Chapter 29: Justice, vengeance and war
Daniel was talking to a panel, who were trying to educate him in the intricacies of their politics and culture while he was trying to pare away the propaganda. He missed Varielle's candid explanations. Someone knocked and Varielle stuck her head around the door. "Sorry to interrupt. Master Yeren, can I talk to you, please?" "Everything alright, Varielle?" he asked.
"No, it's not." She looked terrible.
"What's wrong?" Yeren asked her in a corner.
Varielle lowered her voice. "Sometime within the next twenty-four hours the Goa'uld are going to attack one of the Tauri bases. Or at least there were a lot of Tauri there, but there were others as well, and a lot of them are going to die. But the attackers aren't all Jaffa and Goa'uld. There's others, strange ones. They feel - felt - warped somehow. And somehow, my father made sure I saw it. He told me we had to move now."
"You saw him?"
"Sort of. I wasn't… entirely awake. Arell was there, and he didn't see anything; it's, ah, something we did as kids, watching over each other to keep away nightmares."
"Where was it?"
"I don't know. Somewhere with lots of tall dark trees, rocks, bushes, streams - it felt like there had been people there for a while, but beyond that it was wild. I can't put it any better than that. It was sort of… part vision, part impressions. And I don't know anything more accurate than that."
"You don't know which planet?"
"No, but I think Daniel will. I saw one of his team-mates there, the female one named Carter. And that base had been there for a while, it was big, and there were several hundred people there at least. He has to know at least a bit about where it is; if he doesn't know, someone on their world will, and he can go there and ask."
"You want to help them?"
"I think we need those people."
"You just don't want to see them die."
"Haven't enough people died already? These Goa'uld aren't all bad, some of the species are alright, but some of them make the Sith look pleasant in comparison."
"You know that?"
"I know that now."
"Will he believe you?"
"I haven't lied to him yet, so I think so. I tried to explain to him what the Jedi can do."
"Did he believe you?" "I don't think he wants to. He'd rather believe it's some kind of enhanced mental ability - they've seen examples of that in other places. I don't think he wants to accept the idea of the Force."
"You've never entirely believed yourself, Varielle. It's caused plenty of problems."
"I know there's something there, I'm just not sure it's quite the way it's commonly portrayed. And does that matter now?"
"Where's Admiral Sadderve?"
"Sleeping. She needs at least six hours a day just like the rest of us."
"Fine. Pull your man out of there and bring him to my office."
"He's not my man."
"Could have fooled me, girl."
"I've got other things on my mind."
"Don't say he's too old for you."
"Given my record I'll probably die before he does," she said grimly. "You know the stats."
"Don't become one, that's the best option. Now go get him."
"Daniel?" Varielle called. "Sorry, people, we'll have to cut this short."
Daniel looked at Varielle. "What's wrong?"
"Come this way." They headed off down the corridor.
"What's going on?"
She shut the door behind her. "Do your people have a base in a hill valley somewhere with slopes leading up to the mountains, buildings with curved roofs made of rippled metal down to the ground, lots of green trees around and mostly grey rock, and no iris over the Stargate?"
He stared at her. "How'd you know that?"
"It won't be there tomorrow. It's going to get invaded - mostly by very strange people in thick black armour that none of the weapons there stop, and they move slowly and have guns strapped to one arm and wear strange helmets."
"Anubis' supersoldiers," he said. "At the Alpha Site." He looked sick.
Yeren cleared her throat. "Varielle?"
She realised she'd slipped into English and provided a translation. "I think this 'Alpha Site' was their first base off their Earth."
"It is," Daniel said. "And we have plenty of our allies there as well."
"Then they have to evacuate as quickly as possible," she said. "Will they listen to you?"
"Yes, but I'll have to tell them where I got the information from."
"Tell them we see the future," Yeren said. "It's like an early warning system."
"That won't help much. They may not believe it."
"Where can we put them?" Daniel asked.
"The third planet we found," Varielle said. "We'd thought about putting a base there, but we were wary of putting people anywhere with only one way home. We've had people living there for a year, but only volunteers. I doubt the Goa'uld would want it, but we can put some people there for a while."
"Why wouldn't they want it?"
"It's geologically unstable. They have earthquakes every day, volcanic eruptions every so often. Plant life doesn't survive well, so it's not self-sustaining. Most of the people there are military scientists, studying either astronomy or geology. We've learned a lot there about predicting earthquakes and eruptions; the data's already being incorporated into the existing warning systems in danger areas."
"We never really studied that off-world."
"Well, we did," Yeren butted in. "But the fact is that you'll be giving us the address of your first and major off-world base based on our word that something bad is going to happen."
He looked at Varielle. "Have you ever lied to me? Beyond saying you were fine when you weren't?" "She told you she was an apprentice when she wasn't," Yeren said.
"I hadn't earned that rank. I still haven't. And you're not just trusting me with this information, you're trusting anyone with access to our computers, anyone who might have access, anyone standing near enough to see it, and anyone those people might talk to."
"You know our world's address, right? If you were going to take out our iris, how would you do it?"
Varielle paused to think about it. "There's a kind of highly focused laser beam we use for mining in cold areas, like airless moon valleys. If we used one of those on it, it would probably melt it. Put one on a variable mount and we could just cut a neat circle in your iris, and I doubt you could stop it. That technology is tried and tested; the only problem would be the fact that we'd have to vent our embarkation room while we did it. It's on board a ship with plenty of airlocks including in that room, so that's not difficult."
"Would that work, Doctor Jackson?" Yeren asked.
"Probably. But I'm no engineer."
"I can think of others," Varielle said. "And an engineer could think of more. But the fact of the matter is that we haven't had time to officially debate what to do about your planet. If we leapfrog over that process, it could affect future negotiations. For good or bad, I don't know."
"Consequences," he reminded her of their conversation in the library. They shared a wry smile. "Can I think for a moment?"
"Sure. We'll need another half an hour before we wake up the Admiral; she's got to rest."
"So do you."
"And so do you." They glared at each other. "How do we kill these 'supersoldiers'?" Yeren asked. "Your projectile weapons don't work?"
"No, they wear armour. It makes energy weapons ineffective as well."
"We've got to be able to find something," Varielle said. "Lightsabers might well do the trick, but I don't like to get that close."
"What?" Daniel asked.
Varielle pulled hers out. "Remember when I cut the hole in your - what's the word - concrete? Officially these are for ceremonial purposes. Unofficially, all Jedi tend to use them in close quarters. They cut through anything except cortosis ore, which we haven't found any of in this galaxy…"
"Cortosis?"
"I'll explain later," Varielle said. "Although it takes more time with some things than others. It might well cut through your iris, although I wouldn't care to test that. This one cut through that fighter canopy just fine on that forest world."
"You cut one of those canopies with that?" his eyebrows raised. Varielle hit the trigger button and the blade sprung out.
"This one is fairly simple," she said. "You can get ones where you can alter the length, the width, the colour, the power of the blade; for trips through the Stargate my father wanted one he could fix if it broke. A simple design."
"Do you have one?"
"No. If I needed one he loaned me his spare. I made one once, to pass a test, but I didn't keep it. I preferred a blaster."
"Why?"
"I'm a very good shot, but not much good with one of these. I can't fight as well as most Jedi up close. I shoot well, I run well, that's about it."
"It's more than I do."
"You're a scientist. You're not required to fight. Jedi are." She shut it down and put it back on her belt. "With you it's useful, it helps keep your friends safe and helps you do your job properly."
"It's also required for everyone who goes off-world."
Varielle blushed as red as her colour allowed.
Yeren cleared her throat. "While Varielle recovers from that stupid mistake, shall we try to figure out what to do next?"
"The question is whether we want to actually fight the Goa'uld or just keep the people in danger safe."
"That's not our call," Varielle said instantly. "We don't have the right to decide for our people whether to go to war."
"Actually, we do," Yeren said. "Here."
Varielle read the official dispatch bordered in red, then whistled.
"What?"
"Apparently the Chairman of the Senate decided that attacking our team on the forest world constituted an act of war. We can fight them if we like. The problem is that they're not a unified nation; the legal grounds for fighting one lot and not others are rather less clear. Besides, from what little you've told me, Daniel, we can't just assume all the Goa'uld are - what is your word - scumbags. There's bound to be at least a few with a decent sense of ethics, ones who look after their own people and haven't killed any of our troops."
Yeren looked at Varielle and nodded. "They killed your father and you call for peace?"
Varielle looked down. "Justice is one thing. Vengeance is another. War is a third. I want justice for the deaths of my friends. I also want vengeance, but I know I shouldn't get it. But war…" She shook her head. "Wars are messy. A lot of people die in war. It's usually the most inefficient way of hurting the ones you're really after. I doubt very many of these System Lords lead their troops from the front."
"You're right about that," Daniel said. "And I agree."
"You've known the same pain," she said softly. "And you felt the same - at the time you wanted everyone to pay, all of them with interest even if they hadn't been personally involved, but once you calmed down you saw it the same way as I do."
"Yes," he admitted after a moment. "Are you sure this attack is going to happen?"
"Not scientifically," she said. "Instinctively? Yes. But even Jedi have been wrong before. We're not perfect and don't claim to be."
He nodded and stared into space for a moment. "Do I have your word that if you give our people sanctuary, they'll be free to go whenever they please?"
"Yes, so long as they don't endanger our people in the process," Yeren said. "I'll get Sadderve to guarantee that in writing. If only because doing so would be unlawful detainment, which we consider a form of kidnapping."
"Which they could go to jail for," Varielle said.
"But we're not your citizens."
"Doesn't matter. You're alive and you're sentient. It might interest you to know that our laws about things like assault or abuse of prisoners apply to prisoners of war as well; under our law if we don't give them - what's your word - humane treatment, giving them beds and food and medicine - then we're guilty of civil or criminal offences."
"Really?" He seemed pleasantly surprised. "Those laws date back to before the Journey. The Republic spanned the galaxy, but didn't include it all. Some systems were independent."
"We can find another site for a base. What sort of attack?"
"First orbital bombardment, then ground troops," she said. "What I saw didn't let me see specifics. But it ended with a huge explosion."
"The base has a self-destruct system."
"Then we'd better move fast," Yeren said. "How many people will we need?"
"As few as possible," Varielle said.
"What?"
"Well, we want them to evacuate, not start the fight by fighting us," Varielle said. "Besides, when none of our people can so much as ask where the bathroom is in your language, bringing heavily armed troop convoys in would be a very bad idea."
"Damn this language barrier," Yeren said. "Varielle, I don't want you getting hurt, hear me? Or you, Doctor. We're going to need you both very badly as translators and you're both exhausted, especially Varielle."
"Can I ask something?" Daniel said.
"Yes."
"Varielle sees our people dying - and you never question that you should help?"
The Jedi exchanged looks. "It's what we do," Varielle said.
"And it really annoys a lot of people," Yeren said. "We're supposed to be the ultimate honourable incorruptible heroes of the people. When people find out that sometimes that's what we are, it comes as a nasty shock."
Daniel was talking to a panel, who were trying to educate him in the intricacies of their politics and culture while he was trying to pare away the propaganda. He missed Varielle's candid explanations. Someone knocked and Varielle stuck her head around the door. "Sorry to interrupt. Master Yeren, can I talk to you, please?" "Everything alright, Varielle?" he asked.
"No, it's not." She looked terrible.
"What's wrong?" Yeren asked her in a corner.
Varielle lowered her voice. "Sometime within the next twenty-four hours the Goa'uld are going to attack one of the Tauri bases. Or at least there were a lot of Tauri there, but there were others as well, and a lot of them are going to die. But the attackers aren't all Jaffa and Goa'uld. There's others, strange ones. They feel - felt - warped somehow. And somehow, my father made sure I saw it. He told me we had to move now."
"You saw him?"
"Sort of. I wasn't… entirely awake. Arell was there, and he didn't see anything; it's, ah, something we did as kids, watching over each other to keep away nightmares."
"Where was it?"
"I don't know. Somewhere with lots of tall dark trees, rocks, bushes, streams - it felt like there had been people there for a while, but beyond that it was wild. I can't put it any better than that. It was sort of… part vision, part impressions. And I don't know anything more accurate than that."
"You don't know which planet?"
"No, but I think Daniel will. I saw one of his team-mates there, the female one named Carter. And that base had been there for a while, it was big, and there were several hundred people there at least. He has to know at least a bit about where it is; if he doesn't know, someone on their world will, and he can go there and ask."
"You want to help them?"
"I think we need those people."
"You just don't want to see them die."
"Haven't enough people died already? These Goa'uld aren't all bad, some of the species are alright, but some of them make the Sith look pleasant in comparison."
"You know that?"
"I know that now."
"Will he believe you?"
"I haven't lied to him yet, so I think so. I tried to explain to him what the Jedi can do."
"Did he believe you?" "I don't think he wants to. He'd rather believe it's some kind of enhanced mental ability - they've seen examples of that in other places. I don't think he wants to accept the idea of the Force."
"You've never entirely believed yourself, Varielle. It's caused plenty of problems."
"I know there's something there, I'm just not sure it's quite the way it's commonly portrayed. And does that matter now?"
"Where's Admiral Sadderve?"
"Sleeping. She needs at least six hours a day just like the rest of us."
"Fine. Pull your man out of there and bring him to my office."
"He's not my man."
"Could have fooled me, girl."
"I've got other things on my mind."
"Don't say he's too old for you."
"Given my record I'll probably die before he does," she said grimly. "You know the stats."
"Don't become one, that's the best option. Now go get him."
"Daniel?" Varielle called. "Sorry, people, we'll have to cut this short."
Daniel looked at Varielle. "What's wrong?"
"Come this way." They headed off down the corridor.
"What's going on?"
She shut the door behind her. "Do your people have a base in a hill valley somewhere with slopes leading up to the mountains, buildings with curved roofs made of rippled metal down to the ground, lots of green trees around and mostly grey rock, and no iris over the Stargate?"
He stared at her. "How'd you know that?"
"It won't be there tomorrow. It's going to get invaded - mostly by very strange people in thick black armour that none of the weapons there stop, and they move slowly and have guns strapped to one arm and wear strange helmets."
"Anubis' supersoldiers," he said. "At the Alpha Site." He looked sick.
Yeren cleared her throat. "Varielle?"
She realised she'd slipped into English and provided a translation. "I think this 'Alpha Site' was their first base off their Earth."
"It is," Daniel said. "And we have plenty of our allies there as well."
"Then they have to evacuate as quickly as possible," she said. "Will they listen to you?"
"Yes, but I'll have to tell them where I got the information from."
"Tell them we see the future," Yeren said. "It's like an early warning system."
"That won't help much. They may not believe it."
"Where can we put them?" Daniel asked.
"The third planet we found," Varielle said. "We'd thought about putting a base there, but we were wary of putting people anywhere with only one way home. We've had people living there for a year, but only volunteers. I doubt the Goa'uld would want it, but we can put some people there for a while."
"Why wouldn't they want it?"
"It's geologically unstable. They have earthquakes every day, volcanic eruptions every so often. Plant life doesn't survive well, so it's not self-sustaining. Most of the people there are military scientists, studying either astronomy or geology. We've learned a lot there about predicting earthquakes and eruptions; the data's already being incorporated into the existing warning systems in danger areas."
"We never really studied that off-world."
"Well, we did," Yeren butted in. "But the fact is that you'll be giving us the address of your first and major off-world base based on our word that something bad is going to happen."
He looked at Varielle. "Have you ever lied to me? Beyond saying you were fine when you weren't?" "She told you she was an apprentice when she wasn't," Yeren said.
"I hadn't earned that rank. I still haven't. And you're not just trusting me with this information, you're trusting anyone with access to our computers, anyone who might have access, anyone standing near enough to see it, and anyone those people might talk to."
"You know our world's address, right? If you were going to take out our iris, how would you do it?"
Varielle paused to think about it. "There's a kind of highly focused laser beam we use for mining in cold areas, like airless moon valleys. If we used one of those on it, it would probably melt it. Put one on a variable mount and we could just cut a neat circle in your iris, and I doubt you could stop it. That technology is tried and tested; the only problem would be the fact that we'd have to vent our embarkation room while we did it. It's on board a ship with plenty of airlocks including in that room, so that's not difficult."
"Would that work, Doctor Jackson?" Yeren asked.
"Probably. But I'm no engineer."
"I can think of others," Varielle said. "And an engineer could think of more. But the fact of the matter is that we haven't had time to officially debate what to do about your planet. If we leapfrog over that process, it could affect future negotiations. For good or bad, I don't know."
"Consequences," he reminded her of their conversation in the library. They shared a wry smile. "Can I think for a moment?"
"Sure. We'll need another half an hour before we wake up the Admiral; she's got to rest."
"So do you."
"And so do you." They glared at each other. "How do we kill these 'supersoldiers'?" Yeren asked. "Your projectile weapons don't work?"
"No, they wear armour. It makes energy weapons ineffective as well."
"We've got to be able to find something," Varielle said. "Lightsabers might well do the trick, but I don't like to get that close."
"What?" Daniel asked.
Varielle pulled hers out. "Remember when I cut the hole in your - what's the word - concrete? Officially these are for ceremonial purposes. Unofficially, all Jedi tend to use them in close quarters. They cut through anything except cortosis ore, which we haven't found any of in this galaxy…"
"Cortosis?"
"I'll explain later," Varielle said. "Although it takes more time with some things than others. It might well cut through your iris, although I wouldn't care to test that. This one cut through that fighter canopy just fine on that forest world."
"You cut one of those canopies with that?" his eyebrows raised. Varielle hit the trigger button and the blade sprung out.
"This one is fairly simple," she said. "You can get ones where you can alter the length, the width, the colour, the power of the blade; for trips through the Stargate my father wanted one he could fix if it broke. A simple design."
"Do you have one?"
"No. If I needed one he loaned me his spare. I made one once, to pass a test, but I didn't keep it. I preferred a blaster."
"Why?"
"I'm a very good shot, but not much good with one of these. I can't fight as well as most Jedi up close. I shoot well, I run well, that's about it."
"It's more than I do."
"You're a scientist. You're not required to fight. Jedi are." She shut it down and put it back on her belt. "With you it's useful, it helps keep your friends safe and helps you do your job properly."
"It's also required for everyone who goes off-world."
Varielle blushed as red as her colour allowed.
Yeren cleared her throat. "While Varielle recovers from that stupid mistake, shall we try to figure out what to do next?"
"The question is whether we want to actually fight the Goa'uld or just keep the people in danger safe."
"That's not our call," Varielle said instantly. "We don't have the right to decide for our people whether to go to war."
"Actually, we do," Yeren said. "Here."
Varielle read the official dispatch bordered in red, then whistled.
"What?"
"Apparently the Chairman of the Senate decided that attacking our team on the forest world constituted an act of war. We can fight them if we like. The problem is that they're not a unified nation; the legal grounds for fighting one lot and not others are rather less clear. Besides, from what little you've told me, Daniel, we can't just assume all the Goa'uld are - what is your word - scumbags. There's bound to be at least a few with a decent sense of ethics, ones who look after their own people and haven't killed any of our troops."
Yeren looked at Varielle and nodded. "They killed your father and you call for peace?"
Varielle looked down. "Justice is one thing. Vengeance is another. War is a third. I want justice for the deaths of my friends. I also want vengeance, but I know I shouldn't get it. But war…" She shook her head. "Wars are messy. A lot of people die in war. It's usually the most inefficient way of hurting the ones you're really after. I doubt very many of these System Lords lead their troops from the front."
"You're right about that," Daniel said. "And I agree."
"You've known the same pain," she said softly. "And you felt the same - at the time you wanted everyone to pay, all of them with interest even if they hadn't been personally involved, but once you calmed down you saw it the same way as I do."
"Yes," he admitted after a moment. "Are you sure this attack is going to happen?"
"Not scientifically," she said. "Instinctively? Yes. But even Jedi have been wrong before. We're not perfect and don't claim to be."
He nodded and stared into space for a moment. "Do I have your word that if you give our people sanctuary, they'll be free to go whenever they please?"
"Yes, so long as they don't endanger our people in the process," Yeren said. "I'll get Sadderve to guarantee that in writing. If only because doing so would be unlawful detainment, which we consider a form of kidnapping."
"Which they could go to jail for," Varielle said.
"But we're not your citizens."
"Doesn't matter. You're alive and you're sentient. It might interest you to know that our laws about things like assault or abuse of prisoners apply to prisoners of war as well; under our law if we don't give them - what's your word - humane treatment, giving them beds and food and medicine - then we're guilty of civil or criminal offences."
"Really?" He seemed pleasantly surprised. "Those laws date back to before the Journey. The Republic spanned the galaxy, but didn't include it all. Some systems were independent."
"We can find another site for a base. What sort of attack?"
"First orbital bombardment, then ground troops," she said. "What I saw didn't let me see specifics. But it ended with a huge explosion."
"The base has a self-destruct system."
"Then we'd better move fast," Yeren said. "How many people will we need?"
"As few as possible," Varielle said.
"What?"
"Well, we want them to evacuate, not start the fight by fighting us," Varielle said. "Besides, when none of our people can so much as ask where the bathroom is in your language, bringing heavily armed troop convoys in would be a very bad idea."
"Damn this language barrier," Yeren said. "Varielle, I don't want you getting hurt, hear me? Or you, Doctor. We're going to need you both very badly as translators and you're both exhausted, especially Varielle."
"Can I ask something?" Daniel said.
"Yes."
"Varielle sees our people dying - and you never question that you should help?"
The Jedi exchanged looks. "It's what we do," Varielle said.
"And it really annoys a lot of people," Yeren said. "We're supposed to be the ultimate honourable incorruptible heroes of the people. When people find out that sometimes that's what we are, it comes as a nasty shock."