Chapter 27: The Naquadah Crisis Part 7
North of Bratsk, Russia, Earth, Solar System, August 20th, 1998 (Earth Time)
A DHD. On Earth. Stargate Command had had to build a supercomputer to operate the gate and deal with all the bugs that popped up until it worked, and the Russians had a DHD stored in some bunker since World War II! Even worse, the Russians hadn't even known about it!
Jack O'Neill barely managed not to snarl at the far too happy scientist.
"So, this is a nice piece of alien technology, da? You know what it does, right?" Dr Georgovich prattled on. "The symbols, they look like on the gate, da?"
"Oh, yes!" Entrapta nodded. "This is a DHD. It's used to operate a stargate. Well, you can use a Stargate without it, but you need to emulate this, and that takes a lot of computing power. Although if we can analyse this, we should be able to streamline the process. Probably - science doesn't always produce the results you want, after all." Her hair flew over the DHD, not moving the dials, but almost caressing it.
"Ah, the key to Stargate. Very important. Good thing Russia secured it before the Nazis could use it." Georgovich nodded. He seemed a little distracted by the hair tendrils.
"You looted it after the Nazis were beaten," Jack corrected him.
"Defeated by glorious Red Army, yes. Before Nazis could use alien technology."
"I remember some other countries fighting the Nazis as well. And delivering lots of supplies to the Red Army," Jack retorted.
"Da! Good example of spirit of international cooperation against tyranny, yes?" Georgovich was beaming at him. "Nazis back then, Goa'uld now!"
Jack narrowed his eyes at the Russian. He was sure that the smiling bastard spoke much better English and was not half as simple as he acted. "It's that how you want to play it?"
"Play? Is no game. Very serious situation. All of Earth needs work together to beat evil space aliens, da? Russia offers secured alien technology for alliance!"
So that was their game.
"Great!" Adora, of course, was eating it up. "So, can we take the DHD off your hands?"
"Da! Russia hands over the alien technology to United Nations and Magical Princess Alliance! In the spirit of international cooperation!"
"Like the Security Council ordered," Jack pointed out. "We were tasked with securing this."
"Security Council ordered all unsecured alien technology to be secured. This technology was secured. Very secured in secret bunker. This is Russia's contribution to alliance against Goa'uld. First contribution."
"And you can make this decision for Russia?" Jack asked.
"Oh, no! Decision was taken by Russian government in spirit of international cooperation. I merely execute it." Gregorovich smiled at Jack. "We all should cooperate like this."
"Yeah, right." Hand over all alien technology to the United Nations? This was a DHD, but Stargate Command didn't really need one. They had built a work-around, and they had a lot more knowledge and technology than a single piece of technology that was useless without a gate. Knowledge and technology Stargate command had often paid dearly for. There was no way they would just hand over everything so the Russians and the others could take over and profit. Next, they would want them to sing The Internationale every morning or something.
But again, the Etherians seemed fooled. Adora beamed at the far too jovial Russian, and Glimmer nodded in apparent approval. At least Catra wasn't fooled - though Jack gave it even odds that she found this amusing.
"So, let's get this on the ship then," Adora said. "Is there any either alien technology stored here?"
"Nothing using Naquadah," Entrapta said, looking up from her scanner thingie. "But there might be more advanced technology. Or interesting Earth technology."
"Is that the alien scanner?" Gregorovich leaned forward and craned his neck. "You can scan for alien metal with it?"
"Yes! Well, it's a remote control for the scanner in Darla," Entrapta explained.
"Ah! How does it work?" The man's grasp on English improved when he was asking such questions, Jack noted.
"It uses the law of similarity for Naquadah," Entrapta said. "That's a basic law of magic."
"Magic?" Gregorovich pulled back a little. "This is magic? Not technology?"
"It's basically the same," Entrapta, apparently not having noticed his reaction, explained. "It just uses different principles, and in order to use a nonmagical power source, you have to have a converter. And you also need to apply First Ones technology so you can scan on a planet - or in space - where there is no magic field. So, it's a bit more complicated than a standard magical scanner but much more useful in various environments."
"Ah! And what's its range?"
"Well… it covers the whole planet? But mostly for a generic scan; more detailed information needs closer attention, and sometimes recalibration."
"It's a complicated procedure that requires extensive experience," Carter added.
"Ah." Gregorovich smiled again. "But anyone can do it, da?"
"In theory, yes, but you'd need to understand both magic and First One - or ancient - technology. Although Goa'uld technology might be enough as well," Entrapta said.
"Ah." And that damned smile widened. "I am looking forward to more cooperation. In science!"
"Great!" Entrapta beamed at him.
"Just don't blow up the planet by accident," Jack commented.
"I wouldn't!" Entrapta protested. "That only almost happened because of special circumstances which are very unlikely to be reproducible on Earth."
Seeing the Russian's smile vanish was very satisfying for Jack.
Adora was happy that at least one country wasn't trying to be obstructive. And the Russians weren't even forced to cooperate by a zombie plague or a bomb threat. They just handed over the DHD 'in the spirit of international cooperation'. She smiled as she hefted the crate containing the device and carried it to the waiting transport vehicle.
"Very strong indeed!" the Russian, Iwan, commented.
Adora smiled. "I'm the Princess of Power."
"She lifts, she digs, she carries," Catra added.
Adora frowned at her lover - that hadn't sounded like an honest compliment.
"So, this is important contribution, da?"
"It's great! We can examine it and copy it - I think. At the very least, we can copy the communication protocols," Entrapta said.
"The DHD also provides the Stargate with power," Sam added. "It must have an incredible power generation method to provide power for millions of years."
"Or huge batteries?" Jack speculated with a grin.
"Batteries run out," Iwan said. "But generator can explode. If this breaks, and all the energy set free…"
Adora didn't freeze. But she was a little more careful with her cargo. Just in case.
"Well, I don't think we should do destructive testing until we can duplicate the device in its entirety," Entrapta said. "But if the power contained inside it - unless it's just a conduit - were released by an explosion… Hm… I have to calculate if it would destroy the planet or merely cause enough destruction to wreck the biosphere."
Yes, she had to be very careful.
"How about we take it to space as well?" Jack suggested.
"We haven't heard of any such explosion, Sir," Sam retorted. "And none of the Jaffa showed any reluctance to use weapons near or at the DHD on our missions. So, I would assume that they are very hard to set off - if that's even possible. If the power is syphoned off from the source - like another dimension - then destroying the device would merely interrupt the power, not set it off."
"That would make more sense," Daniel said.
"Well, the Ancients didn't strike me as people with a lot of common sense, at least as we see it," Jack said.
"True," Daniel said.
"But they were geniuses! Their technology is still beyond us!" Entrapta protested.
"Yes, but they had a rather tenuous relationship with safety procedures and fail-safes," Jack retorted.
Adora put the crate down and pushed the memory of the First Ones fail-safe away.
"Yeah, maybe we should be a bit more careful when following their footsteps," Glimmer said.
"But the Stargates are safe and easy to use!"
"Ah…" Jack grimaced.
"We are using a Stargate with a control device of our own design, Sir," Sam said. "That might cause some issues - which I hope we can remove now that we can study a DHD."
"Yeah, I bet we would have voided our warranty for using non-factory parts." Jack grinned, and the others laughed. Adora joined in, even though she didn't quite get the joke.
"Before we move the DHD away from Earth, we should check with the Security Council," Glimmer said. "This is all under their authority, after all."
"Da!" Iwan nodded. "And we share scientific knowledge, right?"
"I would think so," Glimmer said.
"Why not? It was yours, right?"
"Because it might contain enough power to blow up Earth if it gets some Russian percussive maintenance?" Jack bared his teeth.
Iwan laughed. "Very funny, Colonel O'Neill. Dark humour - very Russian."
That didn't please Jack, Adora saw.
"Or British?" Daniel added. "They have a reputation for black humour."
"Well, the DHD is secured on the transport now - let's get it to the ship?"
"But we need to check the rest of the mine for more technology!" Entrapta said. "Who knows what else might have been forgotten inside here?"
"Our mandate only covers the alien technology," Glimmer told her.
"There could be alien technology that doesn't use Naquadah," Entrapta said.
"And it could be as dangerous - like magic," Jack added. "Better take a closer look, right? And I'm sure the Security Council didn't want us limited to Naquadah."
"Da," Iwan agreed, although a little less enthusiastic.
"Let's go!" Entrapta dashed away, carried by her hair, striding past the other soldiers present.
"Very enthusiastic scientist, yes?"
"Yeah, that's Entrapta for you," Catra said. "Now, let's go help her sort through your stuff."
Adora looked at the crate. They couldn't leave it unguarded here. "I'll take it back to the shuttle, then I'll join you."
She took the transport back to the entrance, with another soldier operating it, and easily but carefully carried the device inside. By the time she was back in the mine, Entrapta and Sam had already gone through one storage area and were starting on the next.
"So far, it's just been ugly art and some primitive tech," Catra, leaning against the wall, told her.
"Nazi technology and stolen art," Jack corrected her.
"As I said."
"Some of those artworks were thought lost!" Daniel protested.
"Oh?" Adora blinked. "More ancient treasures looted by your Empires?"
"Ah…" Jack trailed off.
"You could say that, yes," Daniel said.
"Shouldn't that be returned to the original owners then?"
"Ah… it complicated," Iwan said. His smile looked rather thin.
Naval Station Norfolk, United States of America, Earth, August 21st, 1998 (Earth Time)
Samantha Carter felt slightly guilty as she looked down at the base. She'd just slept almost ten hours, even though they still had to secure the concentration of Naquadah under the sea off the US East Coast. Of course, she had needed the sleep - almost as much as the Colonel and Daniel - and she knew taking care of yourself was crucial for fulfilling your duty; exhaustion, both mental and physical, led to mistakes. And you couldn't afford mistakes when dealing with Goa'uld.
But she could have studied the recovered artefacts. Recalibrated the scanner. Written a better report about the DHD they had recovered from the Russians - one that might be given greater weight when the government made its decision about how to handle the 'Russians' game', as the Colonel put it. Especially since the DHD was still in the ship's hold.
"So… that's the submarine?" Bow asked next to her, peering down at the Los Angeles Class vessel moored next to a pier.
"That's a submarine," she corrected him. "But it won't do the actual recovery. That will be done by a specialist vessel." She pointed at the USNS Salvor on the other side of the base. "It's a specialised rescue and salvage ship. They have divers and specialised mini-submarines for missions such as this. The submarine here will provide additional security." They already had one sub in place over the wreck that contains the Naquadah and two more patrolling the approaches - the Colonel wasn't the only one who suspected that the Russians wouldn't mind pulling something underhanded.
"Ah." Bow smiled. "Entrapta will be disappointed if she doesn't get to board a submarine."
Sam nodded - she was well aware of that fact. And, speaking of the princess… "Where is she?"
"Still asleep," Bow replied with a slight shrug. "She stayed up longer than you, and when Catra switched her concentrated tiny tea for flavoured water, she fell asleep in the lab. Hordak carried her to bed."
"Ah." She looked around. They were alone on the bridge.
"Most are still asleep as well," he said, smiling - he looked well-rested. "Glimmer's preparing her next speech - but don't tell her I told you. And Adora and Catra are…" He shrugged, blushing slightly.
Sam nodded again. She could imagine very well what the two were up to or had been up to. Catra had never tried to hide it - quite the contrary. The Etherians didn't have any regulations against fraternisation within the same chain of command, after all.
She suppressed the pang of envy. The regulations made a lot of sense. You were never as professional as you thought you would be. And even if you could handle such a relationship, others wouldn't, and personal exemptions would only cause more friction and resentment.
That didn't mean she had to like it, of course.
Bow must have misinterpreted her short silence since he smiled apologetically. "You could say they have a lot of wasted opportunities to make up for."
She was aware of that, if not of the details. But you didn't have to be a genius to figure out that two people on different sides of a war couldn't be together, so she nodded. Besides, it was the Etherians' custom, none of her business.
"Of course, what with the 'unnatural relationship' complaints from your country, Catra might also want to be more blatant about it," Bow added.
Sam blinked. "What complaints?"
"Oh, not official ones. Just some tv show or something." Bow made a dismissive wave with his hand. "We know it's not representative of your country. As Glimmer said, every country has a bunch of idiots." Before Sam could inquire what exactly they had seen - she certainly hadn't had any time to watch TV - he went on: "We're more concerned about the people who blame us for the explosion in Egypt."
Sam suppressed a groan. Of course some would blame this on the Etherians. The Egyptian army and its government would probably not mind if they were cleared of any blame. "Any investigation will show that this wasn't your fault. You weren't there when it happened."
"Well, one of the arguments used is that without our arrival, none of this would have happened." He shrugged. "It might be true, even - without our warnings, the Egyptians might not have investigated the temples."
"We don't know what caused the explosion," she pointed out.
"Yes." He shrugged. "Anyway, let's hope this operation goes off like the last one." He smiled again. "I mean, without an explosion or zombies. Glimmer's aware of the political implications."
Sam nodded. She wasn't certain whether or not Glimmer caught all the nuances - or if anyone, Russian or American, did - but it was a good reminder that while the Etherians might appear naive and idealistic, they were also - at least Glimmer and Catra - pragmatic and had experience with politics. Something Sam feared not all members of her own government, much less Congress, might realise. "Well, we should focus on recovering the Naquadah here," she said.
"Yes. At least to what degree we can, without being directly involved," he agreed. "Staying back and watching while others risk their lives…"
"Adora's not going to like it," Sam said.
He chuckled at that. "I think that half the reason Catra's teasing her about being a nice multipurpose tool is to make her realise that she doesn't have to do everything herself."
That made sense. "And the other half?"
"Because she likes teasing Adora."
"Ah." That made sense as well, of course.
They stared down at the base in silence for a moment before Glimmer stepped on the bridge, complaining about their schedule.
Off the East Coast, Atlantic, Earth, August 21st, 1998 (Earth Time)
"We should have stayed on Darla," Catra said, glancing at the railing. "We can react much quicker to anything up there, and we have better sensors to spot trouble. And more firepower to deal with it. This ship is rather flimsy - it doesn't even have shields and barely any weapons." And there was an ocean below them, full of deep, cold water…
"You could've stayed on Darla if you wanted," Glimmer commented. With a grin, she added: "Where you are safe from the big, bad, evil water."
Catra glared at her, but Glimmer giggled in return.
And, worse, O'Neill picked it up. "What? Don't tell me you're afraid of water! Like a housecat!"
She narrowed her eyes at the man, but Daniel piped up before she could come up with a good comeback. "Actually, there are housecats that love swimming in water."
"I'm not afraid of water," Catra snapped. "I just don't like the thought of swimming in this… this sea here, with some unknown Naquadah devices on the seabed that could turn me into a zombie!" There! A perfectly valid reason not to want to go swimming. "And salt water is hell on my fur," she added.
"It's true - it makes her fur all crusty and salty." Adora nodded. "And then we have to spend an hour in the bath to get her clean."
"Well, let's hope that you didn't frighten off our brave Navy divers," O'Neill said with a stupid smirk and a glance at the two people pulling on diving suits and stuff a bit away from them.
"I doubt they heard me over all the noise on this ship," Catra shot back. "And don't tell me that you'd send them down there without telling them the risks?"
"We wouldn't," Daniel said. "They are volunteers."
"Real volunteers?" Catra raised her eyebrows - she knew how that had worked in the Horde.
"Yes, real volunteers," O'Neill replied with a frown. "Some people are like that."
"Not very smart then," Catra said. "Let's hope they're smart enough to handle the artefacts without blowing us all up."
"Well, they're Navy, so they weren't smart enough to get into the Air Force, but since they survived doing dangerous diving missions, I think they should do." O'Neill nodded.
"Jack!"
"Daniel, ribbing the rival services is a centuries-old tradition. Not doing it is supposed to bring bad luck," O'Neil claimed.
"What the…? Oh, for… Sam! I've got a question!" Daniel went on towards the aft of the ship, where Entrapta and Carter had set up.
"That wasn't very nice," Adora said. Of course she meant Daniel getting ribbed, not Catra. Catra frowned at her, and she smiled. "You can take it, Catra. Besides, you do hate water."
Catra narrowed her eyes for a moment. This was… ah! She smiled - saucily. "Oh, I like it when it's hot and soapy, and we're washing each other's back, and you make those cute noises when I…"
"Catra!" Adora hissed, blushing crazily.
Catra snorted in return. As if Adora could beat her at teasing!
O'Neill cleared his throat. "Very informative."
Catra eyed him. He put up a good front, but she was sure that the man was jealous. Or at least didn't like the teasing.
Daniel returned, glaring at O'Neill but not saying anything. O'Neill grinned.
"I believe they are now ready to start the operation," Teal'c commented - he hadn't shown any reaction to the whole scene, not that Catra had expected him. The big man was more stoic than a stone statue. Most of the time. But she wondered what would happen if he ever lost his temper.
And he was right - the divers were now mounting what looked like some underwater vehicle. Or a bot with seats. And some Navy officer was walking over to the group. "Do you wish to follow the operation from the bridge?"
"Naw, we're good here," O'Neill replied before anyone else could say anything. "I bet we have the better view from here."
The officer frowned for a moment before nodding. "As you wish, Colonel."
"Carter and Entrapta probably can see more from orbit than the Navy can see in front of their eyes," O'Neill said as the man left.
"You really take this ribbing seriously, do you?"
"It's a…"
Daniel cut him off with a frown. "He likes to needle others."
"Keeps them on their toes," O'Neill grinned again. "Let's see how the operation is going."
It seemed to be a straightforward operation, in Catra's opinion. Go down, grab the stuff - with Entrapta and Carter directing the divers, if needed - and bring it up. And it did start that way, even though it took the divers longer than she had expected tor each the wreck.
"Looks like an old tramp freighter," O'Neill commented.
"We already knew that," Daniel told him. "We actually identified it as the 'Esmeralda', a ship chartered by the Steward expedition to Egypt in 1930."
"I know."
"And you didn't track it down after you knew about the Stargate?" Catra asked.
"We had no idea where it had sunk," Daniel told her. "I actually recommended checking out every Egyptian relic in public and private collections, but we didn't get around to do it yet."
"Daniel wanted to do some sightseeing on Uncle Sam's dime," O'Neill said.
"Jack!"
"What?"
"Oh!" Entrapta piped up. "Look, they found something!"
Something alright - in the cone of the diver's flashlight, Catra could see what looked like busts.
"That's a depiction of…" Daniel squinted. "...Osiris. And Isis."
"Osiris and Isis. And that means?" Jack O`Neill asked, cocking his head to the side. Daniel was a great friend and great archaeologist, but he usually needed a bit of prodding and poking to get to the point.
"Osiris was the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead and resurrection. According to legend, his brother Set cut him into pieces, and his wife, Isis, gathered the pieces and put him together again, resurrecting him," Daniel explained… nothing.
"Talk about marital devotion," Jack joked. "So, was that a power struggle amongst the Goa'uld?"
"I don't know. We'd have to ask our captive from Seattle once we find a way to communicate with it," Daniel replied. "And this one, if this contains Osiris and Isis… This could shed so much light on the earliest period of Goa'uld rule!"
Jack raised his eyebrows. "So, these are stasis pods containing two ancient Goa'ulds?"
"Osiris and Isis have been missing since before Ra's retreat from Earth," Teal'c commented. "Which would support that these pods contain them."
"Great. Two more snakes for our collection." Jack grinned. Too bad that the snakes' intel would be outdated, but they were talking about Goa'uld - they carried grudges for millennia, so there might be something actionable to gain from this. But they had to be careful. "Tell the divers to proceed with extreme caution. We don't want those things to break." The last thing they needed was a snaked sailor. Though… "Can snakes survive at that depth?"
"I don't think the pressure would be too harmful, but the lack of oxygen and the sudden shock from their stasis pod breaking would likely be fatal," Carter replied.
"Indeed," Teal'c confirmed it.
"Well, that's good news," Jack said. He wouldn't shed a tear if the pod broke and a snake died before it could take over people.
But the divers knew their stuff - well, they should; the Navy knew how important this was - and recovered the two things without breaking them. That was one advantage at least of having to reveal the Stargate project: They could tell the rest of the armed forces the truth about their missions. And while Jack wouldn't admit it, ever, no longer having to claim that they were doing Deep Space telemetry was very nice as well. He wouldn't miss the pitying glances from other officers who thought he was a wash-out or screw-up in a dead-end assignment.
"So, anything else down there?" he asked when the pods had been secured.
"Well… there are a few more things according to our scanner," Entrapta said. "Not quite as large, but still looks to be refined Naquadah."
Which turned out to be a zat'nik'tel and a… thingie.
"Oh! That's new! We haven't seen this before!" Entrapta squealed. "I can't wait to find out what it does!"
Jack was about to caution her about being cautious when Teal'c spoke up again: "That is a scales cleaner."
"A what?" Jack asked.
"When a Goa'uld outside a host needs their scales cleaned, they can slip into this device, and gentle pressure from the muzzles inside will clean their scales as they pass through the tube," Teal'c explained.
"It's a snake washing machine." Jack chuckled. "Now I've seen everything."
"Aw! That doesn't sound particularly interesting." Entrapta pouted.
Daniel, though, was intrigued. "It's fascinating. In order to use this, a Goa'uld had to leave a host. So, was this reserved for special occasions? Or did they regularly leave a host - temporarily - to do this? Do they have to clean their scales for a biological reason, or is this merely a convenience? Or a cultural ritual, like a symbolic shedding of an old skin?"
Jack stared at him. Those were… very Daniel questions. Although… "So… if they leave a host for this machine, we could trap those and kill a Goa'uld without hurting the host?"
Daniel's eyes lit up. "Sharee…" he whispered.
Jack clenched his teeth. He shouldn't have speculated like this. They had no idea how to get to Daniel's wife, much less do so without being detected and then wait for such an occasion for who knew how long. Giving his friend false hope…
"We'll save her!" Adora said, nodding firmly. "No matter where she is, we'll save her!"
Jack usually would make a sarcastic remark, but… Daniel looked so hopeful, and Adora looked so determined, he couldn't make himself do it.
And as much as he knew it was wrong, he couldn't help feeling hopeful himself.
Adora nodded with a smile. They would help Daniel save his wife. That was what She-Ra did - help those in need. Protect and save people.
Though they would have to find her, first. And in order to do that, they would have to be ready for war - and that meant making an alliance with Earth. Or at least with some countries on Earth.
"They're coming up again!" Entrapta said. "Or not."
"They need to take it slow so they won't get the bends," Sam explained.
"Ah. Shouldn't the diving suits do that for them?" Entrapta blinked. "That seems like an obvious feature."
"These diving suits aren't as advanced as the ones you are thinking of," Sam told her.
"Why are they using them, then?"
"They allow more flexibility underwater at those depths."
"Oh. We should have constructed better suits then!"
"That would have taken too long," Sam said.
"Well, we can add it to the list!" Entrapta nodded.
"No, you wouldn't have been able to do it faster," Catra said behind Adora.
"I wasn't thinking about that," Adora retorted with a pout. But now that Catra had mentioned it…
"You're not invulnerable," Catra insisted.
She knew that. And she refrained from rubbing her back, where she still had some faint scars from Catra's claws. "Anyway, that's the last Naquadah that wasn't accounted for," Adora said. "That means that Earth is safe again."
"Safer," Jack corrected her. "I wouldn't say we're safe."
"You've got too many idiots on the planet for that," Catra agreed.
Adora shook her head. "The planet is safer, then." She scoffed. "You need to stop being such…" She frowned. What was the best word?
"Downers," Bow said. "Always seeing gloom and doom." He smiled. "We did well."
"We haven't secured the pods yet," Catra pointed out.
"If anything happens now, Adora can jump in and grab them."
She nodded. She could do that - she had fought a sea monster before she had really understood her power. Powers.
Catra scoffed, as she usually did when she lost an argument. "Yeah, yeah. Anyway, after this, it's back to negotiations."
Right. Negotiations with stubborn and weird people. And stupid people.
Not even Bow had a good answer to that.
And before Adora could come up with a comeback, the divers reached the surface, and everyone rushed to take the pods and the other things.
"Put the busts into the containment unit!" Sam ordered them as Entrapta put the container down next to the still dripping underwater vehicle - it wasn't a submarine; Adora had asked.
"Wait!" Daniel held his hand up and knelt down next to the female bust. Pod. Thing. "This…"
"Watch out, Daniel! You're not snake-poof!" Jack moved, and Adora thought he'd pull Daniel back, but the man only knelt down next to his friend.
"The seal!" Daniel said. "It's broken!"
"What?" Adora tensed, and she saw Catra look around. "We need the Scanners!"
"There's no Naquadah nearby - except for the pods, the zat'nik'tel and the tool," Sam told them a moment later.
"Yes," Daniel said. "I think the seal broke long ago. And the Goa'uld is still inside."
"Oh." Adora blinked as Daniel reached out and opened the pod before anyone could stop him.
But the Goa'uld inside looked very dead.
"Well, I guess Osiris isn't coming back from death this time," Jack said.
"That's actually Isis, Jack," Daniel said. "Unless they mixed up the busts when they put them into stasis."
"Well, we could attempt to revive them using the other device," Entrapta suggested.
"Yeah, let's create a zombie snake. That's what I was missing my life," Jack said.
Entrapta looked at him for a moment. "Really? If you had said something earlier, we could have gotten you a zombified snake from Honduras."
Jack stared at her.
"Ah, you were joking." Entrapta nodded. "Anyway, usually, the brain would be wiped clean, so it would just be a mindless creature, but since they have a genetic memory, it might actually restore them with their genetic memory," she said. "If it works. Which isn't certain - we don't know yet how exactly it works, and we also don't know enough about Goa'uld biology to tell." She perked up. "But we could find out!"
"Ah…" Jack grimaced. "I think we should focus on other areas of research first."
"Like the DHD," Sam suggested. "And the alien data core."
"Yes." Entrapta nodded enthusiastically. "We've got so much science to do!"
Well, at least she was happy. Adora smiled.
"And we have another Goa'uld to interrogate. Or not to interrogate, as things are."
Entrapta frowned again. "Oh. We could use the zombies as hosts, couldn't we?" They already are dead and just going on, so… it might just work?" She smiled.
Adora wasn't the only one who grimaced. "Uh…"
"That sounds… morbid," Daniel said.
"Would it even work if the body's actually dead and just the individual cells are kept alive?" Sam asked.
"Worth a try?" Entrapta asked. "Although we might have to hurry because the human bodies probably aren't lasting much longer because the cells will soonish run out of energy."
"I don't think we should use zombie hosts," Jack said. "That never ends well in the movies."
"And we don't know what it would do to a Goa'uld. It could hurt them - then that would be torture of prisoners," Daniel pointed out.
"Oh." Entrapta slowly nodded. "That would be bad."
"Yes," Adora agreed.
"So, plenty of reasons not to risk a zombie Goa'uld escaping," Catra said.
"Oh, we would do it in space, so they wouldn't be able to escape. Unless zombies could survive the vacuum and reentry, or they had help, I guess," Entrapta said.
"Which we shouldn't test," Sam said.
"Well, it would count as a space burial?" Jack asked.
It was probably meant as a joke, but Adora didn't think it was funny. Even though Catra snorted.
Really, her lover's sense of humour was sometimes a bit too dark for Adora's taste.
Above the Atlantic, Earth, August 21st, 1998 (Earth Time)
"So… Do you think that using a zombie body as a host would work? Hypothetically, I mean."
Samantha Carter stiffened for a moment when she heard Entrapta's question. Then she put the scale cleaning tool she had been examining in Darla's hold down and turned to face the princess. "We don't know enough about the workings of that ancient device. And we don't know enough about the way Goa'uld possession works."
"That would seem to be a compelling reason to research the matter thoroughly," Hordak commented.
"Yes." Entrapta nodded. "The data would be very useful, wouldn't it? We will probably get other prisoners. We already have two and would have had a third if the stasis pod hadn't have failed."
The pure scientist in Sam agreed, of course. If they wanted to be able to free hosts from the Goa'uld controlling their bodies, they needed to know exactly how that worked. And to be able to interrogate Goa'uld would be very useful for gathering intelligence. And there was the possibility of coming to an arrangement with selected Goa'uld. Making a treaty would be more palatable for Earth - and for the Etherians - if you didn't have to accept that a human being would be used as a host. Of course, for that, the Goa'uld would have to free their slaves as well, and the odds for that were…
She shook her head. "It's not just about what is useful. There are moral aspects to consider. Important aspects."
She wasn't an expert on alien expressions, but Hordak looked like she had said some gibberish. And Entrapta looked confused. "But we already know that the zombies are dead - just a collection of individual cells without a higher consciousness left. Where's the moral aspect in using that?"
"Many cultures on Earth consider experimenting on the dead the same as desecrating the dead unless the deceased gave permission," Sam explained.
"Ah. So, it goes against Earth customs."
And probably Etherian customs as well - Sam couldn't see Adora or Glimmer allowing experiments with dead bodies. She could be wrong, but Daniel would have told them if he had found such an important difference between their cultures.
"With six billion people, it shouldn't be hard to find volunteers who are about to die," Hordak said.
"But wouldn't Adora heal them?" Entrapta objected. "She wouldn't want to let them die if she could heal them, would she?"
And wasn't that an entirely different can of worms! Sam sighed. "Even if we had animated corpses that we could use for experiments without breaking the law and violating moral principles, there's also the fact to consider that we don't know what such a host would do to a Goa'uld. We mentioned that before." Though Hordak hadn't heard that discussion.
"They are enemies. Prisoners." Yes, Hordak definitely hadn't heard that.
"We do not experiment on prisoners. Or torture them," Sam told them. "It's against the law."
"Is that the law in the United States or one of your few global agreements?" the alien asked.
"It's international law," Sam replied, as firmly as she could. "And the Goa'uld being aliens doesn't change that they are protected as prisoners of war." She suppressed the sudden urge to add a qualifier about uniformed soldiers and spies. This was about ethics, not lawyering.
"I see. So, we would need the Goa'ulds' agreement to conduct experiments."
That wasn't what Sam had been aiming for, but she couldn't really walk back on that. So she nodded.
"And we can't get that if we can't talk to them. I guess we'll have to build a tiny keyboard for them so they can communicate with us," Entrapta said, smiling.
Well, Sam thought, there shouldn't be an issue with that. "As long as it's completely isolated - no connection to other systems, just a screen to show the text."
"Right. And maybe to each other? Now that we have two prisoners," Entrapta suggested.
"Since, according to our legends, Set was the one who murdered Osiris, we might want to be a bit cautious with that," Sam reminded them.
"Oh. I forgot about that. But wasn't it several thousand years since that? And he obviously got better!"
"Goa'uld carry grudges," Sam said.
"Perhaps related to their genetic memories," Hordak speculated. "And that would mean such grudges spread to others as they give birth to more Goa'uld. The Goa'uld Empire might be even more fragile than we assumed."
"I wouldn't want to be too optimistic," Sam cautioned. "Ra ruled it for millennia, and while he is dead, his example shows that a sufficiently powerful Goa'uld can control the others."
"Then we should take care to strike at the most powerful Goa'uld, to keep the enemy fractured and foster infighting," Hordak said. "Although if we appear to best their strongest with ease, we might also incite the rest to unite out of sheer fear." He looked at Sam. "That happened on Etheria."
Sam wasn't sure how they went from discussing the ethics of zombie experiments to discussing grand strategy. "I think this is a topic for a strategy session," she said.
"Yes. We should call the others!" Entrapta said.
That wasn't what Sam had had in mind. But the princess was already using the intercom. It seemed they would be discussing strategy instead of analysing technology until they returned to Stargate Command.
Well, it was less stressful than trying to explain the finer points of ethics to Hordak and Entrapta.