Chapter 162: The Clones Question Part 2
Earth Orbit, Solar System, April 10th, 2000
"...and as our first batch of new brothers is ready to take their first steps into the universe today, Her Divine Highness Herself is attending this joyous occasion to welcome them with her blessings!"
Adora didn't wince when the assembled clones broke out cheering at Priest's prompting, but she felt her cheeks grow warm. She shouldn't have agreed to this, all the public relations concerns be damned! It was dubious, anyway, that her presence would help make the clones more acceptable. As Mr Brown and Julie had explained, there was considerable overlap between those on Earth who were afraid of an army of 'soulless clones' taking over Earth and those who considered her a 'false heathen demon tempting the faithful', someone even worse than the Goa'uld, just because the Church of She-Ra was still growing on Earth.
It wasn't as if she wanted to convert people to worship her - or have anyone worship her at all!
On the other hand, those newborn clones didn't deserve to feel snubbed and abandoned just because Adora felt embarrassed. It was bad enough that some bigots hated them already before they were even born - or decanted, as Catra called it.
Priest was correct that they were newborns, and newborn children deserved love and care, not hatred and ignorance. It was the duty of She-Ra to protect people, and she wouldn't shirk it.
So she smiled at Priest, tried to ignore how he and everyone else bowed their heads and stepped forward to the small podium placed in front of the cloning pods in the main cargo bay of the frigate they had converted into a support ship, and smiled.
"Thank you, everyone," she started the short speech she had prepared last night - after a final check that Catra hadn't sneaked in the suggestions she had mentioned last night. "I am happy to be here to see new people entering our world, our universe. They are the first of a new generation, the first after Horde Prime was finally defeated."
Experience made her pause in time to let the clones curse Horde Prime. She managed not to wince when she noted that they had picked up a few more creative insults from Catra. That bit certainly would be cut before it was aired by any American broadcasting company.
"They are the first generation to be raised differently - to be raised as people in their own right. The first to benefit from what you all have fought and struggled for - and earned - the right to pursue your own path in life, to find happiness according to your own desires, not according to one being's whims and dictates. You called them your brothers, and they are, but they are also your first children. Treat them as such - raise them with love, care and understanding. Do not force your own expectations on them, but let them decide how they want to live their life."
She felt more than a little like a hypocrite. Here she was preaching about childcare when she had been raised as a child soldier by Shadow Weaver. But that didn't mean she was lying, or wrong.
"Above all, accept and love them no matter their choices, but guide them as well so they can make their own decisions and live with the consequences."
Adora took a deep breath and blinked - her eyes were feeling a little wet.
"In short, be their loving family."
She slowly nodded, and the clones cheered again.
"Her Divine Highness has spoken, and Her Wise Words shall be heeded!" Priest declared. He bowed deeply to Adora and then turned to face the assembled clones. "Now, let's not dally any longer and welcome our newest children to our family!"
Adora turned to watch the rows of cloning pods behind her. The first one, the one at the right end of the front row, briefly glowed, illuminating its interior. The liquid inside it was quickly drained, revealing a new clone. Several cables and tubes connecting him to the pod were withdrawn, and Adora suppressed a slight shudder at the memory of Horde Prime using a similar mechanism for himself.
But then she heard a hissing sound, and the lid of the pod slowly rose as warm air dried the clone inside.
He wasn't moving, though. Adora could see him breathing, but he wasn't moving. But if something were wrong, the machines and sensors would have caught it. And Priest didn't seem worried, so this was normal.
Then the clone opened his eyes, blinking confusedly - at her, Adora realised. "Who…?" he whispered. "Where am I? Who am I?"
"You are a clone, same as we are," Priest told him. "The youngest member of our family."
The clone looked from Adora to Priest, then at Adora, and finally down at himself.
"And this is Her Divine Highness, She-Ra, Princess of Power! We owe her our freedom and our lives!"
Adora blinked as the clone's eyes widened and darted back to stare at her. "She-Ra…"
Before she could tell him to call her Adora, Priest cried out: "Praise her Divine Highness!", and the other clones took up the call.
Including the new clone whispering it as two clones helped him out of the pod and led him to the side, where clothes and other necessities were waiting.
Adora turned to frown at Priest - she hadn't been told about that part! - but he was already stepping up to the next pod.
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Maine, United States of America, Earth, April 15th, 2000
"...and it's with great pleasure and pride that we have gathered to watch the launch of the Constitution II, the mightiest warship ever to be constructed on Earth. May she serve as admirably as her famous predecessor, the oldest warship still in service!"
Samantha Carter clapped her hands politely as everyone else present applauded. She managed not to roll her eyes as Admiral Baker continued his speech.
The man was technically correct - the Constitution II was the largest warship built so far on Earth and outgunned the Flower II-class built by the United Kingdom even without taking her fighter complement into account. Which was a good thing since the Corsair IIIs that were supposed to be carried by her were still in the testing phase. Although the fighters were about to enter mass production as soon as testing showed that Sam's fixes for the last issues worked. Which it would - Sam and Entrapta had done the fixes personally. Compared to the work on the Constitution II, the project had run almost smoothly for its scope.
Of course, the fact that the Corsair III was a joint project of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, and one where the US Navy hadn't been able to take the lead, had helped there. If they had incorporated every damn 'suggestion' by the Navy, they would still be in the planning phase for the next prototype. If they had simply copied the Horde fighter design, maybe adapted it a bit, they would have had squadrons of them entering service already, but if there was one thing the Earth part of the Alliance agreed on, it was that they didn't want to rely on copying designs but create their own despite the cost.
By her estimation, the Constitution II could have been launched about a year earlier, and at a much, much lower cost, if they had stuck to the original design for a frigate instead of trying to construct a ship that would do the job of both a frigate and an escort carrier.
And, in her opinion, clearly if diplomatically stated in her reports, the design was a failure as a carrier. It had less firepower than a Horde frigate despite being bigger. And a single squadron of fighters simply wasn't worth the additional crew, space and supplies requirements. More shuttles would have been better and would have significantly helped with the capacity to conduct rescue, scouting and even special operations. But the Navy had argued that the new ships' 'dual focus' would let them gain critical experience with both gunship and carrier operations in space at the same time and that the exploding costs were worth it since that way, they would be able to save money when designing the fleet carriers and battleships they wanted.
Sam would believe that when it happened - and after double- and triple-checking the budgets.
"And now, let's watch as the newest ship in the service of the United States takes to the sky!" Baker finished, gesturing with his arm at the ship in its berth behind him.
For a moment, nothing happened. Sam heard some of the audience starting to whisper - mostly, but not exclusively the civilians present, politicians and other notables, laypeople who expected an outdated rocket launch.
But modern spaceships with inertial compensators didn't launch on a pillar of fire. The ship silently started to rise, slowly clearing the berth's walls. Once she was clear, she accelerated, although still far more slowly than she could, to avoid blasting the audience with a sonic boom.
Even so, it didn't take long for the ship to become a speck in the sky.
While the audience started chatting excitedly about the - in Sam's opinion rather mundane - event, she checked her laptop. According to the scanner in the Spacelab, the Constitution II's systems were performing according to their specifications, and the ship was following the pre-planned route for her maiden flight.
Good. Sam felt a bit relieved even though she knew the odds of anything going wrong were very slim. Not slim enough that she would have been allowed on the ship for this, though. In any case, this was now officially no longer her problem - at least until something did go seriously wrong.
"Major Carter, you must be feeling very proud to see your project coming to such an impressive conclusion!"
She turned to smile, politely, at Admiral Baker. "It is good to see the ship fly," she said, "but my part in the project was limited to troubleshooting when necessary." Which had been far too often the case, in her opinion. "You should congratulate the design team responsible for this." And, of course, the ship still needed significant time to work up until she was ready for active service.
"Already did!" He beamed at her. "And you know what they said?"
Sam managed not to channel the General and comment that she was sure he would tell her. "No, sir?" she said instead.
"That you were essential for the project's success! Now, as we both know, they wouldn't say this if this weren't true. So, again, congratulations! The Navy is in your debt."
Sam smiled, but inwardly, she felt quite differently. Those bastards were only praising her in order to blame her for any problems that would appear during the ship's maiden flight or the shakedown cruise.
Well, Sam wasn't going to let them do this to her. Her reports were already filed and would set things straight if anyone tried to scapegoat her.
So she smiled and nodded - and hoped the admiral would turn to someone else soon so she could slip away and get back to more important work.
Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, April 17th, 2000 (Earth Time)
Catra put down the report from Priest and shook her head. The clone knew how to mince words, even when writing military reports. But even flavoured quite optimistically, the results remained: Training the newborn clones to be competent crewmen for Horde ships would take six months at the very least, and only if you defined competent as "won't endanger the ship trying to do their duties" and focused on specialising as much as possible.
Which wasn't a good way to run a navy, as Catra knew from her time in the Horde. You wanted as much redundancy as possible in your crews to compensate for losses. And you wanted experienced sailors, both ratings and officers. During the Horde war, the Salinean fleet had had inferior ships but much better crews, and that had told in most engagements where they hadn't been outnumbered to a significant degree. And even outnumbered, they had inflicted disproportionate losses on the Horde forces.
So, in order to actually be effective, they would need to staff the Fourth Fleet with a solid core of experienced clones from the other fleets. That would reduce the crew quality in the existing fleet since those clones would have to be replaced. And cause some friction if you mixed crews from different fleets on the same ship - or even in the same task force. Third Fleet had developed a very different culture than Second Fleet or First Fleet, not that the two latter fleets were identical either; Hordak and WrongHordak ran their forces quite differently.
They could avoid some of the friction by simply taking the cadre for the new fleet from a single fleet. Third Fleet would be the obvious choice, but that would mean that fleet would suffer the lion's share of the drain of experienced crews. And having new fleets so closely associated with existing fleets could, in the long run, damage the entire fleet's cohesion.
Although Catra wasn't sure that just forming new fleets with new cultures would help much with cohesion either. Maybe having more crews move around between ships and fleets would help, but with the way Third Fleet was basically just the Church of She-Ra's naval branch, as Jack had put it once, it might cause more problems than it would solve.
Problems Horde Prime hadn't had to deal with since he had just programmed the minds of his clones to get them as skilled and loyal as he wanted them to be. Loyal little drones. She shivered at the memory of being under his control, ready to lay down her life for him, ready to fight Adora for him… No one should have that kind of power!
Fortunately, all the data about that kind of 'programming' had been wiped on the orders of Hordak, WrongHordak and Priest - not even Entrapta had protested against losing data forever. So, no idiot could have the bright idea of using this technology to speed up training, and Catra wouldn't have to claw off their face for suggesting it, either.
Still, between the need to train all those new clones and crews and draining the existing crews of cadre, it meant that for the next twelve months or so, the Alliance's naval strength would be diminished.
She quickly ran the numbers on her pad. If everything worked out reasonably well, they'd reach the point where they would see the first actual increase in numbers and total effectiveness in about a year, but the individual ships would still be less effective than they currently were since a percentage of their crews would be new clones getting training. That could be improved with a dedicated training command, though setting that up would cost resources as well. However, once running, it should streamline and speed up the training of new clones and improve crew effectiveness.
And having a centralised Horde training command should also help with force cohesion.
Nodding, she started jotting down a proposal she could run past Hordak, Wrong Hordak and Priest. She could put it to the Command Council, but this was Horde business; the idea of a centralised Alliance Naval Training Command had been shot down from the start since none of the Earth navies wanted to adapt to a different naval culture, much less the Horde traditions, and technical training wouldn't help much with everyone using different classes of ships.
Just having a standardised Naval Tactics Course based on the Horde experience for all naval officers to take had been an achievement, and even that had required letting NATO take the lead in Alliance Special Operations training.
Sometimes, Catra really missed having the power to just order people to do things the right way or get shot. On the other hand, having such power also came with a lot more paperwork and everyone and their mother coming to her with problems they should have been able to solve themselves, cutting into her time to actually tackle the important issues.
She took a look at her proposal. It wasn't very detailed, but it didn't have to be; that stuff was best left to those with more experience in the specifics. But it outlined the pros and cons quite nicely. Now, all that was left was to send it to the Fleet leaders.
She was just getting around to that when an alert came in. Not an emergency, but urgent?
Oh. The spy bot network had discovered the missing Horde fleet.
She quickly sent her proposal and got up to head to the meeting room. The Alliance would have to deal with this new development.
Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, April 18th, 2000 (Earth Time)
"So, what's the situation?" Jack O'Neill asked as he entered the meeting room and found the Etherians already present. Of course, he had had to take the Stargate from Earth while they were living down the hall.
"Hello, everyone!" Daniel said and Jack knew without looking behind him that he was frowning at Jack.
Jack ignored it. The Etherians had called for an urgent meeting, so time was of the essence. At least, that was his excuse. Besides, a meeting was a meeting; the sooner you got it started, the less time ended up being wasted. Though this was a peculiar meeting - besides the princesses, both Hordak and WrongHordak were present, but not Priest.
"Hi there!"
"Hello."
"Thank you for coming so quickly."
"Of course, we came."
"Indeed."
His friends apparently didn't want to go with the program. Foiled again. Jack sighed as he took his usual seat next to Carter, who apparently had stayed the night on Etheria, probably burning the midnight oil with Entrapta again.
"We've discovered the missing Horde force," Adora said once everyone was seated.
"One of the potentially missing Horde forces - there could be others," WrongHordak cut in.
"A Horde force with which we haven't been in contact before," Adora corrected herself. "Though it seems they are the ones that attacked the Goa'uld shipyard we found. They're operating in the same area, at least, and they're attacking Goa'uld forces."
"Oh?" Jack raised his eyebrows.
"Yes, sir." Carter nodded. "We've been able to observe a battle between a task force of standard Horde frigates and what has been identified as a fleet under the command of Sokar." She pushed a button on her laptop, and a holoprojection appeared in the middle of the room. Must have made an upgrade, Jack noted. Or just tapped into the existing hardware of the room. "The Goa'uld force was completely destroyed in short order, the expected outcome given the numerical and technological superiority of the Horde force. Interestingly, we observed salvage efforts afterwards - the clones are working on recovering two Ha'taks that were disabled instead of destroyed in the fighting."
"They're trying to recover the ships themselves? Not just stripping them for parts?" Jack asked.
"Yes, sir." The projection zoomed in on those two ships, showing a few Horde craft near them and docked to them.
"That's a major effort for an inferior ship," Jack commented. Before meeting the Ethetrians and the Horde, Stargate Command had been hoping to recover a Ha'tak by any means necessary, and Jack had familiarised himself with the plans made. Salvaging a ship disabled through damage took a lot of work unless it was precise sabotage you could easily fix. Which getting your engines blasted off by focused naval fire wasn't.
"Indeed," Teal'c agreed. "They are either not worried about being caught in the middle of the recovery operation by reinforcements or feel confident to repel any such force."
"It's easy to feel confident in their position," Jack said. "Though that makes it even weirder that they are bothering about Ha'taks."
"Yes." Entrapta nodded several times. "Are they trying to gather more data on their enemies? But between all the Ha'taks they destroyed and the shipyard they looted, they already should know all that is to know about Ha'taks. Unless they were very unlucky or sloppy with their sensors."
"That is unlikely. Clones are trained better than that," Hordak said with a frown.
"Yes." WrongHordak agreed. "Most of us have had those skills ingrained by Horde Prime's conditioning and then practised them continuously. They are almost reflexes at this point."
"But Horde Prime's death was a heavy blow to his clones," Bow commented. "That's like losing a princess without a successor ready to be crowned, and in such cases, a kingdom usually suffered an upheaval on Etheria. These clones would have suddenly lost their connection to Horde Prime without anyone ready to step in and lead them like First, Second and Third Fleet had. We can't really count on them to just keep going as usual."
Daniel nodded in obvious agreement.
"That wouldn't have been enough for them to forget their training," Hordak retorted. "And as our new intel shows, they fought effectively and at a level we would expect, so it's unlikely that they would have suffered a loss of effectiveness in just one area of expertise."
Weirder things had happened, but Jack had to agree with the former warlord. "We need more information to tell."
"Yes," Glimmer said. "Before we contact them, we need to know what they're doing and why."
"We can ask them when we contact them." Perfuma smiled. "I'm sure they'll be curious about us as well - especially about their brothers in the Alliance. We can exchange information."
Jack winced a little.
"We should be more cautious," Sha're spoke up. "We don't know anything about them. They could be a danger to us."
Frosta frowned at her. "They're fighting the Goa'uld - our enemies."
"That doesn't mean that they're our allies," Sha're retorted. "Or that they aren't willing to stab us in the back."
"Indeed." Teal'c nodded.
"It would be prudent to take the possibility into account that they have chosen a similar course as, ah, Hordak did when he was cut off from Horde Prime," Daniel added with an apologetic smile.
"Yes." Catra nodded sharply. "We need to know why they are fighting the Goa'uld before we make contact. If they want to conquer the galaxy in Horde Prime's name, we can't trust them."
"They would consider us traitors," WrongHordak said.
"But if we spy on them before contacting them, they might think we're not honest with them," Perfuma objected. "We can't expect them to trust us if we aren't willing to extend our trust to them."
Jack had to suppress another wince.
"We don't trust them," Mermista said. "That's the point of this meeting. We need to decide what to do about them because they're acting weird and are a potential threat to us all."
Perfuma frowned. "But is that our decision to make in the first place? Shouldn't we leave that either to the Alliance as a whole, or to the Horde, since they are their brothers, and not to the Princess Alliance?"
Good questions, Jack had to admit. This seemed to be a matter for the Alliance Command Council.
"Technically, this is both an internal matter for the Horde and a matter for the entire Alliance due to the threat a hostile Horde force represents," Hordak said. "But since the majority of the clones follow She-Ra, she would have to be involved anyway, and since everyone knows Adora relies on her friends for advice, it seemed most efficient to have this meeting here to decide our course of action before informing the rest of the Alliance."
Jack didn't like the implied dismissal of the Alliance as a whole, but the clone was correct. Whether Earth liked it or not, this would be decided by the clones and She-Ra. And, if he was honest, it was probably more productive as well. And, of course, he trusted Adora more than he trusted most of the governments back on Earth.
He leaned forward and focused on Adora. "So… What do you think?"
What do I think? Adora briefly bit her lower lip. She had pondered this ever since she had heard about the news. Well, she could start with the easy part.
"I think this is a decision for the clones. Those were their brothers, their people. We don't know if the clones in that fleet still feel like they are part of the Horde or if they feel that they - or the fleets here - are a different people now that Horde Prime is gone, like the others we've found before. But until we know, this is a Horde matter first, an Alliance matter second." Just as deciding to grow the clone population had been a Horde decision, not an Alliance decision.
"Should be good enough for the Alliance to accept so they can save face," Jack commented.
Catra snorted but didn't make any comment about letting an enemy save as much face as possible but nothing else. She'd done that last night already, of course.
"It's not an excuse," Daniel said. "It's the truth. And I doubt that the Earth countries want to set a precedent that would allow the Alliance to intervene in internal disputes."
"We absolutely would if it were necessary to save people," Glimmer muttered.
That was true, of course, but Adora was aware that it was best if they never had to do that.
"Internal disputes in a NATO country don't exactly present a threat to the Alliance as a whole," Jack said. "A Horde Fleet, though, does - they're what, a third of the current fleet strength?"
"That depends on whether or not they have maintained their ship numbers," Hordak replied. "They could have lost ships to battles and desertions. Or internal fighting. Or they could have increased their numbers, as we're doing."
"Do we even know if all Horde Fleets had the same number of ships?" Mermista asked. "We still don't know how many fleets existed thanks to Horde Prime keeping information from everyone, even the clones."
"All three Fleets with Horde Prime had the same number of ships," WrongHordak told her. "While not definite proof, it's pretty indicative of the norm."
"As obsessed as he was with what he saw as 'perfect order', the odds that he would have allowed divergences in the Horde's roster are minimal," Hordak said with a sneer.
Adora agreed with that assessment. She couldn't see Horde Prime tolerating varying numbers of ships in his fleet.
"We should hope that they have the same number," Catra said.
"Why?" Daniel looked puzzled.
"If they have lost significant numbers of ships to battle, it means there's an enemy out there who can match them - and us, in that case," Catra explained. "If they destroyed each other over internal disputes, they might try to do the same to us."
"That they do loot the false gods' resources and make determined attempts to salvage their ships might indicate that they have lost part or all of their fleet train and depend on such means to maintain and replenish their strength," Teal'c speculated.
Adora nodded again. That was a possible explanation. The Horde didn't have bases to support their fleets. Each fleet carried their own logistical base with them, and if they lost it, they would be left to wither on the vine, so to speak. But…
"If they have access to even part of their fleet train, they should, over time, be able to restore it completely," Hordak said. "Like First Fleet."
"They would still have a problem with crewing new ships, though," WrongHordak said. "Unless a lot of the crews of the lost ships survived their destruction - or were deployed on a planet at the time."
First Fleet had drawn most of their replacement crews from the ground forces of Horde Prime that had been trapped on Etheria when Adora had turned his flagship - and with it the cloning pods - into a plant. But those had mostly come from the Velvet Glove; a Fleet wouldn't have as many ground forces to deploy in the first place. "Could they build cloning pods?"
"Well, they should," Entrapta said. "The basic design isn't that difficult to replicate, even without the blueprints in the databanks. Horde Prime really should have backed up his data."
"In theory, they could," Hordak added. "We all knew the basics. But whether or not any of the clones developed the aptitude to build such technology?" He shrugged. "I could have done it, but I was an aberration."
"You're not an aberration. You're Hordak!" Entrapta told him with a frown.
He smiled at her, and Entrapta's frown melted away.
Next to Adora, Catra snorted, but softly, so none but Adora heard it.
"In any case, I didn't have access to the mental patterns Horde Prime imprinted on every clone he grew," Hordak went on. "And without them, the best I could have done would have been to copy my own. Which I did not want to. For various reasons."
Adora nodded. She didn't want to pry. "So, the new fleet might be unable to replace lost clones."
"Or they copied each other and formed some hive mind," Catra joked. At least, Adora hoped she was joking. Judging by Entrapta and Sam's expression, and Bow's grimace, Catra's idea might not be as absurd as it sounded.
"Let's hope not. Taking out hive minds is a pain," Jack said. "But we still don't know how we deal with this new Horde force. Spy on them? Talk to them? Send them a late Valentine's card?"
That was the tricky question. Adora looked at Hordak and WrongHordak. Maybe she should have invited Priest to this meeting as well, but… she already knew he would want them to convert the other clones to worshipping Adora. Like he wanted to convert everyone else.
"We should be cautious and gather more information," Hordak said. "Then, when we know more about them, decide how to handle them."
WrongHordak shook his head. "We should approach them openly and arrange a meeting so we can honestly take their measure."
Everyone was looking at her, Adora realised. Waiting for her decision. Well, this was easy. "We want friends we can trust, and that requires extending trust to them first." She firmly nodded. "Honesty is the best policy."
Of course, Catra had to snort and say something about "trust, but verify."
Orbit Above Etheria, April 19th, 2000 (Earth Time)
Samantha Carter had expected Adora's decision - anyone who knew her had. Or should have; she was sure some people back on Earth still didn't understand Adora. Probably because they were so cynical - or corrupt - they couldn't contemplate, much less accept that true idealists not only were real but also successful. It would wreck their worldview.
And it wasn't as if Adora's decision was wrong. Spying on the Horde fleet in question before contacting them might appear to be the cautious choice, but only if they weren't caught. If exposed, it would run the risk of antagonising the Horde force and spoiling any attempt at diplomacy. As much as some people might agree with the idea that a country had no friends, only interests, the fact was that countries were ruled by people, and people held grudges.
Still, being open and honest didn't mean you had to be careless about it. Adora was an idealist, but no fool. However, there was a bit of a disagreement about what kind of preparations were adequate for the contact mission.
"We should take the entire First Fleet," Hordak grumbled from where he was studying a screen on the bridge of the flagship First Fleet. "A show of force that will discourage aggression on the part of this Horde fleet. Unlike the other Horde remnants we met before, they are not only fighting battles, but they are not even just defending themselves or their territory; they're actively attacking Goa'uld fleets and bases. If we appear weak, they might attack us as well."
"We don't know that - we don't know why they're attacking the Goa'uld," Entrapta pointed out. "If we appear threatening, they might attack us out of fear. It's a common response amongst many species. Including sapient ones, according to my data. We cannot expect them to act rationally."
The General would say that sometimes, attacking when threatened was the rational response. Sam didn't disagree. But whether or not this applied to a specific situation was often only obvious in hindsight. She checked the data analysis her computer was running against the records from the spy bot network. So far, there were no irregularities.
"If they are so far gone as to let fear dictate their actions, they are already a threat that we would have to deal with sooner or later," Hordak retorted. He shook his head. "And worse, if we show up with a fleet train, even parts of it, in tow, and they lack one, as we considered, then they might be tempted to attack us to take it from us."
"We are not taking a fleet train with us on the contact mission," Sam said. "Just a single yardship." Enough to maintain the task force being sent for a short mission but nothing more. And none of the mining and refining and other supply ships that were necessary to provide sufficient logistics for a Horde fleet. "If we took the entire First Fleet, we would have to take the entire fleet train as well."
"But we would have the strength to defend it," Hordak argued. After a pause, he scowled. "I don't like this. All the other remnants we met, at least those who refused to join us, were isolationists. They refuse to accept that Horde Prime is gone and wait for orders that will never come, merely defending themselves when attacked. This fleet, though, shows initiative. They are conducting what seems to be an offensive - or at least a raiding campaign. Why are they doing this when all the others are passive?"
"Maybe they have a leader like you?" Entrapta smiled.
Hordak didn't. He grimaced. "That would be the worst case."
Entrapta gasped. "Don't say that!"
Sam pressed her lips together for a moment. It wouldn't be fair to agree with Hordak. "You're not bent on conquest anymore," she said instead.
"It took me many years and many experiences to change. And it was only possible because I was isolated from Horde Prime. I was formed by the unique circumstances I experienced on Etheria. The other clones were under his rule until a few years ago. They never had any freedom to develop their own opinions. They never had the opportunity to experience a different life, hear different opinions or act on their own initiative - that would have made Horde Prime cull them." He shook his head. "No, if they have a leader like me, he'll be like me when I arrived on Etheria: Bent on conquest in Horde Prime's name."
"We can't know that!" Entrapta protested.
They couldn't. But It was very likely, in Sam's opinion. After Horde Prime had controlled every part of their life including their very thoughts, individuality came slowly to many clones.
"We need to be prepared for the worst," Hordak said. "At the very least, we need to move the rest of First Fleet forward to a position where they can support and relieve us when necessary. Besides, moving them out of the system will make the Princess Alliance stop complaining about the mining ships cracking asteroids. As if we're significantly reducing the number of asteroids! We could crack dozens without making even a hint of a dent!" he grumbled.
Sam knew that there was also a dispute about asteroid mining on Earth. The Horde fleet trains used to crack entire - smaller - asteroids for refining. It was quite effective but required large mining and refining ships and destroyed the asteroids being mined. The latter was a point of contention on Earth, especially amongst astronomers. Last she heard, there was talk about founding a society for the protection of celestial bodies.
Well, that was none of her concern. She was busy with research and the war effort. Which meant helping Entrapta and Hordak with planning the route to the new Horde fleet's area of operations.
She'd leave diplomacy and protecting asteroids to others.
Gate Area, PZ-9771, April 30th, 2000 (Earth Time)
"Alright! Drop it down here! Well, not drop - put it down, I meant."
"Sorry!"
"Don't worry. That will buff out."
Catra snorted and shook her head as Adora took a step back from the Stargate on the floor inside the shuttle, and Entrapta and Sam stared at their scanners.
"I just followed orders." Adora pouted at her.
"You should have known better. Fortunately, a Stargate is hard to break, even for you."
"Yes."
Just when Adora perked up, Catra added: "Much easier to break a shuttle."
"It's not broken!"
Catra shrugged. "Not for lack of trying."
Before Adora could reply to that, Entrapat stood up and nodded. "Alright! Everything's in order - we can fly off and return to the others! And install the Stargate on Hordak's flagship!"
"Finally!" In Catra's opinion, they should have installed Stargates on every fleet's flagship long ago, probably on a few more. It would make moving around between theatres of operation much faster for everyone. But that meant removing them from planets, and between planets with a population and planets with the potential for being settled, finding Stargates no one would miss had been a bit of a challenge. You had to thoroughly check whether a planet really didn't have a native population, and that usually required more than a quick trip through the Stargate and a look at the gate area.
But this planet's population had been wiped out in the war between Horde Prime and the First Ones, at least according to the records they had recovered in the remains. Probably as collateral damage, Catra thought - neither side had really cared about anyone else. So, no one would miss this Stargate. And they really needed a mobile one in this sector, what with this weird Horde force being active in the area.
The ramp closed behind her, and she took a seat next to Adora's just before the shuttle lifted off. Shortly afterwards, escorted by a squadron of Horde fighters, they entered orbit and approached the frigate serving as flagship of this task force.
Hordak was already waiting in the hangar, and Catra and Adora stepped out of the way as he, Entrapta and Sam got busy moving and installing the Stargate. Catra followed Adora to the bridge. There was nothing they could do to help with that except for doing the heavy lifting, but they could adjust the gravity for that here, and there would be reports waiting for the Supreme Commander of the Alliance on the bridge.
There always were reports and other paperwork waiting for Adora.
Outside PT-9621 System, May 1st, 2000 (Earth Time)
"We've sent the communication request, Commander," the clone crewman reported to Hordak. "No response yet."
Catra hadn't expected an immediate response. Being contacted out of the blue, by First Fleet - the escort force for Horde Prime's flagship? That would have surprised, maybe shocked the clones in the system.
On the other hand, all the scattered Horde forces they had contacted before had quickly, sometimes desperately asked them if they had news about Horde Prime. She checked the time. Almost a minute, and this force had yet to open a channel.
"The ships inside the system are moving into a defensive formation."
Catra could see that on the holoprojection.
"Well, they didn't miss our call," Jack commented.
"They're not wary but not aggressive," Adora said.
"They don't know our forces," Hordak retorted. "This is a standard reaction. Once they know our numbers, they might alter their formation depending on their intentions."
"Incoming call."
Adora straightened. "Put it on the screen."
A clone appeared on the screen. He didn't look any different compared to any other clones. Same appearance, standard uniform. Just like Horde Prime had wanted. And yet… Catra narrowed her eyes. Something was off.
"Hello!" Adora beamed at the clone. "I am She-Ra, Princess of Power. This is Hordak, the commander of First Fleet."
Catra and the others present stayed outside the field of view of the communicator. Honesty might be the best policy, but that didn't mean you had to tell an unknown force everything right away. Explaining the Alliance would take some time, anyway. Especially the difference between the Goa'uld and the Tok'Ra. And the difference between Earth and the First Ones.
The Horde clone frowned a little at Hordak, Catra noted. Was he offended by his appearance? Some clones considered any change to their bodies an aberration, a violation of Horde Prime's will.
"I am the Commander of the Horde."
That was quite the claim if he meant the entire Horde. And it seemed he knew that Horde Prime was gone. Otherwise, he'd have asked the supposed leader of First Fleet about it. But had he no name, or was he hiding his name? Catra couldn't tell. And yet, something was definitely off about the clone. Something… She stepped over to Entrapta. "Can you zoom in on him on your screen?" she whispered.
"Yes!"
"What do you want?" the clone asked.
Catra focused on his appearance. The uniform was the same, but… "His shoulders!" she whispered.
"What about it?" Jack asked in a low voice.
Catra leaned over and zoomed in further. "Look at the shoulders! Beneath the cape! Something left a mark on it there. Something heavy." Those marks looked like the dents in a Horde uniform's shoulder pads after wearing a heavy backpack for hours - something Catra was familiar with as a punishment. "He must have been wearing something else on his shoulders and has replaced it with the standard clone cape to talk to us."
"Yes?" Entrapta looked confused.
But Jack nodded. "He's hiding something."
It was just a feeling, but Catra was pretty sure it was something important.