Chapter 14: The Hill
Tombs, PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)
"Was that a joke about blowing a planet?" Samantha Carter heard Adora ask.
She shook her head. "With enough Naquadah to enhance an explosion, it's possible. Not likely since there are much easier and cheaper ways to scorch a planet, but possible." Sam had done the calculations herself, once. Just in case. Earth didn't have enough Naquadah to blow up a planet, but it wouldn't take a second Manhattan Project to achieve the necessary amount. Just a focus on gathering the metal.
"Ra had a planet blown up at least once, to make an example out of a rebellious subordinate," Teal'c added.
"We'll have to take that into account when we plan Earth's protection," Adora said. "And Etheria's."
"Depending on how big such a bomb is, we'll need a way to intercept bombers such as this Al'Kesh," Catra added.
"You need interceptors," the Colonel said with a grin. "I've been saying that for a long time. Those Death Gliders just don't cut it."
"They serve the System Lords well enough," Teal'c said.
"And they are proven design," Sam added.
"Yeah, but they are ugly, and they don't exactly fit our doctrine," the Colonel retorted. "I'm sure you can come up with a better design. Multi-role aircraft. Aerospace craft."
"Spacecraft design isn't amongst my primary duties or experience," Sam told him and straightened.
"Oh! But it sounds like fun! I'm sure we can come up with some nice designs!" Entrapta piped up. "Multi-role, you said? It would probably be hard to design one that could replace a frigate, but it should be able to replace the Al'Kesh and Death Glider. Bomber and interceptor? Oh, I've got some ideas…"
"Make sure it looks good," the Colonel said, and the princess nodded eagerly. "Like an F-15."
Sam couldn't tell if he was joking.
"I hate to interrupt this design committee, but could we get on with defusing the massive bomb in the hill across of us?" Daniel said.
"Right, right." The Colonel took a deep breath and sat down in front of the screen that showed the drones' camera feeds. "Let's do it." He briefly flexed his fingers and took control of the first drone.
He hadn't piloted such a drone before, but there was no sense of uncertainty or hesitation that Sam could spot - the drone flew straight towards the open cave, smoothly entered it and then slowed down as it travelled further inside. "Alright," he said. "Now, how do those manipulators work?"
"Oh, let me show you." Entrapta almost climbed into his lap as she took the controls and demonstrated.
Sam pressed her lips together and shook her head; the Colonel even blushed. But he quickly started using the manipulator arms - Sam had taken notes of the design; the vehicles at Stargate Command could use those as well - and started approaching what seemed to be the first trap.
"Alright. I need some x-ray vision here."
"There!" A strand of hair darted forward, and the stone wall on the screen turned transparent. As impressive as it looked, Sam had a few ideas about how she could make that more efficient once she had access to her lab in Cheyenne Mountain. The Etherians were a little behind Earth in displaying sensor readings. Though they had HUDs, in as much as Entrapta's visor could copy the functionality, they were not widespread.
The Colonel studied the screen, then pointed at one line. "Can you check where this one leads?"
Sam leaned forward. The line led straight back to the main chemical storage and to what looked like a detonator. Although it was also connected to other lines. "I think that's the line to cut, Sir," she said.
"I think so as well - one of them, at least. Alright, let's drill. Carefully."
Sam glanced at Daniel while the Colonel used the laser drill Sam and Entrapta had rigged up. Her friend was biting his lower lip so hard, she expected him to hurt himself any moment.
"Daniel, relax, we're safe here," Adora told him with a smile and in a low voice that the Colonel wouldn't hear. "Even if the entire hill blows up, the shields will protect us."
Sam hid a smile of her own at Daniel's surprised reaction and denials. "I'm not worried about our safety."
Catra loudly snorted.
Daniel pouted. "I am worried about what we may lose should the hill be destroyed."
Catra shrugged. "If it gets destroyed, we'll never know what it was, so why worry?"
Daniel gaped at her. He took a deep breath, no doubt to lecture her, when the Colonel snapped: "Could you keep it down a little? Defusing bombs is a delicate business."
Daniel's mouth snapped shut so quickly, Sam had to hide another grin.
The Colonel wasn't even paying attention any more - he was already piloting the next drone to the next trigger. "I could really get used to this," he commented. "Flying drones and see-through-walls sensors? Intel would kill for this."
"They don't have to," Entrapta said. "We can show them how to build them! It's easy!"
For Entrapta. Although Sam was sure she could duplicate the drones as well, except for the magical sensor. That she would have to procure from Entrapta.
Unless the Colonel could be convinced to learn how to build them. She almost snickered at the thought of his reaction if she made such a proposal. And then she imagined what would happen if the brass did this, and her amusement vanished. Depending on how rare such a talent was amongst humans on Earth, this could very well happen.
Catra narrowed her eyes as she watched O'Neill work. It was impressive to see him pilot the bots like that, but it was also quite informative. He was a good fighter on the ground and a good pilot. Which was a good thing since a single mistake would end up with the hill blowing up. Of course they didn't know what the Jaffa had hidden inside the complex, so she shouldn't really be bothered or care overly much about it. But still…
She glanced at Adora, who was biting her lower lip as she watched. "Relax," she whispered, repeating Adora's own words. "We're safe here."
That made Adora glare at her - but she wasn't trying to pierce her lips any more. "I'm aware of that."
"Good."
Catra smiled and patted Adora's back before returning to watch O'Neill - just in time to see him lean back and sigh.
"Alright, I think that's it. Now, all we have to do is to cut all the lines at the same time."
"Yes!" Entrapta grinned widely - and slightly derangedly. "Now, we can find out if my program works!"
"'Now'?" O'Neill asked.
"We've tested it. Sir," Carter told him.
"Ah."
"But this is the first live test!" Entrapta's hair twitched. "Ready?"
"Go ahead."
"Yes!" She reached out and pushed a button. The screen split into half a dozen cameras, one of them showing the outside of the hill. Then she pushed another button, and lasers hit five lines.
Catra held her breath, but the hill didn't blow up. She released it silently.
Daniel's relieved sigh was much louder, of course.
"OK, they worked!" Entrapta nodded. "So… let's go inside!"
"Let's keep the drones working," O'Neill corrected her. "There's still enough explosives in that hill to vaporise it - to use a scientific term."
"I do not think the explosives are powerful enough to turn the stone and rock into vapour," Teal'c told him.
"It's a figure of speech, Teal'c."
"I see."
Catra narrowed her eyes a little - was the big guy joking? It was very hard to tell. But O'Neill had the right idea - better to risk a bot than a person. Although he might've just wanted to keep piloting the bots.
The screen changed again, only showing one perspective now - the one of the bot O'Neill piloted. He manoeuvred it down the tunnel until it met a door.
"It's a wooden door," Entrapta said. "I don't see any traps on it."
"Not a lock, either, though - they just put a metal block in and welded it closed," O'Neill said.
"Probably with a staff weapon," Carter said.
"But was it to keep people out - or to keep whatever is inside from getting out? Let's find out." O'Neill moved the manipulator arm up, and a laser hit the hinges. "If you want to keep someone out, you put the hinges on the other side…"
"Jaffa are generally not the best architects - at least the ones trusted with such missions," Teal'c said.
Catra didn't comment. As the hinges were cut, the door fell to the ground.
"And… another tunnel!" O'Neill said. "I knew that we should've picked door number tree!"
"There was only one door," Entrapta said. "And another coming up."
"Sorry, Jack's making references to another TV show," Daniel said.
"Oh."
"Just trying to lighten the mood before Indiana Daniel grinds his teeth down with worry," O'Neill claimed. "And… another door!"
"I just told you that," Entrapta said.
"Yes, you did. Same setup as before?"
"Yes."
More hinges were cut. But this time, they had to cut the welded parts of the 'lock' as well.
The tunnel behind it opened into a large room. A room with walls filled with holes. And in the holes…
"That's the graveyard. There must be… two dozen graves," Daniel whispered.
"And full of Jaffa," O'Neill said. "But one is different." He moved the bot forward to an empty hole.
"That must have been meant for the Jaffa whose body we found in the ruins," Daniel said. "But… where's the staff weapon they used to seal this grave?"
"And what's in the third grave from the right?" Entrapta asked. "It's denser than a corpse."
"Looks like a corpse," O'Neill said.
"It's behind the body."
Catra didn't wince when O'Neill dragged the dead Jaffa out of the niche and dumped the body on the floor. The sight of a skeleton covered with leathery skin falling apart as it hit the stone was rather gruesome, but it was just a thousand-year-old corpse - she'd seen far worse in the war.
"It looks like… A cube," O'Neill said. "A fancy one."
Catra narrowed her eyes. The cube looked familiar - half the size of a head. "Where have I seen this before?" She muttered. Then she remembered. "I saw one in Horde Prime's flagship."
"Oh." Carter leaned forward. "It doesn't look like the other examples of his technology that we've seen."
Catra shook her head. "It wasn't. It was a trophy."
It looked like Adora's theory that this belonged to an unknown species destroyed by Horde Prime was correct.
Yeah, losing that could have been bad.
"So… what are we looking at?" Jack O'Neill asked as Carter and Entrapta bent over the cube now resting on a table. They had barely waited for the drone he piloted to put it down in the shuttle before grabbing it.
"We don't know yet, Sir," Carter replied. "But it's not a battery."
"It has connectors for power lines - not a standard format, though - but no power source or storage inside," Entrapta added, staring at her scanner. "And the crystal formations inside do look somewhat familiar."
"Our current theory is that it is a data storage device," Carter said.
Data was good. "Great." Jack smiled. "So, what's on it?"
Both of the women looked at him with frowns on their faces.
"We don't know yet, sir." Carter didn't roll her eyes, but he could tell she wanted to. "This is an alien device, with a different computer technology, architecture and programming language. We haven't encountered this technology before. Just building an adapter so we can power it up will take a while. Then we have to find a way to read the data and may have to decrypt it."
"So… tomorrow at the latest?" Jack joked with a grin.
Carter gave him that 'You know better than that, Sir' look of hers, but Entrapta seemed to take him seriously.
"We can't say yet. It depends on how different the technology is. The basic principles for crystal-based data storage are the same, or should be, but the data format and encryption…" The princess shrugged. "It's hard to say how long this will take. If the encryption is sufficiently advanced, we might not be able to crack it at all!" she added with a smile. "Wouldn't that be interesting?"
"Can't you check with the fleet for information?" Daniel asked. He was staring at the cube like… Well, like an archaeologist at a new site. This was a data cube from a - probably - lost civilisation. Pretty much a holy grail for him.
"We can and did, but they have no data about this. Horde Prime didn't share whatever he knew about this cube," Entrapta said.
"If he even knew anything about it, except for which species had built it," Catra said with a scowl. "He wanted trophies, not data."
"That would've been a waste!" Entrapta protested.
Jack refrained from pointing out that a warlord who rendered entire species extinct wouldn't care about waste. Instead, he nodded at the two women and joined the others in the back. Clapping his hands, he asked: "So, while Carter and Entrapta are busy, who's up for another excursion?"
"Oh?" Adora perked up.
"There are potentially two dozen Goa'uld on this planet," Jack said. None of the corpses in the tomb had the remains of larvae in them. "We need to scan the perimeter so we can be sure that they aren't trying to sneak on board of the wreck - or on the shuttle."
Melog the cat growled, and Catra shook her head. "There's no Goa'uld nearby."
"So the cat said," Jack replied, nodding. "But that still leaves a whole planet where they could be hiding."
"We can scan the Goa'uld corpse," Entrapta cut in - when had she joined them? - "and check the concentration of Naquadah in its blood. If it's higher than it should be, the Goa'uld probably ate his kin."
Adora grimaced.
Jack didn't. That was how the Goa'uld were. And it was a clever way to find out if there should be more of them. "Let's do that."
"Good! I need new scans of Teal'c's larva first, to check if the concentration decays over time," Entrapta said.
"It should not," Teal'c said.
"We'll see!" Entrapta was already waving her scanner at him. "Then we need to find out how efficient the digestive system of a Goa'uld is when it comes to absorbing Naquadah from ingested larvae - oh, I need to scan the animal they had taken over, too! Too bad they don't show up on global scans since the concentration needed for that would probably be toxic, but short-range, we should be able to detect them with the right calibration - once we know the parameters we need."
Right. Jack nodded with a firm expression. This seemed to become a little more involved than he had thought. But as long as it worked… It would delay decrypting the data cube, but the thing wasn't time-critical; it had been buried under a hill for a thousand years, after all.
While Entrapta and Carer did their scanning thing, Jack stretched. "So, who wants to grab something to eat? Just don't eat the dead snake; we still need to scan it."
Adora and Daniel frowned at him for the joke, but Catra snorted. Teal'c, of course, didn't react at all. In other words: just as expected.
They went to the kitchen of the shuttle, and Jack grabbed a few pre-packed meals. "Roasted probably beef OK?" The Etherians had cows, but Jack didn't know if they had used beef for this meal.
"Of course," Adora said.
Jack looked at the others. Adora would eat rations without complaints.
"Yeah," Catra said. Teal'c nodded. Daniel blinked. "Uh… what else is available?"
Jack handed him the meals. Then, while Daniel looked them over, he sat down at the table.
"Thank you again for saving my life," he told Adora.
She fidgeted. "Oh, it was… I mean, I can heal, so I did. I would have done it for anyone."
"Just say 'you're welcome', dummy!" Catra shook her head.
Adora pouted at her.
Jack suppressed a sigh. While it was refreshing to meet someone as powerful as Adora - a real magical princess - without any arrogance, she was overdoing the humble bit. And Jack had the feeling that she wasn't faking it at all.
Which wasn't a good thing. Not at all.
Adora frowned at her girlfriend. She hadn't saved Jack's life to be thanked - she had saved him because that's what you did when a friend was in danger. Or anyone else was in danger. She was She-Ra; she had a duty to help people.
Catra stuck out her tongue at Adora in return before starting on her meal - which was a grilled fish, of course. Her lover really loved fish in all forms. As did Melog. It was probably a cat thing.
"So, what do we do about the Goa'uld?" Adora asked to get things back on more familiar tracks. "Once we know if there are more around, that is."
Jack shrugged. "Try to capture them if possible. Kill them if not."
That sounded… "We don't know if they are hostile," Adora said. "We know the one Catra killed was because he attacked us. But no one else attacked us."
"So far," Catra said as she refilled her glass.
"They're snakes," Jack said.
"But they can't hurt anyone on this planet," Adora pointed out.
"Except for the animals," Daniel said.
Adora frowned at him. "That's not a reason to hunt them down."
"PETA would disagree," Jack said, chuckling.
"PETA?" Adora cocked her head.
"An animal rights activist organisation," Daniel explained. "They are considered to be a little extremist."
"Animal rights?" Catra asked.
"In many countries on Earth, it's illegal to treat animals cruelly," Daniel replied. "And such organisations lobby for stricter laws when it comes to keeping animals."
Adora hated to parrot Daniel, but… "Stricter laws?"
"Ah." He smiled at her and pushed his glasses up his nose. "There are laws regulating how you have to treat your animals - a minimal standard, both for pets and livestock, although with different rules. Such as minimal care, space in the pen, and so on."
"Ah." That made sense.
"Such organisations also take care of stray animals and work to protect the wildlife." Daniel nodded. "They organise boycotts of firms who destroy the habits of wildlife or treat their livestock cruelly."
Adora nodded. That sounded nice. Although…
"You need such laws and activism?" Catra asked. "How do you treat animals?"
The way Daniel winced wasn't a good sign, Adora thought.
"So, many of the animals you eat are kept in stables and never let outside." Adora slowly nodded as she grabbed her empty plate and put it into the dishwasher or whatever Entrapta had built. It cleaned dishes. Or destroyed them and made new ones - Adora wasn't quite sure.
"Many, yes. Not all." Daniel followed her example as she sat down again.
"So?" Catra shook her head. "If you're going to eat them anyway…" She shrugged and pushed her own plate away.
Adora sighed and grabbed it as well, handing it over to Daniel.
"Animal rights activists think that animals should live as happily as possible and as close to nature as possible," he said as he grabbed Jack's plate.
"Nature's brutal," Jack said. "And most farm animals couldn't survive in the wild."
"But they could survive outside a stable," Daniel replied, sitting down again. "As we've also seen on Etheria."
Adora didn't want to be dragged into that discussion. She didn't know enough about animals to have a definite opinion. "And you spoil your pets!" she said to change the subject.
"Oh, yes." Jack chuckled. "Many pets are treated better than humans."
"Well, that's not really impressive," Catra commented.
Adora nodded. "You already told us that in some places, humans are treated really badly."
"Ah." Jack looked at a loss for words for a moment.
Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose with one finger. "Technically correct. But Jack was thinking about pets that are treated better than humans in the same place - roughly speaking."
Now that was… how could you treat an animal better than a person? Outside of war, of course, where you had to fight the person and not the animal. Or when it came to criminals. But Adora was sure that Daniel wasn't talking about those cases.
"Whatever," Catra spoke up after finishing her drink. "Animals are animals. Some of them are monsters. I don't really care for any animal that tries to attack me. The question is: Can we spend the time hunting down Goa'uld stuck on this planet? And can we afford to let them on the planet?"
"Well, they have had a thousand years and didn't develop the resources to get off the planet, much less be a threat to a space-based civilisation," Daniel replied. "If they are still alive, that is. So, I don't really think we need to hunt them down."
"Yes," Adora agreed.
"Unless we find them nearby. A bunch of prisoners would be useful," Catra added as she leaned back on her seat until she was all but slipping off it.
Adora rolled her eyes and reached over to poke her belly.
Catra eeped and snapped back into a sitting position. "Hey!"
"You were being rude," Adora told her.
"I wasn't!"
"Sure you were. Next thing, you're napping in their bed."
"I wouldn't do that! I only nap in our bed. Or on the couch. Or the bench in the garden."
"And the planning table," Adora reminded her.
"That was such a boring briefing that even Glimmer nodded off!"
Adora chuckled at the memory. "Yes, she did."
Catra suddenly grinned, then slid off her seat and into Adora's lap before she could react, snuggling up to her. "I'm going to take a nap right here," she whispered into Adora's ear.
"Ah…" Adora trailed off. How should she react to that? She wanted to kiss - or tickle - her, but that would be rude as well, wouldn't it?
Fortunately, Entrapta picked that moment to return from the hold. "We've analysed the remains!"
Adora straightened, prompting a noise of protest from Catra. "Yes?"
"Come to the hold; we'll show you!"
"Here!"
Samantha Carter looked up as Entrapta led the others into their makeshift laboratory. The princess was smiling as she pointed at the tank where the dissected Goa'uld was floating.
"If we had had such a tank back in school," the Colonel commented at once, "biology would have been much more interesting."
Sam chuckled at the joke. Once. "We've finished the autopsy and analysis," she told him. "The concentration of Naquadah in the corpse was high enough to indicate that the Goa'uld had consumed at least a dozen larvae. That is under the assumption that their base levels were the same for regular Goa'uld larvae at the start."
"Yes!" Entrapta nodded. "So, we're missing about a dozen Goa'uld."
"Or one Goa'uld who consumed them," Catra said. "Or they died in the wilderness and were eaten by animals."
Entrapta nodded again. "Exactly! Or another combination, like one who consumed half a dozen or so and the others were eaten by predators."
"Great." The Colonel didn't like it. "And none of them are near."
"Many Goa'uld would, faced with a potentially lethal battle, spread out to avoid conflict," Teal'c said.
"And they have an entire planet and all its animals to do so." The Colonel shook his head.
"Searching an entire planet with, well, short-range sensors and…" Daniel looked embarrassed. "...and people who can sense them sounds a little…" He trailed off.
"Yes," the Colonel agreed. "I think that would take a lot of time."
"Well, covering the entire surface of the planet - and assuming no Goa'uld took a marine animal or cave dwellers as a host - would take us…" Entrapta started pushing buttons on her main tool. "We'd be here for weeks with an optimal search grid and breaks and some redundancy. That depends on how sensitive you are to their presence at higher travel speeds. We might have to adjust that, should we have to fly more slowly."
And they didn't have weeks.
"So, let's call in the fleet to pack up the Al'Kesh and leave." The Colonel looked around. "Unless you disagree?"
Catra looked like she wanted to disagree out of principle, but Adora nodded. "Yes, I think that's a good idea."
"Let's do it then. And Carter and Entrapta can go back to cracking the data cube."
"Oh, no!" Entrapta replied. "We're saving that as a last resort. We're trying less destructive methods first."
"Ah, good." The Colonel nodded, but Sam saw him wince for a moment - he still hadn't adjusted to Entrapta's… to Entrapta. Well, unlike Sam, he hadn't had much interaction with some of the more eccentric scientists in her field. Or Daniel's.
Catra was smirking again. "So… we're done then. I'm going to take a nap." She stretched her arms over her head and yawned.
"Catra!"
"What? I'm no good at cracking encryption."
"Still! We're on a mission."
"We're on a part of the mission where we have to wait and do nothing until the fleet arrives. Might as well rest. Or what else do you suggest we should do?"
Adora opened her mouth, then closed it again, blushing slightly, before she shook her head. "We need to be ready if anything happens."
"Oh, I'll be ready for anything," Catra said as she sauntered out of the hold.
"Really!" Adora smiled at them - Sam could tell it was forced - and followed her girlfriend.
"Oh for…" The Colonel shook his head.
"Jack?" Daniel looked confused. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing," the Colonel replied. He was still looking at the door, though, not at Daniel - or Sam. And when he turned back to face them, Sam looked away.
"So, let's continue not-cracking the cube!" Entrapta said.
As Sam turned back to the cube - they still had to build an interface that would connect to the alien port - the others filed out of the hold as well.
Samantha Carter rubbed her neck and temples when she left the hold. They had managed to connect the data cube to a computer, but that had been all they had managed to achieve - the data contained inside it remained inaccessible. They were still trying to find a way to actually access the memory crystals - they couldn't even tell if the data was encrypted or if the alien file transfer protocols and system architecture were just incompatible.
Entrapta hadn't lost any of her enthusiasm, though - she seemed to thrive when faced with such a challenge. Well, Sam had to admit that she wasn't really getting frustrated either. It just felt bad to let the others down. The Colonel had been joking about them being finished in a day, but she knew he had expected more results from her.
On the way to the bridge, she grabbed a sandwich from the fridge - she was getting a little bit hungry, and it would prevent more remarks about taking care of herself. She could do that perfectly fine, after all, and sometimes, you had to skip meals to push on.
"Ah, Carter!" The Colonel turned to face her. "You're just in time to watch our zealous fleet pick up an Al'Kesh."
Sam turned her head towards the windows on the right of the ship. Indeed, there was a frigate hovering above the Goa'uld bomber.
"They emptied their hangar of fighters and cut out the decks inside," the Colonel explained as the bomber slowly was drawn into the frigate by a tractor beam.
"Adora just had to ask," Catra commented, sitting in one of the seats.
Adora sighed. "I didn't see a better way to salvage the ship. There's enough space in other frigates for the fighters. And we can repair the hangar once we can dump the al-Kesh somewhere."
Like Earth. Having an Al'Kesh to study and possibly copy would be great. Not as impressive as a mothership with big honking space guns, as the Colonel would say, but with a working faster-than-light craft, Stargate Command would gain a lot more options for missions.
On the other hand, compared to the fleet of frigates she was currently observing, it didn't look very impressive.
"How standards shift," she whispered to herself.
In Orbit above PK-327, July 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)
"No, we're not going to bombard the planet to kill off any hypothetical Goa'uld hiding amongst the local animals!"
Catra fought the urge to laugh as she listened to Adora talk to Priest - or at Priest - on Darla's bridge. The situation was funny, but she knew not many would agree with her.
"But Your Divine Highness! We cannot leave an enemy behind!" Priest protested. "And you stated that we cannot take the time to search the entire planet since we don't have enough scanners to detect Naquadah. So, the obvious solution is a thorough orbital bombardment of the entire planetary surface. Without potential hosts, the Goa'uld will die."
"So will the planet," Adora said.
"Yes, Your Divine Highness." Priest nodded. He looked confused.
Adora's forehead sported a twitching vein now. "We don't destroy planets any more," Adora said through clenched teeth.
"But I thought we wouldn't destroy inhabited planets any more. There is no intelligent life on this planet except for your enemies, Your Divine Highness."
"It's a planet!" Adora blurted out. "We're not going to destroy a planet just to kill a few Goa'uld stuck on it without any way to get off!"
"We don't know for certain that they don't have the means. Should an enemy ship arrive, they could easily be rescued, Your Divine Highness," Priest retorted.
"They've been marooned on the planet for a thousand years!" Adora told him.
"But that is no assurance that the current state of affairs will continue, Your Divine Highness," Priest said. "In fact, if we create a supply route through this sector and engage in warfare against the System Lords, they are bound to send in ships to scout and raid our lines, which means that this system could end up becoming a staging ground. Imagine the threat that such spies would pose to us then!"
"Their intel is a thousand years out of date," Adora replied. "We're not going to destroy a planet like this, and that is final!"
"As you command, Your Divine Highness." Priest bowed, and the transmission ended.
Adora sagged and closed her eyes. Catra stepped up and rubbed her back.
"I'm just… What's wrong with them? Destroying a planet to kill a few Goa'uld? Who might not even be alive?" Adora shook her head.
"They're not used to caring about… well, anyone except…" Catra trailed off. She knew the feeling. Knew it too well.
"Anyone except me. Their replacement Prime," Adora said.
Catra hissed in response, then slugged Adora's upper arm. "Don't talk like that! This is completely different! You are completely different!"
"But they see me as their new leader!" Adora protested.
"So?" Catra forced herself to shrug. "So does most of Etheria. They see you as the new Angella." She bit her lower lip at the guilt that filled her, remembering why the Queen had been lost. All her fault…
"I'm not a queen!"
"No, and neither are you a new Horde Prime. You're She-Ra. And a dummy." Catra told her. Her smile was a little lopsided and toothy.
But Adora didn't seem to notice or mind. She started to smile as well, then sighed. "I guess. But it's… tiring. Dealing with Priest and… I'm not a goddess!"
"No, you aren't." How often had she told that Adora so far? Well, Catra would keep telling it until Adora stopped being bothered by Priest.
"But… Priest and his followers need to learn that… that they can't just act as if I were Horde Prime. We won't destroy entire planets!" Adora raised her chin slightly.
Catra nodded, though she was not as convinced. Some targets might be worth destroying a planet for. Not that she would say that out loud. Not after the Heart of Etheria almost broke Adora. "You've got a few more weeks to teach that to Priest," she said. "Before we reach Earth."
Adora sagged again and sighed. "Don't remind me. What will the Earth people think of us once they meet Priest? What will they think of me, being worshipped as a goddess when they are fighting the Goa'uld who do the same?"
Oh for…! Catra growled. "They'll do the same as SG-1 does: Nothing. They know the difference. They know you don't want to be worshipped." With a grin, Catra added: "Well, not like Priest does."
Adora blushed heavily. "Catra!"
Catra grinned in response and leaned forward to lick Adora's cheek. "Hm?" She ran a hand over Adora's hair - which really would look much better without the poof - and down her back.
Adora took a deep breath but didn't protest or pull away. "Catra…"
"Hm?" Catra lightly bit her ear.
"We're on the bridge," Adora hissed.
"And we're alone." Everyone else was on the frigate in front of them, checking out the Al-Kesh and showing the clones what not to touch. Even Melog had gone, in case they had a stowaway snake.
"But… anyone can look through the windows!" Adora said, pointing at the frigate.
"So? I'm just doing my duty as your consort," Catra replied, then licked Adora's cheek again.
Further protests from her dummy lover she stifled with a kiss.
It was high time that they finally used the captain's chair for something more entertaining than piloting the ship.
Jack O'Neill wasn't jealous. Or envious. Not at all. He didn't have a crush on either Adora or Catra. Adora was a very attractive woman, but she was half his age, tops. And a magical girl. And Catra was a catwoman, and not the leather catsuit kind, but the kind with real fur. And also half his age.
Nor was he planning to have sex in his free time during this mission. Or any mission. He wouldn't want a repeat of his close brush with dying of old age due to Goa'uld experiments, and he had no partner in mind anyway. Not any who would be available.
So, his annoyance at the fact that Adora and Catra had done the naughty on their ship's bridge while everyone else was checking out the Al'Kesh had nothing to do with either jealousy or envy. It was merely his sense of professionalism that was hurt. That, and that he hadn't gotten to sit in the captain's chair before it was used as a loveseat.
"So," Catra asked, brushing a stray lock of wet hair out of her face - both had showered, at least - "What's the final verdict on the bomber?"
Jack looked at his SIC. "Carter?"
"We haven't completed our assessment yet," Carter replied at once. "But, so far, we have found no damage that wouldn't be able to be fixed with sufficient effort at Stargate Command."
"Or in one of Third Fleet's mobile shipyards," Catra said, "in the fleet train."
"Yes." Carter nodded. She hid her reaction well, but Jack knew her - she would prefer to go over the ship herself. If the clones repaired it, Stargate Command wouldn't get any experience in maintaining and repairing spaceships. And they needed that if they ever wanted to stop depending on their allies for ships.
"Yeah," he said, "let's see what we can do with it, first, before we hand it over to the fleet. It's not as if we have a pressing need for an additional ship." They had an entire fleet with them, after all.
"It would be faster, though," Adora said - her hair was also wet, but her poof was, somehow, unaffected. "Wouldn't you want a fully functional ship?"
Was that a veiled hint that Stargate Command would get the Al'Kesh? No, Adora wasn't the type to be so subtle. It probably meant that she had never planned to lay claim to the ship herself.
"If we repair it, we can also add electronics and communication gear that will allow us to operate it in close cooperation with other forces of Earth," Carter said.
"Ah." Adora nodded. "That makes sense."
"You can tinker with the wreck to your heart's content, then," Catra added with a smirk.
"We will," Jack replied. The geeks back home would be overjoyed. Hell, Carter would love it. And if they weren't about to arrive with a fleet in tow, the brass would be ecstatic about the opportunity to get a spaceship. As things were, the whole fleet of zealots thing would overshadow everything else.
"And I'll help!" Entrapta said. "This is so interesting - it's a completely different design philosophy compared to either the Horde or the First Ones!"
A pretty useless design philosophy, in Jack's opinion. When they started restoring the Al'Kesh, he'd make some suggestions. Some quite strong suggestions. Gun turrets that covered all sides, at the very least - Stargate Command didn't have fighters to escort the Al'Kesh. Which would need a name of her own, too. He snorted at the realisation that the geeks would push for 'Enterprise'. Although it was pretty much the best name for Earth's first spaceship, even if it was the name of a Navy ship.
"I am looking forward to helping as well," Bow added with a smile. "I've got some experience with repairing a thousand-year-old ship."
"Yes!" Entrapta nodded. "This will be fun!"
"Yes," Glimmer said, and she sounded like one of Jack's old superior officers when faced with one of his more colourful reports. "So, we're ready to continue our trip. But we need to decide what we do about the potential Goa'uld holdouts."
"Blow up the ruins and tombs from orbit," Catra said at once.
"Catra!" Adora protested.
"What? It's just a small area. Leave a crater, and people won't be stumbling around in ruins and getting caught by Goa'uld." Catra grinned. "Or, better write a warning into the crater with the cannons!"
Jack blinked. That would… He chuckled. "That would actually work."
"It would also reveal our presence," Carter pointed out. "Anyone who examines the remains will be able to tie them to Horde weapons."
"But there are a lot of Horde ships around," Catra retorted. "Or we can build a bomb ourselves and use the Al'Kesh's weapons to write the warning."
That would be very ironic. Jack nodded in approval. "Let's do that!"
"Yes! Let's build a bomb!"
Entrapta's enthusiastic agreement made Jack have second thoughts about this idea.
But it was too late - everyone else was agreeing as well.
Damn.
Well, at least they'd get to see a big explosion and foil whatever plans the Goa'uld on the ground, if there were any, might have. And that was a victory in Jack's book.