Chapter 34: Alliances Part 2

Capitol, Washington DC, Earth, September 17th, 1998 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill didn't like politicians. No matter their party affiliation, the lot of them were generally more concerned with pandering to their backers - and looking good to their constituents - than doing what was good for the country. At least Hammond was aware of that and had sent Carter to talk to the idiots who still hadn't gotten the message that the times of playing the usual games were over. Or at least suspended for the duration of the current crisis.

But that meant that he was stuck with watching how the cabinet tried to deal with the fact that the French had stolen a march on the United States.

"Look, they haven't signed an alliance yet. That is contingent on legalising gay marriage, and the French haven't done that yet," the Secretary of Agriculture said.

Why the man was voicing his opinion on this, Jack didn't quite understand. Perhaps he had dealt with the French over cheese and champagne exports and thought that had made him an expert?

"They'll pass those laws in a heartbeat. With the alliance all but signed, they won't hesitate," the Secretary of State replied. "The French Président doesn't have to deal with a bunch of religious nutcases who think God is American and they are the chosen people. When did the conservatives actually start believing in their own propaganda?"

The man must be either exhausted or incredibly annoyed, in Jack's opinion - he usually was far more restrained.

"Most don't believe that," the President replied. "But they have grown used to the status quo. And they have been cultivating the religious right for years. They fear that they are riding a tiger and can't get off without getting mauled."

And that was why Jack didn't like politicians. If you were a patriot, you did what was best for your country, no matter the cost for yourself. Soldiers were ready to lay down their lives for America, and those hypocrites in Congress were baulking at the thought of losing their seats?

"A tiger? More like a lemming," the Secretary of Education commented with a snort. "A lemming grown fat on money from bribes and running heedlessly towards the edge of the cliff."

"Now, to be fair, no one could have predicted that we'd make contact with helpful aliens who care about gay rights," the Secretary of Agriculture retorted.

"That doesn't matter. Have you seen what they were doing to America's education, all in the name of their ideology? Intelligent design! Chastity as sexual education! Cutbacks on public education wherever they could! They were ruining America long before we opened that gate!"

Jack refrained from smiling at the rant as the President spoke up. "Now, now - let's not dwell on the past. We have the future to deal with. And we have most of the conservatives in Congress on board. Or we'll have them, once the holdouts realise that they can't do any horse-trading like usual. Not with their own backers breathing down their necks."

"And the true believers?" the Secretary of the Interior asked.

"I think Captain Carter's briefing today helped impress upon them that their views of the situation were not entirely correct," the Chief of Staff replied.

"Must be tough to realise that your god abandoned you." The Secretary of Education snorted again.

The President frowned at her. "Anyway, if we just wanted to pass a federal law, we could do that easily. But as I was told by our experts, that won't be enough for the Etherians." He glanced at Jack, who straightened in response. Daniel had been the one who had explained to the Etherians how the United States worked, including the role of the Supreme Court, but Jack was the leader of SG-1, and so it was his responsibility.

"Why can the French do it, and we need to amend our constitution?" The Secretary of Agriculture pouted.

"Because they have a different system," the Secretary of Education told him. "They don't have a Supreme Court in charge who could change its rulings whenever they chose to."

"The Supreme Court can't just change its rulings."

"Of course they can. They did it before with the death penalty, remember?" The woman scoffed. "And the magical princesses from the space kingdom are all too aware how that works when someone is elected for life without any checks and balances."

"You can't compare the Supreme Court to an absolute monarch!"

"I just did."

"Folks!" the President spoke up again. "There's no point to bicker about the hand we've been dealt. We have to play it. So… assume the French seal the deal in a few days; how long until they start building spaceships?"

Damn. The President was looking at Jack again. And this was a question for Carter, not for him. "They will have to spend months just learning the new technology," Jack repeated what Carter had told him. "And unless they want to copy a Horde frigate, they will have to design a ship as well."

"They'll want their own designs. The French always do," the Secretary of Agriculture claimed.

Jack wasn't so sure. The French had cooperated with other countries in the aerospace industry before. Airbus was the most famous example.

"Well, even if the French get a headstart, it won't matter much as long as we can get an alliance in a few weeks to a few months," the Secretary of State said.

"As long as the Etherians have enough teachers to cover all our needs," the Secretary of Education pointed out. "I don't think they'll stop their first teaching programs just to start with us. They might expect us to work together with everyone else."

Jack wasn't the only one who winced. The United States had trouble getting the Air Force and the Navy to cooperate - all the fault of the Navy pukes who didn't want to admit that space was covered by the Air Force - but to work so closely with the Europeans? The French didn't like America, and the Brits probably hadn't forgotten the whole Skybolt mess. Or the Suez Crisis. Or the Tizard Mission.

Great.

Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, Earth, September 18th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...the secretary general of NATO confirmed today that the member states have collectively decided that the attack by the Goa'uld constitutes sufficient cause to trigger Article 5. Following this, the individual member states are expected to officially declare war, although to preserve operational security, the Goa'uld Empire will not be formally notified of this, which has several experts on International law express their doubts about the legality of the current and future hostilities…"

"...the police had to intervene to protect anti-war protestors from counter-protestors in Washington DC…"

"...several US embassies were the target of protests claiming that the United States were the aggressor in the conflict with the Goa'uld Empire…"

"...and many are wondering, with NATO invoking Article 5 and France about to sign an Alliance with the Etherians, whether or not a formal alliance with the Etherians is still necessary. We don't know the details of the alliance yet, but if France is fighting as part of NATO and allied to the Etherians, that would forge close ties between the Alliance and NATO, and that…"

"...and has no one looked at the money? How many defence contractors are pressuring their bought and paid for members of Congress to vote in favour of this travesty of justice just so they can profit from the war? Are we really willing to sell our souls for profit? I say: NO! This is a conspiracy to corrupt the heart of America so…"

"That weird conservative channel still hasn't changed," Adora commented as she switched the television in the waiting room off. They were still focusing on the extremists.

"Well, they claim that they are merely showing both sides of the issue equally," Bow told her, looking up from his tablet.

Catra snorted. "Yeah, right."

Adora looked over. Her lover was… you couldn't call it sitting; Catra was sprawled in one of the seats in the waiting room, back arched over the armrest as she looked upside down at the others in the room. "At least they are showing the positive reactions as well, now," Adora said.

"How nice." Catra, obviously, didn't think this was a sign of progress.

"Let's focus on today's meeting," Glimmer said. "The British delegation is supposed to arrive in twenty minutes - unless their flight gets delayed."

"Maybe we should have landed in London," Adora said. "This is close to France but not to England."

"The French Président still had to fly in," Glimmer retorted. "And it would be a snub to France if we went to London for the meeting with the British Prime Minister. And Geneva is one of the seats of the United Nations."

"You just like the sweets here," Catra commented.

Glimmer stuck out her tongue at Catra. She was in a good mood. Everyone was after they had finalised the agreement with the French. Now, if things with the British went well as well, and then with the Germans, they would be ready to start liberating planets. Too bad the United States were still dragging their feet - Jack and the others wouldn't be able to help them until their country adjusted. "Well, let's hope things go well today."

"They should," Glimmer said. "I just wish the people from Earth wouldn't complicate everything so much." She scoffed. "They have the United Nations taking control of the Stargate. And their NATO is now officially at war with the Goa'uld. And we're forming an alliance separate from NATO. How can you wage war like that?"

"Well, if anyone can, you should know how, Commander," Catra told her. "It sounds like the old Princess Alliance."

"We didn't have three partially overlapping alliances," Glimmer retorted. "Planning who gets to use the Stargate will be a nightmare. Not just logistically, but who wants to bet that some nations will attempt to leverage control over the gate into influence over us?"

"I'm not going to take a sucker's bet," Catra declared promptly. "That's Adora's thing."

"It's not!" Adora protested. Just because she had made a few unfortunate bets as a cadet… She pouted at the grinning Catra.

"Let's get serious," Glimmer said. "We don't want the British to think we're not serious."

Adora spoke up before Catra could make a joke about Glimmer's wording. "Isn't it a snub, talking to the prime minister of a queen instead of the queen herself?" She might be a figurehead, but she was the head of state.

"It's not," Catra replied. "The Prime Minister is the actual ruler of the country."

Which was either England, the United Kingdom or Great Britain depending on what you read. A very weird country.

"Anyway, since the head of state is the queen," Glimmer said, "we can expect to meet her when we sign the alliance."

"If we sign an alliance," Catra said. "They didn't get the name 'perfidious Albion' for nothing, I bet."

"That was actually enemy propaganda," Bow countered.

"Like calling the Horde the 'Evil Horde'?" Catra grinned.

"That was just telling the truth!" Glimmer retorted.

"Guys, please!" Bow said. "Let's focus on the meeting."

Catra snorted. "It'll go like the one with the French did. We have something they want very badly, and they are willing to do what is needed to get a deal."

Adora frowned, but she couldn't really counter that argument.

Pentagon, United States of America, Earth, September 18th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...so, the others are busy meeting the British, but that's politics, so they don't need us for that - Bow knows about our technology, Glimmer is a trained sorceress in case they have questions about magic, and Catra and Adora know everything about our logistics, even though Catra acts as if she wasn't interested, and the French didn't have any questions that would have needed us - so we thought we could take the shuttle and visit you to do some science, but then they told us at the mountain that you were here, so we flew here to meet you, in case you had some free time to discuss this adaption of the anti-gravity generator you mentioned! I hope we aren't disturbing you when you're busy with something important!"

Samantha Carter liked Entrapta. She really did. But sometimes, the princess was a little too impulsive and enthusiastic. And Sam didn't like Hordak.

Then again, Entrapta's arrival had gotten Sam out of another meeting with recalcitrant conservative members of the House of Representatives who just couldn't be bothered to face reality. And she was very sick of having to listen to Bible quotes. So Sam smiled a the beaming princess and nodded at Hordak. "No, just another meeting."

"Ah." Entrapta nodded. "Good! As Catra and Glimmer say - and if they agree on something, you know it's true: If you have time for a meeting, you don't have anything important to do. Unless it's a diplomatic meeting, I think."

Sam suppressed a chuckle; they weren't alone at the landing pad at the Pentagon, and with the current struggle between the Navy and the Air Force over the Space Force, she didn't want to hand the Navy any ammunition. "Well, I'm available to look at your modifications to the generator."

"Great! I've changed the power modulation. And Hordak had a very interesting idea about the main regulator." Entrapta opened the shuttle's back to show her the generator stashed there.

"An obvious modification that any technician should have realised long ago," Hordak commented.

Sam suppressed her annoyed reaction at the implied insult. "The Goa'uld aren't much for encouraging creativity amongst their slaves."

"How very short-sighted of them. Although having been the target of a coup myself, I can understand that they might have thought drastic measures were necessary."

"I don't think Catra was trying to replace you when she sent me to Beast Island," Entrapta said.

"She was working up to it. I merely preempted her attack."

Sam tried to focus on the generator. She was already aware that Hordak, Entrapta and Catra shared a quite convoluted past. She didn't really want to hear the details. Well, she did, but whatever she heard, she was supposed to report to her superiors. And that felt like a breach of trust.

So she cleared her throat. "I see you doubled the crystals here."

"Yes. Added redundancy." Entrapta nodded. "You can blow half the relays and still have full power! But it will need a case that will vent the power of the explosion. And that won't offer the same protection as an armoured case."

"Any external force that penetrates the hull and reaches the generator will likely wreck the vehicle anyway," Hordak retorted. "Unless it's a capital vessel, in which case losing a minor backup generator won't affect its combat performance."

"What about a cellular array?" Sam asked. "Earth tanks use a system to offer both armour protection and a way to vent an internal explosion away from the crew compartment."

"Oh, yes!" Entrapta beamed. "That would work. It would even work for bots - it would keep their decision matrixes intact so they can continue learning after repairs."

"That should enhance their long-term combat performance, yes," Hordak agreed.

"So, how does that work? Oh, blast panels, maybe? Mounted so they resist force from one direction but can easily be pushed away into the other direction?"

Entrapta was a genius, Sam reminded herself. She nodded with a smile. "Yes - it's quite obvious, isn't it?"

Hordak frowned. "Only if you are used to weapons that use explosives as propellant. Energy-based weapons make such construction pointless."

Sam knew a face-saving argument when she heard it and grinned. "You also need internal armour, though. And that will make it heavier."

"Yes. Unless we could… Hm… if we calculate the maximum power a blown crystal array could develop, we would know the minimal amount of armour we need…" Entrapta scrunched her nose while she started tapping buttons on her multi-purpose-device. "That means… Hm… It is related to the amount of power transmitted to the generator, so whatever metals the power lines or blows up the regulator is the upper limit of what could reach the relay crystals, so…"

She was interrupted by a beeping noise.

Hordak frowned. "Someone's trying to enter the shuttle."

"Oh?"

Sam tensed. They were on a landing pad at the Pentagon. Who would be willing to disturb them? If it was the NID… No. They wouldn't want to risk the Etherians' anger. Kinsey had clearly understood that. "It might be important," she said.

"Let's check!" Entrapta was already on the way to the door controls.

Outside, two men in dress shirts and slacks, but without jackets or ties, waited. Both carried laptop cases - and both had multiple pens in their shirt pockets.

Sam could be mistaken, but this style? She was familiar with it.

"Dr Carter? Princess Entrapta? Mr Hordak? We're sorry to disturb you, but when we heard that you had a shuttle here, we couldn't resist. I'm Mark Bower; this is Gerald Cline. We're from NASA, and we'd like to talk to you!"

Sam knew it. And since no one had stopped them from bothering the alien shuttle, the brass approved of whatever they were here for.

Well, Sam was pretty sure she also knew what this was about.

Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, Earth, September 18th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and in addition to crafting the Marriage Rights Act, we've also adjusted the Human Rights Act. As soon as those receive Royal Assent, same-sex marriage, with all the duties and rights that marriage grants, will be legal in the United Kingdom. All people, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation, will have equal rights with regards to selecting their partner."

The British Prime Minister had been stressing the kingdom part of the United Kingdom Catra had noticed. And the role of the Queen of England. A rather transparent attempt to appeal to the princesses, in her opinion. And like the French, he hadn't mentioned that they had executed one of their kings after a revolution. Not that it mattered - that had happened centuries ago.

"Thank you!" Adora beamed. Catra was tempted to kick her under the table to remind her lover that the Earth politicians were trying to butter them up. Then again, that was Adora for you: always willing to see the best in people. Even when they did their worst to her and her friends, like… She suppressed the urge to shake her head. That was the past; Catra couldn't change it. She could only do better in the future. Like here.

"It's very good to hear that," Glimmer said. "I assume your queen won't hold up the process for ceremonial reasons?"

And now Catra had to hide her grin. Glimmer smiled as politely as before, but the Prime Minister's slight flinch meant the small barb had found its mark. The British might have a queen, but she wasn't their actual ruler.

"I don't foresee any delays on that front," the man replied.

"Good!" Adora glanced at Glimmer for a change, not at Catra, before beaming at the delegation from the United Kingdom. "So, provided the act goes through, let's talk about military and technology!"

"...and so the Royal Navy would expand to cover space as well. While we work on building our own space vessels, we would like to have our sailors gather experience in space combat on your ships," the British admiral finished.

Now that was a good idea, in Catra's opinion. That would certainly speed up the time until Earth had space assets worth a damn. She knew best how useless most cadets were before they got some experience in the field. "That sounds reasonable," she said.

"Of course, we would also like to purchase spaceships from you once our sailors are ready to crew them," the man went on. "It's very likely that we'll pattern our own production after your ships, after all, so this would make a lot of sense."

That might be going a little too fast, though. Catra didn't trust the British - or any Earth country - yet with their own spaceships.

"That is certainly a good way to train up your forces, but it will take quite some time until your people are proficient with handling and especially maintaining Horde frigates," Adora said.

Time enough to see if they were trustworthy.

"We're aware of that from our own history. But the sooner we start, the sooner we are ready."

"There's also the fact that the way the Horde frigates are run might not suit your navy," Catra pointed out. "Horde Prime had his clones made to perform exactly as he wanted, and that's how they still work in many areas."

"Not big on lower ranks showing any initiative, was he?" the British general asked.

"Not at all," Catra said, frowning. Anyone who stuck out got… brainwashed. Like Hordak. Or herself.

"Then our crews might be an advantage for you as well - we've got a long naval tradition that favours showing initiative," the admiral said. "Of course, sailing the blue sea isn't quite comparable to flying in space, but the basic principles of running a ship tend to remain the same - at least that was the case for us while we went from sailing ships to ironclads to dreadnoughts and to aircraft carriers."

Catra tried not to sneer. She didn't like water. And she didn't remember her time with Horde ships fondly. Well, she had mixed feelings about conquering Salineas, but that wasn't something she liked to dwell on either.

"Well, basically, yes," Adora said with a smile. "At least that was our experience - we fought on sailing ships and in space."

The British soldiers looked surprised at that. "You did?"

"Yes." Adora nodded. "Of course, it wasn't a warship, and it floated above the water until it sank, but, yes, it was propelled by sails and magic."

"The Horde had actual warships," Catra cut in. "Not sailing ships. But yes, there are quite a lot of similarities between those ships and Horde frigates."

"But copying Horde ships might be harder than adapting a few crucial systems to your own technology," Bow pointed out.

"We're aware of that. But we think the priority is now to get ships into space. And working designs tend to have fewer issues to work out than new designs," the admiral said.

"Hopefully fewer delays," the Prime Minister added. "We don't have decades to get the perfect ship. Good enough will have to do."

"Perfection is the enemy of good enough, yes," Bow said.

Catra had a comment about this, Adora and Shadow Weaver, but this wasn't the time or place for it. "So, let's talk about numbers," she said instead.

Pentagon, United States of America, Earth, September 18th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...so, you see, if we had just one of your ships available for transporting supplies, we could settle Mars and start terraforming it! Unless, of course, our calculations of their minimum cargo capacity are wrong."

Jack O'Neill frowned as he approached the shuttle parked on one of the Pentagon's landing pads. Who was talking inside? As far as he knew, it was just Carter, Entrapta and Hordak in there. Perhaps he should have asked one of the guards outside, but that would have made him look as if he didn't know everything that was going on with the aliens.

Well, he trusted Carter. Absolutely. Even with that damn Russian. But he didn't trust the aliens. Entrapta was too naive and trusting, and Hordak was a former warlord whose 'change of heart' might not be as thorough as some, namely Entrapta, thought. Jack had dealt with warlords in his past.

So he stepped onto the ramp and called out: "Permission to come aboard?" And then had to suppress a wince. That was something a navy puke would say - and space was Air Force turf.

"Jack?" Entrapta replied. "Come in! It's open!"

Not the best policy even with guards outside, Jack thought as he entered the shuttle.

Carter smiled and nodded at him. "Sir."

"Hi, Jack!" Entrapta's greeting was as friendly as Hordak's was curt - the alien merely nodded at him.

"Hello… Oh, you're Colonel O'Neill!"

"Wow! Hello!"

Two men - two nerds - smiled at him. Jack raised his eyebrows. "And you are?"

"Oh, sorry! I'm Mark Bower; this is Gerald Cline. We're from NASA!"

"We heard that a shuttle set down here and decided to use the opportunity to see if we could talk to them - to the aliens," the other added.

"And you just walked up to the shuttle?" If that was true, heads would roll in the Pentagon. Jack would make sure of that.

"We wish!" Bower complained. "We had to go through security checks as if we were terrorists!"

"They even x-rayed us and our laptops! If we'd have sensitive equipment, that would have been damaged!" his colleague added.

Jack nodded. So, someone had greenlighted the 'spontaneous' visit. Probably some general who thought that Entrapta would react favourably to talking to those nerds. Well, it didn't seem as if they had been wrong.

"And they have such interesting ideas!" Entrapta gushed. "I mean, we told people that we would offer travel to space, but with all the other negotiations we had to do, and the security concerns that Catra and Glimmer were talking about, we didn't get anything done yet, but this! This is so much more interesting than some boring trip to space - we'll be settling another planet in this star system and terraforming it! And without magic! Although…" She scrunched her nose. "Magic would speed up terraforming by a lot if we can get Adora to create some space plants on the planet. Or ask Perfuma if she can change plants to survive there."

"As would self-replicating machinery," Hordak added.

"That, too!" Entrapta nodded several times. Then she pouted. "But people here have hangups about self-replicating machines. Even though they could be soooo useful! And we've disproven the grey goo scenario that you mentioned. At least I think so."

Bower and Cline nodded in obvious agreement with her, and even Carter didn't look like she was opposing those plans with much fervour, Jack noted with a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Well," he said, "we've had some bad experiences with nanites." Namely, Jack himself. "Better safe than sorry."

"But we wouldn't use nanites!" Entrapta countered. "Well, not self-replicating nanites - we would use nanites to build micromachinery, of course. But we're talking automated mining machines and factories. And if we can't get Adora or Perfuma, probably rapid-growing plants that will turn the atmosphere breathable. As long as we can get exponential growth going, we'll see Mars turning into another habitable world in our lifetimes!"

"The calculations work out!" Bower added. "All we need is transport capacity."

"And perhaps some way to get a few ice asteroids to Mars," Cline said.

Jack glanced at Carter and, once more, raised his eyebrows.

She blushed a little - which was a very bad sign. "Well, Sir, the concept sounds plausible. And the scientific and engineering challenges do not seem unsurmountable."

"And it's all civilian, non-military, so it shouldn't be a problem for all the political stuff!" Entrapta added, beaming. Then she blinked. "Although I guess that someone would have to decide if Mars would be counted as part of Earth or not, and who gets to rule it." She shrugged. "Well, that's not a science problem."

"But a pretty difficult political problem," Jack said. What if they actually pulled it off, terraformed Mars and settled it, and then the planet decided to declare its independence? Would they throw instant coffee into the Sea of Dunes or something?

"Well, it's a future problem - settlements would be small habitats for science," Bower said. "And while we'd push them to become self-sustaining, they'd still be science outposts, not some… country."

"And by the time there are enough people on Mars to form a country, we'll probably have colonies on other planets thanks to the Stargates, so any political problem will have been solved already." Cline smiled.

Jack frowned. "NASA sent you here to talk about colonising Mars?"

Bower coughed. "Ah, we were supposed to talk about chartering a transport to Mars - which we did - but once we got talking, well…" He smiled. "We quickly realised that we could do so much more!"

Jack grinned. The kid was too naive. With open war looming and the United States gearing up to produce spaceships as soon as the idiots in the Capitol managed to get their act together, the budget for terraforming Mars would be smaller than the budget for the design of the Space Force's unit patch.

"Oh, yes!" Entrapta nodded again. "This will be great! We'll have to do something about the lack of a magnetic field and the loss of the atmosphere, but that doesn't sound impossible to solve. Maybe an energy field to keep the atmosphere in and the solar wind out?"

Although, Jack realised, the Etherians might not quite share his view.

Earth Orbit, September 18th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"...and as I said, Jesus Christ never condemned homosexuality; all the quotes people like to cite when they claim he was a homophobe are from the Old Testament."

"Thank you, Reverend, but last I checked, the Old Testament was still part of the Bible - the Word of God?"

"Oh, yes, technically. But a lot of the Old Testament is not part of Christian dogma. Last I checked, the Evangelicals haven't condemned spare ribs or pulled pork, have they? Or veal with cream sauce. Neither did they refrain from mixing fabrics. The Old Testament just isn't as important as what Jesus himself told us. And he never condemned homosexuality."

"But he valued the union between man and woman."

"That does not mean he condemned the union between man and man, or woman and woman. Jesus's message is one of love - not of homophobia. And he certainly didn't mean that whatever he didn't mention was to be condemned - that would hamper a lot of televangelists since Jesus never said anything about television, either."

Adora frowned as Catra changed the channel to some music video. "Why would a god leave such a confusing book? Rules have to be clear; everyone knows that."

"Well, I like unclear rules; it makes breaking the rules without breaking them easier." Catra grinned.

"I bet you would." Adora snorted. Catra had never liked any rules that got in her way. "But at least it sounds better than what the others said."

Catra scoffed and shifted on her seat, twisting until she was watching the screen upside down. "When's Entrapta coming back?"

"The shuttle is on the way from Washington and will reach us shortly," Adora told her after a check with Darla.

"Ah." Catra reached over and changed the channel again.

"...the end times are coming! Rapture awaits us! God is…"

"...the Queen is expected to sign the acts at the first opportunity. A state visit by the Etherians has also been announced to celebrate the upcoming alliance even though several details have not been finalised and…"

"...protests by indigenous people in Brazil continue. They demand that the government contacts the Etherians and formally asks for magic to be returned to Earth. The Brazilian government has not yet commented on…"

"...casualties of the riots are estimated to reach over a hundred, and there is no sign of the riots ending…"

"...a mob demanding that the government in Tehran declare war on the Etherians has been forcefully dispersed, though rumours about elements of the Revolutionary Guards refusing to obey orders continue to circulate…"

"...the Prime Minister, reportedly after consulting with representatives of the zaibatsu, addressed the Diet, stating that Japan's stance towards same-sex marriage has to be re-examined in light of the recent developments in Europe and expressed his hope that access to alien technology will revitalise Japan's economy. At the same time, Article 9 will have to be…"

"...the IDF has been put on alert as the border with Lebanon saw several skirmishes…"

"…Russia's president announced several emergency measures to stabilise the economy, blaming the war with the Goa'uld for the disruption and called on the Etherians to provide support…"

Adora blinked. "How are we supposed to help them?"

Catra shrugged. "I don't know. I'm a soldier, not a princess."

Adora frowned at her lover. "I'm a princess, and I don't know either."

"You don't have a kingdom to rule."

That was true. "We should ask Glimmer." Adora frowned. "But I think she has advisors for that." Glimmer hadn't talked a lot about economics - although she had mentioned the potential trouble if there was unrestricted trade between Earth and Etheria, hadn't she?

"Or Bow. He's got a brother who knows that stuff, doesn't he?"

Right, Count. But Adora had never met him, and he was on Etheria and not available. "Maybe we should… Oh!" She saw the shuttle approach them. "Entrapta and Hordak are coming."

"Good. Let's hope they haven't given the Americans a frigate or two."

Adora frowned at her lover as they left the bridge. Entrapta wasn't like that - and Catra knew it.

"I was joking," Catra said. "Besides, Hordak would never let her do that."

That was true. "Let's meet them and hear what happened in Washington."

"Virginia, actually."

Adora narrowed her eyes at Catra, who grinned. "Since when do you care about geography so much?"

"I read up on where the USA has its army headquarters, of course."

Of course.

But they had reached the hold and were just in time to see the shuttle set down on the deck.

"Adora! Catra! How was the meeting with the British kingdom?" Entrapta asked as she walked down the ramp, followed by Hordak.

"We only need to hash out a few more details and we have a second alliance ready to be signed," Catra replied. "They really want our tech."

"Everyone wants it!" Entrapta nodded. "Oh! We talked with NASA about terraforming - that means turning a planet into a second Earth or Etheria - the fourth and second planets of this system! It's so fascinating - they made plans without having the technology for it, but now that we're here, we should have the technology!"

"Ah." Adora smiled. "That's nice. How long would that take?"

"Oh, years and years! But it's fascinating - and if it works here, we could, maybe, restore some of the planets Horde Prime destroyed."

That had Melog, who had been dozing in the corner, perk up. Catra cocked her head to the side. "Melog would be interested in that."

"I'm sure they would!" Entrapta grinned.

"I thought we'd restore their planets once I found out how to do it," Adora said.

"Yeah, that was the plan, but if we can do it without magic, then everyone can do it!" Entrapta beamed. "It'll take longer, but it'll be so much more useful!"

"Right." Adora wasn't quite sure what to think about that. It felt… well, weird, not to be needed.

"Oh! Mark and Gerald - they're from NASA - also told us about the smartest man on Earth! Stephen Hawkins! He's dying from an illness. Can you help him? I think you could, couldn't you?"

Adora blinked. That was…

"People are dying all the time," Catra told her with a frown. "You can't heal everyone, and if you start, you won't be able to stop. I know you."

"Yes. But this is an exception. He's the smartest man on Earth!" Entrapta said.

"He should be useful for the war," Hordak added. "And he is British, not American."

Did that mean healing him fell under rendering critical assistance?

Pentagon, United States of America, Earth, September 18th, 1998 (Earth Time)

"So. Not only might we have inspired our alien mad scientist princess to create a green goo swarm and unleash it in our solar system, but we might also have asked them to reveal the full extent of their magic healing power to Earth by curing Hawkings. Not bad for an afternoon's worth of work. What's for tomorrow? Ask them to send missionaries of the Church of Adora to Earth?"

The Colonel's sarcasm was biting, but he wasn't entirely wrong; Samantha Carter knew it. But he wasn't entirely correct, either. "Sir, that was the result of NASA engineers meeting Entrapta. We couldn't exactly shoot them, and if we had ordered them to stay silent, this might have led to a diplomatic incident that would have undermined our efforts to win the trust of the Etherians." The Colonel had been present for half the meeting, after all.

"Well, we could shoot them now and make it look like an accident. I bet the NID could cover it up," the Colonel joked as he sat down in their temporary office in the Pentagon. Then he sighed. "Wrecking Mars and Venus isn't a big problem - it's not as if there's anything alive on those planets - even though the resources spent on terraforming them will be missing somewhere more important. But telling everyone that Adora can heal every illness with magic? Desperate people will hound her everywhere. And if she refuses to heal them, what will they do?"

"She might not be able to heal Dr Hawkins," Sam retorted. "We've only observed her healing wounds and counteracting poison." When Adora had saved the Colonel's life.

He raised his eyebrow at her. "You know what her magic did to my body. Do you really think she can't cure whatever Hawkins suffers from?"

"No, Sir." A scientist had to be honest.

"And if that 'side-effect' becomes known, what do you think will happen?" He cocked his head.

Everyone would want it. It wasn't a true rejuvenation, but it was probably coming close. All the microdamage and lingering effects of wounds and broken bones healed? "They would be swamped with offers and demands."

"Yes. Every rich old bastard will want to be 'healed'. But what will the Etherians do?"

Sam pressed her lips together. That was the question. "I think Adora will have a hard time refusing to heal dying patients." Especially if they were children.

"Yes. But she can't heal everyone. And her friends won't let her sacrifice herself like that," the Colonel said. "And we need her for the war." He leaned back and closed his eyes. "We need to talk to them about this. In secret."

Sam nodded. "I'm sure we can arrange something, Sir." It shouldn't be hard - it was obvious that this had to be addressed.

"Without telling anyone."

She blinked. Did he mean that not even their superiors would be informed?

"We need to talk to the Etherians before this spreads." He looked around. "And if we tell anyone, it will spread."

"The two engineers from NASA will not keep silent about this," Sam pointed out. Not even if they asked or ordered them to stay silent - she knew the type.

"They'll focus on the terraforming and colonisation parts. They'll say they asked the Etherians to heal Hawkins, but they don't know what the Etherians can do. And Entrapta only said she thought they could help." He shook his head. "We can contain this, at least to some degree, if we act quickly."

"Do you want to arrange a clandestine meeting?" That wouldn't be too easy - anything related to the aliens was under close scrutiny by everyone - but if Sam called Entrapta, asked to do some experiments in space…

"Yes." He suddenly grinned. "Let's invite them to a movie night. Teal'c is dying to watch Star Wars with them."

That was… well, that might actually work. She slowly nodded.

And the Colonel smiled widely at her. "You know what? Let's make it a barbecue!"