~*~*~*~*~
"...And this is level 25, VIP quarters," Major Sam Carter informed their guests, leading the way toward the rooms the general had ordered set up. Hope they like blue and white. With the Goa'uld it was easy, the gaudier the better. These people... well, Daniel said there's a lot of Japanese in their background. Simple ought to go over well. "The General's briefing room is two floors down; that's where we'll talk later."

"Teal'c also lives on this level," Trowa observed, Hrere padding alongside him.

Sam almost missed a step. "Yes. How did you...?"

"Hrere can scent him."

I didn't see Hrere signal him, and Trowa didn't ask her to check for scents, Sam realized, eyeing the slit-eyed esmeril. So how did he - wait. If Quatre's an empath... something tells me "Beastmaster" means a lot more than just animal trainer. "Is that a problem?"

"Of course not," Relena smiled. "Some of Stheno's Jaffa were members of the first Preventers. We'd be honored to take quarters near another who's chosen to stand against the System Lords."

Politician to the bone, Sam thought, contrasting Lady Peacecraft's sparklingly sincere expression with the Wing's more neutral acceptance. Washington will never know what hit them.

Which could be kind of funny if she got the chance to see it. Between the Asgaard coming to Earth for "stupid ideas" and the Tok'ra attitude of "infantile allies of convenience"... well, it might just be worth sitting through the speeches to see some good old-fashioned human politicking wrestled out.

Daniel said those fans Sally and Relena are carrying can stab through thin armor. And ladies use them to make a point. Sam tried not to giggle at the thought of delicate, blonde Peacecraft jabbing her fan through a briefing folder. Beats pounding a desk with a shoe.

"Look." A familiar voice echoed down the corridor, annoyed and patient at once. "You said yourself they've got the 'Gateroom clear. I don't see why I can't just head down to communications and talk to my people. The sooner they know Dr. Jackson's been found, the sooner they can stop poking into dangerous places looking for him."

Dad, Sam thought with a rush of relief, not hearing the reply as they came into view of the plain-uniformed Tok'ra and his MP escort. He's never going to believe what we dragged home this time.

Subtle movements caught Sam's eye, just at the corner of her vision. Heero had taken a swift double step, ghosting forward and around to take the lead from Relena. Duo skipped up on the diplomat's other side, bouncing along with a grin and fingers tucked into his sleeve. Falling into step just behind and to the right of Relena, Quatre had a hand pressed near his heart. Trowa and Hrere had her left, and Wufei was definite rearguard.

Diamond formation, Sam realized. Defensive. Why - wait a minute. If Hrere's checking out the scents on this level, and Trowa knows what she's smelling-

Oh, no!

"Stop." Sam held up a hand as she halted, relieved to see the Wing come to a halt with her two MPs. Three of us - four with Dad's escort - six of them. Though I doubt Relena will start anything... but Hrere will, she realized, watching a silver tail lash. Okay, still six then. Not good odds. "Before anybody jumps to conclusions, we do have another guest on this level."

"Sam?" Her father looked over the Wing, frowning. Stepped forward, apparently not impressed by the swords ready to hand. "These the people you brought home with Daniel?"

No. Bad idea. I don't care how low-tech a sword is compared to a ribbon device. You're just as dead if they kill you with a pointy stick. "Dad, stay there," Sam said firmly.

"Your father?" Relena said guilelessly.

My father, who your bodyguards are ready to kill. Sam walked forward, offering Jacob a wary smile. Glanced back at Heero's ready stillness, and stifled a shiver. Damn. Daniel was right. They may be teenagers, but they're not kids. "Dad, this is the diplomatic party from Sanq. The people who rescued Daniel." She turned. "Lady Relena Peacecraft, I'd like to introduce Jacob Carter, the Tok'ra ambassador to Earth."

Relena's lips pressed into a taut line, parted in a smile that had less dazzle and more diplomatic politeness. "I see." She dipped her head genteelly, ceiling lights casting gold gleams across her crown of braids. "It's a pleasure to meet you under these circumstances, Ambassador Carter."

Standing in a hallway, as opposed to shooting at each other, Sam thought wryly. Heero's chill drew the eye, no question, but when she looked past that to Duo's grin.... Um. He's eighteen. He can't be more than five-foot-three, with about as much muscle as your average alley-cat. And he's smiling.

...Why do I want to run?

"Likewise, Lady Peacecraft," Jacob returned her nod. Frowned slightly when they made no move to step closer. "Sanq?"

"It's a very quiet place," Quatre spoke up. His hand lowered to his side; blue-green eyes were friendly, but watchful. "I'd be surprised if it ever came to your people's attention."

That was a jab. Sam stepped to the side, ready to jump back between the two groups if someone twitched wrong. Funny. Heero's the Survivor here; I thought if anyone would try antagonizing Selmac, he would. "Janet's already cleared them."

"Cleared them? Why-" Jacob took another step forward, and tensed. "I see."

Cheyenne, we just hit the sensing radius, Sam noted. "So since you're going to be quartered near each other, I thought it'd be a good idea for you all to meet before you and Preventer Yuy walked into the same room and surprised each other." Make that shot each other. And I thought Teal'c and Cronus on the same level was a bad idea.

"Good idea," Jacob said dryly. "Who was he, Yuy?"

Heero's eyes were pure ice.

"It might be important, Heero," Relena put in gently. "Forgive us, Ambassador. We've heard that the Tok'ra form partnerships with their hosts, but when all you've encountered is Goa'uld possession, it's hard to believe." She shrugged, demure and unyielding.

"It never gave me a name." Heero looked down the hall. "We should review our quarters now."

No name? Sam took her father's arm and tugged him aside as the Wing walked by, eyes on the growling esmeril. Trowa had one hand on the creature's collar, soothing the alien cat's wings back down, but silver-gray fur was standing up the length of Hrere's spine. Then again, the one that took Jack didn't have time for one either. Hathor's offspring hadn't been in Jack long enough to leave a protein factor behind, much less naquadah.

Yet Heero's evidently had. And it hadn't bragged about its name?

Trade war stories later, Sam decided. "What is it, Dad?"

"Sanq," Jacob muttered, staring down the hall as the diplomatic party disappeared into their rooms. "Hoo boy." He tapped fingers on his thigh. "Course, I could be wrong. You were there, you would've noticed. Unless they were hiding. Still, it's not like we were ever sure we got the right information out of them...."

"Them?" Sam frowned.

Jacob shot a glance toward the elevator. "Let's take a walk."

"Okay," Sam said as the steel doors closed behind them. "Them who?"

"Looked up your Greek myths lately?"

I'm not going to like this. "Which ones?"

"The Gorgons. In the myth, sisters with snakes for hair, so horrible that looking on them any way but by a mirror turned you to stone. Two immortal, one flesh and blood and killable. Stheno, Euryale... and Medusa." Her father sighed. "The truth is a lot uglier."

"Stheno," Sam put in. "Isn't she one of the System Lords you said went missing?" I hate not telling you the truth, Dad. But we've got to know what you know. The Tok'ra have a bad habit of leaving out details; and damn it, General Hammond's not the only one who's tired of it.

"Stheno Coatlicue. Stheno of the serpent skirts. Pretty puny as far as System Lords go; I don't think she ever had more than two or three planets. And she had problems with a lot of the royal house. Hathor, for instance. You couldn't get those two within ten light-years of each other without shots being fired." Jacob smiled wryly. "Hated Heru'ur's guts, too. Called him a crude, small-stoned, incompetent attempt at a pain in the mikta... well, you get the idea."

"And Ra put up with that?" Sam arched a skeptical brow.

"Had to. Stheno kept herself alive by providing something that Ra wanted. Something he couldn't get anywhere else." Jacob grimaced. "A weapon against the Tok'ra."

Bingo. "Worse than an Ashrak?"

"An Ashrak's a Goa'uld. A scary Goa'uld, but a Goa'uld all the same. You can sense them coming." Jacob shook his head. "Uh-uh. These were things specifically designed to get to us... and she knew exactly how to get to us," he said bleakly. "She was Egeria's brood sister."

For a long moment, Sam was speechless. That explains a lot. "Ouch."

"We caught and interrogated a few of the things before they managed to destroy themselves," Jacob said matter-of-factly, "But they were pretty well programmed. All we could get out of them was a few bits about their 'mother' Stheno and someplace called Sanq." He snorted. "Heck, we're not even sure their Sanq was a planet. Some of their memory fragments seemed like they came straight from space!"

Or a space colony. Sam swallowed. "Things?"

"Medusas," Jacob shrugged. "Genetically engineered creatures. They could almost pass for human. Designed to be pretty, too. Always upset any human allies we had when we had to vivisect them." He shuddered. "For somebody Egeria tried to talk over to our side, Stheno turned out to be one sick puppy. Can you imagine making things that would turn on your own relatives?"

Save your relatives, or save your planet, Sam thought. Watching the lights climb toward twenty-one so she didn't have to look her father in the eye. God. What a choice. "You... took them apart... alive."

"They were monsters, Sam. Born and bred to kill us. And their venom was pretty short-lived," Jacob said flatly. "We had to get out as much as we could to create antitoxins. Stheno kept changing the chemical composition; anti-venom for one generation of medusas wouldn't work on the next. Thank god she's the only one who knew how to breed them. We haven't seen any in decades-"

The elevator doors opened.

"Dr. Po," Sam said steadily, looking into Sally's face as she stepped out into the hall. Imagining all too clearly that same face strapped down while a Tok'ra like Anise went to work. I'm not going to throw up. I'm not.

"Major!" Sally swept her with a look, moved past the airman with his elevator cardkey to take her pulse. "What happened?"

"We were discussing Goa'uld tactics, what else?" Jacob said sharply, taking in fan, kimono, and accent. "Who are you? I thought the Sanq party was downstairs."

"Dad, Dr. Sally Po," Sam said. All she saw was blonde hair; if the universe was kind, that would be all Jacob saw. Hold it together. You've walked out of cannibal camps. You can do this. "Doctor, did you finish your consultation with Janet?"

"For now-"

"Good," Sam cut in. "If you could just go with your escort... I really need to talk to my father." Clamping a hand on his arm, she headed for the next elevator over.

Steel closed behind them again, and Jacob watched her punch the button for 19. "Sam, what's wrong?"

Sam steeled herself. I can't. I just can't. Not if this is my dad. "Selmac? What made you think they weren't human?"

Jacob dipped his head; Selmac gave her a measuring look. "They were designed to destroy us, Samantha, by the one Goa'uld Egeria once trusted the most. Our mother spoke with Stheno about her plans before ever the Tok'ra began, hoping to sway her sister to our side. But Stheno reviled us. She claimed Egeria's plan to be flawed. Insufficient. Incapable of defeating Ra."

And guess what, Selmac? A sardonic part of Sam's mind pointed out. Two thousand years later, she's still right.

Selmac stalked the elevator, eyes flashing gold. "Stheno knew we meant to take hosts of their own will, gently, without force. And it was she who created creatures who could take advantage of that kindness, and slay a Tok'ra even as we thought a new life, a new blending, was about to begin. She desecrated our hopes. Made a mockery of our cause!" Cold loathing dripped from the reverberating voice. "I only pray she is truly dead."

"So you think they're monsters because you think she was a monster," Sam said quietly.

"We trusted her. Our own blood. And she turned on us," Selmac snarled. "As you say on this planet, Samantha, evil begets evil."

And the System Lords trusted Egeria, didn't they, Sam thought bleakly. At least, before she started trying to overthrow them... but then, they try to take each other over all the time, don't they? Not the same thing at all. From a Goa'uld point of view. "You got your wish, Selmac. Stheno's dead."

Selmac smiled grimly. "So you have found Sanq. Has your team searched for records yet? We must secure any information that might remain on the medusas."

"We'll have to ask Lady Peacecraft about that," Sam said levelly. "If her government's willing to exchange that information. They may not be."

"If they are willing?" Selmac's gaze bored into hers. "Persuade them. Where is Sanq? If such creations were to reappear in System Lord hands...."

"I don't think you need to worry about that." The doors opened, and Sam headed past absent scientific salutes to her lab. Jack. I've got to call Jack, and some MPs... Sgt. Siler. He'll know where we can set up some temporary rooms for Selmac. On any level but 25.

"The hell I'm not going to worry about things that kill Tok'ra!" Her father's voice now as Jacob stepped around an airman wheeling a cart full of glassware toward the hazmat labs. "Sam. What's wrong?"

Hand on her doorknob, Sam stopped. Pressed her lips together. "Get inside." I'm not having this conversation in the hall.

Jacob rolled his eyes, but waited while she shut the door behind him and checked for any stray scientists under the lab benches. "All right, Sam," he sighed. "What'd I say this time?"

Sam gripped a lab counter, watching her knuckles turn white. "Stheno died saving Sanq from Susanowo, Dad. Your monster laid her life on the line, and she lost it. For humans." Sam shook her head slowly, feeling anger prickle tears in her eyes. "You, Selmac, the whole Tok'ra High Council - you can call her whatever you like in private. On Sanq she died a hero. And you are not going to mess up our negotiations with people who risked their own lives to save Daniel!"

~*~*~*~*~
Three, two, one. Relena Peacecraft let her negotiating mask settle into place as she and General Hammond were seated. Wing Zero and SG-1 arranged themselves around the general's briefing table, and Tau'ri guards took up position in discreet corners of the room. And the duel begins... strike!

"First of all, General Hammond, I would like to commend Major Carter on her quick thinking on behalf of Preventer Po," Relena dipped her head graciously, thinking of the Wing's doctor, currently safely hidden in the SGC infirmary while she traded medical notes with Dr. Fraiser. "The information we have indicates Tok'ra handle medusas badly. I assure you we have no intention of causing dissent between your planet and its allies."

"We hadn't known there might be a problem, or I assure you we would have taken measures to avoid such an encounter," Hammond said levelly. "Not to offend, Lady Peacecraft, but we'd like to know exactly what authority to negotiate on behalf of your planet you have."

Nicely parried. And a fair question. "I'm a member and diplomat-at-large of the Sanq Alliance Council, General," Relena replied. "I can't make permanent binding agreements on my own. What I can do is investigate the situation, negotiate a potential treaty, and bring that document back to my government for discussion. It will be up to the Council to decide final terms." She turned a hand palm-up. "In the meantime, I do have the authority to request certain Preventer personnel and units to take on voluntary missions. So long as Sanq's security does not take precedence. And you, General?"

"As commander of the SGC, I have the authority to open negotiations with off-world organizations, and accept and offer aid to potential allies," Hammond nodded. "A final treaty would require the involvement of higher administration officials. Whom I plan to contact as soon as we both have a better idea of what we'd expect out of an alliance." He raised a faded red brow. "I already know Dr. Fraiser would like to continue her current information exchange with Dr. Po. I'll be frank. Medical advances may be tempting, but I'm most interested in the possibility of expelling a Goa'uld from a host without resorting to alien technology."

"It's risky," Quatre put in. "You have to keep the Goa'uld sedated while you reactivate the host's immune system, or it will poison the host before you can kill it."

"Take it you have personal experience of that," Colonel O'Neill said nonchalantly, looking Heero's way.

Wing's pilot didn't flinch. "I survived."

But not unscathed, Relena thought sadly. I wish your Wing would tell me what happened. I wish you'd tell me what happened. All Survivors have problems, but as long as I've known you, Heero... it's like part of you doesn't even know how to be human anymore. "In return, we'd like samples of your RNA inhibitors. Dimme's used these Reavers once. She'll use them again. If we could save people who've been exposed, if we had the chance to try and cure someone who's been transformed... I'm sorry, Maxwell."

The Shinigami shrugged, turning a pencil over in his hands, his usual smile dimmed and sad. "He was a Preventer, lady. We know the risks." Duo traced the pencil over a notepad, eyes on the thin gray trail of graphite. "Ran wouldn't have wanted us to let Dimme use him."

"A possible cure for Reavers for a cure for Goa'uld," Hammond noted. "I'm afraid we'll be testing how well our inhibitors work all too soon. We have reason to believe Dimme is currently using Reavers on Gault. The planet Dr. Jackson was kidnapped from," he elaborated.

"Are the villagers all right, sir?" Daniel asked. "If Dimme took over the Stargate...."

"Some of them made it out with us," Sam said. "They know they can't go back yet, but-" She glanced at the general.

"We plan to assist Gault, once we obtain sufficient reliable intelligence on the situation," Hammond said frankly. "We're not sure what we can do with ha'taks on the ground, but while we can't match the Goa'uld force for force, we refuse to abandon our allies." His polite smile held a trace of grimace. "We are relying on the Tok'ra for a great deal of that information, Lady Peacecraft."

"Then we'll do our best not to compromise your intelligence nets." Relena looked at the Wing, all of whom were studiously not looking her way. "No."

"What?" Duo looked back at her guilelessly.

"I said no."

Wufei snorted. "Be more specific."

"You don't have enough information."

"Yet," Trowa noted, slipping Hrere dried beef from his sleeve. The esmeril munched her treat, purring loudly.

"You wouldn't," Relena said, narrowing her eyes at Heero.

Heero looked back.

Duo snickered.

Jack glanced at them all, shook his head. "Anybody else get the feeling we're missing something here?"

"I believe they regard grounded ha'taks as a challenge, O'Neill," Teal'c put in.

"A challenge?" Sam said dryly.

"We would need more information," Quatre admitted.

"Against ha'taks." The colonel looked the Wing over. "You guys crazy, or just really that good?"

"Colonel," Hammond said warningly.

"No, it's all right, General," Relena smiled honestly. "Even those in my government who have access to the full classified records sometimes have trouble believing what a Wing can do." Especially Wing Zero. Rebels. Terrorists. The Scourge of Macha. We didn't know whether to honor them or lock them up and throw away the key.... "Let's just say, given the right situation, good tactics, and a little luck, you can take a ha'tak on the ground."

Jack and Daniel traded a look. "You wouldn't happen to have a ha'tak, would you?" the linguist asked.

"I don't, no." Relena let the pause drag out. "My government, however, does."

"No drooling," Jack murmured to Sam.

"Sir!" she muttered back, red flushing her cheeks.

"Ronan One isn't in the best of shape, but it is space-worthy," Relena went on. "We mostly use it for colony maintenance."

"And training operatives?" Jack crooked up a peppered brow. "Daniel says Dimme caught Duo inside her ha'tak."

"As we have also done, O'Neill," Teal'c noted.

"That we did, big guy. And just thinking about it turns my hair gray." Jack eyed Heero, waiting.

"Basic ha'tak schematics have not changed in at least a century," Heero noted. "Individual System Lords may make minor alterations, but the ship remains a valuable training tool."

"It would indeed," Hammond said seriously. "I imagine your government would want something specific in return for access to such information?"

"Not something physical," Relena said softly. "We want to know who we are. Where we came from." She smiled at Quatre. "We want to know how we misunderstood the Cimmerians so badly."

"Missions to destroy System Lord bases would be more effective if we had cultural information on the human inhabitants," Heero stated flatly. "Under the current conditions Preventers are at risk of exposure whenever they come into contact with off-worlders."

"Of course," Relena sighed.

"You raid off-world." O'Neill studied her carefully.

"When we have enough information to breach a 'Gate." Relena nodded. "This isn't the first time Dimme's attacked Sanq, Colonel. Though it is the first time she's risked venturing so far into our system. And frankly, that worries me."

"I see." Hammond nodded slowly. "I believe both our worlds could benefit from cooperation, Lady Peacecraft. Yet we've learned, by painful experience, to ask certain questions when looking for allies." He laid his hands flat on the table. "Who are the Purists?"

Relena winced. The past never dies. She looked about at her still-faced guardians. A stranger might have thought their faces calm, impassive. Relena saw worry, pain, anger....

Shinigami's burning rage.

Kami help me. Intellectually she knew Maxwell would never hurt her. Wing Zero had chosen to join the Preventers. Duo was in the Wing of his own will, and when Heero Yuy said protect her, there'd be blood on the floor before one hair on her head was singed. And... it wasn't as if it were her fault. She'd only been a child.

And so were they.

"My name is Relena Peacecraft," Relena began. "I was born in AC 179. Just months before my father founded the philosophy of genetic reconsideration. Or - as the extremists put it today - the Purists."

Quiet. The room was so quiet.

"The Goa'uld did terrible things to create the Guardians, General." Relena looked into the distance, seeing holograms salvaged from Stheno's own records; bodies warped and twisted, horrors that once had been human. "They... experimented on their slaves. Our ancestors. Played with flesh and life-codes like a toddler with clay marbles, bred us like hounds, unleashed plagues for sport. Anything to get what they wanted. And they never cared how many they broke in the process."

"Even Stheno?" Daniel asked quietly.

"Especially Stheno." Relena sipped her water, set the glass down before her hands could betray her by shaking. "She created the medusas, after all. And the Beastmasters, to handle Susanowo's creations." She met Daniel's gaze squarely, wishing the dark lenses he'd donned against the briefing room lights didn't obscure his eyes. "She was a hero, Dr. Jackson. She saved us all. But she was a System Lord first... and as a System Lord, as a Goa'uld, she did horrible, horrible things."

Keep going. Try to think of it as if it happened to someone else.

"My father believed - I still believe - we should reconsider Stheno's legacy," Relena said bluntly. "Abandon genetic manipulation. Reexamine everything we've seized from the Goa'uld, and destroy any weapon created from human pain and suffering. We had a free planet. The System Lords didn't know where we were. Why should we continue to use weapons that stained the soul?"

"Including the Guardians." Daniel's tone was quiet. Even.

It cut like a knife.

"Some extremists started to call for that," Relena admitted. "At first my father didn't take them seriously. Guardians may have abilities the rest of us don't, but they are human. I'm told my mother tried to warn him, but-" She sipped more water. Hold on. Just a little farther. "When he did realize they were serious, and tried to rein them in... they killed my parents." Her throat closed.

"Wufei," Heero said, tone flat.

Chang nodded. "That was AC 182, General. The surviving Peacecraft heirs were separated and sent into hiding with trusted family retainers. A necessary precaution, given that the Purists had achieved significant power in the Alliance government. Power they proceeded to use to attack various Guardian clans and individuals; sometimes politically, other times more directly." A grim smile played over the Dragon's face. "They were not always successful."

"Some of the L5 colonies are now Dragon forts in all but name," Relena reclaimed her voice. "The Winners have been very successful in our economy, their resources were enough to protect most of them. Though empaths caught off L4 weren't always so lucky. The Preventers closed ranks to protect their own; some units ended up working with Winner family agents to rescue people caught in bad situations, orders or no orders. We're still finding Beastmasters who vanished into Sanq's wilderness or L3 hydroponics areas when things became difficult. Medusas... well, the Purists recognize them more as victims than weapons, given how Stheno used them. Though there were some ugly incidents."

The general nodded. "I notice you're missing one."

"The Shinigami." Relena laced her fingers together. "The L2 colonies have never been the most civilized of places. They're in the dark of our moon, where the three Morrigu held sway. Plagues still surface there, leftovers from them and Lamashtu. When the Purists erupted in 188... it became very ugly." She looked up. "But the tragedy saved us from ourselves. People saw the truth, and the extremists were removed from power." A hint of bitterness touched her smile. "And then Macha invaded, and the hard-line Purists suddenly found themselves too busy for political maneuvers. Now they're a minority. A vocal minority, but no one wants what happened on L2 to happen again. Ever."

Hammond regarded her gravely. "And just what did happen, Lady Peacecraft?"

Relena steeled herself, feeling violet eyes burning just out of view. "The Maxwell Shrine was a Shinigami sanctuary for decades. A home for the lost and the orphaned, a place of peace for any who wanted it. A rebel group fighting against the Purists took refuge there, counting on the fact that it was a shrine, and no sane human would attack a house of the kami." She glanced aside. "Some records state the priest and sisters were still ministering to the wounded when the building was... obliterated."

"My god," Sam whispered.

"After that, a lot of Shinigami ducked out of the system entirely," Relena said simply. "Colored lenses to cloak the violet, stay out of tight spaces... and a lot of ordinary people are caffeine addicts," she waved a hand at Daniel's mug. "It's only now, with Maxwell and other Shinigami openly in the Preventers, that we've started to see some of them come into the open."

"Our government," Heero said matter-of-factly, "Is not perfect, General. But we are a free people. We will not allow the Goa'uld to destroy us. And we refuse to allow what the Goa'uld have done to make us destroy ourselves."

Hammond nodded, considering. "Then I believe we do have a basis for an understanding, Lady Peacecraft." He picked up a pen. "Where should we start?"

"With who you are, General," Relena returned. "And what you are to Earth. You're military. You have the Stargate hidden away in a place I doubt was ever meant to hold it. I may not have Preventer training, but even I can tell there can't be as many personnel in this facility as we have assigned to the one on Sanq." She folded graceful hands. "We've laid a painful truth open to your view. Allow us to see as clearly."

Hammond glanced toward SG-1. "Dr. Jackson?"

The archaeologist cleared his throat. "In 1928, about seventy-five of our years ago, an archaeological dig uncovered an artifact on the Giza plateau...."

~*~*~*~*~
Okay, Daniel ticked off mentally as Hammond and Relena smiled at each other tiredly. They'd drained a pot of coffee. Quatre's tea set had made the rounds half a dozen times. And remnants of sandwiches littered the table like discarded ammo casings. But slowly and surely, an agreement had been hammered out. We've got military assistance down. Medical information and techniques. Cultural exchange within limits; Lady Peacecraft says no proselytizing, and I hope we can make that one stick. Sanq's got enough problems without introducing new religions.

Though the anthropologist in him was itching to study Sanq's kami-based faith. They don't believe in gods, but they honor nature spirits - even in space colonies. Wow. I wonder if I could ask Duo for some pointers. Street rat taken in by a kami shrine; I never would have thought. But then again, it makes sense. I've never seen him without that sun-cross-

A soft sigh caught his attention, and Daniel blinked.

Duo was fast asleep in his chair.

No way. Daniel stared at Duo's empty coffee mug on the table; he'd seen the Shinigami down two full-strength cups as the negotiating went on. Duo was part of Relena's personal bodyguard, and prankster or not, Daniel knew the pilot took his responsibilities seriously. More to the point, he'd sat in these very same chairs for hours himself, convinced they'd been specifically designed as instruments of torture to keep poor, non-military-minded archaeologists awake despite every droning paragraph of quartermaster minutia.

And none of that stood up against the fact that Duo was definitely, against all odds, out like a light.

And Jack was trying very hard not to laugh.

Heero's going to kill him. Daniel slipped a surreptitious glance Yuy's way as Relena and the general paused to breathe. Or - not?

Heero had barely glanced Duo's way, eyes flicking on to a corner by the wall before returning to his charge with the same quiet patience he'd shown since the beginning of negotiations. Daniel recognized that quick check; he'd seen Jack do it too many times to remember. There you are. Situation normal. Moving on.

Situation normal apparently included Trowa and Hrere in one snoozing silver-furred ball in the corner, Daniel observed. He remembered seeing them get up an hour or so ago; he hadn't realized they'd just never come back to the table. Two out of five asleep. No way that's a coincidence. He glanced Jack's way, brow raised.

"Ten to one, those two are taking midwatch," Jack murmured.

Oh. Right. Wake up, Dr. Jackson, Daniel told himself dryly, reaching for more coffee. Just because they want to trust you doesn't mean they can risk Lady Peacecraft by not keeping watch.

"Well." General Hammond wove his fingers together, stretched his arms. "I believe this is a good point for us to break for dinner. I look forward to continuing this tomorrow, after we converse with our respective advisers, Lady-"

Incoming travelers, blared the alarm. "Sorry to disturb you, sir," Davis' voice came over the intercom. "It's the Tok'ra. Two of them."

Oh, damn, Daniel thought.

Hammond looked caught between a polite grimace and a desire to pound someone's head through a wall. "Sergeant. Did Selmac happen to mention why more of his people have dropped in?"

The 'Gate technician kept his cool. "Something about requesting critical information, sir? Ambassador Carter didn't go into details." A pause. "But one of them's Anise. Sir."

"Oh no," Sam breathed. "General. What I mentioned before. Selmac was very insistent."

"Chang," Relena said sharply. Turned swiftly back to the general. "With your permission, General Hammond. Preventer Po can handle herself in most situations, but-"

"Granted," Hammond nodded at them both. "Go."

Wufei sketched a swift bow, snagged his katana, and hit the door running.

"We didn't need this," Daniel muttered under his breath, noting that the slumbering Wing pilots were now up, awake, and apparently aware of the seriousness of the situation, if those calculated glances were any indication.

"Do we ever?" Jack nodded at Teal'c. "You mind backing him up? Not that I'd mind seeing Anise-cutlets all over the floor, but it'd be a heck of a mess."

"Indeed." Teal'c left with a haste usually reserved for outrunning death gliders.

"Anise." Heero's eyes were distant; with a shock, Daniel recognized the same expression he'd seen on Sam when bits of Jolinar bubbled up. "One of the Tok'ra's specialists in dissection."

"She said she was an archaeologist," Sam put in, eyes wide.

"Our information indicates Anise prefers dead bodies," Heero said bluntly. "She is somewhat less competent in dealing with live ones." He turned to Relena. "I advise avoidance."

"No," Relena said after a long pause. "We will be polite, Preventer Yuy."

Heero's expression chilled. "Lady Peacecraft-"

"We will be polite. We're guests." She smiled at the General, politician turned pure minx. "Of course, a guest has the right to ask her host to be circumspect when speaking of her to other guests, does she not? Especially at dinner."