Hammond grinned as Celmac spoke, the words coming out of Carters mouth music to his ears, Anubis was retreating. The Tok'ra had received word that the damage the Tau'ri had caused the fleet, combined with information provided by a pissed off Osiris had given the system lords the courage they needed to launch an actual offensive.
Okay, so they were just loping off stragglers and lone vessels, not attacking the surviving fleet directly, but they were wearing down Anubis's forces. Already, he was rumoured to have lost one mothership by ramming and seven Ha'tak's by swarm attacks. That was a lot of ships, and both the system lords and Anubis kept losing ships, one by one they were being weakened.
And a trio of Ha'taks were on route to Earth, one defected when they heard of the Free Jaffa's successful acquisition of their own warship and was intending to join Bra'tac, the second was crewed by Jaffa loyal to Enerina, and they had every intention of joining the Tau'ri if Enerina commanded it.
And the third…
Well, the third had the bulk of the Tok'ra slightly miffed.
It seemed that not all the Tok'ra were content to operate as spies, it seemed a small group wanted a more active role in the destruction of the System Lords and Anubis, and they were defecting to Earth, bringing a Ha'tak with them.
So Hammond grinned, not just because the system lords and Anubis were collectively trying to kill each other, weakening themselves, reducing the threat to Earth, not because the forces of freedom were gaining ground, getting stronger as more forces joined them, but because he now had something to throw in the eye of the next Tok'ra who mentioned the 'inferiority' of the Tau'ri, about how much better they were just because they had been fighting so long.
The smile slipped from Hammonds face, wait a minute here…
Loyal to Enerina? But Enerina had taken Buffy as a host and Buffy was most certainly the dominant personality…
He shuddered, then turned back to Carter / Celmac, "You do realise this means that Buffy now effectively has command of a Ha'tak and its crew?"
Celmac stopped mid-flow, a disturbed look passing over Carters face, followed by a stream of words that required no translation.
"Exactly" Hammond commented.
A flash of light grabbed Buffys attention, and she glanced around dazed to see Ferreti trying and failing to hide a small camera. It seemed he had photographed her, gaping open mouth and all.
Ignoring the giggling from the peanut gallery within her head, Buffy turned from her first prime, and jumped straight over Ferretis head from a standing start, grabbing the camera from behind her back, at least this embarrassing photo wouldn't be getting out.
With a triumphant grin, she turned back to her Jaffa and froze.
Then hit the flash on the camera, these Jaffa had obviously never seen her in action before, she had to admit 60-odd Jaffa with slack jawed expressions was pretty funny.
The peanut gallery was spluttering and choking inside her head, figuratively gasping not to laugh out loud.
"So I have a ship now?" Buffy asked.
"Yes My lady" her first prime, a tall black haired Amazon by the name of Enerist replied.
"Good, cos its been a while since Tanith hit the Tollan and I want to see if there are any survivors" Buffy glared at the SGC personnel around her, "I cant believe you never checked for survivors, what kind of hero types are you anyway?" the recrimination disappeared from Buffys voice and in a far too normal tone of voice, she added "And coincidently anyone notice how Willow is leaning up against Teal'c there?"
Her words took a few seconds to register in Willows mind, by which time it was too late, everyone was looking at her. She jumped away from Teal'c like a scalded cat, "Nonono, Iwasjustrestingandbigandhunkyherejusthappenedtobeahandypillar, we'venotbeensleepingtogetheratall"
Teal'c raised an amused, exasperated eyebrow, "I do not believe you are a very good liar Mistress Willow, I also do not believe you intended our relationship to get out in that manner"
Teal'c turned back to the room, and the second eyebrow rose, "Mistress Willow, do you have a camera handy?"
To all those who keep bugging BKtheirregular saying he has stolen the word 'tarithna', this is a reminder that Tarithna belongs to Bktheirregular and NOT me