Title: Ambassadors to the Furlings
Chapter: 11 of ?
Email: Power
Category: Action/Adventure/Romance
Rating: Teen
Pairing: S/J
Season: 8/9
Spoilers: Set between Moebius Part II and the season 9 opener.
Content Warnings: None
Archive: SJFic: Yes
SamandJack: Yes
Anywhere else: Yes
Disclaimer: Only the story belongs to me.
Author's Note: This was begun way before season 9 aired in the UK, so its completely AU from the end of season 8 onwards.
A big thank you to everyone who sent feedback – all really lovely and encouraging. I'll keep this up if you keep that up, deal? ;-)
Power
By the time they were halfway through their tour of the power facility Sam was beginning to seriously worry about Jack. They had heard nothing new since their odd meeting with Kihrana and any hopes Sam might have been harbouring that the Leader's daughter would reveal more on this tour had been dashed when Kihrana had left them in the hands of a Furling Sam hadn't met yet.
As their guide showed them yet another empty control room (the station was completely autonomous, requiring only monthly visits from Furling engineers) Sam felt herself growing angry.
The only point of interest throughout the whole tour had been the fact that they'd had to journey out of the city in order to get here and had been given different translator bracelets for the duration, which changed the readouts on the screens into English.
"Colonel Carter?" Sam looked up; it appeared she had not been paying attention to their guide. She wondered how long he'd been calling her name.
"Yes?"
"I was just explaining that this next room houses the first of the two generators that power this facility and the city itself."
"Okay," Sam remarked, at a loss for anything else to say.
They walked into the room with the generator. Room was an understatement, this was a hall filled almost to capacity by the generator.
"You have two of these?" Daniel asked, raising his voice slightly to be heard over the surprisingly low growl of the generator.
"Yes. They power this installation and the city, as I said, and also the private citadel of the Leader."
Sam sensed Daniel sending Teal'c a confused look, and saw the Jaffa's slight head movement that meant he was also confused. "What citadel?" She asked.
"The Leader's second home. On many days after work he retires there to be among his plants and away from city life." The guide paused, a little uncertain if he should have answered that question. "Surely you know about the citadel?"
"Of course. I thought you meant something else." Sam said, grimacing inwardly at the feebleness of the excuse.
Nevertheless, the guard seemed to be satisfied. He turned and led the way to the second generator.
After the tour, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c were met by Kihrana. "I trust you found the tour informative?" She asked.
"Indeed we did." Teal'c responded.
Kihrana smiled. "Colonel Carter, my father wishes to see you in his office. Gheera will take you there now." Kihrana indicated the Furling who had shown them around the power station. "Dr Jackson, Teal'c, if you would come with me please?"
"Why aren't we going with Sam?" Daniel asked.
Kihrana smiled again. "My father has informed me that he wishes to see Colonel Carter alone."
"Why?" Daniel asked.
"My father is a wise and just leader. It is not for me to question his decisions," Kihrana said. "Nor is it for you to do so," she added, her tone hardening.
Daniel looked like he was about to object, but Teal'c laid a hand on his arm and Sam said, "Its okay, Daniel." She turned to Gheera, "Lead on."
Daniel Jackson was not happy. As he followed Teal'c and Kihrana he kept trying to work out possible scenarios to explain the Furlings' behaviour, but he was an archaeologist not a strategist. 'No, for that I need Jack. Its just like him to disappear when we need him.' Realising how untrue that was and that he was sulking Daniel looked up and took a renewed interest in his surroundings.
Something was wrong.
"Uh… Kihrana?"
"Dr Jackson?" Kihrana asked, her tone cold.
"Why aren't we heading back to Sam's quarters to wait for her?"
"You also have a meeting to get to, Dr Jackson." Kihrana answered quietly.
Sam was sitting in the leafy claustrophobia of the Leader's office alone, waiting for the Leader himself to make an appearance. She'd been there for ten minutes already, and was beginning to get irritated.
Finally the Leader appeared through a door at the back of the room. He smiled genially at Sam and sat down opposite her.
"You must forgive me Colonel Carter, I am overtired." He pushed a plate of biscuits towards her and poured them both some Furling coffee for them both. "Please help yourself," he said, indicating the biscuits.
Sam did so, in the interests of politeness, and felt slightly calmer, breakfast had been a long time ago,
The Leader's manner changed abruptly, he became serious. Grave, even. "I am afraid you have not been made aware of everything you should have, Samantha. May I call you Samantha?" He asked hurriedly.
Sam nodded. "What have I not been made aware of, sir?"
"Please, call me Kihrann."
"Kihrann." Sam corrected, hating herself for playing the diplomatic game with someone who was being completely dishonest with her.
"First of all I wish you to know that I wanted to be completely honest and open, both with the Tau'ri and the Asgard. However, I was given bad advice. My advisors, for reasons I will explain in a moment, thought it best that we get the Tau'ri here by any means necessary. They thought that your superiors would not allow you to come if you knew."
"Knew what, Kihrann?" Sam pressed, allowing a hard edge to creep into her tone.
"About the revolutionaries." Kihrann said bluntly.
"Revolutionaries?" Sam asked, at the same time thinking, 'Revolution. Has a different ring to it than Resistance, doesn't it?'
Kihrann nodded, contriving to look both grave and sad. "Some of our people are not happy here. They do not appreciate the holo-evironment."
'Like getting blood from a stone with this guy,' Sam thought with annoyance. "They want to leave?"
"No!" Kihrann exclaimed. "They want to destroy the environment! They want to dismantle the power station!" The Leader realised he had spoken slightly too loudly and cleared his throat with a growling sound. "Of course, we have tried living without the environment before, but it was impossible. It caused depression and recklessness in the most stalwart of our people. But these revolutionaries are young, they were born here and they do not know what it was like before. They disregard our warnings and threaten us."
"Kihrann," Sam began, when she was quite sure he had finished, "where is General O'Neill?"
Kihrann shifted uncomfortably. "I am afraid the revolutionaries have him."
"They kidnapped him?" Sam asked.
"No," Kihrann sounded miserable, "I am afraid they have indoctrinated him. They knew of General O'Neill's sympathy for oppressed peoples from the stories of how he triggered the Jaffa rebellion with your friend Teal'c, and they played on those sympathies. I do not know where they have taken him."
Sam just stared at him.
"I want to assure you, Colonel Carter, that we are doing everything we can to get General O'Neill back, and you will both be free to depart as soon as you can, I completely understand that you would wish to."
"What am I supposed to do in the mean time?" Sam asked finally, dropping all pretence at politeness.
"I would advise you to go to your quarters and say nothing of what we have discussed here. I do not want to put you in danger. I will contact you as soon as I have any information concerning General O'Neill."
Sam stood, her face a careful mask controlling her anger.
"Once again, Colonel Carter, I am sincerely sorry that we have involved you in our issues."
Sam nodded and left the office, heading for her quarters.
When she got back to her quarters it was to find them empty, Daniel and Teal'c had still not returned.
Sam sank down on one of the couches.
The strange thing was that she believed the Leader. She knew Jack wouldn't have gone anywhere without letting her know. And the Leader's explanation fit the facts. Occam's razor, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. She was having trouble believing that Jack had been hoodwinked, but it had happened before. With horrible consequences. She shuddered inwardly, remembering the ordeal with the Eurondans four years ago.
Nevertheless, the Leader's explanation fit. Save for the fact that she could not bring herself to believe that Jack would leave without a word to her. Thinking it over, it seemed to Sam that it was infinitely more likely that Jack had been kidnapped by the revolutionaries.
Suddenly noticing that she was extremely tired, Sam went into her quarters to lie down and await word from the Leader.
Daniel and Teal'c looked around the garden that housed the fountain of Jharaak.
"Why have you brought us here?" Teal'c enquired sternly.
"One moment," Kihrana said. The pressed a small button on the necklace she wore and she, Daniel and Teal'c were surrounded by brilliant white light.
A moment later they found themselves standing on the deck of a ship.
"What just happened?" Daniel asked.
Before anyone could answer the room was again bathed in light and Thor appeared. "Dr Jackson, Teal'c," the small alien greeted.
"Thor, what's going on?" Daniel asked.
"Kihrana contacted me shortly after it was discovered that O'Neill had disappeared. She told me what had happened and explained everything about the political state of affairs among the Furlings. I am sorry, I should have carried out more exhaustive research into the situation before I allowed O'Neill and Colonel Carter to visit the Furlings."
Daniel looked perplexed.
"Perhaps someone would care to tell DanielJackson and I what the situation is with the Furlings." Teal'c said his neutral tone barely covering his anger.
Kihrana stepped forwards. "My father is a tyrant." She said bluntly.
"Oh," was all Daniel could think of to say.
"He uses the environment to control us. There is nowhere we can go that is not part of the environment. There is nowhere we can be where he cannot see us. We are under constant surveillance to prevent insurgence."
"Is the power station a part of the environment also?" Teal'c asked.
"No," Kihrana admitted, "It's the one weak spot in my father's empire. That is why none of us are allowed there without supervision. The little tour my father allowed for you and Colonel Carter was heavily supervised. Had one of you strayed I have no doubt that you would have been imprisoned or killed."
"And just which of those happened to Jack?" Daniel asked.
"My father has General O'Neill imprisoned." Kihrana answered. "I am so sorry for this. We are not by nature a hostile people. My father's mind is… warped."
"Where is Jack imprisoned?" Daniel demanded.
"At the base of the power station. That is where my father has all his prisoners. He took General O'Neill because he was hoping that would stop the assault on the power station."
"What assault?" Daniel asked.
"I belong to the resistance." Kihrana said, "They have decided that the time for passivity is over and we must take my father down by force, even at the cost of the lives of the Furlings my father has taken prisoner. They plan to attack the power station in twenty hours time."
"But that'll kill Jack!" Daniel exclaimed.
"They see it as worth the sacrifice. You have to understand, Dr Jackson, my father is poisoning our people. He puts something in the food that controls us. One of our members devised a counter-agent, but we cannot match the levels of it that my father forces the populace to consume. The only way we can return to normal is to stop the production of the poison and to destroy the environment it works in conjunction with. They only way to do that is to destroy the power station."
"If you believe that, why are you telling us this? You know we'll try to save Jack and probably get your little assault blown out of the water." Daniel said, angrily.
"I want you to rescue him!" Kihrana exclaimed. "I want you to rescue all of them. We can find another way, I'm sure we can. I need you to rescue them, he has my mother and my partner down there!"
'Ah,' Daniel thought.
"We will need Colonel Carter." Thor said, speaking for the first time in many long minutes.
Daniel nodded. "Can you beam her up?" He asked Kihrana.
Sam woke to the sound of the door chime. She checked her watch and realised she had been asleep for close to half an hour.
She made her way through the quarters to the door and opened it, surprised to see the leader himself outside.
"Samantha, may I come in?"
Sam stood back, nodding. The leader walked into her quarters, leaving his entourage outside.
"Do you have some news for me, Kihrann?" Sam asked, taking her cue about the name from the Leader.
He nodded gravely. "I am afraid I have to report treachery within my own household." He said, "My daughter Kihrana, has defected. She is a revolutionary. It was she who lured O'Neill."
At his look of distress, Sam found herself feeling genuinely sorry for the Leader and said so; he accepted her condolences and excused himself.
"I promise to find O'Neill, Samantha, you have my word on it." He said, and left.
Sam stood where he left her, but before she could undertake any real thinking, she was engulfed in a beam of brilliant light.