Chapter 29: Public Relations Part 1
The Mountain, Colorado, United States, Earth, August 23rd, 1998 (Earth Time)
"You know, this feels a little dishonest," Bow said as he stepped onto Darla's ramp. "We're supposed to negotiate with the United Nations right now."
Adora felt a pang of guilt. They had claimed an urgent issue to bow out of the negotiations. Then again, they hadn't actually done much during the last session, except for answering a few questions and not taking anyone's side while the supposedly greatest powers of Earth bickered.
And, this was urgent - if Priest or one of his followers lost control upon stumbling onto another rant, the consequences could be catastrophic. Adora had seen records of what happened when a Horde fleet conducted orbital bombardment, and Priest hadn't really understood the concept of collateral damage last time they had discussed the issue.
"Bah! We were due a break!" Glimmer replied.
"This isn't actually a break," Catra said as they walked down the ramp. "It's work."
"But it's work with friends!" Entrapta objected. "I'm happy to see Sam again. I bet we have a lot of data to exchange! I can't wait to show her my prototype tiny keyboard!"
Adora wasn't an expert, but she wouldn't have thought that it took a prototype to build a miniature keyboard. Entrapta probably added a lot of functions to the thing.
Jack, Daniel and Teal'C were waiting for them at the foot of the ramp. Jack looked a little uncomfortable, Adora noticed.
"What's wrong?" Catra must have noticed it as well.
"I'm still not used to conducting such business out in the open. We've spent years keeping this secret," he replied, and now we've got alien visitors landing right next to the mountain in their spaceship.
"We're on a military landing pad," Glimmer said with a frown.
"But it's open to satellite surveillance. I bet your flight was tracked by half the country."
"We've told the Security Council that we had urgent business with Stargate Command regarding a diplomatic incident," Adora said.
"You did…?" Jack closed his eyes and sighed. "Of course you would."
"Honesty is the best policy," she told him.
"Yeah…" He grimaced. "Are you familiar with 'white lies'?"
White lies?
"That's when you tell a little lie because being honest would be rude," Daniel explained. "Like you don't tell someone that their favourite painting looks ugly, for example."
"Ah." Well, that wasn't a real lie. You shouldn't be rude to people.
Catra snickered. She probably thought this would excuse being rude. Well, they had more important problems than that. Like some people trying to rile up Third Fleet - well, they didn't know about Third Fleet, but still! Since when was it acceptable to insult people like that?
"So, General Hammond talked to the President about the whole thing," Jack told them as they entered the bunker - the Mountain it was called, Adora reminded herself. "It's a tricky problem."
Adora didn't need to see Glimmer to know her friend was rolling her eyes. "If it were easy, it wouldn't be a problem, would it? But why exactly is it a problem to do something about people calling for our deaths? Isn't murder illegal in your country?"
Catra snickered.
"It's not quite the same," Daniel said. They reached an elevator and stepped inside. "Freedom of speech is one of the most important rights in the United States. Limiting it is… a very delicate prospect. Many people fear - not entirely unjustifiedly - that such a limit would just be the first step towards abolishing it entirely."
"No one likes censorship," Jack said.
"You censor your entire media. You censor bad words!" Glimmer objected. "So, it's not allowed to curse on television, but you're allowed to tell people to murder others? You've got some fucked-up priorities!"
"You're not the first one to point this out. But I would wager that your countries have some traditions and peculiarities that seem weird to others as well, right?" Daniel smiled.
"The princesses are all weird," Catra said. "You should've seen them at the Princess Prom."
"That's a matter of perspective," Bow cut in while Glimmer glared at Catra. "Every kingdom has its own traditions, yes. But few of them would be able to trigger a war. Those that did kind of… did that in the Age of War, and well, that settled most of them. Violently."
Glimmer frowned at him, but Adora nodded in agreement. Etheria wasn't perfect.
"That sounds like 'an armed society is a polite society', just for countries," Jack commented. "I don't think that's a good role model."
By the time Daniel had explained what the saying meant, they had reached the meeting room in Stargate Command.
"Welcome," General Hammond greeted them. "And thank you for coming to discuss this issue." He pointed at a tall, thin man next to him. "This is Mr Smith, representing the Department of Justice."
"Hello." The man smiled, but it looked like he was just being polite. Or he was nervous.
"Hello!" Adora smiled at him. "Thank you for coming!" They were here to work together, after all. She shook his hand - he didn't have a firm grip, but he wasn't sweating, either.
"So, what can you do about this?" Glimmer said as soon as they had taken their seats. "We've told Priest to treat those people as insane, but that might not be a permanent solution."
"You think he will disobey a direct order from his 'goddess'?" Hammond asked.
"Priest has a tendency to, ah…" Adora trailed off. How to say this?
"He thinks he knows what Adora wants and doesn't think he should ask her to make sure," Catra said.
"Yes, that." Adora nodded and pointed at her.
"Like every religious fanatic ever." Jack grinned.
"Although God doesn't answer questions, unlike Adora," Daniel said.
"Well, we should treat this as a legal problem, not a religious one," Mr Smith said. "Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has defined the limits of Freedom of Speech quite strictly in several rulings. Inciting violence, for example, needs to be imminent - and this isn't the case here."
"Can't your court redefine that?" Adora asked the obvious question.
Judging by the man's grimace, no, the court couldn't do that.
"You see, the separation of power is the foundation of our country. The President can't order a judge to rule a certain way," Mr Smith confirmed Adora's assumption.
"Ah, the famous checks and balances," Catra commented.
"Why, yes." Mr Smith smiled at her.
Adora closed her eyes for a moment when Catra smiled back, showing her fangs. "Be nice," she whispered.
To her surprise, Catra didn't mention, as she had done before, that it was the same as the Horde leaders' policies of fostering the rivalry amongst Force Captains so they would keep each other in check. Instead, Catra shook her head. "But shouldn't there be an emergency rule or something? If a decision threatens your world?"
"Not that there is currently a threat to your world - from Priest, at least," Adora quickly cut in before someone could mistake Catra's comment as a threat. "But it's a potential threat. Kind of. A danger?" She pouted at the glance from her lover. And at the groan from Glimmer.
"Well, if our performance faced with global warming is any hint, then no," Daniel said.
"Well, it's not quite cut and dry," Mr Smith said. "The President will talk to the broadcasting companies and voice his concerns about the risks to international relations that certain interviews might cause. This should cut down on the, ah, screen time of such extremists."
"Remind them how the First World War started when you're at it," Jack interjected. With a grin, he added: "I think some journalists have forgotten that not every royal is a figurehead. Some have space fleets with big honking space guns at their beck and call."
"Yes, that will be mentioned." Mr Smith's smile looked more than a little forced.
Glimmer smiled. "And what if they won't comply?" She leaned forward. "It's hard to work together if we have to wonder who amongst your people is waiting for a chance to kill us for their god."
"Our soldiers are thoroughly vetted," General Hammond protested.
"Yes. Those here," Catra said. "And once we're expanding operations from a few small teams to massed troops?"
"That might be a problem," the general admitted. "Although censoring broadcasting won't solve this."
"Battling worship of false gods is part of our mission," Teal'c commented.
"Yeah…" Jack grimaced. "Teal'c, I fear the US Army can't declare war on God. We've got laws against that. Freedom of religion and all that. Separation of church and state, and everything."
"They would crucify us in Congress and in the courts," Mr Smith whispered.
"Not on your god - on a false god," Teal'c replied. "You did tell me about your god, about his message of love. It is clear as day that your god would never condone murdering people simply for their choice of partners. Therefore, those people are worshipping a false god." He nodded.
Mr Smith looked as if he had eaten something that didn't agree with him. And Catra grinned. "Yeah. False gods are false gods, aren't they?" she asked, cocking her head.
"It's not quite the same," Daniel replied. "Goa'uld declare themselves as gods and demand worship when they manifestly, provably aren't gods - they merely use technology to fake their divine powers. That's what makes them false gods. The god those extremists worship is a different case since they aren't, well… the only claim that they exist is made by those who already worship them. No one is actually claiming to be god."
"Well, those who do are in the loony bin," Jack said.
"That's not entirely correct," Daniel turned to look at him. "Several people were and are worshipped as gods."
"And did they demonstrate any divine power?" Jack raised his eyebrows. "Loony bin."
General Hammond cleared his throat. "This is a political and not a theological problem."
"It's both, actually," Daniel retorted.
Entrapta frowned. "If the Goa'uld are false gods because they use technology to fake their divine powers, then what's a true god? And what are divine powers?"
"Well…" Jack shrugged.
"They aren't actually defined. It's a question of faith," Daniel said - a little too quickly, Adora thought. "It's like… we can't define a true god, but we can define false gods."
"Ah." Entrapta nodded. "So, unless a god makes a claim that can be proven or disproven, they can't be judged, right?"
"Ah… yes." Daniel nodded.
Well, that sounded confusing, but anything that didn't lead to someone claiming that Adora was a goddess was fine in her book. The last thing Adora wanted was to be worshipped.
"But that doesn't give us a solution to handle those nutcases," Catra said. "We're going to keep Priest on a short leash, and Adora will tell him and his followers very clearly that they aren't allowed to attack Earth without her permission, but what are you doing about your fanatics? Just pretending that they don't exist won't work."
"And how can we convince them to stop trying to murder us if we can't prove that their god is wrong?" Entrapta asked.
Mr Smith's smile was so thin, it was barely visible. "We're working on that. For now, I think restricting their reach will already significantly reduce the threat they pose."
Adora wasn't sure that she would agree with that assessment. But she didn't have a better idea.
Samantha Carter didn't sigh with relief when the meeting with Smith finally ended - well, the official meeting; apparently, Glimmer had some questions, probably pointed ones, about the general US policy with regards to censorship. But Sam certainly felt like sighing.
Entrapta, on the other hand, sighed loudly when they started towards Sam's lab. "Wow, your politics are more confusing than I remembered." She cocked her head to the side. "Wait - they are confusing because I wasn't aware of your stance towards censorship and broadcasting, so maybe I should reword that."
Before Sam could weigh in, Entrapta shrugged. "Anyway! I've got the prototype of the tiny keyboard here! Once we incorporate your additions, we can finally communicate easily and in an ethically appropriate way with the captured Goa'uld!"
My additions? Sam wasn't sure what kind of additions she would make to a miniature keyboard. Well, maybe some added security features so it couldn't be dismantled and used to escape a cell, and she would have to check the software and encryption to ensure that no one could compromise the data, probably some proprietary protocols so it could only communicate with a specific computer…
She was still pondering possibilities when they reached her office, but as she quickly found out, Entrapta had several of them already incorporated. Not all of them, though, and both of them spent half an hour hashing out interfaces that would be safer from hacking than the standard ones.
"I think that's it," Entrapta finally declared. "It would be a tiny bit safer if we used crystals, but you can't produce them yet, and this is meant to be built and maintained on Earth."
Sam wasn't aware that this was a requirement, but it made sense; in the current political climate, any solution that required alien resources would be more difficult to implement unless it was clearly superior to the alternative. And a single percentage improvement wasn't worth it. "Yes. I think we can construct that in an hour."
"So, give it to your… wait! You don't have bots. I forgot, sorry!" Entrapta blurted out. "That's something we should work on, actually - constructing anything goes much easier with bots."
"Autonomous robots are a security issue, I am afraid," Sam replied. She had asked before, after all.
"Yes?" Entrapta cocked her head to the side.
"There are concerns that they could either go out of control or be taken over by an enemy," Sam explained.
"Oh. Well, that can happen - it happened to me when I worked on analysing what turned out to be a First Ones computer virus; all my bots went berserk and tried to kill my staff and me. The others fixed it, though. And it gave me so much data!"
Sam forced herself to keep smiling. While she was aware that sometimes, you had to take risks for science - and be willing to do so - her friend seemed to treat a potentially fatal incident as just another opportunity to gather data. But that was her way. "Well, we've got a lot of people here in the Mountain," she explained. "They would all be at risk."
"Right. You really need a secure lab in orbit or on the moon," Entrapta replied.
"I'll see if I can get the budget approved," Sam told her with a grin before she could stop herself. She blamed the Colonel's influence.
"Yes! It's sooo useful!" Entrapta nodded emphatically. "I've had barely any complaints since I got a lab in space. Well, I was barely home, where people would complain about explosions, but that's kinda the idea."
"I see." Maybe Sam should apply for a lab on the moon and see what happened. With the technology they had recovered, reaching the moon would be child's play once they could build their own ships. Which, of course, would take a while, and the war would take priority. But a lab on the moon…
Entrapta sighed and sat down on Sam's desk, letting her feet dangle. "I still don't get your politics. They're so irrational."
"That's because most people are irrational," Sam replied as she started to fill out a request form to get the keyboards and base stations built.
"They shouldn't be. And there's irrational and irrational. If Netossa doesn't want to work with Sweet Bee because Sweet Bee once was Spinnerella's girlfriend, then that's, well, silly, but I can understand it. But I don't get how you can dislike someone for something that didn't happen. We've never been to Earth, we haven't done anything to those people who want us dead, so why are they like this? We're here to help them. If we wanted to hurt them, we could just bombard them from orbit. We wouldn't play silly games."
That was probably Hordak's influence, Sam thought. "They don't see things like that. They have their own view of how the world works, and they fit everything into that." No matter how much they had to bend and break facts.
"That's stupid."
"Yes," Sam agreed. "But that's how people - some people - are. We have to teach them that they're wrong."
"That's kind of hard if they want to kill you."
"Yes. Fortunately, the vast majority of them don't really want to kill anyone. They can be reached with the right approach." Sam hoped that she wasn't wrong.
"And what is the right approach?"
Sam winced. "I think that's a question for public relations."
"'Public relations'?" Entrapta looked a little confused.
This time, Sam sighed.
Earth Orbit, August 23rd, 1998 (Earth Time)
"...so those public relations people are experts on how to make people like you, and Sam said we should look into hiring one. She said every government and every big business had one."
Catra, leaning against the wall in Darla's hold, frowned a little at Entrapta's explanation. "That sounds like… Like a bit questionable." People who knew how to make you like them? She knew someone like that.
Adora nodded in agreement. She would, of course - she had been raised by Shadow Weaver as well. "Yes. It doesn't seem to be very honest. How can people trust us if we lie to them?"
"Oh." Entrapta looked confused.
But Glimmer shook her head. "It's another form of diplomacy, of sorts - you know, when you try to present your proposal in the best possible way depending on who you talk to. You don't lie because if you get caught in a lie, people stop trusting you."
"Ah." Adora nodded.
Catra narrowed her eyes. Knowing what to say to whom - that was how Catra had managed to recruit Entrapta to the Horde.
"Well, you also have to consider how far you can and want to go," Glimmer went on. "At some point, there's not much difference between outright lying and omitting things."
"People will feel that they have been lied to even if everything you told them was technically correct," Bow added.
Catra rolled her eyes. That was obvious. No one liked being manipulated and made to look like a fool.
"And how far do we want to go?" Adora asked.
"We want a lasting alliance, so we need to show the people of Earth that we aren't their enemies," Glimmer replied.
"Yes!" Entrapta agreed.
"We've been trying that," Catra pointed out.
"In diplomatic negotiations," Glimmer retorted. "This is different."
Catra shrugged. People were people. Even princesses, when it came down to it, were people.
Glimmer frowned at her even though she hadn't said anything. "I think we all realised that we don't really understand the people here."
That Catra could agree with. "Yes. They're all nuts."
"Not everyone," Adora objected. "But a lot seem to be a little…"
"Irrational," Entrapta finished for her.
"As I said, nuts," Catra said.
Glimmer sighed. "They aren't crazy - not all of them. But they're different. We need to understand them better, and I think such a public relations expert might help." With a glance at Adora, she added: "It's like preparing for Princess Prom: If we know what makes them tick and what they hate, we can avoid blunders."
Adora pouted. "We still made blunders. Like with Frosta. I don't think anyone liked us afterwards."
"That was because Catra manipulated us," Glimmer replied.
Catra didn't react. It was true, after all. She had played them - and she had enjoyed it. Especially the dancing. In hindsight, she should have realised a lot of things back then. But she'd been young and stupid. Very stupid.
"So, we hire someone to teach us about Earth? Like Daniel?" Adora asked.
"Daniel is an archaeologist and historian. Not a public relations expert," Bow said. "But probably someone like him, yes."
"We'll need to find someone we can trust, though," Catra pointed out. "Such a person could easily manipulate us."
"Yes." Glimmer frowned. "This will be tricky. We might have to hire two or even more to guard against that."
"Don't the United Nations have such people? You said everyone has them," Adora asked. "We could ask them for help."
"But they would be loyal to the United Nations, not to us," Glimmer objected.
Catra nodded. Negotiations were tricky enough - they couldn't afford to introduce a spy. And she was sure that anyone recommended by the United Nations would be a spy for one country or another.
"Well, we know there are many such people on Earth," Bow said. "So, let's talk to some of them and see if they make a good impression?"
Catra snorted. If someone made a bad impression, they obviously weren't competent at public relations.
"Yes. Let's put up a wanted ad!" Entrapta said.
"A wanted ad?" Adora asked.
"That's how you hire people - you put up an ad in a newspaper and online. Sam explained that to me." Entrapta nodded. "Well, you could also use a headhunter - which isn't what it sounds like, I asked - and then they would look for one."
"That would be more discreet," Catra commented.
"But we would have to find a trustworthy headhunter first," Adora objected.
Which would put them back to square one. Catra nodded.
Glimmer didn't look convinced. "I was thinking we would contact various public relations firms. Putting up an ad would make us look…"
"...like we need the help?" Catra grinned at the princess's scowl.
"We do need the help," Adora said, nodding. "But I think asking people is better. And we can ask our friends to help us look for trustworthy people."
"The Americans want to manipulate us like everyone else," Catra pointed out.
"Daniel is honest."
Catra had to agree with that. Daniel could be trusted - to an extent. "But his superiors aren't." Not even O'Neill.
"I trust Sam," Entrapta added. "So, we can ask her too!"
Glimmer nodded. "We have to trust someone, anyway."
The Mountain, Colorado, United States, Earth, August 24th, 1998 (Earth Time)
"The Etherians are looking for a spin doctor?" Jack O'Neill looked at General Hammond, then at Daniel and Carter. Carter blushed, which was a surprise. He raised his eyebrows.
"I may have mentioned the concept of public relations to Entrapta," she said.
'May'? Carter usually wasn't as… diplomatic. She must be really embarrassed. But this wasn't some private moment where a joke would be appropriate. They were in a meeting with the general. "And they've asked us for a recommendation?"
"They have explicitly asked for Dr Jackon and Captain Carter's help," Hammond replied.
"I don't know why they would ask for my help. I don't have any experience with public relations," Daniel said. "I don't even know a public relations expert."
Jack was already aware of that. Otherwise, his friend probably wouldn't have blundered into the whole 'cuckoo archaeologist claims aliens built the pyramids' debacle.
"I am familiar with the concept, of course, but I don't know any public relations expert either," Carter added. "Entrapta must have got the wrong impression from my explanation."
Hammond looked grim. "This poses a problem, of course."
Daniel looked confused, but Carter grimaced. Jack nodded. "Washington wants us to recommend specific 'experts'."
"Yes." Hammond didn't like the idea either. "I did point out that the Etherians specifically asked for Dr Jackson and Captain Carter because they trust them." He sighed. "The President pointed out that whoever the Etherians picked would be approached by various groups anyway."
"Like the NID," Jack said. "Or just some interest group with a bag full of money. Or some foreign spy."
"Exactly." The general nodded. "However, I could persuade the President that we cannot afford to lose the Etherians' trust in SG-1, so he agreed that we'll be putting our cards on the table from the start."
"Honesty is the best policy," Daniel agreed.
Although… "Were you just quoting Adora?" Jack asked.
Daniel flushed a little. "It's a sound policy."
Maybe we should start worrying about the Etherians manipulating our own people, Jack thought. Though could you call it manipulation if they were simply being themselves? "So, how do we honestly recommend a trustworthy spin doctor that won't sell out either the Etherians or us?" If such a person even existed - Jack didn't really trust any PR guys.
"We investigate them beforehand," Carter offered - she must have been thinking about this for a while. "As if we were screening applicants for Stargate Command recruitment."
"Right. Because we've done this before." Although Jack knew that despite their best efforts, they would have missed some NID moles in the past.
"And we'll tell the Etherians that," Daniel insisted. "They need to know that whoever we recommend will be loyal to the United States."
"Of course," Hammond agreed.
"Let's hope that they won't take offence at that," Jack said.
"They shouldn't." Daniel frowned a little. "They are, despite their age, experienced politicians, after all."
"Carter had to explain to them the concept of public relations," Jack retorted.
"That wasn't because the concept was unknown to them, but because they must have seen this as part of being a ruler," his friend protested. "And, well, because it was Entrapta. I keep telling people that we can't underestimate them. The Etherians have a sophisticated civilisation, even if their aesthetics might not look like that to us. It's the same with how people tend to see past cultures as ignorant and primitive even though most had complex societies. Like the Bronze Age, which had a complex network of trade and diplomacy relations that covered a significant part of the world and…"
Jack sighed. Here came the history lesson. Although his friend had a point about underestimating the Etherians. They were just so young. And so earnest. Well, most of them. Catra was a sneaky cynic, or tried to be, and Glimmer certainly acted like a politician often enough.
Jack O'Neill pushed back with his seat and resisted the urge to spin around on it. With no emergency to deal with, he was supposed to catch up on paperwork. Which he had done - at least he had finished the essential reports. And what the government considered essential. Opinions on that differed, of course.
In any case, it was mid-afternoon-ish - time for a break. Usually, he'd drag Carter and Daniel out of their caves, but both were busy working with Stargate Command's support staff on vetting public relations firms. That left Teal'c. Who would, at this time, either by working out with the marines of SG-3, which meant sparring, or meditating in his room.
A quick check confirmed that Jack's friend wasn't in his room. Which meant he would be in the gym - and unlikely to take a break in the middle of a training session. Still, Jack felt like talking to a friend, and the mess hall was on the way, so if he grabbed a doughnut and coffee, he could then watch Teal'c flatten cocky marines in sparring matches. You could have worse breaks.
In the canteen, he stood in the short line - one airman ahead of him tried to surrender his spot, but Jack waved him off. As if he'd pull rank in the chow line! Besides, the TV was on and showing the news. Or what they thought was the news. Nothing new there… Wait! He frowned. He knew that face on the screen - that was the nutcase who had called for the death of the Etherians. He walked closer, listening to the announcer.
"...arrested for misuse of donations and child pornography. The reverend's lawyer refuted the accusations and claimed that his client was being framed."
An airman next to Jack snorted. "They always say that!"
Another cursed about paedophiles.
Jack would certainly not dismiss the idea that the good reverend was a conman and sexual predator. But he couldn't help feeling that the man's arrest so soon after he caught the Etherians' attention was more than a little suspicious.
Earth Orbit, August 24th, 1998 (Earth Time)
"...and while the police refused to comment on the speculation that the reverend's recent controversial statements about the Etherians were the reason that his finances had come under scrutiny, several sources claim that despite the fact that the information about the reverend's suspicious financial activities was provided anonymously, the police acted as if they trusted the source, which raises suspicions that…"
"They arrested the nutcase?"
Adora nodded. "According to the news, yes."
"But not because of the death threats," Catra went on as she sat down in the lounge of Darla.
"Financial crimes and child pornography," Glimmer said with a deep scowl. "Figures."
Adora nodded, but Catra snorted. "Easy to plant such material on someone."
Adora blinked. "You think that someone, ah… framed him?"
Her lover shrugged. "It's possible. It's quite convenient that he was arrested - and for such despicable crimes - shortly after he made waves. If you can't get him for what he did, get him for something he didn't."
That was… Adora's first impulse was that this was bad. Very bad.
"We don't know that," Bow pointed out. "And according to what we found out, a lot of such 'televangelists' get very rich on donations."
And a lot of them didn't like people like Adora and Catra - they had said so in the past. Not many had been as hateful as the reverend in question, though. Still… "But child pornography?"
"It's not impossible either," Glimmer said, "according to the information we found about religious organisations."
"Of course," Catra pointed out, "that also means it's an easy and plausible charge."
"But would they do this? Frame a man for crimes he didn't commit just to please us?" Adora asked.
"In a heartbeat," Catra replied.
Adora frowned at her. "We don't know that."
"We know they did such things - and worse than this - in their 'Cold War'," Bow said.
"But that was years ago," Adora protested. When she saw Catra shaking her head with a sigh, she pouted. People could change - Catra was the best example! SG-1 were good people, too.
"But is this a bad thing?" Entrapta looked confused. "He told people to kill us - and we didn't do anything to him. So, he was obviously a bad person who deserved to be arrested."
"Yes, he was - but he might have been arrested for a thing he didn't do," Adora explained.
"But why would that matter, as long as he is arrested?" Entrapta asked.
"Two reasons," Glimmer replied. "First, if he wasn't arrested for telling people to murder us, then that means it's still allowed to do that. Tell people to kill us, I mean, not killing us."
"In the United States. In other countries, it is legal to kill us," Catra interjected.
"We're talking about the United States," Glimmer told her with a frown. "Anyway, the second reason is that we have to wonder if we can trust people who break their own rules like that."
"If a rule is stupid, it should be broken," Entrapta said.
Adora narrowed her eyes - at Catra. She knew that quote.
Her lover frowned. "Hey, it's true - you shouldn't be following stupid rules."
"Sometimes," Adora admitted.
"This isn't about following stupid rules - this is about trusting someone who ignores their rules when it's inconvenient but won't change them," Glimmer explained.
"Ah. So, you think they will do the same when it comes to an agreement with us?" Entrapta asked.
"We don't know if they did it in the first place," Adora cut in.
"It would be wise to assume the worst," Hordak commented. "Your friends in Stargate Command might be trustworthy, but they aren't the rulers of their country."
"And I'm sure that Jack's been involved in such stuff," Catra said. "Remember him and Burke?"
Oh. Adora frowned. "But that was years ago. He's changed."
Catra frowned as well - she understood Adora's point. But she shook her head. "But there will be others. And either the President is behind this, or he tolerates it, or he can't stop it. No matter what, it's not a good thing."
"Indeed," Hordak agreed. "A leader must have total control over his underlings."
"Yeah, how about we don't go there?" Glimmer said. "But a leader is responsible for their people."
"You can't have responsibility without control," Hordak retorted.
"This is getting a bit too philosophical. Can we focus on what this means for us?" Bow frowned.
"We don't even know if our suspicion is true," Adora told him. "We shouldn't assume the worst without any evidence."
"Neither should we blindly trust everyone," Catra objected.
"I think we shouldn't do anything, but we should be more cautious when negotiating," Glimmer said.
"And what about the public relations experts we asked for help with?" Catra leaned back in her seat.
"We already decided that we would hire several people," Glimmer told her. "So, we have to look for some people ourselves."
"Great." Catra, obviously, wasn't fond of that idea. "Just what we wanted to avoid by asking SG-1 for help."
Adora smiled and patted her lover's back. "Not every plan works out."
"But it would be nice if some worked out without having to work harder," Catra retorted.
"You haven't done much work in the negotiations at all, "Glimmer said with a frown.
"I'm not a princess," Catra told her with a grin.
"Anyway," Adora spoke up before her friend and lover could start a row - Catra was a bit lazy when she thought she could get away with it, but Adora didn't think Catra being more active in negotiations would help a lot. Quite the contrary, in fact. "We should wait and see for now. And look for public relations experts. You can help me with that!"
She ignored how Catra sighed theatrically and slumped at the table. Catra couldn't fool her with such antics.
Earth Orbit, August 25th, 1998 (Earth Time)
Samantha Carter wouldn't call working with Entrapta a chore. Not at all - it was refreshing to work with someone as intelligent and driven as she was who didn't harbour some mixed feelings because Sam was a woman. The number of times she'd had to establish ground rules that should have been obvious with some of her male colleagues… the Colonel's jokes about her enforcing the pecking order had stopped being funny long ago.
No, working with Entrapta, a genuinely nice person as well, was a great experience, especially if they worked in space - despite Sam's experiences, part of her still marvelled at watching the Earth float beneath them through a window. At least it should be.
But part of her had also been dreading today's work on the ring transporter. Because while Entrapta was one of the nicest persons Sam knew - not counting when she had some mad scientist moment - she was also both very open and very curious. Which meant that she would ask rather uncomfortable questions that Sam didn't like answering.
"So…" Entrapta bit her lower lip. "Did you plant fake data in that guy's computer to arrest him?"
Questions like this one. "That would be illegal," Sam replied before she could help herself. Damn, That was an evasive answer if she ever knew one.
"Yes, I had that explained to me." Entrapta nodded. "It's a little weird that getting the right result but with a different method is not allowed, but apparently, the side-effects are bad."
"Yes," Sam agreed. "Breaking the law isn't a good thing."
"Unless it's a stupid law," Entrapta objected. "At least Catra said so, and Glimmer didn't really contradict her - well, not if she really meant it."
That was… a rather worrying fact. Not really a surprise, though - Catra certainly struck Sam as the type to only worry about getting caught with regards to rules, and Glimmer had a pragmatic side that bordered on ruthless.
"Anyway!" Entrapta nodded. "Whether or not it's legal doesn't answer the question I asked."
Damn. "Stargate Command didn't do anything like that. And I have no knowledge of any other organisation of the United States framing the reverend," Sam replied.
"But would you know about that?"
"No," Sam admitted. "Whoever would have done such a thing would have kept it a secret from everyone because it would be illegal."
"That's a lot of 'woulds'." Entrapta pouted a little. "You usually don't use so many."
Entrapta was much more focused on this than Sam had expected - usually, the woman was focused on science. "I don't want to present speculation as facts," she told her.
"Ah." Entrapta nodded, smiling. "That's a good stance."
"But," Sam went on, "some people think the timing of this is suspicious. Usually, such investigations take longer before an arrest is made." The police generally weren't eager to make waves like this without solid proof. Certainly not when it concerned the leader of a local church. The white male leader of a Christian Church, a voice in the back of her mind added. But that was another subject she wasn't going to touch unless forced to.
"On the news, they said they had received information from an anonymous source." Entrapta cocked her head to the side. "Wouldn't that be enough to act?"
Sam pressed her lips together. "The police tend to act a bit more cautious when receiving such information. It could be an attempt to frame a rival. Of course, it could also be information from someone close to the reverend who was pushed to act after the man called for your deaths."
Entrapta frowned. "But if they knew about his breaking the law, why wouldn't they have said something before?"
"Perhaps they didn't think it was bad enough to call the police - especially if they were only aware of the financial crimes," Sam explained. "The police would have discovered the other crimes once they took his computer and examined it."
"Ah. So, it's possible that he did those crimes."
"Yes."
"But it's also possible that he didn't, and someone faked the data."
"Yes."
"Is there any way we can find out which is the case?" Entrapta frowned. "Because this seems to be an important question that should be answered."
Sam sighed. "Not without breaking a few more laws." Such as hacking the computers and electronic communication of a certain Senator. Though not even that would probably help - Kinsey was too smart to leave incriminating evidence on his computer.
"Your laws seem to need a lot of revising," Entrapta said.
"Yes. But altering the law is hard - and that's by design."
"Why?"
"Because people need to be able to trust that a law won't be changed on a whim. They need to be able to trust the government, and they can't do that if they have to fear that whatever was legal yesterday could be illegal tomorrow just because the president didn't like it. Especially if they invested a lot and expected to be able to keep doing it."
"Oh." Entrapta nodded. "Like investing a lot into an experiment and then being told you can't do it."
"Yes." Sam nodded.
"But why would anyone invest a lot in telling others to kill people?"
Sam sighed again. She really didn't want to discuss religion with Entrapta.