Ian Victor was having a meeting in his office with his American counterpart in the SGC, Kelly VanMeter, when Landry burst through the door.
"What's the meaning of this?" the I.O.A. lead representative on permanent station in Cheyenne Mountain demanded.
"You slick son of a bitch," Landry bit out. "Did you really think we wouldn't find out?"
"I don't know what you think you're doing," Victor angrily objected, "but I will not be addressed in such a tone."
"Osser!" Landry yelled, clearly unintimidated by the suit and tie wearing Brit.
For the barest of seconds there was recognition on Victor's face, then it disappeared behind a diplomatic mask.
"What's Osser?" he asked innocently. "And what about it gives you the right to barge into my office?"
"General, what's going on?" VanMeter asked.
Landry looked down at where she sat. "I hope to god you didn't have any part in this."
"Part in what?" she demanded.
Landry looked back at Victor. "Ask your boss. He knows."
Kelly looked at the senior I.O.A. representative. "What's Osser?"
Victor shook his head innocently. "I have no idea."
"Cut the bull," Landry said, leaning his fists on the edge of his desk. "The Jaffa ratted you out. We've got a copy of their intelligence data…including some damning pictures of Human infrastructure and half a dozen 302s. Not to mention an eye witness that the Jaffa rescued from their imprisonment."
Victor's demeanor changed, but he didn't say anything. Even Kelly saw it.
"What is he talking about?" she demanded again.
"The SGC answers to the I.O.A., not the other way around," Victor responded icily.
"All offworld bases fall under the supervision of Homeworld Security," Landry shouted. "I just got off the phone with General O'Neill five minutes ago. They know nothing about this."
"Osser's a planet," VanMeter guessed.
"Yes…one with a joint I.O.A./Chinese colony running roughshod over the locals," Landry told her while watching Victor's eyes. They widened just a bit.
The US representative to the I.O.A. turned on her boss. "That's in violation of the Gate Alliance Treaty, the I.O.A. charter, and the treaty we have with the Tok'ra!"
"Apparently this colony has been around for a few years…" Landry added, letting Kelly take the lead.
"Which means you willfully signed onto a treaty that you had no intention of following!" she accused Victor, and by extension the rest of the I.O.A. leading counsel.
"The Tok'ra are irrelevant," Victor said slowly. "As is this conversation. What's done is done."
Landry eyed the man for a moment. "And it will be undone."
Victor snickered. "You can't blackmail us with possession of the stargate anymore. We no longer need it."
"Who's we?" Kelly demanded.
Victor smiled. "If you don't already know, then I'm certainly not going to fill in the blanks for you."
"Try filling in this blank…" Landry said coldly. "What happens when the Jaffa take Osser away from you, because, if you didn't already know, that's exactly what they're threatening to do if Earth doesn't take care of this itself."
Victor's eyes narrowed. "They wouldn't dare. We'd cut off their supply of Tretonin."
"I'm not talking about those Jaffa…I'm talking about Dakara."
"They're threatening us?" Victor asked, disbelievingly.
"Warning us," Landry corrected. "And they did us a favor by talking to us first, because even they thought forced labor was a bit out of our character."
"Forced labor?!" VanMeter exclaimed.
"Communism 101," Landry remarked. "Now being exported to the stars."
"That CANNOT be allowed to happen," she angrily yelled at Victor as she stood up.
"It's already begun," the smug Brit reminded her as he too stood. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I assume your government will be demanding a meeting with the full I.O.A. council. Seeing as how I'm on that council, I best be departing immediately."
Victor tried to walk out from behind his desk and pass by Landry but the General had other plans.
"Sergeant!"
Three uniformed guards stepped into view from the hallway. Upon seeing them Victor spun around. "You have no right to hold me in confinement. I have to get to Paris to meet with the rest of the council."
"Oh, we're not confining you," Landry assured him as the guards firmly grasped the man's arms. "But you will be riding to Paris with us," he said without any trace of humor. "Until then you'll have plenty of time to pack," he said, motioning for the guards to take him back to his quarters, where he was going to be put under house arrest.
"General," Kelly pleaded with him, "I had no idea any of this was going on."
"I believe you, for no other fact than I'd doubt the I.O.A. would try circumventing the US and informing us of it at the same time…but then again, I'm not the one that needs convincing. You'll have to explain yourself to General O'Neill when he arrives."
"Why is he coming here?" she asked, assuming he'd be headed to Paris as well.
"He wants to talk to SG-1 first, so you'll have a brief opportunity to plead your case to him. In the mean time, you're confined to the base."
"I object to being treated like a traitor…but I understand your need for security. I won't cause a problem."
"Good," Landry said, leaving Victor's office more mad than he had been upon entering.
Two days later the I.O.A. leading council convened in their headquarters in Paris at the request of the United States government. Cleared of any wrongdoing, VanMeter and a handful of other American I.O.A. personnel had accompanied General O'Neill to the meeting, as had the US Secretary of State, but it was Jack that stood before the I.O.A. to hold their feet to the fire.
"Miss Shen," he began, his tone appropriately irreverent, "is there something your government would like to tell us…or do I have to start dragging out the line of witnesses?"
The lead Chinese representative on the I.O.A. let his words hang in the air for a moment. "I don't believe that will be necessary, though I wonder what witnesses you're referring to. I believe every member of this council, including Mr. Coolidge, is already aware of our offworld operations on the planet Osser. I am surprised that he didn't inform your government of the situation."
"Funny, him not being here," O'Neill said in response to her backhanded admission. "Seems he's dropped off the face of the planet."
"We are hardly responsible if you can't keep track of your own people, General," Shen replied.
O'Neill dropped the sarcasm…for once. "All offworld operations are supposed to be under the supervision of Homeworld Security, for the explicit reason that we can't have one nation starting a war that this whole planet will be force to fight…which is exactly what you have done. The Jaffa are fit to be tied that we're taking up where the Goa'uld left off, and the Tok'ra can't be too happy that we knowingly entered into a treaty that we were in violation of the moment we signed."
"The I.O.A.," Victor stated smoothly, "will defend its assets against alien incursion without relying on the US military. We are not, therefore, drawing you into a confrontation. If the Jaffa, Tok'ra, or others do not recognize the legitimacy of our offworld expansion, then that is unfortunate, but given our level of available technology it would be foolish for them to challenge us."
"I don't think you're hearing what I'm saying," O'Neill said, his sarcasm back. "We don't care. You broke god knows how many treaties and you stabbed us in the back. And you're nuts if you think we're just going to sit back and take it."
"Short of going to war, what are you inferring?" Shen asked.
"That one's not off the table…" O'Neill threatened.
The Secretary of State walked up to the dais next to Jack. "If you do not immediately cease all unsanctioned offworld activities, the United States of America will enact a form of economic warfare that will be just as devastating, if not more so than a military engagement."
All the I.O.A. representatives seemed a bit shaken at that possibility…except Shen.
"Furthermore," the Secretary of State added. "The I.O.A. must disband immediately, given that it clearly can't obey the tenets of international law, nor recognize the sanctity of treaties."
"That is not going to happen," the Russian representative, Dr. Harkovli, declared firmly. "The time of the United States' government dictating to us what we can and cannot do offworld is past. The organizational structure of the I.O.A. is necessary to ensure equity in Earth's relations with other worlds. We admit that what the Chinese government has done on Osser steps over the line, and they should be held accountable, but the I.O.A. will not be disbanded."
Shen turned to her right and glared at the Russian. "Easy for you to say, when it wasn't your colony that was discovered. I think it is time we revealed all of our involvement in offworld activities before this meeting goes any further."
She turned back to address O'Neill while the other representatives squirmed in their seats. "Every nation represented here has established offworld colonies under the supervision of the I.O.A. The Jaffa only discovered one of many worlds which have been added to Earth's collective holdings…including your few worlds, which I believe you refer to as the Alpha, Beta, Gamma sites, etc."
O'Neill exchanged glances with the US delegation. None of them had expected this.
"Group conspiracies don't legitimize what you've done, and our position stands," O'neill said firmly. "You will evacuate your unsanctioned, undeclared colonies at once or we will begin making your lives hell down here on Earth."
The Secretary of State cringed at that last remark, but didn't interfere.
"We only excluded the United States from our plans on the recommendation of Mr. Coolidge, who believed that your country wasn't ready to fully commit to an international colonization program," the French representative, Mr. Louvere, said almost pleadingly. "Now that the program has already established itself, I see no reason why the United States cannot join us and expand on your current holdings."
"I agree," Victor chimed in. "The rest of us shouldn't be held responsible for China's misdeeds. They're the only nation that established colonies on inhabited worlds, which makes them the only one in violation of our treaty with the Tok'ra."
"So what?" O'Neill asked, clearly not caring for diplomatic protocol. "You want us to just forgive and forget? Are you nuts?!"
"Perhaps we did act inappropriately," Louvere admitted, "but so has the United States in the past, and you were not forced to cede possession of the stargate. France is willing to make concessions, and if necessary abandon some of our offworld holdings in penance for the agreements which we freely signed into and then broke…but I would argue that banning us from offworld expansion is a punishment not fitting the crime."
"You admit to crime as if the United States is judge and jury," Shen spat. "We have no need to answer to them."
"We did break several treaties," Harkovli added. "In that much, they are correct."
"Treaties that all the nations here were leveraged into signing," Shen argued, "by the American's possession of the stargate. Now that we no longer require the gate, I see no reason why we should be held to such treaties."
"General O'Neill is correct," Mrs. Neville, the Canadian representative said, "that the actions of one nation can put the rest in jeopardy. I move that the government of China cede all worlds with an indigenous population back to those populations. We cannot afford to turn our offworld allies into offworld enemies."
"France concurs," Louvere agreed.
The other representatives nodded their agreement, all looking at Shen, but she held her head high in defiance.
"Well?" O'Neill asked her.
"My government expected such spineless supplication to the United States," she said vehemently, "and we're prepared to go it alone if necessary."
"Your actions will put the entire planet at risk!" Louvere argued.
"That would not be a first," Shen said, looking directly at O'Neill.
"Miss Shen," Harkovli said evenly. "It is a safe bet to say, that if China does not cede the worlds in question, then Russia will join the Americans in economic sanctions against your country."
"Do what you will," Shen said dismissively, "but the decision has already been made at the highest level. The answer is NO."