.

That caused more grim expressions.

"So, the princesses are used to getting their way," the Secretary of Agriculture spoke up.

"Mostly, yes. They are also close personal friends." Daniel smiled. "And this leads us to the crucial point: Etheria takes what we could call matters of state very personally. Princesses are expected to lead from the front, so to speak. Alliances are as much or more a matter of personal relationships and character as of necessity or state - their alliance is called the Princess Alliance, after all. And, well… they have voiced concerns that they might form an alliance with a country on Earth, and a few years later, the leader of a country on Earth might be replaced, and the alliance might be broken - that's because they are used to forming alliances with rulers, not nations."

"Christ! It's like we're in the medieval age!" the Secretary of Commerce blurted out. "Do we need to arrange dynastic marriages to get anything done?"

Jack thought the man was joking, but his laughter rang more than a bit hollow.

"The Brits would like that, I bet," the Secretary of Defense commented. "They've got two princes in the right age range."

Daniel, of course, took the question seriously. "It would be a mistake to consider Etheria as a technologically advanced copy of our own medieval age. They developed the way they have due to the specific circumstances of their planet and their population. Dynastic marriages are, actually, not the norm on Etheria - the rulers tend to pick their partners for love and without concern for someone's social standing. One of the most powerful princesses is, according to her friends, expected to formalise her relationship with a smuggler any day now, for example."

That had most of the Cabinet blinking with surprise, in Jack's impression.

"Do we need to call in George Lucas as an advisor?" The President chuckled.

Jack laughed at the joke, and even Daniel got it. Carter, of course, merely smiled.

But Jack's friend grew serious at once. "And this is the crux of the matter: The Etherians were shocked by our stance towards minorities. When we informed them of the state of our society with regards to gay rights, they had trouble understanding the mere concept of discrimination based on sexuality, gender or - presumably - race. I have to stress this: They were shocked by the fact that this was happening on Earth."

"Ultra-progressive princesses. Now I've seen everything," the Secretary of Defense mumbled.

"Their political views might cause some consternation amongst the pundits," the Secretary of Education commented.

"More importantly," the President spoke up, "their views are a problem for us. We look like a bunch of bigots to them - and they take that personally. Dr Jackson, how do you think they'll react when some of our more prominent pundits voice disagreement with the lifestyles of Etheria?"

Daniel frowned. "I think they would be hurt if a televangelist called them Whores of Babylon. They aren't used to such… diverse opinions. Or mass media. For them, politics is a deeply personal affair."

"Do they expect us to abolish Freedom of Speech?" the Secretary of State asked.

"No, I don't think so." Daniel shook his head. "We have covered that aspect of democracy in our talks. But I think they'll still emotionally struggle with such attacks. They are, after all, all very young compared to the average political leader on Earth."

"Idealistic college students turned absolute monarchs. I can see the next Disney movie," the Secretary of Agriculture mumbled.

No one laughed this time.

"Yes, that sums it up, folks." The President nodded. "So, how do we ensure that they realise that we aren't the antichrist? We need this alliance. Not just to protect Earth, but also to preserve the United States as a world leader."

"Ah." Daniel was smiling apologetically, Jack noticed.

The President nodded at him. "Yes, Dr Jackson?"

Daniel cleared his throat. "Religion is actually another crucial issue. The Etherians plan to restore magic to Earth, after all."

"What?"

Jack had the impression that most of the Cabinet had overlooked that part of their report. Or had failed to take it seriously.

"And people keep telling me to write better reports," he mumbled.

Carter shot him a glare, of course.

*****​

Outside the Solar System, August 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"They've announced a press conference at the White House for the afternoon!"

Adora blinked at Entrapta's exclamation. "A what?" Then she blinked again. What was Entrapta doing in her bedroom?

"It's a thing where they tell people news!" Entrapta, balancing on the foot end of Adora and Catra's bed, beamed at them. "At least that's the logical deduction from the reactions I saw on the television broadcasts!"

Catra groaned and rolled off Adora. "And you woke us up for that?"

Entrapta nodded. "Yes! It's so exciting! We'll be able to watch Earth's reaction to the information about our impending arrival as it happens! Just imagine all the data we'll gather!"

Adora blinked once more. "Uh, Entrapta… how much did you sleep last, uh, night?"

"Err… I didn't? But I'm totally fine - I got enough tiny concentrated tea inside me to be fine!"

Adora made a mental note to have a talk with Hordak about Entrapta's eating habits. "So… when will this news conference happen?"

"In the afternoon!"

"Our afternoon?" Catra asked. Her lover had finally opened her eyes, Adora noticed.

"Yes!"

"And it's…" Catra turned her head to look at the clock on the sideboard.

Adora quickly wrapped an arm around Catra and smiled at Entrapta. "Why don't you go tell Glimmer now? We'll be up in a bit!" Fortunately, she managed to clamp a hand over Catra's mouth before her lover started hissing and trying to wriggle out of her grasp to claw Entrapta or something.

"Oh… are you engaging in foreplay?" Entrapta tilted her head. "That's usually done in private, though, as far as I know."

What the…? This was… Adora's face felt like it was burning. She gaped at Entrapta.

"Oh, right, sorry!" Entrapta hurried out of the door before Adora could correct her.

As soon as their friend had left, Adora relaxed with a sigh and released Catra.

"See what you've done?" Catra hissed and smacked her on the head.

"She means well," Adora said.

"I know." Catra groaned and rolled on her back. "But it's seven in the morning. And we watched that stupid show until three."

And hadn't gone right to sleep, either. But that was neither here nor there. "It wasn't a stupid show, or we wouldn't have watched it for so long."

"I was just keeping you company!"

"Your eyes were glued to the screen!"

Catra sniffed. "I didn't want to make you feel bad." Then she yawned. "Now, let's get some more sleep before Entrapta notices."

That was a good idea. Adora pulled Catra in close and pressed a kiss on her head. They could watch television later.

*****​

Washington D.C., United States of America, August 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

When she saw the Colonel enter the Situation Room, he looked… well, Samantha Carter couldn't say rumpled since his uniform was perfectly pressed. But she knew the signs of fatigue on him.

"How much did you sleep, Carter?"

As he knew the signs on her, apparently. "We were dismissed to get some rest at the same time, Sir," she replied.

"That's not an answer to my actual question, Carter."

She felt herself wince. "I had to amend our reports, Sir." There had been no choice, though - she had to amend the parts about magic since those had obviously not been given enough weight by the Cabinet.

"Carter! We need you at your best! This is a crucial moment for the entire world, and you can't give your best hopped up on coffee."

"Yes, Sir." She carefully nodded and stared at him.

He didn't blush, but he frowned. "I had to give a personal report to the president."

Sam suppressed the sudden spike of resentment. The president asking the commanding officer was just a logical move. Even though she should've been there as well. And Daniel, of course.

"It wasn't much - just my personal take on the princesses," the Colonel went on.

"Yes, Sir."

A loud yawn announced Daniel's arrival. "Sorry… I slept a bit too long. They had this old book in the guest room…" He smiled at them. "So, how are things?"

"News Conference at two in the afternoon," the Colonel replied. "NATO partners have been informed already."

"What about the Russians and the Chinese? India?" Daniel asked.

The Colonel didn't shrug. "They were, as far as I've heard through the grapevine, informed that this wasn't a joke and not aimed at them, but that there might be some social unrest." He chuckled. "The Russians probably know about this by now due to some KGB mole left in Brussels."

Daniel blinked. "Seriously?"

The Colonel snorted. "I'm joking. At least I hope I'm joking. The Russians were good, though, back in the Cold War."

"Ah." Daniel looked around and then headed for the pot of coffee.

"So, the police are going to be mobilised?" Sam asked.

"And the National Guard. And the Army. And the fire brigades, of course, and all the other emergency services." The Colonel sighed. "This is such a goddamn mess."

"Well, this would have happened sooner or later," Sam pointed out.

"I just wish it had been later rather than sooner," he replied. "Preferably after my retirement."

She didn't snort at that - the Colonel wouldn't retire for twenty years. But he would retire from active frontline duty sooner than that. And maybe she wouldn't be in his chain of command any… She clamped down on that thought. She really was a bit too tired.

"Well, let's prepare for the end of the world as we know it," he said.

*****​

"So, where do we stand with Congress?" the President asked when he entered the room half an hour later. He looked a little tired as well, Samantha Carter noticed, but not nearly as tired as she had expected.

"They're not happy with us," the Vice President told him.

"Not happy with me, you mean." The President chuckled. "What are the chances you'll be in my seat a month from now?"

"Low. They're angry at being left out of the loop about a war in space, but we should still have a majority behind us. But you might have to make some sacrifices."

Of course, Kinsey cleared his throat at that. "If I may, Mr President."

"Yes?" That was more than a hint of a frown, Sam noticed.

"We do have a majority right now, but that could change should news of the attack by Apophis leak." Kinsey sounded just the tiniest bit of smug, though his expression didn't betray any of that.

Next to Sam, the Colonel cursed under his breath. Sam was tempted to join in. Both of them knew where this was going.

Kinsey sighed. "If they decide to raise a stink about the fact that Earth was a few hours from orbital bombardment without any measures taken to warn people and get them into shelters…" His grimace was as fake as his concern, Sam thought. But he was correct. People wouldn't take well to hearing that. And she strongly suspected that the news would leak in the wake of today's revelations. Certainty if Kinsey was about to get canned for his own part in it.

"Everyone involved would have to resign," the President said with a grim expression.

"We'll be lucky if they don't shoot us in the streets," the Secretary of Defense mumbled.

"We can handle the people," Kinsey said. "They won't know how fast spaceships are. Saturn might as well be on Alpha Centauri for all they know. We tell them we stopped the invasion far out, and they'll be happy enough. But that won't work on Congress."

The President narrowed his eyes. "And you can handle Congress."

Kinsey smiled almost apologetically. "I can talk to a few people, make them understand that the last thing we need right now is an Impeachment. America more than ever needs strong leadership in this crisis. We're in a war after all."

The President stared at him for a moment. "Do it."

Kinsey's smile turned more genuine as he nodded. "I'll get on it, Mr President." He left the room.

The President sighed. "Well, let's hope he can deliver. Now, about our allies… How unhappy are they?"

"Very, Mr President. Very unhappy."

"I hate to say it," the Colonel mumbled to Sam as the Secretary of State started to detail the responses from the other NATO members, "but I'm hoping that Kinsey got more dirt about his colleagues than we thought."

Sam had to nod in agreement. The senator was correct - the last thing the USA needed right now was a change of government. That wouldn't build a lot of trust with the Etherians. Not at all.

*****​

Outside the Solar System, August 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Entrapta didn't look like she had slept at all, Catra noticed when she entered Darla's bridge. Her friend was still acting as if she had just drunk another can of concentrated tea - which she might very well have, actually. Well, they would have to force her to rest after this.

"Ten minutes to the start of the press conference!" Entrapta announced. "Look, they're already broadcasting!"

On the screen, Catra could see a large room filled with people, an empty pedestal and small desk, and several people in uniforms. Not the same as SG-1 had worn - those must be the 'dress uniforms' Daniel had mentioned.

"...and speculation is running wild as to the content of this surprising press conference. We've received reports that the police not only in Washington D.C. but across the entire country has been preparing to handle rioting. Chuck?"

The image shifted.

"Yes, Betty, indeed, I am standing in front of the headquarters of the LAPD, and the mood is tense. You can see various officers checking the transports and preparing riot control gear. But no one seems to know what this is all about."

"Thank you, Chuck. We've also received news that NATO states are doing the same thing - and have also announced press conferences. Whatever it is, this is big, folks! Very big!"

"Not only that, Betty, but we've received news that Russia and China are moving army formations into cities. Some people worry that this might start a new Cold War - or, even worse, an actual hot war!" another man said.

"Well, if Russia wanted to start a war, I doubt they would move their army into their cities," Betty replied. "But speculation is indeed rampant. Alan?"

The screen shifted to show a man standing in front of a fence. "Yes. Rumours after rumours are spreading. Even the most absurd speculation is repeated across Washington." He laughed. "The most outrageous is tied to reports that Dr Daniel Jackson has been seen in the White House for the last few days. For those who don't know, Dr Jackson was an archaeologist who became briefly famous for his theory that the pyramids were built by aliens."

As apparently the entire news crew laughed, Catra shook her head. "Someone's going to be sorry for that in about… five minutes."

Entrapta nodded.

"Daniel will be happy to be proven right at last," Catra said. "I wonder if he'll talk to the press as well."

"You mean give an interview?" Adora asked.

"Everyone is giving interviews." Glimmer snorted. "SG-1 are the ones who met us, so they'll be asked all sorts of questions."

"Like in the show that we saw," Adora nodded.

"He better make us look good," Catra muttered.

"Catra!" Adora frowned at her.

"What?" Catra smiled at her lover. "I'm just saying… they wanted a headstart to prepare Earth for our arrival, they should use that to make us look good, so they won't be afraid of us." All the preparations that were mentioned on the screen were a little concerning. Would the people on Earth really freak out just because they heard about the Alliance?

Adora snorted, and Glimmer rolled her eyes.

"They need to know that the fleet is able to protect them. That way, they'll feel safe," Hordak added.

Glimmer cleared her throat. "I don't think that's how it works. They don't know us, so they don't trust us."

"Once we're in orbit, they'll see that they can trust us when we don't conquer them even though we could do so easily," Hordak retorted.

"I don't think we could conquer Earth easily. Or at all," Catra said. "They've got millions of soldiers and all those weapons. Even if we transported all of Etheria and all the clones and bots down there, we couldn't garrison them." And as SG-1 had told them, Earth people were used to fighting even after being conquered. And she wasn't going to say what Horde Prime would have done to Earth.

Neither did Hordak or anyone else - but they all knew it.

"Oh, it's starting!" Entrapta piped up in the sudden silence.

And, indeed, an old man was stepping up to the desk, smiling widely. That must be the President.

"My fellow Americans! Today is a historic day. An age-old question of humanity will finally be answered: Are we alone in the universe? And the answer is: No, we are not alone in the universe. The United States has made contact with extraterrestrial intelligent life. Peaceful contact."

The room exploded in noise. A red banner appeared on the bottom of the screen with the words 'Existence of aliens confirmed' and started scrolling from right to left.

"Please, please…" The President raised his hand. It took a while for the room to quiet down. "I'll answer questions after my statement." He nodded.

"Now, in addition to SETI, for several years, the United States has been running a top-secret program to search the galaxy for intelligent life. We have been doing this by means of an alien artefact that was found on Earth and painstakingly restored and returned to service. An artefact that allows travel to distant planets through a gate network that covers a lot of the galaxy. Brave teams of explorers went through those gates to explore the stars. This is our Stargate Program."

Catra frowned. That didn't…. Well, it did fit the story SG-1 had told them about the Stargate Program, but only if you creatively shuffled things around.

Once more, whispers started, and the banner changed to 'Aliens exist - U.S. teams travel the galaxy.'

"The reason this was kept top secret is that not all aliens are peaceful and friendly," the President went on. "In fact, some of them are hostile, and we've…"

*****​

Catra shook her head at the reaction of the people on the screen. The President - or was that the Mr President? - barely could continue his speech over all the cries and shouting. He tried anyway, but it seemed to make things worse.

"They are panicking," Hordak said. "He just told them that they defeated the Goa'uld twice, and that new allies are about to reach Earth, and they are still panicking. I question the need of making an alliance with such people. They will run at the slightest danger."

"Those are civilians, not soldiers," Adora retorted. But Catra could tell that she was taken aback as well.

"They did expect riots," Catra said. "That's why they were all so tense."

Hordak huffed.

"I don't have any news of riots," Entrapta announced.

Catra glanced at her and gasped. She had cables stuck to her visor and… "How many channels are you watching at the same time?"

"Six. No, seven. But all of them are focusing on the press conference," Entrapta replied. "Even though they're just shouting at the moment."

"Their military does not seem to be very competent either if they cannot restore order in the room," Hordak said. "Their leader is not supposed to have any magic powers with which he could defend himself, is he?"

"No, he isn't," Catra told him.

"Then he is at risk. This might be a coup."

"No, it isn't. But they're not going to send their military against their own people," Glimmer said. She looked rather angry, Catra noticed. "And it's no surprise that the people there are panicking - they have just been told that their leader hid a huge secret from them for years and that their country is at war. Why wouldn't they be upset?"

"Why would they trust him?" Adora asked. "They must feel betrayed."

Ah. Catra clenched her teeth when she understood. Adora was feeling for those people - this must remind her of her experiences with the Horde propaganda.

After minutes of pointless shouting and yelling, the President was able to continue his speech.

Although people kept trying to interrupt him. And their reactions…

Adora grimaced. "They really didn't like hearing that SG-1 has been fighting the Goa'uld for several years."

Catra nodded. Well, she could understand that. Though if you told the troops everything, operational security would be dead, and morale would drop at the slightest reversal. Hell, Mermista's people had deserted her at the mere rumour of a damaged Runestone and a Horde Fleet sailing towards them. The Earth people were doing pretty well so far. And now the President was talking about Etheria. And he was making them look good!

And then came the questions. And Catra started frowning. Some questions made no sense at all. Why were they asking if the Etherians had grey skin and big eyes?

*****​

Washington D.C., United States of America, August 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Well, this went… as badly as expected," Jack O'Neill said as he sat down in one of the chairs at the wall in the Situation Room.

"They haven't set fire to the Capitol. Or the capital," Daniel objected. "And the rest of the world hasn't declared war on the United States. Both of which were deemed possible if not very likely scenarios, if I recall correctly."

"Give'em time. Both can still happen," Jack mumbled, craning his neck until the back of his head touched the wall. "People need some time to get to a riot."

"It's started in Los Angeles, Sir," Carter reported, looking at her laptop. "And there are traffic jams in the greater Washington area as some people flee the city and others flock to Washington after several groups have called to protest this 'flagrant violation of the constitution and the trust in our government', to quote one."

Jack sighed. "Any good news?"

"The police seem to have the riots in hand so far, Sir," Carter replied. "Although if this spreads too far…"

Members of the Cabinet started filtering in as well. A few looked shell-shocked like green soldiers after their first fight.

"We're receiving sharply worded diplomatic notes from all over the world," the Secretary of State said. "Apparently, the British have figured out where the Stargate came from. They're all but calling us thieves."

Jack scoffed. "It was found in Egypt, not England. And Egypt was an independent country at the time. At least formally." He noticed Daniel looking surprised and rolled his eyes. "I once did a report on the country at the Academy."

"Sorry." Daniel looked embarrassed at his earlier surprise.

The Secretary of State chuckled. "That will be our answer. Of course, the Egyptians also protested - they must have put two and two together after CNN revealed your presence, Dr Jackson."

"Oh." Daniel blinked.

Jack shook his "That was fast."

And that, of course, made Daniel frown at him - as Jack had known it would. "Don't underestimate other countries, Jack. Humans aren't stupid as a rule no matter their culture."

Jack pointed at the big screen, which was now showing burning cars in Los Angeles and a breathless reporter talking into the camera. "Looks pretty stupid to me."

"People are scared, Jack, and scared people lash out."

"The French are facing similar riots. The United States embassy required additional protection," someone said.

More and more reports were brought in by a swarm of young aides and interns.

"Russia's president is making a speech."

"China's gone silent - they've cut the internet and cited a national emergency to stop foreign correspondents from reporting. Last we heard, tanks were moving to Beijing."

"People are calling for a gathering at Area 51."

"Germany's voicing concern about the possibility of a war being conducted from our bases there without their knowledge."

"The French are calling for a 'reevaluation' of NATO structures."

"Los Angeles reports the first death in the riots."

"Several people suffered heart attacks during the press conference. We're still getting a count."

"The National Guard has moved to secure the Capitol and the White House."

"Canada is demanding a full accounting of the Stargate Program's use of shared resources in Cheyenne Mountain."

Someone must have leaked the location of the Stargate. No, they probably recognised Daniel, Carter or Jack himself and realised the truth. "I hope that the Etherians are feeling sorry for inflicting this on the world," Jack muttered. They probably would, unless he had completely misjudged their characters. Well, Hordak probably wouldn't feel sorry at all.

"I think so, Sir," Carter said.

"To be fair, Jack," Daniel said. "I honestly doubt that more time would have changed anything. You can't really ease the world into the fact that we're at war with aliens." He frowned. "Of course, it could've been much worse if the Etherians had showed up without warning, but this was probably the best we could've hoped for."

Jack sighed again. Daniel was right. And the more the people knew about it, the bigger the risk of a leak. Still… "This could've gone better."

"Bill's calling for a bipartisan congressional inquiry into the Stargate Program!" someone yelled.

"Bastard!"

"He's just playing to the crowd!"

"Can we counter that?"

"What the hell's Kinsey doing? He should've prevented that!"

"If it's a bipartisan effort, then we can sink this."

"That's what they want!"

"It's just showboating for the crowds. Besides, there's already congressional oversight. He's just angry that he's not on that committee."

"It's just a waste of time. We can give them that to placate them."

"Right. But where's the President?"

"Still on the line with Russia."

"I thought the Russian president is at a Press Conference?"

"It's been delayed."

"They just want to be seen to be doing something."

"They seem more concerned about this investigation than the riots and the reactions of the rest of the world," Daniel said.

"Welcome to politics," Jack muttered.

Someone next to him laughed. He looked over, and it was the Secretary of Defense. Damn, Jack should've noticed the man sitting down. He must be more tired than he had thought.

"It's not like that - or just a bit," the man told them. "But we've been anticipating the reaction of the rest of the world, and of the people. They're more or less following the script. But Congress shenanigans? That's not as predictable as foreign policy."

Jack nodded, even though he didn't completely agree. The man was his nominal superior, after all.

But they were now, to borrow a term from the Navy, in uncharted waters. And Jack wasn't looking forward to discovering that they were headed for an underwater reef.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 18: The Repercussions

Outside the Solar System, August 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and the riots are spreading as a growing crowd is gathering at the foot of the Washington Monument and demands answers from our government…"

"...Bundeskanzler hat erneut versichert, dass die Bundesregierung über das Stargate-Programm nicht informiert war, und…"

"...Her Majesty's Government can neither confirm nor deny this at this point, though…"

"...rumours of the armed forces shooting at protesters with lethal ammunition…"

"...dozens of buildings are burning, and the police struggle to clear the lanes for emergency vehicles as the crowd refuses to budge, and…"

"...Paris est sûre, la France est sûre, mais…"

"...the death count from the Alien Revelation is rising. Dozens of deaths have been confirmed already in the United States alone, and…"

Adora shook her head at the rapidly changing sights of burning buildings and masses of people throwing rocks at soldiers. Rocks and burning bottles and… "Why are they doing this? This makes no sense!" she exclaimed. This was insane!

"They're angry and scared," Glimmer said. "And they feel betrayed."

"But this doesn't help anyone!" Adora protested. "How does attacking a… a market help you or anyone else feel safer? Or solve anything?" It wasn't even a government building!

"This never happened in the Horde," Hordak commented.

"Because anyone doing it would have been shot," Catra pointed out.

"Yes. Such a lack of discipline cannot be tolerated."

"They're not soldiers," Glimmer told him through clenched teeth.

"Then they should be treated as bandits or marauders." Hordak shook his head. "This is a disgraceful display."

"People are dying!" Adora snapped. "And they are dying because they are afraid of us!" This was their fault. Her fault!

"Or because others are afraid of us." Entrapta pulled her mask off. "People also died in accidents trying to flee the cities." She looked… disturbed.

"Yes." Either way, they had caused this. "We shouldn't have insisted on revealing the Stargates and us," Adora said. "SG-1 told us that this would happen. We should have listened to them. This is our fault. My fault."

"No, it isn't!" Catra snarled. Adora looked at her with a gasp - her friend was showing her teeth. "You didn't lie to them and kept an entire war a secret! They did that, even though they knew what would happen once the secret was revealed!" She stepped up to Adora, glaring at her. "Don't you dare let anyone blame you for this! You didn't do this! They did this to themselves!"

"Yes. They lied to their own people." Glimmer nodded, but Adora couldn't help feeling that her friend sounded as if she was trying to convince herself.

So she shook her head. "But we could've kept this secret."

"No, we couldn't," Catra retorted. "We need Earth in the war. Earth, not some tiny group of soldiers, no matter how good they are."

"Yes," Hordak agreed. "The more resources and troops we can muster, the better the war will go. And that won't be possible as long as Earth as a whole remains unaware of the war against the Goa'uld. Although given their reaction to the revelation, I do think we should reevaluate their suitability as allies."

Adora took a deep breath. Catra was probably right. Yes, Adora hadn't been the one who hid such a secret from Earth. And Hordak wasn't completely wrong - they did need Earth to fight this war. Yet… "I can't help feeling guilty," she whispered.

And felt arms embrace her as Catra pressed herself against her. Adora took another deep breath, suppressing a shudder she was sure Catra would feel anyway, and hugged her back.

"It's not your fault," Catra whispered. "Don't blame yourself for this."

"I know," Adora whispered back. But knowing wasn't feeling.

"Uh…"

"Yes?" Gimmer turned to Entrapta.

"I think Bow might be in trouble." Entrapta pushed a button, and the screen changed again, showing a reporter looking in the camera with a crowd behind him… in the desert?

Adora gasped as she released Catra.

"...crowd outside famous Area-51 is chanting while facing soldiers securing the road to the famous base. And the crowd is growing as people keep arriving. The mood so far is not violent, but this might change at any moment!"

"Show us the aliens! Show us the truth! Show us the aliens! Show us the truth!"

"That's where Bow is!" Glimmer blurted out. "Bow! Darla, put Bow on the screen!"

A moment later, Bow appeared on the screen. He was smiling in that forced way he did when he was feeling guilty, Adora noticed. But this wasn't his fault!

"Bow! There's a crowd outside your ship, and you didn't tell us?" Glimmer glared at him.

"Uh… they're outside the base. Way outside. The soldiers keep them back," Bow replied.

"You still should have told us!" Glimmer shook her head. "This is too dangerous! You should return at once!"

"But we'd lose access to the television broadcasts!" Entrapta protested, then cringed at Glimmer's glare. "Can he stay in orbit at least?" she added with a weak smile.

"If I lift off, they'll notice - and that would cause even more trouble," Bow said. "They might storm the area."

And that would cause even more deaths, Adora realised. "We should've called you back right away," she said.

"Yes, come back, Bow!" Glimmer said.

But Bow shook his head. "No. Even if they break through and reach the base, they cant break into the shuttle. And I can always lift off then." He smiled. "We need to trust the people here."

"Bow!" Glimmer shook her head.

"Please."

Both of them looked at each other so… Adora looked away and hugged Catra again. This was such a mess!

And no matter what her friends told her, no matter what she told herself, she couldn't help feeling bad about it.

*****​

Washington D.C., United States of America, August 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and seven hours after the riots started, Los Angeles is deadly quiet, with a curfew enforced by the National Guard after the Alien Riots, as they have been christened, have been finally brought under control. The final death toll remains unclear but is reported to be in the dozens."

Samantha Carter tried to ignore the television running in the corner of the Situation Room and focus on her work. She had a report to write, after all. At least an aide had brought a chair with a small desk built-in - probably taken from the press room - so she didn't have to type with the computer resting on her knees.

"Can someone switch the channel?" the Secretary of Defense asked. "They've been repeating themselves for the last half an hour."

"Sure we can," the Secretary of Education replied. "Do you want to listen to 'alien experts' or to military analysts being stupid for a lot of money?"

The Colonel, sitting next to Sam, snorted while the two secretaries glared at each other. "It's like winning the lottery for the crazies," he said in a low voice.

"They called me crazy as well," Daniel said. "And we do know that there was contact with aliens in the past."

"And we also looked at their theories. If any of them had known anything important, we'd have recruited them. Hell, it was you who debunked most of their theories."

Daniel frowned, Sam saw, in that pouty way of his. "Yes, but they're not exactly crazy. The Goa'uld did influence ancient cultures, just not in the way most of them thought."

Sam still couldn't really believe that the likes of Erich von Däniken and Giorgio A. Tsoukalos had been hired by the Swiss government as advisors.

"Yep." The Colonel nodded. "'Aliens posed as gods and enslaved humans' wasn't a very popular theory back then." he shook his head. "And that little tidbit got the people riled up the most."

"Well, I would say that the fact that the Goa'uld still want to enslave us was the important part," Daniel retorted. "And that they tried it twice in the last few years."

Sam nodded in agreement.

"And we beat them both times," the Colonel said. He held up a hand before Sam or Daniel could object. "I know, I know - we were very lucky. But they don't know that."

"Not yet," Daniel said. "It'll get out sooner or later."

"And we can deny that we were just lucky," the Colonel said. "Also, as soon as the Etherians land and make official contact, people will forget about the snakes for a while."

Sam would agree with him, but she really had to finish this report - the Cabinet needed to know what kind of advanced technology the United States could hope to develop without alien help, and in what time frame, if they wanted to make an informed decision about how to approach the upcoming negotiations with the Etherians. And Daniel needed to finish his addendums to his report about the Etherian culture.

"Alright, folks!"

She looked up again - the President had just entered. And he was smiling rather tiredly.

"I've just finished talking to our NATO allies. The good news is that while officially, they're all very annoyed with us for not telling them about our war with the Goa'uld, unofficially, they were more accommodating. Not even the French are talking about leaving NATO, though everyone wants to discuss how this will affect the treaty." He sighed. "The bad news is that they're talking about strengthening NATO structures and leadership to address this unprecedented development."

"Why is that bad news?" Daniel whispered.

"That's Diplomatic for 'we don't want you to call the shots any more'," the Colonel replied. "Not that it will succeed - we're just too big and too powerful. Or were."

And indeed, most Cabinet members sighed, and the Secretary of Defense hung his head.

Then the President turned to SG-1. "So… what's your take on this? Will the Etherians build an Alliance with NATO?"

Sam drew a sharp breath and pressed her lips together. This wasn't her speciality. This was Daniel's. And the Colonel's.

"Daniel?" The Colonel looked at their friend. "What do you think, based upon their culture, the Etherians will do?"

"If we approach them honestly, I think so," Daniel replied without hesitation - he must have anticipated this. "NATO would likely remind them of their own Alliance on Etheria."

"And will they associate the Russians with the Horde?" the Secretary of State asked.

"I think that depends on the Russians, Mr President," Daniel replied. "But as long as we're honest with the Etherians, I believe they'll be honest with us."

"We aren't about to lie to aliens who can glass a continent from outer space," the Secretary of Defense cut in.

"They wouldn't do that anyway," Daniel said. "But they will ask for assurances that whatever treaty they make with us won't be dissolved by your successor, Mr President."

"That means I can't just use Executive Orders to push through gay marriage." The President sighed and sat down. "I should never have signed the Defense of Marriage Act. This will be ugly. If we can't do this, the rest of NATO might just make their own deals. And we would need a bipartisan majority for this."

"That won't happen. If the conservatives agree to this, they'll lose the evangelicals," the Secretary of Education said. "And they'll get primaried."

"But we might get enough of them to let it pass. We just need enough to pass the bill; they can oppose it as long as we get enough votes," the Secretary of State said. "Kinsey might get enough of them to play ball."

The President shook his head. "Let's see first if Kinsey had success before we plan on him doing more. And there's the Supreme Court to be considered."

Before anyone else could voice their opinion, an aide entered the room. "Mr President! The crowd in front of Area-51 tried to force their way into the area. Security repulsed them, but… they weren't gentle about it."

"What?"

The aide started to repeat their news, but the President waved him off. "No, I got that. How many are dead?"

"Uh… we don't know yet if there were any deaths, but…"

In the background, someone had switched the channels.

"...and it's carnage as the army beats down people left and right! Bleeding protesters are arrested as dozens of people cry out for help!"

"Air Force," Sam heard the Colonel mutter under his breath. "It's an Air Force base."

Sam wasn't quite certain that the Air Force would want to be associated in the perception of the public with this particular incident.

"Well, that doesn't look so bad," the Secretary of State said - right before a young woman bleeding from the head and carrying a young child in her arms, both crying from tear gas, staggered through the scene behind the reporter.

"Who takes a child to such a protest?" Daniel wondered, shaking his head.

The reporter, meanwhile, kept talking. "Behind me, parts of the crowd keep chanting despite the tear gas deployed. They want to 'free the aliens', as they say."

"Christ!" the President cursed.

"Can we evacuate the alien? He looks human, so we could stuff him in a uniform and just walk him out," someone - the Secretary of Labour - asked.

"We should have brought him to Washington right away," the Secretary of Transportation added.

"I doubt that the Etherians would have let us," the Colonel spoke up. "Bow didn't come as a diplomat - he came with us to make sure we wouldn't do anything with the shuttle."

"And we can't order him around," Daniel reminded the others. "If you want to talk to him, you have to ask him."

"If he's just a guard and pilot, why didn't he leave as soon as you were dropped there?" the Secretary of Transportation asked.

"Because the Etherians probably used the opportunity to spy on us," the Colonel replied.

"What?" several voices exclaimed at once.

"They can't do that!"

"How dare they!"

"Shut up! We'd do the same!" the Secretary of Defense snapped. "They're doing SigInt most likely."

He was looking at SG-1, Sam realised. At her. "Yes, Sir." She nodded.

"They're probably watching TV," Daniel added. "They were very interested in Earth entertainment since they don't have such mass media on Etheria."

"Jesus Christ," the Secretary of Education muttered. "We will be lucky if they want to talk to us at all after this."

"We warned them what the consequences of this revelation would be," the Secretary of State pointed out.

"I don't mean that," the woman replied. "I meant after they watched our Daytime TV."

"Oh dear," someone else muttered.

"People, focus!" The President raised his voice. "We've got the boyfriend of the alien queen sitting in a shuttle in an airbase under attack by a mob. If anything happens to him, we'll get the blame from everyone."

"We need to ask him to go into protective custody - if the crowd manages to storm the base, we can't protect the spaceship," the Secretary of the Interior said. "And if the crowd keeps growing, we won't be able to protect the base. Not unless we start shooting people," he added before the Secretary of Defense could protest.

"And we don't want to shoot people," the President said. "Alright, call the base. Tell them to contact Bow. No, tell them to get us a line to Bow." He turned to SG-1. "You talk to him. Make him understand how critical this is."

"I doubt that he will leave the shuttle, Mr President," the Colonel replied. "I doubt that the mob can force their way into the shuttle there, either. Or even reach the actual base. They have to cross miles of desert."

"Yes," Sam added. "They would need specialised gear or explosives to breach the doors of the craft." She blinked. But…

"But we don't know who is hiding inside that mob," the Colonel said. "If there are operatives of other groups present… We'll need to tell him to evacuate with the shuttle if the situation grows worse. With the crowd drawing attention, a small group of operatives could slip through the perimeter."

"What?"

"Fly away on TV? Everyone will think that we have been hiding aliens!" the Secretary of State protested. "They will think that we've already made contact on US soil!"

"It's better than letting a mob charge the shuttle on live TV," the President retorted. "Or have some foreign spies get access to the aliens. Do it! Get that shuttle away. We can always claim it had an automated pilot or was remote controlled or something."

"Yes, Sir."

"Get me the commander of Area-51 on the line!"

"I need to talk to the NATO General Secretary!"

"Mr President! The United Nations Secretary-General wants to talk to you!"

*****​

Outside the Solar System, August 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"They want to attack you?" Glimmer was… well, not hysterical, in Catra's impression. More like ready to blow up a few Earth people. "Bow!"

"Well, they are screaming about 'freeing the aliens', so they probably don't want to attack me…" Bow, smiling weakly on the big screen, told them. Then he glanced over his shoulder. "The soldiers are fighting them, but… there are so many."

"They seem to have limited weapons," Hordak commented. "SG-1 used firearms to great effect, but those soldiers are using clubs and rather ineffective gas."

"I think they are trying to avoid killing the people there," Entrapta said.

"But they are losing the battle."

"Ah…" Bow coughed. "It's more a protest than a battle. I think so, at least."

"It looks like an attack on a military base to me," Hordak said.

"These people aren't soldiers!" Glimmer protested.

"Why would that matter?"

Hordak didn't seem to understand. Well, Catra didn't quite get it either. If you didn't want to be a soldier, you didn't attack soldiers, period.

"Oh… another call's coming in. Earth frequency. SG-1's," Bow said.

A moment later, O'Neill's voice was heard. "Bow?"

"Yes?"

"I'm with the President here. Things are getting a little dicey out there, which you might have noticed."

"Yes, I noticed." Bow laughed more than a little forcedly.

"Good. Can you fly without being seen on TV?"

"The stealth system is aimed at sensors, mostly. We didn't quite get the optical camouflage working past prototypes. Yet," Entrapta cut in.

"Ah. You're on the line as well. Anyway - unless you want to take shelter in a bunker on the base, it would be better if you lifted off."

"Yes!" Adora spoke up. "If they see that the shuttle left, they might stop trying to storm the base!"

"Or they think that their prey's getting away," Catra commented. She knew the thrill of a chase, after all. And the frustration when you failed.

Adora pouted at her. "But that makes no sense!"

"This whole thing doesn't make any sense," Catra retorted.

"Yes," Hordak agreed. "It's a bandit attack on a base, and the soldiers aren't defending the base."

"It's not a bandit attack," O'Neill protested. "Those people aren't bandits. They think they are doing the right thing - well, most of them."

"The Horde soldiers thought the same," Adora retorted.

Catra bit her lower lip. She had known that the Horde was evil, after all.

"Anyway, the base security forces aren't going to massacre a bunch of rioters or protesters. That's not how we do things. So, if those people break through the perimeter and might get to you, lift off. Would be nice if you could wait until it's too dark to see the shuttle lift off, but… there might be other elements out there as well."

Catra nodded. Yes, she didn't think that would work out - it was a few hours until it was dark enough for that, after all.

"We're not going to risk Bow!" Glimmer protested at once.

"We won't," Adora said.

"Of course not," Bow added. "But I'll hold out as long as I can."

Glimmer stared at him, her lips moving without a sound, and Catra sighed and looked away. This was getting a bit too… too much. Then she felt Adora's hand on her shoulder. "It'll be OK! They said things are calming down," her lover said in a soft voice.

"So…" O'Neill's voice sounded through the speakers again. "Have you decided what will be your next step? So we can avoid another set of riots?"

Catra scoffed, then gritted her teeth when she saw Adora flinch. It wasn't her fault. "You should have thought about that before keeping the whole affair a secret," Catra spat. "Don't blame us for that!"

"Well, keeping it a secret was a sort of thing, back in the day," O'Neill replied. "But we need to deal with how things are now."

"We will approach and address Earth in a day or two," Glimmer said. "Waiting any longer would only cause more rumours and hysteria."

"We will?" Adora mouthed.

"Ah. And have you decided on where you'll land?"

Catra frowned. O'Neill was too… accommodating. She'd expected him to suggest some landing sites.

"Yes," Glimmer replied. "We'll ask to land at Geneva to address the United Nations."

"The Swiss will need some time to prepare for that," O'Neill replied. "As will the rest of the world. So… best wait a day after asking for permission to land there."

"Then we will approach Earth tomorrow," Glimmer told him. "We don't want to delay this any further. Your people need to see that we come in peace and as friends."

"That's what we've been telling them. But not everyone is listening to us."

Well, that was no surprise, in Catra's opinion - not after they had been lied to for years. She clenched her teeth when she remembered what Shadow Weaver had done to her and Adora.

"They'll listen to us," Glimmer told him.

"We'll see. Some might find that a bit intimidating."

"What?" Adora shook her head. "We're not intimidating! We're honest. We're here to help you!"

Catra sighed. She loved Adora, but sometimes… Well, Catra wasn't entirely sure that Glimmer hadnt meant to sound so threatening just now. Not with Bow in sort of danger.

After a bit of more back and forth talk, O'Neill ended the call.

"Uh oh!"

"Bow?" Glimmer gasped. "What's going on?"

"The crowd's breaking through!" Entrapta announced. The screen switched, and they saw a mass of people surging past and over a thin line of soldiers.

"Bow! Lift off!"

"They're still miles away, and they have to walk through the desert to reach us," Bow said.

"Lift off!"

*****​

Washington D.C., United States of America, August 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

On the screen in the Situation Room, the scene changed once more to show a huge tent lifting into the air, picking up speed, before being ripped away and apart by the air resistance, revealing the back of the Etherian shuttle as it climbed into the sky. As before, the scene froze right at the moment where one could see most of the craft.

Then came another set of 'experts' to point at vague features of the shuttle and try to make sense of them. If the situation wasn't so serious, Jack O'Neill would have laughed at some of their ideas.

"How did they break into the base?" the Secretary of Agriculture asked, shaking his head. "The base is supposed to be guarded!"

"They didn't," the Secretary of State told him. "They breached the perimeter of the restricted area. They're still miles away from anything important, like the actual base and runways. Miles of desert."

"Yes," Jack spoke up - perhaps out of turn, but this was about the Air Force getting maligned. "This isn't like a helicopter lifting off the roof from the embassy in Saigon."

"And a lot of our best troops are busy protecting the cities from riots," someone else added.

"But they went through the soldiers!"

"Should the soldiers have shot them? In front of the press? In front of the Etherians? While they were in the middle of the desert, miles from reaching anything actually important? They still are in the middle of the desert, by the way," the Secretary of Defense said.

"So, the Etherians overreacted?" Secretary of Agriculture asked.

"Everyone overreacted," the Vice President grumbled. "Half the Senate thinks the aliens were almost caught by a mob. No thanks to the press coverage."

"The Etherians probably didn't want to take any risks," Daniel suggested. "I think they're pretty spooked by what's been going on all around the world. And there was the risk of foreign spies approaching the shuttle."

"Well, that's their own damned fault," the Secretary of Defense muttered. "We told them what would happen, and they didn't listen."

"That's not quite true, Sir," Daniel objected at once. "They insisted on contacting Earth, yes - but they didn't force us to keep the existence of aliens and the Stargate a secret in the first place and for so long."

"We could've handled this if we had been given more time," the man insisted.

Jack disagreed with that. Not out loud, of course.

Daniel, of course, did so out loud. "Perhaps the consequences could have been mitigated to some degree," he said. "But the information that we're at war with aliens who want to destroy and enslave us and that the United States government has kept this a secret from everyone would have caused riots anyway." He weathered the glare from the Secretary of Defense without flinching.

Jack cleared his throat. "What's done is done. We need to focus on what has to be done next."

After a moment, the Secretary of State spoke up. "We know that the Etherians overreacted to this. Do you think that they panicked? Or do you think they had the wrong information to make their decision?"

Jack tilted his head. "Probably a bit of both. Bow probably wouldn't have lifted off so early. But Glimmer's back outside the Solar system, and she struck me as quite protective of him." It wouldn't hurt to emphasise this before someone got a stupid idea about leverage.

"Are you sure?"

"No, Sir. But this is my best bet. I doubt that Bow would have panicked," Jack said.

"Unless he panicked about what Glimmer would do if she thought he was in immediate danger," Daniel added.

Right. Some of the stories they had heard during their trip made that a rather likely assumption.

"It's a theory, Sir," Carter said. "We don't know what the Etherians are thinking right now."

"They're probably thinking the worst of us after everything that's happened," Daniel said.

Which, honestly, wasn't a bad stance for them, Jack had to admit, if only to herself. And not an entirely bad thing for Earth either. If someone managed to take advantage of Adora's… idealism, for example, the consequences when the others, especially Catra and Glimmer, found out wouldn't be pretty. Still, they had lost a lot of trust today, Jack was sure of that.

The President entered again, looking exhausted. "So… NATO thinks we've been holding out on them again." He sank into his chair. "I've explained that this was just the shuttle that brought your team back, but now they want to talk to you."

"The General Secretary wants to talk to us?" Jack asked.

"He does. But our allies want a Defence Minister meeting to assess the situation."

"Did you tell them that the aliens want to land at Geneva to talk to the United Nations?" the Secretary of State asked.

"I did. That's what prompted this 'request'. And, as the French put it, since SG-1 will have to be present in Geneva anyway, you can stop in Brussels on the way over."

"Great." Jack sighed. "At least we can sleep on the plane."

"Yes. While I'll deal with the Russians and the Chinese. Again."

Somehow, Jack couldn't muster a lot of sympathy for the President right now. Not when his team and himself had to face a bunch of angry Defense Ministers, and everyone was looking for a scapegoat.

At least he would finally be able to sleep for more than an hour or two.

*****​

Outside the Solar System, August 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Bow should return to us at once," Glimmer said, folding her arms over her chest.

"No!" Entrapta objected. "He needs to stay in Earth orbit so we can monitor the broadcasting of Earth! He's perfectly safe there!"

"Bow shouldn't be talked about as if he were not present," Bow commented with a slight frown on the screen.

Adora chuckled at that - her friend was right. And Glimmer was just worried too much about him. Although, Adora added to herself, her smile fading, the things they had seen happening on Earth were terrible. How could people do this? Most of it made absolutely no sense. And she still felt guilty about it.

At least, they could do something about it now. Something to comfort people and show them that they didn't need to be afraid any more. She nodded. Yes, they would make things better.

"You've got that expression again," Catra muttered. "I bet you just had a stupid idea."

"No!" Adora defended herself. "It's not a stupid idea," she added with a frown. Now everyone was looking at her. She raised her chin. "I just think we should help Earth recover from this - make up for all the chaos."

"That wasn't our fault!" Glimmer and Catra said in unison, then stared at each other.

"It wasn't," Adora said, even though she wasn't sure. "But we still can and should help."

"Oh, yes!" Entrapta beamed. "I've got some ideas about rebuilding!"

Adora suddenly had second thoughts about her idea.

*****​

Earth Orbit, Solar System, August 15th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Bow!"

"Hey!"

Adora watched with a smile as Glimmer tackled Bow before he could clear the ramp of the shuttle.

Next to her, Catra snorted. "He wasn't really in danger," she muttered.

Adora sighed. She agreed with Catra's, but Glimmer had a different opinion. And Adora could understand that - to see the violence and panic their presence had caused… She looked through the window at the blue planet below them. And now the people on Earth were panicking again, even though they hadn't brought the whole Third Fleet, just an escort of half a dozen frigates - the minimum number that Priest had accepted.

Bow and Glimmer finished their kiss and pulled apart again. He coughed. "Don't you have to address Earth? To ask for permission to land in Geneva?"

Glimmer pouted at him. "I needed to make sure that you were safe first."

Catra snorted under her breath - Adora was sure she was the only one to hear it.

"And we can offer our help rebuilding what was destroyed because of our arrival," Entrapta chimed in.

"That wasn't our fault," Hordak said at the same moment Glimmer blurted out: "That's not our fault!"

Both looked at each other for a moment while Adora suppressed a smile at the sight.

"Anyway," Glimmer went on, "Let's address Earth."

"Right."

Two minutes later, Glimmer sat in the Captain's Chair, with Adora and the others standing at her side. It was quite a nice sight if Adora said so herself. Formal, but not too formal. It wasn't a throne, after all.

"So…" Entrapta stood from where she had been fiddling with the console. "We should be able to connect to the Earth communication networks. We tested the protocols for the television broadcasts."

"Uh… we aren't taking over their television, are we?" Adora asked. That would cause more trouble, she was sure.

"No, no - we're using the radio frequencies. But we're also using one of the emergency channels to broadcast the video feed from Darla. So, since they're not using that channel, we're kinda taking it over and still not taking over television." Entrapta shrugged. "It should be fine. Anyway, we're ready to go!" She beamed and walked over to stand in front of Hordak, her hair twitching a little.

Glimmer cleared her throat. "Alright, start broadcasting."

Adora smiled as widely as she could. They had to make a good impression. They couldn't cause more panic.

"We're on!"

"People of Earth! We are representatives of the Princess Alliance of the planet Etheria. I am Glimmer, Queen of Bright Moon." She nodded to the side.

That was Adora's Cue. She straightened and raised her chin. "I am Adora. I'm also known as She-Ra, Princess of Power."

"And I'm Entrapta, Princess of Dryl!" Entrapta beamed at the Camera.

"Hordak." He didn't bother smiling, Adora noticed.

"My science buddy!"

That, apparently, made Hordak smile. It wasn't a good smile.

"Catra." Catra's smile was more of a smirk.

"And I am Bow." Bow, though, smiled widely. "Techmaster."

Melog opened its mouth, and Catra translated: "And this is Melog."

Glimmer spoke up again. "We've met a team of your soldiers when they were stranded on Etheria and brought them back to Earth. And we wish to speak to your United Nations to discuss an alliance against the Goa'uld. They are an enemy of every civilisation and will not rest until they have crushed everyone else. They hold entire planets in bondage, with countless people, mostly humans from Earth, having been enslaved.

"We will fight them as we fought Horde Prime, to save everyone, but we need your help to do this - everyone's help. So, we ask the rulers of Switzerland for permission to land in Geneva to address the United Nations there." After a moment, she added: "Please let us know on this frequency if we can land there tomorrow."

"And.. cut!" Entrapta smiled. "That went well!" She tilted her head. "I think so, at least."

Bow stepped forward and pushed a few buttons, splitting the big screen to display various television channels.

"...no comment yet from the Swiss government. They seem surprised at this declaration and request…"

"...the Secretary-General of the United Nations released a statement that he would be honoured to welcome the delegation from Etheria at the Palais des Nations in Geneva…"

"...French President stated that he would attend the meeting in Geneva…"

"...Bundeskanzler erklärte, der erste Kontakt mit einer ausserirdischen Zivilisation sei Sache der Vereinten Nationen, und daher…"

"...Russia voiced concerns about the fact that soldiers made contact with Etheria, not diplomats, and once more condemned the secrecy of the United States about their Stargate Program, which has been…"

"...protests are gathering in front of the United Nations Office in New York…"

"...the government of Geneva has formally asked for help from the Federal government and the other cantons to guarantee the security of the upcoming First Contact…"

"...and as dozens, hundreds of cars leave Geneva, even more try to enter, clogging the streets…"

Glimmer frowned. "Did we get permission to land there yet?"

"No," Bow said. "But it seems that everyone assumes that's merely a formality."

Adora stared at the pictures of vehicles filling the streets.

Catra snorted. "Looks like yesterday."

Adora winced. It did look like yesterday's panic. But… "More people want to see us than are afraid of us?"

Catra snorted again. "That's progress of sorts. Like Kyle only losing half the food he's fetching."

Adora had to laugh at the memories that brought up. But she sobered up almost instantly. "We need to convince them that we don't mean any harm to them."

"Good luck with that," Catra said.

*****​

NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, August 15th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and how much advanced technology is being fielded by Stargate Command at this point?" the Ministre de la Défense asked in his slight French accent.

Samantha Carter heard the Colonel mutter something about letting the French sit at the table even though they weren't a full member of NATO but she ignored that and smiled politely. "We regularly field several advanced small arms which have been recovered from the Goa'uld."

"And irregularly?"

"In times of emergency, we will use whatever is at hand, but alien technology isn't standard issue for Stargate Command," the Colonel cut in.

"And what is in development?" the German minister asked. "Surely you're working hard on developing advanced weapons for domestic production."

Of course they were. Sam tilted her head. "As far as I know, no project has reached the point of field testing, much less mass production."

The man leaned forward. "And what sorts of projects do you know of? And how fast could they enter mass production?"

Now that was a tricky question. SG-1 had been ordered to be as open as possible without 'endangering national security'. That was a very flexible term. "I am not part of those research groups," Sam replied. "I am a member of a field unit and a specialist for gate technology, not a weapon developer." Fortunately, the Colonel didn't make any comment about sandbagging. "I couldn't say how far such projects are."

"Really?" The British Secretary of State for Defence frowned. "You are the foremost expert for advanced technology - you were involved in the recovery of most samples of alien weapons the United States currently research, weren't you?"

Sam managed not to wince. Someone must have talked to the Brits. That wasn't the kind of recognition she wanted. "Yes, Sir, but I am working at the front, so to speak, and mainly with the Stargate, not with applied weapon research. I'm a physicist."

"I see that the United States still keep their secrets," the French minister commented with a slight sneer at the Secretary of Defense, who returned it with interest.

"As do we all," the Secretary General interjected. "But we requested SG-1, not their research teams, because we wanted them to share their information about the Etherians. Questions about the state of the American weapons programs seem to be slightly beyond the purpose of this meeting."

Daniel nodded earnestly at that. Most ministers present didn't seem to share that view, though the Minister from Norway seemed to agree as well. "Indeed. Unless the United States are about to deploy spaceships in Earth's defence, knowing as much as possible about the aliens is of much more importance. So, Dr Jackson, you are Stargate's expert for alien cultures.

"Yes, Sir," Daniel replied as if the assembled ministers weren't already aware of that.

"And according to what we were told, you think that the Etherians are honest in their claims. They want an alliance, not subjugation."

"Yes, Minister." Daniel nodded again. "They are an alliance of multiple kingdoms, so they are used to working together against a common enemy without requiring closer ties or control."

"And yet," the French minister spoke up again, "you also said they were shocked about certain discriminatory policies common on Earth. You even called those policies the biggest hurdle for an alliance."

"Yes," Daniel replied without hesitation. "It's all in my report. Since on Etheria, politics is a highly personal affair, their rulers are much more concerned about such discrimination than we're used to on Earth."

"Do you think that they will be willing to ignore certain peculiarities in order to focus on our common enemy?"

Daniel's wince told them enough. And if that hadn't been a big clue, the Secretary of Defense's glare would have clinched it. "I am not certain, of course - they can be pragmatic - but I doubt that."

"I see." The French minister leaned back with a slight smirk.

"What about 'magic'? the British Secretary of State for Defence asked. "You mentioned that they are planning to 'restore magic to Earth'. Could you elaborate on this?"

Sam fought the urge to wince again. Another landmine that Daniel wouldn't hesitate to step on. Some generals would want SG-1 posted in Alaska after this.

*****​

Earth Orbit, Solar System, August 16th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"So… we're clear to land in Geneva. The Swiss government apologised for the delay in responding," Bow told them as Adora and Catra stepped on Darla's bridge. "Apparently, the airport was swamped with planes from all over the world, and it took a while to clear the airspace."

"I don't know why they would do that. Darla is perfectly capable of hovering until we can land. There was no need to reroute or delay any planes," Entrapta said.

"I think there were also security concerns," Hordak said.

"Darla's got shields," Entrapta retorted.

"Yes. We should be more concerned about an attack on the ground," Catra commented as she leaned against Adora's chair. She didn't quite trust everyone on Earth. For a supposedly neutral, peaceful country, the Swiss had a lot of soldiers.

"Yes," Glimmer agreed with a frown. "Entrapta, you need to keep an eye out for any threats."

"Will do!" Entrapta nodded. "I've adapted the Scanner to cover most weapons on Earth."

"'Most'?" Glimmer asked.

"I had to exclude swords and knives - there were too many in every plane, for example."

"I didn't think that they were using swords on Earth," Adora said. "They were surprised by mine."

"It was mostly knives. I could fine-tune the Scanners to ignore smaller blades, but according to that show we saw, even small blades can be deadly."

"I think we can handle an attacker using knives," Bow said. "Should the Swiss guards not be able to handle them."

"Yes! So, now let's land and show the people of Earth that we come to help them and that they don't have to fear us," Adora said with a smile.

"As long as they don't mean us any harm," Catra commented as she flexed her claws. At Adora's frown, she added: "I'm just saying I'm not going to let anyone hurt us." Especially not Adora.

Glimmer nodded in agreement as Darla started to descend into Earth's atmosphere.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 19: The United Nations

Geneva Airport, Switzerland, August 16th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Alright… they want us to land there!"

Catra looked at the spot Adora indicated. It was right in front of what seemed to be the main building. And lots of people were lined up nearby, held back by flimsy-looking barriers.

But they were already descending. She looked at Entrapta. "Any threats?"

"Uh… the soldiers are armed, but they should be armed. Although the ones standing in a line there aren't armed - their weapons aren't loaded. But the ones on the roofs and around us are armed. But there's nothing that would threaten Darla."

"And us?" Catra asked. She wasn't really worried about Darla.

"Hm… we could take a portable shield generator just in case?"

"Yes," Catra agreed before anyone else could say anything. "And we've got Melog."

Yes. Safe.

"They say it's safe."

"Good. Now let's land. Preferably without crushing the welcome committee," Glimmer said. She was wearing a fancier version of her normal clothes - her 'coronation outfit', Adora and Bow, who were both wearing their Princess Prom outfits, had called it.

Well, Catra's suit hadn't survived the war, but her regular clothes would do. It wasn't as if Entrapta was dressing up at all.

Adora chuckled, but she sounded a little nervous - the space was a little tight, Catra noticed.

But the ship touched down just fine between the large building and the small round buildings that seemed to connect to the planes.

Adora stood and took a deep breath. "Alright. Let's be on our best behaviour!" She looked at Catra.

Catra smirked back at her. "I'm always on my best behaviour."

"Just don't…" Adora sighed. "Don't scare them."

Catra put her hand on her chest. "Me? What about Glimmer."

"I'm not going to scare them!" Glimmer protested at once, as Catra had expected.

"Let's just go and don't scare anyone," Bow said. He smoothed his top and brushed some imaginary speck of dust from his belt, Catra noticed - he wasn't as calm as he tried to act.

They let the ramp down and stepped out. The white-haired man in the middle of the group waiting for them took a step forward and smiled. Behind him, the soldiers tensed and straightened. Just like in the Horde, Catra thought and suppressed a snarl.

Adora tensed as well, she knew, and she ran the tip of her tail over the back of Adora's thigh. A soft giggle told her that it had worked.

Then they reached the bottom of the ramp, Glimmer in the lead, and the white-haired man - apparently the leader of the Swiss, their 'Bundespräsident' - offered a handshake. "Your Royal Highness, we're honoured to welcome you to Switzerland for this historic occasion! I'm the President of the Swiss Confederation. "

Glimmer slowly inclined her head and returned the greeting. "We're honoured to be here."

Then the music started.

"As you told us that you don't have a national anthem, we've picked the Hymn to the United Nations," the man explained. He had a different accent than O'Neill's team, Catra noticed.

"It's alright," Adora said with a smile.

"Is that like The Internationale?" Entrapta asked.

"Ah…" the president's smile froze for a moment. "Not quite." And he was back to smiling widely.

Then they reached the end of the formation of soldiers - who didn't look very impressive compared to SG-1, to Catra at least - and the president introduced the rest of the Swiss government, who had all shown up to greet them. Apparently, that was quite unusual. Not that Catra cared about that - they weren't here for the Swiss, but for the United Nations.

But everyone was here for them. She saw countless cameras and other sensors aimed at them. And banners and flowers. The crowd was getting a little unruly, in her opinion. And a lot of attention seemed to be aimed at her - and at Melog and Hordak.

Right, she reminded herself. Those people were only used to humans like Adora. She grinned at the thought that, for once, she was drawing more attention than Glimmer or Adora. Though, to be fair, Adora wasn't in her She-Ra form.

Then came the speeches. The Swiss president gave a short speech that basically repeated what he had told them. Switzerland was happy and honoured to have them here. Glimmer told them that they were happy and honoured to be here.

Catra wasn't. It was pretty hot, and the crowd was very loud. And she felt exposed - so many people, and she had no idea how many of them hated her.

Fortunately, after Glimmer's speech, they moved inside for a quick 'apéro', which apparently was a Swiss custom that involved drinking wine and eating tiny food while chatting. Or, in her case, watching how Entrapta confused the older Swiss who was talking to her by delivering detailed explanations about Darla's engines as soon as he mentioned the ship. Or somehow seemed to disturb the people from Earth by using her hair to grab the tiny food and stuff it into her mouth with obvious enthusiasm.

"Catra," Adora hissed next to her, picking another tiny bread with sausage from a plate. "Be more polite."

"I am being polite," she replied in a low voice. "I haven't insulted anyone." Or clawed anyone.

"I mean, mingle a bit with them! You scared away the one man who tried to talk to you."

"I didn't! He was allergic to my fur."

"What?"

"That's what he said."

"But…" Adora sighed.

Catra grinned. The man had gotten off lightly, anyway - he had asked if her 'ancestors' had ever visited Earth before because, apparently, some ancient people on Earth had worn cat pelts or something.

At least the fish sandwiches were great - she had to get more of that 'salmon' stuff. Perhaps if she acted offended, they'd offer her a load as an apology?

*****​

Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, August 16th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"The Etherians are moving," an aide reported to the President. "Their car has already left the airport."

"Finally," Jack O'Neill muttered under his breath as the President turned to the Secretary of State for some more last-minute talk. The Swiss had kept the Etherians for almost an hour. "What took them so long? Everyone's waiting!

"Well, as the host country, they probably felt it wouldn't be dignified if they just, ah, waved them through," Daniel suggested, looking up from his notebook. "But they probably also thought this was a great opportunity to network or something."

"Probably tried to get them to deposit their money in Swiss banks." Jack scoffed. "They aren't even in the United Nations!"

"They claim that their neutrality forbids it." Daniel shrugged. "But there are proposals being discussed for Switzerland to join the United Nations, I believe." Then he frowned. "However, you raise a good point. If an alliance is made, probably even without a formal alliance, we'll have to regulate trade, which will involve money."

"Great. Let's hope that we get to watch when the Swiss get nuked from orbit for trying to help Etherians evade taxation." Jack snorted.

"I believe trade contact will be limited to princesses, at least at first, so tax evasion shouldn't be a concern since the princesses basically tax themselves," Daniel replied. "Although private enterprises might also enter this on the Etherian side, I'm not actually sure how much of the Etherian economy would be compatible with such a system. Most of the enterprises rely on royal charters, as far as I know."

Jack was about to tell Daniel that he had been joking, but they had attracted the attention of the Secretary of Defense. "We will need an analysis of the impact of trade agreements with Etheria on their and our economy. If we can leverage our economic strength…"

Daniel actually winced. "Ah… I don't know enough about economics to do that."

"We have experts for that. We need your knowledge about their planet and society."

"I can do that, I think," Daniel said. "But I have to reiterate that the Etherians aren't primitive. They may lack industrialisation, but they have advanced technology and an extensive trade network that can handle magic powers which, for example, allow near-unlimited agricultural produce."

That, Jack saw, gave the Secretary of Defense pause. "You mean that if they get unlimited access to our markets, our farmers will crucify us."

Daniel inclined his head. "I can't speak for them, of course, but I would advise being cautious when approaching trade agreements."

"Yes. Let's focus on the military question."

"The Etherians are here!" another aide announced.

"And did they receive our request for a short meeting so we can apologise for the lapse in security at Area-51?" the President asked.

"Yes, Mr President."

"Good."

"Didn't we do that already?" Daniel asked in a low voice.

"It's just an excuse to meet with the gang before the big speeches," Jack explained.

"Oh."

And then the Etherians entered the room. Glimmer and Bow in front, followed by Adora and Catra, and then Entrapta and Hordak. Jack pressed his lips together - he really didn't like seeing the former warlord here. All dressed… Well, Adora, Bow and Glimmer had dressed up, but the others wore their usual clothes. Daniel would probably know what that said about them.

"Ah, Your Royal Highness," the President smiled at her, displaying the same charm that had won him the election.

"Queen Glimmer, Mr President," Glimmer replied," if you want to be formal."

"Right. Different planets." The President nodded. "So, I would like once more to apologise for the incident at Area 51. We were surprised by the events."

"Thank you," Glimmer said, nodding.

"Nothing happened," Bow added with a smile. "And it wasn't your fault."

That, Jack noticed, drew some frowns from Glimmer and Hordak, but neither of them spoke up.

And the President smoothly went on: "Fortunately, nothing happened. None of the protesters got close to the actual base - we actually had to save a few who managed to get lost in the desert."

"Ah. As long as no one was killed or seriously hurt," Adora said with a smile that looked a little forced to Jack. So, she was feeling guilty.

"I trust that your security procedures will be improved in the future," Hordak spoke up. "A group of mostly unarmed and unorganised assailants shouldn't be able to come near a crucial testing facility."

"Well, they actually didn't - they merely breached the outermost perimeter," the President replied. "But we are indeed reviewing security, I can assure you."

"Thank you," Glimmer said with a glance at the alien warlord.

"So, did you enjoy the reception by the Swiss?"

"The apéro? Yes," Glimmer said.

"Except for the weird man who wanted to talk about cat people," Catra interjected.

"A member of the Swiss government?" the President asked.

"An advisor," Adora explained. "And they apologised for it. With salmon," she added with a glance at Catra, who flashed her teeth with a wide grin.

Everyone chuckled at that. Even Jack - it seemed that the Swiss had made a gaffe.

"So, it seems that, once more, no harm was done," the President spoke up again. "So, it's time for us, I think to take our seats in the assembly. We'll leave SG-1 to keep you company while you wait for your grand entrance."

And Jack was once more reminded why he didn't like politicians.

*****​

The Assembly Hall looked very impressive but not quite as large - or tall - as the Great Hall in Bright Moon. Or the hall Frosta had had prepared for the Princess Prom. Still, it was much bigger than the room used for the President's Press Conference, Adora noted as they entered. It was also full - every seat was occupied. And everyone was staring at her and her friends.

Well, she had faced worse. Probably - armies counted, didn't they? In any case, they were here to make a good impression, and that was what they would do. She straightened, raising her chin, and kept smiling.

She wouldn't have to give a speech, anyway - that was Glimmer's job. She followed her friend on the stage, where the Secretary-General of the United Nations was waiting. He looked very dignified and friendly, like he could be Bow's grandfather. And… Well, she didn't want to think ill of their friends, but the Secretary-General looked more honest than the President. His smile certainly seemed more genuine as he shook their hands.

"Queen Glimmer, Princess Adora, Princess Entrapta, Mister Bow, Miss Catra, Mister Hordak, welcome to Earth. The United Nations are honoured to meet you."

No dig against the USA, Adora noted, as the Secretary-General held a little speech about the United Nations representing Earth and the shared desire for peace. Well, maybe there was - it could be a cultural thing she was missing. As Bow said, different cultures had different ways to be subtle.

Lots of applause followed the end of the man's speech. Then it was Glimmer's turn. Adora's friend didn't look nervous at all as she stepped up to the small pedestal, staff field firmly in hand. She looked determined. As if this was a battle to be won.

Adora suppressed a wince. Sometimes, Glimmer overdid it.

"People of Earth!" Glimmer began, "I bring greetings from the planet Etheria. As you may know already, I am Queen Glimmer, and I represent the Princess Alliance of Etheria. We come in peace and offer our friendship and aid. We are saddened that news of our arrival caused so much panic and destruction on Earth and offer our sincere regrets - and our hope that we shall overcome this and won't let those tragic events stand in the way of a close friendship between our worlds."

Adora nodded. They should have handled that better, even though she didn't know how they could've done that. Not without delaying the entire war effort and lying - at least by omission - to Earth.

"However, as Etheria found out, to our chagrin, in the recent past, not everyone in the galaxy desires peace and friendship. As you were told, the Goa'uld desire to rule the entire galaxy and have enslaved countless people - many of them from Earth. They have attacked other planets in the past and twice tried to conquer Earth in recent years. Etheria, too, has faced such attacks. Less than one year ago, our planet was attacked by a brutal enemy, Horde Prime. He had enslaved and even destroyed many planets, but the Princess Alliance defeated him and liberated his enslaved soldiers."

Adora nodded again, her smile gone as she remembered that struggle. She had almost lost Catra. It hurt just to think of that moment when she had seen her friend, her love, speak with that horrible fake voice, smile in that…

A hand slipped into hers, squeezing gently, and Adora smiled again. They had beaten Horde Prime. She had defeated him and saved everyone. Including Catra. She smiled at her.

Glimmer, meanwhile, went on: "And our experience fighting for our freedom against ruthless tyrants is what compels us to offer our help to Earth. We will not let another planet suffer the fate Etheria barely avoided."

Once more, Adora nodded with a firm expression. The Goa'uld wouldn't conquer or destroy Earth. They wouldn't let them.

"But the Goa'uld already occupy and oppress many planets whose people deserve better. We have to help them as well, and for that, we need help - from Earth. Therefore, we ask for an alliance with those on Earth who are willing to reach out and help others even if it means war. Millions of enslaved people need us - need you - to step up and face the Goa'uld. We won't have peace until those enemies are defeated and their slaves freed. And we've come to Earth to lay the foundation for that. Together, we can save the galaxy!"

Glimmer nodded and took a step back from the pedestal as the people applauded. Some were enthusiastic, some not so - at least it looked like that to Adora - but that was to be expected. It was actually better if the United Nations weren't too eager to wage war, in her opinion.

The Secretary-General smiled again at Glimmer and then opened the floor, as he called it, for questions from the audience.

And they did have questions. Lots of questions. Adora blinked at the number of questions. Some were quite reasonable. Some were not so reasonable. And some were… weird.

*****​

"No, we aren't planning to intervene in any local conflicts," Glimmer said. "We want an alliance against the Goa'uld, our common enemy, not an alliance against people on Earth."

The representative - from a country currently waging a civil war - didn't look satisfied. Well, we've expected that, Samantha Carter thought from her seat at the side of the stage as the Assembly questioned the Etherians. Everyone needed to know as much as possible to make informed decisions, after all.

"What is your marital status?" That question came from a country ruled by a monarch - one with multiple wives. Sam wondered if Glimmer was aware of that.

Glimmer looked surprised - as did her friends. "What would that matter? I'm in a happy relationship."

"And so am I!" Entrapta announced. "If you wanted to know!"

Sam saw Catra grab Adora's arm and lean her head against her shoulder.

"Will you demand that your soldiers are exempt from local laws?"

The Colonel grumbled about that obvious reference to US policy.

"No," Glimmer said. "Although we will not ally with any country where we would need such protection from the laws."

Daniel nodded. "That's nicely worded."

Sam had expected someone to ask for clarifications, but the next question changed the subject.

"Will you share your technology with your allies?"

"Yes," Glimmer said, "we are looking for a real alliance - including the exchange of technology. It would be stupid to wage war without sharing technology when we are facing a common enemy. However, we also know about the risks of helping people in need, only for them to turn on us."

Sam didn't miss the glance Glimmer sent at Hordak when she said that.

Another representative was called to ask a question. "We have heard similar promises in the past. What assurances can you give us that you aren't going to colonise us?"

Glimmer blinked and looked at the Secretary-General. A quick whispering exchange followed before the woman nodded, though she still looked confused. "Why would we want to conquer you? We just fought a war to defeat Horde Prime, who tried to conquer us."

"You could be trying to deceive us. You said you need us to fight this war for you, ostensibly to protect us. We've heard that before."

"Well, it's the truth. We have plenty of ships, but you can't really take a planet with just ships, not without wrecking the ecosphere in the process, and you can't hold a planet," Glimmer explained. "Troops from Earth would be ideal to occupy Goa'uld planets and deliver help to the population. You have so many of them."

Sam winced even before several representatives started badgering Glimmer with more pointed questions.

"Yeah, that struck a nerve with many former colonies," the Colonel commented in a low voice. "Betcha that there'll be cartoons depicting Glimmer as a new Queen Victoria trying to rule the world."

He had a point, in Sam's opinion.

"We probably gave the Etherians a not entirely correct impression of Earth's stance towards war," Daniel said.

That, too, sounded plausible.

"Hey!" Glimmer said, raising her hands as the Secretary-General finally managed to calm the Assembly down again. "I'm telling the truth. I'm not trying to deceive anyone. We need each other if we want to save all those people."

"Will you share your technology even if we don't want to fight for you?"

Glimmer, once again, looked surprised, then frowned. "You wouldn't be fighting for us, but for Earth and everyone else in the galaxy. Also, if you aren't willing to help others, why do you expect help from others?"

Adora took a step forward. "We will help you if you need help," she said, her voice carrying through the Assembly. "But we will not just hand out technology that you can use to oppress others. We've seen how that works."

"What about technology to improve the standards of living?"

"What about technology to combat famines?"

"Will you share advanced medicine?"

The Etherians seemed surprised and looked at each other. And then Entrapta spoke up, her hair lifting her up to the better look over the desk: "Well, according to the data we gathered, you have all the technology and infrastructure to feed and treat everyone, but you don't for some reason. We would first need to know why you don't do that in order to see how we can help there." She nodded. "If it's a lack of magic, that should be remedied as soon as Adora unlocks Earth's magic."

Sam winced at the storm of questions and yelling that unleashed. It took several minutes for the Secretary-General to calm the Assembly down again this time.

"That'll kill the relations with a lot of countries," the Colonel commented.

"Yes, magic," Entrapta explained. "Much of Etherian's native technology is based on magic - especially for medicine. Though," she perked up, "we have made strides in cybernetics as well, you prefer to replace rather than heal damaged limbs, for example!" Bow whispered something to her, and she frowned. "Anyway, Earth's magic, like the magic for most of the galaxy, is currently blocked, but Adora can unblock it. Once she does, you'll be able to use magic."

Several representatives loudly opposed this plan, and the Assembly descended into chaos yet again.

The Etherians looked confused and even shocked for a moment. But as the chaos continued, Adora suddenly frowned, then took a step forward. She raised her arm, and her sword appeared in it, pointed towards the ceiling.

"Oh, no!" the Colonel spat.

"For the Honour of Grayskull!"

Sam looked away as blinding light enveloped Adora for a moment, and she transformed.

Then She-Ra was standing there on the stage, still frowning at the suddenly quiet Assembly. "I am She-Ra, Princess of Power. I'm not here to conquer anyone. I'm here to help you. Magic was taken from Earth long ago. I'm here to restore it to your world - if you want me to." She lowered her sword. "Magic is not evil. It can do a lot of good. It can heal. It can restore destroyed lands and improve and save your lives. And it's your birthright."

"That struck a nerve as well," Daniel commented as the assembled diplomats erupted in yelling again.

*****​

"Hrrngh!"

Glimmer looked tenser than after a battle, Catra noticed when they'd finally left the Assembly Hall and 'retired' to a private room with a big table and comfortable chairs. She wasn't quite gnashing her teeth, but you could almost feel the frustration radiating from her. And the desire to do some violence.

"What's wrong with them?" Glimmer spat as she sank into a chair at the head of the table. "We told them everything they wanted to know, and they still don't trust us!"

"They think we could be lying," Bow said, moving to the small fridge in the corner.

"But that makes no sense." Entrapta frowned. "Even with just the ships in orbit, we're strong enough to conquer Earth."

"Telling them that made things worse." Adora sighed and laid down her head on the table for a moment. Then she suddenly seemed to remember that they weren't at home and sat up straight.

Catra chuckled at the sight and moved to stand behind her, rubbing her shoulders.

"They are very irrational," Hordak commented. "Although they might think we are trying to deceive them and do not have the force to conquer them. Maybe a demonstration would correct that misconception."

Catra shook her head as Glimmer and Adora glared at Hordak. Her former leader still didn't fully understand people. Just like Entrapta.

"We are not going to 'demonstrate' an orbital bombardment," Glimmer spat. "We're here to form an alliance, not to conquer a planet. Or colonise them. We're not imperialists!"

"Someone's learned a few new words today!" Catra said, snorting.

Glimmer glared at her, and Adora frowned, but that was to be expected.

"Oh, lighten up," Catra said, sliding into Adora's lap. "They're bound to distrust us. How would we react if a fleet arrived out of nowhere and wanted to help us fight another Horde Prime?"

Adora stopped shifting around under Catra and said: "We offered our help when SG-1 arrived on Etheria."

"They were four people and needed help. They weren't a fleet," Bow pointed out as he placed several bottles of drinks on the table.

"Oh! Soda!" Entrapta grabbed two of them with her hair and handed a third to Hordak. "That's from that show we saw!"

"That was advertising," Glimmer told her. "And yes, I completely understand that they might be cautious." Catra cleared her throat, about to mention Glimmer's earlier words, but the princess went on: "But they think the worst of us! And their questions were very rude!"

"Were they?" Entrapta asked, blinking, between sipping from two different sodas.

"Yes," Glimmer said.

"You generally don't ask after someone's relationships in such a meeting," Bow explained. "That's a private matter."

"Even when it's two princesses?" Entrapta asked.

"Well… we're not," Glimmer replied. "But that's not what I meant. The way some of them asked after our technology…" She shook her head.

"And magic," Bow said.

Glimmer groaned. "Don't remind me. You'd think we threatened them with extinction when we offered to restore magic."

"Not all of them reacted like that," Adora said, one arm tightening around Catra's waist. "A few were very positive. Well, they were interested," she added.

"Because they probably think that as soon as you unlock the magic of Earth, they'll have princesses and sorcerers," Catra said, leaning her head back against Adora's shoulder.

"Why would they think that?" Entrapta shook her head. "It's obvious that they will need to study magic and learn how to wield it before they can achieve anything. And we don't even know if they have dormant princesses."

"It's not obvious," Bow told her. "They probably think it's easy to use."

"Their TV shows certainly gave that impression," Glimmer said, slumping a little. "Snip your fingers and do magic." She scoffed.

"Well, we have to correct that misunderstanding," Adora said. "We need to talk to them again. The more they know, the more they'll trust us."

"More shouting at each other?" Catra snorted.

"I mean private meetings, of course," Adora retorted. "Before the actual negotiations."

"Then we'll get accused of hiding secrets." Catra shrugged. "Not that that can be helped, I guess."

Adora was about to say something - probably another optimistic thing - but a knock at the door interrupted her before she could start.

"Yes?" Glimmer spoke up.

The door opened, and the Secretary-General entered. "I'm sorry, I was held up by some insistent delegates." He smiled. "They had some concerns about today's revelations."

"We're not going to conquer Earth," Glimmer said.

"Though we have the capability," Hordak added.

"Actually," the man told them, "most of the concerns were related to magic."

"Really?" Adora blinked.

Catra frowned. Those people were actually more concerned about magic than about the war with the Goa'uld?

The old man nodded. "Magic is a controversial topic for many religions."

"Daniel mentioned something like that," Adora said with a deep frown. "But we're not going to force anyone to use magic if they don't want to."

The smile on the Secretary-General's face slipped a little. "They are concerned about others being able to use magic."

"Why would that concern them?" Glimmer asked. "Are they afraid that a princess will conquer their country?"

"Without runestones to boost magic powers, that is very, very unlikely given your level of technology," Entrapta said. "I would say impossible, but there's always the theoretical possibility of an incredible outlier."

"As I said, it's based on religion," the Secretary-General told them.

"You mean it's irrational," Hordak said.

"In a way, yes," the man replied. "Although since, apparently, magic is real and was common on Earth in the past, many such preconceptions might have to be reevaluated." He sighed. "The revelation that malevolent aliens posed as gods in the past hasn't helped, of course. Many religious people are very… concerned about the ramifications of this."

"So, they need more data to process this?" Entrapta asked. "We can help with that!" She beamed at the man.

Looking at the man's polite smile, Catra somehow had the impression that things wouldn't be as easy as Entrapta thought.

*****​

Hotel Intercontinental, Geneva, Switzerland, August 16th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Quite nice digs," Jack O'Neill commented when he stepped into SG-1's - minus Teal'c, who was still stuck at Stargate Command - temporary quarters. A room in a luxury hotel surely beat the usual bachelor's quarters on a base. Hell, it beat his home. Well, as long as they had room service that served beer.

"We're on the same floor as the President," Daniel said, looking at the two beds. "Which one do you want?"

"Pick one," Jack told him as he looked for the remote. He knocked on the door to the next room. "Carter?"

The door opened, and Carter appeared. "Sir?"

"Everything alright, Carter?" Jack asked. There! He grabbed the remote from the sideboard and switched the TV on.

"Yes, Sir."

"Now, let's see how the world's reacting to the arrival of our new friends," Jack said.

"...Queen Glimmer, representing the Princess Alliance of Etheria, gave a speech in the Assembly Hall of the United Nations building in Geneva where she promised help against the Goa'uld threat and offered to share the advanced technology if Earth joined the war. Our analysts predict…"

"...Wallstreet is in an uproar. The stock market is oscillating - investors cannot seem to make up their minds whether or not the news about aliens are good news. Even shares in military corporations, which have jumped in price since the shocking reveal by the US government, have suffered losses today as analysts profess doubts that all of them will benefit equally from shared alien technology…"

"...als Vertreter von Rheinmetall führte aus, dass nun dringender Handlungsbedarf bestehe. Die Gesetze, die die Ausfuhr von Rüstungsgütern kontrollieren, würden die Sicherheit Deutschlands und der Welt gefährden, und er forderte…"

"...protests against the war with the Goa'uld have been announced all across the world, with varying attendance so far. In some cases, violent confrontations with protesters who call for immediate action to free humans enslaved by aliens have claimed several victims…"

"... so we ask: Who is this 'Queen Glimmer', and why should we care what she wants? So far, we haven't seen any proof that Earth is in danger - we have only the word of the United States Government, which has admitted to having lied to the world for years, and the word of aliens who openly want mercenaries for their war for this. I call for…"

"...the Swiss police is out in force to keep protesters from reaching the Palais des Nations. Several clashes have resulted in entire streets being cordoned off and the arrests of hundreds of people."

"...in a blatant powerplay, the aliens offer technology for soldiers for their war…"

"...China has refused to comment on the situation and continues to exert the strictest control over all media in the country since 1989…"

"...has voiced concerns about another attempt at colonisation…"

"...released a statement that calls for immediate action against the Goa'uld and stronger powers for the United Nations. As she was quoted, 'if there ever was a time for Earth to unite, then this is the time. Faced with a war in space and alien allies, we have to speak with one voice for the betterment of humanity as a whole."

"...asked about the stance of the Catholic Church on magic, the Vatican declined to comment, announcing that such a question required careful consideration, and…"

"...renowned scholar at the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, stated that the Qoran doesn't condemn magic as a whole but only certain practises of it. Yet several imams have already denounced the Etherians as enemies of the Faith and called upon…"

"...was quoted as saying that 'the Bible clearly condemns both witchcraft and homosexuality' and called upon the immediate cessation of diplomatic contacts with the aliens in order to 'save the American people from eternal damnation'."

"Russia's president announced a national state of heightened alert and stated that the government was looking at emergency measures to prepare the country for a possible war. He didn't specify which war, nor did he react to questions about rumours of Russia defaulting on…"

"...Japan's Prime Minister is about to meet with several Shinto priests to discuss the subject of magic…"

"...Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of England, denied that there were any plans to propose a dynastic marriage between one of her grandchildren and a princess of Etheria."

Jack took a deep breath. He really should have expected that. "So… that happened."

"It could've been worse?" Daniel offered.

Before Jack could ask Carter, who was uncharacteristically silent, their phone rang. Daniel picked up the receiver. "Doctor Jackson." He blinked. "Yes, we're on the way." He looked at Jack and put the receiver down. "We're to attend a briefing in the President's suite."

Great. Jack sighed. "Alright, folks. Let's go."

The suite was just down the hall - past half a dozen suits from the Secret Service. There were more, Jack knew - they had to rent the entire floor on short notice, and no one was happy with the current security. But it was still safer than staying in Airforce One on the tarmac. At least according to the Secret Service.

The President's suite wasn't packed as Jack had expected - the President was there, currently on the phone, as were the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense and their aides. And more Secret Service personnel.

The President nodded at them while he paced. "Yes, dear… Yes, that's a good idea… Talk to him again… yes…"

"So!" The Secretary of State smiled, although he looked tired. "That went well."

"Sir?" Jack cocked his head.

"The reaction from the rest of the world," the man clarified. "That should increase our chances to form an alliance between NATO and the Etherians." He shook his head. "That they fixated on magic…"

"Have you seen the reactions from several prominent televangelists?" Daniel asked.

The man waved the argument away. "That's just a bunch of extremists. We can handle them. But the Etherians have now seen that we're amongst the most progressive countries in the world." He smiled again. "This is the opportunity we need."

*****​

Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, August 16th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...Russia's president further demanded joint talks between the aliens, NATO, Russia and China, claiming that, in light of the fact that the USA hid the existence of aliens for years, bilateral talks wouldn't be conducive to building the necessary trust for…"

"...China has still not commented on the recent revelations about aliens except to assure its population that the government has the situation in hand. Independent information about the events in China are hard to come by given their total information blackout, but reports claim that several spontaneous protests, even pro-government, have been harshly subdued and…"

"...speculation about the aliens continues to run rampant. An analysis of their body language during the speech in the Assembly Hall of the United Nations indicates romantic entanglements between…"

"...pundits were torn regarding the question of whether or not the aliens favoured same-sex relationships and what that would mean for Earth…"

"...several members of the clergy have already condemned those potential relationships while the church officially is still debating whether or not aliens are part of God's creation…"

"...question of magic, thousands of concerned citizens have been calling their representatives, demanding…"

"...physicist Stephen Hawking released a statement that he was looking forward to observing magic and adjusting his theories accordingly…"

"..in contrast, several 'covens' have filed preemptive complaints that any action by the government aimed at preventing the, I quote 'release of magic' would be a violation of their religious freedom. The government hasn't yet…"

Adora shook her at the rapidly changing screen that Entrapta had rigged up in their room - a conference room - in the Palais des Nations. "Are they really focusing on magic and our relationships?" she asked. "Instead of, like, the war against the Goa'uld?"

"I am not surprised by this irrational behaviour. Not in the slightest," Hordak said.

Catra, Adora saw, rolled her eyes. "Daniel warned us about that, remember?"

"I didn't think it would be that bad," Adora admitted. Why were they so concerned about who other people loved? Or about magic? "They're calling me a witch." She pressed her teeth together. She wasn't a witch! She wasn't like Shadow Weaver! Not in the slightest!

"They're idiots," Catra said. "They know nothing about witches."

"Or princesses," Glimmer added. Adora's friend was angry. "First those questions in the Assembly Hall, and now this! Aren't those people aware that we're fighting a war?"

"They're questioning that," Entrapta commented - she was again wearing her mask, hooked up to the TV receiver in the room. "Some people claim it's all a hoax invented to make people comply with our demands."

"What demands?"

"Legalise gay marriage, apparently," Entrapta said. "And corrupt their children. And 'imperil their immortal souls' - whatever that means - with 'fell sorcery'."

"That's ridiculous!" Adora spat.

"Actually, we're indirectly pushing for that," Bow interjected. "Not for the corruption and endangering, I mean, but we did say we wouldn't ally with countries where our families would be illegal."

"That's not the same!" Adora insisted.

"It kind of is," Catra retorted. "The technology we can share means that any country that gets it will be much more powerful than those who don't get it. And people don't like being powerless," she added with a tight impression that made Adora want to hug her.

She didn't do that, though - Catra would be more embarrassed than reassured and probably push her away. And… "Great. So we are pushing our morals on others," Adora said

"No!" Glimmer objected. "We're looking for friends who are like us. That's not the same. And it's perfectly legitimate."

"But we need Earth." Entrapta pushed her mask up. "What do we do if there are no people like us who like us?" She looked worried.

Hordak scoffed. "Based on my analysis of Earth so far, we do not have to worry about that. There will be many countries whose leaders are willing to adapt to become our allies." He nodded. "As we have seen, many resent the current balance of power on Earth."

"And we're upsetting that balance." Adora sighed again. "What do we do if war breaks out over this?"

"We would crush any enemy. Earth does not have the technology to threaten us," Hordak said at once.

"I meant between different countries on Earth," Adora explained.

"There are multiple wars currently being fought on Earth, though they seem to be civil wars - wars between people of the same country," Entrapta said. "What would one additional war change?"

"A war between powerful countries isn't the same as the wars here," Glimmer objected. "They can lay waste to entire countries - even the world - according to Daniel and Sam."

Adora pressed her lips together. They would have to make sure that this wouldn't happen. No matter how.

"Oh!" Entrapta sounded surprised. "Some people are calling us magical girls. And speculating whether or not we all have 'the power to transform'. And they wonder if Catra can change into Melog."

"What?" "What?"

Adora looked at the screen. It was showing two old men talking at a younger woman about magic and the economy. "Where did you find that?"

"It's on another part of the communication network," Entrapta said. "Let me put it on the screen… there!"

The moving pictures were replaced by text. And drawings. Drawings of…

"Cat people?" Catra blurted out. "Why would they have pictures of cat people?"

"Those are called cartoons," Entrapta explained. "I haven't found the ones they refer to yet. They seem to be obscure."

The pictures shown were drawings of cat people. But they didn't look like Catra. Some didn't even have a tail!

"Whatever," Catra spat. "Let's focus on Earth politics. We can watch cartoons once we've dealt with that."

"Are you sure? This could grant us important insights into how Earth people behave!" Entrapta objected.

Catra glanced at Adora. Well, glared would be more correct.

Adora sighed. "Yes, let's focus on politics for now."

They needed to talk to so many people…

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 20: The Negotiations

Hotel Intercontinental, Geneva, Switzerland, August 17th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Samantha Carter checked one last time that the encryption on the satellite phone was working, then established the connection. After a moment, the symbol of Stargate Command appeared on her laptop's screen, followed by General Hammond - and Teal'c - in the General's office.

"Good morning, General," the Colonel said at once. "Well, it's morning here in Switzerland."

Sam's body, though, still felt as if it should be night. Jet lag had finally caught up with them.

"Good morning, Colonel. Captain. Doctor Jackson."

Teal'c inclined his head, and that was it.

Hammond narrowed his eyes slightly. "Do you require more data for a report?"

"Ah… we're just touching base, so to speak," the Colonel said. "What with all the hubbub about the aliens, we wanted to check how things are back home."

The General chuckled. "We aren't suffering from civilians trying to storm the base," he said. "And the Stargate has been sealed for the time being."

"Oh?" The Colonel frowned.

"In the current situation, continued operation of the Stargate was deemed unwise. Our best team is off-base, and we're under a lot of scrutiny." Hammon pressed his lips together. "As far as I am aware, the revelations about the truth behind our project ruffled some feathers amongst the staff in NORAD."

Sam frowned. NORAD's commanders had been informed when the project started.

"You mean some staffers aren't happy that they weren't important enough to need to know about Stargate Command?" The Colonel snorted. "I bet Wilkinson is amongst them."

"Wilkinson?" Teal'c asked, tilting his head.

"A particularly arrogant colonel who thought deep-space telemetry was a dead-end for wash-outs," the Colonel explained, baring his teeth. "He was quite open with his opinion."

And would now be lamenting his judgment, Sam thought.

"And how are things on the diplomatic front?"

"Ah, just peachy." The Colonel's smile grew more forced - Sam could tell. "The Etherians discovered the Internet."

"Ah." Hammond closed his eyes for a moment. "And just at the moment that the Internet discovered aliens are real."

"Yes." The Colonel chuckled. "Although, if you're shopping for a Christmas gift for magical princesses, we've heard that the complete collection of Thundercats would be received well by them."

"Thundercats?" Hammond looked lost.

"A cartoon series featuring anthropomorphic cats," Sam explained. "Humanoid cats," she added.

"Ah." Hammond nodded. "I'll see what we can do."

"They were also interested in a few Japanese series," Sam added. "Outlaw Star and All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku. And Sailor Moon."

Hammond stared at her.

Sam suppressed the urge to wince. It wasn't her fault that the Etherians had stumbled upon a Usenet group of anime fans. "However, only one of those series, the Original Video Animation of All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku" - she managed to keep as straight face repeating the title - "is available in a collected edition. The others just ended their run on Japanese TV."

"Entrapta mentioned that there were fansubs - bootlegs - available, but we explained that this might be against the law here," Daniel added.

"Ah." Hammond looked like Sam felt explaining this request. "I will see what I can do."

"Just ask your granddaughters, Sir," the Colonel added with a smirk. "They'll probably know where to get the series."

"And they'll ask for a copy for themselves, I bet." Hammond shook his head. "They and their friends apparently love the alien princesses."

"Halloween should look different this year," Daniel said.

"Well, it's good that the kids like them," the Colonel commented. "The rest of the world has some issues with our new allies. They've got something for everyone to hate. Magic! Gay marriage! Alien technology!"

"That's simplifying it a bit," Daniel spoke up. "The cultural issues go much beyond gay marriage. Their monarchism alone is a potentially huge issue for some people. And the technology transfer will cause cultural changes as well. And economic upheaval."

Sam nodded. "Entire industries might be rendered obsolete. If we can duplicate the Etherian power generation methods, we can phase out our own power plants." Clean and limitless energy. Better than fusion power.

Hammond groaned. "The lobbyists will storm Washington."

"It won't happen overnight," Sam pointed out. "It'll take years to reach a point where we can replace our power plants. And cars will continue to burn fuel for years after that, maybe decades."

"Aw. I was so looking forward to a flying pickup," the Colonel joked. Or maybe he was serious. Then he looked at Teal'c. "So, how are things with you, Teal'c?"

"I have helped the analysts with their projections of the impact of the Etherians on the Goa'uld."

"Good, good. No jealousy that you didn't get to be on TV yet? You wouldn't look as good in a dress as the Princesses, I think." The Colonel grinned.

Teal'c smiled in return. "I am content to avoid such exposure."

And he was honest about it, too, Sam knew. So different compared to many of her 'colleagues', who would already be spreading rumours about her just for having been at the United Nations.

"Well, if you feel bored, give us a call. I'm sure the Etherians would like to talk to you again as well. They have been asking about you," the Colonel said.

That would, hopefully, keep some of the agencies back home from trying anything against Teal'c in the current chaos. Not that Hammond would let anything happen to their friend, anyway.

But better safe than sorry. Everything was in flux right now. She wished she was back in the field. Or in her lab.

*****​

Geneva Airport, Switzerland, August 17th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"So… we're getting a multilateral meeting with the Americans, the Russians, and the Chinese?" Adora asked.

Catra briefly looked up from buttering her surprisingly tasty 'croissant' - it wasn't salmon, but with honey, the thing melted in your mouth. "We do?" she asked, trying to sound as confused as possible.

"Didn't you hear it?" Glimmer blurted out.

Adora rolled her eyes. "Glimmer, Catra does know exactly whom we are supposed to meet. She read the notes in bed."

Catra grinned while Glimmer glared at her. Did they really think she could've led the entire Horde if she had actually been as lazy as she acted? "Yeah, I read the proposal. But what about the Indians? They want in on the meeting as well, according to the news we heard."

"Aren't they also Americans?" Adora asked.

"Not those," Catra corrected her. "The ones from India."

"There are two sorts of Indians?" Adora looked confused, And she wasn't acting, Catra could tell.

"Probably," Catra replied.

"Actually, as far as I understand - and I've read up on this a little - the American group was mistakenly called Indians because the Europeans thought they were in India," Bow said. "And they're called Native Americans now."

"Ah." Adora nodded. "But India is a large country. Almost as large as China and larger than the United States and Russia put together. At least if we look at the population. They should be represented, shouldn't they?"

"But they're not as powerful as the other three," Hordak cut in. He looked stupid with a tiny cup held between his fingers, Catra found, but she wasn't about to tell him that. It might hurt Entrapta, who loved those tiny things. "Their value as an ally is not as high as the others."

"If they have many people, they can recruit a lot of troops," Catra pointed out. India also had proportionally more young people, and that meant they would be able to easily train up infantry. Like the Horde, a low voice whispered in the back of her mind, and she clenched her teeth. "And from what SG-1 told us, even regular infantry would be good enough to fight the Goa'uld on the ground."

"And what about their stance towards people like us?" Adora asked.

Bow grimaced, which was enough of an answer before he said: "Same-sex relationships are illegal in India."

"Oh." Adora frowned. "Then I don't think we should be talking to them. If we can't even visit the country without breaking the law, an alliance makes no sense. What about China and Russia?"

"We wouldn't be arrested there. At least not according to the law," Catra said.

"That's good." Adora nodded.

"But meeting with the three big countries is problematic," Glimmer said. "It sets a precedent that we treat countries differently according to their power."

"Why wouldn't we do that?" Hordak asked. "Treating a tiny country like Switzerland the same as the most powerful country on Earth doesn't make any sense."

"It's not just about power," Glimmer told him.

"That makes even less sense."

Catra suppressed a grin when she saw Glimmer clench her teeth.

"We want to deal with Earth - with countries that share our values. And if we single out the powerful countries, that undermines our credibility," Glimmer explained.

Catra had to agree with the princess. "We want the people of Earth to trust us."

"They don't trust us," Adora added. "Have you seen what they say about us? They called us unnatural!"

"That's a tiny minority, as Daniel warned us," Bow retorted.

"It was all over the news," Adora told him.

"Daniel also warned us about that. The news has a tendency to exaggerate things to draw more attention," he explained.

"But that's stupid!" Adora protested. "Daniel told us that in a democracy, the majority rules, not the minority! If they're a tiny minority, they shouldn't be listened to by everyone! It makes people think that they aren't a minority!"

"People like you?" Catra briefly grinned at the pout that caused. "More seriously, do we want to play their games?"

"If the three most powerful countries want to face us with a united voice, shouldn't we accept that as their decision?" Bow asked. "Do we really want to force them to accept others in a meeting? Or to break up?"

Glimmer nodded. "If that's their decision, then they can ask for a meeting. But we need to make it clear that we'll be dealing with any country willing to talk to us."

"There are almost two hundred countries, though. We'll be here for months if we talk to every single one of them," Adora replied.

"We can dismiss every country where our relationships would be illegal," Catra pointed out.

"There won't be too many countries left after that," Glimmer said. "And how do we count countries where it's illegal in one part and not in the other?"

"How would that work?" Catra asked. That sounded weird.

"Something about a country made up of smaller countries," Bow explained. "A federation."

"A country made up of other countries?" Catra was tempted to quote Hordak's 'that makes even less sense'.

"Forming a country."

"Earth is a weird planet," Adora said.

"It's not as if we have visited many other planets," Glimmer objected, "so we can't make comparisons."

"They'll probably think that we're the weird ones," Bow said.

"They don't think that. They think we're unnatural and evil," Adora told him.

"And sexy," Catra added with a grin. The picture of Adora transforming into She-Ra was all over the world. And many people loved it. And her.

Adora blushed a little, then cleared her throat. "That's not important right now. Let's focus on politics!"

*****​

Hotel Intercontinental, Geneva, Switzerland, August 17th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"I'm sorry, General, I do not know this." Jack O'Neill said for what felt like the umpteenth time this day - and 'umpteenth' was a perfectly precise term, thank you very much, Daniel, he mentally added. Who had had the bright idea to have a military meeting in a luxury hotel, anyway? If the Marines ever heard of this, the Chair Force jokes would never end.

"And what would be your best estimate? You have spent weeks with the aliens, according to what we have been told. You must have built up some rapport with them," the Russian general asked. "Do I have to remind you again that this meeting is supposed to build trust? Trust which cannot be built if you keep holding back crucial information."

"We talked about the Goa'uld. Food. Entertainment. Physics. History. Military build-up." Information that had been - mostly - shared with the Russians, which went against Jack's gut feeling. "But they did not say anything concrete about magic on Earth." Jack bared his teeth. The Russian might be a general - he certainly had the arrogance for it - but he wasn't a soldier. Jack was sure the man was a spy.

"One of the most shocking developments, and you didn't think to ask about the potential consequences?" The man sneered. "I doubt this, Colonel."

"I've told you before that the Etherians said that they didn't know what kind of magic Earth would have," Jack repeated himself. At least they had told Daniel that.

"But they did know that Earth once had magic. That means that they knew about it, doesn't it?" The Chinese general - the same rank as the Russians and the American general in the room, as usual for such meetings - smiled.

"They assume that magic was once common to all planets in the galaxy which can sustain life," Daniel - finally! - cut in. "They base this on their own history and knowledge of the laws of magic. But as they said, and we have no reason to doubt their claims, they do not know how magic expressed itself on various planets. The current theory in Mystacore - that is their leading centre for magical research - is that magic is shaped by the environment, which includes the people on a planet."

"You talked about the 'laws of magic'. Laws imply a certain predictability," the Chinese officer remarked.

"Yes. But in order to predict anything, more data is needed," Daniel said - and Jack could hear Entrapta's voice in his mind. "Data they - and we - lacked back then."

Both the Russian and the Chinese general turned their attention to Carter after hearing that. Jack saw her straighten in return. The generals had focused on Jack and Daniel so far; Jack was pretty sure that was because Carter was a woman.

"Captain Carter. You've been working closely with the aliens' expert on magic. Someone who is, again according to what we know, quite free with information. What did she say about magic on Earth?" The Chinese officer wasn't sneering - his smile didn't change - but Jack thought he caught a certain condescension in the man's tone. One he had heard from American officers when talking to or about Carter.

"Entrapta mentioned several times that she was looking forward to studying Earth's magic once it was restored," Carter replied. "It was clear that she had no expectations with regards to what kind of form this would take."

"How convenient!" the Russian exclaimed. "Of course they would claim this!"

Unspoken but clearly implied was the 'of course you would claim that' aimed at Jack's team.

General Naird cleared his throat. "So… I think we have covered the subject of magic extensively, right?" He smiled like a schoolboy asking the homeroom teacher if they could go play.

Jack still didn't know how the man had been chosen to represent the United States in this meeting; he wasn't part of Stargate Command's chain of command and while he had been read in on the program, he had no actual experience with Stargates or aliens. Perhaps this was an attempt to mislead the Russians and the Chinese? Jack had no doubt that both were aware that Air Force Space Command was only tangentially related to Stargate Command, but the Russians at least might suspect that this was a ruse; they certainly were fond of pulling that stuff themselves. Or had been fond of it during the Cold War.

The two generals exchanged a glance, then the Russian nodded. "We will file a formal complaint about this."

"Of course." Naird kept smiling. "So… can we talk about space ships now? And interstellar landing operations? The topic of this meeting is the military, after all."

"We would prefer to talk a bit more about the cultural aspects of a potential alliance," the Chinese general said. "Technical details aren't as important as our ability to effectively work together in the field with aliens."

Daniel perked up, Jack saw. As he had known and as the two generals had known he would. He suppressed a sigh.

"Dr Jackson, you stressed that the Etherians consider politics a personal business. How does this translate to their armies?"

"Ah, as I said, their princesses are expected to personally lead their forces, often fighting on the front. That is not limited to those who have powers applicable to such operations - though most powers seem to have military uses - but also to princesses like Entrapta, who is one of their foremost scientists."

"They risk themselves and their researchers on the frontlines." The Russian scoffed.

"We know that," the Chinese smiled. "But how… prickly are they?"

Daniel frowned. "Do you mean how will they react to bigots and sexists working with them?"

"That seems a harsh term, but, essentially, yes."

"Well, we haven't had any such working with them, so I cannot say for sure, but…" Daniel tilted his head and pushed his glasses up. "...I think they would take such insults personally. Any personnel assigned to work with Etherians should be chosen accordingly."

The Russian scoffed again, but the Chinese nodded. "Do you have any specific examples of issues we should be aware of?"

"Well, you shouldn't expect their monarchies to work like monarchies on Earth…" Daniel started lecturing.

Jack suppressed another sigh. He had heard this particular lecture far too often by now.

*****​

Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, August 17th, 1998 (Earth Time)

The Secretary-General was all smiles again as he greeted them and this time, he had his wife with him. As far as Adora knew - Entrapta had researched this, but Earth's customs were confusing - that meant the meeting was meant to be less formal. Or less focused on politics. Although Entrapta had also said that this was just for appearance's sake, and a lot of politicking was done in such meetings.

Well, Adora wasn't planning to act any differently anyway - honesty and truth would win the day.

So, when Glimmer introduced them, she shook the man's hand, then his wife's and kept smiling. It was only a short meeting, anyway - they had most of the morning booked full of meetings already. Especially one with the Americans, Russians and Chinese, though technically, that was, according to Glimmer, a meeting with the Russians who would bring along the other two or something.

"So," the Secretary-General said as they had all taken sears around a low table and were sipping drinks, "I hope you kept enjoying our hospitality."

"It's nice," Adora said.

"Except for the protesters accusing us of wanting to corrupt Earth," Glimmer added.

"Nutcases," Catra muttered - loud enough to be heard around the table.

"Well, your announcement that you are considering restoring magic to Earth has caused many people to worry about the consequences," the Secretay-General said. "As I mentioned before, it's a controversial issue for many religions."

"We won't force anyone to use magic," Adora explained, trying to keep from frowning. This whole thing didn't make any sense.

"They are afraid of others using magic," his wife added.

"You've got enough weapons to kill the whole planet several times, according to what we've heard, you have Goa'uld trying to conquer Earth, and you're afraid of magic?" Catra scoffed. "I've fought princesses for years without magic. It's no big deal."

The couple seemed surprised, and Adora shook her head at her friend. Catra was trying to help, but that might not be the best way to do this. And Adora didn't like to be reminded of the years they had fought each other.

"Indeed," Hordak said. "My troops could hold their own against princesses most of the time with weapons that were comparable to yours. To a prepared force, magic is not a major threat by itself."

"Well, there are exceptions, of course," Entrapta spoke up before anyone else could say anything. "The power of a princess attuned to a runestone is far greater than that of a regular princess, and the talent and skill of sorcerers vary greatly, but absent special circumstances, magical powers won't destroy a planet. Even destroying a city is usually out of the reach of even a princess, though I guess Perfuma and Mermista could do so thanks to their control over plants and water. Frosta might be able to do so as well, but her power is more situational."

"A princess could destroy a city with magic? Or a planet?" The Secretary-General looked concerned now.

"In certain circumstances, but those were pretty unique to Etheria. Are unique to Etheria. As far as we know," Entrapta said. She tilted her head as her hair tendrils grabbed another drink. "Compared to what we heard of Goa'uld technology, especially bombs and biological warfare, it's not an urgent threat."

"Some might disagree with that assessment," the man said.

"Someone's always disagreeing with something," Glimmer said. "But magic hasn't hurt anyone on Earth while twice you were almost killed by the Goa'uld, so I think the real danger should be clear."

Adora nodded. "And magic can be used for so much good - you can heal people. Restore nature."

"Turn an enemy spaceship into a plant," Catra said with a grin.

"You can do that?" the Secretary-General's wife asked.

"Those were special circumstances," Adora said.

"And She-Ra is the most powerful princess in Etheria's history," Bow added. "Really, magic is… just another thing?" He shrugged with a half-smile.

"Not for many religious people," the Secretary-General's wife retorted.

"We've seen the news," Glimmer said. "But we've also seen the people who want magic returned."

Adora nodded. "They want their birthright restored." It had been nice to watch the interview with those 'Wicca', even if they had seemed a little weird. But they liked Adora and her friends.

"But what if a country doesn't allow magic?" the Secretary-General asked. "You can't really limit magic to specific areas, can you?"

Adora shook her head. "No. Once I restore magic, it'll be everywhere on the planet."

"That's the natural state of magic on a planet full of life," Entrapta added.

"That's a difficult decision, then."

Adora frowned. "Why would it be difficult? Some people want magic restored so they can practice magic as their ancestors did. Why should anyone be allowed to forbid that? No one is forced to use magic."

"Yes," Catra chimed in. "It's the same stupidity that makes idiots want to keep people like us from loving each other." She leaned over and hugged Adora while she flashed her fangs. "Why do they think they have the right to tell others how to live? We're not hurting anyone."

"I see," the Secretary-General said. "But that won't be popular in many countries."

"Too bad for them." Glimmer scoffed. "We already said we won't ally or share our technology with countries where our way of living is illegal. We're not going to help people who hate us just for being us."

The man smiled in response. "Well, it'll be interesting to see how the world will react to that."

*****​

"Say…"

Samantha Carter looked up from her laptop. "Yes?"

Entrapta cocked her head at her while her hair grabbed another soda bottle from the minifridge in the small waiting room. "Why are you here and not in the meeting? I mean, you're Earth's foremost expert for First One's and Goa'uld technology. At least you told us so. As did Daniel and Jack."

"Yes," Sam replied. This wasn't the time for false modesty - certainly not when Entrapta might think she had been lied to. "I am the foremost expert for Stargates and advanced technology. However, there are several other scientists working in this field who might surpass me if they achieve a breakthrough in their research." Although she couldn't help thinking that it wasn't very likely.

"Oh. And is your Secretary of State or your Secretary of Defense amongst them?" Entrapta flicked the soda open and took a sip from it - without using her hands.

"No," Sam replied.

"So, why aren't you in there?" Entrapta cocked her head to the other side.

"I'm ready to advise my superiors should it be required."

"And that's why you are waiting here?"

"Yes."

"And Jack is in there. With Daniel."

"Yes. Their expertise might be in more immediate need," Sam explained. And they were men, which the Russians and Chinese might take more seriously. Well, good luck trying that attitude on the Etherians!

Entrapta frowned. "That sounds not very logical. Technology is the key to winning this war, isn't it?"

"Many would think so."

"Then you should be in there!" Entrapta firmly nodded.

"And what about you?" So far, Entrapta had been with the other Etherians in every meeting.

"Oh…" Entrapta grinned. A little sheepishly. "I got bored with all the politics." She sighed. "No one was talking about technology in detail. I'd rather do some science, but my friends said I can't do any experiments here. And my science buddy is talking politics as well. And strategy." She craned her head to look at Sam's laptop screen. "What are you doing?"

"Refining my report," Sam told her.

"Oh?"

"Adding more detail and responding to some questions." Sam checked that her current page didn't contain anything that shouldn't be revealed to Entrapta. Good.

"Ah." Entrapta sighed again. "Say… is that urgent?"

"It's important."

"But is it urgent-important? Like, there's nothing more important than that?" Entrapta leaned forward and tilted her head to smile at Sam.

Ah. Sam saved her work and closed the laptop. "What do you have in mind?"

"Wellll…" Entrapta grinned. "What do you think about using our scanner? We haven't given Earth a full scan yet - still had to calibrate it, and we were busy with all the meetings and speeches, and there was so much data to collect from your media, but… Aren't you curious about possible Naquadah deposits on Earth?"

Sam was actually curious. Very curious. But… She glanced at the door to the meeting room. She was supposed to be ready to advise the delegation.

"If they need your advice, they can call you with the radio or phone, right?" Entrapta asked with a hopeful expression.

"Yes." Sam nodded. And a scan of Earth was more important than waiting for her superiors. Officers were meant to show initiative. "They can. But I should inform the Colonel anyway." But she shouldn't interrupt him. So Sam suppressed a smile when she texted the Colonel.

Assisting Entrapta with a scan of Earth on request. Reachable over phone.

Her phone vibrated before she had stashed her laptop.

Lucky you. Don't blow up a country.

Sam smiled. "Let's go."

"Yes! It's time for science!" Entrapta pointed to the ceiling.

A car - armoured, Sam knew - took them to the airport, past several crowds of protesters separated by Swiss police officers and soldiers. The cardboard signs they were rising supported and denounced the war against the Goa'uld, LBGT rights and magic. The Swiss authorities had trouble keeping the protestors from fighting each other.

"I don't get it," Entrapta said as they passed a particularly unruly crowd. "Why are they so… why do they care so much about what other people do? We haven't done anything to them and we're not going to do anything to them."

Sam suppressed a wince. She wouldn't touch magic or gay marriage, and why some people were so adamantly against either being accepted on Earth. "Some think that by fighting the Goa'uld, we're endangering them. They think we could peacefully coexist with them." It was foolish, but then, they didn't know the Goa'uld like Sam did.

"Ah." Entrapta nodded. "That makes more sense than what I thought."

"What did you think?"

"Well, Hordak speculated that they might be agents for the Goa'uld, hoping to be rewarded when the Goa'uld conquer Earth."

Sam sighed. "A fifth column?"

"A what?"

"That an Earth term for such… traitors." Sam sighed. "But, no, I doubt that they are motivated by this. They just… have a different opinion on what the Goa'uld are like."

"But they don't know the Goa'uld. They don't have any data to base their opinions on." Entrapta shook her head. "You've told them what the Goa'uld are like. Glimmer did it too. They should know better."

Sam sighed. "They don't trust us or you."

"Oh." Entrapta looked at the floor of the car. "Then we need to gain their trust."

"Easier said than done," Sam said.

"Oh, I'm sure the others have a few ideas!" Entrapta perked up.

Sam managed not to wince.

*****​

"Look, we have to be pragmatic there. We're faced with an evil empire of body-snatching parasites bent on enslaving everyone in the galaxy. Fighting them has to take priority. We can sort out cultural differences after we have ensured that we won't be destroyed."

Catra narrowed her eyes at the Secretary of Defense's words. The Russian and Chinese delegates nodded in agreement, she noted, though Daniel winced and O'Neill's face seemed frozen. Well, O'Neill had worn the same expression for pretty much the whole meeting so far. Which said a lot about his views since he generally was quite frank with them.

"Yes," the Russian diplomat said. "Our three countries have faced such a threat before, and if we had let ideological differences divide us, we wouldn't have won against an enemy as dangerous as those Goa'uld."

He was probably talking about the Nazis. Catra hadn't studied those in detail, but what she had heard about the biggest war in Earth's history, mainly from Daniel and from television, had been horrible. Horde Prime had destroyed planets, but he hadn't been so… She lacked the words to describe it.

"We know about your world war," Glimmer replied. "But we also know, from personal experience, that giving help to the wrong kind of person can lead to disaster." She glanced at Hordak.

Hordak actually stopped looking at the door through which Entrapta had vanished to 'do science with Sam' and turned to face the delegations. "Yes. Earning the trust of someone and their help, and then turning against them is a valid strategy."

Catra had to suppress a snicker when Glimmer scowled at him. Fortunately, Bow spoke up before the princess could blow up. "Yes," he said. "We don't want to hand over our technology to a country which might use it against us as soon as the Goa'uld are defeated. Or use to conquer Earth."

"And we can't fight together with people who think people like us are criminals," Adora added, wrapping an arm around Catra's shoulder. "How can we trust anyone in battle like that?" She shook her head.

Catra smiled, enjoying the contact - and the expressions on the people's faces - for a moment before she spoke up: "And I think we should turn the question around: If the war against the Goa'uld takes priority, why can't you change your laws?"

"And we mean your laws," Glimmer added with a glance at Daniel. "Not some order from your leader which can be taken back as soon as he or his successor wants to."

The expression on the American's face almost made Catra snicker out loud. The Secretary of State pressed his lips together before answering: "Changing our laws is a lengthy process. We're a democracy; we can't just skip the proper procedure."

"Not even when we're about to fight a war?" Adora frowned. "Isn't your 'parliament' able to prioritise such things?"

"There are political considerations that hinder quick changes to laws."

Both the Russians and the Chinese looked at the Americans, and the Russian diplomat said: "Homosexuality is legal in Russia."

"By the letter of the law," the American retorted. "It's still considered a mental disorder, isn't it?"

"That is an artefact which can be corrected immediately."

The Chinese people nodded as well. "It will be adjusted in our country."

"And that means people like us would enjoy the full rights like everyone else?" Adora asked.

"There is the matter of gay marriage," the American said. "No country on Earth has legalised that yet. The hurdles for that are quite substantial."

Catra glanced at Daniel, who was frowning and looked like he wanted to speak up but controlled himself. That told her enough. "You mean you don't want to do it."

"Russia can do it."

"As can China."

The American frowned openly. "And can you guarantee that your countries won't just reverse that at the earliest opportunity?"

"Can you guarantee the same?" The Russian shot back.

And O'Neill muttered something under his breath that sounded like a curse to Catra's twitching ears.

"Colonel?" Glimmer looked at him.

O'Neill tilted his head. "I'm here for military advice. Politics isn't my field of experience."

Daniel mouthed something to the Colonel.

"I'm just thinking that if we can't trust each other to play ball, this will be a rather short war," O'Neill said.

"But that's the question." Glimmer nodded. "Can we trust you? Can we trust you not to use our technology to conquer other countries?"

The Secretary of Defense shook his head. "Historically, all our countries have conquered foreign territory. But the United States, unlike others, hasn't done so in a hundred years."

"Russia has let the conquered countries go," the Russian claimed. "We didn't conquer any territory since the USSR was dissolved."

"China has not taken any foreign territory; we merely took back formerly Chinese territory."

"That's a matter of debate," the American said.

Catra had a pretty good idea of what that meant.

"But who can say that you won't try to colonise us? Your insistence on forcing your own customs on us is not a sign of trust," the Russian said, looking at Adora.

"We're not forcing anything on you," Adora replied. "We're just telling you the conditions under which we'll form an alliance and transfer technology. Whether or not you will accept that is up to you."

"We don't owe you anything," Glimmer added. "We want to work with you, but not at any price."

"And I am sure that there are other countries which will have an easier time with our demands," Hordak added.

That made everyone at the table opposite them frown. Well, good for them - Catra wouldn't let them play such games.

*****​

"So… that happened." Jack O'Neill shook his head as he followed the Secretay of Defence and the Secretary of State out of the room.

"What happened?" Daniel asked in a low voice.

"The Etherians made it clear that they know how to play one side off against the other," Jack explained.

Daniel frowned. "But… that was clear from the beginning! I mentioned it in my report - we're dealing with sovereign rulers of their countries who have fought a lengthy war as part of an alliance. Of course they would have experience in diplomacy!"

Jack sighed. "Yes. but they're also a bunch of kids." And that made underestimating them easy. And Entrapta, who was far closer to thirty than to twenty, acted like a kid most of the time.

"I mentioned that in my report as well. They might be considered kids in the United States - actually not since all of them are over twenty years old - but they've been fighting for years in their war and held leadership positions for about as long. We can't judge them according to our views." Daniel shook his head. "I explained that!"

"Yes, you did." The Secretary of State obviously had overheard them. "But you also mentioned that they were not familiar with our customs and policies."

"Yes, I did." Daniel looked confused.

Jack snorted again. "Which meant some people thought they could manipulate them."

"Oh."

"I would describe it as a slight miscalculation," the Secretary of Defense cut in, slightly pouting. "Although I think the Russians and the Chinese were more surprised."

"But they correctly calculated that the Etherians do not care as much about democracy as we do," Daniel interjected. "That part didn't even come up."

Jack's nominal superior frowned even more. "This was supposed to be a meeting about military cooperation."

"And now we know that without gay marriage, we won't get cooperation," Daniel said.

"That was their opening offer," the Secretary of State objected. "We've barely started negotiations."

"Ah…" Daniel smiled in that apologising way of his that he usually used when trying to pass on bad news. "I don't think they'll budge on this point."

"It's more like a red line," Jack agreed.

"Yes." Daniel nodded twice. "They do take politics personally, after all, and they don't see such discrimination as negotiable."

"But they have to be aware that the Russians and the Chinese will promise anything to get advanced technology, and then turn around and do whatever they want to their gay population!" The Secretary of State shook his head. "You just said that they weren't that naive!"

"They aren't naive. But they…" Daniel sighed and pushed his glasses up again. "They lack a democratic tradition. They are used to dealing with monarchs. Absolute rulers. They'll focus on them."

"Ah. So… they'll want to meet the Russian President and the Supreme Leader of the Chinese before formalising anything. Good." The Secretary of Defense stared at Jack and Daniel. "You'll need to tell them why they can't trust the Russian and the Chinese."

"But I thought we're negotiating with them to present a unified front," Daniel replied.

"We are. But that won't happen if the Russians or the Chinese can get an alliance on their own."

"Do you want us to… influence the Etherians?" Daniel sounded as if someone had told him to seduce a princess for the benefit of the country.

"Just tell them the truth about Russia and China. The Holodomor. The Great Leap Forward."

"Ah. But… that's in the past. The Etherians are big on giving second chances and people changing," Daniel retorted. "They spent years fighting a war against Hordak and Catra. Entrapta changed sides twice during the war. And yet, they're now friends." He shook his head. "Telling them about past atrocities won't do much, in my opinion."

The Secretary of Defense scoffed through clenched teeth. "Just do what you have to to stop them from blindly trusting the Russians and the Chinese. We can't let them get advanced technology first."

Unfortunately, the man was right about that - if the Chinese and the Russians got their hands on advanced technology and the United States didn't, then that would have dire consequences for the world. Even if the Etherians stepped in and stopped any attempts to force concessions from the rest of the world, that would still destroy any semblance of a balance of power, "We'll see what we can do," Jack said. "But we won't lie to them."

"Yes. Honesty is the key to reaching an agreement with them," Daniel added. "We need to trust each other, and we can't if we start with lies."

"Don't lie. But be as honest about Russia and China as you were about the United States." The Secretary nodded at them, then turned and walked away.

Daniel looked at Jack.

"Well, he got you there," Jack told him with a grin he didn't quite feel.

"Jack!"

"Sorry. But you did explain our faults at lengths, didn't you?"

"I wanted to avoid any misunderstandings!"

"Well, you tried." Jack shook his head. "Anyway, we've got our…" His phone vibrated, and he held up his hand as he pulled it out. "It's Carter."

We did a scan of Earth. Please meet us at the ship. Entrapta is calling the others.

"She wants us to come to the ship," Jack said. That wouldn't reassure their allies that the United States wasn't hiding something. But Carter was aware of that. "Well, if the Etherians invite us, it would be rude to decline the invitation."

But he had a bad feeling about this.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 21: The Naquadah Crisis Part 1

Geneva Airport, Switzerland, August 17th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"What did you find?" Adora asked as soon as she entered the converted hold where Sam and Entrapta were usually working. Had been working, she corrected herself - now that they were back on Earth, Sam would probably not be working here any more.

"Let's wait for the others," Sam said.

The others? Ah, yes. Jack and Daniel were coming too. "Sorry," Adora said. They probably were as tired of politics as she was.

"As long as they hurry," Catra added, stretching her arms over her head.

"Catra!" Glimmer snapped.

"What?" Catra frowned. "Wait, you're right. The longer they take, the longer we have before we have to talk to those idiots from Russia, China nad the USA again."

"They aren't idiots," Adora corrected her.

"Could've fooled me. They were practically backstabbing each other at the table," Catra retorted.

"Well…" Adora trailed off. They had acted like that, hadn't they?

"That's normal. Remember the first Alliance meetings we attended?" Glimmer smiled at Bow, who nodded with a wry smile.

Well, it wasn't normal for Adora. She shook her head. "We really need to…"

But before she could finish, a beep announced that Jack and Daniel had arrived. Well, it could be anyone, actually, but the codes checked out. And she could see them on the cameras.

A minute later - because they wouldn't open the airlock remotely without personally checking - they were back in the hold.

"So, Captain, what did you find?" Jack asked right away. Was he mad about the meeting? He had seemed annoyed, but had that been aimed at Adora and her friends - or at the others?

Sam looked at Entrapta, who had been twitching a little - and her hair had been twitching a lot - since Adora had arrived. "I think Entrapta could fill you in best, Sir."

"Yes!" Entapta blurted out with a wide - very wide - smile. "We ran the magic scanner, calibrated for Naquadah, over all of Earth! We had to tweak the detector algorithm a little to compensate for the presence of the escorts and the planetary mantle in the way - it would've been easier if we could've done this from orbit, even geostationary orbit, but Sam said taking off might cause some trouble, and asking for permission felt rather weird if we could easily tweak the scanner instead of bothering the Swiss, so, anyway: We ran the scanner, and we found Naquadah!"

"You found a Naqadah deposit?" Jack asked.

"Ah… no." Entrapta shook her head, her hair flailing. "It looks too dense - too concentrated for that. And there's not enough for a deposit unless it was almost completely mined out."

"We think we found artefacts of advanced technology on Earth, Colonel," Sam said.

"Yes! And we marked their positions!" Entrapta's hair tendrils pushed a few buttons, and a hologram appeared in the middle of the room, showing earth. Blinking lights were visible in a few spots.

"That's… Washington, near Seattle," Daniel said. "And the coast before New Jersey."

"And Siberia," Jack added. "And Honduras."

"And Egypt!" Daniel tilted his head. "Well, that was to be expected, actually, since the Stargate was originally there. There must be many lost devices or trash containing Naquadah."

"Well, the biggest and most diverse amount of Naquadah is in… Washington, you said?" Entrapta cocked her head and had her hair point at the location. "The other locations don't have a lot, although the one in Egypt is a little fuzzy."

"Fuzzy?" Jack raised his eyebrows.

"The Scanner detected some interference. It might be the result of micro-contamination with Naquadah," Sam told him. "That would hinder detection."

"Like chaff?"

"Not exactly," Sam said.

"But close enough?" Jack grinned.

Sam looked a little pained. "Yes, Sir."

"So… we have a cache of Naquadah devices on US soil," Jack said. "And another load in US territorial waters."

"Actually, no, Sir - it's outside US territorial waters," Sam said. "I checked."

"Great. More international trouble." Jack sighed.

"How sad." Catra flashed her fangs when Jack glared at her, and Adora sighed. Her love sometimes - OK, a lot of times - was a little too… antagonistic.

Adora cleared her throat. "Given the potential threat those things represent, I think they need to be recovered quickly."

"Yesssss." Jack nodded, drawing out the word. "It's the manner of how they should be recovered that's going to pose some problems."

"You mean the United States can't just grab most of it," Glimmer said.

"That's about it, yes." Jack grinned at Adora's friend.

"We need to tell the Egyptians. They need to know that they might have dangerous relics in their country," Daniel said.

"And what if they become a danger once they recover them?" Jack looked at his friend.

"A greater danger than the United States?" Catra asked.

"The United States are more trustworthy than Egypt," Jack argued. "We've been the most powerful country for decades, and even with advanced technology, we didn't go after other countries. Not without good reasons," he added when Daniel opened his mouth.

Adora frowned. That sounded… loaded.

"Sure you would say that," Catra grinned again.

"Are you accusing me of lying?" Jack retorted.

"Is it lying if you leave out information that might make your country look bad?" Catra's grin turned very toothy.

"We didn't," Daniel cut in. "Not deliberately, at least. We - that is, I - actually covered the United States more than the rest of the world. But maybe we should explain a few things about the other countries."

Adora nodded. They wouldn't want to make a mistake if they could avoid it. And she trusted Daniel not to lie to them. "Yes, please. We need to deal with those… whatever they are, and we need information for that."

"Data!" Entrapta chimed in.

Catra sighed, but Glimmer and Bow nodded, and Daniel pushed his glasses up.

"Alright. Let's start with Russia! The country's an old one, but it went through a lot of changes this century. First…"

*****​

"...and the Chinese state has been cracking down on the movement ever since."

Samantha Carter nodded as Daniel trailed off. It had been quite a decent summary of the history of Russia and China. Not as succinct as may have been possible, but not as meandering as she had feared either.

But it had clearly disturbed the Etherians. Adora was shaking her head. "To think people could do such things!"

"Horde Prime did worse," Glimmer pointed out with a frown.

"He was… well, we already knew after we learned about the Goa'uld that he wasn't as unique as we thought," Bow told her.

"And he was more efficient," Hordak commented.

"'Efficient'?" The Colonel narrowed his eyes, Sam noticed - and he sounded slightly tense.

"Yes." Hordak nodded. "He dealt much more swiftly with, ah, dissenters. Resistance. He wouldn't have let things be dragged out like this."

"Wow. What a great guy." The Colonel scoffed.

The alien frowned for a moment, looking puzzled as far as Sam could tell, before nodding in agreement. "He was great, yes. Terrible and cruel, but no one can deny that he was great."

"Too bad we can't get an autograph from him any more," the Colonel added, baring his teeth.

"Jack!" Daniel gasped.

"Colonel!" Sam said in a lower voice as the Etherians stared at either Hordak or the Colonel or both.

"Horde Prime was a monster," Glimmer hissed.

"A great monster," Entrapta agreed, patting Hordak's arm.

"And he's dead," Catra said, rolling her eyes. Her tail was twitching, though. "So, can we focus on the Naquadah stuff we need to recover? Instead of on ancient history?"

"Well… it's not exactly ancient history," Daniel said. "Those events happened a few years ago or are happening now."

"And you told us that, so we'll stop negotiating with the Russians and the Chinese," Catra said with a sneer.

Daniel blushed a little. "That's what some people hope will happen. But I told you this so you can make an informed decision. Or, at least, so you will not blindly trust any claims made to you."

"They will claim anything so they can get your technology," the Colonel added.

"They're not the only ones," Glimmer replied.

"No. But we've been pretty honest with you." The Colonel smiled, then sighed. "I know my country isn't perfect - no country is - but we don't claim that we can simply change a law, and everything is fine."

Catra snorted. "No. You claim you can't even change a law."

"Ah, there are good reasons to make changing a law - or the constitution - not too easy," Daniel cut in. He adjusted his glasses. "You don't want to change either on a whim. And you generally want to have broad support for such a change, not a minimal majority. In a democracy, I mean. But even in a kingdom, you wouldn't want to live where the rules and laws change too easily. People need stability in their lives."

"Yes. But people don't need discrimination," Glimmer retorted. "How can we trust your country when the majority of your people won't end discrimination?"

Daniel winced. "It's a bit more complicated than that. It's not the majority of the people, but the majority of the representatives and the senators - the qualified majority, for amendments to the constitution."

"But they are supposed to represent the people." Glimmer frowned.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that they are supposed to just do whatever the population wants."

"I thought that was the point of democracy," Adora said. She looked honestly confused.

"The founders of the United States didn't want what they deemed 'mob rule', so they created a system where power was divided between several institutions. And the people get to choose who represents them in those institutions. But they don't get to directly make decisions," Daniel explained.

"So… basically, you pick your council of princesses and hope for the best," Catra said. "And then you wonder why nothing good comes of such a council."

"Catra!"

"What?" Catra turned to pout at Adora. "I know how the Alliance leadership worked. Or didn't work. Glimmer complained about it often enough when she had some drinks."

Hordak nodded. "Glimmer's talent for leading the alliance was most impressive given the circumstances."

Glimmer looked, in Sam's opinion, as if she didn't know whether she should be angry or flattered upon hearing that.

She picked angry and spat: "Everyone did their best." Then she turned to glare at the Colonel and Daniel. "And I don't understand why you think it's difficult to stop discriminating people like us. We don't hurt you at all. It should be a no-brainer to adjust your laws and form an alliance. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!"

"Well, it's complicated," Daniel said. "Many people honestly believe that relationships like yours are wrong. And they don't want to let others do what they consider a mistake or a sin."

"Those people are idiots," Catra spat with a hiss. "And you're idiots if you listen to them."

"Many people think all politicians are idiots," the Colonel said with a grin.

"You're not exactly convincing us of the values of democracy," Glimmer commented.

*****​

Catra shook her head. This discussion again! Couldn't they just admit that it wasn't working as well as they claimed?

"The advantage of democracy is the ability to change governments peacefully and in an organised fashion which ensures continuity and stability along with the capability to adapt to changing circumstances," Daniel said.

"I'm not seeing much of that vaunted ability to adapt right now." Catra snorted. "And leadership doesn't mean simply going along with what your troops want. It means making them do what they need to do no matter what they want." Troops rarely had the big picture. Of course, she had sometimes missed the big picture herself - in quite spectacular fashion…

"But we're not talking about military leadership," Daniel protested.

"We're talking about an alliance for the war against the Goa'uld," Catra told him. "That's a military question."

"But gay marriage is not a military question," O'Neill retorted.

"Your policy of dismissing gay soldiers is a military matter, though," Adora pointed out.

"And that can be changed by the president." O'Neill held up his hands. "We want to do the right thing, but it's not as easy. But once we do something, it sticks."

"And if you do the wrong thing?" Adora asked.

"Well, Churchill once said that the USA will try every wrong solution before they use the right one," Daniel commented, then winced when O'Neill glared at him. "But unlike other countries, change supported by the population is generally far more effective. Just changing a law means nothing if the population ignores the changes and opposes its enforcement."

"But if the reason you can't change the law is that the population doesn't support it, then that's even worse." Glimmer shook her head. "Like with slavery and those civil rights."

"That was mostly in the south," O'Neill said. "Things were different in the other parts of the country."

"And that was a result of the federal nature of the country," Daniel said. "As with many things, federalism had good and bad consequences. If a ruler has absolute power, that can lead to many good things - if the ruler is good and wise. But if they aren't, if they are foolish or evil, then the same system can lead to horrible results."

Catra rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. But that still doesn't change that your country wouldn't accept our relationship."

Daniel produced a weak smile. "Well, the relationship isn't illegal. Just gay marriage isn't recognised."

"Even though it's recognised on Etheria?" Glimmer shook her head. "If you won't recognise our institutions, an alliance won't work."

"Whether the United States legalises gay marriage or not doesn't really change your relationship," O'Neill cut in. "What about polygamy? Multiple marriages," he added. "What if there's one man married to multiple women?"

Catra frowned. "What about it?" Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio hadn't married yet, but it was on the table as far as Catra knew.

O'Neill stared at her, then mumbled: "Figures…"

Daniel cleared his head. "In any case, I think the most important aspect is whether or not a change is both enforced and lasting. And history is full of examples where a change imposed on a population took years or decades to become accepted."

Catra snorted. "If you can't enforce your orders, you're not a leader."

Glimmer glanced at her, then looked at SG-1. "But that's the thing, right? Your population doesn't want this change."

"Well, that's not certain," Daniel said. "So far, the question of gay marriage has never been coupled with something like an alliance or technological advances. Although, while this should influence acceptance positively even amongst religious people - to paraphrase Berthold Brecht, people prioritise wealth over morals - some might resent that, feeling forced."

"Oh, those poor people, being forced to stop discriminating people like us!" Glimmer scoffed. "How do you expect an alliance to work if you can't even treat us like everyone else?"

"Well, it worked with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the Gulf War," O'Neill said. "Tolerance goes up on both sides if you need each other."

"Within limits," Carter added. "Female soldiers were tolerated, but not accepted." She seemed about to add something but stopped herself.

"Well, then I guess we'll see how badly your country wants this alliance." Glimmer shook her head.

Catra snorted. "So, let's go back to the Naquadah items."

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded several times. "We need to examine them - they could be anything!"

"That's a little difficult," Daniel said. "Not all of them are in areas we can reach."

"Well, we could, but the diplomats would be angry with us," O'Neill added.

Catra shook her head. She didn't really miss the Horde, just… sometimes, she really missed being able to give orders or do something without having to ask everyone else if it was OK.

"And there's the question of precedent even for the items in Seattle," Daniel said. "If we just grab those, other countries will consider artefacts on their soil theirs to do with as they please. And there are a lot of artefacts in Egypt, it seems, one in Russia, one in Honduras…"

"Great," O'Neill muttered. "We have to pass this up the chain before we can do anything."

Well, at least someone else has the same problem, Catra thought.

"Can't we secure the artefacts and then sort out who gets them?" Adora asked. "Some of them might be dangerous. What if there's a Goa'uld on Earth?"

That question had everyone wincing.

*****​

"Yes, Sir. There's a possibility that we're facing a Goa'uld on Earth," Jack O'Neill said, nodding at the large screen on the bridge of Darla, where General Hammond and Teal'c were looking at him. "The concentrations of Naquadah Captain Carter and Princess Entrapta have detected could easily include a snake." And his gut told him that this was probably the case. No matter what Carter said about probabilities.

"They could just be collections of artefacts," Teal'c pointed out. "Remains from before Ra left."

"Yes. But then, who collected them? Who brought so much Naquadah to Seattle? It wasn't Starbucks trying to create an Egyptian Latte." On the other hand, if it turned out that Starbucks was a vehicle for an alien infiltration, that would explain why that franchise had spread so far despite their horrible prices…

Hammond slowly nodded with a sigh. "And even if there's no Goa'uld present, we can't risk such a collection of advanced technology falling into the wrong hands."

"Unless it already has," Jack reminded his commanding officer. "We need to recover those artefacts. And it has to be done by someone with the experience to handle whatever might be hiding there." SG-1, in other words. And probably the Etherians.

"That will be difficult in the current situation, Colonel." Hammond looked grim. "Washington was quite clear that we need to regain the trust of our allies at almost any cost. Unilaterally recovering alien technology from foreign countries would destroy what headway we made in that area." He shook his head. "Even recovering the technology on US soil will be a delicate affair."

"But we can't ignore the danger a Goa'uld hiding on earth would present!" Daniel protested. "Or their technology."

"Yes." Hammond smiled wryly. "I'll take it up with my superiors. You will probably be called to brief the President soon, Colonel."

"Yes, Sir." Jack nodded. That was likely. He wasn't looking forward to it, though. He wanted to go out and recover the Goa'uld technology. Do something productive, for once - discussing politics with the Etherians wasn't helping anyone.

"Hammond out."

The image faded to black. "Well, let's tell our friends that we've made the call," Jack said. Not that he thought he had to tell them - this was their ship, after all. Hell, the way Entrapta talked to and about the ship, the ship might have told the Etherians already.

But appearances had to be upheld. Jack walked to the door and found Catra and Adora waiting outside. "Done already?" the catwoman asked.

Jack shrugged. "It's out of my hands now. Up to diplomats."

She scoffed. "And now we wait until they figure out how to do anything without ruffling any feathers?"

"Pretty much, yes." Jack grinned widely. "And more politics!"

"That's Glimmer's job." Catra scoffed again.

"Oh, you've been quite active in the meetings yourself, haven't you?" Jack cocked his head.

She scowled at him, which made him grin more widely.

Adora cleared her throat. "But Catra is correct - we can't just let this go on. The risk is too great."

"Yes," Daniel agreed. "Your arrival has changed the entire world and might prompt whoever controls those artefacts into action."

Adora nodded. "And that means that we need to act." She raised her chin. "And if we need an international agreement on this, then let's get one right away!"

"From the United Nations?" Jack snorted. "We'll be here for a year before they agree on who gets to speak first. And that won't do anything, anyway." Everyone knew UN resolutions were generally ignored. "All it would do is to alert everyone else about this - and start a race for the Naquadah."

But Adora looked mulish. "We'll have to see about that. This calls for action. Even your diplomats need to see that."

"Feel free to try," Jack said, shrugging. "I bet we'll get called in shortly after things go out of control. If we're lucky."

"Then let's talk to the Security Council. If they can't do anything, then we can always act ourselves," Adora said. "After all, no matter what the UN decides, we're fighting the Goa'uld, and so we won't just ignore a potential base of them."

Ah. Jack almost smiled. Almost - the threat of the Etherians going ahead and tracking down Goa'uld on Earth without the consent of the countries affected would hopefully spur the UN Security Council into action. But it would also strengthen the faction that wanted the aliens gone or feared them taking over Earth. Still, they really couldn't ignore the potential danger.

Another fine mess, and it was all the fault of the damn snakes.

"Well, let's go then. The sooner we sic Glimmer on the United Nations, the sooner we can move," he said. "I bet she'll scare them into doing something."

"Jack! You can't talk about a reigning Queen that way!"

He chuckled at Daniel's expression. Catra outright laughed, and Adora frowned in that way of hers that told Jack that she wanted to laugh as well but thought it was wrong.

As it turned out, Glimmer was all too ready to call for an emergency session. "Oh, yes! That should speed up negotiations! Once they see our technology in action, they will know what they are missing. And those who claim that the Goa'uld aren't a threat will shut up!"

"But they'll expect to share the Goa'uld technology we recover," Bow pointed out.

Glimmer snorted. "We can hand it over to the United Nations - they'll have to agree on what to do with it before they can even start trying to use the technology."

And such an agreement, Jack knew, could take a long while.

*****​

Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, August 17th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and that's the last area with a substantial concentration of Naqadah!"

Adora watched the Security Council as Entrapta pointed at the holoprojection floating in the middle of the room. They didn't give much away, or not much that she could tell, but she thought they were concerned. Of course, being concerned about potential enemies on your planet was just common sense, and some of the people on Earth didn't have common sense at all, so she might be seeing things that weren't there…

Glimmer cleared her throat. "As you've seen, there are multiple locations on Earth that could hide a Goa'uld - or more of them. They can take over humans as easily as animals, as we found out on the way to Earth when we found a planet where Goa'uld had taken over large predators. Even leaving out the danger such advanced technology represents should it fall into the wrong hands, we need to make sure that there aren't any Goa'uld on Earth."

A delegate - from one of the small countries which didn't have veto power, Adora knew - tapped their microphone. "But you don't have actual proof that one of those aliens is present on our planet, do you?"

Hadn't they explained that already? Adora frowned. And she saw that Glimmer clenched her teeth for a moment.

But her friend controlled her temper. "No, we don't have proof. But the only way to get proof is to investigate those locations."

"Surely the affected countries can investigate their own soil," the Russian delegate commented.

"With the possible exception of the United States," Glimmer replied, "I don't believe any country on Earth has the experience and resources to handle the worst-case scenario: A Goa'uld with access to advanced technology who has been infiltrating Earth for hundreds of years." She shook her head. "You don't have the technology to detect Goa'uld in the field. They could easily go into hiding - or take over your own people. We can deal with them with the least risk."

"That would be an intrusion on the territory of sovereign countries," a third delegate commented. Again, a minor country. "If it's done without the consent of the country in question."

"And it could be seen as the attempt to deprive a country of its own resources," the first delegate added. "Surely those Naquadah artefacts belong to the country on which soil they are found - that's a basic principle. Unless they were taken from their country of origin, of course - we all know how many works of art and historical artefacts were taken from our countries and moved into the museums of colonial powers."

Adora bit her lip. This was a threat to the entire planet! This wasn't the time to squabble over resources!

The Chinese delegate spoke up: "We're faced with a threat against our entire planet. Single countries cannot deal with such a threat. This is the responsibility of all of us and should be treated accordingly. Therefore, we propose to put all alien artefacts under international control."

Adora wondered, privately, what the Chinese would have said if there were Naquadah artefacts in China.

The Russian delegate leaned towards his own microphone. "Would that include the advanced technology already recovered by certain countries?"

"Yes, of course. The time for single countries to face the Goa'uld and endanger our entire planet has gone. We need a united response to this thread." The Chinese delegate slowly nodded.

"The United States have the most experience with the technology recovered so far," the American delegate objected. "It makes no sense and could cripple the war effort to remove the technology already being used to fight the Goa'uld. Especially in light of our success so far."

"You almost got Earth invaded twice," the Russian shot back.

"Keeping the technology recovered so far would seem to reward the United States for their questionable actions in the past," another delegate cut in.

"Trying to take over a sovereign country's research and development programs would set a precedent that I doubt most countries here would want," the American countered.

"Maybe it is time to unite such programs," the French delegate suggested. "We cannot afford to waste our resources, and uncoordinated research by various countries would surely be less efficient than a coordinated program under international control and guidance?"

"I think the outcome of the Cold War has decisively proven that competition drives progress far more efficiently than planned directives from the state," the American delegate pointed out.

"Your Stargate program was entirely driven and controlled by the government," the Russian retorted. "And international control over the existing alien technology - including artefacts recovered prior to today - seems a suitable response to this threat."

Glimmer cleared her throat. "Why are you focusing on the technology already recovered instead of the imminent threat to the planet? We first need to ensure that Earth is safe. And that means investigating and securing those Naquadah artefacts we discovered and hunting down any infiltrating Goa'uld."

"That's a tricky matter involving international law and can't be easily solved," someone pointed out.

Glimmer narrowed her eyes. "We're in a war, and those are potential enemy bases. We cannot afford to leave them be until you have sorted out who gets to use all the technology you might find or have found. Time is of the essence."

The delegates looked at each other. "To clarify," another of the smaller countries' delegates asked, "are you talking about a response by the Princess Alliance or a response by a multi-national force?"

"I am telling you that the Princess Alliance cannot afford to let potential enemy bases be. The risk is too great," Glimmer said. "We're at war with the Goa'uld. We want to work with you - but not if that means we can't deal with a potential threat."

"We have enough ships in the fleet to stop an invasion from space," Adora added. "But that won't help if the invasion already started on Earth." Well, they could bombard sites from orbit, but if the Goa'uld hid amongst humans…

This time, she could plainly see that the delegates were concerned.

She hoped that that was a good thing.

*****​

Geneva Airport, Switzerland, August 18th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Samantha Carter suppressed a yawn as she entered Darla's hold. It was early, and she hadn't had too much sleep. And she was still affected by the jetlag to some degree. But she had no time to sleep in - not with the current crisis brewing. She had had to brief the President and his cabinet until midnight, and it was barely six in the morning.

She took a sip from her coffee - the situation wasn't nearly dire enough to brave Entrapta's 'concentrated tiny tea' and walked over to the scanner. "Good morning."

"Sam!" Entrapta whipped her head around to smile at her. "You're here early!" She blinked. "I think?"

"I'm just a few minutes early," Sam corrected her. "Any changes during the night?"

"Well… the position of some of the artefacts in your country changed a little. Not by very much, but either they were moving around a bit - say, a few dozen metres, tops - or the scanner needs some adjusting," Entrapta said, cocking her head. Her goggles hid her eyes, but Sam knew the princess well enough to know they would be showing the woman's fatigue.

But this was alarming. That looked like someone was carrying the Naqadah concentrations around. "Did you check the calibration?" Sam asked.

"All night," Entrapta replied. "I think I improved the efficiency, but the results didn't change. Well, they kept changing, but that didn't change. You know what I mean."

"Yes." As Sam knew that Entrapta needed to rest. What was Hordak thinking, letting her work like this? And, speaking of… "Where's Hordak?"

"Oh, he has been working on ways to recover the Naquadah under the sea. He said we might need a specialised vessel or a bot," Entrapta replied. "I wanted to help, but then the scanner started showing movement, so I took over here and left him to his work." Her hair pointed to the door leading into the next part of the hold.

Sam glanced at it. "The United States Navy has submarines and trained divers," she pointed out. The artefacts weren't that deep - there was no need for a deep-submergence vehicle.

"But we need to go down there as well," Entrapta retorted. "How else can we do something if things go wrong?"

That was… well, it was the kind of argument Sam should've expected. The Etherians were very 'hands-on'. Or, a less kind interpretation, they didn't trust others to do such a mission.

Then again, Sam wouldn't trust the Navy either - they had no experience with Goa'uld or their technology. "I think the Naquadah in Seattle takes priority," she said. She finished her coffee just as her phone vibrated.

"Samantha Carter."

"Carter?" It was the Colonel. "We've got a situation."

Oh. "In Seattle?"

"How would you… The scanner showing movement?"

"Yes, Sir. Entrapta just informed me that the Naquadah concentrations are moving around - about a few dozen yards, tops."

He scoffed. "Yeah, that would track. Anyway, the location was placed under surveillance - it's some resort or communal ranch or whatever. A religious community, according to the records."

"A cult?"

"Don't let Daniel hear that," he joked. "Anyway, we were still planning how best to approach that without tipping off a Goa'uld and without ruining our diplomatic reputation further when someone raided the resort."

Sam closed her eyes. "The NID?"

"They claim that they have no information about any such operation."

The old 'rogue NID cell' excuse then. "What happened?"

"They got in and didn't get out. Shots were heard by the other agents in place, but no one called the police."

That was even more worrying. "We need to intervene, Sir!" SG-1 need to intervene. Before things deteriorated even further. If the Goa'uld managed to take control of NID operatives…

"Yes, we do. But we can't do it alone - not with the Security Council about to decide that this is an international affair under their control or something. And I bet that our alien friends will jump at this."

"I concur, Sir." And given the possible consequences of a Goa'uld base on American soil, having the Etherians with them was a good thing.

"So, the excuse will be that we have reports of fighting, and so we're sending in troops with the Etherians. That should shut up the complaints from other countries. And probably get the diplomats to finish their wheedling and dealing before the heat death of the Universe."

She laughed at the joke. "I'll inform them, Sir."

"Good. We're on our way to the ship. We'll be picking up Teal'c on the way."

"Yes, Sir."

He hung up, and Sam turned to Entrapta, who was staring at her with - presumably - wide eyes. "There's been an incident in Seattle," Sam told her.

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded several times. "I'll call the others. Wait! Darla! Wake up the others and get ready for liftoff! Hordak! Science-Buddy! We have a mission!"

The door from the other part of the hold opened, and Hordak stepped through. "Did they find a Goa'uld?"

"Possibly?" Entrapta pursed her lips. "Someone's in control of all that Naquadah, and they fought off an attack already. So… either a Goa'uld or someone else. But I bet it'll be interesting! And we can now go there without waiting for the Security Council!"

"Good. Any hope that we can expect similar developments in the other areas?"

"I don't know - the stuff there didn't move."

"A pity," Hordak commented.

Sam shook her head.

*****​

Above Seattle, United States of America, Earth, August 17th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Any new developments?" Catra asked as Darla closed in on the target area. It was still night here, unlike when they had taken off in Switzerland.

"The Naqadah concentrations keep moving around," Carter reported. "But none of them have strayed outside the resort."

"They were attacked…" Catra checked the clock. "...almost two hours ago. And they didn't move? Haven't they realised that they have been exposed?" This was suspicious.

"They might think this was an attempted robbery, not a government action," O'Neill said. "The NID is quite careful when staging their deniable operations. So they probably want to interrogate any prisoners for more information. In their place, I would want to know who attacked me and why before I made any plans."

"But whether there's a Goa'uld or just someone using their technology, they have to know about our arrival," Adora cut in. "Why wouldn't they expect us to come after them?"

Catra nodded. In their place, she would have been running already.

"If they don't know how they were found, they might not want to flee and give up whatever resources they have in the resort," O'Neill replied.

That was a good point. Still, the enemy should have run - now that Darla had arrived, the enemy couldn't escape any more. Catra scoffed. "Well, whatever they planned, time's just run out for them."

"Well, let's just make sure that none of them can run out on us," O'Neill said. "We've got the perimeter under surveillance, but… if they have alien technology, they might have other options to escape."

"Scans show an extensive underground network of chambers and tunnels," Carter reported.

"Yesss!" Entrapta nodded. A lot.

Catra winced. They should've made sure that Entrapta rested instead of working through the night. With all the 'concentrated tea' she had drunk, she hadn't even been able to sleep during the flight to Denver and then here.

"So… escape tunnels?"

"It looks like it, Sir," Carter replied. "We've marked the exits on the map."

"Major Warren? We need to deploy SG-3 to cover those exits," O'Neill said, turning to the new officer on the bridge.

Catra bit her tongue to refrain from making a comment. SG-3, currently filling the hold, was under O'Neill's command. And they were supposed to work together in a 'joint operation' with them.

As long as they didn't get into their way… Catra would still feel better once the soldiers were off Darla.

"I'll brief the men, Colonel."

"There's one irregularity, Sir." Carter frowned.

"Yes?"

"There's a large tunnel not connected to the main building or any building," Carter explained. "It has an exit outside the compound, though."

"An unfinished escape tunnel?" O'Neill frowned.

"That's a possibility, Sir. But why would they have dug so far from the outside instead of starting inside - or from both sides?" Carter asked.

"Good question," O'Neill said, nodding. "I'd say they are stupid, but… stupid people don't overwhelm an NID assault."

"And we shouldn't underestimate our enemies," Adora added.

"Let's just block the exit and leave it be for now," O'Neill said.

Catra pressed her lips together. Something didn't add up there. But O'Neill was right - sealing the exit should work.

"Yes, Sir," Warren said.

"Good. So… how are we going to do this?" O'Neill asked.

Catra stepped closer to the hologram depicting the resort - including the escape tunnels. From what they had observed, the people inside the resort were not heavily armed. Just small arms and some crew-served light support weapons.

"We can hover above the building and drop down through the roof," Adora said. "Right into their midst."

Subtle as a brick, Catra thought with a fond smile. But sometimes, brute force was the best solution.

"If they have Goa'uld weapons, that might be very dangerous," O'Neill said.

"And we can't just blow up the resort - we don't know how many innocent people are in there," Daniel added.

"We're not going to blow up the building!" Adora shook her head.

Catra bit her tongue again. And Hordak looked confused but, for once, didn't comment.

"Well, we could sneak in," Bow suggested. "Use the tunnels that we know."

"They are likely trapped if this is the work of a Goa'uld," Teal'c said.

"We can deal with traps!" Entrapta announced.

"We could drop Adora outside and have her draw attention, and we sneak in and hit them from behind," Glimmer proposed.

"I can handle them, yes," Adora said.

Catra sighed through clenched teeth. She loved the idiot, but sometimes… But it was a better plan than dropping into the middle of the compound. "Well, we should look into…" She trailed off.

All the Naquadah markers were suddenly moving - spreading out.

And people ran out of the buildings, towards the garage - and the gates.

"We need to move in now!" O'Neill barked.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 22: The Naquadah Crisis Part 2

Above Seattle, United States of America, Earth, August 17th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill clenched his teeth. They had to move quickly before whoever or whatever was in this compound scattered - tracking down dozens of potential Goa'uld hosts would be a nightmare even with the scanner. If they got into Seattle or another city…

"Move in where?" Adora asked, returning to the captain's chair.

Jack turned to the holographic projection. "Zoom out."

"Show us the road network," Catra added.

The projection changed, becoming a 3D view of the entire area around the compound. "We need to block the main routes - we can track down any stragglers on foot later." He looked at the agents in place and made a snap decision. "Major Warren, deploy SG-3 here, here and here." He tapped the locations. "Spread out to shield Seattle. Go!"

"Yes, Sir." Warren finished marking the spots and rushed out of the bridge to brief his men.

Jack turned to his team. "Carter. Tell the agents in place to fall back to… this crossing here. Cover the tunnel exits in range."

"Yes, Sir." She tapped her radio and started talking in a low voice.

"If they're bolting, we should expect a trap or self-destruct in the building," Catra said. Jack could hear the 'it's what I would do' she left unsaid.

"Yes," Hordak said, nodding. "Depriving the enemy of your resources is a sound strategy."

"I'll bow to your experience as evil warlords," Jack said before he could help himself. Catra seemed to flinch for a moment, but that might've been his imagination. Hordak, though, merely nodded.

"So, let's drop SG-3 right on their spots," Adora said, pointing at the locations. "Then we drop down behind the main part of the runners."

The ship was already moving - to Jack, it still felt wrong to see how the ship dived and banked, yet not feel any g-forces at all. The fighters you could construct with such technology…

"We're at the first SG-3 drop zone! Disembarking troops!" Adora announced.

Jack was still staring at the spreading dots on the map. He was pretty sure there was a leader amongst them. But where would they be? If it was a Goa'uld, they wouldn't be with the main force headed towards Seattle. They would use the distraction to escape in another direction. Unless they were planning a double-bluff.

"We're at the second drop spot!"

More troops from SG-3 charged out of the ship. And one small group of dots on the map was inside the main escape tunnel somehow - the one not connected to the building. How had they managed that? But those might be the leader and his entourage…

"If it's a Goa'uld, they might be counting on taking over one of our troops," Catra said. "We wouldn't be able to find them easily if they're near Goa'uld technology."

Jack looked at her. That made… a lot of sense for one of the snakes. "Only if they know how we found them." The NID team might not have been privy to that information. On the other hand, it didn't take a genius to suspect scanners.

"How else would we have found them? The timing will make them suspect it."

"Yes." Jack looked at the map again. "And that means you're right - they will attempt to hide amongst us." he looked at Carter. "Captain, inform Major Warren that his men have to keep a strict distance from any enemy. There is a high risk of Goa'ulds trying to take them over."

"Yes, Sir."

"But…" Daniel shook his head, pressing his lips together.

Jack nodded. He knew as well as his friend did that the odds of SG-3 taking many prisoners weren't good to begin with, but this would make them even more trigger-happy. They had a number of zats, but not nearly enough for every soldier.

"We're at the third drop spot!"

The remaining members of SG-3 rushed out, Warren waving at the ship as she lifted off again.

"Take the main force in the flank and roll them up?" Adora suggested. "I can draw their fire."

Jack hesitated - sending a girl, a young woman, ahead to draw fire went against his instincts. But She-Ra was basically a walking main battle tank. So he nodded. "Yes."

"Darla, drop us at this spot! Then hover above the area and…" Adora turned to Entrapta. "We need you to keep track of all Naquadah in the area."

"I can do that!" Apparently, Entrapta was still hyped on caffeine.

That would end in a nasty crash, in Jack's experience. Unless they were magically immune or something. Or Entrapta had some alien drugs to avoid that.

It didn't matter right now - Jack and his team rushed towards the airlock, followed by the Etherians.

"We should be covering the second group as well," Bow said as the doors slid open, and Jack heard the sound of automatic weapons.

"We're tracking them," Catra said. "We shouldn't split up."

"Never split the party," Jack joked as he jumped off the ramp, clenching his teeth in anticipation of the strain on his knees - and blinked when he touched the ground. He felt perfectly fine. No strain at all. Hell, he felt as good as he had in his youth. How the…? He pushed the thought away. He could ask Adora later about her healing. Time to focus on bagging a snake.

He gripped his M4 as they rushed from the ship into the closest cover - a bunch of trees near a small mound.

*****​

Outside Seattle, United States of America, Earth, August 17th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Adora easily outpaced the others, taking the lead. That was her duty - she was She-Ra, Princess of Power. And with power came responsibility. The others couldn't shrug off bullets and energy blasts. She-Ra could. She had to protect everyone else.

She jumped through the tightly-clustered cove of trees, slashing with her sword, and landed on the ground behind it, sword held out at her side. Behind her, two trees toppled to the ground, granting cover for her friends.

Something moved ahead of her, leaning out behind a tree and firing at her. Adora moved her sword, parrying most of a burst from a rifle, two bullets bouncing off her chest and shoulder. The man in white robes kept firing at her until he ran dry. As soon as he started to swap the magazine, Adora rushed forward, driving her fist into his stomach. Gently, of course - she didn't want to kill him.

He collapsed, and she quickly checked for a pouch. But then two more opened up on her, one with a zat'nik'tel. The first shot missed her as she charged the other shooter, but the second shot hit her back - and she felt that. Like an itch under her skin.

Hissing, she knocked down the first man. Then she whirled and jumped over the next shot, landing near the shooter, and grabbed his hand before he could line up another shot. "I'll be taking that," she told him.

He tried to get his hand free, then reached for his rifle, slung over his back, with his free hand, so she slammed him into the tree behind him. One more down, and…

A long burst ripped through the tree and the man, blood splattering over her as she dove to the side out of reflex. That was a support weapon! And that could spell the end for her friends. Where was it?

She turned around. There! Cleverly hidden in a bush. She just had to…

The bush exploded. Adora jerked back, then stared. Two bodies were on the ground, thrown away by the explosion. Who had…?

Ah. Jack and the rest of SG-1 were moving on her flank. That meant she had been too slow - she was the point to draw fire and get the enemies to reveal themselves.

Adora clenched her teeth and charged ahead. They were already reaching the firefight between SG-3 and those people. She passed a dead body on the ground, knocked out another behind cover, then started to roll up the flank. One flank - this was a chaotic mess, like fighting in the Whispering Woods. It seemed the frontlines were disappearing as the white-robed people charged into melee range. And they rushed at SG-3 but weren't trying to break through.

"They really want to get close," she said. Catra had been right.

Well, that gave her an idea. She grinned as she jumped into the middle of the largest battle, driving her sword into the ground as she landed and sending the robed people sprawling. "Surrender!" she yelled.

"Get her!" someone screamed. "Get her for your God!"

All the robed people nearby rushed towards her, yelling incoherently. Some were shooting, and she deflected a few bullets and zat'nik'tel shots with her sword, but most seemed to want to punch her - or grapple her.

Adora grinned as she started knocking them out and around. The shooting had stopped as well, at least near her. One managed to grab her from behind, but an elbow into his gut sent him to the ground, retching. Another threw punches and kicks she didn't feel at all - he wouldn't have made it through Horde training like that. She grabbed his throat and squeezed gently until he passed out while she kicked a knife out of another's hand.

More shots rang out - SG-3 and SG-1 were firing - and she saw another man collapse, clutching his guts.

For a moment, the others froze. Then they howled and seemed to lose their minds. People blindly rushed forward, shooting in every direction - someone tried to bite her ankle! This was…

Someone bit her neck? She reached around and… grabbed a snake. No, a Goa'uld! She gasped as she held the squirming, hissing thing in her hand.

A Goa'uld on Earth!

"I've got a Goa'uld!" she yelled.

"Get it to us!" Jack yelled back. "Cover her!"

'Cover her'? She scoffed and jumped, then rushed away from the still howling mob. Jack and the others were… There!

A quick dash through another cove, and she slid behind the fallen tree Jack and the rest of SG-1 were using as cover, holding out her prisoner to him.

He recoiled with a grimace. "Watch it!"

"It's not going to escape," she assured him.

"Carter, get the snake carrier."

"It's a containment unit, Sir."

"It's meant to carry a snake to the pound. A snake carrier."

Whatever. Adora stuffed the snake into the container and closed the lid before it could attempt to escape.

Sam quickly sealed it. "There could be more," she said.

Before Adora could answer, an explosion shook the ground. She looked up - the resort had blown up. Parts were flying through the air.

"Watch out!" Jack yelled as everyone dived for cover.

Catra has been right about that as well, Adora thought as she stared at the flying debris and raised her sword.

*****​

Samantha Carter threw herself behind the closest tree just as the shockwave arrived and was blown off slightly, hitting the ground harder than intended. She rolled with it anyway and rushed forward to hide behind the trunk. The debris launched up by the explosion would be starting to come down about now, and even a little cover was better than none, even though Sam didn't like her chances to…

A blinding beam close by made her gasp and shield her eyes. Blinking, she realised it was Adora, sword held with both hands, pointed at the sky above them - at the expanding cloud of dust and smoke.

At the debris starting to rain down on them.

Sam stared as the concrete and wood fragments falling towards them were vaporised in the … magic beam.

"Well, looks like Magical Princess She-Ra just saved our bacon again," the Colonel commented next to her as he slowly got up.

"I think that might be an actual title, Jack," Daniel said, still cowering behind a felled tree trunk.

"Indeed."

The Colonel tapped his radio. "SG-3, report!" He tapped the radio again. "Entrapta, any movement on the scanner?"

"Uh… none any more. The group in the tunnel stopped moving short of leaving the tunnel. And the exit is now open."

Sam pressed her lips together - if the explosion had originated underground, and the lack of a massive shockwave indicated that, and someone had been in the tunnels there…

"Fried Goa'uld, anyone?" the Colonel asked.

Before Sam could react, SG-3's report came in. One dead, two wounded, two stunned.

"Jack! We'll have to check everyone for Goa'uld possession!"

Sam almost expected the Colonel to make a joke about them now being in possession of a Goa'uld, but the Colonel just nodded. And she berated herself, briefly, for thinking of such a cruel joke - Daniel's wife was still a Goa'uld host.

"Everyone OK? I can heal!" Adora looked around.

"We've got two wounded, and I think the cultists need some healing," the Colonel replied.

Those who hadn't been killed already.

"On it!"

Sam opened a channel to Entrapta. "We need a map of all Naquadah concentrations." If there were more Goa'uld around, and if they started to go after people who weren't as tough as She-Ra…

"Teal'c! Start collecting the zat'nik'tels!" The Colonel must have had the same thought. Teal'c was the obvious choice to collect the weapons - he could repel an attempt to possess him thanks to his superhuman reflexes.

Adora went towards SG-3, but Catra went after her. "Adora! What were you thinking?"

"What?"

"You were almost possessed by a Goa'uld!"

"It couldn't even dent my skin!"

Sam shook her head. Adora in She-Ra form was… Apparently, she had shrugged off bullets from an M2 Browning heavy machine gun.

But they had a mission to do. With Entrapta's help, she directed Teal'c to the scattered Goa'uld weapons - only zat'nik'tels, no staff weapons - while Adora healed the wounded and the Colonel and Daniel started towards the smoking ruins of the resort with the Etherians.

Then she joined the others. "I told you so," Catra said. "Blew up the whole bunker." She flashed her teeth. "They destroyed most of their tech rather than letting us get it."

"Great. Wanna bet that the Russians won't believe us?" The Colonel shook his head.

"Sir. Naquadah is resistant enough so advanced technology could've survived the explosion intact," Sam pointed out. "It was a conventional explosive." Her radiation detectors weren't showing any reaction, at least.

"Yeah, blowing up the evil lair once the villain's dead is kind of a convention."

"Jack!"

"Daniel."

"The Goa'uld might have hoped to make us think that the technology was destroyed, to return later to recover it. Much later," she added when Daniel opened his mouth.

"Well, they won't unless they can escape a snake carrier. But I guess we'll have to ask Adora to play excavator again."

That was a better and faster solution than waiting for an excavation team with both the clearance and the skill to deal with advanced technology. But to ask Adora…

"Just tell her," Glimmer said. "Hey! Adora! We need you to dig a hole here!" she yelled.

A minute later, Adora appeared, jogging towards them. "I was just finishing healing the others," she said.

Catra huffed, and Adora glanced at her before going on: "Entrapta didn't find any more Naquadah than the weapons Teal'c collected. Outside the building - the ruins - at least."

And there was Teal'c. "SG-3 is guarding the prisoners and the weapons," he said. "But they had trouble recovering the prisoner glued to a tree."

Bow grinned a little sheepishly. "I can use a catalyst to undo that."

"I ripped the tree out," Adora replied. "So… where do I need to dig?"

The other Etherians just pointed at the ruins.

Adora blinked.

"Just consider it punishment for letting a Goa'uld touch you," Catra said. "Really! You've become sloppy!"

"What?"

"Enough!" Glimmer shook her head. "We need to secure whatever wasn't destroyed by the blast."

Sam nodded. Even if the artefacts were destroyed, the Naquadah was extremely valuable and could be extracted.

And they had to ensure that there were no other Goa'uld around. And that meant recovering and identifying every Naquadah concentration.

*****​

Outside Seattle, United States of America, Earth, August 18th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"You sound like you're enjoying yourself. Should I be concerned about being replaced by debris?" Catra flashed her fangs in a grin when Adora stopped heaving rubble and concrete remains around and blushed.

"Hey! It's not like that!"

"So you claim. But you didn't sound like that when you were burying the gate."

"That was just earth, not rubble like this!" Adora retorted.

"So, I should be concerned…"

"What? No!"

"Oh, knock it off, you two! You're holding up the recovery operation!" Glimmer the spoilsport cut in. "It's already late."

"Someone's jealous…" Catra half-whistled.

As expected, that earned her a glare from Glimmer. "I'm not jealous! I just don't think we should waste any more time here. We need to recover the remaining Naquadah."

"Before it turns out to be a bomb," Bow added loyally.

That was a possibility, but Catra didn't think it was a likely one. The Goa'uld hadn't struck her as suicidal, and if he had been, the Naquadah would have probably gone off with the first explosion.

Still, they were right. "You heard them, Adora. Stop wasting time!"

"What? I am wasting time?" Adora stared at her.

"Yes."

"But…"

"Get shovelling!" And maybe you won't have to do too much grovelling later when we're going to talk some more about how you shouldn't let body-snatching aliens touch you, Catra added in her head.

Adora huffed and started digging again. And Catra sat down on a piece of conveniently sized and placed concrete and looked at the rest of the site. At least SG-3's men - all men, she had noted - had stopped staring openly at Adora. Some still sneaked glances, though. "Looks like your friends didn't believe you about Adora," she commented to Daniel, who was examining a burnt book nearby.

"Huh?" He blinked and turned his head, and she repeated herself with a nod towards the other American soldiers. "Oh." He nodded. "Yes. I think they thought that we were exaggerating in our reports." With a frown, he added: "We select Stargate Command staff for mental flexibility, but I think magical princesses were a bit too much for our marines."

"The Horde was full of rather dull people," Catra said, "but they wouldn't have questioned your reports." She stretched a little.

"But they were used to magic and princesses," he retorted. "Our people aren't. For most, this sounds like a fairy tale. Or a cartoon."

Made-up stories, in other words. Or Lies. "Well, they better change views," Catra told him. "Because we can't really fight a war effectively if shared information isn't trusted."

"On the other hand," he said, "blind obedience isn't a good thing either. You need a balance between scepticism and trust."

"Trust but verify?" She grinned.

"Well, you can't really verify our reports independently, not as a soldier. They don't have the time or opportunity."

"Until they enter combat with us."

"Yes. And I think you made an impression. There'll probably be some hero-worship amongst a few of them."

Catra shook her head. "As long as they don't cause trouble."

He chuckled. "Jack would say that they are marines - they will cause trouble. Especially if they're bored."

She sighed. "I wonder how you managed to run your army for so long with such people."

"It worked out well - especially against enemies that prized blind loyalty and obedience."

"Well, that…" Catra started to retort when Adora's yell cut her off.

"I found it!"

Catra stood and began to walk over, but Entrapta was already running, Sam not too far behind. "Oh! What is it? It can't be a Stargate, or they would have used it to flee, but it's too big for a weapon, and… Oh! That looks fascinating!"

"It is a ring transporter," Teal'c said, peering at the remains Adora was pointing at. "Or it was a ring transporter."

"What? No fancy Egyptian name?" O'Neill asked.

"Well, the direct translation would be…" Daniel started to explain, but O'Neill cut him off. "Ring transporter is fine. I would hate to use more accents in my reports. "So, seen this before."

"On Abydos," Daniel agreed. "I wonder where this one led to."

"A transporter? Oh! That would explain how they got into the tunnel without an opening!" Entrapta nodded. Several times. Then she yawned. "Clever!"

"But to use such a transporter for a few yards?" Daniel shook his head.

"If you have it, why wouldn't you use it?" O'Neill shrugged. "But it's broken."

"But we can still study it - and find out how to copy it!" Entrapta beamed. Then she suddenly frowned. "But… can we examine it without causing trouble with the United Nations?"

That was a good question, in Catra's opinion. "I think they're mainly concerned about you taking it for yourselves," she said, looking at O'Neill.

"They're kinda insecure like that, yes," he replied.

"Jack! We're talking international politics, not…" Daniel shook his head.

"Same thing, Daniel. They want what we have and don't want us to have more than they have." O'Neill tilted his head. "Kinda like it was in the Cold War, actually."

"The Cold War cannot be reduced to such simplified propaganda. It was much more complex, and…"

"I just did."

Catra shook her head at the men's antics. Daniel was probably right - the United Nations would want to have a say about this.

At least the presence of a Goa'uld should make most of the idiots realise how dangerous the whole situation was.

*****​

Stargate Command, Colorado, August 18th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and we recovered the rest of the remains - both Naquadah and human - from the tunnel. It looks like the group trying to escape were all humans sent out as a distraction," Jack O'Neill said. He didn't bother to hide his scowl - according to Carter, the bomb had been triggered by the hatch of the escape tunnel opening. "The Goa'uld - named Setesh as far as we can tell - had planned to take over one of SG-3's men to hide amongst them."

"Do you have any proof for that?" General Hammond asked.

"The tactics, Sir," Jack replied at once. "He sent his guards against SG-3 to 'wipe out the enemies of their god', not to break through their lines to escape. And they were ordered to do so in melee range, not by using the prepared positions and ambushes on their land. His orders all but guaranteed that they would be wiped out."

"They fought from prepared positions, though."

"Only at the beginning, and then only with the heavy machine guns," Jack retorted. "Those wouldn't have been easy to move ahead."

"But as soon as he would have taken over a soldier, he would have been at risk from his own people," Hammond pointed out.

"Yes. But I think Setesh took a calculated risk." The Goa'uld was a bastard but no coward.

Hammond didn't seem to be convinced. "What about the survivors?"

"They're fanatics. And those who were taken alive tried to kill themselves for 'failing their god'." And they only had been able to take some of the cultists alive thanks to zats and, of course, She-Ra. "It looks like a cult problem. I guess we'll have to call in specialists. At least we can do that now without worrying too much about secrecy."

Hammond frowned. "We're still dealing with sensitive information here. But our pool of available specialists was widened by the revelation of the Stargate."

"They might also have been drugged, Sir," Carter cut in. "When we were running tests for poison, we detected an unidentified foreign substance in their blood."

"Yeah. Our local West Coast god pulled all the tricks of his human competitors," Jack said. Drugs, sex and what a Goa'uld thought was rock'n'roll.

"He might have actually been the inventor of some of those 'tricks'," Daniel said. "I've been looking into this, and I think I have identified two earlier cults ran by the Goa'uld. Both ended in mass suicides. If you can call it a suicide when a leader orders his brainwashed followers to die." He patted a stack of sheets on the table. "I'm working on a timeline, but I suspect that the Goa'uld was on Earth since Ra's departure - the names he used point towards that."

"We've had a Goa'uld on Earth for millennia, and he didn't take over?" Hammond asked.

"He must have been afraid of Ra," Daniel replied, "and kept a low profile. I assume we can get more information once we manage to interrogate him."

"Yes. Your suggestion of granting the Goa'uld an animal as host so they can write or use a computer to communicate." Hammond nodded. "It hasn't been approved yet."

"Why not?" Jack asked with a frown. "Did PETA veto it? Or did the Etherians mention that monkeys have rights on their planet?"

"No, Colonel. But the government is concerned about security and the optics of having a Goa'uld possess a monkey." Hammond explained. Or not.

"They think we'd let a monkey escape? Do they think this is Disneyland?" Jack shook his head.

"'Optics', General?" Daniel asked. "Are they worried that people will have sympathies for the Goa'uld if it's in a monkey's body?"

"In a word, yes, Dr Jackson." Hammond grimaced. "They're worried that showing a small fuzzy animal using a computer will send the wrong message about the danger the Goa'uld present to Earth and humanity. And yes, some members of the cabinet voiced concerns about the public perception of sacrificing an 'innocent animal' to the alien invaders."

Jack groaned. "Can't we just pick an ugly animal then?"

"You would be surprised how many people would still care." Hammond sighed.

"Are you talking about your granddaughters, General?" Carter asked.

"They wanted a pot-bellied pig after the last nature documentary they watched," Hammond said. "And they refused to eat meat for a week."

Jack groaned again. Since when did the government care about the opinions of little children? Would they ban broccoli at schools next?

"What about the international reactions, Sir?" Carter asked.

Hammon sighed once more. That was a bad sign. "As expected, the Security Council is moving to claim control over all technology we recovered. But some states also suspect that we didn't report everything we found, citing the lack of international observers. And some even suspect that this was staged to improve our position and image."

Great. "And what about Russia and China?" Jack asked.

"They haven't made their position known so far, except for supporting international control over alien technology." Hammond smiled a little weakly. "Pressure on Egypt and Honduras is increasing, and they haven't had access to the results from the scan Captain Carter and Princess Entrapta did, but that hasn't stopped either country from having their armed forces search for advanced technology."

Jack sighed himself. The Etherians would just love this.

*****​

Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, August 18th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"You think this is a hoax?" Adora blurted out. She winced a little at the glance Glimmer stent towards her. Her friend was supposed to handle this, but Adora hadn't managed to control herself. "Twenty people died! And you think this was a hoax?" she spat.

The delegate from a minor country shook her head. "I merely pointed out how convenient this whole incident was. The Security Council is debating an unprecedented infraction against every nation's sovereignty, and suddenly, there's an emergency that would seem to demonstrate the urgency that was put in doubt by cooler heads?"

"We captured a Goa'uld who had been hiding on Earth for centuries!" Adora retorted. "And we secured a lot of their technology! Weapons technology!"

"So you claim," the woman said. "So far, there has been no proof presented to us."

"And the technology was secured by the United States," the Russian delegate added.

"Because the incident happened on our soil and the Security Council hasn't made any decision yet about the status of alien technology recovered on Earth," the American delegate said.

"How convenient for you." The Russian sneered for a moment.

"As if you're not already looking for the artefact in Siberia," the American shot back.

"It's really like an Alliance meeting in the bad old days," Adora heard Glimmer mutter. Then her friend cleared her throat. "We have records of the battle. And we took a count of all the technology secured by us."

"By you? Do you include yourself in the American forces now?" Another delegate asked.

"It was a joint-force action," Glimmer told him. "The Princess Alliance isn't beholden to anyone but will work with anyone against the Goa'uld."

The Chinese delegate spoke up: "But the fact that the United States secured this technology raises some concerns about the sincerity of their stated willingness to cooperate with the rest of the world."

"So far, the rest of the world hasn't even been able to agree on a course of action," the American retorted.

"And the longer we wait, the greater the danger - we don't know what is hidden at the other locations," Glimmer said. "If there's another Goa'uld active on Earth, then they might have already infiltrated a local government."

"Is that going to be your excuse for violating a nation's sovereignty? A supposed threat of being controlled by an alien parasite?" Another of the smaller country's delegates asked with a scowl.

Glimmer frowned in return. "No. The only excuse we need to intervene is the fact that Goa'uld technology could indicate a Goa'uld base or operation."

They really didn't like hearing that, Adora saw.

"If it's so urgent, why haven't you told Honduras and Egypt the exact locations of the technology you detected inside their territories?"

"Because they have neither the experience nor the technology to handle the kind of threats that the Goa'uld represent," Glimmer said.

"Which you should know if you'd read our report!" Adora added. She had spent hours writing it! Daniel was right - it was very annoying if you wrote a report and no one read it.

"Anyone can claim anything in a report. We need actual proof. Show us this 'Goa'uld'!"

Several delegates nodded at that - not just the smaller countries.

"And the technology!" another delegate added. "We need to see if there's any truth to this supposed danger."

"Fine!" Glimmer spat. "We'll show you the technology and the Goa'uld."

"And I think we should talk to the Goa'uld," the Chinese delegate added.

"The Goa'uld cannot talk unless they control a human body," Adora pointed out.

"Then get a volunteer. We can secure the body so they cannot escape."

"We haven't found a safe way to remove a Goa'uld from a human host yet," Entrapta said, looking up from her computer. "They can excrete a poison that kills the host when they're removed. We're looking into ways to bypass that, but we've just started."

The Chinese delegate frowned. "What about using a condemned criminal?"

Adora gasped. They wanted to…kill a person for this? Or just… leave the person a prisoner in their own body?

Other delegates were shocked as well.

"You can't be serious!"

"That's barbaric!"

"This goes against everything we stand for!"

But the Chinese delegate stood his ground. "Barbaric? I'll remind you that the death penalty is legal in the United States. There's nothing barbaric about this - someone about to be executed might even volunteer for this."

"That's… no civilised country could condone this!" another delegate objected.

Hordak nodded - Adora saw he was tenser than normal. "It would be torture for the person, and I've been told that torture is outlawed on Earth."

'Cruel and unusual punishment', Daniel had called it on the flight back to Colorado.

"Yes. We could use an animal as a host, I guess," Entrapata added. She had finally slept on the flight back, but Adora was still concerned about her. She would have to make sure that her friend got a full night's sleep after this.

"An animal?"

"Yes. Like an ape - they are close to humans. He wouldn't be able to speak, but they could use a keyboard," Entrapta explained.

"We would be interrogating an ape?" the Chinese delegate seemed to be surprised.

"The optics of that would be… questionable," another delegate said.

"Many apes are an endangered species," another objected.

"One more or less won't doom a species."

"Cruelty to animals isn't a good thing either."

"That the West cares more about animals than the people living in the developing countries is well-known."

"Now wait a minute! This isn't about animal rights!"

"Indeed. It's about human rights - and nations' rights!"

Adora blinked as another pointless argument started. "We should just have gone straight to the other locations," she muttered.

*****​

Stargate Command, Colorado, August 19th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Why didn't we land the spaceship yet? We already have dozens of those zat'nik'tels!"

Samantha Carter pressed her lips together - facing away from Dr Davis so the scientist wouldn't notice. They had gone over this already. "General Hammond explained that landing a working faster-than-light spaceship under our control in the United States has been deemed to be ill-advised in the current political situation," she reminded him.

"But we're scientists, not politicians!"

Sam didn't have to turn to know the man was pouting. "Which means we leave international politics to the experts and listen to them when it concerns their field." Even though the politicians might not always listen to scientists when it concerned science.

"But this doesn't concern them! The ship is ours! The Etherians agreed! And it wasn't recovered on any foreign soil but in space! There's no other claim on it!"

Sam had been there when the ship had been recovered. She sighed, not bothering to hide her annoyance any longer, and turned to stare at Davis - who seemed surprised at her reaction. "That is a matter of debate," she told him. "There's substantial support in the United Nations to internationalise the entire Stargate Command."

"But that's just posturing! We'll just veto whatever resolution they come up with! That's how the UN works! Why do we let them keep us from working on an actual spaceship?"

Sam was tempted to call Daniel to explain things to Davis. Even if Davis was ignoring facts outside his expertise, Daniel might be able to talk until Davis agreed with him just to be able to get back to work. But Daniel was needed in the examination and possible interrogation of the Goa'uld they had captured.

She should have volunteered to assist there, Sam realised, instead of examining the recovered technology. On the other hand, if that had left Davis in charge, they might end up missing something crucial. The man had the needed clearance for work at Stargate Command, but he wasn't ready to take such responsibility. She almost snorted at the thought that this must have been how Russian scientists had felt when working with 'politically reliable' 'colleagues' instead of the best experts in the field.

"That was how it worked before the arrival of aliens," she reminded Davis. "Things changed. The United States can't afford to act unilaterally right now." Perhaps never again, depending on how things might develop.

"But… the law's clear! We can veto anything the United Nations decide! Anything substantial, at least!"

"This isn't a matter of law, but politics," Sam explained as she put the zat'nik'tel she had been examining down on the table. "And if the United States would act as you suggest, the political and economic consequences would be harsh." Daniel had gone on about that a length after a joke by the Colonel. "In the current crisis, the country cannot afford that."

"But we've got a spaceship! If we figure out how to build more of them, we don't need anyone else - we can colonise space! Boldly go where no one has gone before! And with the second Stargate we have, we could just pick a planet and establish a private network!"

That wasn't how it worked - well, they could, in theory, use irises on both gates and only ever open and accept connections to the two gates - but… "Do you honestly think that the rest of the world and the Etherians would let the United States monopolise the gates like that? And how do you think we could afford to build enough spaceships to protect the country and the colony with the rest of the world opposed to this? If we actually find a habitable planet that hasn't been colonised by the Goa'uld already. Or by another species."

"But…" He trailed off. "Why would the Etherians care?"

Oh for…! "Have you somehow missed that they have explicitly stated that they do not recognise the United States as the single representative of Earth?"

He looked honestly confused. "But… everyone knows that's just window dressing. They've been working with us, and with no one else, haven't they?"

"They have been working with us because we met them," she explained. "And because we have a common enemy. But they won't support us against the rest of the world if we want to monopolise the gate." She snorted. "Certainly not if we can't legalise gay marriage." She wasn't going to mention polygamy at this point.

That seemed to shock him. "But…" He shook his head. "But that's just their starting position! As long as we get rid of 'don't ask, don't tell', we're fine!"

What? She glared at him. "What gave you this absurd idea? This isn't their starting position - the Etherians aren't going to compromise on that." How could Davis think this? This was… "Wait!" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Do others share your views?" This needed to be corrected at once! If the politicians listened to those people…

"Uh…"

But before he could answer, the phone rang. Sam picked it up. "Captain Carter."

It was the Colonel. And he sounded… upset. "Carter? We need you upstairs. Someone just blew up part of Egypt."

*****​

 

[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]

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?

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 25: The Naquadah Crisis Part 5

Earth Orbit, August 19th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"And guard it well. Do not let anyone tamper with it." Adora tried to smile as she gave the order. Just so the clones wouldn't…

"We shall defend it with our lives! None shall even as much as gaze on it while one of us yet draws breath, Your Divine Highness!"

…do that. Overreact to every little request. She suppressed the urge to grimace. They didn't know any better. Not yet. "Very well. We will depart, but we - or some of us - will return to properly analyse the threat this container poses."

"As you command, Your Divine Highness!" every clone present chorused, saluting her.

Adora didn't sigh until she was back inside Darla. It wasn't the clones' fault that they had been raised to revere a leader as if it was a god. Horde Prime had committed many crimes, and while most wouldn't think what he had done to his clones was comparable to rendering entire planets and species extinct, Adora had to disagree. The way he had raised his clones, shaped them - indoctrinated them so they would blindly follow him, even at the cost of their lives, thinking it was a great honour to serve as his vessel… She couldn't help thinking of her own training. And what she might have done, not knowing any better, if she hadn't found the sword. And if she hadn't met Glimmer and Bow.

At least WrongHordak and Second Fleet showed that they could change - and grow past their conditioning. Even First Fleet's remnants were, in a way, encouraging with their reluctance to commit to the Alliance - they were not blindly following a leader any more.

"Cheer up! At least they'll keep it safe. Unlike everyone else," Catra told her with a scoff.

As usual, she knew what Adora was thinking. Then again, everyone knew how Adora thought about the clones worshipping her. Even the clones, but they somehow ignored it completely.

Although… "That's unfair. We don't know what happened in Egypt or in Honduras," Adora said with a slight frown.

Catra shrugged and stretched her hands over her head, stretching. "We do know that the relics or whatcha call them weren't kept safe."

"The people on Earth didn't know about them until we told them," Adora pointed out.

"Details, details. Our success rate is a hundred per cent, and theirs is… zilch?" Catra retorted as they entered the bridge.

"SG-1 has a great success rate when it comes to handling alien technology," Jack told them with a frown.

"Too bad your planet is ruining it," Catra shot back.

"Well, you wanted to deal with the entire planet." Jack bared his teeth in a grin.

Catra narrowed her eyes and flashed her fangs in return. "Who let a Goa'uld create a cult under their nose?"

"Oh, stop it, you two!" Glimmer snapped. "We have a country to save, and we don't need this posturing."

"Yes," Adora agreed. "Did we get any more information about what's going on while we handed over the container and the Death Glider?"

"No," Catra said.

"You weren't on the bridge," Jack pointed out.

"I've got good ears," Adora's friend told him.

Glimmer loudly sighed. "Nothing concrete. Just more translations of what's basically screaming and crying about the 'walking dead'."

"Zombies," Jack said. "The walking dead are zombies."

"Zombies are fictional, Sir," Sam told him. "And, seeing as Earth's magic hasn't been activated, we can rule out a magical origin of whatever is happening in Honduras."

"Unless someone sneaked out and did the magic thing," Jack said - looking at Adora.

She glared at him. "I wouldn't do that behind your back!"

"But you would do it against our will." He stared at her.

"Many people on Earth want magic returned," Adora said. "We know that."

"From your own television," Catra added with a grin.

"Many don't want magic to make a return," Jack countered.

"Too bad for them," Glimmer said. "They don't have to use magic if they don't want to, but they don't get to forbid others from having magic returned to them."

"Ah, that's oversimplifying things, I think. The matter is more complex. Even those who do not want to use magic will see it used on them." Daniel smiled weakly. "And they are afraid of that."

"You shouldn't make decisions motivated by fear," Entrapta cut in. "They tend to be illogical. And usually bad for you."

"Yes," Adora said, nodding firmly. "From what we can tell, the same people who fear magic also fear gays."

"Or science," Entrapta added.

"So, screw them!" Catra grinned. "We're not going to listen to those idiots."

Jack pressed his lips together.

Daniel frowned. "Their fear might be irrational, but it's still something to take into account. The world is complex, and simple solutions often turn out to have unintended consequences."

"Sometimes, it's not about what's simple or complex, but what's right and wrong," Adora told him. "Just as we won't let others tell us who we can love, we won't let them tell us that we can't return magic to Earth. Not when people on Earth want it back. It's their birthright."

"Think of it as returning something that was stolen from Earth a thousand years ago," Catra said. "Oh, wait - returning stolen things, that's also a complex problem on Earth, isn't it?"

Jack glared but didn't say anything. Daniel, though, dug his heels in. "It's not quite that simple. In the past…"

"Hello! We're about to land in Honduras!" Glimmer interrupted him. "You can argue about magic and stolen goods once we've solved the problem!"

Adora nodded, once again in agreement with her friend. Saving people came first.

*****​

Reserva de la Biosfera de Río Plátano, Honduras, August 19th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Alright, let's meet the locals! Let's hope they're friendlier than the last batch."

Samantha Carter smiled wryly at the Colonel's comment as the ramp of the ship started to extend. It wasn't entirely the Egyptians' fault that they had parted on less than cordial terms.

"Well, if you're polite and friendly, it's generally reciprocated," Daniel said.

"I'm very friendly," the Colonel replied.

"Not everyone has the same cultural norms, Jack. What you consider friendly might be seen as rude by others," Daniel retorted. "The stereotype of rude Americans exists for a reason."

"Technically, we're in America," the Colonel said.

"Central America. The people here have had some unfortunate experiences with the United States policies in the past," Daniel said. "And some might carry a grudge."

Sam was all too aware of that. And she was certain that the Colonel knew it as well - he might have been involved in some of it, in the past - his file had a lot of classified parts, as she knew from testing Stargate Command's computer security. But she also didn't expect the Colonel to change his general approach to meeting new people. That just wasn't him.

"Great," Glimmer commented with a sigh. "More old grudges."

"People should learn to let go of the past," Entrapta said. "You shouldn't let past grievances define your future."

"Well… there's a saying: Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it," Daniel said.

"And there's another saying: Don't waste time when you're under attack," Catra cut in.

The ramp touched the ground, and the airlock opened. The Colonel was first out of the door, walking with an easy gait. Sam narrowed her eyes. Something was different. She couldn't put her finger on it, but the Colonel was… not off. Just different.

Four people were waiting at the edge of the landing site. One of them would be the local commander of the Honduran Army - probably the major to the right. The general next to him was too old to be in the field - and too high in rank. There was a captain, probably an aide, and a man in camouflage clothes without any rank insignia.

And the Colonel tensed. That was a bad sign.

"Hello!" Adora said - she must have missed that. "I'm She-Ra." She proceeded to introduce everyone.

"I'm General Bonilla." The older officer nodded at everyone. "These are Major Reyes, commander of our forces in the area, Captain Benìtez and…"

"Burke," the Colonel spat.

"O'Neill." The man - apparently Burke - replied with a glare.

"You know each other?"

"Yes."

"Jack?" Daniel asked.

"Classified."

"Oh."

Burke snorted.

"Ah." The general looked from the Colonel to Burke and back. "This won't be a problem, I hope."

"No." "No."

Sam hoped that neither was lying.

"So, you've got a zombie problem?" the Colonel nodded at Bonilla.

"We have a problem," Bonilla replied, gesturing towards a tent nearby - a mobile command centre. As they walked over, the general continued: "We've sent forces into the reserve to secure the site of the alien artefact. They had strict orders to avoid contact with any piece of technology - observing and guarding only. But soon after entering the area in question, they reported a clash with unknown forces. The officer in charge considered them to be bandits or poachers."

"Or guerrillas," Burke commented.

"We don't have guerillas in Honduras," the general replied with a frown. "In any case, soon afterwards, we received the reports you already saw and then lost contact completely."

They reached the tent, and two soldiers drew the flaps back for them. Inside was a rather modern radio and computer centre - Sam honestly hadn't expected that kind of quality here. She saw top of the line encryption gear - even SG-1 didn't have anything better except for what they had constructed themselves using advanced technology.

"So… what's so important that Uncle Sam sprang for all of this?" the Colonel asked Burke, nodding at the gear.

The Honduran officers glanced at each other. The soldiers present carefully didn't look at anything except their screens.

"Uncle Sam?" Adora asked. "The United States?"

"We've been running a clean-up operation here," Burke said.

"'Clean-up' operation?" The Colonel snorted. "Some formerContras going freelance for the Cartels?"

Burke grinned, which was probably answer enough.

"So, your troops got wasted by veterans from the Nicaraguan civil war, and now they control the alien technology." The Colonel sighed.

"We don't know the identity of the forces in question," Bonilla insisted.

"Well, we'll find out."

"So, we'll have to fight bandits over alien technology." Catra chuckled. "That brings back memories."

Adora groaned. "At least it's not a desert."

"I'd prefer a desert - fewer places to hide," Catra said.

"Our scanners show the location of every concentration of Naquadah in the area," Sam spoke up. "But they won't detect humans who aren't using the technology. And we haven't detected anything that would explain those reports of 'zombies'." Sam pressed her lips together. She didn't like using this terminology, but if she used a more technical term, the Colonel would joke about it and call it zombies anyway.

Catra stretched her arms over her head - and that did attract the attention of the soldiers near them, Sam noticed - and yawned. "Well, whatever it is, we'll deal with it."

"Yes." Adora nodded firmly. "We won't leave you to deal with this, trust us."

That was potentially stretching their mission objective. On the other hand, Sam expected whatever was posing as zombies to fall under the definition of alien technology anyway.

But the Hondurans smiled - for the first time since they had met. Burke, though, was scowling.

*****​

"The Naquadah concentration is now directly below us," Entrapta announced.

'Below us' apparently meant 'below in the jungle, hidden by the trees'. Catra shook her head. She had been right - a desert would've been much better. You couldn't hide as well in a desert. "So, let's land?" she asked. "Darla can crush the trees beneath her, right?"

"But that could damage the landing gear!" Entrapta protested. "And all the crushed trees could block something!" She blinked. "And there are people below us," she added belatedly, tapping a few keys on the console with her hair. "Dozens of them."

"Some might be civilians. Or captives," O'Neill said.

Burke, standing next to him, nodded.

"We weren't going to land directly on top of them," Catra replied while she rolled her eyes. Even if there were no people around, that would be a bad idea since they didn't know what the device did. "Just land nearby."

"That would still crush a lot of trees. It's a nature reserve," Daniel pointed out. Then he blinked and blushed a little.

"I doubt that this would do enough damage to be noticeable," O'Neill said. "It's a big reserve."

"We would consider this an acceptable sacrifice," Reyes said. "We've cleared landing zones for helicopters as well if we needed them."

"Sir? Scanners are showing unidentified radiation," Sam said.

"Radiation?" O'Neill tensed.

"Yes," Entrapta added, cocking her head to look at the screens in front of her and Sam. "It's not radioactivity, though. It seems… magical in nature. Yes," she added after the screens flickered in rapid succession, "definitely magical."

"I thought magic didn't work on Earth without Adora… unblocking it?" O'Neill asked.

"Well, sorcery and most powers of princesses won't work," Entrapta explained. "Those rely on the magic field generated by life on a planet. But magical devices, unless constructed to rely on that field as well, work as long as they have another source of power." She smiled. "And no one would construct magic devices that only worked on a planet if they went to space!"

"Great. So we could have magic zombies running around," O'Neill commented.

"What?" Burke blurted out. "You're bullshitting me!"

O'Neill turned to glare at him. "You're surrounded by magical princesses, Burke. She-Ra here could turn an aircraft carrier into a plant. A few zombies wouldn't strain her."

"I wouldn't create such creatures!" Adora protested.

"It was just an example," O'Neill retorted.

"A stupid example!" Adora frowned.

Catra nodded in agreement. Adora didn't create monsters - she killed them. And she healed people and kingdoms. "What kind of magic is it?"

Entrapta wrinkled her nose. "It's… healing magic."

Catra blinked, surprised. "Healing magic?" That was a good thing, wasn't it?

"Very strong healing magic," Entrapta went on. "It's healing all damage suffered by living organisms in the area of effect."

"Then there'll be some very healthy wildlife down there," O'Neill said. "But that doesn't explain zombies."

"Unless the magic has side effects," Sam speculated. "If it induces a trance while it works, and if it's strong enough to heal bullet wounds, the effect could look like… zombies."

"But wouldn't that have affected our troops as well?" Reyes asked. He looked a little queasy.

"Well…" Entrapta bit her lower lip. "If they were caught at the edge of the area of effect, they wouldn't be affected. Though…" She turned away and checked the screens again. "Oh. It's spreading. The magical field, that is." She beamed at them. "So, they encounter tranced people, shoot at them - the tranced people shoot back maybe, we don't know how functional they are, but shooting usually doesn't take much cognitive activity - but the people inside the field are getting healed, and then the expanding field catches your soldiers, who then enter a trance as well and stop reporting."

That sounded like a good theory, in Catra's opinion.

"It's expanding? At what rate?" Reyes asked.

"And is it affecting us?" O'Neill added.

"We're too high above the ground to be affected," Entrapta replied. "And our shields should block the radiation. If we tweak them a little."

"But the rate of expansion is growing," Sam added before Catra could feel much relief.

"So, if the theory is true, we can't approach the device without being turned into zombies," O'Neill said. "Great. How do we stop it before Honduras is zombified?"

Reyes gasped at that. "We need to bomb it! We cannot risk that! Nuclear bombs, if needed!"

And Daniel gasped at that.

"Don't worry - there's one who can work safely inside the area of effect!" Entrapta announced.

"Me!" Adora nodded with a grim expression.

"You might be able to ignore the magic, yes," Entrapta said, nodding. "But I was talking about Emily!"

"Oh." Adora looked almost disappointed.

Catra shook her head at her stupid lover. "Yes, this sounds like a job for Emily."

"Emily?" Reyes asked, looking around on the bridge.

"She's a bot!" Entrapta explained. "Not organic, and her hull has been strengthened to be fully sealed. She can walk into the affected area and contain the device."

"Or destroy it with her laser cannon," O'Neill added.

"It's actually a blaster cannon," Entrapta corrected him. "But that depends on how tough the device is."

"But if it carries it back to us…" Reyes trailed off.

"Oh, don't worry - we'll build a containment device that will block the healing energy." Entrapta grabbed Sam's hand with her hair. "No time to lose! To the lab!"

O'Neill stared as Sam was all but dragged off. "What kind of shows did you let her watch?" he asked.

Catra gave him a look. "Don't blame your entertainment on us."

*****​

When Jack O'Neill had been told by General Hammond about this mission and how urgent it was, he had imagined quite a few things. Like fighting a zombie plague in the jungles of Honduras, shooting the walking dead and blowing them up, maybe desperately holding the line while Carter and Entrapta tried to defuse some evil artefact. Or charge some magic thingie to wipe out all the zombies.

Safely waiting on the bridge of a spaceship high above the jungle while Carter and Entrapta prepared a robot to go and retrieve the artefact hadn't been amongst his ideas. Though maybe it should have been, given what he knew about the Etherians. Still, he had at least expected to stand next to Adora when she did something impressive, not… watch from way behind the lines while others risked their lives. Or their… circuits? Crystals? Whatever robots used to think.

"So… is this how it works?"

Jack clenched his jaw. He also hadn't imagined meeting Burke on this mission. The bastard who 'mistakenly' shot Wood on their last op. Which never happened, of course, since there were no records of it.

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked.

Jack cursed inwardly. He should've told his team about Burke. But there hadn't been a good occasion since they had gone straight back in the air after meeting the Hondurans - he couldn't really call for a huddle and whisper explanations while the rest watched and wondered. Catra would probably blurt it out anyway just to see what would happen.

"I was called in to fight bandits or maybe zombies." Burke tapped the grenade launcher he was carrying. "I didn't expect to… watch a robot do the job, I guess. But maybe that's normal for you guys?"

"Ah." Daniel smiled. "Well, it's not abnormal, but usually, we…"

"That's classified," Jack snapped with a glare at his friend.

Daniel blinked. "But…"

Jack narrowed his eyes at him. For someone so smart, Daniel sometimes really failed to read the mood. "Past missions are classified."

"Oh."

Burke snorted, and Jack glared at him. The man was the last person who had any right to comment about classified missions.

Burke met his eyes, frowning as well, then looked away and scoffed.

"Oh," Daniel repeated himself.

"Wow, you guys are tense," Catra cut in. "Don't start shooting up the bridge, you hear? If you want to fight it out, do it outside."

"We're not going to fight it out," Burke said.

Jack snorted at that. He wouldn't mind getting back at Burke for killing Wood, but they had a mission. Even though they were just about useless right now.

Burke stared at him again, and, once more, he looked away first. Jack hoped that the bastard felt at least guilty about what he had done.

"And we're checking our targets carefully," Jack couldn't help adding.

Burke jerked at that but didn't react any further.

At least Daniel, even though he looked confused, had the wits to keep silent.

Catra, though, didn't. "Oh!" she almost crowed. "You already shot each other?"

"If I did, he'd be dead," Jack said, at the same time Burke said it as well.

Catra shook her head. "Whatever it is, keep it down." Then she tilted her head to the side. "Though… What was it, anyway? Did you have a nasty break-up? Cheated on the other?"

Jack stared at her. She sounded sincere. Did she really think Jack would have…? With Burke?

"What?" Burke blurted out. "How can you even suggest such a thing?" He sounded shocked.

Oh. Jack blinked as he understood - of course, Catra would assume that, given her history with Adora. And Burke must have missed that part about the Etherians. He smiled. "Ah, no, we never were together," he said, as innocently as he could. "I was already married when we met." He suppressed the brief guilt and pain he felt when he remembered how his marriage had ended. And why.

"What do you mean?" Burke snapped at him.

"Ah." Catra nodded. "Well, then I guess I can't give you any advice how to get over this." She nodded at them and turned away.

"What the fuck?" Burke cursed as soon as Catra had stepped away. "She just called us… And you acted as if that was OK!"

Jack grinned. "Why, Burke, is there anything wrong with it?"

"Yes!"

"Don't worry, I've got it on good authority that 'don't ask, don't tell' will be revoked as soon as possible. Being gay won't be grounds for being discharged any more."

"That's not…" Burke trailed off. "You're bullshitting me!"

He sounded both offended and almost glad, Jack noticed with surprise. About the bill being repealed, or about Jack bullshitting him?

"Actually, no," Daniel decided to cut in. "Equal rights for homosexual people is one of the conditions for an alliance with the Etherians. Haven't you heard about that?"

"I was busy in the jungle," Burke replied.

"You missed hearing about aliens?" Jack shook his head.

"I missed that detail," Burke retorted.

Like he had 'missed' that the guy in the jungle in front of him was Woods, not some guerilla. Jack stopped grinning. For a moment, Jack had felt like before the last op. Just bullshitting around with friends. But Burke wasn't a friend. Not any more.

Not since he murdered Woods and claimed he had mistaken him for an enemy. As if Burke would have made such a mistake. And if he had made such a mistake, he would've acted completely differently than he had when Jack had found them.

He turned away and watched the screen again. "I hope they'll hurry. The magic must be spreading."

*****​

Waiting. Adora didn't like to wait. She was She-Ra. She should be doing something while danger was threatening people. Or wait for others to do something like… like…

"Oh, stop pacing!" Catra snapped.

Adora turned to frown at her friend. "But this wave is spreading below us! It's harming people as we wait!"

"They evacuated the surrounding area," Catra pointed out. "And the people inside the area of effect were already hurt before we arrived."

"It's still spreading."

"Slow enough so it won't really pose a problem for a long time." Catra shrugged. "So, stop fretting and let Entrapta and the others do their thing."

"I should help them…" Adora eyed the door leading from the bridge to the rear of the vessel.

Catra rolled her eyes. "I think they'll call if they need you."

Adora pressed her lips together. She knew she wasn't a genius like Entrapta or Sam. Or a techmaster like Bow. She could use her power as a princess, but she couldn't build stuff. She was a brute. And she was utterly useless right now. She was…

…getting hit on the head?

"Stop brooding!" Catra glared at her. "You aren't useless just because you can't do everything by yourself."

Adora bit down on what she was about to say, then sighed. Catra was right. "I know." She sighed again. "But it doesn't feel right."

Catra shrugged. "Trust our friends to do their job and focus on yours."

"I don't have a job right now." That was the problem!

Catra grinned, though. "What did Earcut teach us in cadet training?"

The grizzled instructor? Adora blinked. He had taught them melee combat - the basics of it. How would that be applicable… Oh!

Her lover grinned. "Yes. If you have nothing to do, rest. Soon enough, you'll get another task. So, be a good cadet and rest."

Adora scoffed. "Resting while below us, some harmful magic is spreading?"

"Oh, don't worry," Catra told her as she hooked an arm through Adora's. "I'll help."

Oh. "But…"

"No buts! We'll be good soldiers and rest now. And relax."

And then Adora was pushed into the captain's chair, and Catra planted herself in her lap. "You'll relax even if I have to sit on you."

"But…"

"No buts! We'll wait until the others have the bot ready, like the veteran soldiers we are!"

She could easily push Catra off her lap. But… Her lover was right. She couldn't do anything useful right now.

Grumbling, Adora tried to relax.

*****​

"OK, I think I've nailed down the thaumaturgical frequency of the healing energy. Now we need to attune the crystal to it."

Samantha Carter nodded. Once the crystal was attuned, it could be used to counter the energy, shielding an area from its effects. Or, if six such crystals were aligned in a cube - or along the hull of a bot - form a containment unit. Provided they had a sufficient power supply. "How do we power it? Emily's main battery won't last long if it has to counter the amount of radiation we're registering." Sam had studied the battery's output.

Entrapta blinked. "Right. So, we could pack her hull with spare batteries - though that would only work for a limited amount of time, either."

Sam nodded and quickly ran a few calculations. "If the power of the healing device remains steady, even six batteries would last barely long enough to reach the device and bring it back to us. No safety margin at all." And from what she could tell, six batteries was about the maximum Emily could handle and still move.

"Yes." Entrapta bit her lower lip.

"I vote for a bigger safety margin," Bow spoke up. "Our plans tend to run into some hiccups."

"Not always," Entrapta retorted. "But often enough to plan for it, I guess. So… no battery packs."

"I would suggest an alternative solution," Hordak cut in. "If we connect Emily to the main reactor of Darla, the power should be sufficient to counter the device.

"Like, a long line?" Entrapta asked. "Like in that show?"

"Show?" Sam asked.

"A television show with huge bots running around fighting other constructs. They are supplied with power through giant power lines that they have to plug in."

That sounded… weird. Sam couldn't recall hearing about any such tv show. "The cable would be vulnerable," she pointed out. Even bandits would have weapons that could damage such a cable.

"We could armour it, but that would mean it would be too heavy to be dragged along by Darla," Entrapta mused. "And you can't use wheels in the jungle to take the weight of an armoured power line. Maybe a bot to carry it?"

"We could send escorts to guard the cable," Hordak suggested. "A few guard bots should be enough to discourage interference."

"But we don't have guard bots or bots to carry the cable. We would have to ask Third Fleet," Bow said with a grimace.

The others looked torn as well, Sam noticed. Well, that was understandable. Third Fleet was run by fanatics, after all. And in the current political situation, it wouldn't take much to set off another powder keg. Although… "What about wireless power transfer?" she asked. "If we add another crystal to act as a conduit and attune all of them to each other…" The crystals were linked and sharing power, after all, and the range of the synchronisation effect should cover the entire area.

"Yes! That would work - they'd form a thaumaturgical grid and spread the power equally!" Entrapta cheered. "And the crystal would act as an additional shield for Darla. And us. Let's do it!"

As the princess rushed to the side of the hold where the crystals were stored, Bow smiled at Sam. "That was a good idea. How did you come up with it?"

"People are working on wireless power transfers. I just applied the basic principles to enchanting," Sam replied. It still felt weird to talk about magic like this. Then again, magic was a bit of a misnomer - it worked according to rules and could be experimented with. It was a form of advanced technology following general principles. Principles Sam still had yet to fully learn in some cases, though.

"Ah!" Bow nodded. "I guess once Earth's magic is restored, you'll produce more such devices."

Sam pressed her lips together for a moment. 'Once Earth's magic is restored'... That was a touchy subject, to say the least. "A lot of people would start research into magic," she said. "And not all of them would be good people."

Bow shrugged. "That can't be helped. But how many of them are as smart as you are? They would have to start without any information about magic, either. Just like your sorcerers won't be able to do much for quite some time. Not without help from Mystacore."

Sam knew that she was smarter than most other scientists. It wasn't arrogance - she was well aware that she was exceptional. "But there are too many who will work on this. Some of them will have ideas that pay out. And some will cause problems."

Bow nodded. "But you can handle those."

He sounded very confident. Sam wished she shared his confidence. And yet… thaumaturgical technology offered so many possibilities…

*****​

"Alright! Go, Emily! Don't be afraid - the magic can't hurt you!"

The massive bot beeped in return, turned in place, then started to head down the ramp. Catra watched it touch the ground and then stalk into the jungle.

"Power transmission is steady," Carter announced from the hold behind her. "Fluctuations are within the expected range."

"Good! Emily's a good bot; she'll do her job!" Entrapta said, nodding firmly.

But Catra didn't miss how her friend bit her lower lip when she turned to look at the screens. She was worried, then.

"If anything happens, I can retrieve her," Adora said. Apparently, she hadn't missed that either.

Catra clenched her teeth. Adora didn't have to risk herself at every opportunity. But… Emily was not just a bot. She had been with them for years and was family for Entrapta. "We can send in a few more bots if anything happens to Emily," Catra said. "Anything that can stop her can also be a problem for us."

"I can handle much more than a bot!" Adora insisted.

Catra clenched her teeth again. It was true - but it was also stupid. "But we don't know if you can resist the magic down there."

"If I go into a trance, you can send bots to retrieve me," Adora retorted with a pout.

"We don't know what exactly the magic does - a trance is just a theory," Catra pointed out.

"Yeah, let's not be too hasty," O'Neill chimed in. "Let's stick to sending robots in before we risk people."

"Emily isn't just a bot!" Entrapta protested. "She's not a tool - she has feelings!"

"Emotions?" Daniel tilted his head slightly to the side as he pushed his glasses up. "Simulated or… how does that work?"

"It's a neural matrix, like a neural net," Carter explained. "Artificial Intelligence research has been exploring such concepts for a while."

"Yes," Entrapta said. "Emily is smart. Smarter than many people."

Catra bit her lower lips to keep herself from making a comment about Adora; it wouldn't have been funny.

"So… are all your bots like that?" O'Neill asked.

"No," Hordak said. "Many bots are just programmed with a set of instructions. Not every task needs intelligence. Often, it's a hindrance. And it takes a lot of different experiences for neutral matrixes to adapt to and develop even rudimentary intelligence."

O`Neill snorted and mumbled something about marines.

Entrapta shrugged. "And even Emily wasn't as smart at the beginning - a neural matrix takes time to learn." She smiled. "But she did learn!"

"So… those combat robots you mentioned are like… baby bots?" O'Neill looked queasy. As did Daniel. And Carter looked shocked.

Hordak, though, nodded. "Those with neural matrixes, yes. Although larvae would be a more correct term. They need stimuli to develop their cognitive facilities. Merely growing older won't do anything."

"But do they have a sense of self?" Daniel asked. "Once they are, ah, like Emily?"

"Yes." Entrapta nodded.

"That throws up a lot of ethical questions," Daniel commented.

"Why?" Hordak, of course, didn't understand.

"Oh! Emily is approaching the device - the location from which the energy spreads!" Entrapta interurpted them. "Look at her go!"

The screen showed what the bot saw - with a map in the lower corner. She was breaking through the underbrush, shooting thicker trees if she needed to.

"Very effective. If the armour can withstand staff blasts, she will be a terror on the battlefield," Teal'c commented.

"Yes! She's got an experimental blaster cannon!" Entrapta beamed. "Go, Emily!"

The bot beeped in return.

And then she entered a clearing - a campsite. Or what was left of it. The tents were torn, and… there was a man standing next to a glowing cube within a cube-framework thingie. A bit bigger than a head, all in all. And he was armed with one of the Earth rifles. A different model than what SG-1 carried, Catra noticed.

"He's shooting at Emily!" Entrapta complained.

And he was. Not that the rifle had any chance of hurting the bot. Catra had to give the man kudos for standing his ground, though - few soldiers would have managed that in the war. But… something was off. That was a weird trance.

Emily, meanwhile, ignored the man and walked past him to the cube, her hull opening and two metal tentacles shooting out of the bot's body to grab the cube. The man tried to stop her, but a quick jerk sent him flying into the underbrush.

Then the cube disappeared into Emily's body.

"Containment field active," Carter reported.

"And… no more healing magic radiation!" Entrapta announced with a smile. "Our plan worked."

"Someone needs to tell the guy that," O'Neill said. "He seems to have missed the memo."

And indeed - on the screen, Catra saw the man stumble out of the bush and attack Emily again. And… "His eyes. Check his eyes," she said.

Entrapta frowned, but Emily zoomed in on the man's face.

His eyes were white and looked… wrong. And his throat…

"I think the healing energy did more than just trancing people," Hordak commented.

*****​

"No shit, Sherlock," Jack O'Neill blurted out before he could stop himself. The man on the screen - probably one of the 'bandits'; his uniform didn't match the Honduran fatigues - had a piece of wood embedded in his throat. He hadn't turned yet, so Jack couldn't check if it went all the way through, but the way it stuck out of the throat… "Even if the wound were healed around that, he couldn't breathe properly."

Daniel looked at Jack with a disturbed expression. "Ah…"

"Speaking from personal experience?" Catra asked.

"Not on the receiving end, no," Jack replied.

"Ah."

"What's a Sherlock?" Hordak asked.

"A fictional character renowned for his powers of observation," Daniel explained.

"Ah." The alien nodded. "Sarcasm, then."

Jack held his next comment back. "So… how long until the healing energy runs out?"

"Uh… it's no longer radiating," Entrapta said. "So…" She cocked her head sideways. "Perhaps some energy lingering in the body? Probably directly keeping the cells alive and working, so damage like that doesn't incapacitate him. But how do they control the body? Is the central nervous system still working? It must."

"He, uh, doesn't look particularly aware," Daniel pointed out.

The guy was still trying to stop the robot from walking away. Emphasis on trying. Jack made a mental note not to engage any robot with anything lighter than an RPG.

"Wait!" Carter snapped. "Move back to a shot of the man's chest and freeze the picture!"

"Alright!" Entrapta's hair tentacles flew over the console, and the screen changed.

Catra whistled. "Either the man picked his uniform fresh from the morgue, or he was shot earlier."

She was right - Jack could see holes in the man's top, some covered with dried blood. "So it is a zombie."

"We don't know that!" Daniel objected. "He could've been healed before death happened."

"We need to scan him closely," Carter said. "We need to find out what happened - and how we can deal with it. Sir," she added belatedly.

Jack nodded, overlooking the slight lapse. "Yes. So, how do we do that?" He wasn't keen on entering the zombie area even with the thingie contained. Who knew how many animals had been affected? Would zombie mosquitos still suck your blood, or would they go for your brain fluid?

"I can go grab him!" Adora offered.

"Or we can just let Emily lure the man to us," Catra objected. "No need to expose ourselves."

"Right. He can't really hurt Emily," Entrapta agreed. "And he seems to have run out of ammunition. That's a drawback with your weapons."

"He would've run out of power as well with a Horde laser rifle," Catra pointed out.

"Right. Still…"

"Can we focus on capturing the zombie?" Jack asked. This wasn't the time to discuss weapon technology and doctrine.

"Possible zombie. We don't know what happened. All we know is that he's a victim of alien technology," Daniel said.

Jack rolled his eyes.

"And we need to track the other victims," Glimmer spoke up. "If they wander off…"

"We don't want a zombie apocalypse." Jack nodded. He noticed that Burke was staring at all of them and snorted. "Welcome to the galaxy."

The mangled quote shook Burke out of his apparent shock. "What the hell is going on, Jack?"

"You heard the scientists: Possible zombie plague." Jack shrugged with more nonchalance than he felt. "Just wait until they tell us how to deal with them."

"What?" Burke shook his head. "Since when do you trust the brass about intel?"

"Since working with Stargate Command," Jack told him in a flat tone. His team had never let him down. Or shot each other.

"Lucky you," Burke spat.

"Well, if you don't 'mistake' your teammate for an enemy and shoot them, people tend to trust you with more than some shitty counter-terrorism mission in the ass-end of nowhere," Jack shot back. All this jungle needed to recreate Vietnam were some rice fields. And a horde of Viet Cong trying to kill you.

Burke glared at him again, opened his mouth, but closed it without more than a muttered curse.

Jack scoffed. Couldn't even defend himself.

"It wasn't like that!" Burke blurted out as if he had read Jack's mind. "Wood was about to shoot me."

"Really?" Jack scoffed again. "And you forgot to mention that at the court-martial?"

"I couldn't say anything! It would have cost Cindy his pension!"

Cindy? Jack blinked. Who was Cindy? Then he remembered. Cindy Wood. The widow. "What?"

"He was going to shoot me because I discovered that he was selling us out," Burke snapped. "I was faster than him. But if he had been exposed as a traitor, Cindy would have lost his pension."

"What?" Jack stared at him. "Wood was trying to sell us out, and you kept quiet about it?" For his widow?

"What good would have come of it?" Burke shrugged. "Wood was dead, and I knew you weren't a traitor, so there was no other leak."

Well, of course Jack wasn't a traitor! But… Burke trusted him? Well, he should have. Jack still felt some guilt. "You should have said something anyway," he said.

"You knew Cindy. Would you have said anything?" Burke shot back.

Would he have said anything? Jack hesitated. That had been a different time. He had just married; Charlie hadn't been born yet… Would he have said anything?

Burke nodded as if Jack had given him an answer. Damn jerk.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 26: The Naquadah Crisis Part 6

Reserva de la Biosfera de Río Plátano, Honduras, August 19th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Are they going to fight?" Adora asked in a low voice, looking at Jack and Burke in the corner across the hold. They had been staring at each other ever since they had met today. A lot of tension, but she couldn't quite place what kind of tension.

"Ah, they seem to be making up," Catra whispered next to her.

"Oh?" Adora turned to look at her lover. "So, they were…?"

Catra tilted her head to the side. "I don't think so. Just friends who had a falling out over a dumb secret or something."

"Ah." Adora envied Catra's ears at times. She had had no clue - well, some clues, but nothing that would help - about this whole thing. "So, they're good now?"

"Dunno." Catra shrugged. "Hard to tell."

Adora scoffed. Well, if they hadn't made up, that was their problem. Emily was almost at the ship. She cleared her throat. "We need to catch the… suspect now." She pressed her lips together - she should have thought of a good name for their target before speaking.

"Let's just call him zombie guy," Jack said, grinning.

"We're not calling him 'zombie guy'," Glimmer said with a glare at him.

"What about 'specimen number one'?" Entrapta asked - honestly; Adora could tell.

"Are you really arguing about what to call a walking dead?" Burke asked - the man was, again, looking shocked.

"Yes?" Jack looked at him as if he couldn't understand why Burke would ask that. But that was an act. At least Adora was pretty sure it was an act. "The correct nomenclature is very important in our line of work."

Yes, definitely an act. Adora shook her head.

"Jack!" Daniel protested.

"What? Don't you always insist on using the correct terminology?"

"Emily is almost back with us," Hordak cut in. "We should focus on dealing with the threat instead of on what to call it."

"Yes." Adora nodded firmly. "And since we're not in the range of the healing energy - which isn't spreading any more, right?" she added with a glance at Entrapta and Sam.

"It has disappeared," Sam confirmed.

"Right. So, I can go and just grab the man," she said. "If he can't hurt Emily, he can't hurt me."

"Unless it's some infectious disease," Entrapta said.

"What?"

"Well, we haven't detected any pathogen or viruses," her friend explained, "but that's one possible cause for such behaviour - at least according to Earth myth."

"That's Hollywood," Daniel said. "I wouldn't assume that there's any base in reality for that."

"There are parasites that can change human behaviour," Sam added. "But we haven't detected anything - simply magical radiation. Healing magic."

And Adora was all about healing magic. Amongst other things. "Either way, I'm the best choice for this."

She looked at Catra, who sighed and nodded. "I guess so - if there are no germs."

"There shouldn't be."

"Biological warfare…" The Honduran officer shook his head. Adora had almost forgotten that they had guests around.

"Nothing we can't handle," Jack said with a wide smile.

Adora nodded. She could heal entire countries, after all. Granted, that had been a special occasion, but she was She-Ra. She could do this. "I'm going to fetch the man. And hold him outside while you deal with the device."

"We'll prepare the containment unit!" Entrapta said. "And the containment unit for the affected human!"

Adora nodded and headed to the airlock.

Catra followed her. And Melog followed them.

Adora looked at her lover.

"I'm not going to join you," Catra told her with a wry grin. "But I'll be waiting here."

"Ah." She nodded at Catra, then bent forward and placed a quick kiss on her lover's head. "I'll be right back."

"I'll hold you that, dummy." Behind her, Melog glowed.

Adora stepped outside, jumping off the ramp. Emily was approaching - and the man was still trying to stop her - even though all he was doing was hugging one of her legs now. It was almost too easy - she grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him away, ignoring his flailing. "All done, Emily."

Emily beeped in return and entered the ship.

Adora took a closer look at her captive - and grimaced at the sight. The piece of wood had gone through his entire throat. Jack had been correct - there was no way he could breathe like this. And his eyes were white. Not glowing, not like when someone was possessed, but… not natural, either.

What kind of healing magic could do this? And could she do such a thing by accident as well?

That was a disturbing thought. Very disturbing. She didn't remember any such incident - but would she have noticed if she had done this to some animals when she healed the Fright Zone?

"We've secured the device," Catra yelled from the ramp. "Melog doesn't sense anything, either. You can bring the zombie inside."

Adora didn't protest the name as she carried the man - or former man - inside and dropped him in an airtight cell Entrapta and Sam had prepared.

*****​

"Oh. The cells are all alive, but the brain is not working at all. The brain cells are working individually, but there's no trace of a neural network. It's like a colony of single-cell organisms all working in concert without a discernable biological directive. This is so fascinating." Entrapta all but cooed, Samantha Carter saw. Then the princess blinked. "I mean, it's horrible that this happened to a person, but the result is fascinating. In a horrible way." Entrapta's smile looked more than a little forced.

But Sam could understand the feeling. Did understand it - this 'zombie' was, from a strictly scientific point of view, fascinating indeed. And horrible. "So, they must be controlled by magic - the human organism couldn't, without a working nervous system, move at all, much less in the way we've observed."

"Exactly! Our sensors show a magic field around the body, focused on damaged cells. See how the field is stronger at the wrists and ankles? It must be repairing the damage done to the body by the attempts to break free."

Sam nodded - she could see that the man - or, now confirmed, corpse - in the cell in front of them was struggling against the thick metal bands that held him, baring his teeth but not making any discernible sounds. Just like a zombie in those cheap horror movies she had watched in college. "So… can we save him?"

"Restore higher brain functions? Or any brain functions at all?" Entrapta cocked her head as her hair moved over the console, pushing buttons.

The things she could do with such hair… Sam suppressed a brief, weird bout of envy. "Yes." That would be… Well, the Colonel would probably call it resurrection. Or 'de-zombification or something similarly silly.

Entrapta shook her head with a sigh. "I don't think so. I doubt we can restore the network that, well, made him him. I doubt that we could even restore the basic brain functions that keep the body alive and breathing - the magic healing must have completely disrupted it."

"Well, that can be relearned," Hordak said. "Or we could attempt to copy an existing lower-level network pattern onto a clean brain."

Sam's eyes widened at the proposal. "What? You want to copy a person's mind?"

Hordak frowned at her. "Of course not - we don't have the technology or magic to achieve such a feat. But we might be able to copy a less complex pattern well enough to speed a relearning process along."

"Uh, I don't think that's a good idea. In fact, I think that's a very bad idea," Bow cut in.

"Yeah," Entrapta agreed. "Even if we manage to copy a pattern well enough to imprint on a brain, the new brain cells will be trying to copy actions from another body. That won't work on that level, much less a higher one."

"True," Hordak agreed with a frown. "I forgot that this wouldn't be a basic clone pattern."

"Oh." Bow looked at Entrapta with a grimace, Sam noticed. And Entrpata nodded with a… sad expression?

Ah. That must be how Horde Prime's clones had been… programmed was the word, even though, or especially, since it was dehumanising. Sam cleared her throat. "So, we could only create a new person in an old body."

"More or less. Like a baby. Just with a larger body," Entrapta nodded.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to become a father right now," Bow said with a weak grin. "So… I don't think we should create a new life here."

Sam winced at the implications.

"Right!" Entrapta nodded again. "If we do make a baby, it won't be in the middle of an experiment."

"Yes," Hordak agreed.

Sam glanced at Bow. He looked as disturbed about this exchange as she felt. But they had a task to do. "So… this healing energy disrupted the neural network in people's brains - presumably in other creatures as well?"

"I think so… some of the more primitive creatures might not be affected, and some at the outskirts of the field might not have suffered complete disruption, but those in close vicinity…" She shook her head. "Probably gone."

"So, we have a zombie area in the jungle," Bow said. "Why would anyone do this?"

"I think a lower-powered application would restore a body without wiping the neural networks controlling it," Hordak said. "The network would still suffer some degeneration, but it would, properly controlled, not be significant unless someone was repeatedly exposed to such magic."

"Does that mean that magical healing damages your brain?" Sam asked.

"This form of magical healing does," Entrapta replied.

"People have been healed repeatedly during the war without suffering such effects," Bow pointed out. "And I don't recall any lecture about such a risk. It must be unique to this device."

That was a relief. And yet… "We still have an unknown number of such affected people and animals to deal with," she said.

The others nodded.

"We might consider using a bomb, as was suggested by the representative of the local population," Hordak.

"I don't think we should nuke part of Honduras," Sam retorted.

They had to find a better way to deal with this… zombie infestation.

"Well, we could just wait until the magic effect fades - it takes a lot of energy to keep all the individual cells not only alive, but working together, and without the device to provide the energy, it'll shut down sooner or later - I guess we can calculate a rate of decay if we get more data," Entrapta said.

That was a better solution - provided that this 'sooner or later' was sooner rather than later. Sam doubted that the Hondurans wanted to cordon off the entire area for a decade or two. But she needed more than a theory to suggest a course of action to the Colonel. "Let's check."

"Yes!" Entrapta whirled and started using her instruments again. Sam stepped up to the console and added some calibrations.

*****​

"...and our conclusion is, although based on only one set of data and extrapolated, accounting for the lack of a natural magic field and the interaction between the magic and the internal chemical energy reserves of the cells, that the affected organisms should stop being able to move in about two days to a week. It depends on how much energy they use to move, so more primitive organisms could function for a longer time while people and similar creatures wouldn't last too long," Entrapta explained.

Catra blinked. "So, we just have to wait, and the problem solves itself?" That was convenient!

"Yes," Entrapta replied, nodding.

"Although we cannot completely exclude the possibility that the affected organisms might display unexpected characteristics in the meantime," Carter added. "They might mutate with all the magic energy affecting every cell."

"Mutant zombie mice?" O'Neill asked, shaking his head. "If we tell Hammond that there's a danger of that, we'll get sent to a shrink."

"I think General Hammond will not dismiss the possibility of such a threat after studying our other reports," Teal'c commented.

"Yeah, I was trying to make light of the fact that we have a bunch of effectively dead people walking around without a chance of curing them." O'Neill sighed. "So much for magic healing."

Catra saw Adora flinch and clenched her teeth. How dare he! "That wasn't the fault of healing magic!" she snapped. "That was the fault of an idiot creating a dangerous artefact and another idiot turning it on! Don't blame magic healing for this!"

O'Neill turned to frown at her. "Hey! I'm the one who was healed by magic here - I've got a right to be concerned."

She hissed. "I was brought back from death by Adora's magic! You just got healed!"

He recoiled a little, then dug in his heels. "Then you should be concerned as well!"

"No, neither of you should be concerned," Entrapta cut in. "If Adora's healing had such side effects, we would have noticed them long ago - she did restore the Fright Zone, after all, and healed the forest in Plumeria. If there was anything wrong, Perfuma would have noticed."

"Yes, I think we would have noticed zombie animals wandering around," Glimmer said. "Also, I'm a trained sorceress." She raised her hand. "Mystacore's best sorcerers tested for negative effects of 'overhealing' long ago and found nothing with the standard healing spells."

"Well, something went wrong here," Daniel pointed out. "So, there is a danger even if you didn't encounter it before. Adora's healing is safe, but what if anyone else tries to invent a new way of magic healing?"

Catra heard O'Neill mutter something about unsafe magic and clenched her teeth again. Working with this kind of attitude was so frustrating! "We know what we are doing," she said, flashing her fangs.

"But you want to restore magic to the world," O'Neill shot back. "That means a lot of people who don't know what they are doing will dabble with magic. Who's to say that they won't create a real zombie plague?"

Daniel, to Catra's surprise, nodded. "I have to agree. It seems that this was a localised effect dependent on a single item. But what if it could tap into a natural magic field to power itself?" He grimaced. "Like a magical zombie plague?"

"Zombie apocalypse," O'Neill added.

Glimmer shook her head. "That's not how it works. You don't realise just how difficult it is to create such devices as the one here. You can't just 'dabble' and create that by accident. And the idea that you could create a spell that does this…" She scoffed. "You might as well bang together a pair of rocks and hope to get a nuclear bomb out of it."

"Oh, yes!" Entrapta chimed in. "The thaumaturgic equations used here are incredibly ahead of anything else I've seen. This can serve as inspiration for so much research! Those Ancients were such geniuses!"

Catra had to wince at that. "But let's do any such research in space." Where they could blow up a lab if something got out of control. Melog agreed, she could feel them.

"Right. We really need a lab ship for research." Entrapta nodded.

"That sounds like a good idea," Daniel said. "But even if the risk is minimal, should you really unlock magic on Earth?"

Glimmer frowned at him. "Why not? It certainly didn't prevent this device from being created. Magic being returned to Earth just means that sorcery becomes possible."

"But this device was created when magic was available," Daniel retorted.

Carter cleared her throat. "We've been working with magic since we arrived on Earth. Our scanner works with magic but is powered by advanced technology. That's also how the containment fields work." She looked at O'Neill, Catra noticed, as she went on: "We're using magic. We're doing magic research."

"And you can bet that your government is already working out how to do magic research as well," Glimmer added.

"But we'll do it in a responsible manner!" O'Neill retorted.

Catra looked at Daniel, who winced, and then at Carter, who was not meeting anyone's eyes.

Yeah, right.

*****​

Jack O'Neill suppressed a wince. Yeah, the United States weren't perfect, but if he had to choose who got to experiment with magic, he'd pick a government laboratory with good supervision over some weird New Age Wicca with a grudge against their neighbours any day of the week. "Generally, we'll do it in a more responsible manner than some random person on the street. Carter here answers to the government, for example, and the government answers to the people. That means Carter can't just decide to create magical kudzu and let it loose on the prized garden across the street." He grinned at her, "No matter how much you might want to after the last homeowner association meeting."

She smiled back at him, but he could tell she was… at least slightly annoyed. Even though he was absolutely sure she had thought about doing this at least once. Who hadn't?

Good enough, though. He nodded. "Anyway, the government might not be perfect, but our scientists have supervision. And budgets."

"That feels very restrictive," Entrapta said with a pout. "I don't think non-scientists are the best people to direct research. What if they don't understand the subject? Or have an irrational fear of the potential results?"

"Well," Jack replied. "The restrictions are kind of the point."

A point, or so he believed, judging by some of the glances exchanged between their friends, that the Etherians might accept.

"So much for free enterprise," Catra commented with a toothy grin.

"Well, most scholars would agree that no freedom is absolute, and ensuring the safety of the general population is usually a sufficient reason for proportionate and effective restrictions," Daniel remarked.

"Like no zombie plagues," Burke added.

Entrapta didn't seem to be convinced.

"Or not creating portals that might destroy the world," Glimmer added.

That made Entrapta flinch. "Oh, right."

And Catra flinched as well, Jack noticed.

"But you can't really control all research either," Glimmer pointed out. "Not unless you control every country and its population. Which you don't. And your governments do run secret research projects."

"Like Stargate Command," Adora added.

Jack managed not to wince at that. "Yeah, and imagine what would have happened if that project had been without any supervision or backup by the government. Anyway, how about we talk about this once we're sure the zombie-generator is safely stashed somewhere? Like between Earth and the Sun?"

"Good idea," Adora agreed.

"Yes," Reyes spoke up. "The sooner this is out of our country, the better."

And Jack suppressed a curse. The Honduran had stayed silent during their entire conversation. They hadn't exactly spilt classified information, but the officer would have gotten more insight into the Etherians - and SG-1 - than most people. Ah well, that couldn't be helped right now. Jack would claim it was a trust-building measure.

*****
​

Earth Orbit, Solar System, August 19th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"We're in space. Like astronauts." Burke shook his head as he stared out of the window.

"Yep," Jack said as he stepped up next to the agent. "And it's cold out there." And hot if you were facing the sun, but Carter wasn't here to correct him.

Burke scoffed. "It might be old news to you, but to me…" He shook his head again. "I would have never expected to experience this."

"And you can't talk to anyone about it," Jack replied before he could help himself.

Burke snorted. "That's normal in our business."

"Yes. And speaking of your business… You aren't too attached to your cosy little jungle, are you?"

Burke narrowed his eyes at Jack. "What do you mean?"

"We're always on the lookout for people who don't freak out if they encounter aliens. Or zombies."

Burke snorted. "You mean I know too much to keep running black ops."

Jack shrugged. No sense in denying that - Burke knew how the game was played.

"I don't fancy having an accident on the next mission or getting kidnapped, so I guess I don't mind getting a new assignment." Burke glanced at the window again.

"Stargate Command doesn't do that kind of stuff," Jack told him.

"Sure you don't."

"No, really. We have ethical officers and staff who wouldn't look kindly on such antics," Jack explained.

"Ah." Burke looked at Daniel. "So, no one's going to off Reyes?"

"None of us, at least," Jack replied. Who could say what the NID or CIA would do? Jack hoped they would restrain themselves - the Etherians wouldn't be happy if they found out about such operations. He had stressed that in his reports.

"Ah."

"So, welcome aboard. Don't get taken over by space snakes," Jack said with a grin. Now he wouldn't have to feel guilty any more about thinking the worst of Burke for years. Though how could he have known that Burke wouldn't tell the truth at his own court-martial? He ignored the small voice in the back of his head that told him he should have known better since Burke had been a friend.

Burke nodded, smiling almost reluctantly as he looked at space again. And at the frigate they were currently docked with. "Do I get a laser gun?"

Jack grinned again. "Well, those are actually not as good as you might expect. We use carbines, rifles, SMGs - stuff you're familiar with."

"Really?"

Jack nodded. "And if we stick with the Etherians, swords and bows might make a comeback as well."

Burke blinked, then glanced at Bow, who was talking with Glimmer in the corner. And then back at Jack. "You're bullshitting me!"

Jack chuckled. "I sure hope so." He would make a very bad Green Arrow or Hawkeye.

They spent a few minutes stargazing - well, Jack was stargazing; he should have brought his telescope - before Carter, Entrapta and the others returned to the bridge.

"All set!" Entrapta announced. "It's not quite a secure lab, but the frigate will keep it safe, and with a bot crew, so even if the containment falls, they won't be affected."

"Good." Jack wasn't about to comment about how such setups never worked in the movies. "Then we can drop off the good Major now."

"And then go after the next Naquadah item!" Entrapta said.

"Which is classified," Catra quickly added before the princess could reveal even more to Reyes.

Jack nodded in agreement and turned to the Honduran. "Need to know and all, you know."

"Of course, Colonel."

Reyes was far too quiet for Jack's taste. He was sure that the man hadn't missed much. And since he had been in command of tracking down 'bandits', he might have a background in intelligence. Probably counter-intelligence.

Jack would be much happier once the man was off the ship.

*****​

Over the Atlantic Ocean, Earth, Solar System, August 20th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"So, what's next? Siberia or the ocean?" Adora asked as Darla kept hovering over the big ocean - Mermista would probably love to explore the sea here.

"Well, the UN Security Council is a bit torn on the issue. It looks like Russia and China want us to go after the thing in the ocean first," Jack said.

"And the United States want us to secure the object in Siberia before the Russians do it, right?" Catra asked, leaning against Adora's chair, her tail brushing against her leg from time to time.

Adora still hadn't been able to make Catra admit that she was doing this intentionally.

"Yes." Jack nodded.

"We could split up," Bow suggested. "Go after both simultaneously."

"I think it would be easier to head to Siberia," Jack said. "Unless this ship can dive better than a submarine, you'll need our help to reach that."

"Well… if the depth is not too high, Darla should be able to withstand the pressure," Entrapta said. "But she's not really ready for operations under the sea."

"We usually left that to Mermista and the Salineans," Bow said.

"It's kind of her shtick," Catra added. "And she gets all huffed up if we don't let her do all the water stuff."

Adora frowned at her lover. That was a pretty biased description of Mermista. "It's only logical that she would take care of such situations, like Perfuma handles plant problems."

"Redundancy is a good thing," Catra retorted. Adora didn't believe her innocent expression.

Glimmer snorted. "Anyway, can we dive that deep?"

"I wouldn't want to risk Darla. What if she springs a leak?" Entrapta said. "We could keep the shields up, but that would mean that we have trouble doing anything outside."

"Or we could leave that to trained divers and submarines," Jack suggested.

"Your divers aren't trained in handling Goa'uld technology," Hordak retorted. "What if they set up another explosion underwater?"

"The shockwave might even be able to cause a tsunami," Carter said.

"I could make diving suits for us. It would take me some time, though," Entrapta told them.

"That's a good idea," Glimmer said. "Just in case."

"We could hit the Siberian location in the meantime," Daniel said. "We can find it more easily than the Russians, right?"

"Oh, yes! We have determined its exact location with the last scan!" Entrapta said. She pointed at the hologram showing both locations with her hair. "It's underground and in some tomb or other structure."

"Is that a Goa'uld site or a facility run by the Russian government?" Jack asked.

"Uh… I can't tell from here. It's blocking our scans to some degree."

"Which could indicate either," Sam added before Adora had to ask. "It's rather deep in the ground, Sir."

"Well, my gut says Russian," Jack commented.

"Are you sure that your gut isn't stuck in the Cold War, Jack?" Daniel asked.

"Are you sure that the Russians aren't back in the Cold War?" Jack snorted. "They want to use the alien technology to surpass us."

"And we want the alien technology to keep our position," Daniel retorted.

"And we need trustworthy allies to fight the Goa'uld and save the galaxy - and Earth," Glimmer cut in. "So… can we hit this already?" She pointed at Siberia. "I don't want to wait until your people make up their minds. This is too dangerous."

"Don't we have a mandate from the Security Council to secure all the technology we discovered?" Adora asked. That was what she had taken from the last meeting.

"Anything that isn't already safe and secure," Catra corrected her. "That was probably slipped in by the USA." She flashed her fangs at Jack.

"But what technology we've recovered is already known. The Naquadah in Siberia is not known."

"The Russians might have lied? I'm shocked!" Jack gasped and held a hand over his heart.

"You know, even at their worst, the Princess Alliance worked better than this," Glimmer said, shaking her head.

"At their worst, the Alliance didn't do anything," Bow objected.

"That's still better than working against each other," Glimmer told him.

"Well…"

Adora cleared her throat. "Let's tell the Russians we can assist them. And that we need to ensure we're not dealing with another 'zombie plague'."

Jack grinned. And Catra patted Adora's shoulder. "Who knew you could be sneaky!"

Adora frowned at her friend. She could be sneaky if she wanted to! She just usually didn't want to - honesty was better than trying to trick people who were or could become friends."

"Yeah, let's head over to Russia with your shiny space ship with the space guns and tell the Russians we're here to help," Jack said. "Let's see them try to tell us to get lost. Hey! Do you think we could land on the Red Square in Moscow first?"

"Jack!" Daniel protested. "We can't just antagonise Russia!"

"We certainly can," Jack said. He was grinning in a manner that reminded Adora of Catra when she was annoying people.

"We won't annoy the Russians - or anyone else - unless we can help it," Adora stated. "Darla, take us to Siberia."

*****​

North of Bratsk, Russia, Earth, Solar System, August 20th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"We're right above the location," Entrapta said. "I double-checked."

Samantha Carter nodded. "Yes." She had done the same. Just to be sure. Whoever had hidden the facility holding the Naquada artefact had done a thorough job - she couldn't see any sign of it from above. Then again, if this was a Goa'uld site, the millennia since they had left Earth would have done most of the work. But if this was, as the Colonel suspected, a Russian installation… "Can we map the site?" she asked.

"Yes… although it has a really confusing layout. I cannot make out a pattern… Wait! Let's scan for other metals!" Entrapta's hair flew over the console, pushing buttons and keys before Sam could react.

Other metal… Oh! "You think it's a mine?" Sam asked.

"Yes! That would explain why the tunnels aren't following logical patterns. So, there should be residual ore… Yes!" She beamed at Sam, then at Hordak. "It's an old mine!"

"And was it repurposed?" Sam asked. She eyed the screen. "Can we get more details here?"

"It's not shielded like a First One site, but the ore in the ground and the depth of the site make it hard to detect details," Entrapta explained. "Although… yes, this looks like the entrance."

On the main screen, the map zoomed in on a spot quite far away from the Naquadah's location. And that spot… there were no roads, but… Sam tilted her head. "That looks like tracks."

"Yes. All-terrain vehicles," Hordak agreed. "Someone has been visiting the site recently, or they would've been covered by vegetation again."

"Right. Without Perfuma, you can't easily erase such tracks," Entrapta said.

"There are ways to hide your tracks," Sam corrected her. "But they aren't perfect." And the closer you were to the hidden tracks - or the better your instruments - the harder it was to hide them.

"Right! So… someone's down there. Bandits?"

Bandits? Russia had a problem with organised crime and corruption, but Sam didn't think this was related to either. "I think it's more likely that this is a site controlled by the Russian government - or part of it."

"In that case, we should proceed with caution," Hordak said. "We wouldn't want to accidentally kill government troops."

Or not so accidentally. In any case, they had found the entrance. Sam suppressed a sigh - they had to call the others, who were currently resting. She knew the Colonel needed more sleep, but they couldn't risk another Egypt. "Let's call the others," she said.

"Yes!" Entrapta hit the button for the intercom. "Everyone! We found the entrance!"

Not even a minute later, the Colonel and the others entered the hold. "So, what have you scienced up?" he asked with a grin that didn't quite manage to hide how tired he was.

"We found the entrance to the installation. It's a mine! An old mine!" Entrapta said.

"And it's recently been visited," Sam added.

"So… it looks like the Russians are playing their old games again," the Colonel said, shaking his head.

"You think this is run by the Russian government?" Glimmer asked.

"You betcha," the Colonel replied. He bared his teeth. "Let's see if we can foil whatever they are planning. Without blowing up the taiga, of course."

"Of course," Entrapta added, a little too serious for Sam's taste.

"Why would they do this? They were behind the resolution to secure all alien technology not yet secured," Adora said.

"They're Russians." The Colonel shrugged. "Saying one thing and doing another was the norm for them back in the Cold War, and I doubt they changed since then."

"The United States weren't exactly very honourable and trustworthy either," Daniel said with a frown.

"But we didn't try to hide alien artefacts after telling the UN to secure them," the Colonel shot back.

"Because we already had them secured," Daniel retorted.

"It still makes no sense. They know we can detect the Naquadah," Adora said. "They can't hide from us."

"But they can blame it all on a subordinate and say their orders were misunderstood," the Colonel said.

"Or this could be a splinter group, criminals - or a Goa'uld base," Daniel said.

The Colonel frowned. "That's… also possible. Damn, I knew this was too good to be true! I was so looking forward to ruining the Russians' day."

"Jack…" Daniel shook his head.

"You weren't there," the Colonel replied. "It's a Cold War thing. Well, let's find out if we're going to hunt a Snake or poke the Russian bear."

Catra snorted. "Sounds fun."

"Catra!" Adora shook her head. "This could be a diplomatic disaster!"

The catwoman shrugged. "It's not our fault. We're honouring the request of the Security Council, aren't we?"

The Colonel nodded with a matching grin. The two were quite alike in some ways, Sam thought, not for the first time. Though she was also aware that the US government would be happy if the relationship between Russia and the Etherians would become strained over this.

Very happy.

*****​

"...and thank you. Have a nice day."

Catra leaned against the wall next to the door of the bridge, ears twitching, as O'Neill finished the call. Audio only, since for some reason, the Russians didn't want to transmit a picture or something.

O'Neill was smiling widely - like Glimmer when she got one over Catra - as he turned to face the rest of them. "Hah! I knew it! It's a secret government facility!"

"And they admitted it?" Daniel asked.

"We're hovering over its location with a spaceship," O'Neill said. "Not even the Russians would try to bluff that out. Well, most of them wouldn't." He shrugged. "Anyway, we can land next to the entrance - someone's supposed to meet us there. The 'caretaker to this absolutely not functional research station that the government totally forgot about'."

"My Russian is a bit rustier than yours, Jack, but I don't think that's an exact quote," Daniel commented. He sounded a bit jealous, in Catra's impression.

"It's a concise summary of their claims," O'Neill retorted. "Anyway, let's land - but carefully. We don't know what's in there since the Russians claim they don't know either, just that it is a storage site dating back to the Second World War."

Ah. "So there could be a Goa'uld in charge?" Adora asked.

"The Naquadah concentration hasn't moved and is too large for a Goa'uld, according to our scanner," Carter told her. "Although if a Goa'uld was wearing or carrying Naquadah devices, it might match the result we got."

"Great. So, stay sharp, folks! And don't leave the ship unguarded."

"We can take the shuttle down," Adora suggested. "Who gets to stay on it?"

Since Adora would certainly be going down, Catra would be going down as well, so she didn't even twitch at the question. By now, people should know better than to try and separate them. And Melog would likely tag along anyway - it was almost impossible to keep them out of something they wanted to enter.

Entrapta looked torn. "Someone who can use the scanner should stay… But I really want to see the technology down there! Maybe they have other, non-Naquadah-based technology?"

"Well, Russian technology of the time was said to be so durable, it would keep running even if Russians maintained it," O'Neill said with a chuckle. "But I don't think it'll be impressive."

Catra glanced at Carter. The scientist was fiddling with a gadget - it was obvious that she wanted to go down into the mine as well.

"I will stay on the ship," Hordak said. "I can operate both the weapons and the scanner, should you need assistance."

"Oh, thank you!" Entrapta went to hug him. "We'll bring back the most interesting piece of technology we find!" She blinked. "If we're allowed to, of course."

"Let's stick to alien technology," O'Neill said. "That way, the Russians can't really complain. I mean - they forgot about alien technology? Hah!"

"Well, it's possible," Bow said. "We once forgot…"

"Yes, it's possible," Glimmer cut in with a frown at him. "But we should go now."

Catra smirked as they walked to the shuttle - she had to get that story from Bow once they weren't rushing to secure Naquadah any more.

It took them longer to board the shuttle and fly out of Darla's hold than to land the thing, and by the time they disembarked - after checking for ambushes - the side of the hill in front of them was parting, revealing camouflaged doors. As soon as they opened, a slightly out of breath man the size of, well, almost Scorpia, greeted them with a funny accent. "Hello, Etherians and Americans! Welcome to Siberia! I am Dr Iwan Georgovich, sent here to take inventory of storage site!"

Behind him, four soldiers who didn't look out of breath appeared. Catra kept an eye on them.

"Hello. I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill, Stargate Command, and these are…"

"Oh, but we know them! Of them!" Georgovich beamed. "The aliens who came to visit Earth and protect us! Magical Princesses from Outer Space! You must have so much knowledge! And stories!"

"Oh great," Catra heard O'Neill mutter. "We've got a royalist Russian."

"Yeah, that's us," Adora said, smiling back. "And we'd love to talk about it. But we need to secure an alien artefact first."

"Wouldn't want to see this part of the planet blown up," O'Neill added.

"Oh, of course not, of course not! And you are in luck - we already secured the artefact - without touching it, mind you! Come in, come in! It's just a short drive!"

"A drive?" Adora asked.

"Da! Long tunnel, for safety reasons - back when Cold War might go hot - so we drive!"

In an Earth vehicle that looked a few decades old, according to the movies they had seen. And it ran on rails. If they ended up jumping tracks in an old abandoned mine, Catra would claw someone.

"So," the big man went on as they got into the car-thing, "this site was made after Great Patriotic War - Second World War - to store all the technology secured from the Nazis."

"The Nazis? Don't tell me that Hitler was a snake!" O'Neill blurted out.

"We do not think so," the man replied. "But we cannot tell. But if he was, wouldn't he have won the war with alien technology?"

"Not necessarily," Daniel said. "He might have been afraid to catch Ra's attention, and so he would…"

"It was a joke, Daniel," O'Neill said.

"Oh."

The Russian laughed. "Hah! Anyway, we take fascist technology and sort it out. Pieces left over are stored here, to be sorted out later. But later never comes, so we forgot. But we're back now, and cataloguing everything!"

"We're close to the concentration now, Sir," Carter said as the car came to a stop.

"Right, we brought crate here."

And there was a wooden crate sitting on what looked like a small loading dock. An open crate, with a…

"A DHD!" O'Neill blurted out. "We've been looking for one for ages, and there's one here? On Earth? You've had it for decades after you took it from the Nazis?"

The big Russian smiled. "Da! Good thing, yes?"

Catra chuckled at O'Neill's expression.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 27: The Naquadah Crisis Part 7

North of Bratsk, Russia, Earth, Solar System, August 20th, 1998 (Earth Time)

A DHD. On Earth. Stargate Command had had to build a supercomputer to operate the gate and deal with all the bugs that popped up until it worked, and the Russians had a DHD stored in some bunker since World War II! Even worse, the Russians hadn't even known about it!

Jack O'Neill barely managed not to snarl at the far too happy scientist.

"So, this is a nice piece of alien technology, da? You know what it does, right?" Dr Georgovich prattled on. "The symbols, they look like on the gate, da?"

"Oh, yes!" Entrapta nodded. "This is a DHD. It's used to operate a stargate. Well, you can use a Stargate without it, but you need to emulate this, and that takes a lot of computing power. Although if we can analyse this, we should be able to streamline the process. Probably - science doesn't always produce the results you want, after all." Her hair flew over the DHD, not moving the dials, but almost caressing it.

"Ah, the key to Stargate. Very important. Good thing Russia secured it before the Nazis could use it." Georgovich nodded. He seemed a little distracted by the hair tendrils.

"You looted it after the Nazis were beaten," Jack corrected him.

"Defeated by glorious Red Army, yes. Before Nazis could use alien technology."

"I remember some other countries fighting the Nazis as well. And delivering lots of supplies to the Red Army," Jack retorted.

"Da! Good example of spirit of international cooperation against tyranny, yes?" Georgovich was beaming at him. "Nazis back then, Goa'uld now!"

Jack narrowed his eyes at the Russian. He was sure that the smiling bastard spoke much better English and was not half as simple as he acted. "It's that how you want to play it?"

"Play? Is no game. Very serious situation. All of Earth needs work together to beat evil space aliens, da? Russia offers secured alien technology for alliance!"

So that was their game.

"Great!" Adora, of course, was eating it up. "So, can we take the DHD off your hands?"

"Da! Russia hands over the alien technology to United Nations and Magical Princess Alliance! In the spirit of international cooperation!"

"Like the Security Council ordered," Jack pointed out. "We were tasked with securing this."

"Security Council ordered all unsecured alien technology to be secured. This technology was secured. Very secured in secret bunker. This is Russia's contribution to alliance against Goa'uld. First contribution."

"And you can make this decision for Russia?" Jack asked.

"Oh, no! Decision was taken by Russian government in spirit of international cooperation. I merely execute it." Gregorovich smiled at Jack. "We all should cooperate like this."

"Yeah, right." Hand over all alien technology to the United Nations? This was a DHD, but Stargate Command didn't really need one. They had built a work-around, and they had a lot more knowledge and technology than a single piece of technology that was useless without a gate. Knowledge and technology Stargate command had often paid dearly for. There was no way they would just hand over everything so the Russians and the others could take over and profit. Next, they would want them to sing The Internationale every morning or something.

But again, the Etherians seemed fooled. Adora beamed at the far too jovial Russian, and Glimmer nodded in apparent approval. At least Catra wasn't fooled - though Jack gave it even odds that she found this amusing.

"So, let's get this on the ship then," Adora said. "Is there any either alien technology stored here?"

"Nothing using Naquadah," Entrapta said, looking up from her scanner thingie. "But there might be more advanced technology. Or interesting Earth technology."

"Is that the alien scanner?" Gregorovich leaned forward and craned his neck. "You can scan for alien metal with it?"

"Yes! Well, it's a remote control for the scanner in Darla," Entrapta explained.

"Ah! How does it work?" The man's grasp on English improved when he was asking such questions, Jack noted.

"It uses the law of similarity for Naquadah," Entrapta said. "That's a basic law of magic."

"Magic?" Gregorovich pulled back a little. "This is magic? Not technology?"

"It's basically the same," Entrapta, apparently not having noticed his reaction, explained. "It just uses different principles, and in order to use a nonmagical power source, you have to have a converter. And you also need to apply First Ones technology so you can scan on a planet - or in space - where there is no magic field. So, it's a bit more complicated than a standard magical scanner but much more useful in various environments."

"Ah! And what's its range?"

"Well… it covers the whole planet? But mostly for a generic scan; more detailed information needs closer attention, and sometimes recalibration."

"It's a complicated procedure that requires extensive experience," Carter added.

"Ah." Gregorovich smiled again. "But anyone can do it, da?"

"In theory, yes, but you'd need to understand both magic and First One - or ancient - technology. Although Goa'uld technology might be enough as well," Entrapta said.

"Ah." And that damned smile widened. "I am looking forward to more cooperation. In science!"

"Great!" Entrapta beamed at him.

"Just don't blow up the planet by accident," Jack commented.

"I wouldn't!" Entrapta protested. "That only almost happened because of special circumstances which are very unlikely to be reproducible on Earth."

Seeing the Russian's smile vanish was very satisfying for Jack.

*****​

Adora was happy that at least one country wasn't trying to be obstructive. And the Russians weren't even forced to cooperate by a zombie plague or a bomb threat. They just handed over the DHD 'in the spirit of international cooperation'. She smiled as she hefted the crate containing the device and carried it to the waiting transport vehicle.

"Very strong indeed!" the Russian, Iwan, commented.

Adora smiled. "I'm the Princess of Power."

"She lifts, she digs, she carries," Catra added.

Adora frowned at her lover - that hadn't sounded like an honest compliment.

"So, this is important contribution, da?"

"It's great! We can examine it and copy it - I think. At the very least, we can copy the communication protocols," Entrapta said.

"The DHD also provides the Stargate with power," Sam added. "It must have an incredible power generation method to provide power for millions of years."

"Or huge batteries?" Jack speculated with a grin.

"Batteries run out," Iwan said. "But generator can explode. If this breaks, and all the energy set free…"

Adora didn't freeze. But she was a little more careful with her cargo. Just in case.

"Well, I don't think we should do destructive testing until we can duplicate the device in its entirety," Entrapta said. "But if the power contained inside it - unless it's just a conduit - were released by an explosion… Hm… I have to calculate if it would destroy the planet or merely cause enough destruction to wreck the biosphere."

Yes, she had to be very careful.

"How about we take it to space as well?" Jack suggested.

"We haven't heard of any such explosion, Sir," Sam retorted. "And none of the Jaffa showed any reluctance to use weapons near or at the DHD on our missions. So, I would assume that they are very hard to set off - if that's even possible. If the power is syphoned off from the source - like another dimension - then destroying the device would merely interrupt the power, not set it off."

"That would make more sense," Daniel said.

"Well, the Ancients didn't strike me as people with a lot of common sense, at least as we see it," Jack said.

"True," Daniel said.

"But they were geniuses! Their technology is still beyond us!" Entrapta protested.

"Yes, but they had a rather tenuous relationship with safety procedures and fail-safes," Jack retorted.

Adora put the crate down and pushed the memory of the First Ones fail-safe away.

"Yeah, maybe we should be a bit more careful when following their footsteps," Glimmer said.

"But the Stargates are safe and easy to use!"

"Ah…" Jack grimaced.

"We are using a Stargate with a control device of our own design, Sir," Sam said. "That might cause some issues - which I hope we can remove now that we can study a DHD."

"Yeah, I bet we would have voided our warranty for using non-factory parts." Jack grinned, and the others laughed. Adora joined in, even though she didn't quite get the joke.

"Before we move the DHD away from Earth, we should check with the Security Council," Glimmer said. "This is all under their authority, after all."

"Da!" Iwan nodded. "And we share scientific knowledge, right?"

"I would think so," Glimmer said.

"Why not? It was yours, right?"

"Because it might contain enough power to blow up Earth if it gets some Russian percussive maintenance?" Jack bared his teeth.

Iwan laughed. "Very funny, Colonel O'Neill. Dark humour - very Russian."

That didn't please Jack, Adora saw.

"Or British?" Daniel added. "They have a reputation for black humour."

"Well, the DHD is secured on the transport now - let's get it to the ship?"

"But we need to check the rest of the mine for more technology!" Entrapta said. "Who knows what else might have been forgotten inside here?"

"Our mandate only covers the alien technology," Glimmer told her.

"There could be alien technology that doesn't use Naquadah," Entrapta said.

"And it could be as dangerous - like magic," Jack added. "Better take a closer look, right? And I'm sure the Security Council didn't want us limited to Naquadah."

"Da," Iwan agreed, although a little less enthusiastic.

"Let's go!" Entrapta dashed away, carried by her hair, striding past the other soldiers present.

"Very enthusiastic scientist, yes?"

"Yeah, that's Entrapta for you," Catra said. "Now, let's go help her sort through your stuff."

Adora looked at the crate. They couldn't leave it unguarded here. "I'll take it back to the shuttle, then I'll join you."

She took the transport back to the entrance, with another soldier operating it, and easily but carefully carried the device inside. By the time she was back in the mine, Entrapta and Sam had already gone through one storage area and were starting on the next.

"So far, it's just been ugly art and some primitive tech," Catra, leaning against the wall, told her.

"Nazi technology and stolen art," Jack corrected her.

"As I said."

"Some of those artworks were thought lost!" Daniel protested.

"Oh?" Adora blinked. "More ancient treasures looted by your Empires?"

"Ah…" Jack trailed off.

"You could say that, yes," Daniel said.

"Shouldn't that be returned to the original owners then?"

"Ah… it complicated," Iwan said. His smile looked rather thin.

*****​

Naval Station Norfolk, United States of America, Earth, August 21st, 1998 (Earth Time)

Samantha Carter felt slightly guilty as she looked down at the base. She'd just slept almost ten hours, even though they still had to secure the concentration of Naquadah under the sea off the US East Coast. Of course, she had needed the sleep - almost as much as the Colonel and Daniel - and she knew taking care of yourself was crucial for fulfilling your duty; exhaustion, both mental and physical, led to mistakes. And you couldn't afford mistakes when dealing with Goa'uld.

But she could have studied the recovered artefacts. Recalibrated the scanner. Written a better report about the DHD they had recovered from the Russians - one that might be given greater weight when the government made its decision about how to handle the 'Russians' game', as the Colonel put it. Especially since the DHD was still in the ship's hold.

"So… that's the submarine?" Bow asked next to her, peering down at the Los Angeles Class vessel moored next to a pier.

"That's a submarine," she corrected him. "But it won't do the actual recovery. That will be done by a specialist vessel." She pointed at the USNS Salvor on the other side of the base. "It's a specialised rescue and salvage ship. They have divers and specialised mini-submarines for missions such as this. The submarine here will provide additional security." They already had one sub in place over the wreck that contains the Naquadah and two more patrolling the approaches - the Colonel wasn't the only one who suspected that the Russians wouldn't mind pulling something underhanded.

"Ah." Bow smiled. "Entrapta will be disappointed if she doesn't get to board a submarine."

Sam nodded - she was well aware of that fact. And, speaking of the princess… "Where is she?"

"Still asleep," Bow replied with a slight shrug. "She stayed up longer than you, and when Catra switched her concentrated tiny tea for flavoured water, she fell asleep in the lab. Hordak carried her to bed."

"Ah." She looked around. They were alone on the bridge.

"Most are still asleep as well," he said, smiling - he looked well-rested. "Glimmer's preparing her next speech - but don't tell her I told you. And Adora and Catra are…" He shrugged, blushing slightly.

Sam nodded again. She could imagine very well what the two were up to or had been up to. Catra had never tried to hide it - quite the contrary. The Etherians didn't have any regulations against fraternisation within the same chain of command, after all.

She suppressed the pang of envy. The regulations made a lot of sense. You were never as professional as you thought you would be. And even if you could handle such a relationship, others wouldn't, and personal exemptions would only cause more friction and resentment.

That didn't mean she had to like it, of course.

Bow must have misinterpreted her short silence since he smiled apologetically. "You could say they have a lot of wasted opportunities to make up for."

She was aware of that, if not of the details. But you didn't have to be a genius to figure out that two people on different sides of a war couldn't be together, so she nodded. Besides, it was the Etherians' custom, none of her business.

"Of course, what with the 'unnatural relationship' complaints from your country, Catra might also want to be more blatant about it," Bow added.

Sam blinked. "What complaints?"

"Oh, not official ones. Just some tv show or something." Bow made a dismissive wave with his hand. "We know it's not representative of your country. As Glimmer said, every country has a bunch of idiots." Before Sam could inquire what exactly they had seen - she certainly hadn't had any time to watch TV - he went on: "We're more concerned about the people who blame us for the explosion in Egypt."

Sam suppressed a groan. Of course some would blame this on the Etherians. The Egyptian army and its government would probably not mind if they were cleared of any blame. "Any investigation will show that this wasn't your fault. You weren't there when it happened."

"Well, one of the arguments used is that without our arrival, none of this would have happened." He shrugged. "It might be true, even - without our warnings, the Egyptians might not have investigated the temples."

"We don't know what caused the explosion," she pointed out.

"Yes." He shrugged. "Anyway, let's hope this operation goes off like the last one." He smiled again. "I mean, without an explosion or zombies. Glimmer's aware of the political implications."

Sam nodded. She wasn't certain whether or not Glimmer caught all the nuances - or if anyone, Russian or American, did - but it was a good reminder that while the Etherians might appear naive and idealistic, they were also - at least Glimmer and Catra - pragmatic and had experience with politics. Something Sam feared not all members of her own government, much less Congress, might realise. "Well, we should focus on recovering the Naquadah here," she said.

"Yes. At least to what degree we can, without being directly involved," he agreed. "Staying back and watching while others risk their lives…"

"Adora's not going to like it," Sam said.

He chuckled at that. "I think that half the reason Catra's teasing her about being a nice multipurpose tool is to make her realise that she doesn't have to do everything herself."

That made sense. "And the other half?"

"Because she likes teasing Adora."

"Ah." That made sense as well, of course.

They stared down at the base in silence for a moment before Glimmer stepped on the bridge, complaining about their schedule.

*****​

Off the East Coast, Atlantic, Earth, August 21st, 1998 (Earth Time)

"We should have stayed on Darla," Catra said, glancing at the railing. "We can react much quicker to anything up there, and we have better sensors to spot trouble. And more firepower to deal with it. This ship is rather flimsy - it doesn't even have shields and barely any weapons." And there was an ocean below them, full of deep, cold water…

"You could've stayed on Darla if you wanted," Glimmer commented. With a grin, she added: "Where you are safe from the big, bad, evil water."

Catra glared at her, but Glimmer giggled in return.

And, worse, O'Neill picked it up. "What? Don't tell me you're afraid of water! Like a housecat!"

She narrowed her eyes at the man, but Daniel piped up before she could come up with a good comeback. "Actually, there are housecats that love swimming in water."

"I'm not afraid of water," Catra snapped. "I just don't like the thought of swimming in this… this sea here, with some unknown Naquadah devices on the seabed that could turn me into a zombie!" There! A perfectly valid reason not to want to go swimming. "And salt water is hell on my fur," she added.

"It's true - it makes her fur all crusty and salty." Adora nodded. "And then we have to spend an hour in the bath to get her clean."

"Well, let's hope that you didn't frighten off our brave Navy divers," O'Neill said with a stupid smirk and a glance at the two people pulling on diving suits and stuff a bit away from them.

"I doubt they heard me over all the noise on this ship," Catra shot back. "And don't tell me that you'd send them down there without telling them the risks?"

"We wouldn't," Daniel said. "They are volunteers."

"Real volunteers?" Catra raised her eyebrows - she knew how that had worked in the Horde.

"Yes, real volunteers," O'Neill replied with a frown. "Some people are like that."

"Not very smart then," Catra said. "Let's hope they're smart enough to handle the artefacts without blowing us all up."

"Well, they're Navy, so they weren't smart enough to get into the Air Force, but since they survived doing dangerous diving missions, I think they should do." O'Neill nodded.

"Jack!"

"Daniel, ribbing the rival services is a centuries-old tradition. Not doing it is supposed to bring bad luck," O'Neil claimed.

"What the…? Oh, for… Sam! I've got a question!" Daniel went on towards the aft of the ship, where Entrapta and Carter had set up.

"That wasn't very nice," Adora said. Of course she meant Daniel getting ribbed, not Catra. Catra frowned at her, and she smiled. "You can take it, Catra. Besides, you do hate water."

Catra narrowed her eyes for a moment. This was… ah! She smiled - saucily. "Oh, I like it when it's hot and soapy, and we're washing each other's back, and you make those cute noises when I…"

"Catra!" Adora hissed, blushing crazily.

Catra snorted in return. As if Adora could beat her at teasing!

O'Neill cleared his throat. "Very informative."

Catra eyed him. He put up a good front, but she was sure that the man was jealous. Or at least didn't like the teasing.

Daniel returned, glaring at O'Neill but not saying anything. O'Neill grinned.

"I believe they are now ready to start the operation," Teal'c commented - he hadn't shown any reaction to the whole scene, not that Catra had expected him. The big man was more stoic than a stone statue. Most of the time. But she wondered what would happen if he ever lost his temper.

And he was right - the divers were now mounting what looked like some underwater vehicle. Or a bot with seats. And some Navy officer was walking over to the group. "Do you wish to follow the operation from the bridge?"

"Naw, we're good here," O'Neill replied before anyone else could say anything. "I bet we have the better view from here."

The officer frowned for a moment before nodding. "As you wish, Colonel."

"Carter and Entrapta probably can see more from orbit than the Navy can see in front of their eyes," O'Neill said as the man left.

"You really take this ribbing seriously, do you?"

"It's a…"

Daniel cut him off with a frown. "He likes to needle others."

"Keeps them on their toes," O'Neill grinned again. "Let's see how the operation is going."

It seemed to be a straightforward operation, in Catra's opinion. Go down, grab the stuff - with Entrapta and Carter directing the divers, if needed - and bring it up. And it did start that way, even though it took the divers longer than she had expected tor each the wreck.

"Looks like an old tramp freighter," O'Neill commented.

"We already knew that," Daniel told him. "We actually identified it as the 'Esmeralda', a ship chartered by the Steward expedition to Egypt in 1930."

"I know."

"And you didn't track it down after you knew about the Stargate?" Catra asked.

"We had no idea where it had sunk," Daniel told her. "I actually recommended checking out every Egyptian relic in public and private collections, but we didn't get around to do it yet."

"Daniel wanted to do some sightseeing on Uncle Sam's dime," O'Neill said.

"Jack!"

"What?"

"Oh!" Entrapta piped up. "Look, they found something!"

Something alright - in the cone of the diver's flashlight, Catra could see what looked like busts.

"That's a depiction of…" Daniel squinted. "...Osiris. And Isis."

*****​

"Osiris and Isis. And that means?" Jack O`Neill asked, cocking his head to the side. Daniel was a great friend and great archaeologist, but he usually needed a bit of prodding and poking to get to the point.

"Osiris was the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead and resurrection. According to legend, his brother Set cut him into pieces, and his wife, Isis, gathered the pieces and put him together again, resurrecting him," Daniel explained… nothing.

"Talk about marital devotion," Jack joked. "So, was that a power struggle amongst the Goa'uld?"

"I don't know. We'd have to ask our captive from Seattle once we find a way to communicate with it," Daniel replied. "And this one, if this contains Osiris and Isis… This could shed so much light on the earliest period of Goa'uld rule!"

Jack raised his eyebrows. "So, these are stasis pods containing two ancient Goa'ulds?"

"Osiris and Isis have been missing since before Ra's retreat from Earth," Teal'c commented. "Which would support that these pods contain them."

"Great. Two more snakes for our collection." Jack grinned. Too bad that the snakes' intel would be outdated, but they were talking about Goa'uld - they carried grudges for millennia, so there might be something actionable to gain from this. But they had to be careful. "Tell the divers to proceed with extreme caution. We don't want those things to break." The last thing they needed was a snaked sailor. Though… "Can snakes survive at that depth?"

"I don't think the pressure would be too harmful, but the lack of oxygen and the sudden shock from their stasis pod breaking would likely be fatal," Carter replied.

"Indeed," Teal'c confirmed it.

"Well, that's good news," Jack said. He wouldn't shed a tear if the pod broke and a snake died before it could take over people.

But the divers knew their stuff - well, they should; the Navy knew how important this was - and recovered the two things without breaking them. That was one advantage at least of having to reveal the Stargate project: They could tell the rest of the armed forces the truth about their missions. And while Jack wouldn't admit it, ever, no longer having to claim that they were doing Deep Space telemetry was very nice as well. He wouldn't miss the pitying glances from other officers who thought he was a wash-out or screw-up in a dead-end assignment.

"So, anything else down there?" he asked when the pods had been secured.

"Well… there are a few more things according to our scanner," Entrapta said. "Not quite as large, but still looks to be refined Naquadah."

Which turned out to be a zat'nik'tel and a… thingie.

"Oh! That's new! We haven't seen this before!" Entrapta squealed. "I can't wait to find out what it does!"

Jack was about to caution her about being cautious when Teal'c spoke up again: "That is a scales cleaner."

"A what?" Jack asked.

"When a Goa'uld outside a host needs their scales cleaned, they can slip into this device, and gentle pressure from the muzzles inside will clean their scales as they pass through the tube," Teal'c explained.

"It's a snake washing machine." Jack chuckled. "Now I've seen everything."

"Aw! That doesn't sound particularly interesting." Entrapta pouted.

Daniel, though, was intrigued. "It's fascinating. In order to use this, a Goa'uld had to leave a host. So, was this reserved for special occasions? Or did they regularly leave a host - temporarily - to do this? Do they have to clean their scales for a biological reason, or is this merely a convenience? Or a cultural ritual, like a symbolic shedding of an old skin?"

Jack stared at him. Those were… very Daniel questions. Although… "So… if they leave a host for this machine, we could trap those and kill a Goa'uld without hurting the host?"

Daniel's eyes lit up. "Sharee…" he whispered.

Jack clenched his teeth. He shouldn't have speculated like this. They had no idea how to get to Daniel's wife, much less do so without being detected and then wait for such an occasion for who knew how long. Giving his friend false hope…

"We'll save her!" Adora said, nodding firmly. "No matter where she is, we'll save her!"

Jack usually would make a sarcastic remark, but… Daniel looked so hopeful, and Adora looked so determined, he couldn't make himself do it.

And as much as he knew it was wrong, he couldn't help feeling hopeful himself.

*****​

Adora nodded with a smile. They would help Daniel save his wife. That was what She-Ra did - help those in need. Protect and save people.

Though they would have to find her, first. And in order to do that, they would have to be ready for war - and that meant making an alliance with Earth. Or at least with some countries on Earth.

"They're coming up again!" Entrapta said. "Or not."

"They need to take it slow so they won't get the bends," Sam explained.

"Ah. Shouldn't the diving suits do that for them?" Entrapta blinked. "That seems like an obvious feature."

"These diving suits aren't as advanced as the ones you are thinking of," Sam told her.

"Why are they using them, then?"

"They allow more flexibility underwater at those depths."

"Oh. We should have constructed better suits then!"

"That would have taken too long," Sam said.

"Well, we can add it to the list!" Entrapta nodded.

"No, you wouldn't have been able to do it faster," Catra said behind Adora.

"I wasn't thinking about that," Adora retorted with a pout. But now that Catra had mentioned it…

"You're not invulnerable," Catra insisted.

She knew that. And she refrained from rubbing her back, where she still had some faint scars from Catra's claws. "Anyway, that's the last Naquadah that wasn't accounted for," Adora said. "That means that Earth is safe again."

"Safer," Jack corrected her. "I wouldn't say we're safe."

"You've got too many idiots on the planet for that," Catra agreed.

Adora shook her head. "The planet is safer, then." She scoffed. "You need to stop being such…" She frowned. What was the best word?

"Downers," Bow said. "Always seeing gloom and doom." He smiled. "We did well."

"We haven't secured the pods yet," Catra pointed out.

"If anything happens now, Adora can jump in and grab them."

She nodded. She could do that - she had fought a sea monster before she had really understood her power. Powers.

Catra scoffed, as she usually did when she lost an argument. "Yeah, yeah. Anyway, after this, it's back to negotiations."

Right. Negotiations with stubborn and weird people. And stupid people.

Not even Bow had a good answer to that.

And before Adora could come up with a comeback, the divers reached the surface, and everyone rushed to take the pods and the other things.

"Put the busts into the containment unit!" Sam ordered them as Entrapta put the container down next to the still dripping underwater vehicle - it wasn't a submarine; Adora had asked.

"Wait!" Daniel held his hand up and knelt down next to the female bust. Pod. Thing. "This…"

"Watch out, Daniel! You're not snake-poof!" Jack moved, and Adora thought he'd pull Daniel back, but the man only knelt down next to his friend.

"The seal!" Daniel said. "It's broken!"

"What?" Adora tensed, and she saw Catra look around. "We need the Scanners!"

"There's no Naquadah nearby - except for the pods, the zat'nik'tel and the tool," Sam told them a moment later.

"Yes," Daniel said. "I think the seal broke long ago. And the Goa'uld is still inside."

"Oh." Adora blinked as Daniel reached out and opened the pod before anyone could stop him.

But the Goa'uld inside looked very dead.

"Well, I guess Osiris isn't coming back from death this time," Jack said.

"That's actually Isis, Jack," Daniel said. "Unless they mixed up the busts when they put them into stasis."

"Well, we could attempt to revive them using the other device," Entrapta suggested.

"Yeah, let's create a zombie snake. That's what I was missing my life," Jack said.

Entrapta looked at him for a moment. "Really? If you had said something earlier, we could have gotten you a zombified snake from Honduras."

Jack stared at her.

"Ah, you were joking." Entrapta nodded. "Anyway, usually, the brain would be wiped clean, so it would just be a mindless creature, but since they have a genetic memory, it might actually restore them with their genetic memory," she said. "If it works. Which isn't certain - we don't know yet how exactly it works, and we also don't know enough about Goa'uld biology to tell." She perked up. "But we could find out!"

"Ah…" Jack grimaced. "I think we should focus on other areas of research first."

"Like the DHD," Sam suggested. "And the alien data core."

"Yes." Entrapta nodded enthusiastically. "We've got so much science to do!"

Well, at least she was happy. Adora smiled.

"And we have another Goa'uld to interrogate. Or not to interrogate, as things are."

Entrapta frowned again. "Oh. We could use the zombies as hosts, couldn't we?" They already are dead and just going on, so… it might just work?" She smiled.

Adora wasn't the only one who grimaced. "Uh…"

"That sounds… morbid," Daniel said.

"Would it even work if the body's actually dead and just the individual cells are kept alive?" Sam asked.

"Worth a try?" Entrapta asked. "Although we might have to hurry because the human bodies probably aren't lasting much longer because the cells will soonish run out of energy."

"I don't think we should use zombie hosts," Jack said. "That never ends well in the movies."

"And we don't know what it would do to a Goa'uld. It could hurt them - then that would be torture of prisoners," Daniel pointed out.

"Oh." Entrapta slowly nodded. "That would be bad."

"Yes," Adora agreed.

"So, plenty of reasons not to risk a zombie Goa'uld escaping," Catra said.

"Oh, we would do it in space, so they wouldn't be able to escape. Unless zombies could survive the vacuum and reentry, or they had help, I guess," Entrapta said.

"Which we shouldn't test," Sam said.

"Well, it would count as a space burial?" Jack asked.

It was probably meant as a joke, but Adora didn't think it was funny. Even though Catra snorted.

Really, her lover's sense of humour was sometimes a bit too dark for Adora's taste.

*****​

Above the Atlantic, Earth, August 21st, 1998 (Earth Time)

"So… Do you think that using a zombie body as a host would work? Hypothetically, I mean."

Samantha Carter stiffened for a moment when she heard Entrapta's question. Then she put the scale cleaning tool she had been examining in Darla's hold down and turned to face the princess. "We don't know enough about the workings of that ancient device. And we don't know enough about the way Goa'uld possession works."

"That would seem to be a compelling reason to research the matter thoroughly," Hordak commented.

"Yes." Entrapta nodded. "The data would be very useful, wouldn't it? We will probably get other prisoners. We already have two and would have had a third if the stasis pod hadn't have failed."

The pure scientist in Sam agreed, of course. If they wanted to be able to free hosts from the Goa'uld controlling their bodies, they needed to know exactly how that worked. And to be able to interrogate Goa'uld would be very useful for gathering intelligence. And there was the possibility of coming to an arrangement with selected Goa'uld. Making a treaty would be more palatable for Earth - and for the Etherians - if you didn't have to accept that a human being would be used as a host. Of course, for that, the Goa'uld would have to free their slaves as well, and the odds for that were…

She shook her head. "It's not just about what is useful. There are moral aspects to consider. Important aspects."

She wasn't an expert on alien expressions, but Hordak looked like she had said some gibberish. And Entrapta looked confused. "But we already know that the zombies are dead - just a collection of individual cells without a higher consciousness left. Where's the moral aspect in using that?"

"Many cultures on Earth consider experimenting on the dead the same as desecrating the dead unless the deceased gave permission," Sam explained.

"Ah. So, it goes against Earth customs."

And probably Etherian customs as well - Sam couldn't see Adora or Glimmer allowing experiments with dead bodies. She could be wrong, but Daniel would have told them if he had found such an important difference between their cultures.

"With six billion people, it shouldn't be hard to find volunteers who are about to die," Hordak said.

"But wouldn't Adora heal them?" Entrapta objected. "She wouldn't want to let them die if she could heal them, would she?"

And wasn't that an entirely different can of worms! Sam sighed. "Even if we had animated corpses that we could use for experiments without breaking the law and violating moral principles, there's also the fact to consider that we don't know what such a host would do to a Goa'uld. We mentioned that before." Though Hordak hadn't heard that discussion.

"They are enemies. Prisoners." Yes, Hordak definitely hadn't heard that.

"We do not experiment on prisoners. Or torture them," Sam told them. "It's against the law."

"Is that the law in the United States or one of your few global agreements?" the alien asked.

"It's international law," Sam replied, as firmly as she could. "And the Goa'uld being aliens doesn't change that they are protected as prisoners of war." She suppressed the sudden urge to add a qualifier about uniformed soldiers and spies. This was about ethics, not lawyering.

"I see. So, we would need the Goa'ulds' agreement to conduct experiments."

That wasn't what Sam had been aiming for, but she couldn't really walk back on that. So she nodded.

"And we can't get that if we can't talk to them. I guess we'll have to build a tiny keyboard for them so they can communicate with us," Entrapta said, smiling.

Well, Sam thought, there shouldn't be an issue with that. "As long as it's completely isolated - no connection to other systems, just a screen to show the text."

"Right. And maybe to each other? Now that we have two prisoners," Entrapta suggested.

"Since, according to our legends, Set was the one who murdered Osiris, we might want to be a bit cautious with that," Sam reminded them.

"Oh. I forgot about that. But wasn't it several thousand years since that? And he obviously got better!"

"Goa'uld carry grudges," Sam said.

"Perhaps related to their genetic memories," Hordak speculated. "And that would mean such grudges spread to others as they give birth to more Goa'uld. The Goa'uld Empire might be even more fragile than we assumed."

"I wouldn't want to be too optimistic," Sam cautioned. "Ra ruled it for millennia, and while he is dead, his example shows that a sufficiently powerful Goa'uld can control the others."

"Then we should take care to strike at the most powerful Goa'uld, to keep the enemy fractured and foster infighting," Hordak said. "Although if we appear to best their strongest with ease, we might also incite the rest to unite out of sheer fear." He looked at Sam. "That happened on Etheria."

Sam wasn't sure how they went from discussing the ethics of zombie experiments to discussing grand strategy. "I think this is a topic for a strategy session," she said.

"Yes. We should call the others!" Entrapta said.

That wasn't what Sam had had in mind. But the princess was already using the intercom. It seemed they would be discussing strategy instead of analysing technology until they returned to Stargate Command.

Well, it was less stressful than trying to explain the finer points of ethics to Hordak and Entrapta.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 28: Television Troubles

Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, August 21st, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and Egypt remains in turmoil as the riots following the explosion of what has been declared an ancient alien bomb continue despite brutal oppression by the authorities. According to the latest news, the government is calling for a mobilisation, although numerous experts think this might be counterproductive since…"

"...Honduran government has refused to comment on reports about an incident involving a chemical or biological weapon on its territory, claiming that its armed forces have sealed off a part of a natural reserve for anti-bandit operations. Yet trustworthy sources report that the spaceship of the Etherians has been sighted in Honduran airspace, and…"

"...has called on a 'protest of the faithful' against the Etherians, urging the government to cut all ties with the 'blasphemous aliens trying to tempt the good Christians of this great nation into deadly sin'. The US government has cited that it will not let religious views dictate its policies, yet several members of congress were quoted in…"

"... who has been a member of the Republican caucus since 1980, stated that while he understands the reservations some Christians might have with regards to legalising gay marriage, it wasn't the business of the state to regulate the relationships of consenting adults. 'Marriage is between a couple and God', he said, 'and which god someone follows is a private matter'. Faced with questions about earlier statements of his that condemned gay marriage as a sin against God, he declined to comment, and…"

"...Parliament has been discussing the 'gay marriage bill' proposed by Her Majesties Government, and both Houses are expected to vote on it as soon as possible. The Prime Minister replied to accusations that he was pushing a controversial policy change merely to secure access to the Etherians' technology with the statement that it was past time to acknowledge the realities of today's society and that the United Kingdom would not be left behind by history…"

"...der Bundeskanzler sprach vor dem Parlament und bekräftigte den Willen der Regierung, ein Gesetz für die Öffnung der Ehe für gleichgeschlechtliche Paare so bald as möglich zu verfassen. Konservative Kreise haben den Gang ans Bundesverfassungsgericht angekündigt um dies zu verhindern, aber führende Rechtsexperten schätzen die Erfolgsaussichten als sehr gering ein. Wie Professor…"

"...did the French president call the numerous protests by conservative Catholics in France 'nuisances who would sacrifice our nation's place amongst the leading countries of the world for their bigoted and extremist beliefs'. He declined to respond to questions whether or not his stance was related to his alleged meeting with representatives of leading French businesses in the aerospace and related fields, and went on…"

"...hat ein Komitee angekündigt, eine Volksinitiative zur Legalisierung der gleichgeschlechtlichen Ehe zu starten. Verschiedene National- und Ständeräte haben eine parlamentarische Initiative mit dem gleichen Ziel angekündigt, während sich der Bundesrat weiterhin zurückhält und…"

"...and we're here, in Washington, where a crowd has gathered to protest the aliens' presence on US soil as an affront against God. The police are struggling to keep them and counter-protesters urging the government to legalise gay marriage and ask the Etherians to return magic to Earth apart, and several police officers have allegedly been hurt in the process, although..."

"...and we have to ask ourselves: What is magic? Is it merely a form of technology that we have yet to discover? Or is something more? Something spiritual? Or even… divine? Those who reject magic as evil might be rejecting something precious, even essential, that would prove…"

"...imagine a world where your neighbour could look at you and curse you! On a whim, they could destroy your life! A stranger on the street could strike you down with lighting! Do you want to live in such a world? No! Say no to magic! Say no to evil sorcery and…"

"...while the Pope has not yet spoken on the matter, the Vatican has confirmed that the nature of magic is a topic that concerns the Church, and…"

"...more lynchings of supposed witches have been reported all over the world, and Amnesty International has called on the United Nations and every religious leader regardless of their faith to condemn 'the senseless murder of innocents' and..."

"...New York Stock Exchange has suspended all trading after yesterday saw a crash that has come to be known as 'Black Thursday 2.0' due to the theory that automated trading by algorithms turned a volatile trading day into a disaster, and…"

"...Russia denied that the emergency measures the government took to 'preserve the country in a time of war' were aimed at hiding the fact that it was about to default on loans, and claimed…"

"...unions called for government aid for struggling businesses affected by magic and alien technology, and…"

"...armed forces were called in to keep a crowd from storming tombs and temple ruins. The government released a statement that they would do 'everything to prevent the tragedy in Egypt from happening here' and ordered a curfew and…"

"...the police in Geneva and the Swiss Army have cordoned off the Palais des Nations after the authorities received threats against both the United Nations and the aliens currently in talks there…"

Sitting in 'their' waiting room in the United Nations building, Catra sighed as she switched channels again. Earth news was, well, not completely depressing, but it came close. She had had happier briefings during the height of one of the Alliance's offensives when Adora had been kicking Horde butt all over the place.

"Can't you stay on one channel? I have no idea what any of the speakers actually said!" Glimmer complained.

Catra turned her head to look at her, rolling her eyes. "Earth people are crazy and kill each other over imaginary sorcerers. They lie about what happened with alien technology and claim their gods say we're evil. And everyone is going crazy."

"You missed that several countries are changing their laws about same-sex relationships," Bow added, looking up from his tablet.

"That's common sense and shouldn't be mentioned." Catra shot back with a sniff. "Or do you want a report each time someone doesn't ram their head into a wall instead of opening a door?"

"This is Earth," Glimmer said. "You can't expect common sense."

Catra laughed with her while Bow frowned. "It's not that bad," he protested.

"I've spent hours in negotiations with the Security Council," Glimmer corrected him. "Yes, it's that bad."

"But the Russians and the Americans are supporting us now, aren't they? And the French and British too."

Glimmer snorted. "Everyone wants to get on our good side - and paint the others as the worst possible choice as an ally."

That was, at least in Catra's opinion, exaggerated. Slightly.

Bow frowned. "The NATO alliance doesn't do that to each other."

"They do it in a more subtle manner. The French representative informed me how quickly they'll change their laws - and expressed his regrets that not every NATO country could do the same. You should have seen the glare from the American!" Glimmer shook her head. "And the British representative gave me another invitation to a dinner with their Queen."

"You could accept," Catra suggested with a grin. "Queen to queen. She likes tea, I think."

"It wouldn't be a bad idea," Bow said. "Would it? She's the most important queen on the planet."

"She doesn't have any political power," Glimmer objected, as Catra had known she would. "She would just say what the Prime Minister wants her to say. And yes," she added when Bow opened his mouth, "I know she's rich, and that many listen to her, but that's not the same." She turned to point at the television screen. "And if I meet with her, those people will scream that I want to impose monarchy on the planet."

"They're doing that anyway," Catra pointed out just to be contrarian. Not that it was wrong.

"Yes." Glimmer scowled. "But if I meet with the Queen of England, everyone else will expect a meeting as well."

"And you'll get more marriage proposals." Catra grinned widely.

Glimmer scoffed. "So does Adora."

Catra scowled in return. That was true - some people on Earth had no sense at all. And no shame. Adora was with her! She was taken!

"Uh…" Bow cleared his throat while Glimmer giggled, and Catra glared at him. "What?"

He pointed at her hands. "Claws…"

Oh! She had wrecked the armrests of her chair. For a moment, Catra felt ashamed. Then she snorted. Why should she care about that? It wasn't an expensive chair. She deliberately ran another claw over the fabric, splitting it. "Yes?"

Bow sighed.

Glimmer leaned forward, smiling toothily. "And you got marriage proposals as well, didn't you?"

From weirdos. Catra shrugged as if she didn't care at all. "What can I say? People think I'm attractive."

"They like cats."

"At least they don't want to marry me just for power," Catra shot back.

"If you were a princess, they would!"

Bow cleared his throat again. "Anyway! Leaving offers of questionable morals aside, we are making progress, aren't we?"

Glimmer sighed and nodded. "Slowly, but yes. But the Russians and the Chinese…" She shook her head.

"The Russians have been nothing but friendly," Bow said.

"A bit too friendly," Glimmer said. "I don't trust them."

Catra nodded. Iwan was friendly, but Russia's offer was a bit too perfect for her taste. Spirit of international cooperation or not, every country had some issues that complicated an alliance. That was the same for Earth and Etheria.

"But what can they do to earn our trust?" Bow spread his hands. "They are changing their laws, they have offered all their advanced technology to share, and all they ask for is that everyone cooperates."

"Exactly!" Gimmer nodded. "No hints at special exceptions or advantages. Very suspicious."

Bow rolled his eyes and looked at his tablet.

Catra shook her head as she exchanged a glance with Glimmer. Sometimes, Bow was as naive as Adora. She blinked. Would that make her like Glimmer? She scowled and grabbed the remote for the screen again. "Let's watch more news while Adora is busy helping Entrapta move some stuff."

"...and several civil rights organisations are currently debating whether or not magic is protected by the freedom of religion, as members of various Wiccan organisations as well as representatives of the First Nations claim. So far, no conclusion has been reached, and…"

Mixing magic and Earth religion? Catra sighed and switched channels again.

*****​

The Mountain, Colorado, United States, Earth, August 21st, 1998 (Earth Time)

"So, what's the verdict, Doc?" Jack O'Neill asked, trying to sound unconcerned and casual. Just a routine examination, nothing else. No reason to worry about mutations or alien genes turning him into a magical princess.

"You're in peak health, Colonel," Dr Fraser told him, glancing from the notepad in her hands to him and back. "For your age, that is."

"So, I won't need a walker this year, but if I find one on sale, I should buy it for next year?" Jack joked to hide his relief.

She frowned in return. "Puerile jokes aside, your body, particularly your knees, don't show any sign of the kind of accumulated microdamage you had before your contact with Etheria."

"I noticed that," he said. No pain at all was very noticeable.

"That's why you asked for this examination." She shook her head. "Which is a first. How ironic that you asked for a thorough examination because you were 'feeling too well'."

Jack kept grinning thanks to his long practice of putting on a happy face. He knew that Fraser knew that he hated medical exams because he could hear the day approaching when she'd pronounce him medically unfit for the field. He could feel it in his bones every time he got up in the morning. Well, he had - things had changed after Adora had healed him.

"And I have to note that you didn't report this right away," she went on with a deeper frown.

He shrugged. "I wasn't aware that feeling well was a medical condition I had to report. I'll be sure to pass it on to the rest of Stargate Command."

This time, she rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean, Colonel. This examination should have happened at the first opportunity after your return."

"We were examined," he pointed out. "You handled it personally."

"I focused on the usual - signs of being controlled by a Goa'uld, genetic tampering, foreign substances - and not magical healing of the accumulated damage a life as a soldier causes."

"It was in the report." Not very prominent - he kinda, sorta had glossed over it - and not with many details, but it had been there.

"A classified report I couldn't read," she shot back.

That made him frown. "You should have access to all our medical records."

"'Should', yes. Apparently, someone classified all mentionings of 'magic' as above my clearance." That was a scowl now.

"That wasn't me," he protested.

"I'm aware of that, Colonel." She sighed. "I will have to examine your entire team. And your latest recruit. This is likely related to the… treatment you received from Adora, but it could also be related to this 'healing device'."

"The zombie cube," he corrected her.

She ignored that. "Odds are it isn't, but we have to be sure."

"I'll pass it on," he said. "But Burke will take some time to arrive here." Provided he was vetted by Stargate Command. And released by the CIA.

She didn't like that either. Fraser was a great doctor, but she had a tendency to treat everything related to the medical aspects of Stargate Command as her kingdom and didn't like it when other concerns - perfectly valid operational concerns! - took precedence. "Send your team to me, Colonel."

"What about the Hondurans?" he asked.

"If I find anything amiss with your team, we'll have to look into examining them."

Good luck with that, he thought. "Will do!" He rose, nodded at her and left the med bay.

"So… at this time of the day, Daniel and Carter will be… in their labs." He nodded.

*****​

Jack O'Neill found Daniel in his lab, surrounded by dusty stones, and staring at his computer. "Hey, Danny-boy! Change of orders!"

"What? Jack!" Daniel looked vaguely offended at Jack interrupting him. "I'm writing my report on the recovery mission!"

Jack made a mental note to get a copy of it. It would make writing his own report easier. "Yeah, drop it for now and report to medical. Fraser's orders."

"What? She already examined us."

"That was the usual check to see if you were a snake in disguise or about to turn into a monster. But she wants a thorough examination to check if we got hit with anything related to zombies." Technically true.

Daniel grimaced. "Oh. I guess that's a good idea, even though Sam and Entrapa scanned us already, and we never were in range of the unshielded device."

"Exactly." Jack shrugged. "You know how things are with the Doc - what she didn't personally check isn't reliable in her opinion."

Daniel nodded. "I guess I'll report to her then. Get it over with." He did look a little concerned, Jack noted.

Well, that couldn't be helped.

"I'll inform the others," Jack told him.

"See you there."

"I already got examined."

Daniel blinked, then turned to stare at him. "You did?"

"Yes." Jack turned. Carter would be in her lab or the control room of the Stargate. The lab, he guessed.

"Jack! What's going on?"

"Nothing. Just a routine check."

"Jack!"

Jack hesitated for a moment. "It's really just a routine check."

"Really?"

"Yes." Technically, such examinations were routine after such a mission.

Daniel, though, frowned. "And they examined you before informing us?"

"Yes." Jack nodded and made shooing motions with his hands. "Now go get prodded and poked! I suffered through it already."

Daniel still looked suspicious but nodded.

That left Carter.

*****​

Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, August 21st, 1998 (Earth Time)

Adora should have stayed with Entrapta, just in case her friend needed another piece of heavy machinery moved around. Or a bot. Or some tiny tea brewed. Anything would have been better than attending another meeting with the Security Council. She was getting flashbacks to the Princess Prom - and not the good ones about dancing with Catra. The bad ones, where she discovered that for all the hours spent on preparing, she still hadn't gotten a grip on princess politics because they weren't acting rationally at all.

"...and, therefore, we suggest creating an international agency to oversee the Stargate Program and take control of the Stargate. With the DHD graciously donated by Russia under control of the agency."

Oh. The Russian had finished. Adora smiled at him and hoped it didn't look forced. Hadn't they suggested such an agency before?

And the American representative started speaking. "While the United States embraces the spirit of international cooperation…" Adora could hear the sarcasm this time. "...we cannot forget that we are at war with the Goa'uld. This is no time to sacrifice our hard-earned experience and cripple our war efforts for symbolic gestures. The Stargate Program might not be perfect - yet what and who is? - but its successes speak for themselves. To break up the crew who saved the world before and struck decisive blows against our enemies would be foolish. What the world needs now is pragmatism and efficiency, not empty symbols. We need the best and most experienced in charge, not political appointees."

Adora wasn't an expert, but she didn't think that the Russians had suggested breaking up Stargate Command. Although they might have implied it.

The Chinese representative was next. "China recognises the successes of the American program - and its failures - but refutes the attempt to portray a direly needed international oversight and control of the Stargate as a mere symbolic policy. The Stargate is not merely the most crucial piece of alien technology but the one link of Earth to the rest of the Galaxy. As such, it cannot belong to any single nation but has to belong to the world as a whole and, therefore, needs to be under international control. It would indeed be a betrayal of the ideals of international cooperation if the United Nations were reduced to symbolic oversight while the Americans continue to run the program and make decisions for the entirety of Earth."

That had pretty much everyone nodding in agreement, Adora noted. "I think that's a good point," she whispered to Glimmer.

"It is," her friend agreed in a low voice. "But it doesn't really concern us. That's an internal matter for Earth. This meeting was supposed to be about the relationship between the United Nations and Etheria."

At this point, Adora was glad about any agreement. Yet, Glimmer was correct. "So, should we leave and let them hash out how to handle the Stargate?" Because, apparently, they still hadn't come to an agreement despite Adora thinking they had.

Glimmer snorted. "No. That would be rude."

Catra, sitting on Adora's other side, snorted. "What's wrong with being rude?"

"It's not done in diplomacy," Glimmer replied with a slight frown. "It makes working together harder."

"I don't see much cooperation anyway."

The British - or was that United Kingdom? - representative spoke next: "As much as we understand the need for international control, we first need to define the nature and objectives of the Stargate Program. Is it meant to be a military project to wage war? Or a civilian agency responsible for the security of the Stargate? Or a diplomatic initiative to contact other planets for peaceful contact?"

"We're at war," the Russian delegate replied. "A war against an enemy willing to destroy Earth and enslave humanity. Anything has to be subordinated to winning this war."

"China concurs. The military matters have to take precedence."

"France agrees, although we should not neglect planning for the time after the war."

"The United States does not dispute that the war is of utmost importance. And it is because of that that my country opposes reckless changes to the Stargate Program."

"The Stargate Program cannot remain an American operation," the Chinese diplomat retorted. "That is unacceptable."

"Da. Russia proposes to form an international unit tasked with the security of the gate and subordinated to the Security Council."

"France supports this and suggests that the current Stargate Command would form the core of this unit so the experience of the current staff will not be lost."

"The United Kingdom agrees with the proposal."

"China as well."

This looked like they had agreed on that beforehand. So why the posturing in the council?

The American delegate didn't look happy. "The United States has important concerns about this proposal. The Stargate Program represents an enormous investment of my country, and simply handing it over to the United Nations without compensation is not acceptable. Think of the precedent this would set if any nation, at great cost, develops new technology only for the United Nations to take it."

"Like you took the Stargate from the United Kingdom?"

"You took it from Egypt."

"That was covered in a treaty."

"A treaty forced on Egypt at cannon point."

Adora sighed, not bothering to hide her mood as the delegates started bickering again. At least it seemed as if they were making progress.

"I bet if the Horde were attacking Earth, they would quickly come to an agreement," Catra said. "Do you think we should ask Priest to attack a country no one would miss?"

Adora struggled not to giggle at her lover's joke. Well, she hoped Catra was joking.

*****​

The Mountain, Colorado, United States, Earth, August 21st, 1998 (Earth Time)

Samantha Carter usually was happy when she was in her lab. Except for when she was desperately trying to find a solution to an urgent and deadly problem, but even then, there was a certain satisfaction to be found in giving your all and saving the day - not that she'd ever admit to liking that particular feeling.

But after spending so much time in Entrapta's lab, her lab in the Mountain felt… inadequate would be a polite description. Not primitive - while not as advanced overall as the Etherian's facilities she had visited, Sam had several pieces of Ancients technology. And as she had found out, Earth Computer technology stacked up decently well against crystal matrices, though the Etherians had a large lead in neural networks. Nor was it the fact that her lab was a little cramped - there were limits in the Mountain, and she had the space she needed. It wasn't as if she needed to pace to think.

But Entrapta's lab… lacked limits in more than one way. Whatever she needed, she got. And kept it. Space, tools, help. Sam felt a little isolated. She had her team - good friends - and there were other scientists to collaborate with, but when it came down to it, Sam was alone. Her against the world, in a way.

And there was the fact that Entrapta had a relationship. A potentially problematic relationship - Sam hadn't missed that even Adora and Bow seemed a bit wary of Hordak - but also a happy relationship as far as Sam could tell. Not that she had examined the issue. Or that she was jealous.

Well, she was a little envious. To work with the partner you loved… As much as she told herself that it was against regulations and prone to cause trouble, she couldn't shake that feeling. Well, with the Naquadah items recovered, and the Etherians back at negotiating with the Security Council and individual countries, Sam could focus on her work. That should help to get over this.

A knock at the door made her turn. Oh. The Colonel stood there, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. "Carter?"

"Yes, Sir?" She tilted her head slightly and straightened a bit. As the professional soldier she was.

"Dr Fraser's waiting for you for an examination. In case we got a bit too close to the zombie cube in Honduras."

She didn't smile at the name. The Colonel liked these kinds of jokes, and they were often funny, but it wouldn't do to encourage him. She nodded. "I'll make an appointment later."

"Ah… it was kind of urgent," he said, smiling almost apologetically. "Well, she did give me the impression that she wanted to examine you right away."

"'You'?" Not 'us'?

His smile slipped a little, then widened but became less honest. "I already got poked and prodded."

She frowned at that. The Colonel didn't like getting examined. "Did she contact you first?"

"I went to get a thorough checkup," he said. "Felt that I needed one - it's been a while since the last, and we kind of travelled the galaxy." He grinned.

The Colonel had gone to Dr Fraser and asked for a checkup? "Sir… is there anything…?" She trailed off. You didn't ask your superior officer about medical issues unless it threatened the mission. But you'd ask your friend. And the Colonel had been acting a little… different lately.

"Oh, everything's fine!" He smiled. "Better than fine, actually. That's why I got a checkup. Turns out I'm at peak health, and while we don't think it's because of the zombie cube, it's better to make sure."

Peak health? She blinked. Oh. "The magical healing you received by Adora." After he had been poisoned by those alien predators.

He nodded. "It's like all the 'accumulated microdamage' - which is Fraser-speak for growing old and frail, I guess - was healed."

"You were rejuvenated?" That was… She drew a hissing breath. If magic could offer eternal youth… People would go crazy. And if it was only Adora who could offer this…

"What? Not exactly." He shrugged, and she couldn't help noticing that it seemed a bit more graceful. And briefly wonder if his body looked any different now. "It's more like the growing frail part was done with. 'Peak health for my age', the good doctor called it. I'm still not twenty any more."

But, a voice in Sam's head said, he would be about as healthy as a twenty-year-old. And with the experience of a man in his forties.

She pushed the voice away into the corner of her mind, where all the other inappropriate thoughts went. The kind of thoughts that would make the Colonel call her a mad scientist. Or something else she didn't want to think about. At all.

"Carter?"

She hid her slight embarrassment with a sigh. "I'll report to medical, Colonel."

"Good. Sorry about that, but better safe than sorry, right?"

She chuckled at that. And hoped Janet wouldn't want to gossip about certain topics. Sam was… distracted enough watching the Colonel walk away.

*****​

Geneva Airport, Geneva, Switzerland, August 22nd, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Adora? Adora! We've got a problem! A huge problem! A really huge problem!"

"What?"

"Hey!" Catra scowled as Adora, on whose lap she had been napping, jumped up, almost sending Catra from the bed in their cabin to the floor.

"Sorry!" Adora turned to smile apologetically at her.

"Adora!"

Then she whipped her head around and continued towards the door. "What emergency, Bow?"

Catra rolled her eyes. "Did the Tau'ri blow up another of their countries?"

Adora opened the door, and Catra saw Bow shake his head. "No! Worse! Priest watched television!"

Adora blinked. "What?"

Catra frowned. Why would that…? She gasped. "He saw some of the nutcases ranting about us?"

Bow nodded with a grimace. "He's calling for a holy war against the heathens. You have to stop him!"

Adora was already running, Catra hot on her heels. They skidded as they took a corner - Catra's claws didn't find enough purchase on the floor - but reached the bridge without trouble.

"...and I doubt that you have the authority to call for a holy war without asking Adora first!" Glimmer was telling Priest on the screen.

"Yes!" Adora cut in. "What's this about a holy war?"

"Your Divine Highness!" Priest bowed so deeply, he almost disappeared from view. "I have seen the most terrible sacrilege! Insults so vile, they call for the blood of the heathen! I dare not repeat the words - I choke on the mere thought of it, my blood is boiling with righteous anger! Such blasphemy demands the harshest punishment possible!"

Now Catra really wanted to know what the clone had seen. That reaction seemed a little excessive even for Priest. Then again, the clone was the most fanatical of Adora's followers.

"Ah…" Adora grimaced, then frowned. "But a holy war in my name cannot be started without my permission!"

"Yes!" Glimmer chimed in. "I've been saying that all along!"

Priest ignored her. Catra had expected that - the clone had a habit of ignoring what didn't fit into his plans. But he couldn't ignore Adora.

"So, what happened?" she asked.

"But your Divine Highness! You cannot possibly expect me to repeat such… such heinous blasphemy!"

Adora blinked, then nodded. "Then send me this… recording. I will judge the matter."

"As you command, Your Divine Highness, but I have to warn you again - it's the vilest filth imaginable! I cannot fathom how anyone would dare to do this!" He turned his head to the side. "Send the…" He took a deep, shuddering breath. "...the recording."

A moment later, the console on the bridge beeped. Catra beat Adora to it and quickly displayed the message on the side screen.

"And what do you think about the aliens and their demands, Reverend?"

"Those heathens are an insult to God! Not only do those vile temptresses entice our youth to follow their disgusting example and live in sin and debauchery, but they also use magic! Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live! Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death! That is what the holy book commands us to do when faced with magic and bestiality! And yet, our heathen government, faithless men beholden to money instead of God, is not only tolerating their existence - in the sky above us, making a mockery of heaven - but they plan to spread their poison in our godfearing country! We cannot let this happen! We cannot sacrifice our immortal souls for the false promises of evil magic! If we falter, if we fail, soon our country will harbour the vilest of sinners, eclipsing even Sodom and Gomorrah!"

"The government claims that the United States need this alliance to successfully battle the Goa'uld Empire. What do you say to that? They claim that your movement is putting the entire world at risk."

"Lies! Filthy lies! God protects his own! And God punishes the sinner! If we bend to those alien demands, if we abandon God, he will strike us down - with fire from the sky! Salvation can only be granted by God, not by vile witches from space who consort with animals and monsters!"

Catra shook her head. Yeah, that would rile up Priest. Hell, the line about not lying with beasts was making her want to go and claw the guy. She wasn't a beast! But if she lost her temper, Adora would take this even worse. "That's one of the more extreme ones, I think," she said, unsheathing her claws.

"Yes," Glimmer agreed. "Most don't go as far as this fool."

"See, Your Divine Highness? We cannot let such crimes remain unpunished! The man denies your divinity! He calls you a false goddess! He wants to kill you!"

Adora grimaced. "Yes, Priest. But we cannot declare a holy war over this."

"What? But why not?"

Adora faltered for a moment. Catra was about to tell Priest that he was not to question Adora's will, but her lover shook her head and spoke up before she could say anything. "Because he is clearly insane, and we do not punish those who don't know better because they are mentally ill."

Priest blinked. "Insane? You mean… defective?"

"Ah… in a way, yes."

"But defective clones are purged - restored. Should we apprehend the… insane man and restore his facilities, Your Divine Highness?" Priest tilted his head. "I think we can duplicate the process."

They wanted to mindwipe the man? Catra hissed through clenched teeth as she remembered what had been done to her. No one deserved that! And she'd kill Priest before she let him do this!

But Adora was already talking again. "No! Absolutely not! We will not follow in Horde Prime's footsteps! We shall tolerate this man and his followers and hope that they will see the error of their ways in due time."

"As you command, Your Divine Highness. Your mercy is as great as your power!"

As soon as the transmission ended, Adora sighed. "This could have ended very badly."

"Yes," Catra agreed.

"Should we tell the Security Council about it so they can do something about this?" Bow asked.

"Yes," Catra said.

"No," Glimmer objected. "Freedom of speech is very important on Earth - remember what Daniel told us? If we ask to stop such talk, that'll cause more trouble for the negotiations."

"If Priest starts an orbital bombardment over the next blasphemy, that'll cause even more trouble," Catra pointed out.

"I think we need to ask SG-1 about this. They should know how to handle it," Adora said.

Well, it shouldn't hurt, in Catra's opinion. Probably.

*****​

The Mountain, Colorado, United States, Earth, August 22nd, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and that's about it. I've told Priest that he can't declare a holy war on anyone who insults me, and he should be obeying, but we thought we should discuss the situation with you."

Jack O'Neill stared at the screen on which Adora smiled a little embarrassedly. Hearing that the United States might have suffered an orbital bombardment by the very fleet that was supposed to protect Earth if not for some quick words by the resident space magical girl wasn't how he liked his day to start. "Right. We've got a fleet crewed by fanatical clones orbiting Earth. How could that have slipped my mind?"

"Probably because of the lack of sleep and all the other important things we had to worry about," Daniel oh so helpfully replied.

"It was a rhetorical question, Daniel," Jack told him.

"Ah."

"Are you telling me that your fleet almost started a crusade against Earth over a television interview?"

Right. General Hammond was present as well. And he sounded as amused as Jack felt.

Adora looked confused for a moment. "Yes? That's what I just told you. Although I ordered them to tolerate such people, so Earth should be safe."

"For now," Glimmer added. "And it wasn't just an interview - the man was calling for the 'faithful' to murder us." She didn't look amused either.

"So, you could say that you guys started it." Catra, on the other hand, did look amused. Then again, her sense of humour was a bit like Jack's own - very dark.

"Anyway," Adora spoke up again. "We wanted to know if you have any ideas on how to handle that. The whole free speech and murder threat thing Daniel mentioned."

Jack raised his eyebrows at his friend, who was quickly blushing under the scrutiny of most of the room. "I did mention how important free speech is, at least for the United States. Although incitement to violence isn't protected."

"So why's the nutcase calling for us to be killed not in jail? Or dead?" Catra asked.

"Good question," Jack said before he could help himself.

"Well, it touches on erring on the side of caution when it comes to constitutional rights," Daniel said. "And this also touches freedom of religion - he could argue that he was just quoting the Bible."

"So, murdering someone's alright if it's for religious reasons?" Catra scoffed. "We should tell Priest that."

"No, no!" Daniel blurted out. He probably hadn't caught that Catra was joking. At least Jack thought she was joking. "Quoting scripture is protected both by free speech and religious freedom. But you're still not allowed to incite violence."

Adora frowned. "He seemed to be pretty clearly calling for violence - here, let me send you the recording." Her frown deepened after a moment. "Uh. Your computers aren't compatible."

"Let me handle this," Carter spoke up. She hit a few keys on her laptop. "Entrapta shared your protocols."

A few moments later, Jack saw a broadcasting logo appear on her screen. And groaned. "You know, I was joking when I said we'd be doomed by US daytime television!"

The actual interview - if you could call the soundbite that - wasn't funny even by Jack's standards.

"Uh, well… This is obviously a very extreme and not all common view," Daniel said, pushing his glasses up. "And the channel probably broadcast it to, well, raise a controversy. And get higher ratings."

That would fit in Jack's experience. "So, we're going to get nuked for more ad revenue."

"No one is getting nuked if I can help it," Hammond snapped. He turned to address the Etherians. "We'll have the government look into this. Please stay your hand."

"Thank you." Adora smiled. "I've told Priest that the person on the recording was obviously mentally disturbed and so couldn't be held responsible for what they said. But I can't keep using that excuse if too many say the same."

"Oh, everyone knows we're nuts," Jack quipped. "It's part of our charm."

"Colonel O'Neill!" "Colonel!" "Jack!"

Oops. Jack knew not everyone shared his humour, but annoying three out of four - only Teal'c hadn't scolded him - was a bit much.

Catra snickered, but Glimmer frowned. "In all seriousness, calling for our murders is not acceptable no matter how you excuse it. And other countries don't have the same laws about free speech that you have."

"Well, yeah," Jack couldn't help but shoot back, "they tend to like that they can lock up their people if they should disagree with the government. Or not agree fervently enough."

Glimmer scowled at him. "That wasn't what I meant."

Daniel cleared his throat. "Well, authoritarian governments tend to limit free speech, so the United States historically tends to err on the side of caution. And that's even without touching freedom of religion."

"You know, I bet Priest would love that view," Catra said. "And the idea that if it's just a handful of people, it's not a problem for the government."

Was she threatening them - or warning, to be more generous - that Priest might send a hit-squad to Earth and claim it was some rogue clones?

"We will inform the government," Hammond repeated himself, "and get back to you. Please ensure that there are no incidents in the meantime."

"We'll do our best," Adora said. "Please solve this."

Once the connection was cut, Hammond sighed. "What a mess. The President will have to hear of this."

"There's not much he can do about it," Daniel said. "He can't limit free speech. The Supreme Court was pretty clear on how limited the exception for inciting violence is." Jack stared at him, and Daniel flushed. "I had to write an essay in high school."

"Once we're formally at war, the President will have more options," Hammon said. "But this isn't the 1940s any more - we can't just reintroduce censorship."

"We might have to," Jack said. "If only to keep the nutcases from triggering a crusade against us. It's like yelling fire, only not in a crowded theatre, but when facing a machine gun."

"There's a lot we should be doing but can't," Hammond said.

Well, Jack couldn't disagree with that. But that didn't help with solving this problem. He was no lawyer or scholar, but he was pretty sure that endangering an entire country wasn't covered by free speech. Or shouldn't be.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 29: Public Relations Part 1

The Mountain, Colorado, United States, Earth, August 23rd, 1998 (Earth Time)

"You know, this feels a little dishonest," Bow said as he stepped onto Darla's ramp. "We're supposed to negotiate with the United Nations right now."

Adora felt a pang of guilt. They had claimed an urgent issue to bow out of the negotiations. Then again, they hadn't actually done much during the last session, except for answering a few questions and not taking anyone's side while the supposedly greatest powers of Earth bickered.

And, this was urgent - if Priest or one of his followers lost control upon stumbling onto another rant, the consequences could be catastrophic. Adora had seen records of what happened when a Horde fleet conducted orbital bombardment, and Priest hadn't really understood the concept of collateral damage last time they had discussed the issue.

"Bah! We were due a break!" Glimmer replied.

"This isn't actually a break," Catra said as they walked down the ramp. "It's work."

"But it's work with friends!" Entrapta objected. "I'm happy to see Sam again. I bet we have a lot of data to exchange! I can't wait to show her my prototype tiny keyboard!"

Adora wasn't an expert, but she wouldn't have thought that it took a prototype to build a miniature keyboard. Entrapta probably added a lot of functions to the thing.

Jack, Daniel and Teal'C were waiting for them at the foot of the ramp. Jack looked a little uncomfortable, Adora noticed.

"What's wrong?" Catra must have noticed it as well.

"I'm still not used to conducting such business out in the open. We've spent years keeping this secret," he replied, and now we've got alien visitors landing right next to the mountain in their spaceship.

"We're on a military landing pad," Glimmer said with a frown.

"But it's open to satellite surveillance. I bet your flight was tracked by half the country."

"We've told the Security Council that we had urgent business with Stargate Command regarding a diplomatic incident," Adora said.

"You did…?" Jack closed his eyes and sighed. "Of course you would."

"Honesty is the best policy," she told him.

"Yeah…" He grimaced. "Are you familiar with 'white lies'?"

White lies?

"That's when you tell a little lie because being honest would be rude," Daniel explained. "Like you don't tell someone that their favourite painting looks ugly, for example."

"Ah." Well, that wasn't a real lie. You shouldn't be rude to people.

Catra snickered. She probably thought this would excuse being rude. Well, they had more important problems than that. Like some people trying to rile up Third Fleet - well, they didn't know about Third Fleet, but still! Since when was it acceptable to insult people like that?

"So, General Hammond talked to the President about the whole thing," Jack told them as they entered the bunker - the Mountain it was called, Adora reminded herself. "It's a tricky problem."

Adora didn't need to see Glimmer to know her friend was rolling her eyes. "If it were easy, it wouldn't be a problem, would it? But why exactly is it a problem to do something about people calling for our deaths? Isn't murder illegal in your country?"

Catra snickered.

"It's not quite the same," Daniel said. They reached an elevator and stepped inside. "Freedom of speech is one of the most important rights in the United States. Limiting it is… a very delicate prospect. Many people fear - not entirely unjustifiedly - that such a limit would just be the first step towards abolishing it entirely."

"No one likes censorship," Jack said.

"You censor your entire media. You censor bad words!" Glimmer objected. "So, it's not allowed to curse on television, but you're allowed to tell people to murder others? You've got some fucked-up priorities!"

"You're not the first one to point this out. But I would wager that your countries have some traditions and peculiarities that seem weird to others as well, right?" Daniel smiled.

"The princesses are all weird," Catra said. "You should've seen them at the Princess Prom."

"That's a matter of perspective," Bow cut in while Glimmer glared at Catra. "Every kingdom has its own traditions, yes. But few of them would be able to trigger a war. Those that did kind of… did that in the Age of War, and well, that settled most of them. Violently."

Glimmer frowned at him, but Adora nodded in agreement. Etheria wasn't perfect.

"That sounds like 'an armed society is a polite society', just for countries," Jack commented. "I don't think that's a good role model."

By the time Daniel had explained what the saying meant, they had reached the meeting room in Stargate Command.

"Welcome," General Hammond greeted them. "And thank you for coming to discuss this issue." He pointed at a tall, thin man next to him. "This is Mr Smith, representing the Department of Justice."

"Hello." The man smiled, but it looked like he was just being polite. Or he was nervous.

"Hello!" Adora smiled at him. "Thank you for coming!" They were here to work together, after all. She shook his hand - he didn't have a firm grip, but he wasn't sweating, either.

"So, what can you do about this?" Glimmer said as soon as they had taken their seats. "We've told Priest to treat those people as insane, but that might not be a permanent solution."

"You think he will disobey a direct order from his 'goddess'?" Hammond asked.

"Priest has a tendency to, ah…" Adora trailed off. How to say this?

"He thinks he knows what Adora wants and doesn't think he should ask her to make sure," Catra said.

"Yes, that." Adora nodded and pointed at her.

"Like every religious fanatic ever." Jack grinned.

"Although God doesn't answer questions, unlike Adora," Daniel said.

"Well, we should treat this as a legal problem, not a religious one," Mr Smith said. "Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has defined the limits of Freedom of Speech quite strictly in several rulings. Inciting violence, for example, needs to be imminent - and this isn't the case here."

"Can't your court redefine that?" Adora asked the obvious question.

Judging by the man's grimace, no, the court couldn't do that.

"You see, the separation of power is the foundation of our country. The President can't order a judge to rule a certain way," Mr Smith confirmed Adora's assumption.

"Ah, the famous checks and balances," Catra commented.

"Why, yes." Mr Smith smiled at her.

Adora closed her eyes for a moment when Catra smiled back, showing her fangs. "Be nice," she whispered.

To her surprise, Catra didn't mention, as she had done before, that it was the same as the Horde leaders' policies of fostering the rivalry amongst Force Captains so they would keep each other in check. Instead, Catra shook her head. "But shouldn't there be an emergency rule or something? If a decision threatens your world?"

"Not that there is currently a threat to your world - from Priest, at least," Adora quickly cut in before someone could mistake Catra's comment as a threat. "But it's a potential threat. Kind of. A danger?" She pouted at the glance from her lover. And at the groan from Glimmer.

"Well, if our performance faced with global warming is any hint, then no," Daniel said.

"Well, it's not quite cut and dry," Mr Smith said. "The President will talk to the broadcasting companies and voice his concerns about the risks to international relations that certain interviews might cause. This should cut down on the, ah, screen time of such extremists."

"Remind them how the First World War started when you're at it," Jack interjected. With a grin, he added: "I think some journalists have forgotten that not every royal is a figurehead. Some have space fleets with big honking space guns at their beck and call."

"Yes, that will be mentioned." Mr Smith's smile looked more than a little forced.

Glimmer smiled. "And what if they won't comply?" She leaned forward. "It's hard to work together if we have to wonder who amongst your people is waiting for a chance to kill us for their god."

"Our soldiers are thoroughly vetted," General Hammond protested.

"Yes. Those here," Catra said. "And once we're expanding operations from a few small teams to massed troops?"

"That might be a problem," the general admitted. "Although censoring broadcasting won't solve this."

"Battling worship of false gods is part of our mission," Teal'c commented.

"Yeah…" Jack grimaced. "Teal'c, I fear the US Army can't declare war on God. We've got laws against that. Freedom of religion and all that. Separation of church and state, and everything."

"They would crucify us in Congress and in the courts," Mr Smith whispered.

"Not on your god - on a false god," Teal'c replied. "You did tell me about your god, about his message of love. It is clear as day that your god would never condone murdering people simply for their choice of partners. Therefore, those people are worshipping a false god." He nodded.

Mr Smith looked as if he had eaten something that didn't agree with him. And Catra grinned. "Yeah. False gods are false gods, aren't they?" she asked, cocking her head.

"It's not quite the same," Daniel replied. "Goa'uld declare themselves as gods and demand worship when they manifestly, provably aren't gods - they merely use technology to fake their divine powers. That's what makes them false gods. The god those extremists worship is a different case since they aren't, well… the only claim that they exist is made by those who already worship them. No one is actually claiming to be god."

"Well, those who do are in the loony bin," Jack said.

"That's not entirely correct," Daniel turned to look at him. "Several people were and are worshipped as gods."

"And did they demonstrate any divine power?" Jack raised his eyebrows. "Loony bin."

General Hammond cleared his throat. "This is a political and not a theological problem."

"It's both, actually," Daniel retorted.

Entrapta frowned. "If the Goa'uld are false gods because they use technology to fake their divine powers, then what's a true god? And what are divine powers?"

"Well…" Jack shrugged.

"They aren't actually defined. It's a question of faith," Daniel said - a little too quickly, Adora thought. "It's like… we can't define a true god, but we can define false gods."

"Ah." Entrapta nodded. "So, unless a god makes a claim that can be proven or disproven, they can't be judged, right?"

"Ah… yes." Daniel nodded.

Well, that sounded confusing, but anything that didn't lead to someone claiming that Adora was a goddess was fine in her book. The last thing Adora wanted was to be worshipped.

"But that doesn't give us a solution to handle those nutcases," Catra said. "We're going to keep Priest on a short leash, and Adora will tell him and his followers very clearly that they aren't allowed to attack Earth without her permission, but what are you doing about your fanatics? Just pretending that they don't exist won't work."

"And how can we convince them to stop trying to murder us if we can't prove that their god is wrong?" Entrapta asked.

Mr Smith's smile was so thin, it was barely visible. "We're working on that. For now, I think restricting their reach will already significantly reduce the threat they pose."

Adora wasn't sure that she would agree with that assessment. But she didn't have a better idea.

*****​

Samantha Carter didn't sigh with relief when the meeting with Smith finally ended - well, the official meeting; apparently, Glimmer had some questions, probably pointed ones, about the general US policy with regards to censorship. But Sam certainly felt like sighing.

Entrapta, on the other hand, sighed loudly when they started towards Sam's lab. "Wow, your politics are more confusing than I remembered." She cocked her head to the side. "Wait - they are confusing because I wasn't aware of your stance towards censorship and broadcasting, so maybe I should reword that."

Before Sam could weigh in, Entrapta shrugged. "Anyway! I've got the prototype of the tiny keyboard here! Once we incorporate your additions, we can finally communicate easily and in an ethically appropriate way with the captured Goa'uld!"

My additions? Sam wasn't sure what kind of additions she would make to a miniature keyboard. Well, maybe some added security features so it couldn't be dismantled and used to escape a cell, and she would have to check the software and encryption to ensure that no one could compromise the data, probably some proprietary protocols so it could only communicate with a specific computer…

She was still pondering possibilities when they reached her office, but as she quickly found out, Entrapta had several of them already incorporated. Not all of them, though, and both of them spent half an hour hashing out interfaces that would be safer from hacking than the standard ones.

"I think that's it," Entrapta finally declared. "It would be a tiny bit safer if we used crystals, but you can't produce them yet, and this is meant to be built and maintained on Earth."

Sam wasn't aware that this was a requirement, but it made sense; in the current political climate, any solution that required alien resources would be more difficult to implement unless it was clearly superior to the alternative. And a single percentage improvement wasn't worth it. "Yes. I think we can construct that in an hour."

"So, give it to your… wait! You don't have bots. I forgot, sorry!" Entrapta blurted out. "That's something we should work on, actually - constructing anything goes much easier with bots."

"Autonomous robots are a security issue, I am afraid," Sam replied. She had asked before, after all.

"Yes?" Entrapta cocked her head to the side.

"There are concerns that they could either go out of control or be taken over by an enemy," Sam explained.

"Oh. Well, that can happen - it happened to me when I worked on analysing what turned out to be a First Ones computer virus; all my bots went berserk and tried to kill my staff and me. The others fixed it, though. And it gave me so much data!"

Sam forced herself to keep smiling. While she was aware that sometimes, you had to take risks for science - and be willing to do so - her friend seemed to treat a potentially fatal incident as just another opportunity to gather data. But that was her way. "Well, we've got a lot of people here in the Mountain," she explained. "They would all be at risk."

"Right. You really need a secure lab in orbit or on the moon," Entrapta replied.

"I'll see if I can get the budget approved," Sam told her with a grin before she could stop herself. She blamed the Colonel's influence.

"Yes! It's sooo useful!" Entrapta nodded emphatically. "I've had barely any complaints since I got a lab in space. Well, I was barely home, where people would complain about explosions, but that's kinda the idea."

"I see." Maybe Sam should apply for a lab on the moon and see what happened. With the technology they had recovered, reaching the moon would be child's play once they could build their own ships. Which, of course, would take a while, and the war would take priority. But a lab on the moon…

Entrapta sighed and sat down on Sam's desk, letting her feet dangle. "I still don't get your politics. They're so irrational."

"That's because most people are irrational," Sam replied as she started to fill out a request form to get the keyboards and base stations built.

"They shouldn't be. And there's irrational and irrational. If Netossa doesn't want to work with Sweet Bee because Sweet Bee once was Spinnerella's girlfriend, then that's, well, silly, but I can understand it. But I don't get how you can dislike someone for something that didn't happen. We've never been to Earth, we haven't done anything to those people who want us dead, so why are they like this? We're here to help them. If we wanted to hurt them, we could just bombard them from orbit. We wouldn't play silly games."

That was probably Hordak's influence, Sam thought. "They don't see things like that. They have their own view of how the world works, and they fit everything into that." No matter how much they had to bend and break facts.

"That's stupid."

"Yes," Sam agreed. "But that's how people - some people - are. We have to teach them that they're wrong."

"That's kind of hard if they want to kill you."

"Yes. Fortunately, the vast majority of them don't really want to kill anyone. They can be reached with the right approach." Sam hoped that she wasn't wrong.

"And what is the right approach?"

Sam winced. "I think that's a question for public relations."

"'Public relations'?" Entrapta looked a little confused.

This time, Sam sighed.

*****​

Earth Orbit, August 23rd, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...so those public relations people are experts on how to make people like you, and Sam said we should look into hiring one. She said every government and every big business had one."

Catra, leaning against the wall in Darla's hold, frowned a little at Entrapta's explanation. "That sounds like… Like a bit questionable." People who knew how to make you like them? She knew someone like that.

Adora nodded in agreement. She would, of course - she had been raised by Shadow Weaver as well. "Yes. It doesn't seem to be very honest. How can people trust us if we lie to them?"

"Oh." Entrapta looked confused.

But Glimmer shook her head. "It's another form of diplomacy, of sorts - you know, when you try to present your proposal in the best possible way depending on who you talk to. You don't lie because if you get caught in a lie, people stop trusting you."

"Ah." Adora nodded.

Catra narrowed her eyes. Knowing what to say to whom - that was how Catra had managed to recruit Entrapta to the Horde.

"Well, you also have to consider how far you can and want to go," Glimmer went on. "At some point, there's not much difference between outright lying and omitting things."

"People will feel that they have been lied to even if everything you told them was technically correct," Bow added.

Catra rolled her eyes. That was obvious. No one liked being manipulated and made to look like a fool.

"And how far do we want to go?" Adora asked.

"We want a lasting alliance, so we need to show the people of Earth that we aren't their enemies," Glimmer replied.

"Yes!" Entrapta agreed.

"We've been trying that," Catra pointed out.

"In diplomatic negotiations," Glimmer retorted. "This is different."

Catra shrugged. People were people. Even princesses, when it came down to it, were people.

Glimmer frowned at her even though she hadn't said anything. "I think we all realised that we don't really understand the people here."

That Catra could agree with. "Yes. They're all nuts."

"Not everyone," Adora objected. "But a lot seem to be a little…"

"Irrational," Entrapta finished for her.

"As I said, nuts," Catra said.

Glimmer sighed. "They aren't crazy - not all of them. But they're different. We need to understand them better, and I think such a public relations expert might help." With a glance at Adora, she added: "It's like preparing for Princess Prom: If we know what makes them tick and what they hate, we can avoid blunders."

Adora pouted. "We still made blunders. Like with Frosta. I don't think anyone liked us afterwards."

"That was because Catra manipulated us," Glimmer replied.

Catra didn't react. It was true, after all. She had played them - and she had enjoyed it. Especially the dancing. In hindsight, she should have realised a lot of things back then. But she'd been young and stupid. Very stupid.

"So, we hire someone to teach us about Earth? Like Daniel?" Adora asked.

"Daniel is an archaeologist and historian. Not a public relations expert," Bow said. "But probably someone like him, yes."

"We'll need to find someone we can trust, though," Catra pointed out. "Such a person could easily manipulate us."

"Yes." Glimmer frowned. "This will be tricky. We might have to hire two or even more to guard against that."

"Don't the United Nations have such people? You said everyone has them," Adora asked. "We could ask them for help."

"But they would be loyal to the United Nations, not to us," Glimmer objected.

Catra nodded. Negotiations were tricky enough - they couldn't afford to introduce a spy. And she was sure that anyone recommended by the United Nations would be a spy for one country or another.

"Well, we know there are many such people on Earth," Bow said. "So, let's talk to some of them and see if they make a good impression?"

Catra snorted. If someone made a bad impression, they obviously weren't competent at public relations.

"Yes. Let's put up a wanted ad!" Entrapta said.

"A wanted ad?" Adora asked.

"That's how you hire people - you put up an ad in a newspaper and online. Sam explained that to me." Entrapta nodded. "Well, you could also use a headhunter - which isn't what it sounds like, I asked - and then they would look for one."

"That would be more discreet," Catra commented.

"But we would have to find a trustworthy headhunter first," Adora objected.

Which would put them back to square one. Catra nodded.

Glimmer didn't look convinced. "I was thinking we would contact various public relations firms. Putting up an ad would make us look…"

"...like we need the help?" Catra grinned at the princess's scowl.

"We do need the help," Adora said, nodding. "But I think asking people is better. And we can ask our friends to help us look for trustworthy people."

"The Americans want to manipulate us like everyone else," Catra pointed out.

"Daniel is honest."

Catra had to agree with that. Daniel could be trusted - to an extent. "But his superiors aren't." Not even O'Neill.

"I trust Sam," Entrapta added. "So, we can ask her too!"

Glimmer nodded. "We have to trust someone, anyway."

*****​

The Mountain, Colorado, United States, Earth, August 24th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"The Etherians are looking for a spin doctor?" Jack O'Neill looked at General Hammond, then at Daniel and Carter. Carter blushed, which was a surprise. He raised his eyebrows.

"I may have mentioned the concept of public relations to Entrapta," she said.

'May'? Carter usually wasn't as… diplomatic. She must be really embarrassed. But this wasn't some private moment where a joke would be appropriate. They were in a meeting with the general. "And they've asked us for a recommendation?"

"They have explicitly asked for Dr Jackon and Captain Carter's help," Hammond replied.

"I don't know why they would ask for my help. I don't have any experience with public relations," Daniel said. "I don't even know a public relations expert."

Jack was already aware of that. Otherwise, his friend probably wouldn't have blundered into the whole 'cuckoo archaeologist claims aliens built the pyramids' debacle.

"I am familiar with the concept, of course, but I don't know any public relations expert either," Carter added. "Entrapta must have got the wrong impression from my explanation."

Hammond looked grim. "This poses a problem, of course."

Daniel looked confused, but Carter grimaced. Jack nodded. "Washington wants us to recommend specific 'experts'."

"Yes." Hammond didn't like the idea either. "I did point out that the Etherians specifically asked for Dr Jackson and Captain Carter because they trust them." He sighed. "The President pointed out that whoever the Etherians picked would be approached by various groups anyway."

"Like the NID," Jack said. "Or just some interest group with a bag full of money. Or some foreign spy."

"Exactly." The general nodded. "However, I could persuade the President that we cannot afford to lose the Etherians' trust in SG-1, so he agreed that we'll be putting our cards on the table from the start."

"Honesty is the best policy," Daniel agreed.

Although… "Were you just quoting Adora?" Jack asked.

Daniel flushed a little. "It's a sound policy."

Maybe we should start worrying about the Etherians manipulating our own people, Jack thought. Though could you call it manipulation if they were simply being themselves? "So, how do we honestly recommend a trustworthy spin doctor that won't sell out either the Etherians or us?" If such a person even existed - Jack didn't really trust any PR guys.

"We investigate them beforehand," Carter offered - she must have been thinking about this for a while. "As if we were screening applicants for Stargate Command recruitment."

"Right. Because we've done this before." Although Jack knew that despite their best efforts, they would have missed some NID moles in the past.

"And we'll tell the Etherians that," Daniel insisted. "They need to know that whoever we recommend will be loyal to the United States."

"Of course," Hammond agreed.

"Let's hope that they won't take offence at that," Jack said.

"They shouldn't." Daniel frowned a little. "They are, despite their age, experienced politicians, after all."

"Carter had to explain to them the concept of public relations," Jack retorted.

"That wasn't because the concept was unknown to them, but because they must have seen this as part of being a ruler," his friend protested. "And, well, because it was Entrapta. I keep telling people that we can't underestimate them. The Etherians have a sophisticated civilisation, even if their aesthetics might not look like that to us. It's the same with how people tend to see past cultures as ignorant and primitive even though most had complex societies. Like the Bronze Age, which had a complex network of trade and diplomacy relations that covered a significant part of the world and…"

Jack sighed. Here came the history lesson. Although his friend had a point about underestimating the Etherians. They were just so young. And so earnest. Well, most of them. Catra was a sneaky cynic, or tried to be, and Glimmer certainly acted like a politician often enough.

*****​

Jack O'Neill pushed back with his seat and resisted the urge to spin around on it. With no emergency to deal with, he was supposed to catch up on paperwork. Which he had done - at least he had finished the essential reports. And what the government considered essential. Opinions on that differed, of course.

In any case, it was mid-afternoon-ish - time for a break. Usually, he'd drag Carter and Daniel out of their caves, but both were busy working with Stargate Command's support staff on vetting public relations firms. That left Teal'c. Who would, at this time, either by working out with the marines of SG-3, which meant sparring, or meditating in his room.

A quick check confirmed that Jack's friend wasn't in his room. Which meant he would be in the gym - and unlikely to take a break in the middle of a training session. Still, Jack felt like talking to a friend, and the mess hall was on the way, so if he grabbed a doughnut and coffee, he could then watch Teal'c flatten cocky marines in sparring matches. You could have worse breaks.

In the canteen, he stood in the short line - one airman ahead of him tried to surrender his spot, but Jack waved him off. As if he'd pull rank in the chow line! Besides, the TV was on and showing the news. Or what they thought was the news. Nothing new there… Wait! He frowned. He knew that face on the screen - that was the nutcase who had called for the death of the Etherians. He walked closer, listening to the announcer.

"...arrested for misuse of donations and child pornography. The reverend's lawyer refuted the accusations and claimed that his client was being framed."

An airman next to Jack snorted. "They always say that!"

Another cursed about paedophiles.

Jack would certainly not dismiss the idea that the good reverend was a conman and sexual predator. But he couldn't help feeling that the man's arrest so soon after he caught the Etherians' attention was more than a little suspicious.

*****​

Earth Orbit, August 24th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and while the police refused to comment on the speculation that the reverend's recent controversial statements about the Etherians were the reason that his finances had come under scrutiny, several sources claim that despite the fact that the information about the reverend's suspicious financial activities was provided anonymously, the police acted as if they trusted the source, which raises suspicions that…"

"They arrested the nutcase?"

Adora nodded. "According to the news, yes."

"But not because of the death threats," Catra went on as she sat down in the lounge of Darla.

"Financial crimes and child pornography," Glimmer said with a deep scowl. "Figures."

Adora nodded, but Catra snorted. "Easy to plant such material on someone."

Adora blinked. "You think that someone, ah… framed him?"

Her lover shrugged. "It's possible. It's quite convenient that he was arrested - and for such despicable crimes - shortly after he made waves. If you can't get him for what he did, get him for something he didn't."

That was… Adora's first impulse was that this was bad. Very bad.

"We don't know that," Bow pointed out. "And according to what we found out, a lot of such 'televangelists' get very rich on donations."

And a lot of them didn't like people like Adora and Catra - they had said so in the past. Not many had been as hateful as the reverend in question, though. Still… "But child pornography?"

"It's not impossible either," Glimmer said, "according to the information we found about religious organisations."

"Of course," Catra pointed out, "that also means it's an easy and plausible charge."

"But would they do this? Frame a man for crimes he didn't commit just to please us?" Adora asked.

"In a heartbeat," Catra replied.

Adora frowned at her. "We don't know that."

"We know they did such things - and worse than this - in their 'Cold War'," Bow said.

"But that was years ago," Adora protested. When she saw Catra shaking her head with a sigh, she pouted. People could change - Catra was the best example! SG-1 were good people, too.

"But is this a bad thing?" Entrapta looked confused. "He told people to kill us - and we didn't do anything to him. So, he was obviously a bad person who deserved to be arrested."

"Yes, he was - but he might have been arrested for a thing he didn't do," Adora explained.

"But why would that matter, as long as he is arrested?" Entrapta asked.

"Two reasons," Glimmer replied. "First, if he wasn't arrested for telling people to murder us, then that means it's still allowed to do that. Tell people to kill us, I mean, not killing us."

"In the United States. In other countries, it is legal to kill us," Catra interjected.

"We're talking about the United States," Glimmer told her with a frown. "Anyway, the second reason is that we have to wonder if we can trust people who break their own rules like that."

"If a rule is stupid, it should be broken," Entrapta said.

Adora narrowed her eyes - at Catra. She knew that quote.

Her lover frowned. "Hey, it's true - you shouldn't be following stupid rules."

"Sometimes," Adora admitted.

"This isn't about following stupid rules - this is about trusting someone who ignores their rules when it's inconvenient but won't change them," Glimmer explained.

"Ah. So, you think they will do the same when it comes to an agreement with us?" Entrapta asked.

"We don't know if they did it in the first place," Adora cut in.

"It would be wise to assume the worst," Hordak commented. "Your friends in Stargate Command might be trustworthy, but they aren't the rulers of their country."

"And I'm sure that Jack's been involved in such stuff," Catra said. "Remember him and Burke?"

Oh. Adora frowned. "But that was years ago. He's changed."

Catra frowned as well - she understood Adora's point. But she shook her head. "But there will be others. And either the President is behind this, or he tolerates it, or he can't stop it. No matter what, it's not a good thing."

"Indeed," Hordak agreed. "A leader must have total control over his underlings."

"Yeah, how about we don't go there?" Glimmer said. "But a leader is responsible for their people."

"You can't have responsibility without control," Hordak retorted.

"This is getting a bit too philosophical. Can we focus on what this means for us?" Bow frowned.

"We don't even know if our suspicion is true," Adora told him. "We shouldn't assume the worst without any evidence."

"Neither should we blindly trust everyone," Catra objected.

"I think we shouldn't do anything, but we should be more cautious when negotiating," Glimmer said.

"And what about the public relations experts we asked for help with?" Catra leaned back in her seat.

"We already decided that we would hire several people," Glimmer told her. "So, we have to look for some people ourselves."

"Great." Catra, obviously, wasn't fond of that idea. "Just what we wanted to avoid by asking SG-1 for help."

Adora smiled and patted her lover's back. "Not every plan works out."

"But it would be nice if some worked out without having to work harder," Catra retorted.

"You haven't done much work in the negotiations at all, "Glimmer said with a frown.

"I'm not a princess," Catra told her with a grin.

"Anyway," Adora spoke up before her friend and lover could start a row - Catra was a bit lazy when she thought she could get away with it, but Adora didn't think Catra being more active in negotiations would help a lot. Quite the contrary, in fact. "We should wait and see for now. And look for public relations experts. You can help me with that!"

She ignored how Catra sighed theatrically and slumped at the table. Catra couldn't fool her with such antics.

*****​

Earth Orbit, August 25th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Samantha Carter wouldn't call working with Entrapta a chore. Not at all - it was refreshing to work with someone as intelligent and driven as she was who didn't harbour some mixed feelings because Sam was a woman. The number of times she'd had to establish ground rules that should have been obvious with some of her male colleagues… the Colonel's jokes about her enforcing the pecking order had stopped being funny long ago.

No, working with Entrapta, a genuinely nice person as well, was a great experience, especially if they worked in space - despite Sam's experiences, part of her still marvelled at watching the Earth float beneath them through a window. At least it should be.

But part of her had also been dreading today's work on the ring transporter. Because while Entrapta was one of the nicest persons Sam knew - not counting when she had some mad scientist moment - she was also both very open and very curious. Which meant that she would ask rather uncomfortable questions that Sam didn't like answering.

"So…" Entrapta bit her lower lip. "Did you plant fake data in that guy's computer to arrest him?"

Questions like this one. "That would be illegal," Sam replied before she could help herself. Damn, That was an evasive answer if she ever knew one.

"Yes, I had that explained to me." Entrapta nodded. "It's a little weird that getting the right result but with a different method is not allowed, but apparently, the side-effects are bad."

"Yes," Sam agreed. "Breaking the law isn't a good thing."

"Unless it's a stupid law," Entrapta objected. "At least Catra said so, and Glimmer didn't really contradict her - well, not if she really meant it."

That was… a rather worrying fact. Not really a surprise, though - Catra certainly struck Sam as the type to only worry about getting caught with regards to rules, and Glimmer had a pragmatic side that bordered on ruthless.

"Anyway!" Entrapta nodded. "Whether or not it's legal doesn't answer the question I asked."

Damn. "Stargate Command didn't do anything like that. And I have no knowledge of any other organisation of the United States framing the reverend," Sam replied.

"But would you know about that?"

"No," Sam admitted. "Whoever would have done such a thing would have kept it a secret from everyone because it would be illegal."

"That's a lot of 'woulds'." Entrapta pouted a little. "You usually don't use so many."

Entrapta was much more focused on this than Sam had expected - usually, the woman was focused on science. "I don't want to present speculation as facts," she told her.

"Ah." Entrapta nodded, smiling. "That's a good stance."

"But," Sam went on, "some people think the timing of this is suspicious. Usually, such investigations take longer before an arrest is made." The police generally weren't eager to make waves like this without solid proof. Certainly not when it concerned the leader of a local church. The white male leader of a Christian Church, a voice in the back of her mind added. But that was another subject she wasn't going to touch unless forced to.

"On the news, they said they had received information from an anonymous source." Entrapta cocked her head to the side. "Wouldn't that be enough to act?"

Sam pressed her lips together. "The police tend to act a bit more cautious when receiving such information. It could be an attempt to frame a rival. Of course, it could also be information from someone close to the reverend who was pushed to act after the man called for your deaths."

Entrapta frowned. "But if they knew about his breaking the law, why wouldn't they have said something before?"

"Perhaps they didn't think it was bad enough to call the police - especially if they were only aware of the financial crimes," Sam explained. "The police would have discovered the other crimes once they took his computer and examined it."

"Ah. So, it's possible that he did those crimes."

"Yes."

"But it's also possible that he didn't, and someone faked the data."

"Yes."

"Is there any way we can find out which is the case?" Entrapta frowned. "Because this seems to be an important question that should be answered."

Sam sighed. "Not without breaking a few more laws." Such as hacking the computers and electronic communication of a certain Senator. Though not even that would probably help - Kinsey was too smart to leave incriminating evidence on his computer.

"Your laws seem to need a lot of revising," Entrapta said.

"Yes. But altering the law is hard - and that's by design."

"Why?"

"Because people need to be able to trust that a law won't be changed on a whim. They need to be able to trust the government, and they can't do that if they have to fear that whatever was legal yesterday could be illegal tomorrow just because the president didn't like it. Especially if they invested a lot and expected to be able to keep doing it."

"Oh." Entrapta nodded. "Like investing a lot into an experiment and then being told you can't do it."

"Yes." Sam nodded.

"But why would anyone invest a lot in telling others to kill people?"

Sam sighed again. She really didn't want to discuss religion with Entrapta.

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

Chapter 30: Public Relations Part 2

The Mountain, Colorado, United States, Earth, August 27th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"So… that's the government-approved list of public relations experts." Catra craned her neck to look at the list in front of Adora. "Took you long enough. I would have thought sending us a copy of your payroll would be faster."

As expected, Daniel frowned at that. "We didn't get you a list of government employees," he said with a slight pout.

"We wouldn't have taken two days for that," O'Neill added with a smirk.

"Catra's joking," Adora said. "Thank you."

"Mostly joking," Catra corrected her lover. "I'm sure none of them is hostile towards the government."

"Few businesses are," Daniel said.

"None of them is hostile to their employers," O'Neill said.

"Colonel," Sam hissed.

"Just being open and honest," he defended himself. Then he grinned at Catra. "Besides, I'm sure you already assumed that anyway."

Catra matched his grin. "Of course."

Glimmer rolled her eyes. "It's generally thought to be both rude and crude to point that out."

"Well, I'm no diplomat," O'Neill said.

"As a number of unsuccessful first contacts can attest to," Daniel muttered.

"Hey! None of them was my fault… well, perhaps one or two…" Now O'Neill was pouting. "Anyway, here you got your list of American PR guys willing to sell their souls to land this job."

"We don't need their souls," Adora said. "We just need honest advice and expertise."

"Well, that's good - I think they sold their souls already. Or would have, if Earth had magic."

"That's not exactly how magic works," Glimmer commented.

"Yes. Unless that's how Earth magic works. I've never heard about soul magic until Earth. It sounds fascinating!" Entrapta beamed. "Can we measure souls and analyse them without harming them?"

"It's not quite clear if souls exist," Sam said.

"Those are myths. Souls… well, it's more a question of faith and belief," Daniel added. "Not something you can measure. Or even see."

That sounded like their gods to Catra: Imaginary things.

"Well, Earth tales of magic do seem to emphasise spirits and similar creatures," Glimmer said. "As do your religions. So, it might be possible that Earth magic is focused on spirits."

"That's not quite the same as what we think souls are," Daniel argued.

"Perhaps spirits are what happens when the original body dies, and the intangible consciousness hangs around?" Entrapta speculated.

"That's very fascinating, I'm sure," O'Neill said, "but we're here to talk about public relations."

"You don't like public relations, do you?" Catra asked.

Jack frowned at her. "They're a necessary evil. Too closely related to politics."

"Politics aren't evil," Daniel protested.

"My experience disagrees," O'Neill retorted.

Catra snorted. "Earth politics, maybe."

"Well, Alliance politics were sometimes frustrating as well," Adora said.

"We all know that," Glimmer said. "Let's talk about public relations." She picked up the list. "So, we've got half a dozen names here. Groups, mostly."

"Yes. We've vetted them," Sam said. "They're honest as far as we can tell - reasonably honest."

"For public relations people," O'Neill grinned.

Catra shook her head. "Your jokes are getting older than you."

"Hey! Low blow!" he protested.

"Can we focus on this list?" Adora was getting annoyed. And not the fun kind of annoyed.

"Sorry," Catra said in a low voice.

"Alright." Glimmer read the list. "They're in alphabetical order. No preferences?"

"Ah… no," Daniel said. "We don't really have much experience with this sort of business."

"We were too low on the totem pole to need such people," O'Neill explained. "And too secret."

"You sounded like you had personal experience," Catra pointed out.

"I have personal experiences with the constraints PR shackled us with," O'Neill said.

"I think that means he wasn't allowed to be as snarky and immature as he wanted," Daniel said.

"Hey!" But O'Neill was grinning.

"So… I guess we'll just meet with everyone and see who fits us best," Glimmer said.

"And you need to work out how to pay them," O'Neill said. "They won't work for free."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Bow said. "I've looked up the prices for space travel - passengers or cargo. Just transporting a satellite or two should give us enough cash to pay for them. Or we could offer to take a people to the Moon or Mars."

Catra suppressed a smirk when she saw how surprised the others were. Well, except for Daniel, who looked pointedly at O'Neill.

"You're going to offer space travel for cash?" O'Neill asked.

"It's an obvious service we can provide. There isn't much competition, and it won't require us to give away our technology," Glimmer replied.

"NASA's going to love this," he muttered.

"They will - if they can be the first to hire you," Sam said.

"How much would people pay to be the first person to visit Mars?" Daniel asked.

Catra grinned. It seemed the obvious way to make money for trade hadn't been as obvious to Stargate Command. Well, did they expect them to peddle their technology? Or hire out Adora as a healer for money?

As if Catra's lover would have accepted that. No, offering trips to space was the easiest way to get money.

*****​

Washington DC, United States, Earth, August 28th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"I'm not a politician. I shouldn't be here," Jack O'Neill grumbled as he shifted in the - admittedly very comfortable - seat in the White House's waiting room.

"We're here to advise the President and the cabinet, not to make policy," Daniel said, looking up from his book. Carter didn't look up from her laptop.

"I'm not a consultant either," Jack retorted.

"Jack! This is just a briefing - you've done those before."

"Under protest," Jack lied.

Daniel rolled his eyes and went back to reading.

Jack frowned. He was old; he had a right to be grumpy! Besides, he was sure that they would get the blame for whatever crazy thing the Etherians did next. "They haven't put up an ad for space cruises, have they?" he asked, looking at Carter.

"No, Sir," she replied.

"You haven't looked!" he accused her.

"I have a program checking for such things," Carter replied.

That was impressive. Jack hadn't known that they could do that.

"And Entrapta said she wanted to run the ad by us before they put it up," Carter added with a slightly embarrassed smile.

Jack groaned. "I was joking about the ad!"

"Well, Jack - how else would they advertise their services?" Daniel asked.

"By giving an interview?" Jack raised his eyebrows. "They wouldn't have to pay a dime that way."

"That's true," Daniel admitted. "How are they paying for an ad anyway?"

"Credit," Carter replied. "They don't have to pay immediately."

Jack couldn't help noting that Carter knew a lot about the Etherians' plans. "Been getting cosy with your mad science buddy, have we?" he asked, taking care to keep his tone light.

"I've been cooperating with our prospective allies as per our last orders, Sir," she replied, tensing a little.

So, his tone hadn't been light enough. Damn. "I'm not judging you," he told her. "I'm just a bit curious - and envious. They aren't as cosy with me."

"That's because the alien you've got the closest rapport with is prickly and too much like yourself," Daniel replied.

The alien he had what? Jack blinked. "What? Catra's a kid! We aren't alike at all!"

"She's a veteran with a dark past and hides her feelings behind dark humour and snark," Daniel explained. "That's like you with cat ears and a tail."

Jack glared at his friend. That was going too far. "She doesn't hide her feelings at all. She's quite blatant about public displays of affection with Adora," he retorted.

Daniel blinked, opened his mouth, then closed it again. What was his problem? And Carter was now hunched over so much, her face had disappeared behind her laptop.

Oh. Jack cursed himself, but before he could rectify the misunderstanding - and it was a misunderstanding, damn it! - the door was opened, and one of the White House interns peered inside. "Colonel O'Neill? Captain Carter? Dr Jackson? The President is now ready for you."

"Perfect timing," Jack muttered as he got up.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing." He waved the young woman off. "Let's not leave the President waiting."

"Thank you for coming. Please have a seat!" the President greeted them warmly as they entered the meeting room. The rest of the cabinet was more polite than friendly. And Kinsey, who, of course, had to be here for some damned reason, didn't bother smiling at all.

In return, Jack bared his teeth as their eyes met. If anyone asked, it counted as a smile.

"So!" The President clapped his hands together. "Things with the aliens have taken another turn."

"I'll say," the Secretary of Commerce. "My phone hasn't stopped ringing since news about their latest idea got out."

"Which was supposed to be a secret," the Secretary of Defense spat. "You've got a leak in your department!"

"It could have been any department," the Secretary of Commerce retorted.

"Well, at least it hasn't leaked to the press yet," The President said.

"Would save the Etherians some bucks for advertising," Jack said before he could stop himself.

Everyone turned to look at him. "They're planning to advertise?"

"Apparently," Jack said. He wouldn't throw Carter under the bus. "They seem to want to do things by the book."

"They have been watching Earth TV since their arrival, so they would be aware of many of our customs," Daniel said. "And they couldn't have missed advertising, even though that's not really known in their home."

"Will they apply for a license to operate commercial aircraft?" the Secretary of Transportation asked. "If they do, would we have to certify their craft?"

"We haven't exactly asked them to get their spaceship certified," the Secretary of Defense remarked.

"But they didn't operate it as a commercial transport," the Secretary of Transportation replied. "That's different now."

"You want to set the FAA on the Etherians?" The Secretary of Commerce sounded shocked.

"I wonder how they'll take the fact that Darla is a thousand years old," Daniel muttered next to Jack.

"Folks," the President spoke up, "let's not quibble over regulations. We all know that if we won't let them do this, another country will jump at the chance."

"And NASA will be pissed," the Secretary of Defense added. "They're already starting a crash program to get a Mars habitat ready."

"But what if something goes wrong? What if there's an accident?" the Secretary of Transportation objected. "What if a spaceship crashes on a city?"

"We can weather such a crash better than a complete crash of the economy," the Secretary of Commerce said. "And if we alienate the aliens, that is what will happen."

Jack clenched his teeth and kicked Daniel before his friend could blurt out something impolite. That was one of the reasons he hated politics.

"Surely it can't be that bad?" the Secretary of Transportation objected.

"Have you seen the latest report from my department?" The Secretary of Commerce scoffed. "The global economy is reeling. People are worried about the war. The only thing that kept the stock market from crash-diving into crushing depths is the hope that the aliens will usher in a new golden age thanks to their technology - and even with that factor, the panic is greater, especially in many developing countries. And the number of startups that can't get money is increasing rapidly because everyone thinks their ideas and products are already obsolete.."

"And in the established industry, people scale back their staff. We didn't have large numbers of workers getting laid off yet, but it's just a question of time if this continues," the Secretary of Labor added. "They know that not everyone will profit from the coming tech revolution."

"And even the corporations hoping to profit from the aliens are worried," Kinsey spoke up for the first time. "Several aerospace industries reached out to foreign firms for possible joint-ventures, but the reception in Europe has been… less than enthusiastic." He looked grim, Jack noted, but Kinsey was an accomplished liar. "I've called a few contacts in the United Kingdom, and they told me that their firms aren't convinced that the United States will manage to get an alliance with the aliens."

"What? We've been working closely with them - we just stopped some zombie plague and captured alien infiltrators!" the Secretary of Transportation protested. "They haven't even talked with the United Kingdom!"

"The British have been active in the United Nations," the Secretary of State replied. "And they've been preparing the field, so to speak - they're rushing through pro-gay legislation, so when they officially talk, they can present themselves as the most progressive country. It's the same with the French and the Germans."

"Their industrial leaders are putting pressure on them to make a deal, same as ours," the Secretary of Commerce added. "Only, they can ignore the religious conservatives."

"So can we," the Secretary of Transportation retorted. "They're not our problem. We can replace 'don't ask, don't tell' easily enough."

Daniel cleared his throat.

"Yes, Dr Jackson?" The President nodded at them.

"The Etherians are aware of how easily 'don't ask, don't tell' - or something worse - could be reinstated by a new president," Daniel explained. "And they are aware that you're limited to two terms, Mr President."

The President nodded. "And they're used to monarchs ruling for much longer times."

"Magical princesses," someone muttered.

"Yes, Mr President," Daniel confirmed. Jack knew he struggled not to add: 'I've already told you so'. "And, well… they expect full rights for gay people. Several western countries are passing laws to legalise gay marriage."

"Laws they can change much more easily than we can change ours," the Secretary of Transportation grumbled.

"But they also don't have their nutcases screaming to burn witches on live television," the Secretary of State added. "We do. That's not a good optic."

"He was arrested," someone else said.

Jack winced and raised his hand.

The President looked at him. "Colonel O'Neill?"

"They voiced concern about a possible frame job," he said - carefully not looking at Kinsey.

"Great. The absolute monarchs care about due process," someone else sighed.

"Many of the more extremist religious leaders have been a bit lax with regards to financial regulations," Kinsey commented. "I feel that several of them will want to avoid drawing attention that might lead to an investigation."

"Will that be enough to mollify the aliens?" the Secretary of Commerce asked.

Daniel pursed his lips. "They also mentioned that it's hard to trust people who break their own rules and laws when convenient but won't change them. It's like… they do respect our customs - mostly - and understand that our legal and legislative procedures and rules are different, but they aren't as understanding when we don't follow our own laws. It's a trust issue."

"But they trust you," the Secretary of Defense said. "They consulted your team to hire PR consultants, and you've fought together."

"Yes, but that's a personal relationship which doesn't extend to the United States as a country," Daniel explained.

"So, as a gesture of trust, we need to change the laws." The President looked at Kinsey.

Kinsey nodded. "My people are still working on the other party. This whole magic business has several key members worried about their constituents. No one wants to be primaried for 'consorting with witches'."

"Actual witches, as I understand," the President said. He sighed.

"But we've got leverage - we have the Stargate. And we have alien technology. And the most experienced and powerful army in the world," the Secretary of Labor said. "Surely we could find a compromise?"

"We'll lose the Stargate," the Secretary of State told him. "The other nations in the Security Council are bickering over the details, but everyone is in agreement that the Stargate belongs to the whole planet."

"And we can't stand against the entire world," the Secretary of Defense added.

"We'0ve got a spare gate, don't we?" The Secretary of Labor looked at SG-1. "Can't we hand that one over and keep the first?"

"Stargates on the same planet tend to interfere with each other," Carter explained. "It's not entirely safe running two on the same planet."

"To be fair, with all a Stargate entails, it is hard to argue that they shouldn't belong to the entire world," the Secretary of Education said.

"And 'one gate for us, one for the rest of the world' won't really go over well either," the Secretary of State said.

"What about the war we're fighting?" the Secretary of Labor asked.

That was Jack's cue. After a nod from the president, he said: "The Ehterians have a space fleet. They need ground troops - but given our performance so far against the Goa'uld, pretty much any modern military will have the troops to beat the Goa'uld on the ground if they have support from space." And between all of their countries, the Europeans had enough ground troops for that.

"So, we might have the most experience and the best troops, but we're not irreplaceable," the Secretary of Defense said.

"What about our alien technology?"

Jack glanced at Carter. That was her field.

*****​

Dulles International Airport, Washington DC, Earth, August 28th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Hello, Mr Finnigan." Adora smiled as friendly as she could at the man in a suit. "Please have a seat."

"Thank you, Your Highness. Your Highness. Your Highness. Miss Catra. Mister Bow." The man nodded at all of them as he took a seat in Darla's lounge. He wasn't gawking around any more, unlike when he had entered the ship.

Adora glanced at Catra, who seemed ready to comment on her form of address. "Don't," she whispered.

Her lover snorted as the man opened his suitcase and pulled out one of the small computers with a keyboard that they liked on Earth - a laptop, they were called. Catra found the name very amusing for some reason she hadn't shared yet.

"So, Mr Finnigan, you represent Mackenzie and Sons," Glimmer said when the man seemed finished setting up.

"Yes. We're a traditional consultant firm specialising in public relations." He nodded, then added with a smile: "You certainly don't need any introduction - I think everyone on Earth knows you by sight now."

"I don't think everyone has seen pictures of us," Entrapta retorted at once. "And we've got data that there are several communities which do not follow global media. So, not everyone would recognise us on sight. And we also need to consider that not every human being has the same ability to recognise individuals based on pictures. So, I would say we are probably known to the majority of the population of Earth, but not to everyone." She nodded several times.

Finnigan blinked, and his smile slipped a little. "Ah, yes, of course. Thank you for the correction."

"No problem!" Entrapta beamed at him. "I'm happy to help!"

Glimmer cleared her throat. "So, do you know why we are looking to hire a public relations expert?"

"You want to get your message out to the people on Earth and control your image," Finnigan replied at once. "Mackenzie and Sons specialise in that sort of task. Whatever your message, we can get it out - and make people accept it."

Adora frowned a little. "Whatever our message?"

"We're professionals, Your Highness."

"Just Adora," she interrupted him. 'Your Highness' reminded her of how Priest addressed her.

"Certainly, Adora. Anyway, we're professionals - we don't care about your message or your goals, only how we can present them to your target demographic in the most effective way possible."

He didn't care about their message or their goals? Adora blinked.

"Sounds very mercenary," Catra commented.

His polite smile turned a bit more genuine, or so Adora thought. "That is one way to look at it. We don't judge our clients or try to influence them - we don't have a horse in any race. All we want is to do our best to help our clients."

"And to earn money," Glimmer said.

"Of course."

"But what if we had goals that would run counter to your personal principles?" Bow asked.

"As I said, we're professionals. Whatever the client wants, they get. Our own private views play no part in this. We've worked for politicians from both parties in the USA - usually at the same time, albeit in different areas."

"I see." Glimmer's smile was also very polite.

*****​

"...and I was thinking that you are a shoo-in for the younger market - the younger demographics. They can identify with you. They, too, are faced with a world of adults who do not take them seriously due to their age, and they often feel alienated from their parents because of their different life experiences. And, of course, you already cover part of the teenage pop culture - magical princesses? Catgirls? The ads practically write themselves! What you mostly need help with are the older generations." Miss Glendale beamed. "And we at PR Solutions Inc. know how to catch them. Leave it to us, and you'll reap the benefits of a targeted campaign in no time!"

Adora had the distinct impression that Miss Glendale, who was about forty, didn't really take them seriously either.

"I think for the older generation - especially those who remember the Second World War - we should focus on your war experiences. That will create common ground. Of course, you'll have to manage your appearances; what appeals to the younger demographic won't appeal to the older demographic. I would suggest you split your appearances. Some of you focus on the younger targets - I would think you, Adora, and Catra, are best suited for that since they are the most tolerant demographic and you fit several popular archetypes in comics and animation - while Queen Glimmer should focus on the older demographic. We'll have to see what the polls say about your choice of partner to decide whether or not to emphasise your relationship in contrast to Adora and Catra's or not. But I think with careful brand managing, your approval rates should soar."

Adora wasn't sure if she wanted to be managed. But she was sure that she wasn't a brand.

*****​

"I'll be frank - you've got some real issues when it comes to public relations. I took the liberty to have our data department run some polls in preparation for this interview, and, honestly, you're very polarising. The liberal urban population is poised favourably towards you, especially the younger generation, but the politically active part of that demographic is somewhat sceptical of your political views with regard to democracy. And the fringe groups there are concerned about being colonised. Still, that's your core support demographic - they share a number of your values and can be worked with." Mr Brown, of 'Brown, Wallander and Co.', nodded.

"However, on the other end of the spectrum, the Evangelicals are, at best, very sceptical. At worst, they loathe you. You represent everything they fear - you're literal aliens, you have same-sex and interracial couples, you don't follow their religion and you can do magic. And you're very open about everything." He took a deep breath. "And between those, you have the average American - they're sceptical, worried about the war and the changes that your arrival will cause to their lives, but also hesitantly optimistic. You need to convince those that you're not here to destroy their way of life but to help them if you want their support. Brown, Wallander and Co. can help you there, but whether or not they will be convinced depends on your actual plans for the planet."

The man - middle-aged and balding - sounded quite… Adora would say 'professional', but Finnigan had called himself that, and she didn't want to associate Brown with that.

"And, of course, this all depends on what is your ultimate goal," the man went on. "Do you need popular support to put pressure on the government? Or on certain factions in Congress?"

"We would like it if we didn't have to fear that whatever changes to your laws the current President does, the next one undoes - after we have shared our technology and magic," Glimmer summed it up. "And, as far as we know, for some reason, the people who loathe us have a comparable greater influence on your politics than their numbers and economic power would suggest."

"And that is because your democracy is weirder than most other democracies we saw," Catra added.

Brown nodded with a wry smile. "Yes, the system does favour certain demographics. Which in turn, means politics favour them. But changing - breaking up - that conservative alliance will be difficult. Not impossible - you already have big business on your side, so to speak, and the big donors are putting pressure on the usual suspects to change their policies - but a lot of the politicians involved need the Evangelicals to keep their positions."

Adora frowned. Such people shouldn't be in power.

"So, what can we do?" Bow asked.

"We - that is, Brown, Wallander and Co. - can help you with battling the Evangelical propaganda." Brown nodded. "But you won't really convince the hardcore Evangelicals since, in their eyes, you are a threat to their way of living."

Adora shook her head. "We aren't. All we want are equal rights for people like us."

Brown's smile turned sad. "They see that as a threat because their way of life includes forcing their views on everyone else. So, don't expect miracles. Some of them can be reached, but many, perhaps even most, won't change."

"Which means we need to hit the switch voters?" Catra asked - she and Adora had read up on American politics, though Adora didn't think that was the correct term.

"In a way. You mostly need to convince most of the rest of the conservative base that legalising gay marriage and magic isn't going to turn them into gay witches."

"They actually believe that?" Adora blurted out.

"Yes." Brown nodded. "Part of the reason for that is, of course, that no one really knows what magic can do. The rumours of a zombie plague didn't help there."

Adora winced.

"Well, we don't exactly know what Earth magic will do," Entrapta spoke up. "But based on your myths and history, I don't think the sexual preferences of people will be changed."

"I see." Brown slightly inclined his head. "In any case, Brown, Wallander and Co. can help you improve your image in the United States. No more and no less."

"Thank you, Mr Brown. We'll contact you once we have made our decision," Gimmer said.

*****​

"...and if you want to improve your image, you need to optimise your presentation. Get people to focus on your strengths and ignore your flaws. Give the public what they want. You're young, attractive and fighting evil body-snatching aliens. That's enough to forgive a lot of sins - people love war heroes. Keep your private life private, and you'll have them singing your praises soon enough. Of course, if you really want to gain the Evangelicals' support, then converting to their faith would be a big help - they love repenting sinners." Alois Baker, of Smith and Baker, flashed pearly white teeth. "As long as you go through the motions, you're set and can do what you want in private. Most of them do the same, after all."

"Thank you," Adora lied. "We'll stay in touch."

*****​

"Frankly, trying to correct your image by catering to the kind of people who rant about hell and damnation is a fool's quest." Julie Callaghan shook her head. "You won't ever win over most of them - unless you're white, male, straight and Christian, they will never accept you as equals. You have to change them if you want them to stop hating you, and that will take a lot of time, and you won't be able to change all of them."

"That's kind of pessimistic," Bow said.

"It's realistic. You can't win them all, so you need to decide who you want to support you. I've advised several politicians and I've always told them that if they have to lie to gain the support of a group, if they have to hide their real self, play a role, put up a facade, then that will, sooner or later, blow up in their faces. Someone will tell on you and the truth will get out. And that will cost you a lot more support than any lies could gain you."

Adora nodded in full agreement. As did her friends. Well, Catra smirked, but that counted.

"But ignoring them won't really stop people calling for our deaths," Glimmer pointed out.

"Oh, you shouldn't ignore them - but you shouldn't bend over to cater to them. Stress what you have in common. Whether gay or straight, most people want a loving, happy relationship. They want their children to be happy and safe. You want them to realise that they aren't losing anything that matters just because gay people can marry." Julie smiled before turning serious. "Of course, magic complicates that."

Adora sighed.

*****​

"So, the first question you need to answer is: What do you want? What is your ultimate goal? Then we can find out who you need to target and focus on them. Don't waste your money on people who don't matter, I always say - targeted ads are where it's at. And once you have your target group defined, you analyse it and then go for the opinion leaders. The world works top-down - but, being monarchs, you'd know that, wouldn't you?" Mr Cassidy, of Cassidy Analytics, smiled. It was a nice smile, but a little… Adora couldn't really put it down, but it felt a little condescending.

"According to what we know, the United States are a democracy, and public opinion greatly influences policies," Glimmer told him.

"Yes, yes, polls make policies, I always say. But people don't make individual decisions - people are, by and large, followers. The democratic ideal of the informed voter, carefully weighing the pros and cons before making a decision, is an illusion. People don't think. They pick a candidate by gut feeling. Or because someone they trust told them to. And those people - the opinion leaders and shapers - are your targets." Cassidy nodded at his own words. "Let's take the Catholic Church. You don't change the opinions of the Catholic Church by appealing to the masses - you influence the Pope because the Catholics listen to him. Well, they listen, and then they break their own rules all the time, but the Catholic Church considers all of humanity as sinners for a reason, right?" Another smile appeared.

Adora frowned. That sounded… well…

"And who leads those opinion leaders?" Catra asked.

"Well, those who know how they tick and how they can be motivated." And again, he smiled. "You, if you hire me."

"But how do you influence people who believe that their god wants us to die?" Bow asked.

"Oh, they don't - the leaders never believe their own words. It's all an act." Cassidy chuckled. "They're too smart to fall for the lies they tell their rubes."

"You think every leader is like that?" Adora asked.

"I know it."

"Thank you. We'll contact you once we have made our decision," Glimmer said.

*****​

Washington DC, United States, Earth, August 28th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and so it is my informed opinion that the United States couldn't match a program by other industrialised nations supported by the Etherians with a domestic effort of our own." Samantha Carter finished her explanation.

Or so she thought - the Secretary of Commerce frowned at her. "But we have more samples of alien technology than any other nation. And we have the most experience - I distinctly remember the budget for the Stargate program and the research into adapting advanced technology for domestic production. Are you telling me that all the claims made by Stargate Command were false?"

"No, Sir," Sam replied, managing not to frown. "I stand by our claims - but, as our reports clearly state, it will take considerable time until we can reasonably expect results - even accounting for the lack of secrecy now," she added before the man could bring that up. "We simply don't have the resources the Etherians can provide. We have a dozen scientists who have been researching alien technology - for the Etherians, this technology is what they work with. They can provide engineers and technicians to their partners who have been working with this technology all their lives - and know it inside out."

Most of them were clones, as far as Sam knew, but there were hundreds if not thousands of former Horde soldiers who had experience building and maintaining Horde technology as well. She went on: "While we will be trying to teach our engineers and technicians the basics of the technology, the Etherians will be teaching their partners how to build and run factories for finished products."

"Ah."

"Our assets would, of course, use any opportunity to gain information and knowledge," Kinsey added, "but I don't have to explain to you that that would never replace such a deal."

"And it might be seen as an unfriendly act," the President added.

"It would be an unfriendly act," Daniel corrected him. Many glared at Sam's friend for his remark, but he raised his chin and weathered the hostility.

"So, you see - we need that alliance if we want to maintain our technological and miliary lead," the Secretary of Defense said.

"Easier said than done. The Etherians don't understand how our system works." The Secretary of State snorted. "Or, rather - they do understand, but they don't care."

"They're concerned about the extremist elements in our country," the Secretary of Education said. "And with good reason, I dare say."

"Tell that to the conservatives," the Secretary of State grumbled.

"We did speak with them," Kinsey said. "They understand the problem, but… they have some difficulties reining in the radical fringe they cultivated for so long."

"Die Geister die ich rief, die werd ich nicht mehr los." The Secretary of Education chuckled.

"That's from Goethe's 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'," Daniel whispered.

"I don't remember Mickey Mouse speaking German," the Colonel replied in a whisper.

Daniel looked shocked for a moment - until he realised the Colonel was teasing.

"Well, their problems are now our problems," the Secretary of State said. "We can't get a good deal if people keep screaming to burn witches on live television."

"We can't limit Free Speech," the Attorney General said.

The Secretary of Defense muttered something that Sam couldn't hear. She was certain that it wasn't a compliment.

"We could reclassify calling for a lynch murder as inciting violence," the Secretary of Education said.

"We can't keep people from quoting the Bible!" the Attorney General replied. "It would violate both Free Speech and Freedom of Religion!"

"We certainly could!" the Secretary of Education snapped. "If it's done to incite violence, it shouldn't be protected."

"The press would crucify us," the Secretary of Transportation said.

"The press will crucify us if we don't get a deal," the Secretary of Commerce retorted.

The President looked at the Attorney General. "Can you talk to the Supreme Court? Ask them if national interests would be considered in a ruling whether or not the definition of inciting violence could be expanded?"

"I don't think they'll be receptive to that," the man replied. "They generally don't value economic interests higher than our freedoms. And they don't react well to any political pressure."

The President scowled for the first time. "Remind them that we're not just talking about the economy - we've got a fleet crewed by religious fanatics in orbit, and our religious fanatics are talking in public about burning their goddess and her consort. This is a clear and present danger for our country."

"Also, not too many of our allies agree that calling for murder should be protected by Free Speech," the Secretary of State added. "It's not as if we're talking about violating the UN charter of human rights here."

The President nodded. "Yes. I'm not asking to suspend our freedoms - I am asking for a bit of common sense."

The Attorney General sighed. "I'll see what I can do. Maybe we can use the lynching angle."

And the Colonel muttered: "Common sense? From lawyers?"

*****​

Dulles International Airport, Washington DC, Earth, August 28th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"So…" Catra stretched her arms over her head. "Who do we pick?"

"Not Smith and Baker!" Adora blurted out. "They're too…"

"..dishonest, cynical and smug?" Catra asked.

"Yes!" Adora nodded emphatically. "Too manipulative."

Catra pressed her lips together. That summed it up.

"Well, we want to manipulate public opinion, don't we?" Entrapta asked.

"We want to improve public opinion - but not by manipulating people like Cassidy wanted to," Adora retorted. "I don't want to hire him either."

Not like Shadow Weaver would have done it. "Neither of them cared about our goals and principles - only the end result."

"And the end doesn't justify the means," Bow agreed.

Catra glanced at Glimmer, but she didn't contradict Bow. Instead, she said: "And such manipulations tend to blow up in your face."

Catra clenched her teeth. Like her own. She had been so stupid! She had been… A hand on her thigh distracted her. She looked to her side. Adora smiled at her, shaking her head. Alright.

"So, we're all in agreement: Smith and Baker as well as Cassidy Analytics are out," Glimmer said. "What about Mackenzie and Sons?"

"I don't like them," Bow said. "They didn't seem to care at all about what we are doing."

"They only care about money," Catra said. Such people had their uses - but only if you didn't have any other options. And you couldn't trust people who were in it for the money. "They might sell us out if the offer is good enough. Or use what they learn after they stop working for us."

"I don't think they would still be in business if they did that," Glimmer objected. "No client would trust them."

"If they keep their knowledge for their own use, who would be able to tell?" Catra retorted. "I vote for not hiring them."

"Yes," Adora agreed.

"Me too," Glimmer added. "That leaves…PR Solutions, Brown, Wallander and Co. and Julie Callaghan."

"The woman from PR Solutions was pushy," Entrapta said.

"And she talked as if we were children," Adora added.

Catra thought the same. "She acted as if she would take over. But we're looking for a consultant, not a commander."

Glimmer scowled. "Yes. So, all in agreement that they're unsuitable?"

Everyone nodded.

"What about Brown, Wallander and Co.?" Catra asked.

"I like their method!" Entrapta piped up. "He came with data!"

"And he didn't make big promises," Bow added.

"Yes. And he didn't treat us like idiots," Adora said.

"So, we'll hire them. What about Julie Callaghan?" Glimmer asked.

"She seemed a lot like him," Catra said.

"But she didn't have any data," Entrapta pointed out.

"I think she simply didn't gather fresh data like Brown did," Bow told her. "But her conclusions were close to his."

"So… should we hire her as well? We need more than one consultant so we can check their plans, but if she thinks like Brown…" Glimmer shrugged.

"Well, if they have the same correct answer to the same question, then that's a good thing," Entrapta said.

"Yes," Catra said. "But we need a few consultants who aren't Americans. Or referred by the government."

"Yes. But I think we should hire these two," Adora said. "They made a good impression."

"And their rates are reasonable. I think," Bow said. "Compared to the others, at least."

"Alright. Let's hire them. And then see what we can do about those nutcases," Glimmer said.

"And then see who else we can hire," Catra corrected her. "And see how many trips to space we can sell."

"Yes." Adora nodded. "We need to get money to pay them, after all. Let's hope we get enough offers."

Catra snorted. Sometimes, Adora was an idiot. But she was her idiot.

*****​