Chapter 90: Scouting Part 1

Earth Orbit, Solar System, January 27th, 1999 (Earth Time)

"Oh, Your Divine Highness, blessed are we by Your shining presence. We strike out in Your name to bring the light of You to those struggling under the cruel yoke of evil! Just as You have vanquished the Great Deceiver, cursed be his name for all eternity, so shall we vanquish those who oppress others. In Your holy name, we shall fight all comers, ready to lay down our lives for Your worthy cause!"

Adora forced herself to keep smiling as Priest spoke. She wanted to cringe at all the praise - she wasn't a goddess! Their lives weren't hers to command! She was… Oh, no, she was starting to think like Priest spoke! "He must have been watching a lot of Earth television," she muttered under her breath.

Of course, Catra's ears caught her words, and her lover snickered. "Mostly the competition, I think."

"The competition?" Adora whispered before scolding herself - they were on Darla's bridge; she wouldn't be overheard even if she yelled, as long as she didn't open a channel to Priest. And - she quickly checked - there was no channel open.

"What are you whispering about?" Glimmer asked.

"Priest's speech," Catra told her. "He's been watching Earth preachers."

"Yeah, some of his ramblings sounded familiar," O'Neill cut in.

"...and with renewed fervour, we shall do our utmost to spread Your words and ideals to a galaxy yearning to be free, to expose the false gods deceiving and exploiting their faithful, as the…"

"Yep, file off the numbers, and that could be coming from any televangelist on Earth." O'Neill nodded. "I wonder if they can sue him for copyright violations."

"If they do, they would open themselves for such suits, I think," Daniel said.

"They'll claim they got it straight from god," O'Neill retorted.

"Shh! Priest is about to finish!" Bow hissed.

And that meant Adora was expected to say a few words as well. She winced and went over her prepared speech while Priest finished showering his praise and devotion she didn't deserve.

"Thank you. We are facing enemies who are posing as gods to manipulate their slaves - enemies who are willing to sacrifice everything and everyone for power. They're ruthless and evil - but that is not their strength, but their weakness. This mission we are setting out now is…"

As she spoke, Adora felt like a hypocrite. She was no goddess, yet the clones worshipped her. And she was using their faith to lead them. If she were selfish and cruel, she'd be no better than the Goa'uld!

Hyperspace, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)

It really was weird how quickly you grew used to things that had been limited to the realms of science fiction just a few years ago, Samantha Carter thought not for the first time. Here she was, on board a spaceship travelling through hyperspace, already lightyears away from Earth, and it felt like a plane trip back on Earth. She was more concerned about passing the time productively than about the journey itself.

Fortunately, even with the new stealth shuttle taking up most of Darla's hangar space, there was still room left for her and Entrapta's 'travelling lab', as her friend called it. It wasn't even nearly as sophisticated as their space lab, but they could do serious work anyway.

And, in a pinch, and as long Darla stayed outside hyperspace and in range of the spy bot network, they could even remotely access the space lab for some experiments. The lag was frustrating, but they could do work like that if they were careful.

Though since they were going on a recon mission, ensuring that the shuttle was in perfect working order took priority. And that included ensuring that Entrapta didn't add untested modifications during their trip. Even though they looked sound upon cursory or even in-depth examination, Sam reminded herself. Especially if they looked sound and fascinating.

"No, I don't think the Colonel meant that we should add a 'torpedo mode' to the shuttle," she told her friend.

"But it would let us use it as a missile if we had to - a stealth missile!"

"It would also add a Naquadah-enhanced bomb to the shuttle," Sam pointed out.

"Yes?"

Sam sighed and started to explain why that wasn't an entirely positive thing.

Deep Space, Near PZ-921, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)

"Alright! We've got the latest data from the spy bots. There was no change in the target fleet. Well, no significant change - the fleet maintained its position, and its composition didn't change, but the individual ships moved around a lot and often switched formations."

Catra nodded at Entrapta's report. Her friend was a scientist, not an officer, but the picture was obvious. "They're drilling their crews," she said.

"Yes." Adora nodded. "Can we tell from their movements what kind of action they're training for?"

"I don't know!" Entrapta beamed. "Let's review the data!" Her hair moved, and the screen on Darla's bridge showed the last movements of the target ships. "I've sped the maneuvres up by a factor of ten," she added.

Catra watched the ships circle around each other, the fleet splitting up into four parts, then joining together. "Looks like basic fleet actions," she commented. She didn't have a lot of experience with space combat, but she had studied the data from Horde Prime's fleets. And the basics were obvious. "Escort drills. Attack and retreat actions."

"Yes," Adora agreed. "So, we can't deduce what they are planning from those drills."

"They might not be planning anything yet," O'Neill pointed out. "And that's just basic drills to keep the crew busy. God knows you don't want bored soldiers on your ship. They'll just get into trouble."

"Jaffa are generally more disciplined than that, O'Neill," Teal'c objected. "It is more likely that this is to keep their skills sharp." He cocked his head slightly to the side. "They are changing formations and reacting to orders more smoothly compared to the average Goa'uld fleet. These Jaffa are skilled and experienced."

"We don't know if that is a Goa'uld fleet," Daniel said. "They could be… renegades. Or pirates."

O'Neill snorted. "Pirates, Daniel? Really?"

Daniel flushed. "Well… We do know that there are, well, Goa'uld who deserted their System Lord. And not just those who joined the Tok'ra. It's not a stretch to assume that they would resort to raiding others to sustain their forces. If no other System Lord will take them in, that is."

"Few of the false gods would take in another Goa'uld who abandoned their lord." Teal'c inclined his head.

"Why?" Glimmer asked. "Don't they expect their underlings to betray them at every opportunity?"

"Yes. However, anyone who shelters such a deserter might make the System Lord suspect that they were behind the desertion in the first place - or give them the excuse to claim so and act in retribution without appearing to be the attacker," Teal'c explained.

Catra snorted. "And the other System Lords care about such pretexts even though they'll know it's a sham."

"Indeed."

"Don't fail your snake overlord. And if you do, don't get caught." O'Neill shrugged. "But that's a sizeable fleet for a deserter. Even for a guy like Her'ur, that wouldn't be a negligible loss. What are the odds that so many Jaffa would follow a deserting System Lord?"

"Low," Teal'c replied. "Most of the false gods know better than to leave a subordinate to gain the loyalty of so many Jaffa. The most probable explanation would be that there was a successful coup against a System Lord, and this fleet is the loyalist remnant of their forces."

That made sense. But wouldn't the Tok'ra have heard of that?

"If that is the case, this would present an opportunity," Hordak said. "Such a survivor would likely be willing to share crucial intel about their enemies. For support - or merely out of spite." He glanced at Catra, and she met his eyes.

He must be thinking about her own coup against him - if you could call that mess a coup. It wasn't as if it had been planned.

"And because of their genetic memory, if they were toppled by one of their descendants, they could share a lot of information," Daniel added.

"But we couldn't trust them," Glimmer said. "Dethroned or not, they're still a Goa'uld. They would be trying to manipulate us - and betray us at the first opportunity."

"Maybe the second opportunity." Catra grinned. "They would probably suspect the first to be a trap."

A few of the others snickered in response to that.

"But what do we do if a Goa'uld asks for protection? Or asylum?" Bow asked.

"Tell them to get lost," O'Neill said.

Catra snorted, but he wasn't wrong in her opinion.

"If someone asks for asylum, we'll take them in and check if they are genuine," Adora said with a frown. "That's the least we can do - although we'll take all necessary precautions to ensure it's not a trap."

"And then? Play nice with the evil body-snatching snake?" O'Neill narrowed his eyes slightly. "What about their victims? What about their hosts?"

Catra pressed her lips together and looked at the screen instead of at anyone else. That was… a bit too close for comfort.

"We'll check how genuine they are," Adora repeated herself. "And if they are willing to change. And they have to release their host, unless they have voluntarily chosen to host them."

"Fat chance of that." O'Neill scoffed.

"If they aren't genuinely willing to change, we don't have any obligation to help or protect them. So, given how Goa'uld are…" Glimmer trailed off. "But we can't dismiss the possibility of a Goa'uld honestly defecting. The Tok'ra show that this is possible."

Catra nodded, still not looking at anyone. Not even Adora.

After a moment of silence, Adora spoke up again: "So, let's go and find out who is in command of that fleet and what they want."

Deep Space, Near Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)

Jack O'Neill stared out of the windows on Darla's bridge at the yellowish star in the distance - conveniently highlighted by a holoprojection from the ship, in case he somehow might miss the brightest star nearby. Sometimes the ship's system - whether it was actually intelligent, as Entrapta claimed, or just a sophisticated computer program, as Carter thought - was a bit patronising. "It'll probably start calculating my caloric needs next," Jack muttered.

"What did you say, Jack?" Adora asked.

"Nothing," he told her. "Just a stray thought." A silly stray thought.

"Afraid you'll grow fat on our cooking?" Catra, of course, had overheard his comment perfectly despite being farther away than Adora. She was smirking, too - her ears were turned towards him, and her tail was slowly swishing back and forth. Lazily, not nervously - Jack had learned the difference by now.

And wasn't that a weird thing to know? He felt like a crazy cat lady. Although the agencies back home probably had recruited a bunch of biologists and a few crazy cat ladies just to analyse Catra's behaviour. And Jack couldn't fault them; the catwoman was not only Adora's lover, which meant she had a huge influence on the Alliance's strategy and policy, but she was a leader in her own right. Although didn't have a loyal cadre of followers or subjects - as far as Jack knew, at least. But if they ever found a planet where the population worshipped cats, that might change…

He snorted at the thought, then shook his head. "Just thinking about the fact that the Ancient Egyptians worshipped cats. Amongst other things."

"So I've heard. They had good taste," Catra said, her grin widening.

"Except for worshipping the Goa'uld, of course," Glimmer cut in.

Catra shrugged. "Well, the snakes impersonated their gods, so how could they tell the difference?"

"It's actually not quite clear if the Goa'uld impersonated existing gods when they discovered Earth or if they created the Egyptian pantheon - and other pantheons - in the first place," Daniel said. "It might be a combination of the two possibilities; the first Goa'uld arrivals coopting existing deities and taking over their churches and others creating their own cults."

"Didn't you ask Osiris about that?" Bow asked. "He was amongst the first Goa'uld to arrive, wasn't he? And Seth as well?"

That was actually a good question. Jack glanced at his friend.

"Well… Osiris claimed that they created the pantheon, and with it, the Egyptian civilisation," Daniel replied. "But I have my doubts about that."

"Why? What could he gain by lying?" Bow asked.

"Feeling important?" Jack said, shrugging. "Being the founder of human civilisation would be quite the feather in his cap." The snake might even hope that it would get him a pardon or something. Or followers.

"Yes." Daniel nodded. "And it would, well, wouldn't call it a threat to our world's culture, but if the cradle of human civilisation was formed by the Goa'uld, that would change history as we know it - more than their arrival being revealed already did, of course - and the ramifications of a huge part of human culture being created by aliens…"

"At least no one's worshipping the Egyptian gods any more," Jack commented. "Imagine people demanding that we free their gods on the grounds of religious freedom!" He chuckled. That would be something.

But Daniel nodded and pushed his glasses up. "Well, some of the pagan gods clearly influenced the Abrahamic god. Or, to be more precise, their myths influenced the myths that became the Bible. And while the dogma of the Abrahamic religions that there is only one god has been solidified for well over a thousand years by now, from a purely scholarly point of view, the extent of Goa'uld influence on existing religions really should be researched."

"Yeah," Jack said with a slight scoff, "'Hey, your religion was invented by alien snakes' is going to go over really well with people. I can't see any problem with that."

Daniel flushed. "Well, one has to differentiate between religious and historical questions."

"So, does that mean that all the fake gods went extinct after the Goa'uld left Earth?" Adora asked.

"More or less," Jack told her.

"Not quite," Daniel protested. "Some of the gods that the Goa'uld impersonated are still worshipped on Earth. Like Raiden."

"Yeah, we heard about them," Catra said. "Are their followers going to be a security risk?"

"Some might be," Jack admitted. "If they thought the Goa'uld were their original god. But they should know better than that if they were in the Alliance." Though he was sure that the spooks were keeping an eye on soldiers who might turn traitors for religious reasons.

"That's exactly the reason why we need to know more about that time," Daniel said. "We need to know if the Goa'uld created or coopted the ancient religions."

And if the former was true, they would have to decide if they revealed that - or buried that in the deepest vault they could find. Not that Jack was about to mention that to Daniel. This wasn't the time to discuss religion, scientific integrity and political expediency.

They had a mission to do. And they were wasting time. "Well, hate to cut this short," Jack said. "But we're in position to launch the mission now."

Recon now, religion later. Or not at all, if Jack had anything to say about it.

Unclaimed System, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)

"Approaching the limit of the safe distance."

Adora wet her lips at Jack's announcement. This was it. So far, they had been safely out of the sensor range of the Goa'uld, adjusted for their craft's sensor signature, but that would change now. Of course, there were some safety margins, so it wasn't as if they were undetectable one moment and would appear the next, and they couldn't be a hundred per cent sure about the sensor capability of the ships ahead of them, but still - she couldn't help feeling a little nervous.

"Engaging active stealth system!" Entrapa sounded cheerful. She would be - she loved showing and using new technology. Not as much as she loved creating it, of course.

The stars outside vanished. For a moment, Adora was reminded of Etheria before it had been returned to the universe. There hadn't been any stars back then, either. But there had been the sun and the moons. Not a complete absence of… anything.

The screens still showed the same pictures, though - the sensors, except for the optical sensors, weren't affected by the light being bent around them. And in space, you rarely used your naked eyes to navigate, anyway - at least not in a ship. Still, it felt a little off.

"No change in the target fleet," Sam reported.

"They haven't detected us," Glimmer nodded with a smile.

"Well, we're still at a distance where they might not have detected us even without the active stealth system," Bow pointed out. "They might still do so when we fly closer."

"And if they're smart, they won't react at all until we're too close to avoid their response," Catra added. She was sitting next to Adora, one hand on the armrest of Adora's seat, clearly tense - her tail was swishing back and forth rapidly.

"That would require specific standing orders," Teal'c said. "To see an enemy approaching and not react at once would usually see a warrior severely chastised. As a rule, the false gods do not value such initiative or cunning by their forces."

Jack snorted. "Let's hope that the mystery fleet is doing things by the book, then."

Adora nodded. But the fleet ahead of them was already acting weird - for Goa'uld, at least. What were the odds they had different standard procedures? Well, they'd find out. And if it was a trap… well, Priest's task force was ready to jump in at a moment's notice, with enough ships to overwhelm the target fleet. All Adora would have to do was keep the shuttle safe until then.

"We're now approaching the red zone," Jack's voice rang out. He didn't sound nervous at all even though they were now reaching the range where they knew they would be detected in a normal shuttle.

"Enemy sensor activity nominal."

That meant the sensor sweeps hadn't increased or changed focus, Adora translated Sam's report. A good sign - if the sensors picked up a signal from the shuttle, they would do a second, more focused sweep to confirm the hit.

"They still haven't noticed us," Catra said.

"Don't sound so disappointed," Glimmer commented.

"I'm not."

"Passive sensors working as intended!" Entrapta smiled. "We're getting new data! We haven't been so close before! Oh, I hope the spy bots won't grow jealous!"

"They'll get over it," Catra said. "Without them, we wouldn't have found the fleet in the first place."

"Right! I'll tell them that! It should cheer them up!"

"I thought the spy drones were not sapient?" Daniel sounded confused.

"They still have feelings!" Entapta told him.

"Sensor data is being updated," Sam interrupted them.

Adora checked her screen. "Do we have any ship names yet?" Without optical sensors, they would have to get really close to discern different paint coats to make out any letters.

"Not yet. But the passive scans of the traditional locations for ship names show recent work on the surface," Sam told her.

"They renamed the ships - or erased any names," Catra said.

"Either would indicate subterfuge rather than open battle as their goal," Teal'c commented.

"And that they have taken steps to hide their identity." Catra flashed her fangs.

"Or they captured or acquired the ships and renamed them," Daniel pointed out.

Catra scowled. "And then they hide out like this?"

"Well, if they stole the ships…" Daniel trailed off, looking a bit embarrassed.

"If they stole those ships, odds are they're willing to do it again," Jack said.

"We're in range of the magitech scanner!" Entrapta quivered in her seat. "Let's see what we find out!"

The screens changed as the sensor readings updated.

"Those are the markings of Apophis," Teal'c said in a flat voice. "But we know that he masked his ships when he sent them at Heru'ur."

"Could be a double bluff. He might attempt another attack and claim someone's impersonating his forces," Bow suggested. "Make it appear as if they were recently renamed by renaming them himself!"

"That is unlikely." Teal'c shook his head. "The false god has a tendency to enact complicated plans, but he would not act without more information about the situation at hand."

"He might have gotten the ships ready while he's looking for more information?" Bow didn't sound as if he believed that himself.

"The ships he lost in the attack on Heru'ur that we foiled represent a respectable force. While he is not crippled, his mobile reserve has been weakened, and hiding another force would make him look weaker than he is, inviting raids and probing attacks from his rivals." Teal'c shook his head again. "I doubt that this force belongs to Apophis."

"And you're our expert on him. Good enough for me," Jack said. "But if it's not Apophis, who else could it be? Someone with a beef against him?"

That could be any System Lord, Adora knew. "We'll have to find out," she said.

"Unfortunately, it looks like we'll have to actually board one ship to do that."

Jack didn't sound disappointed, though, Adora noted. Well, she wasn't disappointed either.

It would be good to be able to do something in person.

Samantha Carter glanced at the main screen on the bridge of the shuttle. They were closing in on the Goa'uld fleet - the suspected Goa'uld fleet, she corrected herself. Even though she had no doubt that the fleet was controlled by a Goa'uld. They were almost at point-blank range now, but the Goa'uld ships had not changed their patterns. If the enemy's sensors were able to penetrate the stealth system of the shuttle, they would have done so long ago.

There was still a chance that this was a trap, that the fleet was just waiting for them to fly too close to evade an attack, but Sam had her doubts about that. Not because of a gut feeling, as the Colonel would claim, but because, as Teal'c had explained, it was very unlikely for a Goa'uld force to react like that. Unless, of course, they were aware of their mission from the start or expected such a mission, but either was extremely unlikely.

"Still no change in the enemy's sensor activity," Entrapta commented. "The stealth system is working perfectly!" She beamed. "Well, it's drawing a little bit more power than projected, but nothing the shuttle's reactor can't handle."

Sam checked the readings. Indeed, the system was running a bit less efficiently than expected. Although that wasn't really worrying - as her friend had said, they had power to spare. Of course, should they have to fight as well, that might change, but even then, the discrepancy was unlikely to prove crucial. A few more shots from the ship's cannons wouldn't decide a battle with a fleet.

But they still hadn't found out who the fleet belonged to. And that was the mission's goal. "Any sign of a sensor network?" she asked.

"No," Entrapta replied. "The ships haven't linked their sensors and aren't sharing data. Unless they discovered a method to transmit data that we can't detect. Do you think they did?"

Sam shook her head. They had picked up some transmissions before - if the unknown masters of the fleet had discovered a superior communication method, they would have been using it for all their comms. That was the logical response. Unless it was limited to certain ships, but in that case, the communications with the other ships should reveal such a pattern. It wasn't tightbeams - they had checked for that. While the shuttle's system wouldn't be able to intercept such communications unless they were directly between two ships, they should be able to detect such a network. But there wasn't any.

It seemed that the fleet still adhered to strict comm discipline. And that meant they couldn't hack the system. There was the possibility of hijacking the sensors, but… Sam wasn't optimistic about their chances. And even if that worked, the compromised system might not have links to the main computers of the ship.

"No luck hacking the snakes?"

Sam schooled her features, not letting her annoyance at her failure show as she looked at the Colonel. "No, sir. Whoever those crews are, they practise good cyber security."

"Yes!" Entrapta chimed in. "We'll have to find a main communication hub to hack into, I think. Like we did with Horde Prime's systems. Those were a challenge."

The Colonel grinned. "So, how do we do this without alerting the snakes?"

They had gone over that in the briefings. "We'll have to match speed with the target ship and then stay close enough so we can use our spacesuits for EVA without getting detected."

That would have to be very close. They couldn't touch the Goa'uld ship, though - sensors fooled or not, the crew wouldn't miss the sound and shock of a shuttle setting down on the ship.

"Well, let's pick a target then." The Colonel was undaunted.

"I would suggest this one, sir." Sam highlighted a Ha'tak on the main screen. "Based on our data of their communications, such as we could gather, this is either a flagship or a communication hub. Either way, its systems should contain the information we need."

"And the movement patterns it has displayed so far should make staying near it easier than, say, near an Al'kesh," Entrapta added.

The Colonel looked at Entrapta, then glanced at Sam, raising his eyebrows.

"The ship only very rarely made unexpected changes to its speed or course," Sam explained.

"Ah." He nodded. "Good. Let's go, then."

They were already suited up. And, even more important, they had already hashed out who would be on the boarding team and who would stay on the shuttle.

Though, Sam couldn't help thinking as she disconnected her laptop from its cradle in her seat and Bow moved to take over the ship's helm, the criteria for deciding the latter might not have been very objective. Bow had simply been the most amiable to staying behind. Or, in other words, hadn't insisted as forcefully as everyone else that he should be on the boarding team.

Sam felt a little guilty for that herself, but she was a logical choice for any such mission since she could hack Goa'uld computer systems. Unlike, say, Daniel, who somehow had managed to argue successfully that he could interpret cultural clues during the mission. Or Glimmer, who had simply insisted that she had experience with such missions and pretty much dared anyone else to contradict her.

Well, the decisions had been made.

Sam slipped her helmet on, checked the seals and ran a brief system check as she stepped into the shuttle's cargo area. It was time to do her job.

"Alright, here we go…"

Catra tensed as she heard O'Neill speak. They were at the critical point - the final approach to the enemy flagship. If this was a trap… No, the Goa'ld would have shot at them before that.

"And here we are, nice and smooth, right behind the big sucker. Han Solo got nothing on this! You've got the craft, Bow."

"I've got the craft."

Her ears picked up rapid steps - O'Neill was hustling towards the cargo area. "We won't start without you," she commented as he reached them.

"Didn't want to make you wait any longer," he replied. He was already wearing the helmet, so she assumed he was ready for the boarding.

The hatch closed behind him, and she heard the whining noise as the air was sucked out of the room. The shuttle had a dedicated airlock, but it was too small for the entire group - it was too small for just the BFS, actually; Scorpia would probably fill it up by herself if she were here - so they had to use the cargo area for that.

But whatever worked, worked. A moment later, the ramp opened in front of her. Catra felt her fur bristle - looking at the stealth field was disturbing. It was like staring at the deepest black. Not even a speck of light or smidge of grey was visible, just perfect blackness.

And they would have to jump through it to reach the enemy Ha'tak.

She clenched her teeth - she wouldn't show any nervousness. This was just an illusion, nothing more. A trick of the eyes. Whatever. She tapped a button on the side of her helmet, linking up with the shuttle's sensors, and a view of the outside was projected into her field of vision. She could see part of the Ha'tak's hull in front of her now.

"Looks good," O'Neill commented, prompting her to snort. As if he was as cool as he sounded. "Carter?"

"One last scan… we're in the blind spot of their sensors, sir. We're good to go. Highlighting possible points of entry."

Two airlocks lit up on Catra's display.

"Let's take the closer one. Less walking." Catra wouldn't let O'Neill outdo her.

"Sounds good. Wouldn't want to make Bow wait too long for us."

"Oh, I'm fine."

Catra shook her head. "Let's go." She took a step forward, to the top of the ramp - which opened into nothing.

"I'll go first." Adora passed her before she could protest and jumped off.

Catra hissed under her breath when she saw Adora vanish in the stealth field. Then she crouched and jumped after her lover. Into the darkness.

It wasn't as she had expected. She didn't pass through complete darkness for what felt like an eternity. No, one moment, she was flying towards a black field, the next, she was about to land on the golden hull of the Ha'tak, the projection aligning with the real deal at once.

She twisted and landed on all fours on it, the magnets in her gloves and boots sticking her to the metal. Adora was just a bit to the side, crouching on the hull herself. Still in her spacesuit, which was a good sign - if she had to transform, things would have gone wrong already. And She-Ra's power would probably light up all the sensors of the Goa'uld.

And behind her… was nothing. She knew where the shuttle was, but she couldn't see it, just its projection inside her helmet.

Another figure appeared from nowhere. O'Neill, landing with reasonable grace on the hull, followed by Sam and Glimmer.

Daniel came next - and he almost smashed headfirst into the ship, but Entrapta's hair grabbed him at the last second.

"Thank you,"

"No worries!" Entrapta landed on the hull, then put Daniel down.

Teal'c brought up the rear, landing smoothly in a crouch without comment.

Sam was already at the airlock, tools out, and Entrapta quickly joined her, hair tendrils pulling her across the hull while she floated in space.

Catra looked around while her friends worked on the hatch. She could see another Ha'tak in the distance, barely more than a tiny pyramid, and some moving lights drew her attention - Al'keshs, or maybe Tel'taks. Or Death Gliders that were closer than she thought. She cycled through the sensor overlay from the shuttle to check. Al'keshs, at a safe distance. Good.

It took Sam and Entrapta half a minute to open the hatch. Adora entered right away, but Catra had expected that and slipped into the airlock behind her, followed by Sam. And, of course, O'Neill just had to follow her.

It was a bit cramped as a result. Sam almost buried her elbow in Catra's stomach when she used her laptop, but Catra twisted out of the way, pressing herself into Adora's side.

"I've spoofed the security cameras," Sam reported twenty seconds later.

Then the airlock cycled, and the inner hatch opened. Ador went left, Catra right, stun rod at the ready to deal with any Jaffa present.

But the hallway was clear. And rather plain.

"Doesn't look very fancy," O'Neill commented. "Where's all the gold and glitter?"

"It's a maintenance conduct," Sam told him.

"Too bad. I would have liked a big VIP entrance, complete with huge golden hieroglyphs that said: 'Welcome to the flagship of System Lord X'."

"Such an entrance would usually be heavily guarded even when no guests were expected," Teal'c pointed out over the comm as the hatch closed again.

"Yeah, but at least we'd know who we were shooting then," O'Neill retorted.

"How about we don't shoot anyone?" Daniel suggested. "We're here to find out what's going on, not to shoot things."

"We can multitask," O'Neill said. "Besides, I bet we're going to shoot them later anyway, so might as well start early."

Catra chuckled as the others entered the ship as well, but her ears were twitching. Was that…? Yes. "Someone's approaching!" she hissed. She crouched down, pressing herself against the wall. "Just one person," she whispered - she couldn't hear any other steps.

The others stepped into alcoves or crouched down, close to the walls - taking cover as best as they could in the corridor. Even Adora - Catra had half-expected her to transform into She-Ra at the first sign of potential trouble.

But they couldn't hide. And they couldn't leave through the airlock quickly enough to avoid getting spotted - or overheard.

The steps had come even closer. The person was now just around the corner. Catra tensed, ready to pounce, take down the target, silence them before they could scream and alert the rest of the crew, and…

The steps stopped.

Catra blinked. What the…?

Then she heard the sound of a bag being opened, and then metal clashing against metal, followed by muttering. When she smelt heated metal, she almost sighed. Whoever was around the corner was doing repairs or maintenance there.

She could easily take them down - they were too close to react to her rounding the corner, they were distracted by their work, and Catra knew how to knock out someone. But even if they took the prisoner with them afterwards, the ship's crew would be looking for him. And given their strict security measures, they would likely suspect enemy action - and react accordingly.

Which would ruin part of the mission's goal. Damn. She clenched her teeth and glanced back at the others.

Adora was smiling apologetically, as if this complication was her fault. Glimmer was scowling, Sam and Entrapta looked focused and curious, respectively, Teal'c showed no reaction at all, and O'Neill… was grinning.

Catra shook her head - softly. On the one hand, if they took a prisoner, they would be able to find out who was behind this. Sure, a maintenance flunkie wouldn't know their plans, but they would know general orders. And past deployments. And if they were some System Lord's fleet, the Alliance would probably destroy them anyway, so whether or not they were put on alert wouldn't matter. Although that wouldn't tell them the enemy's plans either. And if the ships had slaves on them… They had most certainly killed slaves when they had destroyed the ships of Apophis attacking PZ-921, but they hadn't had much of a choice there - not with the enemy fighting to the death and even self-destructing in some cases. But here? Adora would want to attempt a rescue, and revealing their presence would endanger that.

So they could wait for the idiot to finish their work and leave, or go the other way - and hope the idiot wouldn't follow them.

Decisions, decisions.

Catra glanced over her shoulder again. O'Neill moved his hand, pointing to the ground in the 'wait' sign. But she looked at Adora. That was her call.

And Adora nodded.

So, waiting it was.

And the minutes passed. Whoever was working around the corner wasn't the fastest technician in the fleet. Or the most careful - they cursed quite a lot, if not loud. Catra might not understand the language, but she knew a curse when she heard it. But, really! Kyle would have done a better job!

But finally, after almost twenty minutes, Catra heard a satisfied grunt, followed by metal tools touching each other. The idiot was done! As soon as they left, Catra could…

The steps were headed their way! Catra gasped and started moving forward. She crashed into the other person as they rounded the corner, bowling them over. One hand stopped them from screaming, the other rammed the shock rod into their chest.

The man - the Jaffa! - convulsed, and before he could recover, O'Neill zatted him.

Catra pulled the Jaffa fully back around the corner, just in case, then looked him over. Light armour, a big tool bag, a zat at his hip. "A Jaffa engineer?" she asked.

"Well…" O'Neill started to say, but Teal'c cut him off, pointing at the symbol on the man's chest.

"Sokar."

Oh. The fleet belonged to the System Lord whom Apophis had planned to frame with his false flag attack.

That complicated things.