Chapter 56: The Tok'Ra Part 1

Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, United States of America, Earth, December 4th, 1998

Catra eyed the Stargate as it formed, taking care to appear as relaxed and unconcerned as she could. It wouldn't do to look concerned or even anxious. Even though they were entering a potential trap. Sure, Entrapta and Sam's bots had scanned the whole planet for two days before scanning the two people who had arrived twenty minutes ago. And anything that managed to escape their sensors would probably be able to bypass whatever security they might put up on another planet anyway.

But you could never be sure - Catra had used the Princess Prom, a supposedly neutral meeting, for a covert operation herself. In hindsight, that hadn't been her best plan; it had driven the Kingdom of Snows into the Princess Alliance, but she had achieved her primary objectives. Mostly. Not that she wanted to remember that part of her life, anyway. With the exception of the dance, of course.

And who could say what the Tok'ra were planning? The First Ones had been willing to sacrifice Etheria to defeat Horde Prime. If the Goa'uld who had contacted them were even the Tok'a and not some other faction.

But being too cautious, seeing traps and traitors everywhere, was a good way to lose a war. Especially if you drove away allies. Catra was kind of familiar with that as well. And she didn't want to look as stupid as the Russian idiot in Stargate Command, Sidorov. The odds that Jakar was working for a System Lord and had decided to pose as a Tok'ra in the spur of a moment, without knowing anything about the Alliance, were very low.

Besides, they had She-Ra and Entrapta with them. Whatever the trap, they'd beat it anyway.

So she smiled as she stepped on the ramp, flashing her fangs at the guards, then turned to glance at the others. "Come on, slowpokes! I want to be back in time for dinner. They're serving fish in the mess hall today!"

"You could order fish every day," Glimmer pointed out with a frown. "The payments from NASA for the Mars mission came in."

"And?" Catra cocked her head to the side as if Glimmer had said something stupid.

"I mean… Oh, forget it!" Glimmer stomped past her, straight up to the gate. "Let's not make them wait any longer."

"Hey - they pick the place; we pick the time!" Catra retorted. Waiting until they arrived and then sending a bomb through the gate was the most effective way to ambush them that Catra could think of. Even Emily's force shield would have trouble with a big enough bomb.

That was similar to how the humans had killed Ra, apparently.

But Glimmer was correct - they couldn't wait any longer. Catra would have gone first through the gate, but her appearance might spook the Tok'ra since they were expecting humans. And if they attacked Catra, she'd have to defend herself, and that might ruin diplomatic relations before they could be opened.

So Catra let O'Neill go first, then followed him, holding her breath for the weird transit time. She was getting used to it, but it still played havoc with her senses.

And then she was on a new planet. PX-852, according to Stargate Command. And facing two Goa'uld. Or their human hosts. They didn't wear heavy armour and were armed with zat'nik'tels at their hips, but while their uniforms looked quite tight, they and especially their belts could hide a lot of gadgets - or weapons. Catra knew that perfectly well. Flashing her fangs, she waved at the two women. "Hi!"

They were tense; she could tell at once. Catra wanted to ask if they had never seen a cat, but Adora and Glimmer, followed by Bow, Sam and Daniel, arrived right behind her.

And then came Entrapta with Emily, and the Tok'ra tensed even more. But, after a moment, they slowly nodded.

"Hello," O'Neill said. "I'm Colonel O'Neill, Stargate Command. These are Queen Glimmer of Bright Moon, She-Ra, Princess of Power, Princess Entrapta of Dryl, Captain Carter, Techmaster Bow, Dr Daniel Jackson, Catra and Teal'c, former First Prime of Apophis."

"And this is Emily!" Entrapta added, patting the bot's upper shell. "Hi!"

Emily beeped.

"I am Garshaw of Belote. And this is Anise. We represent the Tok'ra," the Goa'uld with the darker hair said, nodding at the other.

Teal'c's eyebrows rose a little bit, Catra noticed. So, he must have recognised at least one of the names. The Goa'uld hadn't reacted to his presence, so they must have been already aware of his desertion.

"And we represent the Alliance," Glimmer replied.

"We expected Jakar to be present as well," Anise commented. She had a rather bland smile, Catra noted, but something in her attitude made Catra want to annoy her. Almost like a princess.

"Ah, yes, Jakar. Since he is in our custody, we're responsible for his safety, and so we can't risk transporting him into potentially dangerous situations until we are sure that there's no danger." O'Neill smiled, showing his teeth. "Wouldn't want to break our laws, you understand."

"Ah." Anise's smile didn't change, but she took a closer look at O'Neill.

Garshaw nodded. "You don't trust us."

"We don't know you," Glimmer said. "This meeting will hopefully change that."

Catra wasn't so sure about that. But she nodded along with everyone else.


Gate Area, PX-852, December 4th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"Jakar's message told us that you were potential allies against the Goa'uld. But he didn't tell us who you are," the darker-haired Goa'uld - Garshaw - said. She inclined her head. "We don't know you either."

Jack O'Neill had a snarky reply on his tongue, but Adora spoke up before he could: "We hope this meeting will change that as well." She had an earnest, wide smile on her face as well.

"You're clearly an advanced species - or an alliance of different species," the other Goa'uld said with a glance at Catra before staring at Entrapta with an expression that had Jack silently thank whoever was responsible that Hordak wasn't present and that the rumours about the princess and Carter were completely wrong. "This robot of yours looks very impressive. Is that a laser emitter?"

Entrapta nodded enthusiastically. "You saw that? Yes, it is! Standard bot weapon, though Emily's was upgraded, of course - couldn't leave you with sub-par weapons, right, Emily?"

Jack realised that he had been hanging out with the Etherians a bit too much since he could almost understand Emily's answering beep.

The Goa'uld gasped. "Oh! Is it actually sapient?"

"Emily's female, and yes!" Entrapta replied. "I programmed her matrix myself, and her neural network did the rest, of course."

"You did? Remarkable. Was this your technology, or did you adapt the Ancients'?"

"Oh, the control matrix is mine, but we've upgraded her with First Ones - Ancients - technology as well!"

"Though the details we shouldn't share until we know that we can trust each other," Carter cut in. She had a rather toothy smile, Jack noticed.

"Of course," Anise replied without taking her eyes off Emily. "Given your size, you must contain impressively powerful weapons."

Emily beeped in agreement.

Jack glanced at the others. Everyone else, even the second Goa'uld - or Tok'ra - looked like they were wondering when their diplomatic meeting had changed into a robot discussion. He cleared his throat. Time to be the bad guy. "So… That's very fascinating, but, as was pointed out, we shouldn't talk tech until we know each other much better." He flashed a toothy smile of his own at the two snakes.

"Oh, yes." The other Goa'uld sounded almost relieved. "I apologise for my companion - she is an excellent and passionate scientist, so new technology tends to fascinate her." Jack could hear the unsaid 'a bit too much' clearly.

Anise didn't deny that. She didn't even acknowledge it.

"Right. We don't share technology unless it's an alliance," Entrapta said. "Sorry!"

"Perfectly understandable," Anise told her.

Carter nodded politely. At least she could be trusted not to hand out military technology just for being asked.

"So, you're the Tok'ra," Jack said. "You opposed Ra, and I guess after we killed him, you switched targets."

"We heard that Ra was killed by the Tau'ri," Garshaw looked at him and raised one eyebrow.

"Yep, that's us," Jack said. "We had a slight disagreement. He wanted to conquer our planet, and we didn't want him to. So, we ended up blowing him up as a compromise."

"And you destroyed two Ha'taks in the service of Apophis," Anise added. "You must have quite the advanced technology - developed under Ra's nose."

"Yes." Jack smiled. "And that was before we joined the Alliance." No need to go into details here. As a member of Stargate Command, he was talking for Earth, or at least for two countries that were in the Alliance, and Carter had developed quite impressive technology from their finds, so, technically, he wasn't lying to the snakes. Not that lying wouldn't be a-ok when talking to snakes - or doing diplomacy.

"We represent the Princess Alliance. We met the Tau'ri shortly after Apophis's attack on their planet," Glimmer said. Of course, she'd have a different view of diplomacy. "When we learned of the Goa'uld Empire and their policies, we knew we would have to fight them and free their slaves. And so we formed an alliance. A new Alliance - Earth didn't join the Princess Alliance."

"Ah." Garshaw nodded.

"An alliance with an alliance? A complex arrangement," Anise said. She seemed to approve.

"We've never heard of a Princess Alliance." Garshaw seemed to ignore her friend's comment. "And we have access to almost all of the Goa'uld Empire's records."

"Have you heard of Horde Prime?" Glimmer asked.

They had - Jack saw them tense up.

"We defeated him," Glimmer quickly explained.

"Thoroughly," Catra added.

"That's quite a claim," Garshaw said. "Ra had ordered the System Lords to avoid Horde Prime's territory. He kept the reasons secret from most of his followers, but we managed to find reports that told us enough to deduce that Horde Prime was exceedingly dangerous."

"Yeah, we're aware of that," Jack cut in. "But Ra's dead, and Horde Prime is dead. And the Alliance is just getting started."

Daniel frowned at him, even though this was a great line.

"And how exactly did you kill either?"

That was a good question. One Jack wanted to answer with 'that's classified', but he had a feeling that the Etherians would disagree. And looking at Adora raise her chin, he knew he was right.


"For Horde Prime, I drove his spirit out of the body he possessed and destroyed it." A moment after Adora had said it, she realised that the Tok'ra were probably a bit concerned about her wording. Or more than a bit, she amended her thoughts after she saw them tense up again.

"You destroyed his spirit?" Garshaw asked.

"Yes. He could jump from body to body. He wasn't like you," Adora tried to explain.

While Garshaw looked sceptical, Anise looked interested. "He was essentially a pure consciousness? One not tied to a physical body like a Goa'uld or Tok'ra?"

"Essentially, yes," Entrapta said. "He basically took over prepared clone bodies, suppressing the native consciousness. Although his control wasn't perfect," she added with a fond smile. "In at least one case, his host could resist him."

"And Ra?"

"We lost a bomb in his flagship," Jack said, shrugging. "He must have stumbled over it."

"It sounds as if you're leaving out a lot of details," Anise commented.

"Boring details." Jack grinned.

"The details don't matter much here. What matters is that Horde Prime's dead and gone," Catra cut in. "The Goa'uld Empire still stands. The Tok'ra oppose it - or so we hear." Adora saw her lover's tail switch back and forth and her ears twitch a little. She didn't like sharing intel like that. But they couldn't expect anyone to trust them without showing some trust first.

"We have been fighting the Goa'uld for millennia," Garshaw replied with narrowed eyes. "None has hurt them as much as we did."

"But not in open warfare," Catra retorted. "You can't match them militarily."

"And you can?" Garshaw shot back.

"We believe so," Adora said. "We have better technology, and we will have the edge in trained troops." It was a risk to say this - but honesty was the best way to gain allies. And she had a good feeling about this.

"If you can match the Empire in open warfare, why are you seeking allies?" Garshaw didn't scoff, but Adora thought she wanted to.

"The more members in the Alliance, the easier the fight will be," Adora explained. "Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, but combined, we can cover each other. We can be more than the sum of our parts." She smiled at them. This had to work - they had to see that this was true. "We can do so much more with allies than alone."

"Or you can be dragged into futile attacks by ignorant allies - or be betrayed by your supposed allies," Garshaw retorted. "We've seen this before, and the cost was horrible."

Right. She was talking to people who have lived for thousands of years, Adora reminded herself. People who weren't like Madame Razz. "That's why we want allies. The more we know, the better we can plan. And we won't betray our allies." She nodded sharply, meeting their eyes.

"And the more we know, the better we can leverage our advantages," Catra added. "And the lower the risk of killing your people as collateral damage is." She shrugged. "It's not as if we have a way to check if someone's Tok'ra or Goa'uld when we attack a world."

"Exposing our agents and spies to outsiders would endanger them far more than the chance that they might be caught in an attack by someone else," Garshaw said. "All it would take is one succumbing to a Goa'uld, and the System Lords would be able to eliminate all our agents. We keep that information compartmentalised even within the Tok'ra."

Adora refrained from frowning. It made sense.

"We don't expect a list of your operatives - though we wouldn't turn one down either, of course!" Jack grinned. "But if we had an alliance, or at least shared intel, we could confirm that a prisoner claiming to be Tok'ra was actually a member of the Tok'ra. Letting anyone go just on their say so isn't how things are done, after all." He shrugged. "Of course, we still don't know if you're the Tok'ra."

Adora frowned at him. He wasn't wrong, but the chances that Jakar was a Goa'uld spy posing as a Tok'ra were rather small. He wouldn't have known who he was talking to, nor that the Alliance would work with the Tok'ra but would refuse to work with another System Lord against Apophis. Or that the Alliance wouldn't just torture him until he broke no matter his claims. And she didn't think he would have prearranged secret tells to let his allies know with a message that they would have to pose as Tok'ra.

"How do you expect us to prove our claims?" Garshaw asked. Her friend glanced at her, but she didn't seem to react. "Anyone could say they were members of the Tok'ra, after all. And why should we trust you? We are here because of Jakar's message, yet he isn't here. You admitted that you keep him prisoner."

How could you prove that you were honest? Adora glanced at Sam. They had a way, of course, but they didn't know if it would work. And the Tok'ra had a point about Jakar. She looked at Jack. "We can bring Jakar through the gate." It wasn't as if Jakar knew more about them than what they had told the Tok'ra about the Alliance. Quite the contrary, actually. Which she was sure Jack wasn't happy about. And she knew that Catra didn't like it. But trust required trust. Someone had to make the first step.

Jack narrowed his eyes, and his smile dimmed a lot, but, after a moment, he nodded and pushed a button on his radio. "Send Jakar through."

Stargate Command didn't argue. Adora sorted - that probably meant that Sidorov wasn't in the gate room.

A few minutes later, Jakar stepped through the gate.

"Jakar!" Anise smiled at him.

"Garshaw. Anise." He nodded at both, then looked at Jack.

"Go ahead," Jack said. "They already know more about us than you do."

Jakar laughed at this but walked over to the two other Tok'ra. They exchanged some words in a whisper that Adora didn't catch, but Catra did. Her lover shook her head, though, when Adora looked at her. So, she didn't understand the language. Well, Emily would have recorded it too.

Jack cleared his throat. "So, now that we've proven our good intentions, how about you prove that you're the Tok'ra? Just for the record, so to speak. I mean, if we really thought you were Goa'uld, we wouldn't have done this, but we've got a few sceptics at home, and we would like some solid proof that we didn't just spill all this intel to the enemy."

Yes, definitely not happy.

"Again: How do you expect us to prove that?" Garshaw asked

Sam took a step forward. "Call Martouf."


"Martouf?" Garshaw tilted her head slightly as if she was confused, Samantha Carter saw, but Anise wasn't quite as smooth and froze for a moment. So, they knew the name. And they were surprised that Sam knew the name. Jakar didn't react - but he was a trained undercover operative, so Sam hadn't expected him to do so.

"Martouf," Sam repeated herself, meeting their eyes. "You know them."

"How do you know him?" Anise asked with a frown.

"That's part of how we can ascertain that you're Tok'ra," Sam told her.

"I see." Garshaw slowly nodded. "We will have to use the Chappa'ai to call him."

"And, of course, two of us will be staying here as a show of good faith," Jakar added, smiling widely.

He really wanted the alliance, Sam realised. Or, she amended her thought, he was that curious about them and the Etherians.

She also noticed that Garshaw wasn't happy, but Anise nodded. "Of course." The woman sounded almost eager. Well, Sam could understand that - any scientist worth her salt would love to observe, if not explore, new technology.

"It will take a while to reach him," Garshaw said, a very thin smile on her face. "You'll understand that I won't travel directly to him."

Sam hesitated a moment. This was a gamble. She was acting on partial information - information gained in a dream, based on remnants of Jolinar's memories. Disturbing dreams. And yet, Martouf was real. So she smiled and recited the gate address Jolinar and Martouf had used in the fragment of the Tok'ra's memories she remembered.

And Sam had to refrain from smirking at the Tok'ra's reaction. This time, even Jakar tensed, eyes narrowing for half a second before he started to smile again.

"Well played, Captain Carter," he said with a slight bow. "Your talents go beyond being a scientist and soldier."

Garshaw was less graceful - her lips were pressed together, forming a thin line, as she nodded. And Anise was… well, Sam wasn't quite sure what her expression meant. But the Tok'ra was staring at her just like she had been staring at Entrapta before.

Which did, strangely, make Sam feel proud and concerned at the same time.

Garshaw walked over to the D.H.D. with the usual grace of a Goa'uld not trying to hide, and the Colonel took a step to the side, his nod turning into an ironic bow. "I'll signal our side to break the connection," he said, just as Garshaw opened her mouth, presumably to demand the same thing.

Sam once more refrained from grinning.

But as Garshaw dialled, the Colonel stepped closer to Sam and whispered: "That was a hell of a shot in the dark, Carter."

"It was a calculated risk based on solid intel," she retorted in an equally low voice. Well, as solid as possible for this situation, she amended in her mind.

Catra snorted - the catwoman had overheard them, of course.

"I hope you know what you are doing," the Colonel went on.

"Yes, sir," Sam replied. In any case, the die was cast.

Then Garshaw vanished through the Stargate, the connection ending a moment later. Sam took note of that. If the connection had stayed up, they wouldn't have been able to dial home. So, since Anise and Jakar were still here, this was also a sign of trust. Or it could be just a precaution in case the Tok'ra didn't have an iris or another way to block gate travel. She couldn't be sure until she personally verified it.

Sam understood why the Colonel liked to complain so much about spooks.

"So, while we wait…." Anise tilted her head and smiled at Entrapta. "Your hair looks very interesting. How do you control it?"

"Well, like I control the rest of my body," Entrapta answered. "With my mind."

"The hair is part of your body?"

"Yes." Entrapta nodded. "It's not the most powerful talent, but it's very useful for fiddly work."

Anise looked from her to Catra and back. "You are a very diverse Alliance."

That, of course, had the Colonel chuckling. "You could say that, yes."

Anise frowned at him for a moment, her lips twisting into a pout. Then her expression smoothed out again. "You four wear the same uniforms - a distinctive style." She nodded at SG-1. "Even the former First Prime of Apophis. And yet, the rest of you all wear different clothes. And it is not for utilitarian reasons."

Glimmer nodded. "Many different factions form our Alliance."

"Do you have a dominant power? Or do you need to reach a consensus for every decision?" Anise asked.

"It depends on the kind of decision," Glimmer told her. "Military decisions are under the purview of the military leadership - the commander of the Alliance forces and their staff."

Which would have to expand, now that the United States was joining. Sam really didn't want to watch those negotiations. Even though anyone with a working brain would have to realise that there was no chance at all that the supreme commander would be anyone other than Adora. Certainly not an American.

"Your planning meetings must be… lively." Anise smiled in a way that made Sam want to take her down a peg. Even if the Tok'ra wasn't entirely wrong about this.

"We manage," Glimmer said. "Fighting Horde Prime taught us a lot."

"Ah."

"I am sure both of us can learn a lot from each other." Jakar smiled again.

"Yeah, sure, you betcha. But let's focus on how to defeat the Goa'uld, shall we?" The Colonel cut in. "And we should wait with forming closer ties until we both trust each other."

Sam nodded. That was just common sense.

"Of course," Jakar replied, acknowledging the point. "Although I remain very hopeful that we will forge close bonds." His smile turned a little wistful. "We've been fighting the Goa'uld for a long time without allies. Of course, being betrayed by System Lords claiming they wanted to work with us did sour us on alliances with any Goa'uld. And we haven't been looking for other allies either."

"Yeah, being stabbed in the back by snakes does have that effect on people." The Colonel sounded a little too casual for simply agreeing with the Tok'ra, in Sam's opinion.

Daniel, who had been uncharacteristically silent until now, cleared his throat. "I noticed that you talk about the Goa'uld being your enemies, not the System Lords. Do you consider yourself as not part of the Goa'uld?"

"Yes." Jakar nodded sharply. As did Anise. "To call us Goa'uld is an insult," he added.

"Ah. I am sorry - I did not want to give offence." Daniel nodded but quickly perked up. "So, do you have a name for your species? That is, do you consider yourself an entirely new species defined by your allegiance?"

"We're the Tok'ra," Jakar said, a little less congenial than he usually talked, Sam noted.

Anise, though, nodded. "Indeed, I have coined a new term for our biological species, but, so far, it has not received wide acceptance despite the clear need to differentiate between cultural and biological terms."

Jakar tilted his head towards her. "The only one who has accepted it is you, Anise."

Anise sniffed in response. "That others reject my proposal is a clear indication of their lesser status as scientists. You cannot ignore that we are biologically the same species and so we should have a term for this."

"Yes!" Entrapta chimed in. "Science is not biased or political - science is honest. You can't do science if you're not honest. You'd end up falsifying your data, undermining your entire work!"

"Exactly!" Anise smiled at her.

They had a very valid point, of course.

"Yeah, but sometimes, science needs to take those other things into account," the Colonel said. "Or you end up with stuff that should never have been created and a whole mess on your hands."

"Such as the research I destroyed before we met, yes," Jakar agreed.

Entrapta frowned. "That's wrong! Whether or not you use something is not a scientific question. You shouldn't limit scientific research just because of politics! Researching doesn't harm anyone." She blinked. "If conducted properly and responsibly, of course," she added with a smile.

The Colonel wasn't the only one who grimaced at that. "Yeah, well… If you never build a world-destroying thingie, it can't be used to destroy the world. And it can't get stolen or lost. Or accidentally activated."

Entrapta winced at that. As did the other Etherians. They would remember their past, Sam knew. She shook her head as she spoke up: "On the other hand, science is universal. Just because someone is limiting their research doesn't mean anyone else will be doing the same. And people cannot defend against something unless they know how it works."

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded emphatically. "That's why we need to research everything! So we're ready for everything!"

Well, that wasn't a very practical stance. You couldn't research everything - you would end up not researching anything in sufficient depth to be useful and practical. And there were only so many scientists with the talent and training to research advanced technology, much less to break new ground. They were fortunate that the Goa'uld kept their slaves ignorant as a rule - if the Alliance were faced with a Goa'uld Empire using its resources for research and development on a similar scale to Earth… Sam suppressed a shudder.

Anise, once again, was agreeing emphatically. "I keep telling the High Council the same! And they keep rejecting my proposals."

For a moment, Sam felt for the other woman. The number of requests she had been denied during her career… Although, to be fair, those had mainly been denied for budgetary reasons, not on moral grounds. Or because her hide-bound superiours had favoured another, usually male, scientist. But on the whole, the United States Armed Forces were generally very open to anything that could improve their weapons.

She noticed that the Colonel was frowning at her. And the Etherians were staring at Entrapta and Anise.

Oh.

But before she could explain - or defend - her position, the Stargate activated again.

"Stay sharp!" the Colonel snapped, raising his M4.

"Shield up, Emily!" Entrapta yelled as the bot moved to cover them, force shields springing up.

But it was only Garshaw who stepped through, followed by…

"Martouf," Sam whispered before she could stop herself. Her friend. Her comrade. They had fought side by side against the Goa'uld, and… No. She shook her head. She had never met the Tok'ra. This was Jolinar's remaining memories affecting her.

She straightened and stepped forward, meeting the man's eyes. "Martouf." She bowed slightly to him in greeting.

He returned the bow, looking wary. "You know my name. But I have never met you," he said with a glance at Garshaw.

"I know." Sam smiled ruefully. "I was briefly the host of Jolinar of Malkshur."

Martouf's eyes widened as he drew a sharp breath. "Jolinar. Where is he?"

He sounded so hopeful... Sam pressed her lips together. She hated this. She forced herself to smile gently. "He died saving my life."

"Oh."

"But he was... inside me long enough for our memories to partially overlap. I remember you," Sam went on.

"That's how you knew the gate address!" Anise exclaimed.

Sam nodded. She turned to the Colonel. "They're the Tok'ra," she said. The odds of the Goa'uld being able to produce either Martouf or a double of his host in such a short time were too low to be considered a valid hypothesis.

He looked at her for a moment before nodding. "Okay. So, you're the Tok'ra. We're the Alliance. And we both hate the Goa'uld. Let's talk!"


Finally! Catra refrained from saying so out loud, of course - except for sighing a bit more loudly than usual, which earned her a frown from Adora. She stared back at her lover. Catra would have preferred to move with more caution - you couldn't trust just anyone you met who claimed to be fighting the Goa'uld - but if you were doing the trusting bit instead anyway, there wasn't any reason to stall for so long. It wasn't as if Entrapta was particularly good at keeping secrets.

"Yes," Garshaw said, nodding at O'Neill. "But maybe in a location more suited to such talks?" She turned her head to look at the Stargate. "Since you are already aware of one of our bases' locations, visiting that planet would not endanger it further."

Catra narrowed her eyes a little. That could be a trap. Unlikely, but not impossible. And without magic, Glimmer couldn't use her powers to get them out quickly. On the other hand, the Tok'ra had no idea about Adora's power. And Catra didn't think a bunch of guerilla fighters and saboteurs would try to start a war with yet another power for any sane reason. And if they weren't sane and cautious, they wouldn't have lasted for so long against the Goa'uld Empire.

O'Neill must have come to the same conclusion since he nodded. "Sounds good to me."

Adora and Glimmer were, of course, all for it. "Yes," Adora said, smiling widely while Glimmer nodded.

And so, after informing Stargate Command, they went through the gate and found themselves in…

…a desert.

"You people really must love sand," Catra said with a deep frown. She didn't like sand. Not at all. The stuff got everywhere, including your clothes and fur. And walking on it was… Well, it wasn't hot enough to burn her feet, at least, but it wasn't comfortable either. Marching on soft sand was far more exhausting than marching on decent ground. It also reminded her of the Crimson Waste, and those were memories she wasn't very fond of. For a variety of reasons.

Garshaw raised her eyebrows at her. "We don't love sand. But we are used to the environment. We would rather live on a world like this, safe from the Goa'uld, than on a more hospitable one known to the System Lords."

"You could have moved to a more temperate area, though," Entrapta pointed out. "Or is the planet covered by deserts? Is this the temperate part, and the other regions are even worse - so hot, you can't survive without special environmental suits?"

"Having the gate in this location discourages visitors, reducing the danger of being found and of anyone taking more than a passing interest in the world," Garshaw explained.

"And," Jakar added, "if the gate were moved, anyone familiar with the original location would realise that someone had moved it - and they would investigate."

"So, how far do we have to travel until we're at your base?" Catra asked. It couldn't be too far, she thought - Garshaw hadn't taken that long to fetch Martouf. Though they probably had used a skiff or something similar - she couldn't see any road or tracks in the sand, and they had to have a way to haul supplies to and from their base.

"Not too far," Garshaw replied, pulling out a round radio or communicator - Catra didn't recognise the exact model. "We've arrived with guests and need a transport."

Catra narrowed her eyes - and not just because of the sun - and cocked her head, her ears twitching. Was that a whining noise? Yes, it was. She turned to look in that direction. A single vehicle, probably.

Yes, she added to herself as it crested the dune there, it looks like a sort of skiff. Just without the sail. General-purpose light hovertransport, she'd call it. Pants in any fight since she couldn't see any armour or emitters for shields - just like a skiff, in other words. But it probably could fly over water, not that there was any water in the desert.

"George Lucas has to answer a few questions," she heard O'Neill comment.

"It is not too similar to a skiff, I believe," Teal'c said.

"Form often follows function," Daniel added. "So, it stands to reason that different designs would still show general similarities."

"You use similar transports?" Anise asked.

"Yes," Catra told her. No need to go into details.

"It serves well enough, though maintenance can be difficult at times," Anise said. Judging by her expression, she had done such work before.

"Oh?" Entrapta stared at the approaching vehicle. "Is it the sand? Or do you have to craft all spare parts by hand? Some of the old bots I restored were like that."

"Both," Anise replied.

"Come," Garshaw said. "Let's be off."

They boarded the transport, and the driver let it hover over the gate area, then pushed a button, blasting the sand below with air and erasing their tracks.

"Smooth," Catra said with a grin.

"We have been doing this for some time," Jakar told her with a matching smile as they took off.


P34-353J, December 4th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill suppressed a frown when the skiff - which did look a bit too much like it came out of Star Wars for his taste - stopped in the middle of the desert between two dunes. There was nothing to distinguish this spot from any other spot of sand.

"We're here," Garshaw said.

"Home sweet home, as you would say," the damn snake spy added with a smile.

Jack wondered where Jakar had picked up that piece of Earth slang. Or idiom, as Daniel would say. He would have to ensure that the man hadn't had access to Earth media while in the mountain - that would have been a massive breach of security. Well, that was something to do once they were back home. He made a point to look around. "Are you sure you don't love sand? Because there's a lot of sand here."

Jakar laughed. "This is merely the entrance." He climbed over the railing and jumped down into the sand without apparent effort. Jack almost expected him to strike a pose as if he were at a gymnastics competition.

Well, two could play that game - especially since Adora had healed Jack. He gripped the railing with both hands and vaulted over it, landing next to the snake spy, and grinned.

Then Catra jumped over the skiff's railing, did a somersault in midair and landed a few yards away with a shit-eating grin.

"Catra!" Adora, followed by the others, didn't show off and simply dropped down from the skiff.

"What? I thought it was a competition. A traditional ritual before guests were admitted into their homes!" Catra's shit-eating grin didn't waver.

"You've been talking too much to Daniel," Jack told her in a flat voice.

"What? We didn't!" his friend protested. "Well, not recently, at least. And I never mentioned anything like... Oh." He blinked, then pouted.

Then sand was thrown into the air when Emily landed on it, her legs sinking a foot or two into the soft ground. Entrapta, sitting on top of the bot and somehow having managed not to get thrown off - she'd probably cheated with her hair - cheered.

"This might be a bit much for one transport," Anise said, looking around. "The robot will have to follow with the next."

Transport? Were they switching… Ah. "A ring transporter?" Jack asked, cocking his head. "We're getting the VIP treatment, I see." And it meant they wouldn't be able to easily find an entrance.

"Yes. It leaves no tracks," Garshaw said, pulling her round communicator thingie out again.

"And the skiff continues to another base which serves as a last-ditch decoy?" Catra asked. "Or is this the decoy base?"

Garshaw didn't answer. Instead, she spoke into the small ball. "We're here."

"Should have said 'a dozen to beam down, Scotty'," Jack joked.

"Colonel!" Carter hissed next to him.

But he was watching the snakes. None of them showed a reaction other than mild confusion - even the spy. So, Jakar might not have had access to Earth media in depth - or that was what the spy wanted you to think, of course.

Jack didn't like spooks. He liked alien spooks even less.

Then the familiar rings rose around the group, and, a moment later, they appeared in a room - and were facing half a dozen guards.

But the snakes hadn't drawn their weapons, and Garshaw nodded at the apparent leader. "There is a robot to transport down as well," she told them before turning to address SG-1 and the Etherians. "Please follow us to your quarters. It will take a little while to convene the High Council to meet with you."

They stepped out of the transporter area, and Jack turned to Jakar, tilting his head slightly to the right. "Guest quarters?"

The spy laughed again. "Oh, don't worry - it's not a euphemism for cells. You have free access to explore this base if you do not wish to wait in quite comfortable surroundings."

Jack's eyebrows rose. Full access to their base? Either the Tok'ra weren't as competent as they had to be to survive for so long, or this was a decoy base.

"Thank you," Glimmer spoke up with one of her regal, polite smiles. "It will be nice to freshen up a bit."

Garshaw nodded. "You are our guests. Jakar, please show them their quarters. I will call the rest of the High Council."

"Can we see your lab?" Entrapta asked Anise with a wide smile as Emily appeared behind them. "We're building a new lab, Sam and I, and I'd love to see how other scientists work!"

"Ah…" Anise grimaced. "I don't have a lab in this base," she said.

So, this was a decoy base. Jack grinned. If Entrapta had done this intentionally, he'd tell her well done in private.

"Aw." Entrapta pouted. "Did you have to move your lab for security reasons too?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes." Anise had apparently recovered from her slip.

"Is it in space? Though that would require a guard fleet to keep it safe. Do you have enough naval assets for that? Of course, a spacelab seems the safest option for a lot of experiments. Or… with your transporters, could you build a lab deep in the bedrock, completely isolated from everyone? But the transporter might still be a risk for spreading biological agents in an accident, and if it failed, you'd be stuck there or outside the lab!"

Jack couldn't tell if Entrapta was more worried about being stuck inside or outside her lab. He guessed the latter.

Then he tried to tune the tech talk out and focus on the base they were travelling through. The tunnels were roomy, but, for all their alien-ness, they looked a bit… rough. And those crystals everywhere… He narrowed his eyes, then grinned. He wasn't an expert on alien technology, but they had two of them with him. Three, actually; he kept forgetting that Bow was a Techmaster because compared to the mad scientist princess, the boy tended to escape notice.

So Jack turned his head and beamed at Entrapta, Carter and Bow. "Hey - did you see those crystals? Have you ever seen similar things?"

Entrapta perked up, skipping over to the closest crystal row. "Oh! How interesting!" Her hair brushed over them. "I don't think I've seen them before."

"Neither have I", Carter said. She touched them and took a look at the wall next to it. After knocking on it, she frowned. "This sounds odd."

"Oh!" Entrapta pulled her tool thingie out, then blinked and turned to face Anise. "Oh! I almost forgot: Can we scan the wall?"

"Ah, yes," Anise replied, her eyes fixed on the tool. "If I can take a look at your scanner."

"Deal!"

Jack suppressed a grimace. That wasn't what he had wanted. And Jakar was smiling as if he knew that.

The damn snake spy probably did, damn him.