Chapter 6: Double Purpose

High in orbit above the planet that housed Alterus, there was a small disturbance on the view of stars as a number of rather decrepit looking Al-kesh lept out of hyperspace windows. These few ships were a large portion of the remnants of the once impressive fleet sitll under the control of the System Lord Ba'al. After detecting an Ancient signal of some kind - at a guess, a kind of distress signal - the the vague possiblity of finding an Ancient base or, just as good, a warship, had been enough to lure him to this world.

He gazed out the minute "bridge" of the Al-kesh, trying his best to ignore his rather pathetic fleet. He was well aware that this ships weren't even close to a match for even the weakest battleship the Tau'ri could sent at him, let alone an Ori ship. However, an opportunity like this was really too good to miss. He turned in his seat to look at the other two crew members in the ship with him. "So... where's the signal coming from?"

The Ba'al clone seated at a panel which in part dealt with this replied, almost before he had asked, that the signal was coming from the currently shadowed side of the planet, from a distance of several thousand metres under the surface.

With the loss of the Jaffa, Ba'al had recovered quickly, finding that clones and Kull warriors were much more efficient - the clones always seemed to know what he wanted, for obvious reasons (they actually had brains, and a little independance). Besides, Ba'al suspected that a number of the System Lords had not only acted as gods but also believed that they were (Apophis and Socar to name a few), leading to their surprising (in his opinion) destruction by the Tau'ri when the Jaffa rebelled. No, he had never believed himself to be a god, it was merely useful for others to think so. However, he was the last System Lord. Anyway, regardless of what he found at the other end of this signal,his being here served a double purpose...

"Send the location out to the other six ships," he orderd, "and tell them to - ah - keep a eye open for trouble."

His clone was already finishing off the communications. Ba'al smiled slightly and then accellerated his Al/kesh to the lead, inthe general direction from which the signal hwas coming, the other six ships falling into formation behind his. As though to punctuate his command, the small toy dog blanced on a consol bobbed its head in time to the vibrations running through the hull. (Ba'al had long ago found that Tau'ri rubbish like this was amusing.)

As they approached, the planet showed itself to be a lifeless hunk of rock, patches of ice gleaming in the glancing light of its far too distant sun. Directly above where the signal was coming from his and another of the ships began a descent down tot he planet's survface. "We are at a height of 500 metres now," commented Ba'al in his drawling voice.

"Proceeding with scans," replied his own voice, from the clone right behind him.

The signal turned out to be coming from deeper than they had first believed (these blasted Ancient signals, thought Ba'al, they're too strong for their own good), at a depth of around 3500 metres, or so. Various Ba'als throughout the two ships glared impatiantly at the incoming telemetary, waiting for the completion of the scans. When they were finally done, Ba'al tipped his head slightly to one side as thought trying to get a slightly better view of what he was already seeing more than clearly enough. "Well, well", he murmured quietly, "how very interesting."

The scans had uncovered, more than perfectly enough, the hexapod outline of a city of the Ancients. Architecturally imaginative, they were not. "Well, boys," he called out over the intercom, "Just as well we got here first, after all." He leant back in his chair. The dog looked at him, rather dolefully, he supposed... His eyes glowed momentarily. Ba'al's that is. The dog didn't have that much animation. He glanced at it, then finished, "We have work to do."

Ba'al waited, and watched as a third Al-kesh swooped down from orbit, and ringed down laser drilling equipment, four Kull warriors, and one of this clones to keep an eye on them - while they might be oblivious to the weather, and good for moving the heavy gear, the warriors weren't exactly the brightest creatures in the galaxy. Ba'al twiddled a dial to zoom in on the scene, and as if to prove his point he saw his clone waving its hands around wildly as the Kull warriors attemped to assemble the drill mechanism upside down. Idiots. Ba'al smiled smugly to himself - with his clones on the field someone else at least as, or almost as, smart as himself could put up with all that rather than himself having to do it...

The scans had detectd several spots they could ring down to - he'd chosen one in the central tower - and the cutter was being set up so that when it had bored down into the city he would be able to ring men straight down into the centre and eventually, when it suited him, turn the beacon off. But, it didn't suit him right now. Anyway...

The voice to his left broke in on his thoughts. That clone had run a finer scan, to detect life signatures, and he was being handed the results. Ba'al frowned slightly when he had taken in what he was seeing, not quite believing his eyes. In total, he could see eight clear green dots - representing humans (which was difficult in itself to believe) - and to top it off, a swarm of countless thousands of even lesser lifeforms of some kind, represented by a muddy brown-red dot each, merging together on the printout. Personally, Ba'al had always found humans to be lesser lifeforms, but the screen registered them as being more advanced - but what could you do? The plans for his "top of the range" scanners had after all been Asgard tech originally, and then modifed for the Tau'ri's X-304 program.

He shook his head. "Well, well, we didn't get here first, after all. Can we establish a trasmission to the city?"

"I don't like our chances," said the clone to his right, "but I'll give it a go anyway..."

The viewscreen in front of him turned opaque, blotting out the stars, and then turned to statci, like a badly tuned TV - something that Ba'al had never had time for - but it suddenly cleared as someone at the other end accepted the transmission. Oh, he had to laugh - what other choice did he have? - as the face of Colonel Carter looked back at him. "Ah, SG-1," he muttered loudly, "My favourite band of ever maurauding Tau'ri." He paused and smiled again, "Blown up any suns recently?"

"I try not the make a habit of it," she replied. It had only taken her a second to get over the shock and surprise of seeing him.

"What, no words of welcome for an old enemy?" he asked.

"Hey, Ba'aly-boy, how's it goin'?" Suddenly Mitchell's head had found its way onto the screen. "Look, I hate to spoil the greetings and all that, but now it's the time for tea and cookies, okay? We've kind of got a bug problem down here, nothing out of the ordinary, but unless you want to help..."

Ba'al cut him off, impatiently, "So I've already seen. And yes, I will help. I admit, that you and your team's experience in Ancient technology vastly outstrips mine - especially your possession of the Ancient gene. I am prepared to send down some Kroyta gas weapons with which you can flood the city's systems. In fact, I will do this even without your aid, but if you help you may save the lives of your isolated friends in various sectors of the city, who I can see from the scanners are trapped in a most inconvenient manner." He paused, apparently for dramatic effect, smiled charmingly and continued, "So. What do you say?"

Mitchell stood there, thinking the offer over, while Carter started saying, "We'll work togeth-"

Ba'al cut her off. "Excellent. I shall be ready very soon." He halted the transmission.

He'd stopped because a blip onhis screens signalled the arrival of an Ori warship.