Chapter 27 – Intelligence
Trailing behind the darting figures of his daughter and her Wookie life-partner, Jacob glanced sullenly at Jack. "Remind me again why we're doing this?"
Jack gave him a bitter look in reply. "Because the smugglers don't trust Talon Karrde anymore, we need to get information about this Hetarn guy, and Sam has links here."
"On Nar Shadaa."
"Yep"
"The Smuggler's Moon."
"The very same."
"My baby girl has links on a moon filled with alien smugglers."
"Oh, they're not all smugglers."
"They're not?" Jacob's voice held both hope and trepidation as he and Jack both sped up and moved to a flanking position once they'd passed the jumbling throng of alien beings at the spaceport exit. They were still being jostled on both sides by hooded, masked, secretive beings and Jacob silently thanked Selmak for dampening the effects of the smells that assaulted him. If Tattooine, the planet they had visited before had been the armpit of the galaxy then Nar Shadaa was the scum that was hitchhiking on the scum already stuck to the bottom of the galaxy's well-worn shoes.
"Nope," Jack replied nonchalantly. "Some of them are thieves, murderers, bounty hunters-"
He was cut off as Sam let out a snort of amusement. "Jack, don't wind him up," she admonished quietly as she followed in Dentralla's wake, making the most of the space the huge biped cleared as she walked. "If it makes you feel any better Dad, I lived - and survived - here for a long time without anyone else's help."
"No, actually it doesn't." While he had known that his daughter's life at the SGC was dangerous, that danger had never felt as real to him as it did now, in such an...alien environment.
Sam's only reply was a shrug, and they continued through streets and along walkways that hadn't seen natural light since before any being still living could remember.
This 'crime lord' - the title still made Jacob think of old gangster movies - that they were going to see was a powerful smuggler by the name of Soren Ta and apparently one of the less giving of Sam's 'links'. Sam had told them little about Soren, only that they had founded and now ran a group of elitist smugglers who ran only high-profit runs and that she had met with the group on an Imperial world whilst tracking the Touched Virus to the Stargate.
After a twenty minute trudge through the grimy crowds, they finally came to a small cantina on one of the slightly higher-class levels of the city.
Sam felt the attention of most of the beings in the room immediately shift to her group as they entered, but to normal perceptions, there wasn't a break in conversation or the flicker of an eye - or other relevant appendage - to give this away.
Mentally taking a deep breath, she sauntered into the room, 'Tralla falling to her left and behind her a half pace even as Jack moved to her right and Jacob took up a rear position. She paid them no heed, pushing back her head sheath as she straddled a bar stool and rested her arms on the table.
'Tralla loped to the stool beside her and took her place, yowling to the barkeep for service.
Jacob and Jack played their roles well, not a trace of the military evident in their movements or attitude. With the sorts of people that you found on Nar Shadaa, giving away that you had any kind of ties to the military of any government could, and probably would, be fatal.
Watching the barkeep without appearing to, Sam was pleased, though not surprised, to note that the bar was free from clutter, the glasses were clean and the barkeep's apron was spotless. But then she expected nothing less from a Ryn and one of Soren's employee's. The Ryn were a private travelling race that was subjected to superstitious fears across the galaxy if they were recognised. Few people could say that they were friends with a Ryn, most not giving them the time of day, but Sam was one of those few. It had been a Ryn who had been instrumental in helping her when she was stuck in her search for the 'Gate.
"Greetings. How may I serve you?" The hairy face smiled genially, a faint whistle sounding through his flute-like beak of a nose.
"Correllian Ale for me and those two on the table back there, and a Honey Ale for her." She indicated Dentralla with her head, her eyes locking with the Ryn's. "And a meeting with Soren Ta," she added pointedly.
"I'm afraid I don't know who you're talking about."
Sam resisted the urge to roll her eyes as the monotone response was given without the bat of an eyelid. "Me toh wanna Soren Ta biyou."
"Chivous tallaan hor."
"Ten ah."
The Ryn shook his head adamantly and Sam's face hardened as she raised an eyebrow before switching to the musical Ryn language, although somewhat haltingly.
"Shellaliah fortein Soren Ta minon nathe."
She let a slight smile escape as the Ryn's eyes widened hugely and he gave a short bow before scurrying off and she let out a long sigh of relief, mumbling to Dentralla. "I'm just glad I didn't get that wrong and insult him."
Dentralla urfed in amusement as a server-droid brought their drinks to them. It was only five minutes before the Ryn returned to usher them through a staff door, her three companions falling into their guard positions as they traipsed through the corridors and into a large, extravagant room.
On a large chair at the end of the room was Soren Ta; men stood beside the throne, ready to take orders, and there were also several other men dotted around the room, either absorbed in tasks or standing guard. Casting her Force sense around the room Sam sensed that, although they appeared outwardly absorbed in their tasks, they were on edge, ready for any sudden order their Mistress may give. Judging by the numbers of beings who had crossed Soren and lived to tell the tale...lets just say that it was probably good that she came prepared for the smuggler's often vengeful mood swings. She liked to know everything and when she didn't...she struck out.
Sam swept up the room to stand before Soren Ta, a swagger in her step and a cheeky smirk spread across her face.
Soren Ta stared at her for a moment before returning the smile and standing. Jacob and Jack were careful to keep their eyes downcast as Sam had instructed them.
Giving a respectful nod as the tall, muscular woman stood and stepped down to her level, Sam was surprised to find the nod returned. Soren hadn't changed much, with the exception of the colour of the tattoos that ran across her face in a tribal design, disappearing into her collar and reappearing from her cuffs. They were a vivid red this time, very different to the sombre black they'd been last time they'd met, and Sam noted in passing that where the lines disappeared into ebony hair, they left trails of vivid red hair.
"If it isn't Sam Carter and Dentralla...I'd assumed you'd both been vaped when you disappeared off of the circuit...after all, you'd only been in the game for eight or nine months." She smirked, her voice hoarse.
"If I'd known you cared, I'd have sent you a holo." Sam's comment brought a tight smile to the other woman's lips before she flicked her gaze to Jack and Jacob, her eyes lighting in interest.
"I see you've moved up in the world." Soren moved to Jack's side, obviously sizing him up. "I don't suppose you're here to sell are you?"
All traces of humour slipped from Sam's face. "You already know the answer to that, Soren."
Soren pulled her hand away from Jack's chin and stalked back toward her throne. "Ah, but Sam, that's just it...you're one of the few people I don't know." Soren gave a wave of an arm, her hand making some unknown signal and the men who had previously seemed busy in other tasks, were stood circling them, weapons pointed at them. "And that makes you dangerous."
Dentralla gave an angry yowl and reached for her bowcaster even as Jacob and Jack whipped their blasters out of their holsters and aimed them out at the group.
Sam remained eerily calm and motionless; her only movement was to allow a feral grin to form on her lips.
Reaching her throne, Soren turned and sat, arms draped over the sides as she raised a single eyebrow. "I think you had better call off your slaves don't you?"
Sam ignored the obvious jibe; Soren knew that she abhorred slavery and slavers and tolerated Soren's use of slaves only because they were willing slaves, who had sold themselves for whatever reason.
Sam shrugged. "Put 'em away, guys."
Jacobs's eyes never left Soren's men. "Sammie-"
"Trust me." Jacob hesitated a moment and relented only when Jack and Dentralla reluctantly holstered their own weapons, leaving them loose and ready for action nonetheless. Squashing her confusion over Soren's sudden offensive, Sam kept her eyes on Soren, but gestured to the two men. "Soren Ta, I'd like you to meet my partner, Jack O'Neill, and my father, Jacob Carter."
Soren regarded them carefully, her head cocked to one side as if she were listening to someone. "Well, isn't that interesting?" she commented after a few seconds. "There's more to your father than meets the eye...he's almost a kindred spirit."
Sam felt her father tense, and she stretched her senses out just a little more, seeing if there was anyone she'd missed in her earlier search of the room. Nothing. Except...a faint flicker of an alien life form, just behind Soren.
"I don't think there's anyone quite like you, Soren."
Soren gave a sweet smile. "That's why I say almost a kindred spirit. Tell me, how is it that you came to have such an unusual soul-partner?"
Jacob remained silent, a slight frown creasing his face.
Slightly annoyed by this, Soren rose to her feet in one fluid movement, stepping down from her gaudy throne. "I tell you what...I'll share my story, and then you share yours. You should feel privileged...few people know my story. Even less survived.
"I am the only surviving daughter of a royal-born Dathomir witch. My mother was the most powerful of her tribe and some say of the entire planet, and my elder sisters were all powerful in the magic. I, on the other hand, had no talent what so ever. After leaving the planet shortly after the illustrious Jedi Master Luke Skywalker freed it from the clasps of the Empire, I discovered that there was a way for me to have that power, and to be something more than the useless, pathetic being I was. Glitterstim. They said that this, the rarest of all spices gives you Jedi powers, and it did. I had power like the rest of my people."
A faraway look crossed Soren's face as she thought of the power that she had held, and Sam shuddered at the mere thought of it. "As I'm sure you know though, spice carries its price...I nearly died and the only reason that I am here now is because of the help of my soul-partner." She gave a wave and the alien being that Sam had briefly sensed earlier suddenly burst forward from behind the throne, darting happily around Soren and casting a white glow over everything.
Sam was forcibly reminded of the ancients, but while there were similarities to the glowing jellyfish, this being was a lot smaller - a third of the height of Soren - and in the brief moments when it was still, Sam could glimpse a humanoid male figure, the effervescent white glow being cast by ethereal wings that seemed to be made of glowing white streamers.
"Tuanin here saved my life. He comes from a rare and almost extinct race called the Seraphein." Soren held out a hand to Tuanin with a love-filled look on her face. "Without him I'd never have been able to overcome my addiction to spice and would be nothing, if I weren't dead."
Well, that explains a lot, Sam thought, eying the Seraphein warily.
"I've explained my circumstances, now you can explain yours..."
Fixing her eyes on the darting white form of Tuanin, Sam quickly came to a decision, knowing that they needed not only to survive this, but also to get a hold of any information that Soren may have.
"Fine, we'll tell you...but first there is a little background that you need to know."
Soren narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Alright, but be quick."
Sam nodded. "Being a smuggler of your stature, I'm sure that you know of the newest Imp 'Lord' to rise up in the Remnant, yes?"
Soren snarled but nodded and Sam could sense the anger that the mention of Hetarn inspired in her.
"Well, he is actually a man controlled by an alien parasite bent on galactic control. Now the reason that we are here is because we have...a score to settle with him and to do so we need information on him."
Once again there was a flash of recognition within Soren and Sam had to quell a wave of glee as she realised that they had finally, after several months of searching, found someone who could help them.
"The being that controls this lord is of a sister race to the symbiote that shares its body with my father."
Soren stared at her for a moment, a crease of concentration wrinkling her brow. "You use 'parasite' for one and 'symbiote' for another...what is this difference?" she demanded. "Can I talk to this symbiote?"
Sam nodded. "Selmak?"
Selmak didn't bother to hide the flash of gold in his eyes as he took over Jacob's body and gave an aborted nod to Soren. "I am Selmak of the Tok'ra. I am sure that in other circumstances I would have been pleased to make your acquaintance."
Soren gave a loud, high laugh that was all at once genuine and coldly false. "I'm sure...however, there are few people that Tuanin cannot read and your daughter and her...partner here are two examples of such. This makes them dangerous and, unfortunately for you, I cannot allow such a threat to continue."
"You mean you're throwing a hissy fit just because you can't tell what we're thinking?" Jack had finally given up on diplomacy, realising that Soren had already made up her mind about them. Sam was surprised that he'd lasted as long as he had.
"It's not as precise as mind reading but," Soren shrugged, "how else do you think that I've lasted as long as I have in this galaxy?"
"Oh for cry-"
"Enough. You cannot tell us anything more that we do not already know. I apologise, Sam, but you know how it is..."
Sam nodded once and raised an eyebrow. "Every being for themselves..."
"No hard feelings?"
"Not on my part."
Soren flashed them a smile and gestured to the guards again and they braced themselves ready to fire. "It's a shame; you would have made an excellent addition to my crew otherwise." Soren seemed genuinely remorseful at the course of action she had to take as she gave the final gesture for her guards to fire.
Sam, however, was ready for them and even as Jack and Jacob once again reached for their weapons, hoping to take a few of the others out with them Sam threw up a Force-shield around them , drawing off all of the raw energy long before it could reach them. She'd sent a subtle hand signal to Dentralla just before Soren had theatrically ordered their execution, warning Dentralla to be ready for Sam pull the 'energy-sucking trick' as the Wookie had dubbed it and her furry companion now had her bowcaster aimed at Soren's head.
Sam was standing still and calm, acting with a confidence she didn't really feel as the sounds of blaster fire died away. Jack had sensed her intent at the last moment stopped Jacob from firing, though they still brandished their weapons.
She smiled brightly, "I'd hoped we wouldn't have to resort to this but..." she cocked her head, resisting the urge to physically gesture as she used the excess energy to pull the weapons away from the guards and heated them into a useless molten mass. She used a little more of the energy to hold the guards where they stood.
She had to squash the urge to fidget as her body went hyperactive with the excess energy she held back to keep her attention and Force sense up.
Soren had jumped to her feet in shock and now stood wide-eyed and wonder-struck. "How? What? How?" She spluttered incoherently, Tuanin fluttering around in a frightened frenzy.
"I daresay that it's the same thing that stops Tuanin from being able to...'read' me."
"You're a Jedi." The statement came with surety as everything clicked into place for the Dathomir woman and her soul-partner.
"Got it in one."
Soren slumped to her seat and stared in shock for a moment before shaking her head. "I should have known."
Sam shrugged. "No-one's perfect. Now, there's the little matter of Lord Hetarn to discuss."
Soren's face shuttered. "There's nothing to discuss. He's cut off all of my most profitable trade routes and has stolen some of my most loyal and valuable employees."
Jack scowled at her; unable to understand how Sam could be so friendly with her after she just tried to have them all killed. "Well then you won't be wanting to protect him, will you?"
Soren shot him a glare. "Nor will I aid the Jedi or the New Republic!"
"Why the hell not? It's you we'd be helping in the long run!"
"Helping or controlling? You can fight your own battles; the smugglers stand alone."
"Oh please, you're worse that the damned Inner Council."
"Fine," Sam announced to Jack's surprise. He'd sensed that they needed the knowledge too. "If that's the way you want to play it then we'll find someone else to help us." She turned on her heel and began to walk off, but Soren's call halted her.
"Wait. I can give you the information, but on one condition."
"What is it?" Sam turned back and asked her.
"I want no mention of my participation in this...I have an image to uphold and I'd be ridiculed if anyone found out."
Sam shrugged. "Done."
"That's it?"
"That's it. You will, of course, be paid for the information," Sam told her with a cheerful grin. "The same rates as would apply to any other smuggler offering useful information."
Soren's eyes lit up as she realised there was a way for her to regain face in the matter. "You read my mind," she commented with an ironic smile. "Now, if you'll give me a little time, I'll prepare copies of the hard data that I have and I'll answer questions over a meal...some of it seems somewhat...unbelievable."
Sam nodded and released the guards, who reluctantly trailed out after Soren, leaving them in the room alone.
As soon as they were alone, Jack turned to Sam. "Are you crazy?" he hissed at her. " 'Please, let me make a meal full of poison for you so that I can kill you off another way'!" He mimicked Soren in a falsetto voice.
Sam rolled her eyes at him. "She's not going to try to kill us. Not this time anyway..."
Jack and Jacob gave her a sceptical look as Dentralla growled a comment, lowering her bowcaster.
Sam absently translated, "She says our uses outweigh the threat we pose at the moment, so she'll leave us be. She wouldn't have gotten so much power if she wasn't practical in her disposal of people."
"Gah! Well, as long as she's practical then that's okay!"
"Jack stop being such a..."
"Ass?" Jacob suggested.
"I was going to say Nerfherder, but that works."
"Well excuse me for wanting to reach my next birthday but-"
Sam clamped a hand over his mouth with an exasperated sigh, "if you don't shut up whining then I'm going to let 'Tralla baby-sit you. I lived in this world for longer than I care to remember, Jack, and not just when I was looking for the 'gate. This was how I thought the whole galaxy lived; this is what I'm most used to!"
Jack glared at her but spread his arms in silent acquiescence, and Sam released her hold on his mouth.
"It just seems...suicidal to me, is all."
"Hey, if I can accept it, Jack, then so can you." Jacob cut in, earning himself a gruff growl of approval and a pat to the shoulder that nearly sent him flying across the room.
Jack had got so used to life at the temple that he'd forgotten Sam's less than wholesome roots in this galaxy. Coupled with the fact that it had been a long time since he'd been in a situation where he'd had to play people like this, it made him more than a little grumpy.
He gave only a non-committal grunt in reply as one of Soren's slave-aides re-entered the room.
"Mistress Soren is ready to receive you now, if you'd follow me."
Sam cast her companions a hooded look before giving a vague shrug as if to say 'what else can we do?' before trailing after the aide. Dentralla was walking protectively at her heels almost immediately.
The chime of his door alarm announced the presence of a visitor and Hetarn put down the datapad he was scanning, absently flicking the door release.
The brisk, straight-backed figure of his Chief Science Officer strode efficiently in, snapping to attention before him and waiting to be addressed.
"You have good news, I hope?"
"Yessir. The modifications have been made, and the shield has been tested extensively...there will not be a repeat of my earlier mistakes."
Hetarn nodded, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he caught the flicker of fear in the man who appeared otherwise calm. Where the System Lords and their brethren may have executed a man for a lesser mistake than Charveur had made, Hetarn had recognised that to do so would be a waste of a highly skilled technician. The mistake was a simple one and had set them back considerably, but he had no doubt that all of the Science Officers would be considerably more careful when dealing with the alien technology that was so unfamiliar to them. "Very good. You will have one sent immediately to me."
"Yes my lord."
"You will also start to replicate them; I want to be able to equip the operatives that we are going to recover from the Jedi. It is about time that the nuisance was wiped from this galaxy."
Even as he planned the demise of the Jedi, he wondered once again just how they had come to find out that there were some of their own who were now Goa'uld. He'd thought it would take them considerably longer to discover the ways that they were hiding themselves from the other Jedi, especially since the reunited SG1 had been banished from the galaxy. All of it would be of no consequence in a day or two though, as he would eradicate those that he did not have implanted. Why waste such a resource?
"Yes my lord."
"Dismissed." He offered the officer a vague wave, even as he sent for his key tactical staff. The man about turned crisply, striding purposefully out.
Sam looked across at her father, asking the question even though she could sense his confusion through the Force. "Can you work anything out from this?"
Forehead creased in concentration as he read the data, translated into English. "Not really," he replied absently. "None of it makes sense...it's like we're missing something here."
Sam nodded and cast a glare at Jack as he sauntered in and plonked himself down in the over-sized co-pilot's chair and resting his feet on the edge of a console.
Catching her glare, he sheepishly moved his feet to the deck. "We'll just have to see if the others can make any sense of it back at the temple," he said. "It might be something that they take for granted but would be way out there for us."
Sam shrugged, scanning the data herself, for the third time.
Soren had reluctantly handed the data chips over, adding a little commentary as she delayed it as much as possible, trying to regain some kind of composure and sense of control on the matter.
They now had a detailed background on Hetarn's military career, though that was mostly irrelevant as the symbiote now had control. A part-Chiss, part-Human recruit who had only managed to reach the heights he had in the Empire after the demise of the Emperor and a the forging of a few records to show him as human, he was known for his tactical skill, although it was often overthrown by ambitious stupidity.
Soren had also included reports that groups of scientists were secreted away somewhere where they developed strange new technologies, drugs, armours; you name it, they'd worked on it. There were complementary sightings of obscure, tacky artefacts being shipped between planets and ships...all the ingredients for typical Goa'uld behaviour. What didn't fit, however, was the reports that things were being adapted to look less obvious; Goa'uld weren't exactly known for their subtlety.
Reading this report, Sam remembered the unusual form of the ribbon device that he'd used against them. It also brought to the foreground her fearful contemplations over what could have blocked them from sensing the troops, or Hetarn, but didn't strip them so completely of the Force as it would if each of the had an Ysalimiri in a nutrient frame. Absently, she wondered if they had anything to do with reports of every stormtrooper under Hetarn's rule being given a regular inoculation against some unknown virus or disease.
All four of them had been through the information more times than they cared to remember, but neither their knowledge of the Goa'uld, or 'Tralla's knowledge of the galaxy had yielded any deeper understanding of what was happening. All they'd been able to do was put together the snippets of facts that Soren had gained through her interactions with the New Empire, as it was becoming known. They had nothing.
They were suddenly jolted out of their musings as the proximity alarms went off, Jack quickly vacating his chair for its rightful owner, strapping in behind Sam instead.
Twenty minutes of flurried, but confident movements later and the ship set down in the clearing out front of the Great Temple. Flicking off a last few systems, Sam was the last to leave the cockpit and was surprised to find that no one had come out to greet them and see if they had discovered anything of any use.
Jack glanced at Sam and frowned. "I don't like this." His statement held the echoes of the countless times he'd said the same thing before a mission, only to have it go utterly wrong.
Sam nodded, her danger sense starting to tingle at the back of her mind as she stepped off the ramp of the ship. "Me neither," she reached down and pulled one of her sabres out, her thumb hovering over the trigger.
"What is it?" Jacob asked, the confusion in his voice tinged with worry.
"A hunch," Jack replied absently, pulling his own blaster out.
"That's it? A hunch?"
Dentralla barked at him to shut up; a phrase that he'd recognise any time after having spent several weeks in confined space with her.
The Tok'ra shot her a dirty look but complied anyway, drawing his own, unfamiliar weapon and following after his daughter, her boyfriend, and her eight-foot-walking-teddy-bear-with-a-gun.
Entering the main hangar bay, the usual bustle of the Temple was conspicuously absent and the tension in all four beings gradually increased, reaching tumultuous heights as they made their way to the Grand Audience Chamber.
Reaching the large doors, Sam sensed that whatever the danger was, it was on the other side of those doors. Glancing at Jack and receiving a taut nod from him, she gathered the Force to herself and, using it to push the doors dramatically open; she flew in as if she was riding on a wind.
She barely paused as she took in the sight of all the Jedi surrounded by countless squads of Stormtroopers, those that they'd determined to be Goa'uld standing guard at the sides of the lounging figure of Hetarn, who smirked as she entered, not betraying a flicker of emotion beyond smugness.
In that split second of surprise, her only thought was, How did he capture the entire Academy?
