A/N: Review responses for last chapter are in my forums as normal. And now an extra-long chapter to wrap up Part IV.
Chapter Thirty-Six: Penance and Picnics
The ten men Daniel and Harry captured and brought back to Byrsa did not stand public trial before a magistrate. They were not openly charged with attempted regicide. Instead, they were placed, one-by-one, in a small room with the Vice Empress.
A few or the captive men tried to attack her, but they quickly learned the futility of that. While Luna looked petite and weak, and while she might not have been the fighter Hermione or Harry were, she was still far more than mere human.
Each "interview" took only minutes, and consisted of Luna sitting across a featureless table from one of the captives. The entire process took less than two hours. She did not speak to Harry, Daniel or Hermione during the interviews. Her face was an uncharacteristically stony mask that made the IBJ personnel nervous as they took out each exhausted, gibbering suspect and brought in another.
When they were done, Luna rose from the table and left the room to the observation area where Daniel and Harry waited with arms crossed.
"I need to meditate," she said before either man could speak. "The men are guilty, but I advise against executing them just yet. We'll speak at dinner."
Luna rarely ever issued orders to Harry; politics was the one area she did. And it was the one avenue Harry often yielded to her judgment. "Alright. Tonight, then."
The two watched her walk down the hallway of the Imperial Bureau of Justice corridor. IBJ staff and officers alike stood to one side as she passed, as nervous to be around her as they were to be around Harry.
"What do you think it means?" Daniel asked.
"Nothing good," Harry said. "Let's go clean up."
~~Stars Alone~~
~~Stars Alone~~
That evening, Harry, Hermione and Luna met in a private executive office hidden away from the rest of the palace not just by ordinary security, but by a host of powerful ward stones that no one else in the Empire had an answer too. For the first time, Daniel joined them.
The room was as large as the solarium but without the windows. The light was decidedly artificial. What interested Daniel was the walls in the room, which obviously occupied a space directly under one of the palace's domes give the domed ceiling overhead. In the Force, they had the tell-tale feeling he'd come to associate with his faster family's magic.
The room was unfurnished when they entered, but within a few steps Daniel was surprised when a pair of sofas formed with a reclining, heavily padded chair in their midst, from thin air. His adopted family were not surprise, so Daniel did not react. He sat on one sofa while Harry and Hermione took the other. Luna sat on the recliner, looking just as pensive as when she finished the interrogations.
"They were Hebridan Special Forces," she began without hesitation. "They were operating under the direct orders of President Danis Muldon with satellite support and transporter back up to get them to a position effective enough to launch an attack."
"Muldon died on Hebridan," Harry noted with velvet calm.
"So far as we know," Hermione said. She consulted her computer tablet. "We had reports from eye-witnesses of seeing his body at the time, but we've never been able corroborate that testimony. The witnesses are either classified as dead or unaccounted for."
"Regardless, the men believe they were taking orders from Muldon," Luna responded. "They believe that we are the ones responsible for the Goa'uld attack on Hebridan."
Daniel was sixteen when Hebridan fell—and at the time he was too busy mourning the deaths of his family to really pay that much attention to the political affairs despite Luna's attempts to tutor him. What he most remembered was Omac and Luna's supplication. Harry was still upset about not having direct control over the ion cannons which guarded his Empire.
"Did President Muldon have reason to believe that?" Daniel asked carefully.
"Of course he did," Hermione said with a tired sigh. She leaned back into Harry's left arm. "We counted on the System Lords attacking Hebridan instead of any of our worlds directly, but we honestly thought it would be a token attack that we could then go in and stop. Hebridan had the healthiest defensive forces this side of Tollan. They had an early warning system that could detect ships in hyperspace transit hours away from their world. We just didn't account for the sheer size of Ra's offensive."
"So you were trying to set up a situation where you could save the day and become heroes to Hebridan," Daniel summarized.
He felt Harry's sharp gaze on him, but between them Luna nodded. "Yes, in so many words. And that's why Omac was less than pleased with us, because even with my vision in the Force, I could not see the consequences as clearly as the Tollan Curia's prediction models. I think, in hindsight, I was skewing the vision to my own desires. We miscalculated, Daniel, badly. And it cost almost two billion lives in the end. Those men who attacked you were acting as the conscience of their world."
Harry leaned forward after freeing his arm from Hermione's shoulders. "In accordance with orders issued by a dead man."
"That doesn't make their motivation any less justified."
"We can't apologize, Luna," Hermione said firmly. Even urgently. "Politically, we can't. Not only would it make us fallible to our enemies, it would be a direct admission of guilt. It would weaken the Empire immensely. We're easily within thirty years of the Enemy's arrival, if yours and Harry's visions are true—we're on the doorstep of taking direct military action against the System Lords. We can't let everything crumble before the enemy arrives. Moreover, we need the Hebridan's technical expertise!"
Luna shook her head, and for a moment her control slipped to reveal a deep, ravaging guilt. "Hermione, can't you hear them? Can't you hear their screams? We have to make it right, somehow."
"We can never make it right, Luna," Hermione said grimly.
"We have to try," Luna said.
"You're skewing your vision again," Harry said. He leaned forward and stared into his smaller wife's eyes. "Luna, step aside from the guilt and pain. Yes, our actions precipitated an attack. But we are not the Goa'uld. We can only take so much responsibility for the Goa'uld decision making. What concerns me is a dead man issuing orders. I want to know where that dead man is, and why he's not dead."
"That's a tall order," Hermione said. "So many refugees came in that even now, years later, we haven't completed a comprehensive census of them all. It's possible tens or even hundreds of thousands are unaccounted for. And while we may be growing, the vast majority of this planet is still uninhabited. There are a lot of places to hide."
"Then we'll have to set a worm on a hook and go fishing," Harry said.
~~Stars Alone~~
~~Stars Alone~~
Captain Andon Montrose took a deep breath to calm his nerves, handed his side-arm to his lieutenant, and then nodded at the security camera facing him. A split second later the secure door slid open and Montrose stepped into a room with ten men, half of them with med-cups over the stumps of their wrists where Prince Daniel literally unhanded them.
All ten men straightened and glared with that special, distilled hatred reserved for insects and traitors. Montrose had been seeing more and more of it over the past few months from his fellow immigrants, but it wasn't until Tel'gat brought him to a meeting with the Akai'kheb himself that he began to see why.
"That's nice," one of the men said. "Having a traitor pull the trigger, is he?"
"Be kind of hard without a gun," Montrose said dryly. "I'm unarmed. I've come with a message from the Akai'kheb."
"Well, let's hear it, then," another of the men said.
"The message isn't for you," Andon said. "You are being released. No action will be taken against you at this time. In return, you take me with you. And I deliver my message to those its intended for."
"What makes you think you'll get a chance?" another man said.
Montrose shrugged. "The message I bring is one of peace. If you reject it, the next one will not be so peaceful. Believe me, gentlemen, you do not want to play hide-and-seek with clairvoyants who can read your mind."
The door behind Montrose opened. The ten men stood, sharing worried glances at each other. "What type of trick is this?"
"The Tripartite knows you are soldiers following orders," Montrose said. "The Akai'kheb respects soldiers. If he doesn't have to kill them, he tries not to. Whatever you might think, you were never a danger to the man. So he's giving you a chance to live. If you choose not to accept the offer you'll die before the end of the day. I think you've seen there's nothing you have that can stop him."
"And if we accept, and then kill you?" another man said.
Montrose shrugged and decided to vent a little of his frustration over the behavior of his people recently. "Then my daughter will have lost her father twice. I almost died on Hebridan doing rescue runs. I was on one of the slave ships fighting to save our people while you assholes were sitting around plotting revenge against the only people in the whole galaxy that actually bothered to help us. Kill me or not, I know I've done more for our people than you have. So, are you going to be smart, or are you going to die?"
"Come on, Del, let's go," one of the shorter men said to the leader. Dell stood an inch taller than the rest with heavy features and a square chin. He was not a handsome man by any definition, not with a lifetime of violence scored across his face in the form of nicks and scars.
"Right, fine," he said. "We'll take you with us."
The ten of them left their cell with Montrose in their midst. The IBJ captain led the way, straight-backed. Around them, other officers and IBJ staff backed out of the hall, each eying the ten men coldly.
"So you like working with the enemy, do you, Montrose?" Del asked.
"A tenth of the IBJ is Hebridan," he said. "People like me who fought on slave ships to free our people. The only real enemy is the Goa'uld."
"Right, you keep telling yourself that," Del said.
They arrived outside of the IBJ building into a plaza dotted with random concrete planter boxes and swathes of random Byrsa grass. While the effect made for a lovely garden, it also made it extremely difficult for any ground vehicles to get too close to the building, which was essentially a five-floor square of glass and reinforced concrete.
The men were not given their weapons or communications back, nor did they seem to expect it. Rather, they made their way to the nearest public com terminal, a relatively recent innovation being introduced in Byrsa City.
Del did the talking on the com while the other nine men stood closely around Montrose, not trying in the least to hide their ill-intent. With that, they started walking again. The day was a typical summer day on Kalmah, with temperatures just north of being comfortably warm. The sun shone low in the sky with the early hour, while over the mountains in the distance Andon could see clouds boiling up for a possible afternoon shower.
They walked for half an hour, coming within sight of the lake, when a large white van rolled to a stop beside him. Montrose made no effort to resist when he was forcibly thrown in. Once they were in the van rough hands began stripping him. Again, he made no effort to resist.
After being stripped searched and then scanned for any listening or tracking devices, Del threw his clothes back at him with a sneer. "Heard those Mal Jaffa girls are so big you can park a trolly in their cunnys. With a pecker that small, she must not even be able to…"
Andon managed to plant a heel right into the man's groin. It cost him a few blows, but it was worth it. "I don't care about what you assholes think of me. But my family is off limits."
One of the other men chuckled. Surprisingly, Del let it go with just the few blows his men already delivered.
They drove for almost two hours in silence before stopping at a private airfield deep in the forested mountains. Waiting for them Andon saw a large, cobbled-together prop-engine aeroplane, as if right out of a museum. "Really?" he asked. "You're going to fly in that?"
"Shut up." Soldier or not, Del managed to sound embarrassed of their transport. They climbed into the bare-bones crate and soon were flying. Though the craft appeared to have been cobbled together with spare parts, the engine noise was relatively low. The propellers were fusion-cell powered turboprops that were much more advanced than the rest of the craft.
Soon enough they were over water, and from the position of the sun he knew they were over the eastern of the planet's two large oceans. However, well before they could have reached the second continent the plane began to descend. Andon craned his neck to see if they were approaching land.
Del said, "Don't bother. There's nothing to see."
Having not seen any water skids, Andon felt surprise when they began skimming over waves. He could feel the water impacting the hull under his feet like hammer blows. Soon they settled into the water, skimming forward almost like a hydroplane until coming to a stop. The rocking motion immediately made his stomach start to turn.
"Have I mentioned I get motion sickness?" he said.
"Puke on your own time, traitor," one of the other men said.
They popped open the door to reveal the dark blue-gray hull of a large ship bobbing in the water beside them. A rope and plank bridge was lowered down to them on a joist from the ship's deck. "Go," Del ordered.
Montrose went, clinging desperately to the ropes until he reached the questionable safety of the deck. Once there, more armed men and women gripped his arms and slapped a pair of cuffs on him. Every one of them had the look of Hebridan soldiers in the shape of their cheeks and chins, and all of them stared at him with the same hatred as Del and his men.
"Do another scan," Del ordered as he came aboard. "Us too. Just to be safe."
"Right," one of the female soldiers said.
So, once again Montrose was subjected to another strip search, this one far more intrusive than the first. He tried his best not to be too embarrassed by the two women who joined the team searching him. The scans were fairly extensive, including blood tests and EM scanners.
"He's clean," the same female soldier as before said. She had a dark, copper color to her hair, though he could only tell when she walked under the lights of the ship since she had it pulled back so severely. In some ways she reminded Andon of his wife Tel'gat—her features were too distinctive and strong to be considered attractive by most. "Come on."
She led him back onto the deck just in time to hear an earsplitting horn from the ship's conning tower. An answer came from the west—another ship. Andon turned and stared at what could only have been a Hebridan luxury liner—the kind common on Hebridan which could fly to the super ocean of his old home world and then cruise as if a water ship. The craft massed easily 107,000 tons and stretched four hundred meters. While it wasn't as large as a Goa'uld Ha'tak, it was one of the largest ships Hebridan operated.
What was most concerning was how the sunning decks had so easily been converted into VTOL landing pads for the dozen Hebridan Endo/Exo atmospheric fighters that berthed on it. The ship bristled as well with both rail gun cannons and laser cannons, almost as if it had been built as a dedicated ship of war.
They took an inflatable skimmer to the larger ship, docking at a ramp that extended into the water. The people who met them were in full Hebridan Defense Force uniforms, with side-arms for the officers and heavy carbines for the non-coms. Again, their gazes were unfriendly as Montrose was escorted from the skimmer deep into the ship.
Nothing about the ship reminded Andon of a luxury liner. All the bulkheads were reinforced. What should have been wide, open walkways were narrow with several weapons placements in the event of hostile boarding.
Through lifts and corridors, his escorts dragged him through most of the ship until they reached a wardroom with a long, oval table surrounded by chairs. Several people were there, and to his shock Montrose recognized at least two of them as high-ranking members of the Hebridan Defense Forces command—especially the lone Serrikan.
"All stand!" a sharp voice barked.
Everyone at the table stood up as a dead man walked into the room. Danis Muldon was a tall human with thinning gray hair and a sharp chin. Before being elected President of Hebridan, he was a twenty year veteran of the Defense Force, either as an officer, or later as the Minister of Defense. He glared at Montrose now as he stepped to the table and sat down.
Around him, the others sat. Andon was never given opportunity, instead being forced to stand at the far end of the table.
"So you're the traitor I keep hearing about," Muldon said in a deep, chilling voice. "The voice of the Tripartite Throne trying to use puppets to pacify our people."
"And you're the president who played dead to escape the Goa'uld," Andon snapped back. "I risked my life saving my people. I have nothing to apologize to, especially not to a coward politician like you. Now, do you want to hear the throne's message or not?"
"Not particularly, no," Muldon said.
"It's on your head, then," Montrose said. "Quidditch!"
In truth, Andon didn't know for sure if the magic would work. He'd tested the portkey before releasing the prisoners just so he could grow accustomed to the odd form of teleportation, but he had his doubts. However, magic could not be detected by any known scans. So no matter how many times they scanned him, they would never detect that portkey magic that the Akai'kheb personally embedded in his very slacks.
He disappeared with a loud pop, spinning through the disorienting tunnel of magic, only to stumble to a stop in a white-walled room. Somehow he wasn't surprised to see the Akai'kheb himself there with the Lady Hermione by his side. "Alright, there?" Harry asked. "We were beginning to wonder."
"Yes, Majesty, just a little dizzy. I found him—I saw President Muldon in person on board a militarized Hebridan luxury cruiser in the Western Ocean."
"Good work, Andon." The Emperor turned to his wife. "Hermione, are you ready?"
She nodded and the two leaders of the Empire grabbed onto Montrose as he said, "Quidditch!" a second time. The trick to the whole operation was to get Montrose to whoever the leader was before activating a two-way portkey.
The three of them appeared seconds later right where they left. Only, in the thirty seconds they were absent, the room had gone insane as worried officers stood and started yelling orders, while others tried to get the president out of the room.
The moment the three appeared, the Lady Hermione raised her hand device and magically sealed all the doors. One slammed particularly hard in Muldon's face, cutting half of the president's escorts off. All eyes turned to look warily at the newcomers.
"Ladies, Gentlemen, let's have a seat and talk, shall we?" Harry spoke with utter calm and confidence. Whether by magic or bravado, his voice easily cut through the pandemonium which previously had dominated the ward room.
A Hebridan marine pulled his side arm only to slump boneless to the floor before a shot was fired.
"If I had any intention of killing you, I would have done so from orbit the moment Captain Montrose returned," Harry said. "Make no mistake, I could still kill every one of you with a thought. But all things considered, I and my family feel we owe you an opportunity to voice your concerns. When we are done speaking, my wife and our colleague will depart peacefully. This appears to be a space-worthy ship. We will let you leave Kalmah in peace."
"We have no reason to believe you," President Muldon said angrily.
"And you have no reason not to," Harry said with a shrug. He held the back of a chair for his wife, and once the Lady Hermione was seated he sat himself at the far end of the table where Montrose moments before was forced to stand. The captain now stood behind and to the Akai'kheb's right in the honor guard position.
Harry sat and simply stared at Muldon before the president, blushing angrily, moved to sit at the table. The other officers did not return to their seats, but rather remained standing on the president's side.
"So, you sent a squad of special forces to attempt to assassinate me and my adopted son," Harry began. "I believe it was very generous for us to return them to you mostly intact. So let's use that as a point of discussion. The Empire of Kheb took your people in at great expense and have provided a home secure from the Goa'uld. Why did you respond with an assassination attempt?"
"Because you are the ones responsible for Hebridan's fall!" Mudlon snarled, angrily.
"I don't believe any forces of Kheb fired on Hebridan forces," Harry said. "In point of fact almost two thousand Khebbish military personnel lost their lives attempting to protect your people from the Goa'uld."
"The Goa'uld invaded because of the Empire of Kheb encroaching on the trade worlds of Farber and Aspiracus! They knew we had been allied and attacked us because we were your primary supplier of technology."
"How does this make the Empire responsible for the invasion of Hebridan?" Harry asked calmly.
"They destroyed our world because of you!" Muldon shouted, slapping the table. "Over a billion and a half of our people died, because of you! How can you claim to help us when everything that happened is your fault?"
"The Goa'uld hated Hebridan," Harry explained bluntly. "No Hebridan forces were involved in the annexation of Aspiracus or Farber. There was no reason for the Goa'uld to attack you except for the fact that they despised you, and you were our allies. You gained your independence from them and kept it. They didn't attack you because we made them angry—they used our incursion as an excuse to do what they've wanted to do for centuries—erase a stain of dishonor caused by Hebridan's independence."
"However," Hermione said, eyes narrowed, "you are the last person to need us to explain Ra's motivation. You are, after all, a Goa'uld."
Muldon leaned back as if struck. "How desperate can you be to make a statement that ridiculous?"
"You were the Minister of Defense for years before you became president," Harry said. "Let me ask—what happened to the Hebridan early warning network? You should have had at least five hour's warning of those incoming ships in which to either mount a stronger defense or begin a better evacuation. Instead, when we arrived, the ha'taks were already in close orbit firing on you. The secret railgun facility on your moon had been ordered to wait and hide—it took me shaming the commander of the facility personally to make him open fire. If that rail gun had engaged earlier, before the Goa'uld made orbit, it would have had a devastating effect on the attacking forces and may very well have bought you the time you needed to mount an effective defense even against an attack that large. In fact, if you take into account that your railgun only fired because of me, the only Goa'uld losses resulted directly from Khebbish intervention. Why was that?"
"They somehow circumvented our early warning network," Muldon said, though with a touch less anger.
"No, you just ordered it to undergo maintenance," Hermione said. "More importantly, you died. We had independent confirmation that you were killed. I should ask your officers when you arrived on Kalmah. It certainly wasn't with the first wave of refugees. You had to have time in a Sarcophagus first."
"You're unfounded accusations will accomplish nothing!" Muldon shouted. "My people know the truth!"
"That's the problem," Harry said. "Your people are the Goa'uld. But please, prove us wrong. The scanning equipment you used on Captain Montrose here would easily detect the presence of a Goa'uld larva. Have yourself scanned."
"I am the president of Hebridan! I have nothing to prove to you!"
"We're telepathic, Muldon," Hermione said with a humorless smile. "You've already proven it to us. We can feel the Goa'uld within your body. The Goa'uld are ancient and patient—it would be nothing to take a whole human lifetime to ensure they had a highly placed agent in an enemy government. Once again, a simple scan will prove the truth to your people."
Behind the Emperor, Montrose noticed the lone Serrikan nod to one of the marines.
"I will not hear any more of this!" Muldon said, slapping the table again. "I will not let you twist the circumstances of our world's death to your political advantage. I demand that you leave this vessel and allow us free passage off Kalmah! Now!"
Behind him, the marine's hand scanner flashed bright orange. It did not make any sound since in a combat situation that could be dangerous. But from his position behind the Emperor Montrose could see how the young marine paled as he showed the results to the rest of the surviving general staff while Danis Muldon raged.
The Serrikan General, whose name was Tsoli Gaspar if Andon remembered correctly, turned to look directly at the Emperor before nodding once.
The Lady Hermione held up her hands, cutting President Muldon's rant off mid-word. "Very well, Mr. President. You've let us have our say; we will do as we promised." She lifted the hand device and made a circular motion. All around, doors opened to admit worried marines. The marine who did the scanning and two others immediately ran to Muldon's side. "This way, Mister President," they said as they guided the Goa'uld from the room.
"Command staff are to stay, all others evacuate and seal the room immediately," Gaspar ordered the moment Muldon was gone.
The newly arrived Hebridans stared briefly at two of the two members of the royal family in trepidation before finally turning to leave the room. Moments later the doors closed. Gaspar sat in the president's old seat. The other members of the command staff did the same.
"Are there any more Goa'uld?" Gaspar asked.
"No," Hermione said. "At least not in this room. It's likely there are others on this ship, though. Either to aid him, or to spy on him on behalf of competing Goa'uld."
"He will be dealt with quietly," the Serrikan general said. "If word got out, it would be devastating to our people."
"As far as I know, President Muldon died a hero on Hebridan, fighting for his people with his last breath," Harry said calmly from the head of the table. "General, your people are at a crossroad. Hebridan will not be habitable again for centuries without significant terraforming. While I will admit that the Empire of Kheb's actions gave the Goa'uld the excuse they were looking for, we are not now, nor have ever been, your enemy. In point of fact we are the only friends you have. Despite that, your people are rioting in our streets weekly. What is it you want?"
Gaspar regarded the two royals carefully. "The President expressed a desire to assassinate you and then to take all Hebridans from Kalmah to colonize a new world," he admitted with refreshing candidness. "He seemed to believe we would be able to recover more of our people from the Goa'uld using military force. In retrospect, we will have to determine if that was just a cover to get the people of Hebridan out from behind those ion cannons of yours."
"Most likely the latter," Hermione said. "Our own intelligence tells us that Ra was less than pleased with the number of slaves that escaped. From what we've been able to tell, the majority of the slaves have gone to the System Lord Cronus who orchestrated the attack."
"The people of Hebridan are important to the Empire," Harry said. "You helped us save whole generations of Mal Jaffa, and opened the door to saving even more. Despite all we've done, your people still have a much higher level of education and technical expertise than ours, though I like to think that gap is closing with each generation. Morally, ethically, technically, we need you. But I also understand how your people may resent the refugee status. I also know that some of the Byrsa have expressed growing resentment over the continuing riots. We need to stop this before any biases become entrenched."
"So what do you propose?" Gaspar said.
"Membership of Parliament is based on world populations," Hermione said. "In order for the Hebridan people to have a voice in Parliament, they must have their own world. And it so happens, General, that we have a world that was recently evacuated."
"You mean Aspiracus," the Serrikan said. "It is mostly lifeless."
"The southern continent has developed a new biosphere," Hermione said. "The oceans have recovered and are producing oxygen again. Moreover, it has a similar climate and gravity pull as Hebridan does. It is colder than what you are accustomed to, but that could be made to change with some engineering."
"But you would still want us in your empire, subject to Imperial law," Gaspar said.
"Yes," Harry said. "The Tollan Curia has a mutual defense agreement with Empire. We lease ion cannons from them in return for not pursuing the technology ourselves. They have agreed to expand cannon coverage for both Farber and Aspiracus. Your colony would be as protected as Kalmah. If, that is, you choose to remain a part of the Empire."
"With your own world, you would have the same level of autonomy as Erid," Hermione pointed out. "There are basic Imperial laws that you would have to adapt, but otherwise you would have the authority to pass any local laws and enforce those laws locally. You would have the authority to elect your own leadership and your own representatives to Parliament."
"You are not allowed to maintain a separate military," Harry said firmly. "Any who wish to serve must join the Imperial Defense Force. You, for instance, General, could easily find a place in the IDF, as would all of your uniformed people. And the timing would be good, as well."
"And why is that, Your Majesty?"
"Because, General," Hermione said, "the majority of your surviving people are in the hands of the System Lord Cronus. We're going to kill him, free those people, and take his worlds away from him. And if you say please, we'll let you join us."
Gaspar raised a ridge over his golden eyes. "Indeed?"
Harry nodded. "In return for your cooperation and the immediate surrender of all Hebridan military forces and assets, I guarantee you a blanket amnesty for all actions you and your people may have taken either against the Empire or the Thrones directly. Any military assets who wish to enlist with the Empire of Kheb may do so and retain their previous ranks. Including those men who attacked me and my adopted son personally. And we will allow you to hold a referendum vote for all registered Hebridan citizens as to whether they wish to colonize Aspiracus under an official Imperial Charter with immediate representation in Parliament. I will put this is writing with a Parliamentary ratification in ten days. As senior general, the authority to make this agreement rests solely with you."
Gaspar looked at Montrose. "And you, Captain? What do you make of this?"
"General, with all due respect, the people of Kheb never intended us harm. My wife is Mal Jaffa. In fact, I've learned that she was the very first Jaffa child treated on Hebridan. From that day forward, I believe our fates have been tied with the Empire. I've found my home here, but I do believe that we have an important role to play, and I believe it would be good to accept the offer just to have a voice in Parliament. The deal is legitimate, sir, and as a Hebridan I think we should accept it."
Gaspar nodded. "It is a momentous decision, and one we should not enter into recklessly. That said, we recognize that the President's attacks on your person were out of line, and your response beyond merciful. I and my staff will present ourselves at your palace for talks in ten day's time, as you indicated. And until that time, I offer my word that no Hebridan military asset will take any action against your Empire."
"Then we are agreed to meet again in ten days," Harry said. He stood, and by the sheer power of his presence, everyone else in the room stood as well. "I do hope you decide to join us, General. Because I like what you've done with this ship, and I think you would like my ideas on how to make it even more powerful."
With that, Harry and Hermione grabbed Captain Montrose's arms and the three once again disappeared.
"Sir, what are we going to do with the President?" one of the colonel's asked.
"What President?" Gaspar asked. "You heard the Emperor. President Muldon fought with his last breath for our people on Hebridan. The man we escorted out of this room was a Goa'uld imposter and will be dealt with accordingly. Dismissed, people."
~~Kobol~~
~~Kobol~~
Two years later, a young, unassuming couple stepped through the gate onto the newly renamed world of Hebrides. They stepped down in the midst of a supply convoy from Kalmah bringing lumber. No one noticed them, not even the customs station established within easy sight of the gate.
The two walked past the customs station hand in hand.
"You know what I love most?" Luna asked as she swung Harry's hand gaily.
"What's that?"
"They called it Hebrides!"
"Hermione said it was just a case of coincidence and linguistic drift. It just means 'New Hebridan'."
"I know that, Harry. It makes me happy anyway. So, it's my birthday. What are you getting me?"
"How about a picnic in the mountains?" He pulled a shrunken picnic basket from the pocket of his slacks.
"That would by quite lovely."
Luna was forty-three years old—for the next few months she was the same age as Harry. She still looked nineteen, and after twenty seven years of marriage to Harry Potter, they didn't really bother with material gifts any more. Instead, each got whatever company they desired for the whole day, with no interruptions, wherever that might be. Hermione spent her last birthday with Harry at a remote island retreat they built on Kalhu.
Luna wanted to visit the planet named after (in her mind, at least) the island where her mother was born.
The official population of Hebrides currently sat at two million, but that population was growing as more and more Hebridans immigrated. The limiting factor was the planet itself. The former Aspiracus had been ill-used by the Goa'uld, and Governor Tsoli did not want more people arriving than they could reasonably feed.
That said, in the two years since the refugees of Hebridan ratified their entry into the Empire of Kheb in return for a protected world of their own, all trace of the old trade world had vanished. In the place of the rubble now rose a relatively small but immaculately clean town with paved streets and low buildings rarely rising above five levels.
The new residents came from a relatively small world completely covered by city scape. The majority felt some reticence facing the vast, open landscapes of a relatively empty planet, but others embraced the openness. Already, several communities had risen up along the ridge of the central continent's mountain range, each connected by mag-lev rails (though some were still under construction).
A few brave souls set out and established cooperative farms. Being in their hearts capitalists above all things, they sought to wean the burgeoning community off purchased food supplies from Kalmah. Working against them was the desolate nature of the world itself. While it had millennia to recover from the Goa'uld, their touch still lingered by the vast stretches of sterile, dead land.
The new residents fought this by introducing engineered microbes and Kalmah fertilizer to the soil, which in turn also introduced Kalmah insect life. In fact, most of the crops they tried to raise were Kalmah grains and the indefatigable tago beans, which seemed able to grow almost anywhere. Some farms did better, some struggled, but already the colony was producing its own food, where two years before hardly anything could grow at all.
The rail stop to the next community, Andoine, was an open platform with a few molded plastic-benches that looked as if they'd been recovered from Hebridan. Luna sat in one beside Harry, looking with interest at the small handful of people that gathered waiting.
The train car, when it came, arrived in a rush of cool air pushed by its swift passage. They boarded without having to provide any ID or payment and took a seat toward the back. As they car zoomed away from Gate Town, as it was now called, Luna pointed to a shimmer in the distance.
Harry leaned down to look out the window as a Hebridan freighter hovered off the distant spaceport pad and went into full burn as it sought to escape the atmosphere. "This car was recovered from Hebridan, you know," Luna said. "And a lot of the rail itself. They're trying to recycle as much from their home world as they can. I understand it's become a whole industry, scavenging the home world for useable items."
When the freighter disappeared, Luna snuggled into Harry's shoulder with a contented sigh. The Notice-me-not charm they wore was not powerful at all, designed more to keep anyone from recognizing them than not to notice them at all. Neither spoke, they simply sat in contented silence, watching as the empty lake-bed that housed Gate Town gave way to the foothills that led to the mountains.
It was only in the foothills that they started to see signs of natural life—tall, rugged grasses and a few squat, wind-swept trees. In the distance, the horizon seemed to stretch on forever under the pale blue sky.
The ride only took twenty minutes, but in that twenty minutes they travelled almost a hundred and twenty miles. The train's deceleration was offset in part by the gravity plates within the car itself, making the ride much smoother than would otherwise be the case. The two climbed off onto another open platform, changing places with the handful of people travelling onto the next community along the mountains.
Another train was going back to Gate Town.
The community of Andoine, like the other satellite communities, still had a lot of pre-fab construction. Old Hebridan military barracks were set up and partitioned for families. The essentials, however, were in place before the first permanent residents arrived. The streets were paved by construction drones, the sewer established in a set grid along set plans for future construction, and the first school was already built with students in class. Luna knew for a fact that some of the teachers were actually from Earth. One of the teachers was also a member of her Secret Police, but so far they had little negative to report.
The two walked hand-in-hand onto the trail that led into the mountains. Little occasional red kerchiefs marked where others had gone before, while yellow kerchiefs marked spots pervious climbers found dangerous. Though there were no large prey animals, the mountains themselves were young and rugged, and the locals had discovered an ant-like insect with a vicious sting.
Hiking for Force-sensitives was not the same thing as hiking for ordinary people. Whenever they got tired, they simply refreshed themselves with the Force and kept going. They hiked for hours on end as they let the cool, crisp air dry the sweat from their brows. They didn't bother talking, though occasionally one or the other would point something of interest out. When they reached a swift-moving mountain brook that would eventually drain into an underwater aquifer, they simply flew over it, hand in hand.
They reached the glade an hour before sunset and settled down at last to eat their picnic. Harry cast an insect-repelling ward while Luna cast a cushioning charm, and then Harry laid out the traditional picnic blanket. He unshrunk the basket and the two managed to remove from it a significant meal, still warm with the benefits of preservation charms, and a bottle of chilled wine from Kalmah's best vineyard. The fruit it was made of was closer in size and taste to plums than grapes, but the wine and brandy made from it was delicious.
They ate in silence, watching as the sun sank slowly toward the distant western horizon.
They made love, of course. Several times, in fact, and when they were both satiated Luna snuggled naked into Harry's side as the sun finally set and a glorious field of stars began to burn through the fading remnant of day. Hebrides had no moon, so the sky was utterly, perfectly open, the sole illumination coming from a distant but still brilliant nebula in the sky.
"Tel'gat's daughter is Force sensitive," Luna said as Harry started to drift into a contented sleep.
"What?"
"On her second birthday, I tested her, and she has the Force," Luna continued calmly. "She's not quite as strong as Daniel, but much more so than his sister was."
Harry hugged her shoulder. "Is that why you were so eager for them to marry? Tel'gat told me you'd said it was a good match."
"I wasn't entirely sure why the Force seemed to approve of the match, but I did have a suspicion."
They two laid in silence for the longest time, employing a patience that might have matched their chronological ages, but seemed odd to a couple that bore the faces of teenagers. Or, in Harry's case, a man in his very early twenties due to his most recent brush with death and Ascension. "Do you remember the vision I shared with you, of how the old Corusca galaxy died?"
He felt her hair rub against his shoulder as she nodded. "Jedi and Sith alike had fallen into darkness and became the First Enemy."
"They chose us because we would not have children. But with Daniel, and now Mione, is that still the case?"
Luna swung her leg over his until she straddled him, looking down at him intently. Under the starlight, she looked breathtaking and pure somehow, her skin almost blue from the distant nebula's light. "You could have children, you know. Hermione's and my immortality came with a price of our progeny. We paid with our future. But you…you paid your price with the blood of other men. You could have children, she just assumed you wouldn't because it would mean you were unfaithful."
"The only women I want are you and Hermione," he said. "And I don't need children. Any natural-born child of mind would almost certainly become a threat to me one day."
Luna frowned. "Harry, if we raise him right…"
"Luna, it's number 18 and 19 on the list."
"What list?"
"The bible of our regime. 'I will not have a son. Although his laughably under-planned attempt to usurp power would easily fail, it would provide a fatal distraction at a crucial point in time. I will not have a daughter. She would be as beautiful as she was evil, but one look at the hero's rugged countenance and she'd betray her own father.' I can't afford to have children."
Luna frowned. "Harry James Potter, are you, the Emperor of Kheb and Akai'kheb, quoting the Evil Overlord List to me?"
"Yes."
She stared at him, beautiful eyes wide, before she collapsed against his chest laughing. Of course, her laughing caused movement, and before long they were making love again, both of them laughing at the sheer absurdity of their lives. When finished, she stayed on him, her hands splayed across the muscles of his chest.
"You really are afraid of having children, aren't you?" she asked, smiling wistfully at him.
Sobering a little, he nodded. "The politics of dynasties has never been clean," he told her. "Brothers and sisters kill each other all the time. We're timeless, Luna. Any children I had would be forced to live their entire lives in our shadow. No matter how powerful they become, if they live even a fraction of our expected lifetimes, they won't be able to tolerate it any more. We're all shaped by our experiences. But a child of mine would be shaped by dynastic politics. I don't want to ever look across a field of battle into the eyes of my own son or daughter."
"Okay, love. I understand." She leaned down and gave him a passionate kiss before climbing to her feet. She cast cleaning charms on them both before she began to get dressed. He did the same, using magic to erase any sign of their presence. When they had everything back, the two moved to the edge of the glade and stared out over the small grid of lights in the far distance, only visible because of the lack of moonlight.
"Fly with me?" Harry asked.
"I thought you would never ask."
He gathered her in his arms and with a surge of magic rose into the air. They flew down from the mountain in a rush of cold evening air. Luna kept her arms around his shoulders but looked forward, her eyes shining with delight as they flew toward the distant Gate Town.
"Harry?" Luna called over the wind.
"What?"
"Tell me that you'll love me forever."
"I will love you forever, Luna. The stars alone know how long they'll last, but until they burn out, I will love you and Hermione both."
She kissed his cheek. "Good."
Although Harry could have flown faster than sound, he took his time, flying Luna under the starlight as they brought her birthday celebration to a close. Despite going so slow, all too soon they approached the city and the Stargate it held.
"Should we stop and pay our respects to Gaspar?" Luna asked.
"It's late, he's probably asleep," Harry guessed. "Besides, we need to start making preparations for the raid next month. I would love to be able to celebrate the colony's second anniversary by returning a few hundred thousand of their people from slavery."
"Yes, that would make a nice gift, I think."
The two settled down gently in front of the Stargate. Neither bothered with charms this time, and the poor customs official almost fell out of his seat when he saw two members of the Tripartite Throne alight from the air and start dialing Kalmah.
"Er, ma'am? Sir?" the guard asked as he emerged from his station.
"Oh, never mind us, Neirnin," Luna said with a brilliant smile. "My husband just took me for a picnic in the mountains. It was lovely. Have a good night."
The Stargate exploded into life. With a final wave from Luna, the Emperor and Vice Empress stepped through.
"How'd she know my name?" Neirnin wondered aloud.