"General Landry," Teal'c said, standing just outside his office.
"Teal'c…come in," he said, emphasized by a wave of his hand.
The Jaffa walked in with his hands clasped behind his back and stood flush with the front of the General's desk.
"I respectfully request not to be included in SG-1's mission to Dakara."
Landry raised an eyebrow. "This have something to do with you and Bra'tac?"
"It does."
Landry sighed and leaned back in his chair. "What is it with the two of you anyway?"
"It is not something easily explained," Teal'c said monotone.
"Try me."
Teal'c nodded slowly. "Very well. Bra'tac believes he is ushering in a new era of respect, power, and freedom for all Jaffa. I believe he is a shol'va."
Landry seemed taken aback for a moment. "Harsh words…especially coming from you. I thought the two of you were close friends."
"We were…but Bra'tac is not the Jaffa he once was."
"Do you have any idea why he requested SG-1 come to Dakara?"
"I do not."
"Do you believe you will be a hindrance to the mission in some way?"
Teal'c hesitated. "No good will come from my presence there."
"I see," Landry said, considering. "Permission to stay behind, granted."
"Thank you, General," Teal'c said, nodding and walking around the corner of the General's desk.
"Hold up, Teal'c. If you won't be going to Dakara with SG-1, then I have another assignment for you."
Teal'c stood to. "Yes?"
"I'd like you to visit the offworld training center for a few days. Rough 'em up a bit in the simulations. Give the trainees a taste of real combat."
Teal'c nodded curtly. "It will be my pleasure, General Landry," he said with the barest hint of a smile.
Mitchell, Carter, Vala, and Hailey ringed up into the Dakara thrown room, escorted by a pair of Jaffa guards. The foursome glanced around the large chamber, noticing the raised seats at the far end with Bra'tac and company assembled. Cam led the way up the path on the floor with Sam a step behind off his right shoulder.
"Thank you for coming," Bra'tac offered as he stood up and walked down the tiered steps to meet them on an equal level.
"No problem," Cam commented. "Nice place you got here."
"Very impressive," Sam added.
Bra'tac nodded dismissively. He was obviously preoccupied. "Where is Teal'c?"
Mitchell half cringed. "Yeah, Teal'c is on another assignment at the moment."
Bra'tac stood impassive. "I see. I had wished to speak with him."
Vala shrugged innocently. "I think he's still a little mad at you," she said, drawing a glare from Mitchell.
Bra'tac nodded. "I got that sense from him the last time we spoke. I had hoped he'd taken a new perspective by now, but no matter. His presence at this time isn't necessary."
"What's going on, Bra'tac?" Carter asked.
"I wish this meeting were under better circumstances…I have asked you here to discuss a matter concerning the Tauri."
"Oh?" Cam asked.
Bra'tac hesitated again. "It has come to my attention that you have established a number of offworld bases."
Cam and Carter exchanged glances. "We've had several for some time," Sam admitted.
"But to our knowledge," Bra'tac countered, "you have never taken a world with an existing population on it."
"Well," Cam wavered, "there was one that had a bunch of Unas on it, but we eventually worked out an agreement with them to set up a mining operation."
"I was not aware of that," Bra'tac told him, "but I was actually referring to Human populations."
Cam frowned. "Carter?"
She shook her head. "All of our bases are on uninhabited worlds."
"I have been told," Bra'tac continued, "that your recently revised treaty with the Tok'ra expressly forbid either party to take control of planets with existing populations."
"Yes it does," Carter said, sensing a problem. "What are you getting at?"
Bra'tac sighed/growled. "We received intelligence from the Tok'ra that you were in violation of your treaty with them. I sent Raknor to investigate," he said, gesturing to the man seated behind them.
"What they said is true," Raknor confirmed. "I saw your people and equipment myself."
"What world was this?" Vala interrupted, sensing some hanky panky going on.
"Osser," Raknor said accusingly.
Cam and Carter exchanged looks again. "Never heard of it," he said.
"I have," Hailey said meekly from behind him.
Cam and Carter parted, looking back at her. "Where?" Sam asked.
"It's a world SG-16 explored four or five years ago. Medium sized population, decent climate, poor, no technology to speak of."
"Then you admit you've been there?" Raknor asked.
"Yeah…I guess so," Cam said. "We don't have a base there that I know of," he said, glancing back at Hailey. She shook her head 'no.'
"Perhaps this will help jog your memory," Raknor said, activating a holographic projector in the floor. It began going through a slide show of the stills he and the other Jaffa had taken during their reconnaissance mission.
"What the hell?" Sam whispered as a shot of a combine in a corn field appeared.
"I could swear those were pictures from back home," Cam said offhand.
"I can assure you," Raknor said, his voice teetering between friendly and hostile, "they are not."
SG-1 continued to watch the pictures, their confusion growing.
"That's Earth technology," Vala vouched.
"And you have no knowledge of this world?" Bra'tac asked.
"No," Carter said, still surprised at what they were being shown.
Bra'tac nodded, having searched their minds to see if they were lying or not. "I had thought not. I knew it was not something typical of your actions…but could it not be another faction of your people?"
"I don't see how," Carter testified. "They couldn't set up something like that without us knowing…unless they didn't use the stargate."
"Oh…I do not like where this is going, Sam" Mitchell said, glancing at the floor.
"We have recovered one of the natives from the planet," Bra'tac told them. "She told us many things…one of which was the fact that ships come and go from the planet on a daily basis."
"What kind of ships?" Hailey asked.
"Copies of Goa'uld cargo ships," Raknor said, stepping forward and altering the holographic display by way of a small handheld device. Photos of the grounded ships appeared.
"These were the ships we encountered on the surface. The Humans were loading grain onboard in large quantities…the one ship that we observed arriving carried Tauri-style crates," the Jaffa said, showing them another photo.
"What's that symbol?" Vala asked, pointing to the top of one sideways stacked crate.
Raknor enlarged the photo until the small symbol became easily visible.
"Good catch," Cam offered. "Anyone recognize it?"
"It's the I.O.A." Hailey said immediately.
Sam nodded. "She's right. I've seen it on some of their recent letterhead."
"Why haven't I seen it then?" Cam asked, not liking the implications of this.
"They have four different symbols," Hailey explained. "They use them almost at random. This one I haven't seen very often, but it is theirs. I guarantee it."
"What are they thinking setting up a base without telling the SGC?" Vala asked, not entirely surprised. "And where did they get those cargo ships? They're obviously a different variant from what the Goa'uld use, so they couldn't have stolen them."
"Maybe they built them," Hailey offered.
"Hold on a minute," Cam interrupted. "Let's go back to part about them shipping grain offworld."
"What kind of grain was it?" Sam asked, tracking Cam's thoughts.
"We never saw the contents," Raknor told them, "but there were a large number of corn fields on the planet. We guessed they were shipping grain back to Earth to help offset the damage done to your world by the Aschen bioweapon."
"We took a hit," Sam admitted, "and some of the countries involved still haven't fully recovered, but a few cargo ships of grain a day would hardly make any difference."
"Kassa?" Vala asked.
"I hope not," Cam said, "but why else would they be shipping it offworld?"
"What is Kassa?" Bra'tac asked.
"It's a type of narcotic that the Lucian Alliance grew in the form of corn. They sold it across the galaxy for a substantial profit before we started interfering in their operations," Carter explained.
"Corn?" Raknor asked.
"More like evil space corn, but yeah," Cam confirmed.
"And your people are growing this to sell to the galaxy?" the Jaffa asked.
"Or to sell on Earth," Hailey offered.
"Oh boy," Sam said, not even having considered that possibility.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Cam said, glancing at the backdrop of the current picture in the hologram, "but that doesn't look like some fly by night operation. It looks like they've been there a while."
"Yes, it does," Sam agreed. She glanced at Bra'tac. "You said you had a witness?"
"Indeed," he confirmed. "She had been imprisoned and tortured for refusing to work. Yet another reason why I didn't believe this was your doing…but it's also something we can't allow to continue."
"If it's our people, we'll put a stop to it," Carter assured him.
"How?" Cam asked her.
"We'll find a way," she said resolutely.
"If they've been going behind our back for years what makes you think they'll stop now?"
"This isn't the first time we've discovered one of their unsanctioned projects," Sam reminded him, harshening her voice to suggest that this wasn't the time or place to discuss these things.
"Do you have a full sized map?" Cam asked Bra'tac.
The Alterra nodded to Raknor and he adjusted the hologram to show an aerial schematic of the colony.
Vala whistled appreciatively when it dawned on them just how big it was.
Cam pointed to it. "You really think they're going to shut down something that big?"
"They'll have to," Carter insisted, though she didn't feel as confident as she sounded.
"There was something else that my Jaffa found odd," Bra'tac said, again glancing at Raknor. "The Tauri on this world spoke two languages. One to the indigenous workers, and another amongst themselves that we couldn't identify."
The hologram shifted from stills to video with sound. They listened to a brief conversation in an alien tongue, then a still of some markings appeared.
"And these were also discovered on the hull of the cargo ships," Bra'tac continued.
The top symbol was again the crest of the I.O.A….but the symbols beneath matched the spoken language they'd just heard.
Cam's eyes narrowed dangerously. "That's Chinese…"