Confrontation
"You know that 'we come in peace business'? Bite me." (Jack O'Neill)
Things were not going good. Mitchell did not even need to witness the grave frown on Landry's face, or the angry expression on Colonel Whatshisname's, or the holier-than-thou preoccupation on Woolsey's to know that the meeting was unfolding remarkably badly.
He refused to even look towards Vala. Seated on the General's immediate right at the round table they used for debriefs, she had—to her credit—come in with a good-natured desire to set things straight. And had promptly hit a wall of condescension and mistrust.
Cameron had cringed when she had asked why Tomin wasn't allowed to attend the meeting, and Woolsey had gone off on a rant about security risks and hostile aliens. He had actually been quite impressed when she had managed to ignore the man, but not even her uncharacteristic patience had helped matters any. Woolsey—and by extension, the IOA—plainly declared they intended to press Tomin for information on the Ori, and requested that he be released to their custody. The other colonel, on his part, kept arguing that the man should be tried and convicted for crimes against the people of this galaxy. Words like "liability", "planetary safety" and "hostile prisoner" did not make things any smoother, either.
But worst of all, Mitchell knew, was that not even SG1 was entirely convinced of Tomin's good intentions. That was why he did not really want to look at Vala right then. He knew she felt like she was fighting all alone. She wasn't, really. All of them, and Landry, were more than open to arguments in Tomin's favour—but they had to be true to what they believed in, and at that moment, they believed in the possibility that the man she knew had died when Tomin had first enrolled in the Ori crusader army.
"Is it not conceivable that he has realized the Ori are false gods?"
True, not all of them doubted Tomin in the same degree. Teal'c had spoken a few times, and not even Woolsey had seemed inclined to dismiss the Jaffa's arguments the same way he constantly dismissed Vala's.
"Of course, it's a possibility," the civilian admitted with a shrug, "but I'm asking you, do we have any proof? Surely you can't expect us to just take his word for it—or," he quickly added as he saw Vala about to cut in, "Ms. Mal Doran's word. Don't get me wrong, I know we can, uh, trust you," he addressed her, "but you're much too involved to be objective. In fact, I'm not even sure she should be here," he told the General in a lower tone, "as I have expressed several times over the course of this meeting—"
"Yes, indeed, quite a few times," Landry remarked dryly, "and I have made itclear several times, myself, that I trust Ms. Mal Doran's capacity to remain objective throughout this discussion."
That, Mitchell felt, might have been unduly optimistic, but he was not about to argue. Tomin certainly needed an advocate, as the tides were so overwhelmingly against him. So Cameron was not too sorry to watch the general subtly reprimand Woolsey for his absurd appeals.
"Dr. Jackson!"
Daniel groaned inwardly. He had managed to keep silent thus far, and was hoping he could go through the meeting without having to declare a standpoint. Because, in all honestly, he was not sure of where he stood on the issue—or why.
"Dr. Jackson," Woolsey repeated, "you came into contact with the prisoner before, haven't you?"
"Not so much," Daniel replied noncommittally.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't he on the Ori ship you boarded when the Ori armada first came through the supergate?" Clearly, Woolsey had done his homework. He flicked through a thick blue folder in front of him on the table. "The mission reports were a little vague about that, but they did mentioned he was hostile, and even ended up wounding Ms. Mal Doran, herself. I mean, if he did not hesitate to fire on his own, eh…wife—"
Daniel cringed at the word. They were all tiptoeing around the issue of Vala's marital status, but it was clearly one more knot in the bureaucratic debacle that was Tomin's situation. Woolsey was using it in turn to discredit Vala's arguments and Tomin's character, and if Danielhad not been so thoroughly confused about the whole thing, he would have very much liked to hit him over the head with the folder the little man was clutching so fiercely.
"We were kind of in the middle of a battle," Daniel argued half-heartedly, "people react in funny ways at times like those…oh, and shooting Vala really was an accident," he added as an afterthought.
"But did it seem at all to you like the man was doubting his allegiance to the Ori?" Woolsey insisted, and Daniel suddenly felt like he was on the stand. For the wrong side.
"He…well, no," he admitted, "but that was a while ago and I mean, it's possible that—"
"Again that word, 'possible'," the civilian shook his head. "General, I can certainly see why having a former Ori commander on our side would be a formidable advantage, but the mere possibility that he might be telling the truth is simply not enough to go on!"
"Oh, but the possibility that he might be lying is enough to condemn him, is that what you're saying?" Vala argued in annoyance. "Because let me tell you, that sounds pretty hypocritical—"
"This is not an issue of hypocrisy! It's an issue of weighing risks and benefits!"
"It's an issue of weighing someone's life against a load of—"
"Vala," Mitchell hissed under his breath.
"—prejudice!" she finished, not even having heard him; he breathed easy nonetheless.
"Dr. Jackson!" Woolsey turned to him again, in near exasperation. "You said the man did not seem to question the Ori. He opened fire on you. We know for a fact that he led the troops in God-only-knows how many assaults on villages filled with innocent people." Woolsey clasped his hands together and pointed them at Daniel. "You're an expert on alien contact, Dr. Jackson. So what's your recommendation? Would you, in good conscience, recommend that we take the prisoner's word that he no longer serves our enemy?"
Daniel felt his mouth go dry, as all eyes in the room seemed to turn to him.
Vala suddenly became aware of a dull pain in the palm of her hands, and remarked with a sort of fascinated detachment that she her nails had dug in deep enough to draw red welts on her skin. She imagined it was the price to pay for being patient and tolerant to all the small-minded absurdities that were being flung around in the meeting room. But the angry crimson lines in her palm were not enough to draw her focus away from Daniel. She watched him, almost holding her breath as he pondered Woolsey's question, and to her horror and disbelief, she thought she saw him starting to shake his head—
"Mr. Woolsey!" Landry boomed before Daniel got the chance to form any reply. "Do I need to remind you that you have no right to interrogate my people? You've expressed your point of view—quite clearly, I may say—and I will take that into consideration when I make my decision."
"With all due respect, General, I'm not so sure this is your decision to make."
Under different circumstances, Vala would have been interested in the exchange. She still did not understand the balance of power within the SGC, and any occasion to observe it was welcome. But at the moment, she was unable to tear her gaze from Daniel. The question haunted her: was he really going to recommend that Tomin not be trusted?
The other man, the colonel whose name she did not remember, started shouting again. He called Tomin a criminal, and Vala could not understand how he, how anyone, could say that about the man she knew. Could they really not see the driving force beyond his actions? They kept arguing about what he had done, and no one ever stopped to wonder about the person that he was.
"I mean, anything he could share with us would be priceless, can we really risk ignoring that opportunity?" Sam was saying, and Vala felt half-grateful, half-indignant; she could tell her friend was trying to be helpful, but the tone was unmistakably doubtful.
If they were going to keep their doubts silent out of friendship, or sympathy, or whatever it was, they could at least do a good job of it, she thought bitterly.
The battle of words kept going, and it kept going nowhere; Vala swallowed hard as people around the table talked and talked, incensed and indignant, and she could feel her own anger well up inside.
"We have already applied for custody of the prisoner—"
"Big surprise, there. If you think he's so dangerous, why not just leave him here, for us to deal with?"
"Now, Colonel, I'm not sure I appreciate what you're implying…"
"Mr. Woolsey, I'm not sure I appreciate your failure to inform me of the actions the IOA is taking with regard to Tomin."
The civilian froze for a second, obviously aware that he had broken protocol.
"Well…eh…I mean, I thought it would be obvious he would not be allowed to remain on base, not with all the information he's holding, not with all the risks!"
"With the risk of sounding clichéd," Landry replied, the tiniest bit of sarcasm lacing his words, "it's the SGC's job to take those kinds of risks."
"And it's the IOA's job to make sure that in taking those risks, the SGC doesn't release a threat to the entire planet!" Woolsey defended. "General, I absolutely oppose taking on such a security risk, the President—"
"The President, Mr. Woolsey," Landry spoke slowly, "still trusts my decisions as the leader of SGC, despite the IOA's repeatedly voiced misgivings."
"In any case," the little man quickly recovered, "the point is we have absolutely no facts to go on to prove this man is anything else but an Ori spy."
"He's not a spy," the other colonel spat, "he's a cold-blooded criminal!"
"He is not a criminal!"
"Vala, sit down," Mitchell hissed from the corner of his mouth, trying not to draw any attention to the fact that she had jumped up from her chair and was now facing the resentful SGC colonel with a hard-set expression.
"Tomin is not a criminal," she repeated, refusing to sit back down. Maybe if she towered over all of them, they would stop ignoring her arguments.
"Tell that to all the people his men killed," the man countered.
Mitchell shook his head. They were obviously in a gridlock. And worst of all, while he certainly trusted Vala's judgment, he could not forget the day when they had met Tomin's troops back in that village. The soldiers had been savage and ruthless; how much different could their commander be?
"We all make mistakes," Vala argued. "But how many of us actually have the courage to try and fix them?"
Cameron decided to intervene before the colonel set her off with another angry remark. He pushed his chair back a little, so he did not have to crane his neck too much to look up at her.
"Why are you so sure he wants to help us?"
"Because I know him, and he's a good man!"
He sighed. The 'good man' argument was just not going to cut it with the IOA…or anyone, for that matter.
"Vala…he ordered entire villages to be slaughtered."
A split-second too late, he realized that had been the wrong thing to say. But she had already clenched her fists, facing him with a narrow-eyed glare.
"And how clean are your hands, Cameron? How many Ori soldiers did you shoot?" She lowered her head towards him, to make the words more powerful. "Do you want to know some of their names? They had families, too, they were people just like you and me. But it was a war," she shook her head, mercifully redirecting her focus towards the whole table, "and we did what we thought was the right thing. And if someone is to judge which of the two causes was right, it shouldn't be us, and it shouldn't be them."
She sighed. Her words were followed by silence, and she was almost grateful. Clasping her hands together, she resumed her passionate plea.
"Tomin didn't do those horrible things because of hatred, he did it because he believed in their crusade, because he was angry and lost, and now he wants to change and none of us should have the right to deny him that! Not when we shot so many of his men, blew up their ships and never looked back."
"In case you forgot, they attacked us, destroyed planets, killed people—including yourself, once!—and they're still running rampant in our galaxy. They need to be stopped!"
Vala turned such a venomous look on him that Woolsey actually pushed against the back of his chair.
"Then why don't you go out there and stop them? Or is it a lot easier to just totter around here on base, ratting off instructions and making easy judgments?" Her tone was becoming louder, as she focused her indignant anger on Woolsey. "How dare you scorn Tomin when he's worth so much more than you ever will be? He was out there and he had the courage to turn his back on everything he ever believed in, everything he ever was, to come to us and do the right thing, and you're condemning him instead of respecting that courage?"
"Alright that's enough."
Landry had stood up as well, and it was only that that made Vala fall silent—though she still cast challenging glares at everyone around the table, chin thrust into the air, as though daring them to argue again.
"This meeting is over," Landry declared curtly. "Colonel," he eyed the resentful man, "neither you nor your men will have any contact with the prisoner. Understood? Mr. Woolsey," he turned to the civilian, "my office in twenty minutes. If you so much as think of contacting the IOA by then," he added in a low, warning tone, "I will make sure you never set foot on this base again." The little man seemed ready to argue, than thought better of it and nodded silently. Satisfied, Landry finally turned to Vala, and his eyebrows drew together in a deep, menacing frown. "You…" he rasped, inhaling sharply. "My office. Now." He then swept the rest of the table with a sharp glance. "The rest of you, dismissed."
A/N: I've been trying to update more often, about once or twice a week. This kind of updating time is a whole new territory for me--is it too often? Does it make it hard to follow the story?Unlike ever before, I actually have a few more chapters ready, so I would definitely appreciate suggestions on how often to post.
And of course, your thoughts on this latest chapter are welcome and appreciated :)!
Myosotis