10: Dawning Alliance
by Chaoseternus

When Enerina is sent to investigate why every gate in an area of space will not establish a wormhole, she finds something totally unexpected...

Twenty-One

Maktenos stormed, annoyed and angry around the centre of his command ships bridge, a new and very formidable Rel'tec upgrade called the Manifest Destiny He, to put it mildly, wasn't in a good mood and the only ideas that seemed to help involved things he would much rather not do.

It didn't help his ease of mind that even his host, the Tau'ri Colonel Pierce really didn't like the situation. Pierce wanted Anubis to win about as much as Maktenos did, and Pierce had made it clear that whilst he would much rather Earth remained free, given the choice between Anubis and Maktenos, it was Mak all the way. Maktenos at least tended to look after his people.

But Anubis was back in the fight, throwing Maktenos's forces violently from every planet he had managed to capture of Anubis's old domain and looked strong enough to shoulder his way straight through Maktenos to Earth. It was a bad situation. Whilst those annoying powerful and stealthy Shadow warships were few in comparison to the ships of his Drakh servants, they had proved themselves extremely capable and the Drakh weren't exactly walkovers either.

It helped that the Loyalists, victims of incompetent leadership, frankly stupid demands on Anubis's part and a heavy campaign by the Secessionists were pretty much history now, but it was little comfort.

Maktenos knew he could turn the tide but only if he moved soon. Trouble was, he needed more ships then he had available to do so, and that meant doing something he had thought he would never had to do.

Pierces voice quickly reminded him that the ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend' and Maktenos grunted. He didn't want to do this, he really didn't. But he would, because it would allow him to release the ships and resources he needed and he knew they would keep their side of the bargain, as long as he stood a chance against Anubis.

Groaning, O'Neill cursed as he reached for his trousers, the sound of a system-wide alert ringing in his ears. Again? For heavens sake's, they had just kicked the Aschen out not a day before and now they were back again?

Damnit, he hoped they were just here to offer a full and unconditional, he didn't think he could deal with another war right now. He doubted they were though.

The intercom bleeped, and O'Neill slapped it, as he reached over for his uniform shirt.

“"Sir? We have Maktenos in system, he is requesting permission to speak to you”"

The voice was startled, a little flushed but O'Neill didn't notice, he had stopped mid-motion, his arms halfway into the sleeves of his shirt.

“"Could you repeat that?”" He finally, managed to get out, not quite believing what he was hearing.

“"Sir, Maktenos is insystem in an upgraded Rel'tec, his shields are up but weapons do not appear to be armed, and he is requesting permission to speak to you”"

O'Neill thought about this for a second, then replied, "“could you do me a small favour?”"

“"Sir?”"

“"Check the temperature in hell for me, ‘cos it has to have just frozen over”"

“"Aye Sir"” the voice came back, its tone indicating complete agreement.

xxx

“"So, Makky, what you doing here?”"

Maktenos ignored this, he knew of O'Neills attitude, it was best for his needs if he shrugged it off this time.

“"We have a mutual enemy who is becoming somewhat of a problem”"

Maktenos watched as O'Neill raised one eyebrow, a calculating look flickering momentarily across his face.

“"Anubis?”"

“""And his allies"” Maktenos confirmed, nodding slightly as the wary and almost shocked expression that O'Neill was trying to hide. Good boy, he had figured it out, even if he didn't really want to believe. But then, they had approached system lords for Alliances before, they had not been approached... well, not that he knew of anyway.

“"They are a problem we have it common, are they not?”" He waited for O'Neill's cautious nod, and then continued, “"Then, I believe we should discuss the possibility of an Alliance