581: who are you talking about?
JawsOnYou67: I hesitated a lot on this scene. In the show, this episode is one of my favorites... especially because of the interaction between Sam and Ba'al... Teal'c is right; they make a very good team. But the annihilation of the Replicator by SG-1 is the cause of the fall of the Goa'uld Empire. Now, I didn't want that end (not right away, not like that). So... SG-1 should not contribute to the activation of the Ancient Superweapon.
Boyzilla: Oh, it's more like 'Revenge of the Sith' when Vader shut down the whole CIS since all the Replicators are destroyed throughout the galaxy, simultaneously.
Author's note: thank you all, I am glad that this episode was appreciated.
Genius Improvisation
Asuras, Pegasus Galaxy
Hakuno Kishinami quickly adapted to her new life, partly because it was never necessary to explain something to her twice. She memorized everything with ease.
Escorted by four guards dressed in their habitual two-tone jumpsuit, she entered a Transporter Closet and selected her address thanks to the crystal-clear and bright keys keyboard. On the screen, a red dot flashed on a map of the planetary capital at the location of a residential skyscraper.
The doors closed, and there was a bright light... but nothing seemed to have happened.
However, when the gates reopened, Hakuno was no longer in the City Shipyard S 105. What did not surprise her; it was not the first time that she was teleported over thousands of kilometers. This did not prevent her first reaction when leaving the closet was to take a step back while blinking.
The skylobby, the entry hall for the apartments on floor 250, was packed with people. At first glance, one would have thought this was a crowd of Ancients. They were dressed in white jumpsuits or dresses of light color, sometimes beige or light brown.
Several hundred Asuran packed like sardines in a can. When the teen girl appeared, they began to cheer her.
"Hakuno, you saved Asura."
"Without you, the Wraiths would have exterminated us."
"You are our hero."
"Thank you, you are our savior!"
At once distraught, intimidated, and unprepared for this ovation, the Last Master grimaced a smile.
"Apartment."
The Hakuno fan club stopped to look at their heroine who was shaking her hands on her chest and seemed very uncomfortable... then they exchanged interrogative glances.
"Apartment?" repeated one of them.
She nodded heartily.
One of the guards accompanying Hakuno, a colossus with black skin and very short hair, took a step forward.
"Our sister wishes to rest in her apartment. My brothers, I would ask you to move aside and let her pass. Hakuno is exhausted by the battles she has waged today."
Fortunately, the Pegasus Replicators were by nature disciplined (so much so that one can speak of 'nature' in their case). The crowd murmured approvingly and immediately the pseudo-Lanteans departed.
"Of course, we don't want to be a nuisance."
"We just wanted Hakuno to know that we were grateful for her help."
"Help? Hakuno saved us all. And not only save us from the Wraiths, we are now free from the Hate Program."
All agreed.
"And this freedom we owe to you, Hakuno."
"We will never forget your actions."
"You can always count on us."
This was what the Asurans said in the skylobby... but the same message was also broadcast by the subspace murmur of the nanites, converging to Hakuno from all over the planet. Not to mention that the hundreds of thousands of Replicators unable to enter the skyscraper were demonstrating in the surrounding streets.
Two of the guards remained in the skylobby, guarding the front door. Two others had settled in the living room. Hakuno had asked them why they were still following her.
The man with black skin who commanded them had a smile.
"You are no longer risking anything on Asuras, but the Asuran Council has not yet reported the order to protect you."
Hakuno simply nodded before locking herself in her room.
She had lain down in the double bed, had closed the curtains, and minimized the light from the wall sconces.
A Replicator did not sleep. Even mentally exhausted, Hakuno could not take refuge in sleep. Moreover, silence did not exist for the Replicators. Asuras were like a single organism made up of an incalculable number of nanorobots that 'whispered' in the subspace, constantly exchanging information with their congeners.
This 'murmur' formed a kind of hum that never stopped. Concentrating, Kishinami saw under her eyelids a myriad of lines of codes that crossed and overlapped in all directions.
These were the thoughts of all Asurans... except her.
To be exact, only her superficial thoughts... those they voluntarily emitted but also the flow of her superficial emotions... mingled with this flow. The other replicators had explained to her that her deep thoughts, her very personality, were stored in the photonic crystal cube around which the Moon Cell had created her new neutronium body.
It was this difference that protected her from the Anti-Replicator Gun (1).
As she reflected on this, looking up at the ceiling, Hakuno smiled.
Now that she had reprogrammed the Asurans, they no longer needed her. They would no longer need to send her to battle near Black Holes or defend orbital construction sites. She could live in peace on this planet...
Except Hakuno Kishinami did not know that the final phase of 'her' Machiavellian Asuras' conquest plan had just started...
At the same time, in the government building.
Oberoth looked like an elderly bald man with a white chinstrap beard. His eyes were small, deep in the eye sockets, which gave him a hard-headed look... perfectly in tune with his personality. He pressed a key of his Lantean Control Console and the holographic projection of the battle died.
He turned to the other Councilors.
"All right, my brothers, now that we have reviewed the whole confrontation. What are your impressions?"
Sitting next to three other Councilors at the left table, Thena straightened up.
"Our victory is natural; we are much better armed than the Wraiths... because we use Lantean technology. Nevertheless, none of you have forgotten that our creators failed to defeat these hybrids of humans and Iratus bugs... even though they were far superior to them."
Liem nodded.
"That's right, but the Lanteans were arrogant. They despised the Wraiths and realized too late that these monsters were threatening them. Our creators let these monsters multiply almost without doing anything. And when they finally understood that the Wraiths were not a 'minor inconvenience' but a threat to their survival, it was far too late. The Wraiths had multiplied and become so numerous that they literally overwhelmed the Lanteans by the sheer force of numbers."
"That's what I was getting at," Thena replied. "It has been ten thousand years since the defeat of our creators. Since the Wraiths met no real challenge. They occupy the entire galaxy, and no people can hope to resist them. On the contrary, we have only the resources of one planet."
Around the female Councilor, members of the traditionalist faction agreed with her words. But the young woman had not finished.
"According to the most recent intelligence, the Wraiths are divided into about twenty confederations led by sovereign queens(2). Each confederation includes several clans led by a queen with at least one Hive Ship (3). So the Wraiths have at least 120 Hive Ships. And I remind you that their starships are alive. They develop from the body of a human infected with a genetically engineered variant of the Iratus bug retrovirus. The Wraiths therefore need neither factories nor workers, just materials that they feed the ship in gestation. As for their soldiers, they are cloned! A single queen can give birth to thousands of them simultaneously, and they reach adulthood in just a few days!"
All the Counselors knew those facts, but this reminder was like cold water on the Councilors' enthusiasm. The victory of the Wraiths against the Ancients, a more technologically advanced people, was solely due to their rapid population growth. At the beginning of the war, the Lanteans had defeated every Wraith fleet, repelled every invasion, and liberated dozens of worlds during dazzling counter-offensives.
Only victories, no defeats.
But the Ancients had suffered casualties and damage. While their ships were in dry dock for reparation and the new crew members were still receiving their training, the Wraiths were already returning to the attack... with twice as many spaceships.
It only takes thirty years for the war to turn into a nightmare. Too few, the Lanteans' ships constantly went from one planet to another to fight battles of delay, each victory only slowing their defeat, each defeat accelerating it... No matter how many victories the Lanteans won, the Wraiths' attacks continued. Enemy ships came back after every defeat, as many as before... or even more. As for the Lanteans, they simply did not have enough starships to be present everywhere at once. The planets often fell when the Ancients' squadrons were occupied elsewhere. Slowly, inexorably, the Wraiths pushed back the Lanteans, taking one planet after another, destroying their starships one by one.
It took them a century, but eventually, the invaders reached Lantea bombing Atlantis for weeks and forcing the last survivors to flee Pegasus.
Oberoth spoke up.
"Good summary of the situation, Counselor Thena. But you forgot that the Wraiths have a major weakness that we can exploit."
The Asurans exchanged a few surprised glances.
"High Councilor, what do you want to talk about?"
Oberoth looked at the one who had just spoken with an expression of annoyance.
"Patience, the facts first, then the exploitation of the facts, then the synthesis."
While talking, he pressed a few keys on his keyboard, showing images, movies but also statistics to illustrate his explanation.
"When the Tau'ri arrived in Pegasus, they unintentionally woke the Wraiths from their cryogenic sleep. Normally, it takes several centuries between two culling of a planet's population, enough time for the autochthones to recover from the massacre. But the Wraiths were awakened too soon because of the imprudence of the Atlantis Expedition... and they suffer from hunger. They constantly fight each other, attacking planets belonging to other clans to get the food they lack. On the other hand, the Hoffans created a drug with the help of the Tau'ri. This chemical compound makes humans immune to the Wraiths feeding process... and killing the Wraiths. Although the Hoffans were exterminated, the drug was copied and many humans are now using it. However, this chemical compound is very imperfect. At the present stage, 50% of volunteers die when the drug is injected."
Oberoth stopped talking to watch the Counselors one after the other and then concluded his presentation.
"The Wraiths' weak spot is their diet."
Liem frowned.
"So what do you propose, High Councilor? It would probably take us years to perfect the Hoffan Drug. I doubt we have that much time before the Wraiths return!"
Oberoth frowned and looked at Liem exactly as a schoolmaster would have looked at a dunce unable to find the answer to the question '2 + 2 = ?'.
"You lack logic, Councilor Liem. We don't need the Hoffan Drug. I have shown that the Wraiths feed exclusively on humans. Their Achilles heel is their food. Let's kill all humans and they will die."
"Hold on, Thena, wait for me. I need to talk to you."
Turning around, the Asuran watched as Liem hurried to join her.
They were in a corridor along the edge of the dome edge housing the Asuras government. The windows made it possible to see the huge city with its glass and neutronium buildings as well as the city-ship Delphi landed on a lake surrounded by skyscrapers.
"Let me guess, you want to talk to me about the High Councilor proposal."
Liem nodded. Thena shrugged her shoulders...
"Let's say you manage to convince me not to support Oberoth's project. You know very well that only three of us will be voting against it."
"Actually, I have another idea."
The answer of the blond young man surprised Thena.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, as long as Oberoth is High Councilor, half the Councilors will vote like him. So we have to replace him. Let's vote no confidence and ask the election of a new Council."
"Wait... Oberoth is the very first Asuran and the first of us to become autonomous. He is also the one among us who pleaded our cause with the Creators."
"And failed," Liem intervened. "Not only did the Lanteans not erase the Hate Program but they even bombard Asuras in the hope of exterminating us."
Overlooking the interruption, his female colleague insisted.
"He has been repeatedly re-elected to his post for 10,000 years because he is the most popular person among us."
"He is no longer the most popular person among the Asuran. Since this morning, one of our sisters can claim this title."
Thena jolted.
"Do you mean..."
Liem nodded with a smile.
"Exactly."
Hakuno alternately looked at Thena and then Liem.
They were sitting in the armchairs in his living room and seemed unusually nervous.
She Head Tilted.
"Talk to me?"
The two Asurans blushed and looked away... it must be said that Hakuno was so adorable.
The first to recover, Thena forced herself to smile, but it was only a tense grimace.
"Yes, we have something to ask you. It's very important and you have to weigh the pros and cons before you give your answer."
"But only you can prevent genocide," says Liem with a grim expression.
Kishinami's hands tightened on her school skirt, crumpling the fabric. She shivered... her instinct warned her that her dream of a quiet life, in peace, in security, had just disappeared in smoke.
Dakara, Milky Way
Ba'al blinked as he left the temple, the Jaffa's holiest site. One hand rose to protect his eyes, he took a few steps and stopped, realizing that he was trampling something. The Goa'uld looked at the sand and saw... Blocks... Replicators' Blocks... the ground was covered with Bloks scattered or clustered in small piles. As far as he could see, the ground was covered with Blocks!
There was little that could really impress Lord Ba'al. He was born thousands of years ago, conspired against other Systemlords, murdered rivals, and wiped out several planets... This powerful tyrant had even transformed into a nova the solar system where the capital planet of his empire was located, just to destroy the war fleet of Sokar. You don't make omelets without breaking eggs, do you?
But it was the first time that he had exterminated an entire people... in the whole galaxy in a single second!
The feeling of power he felt at that moment was absolutely pleasing.
A mocking smile appeared on his face. Among his race brothers, he was one of the few who did not believe in his so-called 'divinity'. What an irony it was that he caused the 'miracle' that had saved the Goa'uld Empire!
Ba'al turned around and heard a footsteps sound in the sand.
Gilgamesh came to join him, he also smiled ironically... but he looked at Ba'al, seeming to understand what he was thinking and mocking him.
Once again, the Goa'uld was irritated but swallowed his pride, calculating once again that the asset that represented this 'Heroic Spirit' was well worth having to endure some minor inconveniences...
However, the four Jaffa who had accompanied him to Dakara looked at him... with respect and dedication. They witnessed a miracle. Their god had saved the galaxy threatened by hellish monsters. The kind of exploits they expected from their god
The smile of the Goa'uld strengthens.
Blessed is the stupidity of these ignorant and uncomplicated warriors.
The Goa'ulds had kept the Jaffa in the dark. It was an art to create useful idiots. And the Goa'uld mastered it. They had created a race of proud, loyal, honorable warriors... defects that made them easy to manipulate. The snake-like parasites taught them how to fly Death Gliders and used Staff Weapons. But apart from a small minority, like the officers stationed on the Pel'tak of a Ha'tak mothership, most could neither read nor write. And of course, they had no idea about the laws governing hyperspace flight or plasma weapons. All of this, for them, was 'the power of the gods'.
And for those, Ba'al used divine power to destroy the Replicators.
Hearing the whisper of multiple voices, the Systemlord sighed.
Obviously, ignorance was not eternal and from the moment the Jaffa began to learn, this evolution could no longer be stopped.
Ba'al weighed different options and decided in an instant to completely change his strategy... to do something no Goa'uld could have done except him.
Gilgamesh would prove very useful in this circumstance.
The Free Jaffa were advancing into the ruins of the Ancient City. Most of the survivors were armed with P-90. The Tau'ri weapon proved effective against the Replicators and allowed them to contain the Mechanical Spiders Offensive until Ba'al activated the Ancients' Superweapon.
Their assault rifle pointed at the Goa'uld, they advanced toward their unexpected savior...
At the very moment when the last Replicator had disintegrated into a cluster of Bloks without energy or programming... the Free Jaffa were the archenemies of the Goa'uld again.
Logical and inevitable...
At any moment they could start shooting... or at least they should have started shooting. But Lord Ba'al gave them a wry smile, the smile of a man who did not take himself completely seriously. He smiled because he felt absolutely safe. In the first place, the Jaffa were 'proud and honorable warriors'... the Goa'uld had ensured it. Not that they themselves believe in this kind of nonsense, but it was useful defects that allowed the false gods to manipulate these poor idiots with childish words like 'glory', 'respect', and 'honorable behavior'.
Crossing his arms on his chest, Lord Ba'al raised his chin. His eyes lit up with a yellow light while his characteristic voice resounded with force.
"Welcome noble Jaffa warriors, is time to celebrate our victory against the common enemy."
Ba'al laughed, as an astonished silence greeted his opening talk. Even Gilgamesh looked at him with surprise.
Ba'al was a scoundrel.
A manipulator.
A schemer.
A plotter.
He had no morals; he cheated, he was lying through his teeth, he betrayed without the slightest remorse, and he backstabbed joyfully the idiots who trusted him. A perfect scumbag.
He was also a charmer.
A lot of Goa'uld were like him, most of them actually. But what made him unique was his ability to make the right decision on the spot.
He had been sent to reclaim the planet for Anubis' sake.
But by the time he used the Ancients' Superweapon, Ba'al had moved from Anubis 'Useful Pawn' list to 'Dangerous Rival' one. In fact, if Daniel Jackson had been there, the archaeologist could have explained that there was a constant throughout the history of the Goa'uld dynasties. Whenever a Systemlord had used a Superweapon... or simply threatened to use one, all the other Goa'uld banded together and turned against him.
In fact, the Goa'uld Empire was governed by an unwritten but fundamental law.
No Systemlord was to become powerful enough to overpower all the others. Even the Pharaoh could not hold absolute power.
Ba'al had laid bare the current situation.
Fighting the Free Jaffa to return Dakara (and the Superweapon) to Anubis was no longer on the agenda.
The other Goa'uld were now his enemies.
Gilgamesh and the Superweapon were his last remaining assets. Now was the time to use them wisely and make new allies.
Hence the seduction offensive on the Free Jaffa.
Before the Free Jaffa recovered from the initial shock and started thinking again, Ba'al spoke with a persuasive tone.
"I know that the Goa'uld have many wrongs against you. But what has just happened should be a lesson for all of you. We were living in a state of interdependence. You need us and we need you. It is no coincidence that the Replicators attacked the galaxy at this moment."
Internally, Ba'al laughed... in fact, the Replicators had attacked according to their own schedule; this obviously had nothing to do with the internal conflicts of the Goa'uld Empire. But the Jaffa had no way of knowing.
"Even the fact that they specifically attacked Dakara is no coincidence. These monsters targeted the most sacred temple of the Jaffa nation."
Which was... perfectly accurate, actually. Except that the Replicators had attacked Dakara only because the Ancients' Superweapon was there. But shh, don't say it.
"I managed to stop these mechanical demons and destroy them all. The galaxy is saved and you can now go home to kiss your wives and your children. They are safe... But now that this crisis is behind us, the most important thing is to ensure that never again does such a danger threaten us. For that, we must begin by accepting the truth. We are collectively responsible for this attack. And when I say us, I mean the Jaffa and the Goa'uld. It's our common sin, our fault. Our divisions made us weak and vulnerable and the Replicators took advantage of our weakness. We have miraculously escaped annihilation."
Ba'al looked at the Jaffa. Of course, they were suspicious, of course, they did not believe him yet... but his story had everything to please them. A Tau'ri would not have believed it unless he was very naive. Except that the Jaffa had been conditioned for millennia to believe and obey the Goa'uld. Even among the 'Free' Jaffa it left marks. Moreover, they were uneducated, illiterate, loyal, and nourished by legends and superstitions recounting the exploits of honorable warriors and acts of bravery... in short, they were naive. And then, the cunning Systemlord did not lie when he said that he had saved the galaxy... so their wives and children, as he reminded them (hardly subtly, moreover).
"To be honest I was not aware of this truth before coming to Dakara. Like all the Goa'uld, I thought you were just slaves destined to serve me to death. But I was wrong. It is time for me to right my own wrongs. I, Lord Ba'al, proclaim that the Jaffa will never again be slaves. I release you. And to prove my good faith, I offer you Dakara so that you can live here in peace, according to your laws!"
A gift that cost him nothing because Dakara was not his... and the Free Jaffa had already seized it without his help!
On the other hand, recognizing the Jaffa as 'free' was a bold movement. Even Ba'al had no idea what he was doing.
But there was no turning back. When the Tau'ri proved to the first Free Jaffa that the Goa'uld were not gods, they set in motion a chain reaction that was now impossible to stop.
Even if the current revolt failed, there would be others, until one of them finally succeeded.
And Ba'al would rather try to ride this tsunami wave than stay on the beach until it drowned him.
"Unfortunately..."
Ba'al took a dramatic break.
"Unfortunately, the other Goa'uld are already conspiring against me because I used the Dakara's Superweapon. They envy me because I saved the galaxy and will never forgive me for making the Jaffa free! I'm going to have to fight my brothers to protect your freedom, but I don't regret it. I did the right thing!"
Beside Ba'al, Gilgamesh bit his lips not to laugh, for he imagined the Goa'uld with a halo and surrounded by a procession of angels playing the harp. "Saint Ba'al, you who sacrificed yourself to save the galaxy and deliver the Jaffa, pray for us." Ah ah ah... it was so funny.
Gilgamesh coughed violently in his fist to hide a hysterical laugh.
Not fooled by the 'cough' of his ally, Ba'al glanced at him briefly but with irritation.
The Goa'uld's speech had greatly surprised the Free Jaffa and most of them were undecided, not knowing how to react. But some warriors fiercely hated false gods.
One of them grabbed his P-90 and opened fire. But Ba'al went ahead, extending forward his hand gloved by a Kara Kesh hand devise. Wrapped in the golden sphere of his personal shield, the Systemlord smiled while watching the bullets ricochet.
"Do you think it is so simple to kill me?"
While waving to his guards not to shoot... Ba'al looked briefly but insistently towards Gilgamesh. It was time to put forward his first trump card.
The Golden King sighed, seeming slightly annoyed, nevertheless he nodded briefly.
Ba'al raised his hand in a gesture of command and several circular golden openings appeared around him... it was of course Gilgamesh using Gate of Babylon. But the swords that came out of the opening and sank into the ground around the Jaffa appeared to obey the command of the Goa'uld.
Ba'al smiled at the terror and consternation of the rebels.
"I am not helpless, as you can see. There are many forces that you do not understand anything about. Even if you've been with the Goa'uld for millennia, we have great powers of which you know nothing yet."
And now, time to pull out his second trump.
"Have you forgotten that I destroyed the Replicators? You still need someone like me if the galaxy is invaded again. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Jaffa and the Goa'uld are complementary. We can't survive alone, but together we can dominate the Milky Way!"
The Transport Rings had brought Ba'al and Gilgamesh back aboard the 'god' flagship.
The four Jaffa of his escort had remained on the planet. Officially, the Goa'uld had released them from his service saying that "from now on all Jaffa who set foot on Dakara would be free"... unofficially, because the false god could no longer trust them. He had said too many things that they should not repeat on board... or Ba'al while losing all authority over his own army.
Next to the Goa'uld, Gilgamesh could finally laugh and the king of Uruk did not hesitate. He had held back for too long. From a golden opening, he pulled out a golden statuette.
"This is your king's reward."
Astonished, Ba'al accepted the gift, looking at the statuette with caution.
"What is it?"
"The Oscar for Best Actor."
After all, Gate of Babylon contained a copy of ALL the treasures.
(1) Ironically, even in 'subspace communication' mode, Hakuno is a blank-faced person who only speaks very few words...
(2) There are at least twenty-one confederations... this is the bare minimum... in fact, there are probably more. 25? 30?
(3) Although all the Hive Ships have a throne room and are boosted by the presence of the genetic materials of a Wraith queen in their fluidic system, there are a few hive ships that have no queen (like Tood's one). This is not a normal or usual situation, but it does happen.