Chapter 11 – What Is Just

Daniel didn't bother to tell Jack that he might be about to put more than Chanah on the line. It didn't seem like a good time to do it.

"Charlie, the others who were here with Major Frawley's team but got out before the DHD blew, are they subject to the same charges?"

"Yes."

"Not Jack, though? He was unconscious from the Re'tu attack on him."

"Not Jack."

"Can the testimony of those others be considered in Chanah's defense?"

"Certainly. But they would have to come here to give evidence and thus also face trial."

"And if Chanah can't remember what happened in time, and no one else gives testimony, what happens?"

"She may be presumed guilty. Were it not for the life of the child she carried, she might have been executed months ago. If she cannot remember very soon, there may be nothing more that can be done. It is possible that the family will take into account her circumstances and the new alliance, but the son of the dead Re'tu is very bitter."

"He may now have two people to vent his hostility on, Charlie."

"What do you mean, Dr. Jackson?"

"I was here at the time, helping to rescue Jack."

"But you cannot be tried."

"Why not?"

"As a condition of treaty negotiations, SG-1 was guaranteed safe passage in and out. That agreement controls the matter."

"That's not very fair to Chanah. Can't we just include her in that umbrella?"

"No, Dr. Jackson."

"Then how about convincing the family to drop the matter somehow?"

"You may try, but do not get your expectations up. If it were my mother, I would demand a public trial."

Charlie was right. The process of a trial was wanted by the family. The good news was that Daniel didn't believe that Chanah's fate was sealed by that fact. So it came to pass that Daniel, instead of being Chanah's codefendant as he might have been, became her lawyer.

Jack spared no epithet on Daniel for failing to extricate her yet, and for putting himself at risk with his admission that he too was present. Chanah tried to calm Jack.

"Charlie undertook a great risk to the Re'tu for our child's sake O'Neill. I accepted the terms he gave. I will stand trial."

"Yeah, but you have amnesia. That deal won't hold water."

"O'Neill, I knew what I agreed to do whether or not I remembered what happened that day. I feel as though I can trust Dr. Jackson on this. Leave it be."

"Well, he did get Teal'c off for way worse than this before."

"Let us hope he has not lost his touch."

Daniel started Chanah's defense with a capsule summary of her life. He did not go into much detail because it was not her way. She was not interested in pity. He also told them of her efforts to kill the Goa'uld and their larva, and how she worked to free the Jaffa from Goa'uld rule despite the horrible things the Jaffa had done to her and her people. Daniel felt it important that the Re'tu understand how she came to be with SG-9 that day.

Then he reviewed the facts of the two incidents which Daniel insisted had to be viewed as one. It all started with the unprovoked attack on Teal'c, motivated by fear of him being a Jaffa and nothing else. The Tauri accepted that it had been a tragic mistake.

So, he argued, should the Re'tu accept that Major Frawley's action in firing upon the Re'tu had been a tragic mistake. Perhaps he panicked at the sight of many Re'tu – who had nearly killed two of his colleagues earlier that day – and fired, fueled by fears real or imagined. Who knew for sure if he had thought the Re'tu were about to fire first? If the sun glinted off a plasma weapon, fooling him into thinking that incoming fire was imminent?

In the end, it was Major Frawley alone who'd fired. The Re'tu did not dispute that fact. He was SG-9's commanding officer. Chanah was powerless to stop his actions. She had told him she thought they could get out without firing. But she had no way to stop his actions unless she fired upon her own superior. That could not reasonably be expected. If that was expected, should not the Re'tu have done the same to their own to prevent the shootings of Teal'c and Colonel O'Neill, he asked them.

Daniel also attacked the law itself as unfair. It was flawed. On Earth, a similar law existed but it had a safeguard that the Re'tu's law did not. You could be held responsible for the death of another which occurred if you were participating in an illegal act, but not a legal one. Had Chanah come as part of team to commit any crime on the Re'tu? No. She came to help rescue the injured father of her unborn child. Would not each of them have done that for their loved ones? Daniel did not expect that argument to carry much weight with the bereaved family, but it seemed a worthwhile appeal for public pressure to acquit.

In conclusion, Daniel reminded the Re'tu's family that Chanah was herself a mother. That if they took her life, they left two children including a newborn baby without a mother. Was that just for what she had done – simply being there when a rescue went wrong?

Circe and Charlie also spoke words that the humans did not understand in her favor. Circe's screeching was something to behold however. She'd spent four months as a caretaker to Chanah and then to her child. Although they had no way to speak, they had become friends of a sort.

Chanah spoke last.

"I do not yet remember the events of that day because of the wound to my head, so I have only a few words to offer.

I lost my entire planet to the Goa'uld, and then my husband and baby to them. In response to those events, I became an assassin. I have killed many Goa'uld and Jaffa in pursuit of justice and revenge. Today my body was covered in blood when I killed two Jaffa to protect my baby. Then I killed a third in an act of rage, mistakenly believing it had killed my baby. So as you can see, I can kill. I can kill like Major Frawley did, whether by mistake or intentionally. I will kill again if I live for I will continue to try and stop the Goa'uld from hurting others.

To the family of the Re'tu that Major Frawley shot in his fear, I am truly sorry for your loss. If holding me accountable for it will somehow lessen your loss, then execute me.

I can only say that I should regret if you choose to become what I am and are not prepared for the consequences. For as many as I have killed in the name of justice, there was not a single death of a Goa'uld or Jaffa I caused that has ever lessened by one iota the grief they caused me by killing my family and my people. So if you choose to condemn me, then I wish you better fortune than I.

Beyond that, it is not an easy thing to live with the responsibility for the death of another even when justified. To be responsible for killing a child's beloved parent, no matter how wretched the parent might seem to others. It is an ugly talent which, thankfully, only a few of us shall ever master."

Chanah looked at Jack as she spoke these last words. She may not have remembered him yet, but she knew already that he was one of the masters as was she. They killed with purpose and, with rare exception, didn't look back. They moved inexorably forward with their lives despite the ugliness that often intruded upon it. It was a formidable survival skill.

After a brief recess, Charlie informed them they were free to leave. None of them would ever know what persuaded the Re'tu's family to let her go. Only Daniel felt disappointed by that fact. Chanah, true to the way she lived, closed the lid to that box, and clicked forward to the next thing.

Jack was relieved. He wasn't sure Chanah's words, though true, would be understood as she'd meant. But he admired her honesty about herself and her choices. She wasn't ever going to go "Oma" on him. He saw passion and zeal in her where others just saw things that scared them, the horror of her background and what she could do. With him, though, it wasn't all doom and gloom and Goa'uld killing. There was an exciting physicality between them which replaced words along with a deeper understanding of being two of kind. He was happy to be taking her home at last, along with a present that he had never expected again in his life.