Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from any of the characters or universes used in this story. The Universes in question are the following: Stargate, Ice Fantasy and Time Raiders.
Zhang Qilin – Dragon Lord
Ying Kong Shi / Yun Fei / Wu Xie
SGC
Briefing room
1400 hours
The door closed as the Tok'ra representatives left the briefing room with their escorts.
Daniel looked up from his notes with a look of exasperated disbelief and said, "They're lying!"
Coming from Daniel, it was a shocking statement that caught everyone's attention.
"What makes you say that Dr Jackson?" asks General Hammond with evident surprise. Not that anyone could blame him. Accusing the Tok'ra of lying was usually the Colonel's department.
"Well, either they're lying or their understanding of the political climate of the Five Realms has been severely overestimated."
"Explain Doctor" barked General Hammond.
"The Five Realms are ruled by five major clans or tribes; the Dreamer Clan, the Healer Clan, the Spirit Clan, the Sea Clan and the Fire Clan. Now we recently found out that these five are in turn ruled by a sixth clan, the Ice Clan. Now we only found this out recently because all five leaders of the subordinate clans had to agree that we, Earth, the Tauri, were trustworthy."
"From what I learned of the Ice Clan and its history last time I visited the Dreamer Clan, the Ice Clan have been the main rulers since the Ice-Fire Clan was destroyed in a war."
"Now the Ice Clan are, considered to be; just, honourable and kind. Historically they've functioned a bit like interplanetary arbiters. If, for example, the Dream Clan had a dispute with the Sea Clan then they could ask the Ice King or Queen to mediate before a war broke out. "
"Disputes or wars within one Clans territory was not considered their "domain".
"Daniel! Get to the point!" Colonel Jack O'Neill interrupted with exasperation.
"Jack! This is important information!" retorted Daniel.
"Continue Dr Jackson!" said General Hammond.
"As I was saying, the Ice Clan have been the main representatives of the Five Realms for as long as they have had written history, so why are the Tok'ra convinced that the Dragon Lord is the 'rightful' ruler of the Realms?"
There is silence around the table.
Teal'c is the one to offer a theory.
"Perhaps the Dragon Lord was the ruler when the Goa'uld first came into contact with them."
"Maybe when the Tok'ra first heard of them but remember that they are inside Yu's territory and he is by far one of the oldest of the Goa'uld System Lords.
There is no way he could have missed the development of the Five Realms, they had have already existed when he claimed the surrounding territory."
"For some reason, he decided not to subjugate the Five Realms. But more importantly one of the Ice Clans historical artefacts that were on display during our visit was a tapestry depicting the second Ice King She Tuo and Lord Yu negotiating a treaty of neutrality between them."
Teal'c looked up in surprise and said or rather almost blurted out.
"Did not the Head Dreamer say that king She Tuo lived over 8000 years ago."
"Yes. The tapestry shows a very old Ice King and considering that all six of the ruling clans are very long lived it may not have been as long ago as that."
General Hammond looked at Daniel and asked, "How long lived are they?"
"Well, General, some seem more long lived than others, for example the Ice, Fire and Sea clans all seem to have the longest lifespans of at least 2000 years in median lifespan. The Dreamer, Healer and Spirit Clans all seem to somewhat shorter lives maxing out at about 1000 years at the most."
"Sir, from what we've been able to gather all of the inhabitants of the different planets have longer lives than the average human. Unless they die due to external reasons such as war, famine or disease most people seem to live at least 300 Earth years." Interjected Carter.
She continues her explanation.
"While most of the inhabitants are humanoid only a very small percentage seem to have had human ancestors. Most likely these were slaves that were sent through the Stargate before Yu knew the planets were inhabited."
"That is not unlikely. Apophis would sometimes claim unknown and unexplored territory. He would then send both Jaffa and human slaves to planets within the new territory and only inspect on progress made many months later, sometimes years." Teal'c said with a grim look on his face. Clearly there was history behind that explanation.
"Really! He sent out colony expeditions. Without checking up on them?" And we've lost Daniel to … something.
"Daniel?"
"Hm?" Daniel looks up to see the Colonel looking at him intently.
"Oh, uh just wondering how many he might have forgotten about and if this is normal practice among the Goa'uld, how many planets out there "
"Daniel! Can we stick to the problem at hand, which is the Tok'ra might be screwing with us. Again!"
"Right, so uh, the current ruler of the Ice Clan and the Five Realms is Ying Kong Shi. He is the former King's youngest son and not only that, he is the son of the Kings Concubine not the Queen. However according to the traditions of the Five Realms he is a legitimate heir and as long as he can perform the "spells" of the Ice Clan he has a right to the throne.
When Ying Kong Shi was still a child, a war broke out between the Ice Clan and the Fire Clan. Most of his older siblings were killed. The only one remaining was Ka Suo the Kings youngest son by his Queen. Ka Suo was meant to become King, in fact according to the Dream Clans records he was King for short while, for roughly 20 years, before he and his Queen, Li Luo, were assassinated.
Most likely this was Yu's opening move as he started invading the Five Realms while the Ice Clan were still trying to figure out what had happened."
"Isn't it more likely that Ing Kong Shee offed his brother to get the throne? Just throwing it out there." The Colonel shrugged his shoulders in response to Daniels look of frustration.
"Because even if accounts of the brothers' fondness for each other is exaggerated, Ying Kong Shi could have challenged his brother for the throne whenever he wanted. At some point during the war with the Fire Clan Ka Suo lost his 'spiritual powers' that enabled him to cast Ice Clan 'spells'. Technically he was no longer eligible for the throne."
Sam looks at Daniel with some confusion. "So, hang on, where does the Dragon Lord enter the equation? I got the impression that he was married to Ying Kong Shi or the equivalent of bonded at least."
"Yes, that's exactly it. Ying Kong Shi is essentially married to the Dragon Lord there is no reason for him to assassinate him." Daniels mix of frustration and exuberance is palpable but no less unhelpful in getting his point across. He looks around the table expecting us to have arrived at a forgone conclusion.
The Colonel is having another silent conversation with him involving eyebrows and hands thrown open in frustration before giving in and asking. "What? I don't get it?"
Daniel crosses his arms and brings one hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose while sighing in abject frustration. "Don't you read the compiled reports I write on the history, culture and religion of the inhabited planets we go to?" Daniel asks in a fed-up manner.
The Colonel looks slightly evasive and answers "Sometimes, but after the first couple of times it mainly felt like you were repeating yourself. Goa'uld come in with slaves, continue charade of god so and so, leave planet in shambles or is still there." He shrugs his shoulders in a 'what can you do' manner.
General Hammond decides to step in before an argument can develop.
"Please continue Dr Jackson and assume none of us have had time to finish reading the reports."
"Yes General." Daniel paces a bit gathering his thoughts. "During the war between the Fire and Ice Clans, Ying Kong Shi disappeared or was kidnapped. His brother and the Clan heads of the time looked for him but they never found him. Eventually the Ice King ended the search and forbade his son to spend any more time looking for him.
The man who would later become known as the Dragon Lord approached the Ice King with a proposal. If he could find and return Ying Kong Shi to the Ice Clan he would be owed a favour by the Ice Clan. The Ice King responded that if could find and bring back Ying Kong Shi he could ask for anything but the Kingdom and the next ruler.
It took a while but he did find Ying Kong Shi who had lost his memories and had been living as a 'mortal'. Only he didn't know he had found him until he brought him along on his travels and Ying Kong Shi's memories started to return by which point they had developed feelings for each other.
So, he eventually brought Ying Kong Shi back to the Ice Clan. When asked what he wanted for his services he asked to marry Ying Kong Shi.
The Ice King couldn't refuse because Ying Kong Shi was not meant to be the next ruler and as Ying Kong Shi didn't object there was no reason to fight it. As far as the Ice Clan and the rest of the Five Realms was concerned it was equivalent to a political marriage and therefore a contract was written up. There would have been stipulations ensuring that the Dragon Lord could never take over the Ice Clan through his marriage to Ying Kong Shi.
If I'm right the Dragon Lord was acting as a type of decoy or figurehead to distract the Goa'uld from the real ruler."
"And now the Tok'ra want us to help "save" the Dragon Lord from stasis to reclaim his non-existent power from his "usurper" husband." The quotation marks are emphasized by the Colonels voice dripping with sarcasm. "I see what you mean about the lying or incompetence."
"If Ying Kong Shi simply wanted to get rid of the Dragon Lord he could have just killed him or just had the contract declared null and void. Instead he puts him in stasis?" Daniels eyes are narrowed and his lips pressed together as turns his head slightly to the side, scepticism obvious.
"Wouldn't it be more likely that the Dragon Lord was poisoned or became ill and the only way to save him was to put him in stasis and try to find an antidote or cure. Which would mean that if we removed him from stasis we'd be killing him and making an enemy of the Five Realms." Daniel is done and sits down at the table again.
"So, the Tok'ra are screwing with us. Again!" The Colonel exclaims triumphantly.
Daniel sighed. "Yes, Jack. The Tok'ra are screwing with us again."
Hope you enjoyed it, please leave review or comment.
Constructive criticism is welcome.