Ch. 46 — We are Superior
One of the Tok'ra, Cordesh, cleared his throat. "This medical device you have," he said to Potter and his Number One, "it appears to be quite advanced, technologically. Would you be willing to trade us a few of them? I assume you have more."
Potter and Number One looked at each other. "We have no problems with giving them to you, but the handheld unit is only a small piece of the entire Medical Unit. The Medical Unit, itself, is quite large." He looked around the room. "It's about ten times the size of this chamber. You would find it very difficult to move once it's placed on planet." He paused. "However, once the unit is in place, any PiMPS on the planet will operate as intended. The handheld unit we used accessed the Medical Unit on our spaceship."
He paused a moment. "I suppose we could construct a special unit you could shove through a Stargate at need, just bury it nearby for easy access." He glanced at Number One. She was writing and tapping in a book no one had noticed her take out.
"If we were to reduce the range and power . . .," she muttered, ". . . decrease the size of the on-board fuel . . . ensure that most materials were nearby to reduce power requirements . . . use an external transport unit . . . limit simultaneous instances . . .." She paused and tapped her pen thoughtfully on the book. Finally, she looked up at the Council.
"We could compress it down to two thirty-seven-foot sections." She glanced around the room. "Roughly three times the size of this chamber, in other words?" She glanced back at her book. "It would take a day to build. And you would need to keep certain materials on-hand at all times — pure carbon, water, blocks of rare minerals about this size," she mimed a hand-sized box with her hands and book.
They started discussing more details on the Medical Unit when someone motioned at the door to the chamber. Martouf went over and listened, the hurried over to the Council members. "Master Garshaw," he said, "we just received word from our scout in the Shoran'ka quadrant. The Goa'uld System Lords have been told where we are. They have dispatched two motherships."
"When will they arrive?" Garshaw said.
"Within the day, perhaps hours."
Garshaw turned to the others and ordered, "Start the evacuation!"
"We can help," Potter said.
"Any assistance is welcome."
"Excellent." He turned to the three Marines.
"How'd the System Lords find you?" Jack said looking around puzzled.
Garshaw shrugged, "We don't know. It happens periodically."
"Are we talking about a spy here, or what?"
"Well, if the spy's here, moving to another planet's not going to do much good," Daniel said.
Potter turned back to Garshaw. "Have three of your people escort these Marines to whatever needs to be moved, and we will beam the items directly to the Stargate and your people can take them through to you next destination. It will drastically reduce the distance you have to travel."
Three of the Council members were not shy at waving over a Marine.
"I can have another thirty Marines here in five minutes," Potter said.
There was a – pop! – from behind him as a Marine appeared, then a second.
Jack frowned and turned to Teal'c. "Teal'c, you know those little white tennis-ball things?"
"The long-range visual communications device?" Teal'c said.
"Right. How small do they make those?"
"I have seen them small enough to fit in the palm of your hand."
Cordesh moved towards the door with the other Tok'ra, accompanied by the Marines.
"We can also beam things to the Requirement if you can't move them through the Stargate fast enough."
"Garshaw?" Jack said.
The Tok'ra turned to him with a raised eyebrow.
Jack looked back at the door. Cordesh was not in sight. "I think you might have a spy in your ranks.
Garshaw shook her head. "Nonsense, the Tok'ra are loyal for life!"
"Then how did the System Lords locate you?"
Garshaw glanced at Teal'c, then back at Jack. "How did you find us?"
"Well, we did have a spy in our ranks," Daniel said wryly.
"Jolinar of Malk-shur, through Captain Carter," Teal'c stated.
Garshaw sighed. "I suppose you know the name of the spy?"
Jack nodded. "I've got a pretty good idea of who.
The Tok'ra again raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I don't want to point fingers, but I'd keep my eye on Cordesh."
"Cordesh?"
"Do you folks make a habit of walking around with those little teleball thingies . . . what are they?" he glanced at Teal'c
"He speaks of a long-range visual communications device," Teal'c explained.
"We don't have those, we have no use for them," Garshaw said dismissively. "The system is not secure."
Jack wagged his head to the side. "Well, your buddy Cordesh has one."
Garshaw's eyes widened, and she angrily shouted something in a foreign language to the Guards in the room, then turned and headed out the room's door to the hall. "He's this way, ma'am," one of the Security Commanders said, jogging to catch up. "The Marine with him has already stunned him."
Number One turned to Jack. "Do you have one of those communicators available? If we can get hold of one, we can quickly find any others, in case he has spares hidden away."
"I think I can remember the way to where he had his . . .," Jack said cautiously.
They started off.
Number One returned to the ship as soon as she had the orb Cordesh had been used.
The Library, she said through the Admiral, found two other communication orbs hidden in stockrooms.
Three drops of their truth serum, veritaserum, they called it, revealed that Cordesh had been a sleeper agent for hundreds of years, hamstringing their operations and waiting for an opportunity to remove the Tok'ra completely.
Cordesh had, indeed, disclosed the Tok'ra base to the Goa'ulds, when he realized just how much of a problem it would be for the Tok'ra and the Tau'ri to join forces. It was worth the risk of exposure to prevent the alliance.
They also got a list of the various operations he had compromised, and the drop-spots that the Goa'uld were now monitoring. It would take time for a complete interrogation, but the most important agents could be extracted, and operatives warned of places to avoid.
Yosuf and Garshaw were furious at Cordesh's betrayal.
Several hours later, a Tok'ra guard came into the room they were using for the interrogation. "Our scouts have spotted the Goa'uld ships entering the outer-reaches of this system," he reported bluntly.
Fortunately, most of the Base had been moved through the Stargate to their new, temporary, location.
"They will start attacking from the air and through the Gate within hours," Garshaw said. "We must destroy the complex."
Potter shrugged. "Almost everything is already through the Stargate to the new world. Anything that isn't, we can take aboard our ship and send to you through a neutral Stargate, later."
"But what of the Goa'uld motherships?"
"If you have any of your agents aboard those ships, warn them to get to an escape module or Death Glider. When they launch, shut down all power and drift. We will rescue them."
He turned his attention back to Garshaw and Yosuf. "Would you like to see how we handle Goa'uld motherships?"
"You are going to confront them?"
"Absolutely," Potter said. "They have to learn the lesson that sending ships against us will always end with them losing." He paused. "If you do have any agents on those two ships, you'd better warn them, now."
Garshaw pursed her lips, but turned to the Tok'ra guard and rattled off something in the Goa'uld language. The guard ran out of the room. "It will likely take a quarter of an hour," she said, "if we are lucky."
Potter nodded. "Lieutenant-Commander Johnson, order the launch of both XE-wing squadrons. All pilots are to take one gel-tab before launch. One wing to each of the Goa'uld motherships. Pass along that only the motherships and powered Death Gliders are to be attacked. Unpowered units are to be towed from the battle area for rescue or salvage.
"On the motherships, take-out the main-engines, first, any defensive fire-stations, second. Defensive fire-stations and Death Gliders are to be targeted according to their threat-level against any XE-wings. The planet has no inhabitants that we know of to worry about. Squadron leaders, assign roles and coordinate the initial shots.
"We will attack on my signal."
Garshaw was giving him an incredulous look.
"Now, then," he continued. "Johnson, remember the warning we gave the last two motherships? When the two Goa'uld ships are close enough, in about an hour I've been told, declare the planet beside us as being currently under the control of the Tok'ra and the D.S.F. and that the Goa'uld are to leave immediately, or suffer the consequences." He smiled. "Number One, as soon as the Base is completely evacuated, except for this room, portkey the Stargate to the Requirement in one of the hangars. Have a Marine platoon ready to receive any visitors."
He turned to Jack. "Colonel O'Neill, why don't you gather your team. We can send you home from the ship."
Jack nodded slowly, "Yeah, sure, sounds good to me."
Harry smiled. "I promise we will share a written transcript of the interrogation with you when we return to Earth."
"Yeah, that sounds good," he said, turning to exit the room with a slight smile of his own.
██:::::██:::::██
Harry glanced at the Goa'uld in the chair, staring at them thoughtlessly because of the veritaserum. "Rather than risk losing this spy in the confusion at the new location, we will take him and return him to you later. By the way, we can remove the Goa'uld from him at any time, without risk to the host."
They continued their interrogation until a Tok'ra came running in. "We are the last, the tunnels will finish collapsing as soon as we exit!"
Harry nodded. "Time to leave. Number One, beam up SG One and any remaining Tok'ra," he said, "Portkey the Stargate to the prepped Flight Deck and prepare to capture any Jaffa coming through it."
The prisoner and chair vanished as the ship beamed him to their brig. A waiting wizard promptly stunned him to prevent him from avoiding that fate by committing suicide.
Harry dropped his right arm to his leg and began a slight turn to the right. No one was there to hear the pop! of his disapparition.
As they headed to the Bridge from the Arrival Room, he relayed to Garshaw, Yosuf, the two Tok'ra guards, and the four SG-1 team members what the ship was transmitting to and receiving from the Goa'uld.
The two ships, it appeared, were under the control of a Goa'uld System Lord named Indra. He was a bit calmer about the situation than Apophis had been. "I am here to eliminate the Tok'ra menace. If you surrender, it will be quicker."
The Admiral sighed. "Johnson, repeat the command for them to leave. Beam any Jaffa who come through the Stargate into the barracks-brig, just like we did last time. When we are close enough to the Goa'uld ships, start doing that to their Jaffa."
The four Tok'ra was giving him a curious look.
"The Jaffa are just following orders," he said with a shrug. "Once they're in range, we beam them, naked, into a repurposed barracks on the ship. Without any weapons, they're harmless."
"What do you do with all your prisoners?"
"We prove their 'god' isn't one by showing them we can do things that the Goa'uld only wish they could do, and we are not gods. Then we offer to remove the prim'tas and restore them to being Tau'ri. If they accept, we move them to a 'safe' planet where they can live. Then, when we have time, we visit their home planet and rescue their families. That's what we did to Apophis' Jaffa on the Chulak."
He stopped a moment. "Did you know we killed Apophis and are currently holding Heru'ur and Amonet prisoners?"
Garshaw stared at him. "We knew Heru'ur hasn't been heard from recently, and his holdings are in civil war with the rumour he is dead. Apophis has been struggling against the Tau'ri for many months and losing status. Our agents on Chulak told us of the destruction of all of his ships, that his Stargate on Chulak disappeared, and that Chulak has declared itself a planet of free-Jaffa. They were unable to tell us how this was being done."
Potter nodded. "If you want your agents off Chulak, have them go to Bra'tak and request a pickup. We'll send them on to a pick-up point you indicate."
██:::::██:::::██
Indra, it turned out, was just as stubborn as Apophis had been and refused to leave. It wasn't much longer before his two ships were unknowingly inside the Requirement's beaming range.
He apparently thought the Tok'ra were still on planet, and that the Requirement was lurking behind it.
"Lieutenant-Commander Johnson," Harry said calmly. "Have both Squadrons take their second gel-tab. Coordinated fire for the engines, then fire at will in five minutes."
The Requirement's scans of the other motherships that had invaded Earth, and the pyramid-ships Chulak had given them exact blueprints of where things were in the incoming Goa'uld ships. They took advantage of their knowledge to plan their attacks to remove the vessels' capacities to both communicate and to flee when they saw how hopelessly outclassed they were.
The Tok'ra were stunned at the visuals being displayed on the displays on the Bridge when the five-minute wait-time was up. SG-1 was a bit more prepared given that they had seen something similar several months before, but were still stunned at the rapidity of the engagement.
Seventeen XE-wings firing a salvo of nearly-meter wide laser blasts at each Goa'uld motherships carved through the engine-sections of both the pyramid-ship and the mothership-shell that circled around it in a matter of seconds. The XE-wings pin-point accuracy severed all connections between the engines and the massive power-plants that powered them. The two ships' ability to move was limited to the minor self-powered manoeuvring engines. They didn't even have the ability to remain in stationary orbit above the former Tok'ra base.
Before the Goa'ld and Jaffa knew they were under attack, their ships were effectively reduced to drifting hulks.
The second salvo, less than a second later, severed the communications-arrays from the rooms that controlled them. The rooms, themselves, were destroyed and most of the equipment vaporized. The only communications that remained were internal and with the scores of Death Gliders the ships frantically began to launch.
The Death Gliders were useless with no visible opponents. Some began blindly firing at random into space, others set courses for the planet beside them.
Jaffa began charging through the planet's former Stargate into the hanger bay. The Marines, one platoon of thirty, however were well-prepared. They dropped the Jaffa with stunners as fast as they appeared, and the ship used internal beaming to move them into a prison barracks. Their clothes and weapons were reduced to their components and stored as raw material.
The Requirement manoeuvred closer and the scanners swept through the ships, beaming the Jaffa and Goa'uld to the Barracks Brig. Separating the two was easy, as all the Jaffa had prim'ta in their stomachs and the hosts had Goa'uld wrapped around their spinal cords.
The Requirement hadn't been prepared for so many prisoners, so it was quickly decided that they would pack the Jaffa prisoners into a "standing-room only" situation, then Harry would cast a stasis on the entire room. That way the Marines didn't exhaust themselves with using individual stasis charms.
Meanwhile, any hosts were beamed into the regular brig, where a separate detachment of Marines stunned them. Once everything settled down, they would veritaserum them and separate the Tok'ra agents, if any, from the regular Goa'uld.
Snape would have plenty of subjects to test his potions on. Then they would start on spells to selectively kill Goa'uld while leaving their hosts unharmed.
They managed to keep the loss of life to a minimum, and to capture Indra before he could escape through the Stargate on his ship. It was a simple matter of watching the Stargate. When someone shutdown the connection to the planetary gate and started to tap in a new address, they beamed him to the brig.
After scavenging all the naquadah from the ships, they allowed them to fall to the planet below. Falling from such great distances, tens of thousands of miles, removed any possibility of the ships being anything but scrap metal in a massive crater.
While the Crew went about their jobs, Harry and Hermione gave Garshaw and Yosuf the same song-and-dance routine of their abilities that they used to convince the Jaffa that their 'gods' were frauds. Both were very impressed and freely admitted that neither the Tok'ra nor the Goa'uld could do any of those things.
They also repeatedly asked if any of the DFS Crew might be interested in being a host. Harry knew no wizard or witch would agree to a possession where the possessor wasn't more powerful or knowledgeable than the host! And the Tok'ra certainly weren't either of those. They might know more about the galaxy, but inherently, they knew nothing of magic and thus brought nothing to the table that might interest a wizard.
Harry realized he was a glad he was wearing his full spacesuit. He worried that otherwise one of the Tok'ra might decide that taking a wizard or witch by force was well worth "temporarily" abandoning their principles.
He wasn't sure if the Tok'ra were as "good" as they pretended. Depending on how good their information was and how frequently they shared what they knew, if might not even be worth making an alliance with them.
The risks nearly outweighed the benefits, even at this early stage.
Garshaw and the other Tok'ra went through the ship's Stargate to an intermediate location. Harry did not mention that they had already sent an orbital drone through the other gate when the evacuation had started. Nor, expecting the Tok'ra to move to another world as a precaution against Cordesh's treachery, that several orbital drones were hidden among the packages and waiting for just such a move.
Angelina had provided Jack with a transcript of Cordesh's interrogation. Unfortunately, most of the information demanded had been about specific operatives and places that only the Tok'ra understood why they were important. On the other hand, it would give Stargate Command a handle on how deeply the Tok'ra had infiltrated the Goa'uld hierarchy.
Jack was quite happy when he and his team finally stepped through the Stargate to Earth.
The rest of Cordesh's interrogation would be handled by the same Crew experts who had interrogated their other Goa'uld prisoners. Those transcripts, too, would be passed on.
It was amazing what you learned in answer to questions like, "What secrets do you know that your superiors don't think you know?" or "Who are you really working for and what doesn't she or he want anyone else to know?"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione had a meeting after breakfast the next morning where Harry explained his reservations about the Tok'ra, and the Crew dealing directly with them. He wasn't surprised to discover that both felt pretty much the same as he did.
"I'll make sure," Hermione said, "that the modified Medical Unit we supply can be remotely shut down if the Tok'ra show any signs of treachery like the other Goa'uld."
"Perhaps we should go one further," Ron suggested, "have two settings, depending on what they do to provoke such an action. One to simply turn it off, the other to have it remove every Goa'uld from every host in range."
Harry slowly nodded. "But only if all three of us, and Lee, agree that such an action is necessary. No one can make such a decision on their own."
They spent the remainder of the trip back to Earth discussing the problem. They set parameters to trigger the different responses, even allowing for a situation in which one or more of them were compromised by a Goa'uld. It was very complicated, but magic would help prevent them from taking any actions they might later regret.
The Requirement made it back to Earth early enough that the students on board only missed their Monday morning classes.
They had also already separated the Tok'ra agents from the rest of their Goa'uld prisoners. Veritaserum had made that a quick and simple task, and prevented any possibility of double-agents. They had been then sent on to the Tok'ra's current home as soon as the Requirement made Earth orbi.
Bringing Lee up to speed on the issue did not take long, that evening. Finding a way to prevent one of the wizards or crew becoming a host suddenly became much more important.
"Snape's potion," Lee said, grinning briefly, "Does no harm to magicals or muggles, it turns out. Surreptitious ingestions to prisoners in Azkaban, or the disbursement of aerosols, had no ill-effects. Their use on several hosts from Chulak and the motherships at the former-Tok'ra planet has revealed that the sanity of the host after the parasite's removal depends solely on the length of time the person was a host, and the things they had experienced as such." He shook his head, "The shorter the possession, the more likely the host will make a full recovery, but nearly all will require many sessions with Mind-healers." He sighed.
"While I was discussing the problem with one of our Healers," Lee said, his projection rubbing his forehead over his right eye, "he suggested that we should develop an artifact that would do the same thing." He shook his head wryly. "We have spells on buildings to kill pests, why not do the same with bracelets, necklaces, earrings and such for the Goa'uld? Now that we have enough mature Goa'uld, we could do that with items attuned to only them."
He chuckled. "It wouldn't even be dangerous for the volunteers; they just take Snape's potion beforehand and then we put a Goa'uld host near them and see what happens."
Harry and the others nodded. "That sounds like a good approach," he said admiringly, "we could even incorporate the artifacts into the life-support systems of our suits. Not everyone wants to wear jewellery all the time."
"Yes," added Hermione, "It shouldn't take too long to tailor one of the pest-spells to select only Goa'uld."
Harry grinned. He recognized the glint in her eye.
"The spell should repel the Goa'uld if they get too close, and actually kill them if they try to enter the host." She mused. "Well, if there's nothing more . . .?" she said, pulling out her tricorder and starting to write, querying the Library for which books in the Library would have the closest solution to their problem.
Harry laughed. Unless it was vitally important, they wouldn't get much more out of her tonight.
██:::::██:::::██
"Sorry to wake you, Harry, Hermione," Lee said.
After a quick tempus, Harry saw it was six in the morning.
Hermione was, of course, still on the Witches side of Gryffindor.
"S.G. Eleven has disappeared."
Harry sat cross-legged a moment in his bed, sheets pooled in his lap, still bemused with sleep. "Disappeared?" he finally said.
"All their comms and drones went off-line at nearly the same time, according to the message from the Orbital Drone we put up when S.G.C. first went through."
While he was mulling that over, Lee continued. "They were on a planet named PXY-887 conducting exploratory mining. The first team through the Stargate had found something the muggles are calling trinium, a super-light, super-strong mineral. The metal's properties has their military salivating at the possibilities. S.G. Eleven was doing a bit of exploratory mining to see if it was worth pursuing as a full mining operation."
He pursed his lips.
"There are natives on the planet, the Salish. They are apparently descended from natives from Earth, from the North American North Pacific coast, specifically, according to their specialists. They were taken by the Goa'uld and deposited on PXY-887 millennia ago, we don't know why. We've found numerous villages scattered all across the continent hosting the Stargate. However, they are at a primitive state, barely out of the hunter-gatherer stage, only starting to explore planting crops.
"The closest village is about twenty-five miles, or about forty klicks as SGC says.
"However, the last video transmitted by the drones is of a very friendly native, Tonane, approaching them and politely asking them to stop their mining — the team was using explosives to map the underground deposits. Captain Laurence Conner, the one in charge of S.G. Eleven, told Tonane they had planted two of their explosives and only set off the first. He explained that his team needed to set off the second sounding-explosive for safety reasons, then they would stop so he could discuss things with Tonane and his Elders.
"It was a short while later, just before they could set off their second sounding-explosive, that the drones and comms quit transmitting. There didn't appear to be anyone around any of them."
Lee stopped and sighed, waiting for Harry to say something.
Harry rubbed his now-healed but old scar. "Not the Goa'uld, right?"
"No signs of them, anywhere," Lee confirmed, shaking his head.
"What's S.G.C. doing?"
"I told them our communications had ceased, and there doesn't appear to have been any fighting, nor warning. It's eleven o'clock at night, their time, so when SG-One reports in tomorrow for work, the General plans to send them through to reconnoitre."
"How far away is this planet?"
"Three thousand and four light-years, about two days, ten hours, and forty minutes travel time."
"Hermione?" Harry said.
There was a brief pause.
"They were able to . . . capture? Disintegrate? Teleport? . . . S.G. Eleven without any warning. Maybe they're magical or used portkeys? I don't know. Whatever happened, I don't think S.G.C. can handle it, even with the tech improvements we gave them," she mused, and then sighed.
"I think we should go there," she said slowly.
Harry nodded. He had that feeling, too.
"Ask the General if he would be willing to wait until we get there," she said to Lee.
Harry rolled out of his bed and poked Ron several times. Ron was always difficult to get up in the mornings. Harry slipped on his robes. He could finish the rest of his routine aboard the ship.
Ron was mumbling and rolling over in bed.
"Alert to all Crew. Star Gate Command has run into potentially hostile aliens, not the Goa-uld. Their team on planet abruptly disappeared, no signs of a struggle. Travel time to the planet is two-and-a-half-days, so we will be gone a minimum of five days. For those aboard the ship who do not want to go, the Requirement will be leaving in half-an-hour. Anyone who wants to go have the same deadline. Class assignments will be relayed to the ship. Admiral out."
Harry flicked his wand and sprayed water from it onto Ron.
"Gah!" Ron yelled, not that anyone could hear him over the quietus Harry had cast on Ron first. After a bit of cursing, and Harry's brief explanation, Ron slipped on his robes and shoes.
While Ron was getting dressed, Harry asked Dobby to take him to the Requirement. He made it to his cabin on-ship a few minutes later and finished his morning routine. He arrived on-Bridge only moments before Hermione.
"Course is plotted and ready," Marietta said calmly.
Ron came onto the Bridge, walking quickly.
"The Requirement has four squadrons of XE-wings on board, and will have seven platoons of Marines at departure-time," Luna said as she walked in.
"All tech cloaks and laser batteries are over ninety-eight-percent," said Angelina, "And auxiliary protective spells are fully-charged and ready for activation. Only ten-percent of the Laser Mounts are manned, however."
"We've heard from all Crew who wish to be aboard, Non-combatant Crew have all left the ship," Marietta said, "And the last Crew to board should be here well before departure-time."
"Good," Harry said. "Let's go as soon as possible."
"Aye, aye, Sir," Marietta said.
He looked at Hermione, Ron, and Luna. "We can review the videos the comms and drones captured while we're having our breakfast." He turned and headed for the Meeting room behind the Bridge.
It was as Lee had said. One moment the men and women of the eight-member team were there, the next they weren't. It wasn't simultaneous, each person or group disappeared when they weren't visible to the others. It started at the blasting site and swept from there through the camp.
One of the surveillance drones, high overhead, caught several of the team members vanishing. None, either individually or in a small group, were in a line-of-sight to the others as they vanished, so no one noticed anything unusual until they, too, disappeared. While their disappearances were similar to beaming in that there was a brief flash of light, they didn't appear to be the same method.
They did see a wolf lurking nearby, but there were no signs of Tonane or any other natives.
"Hmm. Not disapparition, then," Hermione said. "It does look like beaming, but beaming makes no sense. Beaming groups is easy, the whole team should have vanished in under a second as the automatic controller flipped from one to the next. This took almost a minute from beginning to end.
Ron frowned. "That wolf scouting through the camp afterwards is odd. I would expect the teams' sudden disappearance would spook him, especially as he seemed to be looking at one of the people when they disappeared."
Luna smiled. "The explosion must have hurt his feelings — it is his world, after all."
Ron looked over from the display at the other two. "I've seen the garden gnomes lose the plot when an illusion the twins' set up winked out suddenly. That wolf, just stared a moment, then turned and trotted towards the rest of the camp."
After a silent breakfast, they hauled out their books and parchments and started on their assignments.
Nine hours later, mid-afternoon aboard the ship, Lee hailed them. "General Hammond was very appreciative of the recordings we gave him of what happened to S.G. Eleven. He has their specialists looking them over now.
"He's agreed that it would be better to wait until we were at the planet before doing anything. He did suggest that we take the Stargate to the ship as soon as we arrive, then S.G. One could come through. We could then beam them down to the closest native village and ask for Tonane."
Lee chuckled. "Even if they sent S.G. One through right now, they wouldn't arrive at that village until we got there, anyway. This way they can better spend their time planning what to do instead of just trekking through the forest for two days."
He shook his head. "Well, at least it's been a quiet two weeks since the last time S.G.C. got into trouble."
He grinned. "In other news, we've managed to cover for the Hogwarts Crew that went with you. A couple of doses of Polyjuice and nobody important realizes you aren't here. Sirius has managed to alibi you, Harry. He, as well as the parents of a several of others, including yours, Hermione, called family privilege and apparently picked their children up to return after Easter Hols.
"So, everyone is good for the next three weeks!"
He glanced at them. "Your class assignments have just been uploaded to your tri-corders, as well as the drone recordings of the class lectures, so you should be good for those as well."
On that note, they pulled out their tri-corders and started watching the recorded classes.
██:::::██:::::██
While it was mid-afternoon for the Requirement and late-morning for Stargate Command, it was very early morning for the area around the Stargate.
Still, they had planned for that eventuality. They had barely slid into place, hovering over the Stargate on the planet, when the two prepared portkeys popped into the designated clearing on the planet, flew over to the Stargate and it's dialling device, and brought them back to the Requirement's left-side outrigger. The waiting wizards took their gel-tabs.
As soon as it was in place in a prepared cradle, the gate activated and S.G. One came striding through.
The drones that had been on planet had been thoroughly examining the villages nearest the Gate. Tonane, they had verified, lived in the closest village.
"Just so we're clear," Harry said, "the purpose of this mission is to retrieve the missing members of S.G. eleven, nothing more, right?"
Jack nodded. "If we can find out why they attacked our people that would be good, too."
Ron raised an eyebrow, not that anyone on S.G. One could see that. "I think it's rather obvious."
Jack looked at him.
"If someone from . . . say, Equador, flew into California and started a mining operation, your military would immediately order them to stop and leave. If they gave some bollocks reason about finishing what they were doing, first, your troops would immediately arrest them and haul them off, right?"
Jack frowned but nodded, "Yeah, I guess so."
"So why are you surprised someone did that to you? You are in the wrong here, not the right. You should be apologetic for causing a problem, and asking their help in retrieving your missing personnel."
Harry shook his head. "Your military has gotta stop acting like they're the biggest bully on the playground. You aren't. The Tollans and the Goa'uld have already shown you that you aren't, why are you still acting as if you are smarter and more powerful than anyone else?"
"You should have asked the natives," Hermione said, "as soon as you realized that there was something here you wanted to exploit, instead of just waltzing in and acting as if no one would dare object to what you do. These people were here, first! You need to respect that. Otherwise, someone bigger than you will do that to you and say, 'Why are you objecting, we're just doing to you what you do to everyone else!' And what will you say back?"
Jack pursed his lips. Dan was nodding agreement. Sam was looking back and forth, but seemed to feel Hermione's argument was sound. Teal'c was giving them a bland stare, not giving away what he thought.
"Anyway," Harry said briskly, "We picked a Beaming spot not far from the village. Remember, this is a friendly visit, your tech shields should be more than enough to protect you from anything the natives can throw at you."
He frowned at them. "So, because the only weapons you have are lethal, let my Marines handle any hostiles." He nodded to the six Marines beside them.
Jack did not look happy, but he nodded his understanding. "Right, we're just. . .," he glanced at the others, "errand runners."
"Okay, on the count of three," Harry said. The Marines quickly moved to surround the five as Hermione and Ron stepped back. They would remain on the ship.
Moments later, the four members were Beamed into a small clearing. The almost simultaneous seven pops of Harry and the Marines apparating around them echoed in the forest.
"Well," Jack said dryly, "I don't think anyone missed that doorbell."
Harry pointed. "The village is that way."
The Marines kept a loose formation around and in front of them. It didn't escape anyone's notice that it was Harry they kept in the centre of their formation.
"Rather protective of the Admiral, aren't cha?" Harry heard Jack say to the Marine closest to him.
The Marine snorted. "Not exactly," she said. "It's more we're here to prevent someone from doing something stupid and getting hurt trying to get at the Admiral."
Jack just stared at him.
The Marine shook his head. "Listen, the Admiral went up against a four-metre tall, one tonne mountain troll — yeah, a big stupid humanoid that few adults could survive meeting, much less fight — when he was eleven, and knocked the troll out. When he was twelve, he killed a twenty-metre basilisk snake — big enough to swallow a man whole, its venom kills a man in seconds, and it can kill with a single glance if you look it in the eyes. He did it single-handed, with a sword. And he had never picked up a sword before. He's the only known survivor of a basilisk bite.
"When he was fourteen, he took a fake egg from a dragon . . .."
At Jack's incredulous look, the Marine shook his head. "It was in a contest where the other contestants were seventeen." The Marine shook his head again. "He should never have been in it, but they made him participate. The dragon . . .," his voice trailed off for a second. "Okay, imagine a six-tonne flying alligator, elephant-sized but longer and thinner — with a twenty-metre wingspan — and can throw flames hot enough to melt metal at sixteen metres. Now imagine that as a nesting mother and trying to sneak an egg from her nest. That was the challenge. Of the four contestants, he was the only one without burns, and had the fastest time."
He shook his head. "Well, I can't say more. Just, if we come up against something big and it decides to attack, our job is to protect the bystanders."
██:::::██:::::██≈ ≈ ≈ ≈