Shades of Shadows
Author's note: Adapted from the beginning of Warrior's People by drakensis, a fanfiction from , and used with permission by the author. Some of the dialogue is directly from there.
If anyone waited to see what came through the recently activated Stargate, at most they'd have seen a ripple. The Gateship flew through under cloak and quickly rose up and away to get an aerial view of the area, or so it would seem.
"Easy honey, you're doing fine," Jack encouraged his wife as Sara O'Neill flew the Gateship. She risked a brief smile and he could see a retort forming on her lips before it left them.
"What no remark about women drivers?"
"And sleep on the metaphorical couch...oh no dear. I'm no Carter or Daniel, but that doesn't make me dumb," Jack flashed a smile as Sara banked the Gateship to give everyone a better view of what lay below them.
"There...what looks like ruins," Daniel pointed out the window in the front, "Let's see about settling down there."
"Easy Danny boy," Jack gestured for Daniel to sit back down, "Don't want to have to tell Sha're that you slipped and feel because someone was standing up while Sara was flying this crate."
"And just what are you implying -Colonel- O'Neill," Sara mock icily asked, with Jack having the good graces to wince and grin at his wife, "You're right honey. Okay Danny boy. Stand up, do jumping jacks, whatever you please. My wife's driving is as steady as...as it needs to be."
"Good save Colonel," Sara threw in at much warmer degrees.
Kalakek chuckled from the back or that is how they translated it. Jack still refused to hear from Sam that it was translation -software-, he knew he was a robot he just didn't like acknowledging it.
"Anyway, it looks like the road we've seen had been Roman..." Daniel was beginning to go on as the Gateship settled down, considering the possibilities of how a transplanted culture from eons after the Goa'uld left Earth could show up in a clearly Goa'uld built area, or ruins of them.
"Sha're did mention meeting Athena, that implies the Goa'uld impersonated that pantheon and that puts some of them remaining on Earth -after- the gate was buried at Giza," few were certain if Daniel was reminding them or talking out loud to himself. Neither were needed with the advanced processors that now served as their minds, but habits of the flesh went on in the synthetic.
"Seems like a retreat of some kind," he suggested minutes later. Despite how long it's been since he 'acquired' this body by Harlan, he still was amazed sometimes by how fast he could think and form conclusions.
"A retreat?" Drey'auc asked, unlike Sha're or Sara, both of whom rotated who stayed with Harlan when they went out to explore, she always went along with her husband.
"Somewhere to rest when they desire privacy. It is rare and such sites are usually secret and well defended. Apophis maintained such a location where he could grow familiar with a new host body," Teal'c volunteered for both his wife and companions.
"Sort of like Jack's cabin?" Daniel asked innocently.
Jack was about to protest but it died on his lips and in fact everyone was still for a moment.
"Sorry, Jack..." Daniel began and stopped as his friend raised a hand to wave the apology off.
"Its gone and belongs to -him-," Jack said the last word with a tinge of bitterness no-one could miss, going to falsely jovial as he spoke again, "We'll campers let's continue on to go boldly where no man, ahem, no one has gone before."
It was hours later when one of Kalakek's eye stalks happened to look up. "Samantha, would you take a look skyward?" he asked with both eye stalks gazing upwards. Sam moved over to where their latest addition to Harlan's growing population of robots who don't look like robots.
She looked up and blinked in surprise. Daniel wasn't the only one still getting use to bodies that were in many ways superior to their originals. "Sir!" she called out in a tone that brought Jack, Teal'c and Drey'auc jogging over to her. She was standing in the middle of a ruined courtyard and looking up into the night sky next to Kalakek.
Their eyes followed her gaze, and Jack was the one to actually speak, "Whoa. It's going to take a while to get use to this..." their eyes on zoom function spotted a ship and satellites in orbit of the planet.
"Not Goa'uld in design," Teal'c needlessly confirmed what their own memory banks concluded, at least since the last update when Sha're joined their number. No-one listed off what they estimated the length of the ship at 385 meters, massing 78,000 metric tons which is when Jack stopped thinking about it. He didn't want to know more in this manner.
"The script on the side of the ship is now familiar," Teal'c said as they all saw it change from whatever language it was before to Goa'uld.
"Coating on the surface of the ship acting as a kind of liquid-crystal display, sir," Sam went on theorizing, "Though why I don't know."
"Samantha the glowing spots in front of the ship, they are not lights for illumination, yes?" understanding Kalakek was not a perfect science yet.
Sam took a look and was amazed at what came to mind, to her mind. The theories that might have taken her days to look up were there in an instant. "It's a kind of drive, of reactionless drive, sir," out of habit reporting her findings to Jack, "You see their creates a number of.." she didn't want to lose her audience, faster thinking does not mean instant understanding of theories, "...nodes in front of the ship, which move very fast in the desired direction," simply saying she conceded but they should understand.
This reminded her how much she enjoyed working with herself...her real...her original self. Having someone able to keep up with her was a nice change.
She went on trying to keep it as simple an explanation as possible, "As the ship is likely magnetically or gravitationally coupled to the nodes, it effectively 'falls' towards them and is dragged along behind."
"It pulls like a horse does a cart or wagon in a western?" Teal'c ventured, it had been a long time since he'd seen any Tau'ri entertainment films or television shows, but of course he and Drey'auc instantly remember what they had seen.
Nodding Sam still wanted to get to the most relevant part, "It also means it's a reactionless drive." She paused unsure anyone really comprehended what she meant, the implications. "It means it doesn't need fuel, no reaction mass."
"Like your Newton's third law?" Kalakek said surprising them all, but he didn't explain how he knew of Newton, much less any of his laws.
However, Sam wasn't going to be derailed by the admission, not when she felt close to explaining what they were seeing up in space, "Yes, that's it Kalakek. 'For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.' Such a drive wouldn't need anything like a rocket or...impulse power," she recalled Jack got Star trek at times, "It could move without an exhaust, motion without having to blast something the other way."
"Let's get Danny in on this..." Jack said deflating Sam who wasn't sure he was ignoring her implications or truly not understanding them.
Jack didn't give any indications one way or the other, just raised his voice only a little to call out to his friend. He didn't like to admit it, but he knew their hearing was far superior to what it had been. If Daniel didn't hear him it wouldn't be due to any problems hearing, he'd likely just be too distracted.
"Daniel!"
"Yes Jack," he said with a distracted sigh not using the radio, nor raising his voice. He accepted they could hear each other despite the distances. Especially when he was engrossed in study and didn't want to bother using a radio or moving to where he knew Jack would prefer to have a conversation, face to face.
"Come out here...we have a puzzle I want your input on," with another sigh Jack clearly heard and -knew- Daniel did because he knew Jack could hear him, they didn't have to breath after all, Daniel made his way to where his friends stood.
"Whoa," he said not realizing he echoed his friend Jack a moment ago as he looked up, "Well by now all of you know the ship's name is Leonidas so what am I here for...?"
Drey'auc was busy in the sand, and Teal'c looked down and inclined his head at his wife who didn't deny her perfect memory or ability to reproduce what she saw on the side of the ship before.
"Hmm...Punjab I'd say closer to Persian...Xerxes," Daniel concluded after going through the references he now could perfectly remember as if he had taken the various books off the shelf back at his...he wouldn't think of it as 'the other one's' office.
"So one moment the ship is named Xerxes, the next Leonidas?" Jack asked more to prompt any comments, which this time none were immediately forthcoming. "Does this make any sense to anyone?" he finally added.
"No it does not O'Neill," Teal'c spoke unintentionally for all of them.
"We could go up, take a closer look," Daniel suggested.
"And what count the rivets? We can see them clearly from here Daniel," Jack snarked.
"I was thinking more of what our ship could tell about theirs its not like we come equi..." Jack cut Daniel off right then, "Don't. You know I don't like to be reminded."
"So we're ignoring we can see it without a telescope..." Daniel teased and let it drop.
"Sara warm up the ship, we're taking off," Jack said over the -radio- deliberately, his wife, however only spoke up what might have been in conversational tones, if not for the ire he could hear in her voice.
"I -just- finished setting up camp..."
They didn't need a fire, they didn't need sleep or to eat, but most of them liked to go through the motions and Sara felt she was contributing by taking care of the 'domestic' chores while everyone else was off playing explorer.
"Look up Sara," Sam said then rattled off a series of numbers that inwardly Sara knew she shouldn't be able to translate to where to look but she did. "Oh...I take it we're going up?"
"Why don't you go help break down camp," Daniel suggested, the 'you' meaning Jack at the very least as he turned to Teal'c and Drey'auc, "I'd like to ask you two to come with me and give me your opinion on what I've found."
"I will help with camp," Kalakek said humorously, it delighted him that they were going through all the motions. Of course, out of them he was the only one who wanted to be what Harlan made him.
"Come on, sir," Sam prompted as she turned to head back to camp along with a reluctant Jack and amused Kalakek. Jack knew Sara wouldn't -stay- annoyed long, and hoped if he delayed his return to camp, whatever cloud over her mood would be gone.
Daniel lead Teal'c and Drey'auc back into the ruins he had been in and to a wall of a kitchen where he now shined needlessly a handheld torch. Habits, he had concluded from a while before, keep up the habits and their sanity for lasting thousands of years might have a better chance at surviving. Though with a smile he figured his went up tremendously when 'they', as he wouldn't think of the originals, let Sha're come to him.
It was his way of not thinking, 'made a copy of', yet at the same time the fact Sha're did think that way showed the depth of her love for him, for either Daniel Jackson.
"Teal'c, Drey'auc, this looks like whoever went after the hieroglyphics in the courtyard didn't care enough to check for the graffiti in the servants' areas. There's no writing of course but someone's done this little set of carvings, looks like they were depicting Jaffa and the helmets of elite guards..."
Teal'c gave the carvings a quick glance. "A serpent guard, a hawk guard and a…" at first it didn't occur to him who the third was, but then part of the perfect recall his new form provided supplied the name he wouldn't have remembered if flesh. Something mentioned by Master Bra'tac, which thinking of never seeing again brought a sadness only Drey'auc picked up on.
"Nekhrun," he said, "The bat helmeted guards are another of the elite and Master Bra'tac had mentioned them in passing, of a false god the other gods did not wish us to remember."
"Three Jaffa serving different Goa'uld is not uncommon in Jaffa jokes however," Drey'auc mentioned only to help bring her husband back a bit from the sadness of a life they can't have any more.
"It looks like the third Jaffa is getting the better of the other two," Daniel pointed out. "That might mean whoever carved this was a servant of the this Nekhrun..." of course it came in a flash, but Daniel still wanted to puzzle it out as if he wasn't a walking computer as Jack would put it.
"Nekhrun's an obscure part of Egyptian mythology," he had pitched his voice so Jack, Sam, Sara and Kalakek could also hear, "A god of darkness. The few references that have been found suggest that he rebelled against Ra and later that Ra tried to excise him from history. If I recall correctly he was the god of bats too and had the ears and wings of a bat."
"Could that be who is up there, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked on their way to the Gateship.
"I wouldn't think so Teal'c. Goa'uld, even exiled ones, tend to keep with what works for them," he mused as they walked up the ramp and took their seats, everyone listening to him as the theorized out loud, "We've seen from Sokar, another banished Goa'uld, still uses Ha'taks and Sha're reported that Anubis, another exile, also still uses Goa'uld technology as we understand it."
He paused a moment to silently thank Ma'chello who came up with a way to selectively access memories. Sha're, the original, only had snatches of memories of her time as Amonet. His Sha're remembered everything. At least they were able to find her son and say goodbye. Oma will protect him and really he shouldn't have a pair of robots raise him.
Daniel would have loved to let the originals know about their son, but it was agreed, Earth can't know they're out here. They'd misunderstand and certainly their Jack O'Neill would lead the way...sadly Daniel knew -theirs- would.
"So someone well advance enough tech to make it to space, perhaps overthrew Nekhrun and hides from surrounding Goa'uld by pretending he was still around?" Sam threw out the one theory that everyone agreed sounded plausible.
"Is this reactionless drive able to be used to travel to other stars?" Kalakek wanted to know and that question brought Sam up short.
"I don't know Kalakek. I mean it could, but you're talking a journey that would be measured in years. Something like that," she gestured at the ship they were flying towards, "might go as high as eighty or more percent the speed of light."
"Wanna take over from here flyboy?" Sara teased her husband a little while later when they had gathered in the Gateship and flew up to orbit, it was a serious suggestion, however. She wasn't a pilot, Jack is and while playing flying chauffeur was one thing, when it came up to possibly needing 'fancy flying' she'd leave it to her hubby.
Jack smiled at her, took the controls and started to pan around the decidedly non-Goa'uld appearing space craft. Sara exchanged seats with Sam who started to study what readings she could make out. Daniel, even with a faster brain, still was working out deciphering what the consoles controlled or could display.
"92 life forms...two are not human..." Sam reported as Jack flew the Gateship on a lazy orbit around the larger vessel, "...fusion reactor..." Jack had to smile at the excitement creeping into Sam's voice. That was definitely something Earth hadn't developed and even though they lived on Harlan's world of wonders, it was still exciting to see a technology that could benefit Earth.
"I am reading Jaffa onboard, but if I'm reading this right, they're in the minority. I can't confirm if any of the life forms are a Goa'uld or not. I can't get that precise yet," Sam apologized and Sara felt she say something to make her feel better, maybe get her to explain something. That tended to work.
"But you can tell Jaffa from human?" she asked and saw her ploy work as Sam went into lecture mode about temperatures of humans and Jaffa, how regulated the latter is because of their symbiote. "...which of course means that one of the readings I'm labeling 'Jaffa' could be Goa'uld," she concluded and looked satisfied as she came to her conclusion.
"Hey I think I've picked up their radio traffic..." Sam announced and her hands blurred across the crystal controls, "Daniel, could you type in Punjab and Persian?" A request that would have been insane to the originals, but this Daniel could comply and it was not long before the two of them had come up with a translation program and decryption algorithm to listen in on the communications traffic.
"...attack shortly before dawn on a small armory. Representatives from the Umbra have identified the world of the invaders..." news that wasn't greeted with joy in the Gateship, when the news went on to say the raid was conducted by the Tau'ri.
Earth.
"Think we've happened on a raid by the SGC?" Daniel suggested while Sam was busy at her console.
"Captain?" Jack prodded as he noticed that look that Sam gets when she's onto something.
"I think I can hack into their computer network. The ship's pretty sophisticated, but the Angrezins not that much, sir."
"Angrezins?" Jack asks in a tone requesting more information that was just presented.
"The people of this planet," Daniel jumped in, "I think Sam is saying that this planet is called Angrezi."
In short order, that both the visiting ship, and the people of Angrezi would find unnerving Sam hacked their databases and found out quite a bit of information that she and Daniel relayed to the others as they continued to orbit the ship that is not only part of fleet of ships but are part of a interstellar alliance that is actively hiding from the System Lords.
"Hiding?" came the incredulous utterance from one unbelieving Jack O'Neill. Daniel decided to tend to the doubting Thomas among them.
"Jack, if these records are right, this Nekhrun lead abandoned humans off of worlds that were once under the System Lords and has let them develop and grow like we, like Earth has, in the thousands of years they have been forgotten by the System Lords. This is where we could have been if one Goa'uld stayed behind and helped guide us out of the Stone Age."
"Daniel for his own good," Jack countered, "Snakeheads don't do anything for anyone except themselves."
"Except the Tok'ra," Sam muttered her interjection.
"Hey, I'm still not sure about them...though they did get SG-6 back to the SGC, so I'm more for them than against."
Back and forth they went, as without noticing the fact they didn't need to eat, drink or sleep, they didn't think about it. "...okay, let's say this Snakehead is a rebel and after looking after his pet humans. This just means we don't blow him up right now. What should we do campers? We can't make first contact for Earth because we in no way can represent Earth. I'm hearing we shouldn't take out their Goa'uld overlord...so..."
"So..." Daniel began and paused, then seems to collect his thoughts, "...Jack..."
"Daniel?"
"We contact the Tok'ra and see if they want to make an alliance, and/or introduce them to Earth."
Jack wasn't clearly happy of letting either kind of symbiote decide the fate of apparently multiple human worlds. However he didn't have a better idea and since he was convinced they weren't slaves, started to take the ship back down to the planet to dial up the gate and start their round about way home when Sam spoke up with a tone of urgency.
"Sir! I think I've been spotted...traced!" she was as disbelieving at the feat as Jack had been with the notion of a helpful 'snakehead'.
"Something's happening out there Colonel," she added as space to the right and left of the Gateship started to shimmer, and they heard Jack say, "We've got two ships decloaking!"
Looking at the effect, it really did seem similar to what they saw on Star trek, however it was no Romulan or Klingon vessel of fiction out there but two enormous...things that one could only call vessels because they were encountered out in orbit.
They were both light drinking black and resembled twin spiders, flattened and joined at their bodies, the top larger than the bottom. Ten spines or legs like said spider splaying out in front and to the side of them, or that was the impression the objects gave.
As they estimated dimensions of the Xerxes-Leonidas so they were doing with the two nightmares that hung out flanking the tiny craft. Tiny since these two behemoths were two kilometers wide, but due to the unidentifiable material they were made out of no mass estimate computed within their minds.
"From their facing I take it they can -see- us, Carter?" Jack ventured with Sam nodding absently.
"Maybe we should try to leave?" Sara volunteered, though with a tone of a very deferential suggestion, she wanted to leave it to the professionals.
"Best advice all day honey," Jack took the handles into his hands and was in the process of turning towards the planet when he heard Sam's 'Incoming!' from just next to him.
Everything rocked, and part of a panel in front of Sam sparked as well as a panel in the back of the Gateship. "We're visible! It wasn't a direct hit just something they shot into our area."
"Getting a surrender request sir," Sam added to the rest of the less-than-stellar-news she was reporting.
Jack pulled up on the crystal sticks and moved them towards the Xerxes-Leonidas, "At least them we know."
"A case of the David you know, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked and silently everyone knew he deliberately said the saying wrong. It made them all feel better as Jack replied, "The devil Teal'c, the devil you know."
Guided 'below' the ship and then up into a bay, Jack expertly moved the Gateship and then landed it on a deck that felt as if it had gravity, impressing Sam. Looking across from them they could see a kind of craft that might have been made by the modern military back home, yet felt advanced.
Sam knew she shouldn't be surprised at how much she was comprehending just from visually looking at the vehicles and equipment around them, "I'd say that is a kind of dropship sir...vector thrust maybe...definitely VTOL capable...the wheeled vehicle could be a kind of tank, notice the turret at the back that runs along a track or a kind of APC..." it would be something that the original Sam Carter could get to estimating just not as quick as she knew she was doing. Not with the certainty she felt and knew that Jack agreed with her.
The men and women marching out to from a now open bulkhead reminded them of the guards back home in the gateroom, there to 'greet' visitors. However while there was a certain feel of weaponry similar to what was carried by soldiers back home, the actual configuration differed.
"Bullets...slug throwers sir," Sam reported to Jack but really was for the benefit of the rest in the ship. They saw the soldier were wearing BDUs like back home but over them were armored pieces of the kind Jack and Sam knew were being funded for testing but no where near fielding. "Notice two are carrying a kind of machine gun, actually worn by the soldier using a sophisticated harness mechanism, sir."
"Sweet..." then Jack remembered, perhaps not actually forgetting, just seeming to be distracted, that the soldiers and aforementioned hardware was there because of them.
"Well team, let's go meet the munchkins," Jack stood up first and lead the way to the back, a slapped panel started the ramp lowering.
"They are in fact quite tall, O'Neill," Teal'c corrected as he followed along with Drey'auc who chose to flank Sara to assure her. Yes their bodies were likely superior to those out there, but in their minds they still thought of themselves as more vulnerable than they are. Kalakek followed last though in truth they had to get past him to go out the door.
Jack was hoping to have an advantage with Kalakek, as a Re'tu, even a robotic one, made up of waves that are exactly 180 degrees out of phase with what humanity, and he supposed even this branch of it, right down to the sub-atomic level, they wouldn't see or hear their latest addition. Jack did understand what Sam said most of the time, he just couldn't let on he did.
He -does- have a reputation to uphold after all.
One soldier walked in and his poise screamed 'officer' to Jack and Sam, instead of the BDUs and armor the others wore, he was outfitted with cream slacks, a beret and an Ike jacket.
"I'd say welcome to Angrezi," the man said dryly, "But I'm afraid that the Angrezi aren't feeling too welcoming at the moment ... something about a little raid to grab our weapons. Weapons we were giving the Angrezi as part of their joining our alliance."
"But you're not Angrezi?" Daniel ventured from a quick assessment, the man slowly shook his head.
"However the soldiers you assaulted were members of the Padishah of Angrezi's army," the man explained, "The property stolen is where we come in more than just support of our new allies. It was ours and we'd like it returned."
"And you are called..." Jack prompted in a tone familiar to all of his team save Kalakek.
"How terribly remiss of me. You are aboard the Confederacy of Free Systems ratha Leonidas and I have the privilege of being Jemadar von Pinn of the 33rd Heinessen Pada Regiment."
"Jemadar? Like from your Star Trek?" Teal'c sent to the rest and Drey'auc smiled, she appreciated her husband sense of humor deliberately misunderstanding the Tau'ri at times.
"Jem'Hadar," Daniel sent back and somehow sounded exasperated, yet amused, over their link, "They're called the Jem'Hadar, von Pinn is a Jemadar," though Daniel when reciting cultural information, even over this link, the excitement was unmistaken able, "On Earth that was the lowest rank of commissioned officer, equivalent to a lieutenant, in the British Indian Army and Indian Army until 1965."
"In fact, 'Ratha' is the Indo-Iranian term for the spoked-wheel chariot of Antiquity. I suppose they call what we would label a ship, a chariot."
"Makes sense, kind of silly to expect everyone to call something that moves through space a ship. I mean, it isn't exactly the sea," Sara sent contributing to the conversation, "Especially as Sam says their drive pulls them along like a horse would a chariot."
"Indeed," Teal'c seem to sum up the subject in his one word manner.
"The 'Confederacy of Free Systems'?" Sam asked curiously. "Who are you free of?"
"Why, the Goa'uld," von Pinn replied in surprise. "Surely you have encountered the self-important popinjays in your explorations?"
"You were once enslaved by the False Gods?" Teal'c asked.
Von Pinn shook his head. "Fortunately not. The Confederacy is sworn never to submit to their tyranny." He gestured for them to follow him out of the cellblock. "Please, follow me. The Risaldar is attending to a small matter of diplomacy and has invited you to join him for a light meal in a few moments."
He turned, stopped and said in their direction, "This way please."
"At least they are civil, that's a good sign Jack," Daniel sent as they casually followed von Pinn.
"They also do not appear to see me," Kalakek threw in more to contribute than sooth any real concern. Few could perceive the Re'tu and humanity certainly weren't among the short list of those who can without some kind of obvious technology to do so.
"I shall continue to follow in the rear of your guards," he added with an undertone of mirth. Having stressed -your- guards meaning they were marching behind the others and not aware of him. It did seem as if Kalakek was having too much fun with not being seen than a Re'tu had any right to be.
Not that any of them were conversant with Re'tu civilization much less society or in particular this one Re'tu rebel and recently ex-terrorist.
They were walking down a long and possibly central corridor at least that was Sam's estimate. Hatches came up at intervals and some of them were even open. What might be just a glance, a glimpse for a normal human, they took in quite a bit and could review it perfectly along the trek to this important personage.
"So what do you make of them?" Jack enquired.
"Well they're almost certainly not backed by the Goa'uld," Daniel said. "No Goa'uld, not even the Tok'ra, would use this much technology, they use the bare minimum to get the job done and the rest is as low-tech as possible to keep their slaves from learning too much."
"But they're human, right?"
"It seems like it. The Angrezi sounded like they might have originated from the Indian subcontinent. Von Pinn sounds Germanic, but judging by his accent he's more accustomed to something like Hindi as well. Punjabi possibly."
"So they've got more than one culture then?"
"Yes. It's possible that they come from several worlds that were colonized by Goa'uld and later abandoned."
"But didn't he say that they had never been enslaved by the Goa'uld?" Sam asked. "I mean, they had to come from Earth originally, so who else could have brought them out here?"
Pinn led to them next room and the door slid open to reveal a large room, furnished comfortably. Von Pinn then gestured to a bearded man who was wearing the same uniform as the jemadar, but with a braid on his jacket epaulettes and he wasn't alone.
There were two others flanking this bearded man, arachnidlike in appearance, in fact somewhat like a Re'tu. Nor was the appearance the only thing similar, each of them could tell that these two were like Kalakek and not visible to human senses.
Sam noted each one are similiar to Kalakek in that they are an insect-like organism, however they differed with a spiky, violet-black carapace. Daniel's observations were that they are similar in shape to a praying mantis with an upper body, shoulder spines, a mobile head and at least one pair of grasping forelimbs. The rear of the body is supported by multiple pairs of legs.
Inwardly he smiled at the details he comprehended in just these first several seconds of sighting.
He counted fourteen eyes in total divided into four groups. Two sets of three arranged, slanted upward and two sets of four arranged to align perfectly under the first sets. So many details in fewer than ten seconds.
One detail none of them missed, the bearded man's eyes began to glow with that familiar golden light.
Instinct or reflex, there was an urge to raise weapons they didn't carry and yet even as all of that processed so too did the fact that the guards behind them -did- carry weapons. To those guards they only appeared to flinch at most.
"I thought you said that this Confederacy of yours had nothing to do with the Goa'uld," Jack hissed to von Pinn.
"I said that we weren't enslaved by the Goa'uld," the jemadar replied with a roll of his eyes. "I didn't say we had never had contact with them. He led our ancestors to these worlds eons ago and has worked alongside us to make the Confederacy a reality. Risaldar Ayodhya was honored to carry him to Angrezi for the ceremonies to admit them to the Confederacy."
"How kind of you to say so," the Risaldar said, brushing down his jacket as he stood up. "Please," he said to SG-1, "seat yourselves. I've ordered a light meal be prepared."
"So," he said, eyeing them as they all gingerly took seats facing his. "You are the famous SG-1 whose exploits have become legend anywhere one can tap into the gossip of the System Lords. Three of the long forgotten Tau'ri, and of course the quite infamous Shol'va Teal'c, once the First Prime to Apophis. I am honored to meet you."
His eyes seem to widen as enough guards had flowed into the room to let Kalakek walk in and finally saw the two life forms like himself. "Shades!"
They were the last words Jack or the others seem to understand even with their translation programs. Kalakek and these...Shades spoke in what sounded like high pitched clicks or whistles, twisted and digitized at least to their ears. What perhaps surprised them more was that this Risaldar seem to both see and follow the conversation while von Pinn or the guards did not appear to follow either.
He gestured with his arms, "Let us move to the other side of the room, and not crowd them."
"-They- are here, Risaldar?" von Pinn asked with a hint of awe.
"Yes, they not only got us here they are aboard with me," Ayodhya answered and turned to Jack, "So, why may I ask did the Tau'ri feel they had to come and raid my future allies?"
It didn't take long to convince the Risaldar as apparently Jack's, the 'other' one, has quite the reputation as a man who could be trusted. However there was a...complication.
"...And I assure you I do take your word," Ayodhya pointed out, "but even if I take your word for this, which the Angrezi may not, there's no actual proof. And I'm not about to screw up the negotiations with the Padishah, who takes attacks on his soldiers rather personally, by letting the closest thing he has to culprits just walk away."
"We have no way of knowing if this is SGC sanctioned or not Jack," Daniel sent, concerned that the Stargate Command might actually be involved.
"I have a suggestion," Kalakek interrupted as the three of them moved over to their side of the room, "Since we cannot go to the SGC directly, none of us having a code for the Iris. Why not go to Moonbase Alpha and from there make contact and find out what is going on?"
"I can't just let you waltz out of here," Ayodhya began and was silenced by more whistles, buzzes and high pitched whines, "Oh. I suppose that would work."
"And, well, what?" Jack prompted not happy about being excluded from a conversation that may decide their fate.
"Well, Kalakek goes to this Moonbase Alpha while the rest of you stay here," the Risaldar said looking inordinately pleased about the whole arrangement.
And he was pleased showing them the delights, a demonstration of the military prowess of the Confederation he guides, not rules, guides, all the while Jack and the others were painfully aware they had a deadline to meet, one of life and death.
Kalakek had it as well and did not see himself expendable despite his being robotic and like the others, with his original still about. Surprised with the Re'tu establishing a presence on the Tau'ri moon, he was more interested in getting back, specifically getting back to Harlan's world before their power sources run out and they die.
"...so apparently this rogue NID faction was stealing from a remote location and passing on their findings to a mole in the SGC," Ayodhya was explaining to his people as they gathered at the gate on the planet below.
"But what about my men, restitution for their deaths!" the Padishah called out, still looking around for the Tau'ri he heard were in the Risaldar's custody. They were waiting in a cloaked Gateship. Inside Jack was making a hurry up gesture. They weren't at the end yet, but they could feel the twinges of weakening power.
"So tell me again why we're waiting?" he asked no-one in particular.
"Because Earth could use this alliance and so we go when the Risaldar says we can, sir," Sam thought she better explain, Sara could do so but it might pick a fight in Jack's mood and Daniel had gone through the explanation last time. It would be Teal'c's turn next time.
"We can come back or send the other SG-1 to negotiate with them, but only if we don't appear as if we are running out on them on bad terms, sir." It made sense to Jack this time as well as the others, but as much as he didn't like his robotic nature, he wasn't ready to die, nor was he ready to see Sara or his friends die. Not when they could just leave, these Shades, or as they are called back at the SGC, Shadows, are way up in orbit. Their ships at least, and so no-one could stop them from dialing the gate and going.
To sit around and just listen to speeches..."Jack?"
"Daniel?"
"He's finishing up. We can go out now," Daniel said getting up, along with Teal'c and Sam. Sara, Drey'auc and Kalakek would stay in the Gateship, and take it through. Daniel pointed out they should be seen by everyone who might be part of getting the alliance so if it is SG-1 who comes back, it is established what they look like.
Coming around a tree, they didn't pay attention to the Gateship as it rose under cloak. Whoever made the Gateship likely used the same principle of cloaking the Goa'uld Nirrti discovered and earlier this year as they learned from the update.
Sara held the ship steady and hoped the boys and Sam were quick to get out of the way once they go through. She smiled as she thought of the jokes of 'woman driver' Jack would make if she cuts it too close to their exit on the other side to fly through.
Watching them go through the gate, Sara thought the jokes might just be worth it to see the look on Jack's face...she knew they were fast enough to dodge out of the way nearly automatically. She shared a look with Drey'auc and confirmed that her Jaffa friend had a similar thought. With that impish impulse still on her mind she flew the Gateship through the gate perhaps a second earlier than she should.
The look was worth it.
Author's notes: Changes from drakensis story were first which SG-1, this one had Jaffa in Nekhrun's service, his did not, also the timing, his excellent story had it when the NID were operating the second gate, I placed this about the time of the episode 'Shade of Grey.' Other changes were he had a cross over with star wars amog other things, the ships and equipment I'm using are from the Colonial Marines of the Alien movie series, specifically the second movie, Aliens. The reactionless drive is from a website called Orion's arm, though the theory is actually one NASA had explored/suggested for the future. Finally I went with ranks and titles more Indian than in the original story just to add a touch of multiculturalism and be a bit different. His story goes beyond this point and I intend to revisit it in one of the series I am I writing. My thanks to drakensis again, do go read his story.