Author Note:

Key to speech:
Barbara speaking
Goa'uld speaking in their language

"Everybody speaks the Common language."

I believe that Barbara's long enough at the base so that even Jack could manage to pick up a few common words: hello, how are you, etc.

"Hi guys," a cheerful voice filled the negotiations room.

The System Lords froze in surprise. A girl, human-like, dressed in similar drabs to what this Tau'ri were wearing has appeared in a flash of white light, characteristic of the Asgardian technology. Yet the girl didn't look anything like the Asgardians they were used to deal with. She stood as tall as her height gave her between the Asgardian and the Tauri representatives, both her hands resting on the back of chairs she stood in-between.

"Who? Wha…?" Nirrti could not even form her surprise as the girl had appeared.

"What is the meaning of this?" Cronus was quick to start demanding questions, his eyes flashing the white color when the Goa'uld got highly emotional. The Goa'uld System Lord spread both his hands on the table and leaned himself on them as he stood up from his seat.

And Yu just leaned back in his chair, looking over the chaos that broke over the table with narrowed eyes, and stroking his beard in a very villain-like manner. He was missing just a cat on his lap for the full image.

O'Neill groaned and let his head thump on his hands on the table. He was quietly cursing all the gods that had decided to listen in and grant his wish for something to happen to break up the Goa'ulds' rant before. As no one was making any additional movements and steps after he had finished dissing out the deities O'Neill decided to make his move.

"System Lord Cronus, System Lord Yu, System Lord Nirrti, allow me to introduce. This is Barbara," O'Neill tried to regain some semblance of order of the negotiations. "Barbara, these are the system Lords Cronus, Yu, and Nirrti."

"Who is exactly Barbara?" Yu asked, his hand freezing on the tip of his beard.

"Barbara is a member of a society that is allied to the Asgard. I was tasked with helping her to acclimatize to current political events in the universe," replied Thor, inclining his head.

"Smooth," coughed Barbara into her elbow

"I will also be acting as a translator for her."

"There was no talk about a sixth member to these negotiations," responded Yu, before Cronus exploded in a storm of Goa'uld. Nirrti responded in kind. Yu seemed the most levelheaded of the System Lords present, as he didn't have the need to show his mastery of the ancient Goa'uld curses.

"There was also previously no talk about Nirrti's foray with phase shifting and a plan to orchestrate a situation for Cronus to die on the Earth," Barbara leaned on Thor's chair. She buffed her nails on her shoulder before crossing her hands on the chest and looking straight at Yu. As everyone faced her and realizing that the Asgardian didn't translate what she just said Barbara poked Thor, who then quickly translated what she had said. The girl then continued. "But here we are."

The Goa'uld System Lords were deep in discussion.

"Nirrti, is that true? Were you planning to kill me?" growled Cronus, his arms resting calmly on the armrests of his chair. If one looked closely, one would then notice a small pulsing vein on his temple and the changed color of his knuckles. The snake was Angry.

Before the female-presenting Goa'uld could respond Yu interrupted her. "You cannot not respond to that, Nirrti. First, you don't share the technology with the rest of the System Lords, and then you plan to attack Cronus and defile our meeting with Asgard"

"Not true!" the female Goa'uld jumped from her seat

"You were the one who opposed this treaty. You have long coveted Cronus' territory."

"You, filthy betrayer!" roared Cronus, the seat ominously creaked under his hands.

"Obviously this girl is lying!" Nirrti tried to defend herself, but the initiative in this scenario was already lost for her. She will be stuck, following whatever Yu and Cronus had decided.

"She is not," commented Yu, the Goa'uld not stopping his ministrations on the beard the whole time. "This does not mean we cannot try and gain something from this situation."

"The girl obviously knows something… How badly are we against the Tauri having the Chapa'ai?" Cronus quickly caught on to what Yu was not saying and had joined in spinning the situation in their favor.

"Very!"

"Bah! Just show them no mercy when you catch them," Yu waved his free hand, dismissing Nirrti's exclaim. Her opinion was important no more. "They will be crawling through the Chapa'ai at every opportunity they will get."

"So, it is decided."

"Are we allowed to talk while they discuss whatever it is they discuss?" Barbara tried to lean subtly towards Thor, but it was very noticeable from the side. The Asgardian didn't reply for some time, observing the arguing Goa'ulds on the other side of the table.

"We might as well," confirmed Thor.

"Good," the girl flashed a quick smile towards the alien before turning towards the Colonel. "It's good to see you, Jack!"

"Barbie!" the girl made a face at the name. "Glad to have you back! How did Thor treat you?"

Barbara opened her mouth to explain how exactly it was, but a moment later she shrugged her shoulders before signing with her hands a 'so-so'. She then winked and jutted her chin forward, prompting O'Neill to tell her more of events that had happened at the base. The man looked her in the eyes.

"It was good that you were not present at the base as Maybourne tried his luck again. He was very close. Too close."

Barbara swore.

"Language, Barbara," Thor who was shamelessly listening in smacked Barbara up her head when he had heard the language she had used. The girl turned to look wide-eyed at the alien. He had never done anything like this in the TV series. Yes, it is important to note that he was never shown interacting with anyone her age, but still. As Thor was portrayed, she would have never expected him to behave in such a way!

"Okay," she murmured rubbing the sore spot. "Okay. Maybourne is very target-oriented…"

"That's one way to put it," agreed with her the colonel. His eyes were wrinkling at the corners as the man tried to smother the smile that was constantly trying to show itself on his face. A corner of his mouth kept going up. Barbara growled at his amusement.

"Sam? Daniel? Teal'c?" at the last name Barbara lowered her voice even more so that there was less chance for the Goa'uld to hear her. O'Neill looked for a bit at the girl before responding to her.

"They are okay, as much as they can be with this going on," Barbara nodded in understanding, a heavy sigh leaving her. She smiled at the colonel before turning to look back at the System Lords.

And it was not a moment too soon.

"No!"

The exclamation rang through the room, weighing heavily on Barbara's shoulders. O'Neill was standing at his place, leaning on his hands splayed on the top of the table. The word kept ringing in her head even though O'Neill was continuing to talk.

His exclamation meant that she didn't mishear what the Goa'uld had requested for allowing the Earth to keep its Stargates.

She kept staring at Cronus, who had just laid out the conditions.

It was hard to breathe.

Oh man, this is how I die. If not on the table under Maybourne's scalpel, then it is under the control of the snake. I really hope I am just pessimistic…

She could not breathe.

A sharp pain took off a bit of the edge. She had managed to pierce her palms with her fingernails. But it was not enough. It just barely took off the edge.

"Absolutely not! You will not be taking Barbara! She is not a toy for you! She is not for us to be trading her! She is a person!"

"Well, I guess you don't really want to keep the Chapa'ai," Cronus grinned at the colonel, his smile full of teeth and looking very feral. 'God of Fate' indeed.

"Barbara cannot be traded for allowing the Tauri the use of the Stargate as she is not from the Earth," Thor added into the conversation. He felt he needed to step in and prevent the situation that was becoming more and more possible. He quite liked Barbara.

"Then why is she wearing the Tauri military clothes?" Nirrti added her five pence into the conversation. She still didn't agree with Yu and Cronus, but she could see the pros of having the girl who seemed to know the information she was not supposed to know. Just thinking of all the possible information the girl could have could make the female Goa'uld salivate. She will be having her.

"It is not negotiable," patiently explained Yu. "Either you give us the girl and you can keep using the Chapa'ai. Or you refuse. And we will still have the girl. But you will not be keeping much of your planet."