The Defense

Jack leaned forward, finding himself unexpectedly eager to see Martouf. Ever since Martouf had died, the Tok'ra who had come after him had been ever increasingly formal and stiff and humorless, and never let their hosts talk. Plus there was Kanan --

He dropped the thought as Martouf gave him a friendly smile and nod, and then his smile widened at Janet. "Doctor Frasier. It's good to see you again."

Janet smiled back. "You too, Martouf. Thank you for coming. Could you explain what the Tok'ra are, please?"

"Certainly," he answered, with a challenging look at Anubis, who merely looked disgusted. Martouf said, "The Tok'ra are those who rebelled against the Goa'uld System Lords, seeking an end to their enslavement of the galaxy. The Tok'ra followed the beliefs of their queen, including that host and symbiote should live in harmony, and as equals."

Jack couldn't help a snort. Kanan sure hadn't believed in the equality bit.

Martouf added, with an expressive glance at Jack and apologetic face, "Sometimes that intent was not followed, either through desperation or madness, but it was in the main what separated the Tok'ra from the Goa'uld. The Goa'uld sought domination and power; the Tok'ra did not."

Janet asked, "So just to confirm, the Tok'ra are Goa'uld?"

Martouf shifted uncomfortably, but admitted, "Biologically, yes, the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld are identical. Except for a bare handful of converts, the Tok'ra are descended from Egeria, who was herself a system lord before her beliefs changed, some two thousand years ago."

"And during your time as host to the Tok'ra Lantash, you knew General O'Neill?" Janet asked.

That made Jack frown a little, since her question meant that Lantash wasn't with Martouf anymore. Just like Selmak wasn't with Jacob anymore, apparently. Was that by choice or not?

Martouf's blue eyes clouded with some dark emotion, before he pushed it aside, straightening to answer. "We worked together on several occasions," Martouf answered. "He was always friendly to us."

"To you in particular, or the Tok'ra in general?" Janet asked.

"In general," Martouf answered, with a bit of a wry lift of his lips at Jack. "He was often impatient with our ways, I have to admit, but that never prevented him from working with us or assisting us when we needed it."

Jack smiled back at him, in thanks. He had a warm feeling inside from what Martouf had said. It really had been friendly, hadn't it? Man, he missed that.

Janet kept going. "He worked with other Tok'ra?"

"Yes, many of us. Jacob Carter, host to Selmak, most of all." The two Tok'ra finally looked at each other, in complete shared understanding of something and looked away.

"And I know it's ridiculous, but then this whole thing is ridiculous," Janet added as an irritated aside. "So I have to ask, even though the Tok'ra are Goa'uld, General O'Neill never tried to kill one, is that correct?"

Martouf inclined his head once. "It is."

"Thank you, Martouf. Your witness," Janet told Anubis and returned to her chair. Charlie leaned across and very quietly, high-fived her.

Anubis stood. Despite his bulk, he moved gracefully, though that was probably thanks to incorporeality. Jack sneered inwardly -- the big, nasty snake apparently thought of himself as a human. Though why he picked that particular human form was beyond Jack's understanding. Maybe the Others chose it for him?

But all thoughts of Anubis' unimposing human form flew right out of his head when Anubis approached Martouf and asked bluntly, "How did you die?"

Martouf's eyes flared wide and he pushed back in his seat. He took a moment to compose himself before answering in a voice that was not quite as level as he wanted it to be, "Lantash and I had been captured by Apophis. We were made za'tarcs, with a hidden programmed mission to assassinate the Tau'ri president. We did not know of this program. Technology you created I believe," Martouf snapped at Anubis. "Apophis merely discovered and usurped it. The Tok'ra located and destroyed the machine not long after my death."

Anubis ignored the comments and just repeated the question, "How did you die?"

Martouf's gaze dropped to his hands. "Samantha had to shoot us."

Anubis couldn't keep the gleam of triumph from his eyes. "So, in other words, O'Neill's subordinate killed you?"

"She had no choice!" Martouf protested angrily.

"Didn't she?" Anubis purred and Martouf said nothing. Anubis paced away, directing his comment more at the jury, "You had been shot and surrounded by security personnel. Teal'c had already fired the zat'nik'tel once. She saw that. So why did she use the zat'nik'tel again, knowing a second shot would kill?"

Martouf's hands were clenched white on the top of the wooden wall in front of him. "Because I was still armed and I couldn't control myself," Martouf answered, a thread of anguish in his voice. "She did what she had to do to protect the others. I don't blame her. I've never blamed her for what happened."

Anubis seemed to be waiting for something for a drawn-out moment and then raised his brows, "Hm, I suppose you must believe that. I expected the Others to intervene as I sense a definite lie. But whether you blame her is irrelevant -- the point is that, despite the alliance between you, a subordinate of O'Neill's once again killed a Goa'uld. Tell me, Martouf, how many Tok'ra died in the years between Egeria's loss and your meeting with the Tau'ri?"

Martouf bit his lip and looked mulish. "Some," he answered reluctantly, as though the words were pulled from him with pliers.

Anubis asked, "And how many after you met the Tau'ri?"

"More," he answered.

"Many more?" Anubis smiled just a little, his cold eyes glittering. "In fact, so many that several of the Tok'ra declared that being allies with the Tau'ri was turning out to be more dangerous than their insignificant rebellion against the Goa'uld?"

Martouf glared hatefully at him and said nothing, but Anubis didn't press him, knowing when he had won. The Goa'uld looked to Judge Jack, "Nothing further."

Janet stood up, without moving away from the table. "Just one question, Martouf. Did Lantash die when Sam shot you?"

He lifted his chin. "He did not. He survived for some time and took a new host. Samantha didn't kill Lantash."

"Thank you." Janet sat back down, confident that she had turned Anubis' questions against him.

But Anubis wasn't finished yet. "So how did Lantash die, Martouf?"

"In the attack by Zipacna," Martouf answered shortly.

Anubis was like a shark sensing blood in the water. "I think you know more than that. Please, do elaborate."

Martouf clenched his jaw and looked resistant. But he knew, as well as Jack did, where this road was going. "He was dying anyway. So he activated the poison that killed symbiotes, and he died. He sacrificed himself so that Samantha, O'Neill, Selmak and Daniel could escape from the Goa'uld who'd attacked us."

"Very noble, I'm sure," Anubis scoffed. "Yet Zipacna also died. Three of his Goa'uld underlings, died. And over two thousand larval Goa'uld and their Jaffa died on Revanna as well from the poison -- isn't that true?" He didn't wait for Martouf to answer. "One more question, do you know a Tok'ra named Zarin?"

Martouf pressed his lips together and practically spat the words. "Yes. Of course."

"How did she die?"

"From the Goa'uld poison," Martouf answered.

"From poison-tipped missiles sent by the Tau'ri to twelve different Goa'uld worlds, in fact, right? So then it isn't true that O'Neill has never killed Tok'ra, is it?"

"O'Neill didn't kill Zarin! He had nothing to do with it!" Martouf protested.

"He let the perpetrators escape, didn't he? If he was so angry at what they'd done, surely he would have attempted to stop them?" Anubis challenged with poisoned sweetness. Martouf was too furious to speak for a moment, and Anubis looked up at the other Jack. "We're finished here."

Janet stiffened, as though she wanted to say something, but in the end she just shook her head at the judge's inquiring look.

Martouf disappeared.

The Robot Jack frowned at Anubis and then at the defense table. Jack was willing to bet his thoughts mirrored his own. Things weren't going so well for him. All of the humanoid faces in the jury, except Omoc, weren't looking at him any more. "Your next witness?"

"Do we get recess?" Jack whispered urgently. "We gotta talk. Now."

Charlie nodded and stood up, "The defense requests a short recess, iuda."

"Granted," Judge Jack said quickly and vanished in a burst of light, everyone else followed him out, leaving the three alone.

Or as alone as they were gonna get, since Jack was sure there was no shortage of Ascended people listening in. But there was nothing he could do about that, so he got to his feet and moved to the other side of the desk. He tapped his hands on the top of the table and regarded Janet and Charlie. "We're not doing so hot."

Janet grimaced. "I know. I'm sorry. I should've realized he was going to turn Martouf's death against us. I should've brought it out earlier."

He freed a hand to gesture it away. "No, I'm not blaming you, Janet. You guys are doing your best, but the fact is, it's not like I went out of my way not to kill Goa'uld. I just quibble with calling it wrong. So what we need to do is get out the point that everything I was doing and that Teal'c, and Carter, and Daniel did too, was in defense of Earth. Or heck, in defense of all humans through the galaxy. We were justified."

"We were planning to put you on next," Charlie said. "You're the only one who can explain why you did things."

Janet frowned and shook her head once. "I just don't know that it's enough right now. What we really need is a Goa'uld witness, who can testify to an act of compassion."

Charlie snorted skeptically. "Yeah, like who?"

"I don't know," she snapped back defensively. "What about Apophis?" she suggested after a moment. "We did give him sanctuary that one time."

"He died, Janet," Charlie reminded her. "And then Hammond shipped him back to Sokar to get revived and tortured some more. Apophis isn't going to say anything nice about Jack."

"Nope," Jack agreed, but paying only half his attention. Because there had been one occasion… He put his hands down flat on the table, leaning forward. "Cronus. He's our witness."

Janet and Charlie both stared at him. Jack had to chuckle at the fish-eyed looks. He started to tick off the good points with his fingers. "We saved him from Nurrti. And since I still think she was working for Heru'ur at the time, we probably also saved his territory for him. He was also one of the lords who kicked Anubis' ass originally, so there's no love lost there."

"Teal'c killed him," Charlie said, still obviously flummoxed by this whole idea. "You don't think that might make him a bit pissed at you?"

Jack shrugged. "He was torturing Teal'c at the time. Besides, it was a Jaffa revenge thing. Cronus knew it might happen from when Teal'c got in his face during the treaty negotiations." His look was wry as he asked, "C'mon, Charlie. At this point, we need all the help we can get. Even from a Goa'uld."

"Are you sure?" Janet asked doubtfully. He nodded, pretending he was really more sure about this than he was. She went over to where Jacob had been standing and she disappeared as well.

Wasn't this the sort of thing he would mock in someone else? Getting help from a Goa'uld -- like that was ever a good idea.

"It'll be okay, Jack," Charlie murmured and put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

"You know that now that you've gone glowy, or are you just guessing, Kawalsky?" he asked, amused and comforted in spite of himself.

"Guessing," Charlie answered promptly, and Jack had to chuckle.

"Thanks for nothing then, old buddy."

Janet returned then, with Jacob. The older general came over to the table, shaking his head at Jack. "You do like to play with fire, don't you, Jack?"

"Well, if the candle goes out, then there's not going to be supper is there?" he retorted, and when the three of them first looked at each other and then to him with identical 'huh?' faces, he shrugged, "What? I'm sure Daniel said Oma said something like that."

"Whatever you say, Jack," Jacob said, rolling his eyes and stepping back to his place by the wall.

The jury and Anubis returned, followed closely by the Other Jack, who asked. "Is the defense ready to proceed?"

Charlie remained standing. "We are. The defense calls the Goa'uld System Lord Cronus."

Several members of the jury murmured at that, which pleased Jack to no end. Just the mere chutzpah of calling a Goa'uld as a witness had already won him some points.

Cronus appeared in the witness box. He looked the same as the last time Jack had seen him, more or less, the quasi-Greek clothes in white and silver -- they were rather tasteful as Goa'uld clothes went -- and the shoulder-length hair framing a broad, but angular face that looked arrogant without trying. His presence filled the witness box, in a way that neither Ra nor Martouf had.

He narrowed his eyes and sneered when he saw Anubis, and his expression actually became less scornful when he saw the Tau'ri. He leaned back a bit in his chair, very much a lord, and folded his hands together.

Charlie bowed his head very politely. "Thank you for attending, Lord Cronus. We have only a few questions for you."

"As many as you wish, Tau'ri."

"Yes, well," Charlie cleared his throat. "Would you please describe what happened from your perspective when you joined Nurrti and Lord Yu on Earth to negotiate Earth's joining the Asgard Protected Planets Treaty?"

"The humans, including O'Neill, were rude and ignorant," Cronus answered. Jack inwardly winced. This wasn't a good start. "I was not impressed with either their manners or their technology, but it was not surprising after millennia of abandonment by the Goa'uld. I believed the Tau'ri should remain on their planet and not trouble the rest of the galaxy. When I was attacked and nearly killed, I believed they were at fault."

"And were they?" Charlie asked.

Jack tensed, wondering how Cronus would answer. But he was honest and straight-forward, answering, "No, they were not. Nurrti had attempted my death. When the Tau'ri then asked her to use the healing device, she pretended to do so and was prepared to let me die."

"Is that how you died?" Charlie asked.

"No. Samantha Carter used the healing device adequately to save my life."

Jack leaned back and silently let out the breath he'd been holding. That was the important part, and Cronus had just said it plainly, without trying to twist it against Jack or the SGC as Jack had feared.

Charlie went on, clearly learning from Janet's earlier mistake with Martouf, "So after Sam Carter saved your life at the SGC -- with Jack O'Neill's authorization I should add -- how did you die?"

Cronus turned his head to narrow his eyes at Judge Jack, who just smiled. "The iuda's own companion, the android version of the shol'va Teal'c, killed me with his staff weapon. I mistakenly had believed him to be already dead and turned my back to him."

Robot Judge muttered under his breath, but loud enough for everyone to hear, "Go, T."

"Do you know why the other Teal'c killed you?" Charlie asked.

Cronus faced him again, a cold smile on his face. "Because I had executed the real Teal'c's father for failing me, many years before and he wanted revenge. And because Teal'c was dying at my hands at the time," he added as an afterthought, and a look of vicious pleasure crossed his face at the memory. "It was the same way I had killed his father. Teal'c was surprised that I remembered."

Charlie took a step backward, as if the tame kitty had just become a lion, and Jack snorted to himself. There were no tame Goa'uld.

"Yes, well, thank you. Nothing further," Charlie came back to his chair next to Jack.

The two Goa'uld stared at each other, hostile gazes practically striking sparks. Their mutual hatred was much stronger than it'd been between Anubis and Ra. Cronus was clearly spitefully glad that he had screwed up Anubis' little project. "No questions," Anubis said, with a snarl.

Cronus' gloating face was there just a moment, and then he was gone.

Judge Jack rolled his eyes. "Okay, Kawalsky, Doc, what else you got?"

Jack felt his stomach knot. He knew what was going to happen next. He stood up, just as Charlie announced, "We call Jack O'Neill in his own defense."

Jack stood up, inhaling a deep breath to try to settle his insides. He walked across the front, opened the small wooden gate, and sat down in the chair inside the small box. The chair seemed very small and very hard. It was a chair to inspire brevity.

Frasier lowered her eyes for a moment, to gather her thoughts. She tapped her fingers against her skirt and lifted her head, with a gentle smile. But Jack wasn't fooled -- he saw the set look of her jaw and the fierce gleam in her eyes, and he knew that Fightin' Frasier was in the house. Nobody who'd seen her pull a gun on Nurrti would be surprised.

"I suppose we should start at the beginning," she said. "When you and Daniel Jackson went through the Stargate for the first time and ended up on Abydos, were you planning to kill Ra or any other Goa'uld?"

"Of course not," Jack answered. "We didn't even know there was such a thing. They'd all been gone from Earth so long they were just characters in stories to us. Nobody thought it was real. Hell, we didn't even know what the gate did or what we would find or where we were going."

"So why did you go through the gate?" Janet asked, looking genuinely curious.

"To evaluate if there was a threat. And to explore, though that was really more Daniel's department than mine."

"Did you report to your superiors that there was a threat?"

"I did," he nodded. "But I also reported that the threat was gone. When Ra's ship blew up, that seemed like the end of it. Or so I thought. Even then, we had no idea that there were more Goa'uld out there. We didn't learn that for almost another year, when Apophis himself came waltzing through our Stargate and kidnapped one of my sergeants. Apophis killed her," he added before Janet could ask anything more, since he really wanted to get that part in.

He frowned thoughtfully. "Actually, if Apophis hadn't come then, we very well might have not gone through the gate again. It hadn't been used since our first trip to Abydos and it was due to be put into secure storage. But Apophis showed up and we suddenly realized there was a whole lot more danger in the big 'ol galaxy than we thought."

"When did you learn of the other Goa'uld, besides Apophis?"

"We first heard about them from Teal'c, after he joined us. But the first one we encountered besides Apophis was … " he ran through the early missions in his mind, hardly able to believe now that they'd been so lucky as not trip over some other active Goa'uld's territory in those fragile early years, "um, Hathor, actually. Some idiot archaeologist had released her from her sarcophagus prison on Earth and she came looking for the gate. She got away, that time. The next one was Heru'ur when he went and attacked some friends of ours and we went to help."

"But mostly you and General Hammond thought the main threat was Apophis?"

"Right. He was the one who attacked us with a fleet of motherships. We kicked his ass though," he added with a smirk. Yes, good times.

"Did you personally believe that all Goa'uld were Earth's enemy?" Janet asked.

"Well…" he paused, trying to frame the right words. "I suppose intellectually, yes. Teal'c had told us about all the various evils these Goa'uld had done, and we'd seen the aftermath ourselves -- the slavery, the poverty, that the Goa'uld force their slaves to live in. I mean, here's a fantastically advanced race, able to fly in spaceships across the galaxy, and they force their slaves to mine naquadah with hammer and chisel," he gestured emphatically, miming the slaves chipping ore loose from rocks. "That's oppression. It would've been a good thing to free everyone from their tyranny, from a moral standpoint. But neither me nor General Hammond when he was in charge at the SGC, thought it was our mission to go after all the Goa'uld. We just wanted to keep our world safe."

Janet had been about to speak, but checked her words, thinking. "What about other authorities on Earth? Were they in agreement with you and General Hammond?"

At first he frowned, wondering what she was getting at, because of course the president had been in agreement or they wouldn't have done it. But then, to his left, the other Jack pretended to sneeze, muttering, "Kinsey."

Oh. Right.

"Not all of them," Jack answered. "There were always elements within our upper leadership who wanted stronger defenses and a more aggressive policy against the Goa'uld. These were the people who sent secret teams out to steal technology from more advanced races like the Asgard. Remnants of that group were the ones who stole the stockpiled poison gas and began targeting all the Goa'uld, regardless of whether there were Jaffa there or not. Or even whether they were targeting Goa'uld at all. They were the ones who killed the Tok'ra Zarin."

"Did you condone their actions?" Janet asked.

"No. I was sorry I couldn't go after them, but I had people in trouble and I had to get them home first. I wasn't all broken up about the Goa'uld who got killed," he admitted with a shrug. "But the Trust's complete disregard for whether they were hitting friends or enemies -- not to mention operating completely outside any authority or oversight, and kidnapping my people -- made me stop them. And we did stop them eventually."

He faced the jury and pointed to Anubis, "Whatever that guy's trying to make you think, wholesale slaughter isn't what I'm about. That's his thing -- he's the one who tried to get the Ancients device on Dakara to wipe out all life in the galaxy. All life in the galaxy," he repeated, trying to make sure they got it, paying special attention to the aliens. "Humans, Goa'uld, Jaffa, Reetou, other races, animals, birds... everything."

Then just because it had pissed him off for a long time, and it seemed like it was his chance, he cast his eyes up to the ceiling, "I'd just like to add that if you people were gonna Ascend and all that, fine, but you should've cleaned up all the crap you left behind first! I've had my brain sucked twice, gotten stuck in a damn time loop for three months, and nearly had the entire galaxy scoured clean because of you didn't pick up your toys."

When he looked back down, Janet was grinning and shaking her head at him. It took her a moment to focus again and grow serious. "Tell me, General, what is your opinion of the Goa'uld today?"

"Today? Hmm…" Though tempted to give a flippant answer, he suppressed his first response to think about it. What did he think of the Goa'uld right now?

"Defeated," he said finally with relish. "They're not all gone, but they're no threat to us anymore. Their power's broken, and their Jaffa are now free to screw up their lives all on their own. The Goa'uld did it to themselves, through their arrogance, and cruelty and stupidity."

He straightened in his chair, letting the simmering annoyance bubble over. He'd played along for long enough. "Let's get to the real point here. You," he pointed at Anubis, "and your lackey Baal killed more Goa'uld in your rise to power than me and mine did. So where's your trial thing? Where do I sign up to give you one?"

"Jack --" the other Jack remonstrated, but not as if he meant it, so Jack ignored him, folding his arms and wishing there were some Others visible so he could glare at them, settling for Anubis himself.

"I'm serious. This is stupid. We were just defending ourselves; you were wiping out the competition. Why are you over there and I'm here? Why do you get to keep playing games with mortals, even when you're supposed to be Ascended and beyond all this pettiness?"

This time it was Jacob who spoke his name, "Jack --" The warning tone got to him, and he glanced at the former Tok'ra and saw him looking worried. Jacob shook his head emphatically in the "don't go there" gesture.

Reminded that Jacob had said that Jack's trouble was Jacob's trouble, Jack bit his lip on the rest of what he wanted to say, and finished grumpily. "Well, it's the truth."

Janet nodded and reached forward to touch the front of the witness box once before returning to her chair. "Your witness, Anubis."

Anubis stood up. "You have hostile feelings for the Others?"

"Only for their hypocrisy for not taking care of you," he retorted. "Letting you run amuck. Whatever happened to non-interference?"

Anubis smiled and walked closer to Jack, who wanted to lean away from him, but stubbornly refused. "I happen to agree with you, does that surprise you? They are hypocrites, all of them. I've always used that to my advantage. But I am not the issue here, O'Neill, you are. And you do not lack for hypocrisy yourself."

Jack waited and then said, brows up in mock puzzlement, "Was there a question in there? Sorry, I missed it."

Anubis narrowed his eyes at the insolence and Jack looked back full of innocent helpfulness. "You claim that you attacked the Goa'uld out of self-defense, and yet how many times did you lead or send others out through the Stargate, after you had been warned by our friend Cronus that entering Goa'uld space would be provocative and make the Goa'uld view you as an enemy? Did you in fact not bring the enmity of the Goa'uld upon yourselves?"

Jack wasn't buying into that crap, not for a second. "Apophis started it," Jack snapped. "He invaded us first. He kidnapped and murdered one of my people, and barely six months later attacked us from space. If anyone was being "provocative", he was. We went through the gate after that to look for allies and technology to defend ourselves. When we found some -- as you might remember -- " he smirked at Anubis, even though his own memories of the battle over Antarctica were rather hazy, "we did protect the planet from your fleet, when you attacked us last year."

Anubis' eyes darkened ominously. "Yes, more technology that you primitive Tau'ri use without understanding. Truly, O'Neill, how has your race survived in this galaxy being so reckless and foolish?"

Jack leaned back and folded his arms. "Reckless, maybe. We went through the Stargate without much clue of what we were getting ourselves into, that's true. But not foolish. It's not foolish to watch out for your friends, or want the rest of humanity freed from evil overlords. And so maybe we went out there without much more than a moral high horse and guts, but you know what? We did it. The galaxy is a far safer and freer place now."

"So you're not sorry about killing so many of the Goa'uld?" Anubis asked, leaning close eagerly like a vulture spying a dying buffalo.

Jack was sorry for a lot of things he'd done in his career. In his life. But that wasn't one of them. There was no point in pretending otherwise. "No. I'm sorry the Goa'uld were arrogant, power-hungry weasels out to conquer the galaxy. But I'm not sorry they lost. I did what I had to do, and I'd do it again."

Anubis smiled one last time, the affable mask on his face again. "Thank you, O'Neill. Nothing further," he addressed Robot Jack.

"Redirect, Doctor?" Judge Jack asked and she shook her head. "Back to your chair, then," Judge Jack motioned Jack to get up and go back to the defense table. When Jack was snug between Janet and Charlie, his robot double lifted his eyebrows in inquiry at Janet, who said they had no more witnesses.

Robot Jack then addressed the jury. "You've heard the questions and the answers. I'm sure you've got some opinions. But remember, the only thing you have to decide is whether Jack O'Neill of the Tau'ri is guilty or whether he is worthy enough to be allowed to choose his fate." He added with a half- crooked, wry smile, "in other words, is his hatred for the Goa'uld stronger than his good qualities? You decide. Choose wisely, choose well."

He snapped his fingers and the jury disappeared. The robot clone followed in a flash of bright light, and then Anubis.

Next: The Decision