Chapter 158: The Double Cross Part 4

Solar System, near Earth, February 14th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Adora watched carefully as the shuttle flew alongside the hull to their side. Up close, the decoy superweapon did look impressive. At least if you had never seen Horde Prime's flagship before it had been turned into a plant. Adora hoped that Apophis wasn't familiar with the Velvet Glove. Even so, the superweapon was three to four times the size of a Horde frigate, which was impressive for a Horde ship. But compared to the superweapons Jack had shown them, it wasn't that big. Of course, those were fictive superweapons, not real ones. Then again, this was a decoy, so it wasn't a real superweapon either. Just real enough to fool Apophis. Hopefully.

And it was a pretty functional decoy. The hangar doors opened smoothly as their shuttle approached, and the forcefield keeping the atmosphere from venting into the vacuum barely flickered when the shuttle entered the hangar. Of course, none of the people involved in its construction would accept shady construction. The only part that didn't work was the Core Cracker Cannon.

They touched down, and Adora saw a formation of clones line up on both sides of the ramp as it descended.

"Supreme Commander!" the officer in charge of them saluted. "Welcome on board the Piledriver."

Adora smiled at him and returned the salute.

"Hello, Adora! Hi, Catra!" Entrapta waved at them while Hordak and Sam, standing at her side, nodded. "How do you like the not-fully operational battle station?"

"Isn't it a little small for a Death Star?" Catra commented with a grin.

Sam frowned at that, Hordak didn't react, and Entrapta pouted. "Jack made the same joke already," she complained. "It's not our fault! If we had had more time, we could have made it fully operational."

Sam cleared her throat. "It's a fully functional decoy. It's not meant to wreck planets."

"But Jack said…"

"The General was joking." Sam pressed her lips together.

"Is he still carrying a grudge over the magitech weapon proposal?" Catra asked.

Adora frowned. "I thought that had been cleared up. The timing was just a coincidence; his medical data wasn't leaked." The research proposal had been written up before the… magic incident Adora was responsible for. And technically, it was Jack's complaint that had revealed what had happened to him. Though it would be unfair to mention that to him.

"It's a sore subject," Sam said in a tight voice.

"Ah." Adora nodded, suppressing a wince.

"He'll come around once he can blast stuff with magic weapons," Catra said.

Sam nodded with a faint smile. "I guess so."

Entrapta, however, beamed. "Oh, yes! We've gone over the proposals - those will be great!"

Adora agreed, but they weren't here to discuss magictech gear. They were here to inspect the decoy superweapon. "So, show us around?" They had seen the plans, but this was the first time Catra and Adora were on board the decoy.

"Of course!" Entrapta nodded several times. "Let's start with engineering! We've used a standard propulsion array, standard for a Horde frigate, so it's kinda slow, but we've improved the shields in exchange. And since the main weapon is a decoy, we could install a more powerful reactor, and so the shield is far stronger than a frigate's!" Entrapta led them down the hallway. "So, it can take a beating. But it's not actually that much better protected compared to a frigate - since it's so slow, it's also an easier target. Even with all the electronic countermeasures we installed. Though those are mostly to keep Apophis from detecting the hidden troop compartments. Which we built into the reactor room. The interference from the reactor and the shielding from it should help counter any sensors."

Adora frowned. "Isn't the shielding supposed to protect us from the reactor's radiation?"

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded. "But it will also block scans. And we left enough around the reactor, so it's still within Horde safety regulations."

"Horde Prime's or Hordak's?" Catra asked.

"Mine," Hordak told her.

"Good." Catra grinned. "I wouldn't trust the safety regulations from Horde Prime."

Adora nodded. That man had seen all his clones as expendable, after all. "And I can heal everyone afterwards, just to be safe."

Catra snickered. "Jack will love that."

Adora frowned at her - making fun about Jack's fear of being magically changed wasn't nice - but Sam nodded. Firmly. Maybe she carried a grudge as well about the misunderstanding?

Maybe Adora should talk to them. They shouldn't start a dangerous mission with such tensions in the team.

Solar System, near Earth, February 15th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"...So, the decoy battle station is fully operational?"

"Yes, sir." Samantha Carter kept her face impassive and didn't smile at all at the General's joke. "All systems are operational - including the shielded troop compartments." She pointed at the holographic projection behind her in the cabin currently serving as her office on the decoy.

"Which not even semi-portable scanners the size of a crate would find, right?"

"None of the known scanners the Goa'uld use can penetrate the shielding, sir," Sam replied. "All they will detect are the decoy readings we prepared - meaning, they'll see additional power supplies for the main gun," she added before the General could ask. "Although if you desire additional proof, you can attend the testing with the Tok'ra we've scheduled for later today."

"Ah, that won't be necessary. I trust you, Carter."

She pressed her lips together. As he had trusted her not to reveal his condition to others? She'd never break his confidence like that! It was petty, she knew, but he should have known better than even to ask.

Something of her thoughts must have shown on her face since she saw him wince for a moment. "So… everything's ready for the mission. All we need is Apophis to bite."

"Yes, sir."

"Good."

A moment passed without either of them saying anything. She didn't like how awkward it felt.

"So… if we needed, could you and Entrapta rig the main gun to actually fire?"

"The main gun is functional, sir," she replied. "It just doesn't have the power its size would indicate since most of its volume is taken up by the troop compartments and other secret systems. Otherwise, it's a standard main gun used on Horde frigates." He knew that.

"Yeah, I know. But could you, you know, have it shoot at that kinda power if we needed it? By overloading it, or something?"

"No, sir. That would merely melt most of the gun - including the troop compartments."

"Ah." He nodded, then grinned. "Good job on keeping Entrapta from making an actual superweapon. Wouldn't want to blow up a world by mistake."

She frowned at him. That was an unfair comment - Entrapta knew better than that. "The only way such a weapon would have been actually used would have been if Alliance Command decided to use it. Entrapta would never use it on her own." And Adora would never condone such a course of action. She would never sacrifice a world to win a war.

"Not even to test it?"

She frowned again. "None of us would test it on a planet, sir." It would bring up too many memories. Of Etheria's near-destruction. And of planets left destroyed at Horde Prime's command.

"Good." He sighed. "Several people who know about this operation are quite interested if such a weapon could actually be built."

"My report shows that it's theoretically possible - provided quite extensive research proves the viability of several assumptions critical to the concept," she said. "The cost of this research, both in resources and time, cannot be estimated with any degree of certainty at this point, but even the most optimistic estimate is substantial."

"Yeah, I've seen the numbers. Though that won't stop people who really want their second Project Manhattan. Especially if it results in an actual Death Star." He shrugged. "Though some of them probably just want a big cut of the money which would poured into such a project and don't care if it ends up working."

Sam nodded. She was aware of this kind of… it wasn't technically corruption, but you could make a case for it being embezzlement. Though given past practices in the USA with regard to procurement for the Armed Forces, it would just be seen as business as usual - few such projects did not end up costing far more than promised.

He shrugged. "Well, not this one. Our Etherian friends have a kind of chip on their shoulders about blowing up planets. The Alliance won't be funding research into planet busters."

Or other weapons of mass destruction, though the definitions of what was a weapon of mass destruction tended to be a bit fluid when it concerned space combat. Any weapon system that could destroy a large spaceship mounting force shields would easily lay waste to an unshielded city - or landscape. And if you had a fleet of ships designed for such battles, an orbital bombardment could destroy a planet's biosphere.

"They wouldn't take kindly to independent research into such weapon systems, either, sir," she said.

"I know. And so does the President. But do you think this will stop Kinsey's cronies?"

She pressed her lips together. "He has been quite vocal about not alienating our allies, sir."

"Yeah, which means he thinks he can distance himself from whoever is doing this if it gets out," the General replied.

"Such research requires highly specialised and experienced scientists, apart from access to advanced technology, sir. And actually testing even rudimentary power systems advanced enough to power such a weapon would show up on our sensors the moment they are switched on for the first time."

"I hope you're right, Carter." He shrugged. "But it won't stop people trying it. Ours, the Russians, the Chinese… Like every damn dictator who wanted nukes, they won't feel safe until they have something to make the Alliance back off from meddling in their 'domestic matters'."

Sam knew that. But she didn't think they would succeed. Not without a lot more advanced technology available and a lot more research. But she also knew that sooner or later, both would be available.

"Anyway, I've picked my teams for this mission. I'll send them up so they can get settled in." He nodded at her. "Good work, Carter."

"Thank you, sir. I'll pass it on to Entrapta and Hordak."

Another nod. He turned, then stopped. "Also… sorry about, you know. I overreacted."

She hesitated a moment, then nodded, smiling a little, and he left the cabin.

Royal Palace, Bright Moon, February 15th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Catra felt surprised. And wary. She had been all set to insist on coming with Adora to the meeting about Bright Moon's crown, argue that they needed some outside opinion, from someone who wasn't a princess, who had different experiences and perspectives, and whatever other argument she could pull off without coming across as a blatant liar (such as claiming she wasn't biassed in favour of either Glimmer or Angella), but no one had said anything about her walking in at Adora's side.

In a way, it was almost disappointing. But she was in, and with Adora, and that was what mattered. Someone had to keep the bigger picture in mind. And keep Adora from being manipulated - Catra wouldn't put it past Angella to try to act like… like Shadow Weaver, all understanding and caring, and praising, when she wanted something. She still had to find out why, of all the Horde people, Shadow Weaver had been alive in the other dimension - and not exiled, but at court.

But that could wait until this was settled. Maybe a bit longer - with the decoy operation coming up as soon as Kul'et could credibly pass the information Earth supposedly had managed to find about the Horde Superweapon on to Apophis, Catra would rather not create a potential mess.

She sat down next to Adora, scooting her chair a bit closer so her tail could wrap around Adora's calf under the table. On Adora's right were Angella and Micah, on Catra's left Glimmer and Bow, both sides facing each other.

"This feels like a trial," Catra whispered so only Adora could hear.

Her lover didn't say anything, but Catra felt her tense up. Damn. She had meant it as a joke.

"So!" Adora cleared her throat, smiling forcedly, and nodded at everyone and no one at the same time. "We're here to discuss the succession of Bright Moon's throne."

"Also known as Bright Moon family therapy," Catra quipped under her breath.

This time, Adora coughed and glanced at her with a small frown.

Catra knew she was right, though - this wasn't about precedent or law since Bow hadn't found anything about it. The only known case where a princess had returned after a successor had been enthroned had happened seven hundred years ago in a remote kingdom that wasn't around any more - the civil war that had settled the succession there had wrecked it, and the following conflict with Plumeria had resulted in the kingdom becoming part of the ruins found in the Whispering Woods.

No, this was about what Angella and Glimmer wanted.

As if she had been reading Catra's thoughts, Angella nodded and spoke up: "Yes. And as I have said before, this is Glimmer's decision."

Catra pressed her lips together. Angella kept insisting that only Glimmer's wishes mattered, but Catra couldn't help wondering what would happen if Glimmer decided something Angella thought foolish. Well, at least she couldn't easily go back on her word after she had said this, so Glimmer had this in the bag.

"It's not just my decision," Glimmer retorted.

Catra clenched her teeth and hissed under her breath. Of course, Glimmer just couldn't run with it!

"It is. You are the crowned queen of Bright Moon. You passed the test - both on coronation day and by ruling the kingdom," Angella said.

"That's a formality!" Glimmer spat. "I'm talking about family! You're my mom!"

Hah! Catra gave Adora a look that her lover pointedly ignored, though Catra could see her cheeks heat up a bit.

Angella looked taken aback a bit, her eyes widening for a moment before she nodded with a soft smile. "That doesn't change anything. You're no longer a child, Glimmer. You have proven you are a queen. The kingdom prospered under your rule. Or do you disagree?"

Glimmer visibly clenched her teeth.

Catra stared at her. This was what they needed - full approval by the potential contender. Just accept it! she silently urged her friend.

"Look, it's…" Glimmer trailed off, frowning. Probably at herself. "I only got crowned because you sacrificed yourself! Not because you thought I was ready for it!"

Once again, Angella looked surprised - maybe even a little confused. Well, so felt Catra. "And then you proved you were ready when you ruled," Angella said while Micah nodded.

"I almost got Etheria destroyed when I listened to Shadow Weaver!" Glimmer blurted out. "I was just lucky things worked out as well as they did!"

Catra blinked, then snorted. "Join the club!"

"Catra!" Adora frowned at her.,

But Micah chuckled, ruefully. "Shadow Weaver was a master at manipulation. I think of all of us here, only Bow never fell for her lies."

"Ah…" Bow blushed a little. "I did think she was genuine when she claimed to join the Alliance."

"But she never manipulated you into making a really stupid decision," Glimmer told him.

"She never tried."

Adora was looking down at the table, Catra realised. Probably thinking about their childhood. And blaming herself for what Shadow Weaver had done. "Don't be an idiot," Catra whispered, reaching over to squeeze Adora's thigh. "It wasn't your fault. You were a kid." Catra, on the other hand, had fallen for Shadow Weaver's lies even as an adult - she should have known better.

"I also trusted her," Angella said. "Even when I stepped through the portal, I thought she had turned over a new leaf. To find out later that she had not changed, still pursued her own goals no matter the cost to everyone else…" Her lips formed a thin line. "If I had known that, I would have treated her very differently in the other dimension."

Catra slowly nodded. That explained things. Not everything, of course.

"So we all fell for her lies. That still doesn't settle things!" Glimmer insisted. "What do you want, Mom?"

"I want you to be happy, Glimmer."

"How can I be happy if I steal your throne?"

"You earned the throne, Glimmer. It's not stealing if I hand it to you voluntarily."

"But…"

"Oh, hell!" Catra blurted out. "She told you you did fine! Now stop waffling and say you'll keep ruling Bright Moon so Angella and Micah can keep catching up on all the sex they missed!"

"What?" Glimmer gaped at her.

"Catra!" Bow gasped.

"CATRA!" Adora snapped.

And Angella stared, blinking.

But Micah laughed, wrapped an arm around Angella's waist and pulled her into his side. "She's right about that, Glimmer."

"Dad!"

"Micah!"

Now both Glimmer and Angella were blushing like mad. Adora as well.

But Glimmer had shut up about trying to talk herself into not being queen.

Catra considered this meeting a success.

Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, February 16th, 2000

"I'm missing the healing potions," Jack O'Neill joked as he put the file down on his desk.

Dr Leary, the scientist sitting across from him coughed. "We actually did consider such a project - there was some preliminary research into it since magical potions are relatively prominent in myths on Earth and also feature in various emerging magical traditions here."

"I was thinking of the things in computer games." Jack smiled as blandly as he could.

Leary grimaced, so he probably hadn't noticed that Jack was joking. That was par for the course - the man was overly serious. Why he had been sent to a meeting with Jack was anyone's guess. Maybe office politics. Or just politics - the man was working for DARPA, after all, which was one of the holy grails of any Defence lobbyist. "The obvious advantages of such an item are, well, obvious. But if we look at the existing magitech healing items, the risks of such are also apparent."

"Yeah, we don't want people turning into zombies after curing a paper cut." Jack nodded with a snort.

"Quite." Leary smiled forcedly. "In any case, we did some preliminary research, but most of the healing potions, I mean the potions most similar to those which are worked on by practitioners of magic on Earth, are meant to, ah, cure sicknesses or alleviate some debilitating or painful conditions, instead of mending wounds."

"Medicine, in other words. And we have lots of that already," Jack said.

Leary nodded. "Indeed. Alternative ways to treat influenza or the common cold might appeal to a certain demographic, but unless such remedies are far more effective than current medical solutions, spending money on them would be a waste."

Jack nodded. That wouldn't keep rich fools from spending a lot of money on such potions, of course. Magic was the new fad, at least outside religious circles, and anything magical sold like hotcakes.

"So, for now, it has been decided - mutually, Mystacor's delegation agrees - that the Alliance wouldn't finance research into, ah, healing potions or other magical potions. Recruiting sorceresses trained in healing magic should already be a priority for the Medical Corps, anyway."

That didn't mean they had too much success at it, though - Jack had seen the numbers. Not even his command had received nearly as many such recruits as he had requested. And his people would be operating behind enemy lines and in other places where medical evacuation wasn't expected and really needed healers.

But that wasn't the point of this meeting. "Well, the magic items on the list seem interesting," he commented.

Leary winced. "They're magitech tools."

Jack shrugged. "They do magic when you activate them - or are supposed to. That makes them magic items." His soldiers certainly would call them that. "And all the magitech items I know don't need special genes to be used." He narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Ah, yes!" Leary perked up. "That's actually a result of the main difference between, say, the magitech scanner the Alliance uses and the proposed tools. With the scanner, you push the button, and it tells you what it scanned. Like a computer. With our proposed tools, activating the item creates a magical power of sorts, but it's up to the user to actually aim and use that power so it achieves the desired effect. And that requires a certain genetic disposition."

"A talent for magic, you mean," Jack said in a flat tone.

Leary nodded with a smile. "Exactly! People who could, with the right training, learn to cast spells."

People like me. Jack drew a deep breath through clenched teeth. It had been a coincidence, he reminded himself, that the proposal had first crossed his desk so close after he had found out that his genes were changing. He had already overreacted and made Carter mad; he wouldn't make the same mistake again. "We generally want them to learn how to cast spells," he said.

"Oh, yes." Leary nodded. "That would be ideal, of course. But as you know, the opportunities for magical education are currently rather scarce, even with help from Mystacor. We can only send a handful of people to Etheria, and Earth's own magical institutions are still in the process of being built and not up to taking more than a few students for rather experimental lessons."

"So, you'd rather use them for experiments with magitech?" Jack's tone was, maybe, a bit sharper than it should have been, but he kind of had a personal stake in this.

"Yes!" Leary nodded again, smiling broadly. "If we can create such items, we can drastically shorten the time needed to field magical support for our troops. All it would take is a recruit with the talent, magic gear and time to train with the gear - nothing too different from existing specialist training."

Any fool could see the advantages, and Jack wasn't a fool. And, of course, it would also mean that when the war was over, and the soldiers were getting demobilised, unlike trained sorceresses, those kinds of magic-using soldiers wouldn't be released into civilian life with the power to throw fireballs at their fingertips. Not until they trained as actual sorceresses, at least.

Yeah, Jack could see this proposal's advantages. Even if he didn't like it. "And how likely is this to work out? In time to be used in the war?"

Leary's smile twisted a little. "Well, it's a new field of research and development, so we can't make exact predictions, but we're quite optimistic that we'll see tangible results in time to be fielded. Mystacor's researchers are very interested in this as well, so we have experienced people working on this."

In other words, this could be pie in the sky. But the potential was so obvious, and with Etheria backing the idea, Jack knew trying to block this would be pointless. Better to get on board so he could keep an eye on this - he had mixed feelings about those 'tools', but he would rather not end up fighting zombified test subjects because no one ran herd on a bunch of mad scientists. If his people were to use those things, Jack would make sure they were safe. Even if he had to use his stupid alien genes for it.

So he nodded and gave Leary his best fake smile. "Well, you have my support, Doctor."

"Thank you, general!"

Asteroid Belt, Arealis-System, February 18th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Adora looked at the crates being lowered to the deck of the 'Steel Fist' - Hordak's idea; he claimed the name would fit Horde Prime's naming scheme best - and managed not to wince. The bodies inside the containers had never been alive, so they weren't really corpses, and they hadn't been cloned in the Horde pods but had been grown in Alpha, but they looked the part.

That was a good thing, of course - in order to really fool Apophis, they couldn't just pretend the entire crew had evacuated; some corpses had to be left - but they really looked the part. Some were torn up, some showed the typical signs of 'explosive decompression', as Sam had called it, some were riddled with bullets… the ones that were supposed to have died from suffocation were the least bad to look at.

"They were really thorough in preparing this," Catra commented, peering at the closest container's glass lid. She acted cool, but Adora could tell that she didn't like the sight either. "I'd be worried if I didn't know this was mostly Alpha's work."

Adora blinked. "You're not worried that Alpha did this?"

Her love shrugged. "We already know Alpha would do whatever she thought was needed for her projects no matter how wrong if she were allowed to."

"Ah." Adora nodded. Catra was correct - Alpha had been following their orders, well, Adora's, to the letter, but it was obvious that all she cared about was her research and that she had no moral or ethical restrictions. Not that that was her fault, of course - the First Ones had built her like this - but it was still a potential problem. And yet… "It's better than the alternative." Some clones had volunteered to stay behind! Adora and Priest had set them straight, but that had been a shock. The last thing Adora wanted was for people to sacrifice themselves for her!

Catra checked her tablet. "Well, everything's proceeding according to schedule. Kul'et's report should be reaching Apophis today, unless his people are not quite as competent as we assumed."

Adora nodded. And then, Apophis would think Stargate Command was about to launch a desperate mission to take out the superweapon before it could be deployed against Earth - using information that would allow him to swoop in and take the superweapon for himself. Everyone agreed that he wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to show up both the Horde and Stargate Command. And the timing was tight enough that Apophis couldn't hesitate too long, or he'd lose the opportunity - this system was just close enough for his forces to be diverted here instead of closing in on Earth.

But Adora couldn't help worrying that the timing might be too tight. Sure, the plan allowed for delays, and the scripted attack had several points where the supposed boarding action by Stargate teams would be stalled to give Apophis's forces more time to move in, but the plan was a bit more complicated than Adora would have liked.

"The Imperial Japanese Navy would have loved it," Jack had commented.

Daniel had disagreed with that, but his explanations had made it clear that Jack hadn't been that far off.

"So, the crew casualties are ready to be placed," Catra said. "And the bots should soon be done with the supply station on the ground. We're ready to move into the troop smuggling compartments as soon as we get word that Apophis is starting his operation."

Adora nodded and turned to look through the force field separating the cargo bay from space. She could see the hull that served as the Steel Fist's escort in the distance. It would be blown up as soon as the mission started. At least they didn't need any fake corpses for that part.

Everything was ready or almost ready. And yet… "I wish we could just go straight for Apophis," she said.

Catra shrugged again. "He's prepared for that. We won't be able to sneak into his palace again, and a frontal assault would cause too many civilian casualties - and allow him enough time to escape. But if he thinks he's fooling us, he'll be vulnerable."

Adora knew that. The Alliance command council had argued about this almost as much as they had argued about Adora and her friends leading the mission. As if she'd let anyone else risk their lives without her when she was needed!

She just preferred a less complicated plan. Even cadets learned that you could never anticipate everything. You could just do your best and improvise when needed.

Asteroid Belt, Arealis-System, February 20th, 2000 (Earth Time)

Samantha Carter stared at the holoprojection above her laptop, which showed the Arealis-System and the projected course of Apophis's fleet, confirmed by the spy bot network. Five minutes out according to their best estimate.

She zoomed in on the asteroid belt with a few keystrokes. Tiny projections of the "Steel Fist" and its escort appeared, followed by even smaller projections depicting the two Tel'taks that had docked to both ships.

"Are they there yet?" the General asked. He was sitting back in his seat, hands on the back of his head as if he was bored, but Sam knew it was an act. Same as Catra's 'snoring'.

"Not yet," she replied. "Approximately four more minutes."

"You said that last time I asked!"

She snorted, once, and switched her attention to the screens showing the interior of the 'Steel Fist'. The cloned corpses had been placed, and the boarding team was doing a good job of shooting up the hallways around the bodies. They didn't stray too far from the airlock where the Tel'tak was docked, of course - they would have to retreat quickly once Apophis's ships arrived.

The team on the hulk serving as a decoy escort was doing the same, but since that hull would be blown up, they weren't quite as crucial for fooling Apophis's troops as the team here. If Apophis realised that this was staged…

She pressed her lips together. The stealth compartments built into the fake superweapon were shielded, but against sensors and small arms fire, and the shields of the "Steel Fist" wouldn't last long at all against a bombardment from multiple Ha'taks. If the "Steel Fist" came under fire, they would have to scuttle it using the charges built into the structure and hope that the debris would fool Apophis and allow the compartments housing Sam and the others to be picked up later. Entrapta and Sam had added stealth generators as a last resort, but even if they worked perfectly, they wouldn't stop a stray shot from hitting them.

Sam wasn't really fond of the odds she had calculated to survive this. At least if things went very wrong, not all her friends would die with her - Entrapta had been left behind to work on their projects with Hordak and the rest. It was just the SG-1, with Sha're, and the "Best Friends Squad" here, with two fire teams from the General's command added.

A beep drew her attention - and made the General and Catra sit up at once. "Enemy fleet exiting hyperspace in ten seconds," she reported.

"Showtime. Literally," the General commented with a toothy grin.

Then the holoprojection changed, fourteen Ha'taks appearing with two dozen Al'keshs surrounding them. She checked the distances - a few minutes, at most, until they would reach them. Two minutes for the Death Gliders already shooting out of their hangars.

The General wanted five seconds, then pushed a button on the radio in front of him. "O'Neill speaking! A Goa'uld fleet has just appeared. All teams, withdraw at once - the mission is scrapped!"

Another voice protested. "Sir! We only need a few more minutes!"

"We don't have them, O'Malley! Withdraw - this is an order!"

"Yes, sir!"

The General deactivated the radio and chuckled. "O'Malley must have been channelling his annoyance that he couldn't join us."

"Do you think Apophis is tapping into our radios, Jack?" Daniel asked.

According to Kul'et, the Goa'uld were monitoring the radio waves but didn't have the capability to break their encryption in real-time.

"It never hurts to go the extra mile," Jack said. "Though if he were, I think he would be taunting us right now. Or demanding our surrender."

"He might have decided that the risk of facing SG-1 again is higher than the danger of an underling betraying him and taking the superweapon for themselves," Teal'c commented.

"As long as he comes to check out his new toy as soon as he has secured it, that's fine," the General said.

Sam agreed. If they only had to fool his most fanatical Jaffa and not Apophis himself, that would improve the odds of their success.

The Death Gliders were racing towards them. Their speed was actually higher than expected, if not by much. Sam still frowned as she logged the data. Still not fast enough to reach the ships before the Tel'taks could undock and cloak.

Which the one docked to the Steel Fist just did, followed ten seconds later by the one docked to the escort. As both cloaked - their holoprojections changed colours - the fake escort blew up.

The Goa'uld fleet was still coming at them at full speed. The Death Gliders were firing blindly at the last position of the Tel'taks and the space around them. Fortunately, the cloaked ships had already gained enough distance that the shots went far too wide.

Sam turned to look at Adora. "Escape pods ready to be launched."

Adora nodded. "Do it."

Sam gave the order with a push of a button. The ship was too big to feel any reaction from the escape pods being launched, but she could see the pods, all of them carrying at least one cloned body, on one screen and track their courses on the holoprojection.

They didn't make it far - half the Death Gliders turned and started shooting them. A few blew up, but others began leaking atmosphere or trailing debris. "They're trying to disable them," Sam reported. "Initiating self-destruction routines."

The disabled pods began to blow up as their communicators broadcasted pre-recorded defiant messages.

"You will never take us alive!"

"Glory to Horde Prime!"

Sam muted them. "Decoy scuttling charges ready."

"Trigger them," Adora ordered.

Sam did. This time, the ship shook as the bombs they had placed in the outer hull went off, simulating a failed scuttling.

She straightened. "Charges detonated as planned."

"Thank you, Sam."

Now, they only had to wait until the Jaffa boarded them. And hope that Apophis's commander didn't decide to just destroy the decoy.

It was working. The plan was working. Catra clenched her jaws and tried to ignore how her tail was swishing back and forth as she watched the holoprojection showing Apophis's forces close in on the "Steel Fist". The icons for the escape pods were fading out one after another.

She glanced at Melog. Her friend reflected her own mood. Damn. She had to calm down. Even if just waiting for others to act was a pain. No, not the waiting - the hiding in a defenceless decoy.

She had to focus on the situation instead of worrying. "The Death Gliders keep trying to disable the pods even though that only makes them self-destruct when they don't accidentally blow them up," she commented. "Someone's being stubborn."

"If Apophis demanded prisoners - presumably to interrogate about the operation of the weapon - then his chosen commander would rather die than not obey," Teal'c said. "Even if he did all he could and gained the decoy superweapon as ordered, it would still only be a partial success."

But one could argue it was a complete success given the circumstances. Catra was familiar with that situation, though she doubted Apophis would be any more receptive than Shadow Weaver had been.

"Well, without a trained crew to interrogate, Apophis would have some trouble getting it operational," Daniel said. "If it worked at all."

Sha're nodded in agreement. "And if Apophis punishes the commander for this failure, it might cost him one of his most loyal Jaffa."

"First the Palace, then the research station, and now this? Dear old Apophis must be starting to run out of his most loyal commanders," Jack said with a snort.

"Well, technically, he'll always have a most loyal commander as long as he has commanders, though they might be less competent and even less loyal than their predecessors," Daniel commented. "But if he selected for loyalty rather than competence, he might end up with more competent commanders if he gets rid of the current ones."

"I hope we won't end up improving the quality of his officers," Glimmer said.

"I doubt that." Sha're shook her head. "Anyone exceptionally competent but of questionable loyalty would have been eliminated by Apophis as soon as he realised it. And any rival commanders would have pointed it out to him at once."

Catra nodded. She knew exactly how that worked. That was how the Horde had done things. And that was one of the reasons the Goa'uld would lose this war.

On the projection, the Tel'taks and Al'keshs were now surrounding the "Steel Fist" and the debris field that had been the decoy escort. Catra glanced at the camera feeds to check if she could spot them. The scanner feeding the holoprojection would detect far more detail, but she liked using her own eyes. She didn't spot any of them, though - the distance was still too great.

"Alright, folks, prepare to be boarded," Jack said.

"And hope they don't have better scanners than we thought they have," Catra added.

"Catra!" Adora hissed.

"You don't have to whisper," Catra retorted with a grin. "The soundproofing is so good, even I didn't hear the shooting outside. We can scream to our heart's content here without anyone hearing us."

"Catra!" Adora rolled her eyes, but their friends and the two fire teams with them chuckled.

A beep and a red blinking string of letters made Catra snap back to the holoprojection - and curse.

"Additional ships detected!" Sam reported. "Counting… thirty Ha'taks. Fifty Al-Keshs. And forty-two Tel'taks."

That was a fleet, not just a task force! The holoprojection showed them, coloured yellow, surrounding Apophis's fleet in a pincer movement. The Al'kesh and Tel'taks were already speeding up to engage their counterparts.

Apophis's forces were reacting as well, the faster ships racing to engage the new enemy. But their Al'Keshs and Tel'taks were outnumbered, and the Death Gliders, which might have been able to overwhelm the enemy defences if they had been ready, were not concentrated, many of them just turning away from hunting down escape pods. Catra didn't think they would be able to form up into effective formations before the new fleet had already deployed enough Death Gliders to stop them.

"It looks like Apophis's operational security is even worse than we thought," Jack commented.

Catra nodded. This must be a rival of Apophis who had found out about this. They had overestimated their enemy. And underestimated another enemy. She cursed. "If his commander thinks that he cannot win this, he might decide to deny them their prize." In which case he'd order the fleet to shoot at the "Steel Fist".

She stared at the holoprojection. So far, Apophis's ships were still moving to engage the new arrivals, the screening units launching themselves at the enemy ahead of the Ha'taks. But they were outnumbered two to one. And their formation was split.

"His best chance is to delay the enemy in the hope of taking the "Steel Fist" and escaping with it into hyperspace before the enemy can reach it," Catra said. That was what she would do. But they had to know that if the "Steel Fist" could flee, she would have already done so - they had disabled the engines, after all, to explain why they hadn't fled before Apophis's forces had arrived. So…

Adora nodded. "It's their best course of action, but they have to know the chances they'll pull it off are low."

A Tel'tak - cloaked - was headed towards them. But so were two from the new enemy, whoever it was.

"Well, no matter who wins, we'll get to bag a System Lord," Jack said with fake cheer.

"Unless the other side manages to destroy the decoy to prevent their escape," Catra retorted with a grim expression. That was the obvious response if you lost the boarding action.

They had to hope that Apophis's forces were either competent enough to get the ship moving before the enemy capital ships were in range, or too incompetent to blow up the ship themselves before the others took it.

Catra didn't like either odds.