Chapter 91: Scouting Part 2
Starfox5
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Chapter 91: Scouting Part 2
Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
"Looks like dear old Sokar found out that Apophis wanted to frame him and decided to return the favour," Jack O'Neill commented while he quickly patted the unconscious prisoner down. They had his zat and toolbag, but Jack was sure that… Ah! He pulled a small knife from the Jaffa's boot, followed by some wire and tweezers. And various other thingies that Jack didn't recognise but the guy obviously worked with. And they wouldn't want the guy to go all A-Team on them and construct a death ray in his cell using his boots and the breakfast porridge.
"OK, we've got a prisoner and a name. Let's take him with us and leave before someone notices that he's missing," Catra said. "Even Kyle couldn't take forever for a simple repair job."
"But we don't know what the fleet's orders are," Entrapta protested. "We need to hack the computer system for that!"
She was correct, of course - just knowing the identity of the fleet was the bare minimum they could achieve. And not nearly as valuable as finding out what Sokar was planning. But the longer they stayed on the ship, the greater the risk of being detected. As tight as these Jaffa ran their ships, with their cyber security and radio silence, they wouldn't let a maintenance flunkie skive off from work. Which meant time was running out as they spoke.
He glanced at Carter. She hadn't said anything, but she looked determined. Confident. And she wasn't looking at the airlock - she was looking forward at the corner leading into the main part of the ship.
And yet… He looked at Teal'c. "What are the chances that Sokar will assume the fleet's cover's been blown should a jaffa go missing on his ship?"
Teal'c cocked his head to the side. "It is hard to say, but System Lords always expect treachery. If we take the strict discipline and security into account that we have observed in this fleet, I think he would assume the worst until he could find out what had happened to the missing Jaffa."
"And that means any intel we might find would be obsolete. Mostly obsolete," Jack corrected himself - it would still give them insight into the snake's strategic goals if they knew his target. But then, they already knew that Apophis was to be framed. He nodded. "Let's not push our luck. We can always…"
A harsh voice in a language Jack didn't speak sounded from the ship's PA system, finishing with a short, barking laugh.
He looked at Daniel.
"Uh… the person asked, quite rudely, if 'Manut'u' has accidentally discharged his zat'nik'tel again and promised dire punishment if he did," Daniel said.
Shit! Jack clenched his teeth. "We need to leave now! They detected me stunning him." Stupid. He should have been more careful - especially on an unknown ship.
"But…" Entrapta tried to protest, but Catra grabbed her arm and dragged her towards the airlock.
"No time! We need to leave!"
Teal'c had already picked up their prisoner and thrown him over his shoulder before hauling ass.
"Daniel! Go!" Jack snapped, holstering his zat and grabbing his carbine. "Carter! You too!" he added as he covered the hallway ahead of them.
Neither protested.
Teal'c had just finished stuffing the prisoner into the airlock, after Entrapta, Daniel, and Carter, when Jack arrived.
"You too, Glimmer!" Catra added - she was covering the other hallway with Adora.
"What?"
"You're the smallest."
To Jack's surprise, Glimmer squeezed herself into the airlock without even a token protest about Catra being more flexible or something. Jack hit the controls, and the hatch closed.
A few seconds later, it had cycled, and they could hear the outer hatch open.
"One down, one to go," Jack muttered as he kept aiming his carbine down the maintenance duct.
"Hatch closed, sir," Carter reported over their comms.
"Good. Get back to the shuttle!" Jack hit the controls again.
The hatch didn't move.
And the PA system rang out again.
Jack didn't need to be a linguist to know that this was an alert.
"They've made us!" he snapped. "The hatch's locked!"
And both their hackers were on the other side of the airlock - probably back in the shuttle already.
"I'll be back in a second to override it, sir!"
"No! Stay in the shuttle! We'll blow the hatch open!" Jack retorted.
"No need." Catra grinned and unsheathed her claws.
A few swipes later, the inner hatch was reduced to a heap of scrap on the floor. Right. Jack had forgotten that Catra made a great Wolverine impression with her claws.
"Watch out when you do the outer hatch," he cautioned her. "We don't want an explosive decompression." That would suck - literally.
Catra chuckled as she stepped into the airlock. "Don't worry."
But as she reached out to shred the outer hatch, presumably just enough to let the air out, the whole ship shuddered - in a familiar way. "Hold it!" he snapped.
But she had already stopped - and tapped her helmet. "Glimmer? Bow? Entrapta?"
No answer.
"Carter?" Jack added.
Still no answer. And they were wearing Entrapta's special spacesuits, using her special comm. The snakes didn't know about that, so they couldn't jam it. That left…
"It seems the ship has entered hyperspace," Teal'c said.
"Shit."
Hyperspace, Near Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
They were in hyperspace. Separated from their friends. Adora could only hope that the shuttle was OK. If the Goa'uld had detected and shot at it, at point-blank range… No. They would have noticed the guns firing, wouldn't they? And their friends would have said something, before… And the Ha'tak wouldn't have jumped into hyperspace if they had destroyed the shuttle. Or just detected it.
That was it. Adora nodded firmly. Their friends were fine. They had to worry about themselves now. She glanced at Catra.
"They know we're here," her lover said. She cocked her head. "And I can hear them coming from this direction." She pointed to the right. "Fight or flight?"
"We can take them," Adora said. If she transformed into She-Ra, this would be easy.
"But if they realise that, they might decide to blow the ship up to take us with them," Jack pointed out. "And not everyone here is explosion-proof."
"Let's avoid them then. This way!" Catra started heading left.
Adora winced as they quickly ran down the hallway. That was a risk she hadn't considered - and she should have. If the Jaffa decided to suicide…
After a few corners, they stopped. Jack looked at Teal'c. "You know this ship best. Where can we hole up?"
"This way should lead to store rooms and magazines," Teal'c said, taking the lead.
They ran down another narrow hallway.
"Stop!" Catra hissed. "I hear people ahead."
"In here!" Jack pushed a door open.
It was a storage room. Adora pressed herself against the wall next to the door. If the enemy found them, she'd face them first.
Catra remained at the other side of the doorway. Jack and Teal'c hid behind crates, weapons ready.
Adora saw Catra's ears twist. "They're coming this way," her lover whispered. "Almost here."
Adora held her breath. If they checked the room… She tensed and got ready to transform, flexing her hand - she could call her sword in an instant, just thinking about it.
Seconds passed. Was that a noise outside? Adora licked her lips.
Catra remained tense.
More seconds passed.
And Adora's lover nodded. "They're gone."
Whew! Adora relaxed. A little. "So, what now?" she asked, looking at the others.
"We need to destroy their hyperdrive," Catra said. "Before we end up who knows where. Probably at Sokar's headquarters."
Adora nodded in agreement. "And we need to contact our friends so they can come fetch us."
"And we need to prevent the crew from blowing themselves up. Or telling the other ships, if they are around, to destroy them and us," Jack added.
"If we destroy the hyperdrive and drop out of hyperspace, they'll have a fun time trying to find us," Catra said, grinning.
Adroa pressed her lips together. It was a dangerous plan - destroying the hyperdrive in hyperspace could seriously damage the ship. But it shouldn't destroy it. At least not a ship the size of a Ha'tak. And it was probably the safest solution.
The others seemed to agree - Jack nodded, and Teal'c… didn't say anything against the suggestion.
"So, we'll have to be sneaky. We can't just cut our way through them to the engine room and the bridge. As satisfying as that would be, that would spook them, and they might blow themselves up." Catra flashed her fangs in that confident grin of hers that… Ah, not the time, Adora reminded herself. Catra looked at Teal'c. "Are they likely to do that?"
Teal'c inclined his head. "According to what I was told, Sokar was feared by even his most loyal followers. They believe that he will condemn them to eternal torment in the afterlife should they fail him."
"What a nice guy. Did he ever hear about catching more flies with honey than vinegar?" Jack shook his head.
Catra shrugged. "Doesn't sound so different from some of those preachers of yours talking about hell."
Adora frowned at her lover. She remembered those people saying that she would go to hell for loving Catra, but this wasn't the time to discuss religion. "So, we need to take control of the engine room and the bridge. And probably the ordnance magazines as well."
"Without getting noticed while the entire crew of the ship is looking for us," Catra added. "And while they are still hurrying in the hope of catching us in the open, they will soon stop and start going through every room." She looked up at the ventilation duct. "I wish Entrapta was here. She'd be able to reach everywhere in the ship through the ducts."
"And Carter would be able to hack their system to hide us," Jack added. "But we're currently lacking our technological geniuses, so we have to make do with brawn and base cunning." He grinned. "Teal'c, I don't suppose you would have memorised a Ha'tak's air duct layout?"
"I have not, O'Neill. However, they follow a basic layout dictated by the ship's core design, so, unless Sokar has had this ship modified on a fundamental level - which is unlikely - we should still be able to navigate a path to our destination."
"Great! Let's hope dear old Sokar wasn't even more paranoid than we think."
Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
The Ha'tak had entered hyperspace. With the Colonel, Teal'c, Adora and Catra still on board. Because Samantha Carter had failed to be thorough when she had hacked the airlock, and so the Goa'uld or Jaffa in charge of the ship had managed to override her commands and lock it down. If Sam had taken a bit more time, had been a bit more careful, hadn't simply assumed that overriding the manual commands would be enough, this wouldn't have happened.
This was her fault.
And now the Colonel and the others were stuck on a Goa'uld ship, travelling through hyperspace to an unknown destination. Stuck without a tech expert. That was Sam's fault as well. She should have stayed back with the Colonel, in case something like this happened, and had let one of the others go with the prisoners. Maybe Teal'c - though he might not have fit into the airlock; it had been very tight already. Catra would have fit, though, in place of Sam. Not that she would have left without Adora, though. Adora would have fit as well, as long as she wasn't transformed into She-Ra, but she wouldn't have left without Catra. And the Colonel wouldn't have left before everyone else.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could blame herself later; she had a job to do. She had to find out where that ship was going. Glancing towards Entrapta, she asked: "Did you finish compiling the data from the sensors?" If they could compute the vector of the ship when it entered hyperspace with enough precision, they could extrapolate the ship's route. That would give them at least a direction in which they could start searching. And based on a Ha'tak's performance, they could approximately define the point where it would exit hyperspace to check their position and prepare the next jump. If they were quick enough with the calculation and could vector the spy bots nearby in to lay down a sensor net, then, taking the Horde hyperdrive's superior performance into account, they had a chance to catch the Ha'tak there. A small chance, even if everything went perfectly, but… a small chance was better than no chance at all.
"Uh… the system is still working on it. With most of the free system resources allocated to the stealth system, it's going slow," Entrapta replied. "We could reassign some of the computing power the stealth system uses, but…"
"Don't even think about that!" Bow snapped from the bridge. "Sorry," he added a moment later, "but we've got dozens of Death Gliders and Tel'taks looking for us, with Al'keshs and Ha'taks moving in as well. We need all the power routed to the stealth system until we're clear of them."
"Right!" Entrapta nodded, then turned to Sam. "I think we underestimated the drain on the ship's computing resources for our stealth system."
"It can't be helped," Sam replied. It was a weakness - but without constant recalibration and adjustments, the minuscule delays resulting from the light being bent around the shuttle might get detected by an enemy using integrated sensor networks looking for such discrepancies. They didn't know if the Goa'uld had such a network, but they certainly had the capability to form one. In theory. And as much as Sam wanted to assign every single computer core and crystal matrix to analysing the data they had, to find the Colonel and the others, she knew that they couldn't risk being discovered.
They could call in Priest's task force, of course. They would make short work of the enemy fleet. But if Sam's plan failed - and the odds for that were better than even - then they would have to find out the missing Ha'tak's destination from the remaining ships here. And, since Sokar obviously was paranoid about security, if overcome in battle, the Jaffa would wipe their databanks and probably commit suicide before getting boarded or captured.
Of course, as the distance between the shuttle and the enemy ships grew, the risk of being detected shrank, and so it would be safe to reduce the resources for it and free them for Sam's task…
She checked the sensor readings. Maybe dropping one core and one matrix would be safe…
"Uh-oh."
That was Bow. And he sounded concerned. Sam checked the sensors - no enemy ship was close. So…
"Priest's calling us," Bow said.
"Or Hordak! They must have noticed our target moving away," Entrapta said. "Oh, maybe we can outsource some computing?"
That was… well, it should work - it would add a delay, but with the power of a frigate's mainframe at their disposal…
"So, who's going to tell Priest that Adora just vanished with an enemy ship and that it wasn't our fault?" Glimmer asked.
"Uh…" Bow sounded concerned. "He's not going to like that."
Sam felt her stomach drop as she shook her head. "No, he won't." Maybe Daniel could handle this… but he was busy looking over their prisoner. And it wouldn't be fair to drop this on him when it was Sam's fault. At least partially.
"Shouldn't he trust Adora to, well, vanquish her enemies?" Entrapta asked. "He thinks she is a goddess, after all - and while I still haven't figured out what the exact Earth definition of a goddess is - you guys have so many of them, and they don't really fit each other - Adora should be able to handle the crew of a ship."
"That's a logical assumption," Sam told her. "But…"
"People aren't rational, right?" Entrapta sighed as Sam nodded. "Things would be so much easier if they were."
Sam nodded again.
Hyperspace, Near Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
Sokar hadn't been paranoid enough to replace and reroute the entire ventilation system. But he had been paranoid - or smart - enough to add grates to key locations in the ventilation ducts, blocking their passage. Grates linked to sensors, so you couldn't just slice them to pieces with your claws and continue on your way.
Fortunately, Sokar might have been paranoid, but also cheap - or operating on a budget - so the sensors were not really sophisticated. No motion or heat sensors - then again, that probably wouldn't have been a good idea in a ventilation duct where smaller objects swept along by the air currents, or hot air from somewhere, was common. Just some sensors to check if the grate was still intact. And Catra knew from her cadet days how to deal with that stuff without triggering the alerts.
Which didn't make it any less annoying, of course. More, actually, since the ducts in Goa'uld ships were not quite as roomy as those in Horde bases. And if she ever met the Jaffa tech who had installed the sensors on top of the grate so she had to lie on her back to spoof it, with dust and dried whatever falling down on her face every time she as much as touched the top of the duct… Her fur felt all sticky and dirty.
"Are we there yet?"
She rolled her eyes at O'Neill's comment. The joke hadn't been funny the first time he had made it, and it hadn't magically gotten funny after getting repeated three times. Maybe she shouldn't have told him that she could hear any Jaffa before they could hear Catra and her friends, so talking was fine if done in a low voice…
"Don't distract her!" Adora whispered behind her.
"I'm fine," Catra snapped as she cut the sensor's casing open.
"See? She's fine. How's the sensor, by the way?"
"She always says that!"
"I don't!" Catra hissed. "Now be quiet; we're close."
She connected the piece of metal she had pulled out of the last shredded grate to the sensor, then to the lower half of the grate. Good.
Then she unsheathed her claws and sliced the annoying obstacle into pieces. Some of them she stuffed into her belt for the next grate, the rest she pushed to the side before rolling on her belly. "Done!"
She started crawling ahead without waiting for an answer; sooner or later, the Jaffa would figure out where they were and do something about it. They needed to be at the bridge by then.
Two more grates later, they were finally at their goal - well, almost. Through the grate, Catra could see the hallway leading to the bridge. And she could hear the… two? Yes, two… Jaffa who stood guard there. Probably in full armour, staff weapons ready and zats on their belts. At least, that was how the other guards they had seen had walked around.
Catra crawled back a bit, suppressing a hiss when her tail brushed over something sticky that smelt like old lubricant, around the corner, where Adora and the others were waiting. "We're at the right spot," she whispered. "But we're not close enough to hit the guards through the grate. And not far enough to quitely remove the grate without them noticing. Unless they're asleep at their posts."
"Such a dereliction of duty would be punished most harshly by any System Lord. And Sokar has a reputation of cruelty that stands out amongst his peers," Teal'c said in a low voice.
"In other words, we can't count on that," O'Neill pointed out the obvious.
"So we have to be quick. Kick the grate out of the duct, then take out the guards before they can react and charge the bridge!" Adora said.
Catra knew what she meant. "Slice the grate to pieces, then do the same to the guards and the hatch leading to the bridge," she corrected her lover. "Besides, I'm in front, so I have to be the first through the grate."
"But…" Adora protested. "I could squirm past you."
That would be… well, it had a certain appeal. And Catra knew from some experiments in Dryl's castle that they were flexible enough to manage it. But they weren't here for that. "I'll go first - I'm faster and the smaller target."
"But I can take a shot from them!" Adora retorted.
"Only if you transform into She-Ra. And good luck doing that inside here," Catra pointed out.
"But…"
Catra didn't have to see Adora's face to know she was pouting. But Catra was right here - and they were running out of time. "Let's go!" she hissed, then started crawling forward again.
She reached the grate and listened. Still two guards breathing. No one else. That was as good as it would get.
She unsheathed her claws, took a deep breath and sliced the grate with both hands. Before the first parts started to fall, she dug her feet's claws into the duct's metal and pushed herself forward, bursting through the remains of the grate - and into the hallway.
She curled up and flipped over, hitting the wall with her feet first - and jumped off again.
The Jaffa were quick - they fired at her before she touched the ground. But the plasma bolts missed, blasting the wall behind her as she rolled to the side, and the next volley hit the floor while she was already in the air, pouncing on them. She kicked the staff of the one on the left to the side, her feet's claws cutting through the top of it, and raked her hand's claws over and through the helmet and chestplate of the other.
He fell down, hands flailing as blood ran down his front, and she whirled towards the first guard, who was drawing his zat.
"For the Honour of Grayskull!" rang out from behind Catra.
The guard was good - Adora transforming into She-Ra didn't distract him at all. But he wasn't fast enough. She grabbed his right arm with her left, claws ripping into his muscles, before he could raise the weapon against her. He managed to land a glancing blow on her shoulder with his other arm, but she had taken worse in sparring. A swipe of her claws all but took his head off, helmet and all, and he collapsed in a pool of blood.
Catra turned to grin at Adora - and had to step to the side.
She-Ra was charging at the bulwark, sword out and glowing with power.
Bruce Willis made it look so easy. Jack O'Neill clenched his teeth as he pushed himself out of the ventilation duct - it was just narrow enough so he couldn't crawl on all fours - and contorted himself so he wouldn't just fall down head-first to the floor below but land in a crouch, carbine ready.
Just in time for Adora to blow the hatch wide open with a swipe of her sword. Blow it to bits, actually - Jack flinched a little at the blast but didn't let that stop him from moving forward. While the smoke obscured the view - Catra charged through anyway, right behind Adora - Jack glanced behind him.
Teal'c slid out of the duct, grabbing the edge with one hand and swinging around to land on his feet, far more graceful than a man his size had any right to, Jack noted with a touch of jealousy.
Then Jack reached the smoke. Two steps into it, he dived to the right and rolled over his shoulder. He ended in a kneeling position, gun braced, and just had to lean a bit to the right to shoot a Jaffa coming around a console with a staff weapon ready. Jack hit him in the chest with a short burst, one bullet ricocheting off the armour - bad angle - but the others going right through it. The Jaffa stumbled, reaching out to the next console to steady himself, turning towards Jack.
Jack dropped him with another burst, to the head this time, and ran forward, bent over to present a smaller target. More staff weapons went off, and as he took a peek from behind the damaged console, he saw that half a dozen Jaffa were shooting at Adora, who had changed her sword into a shield to take the blasts. Two more were trying to flank her, but just as Jack started to aim at them, Catra dropped on them from the ceiling and started shredding them. Literally.
Jack switched targets and took out the closest threat to him with two rounds to their face and throat. He had to suppress the urge to lay down suppressive fire while Adora advanced - they couldn't risk damaging the bridge. Any more than it was already damaged, that was.
Where was Teal'c? Jack glanced to his left, at the door. No sign of his friend - and the smoke had almost cleared. Then he saw a flash through the door - a staff weapon firing.
Ah. Teal'c was holding off reinforcements.
Jack caught some movement to the side and whipped his gun around, putting a few rounds into a Jaffa crawling over the floor before the man could get to cover.
Another Jaffa flew over Jack's head, screaming until he hit the wall and dropped to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Jack put another two rounds into the collapsed figure just to be certain the Jaffa wouldn't get up behind him, then scanned the room again.
It was over. Adora stood there, still glowing, surrounded by five broken bodies. Dead and dying. Catra had finished her two earlier victims and gutted a third. She jerked, ears twitching. "Teal'c needs help."
"Shut down the hyperdrive! And the reactor! And seal or dump the ordnance!" Adora snapped as she whirled and raced back to the hallway, shield held up to catch more staff blasts.
Catra looked at her, then at the consoles - and then at Jack. "If I remember correctly, the main controls are smoking over there." She pointed at one of the damaged consoles. "There should be secondary controls, though. But I don't know where they are - or how to use them."
He winced and wished Carter were here - she would have already shut down the hyperdrive. "I think that wasn't covered in the general briefing. I'll make a note to rectify that oversight once we're back on Earth."
Catra snorted, then stepped forward, head cocking to the side. A moment later, she bent down and grabbed a Jaffa by the scruff of his neck, lifting the groaning man up one-handed. "Can you use the secondary hyperdrive controls?" she asked, flashing the claws of her free hand in front of his face.
The Jaffa blinked, one eye already swelling shut, then coughed, blood running down his chin. "I-I'll never b-betray my g-god! Sokar!"
"Worth a try," Catra mumbled before dropping him on the ground again. She opened her mouth, then stopped, her ears twitching again. "Adora and Teal'c are done."
A few seconds later, Jack saw Adora enter the bridge. "We've blocked the passageway. It won't hold them for long, though," she said.
"We need the secondary controls - the primary are fried," Catra told her, nodding at the smoking console.
"You can access the secondary controls from any command console," Teal'c said, joining them. "But it usually requires codes only high-ranking Jaffa have."
And with Sokar being paranoid about security… Jack shook his head. He would really, really love to have Carter with them right now. Or Entrapta. Or Bow. But you fought your war with the army you had, not the army you wished you had. "So, I only see one way to stop this ship: We go and blow up the hyperdrive by hand." That would be dangerous and might cause the Jaffa to blow the ship up when they realised they couldn't stop them, but Jack didn't see any alternative. And then they would have to secure the ordnance magazines.
Catra and Adora nodded, looking grim.
"There is an alternative," Teal'c said. "Although it requires questionable and possibly dishonourable actions."
"Oh?" Jack cocked his head at his friend. "Hypothetically, what would we have to do?" He wasn't a stranger to torture, and he didn't think Catra would make a fuss, but...
Teal'c glanced at Adora, as Jack had expected. "It would require you to pose as a goddess and convert Sokar's faithful."
Jack blinked. He hadn't expected that.
"Convert Sokar's faithful?" Adora gaped at Teal'c. He couldn't be serious! This had to be a joke - Teal'c had a very subtle sense of humour, a dry wit. This was… "I'm no goddess!" she blurted out.
"Yes, I know." Teal'c inclined his head. "Which is why this is a questionable and possibly dishonourable plan of action."
"Yeah, we call the snakes false gods for a reason." Jack nodded, but despite his words, he looked… not nearly as shocked as he should, in Adora's opinion.
And Catra… Adora glanced at her lover and winced. Judging by Catra's grin, she had no trouble with the plan at all. Not that there was a plan.
"Well, you managed to convert half the Horde fleet without even trying to - while trying to prevent them from converting…"
"That was different!" Adora protested. "Their situation was completely different! And it wasn't half the Horde fleet!"
"Details, details." Catra cocked her head at the groaning Jaffa on the ground. "But the Jaffa seem much more fanatical - and Adora hasn't killed Sokar yet."
"Sokar is well-known for his cruelty," Teal'c said. "Unlike his rival System Lords, he does not even attempt to inspire devotion - he rules through fear and terror." He looked at the wounded Jaffa. "Of all the false gods' followers, his are potentially the most vulnerable to conversion."
Oh. Adora blinked again. That was what this was about - it wasn't just about stopping the Ha'ak. It was about saving the Jaffa from dying for their masters.
Which, she realised, she probably should start doing right away, seeing as a number of them were dying in front of her. You couldn't convert - turn, she corrected herself, turn - the dead. And they were running out of time - Catra was looking towards the bulwark they had closed and barricaded, her ears twitching. That meant that the Jaffa were attacking it, trying to break through.
She looked around. Four Jaffa had survived the battle on the bridge. Three of them were conscious but they didn't look good. If she healed them, it might kill the symbiont, dooming them… On the other hand, they might die without help anyway, and if they died, the symbiont would die as well… And they were prisoners - she couldn't just let them die.
Adora took a deep breath and pointed her sword at the closest. He tensed, one hand clutching his side - his legs were mangled from getting thrown at the closest console - but he was staring at her defiantly. He must be expecting death.
She smiled at him as gently as she could and focused on her power. A moment later, her sword started to glow, and magic shot out of it, engulfing the Jaffa. She heard him gasp as she healed him, then turned to heal the others on the floor.
A few seconds later, all four were whole. One was patting himself down as if he couldn't believe it - he had been unconscious, Adora remembered. But the other three were still staring at her.
"I am She-Ra," she told them. "Princess of Power. I am not a Goa'uld. I fight the false gods who use lies and cruelty to rule and oppress others."
"We will never betray our god Sokar!" the first Jaffa she had healed yelled - and lunged, reaching for a staff weapon near him. Before Adora could react, Catra hit him with her shock rod, and he collapsed.
"What a pain," Adora's lover commented with a sigh.
Jack snorted at that, of course, as he stunned the Jaffa with his zat before he could recover.
Adora wanted to sigh as well as she turned to address the remaining three, who hadn't moved. That was an encouraging sign, wasn't it? "I have healed you because you don't deserve to die for being lied to, for being manipulated - and for being betrayed."
She saw the Jaffa glance at the corpses surrounding them and suppressed a wince. But none of them asked why Adora and her friends had killed the others. They would be used to such cruelty, Adora reminded herself, based on what they knew about Sokar.
"Sokar is our god," another said as Jack, Teal'c and Catra tied them up.
Adora shook her head. "He is a false god. He uses deceit and trickery to fool you. He…"
"They're about to break through!" Catra interrupted her.
Adora felt relieved as she turned to face the hallway. Trying to turn people from following the Goa'uld was hard. Fighting them was easy.
"W… Will you kill them?"
Adora froze for a fraction of a second, then glanced over her shoulder at the Jaffa who had spoken. The other two were glaring at him, but he looked at her with a weird expression.
"I will do my best not to kill them," Adora told him.
She heard the door break in the hallway and charged forward, changing her sword into a shield again as the first Jaffa entered the hallway. He fired at her with his staff weapon, but she easily caught the bolt on her shield - and two more, one from him and one from the Jaffa behind him, before she slammed into him.
He was thrown into the broken bulwark, hard enough to break bones, but he would live. Or so she hoped as she whirled to face the next enemies. A volley of staff blasts and zat shots splashed against her shield. Snarling, she swung it around, knocking half a dozen Jaffa off their feet.
A few quick steps carried her into the midst of their formation. She kicked one, breaking his weapons and his arm, hit another with her free hand, knocking him out, then used her shield to deflect more shots.
She heard Catra's shock rod go off behind her - someone must have been still a threat - as she widened her shield with a thought, matching the hallway's width, then charged forward, pushing the remaining Jaffa, twenty at least, into each other and back against the wall, barely managing to stop herself from crushing the lot of them.
Yes, that was much easier than trying to turn them.
Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
Samantha Carter stared at the clock on her screen. "ETA thirty seconds." She checked the data from the spy drones. The enemy ships were moving according to the expected patterns.
If everything went according to plan, Priest's task force would be dropping out of hyperspace right on top of the enemy fleet. That was cutting it a bit too close for Sam's taste, but it wasn't her plan. Priest had insisted on attacking the fleet in order to secure the information they needed, and while Priest wasn't officially in charge of the mission even with Adora missing, Sam knew better than to try to give an order that would be refused.
And he was a veteran of such engagements - Sam had never taken part in a fleet action. But still… they were trusting her - and Entrapta's - data. The clones had calculated their exit vectors based on Sam and Entrapta's estimates of the enemy fleet's movements. If they had made a mistake… The clones knew the risk, but Sam still held her breath as the seconds ticked down, watching for the slightest deviation from the expected patterns. At least for the capital ships - the Death Gliders were moving almost randomly, and the Tel'taks had slightly erratic patterns.
"They've done this before," Bow said. "They have wiped out Apophis's forces. They know their enemy."
Bow was right - but he also sounded as if he was trying to reassure himself. If the Colonel were here, he'd make a joke to break the tension. And a point to show how relaxed he was.
But he wasn't here.
"Ten seconds!" Entrapta announced.
Nine… eight… seven…
"Jamming field active!" It wouldn't stop the fleet's FTL comms forever, but long enough for this battle.
Sam looked at the sensor readings again. Oh, no!
"Uh-oh! Deviation!" Entrapta had noticed it as well.
"What?" Bow craned his neck to look at their screen.
But it was too late. The task force dropped out of hyperspace to rake the enemy fleet at point-blank range while the Jaffa were still shocked.
And one frigate dropped right into the path of an Al'kesh which had changed course a moment ago. Far too close for either ship to react and avoid the collision. The spy drone network and the shuttle's sensors showed every detail.
The frigate's batteries fired. They shattered the Al'kesh's shields but couldn't stop it. And neither could the frigate's shields. Sam clenched her teeth as the shields flared, then died, and the Al'kesh, already wrecked, trailing parts and leaking atmosphere, rammed into the frigate's bow.
Not even a Horde frigate could take that kind of impact. The bow armour buckled for a second, like a crash test in slow motion, then shattered - and the bow crumpled, then was crushed as the main body of the frigate ploughed through the remains of the Al'kesh.
For a fraction of a second, Sam had hope that the frigate, though irreparably wrecked, had survived, but then an explosion engulfed both wrecks, quickly followed by secondary explosions that ripped the frigate's wreck apart.
Sam closed her eyes for a second and drew a hissing breath. That was… It wasn't her fault. She hadn't wanted this attack. She had warned Priest. The clones knew the risks.
But she still felt guilty.
"Oh. The Al'kesh must have been carrying a full load of bombs," Entrapta said. "I can't tell if they were deliberately detonated or blew up from the impact. Usually, they wouldn't be armed unless they were expecting combat, but since they were looking for us…"
"...they might have had their bombs ready to be launched," Sam finished for her friend. Which would have been stupid, of course - bombs were near-useless in combat outside a planet's atmosphere. But if that was standard procedure, the Jaffa would have armed the bombs.
It didn't matter anyway. Sam checked the rest of the battle. If you could call it a battle. The task force had double the numbers of the enemy fleet - and a Horde frigate had more firepower than a Ha'tak. The Al'keshs were wiped out in no time even with half the force focusing on the Ha'taks. The Tel'taks were not faring any better. A handful tried to escape using their stealth system, but with the spy drones' sensor network linked to Priest's task force, that merely meant that they were destroyed without shooting back.
One Ha'tak accelerated, trying to enter hyperspace. But it was too late - the ship ran into a squadron of frigates and all but disintegrated under their fire.
Sam pressed her lips together so she wouldn't call Priest to remind him that they needed prisoners to find the missing team. The clone commander was aware of that - and of the fact that they had to ensure that no enemy ship escaped to report to Sokar.
And, seeing as a number of Ha'taks were drifting dead in space but hadn't blown up, it looked like they would get their prisoners.
Sam could only hope that it would be enough to narrow down the missing Ha'tak's destination; the data they had so far only netted them a general direction.
And that wasn't enough to find their missing friends.
Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
"Looks like dear old Sokar found out that Apophis wanted to frame him and decided to return the favour," Jack O'Neill commented while he quickly patted the unconscious prisoner down. They had his zat and toolbag, but Jack was sure that… Ah! He pulled a small knife from the Jaffa's boot, followed by some wire and tweezers. And various other thingies that Jack didn't recognise but the guy obviously worked with. And they wouldn't want the guy to go all A-Team on them and construct a death ray in his cell using his boots and the breakfast porridge.
"OK, we've got a prisoner and a name. Let's take him with us and leave before someone notices that he's missing," Catra said. "Even Kyle couldn't take forever for a simple repair job."
"But we don't know what the fleet's orders are," Entrapta protested. "We need to hack the computer system for that!"
She was correct, of course - just knowing the identity of the fleet was the bare minimum they could achieve. And not nearly as valuable as finding out what Sokar was planning. But the longer they stayed on the ship, the greater the risk of being detected. As tight as these Jaffa ran their ships, with their cyber security and radio silence, they wouldn't let a maintenance flunkie skive off from work. Which meant time was running out as they spoke.
He glanced at Carter. She hadn't said anything, but she looked determined. Confident. And she wasn't looking at the airlock - she was looking forward at the corner leading into the main part of the ship.
And yet… He looked at Teal'c. "What are the chances that Sokar will assume the fleet's cover's been blown should a jaffa go missing on his ship?"
Teal'c cocked his head to the side. "It is hard to say, but System Lords always expect treachery. If we take the strict discipline and security into account that we have observed in this fleet, I think he would assume the worst until he could find out what had happened to the missing Jaffa."
"And that means any intel we might find would be obsolete. Mostly obsolete," Jack corrected himself - it would still give them insight into the snake's strategic goals if they knew his target. But then, they already knew that Apophis was to be framed. He nodded. "Let's not push our luck. We can always…"
A harsh voice in a language Jack didn't speak sounded from the ship's PA system, finishing with a short, barking laugh.
He looked at Daniel.
"Uh… the person asked, quite rudely, if 'Manut'u' has accidentally discharged his zat'nik'tel again and promised dire punishment if he did," Daniel said.
Shit! Jack clenched his teeth. "We need to leave now! They detected me stunning him." Stupid. He should have been more careful - especially on an unknown ship.
"But…" Entrapta tried to protest, but Catra grabbed her arm and dragged her towards the airlock.
"No time! We need to leave!"
Teal'c had already picked up their prisoner and thrown him over his shoulder before hauling ass.
"Daniel! Go!" Jack snapped, holstering his zat and grabbing his carbine. "Carter! You too!" he added as he covered the hallway ahead of them.
Neither protested.
Teal'c had just finished stuffing the prisoner into the airlock, after Entrapta, Daniel, and Carter, when Jack arrived.
"You too, Glimmer!" Catra added - she was covering the other hallway with Adora.
"What?"
"You're the smallest."
To Jack's surprise, Glimmer squeezed herself into the airlock without even a token protest about Catra being more flexible or something. Jack hit the controls, and the hatch closed.
A few seconds later, it had cycled, and they could hear the outer hatch open.
"One down, one to go," Jack muttered as he kept aiming his carbine down the maintenance duct.
"Hatch closed, sir," Carter reported over their comms.
"Good. Get back to the shuttle!" Jack hit the controls again.
The hatch didn't move.
And the PA system rang out again.
Jack didn't need to be a linguist to know that this was an alert.
"They've made us!" he snapped. "The hatch's locked!"
And both their hackers were on the other side of the airlock - probably back in the shuttle already.
"I'll be back in a second to override it, sir!"
"No! Stay in the shuttle! We'll blow the hatch open!" Jack retorted.
"No need." Catra grinned and unsheathed her claws.
A few swipes later, the inner hatch was reduced to a heap of scrap on the floor. Right. Jack had forgotten that Catra made a great Wolverine impression with her claws.
"Watch out when you do the outer hatch," he cautioned her. "We don't want an explosive decompression." That would suck - literally.
Catra chuckled as she stepped into the airlock. "Don't worry."
But as she reached out to shred the outer hatch, presumably just enough to let the air out, the whole ship shuddered - in a familiar way. "Hold it!" he snapped.
But she had already stopped - and tapped her helmet. "Glimmer? Bow? Entrapta?"
No answer.
"Carter?" Jack added.
Still no answer. And they were wearing Entrapta's special spacesuits, using her special comm. The snakes didn't know about that, so they couldn't jam it. That left…
"It seems the ship has entered hyperspace," Teal'c said.
"Shit."
*****
Hyperspace, Near Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
They were in hyperspace. Separated from their friends. Adora could only hope that the shuttle was OK. If the Goa'uld had detected and shot at it, at point-blank range… No. They would have noticed the guns firing, wouldn't they? And their friends would have said something, before… And the Ha'tak wouldn't have jumped into hyperspace if they had destroyed the shuttle. Or just detected it.
That was it. Adora nodded firmly. Their friends were fine. They had to worry about themselves now. She glanced at Catra.
"They know we're here," her lover said. She cocked her head. "And I can hear them coming from this direction." She pointed to the right. "Fight or flight?"
"We can take them," Adora said. If she transformed into She-Ra, this would be easy.
"But if they realise that, they might decide to blow the ship up to take us with them," Jack pointed out. "And not everyone here is explosion-proof."
"Let's avoid them then. This way!" Catra started heading left.
Adora winced as they quickly ran down the hallway. That was a risk she hadn't considered - and she should have. If the Jaffa decided to suicide…
After a few corners, they stopped. Jack looked at Teal'c. "You know this ship best. Where can we hole up?"
"This way should lead to store rooms and magazines," Teal'c said, taking the lead.
They ran down another narrow hallway.
"Stop!" Catra hissed. "I hear people ahead."
"In here!" Jack pushed a door open.
It was a storage room. Adora pressed herself against the wall next to the door. If the enemy found them, she'd face them first.
Catra remained at the other side of the doorway. Jack and Teal'c hid behind crates, weapons ready.
Adora saw Catra's ears twist. "They're coming this way," her lover whispered. "Almost here."
Adora held her breath. If they checked the room… She tensed and got ready to transform, flexing her hand - she could call her sword in an instant, just thinking about it.
Seconds passed. Was that a noise outside? Adora licked her lips.
Catra remained tense.
More seconds passed.
And Adora's lover nodded. "They're gone."
Whew! Adora relaxed. A little. "So, what now?" she asked, looking at the others.
"We need to destroy their hyperdrive," Catra said. "Before we end up who knows where. Probably at Sokar's headquarters."
Adora nodded in agreement. "And we need to contact our friends so they can come fetch us."
"And we need to prevent the crew from blowing themselves up. Or telling the other ships, if they are around, to destroy them and us," Jack added.
"If we destroy the hyperdrive and drop out of hyperspace, they'll have a fun time trying to find us," Catra said, grinning.
Adroa pressed her lips together. It was a dangerous plan - destroying the hyperdrive in hyperspace could seriously damage the ship. But it shouldn't destroy it. At least not a ship the size of a Ha'tak. And it was probably the safest solution.
The others seemed to agree - Jack nodded, and Teal'c… didn't say anything against the suggestion.
"So, we'll have to be sneaky. We can't just cut our way through them to the engine room and the bridge. As satisfying as that would be, that would spook them, and they might blow themselves up." Catra flashed her fangs in that confident grin of hers that… Ah, not the time, Adora reminded herself. Catra looked at Teal'c. "Are they likely to do that?"
Teal'c inclined his head. "According to what I was told, Sokar was feared by even his most loyal followers. They believe that he will condemn them to eternal torment in the afterlife should they fail him."
"What a nice guy. Did he ever hear about catching more flies with honey than vinegar?" Jack shook his head.
Catra shrugged. "Doesn't sound so different from some of those preachers of yours talking about hell."
Adora frowned at her lover. She remembered those people saying that she would go to hell for loving Catra, but this wasn't the time to discuss religion. "So, we need to take control of the engine room and the bridge. And probably the ordnance magazines as well."
"Without getting noticed while the entire crew of the ship is looking for us," Catra added. "And while they are still hurrying in the hope of catching us in the open, they will soon stop and start going through every room." She looked up at the ventilation duct. "I wish Entrapta was here. She'd be able to reach everywhere in the ship through the ducts."
"And Carter would be able to hack their system to hide us," Jack added. "But we're currently lacking our technological geniuses, so we have to make do with brawn and base cunning." He grinned. "Teal'c, I don't suppose you would have memorised a Ha'tak's air duct layout?"
"I have not, O'Neill. However, they follow a basic layout dictated by the ship's core design, so, unless Sokar has had this ship modified on a fundamental level - which is unlikely - we should still be able to navigate a path to our destination."
"Great! Let's hope dear old Sokar wasn't even more paranoid than we think."
*****
Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
The Ha'tak had entered hyperspace. With the Colonel, Teal'c, Adora and Catra still on board. Because Samantha Carter had failed to be thorough when she had hacked the airlock, and so the Goa'uld or Jaffa in charge of the ship had managed to override her commands and lock it down. If Sam had taken a bit more time, had been a bit more careful, hadn't simply assumed that overriding the manual commands would be enough, this wouldn't have happened.
This was her fault.
And now the Colonel and the others were stuck on a Goa'uld ship, travelling through hyperspace to an unknown destination. Stuck without a tech expert. That was Sam's fault as well. She should have stayed back with the Colonel, in case something like this happened, and had let one of the others go with the prisoners. Maybe Teal'c - though he might not have fit into the airlock; it had been very tight already. Catra would have fit, though, in place of Sam. Not that she would have left without Adora, though. Adora would have fit as well, as long as she wasn't transformed into She-Ra, but she wouldn't have left without Catra. And the Colonel wouldn't have left before everyone else.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could blame herself later; she had a job to do. She had to find out where that ship was going. Glancing towards Entrapta, she asked: "Did you finish compiling the data from the sensors?" If they could compute the vector of the ship when it entered hyperspace with enough precision, they could extrapolate the ship's route. That would give them at least a direction in which they could start searching. And based on a Ha'tak's performance, they could approximately define the point where it would exit hyperspace to check their position and prepare the next jump. If they were quick enough with the calculation and could vector the spy bots nearby in to lay down a sensor net, then, taking the Horde hyperdrive's superior performance into account, they had a chance to catch the Ha'tak there. A small chance, even if everything went perfectly, but… a small chance was better than no chance at all.
"Uh… the system is still working on it. With most of the free system resources allocated to the stealth system, it's going slow," Entrapta replied. "We could reassign some of the computing power the stealth system uses, but…"
"Don't even think about that!" Bow snapped from the bridge. "Sorry," he added a moment later, "but we've got dozens of Death Gliders and Tel'taks looking for us, with Al'keshs and Ha'taks moving in as well. We need all the power routed to the stealth system until we're clear of them."
"Right!" Entrapta nodded, then turned to Sam. "I think we underestimated the drain on the ship's computing resources for our stealth system."
"It can't be helped," Sam replied. It was a weakness - but without constant recalibration and adjustments, the minuscule delays resulting from the light being bent around the shuttle might get detected by an enemy using integrated sensor networks looking for such discrepancies. They didn't know if the Goa'uld had such a network, but they certainly had the capability to form one. In theory. And as much as Sam wanted to assign every single computer core and crystal matrix to analysing the data they had, to find the Colonel and the others, she knew that they couldn't risk being discovered.
They could call in Priest's task force, of course. They would make short work of the enemy fleet. But if Sam's plan failed - and the odds for that were better than even - then they would have to find out the missing Ha'tak's destination from the remaining ships here. And, since Sokar obviously was paranoid about security, if overcome in battle, the Jaffa would wipe their databanks and probably commit suicide before getting boarded or captured.
Of course, as the distance between the shuttle and the enemy ships grew, the risk of being detected shrank, and so it would be safe to reduce the resources for it and free them for Sam's task…
She checked the sensor readings. Maybe dropping one core and one matrix would be safe…
"Uh-oh."
That was Bow. And he sounded concerned. Sam checked the sensors - no enemy ship was close. So…
"Priest's calling us," Bow said.
"Or Hordak! They must have noticed our target moving away," Entrapta said. "Oh, maybe we can outsource some computing?"
That was… well, it should work - it would add a delay, but with the power of a frigate's mainframe at their disposal…
"So, who's going to tell Priest that Adora just vanished with an enemy ship and that it wasn't our fault?" Glimmer asked.
"Uh…" Bow sounded concerned. "He's not going to like that."
Sam felt her stomach drop as she shook her head. "No, he won't." Maybe Daniel could handle this… but he was busy looking over their prisoner. And it wouldn't be fair to drop this on him when it was Sam's fault. At least partially.
"Shouldn't he trust Adora to, well, vanquish her enemies?" Entrapta asked. "He thinks she is a goddess, after all - and while I still haven't figured out what the exact Earth definition of a goddess is - you guys have so many of them, and they don't really fit each other - Adora should be able to handle the crew of a ship."
"That's a logical assumption," Sam told her. "But…"
"People aren't rational, right?" Entrapta sighed as Sam nodded. "Things would be so much easier if they were."
Sam nodded again.
*****
Hyperspace, Near Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
Sokar hadn't been paranoid enough to replace and reroute the entire ventilation system. But he had been paranoid - or smart - enough to add grates to key locations in the ventilation ducts, blocking their passage. Grates linked to sensors, so you couldn't just slice them to pieces with your claws and continue on your way.
Fortunately, Sokar might have been paranoid, but also cheap - or operating on a budget - so the sensors were not really sophisticated. No motion or heat sensors - then again, that probably wouldn't have been a good idea in a ventilation duct where smaller objects swept along by the air currents, or hot air from somewhere, was common. Just some sensors to check if the grate was still intact. And Catra knew from her cadet days how to deal with that stuff without triggering the alerts.
Which didn't make it any less annoying, of course. More, actually, since the ducts in Goa'uld ships were not quite as roomy as those in Horde bases. And if she ever met the Jaffa tech who had installed the sensors on top of the grate so she had to lie on her back to spoof it, with dust and dried whatever falling down on her face every time she as much as touched the top of the duct… Her fur felt all sticky and dirty.
"Are we there yet?"
She rolled her eyes at O'Neill's comment. The joke hadn't been funny the first time he had made it, and it hadn't magically gotten funny after getting repeated three times. Maybe she shouldn't have told him that she could hear any Jaffa before they could hear Catra and her friends, so talking was fine if done in a low voice…
"Don't distract her!" Adora whispered behind her.
"I'm fine," Catra snapped as she cut the sensor's casing open.
"See? She's fine. How's the sensor, by the way?"
"She always says that!"
"I don't!" Catra hissed. "Now be quiet; we're close."
She connected the piece of metal she had pulled out of the last shredded grate to the sensor, then to the lower half of the grate. Good.
Then she unsheathed her claws and sliced the annoying obstacle into pieces. Some of them she stuffed into her belt for the next grate, the rest she pushed to the side before rolling on her belly. "Done!"
She started crawling ahead without waiting for an answer; sooner or later, the Jaffa would figure out where they were and do something about it. They needed to be at the bridge by then.
*****
Two more grates later, they were finally at their goal - well, almost. Through the grate, Catra could see the hallway leading to the bridge. And she could hear the… two? Yes, two… Jaffa who stood guard there. Probably in full armour, staff weapons ready and zats on their belts. At least, that was how the other guards they had seen had walked around.
Catra crawled back a bit, suppressing a hiss when her tail brushed over something sticky that smelt like old lubricant, around the corner, where Adora and the others were waiting. "We're at the right spot," she whispered. "But we're not close enough to hit the guards through the grate. And not far enough to quitely remove the grate without them noticing. Unless they're asleep at their posts."
"Such a dereliction of duty would be punished most harshly by any System Lord. And Sokar has a reputation of cruelty that stands out amongst his peers," Teal'c said in a low voice.
"In other words, we can't count on that," O'Neill pointed out the obvious.
"So we have to be quick. Kick the grate out of the duct, then take out the guards before they can react and charge the bridge!" Adora said.
Catra knew what she meant. "Slice the grate to pieces, then do the same to the guards and the hatch leading to the bridge," she corrected her lover. "Besides, I'm in front, so I have to be the first through the grate."
"But…" Adora protested. "I could squirm past you."
That would be… well, it had a certain appeal. And Catra knew from some experiments in Dryl's castle that they were flexible enough to manage it. But they weren't here for that. "I'll go first - I'm faster and the smaller target."
"But I can take a shot from them!" Adora retorted.
"Only if you transform into She-Ra. And good luck doing that inside here," Catra pointed out.
"But…"
Catra didn't have to see Adora's face to know she was pouting. But Catra was right here - and they were running out of time. "Let's go!" she hissed, then started crawling forward again.
She reached the grate and listened. Still two guards breathing. No one else. That was as good as it would get.
She unsheathed her claws, took a deep breath and sliced the grate with both hands. Before the first parts started to fall, she dug her feet's claws into the duct's metal and pushed herself forward, bursting through the remains of the grate - and into the hallway.
She curled up and flipped over, hitting the wall with her feet first - and jumped off again.
The Jaffa were quick - they fired at her before she touched the ground. But the plasma bolts missed, blasting the wall behind her as she rolled to the side, and the next volley hit the floor while she was already in the air, pouncing on them. She kicked the staff of the one on the left to the side, her feet's claws cutting through the top of it, and raked her hand's claws over and through the helmet and chestplate of the other.
He fell down, hands flailing as blood ran down his front, and she whirled towards the first guard, who was drawing his zat.
"For the Honour of Grayskull!" rang out from behind Catra.
The guard was good - Adora transforming into She-Ra didn't distract him at all. But he wasn't fast enough. She grabbed his right arm with her left, claws ripping into his muscles, before he could raise the weapon against her. He managed to land a glancing blow on her shoulder with his other arm, but she had taken worse in sparring. A swipe of her claws all but took his head off, helmet and all, and he collapsed in a pool of blood.
Catra turned to grin at Adora - and had to step to the side.
She-Ra was charging at the bulwark, sword out and glowing with power.
*****
Bruce Willis made it look so easy. Jack O'Neill clenched his teeth as he pushed himself out of the ventilation duct - it was just narrow enough so he couldn't crawl on all fours - and contorted himself so he wouldn't just fall down head-first to the floor below but land in a crouch, carbine ready.
Just in time for Adora to blow the hatch wide open with a swipe of her sword. Blow it to bits, actually - Jack flinched a little at the blast but didn't let that stop him from moving forward. While the smoke obscured the view - Catra charged through anyway, right behind Adora - Jack glanced behind him.
Teal'c slid out of the duct, grabbing the edge with one hand and swinging around to land on his feet, far more graceful than a man his size had any right to, Jack noted with a touch of jealousy.
Then Jack reached the smoke. Two steps into it, he dived to the right and rolled over his shoulder. He ended in a kneeling position, gun braced, and just had to lean a bit to the right to shoot a Jaffa coming around a console with a staff weapon ready. Jack hit him in the chest with a short burst, one bullet ricocheting off the armour - bad angle - but the others going right through it. The Jaffa stumbled, reaching out to the next console to steady himself, turning towards Jack.
Jack dropped him with another burst, to the head this time, and ran forward, bent over to present a smaller target. More staff weapons went off, and as he took a peek from behind the damaged console, he saw that half a dozen Jaffa were shooting at Adora, who had changed her sword into a shield to take the blasts. Two more were trying to flank her, but just as Jack started to aim at them, Catra dropped on them from the ceiling and started shredding them. Literally.
Jack switched targets and took out the closest threat to him with two rounds to their face and throat. He had to suppress the urge to lay down suppressive fire while Adora advanced - they couldn't risk damaging the bridge. Any more than it was already damaged, that was.
Where was Teal'c? Jack glanced to his left, at the door. No sign of his friend - and the smoke had almost cleared. Then he saw a flash through the door - a staff weapon firing.
Ah. Teal'c was holding off reinforcements.
Jack caught some movement to the side and whipped his gun around, putting a few rounds into a Jaffa crawling over the floor before the man could get to cover.
Another Jaffa flew over Jack's head, screaming until he hit the wall and dropped to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Jack put another two rounds into the collapsed figure just to be certain the Jaffa wouldn't get up behind him, then scanned the room again.
It was over. Adora stood there, still glowing, surrounded by five broken bodies. Dead and dying. Catra had finished her two earlier victims and gutted a third. She jerked, ears twitching. "Teal'c needs help."
"Shut down the hyperdrive! And the reactor! And seal or dump the ordnance!" Adora snapped as she whirled and raced back to the hallway, shield held up to catch more staff blasts.
Catra looked at her, then at the consoles - and then at Jack. "If I remember correctly, the main controls are smoking over there." She pointed at one of the damaged consoles. "There should be secondary controls, though. But I don't know where they are - or how to use them."
He winced and wished Carter were here - she would have already shut down the hyperdrive. "I think that wasn't covered in the general briefing. I'll make a note to rectify that oversight once we're back on Earth."
Catra snorted, then stepped forward, head cocking to the side. A moment later, she bent down and grabbed a Jaffa by the scruff of his neck, lifting the groaning man up one-handed. "Can you use the secondary hyperdrive controls?" she asked, flashing the claws of her free hand in front of his face.
The Jaffa blinked, one eye already swelling shut, then coughed, blood running down his chin. "I-I'll never b-betray my g-god! Sokar!"
"Worth a try," Catra mumbled before dropping him on the ground again. She opened her mouth, then stopped, her ears twitching again. "Adora and Teal'c are done."
A few seconds later, Jack saw Adora enter the bridge. "We've blocked the passageway. It won't hold them for long, though," she said.
"We need the secondary controls - the primary are fried," Catra told her, nodding at the smoking console.
"You can access the secondary controls from any command console," Teal'c said, joining them. "But it usually requires codes only high-ranking Jaffa have."
And with Sokar being paranoid about security… Jack shook his head. He would really, really love to have Carter with them right now. Or Entrapta. Or Bow. But you fought your war with the army you had, not the army you wished you had. "So, I only see one way to stop this ship: We go and blow up the hyperdrive by hand." That would be dangerous and might cause the Jaffa to blow the ship up when they realised they couldn't stop them, but Jack didn't see any alternative. And then they would have to secure the ordnance magazines.
Catra and Adora nodded, looking grim.
"There is an alternative," Teal'c said. "Although it requires questionable and possibly dishonourable actions."
"Oh?" Jack cocked his head at his friend. "Hypothetically, what would we have to do?" He wasn't a stranger to torture, and he didn't think Catra would make a fuss, but...
Teal'c glanced at Adora, as Jack had expected. "It would require you to pose as a goddess and convert Sokar's faithful."
Jack blinked. He hadn't expected that.
*****
"Convert Sokar's faithful?" Adora gaped at Teal'c. He couldn't be serious! This had to be a joke - Teal'c had a very subtle sense of humour, a dry wit. This was… "I'm no goddess!" she blurted out.
"Yes, I know." Teal'c inclined his head. "Which is why this is a questionable and possibly dishonourable plan of action."
"Yeah, we call the snakes false gods for a reason." Jack nodded, but despite his words, he looked… not nearly as shocked as he should, in Adora's opinion.
And Catra… Adora glanced at her lover and winced. Judging by Catra's grin, she had no trouble with the plan at all. Not that there was a plan.
"Well, you managed to convert half the Horde fleet without even trying to - while trying to prevent them from converting…"
"That was different!" Adora protested. "Their situation was completely different! And it wasn't half the Horde fleet!"
"Details, details." Catra cocked her head at the groaning Jaffa on the ground. "But the Jaffa seem much more fanatical - and Adora hasn't killed Sokar yet."
"Sokar is well-known for his cruelty," Teal'c said. "Unlike his rival System Lords, he does not even attempt to inspire devotion - he rules through fear and terror." He looked at the wounded Jaffa. "Of all the false gods' followers, his are potentially the most vulnerable to conversion."
Oh. Adora blinked again. That was what this was about - it wasn't just about stopping the Ha'ak. It was about saving the Jaffa from dying for their masters.
Which, she realised, she probably should start doing right away, seeing as a number of them were dying in front of her. You couldn't convert - turn, she corrected herself, turn - the dead. And they were running out of time - Catra was looking towards the bulwark they had closed and barricaded, her ears twitching. That meant that the Jaffa were attacking it, trying to break through.
She looked around. Four Jaffa had survived the battle on the bridge. Three of them were conscious but they didn't look good. If she healed them, it might kill the symbiont, dooming them… On the other hand, they might die without help anyway, and if they died, the symbiont would die as well… And they were prisoners - she couldn't just let them die.
Adora took a deep breath and pointed her sword at the closest. He tensed, one hand clutching his side - his legs were mangled from getting thrown at the closest console - but he was staring at her defiantly. He must be expecting death.
She smiled at him as gently as she could and focused on her power. A moment later, her sword started to glow, and magic shot out of it, engulfing the Jaffa. She heard him gasp as she healed him, then turned to heal the others on the floor.
A few seconds later, all four were whole. One was patting himself down as if he couldn't believe it - he had been unconscious, Adora remembered. But the other three were still staring at her.
"I am She-Ra," she told them. "Princess of Power. I am not a Goa'uld. I fight the false gods who use lies and cruelty to rule and oppress others."
"We will never betray our god Sokar!" the first Jaffa she had healed yelled - and lunged, reaching for a staff weapon near him. Before Adora could react, Catra hit him with her shock rod, and he collapsed.
"What a pain," Adora's lover commented with a sigh.
Jack snorted at that, of course, as he stunned the Jaffa with his zat before he could recover.
Adora wanted to sigh as well as she turned to address the remaining three, who hadn't moved. That was an encouraging sign, wasn't it? "I have healed you because you don't deserve to die for being lied to, for being manipulated - and for being betrayed."
She saw the Jaffa glance at the corpses surrounding them and suppressed a wince. But none of them asked why Adora and her friends had killed the others. They would be used to such cruelty, Adora reminded herself, based on what they knew about Sokar.
"Sokar is our god," another said as Jack, Teal'c and Catra tied them up.
Adora shook her head. "He is a false god. He uses deceit and trickery to fool you. He…"
"They're about to break through!" Catra interrupted her.
Adora felt relieved as she turned to face the hallway. Trying to turn people from following the Goa'uld was hard. Fighting them was easy.
"W… Will you kill them?"
Adora froze for a fraction of a second, then glanced over her shoulder at the Jaffa who had spoken. The other two were glaring at him, but he looked at her with a weird expression.
"I will do my best not to kill them," Adora told him.
She heard the door break in the hallway and charged forward, changing her sword into a shield again as the first Jaffa entered the hallway. He fired at her with his staff weapon, but she easily caught the bolt on her shield - and two more, one from him and one from the Jaffa behind him, before she slammed into him.
He was thrown into the broken bulwark, hard enough to break bones, but he would live. Or so she hoped as she whirled to face the next enemies. A volley of staff blasts and zat shots splashed against her shield. Snarling, she swung it around, knocking half a dozen Jaffa off their feet.
A few quick steps carried her into the midst of their formation. She kicked one, breaking his weapons and his arm, hit another with her free hand, knocking him out, then used her shield to deflect more shots.
She heard Catra's shock rod go off behind her - someone must have been still a threat - as she widened her shield with a thought, matching the hallway's width, then charged forward, pushing the remaining Jaffa, twenty at least, into each other and back against the wall, barely managing to stop herself from crushing the lot of them.
Yes, that was much easier than trying to turn them.
*****
Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)
Samantha Carter stared at the clock on her screen. "ETA thirty seconds." She checked the data from the spy drones. The enemy ships were moving according to the expected patterns.
If everything went according to plan, Priest's task force would be dropping out of hyperspace right on top of the enemy fleet. That was cutting it a bit too close for Sam's taste, but it wasn't her plan. Priest had insisted on attacking the fleet in order to secure the information they needed, and while Priest wasn't officially in charge of the mission even with Adora missing, Sam knew better than to try to give an order that would be refused.
And he was a veteran of such engagements - Sam had never taken part in a fleet action. But still… they were trusting her - and Entrapta's - data. The clones had calculated their exit vectors based on Sam and Entrapta's estimates of the enemy fleet's movements. If they had made a mistake… The clones knew the risk, but Sam still held her breath as the seconds ticked down, watching for the slightest deviation from the expected patterns. At least for the capital ships - the Death Gliders were moving almost randomly, and the Tel'taks had slightly erratic patterns.
"They've done this before," Bow said. "They have wiped out Apophis's forces. They know their enemy."
Bow was right - but he also sounded as if he was trying to reassure himself. If the Colonel were here, he'd make a joke to break the tension. And a point to show how relaxed he was.
But he wasn't here.
"Ten seconds!" Entrapta announced.
Nine… eight… seven…
"Jamming field active!" It wouldn't stop the fleet's FTL comms forever, but long enough for this battle.
Sam looked at the sensor readings again. Oh, no!
"Uh-oh! Deviation!" Entrapta had noticed it as well.
"What?" Bow craned his neck to look at their screen.
But it was too late. The task force dropped out of hyperspace to rake the enemy fleet at point-blank range while the Jaffa were still shocked.
And one frigate dropped right into the path of an Al'kesh which had changed course a moment ago. Far too close for either ship to react and avoid the collision. The spy drone network and the shuttle's sensors showed every detail.
The frigate's batteries fired. They shattered the Al'kesh's shields but couldn't stop it. And neither could the frigate's shields. Sam clenched her teeth as the shields flared, then died, and the Al'kesh, already wrecked, trailing parts and leaking atmosphere, rammed into the frigate's bow.
Not even a Horde frigate could take that kind of impact. The bow armour buckled for a second, like a crash test in slow motion, then shattered - and the bow crumpled, then was crushed as the main body of the frigate ploughed through the remains of the Al'kesh.
For a fraction of a second, Sam had hope that the frigate, though irreparably wrecked, had survived, but then an explosion engulfed both wrecks, quickly followed by secondary explosions that ripped the frigate's wreck apart.
Sam closed her eyes for a second and drew a hissing breath. That was… It wasn't her fault. She hadn't wanted this attack. She had warned Priest. The clones knew the risks.
But she still felt guilty.
"Oh. The Al'kesh must have been carrying a full load of bombs," Entrapta said. "I can't tell if they were deliberately detonated or blew up from the impact. Usually, they wouldn't be armed unless they were expecting combat, but since they were looking for us…"
"...they might have had their bombs ready to be launched," Sam finished for her friend. Which would have been stupid, of course - bombs were near-useless in combat outside a planet's atmosphere. But if that was standard procedure, the Jaffa would have armed the bombs.
It didn't matter anyway. Sam checked the rest of the battle. If you could call it a battle. The task force had double the numbers of the enemy fleet - and a Horde frigate had more firepower than a Ha'tak. The Al'keshs were wiped out in no time even with half the force focusing on the Ha'taks. The Tel'taks were not faring any better. A handful tried to escape using their stealth system, but with the spy drones' sensor network linked to Priest's task force, that merely meant that they were destroyed without shooting back.
One Ha'tak accelerated, trying to enter hyperspace. But it was too late - the ship ran into a squadron of frigates and all but disintegrated under their fire.
Sam pressed her lips together so she wouldn't call Priest to remind him that they needed prisoners to find the missing team. The clone commander was aware of that - and of the fact that they had to ensure that no enemy ship escaped to report to Sokar.
And, seeing as a number of Ha'taks were drifting dead in space but hadn't blown up, it looked like they would get their prisoners.
Sam could only hope that it would be enough to narrow down the missing Ha'tak's destination; the data they had so far only netted them a general direction.
And that wasn't enough to find their missing friends.
*****